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 Meeting
Katy ISD Work Study Meeting, February 19, 2024
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In this meeting
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- 0:04 to 0:35 1. Call to Order
- 0:35 to 1:35 2. Pledges of Allegiance
- 1:35 to 41:09 3. Public Comment
- 41:09 to 41:34 4. Closed Meeting
- 41:34 to 42:23 5. Reconvene from Closed Meeting
- 42:23 to 52:18 6. Reports
- 52:18 to 1:04:22 7.1 Discuss and consider Board approval of the design associated with the renovations to Cinco Ranch High School.
- 1:04:22 to 1:24:10 7.17 Discuss and consider Board approval of the 2024-2025 Property Insurance Program.
- 1:24:10 to 1:25:03 7.2 Discuss and consider Board approval of the February 2024 budget amendments.
- 1:25:03 to 1:27:25 7.3 Discuss and consider Board Approval of the December 2023 Financial Reports.
- 1:27:25 to 1:31:22 7.4 Discuss an Order Authorizing the Issuance of Katy Independent School District Unlimited Tax School Building and/or Refunding Bonds in one or more series; setting certain parameters for the bonds; authorizing a Pricing Officer to approve the amount, the interest rate, price, including the terms thereof; authorizing the engagement of bond counsel; and certain other procedures and provisions related thereto. The foregoing Order authorizes the engagement of Bond Counsel pursuant to an engagement letter under which the District will obtain specialized legal services in connection with the issuance of bonds or other obligations to pay or refinance the costs of one or more projects of the District, based on the demonstrated competence and qualifications of such attorneys; finding that (i) such legal services require specialized expertise and experience in municipal finance, federal tax law and federal and state securities laws and therefore cannot be adequately performed by the attorneys and supporting personnel of the District, (ii) such legal services cannot be reasonably obtained from attorneys in private practice under an hourly fees contract without contingency because the District will not be obligated to pay any legal fees until the successful completion and closing of the contemplated transaction, and (iii) entering into a contingent fee contract for legal services is in the best interest of the residents of the District because such firm will only be paid if the contemplated transaction is successfully completed and closed.
- 1:31:22 to 1:32:22 7.5 Discuss and consider a Resolution Expressing Intent to Defease/Redeem Certain of the District's Outstanding Bonds.
- 1:32:22 to 1:33:09 7.6 Discuss and consider a Resolution Declaring Intention to Reimburse Project Expenditures.
- 1:33:09 to 1:39:12 7.7 Discuss and consider an Order approving a New Term Rate Period or Fixed Rate Period for all or a portion of the Katy Independent School District Variable Rate Unlimited Tax School Building Bonds, Series 2021C; and approving other provisions relating thereto.
- 1:39:12 to 1:41:48 7.8 Discuss and consider Board approval to award the Request for Proposal "RFP" 2312AA for Dark Fiber Wide Area Network "WAN" Lease and Maintenance services to meet the immediate and long-term fiber infrastructure for the District.
- 1:41:48 to 1:43:16 7.9 Discuss and consider Board approval to award the Competitive Sealed Proposal "CSP" 2310AA for Lit / Dark Fiber services to meet the immediate and long-term fiber infrastructure for the building located at 21700 Merchants Way, Katy, Texas.
- 1:43:16 to 1:45:54 7.10 Discuss and consider Board approval to award the Competitive Sealed Proposal "CSP" 2311AA for Lit / Dark Fiber services to meet the immediate and long-term fiber infrastructure for Elementary Schools #47 and #48.
- 1:45:54 to 1:49:15 7.11 Discuss and consider Board approval of a contract for the construction of Elementary School #47.
- 1:49:15 to 1:50:16 7.12 Discuss and consider Board approval of a contract for the construction of Elementary School #48.
- 1:50:16 to 1:55:59 7.13 Discuss and consider Board approval of the delivery method for the Franz Road Storage Office Build Out.
- 1:55:59 to 1:59:05 7.14 Discuss and consider Board approval for flooring replacement at Morton Ranch Elementary and Bonnie Holland Elementary schools.
- 1:59:05 to 2:00:31 7.15 Discuss and consider Board approval of the proposal for the Building Management Control System replacements at multiple campuses: Morton Ranch High School, Morton Ranch Junior High School, Morton Ranch Elementary, Seven Lakes High School, and Seven Lakes Junior High School.
- 2:00:31 to 2:02:17 7.16 Discuss and consider Board approval of the proposed summer work schedule.
- 2:02:17 to 2:44:33 7.18 Discussion regarding Senate Bill 763 which governs the employment or acceptance of volunteer services of chaplains by public school districts and whether to adopt a policy authorizing the district to employ, or accept as a volunteer, a chaplain under Texas Education Code Chapter 23.
- 2:44:33 to 2:52:56 7.19 Discuss and consider future Board adoption of Policy Update 122.
- 2:52:56 to 2:54:15 7.20 Discuss and consider Board approval of an amendment to the 2023-2024 Instructional Calendar to add a student and staff holiday on April 1, 2024.
- 2:54:15 to 3:13:18 7.21 Discuss and consider Board Policy CW(LOCAL).
- 3:13:18 to 3:16:30 8. Information Items
- 3:16:30 to 3:16:44 9. Future Meetings
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, February 19, 2024, and the time is 5 p.m.
Dr. Grivorski, will you verify that we're in compliance with the provisions of the Texas Open Meetings Act with regard to the notice for this meeting?
Mr. President, I do confirm we're in compliance with the provisions of the Texas Open Meeting Act for our meeting tonight.
Thank you.
2. Pledges of Allegiance
KDAC Police Chief Henry Gault 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.
Honor the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one state under God, one and indivisible.
Do we have any scouts in the audience?
We haven't had any scouts so far this year show up at all, so if you know any scouts,
encourage them to come and we will ask them.
They can introduce themselves.
We'll ask them what badges they're working on, etc.
Scouting is a great thing.
3. Public Comment
At this time, the Board of Trustees will give members of the public an opportunity to speak
in accordance with KDISD Board Policy BED Local.
local. As defined by board policy, speakers who signed up by 2 p.m. on Monday, February 19, 2024,
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. 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
the three minutes, the audio will turn off. If speakers wish to share written material with the
board please provide 10 copies to the secretary for board services before the meeting begins
for board members the superintendent the chief communications officer and permanent record
if 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 the texas government code sections 551.074
and 551.0821, the Board will not permit the presentation of personally identifiable information
regarding a student and will not discuss the appointment, employment, evaluation, reassignment,
duties, discipline, or dismissal of a public officer or employee, or hear a complaint or
charge against an officer or employee. Should a speaker wish to address one of these issues,
They must do so through the appropriate local grievance policies, FNG local, DGBA local,
CKE local, or GF local.
Our speakers will be called forward in the order they assigned it to speak.
Our first speaker tonight will be Tracy Malloy, and after that, Lynette Allidon.
Welcome.
Thank you. Good afternoon Superintendent Grogorski, President Perez, and to the members of the board,
I am Tracy Malloy, Katy resident of over 18 years, mom of a graduate of Taylor High School in 2019,
and a senior at Taylor High School this year who will be graduating. And I wanted to speak
this evening sharing that families and faith communities, not the government, should direct
the spiritual development of children. The Texas legislature passed SB 763 in May 2023 to allow
school districts to create chaplain programs. The law ignores the reality of religious diversity
amongst public school students and assumes a religious role in public schools that can be
threatening to the religious liberty of those protected in public schools. Like many parents,
I sent my children to public schools to receive a tax-funded education and I sent them to Sunday school at my non-denominational
Church for their spiritual development a place that supported by my ties and my offerings
Of the congregation as well, but the state and the church had an important role in my children's development
But they are not the same nor should they be the separation between the institution of church and state is essential to both
The intent behind employing chaplains as counselors could not be clearer.
Send chaplains into public schools to serve as Christian missionaries.
The bill's author, Senator Mays Middleton, posted online after it passed that the legislation would allow an important role of chaplains to serve for pastoral care representing God's presence within our public schools.
Mission Generation has been open about its efforts to influence the religious beliefs of public school students.
students. Mission Generations website was taken down as debate over SB 763 intensified,
but an archived version of its homepage from 2021 clearly states its key goal was to influence
those in education until the saving grace of Jesus becomes well known and students develop
a personal relationship with him. Beyond concerns that chaplains in schools may cause discomfort
to students with differing religious beliefs, in Texas's law, rock bottom qualifications
to serve as a chaplain open the door for potential abuses of authority and put vulnerable students already struggling with mental health challenges
at even greater risk
Students in public schools come from a variety of faiths traditions and perspectives with vastly different
notice notions of God
For students who do not share in the theology or religious beliefs of a school's chaplain seeking guidance from a chaplain in times of distress
May increase the students stress confusion and isolation
The notion that a school chaplain is tapped to represent God's presence in the school and give spiritual care for a public school population is wildly misplaced.
The Reverend Deborah Reeves, a chaplain and pastor in Texas, calls the chaplain program in schools unethical, noting that they are not a safe response to the shortage of school counselors.
Please join in SciFair ISD and HISD to retain chaplains simply as volunteers.
Thank you.
Lynette Alidon and after that Tana Tana Weiss good evening dr. Gagorski and the
Board of Trustees I'm Lynette Alidon a retired KDI KDI SD librarian to concern
community member our state legislature passed Senate bill 763 which allows a
school board to vote on whether they want to allow unlicensed religious
chaplains to serve as mental health professionals in schools either
as volunteers or to replace the licensed mental health professionals. Every
district is required to take a vote on whether to allow this by March 1st and
I urge you to vote no. First of all chaplains are not properly trained to
counsel students in a school setting. We already have school counselors who have
master's degrees in classroom experience and are better qualified to
support our students. Besides providing mental health advice, school counselors
also provide guidance in course selections, discipline concerns, and college and career choices.
How can you justify paying these chaplains with limited training
where there is already a shortfall in school funding?
If you replace our school counselors with chaplains,
then you will demonstrate that our school counselors are not suitable to work in our district.
We need to keep our highly qualified counselors and not adopt this policy.
As a former educator, the safety of all students is important.
LBGTQIA plus students face increasingly hostile school climates in Texas contributing to negative mental outcomes and increased safety risk.
Replacing licensed school counselors with unlicensed chaplains without protections for parents and their students can lead to dangerous situations where students' identities are not respected or affirmed.
With no prohibitions on proselytization, chaplains do not support LBGTQIA plus identities could engage in harmful reparative or conversion therapy practices.
We need to keep all students safe and not adopt this policy.
As you know, Katy is a diverse community and it would be difficult to represent all different faiths.
But taking on chaplains as volunteers or employees that are only or mostly one faith amounts to a state-supported entity promoting one faith over others, which is a violation of the First Amendment and opens the district up to lawsuits.
Not adopting this policy would avoid that risk.
The reason chaplains exist is to provide access to spiritual care inside institutions where individuals would not have access otherwise, such as prisons, military bases, and hospitals.
It is the parents' responsibility as well as their decision to provide access to spiritual
care for their children or not, and the community has ample opportunity for them to do so.
There is not a need for our public schools to step in to provide spiritual care for our
students.
I kindly request that you stand with your constituents by not allowing chaplains into
public schools.
Many school districts across Texas have voted this down in support of separation of church
and state.
I hope that you will consider the concerns expressed by many individuals and organizations by in making your decision
Thank you for your attention to this matter. Thank you
Tana Weiss and after that Jared Burton
Good evening
Board of Trustees and dr. Gregor ski. My name is Tana Weiss and I'm here to speak on agenda item
item 7.18 regarding chaplains in schools. I'm married to a Taylor High School graduate.
I've lived in Katy ISD for 31 years, and I have two sons who graduated from Seven Lakes High School.
The role in this bill is not defined. It provides no requirements to qualify these chaplains,
and there are no guardrails to prevent chaplains from proselytizing to our students.
students.
Coalitions of responsible leaders, including Jewish rabbis and Christian leaders, have
sent letters to districts all over Texas asking school boards to reject this dangerous policy.
School counselors in Texas are required to have a master's degree along with a minimum
of two years of classroom teaching.
There are no requirements of these chaplains.
As a long-term high school substitute teacher in our schools, I teach students of all backgrounds and walks of life and have for the last 11 and a half years.
I have learned so much serving in our schools, yet I am in no way qualified as a mental health advocate, which is what so many of our counselors have become,
to allow an untrained, uninformed chaplain to enter our schools is incomprehensible.
Ms. Teamey, you commented that you would have welcomed the support during your very brief teaching career
because everyone is so overwhelmed.
I would like for all of you to understand that there is a vast difference
between qualified counselors and volunteer chaplains for support. We
haven't even gotten to the funding portion. These funds would be allocated
from the school safety and security allotments. If these funds are ultimately
allocated from safety and security, what message does that send to our students,
our parents, and our community? The state has for decades been negligent in
in funding our schools, and they want us to spend safety and security funds on this ridiculous
proposal.
I am appalled that conservative Christians in the Texas legislature have proposed and
required that Texas schools approve or deny this bill.
Do not further isolate our students by allowing chaplains in our schools with no guardrails,
no requirements please deny this bill please vote no on this policy thank you
Jared Burton and after that Ben Armenta
hello board my name is Jared Burton I'm a junior at Tompkins and the president
of the school of sexuality and gender alliance Club when I was two years old I
I moved to Katy, Texas with my family.
Although I had no say in where I would grow up, I don't think I'd ever want to change it.
The people I've met and the connections I've made while living in this town have been priceless,
and most of these people's connections have come from my time as a student in Katy ISD.
That's why I find it absolutely heartbreaking to see the direction that the school board is taking the district in.
While I am aware that SB 763 requires all school boards in the state to vote whether or not to adopt the bill into district policy
and that the board did not create this law, I'm still afraid that common sense will continue to elude this board.
Coming off the back of KDISD's dystopian book banning system and its dangerous gender validity policy,
which outs trans students to potentially abusive families,
SB763 would further sever the relationship between students and staff. If the board passes the bill into policy,
you will not have just taken away almost all safe spaces for LGBTQ plus students in your school district,
but also completely insult the religious diversity of the nearly 100,000 students who were elected to serve.
Counselors and chaplains provide an essential role in their respective fields.
School counselors provide mental health support for students, write their schedules, manage their accommodations, and so much more.
Chaplains provide comfort and faith to those who cannot otherwise access it, such as prisoners, soldiers, or hospital patients.
There is very little overlap, if any, in the skill sets of these fields.
Texas counselors must obtain a master's degree in school counseling and until September 1st of last year must have a true two years of classroom teaching experience.
experience. Meanwhile, Senate Bill 763 specifies that chaplains won't even need to be certified
by the State Board of Educational Certification. You wouldn't employ a school counselor with
little to no knowledge of religious service to minister to people of faith, so why would
you ever hire an inexperienced, unlicensed chaplain to perform the duties of a school
counselor? Not to mention the bill's astounding lack of protections for students. Republican
lawmakers shot down an amendment of the bill that would require parental consent for the
the students to receive chaplain services, the protection of students' religious freedoms,
the respect of their religious, of their religious, of their diversity, the prohibition of attempted
conversion by chaplains, and for students to be referred to another professional if chaplains
or religious beliefs hinder them from supporting a student. All these protections were not just
forgotten, but actively removed from the bill. Over 100 religious chaplains from all over Texas
have signed a letter in staunch opposition to Senate Bill 763. Good-hearted chaplains know
where they are needed and is not in our schools. The only chaplains who would rise to the position
opposition if this bill would become district policy would be extremists who would abuse the board's generously provided tools of discrimination via the gender fluidity policy to out LGBTQ plus students and abuse the laws lacks of protections to convert students. The board has so far only heard opposition from students, community members and chaplains themselves. A new district policy allowing the employment of unlicensed chaplains as school counselors and not only be a failure of democracy, but would show that you can do anything you want in this district so long as you have the campaign funds and enough hate in your heart to that it takes to be certain members in this board.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Ben Armenta after that.
After Ben Armenta, Erica Schwamm.
Mr. President, members of the board, Dr. Grigorski, my name is Ben Armenta, and I'm a father
of two Katy ISD students and a husband of a Katy ISD employee, all of whom
proudly represent the Tompkins High School family. Since moving into Katy 10
years ago, I've worked diligently as a volunteer to always put the well-being
and academic success of students at the forefront of how I serve. I take great
pride, as I'm sure all of you do, in the fact that our district is blessed with a
a very active volunteer base, offering hundreds of thousands of hours and millions of dollars
to directly benefit our scholars and the future they are creating for themselves.
I want for a moment to take a step back from all of that and discuss with you Senate Bill
763.
The immediate task at hand is not to craft a policy which covers the gamut of all students
in all our schools and all our faculty and staff and administrators. The
immediate task at hand is not to determine the volunteer versus employed
versus hybrid model of chaplains in our schools, nor is the immediate task at
hand to determine how best to credential or qualify professional chaplains. I
I believe that the task at hand entrusted to you by our voters and by the taxpayers who sent our legislators to Austin
is for you to ultimately weigh the opportunity of affirming Senate Bill 763 for our KDISD community.
community. The opportunity to pursue religious professionals interacting within our academic,
athletic and extracurricular settings. Details matter, of course, but the state legislature
and the taxpayers understand that in time you and the administration will eventually
sharpen the pencils on how best to implement this within our district. So I'm urging that
that although under the pressure of the March deadline,
please do not dismiss Senate Bill 763.
