Noting that a quorum is present, I hereby call this work study meeting at the Board of Trustees of Acadian and Bennett School District to order.
Katy ISD · Work Study Meeting
Katy ISD Work Study Meeting, October 21, 2024
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In this meeting
The headings and the descriptions beneath them are the district’s own words, taken from its index of this recording.
- 0:05 to 0:31 1. Call to Order
- 0:31 to 0:56 2. Closed Meeting
- 0:56 to 1:06 3. Reconvene from Closed Meeting
- 1:06 to 1:50 4. Pledges of Allegiance
- 1:50 to 6:52 5. Public Comment
- 6:52 to 7:16 6. Closed Meeting
- 7:16 to 8:04 7. Reconvene from Closed Meeting
- 8:04 to 1:04:15 8. Reports
- 1:04:15 to 1:17:21 9.1 Discuss and consider the Board's proposed Legislative Priorities.
- 1:17:21 to 1:37:45 9.2 Discuss and consider Board approval of the attendance boundary modification (ABM) for Elementary #47 and Elementary #48 for the 2025 2026 school year.
- 1:37:45 to 1:45:18 9.3 Discuss and consider Board approval of the October 2024 budget amendments.
- 1:45:18 to 2:08:57 9.4 Discuss and consider Board approval of the Emergent Bilingual (EB) Enrollment and the 2024-2025 Bilingual Education Exception/ESL Waiver Application.
- 2:08:57 to 2:11:13 9.5 Discuss and consider Board approval to award a contract for design services necessary for the security fencing project at multiple campuses.
- 2:11:13 to 2:13:03 9.6 Discuss and consider Board approval of Amendment One to the Stewart Builders, LLC. contract related to the comprehensive renovations at Katy High School.
- 2:13:03 to 2:13:32 9.7 Discuss and consider Board approval of Amendment One to the Stewart Builders, LLC. contract related to the comprehensive renovations at Bear Creek Elementary School.
- 2:13:32 to 2:16:16 9.8 Discuss and consider Board approval for re-roof and building envelopes at Taylor High School and Beckendorff Junior High School.
- 2:16:16 to 2:18:13 9.9 Discuss and consider Board approval for life safety and special systems upgrades at Taylor High School, Seven Lakes High School, Katy High School, West Memorial Elementary, Rylander Elementary, Kilpatrick Elementary, Schmaltz Elementary, Griffin Elementary, and the Support Services Complex.
- 2:18:13 to 2:18:54 9.10 Discuss and consider Board approval of the proposals for the chiller replacement and central plant optimization at Cinco Ranch High School.
- 2:18:54 to 2:21:50 9.11 Discuss and consider Board approval of the proposals for the Building Management Control System replacements at Cinco Ranch High School and Cinco Ranch Junior High School.
- 2:21:50 to 2:23:27 10. Information Items
- 2:23:27 to 2:24:02 11. 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, October 21, 2024, and the time is 4 p.m.
Dr. Gorgorski, 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. Perez, I do confirm we're in compliance with the provisions Texas Open Meeting Act for our meeting today.
Thank you.
2. Closed Meeting
The Board will now convene and close meeting as authorized under Section 551.001 of the Texas Government Code for the following purposes.
Texas Government Code 551.071, 551.076, and 551.129.
Good afternoon.
3. Reconvene from Closed Meeting
The Board will now reconvene in open meeting.
Today is Monday, October 21, 2024, and the time is 5.15 p.m.
4. Pledges of Allegiance
KDIC Chief of Police Henry Gault will lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance.
Pledge of Allegiance.
To the flag of the United States of America.
To the pro-level 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 nation, indivisible.
Do we have any scouts in the audience this evening?
No.
5. 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.
As defined by Board Policy, speakers who signed up by 2 p.m. on Monday, October 21, 2024, provided their first and last name and signed in 15 minutes prior to 5 p.m. 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 three minutes, the audio will turn
off.
If a speaker wishes 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 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 to hear a complaint or charge against an officer.
So if the speaker wishes to address one of these issues, they must do so through the appropriate
local grievances policies, FNG local, DGBA local, CKE local, or GF local. Our speakers will be
called in the order they were signed up to speak. And we have one speaker this evening, Amanda Beard.
Thank you for giving me the floor today. Before I dive in, I must share a nugget of wisdom from a fellow Lake House resident.
Check your emotions at the door. The advice made me giggle, as I'm known for wearing my emotions on my sleeve,
especially when it comes to decisions affecting my child.
so here I am emotions checked mostly ready to convey our community's
frustration with a smile as many of you are aware two years ago the lake house
community faced a similar situation we were being rezoned to Freeman high
school and we are advocating to remain at Katy high school during that time our
lake lake house HOA board members and advisors engaged in the discussions with
Ted and several of you present here today Amy mayor Mary Morgan and you
victor shortly thereafter we were informed that our neighborhood was perceived as being in favor
of or neutral towards a high scorey zoning consequently the district slash board decided
not to make any changes in our favor consequently we remain stagnant in our current luz which is now
once again a detriment to us we accepted that loss with grace fully acknowledging our responsibility
for not effect effectively engaging our community or guiding them to complete the surveys even now
two years later the impact of that loss is still felt throughout our community.
While I do not wish to dwell on past mistakes, I mention this to emphasize
that we have listened to your feedback and have taken action. This time we have
submitted a petition with substantial community support, responded negatively
to your survey, and communicated our concerns to anyone willing to listen.
Despite these efforts, we fear our voices may still go unheard due to the
complexity surrounding LUZ 9C. This zone includes more than just Lake House and
and raises concerns about potential overcrowding at Robertson,
as well as its proximity to elementary number 48 compared to Robertson.
Why does an undeveloped zone, 8B, take place over a developed 9C?
Residents of 9C, particularly those in Lakehouse, have already experienced multiple rezonings.
New developments and home purchases in 8B would be made with an understanding of potential zoning.
It could be reasonably argued that 8B is closer in proximity than Lakehouse is.
Additionally, 8B includes attractive land further west of Elementary 48, which would
direct traffic eastward and alleviate congestion on Clay Road, unlike the westward traffic
from Lake House.
So I ask again, why does 8B take precedence over 9C?
Next, I would like to remind you of an important point.
Who is responsible for placing Lake House in Zone 9C?
Is it Katy ISD?
asked you to consider when has proximity to a school determined our zoning.
For instance, we were zoned to Bryant Elementary.
We were eight miles away, yet only four miles from Katie Elementary.
Similarly, when we were zoned to Robertson Elementary,
we were 3.3 miles away, yet only two miles from Fountain.
Can a stronger argument be presented?
From our perspective, Katie ISD determines our LUSD.
Thank you. Thank you very much.
This concludes the open forum portion of our meeting.
6. Closed Meeting
The Board will now convene and close the meeting as authorized under Section 551.001, Texas
Government Code for the following purposes, Texas Government Code 551.071 and 551.129.
7. Reconvene from Closed Meeting
The Board will now reconvene in open meeting.
Today is Monday, October 21, 2024, and the time is 6.45 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,
October 18, 2024. The Board will receive information and recommendations from staff,
administration, and 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
and open a meeting. The first item is 8.1. Dr. Sane Bell is the assistant superintendent for
8. Reports
teaching and learning. Welcome, Dr. Sane Bell. Good evening, President Perez, board members,
Dr. Gagorski. I'm here this evening to present a draft of the revised mandatory training
focused on discussing sensitive issues in the classroom.
This training was designed to ensure that teachers are aware of the concepts that are
prohibited to be taught and how to handle sensitive discussions in the classroom while
adhering to the guidelines set forth in board policies EFA, EFB, EMB, and FA.
Most of the training slides include language verbatim from legal and local policies.
The primary focus of this training is to make teachers aware of state laws and district
policy while providing guidance about how to address sensitive topics in alignment to
board policy.
You will notice on the next few slides citations which indicates the language is directly lifted
from board policy.
see the district shall not address controversial topics shall address
controversial topics in an impartial and objective manner when controversial
topics arise teachers may approach them in an impartial and objective manner
according to EMB local it is important that teachers do not use the classroom
to transmit personal beliefs on political or sectarian issues the
the teacher's role is to ensure fair and courteous discussions, facilitating the conversation
rather than influencing.
Teachers are not required to address widely debated topics, but if a teacher chooses to
do so, their approach must be objective and free from political bias.
Teachers must remain neutral facilitators of information.
There are certain concepts that teachers are legally prohibited from teaching or promoting.
These are outlined in EMB Legal.
These include ideas such as inherent superiority of one race or sex over another or the belief
that one's moral character is determined by race or sex.
CONCEPTS. ADDITIONALLY, MERITOCRACY OR HARD WORK
ETHICS SHOULD NOT BE FRAMED AS CONCEPTS CREATED BY ONE GROUP TO OPPRESS ANOTHER.
THIS SLIDE OUTLINES SPECIFIC PROHIBITED CONCEPTS WHEN DISCUSSING SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES.
In addition, the 1619 project may not be utilized as a resource.
FA local policy explicitly prohibits any teaching, promotion, or materials that support or discuss gender fluidity.
This includes course materials, displays, and extracurricular activities.
While we have these prohibitions, it is important to note that these policies do not limit teachers'
ability to teach the essential knowledge and skills outlined in the Education Code.
How do these policies translate to day-to-day teaching?
If a teacher chooses to introduce a controversial topic, they must ensure it's appropriate for
the student's level of knowledge and maturity.
This issue must also be relevant, educationally significant, and not interfere with required instruction.
When selecting topics, teachers should be well informed and able to present the issue without bias.
If there's ever uncertainty, it is best to consult with the campus principal to ensure that they are within the policy's guidelines.
THE GOAL OF CLASSROOM DISCUSSIONS IS TO FOSTER CRITICAL THINKING AND RESPECTFUL DIALOGUE.
THIS MEANS ENCOURAGING RATIONAL ANALYSIS, ENSURING THAT MULTIPLE VIEWPOINTS ARE PRESENTED AND
NEVER ATTEMPTING TO PERSUADE STUDENTS TOWARD A PARTICULAR VIEWPOINT.
THIS SLIDE OUTLINES BEST PRACTICES TEACHERS SHOULD CONSIDER WHEN PLANNING LESSONS THAT
may include discussing sensitive topics.
On this slide, we encourage teachers to familiarize themselves with board policy and to seek guidance
from their principal if they have questions about the implementation of these policies
in the classroom.
And this next slide outlines how to proceed should a parent have a concern about a topic
that's discussed in the classroom.
Once again, here are the policies referenced throughout the training.
teachers are able to click on these links to take them directly to the board
policies I'll be happy to answer any questions that you have thank you very
much appreciate that just to clarify or to ensure so in terms of these slides
these training slides number one it's expected that these will be used for
further for the next year it's not going to be implemented like immediately in
terms of like using these particular slides I understand it would be used for
the next time teachers are trained we yes we typically do mandatory trainings
in August so there was a mandatory training about this this past August and
so I'm assuming this will be for 25 26 these slides right and also that the
The reference to EMB, which is, you know, going over the concepts prohibited,
like there's nothing new there that EMB has been in place,
and it's part of the Texas Education Code,
so there's nothing new there that's being implemented or that we approved, if you will.
It's basically the same as what we've had in terms of EMB and also FA per board policy.
Correct.
Yeah.
Okay.
Mr. President?
Yes.
May I ask some questions?
Thank you for allowing this to be on the agenda.
I'm the one who initiated the request.
One thing I want to know is we already had this training, so what was changed in it?
This particular training, I just lifted the language verbatim from EMB legal.
The previous training, we rarely in trainings just lift language copy and paste from policy.
So that was how the training was revised.
And specifically looking at the, making sure that those concepts that were outlined in
EMB Legal were on the slides instead of just having teachers reference the policy.
Okay, because we got a lot of emails from, there were a lot of emails sent from various board members referencing particular slides and, you know, wanting certain things to be moved from one slide to another slide or some things to be added.
and it just seemed like I don't know if those of those ideas were transferred to
there because I never saw the one before all right I guess maybe if I did I
didn't compare it but it just seemed like there was a lot of I know kind of
micromanaging of how the training was supposed to be given and were you using
those ideas that were from the board members um I'm take directive from Dr. Gorski
so I'm gonna let him speak to that so Ms. Champagne answer your
question was yes we had a previous training that Dr. Bell referenced to and
it trend it happened in August and I did receive trustee trustee feedback that
that maybe that training was not as inclusive of our policies that it could be.
So I took that feedback that was provided to me, shared it with Dr. Kasky and Dr. Bell,
asked them if they could recreate the slides and make a more robust training
that was more aligned with what trustees had requested,
and that would become the new training materials.
So that was not a vote or anything.
