Noting that a quorum is present, I hereby call this regular board meeting of the Board of Trustees of Katy Independent School District to order.
Katy ISD · Regular Board Meeting
Katy ISD Regular Board Meeting, December 8, 2025
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In this meeting
The headings and the descriptions beneath them are the district’s own words, taken from its index of this recording.
- 0:08 to 9:58 1. Call to Order - Upon announcement by the presiding officer that a quorum is present, the meeting will be called to order.
- 9:58 to 18:04 3. Recognitions
- 18:04 to 1:03:40 4. Public Comment/Citizen Participation
- 1:03:40 to 1:03:59 5. Closed Meeting
- 1:03:59 to 1:04:48 6. Reconvene from Closed Meeting - The Board will reconvene from Closed Meeting.
- 1:04:48 to 1:31:23 7.1 Academic Presentation - Navigating Course Planning
- 1:31:23 to 1:33:13 8. Consent Agenda
- 1:33:13 to 1:42:14 8.2 Consider Board adoption of a Resolution to cast Katy Independent School District's votes for the Boards of Directors of Fort Bend Central Appraisal District, Harris Central Appraisal District and Waller County Appraisal District.
- 1:42:14 to 2:45:45 8.9 Consider Board adoption of Policy Update 126 as presented by administration.
- 2:45:45 to 2:46:15 9. Information Items
- 2:46:15 to 2:46:47 10. Future Meetings
Full transcript
Automated transcript, not human verified. It is a way to find a passage, not a quotation.
1. Call to Order - Upon announcement by the presiding officer that a quorum is present, the meeting will be called to order.
Today is Monday, December 8, 2025, and the time is 5 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?
Yeah sure, I do confirm we're in compliance of the provisions of the Texas Open Meeting Act for a meeting tonight
Then we will move on to
Section two our pledges of allegiance. Yeah, we're ready. We've got some exciting stuff going today
We have a pledge leader coming to us from Hutzel Elementary
Dylan Vasquez fifth grader I see his principles out there Shantae Smith parents Maria and Alejandra Vasquez
our
pledge leader tonight Dylan he likes soccer and art his favorite subject is
math and from Miss Bertrand ELA and social studies teacher Dylan's an
outstanding young man I'm eager to witness the great things he will
accomplish and from miss from miss house math and science teacher Dylan
demonstrates integrity humility and quiet leadership every single day it's
kind of student who helps others without being asked without expecting recognition
recognition and often without his teachers even knowing he stepped in dylan notices when
classmates are struggling and he checks in with them offering encouragement support or advice to
help them be successful we are proud to honor dylan tonight for the remarkable character generosity
and determination he shows every day but before we bring that pledge leader up i'm going to go
ahead and introduce over to my left over here a whole bunch of kids that are from the falden
Elementary Vox Canis Choir who will be performing the national anthem after the
pledges. Principals Katherine Leeper and our music directors with us tonight
Abigail Martin and Haley McCutcheon and students from the choir
Palumi Akinbola, Luis Solis Garcia, Lily Carinder, Jace Pontius, Tyler
Tyler Farrington, Myla Law, Rusty Pratt, Erie, Okoboy Ayu, Quinn Weatherford, Maya Branch,
Bethany Hoffman, Haley Zelaya, Delilah L., Tyler Carrinder, Juliette Cappellini, and
Alan Anyachum.
And a quote from our music directors, the 15 vocalists here this evening are representing
the 90-member elementary choir at Fowden Elementary.
They show up eager, joyful, and ready to learn, and they remind us every day why music matters.
Fountain Elementary is proud to share their voices with you at tonight's board meeting.
Also welcome, I see Mr. Fountain out there from Fountain Elementary.
Great to have you here tonight as well.
Thank you.
So let's go ahead and start with the pledge.
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 thee, Texas, one state, under God, one and indivisible.
Thank you.
Oh say can you see by the dawn's early light, what so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright skies through the perilous fight, O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
And if I could have Dylan, our pledge leader, come back up.
I think you had some prepared remarks you wanted to share.
Come on back up.
Good evening, President Redwin, Board of Members, and Superintendent Grogoski.
My name is Dylan Vasquez, and I want to share a little about my time at Hudson Elementary.
So my favorite class is math because it involves numbers and I've liked that
since I was a very young student. I also think math is exciting because there's a
lot of career outcomes that involve math. My favorite grade was fourth grade
because it got me into the gifted and talented program and I was able to
showcase most of my skills. I also got to participate in the men of honor program
and serve as class representative for student council. I don't have a favorite
teacher because I love all my teachers. They're all different and their
personalities made learning fun. Each teacher taught me different skills that
helped me learn more and I have a big bond with all of them. When I came to
Hutsul in first grade I was pretty nervous. I thought I would only make
about five to ten friends by the end of the year. On my first day as I walked
down that long hallway so many people greeted me which instantly made me feel
welcome. By the end of the year I had bonded with all the kids and felt part
part of the school community.
I like everyone because each person has their own skills
and personality and I try to learn from them every day.
I want younger students to know that HOTS is a place
where you can connect with everyone,
make friends and showcase yourself.
When I go to school, I think of it as if it was my last day
ever learning there.
So I give it my best and try to make it memorable.
Something very important I learned is responsibility.
Going to school and learning how to handle all the work
along with balancing social life is important because when you get older you
will have more responsibilities. I've also been learning how to deal with
setbacks like when I don't score as well as I wanted or as I'm used to and how to
work through those challenges. Thank you so much.
But I wanted to give you a few words of advice.
I think that's very successful.
And thank you for your experience and your work.
And I hope that you will continue to do so.
And I hope that you will continue to do so.
And I hope that you will continue to do so.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Yeah.
Yeah.
There we go.
There we go.
Squeeze in right here on the right side.
Yeah, there we go.
Perfect.
Awesome.
All right.
Count down on three, two, one.
One more.
Three, two, one.
All right.
All right, I'm going to take one more.
Three, two, one.
All right, thank you.
Thank you, Dylan and Vox Canis.
3. Recognitions
We have another special recognition tonight,
and we'd like to extend our sincere appreciation to the Girl Scouts
troop the girl scouts and troop leader sarah siegert for their time and effort in putting up
the christmas tree that you were able to see as you walked into our reception area at the esc
ladies would you like to come forward and introduce yourself hello i'm hannah hilbert i'm
in eighth grade at martin ranch junior high i'm a girl scout cadet right now i'm working on my sofa
road project my goal for this is to support the girl scout horse program by helping teaching girls
about safety and how to care for horses through this project i hope to help the girl scout and
horse program community thank you thank you
my name is eliza dunham i am a fifth grader at jameson keiko davidson
elementary i'm a junior and i just earned my bronze
service award my troop and i collected and sorted over
70 pounds of crayons to be melted into new crayons for
for Children's Hospitals all over America.
Awesome, thank you so much.
My name is Isla Dunham.
I am a first grader at Davidson Elementary
and I am in the status class in the first grade.
I am a Daisy in Girl Scouts,
and I just finished doing my coding for Good Badger One.
Thank you so much.
I had a script to read about each of you,
but you all did such a better job than I could.
I just want to say thank you.
Even up here at the admin building this week,
I got several compliments on how beautiful the Christmas tree was so thank you so much for giving your time
And just your free time when you could be doing so many other things to come help decorate for us. Mr. President
May I miss champagne? Go ahead. I am so happy y'all are here
I just want to let you know I was a Girl Scout troop leader for 12 years and both of my girls
Have their gold awards. They got their bronzes. They got their silvers and
So it's very hard work. So I'm really really proud of you girls for getting those
And I know the little one there will be on her way also
Thank you. Yes. Thank you so much
Three, two, one.
Three, two, one.
Thank you.
Great job.
Do we have any other scouts in the audience tonight?
We have a couple back there, but they're walking out,
so they're not here in a scouting capacity.
Well, tonight, just like we've done over the past few months,
trustees are proudly wearing the distinguished colors of one of our ten
high schools Cinco Ranch High School and in a spirit of unity and support as we
celebrate the outstanding accomplishments of the Cinco Ranch
community trustee Amy Timmy fulfills the important role of KDIC board liaison for
Cinco Ranch High School and I welcome her to share a few words Miss Timmy. Thank
you Mr. Redmond I want to recognize our educators our coaches fine arts and our
staff who helped build Cinco Ranch High School's legacy who are with us tonight.
Thank you very much for being here. Appreciate y'all. And just a little bit
about Cinco Ranch High School. Cinco Ranch High School is home of the
Fighting Cougars built in 1999 and as a national blue ribbon school it holds a
long tradition of top ranking top rankings among Texas high schools in the
Houston area and Cinco Ranch High School excels at empowering students towards
academic achievement, creative expression, competitive success, and lifelong impact
all while supporting what they have coined as future. F period, U period, T
period, U period, R period, E period. It's an an acronym that's important to Cinco
Ranch High School and it's used to describe the school's commitment to a
focus on academics, user friendliness, teamwork, uniqueness, relationships, and a
safe and loving environment. With multiple track and field titles and top
rankings in wrestling and cheer over the years, Cinco Ranch High School has also
graduated professional athletes and entertainers and has been recognized as
a Grammy signature school for its outstanding commitment to music
education let's go I and I just want to add one other thing that from a personal
note for this that Cinco Ranch was instrumental in starting our robotics
program that we have district-wide and I think Cinco Ranch I want to give you
guys credit for that thank you for all the hard work teachers and parents did
to grow that because it is infectious and it's um we're trying to get it in
in almost all of our schools we have it now and thank you single ranch high
school for pioneering that for our for the benefit of our whole community and
our stem students so just want to give Cinco Ranch educators and staff that are
here tonight a big round of applause
and we'd love to take a picture with you so if you're here from Cinco Ranch if
If you come up forward, the board's going to come around and take a photo with you.
All right.
Make sure I can see you guys right there.
We can have some stand-up on the top back row right there.
There we go.
Yeah, we can set it up in two rows.
There you go.
Alright.
In three, two, one.
And one more. Three, two,
All right.
All right.
Thank you.
4. Public Comment/Citizen Participation
So at this time, the Board of Trustees will give members of the public an opportunity to speak in accordance with KDISD Board Policy BED Local.
As defined by Board Policy, speakers who signed up by 2 p.m. on Monday, December 8, 2025, will be allowed to address the Board.
Speakers who signed up to speak on posted agenda items will be allowed three minutes to speak.
A total of 30 minutes is allotted for open forum non-agenda items with the time divided evenly among speakers.
The maximum time allowed for any speaker is three minutes.
Speakers who signed up to speak on posted agenda items will be allowed to speak on non-agenda items will be limited to the first 20 speakers.
Speakers that signed up to speak on non-agenda items will be allowed, let's see, it looks like eight, three minutes.
If a speaker is not finished speaking at the end of their allotted time, the audio will turn off.
The Board shall not tolerate disruption of the meeting by members of the audience.