Don't miss an opportunity for our schools
to be positively impacted by the role
of faith-based reasoning.
Earlier this week, I contacted Senator Middleton's team
and had them provide me an example of a board resolution
affirming this bill, and I provided it to the secretary
for all of you.
There are 10 hard copies there for your reference.
And I ask that you consider adopting and proceeding with a similar resolution for KDISD.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Ann Russey?
Erica Schwamden, Ann Russey.
Hi, my name's Ann Russey.
I'm a mom to two current KDISD students.
Tonight, in compliance with SB 763, this board will discuss and consider whether or not to adopt a resolution calling for changes to the way the district utilizes chaplains.
There is a role for chaplains to continue doing what they've always done through existing community partnerships, mentoring, and volunteer programs.
To maintain the status quo, I ask this board to consider a resolution to decline to adopt any policy authorizing the district to employ or accept as a volunteer a chaplain under Education Code Chapter 23.
The state of Texas passed this bill without any funding attached to the school chaplain role and says school districts may use school safety funds to hire school chaplains.
school safety funds are the same funds used to pay licensed school counselors
and armed security guards armed guards as you know are already a severely
underfunded mandate so when opponents of this bill say we don't want unlicensed
chaplains to replace school counselors this is what we mean SB 763 gives school
districts the option to reallocate already insufficient funds used to pay
school counselors to pay school chaplains instead. The author of this bill made no secret of his
intent. Just like the law requiring public school districts to accept and display donated in God We
Trust posters in every campus, this bill was authored to represent God's presence in public
schools. The goal is proselytization of the Christian faith. The mechanism in this case
is SB 763. Last year it was in God We Trust posters. This year it's using
public school dollars to employ religious chaplains. Next year if one of
our new school board candidates realizes his vision for KDISD and somehow
somehow finds a way to work around the teaks, he says he'll focus on bringing
classical virtues based curriculum to our public schools. Classical virtues
based curriculum sounds an awful lot like the approach many private religious
schools take not secular public schools y'all are claiming you're fighting
against indoctrination and for parental rights this bill gives you a chance to
show whether you stand with all parents and students or just the ones who pray
and vote like you to maintain the status quo with chaplains and ensure the door
is not opened to potentially replacing masters level licensed school counselors
with unlicensed school chaplains the KD ISD school board must decline to adopt a
new or expanded school chaplain policy the next board election is on May 4th if
we don't want our public school district to become private religious schools we
have to stop voting for board members who promote and embrace white Christian
and nationalism at every turn.
Thank you. Erica Schwamm.
Good afternoon.
After that, Debbie Simon.
Good afternoon. My name is Erica Schwamm.
I'm here today to speak to you as a parent of two children who have attended KDISD.
Over the time that my children have been here, we have been very impressed with our teachers,
the quality of our teachers, the quality of our counselors,
the quality of our student support staff and we commend the board for everything
that they do to give us such great people that help our children learn. I'm
here today to testify about this chaplain bill because I'm Jewish and my
family practices Judaism and I think it's a big concern that we would be able
to meet the needs of all of our student population and all the different faiths
that people practice. I don't think it's realistic that we could meet those needs
of all of those different children. So I'm also a government lawyer. I follow
the legislation that's passed in our state and I believe that when laws are
passed they are passed with good intentions and I think that in this case
the idea is for help, it's for support so that people who are our school
counselors, our teachers who are overtaxed with the the pressing pressure
that students face are having a hard time you know providing those the meeting
their needs and so I can see how asking for chaplains to volunteer to be paid
would be an easy solution however I think that in this case the risk is too
great the harm would the harm would be they would outweigh the good that could
come from anything like this a strict reading of our Constitution provides a
separation of church and state. We are a public school and we should not be
providing religious instruction to our children without their parents being
present. Children are vulnerable to people in positions of authority at
school. Their parents are not with them and they listen to the adults that they
meet in the school. If my child was counseled by a chaplain of a different
faith, I fear that it would cause confusion for them and contradict what I
I am teaching them at home.
Chaplains are traditionally people
that are available to counsel people who are adults.
We're talking about children.
And kids are too easily influenced,
and we really need to be careful with going along
with the state legislature on this one.
Chaplains are not required to counsel children.
They don't learn how to counsel children.
And many may have never even counseled a child before,
yet we're going to allow them to come into our schools
and do that.
I think it's a terrible idea. Our current system to provide trained secular
counselors is working and we should not allow chaplains to fill this role in
their place. I started off mentioning my faith and I want to be clear that I
can't shield my children from hearing they shouldn't be Jewish but I can speak
to you and implore you not to adopt a policy to allow chaplains in the schools.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Lisa Lister Brown.
After that, Rabbi Lipper.
Good evening.
I'm Debbie Simon, a 34-year resident of Katy ISD.
Sorry, what is your name?
Debbie Simon.
Go ahead.
I'm a 34-year resident of Katy ISD, and I'm speaking against the Chaplain Bill.
When my husband and I moved here in 1990, there were 18,000 children in the school enrolled in KISD.
And to say the least, the demographics were not diverse at all.
Now, with our extremely diverse population, including dozens of religions,
can you imagine the confusion and missteps we could fall into
if we allowed people of the religious community into our schools to counsel our children?
Allow me to tell you a story from over 20 years ago.
My daughter's elementary school PTA president brought in for a cultural event a klezmer
band.
A klezmer band is an Eastern European Jewish folk band.
They simply play string and horn instruments and sing songs in Yiddish, or a language spoken
by Jews in Eastern Europe.
Picture Fiddler on the Roof.
That's what they are.
Well, this caused such a huge uproar at the following PTA meeting, which the PTA was accused of teaching Judaism to their children.
This consequently led me to being asked not to come anymore in to do my Hanukkah presentation,
and even to our principal ultimately moving on to another position in the district.
So my point is, if a cultural program meant only to enrich our children's knowledge of cultures was perceived this way,
then what a slippery slope we will have of allowing the wrong pastor or religious leader to speak to our children.
How would we even know who should talk to whom?
As a Christian, would you want an imam or a Buddhist or a rabbi or a Catholic priest that's not speaking to your Protestant child?
We don't know what in these conversations would be like, but I'm 100% sure it would be different from what your family's spiritual teaching in your home and your house of worship is.
Just think of all the confused children and legal implications this would incur.
Bringing religious leaders in our public schools is a church-state separation violation.
You have been elected to ensure our children's best interests,
protecting our children, and keeping KISD a jewel of education for Texas.
Right now, on any given day, we hear negative PR on the national news about our district,
book banning horrible, dangerous policies for our LGBTQ plus students,
politics entering our school board races this doesn't and shouldn't represent
thank you thank you very much
Lisa Lister Brown and after that rabbi Lipper
My name is Lisa Lister-Brown. I'm a KDISD parent and this is the fourth time I've presented to you
about the school chaplain law. In my first speech I pointed out that subjecting my children to
religious indoctrination whilst they are at public school is a breach of my parental rights
to decide when where and how my children are exposed to religious ideology in my second
speech i gave a personal example of how exposure to religious concepts at school
in the absence of parental oversight can really mess with a child's mind i don't want
any nor should you want any
KDISD student to ever feel they are doomed or worthless because of somebody else's religious
views. In my third speech, I explained how attending a prayerful high school put me at
an academic disadvantage at university and I encouraged you to reject putting that unfair
fair burden on future KDISD graduates. Right now I'm going to cycle back to my second speech
because I didn't get to finish it. I started to tell you about how only recently I found out that
some of my classmates at a religious elementary school had been subjected to repeated sexual
abuse from school's clergy, the very people we were taught to show unquestioning respect to
because they were closer to God and because it would be a sin not to do what they say.
Many people in positions of trust and authority, particularly because of religion,
have abused their positions to groom and molest children and keep it a secret.
This is why, if we wish to protect our children,
children, people of religious authority must be subjected to far greater scrutiny and far
higher levels of supervision than what this legislation from Texas calls for.
It is insufficient to say that these chaplains must not be on the sex offenders list or that
they must pass criminal background checks to be in our schools because we know that
that is not enough to protect the children because everybody is off the sex offenders
list and everybody passes background checks until they are found out and convicted.
How many children in this district are going to become victims of sexual abuse before that
happens?
Don't make them the sacrificial lambs.
If parents want their children to be exposed to people of religion, as is their parental
right, the parents should choose who they expose their children to and in what
circumstances and the parents should have a right to supervise all of the
interaction. Thank you. Rabbi Lipper and after that Nancy Sarsi.
Thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight.
I encourage you in all that you're doing to make our school district a great place.
I'm Rabbi David Lipper.
I serve Temple Sinai, which is the westernmost Jewish institution in the Houston area.
And we serve approximately 100 Jewish families who live in the KD catchment zone.
About 50 of our students attend some level of KD schools.
And I'm here to share with you two things.
The first thing I want to share with you is my students who attend KDISD
already feel a little disenfranchised.
The Jewish students don't get a fair shake in KDISD,
and they're penalized and prevented from attending our own Jewish Holy Day experiences
while Christmas and Easter are days off for the whole district.
And so I hear from my students how separate and distinct they find themselves,
especially when they have to make choices between their faith and their education.
And I certainly know that our high school students cherish those final exemptions at the end of a semester.
But to have to make a choice about attending the holiest day of the Jewish year or get the final exemption, they're conflicted.
Jewish students are the reason why I'm here and I do fear this bill. I am a
trained chaplain. I had four semesters or whatever it is of formal chaplaincy
training. Did not teach me a thing about talking to children, but it sure helps me visiting someone
who's sick in the hospital. But if you're a hospital chaplain or a military chaplain,
you are required to have formal scheduled training. This bill is a disaster because it
to take someone who could be self-ordained and puts them in a position of authority over
children.
It's a scary prospect for me.
So I take this very seriously and I encourage you, I implore you to use your inner...
Thank you.
Nancy Sarce.
And after that, Mandy Giles.
Good evening.
I am Dr. Nancy Sarce, a resident of Katy and a mother of two.
I oppose the use of chaplains as counselors.
As a forensic psychologist, professor, contractor with the FBI's Countering Violent Extremism Unit, and expert witness,
I strive to enhance emotional well-being safety and resilience while reducing or
managing risk which leads to my opposition to the use of chaplains as
counselors I've talked about violence and suicide about depression and
emotional distress and the pivotal role of counselors in schools consider
another issue students with high functioning autism aka Asperger's these
These students face challenges with executive function, social interactions, managing emotions,
transitions, repetitive behaviors, and sensory overload.
Counselors play a vital role in identifying and supporting these students.
According to the Department of Education, the percentage of American school children
receiving services for an autism diagnosis doubled over the past 10 years.
To succeed in school, these students need skilled interventions from qualified counselors.
Counselors also provide strategies and support for the teachers, the staff, and the parents,
thereby enabling and contributing to a holistic environment where all students thrive.
Chaplains are not trained or equipped to provide the services and support that these students need to flourish.
We cannot afford to risk chaplains being called upon to work outside the scope of their competence,
nor can we risk contributing to even the perception that chaplains are qualified to serve as counselors.
Because counselors have two years of graduate work and a license,
we have confidence in their knowledge base and skill set to address the academic success and the emotional well-being of our students.
In contrast, chaplains serve a religious and a spiritual role.
We cannot afford to equate the two.
Here's another thought.
As a consultant who helps people identify and manage risk,
and who serves as an expert witness in legal matters,
it seems like the use of chaplains as counselors introduces risk.
They are not educated, trained, supervised, or licensed as counselors,
so would be working outside their expertise.
Furthermore, professional chaplains and mental health professionals are on record opposing
the use of chaplains as counselors.
If KDISD uses chaplains as counselors, and there was, God forbid, a critical incident
like a school shooting or a suicide, it exposes KDISD to the risk of legal liability with
the danger of substantial monetary damages.
It's not good for the students, and it's not good for KDISD.
I'm happy to provide information. Thank you. Thank you.
Our final speaker this evening is Mandy Giles.
My name is Mandy Giles and I'm speaking on agenda item 718.
I'm the founder of Parents of Trans Youth, a resource serving families in the Greater Houston area including several
families in Katy ISD. A
A chaplain should not be doing the work of a public school counselor.
First, unlike school counselors, chaplains would not need to be certified by the State Board for Educator Certification.
Texas school counselors must complete an education preparedness program, hold a master's degree, complete a test, and have at least two years of teaching experience.
Having a chaplain do the work of counselor would dismiss all of that training that school counselors go through and instead allow uncertified chaplains to counsel students.
So employing or accepting volunteer counseling services from a chaplain would actively harm children by not giving them access to trained and qualified professionals.
Second, religion doesn't belong in public schools.
I'm a Christian and I still don't want chaplains providing support, services, and programs for children in Texas public schools.
This whole effort is backed and promoted by an activist group of chaplains whose mission, publicly, is to influence those in education until the saving grace of Jesus becomes well known and students develop a personal relationship with him.
That is evangelism. That is proselytizing. That is overt religious recruitment for a very specific Christian vision for society.
Guess who will be the first in line to serve KDISD?
Do you want to be influenced in that way?
KDISD parents should feel comfortable sending their kids to school without wondering or worrying about what religious views their children might receive from a chaplain, intentionally or not.
A child's spiritual journey should be guided by their parents, not by politicians.
The comments tonight by your constituents have been overwhelmingly in opposition to having chaplains in public schools, and I urge you to listen to them.
Thank you.
Thank you.
This concludes the open forum portion of our meeting.
The board will now convene and close meeting as authorized under Section 551.001.
4. Closed Meeting
of the Texas Government Code for the following purposes.
Texas Government Code 551.071, 551.074, and 551.129.
5. Reconvene from Closed Meeting
Good evening.
The Board will now reconvene in open meeting.
Today is Monday, February 19, 2024, and the time is 6.46 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, February 16, 2024.
The board will receive information and recommendations from staff, administration, and the superintendent on these agenda items at tonight's meeting.
Board members will be able to ask questions, receive answers, and should be prepared to take action.
The Board has just reconvened from closed meeting.
In accordance with Chapter 551 of the Texas Government Code, any action arising from discussions
in a closed meeting must be taken in open meeting.
6. Reports
The first item of business in our meeting is 6.1, which is 2024-2025 budget update.
update presenter is chris smith chief financial officer and also jeff robert hilltop securities
all right well good evening uh president perez superintendent gregorski and trustees
um it's my pleasure to go over the second budget update of the year
this year we had one in january kind of set the tone for the for the year and now we're going to
to talk about our debt service budget. We won't talk about debt service budget again until
sometime in the summer. There's a lot less moving parts. And in fact,
fact of the matter is, is we could probably do this budget once we get our values in about
an hour because there's that few moving parts. And so what we plan on doing is covering
our plan with y'all and then we'll pick it back up when it comes to debt in July.
To set the stage before Mr. Robert comes up, this is a history of the last 15 years of our value growth.
You can see some lean years and some big years, but this is it graphically.
Those same things from a percent change graphically.
Over the last five years, we've averaged 8.3% in value growth,
and over the last 15 years, we've averaged 7.9% in value growth.
And so I think the numbers that you're going to see when Mr. Robert talks about our long-range debt plan,
you're going to see that they're probably conservative if you're looking at a 15-year average of 7.9%.
And as a reminder, we have been able to, thanks to the state of Texas,
we've been able to lower the total tax rate by 39.7 cents over the last five years.
Again, 18.5 cents was just this year, but 39.7 cents over the last five years.
And that's all been out of maintenance and operations.
We still have that 39-cent yellow portion of the debt service tax rate, and that is what we're building our plan around.
And I'm going to turn it over to our municipal advisor, Mr. Jeff Roberts.
Thank you, Mr. Smith.
President Perez, Dr. Gorski, members of the board, Jeff Robert with Hilltop Securities.
Also here, Rick Witte, the District's Bond Counsel, who I'll yield any legal questions to.
I'm going to go over kind of some of the information that I think is relevant to the parameter order items that are on the agenda.
Starting with values, as Mr. Smith had said, he'd given you the historical values, and I know these numbers are pretty small here.
But as he mentioned, we've tried to be very conservative on value assumptions going forward,
just to make certain that we're able to issue the bonds from the new authorization,
as well as look at future authorizations as well to kind of give us an idea of where we're at.
So for 25 and 26, which is the next two years, we're looking at 3% growth, 2% per year after that for two years,
1% for two years, and then we've actually put it down to zero after that.
