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Katy ISD · Regular Board Meeting Agenda

Katy ISD Regular Board Meeting, April 22, 2025

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In this meeting

The headings and the descriptions beneath them are the district’s own words, taken from its index of this recording.

  1. 0:04 to 0:31 1. Call to Order
  2. 0:31 to 0:55 2. Closed Meeting
  3. 0:55 to 12:44 3. Reconvene from Closed Meeting – The Board will reconvene from Closed Meeting.
  4. 12:44 to 18:08 5. Recognitions
  5. 18:08 to 40:38 6. Public Comment/Citizen Participation
  6. 40:38 to 41:03 7. Closed Meeting
  7. 41:03 to 44:29 8. Reconvene from Closed Meeting – The Board will reconvene from Closed Meeting.
  8. 44:29 to 45:13 9.1 Board Member Required Continuing Education Report
  9. 45:13 to 1:04:34 9.2 Gifted and Talented - Advanced Academic Studies
  10. 1:04:34 to 1:06:04 10. Consent Agenda
  11. 1:06:04 to 1:46:03 11.1 Board Committee Updates
  12. 1:46:03 to 1:46:22 11.2 Recap of Board member requests for information.
  13. 1:46:22 to 1:46:37 12. Future Meetings
  14. 1:46:37 to 1:47:12 13. Closed Meeting
  15. 1:47:12 to 1:48:57 14. Reconvene from Closed Meeting

Full transcript

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1. Call to Order

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Noting that a quorum is present, I hereby call this regular board meeting of the Board of Trustees of Katy Independent School District to order.

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Today is Tuesday, April 22nd, and the time is 4.01 p.m.

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Dr. Gorski, will you verify that we are in compliance with the provisions of the Texas Open Meetings Act with regard to the notice of this meeting?

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I do verify we're in compliance with the provisions of the Texas Open Meeting Act for a meeting today

2. Closed Meeting

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At this time the board will not convene in closed meeting as authorized under section

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551 point zero zero one of the Texas government code for the following purposes, Texas government code five five one point zero seven one

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five five one point zero seven four and

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five five one point one two nine

3. Reconvene from Closed Meeting – The Board will reconvene from Closed Meeting.

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The Board has just reconvened from closed meeting.

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In accordance with Chapter 551 of the Texas Government Code, any action arising from discussions

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in a closed meeting must be taken in an open meeting.

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Item 3.1 is to consider Board approval of the Superintendent's Annual Evaluation and

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Contract.

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I will now entertain a motion for this item.

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Mr. President.

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Ms. Teemee?

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I move.

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that the Board of Trustees approve of the Superintendent's Annual Evaluation?

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It is moved and seconded that this Board of Trustees approve of the Superintendent's

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Annual Evaluation. We will now proceed to record your vote on the

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screen via your keypad.

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The motion passes by a vote of 7-0.

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The ayes have it.

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Now we will move on to the Pledge of Allegiance.

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We have a special guest with us here today, Katie Hirsch.

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She's fifth grader at Galbo.

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Principal over there is Jessica Hale.

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Parents Ashley Lowe and David Serrano and has a sibling, Jackson, who's three years

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years old, student special interest, Girl Scouts, and slime.

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I'm not sure how those fit together, but favorite subjects, math and writing.

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And a quote from Mrs. DeBlanc, teacher,

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Kayden is an avid reader with a natural curiosity for learning.

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She brings a great sense of humor to the classroom, making every lesson more enjoyable.

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Her eagerness to explore new ideas along with her creativity allows her to think outside the box

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and engage deeply with her learning.

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And from Mr. Benitez, Kayden is optimistic, helpful, and cooperative, which has a positive impact on both the students and the staff on campus.

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Her enthusiasm encourages those around her and contributes to a productive environment.

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But before we bring up our pledge leader, I want to introduce the McMeans Junior High Orchestra, who will be performing the national anthem after our pledges.

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So from McMeans Junior High with our principal Steve Gazzetta, the group is the McMeans Junior High Orchestra, Director Kate Matthews, and Assistant Director Catalina Vieda.

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And the students with us tonight, Aileen Feng, Nanoka Okada, Jade Phan, Alfonso Cifuentes, Erica Wang, Lucas Wang, and Lucy Yu.

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you and a quote from orchestra director kate matthews the students before you are members

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of the mcbean's junior high camarada orchestra they are actively involved in a wide variety of

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school activities from academics and athletics to clubs and community service these students

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consistently demonstrate excellence and are exemplary leaders and role models in every

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aspect of school life on behalf of the entire mcbean's junior high fine arts department i'd

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like to thank KDISD administration and the school board for their unwavering

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support of fine arts education and helping to keep KDISD a destination

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district for the arts. So let's welcome our pledge leader.

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I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America,

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and to the public of where she stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

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Honored the Texas flag, I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one state, under God, one and indivisible.

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All right.

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© BF-WATCH TV 2021

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Good evening.

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Good evening President Perez, board members, and Superintendent Grewerski.

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My name is Kayden Hurst and I have been attending Gobble Elementary for six years since I was in kindergarten.

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And it is a very special place. In my years I have experienced amazing teachers and events.

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For example, last year when I was in fourth grade, we participated in a fundraiser led by our PTA that was so much fun.

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and the money donated went to help others with special needs and to end the

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school. I love helping with events at school and my family does too. Events

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hosted by Gobble and PTA members are always fun and helpful but teachers in

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all grades are always there for students. For example, Miss Rulez was the best

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first grade teacher in my opinion. She always helped me when I was confused and

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she always was in a positive mood. Another example is my teacher now, Ms.

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DeBlanc. One day before reading STAAR Test, she let us play Candy Land but

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with a twist. To spin the wheel, we had to correctly answer questions and show

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evidence about things we had learned. The teachers and events at Galbo are the

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best but I always think our mascot is meaningful. To me the blue J represents

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freedom. It shows that students at Galbo have the freedom to learn, to use their

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imagination, and to dream big.

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Thank you.

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One more time.

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Thank you.

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Thank you.

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Thank you.

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Thank you.

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Thank you.

5. Recognitions

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for the recognitions portion of our meeting tonight good evening president

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Perez trustees and superintendent Gregor ski well it's happened again

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Katie ISD has yet another state championship in fine arts to present to

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these award winners please welcome Damon Archer executive director of fine arts

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Good evening, President Perez, Trustees, and Superintendent Gagorski.

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The inaugural year of the State Chamber Music Competition was in 2022-23.

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Ensembles qualified to enter the state champion by earning a Division I rating at their local UIL region solo and ensemble competition.

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Only 10 brass woodwind ensembles and 10 string ensembles were selected to compete across the state.

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This year, KDISD had a total of seven of the 20 ensembles selected across the state.

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Let me say that again.

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Seven of the 20 ensembles from across the state were from KDISD in the finals.

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KDISD earned four out of the six possible placements.

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Tonight, we are honored to recognize members of the Tompkins High School Horizon String Quartet

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who received the distinction of state champion.

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At this time, we'd like to play a performance of their actual performance that earned them the state gold medal.

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Yes, you can clap.

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that was 15 seconds of a 20-minute performance by the way well the members of the horizon string

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quartet please come forward Jake Jiang Arjun Chandu Patla crystal yang and Andrew Yang joining

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them will be music director Matthew Porter and Tompkins High School principal Elizabeth brought

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Thank you.

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Congratulations to all of you on this outstanding achievement.

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This concludes the recognitions portion of our meeting.

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Thank you very much and again congratulations.

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Fantastic.

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Now we move on to do we have any scouts in the audience this evening?

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and I think I see one scout.

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What a treat.

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Come forward if you would.

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So tell me, what's your name?

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I'm Nathan Kruger.

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Okay, where do you go to school?

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Cinco Ranch High School.

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Cinco Ranch High School, great.

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And tell me, what rank are you?

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I am a life scout.

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Okay.

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And you're working on merit badges now?

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Yeah, I'm here for my citizenship in the community merit badge. Okay, how many merit badges do you have so far?

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Are you just started? Okay. Got it. Oh, actually, I'm almost done. I just have too many

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Okay, oh is that right? Okay. Got it. Okay. Okay

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So tell me what's your favorite part about scouting?

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Probably the people in it because all the like the adult leaders and like all the

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the scout leaders, they all make it like a very special and welcoming place.

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Great.

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Do you do a lot of camping?

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Yeah.

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My troop does camping every month.

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Really?

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Wow, fantastic.

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Great.

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Well, thank you so much.

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We really appreciate you coming.

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And I'm glad to see high school kids in Boy Scouts.

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Yeah.

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Because, you know, you see the younger scouts,

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but to be in high school and be in the Boy Scouts, I think that's awesome.

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It shows a lot of commitment, a lot of character.

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So we really appreciate that.

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Thanks for coming up.

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Thanks for attending.

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Thank you.

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Thank you.

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At this time, the Board of Trustees will give members of the public an opportunity to speak

6. Public Comment/Citizen Participation

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in accordance with KDIC Board Policy BED Local.

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As defined by Board Policy, speakers who signed up by 2 p.m. on Tuesday, April 22, 2025, provided

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their first and last name and signed in 15 minutes prior to 5 p.m. will be allowed to

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address the Board.

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Board. Speakers who signed up to speak on posted agenda items will be allowed three

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minutes to speak. Speakers who signed up to speak on non-agenda items will also be allowed

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today three minutes to speak. If a speaker has not finished speaking at the end of their

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time, a lot of times the audio will turn off. If speakers want to share written material

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with the Board, please provide ten copies to the Secretary for Board Services before

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before the meeting begins for Board Members, the Superintendent, the Chief Communications

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Officer and Permanent Record.

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If a Speaker has not attempted to solve the matter administratively through proper channels

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as stated in Board Policy, the Presiding Officer's Designee shall advise the Speaker to seek

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resolution through the appropriate policy.

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Finally, and this is really important, pursuant to Texas Government Code Sections 551.074 and

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and 551.0821.

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The Board will not permit the presentation

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of personally identifiable information regarding a student

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and will not discuss the appointment, employment,

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evaluation, reassignment, duties, discipline, or dismissal

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of a public officer or employee to hear a complaint

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or charge against an officer or employee.

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Should a speaker wish to address one of these issues,

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They must do so through the appropriate local grievance policies, F&G local, DGBA local,

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CKE local, or GF local.

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Our speakers will be called forward in the order they signed up to speak.

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Our first speaker is Amanda Valdivia.

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The next person after that is Rebecca Trahan.

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Welcome.

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Hi, I'm just going to set my notes up here.

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My name is Amanda Valdivia, and I'm a single mom who moved my kids to the Katy School District for the grade schools.

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When I enrolled my kids, I remember reading the student code of conduct and school policies and procedures and thinking, no problem.

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We can handle that.

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But we didn't expect that students would not be allowed to defend themselves in a traditional sense.

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I'm not the only parent who feels this way.

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I polled parents on Nextdoor and Facebook in the last week and I asked them, and this

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is for just the KDISD area, and I asked them how they felt about traditional self-defense,

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other forms of self-defense, what their opinions were.

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A whopping 85% believe in their kids physically fighting back, and I'm one of them.

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Those same parents were also shocked, like me, to find out that if their kids fight back,

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they will be disciplined the same way as the original aggressor.

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KDISD needs to make their policy on self-defense and their procedures for handling harassment, bullying, and threats

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extremely clear during the enrollment process.

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I read the same code of conduct, policies, and procedures that everybody else did.

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I don't remember any pop-up that came up and said,

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this is our specific policy on bullying, threats, and harassment.

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Please read this. This is very important.

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I think that would be a really good idea for the school district to do.

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And I hope I see that this summer when I renew my kids' enrollment.

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I would be very disappointed if I don't.

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So, transparency here is extremely important.

