Notice is hereby given that the Board of Trustees of the Katy Independent School District will hold a work study board meeting on Monday, July 21st, 2025 in the boardroom of the Katy ISD Education Support Complex.
Katy ISD · Work Study Meeting
Katy ISD Work Study Meeting, July 21, 2025
Find something in this meeting
Search every word of the automated transcript. A result moves the recording to the moment the words were spoken.
In this meeting
The headings and the descriptions beneath them are the district’s own words, taken from its index of this recording.
- 0:06 to 0:51 1. Call to Order
- 0:51 to 1:54 2. Pledges of Allegiance
- 1:54 to 2:19 4. Closed Meeting
- 2:19 to 3:01 5. Reconvene from Closed Meeting
- 3:01 to 10:10 6.1 Discuss and consider Board approval of the May 2025 Financial Reports.
- 10:10 to 12:11 6.2 Discuss and consider Board approval of the July 2025 budget amendments.
- 12:11 to 14:42 6.3 Discuss and consider Board approval for the renewal of the Excess Workers Compensation Reinsurance Policy.
- 14:42 to 15:47 6.4 Discuss and consider Board approval of a contract for the campus infrastructure project at West Memorial Elementary School.
- 15:47 to 56:35 6.5 Discuss Board adoption of Policy Update 125.
- 56:35 to 2:10:09 6.6 Discuss and consider the Discipline Management Plan and Student Code of Conduct.
- 2:10:09 to 2:12:06 6.7 Discuss and consider Board approval of a Resolution to declare a good cause exception for armed security officer requirement.
- 2:12:06 to 2:13:15 6.8 Discuss and consider Board endorsement of a delegate and alternate delegate to the 2025 Texas Association of School Boards (TASB) Delegate Assembly.
- 2:13:15 to 2:13:59 6.9 Discuss and consider Board endorsement of a nominated individual for the Texas Association of School Boards (TASB) Director for Region 4, Positions A and C.
- 2:13:59 to 2:18:13 6.10 Discuss and consider Board approval of an Interlocal Agreement with Fort Bend County Municipal Utility District No. 173 and Katy Independent School District.
- 2:18:13 to 2:19:51 7. Consent Items
- 2:19:51 to 2:21:32 8. Information Items
- 2:21:32 to 2:21:48 9. Future Meetings
Full transcript
Automated transcript, not human verified. It is a way to find a passage, not a quotation.
1. Call to Order
Dr. Gorgorski, noting that a quorum is present, I hereby call this work-study meeting of the Board of Trustees of Katy Independent School District to order.
Today is Monday, July 21, 2025, and the time is 5.02 p.m.
Dr. Gorgorski, will you verify that we are in compliance with the provisions of the Texas Open Meetings Act with regard to notice for this meeting?
Yes, I do confirm we're in compliance with the provisions of the Texas Open Meeting Act for our meeting tonight.
Thank you.
2. Pledges of Allegiance
We will now move on to the pledges of allegiance. KDIC police officer Robert Lister will lead us in pledges of allegiance.
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.
honor the texas flag i pledge allegiance to the texas one state under god one indivisible
thank you do we have any scouts in the audience no we do not all right well uh at this time would
normally be our public comments time and i have about two pages of legal jargon to read but we
do not have anyone signed up to speak tonight so this will conclude our open forum portion of the
meeting this board will now convene and close meeting is authorized under section 551.001 of
4. Closed Meeting
the texas government code for the following purpose texas government code 551.071 and 551.129
5. Reconvene from Closed Meeting
The Board will now reconvene in open meeting.
Today is July 21st, 2025, and the time is 6.01 p.m.
On behalf of my colleagues, I welcome everyone to this evening's work-study meeting.
Each Board member received the agenda and documentation for this meeting on Thursday, July 17th, 2025.
25
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 next week
The board has just reconvened from closed meeting in accordance with chapter 5 5 1 of the Texas government code
Any actions arising from discussions in a closed meeting must be taken in open meeting
6.1 Discuss and consider Board approval of the May 2025 Financial Reports.
Agenda Item 6.1, Discuss and Consider Board Approval of the May 2025 Financial Reports.
Presenter, Jamie Hines, Assistant Superintendent of Finances.
Good evening, President Redmond, Trustees, and Dr. Krakorski.
Thank you. Pursuant to board policy, you have before you for your approval, the district's financial statements, construction report, and tax report for the period ending May 31st, 2025, as well as a summary of our May check registers.
The financial statements include revenues, expenditures, and changes in fund balance for all of our budgeted funds, as well as an analysis of expenditures by both function and object.
And the construction report presents a summarized information of all of our district capital projects.
Your tax report provides information on the tax levied, the collections to date, and the remaining balances we have to collect for the most recent financial reporting period, which is through May.
I just want to point out a couple of things tonight on your financial statements.
We're through the end of May, which is nine months or 75% of the fiscal year.
Again, we're seeing continued underspending, which is a good thing, considering the deficit
that we started in.
And I just want to, from that first page, you'll see that payroll costs are our biggest
expenditure.
We're at 73%, whereas we're through 75% of the fiscal year, so a couple of percent under
where we would be at if we were spending all of the budgeted expenditures.
And then if you notice all of our purchased and contracted services, our supplies and materials, and our other operating expenses, all of our big expenses are underspending even below where we were last year.
So that's good news going into the end of the year, but of course we're watching it.
Debt payments is at 80%, which that seems like it's above, but we've talked about it before.
That's because we make two debt payments each year.
We pay our principal in February, and that's about 80% of the total payment, and then we'll pay the interest on August 15th.
So you'll see all of that other 20% come out in August.
Really quickly, I'm just going to dig down into the functional report, which is that next page.
all of our large functions are under spending except function 34 student
transportation just understand that this report is through the end of May which
is essentially our our school year so buses aren't going to be running in June
July and August so or part of August and so you're gonna see that that percentage
come down and be more in range with the other percentages in terms of where it's
that in comparison to how far we are through the fiscal year. I also just want to point out a
couple of things on the construction report, the capital projects fund report. With the 2023
authorization, the $806 million authorization from the 2023 bond, we're still at $17 million
at underspending. That's a good place to be right now. We still have an elementary
and a junior high and lots of other projects going on, so that's likely going to be going down.
But also on the 2021 authorization, this past month, Mrs. Rampelli from Technology and Mr. Smith
both presented the ECM project, the Enterprise Content Management Project, and that will be
coming out of the Proposition B of that $676 million authorization, that $4.7 million.
Tonight, you'll see an amendment in the budget amendments for that 1.7 million.
It's not going to reduce or change that number, but after it's approved by you all, that project
will then be moved into the projects under that 2021 authorization, so you'll be able
to track it from month to month.
On the tax report, there's not a lot to go over other than we are having a slightly higher
percent of collections than we've had the past couple of years.
during COVID, our collection percentages went down, so it's good to see that tracking back up,
so that's good news. That's all I have for you tonight, but I'd be glad to answer any questions.
Thank you, Mr. Hines. Board, any questions? Mr. President? Ms. Cuzela? Thank you very much,
Jamie. I want to make sure I'm reading correctly on the construction report that we have. I just
tallied that up roughly 52 million sitting as over projected amount as
under under projected excuse me under projected I'm having tallied those
separately I don't usually do it all separately but that's 34 I mean other
than what you mentioned that we approved for the data the ECM project again until
the actual expenditures are made they will remain that will remain in there
until the okay I've been watching the 17 million on the 2023 bond yes ma'am do we
think that's I know that's a thing but is it just gonna be sitting there and
any up and down on that figure expect it to stay static it's a lot of money we
hope that stay static so what will happen is is we have one really big
project to bid and that's the next junior high so if that comes in under
over budget we'll need to use some of that in order to meet that promise
hopefully it comes in at budget I think we're building that school I'm not sure
when we start but but but we'll know then and we need to keep that intact in
case we get hit with the surprise with inflation and one of these projects so
we can make that and so at some point in the future the board will be put in a
position to where we may have another need like an elementary school we've
done that in the past and so we start the process of building a school before
the next bond election and you could use it for that back in 2014 we use project
savings specifically to build two elementary schools we had enough in
project savings because of the whatever happened with the construction
environment went way down we're able to about build schools cheaper than we
thought and so we built two new elementary schools so we'll have that
decision we could also have our bond election and that could be that much
less that we asked the voters for because we've already got that approved
so there are multiple decisions to make but we're still a year or two away from
having to make those hopefully okay thank you any more questions board thank
Thank you, Mr. Rice.
Thank you.
6.2 Discuss and consider Board approval of the July 2025 budget amendments.
Next up is Agenda Item 6.2, Discuss and Consider Board Approval of the July 2025 Budget Amendments.
Presenter Esperanza Rios, Director of Budget and Treasury.
Good evening, Board President Redman, Board of Trustees, and Dr. Gregorski.
Tonight for the General Fund we bring forth budget amendments which are direct functional offsets.
These functional offsets include staff development, building modifications, start of year supplies, and extra duty pay.
The approval of these amendments will result in no impact to the General Operating Fund.
We present a budget amendment for the Debt Service Fund.
The net impact to the Debt Service Fund is a reduction of fund balance in the amount of $335,474,
which is reflective of an increase in revenues of $3,700,000,
an increase in expenditures of $3,437,028,
and an increase in other sources of $237,420,410,
and an increase of $235,918,856 in other uses.
These increases are a direct result of a refunding of bonds made in December and the sale of
bonds in June.
We also present a budget amendment for the capital funds project in the amount of $1,745,791
for the electronic content management system, which was approved by the board in June.
The system will be covered, like Mr. Hein said, with that 2021 bond proposition bank
savings.
And the amendment will result in no impact to the capital project funds on balance
Any questions board
Thank you
6.3 Discuss and consider Board approval for the renewal of the Excess Workers Compensation Reinsurance Policy.
We'll move on to a discussion item
6.3 discuss and consider board approval for the renewal of the excess workers compensation reinsurance policy
presenter Lance nominee director of risk management
Good evening
Good evening, Mr. Redmond, Dr. Gagorski, and Board of Trustees.
To protect against very large specific workers' compensation claim occurrences,
KDISD currently purchases reinsurance for its self-funded workers' compensation program.
Recently, the Risk Management Department sought proposals through a formal RFP process
to evaluate current market pricing.
As a result, the Risk Management Department seeks to renew this program with proposals submitted by Midwest Casualty.
The estimated renewal premium for plan year 25-26 is $151,119.
This policy is auditable at the end of the term, with the premium increasing or decreasing based on final payroll numbers.
The plan carries a self-insured retention of $550,000 per occurrence with an accompanying rate of .0174.
The policy term is September 1, 2025 through August 31, 2026.
Expenditures for this insurance will be paid from the Workers' Compensation Internal Service Fund.
Authority is granted to acquire this insurance through CR Legal.
It is recommended that the Board of Trustees approves the renewal of the Excess Workers'
Compensation Reinsurance Policy offered by Midwest Casualty with a specific retention
of $550,000 for an estimated deposit premium of $151,119 for plan year 2025-2026.
Chair Greg Musil, Thank you.
Any questions?
Ms. Fox, Mr. Nelman, thank you for that.
This has a two-year?
This is the only one that has two years?
So it will repeat?
This proposal is a two-year flat fee for 2025, or 2526 and 2627.
So if we approve this, we'll have it for two years and it won't go up?
Yes, ma'am.
And we won't have to vote again next year?
Correct.
And everyone else just offered one year?
Correct.
Thank you.
Any other questions?
Thank you very much. We'll now move on to agenda item 6.4.
6.4 Discuss and consider Board approval of a contract for the campus infrastructure project at West Memorial Elementary School.
Discuss and consider board approval of a contract for the campus infrastructure project at West Memorial Elementary School.
Presenter Lisa Kassman, Executive Director of Facilities Planning and Construction.
Good evening, President Redmond, Trustees, and Dr. Gagorski.
I have one item this evening.
The original West Memorial Elementary project included a building addition and a kitchen-cafeteria renovation as part of the 2021 bond.
As construction progressed, it was determined that additional parking and chiller placement were also necessary.
We're allocating for 19 parking spaces to better accommodate staff and visitors, and the existing chiller, which we repurposed from Katy Elementary, is not performing as efficiently and requires replacement.