So very conservative numbers.
numbers. Over on the left you see the note that you've had a lot of this growth, especially the last two years, despite the fact that the homestead exemption was increased from 25,000 to 40,000 back in 2022. And in this past year, the value was the homestead exemption value was increased from 40,000 to 100,000. So you've had all of these growth, all of this growth happening despite those increases in those homestead exemptions. This is kind of the plan right now with the
three authorization in column two. The first issuance from this authorization is for $250
million, which is the amount that's included in the parameter. And then we've projected what we
believe the next issuances will be over the next three years after that. Those numbers could
certainly change. I've used 460 as a, as an interest rate. As of right now, we'd probably
be around four and a quarter to four and a half, I believe. And then the graph below the black line
shows you what the calculated interest and sinking fund tax rate is for your
existing outstanding debt and then the blue line shows what the Ioness
projection tax rate projection is once we issue this authorization and we can
maintain that 49 cent excuse me 39 cent Ioness tax rate whenever we are
structuring debt we're not only looking at the next issuance or even the the the
full authorization that we're working on we also look at what kind of capacity do
do we believe you'll have in the future? So just to give you an idea of
hypothetical capacity, we looked at an $850 million election in 2000 27 and
that's what that green line signifies. I don't want anybody to lock in on that
number. It was just kind of a an exercise that we go through to determine,
hey, it's great that we can do this authorization without any tax increase.
What's the next authorization going to look like? So that's all that this is
was just an exercise to show that we believe we'd have at least the same
amount of capacity for an election 27 if needed. Interest rates as many of you are aware interest
rates have gone up over the last few years however they did go up from what I call the COVID interest
rates. They were the lowest that we've seen probably in our lifetimes but you can kind of see
over there on the far right where it got all the way down to two percent on this is a 20-year index
and the 20-year index was at two percent from for most of the the period of time that we were in
in COVID. If you go over all the way to the left in that graph in the background, you can see
interest rates, tax exempt rates were all the way up at 13 percent a little over 40 years ago,
and you've seen how those have trended downward over time. And so you can, in the red there,
this index was at 349 about a week ago, a couple weeks ago. If you look at those averages,
the 15-year average was 366, the 10-year average is 335, so we're still at relatively low interest
interest rates with regard to tax exempt rates over from a historical perspective.
That blue graph just shows what the index has done over the last year.
Another agenda item that you have is for refundings and defeasances.
So what we've done in the past and what we'll continue to do is the only refundings or refinancings
that we'll consider are those that are going to generate at least a 3% present value savings
to the district.
So if it produces at least that much, we'll consider taking a look at executing those.
The refunding and redemption candidates I've listed there, the reason why those are the ones we're looking at is because the call dates are in early 2025,
and then we have one issue that's actually callable this summer.
If you look at the bottom, just to give you historical information on the redemptions that you've done here over the last several years,
the district has saved $98 million by paying off $80 million in principal early,
and then also saving $18.7 million on interest from paying off that principal early.
And then I gave you a booklet, and I didn't put it up on the screen
because it's got a lot of information after the tab in there.
It's the appendix, and I just wanted you to have all of the detail.
It's a spreadsheet with a lot of numbers, and I'll just kind of go over the first one here.
I've got the columns numbered there at the top.
Your existing debt service is in column two.
We paid off $6 million of principal early last August.
We paid off another $3,335,000 just a few days ago.
And then the hold harmless money that you're receiving as a result of those homestead exemptions,
the hold harmless you're receiving from the state, is in column five.
And then the issuance principal interest total P&I for each of those projected issuances
for this current authorization are in those blue headings from column six through column 17
to where we ultimately get over to the INS tax levy in column 18 and the calculated tax rate
in column 20. And that corresponds with that blue line from that first graph. And then what we've
also done at the bottom is we've shown that we're certainly paying off all of the bonds associated
with certain items within their useful lives. For instance, um, just reminding how much we have
the technology. Um, I can't remember. We, the one-to-one initiative, 50 million. Yeah. So 50
million we're paying off within the first five years, we're paying off a well over $50 million
in principle. And that's just to be able to tell your voters that while we do issue 30 year bonds,
we are paying off principal associated with short life projects within the life of those short life
projects. I did the same thing for that hypothetical 2027 election on the next page that I won't go
through, but it's the same format that you can see. And then lastly, the last page just has the
detail for all of the district's outstanding bond issuances, call dates, that type of information
there. And you can see the graph at the bottom. We've got a lot of callable debt, which is nice
to have going forward in the case that we want to do either redemptions or refundings.
I flew through that.
I'm happy to answer any questions if you have them.
Questions?
Any questions?
Discussion?
I might add that thanks for your time last week.
The Finance Committee had an opportunity
to visit on this same presentation, this same topic,
and get some of our questions answered.
Appreciate that.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Thank you.
7.1 Discuss and consider Board approval of the design associated with the renovations to Cinco Ranch High School.
The first item, 7.1, that we'll go to is to discuss and consider board approval of the design associated with the renovations to Cinco Ranch High School.
And the presenter is Lisa Kastman, Executive Director of Facilities Planning and Construction.
And I'll let you introduce everybody else.
Ms. Kastman.
All right.
Good evening, President Perez, trustees, and Dr. Gagorski.
I have four items this evening, but the first is in regards to the design development for Cinco Ranch High School areas of renovation from the 2021 bond.
There are three other items to be presented later on in the agenda.
The scope of work for Cinco Ranch included renovations and additions to the career and technical education, drill team band and orchestra spaces, upgrades to science and library spaces, and MEP aspects.
Dr. Williams, who's not able to be here this evening, has been involved with all aspects
of the project, as well as Art Campbell, my project manager.
Now we'll have Parul Vyas with Stantec provide the presentation.
Good evening, Dr. Krakowski, President, Mr. Perez, and Board of Trustees.
I'm happy to be here to give you an update on our progress on the Cinco Ranch High School
Additions Project.
We worked with the district facilities team and the campus leadership team over multiple
meetings to document what the scope of work was.
So my presentation today is first we will go into us kind of sharing what the feedback
was with the areas that we were supposed to be working on and then our proposed solutions
and design for those areas.
Like Lisa mentioned, our scope of work was renovations and additions to the city spaces,
spaces, fine arts, athletic areas, and renovations and additions in the dance area.
Of course, along with all of that, making sure the HVAC plumbing and electrical modifications
were made to support the new areas, renovated areas.
It's a CM at risk project.
We have been working with steward builders who were accepted at the board presentation
last year in fall.
And our schedule right now, we are in the construction documentation phase and hopefully
pretty soon we'll have a GMP recommendation to the Board of Trustees in April of 24.
So going into kind of existing conditions analysis, we will be looking at the site plan
here based on what we were talking with the campus and with the suggestion that there
would be additions involved and limiting the areas of addition in the back where they can be fenced
off in a school year it kind of landed in the area where their existing portables so the initial part
part of discussions overall on the site was possibility of relocating those portables to
make sure the additions can happen during the school year we were discussing that at a high
level on the side and then going into each area separately first we will look at the fine arts
AREA.
THE MAIN CONCERN, FEEDBACK THAT WE RECEIVED IN THIS AREA WAS THE STORAGE SPACE.
AND MANY OF THOSE CONCERNS WERE MAINLY SOME OF THOSE ROOMS LIKE ONE OF THE REHEARSAL ROOM
WAS BEING USED AS A MOM ROOM.
SO KIND OF MAKING SURE, TAKING ALL OF THOSE FEEDBACKS.
THERE WAS ALSO THE TWO ART LABS HERE.
THE NEW HIGH SCHOOL PROTOTYPES CURRENTLY HAVE FOUR.
ONE OF THE SINCO RANCH HIGH SCHOOL ART CLASSROOM IS WHERE THE CTE SPACE IS.
So part of our documentation process was to also think about how we can make these spaces, when we renovate, more efficient so that they are together.
So our goal for Fine Arts was to make sure they have four art labs to match the newer high school programs.
In the CTE areas, the feedback that we received was they needed more shop spaces.
spaces. And then again, there was one of the art classrooms here that was taking up space.
So how can we reorganize this space to make sure that it meets the new high school prototype?
Again, there were some other needs like improving shop ventilation and making sure the classroom
and the shop areas had the synergy and visual connections with each other.
Library, there was a little less moving around.
It was more interior development, kind of interior finishes, so redoing the casework,
the computer stations, and kind of making sure the maker space felt more integrated
with the library.
So those were some of the key renovation feedback that we received on the library.
Dance and the weight room, again, the feedback that we received was
was to replace the flooring.
They needed better drill, locker area, changing areas,
and maybe needing a larger weight room for the dance.
Athletic, there was minor renovations in the athletic areas,
mainly lockers and the boys' restrooms,
the shower were in a need of upgrades.
So we kind of looked at that, documented all of that.
And now we'll go into the proposed developments,
PLANS, FLOW PLANS FOR THOSE AREAS.
AGAIN, THIS IS THE REVISED SITE PLAN.
YOU CAN SEE WHERE THE EDITIONS ARE BETWEEN THE FINE ARTS AND
THE CTE SHOPS, LIBRARY, MAINLY INTERIOR RENOVATION, THE DANCE
WEIGHT ROOM, AND JUST THE ATHLETICS ON THE FAR EAST SIDE.
LOOKING CLOSER INTO THE FINE ARTS AREA, THE BAND ORCHESTRA
KIND OF REMAINS SAME AS IS.
WE ARE REDOING THE INTERIOR FINISHES, FLOORING.
the rehearsal room we are reconfiguring that to be a rehearsal room doing the storage in there
and then again making some of the storage rooms more efficient and you can see the new edition
of the art lab for art labs here and in a similar layout to the newer high schools so this kind of
brings them on par with the newer high schools. This is kind of a view looking at that edition
from the outside. In the CT area, as you can see, the Ag Mechanics is a new addition to the existing
facility and we have reorganized some of the Ag spaces, middle lab and middle lab classroom
together so that some of those shops that did not have a classroom lab function now have that and
the Ag Mechanics is by its own outside. This is kind of a view of the CTE space from the outside
with the covered shed for outdoor work.
New layout for the library with the newer computer stations.
Makerspace has more storage and shelving and newer shelving in the library area.
Dance room, the dance gym we are replacing with the new flooring.
We have updated revised layout for the drill lockers with more efficient restrooms and a
new storage and an additional weight room for the dance area that will support their needs
and bring them on par with the newer schools
and this is the layout of the athletic lockers we are placing the lockers in track baseball soccer
doing new laundry commercial equipment in the laundry areas lockers for the boys varsity junior
varsity and major renovation in the boy shower area as we are taking uh we got feedback that the
The common gang restrooms was not working out.
The plumbing fixtures were all deteriorated.
We are doing individual shower stalls as we come back in.
renovate the space.
And that is it.
Any questions?
Thank you. Any questions?
Mr. Perez?
Go ahead.
I would like to just make a comment.
Pearl, it's really good to see you.
I'm just curious what's going to happen
to the mom room.
I'm just kidding.
Because
moms are very important
in the band.
But I'm just kidding.
I think that everything
thing is is really good and i'm hoping that the principal over there everybody like i don't know
if she's here or not but they're all you know with you on the renovations and um i'm sorry i
apologize if i missed this but what is your timeline for completing this um the we're taking
construction sub bids uh next month so the timeline is get it work on it over two summers
and open for 2026, 25, end of 25.
All right.
For the summer and 25 summer.
I'm sorry I threw that in about the bummer.
I'm just a band mom, so.
Thank you.
Mr. President, I have a couple of questions.
Thank you.
How long has it been since any of these areas were renovated,
since the beginning of school when it was built?
There were some minor renovations done way back when,
but this will be the first major since the school opened and that was in 98.99 okay so you are not
expanding any walls you are reconfiguring places within the school that kind of evolved into
like the art room is going next to the other art room but the space already exists is that the
no there's some new additions to the new additions okay and is that art room or where
all of those places yeah there's an addition at the so there's three kind of
small additions there at the gym dance gym area there's a small weight room
addition that we're doing if you see on the left on the key you can see that
area this one for the CTE we are adding that standalone building that standalone
AG mechanics it's a new which is the picture here that well there's a graphic
picture that's yeah a building and we have the land for it that is it being
used for something else or it's just no it's it's part of the campus I think
there are portables right now over there so we have a good plan to relocate them
that they're out of the way of construction all together secured and
the additions kind of are secured in one spot so if you see on this plan on the
key point on the left the AG mechanics is one addition and then the fine arts
if I go to that side, the three art labs on that side is an addition.
So if you see the...
So it's a bump out, a little bit of a bump out.
It's a bump out, yes.
Got it.
Certainly the art department has great success there, has always.
And I'm really excited about the CTE.
So is it a bump out or it's a whole new building?
I'm trying to...
It's that red?
It's the red?
Yeah, that red area shows part of the band.
And all of that is existing only the walls on the top right that show a darker color. That's kind of the addition not fine. Let's go to CTE. I changed.
I changed direction. Okay, so this part in the red dotted line is the area of work.
And all of that's a new building. No.
So, if you look at the larger plan, the 1 on the top left, that says ad mechanics.
Ag mechanics, that is the addition, if you look at the blow-up.
And then everything else, that's we are renovating, but it's inside the existing footprint.
Okay.
Any other questions?
Which is, excuse me, I'm just trying to understand.
Ag mechanics, which is a lot of welding and things they do there in the FFA program?
Okay.
And a metal fab lab.
Okay.
Flex labs.
Excellent.
Thank you very much for your presentation.
you know, opportunities for our students to do what they love to do is my passion. And so I love
hearing about this and I'm excited for the work you're going to do. Thank you, Mr. President.
Thank you. Thank you so much. Board members, we're going to go a little bit out of order.
7.17 Discuss and consider Board approval of the 2024-2025 Property Insurance Program.
We're going to move to 7.17 next. If that's okay with everybody in the courtesy to our presenter
who's here. So we're going to go to 7.17, which is to discuss and consider board approval of the
2024-2025 property insurance program. And our presenter is, go ahead.
Good evening, Board of Trustees, Dr. Grivarsky. Here this evening to present to you our property
renewal as I would like to introduce to my left is Mr. Bob Ream, Bob Ream
Consulting. To give you a little history we have reached out because of the
conditions we've all seen in the property insurance world kind of did a
very very deep dive in a broad scope of what other districts have done and what
the current state of the market is and we've all seen I think inflation it hit
It is hard, but I think what we're seeing here this evening will be a lot of hard work has gone into this
to get the best deal we can for the districts.
Mr. Rehm, I'm going to turn it over to you.
Thank you.
I think you all have a copy of our letter that was in there, so I won't waste any time going over it.
But simply to say, market for property insurance has been horrible the last three years.
I'm not telling you anything.
And those of you who have homeowners know what you're paying for homeowners insurance,
what kind of increases you've had.
But Texas has been particularly bad,
beating the nation for nine of the last ten years with hailstorms.
In addition to that, you know we've had the freeze,
we've had flooding, we've had hurricanes,
and that has dictated the hard market
and the increased premiums that you've seen for the last couple years.
This year, well, what happened last year?
We had five school districts that exceeded $1 billion each.
We sent out 64 invitations.
When I say we, I mean the school district did it.
Sent out 64 invitations, and we received one qualified bid for each of the five schools.
Only one bid.
That did not go over very well with the board.
Nobody wants to see one bid.
So what the district decided to do this year was to select the most qualified agent.
There was an extensive questionnaire that was developed to find out who they were, how
much business they had.
One of the most important things was give us references for school districts that had
losses so we were absolutely sure that they knew what they were doing in the
event that Katie ISD had a loss based on that the agent that was selected was
Alliant they have an office locally in Houston and if you have any questions
the vice president is here who'll be able to answer them one of the things
that I felt was most important was the fact that in this proposal your name
storm name storm would be the hurricanes your name storm limit increased from 25
million to 50 million and in the when the Creech flooding occurred there was
not enough insurance and 50 million is what the there is a company there are
two companies that do loss modeling and one of the companies said that 50 million was sufficient for
a hundred year storm unfortunately we've had some hundred year storms more than one in less than 100
years haven't we what's happened is that we've increased the name storm from 25 to 50 million
We reduced the deductible minimum from $5 million to $1 million.
We increased the flood coverage from $5 million to $50 million.
Those are significant figures.
And in doing so, we increased the total rate.
And what we use is we analyze the rates because every school district, we hope, is increasing in their valuations.
So by comparing premiums, you're not really getting a true picture.
And the ultimate rate at the increased one was, is what, Lance?
5.8%.
5.8%.
So we think that the district was able to put together, with the help of Alliance, a remarkable program in view of,
By the way, the increases last year of those five districts ranged from 17% to 58%.
So when we're looking at a 5.8% increase plus all of the additional coverages we've got,
I think they've put together a pretty good package.
future.
I would also add as part of this too, in the gross up premium of this, we did add three
large facilities of Faldon, Youngblood and Merchants Play to our program.
So we did have some organic growth, and in the coming year, we'll be seeing, as we add high school 10, we'll be seeing those additional growths, too, because we transfer those from the builder's risk to our standard property program.
So I noticed that the replacement cost values went up by about a third.
How much of that was the new assets versus inflation?
Basically, we added almost $90 million, I'll call it $100 million in hard assets to the schedule.
I will tell you, every year we scrub that list to make sure that we represent the true replacement costs of those building values.
