Good afternoon. Noting that a quorum is present, I hereby call this work study meeting of the Board of Trustees of Katy Independent School District to order.
Katy ISD · Work Study Meeting
Katy ISD Work Study Meeting, May 5, 2025
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In this meeting
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- 0:01 to 0:29 1. Call to Order
- 0:29 to 1:25 2. Pledges of Allegiance
- 1:25 to 7:16 3. Recognitions
- 7:16 to 7:42 5. Closed Meeting
- 7:42 to 8:29 6. Reconvene from Closed Meeting
- 8:29 to 22:53 7. Reports
- 22:53 to 24:47 8.1 Discuss and consider Board approval of the 2024-2025 School Health Advisory Council (SHAC) representatives.
- 24:47 to 28:20 8.2 Discuss and consider Board Approval of the March 2025 Financial Reports.
- 28:20 to 35:45 8.3 Discuss and consider Board approval of a contract for the purchase of white fleet and police fleet vehicles.
- 35:45 to 36:59 8.4 Discuss and consider Board approval of the May 2025 budget amendments.
- 36:59 to 38:01 8.5 Discuss and consider Board approval of the Interlocal Agreement with Harris County Department of Education (HCDE) for Specialized services at the Academic Behavior School West.
- 38:01 to 43:51 8.6 Discuss and consider Board approval of the Interlocal Agreement with Harris County Department of Education for specialized therapy services.
- 43:51 to 55:56 8.7 Discuss and consider Board approval of additional department staffing needs to address growth for the 2025 - 2026 school year.
- 55:56 to 1:03:35 8.8 Discuss and consider approval of the 2025-2026 UIL Student Accident Insurance proposal.
- 1:03:35 to 1:05:17 9. Information Items
- 1:05:17 to 1:05:36 10. Future Meetings
Full transcript
Automated transcript, not human verified. It is a way to find a passage, not a quotation.
1. Call to Order
Today is Monday, May 5, 2025, and the time is 5 p.m.
Dr. Regorski, will you verify that we are in compliance with the provisions of the Texas Open Meetings Act with regard to the notice for this meeting?
Mr. President, I do confirm we're in compliance with the provisions of the Texas Open Meeting Act for our meeting today.
Thank you.
2. Pledges of Allegiance
KDISD Police Officer Sergeant Clarence Howard will lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance.
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America
and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
Honor the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to the Texas, one state, under God, one and indivisible.
Do we have any scouts in the audience?
Scouts?
Chris Harris, aren't you a scout?
Okay.
All right.
3. Recognitions
It's none.
Okay, we will move on to recognitions.
recognitions okay at this time i'd like to introduce brandon webb director of
communications for the recognitions portion of our meeting
good evening president perez trustees and superintendent grigorski this time i'd like
to introduce city of katie mayor dusty theale along with mayor pro tem chris harris who is
joining us tonight to present a proclamation in recognition of Teacher Appreciation Week.
Mayor?
Mr. President, Mr. Superintendent, and the school board, thank you for having us here.
This is a pretty special event for both myself and Mayor Pro Tem Chris Harris.
I know most of y'all know my both my parents were retired public school teachers and very proud of them and
Would be happy to hear me read this today, and I'm gonna let a mayor pro Tim Harris
Tell you a little bit why this is important to him
Well, thank you. Yes, son of two Texas retired teachers so very proud of that fact and
Most importantly since she's probably listening my wife is a teacher here in Katy I see and Katy I's D graduate
graduate, so thank you, Danielle Harris, for keeping the family in line.
Well, I think he also left out he's also a substitute teacher sometimes for Katie Elementary.
Is that correct?
Emergency emergency list.
And they probably listen to him about like I listen to him, so that's probably
true.
So I'll go ahead and read our proclamations.
since Proclamation Teacher Appreciation Week May 5th through May 9th, 2025,
whereas teachers play a vital role in shaping not only the knowledge
but also the character and future of their students,
ensuring every child has the opportunity to succeed through the power of education,
whereas educators dedicate countless hours to planning meaningful instruction,
fostering safe and nurturing learning environments,
building strong connections with families and communities,
communities, collaborating with peers and continuously improving their practice.
Whereas teachers routinely go beyond their professional responsibilities, serving as
mentors, leaders, coaches and sources of inspiration to those they teach.
Whereas teachers spark curiosity and a love of learning through engaging, challenging
and thoughtful classroom experiences.
Whereas the city of Katy proudly acknowledges the critical role teachers play in guiding
and educating the young minds within our community.
Now, therefore, be it resolved that I, Dusty Thiel,
Mayor of the City of Katy,
do hereby proclaim May 5th through the 9th, 2025,
as Teacher Appreciation Week in the City of Katy, Texas,
and urge all citizens to recognize and honor our educators
for their passion, commitment, and invaluable contributions
to the lives of Katy's children.
In witness thereof, I have hereunto set my hand
and calls to seal the city of Katy, Texas to be affixed this fifth day of May 2025.
Signed, Dusty Thiel, Mayor.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Doesn't look like they're expecting us.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you, Mayor Thiel and Mayor Pro-Tim Harris, for your support of KDISD.
Our community is truly grateful for the important work our teachers do on behalf of all students each and every day. Thank you.
continuing with a recognition in one moment i'm going to announce and talk about our
new principal of kilpatrick but before i do that i see our current principal is out there
malin rodriguez and for those of you don't know it malin's been with us for a long time
and she's retiring this year so thank you for everything you've done
But we still want you around, just so you know.
So sitting with Melinda out there in front of her is Jessica Estes who is going to be
our brand new principal at Kilpatrick.
Excited for that.
I heard the staff was super excited and everything's going to be wonderful over there just like
you promised me so i'm excited for that and uh jessica you brought some folks with you i see
would you like to introduce who you got with you today my husband drew and then my daughter
awesome all right well thank you
and lots of smiles over there so that's a good thing so i appreciate that thank you
Thank you so much and congratulations.
This is the public comment period, public comment on posted agenda items,
but we didn't have anyone sign up for comments,
5. Closed Meeting
so we will adjourn to go into closed, convening closed meeting
as authorized under Section 551.001 of the Texas Government Code for the following purposes.