And it was also going to be more costly to have it repaired than it was to buy a new
one.
Any questions, Board?
No questions.
Thank you.
Thank you.
6.5 Discuss Board adoption of Policy Update 125.
Now we'll move on to agenda item 6.5, discuss board adoption of policy update 125.
The presenter, Sherry Ashmoren, our director of student affairs.
Okay, I have two binders with me today, but the first one is going to be for update 125.
So this is the first of many legislative updates you're going to hear from me probably over
the next two years.
This one kind of dips its toe in the water.
It's cleaning up a little bit from last year, some administrative code changes to our policy
changes that are presented by TASB and then our local administrative changes.
changes. There are a couple of legislative updates related to Senate Bill 401 and admissions,
House Bill 1481, that's the personal communication devices. We're cleaning those up before school
starts. And then just a couple of updates related to top 10 percent, or I'm sorry, top
10 grad criteria, service member or peace officer transferability, and related to extracurricular
absences. So just trying to get a few things posted before school starts. I'm happy to
answer any questions any questions board mr president miss fox miss ashworth so this includes
the new cell phone policy as voted in by the state which we made a major change last year and and
across elementary junior high and high school and made those independent and now no student can have
a cell phone at school at all on school property during school time they cannot have it on their
their person in their backpack right they have to have it stored somewhere is that correct so the
recommended storage method you're going to hear in my next item for the discipline management plan
is to be stored in their personal backpack but it cannot be out it cannot be utilized on school
property during school time okay good and that falls within the guidance given by the legislature
correct okay so how will we communicate that to students and families so i think that um with the
approval of the discipline management plan we have a new graphic i know when i was here a year ago we
kind of went back and forth trying to get that just right and as beautiful as it was things have
obviously shifted so with the approval of that new graphic our communications team i know is prepared
to help us get that out principles we had our administrative support conference today and last
wednesday so i've already been in front of all the principals and assistant principals um that this
is coming down the pipeline so they are all brainstorming and working with their teams on
on how we can best make sure newsletters,
meet the teacher nights, documentations, emails,
all those pieces are put together.
Is it too soon to ask what the penalty would be
if a student takes it out during the school day
and is using?
So I think it would still be in accordance
with our discipline management plan
as a violation of that personal communication device.
Obviously we're gonna consider that same framework
we do with all discipline,
considering the age and maturity of the student, right?
If a parent sends one with a third grader versus the 12th grader, who very clearly understands and knows the rules, we're going to look at those pieces.
And campuses are going to have their internal matrix.
That's going to look at what that could be.
Part of the law is that if a device is confiscated, it can be disposed of after 90 days if we notify a parent in writing.
So confiscation is obviously on the table as well, since the law provides an ability for that.
And so we're going to be drilling that down.
Okay, and the law also made provisions for people with maybe a 504 plan, as I remember,
maybe someone with a medical need, and did it address smart watches or other devices?
The definition of personal communication devices does include smart watches, so that is the
law, that's the definition directly from the law, and it does allow for provisions like
that.
So if you have a student who is under a section 504 or has an IEP and there's a medical need
And they can work with their campus administrator to discuss what that looks like
Or if it's appropriate
Will students be able to wear a smart watch but just not utilize it during the day like just use it for time?
But not texting or they're not allowed to wear it. Um, so they're not allowed. I think it says
I want to double check on the language for you because I don't want to tell you incorrectly
when we're looking at and they shall not use a personal communication device on
school property during the school day so that is the specific language of the law
more questions mr. president champagne so thank you for the presentation but I
know that there's a lot of things have been changed with the last legislative
update and you know I have the kind of the summary of all of them so a lot of
these are going to be needed to be enacted and enforced by September 1st
but you've only hit upon a few of them so what are you what are your plans you
know to make sure we have all of these covered by September 1st that's in
in general the general question i have because there's a lot of little things there is a lot
so there's a lot of changes to house bill six which is going to impact my next legislative item
um there's a lot of policies everywhere that are going to have to be updated so while we wait for
tasby and their team of attorneys to help make sure that our legal policies really fit the law
and um you know they cross-reference our local language to make sure those pieces
are all accurate and true our school leadership team has been working with principals like i said
that we had admin support conference on Wednesday,
and again today, we have our admin conference
related to more of teaching and learning
a couple days this week.
And so all of the departments have been monitoring
legislation all summer.
People said, oh, did you get a vacation?
I said, nope, I just read legislation all summer.
All summer long, I know a lot of people in this room have.
So we've been implementing that within the trainings
and opportunities that we have available,
and we're gonna continue to do so.
Because you're right, it is a lot, Ms. Champagne,
and no one's going to get it all on the first try embedded in their brains on the campus.
So that's why we're prepared here, central office, to help support them in that.
Okay, so what you're trying to do is like a little bit, you know,
we could do a little bit now, a little bit in August, you know.
From the policy piece, right?
The policies are just going to take time.
But we have been communicating all of those other updates.
So just because you're not seeing it in policy, the law is still the law for a lot of these pieces, right?
That doesn't change anything.
The law is the law.
But as we let TASB catch up, we're communicating with our principals.
and assistant principals can i ask you about something that wasn't addressed but i it is
been a change i can try perhaps but i think you know i really am much more prepared for update 125.
so is that a yes or no because i don't want to put you on the spot but
but it's a House Bill 1522, and it has to do with 2520.
And maybe I'm wrong about this.
But anyway, oh, here's what it is.
It has to do with when we have our meetings.
Did you read that one?
Where it has to be after a certain time of the day
or something like that during when people are off for more.
I'm not so as familiar that way. Thank you. Mr. Graham. Okay. Let me step in here as the legal counsel
so that is a
House bill 2520 does talk about
When we post for public meetings and when we can hold those meetings
The extent you have specific questions about them, I would probably ask that they be asked to your counsel offline, okay
however, that bills
fairly straightforward. I think, in fact, the bill that you referenced was vetoed by the governor,
but there are specific changes in the way that we must post for meetings. We have to post three
business days in advance. So we're going to, for those of you who are watching, that may look for
these meeting postings at, you know, four o'clock on a Friday afternoon. Those are probably going
to be wednesday afternoon now and then we hold our meetings outside of normal business hours and
that's what the law says and we do that our work studies and regular board meetings are hosted at
five o'clock which is outside the normal work day that's part of that's actually part of senate bill
12 the parental rights bill and there's something about i don't i can ask you later but it's
something about even like the special meetings and everything have to be but i'll ask you later about
that we're gonna share some of that in next week's board meeting okay to talk
about how we're gonna be moving towards complying with that all right thank you
miss gazelle Thank You mr. president Thank You Sherry I was curious about FD
local and the the home school reference my understanding correct me if I'm wrong
that before this legislative session districts had to opt in to allow
homeschool students to participate in extracurricular so my questions about
our extracurricular activities whereas now the law says no all of you are opted
in you have to opt out and that's why we see this change here tonight okay okay
and I'm curious why we're opting out I'm just gonna put it out there we don't
know how I wouldn't expect there'd be a slew of homeschool kids wanting to join
the extracurricular activities we have it does reference policy FM low or FM
which requires kids to test and make sure they're achieving academic
standards these homeschool kids who might want to be in our extracurricular
activities they have to be within our boundaries of course so these are
parents who are paying the same exact taxes that enrolled students are and
then I also read in FM that districts would be eligible for a $1,500 stipend
for every activity that a homeschool student were to participate in I'm just
making sure I have the details correct does that sound about right what I've
read so I just wanted to know what what the motivation was to opt out so again
miss Ashford is just our policy expert right we just asked her to put to put
this information and so what you're talking about is gathering information
about how we came towards this policy I'm gonna refer you to our to the senior
administrators that are in the room but I think it came about by asking coaches
coaches and band directors and cheer sponsors, how do you feel about this?
How do you feel about it at the campus level?
And overwhelmingly the response within our district from all of those folks is we want
to opt out of this.
We want to continue down the path of what we're doing because it's hard to build a program.
It's hard to build buy-in.
I think what we're hearing from our coaches, right, and our sponsors is it's hard to do
that if we're going to allow kids that are not here on our day-to-day they're
not bought in in the program and they're going to come in at the last minute and
be part of that so that is the genesis of it a we've gone down to the to the
grass-level roots of talking to our coaches and sponsors and athletic
directors and UIL folks on that issue so that's how that's how it's come to
Genesis and KDISD. Thanks for that response and my question is coming
from on paper it doesn't seem equitable when you've got they're paying the same
amount of taxes as a regularly enrolled students family so that's why I asked
the question. I'm glad you talked to coaches. Is that like how far like fairly
far-reaching we asked all of our staff can anyone talk to that I couldn't tell
you that each group that mr. Graham mentioned there went out and did a
formal survey and asked every employee in the district but I can confirm after
speaking with our athletic director Lance Carter when this bill came about I
asked him would he go out and research this find out how do our coaches feel
How do they want me to start making policy on this and have those discussions and I can confirm what Mr.
Graham said overwhelmingly the response back from
Mr. Carter was that's not something we want to do in this district. I
Mean you wouldn't expect that many kids to be requesting it or did y'all have a number is there any?
Data in the state where districts opted in for it that we have anything to
face our decision on? There could be data out there. I'm not aware of any data. I don't know
if the state collects that. I don't know if that's part of any kind of state reporting on that
through the UIL. I've never seen anything that's reportable. Nobody's asked us to report on that,
whether up in or out, that I'm aware of or that I can remember at least. Okay. Thank you.
Mr. President, I would just like to add a side note. This is not data-driven or anything like
that but I do know people that homeschool their kids so that they can
perfect the sport that they're in and their homeschool so that they can do
their dance lessons of whatever five hours a day rather than one hour a day
so these those kids would be competing with our kids who are in public school
and aren't having time to do
hours a day of dancing or basketball or whatever it is so I know that some
schools are very competitive for the sports I can remember when my daughter
was in seventh grade and our sixth grade she tried in out for basketball she was
number 10 out of 126 kids so there was like I think 90 kids that were cut but
if you add in all the kids who are homeschool because they're traveling all
the time to do basketball then it could knock out a lot of our public school
school kids. That's not data driven or anything like that. That's just based on me living.
Mr. President, I think you're bringing up a good point. However, I do think there's
UIL rules that prevent that. I know Christian Kappas, he was a student at Cinco Ranch High
School and he spent so much time competing in such a high level of soccer that he did
have to step away and he wasn't allowed to play soccer for Cinco Ranch High School because
he violated uh the amount of hours he spent training violated rules for a uil so there are
some protections and that's a good point but i think there are some protections there according
to uil rules that you have to be in compliance with i have a question uh my understanding was
that was a year-to-year deal as well so if we said we're not going to prevent homeschoolers
from coming in and utilizing athletics that they can come in or do
extracurriculars here that's not subject to the next year that would be dependent
upon the the board at the time whether or not they wanted to honor the
precedent that's set by the board who rules that am i understanding that
correctly I can clarify that I was actually at a legislative update on
Friday and this was a topic that I specifically asked upon unlike our armed
armed security guard resolution, which you guys will see here in a minute, that's required to do
annually. This solely says that you must opt in or out or opt out by September 1 of this year. And
then it gives an August 1 deadline for every other year. But because this is a policy,
it's going to remain the policy. That being said, the board at any point in time can choose to look
at and revise their own policies so it's always subject to revision but i think once a vote is
taken on this i would not expect an annual update certainly not until the legislature tells us we
need to to do that i have another question do we have any estimates on how many homeschoolers
percentage wise we have and Katie I do not have those percentages it's really
hard to get our demographers are really good and that's pasta you guys have
heard from them before we can track public school we can track charter
school but it gets harder and harder to track private school in homeschool so I
do have no idea in our community how many kids are here on homeschool or
private school mr. president I would like to just also ask a general question
about the policy update and just make a general statement so although you know
you me and mrs. Kuzella are on the policy committee we did not meet about
this correct so that's fine I have no problem with that but because it wasn't
released to the public, you know, the actual updates, are we allowed to say what the attachments
are without having the attachments shared on the agenda, the public agenda, on like
with other people?
Because until today, I don't think people knew about it.
So only we knew about it as of Friday.