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And some parents may not choose to send their kids here after they see that,

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but the majority probably still will.

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with the knowledge that it's their burden then to talk to their kids about

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situations like these and how they want them to handle it. I'm not suggesting

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that you allow fighting at school. We all know what a can of worms that's gonna be

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if you guys allow that. Every kid's gonna claim self-defense pretty much. Nobody

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wants that. But in the last several months kids are not being kept, I'm

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hearing story after story after story of kids who are not being kept safe and

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they feel like their only choice is to fight back. My daughter was one of them.

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Teachers and staff are not already fully equipped to handle these situations and

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when they're not fully equipped this is the fault of the district not the

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teachers. If kids can't fight back how are you going to protect them? Something

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has to change. Despite asking not once have I ever been allowed to come sit

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down at the school and talk out anything with other students and parents when

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there's some kind of incident the district won't even ask the other party if they're willing

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because of the privacy policies you guys have there does not seem to be any kind of mediation

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process in place at this time i for one would like to volunteer a few hours a week as a third

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party mediator for situations like these families should not have to choose thank you thank you

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thank you very much thank you thank you thank you

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rebecca try hand followed by danny jim francisco

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good evening can you hear me okay okay so my name is rebecca trahan and i'm going to tag off of what

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i spoke about in the last board meeting and just reiterate and say that no child should ever be

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punished for defending themselves but in this situation especially when the child went to the

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teacher for help they followed the rules and the teacher ran away that is unacceptable anywhere

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that is unacceptable in our district. We do need a stronger self-defense policy

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in our discipline rulebook because our current rules of mutual combat are out

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of date. They should have never been written that way in the first place and

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frankly these days it doesn't really leave any room to address things such as

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sexual harassment. It needs to be amended. It has to be changed to protect our

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kids in addition to protecting the district in addition you need to amend

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the policy to protect the teachers so that teachers don't have to be afraid of

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stepping in to stop the violence teachers need to be rewarded from that

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and we need to support them more with this this policy this these rules they

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have to change they cannot stand we need a new rule book next year you need an

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official you need with the with the rules in the discipline you also need to

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add an official rules of engagement on what to do when situations occur so for

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example at Taylor High School when a female was assaulted by a football

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player she went to the teacher a long-term sub who had been there all

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year for help what the teacher should have done was stayed with the victim and

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ordered one of the spectating and videotaping teens to go grab help.

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Mr. Haney, I want to stop you for a second and let's not get into specifics.

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Okay. Identifiable information about any student or alluding to any particular student.

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Fair enough, fair enough.

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So what should have happened and what needs to happen in the future in these situations is

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there needs to be a plan of action so that the teachers can stay and do the right thing and so that our children

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can get help.

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Moreover, any time a family wants to spread the truth about a situation and wants to make

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parents aware of it, they need to not be silenced over it.

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They need to not be silenced online and in other means when they're just trying to educate

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other parents on something that happened.

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Without going into specifics, I will say that unfortunately the district right now, even

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though we love the district, they do have a reputation in the media and in other outlets

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of being a district that covers things up and doesn't protect the children.

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And so I'm asking you to change the policy and open a new chapter.

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Start being truthful about this situation.

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Undo the punishments for the current victim at Taylor High School

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and become known as the district that is open and new.

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Thank you. Thank you.

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Thank you.

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Again, I just want to reiterate, we're discussing policy, not specifics, that's identifiable

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with regard to a specific student or students in the district, if we could.

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And that's the thing that I read earlier.

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The next speaker is Danny Gianfrancesco, followed by Brooklyn Gianfrancesco.

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I'm going to have to talk fast.

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My name is Danny Gianfrancisco, and I'm here because of a video that shows my daughter being brutally assaulted.

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Okay.

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Sir, I want to make sure that you stick to talking about policy, not about the specific incident or particular people.

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Okay.

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Okay, let's talk about how you handled this.

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Mutual confrontation.

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I was told that this incident was a mutual confrontation, but one student never hit the other.

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There's a video out there that shows proof that this one student was assaulted, physically assaulted,

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and who I talked to did not accept the video.

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Assistant principals, cops, I've been everywhere.

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After talking... Again, I just want to caution you, we're not evaluating that specific instance here.

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This needs to be heard. We're not addressing a specific discipline issue.

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Okay, how about this? I filed public information request the day after it happened.

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Three weeks later, instead of transparency, I received two documents.

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A useless, heavily redacted report, of which I've given you all a copy, and it claims to be the offense report.

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report, but the only thing reported on these six pages is my name and address.

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Everything else is redacted. The other document, a letter written by

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the attorney, written to the attorney general from the

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KISD attorney, I'm sorry, Gretchen McCord,

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in which she seeks permission to deny me access to all other

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evidence and material related to my request, such as body

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cam footage, statements from witnesses, the video from the hallway.

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I've been to Harris County Sheriff's Office, District Attorney, Constables, everybody refers me back to KISD police

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who have the jurisdiction and refuse to allow me to press charges.

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Do you know how what it feels like when people ask me why haven't I pressed charges against the student who assaulted my daughter?

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How can I when the very system that should support me is actively working against me?

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I've tried everything and yet here I stand still fighting for basic accountability and the district continues

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to prevent me from getting it.

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The policies of this district are not on the side of parents.

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They're designed to protect the district.

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The staff at these schools make decisions under the blanket of confidentiality,

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and parents have no recourse.

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We've all seen the video, a clear assault.

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I demand that the investigation be reopened and the video evidence be considered in conjunction

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with the district's definition of assault and the policy stating that physical contact

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only becomes mutual if one being assaulted retaliates.

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Contrary to what was initially told, the person in this video didn't have a chance to defend

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herself or retaliate.

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I demand access to the evidence that led to the conclusion of mutual confrontation.

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I'm not going away. I will not be bullied by KISD to be silent. The district should allow me

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the evidence of

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Why this is not an assault. This is basic common sense. This isn't just about my daughter

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It's about every parent who trusts schools to protect their children. The more you fight us the bigger. Thank you

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Followed by Kelly Hamilton.

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Hi, my name is Brooklyn Jen Francesco, and as a young woman, I feel as if young girls

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should not feel afraid or go unheard when speaking on uncomfortable topics like sexual

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harassment or violence.

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Violence should not be labeled as mutual when a male student slaps a female student, when

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the female student seeks for help from the teacher and is ignored.

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I'm becoming uncomfortable to go to school because I feel uncomfortable as if I have

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a target on my back due to my dad and I trying to get justice for what's clearly an assault.

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I'm receiving dirty looks from staff and students and I don't feel as if this is a safe environment

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for me anymore.

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What message are we sending for everybody following this topic?

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Are we saying that it's okay for a male athlete or any male to assault a female student,

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and that the school punishes both parties equally?

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What happened to me on March 25th was clearly an assault anywhere else except my school.

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The grocery store, gas station, or street corner.

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The person in this video punching, slapping, and laying on top of me should be in jail.

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Thank you.

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Thank you.

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Kelly Hamilton followed by Ken Smith.

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Well, I'm going to give you all a little break from all the heavy, and I have a quick solution for me.

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Good evening. I'm Kelly Hamilton, and I am a teacher and a member of the Texas AFT.

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I spoke to you in March about the teacher planning time,

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and I want to start by thanking you for having a committee to address the issues

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and on behalf of my fellow AFT teachers we are requesting an update on the

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progress made we'd also appreciate a second committee hearing formed one that

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includes teachers from elementary junior high and high school it's important to

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us that district administrators on the committee are working alongside of

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teachers to find solutions we appreciate the two principals on the committee

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that are focused on solutions and they've committed to increasing their

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planning time next year and adjusting their schedules to protect the planning

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time however many teachers are required to attend two mandatory team

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planning sessions each week which makes it difficult to protect and safeguard

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that planning time we need to know that concrete steps will be taken to protect

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our planning time moving forward board members I want to remind you that

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high-quality educators are leaving KDISD for neighboring districts some that

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many that offer more planning time and prep time for teachers.

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For several months now, my fellow AFT teachers and I have suggested a no-cost solution.

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Make the mandatory weekly team planning sessions optional.

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These mandated meetings are often unproductive and could be better managed if the teachers

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led them.

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Trust me, when given the freedom, we will continue to plan together.

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other teaching is too challenging to to not have that collaboration the

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difference is when the sessions are teacher driven they become more

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meaningful and effective the district cannot continue to mandate weekly team

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planning sessions without violating the teachers rights we have solutions and

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parents we are asking for those solutions through a committee meeting so

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that we can prepare better for the students we'd like the committee to

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include a representative group of teachers who are taken seriously and whose suggestions are valued

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tonight i ask you to take a stand for improved working conditions for teachers

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which will lead to better student outcomes thank you thank you

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ken smith followed by todd kershoff hello uh i've had to rearrange my talk a little bit because of

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the not being able to name students but when my wife and i first moved to katie or to houston we

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moved to katie because of katie isd we heard how good the district was um to me a good school

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district uh would show empathy and compassion when they found out a student has a chronic illness

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and we have experienced the exact opposite um the child in question has missed 25 of the classes

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this year because of a chronic illness he's had for two years we've been trying to figure it out

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and trying to get pinned down exactly what's going on but we've just not been able to and all we've

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gotten is flack and letters from kdisd threatening his grades which he cares greatly about

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i'd understand a little bit more if he was suffering or not doing well in school but he

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just got invited to join the honor or the honor society and he as always so it's not a great

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question of grades or a question of competency it's just that he's sick all the time and we're

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trying to figure it out we see we have a note with the school from a specialist that says he's under

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his care we're trying to figure out what's going on but we get letters every other week threatening

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his grades and now he's at a point where we've been told by the ap that he may lose credit for

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this year he'll move on but he'll lose credit and he really cares about his grades and it's also

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gotten to a point where again they have a letter at the school for the student saying he's under

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care for a specialist and the ap wanted us to go to the specialist to say that he can go to school

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nauseous and with diarrhea like just stopping short of offering a colostomy

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bag and it's just absolutely ridiculous he wakes up sick vomiting with diarrhea

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and we're getting pressure to send him to school like that he has all A's mind

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you so I don't know how on earth it's possible that I'm getting we're getting

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this treatment but we are and we can't get around we can't avoid it finally one

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One thing about this illness that's kind of ironic is stress actually can trigger it.

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So we found that when he gets a bug, it triggers, but stress also can trigger it.

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So getting letters nonstop from KDISD saying, hey, we're going to foul you or you're not going to get your grades,

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you're not going to get your high school credit for the courses you've been working on all year,

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turns out it's pretty stressful for the kid.

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So it's not conducive to getting him healthy, which is the thing we should be focusing on.

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We should not be sitting here losing our minds over whether or not he's attending school 75% of the time when he has all A's

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So I don't really understand what we're supposed to do when we're dealing with specialists and really should be focusing on getting it healthy

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But then we're getting threats all the time and getting no help whatsoever from the school

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So I just really think this policy needs to change

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We have a letter from specialists saying he's got a condition that we're trying to figure out and that's stressful by itself

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But having the school continue to threaten this grades. It's just unacceptable. I really really think you need to do better on this

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Thank you. Thank you

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Todd Kershaw

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How you doing my name is Todd Kirk off good evening members of the KDA ISD board

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Faculty parents and concerned members of community I come before you is not just a concerned individual

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but as someone who deeply believes in the values and justice of equality and student safety.

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A recent incident at Taylor High School has shaken those values.

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A violent assault carried out by a male student against a female student has raised critical questions

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about how we respond to violence and whether we are truly upholding fairness in our schools.

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Let me be clear, violence is never an acceptable answer.

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Every student deserves to learn and grow in an environment free from fear and free from threats and intimidation.

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Right and wrong should never be clouded, though, and it looks like we're clouding this.

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You guys are our leaders.