Services, Texas Government Code 551.071, 551.129.
6. Reconvene from Closed Meeting
The Board will now reconvene in open meeting.
Today is Monday, May 5, 2025, and the time is 536 p.m.
On behalf of my colleagues, I welcome everyone to this evening's work study meeting.
Each Board member received the agenda and documentation for this meeting on Friday,
May 2, 2025, the Board will receive information and recommendations from staff, administration
and the Superintendent on these agenda items.
At tonight's meeting, Board members will be able to ask questions, receive answers
and should be prepared to take action.
The Board has just reconvened from closed meeting in accordance with Chapter 551 of
the Texas Government Code.
any action arising from discussions in a closed meeting must be taken in an open meeting.
Our first item is 7.1, which is Final Attendance Bond Re-modification Survey Results for Cinco Ranch Junior High to Ties Junior High.
7. Reports
And our presenter is Dr. Andrea Grooms, Chief Communications Officer.
Welcome.
Thank you.
And good evening, President Perez, Trustees, and Superintendent Rogorski.
As you will recall, during the March board meeting, Mr. Vierling, Chief Operations Officer, provided data and information on a potential ABM, Attendance Boundary Modification, that would impact land use zones 60C and 60D.
The potential ABM would transition junior high students from Cinco Ranch Junior High to Ties Junior High.
It would not impact their assigned elementary school or their assigned high school.
With any attendance boundary modification, we conducted a survey to gather feedback on this potential ABM.
The survey was administered April 1st through April 30th to families who resided in land use zones 60C and 60D.
It was sent to about 200 recipients, and 92 individuals responded to that survey.
So the response rate was 46%, which is pretty significant.
And the survey simply asked, do you support this attendance boundary modification?
And we saw overwhelmingly that 74% of survey respondents indicated that they support the ABM,
with 24% saying they somewhat support it or do not support it at all.
with those who support the ABM it is because they feel as though that new
school ties junior high is closer to the homes compared to Cinco Ranch junior
high where they're currently zoned other reasons they support the ABM have to do
with transportation and the curriculum and teaching and learning that they'll
experience in the new school that we see across all of our schools that concluded
the survey if you have any questions I would be happy to provide answers thank
you very much trustees any questions
mr. president I'd want to drive them did so in this group does that take care of
all those groups I think in the past we've kind of referred to them as
orphans possibly am I making that state that word up so everybody now would kind
of follow the same pattern you wouldn't have anybody that is going from like an elementary
school to a junior high and then back to a high school without a kind of a cohort with them i
think mr valiant's going to jump in here sure it looked like it yes sir um you know in that little
area it does it's the kiddos that go from wood creek elementary to it would clean that up the
wood creek elementary to cinco and then back to tompkins so this one uh it would create a more
I guess coherent cohort in that area. Yes, sir. Thank you
Anything else
Thank you very much
Next item is seven point two and that is the
school health advisory council or shack and your report our
Presenter is HC Grimmett curriculum coordinator health and physical education
welcome
Good evening President Perez, members of the board, and Superintendent Grigorski. The purpose of my presentation tonight is to provide you with an annual report of our district school health advisory council, otherwise known as SHAC, as required by Senate Bill 283.
Our council is composed of members representing each of the categories listed on this slide.
Any person who wishes to be a part of the council is invited to attend.
Meeting agenda items and topics relate to one of the eight focus areas for coordinated
school health.
Meeting notices are posted in advance on all campuses and sent out to all parents via KD
Court Board. Our committee met twice in the fall and twice in the spring.
Meetings were held at the Food and Nutrition Building. Our meeting dates are
listed on this slide. All meetings are recorded and minutes are posted on the
KDISD Shack page in accordance with Senate Bill 1525. Here is a summary of
each of the four meetings. At our first meeting, members received an overview of
the elementary and junior high abuse and violence provision prevention lessons
presented to students in compliance with Senate Bill 9. Members received
information regarding the district's fentanyl Canvas course for junior high
and high school students developed in accordance with the state requirement to
provide education on the dangers and consequences of fentanyl. Members also received information
on the Fort Bend County Community Health Assessment, which determines county needs and services.
At our next meeting, members received information on the Katy ISD Local Wellness Policy Implementation
Plan. The Spring Branch Community Health Center provided information on the community health
programs available in the Katy area. Members also received information on the
community partnership with Katy ISD Anglers and the Katy Fishing's Future
Chapter. During the third meeting members were provided information regarding the
Katy ISD unassigned EpiPen program. Harris County Department of Health
provided members information on school-based services for students, staff,
staff, and parents on a variety of health-related needs.
Members received information on the adoption education program offered to students as part
of the pregnancy ed and parenting program, otherwise known as PEP.
At the final meeting, members learned about Title IX and its impact in public schools.
Members received information from KDISD emergency management on bond updates for safety measures
around the district and members provided feedback regarding future SHAC meetings
and topics. The committee reviewed and approved the annual report which I am
presenting to you tonight. So this concludes the annual report and I'm
happy to answer any questions. Do we have any questions? Mr. President, I have a few
questions. There's a lot of, thank you sir, there's a lot of interesting material in
here so I appreciate your patience with my questions. The Fentanyl
Canvas course, so that's, it's on Canvas so that was an online course I'm
assuming? So it's an online resource for our teachers so you have to understand
this is secondary sixth grade through twelfth grade. Ninth through twelfth we
actually have our textbook that actually has drug prevention in the actual unit
Junior high really didn't have a resource, so we created that.
And basically, it's a bunch of PSAs that have been developed by the CDC to be able to just
share information for students so that they know the consequences of fentanyl.
Yeah, that's excellent.
Do they mirror like the posters that we've seen developed by the TEA, right?
Yeah, it's all different kinds.
and like I said the CDC is constantly putting out new material to show that
the dangers of fentanyl because it's something else it's a big deal and do is
that a I guess how is it rolled out to them then in junior high so the the
teachers they can they can take and pull let's say they have a lot of times in
physical education health classes you might have a five-minute passing time
they can go and they can pull it up and they can share right when the students
or leaving or so on.