If after at least one warning from the presiding officer, any person continues to disrupt the meeting by his or her words or actions,
the presiding officer or his or her designee may request assistance from law enforcement officials to have the person removed from the meeting.
If speakers wish to share written material with the Board, please provide 10 copies to the Secretary for Board Services before the meeting begins
ends for board members, the superintendent, chief communications officer, and permanent record.
If a speaker has not attempted to solve a matter administratively through proper channels as stated
in board policy, the presiding officer's designee shall advise the speaker to seek resolution
through the appropriate policy. Finally, pursuant to Texas government code section 551.074 and 551.0821,
the board will not permit the presentation of personally identifiable information regarding
regarding a student and will not discuss the appointment, employment, evaluation, reassignment,
duties, discipline, or dismissal of a public officer or employee, or to hear a complaint or
charge against an officer or employee. Should a speaker wish to address one of these issues,
they must do so through the appropriate local grievance policies, FNG local, DGBA local,
CKE local, or GF local. Our speakers will be called forward in the order that they signed up
to speak we will start with our agenda items and our first speaker tonight will
be Ron Stefani followed by Sean Dolan
good evening trustees thank you for giving me this opportunity to speak to
you tonight I'm Ron Stefani I've been a resident of Cinco Ranch too for over 15
years my daughter graduated from Tompkins High School I'm here to address
something fundamental to the health of our districts governance and that is
voter turnout and school board elections KDSD holds its board elections in May
and turnout has been abysmally low only five to seven percent that means over
ninety percent of voters are not participating in choosing the leaders
who direct a billion dollar budget and make decisions affecting 95,000 students
and over 14,000 employees.
This is not partisan.
This is not about who wins.
This is about whether our community participates.
We already know how to fix this because we saw it happen here.
In November 2020, the COVID year, the one year our board election aligned with a general election, turnout soared from single digits to 75%.
Not because interest suddenly surged, I want to repeat that.
Not because interest suddenly surged, but because November is when people vote.
Meanwhile, May elections catch voters off guard.
5-7% turnout is not a mandate.
It does not reflect the will of this community.
Moving board elections to November of even-numbered years would fix that.
Here's why.
Turnout skyrockets, often 60-75% in even-year Novembers.
Voters have already spoken.
They participate in November.
By keeping elections in May, we choose a system that excludes the vast majority of taxpayers, parents, and community members from having a voice.
And it favors splinter groups.
By moving elections to November, we strengthen legitimacy, transparency, and trust in the board.
So I ask the trustees to take one simple step.
Please move board elections to November starting in 2026.
Let's give our community its voice back.
Let's make our elections representative again.
And let's align with what voters have made clear.
They don't show up in May, but they absolutely show up in November.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Next is Mr. Sean Dolan followed by Donna Mecklemurray.
Michael Murray. Good evening. As an Eagle Scout it's always good to see the Girl
Scouts represented. They tend to get overshadowed a lot so it's great seeing
that in the lobby. A couple of weeks ago my son and I visited the state capitol.
My son put on a suit, stood tall, shook hands with a bunch of leaders and
enjoyed a tour with State Rep. Michael Schofield and then we met a friend of
mine in the Governor Abbott's office and after a few moments of talking with
my son she looked at him and she said you know you're incredibly well spoken
and as proud as I was I flashed back to the day we received my son's diagnosis
that moment that a lot of parents go through where your world kind of tilts
and you wonder if your child is gonna be okay or if they're gonna fit in or if
they're gonna find their place and my son is who he is today in large part
because of the paraprofessionals people like Katie Elementary's miss Jenny and
miss Adrian they didn't just support him they believed in him they taught him how
to regulate communicate and advocate pairs don't just assist instruction they
change lives and because the role is so critical we also have to acknowledge
something uncomfortable across Texas we've seen news stories where vulnerable
nonverbal children were harmed by adults and support roles when a district
underpays a position, when turnover is constant, when the applicant pool shrinks
and standards are lower just to keep classrooms staffed, the risk to children
increases, as does the legal exposure and settlement costs. It's more than fairness,
it's about student safety. So let's talk about the budget. Every month this board
approves expenses that might be nice to have, but they're nowhere near as
essential as the people working directly with our kids. In the December amendment
being presented tonight I noticed proposed spending for items such as a
$23,000 vinyl wrapped namesake dedication wall, thousands for staff
travel and consultants, awards and incentives, equipment upgrades, specialty
training, even water bottle filling stations. All of which will likely be
approved tonight without question. So let's look at what we haven't funded.
KDISD's general fund is projected to end the year with a $332 million
million dollar fund balance. That's the district savings account. TEA recommends
190 to 285 million in reserve. We are 50 to 140 million above that range. A
meaningful raise for all paraprofessionals, even just two or three
dollars an hour, brings them closer to what Buc-ee's pays as a minimum. Would
cost the district only six to nine million dollars a year. That's a tiny
fraction of the district's overall budget and less than two percent of the
fund balance if we can afford optional expenses we can afford the people who shape our children's
future thank you thank you donna mckelmurray followed by margaret daniel
My name is Donna McElmurray, and I'm speaking on the topic of election days.
Regarding the issue of when school board elections are held,
I strongly urge the board to move our elections to November.
For the last 10 years, Katy ISD board elections in May have had single-digit voter turnout.
In the most recent election, May of 2025, turnout was only 7.5% of district voters,
which means nearly 93% of eligible voters did not participate.
In May 2016, only 2% voted, and in May 2017, only 2.5% voted.
voted. Over the last decade, excluding 2020, that means roughly 93 to 98 percent of our
voters did not vote in our school board elections. This extremely small fraction of voters is
choosing board members who oversee an operating budget of more than $1 billion and make critical
educational decisions affecting tens of thousands of students.
To give one example, this past May, one of the races was effectively decided by about 0.6% of our approximately 240,000 district voters.
I would hope the board wants greater representation from the community in determining who holds these important positions.
In my own neighborhood, I've seen firsthand that before a May election, most voters don't
even realize an election is taking place.
By contrast, almost everyone is aware of the traditional November election cycle.
Moving our school board elections to November would align them with when voters are already
engaged and expecting to vote and it would naturally encourage a higher
turnout we need to change the election date if we want broader participation
and stronger representation I respectfully ask you to vote to move our
school board elections to November all current board members would receive an
extension of varying lengths to their terms whether November elections are set
set in odd or even years.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Next will be Margaret Daniel, followed by David Green.
Members of the Katy ISD Board of Trustees,
thank you for the opportunity to speak before you guys today.
day. I'm here to urge you to move our school board elections from May to November, a change that
would dramatically increase the community participation and strengthen trust in the
district's governance. For over a decade, KDISD has faced the troubling pattern of single-digit
voter turnout in May elections. When the election was held during a COVID year in November, turnout
soared to historic levels, and this wasn't coincidence. Like it or not, we have to understand
that voters in our community and indeed across our country are conditioned to vote in November
on Election Day.
families are already engaged, they're aware, and they're ready to cast a ballot.
I understand the district also chooses to hold separate May elections to reduce
cost. I don't know if it's a possibility but I would ask you to consider another
solution which is to hold our trustee elections in November while partnering
jointly with the county as many other Texas districts do. This would allow
voters to cast their ballots in one visit on one machine and one streamlined
process without forcing them to return on a different day at a different
location. As a poll clerk and poll watcher, I see firsthand the unnecessary
confusion this creates and it's heartbreaking, heartbreaking to watch the
proud older voters that walk, they want to walk and cast their own individual
ballot and I applaud them from coming and doing their civic duty but they, I
keep telling them you don't have to get out of the car we can bring the ballot
to you yet they go in with their walkers or their canes and they have their
assistance and then the horrible look on their face when they realized they had
exhausted themselves and they had to turn around and it's not it's not your
fault it's just that that time there were three different elections and there
were different locations and it was no one should have to go through that Katie
has grown exponentially over the past few decades as you're well aware we're
no longer a small rural community with more families more schools and more
taxpayers than ever before and a bigger budget that you all are managing it's
It's time for our election structure to reflect the size and needs of the district.
Moving trustee elections to November isn't about politics.
It's about participation.
It's about ensuring the voices shaping our children's education represent the full community, not just a small fraction.
I would respectfully urge all of you to take the necessary steps to place the future school board elections in November
where voter engagement is strongest, where civic participation can finally match the scale and importance of the decisions that you all make.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Next will be David Green followed by Ann Russey.
Good evening, trustees.
Last month, as you all know, I was here and I advocated for exploring looking into what
that looks like to move the election.
As Trustee Kozella rightly said, we are facing that single digit participation like everyone
here is probably going to tell you all.
But you already knew that.
What concerns me, what really concerns me is a few minutes ago we had a parent who came up and was concerned about the paraprofessionals.
And, I mean, our general counsel at the last meeting said, hey, if we move our election to November, it's going to cost half a million dollars at least.
Meanwhile, if we keep it where it's at, it's only going to be $70,000.
Now, I get it.
That's just $430,000, which is not real money, except, oh, wait, it is real money.
It's real money to our paraprofessionals. It's real money to our students.
And Trustee Champagne even asked the question,
what does that look like? I feel like I'm paraphrasing here, but
she was mentioning something about if we do this here, what are we going to have to cut?
I mean, it was teachers or something, right? Now, I'm not saying you said we were going to cut
teachers. That would never happen. But what do we have to cut
if we're moving the budget? Because dollars have to get moved from one thing to another.
So if we're going to move our elections to November, that's going to have to have a real cost and a real budget consideration.
I'm all for more participation, but that's our job as a community.
It's our job as a community to reach out to our neighbors, to say to our neighbors, hey, we've got an election.
Carpool with me. Come to the polls with me. It's my job to say to my neighbor on my left and on my right, hey, let's carpool together.
Let's go cast a ballot. Let's go grab lunch. What it's you know, I don't have control over the budget.
Y'all do.
But what I do have control over is whether I invite my neighbors to join me at the polls.
You guys, on the other hand, y'all have that budgetary control.
You can decide if we're spending $70,000, like the general counsel said, for a May election
or half a million or more for a November election.
And I would urge you, at least for now, let's leave it for May.
Let's look into how do we do that in a way that solves it.
I mean, there's got to be a right answer.
I mean, I absolutely agree we should look into a November election.
I just don't think now this half-baked process is going to work.
I think we should really do it the right way.
And in order to do it the right way, it takes time, it takes thought, it takes research, and it takes getting those numbers.
Getting those numbers from the county, getting those numbers from the community.
And Trustee Cuzela even asked for an ad hoc committee to explore that.
So I would hope that we could actually have that committee in place, invite the community to participate, and really get that, all those answers firmly figured out.
Thank you all so much.