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You guys are here to help protect these children, and I don't think you're doing it.

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Yet the decision to label this assault as a mutual combat and deny the victim's family

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the opportunity to press charges sends a dangerous and unacceptable message.

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It suggests that violence between students, especially violence from males towards females,

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can be downplayed or excused.

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This is not morally wrong, not only morally wrong, but it is deeply damaging to the trust our community places in this district.

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That's y'all.

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Okay.

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Even more troubling is the possibility that the bias, there's a bias that may have influenced this, and there's racial now tensions.

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It's because I don't think this was handled correctly.

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If you handled it correctly and had transparency, I don't think you'd be having these problems.

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And like Danny said, we're not going away.

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way. Our commitment must be equally not the equality, not just words, but in

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actions. We need leadership that reflects fairness and prioritizes the

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safety in every student without expectation. We cannot afford ignore or

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excuse behavior simply because addressing it is uncomfortable or

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complicated. I urge the school board and administration to re-examine this case

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carefully and objectively. Consider what message your actions are sending, not

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just to those directly involved, but to every student parent in this district.

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Are we setting a standard that protects all students equally? Are we truly holding ourselves accountable to the principles we claim to uphold?

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Let us remember we are here to serve, protect, and uplift every student. That starts with ensuring justice is not selective and that safety is never negotiable.

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Y'all need to do your jobs.

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Thank you. Thank you.

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This concludes the open forum portion of our meeting.

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The board will now convene in closed meeting.

7. Closed Meeting

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This meeting is authorized under Section 551.001 of the Texas Government Code.

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For the following purposes, Texas Government Code 551.071, 551.074, and 551.129.

8. Reconvene from Closed Meeting – The Board will reconvene from Closed Meeting.

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The Board will now reconvene in open meeting.

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Today is Tuesday, April 22, 2025, and the time is 6.15 p.m.

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On behalf of my colleagues, I welcome everyone to this evening's regular board meeting.

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Each board member received the agenda and documentation for this meeting on Thursday, April 17, 2025.

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25, the Board will receive information and recommendations from staff, administration

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and superintendent on these agenda items at tonight's meeting.

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Board members will be able to ask questions, receive answers and should be prepared to

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take action.

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The Board has just reconvened from closed meeting.

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In accordance with Chapter 551 of the Texas Government Code, any action arising from discussions

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in a closed meeting must be taken in an open meeting. Item 8.1. Board of Trustees,

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do I have a motion on this item? Mr. President? I move that the Board of

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Trustees, I move that the Board of Trustees approves for employees who are

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being recommended to receive one-year employee probationary contracts, one-

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year employee dual assignment probationary contracts, one-year employee

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term contracts one-year employee dual assignment term contracts and two-year

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employee dual assignment term contracts for the 2025-2026 school year with the

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exception of those employees who have resigned or a decision has not been made

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at this time concerning being recommended for a contract for

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termination or for proposed non renewal which will occur at a future meeting

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Thank you. Do I have a second? Second. We will now proceed to vote. Board members,

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please record your vote on the screen via your keypad. The motion passes 7-0.

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Now we move on to 8.2. Trustees, do I hear a motion on that item? Mr. President, I

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I move that the Board of Trustees approves to give notice of the proposed non-renewal of the employee term contract for Robert Miles at the end of 2024-2025 contract period.

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Do I have a second?

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Second.

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We will now proceed to vote.

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Board members, please record your vote on the screen via your keypad.

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The motion carries 7-0.

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Move on to 8.3.

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Do I hear a motion on that item?

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Mr. President.

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Ms. Teeming.

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I move that the Board of Trustees approves the termination of probationary employee contracts Ilza Gonzalez and Frank Itties at the end of 2024-2025 contract period.

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Do I have a second?

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Second.

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It is moved and seconded that the Board of Trustees approves of termination of probationary

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employee contracts Ilsa Gonzalez and Frank Ides at the end of the 24-25 contract period.

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We'll now proceed to vote.

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Board members, please record your vote on the screen via your keypad.

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The motion carries 7-0.

9.1 Board Member Required Continuing Education Report

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We will now move on to the report on the Board Member Requiring Continuing Education.

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And you have the report in front of you.

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And I understand that based on a recent certification or certificate that was just completed in

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in the last few days that everybody has completed their, 100% of their colleagues completed

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their training as required, the continuing education report.

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We'll now move on to 9.2, which is gifted and talented advanced academic studies.

9.2 Gifted and Talented - Advanced Academic Studies

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And the presenter is Danielle Sanchez, Director of GT and Advanced Academics.

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Welcome.

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Danielle Sanchez Good evening.

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President Perez, Board of Trustees, and Dr. Gorgorski.

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I'm happy to be here this evening to share some of our work in GT and Advanced Academics.

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GT and Advanced Academics supports students in grades K-12 in four areas.

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Gifted and Talented Services, Dual Credit, Academic Competitions, and in coordination

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with Secondary Curriculum and Instruction, the CAP and AP programs.

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This evening, an overview of each of these areas will be provided.

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provided.

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KDIC currently serves 8,882 students through gifted and talented programming, roughly 9%

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of the district's population.

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This slide shows some key demographics within the GT population.

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It's important to note that GT students may also receive services in other areas.

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14% of our GT students are classified as emerging bilingual, 3% receive special education services,

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and 4% are served through Section 504.

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Additionally, 14% of our GT students are classified as economically disadvantaged.

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GT screening, identification, and services are governed by the Texas State Plan for the

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Education of Gifted and Talented Students.

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This document establishes the state's expectations for GT services throughout Texas.

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One such requirement is the collection of both qualitative and quantitative data when

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making placement decisions.

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decisions. In KDISD, we collect feedback from teachers and parents and use this qualitative

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data in coordination with ability, achievement, and intelligence testing to arrive at a placement

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decision. The data is then analyzed by the campus placement committee, which consists

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of a GT facilitator, a campus administrator, and a counselor. Elementary students with

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five or more positive measures and secondary students with three or more positive measures

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are identified for GT services.

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In elementary school, students identified for GT services

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participate in the Challenge Program,

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a full-day pull-out program through which a GT teacher

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engages students in project and problem-based learning.

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Students focus on real-world content applications

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and explore careers in their field.

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Challenge utilizes a five-year curriculum cycle

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and culminates with a GT Expo.

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The curriculum cycle comprises five overarching themes and three units within those themes.

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This year, our challenge students are studying technology, medicine, and law, and the innovations

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within each unit.

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Next year, they will study geological forces, neuroscience, and oceanography.

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GT Expo allows challenge students to showcase their learning throughout elementary school.

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In Challenge, students create and maintain a digital portfolio of their knowledge and

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end the year by presenting a chosen topic at an event attended by friends, family, and

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the school community.

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Secondary GT services are provided through a specific subject model in which students

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are identified in one or more core subject areas.

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GT students are clustered in CAP GT or AP GT courses with teachers who have completed

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an initial 30 hours of training in GT education and a six-hour annual update.

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The curriculum meets the needs of gifted learners through the differentiation of

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content, process, product, and learning environment. Each secondary campus staffs

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a GT facilitator. This person is responsible for compliance tasks

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mandated by the state and advocates for gifted students. The work of the

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facilitator is outlined in the Texas State Plan. The GT facilitator monitors

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monitors the academic performance of GT students, facilitating interventions and differentiation

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as needed.

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They also support the course selection process for GT students and host various workshops

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and activities throughout the year.

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The photos on the following few slides showcase some of these events and activities.

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Beginning in sixth grade, students can enroll in the KD Advanced Program or CAP courses.

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These open enrollment courses help develop critical thinking, reasoning skills, and academic

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stamina.

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CAP courses are available at all junior high and high school campuses.

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They're designed to prepare students for advanced placement or AP courses in high school.

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AP courses are also open enrollment and available for students beginning in ninth grade.

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They're college level courses taken in high school, designed and administered by the college

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board.

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students who score a three or better on an AP exam generally receive college credit.

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Those specific policies do vary by university.

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AP courses allow students to save time and money by earning college credit while still in high school.

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KDISD students have a history of success in AP courses and exams.

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As you can see from the chart, our AP enrollment has steadily increased over the past five years.

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but what is particularly notable is that we consistently see high levels of success on the AP exams as the program expands.

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Over 12,000 high school students are currently enrolled in at least one AP course for the 2024-25 school year.

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Six KDISD high schools were recognized on the 2024 AP School Honor Roll.

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The AP School Honor Roll recognizes schools whose AP programs are delivering results for students while broadening access.

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access. Schools can earn this recognition annually based on criteria that reflect a

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commitment to increasing college-going culture, providing opportunities for students to earn

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college credit, and maximizing college readiness.

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Another highlight of our AP program is the annual AP Research Student Conference. This

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event is an opportunity for students enrolled in AP research to share their work with peers,

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teachers, district staff, and community members as they work to complete a final paper and

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prepare for their oral defense both of which are elements of the ap exam over 300 students gathered

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at legacy field house this at this year's event to share their original research ap research is one

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of two ap capstone courses students who earn a three or better on both capstone exams and four

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additional ap exams receive an ap capstone diploma the class of 2024 saw 21 000 capstone diploma

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recipients in the U.S., 178 of whom were KDISD graduates.

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Another opportunity for students to earn college credits in high school is through dual credit.

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KDISD partners with Houston Community College to offer dual credit courses.

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These courses utilize a curriculum developed by HCC and may be taught by a visiting HCC

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professor or, more commonly, an embedded KDISD instructor.

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embedded faculty have completed at least 18 hours of graduate work in their field of study and are employed by both KD ISD and Houston Community College.

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Dual credit is generally transferable to public colleges and universities in Texas. The $65 tuition allows students to save time and money by earning college credit while still in high school.

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KDISD offers 45 dual credit courses beginning in 9th grade.

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Courses are available in all four core areas, as well as speech, Spanish, fine arts, education, computer science and application, and workforce credentials.

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In the 23-24 school year, KDISD students completed over 16,000 college credit hours through dual credit coursework.

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This is a direct testament to the strategic focus on increasing dual credit enrollment and the number of embedded faculty in our district.

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Over 2,000 students are currently enrolled in at least one dual credit course.

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It's important to note that dual credit opportunities are not limited to students bound for a four-year college.

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Together with the Career and Technical Education Department, we connect students with real-world opportunities through dual credit.

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it. The young educators, medical assisting, and real estate programs exemplify this goal,

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allowing students to earn an associate's degree or career credential while still in high school.

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Finally, I would like to highlight some of our students' success in academic competitions.

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Over 120 KDISD teams competed in the Destination Imagination Gulf Coast Regional Tournament this

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year. Of those, 26 advanced to the state level and 12 advanced to the global finals, which will take

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place in May. After advancing at a highly competitive UIL academics district meet,

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dozens of KDISD students will represent the district at the regional meet on April 25th

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and 26th at Foster High School. Science Olympiad is a team-based STEM competition for middle and

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high school students this year four junior high school teams and five high school teams advanced

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to the state tournament at texas a m university where beckendorf junior high placed first

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three additional kd teams placed in the top five academic decathlon teams are comprised of students

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from all grade point averages this year six kdisd teams advanced to the state finals and taylor high

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school placed fourth overall this is an overview of the work supported by gt and advanced academics

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in gt services cap and ap coursework dual credit and academic competitions i'm happy to answer any

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questions you have thank you so much thank you uh really impressive thank you trustees uh questions

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mr president okay that is so interesting so i was actually a gt test proctor one year i loved doing

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that but one of my questions is is the last time you you test to get into the

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program in fifth grade no ma'am you can keep continue because I only did

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elementary so yes the state allows students to test until the 11th grade

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okay because there's something that's kind of confusing I think for people for

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example I have a daughter who was in AP classes but she wasn't in GT mm-hmm but

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But in high school, it's considered GT, right?