Because I didn't know about it before because I'm not on a, you know, because we didn't
meet or anything.
so would a school board member be allowed to publish this without it being
published already dr. Gorski and I were talking about that this is kind of one
of the things that was changed historically that well not historically
our documents go live on the day of the meeting and so we've not shared that
just so the fact that say I see me seven dinner on Friday and it gets posted and
and all of a sudden she gets hammered with people saying what what's going on with this policy and
so it's posted on mondays um that will be an update that we talk about when we get to uh
next week when we start posting on wednesday i think we'll have the ability now for people to
see those documents earlier than the day of the meeting uh and the next kind of thing would be
it's one of those areas where our our practice didn't lie not that didn't line up but we made
the change a couple years ago two years ago if you will where in the work study
you can only talk if it's on the agenda and and that just didn't change where
people could see in an instance like this where it is a local where it is a
large update so we could go pick through all the we couldn't go through and pick
through every single item and so taking some of my heat away from next week but
I think what we'll be able to do is when we post on Wednesday make these
documents live on say Friday afternoon and so then the public will have an
additional two days the board will have more time even to look at that so that
when Monday rolls around if they do want to comment publicly they're able to but
but even if we saw it on Wednesday and the public's not gonna see it till
Friday we should not be discussing what's in the attachment until at least
the public saw it on Friday historically I try to wait until it's on board docks
and in public to say that but I do think that is something that I made a note
that we put in board operating procedures to discuss so that everybody
does know what's happening I just wanted to ask mr. Graham a question about what
he said mr. Graham you mentioned I want to make sure I understood what you said
we're making a policy change for this homeschool law if you will I'll call it
that but we don't necessarily have to put this in local policy so if you don't
put this in local policy then homeschoolers will be allowed on
September 1 to participate in Katie I see sports so you used to be that you
had to opt-in for them to participate now you have to opt out so our again our
Our coaches and sponsors and cheer and band have all said we want to opt out,
which is why the policy is here for you.
What I mean is, is this the only vehicle to opt out by putting it in our local policy?
Correct.
So that's the only way to opt out?
That's what the law requires you to do.
If you're going to opt out, it has to be in a board policy.
Okay.
Your response was after Ms. Calhoun was asking about whether we revisit this every year.
Is there some different nuance that I'm missing?
Again, as mentioned earlier, the security guard resolution that you will see here later today is something that the legislature has now said has to come annually.
There is a provision in this policy which says you need to make this decision by September 1 of this year or August 1 of 2026 in order for that to be inclusive.
However, because this is a change in policy, myself and my colleagues feel pretty confident
that once you make the change in policy, it's not a new policy.
We don't have to come back and rubber stamp our policy every year.
That doesn't preclude you from, as a board, from putting it on your future agenda for
discussion or change.
But the law is the law.
Thank you.
Mr. President, so I'm going to read what's written here, maybe.
Is that all right?
It says a student enrolled in a private school, including a home school, shall not be eligible
for concurrent enrollment in the district nor for participation in curricular or extracurricular
activities except as required by law.
So we're talking about homeschool, but this is also private school, right?
So the legislature has provided money for children to attend private school from local tax dollars, and that's all been approved.
And I'm not sure I remember, was there a provision for homeschool to receive funds?
Yes.
So, home school also receives money, taxpayer money for that.
And then this is parental rights.
They choose how to educate their children, where, what kind of education they'll get,
what kind of instruction they'll get, and where their children attend school,
and what comes with that school.
So, if KDISD is not your choice to educate your children,
why would we allow their children to come and take a spot away from one of our KDISD children
whose parents have chosen KDISD and all the incredible activities, extracurricular education,
incredible people to interact with, coaches, band directors, choir,
why are all the incredible people who interact with our children
and their teachers day in and day out,
I wouldn't want to see a child who doesn't participate in all of our incredibleness
to take a spot away from a child who does.
I have a question.
Do we know around about the average that most homes pay in property taxes?
And Katie I see we know what the average property tax bill is here
Not sure if we know the property tax value because you got the homesteads in there and a few other exemptions, but
Chris remind us what the average value is home value that we use
You mean about a week I could tell you off the top of my head because we're about to get that information, but we
We did post that, and I'm on the transparency website.
It looks like that value last year was taxable value $360,009.
$360,009 was the average taxable value one year ago.
That will be updated here by Friday.
$360,000 is the average home.
Home value.
Right.
times our tax rate you could get a value from that so somebody who homeschools or
private schools they still pay those tax rates regardless correct that's correct
anybody who lives in our boundaries unless somehow I can't think of any way
you'd be exempt from that as a homeowner that includes people who have children
or don't have children as long as you reside Katie I see you pay the Katie I
I think the only people who get exemptions from that are 100% disabled veterans, and that would be it.
So you're still paying taxes.
You're still choosing KDISD because you're living here and you're paying taxes here into the local entity here,
but you are not afforded the opportunity.
According to what we're discussing right now, we're saying thank you for your tax money,
but if you choose to exert your parental choice and educate your children at home
But you would like another opportunity to participate in something extracurricular
You're not gonna be allowed to do that even though the state legislature has said
You should be allowed to do that. But we're saying we want your money. We just don't want your kid playing in our sports
I'm just trying to yeah understand that yeah, I would say that's probably mostly true
would you say other than the last part the state said you should i'm not sure the state said we
should they just give each board an opportunity to say yes or no to it so it's really a school
district choice we're opting out though so the state is saying if you choose to do nothing then
you are accepting what we have said is a good idea and we're saying we don't think that's a good idea
we want to collect the revenue but we don't want to give the opportunity we don't get a choice i
I mean, we don't get a choice whether we collect the revenue or not.
It's coming to us regardless.
Nobody gets a choice in whether they pay the taxes.
Death and taxes are the only things that are promised,
and we're making sure that we're holding up our end of that bargain.
So I just wanted to ensure that this is what we're doing.
Average home value is $360,000.
Nobody's exempt from that.
We're going to take in the revenue.
They have chosen KDISD by living within KDISD boundaries,
boundaries, but they do not get to utilize what they pay for, regardless of whether they want to
or not. They could choose to use it. Yeah, they could choose, and that's what I'll say as a comment
to that. The one thing I'll say about the state of Texas, they make a lot of laws. Education code,
probably 30 years ago when I started, was probably this size, and it's this size now,
and so there's a big driver, I think, in Texas of the reason we're all called ISDs,
independent school districts because when the state makes some laws but gives the flexibility
to do one versus the other it comes down to our board of trustees and however the board wants to
set that policy that that's your decision on policies we just bring recommendations and the
board can make a decision on that but i always appreciate the state when they give us an option
because what might be good for one district may not be good for another district something might
might work in one area of Texas, it may not work in another area. So that's a good part about being
an independent school district with trustees who want to make an informed decision on what's best
for our community. Mr. President, I would also say that while our children were here, they got lots
of opportunities, but we've spent almost as much time here with no children in schools, and I'm
happy to pay KDSD taxes because of the community that we have and because people are moving here
because of the school district.
I want the school district to thrive.
It's why families move to an area.
There are lots of people who have no children.
They're new marrieds or they're single and they own their own home.
A lot of people pay KDSD taxes and don't get one thing for it.
I don't.
I'm a school board, but my neighbors who have no children,
they're retired, have no children in KDSD,
they don't get to be a part of an activity
or they pay to go to a theater production
because they want to encourage what's happening here,
but they don't receive any benefit for any of that.
So a lot of us pay taxes that don't get a benefit from KDSD
except an incredible community and a thriving place.
As a senior, when you're a senior citizen,
are your taxes still frozen?
Is there an opportunity?
Your taxes still get frozen at a certain amount?
I'm not that old, so I don't know.
I'm just curious.
When a taxpayer turns 65, the dollar amount that they paid that year is frozen.
They'll not pay more than a dollar amount.
Whether they're house increases or whatever, they won't pay more than that dollar amount that they paid when they were frozen.
Unless they sell their home or, you know, that kind of stuff.
Right, and that would be passed on to the next homeowner.
Yeah.
Right?
Right. So if you had kids that graduated 20 years ago and you retired so-and-so, then your taxes are frozen and you may not be seeing the astronomical increase in your evaluation.
You're just curious.
As the grandmother on the dais, my taxes are frozen at a very high level because it freezes when you turn 65.
And so I'm paying plenty in taxes.
don't forget and there are lots of people paying taxes who don't have
frozen taxes but they're single or they're they have preschoolers or maybe
they don't have children yet so there are a lot of people who don't don't
benefit from having children participate in something I agree with you I think
that we all benefit from an educated public I think that that is a great
benefit to all of us when we pay into our local school district and we're
doing that as an investment and that ROI is an educated public who can come out and make our
community and our state and our country better. And I think a lot of people move to Texas because,
not because we just have great schools. I think when we look at our national average,
I don't think it's anything necessarily to brag about, but I think they moved to Texas
because Texas is a bastion of freedom in the United States. And they like to exercise that
freedom by coming here and enjoying and reveling in that freedom which they should do but to argue
on the behalf of the increasing amount of school taxes or property taxes for that matter to say
that you're getting everything out of it you know i have a quick story um so my grandmother
is in a nursing home right now she has dementia and i thought it was really interesting because
a family member went to go see her recently and you know she thinks that she actually owns the
nursing home she is totally out of it at this point but she thinks that she's running this
place and all these people are just coming to her home and she's running it and she made a comment
and she said well you know it's really sad because i'm actually going to have to sell this place
and my family member turns to her and he says,
what, what do you mean you're going to sell the place?
She goes, well, you know, I can't afford the taxes anymore,
so I'm going to have to sell it.
She can't remember her grandchildren's names,
but by God, she remembers that those taxes are getting so high
that she's going to have to sell her property.
I think there is a sobering truth in what we're talking about relative to this.
And so the only reason I bring that up is to then tell people who pay these astronomical taxes,
your children cannot participate, even though you're going to continue to pay.
I don't totally agree with that.
I think it's something that we should take into consideration. I can kind of guess on how this board is going to go, but I think that's something that maybe we should consider trying out at least for a year and see where we're at.
And how do we know that that's not going to incentivize those homeschoolers, that we desperately want them to come to our schools, right, and participate in the wonderful community?
What do you mean, do we? Yes, we do.
Your kids don't.
My kids aren't homeschooled. My kids are still receiving a public education and I would appreciate it
If you keep my children out of this any kind of argument that is inappropriate and unprofessional
My children are not your business
In the story and your children going to a different school if that is still a publicly educated
Neither is miss Fox's age stay on top. There's miss Fox's age. My point is being information if you wanted
She offered it. I didn't offer that.
No, you asked her if she's a senior.
I asked what the cost of the taxes were.
I didn't ask her. I asked anybody.
We're discussing students not enrolled.
Besides that, if we're going to incentivize people to come into KDISD
and maybe they want to reconsider doing homeschool,
maybe they want to reconsider their private school,
what better way to incentivize them by dropping them into a community full of kids
who show excellent leadership in our athletics who get to enjoy the
leadership not just from our students but from our athletic directors from our
coaches from our teams to where they embody what the spirit of Katie is and
we can make a really good case for having those kids come which is what I
believe has been stated we want all of these kids to come in and enjoy the
independent school district that we're all so proud of but we are now taking
that incentive away and saying no thank you i think we're missing an opportunity here to maybe
showcase to those who don't come in for fear for whatever reason whether it's legitimate or
whether it's something that they're just concerned about that doesn't have any substance to it we're
missing an opportunity to offer someone the chance to come in and see what katie is when they come
and they participate in our athletics.
And they're paying into it besides that.
Mr. President?
Ms. Deeney?
So I just have two things.
I think the hard part with this, I see both sides,
but I think the hard part for me is that we're telling people
that homeschool or private school their kids,
you will lose your property if you don't pay your taxes,
but at the same time, you are not allowed to play in our sports.
Like, it feels really icky to me that we are going to allow people to go and to have their
homes taken away if they don't pay, but then we're not willing to open up the doors to
allow their children to take part in the services.
And then the second thing I was going to say was just last week, my husband and I got a
call from a past client that needs to leave Katy ISD because they're going to go to Lamar
because their kids are homeschooled and they can participate in the sports there
so you know there's another you know I think that's I don't I don't know that
that's a very expensive move to make just to be able to play in sports and I
did that my heart hurts for that as well so I understand I see both sides and I
respect the coaches input but and I love coaches my husband's a coach a former
former coach, but I think there's other people that have a stake in this than just the coaches.