Thank you. Next will be Ian Russey followed by Victor Perez.
us. Hello, I am here tonight to ask you to please pull policy update 126 from the consent agenda
for further discussion. I'm requesting the board table EFB local and discuss it further in a future
meeting. President Redmond, you've said before that crafting good policy takes time. Y'all have
spent so many hours revising EFB Local to try to strike a balance between ensuring student access
to healthy school libraries, ensuring communication with parents regarding our kids' library selections,
and protecting children from harmful materials. I'm asking you to begin to repair what's been broken
under the prior board majority. While I have major concerns about the proposed policy, like keeping
the gender fluidity ban and eliminating the formal reconsideration committees that allow parent input,
put in the process of evaluating challenge books, there are also some minor issues that
really require your attention.
First, when you pass updates to FA Local tonight, you're going to lose the definition of gender
fluidity that EFB Local refers to.
Second, the policy language around prohibited websites is not in alignment with state law.
It looks like books referencing websites blocked by KDISD, like DoorDash, Twitter, The Trevor
project are at risk of being eliminated from library collections. Over the past
several years, KDISD has made many efforts to communicate with parents and
empower us to guide our own children's reading choices. The district puts its
library catalogs online, communicates with parents every time our kids check
out a book, post purchase requests online, solicits feedback from the public for 30
days before books are purchased, and convenes formal reconsideration
committees to gather parent feedback on books that are challenged additionally this year kdisd
rolled out a parent choice feature inside the catalog that allows parents to deselect
any library books that they would like to be off limits to their own children i would encourage you
to ask district administration what percent of parents have utilized that parent choice feature
to enable any restrictions for their own children that percentage will tell you how many or how
How few KDISD parents of currently enrolled students believe KDISD libraries contain books
unfit for their children.
Tonight I'm just asking you to table the proposed revisions and spend some more time crafting
good policy.
Finally, next month please approve the purchase order request the librarians have pending.
They haven't been able to buy any new books that aren't duplicate ISBNs yet and we're
almost to winter break.
At this rate students won't see new books on library shelves until the spring.
This process can and should proceed while you work to improve the EFV local policy. Thank you for your time and consideration.
Thank you.
Next is Victor Perez followed by Claudia Sircott.
Good evening President Redmond, Trustees, and Dr. Rogorski.
Thank you for the opportunity to speak. I'm speaking on item 810,
I've said this before and I want to make it absolutely clear again, KDISD school board elections should be held in November, not May.
This is not complicated. It is simply the fair and responsible approach for a district this size.
The fact speaks for themselves. Voter turnout in November is dramatically higher than in May.
If we genuinely value community representation, transparency, and broad participation, then we should want elections held when the greatest number of voters are actually paying attention.
May elections are practically invisible.
Most residents don't know they exist, and year after year, turnout remains shockingly low in the single digits.
This past May, turnout reached about 7%, and that was somehow considered a success.
But let's be honest, 7% participation is not a success, it is a failure of representation.
And low turnout elections allow small organized groups to dominate the results.
Look at the scale of the numbers.
KDISD has approximately 13,000 employees, all of whom are directly or indirectly under
the superintendent and district administration.
We have 5,000 to 6,000 18-year-olds who are inevitably influenced, subtly or if not, by their teachers.
Meanwhile, total voter turnout in recent May elections has often been just 8,000 to 18,000 versus 240,000 registered voters.
When those numbers are compared side by side, it becomes impossible to ignore.
May elections create conditions where narrow interests can outweigh the broader community.
This is not healthy, that is not democratic, and this is not the image KDISD should want for itself.
KDISD has grown tremendously in size and diversity over the last decade.
Our school board elections should reflect that reality.
Candidates should be expected to campaign across the entire district to reach out to all voters and to earn the trust of every community,
not just a small circle of consistent May voters or familiar insiders.
Some call that group informed voters. Many in the public see something very
different and I want to raise one additional concern. Last month, Trustee
Cozzella proposed creating an ad hoc committee to seriously study this issue.
President Redmond, you said you would consider it. To date there has been no
update that I've seen or heard about and the community deserves transparency and
a clear answer. Has this request been acted on or is it being quietly swept
swept aside the community deserves transparency and a clear answer thank you thank you next will
be miss claudia turco good evening trustees and dr grigorski i'm here tonight to advocate for moving
may school board elections to the month of november kdisd has historically had abysmally low
voter turnout. Last year was the highest turnout ever at 7.5% with the exception of 2020, which
was a November election also. That means basically 93% of the electorate are unrepresented. KDISD
should be doing everything possible to ensure the broadest participation of its citizens.
In contrast, most bond elections do take place in November. I find that odd. Why wouldn't the
the people who we elect to approve said bond packages not also be afforded the same accessibility
and visibility that a November election would offer?
Also and I'm truly asking this question because I don't know, would it not be more cost effective
given that November elections take place every other year instead of the annual May elections?
And I also feel like I need to say that if Ms. Cuzela's idea of an ad hoc committee had
been followed through on maybe there could have been ways that y'all could have discussed
bringing that um into into a reasonable budget or a comparable budget to the may elections
i've listened to some of the discussion on this topic in previous meetings i have yet to hear a
compelling or logical argument against moving the elections to november two board members did
comment that november voters tend to be uninformed but they were unable to provide any evidence for
their claim i think an argument can be made that it is not the purview of any trustee to deem any
voter uninformed quite honestly that can be interpreted as elitist and as attempting to
disenfranchise voters that one has arbitrarily decided to characterize as uninformed absent
any supporting data that's not a good look if this topic is looked at unemotionally objectively and
logically then i think everyone would agree that it makes a lot of sense to move elections to
November. This change would go a long way to ensuring that the KD electorate is truly and
accurately represented. Thank you. Thank you. We will now move on to non-agenda items.
Our first speaker on non-agenda items will be Christopher Goodwin, followed by Jennifer Jesse.
Christopher Goodwin.
All right, Jennifer Jesse.
And then following Jennifer will be Ms. Lindsay Yang.
Good evening, board members.
It's good to be here tonight.
Thanks for listening to us.
My name is Jennifer Jesse.
I am an in-class support special education paraprofessional at Davidson Elementary
and a single mom to a student at Cinco Ranch Junior High.
My son is here to support me as well as a lot of my colleagues and our principal, Jesse Miller.
I love my job, my coworkers, and the students we serve.
That's why I'm here tonight.
I hold a bachelor's degree, multiple certifications, and graduate coursework relevant to my work.
Before joining Katy ISD in 2019, I spent 15 years in higher education.
KDISD paraprofessionals are educated, experienced, compassionate, and dedicated, and many of us are also KDISD MOLs.
Each day, every day, I support 20 amazing special education students, 13 of them in multiple subjects.
Each has an individualized education plan under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
and paraprofessionals provide direct support and documentation that ensure
compliance while helping students grow academically socially and emotionally
we've made an open records request for the most accurate numbers but most
paraprofessionals I've spoken with earn only 15 to 17 dollars an hour about
about $2,000 a month before deductions.
Two paychecks doesn't cover rent for a two bedroom apartment.
I myself had skipped health care because I
couldn't afford deductibles.
And this year I couldn't afford district insurance at all.
To meet student needs and data collection requirements,
I often work through my unpaid lunch and after school.
Many paraprofessionals work two or three jobs, leaving little time for their families.
After five years of supplementing my income with savings, those savings are nearly gone.
TRS recently informed me I could retire in 45.9 years.
I'll be 100.
Katie ISD is one of the highest rated districts in Texas and paraprofessionals are a major reason
why but we are still paid poverty level wages if the district's budget cannot provide a livable
wage I urge the board to advocate to the Texas legislature for Katie ISD paraprofessionals
give their heart and soul and often their own resources to serve our students
Thank you, Ms. Jesse.
Thank you.
Next will be Lindsay Yang, followed by Tom Richardson.
Well, good evening.
This is my first time at any meeting like this.
I'm Lindsay.
I'm a mom of three.
Two of my kids go to a KDISD elementary school, grades two in kindergarten.
I wanted to talk about the school lunch today, but I'd really like that lady to get a raise,
and I think we can do it.
If we will just tax billion dollar fast food companies like McDonald's that are making our people and our community sick while they skip out on paying any corporate taxes by being located whatever, Cayman Islands or Ireland or Swiss bank accounts, whatever.
They're making our people sick.
I wanted to talk about a national issue that is obesity, but it's also related to diabetes, cancer, Alzheimer's, and so many other chronic diseases.
I have records of my daughter and son's school lunch.
Three out of the 15 school days in November, there was pizza as an option.
And I think we can all acknowledge that pizza sauce is not a vegetable.
And not all fruits and vegetables are created equal.
equal. Fruits nowadays genetically modified have four times the amount of sugar as heirloom
fruits would have. And a starchy potato that's fried in seed oils to make French fries is
not as nutritionally valuable to our kids as leafy green kale or broccoli or zucchini
or I'm sure all the moms and parents in this room who know how to cook for their kids a
a healthy meal could do much better than what we're doing here.
And I don't mean to put you guys in the hot seat.
This is a national issue.
And I think it goes back to USDA guidelines and propagandists in the 1960s.
And I'm not going to get into that right now.
But we're a country that's controlled by a lot of sugar companies.
I mean, if Coca-Cola used to put cocaine in their drinks,
and now they've got 38 grams of sugar, I don't know why we're trusting them
and allowing our kids to get these sugary drinks.
I've heard crazy stories from middle school moms,
moms of high schoolers,
that their kids are downing these sugary drinks.
We've got a huge problem.
I've got stats in here.
Texas, well-known, educated people saying, like,
okay, what's up with the 35% adult obesity rate in Texas?
We're not even the worst.
And in Texas, we're, I think,
we're the sixth highest for state child obesity rates,
It's higher than most of the rest of the country.
One in four children of 11 to 17 are obese.
Just being overweight in Texas is like 80% of the population.
If 2% of Japanese are obese, I think
we can look outside the country at South Korea, Japan, Finland,
France, and maybe Brazil for their nutrition guidelines.
Thank you very much.
Thank you, Ms. Yang.
Love to.
Got papers.
I don't know who to send it to.
Tom Richardson, followed by Tana Weiss.
Tom Richardson.
Miss Tana Weiss, followed by Nathan Hickman.
Good evening, school board.
President Redmond, Dr. Grigorski,
and the rest of the board.
My name is Tana Weiss and I'd like to comment on the work study meeting that I attended on November 17th.
Wow. Just when I think the leftovers behavior couldn't get any worse, the three of you proved me wrong.
Let's discuss. I wore my T-shirt that said, we'll trade races for refugees, thinking the demographic attendance report might be touchy.
Boy, did I underestimate Ms. Calhoun's comments.
And to revisit, regardless of her I'm not a racist arguments last month, she did in fact say on May 6, 2024,
24, timestamp one hour, 36 minutes and 35 seconds. Do we have any way of measuring how many immigrant
children are in our district that we are educating? Then she admitted she thought it was illegal to ask
immigration status, but we do live in South Texas and we have had 10 million illegals come across
our border. She sucked the air out of the room with that comment. Her words are despicable.
