I hereby call this special meeting of the Board of Trustees of Katy Independent School District to order.
Katy ISD · Special Meeting
Katy ISD Special Meeting, March 20, 2025
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- 0:01 to 1:22 1. Call to Order
- 1:22 to 34:00 3. Public Comment
- 34:00 to 2:05:15 4.1 Teacher Preparation and Planning Time presentation and discussion.
- 2:05:15 to 2:05:40 5. Future Meetings
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1. Call to Order
Today is Thursday, March 20, 2025, and the time is 5.01 p.m.
Noting that a quorum is present, the Board will now reconvene, will convene an open meeting.
Dr. Gorgorski, will you verify that we are in compliance with the provisions of the Texas Open Meetings Act with regard to notice for this meeting?
Mr. President, I do confirm we're in compliance with the provisions of the Texas Open Meeting Act for our meeting tonight.
Thank you.
KDISD Police Officer Howard will lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance.
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
honor the Texas flag I pledge allegiance to the Texas one state under God one
individual
3. Public Comment
at this time the Board of Trustees will give members of the public an
opportunity to speak in accordance with kdisd board policy bed local speakers who signed up
by 2 pm on thursday march 20 2025 and provided their first and last name will be allowed to
address the board as this is a special meeting public comment is limited to discussion on posted
agenda items only each speaker will get three minutes if you are not finished speaking at the
At the end of your three minutes, your video will turn off.
If speakers wish to share written material with the board, you must provide ten copies to the secretary for
board services before the meeting for board members, the superintendent, 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 or to hear a complaint or charge against an
officer or employee.
employee.
Should a speaker wish to address one of these issues, they must do so through the appropriate
legal grievance policies, F&G Local, DGBA Local, CKE Local, or GF Local.
Our speakers will be called in the order they signed up to speak.
Our first speaker is Brenda Jones.
Brenda Jones.
Thank you. Welcome. Thank you. I'm Brenda Jones and I am a member of the community.
I have lived in the Katy ISD school district since 1980. I had four children
that went to Katy schools and I have two grandchildren who are about to attend
Katy schools. But most of all I'm concerned about all of the children in
the community i'm a keys mentor and i am a child advocate in harris county and my concern always
goes to all the children not just my own um i am here tonight because i have spoken to teachers who
basically either don't have the time to be able to get here tonight or are are concerned about
their own jobs as being teachers and don't are afraid to come forward but
they are concerned because they are not able to have the planning time that they
need during the day and and I'm told that like they are called away to
to substitute for, because a teacher,
they don't have a substitute for a class
because they haven't been able to call a substitute
or something, but I'm sure tonight you're going to hear
from teachers who will be able to tell you specifics
about why they don't have this planning time.
I'm just concerned because I know we can't,
we would love to be able to pay our teachers more than they get which is that's always going to be
a problem with teachers but we want them to be happy in their jobs we want them to have the
planning time that they deserve and and that they need planning time certainly so that they can do
their job and that they have a time during the day when they can take a mental break and be able to
a focus on what they're doing that's required in any job.
So I can understand.
I've never been a teacher, but having had jobs,
I know that's very important to be able to plan during the day.
So I want all the teachers to know who are going to talk tonight
and who have come tonight that the community is behind you
and we support you and we want you to have the resources that you can that you
deserve and I'm sure the board is with you as well thank you thank you our next
speaker is autumn Mailer and after that is Amy Whitlow good evening president
President Perez, Dr. Grigorski, and school board members, thank you for giving us this
opportunity to speak up about something that is vital to what I do in my classroom, my
planning time.
My name is Autumn Mahler and I'm a high school teacher.
This is my ninth year in Katy and my 18th year in education.
I was not sure that I wanted to come here and speak today because I'm afraid of retaliation.
But at the same time, I have to speak up for all of my coworkers who aren't able to be
here for one reason or another.
It's unclear on whether or not the decisions being made are at the campus level or if this truly is a domino effect of decisions being passed down to my administration.
Regardless of where these decisions originated, I can share with you the effects felt by a classroom teacher.
I know from watching the last board meeting that you believe your school principals understand teachers are to have 45 minutes uninterrupted and with no duties assigned during their school day to plan and prep for their classes.
By state law, I'm to be given 450 minutes every two weeks.
I currently have exactly a 45-minute planning period, which meets that requirement exactly.
My conference is from 843 to 928 every day.
In October, I received an email invite to a PLC meeting for social studies where we
were informed we would be meeting weekly during our conference.
Our goal was to rewrite the Canvas curriculum we had been given.
I responded to that email and shared my concerns about planning time.
Then I spoke directly with my assistant principal who scheduled a meeting with my principal in October to discuss my concerns.
My principal informed me that other schools are using teacher planning time this way, so it must be okay.
I printed out state law information from the Texas Teachers Union to give them, but the information was not acknowledged.
I informed my principal yesterday because I respect her that I will be speaking here today.
Today we received an email canceling our PLCs so that they can be restructured.
She heard my concern and I appreciate it.
However, this is not the case on other campuses.
As a result of losing these conference periods, I'm struggling to rewrite the RAINS Canvas
curriculum which the district wants us to implement.
My team of three social studies teachers are expected to complete the Herculean task of
creating new computer-based curriculum for five core social studies classes.
I believe my principal when she says that she has asked for help, but none has been
given.
This has taken away from the normal tasks that I need to complete in order for my class to be functional.
I do not feel like my students are receiving the quality education that KDISD prides itself on.
With less time available during my conference period, I'm forced to multitask during class.
So instead of spending that time working one-on-one with students, I'm at my desk completing grades,
communicating with guardians, doing ARD paperwork, sending off transfer grades,
or any other number of tasks that need to be completed on a daily and weekly basis.
Thank you for your time.
Thank you.
Amy Whitlow, followed by Tana Weiss.
Good evening, board members.
I stand before you as a parent, a former substitute teacher, a former instructional coach,
and a current teacher in KDISD.
speaking in regards to insufficient teacher planning time. I also represent
the teachers that are scared to step forward and speak for themselves. There
are several. My unique experience within Katy ISD has shown me that across the
elementary campuses following the Texas law for planning is a major problem. It
was suggested in a previous board meeting that this is a campus problem.
I'm here to tell you that this is not a few selected schools and a handful of
of teachers at an elementary level.
This is a district problem.
I was instructed last year as an instructional coach
for reading and writing to follow a detailed plan
for two planning periods each week
in which the teachers should not deviate from,
nor should I.
I assure you, it does not say my elementary school name
on it, it does not say my administration's names on it,
it says KDISD.
I have provided you with copies of this.
In addition, I met with several other instructional coaches in math and science,
facing the same issues that teacher plannings were dictated by administration.
And this administration on the campus level has constraints put on it from the district.
Working at several campuses, I've heard planning days called sacred days and dedicated days
in which they will not plan arts or other meetings.
Therefore, those are planned for the other three days of the week, taking additional
plannings away.
I myself have documented 26 school business days in a row where I had zero planning days
due to this type of structure.
I have also spoken with friends in secondary at four different campuses.
They informed me that it is even worse than elementary school.
One of my friends laughed and said, what is a planning period?
I substitute teach other classes during that time since we do not have sub coverage.
This too is a district issue, the lack of substitutes.
To be clear, I am not opposed to planning with my colleagues,
but I am opposed to these plannings being scripted for us, dictate at which days we meet, what will be discussed,
someone telling us that we are late, telling us to keep on track if we want to discuss something different, and
those are just a few that I experienced at different campuses and after speaking
to many many other teachers it too is a problem at their campuses the solution
is simple give control of plannings to teachers we are after all professionals
thank you very much for your time and I also want to thank my campus principal
for her support thank you
Tana Weiss, followed by Yarrow Sledge.
Welcome.
Good evening, Dr. Gagorski and board members.
My name is Tana Weiss, and I'm reading on behalf of several teachers tonight.
Thank you for listening to teachers.
I've been a teacher for 20-plus years in KDISD in the elementary school.
I have taught students in pre-K, kinder, third, and sixth through eighth grades.
I'm sending this letter to express information from several different teachers at several different elementary schools.
Teacher planning time is valuable for teachers for many different reasons.
The most important is planning for students.
Teachers need to meet together in order to plan what they'll be teaching to their students.
In elementary, this is so important.
You want the teams to be on the same page.
We live in Katy, Texas and let's face it, parents talk. This is also a time to help
new teachers learn material. I feel strongly that as a veteran teacher we
can always learn something new and some need to learn something new. No teacher
should ever think they do not need to plan with others or that they know it
all. I do agree with some of the points that members of the Texas AFT have
presented. Yes, there are some meetings that really could be handled with an
email but this should be handled at each campus and not with the school board to
several teachers at different campuses this seems to be like some members of
the school board are trying to blame someone teachers need more help with
sped students and ESOL students these are the topics that the school board
should be addressing. SPED teachers are amazing yet so overloaded. ESOL does not
have the help needed for all the different languages in Katy. With that
being said, I feel that a survey should have been sent to all the teachers so
that you could truly understand what is occurring with teacher planning time.
Please do not make a rash decision when there are so many campuses and teachers
teachers that are okay with the planning time provided.
Thank you for listening to both sides of this situation.
Signed Concerned Teachers.
Thank you.
Yarrow Sledge, followed by Allison Knight.
Welcome.
Good evening, President Perez, Board members, Dr. Grgorski, and staff.
I am here to address the complexity of teacher planning time.
Having worked in the district from 2009 to 2023 across multiple roles, including second,
third, fifth grade, self-contained, special education teacher, emerging bilingual teacher,
and textbook clerk, I have experienced firsthand the varying demands placed on teachers.
Planning periods were often consumed by ARD meetings, staffing, 504 meetings, parent conferences,
ESL collaboration, student support meetings, CPS reporting, assisting students in need,
just to name a few.
As Dr. Gregorski mentioned last week, teacher planning time is not a one-size-fits-all issue.
The needs differ significantly across schools, grade levels, and individual classrooms.
Throughout my time in KDISD, I was fortunate to work with administrators who fostered open
communication and problem solving.
When I faced challenges that impacted my planning time, my administrators worked with me to
find solutions such as assigning a student teacher to me, adjusting my duty schedule
at dismissal time, or even involving district leadership to provide additional support.
I do want to note I was never retaliated against.
These interventions not only helped manage my workload, but also made me feel valued
as an educator.
While these solutions may not be feasible for every campus or teacher, they illustrate
the complexity of this issue.
Due to legally mandated meetings and the varying demands placed on educators, a standardized
policy cannot effectively address the complexities of teacher planning time.
Requiring staff to attend meetings before or after contractual hours is neither a feasible
nor sustainable solution.
solution. Implementing a blanket policy without providing the necessary resources to campuses
only exacerbate existing challenges rather than solving them. Moving forward, I encourage
a collaborative and flexible approach that prioritizes ensuring both compliance and the
well-being of educators. Thank you. Thank you.