So it's just at their disposal so that they can use it at any time.
When they can.
Okay.
Okay.
Thank you.
And then you mentioned elementary and junior high abuse and violence prevention lessons,
and that's new to me, like that term.
It may just be me.
But what is that covering?
So we've been doing that for a while.
So that goes along with the human growth and development courses that we also do.
So for the last several years, we've done the violence and prevention and the human growth together, usually in the springtime.
And so we've separated.
So now counseling does their abuse and violence prevention in the fall.
And then we focus on the human growth and puberty in the spring.
Okay, so they're separated now.
Yeah.
And is that an opt-in?
Yes, parent consent.
On both of those, right?
Yes.
Okay.
And then I was really happy and pleased to hear about the adoption ed information being shared by Mr. McGinley.
I thought that was great, and I know he's really happy to be a part of that.
He is.
He loves being on SHAC, and he told me he will definitely continue to be a member.
Yeah, I'm pleased he can be a part.
I saw there was an information given about Title IX, and I was curious what information was shared about Title IX.
Yes, so Title IX, a lot of people have the perception, you know, it's about women's sports and so on, but there's so much more in public education as far as Title IX.
And the Office of General Counsel, they were able to come in and share with us just the different aspects that go into Title IX.
For instance harassment being able to to make sure if if a staff member is aware of anything to make sure you report that
Just like any type of abuse you would you would you would tell you know if you see that sure so okay?
Yeah, thank you for clarifying that because title nine typically is thought of
With a certain bent in mind, so thank you, and then I think lastly the alert is software
software, it was mentioned there's, is that, that's new software, a different kind of software,
or is that the software that we've always had on the computers? So that's something that's going
to be new, that again, emergency management, they came in and they told us about all the new updates.
So basically with staff, let's say you're in your classroom, and all of a sudden they can get an
alert immediately on their computer to alert them. I just remember talking to teachers with
with having some frustration with the software,
maybe this is a different software,
a software that they can alert when there's an emergency,
so from the classroom out.
That's not this.
Is that?
I think this is just mainly notifications
so that they can have instant notification
in their classrooms.
Okay, and that's new this year?
That's something that's new
that's going to be rolled out.
Okay, okay, thank you very much.
Yes.
Thank you.
Let me, I wanted to ask, does SHAC cover sex trafficking?
So we have covered that in years past.
We've had, in fact, I think last year, I think we did, we had, that was one of our topics
that was covered.
For secondary?
Yes, yes.
Last year as far as, we had someone I think come in from Harris County Public Health that
came in and gave us an update last year.
And what about for teachers about spotting and what to do and all that?
So we have different mandates every year that we all have to cover all various topics that roll out for anything from anything from diabetics to, you know, it's just our mandatory trainings.
Okay, so sex trafficking is covered, not necessarily every year you're saying?
No, it is every year.
Every year?
Yes.
For secondary and for?
Well, it's for our staff.
It's our mandatory trainings that we all go through every year at the beginning of the school year.
Okay.
Okay.
All right.
Thank you.
Mr. President?
President, I have a question.
Champagne?
So, nice to see you.
I was wondering about the EpiPen part of it.
Yes.
So, what kind of training do you all do about that?
I'm just curious because I'm the mom of a kid that has an EpiPen and she's not a student here anymore, but just curious as to what we all learn about that.
So this year, Therese Highnote, head of our health services, all our clinics here in the district now have an unassigned EpiPen.
So you have students that they already know they have possibilities of anaphylactic shock and so on.
so they actually have their own prescription but now campuses now would have an unassigned for
instance a student might not be aware that they're having some type of incident so now they have that
available to them is that if a student doesn't know for example you know my my child we didn't
know she needed that until she had an incident but what kind of permission does like if i mean if
they're going into anaphylactic shock could they get one without I mean
because sometimes those are emergency such situations so yes so always you're
always in contact with you know with parents at all times and anytime that's
administered you know 9-1-1 is called ambulance arrives but it's just you know
if you see that your airway is closing up that can't get in touch with the
parents yes what do you do so that's you know like i said that's one of those calls that you know
medical you know somebody will make that come somebody will make that that determination you
know but we never had that before because again it was those students that already had a predetermined
uh you know thing with anaphylactic shock and so now those are housed so that if it does arise
because you don't know that it's going to happen.
I love that. Thank you.
Thank you. Any other questions on that?
Okay, we move on to 8.1,
8.1 Discuss and consider Board approval of the 2024-2025 School Health Advisory Council (SHAC) representatives.
which is the approval,
discuss and consider approval of the 2024-2025 SHAC representatives.
Yeah, so I've provided you with a list
of the School Health Advisory Council SHAC membership
for your approval for the upcoming school year.
The Board of Trustees shall appoint at least five members of the local school health advisory council.
A majority of the members must be persons who are parents of students enrolled in the district
and who are not employed with the district.
So I'm happy to answer any questions regarding the membership list.
Trustees, any questions?
Mr. President.
Ms. Cuzela.
How do you, it looks like you have a TBD for nutrition services.
Yes.
How do you go about trying to find that person?
So as far as that list goes, what I call that is the executive shack.
Those are all the heads of all the components of your coordinated school health.
And so I believe we're still going through the hiring process of a new nutrition director.
and mr. beer link could possibly talk to that as well yes ma'am actually our new
executive director of nutrition and food services just accepted at 7 a.m. this
morning so dr. G but you weren't in at work at that time were you sir you
weren't at work at that time to work at 645 mr. okay thank you very much but yes
she she accepted Alexa carrier is her name she works for us currently she's
She's the director of policy and procurement.
So we're very excited.
She's going to stay on the KDISD team.
She's going to do a great job.
Great.
Okay.
Thank you.
Any other questions?
Thanks a lot.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
8.2 Discuss and consider Board Approval of the March 2025 Financial Reports.
Okay.
Now we go to 8.2.
Presenter is Chris Smith, CFO.
Discuss and consider board approval of the March 2025 financial reports.
