Noting that a quorum is present, I hereby call this regular board meeting of
Katy ISD · Regular Board Meeting
Katy ISD Regular Board Meeting, May 12, 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.
- 0:00 to 7:32 1. Call to Order
- 7:32 to 7:56 3. Closed Meeting
- 7:56 to 8:54 4. Reconvene from Closed – The Board will reconvene from Closed Meeting.
- 8:54 to 33:39 5. Organization of the Board of Trustees
- 33:39 to 1:08:45 7. Recognitions
- 1:08:45 to 1:44:31 8. Public Comment/Citizen Participation
- 1:44:31 to 1:44:58 9. Closed Meeting
- 1:44:58 to 1:45:12 10. Reconvene from Closed Meeting – The Board will reconvene from Closed Meeting.
- 1:45:12 to 2:04:18 11.1 Katy Council of PTAs Update
- 2:04:18 to 2:32:48 11.2 NJROTC – Leadership Development and Personal Growth Preparing Students for Military and Civilian Success.
- 2:32:48 to 2:48:31 11.3 Outdoor Learning Center – Hands-on Learning in a Natural Setting
- 2:48:31 to 3:34:30 11.4 Health Plan Update
- 3:34:30 to 3:35:39 12. Consent Agenda
- 3:35:39 to 3:36:53 13.1 Board Committee Updates
- 3:36:53 to 3:37:06 14. Future Meetings
- 3:37:06 to 3:37:34 15. Closed Meeting
- 3:37:34 to 3:39:08 16. Reconvene from Closed Meeting
Full transcript
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1. Call to Order
the board of trustees of Katy Independent School District to order.
Today is Monday, May 12th, 2025, and the time is 5.03 PM.
Dr. Rogorski, will you verify that we're in compliance with the previous provisions
of the Texas Open Meetings Act with regard to notice for this meeting?
Mr. President, I do confirm we're in compliance with the provisions of
of the Texas Open Meeting Act for our meeting tonight.
Thank you.
The first item of business is to administer the oath of office
to the newly elected members of the Katy Independent School
District Board of Trustees.
Debbie Davis, secretary for board services and notary,
will administer the oath of office
to our newly elected members, Mr. Lance Redmond and Mr.
James Cross.
Thank you.
I trust you.
To the city of Independence, Florida.
To the city of Independence, Florida.
To the state of Texas.
Texas.
And will.
And will.
To the best of my ability.
To the best of my ability.
To serve, protect, and defend.
Serve, protect, and defend.
The Constitution.
The Constitution.
And laws.
And laws.
Of the United States.
Of the United States.
And of this state.
And of this state.
Lord only God.
Lord only God.
And with all due respect, congratulations.
I'm going to, if you indulge me, I'm going to make some closing sort of farewell remarks, if you will.
I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to the Katy ISD community for the opportunity to serve you.
It has been both an honor and a privilege.
Throughout my tenure, I've had the pleasure of working alongside many dedicated educators, staff members, and parents,
all deeply committed to the success of our students.
One of the most rewarding aspects of this role has been engaging directly with parents
and teachers, listening to their concerns, being their advocate, and striving to address
the issues that matter most to them.
I'm especially grateful to Trustees Amy Thieme, Mary Ellen Cuzela, and Morgan Calhoun for
their confidence in my leadership, for electing me as Board President, and for their collaborative
spirit.
Together, we enacted meaningful policies designed to safeguard our children and strengthen our
district among the among these were the groundbreaking parental authority and
gender fluidity policy policies to ensure curriculum and library materials
are appropriate and educationally suitable and measures to limit cell
phone use in our schools to foster a better learning environment during my
presidency I asked more of trustees greater time commitments deeper
deeper engagement through board committees, and participation in two board meetings per
month.
I am deeply appreciative of the hard work and dedication shown by my fellow trustees
and district staff.
I would also like to thank Dr. Gorgorski for his accessibility.
Establishing working committees was essential.
These committees allowed trustees to perform due diligence, ask necessary questions, and
and collaborate effectively with district leadership.
A board without such committees risks becoming
a mere rubber stamp, failing in its oversight role.
Regardless of the talent within our district administration,
it is the board's responsibility to engage,
scrutinize, and contribute solutions
with a strong work ethic.
As I conclude my service, I would like to offer
some recommendations for the new board's consideration.
As finances permit, prioritize more substantial pay raises for educators with 20-plus years of experience, where KDISD seems to lag.
Continue and enhance the teacher lump sum bonus program introduced this past year, rewarding longevity and dedication.
Develop strategies to protect teacher planning time following recent board discussions.
discussions.
Re-evaluate the policies regarding fighting, physical contact, assault, and self-defense
to ensure clarity and fairness for students and staff.
Revisit and strengthen the policy on naming of facilities to ensure transparency, broad
community involvement, and to safeguard against undue influence.
influence. Public service is a noble calling, but it also comes with great personal sacrifice
and challenges. Unfortunately, in today's climate, those who step forward to serve often
face relentless personal attacks, particularly on social media. The level of ugliness spewed
on social media is out of control. It's a darkness, a cancer. Constructive debate and
differing opinions are vital to a healthy democracy but personal
vilification serves no one and discourages good people from running for
school board KDISD belongs to the entire community not to a select few or an
inner circle who seek to somehow maintain control or feel entitled we
must reject the toxic toxic toxicity and recommit to civility and truthfulness
and focus on what truly matters the well-being of our students another
Another critical issue is voter engagement.
School board elections held in May suffer from chronically low turnout, with participation
rates of around 7%.
This is a disservice to our community.
Moving these elections to November when voter turnout is significantly higher should be
a priority to ensure that the voices of more taxpayers and community members are heard.
As I step aside, I extend my best wishes to all trustees and the new board as they begin the important work ahead.
To everyone who supported me along this journey, I am profoundly grateful.
Please do not be disheartened.
Every chapter has its purpose, and I firmly believe God has a plan.
Thank you.
Welcome to our new and returning board members.
3. Closed Meeting
The board will now convene in closed meeting as authorized under section 551.001 of the Texas Government Code for the following purposes.
Texas Government Code 551.071, 551.074, and 551.129.
4. Reconvene from Closed – The Board will reconvene from Closed Meeting.
The board will now reconvene in open meeting
Today is Monday, November
I mean May 12 2025 and the time is 5 20 p.m.
On behalf of my colleagues
I welcome everyone to the to this evening's regular board meeting and
Each board member received the agenda and documentation for this meeting on Friday, May 9th
2025. The board will receive information and recommendations from staff, administration,
and superintendent on these agenda items at tonight's meeting. Board members will be able
to ask questions, receive answers, and should be prepared to take action in accordance with
Chapter 551 of the Texas Government Code. Any action arising from discussions in the closed
meeting must be taken in an open meeting so we're going to go on to 5.1 consider
5. Organization of the Board of Trustees
and elect officers for the 2025 2026 Board of Trustees trustees we will now
move to item and madam vice president I would like to make a nomination for
president like two nominations are I asked first I said I haven't nominations
are open for a position I'm president I would like to make a nomination for
president okay miss Calhoun madam vice president I nominate Don Champagne for
the position position of president madam president while I'm I'm shocked at that
I would like to nominate someone else, but I'd like to say to the rest of you all, I would appreciate your no vote to me.
It is not my time for that right now.
Although I am honored at the nomination, I would humbly like to have a no vote, and I would like to nominate Lance Redman for president.
Okay, a nomination was made by Morgan Calhoun to elect Don Champagne as president.
Are there any other nominations?
Okay, we will vote on...
I've nominated Lance Redmond.
Right, so we're going to vote on your nomination, Don,
on and then we'll come to lance okay madam vice president yes you have to first entertain a motion
to close nominations i understand i was just explaining to her what was going on
so do
madame vice president i move that the board close nominations for the officer of president
Second.
Okay, we will now proceed to vote.
Board members, please record your vote to close nominations on your keypad.
Okay, the nomination shall be voted on in the order in which they were nominated.
A nomination was made by Trustee Calhoun that the Board elect Don Champagne for the Office
of President of the Board of Trustees for 2025-2026 school year.
We will now proceed to vote.
Board members, please record your vote via your keypad.
So we will, the nays have it and the motion has not been adopted so now we
we will move to the second person nominated
and repeat the vote.
So now we're gonna vote on Lance Redmond being president.
The nomination is approved by five to two vote.
And Mr. President, it's all yours.
Thank you, Ms. Deeney.
Nominations are now open for the position of vice president.
Mr. President?
Yes, Ms. Champagne?
I would like to nominate Rebecca Fox as our vice president.
NOMINATION WAS MADE BY DAWN CHAMPAGNE TO ELECT REBECCA FOX'S VICE PRESIDENT.
ARE THERE ANY OTHER NOMINATIONS?
THE CHAIR WILL ENTERTAIN A MOTION TO CLOSE NOMINATIONS.
I MOVE TO CLOSE NOMINATIONS.
SECOND.
WE WILL NOW PROCEED TO VOTE ON CLOSING NOMINATIONS.
BOARD MEMBERS, PLEASE RECORD YOUR VOTE TO CLOSE NOMINATIONS VIA YOUR KEYPAD.
Nominees will now be voted on in the order which they were nominated. A nomination was made by Don
Champagne that the board elect Rebecca Fox for the office of vice president of the board of trustees
for the 2025-2026 school year. We will now proceed to vote. Board members please record your vote via
your keypad the nomination is approved by a five to two vote we will now move
on to nominations for secretary nominations are open mr. president yes
Yes, Ms. Fox.
I nominate Don Champagne as secretary.
The nomination was made by Rebecca Fox to elect Don Champagne as secretary.
Are there any other nominations?
The chair will entertain a motion to close nominations.
I move to close nominations.
Second.
We will now proceed to vote.
Board members, please record your vote to close nominations via your keypad.
The motion passes 7-0.
We'll now vote on nominees and the order in which they were nominated.
A nomination was made by Rebecca Fox that the board elect Don Champagne for the office of Secretary of the Board of Trustees for the 2025-2026 school year.
We'll now proceed to vote.
Board members, please record your vote via your keypad.
All right.
The nomination is approved with a four
ayes, two nays, and an abstain.
Congratulations, Ms. Champagne.
Mr. President. Yes, Ms. Fox. I ask for a point of personal privilege, please.
Because our room is so crowded with all of our honoree, our student honorees,
would it be possible to take a brief couple of minutes to take some pictures
of the newly elected trustees with their families? And we have a lot of former
trustees here and we'd like to get a quick photo of that so that then we can
open up some of these seats I'm okay with that we'll do that and then we will
close out this part of the election nomination
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
This concludes the election of board officers.
We'll now move on to the next agenda item, item 6.1, and the presenter is Dr. Ken Gruborski,
superintendent.
Thank you, Mr. President.
So earlier tonight, we had our first ever annual military presentation where we honored
all of our students who are going into the military.
And as part of that, we have a special presentation tonight.
We don't always get the honor of having our JROTC here, but they are here with us.
so those of you watch board meetings know we always do the pledge and then we
do the national anthem but we're gonna do the colors first pledge and national
anthem so I'm going to introduce all those folks and then we'll jump right
into that part of the presentation so we've got our JRTC here today there
cadet chief petty officer Cody Lee from Morton Ranch High School cadet seaman
rice and Ramos from made Creek High School cadet petty officer second-class
Jordan Gorecki from Maid Creek High School and cadet seaman Christopher Reyes Luna from Maid
Creek High School and this group of students is led by Commander Elvis Michael. Bringing up in
just a few minutes we're going to get our special guest who's going to do our Pledge of Allegiance
and that is Blaze Thibodeau, fifth grader from Griffin Elementary, Principal Jackie Kithen,
parents Amber and Joel Thibodeau, has a sibling, Perrin Thibodeau over at Beckendorf, students
special interests playing football playing the piano and hanging with
friends favorite subjects writing and science a couple of quotes from some
folks as principal Jackie Kithin blaze is that child in your building you just
catch being good he was a leader and a member of the
House Council blaze is the one who will break a line to allow an adult pass
through he is also a kid who will be found patiently working with an English
language learner student to translate and learn a new skill on the playground
Blaze is the one who takes time to include a student with special needs in
the football game by tossing the ball in his direction lightly and comfortably
toward his outstretched arms. Blaze is empathetic and respectful of others. And
from Sarah Canales, his English teacher, it's a tremendous honor to speak about a
remarkable student who not only represents our amazing school, MGE, but
embodies the very spirit of excellence, determination, and compassion. Blaze is
dedicated to his studies and has a passion for creative writing. Whether crafting a vivid and
engaging story or compelling his audience through persuasive essays, his love for writing is evident
in every piece he creates. In addition to his academic pursuits, he is an exceptional athlete.
His commitment to his favorite sport of football is unwavering and he approaches every play at
recess with a spirit of perseverance and sportsmanship. Perhaps what sets Blaise apart
part the most is his compassionate nature he is not only hard-working and
talented but also incredibly empathetic he is a shining example of what it means
to be a dedicated student a talented athlete and a compassionate friend we
are incredibly proud to have blaze represent Michael Griffin Elementary
tonight but before we bring up the pledge leader we also want to reduce the
the Cinco Ranch Junior High Honors Band Brass Quintet,
who will be performing the National Anthem following the pledges.
So from Cinco Ranch Junior High, principal out there is Mona Salinas.
This group is the Cinco Ranch Junior High Honors Band Brass Quintet,
led by music directors Rochelle Isaacson, Lisa James, and Cole Blunt.
So the students we have with us today, Jack Lewis, 8th grader,
Shang and Huang eighth grade Cora Kruger eighth grade Hojun Lee eighth grade and
Valerie Valeria Molina eighth grade and a quote from the music director Rochelle
Isaacson this select group of musicians embodies the highest standards of
musical artistry collaboration and dedicate dedication that defines Cinco
Ranch junior high fine arts department we would like to thank Katie ISD
administration and the school board for your commitment to supporting music
education both inside and outside the classroom because of your vision and
leadership the arts continue to thrive in KDISD thank you for believing in the
benefits of music and arts in our schools so blaze we want to come up or
nope let's do the colors first I almost forgot
Thank you.
I pledge allegiance to the United States of America,
and to the Republic for which it stands,
one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
Honor the Texas flag.
I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one state under God, one and indivisible.
Thank you.
Thank you.
and the world will hear them,
once again in the same way.
And the world will hear them,
once again in the same way.
And the world will hear them,
once again in the same way.
O say can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Ready, cut!
Right face!
Forward march!
Left!
Left!
Right!
Right!
Left!
Left!
Thank you.
Good evening, President Redmond, board members, and Superintendent Greg Orski.
My name is Blaze Thibodeau, and this is what Michael Griffin Elementary means to me.
At the start of third grade, I moved here from Louisiana.
I went from a school with 300 people to one with 800.
It was a big change.
And I'm so grateful to have such amazing teachers and principals that helped me through it.
And I can assure you that Griffin isn't just some boring building where teachers teach things that everybody already knows.
Instead, it's a place to learn new things, hang out with friends, test your knowledge, and most importantly, have fun.
Along with all those things, Griffin is a safe environment for kids to learn.
Griffin helps students like me for success by hiring an amazing staff of people who work hard and value their jobs.
They also provide us with our own laptop for school work, give us great PE equipment and art supplies, and do awesome after school activities,
such as Read D Run, Destination Imagination, and Young Rembrandts.
They truly go all out when it means giving their students opportunities to do great things.
So to me, Griffin means a safe place to learn and grow and joke around with friends.
It's a place where I can have fun and test what I know.
Griffin is my home away from home and it's the best home I could ever ask for in my elementary
years.
All right, Blaze, we have a gift for you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
7. Recognitions
introduce Brandon Webb director of communications for the recognitions
portion of our meeting tonight good evening president Redmond trustees and
superintendent Gregor ski tonight we're excited and pleased to recognize the
five student athletes who earned the gold medals at the 2025 UIL track and
field championship here to introduce them as coach Lance Carter executive
Executive Director of Athletics.
Good evening President Redmond, trustees, and Superintendent Gagorski.
Our KDISD track teams had great success at this year's State Track Meet.
We had five student athletes earn individual state championships the most in KDISD history.
9 athletes earned medals and 32 total athletes represented KDISD with pride in class.
Our newest campus, Freeman High School, had 7 athletes qualify and 2 of them medaled and 1 relay medaled.
At this time, I'm excited to recognize our 5 state medalists.
Will the student athletes along with our coaches and principals please come forward when I call your name.
From Seven Lakes High School, Ms. Janie Campbell.