That was just certain board members that just decided that they didn't like the way that the training looked and so
to me it makes it seem like
They were feeling that the the teachers and that were supposed to be following that these rules weren't following it correctly
So therefore they were trying to make sure that the teachers knew
That they knew better how to teach the teachers how to follow the policy
Let me just answer that because I gave feedback.
It's not about whether the teachers were following it or not.
It's not about that.
It's about that the slides with this version when Dr. Gorski sent it to us for us to look
at and get input, the previous slides I think required the teachers to actually click on
the references I think or to the references and then go and and really
hunt through the policies if you will and all we're doing here all they've
done is basically lift parts the most salient parts of the policies and put
them in slides that's basically it nothing was changed in terms of the
policy nothing was made it didn't make the training in fact I think it makes a
training easier in a sense because everything that's key to the policies
that is laid out in just a few slides,
as opposed to clicking on links to have to search through the policies.
Okay, well, on one of your emails you said,
I'm not impressed with the training materials on EFA, EMB, et cetera,
and it goes on and on.
But I'm not on the –
No, that's an email, to be honest with you.
That's an email that I sent to Dr. Degorski.
You don't need to be repeating my emails.
It's a public email now.
Sorry?
It's a public email now.
It was an email between myself and Dr. Rogorski.
It's a public email now.
It is? Okay.
So anyway, I just want to make sure,
because since I've been on the board,
I haven't seen trustees tell people in the cabinet
how to train their staff,
because I just don't think that we are the educators,
that we're not the...
you know we are elected officials here to over oversight but not to micro
managed that and and this and this came up because of a book that was called the
diary of a part-time Indian and it has a chapter in it how to fight monsters
which was in a high school and that one six page chapter was used as a choice
one choice as an English project and there have been several emails from
different board members that say that that is inappropriate and I'm wondering
I wrote a letter, it's in your folders, so I guess I can be PI-ered on that, but I'm just trying to understand why there are statements that were made that said that this was a book to make white children feel bad about being white, and it's shaming white children.
children. And I'm actually quoting because I've done a lot. I've written almost like a book report on this like two or three times over. And actually, I've read that book two or three times and I'm white and my kids are white and I don't think it is a book about making white kids feel bad about being white. And I don't know if anybody else has read the book.
You know what?
But it's only one chapter.
The topic here is on the training.
But that's how it came up.
Not about whether a particular book is a certain way or complies with EMB or not.
The agenda item is for us to receive a report from the district about this training, period.
That's it.
All right, but this is...
It's not about getting into a debate about a certain English lesson.
So all these years, why now has the training been looked at?
This book and the censorship of this book is what brought about the perceived need
to alter the training so it's not it's not so this there is a direct
correspondence of this it's kind of weird that this whole book thing happened with
this one particular book and then the next day the training is revised and it
has to do with all the things if I look at all the emails it has to do with all
the things that y'all complained about and the emails about that book are the
same things were addressed for changes that y'all perceived as needed in the
the new training for the staff.
So it is related to it.
Okay.
And I just find it, I just wonder if this board is going to continue to monitor
and revamp everybody's training material.
Are we going to look through every training thing that there is and revise it
because some people on the board think that they're the experts at that any
other questions or comments thank you very much mr. president excuse me miss
Fox so for you to try to disengage the emails that have been flowing to the
superintendent and his staff for over a month about this lesson and the training
that is necessitated because you didn't agree with the lesson, you didn't agree with the retention by the committee who reviewed the lesson, and because you didn't agree with the committee members who didn't show up and they continued the committee meeting, and this lesson was retained, and because you disagree with the superintendent on his interpretation of the policy, all of these emails that you all have sent in give your
your views on what's happening, and it's about the book.
The training is a result of a lesson you disagreed with,
and the policy you wrote allows two board members
to challenge any resource, to remove any book,
or any resource, and you didn't choose
to have two members remove it.
You chose to let, I don't know, someone, a friend,
or someone challenge it.
No, I don't know who challenged that.
To go through the process, okay.
Okay.
So what we did is give Dr. Gregorzy input when he sent out the lesson.
Here's what we, here's the lesson that we give our teachers every year and he solicited
input, we gave him input and this is the result of that input.
We're not saying teachers have to be retrained, we're saying for next year perhaps you can
use this lesson.
And all the lesson, all these slides do is basically lift right out of the existing policy,
Texas Education Code and put them in slides period that's it let's look at
this it's like slide slide for number four the statement is incorrect what is
the source for slide six and seven slide eight should include an explicit
reference to EMB legal these are these are direct quotes from instructions
given to dr. Gorg or ski on how to do the training include that reference to
EMV illegal. What's wrong with that?
Well,
so you're saying it didn't happen. I'm just proving
that there was direct
information given to Dr.
Yes, there was input given to him. Based
on a lesson
you disagreed with over a month
ago. So
some of, I think it's important
to talk about why you disagree with a lesson.
Okay. And it seems
to be
one board member, while I appreciate the research study the superintendent made reference to,
I want to reiterate I do not agree with your position, nor does the majority of the board.
I'm aware that a committee, you or your staff created, do not at this moment share the concern
that the majority of the board does. So how do we know what the majority of the board believes
without talking to a majority of the board, which in turn would violate the law.
The Open Meetings Act says you cannot speak for the majority of the board
or speak to a majority of the board.
But every person who sent correspondence in to the superintendent had the same thoughts.
Sounds like there was.
I'll answer that.
I'll answer that.
Sounds like there was.
Because we give in.
We, on Friday updates, as you know, we ask questions on Friday updates and we get responses.
And everybody gets copied on those responses.
How do you know what they believed about the response?
You don't.
Unless you call them and say what you think about this response.
Well, because the president always, the president, per our policy, per standard practice forever,
the president always gets copied on every email that goes to the superintendent.
Right.
But I'm not.
I just want to make sure.
You're not the person I'm quoting here, so it's not you.
You might have access to what seven people think, but you're not the person I'm quoting.
This is someone who doesn't have access to that.
But you saw the responses, didn't you?
I saw questions, and I saw his responses.
I don't know how.
Right, so you also saw everything.
No, I don't know how you took the input.
This person continues by saying, as a board, we look to you to communicate current policy well with your entire staff.
staff. And in my humble opinion, many of your staff do not seem to be fully informed of
current policy or they share a healthy respect for adhering to current policy. I'm constantly
reminding myself we are providing a service to our community and I desire to use our resources,
public taxpayer dollars in a way that is in harmony with a vast majority of our
community so I have a question what majority is our community is a community
of KDSD it was the vast majority
Timmy who's the vast majority that you're referring to mrs. Fox I'm not
not sure what I know what to I'm not going to answer that I don't but if you
quote vast majority what data are you using the community that I speak with on
a regular basis your neighbors or people who look like two people what about the
fact that the majority student population is Hispanic thirty six point
percent, 17.7 percent Asian, 25.6 percent white, and 15.3 percent black. So the majority,
and I'm not sure who you're talking about, vast majority. I don't see anything wrong with
the role of the board according to the state and the state law is that we are to create policy,
and it's the superintendent's job to implement it and when we see that
there's a disconnect between our policy and the implementation it is our job as
oversight to correct that oversight as oversight or micromanagement we could
call it but when you know it no you don't policies need to reflect according
to the law some children who are our responsibility okay all that if you're
not going to let me talk then i'm just going to let you talk and you can be done go ahead
so our role is to serve 96 000 plus children all of them and to call the vast majority
of beliefs i'm just asking where your data is where are your facts that the vast majority of
our community disagree with this lesson you know we have this discussion has really really gone
off topic this topic was this the topic on the agenda is about the training the
training came about the revised training came about simply by providing some
input for dr. Ravinsky to basically cut and paste from the policies right into
the slides period that's it so that it really would be easy easier on the
training to basically just flip through slides and that's it and for those if
those training could be effective for the next year we're not asking to anyone
anyone be retrained, that they're not following it, et cetera.
No one's saying that.
But actually just revisions of policy, it's not a revision to policy, it's just revision
to slides.
It's basically all we're talking about is a PowerPoint.
That's all we have here.
And you're trying to make it into something much bigger.
It is much bigger, Mr. President, because you said
It seems to me, based on your thoughts in the memo, it renders any serious application
or adherence to EMB as futile.
CRT's proponents prey on people's empathy for the downtrodden and for the disadvantaged.
That's what I see happening here.
I think it's a just rule to force children to feel shame for their racial identity and
for historical injustices over which they had no control.
It goes on and on, and people can have access to it through the PIR.
are but it's a clear indication from the feedback you have given to the
superintendent that you want teachers to teach a very limited exposure to people's
the policy has not changed at all EMB is a EMB illegal is what we're talking about
EMB illegal it's a state law Texas Education Code and all we're asking to
do is to put the actual points from that law in a powerpoint challenging a resource that didn't
violate emb legal mr president may i please say i i think my problem is is your interpretation of emb
is different than i believe some other people well well wait this is important because your
interpretation is is framing how you want the training to be and if your
interpretation of that one chapter in that book is that that violates EMB then
I find trouble in that that that is what's going to frame the training
that's that's the the essence of it so again the policy has not changed with a
I changed the policy and all we've done is...
I'm sorry, real quick.
How could you think that those six pages violated EMB
when actually the statements that the child made were based on a perception...
You've already read from my email, so there's no reason for me to respond to that.
No, it was a perception that the kid had about the all-white school,
and he hadn't been to the all-white school yet.
He was having a conversation with his dad on the car ride over to the all-white school
Hasn't been there yet, and he made a couple of statements about
How white children were going to treat him, but haven't actually happened yet, and when he got there he realized he was wrong
so
Mr.. President I just want to make a comment just to clarify that just like president Perez is saying
we can't rewrite state law up here.
The board has to follow the state law.
Exactly.
And it's our position to make sure our district has an easy time of doing that
and making sure.
And we're here to help provide guidance.
He decided to direct to have the training materials updated.
And it's literally a lift, just like Dr. Bell said,
a lift from a checklist that's state law that's been law for a while
to put it into training material to try to make things clear.
And no one is pointing fingers at any single teachers or anyone.
Do not insinuate that.
And we have not reviewed any book up here at all.
So all we've done was to make suggestions on how to help the training material be clearer
and more helpful to teachers next school year.
Okay, but you have reviewed the book on an email.
No, ma'am.
No, not you. You have not.
I have not read the book.
I have, and there are three others who have reviewed the book.
Excuse me, go.
But I was, you talked and then I talked.
Three others have, you did not review the book.
You only tried to update the training.
Okay.
But you did not review the book, but three others have reviewed the book.
Are they, I don't know if they've actually read it or they just made statements about it.
Okay.
Could I respond?
So everyone's clear, the lesson was not the whole book.
Okay.
It was an excerpt from the book.
Six pages.
So the discussions about the whole book should we don't need to be having because that's not what we're talking about
Who doesn't matter?
Just this one the time the excerpt it's an excerpt from the book
Okay, and it was a lesson and that was limited to that excerpt right and that's it
That's what that's all I had about the book
I'm not I only talked about the one chapter the car ride over to the new school was the chapter and
And then what happened to him on the first moments you got there? That was the chapter and that's all I talked about with the book
Mr. Perez
Please mr. Dr. Gorski correct me if I'm wrong. I feel like I sent an email because dr
Gorg or ski asked for guidance from the board
And so I feel like as a board member I had guidance to give that was representative of the people that voted me in
So that's that's why I sent an email. I don't know why I
I come to find out four of us sent emails, but I think we did that out of a request from our superintendent for guidance,
which is appropriate, an appropriate request from our superintendent to the board.
So I feel like I'm doing my duty.
There were three that didn't have an opinion whatsoever and didn't reply and didn't provide guidance.
Dr. Grzybowski, I'm sorry, did you ask for guidance or were you just showing us what the training was?
In the Friday update, he asked for guidance.
I did ask for guidance and direction from the board about the lesson,
and I did ask for any feedback the board wanted to provide me about the training.
Several trustees had mentioned that they thought the previous training was,
I guess for lack of a better word, was a bit lackluster
and may not have been comprehensive enough
and gave me feedback and so I asked all the board if all trustees have feedback
please give it to me and I would go ahead and have dr. Bell and dr. Caskey
redesign the training because the training did not meet certain
expectations mr. president thank you I know the impending PIR that's coming for
for all of our emails.
So we'll go to excerpt from page 33
since we're talking about the book.
I spend hours in the bathroom with a magazine
that has 1,000 pictures of naked movie stars.
Naked women plus right hand equals happy, happy, joy, joy.
Yep, that's right, I admit it, that I masturbate.
I'm proud of it and I'm good at it.
Oh wait, I'm not done.