All right.
Well, Mr. Hines would normally do this, but he is out on vacation this week, and so it's me.
You've got the B team.
And I'm going to start off with, of course, you have your financial reports in there.
We're looking at 58% as our target since we're seven-tenths of the way through on this report.
The first page you see is the summary by object.
Again, everything's within that 58% or underspending is happening.
And in fact, if you look at it compared to last year, it's happening at a little bit
higher rate than is the underspending.
And of course, on page two, you have the summary by function.
And then the next five pages is the summary by function and object.
It gives you a little bit more detail.
And again, we're looking at 58% or less, 58.3% or less.
And everything with the exception of those two, those things that Mr. Hines mentions
every month, the 10-month windows like transportation, food services, those kind of things, those are showing a little bit more than 58%, and they always do.
And then following those summary by object and function, you have your capital projects report.
There's a summary on page one, and I'll point out on page one that summary, the next item that I'm going to be presenting, is on the very bottom right corner.
MISC CAPITAL PROJECTS, IT SHOWS ESTIMATES UNDER PROJECTION OF $7.6 MILLION.
THAT WILL BE KEY ON MY NEXT ITEM.
I JUST WANTED TO POINT THAT OUT WHILE WE WERE THERE.
THEN YOU'VE GOT MORE DETAILS, THERE'S SUMMARIES, BUT STILL MORE DETAILS ON THE NEXT TWO PAGES OF THE $806 MILLION AND THE $676 MILLION AUTHORIZATIONS.
YOU'VE GOT E-RATE STATUS, THE SURES WATERFALL AND YOUR MISC CAPITAL PROJECTS.
And then of course the tax report finishes that out.
Well, it doesn't finish it out.
It's the tax report.
Our tax collections are up over where they were this last year.
And then the final page is our check summary,
which has a summary of the checks that we've issued by the general fund,
our special revenue funds, construction funds,
internal service funds, and our custodial funds.
And that is your financial report,
so I'll be glad to answer any questions if you have any.
So I noticed in the first page, the other operating expenses is at 62% versus 47% last year.
Is that where the, for example, the transportation is embedded and other things like that?
Is that, if you look at just 6,400 other operating expenses, 62 versus 47?
I'm not sure.
We could look into the individual functions, and that would probably stick out as a higher 64 percentage.
and I'm not sure right now that it's not not jumping out on me what that could be
looking at co-curriculars at 68% on the next page student transportation is at
65% so it's just some of these that are some of them require some more upfront
the school year cost but again as we analyze this nothing concerned us I will
We'll look into that, though.
Thanks.
Trustees, any questions?
On 8.2?
All right, 8.2 is a long time coming.
Well, we just, no, 8.3, rather, is the white fleet and police vehicles.
8.3 Discuss and consider Board approval of a contract for the purchase of white fleet and police fleet vehicles.
It's a long time coming.
And, you know, we point out the underspending,
and there's going to always be underspending in our budget.
We budget for if we were fully staffed and fully spent our expenditures,
and we're never going to be fully staffed, unfortunately,
because there's turnover,
and we never fully expend our expenditures because those are, you know,
we try not to do that because that gets us in trouble.
So we don't.
It creates underspending.
Historically, what we'd done prior to COVID is we would budget for our white fleet.
And that would all work out great, and we'd order it, et cetera.
And then when they froze the basic allotment and we started getting squeezed,
we would find underspending, identify it,
and then come to the board in June and say, hey, we'd like to amend the budget,
move it to these functions where we can buy some of this white fleet capital,
and then we would use it in underspending.
But unfortunately, when COVID hit, the supply chains made that not happen.
That three-month window was not near long enough to be able to order those vehicles.
And so we've kind of stacked out and really kind of ignored replenishing our old white fleet
and adding new white fleet as needed.
And so this makes up for a couple of years or several years of neglect, if you will.
That sounds like a bad word, but we have neglected it.
We're using that capital projects interest that I've mentioned.
I have $7.6 million as I went over the financial report.
There's plenty of money there.
And what this would do is replace the vehicles that you have on that summary sheet.
You can see those average 14.6 years old at 111,000 miles.
One of the benefits of doing this is those vehicles will
run operationally more efficient and not require as much work from our mechanic staff that they
can keep our buses going better, et cetera. And by doing that, it just frees up operational
expenditures by making this capital investment. That's another good thing. And we're getting,
especially when it comes to the police department vehicles, we're getting
newer, more reliable vehicles throughout the fleet. And again, we'll still have a lot
of older vehicles next year it won't be near this kind of bubble again this
bubbles been building up once we get this through next year we'll probably do
it this same way maybe a little bit earlier in the year and it won't be
near this larger purchase this is because it's been been a while since
we've done something like this do we do we bid this out to like different
dealerships or we have we remember several cooperatives that have built
have bid it out and we will buy it under one of those purchasing cooperatives but if we're going
to buy a an interceptor for the police department and we're going to buy what is it 10 of them we're
going to get to them and say hey we're ordering 10 of them we're going to try and negotiate even
a better price than the purchasing cooperative allows but we're doing it under the purchasing
cooperative uh contract we just hope we can still get better pricing than that because of the
volumes that we're buying may not we're going to try okay and again i don't know what the
availability of these are what the supply chain are uh etc this could if you all approve this
next week and we order them next week they may not come in until december some of them what we
would do if it was general fund is we'd be having to amend that budget since this capital projects
fund we would be okay having those missed the August 31st fiscal year
deadlines since these are capital projects it gives us a little bit more
flexibility when it comes to having that stuff come in and this is not affecting
the general fund because of the interest income yes this is the interest income
we're earning off our bond cash until it's spent it's earning interest in it
and we set it aside, and there's a summary of what we've used to set aside,
but there's $7 million available, and this would be almost $2 million,
about $1.8 million of that $7.2 million available.
Thank you.
Any other questions?
Any questions?
Ms. Grisella?
Mr. President, you said there's $7 million available, right?
And that's on the construction report, right?
It's on the construction report, the front page summary.
Yep.