So I appreciate that we are talking to coaches, that's very important, but there's a lot of
other people involved in this that we haven't consulted and I think that is, I don't think
that's fair.
Mr. President?
Mr. Champagne?
Okay, so I do want to, you know, as an elected official, I do want
to support our admin and if they've already expressed overwhelmingly as has been stated
that they don't really want to invite or allow the non-public school kids to be a part of the uil
things that i would like to you know i'd like to
honor that that wish first of all but also the parental rights thing and the choice i mean you
You don't have to live in KDIC.
KDIC is expensive.
And if I were going to homeschool or go to private school,
I don't think I would live in KDIC necessarily.
I would live somewhere else where the taxes weren't so high.
I mean, like, when we moved here,
it was a choice between living in Fort Bend County or Harris County.
We chose Fort Bend because the taxes were a little bit cheaper in Fort Bend
at that time.
I don't know now.
But what I'm trying to say is you do have a choice,
and then you further have a choice.
you live here and then yes your kid could go to be homeschooled private
school go to public school but you understand especially because just now
this has become a rule but always before this if your kid it was a wanted to be
in sports you were gonna put your child into the public school system I know a
lot of people that did that they were doing homeschool or doing private school
they wanted their child to play sports in the school and then they switched
from private school to public school so that they could play so that still is
is a choice of theirs too so we're not taking away their choice we're just
saying that your child has to attend our public school to be able to participate
in the UIL events that's all mr. president this is a to follow up
questions that came to mind as I was listening first the agenda item when we
vote next week um we're voting i guess is there a way to separate these or is that too late um like
when we vote we're voting for the whole shebang as presented yes i mean there's not an option of
separating out these policy updates uh on the agenda on the outset i guess
we we can handle it yeah okay all right but it's presented as one full one vote okay and then two
I just wanted to double check I haven't read the law the House Bill and the Senate bill that got passed on this subject in
particular like all the wording but
It's not for private school students. The the intent of the bill was to address homeschool students specifically. Am I correct on that?
Okay, general counsel says yes
Yes, you're correct
So it's not private school students to be very clear that the intent of the bill is homeschool students
So that's a big clarification in my mind.
Thank you.
Any more questions?
Discussion?
Nope.
All right, Ms. Ashmore, I believe we still have you for item 6.6,
6.6 Discuss and consider the Discipline Management Plan and Student Code of Conduct.
discuss and consider the discipline management plan and student code of conduct.
Thank you, President Redman.
I'll switch over to binder number two.
It's a little smaller, which is a good sign.
So we have a lot of changes presented to you today,
significantly because of House Bill 6,
which did bring forth many different discipline changes
for our discipline management plan.
I think the three big ones that you're gonna see reflected
are House Bill 1481, that's transitioning our wording
of telecommunication devices
to the personal communication devices.
So lots of little changes there,
but also the big changes that are again,
prohibiting that cell phone on school property
during the school day. Those are the big key pieces. The second one is Senate Bill 326 that
adds a definition of anti-Semitism. So that's going to be something that is going to be included
in your discipline plan for administrators to have additional training on and knowledge of.
And then House Bill 6. Again, that's the really big one. The big pieces are teacher removal and
school suspension, out-of-school suspension, disciplinary alternative education program
program changes and expanded jurisdiction for expulsion.
So in my role, that kind of hits a little bit of everything.
So lots of changes there.
We've also rebranded cheating to academic dishonesty,
just to be more encompassing.
Added some language about use of artificial intelligence
when it's inappropriate or unallowed.
Expanded the requirement for ID badges.
Previously, only secondary students would wear them,
but our elementary students as well,
since ID badges are a safety and security piece
that we want to make sure is kept at the forefront.
Cleaning up some level two and level three.
We have about 40 offenses at each level,
so I did some digging to try to remove the ones
that aren't used very frequently.
We do have about 70,000 discipline records per year,
low-level stuff to big stuff.
So it's a lot of data in those that weren't being used.
It just made sense to kind of make room for things
that are a little bit more relevant.
And clarifications related to expanded elementary placements at a DAP off-campus location.
Previously we allowed only fourth and fifth graders, but we're really going to utilize
our assistant superintendents to provide an opportunity for review and collaboration to
determine which placements are appropriate based on the age and maturity of the child
as well as the significance of the offense.
events. And added permissive reasons to include knives that are not mandatory removable offenses
or toys that are lookalike weapons. So that would be reasons a student could be permissively
placed at a DEP. Again, focusing on that safety issue for our campuses to help keep them running.
So I'm sure you have questions. It's a lot of changes, a lot of updates this year, but
but I think we have a good recommendation
for your consideration.
Any questions?
Mr. President.
Ms. Fox.
Ms. Ashford, thank you.
It's a lot, it's a lot,
and I know there's a lot more coming,
but would you go a little deeper
into the DAEP for elementary?
You said it's currently fourth and fifth.
What does the change look like?
I know a lot of teachers and parents
are gonna be asking me about that.
Absolutely, so right now, and historically,
law has said that if you're older
than six years old you can be placed in a disciplinary alternative education program
and probably up until a couple of years ago that was always held on campus on the elementary campus
and so there is no really extra space at an elementary school to be able to facilitate that
you know sometimes it would be um you know a makeshift location based on whatever was available
a few years ago or a couple of years ago we added that fourth and fifth grade students could report
over to the Opportunity Awareness Center,
our secondary DAP location.
But it's important to remember these students
are completely separate from secondary.
That's required by law or commissioner's rules.
But they were provided that opportunity
to serve their consequence in an off-campus setting,
and that would be for significant placements,
significant issues.
And so what we're proposing for this year
is just kind of expanding that a little bit,
that based on the severity of the incident,
the age maturity of the child, if they have a disability, all the reasons that we would consider the nuance of discipline.
Administrators would be able to request a DAP placement through our district level discipline committee,
which includes our elementary assistant superintendents.
And we would be able to help determine what is an appropriate consequence,
whether it's something they serve on campus, off campus and the length of placement.
And so really just giving more flexibility for campuses.
And also an opportunity for that student to be off campus when appropriate to help free up the campus to be able to focus on the other students in the building.
Mr. President, follow up, please.
I don't want to go too far in the weeds here.
I have a whole bunch of questions.
So does that require parent transportation to an off-site?
or would that historically um we have we have been providing um transportation for elementary
students on case-by-case needs basis and then what would have who would would be there because
i know that currently it's like in a in a small classroom somewhere or maybe in the
they have a separate um section right now where they would be and they have a certified elementary
teacher who's there that implements lesson plans from the home campus to keep them on track
We encourage visits and check-ins from home campus staff so they feel connected to their
home campus because eventually the student is going back and that's really important
for them to have a relationship there to return.
And it's probably not a very long placement, like the secondaries.
Right.
Historically we've had about 20 days of placement for elementary.
Oh, okay.
That's longer than I expected.
Okay.
Would this be…
I'm sorry, Ms. Fox, to interrupt, but that would be for our fourth and fifth grade placements.
If we had younger placements like second grade or third grade, those would be housed on campus and were normally shorter than 20 days, just to provide that clarifier.
Okay.
But now you're thinking of second and third could be off campus as well?
If the committee decided that the behavior was significant enough.
Okay.
Would this be in the future at our new facility, the BTP?
Is that what that's for?
No, that's completely different.
No, it would only be for students identified with a disability that had an IEP that sent them there.
So this would be totally separate.
Just clarifying.
Thank you.
Any more questions, Board?
Mr. President?
Champagne?
I have a question, and it has to do with the campus behavioral coordinator.
and now a person a single person at each campus must be designated to serve as a
campus behavior coordinator the person designated may be the principal of the
campus or any other campus so it doesn't have to be a different person it could
just be the same person but also has that title or that that designation as
as the campus behavior coordinator, is that correct?
Right, so I like to think of the campus behavior coordinator
as an assigned role like the safety liaison.
Someone who's going to help us do just a little bit
of double checking on the home campus,
maybe receive a little bit of extra training of expertise
related to discipline and safe
and supportive schools program.
Historically, that was something
that our district of innovation plan,
you may remember we opted out of
because we said everyone does this job.
We don't need one person to do it.
Everyone's responsible for discipline referrals
and reporting violent or threatening behaviors
to our Safe and Supportive Schools program team.
However, the legislature in House Bill 6
did remove our opportunity to district of innovate
out of anything in chapter 37,
and further clarified the CBC needs to be a singular person.
So I know I've seen at least 70 campuses
who've submitted their designations already,
and so I'll be working with the school leadership team
to provide kind of dual support
to get that person tools, resources, whatever they need to help it, you know, a good use of their time and monitoring some of those big behaviors.
Any more questions?
I have a question.
Ms. Calvin?
I wanted to look at the formal removal.
removal. This has changed with House Bill 6 that if I read this correctly, there just
has to be one disruption in the classroom.
It could be. So law says that a teacher may remove a student for those reasons that are
listed in House Bill 6. They were modified a little bit based on a single incident of
behavior described above.
So those would be, I'm reading this correctly, what a teacher determines to be unruly, disruptive,
or abusive towards the teacher, another adult, or another student, or engages in conduct
that constitutes bullying, and then it goes into the TEC section description, but it does
make sure that it says a teacher may remove a student from class based on a single incident
of behavior.
So we're not having to force that teacher to keep a disruptive student in the classroom after multiple incidences to where that student needs to be removed.
They now are well within their framework to say, you've got to go.
Where are they going?
So it's kind of maybe like two different things we might be talking about.
So I just want to clarify for you, but also for anybody listening in.
Right.
So there's informal removal.
There's a disruption in the classroom.
a teacher refers a student to assistant principal,
they look at the discipline management plan,
they handle an accordance.
This part about teacher removal,
that formal removal you mentioned,
is when they're exercising that chapter 37 section
to say I want this student removed from my class permanently,
not just for a little bit.
And so our procedures do allow,
and it basically follows law,
it's pretty close to law
because there's a lot of information that's in here,
but it talks about that there could be,
right after that section where you talked about a single incident, it says pending a conference,
pending due process, kind of for everybody involved, a student may be placed in another
appropriate classroom or into in-school suspension or into a DAEP. So sometimes whenever we have
teachers request that formal removal, they're placed in another teacher's classroom. And
sometimes that student thrives there, that works really well. Maybe because of the disruption or
or the severity, maybe they're placed in school suspension.
I would like to point your attention to changes
within out of school suspension
that has been expanded to allow suspensions
for disruptive behaviors that were previously limited
at elementary schools.
So I do think there's kind of a variety of ways
that that scenario, although, you know,
kind of just a basic one, right, could play out,
but they would go into another classroom
or they would go into ISS or DAP pending the rest of the process, which includes conferences.
There's even a committee that's assigned at the beginning of the school year, and none of that's new.
That's all the same.
Previous language did include that with consent, the student could be returned back to the teacher's classroom.
House Bill 6 says with written consent, the student may be returned back to the teacher's classroom.
because sometimes we're able to collaborate and figure out what's needed and provide a return to
class plan, which is also added very specifically in House Bill 6, but I think something we've been
doing informally for years, right? If a teacher wants a student removed, we're going to try to
get a plan in place to figure out where does that student go, and if they're going back,
what does that look like to set everybody up for success? How does that impact our students with
with IEPs or 504s when we're looking at disruptive behavior.
Sometimes I know that our students
who have those designees,
they don't necessarily have control
over what they may be exhibiting,
behaviors that they're exhibiting,
but with students that are determined
to have that level of control,
but they have an IEP or they have a 504,
how does that work?
How does that teacher work within that framework?
Like, what does that look like?
So I'm not gonna know the nuance
of that question specifically,
but what I can tell you is when administrators call looking for advice or saying hey a teacher submitted a
Formal removal. What are the next steps? Where's the flow chart the checklist the whatever?
if they are student with disabilities my next phone calls to our special education department and they kind of help take the lead and
walk alongside me on that process so that we can make sure that
there aren't any issues with the services that are needed or
or there needs to be art committee.
I'm not gonna pretend to be the expert of special education.
I'm just a special education enthusiast.
I think we have a really great team here.