Oh, but she did explain AI to our assistant superintendent for teaching and learning, Dr. Sine Bell.
The three of you insult every employee in this room every time you open your mouths.
Ms. Cozella, thinking that moving the May school board election to November and extending your term along with the other leftovers for 18 months is not the biggest elephant in the room is laughable.
Never.
and again you are the most condescending sarcastic and rudest person I've ever
encountered and I've met some doozies miss Timmy once again how unfair and sad
is it that the votes are now for three not in your favor please stop whining
please stop complaining and we know you are a teacher for 36 months 25 years ago
I would also like to remind the three of you that you are supposed to represent
Katy Independent School District. Not homeschoolers, not charter schools, not
anyone who pays taxes because that is the law and they'll take away your house
and you don't have a choice. Yes, you do. Don't live in Katy ISD if you don't like
this district as the three of you continue to prove or live in this
district don't put your kids in our schools as Timi and Calhoun have chosen.
There are always choices. The two of you made them, but the three of you were
elected to advocate for Katy Public Schools. What are you even doing here
except sabotaging, insulting, and trying to catch our employees doing something
you perceive as wrong? Please stop or don't. May is coming. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Next will be Nathan Hickman followed by Rafia Akbar.
Good evening.
My name is Nathan and I work at Katy High School as a paraprofessional for Katy Plus
program.
I'm here to talk about our ridiculous salary.
Let me ask you this, could you sustain a life at $25,860.90?
That's what I'm making this year.
That kind of covers my one-daughter daycare.
So luckily for me, I have a wife that also has a salary, and you know, I can survive.
So like I said, $25,860.90.
The Texas average for our position is $31,812.
So that's $6,000 less that I've already lost.
After that, the U.S. average is $34,954.
That's almost $10,000 difference.
A lot of money that I could use to support my family.
But you know what the biggest thing here is?
That this could actually help if we were to increase our salaries.
It might actually help the students.
We might actually be able to bring enticed people to come.
A lot of corporations around the world, you know what they do when they want better employees?
They raise their salaries so people want to go there.
Nobody wants to go here.
Nobody wants to work at this.
Nobody wants that low salary.
You can't live off of it.
It's impossible.
The Texas cost of living for a single, no children, is $34,931.
As of 2023, I tried to find updated info.
It's hard to come by.
So let's see.
20% of paras are considering a different field of pay just because of the pay.
They don't want to be here because it's impossible to live.
Salary doesn't provide sustainability without assistance.
Every single para has some kind of assistance,
either a spouse with a significantly higher-paying job,
roommates to help cover rent,
a secondary job, as somebody said.
A lot of people have second and third jobs.
or some sort of government assistance. Low pay is a deterrent. We're not getting
the people we want, need to better our children's future and our future. Our
children are our future as well. Without an educated child to help us progress in
life, become better, what are we doing? So let's see what else. We're responsible
responsible for many difficult jobs as well I mean I've had feces thrown at me
I've been bitten I've been punched many times scratched many times thrown
against the wall and I still come back because I care I want the children to be
better I want them to be happy I want them to have a better life I want them
to have a better future and they can't do that without our help and better
people helping us. So please consider this in the future. We need your help.
Thank you. Rafia Akbar and Parthik Pichai.
Hi. I work in KTISD at Beto High School. I'm not really really I have not really
prepared speech but I have so many things that I want to speak about I've
been working in as a paraprofessional in class support for the last eight years
or so in Katy but I have been a paraprofessional in other school
district too like all my colleagues are saying we are so underpaid and
underappreciated because what we do that goes unnoticed we work behind the scenes
and we are always working hard to make sure that the children are given the
education they need because tell me how many how how much does the teacher know
about each student but we do because we work with them very closely physically
physically, and we always build a relationship.
So we are working very hard with each child that we support.
And the number of children that we support is almost 100 or so, because we have a split
schedule.
We go Monday, Wednesday, Friday to one class, and Tuesday, Thursdays to another class, and
we keep data.
We keep up with the data for every student.
We have data to collect, and we have goals that the children need to meet.
and we the teachers are supposed to look after take care of the goals but now
they don't have the time but we are asked to take care of the goals writing
down the goals and all I mean making sure that the goals have been met and
the that has been recorded and keeping up with all the data on a daily basis
for 100 or 102 kids that have 102 and we are always juggling with between taking
care of how to help the children and the data if the data is not kept the data is
not filled then we get an email right away that where is the data and because
it's the law to keep the keep up with the data but if the children are not
help we feel guilty because we love our children and we love our jobs that's why
I'm still wearing my badge because I really appreciate how much the kids get
helped and I really want to help them but nowadays the new repair
professionals who have been hired they say well we don't get paid enough to do
so much work so you know we'll just let it go if the child does not help it's
alright we're not paid for that so but since I've been working for a long time
I feel like
I have an obligation and I do respect that you all call us paraprofessionals
and we are professional but our pay is really not of a...
Thank you. Karthik Pichai.
Karthik Pichai.
Good evening both.
My name is Karthik Pichai.
Let me talk about myself a little bit.
I'm a trained physical therapist with pediatric neurology experience
spanning over ten years
and I've dealt with children
in special schools in India
where
I was a head
and now so you know how we deal with behaviors we deal with developmental
delays we deal with autism we deal with emotional disturbances we deal with
everything every single day every single period in our class and we just don't
have a break and for all the work we do what we are paid are peanuts we don't
get a lot we never get the recognition in terms of salary or you know other
than the schools what they do for us we don't get much from the board and I've
been this district for four years and this my fourth year currently running
and let me be very clear about my job paraprofessionals implement
individualized education plans we collect behavioral data we assist with
feeding toileting and personal care we are trained in crisis intervention CPR
CPR, first aid and de-escalation techniques.
We are hit, we are kicked, we are beaten, we are spit on.
And this is not occasional, this is routine.
This is every day, every single class almost.
And as I said, we work with students with autism, down syndrome, traumatic brain injuries,
severe emotional disturbances, emotional dysregulation, students who require specially support to
access their education.
Students who without paraprofessionals cannot be served.
Also, we are paid poverty wages.
Let me tell you what poverty wages create.
Turnover. Positions sit unfilled for months.
Qualified professionals leave.
Students lose the adults they learn to trust.
Progress is lost.
Families lose support.
teachers cannot maintain legally required ratios. This is not speculation.
This is happening right now in the district. When a paraprofessional leaves,
a student who spent months learning trust an adult has to start over.
A child who finally stopped having daily meltdowns, they are rigorous.
family loses their connection to the school.
This cycle repeats over and over again.
We are creating a special education crisis, not because
there aren't qualified people, but
because qualified people cannot afford to stay.
This is a choice we are
have to seriously think about and make better change.
Thank you.
This concludes the open forum portion of our meeting.
The award will now convene in closed meeting as authorized under section 551.001 of the Texas Government Code for the following purposes.
5. Closed Meeting
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, December 8, 2025, and the time is 7.20 p.m.
On behalf of my colleagues, I welcome everyone to this evening's regular board meeting.
Each board member received the agenda and documentation for this meeting on Wednesday, December 3, 2025.
And the board will receive information and recommendations from staff, administration, and the superintendent on these agenda items at tonight's meeting.
Board members will be asked to, will be, will be able to ask questions, receive
answers, and should be prepared to take action. The board has just reconvened
from closed meeting and in accordance with chapter 551 of the Texas
Government Code, any action arising from discussions in the closed meeting must
be taken in open meeting. We will not be taking any action from our closed
meeting. And our first item in open meeting today would be our reports. So
7.1 Academic Presentation - Navigating Course Planning
So item 7.1, academic presentation, navigating course planning.
And our presenters are Marissa Adams and Dr. Emily Craig.
Good evening.
President Redmond, Dr. Gorgorski, Board of Trustees.
We are excited tonight to talk to you a little bit about course planning.
You've had some pieces of information about courses,
and we'll talk a little bit about what that looks like.
But this is where we are going forward with students
and just beginning to enter the process of planning for 26-27.
So part of what we wanted to talk a little bit about, this is what we talk about with students and families, with our counseling staff, our college and career facilitators, and our administrative staff is trying to take all of these pieces that parents have to think about and really bring them together into something that makes sense.
and go through that process so that all the different things they have to think
about as far as choosing courses and making plans for the future are our
coherent sequence and so one of the big initiatives that we have done in our
counseling department this year is to really try to shift the narrative from
course selection to course planning and so thinking about normally we've talked
about it's course selection time it's course selection time and really wanted to shift that
to course planning the course selection process focuses a lot on filling slots in a schedule of
seven periods to planning for a multi-year pathway really starting with our students even in
elementary school and thinking about what are they taking in junior high that fulfills a pathway
in high school for their post-secondary choices course selection really focuses on the master
or schedule itself and whether that works versus ensuring that courses are available that students
are interested in a planning process course selection is that short-term oriented what
classes should i take next year versus a long-term plan for what experiences would shape your future
what do you want to do when you finish and graduate from kdisd and how do we make sure that
we align courses and pathways to help you achieve those goals and then course selection process has
typically been campus need driven and really shifting that to the planning
process where the decisions we are making about how we make it all come
together our student need driven the course planning timeline just so kind of
high level over for you for you in that first set October to December is really
where we are now course creation happens through our curriculum and instruction
teaching and learning teams they'll bring some courses to you you have that
that on your agenda that we talked a little bit about last month at the work
study for new new courses or revisions that are needed and then we move into
January where those courses are added to school links and Marissa will talk a
little bit about school links and how our students utilize that to make their
plans and we begin our process of advertising courses and pathways and
opportunities for our students and then starting February 2nd which is when our
our course planning timeline will open and all the way through March 17th,
which is when we kind of close that window,
campus counselors will be meeting with students one-on-one to course plan.
Students submit their options through school links.
And then parents have the opportunity to approve those courses that their
students have chosen and the paths they have chosen to make sure that fits with
the parents' expectations of those things too.
So it's a teamwork piece.
We're moving into really working with our counselors to talk about some innovative academic advising so that they are looking at the pathways that our innovative pathways team and our virtual offerings bring in to both their comprehensive choices on our high schools and making sure our junior high counselors are prepared for that too.
And then School Links is the program through which brings all of those pieces together.
And so Marissa is going to talk a little bit about what exactly are the components of our innovative academic advising.
We talked with our counselors a lot that
innovative academic advising is really leveraging the good things that they're already doing when they're meeting with their kids and
looking to that course planning piece to stretch beyond just this next year.
One of the main purposes of our innovative academic advising is to ensure that all of our students are graduating meeting their academic graduation
requirements in one of two ways either with the foundation high school program
which is 22 credits or that foundation high school program plus an endorsement
so we spent a lot of time going through with them on what those endorsements can
look like our students can earn any multiple of these endorsements so they
could say I'm gonna be take five extra credits in math and get that stem
endorsement but at the same time I'm gonna have I'm a fine arts endorsement
for the arts and humanities. Along with that, when we're making sure that all of our students have
those components, then we're able to make sure that all of our kids successfully walk across our stage
either at the end of the year or in August or winter graduations. Innovative academic advising
is also going to make sure that our students are earning their college career or military indicator.