I'm ambidextrous.
If there were a professional masturbators league, I'd get drafted number one and make millions of dollars
Well tough I'm going to talk about it because everybody does it and everybody likes it
And if God hadn't wanted us to masturbate then God wouldn't have given us thumbs
So I thank God for my thumbs
But the thing is no matter how many times my thumbs and I spend with the curves of imaginary women
I am much more in love with the right angles of buildings
What part of that do you think is appropriate?
Why would you read that?
Because you just said that you agree with the book!
That's in the chapter.
So I thought you said that Ms. Cuzela, we were going to talk about the one chapter.
We're done with this topic.
Why would you bring up something in public that's not even in the chapter?
It's in the book.
That you love so much.
Excuse me. Hold it. Hey!
Hold on. We're done with this topic.
We're going to move on to 8.
It's not in the chapter, so why would you read that?
We're going to move on. Dr. Bell, thank you very much.
Mr. President, I think that board members have the right to be heard.
Yes, you all have heard.
You have been heard.
I think everybody's been heard.
Mrs. Champagne, may I have these?
I have a couple of last things, please.
Ms. Champagne, please.
There certainly are some comments from our superintendent who reviewed the EMB policy and said,
if we are to deem all primary source material in which the person providing a first-hand account of what transpired is in violation of EMB,
it's most certain that many areas of our curriculum would need extensive review.
One could argue that would include how Americans were treated during slavery and Jim Crow era.
It would include Japanese Americans in the internment camps.
It would include examination of how the Chinese were treated harshly while building the railroads that transverse our country.
Or it could include how the Irish were treated when they arrived in America.
Or how Catholics were discriminated against upon early arrival in America.
Historically, there have been times in American history that different groups had been mistreated.
When a first-hand account of a person's lived experiences is to be examined, that does not automatically say that the person is demonizing the entire race of the people who have mistreated them.
The first six weeks TEKS, the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills, covers perspective, identity, awareness.
as I was going school to school, as you all were,
classrooms to classrooms,
I saw perspective on English language boards.
I walked into a classroom where perspectives were being discussed,
and the teacher said, read the chapter or some part of a book,
and said, discuss with your partner what you think that means.
Then now discuss how it would have felt from the other person's perspective.
That's what happening in TEKS.
this is one boy's perspective of how it feels to be at an all-white school and the excerpts that
were taken was the white kids dressed like this the white kids do this it's something he'd never
seen before the perception of teachers when we bring these things up um the perception of
teachers on these topics this is not a prevalent issue they're not teaching intent they're not
designing lessons to circumvent policy teachers feel fear and disrespect from
our board they're focusing on what are you reading from now feedback from
teachers they're focusing on preparing students for their future once again
here we are likely to have katie acidy in the news for spending time taxpayer
resources and a ton of administrative time on a benign proposed lesson that
was never taught it never even made it to the classroom and this topic was not
on the lesson this topic was on the training some slides this topic it's you
all who made it into it into into such a y'all made it into something that it's
not this topic is about the training is that is that you didn't like that it was
retained by the committee so we're just going to train teachers not to ever do
that they're going to be so afraid to teach anything no i disagree well we've wasted a
ton of administrative time on a lesson that was never taught you know teachers an apology for
the treatment they're receiving because of your politics this particular teacher you're making
this about teachers online attacks and criticism they endure are awful and they deserve a promise
you will focus on doing what is right for all students not the ones from your vast majority
And support teachers in their lifelong commitment of preparing children for their futures.
Stop acting like you know more than the professionals.
Okay. So we are basically changing three or four slides that actually put in there a policy that is already in place.
That's all that's being done here. There's nothing about disrespecting teachers. You're making it something that it's not.
That already happened to predicate this change.
So you're trying to make it about slides and training that you're putting on teachers
when your very retention survey said stop putting more work on us.
This is not more work for teachers.
This is not more work for teachers at all.
This is the training they're going to – this is the training they go through every year.
They're going to go through it again next year.
It's not more work for teachers.
And you want it to be more restrictive so they don't end up with it.
No, it's the same policy.
No, it's the same policy.
With six pages out of a book.
It's the same exact policy as we've had.
had. Okay, let's move on then. 8.2, report to the board on proposed legislative priorities.
Thank you so much for being here. Well, good evening, President Perez, trustees, and Dr.
Gwagorski. As you indicated, I'm here this evening to provide an update on the proposed
legislative priorities. You'll recall that many months back, the board established a board
LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE COMPRISED OF MR. PEREZ
AND MR. REDMOND AND MS. CALHOUN.
AND THAT CHARGE OF THAT COMMITTEE WAS TO LISTEN TO
AND ENGAGE WITH THE COMMUNITY ON STATE
LEGISLATIVE ISSUES IMPACTING KDIC STUDENTS,
SCHOOLS, AND FAMILIES, AND TO IDENTIFY PROPOSED
LEGISLATIVE PRIORITIES TO RECOMMEND TO THIS BOARD
FOR ADOPTION.
AS YOU ARE WELL AWARE, THIS JANUARY THE
legislature commences again our state legislature meets every two years and every two years they
pass hundreds of laws many of which impact public education so we have a key opportunity to ask our
community what they want out of their public schools and to utilize that information to
influence legislation that exists as well as policy making that will be proposed during this
legislative session. So we gathered that feedback, the board legislative committee
gathered that feedback through two mechanisms. One was a survey which was
called the parent and community education priorities survey and the
other was through board listening circles. Board listening circles are
forums and it's a tool that the board utilized a couple years back for the
the first time. Six circles were hosted across the district. I'm going to bounce back to the
survey quickly. 3,898 individuals participated in that survey, and that ran from late August to
late September. And going back to the listening circles, six were hosted around that same time
frame, mid-September to the first week of October. Four of those listening circles were aimed at
including community members both those with children in the district and those
without one circle was specifically for teachers and another circle was held for
our student leadership group and these are students that represent every KDIC
high school on student council and other types of leadership roles total of about
225 individuals participated in those six circles. The goals of these mechanisms,
again, to gather feedback, to identify common legislative concerns and needs
impacting our schools, and to identify state legislative priorities that would
benefit KDIC students, families, staff, and schools. So a little bit about what we
learned from the survey. Again, 3,898 individuals participated. The majority of
those participants identified as parents about 79 percent and then we had about 35 percent those
participants identified themselves as staff members then you can see the breakdown of some of these
other groups students and community members within the district who don't necessarily have students
enrolled right now in kdic schools essentially what we asked in that survey was one key question
tell us the top five areas where you believe the state should help improve public schools
And you'll see what those responses are broken down by the type of participant.
So amongst our parents, you see those top five areas, the fundamentals, core areas, reading, writing, and math being number one.
School safety made it in the top five, followed by recruitment and retention of teachers, teacher compensation, and then school finance.
Now these top five appeared pretty much across all groups who participated.
So I'm talking about our staff and also our students and our community members.
The only difference we see is when you jump over to that staff side, student behaviors creeps into that top five.
So every other one of those rankings remains the same.
We're looking at the same charts now by student rankings and also by community member rankings. Top five
very much the same, maybe a different order.
Now, the way this survey was composed, the participants had opportunity to take a look at a list of 13 different items that have some type of impact on public ed.
Many of those items came out of previous surveys, issues that have been brought up in strategic planning, issues that were identified during the last legislative session.
But also, participants had opportunity to write in a concern should they wish to do that.
So now I'm going to jump over to the listening circles.
Priority areas that emerge from those listening circles include state funding, teacher recruitment and retention, and star and accountability reform.
Now to share with the board some of the stories that we've heard, I have three videos coming up.
All these videos are under one minute each, so we'll buckle in for about three minutes.
But you're going to hear from some teachers and a parent about how a couple of these issues
impact their work with students, the programming that's available to them, and on the parent
side how it has impacted her students when it comes to STAR.
The first video is from a teacher, elementary teacher, and she's talking about public education
funding.
It's a very short video, but you hear the passion and how she believes the impact of
the stagnant state funding is impacting her students.
It absolutely is imperative in providing the proper resources.
Without the proper funding, we can't hire the right teachers.
We don't have the amount of aids, even resources needed to help the students find success.
Everything's getting more expensive and our budget is still the same and it's
like they're sinking the ship and selling us a lifeboat. It's not okay.
All three videos feature individuals who did participate in the listening circles.
At the conclusion of each of those circles our communications team did
reach out to folks asked if they'd like to share the stories via a video message
with our board when it came time to inform trustees about this process.
I'm going to play another video of a CTE teacher talking about how the lack of increased
public education funding has impacted programming for students who participate
in career and technology education programs and also workforce development.
The education programs are really important because it gives kids the
the opportunity to experience what could be an industry profession that they could have
for the rest of their lives.
We really strive to make sure that our kids are prepared to go out into the industry.
One of the biggest issues that is, is we don't have enough funding currently right now when
we think about it for career and technology education.
If we're thinking about inflation is happening, prices of everything is going up, but we're
keeping the funding the same, we don't have that opportunity for our students, for them
to be able to experience different types of designs, different types of projects.
projects. We're having to sit there and lower our quality, lower our standards, which is not what
KDIC is about. And I get really frustrated sometimes when I'm sitting there going, I know
what is best for my students, but it's not possible right now with the current budget and the current
funding. We want to keep our standards high and keep our curriculum high so that way kids always
have that opportunity to learn what's actually happening in the career. If you want to sit there
in grade schools based on how well they're doing, you need to make sure you're funding them well
enough to be able to do that. Okay so those first two videos were regarding
education funding. This last video is going to be from a parent who has
students in the schools and she's going to talk about the star and how that has
negatively impacted her students. Career technology at that one.
one.
Must find reform for the STAAR Test.
There are too many of these special needs children that are being forced to take this test.
And the cost is too high. And the kids are the ones paying the price.
And as a mom of four of these special needs children,
I deserve the right to decide if it's in their best interest to take this test or not.
I'm mad. I see my boys coming home with severe anxiety from this test. Why don't
they get better accommodations? Why do they have to take this test at all? What
what is it showing you? Does it enrich our children's lives? Does it make them
smarter? Is it teaching them anything or is it just earning the state money? In my
opinion the best solution would be to eliminate STAAR Tests altogether if that's not an option
the next best thing would be to invoke parental choice for exemptions let parents decide on behalf
of their special needs children okay so those three stories give you some exciting forms of
the type of dialogue that was held at these listening circles we heard some personal stories
about how existing legislation is affecting some students with regards to
those three areas and we also heard some feedback about where improvements can be
made on the state side when it comes time to perhaps influence existing
legislation and provide feedback and testimony on legislation that's proposed
this legislative session so here we have the three priorities that the board
legislative committee is recommending for adoption first one being increased state funding
number two teacher recruitment and retention initiatives and number three star assessments
and accountability reform you'll see that each of those priorities have some sub bullets under them
to flesh out what we mean when we say for example increase state funding we all know that the basic
allotment is the foundational funding mechanism per pupil in Texas. That basic
allotment has remained stagnant since 2019, so the ask is to increase that
basic allotment and for it to account for inflation that has occurred since
2019. We believe that if that basic allotment is addressed, we can address
other important programming such as special education, safety, and also career
and technology education and workforce development, to name a few. Teacher recruitment and retention
is about increasing compensation that's made available in terms of what the state can provide
for teachers and also addressing the rising healthcare cost that teachers are incurring.
And then also taking a look at some legislation that poses some challenges for our teachers,
including behavioral issues in the classroom,
streamlining some administrative tasks,
and focusing on those core subject areas that were noted in the survey.
I'm going to speak to the behavioral issues
because the school district has also been doing some work on Chapter 37,
which governs discipline in Texas, discipline under the Texas Education Code.
This coalition of districts across the state of Texas
have been working to identify potential amendments that they would recommend to the state legislature when they convene this January.
Those amendments are intended to provide school districts greater flexibilities in dealing with behavioral issues.
You're going to hear some more about that coalition's work in the presentation that follows this in just a minute here.
Ms. Ashhorn is going to provide greater detail on that.
And finally, that third party, STAR reform, is about limiting STAAR Tests.
The federal government requires 20 STAR or standardized assessments.
In Texas, we administer 17, so not a big difference there.
But what we heard from our parents over and over again is that there's a lot of test preparation,
that there's too much of an emphasis on STAR,
and that kids are very stressed out and anxious about STAR, as are the teachers.
So this item is meant to speak to that.
You'll also see there a sub-bullet that speaks to shifting online STAR administration for third and fourth graders to fifth grade, to begin in fifth grade.
We aren't saying don't administer the test to third and fourth graders.
We're asking the state legislature to consider moving them offline and putting them back on paper and pencil.
We heard that a lot from our parents.