And there's someone that's intimately involved
because there have been certain times law says
that if it's the best or only placement for the student,
the student might have to return to that classroom.
And so we don't want there to be conflict
or any issues with that transition back.
And so that they are a student with a disability
in a very specialized program,
our sped team is on top of it from the very beginning and able to provide support certainly
to that administrator and even the campus as needed with one of our experts okay and then i
have a follow-up question on a different part of this if i can um so i noticed that we have the
the new sb 326 specific to anti-semitism did we not have that before did we not have anything
specific to anti-semitism before not in that specific definition so I think any
of that could have fallen maybe under bullying or harassment but that was not
a very that wasn't a specific definition that we had or were required to have or
a need arose for so with that law that's that's something that definitely we're
implementing in this document and then pushing out so do you know what the
difference would be obviously I know what anti-semitic is but what is the
difference between the anti-semitism kind of range that we're talking about here versus what our
student code of conduct would be outlining for anything else um any other kind of language
so to speak or actions what's the difference what would the difference be
i wish i had a more thoughtful answer for answer for you miss colquhoun but i'm not sure i have
one off the top of my head right now but that's something that if you want us to look into or
kind of provide a side by side we can certainly look into it a little bit more it's just curious
um one of the things i noticed when i was reading this is that and i don't i don't not versed in
all of our bullying laws i'm not or our policies or what that kind of looks like
like to the t to the letter but i did think it was interesting that here um the word the use of the
word perception was something that stuck out to me um whose perception
in that definition would we be going off of do you know
i have some assumptions but i'd also hate to make an assumption for you as well right i think that's
a piece that we're going to have to kind of peel back as we look at that definition right that was
one that was provided um really specifically from the law and so we're going to be looking and of
course working with our general counsel our school leadership and support team who oversee the
bullying and the harassment pieces to kind of see what that looks like and what that plays out in
and where the gaps maybe are in understanding that we might need to kind of fill um with our school
school campus teams this upcoming year. It's kind of uncharted territory to have something
that defined for us. So we're kind of working through it.
So I would, I know that this is a requirement. So this is like a non-negotiable. Am I understanding
that correctly? So it says the law requires a district to use the definition of antisemitism
provided by government code section 448.001. So I just, I wanted to have a better understanding
of what kind of framework we're laying out
for our student speech and what that looks like
within what, again, that definition of perception is
and whose perception and what are we,
do we know what the consequence is for this?
I would imagine it would fit,
we'd work it through the framework
of maybe bullying or harassment as appropriate
or it could just be inappropriate language
if it doesn't rise to that higher state level.
So it could fit probably a number of places within that level two and three system.
I can remind you that certain types of bullying can also be a permissive DAP placement.
But I agree, Ms. Calhoun, like I'm interested in more of a framework for that too and a better understanding.
And I think we're going to hopefully get that.
Do you know about when we would be able to put on pass?
I know that we have to, we're voting on all of this next week.
And so I know that that's a short turnaround time for legal speak and to pull apart everything and to try to make sense of it.
but do we know about when we would have an understanding of kind of my questions
or answers to that definition? Yeah so again asking it about specific laws and
this council I'm limited in what I can and can't tell you out in public but the
anti-semitism when you say means a certain perception of Jews that may be
expressed as hatred towards Jews that's actually I'm reading chapter 4 for a
1.001. So that perception that's in there is obviously provided by the government code.
I think more generally when we think about when we're adding anti-Semitism to our student
discipline management plan, it says that they're expressly prohibited in that sort of behavior,
but we also prohibit behavior based upon racism or we prohibit behavior based upon a lot of things
that you may hate somebody for.
This is a simple, something that now we are required
by law to define, but I promise you that in KDISD,
if we had somebody that behaved in an anti-Seministic way
in the past that was against another student,
we would have already addressed this.
Our student code of conduct was already sufficient enough
to address this.
This is just us defining anti-Seminism.
anti-semitism as required by statute. So thank you for that explanation I
appreciate it. Even still I would like to see what the differences are
between what our student code of conduct outlines for any other kind of bullying
or harassment as it pertains to race or any other bias versus what we're doing
with the anti-semitism that the law is requiring us to put in. Just as a
juxtaposition I just want to see what the differences are so that we kind of
are all intelligently aware of what we're voting for and then what we're asking our students to
behave under right so that everybody i'm a little bit i'm a little bit confused because what i'm
telling you is that we treat those the same and we're going to continue to treat them the same
under our student discipline management plan so when you say you want to see the juxtaposition
the differing i don't think that there's a difference here i think that we what we
do have is a clear actual definition of what anti-semitism is so we can
and apply it on a case-by-case basis,
but we don't treat a student that hates a black person
or hates a Jew differently.
We don't see those differently.
We look at them in the realm of the context
and in the individual disciplinary context
of whatever happened for that student.
So I'm a little bit confused when you say juxtaposition,
what you're asking for.
So does our discipline management plan
and our code of conduct, it uses the definition of,
means a certain perception of let's say a black student so and when it says
racism I'm just paraphrasing here going off of this definition when so students
are prohibited for engaging in behavior that violates the discipline management
plan and is motivated by racism quote-unquote racism would then mean a
certain perception of a certain a different race is now we don't use the
word perception of the only reason we're using it here is because the state is
now requiring us to again we look at each individual situation and we figure
out what is what happened and what is the underlying what is the underlying
reason for it and again you can ask the several hundred assistant principals
that we have that deal with this on a day-to-day basis they'll tell you that
everyone is different and which is why we have a student discipline management
plan and code of conduct which has different levels of punishment which
which can't be dealt out, based upon, obviously, the severity of the offense, right?
We can understand where somebody might behave in an anti-seministic way,
which may require redirection or may, you know, if it's an elementary kid, may require redirection.
Or if it's somebody that's, you know, targeting somebody and now has created a hit list
and is beating somebody up at the high school level,
that's going to be a completely different level.
So, again, I think that this definition that we've gotten from the state legislature
is going to be instructive for us on how we do that,
but I don't think operationally that it is going to change the way that we deal with these offenses.
I appreciate that.
And like I said, I just wanted to understand fully,
because these are bylaws or these are policies that everybody's going to be subject to
in terms of our student population,
and i want to make sure that we're really clear so that we have very clear and defined boundaries
of what is the expectation that we're setting for them and since this is new i feel like that
that's fair i feel like there's a fair way to kind of pull that apart and say hey you need to be
aware that this is this is the bar that we're setting this is the boundary that you are not
going to cross and if you do this is your consequence and if that's the same as what um
you know lead council has said then that that's fine i just want to make sure that that is clear
and that that's out there and that we all have the understanding that we do because they are going to be subject to these
with consequences attached.
Thank you. Mr. President.
Ms. T.
Thank you.
Mr. Graham, thank you for your comments. I just wanted to say though,
in my experience when I was in high school,
I know most everybody here were not in their positions you are now, but I
I worry because you say that all of the students would be protected or have been protected,
but you know what?
I was not.
A former board member slammed me multiple times into a locker, into the lockers,
and called me a Jesus freak because I was a Christian.
So I don't know that you can say that all students are protected because I don't,
I mean, I'm not saying, I'm not blaming anyone here or anything like that.
I'm just saying I don't I think there are times where things are not addressed
and I guess I take issue because my experience was different I know you
weren't here but you know that wasn't very fun to be slammed into a locker
multiple times especially by someone that sat on this board so and to be
called a name because I'm a Christian so that's all
mr. president I'm sorry to hear that trustee T me that's unacceptable on this
topic for anti-semitism are you saying the wording in this code of conduct is
lifted directly from the state law all all this wording can we say that yeah I
think the law points to another resource and this is pulled from that okay so I
just think I'm assuming to be safe here is we're taking the text directly from
the law that was passed if we're saying that all students are protected anyway
we're only dropping this in because a law was passed is that correct okay so
So can we reference that law in this?
I mean, so that people know where this is coming from?
Yes or no?
Because I'm hearing district council say there's really no change operationally.
We've always protected every, well, we're supposed to always protect every student per the handbook.
Possibly, Ms. Fuseli, there is a note that you'll see next to the ad in the short form.
It says, this law requires a district to use the definition of anti-Semitism provided by
Government Code Section 448.001.
If the Board would like, in the actual anti-Semitism there, we could put that reference at the
end of that sentence.
That's what I'm suggesting.
Yeah.
It'd be easy to do
Okay, I have questions about other things unless someone has a question about this topic
Okay, because there's a lot in this
Don't want you to jump around all over the place
First I want to thank you for your work on this and everyone who worked on this is a lot of work
And I'm very excited and pleased I guess is the better word to see that deep fakes are addressed
It was just a small little addition but important.
Deep fakes are a big deal and there's a particular student who was really interested in this
and very educated on this topic and I appreciate you listening to her.
So okay, question about the, I'm just going to go down here methodically, parental involvement
policy.
I'd need a little clarification there.
It was a little strange the wording.
There must be a reason.
that first edition underneath the...
So part of House Bill 6, some of the language that kind of shook out
after reviews by both the House and the Senate
was information about a district having to decide
if they were going to have a parental, I think, involvement policy.
I'm trying to find my exact space.
As you do that, I'll tell you kind of where I'm asking
because it seems as if we're kind of appeasing it,
but yet we might come back to it do you need the board to to look at this from a policy so
basically what house what house bill 6 is saying right is that we have to say in our discipline
plan whether or not we have a parental involvement policy that would say if a student was going to a
daep there would be an opportunity for a parental agreement and there could be a reduction in daep
days if the agreement was followed and what this process looks like and so the recommended
language for your review and approval would be that you know we're hoping that
communication has been happening this whole school year right and when a
student gets down to a DEP placement previously we've had early release at
our DEP program and that was something that we didn't really find was very
effective it wasn't preferred by campus administrators and so in looking at
whether or not we recommend a parental involvement policy specific to kind of
of an early release process.
We would certainly need more time to explore that.
What would that look like?
What would the parameters be in place?
But also we're talking about creating a parent agreement
that we would need to have some clarification on,
parameters set, would we even have enforcement?
What does that look like?
And so at this time, we feel confident
that recommending kind of keeping the status quo
while still making a statement,
we expect and encourage parent communication
in all circumstances.
Okay.
That was the goal.
Yeah, so I will tell you,
if you look at the bill language from House Bill 6,
specifically in Section 7,
it talks about 37.0014.
And the bottom line there is that the commissioner,
TEA, is going to create a model behavioral agreement
for use by school districts
in developing a behavioral agreement under this section.
The commissioner has not done so.
So at the point in time when that happens, we can bring it back to this board, and y'all can decide whether or not to move in that direction.
Okay.
That answers your question.
Thank you.
I knew there was something funky there.
Because it says we're required to post a parental involvement policy, but then we say we're not going to do one.
But thank you.
That clarifies.
I'm going to skip over some other items because it's a bigger discussion, I think.
but under personal communication devices I'm really proud the board passed what
they did last year so do you think it's a great it's not I don't think it'll be
as painful as if we never passed anything last year on the on the cell
phones and watches but there was a term I believe this must be from the bill
that was passed school day for the school day did is that defined nicely
somewhere versus we we would say instructional day you would say
instructional day but that was lifted directly from the law and so you'll
notice part of our signage was we really tried to stick close to the law so
parents could understand where this piece was supported and coming from and
try to make the signage very different from last year with kind of different
colors you've seen it so that it was very clear if there were any old
versions we could make sure those were taken down and so school day and so part
of that parent communication piece will certainly be clarifying that school property during the
school day um how is that going to translate to the parent what does school day mean is what i'm
getting at how are we going to right it's a little unclear because technically speaking after 2 30 at
high school uh they can come out correct for the for this for the law is that that's the way i read
it is that correct am i correct on that during the school day yep we're gonna provide some clarity on
that you know um that will be something that we'll make sure that we have um additional information
on with our school leadership and support team our assistant superintendents weighing in on that
piece i mean certainly we know we have bell to bell schedules right which i know will be an
important part in very clear parameters but as far as kind of the buffer times around that as to what
constitutes a school day we can definitely um look at some clarity okay so the law stated school day
very vague to me sounds like we have the freedom to to make sure that's very clear okay and we
we're working on that is that what you mean okay um and then under safety guidelines and
expectations this is very detailed but i don't know maybe um it it said avoid misuse there was
something about avoiding misuse?