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If you're in the AP class?

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Yes and no.

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The GT services at the secondary level look a little different.

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While our AP courses are open enrollment, there are certain courses that are prescribed as part of the GT track.

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So some of them are required by our GT students, but any student in KDIC is welcome to enroll in an AP course.

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Because there's not really a differentiation, it seems like, in high school between a GT kid and a kid that's an AP.

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Whereas there's more differentiation, especially in elementary and even in junior high.

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But in high school, they're kind of all, it seems like they're all just kind of clumped together and they're all in AP classes.

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And they don't really know who each other are, you know.

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Yes, ma'am.

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Not that it's that important, but I'm just saying.

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Yes, ma'am.

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The service model does look a little different at high school.

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That is something that I'm personally working on as the new director of GT and Advanced Academics.

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We have a GT facilitator on each campus who works with the teachers and the GT students there

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to kind of enhance the service, to make the services a little bit more tangible.

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But that's feedback that we hear from the community often,

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that our community really loves our elementary program,

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and it doesn't quite look the same at the secondary level.

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Right, and that's something that I've always heard too, just as a mom, and my kids are older now, but I've always heard that, what's the difference?

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You know, just because they're in GT, they're not getting anything special, especially high school.

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It seems like junior high is different.

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Some do more and some do less, it seems like, at different junior highs.

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There is some variability by campus.

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I will tell you that there are certain requirements placed on GT teachers by the state.

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So in order to teach a GT course, AP or otherwise, the teacher does have to have 30 hours of specific training in educating gifted students.

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And they have to maintain a six-hour update each year.

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So they have that specialized training that allows them to provide some differentiation and some depth and complexity in the instruction to kind of meet the needs of those students a little differently.

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So the last question I have, and thank you for letting me go on.

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but the 8800 students does that include all of your ap and your dual credit kids included with

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the kids who've tested into gt because especially dual credit isn't gt correct um so no that 8800

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is just students who are identified um for gt services i see yep thank you thank you of course

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miss teamy um real quickly can we go back to the um gt facilitator role yes can you give me or give

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give us an idea of what some of their job duties are.

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This is a new, I don't, is this a new thing?

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No, ma'am, this is not a new role.

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But I can give you a little bit of information

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about what they do.

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So primarily the person is responsible

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for compliance tasks that are outlined in the state plan.

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These include all of the screening

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and testing requirements that are conducted

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at the secondary campus.

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They manage all of that.

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They're also there to support GT students academically and socially as well.

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So what that might look like will vary by campus, but generally our GT facilitators check grades on our GT students every week.

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They pull in those that they see are struggling. They have a conversation with them.

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Maybe they serve as an advocate or a link between the student and the teacher or the student, the parent and the teacher, just kind of as a mediator in that way.

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but they also facilitate workshops on our campuses. One big topic that we've received

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requests for is time management skills. So they might pull a small group of students who are

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struggling with study skills and work through those items with them. Oh, that's very smart.

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Do these facilitators also have a full schedule of classes that they teach too,

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or is this their only role? No, ma'am. This is their role, but they serve multiple campuses.

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Oh, okay. Okay. So this is a multi they have like a number of campuses that yes, are they assigned different?

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Like if one facilitator is the secondary

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So is this all just do you only get junior highs or they get junior highs and like all the feeders or how does that?

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Work and they're mixed we have next year

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We will have 16 secondary facilitators and they will serve all of the junior highs and all of the high schools

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Okay, do some of them do both? Yes. Okay. Okay. Got it. And then can we go to

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slide six. How do we choose our curriculum for these units? Oh, great question. So our curriculum

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is developed by an in-house group of teachers. I was told the other day by a teacher who's taught

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for a very long time here that the curriculum was actually developed in 1990, and we have continued

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to refine it every year. As you can imagine, since we only teach one unit every five years,

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technology for example the last time we taught the technology unit was five

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years ago I mean the amount of revisions that had to take place to be able to

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teach technology this year was incredible so we're constantly looping

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back through to update it well I just want to say kudos to all of you and our

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in-house GT curriculum writers because that is amazing and it's awesome that we

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can create it ourselves yes and not have to go out out and outsource that and

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and that's allowing them to use their skills,

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and I think that's great.

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And then on slide 14,

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I just wanted to ask on the total number of exams

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on this chart,

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is that total exams of KDISD students?

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Where are we getting that number from?

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Total number of exams.

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So the total number of exams,

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let's look at the most recent data, 23, 24,

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that 21,000 number yes that's 21,000 exams taken by those 9,500 students so

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each student may take more than one AP exam it got it okay that's what I was

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thinking but I just I what I was wondering how we got the 85% so perfect

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that makes sense okay thank you so much I'm excited about your program thank you

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thank you for all that you're doing to support it of course my pleasure other

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questions trustees mr. president thank you so much for the presentation my

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My children benefited from this and still do, so I know the value.

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Oh, good.

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I have a specific question on dual credit.

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Yes, ma'am.

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On slide 18, you mentioned that we could have an HCC professor versus an embedded KDISD instructor.

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You said the majority are KDISD instructors, but we do have some HCC professors.

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Could you talk to the numbers more specifically?

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I would assume the preference would be to have a KDISD instructor, if at all possible.

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Yes, definitely.

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So we have strategically focused on growing the dual credit program over the past several years.

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And part of that focus was utilizing some of our ESSER funding to allow some of our teachers to go back to school and obtain credentials needed to teach dual credit.

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Most of our campuses utilize embedded faculty members.

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It's obviously preferable for a number of different reasons, but there are some areas in which we need the expertise of a college professor

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And so HTC will provide that person for us. Is that something? Thank you

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Is that something we try to fill every year, you know to send that out to teacher whoever wants to get certified, please

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Or how does that work? Yes, ma'am

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We work with our associate principals to advertise that as an opportunity now

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The funding is no longer there because it was Esther funding true

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But we do advertise those positions on our high school campuses. So the teacher at this point we need to pay for that certification

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It's a graduate course. They need a master's degree and generally 18 hours and the subject that they'll teach right? Okay. All right

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What subjects are the ones that we need more Katie ISD? No, I don't have that in front of me

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It varies based on campus. Okay, I can get you that information. Okay, I'd be curious. Yeah. Okay. Thank you

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Question, do we have, is GT available in every school on every campus or do such kids have

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to travel?

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We do not require any traveling.

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Okay, what about Challenge in elementary school?

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Same thing, it's all available in all the schools?

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Okay.

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Yep.

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Okay, that's great.

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You know, I love this dual credit and the associate's degree, all that.

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That's great.

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Great for parents as far as the dual credit, saving some money there, but also just the

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opportunity it provides the kids and the different pathways that they have is outstanding very

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important great well thank you any other questions thank you very much thank you

10. Consent Agenda

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we will now move on to the consent agenda the consent agenda shall include items that

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were discussed and considered at the previous work study board meeting as well as items of a recurring

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nature the board shall be furnished with background material for each item consent agenda items shall

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be grouped together under one action item all items shall be acted upon by one vote without

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separate discussion unless a board member requests that an item be withdrawn for individual

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consideration and as per be illegal be local so board members are there any items or any that you

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would like to remove from the consent agenda i will now entertain a motion for the consent agenda

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mr president i move that the board of trustees approves the consent agenda for items 10.1 through

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10.16 i have a motion uh do i have a second second it is moving second that the board of trustees

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approve the consent agenda for items 10.1 through 10.16.

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We will now proceed to vote.

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Board members, please record your vote on the screen via your keypad.

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The consent agenda carries, passes by a vote of 7-0.

11.1 Board Committee Updates

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We will now move on to 11, which is 11.1, Board Committee Updates.

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We did have a work study meeting the week with Mr. Smith and his staff right before

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for the work study meeting, which was last week.

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And basically there wasn't really much

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in terms of any budget updates, if you will,

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or budget, as far as our budgetary process.

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But what we did do is review the financial reports

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that were presented at the work study meeting,

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as well as the ones that we just approved.

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I also want to mention that there was a meeting on the teacher planning, something that we

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wanted to follow up on, and as a result of that topic being on the agenda, that we put

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on the agenda, as well as the input that we'd received from teachers regarding planning

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planning time and so there was a meeting that was held,

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I believe about April 8th and I believe present were

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Ms. Gusella, Ms. Keeney and also Ms. Champagne was there,

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the three of you, it's not officially a committee

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so to speak but it was a meeting with staff and principals

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and teachers and so on so I've asked Ms. Gusella

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to kind of report on that on that meeting thank you president Perez thank

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you very much for acknowledging the teacher planning topic and the

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opportunity to try to help the situation and make it better I did prepare

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something so I don't ramble on I think most of us understand that helping our

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teachers is an area where we can find common ground and work together if we

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want a high-performing district and to retain our teachers we need to take this

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topic seriously we want our teachers to be happy and to alleviate unnecessary

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administrative burdens whenever possible like president Perez said on April 8th

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we had one very informative focused meeting on teacher planning time it was

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a collaborative discussion with great idea sharing those in attendance were

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two wonderful teachers two wonderful principals Rasaan Smith assistant

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superintendent of school leadership dr. Gwynn coffee assistant superintendent of

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special education justin graham the district's council dr christine caskey chief academic officer

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and our superintendent dr gregorski along with trustees don champaign amy teamy and me we heard

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a lot of wonderful creative approaches that some administrators are using to help teachers get the

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most out of their planning time these excellent ideas were shared by the principals and teachers

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who were in attendance. The ideas that could be shared across the district were

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captured and they include the following. Increase planning time from 45 to 50

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minutes unless there's an exception that needs to be considered. Assign at least

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one day a week for each teacher that is protected and cannot be used to schedule

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ARDS or PLC unless there is a severe conflict. When attending PLC meetings, APs

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and principals can focus on serving as coaching participants rather than micromanaging supervisors

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adjust the plc meeting model so that aps and principals can pop into classrooms more rather

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than attend every plc meeting allow team planning and subject area hallways whenever possible

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focus on fairly allocating the number of arts across all teachers as much as possible

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Consider hiring a lunch monitor and or use lunch monitor volunteers so that teachers don't get in get pulled in for this.

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Use a quarterly check in on teacher planning time to see if any tweaks are needed to ensure the time is being respected and well used.

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Foster idea sharing among principals on teacher planning time, including the challenges faced and different solutions employed at our campuses.

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So those were the ideas that we concluded with.

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It was acknowledged that campus principals are faced with an incredibly challenging task

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when putting together the master schedule each school year.

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The demands on the schedule are high, mostly due to the needs of increasing SPED population

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and state and federal requirements.

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It was also acknowledged that while there is no magic bullet and our district has many

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varied campuses that present unique challenges, we do have principals that are figuring out

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ways to honor teacher planning time while at the same time we also have the

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opportunity to make improvements at other schools it's our hope that with

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good leadership and dialogue the ideas used at successful campuses will be

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leveraged across all of our schools so that teacher planning time is improved

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for all of our teachers district-wide and that a district culture and

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practices are developed that view teacher planning time as sacred and

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respected so I recommend the board go forward checking in with dr. Gregor see

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on this topic throughout the summer to see what specific progress can be made

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and I'd also like to add or ask dr. Gregor see do you have input on any next

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steps in particular well from from the things I've heard I've shared with the

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board over the course of the last year of what we've been talking about with

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this it's great that the committee or the folks that were in that committee

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support the things that you've shared there miss gazelle ikas those are things

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that are afforded our campuses right now everything you've mentioned there is

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currently in place with with a few minor exceptions and I'll speak to those but I

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I want you guys to know that all of our principals have the autonomy to do these things.

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I've asked them for over the course of the last year to work with our assistant supes,

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to work with their campuses, work with their teams to come up with these creative things.

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And if it fits the campus, they should be doing it.

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Anything that works for that campus, they should.