We don't want to be underinsured or overinsured.
We try to hit the mark, and we review those based on everything from musical instruments to the hard bricks and sticks that we look at as part of this program.
One thing I noticed that's different from the current is the deductibles have gone down quite a bit.
it looks like from, for example, $5 million down to one.
Is that costing us a lot?
Is that expensive in terms of reducing the deductible?
It's a function of the market.
They were able to negotiate that price,
just leave it at $5 million they had determined was not worth the savings.
It just wasn't there.
Okay, okay.
We think part of this is having much of this program now is with Lloyds of London.
which is a big, big presence because they do half of the world's insurance.
And by having them, which frankly is a little more stable than the domestic market, the U.S. market,
help with those reductions in deductibles.
And just out of curiosity, who were some of the other brokers,
like the top two or three brokers that you were looking at?
I don't have that list with me.
We sent out 16.
16?
16.
16.
Everybody, I mean, goodness, Mercer, McGriff.
Okay.
Everybody that had the experience and the capacity to write this type of program,
whether it be private sector, oil and gas, retail, and or government sector or municipality.
And so these are the top?
So these were the options right here in terms of Lloyds 1, Lloyds 2, etc. that they came up with, that Alliant came up with?
Exactly. Basically, we saw a shift, as Mr. Rehm was alluding to, we saw a shift in the transfer of risk from the domestic,
which was previously heavily engaged in our program, to the foreign program with Boards of London.
So there was more appetite, more risk.
And as I've spoken to in the past, we've seen a reduction in capacity in the marketplace
and reduced capitalization for those reduction in the marketplace.
I think one of the things that's most interesting in what was provided was this graph.
Right.
You remember seeing it?
It shows you how convoluted a program is and how much effort it took to put that together.
And that's what it looks like.
How many, Mr. Rehm, how many organizations are part of that?
How many different carriers make that up?
Is it 45, Joanne?
I've got it on here.
43.
43 different carriers are on here.
So with that, we're not just going to an insurance company and saying,
hey, Allstate, underwrite this.
This 43 companies are having to join together in order to get the property of this magnitude.
Mr. President, may I ask a question?
Amy?
How does that – thank you so much for all your work.
But how do we make sure that it doesn't make it harder to file a claim in case we are, you know, do have some significant damage if we have all different –
Well, one of the – no, it doesn't.
Okay.
Because there is a lead company.
Okay.
And whatever that lead company decides to do, the others must follow it.
Okay.
Great.
Thank you very much.
They're the one who are in charge of the claim.
Okay.
There's a central contract that we –
Yes.
Great.
Mr. President, may I ask some questions, please?
So why do you think – I'm just curious.
Why do you think that more organizations won't respond to, you know, won't want to compete for the bid?
Because there just aren't enough insurance companies out there.
And that's why of the five that we looked at last year over a billion dollars, that we only had one bidder each.
There just weren't enough insurance companies to fill out.
As a matter of fact, in all of those instances, we only asked for $10 million.
And nobody else could come up with $10 million.
just one agent it seems like a lost industry almost doesn't it because
there's because you know when I read your letter which I really appreciate
the letter and it's I'm just going to read this because for the public to hear
it says since 1980 the United States has averaged 7.9 billion dollar damage
weather disasters each year for the three years from 2020 to 2022 the
the average was $20 billion.
So it's gone from $7.9 billion to $20 billion.
So it's just interesting to me,
as a person that might be in that business,
wouldn't want to, you know, I hate to say this,
but profit from, you know,
the natural disasters that are sure to come.
And then, so that's just a statement, I guess.
But the last question I really have is,
is Creech Elementary in here?
Yes.
Yes, it is.
And it's a loan, though, right?
No, it is not.
Not in this program that we're proposing to you.
It is wrapped up into the total flood limit.
And that's one of the key advantages to this proposal is Crete is no longer stand-alone.
Oh, really?
Yes.
Well, that's awesome.
But down here where it says floodplain properties, and I think that those are misspelled because we made Creek High School,
may creek junior high may creek elementary paytoe high school stevens elementary young blood
elementary and four support buildings but preach isn't in there it's because it's not in the flood
plane oh supposedly right it wasn't that interesting in the current program it was
treated as if it were in the floodplain but it's not it's still not considered a floodplain correct
Okay.
Thank you.
Any other questions?
I have a question, Mr. President, please.
I live right by Creech Elementary, and my house was not in a floodplain,
but I had a whole lot of water in it for a long time.
So my understanding is there might be upcoming a designation of it being signified
as something that kind of sounds like a floodplain, but maybe something else.
will that change? So far it hasn't. That's a very good question and it's something we've been
following very closely. Okay, me too. That area was designated by the, as I read in the
chronicle, that area was designated by the Corps of Engineers as being in the flood pool. At this
point, we have found no insurance companies, including the companies on here, that are
are pulling out the flood pool and giving it a special attention.
So it's still, while it may be in a flood pool,
it's not considered in a floodplain even.
But once that lawsuit makes its way all the way through the courts,
then whatever the signification they give to that area,
that will change or could change what we do with that.
It could change in the future.
That's exactly right.
But at this point, they have to live up to the policy here.
And there is no sense in going to the courts.
They have no reason to go to the courts.
They're going to have to pay it.
Right, okay.
They're going to be smarter next time, aren't they?
They're not going to do that.
Oh, no?
Well, they haven't made any changes to prevent flooding in that area,
so that's what I'm wondering.
Let's be hopeful.
Any other questions?
First of all, Bob, I appreciate your efforts on this.
And of course, Lance, always in KDISD is our expert.
And Bob has been able to shine a different light from an angle that we may not have seen before.
So I appreciate your efforts on that.
And then we did budget for an increase.
Unfortunately, this increase in the total premium is going to cost more than we budgeted.
And so we're going to have to follow that up next month with the budget amendment.
There is still hope that we can lower this premium.
This premium is not to exceed.
And so, as I understand it, between now and when we bind,
Joanne back there may be able to help us save a little bit more money.
Is that still on the table?
Yes, and I think it's interesting to note,
you remember the first numbers that we got?
Yes, sir.
They came off of that about $400,000.
Yes, sir.
So they're still working.
Joanne and them are working extremely hard,
and there will still be May savings.
They're just, again, it's so complicated and convoluted.
They haven't gotten to the district yet.
We need to bind by March the 2nd, I believe, Lance?
28th.
March 28th?
No.
February 28th.
February 28th.
February 28th.
And so in the next couple of weeks, if it comes in a little bit better, again, this
is a not to exceed price.
We'll gladly save a little premium and let you all know what we saved, if we're able
to come in lower.
What do you think will be the impact roughly for this budget year that we're in now?
Half a million dollars.
Okay.
Yes, sir.
Increase over the budget.
We're going to approximately around that amount is what we're going to do with this budget
amendment.
Okay.
Okay.
Thank you.
Any other questions?
Mr. President, one follow-up question.
This building flooded.
It's not in a flood plain?
No.
Right.
It's not in flood plain, so it's also they have to pay any damages that happen, but it's
not signified as a specific category.
Is that true?
Interestingly enough, when you analyze what they presented, there isn't any difference
between well, there's a little bit of difference between the flood plain, but if I remember
right, the limits are the same.
The limits are the same.
It all falls up to the 50 million.
And, you know, my worst fear was when Harvey hit was the Maid Creek area.
You know, that's where all the modeling showed it would happen.
And I'll never forget a phone call.
Mr. Smith called me and said, have you looked at the news and seen the ESC?
And I said, you're teasing me.
He said, no.
There was two feet of water.
So the modeling, I mean, this is just, I think that's one of the key advantages to this renewal
was that we were able to get higher limits with less of a pain than probably expected.
Thank you very much for your work on this.
It's so complicated and so difficult.
Appreciate it.
Thank you.
Mr. Plobs, may I please ask one more question?
I'm just curious, just can we have a reminder of how much that Harvey flood cost?
Well, we maxed out our flood limits.
We were, we, right at $25 million was the total that we were able to collect from insurance.
And that was both here and at Creech.
And if you remember at Creech, we basically tore everything down to the studs and rebuilt Creech.
So we collected $25 million, but how much did we spend?
Total on Harvey, I would have to follow back up with you to give the total.
That's okay, but a lot.
It was a lot.
The insurance proceeds didn't quite make us whole, but it was darn close.
Very close.
That and FEMA helped with making us whole.
And if you'll recall, shortly thereafter, y'all adopted a tax rate that included that tax swap to maximize our Tier 2 funding.
And that helped get us over the hump.
Because this board was able to do that for two years, and that generated about $30 million.
million dollars that helped kind of get the district back stable again. And in Senate Bill 500, I can't forget that. They sent that significant proceeds to make up for that. And so the Hurricane Harvey event was catastrophic and horrible for a lot of people in this community, including this district. But the state of Texas, our insurance and this board's ability to do wise business to
decisions helped us make that event a thing of the past.
Yes, thank you.
Thank you so much.
Mr. President, may I just add on there?
Senate Bill 500, Lois Colcourse was our senator at that time,
and she worked really hard to help us with that flood,
and I just wanted to give her that.
Thank you.
Thanks so much, and appreciate your work.
Thank you so much.
Thank you for leaving us up to it, please.
7.2 Discuss and consider Board approval of the February 2024 budget amendments.
You bet.
We're now going to go back to 7.2, resume with 7.2,
which is discuss and consider board approval of the February 2024 budget amendments.
Presenter is Peronza Rios, Director of Budget and Treasury.
Welcome.
Good evening, Board President Perez, Board of Trustees, and Dr. Gagorski.
Tonight we bring forth the budget amendment which contains a $46,080 increase to revenue and expenditures for the summer STEM camp.
All of the budget amendments are direct functional offsets.
The approval of these budget amendments will have no impact to the general operating fund balance.
Thank you. Any questions?
Thank you so much.
7.3 Discuss and consider Board Approval of the December 2023 Financial Reports.
We're going to go to 7.3.
and that's for approval of the December 2023 financial reports.
Presenter is Jamie Hines, Executive Director of Finance.
Good evening, President Perez, members of the board, and Superintendent Gorgorski.
You have before you our February financial reports, including our financial statements,
our construction report, and our tax report through the month of December,
as well as our check register summary for the month of December.
Included with our financial statements is an analysis of our expenditures and revenues by object and by function,
as well as a detailed analysis of our expenditures by both object and function.
A couple of things to note.
This is through four months of the fiscal year, so what you'd be comparing your percentages to is a 33%.
Going back to last month, I had mentioned that the tax, the certified tax levy on the tax report was significantly lower than our budgeted tax levy.
We have gotten Fort Bend's certified tax levy, and so that's now come up to a normal amount.
We will be bringing a budget amendment in the next couple of months to bring that up to our budgeted amount as well as I want to bring to your attention the tax revenue.
If you look on the first page, you'll see that through the end of December, we're at about 26% this year as opposed to last year.
We had about 43% pardon me, 42% of collections.
collections. That's a result of the homestead exemption election in November, causing the tax offices to push back when they got the tax statements out. So that's caused us to have our collections come in later over the past couple of months. We have seen that normalize and so over the next two months of your financial statements, you'll notice that that that number comes up to the normal amount. So I'd be glad to answer any other questions about the financial statements at this time.
Any questions?
Thank you very much.
All right.
Thank you.
7.4 Discuss an Order Authorizing the Issuance of Katy Independent School District Unlimited Tax School Building and/or Refunding Bonds in one or more series; setting certain parameters for the bonds; authorizing a Pricing Officer to approve the amount, the interest rate, price, including the terms thereof; authorizing the engagement of bond counsel; and certain other procedures and provisions related thereto. The foregoing Order authorizes the engagement of Bond Counsel pursuant to an engagement letter under which the District will obtain specialized legal services in connection with the issuance of bonds or other obligations to pay or refinance the costs of one or more projects of the District, based on the demonstrated competence and qualifications of such attorneys; finding that (i) such legal services require specialized expertise and experience in municipal finance, federal tax law and federal and state securities laws and therefore cannot be adequately performed by the attorneys and supporting personnel of the District, (ii) such legal services cannot be reasonably obtained from attorneys in private practice under an hourly fees contract without contingency because the District will not be obligated to pay any legal fees until the successful completion and closing of the contemplated transaction, and (iii) entering into a contingent fee contract for legal services is in the best interest of the residents of the District because such firm will only be paid if the contemplated transaction is successfully completed and closed.
We're on to item 7.4.
Presenter is Chris Smith.
And I'm not going to read the entire description of what all we're going to do, but you can guide us through it.
We'll be here a few hours if we do that.
All right.
All right, well, again, our municipal advisor, Jeff Roberts,
is here, and our bond attorney, Rick Witte from Jackson,
Jackson Walker is here in case you have any questions.
But I'm going to just go ahead and talk about these
as they're presented in order.
Item 7.4 is a bond order establishing the parameters
of our first bond sale of our 2023 authorization.
authorization. This is a step one in the process that we'll go through over the next several months,
well the next six months, in order to get that bond sold, those bonds sold to fund the projects
that you're going to be approving. I think the start of them tonight on a couple of items for
our elementary schools. So we're starting to spend money with this author's, with this
parameter. We're asking for $250 million. That's our first sale that we need to complete for one
year of cash flow to fund the construction projects. I expect that to happen sometime
during the summer. We are already spending money, but the next item on the agenda I'll talk about
is a reimbursement resolution, but we are already spending money, and we can reimburse ourselves
the general fund with those proceeds when we have that bond sale in the summer.
Why do we wait until summer?
Well, we can get our certified estimated values in April.
That helps us structure the bonds.
It helps us get a little closer to the target before we throw that dart.
We know where we want to throw it, but when you're a step or two closer,
it's easier to hit the target.
And so that's why we are anticipating a summertime sale.
sale. This order authorizes Dr. Gregorski or myself to be the pricing officer, which
would approve the amount, the interest rate, and the terms and certain other conditions
of the bond sale. This order also allows us to select a syndicate to help us obtain the
best pricing that would be the administration's intent to move forward with the negotiated bond
sale again this summer. Let's see what else do I need to say about this.
It also authorizes up to refunding bonds that generate more than 3% savings.
So if we can save 3%, it authorizes us the ability to do that, to save taxpayer dollars.
Again, if we can save money, it's like refinancing a house.
If we can save 3% refinancing it, it's worth the cost to go ahead and refinance that house.
And so we're going to do that if that opportunity presents itself.
sale. Sorry, that's item 7.4. This is 250 and then also the refunding of bonds. Yes, sir. As long as
we achieve that savings. Yes, sir. And it'll depend on the market when those bonds, when we can refund
those, how those look on how much we refund and which ones we refund. But that's unknown at this
time. We've identified those that are refundable that you have in front of you. Mr. President,
You may not know the answer to this, but do you know where we're at with the Shaw Center expansion?
I would like to.
Mr. Bealing?
Yes, we're in the planning phases.
We're actually meeting Thursday or Friday this week on the planning phases of that.
So you should be seeing something fairly soon, I would say, in the next few months.
Yes, ma'am.
And then just to, we're going through each one of these that we're approving, so.
7.5 Discuss and consider a Resolution Expressing Intent to Defease/Redeem Certain of the District's Outstanding Bonds.
Okay, so 7.5 is a tool that was mentioned in our presentation where Mr. Robert mentioned that we defeesed or redeemed $80 million in principal to save $18.7 million in interest.
We've identified those bonds that potentially would be redeemable in the 2024-2025 school year.
We have to budget for that, so the board has to approve that budget.
But we've identified up to $30 million in bonds.
So if we had that ability to, we would love to be able to pay down as much bonds as we could.
Just like somebody that has credit card debt, you can pay it down.
If you've got money and you can pay it down, let's pay it off.
And this is a tool that would allow us to redeem bonds or just tell the bondholder, we're paying them, here's your money, see you.
So it's up to $30 million and that's just from debt service fund cash?
Yes, sir.
From the debt fund?
If it's available in the budget, we would like to pay it down to save taxpayer interest.
7.6 Discuss and consider a Resolution Declaring Intention to Reimburse Project Expenditures.
And item 7.6 is an order approving a new term period for – oops, I'm sorry.
I'm off.
That's the reimbursement.
The reimbursement resolution.
So I mentioned that a minute ago.
the reimbursement resolution is we've started spending money, although the big money won't be
spent until these contracts are awarded and they start turning dirt. But for the architect or
engineering fees that we've already had, we can look back from the date that this is done, 60 days.
So back into December, we can reimburse ourselves once we have those bond proceeds sometime this
summer. We can reimburse the general fund. And that is a reimbursement resolution. And the final
7.7 Discuss and consider an Order approving a New Term Rate Period or Fixed Rate Period for all or a portion of the Katy Independent School District Variable Rate Unlimited Tax School Building Bonds, Series 2021C; and approving other provisions relating thereto.
item is to discuss an order approving new term rate period for or fixed period for all or a
portion of the kdisd variable rate unlimited school building bonds series 2021c and approving
of other provisions related there too so that item comes to fruition in august and we've got to reset
that that's one of our variable rate uh their deals that's maturing and we've got to re reprice
that and that'll happen I think it's August the 15th August the 15th between
now and August the 15th. What happens if you don't do that what happens to the rate? The rate goes way up
significantly of like six or eight percent if we didn't do that is that
right? That step rate is like eight percent. It's like a renegotiation of the
rate basically. Yes sir. And again Mr. Robert and Mr. Whitty are here in case
shall have any questions, they'll probably be out of my league.