Let me, I'm flipping there real quick so I can.
Of?
Yeah, 7.6, I'm sorry.
7.6.
7.6.
But doesn't that, am I, hopefully I'm not reading this incorrectly, but doesn't that include the 5.7 that's, I mean, there's only 2 million.
If you'll look about five pages further back, right before the tax report, you can see that we've got $17.4 million in revenues over the last few years on that, and only $23 million in expenditures.
We have to sell some money aside for arbitrage liability, and you can see the 7.6 that's available to spend.
Sorry, okay. I'm stuck on that 5.7 for the Merchant's Way build-out, but that's been...
That's in there. The bottom line of that, the Merchant's Way build-out, there's no expenditures that have been booked today.
We just started that, and that's been going, and we're probably using bond funds.
That bond fund account, you know, it was on the ballot, if you will, and then we'll start using these funds.
But the funds are, the interest is available and ready to spend, and it accounts for that and the purchase of that Merchant's Way building.
Okay. And then last question. Most of these vehicles are 100,000 plus miles mileage, except for one, which kind of bugged me, but it's only 47,000 miles. Do you know why we're getting rid of that?
Well, there was actually three vehicles that were lower miles.
They were like 2008, but they were lower miles.
We are kind of, the same phrase, robbing Peter to pay Paul.
We are moving some of those into, like we're going to get three, I think it's, I'm sorry, we need four grounds crew vehicles.
They're going to get three on this list.
the fourth one is going to be one of those with the lower mileage.
So you're not going to?
We're shifting around some of those with the lower mileage.
I'm not sure if we're shifting them all around,
but some of them came off this list with the lower mileage
because they've got 47,000 miles on it.
Yeah, they may be 14 years old, but with only 47,000 miles,
we think we can get some, and we'll put them in a position
to where they start getting more miles on them,
and we are trying to maximize that.
I think it was eight units in total that after we looked at it
and looked at mileage and those kind of things,
we peeled off about eight units.
I think three were going back into growth.
Let's just call it growth.
So there's one still left, though?
I think so, yeah.
When I was looking at it, the one at the top, yeah, it's still left.
And I'm not sure why.
I'm not sure the details as to why that's still left.
Okay.
There's a reason.
I just can't remember.
I would hope we could use it, but okay.
Maybe someone can answer that later.
I'll write that down.
Thank you.
All right.
You're welcome.
Okay.
Thanks.
8.4 Discuss and consider Board approval of the May 2025 budget amendments.
8.4 now to discuss and consider board approval of the May 2025 budget amendments.
Presenter is Esperanza Rios, Director of Budget and Treasury. Welcome.
Good evening, Board President Perez, Board of Trustees, and Dr. Gagorski.
Tonight we present budget amendments which are all direct functional offsets.
These functional offsets include transportation, staff development, supplemental pay, substitutes, salary alignment, and supplies.
The approval of these amendments will result in no impact to the general operating fund balance.
We also are presenting a budget amendment for the capital projects fund for the Taylor High School reconfiguration of athletic spaces, which was approved at the April 22nd board meeting.
And these funds will come from the 2021 bond project savings.
And the approval of these amendments will result in no impact to the capital funds fund balance.
Okay, any questions?
Thanks so much.
Anytime it doesn't affect fund balance, it's good.
No.
No.
Did you have?
No.
Okay.
Okay.
8.5 Discuss and consider Board approval of the Interlocal Agreement with Harris County Department of Education (HCDE) for Specialized services at the Academic Behavior School West.
We're now moving on to 8.5, and that is to discuss and consider board approval of the interlocal agreement with Harris County Department of Education for specialized services at the Academic Behavior School West.
Dr. Wynn Coffey, Assistant Superintendent for Special Education.
Welcome. Good evening President Perez, Dr. Guborski and board members. We're bringing to you tonight our annual
approval for consideration or annual contract for consideration and approval with Harris County Department of Education
for specialized services at the Academic Behavior School West or ABS West.
This is for a small number of our students for which very highly specialized services are required.
required. How does this compare with last year as far as the cost? It's the same number
of students. Same, same. And the cost about $144,000 it says? Yes. Okay. Any questions
trustees? Okay. And I want the 8.6. That's you as well, right? Me again. Yes. This is
8.6 Discuss and consider Board approval of the Interlocal Agreement with Harris County Department of Education for specialized therapy services.
for the board to discuss and consider approvals and interlocal agreement also
with care Harris County Department of Education this is for specialized
therapy services such as our occupational therapists physical
therapists and music therapists who come in and provide services to our students
we contract with Harris County Department of Ed for those positions so
it's it's it's physical therapy and occupational therapy music therapy it's
It's not, is it, is there any mental therapy?
That's all, we provide that in-house.
Okay, all right, okay.
I have a question.
Go ahead, Ms. Murphy.
Dr. Coffey, how does, I love that we do this
because, I don't know, I have a friend that benefited
really a lot from the music therapy.
You know, he was an adult, but how does a child
get approved to receive these services?
The IEP committee meets and with consent from all members, they consent for an evaluation
based on the specific therapy being requested.
So if it were music therapy, they would do a request for a music therapy evaluation.
The music therapist comes in, collects information from a variety of sources, applies inordinate
measures and then determines whether or not the student requires music therapy to benefit
from their IEP.
Mr. President.
Ms. Cuzela.
Is this about the same cost as last year or is it?
It's very close.
I do believe that in the attachments we had to add there by hour and so we had to add
some additional I think hours as the number of students are going up.
But yes, it's very close.
This is 3.5 million so roughly the same.
Any other questions?
Yeah.
Okay.
So at the top it says 2025 is 3.6 and 2024 is 3.2.
right I'm sorry at the top at the top of the contract agreement approval request
it's in blue I don't know if it's in blue on your oh yes there you go there's
the amount yeah so it went up by about three hundred and seventy thousand is
that how many more kids did we have our students do we have I don't have the
number of students that Bennett that require OTP tites a vast number as I'm
sure you can imagine but if you turn to the next page it talks to you a little
bit about the number of hours and days and what the cost is per day for these
individuals and I believe that we had to add I'm looking to see if I have that
here with me I think we had to have an additional the equivalent of an
additional occupational therapist and also the additional equivalent of
additional occupational therapy assistant to address the students and
And then some of the others increased in hours,
equally a day.