Jenny earned the state championship in the shot put event with a season best throw of 48 feet, 7 and 1 quarter inch.
She is coached by David Cooper and head coach Mike Rivera.
She is joined by principal Carrie Finneson and president Redmond.
Janie finished the season as the area record holder.
She is ranked number one in 6A, number two in the state of Texas, and number nine in the United States.
We're going to do two. Here we go.
And three, two, one.
Do another one.
and in three two
also from
Seven Lakes High School we have Max Austin
applause
applause
applause
applause
applause
Max won the gold in the pole vault event with a season best vault of 16 feet, 7 and 3 quarter inches.
He is coached by Paul Kroom and joined by Kerry Finneson.
Max finishes this season as the area record holder.
He is ranked number one in Texas, number 26 in the United States, and number 52 all time in United States track history.
Mr. Max Austin.
Here we go.
Edit three, two, one.
And three, two.
Thank you.
Our next athlete is from May Creek High School, Mr. Elijah Ferguson.
Elijah was a state champion in the 400 meter run with a blistering time of 45.46 seconds.
He is coached by Sean Seamers and head coach Marion Lewis.
He is joined by principal Lizzie Herring and coach Mike Arbonglo.
Elijah finishes.
This is special.
Elijah finishes his career as the regional record holder.
He's ranked number one in Texas, number four in the United States,
number four in Texas history, and number 23 in United States track history.
Three, two, one.
Do one more.
One, three, two.
Thank you.
Our next athlete hails from Tompkins High School, Mr. Etoro Bassey.
Etero earned a state championship in the high jump with a season best jump of seven feet two inches
he is coached by head coach Anthony Escamilla and is joined by principal Elizabeth Brott
and coach Todd McVay and Mr. O.D. Tompkins.
Arturo finishes his high school career as the area record holder.
He is ranked number one in Texas, number one in the U.S.,
number seven in Texas history,
and number 60 in United States high school track history.
Mr. Arturo Batchelor.
go and three two one do another one and in three two thank you
and last but not least this one hits a little close to home i'm going to try to hold it together
not very often do you get to honor both your sons from katie high school mr adam carter
Adam competed at the state track and field championship for the second year in a row.
He earned two state medals.
He was runner-up in the discus event with a toss of 180 feet, two inches.
And he was a state champion with a gold medal in the shot put with a season best throw of 70 feet, four and a quarter inches.
He is coached by his brother, Ty Carter, and his head coach, Brian Price.
He is joined by principal Rick Hall and coach Gary Joseph.
Adam finishes his high school career as the district record holder, the regional record holder.
He is ranked number one in Texas, number two in the United States, number seven all-time in Texas track history, and number 30 in United States track history.
Mr. Adam Carter.
Thank you.
Three. Here we go. Three, two, one.
And three.
Here we go.
Three, two, one. One more. And in three, two.
We'll close out.
Adam, I don't know if anybody else noticed,
but there was a bet on a haircut.
If Adam won the state championship,
somebody was getting their head shaved and it wasn't me.
Athletes, we'd like to thank each of you
for the honor and glory that you have brought to KDISD throughout your careers.
We wish you well at Michigan, at Air Force, at Texas Tech, at Texas A&M, and
Texas State University as you finish your as you carry on your high your
career. Ladies and gentlemen a big round of applause for our five state
champions.
slide over this way a little bit come up towards me a little bit come up towards me a little bit
Thank you, Coach Carter, and congratulations to all of these athletes on their outstanding
accomplishments.
Tonight, we are proud to present the top two students from each high school ranked highest
academically in their respective graduating class.
parents of the valedictorians and salutatorians are asked to please stand
when their student is being introduced to the Board of Trustees by the campus
principal at this time please welcome dr. K Williams principal of Cinco Ranch
High School
Good evening, President Redmond, Trustees, and Superintendent Kogorski.
I am proud to introduce this evening the valedictorian salutatorian from Cinco Ranch High School.
I am pleased to announce Jason William Lee as the Cinco Ranch High School Class of 2025 valedictorian.
He is the son of Lee Shren and Lee Zendren.
in. Jason is graduating with a 4.8852 GPA and plans to attend Johns Hopkins University,
where he'll major in pre-med. While attending Cinco Ranch High School, Jason, he designed
a prototype drones. He's a member of this Kryptonite Cinco Ranch robotics team and the
tennis team. For fun, he tutors students for the SAT.
And by the way, Jason scored a 51590 on his SAT.
He was a candidate for the Presidential Scholars Program,
so please join me in congratulating Jason.
I'm also excited to announce Soo-Hin Kim
as the Cinco Ranch High School Class of 2025 Salutatorian.
She's the daughter of Yoo-Jin Kim and Yoo-Young Heo.
Su-Hin is graduating with a 4.8806 GPA and plans to attend Princeton University, where
she will major in chemical engineering.
While attending Cinco Ranch High School, she placed 10th in the nation for the National
Website Coding and Development Competition.
Su-Hin created an attendance app for the Congressional App Challenge.
She interned at the Consulate General for the Republic of Korea, was the
Managing Director and Teacher for STEM Coding Academy, and she created computer
vision models for object detection for autonomous vehicles. Su-Hin also won the
Science Explorer Award for the Jacobs Engineering. Please join me in
congratulating Su-Hin.
You all stand over there.
Yeah, stand back a little bit.
Perfect.
And here we go on that side.
Let's slide over a little bit.
Right there, here we go.
And in three, two, one, we'll do another one.
And in three, two, one, and let me get the students by themselves right quick.
it and y'all can spread a little bit yeah and in three two one and three two
thank you
Thank You dr. Williams now I'd like to introduce dr. Ethan Crowell principal of
Jordan high school thank you good evening president Redmond trustees and
and Superintendent Gorgorski.
I'm honored to introduce to you this evening
the valedictorian and salutatorian
from Jordan High School.
I am proud to present Surya Reddy as a Jordan High School
class of 2025 valedictorian.
He's the son of Bothi Gajapathi and Isawi Kananam.
Surya graduates with a 4.8857 GPA and plans to attend MIT
to study computational biology.
While attending Jordan High School,
he was a member of the Science Olympiad Gold Team
for four years.
Please join me in congratulating Surya.
I'm also proud to present Carrie Wan Lin Yang
as the Jordan High School Class of 2025 Salutatorian.
She is the daughter of Chin Lin and Jing Yang.
Carrie is graduating with a 4.871 GPA
and plans to attend the University of Texas at Austin
to major in computer engineering.
While attending Jordan High School,
she was a four-year varsity tennis player and a team
captain, as well as a member of FBLA and MU Alpha Theta.
Please join me in congratulating Carrie.
I'm going to do two.
Here we go.
And three, two, one.
We're going to do another one.
and and three two one and just as students right quick and and spread out
a little bit yeah and in three two one and three two
Thank You dr. Crowell now I'd like to introduce dr. Rick Hull principal of
of Katy High School.
Good evening, President Redmond, trustees, and Dr. Gorgorski.
It is my honor and privilege to present the class of 2025
valedictorian and salutatorian for Katy High School.
I'm proud to introduce Zachary Robert Matthews
as the Katy High School class of 2025 valedictorian.
He's the son of Joseph and Suzanne Matthews.
Zachary will be graduating with a 4.8421 GPA.
After graduation, he will attend the University of Texas at Austin to study aerospace engineering.
While attending Katy High School, Zachary was a member of the Drumline, All Area Percussionists,
a member of the academic decathlon National Honor Society and maybe most
importantly crowned as this year's mr. Katie Tiger please join me in
congratulating Zach I'm also proud to introduce Lindsay Audrey Anderson as the
Katie High School class of 2025 salutatorian. She is the daughter of
Lonnie and Lynn Anderson. Lindsay will be graduating with a GPA of 4.7759 and will
attend Texas A&M University and will major in biochemistry on the pre-med
track. While attending Katie High School she was the Rho Kappa president, a member
of the National Honor Society, Mu Alpha Theta, English Honor Society, SWIM,
Track and Varsity Girls Lacrosse. Please congratulate Lindsey Anderson.
All right here we go and in three two one do another one and and three two
two, sorry, three, two, one, and just the students.
And three, two, one, last one, and three, two, thank you.
Thank you, Dr. Hull.
Now please welcome Ms. Lizzie Herring,
principal of Maid Creek High School.
Thank you, Dr. Hall. Oh, sorry. Good evening. Good evening, President Redmond, Trustees, and Superintendent Grigorski. It is my honor to be here tonight to introduce the valedictorian and salutatorian for Maid Creek High School.
The Maid Creek High School Class of 2025 Valedictorian is Helen Abigail Conde.
She is the daughter of Armando Conde Camacho and Lizette Rocha.
Helen has a 4.8028 GPA and plans to attend Cornell University to study government.
While attending Maid Creek High School, she was a member of National Honor Society and KDISD Electrification.
Helen also honorably served in officer roles as the district editor of the Texas Oklahoma Key Club,
president of Spanish National Honor Society, treasurer of Science National Honor Society,
assistant associate of Project Pink, and at-large officer for the Class of 2025,
in addition to her stellar academic performance.
Please join me in congratulating Helen.
Our salutatorian for the Maid Creek High School class of 2025 is Sarah Tu Pham. She has a GPA of
4.7869 and Sarah is the daughter of Kennedy and Tru Pham. She plans to attend the University of
Texas at Austin where she will major in biology. While attending Maid Creek High School, Sarah
Sarah balanced her tough academic schedule with a demanding set of extracurricular activities,
all of which saw her serving in leadership positions.
She served as the Lieutenant Governor of Key Club, President of Science National Honor Society,
and Vice President of the Class of 2025.
Please join me in congratulating Sarah.
All right, here we go.
And three, two, one.
Another one.
Three, two, one.
And just the students.
Spread out.
Spread out.
Right there.
Here we go.
And three, two, one.
Last one.
And three, two, one.
Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Herring.
Now I'd like to welcome Ms. Julie Hinson, principal of Morton Ranch High School.
Good evening, President Redmond, Trustees, and Superintendent Gragorski.
Tonight, I'm honored to present the Morton Ranch High School Class of 2025 Valedictorian and Salutatorian.
I am proud to announce that our Valedictorian is Brittany Azea.
She is the daughter of Jufo and Stella Azea.
Brittany is graduating with a 4.6897 GPA and will be attending the University of Texas at Austin to major in neuroscience.
While attending Morton Ranch High School, she was part of Science National Honor Society,
President of Mu Alpha Theta, French Honor Society, founder of the Key Club, member of Rho Kappa,
National English Honor Society, National Honor Society, Principal Communication Network,
superintendent student leadership circle, class president, and yes there's an and,
president of the African American Association. Please join me in
congratulating Brittany. I am also proud to announce that our salutatorian is
Abigail Mariana Glasser. She's graduating with a 4.6226 GPA. Abigail or Abby as we
we call her, is the daughter of Kevin and Cheryl Glasser.
She will be attending Texas A&M University
to study human resources and a minor in Spanish.
While attending Morton Ridge High School,
she was a part of the Maverick Theater Company, National
Honor Society, Junior Varsity Tennis, Mu Alpha Theta, Key
Club, National English Honor Society, Spanish National Honor
Society, Parent Teacher Student Association Liaison,
Principal Communication Network, and volunteer
to the Kingsland Baptist Special Needs Ministry. Please join me in congratulating Abby.
All right here we go, stand by and three, two, one, one more and and three, two, one, just the students
and and split out right out there we go perfect and three two one last one and
three two thank you
Thank You miss Henson now I'd like to introduce dr. David pause principal of
Pato High School. Good evening President Redmond, trustees and Superintendent
Grigorski. It is my honor and privilege to stand before you tonight to present
our valedictorian and salutatorian for Pato High School. It is with great pride
that I present the Pato High School class of 2025 salutatorian Lana
Saib Faisal. She is the daughter of Saib Rashid and Dalia Alaouan. Lana will be
graduating with a 4.8065 GPA and will attend the University of Texas at
Austin to major in biology. While attending Pato High School she has been
a part of the wrestling team academic decathlon where she earned first place
in essay and second place in math at the state competition. She is the vice
president of Mu Alpha Theta, a member of the National Honor Society, and has
volunteered countless hours at Memorial Hermann Hospital in Katy. Please join me
in congratulating Lana. I'm also very proud to present the Pato High School
class of 2025 salutatorian Ethan Jemim Everick. He is the son of Carl and Elaine
Lane Everick.
Ethan is graduating with a 4.7455 GPA
and will be attending the University of Texas at Austin
to study either finance or engineering.
Knowing Ethan, he will probably do both.
While attending Pato High School,
he was a member of the National Honor Society Mu Alpha Theta
and the student athlete leadership team.
Ethan was also a member of our inaugural science Olympiad team.
He is a gifted tennis player and was the district champion
his freshman year.
He has since qualified for state and has been ranked as the top 10 player in Texas as well as the top 100 player in the country.
Please join me in congratulating Ethan.
All right, here we go.
We're going to do two.
And three, two, one.
Do another one.
Stand by.
And three, two, one.
Just the students.
And three.
Spread out a little bit.
Three, two, one.
Last one.
Three, two.
Thank you.
Thank you, Dr. Paz.
Now please welcome Ms. Carrie Finneson, principal of Seven Lakes High School.
Good evening, President Redmond, trustees, and Superintendent Grogorski.
As the principal of Seven Lakes High School, I would like to present our valedictorian and salutatorian.
i'm on i'm honored to introduce the seven lakes high school class of 2025 valedictorian
shu chang we know him as rocky who earned a 4.8816 gpa and plans to attend the university of texas
at austin majoring in electrical and computer engineering with a simultaneous major in
mathematics he is the son of lee chung and gahwa while attending seven lakes high school he was
a member of the tech of the technology student association please join me in congratulating rocky
i am also pleased to present our salutatorian krish p shaw he is the son of piush and kajal
Shaw. Krish earned a 4.88 GPA and plans to attend Carnegie Mellon University
School of Computer Science to study computational biology. While attending
Seven Lakes High School, he was a Science Olympiad captain, a Biology Olympiad
Club co-president, participated in Science UIL, Mu Alpha Theta, and was a
National Honor Society inductee please join me in congratulating Chris
here we go in three two one gonna do another one and in three two one just as
students right there nice and in three two one last one three two thank you
thank you miss finison next please welcome dr melinda stone principal of taylor high school
Good evening, President Redmond, Trustees, and Superintendent Grigorski.
I am honored to present to you the Taylor High School Class of 2025 Valedictorian, Isabella Hsiao.
She is the daughter of Hsiao Wei Hsiao and Yuling Wang.
Isabella finished her high school career with a 4.8714 GPA.
She will attend Johns Hopkins University to study public health.
While attending Taylor High School, Isabella was the varsity swim captain, a member of the Katy Aquatics Club,
Best Buddies Club historian and a member of National Honor Society.
Please join me in congratulating Isabella.
I am also honored to present to you this evening the Taylor High School class of
2025 salutatorian Nolan Chen Yi he is the son of Chi Kong Yi and Yu Ling Chen
he graduates with a GPA of 4.8594 and will attend the University of Texas at
Austin and major in computer science while attending Taylor High School he
He was vice president of the Student Council,
president of the Computer Science Club,
president of Mu Alpha Theta,
vice president of the Asian Student Association,
a member of Future Business Leaders of America
and National Honor Society.
Nolan is also the founder of KD Soaring Scholars,
a nonprofit organization dedicated to spreading access
to education and vice president of Echo Wellness,
a student-led fundraising nonprofit.
He's received the 40 Acres Scholarship,
National Merit Scholarship, and the PTSA Scholarship.
Nolan is also a published singer and songwriter. Please join me in
congratulating Nolan.
Here we go. And three, two, one. Three, two, one. And just the students. And three, two, one.
last one three two thank you thank you dr. stone finally I'd like to introduce
miss Elizabeth brought principal of Tompkins high school good evening
President Redmond, Trustees, and Superintendent Gagorski, it is my honor
to introduce the valedictorian and salutatorian from Tompkins High School. I
am proud to announce the class of 2025 Tompkins High School valedictorian as
Andrew Tianlin Liu.
Liu.
He is the son of Wilson Liu and Vicky Huang.
Andrew has a GPA of 4.9167 and will attend Brown University to study biology and philosophy.
While attending Tompkins High School, he participated in Quiz Bowl, Science Olympiad, and Ethics
Bowl earning state and national level distinction. Andrew also served as
president of Key Club, an international volunteering organization. Please join me
in congratulating Andrew. I am proud to announce the class of 2025 Tompkins High
School Salutatorian. Isha Kruthi Kodavantikanti. She is the daughter of
Gautham Kodavanti-Kanti and Swapna Madi.