Classroom and campus safety devices?
I don't know what the page is, but...
Well, it's 19 at the bottom of the page.
I'm not sure what page it is in the PDF.
Well, I'll just go there.
But it lists some items, like, not to mess with, right?
And I was just curious why, or if we need to add those door
latches?
Flip locks.
So that was...
Was that purposely left out?
That's why we added that.
So classroom safety devices, we didn't want to give it a name
brand in case maybe it changed on the road something that would last a little bit longer
in language so anything safety related in the classroom such as the foot blocks
okay thank you and then under um let's see elementary students under placements extending
beyond the school year it mentions it was a little curious to me that it talks about the the um
designee for the board. Before a student may be placed in a disciplinary alternative education
program for a period that extends beyond the end of the school year, the board or its designee
must make one of the following determinations. Why does that say designee? So that's the language
again from law. So part of the process that we have available is that when parents
and students want to appeal a placement to a DAP,
the first step is the principal, right?
We want the principal to be able to provide
a written response evaluating that placement.
And then the next level is a panel of administrators
who've been trained,
who don't know anything about the situation,
and they're able to hear that
and notify the parent in writing.
I respect that.
I'm just, the wording, the board's designee,
we typically, we don't...
have a designee the board so the law the law and the procedures in here since
this takes the force of policy mr. gray may be able to jump in and provide more
clarity yes so for instances where we appeal the district level appeal of dae
EP placement which happens how often once a week pretty regular it doesn't go
to the board the board by action has already designated that that is heard by
by a panel of principals or assistant principals
who have not been involved in the matter at all,
and then they make a final decision.
Actually, what that looks like is we come into this room
and those panel members sit where you guys are sitting,
which is actually beneficial because they are already
well-versed in our student discipline management plan,
and sometimes they uphold the decision
and sometimes they overturn the decision.
They look at it from a very independent neutral perspective. Okay, just out of curiosity. I'm sorry. When do we designate that?
Why does it say board then?
Because that's what the law reads and you've done that annually by the adoption of your student code of conduct and discipline management plan
That's when we designate that panel. Okay. Okay. Thank you
So I have
Last few questions. Thank you very much on
on fighting physical contact assault on...
Excuse me, Mrs. Cuzela, would you give a page number?
I'm trying to follow you, but I'm chasing it.
Okay, thank you.
I now apologize.
Page 11 on our end is where, I think, if I'm not mistaken.
11 on the bottom.
I know there's some additional pages in the front,
so not physical page 11.
Of the student code of conduct, right, document.
Is that correct?
Okay. So I just wanted to address fights, because that's been a topic. We've heard big examples and smaller ones, concussions in the bathroom.
What I want to know is, what I see in here, right, is we have a self-defense definition,
and we also talk about mutual combat, or that's the term used, that whoever is involved in
the fight is going to be disciplined.
So at the end of the day, what I want to ensure is beyond who is to blame, or the level of
of involvement is their safety of a student. So some of the bend in here is can a student
remove themselves from a fight? That's what's suggested. If you're involved in a fight,
a physical fight, you need to remove yourself from the situation. That's what this code
of conduct mentions. So what are we doing or can we improve upon our wording to make
sure students who cannot remove themselves who cannot remove
themselves from a fight are not physically harmed because they're not
fighting back because our policy is encouraging no fight back because then
you won't be disciplined. Do you understand my question? So what is there
has anyone explored having some better language to this to where we could
through the way we discipline our students make sure students understand you know if their neck
is about to be broken or their arm is about to be broken they should protect themselves
we i don't see that reflected in our student code of conduct
Does, I, has District Council, Mr. Graham, has there ever been any exploration and wording
around what I'm talking about?
MR.
Yeah, I don't know about explanation for that.
I think what we have is a Student Investment Management Plan which defines self-defense,
which we've had in this district for a long time.
But what I will tell you, sort of the boogeyman in the room is not, when we say remove yourself from the situation, it's not, I'm going to go pick a fight and then I pick the fight and now that I've been the aggressor or now that I've done this and I can't remove myself now, that's not self-defense, right?
If we're looking at it, it's like if you're the aggressor, if you're the one that's put your hands on the person first, or you're going to call names, or you're going to use racial language, or whatever it is that you're going to do, that's not what we're talking about.
What we're talking about is literally a student that's backed into a corner.
And that's, you can ask, I encourage you to talk to your principals and assistant principals when you make campus visits to talk about what a self-defense look like.
it's very rare that we that will have a student that's literally in a situation
where they can't flee and they haven't they haven't done anything to be the
aggressor in the situation so that's yeah I thank you but what I'm talking
about is even if they were the aggressor and that aggressor cannot flee they are
physically like broken bone I don't know yes so we're not saying they can't we're
not saying that they can't defend themselves what we're saying here is
that they're subject to disciplinary consequences we're absolutely not saying
that hey you can't defend yourself what we're saying is you cannot you cannot
remove yourself from disciplinary consequence once you've initiated the
conduct right once you once you've taken the step to be the aggressor in the
the situation because that's what we're talking about in a self-defense manner
it says do not do those things you know flee when you can right and so we're
not we're not saying hey you can't defend yourself what we're saying is
when you defend yourself or if that's gonna happen you're still gonna be
subject to disciplinary consequences because you behaved in the manner up to
leading to whatever the situation was so through speaking with parents and
hearing different parents speak here, it's the understanding that, well, my kid will get punished
if they defend themselves at any point. And the punishments are,
anecdotally, I'm hearing are the same. And so what I'm asking is, is there a way to
write into our policy to where, if something escalates to the point to where we have
children physically harmed perhaps permanently I mean don't we want to try
to avoid those situations and write something into this right so I I do I do
sympathize with the extreme have to get a little ethical which you proposed but
again what we're talking about is we're talking about a student discipline
management plan which applies to all kids in all situations right and we're
talking about self-defense that's a pretty standard definition of
self-defense which other districts use um yeah i'm not we have not explored other options in
that arena this is a student discipline management plan which has worked for us in kdisd for a long
time that being said if you'd like us to provide additional language or look at what other
districts are doing we can certainly bring that to the board's attention i i really would personally
How long has this approach been in place?
Is that a fair question?
The fighting and assault language?
Or when was the last time it was changed?
Years.
Okay.
Probably six or eight years, give or take.
Probably the addition of the self-defense.
And the other language is reviewed annually as well.
Okay.
Okay, I just want to try to avoid a violent escalation of a fight no matter whose fault it is.
Because at the end of the day, we're responsible for the safety of the kids.
So I want to know if we have anything we could work with.
I'd like that.
And then I also wanted to know on this, and then this is my last question.
Before you go there, so on self-defense currently, the student must be without fault in provoking the encounter?
not act as the aggressor and use the minimum required to remove him or herself from immediate
danger or harm would qualify as self-defense.
Yes.
And then they would say that they don't continue to take actions to escalate or continue
the encounter.
So they're not going to continue to go after the person on the ground.
As soon as the threat is neutralized, they would remove themselves from the situation.
situation. Which seems to be what I think we're all wanting is saying that the kid didn't start
the fight. They use the necessary force to protect themselves and then they back out.
Right. That would be great. That's ideal. That's it. Yes. But we have instances where
there could be, you know, they start fighting out, fighting back. What I'm trying to say is
no matter who the aggressor is, I'm concerned about the physical safety of the kid.
And I want to know if there's something we can write in here to avoid violent escalations,
no matter who's at fault.
Somebody could pick on a big aggressor, physical aggressor, and really get it, right?
And they're the aggressor.
So I'm just trying to understand if there's a way we can address that in our handbook
in a different way.
I don't know if there's a way to improve it. I'd like to miss mr. President
This is I interrupted miss gazelle. She's said she had one last thing. Oh, yep. Sorry. I appreciate the time
in in staff, I was a sub for three years and
It was explained that everybody knew how to handle these instances that that that all sub should know
But I don't agree that they do
and I just I want to make sure that that's really highlighted for and
teachers I've heard staff to not all staff but there are some that may not
know what to do when things escalate the way we've seen so is there anything
different we're gonna do dr. Gorg or ski to make sure substitutes or any staff on
campus know exactly what to like you pick up a phone and and call and what
Instead of standing there and watching?
Substitutes get a training prior to becoming a substitute.
So if there's something in that training that Mr. Schuss can add to that to reemphasize or help a substitute better understand how to work the telephone, how to call the front office, how that works, maybe that would be helpful.
I don't know, but that's something we can do.
I'd encourage any staff member that might have some questions about this and
they're unsure what to do to talk to their building principal talk to the
assistant principal traditionally and I can't speak for every school but I've
been on campus for a long time every year we go over different things on the
campus with our staff it'd be a perfect opportunity for staff to say hey can we
have a training campus specific on this can you help us better understand it
we're unsure because if the principal and the ap doesn't know teachers don't know what to do
then they're not going to know how to address it so we just need some better communication so i'd
recommend anybody who's listening or if they contact the school board or what please just go
talk to your principal and your ap about how we can better train at our upfront trainings at the
start of the year or something like that about what to do in certain situations that are like
that mr president thank you so as we're talking about what uh mrs kuzella was talking about that
the cons mrs kazella correct me if i misunderstood what you said consequences might be different
rather than both getting the same consequence right does that open us up for
or now it's like who decides that,
and then if it's not the same,
now we've got all the grievances coming,
and I wonder if that makes us vulnerable as a district
or whoever makes the decision,
whether it'll be an AP or a principal.
Dr. Gorgorski.
You could have some problems with PEMS reporting
when we have to go into the system,
and two kids, they're tied together in an event,
And then one has one consequence, one has another, because all of these events,
and, Chair, you'd have to remind me,
what level and up gets reported for the state to look for errors on this kind of stuff?
Any instructional removal, so ISS, OSS, DAP, JJA.
Yeah, so those removals would have to match in PEIMS reporting
or could run into certain errors when we do our PEIMS submission and stuff.
It gets a little bit hard, but you're right on the subjectivity of it.
So how does the administrator myself go in there?
I'm the administrator the AP handling this and I'm gonna say well you got the better of this person in the fight
I saw it. I watched it you were so I'm gonna give you this. I'm gonna give you this
The inconsistency throughout the district would probably be pretty wide and would be a little hard to manage at that point
Mr. President, Mr. Champagne, may I please address something also the miss Cuzela was speaking of
that I understand what you're saying because you know I think that the thing
is it's like miss Fox was saying that the difference in the consequences and
things but changing the self-defense statement or whatever that's in the
discipline management guide I don't think would I don't think a kid is gonna
read the self-discipline thing I go oh you know I'm gonna follow what it says
before I start to self, you know, start a fight or not start a fight. They're not
gonna, that's not going to change their behavior. So I don't think a kid who gets
involved in a fight, maybe there's like a half a percent chance that I'm, there is a
kid out there who's going to read the, you know, I'm going to be, I'm going to try
to be in a fight today, but I'm going to read the thing first and see what my
consequences are going to be. They're probably not going to do that. So I think
that because if a kid starts the fight I see what you're saying they started the
fight but they can't now they can't get out of it but because they started the
fight that's what's prompting the discipline and but I agree with you that
they should be able to defend themselves but they're still gonna have I think
that's correct right mr. president I'm not asking for the self-defense
definition to be changed I'm asking to see if there's something we can improve
particularly in the the fighting on page 11 is there something we can enhance
because if the kid who aggressed and is now stuck gets his neck broken we're
punishing both kids the same that seems odd right so we maybe else out of my
place speaking here but that's my understanding which seems not correct
when someone's physically overpowered that way.
So I would just like to remind the board
that we do have as required by law,
whenever we're talking about out of school suspension,
DAP or expulsion, there are six factors
that have to be considered
before we can utilize those options.
Here at KDIC, we train to use them all the time
because they're really good, good for kids,
good for evaluation.
And that's intent, disciplinary self-defense,
a disability that substantially impairs
their capacity to appreciate the wrongfulness if they're in foster care or homeless status.
So I think every situation with the FIAT administrators, it's usually resulting in
out-of-school suspension of some sort while we kind of figure out what's going on.
Do we need a safety plan in place? Stay-away agreements? What does that look like?
And they're able to use that definition of self-defense. They're able to look at intent.