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And all those things are going on in different parts of the campus,

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or different parts of the district in different ways.

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The one on there that I thought was relatively a new or different idea was can our campuses share best practices or things they're doing?

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Yeah, that's something I've asked Mrs. Hack to do in the future, not right now as we're trying to wrap up the school year,

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but as we get towards the end of the school year and we're developing schedules for next year, could she create some kind of system,

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whatever way people use nowadays to communicate other than having meetings?

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I didn't tell her to create meetings for principals with some kind of share board on there where our principals could go in by level

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Elementary junior at high school and on this share board share ideas of best practices

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And what are they doing to to kind of work on that?

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And I think that'll be good for principals to share best practices

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But like I said all of those things that we've been talking about any principal can implement those immediately

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Thank you, so I think the idea would be since school is about over

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about out is that we circle back up some time in the summer uh to follow up on some of these

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things prior to the uh to the next school year mr president uh miss teaming i just want to say

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thank you um dr grigorski for suggesting that and thank you hack for being willing to possibly put

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that together i think that might be a great resource for our principals to to use that

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that sharing because like we heard some so many great ideas from just two

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principals and they were working overtime to support their teachers so

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I'm excited that that could be shared across the district thank you mr.

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president miss Fox I have a few questions about about the meeting if I

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may go ahead i appreciate the update that answered some of my questions um i was surprised mr press

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that you weren't in that meeting because you've kind of been in all the other committees and

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things why did you choose not to be a part of this one well i thought that uh

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you know miss Cuzela and miss teamy had a lot of interaction and thoughts about this area and

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and by me not being there, Ms. Champagne,

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somebody else could join in as opposed to me.

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Okay.

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Because I know that there was a...

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And also Ms. Teeming has, you know,

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it was a former teacher, Ms. Cuzela's sub for a long time,

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and so, you know, this is something that, you know,

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has been of real interest to us, okay,

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in terms of, like, addressing this teacher planning time

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based on feedback we've been getting from teachers,

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and I want to make sure to follow up on that

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and pursue it I know that you've had a lot of dialogue about this and and some

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you know been a concern of yours I know there was a secret meeting with a small

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group of teachers and I heard they did an internal survey that it wasn't a

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secret meeting it was a meeting with teachers the superintendent tell the

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superintendent about or none of us knew and we didn't get in I was getting

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getting getting feedback from some teachers okay did you so they did an

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internal survey before they met with you and then they did a debrief after they

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met with you can all of us have yes there there's can all of us have that

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information what information they did it okay what information you're talking

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about mrs. Fox there was no survey I don't know I've never seen a survey

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never seen we didn't talk about a survey before the meeting we didn't talk I'd

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ever talk to them about a survey after the meeting I don't know what even I

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don't know anything about a survey the teachers did a survey okay and I don't

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I don't have anything to do that I haven't seen anything about it I don't

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know what it looked like I don't even know I think you all asked dr. Gregor

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Scott you have that information would that be something that we could have

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because this is an agenda item now. Ms. Vox, I've never seen any results of the

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survey. I did see a copy of a survey that a teacher created to collect data for

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the board about teacher planning and prep time. I don't know what happened or

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the results of that because nobody shared that with me but I don't have a

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copy of any results but something was created. Someone told me it was in

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preparation for the meeting they had okay well that's the teacher told me

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that it was miss Fox did you have a meeting with any of these teachers okay

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that's not what they're telling me I met with one teacher okay well then you did

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meet with one teacher nothing well then that's a secret meeting because you

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didn't tell us about that okay go on

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I also so you didn't bring any of that information to this meeting when you

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meet with a small sampling of our almost 7,000 teachers and you met with two why

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were there only elementary teachers and no secondary teachers two teachers out

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of 7 000. help me understand the we're talking about in the meeting that the meeting that uh

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you all attended the three of you ladies attended well i'm not sure if you were there maybe you were

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gone when we had this discussion but we made it very clear from the dais on the workshop the night

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of the workshop that we were going to be focusing at this time on elementary i made it very clear

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and I think the board agreed so I don't know why that's a why that's news to you

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but it you know that's how it happened and then and there are 46 elementaries

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and you chose a few teachers well you know it's pulls out of 70 out of 46 we

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tried to make it we tried to choose teachers that have spoken at board

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meetings that's what then that's who we met with outside mr. Perez and I people

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that teachers that have come forward and said hey I have a problem we need help

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that's who from the public comment sign in that's there all of their contact

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information is there so that's how we set up this meeting and there were more

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than you were more than them and say we want to talk more about what you talked

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about right right because they came to the us and said this is our community

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and our community is speaking and so we wanted to let them we wanted to know

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more about what they wanted to what their problems were so that's all and then we only had two at

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the our april 5th eighth meeting because we didn't have we already met with others and gas information

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and we wanted it to be constructive did you want did you bring that information yes we did we've

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met we brought it to the workshop and we brought it to the april 8th meeting yes and you know it

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It was, my understanding is that the, that meeting, the effort was to come up with a representative, like, for example, a couple of elementary principals, a couple of teachers, a superintendent, Gwen Coffey, et cetera.

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Like, not a meeting.

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I think you had great, great.

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Not a meeting with 80 people, but, you know, 10 people or whatever.

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Two.

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Two teachers and two principals, and they both, both principals sound like they have amazing ideas.

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I think the report sounds good. It just is very odd to me that when you gather input from stakeholders

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You hand select very small percentage a very small amount

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you did 50 teachers for the teacher retention survey 50 to 60 and

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I've seen the results of that. So there were

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from from this

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Could I ask you is there?

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So what we're trying to do here is move the ball forward with regard to protecting teacher planning time.

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Right.

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Me too.

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And so the idea that we talked about at the work study was to have a follow-up meeting with a representative group of, you know, teachers, a couple of teachers that spoke here because we'd heard their concerns.

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teachers spoke here and they spoke at other meetings or prior as well as

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making sure that we get principals and we get for example dr. coffee miss hack

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dr. Gorgorczyk set of representative group of people to provide ideas and to

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have a collaborative effort exchanging ideas that's what this is about I'm not

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sure why you're concerned why you have issues with that because it's two

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teachers and two principals out of thousands and we're not going to ask a

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thousand teachers are you go right ahead no I mean let's be realistic we're

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having a a small meeting you know a dozen people ten people I don't I think

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count them to basically get feedback and just hear what they have to say this

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Fox is there anything we can do to make you happy ever because I feel like you

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You didn't really want to have the workshop.

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You were upset that we met with teachers.

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I don't understand.

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And now all of a sudden, you're for teacher planning time,

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but before you weren't.

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So I don't really understand why the,

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it feels like you're putting all of us on trial

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for trying to help teachers.

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And I don't understand that,

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because I would think that's something

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that would be uniting to us all.

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Mrs. Teme, I'm offended that you misrepresent what I say. I am not against

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teacher planning time. I didn't do any of the things you just accused me of doing.

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I'm not against the workshop. I'm not against having that meeting. What I don't

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understand is why you all only, you hand select who's coming as if you want to. I

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don't know why you don't want more information. We have an opportunity to

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to survey every teacher.

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There also was a group of teachers

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who had a Google Doc with submissions

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and they were unhappy that we weren't included,

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so here's a Google Doc, send all your suggestions.

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And so I don't know, did they provide that to you?

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No, I have not seen that.

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But you know what, Ms. Fox,

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you have been critical of everything.

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You had a chance to join the meeting, you didn't.

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so there were three people there I'm not allowed to join that meeting you were at

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the workshop you could have asked to join miss champagne asked to join I just

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don't I wasn't at the workshop I was in surgery okay well I'm just saying you

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could have also asked you did you could have joined I mean you could have asked

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to join you didn't you could have asked to meet with have a special meeting you

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did and at the work at the meeting before that you did criticize us for

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for wasting administrative teams time to have another meeting.

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So I don't really understand which side of the fence we're landing on here.

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Okay, let me make it perfectly clear.

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I know the very difficult job our incredibly talented teachers have.

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I know that they are more overworked and more frustrated than they have ever been.

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And I have teachers telling me I've never wanted to leave the profession as much as

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I have this year.

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So I know that their planning time is precious to them and I hope we can find answers for them, real solutions that will protect their planning time, give them as much as possible during the school day that is not before or after school, and that we will be able to do that.

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And so the ideas that mrs. Cousel is shared I'm hopeful for and I appreciate that

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I just am asking for teachers who have asked me why weren't they included why does no one care about my?

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opinion and there was a Google Doc that had submissions from lots of teachers and they were all meeting together and I just

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wondered if they had given those to you and what you did with it and

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We don't have that. I don't have that we've never seen that or I would invite a survey

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I would invite you to join us instead of resisting us and fighting us. I would invite you to ask stakeholders

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What's meaningful to them before you decide for them and then give it to them like you did with teacher retention survey that made virtually?

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No difference. We're not deciding anything we

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Were summarizing miss gazelle summarize some ideas that came out of that meeting nothing's been decided

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And if you have any ideas to add to that

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Mr. President, may I ask a question?

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Ms. How long was the meeting?

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Mr. President, may I ask a question?

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Mr. I wasn't there.

Mary Ellen Cuzela not human verified

Ms. I think it was an hour and a half.

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Mr. President, an hour?

Mary Ellen Cuzela not human verified

Mr. I think it was an hour.

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Ms. An hour.

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Ms. You might have ran a little late.

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Ms. How long have we, I mean, we've been vocally hearing about the teacher planning

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time now for how long?

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Does anybody know?

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Ms. Since Jan-

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Ms. Since January.

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Ms. Okay.

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Ms. Maybe December.

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Ms. By-

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my understanding was that this has been spoken about at board meetings

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from this dais, that teacher planning time has been a historically

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tricky subject going back much longer

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than January. This was well known. Was that reiterated in your

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meeting, that this is a well-known issue that's been

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struggled with to try to balance for a while?

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Yes? Yes.

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I don't know.

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You would say no?

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I mean, I didn't hear that in the meeting.

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I'm not saying that it's not true.

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I just didn't hear that in the meeting.

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My understanding was that we have had this spoken about that Dr. Gorgorski had said a

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couple meetings back that this was something that has been struggled with for a while.

Unknown speaker not human verified

Like we knew that this was something that we've always kind of juggled with and we didn't

Unknown speaker not human verified

really have a solution.

Unknown speaker not human verified

Did I, am I here, am I remembering that correctly?

Unknown speaker not human verified

Yes.

Unknown speaker not human verified

Yes, and at the meeting it was discussed multiple times that this is a challenge every year, and it has been.

Unknown speaker not human verified

This is not a new issue.

Unknown speaker not human verified

This has been an issue that has been on the table for much longer than I have been on the board, than you have been on the board, than Mr. Perez has been on the board, Ms. Cuzela has been on the board.

Unknown speaker not human verified

You were president at one time, correct?

Unknown speaker not human verified

Yes.

Unknown speaker not human verified

Did you ever dig into figuring out a solution for teacher planning time since this has been a long-standing issue?

Unknown speaker not human verified

This was not an issue when I was president.

Unknown speaker not human verified

Yes or no?

Unknown speaker not human verified

It was not an issue when I was president.

Unknown speaker not human verified

So then what we just discussed, this is a long-standing issue that teachers have been struggling with teacher planning time for a very long time.

Unknown speaker not human verified

That's untrue?

Unknown speaker not human verified

It was not.

Unknown speaker not human verified

Or it was not known to you?

Unknown speaker not human verified

It was not an issue when I was president.

Unknown speaker not human verified

So you did not ever dig into?

Unknown speaker not human verified

It was not an issue when I was president.

Unknown speaker not human verified

So then it has not been a long-standing issue to your knowledge?

Unknown speaker not human verified

It was not an issue when I was president.

Unknown speaker not human verified

Okay.