Allison Knight followed by Laura Johansen.
Good evening.
My name is Allison Knight and I'm a fifth grade teacher in KDISD.
In my conversations about teacher planning time, I have heard many questions about the
legality of group planning sessions potentially counting towards the state protected 450 minutes.
In the 1986 Stratter v. Houston ISD court decision, the Commissioner stated,
The purpose of the planning and preparation period is to allow teachers planning and preparation as the teacher, not the administration, deems best.
The statute clearly relieves the teacher of any duty during this period of time and prohibits the district and its administration from requiring the teacher to engage in any other activity the administration determines to be useful and important.
important. Dr. Gagorski, last week you stated that your position has always been to follow the Texas Education Code, which is great. But you suggested that if teachers had complaints, we should take them up with our chain of command, principals, area superintendents, or you directly, which I trust would be effective if it were affecting just a few teachers and campuses.
campuses. However, since the start of this 24-25 school year, 171 teachers from 56 Katy ISD campuses
have reported regularly losing at least one planning period a week. This is 78 percent of
Katy ISD elementary schools, 61 percent of Katy junior highs, and 80 percent of Katy high schools
for a total of 74% of campuses across the district
that have teachers regularly losing state-protected planning time.
And this is just from a short survey.
Imagine what the actual number is.
These numbers are alarming and clearly not a coincidence or a one-off,
nor is it a problem isolated to individuals in any way.
This issue originates at the district level.
The mandate for these planning periods was given without considering the legal implications,
and now the responsibility is unfairly being swept down to campus administrators to fix a compliance issue created by district administration.
We've raised this concern multiple times with district administrators, including directly to area superintendents,
yet the response has been silence, dismissal, or even intimidation.
One teacher at the last board meeting even suggested an immediate free solution,
trust teachers as professionals to collaborate as we see fit.
She also provided a list of other solutions and another teacher will present even more solutions for you this evening.
Unless the Katie way is to violate the Texas Education Code, I urge you to stand behind your previous statement.
Follow the code, follow the law, make it abundantly clear to every teacher on every campus that mandated group planning time is now optional and on our terms because it cannot be mandated.
Thank you for your willingness to hear our teachers' voices this evening and work with us.
I look forward to seeing impactful solutions for us teachers and our students. Thank you. Thank you
Larger Hansen followed by Sarah to Hansen
Good evening. My name is Laura Johansson and I'm a teacher here in Katy ISD
As you know under state law teachers are entitled to a minimum of 45 minutes of planning time during each school day
This is not just a recommendation, it is a legal right.
However, at least 78% of elementary campuses on our district are currently facing a situation
where this legally required planning time is being reduced or taken away entirely.
It is outlined clearly in the staff handbooks. Teachers are losing two planning periods each week.
To make matters worse, ours are also being scheduled during planning times on the other days,
further depriving teachers of the time they need to prepare lessons for their students' success.
This theft of planning time has gone on for far too long and I stand here today to say enough is enough.
By scheduling additional obligations during teachers legally required planning periods, the district is violating the law.
Teachers are entitled to that time and the loss of it is more than just a logistical issue.
It's an ethical one. It undermines the quality of education we provide to our students and it leaves teachers feeling overworked,
undervalued, and stretched thin.
At this moment, the district owes its teachers over five days of compensatory time just for the twice weekly planning periods that have been stolen from teachers this school year.
This is a considerable amount of time, and it was time that was legally guaranteed but systematically stolen from teachers.
In addition, I want to point out that next year's master schedule for elementary schools is still in violation of the law.
If we continue down this path, we risk further harm to both teachers and students alike, so it's critical that we address this issue immediately.
I am lucky that my campus administration supports us and is willing to work with us to try to find a solution
Even though this issue is bigger than our campus
I asked that this board listen to voices of teachers who are directly impacted by these scheduling decisions
We need your support to correct the mathematical errors in the planning time allocations and to ensure that our master schedules for the upcoming
School year are in compliance with the law
Teachers should not have to fight for their legal rights
We should be supported by a system that prioritizes the well-being of both educators and students.
In conclusion, the district must take immediate action to restore the planning time that is rightfully ours.
We need changes that not only respect our legal rights, but also reflect the respect and value that we as teachers deserve.
I urge this board to walk alongside us, listen to our concerns, and act swiftly to correct the issue.
only then can we move forward in a way that ensures our teachers have the time
needed to provide the best possible education for all our students thank you
thank you
Sarah Johanson after that Dana Watson good evening members of the school board
administrators teachers and fellow students my name is Sarah Johanson and
and I'm a junior at Morton Ranch High School.
I am here tonight because I care about my education
and the well-being of the teachers who make it possible.
I want to talk about something that isn't always obvious
unless you're living it every day.
Our teachers are being stretched too thin.
Their planning time is being taken away on a regular basis,
and as a result, we, your students, are feeling the effects.
Planning time isn't a luxury for teachers.
It's a necessity.
It's the time they use to prepare meaningful lessons,
tailor instruction to our needs,
gather materials and grade our work when that time is stolen when meetings run
over when extra duties pile up when administrative tasks overshadow
classroom preparation it creates a domino effect I have personally walked
into class to find my teacher flustered and unprepared because they just rushed
from an unexpected meeting I've seen them searching for materials that
weren't copied in time or scrambling to adjust an activity that hadn't yet been
finalized I've even had to wait outside of a locked classroom even after the
tardy bell because my teacher hadn't yet been released from a meeting. This is not
just an inconvenience, it cuts into our limited learning time. For students like
me who are in GT or advanced classes, the impact is even more pronounced. Many of
us thrive on differentiated instruction, lessons that challenge us, push us
further, and align with our unique abilities and interests. But how can
teachers develop these types of lessons if they don't have time to prepare the
basics? Instead of engaging projects or individualized instruction, we often get
generic assignments that don't meet our needs not because our teachers don't
have this desire or skills but because they simply don't have the time teachers
are constantly being asked to do more with less less time fewer resources and
growing expectations but at what cost when teachers are overwhelmed their
stress carries into the classroom when they're unable to prepare our lessons
suffer when they're bogged down with meetings instead of preparing for us our
education is directly affected. I'm asking you as members of this board to
take a hard look at the policies and decisions that are robbing our teachers
of their planning time. What can be done to protect that time? What changes can be
made to ensure that meetings and administrative tasks don't take
precedent over preparing for student learning? If we truly value education we
must also value the time it takes to make it effective. Our teachers deserve
better and so do we. Thank you.
Dana Watson followed by Jennifer Knight good evening members of the board we're
very grateful for your presence at this meeting as it signifies our shared
commitment to fostering a brighter future for educators and more
importantly the students we serve you've heard our grievances now let's talk
solutions my union members and myself have collaborate collaborated on a
possible on possible solutions to this issue the first solution would be to increase our planning
periods per texas code teachers must be allotted 450 minutes per planning time bi-weekly unfortunately
this cannot be achieved with the current allotted amount of time due to meetings arts plc's and
team planning one solution to facilitate the responsibility of meetings would be to increase
planning time to 50 minutes that way one day of that bi-weekly period can be
dedicated to attending one meeting and still meet the state requirement another
option would be to increase it to 55 minutes and then that would give us two
days for meetings an additional possible solution would be to hire campus
substitutes or utilizing staff with flexible rules to cover classrooms so
that teachers can attend required meetings such as arts during the school day arts are mutually
agreed upon time between parents and the art committee my colleagues and myself would agree
that parents cannot always attend arts due to them being scheduled exclusively during a teacher's
planning in addition to this squeezing an art into a 45-minute period is not a model that works
for our sped students or parents lastly stop micromanaging teacher planning time teacher
Teacher planning time is to be used as teachers' discretion and cannot be interrupted by administrators without consent,
and we cannot be forced into group planning.
This could start immediately.
I hope we can finally come to a solution together,
one which will start to prioritize protecting the time and well-being of our teachers.
Thank you for your time, and thank you for allowing me to speak.
Thank you.
you Kelly Hamilton is our final speaker
I'm Jennifer Schneid I think I'm next oh okay go ahead good afternoon Katie a
steep ward my name is Jenny Schneid I spoke to you on February 28th regarding
teacher planning time I want to thank all of you for your service to Katie AC
and for addressing this important issue I want to remind you of some of the
solutions I shared with you to help bring Katie ISD into compliance with
Texas code 21.4 zero four first move mandatory PLC meetings out of protected
teacher planning time PLC time is valuable but not at the expense of
teacher planning time there are already documented court cases where school
districts lose when they mandate PLC time during planning time please see the
packet I provided you documenting court case number 128 r 1 0 1 2 9 0 where the
court upheld a teacher's grievance when the school district specifically took
the teachers planning time to require teachers to attend small group planning
meetings during their planning time the Commissioner held the district in
violation on page 4 I have highlighted for you and I quote the statute was
enacted for the purpose of giving teachers time to engage in parent
teacher conferences reviewing students homework and planning and preparation as
the teacher not the administration deems best the statute clearly relieves the
teacher of any duty during this period of time and prohibits the district and
its administration from requiring the teacher to engage in any other activity
that the administration
determines to be useful and important solution number one and this is free to
start tomorrow stop requiring teachers to participate in PLC's during their
planning period solution number two move arts and other required meetings out of
planning time and provide teachers coverage during contract time for these
mandatory meetings third reduce unnecessary meetings to an email or
eliminate them and lastly do not move meetings that were originally occurring
during teacher planning time to before or after school this is not respectful
of teacher personal time and will not positively impact teacher retention if
meetings are required valued and necessary the district needs to find the
appropriate time for them to occur during the teacher workday I want to
thank my principal for supporting teachers as much as she is able to do so
within the current constraints placed on campuses at the district level I want to
thank you for your time and attention to this important issue thank you
Kelly Hamilton good evening dr. Krosky and esteemed school board members my
name is Kelly Hamilton and I have 34 years of teaching experience in
education I'm here tonight to address a pressing concern the erosion of teachers
planning time due to mandated collaborative sessions that overlook the
expertise of teachers it has been stated that every communication coming down
from the district level is that the expectation is to follow the Texas
Education Code of Planning and prep time fortunately I feel very supported by my
principal this year but since arriving in Katy in 2014 I have taught in four
different elementary schools under six different principals and I have seen a
pattern of individual planning time being compromised teachers are mandated
to engage in team planning sometimes multiple times a week and occasionally
before school hours while collaboration is crucial and we do want to plan
together these mandated sessions frequently follow a predetermined
district agenda leaving little room for teachers with experience to give input
let's talk about the Katy way when I first considered coming to Katy I heard
this phrase often with great pride the katie way meant a plus rating high expectations strong
community ties and unparalleled learning for students but today teachers are asking does the
katie way really mean unparalleled learning for all students or mandated planning for teachers
if we are forcing educators into meetings that strip away their ability to plan then we're not
upholding the Katy way we're undermining it I assure you it already takes more
than 225 minutes a week to confer with parents and prepare one week's of lesson
using the provided district resources it's disheartening to hear that
passionate dedicated teachers are feeling unheard undervalued many are too
afraid to speak for fear of retaliation so instead they give up and quit
it initially i was going to ask the board to reevaluate the mandated planning but having
heard it stated that the district expects the code to be followed i have a different request
just honor that expectation honor the spirit of the law by preserving teachers planning time for
its intended purpose allow us to reflect to innovate and to prepare personalized instruction
that meets our students needs my colleague has already provided you with a list of solutions
that come at no cost to the district. If the Katy Way is truly about providing
unparalleled learning for every student, then we must trust the educators who
deliver that instruction every day. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. This concludes the public comment portion of our meeting. We will
4.1 Teacher Preparation and Planning Time presentation and discussion.
now move on to the presentation and discussions. We have, I think, several
presenters. First of all, I want to say that I appreciate everybody that's here,
everybody that's presenting, and the time that you took to prepare. Really
appreciate that. And we're here to listen, to learn more about this issue, to
hopefully come up with some solutions and alternatives. So thank you so much
for being here, your presentation, your research, and you know in terms of
of us being able to learn more about it and again,
come up with some solutions.