This is a component of our accountability system, and the state lets us know how our students are
able to earn that CCMR indicator and then we communicate with our CCFs and
our counselors specifically in Katy we take that high-level information and
bring it down to our district so they can see how they can help these
conversations with our students as they're going through the planning
process but overarching we stress with our counselors and with our support
staff that really innovative academic advising is about meeting the kids where
they are finding out what experiences they need while they're here in Katy so
so that they can be successful once they leave and graduate from KDISD.
So we do a lot of that through course advertisement.
We did meet with counselors just today, for example,
to really start talking about what do these things look like,
how do they start preparing students for that.
We'll meet with them again in January,
just before the course planning window officially opens,
to make sure that they are fully vetted
and understand all the possibilities that they can offer to students.
But we have a number of course advertisement opportunities coming up.
So kind of wanted to draw your attention to Course Catalog Live.
That's a new name for this year.
You may have remembered things like Course Selection Fair or Electives Night, those sorts of things.
And really trying to bring that into something where it is an interactive event for kids to come experience the opportunities for courses that they have to take at the high school level and at the junior high level.
So, Course Catalog Live is coming up in January on the 21st between the Merrill Center and
the PDA, utilizing both of those spaces.
Last year we had just under 4,400 families come through with our course selection fair.
So, really looking to make sure that we expand those opportunities for students and their
parents to come up and really see what does it mean to take this course from a teacher
that's teaching that course and what does it really entail before they just sign up for
something on a piece of paper we also have a new event um to some extent this year called find your
future night formerly the um our counseling department did a college knowledge night which
helped parents understand the role of their college career facilitator on their campus and
how they can help assist them with post-secondary needs and getting those things we talked about
financial aid texas workforce commission had been there to talk about students who might be
interested in going straight into the workforce and then the president of southwestern university
had spoken about well-rounded students and just kind of helping parents see like what is that
college path look like and so we've taken it this year in conjunction with our cte department
to create a find your future night and so that will be the following week after the um the um
course catalog live night on january 27th at the merrill center and in the esc and in this case
we'll be marrying marrying the courses that they could take with us with college opportunities for
positions with industry professionals and as well as some trade school opportunities so kind of
looking at this particular position if I want to be this what could I do with
that what's the college bound track for that what's an industry person in that
doing right now that could help me and what might be a trade school track that
might be applicable to that and how do I choose courses that could help me put on
either of those two paths so we're really excited to be doing that in
conjunction with our CTE department this year we have a variety of parent
parent meetings. We have some course planning webinars, one that already occurred in November
where we had 459 families in attendance, really just starting to talk about what does course
planning look like and giving them some information. We have another one coming up next week
and then one more in January before that course planning window opens. We also have two Legacy
Parent Academy nights at the Merrill Center in January. Well, one night, two different events,
um the junior high in the beginning and then we'll take a little break and high school parents come
so that they can kind of hear what does it look like be right there in person get some answers
from our college and career facilitators who are there to support as well as our counseling team
as well and then legacy virtual high school just sharing some of this information you may have seen
some of it before but we have had um one just tonight but four webinars um there and so have
some information previously so several parents and different family members involved there and
one more before we go to the winter break for legacy virtual high school and then in addition
some parent nights for us so our miller career and technology center does have a high school preview
night january 26th and then a junior high preview night on february 18th for students who might be
interested in choosing one of the pathways at Miller Career and Technology Center.
Miller is also going to be including the CTE programs currently offered at Rains.
So our real estate program, our water operations, our CDL, and then also our new programming
with underground utilities in their preview night so that students know all of the options
that might be available to them there on the complex.
As we get ready to have the baton handed off to campus support from curriculum and instructions
tonight, we move into this season of course planning when we come back from winter break.
And for our students and our parents, course planning really happens in School Links, which
they're able to access through their MyKD dashboards.
This is a robust program where they get to plan their schedules, but also they get time
to explore, find your future paths.
There are career assessments they can take.
There's videos they can watch.
it begins at the elementary level and goes all the way through high school.
When students are in here for course planning they are able at the junior
high level like on this slide see their three-year plan and then at the high
school level are able to see it as a four-year plan. So when our students are
meeting with our counselors they really are having conversations well in
advance is what we're encouraging so that if I know I'm really interested in
this track do I have all the prerequisites lined out early on so that
that I can make sure I'll be ready and be successful when I'm ready to graduate.
Parents also have a hand in this. So parents, once the students have submitted
their personalized plan and their course plan and the counselor has approved it,
parents go in through their MyKD dashboard and are able to access
School Links and once they're there they can see that they will have
opportunities to read any commitments that we have, our advanced courses,
what information do we want to share ahead of time. They can see what goals
their student has set for themselves and then they can go in and actually have a
chance to see that three or four year plan before having the opportunity to
approve it so that we're positive that the parents have been part of the
conversation as well and are certain what it is that their course their
parents are wanting their students are wanting to take our real our whole goal
in all of this is to be collaborative with campus support with CNI with
parents with students that's all we have do you have any questions any questions
word mr. president champagne I have a few questions first of all that is a
fantastic presentation I'm really excited about that for our kids but I
was wondering on the parent part of it so this student because this is kind of
like after my time my youngest graduate in 2020 and and you know things change
change so fast, but how are you assured that the parent is the one that is giving the final
approval since the child seems like he or she has the ability to go into there by themselves?
So very similar to if you think back to what we used to do with course verification where
the child would bring a sheet home and they had things circled on their paper and you
might have the opportunity, those students would get a parent's signature and turn it
in and when we got a little bit further down in the process if we had students
whose parents had not or the counselor hasn't received the paperback from the
student or they'll they're just have questions about did your parent really
see this there's not a signature on there the counselors are our next line
where they'll reach out and they'll call and they'll have conversations with the
parents to make sure that they're brought into that conversation and the
parent sign-off is part of the parents login in my Katie cloud so when if a
student logs into my Katie and clicks on school links they only see the things
they have access to they would not see that parent sign-off so parent would sign
in to their using their login to my Katie because so I have a few little
things to say but I've known some people and you know even just this year but
even back to when my kids were in school they signed up for a AP class and then
they can't get out of it because they want to get out of it there's a deadline
I don't know let's act like the deadline in September 1st and then like that but
that they go a little bit beyond the deadline and they're failing the class
but they can't get out do you have any information about why a child is then
trapped kind of in that class and can't get out well we do create some
some guidelines for times that students could exit from a course.
Our campuses take the course selection requests that students have done during
their course planning, and that's really what drives their master scheduling and
drives what teachers are teaching.
So if there were a lot of students who were changing courses around that may
very well change the master schedule, which happens sometimes.
But we do really want to sit down one on one with each of those students to look at
their prior prop their prior success and what they're thinking about wanting to
do in the future and making sure we make those choices on the front end that will
be best served for that student but there are some times that students do
need to come out of that and we do have some pre-published times in order to
facilitate that process once they go past that time seems like a lot of them
are kind of trapped in there because there's not anything else for them to
transfer into maybe correct after after that tenth day of the course then
there's not something else they could go into because they've got to be in
attendance a certain amount of time to earn credit for that which is part of
the reason for some of those windows or that one of those conversations that
happen also revolve around if the students leaving a class say mid beyond
that tenth date and it's the middle of the grading period and they're moving to
a different class totally different content totally different teaks they
they might be behind because they've missed a significant amount of time in that grading
period with that class.
All right.
This is a hard thing for a lot of people to understand.
I mean, I even really honestly went through that too myself as a parent back when my kids
were in high school trying to get one of my kids out.
Anyway, it's just, I guess it is what it is.
Okay, I have a question about the endorsements if you don't mind.
so when I think 2014 2015 was the first year of the endorsements and my middle
child was in eighth grade the year before and it was very traumatic because
even when we went to Taylor because she was that make means we went to Taylor
and they had all the eighth grade parents out there in the Commons and
then the counselors were out there but the counselors really didn't under you
know they didn't know everything yet either and it just seemed like those
kids felt like I've got to figure out what I want to do for the rest of my
life and I'm only you know 13 or 14 years old and then has has that because
it still seems kind of complicated but has it gotten easier or better because
at first it was very overwhelming I think even for the counselors it was
overwhelming sure I remember I do remember exactly what you're talking
about when that happened because I had a student going into high school at the
the same time as well and so I felt like I was calming a whole pack of people
that were like what are we gonna do and it's going to be okay your kids are
gonna be okay it's a new process for what that looks like and so yes I think
we have over that course of time really done a lot with counselors to help them
understand the multitude of ways that a student could earn an endorsement that
it doesn't have to be one way and really there are a lot of opportunities within
those endorsements for some crossover many of our kids might graduate with
multiple endorsements because of the different things that they're taking and
so we really try to help look at what do you really want to be able to focus on
and there's not one that's better than another it's really about what do you
want to do when you finish high school and what's going to set you on that best
path and so sometimes kids say I have to be in this one or I have to be in this
one and so really it depends on what do you want to do and what does your
post-secondary goal want so if you're looking at going to a specific college
or university in a specific degree plan what might they look at and so that's
part of what our college and career facilitators help them do as well is
look at you want to go to this particular school in this particular
program well you've got to make sure you set yourself up for success with that in
what you take in high school because they're looking for certain things um and so really
kind of working through those pieces less about yes we need to have an endorsement but really
the courses you're taking will make some of that happen without feeling like i have to think
endorsement first think the pathway that you're taking and the plan that you're making and for
most students then an endorsement will fall into place with that and i think i think what it is you
especially back then, and it probably still is true,
that kids in eighth grade aren't always thinking about,
what am I going to do for the rest of my life?
They're thinking about, I'm hungry and I want to go home and get a snack or something.
Or I have a football game tonight or something, but they're not thinking about.
And it's just, I hope that we can have it so that kids don't have to feel so pressured
into deciding that's how I felt like at least then that the kids were trying to decide what they wanted to do
and there was so much pressure on that in eighth grade.
You don't have to answer that question, but I just wanted to add two more things real quick.
Is there still, I know a few years ago there was a law enacted that the counselors are required to meet with the students
I think once a year or something is that's right right okay I just wanted to
make sure I remembered that right the last thing I want to say was um there
was a program that we had at Taylor High School and I think mr. Morgan was
principal then and we had like the these parents that would come in and help the
kids write college applications and help them write their essays and we have like
a certain time a week and we could use the labs at the computer lab and then in
the library and I just wanted to throw that out as a suggestion because we
would have a lot of kids come in there do you remember that mr. Morgan we had a
lot of kids utilizing that and we were helping with FAFSA's and college
applications college essays and it was just a voluntary thing but a lot of moms
moms and dads stepped up and did that.