Isha has a GPA of 4.9054. She will be attending Rice University to major in
cognitive science and neuroscience. While attending Tompkins High School she
researched systems, systemic disparities against the intellectually disabled in
in health care, tutored students with learning disabilities
through her club, researched biomarkers
in neurodegenerative disease, and led a global nonprofit
to provide free courses for over 3,000 students
since its inception.
Please join me in congratulating Isha.
Let's take about three steps back. Let's think about three steps back. Perfect. Here we go. And
three, two, one. We'll do another one. And in three, two, one. Just the students. Let's spread
just a little bit right there. Here we go. And in three, two, one. Last one. And in three, two, one. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Broad. Congratulations to all of these students on their remarkable accomplishments.
This concludes the recognitions portion of our meeting.
Thank you, Mr. Webb.
To all our valedictorians and salutatorians, congratulations from the board.
Do we have any scouts in the audience this evening?
No.
8. Public Comment/Citizen Participation
All right.
Well, then we will move on to agenda item 8.1, public comments.
So at this time, the board of trustees will give members of the public an opportunity
to speak in accordance with the KDISD board policy BED local as defined by
board policy speakers who signed up by 2 p.m. on Monday May 12 2025 provided
their first and last name and signed in 15 minutes prior to 5 p.m. will be
allowed to address the board speakers who signed up to speak on posted agenda
items will be allowed three minutes to speak speakers that signed up to speak
on non agenda items will also be allowed three minutes to speak if a speaker is
not finish speaking at the end of their allotted time, the audio will turn off.
It's a no disruption. The board shall not tolerate, tolerate disruption of the meeting by members of
the audience. If it, after at least one warning from the presiding officer, any person continues
to disrupt the meeting by his or her words or actions, the presiding officer or his or her
designee may request assistance from law enforcement officials to have the person removed from the
meeting. If speakers wish to share written material with the board, please provide 10 copies to the
the Secretary for Board Services before the meeting begins for board members, the superintendent,
the chief communications officer, and permanent record.
If a speaker has not attempted to solve a matter administratively through proper channels
as stated in board policy, the presiding officer's designee shall advise the speaker to seek
resolution through the appropriate policy.
Finally, pursuant to the Texas Government Code Sections 551.074 and 551.0821, the board
will not permit the presentation of personal personally identifiable information regarding
a student and will not discuss the appointment employment evaluation reassignment duties
discipline or dismissal of a public officer or employee or to hear a complaint or charge against
an officer or employee should a speaker wish to address one of these issues they must do so
through the appropriate local grievance policies fng local dgba local cke local or gf local our
Our speakers will be called forward in the order they signed up to speak.
We will start with our agenda items, and our first speaker will be Tana Weiss, followed by Lynette Alidon.
Good evening, Dr. Gorgorski and board.
I want to start by acknowledging the happiness and the hopefulness in this room.
It's palpable. My name is Tana Weiss and I would like to thank our community for once again coming together to elect representatives to our board who are good, kind, fair people,
who will put all our students and staff at the center of every decision they make over the coming three years.
As our community watched over the past two years, this board devolved into complete chaos.
The board meetings became more Jerry Springer show than actual school business.
That stops today.
And we can celebrate as a Katy ISD community.
I would like to read some of the joy and relief of our beloved teachers once they realized this community will not stand for hate and division to lead our district.
A sincere thank you to Mr. Redmond and Mr. Cross and their families for being willing to endure the disparaging and disgusting smear campaign attempted.
Thank you for modeling what it looks like to be the kind of people we worked so hard to teach our students to be.
I am over the moon today that Katie decided to elect the very best people for our board.
They have a proven record of decency, leadership, and love for our district.
And the community proved we cannot be bought by PACs or endorsements.
Thank you for voting, because to counter teachers' and administrators' votes,
as the Perez campaign touted, was not a winning strategy.
Thank you for proving that we do trust our teachers and administrators.
As a teacher, I'm overjoyed.
As a parent, I am relieved.
Thank heavens to everyone who voted.
KDISD has been saved. And finally, happy Teacher Appreciation Week to all our
beloved KDISD educators. You got the best gift. The president of the school board
who doesn't like you or the administrators was voted out. Education
wins. Kids win. Families win. That says it all. Thank you.
Thank you.
Lynette Aladon, followed by Jared Burton.
Good evening, Dr. Kogorski and the Board of Trustees.
I'm Lynette Aladon, a retired KDISD librarian and concerned stakeholder.
I'm here to address Agenda Item 2.1 and congratulate Mr. James Cross and Mr. Lance Redman on their wins in this year's school board election.
I am glad that both men ran clean campaigns and focused on what is important, listening to the constituents and supporting all students, parents, and staff members.
They did not resort to outside PACs to fund their campaigns, nor did they resort to slandering their opponents or their families.
They demonstrated that our school district is our responsibility and KDISD is not for sale.
Let this be a lesson to future school board candidates and their campaigns.
I am asking all board members to put your differences aside and work together to do
what is best for all students, parents, and staff members.
This community is tired of the needless drama that has been displayed on the dais in recent
years over items such as book bans, gender fluidity, and pronouns.
These culture wars created distrust, fear, and hatred which brought negative attention
to this district.
Please listen to the speakers at the board meetings and have discussions with our students
and educators to determine what's best for this district keep your
communications transparent by working together to improve our teachers
planning time and retention rate as well as our students academic performances
and safety so that Katie ISD can improve its B rating and return it to be an a
plus to school district thank you
Thank you.
Our next speaker is Jared Burton followed by Xiao McGee.
Hello, President Redman and Board of Trustees.
My name is Jared Burton.
I'm a senior at Tompkins and president of the School of Sexuality and Gender Alliance Club.
Almost two years ago, I was one of nearly 80 people who spoke in staunch opposition to the gender fluidity policy.
And now, in just two short days, I will be walking across the graduation stage.
During the latter half of my high school career, I have fought this policy everywhere it has popped up.
Students are afraid to be themselves at school when they can't even safely be themselves at home.
The mere possibility of being outed to unsupportive parents keeps kids in the closet,
and actually notifying their parents only serves as insurance to punish those who dare to come out.
further marginalizing this vulnerable group of kids who want nothing more from
you than to be treated like everybody else. Everywhere this policy has been
proposed it has been met with fierce opposition by majority of community
members and now that opposition has made its way to the polls. In Katy, Fort Bend
and various other districts statewide far-right anti-trans candidates who ran
on platforms of hatred and book banning have almost all lost their races. The
The people of Katy and Texas have sent you a clear message.
We're done.
For three months, Mr. Perez ran a deceptive, dirty campaign,
spreading lies and using my peers and I as political pawns.
Over his three years, we've seen over 80 books taken off
our shelves and over 40 students outed to their parents.
Katy ISD is now known nationwide not for our excellence,
but as a breeding ground for censorship and bigotry.
This is not the legacy we should leave.
Mr. Cross, Mr. Redmond, Ms. Fox, and Ms. Champagne, I am speaking not only for
myself but for the students who are not safe enough to come here and talk to you
themselves. Please repeal the gender fluidity policy and stop the book bans.
These policies have put an insane strain on both students and teachers. Please
listen to the people who are most directly affected by these decisions.
Lastly, I'd like to discount some concerns. Anyone here tonight who says
that repealing this policy would allow men and women's restrooms and sports is
a bold-faced liar. Trans bathrooms and sports bands are state law. Whether you
agree to them or not, no decision the sport can make can change those policies.
Secondly, parents already have the right to determine what their child reads. You
may choose to be notified of every book your kid checks out and restrict the
types of content they can read. What you can't do though is make that decision
for every other parent in the district. Lastly, no teacher or book is gonna turn
your child gay or trans and if you're only finding out from a teacher that
that your child is trans, that's a problem in your home,
not the school.
Stop giving your children a reason to hide their identity
from you, and maybe they'll stop feeling like they need to.
Our students and staff deserve so much better.
With the ousting of Mr. Perez, I hope
this is the start of a new chapter for Katy ISD.
Please, let me be proud of the district that
has given me everything, hands off our books,
and hands off our trans kids.
Thank you so much, and congratulations, Mr. Cross
and Mr. Redman.
Thank you. Our next speaker is Ziao McGeehee followed by Rebecca Trahan.
Good evening board and congratulations Mr. Cross and Redmond. My name is Ziao McGeehee. I am a
senior at Tompkins High School and for three years I have put in work through the Sexuality
and gender alliance which i helped found in order to make my school a safer place for my fellow
queer students the previous kdisd school board has made that incredibly hard i'm hoping that with
this with this change in leadership you will be willing to undo some of these difficulties
when speaking with friends and peers from other districts their reaction when i inform them that
this is the district that covers my schooling the first thing they tell me is how sorry they are and
and how difficult that must be for me.
This school board is known for its many
overly political policies.
When you're a non-binary and disabled student like me,
you come to expect judgment and laughter from peers.
It is more disappointing, however,
to see how often I am bullied by adults.
I have known I was different my whole life.
I can handle the uneducated and bigoted criticism of others.
It's why I'm able to be confident in my identity and style.
Lots of kids don't have that privilege.
As a senior, I am grateful to my teachers in school,
but I am glad to be leaving this district.
So today I'm here to speak for all the students
I will be leaving behind.
You cannot stop kids from exploring their identity,
but what this board has done is prohibit them
from doing it safely.
You have silenced the already marginalized,
but you cannot erase queer identity.
I did not get to have the high school experience
I hoped for because me and my friends had to live in fear
as we were attacked by fellow students,
parents, and this district.
You can ease the struggle on students and teachers alike
caused by this policy.
policy. I urge you to repeal the gender fluidity policy and protect the students
I must leave behind. When the students affected by your policy come to you and
tell you how dangerous it is this policy is and how it has hurt us our voice our
voices have been discredited because we are too young to know better. I am young
but I am also my own person and I am smart enough to know that anyone who
limits my self-expression does not have my best interests in mind. Stop trying to
to control students.
It is your responsibility to right
the wrong that has been done, and only you can change
what this district is known for.
Be the district that liberates students and helps them grow
however you'd like.
If you don't, you will have to say goodbye
to more graduating students like me, jaded and hurt
by this district and its policies.
Thank you.
Next is Rebecca Trahan, followed by Danny Gianfrancesco.
go. Congratulations newly elected board members. Congratulations Lance and I'm
kind of kidding but I'm not maybe we can make a motion to get a longer microphone
for some of us who are tall in the future. Justin I'm sure you'd appreciate
that. I also want to say happy Teacher Appreciation Week and I want to say
thank you to the many administrators out there who work tirelessly day in and day
out every day. This really does not apply to you what I'm about to say.
According to the Department of Education, the role of public education is to, among other things, prepare young people to lead productive work lives and to have fulfilling lives themselves.
Instead, though it doesn't apply for everyone, we certainly know that.
We saw that tonight.
This is what some KDISD administrative staff are teaching our kids.
February 7th, 2023, young girl at Beckendorf Junior High School assaulted in front of a classroom, caught on video.
She is now in therapy and at a different school.
2024, Katie ISD Tompkins High School teacher arrested for possessing and producing thousands of child porn images, including images of his own students.
In 2024, the same school year, a Maid Creek High School assistant principal was charged with the assault of a high school girl and the parents were never notified.
January 6th this year, KDISD Teacher of the Year nominee investigated for physical and mental abuse against an autistic child at Wood Creek Elementary.
And who can forget the March 2025 assault at Taylor High School now causing worldwide outrage,
especially due to the flawed punishment and flawed decisions at Taylor High School.
And still, the violence did not stop.
Last week, on May 8th, at Taylor High School, there was yet another assault.
Now, we all know this does not apply to every school or every teacher, but since we've been talking about school discipline, when are we going to start addressing KDISD's discipline problem and their problem with sweeping things under the rug?
The violence in the district needs to stop once and for all, and we need to change the discipline policy to protect students as well as teachers.
teachers. Children can't learn to lead fulfilling lives if they are not being taught, if they
are always afraid. And again, I don't want to say this applies to every teacher and administrator
because it doesn't. There's wonderful administrators in the district, but it is something that
we have to address. It's been an ongoing problem and it's got to change for our children and
it's got to change for our future. So, and please consider the longer microphone. No
No joke. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Danny Giofrancesco, followed by Jennifer Skinner.
Hello.
Hello.
I'm Danny Giofrancesco, and I come to your meetings because my daughter was assaulted on the 25th of March by a football player.
The day after this happened, I submitted a public records request.
Instead of providing me the information, the district delayed for 10 days before seeking an opinion from the Attorney General about withholding the documents.
Five days later, I received a heavily redacted copy of the offense report, leaving only my name and address visible with no explanation for the redactions.
Last Friday, which was 32 business days after my request, I got typed statements from students who witnessed the assault, but I received less than one-third of the total statements.
This morning, I submitted another request for copies of all the statements in their original format, not the version created by the district when they typed them.
Now, seven weeks later, the district has yet to provide any evidence supporting their claim
that this was a mutual altercation.
I witnessed my daughter being assaulted and I refuse to accept their assertion without
proof.
I demand the evidence that led to this conclusion.
If there is indeed more context to the video, why is the district resisting its release?
Why can't anyone from the district show me how they came to their conclusions?
The video shows my daughter being slapped by a male student right in front of a teacher who ignored her pleas for help as he continued to punch her.
Despite seeing what is clearly an assault, the district expects me to believe that it wasn't just because they say so.
If this were your daughter, would any of you be okay with that?
I believe I have followed the proper channels yet I still have nothing. My
request to the AP at the Taylor High School to see the reports was denied due
to confidentiality and when I approached the KDISD Police Department I was only
given instructions to go to the public records request. This situation is
unacceptable. Why am I being denied access to information about what
happened to my daughter. I wish to press charges against the male student for assault, but I cannot
do so because the KISD Police Department claims it was a mutual altercation without any supporting
documentation. I'm calling on the board to take immediate action. Either reopen the investigation
to include the video evidence so I can pursue charges or provide me with the evidence that led
led to the conclusion of a mutual confrontation.
Ignoring me will not make this go away.
I will continue to fight for a resolution.
That's all I got.
Thank you.
Jennifer Skinner, followed by Patty Lacy.
Change of subject.
Good evening, Board of Trustees, Dr. Grigorski.
My name is Jennifer Skinner, and I'm a teacher here in KDISD at Taylor High School, where I teach statistics, a fourth-year math course open to juniors and seniors.
I have been an educator in this district for 13 years.
Prior to my career in KDISD, I served in the United States Army for four and a half years, including a 12-month deployment to Baghdad, Iraq.
I'm here to propose a revision to our current exam exemption policy for 11th and 12th grade students for post-secondary planning,
specifically for college visits and attending military entrance processing
station otherwise known as maps appointments I'm speaking on this now in
hopes that a revised policy will take effect for the next school year
currently the only coded absences that do not count towards exemptions for
finals are P present but not in class s non UIL school sponsored or
extracurricular activity that is not UIL related and V UIL and other competitive
activities. As such, KDISD does not allow an additional number of absences for
juniors or seniors attending college tours or MEPS. MEPS, for example, an
essential step in military enlistment process takes a minimum of two days and
could take additional days depending on the candidate and whether or not more
paperwork or in processing is required. This means that students could
potentially exceed the five allowable absences needed to exempt their final
final exams for a single semester if they were to also get sick or need to attend doctor's appointments.
The current policy, though well-intentioned, does not fully reflect the realities of our
juniors and seniors who are preparing for life after high school.
Some students who are in theater or fine arts often must audition in another state that
can typically take a minimum of one week plus travel time.
Some students attend more than one college campus tour as they finalize their decision
on what college or university to attend, and I have several students who made the brave
brave decision to also serve in our United States military, putting their lives before
others to serve this great nation.
So I'm speaking from personal experience as a parent of children in this district, one
of which who is a senior who did have to attend MAPS for two days, as a veteran, and as an
educator in an effort to promote an attendance and exam exemption policy for juniors and
seniors that encourages and allows them to effectively plan their futures.
I'm asking the KDIC Board of Trustees to formally recognize and excuse juniors and seniors who
who are attending official college visits
at accredited institutions to include fine arts college
additions, visits to US military officer academies,
and participate.
and MEPS appointments as part of the military enlistment process.