Thank you so much.
And this is Deb Hubbell, Assistant Superintendent.
Thank you.
Good evening, President Perez, Dr. Gagorski, and Board.
My name is Deb Hubbell.
I am one of three elementary assistant superintendents
for school leadership.
We each supervise one third of the elementary campuses,
working day in and day out with campus leaders, teachers, parents, and students.
Prior to this role, I served for 15 years as principal and assistant principal at
Morton Ranch Elementary, a Title I A-rated campus here in Katy ISD. I have a
great deal of experience with master scheduling, collaboration among teaching
teams, and teacher planning and preparation. Like all of us presenting
tonight, I have been a teacher on multiple elementary campuses. While many
things about teaching have changed since the 1990s there are also many
consistencies the need for strong instructional planning the importance of
classroom management the critical partnership between families and schools
and most importantly the relentless focus on what is best for students we
have experienced and we recognize the magnitude of an elementary teachers
responsibilities beyond the personal care growth and safety of each child
throughout his or her entire school day teachers also have responsibility during
their 450 minutes of planning time every two weeks through a presentation you
have requested our goal is to share our Katie eyes the expectations for those
450 minutes describing the supports our district provides to teachers to meet
student needs sharing research-based best practices related to collaborative
approaches to planning and enabling you to hear from some elementary principals
about how they successfully make this all work on their campuses. We expect
this to take about 30 minutes and we'll welcome questions at the end of our
presentation. It is no secret to us why the Niche Report continually ranks Katy
ISD as the number one school district in the greater Houston area. It is because
of our teachers. Teachers have the power to shape minds and futures of students.
They inspire a love of learning and create a safe, supportive environment in which students can thrive.
They help students develop essential life skills such as critical thinking, problem solving, decision making.
They build strong relationships with their students founded on trust and mutual respect.
They create a sense of belonging in their classrooms, continually adapt to meet the diverse needs of their students,
and ultimately help to create a more informed, compassionate, and thoughtful community.
The dedication of teachers to helping students succeed has a lasting impact on individuals and society.
I know that as an elementary principal, I would put my teachers up against any in the nation for their care and dedication to their students.
We love our teachers in Katy ISD.
In our field, our state provides standards for school administrators and teachers.
the number one standard for a Texas school principal is to be an
instructional leader we are responsible for ensuring that every student receives
high quality instruction high quality instruction is the result of effective
teacher planning to reach all children this planning must be done
collaboratively research supports collaborative teacher planning team
Team planning helps create consistency in delivery of curriculum and in grading.
You'll hear from our principals how important this is, as neighborhood parents do discuss their children's school experiences.
Team planning promotes learning among the teachers, enabling rookies to improve instructional quality by adapting ideas shared by veterans.
Team planning provides the chance for district personnel and specialty teachers on the campus
to offer supports for diverse learning needs.
As a principal, I attended as many team planning sessions as possible to ensure appropriate
levels of rigor were being addressed, to keep an eye on the vertical alignment of concepts
across the grade levels, to know what to expect when I visited classrooms in the upcoming
coming week to guide discussion of data analysis and help teachers identify
needed areas of focus and sometimes even to share my own instructional ideas the
correlation between successful teacher planning sessions and powerful
instructional delivery with the resulting student achievement was
consistently high at Morton Ranch Elementary our KD ISD principals so many
of whom are in our audience tonight take their roles as instructional leaders
very seriously. Thank you, Ms. Hubbell. Good evening, Board of Trustees and Dr.
Gorgorski. My name is Gwen Coffey and I currently serve as the Assistant
Superintendent for Special Education. I'm entering my 28th year in public
education, don't tell anyone, during which I have held various roles including
including general education and special education teacher
across all grade levels, elementary, secondary,
as well as a counselor and an assistant principal
at both the elementary and the secondary levels,
multiple schools in KDISD,
and I've also had the privilege of serving as a principal
in KDISD of Rylander Elementary School.
This evening, I'm here to present information
regarding Texas Education Code 21.404,
which outlines the allowable activities for teachers
during their planning and preparation periods. Texas Education Code 21404
states that each classroom teacher is entitled to at least 450 minutes of
planning time within each two-week period for instructional preparation,
parent-teacher conferences, evaluating student work, and planning. Additionally,
Texas Education Code 21404 states that teacher planning periods must be no less
than 45 minutes within the instructional day as previously mentioned the Texas
Education Code identifies four broad categories of activities that are
allowable for teachers to engage in during their planning time these
categories are as follows instructional preparation which includes tasks such as
gathering resources reviewing unit plans lesson planning unpacking the Texas
essential knowledge and skills or teks developing assessments collaborating
collaborating with instructional coaches, and planning for small group instruction, to name a few.
Parent-teacher conferences.
This category includes activities such as an ARD committee meeting, a 504 committee meeting,
and any other required conference or state or federal parent-teacher conferences that may also be required.
Evaluating student work.
This involves tasks such as multi-tiered system of support conferences,
looking at how students are performing within the scope of the recommended
performance for their grade level data collection and or review staffing's
which help to prepare for upcoming parent meetings grading of student work
completing report cards or progress report or monitoring student progress
and planning is a broad category that will encompass the activities described
in all of these other areas and reflecting the combination of
instructional preparation, conferencing, and evaluation. These four areas are
interconnected and integral to the daily work that teachers perform. Teachers are
required to participate in a range of federal and state mandated activities
that are often scheduled during an instructional day. This slide outlines
many of these requirements, although it is not an exhaustive list. These
activities are not discretionary in nature. The district does not have the
the option to opt out of these activities.
Campus principals do not have the option to opt out of these activities.
It's important to note that when a campus principal is considering the scheduling options
for teacher planning time, these mandates must be carefully considered as well.
For example, KDIC operates 48 elementary campuses and last year only one campus had fewer than
173 ARD meetings, which is the number of instructional days in last year.
So many campuses had over 350 elementary campuses, over 350 ARD meetings during last school year.
So if we were to only hold ARD meetings before or after school, that would become incredibly difficult looking at the number of ARD meetings,
and it would actually place KDICD out of compliance with federal and state mandates.
We would not be able to hold the number of required ARD meetings at most of our campuses.
This slide reflects the Texas Teacher Evaluation and Support System, or T-TESTS, which focuses
on providing continuous, timely, and informative feedback to educators to enhance their educational
practices.
As Mrs. Hubbell shared, the alignment between T-PESTS, which is the principal standards,
and T-TESTS, which are teacher standards, ensures a strong emphasis on planning and
educator preparation, which are essential for achieving positive student outcomes.
T-TESTS compromises four domains, one of which is specifically dedicated just to planning.
Domain 1 of the T-TESTS evaluates whether teachers have designed lessons that align
with the TEKS, reflect best practices and educational strategies, and whether lessons
are tailored to meet the needs of diverse learners.
Teachers are expected to use student data to inform their instruction and to demonstrate
a deep understanding of student needs and effective teaching methods to ensure high
high levels of learning and achievement.
Lesson activities should engage students and foster higher order thinking.
As you are already aware, teaching is an immensely challenging profession and we are fortunate
to have teachers in KDISD who value and excel at the work that they do.
Mrs. Harper is now going to address these elements and how they connect to the teacher
job description in KDISD.
Good evening.
I'm Kristen Harper, one of the three assistant superintendents who support elementary campuses.
I have 33 years of experience in education, including several years as a teacher in a
Title I district and 15 years as a campus principal, both at the elementary and secondary
levels.
In reviewing the KDISD job description for teachers, it is evident that planning and
preparation are fundamental to both the teacher's success and, more importantly, the success
of their students. As outlined in the job description, the core mission of the teacher's
role is to provide students with appropriate learning activities and experiences that enable
them to reach their full potential. As Dr. Coffey mentioned, one of the key tasks teachers engage
in during their planning time is preparing for instruction. The job description emphasizes that
teachers are expected to implement lesson plans that are aligned with the district curriculum
curriculum and adhere to the guidelines set by the Texas Education Agency.
This highlights the importance of collaborative teamwork among grade-level content area teams
as they review the KDISD unit plans and assess the most effective resources and activities
to achieve the desired learning outcomes.
Collaboration with special education teachers and other staff members is also crucial.
teachers must ensure that modifications and accommodations are utilized
appropriately to meet the individual needs of their students another important
responsibility as described in the Katie ISD teacher job description is the
continuous assessment of students understanding of content teachers must
use this data to guide and adjust their instruction for example in classrooms I
often observe teachers pulling small groups of students to provide additional
additional instruction on specific skills based on the assessment data that they've gathered.
Planning time is utilized to analyze this data and develop strategy strategies for future instruction.
Finally, a key expectation outlined for KDSD teachers is the effective use of planning time
to maintain communication with parents regarding student progress. This time is often dedicated to
to conferences with parents, special education art meetings to discuss progress and future
plans or MTSS and ELPAC meetings where relevant staff collaborate to evaluate the effectiveness
of a student's programming, accommodations or modifications.
Successful teachers understand the importance of keeping an open and ongoing line of communication
with parents.
Rosanne Smith will now introduce a discussion on what planning time implementation looks
like on campuses and kdisd
all right thank you kristen uh as she said my name is rasan smith i'm an
assistant superintendent for elementary school leadership and support i'm one of
the three uh and i'm here to talk to you about the
principal perspective on planning you've heard from the assistant superintendents
but really where the rubber meets the road is on the campuses with the
principals and the teachers i currently have 25 years
years of experience uh my proudest moment um would be being the principal
of McRoberts Elementary here in Katy ISD. One thing I can say from a principal's perspective
is that we know that teachers have a lot on their plates. All educators do it from the top down,
superintendent all the way down to every staff member. The question is how can we reduce these
things and as a as a campus principal we all know that on a daily basis we try. Speaking from my
perspective as principal, one thing that I did and Carol Langley here was one of my assistant
assistant principals. As a leadership team, we came together and we said, what are we asking
all of our teachers to do? And we listed it out on the board and we sat back and we're like, man,
that's a lot of stuff. And so as a leadership team, we said, what can we do to take some things off
their plate? And so we started striking through the things that we could take off their plate.