Unknown speaker not human verified

So this is not an issue.

Unknown speaker not human verified

So this has been said that this was not an issue.

Unknown speaker not human verified

Teacher planning time was not an issue while Rebecca Fox was president of the board at the time,

Unknown speaker not human verified

nor at any point in time while she was on the board was teacher planning time ever an issue.

Unknown speaker not human verified

Would you agree to that?

Unknown speaker not human verified

I'm going to take by your silence you mean no.

Unknown speaker not human verified

No, you were not agreeing to that.

Unknown speaker not human verified

Maybe it wasn't brought to us.

Unknown speaker not human verified

Do we have any other?

Unknown speaker not human verified

I want to ask one more clarifying question.

Unknown speaker not human verified

I want to ask one more.

Unknown speaker not human verified

I'll answer your question.

Unknown speaker not human verified

I have acknowledged that teacher planning time is a concern.

Unknown speaker not human verified

I acknowledge that teacher planning time has gotten worse with time,

Unknown speaker not human verified

with more and more responsibilities.

Unknown speaker not human verified

But not while you were president?

Unknown speaker not human verified

Do you know when I was president?

Unknown speaker not human verified

Yeah.

Unknown speaker not human verified

Okay.

Unknown speaker not human verified

But you could, I'm sure you do.

Unknown speaker not human verified

You remind us all of how long you've been here, 20 plus years, and just doing an amazing job.

Unknown speaker not human verified

So I just wanted to clarify again that while you were president at the time that Mr. Perez sat in this presidency

Unknown speaker not human verified

and he took the initiative to create this idea to try to solve a problem which you are now criticizing,

Unknown speaker not human verified

when you were president, you did not because it wasn't a problem when you were president.

Unknown speaker not human verified

That's what you're claiming.

Unknown speaker not human verified

claiming. So you're criticizing while we're trying to problem solve in a way, in a manner that you

Unknown speaker not human verified

said you didn't know about the problem because it wasn't a problem. I'm not sure which one is the

Unknown speaker not human verified

truth here. We can give you grace and believe that you didn't know. Mr. President, can I just have

Unknown speaker not human verified

one? Can you share the Google doc with the board, please? I don't have it. I heard about it, but I

Unknown speaker not human verified

do not have it. Well, then, you know what? Let's don't talk about an fictitious item before we see

Unknown speaker not human verified

it and know that it really exists how about that mr. president we have any

Unknown speaker not human verified

other I have one more question when one of the teachers came and brought us all

Unknown speaker not human verified

those yellow papers with no cost solutions were those things discussed

Unknown speaker not human verified

at the meeting did you bring that information that she brought and bring

Unknown speaker not human verified

those to the meeting and talk about those mr. yellow pages was just oh I'm

Mary Ellen Cuzela not human verified

sorry sir president

Unknown speaker not human verified

Go ahead, Ms. Cuzela.

Mary Ellen Cuzela not human verified

Yes, I had those on hand.

Mary Ellen Cuzela not human verified

It was given to the entire board, right?

Mary Ellen Cuzela not human verified

Right.

Mary Ellen Cuzela not human verified

So I read through all those.

Mary Ellen Cuzela not human verified

That was certainly part of what could be brought up for discussion.

Mary Ellen Cuzela not human verified

The main point of that meeting was to listen and to listen to teachers and principals who deal with this and listen to them.

Mary Ellen Cuzela not human verified

And we listened very well.

Mary Ellen Cuzela not human verified

We asked questions.

Mary Ellen Cuzela not human verified

I also just want to reiterate that I thought that the principals and the teachers who came

Mary Ellen Cuzela not human verified

were great choices because they each represented some small campuses, some larger.

Mary Ellen Cuzela not human verified

And I think that there's a lot of credit to who they chose.

Mary Ellen Cuzela not human verified

I agree with that.

Mary Ellen Cuzela not human verified

Thank you.

Unknown speaker not human verified

Who chose them?

Unknown speaker not human verified

I did.

Unknown speaker not human verified

Okay.

Unknown speaker not human verified

How did you choose?

Unknown speaker not human verified

How did you choose?

Unknown speaker not human verified

just that smaller and larger and I tried to choose smaller and larger I tried to use north and south

Unknown speaker not human verified

I tried to use people that had spoken at aft non aft I tried to be very diverse so that we could

Unknown speaker not human verified

get a good representation and I spent a lot of time on it thank you thank you mrs. Fox I think

Unknown speaker not human verified

you did a very good job with it I wish you had invited more people or ask for stakeholders who

Unknown speaker not human verified

are not invited to the table. I think that it feels exclusive and I just know

Unknown speaker not human verified

that there are teachers who are very hopeful about it and then they were like one

Unknown speaker not human verified

meeting one day with four educators and and they they just were disappointed

Unknown speaker not human verified

that there would not be meaningful change. Well you know why that is?

Unknown speaker not human verified

The process is not finished. First of all the process is not finished. Number two it's one

Unknown speaker not human verified

one meeting of a dozen people, 10 people, whatever it is,

Unknown speaker not human verified

we can't have a meeting with 80 people, 100 people, 200 people to give their input.

Unknown speaker not human verified

We've done it for years.

Unknown speaker not human verified

Well, Mrs. Fox, you beat us over the head constantly because we call too many meetings.

Unknown speaker not human verified

So we were trying.

Unknown speaker not human verified

Yes, you do.

Unknown speaker not human verified

And so we're trying to be respectful of the fact that you and a couple others think we ask for too many meetings.

Unknown speaker not human verified

So we are trying to be respectful of people's time and because at your request

Unknown speaker not human verified

Okay, do we have any other comments on the

Unknown speaker not human verified

So I was at the meeting and I appreciate you allowing me to be at the meeting and

Unknown speaker not human verified

For the most part. I mean, I'm sure that mrs. Timmy and mrs. Cuzela could attest this. I really didn't

Unknown speaker not human verified

Anything because they were kind of leading the meeting that that's fine because they

Unknown speaker not human verified

We're in charge of it, so that's fine.

Unknown speaker not human verified

But I kind of got a little bit of a different take on it.

Unknown speaker not human verified

Those things that you listed, I agree that those were ideas, but I wouldn't agree that

Unknown speaker not human verified

those are all action plans.

Unknown speaker not human verified

Because some of those ideas, for example, the lunchroom monitor thing, that was kind

Unknown speaker not human verified

of mixed because either they said that the volunteers were not good because you couldn't

Unknown speaker not human verified

really rely on the volunteers.

Unknown speaker not human verified

Because I kind of said that was one thing I did talk about.

Unknown speaker not human verified

They couldn't really rely on the volunteers, and then we just don't have the money to hire lunchroom monitors.

Unknown speaker not human verified

So that kind of negated, so that, I just wanted to clarify that.

Unknown speaker not human verified

And also, the increase in planning time, although those two principles did say that those were good ideas, I think, I think it was Mr. Smith.

Unknown speaker not human verified

I don't want to misquote anybody, but somebody said that that may not be able to happen at every school.

Unknown speaker not human verified

So although that does sound like a good idea, it's just because of the size of the school and dismissal times and things like that.

Unknown speaker not human verified

Some schools, in other words, it can't be a blanket thing.

Unknown speaker not human verified

So what I got from it, from what I gathered just sitting there listening, was there's not really like a one-size-fits-all thing.

Unknown speaker not human verified

so these are not really so there's not really a clear instruction in my mind to

Unknown speaker not human verified

give to dr. Gregor ski to come up with some kind of plan when it's just like

Unknown speaker not human verified

it's it just seems like it's whatever school can do whatever they want as long

Unknown speaker not human verified

as they're not breaking the law that we have so there's not really I don't know

Unknown speaker not human verified

how I can say you know like like a rule would be okay well y'all can do 45

Unknown speaker not human verified

minutes or 50 minutes or you can do 55 minutes if you can you can have a

Unknown speaker not human verified

laundry monitor you don't have to have a laundry monitor you know what else was

Unknown speaker not human verified

it you know one of the two people said that the AP's like to be in there and

Unknown speaker not human verified

then other people said they don't like the AP's in there some people said they

Unknown speaker not human verified

like AP's to give input some people said they don't like the input so so then

Unknown speaker not human verified

what does she say on that okay AP's y'all can give input or don't give input

Unknown speaker not human verified

or y'all can be in it or don't be in it and so it's not really there's not

Unknown speaker not human verified

not really like a concise in my mind I'm not saying I know that this is at the

Unknown speaker not human verified

beginning but I didn't walk away from there saying let's do this one thing for

Unknown speaker not human verified

all the schools I don't have any idea how you would give anybody an

Unknown speaker not human verified

instruction on what to do when it's so many different options it's like telling

Unknown speaker not human verified

a kid giving them a box of crayons and saying okay I'm gonna tell you what kind

Unknown speaker not human verified

of color you gonna have to color in any of the other 64 colors I mean it's

Unknown speaker not human verified

there's not really a way to instruct so I you know I I think come up with ideas

Unknown speaker not human verified

I mean don't you have such a defeatist attitude I don't have a defeatist

Unknown speaker not human verified

attitude actually opposites let's collaborate come up with ideas dr.

Unknown speaker not human verified

Gorski and staff will look at him consider them I just have two more

Unknown speaker not human verified

things I don't have in line I'm just in retaliation of that I don't have a

Unknown speaker not human verified

the fetus attitude actually i'm a very optimistic person and i believe that i believe in the better

Unknown speaker not human verified

that the principals know what they're doing that's that's my confidence level i think that obviously

Unknown speaker not human verified

there are people teachers out there who aren't happy with their planning time they should go

Unknown speaker not human verified

to their principals discuss it they cannot be forced as that was another thing did you know

Unknown speaker not human verified

we asked could we use outside counsel so we brought mr graham in there to read the law and

Unknown speaker not human verified

And he said it was very straightforward.

Unknown speaker not human verified

It had three lines.

Unknown speaker not human verified

I can't quote it.

Unknown speaker not human verified

I don't even know what it's called.

Unknown speaker not human verified

But he did read it.

Unknown speaker not human verified

And then they wanted to, I think Ms. Timmy wanted to know,

Unknown speaker not human verified

should we get a second opinion on the law?

Unknown speaker not human verified

And, you know, and she asked me, and I said, no,

Unknown speaker not human verified

we don't need an outside counsel to tell us what the law is because, I mean,

Unknown speaker not human verified

I could probably read the law too, and I'm not a lawyer.

Unknown speaker not human verified

But so I'm not trying to be defeatist.

Unknown speaker not human verified

I'm actually trying to be optimistic.

Unknown speaker not human verified

I'm trying to give the, I'm trying to give it, for granted, I'm going to assume that for the most part the principals are going to try their hardest.

Unknown speaker not human verified

Now it's been brought up to their attention.

Unknown speaker not human verified

It's on call.

Unknown speaker not human verified

They know that we're watching.

Unknown speaker not human verified

The principals know what the law is.

Unknown speaker not human verified

They're not going to break it.

Unknown speaker not human verified

I think Mr. Graham even said, I hate to quote him, but there hasn't been any lawsuits or anything like that brought forward or there hasn't been any threats of a lawsuit.