We as teachers, faculty, and staff of this district pride ourselves in working with all
students to help them meet the marker of career, college, and military readiness, only for
KDISD to penalize those students who are absent from school while pursuing post-secondary
options if they exceed the five allowable absences outside of the PSV codes.
By providing this allowance, KDISD would be taking a proactive step to support all pathways
ways.
Thank you.
Next up is Patty Lacy followed by Sophia Peruzzi.
Hi, guys.
I had to do it.
You know I had to.
Congratulations President Redmond and Mr. Cross.
I do also want to thank Victor for his service because I know it's not easy and I want to
thank Karen also because it's not easy.
It's a family affair for sure. I'm excited just like what Tana was saying.
It's time to work together as a group of eight. Okay so the seven of y'all and Dr.
Gagorski and congratulations to you too. I just want y'all to continue to or
start to be wise now that tides have changed a little bit. I think it's really
smart that we work together. All seven of you including Dr. Gagorski so all eight
of you try and work together I know everyone's got their own agenda of what
they're interested in but it's for the best for everybody it's the best for our
entire district I've told y'all before please be wise seek counsel of people
that have experience both our administrators our teachers other board
members and stuff like that so please work together and to set the record
straight it's not our turn and it's not your turn it is our district's turn it's
the turn of our students, our admin, and our teachers. Thank you.
Thank you. Next is Sophia Peruzzi, followed by Hira Usmani.
Good evening. My name is Sophia Peruzzi, and I'm a math teacher at Raines Academy.
I'm here today to ask you, the KDISD board, to provide professional development training
on dyscalculia to math teachers in the district.
It is estimated that 4 to 7 percent of all children have dyscalculia.
In KDISD, that would be between 3,800 and 6,700 students with dyscalculia.
These numbers are similar to those students with dyslexia in the district.
Although dyscalculia has a much lower profile than dyslexia,
it can have substantial impacts such as reducing a person's lifetime earnings.
Students with dyscalculia often struggle to master Gagne's Level 4 of learning,
particularly in sequencing abilities. While students with dyscalculia may be
able to count, they often have difficulty transitioning between number groups. For
example, 9 to 10, 19 to 20. They also struggle to recall individual numbers in
a sequence without reciting the entire list. Despite receiving typical
instruction, these students frequently fail to retain basic math facts and
procedures such as arithmetic operations and the correct order of steps.
steps.
Additionally, students with dyscalculia commonly experience directional confusion.
This can include misunderstandings of number lines, clocks, place value, and proper alignment
in arithmetic tasks.
As a result, they are unable to perform more complex mathematical ideas such as negative
numbers and inverse operations.
Mathematical difficulties often go unnoticed perhaps because society has normalized math
as a challenging subject and accepted the students that perform well in other
subjects could still struggle in math it could also be because research in
literacy difficulty accounts for over 90% of the research on learning
disorders in Texas there's a lack of awareness of dyscalculia among educators
this is evident from a simple quick search in the TEA website that only
yields two results for dyscalculia while a search of dyslexia will yield 315
than 15 results.
Teachers in general education may not receive
dyscalculia instruction.
There needs to be more dyscalculia awareness.
Teachers need to learn strategies for teaching students
with dyscalculia at every grade level.
It is because of this belief that I'm here today.
Currently, there's no training on dyscalculia available
to teachers through the Eduphoria website.
Training would not only help bring awareness
awareness of dyscalculia, but should also provide specific strategies for teaching students with this math-related disability.
Thank you, and good night.
Thank you. Hira Usmani, followed by Shawn Miller.
Good evening, members of the board, administrators, teachers, and community members.
My name is Hira Usmani, and I'm a student at James E. Taylor High School.
I'm here today to respectfully ask that our district recognize Eid al-Fitr as an official school holiday.
Eid is one of the most important celebrations for Muslims around the world.
It's not just a religious observance, but it's a time for prayer, community, reflection, and joy.
On Eid, we gather early in the mornings at our mosques and dress in our best clothes to attend a special prayer.
Afterwards, we visit family, share meals, and give back to those in need.
It's a spiritual, cultural, and deeply personal date just like Christmas is for Christians, Yom Kippur for Jewish, and Diwali for Hindus.
But each year students like me are forced to choose. Do we attend school or do we observe one of the most important days of our faith?
That's a choice no student should make. Taking the day off means falling behind on assignments, missing tests,
losing our exemptions, and feeling left out of the academic rhythm of our peers.
But going to school means missing out on a meaningful celebration with our families and communities. Neither choice is fair.
Our school district prides itself on being diverse, inclusive, and respectful of all cultures and faiths.
We celebrate our diversity and we understand that the richness of our community comes from the unique backgrounds and traditions each of us bring to the table.
When we say we're inclusive, it means more than just saying it. It means taking actions that reflect our values.
Recognizing Eid as a school holiday is not just about giving students a day off.
It's about acknowledging the Muslim community as an essential and valuable part of our district.
In fact, other school districts across Houston such as Fort Bend ISD have already made this change.
They have recognized that diversity should be reflected in school policies and that celebrating the traditions of all students strengthens the sense of community.
If other districts can make this adjustment, why not ours?
This move is not only possible, but it is long overdue.
It's an opportunity to lead the way in fostering an even more inclusive educational environment.
One where all students feel their identities are respected and validated.
This isn't just a Muslim issue, it's a fairness issue, a recognition issue, and an inclusion issue.
Students shouldn't have to feel invisible to feel included.
I'm asking you to take a small but powerful step to ensure that every student feels seen, valued, and respected in our schools.
Thank you for your time, and I truly hope you'll consider this change, not just for me, but for every student who deserves to feel that their identity matters.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Sean Miller, followed by Alfredo Castro.
Good evening, Superintendent, trustees.
My name is Sean Miller, and in my life I've had the privilege of managing volunteers in several different capacities.
People sign up for whatever they want to volunteer for, they're excited, they look forward to the service project or task or whatever it is that we're trying to accomplish.
Then the day comes for the event and some of the volunteers, they don't show up.
Either they don't make a phone call, they don't text, there's nothing, they just don't even appear.
Unfortunately, that is the reality with dealing with volunteers.
Quite often their commitment to their service is not a high priority in their life.
but that is not the case for Victor Perez he was committed to serve as a
member and then as president of the Board of Trustees these past three years
was consistency and commitment he's one of the school boards top volunteers my
pain so let's not forget that he was a volunteer he served when he could have
relaxed and enjoyed life he served or even when it was hard you know it's not
easy to lead people half the people will always disagree with something
some of the decisions that you make and some unreasonable people will disagree
with every decision you make even if it benefits everyone. It's very difficult to
lead, manage people. So today I'd like to just thank Victor for the years of
service and the leadership he has given. I appreciate him, I thank him for giving
of his time, his heart in serving KDISD. My hope and prayer is that he would know
that the next generation appreciates his service even though many of students
don't even know what a trustee is. Thank you Victor for your service. We honor you
today. Thank you. Thank you. Next is Alfredo Castro followed by Angie Waller.
Good day President Redmond, like the sound of that. Other trustees and
superintendent gregorski um well i mean i don't know about y'all but i was kind of taken aback by
that parting statement earlier from victor and kind of all the dysfunction that was shown at
the start of this meeting i'm kind of glad that we're probably going to get past all that nonsense
i'd like to state that this is a beautiful day today and thank the lord almighty for it
and also thank him for the outcome of the most recent school board election god is good this
This just concluded election was framed by those on the losing side as conservative versus
liberal, but in all actuality it really was an election of partisan versus nonpartisan,
lies versus truth, and indecency versus decency.
And speaking of said decency, I wasn't sure I was going to mention this, but I witnessed
some deplorable behavior by a current board member earlier this evening at the military
reception down the hall.
This board member verbally accosted a constituent who is present here this evening to view and
and celebrate the installation of these two newly elected board members.
I won't name names, but this board member is a part of the former majority voting clique.
I mean, I kind of ask, is this really what we've become here in Katy ISD,
where politics, lies, and indecency are the norm on the school board?
I really pray not.
Many lies and untruths, quite a few vicious and slanderous in nature,
were stated and propagated by those supporting the now-defeated Victor Perez
against his opponent and his opponent's family.
This sort of personal smear campaign should not happen in a community that is civilized and God-fearing as Katie ISD.
The fact that many of these lies were also spread by those acting under the guise of being Christian conservatives
makes their actions even more appalling.
Sorry, but I'm looking at you, Katie Christian Magazine.
Proverbs 12.22 states,
Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, but those who act faithfully are his delight.
To those who claim to be Christian while also relishing and arousing fear amongst the population where there is and should be none,
and who delight in dividing neighbors, who hate or with hate for those different than they, I say, repent and turn to the Lord.
It is written in the Gospel of Matthew, Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?
And he said to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.
this is the great and first commandment in a second is like it you shall love
your neighbor as yourself we should all remember that teaching let's all be
better let's all strive to be more Christlike I pray this for me and I pray
this for all of you thank you for your time and may God bless you all and Katie
ISD thank you our last speaker for the evening will be miss Angie Waller good
evening mr. president Redmond and Katie ISD board members I'd like to take a
moment to express my deepest gratitude and appreciation for mr. James cross mr.
Mr. Lance Redmond, Don Champagne, and Mrs. Rebecca Fox, thank you for standing up for what's right in our district.
Mr. Cross and Mr. Redmond, thank you for standing up for our district, for our educators, and most importantly, for our children.
In a time when our school board was being pulled in a direction that didn't reflect our values or our priorities, you stood firm.
firm. You chose to represent the voices of families who simply want our schools to be
a place of learning, inclusion, and growth, not a political background.
Mr. Cross, your victory over Victor Perez wasn't just a personal win. It was a win for
our entire community. It was a statement that KDISD did to refocus on what truly matters,
educating our children. Now we can finally shift our attention away from
distractions like pronouns and book bands and start addressing the real
challenges that impact students every day. Challenges like strengthening
special education programs, improving school safety, and making sure that every
student regardless of their background feels seen, supported, and valued which
which they have not felt by the past three years.
We are grateful to you, Mr. Cross, for leading with integrity, compassion, and a commitment
to every student in this district.
The work ahead won't be easy, but thanks to your leadership, we're back on the right path.
And to you, Mr. Redmond, too, thank you both for standing up and running a clean campaign
this year.
Let's get back to what we do best, educating, nurturing, and preparing our kids for the
future.
Thank you.
Thank you.
That's the end of our public forum tonight.
9. Closed Meeting
At this time, the Board will now convene and close meeting as authorized under section
551.001 of the Texas Government Code for the following purpose.
Texas Government Code 551.071 and 551.076 and 551.129.
10. Reconvene from Closed Meeting – The Board will reconvene from Closed Meeting.
The board has just reconvened from closed meeting in accordance with Chapter 551 of the Texas Government Code.
Any action arising from discussions in the closed meeting must be taken in an open meeting.
11.1 Katy Council of PTAs Update
We're now moving on to Section 11 of our agenda reports.
And the first item is Item 11.1, an update from the Katy Council of PTAs.
PTAs and the presenter will be Carenza Murdoch, President of the Katy Council of PTAs. Welcome.
Thank you. Okay, I have to put on my eyeballs y'all. That's what happens as you get older.
Well, good evening everybody. Dr. Grigorski and Mr. Redman and Mr. Cross, congratulations
on your election and ladies on the board. As you just introduced, I am Carenza Murdoch,
council president for our school districts ptas the collective vision of the now 72 ptas that
make up our council is to ensure every child's potential is a reality because we value the
partnership between the superintendent school board community and pta we count on your continued
support i want to give you an update on our work i am providing this report in writing but i would
like to review a few of the highlights. It's more than a few because I kind of have three pages.
It has been a long busy year and I apologize for some of the typos and misused grammar.
It is really hard to type up a report when you have constant distractions between phone calls,
text messages and puppies that like to run around the house and drive you bonkers.
So this year our goal was to be more involved and inclusive with our local PTAs, the families, and communities.
We wanted to make our children's voices heard through advocacy and increase our membership numbers and bring in programs that fit all ages.
Under our successes, the KDISD Council of PTAs has 69 out of the current 70 PTAs in good standing.
To be in good standing, you have to have your 990s accepted, all of your executive board officers registered with the PTA,
registered and uploaded all members to the Texas PTA membership,
membership. Submitted a request to update or amend your bylaws
and standing rules. Some of the fun things that I like to brag
about for our district and what our PTAs are doing. Your
council of which is us has earned the Council on the Move
Award, the Silver Shining Star Champion and the Golden Apple
award and many of our local ptas if not just about all of them have earned the head start award early
bird award snappy increase award golden apple award shining star award seven of our ptas received
the welcome back award four ptas received the back the future award and they've also we also
have the XOXO award which is hard to do when you're in February because people
are like I've already paid my membership at the beginning why do I need you know
why should I join now but it's very important our membership is you know a
big thing we're the biggest booster company or biggest booster club in or
around and so anyway we have also the lucky leprechaun and the Mars award
award which is 50 male members or more in your membership student membership awards and this one
I think is absolutely awesome the Taylor High School has been awarded the community gold award
they are the only local PTA to earn this so far
and this one makes me even more excited because they'll be recognized at launch in July
In July Davidson Elementary, Kilpatrick Elementary and Schaefer Elementary received the Platinum Voice for every child.
Which is not easy to do. You have to recruit one member for every student enrolled on campus.
And some of those campuses have high numbers. So they have 100% of their campus recognized.
recognized. Now to brag on our National PTA grant award recipients. Sorry guys, this is really long-winded, just hang in there with me.
Gobo Elementary PTA, Hutzel Elementary PTA, Schmalz Elementary PTA, and Rylander Elementary PTA were awarded the ReadyTechGo grant by the National PTA and AT&T.
Maid Creek Junior High PTA was awarded the PTA Connected Be Internet Awesome grant sponsored by Google and YouTube.
This year we advocated for voting through national and state representatives.
Our goal this year was to push advocacy a little bit more and talk with our state representative
bills about bills and policies.
In February, we charted a bus and our local and council leaders went to Austin on rally
day.
I will say the bus drive there and back was a little scary, but we made it.
And we talked with a lot of our leaders.
We started at the caucus and then marched to the Capitol to meet with our local and state representatives.
During our appointments, all 35 leaders who attended that day, just our local leaders,
there was people from all over the state of Texas, from PTAs, that joined in that.
and we all met with our representatives and Senate to talk with them about
keeping money in our schools but by not implementing vouchers excuse me and we
also discussed school safety teacher wages and programs that benefit mental
mental health and well-being.
As a student of a private school,
my personal story, I will tell you,
I have five children,
and I wouldn't send them to a private school.
I am so thankful for the district that we have
and the opportunities that we have with our students here.
You guys definitely provide a lot of things
things that our private schools can't do.
So some of the things we also did was we sat with a lot of our local PTAs to offer support
and guidance, conflict management, elections and training.
We host monthly president meetings to keep our presidents informed of changes in the
district and what they should be working on the current month and the next to keep their
PTAs in good standing and representing our PTA mission and any extra help they may need.
We hosted the following events and programs which is quite a few.
Fendi speaks, he's an athlete mentor and speaker who uses his gifts to inspire, challenge,
and motivate students. During our Veterans Day recognition at our Council Delegate meeting in
November we recognized some of our local veterans who happen to also work with KDISD.
And our speaker for the night was Ruben Martinez.
I think he's here somewhere.
Or he was.
And our flag presentation was with Elvis McHale.
I don't want to say his name wrong.
I think he's here too.
And our senior naval science instructor.
Senior naval science instructor.
and the National sorry the Navy junior ROTC unit based at Maid Creek High School
we held the Founders Day that recognized all of our local winners for our
awardees of our lifetime and extended service reflections dinner fair mock
meetings ready to go program by National PTA swimming safety and blood donation
We had actually several people that sent in artwork and choreography and stuff like that
for the Reflections program, and many went to state, or yeah, to Texas State.
and then we had one that advanced to national PTA with her choreography and
it was Rosie Lee from Seven Lakes High School so it was it's amazing to see
all these kids doing what they could do so as far as membership statewide we
We have 458,080 members.
That's quite a bit.
And then for KDISD, we're at 29,773.
We're currently the largest membership
numbers in the state.
There's one other district that's behind us,
and they're gunning for us, but we're
going to keep trying to keep going.
We've also enlisted multiple trainings
that we offer because these are important to keep our PTAs in good standing too.
I don't want to keep you all too long, and I just want to end with saying thank you
to our school board, Dr. Gorgorski, and staff for joining our PTAs.