And then finally, providing additional STAR alternative assessment to any student who
is receiving special services and whose parents has requested that alternative STAR assessment.
And you heard the parent just a minute ago talk about how her students who receive special
services are impacted by the STAAR exam.
So next steps, once these legislative priorities are adopted, they will guide
advocacy efforts around policymaking impacting our KDSD students, schools, and
families. That looks like providing amendments, testimony, meeting with
elected officials, and doing anything needed to be a part of that conversation
around the policymaking that will begin this January, particularly that
policy making that will reflect what will happen in our schools once it's passed as legislation.
And then finally to roll out an advocacy plan that's inclusive of more
stakeholder engagement at both the local and state level.
So we will come to questions about this particular portion of the presentation but I am going to
transition to information about that coalition that I mentioned chapter 37 and I'm going to ask
Sherry to come to the podium to take over thank you Dr. Grooms I was excited to see student behavior
on the top half of that list of interest especially for teachers you know I'm a behavior enthusiast
and I love our discipline management plan that I know we work on every summer
but today I just want to talk to you that as you've been going through those priority conversations
Other districts across the state have been having those same conversations about behavioral issues
and what can be done during this legislative session to create safe classrooms for all.
I'll be presenting an additional endeavor the district has been working towards
through collaboration with other school districts across the state that was initiated by Wiley ISD.
It's through this collective effort that Student Behavior Management Coalition of Texas School Districts was created.
There are many issues that are being discussed among our colleagues across the state, but
the coalition has focused a majority of that attention on one specific area of need, safe
classrooms for all.
Over the past year, KDISD has met with other districts virtually through the coalition
to strategically pinpoint needs.
This group knew we needed legislative policy support, but also knew that specificity and
and potential solutions were the best way
to move things forward.
Our time together was very intentional,
reviewing in detail what was already in policy,
what was needed in revisions,
what was needed to be added or even deleted.
In result, these collective districts,
through the coalition, created a set of five priorities
that KDISD leadership supports.
These coalition priorities aim to help ground our efforts
as districts speak with legislators
heading into the next legislative session.
So let's talk about our first priority.
priority, local control regarding student discipline.
At its inception, Chapter 37 was five pages in length, and today it's grown to over 130
pages.
So I have my little, my booklet that I keep on my desk at work, so this is double-sided.
It's really grown to a pretty significant piece of legislation.
And though each edition had specific language that was added to address an issue at that
time, it's really led to an erosion of local control.
It was developed by the elected trustees and guided by community input.
This priority aims to rectify some of the areas that have either been unclear or address
unintended consequences.
For example, you likely remember that in the 88th session, the legislature made possession
of an e-cigarette as a mandatory DAUP placement.
This has become a seat issue for many districts, including our own.
And you'll also remember that here at Katy ISD, we were elected to address first-time
e-cigarette offenses at the home campus after considering their discipline history to ensure
there would be available seats for violent behaviors or disruptive students another
policy piece in this priority will focus on current language surrounding suspensions
in 2023 tea interpreted a piece of law that's been in statute for many years
related to suspension. Their interpretation put tighter limits on the
number of days that a student can be in school suspended. Districts need local
control to determine suspension length in order to allow time to complete
investigations, create a safety plan, etc.
Priority two is to increase flexibility. Increased flexibility for school
districts would allow us to make decisions that's best for a student's
very specific situation. The coalition proposes that chapter 37 be altered to amend DAP removal
to include circumstances related to violence or safety that address district needs, to provide an
allowance for districts to engage in removing students to a virtual setting if necessary,
or to amend and allow the ability to expel students for serious offenses such as Title IX
felonies that occur off school property without costing tax dollars for discretionary placements.
for a JJAEP.
So for those violent offenses that aren't on our property,
but are still very important to the safety of school,
we want the flexibility to be able to expel the students
at no cost to the district as needed.
For priority number three,
I like to think this is the heart of the coalition, right?
We want safe classrooms for all, it's the ultimate goal.
If a student cannot participate in a classroom
without causing substantial risk or harm to themselves,
to the peers or teachers,
then maybe they're not in the right setting.
They need additional support.
We're not helping students address their needs if we're not giving them the interventions
and services they need in an environment that would support their growth.
So in this priority, the coalition is asking the legislature to consider an expansion of
behaviors allowable for suspension for special groups.
Currently the conduct for removal is limited or defined for violent offenses, weapons,
drugs or alcohol.
hall. However, engaging in these specific and narrowed behaviors is not the only way to
consistently disrupt a classroom. So right now, the definition of violent behaviors would require,
for example, assault with bodily injury, right? That doesn't cover just repeated or documented
disruption. Additionally, the legislature would provide increased mental health services for
students who are specifically in crisis. Educators are not equipped to provide the very specific and
high needs mental health support that some students need.
And lastly, the coalition asks that the legislature provides a framework for judicial removal
of students whose presence in the classroom is likely to result in injury to themselves
or others, potentially utilizing the behavior threat assessment process that we currently
have in place.
Our fourth priority relates to parent rights and responsibilities.
What does this look like?
Currently there's policy in Chapter 37 that outlines parental involvement at Texas Education
Education Code Section 37.055. It notes an agreement including behavioral learning objectives,
required parent meetings to discuss progress, parents' acknowledgement and acceptance of
remediation, and the repercussions of failing to be involved, which could include a court order
to comply. The coalition would like a review and possible expansion of this current language to
increase parent involvement related to student behavior management. And last but certainly not
And last but not least, priority number five focuses on educator training and resources.
Teachers are taught classroom management as well as the art and science of teaching students.
They're not licensed in how to support students with severe behaviors.
The coalition requests funding for programs and resources to allow districts to be able
to provide and support teachers that basic intervention and behavior management they
need.
And just to conclude, these five priorities capture and ground district efforts to support
and support safe campuses for all.
That's the goal of the coalition.
The district is excited to continue working
with the coalition to make positive changes
for student behavior management
in this upcoming legislative session,
and I'm happy to answer any questions you may have.
And just to be clear, the item for today
for the board to consider for approval,
future approval, is regarding the legislative priorities
that are being proposed by the board legislative committee.
The second piece regarding the coalition's work
around chapter 37 was informational mr president thank you very much uh we're gonna this is a
9.1 Discuss and consider the Board's proposed Legislative Priorities.
report 8.2 but also it kind of bleeds into 9.1 which is a discussion item related to the
legislative priorities so i guess you'll take questions on both of them mr president happy to
do that miss kathleen uh i just wanted to say thank you for all of the work that you dr grooms
did and that your staff did underneath you and all of the time and their energy that you guys
put into those listening circles every hour every minute we had i don't even know how many people
say that they wanted to come it was over a hundred for each individual listening circle and we had
maybe 10 to 20 show up and yet we still staffed it to the amount of people that said that they
were going to come and your staff you the people in this room were there to support the community
as if they were going to be there at every individual opportunity and you all listened
and you took notes and you engaged and i was just so incredibly impressed with the way that you guys
put that together so i just wanted to tell you thank you so much for the work and the effort
that y'all put into that it was evident and i am incredibly happy and honored to have been able to
work with you guys on that so thank you thank you miss calhoun and some of those staff are here this
evening so i know they really appreciate hearing that from you thank you mr president this fox
miss ashorn i love this all of it i love it all i look forward to um what you all are going to do
the fact that you're talking about the disruptions and you know it's it's
across the state it's it's in every it's in every school so and I like how you
said that your look the this whole thing what did you call it coalition the
coalition is looking for local control so that because the when you put someone
who caught vaping once and take a seat where there are not many seats and they
are expensive seats to educate children in a much smaller setting with much
smaller teacher-student ratio maybe at ROAC and so when you make it a priority
that that's for violent behavior or offensive behavior I think that's just
critical that maybe the legislature doesn't understand you know they're
trying to nip vaping in the bud but those seats are hard to come by um yeah expensive education
and um certainly a great lot of all of those you know logos of all those great school districts
joining together i think your voice will be strong and all of these things are definitely
something on the forefront and i'm just really excited to see attention given to that mr president
from the man make one come
Never mind. I'm gonna ask my question at the end. Just Amy. I just want to say thank you and wiley
I have friends and teachers in that school district so shout out to them for starting this
Thank you for joining. I know I know this is a passion for you, and it is for me, too as a former teacher
I think this has a potential to really help and encourage our teachers, so this makes me very excited
So thank you for this and for joining and appreciate that a lot.
We're excited too and hopeful.
Well keep it going and keep us updated.
Mr. President?
Ms. Champagne?
I just want to say I think that the joining of this coalition will give, you know,
echoing a little bit what Ms. Steehme was saying, will give the teachers, you know, like a renewed hope
because I think that they do feel a lot of teachers do feel like they don't have
I don't know it's like the backing of the support of you know the discipline
that they need and and how I think that this will just encourage them that they
know that we're behind them and that we're we see that this is a problem area
and that we're trying to do something about it any questions and that's a both
both on the topic of the legislative priorities
as well as on the coalition.
Mr. President, I have a question
about legislative priorities.
I thought I attended one listening circle,
thought it was wonderful,
reminded me very much of the one we had before
and the process is so good.
And I agree with Mrs. Calhoun,
I wish a lot more people would attend
because they feel valued and their voices are really heard
and people are taking their input and those kinds of things so I love that my
question is where are for the committee maybe mr. president I'll direct it to
you where are the survey comments and the notes from table discussions like
that's normally given to the board when we've done that before so I saw like an
overview of the survey but normally we're given the comments that come with
that and then the table discussions the notes that come from that um to see what our community
believes and feels i think that would be important to have i think that was collected that's available
normally you send it to the board members yeah we can so to do that and um also
just notes from the legislative committee meetings i when i ask about the agendas and notes and
topics and what you talk about the guidance that's given from committees to
our staff I'm not seeing those notes come I'm seeing just agendas from all
committees and so I kind of would I can wait till the end of the night to add
that on or we can put it here maybe mrs. Cozzella can write that down just we're
getting agendas but the comment and the ask was for notes meet me like minutes
of meetings minutes from the meetings thank you thank you very much dr groups
and your whole staff our community feels very sorry I just get a clarification
on the notes from you want the minutes and help me I'm new what does what
exactly in the minutes are you looking for what just of the committee the
legislative committee meeting with the staff kind of direction given and and
questions that were asked and thoughts ideas kind of going forward things like
that okay minutes minutes kind of we talked about this this is what was
decided that kind of thing like you would in anything else and I really
appreciated the top three priorities right it's just like you all said better
to have two or three I'm not surprised by them they they're exactly the right
ones well done good job good job really good job usually usually we have those
minutes for the regular meeting when we have committee reports but yeah those
minutes you're talking about the committee meetings like for example when
we met mr. Redmond and miss Calvin and myself met with dr. grooms mr. president
May I ask clarifying questions too of Mrs. Fox?
Maybe this is what she means.
So remember when we had the bond committee and then we got all the notes?
And so we could see how everybody voted.
I'm not saying that people voted, but we saw the notes from the tables.
Is that what you're kind of talking about?
And so each of the staff members sit at a table and they take notes on what's said.
Also, my understanding is like on your survey, there's always a place for comments.
comments. One of the things we got in Friday updates this week was 4,000 pages of stuff
which I've read most of. And then all the comments under like teacher campus surveys.
Is that, I'm not sure which one it was. But it was how they, you know, very satisfied,
satisfied, unsatisfied, those bar thing charts. And then every comment they made was attached
and given to us. It was pages and pages. Those kinds of things are important. And I, did
Did you get that from this survey, Dr. Grooms?
Were there comments?
Yes, there was opportunity for participants
to provide an open response.
Those open responses, yeah.
And the table.
The table facilitators took notes
that were summarized by Dr. Grooms and her staff.
So yeah, definitely those are available.
And they can send those out.
Anything else?
Great.
Thank you so much.
Again, it was a really great process.
Those listening circles were very interesting.
A lot of work behind it.
Again, thank you very much.
It's been a pleasure.
I think it's going to be all for good for the district, really focusing on what's going
to help us to get done.
Can I say one more thing, please, about that?
I just want to acknowledge Mr. Redman because he didn't speak up.
But he as far as I know, I think he kind of invented this process and a couple years ago
Yeah, and you know, it wouldn't be replicated if it if it
Well, we didn't get the increased funding last time, but the process is awesome. It's gonna work this time. I'm sure
Mr. President one more question, please. What's the path going forward?
Are we gonna make a flyer and the book and the thing and how are we gonna get it to legislators?