Unknown speaker not human verified

suit so I think we're following the law and that's all I want to say in my

Unknown speaker not human verified

summary of what I saw may I ask a question out of that meeting did we

Unknown speaker not human verified

because I think that this is I'm glad you brought up the law and because I

Unknown speaker not human verified

think this has been the question that's kind of hanging over our heads did we

Unknown speaker not human verified

come to a conclusion on whether or not we are in compliance with the law yes

Unknown speaker not human verified

ma'am so this is Justin Graham general counsel for the district this is

Unknown speaker not human verified

is something I provided an update to the board on multiple times, also provided an update to that

Unknown speaker not human verified

particular committee. I will not be at liberty to speak to my legal advice without motion from this

Unknown speaker not human verified

board, but I'm very confident that we are compliant with the law, and that's something that I've

Unknown speaker not human verified

responded directly to every member of this board on at least twice. So is there, following up with

Unknown speaker not human verified

that is there any measure of I hate to use investigation because it sounds

Unknown speaker not human verified

heavy-handed but work discerning when we have teachers that come and present here

Unknown speaker not human verified

and say that they're not we're not in compliance with the law are we figuring

Unknown speaker not human verified

out where that's coming from well so as you know as a trustee if somebody comes

Unknown speaker not human verified

comes to you as a member of this board and has a complaint or has a concern,

Unknown speaker not human verified

you have a responsibility under both policy and under your superintendent's contract

Unknown speaker not human verified

to forward that complaint to the superintendent

Unknown speaker not human verified

and allow he and his administrative team to look at it.

Unknown speaker not human verified

My understanding is that every particular individual that has brought this concern forward

Unknown speaker not human verified

has had an opportunity to meet with their principal and or their area superintendent,

Unknown speaker not human verified

and I've got elementary area superintendents over here who can speak to that,

Unknown speaker not human verified

but again that's the first step to a resolution of a disagreement again we've got guys we've got

Unknown speaker not human verified

7 000 teachers everybody's got a different schedule everybody's got different things that

Unknown speaker not human verified

they have to do we all have to have this collaborative team planning that we have to

Unknown speaker not human verified

do together along with quite honestly just the requirements from the state and federal government

Unknown speaker not human verified

just the fact that the state and federal government make it so onerous for teachers

Unknown speaker not human verified

which is why we encourage them when they have these particular issues as

Unknown speaker not human verified

individuals please go to your campus principal and if you're not satisfied

Unknown speaker not human verified

Thank you Mr. Graham. move forward with your assistant areas. Thank you. We intend to

Unknown speaker not human verified

pursue and looking at this area because there are a lot of teachers that are

Unknown speaker not human verified

unhappy about their planning time and we'd like to over the summer circle back

Unknown speaker not human verified

and see before the school year what opportunities there may be to improve

Unknown speaker not human verified

improve and protect their planning time. So we're going to proceed with that with hopefully Dr. Gorsuch's cooperation and his staff. Do we have any other comments on this committee update?

Unknown speaker not human verified

I think my hope and Marilyn's hope when we worked on this list of suggested items going forward

Unknown speaker not human verified

Don you know you didn't work with us on it

Unknown speaker not human verified

but

Unknown speaker not human verified

Marilyn and I did and I think the point was just to put as many tools into the principal's hands as possible and encourage them

Unknown speaker not human verified

To use them and if a school needs lunch monitors, and they think it's gonna

Unknown speaker not human verified

They think it's gonna help their teachers. I'm all for adding that to the budget

Unknown speaker not human verified

it that I know I'm just one board member and I can't speak for everybody else but

Unknown speaker not human verified

that's that's where I stand that's why I put it there as an option not because

Unknown speaker not human verified

some people said it wasn't good or some people said it was it's because I'm

Unknown speaker not human verified

trying to get as many tools into the toolbox for our principals which then

Unknown speaker not human verified

trickles down to our teachers would you agree miss Cuzela yes trustee teaming

Mary Ellen Cuzela not human verified

it's like I said it's not a magic bullet we have a lot of varied campuses but we

Mary Ellen Cuzela not human verified

We want to make sure we share ideas among principals.

Mary Ellen Cuzela not human verified

There's some new principals.

Mary Ellen Cuzela not human verified

Maybe they haven't thought of certain ideas, and that's what was to be brought forth,

Mary Ellen Cuzela not human verified

different solutions that people could choose from.

Mary Ellen Cuzela not human verified

It's called sharing knowledge, knowledge sharing.

Mary Ellen Cuzela not human verified

It's a key of a successful organization.

Unknown speaker not human verified

Mr. President, I do like that idea of sharing ideas because, I mean,

Unknown speaker not human verified

that could be for anything, not just planning time, anything.

Unknown speaker not human verified

But I do find it insulting to think that the principals don't know what's in their toolbox

Unknown speaker not human verified

But they've already been teachers for a lot. No one said that no one said that no mrs

Unknown speaker not human verified

Timmy said I want to give more

Unknown speaker not human verified

Options and put more tools in the toolbox and I think you said more to them to but more options for them that maybe they

Unknown speaker not human verified

Didn't hadn't thought of well right now that I'll have it in their budget for lunch monitors

Unknown speaker not human verified

So I'm trying to I know but but they they have thought of things. I mean they've been teachers. They went to college they

Unknown speaker not human verified

Have experience most most principles have been.

Unknown speaker not human verified

Assistant principles, they have a lot of experience doing this already. So they.

Unknown speaker not human verified

Already know what a planning period time they already have ideas and I think that they probably thought of all these things. I can't imagine.

Mary Ellen Cuzela not human verified

That principle not already have thought of all these things. So trustee champagne, are you interested in trying to do anything to help? I am interested in planning topic.

Unknown speaker not human verified

Yes or no? I am interested in finding out, like maybe a survey, see how many teachers are actually unhappy with this. And I know that the AFT, the A-A-F-T, has done sort of an unofficial survey themselves, and they said that they've talked to, I don't know, so many schools, and they know the numbers, but they've talked to so many teachers at so many schools, and they have done some sort of survey.

Unknown speaker not human verified

but I don't know I can't remember all the numbers of it but I know that they've reached out to a

Unknown speaker not human verified

bunch of people but that's not really like I appreciate their effort but I don't know that's

Mary Ellen Cuzela not human verified

just an official official survey so is your conclusion um that you don't think that many

Unknown speaker not human verified

teachers have a problem with I think that this has been an ongoing problem as Mrs. Calhoun has said

Unknown speaker not human verified

now whether it's been brought up you know you know as you know you've already been on the board a

Unknown speaker not human verified

couple years some things are bought up you know there's like it's almost like a

Unknown speaker not human verified

time period of you know this is the phase of bringing up such-and-such but

Unknown speaker not human verified

it may for example the books is a good example that may have been an issue for

Unknown speaker not human verified

a long time and then you know people started bringing it up more and then it

Unknown speaker not human verified

becomes more of an issue just like this teacher planning time I've been on the

Unknown speaker not human verified

board seven years I never heard people complaining about it like this until

Unknown speaker not human verified

just recently but that's it's not it's not that it wasn't there it's just that

Unknown speaker not human verified

that it wasn't brought up at that time.

Unknown speaker not human verified

Well, we know that teachers,

Unknown speaker not human verified

and we're not going to solve this exactly,

Unknown speaker not human verified

that teachers work a lot of hours at home,

Unknown speaker not human verified

and they burn out and they get frustrated.

Unknown speaker not human verified

And if we can do something to help with that

Unknown speaker not human verified

by protecting, making sure that their planning time is protected,

Unknown speaker not human verified

I think that's worthwhile.

Unknown speaker not human verified

I'd like to move on.

Unknown speaker not human verified

We've talked about that quite a bit.

Unknown speaker not human verified

I have something else I'd like to ask.

Unknown speaker not human verified

I completely agree. I think the sharing of ideas is always a great thing. We've done it in this district for a very long time. When you share best practices, there's no need to reinvent the wheel and what would work for some campuses will work for others.

Unknown speaker not human verified

There is not one answer that fits all.

Unknown speaker not human verified

That's obvious.

Unknown speaker not human verified

I want to ask, there was a speaker this evening who said secondary wants a seat at the table and hoping there's another meeting.

Unknown speaker not human verified

So if we're just focusing on elementary, can people tonight hearing this discussion think that elementary is the one that's going to get the focus for now?

Unknown speaker not human verified

Or will you invite secondary teachers to the table?

Unknown speaker not human verified

Sure.

Unknown speaker not human verified

Is there going to be another meeting?

Unknown speaker not human verified

And Mrs. Coselli, you said something to Mrs. Champagne about, I can't remember what it was, but something about, did she want something?

Unknown speaker not human verified

But you and Mrs. Teamey have been having meetings, and she was invited to one meeting.

Unknown speaker not human verified

So for her to, for you to act like she isn't a part of wanting it to be.

Unknown speaker not human verified

Okay, that was me.

Unknown speaker not human verified

No, no, we didn't have a.

Unknown speaker not human verified

She just said it.

Unknown speaker not human verified

She just said mrs. Mrs. Champagne. Do you not want this to be do you not want to be part of the solution?

Unknown speaker not human verified

But she hasn't been included in the solution

Unknown speaker not human verified

Discussion it was you and mrs. Timmy

Mary Ellen Cuzela not human verified

Would you answer I don't know what you're talking about? So I think miss Timmy mentioned it

Mary Ellen Cuzela not human verified

I'm not sure it's value-add to to ramble up here about that, but I was addressing the champagne about her comments tonight

Unknown speaker not human verified

I'm rambling. Let's let's let's move on. I think we've talked about that enough. It's a committee update

Unknown speaker not human verified

Do we have any recap of Board Member requests for information?

11.2 Recap of Board member requests for information.

Mary Ellen Cuzela not human verified

I had just asked for an idea of the current need of KDISD certified teachers for dual credit courses versus using HCC professors.

Mary Ellen Cuzela not human verified

I just wanted an idea of what courses we were trying to fulfill.

Unknown speaker not human verified

Okay.

Mary Ellen Cuzela not human verified

Thank you.

12. Future Meetings

Unknown speaker not human verified

Okay. Well, our next meeting is on May 5th.

Unknown speaker not human verified

It'll be a work-study meeting May 5th, 2025.

Unknown speaker not human verified

And then the regular board meeting will be on May 12th, 2025.

13. Closed Meeting

Unknown speaker not human verified

And we will now convene an open and closed meeting, the board will, as authorized under Section 551.001 of the Texas Government Code for the following purposes.

Unknown speaker not human verified

Texas Government Code 551.0821, 551.074.

Unknown speaker not human verified

It is necessary for everyone to please clear the room as the board will convene in closed meeting in this room. Thank you

Unknown speaker not human verified

Being

Unknown speaker not human verified

All right

14. Reconvene from Closed Meeting

Unknown speaker not human verified

The board will now reconvene an open meeting Tuesday today, Tuesday, April 22 2025 and the time is 8 11 p.m

Unknown speaker not human verified

The board heard a level 3 grievance

Unknown speaker not human verified

level 3 FNG grievance 24-078

Unknown speaker not human verified

pursuant to KD Independent School District policy

Unknown speaker not human verified

FNG legal, FNG local,

Unknown speaker not human verified

and regarding parent-student grievances in closed meeting.

Unknown speaker not human verified

In accordance with Chapter 551 of the Texas Government Code,

Unknown speaker not human verified

any action regarding this matter must be taken in open meeting.

Unknown speaker not human verified

Mr. President, I realized I needed to abstain from this vote,

Unknown speaker not human verified

so just sharing.

Unknown speaker not human verified

That's why I didn't participate in the conversation

Unknown speaker not human verified

wanted to share okay this revenue is abstaining from voting in today's vote

Unknown speaker not human verified

tonight's vote do I have a motion on the level 3 FNG grievance well have a motion

Mary Ellen Cuzela not human verified

on the grievance mr. president I move that the Board of Trustees denies the

Mary Ellen Cuzela not human verified

level 3 fng gear events in fng 2478 thereby upholding the decision of the level 1 and

Mary Ellen Cuzela not human verified

level 2 hearing officer do i have a second we will now proceed to vote

Unknown speaker not human verified

the motion carries by a vote of six eyes and we have one abstention there being a

Unknown speaker not human verified

further business before the board this a meeting is adjourned the time is 8 13 p.m.

Official documents

Agenda

The district's own agenda file, as published on its video page. 5 pages.