It has been an honor to serve on the KD Improvement Committee,
the safety and security advisory team, the PTA Circle Up, and Education Foundation Board.
I have experienced what makes KDISD such an amazing district for our children, families, and community.
Our partnerships will create a future that our children will benefit from for decades to come,
and I look forward to working with you again next year.
Thank you very much.
Thank you guys.
Have a good night.
Can we see if anybody has any questions for you?
Yes.
Oh, yes.
Mr. President?
Yes, Mr. President.
Mr. Lorenzo, thank you so much.
I'm a big PTA fan.
I've been a member of PTA since 2002, since my oldest one joined, and I'm in multiple
PTAs.
I've been a lifetime member a few times.
and and from 2004 to 2020 I was constantly on a board somewhere or
sometimes multiple boards with multiple kids yeah and I'm just the biggest
proponent of PTA and most of what I've learned with Founders Day type thing I
mean not how they add Robert's Rules I've learned from PTA because there's
some really great training there and I've been to several conventions so I
I really applaud you and I'm really happy that you said what you said about the public
school versus private school and I appreciate your advocacy for that and you taking the
time to take the other PTA people there to advocate along with us.
And what else I wanted to say was, oh, could you tell me again what that, because I was
I was at Taylor when we switched from the PTO to the PTA.
And I was a PTO president but not the PTA president.
Okay.
But could you tell me what that award is that Taylor got
and also the other award that the other elementary school got
with the 100% participation?
What was the name of those?
So for Taylor, they have the Community Gold Award,
which means they have a certain amount of community members that are part of their membership and
what was the other one the one that you had 100 participation okay so for each student that's in
the school they have to have at least one member what is it called it is called the platinum voice
for every child because I just want to brag a little bit we did that at Exley
oh but so what we do is we have like multiple so some people would just have
like multiple memberships you know yeah so that's a big achievement I really it
is and to have three is really really great we also have some school of
excellence as I think there might be two that are that are coming up soon which
as are those um listed on your little website your pta council website they aren't yet um that's
something we need to update so i hope to get that done soon and then to start putting out a
newsletter thank you for your presentation yeah thank you i appreciate you guys listening to me
mr president this folks i have some questions corintha thank you for being here appreciate
I appreciate you very much.
Sure.
I remember when I first moved here, I'd never been in a PTA before, and it was just quite
an interesting process and how everybody comes together.
And I remember council being so great at the training.
Like for every position there was, there was a training position for that.
And LAUNCH also has so much great training and the camaraderie that happens when you
You spend time with people that, you know, if you're hospitality and they're yearbook, you'd never really see them.
And we had opportunities for that.
And some members would have so much fun.
They would extend the day into the late evening, you know, and there would be lots of fun about that.
The reflections contest is near and dear to my heart.
My little girl always did that.
And Dawn and I have judged so many of those.
And so it keeps us very in the know and love to see the students and their creativity.
There was a theme.
every year. I really especially liked when you talked about how you have mock
meetings. We do. Right, because it's so important. It's like I've never been a
room mom before and I ended up being the first PTA president at Creech and I came
home to my husband we have to move because I don't know what I'm doing and
I don't know how that happened and yet there was counsel to help me with that
and there's a book and they give you all the instructions and the mock meetings
are so important to make sure that you get through everything correctly for
for people who really want to help but they might not know what they're doing like I was.
So Founders Day this year, every year, is great.
But this year was so great.
Everybody with the black and white theme and all the things.
It was just so beautiful to see everybody there as you honor the awardee from the lifetime
members from each school and they'll get to come together and I really love Founders Day.
Yeah, it's a very special event.
Your 29,773 members is a huge number of parents around the district
laminating, helping do this, plan parties, help in the office,
all the things they do to make sure that our children have the best opportunities
and to give back to teachers.
It's just a rewarding thing to be a part of because you feel like you're contributing
and you don't have to do math homework.
Yeah.
Yeah.
People ask me all the time, like, do you get paid to be council president?
And I was like, no.
And they're like, you, it's not a joke when you say you spend 30 to 40 hours a week in
this position and on in the rest of my board they spend many hours too and you
know my father-in-law made the comment I'm just gonna out him right now and
that you know he's like why don't you just get a real job well yeah and money
would be nice but honestly the reward of what we do for our children and
and community and families,
there's nothing that could outweigh that.
It's the best feeling.
And at the VIP celebration last week,
almost a million hours of volunteer service,
and that's only from the people who reported it,
because you've got 30,000 people here
not reporting any hours or care anything about recognition.
That just shows the impact
that parents and community members have in our schools.
So appreciate.
We have an amazing district.
Yeah.
What's been the, one thing you've,
what's the biggest thing you've learned
from being here instead of just local PTA?
How much we need each other.
That it really does take a village
to partner around all of our children and find all the things, you know, the different things and ideas that we can come together with
that may, you know, push our children a little further in what their endeavors and whatever we can do to bring in programs
programs that go along with what they like to read or what they like to see or what they may want to do in the future. I really think it is just that partnership with everybody and getting to meet so many people, you know, like you guys.
I was a stay-at-home mom that decided to be a homeroom mom one time, and then it was like drinking the PTA Kool-Aid, and here I am.
So, yeah, I wouldn't change it.
It's definitely a very rewarding position.
Thank you for your service.
You're welcome.
Any more questions?
Any other questions, Board?
Kristen, thank you so much.
Thank you, guys.
We appreciate you.
11.2 NJROTC – Leadership Development and Personal Growth Preparing Students for Military and Civilian Success.
Now moving on to agenda item 11.2, the NJROTC Leadership Development and Personal Growth.
Presenter, Commander Elvis Mickel, U.S. Navy retired senior naval science instructor.
Michael, I'm sorry.
Good evening, President Redman, trustees, and Dr. Gorgorski.
I am excited to be here this evening as the very proud principal of Maid Creek High School,
home to our KDISD JROTC program.
This program has become an integral piece of the culture of our school, and we are so
excited of the growth and successes it has experienced under Commander Michael's leadership.
So it is my honor to introduce him to you this evening so that he can share a little
bit more about our program.
Thank you, Principal Herring.
Board President Redman, members of the Board of Trustees, Superintendent Dr. Gagorski,
thank you for this opportunity for me to talk about NJRTC and your unit here in KDISD.
First, I'd like to make sure it's understood what the program is not.
JROTC is not a military recruiter. JROTC does not teach the students how to join the military, nor are we a disciplinary program.
We don't really help bad kids be good kids, but I think our program will enable good students to become great students.
We are a citizenship and leadership development program that was started back in 1918.
with the Army.
And then the Navy came in with its own program
nestled under the same principles in 1964.
So our primary goal is to instill life skills
that will help these students
through their high school career and beyond.
Skills like leadership, followership, citizenship,
personal responsibility, self-discipline, teamwork,
and resiliency the unit was started in 2008 at may creek high school aided by the then
principal of may creek high school od tompkins in that time the unit has received two unit
achievement awards 12 distinguished unit awards and two distinguished unit with academic honor
awards most recently this year as i said our purpose is to try and instill life skills and
attributes into high school students that will take them as they move on to
their next phase of development in their lives this includes citizenship learning
how a government works and how to participate as a good citizen attention
to detail self-discipline followership so then you can learn how to be a good
leader respect for constituted authority and how to participate in government I
like to tell the students if you're gonna play the game you need to know the
rules of the game in order to participate and we also promote a healthy lifestyle drug-free
alcohol-free good nutrition and we also very much promote the successful completion of high school
we tell them that it's your first priority your second priority
and third priority it's the successful completion of high school
We have some mostly intangible benefits to JROTC, but our cadets tend to have higher rates of
attendance, they tend to be better behaved both in class and when they leave school, and they tend to
have stronger life skills once they graduate. Over half of our cadets that graduate tend to go on to
post-secondary education in some form whether that's university college community college
or even technical and vocational trade schools jrotc is a joint effort between the united states
navy and the local school districts myself and my first sergeant jrotc instructors are retired
military personnel but we are kdisd employees and we operate supervised by the school principal
The Navy provides us both monetary and material support.
This includes curriculum, which is always revised by headquarters and is accredited every five years.
They provide textbooks and the electronic associated equipment.
They also provide the uniforms and other associated equipments.
So all the cadets get received a uniform free of charge.
They're just responsible for maintaining it and once they leave the program they turn it back into the government
and
then the Navy also provides partial reimbursed funding for our activities as well as covering partial reef
reimbursement to the district for both the instructor pays
Navy provides specific equipment for Navy JRTC the color guard equipment all the equipment for the drill teams
our STEM competition teams, our marksmanship program.
They also cover and reimburse portions of the funding for overnight trips.
At the end of this month, we'll be taking our annual overnight trip to Naval Air Station Corpus Christi.
They also provide funding for our competitions.
Each drill meet and associated skills meets will typically have a registration of about $500 per.
her. Now leadership is very big in the program and we do that because it's a cadet-led organization.
My first sergeant and I provide some guidance but this is where they get to practice and exercise
their leadership muscles. So we have a standard military hierarchy. Next year's commanding officer
is Cadet White from Taylor High School with her executive officer Cadet Valencia from May Creek
Creek and a senior enlisted. These are interviewed positions, seniors and juniors. This is where they
really get to take the unit in their direction. Another opportunity besides leadership is
management. We have a standard military hierarchy for staff positions. Typically a junior and senior
once they make chief petty officer or cadet officer have an opportunity to fill one of these
positions functional areas within the unit for instance the supply core the
supply officer right now is going to be a senior from Taylor high school and
she's accountable to me for accounting for half a million dollars worth of
government uniforms and equipment so I think that's a pretty large
responsibility for a high school student and it serves them as they proceed on
past high school we're a class just like any other class in CTE they meet every
every single day. We have a very standardized and rigid formula. Each class is a platoon and it's
led by the cadets in that platoon. So they'll have a senior cadet who's the platoon commander
and then they'll work down from there. As they stay in the program, they move forward,
advancing in rank based on their merit, and eventually they'll learn to be into a leadership
position and be in charge of various activities throughout the day.
extracurriculars we're not just a class we're also a sport club however you want to do it that's a
lot of what keeps these cadets in the program they may come because they're interested but
the extracurriculars really come keep them coming back so their opportunity to compete as teams they
join they learn friendships they compete they earn awards and they just have a lot of fun so there's
There's a lot of different types of extracurricular activities for any number of students' interests.
We also do a lot of community service.
Every year we incur approximately 4,000 man hours worth of community service around the area.
This includes color guards, going to elementary schools, parades,
Reads Across America, environmental cleanups, and tree plantings.
As I said, we also take field trips or what the Navy calls orientation trips. We take one
overnight trip in the summer if we go to state, which we've done for the last five years. That's
an overnight trip. And then during the year in the second semester, I tend to have one to two
field trips to an area venue that corresponds to some point in my academic curriculum to reinforce
force what I've taught them in class. As I said, our weekly schedule is fairly regimented. It's
very standardized. We publish what we're going to do at the beginning of the week so they all know
what to expect. It gives them consistency. Of note, on Thursdays, that's their uniform day. That's when
they have to be in uniform all day at school and they're a visible reminder of the program.
And then on Fridays, the PT, physical training, that's where they earn their Texas PE credit. So
They don't need to take a PE class.
We are their PE credit for the state of Texas.
And then after school, to support the extracurricular activities,
we're at the school from the time the last bell goes, usually until 4.30, 5 o'clock.
And this is when they do their practices, they study, they practice academics or marksmanship or drill,
any number of those types of opportunities.
And then many Saturdays, especially in the fall during drill season,
and we'll have practice on Saturday morning as well.
Missing a slide.
We do have some oversight by the Navy.
The Navy has a government service civilian who is based out of downtown Houston.
It's the area manager, and we're in Area 17.
That individual is a former SNSI from HISD,
and he provides government oversight for all of the Houston units, Beaumont units, and now three units in western Louisiana.
And he ensures that the instructors are following the program guidance set by the Navy,
as well as curriculum and the proper disposition of any government funds that are transferred and used for the program.
Every year, he comes once a year to every unit in his area and does the area manager's inspection.
It's an inspection of myself and my instructor, but they find that out by talking to the cadets, observing the cadets, interviewing with the staff officers, making sure that they know how to do their function area, which shows that we have helped instruct them on the proper way of doing it.
So every year that happens at May Creek, and our area manager is always very pleased and brags about this unit across the entire area.
Now we have several reports that we have to provide the Navy. Most importantly is in October, the enrollment report. On 1 October, we take a snapshot and we send it to the Navy and we have to show at least 100 cadets enrolled in the program or 10% of the school's population, whichever is the smaller number. For us, it's 100 cadets. And in the entire history of the unit, we have always met that goal.
Any unit that does not meet that goal will go on probation from the Navy, is required to develop a plan to get well, and then reoccurring reports on how they're achieving that goal.
Subsequent probationary periods over one or two years may result in units losing their status and being removed from active service.
service.
Speaking of enrollment, we've done very well this year.
We've had less attrition this year than any past year.
As of today, this is the enrollment in your KDISD and JROTC.
As you can see, we have 90 cadets enrolled.
52% are from May Creek, and then the rest are what we call the cross-campus cadets that
come from the other high schools in the district, most notably, Pato High School and Morton
ranch high school right now and then over time this has been the enrollment
over the last couple of years you'll note that in 2025 and 2024 this year and
last year 52% is about the the percentage for May Creek the difference
has been made up by the cross campus cadets and that's a directly attributed
to the KDISD transportation department providing busing that takes cadets from
their home campus to may creek for the last class of the day if we didn't have that program with
the buses we would have not been able to make enrollment for the last two years so it's been
a very very great help to us and now if you allow me uh cadet lieutenant commander alexandra white
from taylor high school i'd like to give her an opportunity to speak for a couple minutes
about her njrtc experience and why she's a cadet miss white
Good evening Board President Redmond, members of the Board of Trustees, and Superintendent Dr. Gagorski.
My name is Alexandra White and I am the commanding officer of our district's Navy Junior ROTC unit for the 2025-2026 school year.
I attend James E. Taylor High School, but transfer campuses during the school day to Maid Creek.
Joining this program has completely shaped my high school experience and changed me for the better.
Before I went into high school, I was extremely insecure. I had little to no confidence and no ambitions.
I picked dance as my P.E. credit because my friend told me she was doing it, but she ended up moving to New Jersey, which left me feeling stranded.
I didn't always know much about JROTC. The first time I heard about it was in a TV show, and I had just assumed it was only for people planning to go into the military, and I wasn't really interested in that.
But then, Top Gun Maverick came out and everything changed.
I became hooked on becoming a Naval Aviator and that's when I started looking into JROTC.
I watched dozens of videos about the benefits of joining, such as building confidence, self-discipline and leadership,
and even more of drill teams performing at drill meets.
Two weeks before my freshman year, I emailed my counselor asking to switch from dance to JROTC, and I have never regretted that decision.
Since then, I have put my all into this program.
Over the last three years, I have been on multiple drill teams,
such as the Unarmed Exhibition Team, the Unarmed Regulation Team,
Color Guard, Academics, and PT, which is physical training.
I've built leadership, discipline, and confidence.
But most importantly, camaraderie.
Leading my team, working through challenges, and pushing ourselves to do better
at drill meets has been one of the most rewarding experiences I have ever had. On top of that,
my role as administrative officer this past year has helped me strengthen my communication,
time management, and organizational skills, things that will benefit me outside of JROTC and high
school. Even though high school doesn't last forever, JROTC will stay with me well beyond
graduation. While I don't intend on joining the military anymore, the leadership and discipline
I've gained will prepare me for whatever career I choose to go into. The
confidence I've developed will help me handle whatever challenges come my way
and the teamwork I've learned will be useful in just about any part of life.
JROTC isn't just a high school experience, it's something that will
benefit me for all years to come. Looking back, joining JROTC has been one
of the best decisions I've ever made. I hope that my story encourages others to
to take a chance, push themselves, and discover their own potential through this program.
Thank you for listening.
Thank you, Ms. White.
That concludes my presentation.
Do you have any questions?
Mr. President, I've gotten to see your group in their practices and in their competitions,
and I've loved every minute of it and I cannot tell you I've one of the things I
just love seeing is that after school your kids your students they are talking
to one another they're not on their phones they're relating with each other
it's such a healthy environment I could not thank you and your staff so enough
into May Creek High School principal I mean it's amazing this program what
y'all done I think the district for providing transportation yeah just
just talking with the parents, it was needed.
And I'm really glad we're doing that because I'd like to see this program grow.
It's so healthy for our kids and our community.
