Noting that a quorum is present, I hereby call this regular board meeting of the Board of Trustees Acadia Independent School District to order.
Katy ISD · Regular Board Meeting
Katy ISD Regular Board Meeting, July 28, 2025
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The headings and the descriptions beneath them are the district’s own words, taken from its index of this recording.
- 0:03 to 1:13 1. Call to Order - Upon announcement by the presiding officer that a quorum is present, the meeting will be called to order. The presiding officer will verify that the meeting has been duly called and notice of the meeting has been posted for the time and manner required by law.
- 1:13 to 13:42 3. Recognitions
- 13:42 to 23:54 4. Public Comment/Citizen Participation
- 23:54 to 24:21 5. Closed Meeting
- 24:21 to 25:02 6. Reconvene from Closed Meeting – The Board will reconvene from Closed Meeting.
- 25:02 to 58:05 7.1 2025-2026 Budget Update
- 58:05 to 1:14:39 7.2 Progress Report on the Student Attendance Incentive Initiative.
- 1:14:39 to 1:29:52 7.3 Utilities Management: Strategies to Lower Costs and Improve Efficiency
- 1:29:52 to 1:34:14 7.4 Board Meeting structure update.
- 1:34:14 to 2:08:52 8.1 Discuss and consider Board Policy FD Local.
- 2:08:52 to 2:10:15 9. Consent Agenda
- 2:10:15 to 2:54:01 9.6 Consider Board approval of the 2025-2026 Discipline Management Plan and Student Code of Conduct.
- 2:54:01 to 2:58:24 10. Information Items
- 2:58:24 to 2:58:42 11. Future Meetings
Full transcript
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1. Call to Order - Upon announcement by the presiding officer that a quorum is present, the meeting will be called to order. The presiding officer will verify that the meeting has been duly called and notice of the meeting has been posted for the time and manner required by law.
Today is Monday, July 28, 2025, and the time is 5 o'clock p.m.
Dr. Gorski, will you verify that we are in compliance with the provisions of the Texas Open Meetings Act with regard to notice for this meeting?
Mr. Revin, I do confirm we're in compliance with the provisions of the Texas Open Meeting Act for our meeting tonight.
Thank you. We will now open meeting with the pledges of allegiance and KDISD police officer Robert Lister will lead us in those pledges.
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
honor the Texas flag I pledge allegiance to the Texas one state under God one and indivisible
thank you well now move into our recognition section of the meeting and to start us off item
3. Recognitions
3.1 we've got dr. Robert long division director of board development services for the Texas
Association of School Boards here to make a presentation. Howdy and good
evening. Good evening President Redmond, trustees, Superintendent Gorski and proud
Katy ISD community. My name is Robert Long and I serve as the Division Director
for Board Development Services at the Texas Association of School Boards and
and also as program director for Leadership TASB.
It is an incredible honor to be with you this evening
to recognize and celebrate a leader who action speaks volumes
about her dedication to students, educators,
and public service.
Tonight, we will recognize Trustee Dawn Champagne,
a proud graduate of the Leadership TASB program
class of 2025, and officially designate her
a Master Trustee distinction earned
by fewer than a thousand school board trustees across the state of Texas since
the program's founding. Before I speak to you about her accomplishment I'd like to
offer a brief moment of reflection on TASB's own story because it mirrors the
kind of leadership Don represents. As you may or may not know TASB was formed
more than 80 years ago in the midst of World War II when military bases were
being rapidly built across the state of Texas. Almost overnight new school
districts were springing up to serve children of servicemen and women. The
Texas Education Agency simply could not keep up with the pace of that growth so
in true Texas fashion local school boards stepped up. They came together and
formed a nonprofit cooperative to support one another, share resources and
advocate for strong local governance. Today Tazby is governed by 43 locally
elected school board trustees one of which is Master Trustee Director Rebecca
Rebecca Fox, thank you for your service, that quarterly meet to set policies that guide our work and help every Texas school board, regardless of size, geography, or budget, access the tools they need to serve students well.
TASB is here to save districts money and to fight on behalf of 5.5 million Texas public school children.
And that legacy of selfless local leadership is exactly the spirit Don Champagne has brought to her leadership TASB journey.
Over the past year, Master Trustee Champagne traveled more than 2,300 miles across the state as a part of the Class of 2025, 34 other school board trustees across the state, beginning in San Antonio, then on to El Paso, Austin, College Station, and then finally ending in Fort Worth.
Along her peers, she engaged with district leaders, students, and community
stakeholders from Fort Sam Houston ISD, Randolph Field ISD, El Paso ISD, San
Elizaburgo ISD, Hutto ISD, Bryan and College Station ISD, districts that serve
more than 200,000 students and reflect the rich diverseness of our great state.
From military connected communities to border districts with over 90%
economically disadvantaged students to innovative teacher prep hubs, every
session was an opportunity to explore the promise and challenges here in Texas
public education in Texas. But here's what sets Don apart. While many districts
cover the cost of tuition and travel for the trustee, Don made a
personal decision to fully fund her participation out of her own pocket. She
chose to invest in her resources into this experience not because she had to
but because she believes in the responsibility that comes with
representing the children, teachers, family of Katie ASD and that personal
level of sacrifice speaks volumes about her character, her heart, and her deep
belief in this great institution and this vehicle for democracy that is
public education. For five sessions each lasting three to four days she stepped
away from family and the community to lean into tough conversations, deep
learning, and a kind of reflection that strengthens local governance. She just
didn't intend she fully engaged brought thoughtful questions and shared her insights generously and
her presence lifted the learning for all of us and she walked the path of a true servant leader
leadership tazmy is not for everyone it is a demanding program and is meant to stretch trustees
and prepare them to lead at the state-wide level and at the conclusion they've seen more school
districts than any of our local elected law officials have because of just the sure amount
of campuses that we cover. Don has met every challenge with integrity, humility,
and at the center, student-centered mindset. So tonight on behalf of the
TASB staff, the leadership TASB alumni community, and our board development
services division, it is my great pleasure to recognize Don Champagne as Master
Trustee and graduate of leadership TASB class of 2025. And at this time I'd like
to invite Mr. Jason Burdine, former school board president for Fort Bend ISD
and long-term leadership TASB facilitator to join me in presenting Don with her official
graduation cords and certificate.
And I'd also ask the other fellow two Master Trustees that sit on the dais, Director Master
Trustee Rebecca Fox and President Master Trustee Lance Redmond to also join us down
here to help congratulate Don as well.
Okay.
Thank you.
So in closing, Master Trustee Champaign, thank you.
Thank you for saying yes to the work.
Thank you for investing not just your time but your own resources and your
growth and thank you for reminding us that student outcomes only change when
adult behaviors change. You have made KDISD proud and you have made the
entire leadership TASB community stronger so everyone in the room please
join me once again in congratulating Master Trustee Don Champagne, proud
graduate of the Class of 2025.
Thank you, Mr. President.
Thank you, Dr. Long and Mr. Burdine.
May I say something?
Yes, Ms. Champagne.
Thank you.
I wanted to take a minute and thank you very much, Dr. Long and Mr. Burdine,
for coming out and recognizing me like this.
And I don't have much to say other than I'm very proud to have earned this,
and it was a lot of work, but it was also a lot of fun learning
and meeting all the people.
and what I want to sum up in one little sentence about the children that are
across the state of Texas is every child every day and every child and every
school district matters and and what we do really matters so I really appreciate
the rest of the school board members to all school board members actually who
are elected officials we all make a great sacrifice and I really appreciate
appreciate what I've been able to take away from that. Thank you for your time.
Mr. President, as the veteran, I keep finding myself being the really old person here,
because we have a thing, Leadership Class B 2007, best class ever, right?
Right. I learned so much while I was doing that, and it broadened my focus on all children,
from the tiniest school districts to the really super large, like we are, and how people meet those challenges.
And I just want to say about, Mr. Redman, you graduated last year, so you can be loud and proud for 2024 or 5.
2024, best class ever.
it's a huge sacrifice of time.
And for you to have paid for it yourself,
that's thousands of dollars,
and that shows your commitment to being a constant learner.
And what people might not know about you,
the way some of us do,
is that while you've been on this board,
you've been president of a national charity league,
you've been president of Aggie Moms this year
when you were doing this,
and you put on a wedding for your son and daughter-in-law
all while traveling the state
and being committed to this on top of all the volunteering we see you do around our district all the time, constantly.
And you are exactly what a school board member shows how much you care about students and learning.
Thank you for your commitment.
Thank you, and congratulations again, Ms. Champagne.
We'll now move on to Recognitions 3.2.
Dr. Grigorski, take it away.
Well if there's one thing we can see in this room there's a bunch of rhinos out
there. Rhinos are in the house today and we'll start with our newest principal
for Morton Ranch Junior High, Tanya Heard. I see her right in the middle of
that rhino pack there.
Tanya, did you bring anyone out with you today other than everybody we see there?
awesome thank you and of course uh uh to replace uh some big shoes over at rylander uh gia pack
and and gia you brought some folks out with you if you'd introduce who you brought with you there
I'm a parent, I got it from my mom, and I have a lot of friends that I have to take care of.
I have a new teacher, I have a new teacher, I have a new teacher, and I have a beautiful right now.
So I am ready to serve and love.
Thank you. Appreciate it.
Congratulations.
Now do we have any scouts in the audience tonight?
I see a scout.
Would you have a scout? Yes.
Would you like to come introduce yourself and share what badges you're working on?
Reluctantly.
If you'll come up here to the podium, we've got a microphone right there.
My name is Peter Sedero.
I'm from Troop 424.
I'm a life scout.
Just recently got it in June, July.
I'm working on communication, citizenship in the community, cooking, personal management,
and then I think that's it.
All right.
You were prepared.
I didn't even have to ask any questions.
You already knew what I was going to say.
I have a question, Mr. President.
Ms. Fogarty.
you're taking you're working on your cooking badge yes you need a taster
because I've owned my family's a great taste I guess they are okay
congratulations thank you very much
4. Public Comment/Citizen Participation
we will now move on to public comment at this time the Board of Trustees will
give members of the public an opportunity to speak in accordance with
the kdic board policy bed local as defined by board policy speakers who signed up by 2 p.m on
monday july 28 2025 provided their first and last name and signed in 15 minutes prior to 5 pm will
be allowed to address the board speakers who signed up to speak on posted agenda items will
be allowed three minutes to speak speakers that signed up to speak on non-agenda items will be
allowed three minutes to speak and if a speaker is not finished speaking at the end of their allotted
in time the audio will turn off the speakers wish to share written material
with the board please provide 10 copies to the secretary for board service
services before the meeting begins for board members superintendent our chief
communications officer and permanent records if a speaker is not attempted to
solve a matter administratively through the proper channels as stated in board
policy the presiding officers designee shall advise the speaker to seek
resolution through the appropriate policy finally pursuant to Texas
government code section 551.074 and 551.0821, the board will not permit the
presentation of personally identifiable information regarding a student and will
not discuss the appointment, employment, evaluation, reassignment, duties,
discipline, or dismissal of a public officer or employee to hear a complaint
or charge against an officer or employee. Should a speaker wish to address one of
these issues, they must do so through the appropriate local grievance policies, F&G
local, DGBA local, CKE local, or GF local.
Our speakers will be called forward in the order they sign up to speak.
So we have three speakers on non-agenda items tonight and no speakers on agenda items, so
we will move straight to non-agenda items.
Our first speaker will be Kyle Nguyen, and then we will be followed by Jackie Tai.
Kyle.
Good evening members of the board and superintendent Gregorski. My name is Kyle
Nguyen and I'm the class president at Jordan High School. I'm also an incoming
senior. Today I'm speaking on behalf of not just my peers but over 1,500
students, parents, and teachers across KDISD who signed a petition within just
two days because this issue impacts all of us. Currently, KDISD's exemption policy
counts all absences, even excused ones due to illness, against a student's
eligibility to exempt final exams. In other words, if a student is sick and
stays home with the doctor's note, that absence still penalizes them. As a result,
students who are genuinely ill are coming to school sick, afraid that
missing even one day would cost them the exemptions they've worked hard for all
semester this policy creates a system where health is placed in direct
conflict with academic achievement and in a post-coveted world that is not only
outdated it's very dangerous as class president I've had countless students
come to me frustrated and torn do they stay home and recover or show up sick to
preserve their exemption many choose the latter which leads to more illness
spreading through classrooms affecting not only students but teachers and staff
some of whom are more vulnerable to complications students feel punished for
doing the right thing that should never happen in a district that prides itself
on excellence and responsibility that's why I'm asking this board to consider a
simple and fair adjustment absences that are verified by a licensed medical
professional a doctor should not count against exemption eligibility this does
not open the door to abuse it still requires documentation it still upholds
academic accountability but it gives students the peace of mind to prioritize
their health without sacrificing their hard-earned success this would encourage
responsible behavior limit the spread of illness and reflect a district that
understands the real-world challenges that students face this isn't just about
one school or one policy it's about building a culture that values both
health and hard work I'm proud to be a part of a district that leads in
academics and opportunity I believe we now have the chance to lead in student
student wellness too please consider this proposal and help us create a safer
healthier and more supportive learning environment thank you for your time and
your commitment to all of us in Katie ISD thank you
we'll not have Jackie Thai followed by Tina Weiss
Good evening, Mr. Intervenant and my name and board member. My name is Jackie Thai. Thank you
for opportunity to speak today. I am here to vote deep concern over the way the school have handled
a recent incident involving my friend's daughter, a quiet 14-year-old girl who just moved from
Texas, from California, only four months before she was attacked.
This child was assaulted at school.
There is clear video evidence showing she did not start the fight.
She was simply trying to defend herself.
And yet, the school chose to label it as a mutual fight, punishing her as if it were
were equally responsible.
Even more shocking, she received a police ticket
and a court summons.
Worse still, no one helped her.
Not a single adult stepped in to stop violence.
Instead, bystanders pulled out their phone
to record as it were entertainment.
Is it the culture we are teaching all young
that filming someone being hurt is more important than
and protecting them.
Now this young girl is scared to return back to school.
She feels blame instead of support.
What kind of message are we sending?
That if a child is attacked, they must stay silent and still
are being punished like criminal.
What if it happened to your children
when you send them to the school and get fined like that?
There is the fundamental difference between fighting and self-defense.
And ignore that difference is not only unjust, it is dangerous.
Schools should be safe spaces, not places where victims are re-victimized.