Any questions?
Mr. President.
Ms. Fox.
The one you just talked about, is that 7.7?
Is it likely to go up when you renegotiate it, likely to go up a little?
Mr. President, in that situation, would that likely be the same holders of those bonds
or new ones, different ones?
Mr. President, and you'll bring all of that back to us when that happens.
What will happen is every time we do a transaction, Mr. Robert will provide a very thorough summary of that transaction,
and I usually send it on to Dr. G, which I believe sends it on to you.
But this is the authorization to do it.
It will happen by the experts.
We'll get the report of what happened.
So you're given the authorization, and if we could jump back a year ago, if you'll recall, we did this same thing in February.
Our plan was to sell in the middle of the summer as well.
Mr. Robert called and said, hey, we're having these permanent school fund guarantees.
Remember, that's the state of Texas guaranteeing our bonds and keeping our interest rates lower to save taxpayer dollars.
Well, that was reaching its capacity with the IRS,
and so we weren't going to be able to issue under the permanent school fund guarantee when we normally would have sold.
And so Mr. Robert and I talked about it and the pros and cons,
and we moved that transaction up until the middle of May to get the permanent school fund guarantee,
and it saved taxpayer dollars.
We actually hit the market decent at that time, too, and so it was a win-win.
But we had this approval to be nimble and make that move to save taxpayer dollar.
I appreciate you constantly being aware of that.
I have a question about 7.5 since you went quickly through order.
May I?
So you said this is a savings of $18 million?
This isn't a savings.
Since 2017, we've defeased $80 million and saved that amount of interest.
But that's over that amount of time.
And so this year, if we were able to, of that 30, if we were able to find $10 million,
then we're going to save interest on those $10 million.
And Mr. Roberts is going to go in and cherry pick where those maturities are
to save us maximum amount of interest.
Kind of like an individual would go cherry pick, hey, I just got $10,000.
I'm going to pay my credit cards off.
Which ones are you going to pay off?
The ones with the highest interest rate, right?
And that's what bonds, how we would identify that.
And sometimes it may be a place just to create some capacity in our plan.
It may not be the most savings, but it creates capacity for other financing to make better sense and save money.
Is that right?
So that's not a finite number yet until it happens.
No, sir.
No, ma'am.
Until this happens.
Yes.
So you said we've saved how much over how many years?
Repeat that.
We've saved.
$80 million?
We've defused $80 million and saved right at $20 million.
$20 million in how many years?
17.
Yeah.
$80,150,000 to be exact, and we've saved $18.7 million in interest by that.
And again, we're defusing 9 million point something this year.
So we were able to find some room in the budget, and you all budgeted for it, 9 million.
We paid six of that in August of 15, and three just on the 15th of February.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
It appears that the Finance Committee has that information, but I didn't.
So thank you for allowing me to ask those questions.
Thanks a lot.
Thank you, Mr. Robert, as well, and also Jackson Walker.
One thing I did not mention, and I probably should, it says it in there,
but this also does, Mr. Witte has been the district's bond attorney for decades,
and he did change his letterhead over the summer from Oreck to Jackson Walker,
and inside of 7.4 is the language with our agreement with him.
It's the same terms as we had with the old firm, but there's a big relationship that goes way back that we want to keep going because it helps benefit Katy ISD.
Thank you.
Thanks a lot.
7.8 Discuss and consider Board approval to award the Request for Proposal "RFP" 2312AA for Dark Fiber Wide Area Network "WAN" Lease and Maintenance services to meet the immediate and long-term fiber infrastructure for the District.
Okay, we're going to move on to 7.8 now, which is discuss and consider board approval to award the request for proposal RFP for the Rock Farber Wide Area Network.
work, one lease and maintenance services to meet the immediate and long-term fiber infrastructure
for the district. We have Mr. Joe Christopherson. No relation to Chris.
No, he spells his name wrong.
Okay. Go ahead.
Good evening, President Perez, members of the board and Superintendent Dr. Brivorski.
I have three items, the next three items. The first one is the current fiber lease that
provides connectivity for all the schools and facilities in the district, expires in
August of 2024. It is recommended that the Board of Trustees award RFP 2312AA for dark fiber
release and maintenance services for district-wide connectivity to PS Lightwave Incorporated.
The first year cost is $203,820. This is a 3% annual increase over the life of the contract
and the value of the initial 10-year contract is $2,336,591.46.
The funding source is the General Operating Fund.
The services, these services are E-Rate eligible and 50% of the total will be submitted annually
for reimbursement in the E-Rate program.
Is any of this, I'm looking for your, to pull it up real quick, but is any of this payable
from bond proceeds?
No, sir.
Not the installation, for example?
There is no installation charges on the...
This is strictly maintenance?
This is strictly lease and maintenance of existing fiber.
Okay.
Any questions?
Mr. President?
Ms. Grisella?
I just noticed on the E-rate bid assessment worksheet, there was only one vendor listed, LightWave.
There was no other competitor?
No.
There are other competitors. As you see on the next two bids, they did bid those services.
I can speculate why they didn't bid this. They had the opportunity to bid it.
But essentially, PS Lightway is our current provider, so they've got all the infrastructure built out to every one of our schools and facilities already.
Where somebody else would have to build that infrastructure, it would cost them a greater amount.
That's my assumption. They didn't bid it because of that.
Okay. Thank you.
7.9 Discuss and consider Board approval to award the Competitive Sealed Proposal "CSP" 2310AA for Lit / Dark Fiber services to meet the immediate and long-term fiber infrastructure for the building located at 21700 Merchants Way, Katy, Texas.
Then we move on to 7.9.
Yes.
Okay.
It is recommended that Board of Trustees award CSP 2310AA for lit dark fiber services to PS Lightwave for the fiber connectivity to the building located at 21700 Merchants Way.
Dark fiber installation cost is $82,277.20.
The annual reoccurring cost is $2,400.
And the total five-year initial contract is $94,277.20.
The funding source for the installation is the 2023 bond new construction, and the recurring cost is funded by the general operating fund.
All costs are 50% E-rate eligible and will be submitted for reimbursement through that program.
Any questions?
Mr. President?
Ms. Grisela?
I have a question about how you separated this.
Why is this a CSP, and why is this not included with 7.8?
Can you elaborate?
So it's because it's not the existing fibers,
and we do it for every time we open a new facility,
we add specific services to that,
and the following one will be elementaries 47 and 48.
And we do that just as a separate service
to give more people the opportunity to bid on it.
And what was your first question?
Is this because it's a new property?
Yes.
Something totally new.
Right.
Okay.
In other words, it's maintenance existing.
Okay.
Thank you.
All right.
7.10 Discuss and consider Board approval to award the Competitive Sealed Proposal "CSP" 2311AA for Lit / Dark Fiber services to meet the immediate and long-term fiber infrastructure for Elementary Schools #47 and #48.
So the next item is also for the dark fiber services.
This is for elementary schools 47 and 48.
Yes.
It's recommended the Board of Trustees award CSP 2311AA
let dark fiber services to PS Lightwave Incorporated.
For the fiber connectivity at elementary schools 47 and 48,
The dark fiber installation cost is $440,855.69.
The annual reoccurring cost is $4,800.
And the total five-year initial contract cost is $464,855.69.
The funding source for the installation of the 2023 bond new construction
and the reoccurring costs are funded by the General Operating Fund.
All costs are 50% E-rate eligible and will be submitted for reimbursement through that program.
So the 440 is bond proceeds and the rest of it, the annual, is from general fund?
The annual, yes.
The annual recurring cost?
Okay.
Mr. President, it appears that that's a five-year bond.
Is that what that is, total value of initial five years?
Is this one of those things they talked about that we pay off within five years?
That's what that looks like.
I'm just wondering.
Well, in the five-year number, I think they're including the five years of recurring costs plus the contract value for the installation.
Right.
And you said the installation is bond funds.
The installation is bond funds.
Yes, the installation is bond funds.
And so when the value over five years is that much, this is one of those things that is not spread over 30 years.
It's a five-year expenditure.
Is that correct?
I don't know.
I don't know if it's five or how long it lasts.
I mean, he's just talking about the he's just talking about five years, but it could last right a lot
Correct, and we have options on this to extend it for two five-year terms. So it could be 15 years
Total all in bond fund. No, those would be the reoccurring costs initial
upfront cost for that one is
440
140 thousands is bond comes on but got it but how those bonds are paid off. That's
Mr. Smith, I guess. Okay. It's fine. Thank you
It's based on their useful life.
I saw the five years.
I wondered if that was one of those that fell under that.
Because a lot of technology falls under that, but this is an ongoing something.
So I was just trying to understand that.
Right.
And these are typically long-term contracts.
It's infrastructure that we don't plan to change.
Got it.
Thank you.
All right.
Thank you very much.
7.11 Discuss and consider Board approval of a contract for the construction of Elementary School #47.
And now we have 7.11.
and that's to discuss and consider board approval of a contract for the construction of elementary school number 47.
Welcome Lisa Kastman again.
All right, thank you. Okay, this item is a recommendation for the approval of the contractor for elementary 47 in Ellison,
which is east of Youngblood Elementary. Two proposals received and Satterfield and Ponticus ranked first overall.
overall. They've completed Jordan High School, Rains, Youngblood Elementary and they're completing
work on High School 10. And so we came in, we're coming in under budget? Under budget.
Yes. Because we haven't started so that's why we're under budget. No, this price is
guaranteed with them so the total number we're bringing to you that is it unless, if we had
I'd have to come back to the board for a change order.
We do not anticipate that.
And the savings we leave, we have it for future.
If there's any issues with other projects, we have that savings built in.
Correct.
In the Proposition A.
Mr. President.
Ms. Fox.
Mrs. Cassman, we have existing experience with these.
We've used Satterfield and previous plants.
Yes.
Have we used the other one before?
I don't recognize that name.
Pogue?
No, they're new from the Dallas area.
they're trying to make a presence in the houston market okay thank you for bringing this
mr president the champagne uh miss kathman i just want to tell you that
i really have enjoyed watching you work in the last several years on the projects and i'm happy
that you're here to run this and i have you know a lot of a lot of confidence in your ability and
And I appreciate what you do for the district.
Thank you very much.
Let me ask you one thing.
How is it that in the ranking of the two, Satterfield and Hogan,
they come in within $10,000 of each other on a $40 million project?
I'm just curious about that.
So there's a spread with the numbers we use, but the dollars are only 30%.
We look at their references, their experience.
So it's all those factors that go into the equation.
But as far as their price, they came in with like $11,000.
Yeah, we have a formula, actually we were just looking at it this morning,
where you put in what the budget number is, what the spread is,
and it cranks out a calculation of what the high and the low numbers are.
That's interesting.
Okay.
It's a formula we've been using for 20 years, so we can justify our numbers that way.
Okay.
Okay.
Mr. President.
I mean, they bid, that's the number they bid.
Like one said $40 million, $422 million, and the other one said $40 million, $411 million.
They're so.
Yeah, they are very close.
Amazing.
Mr. President.
Ms. Cuzela.
So I don't know if you can speak to this, but why the bond allocation was $8 million over.
What was that based on at that point in time?
So when we put these numbers together, that was back in January of last year when inflation was at its height.
So a lot has to do with the inflation that we applied.
Okay.
Thank you.
7.12 Discuss and consider Board approval of a contract for the construction of Elementary School #48.
Thank you.
I guess we'll move on to item 712, which is the same for elementary school number 48.
That's correct.
And this one is in the Sunterra subdivision.
Two proposals were received.
Dramala will be constructing this.
Once again, they've done a lot of our prototypes.
They did Haskett Junior High.
They're working on Nelson.
Nelson, so we expect good service out of them once again.
Questions?
Anyone?
Mr. President, I guess my question is, they're identical floor plans, right?
Why wonder why the cost is so different?
One is the larger site.
Sunterra is a little bit larger, and that includes whatever driveways, roadwork we need
to do.
So a lot has to do with the civil engineering portion of it in the site. I knew you'd know I agree with what mrs.
Champaign said, thank you
Any other questions
Thank you very much
7.13 Discuss and consider Board approval of the delivery method for the Franz Road Storage Office Build Out.
And that is which one is that we're going to
Storage office build out. Yes. So this is a project that has been added to this program and
And with the law, I need to bring to you the delivery method.
So we're recommending the competitive seal proposal.
This is for the build-out of Franz Road to support asset management of district devices.
What that means, asset management of district devices.
The Fixed Asset Department reports to accounting and has three or four staff members that keep up with the district's assets.
assets. The biggest of those assets that we're keeping up with, maybe not the largest, but
the one with the most items, and right now I think it's 65,000
computers and Chromebooks and stuff out there. With our one-to-one initiative,
and that office, by the way, one of those staff members works in this building.
A couple of those staff members work in the warehouse, the separate warehouse.
warehouse, and then we've got some technology folks that work in the technology warehouse.
We want to put all of those folks in one spot for efficiencies, so for when somebody has
to leave the technology warehouse, somebody's still there to make sure that we're keeping
up with those assets.
As taxpayers, we don't want to not know where something is.
We have the ability or we're getting the ability to do RFID on the tags, so you can walk around
around the classroom to scan where those items are.
So if something gets stuck in a drawer, we don't just call it lost.
We can know where it is.
And so we're really doing some things since the one-to-one is coming on.
We're really doing some things to get our arms squared around it.
And we think proximity and the ability to have everybody involved in that process working
working at the same facilities is what makes the most sense in order for us to do that.
And that's what this is all about.
You're going into the Chromebook business, so you have to manage it.
Yes, sir.
That's what you're doing.
Yes, sir.
Mr. President.
Ms. Champagne.
May I ask a question about that?
So I guess I just kind of wasn't really paying attention to this until you started talking about that.
Are we, you know, when we see the new school renovations, you know, the pictures like the previous architect showed us that we see when new buildings are being built, will we see the layout of this also?
Because is it going to be something larger or is it just being renovated?
What is this?
It's like, was it 2,000 square feet?
It's right at 2,000 square feet.
There's about four offices and a little central area to have a meeting.
And that's about it.
There may be a kitchenette, if I remember right.
But we can definitely, if Ms. Kassman can give me a copy, I'll be glad to share it with Dr. G to share.
This is interesting because I've never seen that building.
So it's not going to get larger.
It's just going to be.
So what it is now, if you think about a barn dominium.
Do you all know what a barn dominium is?
Yeah, my dad lived there.
Basically, we have a barn out there, and you can see it over there by Katie Junior High near the big warehouse.
And that barn has a section on the end of it that's peeled off that keeps technology.
They image items in there.
When they're delivered here, they're stored there until they can be imaged with the KDISD stuff,
and then they're shipped out to the campuses.
All of it goes through there.
And in the barn dominium in the barn we're wanting to add some barn dominium in there
For the offices so they could be near all of those
Hundreds of thousands of assets and there's restroom facilities in there. There's currently a one
whole
hole uh uh facility uh and then and then i think this does include to add another restroom which
will you know take some some going through the concrete and stuff like that but but it does
include a modest restroom also another one holder with the sink mr perez may ask a question i'm
Mrs. Champagne, I appreciate you wanting to see that.
I'm just wondering, out loud now, since we got you, Mr. Smith, to describe where it is,
if it's wise to kind of put that out there, like where all those hundreds of thousands of dollars of assets are,
like maybe show the map and where it's located and all that.
I don't know if that's great for public.
I'm sorry, I didn't want the map.
I just wanted the layout.
I just wanted to see what it looked like.
Right, but that always comes with where it is and roads and all that.
I'll just say for the public, it's Fort Knox.
And everything is so identified with our label.
And if it's not Fort Knox, it's going to be Fort Knox because, you know, there is some value there.
And although you can't, if it doesn't, if we say it's, if somebody came in and took 100 Chromebooks,
and Dr. Alaune would be able to say, those 100 Chromebooks are bricks.
because if he wants, they'll never work again.
Okay?
And so that's one of the things that we had.
If we got stole, we'd just make whatever they stole not worth anything
and make an insurance claim.
But we will make it Fort Knox.
Thank you.
Thanks so much.
7.14 Discuss and consider Board approval for flooring replacement at Morton Ranch Elementary and Bonnie Holland Elementary schools.
Thank you very much.
We're going to move on to 714.
Our presenter is Nathan Fuchs,
Executive Director of Maintenance and Operations,
to discuss and consider board approval for flooring replacements at Morton Ranch Elementary and Bonnie Holland Elementary School.
You get the glamorous part here.
Yes, sir. Thank you.
Good evening, President Perez, board members, and Dr. Gorski.
Tonight I have two items for your consideration.
First item for your consideration is the flooring replacements at Morton Ranch Elementary and Bonnie Holland Elementary School.