They're able to look at discipline history and those pieces in that evaluation of the discipline.
So that's already kind of factored in to our framework of assigning discipline, which
Might be kind of that that nuance you're looking for and evaluating those unique situations.
I have a question on this.
And so I'm, I guess I'm a little confused by some of the verbiage in here as well and it may be kind of minutia and silly, but legal language often is to.
to when you're reading it.
So it says that if an individual is physically
confronted by another student, the individual
should avoid striking back and find an adult.
But then in the next sentence, it
says regardless of who starts a fight,
if both students participate, both students
will be disciplined accordingly.
But that should in there feels like it
leaves a little bit of leeway.
Like you should do this, but if you can't, then you can fight back?
Well, I think we need to remember our definition of self-defense that I should have flagged for today.
I did see it, but I didn't see it.
It talks about using the minimum force necessary, right?
I think it acknowledges there could be some force involved.
Thank you, page 20.
There it is.
Thank you.
Use the minimum force required to remove himself or herself from immediate danger or harm.
So I think maybe that's, I would maybe argue that's complementary, right?
Like you should avoid striking back, but also you might be using the minimum force required to remove yourself from immediate physical danger or harm.
And is that where we kind of have, it's situationally dependent as far as what determines minimal?
because minimal could really be arguable depending upon the situation that's a
relative degree of force that you would have to use in order to what is minimal
well it depends it depends on who's hitting you if you have somebody that
outweighs you by a hundred pounds that use of minimal force is going to be a
lot different than two girls but so to speak we're having a cat fight I mean
it's a little bit different so I'm just when I'm looking at it that I feel like
there's a little bit of discrepancy here and it seems relative to the situation
so are we addressing discipline based off of that relativity I think it's
gonna be really hard to define what is minimal right I think I think that's
maybe kind of your point yeah but I think I would also say that that's where
where our administrators and their campus teams
come together and they calibrate on that
and they also collaborate on that
to make sure that they're providing that
consistently across their campus.
And we provide opportunities for networking.
They get lots of professional development
throughout the year, so as these topics pop up,
we're always trying to kind of give them
the best tools they need in these kind of hot topics
to make sure that we are providing that consistency
as much as possible.
But you're right, there is gonna be some nuance
in depending on the situation, right?
Is the fight in the bathroom?
Is it on the bus?
Is it an open air playground, right?
Those are all gonna have different expectations
of what is the minimal force
to be able to escape that situation.
And so.
But it does seem strange though, right?
If you're trying to escape a situation
and you have to apply a minimal amount of force
to get out of the situation,
but then you're disciplined equal to
to whether you had applied minimal force or maximum force,
it doesn't matter because you're still
going to be disciplined accordingly
as if you had done either one.
So there's going to be a consideration of discipline,
but we have those six factors, right?
And if the self-defense definition would apply,
that does give some of that flexibility.
The rules allow for there to be flexibility in what
could be assigned to that discipline.
So when we, let's say we have a fight in the school
and then the students are both broken up
And then they're both disciplined.
They're both removed from the environment.
So you could call that discipline
or you could just call that mitigating the issue at hand.
But then are they placed in like
an assistant principal's office?
Are they placed in ISS?
What happens at that point that is equal to
until a decision can be made on whether or not
that was needed from who's who?
because then you have to really deliberate a lot of different things, the situation,
and not all of that can be done in the immediate, but you still have to address the situation.
It's really, really tricky, and I understand why parents get really upset when they feel like that their children,
their child has been attacked or it's not fair or it's a he said, she said,
but I just want to the reason why I'm asking this is because I want parents if
they're listening or I want there to be a clear understanding of really what
we're weighing here when we're going into these situations that are
oftentimes violent and we're having to try to pull this apart to make the best
decisions but that in the immediate doesn't look like it and sometimes your
student is punished for something that seems unfair but you you don't know
what's fair unless I guess you're right in the middle of it and then you can make that judgment
it seems really confusing I think there should probably be a course in the master's program for
those individuals who want to be an administrator but unfortunately there is not and so I think you
said it best when you said you have to you have to have time to pull it apart to figure out what
it's even called and our administrators are really good about addressing consequences immediately for
for what they know to be true,
or if something changes, they can go back
and there's a way for us to kind of course correct
discipline, whether it's an attendance issue
or it's on their record, like we have the ability
to go back and change that.
Nothing is super finite always, if appropriate, right?
And so our administrators know they need that time.
If you're at secondary and there's a conflict
and you both have a different schedule
and different classes, we can move on with life
while we investigate, right?
If you're in elementary and you're in the same classroom,
maybe we need a little bit of time
time to kind of process separately and figure out what that looks like next, right? I think
we're saying the same thing a little bit, that there is a lot of complexity. There's a lot that
depends on the situation. And so I'm grateful that we have administrators who become really
good at investigating, you know, and addressing those situations and assessing safety, right?
Safety is always first. Safety is number one. And so they assess the safety and then they look at
this discipline management plan and they look at the facts that they have and then they move forward
and provide due process to students, parents, and consequences. So it's almost like a triage, right?
Like you're triaging the situation as it's happening at the moment and then you're applying
that, you're applying that attention to whatever is necessary right then. But then how often, and you
may not have an answer to this and this may be just kind of a question that doesn't, I don't have
a solid answer to this but how often do we have retroactive due process or to where it's changed
in other words like you had an asset you had a situation where discipline was assessed
and it turns out hey that discipline wasn't exactly what it should have been given given more
information later that we didn't have at the immediate time so how do we how do we then go
back and say hey we messed up sorry like this is how we're going to try to fix that does that
happen how do we what do we do in that situation does that they call me okay so
I will tell you miss Ashland serves as a really good reference as the district
wide discipline management person because then every campus she can make
sure that what we're doing at Jordan high school mirrors what we're doing at
Pato high school but so far as if let's talk about major offenses because that
seems to be what we're keying on most often those with disciplinary
consequence starts with a suspension. It starts with a suspension and a
notification that hey we are considering maybe doing something more drastic than
that but really the three-day suspension period is that's when it's designed for
the administrator at the campus level to go gather all the documentation, the
student statements, look at any videos that may be present and do all of that
upfront and then they can decide okay we're gonna do DAEP and we're gonna do
it for 45 days or we've looked at this and we think it's self-defense and so
we're gonna bring the student back to the classroom that's really why the
opera by operation of law and rule that we have here in Katy that's really
fundamentally how that works but when we have situations that may be unclear the
best resource is mrs. Ashwin I mean she's not going to tell you that which
is why answering this question for her but she really is she'll say let's sit
sit down. In fact, we've ordered her a new TV for her office so that when administrators
come in and she trains them, she can show them, hey, let's look at the data and let's
walk through these situations. So we're trying to streamline it and be consistent
across grade levels and across campuses. But again, there are some factors that are built
in. And when we do things and when we find out information after the fact, we always
try and remedy the situation I don't think that you could find an
administrator that would say oh we do have some times where discipline is
overturned I mean that's the reason that we have the due process that we have
afforded I've seen it firsthand in this district but so all that to say we have
a process in place where it gives us several days to look at these sort of
larger you know more sensitive situations which it appears that we're talking about this evening
what is that usually what does that timeline usually look like is that usually like a three
day suspension um is that what that the immediate response is so for dap placements or expulsions
we have three days of out of school suspension or in school if law does not allow that and that is
our administrative time to complete more formal due process with parents allow them an opportunity
for a hearing if they request one um have a manifestation determination review if they're a
student with a disability and get all of that tied up before they actually start the disciplinary
placement and this is just kind of a hypothetical but just play with me for a minute so if a if a
student is to get into an altercation and they're both suspended for three days or that's kind of
the the immediate and then does how does that impact their exemptions so i don't know how that
that impacts your exemption.
If you're found out later that,
hey, this was not your fault,
and yes, you got suspended,
but this wasn't anything that you brought onto yourself
or you were just doing self-defense,
you did the should and the minimal amount of force used,
do you still get your exemptions if you're in secondary?
Do you still, does that get retroactively given back to you?
Because I wouldn't imagine that if you get suspended,
that you get to keep your exemptions
where you get to exempt those final classes. So if there was an inappropriate suspension in any case,
right, and we came back and said, you know what, we got more information, we saw more witness,
the security camera was working perfectly and had just the right angle, and we really decided that
that was an inappropriate suspension, or we would have picked something different, we would have
said a lunch detention. Right. We can certainly modify that in the PEMS record, we can course
correct with the parent on any paper notifications, it would be removed from our electronic system,
which it's my understanding is what's utilized for things like exemptions, National Honor Society, all those pieces.
It seems silly, but it's just things that...
There's a process.
Okay.
Yeah, it's a good question, but there is a process.
Anytime we want to correct a discipline, and we train on that too, like, you know, sometimes we get more information and we have to go back.
And there's a process, there's a way we can clean that up.
And so they'll call me and I'll give them what the options are and what that could look like, and then we make it happen.
Okay.
Thank you.
I appreciate it.
Sure.
Mr. President.
Ms. Champagne.
I have a something I want to say and then I have a question. But first of all, it's one thing I know
is that when it when your child is in some kind of altercation with another child, I just
know you know just from my personal experience if there's something that's going on with another
child that's supposedly done something to your child that we're not allowed the parent isn't
allowed to know what the punishment was or the discipline of the other child is. And I know that
that bothers a lot of parents because the parent, even in my particular situation, feels
like they want to know that the other child has been disciplined, but that parent can't
know.
So sometimes when there is a fight or whatever, you know, that parent's only assuming that
my child's the only one who got disciplined when actually, or my child got disciplined
worse than that other child.
But you don't really know because it's against the privacy right of the other child.
which is sometimes, you know, makes it difficult for parents to understand that.
So I just wanted to say that.
But then my question also is with these fights and things, when police get involved,
this is just from what I understand, if the police gets involved,
that the administration has to go by what the police finds as the, you know,
the police makes a decision about what the actual crime or whatever is,
and they title it whatever they want to as a fight or harassment or whatever they want to
or whatever not want to but you know whatever they determine it to be and then the administration is
kind of tied to that am i correct about that so law enforcement is definitely a piece of the puzzle
of an investigation so we have a really nice section under criminal charges and classification
in our discipline plan that talk about if a student's charged with a crime or engaged in
in conduct that has elements of because you might remember for a lot of our placements to a dep or
an expulsion an arrest is not required a student could be involved in elements of assault with
bodily injury elements of terroristic threat um and so it's definitely a piece of the puzzle texas
education code for a lot of our significant placements has directly referenced penal code
so we have to work together collaborative collaboratively with our law enforcement
But again, I think there can be a lot of nuance to a situation, but it's definitely a big
piece of the puzzle in that very first step of discipline, which is what do we call this
behavior?
What do we call it?
And if there's a reference to penal code, we know our officers are experts in that field,
not school administrators.
And so we do utilize them for their assistance.
Okay.
Thank you.
Mr. Close.
Thank you, Mr. President.
it um just somebody who lived in that world for a long time especially in this district yeah i mean
so much of it just i won't be long but just chiming in and sherry you've done an incredible
job you explained it way better than i could but you know so much of that is true like if a fight
happens at eight in the morning you've got all day to investigate and talk to kids and witnesses and
all the all the things you need to do if it happens at 225 and you're getting out in about
10 minutes then that's not gonna happen and you're right then you you know you
don't want those kids showing up first period in the morning they both have
algebra together and that's not gonna be a good situation but but is always you
know what we look at like the idea miss Calhoun was talking about like what is a
kid's response like how would you call that self-defense well you know we try
to look at it from a standpoint of obviously with the definition but did
Did the kid reasonably, it's a word I love to use all the time with kids, parents, teachers,
did he or she reasonably have the opportunity to avoid this fight?
If the answer is yes to that, then, you know, we hold them accountable or responsible.
If it's no, if they reasonably didn't have a way out, then, you know,
then that can meet that self-defense definition and you can plan accordingly.