By the very system meant to protect them.
them. I respectfully ask this board to reveal the fact, correct the discipline
record and work to remove the police citation. This child deserves justice and
all the students deserve to know they won't be punishment for defending
themselves when no one else will. Thank you for listening to me. Thank you so
much thank you miss tana weiss will be our final speaker tonight
good evening president redmond dr gregorski and board my name is tana weiss and i would like to
share some observations from last week's work study meeting. I'd like to begin with acknowledging
the leadership in this room. The collective accomplishments, experience, and knowledge of
our staff are tremendous. I am grateful to President Redmond for realizing this and
relying on their knowledge rather than using the dais as a bully pulpit. Thank you. We began so
so strong last week and then the leftovers, Ms. Cosella, Ms. Calhoun, and Ms. Teamey started in
with their usual antics. Ms. Cosella refers to every administrative staff who presents by their
first names rather than observing decorum and addressing them properly as each staff person
does when presenting to this board. Oh, and asking her usual condescending questions and using that
sarcastic tone of voice. Please use last names, Ms. Cuzela. Ms. Calhoun, who
seemed to not pay any attention to what was happening in the room, never once
looking up from her computer phone until the subject of discipline as it applies
to anti-semitism, a new policy handed down to school districts by the state
legislature was discussed and hyper focusing on what this actually means. How
How is this different from regular old racism?
So interesting.
Another hot topic you want to talk about on social media?
And I'm not even going to address your complete disrespect and disdain in your discussion with Ms. Fox last week.
And finally, Ms. Teamee, who declared during the discussion of homeschoolers being able to participate in UIL activities in Katy schools.
There's a lot of other people involved in this that we haven't consulted and I
don't think that's fair. Is this similar to your infamous informal teacher survey
that you gave to your educator friends and their friends last year? The one that
no others on the board saw? The one that provided no actual documented
information? So unfair. I look forward to the day the leftovers don't make
meetings so interesting. I wore a t-shirt to one of the meetings last spring that
red make school boards boring again i'll be happy to continue to support that look if anyone wants
a reminder the three of you make mean girls seem like a picnic compared to your treatment of this
district its employees and your current and former fellow school board members thank you
thank you this concludes the open forum of our meeting the board will now convene and
5. Closed Meeting
closed meeting is authorized under section 551.001 of the Texas Government Code for the
following purposes. Texas Government Code 551.071, 551.074, 551.076, and 551.129.
6. Reconvene from Closed Meeting – The Board will reconvene from Closed Meeting.
The board will now reconvene in open meeting.
Today is Monday, July 28, 2025, and the time is 7.57 p.m.
On behalf of my colleagues, I welcome everybody to this evening's regular board meeting.
Each board member received the agenda and documentation for this meeting on Thursday, July 24, 2025.
We will receive information and recommendations from staff, administration, and the superintendent
on these agenda items at tonight's meeting.
Board members will be able to take questions, receive answers, and should be prepared to
take action.
The board has just reconvened from closed meeting in accordance with chapter 551 of
the Texas government code and any actions arising from discussions in the closed meeting
must be taken in an open meeting.
We will now move on to area seven on our agenda, reports.
7.1 2025-2026 Budget Update
And that would be 7.1 2025-2026 budget update.
But our presenter will be Mr. Chris Smith, our chief financial officer.
All right.
Well, good evening, Superintendent Grigorski, President Redmond, trustees.
I'm here to give you an update.
And I told you last month that this would be a little quicker than last month.
and then it'll be August will be even quicker because we won't go into any
more details with the budget process again we adopt our budget in August a
lot of a school districts around us are I think 40% across the state have
already adopted their budgets that started July 1 or start September 1 so
here we are on the budget timeline and we're in July tonight one of the goals
being to maintain a balanced budget and cut to the chase we don't do that but
but I'll elaborate about non concerns when we get there maintain a competitive
compensation plan I think it was published in one of the media a few
weeks ago that we're right there at the very tippy top on compensation plan
which is good we want to maintain our health plan and avoid getting the TRS
active care and that accomplishes that we have a high priority on student state
staff safety and of course we're opening Boudin and cross elementary schools tax
rate we got our information from the appraisal districts on Friday Thursday
and Friday we got one appraisal district after five o'clock or at five o'clock on
Friday afternoon sent us the stuff that's been incorporated in here we
wanted to get as close as we could to to that this the appraisal districts must
provide you certified values on July the 25th also on July the 25th TEA opened
their portal to do the maximum compressed rate we've worked that
that through the numbers and we stay at the floor. Uh, our tax rate is not gonna
move downward. Uh, like at one point I thought nobody's is because we're at
the floor, the floor didn't move or didn't get lowered because of the
homestead exemption of additional $40,000. So, um, looks like we were
gonna probably be recommending the same. Well, we will be. I will be
recommending the same tax rate but when you adopt the tax rates in September and
that's what this budget is built upon favorable changes that have happened for
the 2526 budget interest income interest income we thought we're going to be
headed down we're going to be amending the 20 the budget we're currently in
next month upwards from a revenue standpoint because rates have not gone
down but because they're staying steady and well above 4% that's going to help
property value audits. We still have those in our back pocket. We're working on one from the 21,
I'm sorry, the 22 tax year. And then we'll have the 23 one. The 22 tax year should be wrapped up
and submitted within the next 10 days. And then we'll start working on the 23 tax year. And that
will be, that will generate some money. But those numbers aren't in this budget because those are
one-offs and they're too hard to predict and they're they're not something that I
would I would recommend putting in a budget because they're too unpredictable
additional legislative funding that was delivered in House bill 2 we talked
about that at length I won't go as in much detail but of course it provided
the teacher and staff pay raises provided some special education funding
for things that we were already doing provided some literacy early literacy
funding for K through three school safety funding a little but doubled of
course it increased the basic allotment of $55 and the teacher incentive
allotment got more money in it and has grown become a lot larger part of our
budget moving forward unfavorable changes again we're budgeting only a 500
something 524 student increase our Roman has slowed our growth has slowed I hope
that as the year finished out that that's probably a conservative number
and when we open school in September but more like well in August but once
September rolls around it'll be a real of what enrollment looks like I hope
that it's above the 524 student increase and I'm comfortable
but it will be.
Health insurance is unfavorable.
We keep getting health insurance across the country continues to rise.
And, of course, the inflationary impacts that we've been speaking about.
And you could also probably put a forward slash inflationary and tariff impacts when you're talking about those.
But some of the things that we're using as assumptions, look at that.
The basic allotment did change.
There's that $55 increase to $62.15 from last year to this year.
At one point in old law, that golden penny yield was going to go from $1.2952 up to $1.34.
That didn't happen.
They used that growth money to stick towards the basic allotment.
So that's staying stagnant now.
Enrollment, you see the 524 student increase.
We are still one of the fastest growing school districts.
I think I told you just a month or two ago that we were the fastest.
TEA published it just last month.
We're the number two growing school district.
We gained over a six-year period of time a little over 12,000 students.
A district in the North Texas area actually grew more this time.
So the first time that I can remember, we're not the fastest growing.
growing. Of course, taxable values, you see that big red 2.1% decrease. It's not a decrease in
property values. What that is is reflective of the increase in the homestead exemption of $40,000.
When the CADs gave us their information, they were required to give it with the $40,000
increase in the homestead exemption. If you peeled that off, it would be about a little over a 5%
gain in values but because you put the $40,000 on all the residences and about
70% ish of our budget as of our taxable values in residences it actually knocks
us down and that's indicative of every school district like ours that has a
large percentage of homesteads of course the state pays for that too it makes up
for that loss in value or the loss in tax revenues and you'll see that here in
the slider too and then of course it also the the teacher salary increases
that you approved last month are at twenty five hundred and five thousand
dollars for teachers and three percent for the rest of the staff in the
district I'm required to say this but as the state as local taxes go up or down
the state counterbalances that and you can see the fulcrum there I almost
didn't change this number because it's been stuck that way at 6160 but i changed it at 6215 that's
the new basic allotment and again those counterbalance values grow a whole bunch
state funding goes down if values tank in a district state funding goes up but they go
they're fulcrumed around sixty two thousand and fifteen dollars uh this is just another way of
looking at it. Mr. Hines dropped these numbers in at 62% now. This time last year it was 55 and 45,
but because of the state increasing the property values, I mean the homestead exemption,
this draft of the budget shows about 62% coming from the state and 38%. So the state's actually
putting in more money towards that 62-15 basic allotment. Here's a summary of the general fund.
that's our ending fund balance from our audit last year at $364 million.
Shows revenues of $1,128,000,000 and expenses of $1,150,000,000
and a transfer out that's to the health fund of $3 million to keep that
healthy. But that shows a net change to fund balance of $25.4
million dollars or use of fund balance again I've tried to be very transparent
and to say that we under spend our expenditure budget is a backstop and a
limit this district has not usually spent to the limit we under spend most
of that's in staffing because when you have staff turnover it just doesn't they
They don't leave one day and somebody start the next day.
Unfortunately, it takes a while, and in a district our size, we have underspending.
The budget is built on as if everybody was in every position all the time.
And so we will have underspending.
And then departments don't spend their budgets.
They do if they're going to need to, but most of the time, even though we've reduced budgets,
people are in this district are frugal there we're a conservative district they
don't want to spend their entire just because they have it they're not going
to go spend it that's not happening in this district and so we underspend so
I'm not concerned about using that fund balance at all if we do use fund balance
it'll be very little because of our historic underspending and again from a
revenue standpoint it there's just too unpredictable for me to predict but
But there are things that we will do, like the one-time audit, the property value audit from 2023.
I think that will yield some pretty good numbers.
But because I don't know when that will be delivered, will it be delivered in the 25-26 budget or the 26-27 budget, I have no way of knowing.
Nor am I or my staff able right now to tell what it will yield anyway.
We won't know that until later in the fall.
But it is going to yield something.
It's just so it's not stuck in the budget.
It's not put in the budget.
So we would end, if we did use all of that, it's 338.
We would end the year with a $338 million or $339 million fund balance,
which is still a very healthy fund balance, well over three months fund balance.
General fund, just as a simple look at it,
89% of the spend that comes out of the general fund goes to salary and benefits, 89%.
So we do a whole lot of work for the 11% of non-payroll.
And, for example, Mr. Veerling, the utility budget, we're adding two new schools.
And the type of things that Mr. Fuchs and Mr. Veerling are doing with our utilities, the utility budget didn't have to rise.
We were able to add those two new schools through reductions that we were saving in kilowatt hours.
And those are just that's one example of many that this district's administration is trying to do to keep that blue section
under control, especially in the time of unknowns with tariffs and inflation.
A little bit more detailed, really, it's only there to show you how that other that blue piece of the pie is divided in service and utilities.
It's the larger portion of that. That is utilities by and large is the largest portion of that. Utilities is our second largest item in the budget. Then you would slip over to the supplies and materials. That's not school supplies. That's probably fuel for buses is probably number three. Software also is up there. Software has become a very large portion of our budget.
it food service fund and now I want to go back and and and make a one comment
about those values that we received again the CAD's are required to send
that to us by law on July the 25th we received them on Thursday the 24th and
after five o'clock on the 25th we got we got one of the cats two hours ago and we
We were in this meeting, and we got word from one of the CADs that there's already a mistake,
and they're sending us re-information.
That kind of upsets me because Kayla Smith and Jamie Hines spent a large portion of their weekend
trying to run these numbers through, and we find out right before this that there's an error in one of the CADs.
They always change.
There's no way that a week from now those numbers would be the same,
But we thought we had it to where what you saw tonight would be the latest and greatest and it is
But we'd already have it and so those numbers will be moving
Between now and this time next year believe it or not and but a lot of work by those two have gone into this
And and doing this stuff that MCR requires with TEA a lot of work on their parts to get that dent done and
It's fluid
it. So the food service fund starts out with a 26 million dollar fund balance
and you've heard me say that's too much. According to the Texas Department of
Agriculture and the the federal, I'm not thinking of it now, but they basically
say that you have too much fund balance and so we're trying to spin that down.
It's not going to work out to where we're going to spend down much of it
But this year, the year we're currently in, this shows a $9 million deficit.
Again, I'm telling you, that's a backstop, and I think that that's probably a conservative number, and it will not be that kind of spend.
We need to spend that kind of fund balance.
But, again, you don't want to overstaff and do those kind of things and do it too aggressively because at some point you'll have to take your foot off the gas.
to spend and that makes it tougher but we're trying to spend it down we're
making a conscious effort of getting that down but it will not go down nine
million dollars as we move through the year and then our debt service fund
again fresh off the press the additional state aid I'm sorry let me let me back
up and say we have a very very healthy fund balance at 65 million dollars debt
service fund balance the property values that we receive Friday if you look at
what we think we're going to get on taxes on those. It's $215 million. That's less than last
year. But again, the state, when they raised the homestead exemption, homeowners pay less on their
value. Their taxable value goes down by $40,000. So our levy goes down. That $215 million is lower
than it was a year ago because of that. But the state makes up for it in that ASAHI acronym,
additional state aid for homestead exemption. So they try to make up the difference. It doesn't
appear as the tool that we have is though state is making up the difference. I think that over time
that we're going to get more ASAHI probably to the tune somewhere between a dollar and four
million dollars. I know that sounds like a big window, but I think four million dollars, up to
four million dollars is going to come as they continue to update the tools that school districts
districts use. Again, it's just not even 30 days ago that we had this stuff put into law, and it's
still all kind of coming through with rulemaking and et cetera, et cetera, and the tools that we
use. So I think that may go up. Again, right now it's probably the worst case scenario, but we just
don't know for sure. Principal payments would be $143 million. Interest payments, $113. Fees won't
be that much at $390,000. That's really just a placeholder. Fees are a very small portion,
very small, depending on if we do a refunding, arbitrage calculations, the
fees for paying agent fees, etc. But it won't be that much. $256 million, that
does show an $8.3 million use to fund balance. I will say that again with more
ASAHI, that should be, it'll be less as we move forward and get a little bit more
more information from the state on the tool. It should be less, may not be. We
had to sell the bonds in order to get the assault to maximize our Asahi or the
state funding. We sold 450 million dollars worth of bonds and we did it
before we knew the values or before Friday of last week in order to make a
payment in August. So we got very aggressive with the principal payment. So
So the good news is, from a taxpayer standpoint, we're going to pay a lot of principal on that payment that was due the first year.
So it's going to save taxpayers dollars.
We're going to use some fund balance, but we're going to save taxpayers dollars.
And I want to be clear on that because we're borrowing it for a short period of time.