Each school will receive our district standard for new flooring and will be done over the summer break.
in time for the start of the 2024-2025 school year.
The two projects are part of the 2021 bond component replacement program
with a not-to-exceed total project cost of $1,623,339.07.
Mr. President, I'm so sorry.
Mr. Bain.
I have a question.
What kind of flooring, because I've been in law schools,
and I don't know what the new trend is.
Now, are we doing like the tile?
Are we doing carpet?
So at the elementary level, it's primarily porcelain tile
in the main corridors.
And as you go into the classrooms
in those secondary corridors, it turns to carpet.
Just from a sound standpoint and durability
down the main corridors.
Any other questions?
Mr. President, I have a quick question.
How was the contractor chosen?
Was that?
So on this particular project, it was a contract.
um job order contract how did you choose tarquette um they are a contractor that we've used in the
past and um just a past relationship with the district and in fact by value okay there's no
bid that goes out to multiple contractors for this no ma'am is that because of the dollar amount or
why is that no when you when you go jock route jock can be done two different ways they can be
done time material and if it's if it's jogging time material or um maintenance it can be done
time material if it's construction then it doesn't it's done through rs means so that rs
means satisfies they became a piece of that okay thank you mr president mr fox your job is huge
every every area do you know why the dollars are different is because the layout's very similar
It is. The same floor plan. What's different about the two projects is on one of the projects,
the stage has to be rebuilt. When we went in there, and that's another thing about having
a job contractor, you can bring them in ahead of time and walk with your design team and look at
those little details and see what's what. And it helps bring the price down because you're
bidding more on exact scope. And after reviewing both projects, it was determined that the stage
needs to be rebuilt. So that's why you see a price difference.
Yes, ma'am.
Thank you.
7.15 Discuss and consider Board approval of the proposal for the Building Management Control System replacements at multiple campuses: Morton Ranch High School, Morton Ranch Junior High School, Morton Ranch Elementary, Seven Lakes High School, and Seven Lakes Junior High School.
If there are no more questions there, we'll move on to 715.
The second item for your consideration tonight is for the replacement of building management
control systems at Seven Lakes High School, Seven Lakes Junior High, Morton Ranch High
School, Morton Ranch Junior High, and Morton Ranch Elementary.
The upgraded systems will allow for increased energy savings and allow for optimum management
of building operations.
The five projects are part of the 2021 Bonnock Component Replacement Program.
The total project cost of $7,465,000 is a not too seen amount and will be completed
by April of 2025 with no campus interruptions.
Ms. D' Mr. President, Mr. Fuchs, would you explain for everybody what is a building
management control system?
What does that entail?
So what that is, it's the brains behind our, it controls lighting, it controls HVAC systems.
really what keeps our buildings functional. It's all, you know, done through a computer,
we can do remotely, but it's what turns valves on, turn lights off, turn lights on, and so on. So
it's the brains behind our operating systems from an HVAC control perspective.
Any other questions?
Thank you so much. Thank you.
7.16 Discuss and consider Board approval of the proposed summer work schedule.
Now we have Brian Schuss.
And to discuss and consider board approval of the proposed summer work schedule.
This is a long-awaited item here that we wanted to discuss with you.
President Perez, members of the board, Dr. Kogorski,
this is something that we bring to the board each year in February.
It is our proposed summer work schedule.
Each year it is very much the same, starting the beginning of June
and running through roughly the end of July.
and this year is no exception. We're proposing that it begin the week of June 3rd, run through
the week of July 22nd, and then back to regular hours the week of July 29th. So about eight weeks
there. One weekend there is an exception is the week of July 4th. July 4th falls on a Thursday
this year, so it'll be closed that Thursday instead of the Friday, and then that's a regular week as
well since it's a holiday. And this is well received by the staff, and of course there's
example, communication that goes out so folks know when we're open and when we're not.
And there's also some energy savings there as well. So that's what
we're proposing for approval next week.
Mr. President, I'd like to just say something to Mr. Schuch. That year
went by fast, didn't it? It seems like yesterday we were saying this. Yes, ma'am.
It'll be here before we know it, too. And I know that the staff
really appreciates that because a lot of people don't realize
a lot of people that work for KDIC work year-round and you know principals and I
mean I don't know other people but a lot of them do and so having those all those
three-day weekends it's nice for them to be able to go do things with their
families thank you so much thank you we have already done 717 so now we'll move
7.18 Discussion regarding Senate Bill 763 which governs the employment or acceptance of volunteer services of chaplains by public school districts and whether to adopt a policy authorizing the district to employ, or accept as a volunteer, a chaplain under Texas Education Code Chapter 23.
on to 718 and that is and I'm the presenter discussion regarding Senate
bill 763 which governs the employment or acceptance of volunteer services of
chaplains by public school districts and with to adopt a policy authorizing the
district to employ or accept as a volunteer a chaplain under Texas
Education Code chapter 23 as everyone knows by now in accordance with Senate
Senate Bill 763, the Board of Trustees are required to take an up and down vote by March
1 on whether to adopt a policy authorizing a campus of the district or school to employ
or accept as volunteers a chaplain or chaplains under Chapter 23 of the Education Code.
The Board will be discussing this but not taking action until the regular meeting next
week.
and I'm gonna get it started by just giving you some of my thoughts on this
topic and and then I'll invite everyone who wants to to go ahead and share their
their opinions and by the way to my knowledge no one is that I've heard no
one is talking about replacing counselors with chaplains that I've
heard or or about paying chaplains and having them replace counselors but to my
knowledge that's that hasn't been brought up. So I'm going to go through
some points and then open it up for additional discussion and opinions by
everyone because it'd be great to if everyone wants to go ahead and share
their thoughts. So I'm going to share mine. First thing is that we are here to
educate and I think the public schools in general have already strayed too much
from the mission of educating and sticking to academics. We would be
crossing the boundary into the realm of parents and churches. If the intent is to
provide spiritual counseling, I think this would be very difficult given our
diverse district and related legal issues that would arise. We cannot
pick and choose who applies to be a chaplain as long as they don't have a
criminal record. In other words, be careful what you ask for. Many parents
will have concerns about a chaplain not representing their values or religious
religious traditions.
Yes, most of us, myself included, would like to raise and
educate godly and virtuous generations of children.
But spiritual formation belongs in the hands of parents and their churches,
not public schools.
And we have to respect the parents' rights and authority.
I would be concerned about creating additional situations for one on one
private conversations or relationships between adults and
children to the exclusion of parents.
I don't think we should be pursuing a further expansion of a school's role in mental health and
Possible lessening of the parents role again. We're supposed to focus on academics
There isn't as we know there is no definition in the law of what a chaplain is or the role of chaplain
There is no licensing or training required of courses that all had to be created
from from the ground up
With checks and balances and descriptions and duties and so on
It's not the same as chaplains in the prisons or the military, where people are isolated and away from home, and also in those situations are adults, not children.
Here we're dealing with children, and students have access to their parents and to their church community.
I tend to think KDISD has a lot of resources in this area, and we would certainly not want to take away from our limited resources to employ paid chaplains.
And there's been a resolution presented to be discussed and with current practice, as
with the current practice of KDIC, chaplains are welcome to volunteer through various existing
district campus and volunteer opportunities, things like, you know, men who mentor, watch
talk, dads and men of honor and so on.
And the resolution all states that if the board declines to employ or accept chaplains
as volunteers at this time, there is nothing to stop the board from reconsidering its decision
at any time in the future.
And so with those comments and introduction, I'll open it up for other input and comments.
Ms. Champagne?
Mr. President?
Ms. Champagne?
I would like to say I appreciate the time you took to write that and I agree with you.
you know there is a letter that was written I just wanted to tell you that
you know I mentioned the letter before that was written by the chap the
chaplains to all of the school districts in Texas and at that time there were a
hundred of them that signed that but that they didn't want to do it now that
I think there's close to 400 at least that have signed it so what the only
The only question I have for you is when we say that they're going to be able to volunteer,
that's like anybody else who can volunteer.
They're not volunteering in the role as a chaplain.
They're volunteering like their mom could be a nurse and they could volunteer, or somebody
could be a fireman and they could volunteer, but they're not volunteering as a chaplain.
They're just a person volunteering who happens to be a chaplain, but they're not going in
there in the capacity of a chaplain they're going in there as a in the capacity of a person that
happens to be a chaplain is that is that much that's why i mentioned the example of like men
men who mentor and watchdog dads and men of honor and that kind of thing right but they're not
they're not going in there to mentor to say i'm a chaplain you know they're just a chaplains but
they would be going in and they would be going in as under a status quo volunteer policy okay
Okay. I just wanted to make sure because a lot of different people with different kinds of jobs volunteer, but they don't volunteer in the capacity of what their job is. I just wanted to make sure I understood you correctly. Thank you.
Mr. President, I would like at some point, initially, I agree that don't replace counselors,
don't hire chaplains.
I've had several conversations within our community over the past couple months.
And one thing that I thought was a difference, I haven't heard this conversation.
I don't know that this would allow for it, but maybe if it is ever picked up again, was
is allowing a chaplain to serve more for the well-being of our employees.
And so you don't deal with a lot of the issues that you do as a child
needing parental approval or some of those situations.
You've got an adult that can make that call and decision for themselves at any point.
And so I don't see that in here, but if there was a way to have that in the future,
I would be supportive of that.
Mr. Perez?
Jamie. So I prepared a statement and I agree. I don't know. I do not even consider replacing our counselors with chaplains. However, I'm just going to read from my statement. It's not about promoting a particular religion. It's about offering assistance to those who are in need or hurting emotionally. It's about possibly presenting preventing suicide, teen pregnancy, mental illness,
mentally ill episodes it disappoints me to turn away free services that could prevent others from
harming our schools our students our teachers our principals our staff in our schools i'm providing
and i'm for providing all the tools we can especially at no charge to the district that
could halt all sorts of tragedies from occurring i'm for watchdog dads i'm for the keys mentoring
program and as a teacher I experienced firsthand state and federal agencies
taking from me the tools I needed to foster a learning environment in my
classroom and I will always vote to add tools back to a teacher so that we
maximize student achievement for all students and I'm mr. Redmond it's funny
you mentioned that because I was thinking too I don't know if the board
would consider maybe we try like looking at like a pilot program where we just set this up for
teachers and staff and see if there's kinks in the system and the policy that we need to tweak
before we ever present it as an option for families and students but I would be for at least trying
trying something I'm very appreciative that the state is trying to give us more leeway
and I know some of the comments and the negative comments about this. Law is that it's too
broad but I think the broad the idea behind the broadness of the legislation is to give
districts the freedom that we really don't have never really had and so I appreciate
that we could draft this from nothing.
Of course, get help from outside counsel.
Of course, following the law is paramount in this,
and honoring parents is also paramount.
So I understand that as well,
and I would always want to be respectful of it,
but I just don't feel like we should not look at this
just because we're afraid, because I'm not afraid.
comments other comments mr. president I wanted to I wanted to kind of flush that out a little
bit so if we went forward with this no one no child or staff member according to the language
in the law would be under compulsion to see a chaplain is that correct yes I mean it's it's
If we were to approve this, approve the chaplain, it would be whatever policy the board approves.
So by the establishment clause in the First Amendment, we cannot have compulsion to force anyone into any kind of religious service or to force anyone into prayer.
We can't do that.
So even though the Senate bill does give us opportunity to enter into what could be described as a crisis and give a different resource to help support our teens and our staff,
staff, no one, if there was a chaplain on campus, would be under any force to go see
this chaplain for any reason.
It would be an individual's decision to go and see that chaplain.
And beyond that, my understanding is that the reason that this language was broad, which
in this statute was specifically, as Ms. Teamey kind of alluded to, was specifically to customize
this to each individual district's need.
So cutting out the kind of fingers of the government trying to tell us how to do or
what to do, what we would be able to assess on our own is best.
And I know that there was some question over the cost variation in that.
While that would come out of our safety and security allotment, there were also grants and funds that are attached to this as well to help supplement that cost if it were to be at a cost.
There is a volunteer aspect of this that does not cost us anything.
anything. You know, when we look at some of the mental health crises that we're looking
at, isolation is number two among our youth. And suicide is the fourth leading cause of
death among 15 to 29 year olds. It's concerning and it's kind of wild because all of our kids
are so interconnected, like their lives are streamed with one another on a 24-7 basis.
So they never get a break. They don't ever get to go home like most of us did and just be separated from the social environment that they're in eight and a half, sometimes nine to ten hours a day, depending on their extracurriculars.
And the amount of stress that comes with that, the amount of constant stimulus that comes with that, that never shuts off.
And so being able to kind of enter into that a person of faith not my understanding also
Is that a chaplain does not proselytize?
like there was some kind of accusatory language of what that chaplaincy looks like and
They're not
proselytizing they're not
Evangelizing students whoever walks in it's a spiritual support. That's all that it is
It is another avenue of resource for spiritual support.
And in 2024, I don't know that we should turn away from any resource that could provide hope to what seems to be a very hopeless generation.
I think we need to be really, really honest with ourselves when we look at that.
And I don't say that as a derogatory term.
I say that as I'm looking at it, and we're just looking at the facts.
These kids are desperate.
for something. And so if we can infuse some kind of hope with parameters that protect them,
when you look at chaplains in the military, these chaplains are required to have a master's in
divinity. We can do that. There's nothing in our law that prevents us from creating those boundaries
or those requirements. This is open-ended for us to step into and to create whatever barrier to
entry for someone to come in who may have the idea to abuse children.
We're already skating that line now.
We have background checks and we do everything that we possibly can to try to protect our
kids.
And sometimes people still slip through the cracks and it is unfortunate.
It is a tragedy, an absolute tragedy.
But that doesn't mean that out of the fear of what could happen, we turn away from the
good of also what could happen, of a life that could be saved.
So those are my thoughts towards it.
I know we're not voting on this tonight, but I just think that there is a tremendous opportunity here to meet needs.
Thank you.
Mr. President, I'd like to address some of this.
First of all, I disagree with Ms. Calhoun in that we have a hopeless, that this is a hopeless generation.
That is a very sad statement.
That generation is so full of hope.
I mean, my kids just came, you know, not long ago.
We're in high school.
I have five friends whose kids have committed suicide.
I still don't think that the whole generation is hopeless.
When you have a letter that's written by and signed by, you know,
400 or 500 chaplains that actually are kind of begging us not to hire chaplains,
I think the people who have that job know better. They're saying they're actually saying they don't want to do it
So I take their where I mean, I'm not a chaplain but if
Someone is a chaplain and four hundred of them are signing a few things saying they don't want to do it
I would take their word over
somebody else's word that isn't in that position and
those
Chaplains have said in the letter. They're not trained and
And we're not background checking.
There's no real promise that they're not going to talk about their religion to a child.
I mean, you know, they can say that, but they don't even say that.
So, I mean, you could end up with all kinds of, you're right, chaplains can be Muslim, they can be Hindu, they could be Christian, they could be all kinds of different religions.
and you know it's already kind of scary what our kids hear from people that
aren't the parents and I find it very interesting that a lot of people on this
board really are for parental rights and I am too but that to me is removing a
little bit of parental rights I understand what you're saying that they
have to sign and they have to agree to to have a chaplain it's the parents right to do that
but you're not at the school when that person is going to be talking to your child alone and now
you've signed some of this as they can talk what if the child doesn't want to well you've signed
it now so they have to um i just don't see the bottom line is if they're saying they don't want
want to do it, then why would you want them to do it if they don't want to do it?
I can't follow that.
If I may add something here, I take with a real grain of salt the letter from the chaplains
that are against it.
In other words, I discount it totally.
Yeah, because number one, they just don't like other people calling themselves chaplains
when they're chaplains.
Number two, it's like a CPA is saying, I don't want someone calling themselves CPAs when
they're not really CPAs.
It's kind of like a more of a pride of my profession is why they write that letter,
my view.
So I think with a grain of salt that this organization of chaplains has written basically
to really defend their profession, if you will, and make sure that other people who
aren't qualified don't call themselves chaplains.
That's how I view that.
You know, I don't really...
Yeah, Mr. Perez.
Mr. Perez, thank you for sharing your comments, Dawn.
The National School Chaplain Association shows there from their studies, they show 37% increase in high school graduations.
That's good.
They show 80% reduction in teen pregnancy.
That's good.
They show zero reported suicides.
I think that's very positive, especially when our board is concerned about any policy that could cause that.
They also show improved motivation and goal setting among students.
They show respect for authority teacher retention improvement school safety improvements self respect confidence grade increases in grades and student achievement.
They saw a decrease in reported violence at school and at home.
Alcohol and drug consumption reduced.
Discipline issues decreased.
And bullying, which I know this board has worked very hard on, has been decreased.
So I would like to further those causes.
So that's another reason why I see value in this.
And we get to write it.
So we can write it in a way that we don't want chaplains to talk about religion.
We have to follow the law.
We have to follow federal law and state law.
And I don't have a problem writing it in a way that we don't espouse any religion.
I don't have a problem with that.