So I just want to throw that out as another suggestion for our high school students.
Do you think it's one of the benefits too that Katie had the foresight to have a college
career facilitator on every campus?
Because they're able to have a lot of those conversations with students.
They can bring their applications in, their essays, help with FAFSA.
They keep the conversation flowing with the students and support them.
This way you have a person like that, but then you have 10 parents too sitting there
Side by side so that ten kids at a time could come in and do the same time rather than you know
Just one anyway. It's just an idea, but thank you very much
Thank you, thank you very much. I love the presentation too, and I had questions about endorsements
Trustee champaign's ants are asked some of them already, but do the have they changed
Are they the same as when they first came out?
They're the same basic endorsements. They have a few times they might change some parts that go with them, but the basic endorsements are the same.
Okay. And I remember as a parent, like, you know, when they first came out, it was stressful. But I always was like, hey, just be multidisciplinary. Don't worry about it. Because that's the fault, the catch-all. So we quickly learned not to worry about that.
What drives the five endorsements? Who defined that?
Is it the TEA?
State, yes.
Okay.
So those.
It's legislative.
They own that.
Okay.
Okay.
Just double checking.
And then, because I don't find them very useful personally.
Okay.
Because our colleges aren't asking for these that I know of at all.
A lot of times it's really the coursework that you're in for the course, the degree plan that you're thinking of entering.
So it's like a bucket to help you with, to carry along.
Okay.
maybe that'll get revamped someday and then the the thing that I hear about I
love that you're talking about trying to plan versus just course election every
year have a bigger picture and what I hear a lot is a the Miller career kids
get excited about something but they're already a freshman or a sophomore and
there's no way they can fit it in because they don't they like the
pre-reqs like i feel like that's pretty common um and if we can do any maybe it's gotten better but
to where it's really clear as soon as possible sometimes it's going to get missed but that they
could know ahead of time for sure and we continue to have those junior high nights some of that goes
to what miss champaign was talking about that an eighth grader doesn't know what they want to do
next week much less three years from now um and so some of that has to do with that where later
they go oh gosh I didn't know I wanted to do I have my own kid who did the same
thing and we were scrambling then to do some prerequisite pieces when she
finally figured out her life choices but it's it is one of those things where we
continue to do that we continue to offer some Miller offers some field trips for
some junior highs to come through ways to just continue to get students in to
see the programming so that they get excited about that a lot of our schools
will pair some of that when we take seventh grade field trips to the scene um center so that they
see miller right next door and starting to build some of those connections as well great and the
the trade school night or what did you call that uh the find your future night what's that find
your future night find your future that's what it was that's pretty cool uh and the trade schools
that you bring how long is that new this year yeah okay that's great uh and the water op you
mentioned um rains with combining that with the miller nights i think and talking about
water operations which is given through raines underground risk management underground utilities
this is one of the new courses that you have um for this year okay and then of course cdl
and i just have a general question like uh how did we pick those
three you know is someone looking at some sort of demand or i've never heard there's a shortage of
water operations people or underground management so what's the yeah so those are those are those
are driven through um some of our partnerships with some of our um uh industries here in our
area who are saying yes we are they have an aging workforce right now um and that's part of the
reason they'd like to partner with our students is to talk about that and some
of them those programs are offering some paid apprenticeships while students are
in the program too to continue to get them in trained and then also to offer
them positions right away outside of high school if they're interested okay
thank you any other questions I think for for my family it was realizing that
once you make those course planning that it's not fatalistic that you have to
stay in those classes it just lets you know that like there's a path to
graduate and then you're still able to change it but we were like the first
time we had to do as a family it was like we don't know what to do oh my gosh
we're committing to this and now it's like oh we can change it we just know
there's a route out of school right so well thank you all very much we
appreciate
Thank you.
All right, we'll now move on to our consent agenda.
8. Consent Agenda
A consent agenda shall include items that were discussed and considered at the previous work-study board meeting,
as well as items of a recurring nature.
The board is furnished with background material for each item.
The consent agenda items shall be grouped together under one action item.
All items shall be acted upon by one vote without separate discussion,
unless a board member requests that an item be withdrawn for individual consideration.
from be illegal and be local are there any items the board members would like
to remove from consent tonight mr. president I'd like to remove a point to
appraisal district nominations and then eight point nine the policy update 126
all right and eight point ten on the election all right any other items no
miss mr. president mr. champagne I'm either the board of trustees approves
the consent agenda for items 8.1 8.3 8.4 8.5 8.6 8.7 8.8 8.11 8.12 through 15
which is well yeah you left out 8.2 8.9 and 8.10 right right second we have a
second all right is moved and seconded that the board of trustees approves the
consent agenda for items eight point one through eight point one five except for
items eight point two eight point nine and eight ten which has been removed
from the consent agenda will now proceed to vote board members please record your
vote on the screen via your keypad all right and the motion passes five to zero
All right, we will now move on to the first item, 8.2, consider board adoption of a resolution to cast independent school district votes for the board of directors of the Fort Bend Central Appraisal District, Harris Central Appraisal District, and Waller County Appraisal District.
8.2 Consider Board adoption of a Resolution to cast Katy Independent School District's votes for the Boards of Directors of Fort Bend Central Appraisal District, Harris Central Appraisal District and Waller County Appraisal District.
Ms. Cuzela?
Yes.
Thank you.
I was looking at this.
I think I finally found the biographies.
We had that last month and now I see them attached here or Waller County. Excuse me appraisal district
Alright, so but I'll start with I guess Fort Bend just I did not see the documents filled out. That's why I pulled this
But we were giving 184 to Paul Stamatis
Two candidates and there's two positions. All right, then we had Harris County
And we have five candidates for Harris County for two positions.
And I did not see that document there at the bottom.
How did we fill this out?
You look under executive content.
So who decided these votes?
Because I thought that was the discussion for tonight.
Yeah, we needed something on there to propose.
And so we looked at it and said we had nominated Paul Stamatis before Bend.
In reality, do our votes really matter?
Not that one, right.
Right.
And then when it came to Harris County, there were two people that were mentioned last time,
Martina Dixon and Bill Frazier.
And so I said, hey, let's go ahead and split our votes between the two.
And then when we looked at the Waller County Appraisal District,
we went through and talked about who were the incumbents,
have they been doing a good job for us uh you had mentioned last time about there were some people
that didn't have any information on their biographies so we moved them out okay and then
that's that's what we use to go ahead and make these recommendations okay okay um on harris
county i don't didn't remember any i do remember in prior last year or six months ago uh there was
discussion about bill frazier and martina dixon but i didn't hear that last month on martina dixon
Yeah, and so part of the information I used for that was we nominated Martina for the position before.
Okay, because I would recommend Bill Frazier all 58 votes if anyone would like to discuss that.
He's come here, he's spoken, he's a CPA.
I've said it before.
And they were the only two people that have ever reached out to us asking for their support.
Okay, Mr. President.
it i would like to say on on behalf of uh martina vixen that she has been serving for a long time on
the board i would love to give her all the 58 votes but i am you know not happy to but i'm
willing to concede half the votes um because i don't feel that there's going to be you know
full concession with between trying to narrow trying to just get to one person
so my vote would be or my support would be to do as you have stated split the
votes on here so obviously I didn't okay sorry you didn't mr. president I
Continue go for it. Okay, Waller County ISD. Excuse me appraisal district
Just we're here. There were five positions and there were seven candidates
Yeah, there were eight I think and one didn't submit a bio is what I remember
I thought one person had actually pulled their name. Oh
consideration
It's been a while and I've slept since then but I believe one person pulled their name from
consideration and then the other two had not given us a did not have a bio okay and we have tim
i don't know jenik i'm not sure how to say that jamie davis or jaime davis
no jamie excuse me and then we put brenda nicholas
and ryle villarreal and rick welch okay three of mine are are there i just remember reading
the bios i'm not sure if anyone has an opinion but i i was hoping for tim tim yannick and rick welch
and jamie davis because i felt like their bios were more reflective of the work for an appraisal
district but if somebody has an opinion on the other two that where did that come from you're
saying re-reallocate those votes from the other two that we haven't that's what i would propose
those three um because i remember reading their bios they just had some professional experience
that i thought would lend itself to the position on the board which count which one are you uh tim
junik or i don't know rick welch and uh jamie davis
i don't know these people i just go and buy their biographies or their resumes excuse me
so it looks like we added brenda brenda's not on my list
I don't know if anyone has an opinion.
We had their biographies at some point.
Yeah, they would be on last month's.
Okay.
In the work study information.
Thank you.
That's my executive comment.
Oh.
All right.
Any other?
Mr. President.
Ms. Seeming.
So are you, Ms. Cuzela,
56 votes and divide that by three three yes ma'am unless someone had some reasonings for these other
was there a reason why we picked the five that we did uh again when we were going through there
wasn't any information that anybody shared at the work study meeting so we took uh who did not want
be on the ballot anymore and who did not give us any information there were five positions
so just split them between there so there wasn't a whole lot more effort we did check to say um
have they worked well with the district do we have any issues and there were none that
were able to come up so that's what this why this was proposed so you you would like it to move to
split the our votes evenly between tim rick and jamie and uh rick welch rick welch oh yeah tim
Rick sorry Tim Junick Rick Welch and Jamie Davis those three yes zero issues
with that okay all right then if there's another discussion I will entertain a
motion if what I'm hearing right now is we would move forward as presented for
Fort Bend and Harris County and for the Waller County we would split the votes
evenly between Tim Rick and Jamie I think the math works out that they would
get an equal number but if not there might be off one for that last person
would that be okay I trust you mr. president the champagne I move that we
adopt a resolution to cast KTISD school district votes for boards of directors
of Fort Bend appraisal district Harrison Harris Central President district and
and Waller County Appraisal District.
In Waller, we're going to divide the votes
between the candidates that are listed.
And in Fort Bend, we are going to cast all of the votes
for Mr. Samadis.
And in Harris, we're going to divide the votes
between Mrs. Dixon and Mr. Frazier.
Yeah.
Thank you.
Second.
Second.
We have a motion and a second to issue our votes for Fort Bend Central Appraisal District all to Paul Stamatus in Harris County to split between Martina Lamont-Dixon and Bill Frazier.
And for Waller County Appraisal District split evenly our votes between Mr. Tim, Rick, and Jamie.
It has been moved and seconded.
We will now proceed to vote.
You can vote on your keypad.
We only had four.
Just do it again.
Vote on your keypad.
All right.
And the motion passes 5-0.
8.9 Consider Board adoption of Policy Update 126 as presented by administration.
We'll now move on to 8.9, which is consider board adoption of policy update 126 as presented by administration.
I just had a question about EFB local first.
And so, Board, I'm pulling up the local for adoption PDF.
And I think it was page 7.