But you guys saw from the federal government, from the state, there's a lot of things that we
cannot take off of their plate. So once we brought that list down, we brought it to our team leaders
and we said, hey, we're trying to minimize the things that we're asking you guys to do.
How can we help you guys? Tell us from a teacher perspective.
And so then our team leaders went through the list, and they started telling us how we could do things easier
and maybe be more flexible. So we're like, okay, cool, we got it.
So we took that, we took it to our teachers, and we said, hey, this is where we started.
This is where we ended. We hear you guys. It's a lot on you. It's a lot on us.
What do you guys think? Campus applauded. They loved it.
But, you know, like I said before, there are a lot of things that we can take off a teacher's plates,
and there are a lot of things that we just can't because it's federally and state required.
But I do want everyone to know in here that the principals that we have here today truly do know the hard work that our teachers do every day.
We do like to work collaboratively with our people, with our principals, with our teachers, with our staff.
And, you know, it can be a lot, but it is doable.
But it does take collaboration.
So I want you guys to hear from two of our dynamic principals today. We have Jamie Shipley and Carol Langley.
Good evening. I am Jamie Shipley, principal at Campbell Elementary. This is my 26th year in education. I previously taught kindergarten, second grade and third grade, and this is my 16th year as a principal.
I opened Campbell Elementary seven years ago and it's truly been the best part of my career and why it's the people I get to work with each day.
I want to speak tonight about the importance of teacher planning time and how we as a school community work to ensure that this time is valued, it's supported, and it's productive.
Teaching requires thoughtful preparation and reflection and that's why it's important for our teachers to have a dedicated planning time that is both collaborative and meaningful.
One of the key components that makes planning time effective at Campbell is the response to feedback.
Teachers are provided opportunities to voice their thoughts on how planning time is designed,
and their feedback is used to improve the process.
Whether it's adjusting the schedule, creating a more productive agenda, or using a protocol, we listen and we support.
Choice and voice are at the heart of our approach.
So here is an example from the month of January.
This is the planning time schedule and outlined for a third grade reading language arts teacher
at ACE.
We began the semester using our professional development day as a workday with optional
long range planning time.
Some grade levels chose long range planning in December, but there were options.
The long range planning helps teachers map out the TEKS objectives and units so that
weekly planning is more in depth and detailed.
held i will add that next year's instructional calendar works perfectly to provide this long
range planning time for each of the nine weeks to support teachers so reading language arts
collaborative planning is on wednesdays teachers use a shared document to create a team lesson
plan together they have a chance to share strategies and ideas they share resources
they create or modify tests for alignment they plan assessments and assignments for grades to
ensure consistency and teams share the agenda and they create it themselves based on their needs
we also have mtss collaboratives they're held after that first two nine weeks were completed
we look at students who are struggling we analyze their data to determine a plan of intervention now
previously these meetings were held as a grade level team two years ago we changed our process
to allow teachers to have time back and we began meeting with teachers individually about their
students so it took about 10 minutes per teacher you will see art meetings on this calendar we do
allow for choice and for teachers to decide who attends the art if my partner teacher and I have
several special education students we may choose to divide up those art meetings to attend based
on student needs or their eligibility we also have some teams where both teachers do choose
to attend. But last school year, we had 348 art meetings on our campus.
Telpass training. Again, there was choice given where team leaders all agreed that their teams
would rather meet during the school day for that state-mandated training rather than after school.
We really do try to limit our after-school meetings. I tell our teachers and staff often
that family comes first. Many of us, including myself, are shuttling our own kids after school
to activities and attending their games.
We do have one staff meeting a month after school,
and those are scheduled on our master calendar
at the start of the year.
For January, it was our state-mandated test security training.
We didn't create an extra meeting.
We used the already scheduled staff meeting time.
I will say that we do cancel for the month
and give the time back to teachers whenever we can.
And in fact, we did cancel our March staff meeting.
So here are a few pictures.
These are from planning meetings back in the fall.
There's a third grade math team, there's a third grade reading language arts team, a
first grade team.
You can see laptops, notebooks, resources, snacks, there's always snacks.
There's a projected lesson plan resource, but you see lots of smiles.
You see teacher planning time is a vital part of what makes Campbell Elementary a place
where educators and students thrive.
We listen to our teachers, we support them in meaningful ways, and we give them the voice and choice they need.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Good evening, everyone.
My name is Carol Langley, and I'm the proud principal of Ursula Stevens Elementary.
I have been the principal at Stevens Elementary for the past two years.
Previously, like Rasaan mentioned, I was assistant principal at McRoberts Elementary and I have
15 years of teaching experience from kindergarten all the way to fifth grade.
Stevens Elementary is located on the north side of the district.
We are a small, similar to me, but mighty school.
We are a small but mighty school, like I mentioned, when we consistently provide instructional
excellence with our educational practices.
Additionally, Stevens is a bilingual campus with 60% of our students meeting that criterion.
We are a Title I campus with 89% of our students being socially, economically disadvantaged.
And our babies are categorized in SPED.
We have 32% of our friends in that special education program.
We have six special education units as well.
The majority of our grade level teams consist of two bilingual teachers and three monolingual
with teachers teaching various content areas.
Our campus is filled with an abundance of expertise,
love and dedication from all our staff members
who have consistently held a growth mindset geared
towards promoting student academic success in all areas.
At USC, we understand the importance
of best practice instruction, differentiation
and data-driven practices for all our students.
We know every child deserves only the very best.
As I mentioned, we have a very unique population of friends, but we know all our babies can be successful.
As a principal of Stevens Elementary, I appreciate and value the voice of my teachers and provide the necessary autonomy to support their efforts.
Our USC teachers truly understand and embrace the importance of providing outstanding instruction consistently.
consistently. We are well aware not every child will be afforded all the educational components
to obtain high achievement status, but under our instructional practices, they will attain
academic growth. I am blessed to have teachers who are committed towards creating a magical place of
learning for our students, and that is our theme this year. The way we implement the magic begins
with the planning and collaboration process. The planning calendar is created at the beginning of
the school year and is categorized to support our initiatives.
Our teachers, admin team, academic support, and bilingual teachers all come together to
ensure our common goal of supporting teachers and supporting students to ensure best practice
instructions are obtained.
We are committed towards weekly planning to ensure our babies receive, again, best practice
instruction with a focus on data analyzation, assessments, grade level specific alignment
with TEKS, engaging activities along with rigorous lessons to enhance the importance of moving all children forward, both behaviorally and academically.
Similarly to what Jamie mentioned, Stevens has implemented components within the planning process to provide the consistency and flexibility along with collaboration in our planning.
planning. And some of those planning items include, we have a shared team agenda, a shared
team template with activities and ideas, and the autonomy within those components for the
teachers to do what they feel is best for their particular grade level, as well as their
students. We celebrate one another's accomplishments during that time, so you may walk in and teachers
are talking about, my daughter's graduating, I just had a grandchild, or it's my birthday.
day. Those are things we value and we want to support and implement to show
that there is connectivity on our team. That we have a culture of building that
support within one another to ensure all of us realize we're there for a common
purpose. And so today here's my calendar of what this is a third grade
self-contained teacher and as you notice on this calendar I like Jamie we had a
professional day and I also gave back some time we gave a gift of time for
that one hour. There was a STAR training that we were required to have and this particular
teacher had an art meeting that Thursday. And again, I wanted to mention my numbers
as far as we had 32 percent. This is for the 23-24 school year. There were 265 arts. And
so that is a big chunk of time that is required for our students and our teachers. We have,
a as you can see every Tuesday and Wednesday do we have the planning days
RLAs on Tuesdays and masses on Wednesdays the blue and it is notating
that these are all held during the school day our MTSS meetings our kid
chats are scheduled based upon need but they are scheduled or calendarized every
grading period to ensure all our babies are successful so as you can see there
There is a lot, but we want to ensure that all the components are there to talk, you know, to ensure our babies are learning and they're successful in every area.
of our campus. So we talk about the alignment with activities during this
time as well as building capacity with knowledge due to varying levels of
teaching experience so all the teachers come together work together to support
the growth mindset that all our babies will be successful. So as you can see the
dedication for planning is always going to be a focal point at USC to ensure our
baby's excellence is obtained and maintained throughout the implementation
implementation of planning, our instructional goal at USC will always be geared towards our babies having legendary foundation instruction
not only for today, but for a lifetime. At USC, we strive to consistently be the legacy. Thank you.
Thank you.
So you've just had an opportunity to hear how a couple
instructional leaders do support their teachers in planning and preparation
time a message that could be shared with all would be the importance of
communicating clear expectations to ensure that teachers and administrators
agree on protected planning time usage offer options outside of planning
periods when scheduling meetings duties and other responsibilities not
associated with TEC 21404 ensuring that teachers have access to collaborative
collaborative meeting area rooms and planning areas, and remaining responsive to teacher feedback regarding the use of planning time.
Generally, our team would like to express our sincere gratitude to the dedicated teachers and administrators in KDISD whose tireless efforts continually support the success of our students,
students, as well as to the Board of Trustees for their leadership and commitment.
Opportunities like these enable us to thoroughly assess and refine our internal processes,
ensuring ongoing alignment with state regulations, expectations, and best practices.
KDISD stands as a model of educational excellence, a testament to the collaborative work undertaken
in service of our students' success.
This commitment is essential to maintaining our compliance with all
relevant regulatory requirements and to fostering an environment of continuous
improvement. Thank you. Thank you.
I guess I'll start it out with a question and by the way thank you for
again this is this is a discussion it's to get information it's not a teachers
versus principals versus a district it's more like a collaborative effort here so
my my impression of big planning time to 45 minutes is that that is that the time
that's sacred for teachers where during that time during that 45 minutes
whatever the amount is that they have the flexibility on their own to do many
things during that 45 minutes whether that be for example preparation parent
parent-teacher conferences, grading papers, and planning,
so that there's no demands on that 45 minutes.
And so kind of a little bit what I'm hearing,
and I want you to tell me where I'm going off, where I'm going wrong,
is that the ARD meetings, because it's parent-teacher conferences, for example,
is something that would be a demand, if you will,
or a legitimate call on the 45 minutes.
So because it's, you know, technically parent-teacher conferences are part of the planning time,
the 45 minutes.
So I just kind of wanted to clarify that in terms of the planning time amount, not only
the 45 minutes, but also what can be demanded, if you will, during the 45 minutes.
Or, you know, because I picture the teacher sitting quietly, you know, in her classroom,
his or her classroom, calling parents, emailing parents,
creating papers, and planning, et cetera, that kind of thing.