Had we sold bonds a little later in the summer like we normally would have, if it weren't for the Senate Bill 4, we would have sold less bonds.
and we probably would have not been that aggressive, but we didn't know. We wanted
to make sure we maximized ASAHI for taxpayers because what we sold back in
June, we'll get the benefits of Senate bill for ASAHI money for the
remainder of those bonds. If we didn't sell those bonds, we would not get ASAHI,
even if we sold them in six months from now or whenever, they would never be
eligible for that Asahi money. So it was a good thing for taxpayers. We did get
aggressive on the payment so we will use some fund balance, plenty of fund balance
to use. And we're saving taxpayer dollars. So there's a look of all three funds.
You'll see this formally next month when I present to talk to you about the
budget. Four and twelve million dollars in ending fund balances, again that's a
conservative number, probably worst case that we'll not use that kind of fund
balance. Future consideration is the ongoing rulemaking at TEA. You know
there's the redoing of the funding formulas that start in 25-26. I don't
have a clue what that rulemaking is going to look like. That's going to
affect next year's budget, doesn't affect this budget, but that's just one example
of big things that we're making that are moving through the system, if you will,
that we're waiting for clarification to come out from the Texas Education
agency and some interpretations of some of these laws already still there's it's
fluid right now long-term legislative decisions you know there's there's caps
on several of the items that generate our funding depending on enrollment
statewide some of those caps could the the pressure on those caps could lessen
and our funds could go up or vice versa could get more uh like like the fast growth allotment if
school districts continue to grow and they grow so much that it's prorated down further so right
now we're losing out of this budget if if there was not a cap on the fast growth allotment we're
losing about seven million eight million dollars because there's a cap that could get squeezed in
in a future year or lighten up if enrollment growth statewide slows down.
But right now we're losing that money.
So that's just things to consider that your staff is watching out for to try to at least
know what's ahead on the road that's a good obstacle or a bad obstacle.
Tax rates, again, that's all being set by TEA this week through the survey that opened
on Friday and closes on August the 1st at midnight. So 1159 August the 1st it
closes and everybody's going to pretty much know their their maintenance and
operations tax rate. That's really set by TEA. Enrichment pennies are done at
local boards and that'll be 11.03 cents on top of the maximum compressed rate.
And then of course the debt service rate as you know going back to February the
The plan is at 39 cents, and so this budget is built on a 39-cent debt rate.
Federal funding continues to change.
We're riding a roller coaster these last couple, three weeks.
June 30th, we found out that the Office of Management and Budget were withholding $6 billion nationally.
That was $690 million-ish for the state of Texas, or about $6 million to Katy ISD.
It's kind of weird, all those sixes there.
But there was optimism that they would back off of that since those funds were appropriated
by an act of Congress and those have, we found out Friday, been introduced back in.
So that helps our Title II, Title III, Title IV grants.
We had a plan to work off of those.
Again, we have carry forward, which is kind of like fund balance, which is going to help
ease that sudden loss of revenue.
But that's going to continue for this next year.
And the district administration between now and then will try to come up with another plan
because it's probably not going to be added back this time next year.
And so this time next year we may be in a position where we thought we'd be, where we were last week.
But that gives those programs, us as management, to try to figure out the smallest impact to those children
and those programs that those reductions are going to make.
So we got a whole year of planning back.
And then, of course, you're going to see a big hit to our SHARS funding.
Is that going to get hit again?
I don't know.
But it's been hit $12 million over the last two years,
and this budget is reflective of that reduction in our general fund.
There's our timeline from this point forward.
Tonight is Monday, July the 28th, where you're getting your update.
date you're going to prove the ability for me to publish the notice in the
paper tonight hopefully and then in early August August the second really we
know it right now because we already worked the numbers through the maximum
compressed rate through tea a tea a will close that on 1159 on August the first
and then basically make those official.
And that's the largest portion of our tax rate.
On August the 7th, we'll publish in the paper as required and on our website
the meeting that will be in this room on August the 18th at 5 o'clock
to discuss the final budget and the tax rate that it's built on.
That's a public hearing, and we're required to put that in the paper.
And so that'll be published on August the 7th and on our website.
And then on August the 18th, we'll have that meeting.
And then on Monday, September the 22nd, you'll make action to adopt the tax rates formally from a local standpoint.
That's what the notice is going to say.
Again, 5 p.m. August the 18th.
In this room, we're going to discuss the final deal of the budget.
So that closes up July and next month it'll be briefer than tonight because
you've seen this ad nauseum and I get it and it won't change much hopefully what
we found out today from that other county won't change much and I think
we're pretty close on other things that the state is still making decisions on.
So there'll be tweaks but it shouldn't be anything draconian and with that I'll
I'll be glad to answer any questions you may have.
Thank you, Mr. Smith.
Board, any questions?
Mr. President.
Ms. Deeney.
Mr. Smith, thank you for that.
I just wanted to ask you about our $25 million deficit in our general fund.
Do you have an estimate on what the property audit might be and when you'll know that?
that? Well, the one that we're finalizing that'll be submitted in the next 10 days should generate
about a million dollars. It's not in next year's budget, and it'll probably be delivered next year.
It could happen this year, but if the money comes before October the 30th, it'll be in our
fund balance this year. I don't know. I think the odds are it will be in next year's budget,
but I won't know that because a lot of it has to do with how long it takes the comptroller to work
it through then they send it to TEA and TEA has a budget also so sometime they'll hold those audits
and pay it in the next fiscal year because they've run out of money believe it or not they do
because they have a budget and so they make those decisions based on uh on their budget so uh that's
why it's impossible for me to know but uh the i'll tell you that the 21 audit that we did was
was a very fruitful audit and it generated $16 million.
You've already amended our general operating fund budget
to reflect that $16 million in the year we're in.
That cash has already been delivered.
It was delivered in December.
But again, if they didn't have budget,
we'd be waiting on it still
and it would come after September 1
when they start their new budget.
So that's why it's very hard to predict.
But that was a $16 million.
What the 23 audit will generate,
I don't know at this time. I'm sorry. I do not and I'm not
I bet my staff is good enough
To know but again, that's a moving target
It moves every day what the reports that we run would change the next the very next day
So we're gonna run those as late as we can
Sometime this fall and I say as lazy we we're gonna wait probably till a new month reports come in and then run it and
and then we'll work it through.
It'll probably happen in the 25, 26 school year,
or the funds that it generates.
But I can't, I'm not confident enough to budget for y'all,
and that wouldn't be fair, especially because it's a one-time deal.
If that $16 million had been in the budget from last year,
at the beginning, you wouldn't have had a very big deficit,
and everybody would have rocked along going,
hey, we've got a great budget, structurally sound.
No, it's not structurally sound.
There's a one-time big anomaly in it,
And that's what I'm trying to avoid.
I would love to be able to put that in there, but people will forget.
It's a one-time anomaly.
And so I think it's better to talk to you about we're going to underspend.
And there are things out there you're going to have to trust me on that so the fund balance won't be that bad.
But there are tools out there that management is looking into, and we will do, and it will be better.
Do you have a range of what you're expecting?
I do not. I do not.
Okay, because $24 million seems really high, especially because I know President Redmond said he'd like to run a balanced budget this year.
Yeah, well, last year we adopted a $27 million deficit, and I told you confidently last month that I think we're going to have a surplus.
And I do think we're going to have a surplus, because just in payroll alone in your financial reports, we're underspending by 2%.
and that's going to be over $20 million that we're underspending in the budget that we're currently in.
And, again, all things the same, I think we'll have underspending in the budget that you'll be approving next month.
Can I sign that in my blood?
No, I can't because I don't know.
Hopefully we're fully staffed and nobody goes on any type of medical leave and everybody stays
because that's what's better for kids.
the trends show we're gonna underspend and that's a backstop and then again mr.
Hines mostly and myself when in doubt we try to be conservative and so when
you're seeing the final amended budget next month we got our PEMS numbers as
our student numbers those were submitted to TEA just a couple of weeks ago as we
work those through we looked at them and when you go back and you look and you're
You're trying to take 96,000 kids and what types of programs they're in, and that's a 3% enrollment growth.
But CTE grew, FTEs grew 11.
Special ed students grew 12.
But you don't know, and so we try to look at trends and develop our best projection.
But when in doubt, we're conservative because what we don't want to do is go, oh, okay, wow, we have a lot less than we budgeted.
And so when in doubt, we're conservative.
And so I'm comfortable that as things kind of progress through this next school year, that we'll be conservative again.
I hope.
I can't tell you that for sure.
Okay.
On the 2025-2026 slide for the debt service fund, you show an 8.3 deficit.
I know that's just a temporary.
Temporary? So when do you foresee the general fund being made whole by that deficit that we're running temporarily there?
I'm sorry, you're asking about the general fund or the debt service fund?
Well, yeah, because you said in your presentation, you said y'all were using that money from the general fund.
No, no, no, we're not using any money for the general fund to help debt service.
Debt service is out there on its own, and we use the 39-cent tax rate, and that goes to payback bonds.
What we did is when we had to have the sale early in order to play, sounds bad, play by the rules,
but in order to generate the dollars for Asahi and protect the taxpayers of this district by maximizing state funds,
we had to make a payment decision, and I got very aggressive with that payment in order to maximize state aid for the next 25 years.
Very aggressive, but again, that's a good thing for taxpayers, and I'll tell you that since we're paying that much more principal, that's less interest that we'll pay moving on over those next 25 years.
So it was a good thing from less interest paid and more Asahi moving forward, but that was at the cost of, in hindsight now, fund balance.
We have a healthy fund balance and I also think that again since that tools being massaged that it could be four million dollars better than that
by this time next month or when they finally tweak that tool. It's pretty complicated.
Right. And I tell you Mr. Hines has done a fantastic job of figuring this stuff through but we know there's something out of kilter there.
We just don't know how they're going to fix it over there and put it in our tool to fix it.
But I'm not going to say I think they're wrong and they're going to give you a false number and have to back off of that next month.
So what I'm saying is you use, just to make sure I understand what you're saying, you use 8.3 from the general fund to make that payment?
No, fund balance of the debt service fund.
Debt service funds start in the year at $65 million and will end the year at $56 million because we're going to use fund balance as you see it now.
Again, I don't think it will be that much.
But it's a good thing, double good for taxpayers, even if we do.
Okay, got it.
Thank you.
Questions?
All right.
Well, thank you, Mr. Smith.
7.2 Progress Report on the Student Attendance Incentive Initiative.
We'll move on to item 7.2, a progress report on the Student Attendance Ascendant Initiative.
This is the student representative, presenter Jamie Hines, our assistant superintendent of finance.
and dr. Emily Craig good evening president Redmond and dr. Gorski and
board of trustees we are here today to give you an update regarding our attend
today achieve tomorrow student attendance incentive plan just as kind
of some background we started talking about this plan during the 22-23 school
school year brought that information to the school board in the summer of 2023 and so this is our
update at the conclusion here of our second year of implementing this plan and noticing that we
wanted to make sure that we could coming back out of the pandemic and those post-pandemic times as
we're looking in 22 how can we make sure we make sure kids are in the seats because we know that
attendance and students in attendance is the best thing we can do to help student achievement so
just kind of updating you all that we have done that um i am here presenting but i would like to
give some some shout out to mr ronnie edwards who has been spearheading this with um jamie
hines for the last two years and as you know we talked last month that we have shifted some of
our responsibilities so I'm here presenting to you but he along with all
of the assistant superintendents as well as our campus principals have been
instrumental in making this happen so kind of just a refresher for you as well
how does it benefit students we have incentives that have been distributed to
the campus budgets where principals can
then utilize that distribution to support additional student attendance
incentives engagement academic success that they have with students on their
campuses they may be provided at a whole campus level grade level or individual
classroom levels and so really looking at how can we incentivize what that
looks like in order to continue to keep it right at the forefront even more so
for our campuses. It starts really with branding and messaging. So just to give
you some examples of things, that poster right in the middle, the attend today
achieve tomorrow, is a poster on behalf of our communications department. That
poster hangs in each of our campuses. It also hangs here at the ESC. You may have
seen that around. Just keeping that message at the forefront because we know
that when students are not in the classroom every day that they are
missing classes compounded with academic achievement loss so we want to make sure
that we're keeping that at the forefront of that conversation you'll see some
some messages that campuses have put out incentivizing that recognizing students
for their attendance keeping those totals at the forefront of conversation
as well as you'll see some different strategies from some of our campuses
with how do they recognize students for perfect attendance you'll see their
Kilpatrick recognizing that as of September 6 you know their daily
attendance being over 97% and just having opportunities to really make sure
we're recognizing those students who are in attendance and and our families who
are helping make sure that happens as well good evening I'm just going to talk
a little bit about how the attendance incentive works. I know we've presented this to this body
over the last couple of years, but just going into a little bit of detail about how it has worked and
then what we're going to do moving forward. Each campus for the past two years receives an ADA
improvement plan, which is essentially a piece of paper and it's really got kind of three main
components to it it's got their historical ADA or attendance rates as
well as what their goal is for this next year and then it's got the attendance
incentive that comes out of what happens at the end of the year and at the
semester this is given to them at the beginning of the year and then each six
weeks it's updated with how the campus is doing so they're able to see their
historical attendance rates up next to each of their six weeks rates and see
how they're doing and then at the end of each semester and at the end of the year
the scorecard actually has the financial component the incentive component of how
much they earn and again each campus is only competing against itself they're
really working to their goal is to improve their prior year attendance rate
and by doing so as long as the entire district makes an improvement in ADA
the campuses will receive an incentive that incentive is based on how much they
improve their ADA and then at the at the end of the year they get the final
scorecard and the amount that is on that depending on how well they've they've
improved actually goes into their following year budget because we don't
want them to get those those monies over the summer and not have enough time to
spend them because some of them are fairly substantial so that goes into their september
one budget they know exactly how much it is and they're able to plan for that now that it's been
going for a couple of years it's really worked out well because they can start using those to
incentivize doing better the following year on attendance some of the tools that have been
developed and i want to call out dr alane's team and mr james crider's team our business
intelligence department has built internal technology tools dashboards
like this the campuses are able to look at their attendance and their ad a rates
day by day and see exactly where they're at and actually look at at where they're
at compared to last year and their last five years so that they can track and
keep up with where they're at this is that's one of the components that gives
those campuses what they need also our counseling department has the raw we
system, which is something that campuses are able to use to drill down and look at individual
student attendance information.
This helps them deal with truancy and with chronic absenteeism and just really get into
the numbers at the individual student level.
So the outcomes, this is the best part about this presentation for me, is looking at how
well it's done.
The last two years, the actual ADA increase has been over 0.8%, 0.6% last year.
And then remember, we're building on already very high attendance rates in KDISD compared to most large districts.
And then another 0.2% on top of that this year.
Really what it means, because this isn't about finances and money, it means that more kids are in class every day.