And yeah, sometimes initially what I will tell you is you think you know what's going on in a situation, and three hours later you're like, golly, that is not what at all I thought was going to happen here or what I thought happened here.
because you start talking to more people and you get more information and so I
think it's one of those things that yeah you can't get too specific with it
because if you do you also pigeonhole yourself into decisions that you're
gonna possibly have to make that you don't want to make with regards to the
kids but but I think it comes back to that the administrators you know
applying what we know and that is did the kid you know did the kid reasonably
or behave reasonably in a way that allowed them to or would allow them to
get out of the the altercation possibly and then the other piece of that too is
I mean I get it in the sense of sometimes I used to tell parents as an
explanation just because your kid lost the fight doesn't mean it's not a fight
and there you know they would like okay I get that I get that but in that you
know you'd want to be careful we're talking about the aggressor and
everything you don't want to give a free pass to the aggressor like I can start
it and get a free pass I mean if you if you knock two of my teeth out I get a
free pass even though I started the the altercation and so because kids they
they certainly don't sit and read the the DMP they don't trust me 20 years
taught me that but but one thing they might find out something I've noticed
over the years they might find out one did you know I give an example did you
know the year that changed you know you have to get caught vaping twice now to
to go to the OAC? They pay attention to that kind of thing. So my worry might be that if
something is put out there where a kid says, oh, I've got a free pass to start it, you know,
and then I can take my lick, so to speak. And again, there's a response in kind is a term I
like to use, right? Like if I were to say to Rebecca, and I love your shirt, by the way,
So I'm just pretending here, but let's just say I said that's an ugly shirt,
and she punches me in my nose and breaks my nose.
That's not an in-kind response to those two things.
Why not?
As an administrator, right, we'd look at that.
But if I also had been terrorizing her for six weeks and, you know, on social media,
wherever that may be, in school in front of her peers, and she punches me in the nose,
maybe I kind of had it coming I don't know I'm not I'm not saying kids out
there I'm not telling you to go punch each other in the nose what I'm saying
is as administrators you always look at all the information you can gather and
it's it's rarely black and white there's a lot of gray most of the time and so I
just say that to say that as much as you'd love to pin this all down with the
the exact words. I've just learned in 30 years of doing this that it's really hard to do that.
And it's frustrating sometimes for administrators, trust me. Sherry could tell you, I've been on the
phone with her more than one time and Bonnie Holland before Sherry and been like, but there's
no perfect way around it. But I just say that to say that, yes, all those things are taken into
into consideration. Um, and I will say this when we've made a mistake, we, we certainly, I mean,
if, if you find out, Oh man, we, we didn't issue the correct punishment or whatever, then we've
gone back and, and made corrections on that. I've had conversations with Sherry about that. Okay.
Hey, we found out this, what do we have to do in teams to correct that? And she's been more than
helpful so I just say all that to say that it just is one of those things
where I don't know that there's the the wording that's gonna gonna make that all
work I think it has to just be broad enough that it that it covers and gives
administrators enough leeway so that they can apply it hopefully in the
fairest way possible and that's it Thank You mr. cross I appreciate that and I
I wanted to make a response to that.
I know that this seems monotonous and a little tedious to go over all of these words like should.
And while a student is not going to read DMP, I absolutely agree.
I don't know many 15-year-olds that are going to sit there and read it unless they're trying to do it to go to sleep and have at it.
However, lawyers will read the DMP.
And lawyers will take apart should.
should. And lawyers will look at that and say, well, how can we use this to our best advantage?
And so when we're looking at this as those who are responsible as the forward facing of the
district of what we're putting out there, when we're looking at the legal jargon that we're
putting out there in the DMP, and again, what we're holding our students to, the language matters.
So should matters, perception matters, but and shall matter.
And if you've ever looked at any of the legal jargon that comes out of the state legislature,
you will understand that those words matter.
So I understand and I can sympathize with those of you that are in the room and are like,
oh my God, would they just please shut up about this?
No, because it matters.
And so this is something that we're holding our students, our administrators,
administrators and our financial fiduciary, like our financial role is being held on this,
on what we get ourselves into. So these things do matter and they do actually make a difference
when we're going into our next school year. So I appreciate your experience and for what you
have to offer that. And I appreciate the dedicated hours that you put in over the summer,
reading all of this. Genuinely, I do. And for putting up with all of these questions. Thank
Thank you so much.
And for whatever work we have to do to make this the best that we can, thank you.
Any more questions?
Mr. President, I just want to echo, thank you, Ms. Ashhorn, for all of your work and all the knowledge that you have.
I know you spent hours and hours and hours, and you and your team are to be applauded.
Thank you.
6.7 Discuss and consider Board approval of a Resolution to declare a good cause exception for armed security officer requirement.
All right.
We will now move to agenda item 6.7 discuss and consider board approval of a resolution to declare a good cause
exception for armed security officer requirement.
Presenter Justin Graham, our general counsel.
President Redmond, Dr. Grigorski, trustees, what you have on here is a
resolution
regarding armed security officers at KDISD campuses.
This is not something new, this is something
we've been doing since September of 2023.
Basically what the state law requires
is that we have a commissioned peace officer
at every campus with a firearm on their side
unless it's unfeasible for a variety of reasons.
We have deemed it, this board deemed it
in September of 2023, a good cause exception, both financially and the fact that we can't find enough
peace officers to work for Katy ISD Police Department to do that. And so what we've done
is we've armed security officers, level three security officers, to go through an extensive
amount of training in order to carry that weapon at the campus. Those of you who have children in
in elementary school will have noticed that you have a security guard and they wear their
uniform every day and they have that firearm on their side. State law in the 89th legislative
session, which just ended, now requires you to make that good cause exception annually.
So it's back on your agenda today and I will anticipate that in the future we'll bring this
every July for this board so long as the level three security officers are working as they have
been i'm happy to take any questions you have questions board
all right no questions we'll move on to agenda item 6.8 discuss and consider board endorsement
6.8 Discuss and consider Board endorsement of a delegate and alternate delegate to the 2025 Texas Association of School Boards (TASB) Delegate Assembly.
of a delegate an alternate delegate to the 2025 texas association of school boards delegate
assembly is there anyone that would like to serve as the delegate or alternate delegate
Mr. President, as the TASB director for KDICD, I am already a delegate, so I don't qualify here.
Mr. So this is an additional, this is the delegate to be there?
This would be for a delegate and alternate.
I would like to be a delegate.
All right.
Or to be considered.
Anyone else for alternate?
it this is Cuzela would you like to just wanna you're so good at policy and stuff
you really really would be good at that that's why I choose you not for any
other reason you would be really good at that thank you Miss Champaign that would
be interested in serving as delegate I'd be willing to do alternate and then
6.9 Discuss and consider Board endorsement of a nominated individual for the Texas Association of School Boards (TASB) Director for Region 4, Positions A and C.
moving on to agenda item 6.9 discuss and consider board endorsement of a
nominated individual for the texas association of school boards director for region four positions a
and c as of right now or not as of right now there's one candidate uh crystal carbone from
peril and isd is running unopposed for region four position c in the district we we can choose to
endorse her as a show of support and then other positions will be up in 2026 and 2027.
Does anybody know Crystal?
I do.
She's done a good job for the Gulf Coast Board operating as the treasurer and whatnot.
Other comments?
6.10 Discuss and consider Board approval of an Interlocal Agreement with Fort Bend County Municipal Utility District No. 173 and Katy Independent School District.
All right.
Then we will move on to discussion 6.10,
discuss and consider board approval of an interlocal agreement with Fort Bend County Municipal Utility District,
number 173 in Katy Independent School District.
!
Good evening, President Redmond, Board members, and Dr. Gorski.
Tonight I have one item for your consideration.
Our standard interlocal agreement between Fort Bend County MUD 173 and KDISD for miscellaneous playground equipment at Campbell Elementary.
Within this agreement, the MUD will contribute up to $25,000 toward the project with an additional cost covered by the PTA.
The project is scheduled for completion during the summer months.
At this time, I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have.
Any questions, board?
Mr. President?
Ms. Champagne?
I would just like to say I want to applaud the PTA at Amy Campbell Elementary and also
the MUD to come together to help with the playground because that's so important at
elementary school.
and I know I've been on the PTA before at elementary,
and it's really a lot of work to get one of those grants.
And so I really applaud their efforts,
and I'm glad that this all came together for them.
Any other questions?
I have a question.
Ms. Cohen?
Are playgrounds open to the public?
Yes, ma'am.
Even those who don't go to school here?
Not during school hours.
So we close all the gates and we lock them at every single school
and make sure that no one uses the playgrounds after school?
We do have Spark Parks that are open to the public.
We have a handful of those throughout the district.
Those are by the district?
They're within the district, yes, ma'am.
And we pay for them?
It's a grant that we get through Spark Park that they go in
and kind of upgrade some of our facilities,
depending on where they're at and location to other parks throughout the area.
but they go in and give us I want to say roughly $200,000 to go and do
playground improvements and we go in and we do that. WindBorn is an example of one.
And those are open to the public? Yes. Thank you. Any more questions? All right
we'll move on to section 7 in board. We haven't done this in a while and
I've been sharing a little bit about towards the future when we have to change, when we have to post on Wednesdays, we're increasing the time the board is going to have all the information by three days.
and so in light of moving through the agendas quickly we're gonna have this
this item pop up and it's kind of basically a consent item without
discussion with the understanding that if there is something that anybody wants
to talk about we can pull it off just like we would in a consent agenda to
discuss as a board member you with a full right at any point even if we're
sitting here in the meeting and you decide you want to pull it to pull it
all we're just kind of asking is we've got staff here ready to share if you
know you're gonna pull it if you'll give me a heads up so we just out of respect
for the staff they can be prepared even more so right know that they're gonna be
doing that but ideally as we move forward what we'll what we'll watch for
is those items that nobody's asking questions about that many times they're
just having to go not not go through the motions but there are things that do not
bring up any any questions that we can move to this item routine items thank
you dr. Gorski that we can put on there so this is the first time you're seeing
it as first time our public seeing it and in that we have some point one
consider the 2025 2026 professional development plan and 7.2 consider
publication of the notice a public meeting to discuss the budget proposed
actuary so it's not anything to do with the tax rate other than say we're gonna
going to post the date when that public meeting is going to happen.
So as we look at item seven, are there any items that anyone would like to pull to discuss?
7. Consent Items
Mr. President, are you saying that we're going to vote on these right now?
No.
Consent items?
No.
Okay.
Tell me.
It'll just be on the consent agenda next time.
And I'm going to a little more explanation this time to say we're saying we're not going
going to discuss these because you'll have all the information for a long time unless someone says
we want to discuss these the only thing i would add to what mr redmond said because he and i had
been discussing this we had done this a few years ago in the interest of time and and just if it's
routine and annual and it's just informational um really probably doesn't need a presentation or
call for folks to come up and give a two or three or five minute presentation on those types of items
It's things that you guys have approved for like JJA agreements, easements,
electrical easement on a new property, stuff like that. This one, the
professional learning that's required every year to come before the board is
just a list of what we do for a professional learning. Same thing goes
every year we have to grant, we already have a resolution in place, we have to
grant Mr. Smith the authority to go post. He's not setting the tax rate, he's just
posting it in the newspaper but when it comes back as a tax rate that is
certainly something we would discuss and consider the tax rate and do a
presentation on that so all of these things will be consent but these were
just not even having a presentation
so being that no one has mentioned any one thing that they would like to pull
from that and discuss right now we will move on to information items 8.1 the
8. Information Items
quarterly investment report was received 8.2 the aspect clearinghouse report was
provided to the board donated items list 8.3 has been received and madam
secretary if we captured any requests from the board I want to make sure miss
Calhoun I think wants something more about the anti-semitism you correct me
me if I'm wrong or add in what you want to about that. I wanted the specific
language from the Student Code of Conduct as it pertains to any kind of
bullying, harassment, in any kind of racial bias or any other bias and then I
want that compared to the anti-semitism, the new anti-semitism piece of that and
I want to compare them and I want to see how the language differentiates or how
it is similar that's what I would like and then the other thing I am not sure
if Miss Cuzela had something yes I just requested district council to please
look or his team to please look if there's a way to enhance our student
code of conduct on fighting to protect safety of all students involved in a
fight particularly when it escalates violently I think that's it unless y'all
had something else did you have anything else all right then we'll move on to 9
9. Future Meetings
our future meetings we'll have a regular board meeting on Monday July 28 2025 and
there being no further business before the board this meeting is adjourned the
The time is 8.20 p.m.
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.