Writing a post.
So I'm happy to respond to the ARD meeting question.
I think I would probably use the term schedule versus demand,
like a demand on teacher's side.
Because an ARD meeting under law must be scheduled at a time
that is both convenient for a parent and for the school,
and because it's not simply a teacher that attends,
some ARD meetings you can have 25 or 30 people in attendance.
So you have to look at a schedule for that.
So certainly that is something that may be scheduled
during that teacher's planning time
because we want to consider, A,
that is parent-teacher conferences are allowable
under TEC 41-404,
but additionally we want to minimize the impact
to instructional minutes for students, right?
Because we want students to maximize
that instructional time for students.
And so an ARD meeting as a parent conference and also during an ARD meeting you are preparing
Instructionally for that student. So I think it kind of hits two of those
Allowable activities could be scheduled during a teacher planning time. Yes, but I wouldn't say demanded
Okay, a couple things I was really excited to hear about
the calendar looking good for next year for professional days for teachers and
thank you for the team that worked on that calendar that is great that's a
great thing for that I'm looking for and thank you so much and secondly small
group student teacher time is so effective I we did not have that when I
taught and I've gotten to see it in action and I I think it's so effective
teachers seem to think it's very effective our district administration
seems to think it's very effective and I think I am so happy about that but what
I fear is that takes a lot of time away from the teachers and it's I'm not
saying is I'm important I'm just saying are we as a district fully making up for
all that time that we're pulling just a few students and then they still have
other things that they have to do you know like when I had I would teach my
lesson we would do some manipulatives and then I had a few I would check on to
see if my students understood I know I taught secondary but I would check to
see if my students kind of understood the lesson I would let them go and then
I had a few times to answer a few emails or send a note to my next-door teacher
or respond to a principal request or a counselor request and so you know when
When I'm seeing the effectiveness of that small group time, I think I love it.
And I just wonder if we as a board are doing what we can to support the teachers that takes more time on their part.
So that's my only question on that.
And I think, is it possible that, I mean, I hear both sides, but there's a little frustration on both sides.
And I get it.
but is it possible that everybody's doing what they can and that and my goal
is to find a solution that we can work with both sides of compromise I'm not
saying one side is wrong and one side is right I'm just saying at as a board are
we doing what we can to protect these teachers because I know two years ago
they had 45 or 50 minutes of planning time now they have 45 it's at least at
at the elementary level.
And so I'm just curious, if we need
to prioritize some finances to do this,
I want to have that discussion because I
think this is important.
And I think principals are doing what they can do.
I think teachers are doing what they can do.
But if finances is an issue, then we
need to be asking that, what can we change?
And that's my heart, is just to find a compromise
and not to create a lot of division.
Okay, so I hope you'll hear me on that. I think I speak for everybody. I hope I hope everybody feels that way
And then a couple questions. Dr. Coffee. I had one for you
on your first slide
Can we go back to that the TEC slide? Yes the te 21 to EC 21 404
You didn't know you were gonna be driving the slideshow I am so sorry
I'm sorry.
No, I'm so sorry.
No, you're good.
Okay.
So here's my question.
How do we, okay, so I read this and I thought, okay, this is a little bit different than
what I see in this court ruling.
So how do we marry the two?
Because this court ruling is saying, I'm not a lawyer, so I'm open to correction.
Neither am I.
But how do we pair what this is saying with what this court ruling is saying?
I don't have a copy of the court ruling and I'm not sure I could read it effectively if I did.
Okay.
So I think that might not be a meek question.
Okay.
That might be.
So maybe we need to ask that.
Okay.
Let me just make a note of that.
Okay.
We'll get that asked.
Okay.
And then this is the last thing.
So I saw at Stevens Elementary, I did notice that quite a few of the weeks had three of the days of the week.
were scheduled either ARG meetings or teacher planning time or that.
So that leaves teachers two days to plan.
And I understand that it's, I understand the argument of we need students to have what they need and all that.
I get that.
But we also need teachers to have time to create their lessons and collaborate with their teammates.
and I just think we need to be a little bit, yeah.
Can I address that real quick?
Yeah.
I hear the chatter from the principals behind me.
So they are planning.
So if you see up there that third grade RLA planning,
third grade math planning, that's what they're doing.
They're creating their lessons on both of those days.
So really the only day that that teacher would have not had time to plan
would be that Friday the 17th if she requested to have an MTSS kid chat. So
the the group planning is planning. That's what they're doing there during
that time. They're creating their lessons, they're gathering materials, they're
looking at district resources, they're looking at the district unit plans to
plan instructions. That's what they're doing during that time. Okay so there's a
difference though between, hold on, there's a difference between the, I wrote
wrote it down because you all use different words it's very much more
complicated than when I thought okay so y'all y'all but y'all do PLC planning
and then you also do content planning right no those are not two different
okay those are the same thing so PLC is a term professional learning community
some people use that term to describe their collaborative planning time but
basically what you're seeing on both of these schedules from both of these
campuses is that's a collaborative planning term where the team sits down
and plans instruction based on their content area okay so what why okay so
I'm getting feedback from quite a few people in the public that a lot of that
is rehearsed and you have to cut you have to do a lot of work to just to come
to the PLC and then in the PLC you're just reading what you've already worked
on and it's not the most efficient way of use of time and I I can see where
that might be for sure I think you would all agree that would be frustrating I
think miss Shipley you discussed the lesson I think she's to refer into the
lesson rehearsals that we're doing with our new reading curriculum is that what
you're hearing miss Timmy and I would I would add that even at Campbell planning
looks different from kindergarten to fifth grade sure so like let's say my my
my first grade team, for example,
most of them have been at Campbell for seven years
and they plan well together.
They only plan once a week,
even though they're a first grade team
who teaches everything.
And the reason being they work efficiently,
they bring things to the table,
they spend maybe that time one day
planning two weeks of their math science
and then the next week they can meet
for just language arts and social studies and plan there.
So I feel like it's working with teams,
It's being flexible and not having every team do the exact same thing.
I think it's creating your own agendas to make it the most productive that it can be.
It looks different like my fourth grade language arts team. They have really embraced the lesson internalization.
So they requested and came and asked me can we have a long-range planning? Can we connect another hour to our planning time and
spend some time really just mapping everything out and then we can spend each week
using the lesson internalization process and really getting deep into what we're
teaching for language arts and we did that so again it was a conversation of
those teachers coming we talked about it and they're planning with lesson
internalization for reading looks completely different than what maybe
third grades looks like so again I think a lot of it is the open communication
it's the the relationships the trust on a campus to make that happen let me jump
I'll jump in, just to let you catch your breath.
So in terms of compulsory planning,
professional development, et cetera,
where they are required to come to a meeting
and basically walk through a PowerPoint
that they could have just looked at on their own.
No.
Or maybe just together as a team discuss
as opposed to having to go to a meeting
that takes up 45 minutes to an hour let's say no our teachers you really do lead their own planning
and they lead it based on their needs um you know they're lots of things you could have a very new
team a team that hasn't worked together that has new teachers to this to the school to the district
um that planning might look different than teachers who have been there for a while
again i think it goes back to them being able to create their agenda based on the needs of
that team maybe even the needs of the kids. Yeah and can I chime in President
Perez? Yes. And so it's similar what I said we did in McRoberts Elementary a
lot of that has to deal with collaboration if those types of things
are taking place to whereas they're getting to their their planning time and
a lot of it's being taken up by let's say they're they're getting a
PowerPoint something which they could have gotten an email and then maybe come
back and reference later did I do this do I understand the material and those
conversations really do need to take place with the principal and say hey
let's work here and see how we can make this more effective. Those conversations
with the principal and the team are very important and for some reason if they're
not being feeling heard by their principal, which I would think would be
very rare, then our doors are always open and we can help kind of navigate those
waters because it really is a planning time and it's time for instructional
preparation, parent-teacher conferences, and the value-added student work and
planning. So if a lot of that is going on and you hear about it, just please make
sure you direct them to us and we can have those conversations. So okay, so I
I hear you on that.
And I saw, when I was doing my campus visits,
I saw at one of the schools,
the teacher was really struggling.
And she brought it up to the chain of command,
but nothing, she didn't communicate any relief.
And then still hasn't seen any relief.
And that's where I'm like, okay, I get it.
There is a chain of command,
and I respect the chain of command, believe me,
because if we don't, we all have to,
because if we don't, we have chaos, right?
And that's not good for our students. It's not good for our schools. So I hear what you're saying, but when the teachers are doing that
appropriately and then nothing changes I'm like
It's you have to understand it's kind of discouraging and so on that side of it
I am a heart hurts for those teachers and the kids too and the parents because that you know
It's a it's a heart
It's a magic recipe
right that we have to get right if we get the kid the student the teacher and
the parent right we've got then we've got education right but we have to get
all three right and so you know I I just I'm just looking for solutions that we
can anything that we can do to help these these teachers out do you mind if
I ask a couple more things okay so what I'm hearing too is that elementary
schools this wasn't brought up tonight in public forum but what I've heard from
other public from other elementary schools in our district that are not represented here tonight
is that they have staffing paperwork to create for arts that takes about an hour and then they go to
a staffing meeting where they read that staffing paperwork and then they have another meeting for
the ard which lasts for a long time so she's like i have no planning time because i have 14 sped
students so imagine that 14 times 3 that's like 42 me 42 meetings those are
42 days she doesn't have planning time and I and that's where I'm like could we
look at as a board do we need to look at providing subs I don't know but that's a
lot and and these are good teachers they are just exhausted and they want to
teach and they want to do what's best for our kids and our parents and but I
I worry about how long they can go at this pace.
And so that's my concern is just getting that formula, that recipe right.
And I'm welcome to ideas.
I don't want there to be a bad guy here at all.
And I'm not looking to win.
I just, me, a win is if we can find a compromise.
A couple other things.
I'm sorry.
I will make it very quick.
quick. Some suggestions that I heard were, could we consider doing like our first day back from
summer, being having that day a protected teacher work day? No meetings, just they can be in their
classroom, they can choose to meet with their team, they can do whatever they want in that
first day back. That is something I was, I thought was a great idea. Another, and the second day
could be content planning time but just showing our teachers that we value them
individually at the very beginning by giving them that time to take a deep
breath figure out how they want to organize their classroom that's a lot of
work it's a secondary I know it's all work elementary I think it would be a
lot of work as well so that's a suggestion I have increase the planning
period to 50 minutes I think that go back to what we had two years ago sub
for teachers when they attend meetings.
And then those are just some things that I'm looking for.
I don't know how everybody else feels,
but I feel like I want to, we've heard from the public,
we've heard from teachers, parents, and students.
I feel like we need to do something to come to the middle.
So that's it.
Have you all looked at, you know, a month or two ago, somebody gave us this.
Do you mind if we go through it?
Sure.
Okay, I'm just going to kind of go through it and just ask it.
Like a quick, I'll just rattle it off, like speed dating kind of thing.