I don't know if I caught this last month or not, but it stuck out to me
I did just one more cursory look at it in preparation for this meeting and it's page 7
Of EFB
the formal reconsideration
The Board of Trusts it reads the Board of Trustees will begin. This is the red line
The Board of Trustees will begin reviewing the formal reconsideration and make a determination in an open board meeting
within 90 days of the filing of the formal reconsideration so that's it in layman's terms
that's a book challenge right okay just for the public and 90 days stuck out to me did we discuss
90 days and where did 90 date it seems long to me was there a reasoning for three months
i'm going to try to double check really quickly um okay i wonder if that's part of the timelines
within the policy in the fact I'm not sure if you're because that's long
actually I feel like we could be better than that but if there was a reason for
that I wanted to know and I know we met on this policy these red lines but don't
remember that
So we're checking right now to see if that was in the law.
I'm checking a little bit, but I am not as familiar with the ins and outs of those specific pieces.
I don't believe that was added after our policy meeting, but we were reviewing a lot of information.
I would like to know where it comes from.
I think it just kind of sets a timeline.
It says within.
So I mean it could be as soon as the next you know
Okay, so that's
All right, if as long as we have that attitude and it just say within versus
Not 90 days, right?
Because this will be something that will touch our public and they are you know
I there's people who are very interested in the book thing and
Three months is a long time. So
So I have to think back to last summer and the 90 days.
And I know we extended the discussion was we extended how long grievances could be filed and determined.
But I do remember thinking that the books would have to be read by the board to make the determination to allow time for that.
Well, maybe that's right.
And then there's 30 days kind of in between each board meeting.
But we can certainly go back and reflect.
We have notes on all of this, so we can get that information for you for that.
So in looking at Senate Bill 13, it sets the 90 days.
Okay.
Well, there you go.
It says within.
Okay.
Thank you.
That was definitely a strange phrase for us to use, so I figured there was a legislative tie somewhere.
Okay, okay.
So and this would be driven by the board, that timeline, roughly, right?
I mean, it would be dependent upon the board because we're now the ones reviewing the material and the challenge.
So if we want to move quicker and we can, then 90 days, we could do that.
Okay.
All right.
I appreciate you answering that.
And then I had a question about FDA local again.
That's, I believe, at the very end or page 15 of our PDF that the board has.
That's where it begins.
I think FDA, yeah.
Page 15.
This is admissions inter-district transfers local policy.
And then I have questions about the limited open enrollment.
This was, to repeat, I want to make sure I understand this,
that where this came from is what I was trying to understand.
This, I did not see this driven by a TASB suggestion or this is truly a local.
Where we, where did we get it from?
Did we start from some other school that has this?
Where is this coming from?
Like where did you start from?
Anyone?
Who wrote this?
I guess.
We pulled several policies from neighboring districts that have some sort of limited open
enrollment.
and it's done various ways some districts will open up limited enrollment
they'll designate certain campuses that the students can apply for an
inter-district transfer to only those campuses maybe it's because it's low
enrollment and they're filling seats with legacy virtual that we're planning
on opening this would be limited enrollment for legacy virtual high
school right now is what we were thinking so that we could enroll
enroll students from outside KDISD.
Okay.
And I remember it being said it's here so that we're ready for whatever we need to do
with it once Legacy gets rolling.
But it's not limited.
I mean, it could be used for any high school, the way it's written.
It just depends on how we create our application.
And the inter-district transfer criteria.
Okay.
Okay. And part of the rub was the extracurricular, that last line. We discussed this last month.
The limited open enrollment students may be eligible to participate in extracurricular activities as outlined in the board policy.
And these students are from outside of our boundary. They're non-resident students.
So that's the rub for some of us here.
Because of a vote we made on the homeschool students at the beginning of the school year,
right and we said they cannot participate in extracurricular activities
but they are resident students and that's something I'm not super
comfortable with yet does anyone mr. president so these these students who
are going to be enrolled in the in the virtual school can be eligible for the
extracurricular or any kind of UIL thing I guess right but what I'm kind of
concerned about is I'm not really so concerned that that that happens as much
as what I am concerned about is will they will they get to pick their school
because I'll just use Katy High School for example a lot of people want their
kids to go play football at Katy High School this this could be a way in for
them they could go into the virtual school and then be a student now and try to get into the
football team that way without having to move and i know people in the past have you know been on
waiting lists for homes to find something to buy in that part of Katy so i guess my question is
will they be able to choose their school?
A couple of thoughts on that.
When we establish and we open our virtual high school,
yes, this policy in a limited open enrollment situation
would allow kids who reside outside the district
who enroll in the virtual high school
to get a one-time choice to pick a high school
for which they would like to participate in extracurricular activities.
The way we have designed that is that we've extended the attendance zones from each area.
So it's not just totally open that a student anywhere outside of our boundaries
could pick any one of our 10 high schools.
Each extended attendance zone will incorporate either two or three high schools.
For example, one would be with May Creek and Morton on one side.
The Katy one you mentioned would be with Pato and Freeman because they're all in the same quadrant.
When you get down on the south, you have three down on the southwest,
and you have two because Cinco and Taylor get paired on the southeast side of our district.
So you would establish your homeschool one time by choosing one,
and that's where you would participate in extracurricular activities.
activities.
With that, I've shared with the board there is some discrepancy with the UIL on their
rule of virtual schools and whether or not allowing kids to participate in the way I
just described is allowable.
So we're still working through that issue.
Mr. President, could you repeat those quadrants one more time, Dr. Gorgorski, your goal of
creating those?
Yes.
So just imagine the way we split our district right now at I-10 and 99 and establish four quadrants.
Except, the one exception is Cinco kind of sits right on 99.
So we have paired that with the southeast quadrant with Taylor.
So that way every quadrant has at least two high school choices.
Some would have three.
So we've actually drawn like a GIS boundary.
It's not perfect the way I'm describing it.
I could give you a map that shows you this better than I'm describing it, but it goes down that way.
Do they pick their quadrant there?
No, because each quadrant, imagine taking I-10 and 99, think of the northwest, and push out this way in a pie.
And then that's your quadrant out there.
That's the extended attendant zone pushing out that way.
So 99 goes pretty far north, okay?
Now, of course, it doesn't go all the way to Dallas, but reasonable we're somebody.
So if you're east of 99 and you're north of 10, that's your quadrant.
Oh, I see.
And if you're south of 10 and east of 99, that's your quadrant.
For as far out as we can push.
That's why I said me saying the roads are not perfect because those roads don't.
Well, I-10 goes forever.
99 doesn't.
So we had to almost use like a GIS location of intersection to create these.
but it's pretty darn close what I'm describing.
Okay.
Can I say, sorry, is it, I'm sorry.
I'm a little slow probably today.
Haydoe High School, Freeman High School.
And Katie.
And Katie would be a quadrant.
And then we have Sinker Ranch High School and Taylor High School.
But I'm, sorry, where's Seven Lakes fit?
Seven Lakes would be down.
Who's that with?
Seven Lakes is down what we call the Southwest Quadrant.
That's Tompkins.
Seven Lakes and Jordan.
That's who I'm missing.
And Jordan.
Okay.
And then May Creek and Morton Ranch.
That would be northeast.
So, yeah, the deal with them, though, that they have very limited,
they have low enrollment comparatively, right?
May Creek and Morton Ranch, they'd need some,
wouldn't that be a limiting factor for them or no?
Limiting factor, how so?
I guess I'm trying to, I'm a little fuzzy on how we're using the quadrants.
It's only related to the extracurricular activities because you remember when it comes to student enrollment they would be enrolled at the virtual high school.
Right.
Okay.
I think what I'm getting at is it'd be nice for them to be paired with a school that has a hefty enrollment because, you know, there are extracurriculars.
That trickle effect affects their extracurriculars sometimes, not all the time.
The way it's designed it shouldn't impact it in any other way because each quadrant
kind of spills out.
Now you could look at a density, yes.
As you go out one way some areas are more dense than others.
You have more of a population of students.
Yes, there would be a density issue.
Okay.
But this policy change is independent of this goal.
We don't have this mapped out right now, this quadrant idea?
We do.
Okay.
Okay. But we're waiting on the UIL to approve this approach?
The UIL has already established a rule that a virtual child,
a student who enrolls in a future virtual program,
as outlined in SB 569, that expanded virtual schools,
any student who chooses a virtual school, according to the UIL,
must participate back at their home residence.
That's the UIL rule currently written.
So if they never change it or while they're thinking about it and we move forward and someone applies for legacy, they would have, they would only, they'd be restricted to where they live.
Or no, if they're a non-resident, then they can't play in extracurriculars yet.
Is that what I'm understanding?
As the rule is written by the UIL, a student who participates in our future virtual legacy high school, if they live outside of our district, they would not be able to participate in UIL extracurricular activities the way the rule is written currently.
Which is almost all of them, right?
Going to be an unknown on that.
How many of our kids that live in residence would choose the virtual high school?
How many of our kids who are living within KDISD but not attending KDISD would choose to virtual high school?
Because those kids would participate in their homeschool location based on attendance.
They're in the district.
It's the outside kids that would not be able to participate.
What I meant is most extracurriculars are UL.
Is that fair?
Depends on what we're talking about.
Yeah.
A lot of it is.
Most of their season is UIL, if you will.
Okay.
Yeah, sports and fine arts for the most part.
Mr. President, can I ask, Dr. Gruberski, can I ask you a question?
Do we have a way to verify that the address from an outside the district is the actual address?
Okay, so we're like going to do the same thing where you have to provide a bill or a...
Yes, they'd have to tell us where they live, yes.
But they have to verify?
They have to verify that, yes.
Okay, okay, great.
So that's actually fairly easy to answer because we will get records from the school district that they were attending,
and so that school district will have already confirmed.
Yeah, well, but if it's a homeschooler, you won't, right?
Well, again, the way that our policy is written, it does not apply to homeschoolers.
If it is a homeschool kid that is going to then participate in legacy,
then we'll have to go about verifying something.
Our private school child, yeah.
Oh, yeah.
You'll have to verify some way, right?
Okay.
And you're going to allow that, right?
You would allow that.
You know, I don't have all of the UIL rules committed to memory.
especially as it pertains to SB 569 that just rolled off the press.
But I think, Ms. Hack, wasn't there a rule that said
if you're going to join a virtual high school,
you had to have been enrolled in a public school?
Yes.
That's what I'm remembering from memory.
But I will look that up and confirm that for the board.
But what I remember from memory was
if you're going to join a virtual high school
and we're going to accept the funding for that child,
they had to have been enrolled.
And I believe that's a TEA rule.
That's TEA.
Not a UIL rule.
That one's coming out of TEA.
What I will also share with you guys is 569 is so hot off the press, TEA is still doing
rulemaking and they have not released all final rulemaking on 569 yet.
But that is one they did release if I'm remembering correctly.