And then I just had a question.
Mr. Lamar Johnson, is he the one that comes and does the area manager's inspection?
Yes, Lamar Johnson is the Area 17 manager.
He was an SNSI at Sterling High School.
This is now his second year as the area manager.
Okay, so I got to see him doing his inspection.
Okay, that was fantastic.
He's really good with the students as well.
So thank you very much.
I'm a big believer in this program.
I think our community should be very proud of this and what you all have done.
Thank you.
Mr. President.
Ms. Cuzela.
Thank you so much, Alexandra.
That's excellent, your talk, and you carry yourself very well.
So look forward to your leadership next year.
Thank you for the presentation. I'm curious, are there ways the board can help or what would you be doing to increase enrollment? I would love to see the program flourish more.
I and the cadets try and get out to all of the events at the various high schools and junior highs when it comes time for course selection.
Really getting the word out about what JRTC is, not what it's not.
Because I do find that a lot of the parents shy away from me at those course selections because they don't want their kids to go into the military.
And that's not what we're here for.
We're here to make them better students.
So getting that information out not only to the high school students and the junior high students, but to their families and their parents and more information about what the advantages of joining JROTC is.
Okay. All right. Could we have it at multiple campuses, if at all?
That would require getting another unit. You can only really have one unit per high school.
Okay.
To have a completely separate unit, you'd have to apply for that either through the Navy or any of the other services.
And at this time, that's very difficult because there is a long waiting list across the country for JROTC units.
Okay.
Thank you very much.
You're welcome.
Mr. President?
Ms. Champagne?
All right.
I have a couple of questions, but first of all, yes, I heard you say that the uniforms are owned by the Navy,
but what about all those badges? Do you get to keep those those medals? Yes I do.
So I have earned all of these for completing different things throughout.
Some of these are awards, some of these are like PT, well I guess they're all
awards, but some of these are like PT accomplishments that I've made and so
once you get a medal you can keep it. You get to keep it. Yes ma'am. So do you have
siblings I have a little brother do you make him call you commander lieutenant
no no no why that'd be kind of funny but he would probably hate that but I I
think the best advertisement you have really is is students like herself
giving this presentation and I think that it would benefit junior high junior
highs actually counselors and people maybe to have this videotaped or
something like that and i'm sure do you share this with the junior highs yes i do i work through all
the may creeks counseling counselors and then through the other high schools and i try and
get to as many of the junior highs that invite me but even just to have the presentation online for
maybe parents to look at and with their students absolutely and something like her her testimony
videotaped and put on an attachment to something that they could look at because
because your presentation was so good.
I'm so proud of you.
And I can tell that you have grown,
because I have a daughter that was very, very shy also as a young girl,
and it's really incredible to watch a young lady like you grow and mature like that.
Thank you.
And especially, you know, just all your medals proves,
I'm sure you have more than everybody else.
But I have a suggestion.
Just see what your brother would say if he had to call you that.
I'll tell him that tonight.
That would be funny.
All right, thank you so much for being here.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Board?
Mr. President?
Ms. Fox?
You're so impressive.
I just...
No, I'm going to ask Mr. Michael some questions.
What part of the day is ROTC?
If someone wants to come from a separate campus, how much of the time do they need to be in
your campus well we really have two options i do have one or two every year that come to first
period at may creek but that requires them to have their own transportation to major creek and then
after first period they use their second period as a study hall at their home campus and they have to
provide their own transportation there so that's not optimal so almost all of the other cross-campus
cadets come seventh period so the kdisd buses will pick them up at their home campus and leave no
no earlier than one o'clock.
So they have to have a sixth period
as either early release or study hall.
That facilitates the travel from their home campus
to May Creek, and then they come to my classroom,
spend the rest of sixth period as a study hall,
and then seventh period bell goes,
they're in my class, we finish that up,
and then at the end of the day,
they can either have their own transportation home,
or they can stay in my classroom and study,
or they can participate in the extracurricular activities
activities until the buses take them back to their home campus between 4 30 and 5 o'clock
okay that's that's a bit of a time commitment but because it's end of the day they can stay
at their home campus yes and it's optimal because a lot of the cross-campus folks want to do the
extracurriculars and they're already there that's less transportation for mom dad or grandma grandpa
or anyone else. Okay great. So a couple of these you answered with your graph. When
I see your growth here, 2013 was great. 2019 there was a spike. Do you have any
any way to know why that was and you know the barcode? I believe that that was a
year that part of it was not in person. So there was a lot of folks that were
or participate in the program virtually.
I'm not quite as intimidating on a computer screen
as I am in person, so that may have kept them
in the program more.
Okay.
So I remember when we brought this here,
and Mr. Tompkins was adamant that it was at his campus
at Main Creek High School.
He wanted this program, he worked really hard
to make sure that it came in, that it locked in,
and that it was there for his boys boys and girls and we have tried a few times
to replicate the program maybe in one of the schools in the southern part of the
district but we ran into the exact problem you talking about that the
waiting list to get another excuse are you called commander yes whatever it's
called and I want to be respectful please don't let me say that I'm retired
I'm tired.
Okay.
But to find someone like you, long waiting list.
And so that's because I really believe that your numbers show that it's close proximity.
You have more of the students come.
Morton Ranch, Payto, closer to Maid Creek.
And if we had one in the southern part of the district, I believe we could grow it.
But it's just waiting.
It's years.
I will.
I will years of waiting I will say that the Navy and the other services
Recognize the long waiting list and those are for what we call the funded programs the ones where the service provides reimbursement
about
75% or so back to the school district
They have come up with another option which is a fully district district funded program in the Navy
it's called the NNDC the Navy National Defense Cadet Corps and
that
That program, the Navy would provide the curriculum, textbooks, but the district would be on the hook for the funding for the full instructor pays for at least one instructor.
then all the equipment. So that is a large bill, but there is no waiting list for that. You apply
for it, show that you have the financial ability to keep that unit going, and you can have a program.
Okay. It's just so difficult to know, especially if there's a minimum requirement, like if it would...
I believe the requirement...
Many families who ask me, we really want to do that, but May Creek is too far and my kids are
are involved in other things, why don't you have one?
I believe the enrollment requirement for an NNDC is 50 cadets annually.
Okay.
So something for us to think about.
One of the things Mr. DeBrell was, former board member,
just constantly trying to find this and make it work,
found something that was like when the district would fund the teacher for a few years,
then the Navy would come in.
And as long as we see that you're very healthy they would come in and maybe pick up the the tab for the
Instructor a few years in maybe three years in or something so from the Navy's perspective
They have not created a new unit in about two years
so in order for a new unit be created some other unit has to sort of
Come off a probation and be disbanded
So yes, they've made I made new
funded units about four in the last two to three years. Wow, okay. I can't speak to any of the
other services though. And your minimum enrollment is what? Minimum enrollment snapshot on October
1st is 100. Okay, and we've been able to do that, but did you say something about currently 90?
We currently have 90 on the rules, but it's a snapshot on 1 October that the Navy cares about.
So as long as I have 100 cadets on the rolls on October 1st, we're good for the year.
I try and maintain as many as I can because I like to keep them in the program.
And we've been very good this year in maintaining them.
The photos are incredible of seeing them all together and then everywhere we go.
And, you know, your flag corps.
I'm really bad with the terminology.
Forgive me.
But all of that.
At the games, right, even football games and the parades and all the things.
always so impressive and the things that mrs. Timmy talked about like very
impressive and thank you for always inviting us and letting us know what's
going on with those things and you're creating incredible leaders but very
proud of you any more questions for commander Michael cadet lieutenant
commander white thank you all so much for being here tonight and for
everything you do for our kids. We'll now move on to agenda item 11.3 as we look at the outdoor
11.3 Outdoor Learning Center – Hands-on Learning in a Natural Setting
learning center presenters H.C. Grimmett and Paul Dunk. Thank you. Good evening President Redmond,
members of the board, Superintendent Gagorski. The purpose of our presentation tonight is to
to provide you the information on the Kenneth D. Welch Outdoor
Learning Center and its activities
to support student learning in KDISD.
The KDISD Outdoor Learning Center
provides students with instructional opportunities
that enrich and extend the district's science,
social studies, and physical education curriculums
in a unique, stimulating, and meaningful learning
environment outside their traditional classroom setting
setting in cooperative partnership with students, teachers, parents, administrators, and community.
The Outdoor Learning Center was established in 1981 and is unique to KDISD.
No other school district in our state or country has a facility similar to ours in terms of
educational experiences like those provided in KDISD.
The facility was named after Kenneth Welch, a longtime coach and administrator in KDSD,
who played a key role in the planning stages of the center and making the outdoor learning center idea a reality.
In 2017, major renovation took place as part of the approved bond, which added new science and history classrooms,
two pavilions, new animal pens, a second pond, renovations to the caretaker cottage, an entry gate,
and new road access to the facility. The facility is comprised of 34.5 acres of land,
much of which is wooded. The OLC includes a science classroom, a history classroom slash museum,
caretaker, cottage, barn, barnyard, windmill, a variety of farm animals, small garden area,
two pavilions, and two ponds. The Outdoor Learning Center provides a variety of learning experiences
for students primarily at the elementary level, but has provided opportunities to students at
the secondary level. The facility currently provides on-site fourth grade science social
studies lessons, oversees the distribution of materials for first grade chick hatching,
facilitates angler clubs, and the outdoor adventure education program through physical education
classes, partners with Fishing's Future and Texas Parks and Wildlife. We also
work in partnership with Boy Scout Troops and Katy High School, facilitates
also the annual Folklife Festival and provides a summer recreation program for
Katy ISD students in grades four through six. Each school year all Katy ISD
fourth-grade students participate in a field trip to the Outdoor Learning
Center that focuses on history and science curriculum. The OLC lessons were
developed by the elementary CNI coordinators to create a stimulating
meaningful environment outside of the traditional classroom setting. The
lessons involve hands-on learning, the application of knowledge and skills, and
connections to the real world. Both classrooms are divided into stations and
parent volunteers are recruited by campus teachers to assist with running
the stations. This year the outdoor learning center will finish with a total
of 118 separate fourth grade trips serving every fourth grade classroom in
KDISD. All first grade class or first grade students participate in an
outreach incubator chick hatching lesson focused on science curriculum and
supported and coordinated by the outdoor learning center. The OLC acquires
fertilized eggs and other materials needed for this lesson and directly
supports incubator training and operations in the schools. This year the
OLC distributed over 900 fertilized eggs to all 46 elementary campuses and based
on the feedback that I'm getting from a lot of the first grade teachers we had a
very good hatch rate. It was very successful. The OLC has a long history of
helping to support scouting in the Katy area. Each year the OLC serves as a
setting for several arrow of light and bridging ceremonies and other such
activities. The OLC has been the beneficiary of many Eagle Scout projects
and most recently these have included wooden decks, animal feeders, fish
habitats, and many tables and benches. During the summer the OLC is a very
popular summer recreation program that is open to all families in the Katy area.
Students going into grades four through six can register for a single two-week
session which meets Monday through Thursday. Activities include fishing
skills and safety, archery skills and safety, canoeing skills and safety, candle
dipping, making hand cranked ice cream, nature trails, outdoor cooking, farm
animals, air rifle skills and safety, games and crafts, and dulcimer lessons.
Instructors are all KDISD employees who share their wealth of knowledge and
skills to make the program incredibly popular and successful. The OLC summer
recreation program is divided into three sessions over a six weeks period and
and serves 288 students.
Many KDISD campuses incorporate outdoor adventure education
units as part of physical education instruction
at both the elementary and secondary level.
By the last week of school in May,
46 campuses will have participated
in outdoor adventure education field trips this school year.
The two ponds at the OLC are fully stocked with catfish,
bass, and bluegill.
Through our partnership with Fishing's Future, whose membership includes several KDISD namesakes
who provide volunteers to train school staff and parents in angler education,
we use curriculum from Texas Parks and Wildlife.
These volunteers also assist in teaching students the fundamentals of angler education on campuses
prior to the fishing field trips at the OLC.
Michael Shearer, Fishing's Future Program Director, and Brenda Shaver, President of the KD Chapter of Fishing's Future,
work consistently with the OLC staff and campus staff to provide our students with unparalleled learning experiences.
Each year, KDISD is highlighted by Texas Parks and Wildlife for its volunteer hours dedicated to supporting outdoor education programs.
programs. The OLC and Katy High School have long had a partnership due to close proximity
to provide students fishing opportunities through their physical education class and
as a location for the FFA Wildlife Contest. So this concludes our presentation and we're
happy to answer any questions. Thank you. Board, do you have any questions? Mr. President?
Ms. Champagne.
Ms. I'm so happy y'all are here.
So I don't know if you know this, but I'm on the district wide committee for BSA this
year and next year.
And how do those troops get in touch with you to be able to do their arrow of light
and all that?
Well, typically they'll contact us, and it's a reputation-type thing that one will tell another,
or they've done it in the past, and they'll reach out to us,
and we will direct them how to make a reservation, and we get them on the calendar and support them,
and that's pretty much what it takes for them to come out there.
And also, so another thing is y'all's summer programs.
I remember back in the day when my kids were a little younger, they're in their 20s now,
but it was quite rigorous to try to get them in there.
I mean, there was a waiting line, you know, because you can only take so many, of course,
and I'm sure it's still like that where there's kind of first come, first serve,
you better push the button fastest.
The registration used to be face-to-face.
It's now online.
So when it goes active, like April 10th at 10 a.m.
Because we had to see it online back then.
It's active, and it fills up pretty quick.
Okay.
And then, I really appreciate your angler education because that is really a lifetime skill.
You know, that's something that can actually save someone's life almost.
You know, if they're in a situation where they may have an opportunity to have a pond by them or some kind of water and everything.
You know, like in a hurricane situation or things like that.
So I think that that's good.
And you also teach so many other life-supporting skills, actually.
you know the dutch oven cooking and the boating and all that and i also just want to add with
i think your team is is awesome i know the people that you just spoke of and there's brenda shaver
there and i really really the thing i really love about that mr grimmett is when i go watch you
teach children how to fish the the enthusiasm that you have seems like after you did it for
for the thousandth time out in the heat,
you would stop smiling so much.
But your enthusiasm is what makes the program the way it is.
I almost think if you were to retire, which I hope you don't,
you would be a hard person to replace
because it's just your happiness.
And Mr. DeBauer also and Mr. Shearer
and those people have so much enthusiasm.
And I really appreciate that
because I know you have all these kids and have time they're not listening and
they're trying to run away and they won't pay attention to what the number
is on their collar and all that but all in all y'all are still happy about being
out there and I really appreciate that very much it's a passion we love it
thank you mr. president missini well I taught with mr. dunk so I know that you
and you're good with the kids too so thank you for that and I used to work
with Scott Griffin and he would do like a pioneer weekend do y'all still do that
for the community that's part of the Folklife Festival okay so y'all still do
that and we're always in contact with Scott Griffin he's a fabulous and
individual his group is still part of the Folklife Festival every year and
that includes mr. Welch at 90 years old now he still comes out and does the
reenactment stuff have you seen his Sam Houston movie that he was a have pretty
nice he looks like general general Sam Houston he does he does okay thank you
for what you do I think you'll have a very important role for our children
thank you bringing up Scott Griffin this would never happen in today's world but
in seventh grade at Katy junior high I built a black powder rifle brought it to
to campus and supervised with everybody there,
fired it outside.
It hangs above my desk in my office
right now because it was such an awesome project with my dad.
And it reminds me about all the sexist history
that we look at here.
And all that keeps happening at the Outdoor Learning Center,
and I love it.
But, Board, any other questions?
Yes, Mr. President.
On that note of gunpowder, where is the come and take it cannon?
that was gifted to you all?
Where on the property is it?
It's in the history classroom,
and we're going to work with the elementary history coordinators.
We'll make it part of the lesson, but it's in there.
And I taught Texas history for 21 years
before I went out to the Outdoor Learning Center,
and so that's important to me.
And what I have found very pleasing is that since we put it in there a few weeks ago,
the kids who are coming through, the fourth graders,
By this point, they should know what the come and take in Canada is, and they do, which is a great thing.
I like that.
I do, too.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
Mr. President.
Ms. Fox.
Thank you for your presentation.
It's one of my favorite facilities in all of KDISD.
When my kids did the fourth grade program, it was the old version, right, with the bonnets and the thing,
and everybody had worn and you know all the things so in the old-fashioned
classroom and I remember when we were talking about the redesign or refurbish
we refresh of the OLC and it took us a long time to really get to where it was
gonna be and and how much people who you know knew it from its inception really
really wanted to protect the historical part of the classroom and things like that.