It says, okay, and this is input we received in public comment, okay,
Okay, where they hand it out.
Like they say, give us 10 copies.
This is one of those copies.
Stop requiring grade-level teams to meet two times a week during planning
to implement CI's weekly planning protocol.
See attached.
So that's one.
So that one would be totally campus-dependent,
and as Ms. Shipley said, even grade-level dependent.
Some campuses, the teachers don't need to meet multiple times a week.
It also depends on the experience base of your staff, the turnover of your staff, those kinds of things.
I think a lot of the solutions on that page are so totally campus dependent because we are in different places.
Okay.
And I'm just reading this off. I'm not saying...
Just continue holding ARD staffings exclusively during planning or before after school.
Utilize existing support staff to provide teachers coverage during the contract that day.
Teachers can be given the choice of scheduling an ARD or staffing during planning or during contract time with coverage.
So again, ARDs have to be scheduled at mutually agreeable times.
And when you're looking at 350 plus ARDs, we don't hold ARDs exclusively during planning.
We couldn't get them all done. We just never could.
And so generally what happens, and I think the two days of planning, and I think back to when I was a principal, some of that came out of the fact that we didn't have a, like a, you know, a facilitated schedule, a protected schedule.
Teachers wanted protected time where we weren't scheduling, let's say, ARDS or 504s.
And so I feel like that pendulum may have swung in some of what you've heard, but the intent of that is to protect time for teachers so they have dedicated time for planning, and then we have options for scheduling ARDS.
So I think that, you know, we work very hard to work with schedules so that we're, you know, we're balancing all of the things.
Our principals and schedulers, if you will, for these pieces are masters at this work.
They have years of experience.
And, you know, you're going, sometimes you might have, you know, 10 or 12 students in a class, especially if it's a self-contained third grade class where you're the one teacher serving those kids.
That's hard.
I've been that teacher.
I've had those students.
Sometimes you have those students in classes where you're departmentalized and you can share that load.
It's extremely variable from campus to campus, from grade level to grade level.
That's why it's so hard to write.
Certainly we offer guidelines, we offer ideas, we offer suggestions.
But our principals are the experts in making it all fit together.
And so we don't have a lot of options.
We cannot fail to hold ARG meetings.
That would put us out of compliance.
it would be a nightmare for everybody and most of the students.
But we do try to balance that so that it does not become too arduous on anybody. Some weeks are harder than others
depending upon because they have to be held annually and all of these pieces. So our campuses do a really good job
I feel like of balancing that.
It you know, it's perfectly imperfect.
What do you think about, do you mind Mr. President? Well, I was gonna go through my list. Okay.
Okay.
Let me go ahead and then you can.
Okay.
I just want to come back to this one then.
Okay.
Go ahead.
Okay.
Real quickly, what do you think about providing substitutes for the teachers when they have
ARDS?
During their plan?
So I think, I mean I have a couple of thoughts.
First off, that would not, there would be a cost attached to that.
And so I don't know that that would be my purview.
I would need to look at some people that are in charge of that cost.
What I would say is that, again, we try to schedule our meetings so that teachers are able to provide instruction directly to students.
And so, you know, my concern would be that, you know, since parent-teacher conferences are an allowable piece during planning and they don't have a duty to students at that time,
that my preference would be to keep the teacher in the classroom, if at all possible, to provide instruction to students because there's really no replacement for that when possible.
Do I think that could occur sometimes? Possibly. I think again that would be outside of my purview to decide, but I think some balance thereof is what we try to achieve.
Can I ask a question?
Go ahead, Ms. Callahan.
So when the teachers are in the ARD meeting, is there a set amount of time that they have to be in that ARD meeting or is it just however long it takes?
It's however long it takes. It's required. There are certain consensus members under federal law and the general education and special education teacher are required.
If you were to have two, and I think Ms. Shipley spoke about this, sometimes both teachers want to attend the ARD.
They might both come in during planning and then one teacher, if the ARD has not finished, one teacher might leave to go and pick up students and cover that class while they're finishing the ARD with the other teacher.
But you are required to have a general education and a special education and some other individuals under law during the ARD.
So in that ARD meeting, it could be upwards of 20 people in that meeting?
Sometimes, not always.
Sometimes it's five or six people, but it could be,
depending upon the severity of the student's disability, the needs of the student,
how many related services they require, it could be.
And it could take place any day, not just on a teacher's planning time,
because you have to accommodate the parent to be in the room.
Most of our parents do work with us, but there are times, yes, when it could take place.
So on those teacher planning days that are allocated to the teacher,
that doesn't necessarily mean that you're not going to have an ard on like a random other day
well it's a mutually agreeable time so we we do not unless there is no other choice and it's a
timeline issue or something like that we would not take a protected day how often is that done
to where those are meetings just land on not teacher planning i mean that's kind of a guesstimate
right because you i would have to have what i can tell you is as a principal as a principal and i i
can look behind me and they'll not i'm sure but every effort is made to not interfere with those
PLANNING PROTECTIVE BUT IF YOU HAVE SOME OF THESE SCHOOLS THAT UM WHAT WAS THE ONE THAT WE SAW THAT
HAS 32 WAS THAT RIGHT 32 32 IT SPED AND I KNOW SUNDOWN HAS QUITE A FEW TO THEIR PERCENTAGES ARE
VERY VERY HIGH UM YOU'RE HAVING TO MEET A LOT OF NEEDS THERE'S NO POSSIBLE WAY FOR YOU IF I'M
UNDERSTANDING THIS CORRECTLY THERE'S NO POSSIBLE WAY TO PUT THOSE ARDS ON THOSE TWO DAYS SO YOU'RE
looking at potentially monday through friday of art meetings not necessarily not in the same grade
level yeah okay so you're looking at six grade levels right or really seven if you look at pre
seven grade levels of art meetings and so protected planning days are different and so like
i can think back to when i was at for example when i was a principal if fourth grade was planning
fourth grade had ARDS, okay, and had students,
Monday was ELA, well, back then it was ELA,
now it's RLA, and Wednesday was math,
then I could hold an ARD for a fourth grader on Monday,
but the math teacher would come,
because that was not a protected planning day
for the math teacher.
So it's a very complex scheduling piece.
Seems like it.
Yeah, it really is.
And so that's why I say there's a lot that goes into it.
And I think, you know, I was a teacher,
and I remember having to go to these,
as a principal, I remember talking to teachers
about these concerns,
but I think when you look at it from a global perspective,
our principals are having to balance
all of these requirements.
And I agree with Ms. Timmy,
we want to do everything we can to find that balance,
and I think that our staff, our teachers,
our principals work very hard to find that balance.
Our legislature does put a lot of requirements on us,
and so you asked one of the things you could do,
I think advocating it,
they don't always understand when they pass a law, House Bill 1416, for example, the impact that's going to have on an already compressed system.
And so, you know, we're especially most of us in this room, you know, we were maybe elementary educators.
We're very focused on compliance and everyone being happy and all of the children having a great time and learning and growth.
And so I think everybody just wants to find that balance and do a great job.
But it's very hard to do that, especially when we're getting more and more requirements put on us from the legislature
And so that it from my perspective
That's something that would be very powerful is to help the legislature understand the impact of these laws
So from your perspective, do you see that there's any compromise here?
Related to teachers. I think that I think that part of it is understanding
So I think I think an understanding leads to compromise
I think that sometimes teachers their job is to teach that group of children and that's what they see
That's their purview a principal's job is to look at the whole campus. And so I think communication miss Hubble talked about that
That's critically important. I think that miss Hina you reference some areas where you feel like people have taken that up
Like mr. Smith said and have not gotten I know that that is not the intention of anybody in this room
And so communication has a lot to do with that
So if we know about those situations and where they're happening, then we can help in those areas
but I'm not aware of them.
A lot of what was said tonight, I've never heard of,
if I'm being honest with you.
And I'm not saying it isn't accurate,
I'm just saying I'm not aware of it,
and I can't fix the problem.
I understand, and I will just push back gently,
but I will push back on that because I've had
this conversation with Dr. Grigorski since September.
About a specific campus?
Yeah, and nothing, I haven't heard,
I was told I would get back to me,
and I haven't heard anything.
and I told the teachers I'll get back to you when I hear something and I haven't
heard anything so you know that's that's not a fun place to be well I will tell
you I don't supervise a campus so yeah I know I know what I know I'm just that
just from my experience yeah yeah I get it I'm just explaining where I'm coming
from too is you know as a board member I'm elected to and I take an oath to
make sure that I do what I can to represent our community and our
community has been speaking at our last board meetings and to me and
individually and so I I feel like
I think since teacher retention, attraction and teacher retention, attracting teachers,
retaining our teachers, and they're so important to student outcomes.
And that's really what this is all about is to retain our teachers.
And it's one of our strategic goals to attract, develop, support, and retain high quality
staff members.
So this is why we're kind of digging and wanting to understand is to make sure that we're doing
doing everything that we lessen to the extent we can
do something to decrease burnout of teachers.
And that I still am not totally clear on the 45 minutes
being kind of sacrosanct, but it's always the possibility
of getting, there's always something,
there's always maybe good reasons why you have to do something
to do this or you have to do that but but you know to really preserve you know the 45 minutes
that's really what i'm trying to figure out is you know is there is it is it 45 minutes gotten
kind of squishy where it's not uh you know as opposed to drawing a circle around it and saying
this is it you know what i mean they got to get it they got to have it we can't do this we can't do
that just to make sure we have that mindset.
Mr. President?
Yes, Ms. Champagne?
Thank you so much for your presentation and also I really appreciate the principals
being here and the teachers who came to speak because we all understand it's not easy to
come forward to speak.
speak. So one thing I'm going to say about this is I have a lot of people in my family
that have been teachers and so my grandmother was a teacher actually in Uvalde, Texas from
1932 to 72 and my dad was a teacher at Dickinson High School in the 80s and 90s. And this,
I know there weren't ARDs, especially in the 30s and 40s and 50s, but this whole problem
has been an ongoing problem. I remember my grandmother telling me how much time
that she and I was a little tiny girl you know when she was still teaching but
I do remember her telling me how much she had to work extra after you know
when she came home and my dad for sure in the 90s and this is not a new
problem it's not just a KDISD problem. It's sort of an understood
problem and I hate that for teachers but I also kind of know that it's no I'm not
saying that we should accept it because this is the way it always has been but
it is kind of voice has as it's been but I have listened to all the teachers
have gotten some emails a lot of the other people have already expressed a
lot of the things I don't want to keep going on into those things but one thing
I was going to say was I loved what what Ms. Shipley said about your voice, your choice. I
think I got it right. Is that what you said? Teachers have voice and choice. I think you're
you say your voice, your choice or something like that. But anyway, I love that and I hope that all
the principals have something like that, some kind of attitude like that where you have these
planning periods and also I just learned something tonight I didn't know that in that planning time
that you could have all these things that this was allowed this so in other words it's not
necessarily you get 45 minutes in those 45 minutes you can do all these other you know you can have
our meetings you can have 504 meetings you can have all these things and so even if you had a
choice they may choose to do it during that 45 minutes because they don't want
to stay after words because they have young children however but if they had a
choice I and one of the things I heard a speaker say tonight I really like that
is that she didn't want to be multi multi micromanaged just what I think she
said and I think that if a teacher felt like they weren't micromanaged during
for their planning period, I think that would let them feel autonomy. And also what I hear is that a lot of these things that are on that yellow piece of paper and the emails and everything is a campus-by-campus thing, a grade-by-grade thing.