I think that I think that's to be determined the next step with dr. Grooms and and the Advocacy Committee to work on that in
the next meeting
Right, mr. Redmond. Go ahead
Initially right so vote on the legislative priorities this next Monday will be on the agenda and then
ideally figuring out how to take that and communicate that to our
Representatives locally and then in Austin and see if there's the opportunity to help
Meet with them one-on-one
anybody in this room that's listening tonight, if you have a relationship with your legislator,
if you know their kids, if you know somebody that babysat them, or maybe, I don't know,
lives next door to them, once we approve these, find a way to go share your story with them about
how these items have affected you and what you as a voter would like to see in the future.
And so that's what everybody else can do. And then we'll figure out ways to coordinate, ideally getting those legislators here so we can have those conversations with them.
Ideally partnering with some of our other groups here in the district to go to Austin and have those conversations.
But in reality, it's just going in and sharing your story and telling our representatives in Austin what we want.
And as a voter, you can do that simply by saying what your kids' experience was or saying what you think about when you vote and how you'd like to see them vote when it comes to public education and the way it affects us.
So we vote on it.
We move forward with the legislative priorities, and we spread those out throughout our community and then take them to our legislature.
legislature. And then once the session actually starts, there will be opportunities for people to either go to Austin to testify or go share when something happens. You may see a group that you agree with, and we would encourage you to just make your voice heard. We can't tell you what to believe or how to engage, but we have to encourage you to engage. So that's it.
Thank you. Ms. Calhoun, anything you wanted to add to that?
No, again, it was a pleasure to be able to work with the team and work with the staff
and to engage with the community to hear their voice on the local issues and the state issues.
We took it to heart, and we tried our very best to relay that and to have that be evident here.
And I think Dr. Grooms and the staff that did this did an excellent job,
and I was proud to be a part of it.
Thank you.
Mr. President, may I ask Ms. Ashhorn what the process is going forward for your group?
Do you know that yet or you're still working?
I think similar process.
I think we're going to be probably looking and reaching out to any legislators to share those as well.
So we're not there yet.
But I know that our group is definitely enthusiastic and hopeful for the future
and getting those safe classrooms a little bit more embedded in our laws.
Thank you for being a part of it.
Thank you. Thank you very much.
9.2 Discuss and consider Board approval of the attendance boundary modification (ABM) for Elementary #47 and Elementary #48 for the 2025 2026 school year.
Okay, we're on to, we're going to go to 9.2.
We've already covered 9.1, and that's to discuss and consider Board approval of the attendance boundary modification, ABM, for elementary 47 and 48 for the 2025-2026 school year.
year. Welcome, Ted Verling, Chief Operating Officer, and Chris Poole, Chief Data Analyst,
Population and Survey Analyst, or PASA. All right. Good evening, President Perez,
Board Members, Dr. Gagorski. Chris Poole and I are here tonight to present the final
attendance boundary modification to the board. I'll breeze through these couple of slides.
Just as a reminder, our goal here is to create an ABM for Elementary 47, which is up there in
Ellison under construction right now, as well as Elementary 48, which is in Sunterra South,
just North Clay Road, and provide population relief for elementary schools in that area for
at least the next two to three years. It would be great if it was longer, but we kind of know
how things are going up there. Just to remind you about the process, we came to you in June with the
preliminary attendance boundary modification over the last several months. We've taken input from
community members, both those impacted by the attendance boundary modification, as well as those
who have reached out to us with concerns. Dr. Grooms presented some preliminary survey data
to you guys in September and here we are tonight to present the final ABM and I will let Chris take
over from here. Okay, good evening President Perez, board members, Superintendent Rogorski.
As Mr. Verling said, we're here to discuss elementary 47 and 48 and these slides should
look pretty similar to the ones that you all saw in june we're going to start with just a look at
what is the current situation this is just a reminder of what things would look like if the
board and the district was not planning to open elementaries 47 and 48 you can see falden would
have like 1400 students in it and has capacity of 1030. we'd be looking at 1700 or so in youngblood
1800 and Robertson, but luckily of course we're here to open those two new schools.
When you drill down though at that data, I just will make one little point here on
these next couple of three slides, when you drill down and look at that data
just in Faldon zone itself, we're projecting as many as a couple of
thousand students in the long run and with the capacity of a 1030 we could
open, we would expect, an entirely additional, one additional school just in
Faldon. And then in Robertson we could open two more just in Robertson. And then
And then of course in Youngblood, with its enormous size here for its attendance zone,
we could open about four more elementary schools over the 10 years.
And so I make this point to really drive home the fact that we're looking at six or seven
other elementary schools over the 10 year timeframe.
And if we're just talking about two tonight and the numbers that you're going to look
at and the attendance zones that you're looking at, just keep in mind that they're going to
keep changing and we're going to have to keep opening schools and we'll be back having this
similar conversation here several more times before we're done.
And so this is the proposed ABM, the recommended ABM.
It is the one that you saw over the summer.
You can see Elementary 47 there.
It's highlighted in pink.
It's in the Ellison zone there, and then Elementary 48 there, and then Sentara, the southern side
of Sentara there.
These numbers, though, when you look at the numbers for those two, you might think, gosh,
all of these start with a one.
And so we're used to for a long time now the capacities for the elementary schools in Katy is beat in ISD being a thousand
Thirty but both of these have a higher capacity
And so it's not that we're expecting them necessarily to be over capacity when they open or need to be need to be
Relieved really quickly
Just keep that in mind when you are assessing these that these are both larger schools
And they're the only two in this entire sector of the district that are larger like that
I'm sorry, could you slow down just a little bit?
Sure.
Both of these schools have larger capacities, both Elementary 47 and Elementary 48, and
they're larger than all of the rest of the schools in that sector of the district.
And so if you've been doing this for a long time, you may be used to thinking that 1,000
students is at capacity or in need of relief, but these two, of course, have additional
space.
They do have additional classrooms there.
there. Elementary 47 is carved entirely out of Youngblood and Elementary 48 out of Robertson
and out of Fulton together. And so when we look at what Elementary 47 contains, it's
really sections of Ellison that are right around the school. And then it also does stretch
down past the Ag Center into Katy Manor, eastern section of Anniston and Katy Crossing and
Marisol. And then when we look at Elementary 48, you'll see that we've got some Laney
Sons moving from Fauldin and some moving from Robertson. Fauldin would be Katy Lake Estates,
Katy Meadows, Sentara, the sections of Sentara that are in Fauldin. And then for Elementary 48,
we're looking at sections of Sentara and also Lakehouse.
This last slide is just a conclusion slide saying that I just want to remind everybody,
I know you guys have gotten a lot of feedback on this one, as all of our board members have
over the years when we've done ABMs. These are not easy. We work closely with PASA,
we talk to principals, we work with the assistant superintendents, we get a lot of feedback. Just me
me personally, I've rezoned my own neighborhood as a resident, and I've even rezoned my neighborhood
that I grew up in to a different school. So it is difficult. We take it very seriously,
and we're happy to answer any questions that you guys have.
Mr. President. Questions, board members? Ms. Teamee? Okay, so I did want to ask a question that
that Amanda Beard asked during her public comments.
Why does 8B take precedence over 9C?
I thought that was a good question,
a fair question to ask.
So 8B, if you're talking about whether we would move it
or 9C, 8B doesn't have very many students in it right now,
like 33 or something like that at the elementary level.
And 9C, of course, has a lot.
9C and that area, it's like a half a mile from the school.
And there are sections of 8B that are further away than that.
And so when we go to design an attendance zone, really the two primary things that we start with, well, kind of three, but we have to look at the numbers and we look at proximity.
That's where we start.
We want everybody to be able to walk if they can.
That would be grand.
But, of course, certainly spend the least amount of time on the car or the bus as possible.
And so I don't know that it necessarily takes precedence over 9C, but it comes down to numbers and proximity.
I have a question.
Mr. Dvorsky?
Yeah, Chris, can you also talk about, or Mr. Verling, explain a little bit about the growth
in that area and the proposed school location that's going to go in there in the future
down in the Grange area?
In the Grange area, there would be a school in the Grange area and one in the Sentara
northern section there.
And so, like I said, we're talking, you know, several additional schools over the next 10 years.
And so we should be able to make changes really kind of from both directions.
Robertson's going to need to continue to be relieved.
You know, all of the schools basically, I think, over time will be relieved in some regard.
Did you want to know what sort of detail did you want?
No, I think that's good enough.
Just to understand that the section that was discussed possibly of moving down differently
or being rezoned differently we have a proposal that we think we're building
another school over there in the future that's right
where is Grange what's the number it's in 20 B and a and a section in 8 B yeah
it's south and west it's in a it's a large development that's going to be in
Robertson's in the meantime until that school's built but they would be zoned
to Robertson yes any houses going up there right yes but the proposed
developments going to take a little bit of while yes it is but and you know
we've estimated that in time we're working on the numbers to revise them
right now and I think it's actually going to accelerate a little bit we
always have to sort of hedge our bets when we something is going to get going
because we have to be sure that they don't run into a bunch of speed bumps
that they haven't thought about them.
AP is currently zoned to Robertson, correct?
AP, yes.
And it's expected to stay there based on the recommendation?
For the recommendation, yes.
Mr. President?
Ms. Calhoun?
So one of the things that had been brought up in prior meetings,
and I'm sure we'll get another email,
I think we already have finishing out what Mrs. Beard was talking about.
I know that you had just mentioned that it would be ideal that we have walkers,
but there is a concern among those in the community of the safety.
So could you speak to that?
Because I know that we have limited kind of reach in building that out.
Could you speak to that for the community to kind of understand what we're looking at
and if we work with the counties and how that kind of plays out for sidewalks and for safety concerns.
Yes, ma'am.
Specifically Lakehouse, I would tell you that there are no plans whatsoever to have those kiddos walk to school
if they were to go to Elementary 48.
There is no, if you look at the neighborhood and you look at Google Maps and you've driven through there,
there are no walkways, sidewalks that go from inside of the Lakehouse neighborhood through Sunterra into the main.
because I know that had been brought up before about walking down Clay Road.
We would never expect a kiddo to walk down Clay Road.
I don't even feel comfortable driving down Clay Road, much less walking down Clay Road.
So there's that piece.
What else?
I'm sorry.
I apologize.
What else did you?
Just how we work in coordination or if we work in coordination with the counties as they expand that out.
Yes, ma'am.
We actually, Lisa Kastman and I, have quarterly meetings, if not more, with county representatives.
as we meet with the county engineer from Harris County Precinct 4.
It's been a great partnership,
and they kind of keep us abreast of all the different road projects
that they've got going on out there.
As we've said to you guys in meetings like this,
and we've had umpteen conversations outside of these meetings,
Harris County and Waller County in that part of the world
are way behind on roadways.
It's a challenge not only for these two new elementaries,
But for Freeman and Youngblood and Nelson and everything that we're building out there, the trouble is, of course, is that the families and the homes are being built.
They're coming.
And we've got to get the schools ready for them.
Otherwise, we'd have, you know, 2,000, 3,000 kids in an elementary.
So definitely a challenge.
And to be honest with you, you know, up there in that part of the world, driving .5 miles down Clay Road is probably a little bit easier than going the four miles down to Robertson.
Do you have any, and I don't want to nail you down to this because that would, I don't want to nail you down to a timeline, but do you have any idea or does the county, how much of this is in Waller County and how much of this is in Harris?
Because they butt up pretty close together and mix and mingle kind of on that side of town.
Yep. So if you look at that, if you look at that long diagonal kind of line that comes down from the top of the map, that's the Waller County, Harris County dividing line.
It just kind of makes its way. You can't see it once it gets to the little tan shaded boxes, but that's basically the county line.
So most of what we're talking about is in Waller County.
Okay. And then do they have any kind of proposed timelines on where we're at?
Does schools and the proximity to schools take precedent over anything else?
I mean, is there an urgency behind that? What does that look like?
Yeah, don't get me lying. Waller County has a mobility plan.
Lisa, you jump up here in case I say something. Well, you don't have to. It's just maybe.
Just maybe. But Waller County does have a mobility plan. I believe they passed a bond recently for road work. Waller County, remember, is gigantic. Chris could probably tell you this too. And they've got to contend with everything that Royal is dealing with as well with growth there. So it's a challenge.
uh for waller county so we're partnering we partner with all the counties and and we work
with them in terms of you know maybe we can do a a right-of-way a turn lane here that kind of thing
um anything within the neighborhood that that it's up next to the school there's some things that
we've done there uh it's just a challenge when you're talking about a main highway like clay
road that's not something that we would do necessarily but certainly something that we
talk to the county about frequently because correct me if i'm wrong there's bar ditches
on either side of Clay Road and they're pretty, they're pretty deep. So to expand that road is
going to be, I mean, it's going to be a challenge. There's some major drainage stuff that has to
happen. Anybody you talk to, whether it's a county representative from Waller County or Harris
or Fort Bend for that matter, they'll tell you that drainage is going to be the biggest challenge
of all of it. So when the, when Harris County is, they're working west right now. So if you've
driven up around the, you know, the Paytoe area and that sort of thing, Clay Road, you see that
that it's starting to look somewhat finished and expanded,
but they're working their way west.