Okay, so can you help me understand this?
So on, I guess on page two, no.
On page two, it says 3.5, but on the front page,
it says 3.6.
I think my pages are different,
so let me just make sure I'm looking.
Okay, so on the interlocal contract
between Harris County Department of Education and KDISD 3.5 and then on the
front page the contract agreement approval request is 3.6. Did y'all add?
Is that what the contract is? The contract is what we would go by. I'm not sure why
that has a different amount on the very front. I would need to research that. Okay
Okay.
Do we get that this week?
Sure.
Okay.
All right.
The contract is, yeah.
Is it also on page one?
You'll see a little further downwards this funding information.
It has that 3.5 as well.
So this thing at the top, I'm not sure where that came from.
So I'll have to look at that.
Maybe it's a typo.
We can just get that.
Sure.
Absolutely.
Okay.
Thank you so much.
Absolutely.
Mr. President.
Mr. Redman.
Mr. Hoffey, do we know, if say a budget were ever signed for funding school this year,
do we know is intensity-based funding, would this be an example of how that would go,
would be spent so a child who needs more of these services,
this could possibly increase the amount of money we were receiving for that child?
My best guess, based on our participation in the pilot, is that yes,
this would increase the tier of service.
when you look at the intensity-based funding,
every service a child gets and the amount of services they get equal
another step on the tier.
And so based on if a child had OT services or had OT, PT, and MT services,
it would increase their weight.
And so that would impact the funding.
Thank you.
Yeah, absolutely.
Mr. President?
Ms. Champagne?
So I saw, this may not be the same thing,
but I saw something in another school district once
where children were getting some sort of services,
maybe similar to this, but they were using that child
if they had insurance to help fund it.
So there is a level of that.
That kind of dips into something outside of my department.
But sometimes we have students who have, for example,
Medicaid and certain services are billable
through the school district.
And sometimes with TIC, something like that
is billable through an ECI.
but I am not aware within the school district that we would build private insurance for school-based services.
Just was wondering.
Thank you.
Okay, any other questions?
Thank you.
8.7 Discuss and consider Board approval of additional department staffing needs to address growth for the 2025 - 2026 school year.
And we move on to 8.7, which is discuss and consider board approval of additional department staffing needs
to address growth for 2025-2026 school year.
Brian Shoes, Chief Human Resources Officer.
Good evening, President Perez, members of the board.
Thank you.
Dr. Gorski.
As we do each year in May, we bring forward the recommendation for additional department staffing,
and this is our recommendation for the 25-26 school year.
Again, this is due to growth in the district, overall just enrollment growth.
We're adding two campuses next year, facilities growth, and I'll talk about that in a little more detail in a second.
But, you know, this is to ensure that we can continue to provide the service that is expected from our community, from our students, from our staff.
And in your agenda packet tonight, you can see there are 35 additional staff member positions that we are requesting.
But to go a little deeper into that, if you look at the transportation section, those 16 positions are associated with the new transportation center.
And so, of course, we know we're building that center.
We're going to open it, and, you know, we've got to staff that center.
So those 16 are associated with that. So if you pull those out, then there's 19 requests that were made by cabinet departments.
When it comes to budget or cost, we're looking at about $1.8 million. Now that's conservative, so I think that's a little high.
But talking with Mr. Smith about the budget, attributed to the transportation center is about $800,000.
And he had about $900,000 budgeted for that. And then he had about a million budgeted for additional department staffing.
staffing, so we're right on that budget as far as that's concerned.
And that for this year is pretty much it in a nutshell, but I can take any questions.
Mr. Chairman, a million dollars for the non-transportation.
Yes, sir.
Okay.
Yes, sir.
Questions, trustees?
These are new positions.
The other positions are new positions.
They're all new positions.
Yes, sir.
These are new positions.
Mr. President?
Yes.
Ms. Cuzela?
Thank you.
So yeah, 35 new positions is a lot that are teaching positions, and we're adding 1.8 to our expense from here on out when we do this.
Yes, ma'am.
Okay.
And you're telling me $800,000 is attributed to the new transportation center and staffing that?
Yes, ma'am.
And then a million is everything else.
Can you break down the other parts by chance?
You mean like individual?
individual salary amounts.
I can provide that to the board, absolutely.
I'd like to know that.
Yeah, absolutely.
Like teaching and learning,
there's a secretary for assistant director of fine arts.
I can break that down for the board, sure.
I can get that to you.
That would help me.
Get that to Dr. Gorgolski tomorrow.
Okay.
I thought the last presentation we had on growth,
that growth, enrollment growth was flattening.
So to add 35 new positions
when we're flattening enrollment is concerning.
I understand, but through this process,
all the conversations that we have with cabinet members,
and we've been really good about this in years past.
It is more than last year,
but I think some of these were potentially needed last year.
Last year, we kept it even more lean than this,
but I think we've done a good job
at maintaining the leanness that we have in administration but when it comes to
it's not just enrollment growth I mean we're adding two new campuses and then
obviously the you know the transportation center so it all factors
in there and that's what those requests are based on and we have all those
discussions dr. Gorski and I discussed these prior prior to moving forward as
well discussing the budget with mr. Smith and mrs. Rios the accountability
accountability specialist
Is that
Because of some legislation or what where is where's that coming from? I can I can ask dr.
Caskey to speak to that counting for her so that particular position works with our local assessments, right?
We're expanding schools that we have additional schools that we have to support also looking at our school improvement campuses on the direct support there
There's also legislation of pretty significant changes to the accountability system.
So that specialist would help there.
Right now I have one individual who trains on our aware system, one, for the entire district.
And I'm assuming groundskeeper, technician, pool technician, that's new campus?
New campuses.