You know, like Ms. Shipley said, you know, if you have a team that's been together for a long time, you don't need to meet as much. If you have a team that's a brand new team, then you're going to have to meet more often because you have a lot of new people on the team.
so what the bottom line is for me as a board member is what can the district do
what what at the district level because we have only one boss which I mean only
we're the only boss of one which is a superintendent and the superintendent
you know is the one who tells the area superintendents what to do and and
everybody else and those are all of his employees but what i like for the to think that the
principals have some autonomy that they they have their school that they're like the master of their
school and not necessarily that someone's going to come along and tell them exactly how they're
supposed to manage everybody's planning periods and so it's not I don't think
that that would be a fun place to work if you were the principal and you were
allowed to manage your campus but you had like you said you don't want a
micromanager but you had a micromanager standing above you saying well you have
to you know there's a certain way you have to do things and it may not fit in
every situation there's not like a blanket one-size-fits-all thing for this
so I don't know my question I guess even for dr. Krakowski is what could we do at
a district level about any of this it's a good question miss champagne what do
we do and I think our presenters tonight have done a pretty fantastic job kind of
outlining the overall of what we're trying to accomplish as a district and
how we're trying to accomplish it I continue to go back to talking about and
I appreciate what you're saying on autonomy and I think we give our
principals a lot of autonomy to run their campus because 78 campuses they're
not all the same some are close to the same but they're not all the same even
if we just pick on the 48 elementary so they're not the same in the teams within
within there are not the same. So you have to have good leaders on those campuses and
I think we have fantastic principals who do their level best to try to manage all that.
And that's why when you guys ask me what's going on and I talk about that is I say one
it's a real complex problem with a lot of moving parts and the workload that comes down
to a teacher now is incredible. Okay. If I could wave a magic wand and tell the state
and let me have some help with that Texas education code
and take away a whole lot of stuff that I think we could be a true independent school district,
I would wave that wand and show them how to run public ed here
because I think the people we have that are doing it are just doing such a great job.
We'd show them how to do that.
So that's why I keep on going back to I really need our teachers and our principals
and our district-level staff who are, I mean, you heard about the level of experience they all have.
They've been there doing this a long time. I really trust they could they can solve a lot of this
Even in a really complex situation
and that's why I lean on them a lot to sit down with their teachers and their teams and
Make that work and if it's not working somewhere
I just need to know where it's not working so I can
Deploy the right people to sit down and try to figure that out of where are the pockets where it's not working
But it is
somebody said it over there as part of that it's a imperfect system and we're
trying to make it perfect and that's tough sometimes with all the stuff that
comes down but if there are additional resources if there's recommendations the
board has if we've heard things that could change I think everyone in this
room is open to listening to those to see if they could be implemented and
and solve some of the problems.
You might hear something that we could solve,
it's great for this campus to solve it,
but it's not gonna work for this campus to solve it.
There are different things and different parameters
on there based on needs.
So I think today is a good day to hear from folks
and gather information and take that back
and I give it to these experts and I say,
how can we address this a little differently
and look at it?
And that's about probably the best commitment
I can give to you on that of resolving it.
I would jump in in terms of what I'm looking for, or what I'm hoping we get to is there must be some things that we arrive at together that are sort of like non-negotiables, right, that are just sacred.
In other words, it's not a campus to campus thing,
but it's basically, we have a discipline code,
we have a cell phone code, cell phone policy.
There are some things that can be put in place
from a policy perspective to ensure that
the planning time is protected.
And you give the campuses plenty of flexibility,
but these are sort of like non-negotiables,
A, B, and C, for example.
I'm just saying that as an example.
So just trying to come in and arrive at that.
And I think that what I'd like to do is as a next step for this would be maybe to, in
a smaller group, maybe it's an ad hoc committee, we continue this discussion, this process.
It would be a committee that would just have a beginning and an end, but we have a couple
more discussions several discussions whatever's necessary with with the staff members etc to to
maybe look at that so i think that would be could be a next step from from here mr president can i
just say one more thing real quickly i don't i feel like principals are doing what they're
the best that they have as far as resources i i'm just speaking for myself i'm not speaking for
anyone else on the board i'm worried that as my so i'm just speaking for myself i'm not sure
that i've advocated well for our principals to get them additional tools to address this situation
so i'm not calling out our principals i'm not calling out our teachers i'm saying i feel like
the principal's hands are tied the teachers are suffering because of it and i'm looking for ways
to help our principals help our teachers because I honestly think I've talked to
a lot of the principals as I've toured and been in your schools honestly think
you would be a late the principals would be elated if we equip them with more
tools more assets to help protect teacher planning time so that's my goal
and that's that's my that's that's what I'm trying to do I'm trying to correct
the fact that I haven't advocated as well as I should have.
That's what I'm saying.
Mr. President?
Ms. Champagne?
I have a couple of questions for y'all.
First of all, for you, Mr. Perez, what would be an example?
You don't have to tell me all of them,
but just a small example of what a non-negotiable would be.
And then, Mrs. Timmy, what would be an example,
just one of a tool or an asset?
What would be an example of that?
So for me, I want to get more comfortable that the 45 minutes is 45, 50, whatever the number is, whatever it should be, but the loss is 45 minutes.
That that is, these things are going to, this is the time where the teacher can do the following and will not be required to do these other things.
For example, that would be something, like a non-negotiable.
like this is this is it's a B and C and not not D E and F and then for me answer
your question champagne no because I'm not a teacher so I really wish I were
right now because I want y'all to just like all the principles everybody feed
me information by a frame wave or something but what I'm understanding
from reading this is these things are allowed to happen in the 45 minutes is am I correct so
it's not that they all get to have 10 days of 45 minutes free these things are allowed to happen
in the 45 minutes so is that what I'm understanding I'd like to spend more time drilling down on that
it so maybe I don't understand as well well okay maybe the way that the
administrative team has read the law yes they had the way they're reading it is
the way this court ruling is reading is different now I'm not an attorney so
that's why I was circled it and I want to try and get some more clarification
on that but what what I think I what I can sell you as a teacher is I wanted
time to plan in my classroom I didn't want to spend time in a meeting and I
know I was young married so and single before that that I when I taught so I I
could stay after school and plan with my master teacher who is across the hall
because I wanted to soak her up Stacy Skinner she's at Katy High School now
she's amazing and I'm I was a good teacher because of her and so I knew we
had different plans we had different off periods so the only time I could plan
with her was after school and she was sweet enough and kind enough and gracious enough to me
to let me kind of team up with her i learned and from her and somehow she assures me i gave back
i'm not sure i did but she she taught me so much and i was knew that she was successful in the
classroom and i wanted to be around her because i knew i could become successful and i could learn
things that i didn't know as a young teacher so but not all of our teachers are able to stay after
school or come before school like I was and like she was so I'm just trying to
say the more that we can maximize our teachers planning time it trickles down
to the benefit of their well-being and to the well-being of our students so you
know I think you asked me what is my what's a an idea that I have I it but it
bothers me that HISD provides substitutes for their teachers when they
have ours but we don't like that's to me i grew up here i taught here i met my husband here i
that that i if we could do that that would be great i i because i i think that would alleviate
and provide some relief and if his is hisd is doing it i would think we could do it too but
maybe i'm wrong so i'm open to being corrected on that but i would like to see that um maybe
even do like if we could do like every other day teachers have two planning
periods I don't know I'm just we increase the time from 45 minutes to 50
minutes something to let the teachers know that we hear them and that we are
we're gonna equip them as best we can thank you and you were and you weren't
dating that much either during that time.
Anyway, any other comments or questions? Mr. President,
I just have two granular questions.
One is, and I'm sure you have this, but since we're in an active legislative
session, is there a document that details
the legislative changes or additions that
are necessary to try to help this ARD dilemma? Do we have
that defined that i could read and and have that in my back pocket i'm not sure i understand the
well the the arts are a huge demand on correct everything we're talking about right and that's
very little can we change with that if the laws don't change it's federal law federal law so we
have to become are there any state law levels of legislation that could affect this it was both
listed as a state and a federal requirement that could affect whether or not we have to hold our
Making it easier, more flexible, something to alleviate this.
I'm not aware of legislation that would address ARD committee flexibility right now.
I mean, there's legislation out there related to special education,
but it's not specific to ARD committee flexibility and the requirement to hold an ARD because it's federal legislation.
So all the time demands of meeting certain timeframes and all the requirements you say are all federal?
So, no, there are specific state.
So let me clarify because maybe I'm not understanding the question.
So, for example, timelines.
There are federal timelines and there are state timelines.
But there's not currently any legislation that I'm aware of active in the 89th to amend what the current state timelines are.
are.
So if you were to be able to change something,
what do you want changed?
I would go with the federal.
I would go back to federal.
It would give us more time.
You would what?
I would go with the federal timeline
versus the more restrictive state timeline
for special education timelines.
OK, so there's changes at the state level that?
There are changes that could be made,
but there are no current legislative.
Correct.
That's what I want to know.
What would you change?
I want to know that.
Ooh, that could be a long conversation.
Yeah. Well, what are the high points? What can we work with?
So I think a couple of things are that we have federal requirements.
And so very often states, because we have public ed as a state, right?
So very often states will set time, more restrictive requirements.
And we have done that in the state of Texas.
For example, on an initial evaluation, there's 60 days to complete that at the federal level.
Texas requires it in 45.
So we've cut off 15 of those days.
I don't want to belabor it here tonight to explain all that to me.
But I would love to learn more and I'd like to know exactly how you want it changed
What what's a perfect world for you to ease all this because the other happy to are huge, right?
We can't do much. It's very flexible. Correct. So but we can at the state level and I'd like to know sure details
For example, we are required to have more arts because of some of the things the state requires us to address like 1416
For example or some of these other pieces. So those are some pieces
That's what I want to know.
Absolutely, we can have those conversations.
Okay, because that's something we can change.
Sure, absolutely.
I love that.
And the second question, so that's a follow-up information item that I have listed here,
is in talking with, I don't know how common this is, but in conversations with multiple teachers,
which there's many, that the ARDS are generally, a lot of them are scheduled first thing in the morning
or midday because that is a very convenient time usually for families.
families. So those same teachers who have those planning times, first period or midday,
tend to be hit more. Is that something that we can be sensitive to or?