And so the further they go west, the more of a challenge it's going to be,
like all that stuff in front of Haskett and Fowlton Elementary,
a real challenge, and primarily because of drainage.
So on that, when we start, when we look at this
and we look at the traffic patterns and we look at the congestion
that's all in that area, that anybody who lives over here,
I'm one of the people that live kind of in this area
and travel up and down here, it's a nightmare.
nightmare. Right. It is an absolute nightmare at peak times. Right. It'll take you 45 minutes to get anywhere. Yes. So are we looking at start times that would help alleviate some of that pressure or what does that look like or are you even thinking about that in terms of these new elementaries? Well, I guess the good thing in terms of so Ellison, Ellison I think will help tremendously for the Ellison neighborhood. Number one, they will be a lot of there'll be a lot of kiddos that will be
be able to walk in the neighborhood because it's all nice neighborhood sidewalks, right?
There'll be a school zone next to the school and all that kind of stuff. So there's a real benefit
there. Right now, all those kiddos that are living in Ellison that are going to Youngblood,
they've got to contend with 529. 529 is a nightmare, right? And then getting north-south,
either north of 529 or south of 529 is a disaster. So that whole area is difficult. I think this
school is going to be a tremendous help. Mr. Landis and I have talked multiple times over the course
of a couple of weeks where when we get to pull those buses out of Youngblood and use those over
at if we need them over at Ellison at that elementary school it's going to be a tremendous
help. In terms of 48, 48 is just a difficult part of the world. It really is but I can tell you that
just in my just knowing that area and moving around in that area it's gonna be
a whole lot easier to move West point five miles than it is south for four
miles one thing that we hear a lot in the assistant superintendents that are
that are in charge of the schools in this part of the world especially
Robertson is the frustration that people have having to come from that Sunterra
lake house area going south and getting to the school whether it's a really long
bus ride like Chris was saying or just parents you know trying to bring their
kids to school and get on to work and that's really why that proximity thing
you know is a piece of that it isn't all the time it isn't all the time but
there's a long complex storied history of attendance boundary modifications I
I could give you a dissertation, but you don't want to hear it for the last 20-some-odd years of how each board has done something a little different,
and we've done these things a little bit different.
But we do, I know it doesn't feel like it, but we do try to move folks and then hold them in one spot.
We don't try to move them twice.
That's kind of what the 8B thing is going on there.
It's a small group of kids now.
We know it's going to inflate once they get that neighborhood built.
Hopefully, once all that's done, we move them to that school, and then we're done.
done. Just like the folks here in Lakehouse and I know they've they're concerned that they've moved a lot. Some Tara folks have moved a lot too. But we hope that this kind of finalizes some things in that part of the world. Not every single one of those land use zones. I'll tell you they'll stay there forever. But we do try to finalize some things so that people aren't moving all the time. So just a reiteration that the school board and that the district has a very limited amount of control over what we can do in terms of widening these roads in terms of infrastructure
infrastructure itself there's a very limited amount that we have that is really under County control and
For those people who are very concerned about that that is not necessarily coming back to the school board
That is more of a county issue right that's catching up the county would take a check from us
Or if we said to them
County we would love to widen clay road for you. They absolutely would let us do it
But unfortunately as Nathan says we're broke we can't we can't do that. That's not something we would do right. Thank you
Yes, ma'am. One quick thing on 8B. You mentioned in the future that 8B is now Robertson, but in the future to the potentially new school?
Yes, sir. We've we've yeah, I don't know how much we want to share in open because that's not all done yet.
But we are looking at some property in that part of the world to alleviate Robertson in the future once the Grange is is going strong.
And one thing that Chris said and I'll reiterate everything that we know about all these neighborhoods up there is they grow faster than we think
None of them are growing slower than we think
Mr. President, Mr. Champagne. Yes first. I would like to say
The counties are really slow, but I just want to do a shout out to Harris County to do it sidewalk initiative over there by Taylor
high school, so that is going really well, but
But, you know, we've been waiting for the May Creek High School Road thing for as long as I've been on the board, probably a lot longer than that.
So I love it that Mrs. Calhoun actually brought that up because it's very important, as she said, for people to understand that we've been waiting on that May Creek issue forever.
And that has never gotten resolved.
So yeah, May Creek is that the roads over there by May Creek,
Groschke started my career there and it looks pretty much the same as it did
26 years ago or whatever.
It's a challenge mainly because of drainage with the sidewalks over there.
They have, yes, ma'am.
Okay.
Thank you.
So do you have an idea of the bus time on average,
what the difference would be from Lake house to Robertson from Lake house to
to elementary 48?
No ma'am, I don't.
I can tell you that when I put that presentation together
for you guys that you got in your board update,
I think I pulled that number at like 1.30 or something.
And it was a difference between four minutes
and three minutes or whatever it was, and nine to 10 minutes.
During rush hour traffic, I'd be willing to bet you
it takes 15 to 20 minutes to get from Clay Road
to Robertson Elementary.
Anybody, somebody else may drive that in here.
I don't know, they may know better than I would.
But the time to me is significant and one of the other are things that they had concerns about where the exits
In entrances to lake house. I know there are only two
And they're on clay Road
Unfortunately, no matter what you do
Whether you move them to the Sunterra school or whether you keep them at Robertson that those those two entrances and exits are going to be
It are going to be tricky
Any other questions
Thank you, thank you very much
We now move on to 9.3, which is the presenter being as but outside reels director of budget and Treasury discuss and consider board approval of the October 2024 budget amendments.
9.3 Discuss and consider Board approval of the October 2024 budget amendments.
Pick a microphone.
phone. Good evening, Board President Perez, Board of Trustees, and Dr. Krakorski. Tonight we will
present all the timing amendments for the 24-25 fiscal year in the amount of $1,396,314.
Timing amendments provide the budget in the current fiscal year for items which were not
received by August 31st, 2024 for the previous 23-24 fiscal year. The timing amendments include
special education building modifications for the Coleman Support Annex,
replacement equipment related to damages at campuses due to weather events,
equipment replacement and classroom furniture for growth and additional special education and pre-k
classrooms, police vehicle outfitting, athletic supplies and equipment, maintenance and operation
vehicles, equipment and repair parts, technology audiovisual system, repair parts, software
services, and consulting and integration enhancements are related to supply chain issues.
We also present an amendment for K-9 contract for weapons and narcotics detection at the
secondary campuses in the amount of $47,410.
Please note the current K-9 current budget was used to offset the cost of the contract.
In addition, we bring forth an amendment in the amount of $36,650 for a government relations
contract to deliver a comprehensive governmental affairs strategy.
Lastly, an amendment in the amount of $65,000 for a contract for assessment review and improvements
in teaching and learning.
All other amendments are direct functional offsets.
The approval of these amendments will result in a $1,545,374 decrease to the general operating fund balance.
Thank you. Any questions?
So as I understand, just a comment, the $1.4 million of timing amendments, roughly.
Basically, those are moving from this last fiscal year to the one we're in currently.
So it improves fund balance as of August 31, 24.
Yes, sir.
Above what we were projecting because it's moving it over to the next year.
Yes, sir.
Okay.
So as far as it's moving from one year to the next, essentially.
Thank you.
Any questions?
Yes, Mr. President.
So there's about 150,000 that is really truly affecting the bottom line.
Not timing, right?
So the canine covenant, do we have any, like, is this brand new?
Have we?
Yeah, so this is a new program.
At one time we had canine officers and we had canines that we were maintaining.
Canines are very expensive to maintain.
and we've in our canines were only trained on the drug detection whereas
with the service you get the firearm detection along with that and we can do
the canine service for much cheaper cost than it was having our own officers
trained with our own canines and maintaining that program so this is
is actually a future cost savings where we can repurpose those officers.
Okay.
Thank you.
And the government affairs contract retainer, is that something new that we've, can you
speak to that as well?
Yes.
That's a 27.
So that is a new priority as part of our legislative priorities.
It's something that Dr. Grooms has been working on to get us some assistance with our legislative
priorities.
and I'm going to go ahead and turn it over to her to explain a little bit about what that is.
Sure, I'd be happy to do that.
As Dr. Gorgorski indicated, this would be to support our legislative parties,
but also our strategic plan around goal number seven,
which is to continually identify, address, and communicate the ongoing challenges in the public education system.
And goal 7.2, continually monitor and proactively address internal and external factors
IMPACTING KDIC FINANCE.
WE TALKED ABOUT DURING THE
LEGISLATIVE PRESENTATION THAT
ADVOCACY EFFORTS ARE GOING TO
BE ENCOMPASSING A LOT OF
ACTIVITY.
IT'S MY UNDERSTANDING THAT THE
BOARD WANTS TO BE AGGRESSIVE IN
TALKING TO OUR ELECTED OFFICIALS,
SHARING OUR COMMUNITY STORIES,
SCHEDULING MEETINGS WITH THEM
BOTH LOCALLY AND AT THE STATE
LEVEL, AND THAT DOES REQUIRE
some support. There's school districts our size who actually have a position
designated for governmental relations. We do not and I'm not saying that we need
that position but during legislative year when we talk about writing and
providing testimony, writing and providing amendments to proposed
legislation that requires some support. Okay thank you. I'd just like to know
more about this contracted firm. Who is this and is that something you get later?
Yeah, absolutely. The firm is who they are. Yeah. The firm is run by an individual, a colleague that I've been familiar with for many years, served as a legislative aid deputy director for Congress Amendment Call, has served other representatives at the state level as well, spent his entire career governmental relations.
Okay.
But yes.
Yeah, I'd love extended information on him or her, whoever this is.
Matthew Connor is his name.
Okay, thank you. And then the, okay, I'll leave it at that. There's also an amendment for 65,000, I'm sorry, for an assessment, something new. Is this, why wasn't this part of the budget, I guess?
yeah this is um part of our uh strategic planning at the time of building the budget last spring we
were not in a position to to know where we'd be with strategic planning with this specific goal
it is about our assessment goals and dr caskey can explain a little bit more in detail of how
that ties in sure so this is um goal four of our district's strategic plan we were looking at our
assessment systems this goal was developed in collaboration with our community partners with
our students so we'll be working directly with the center for assessment and really taking they're
going to provide us with their professional technical expertise and looking at our assessment
systems how we're administering assessments at the district level and to what degree are those
assessments used for perhaps abandonment of some or refinement of some so that's the purpose of this
so this this is new yes and it would hopefully the goal to streamline and be smarter okay thank you
thank you any other questions
thank you very much
we now move on to uh item 9.4 which is to discuss and consider
9.4 Discuss and consider Board approval of the Emergent Bilingual (EB) Enrollment and the 2024-2025 Bilingual Education Exception/ESL Waiver Application.
Board approval of the Emerging Bilingual Enrollment and the 2024-2025 Bilingual Education Exception
ESL Waiver Application.
And the presenter is Rosella Pratt, Coordinator for ESL and Bilingual Programs, and also
Carmen Nguyen, Instructional Office of Professional Development for Multilingual Learners.
Good to have you.
MS.
It's Ms. Jennifer Purpleleck.
MR.
Sorry?
It's Ms. Jennifer Perpelik.
Good evening, Board President, Board of Trustees, and Superintendent Kowalski.
As required by Chapter 29 of the Texas Education Code,
district personnel are required to report to the Board of Trustees
the number of emergent bilinguals, or better known as English learners,
on each campus and shall classify each student according to the language
language in which the student possesses primary proficiency.
As of October 1, 2024, the English Learner District Report indicates 23,086 emergent
bilingual students district-wide.
Each district with an enrollment of 20 or more emergent bilinguals in any language classification
in the same grade district-wide shall offer a bilingual education or special language program.
The district to date has identified 19 languages for which a bilingual exception is being requested.
These languages are Arabic, Cantonese Chinese, Farsi, French, Gujarati, Hindi, Ebo, Japanese,
Japanese, Korean, Malayalam, Mandarin Chinese, Portuguese, Russian, Tamil, Telugu, Turkish,
Urdu, Vietnamese, and Yoruba.
The bilingual exception application will be filed with the Texas Education Agency on or
before November 1, 2024.
The application will include a description of how our district will provide instructional
instructional support to the elementary campuses for students who have been identified as speakers of the 19 identified languages.
Katie has applied for a bilingual exception now for 23 years, with Mandarin Chinese being the 23 years that we have reported.