And that's that's what we're working toward and that means
Over 700 kids these these two years worth of attendance incentives have brought us to the point that we're putting over
700 more kids on the campus every single day and so that's that's a big number as we all know as dr. Craig pointed out
Attendance leads to success in academics, and that's what we're here for
obviously
Obviously, another great component, what I look at fiscally is how well that works out.
And we've distributed to the campuses over those two years close to $3 million, over $2.75 million.
And what that means to the district is over $5 million per annum every year moving forward if we maintain that rate.
And so that's why we're looking to 2025 and 2026 is how can we keep the momentum and the success of this program and continue it.
And we know we can't do that by just assuming that everybody's going to keep increasing.
The truth is we have some campuses that have such high ADA percentage rates that there's almost no way for them to go up.
So we're going to modify the plan this year and start looking at a maintenance part of the plan.
So those campuses that have already super high attendance rates, we want to reward them for maintaining that and not just increasing.
So there'll be an additional component this year
that will introduce to the plan so that we've got campuses who can continue to do well and still receive some incentive. If they're able to
stay high, increase, and
maintain, they'll be able to get both components.
So we're looking forward to being able to release that to principals over the next few weeks.
So we're working through that right now, but any campus essentially that's over our district average will look at giving some sort of a maintenance component
And those are the the key parts of the attend today achieve tomorrow
Initiative and it's been very successful. I just want to say thank you to this body because the last two years you've
Let us move forward and you all helped us come up with it in the beginning and it's been very successful
we appreciate it you can answer any questions if you go thank you board any
questions mr. president miss champagne I love this and I was so happy when mr.
Edwards and you mr. Hines put this together and then also I love being at
some TASB events and having people talk about Katie I see that are we're just
other school board members from around the state who saw some kind of
presentation about that and i really like being the leader of this and it's such a positive thing
so as we know and you know we're sick of hearing about the whole covet thing and all that and i
was looking at that chart and if you i know you've noticed this but on the 2019 2020 school year
the attendance went up because i think we were waving the attendance and so then we had like
100 attendance or something like that isn't that correct yes ma'am that was because we had gone
asynchronous and so everybody was in class that they logged on. So that was
great for those kids right? Although there were some very negative things too
about not being in school and I was like there's two things I want to know. First
of all data related is there any data that we have that showed that the
there's a correlation between the higher attendance in schools equals the
the higher campus performance?
That's one question.
Yes, and that's one of the things
that's represented on that poster
that we have hanging in there,
is kind of what those hours of missed attendance,
how they aggregate up to a lack of success.
So the more we're in school,
that the better we achieve academically.
So we could get you very specific data if you'd like that,
but we have seen that our students who are in attendance
every day. We know they're sitting in front of the very best teachers and getting that instruction
right there face to face. That's something that we pride ourselves on. And so them being there
in person has definitely been beneficial for them. And the other second part of that question,
if you don't mind, is can you name a few things other than the performance that is
is beneficial to children being in the classroom
and being at the school, especially our public schools?
Well, I mean, I think there's a number of things
that are really great, right, about our schools
and what we have to offer with that too.
And so, you know, being in attendance allows students,
besides the academic exposure that they have,
it allows them with the extracurricular exposure
and opportunities that they have to participate
in things with that as well.
And so we know a lot of kids do come to school
for their extracurricular activities
and those sorts of things.
That's definitely an incentive for some kids,
certainly was an incentive for my kids too.
But we know ultimately this picture is representative
of what we hope for any of those programs
is that end of year 12 when there's that celebration going on
and they have made success
success and thinking about what's for their future so so it's good for kids to
obviously we've proven this you know not just Katie I see but I mean it's been
proven over and over again throughout the state throughout the country
probably throughout the world that is beneficial for children to be at at the
school you know they develop all kinds of social type things and not just
academics, but social, I don't know, skills, all kinds of communication type things, just
on and on and on and on to things.
I just wanted to make sure that all those things are pointed out.
It's not just about the money.
It's about the overall performance and quality of life that these children have and will
continue to have as adults.
And so I really really admire what you've done and I can't wait to see what else is out there for our district
Any more questions for
Thank you very much
I'm sorry. There's one. I'm so sorry. No more thing one more thing. I think it would be fun for us to see
the, you know, you do show the one screen or two screens of the different things, because
I hear every once in a while the little, like I remember there was somebody that they let
the kids throw water balloons at the principal, or if they all came on that certain Friday
or something like that, and those things are so cute and fun, and I think it would be nice
if somehow every once in a while we could get some kind of information about that.
I don't know even not just maybe to the board but maybe I don't know district
wide communication or something like that it's kind of fun information I mean
it's just like a positive little thing you know a lot of our campuses utilize
their social media as ways to to get that message out it's where our parents
are being able to see that whether that's on their Facebook page or through
their PTA or any of the other ways with social media and a lot of times in our
our KDIC communications department does pick that up as a way to showcase kind of those those
positive things that are happening on campus okay and I love that but what's good is for those
schools who are successful at it and they're having some kind of throw the water thing at the
principal for all the schools to see that and all the other parents and all the other kids
so that they can you know copy that idea at their school or whatever or you know some parent can say
hey you know that's a great idea we should do that at our school or something so not just not just on
the campus by campus basis and and as far as campus sharing that information we do have opportunities
for that both with our when we bring principal groups together or assistant principals together
for them to be able to talk about best practices on their campus and very often it is those kinds
of things what are you doing what has been successful so that they can share what that
has worked and so very just in the summer i think some elementary principals got together and we're
talking about some of those things so providing that opportunity for principals to collaborate
on not just this but other best practices on their campuses as part of our regular practice
okay just one last thing but i know but i want everyone to know about it not just the
principals and not just the you know what i mean it's a thing i think that the whole
district should brag about not just amongst principals or not just amongst each campus
that's just my opinion but i think it's so great i just want to share it with everybody
any more questions or comments board all right thank you we'll now move on to agenda item 7.3
7.3 Utilities Management: Strategies to Lower Costs and Improve Efficiency
utilities management strategies to lowers costs and improve efficiency presenters ted
bierling our chief operations officer and nathan fuchs senior executive director of operations
all right good evening president resmond board members dr gregorski what we think is really
exciting is big giant checks and what Nathan has been saying for years is Ted
how do we get these big giant checks in front of the board and so here we are
tonight so Chris and his team do a fantastic job making lemonade lemonade
lemonade out of lemons and the previous presentation same thing right what can
we do what can maintenance and operations do to make this budget a
little more palatable what can we do to get more money back in the GOF and
And that's what we're here to present tonight.
A couple of guys I want to recognize.
You know Nathan, and he's here all the time.
Gerald Cutler is our Director of Building Automation and Commissioning.
If anybody knows what that is, there's extra points for you.
And Jay Bonham is our Energy Manager for the district.
These guys, along with a very small team, do a fantastic job.
And let me get to the slideshow.
Sorry about that.
Do a fantastic job of saving money for our district.
And I do want to thank the board and I thank our community.
A big part of how we're able to do this is by hiring guys that know what they're doing
and then working through bond elections and replacing old equipment with new equipment
and that's how we're able to do the stuff that we do.
So I've got the first, the intro slide, and then I've got this slide.
Nathan wouldn't let me talk about the rest of the stuff because it's just way too technical.
But I do want you to look at a couple of things on this slide.
As Chris mentioned in his presentation, we've added campuses.
Since 2017, I think Lisa, between 15-20 campuses we've added and we have a
lower utility bill today than we did in 2018. So if you look down there to that
total cost, that last blue line, in 2018 we're at 18 million in utilities and
if you go across there we're at now 16.8. That's a huge feat there.
A lot of work, again, support from you guys in the community.
And then if you look at the square footage, 13 million, 13.5 million square foot in 2018.
And now in 2025, we're at 16.5 million.
And again, we're spending less.
Mark Teed, our former executive director of maintenance, started this years ago.
He swore we got to get down to $1 a square foot.
We got to, we got to, we got to.
He'd be proud to know that this team has been able to do that.
And I'm going to turn the rest of this over to Nathan, and he's going to explain briefly how his team makes it happen.
Thank you, Mr. Verling.
So what are we doing to get to those numbers is what you're asking yourself.
So here are some of the key initiatives that are driving energy efficiency.
Central plant optimization and component replacements, that's when we go in and we change out chillers and we change out pumps.
HVAC and lighting schedule management.
management. This is no different than when you leave your house during the day. You cut your
lights off, you turn your air conditioning up. We do the same thing for the district. We go in and
behind the scenes, we're looking at systems that we can adjust after hours, ensuring that they're
being ran efficiently. Changing out BMCS systems. When we go in, we change the brains of older
antiquated assistance to where they're operating efficiently. Continuous commissioning for peak
system performance when buildings are designed when mrs. Kassman goes in and
designs a new building or renovation you know our engineers that we consult with
are designing buildings that operate efficiently over time those buildings
lose less and less efficiency so we go in and we ensure that valves aren't
stuck closed or valves are open and our systems aren't calling for higher or
cold air at the same time so that continuous commissioning is important as
buildings age moving down a little bit preventative maintenance to reduce
equipment failure and downtime. Our M&O department has a very robust, active and
robust program to change out filters, clean coals, clean coon tires, no
different than you would do with your car, keeping up with maintenance. And
then when we bring roofing projects and window projects to you with components,
we not only, when we do roof change outs, we're looking at that total building
envelope. It doesn't make sense to put new air conditioning systems in and put
put new roofs on if all the air conditioning systems going out the window. So we redo the
glazing, we do redo the caulking to ensure that that total building envelope is efficient and
effective. And then at the end, auditing and reporting for system efficiency. We have a small
team that goes out mainly on weekends and looking at systems. We have a systems overview that can
bring up district campuses, how if they're running where they're not supposed to, if there's a
reservation that's actually not there, we adjust those systems accordingly. So really just looking
at at it from an auditing standpoint other things that we do from as you see
in front of you tonight is this is an example back 23 24 and 25 you can see
the incremental increase of rebate monies this that is example of a score
program but we're really this these are free programs that we take advantage of
and this is the kind of order magnitude of monies that we are getting back these
These actually come in checks to us throughout the year.
Other programs, as you see up there, actually is credited to our utility budgets on a monthly basis.
As you can see, since 2017, we have received about $4.2 million over that time period.
So a very significant amount of money.
Just really taking advantage of programs that are out there and maximizing those programs.
Moving down a little bit to financial planning and support.
Again, as we bring projects to you on a monthly basis, when we look at that kind of stuff, having board approval for utility purchases during favorable market conditions.
Back in December, we came to you with one of our consultants to look at utility, specifically electric cost.
On the next slide, I'll go into that a little bit more.
And utilizing bond funding to enable critical component upgrades.
grades if you look at the 21 bond versus a 23 bond so some rough numbers out
there 50 million versus over 100 million with component chains outs this is this
is very important as systems age they reach in the lifecycle for replacement
programs we stay on a proactive approach whether it's a generators of chiller or
roof or whatever we'd like to stay on on top of that to avoid a catastrophic
traffic failures. So when we look at the cost breakout for our utility, our electrical cost,
more or less looking at a bill on a monthly basis, you have two components of that.
You have a TDSP charge and you have a REP charge. REP is a contracted rate. Right now,
our current rate is 3.5 cents per kilowatt hour. That rate is locked in until May of 2027.
each cent of increase equivalents to $1.63 million in cost.
So if we had to go out on the market tomorrow,
the average kind of market price right now is 5.5 kilowatts.
So it's a significant increase,
and so that's why we like to stay on the forefront
and be proactive and look for areas of opportunities
in the market,
because we know it's gonna equivalent to a lot of money.
Going over on the TDSP side is the other 51% of the bill.
That's really what CenterPoint charges to get us the power.
All the transmission lines, everything that goes along with that, there's a charge to that,
and that's what's called TDSP charges.
So moving ahead, looking ahead, what else can we do to stay proactive
and look at increasing more, getting more money?
One thing that we'd like to look at or looking at in the future is electrical and water metering.
We'd like to know when we're shedding loads at the end of the day, when we're looking at peak demands,
when everybody comes home, everybody turns their air conditioners on, everybody cuts their lights on,
we're trying to offset some of those costs and bring our costs down to lower that.
So we want to know if we put a meter on, what actually are we saving?
LED lighting. We, over the course of the last two model elections, we've tried to come to the community and get LED projects.
If you look at this building here, these aren't LED fixtures. 30 to 40 percent, roughly, of our schools still do not have LED.
So that's something that we want to look at in the future.
Plant optimizations. As we come and replace, we go and replace chillers and pumps and central plants.
We look at that with engineer as a consultant and look at, you know, what are the efficiencies we can approve there?
Component replacement, same thing with roofs and stuff that we talked about before.
And then IQ cards.
This is on our irrigation systems where we can go in and through remote access and look at if it's raining this week,
we can go in and just irrigation system accordingly and not have somebody go out to, you know, manually cut them off.
This enables us to be proactive and stay on top of our water cost.
Mr. Brim?
Yes, sir.
Yep, so to close it out, bottom line is every single dollar that we save goes back to the classroom,
whether it's salaries, kids, supplies, whatever it is, and we know that, and we preach that to our folks,
and we have a great team that they do.
They work behind the scenes.
They do everything they can to make this stuff happen,
and notice another thing, too, is we're not talking about turning temperatures up.
We're not talking about making people cold in the wintertime or hot in the summertime.
This is all done without anybody knowing what's going on.
So the comfort of our kids and our staff is very important in all of this.
And so we appreciate it.
And if you have any questions, we're happy to help answer.
Board?
Mr. President.
Ms. Fox?
Thank you very much.
It's all very impressive and astounding when you look at it and how many millions of square feet and all the things you do.
My question is probably an odd one. So I worked on the energy co-op board for the state for a while,
and just as I was leaving, they were talking about, you know, wouldn't it be great if,
because you buy in such mass, I mean three and a half cents, every one of us would love to have
three and a half cents. Would there be any way that whoever does the negotiating with your provider,
that they would do a discount for employees, for education employees.
Have you considered that?
I have not heard that.
I have not heard that, Mrs. Fox.
I guess that's actually we're going to meet with our energy consultant tomorrow.
That's one of the things that I can ask him to see if that's, you know,
if anybody else is asking those questions.
But it's a great idea, and we're happy to ask that.
Right.
I mean, we're going to bring them, you know, 10,000 customers.
Sure.
if they you know I don't know it's just it would be nice that because we're a
customer and they don't want to lose us that we could bring them more volume
it's all about volume for them and and that's kind of where they were going I
don't know if anything ever happened maybe it didn't but you know locally
that would because when the state's doing it they're doing it all over and
they're buying from different people but yeah just a thought mr. mr. president
Ms. Champagne?