So seeing it expanded, improved, and yet maintain the history of what it really felt like.
And seeing Coach Muller make apple cobbler, whatever he does in that cast iron, and the
the fishing and boys and girls having an opportunity to do that.
You know, Brenda Shaver over there teaching them all the safety things,
and she loves it so much I can't even get her on my lunch calendar
because she'd rather be with your boys and girls.
And just the beauty of it is phenomenal,
and yet the history of it feels still so unique.
I'm so happy that our boys and girls get to witness that
and that you keep it so busy because there was a time when it was like well
maybe we can't do anything with it because dollars were so tight I'm really
glad there was a time when our community said absolutely we want to want to
preserve it and improve it so thanks for what you all do out there thank you mr.
president I have something dad so I've been there enough to see the the new
renovated school building and all that and they still wear bonnets and stuff
they still do it and so the young kids don't know that there's a difference so
they're fine but I just want to say this is so funny one time I was out there and
there are some people from Spring Branch ISD you've been doing a tour and they
because they wanted to see how they could replicate it I'm sure y'all do
this every once in a while and so I ended up talking to those people I don't I
don't know I just talked to them I think they were just I don't know if there
were staff or other parents or whatever they were but they said well they couldn't do it in spring
vegetation because they don't have the land like where how could you do it you know they don't have
you know 40 acres to build something like that and that's when i realized how fortunate our district
is that we someone had the wherewithal you know way back then and and made that into something
that our district could use as an educational program for children because
in the Houston area not everybody can do that you know can have
something like that I really appreciate that yeah I like that any more questions
for mr. don't mr. agreement thank you so much thank you we'll now move on to
11.4 Health Plan Update
agenda item 11.4 health plan update with mr. Lance Norman our director of risk
Mr. President, before Mr. Nauman gets started, because I don't want to hurt your feelings, young man, but seeing all these things about the academics and the things that make our kids have a richer experience are so wonderful to hear.
I mean, I still love hearing them, and I get to go see it all the time, but for our community to be able to hear and see those pictures, I think it's really great.
Thanks for whoever put this on the agenda.
Mr. Nauman?
First of all, I don't know how I can top black powder manufacturing in a classroom, so I just can't get there.
Figuring out how we can take care of our teachers and employees, it's up there, though.
It's up there.
That's pretty important.
All right.
Good evening.
Dr. Gagwarski, President Redmond, and Board of Trustees.
I'm here to talk with you about our semiannual health care plan update.
With me alongside me is Justin Elmore, who's with Baldwin Group, who is our benefit consultant.
And let's take a deep dive into what we're doing.
We're going to look at plan year 24.
We're going to look at operating results, individual plan performance, health care items of interest, and some key measurements.
I'm also going to touch on the TRS active care in terms of an update.
date and then where we are with plan year 2025 and current operating results and plan migration
in this slide you'll see in 2023 we had an operating loss of 13.7 million dollars
and in 2024 we had another operating loss of 13.7 baldwin group uh projected a 10.8 million dollar
loss that we will and that's a function of contributions and claims submitted to
the plan. Here you will see the district contributions, the annual projection and
employee contributions and and I will note and I'll talk to this a little bit
later in the presentation the total projections of you know we projected
there would be about 66 million dollars in contributions, where we ended up the year
with 62, and that's a function of migration.
As people, as we adjusted the plan, people left the plan and sought healthcare within
the ACO and the high deductible plan.
You will see that the medical increased a good bit, and pharmacy did as well.
And I will comment that as we look a little bit later, we'll look at our large losses.
Those are relatively flat, but we had a lot of losses that were just on the threshold of being categorized as at $75,000.
dollars so there was a lot of frequency and a lot of severity going on in that that window if you
will so how the plans do um year over year we're seeing that the memorial herman aco is um doing
well we got a negative 243 000 high deductible plan um took a little bit of a hit and i would
and I would remind you that typically, and you can validate this for me,
in plan years, you see every three years or so, you'll see a dive.
We've seen that here in Katy.
And then we had our choice PLS2 take the big hit.
And I'll remind everybody, I've been here since 2012,
and that has been the loss leader year over year over year.
And that's a very broad network.
It cost employees to pay in that arena, but that is where we stood.
And here's some interesting data.
The district I alluded to earlier is 36.4 district contribution.
Employees contributed 25.8.
The cost per covered employee was $10,103, and cost per covered member was $6,200.
hundred dollars on an average day per day we spend a hundred and forty seven
thousand dollars in medical bills that's everything from ER diagnostic everything
other than pharmacy claims and pharmacy we spent forty three thousand nine
hundred and eighty two dollars as you can see here we tend to look at
measurement uh on a per employee per member per employee per month uh participation and you'll see
uh it's you can kind of tell what was those two years 22 and 23 we were coming out of coven and
people were delayed in getting their treatment that they needed and we had a spike in 23 but
that pep animal medical began to drop and the pharmacy began to drop as well and i'm very very
proud and I'm gonna speak to this a little bit later you will see the continued growth and
acceleration of our virtual medicine in 22 we had 9,800 visits a year uh 23 we had 16,000 and
in 24 we had 21,000 and I'll speak to that a little bit later and how that has impacted
the plan significantly. As I mentioned earlier, these are our large losses by
member, by spouse, by child. So it went down a little as you will see, but as I
mentioned earlier, it's in that window of not being categorized. It doesn't
meet that $75,000 threshold. There was a lot of, I'm going to call it, $30,000 to $74,499
in claims that took a spike, which helped drive the loss of the plan.
This is just a simple exhibit of what our employees pay per month.
And as you can see, the Memorial Hermann ACO is a closed network only for Memorial Hermann.
The only way an employee can leave the network to seek treatment is if it's an emergency
or if it's something with there's not a doctor that can handle a specific or unique set of treatment plans.
The high deductible plan is what it is.
It's very high deductible, but it's a broad access network.
The Choice POS-2 is expensive, but it's free access.
You can go wherever you want.
This is something that we're looking at expenses, and things are growing, inflation, and I'll speak to that a little later.
But something I want, and I'm very proud of the fact, if you will look at the specialty and non-specialty PMPM, they did jump.
They were significant.
Those are our GLP-1s.
Those are our specialty meds that are just going through the roof.
But compared to our peers in the Express Scripts book of business, we are significantly better, as you will see across to the side.
Also, our pharmacy fills went up 3.84%.
That is also attributable to seeing our virtual medicine increase,
because people are utilizing that tool to get their automatic refills which our
virtual medicine provider reaches a partnership with Express Scripts and
coordinates with those employees to say is this the best medicine. So our genetic
generic fill rate increased to 1.37 so those were good and just some other
interesting points of other plan costs.
So what do we do in terms of pharmacy? We do a lot of pre-authorizations. We don't, you might have
heard of things called step therapy where there may be four medications to treat diabetes. We
will step therapy up to that final med to control what the employees needs are and make sure the
efficacy of those medicines are on track. We never deny medicine. It's all we want to encourage
people to get medicine because if you're taking your medicine, you're less likely to have a
diabetic event and get to the ER. And I would rather pay medicines than I would an ER or
standalone or an urgent care. And we've also, I think I mentioned this last year, we've reduced
almost by 50% of our pain management program significantly.
Rebates have increased, and I want to speak just to a minute on the Savon RX program.
This is a program where Savon, who is a contracted vendor through Express Scripts, our PBM,
reaches out to the manufacturer to find deeper discounts with some of those medications.
It also benefits the employees by seeing, I think you've seen commercials, if you're unable to afford this medication, allow AstraZeneca to assist with the copay.
That's what this program does, and we saw significant savings in helping our employees do that.
As I mentioned, our generic rate was up, which equaled to about one point, right at a million dollars.
When we started looking at ways to improve the experience for the employee,
so many times people forget, oh, I've got to go to the doctor
because I've got to get my dilettante, you know, whatever the pill is,
because they're in the classroom and they're trying to get across town
and it becomes very, very difficult.
And they go, oh, I'll just, I'll wait.
and it gets past their mind and they get off.
So what we've done is ReadyMD and Express Scripts and Katie have partnered together
to identify and provide support to those employees and in advance have those medications.
If they're within their normal limits, those prescriptions can be filled, sent to their house,
or be ready for pickup.
And we've started a very aggressive program with HEB because they've become a Tier 1 provider on our plan.
And it allows the employee to not have to spend money on expensive urgent care or primary care,
because as we all know, it can take a month to Sunday just to get into your primary care for him to check the box and go get the medicine.
It's time away from the campus, and we've always tried to bring those little things to the table to make the experience better for our employees.
voice.
This is these two numbers I want you to really take heed of.
GLP-1s, that's the OZM.
and the Monjuros of the world, accounted for 16.3% of the net increase in pharmacy.
Within the top 25 drugs to spend, 18 are designated as specialty medications,
resulting in a 67.5% of the top 25 spent.
What's going on in the future besides those two big ones,
as I think I've called them the Saturday morning drugs,
because you're drinking coffee and you hear about those,
Is there additional GLP-1s that are entering the marketplace now that will be hitting and will have to manage the same thing?
We do have controls in place.
It's not a you have to submit preauthorization to approve that.
Did you try this and this before we would go to the GLP-1s?
And at the time I was preparing this, and then with the announcement from the president today,
day. My phone has been blowing up. Um, we have no way to predict what's going to happen with
tariffs. And all I can say is just kind of sit and wait in terms of what big pharma does in the
next 30 days and six months. Um, I don't know. That's, that's, um, that's just being honest and
sincere with you. I do think that big pharma is big pharma for a reason. And I think, I think
we're going to continue to have a struggle i really do i hope not i'm trying to be optimistic
about that trs active care update um as of the writing of this uh presentation i have not seen
the new rates for trs active care um they just were given an infusion of 485 million dollars
into their plan year to sub-plant a 10% increase in premiums.
They needed that to maintain a 10%.
And while I can't speak for them,
I mean, that still doesn't account for any deductible changes,
network adjustments that they make.
But that's kind of where we are,
and I think a lot of people are sitting wondering in terms of budget,
and it's yet to be seen.
So I've mentioned this word before and I'm going to reiterate it.
What is health trend?
That's a fancy word for inflation.
We currently have 5.4% on our medical trend, claims increasing.
But when compared to Aetna's book of business,
they're seeing 5% to 10% more in the window of 8% to 10%
in their K-12 book of business across the country.
And the reason our trend is staying as good as it is, is the fact that we're doing these things, as I mentioned earlier, about virtual medicine, making sure the employee doesn't have to go to a standalone ER.
They don't have to go to an ER because they're taking their medications.
All those little things add up to keep that trend rate at 5.4.
Can you make a comment about that?
What have you seen with girls' clients?
Is that a good number or is that?
Yeah, y'all have trend that is better than most of the clients we're seeing.
I think on the good end, we're seeing 6%, generally 6% to 8% on medical
and probably 9% to 10% on the pharmacy.
So y'all are doing really well.
The retrospective risk scores is a baseline of 1.0 that tells us basically
how healthy our population is and we're at a 0.95 which is helps drive that 5.4
so that's that's positive this is also an interesting fact members continuously
enroll for the 12 months increased from 72.9 to 76.8 people are staying in the
plan longer. They're not, because of other life-changing events, they're having, not
making the quick decision to leave their spouse's plan because the private sector
received astronomical rate increases as well. Can you make a comment about that?
Yeah, we're seeing that. The rate increases probably over in the double digits lots of times.
15 to 20 percent is common and right now a good one a high single digit is a good increase right
now and as I mentioned earlier our ER visits are down by nine point six percent and our primary
care visits are four point six percent supported with our chronic disease management we don't want
I don't want to prevent employees getting that primary care if needed but if it's something
something simple, it's just an automatic refill. We can take steps to keep that employee on
their meds, get it delivered to their house or wherever they need to pick it up at the
local HED and keep moving to keep them out of the ER. And just for your purvey, this
is a comparison of current districts in our area. And I would also put a little caveat
to this there's a lot of these districts that are still waiting to make final
determinations in terms of premiums I'm sure that will be coming short with but
as you can see we're we're doing really well and I think I want to talk
something a point I think this will be a good point to make is and it's very
important for employees to understand that since 2014 the district has
has contributed over $61.4 million.
Am I correct, Mr. Smith?
Closer.
Above the $385 million that we contribute year over year, month to month.
So that amount was not passed on to the employees.
And that is significant because it's been able to keep our plan moving
and keep employees in a competitive market.
you said a little differently that first slide that mr. Nauman showed showed a
thirteen point seven million dollar operating loss we used under spending as
much as we could within to try to cover some of that so that's an expense of the
district and we expensed that in order to provide additional funds to the
health fund to keep it healthy still to speak so at two thirteen point seven
million dollar losses in a row that fund will be bankrupt but over those last how many years did
you say 2014 since 2014 we've either done it through a fund transfer when the when the health
fund was breaking even we would transfer funds from the general fund to the health fund to help
build it up for a rainy day and then when the fund started losing money you can no longer make that
fund that transfer from one fund to the other you had to show that as an expense to the district
So we've been showing that as an expense to the district.
So when you look at our spend per student, our fund balance, if you will, the expenditures
above are showing a little bit more than because we go in after the fact to try to keep that
fund afloat.
If not, the fund would be bankrupt and not have the cash.
So the general fund has helped out to the tune of about $60 million over the last 10
years.
The next slide, up until, correct me if I'm wrong, two years ago, we were to be compared in terms of
compatibility to TRS active care. Every year in later October after we set our rates,
we do an analysis. They will do an underwriting analysis to see if we meet the guidelines.
Two years ago, the state said, hit us from left field and said,
your compatibility is now with the state of Texas.
So I present this slide to you to show our three plans against the plans of TRS,
but also to look at what plans are with ERS, which is the state of Texas,
where you see a significant difference in the amount of funding
that state employees get compared to school districts.
I think we've all had those discussions,
But when you see it in the black and white, it's really kind of, it gives you a reality check of the not being fair.
So where do we stand with 25?
We had an annual projection of negative 10.8.
Year to date, it would be 2.7, and we're at 4.1 right now.
I have to be real careful, but I think that is a result of one large loss.
But we still have rebates coming in this next quarter that will hopefully offset that trend.
As I mentioned earlier in this presentation, one of the things that we have done over the last two years, three years really,
is put pressure on the POS to increase premiums, change deductibles, to see
people migrate more to the Memorial Hermann ACO. You will see in this in 24-25
during open enrollment we had a 20.1 excuse me a 20.13 migration out of the
POS with the corresponding 9.2 percent migration to the ACO. I think this is it
there's really a it's it's economic pressure I think people are buying on
price point and they're trying to get the best care that they can from Vermont.
Mr. Nauman not to interrupt you, this is dollars on a couple of these these are
actually like members right i've got some dollar signs that's that's i own that i'm sorry okay
i'm sorry i've looked at the thing a hundred times and that's my bad just making sure because i was
like why is our aco more expensive than the pos but okay those are those are people those are
employees moving from one to the other okay my bad so what are we doing um in terms of current health
plan. Right now we have gone to the market for the health plan administration. We are evaluating those
results. We had six respondents to that. I was very encouraged by that so we're evaluating that
that. And the pharmacy plan closes tomorrow at 2, and we will begin to evaluate those results.
And our goal is to bring to you in June a comprehensive result of those findings and
see where we stand in terms of plan savings. I'm seeing some indications that it's very positive,
so I say that with an asterisk and a footnote, but we've seen some positive things come through.
And lastly, next steps, we'll present to you in 25.
And then as we get closer in August, we'll just come back in August to present premiums for the plant for 2026.
And that's all I have.
Board, any questions?
Yes, Mr. President.
Ms. Cuzela.
Thank you so much. That was very detailed and well presented and understandable for me. So I appreciate that with a lot of numbers. So, and Mr. Christmas, thank you for explaining the amount that we've contributed from general fund over 10 years to, I guess, to fund what we're talking about here.
Right. So 13.7 loss in 2023, the same loss in 2024, which is strange. And we're projecting a 10.8, almost 11 million loss for 2025. Is that something we were expecting? How are we planning for these losses moving forward?
If you'll recall, when we set our premiums back in September, October,
I present that to you to say if we do this increase in premiums, this plan design change,
this equates to this dollar loss based on actuarial studies that Baldwin does through their software.
So it's best predictive modeling that we can get.