To be used across?
across or Mr. Verling, I don't know if you want to add to that, but yeah, those, uh, those are
new campus, right? It has to do with the number of, uh, the number of pools in terms of the pool
equipment folks. And then the, the mowers it's, it's really just, so we're getting some newer
mowers that mow a larger section of, of grass. They can be more efficient. They can be on time,
get things done. Okay. But we're adding, let's see, or we're not, oh, that's a groundskeeper.
I guess we're adding four of them.
These are these are administrative positions so I just want to make sure.
Well let's clarify that I think I think that that bears some weight here. These
are positions that are not teaching positions but certainly these are not
administrative positions. These are not administrators. We're talking about
clerks and mechanics and HVAC techs and groundskeepers guys that drive lawn
mowers so these are certainly not administrative positions I believe some
of them are but sure point taken legal counsel thank you mr. president mr.
Redmond mr. Schuster you may not be the person to answer this it may be mr.
for Veerling. Pull technician, is that maybe, is that literally just because of growth or is there
something happening because we were unable to do all the replacements and repairs to our pools
when the last bond for the pool equipment didn't pass? Yes, sir. I think that has an impact on it,
right? I think anytime, it's sort of like vehicles, right? If you have an older vehicle
or if you've got 100,000 miles on a vehicle,
you have to figure out how much are you going to spend to repair it
versus am I just going to get a new one.
So similar type concept here.
I can let Nathan jump in if you want to,
but in terms of pool techs or any of those folks,
we've added, and we don't come to the board often asking for staff
because we know that what we do is important,
but we also know that teachers are far more important than what we're doing.
And so when we do come to you guys, it's only because we're at the point now where it's untenable or we're not able to do what we need to do.
Keeping the pools open, keeping the swim teams up, those are very important.
When we have to close a pool because we've got kids and then they've got to go, let's say the Tompkins pool closes and they've got to go to Cinco instead.
And all those things create a huge ruckus.
So we try to balance the amount of disruption that we cause to the campus versus what we're trying to do here.
So, Nathan, if you want to speak to the pool equipment, you certainly can.
But, Mr. Edmund, I think your thought about the bond and not being able to replace equipment I think does have an impact on that.
That's correct.
You're exactly right.
The technology has improved.
Our pool equipment has aged over time.
We had stuff in our bond that did not pass.
So we're trying to maintain.
We haven't come to you guys in a long, long time to ask for another tech.
This tech is something that we've needed years ago.
And now that we're adding another natatorium,
it's something that we definitely need just to keep up and keep things going.
Thank you.
Mr. President.
Mr. Epiney.
All right.
All right, so I'm just curious, the mechanic, there's one mechanic that does tires?
This is mechanic?
Yes, ma'am.
So every one of those on that transportation list are affiliated with the new center.
Oh, I understand that.
Yes, ma'am.
But I think that's interesting because we do have a lot of tires.
We've got a lot of tires.
We've got a lot of oil changes, and it's a big production behind the scenes to keep the vehicles running, for sure.
This is really interesting.
Yes, ma'am.
Thank you.
May I ask a question on that? Do we offset any of our costs with Miller Career and our
automotive program with any of the maintenance on our vehicles?
Yes, ma'am, we do. We work hand in hand with Miller Career Technology Center over there
and they do 10 to 12 vehicles probably a week to kind of help us with just general PM type
of maintenance. During the summertime they're off so we pick up that workload, but they
They do help out considerably, and it's a partnership that we value,
and we're trying to expand that even more to let them do more in the senior classes
of maybe looking at transmission or looking at something other than PMs.
So we work hand-in-hand with Miller, and they do offer a good service for us for the district.
And they do our tires too?
Yes, ma'am.
Basic stuff like that.
Basic stuff.
Okay.
Thank you.
Any other questions, trustees?
Mr. President?
Ms. Cazale?
Ms. So just we don't know the funding from the state yet.
We're stuck in a session and we're concerned about the timing of that answer for many other
things but we're comfortable with 1.8 million no problem.
How would you answer that question when I get answered that in the public?
Mr. When Ms. Rios and my team did the budget that we presented to you in March
under current law it had a million eight or million nine in there as a placeholder based on
what we know we knew that we were opening the transportation center and about what we have added
when it comes to new staff etc did a pretty good job of of getting in the ballpark of what that is
of the 1.8 million dollars so it was in there i would say that it was in there and it is in there
and i'm comfortable with it because that's what we need to operate caddy isd as we know it okay if we
If we don't add these positions, we're going to not be able to operate the district as
we know it, and things like the pool maintenance will go down, et cetera.
I'm looking at the police officer, for example, the payroll specialist.
That's a new position.
I think that when we have that, that that's going to make us more efficient and actually
could help us save money over time with that position.
That's my opinion, and I think that will happen.
But those, we need those.
So when that stuff gets packaged up by all our police officers that comes to payroll,
we can be accurate and deliver those paychecks to the security department,
in this case, accurately so they can secure and make sure kids are safe
versus worrying about their paycheck and checking around where did these two hours go, et cetera.
So that's what we need to keep up with the standards we have.
So I would be comfortable with it.
Am I comfortable with our deficit and what the state's not doing?
No, but I am comfortable with the standards that KDISD has,
and this keeps us on those standards.
Okay, and that was the number that was plugged in the budget?
Yes.
Since day one, when you started creating the budget?
Yes, we've been using a placeholder of around $2 million
for all of the non-campus staffing, and this was within that.
Okay, thank you.
Thank you.
Okay, thank you.
8.8 Discuss and consider approval of the 2025-2026 UIL Student Accident Insurance proposal.
We're now moving on to 8.8, which is discuss and consider approval of the 2025-2026 UIL Student Accident Insurance Proposal.
And our presenter is Lance Nauman, Director of Risk Management.
Good evening, Dr. Gorski, President Perez, Board of Trustees.
The University Interscholastic League policy is paid for by the district and provides supplemental
medical benefits for accidents incurred by students who participate in UIL activities
such as athletics, fine arts, career and technology, and education.
The plan is secondary to any other interest participants may have and includes a supplemental
catastrophic policy.
State law allows school districts to purchase this type of policy, but it is not necessary.