And so I don't understand why we would not want to give more resources to our kids, especially our students.
I had a student come to me when I taught. She was pregnant at 12 years old and I gave up my lunch and my conference period to sit with her to speak because she didn't know what to do.
And I was I didn't enjoy that because I didn't know what I could say, what I couldn't say, but I wasn't going to turn her away.
I didn't feel like that would be. I'm sorry, I can't talk to you because I'm a teacher.
no so I sat with her but I would have felt a lot more comfortable if I said
could I set something up with the school chaplain it would have been a great
resource for me I could have spent my time doing what I needed to do for my
next class instead of stopping what I was doing to visit with her I'm glad I
did but I'm just saying our teachers are suffering and I want to give them every
tool they can and when I say that I mean it you know I think the clarification
education since you spoke about. So I do not think that this generation is hopeless. Let me make that. That's okay. I'm just hold on. I do not think that the current generation is hopeless. I think that what is reflected from the data states that they feel hopeless. I don't see them as hopeless when you have your top two issues are isolation and suicide. What is why would someone commit suicide? Well, there's a very, a very
reasons of why somebody would commit suicide. Hopelessness is probably number one.
So I'm not finished. So when you try to reiterate it as if I view this generation as a hopeless
cause, that is not what I meant. That's part of a clarification. That's what I'm doing.
So when you view that, I do not view this generation as hopeless. I don't view these
these kids, these 95,000 kids as hopeless. These are our future. This is why we all should have
run for the board is to promote that future, to promote whatever is coming next in this generation
as our future leaders. And that is not hopeless. The future of America is not hopeless. It is full
of promise. It is full of better tomorrows. And I absolutely 100% believe that. And if we can inject
more hope into their lives so that they also see that reflected when they look in the mirror.
I don't know why we wouldn't take that opportunity, but please do not misunderstand me and think that
I believe that this generation is hopeless. I absolutely do not. Mrs. Calhoun, I'm sorry,
I was just quoting you. I was quoting you. I wasn't misrepresenting you. And also, I don't
feel that this generation, the next thing you said is they feel that they're hopeless. I don't
believe that there are so many children that i know that are so full of hope of where they're
going to go to college what they're going to do i mean i mentor two of them they have so much hope
in them i don't think that they even the majority of them feel hopeless i believe some of them feel
that way i don't feel believe the whole generation feels hopeless um so i'm sorry if you think that
i misquoted you but you can go back and look um on the video and i only repeated what you said
and also mr Perez if you're going to discount this letter then I'd also like to discount what
miss Timmy read because surveys are very subjective and I don't really believe much in
surveys so that's one organization with one opinion poll I mean I could go out and do an
opinion poll myself I could go call all these people that are on here and see what they think
think, and let them know that Mr. Perez thinks that what they have signed is not a valid
thing.
And so I don't think that if your thing is valid, then my letter that I have here is
also valid.
I just don't put a lot of weight on it.
But why don't we focus our discussion on what our opinions are with regard to the implementation
implementation of this of the bill in terms of
either employee or
Acceptance volunteer services of chaplains by public school districts. So let's just kind of focus our discussion on that our commentary on that if we could
Mr. President if I advise were to summarize it as I read it
We stay the same as how we are exactly right now and we
Don't take action on any policy, but we acknowledge that at any point we could take policy
Is that a yes a base summary of the the statement right? Thank you. Mr. President can I make a few comments?
Um, I agree with you that parental authority is paramount in this decision
And that parents are the primary educators of their child
Especially with any sort of faith formation in their ideas about God
so I
Also want to add that there there is I mean this doesn't mean there isn't prayer that happens in schools
schools. Prayer happens in schools at any moment. A child can pray. I was a substitute teacher and I know there are devoted Muslim children who pray at a certain time of every day and they are allowed that pass to go pray. I think that's very promising. And we have an abundance of faith communities in Katy that do beautifully welcome the youth to come and to learn about God.
There's no set definition of chaplain. The burden of that would be on the board. There's no certification required. The burden of that would be on the board. There's multiple ways of certifying a chaplain.
And in a public school system, the gates would need to be pretty darn wide to honor the laws.
So every religion imaginable, every creed, which could be harmful, has to be allowed.
And that's my major concern.
concern. There are harmful creeds that I have learned about in my life. So I wanted to mention those statements. Let's see if there's anything else. And then exactly right. Successful chaplain programs in the military and the hospitals and the prison systems, those are adults. And that's a different situation. The pilot program for teachers, I'd entertain
that idea I haven't thought about that yet but particularly with children I
don't think it's a great idea and the example about the pregnant teenager I
mean our counselors do they don't they're not therapists they're not there
for therapy but they do we do have a resource guide in the district so I
would assume if a teacher today had a pregnant teen who was distraught and
and wanted to talk, that that teacher would refer the student
to the counselor.
And then that resource guide would
be provided to the parent and or ..
know how that works to the child so it's there we have the capabilities I realize
counselors do a lot and their workload is heavy so that's how I would see that
being addressed in the example in this team he brought up that's a very
important example to address so those are my comments thank you any any other
comments mr. president I appreciate the comments of my colleagues sitting at
this dais my comments are going to be a bit redundant but for people to know you know how
what what my values and goal and views are i um i appreciate the resolution that you have brought
i agree in parental rights and think that the parent is the primary educator
of their children they should be in absolute rights over their children and
they should I agree with mrs. Cuzela they should be the ones who expose them
to the religion and the values of their family there are harmful religions and
mrs. Cuzela is right this has no restrictions and the law would not
prevent us from allowing any religion to come in and that's the piece that gives
me the most concern for my children when they were in school I would love to have
a pastor there someone that they could talk to and pray with and do this but I
wouldn't know which one was there that day or I wouldn't know which one was
talking and and I don't know that one-on-one conversations of a religious
religious nature and there is no exclusion of proselytizing included in any of this.
When they are at their most vulnerable, I think it would be most important for a teacher
who knows or a friend who knows, say, go talk to the counselor and the counselor has a list
of resources to send those children and their parents to provide to the parents for the
the children of the resources we have in Katy and our mentor program is one of the best that I've
ever seen as a mentor. It's, um, I volunteered to be a mentor to bless someone else and I always
get the bigger blessing, but I, I mentor in the pregnancy education program within Katy ISD where
there are pregnant teens and the fathers of those pregnant teens. And it's been very rewarding to
to help them walk through that stage of life
and to know that the struggles that are happening
because parents aren't happy with them and all the things.
And it's just a listening ear.
It's just someone to listen because they're so confused.
But we don't talk religion, but I do feel like,
well, their letters say that it was life-changing
to have someone to be there week after week after week
to know that I see you, I hear you, I love you, I value you.
you have a bright future and there is hope.
Like, bring all the mentors on.
Bring all the volunteers on.
The dad program like you talked about, Mr. Perez,
is incredible, Watchdog Dads, right?
So that does exactly what Mrs. Calhoun says,
to just give hope and happiness and joy
and something that isn't like my parent mad at me
that I didn't get a good grade
or I didn't turn in my homework
or I didn't make my bid.
someone else to give a high five in the hallway and those kinds of things which
really do energize and lift up our students I also wanted to mention that
we as a board have been working on our strategic design our community has been
working on strategic design and one of the primary goals is mental health and
and how much we care about the mental health of our students as much as we do
about their academic success and that we have resources and that we will provide
those resources one of the steps one of the actionable items is to provide those
resources to our families so that they can reach out maybe that could include a
list of chaplains so that they have a spiritual resource in addition to any of
the the certified counselors or maybe even Katie Christian ministries or any
of those kinds of places sorry I'm not gonna list them all they're racing
through my head I'm not gonna listen but all of those resources are valuable
depending on where a family is in their concerns and that's what our counselors
have one more add-on to do but they do have that to point parents in the right
direction for their children I appreciate rabbi Lipper saying that
chaplains are not trained to work with children they're trying to work with
adults and this would require them to work outside of their competence and I
I, you know, I just have a concern one-on-one with a person whose whole life calling is a spiritual calling
and to be a pastor or a chaplain or a preacher of a specific faith to not work that into every conversation.
So I, that's why I appreciate this resolution.
and to the same stats that you read, Mrs. Teamee, also apply to mentors. When you talk about the mentor program with Janet Tyson, her whole Partners in Education group, they see the same thing.
improved attendance, improved attitude, better grades, more success.
All of the things happen when they have someone who believes in them.
So those harmful religions scared me to death.
I don't want that around any of our children.
Thank you for this.
I want to end with agreeing with Mr. Redman.
and offering something like this for our teachers,
I think would be a big benefit for those who just might need a fresh voice to talk to or whatever.
That might be something that would be great.
I have a question, Mr. Perez, about this one sentence.
It's, number one, I'd like to read the, if this goes to consent agenda,
I don't know if it's going to, but I think reading the resolution aloud in public
so that people, as they look at the work-study meeting
before we have our next meeting to take action,
that they would know what this is.
If it's on consent agenda, they won't read it.
If you don't mind.
I thought this resolution was on the board docs
for the public to see before this meeting.
Apparently it was not.
Well, even if it is, they watch this meeting
while they're doing other things.
They put their headphones in and they're listening,
So I think if you read it, I request that Mr. President, you read it into the, just read it for people will know.
But I have one question.
The KDSD Board of Trustees further acknowledges it retains the right in the future to reevaluate whether to employ or accept as a volunteer chaplain pursuant to the provisions of Texas Education Code.
Why is it so all of it that happens before that says we're going to keep things as we are.
we're gonna you know welcome them as volunteers and school-based volunteer
opportunities and then it says but we might change your mind in the future it
feels a little bit like like oh but we might not mean it well is this a
statement of fact I mean like what mr. Redmond was was summarized it in terms
of like what this resolution says and I'll be glad to read it and obviously
between now and Monday if anyone has any comments on it.
We can look at those.
I mean, any policy could be redone by any board.
I understand.
It just felt like that was a we're going to do all of this except, oh, maybe not.
Well, it's a reminder, and we all acknowledge that whatever we do here,
the board has the authority and the power to, after the fact,
if we approve this resolution and decline accepting or employing chaplains at this time
or accepting them as volunteers, that we retain the right and we acknowledge to each other that we can re-evaluate our decision
and whether to employ or accept as a volunteer chaplain pursuant to the sex education.
Just a reminder for the board, just a stating of fact.
I agree with that.
So I understand that.
And the purpose of this is because the legislature has required us to take an action of some kind right now.
So that's what this is.
Between now and March 1.
Between now and March 1, which is.
Which is 180 days from the time the law was passed.
So this is saying we're going to keep, this recommendation is keep kind of how we're going,
but we might change it if we see a need or something in the future.
This is complying with the law.
It's basically.
Just checking the box.
By approving a resolution, we comply with the law.
Or voting, let's put it this way.
Voting.
Voting.
On this topic.
Or aborting.
Complying with the requirement of the law.
Thank you.
Would you read it?
Are you okay with that?
Okay.
So basically it says that whereas Section 23.001 of the Texas Education Code
permits the district to either employ or accept as volunteers as chaplains
to provide support, service, and programs for students as assigned by the board.
And then next, whereas the Senate Bill 763 passed by the 88th Texas Legislature
requires each school board to take a record vote before March 1, 2024,
on whether to adopt a policy authorizing a campus of the district or school
to employ or accept as volunteers a chaplain under Chapter 23 Education Code.
Whereas KDIC welcomes volunteers in our schools
and recognizes the vital role a volunteer plays
in supporting the educational experience of students,
interested individuals can volunteer through various district, campus,
and school-based volunteer opportunities.
Whereas, KDISD affirms the practice of a district campus permitting any community member who
meets the requirements, including chaplains, to volunteer to provide support, services,
and programs for students in accordance with the district's existing policy, GKG, legal.
Now therefore, be it resolved that the KDISD Board of Trustees declines to adopt a policy
authorizing the district to employ or accept as a volunteer a chaplain under chapter 23 education
code the KD ISD board of trustees further acknowledges that it retains the right in the
future to reevaluate whether to employ or accept as a volunteer chaplain pursuant to the provisions
of text education code and that's that's the resolution thank you any other comments one more
because I wanted to make this clear.
Based off of the parental involvement,
I will never sit up here and ever vote or advocate for anything
that removes a parent out of the conversation
that has to do with their child.
That's never going to happen.
So what I can say is that what this statute has given us
is ability to come in and do what we want with this.
So just like we have with counselors or with anything else, if a child is having a conversation with an adult, we could put in there, you have to notify mom and dad.
Mom and dad have to be notified.
Just because you're a chaplain doesn't mean that you're exempt from this.
That's not the thing.
So if you're having a conversation with a minor adult that is under the care of KDISD, then we could say you have to make mom and dad notified that you saw this child in this premise and how many times you saw the child.
Like each time you see them, you have to tell them.
And give a summary.
So, I mean, we can write this.
We can define this how we would like.
And we could create policy.
that is our right to create policy and parameters that protect parent parental rights, which I will always stand behind as
Well as like I said before
infusing hope
into the world that we live in right now and
Thank you. Mr. President just one more thing. I'm not just remember we are not voting on the policy
We're voting on if we want to try to
create a policy. So there's a distinction. I think our speaker said that at the beginning during public comments, and I think that was very wise for us to remember. We're not voting on the parameters. We're voting on if we want to try and at least look at this as an option. That's all. It might not be feasible, but I would like to look.
Thank you. Thank you. Any other comments? I think we've had a good discussion on the topic, and so really appreciate that from everybody.
everybody.
Chair Greg Musil.
Mr. Press, just a quick note on that.
I think there was some confusion on the resolution on whether that would be an executive content
just for board viewing or public, but our secretary for board services can go in and
move that to public content now while she sits there.
And then if anyone's viewing that, they would have to refresh their screen, obviously, log
back in, but she can get that done from her seat over there and we could have that view
for the public. Thank you so much. Again, thank you everybody for your input and
the discussion that we just had on this topic. Mr. Perez, it just keeps... I might
add, by the way, on the topic that, and I think one speaker mentioned it
earlier, that they have had already four opportunities to speak to this board on
this topic. Next week will be a fifth, so there's been plenty of discussion, plenty
plenty of opportunities for the community to give their input and their thoughts.
And we've all gotten lots of emails as well.
I just thought, keep circling, so I'll just say that I just wanted to affirm
that mentors who meet one-on-one with students must have parental consent
in order to do that.
So parental rights.
Thanks.
7.19 Discuss and consider future Board adoption of Policy Update 122.
Okay, thank you very much.
And we'll now move on to 7.19.
and that's discuss and consider future board adoption of policy update 122.
Our presenter is Sherry Ashorn, Director of Student Affairs. Welcome. Good evening.
Thank you President Perez, Dr. Gagorski, members of the board. I think I've had a
few policy updates here so you know the drill. This is our first reading. We'll be
looking for your approval of the local policies at the regular work-study. In
In this TASB update, it's mainly a cleanup of legislative updates from the 88th session and administrative code.
There are 10 local policies within that TASB update,
and then we've added six administrative recommended updates that are just kind of local cleanup as well,
just providing some additional detail or correcting some names or departments.
If you have any questions at this time, I'll do my best to help.
Mr. President?
Questions?
I have a few things to say.
First of all, TASB does a good job at presenting this to us.
And I just, if TASB weren't to do this, who would have to present this?
Who would do all the marks and the typing and all that?
If we didn't have TASB.
I am not sure.
I mean, it's definitely a significant amount of work to go through and update all of those
in accordance with not only just the law, but that administrative code piece.
and commissioner decisions, all of those are monitored and updated as well.
So I'm not sure if that would be another vendor in-house.
We'd have to pay someone else to do it.
So I just wanted to say that first.
But I did read through a lot of these, and there was a lot of things that were added
and some things that were taken out, and I'm not going to go through everything.
But I just thought, because I don't know if everybody will, it's 900 and something pages long.
I'm not going to read half of a page of one of those pages.
But what I did notice was CK Legal.
Now it says that there's, you don't need to look, well, I mean, it's on page 174 of my presentation.
But there are no more masks.
I saw that that was written in.
So that, to me, is a huge thing that we now, there's actually a policy that says that no mask can be mandated anymore.
more and then um dg legal talks has something in there about breaks for nursing moms but they added
that they should be able to go and express their milk each time that they want to not just
you know not just designated time so i thought that was good um then ehbk legal
legal has named House Bill 3991 the first Friday in April as Texas and Vegetable Day.
So I'm wondering how are we going to do that because that's actually coming up.
So I guess it's a policy now that we have to have that.
EHDD legal is going to give a financial aid for swift transfer or fast to allow certain
certain students enrollment in dual credit for no cost.
So I think that is awesome because when my daughter took a class one time, the book was
$300.
So a lot of people may not be able to afford that.
So I think that's awesome.
And then FA, many people on this board will be happy to know, is actually added and it's
a new policy code for parental rights.
So, parental rights now has its own huge chapter.
FEA Local is, and I'm interested in this one, Career Visit Day for juniors and seniors.
I'm curious to see how that's going to work.
I mean, because right now they get two a year for college visits.