Volunteers.
So I think that is an excellent idea, Mrs. Fox.
I think that would be good.
So it's exciting that maybe that could happen.
I don't know.
At least it's a question to ask.
But I have, so I know that more in modern times that things are being built, buildings, even houses and everything, are being built more energy efficiently.
But the older ones, buildings, probably were not.
So I have a two-part question.
do we so I don't know maybe I'm you've probably said this before and it was
covered in some bond or something did we retroactively go back and fix schools
and make them more energy efficient with their windows and such yes ma'am on a
comprehensive renovation they'll go back and redo windows and chillers and
lighting and the whole shoot and match and then on some of the buildings like
Taylor High School we're doing the roof right now Beckenorf we're doing the roof
right now in the windows so we're not doing all the equipment but we are doing
the roof in the windows and that does make it more energy efficient so yes
ma'am we do go back to those older buildings and replace all that older
equipment make it more energy efficient well and it's interesting that you
mentioned Taylor High School because I was going to ask you about this Taylor
High School and I don't want to make people aware of this but they probably
already are aware of it because my kids went there and there and a lot of people
went there has very few windows is that anything for or against being more energy efficient i'm
just curious well i'm going to take a stab at it lisa could probably give you a speech from the
architecture side about windows and that sort of thing may creek high school where i taught
for had zero windows you could walk a long way in may creek high school in the old days without
windows and I think that probably then they were leaning towards fewer windows
maybe less distractions but also less heat coming in some of our older
buildings that do have a lot of windows they aren't energy efficient we do
switch them out and that does help a lot from the standpoint of not letting the
cool out or the the heat in or vice versa
Mr. President.
Ms. Deming.
Mr. Fuchs, I just want to say thank you.
This was a real, and to your team, this was really hard to do during the peak of inflation.
I do think prices are coming down quite a bit now, but this was not, this isn't present, this is past.
And so this is pretty remarkable considering the inflationary period that we are exiting right now.
So I just want to thank you and your team so much.
Mr. President, I want to re-echo that.
This is quite a feat, and I appreciate the excellent presentation.
I applaud you.
I love the visuals of the checks, and just thank you very much for your effort.
Really appreciate it.
Any more questions?
I just wanted to offer to Mr. Fuchs that I was the biggest Girl Scout cookie seller in my brownie troop.
So if you need anyone to go and help do your sales pitch to them, my idea could be arranged.
Sounds good.
I sold so many that we had to get rid of the couch in the living room.
This is a perfect example.
every time we vote on something like a building control management system a
very tangible result of what happens when we make decisions like that so
thank you so much okay we'll move on now to number item 7.4 board meeting
7.4 Board Meeting structure update.
structure update and I'll be
the presenter so House Bill 1522 laid out a lot of new rules and requirements
laws that we have to follow and so to share with the board and we probably
shared a little bit of last week but one of those things is our board meetings
have to be outside of business hours and so we already were starting outside of
business hours some things like works our studies but some of our especially
especially called board meetings or workshops, uh,
strategic plan and things like that are now going to be moved to the evenings.
Uh, so those won't be able to happen during the day anymore. Um,
second would be, uh, the posting requirement as far as our meetings go,
uh, traditionally was three days. Now it's three business days.
And so what that'll look like for a Monday meeting is post on the end of the
day, Friday. And then, um, historically the way we did that was,
we put would post on the end of the day Friday that's what we did so that Monday
and then Monday all the documents would go live on board Doc so those would be
open to the public moving forward this is starting in September we will post
the agenda on Wednesday afternoons into business day those documents will go
live for the board to see and then on Friday afternoon at the end of the
business day those documents will be turned on for the public to see and so
that'll fulfill the three business days requirement Thursday Friday and then
Monday would count as those business days and so then the last one would be
also in light of the law and to further provide opportunity for our community to
participate in our meetings our current policy is that if you sign up by 2 p.m.
You have to get to the board meeting and sign in 15 minutes beforehand.
15 minutes beforehand is not within business hours.
And so starting in September, we'll move to where if you've signed up, you're speaking.
And so what you'll see is we'll stick to it.
When a member that sign up is called, if they're not there, they will not speak.
But if they're here, they won't be required to sign in anymore.
more but if they're here they'll have the ability to come up and speak so
we'll get rid of that 15-minute sign-in portion and then just give people more
opportunity to say they're running a little bit late or something's happening
so those are the four main things I had to share any questions regarding this
mr. president it's not as much question as a comment when the state legislature
tells us how to run our business,
I think it's disappointing because
the strategic design meetings are many times all day long.
Right, there are many hours that people are contributing
to help set the vision and goals for our district.
And the people who participate know that it's all day
or maybe two days.
and these are sometimes parents whose children are in school.
But if they have to wait and do it in the evening
and their children have activities,
it's going to eliminate some really great volunteers.
I think it'll just be when we have our board input.
Just board meetings.
I don't believe it would mean those community meetings.
Yeah, that's correct.
Our regular community 100-plus committee member,
those would remain during the school day when we do that.
but you might recall the board always does the bookends of strategic planning
we do something together as a team on the front end then we come back again at
the back end after the committee is met and we have done those sometimes during
the day sometimes not but we're gonna just do those in the evening but that's
just us having it what's bored only and all of them will be recorded is that
correct like we've been mostly like what we've been doing okay thank you I
I apologize for misunderstanding that.
Thanks for the correction.
Any more questions?
All right, no questions.
We will move on to discussion action item,
8.1 Discuss and consider Board Policy FD Local.
discuss and consider board policy FD local.
There's a small change.
Justin Graham, the general counsel, will be the presenter,
although there's not really a presentation to present.
Mr. President.
Ms. Fox.
I move that the board of trustees approves board policy FD local.
Second.
All right, we have a motion. Any discussion?
Mr. President, I was going to suggest we substitute for this motion the paragraph under students not enrolled
old to say instead that a excuse me that a homeschool student as defined by Texas
Education Code 29 916 1 shall be eligible for participation in extracurricular
activities CEL FM and the reason why I suggest that substitution is I feel the
wording here i'm not sure where it exactly came from is confusing this has nothing to do with
private school students it this law that precipitated this the senate bill 401 has
it's very clear it's about homeschool students so i'm suggesting that wording be substituted
Okay.
Excuse me. Can you please tell me exactly where that is and say that again, please?
Is it in the art blue?
Yes.
Okay. Can you say that again?
Yeah, I can read it again. So I'm suggesting we substitute the following under students not enrolled. Do you see that?
So instead I'm suggesting it say a homeschool student as defined by Texas Education Code 29.916.1 shall be eligible for participation in extracurricular activities, C-E-E-L and F-M.
So in essence, I'm just suggesting we remove the reference to private school and curricular
enrollment as well.
Thank you.
Keep it specifically focused on the matter at hand, which is the Senate bill.
Mrs. Cuzela, you're also changing shall not to shall.
Yes.
Oh, sure, sure, sure.
So you're amending the, is that an amendment?
amendment? Are you amending them? There's a motion on the floor in a second. Are you amending the motion? I wanted to substitute the paragraph. The motion's the same, right? We're voting on the FD local. No, my motion is shall not. Your motion is as written. As written. Currently what's standing in front of us is the motion to approve it as recommended, which has a second. So that's what the next vote would be on.
I didn't have an opportunity to suggest my substitution so that's why I mention
it just to be clear we're voting to opt out yes okay so a yes vote is an opt-out
and no vote is is a opt remain opted in I'm just making sure we're all perfectly
clear well that's the way it is so if you choose not to vote or you do it then
you accept it it is a point of clarification please so when we vote on
this on the motion we're voting for as written so if we say I we want this as
written which says shall not that's what the motion on the floor is yes okay so
So let's walk through this exercise, right?
Robert's Rules of Order as well.
We had a motion and a second on the floor.
What Trustee Cozella has said is that she would like to substitute the language.
I would think of that as a motion to amend.
While she did not say motion to amend, I think it is.
She's saying substitute.
So we can ask her for clarification if she's trying to amend the motion.
And if she is, then we need to vote on that motion amendment first.
before we vote on the actual motion.
If that's not her intent to amend the motion, then that's fine.
We can vote on the original motion.
Okay.
I will clarify my intent is to amend the motion to substitute what I already discussed.
Do you want me to read it again?
No.
We have your language.
So to vote for the amendment here means that you're voting to allow homeschooled children
to participate in KDISD UIL activities.
If there's a second.
Do we have a second?
Second.
So we have an amendment to change the language to remove the reference to private school and change shall not be eligible to shall be eligible, plus mentioning something about concurrent enrollment, but the language you used earlier.
Amended by Mary Ellen Kozella, seconded by Morgan Collin.
Mr. President, and this amendment changes how we currently operate now and is not what the administration recommended.
Correct.
Thank you.
A point of clarification.
We do have to vote on this, correct?
Not on the amendment, but we do have to make a distinction of this is an opt-out.
This is no longer an opt-in.
per the state we are having to opt out so just want to make sure that that's
clear we have to take a vote regardless if you want to opt out of this allowance
we could not take a vote if we just wanted to move forward and it would be
it would allow so if we chose to not take a vote if we choose to not vote
then that would allow homeschool students to participate in UIL activities.
If this item was not on the agenda that we were voting on right now, that would be correct, yes.
Okay.
So we're voting to amend the language as it sits.
Currently working on the amendment, yes.
Okay.
I'm just double-checking that we're all very perfectly clear.
Yep.
Discussion.
Discussion on the amendment.
So, Mr. President, just the intent of Senate Bill 401 that did pass this recent legislature,
that's why we're talking about this, they changed the direction and opted with that
law that's passed that all home school students should be opted, I hate to confuse this, but
opted into extracurricular activities.
It did not discuss private school students. It did not discuss concurrent enrollment. It discussed allowing homeschool students whose families are within the boundaries who do test and make sure they are passing with some sort of academic rigor, that they're available to enroll here for extracurricular activities.
and something that did not change is that the state does give a stipend for
every activity that they do choose to participate in of us I think it's 1750
per activity per year for a homeschool student or something else and you know
they have to live within our boundaries just wanted to kind of brief everyone on
on what was passed not only do they have to live within the boundaries of KDISD
but the school in which they are participating in the activity they would
have to live in the zoning for that particular school so if you wanted if
you were a homeschooler and you wanted to play football or whatever you have to
be zoned towards the school that you're playing in if we opt out and we say we
don't want to allow homeschool students to play here then they do have the
the option to go to the nearest district to then play UIL activities at that nearest district.
So whatever that may be. But it's not just you get to live, if you live in Katy ISD,
then you can just play whatever school sport you want. Don't work like that. You have to be within
the zone. Your house has to be within the zone that you are wanting to play sports in. You can't
pick and choose whatever football team or softball team or cheer team that you like the best it has
to be where you live mr president mr campaign i would like to state something about why i am
against the amendment and for the original motion that was made and it has to do with opportunity
and I feel that the choice to not go to public school by some people was made to
avoid the oversight of the public education system and I don't think
personally it's right that the kids that these parents have chosen to avoid the
oversight of public education can cherry-pick the things that they like
about public education what might which might be the extracurricular activities
and not have to be subject to all of the other things that the our public school
children have are subject to for example I found out that homeschool kids they
They have, this is covered on TEC 33.0832, that the parents can just sign something that says that their kids passed something.
And our kids have to pass the STAAR exam.
They have to pass every subject, you know, science, math, English, history, everything.
And they could have straight A's and everything and not pass one thing and they're out.
And I think that that's inequitable for them.
I know that's not a good word, but that's not fair to the students who are having to meet the eligibility requirements.
And the UIL has worked really hard to maintain a system of fairness for kids across the districts, the schools.
and I just think that it could also add into some social problems within the
team between parents and kids when they find out that you know I failed this one
test and so I can't play this week but this other person just had a sign a
thing and the parents said that they passed and then they get to play so I
I just think that that can add to, it's not team spirit.
I like something that Mrs. Fox said last week too, which was that, you know, there's a lot of buy-in to a school.
And you go to Taylor High School, and since you're in elementary school, you know you're probably going to go to Taylor High School.
And then you get all excited about the school, and you wear your blue all day, and you start wearing the blue in junior high, whatever.
and you know these kids who their parents didn't want them to go to public
school so they don't want the oversight they had a choice and they still have a
choice they could decide to enroll their child into public education that day and
then that's fine they do have a choice I don't want people to think that I'm
against parental choice I'm fine with homeschool kids and private school but
But if you want to participate in the fun parts, you know, like Dr. Craig was saying with the extracurricular activities at the school, then you should be fully invested in the entire public school program, in my opinion.
Mr. President.
Ms. Gazelle.
I just want to respond.
You're not exactly correct, Ms. Champagne.
they don't just sign and they're there they pass their subjects it's not that
simple it does state in this education code 33.08 32 F that as a condition of
eligibility to participate in a league activity during the first six weeks of a
school year a non enrolled student which in this case would be the home school
student must demonstrate grade level academic proficiency on any nationally
recognized norm reference assessment instruments that such as the Iowa test
of basic skills standard achievement test California achievement test
comprehensive tests of basic skills it's not just a signature so they do have to
do they do have to every six weeks every six because I have to do it every day
every day well and just my daughter okay yes they looked at it every day not just
every week or every six weeks eligibility is not every day yes it is
not in this district if if she were going to go to a tournament and she had a bad
she was failing in some subject she couldn't go to that tournament that day i no
mr president miss fox so i um appreciate the discussion and i think there's a lot of data
missing to make this decision for me this is new I know there's a lot of UIL
rules about who can make a varsity team you have to live somewhere a year you
have to know they do there's all kinds of things where you just can't walk up
to a UIL team make the varsity right and so I know there's a lot of that how's
that work how much is it going to cost for the students to be involved the athletes or the
performers to be involved and our i don't know it just seems like there's
certainly a growing crowded district and and how does all that fit there's just a lot of
data missing for me to make the decision to say and we don't know how many there would be there
are some other school districts trying it maybe we could give them an opportunity to see how that's
going and i don't know what the struggles would be i know that coach carter is here in the
audience if he has something that would be valuable for us i'd be interested in it i
don't know dr gregorski if you think he does but um i just know there's so many uil rules and how
How does all that factor in and are they ready for this?
Are we?
My big thing is I believe in parents' rights 100%.
I appreciate that.
I have so many friends who are homeschool parents
and their children are incredible, very well behaved,
and very high achievers,
but they choose not to send their children to KDISD.
So why would those children come and take a spot away from parents
who do have their children in KDISD?
and a lot of the children who come to school every day don't do it because they love calculus.
They love science.
They come because they love the activity and their groups.