Additionally, KDE ISD is requesting an ESL waiver for 162 teachers who are providing services to ESL students.
These teachers have been informed of the training opportunities to become ESL certified so that we can properly support our students.
A primary part of the application requires a description of the professional development plan to support teachers identified on the bilingual exception and ESL waiver application.
Ms. Jennifer Purpleleg will share a few highlights on how we prepare teachers to support the needs of emergent bilingual students in KDISD.
KDISD has developed a comprehensive plan to empower educators with strategies, resources,
and expert guidance needed to effectively support emergent bilingual students.
For teachers identified under the ESL waiver, the district requires participation in an
ESL certification, preparation opportunity, and a minimum of 10 hours of targeted professional
development.
This training focuses on building capacity to teach language through content by deepening educators' understanding of foundational second language acquisition principles.
In-district ESL certification preparation training opportunities are designed to thoroughly prepare teachers for the ESL number 154 supplemental exam
by providing teachers with the essential knowledge and skills needed to pass the exam.
participants engage in learning key language concepts the structure and
conventions of the English language and effective ESL teaching methodologies
they also gain practical knowledge and applying these concepts to plan and
implement successful ESL instruction the district offers for professional
development sessions in the fall to support teachers on the ESL waiver upon
Upon earning ESL certification, these teachers are reimbursed for the cost of the exam.
To further support educators who are pursuing ESL certification but are not included on
the ESL waiver, Katy ISD offers six additional professional development opportunities throughout
the year.
These teachers also are eligible for exam reimbursement upon certification.
It is recommended that the Board of Trustees grants approval for the superintendent to sign and send the bilingual exception in ESL waiver application as required by TEA.
And at this time, I welcome any questions.
Mr. President.
Questions.
Mr. President.
Thank you for your presentation.
I have a couple of questions, and it's just for clarification.
I think I ask this every year.
I kind of do it as a point for everyone else to understand it helps me to better understand there's
23,086 emergent bilinguals
First of all, that's astonishing. That's over
25% of our population I believe
But our emergent bilinguals are they all
ESL or bilingual in the classes they don't all qualify
Do they I mean just because you're bilingual doesn't mean
you're necessarily in an ESL class. Is that correct?
Well, we have our two primary programs are bilingual and ESL.
And then we have some students who are emergent bilinguals, but
the parents deny services.
But we still support them, because academically we've got to make sure
that these students are acquiring language and content.
But yeah, predominantly our students are in the bilingual program at
elementary schools ee through five and then in esl programs ee through 12th grade can you please
explain the difference again to me between bilingual classes and esl classes and also let
me clarify that just because there's 23 000 that are emerging bilinguals there's a lot more than
that that are bilingual correct uh no there's not all all bilinguals are emerging bilinguals
Well, emergent bilingual is just the big term the state uses. It's, you know, the broad general term. And then under that, we have bilingual program students and ESL program students.
Our bilingual program, just think of bi meaning two, right? They're learning English and Spanish. So those are the students that are attending our one-way dual language program in grades EE through five. And we've got that at 20 campuses.
student feed in from the 46 elementary campuses to the 20.
And then in our ESL program, we have students who are English speakers of
other languages, and those students speak other languages as well.
I named 19 that are the predominant languages right now in KDISD.
But we also have some Spanish speakers that may be a little stronger in English.
English, you still need to pick up the language and so they do participate in our ESL program.
Okay, so bottom line, what is the difference between ESL and bilingual?
ESL, students are taught in English with a lot of scaffolded supports, a lot of instructional
supports that help the students acquire the English language, whereas bilingual, they're
they're instructed in two languages by meaning two two languages English and
Spanish right now at this time we only have a bilingual program in Spanish
that's provided in Spanish but I know other districts that provided in
different languages for example they could provide it in Mandarin Chinese for
example thank you thank you mr. president miss Cozzella I have a follow
follow up with the next in bilingual which which subjects are taught in only
English and which ones are taught it depends we have a bilingual program
model where we try to promote the 5050 and then wean them off and provide more
English instruction as the grades increase but it depends there's a lot of
bridging in our instruction where they use the primary language of Spanish to
to bridge the instruction so that students acquire the English language.
And a lot of our students come out from the one-way dual language program fully
proficient in both languages, which is a beautiful thing coming out.
Teachers are required to be bilingual certified.
In the bilingual program, yes, they are required to be bilingual certified.
Thank you.
Mm-hm.
Thank you.
This is 25% of the enrollment is bilingual or is emerging bilingual.
That is huge.
It's a huge undertaking, and it's a big deal.
So I really appreciate what you're doing.
Thank you.
What, if I look at your fact sheet that you presented, what is the,
could you go through kind of the English language proficiency rate?
You know, that the Telpus progress rate and then the yearly progress and all that.
How, what do I take away from that?
In other words, it's over on page, I think it's the third page.
The English language proficiency rate, that's what I'm focusing on in terms of just trying to figure out the progress we make.
Okay.
Other than the, you know, the STAR and the PL and so on.
So that is an assessment they take, the TELPAS, which measures their English proficiencies.
and we test our students in listening, speaking, reading, writing skills.
Okay.
And the students are then assessed in those four areas, and then we measure progress.
So from 2023 to 2024, you can see that we went from a 61% passing rate in 2023
to a 63% passing rate in 2024, which is an increase of 2%.
So what happens to the ones that pass?
Do they go into the monitoring category?
It depends.
There's different set criteria for exiting our students.
So right now the first opportunity to exit in KDISD is third grade.
And part of the criteria involves looking at our TELPAS.
Students have to score at advanced high level to exit.
and then in addition to that they also have to pass the STAAR exam in reading in English.
Also the STAAR exam?
Yes, so it's a combination of the two.
And then another piece of that exit criteria is that teachers have to also include a survey
or a rubric indicating that, yes, the students are ready to meet exit criteria.
Dr. Joe Sopcich. And do you have situations where the parents want to get them out earlier
or keep them longer, anything like that?
Dr. Nancy Cox. Yes, we do. Sometimes they do want to get them out earlier, but once
they're identified as emergent bilingual EBs, they have to stay until they meet exit
criteria. And we've got to explain that to the parents and talk to them about the
benefits of maintaining their ESL instruction and remaining in the program so that we can
can provide the supports and the students can be successful and exit by their own accord
once they meet exit criteria.
Then we've got, on the flip side, we've got other parents who don't want their students
to exit because they want them to remain either in the bilingual program, which they are allowed
to do.
We are allowed to keep them in the program if the parents request it.
And then typically that doesn't happen with ESL.
They exit out and then we are required to monitor students two years after exit
to ensure that the students, you know, are supported and are doing well.
And that language is not the issue for the following two years.
So it's like a little safety net that we have for our students
that we can always bring them back in.
Typically how long does it take them to exit?
I would think elementary school kids would exit faster than say if they entered in the later grades.
It depends, yeah. In the later grades what happens is that those gaps become wider.
Some of them if they don't come with the language then they've got to not just learn the language,
but in addition to that they also have to learn the content, which is much more difficult for them to do.
So those learning gaps are much wider at the upper grades.
So yes, it is easier to exit in the earlier grades,
but again, it depends on the students and their experiences,
and also the supports that are provided at the campuses.
So if you look at that same chart where it says 48% elementary, etc.,
that's basically where they've improved one level at least?
Yes, so elementary as you can see
They were last year. They were not reported and so this year we do have reporting
So we'll be gauging that every year just to see how well they do next year so that
We use a lot of this data to drive our instruction and to make sure that we provide the supports that are needed for students
based on these results
Okay, so that the waiver that we're looking for is basically the for the teachers
teachers, as far as the number of teachers that aren't certified, the 162.
The 162 are the number of teachers that are currently serving students as the reading
language arts teachers.
Right.
that are
not ESL certified. So right now we've identified by name all 162 teachers.
They've been contacted. We actually started a training with them just
yesterday. So what we do is we provide intensive Texas training, which is the
exam they have to take to become ESL certified. But it's not just that
training that they take. They also have to take like instructional training so
so that they know how to support students.
It's foundational training
to build the language for students.
Okay.
Thank you, Aide.
Yes.
Miss Ella, do you have something?
Yes, thank you.
Thank you so much.
As a sub, I subbed in the newcomer classes
in certain schools.
So I remember them, the classes being very fun
because these students come from all over the place,
but very small, right?
And so in speaking with teachers who are struggling in their classrooms,
looking over there at those newcomer classes that are tiny, like five kids, right?
And you see your numbers here in the junior high and high school numbers.
They could be, there's only 12 in all of Katy High School, 15 at Cinco.
Let's see.
How many are at?
Six are at McMeans.
Okay.
Okay, so is this a state, is the newcomer program a state mandated program?
No, but you've got to remember these kids come with huge gaps, especially at the junior highs and the high schools.
So when we try to group them by those smaller groups and provide intensive content area instruction,
and in addition to that, also build the language.
And then around November we start looking at which students are ready to possibly move on into our sheltered classes
And we do test again to see how many of those students are ready to move
Up and out of those classes so that we can get them in with the sheltered classes
Okay, who defines what is a newcomer newcomer our students coming in at a beginner?
beginner English proficiency level. We assess them. We are required by the state of Texas
for any student that comes in with a language other than English to be assessed for language.
And then we give them the test and based on how they perform on that test, it also measures
the listening, speaking, reading, writing. We determine what is it that they need. Are
Are they beginner level?
We have a lot of students coming in that are beginners,
meaning they have practically no English.
And so to throw them into a grade level classroom,
expecting them to learn the content at the same rate
as an English speaking student is just
setting them up for failure.
So we do provide that intensive instruction in our newcomer
programs for that reason.
in how long does a student how long is that class i'm just very interested in trying to be smarter
if there's any way possible of that resource that has only has five kids in the classroom is there a
way that we could be smarter uh it's a big question but that's why i'm bringing this up
because there's classes right with just a handful of these newcomer kids who need help but is there
a way we could share that teacher more widely?
We've got an empty classroom.
Well, and you're seeing the newcomers just in isolation,
but they can have students scheduled in that are like sheltered students.
They're maybe not beginner, but they're intermediate level.
So then students can only be in a newcomer program up to one year,
and then we move them up into the sheltered.
Classes.
Okay.
Go ahead.
Okay.
We're also, did you have anything further?
I would just like to be able to use these teachers more wisely and still address the
needs of the newcomer children.
I hope we're thinking about that.
Thank you.
Mr. President.
Yeah, I was going to say what I mentioned earlier as far as, real quick, as far, we're
also looking for approving an exception, the exception on the 19 languages, right?
that we're not providing a bilingual as well as part of this as well yes miss fox newcomer program
is for secondary students yes because you don't have a bilingual bilinguals ee through five
bilingual is ee through five uh so newcomer kind of takes the place of speaking a lot in their
native language while teaching english which is not necessarily in their native language because
because we have 99 plus languages represented in KD.
Nobody could teach them all those languages, right?
Or would speak, the teachers wouldn't speak the languages.
But we provide intensive English instruction
that helps support the students in scaffold instruction
with a lot of different methodologies
to get them to learn the English language.
Okay.
So the bilingual program, you teach Spanish and English?
Mm-hmm.
Two-way?
We only have the one-way dual language, yes.
Right, so that's what do you do with newcomer children in elementary school who might teach,
who might speak Ulu or Mandarin?
So our students who would be considered newcomer at elementary are just part of our ESL instruction.
The same students that are taught in the ESL program are included.
So we have ESL instructional support specialty teachers that work with those teachers and those students in the small group setting are going into the classroom and support within the four walls of the classroom those beginners and intermediate students that are learning language at the elementary level.
So the newcomer program at secondary is different than what you do at elementary?
Yes.
Is it because children's propensity to learn a second language develops until the age of 12 and then it kind of really falls off?
We moved.
Well, that and then also at elementary campuses, you're dealing with a smaller group of students that are housed, you know, pretty much by grade level, right?
Whereas in secondary campuses, they're spread out all over the campus in different courses.
So it's harder to get the students grouped accordingly.
To teach every subject.
To teach every subject.
And all of our newcomer teachers are highly trained to teach content and language.
That makes more sense to have a lot of children because it's not like this many sixth graders and this many seventh graders.
Is that why there are only five children per class or is it just all the newcomers?
It depends on how they're coming in, but we are required to have language proficiency assessment committee meetings and place our students within four weeks of them enrolling.
But in Katy, we try to get them enrolled as quickly as possible, identified so that we can begin instructional supports as needed.
needed. And every day or every week, I'm sorry, we outpact twice at the district level and
we must outpack at least 100, 150 students a week.
I see.
And start placing them so, you know, our numbers just keep growing and growing.