Will this be two college visits and two career days?
Or will it still just be two and they can divide it up how they want?
I'm not sure.
But I think that is so good because for the kids who are interested in not going to college, they can still, you know, rather than lying and saying they're going on a college visit when they know they don't want to go to college, they can just actually go visit a career place.
And then the last one, and I thought this was really interesting, FL has the videotapes and reporting were removed.
moved and that was such a huge deal when I very first came onto the board. I think that
was a new policy but it's been completely eliminated. So that's really the only one
I have a question about. Does that mean that people can record now in classrooms?
Are you talking about…
That's on page 760.
FL Legal or was it local?
It's FL Legal.
legal I'm asking her please I'm not asking you all and if I have that wrong
then I was like miss a horn to tell me that or mr. Graham it seems like that
information was duplicated in FL and it looks like it was probably removed and
and because it was duplicated in policy FD.
Oh, so it was already in FD?
Mm-hmm.
So they just removed it from FL.
Okay, that's good to know.
Yes, that's what my notes show,
that the information regarding those enrollment records,
and it has those duplicated points,
have either been relocated to FD
or the provisions about videotaping
has been relocated to the new policy code at FA Legal,
the one you were referring to about parental rights.
Okay, because in my notes it just didn't say that it was relocated.
So I appreciate that.
Okay.
So we still can't videotape.
Thank you.
That's all I had for you.
You know, what jumps out at me is that a lot of these changes are because of HB 1605.
It looks to be in terms of stay date for certain instructional materials,
the definition of instructional materials,
materials, and also regarding teacher workload related to lesson planning or selecting instructional
materials during planning and prep time and all that.
It seems to ripple through several policies.
I don't know.
I think it would be great if we got at some point a kind of a primer.
I could use it on 1605 in terms of all the pertinent provisions of 1605 that we may not
be aware of. Just a comment.
I have that. Yeah. That's good. Any questions or comments?
Mr. President. Ms. Grisella. Okay. So these
local policy changes that TASB is recommending, would you say in your mind, Sherry,
that these are cleanup because of legal? Yes.
Just something that aligns with sometimes administrative code or commissioner's decisions.
If it's not necessarily in law, you might see things trickle down. I would say this
is pretty standard on what we see for legislative updates kind of that that you're following okay
thank you thank you any other comments questions
thank you very much
i have the next one too wait the next one which is can i add one thing just real quick the thing
that i was talking about the district employee on the um on that um fl you said it was moved
but it's not about just the student's record it says a district employee must
obtain the written consent of a child's parent before the employee may make or
authorize the making of a videotape of a child or record a record or record or
authorize the recording of a child's voice so I'm just gonna make it clear
that that's not about a student's record it's actually about recording a child
and so anyway but you're saying that that's just been moved to somewhere else
or was duplicated yes that's what my note referenced that it was duplicative language
so they went ahead and just deleted it from the fl records part all right thank you thank you
7.20 Discuss and consider Board approval of an amendment to the 2023-2024 Instructional Calendar to add a student and staff holiday on April 1, 2024.
uh the next item is uh an amendment approval an amendment to uh 2324 instructional calendar
to add a student and staff holiday on april 1 2024. we're really objecting to that we're really
Any questions or comments?
That's the Monday following Easter, is that correct?
I'm sure.
Because we didn't need to use our extra minutes for another bad weather day, right?
Yes.
Good job.
And everybody will be home playing April Fool's Day.
Our communications team will be working double to ensure it's not an April Fool's joke.
No one has to come to school or to work.
But we're thankful no more bad weather since we've seen you last.
So we are hopeful that that's going to continue.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Mr. Perez, I'll remind the board that by taking this action,
you guys are actually giving your employees an extra day off.
So you are ratifying paying them an extra day off for their time.
We knew that.
You're welcome.
We love you.
Great.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
And the final item is, before we get to eight, is 7.21, which is discuss and consider board approval, CW local.
7.21 Discuss and consider Board Policy CW(LOCAL).
I'm the presenter, and basically, as a result, we had some input, some questions, some desire to tweak this policy a little bit.
And some of this came up as a result of the recent naming of Nelson Junior High and Freeman
High School, as well as sort of some streamlining of the process for naming a portion of an
existing facility.
And so we have before us, and I think this markup is based on comments submitted by board members.
And so they're here for everybody to review, and we can discuss it.
Or if anybody has any questions or comments, anything else they want to consider in here.
Mr. Perez, I really appreciate you all doing this.
but there is one thing that I would like to have you consider for adding or at
least I don't just think about when when somebody is a name is nominated this is
what I've learned recently we don't necessarily see all the names that are
nominated I mean even I'm just talking about even if you're on the committee
even if you're the board member on the committee because if if it it gets denied
on a technicality before we see it, then we don't know.
So we don't know that it ever existed.
So maybe not even just have to see the packet, but just have a blurb given to us about this
name was submitted and it wasn't accepted because of blah, blah, blah, whatever the
reason is.
But to not even know that it was there is hard because, you know, we're people that
are walking around in the community and people ask you know well did you see that big nomination
packet and no didn't didn't even know it was submitted so i'm just wondering if we could
add something that the the whoever not not the whole board but at least the com the board members
that are on that committee know which packets were kind of denied before they made it to us
and why and why it was denied are you talking about a new facility you're
talking about a portion because it I know in the I see here in the
recommendation with regard to a naming a portion of a facility it says that the
abortion I review all submitted names that meet the criteria listed under
under guidelines and may consider nominations.
I mean, so it is limited to the nominations
that meet the guidelines.
That's what I'm saying.
Can we know what the nominations were,
even if they didn't meet the guidelines,
and then explain to us why it didn't meet the guidelines?
I mean, probably we'd agree with it.
But just so that, you know, if you're on the committee
and then people find out you're on the committee
and then you never saw even saw I think you didn't never even knew existed so
maybe you know it's probably validly not accepted but I don't know about it okay
mr. president with John would that be more of a procedural change versus a
policy change so in my mind it might be more procedural and that's something we
need to communicate clearly and but it wouldn't change the policy right right i just want to make
sure that i never knew until now that there were possibly packets of people that were presented
that i never knew about i never even knew that until this is my last time on this
so i don't know how many others didn't make it yeah
Yeah.
Maybe it's...
We can...
I think we can put something in.
If I might add to that, I don't think you really need that.
I think what Mary Ellen is saying is more along that line about our process, how we do that.
If it's the board's request that they would like to get a list,
then our communications team can give the board a list of every name that was submitted
every time we do a facility naming and on that list we could give a brief
explanation if there was a name submitted that didn't meet the board's
criteria under guidelines and we can explain why we didn't think it met the
guideline under the board's description there I would I think that would I like
like that I like that valid point I think it's good person I don't know that
we would need the entire packet on every name you know because they can be pretty
voluminous big packets no okay we can we can add something and then circulate it
around before one day
any other comments or questions mr president this
i've been out of town forgive me for not being a hundred percent on every line of this uh correction
so i'm just gonna ask a question this appears to have still the um like when we're naming a whole
building it's still a committee of community members that are going to be a part of that
building when we're naming a portion of something maybe after a coach or a librarian or a principal
or something and it's a portion of a building that would be a board decision and we would bring
that as a rec it would come as a recommendation to the board is that what that is it's it's yes
it's it's streamlined in terms of renaming a portion of a facility people can still submit
nominations as described here how does it make it to the board is there going to be a committee of
three board members because everybody will see those the names nominated and then but we're not
required to to accept the nominations as the way it reads but any either president
or or two board members can put it on the agenda to consider a particular
nomination thank you if I may just to provide some clarification a lot of
times with board policy the board adopts a policy and then internally we will
figure out regulations to guide how we do the policy and this would be one of
of those cases should the board adopt this policy i will get back with the board and explain how i
will get you all submissions on a portion of a facility then it's in the board's hands at that
point from those submissions i know that you know we see names from time to time come through and
i just was wondering how do we the reason we made the policy at all is because we had all these
these buildings coming and there was no way the seven of us could talk to each other and then we didn't know how to get the name ready because that's why we developed the whole parameters that are there to name schools and things.
So, um, this this is very helpful. Thank you to the policy committee for working so hard on this. We needed this update. It does say the portion of review all submitted names that meet the criteria. Yeah.
We don't have to say that we'll get an email from communications.
You know what I mean?
We don't need to get into specifics on that.
Mr. President?
Yes.
I would like maybe the policy committee to look back at that and consider on those facilities that maybe there is a committee made up at the campus level.
Because I know there's been situations in the past where people are bringing names.
and the board may be totally unaware that there may not be the campus support
for that change and so I don't know how I mean maybe there's a coach that
somebody wants something done with and they may not have the best reputation
locally or it may just be something that having that knowledge from the actual
campus would be good information to have so I heard worse that may be something
way that y'all can bring that to us as we consider that maybe not a formal
Committee but some way out I would like to be able to have that information
If that makes it require
I'm looking for right now and open
an open public forum
Yeah, so what even in that once to
Know well, I mean for people to speak up about a nominee
There is after the name has been submitted, but what mr.
Mr. Redman is talking about is maybe involve campus people in the committee so they could be like, yeah, maybe that campus doesn't.
Maybe they, I see what you're saying.
Why don't we, between now and Monday, send in any edits or additions, what have you?
Mr. President, can I make a quick comment?
So if two board members ask for a portion of a facility to be renamed, to be on the agenda, there would be two open forums.
The agenda would be public.
So if anyone had any feedback and they wanted to give it publicly, they could, or privately.
It's on the agenda.
And or we could, Dr. Gorgorski could make that phone call.
The way this is structured is we are receiving nominations, and we could receive a bunch of nominations and not take any action.
But if two board members, at least two board members, want to take action on a particular name, then they bring it before the board.
Mr. President, I see what Mr. Redman is saying, but whenever we do a naming committee anyway,
way you have for example the one I was in a whole bunch of new parents new to
the area and then me and another board member a couple of administration and
that we were reading names that were submitted with lots of things but but
maybe so these new parents don't know who they are either so maybe other
people don't like them either I'm just saying I mean I'm sure that we picked we
chose well but I'm just saying we don't know you know there probably were people
who don't like them I have no idea but that's the way we've done it anyway
without without we can't have everyone's input you know what I'm saying because I
see what you're saying but there's I also see what you're saying also but
we're all kind of going into it blindly anyway when we're in that naming
committee not could ask a question that's right um mr. Redmond would would
you think that it's suffice to have those two board members that put the name up like do you
think it would be reasonable for those two board members to speak with the administration themselves
before putting it um before the board or is that not sufficient in your mind i was mainly thinking
of a way to have some campus support where you get it i mean from that local community to have a
have some input on it was the main thing.
So whether it's those board members go and meet with the principal
and, you know, Mr. Gov. President or someone,
just involving more of the community in that when it comes down to naming a
portion of a local facility that is so much, right?
I mean, it is that school.
Mr. Redman,
would it be helpful in the policy for this board to consider that the person
submitting a name for a portion of the facility would be required to submit
letters of recommendation with that request and that way those letters of
recommendation whether that be one two three whatever the board considers that
that it would like or certain letters of recommendation from certain people
however the board wants to define that then you would have the submitted name
request and some letters of recommendation about that I think that
would be like the intent of what I would like to see happen with it I think that
could meet that so if anyone has any sounds like you're taking some notes on
this okay mr president anyone has any specific things edits then send them in mr president i
have something um just to kind of add in as we work on naming entire schools as some of us have
been involved in this year we normally have the new principal to that school who's someone probably
probably from KDSD, and then we invite community members from the areas that are being rezoned
to go into that school.
These, what I have seen in those discussions is those people have lived here a very short time.
A very short time.
And so they come in and they want to name it after their subdivision.
Or why can't we just call it this because we live there and what about that?
And so I was trying to, I mean, in the one I was, I was trying to explain to them, but when you look at these names, these are people that are kind of like, and I mentioned, okay, I'm just going to say, I mentioned O.D. Tompkins. I was like, this is someone who came into your school and it'd be like O.D. Tompkins walking in the door and they're like, who's that? Who's that?
And I was like, oh, I don't know how to explain anything, right?
So that's the thing is when we have brand new people, brand new, I'm from Maryland, I'm from North Carolina, I'm from California,
they're naming a school that will have a name for all the rest of time,
and they don't know the people who are in that list, and there were incredible people in the list.
And they chose a fabulous name.
Of a family with a lot of history, but I wish that we so my thought is.
Just tossing if we had maybe a community committee of people who had been around a long time.
Or knew a lot more, or maybe a namesake or 2.
To kind of be able to come in and add some depth to the discussion with those brand new people.
Or maybe instead of brand new people who have no roots.
or maybe longevity they are only going to live here a couple of years I don't
know you know the importance of naming those buildings is paramount as you all
know because you you know so many of the people whose names are on buildings and
for someone to be like I don't like that name I don't like the sound of the name
when they don't know who the person is and I'm not discounting that it's not
their fault they don't know they don't know these people so I wish that the
the committee could be people with some history in the district instead of brand new parents.
That's what I, for the naming of a whole building. If that would be something that the administration
or if the board wanted to give feedback on that, because they're only doing what they've
been told for years and years and years. But I don't think it serves us well.
We haven't really changed. We've only tweaked a little bit of the new facility process.
But it doesn't say pretty much alone policy
I'm sorry dr. Grimm's I'm looking at her the policy doesn't say new
You choose the people on the committee based on what we've done in the past does it say?
parents from the new
zones attend
It doesn't say that
Here miss Fox so
So currently your board policy reads the selection committee shall be comprised of at least two board members appointed by the board president,
the site administrator if identified, and two parents from the attendance zone involved if the facility is a school,
or two parents from the district improvement committee.
Our district improvement committee is KIC or Katy Improvement Council.
So if the board wanted to expand this definition and it's your choice to do it, it's your policy,
that you could state that differently and instead of two parents from the attendance
zone or you can put it and there so you've got people from the attendance
zone and it would be two people selected from our Katie improvement council who
are generally people who have been in Katie and have chosen to be part of that
Katie improvement council or like or like the Katie council of PTAs or your
kick is probably very similar to that right okay that I will send that note
into you mr. president I think that would make this process meteor based on
we had two old-timers mr. president I just want to say I see what she's saying
because I was on a naming committee and and she's right the people are new and
they literally didn't like a couple of the names because they didn't like the
way they sounded but you know so they don't really they haven't been here very
long so they don't know the meaning behind people that have been here for a
long time I can see what she's saying okay by the way I asked for comments
from the board on this policy about three weeks ago and didn't get any okay
Okay.
Listen to me.
Thank you.
All right.
Thanks.
Thanks for listening.
All right.
Okay.
8. Information Items
We're done with 7.21 and the information items.
Everybody has those.
8.1.
Everybody has those.
Any comments or questions on those?
And then did we have any, Madam Secretary?
Yes.
Did we have any requests from the board?
You want input into policy CW.
So that's not an administration type thing, but that's just a reminder to all of us.
The what now?
I'm sorry?
On your policy, do you want input into that by before the meeting?
And the other thing is that what you asked for is do you want more information to be presented to us about 1605?
1605, I think that would be a good primer for the board on what all is in 1605 that we need to be paying attention to as a board,
whether that be curriculum related, instructional materials, teacher planning time, etc.
And was there anything else that I missed?
Well, are you saying like every change that's been made to the policy that's...
No, no, I'm talking about HB 1605.
Okay, that's what I'm saying.
So like, do you want an update on everything that's changed in our policy?
That update is coming, stemming from 1605?
No, it's 1605 itself.
Oh, so you don't want...
The law.
Okay, so you don't want to know the changes that have been made to our policy based off of 1605.
I just want to know more about 1605 and what we need to be doing and paying attention to with regard to what our requirements are.
Dr. Grigorski, is it too much to get an update from Ms. Ashburn on all the changes from 1605?
So I'm hearing two things here.
One, it would be pretty easy for our team to create a presentation report type on HB 1605 and what's in that law.
What are the big chunks in that law?
If at the same time that presentation if you would like us to link
The information from the law to what policy that's connected to we can connect that is that too much?
No, okay, we should be able to write. Okay. Thank you. Okay, mr. President. I have something to add and that is a
few months ago, mr. Redmond said it would be great to have committee reports after you all have our meeting and
and what you learned, what you talked about,
that kind of thing.
And the academic committee brings our committee reports
and then we show them up, put them out on the screen
and show it off.
And we talk about ours all the time,
but I haven't heard that from the other two committees.
So could we add that to an agenda maybe,
just a quick report from the board committees
on what you're working on?
Yeah, generally it's report when there's something
to report, but yeah, we can do that.
Even if it's not something to report, like what did you talk about? How did it go? How often are you meeting? What are you talking about when you're there?
Thanks.
9. Future Meetings
Okay. Our next meeting will be next Monday, February 26, 2024. There being no further business for the board, this meeting is adjourned. The time is 921. Thank you very much, everybody.
Official documents
Motions and votes
Recorded actions
The motions and votes for this meeting have not been recorded here yet. Whether any were taken is not stated either way. The agenda and the recording above are the primary sources.