The insurance also provides voluntary accident insurance for students, which includes at-school or 24 coverage, with or without dental coverage.
Those who elect this coverage pay associated premiums directly to the carrier.
Recently, the Risk Management Department placed a request for pricing and has evaluated those results.
The current expiring premium is $322,650 for UIL coverage, with catastrophic coverage set at $17,929,
totaling $340,579 for the program.
From the RFP process, the renewal premium for UIL coverage is $252,450 and Catastrophic is set at $19,138, totaling $271,588 for the program.
The UIL Student Accident Policy supports student growth and success by providing district-paid insurance for student accidents while participating in those related activities.
For students without insurance, the plan serves as their primary coverage.
Authority to purchase this insurance is granted through FFD Legal.
It is recommended that the Board of Trustees approves the 2025-26 Student Accident Insurance
Program for UIL events as well as catastrophic coverage as proposed by Greater East Texas
Agency.
Thank you.
When you say it provides supplemental medical benefits, you mean like, for example,
if their coverage that they have from home is inadequate or there's some gaps or whatever,
or they've used it, this is like lays over that?
It provides a schedule of benefits, but yes, in the vernacular, yes, it does.
It provides a supplemental coverage based on the schedule, based on the services provided.
It's not a health insurance program that you would normally think about.
It's a schedule of benefits that a family via their student can make a claim for and get reimbursed for.
Okay.
What do you attribute to decreasing costs?
I would say it has to be.
Which is great, obviously.
It is very substantial.
I think we've been with this organization before.
I think they're very aggressive in their pricing and want our business.
I'll be quite frank with you.
Mr. President.
Were you going to say something?
I was just going to say Mr. Nauman did a great job answering, but I'll give you personal testimony.
When my son was a senior in high school, he blew his rotator cuff out, and he got rotator cuff replacement or whatever that's called.
And this stepped in and carried my deductible and that.
that so they did some as some expense out of my pocket but it was very little
even though I'm well insured through the school district it did help me meet
those expenses associated with that injury because it happened at a UIL
event and the trainer documented etc and it was it was a huge benefit
it to me. Uh, and I can imagine that throughout the district when those injuries happen. And then
again, as Mr. Nauman said, if you're uninsured, you have something, uh, that you have insurance.
And, and then the 24 hour coverage is also available to all students. So for example,
when my child was in elementary school, same kid, uh, he fell at school and, uh, I bought the 24
hour coverage cause he'd knocked his front two teeth in half, right? Cut them in half or broke
them in half and that provided dental insurance to help me supplement my dental insurance because
i bought the 24-hour coverage so i was insured still a benefit to me in both cases and for those
not insured uh it's it provides some sport of coverage to get their knee fixed up or whatever
that their injury might be it's a pretty good investment in my opinion um mr president okay
Okay, just a quick question. Are you aware of, do you know off the top of your head if the benefits that we get from this program outweigh the premium or the prices that we pay for the premium?
This is a guaranteed cost program for the district. We don't have any retention involved, so the risk is completely on the carrier.
carrier and through the last year through about March or April we were running on a
very hot, if you will, in terms of a loss ratio.
So claims were higher than what the premium was we had paid previously.
Those were not fully mature yet because the policy hasn't expired, but it was running
at a clip that was far outpacing the premium that we had paid.
So in terms of a benefit, cost benefit, yes, to answer your question.
We're taking advantage of this.
Yes.
Yes. It's a good benefit.
And I'll have to really sing a shout-out to our friends in the athletic department and our CTE program.
They really help us get engaged with the parent,
and we help the parent walk through the claims process as much as we can in staying in compliance with HIPAA.
Thank you for doing that.
Mr. President.
Thank you. Ms. Champagne.
Yes. So I just wanted some clarification.
Is this a mandatory? Do kids, do we give them the option whether to get this insurance or not?
There are two types of coverage here that's in play.
The first option is the UIL and the catastrophic, which we pay for.
So if a student is injured participating in one of those activities,
athletics, FFA, CTE, cheer, fine arts, those are paid for.
The 24-hour coverage is something that the parent can pay for that's non-UIL.
As Mr. Smith was talking about his son, a long time ago when I was in grade school,
it happened to me as well, my parents took out the 24-hour coverage.
We merely act on that coverage as a communication tool to the parents
to say this is where you need to go to enroll and pay your premiums.
We don't collect premiums.
We don't get involved in the claim process.
It's just it's another value add to the program
And I really applaud you for I don't know what you did to make sure we've got we save some money there
So I know you work hard at
Doing all the comparative shopping and everything so
That's that's really beneficial. Thank you very much
Thank you any other questions
All right, thanks a lot
9. Information Items
We are on to nine, which is information items, and we have the list of donated items to Katy Independent School District.
That's been provided to the board, and I believe we have a couple of board member requests for information.
So do we have a recap? Do you have a recap?
Yes. First, I want to give a shout-out.
It was on the donations list. I really want to give a shout out to the sons of the Republic of Texas the Sam Houston chapter
For donating a replica of the come and take it cannon to our OLC. I think that's
top-notch and amazing
That's the cannon in one of the very first battles of
for the Texas Republic for the Republic of Texas the Texas Revolution, so I
Like that cannon. Thank you very much
all right back to board request for information first we would like to know
why are we replacing the three-quarter ton pickup Chevy that only has 47,000
miles like to know that to the on 8.5 agenda 8.5 the amount in the contract
miss Timmy would like to know is it 3.5 or 3.6 million for the HC de specialized
services and then I want to know the amount per department for the additional
department staffing it was 800,000 for transportation and then a million for
everything else but I would like to know that detailed by teaching and learning
technology maintenance and operations and security that's what I got thank you
anything else on that all right well thank you the next board meeting is on
10. Future Meetings
May 12, 2025. That's our regular board meeting on Tuesday, May 12. There being no further
business for the board, this meeting is adjourned. The time is, wow, 634. Pretty amazing.
Official documents
Motions and votes
Recorded actions
The motions and votes for this meeting have not been recorded here yet. Whether any were taken is not stated either way. The agenda and the recording above are the primary sources.