I'm not aware of that being an ongoing problem. I'm sure that it does occur. And specifically
I would say that because we have to schedule it, and you asked about a legislative thing,
so I'm going to throw this little thing out there. We currently have educational advocates
who, these are individuals who may or may not have any public education experience,
but who parents are paying to come to our meetings to help understand the process very often they will only allow us to schedule arts
And the parents back that first thing if there's one in particular first thing in the morning or at the midday because that that
Works with their schedule and so you know yes in that situation that does happen often
But across the district with the thousands of arts were holding no, I don't think that's an ongoing problem. Okay, okay. Thank you
Mr. Redmond
Did I hear someone mention that playing time used to be 50 minutes and it's now down to 45?
I think it's very spiky. Some campuses do currently have 15 minutes and some have 45.
It's depending on the campus. So again, our campuses have different needs. I have a campus
that has an elementary campus that has over 1,500 kids. So they need more time for dismissal at the
end of the day. So they needed to have a shorter block of time for planning and for specials so
so that they could provide more time for dismissal,
for instance.
Okay.
Are there any other waivers
that we're not taking advantage of
that might give those individual days to teachers
that they could move other things to,
like say, like a professional development day right now
that could be used to schedule ARDS,
or is there anything else
that you could give them an entire day?
That makes sense because I was wondering if everybody used to have 50 minutes what happened?
Was it because we started to give a week for Thanksgiving? I can address that Mr. Redmond.
Specifically the change to 45 minutes at the elementary level last year was related to our
new English language arts reading LA curriculum. It changed the number of minutes required for the
children each day and so when we balanced all of the minutes that were
needed instructionally there are 25 minutes left over that we have children
in the in the building so campuses have flexibility about how they use those 25
minutes as Miss Harper said some need 15 for dismissal at the end of the day
arrival usually is a little easier but dismissal is a monumental task at an
elementary school with 1,500 kids some schools put five minutes on each end of
the day for dismissal. That allows five more minutes for the specials period. So
that's how that 50 minutes works. Some campuses choose to devote 15 minutes
each day to something we call community circles, where we really established a
sense of community in the classroom. So principals and campus leaders do have
the flexibility within that 25 minute block of time and most of the
principals I'm working with are continuously evaluating that. Should we
do 45 or should we do 50? Specials teachers often have an opinion too. They're very passionate about
what they teach and they felt the crunch of losing five minutes every day for their content area. So
our principals are working with staffs and I think more are going back to 50 minutes next year,
but the offset of that may be that some schools that have offered specials to pre-k may not be
able to do that because you add five minutes on to all the grade levels and you don't have enough
minutes in the day then to get pre-k through specials also so everything is
connected and that would be a campus-based decision well this this
last September I heard from our TA Commissioner one of the things he
recommended was a half-day school program over the summer where I'm not
advocating for this just just be very clear let me stop that but but the idea
was you send the kids all summer they pay us half the amount for that and you
you spread those minutes out that are needed for effective instruction with our kids and
you have more, he recommended doing a second recess during the day and more planning days
and right, because what we're doing is we're trying to create time.
I've never heard of anybody being able to do that.
It's the same amount of work.
I mean the arts have to happen, the planning has to happen, the parent teacher conferences,
You have to grade papers.
You have to work on tests.
All those kinds of things.
But we're trying to find out where do we find more minutes.
And so I don't know the answer to that.
I do know the decrease in being able to offer substitutes.
I mean, we're talking about budgets.
We're talking about sub-availability.
I mean, my experience, family members who taught, there were many times they had subs.
And so is part of the reason subs aren't able to be provided is because we've been in deficit, we haven't been able, like everybody is trying to do their best to be financially conservative, or has there been a policy or like a change passed down?
For ARG meetings specifically?
Yeah.
It's just principle.
If they look at it and say, we're going to need some extra help on this, then they are able to do that now.
But they're also saying, guys, we don't have the money.
We've got to hold back.
Well, I think it's kind of a combination, and certainly I'm sure someone will tell me if I'm incorrect, but when I was a principal, I knew that I had families for whom an ARD was going to take longer than a planning period, sometimes considerably longer.
And so in those situations, I would arrange for a sub because I knew I would have a class that was uncovered for an extended amount of time.
Most, most of our ARDs can be completed within a planning period, you know, five minutes either side.
And so in those situations, if it's a reasonable amount of time and it's a planning period and we don't expect there to be a
significant impact, we would not get a sub.
Principals do sometimes pull subs for teachers during ARDs,
but it's not every ARD every time because that would, I mean,
it would be tremendous. So I do think there's a balance there.
If we know that there's a history that it's going to be a longer ARD,
we want to give time for that family and for the campus to be able to build that plan and so often
and principals will pull subs for that.
There are still some times that a sub is provided,
but it's not like there's one just on standby
that can say, okay, today you're going to...
The only other note I had from our conversation tonight
was I wonder,
instead of immediately jumping to a district-wide task force,
is that something that,
not to put more on our principals,
but we trust them to go handle with their own staff,
And then before that group meets at a district level they maybe already have that information and say hey
We figured out this was what we were dealing with this is this is how we would address this and then maybe that gets passed
Up so maybe just it makes a little bit longer of its height line
But each district each principal is able to handle that and find out how it goes. So thank you
Thanks. Yeah, I don't think we're gonna be able to find those minutes. Mr. Redmond today
That's why I was like I am proposing that we, a smaller group, like an ad hoc group,
kind of drill down a little bit more, have some meetings with principals, or as Dr. Gorski
can make that available, and just kind of in a smaller setting just kind of brainstorm
a little bit, see if there's something we're missing, and just make sure we have our arms
around it.
And I guess my thought would be do we let them go do that work and then that way it maximizes that committee's time that they've already done it and have answers and have met with their teams and are able to pass it on so we can get to resolution faster.
I'm not getting the sense that there's going to be that that's going to be happening right
But they're going to come back with anything that we kind of need to ask the questions or sit down
you know
with each other in the small room and kind of
Q&A and where are we going wrong? What can we do? Can we do this?
Can we do that just kind of in a smaller setting because I mr. President? I'm so sorry tonight
Can I'm going to piggyback off of what mr. Redmond was saying?
So I like your idea a lot, Mr. Redmond.
And what I want to know is why are you not getting the feeling of that?
Because if they – so two principals already showed us an example of their calendar.
So there's probably other plans that are out there already.
And I just think that these principals, like they said, they worked here for 30 years.
I don't know, 15 years, 20 years.
they've all been teachers they all been all the things um i think they're the ones that are the
expertise sure and i appreciate their expertise and if they already have something now if they
present it and we you know you don't you don't like it that's something different but what if
they presented it to us like their plans and then you know or to you or to whoever and they and you
you know you might be good with it I guess you might be good with it to me
I'm not saying that I'm just saying I mean dr. Gorski are you gonna task a
bunch of principles to come back to the board I don't that's what I'm saying
when I said I don't get that impression or what if what if is it okay mr.
president what if the principles if they have ideas that they found are
are successful they could present them to the committee maybe you bet absolutely yeah that's
what i'm saying with it with meetings with staff so there's going to be another committee
i'm saying an ad hoc one-time committee that would just get together with staff and
and q a and kind of try to take the ball a little bit further
all right can i please be on that committee well that's
Well, I just came up with it.
so I don't know.
Anybody have the comments?
Do we have a timeline?
I guess like an expected timeline of this?
Because my concern is that if we don't have an achievable
or a goal-oriented timeline, that we just kind of let this die,
and all of these teachers' voices who are exhausted,
who feel completely outnumbered I guess or just they don't know what to do so I
want to set something realistic that we can actually achieve here my concern is
that we leave this meeting and I know that we're talking about committee and
that's great but committees take time and I know that good policy takes time
and it takes figuring it out as mr. Redmond reminded us you know years ago
but do we have an actionable timeline do we have an expectation to set for these
teachers to say we heard you we're trying to implement this we're trying to
work with you we're trying to work with our principals we're trying to do this
collaboratively and we want to be responsive a good timeline if we don't
have a good timeline and this is all just in the air and it there's nothing
thing to really do. I'm trying to lay out a next step for the board, which is to get back together
as a smaller group and arrange some meetings with principals, staff, etc. to gather additional
information and Q&A more, a little bit more than we're able to do here. So can I kindly press you
that we would have like at least an idea of what we're going to be doing as far as that by Monday?
I'm not saying that we have to have answers by Monday. I'm saying that we could have an idea of that by our next work study meeting to be presented of, hey, this is what our timeline is. We heard you, we're responding to you, and we've collaborated at least a little bit and thought about this to present you with some time for Monday to at least let people know that we have something to set for you to have an expectation.
Mr. President, I've been told a number of times since you've been the president that
there's a timeline to get something on the agenda.
And I know you're the president, so obviously you can add it to the agenda.
But for our board members to get it on the agenda, we had to have asked you by last Friday
to get it onto the agenda.
I wasn't, I'm not planning on putting this item again on the agenda for a work study.
I think she's asking about a next step from here, like a timeline.
Okay, but she asked during the work study.
She asked if it could be on diversity.
No, we're not going to put it in the work study.
We just had this workshop, this is a workshop special meeting,
and then from here we're going to, my thought would be to have an ad hoc committee
that would meet separately and try to make some progress, engage in more Q&A,
figure out if anything could be done, what can be done.
If not, I mean, we just have to take the next step.
And the next step for me, in my view, would be to have like a working committee that's just an ad hoc.
It's not a long-term deal.
It's just an ad hoc committee to do additional research and engage in additional Q&A.
So, Mr. President, I would like to just say that what I hear from the principals and from the people who are presenting tonight is that this is mostly a principal's decision.
in the meantime I understand you're going to do a committee and all that but
in the meantime teachers who have the complaints you know like on that yellow
piece of paper emails whatever should be going to their principal and and telling
them their their issues and trying to work it out with their principals and
I'm not sure maybe some people have tried that and it hasn't worked and so
maybe that's why they finally have come to us or you know what the situations
are so I'm not trying to say that they haven't done that but if they haven't
done that and they've they're having some kind of what they see as an issue
with their planning period and they haven't talked at their principals that
they should do that definitely yeah and what I heard tonight was was what I've
heard all along is that every teacher that spoke tonight is they've they
congratulate they are appreciative of their principals I just think the
principal's hands are tied i think the principals would like to do more so what if we is there
something we need to do my question is this does the board need to do something more to equip the
principals with more tools more assets more flexibility to give their teachers more that's
that's what i'm saying okay any other comments or questions
Well, thank you very much, and thank you for everybody's time.
Thank you very much.
Thank you for the principals for being here.
Thank you for the staff and the work you put into this.
Appreciate everything.
It's been enlightening.
5. Future Meetings
There will be a work study meeting on Monday, March 24th, and then the regular board meeting
will be on Monday, March 31.
There being no further business for the board, this meeting is adjourned.
and the time is 7.07.
Thank you.
Official documents
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Recorded actions
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