And I think one thing that you'll see is, could be wrong here, but I think we're seeing some stabilization come out of 23 into 24 in terms of expenses.
Okay.
Should we just always be expecting a loss, or when are we going to get out of this?
It will.
will. I just want to say that, just add, I guess, that until COVID, our plan was kind of breaking
even. Okay. Okay. And there was a time there, I would say back in 2017-18, that we were making
a conscious decision not to pass on premium increases to our employees. And we knew that
the day of reckoning would come where all of a sudden we weren't going to be able to do that.
That's when we started the $3 million. It was in your budget every year when you adopted a $3
transfer to provide cash to when we got to the point where we started losing money in the fund
that we it would have cash to to to to fund to get us through that tough time well then covet hit
and all of a sudden immediately we started losing stop started losing money correct me if i'm wrong
i'm just trying to tell a high level story and and we started losing money well then we had to
it we were forced to do one of two three three things really plan changes
increased premiums to ourselves at the 385 contribution a month increased
premiums on our employees or cover the cover the loss like like and like we've
done those four things are were considered quite a bit and we've been
been able fortunately to we've had to result to increasing it to premiums we've not increased our
monthly contribution of 385 because we're covering it on the back end that loss so if you did the
math on that and i've done it i can't remember it right now but it's significantly higher than 385
what we're covering each month to our employees we're just doing it in the rears if you will
okay does that make sense no it does i'm just trying so we're forced to have to come up with
those and that's similar to what mr. Nauman showed on the state of Texas that
485 million dollars at House Bill 1 and Senate Bill 1 that has already been
signed into law this the state's budgets gave 485 each to cover similar to the
way we've been covering the state of Texas covering TRS active care insurance
is tough insurance is expensive we're in a time where it's really tough on school
districts for funding for raises and for insurance coverages and so we're doing
as much as we can as just like the state of Texas is trying to keep TRS active
care afloat we're trying to keep ours afloat as well and and we've been
blessed to be able to do that but it's just a tough a tough time to administer
insurance we are better off than TRS active care I think Oh without hands
down because if you TRS is recently in the last two years three years has gone
to regional pricing. Region 4, which would be Houston, then you've got San Antonio,
Austin. They're trying to balance their their loss and for the longest time, you
know, people in Houston were paying for the losses in San Antonio. That's kind of
yet to be seen what the long-term impact will be, but I think it's important to
know that we have the flexibility to turn on a dime if needed in terms of
programs we don't have to go through a bureaucracy of what ifs we're able to
turn on a dime just to support our employees by bringing things to the
table for them when when what we identify so looking forward going
going forward, you know, we're already projecting 11 million for 2025 loss. Is this just like
you've expected that? I mean, this is what you budget, if you will, or prepare for?
It's what we prepare for. But I will tell you this, over the last three years, we've been trying
to claw back a little bit, trying to increase trend to try to get, flatten that trend out
in terms of contributions and plan design changes but not be so devastating
to the employees we want to try to we want to try to motivate people to high
efficiency health care which is really seen in a more harmon work it's been a
few years ago I was at a presentation TRS invited me to present to 300 school
districts and they were talking about leaving TRS and they were jokingly
saying well if we'd like Katie's money and I said I'm sure you would but we're
really special because we have a unique set of circumstances we have our own
medical center if you will with Memorial Hermann Methodist Texas Children's all
in a hub that it gives our employees easy access to health care a lot of
these plans have to go downtown how difficult is to go downtown just to find
a place to park you know so so those are some advantages that i wish i could say that's a cost
benefit but that'd be hard to quantify but i just know that from talking with people that's a
benefit that they really appreciate yeah all right thank you very much thanks mr president
thank you for the presentation
it's just really hard because the thing we hear from our teachers all the time is
is that it's killing them you know and i know insurance for everybody it's it's like that
but we give a raise and they they're making less now than they did last year because insurance goes
goes up so much, or they're making $6 a paycheck more,
right, with a 3% instead of a 2% raise,
I don't know, I just feel like we have to do something,
because even though we might be doing better
than somebody else, it's still, it's breaking them.
They can't take their kids to the doctor,
they go and they have to pay $300 cash
because they can't afford anything except the catastrophic insurance.
So there is a slide I'd like to ask you about.
It's the one that compares us to Fort Bend and Houston.
Where's that one?
Let me just see if I understood any of that correctly.
Where is it?
Okay.
It's number 17 on mine, 17 of 24.
24. So from what I can tell, Fort Bend is cheaper in almost every category. Is that
with the exception of one or two in that MHACO? What are they doing if theirs is cheaper?
Well, they're contributing more to their health plan per member per month.
Than 385?
More, it's right with this, it's $475, and they're in a unique situation because they
have Methodist, similar to us, they have Methodist in their back door.
So their deal is influenced by Methodist Hospital there in Sugar Lane.
And we do too, on I-10.
Yes, but not as strong presence as here in Katy.
Does that make sense?
No.
Okay.
Memorial Hermann ACO has the Methodist program, the Methodist hospital, is not part of the ACO.
It's in the high deductible and the POS2 here at Katy.
So, I mean, it's, and they, I think they still have an HRA where they give employees, and
that's, we looked at that several years ago, and that was unsustainable.
That just added more to it.
And really, when you calculate district contributions with the deficit that Mr. Smith was applying
to, you know, we're actually contributing more in terms of $531.
I mean, at $531 compared to the $475.
And these rates are going to be subject to change here probably in the next month or so.
So that's kind of where we are.
That's not told in this story is some of the details of the plan, like what's the deductible, the co-pays, what else am I thinking, that change these plans.
So it's very hard to compare apples and apples and apples because everybody's plan, their pricing is different, but their plan is different too.
Right.
And teachers have all of the examples, right?
So they come to us.
I'm going to say me.
They come to me with examples.
Did you know that Fort Bend has this and they're doing that and they can go to the doctor and they've got $35 and we're paying like they do.
They bring me all the examples.
and we every time we come here and we see what you're telling us and we try to
explain it to them as you've explained it to us and and I get that and it's so
complex that there is no breakdown of just because that family has better
means that you're not getting the best we have and being self-insured is of
course better than TRS we know that and the state is doing for their state
state employees, but not our state employees.
Correct.
Our teachers, our people who work here are state employees.
They should be getting what the state gets.
That's my own horse.
But one of my people who gave me input said if we had less options, like instead of having
three options, if we only had two, would that make it better?
Like we're trying, help me with that because I told him I'd get back to it.
Let me kind of go back, try to get to a slide that would help you see that.
This is slide 112, I think.
If we went to two plans, okay, if we eliminated the POS-2, okay, which all of our losses happen,
those claims are going to have to migrate somewhere.
somewhere. They'll have to go to the high deductible plan or they'll have to go to the
ACO plan. And in theory, correct me if I'm wrong, you will see a substantial increase
in the premiums and deductibles on the ACO and the high deductible plan. Is that safe
to say? Yes. Because what happens is the only real difference is someone leaves the POS
plan and goes to the Memorial Hermann, what's your real, you know, a $500,000 claim is still
$500,000. The only difference is the employee pays $6,000 out of pocket versus $8,000 or vice versa.
So what you're going to see is that, you know, those large claims are, you know, by large it
could be $75,000 and above is typically where we start looking at a claim and monitoring it.
that you'll have some savings because the employee will pay more out of pocket,
but the claim is still going to be the claim.
So we don't see a lot of savings.
We don't offset this kind of deficit by eliminating one plan.
And more plans gives more variety depending on the family, their needs,
how many is in there, right?
So I like a lot of options for what's best for me as an empty nester
versus someone with lots of children.
But someone who knows insurance said,
we offer too many plans and that would help.
So I just wanted to put that out there.
Thank you for that explanation.
Well, we've tried to create an offering, if you will,
that is very consumer-driven, which is the high deductible.
Excuse me.
The ACO, which is a closed Memorial Harmon Network,
which is more cost-effective.
And then we have the broad network,
work, the POS2, given those three scenarios for employees to participate in.
Mr. Malm, can you go to that slide that showed the comparison of districts?
And while he's getting there, I want to state that the state of Texas through, I don't know,
back in 2006, I believe it was, they said that you had to pay $225 a month towards each
employee's per month insurance.
225 is the minimum and then they basically abandon that but that's still
written in there somewhere so if you look at the bottom of that 225 is the
minimum amount and a district could make per month so if we made 225 if we only
pay 225 per month obviously that the premiums for every one every one of our
employees that you see above that number that 531 number on our column we go up
substantially to cover that right and that's the key is is that 225 a month
what can we do advocate with the state to say we need more than 225 dollars a
month yes salary is important and we're working really hard with the state to
try to advocate to get salary increases for teachers across this state but it's
also what are we doing for health care and that 225 a month minimum needs to be
raised they need to provide in my opinion they need to provide more to
that just like they do on salaries just like they're doing if you're a teacher
you're working for the state of Texas but if you're at work for DPS you're
working for the state of Texas but the state of Texas is contributing
significantly more to that DPS worker there are no more healthy than teachers
but they're paying less because they're contributing the state of Texas is
contributing more and it's very hard to get that word out because the minutiae
no offense guys of all this health insurance and all the moving parts make
that big picture really hard to see you got to contribute more it's only going
to get more expensive the fact is is when I said those four things some one
of those four are combination of all of them are gonna have to pay for this for
health insurance it's true with the oil and gas is true with any business it's a
a tough time to administer health care in a rising environment that we're in.
And the only way for an employer to do their part is to have access to more money.
And I know this board would do it, but unfortunately it's limited to the funding formulas that
the state provides us.
And until those funding formulas help, there's really not much we can do other than massage
and try to do as best as we can making chicken salad.
And I would add, to support that comment, we are constantly peeling the onion back to what we've, over the years, we've tried to reduce administrative costs and burden to help lower those premiums, you know, in terms of the ASO fee.
All of the pharmacy things, levers that we can pull that don't cost the employee anything, that actually save, that are hard savings.
I think I brought to you last year our We Change Benefit platforms.
That saved us nearly $1.4 million to the plan.
So it's things like that that we're constantly, and that we're doing with this RFP that we're doing.
We do it every five years.
And so I think I brought that to your attention last October that we in January would start this process.
And we have, and I'll be bringing those results to you hopefully next month.
Mr. President.
Ms. Champagne.
So, I know that you're doing all that you can, but I also echo what Mrs. Fox is saying,
because we hear from the people.
But, so I learned something today, and I didn't know that the state, so the state contributes
$225 per month?
I mean, per month.
Back in the day, you know, it's been well over 15 years ago, they set a minimum amount
and they put it in the basic allotment.
And they say, because at one point it was $3,000.
I'm sorry.
They put it in the basic allotment and said, okay, we put it in the basic allotment.
You must cover $225 per employee per month.
And that's not changed ever since then.
So this is so interesting.
So they gave us the basic allotment, but they say from the basic allotment,
we have to take $225 out per employee that is on this cover.
At one point, they baked it into the basic allotment.
All right.
But that's been so long ago.
That's a very interesting thing that I just learned.
So I see what you're saying.
So basically if they would increase the basic allotment, we could increase that part of
the formula.
So the way I kind of explain it to people, and y'all can tell me if I'm wrong about this,
I'll tell them, okay, well we can only contribute so much amount per employee, and if we were
going to contribute more, it would mean that we'd have to pay you less, which would be
less money for other people who don't even participate in this.
so that wouldn't be really fair we said okay well we're going to contribute $500
more a month let's act like to everybody who has insurance but we have to take
the $500 out of the of the income and then people who don't use the insurance
would also have to lose the $500 a month then you when you present it like when I
present like that people don't like that so that's how I kind of present it but I
I just, but that's just a statement.
I do have a question, and I ask this every year.
So I love that we're doing the virtual medicine and the virtual all that,
but can there ever be an incentive tied to that?
Like if a person would only use, or 90% of the time would use virtual office visits,
you'll get some kind of discount, you know, because it's saving everybody money by doing that.
Why can't they get?
We provide virtual medicine for our employees.
But then why, but they have to have insurance, right?
Yes, they have to be on the plan.
Well, why can't they get a discount on their insurance if they're using virtual?
It's not a discount.
It's a benefit that we say to the employee, use this.
This is 100% funded by the district.
And the logic is, and it's proven over time, is we're reducing those costs and the cost to the employee.
You see what I'm saying?
They're not having to go meet their deductible for office visits and things like that.
It's it's the runny nose and those things and now we've expanded that into chronic disease management
So so mr. Nauman if I have a severe
Head cold and I go to the virtual. What does it cost me as an employee?
Zero if I have a severe head cold and I go to the doctor's office or to the local
Urgent care clinic, what does it cost me anywhere from 240 to 265?
So it's there, that incentive is there, and hence Mr. Nauman's, when he mentions consumer, we want to make consumers out of our members because there is a consumer-driven decision that they can make at the time where they decide I need to get some medical attention.
Board, any other questions?
Thank you Mr. Rahman.
So I guess what everybody wants to communicate is we want the best possible coverage for our employees at the cheapest price.
Just like everything, right?
Right, it is.
And we are doing that diligently because there's a human consumer there.
We take a lot of pride and a lot of, I don't know, to make sure that we take care of our employees the best we can each and every day and service those employees to make sure they get through the health care system.
And then y'all currently should be getting back bids on what the plans are and what the pricing and all that kind of stuff should be the next month.
In the next month or two, we should be able to see and know what that's going to look like.
Right, the ASO fee and proportionate services that will be handed to us,
and then the pharmacy RFP will be presented as well, what we predict based on current usage.
Thank you very much.
I appreciate it.
All right, as we end up part 11, we move on to our full consent agenda.
12. Consent Agenda
agenda. So consent agenda shall include items that were discussed and considered at the previous
work-study meeting as well as items of a reoccurring nature. The board shall be furnished
with background material for each item. Consent agenda items shall be grouped together under one
action item. All items shall be acted upon by one vote without separate discussion unless a board
member requests that the item be withdrawn for individual consideration. Are there any items that
board members would like to remove from the consent agenda tonight?
All right, well then I will now entertain a motion for the consent agenda.
Mr. President?
Yes, Ms. Champagne.
I move that the Board of Trustees approve the consent agenda for items 12.1 through 12.10.
Second.
All right, it is moved and seconded that the Board of Trustees approves the consent agenda for items 12.1 through 12.10.
We'll now proceed to vote.
Board members, please record your vote on the screen via your keypad.
The motion passes 7-0.
13.1 Board Committee Updates
Move on to Section 13, Information Items, Board Committee Updates.
Do we have any committees that met since our last meeting that have an update to give?
Mr. President?
Yes, Ms. Uchida.
So now that you're the president, and I know you're probably going to consider what kind of committees you're going to have,
And I don't really know all that you are planning because I know you just became the president
So you don't may not have even thought about it yet
But whenever you do I would love to be considered
To be on some of those committees or at least one or two of those
Got you
The plane the plan would be to send out and see what everybody has interest in and then try to do the best of what?
Everybody I really like to be and spread that out
I do like that. Thank you.
And hopefully you'll get chosen. We can just only hope.
All right. Then moving on to agenda item 13.2, recap of board member request for information.
Madam Secretary, did we capture any requests from the board or board?
Are there any that were shared tonight?
I don't think so. Did y'all have any? I didn't hear any. Thank you.
All right. Well, then we'll look at future meetings.
14. Future Meetings
We have a board work study coming up on June 16, 2025, and there will be a regular board meeting on Monday, June 23, 2025.
15. Closed Meeting
The board will now convene in closed meeting as authorized under Section 551001 of the Texas Government Code for the following purposes.
This is Texas Government Code 5510821551074 and is necessary for everyone to please clear the boardroom as we will convene and close meeting in this room.
16. Reconvene from Closed Meeting
The board will now reconvene in open meeting.
Good evening. Today is Monday, May 12, 2025, and the time is 1013 p.m.
The board heard a level 3 FNG grievance 24-082 pursuant to KDISD school district policy FNG legal and FNG local regarding parent-student grievances in closed meeting.
In accordance with Chapter 551 of the Texas Government Code, any action regarding this matter must be taken in open meeting.
Do I have a motion on the level 3 FNG grievance?
I move that the Board of Trustees denies the level 3 FNG grievance in FNG 24082, thereby upholding the decision of the level 1 and level 2 hearing officer.
Board, could you?
I second it.
Hearing a motion to deny the level three grievance upholding the decision of level one and level two hearing officer. You can now proceed to vote on the screen.
The motion passes seven to zero.
There being no further business before the board, this meeting is adjourned. The time is 1015 PM.
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.