And I know both of our children loved the group they were involved in,
and that's what drove them to come to school and be successful
and work really hard at academics so that they could be a part of that.
Ms. Fox, a point of clarification from a legal perspective.
perspective we are sort of been I would not say an unknown but an arena where
the law has changed in miss Calhoun was correct that it was previously you had
to opt out I mean opt-in and now you are required to opt out as we discussed last
meeting decision by this board today would be effective for this school year
but that doesn't mean at some point in time if you have that additional data or
or want to make a policy change, the members of this board can always bring that forward
and make a change for KASD.
I have a question.
Go ahead.
So I'm looking at the UIL website right now, and they do have quite a few, I guess,
contingencies that go along with this.
It wasn't just willy-nilly thrown in here with ambiguity, as the suggestion may have been.
there's quite a few oversights that come into this to come into play here and expectations
that are here the students should they choose should they even make the team so just because
you try out as a homeschool student does not guarantee you a spot on any team for any anything
that they would be trying out for they would still have to try out in the same way that everyone else
would have to try out it just gives them the opportunity to engage in what their parents pay
for we made this we made this point um last week they are still paying the same property taxes
that everyone else's regardless of whether you actually enroll your child in this in this
district or not you are still subject to the same amount of taxes may be differentiated based on
your home appraisal value and whatever exemptions you may or may not receive but you are still
paying taxes to this district and so this would be a way to enter into that to take advantage of
something that you're paying for and there's no guarantee that the kids are going to make the team
this is just the opportunity to try that's it it's not there's no promises being made um i
I made the case last week, and I will continue to make that case.
I know that there was some commentary when we were sitting here
that we wouldn't want those homeschool students,
is what I believe was said at, what was the date?
49-47, if we go back at the 49-minute mark, 47-second mark,
we don't want those kids in our schools, is what was said.
not on the microphone but it was said I disagree with that I thought the
district was open I thought the district wanted all students to come here to take
the opportunity to learn and take the opportunity to engage with our community
that we're all so proud of and we should be proud of maybe it wasn't a well
thought-out comment but it was made so I disagree with that and I think that we
We should have the ability to take the vote to allow them and afford them the opportunity.
No promises are being made that you're going to make the team, but it just allows you to try.
Mr. President, may I please add?
I'm finished. That's all I got.
Ms. Champagne?
I just want to just restate that the parents have already decided they don't want their kids to be in public school.
They have the choice to put their child in public school.
But for whatever reason, and they may have really good reasons, they don't want their child in public school.
So I don't feel it's fair that they don't want the oversight of the public school for whatever reason that is.
But they do want the part that, you know, the one little part that they want, which is for their child to play in the sport or be in the band or however.
That's just the last thing I'd like to say about that.
I'd like to respond to that.
I understand what you're saying.
I understand maybe the concern about an oversight issue that you're talking about,
but that's giving the assumption that homeschooled children or homeschooled families are not meeting up to the rigor of KDISD.
I did not say you said that.
I said that that was an assumption that could be made from the commentary,
is that when you say that they are not putting their children under the oversight,
Well, it says here that even if there was a code of conduct violation, that they would still be under the same guidelines and the same disciplinary measures that everyone else is on the team, that that would be up to the coach, and that would be up to that governing body there.
So those are all still afforded.
Just because you're homeschooled doesn't mean that you get a free pass if you violate our student code of conduct.
So that's not something that's ever been said here, and actually it's said the exact opposite of that.
If you are, you are subject to that.
So beyond that, again, the assumption that could have been made,
maybe I'm misunderstanding it,
but that they're not under the same oversight
and they wouldn't be meeting,
the assumption would be that they're not meeting the same rigor
in terms of what, okay, I understand that.
I am trying to flesh this out
so that there is no misinterpretation of what you're saying okay would you like
to explain what you meant by oversight really has maybe a small part of the
testing and things like that but it also has to do with being inside the building
having a different person other than your mom or dad tell you what to do to
monitor your progress to grade your work to be your leader for that 45 minutes or
an hour or whatever and then go on to somebody else and they're going to be your leader.
That's the oversight I was talking about.
So a lot of the people who homeschool, unless they're lying to me and I've had lots of friends
who have homeschooled their children, that's a big part of it.
It has nothing to do with the testing.
It has nothing to do with their ability to do the work.
It has to do with they don't want their child sitting in those four walls and, you know,
going through a structured environment of walking from class to class and having to carry a backpack
and following all those other millions of rules that public ed kids have to follow and private
school kids too but this again is not about private school i know but i'm just saying that
this is not that's not what i was talking about okay i thank you for the clarification but once
again you're making the assumption that they don't want their children that there's no that there's
no structure to a homeschool environment and that the only interaction that they're getting
is with mom and dad.
I know plenty of homeschool families that their kids get plenty of socialization through
different co-op programs, and they do have classes that last an hour and a half at some
point that last longer than what we give them.
And they do change classes from class to class.
So you're making this broad assumption that there is...
Mr. President, point of order.
Ms. Fox.
My point of order is that Mrs. Calhoun is putting words in someone else's mouth and putting assumptions on another trustee that is not being stated.
If she could please refrain.
Okay.
The understanding, we'll use a different word.
my understanding based on what I'm hearing you say when you talk about structure, when you talk
about oversight, when you talk about the lack of those things, the lack of socialization, the lack
of response to authority because you're only talking to mom and dad. You're not talking to
a different adult or different kids. These are not my words. These are not my words. This is what I
I heard if I misheard you then I apologize but what I heard you say is
that these kids are only interacting with mom and dad and they're not
changing classes and they're not carrying backpacks and they're not doing
all those things and that couldn't be further from the truth
mrs. Callahan the basic problem is so as I said there's a million different
things but for whatever reason and this is what I said they have decided not to
to put their child in public education period but they don't want their child
in public education they do not because if they did they would have enrolled
them in it they have the choice they chose not to so they do not want to be
their kid in public education period and so if they don't want their child to be
in public education that's fine but in my opinion they should not be able to
participate and take spots of other children who are in public education
whose parents did choose to let them be in that school,
and they're going to now, these homeschool children are going to compete
against the other children whose parents opted to allow them to be in public school.
Mr. President, we've had plenty of discussion. Can we vote, please?
I haven't got any.
to say anything and I'm blending dad to man may I see me yes please okay so I
understand what you're saying time but the problem is these families that are
homeschooling are forced to pay property tax or they lose their home that's
that's just please let me finish okay please don't interrupt so that's the
problem is if these families that are homeschooled do not pay their property
taxes they will be losing their home it will be taken away from them so when
we're forcing people to pay but then we're saying you can't participate in
our extracurricular activities that we force you to pay for then I just have a
problem with that I just don't think that's capitalism at all and I think I
think KDISD from my experience as a student and as a teacher is smart enough
to figure out how to do this so that we accommodate all of the needs that are
that are necessary so that's just my if you want to go ahead and vote we can but
I did need to speak up and say there are plenty of taxpayers that deserve a
chance to try mr. president let's go okay just just a few brief comments to
to round out this discussion that Ms. Champagne has started.
Not all homeschool students are the same.
So we need not broad stroke them.
There are parents who would love
to have their children enrolled here,
but perhaps there's some behavioral problems,
perhaps there's some medical issues.
There's a lot of different issues with homeschool families.
So it's not just that they're making a subjective decision
of where to put their children.
So please consider that.
I do know of a family who behaviorally the kid might be better at home but
really needs to be on a football team for his well-being. I would love to be
able to serve those families and it's not just athletics. UIL is fine arts. UIL
is band, color guard, dance team. Those those activities are huge and generally
if I may say so are unlimited spots how wonderful would it be to allow that
homeschool kid to walk on it's not not just athletics and then some of our
schools don't have enough students to fill teams all right they don't have
enough just enough kids to fill the three for football teams whereas sinker
ranch does so this could be a way of allowing our enrolled students to actually participate in a
team that would otherwise be disbanded because they don't have enough kiddos to fill the team
that's a very important point to please consider and at the end of the day i really don't think
we're talking about a whole slew an army of homeschool students taking over our extracurricular
activities. I really don't. And I think the benefit far outweighs any cost we might possibly
see. And we may increase our enrollment the next year. That kid may acclimate and come and be
enrolled in the school. Thank you. When we left last week, I was driving to work the next day and
started to have a change of heart, not change of heart, but started to see maybe what this would
would look like and then I started playing out all the other,
how do you enroll the kid or how do we report it?
How does a principal deal with multiple people
coming on and off campus?
And just as I went further and further down the rabbit hole,
I just got there's so many answers we don't have
at this point.
And so, yeah, that's why I would want to move forward
with how it was presented.
right as we continue to move towards trying to make data-driven decisions we
don't have that information right now a year from now we'll have so many
districts around the state that it's maybe a different decision or a
different box I don't know how the decision goes but I might might link it
on a different side of it but right now I don't think I don't see it as public
public school against homeschooling or however we want.
I keep mentioning it's not about private school.
It's absolutely true that's written in here,
but all of us on this dais know that the law
was talking about homeschool kids, homeschoolers.
And so, yeah, anything else?
Mr. President, I agree.
I would be open to discussion at a time
when there's more data to make a,
I could change my mind based on how many children, what kinds of things are they interested in,
how is it working for other places, but not today.
Mr. Kuz, I just want to understand then, where did this, maybe General Counsel can speak to this,
because they're the ones who worked on this policy, not the policy committee.
Where did this wording come from, and why is private school and concurrent enrollment mentioned here?
So this language is actually given to us by our TASB consultant, but I think it's important to note that
Private school students are ineligible and I think that this is a pre-emptive
for that
It's poor poor wording that you're voting on I
Would disagree this is a statute that was in law that our TASB consultant
You know TASB represents almost every school district in the state and we work specifically with us
They gave us a they gave us a survey in sherry asher and our policy person worked specifically with him
So not only do I disagree, but I take offense that you think that this language is poorly written
No intent no offense intended mr. Graham. I'm just trying to make sure we're voting accurately on what the Senate bill
That was passed. I mean if it doesn't have to do with private school kids. Why is it mentioned here?
I would say our policy traditionally has been that students enrolled in private schools are not able to participate in our
Extracurricular events so that would still be in line with how we're already
operating I
Just it's precipitated by a Senate bill that was passed that makes doesn't talk about private school students at all
So I I disagree with TASB. How about that that they wrote this wording?
including private school
in this change.
Mr. President?
May I please? I think that
what Mr. Graham said was
he used a word called preemptive.
So I think it's
covering
future changes.
And so, am I correct, Mr.
Graham, that you used the word
preemptive? And I think that that's what
you were meaning. I did, but if you'll
hold on one sec, I'm going to pull up our
current FD policy.
And while you're doing that, I just want to say, we have to vote on this tonight.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
We can do the amendment first.
So what we're voting on right now is, Ms. Cuzela, the amendment you made to remove private school,
And the concurrent enrollment and change shall be eligible and we go back to the language, but essentially
Flip this one to say we would allow homeschoolers to participate in
extracurricular activities
So a vote for a vote for this is to adopt what miss Cazales
language is for this
That would be changing what the motion is that
that we will get about that.
So we'll take your votes on the screen.
All right, the amendment fails.
We move towards the motion.
The motion was made to move that the Board of Trustees
approves Board Policy FD Local as written.
Motion was made by Ms. Fox and seconded by Ms. Champagne.
will now take a vote a vote in affirmative is to adopt it as written
and the motion passes four to three we will now move on to the full consent
9. Consent Agenda
agenda consent agenda shall include items that were discussed and considered
at the previous work-study board meetings as well as items of a recurring
nature the board shall be furnished with background materials for each item
Consent agenda items shall be grouped together under one action item all items shall be acted on upon by one vote without separate discussion
Unless the board member requests that item be withdrawn for individual consideration be illegal and be local
Are there any items that anyone would like to remove from the consent agenda?
Yes, I'd like to remove nine point six discipline management plan and student code of conduct
second
Or I guess you didn't need us. All right
All right, nine point six is removed
Mr. President.
Ms. Fox.
I move that the Board of Trustees approves consent agenda for items 9.1 through 9.12, except for item 9.6, which has been removed from the consent agenda.
Second.
All right.
It's moved and seconded that the Board of Trustees approves the consent agenda for items 9.1 through 9.12, except for items 9.6, which has been removed from the consent agenda.
We'll now proceed to vote.
Board members, please record your vote on the screen via your keypad.
And the motion passes 7-0.
We will now move on to Agenda Item 9.6, which was pulled from the Consent Agenda.
9.6 Consider Board approval of the 2025-2026 Discipline Management Plan and Student Code of Conduct.
Consider Board approval of the 2025-2026 Discipline Management Plan and Student Code of Conduct.
And our presenter, Ms. Sherry Ashborn, Director of Student Affairs.
Thank you, President Redmond, Dr. Gorski, Board of Trustees.
So on the agenda item, you'll notice a change to the anti-Semitism based on feedback from last week's conversation.
It's very much I verified it's copy and paste from law and from government code.
So that hopefully provided some of that clarity based on that discussion.
So that's been provided for you for your review.
Word questions, discussion. I do. I have a couple of different questions on two different items.
So as we had a presenter here tonight who was describing an incident that had taken place at a school, and I don't have the verification of this incident myself, but she alluded to that there had been some videos taken instead of people helping.
I've got a couple questions on that. I know that we have our new technology policy, so we shouldn't have the phones out to record the fights.
But in the event that we do have these fights recorded, is there a discipline strategy or a discipline protocol that's here that would allow,
allow, what does that say for videoing a fight and then uploading that? It seems like an invasion
of privacy. It seems like a lot of things that are problematic. Could you help me understand
that a little bit more? Absolutely. So it could be a couple of things. Oh, that sounds really loud.
It could be encouraging or promoting a fight at level two based on the investigation,
a student's involvement. It could be a violation of telecommunication devices if the video is posted
Online on social media, you know, it could be a cyber bullying investigation based on, you know, kind of the nuance of that situation.
And if there's an imbalance of power through using that video, campuses would work through a bullying investigation to determine that.
I want to remind you cyber bullying does have extended jurisdiction.
If that happens anywhere, it doesn't have to be on a campus.
If our investigation confirms that happens, disciplinary action can take.
So there's really kind of a multitude of vehicles that an administrator could use for student discipline that would be
Directed within the discipline plan and you said that that may be recorded as a level 2 offense
Not necessarily or because I was looking through there and I wasn't sure if it was level 2 or level 3
I guess it depends on I don't know what that would depend on to be honest on how how that goes about right?
So we have at 3.29 the personal communication devices taking photos or videos
I'm looking at a clean copy, so hopefully it's translated in your red line.
So that would be a level three when we're taking those photos or videos because we're very clear.