Okay, that's good. And from Mrs. Cuzela's point, it seems like I remember a newcomer
center where you know if you came new that you went to one like the junior i can't remember which
junior high and then all of them came in one place so you kind of had a concentrated number and not
not a handful have we have we changed that model yes that's no longer the case that every campus
has its own newcomer program and it's better control of the students um and meeting their
needs at that specific campus got it and this is not something you could do virtually right
because you wouldn't be able to assess student needs in a language you don't even speak.
Correct, and that instruction moves pretty quick for those kids because, again,
they only have the one year to make it out of the newcomer program, so it's highly intense instruction.
Thank you for the information. It's very interesting.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
I used to be a newcomer in third grade, and my teacher then, I guarantee you, was not ESL certified.
But anyway, thank you very much.
Any other questions?
Thank you.
Thanks.
Thank you.
Appreciate it.
Thank you.
9.5 Discuss and consider Board approval to award a contract for design services necessary for the security fencing project at multiple campuses.
We move on to item 9.5, and that is the presenter, Lisa Kastman.
And you'll be up here for a little while to discuss and consider board approval
to award a contract for design services necessary for the security fencing project
and multiple campuses.
Welcome.
Good evening, President Perez.
Thank you, Mr. Perez, Trustees, and Dr. Gagorski.
Only three items this time, so much shorter agenda.
The first item is for a design contract for VLK Architects for security fencing that was
outlined in the 2023 bond.
The project will provide for district-wide upgrading in addition of fencing with non-scalable
capabilities, in accordance with the Texas Education Agency Chapter 61.
Trey Barnett, one of my project managers here, he's going to manage that as well as the next
two items questions this is the one inch fencing right correct okay any questions
yes what where is the fencing going to be we're going to be evaluating starting
with the elementary schools all the perimeter fencing and will this include
the steam the Shaw Center or anything getting them ours are that is that a
separate that'll be that's a separate thing thank you and this was mr president this was in the bond
we passed was this part of our bond correct yeah okay under safety and security yep
mrs castman we're upgrading this fencing i apologize i apologize mr president that was
I really apologize.
Mrs. Kastman, this is replacing fencing because this is non-scalable, right?
Like you can't climb it, like you can't chain link fences at this time.
So that's how the safety is increasing, right?
We've done this a few times over the years of like this is the new,
and then we did four feet, and then we did six feet,
and now they just find ways.
So thank you.
We're keeping it six foot, and if we go with the one inch,
we can keep it at the six foot.
That's great.
You can't climb it.
right and stick your toe in it right correct that's what i mean non-scale can't scale it
thank you the height isn't changing that's correct should we go to uh 9.6 okay this is for the
9.6 Discuss and consider Board approval of Amendment One to the Stewart Builders, LLC. contract related to the comprehensive renovations at Katy High School.
initial guaranteed maximum price a gmp for the renovations at the katie high school band hall
with the addition and the vocational hall and the amount of 500 000 this is to pre-order the hvac
equipment which takes six to eight months to get here so we can start next summer this is kind of
like an early payment for them to get started correct yes yeah and i have a chuck johnson with
vok architects in the audience um they assisted with this any questions on 9.6 mr president i
just want to make sure i understand it it's probably for my education but this is not an
increase to the estimated cost it's it's a timing issue or why do we have this in front of us it's a
timing issue and it's going to be part of the total project cost but planned already correct
Correct.
Amendment is an uncomfortable word, but it's an amendment to timing or why do we call it
amendment?
Because the original contract is just a contract services for the construction manager at risk.
There's an estimated budget in there.
And then as we move along, we do an amendment when we have actual costs.
Okay.
So the next amendment will be a total project cost with keeping the budget in mind.
Within plan total costs that was proposed on the bond?
Yes.
Thank you.
Right. And this is kind of like an upfront payment, as we mentioned.
Yes, so we can order.
So the contractor needs a means to be able to pay the manufacturer to get the equipment online.
Mr. President, so this would be less this amount that we're approving, that we vote on next week?
Like the total price?
We don't have the total project cost yet.
Right, but whatever that total price will be, it will be this amount less.
Correct.
Yeah.
Okay.
And that'll be outlined on the board item. You'll see GMP1 as part of that.
9.7 Discuss and consider Board approval of Amendment One to the Stewart Builders, LLC. contract related to the comprehensive renovations at Bear Creek Elementary School.
Okay. 9.7, which is Bear Creek Elementary.
The same thing. We need to order the HVAC equipment, the electrical gear, and get the roofing going for that project.
Again, it's like an advance of the total. It's an advance compared to the total.
Correct. Once it means that the contractor can place the order with the manufacturers.
Okay. Any questions on this item? 9.8 is roof and windows for Taylor and Beckendorf.
9.8 Discuss and consider Board approval for re-roof and building envelopes at Taylor High School and Beckendorff Junior High School.
Thank you, Ms. Casman. And Nathan Fuchs, Executive Director of Maintenance and Operations, welcome.
Thank you. Good evening, President Perez, Board members, and Dr. Grigorski. Tonight,
I have four items for your consideration.
The first item involves re-roofing and building envelope upgrades at Taylor High School and Beckendorf Junior High as part of the 2023 bond component replacement.
At both campuses, we will be replacing roofs and updating window systems to align with our current district standards.
Mr. President?
Ms. Champagne?
Yes.
So, this is not to add windows because there's not that many windows at Taylor.
No, ma'am. This is going to replace current windows with modernized double pane glass
where the existing windows have just single quarter inch windows. This is to go to a double
pane modernized window to provide more efficiency in building.
I just felt compelled to ask that because so many teachers and students wish there were
more windows that tailor, but that's just a-
Right. This is more of a one for one with a newer window.
Yeah, that's just a pipe dream. Okay, thank you.
You bet.
Mr. President.
Mr. Hamey.
Mr. Fuchs, do you know if we still have windows above the natatorium at Taylor?
I just know because I know some students use those to steal the or.
I'm not quite sure.
Kidnap the Mustang one year.
So I didn't know if there's still windows in the natatorium.
Do you know?
I don't know.
I can check.
If there are, we will replace them.
if not they will be replaced right that's correct okay well don't don't
don't put any effort into it but what did you say with bars with bars okay okay
mr. Fowden was telling me this story because he's a fellow Taylor grad with
me and I thought it was funny any other questions on 9.8 this is a job order
contract that's correct yes all the ones I'm presenting on tonight are our job
border contract okay and these are all using cooperative contracts that's correct they're
listed on the board item itself that's correct okay mr president could i just please ask what
is a building envelope so they give it as a shell like a perimeter shell it's so it's it's
uh expansion joints the caulking around the windows um where the building is so any kind
of roofing membranes but it's anything that will prevent air from getting out or water infiltration
from coming in. Thank you. 9.9, life safety and special systems. The second item for your
9.9 Discuss and consider Board approval for life safety and special systems upgrades at Taylor High School, Seven Lakes High School, Katy High School, West Memorial Elementary, Rylander Elementary, Kilpatrick Elementary, Schmaltz Elementary, Griffin Elementary, and the Support Services Complex.
consideration involves life safety and special system upgrades across multiple
campuses. These systems include fire alarms, PA systems, and emergency
generators with the specific upgrades varying by campus based on life cycles
of each system. As systems age and are phased out, sourcing replacement parts
becomes challenging. To address this, we collect and store reusable parts as the attic stock for use throughout the district.
Questions on 9.9?
There's a comment there, the recommended action, the project cost overages are being funded from existing project savings in the 2023 bond authorization.
Is this an overage from the original bond amount?
We're using some of the one I just presented on.
Yeah, 9.9.
9.9 where it says.
9.8.
Yeah, 9.9, you're correct.
That project came a little bit over.
But from 9.8, there is enough project savings there to pick up the differences that cover these overages.
Okay.
Mr. President.
Ms. Fox.
I really appreciate that they're saving the parts from the ones that they're replacing to do the repairs.
Because as they get older, the parts are harder to get, I would guess.
Some of them you can't even get.
So it's very challenging.
So we do.
We pull parts that we know we're going to use at another campus.
Because we can't do them all at one time with the retrofits that's in the bond.
So we may be doing set this.
We are doing set this summer, set next summer.
Well, those projects next summer, those parts are going out repeatedly.
So we're trying to get parts here, drop here to pay Paul more or less.
We keep things a very long time around here.
Have you seen some of our vehicles?
I thought I was the only one hearing that from my air conditioning guy.
They're not making parts anymore.
9.10 Discuss and consider Board approval of the proposals for the chiller replacement and central plant optimization at Cinco Ranch High School.
How about 9.10?
The third item for your consideration is for the chiller replacements optimization
at Cinco Ranch High School's central plant.
This project includes replacing all chillers, pumps, and affiliated piping,
and cooling tower components, all of which are original to the school.
school. This central plant services both the high school and the junior high complex.
And this is, this equipment is like 25 years old?
It was original to the school back in 1999.
Thank you, 99.
Okay.
Any questions on 910?
9.11 Discuss and consider Board approval of the proposals for the Building Management Control System replacements at Cinco Ranch High School and Cinco Ranch Junior High School.
Okay, we move on to 911, which is a...
Final.
Go ahead.
The final item for your consideration is the replacement and upgrades to our building
management control system at Cinco Ranch High School and Cinco Ranch Junior High.
These systems control overall operations of lighting and HVAC, including scheduling capabilities.
The upgraded controls will enhance energy efficiencies and enable more efficient, effective
management of building operations.
Mr. President.
Ms. Fox.
When you say it takes care of both, is it at one central location that controls
both or it's at Cinco Junior High and Cinco High School, two different?
It's probably, it's out of the central plant and it will, there's components at both campuses.
It's actuators, it's the lighting contactors, every mechanical piece, building controls,
operators.
Actuators.
Right.
So to answer your question, it's at both campuses.
It's not just one.
It's actual, it serves equipment on both campuses.
That's the easy way to put it.
What's a central plant?
A central plant is a big mechanical room that houses a lot of big equipment, like the chillers,
the pumps, the boilers.
And each school has one or there's one between the schools?
A central plant is a big one where the big chillers are housed.
There are smaller mechanical rooms where smaller pieces of equipment are housed,
but every campus has a central plant where big pieces of equipment are housed.
Got it.
Thanks.
Mr. President?
Ms. Cozzella?
So does this affect and hopefully help the electrical problems that people talk about at Cinco or partly maybe?
maybe they complain a lot about the electrical at Cinco High School and Cinco Junior High.
I was going to shake my head because I thought you were talking about,
I was assuming you were going to talk about the energy efficiency of the building.
Unfortunately, you did not.
You went a different direction and you talked about the electrical.
Yeah, Cinco, Nathan, I'll let you take a stab at it.
I think a lot of the things that we deal with at Cinco are more related to area outages
and things like that, but I'll let Nathan do it.
Okay.
I would agree with what Mr. Verling said.
The items I'm presenting on tonight don't really have anything to do with electrical service
or gear or anything of that nature.
Unfortunately not.
Okay.
It's just the control.
I just thought I'd ask just in case.
Thank you.
We do do a, from a maintenance standpoint, we go back and we do torque and tighten on older campuses
where we go back and we run kind of preventative maintenance on electrical gear.
As gear ages, it needs maintenance as well.
So we do proactively do that to help prevent some of that.
But a lot of times it's a center point outage.
Okay.
Thank you.
Any other questions?
Thank you, Mr. Fuchs.
Thank you.
10. Information Items
We have the information items.
And one thing I did notice, which I thought was very impressive,
on the donations the donations from the KDISD FFA livestock and rodeo
association to to the various schools like cash for registration and travel
for FFA competitions and all that I thought that was pretty pretty neat very
impressive and also a donation from the KD chamber for the livestock show for
career and technical education any anything on the check register the
the quarterly investment report, donated items. We have a recap of information.
Yes. I have from Trustee Fox, she would like the notes and minutes from the legislative
committee meetings that took place, and also she would like the comments from the listening
circle surveys and the table comments captured by the facilitators at the tables.
And really just minutes from every committee as they meet, just kind of a little bit of
minutes you know of how it went instead of just an agenda it'll give us an idea
of like what questions to ask and does anything come to mind okay and then I
wanted to know more information on the contracted firm or the comprehensive
governmental affairs strategy based on the budget amendment tonight and then
And then Trustee Teemee wants to know if there's windows in the chair.
No, no, no.
11. Future Meetings
Okay, we have a regular board meeting on October 28th.
And also we have a, our board work-study meeting is November 18th.
And then our December meeting is our regular board meeting on December 9th.
so we just have one meeting each in November and December.
November 18 is work study.
December 9 is regular board meeting.
And there being no further business for the board,
this meeting is adjourned.
The time is 9.01.
We miss 9 o'clock by a minute.
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.