Official agenda, Regular Board Meeting, 22 April 2025 →

Board packet · 46 documents

The district's own backup material for this agenda, retrieved from BoardDocs. Each file was checked against the size BoardDocs states for it.

This speaker is named from the district’s own record of who was present and from the presiding officer naming them on the recording. The question mark means the block of speech may not be only theirs: the recording was divided by machine, and a long stretch can run two voices together.

If this is wrong, please tell us and it will be corrected on the record. Contact us.

Motions and votes

Recorded actions

Each motion has a permanent anchor. Copy the URL to cite a specific motion.

MOTION 001 · AGENDA 3.1

Passed

It is recommended that the Board of Trustees approves of the superintendent's annual evaluation.

Moved by
amy-thieme
Seconded by
morgan-calhoun

7 Yes · 0 No

TrusteeVote
amy-thieme Yes
dawn-champagne Yes
lance-redmon Yes
mary-ellen-cuzela Yes
morgan-calhoun Yes
rebecca-fox Yes
victor-perez Yes

MOTION 002 · AGENDA 8.1

Passed

It is recommended that the Board of Trustees approve for employees who are being recommended to receive one-year employee probationary contracts, one-year employee dual assignment probationary contracts, one-year employee term contracts, one-year employee dual assignment term contracts, and two-year employee dual assignment term contracts for the 2025 - 2026 school year with the exception of those employees who have resigned or a decision has not been made at this time concerning being recommended for a contract, for termination or for proposed non-renewal, which will occur at a future meeting

Moved by
dawn-champagne
Seconded by
mary-ellen-cuzela

7 Yes · 0 No

TrusteeVote
amy-thieme Yes
dawn-champagne Yes
lance-redmon Yes
mary-ellen-cuzela Yes
morgan-calhoun Yes
rebecca-fox Yes
victor-perez Yes

MOTION 003 · AGENDA 8.2

Passed

It is recommended that the Board of Trustees approves to give notice of the proposed non-renewal of the employee term contract, for Robert Miles, at the end of the 2024 - 2025 contract period.

Seconded by
lance-redmon

7 Yes · 0 No

TrusteeVote
amy-thieme Yes
dawn-champagne Yes
lance-redmon Yes
mary-ellen-cuzela Yes
morgan-calhoun Yes
rebecca-fox Yes
victor-perez Yes

MOTION 004 · AGENDA 8.3

Passed

It is recommended that the Board of Trustees approves for the termination of probationary employee contracts, Ilza Gonzales, and Frank Ites, at the end of the 2024 - 2025 contract period.

Moved by
amy-thieme
Seconded by
lance-redmon

7 Yes · 0 No

TrusteeVote
amy-thieme Yes
dawn-champagne Yes
lance-redmon Yes
mary-ellen-cuzela Yes
morgan-calhoun Yes
rebecca-fox Yes
victor-perez Yes

MOTION 005 · AGENDA 10.1

Passed

It is recommended that the Board of Trustees approve of the February 2025 Financial Reports.

Moved by
lance-redmon
Seconded by
dawn-champagne

7 Yes · 0 No

TrusteeVote
amy-thieme Yes
dawn-champagne Yes
lance-redmon Yes
mary-ellen-cuzela Yes
morgan-calhoun Yes
rebecca-fox Yes
victor-perez Yes

MOTION 006 · AGENDA 10.2

Passed

It is recommended that the Board of Trustees approves the District's April 2025 budget amendments.

Moved by
lance-redmon
Seconded by
dawn-champagne

7 Yes · 0 No

TrusteeVote
amy-thieme Yes
dawn-champagne Yes
lance-redmon Yes
mary-ellen-cuzela Yes
morgan-calhoun Yes
rebecca-fox Yes
victor-perez Yes

MOTION 007 · AGENDA 10.3

Passed

It is recommended that the Board of Trustees approves Prosperity Bank as the District’s bank depository.

Moved by
lance-redmon
Seconded by
dawn-champagne

7 Yes · 0 No

TrusteeVote
amy-thieme Yes
dawn-champagne Yes
lance-redmon Yes
mary-ellen-cuzela Yes
morgan-calhoun Yes
rebecca-fox Yes
victor-perez Yes

MOTION 008 · AGENDA 10.4

Passed

It is recommended that the Board of Trustees nominates Board member Rebecca Fox to the Texas Association of School Boards (TASB) Board of Directors for Region 4, Position E.

Moved by
lance-redmon
Seconded by
dawn-champagne

7 Yes · 0 No

TrusteeVote
amy-thieme Yes
dawn-champagne Yes
lance-redmon Yes
mary-ellen-cuzela Yes
morgan-calhoun Yes
rebecca-fox Yes
victor-perez Yes

MOTION 009 · AGENDA 10.5

Passed

It is recommended that the Board of Trustees approve new instructional materials and the Certification of Provision of Instructional Materials for the 2025-2026 school year.

Moved by
lance-redmon
Seconded by
dawn-champagne

7 Yes · 0 No

TrusteeVote
amy-thieme Yes
dawn-champagne Yes
lance-redmon Yes
mary-ellen-cuzela Yes
morgan-calhoun Yes
rebecca-fox Yes
victor-perez Yes

MOTION 010 · AGENDA 10.6

Passed

It is recommended that the Board of Trustees awards a contract to Anslow-Bryant Construction, Ltd. for the renovation and building addition to Beck Junior High School for a fee not to exceed 1.80% of the cost of the work, including pre-construction services totaling $30,000.

Moved by
lance-redmon
Seconded by
dawn-champagne

7 Yes · 0 No

TrusteeVote
amy-thieme Yes
dawn-champagne Yes
lance-redmon Yes
mary-ellen-cuzela Yes
morgan-calhoun Yes
rebecca-fox Yes
victor-perez Yes

MOTION 011 · AGENDA 10.7

Passed

It is recommended that the Board of Trustees awards a contract to Anslow-Bryant Construction, Ltd. for the renovations to Mayde Creek Elementary School and Sundown Elementary School for a fee not to exceed 1.90% of the cost of the work including pre-construction services totaling $25,000 per campus.

Moved by
lance-redmon
Seconded by
dawn-champagne

7 Yes · 0 No

TrusteeVote
amy-thieme Yes
dawn-champagne Yes
lance-redmon Yes
mary-ellen-cuzela Yes
morgan-calhoun Yes
rebecca-fox Yes
victor-perez Yes

MOTION 012 · AGENDA 10.8

Passed

It is recommended that the Board of Trustees awards a contract to Anslow-Bryant Construction, Ltd. for the expansion to the Mark L. Hopkins Law Enforcement Center for a fee not to exceed 5% of the cost of the work, including pre-construction services totaling $7,500.

Moved by
lance-redmon
Seconded by
dawn-champagne

7 Yes · 0 No

TrusteeVote
amy-thieme Yes
dawn-champagne Yes
lance-redmon Yes
mary-ellen-cuzela Yes
morgan-calhoun Yes
rebecca-fox Yes
victor-perez Yes

MOTION 013 · AGENDA 10.9

Passed

It is recommended that the Board of Trustees awards a contract to Stewart Builders, LLC. for the renovations to Hayes Elementary School and McRoberts Elementary School for a fee not to exceed 2.35% of the cost of the work including pre-construction services totaling $45,000 per campus.

Moved by
lance-redmon
Seconded by
dawn-champagne

7 Yes · 0 No

TrusteeVote
amy-thieme Yes
dawn-champagne Yes
lance-redmon Yes
mary-ellen-cuzela Yes
morgan-calhoun Yes
rebecca-fox Yes
victor-perez Yes

MOTION 014 · AGENDA 10.10

Passed

It is recommended that the Board of Trustees awards a contract to Whiting-Turner Contracting Company for the expansion to Central Maintenance Facilities for a fee not to exceed 2.99% of the cost of the work including pre-construction services totaling $17,500 and renovation to Support Services Complex for a fee not to exceed 3.25% of the cost of the work including pre-construction services totaling $17,500.

Moved by
lance-redmon
Seconded by
dawn-champagne

7 Yes · 0 No

TrusteeVote
amy-thieme Yes
dawn-champagne Yes
lance-redmon Yes
mary-ellen-cuzela Yes
morgan-calhoun Yes
rebecca-fox Yes
victor-perez Yes

MOTION 015 · AGENDA 10.11

Passed

It is recommended that the Board of Trustees enters into a Cost Sharing Agreement for a left turn lane into Cross Elementary School (#48) with Harris-Waller Counties Municipal Utility District (MUD) No. 4 as described in the attached document.

Moved by
lance-redmon
Seconded by
dawn-champagne

7 Yes · 0 No

TrusteeVote
amy-thieme Yes
dawn-champagne Yes
lance-redmon Yes
mary-ellen-cuzela Yes
morgan-calhoun Yes
rebecca-fox Yes
victor-perez Yes

MOTION 016 · AGENDA 10.12

Passed

It is recommended that the Board of Trustees approves the contract for the chiller replacement at Miller Career & Technology Center and Taylor High School Field House to Hunton Services, (utilizing the Choice partners contract number 22-049MF-11) in the amount of $2,019,800 and approves the total project cost not to exceed $2,285,300.

Moved by
lance-redmon
Seconded by
dawn-champagne

7 Yes · 0 No

TrusteeVote
amy-thieme Yes
dawn-champagne Yes
lance-redmon Yes
mary-ellen-cuzela Yes
morgan-calhoun Yes
rebecca-fox Yes
victor-perez Yes

MOTION 017 · AGENDA 10.13

Passed

It is recommended that the Board of Trustees approves the contract for the connections of portable classroom buildings at WoodCreek Junior High School, Haskett Junior High School and reconfigure computer lab at Haskett Junior High School to Brown & Root Industrial Services, LLC utilizing Omnia JOC Contract No. R241603 for a cost of $879,509 and approves the total project cost not to exceed $936,441.

Moved by
lance-redmon
Seconded by
dawn-champagne

7 Yes · 0 No

TrusteeVote
amy-thieme Yes
dawn-champagne Yes
lance-redmon Yes
mary-ellen-cuzela Yes
morgan-calhoun Yes
rebecca-fox Yes
victor-perez Yes

MOTION 018 · AGENDA 10.14

Passed

It is recommended that the Board of Trustees approves the Interlocal Agreement with Cinco Municipal Utility District No. 7 ($15,000) and Katy Independent School District to repair the asphalt walking track at Betty Sue Creech Elementary School.

Moved by
lance-redmon
Seconded by
dawn-champagne

7 Yes · 0 No

TrusteeVote
amy-thieme Yes
dawn-champagne Yes
lance-redmon Yes
mary-ellen-cuzela Yes
morgan-calhoun Yes
rebecca-fox Yes
victor-perez Yes

MOTION 019 · AGENDA 10.15

Passed

It is recommended that the Board of Trustees approves the use of savings from the 2021 Bond for the reconfiguration of existing athletic facilities to construct a new training room and athletic support space on the main campus at Taylor High School.

Moved by
lance-redmon
Seconded by
dawn-champagne

7 Yes · 0 No

TrusteeVote
amy-thieme Yes
dawn-champagne Yes
lance-redmon Yes
mary-ellen-cuzela Yes
morgan-calhoun Yes
rebecca-fox Yes
victor-perez Yes

MOTION 020 · AGENDA 14.1

Passed

It is recommended that the Board of Trustees denies the Level Three FNG grievance in FNG 24-078, thereby upholding the decision of the Level One and Level Two hearing officer.

Seconded by
morgan-calhoun

6 Yes · 0 No · 1 Abstain

TrusteeVote
amy-thieme Yes
dawn-champagne Yes
lance-redmon Abstain
mary-ellen-cuzela Yes
morgan-calhoun Yes
rebecca-fox Yes
victor-perez Yes