And honestly, that's been a part of our directives to students even before this new legislation came.
During the school day, you're not to take photos, you're not to take videos.
We want there to be an expectation of privacy within the classroom.
Of course, obviously prohibited in locker rooms, bathrooms, those places as well.
but we've always historically been very clear you don't take any pictures or
videos on campus and so that's why we have that listed as a level three okay
because that is serious and then I have another question on the anti-semitism
do we ever get a an understanding of that word perception and that I had
brought up last week on kind of whose perception that was and the only reason
and I feel like it's fair to kind of explain a little bit.
As was showcased here tonight, earlier this evening,
the perception may have been that I asked a question towards this
because of some other reason that may have been anti-Semitic in nature,
which could not be further from the truth.
truth. When we look at what is required in our student code of conduct, it is that parents
are to review the discipline management plan and student code of conduct and discuss the
contents with their child. So if we have a pretty severe update or new update that is
specific to anti-Semitism or something of the like of that, I would think that that
is kind of our job is to pull that apart because I'm going to imagine most parents are not reading
through the student code of conduct. Most parents are not reading through the discipline management
plan. You're clicking the button and you're clicking the button for about 20 other things
when you're doing enrollment or registration or whatever you're doing and you're not paying
attention. But this is important because as was again exemplified tonight, the insinuation was
that i brought this up for an anti-semitic reason not at all um so when we're looking at that at
perception were you able to define that or to kind of figure out where we're at with that
so when we're looking at the definition i just want to make sure i'm looking at the
nice clean copy when we're looking at that word perception right that you're referencing
that is gonna be that direct copy and paste
kind of from that government code.
So that's gonna be the word
that we're kind of stuck with, right?
Which I think maybe is your point.
And so when we're looking at peeling that apart,
really what we're gonna be looking at
in this terms of antisemitism is,
is it an appropriate language?
Does it rise to a higher level
as something that might be racial or ethnic or otherwise?
wise or is it in the context of a more severe definition of that bullying or harassment piece
right and so our administrators are going to have to look at that and when it says anti-semitism
means a certain perception of jews that may be expressed as hatred towards jews um that's gonna
that's gonna have to be just part of that investigative piece and so i i don't have a
direct definition of perception right but i think what we're going to be looking at is again those
context clues that are going to help drive administrators in their
investigation to determine where it fits. Is this a level two or level three of
inappropriate language? Is it something that fits that higher
standard of other state definitions such as bullying or harassment? And so we're
going to really be working with them. You know as Mr. Graham shared last week, right,
this has always been prohibited now we just have a very specific definition for
it. And so I think what that offers is maybe hopefully more clarity about what
what that might look like, not more confusion
in the absence of a definition.
So I appreciate that, the clarity, I guess,
that's tried to be had here.
It is still, the language is concerning to me
for a number of reasons.
This is a rhetorical or physical act
that's directed toward a Jewish or non-Jewish individual,
which it doesn't really give you any clear guidelines
Really, until you come to examples of anti-Semitism are included with the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's working definition of anti-Semitism.
So I looked this up.
I went and I looked up what is the working definition of anti-Semitism, and it's just that.
It was updated as recently as to include COVID.
Some really gross implications on COVID itself, and it was describing that.
but in as an anti-semitic slur or but beyond that and it gives a whole list of
examples that we would now be saying we're using just by putting this when
again I understand that we're mandated to do this this is not optional but
we're making a carve-out specific for anti-semitism and yet we're not doing it
for Christianity for Hinduism for Buddhism for Islam we're not doing it
for any of the other four major world religions.
So hang with me here, because when I'm looking up at these examples,
I found one, and this is direct from their website.
Some religion-based anti-Semitism continues to blame Jews for the death of Jesus.
I'm not a theological expert here,
But I mean, I don't like what does that mean?
So if you're to read the New Testament and you perceive that there could be something going on here or in that in that retelling in the New Testament and you are sharing that with your friends and it's overheard and it's perceived by someone to be anti-Semitic.
I just I'm concerned at the level of the charge here because we're talking about kids we're not
talking about adults who know better we're not talking about people who have a fully front
fully functioning frontal cortex we're talking about children who say stupid things all the time
and to have a label as heavy as anti-semitic put on a kid this is K
through 12 this discipline management plan goes from kindergarten to 12th
grade am I correct mm-hmm so everyone is subject to this and
go ahead no go ahead okay so um I hear I hear what you're saying and I think the
good news is you know you did say these are children they're still you know
having their brain develop and the good news is is the people who are assigning this discipline are
with those children all day right so they're really proficient in being able to determine
you know what kind of discipline needs to apply so when if i walk kind of through our framework
for discipline right the first step is what do we call this behavior so let's let's pretend right
um that something needs a definition right the next thing is do we have jurisdiction
then we consider what disciplinary options we would maybe consider and then we stop and pause
and consider those six factors which does include intent right and so there's gonna be some
opportunities for um behavior conferences and informal behavior um um replacement strategies
right um that don't have to rise to the level of discipline if it's a teachable moment right
they're gonna have to look at that context about the proceedings the um if it's expressed as hatred
towards Jews, it's directed in those ways that would make it rise to those higher levels, right?
So I think there's an amount of reasonableness, right, that we have to assign whenever we're
considering discipline. And so we do have a definition of reasonable belief in our discipline
management plan, and we expect our administrators to use that. And when you talk about K through 12,
absolutely, right? The words are the words for everybody. But we do look at the age of the
the student because their intent could include that age and maturity piece, right? And so,
you know, it's not a zero tolerance issue. We have those six factors so that we can dig into
that context to find out, you know, if students are really engaging in those behaviors. And then
if so, then what's that appropriate response? What's the proportionate response? And I would
concerned about this I'm concerned about a non-governmental body which even on
their website it says that this is not a legally binding definition yet it's in
our state law and our government code so that's strange to me because this is an
unaccountable body that now has made it to where this has now come come down to
the local level and if i'm not mistaken when i'm not saying that let me tell you what i'm not
saying i am not saying anything negative about jews or jewish religious belief that is not what
i am saying but what i am concerned about is um the first amendment the freedom of speech even
even ugly speech, even hateful speech.
It's nasty. It's ugly. It's not fair.
I don't always agree with it.
There's a lot of things that I don't like that people say
that put out in the public and that I don't want my kids to hear,
that I don't want them to be introduced to.
And what we're now being told is this is now a disciplinary action,
but we already had disciplinary action for this.
Yeah, so I think that's a good point.
this does this definition passed by the Senate unanimously and then passed by
the house by a wide majority came was was immediately in effect so this is
supported by both branches of our legislature here in Texas anti-semitism
was already addressed under our policy which prohibits any harassment motivated
by religion or race or national origin and so we would have already any
Any behavior that would fall under this definition has already been improper in KDISD for our children.
For as long as I've been in, for as long as Sherry and I have been in this district,
this behavior has been inappropriate and dealt with.
I do think it's a little bit strange, like you said, that it's only for this religion
and not for the other maybe four major religions.
But none of this is going to change the way that we,
the way that our administrators at the campus level implement discipline because behavior
that falls in this category has never and will never be okay for our children in KDISD.
And thank you for that, Mr. Graham. I appreciate you weighing in on this and I'm happy to hear
that. I would feel better about voting yes if I knew that my own Christian belief and those in
in this district who share that is protected.
And I can't say that given this language.
I can't say that someone who's Muslim
is protected in this language.
And why does this even matter?
Well, because right now what's going on globally
and with what we're seeing with wars
and all sorts of different places
and what's taking place on college campuses
and what's taking place all over
is filtering down because we have a 24-7 immediate news cycle.
And so if this is on the tip of students' tongues,
which apparently it is because it was so important to the legislature
that they passed this bill because they thought that this was important enough
to put down to your local ISD level.
Mr. President, I'm so sorry.
I move to close the debate.
Mr. President, I would like to pass this.
There's a motion. I can make that motion.
Yeah, I don't. Okay, but I also would like to suggest a time limit to because she's been talking saying she's the only one been talking for 15 minutes.
So do you have an opinion on this? I do have an opinion on that. By all means go, but you're the only one talking. I'm sorry. You should I you should have energetic.
So we each talk for 15 minutes.
Ms. Champagne, are you making a motion?
I'm making a motion to close the debate, yes.
And that has to be seconded.
And it needs a two-thirds majority vote.
There wasn't a second, so Ms. Coughlin can continue.
I can finish up.
I'm just I am concerned about this and I feel like we're doing carve out while we're
We're putting our other students of religious belief in danger of having disciplinary action on their records
That is a pretty severe label
To carry forward with them and I'm just not comfortable with that
Nor am I comfortable with what this potentially does for the First Amendment that we all took an oath to uphold
hold? So if I may, there's two legal premises there. Number one, a student's discipline record
does not follow them year to year and certainly does not follow them when they leave KDISD.
Those are FERPA protected records that we don't share with others. The second one, you're talking
about the First Amendment context. The First Amendment context is governed by local policy
and it is governed by the DMP. Language that might be appropriate for debate even in this forum
may not be appropriate or age appropriate for children in the classroom.
Again, I'm appreciative of the concern of that other religions aren't spelled out,
but I think maybe we need to have some faith in our administrators that have been doing this for decades to say,
hey, the law has already said that you can't engage in prohibited harassment,
which is motivated by race, religion, or national origin.
And so if we're already
If that that that rules already there and this is just doubly there
We're we have to opt in because we added language and then we added the language to the language for this draft today
That says we have to do this because the code requires us to do this
Mr. President miss Cuzela, so just on this topic. I appreciate trustee Calhoun's concern
I appreciate her bringing this to the public's attention
I also appreciate it is a state law and I appreciate the reference to that law, Ms. Ashhorn, and the change. Would it be possible to also refer, under this anti-Semitism reference here, to refer to the discrimination and harassment definitions that are already in here?
to point to that that is that possible would you what do you think about that trustee calhoun would
that because that way it shows that just you know there is some connection with what we've already
had in place we do have a section miss Cuzela under discrimination that points us to harassment
that does reference our FFH legal policy,
which does have the information that's broadly
prohibiting that behavior.
So could this anti-Semitism,
could we have a, just to make sure,
a note to please see discrimination in this handbook,
which would then elaborate
what the district has already had in place.
Is there any appetite for that?
Does that appease anyone here?
Mr. President, thank you for your comments.
I appreciate that, but Mr. Graham has already addressed the fact that our administrators already know the DMP inside out.
That's what they do all the time, and they already know that it's prohibited to talk about, to harass other people based on all the...
list of things that mr graham just did so it's covered to me this feels like someone at the state
legislature could have cared about this specific thing enough to to write something specific and
and to get it passed and it doesn't take away from what our children are expected to do it just
specifies one more thing that we're required by law to include and i think we could move on from
here because as mr graham said it's already all covered mrs ashburn has said the same thing
my suggestion is just to connect it for the parents pers you know right who's who are just
reading this standalone uh if i were to read that standalone i wouldn't know that there was
a discrimination paragraph but so for example on page 25 where it says discrimination at the end
it says parentheses see harassment for reporting procedures you're saying add something along those
lines see discrimination right just a reference to what's already there it so
that when someone's reading it standalone they they have some sort of
reference maybe they're new to Katie and they don't realize it's there I think it
might strengthen it just add some clarity that what the district believes
in I'm not questioning our administration without adding that Paul
reference that policy diminish or take away from that at all? Nope, not a problem.
I can certainly add that. Point them to the harassment section which has the
policy links. Thank you for being willing to engage in this conversation even at
all because I understand how delicate this is and I understand why you would
have an entire Senate body who is going to vote 100% yes on this because even by
just me bringing this up it puts my motives in question and it could potentially label me with
the very thing that i that's the whole reason why i'm bringing it up is because our students are
then under that same that same deal and i just think that this is really dangerous um i think
we're in dangerous territory here i don't know why the state did what they did and i don't pretend to
know um i guess our policy wasn't good enough and somebody didn't think that isds could handle that
which okay fine but if we can at least add some language to reference back to discrimination or
harassment as it pertains to religion or religious beliefs i would feel much more comfortable
comfortable with that as comfortable as i can with this mr president can i just ask a question
I'm moving on to the fighting portion.
Did we, Ms. Hashmore or Dr. Gorgorski, can you tell me,
we didn't make any changes to the definition of self-defense in this, correct?
Correct.
No changes were recommended.
So for me personally, right, I mulled over all of the thoughts
and I really tried to see if there were any gaps just based on the phone calls,
the administrators I spoke with.
The good news was our admin conference
was the next day after our meeting,
so I was able to kind of see a lot of people
excited to get back to the school year.
And in looking at it from either a aggressor
or a respondent perspective,
based on the phone calls and scenarios that we brainstormed,
the language still matters for both.
The part about using the minimal force
applies whether or not you are the aggressor
or you're the respondent.
And so in trying to really figure out, you know,
what language could we add that wouldn't have necessarily
an unintended consequence down the road, right,
what was safe for our administrators to be able to evaluate
so that both students were afforded the same rubric of opportunity
in determining what that discipline looks like.
In consultation with, you know, school leadership and our processes,
we did not recommend any further changes.
But if there's specific language you think would enhance it, we'd be happy to hear.
But our review felt confident in the language that was presented.
I think my main concern is I'm in less than a year now.
We've had public speakers come and speak three different parents in less than a year.
Seven Lakes dad, a Taylor High School dad, and then I'm not sure who the speaker was where they went to school tonight.
But it's a troubling story.
And I understand I'm only hearing, you know, one side. I don't have the facts of the other side.
So that's hard to make a good decision when you don't have all the facts.
But I am concerned that in less than a year we've heard from three parents now who want us to address this self-defense definition
so that the kids that are not perpetrating or starting the initiating
the conflict are protected so I guess that that I am troubled by that and I
don't know how to fix that I know the administrators I was gonna ask you if
there's any way we could give them reward this so that we could give the
administrators a little more wiggle room and that but sounds like from your
conversation with them they don't want any more wiggle wiggle room so I respect
respect that but I'm but now I'm still concerned about the parents that we were you know we part
of who you know vote for us as well so you know I'm concerned about hearing them and representing
their voice Miss Timmy just to kind of follow up on that so you talked a little bit about wiggle
room right and so I don't think it's a matter of wanting or not wanting wiggle room I think it's
clear definitions to make that disciplinary decision and then be able to consider those six
factors in that context, right? Because it is possible two students were involved in the same
offense, but maybe they do get different actions because for one kid, it's their fifth fight. And
for the other kid, it's their first, or one was the aggressor multiple times and one wasn't, or,
you know, there's lots of different reasons that a reasonable person would say, hey, you know what,
the standard application of discipline for both of these students would not be appropriate.
it. And so our system allows for that wiggle room, to use your words, I would call it, you know,
maybe flexibility, discretion, right? Our system already allows that. So I think when we're talking
about changing language, the language is our structure, our standard of where we start to
help us evaluate to allow that even application everywhere. I think if we got into nuance of
aggressors or respondents or more additional gray area when it's already
such a great process right I think there could be unintended consequences and
less consistent application across our 300 administrators and 80 campuses if
administrators have a situation where in their heart of hearts they feel like hey
there's something different about this scenario that I need to treat it a
little bit differently they have the flexibility and the tools to do that
that. They're always welcome to call me and they do where I can kind of just talk them
through it. Right. Like here are some questions to consider. And then I usually say something
like, well, it sounds to me like, right. Usually they come to their own conclusions. I'm just
the sounding board, but our system allows that, that flexibility, discretion, that wiggle
room, whatever you want to call it. And so I think that's why there's a confidence behind
that language. And of course, parents who are frustrated with the scenario are always,
you know, we encourage them to reach out to their assistant principal, then their principal go through the chain of command
related to discipline and of course parents are welcome to reach out to me as well and they often do and
I take notes of what that looks like.
Mr. President, I'd like to
tag team here. I'm also concerned and I made that clear last time
and I had asked for
for your team, Mr. Graham, to look at this, and I didn't hear back.
So is this what you're saying, that Ms. Ashhorn, you did do that?
Yeah, so I think that this is an interactive process.
Ms. Ashhorn, when she revises the DMP or she goes about collecting the data to revise the DMP,
this is a multi-month process where she talks with hundreds of folks that do this.
but but I think what I'm hearing from this board is because it was on we've
had we've had discipline reports requested specifically from from this
board and the previous board and then we've heard about the discipline
management plan and I think the request was if y'all have a different solution
on the language then we're happy to consider it but I haven't heard anybody
And we've we've gone out to our channels and sought that input
But I haven't got any input for specifically from any trustee that says I'd like to see this language
Here's my proposed change to this sure I have some sorry. I wasn't clear
I don't think it's worth belaboring, but I did ask at the end of last meeting there was a
Request I made for additional information, and then it did not get a response
So perhaps you were waiting to respond at this meeting.
But I'll move on with the measure at hand here.
I wanted to ask if there's appetite or if you've ever considered striking the last two sentences of the fighting paragraph.
I'm sorry, not the very last sentence, but the last two of that first paragraph under fighting, where it states,
states however at the point when the receiver of physical contact retaliates the infraction then
becomes quote disorderly conduct fighting in public for both students and i think the both
is is the rub that a lot of people have a problem with if a police officer is called both students
involved will be ticketed for the same offense as appropriate that's a rough sentence i think
for people to move through maybe not an administrator but a parent reading this
if there was an assault determined correct in a fight which is the prior
sentence correct it talks about anytime a person makes physical contact anytime
which is great with the implied intent to harm the acts depending on the
severity may be considered physical contact assault by contact or assault
with bodily injury that increases in severity right so if there was an
assault determined then both students should not receive the same offense so
I'm just wondering could we strike that however I think that I think that the
issue that we have here what I continue to hear and I'm trying to extrapolate
this out I really we've been intentional and thoughtful in our thought process
knowing that the board has highlighted this.
I think the problem that I'm hearing is that,
or at least the scenario, and I don't want to create,
we could sit here and go down a bunch of rabbit trails
with bad scenarios, but you could create a scenario
where bad facts equal bad law or bad rule.
The problem is when you have two students
who engage in physical combat, one student retaliate,
or one student specifically, in the instances I've seen,
where one student is the aggressor,
is the initial person responsible for the physical contact
or for the bullying or whatever,
and then the other person gets to the point where they've had enough
and they retaliate, which this talks about,
and then they're also responsible, they're also on the hook,
unless they've used the self-defense definition,
which is minimal force, then we go, well, then when they retaliated, then the other kid got beat up, right?
That's what I'm hearing is one person did something, but then the response was over the top,
and that's the problem when you're talking about adolescents.
It's a problem when you talk about humans in general.
When we're talking about adolescents and appropriate response,
this provision in the student discipline management plan itself is intended to be drafted to provide our administrators,
administrators, our assistant principals and our principals across our 80 campuses, the
ability to use their discretion to gather student statements and figure out what happened.
And not just what happened today, but what might have happened the rest of the school
year and figure out what is appropriate.
And we also do lean on our law enforcement in certain situations where they provide us
information because our law enforcement, not only KDISD Police Department, but other law
enforcement agencies will have additional information for us so again i i'm happy to
continue to discuss this language um but when i'm talking from an administrative perspective
the administration feels very strongly that this language is a good language and it's something
that we've been intentional that i say we and not i'm not an administrator but the
administration has been intentional about um in looking at and reviewing and really
going back to those this definition but also going back to the six factors that
we require all of our assistant principals and principals in this
district to number one be trained on into number one understand and use their
experience and we trust them to do so and we try to provide them miss Ash
Warren as a resource to do so may thank you mr. Graham so one question who
Who determines assault?
Is that the ‑‑ I'm under the assumption, please correct me, that if a police officer would be called and that they're the determinant of the word assault having occurred.
Am I correct?
No, not technically.
So again, assault or assault by bodily contact or physical contact, mutual physical contact,
are definitions under the penal code which a police officer has the sole discretion to say,
I'm going to bring charges, right?
It's not the principal or assistant principal's job in that instance.
However, sometimes it may not rise to the level of a criminal offense,
but it may fall into conduct not only under fighting and physical conduct and assault under our student discipline management plan,
but we consider the totality of the offense or the totality of the situation which may warrant
additional discipline or may warrant this similar discipline.
So really again, we're relying upon the expertise of our principals and assistant principals in their understanding
of the situation after they gather. You know,
remember we talked about fighting most of the time
The initial response is suspension, a small suspension of some sort, so that we can, our administrators can go gather student statements, look at any video that may be evident, and really do a full investigation before they administer more severe discipline.
My motivation in asking these questions, and I think most parents, though I cannot speak for them, is that at the end of the day when these fights happen, that if there was an assault made or a student severely physically harmed, that the students don't end up with the same punishment.
And there's a perception, whether it's real or not, that that happens, perhaps not every time.
How can we avoid that?
Is there?
So, again, I'll go back to I don't know that that's something that's avoidable, nor that we would want to be avoidable.
Let me give you a hypothetical.
Let's say I turn to Mr. Vierling and I hit him in the nose.
And then Mr. Vierling happens to, yeah, he happens to be an MMA fighter.
And then I'm on the ground and he breaks my arm because I did that.
Yes.
When I go, well, that's not an appropriate response.
And he's saying, Justin, you're six foot eight and I'm in fear of my life and doing all of this.
Right. So we would have to consider the full circumstances and then also his whatever he brings to the table.
But just because I started the fight and they got my butt, which doesn't mean that now I'm I'm entitled to a lesser penalty.
That's kind of the scenario that I keep. I think we keep rehashing here.
It could be either way, either way. Someone's physically harmed.
So to dissuade our students, they talk through the grapevine, just like Mr. Cross explained.
They don't read this.
I get that.
But they do talk, and they do know what the punishments were given.
And so I just want to make sure.
I see that to dissuade a student from violently reacting, they know there's a difference if they violently react in a fight and truly cause a broken collarbone, a concussion, et cetera,
versus trying to defend themselves and flee the situation.
Yeah, sure.
But that goes back to the definition.
It's not the fighting definition.
It's the self-defense definition, which we've gone over at length in this public,
not tonight, but in this length of this public forum.
But there are different levels of fighting in physical contact, right?
Physical contact, assault by contact, assault with bodily injury.
But in the scenario where I talked about hitting Mr.
Buehling, I have bodily injured him already, so I'm going to be liable on that.
And then if he goes to break both my arms, well, then he's also going to be liable on
the hook for that.
Now, if he goes so far as to break my neck, then we're talking about a way different offense.
But really, when we're talking about adolescents, that's why we need some of the flexibility
that we have within our student discipline management plan, including the six factors,
including consideration of the three self-defense factors for our administrators we trust to be able to levy a fair discipline district-wide.
Okay, so in response to that, Mr. Graham, it says here, the last sentence,
if a police officer is called, both students involved will be ticketed for the same offense.
And then it says as appropriate.
So that is at the discretion of the police officer as is appropriate under the penal code.
And again, that's not something that we dictate as administrators.
That's something that our police officers and our police force are trained for.
And perhaps if we need to get Chief Ryder and his team to give you all additional information on that, we can.
But that's, they're not, the police aspect of it is at least not on our agenda tonight.
Mr. President.
Ms. Champagne.
I would like to say something about the self-defense and there's something that
you brought up last week and I think actually it was a good point but I just
wanted to see if I was understanding you correctly. So in the in our definition it
says to claim self-defense the student must be one be without fault and
provoking the encounter, two not act as the aggressor, and three use the minimum
force required to remove himself or herself from the immediate danger of
of harm so i think what what you were saying last week is what if the student did you know
provoke the encounter did act as the aggressor but then threw out the process of you know they
did start it okay and i think that we agreed with this but then they wanted to then it was more than
what they thought and they want to defend themselves now so is is that what is that
with your ultimate beef is with this yeah I just want clearer wording for the
physical safety of either any student involved in an altercation is there
something we can put in here in wording to guide and make sure the kid who
reacts violently in a fight whether they're at fault or not is punished
accordingly and differently than the other one so that we can motivate this
not you know dissuade that from happening I so I'm trying to remove
dubious unclear wording in here that I know a lot of people complain about
that's what I'm getting into I think I've said is that answer your question
thanks I think my initial concern is because all is that if we say that you
you have to discipline differently when the rules already allow a different discipline,
I think that might put administrators in a tough situation.
And now we're having to evaluate who was more violent than the other.
I think that might provide more gray than clarity just based on my experience and phone calls I've received.
And so I'm not sure what that language would be because I think that would be hard for me to imagine.
Just suggesting removing those sentences.
The ones at the end?
Yeah.
Yeah, to remove that.
And so I definitely hear that.
I'm going to mull that over, Ms. Cuzela,
but I also feel like that does provide some transparency for parents,
which I know is an important thing for the board as well as for me.
I wish, I agree with Ms. Calhoun,
I'm not sure how many parents actually read the discipline plan.
I'm biased.
I think it's pretty good.
But I know they read it when their kid gets in trouble, right?
Or they talk to me and I'm pointing them and sending them paragraphs. Hey, look here
And so I want them to have that transparency and what those last two sentence do um
tells them that whenever
Whenever you engage in that mutual peace there may be an additional consequence from the police as well
And that's kind of like a separate a separate part because you can receive discipline from school and the police
Obviously you could receive discipline or you know consequence from the police but not the school or the school but not the police, right?
that police classification is a piece of the puzzle, right?
Of that first question, what are we calling this behavior?
And in some situations, it's a bigger piece than others, right?
And so I think that's why I support those last two sentences,
just from my perspective, but I definitely hear how, you know,
that might be worthy of some additional thought.
i'll entertain a motion mr president ms champaign i move that we approve
9.6 which is to consider the board approval of the 2025
2026 discipline management plan as student code of conduct
i second i have a motion by ms champaign and a second by ms fox we'll now proceed to vote please
record your vote on the screen mr. Graham mr. Graham do they have to
specify adding the additional language in the anti-semitism to point to
harassment since that is a variation of the document I think I'm comfortable but
because I heard agreement from all the board that that we're okay with that so
I just wanted to clarify.
Didn't want two votes.
The motion passes four to three.
10. Information Items
We'll now move on to informational items from the board.
Board committee updates.
The finance committee met the week before last where we received all the financial information
and were updated on potential federal funds that we're not going to receive,
but since then are now receiving.
if there's anything the committee would like to add.
Ms. Fox, would you like to add about the academic committee?
The academic committee met.
Mr. Cross and I are on that academic committee.
We invited Mr. Redmond to come once as a guest.
Don't get used to it.
Might not get invited every time.
We always appreciate your input.
It was always, always, always fantastically interesting.
complex i don't know how the academic people support people do everything they do with only
24 hours in the day but the amount of support they give to campuses down to the teacher and the
student in this one class in this one subject that they've just got it and it comes from multiple
multiple directions. It's just incredible. Right Mr. Cross? I mean you know how well that works.
Yeah it takes a lot of folks working together and getting feedback from you know the campuses
and also those folks who are experts in their arena and we were very lucky that we have a lot
of those folks who are experts and so it was great to hear kind of what's been going on and
and the direction we're heading, so yeah.
And the reason KDISD continues to be at the top academically in many areas,
but, you know, the scores come out, and it's ABCDF or whatever that is,
and we've always been A, and for the first time we're B.
But we're the highest B that anyone got.
So it's like the highest score anyone has is still us,
and the scores are dumb, the whole process.
That's my interpretation, not anyone else's, but it's just how they all calculate all that.
It's a moving target.
It's like moving the goalpost while the ball's in the air, right?
Yeah, and it's almost like you always think like if Katie is a B, it's like telling your valedictorian they need to be in remedial classes or something.
You know, it's like, really?
It doesn't make a lot of sense.
So I kind of agree with you.
It's a frustrating system.
Thank you, Mr. Cross.
And so we did talk about, so the Incredibles send us a one-page quarterly summary, and it has links that each of us have access to, and we can click on to get all the way drilled down to every document, every data that you want.
district assessments, the dual credit data report, and how many of our children are really involved in CTE courses in the dual credit, and how many are accomplishing at such a high level. All of that continues to go up. Special ed data report, House Bill 3, early childhood literacy, academic focus update, and a spotlight on our summer programs.
and it just is, the time flies by
and there's always more you want to know
and yet your brain is too full.
So that's what we did.
And then the policy committee will be meeting sometime
between now and the next board meeting.
Board, one of those policies we're going to look at
is going to be CW local.
We were going to look at it tonight,
but we decided to put it off
until we could talk about it on the committee.
So if you have any of those, anything outside of what was said in the last board meeting that you would like done with that committee, with that policy, please send that over, send it to Dr. Grodworski.
And he can make sure we have all the information.
And then 10.2, recap of board members' requests for information.
Madam Secretary, we have a capture on your request for tonight.
I didn't hear anything.
Anything?
Do you have any requests?
Are there any more requests or was everything answered?
Exceptions.
All right.
Then being no requests, we will look at our future meetings.
11. Future Meetings
We'll have a work study Monday, August 18, 2025,
and there will be a regular board meeting on Monday, August 25, 2025.
There being no further business before the board, this meeting is adjourned.
The time is 1031 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.