It came out initially.
there's still a lot of discussion that the student to attend a virtual high
school must have been enrolled in a public school district a minimum of six
weeks the prior school year or six weeks for the current school year so there's
still discussion on that we anticipate more information on that especially with
the expedited application opening in January when we will be submitting ours
thank you for that that's a good inversion and what about private schools
Is there an issue with that as well?
I don't recall them addressing private school,
but there is a TEA document that addresses this in some FAQs.
Let me pull that and send that to everybody.
everybody and see if that one is in there as well. I just don't have all their FAQs committed
to memory. That's fine. That's understandable. Thank you. You bet. Mr. President, I'm sorry,
one more question on FDA local. Is there any kind of time constraint we're under to get that
in place, this policy? A bit of a time constraint as we launch the application
for the virtual school on February 2nd?
Okay, that's for all enrollment for 26-27,
grades K through 12.
We open up enrollment on February 2nd,
which will include all our comprehensive campuses,
in-person, and legacy virtual,
so we can see what our enrollment is trending
across the district in anticipation of staffing
and budgeting for the next school year.
So to be prepared, I think there is some time constraint here
to have this in place at this board meeting
instead of waiting until the January board meeting and then we're rolling out
enrollment information like five days later it could be a real challenge in
there or you enroll it and say you know extracurriculars TBD what well there's
two parts to this limited open enrollment what we're discussing one is
are we even allowing children outside the district to attend KDIs D that's
what we're talking about there the second part of the rule is contingent
upon the uil's current rule and whether or not they're going to amend any bit of that okay
i would just urge the board i i'm uncomfortable um allowing this and not allowing another
population of students that are residents and within our district boundaries i would i would
love to be able to go back and revisit that decision is is that um with what the board can
can do at any time is revisit that policy it's a different policy it's not
this one but the board could put that on the agenda in January and discuss that
at the work-study and then make any changes at the regular meeting in
January mr. president what appetite do you have for that do we do I have other
board members here that would be willing to support that yeah I would can we get
it on the agenda for January I the homeschool decision I mean I don't see
it our board is made up as the same group that voted for it already and so
to think that we're gonna get a different result especially based on the
conversation that we had last month I don't think it would be a great use of
our time but our board policy says that if three people want to put it on the
agenda they put it on the agenda but the board is so made up exactly of the group
that voted on it August so yeah well what's different is this right this is I
never heard about this policy I'm on the policy committee I'm gonna say it again
this is the one I did not know about I didn't see that till last month and it's
deep within a huge policy update so it's hidden in there and you got to read and
And I wish I had known about this before, and I could have maybe asked and teased it out a little bit more.
But this is what's new after that homeschool vote in August, I think it was.
FM Local.
Yes, sir.
Mr. President.
Ms. Champagne.
So in my opinion this policy, I don't know if I call it really a policy, but the
formulation of the virtual school and all the plans everything were discussed
in the board in the work-study meeting and maybe the particular little things
like you know UIL type enrollment weren't necessarily addressed or talked
about how they're going to be addressed but i felt like we were kind of all in in that same
conversation and if we had questions about that at that time then that's when we should have been
when is this when what are you talking about we talked about work study meeting or um
we talked about i know once in the summer i don't have it i don't have it memorized now i know
They're gonna probably videotape me and they they're gonna say Don Champaign is unprepared
Well, I don't always have everything memorized in my head, but I know that we talked about it at least two different times
since
probably June
Not limited open enrollment. Yeah the part I can confirm miss Champaign that I have shared with the board through a couple of different presentations
I don't remember when the presentations were what I might have provided in an update to the board a written update about the
the proposal of the virtual school,
but I do remember giving the board a copy of our draft FAQs
and the EAZ stuff and these documents
that you guys have had a chance to look at for several months.
We've been talking about limited open enrollment
since the summer, like you said.
You know, Dr. Rogorski, we probably didn't refer to it
in that first presentation in June
when we talked about legacy virtual and all the pathways,
which would include in-district and out-of-district students
students being able to attend the virtual high school.
For that to happen, we would need to have this type of a policy for a limited inter-district
enrollment.
And we may not have called it limited open enrollment because that's a policy word.
We just talked about it with the board that once we launch a virtual high school that
we intended it to be open for our students who reside within KDISD boundaries and students
beyond the KDISD boundaries.
Full-time or part-time?
Yes.
Well, they in part-time options. Yes, right. I think the the difference is I do remember that sort of fuzzy high-level
Conversations, but the extracurricular activities for non-resident students is definitely new
That's what jumps out for me
Given the vote again for our homeschoolers
Who are residents within our boundaries and pay into Katie ISD with their tax bill?
okay thank you
any other questions in regards to 8.9 board mr president the champagne i move that the board
adopts policy of day 126 as presented by administration do i have a second and second
second they move by miss champagne and a second James cross moved to adopt policy
update 126 as presented we will now proceed to vote please vote on your
keypad
but passes five to zero we'll now move on to eight point ten consider board
adoption of the order calling for a regular election of school board
trustees to be held on May 2nd 2026 in authorization of the Texas administration
code to provide official notice of the election as required by the Texas
election code I move that the board adopts the order calling for regular
election at the school board of trustees to be held on May 2nd 2026 an
authorization of administration to provide official notice of the election
was required by Texas election code mr. president I'd like to discuss is there a
second the second discussion okay I do have something written and to be
efficient at our last board meeting in November when election dates were first
discussed I suggested that an ad hoc committee be formed to evaluate the data
I presented this didn't happen so I'd like to share with the board a few more
data points centered around voter turnout and cost in addition to respond to information shared by
mr graham the board has three choices number one to continue to hold elections in may every year
to hold elections in november of even years biannually which is every other year or to
hold elections in november of odd years again every other year a few quick comments again
about voter turnout it is a fact that successful elections have high voter turnout so in case you
missed it just to reiterate in case anyone's listening for the first time previous board
meeting i said may voter turnout as did many speakers tonight has only had single digit turnout
since the history of this district two to seven percent and in contrast we held a november 2020
20 board election during covid there was a 77 voter turnout last month both trustees fox and
champaign stated that they think there are way more uninformed voters in november elections
compared to may that's a quote of uninformed so according to them uninformed voters can pass bonds
i guess in november because seven of the last ten bond elections have been in november but informed
quote voters can vote for school board elections and school board members in
May mr. Graham had mentioned that also in our last board meeting the district
has had a 400% increase in voter turnout that's might perk your ears but to be
clear 400 percent of small number is still a small number I think he was
comparing a two to eight percent voter turnout over the last ten years in May
that is 400 percent increase but it's still single-digit voter turnout and
it's not even 10 so a term extensions were brought up by a couple of our board members and tonight
as well to be clear i'm going to reiterate all board members terms would be extended in a uniform
way as we transition from a may to november election our terms would extend by six months
to one and a half years in november of the even year it just depends on the board number here
It's not just myself, Tini, and Calhoun.
Or it would be a one and a half to two and a half year extension in our terms if we vote
on a November of an odd year election.
And that's something I detailed in a document that I shared with the board.
This is just in the transition from a yearly May election to every other year November
election.
And then moving forward, any new board member that were elected, it'd be just a simple four
year term instead of a three year term.
and we'd have elections every other year there's some cool poll confusion we
heard some of that from our speakers in our past May school board elections
many voters were confused which poll to go to when Katie ISD administers the
elections the voters are required to use our polls which are our schools and that
is totally different than where many of the county polls are so they're confused
we had when we had if we were to have a joint November election this confusion
would go away because the polls would then be the regular County polls that
they're already familiar with there's also voter fatigue to consider in
addition to voter confusion next year as it stands voters are going to be asked
to turn out for three elections the primary in March in May for school board
and then again in November so let's do our part to streamline the election
election timeline for the voters and keep it to just March and November and simplify the poll
sites to the county polls and then definitely costs we need to talk costs I did some additional
analysis given the election costs that were shared with the board from the district we all have five
costs excuse me costs for five different elections the November 2020 Bond election the November 2023
2023 bond election and the last three May board elections 2023 24 and last year
2025
So I added a few columns on this spreadsheet that you have a copy of and you also received electronically
Gorski and what I added was what's in purple it's highlighted
because what we need to do when we look at the cost and
comparing these November elections
to our May elections, we need a yearly basis cost.
May elections happen every year, so there's a cost every year.
And it is not $70,000.
I think I was the one who quoted that estimate based on something Mr. Graham had said in prior months,
but it was just estimates.
But our May elections are roughly $148,000 each month.
They've gone down a little bit last year.
That's on your spreadsheet.
the November biennial cost all that needed to be divided by two to compare
apples to apples with May so that's quite a quite a difference so you're
half a million is actually not half a million it's half of that two hundred
sixty thousand for a November in an even year so what I did on your spreadsheet
board is in that purple box I distilled that information down and I ranked the
five elections by turnout and I put next to it a unit cost that's the other thing
we need to look at and that unit that i used is the same unit the district proposed on the
spreadsheet which is a cost per ballot cast so how much does it cost for each voter when they
cast a ballot so in first place is the november 2020 even year election with 77 turnout it's only
a dollar 68 per ballot cast in second place is your november of 2023 odd year there was 14 turnout
turnout quite a bit lower but that's still double the highest turnout of a
May election we've ever had so 14% and the cost per ballot cast is $5.47 there
and then the three May elections I did receive your updated cost information I
think that came from mr. Graham I'm not exactly sure but they're all three the
May 2025 election went down a little bit in costs but it's still a five dollars
and 10 cent per ballot cast cost per unit so i won't belabor that um but what the point here is
is that the november elections are cheaper on a ballot cast unit basis per year right and so may
is yearly and november is going to be every other year those costs okay to conclude um i want to
make sure i said everything yeah all right to conclude we have the opportunity to simplify
the elections for our voters and to answer the broader electorate who has never voted in may
elections again 93 at least have not voted so i urge the board to move the school board election
to november of even numbered years when we could have a more than 1 000 increase in voter turnout
from just 7% like last May's board election to a 77% voter turnout based on
the November 2020 election and we could incur a cheaper unit cost for the
election so I move to amend the motion for item 8.10 by striking May 2nd 2026
and inserting November 3rd 2026 jointly with Fort Bend Harris and Waller
counties I second all right it's moved and seconded to amend the motion to
change the day from May 2nd to November mr. president I've written some things
to a lot last month I did not come and I even commended you but I saw that y'all
left that out of the video that you used to mock me with but I did commend you
with what you took but i didn't prepare in the white notes but i do have a list of references
and by the way i'm happy to email this to you right now there's 90 of them that references a
lot of what i was speaking about last month so um i just wanted i have some things i'll i have read
lots and lots and lots and lots of pages and pages of things that master educators have spent lots of
time researching the way voters vote and so forth but I will like to clarify I
did say low low information or whatever but that is what they're known that's
what you know they're referred to some you know some scholars refer but I will
say it's low really what it is low information about certain candidates in
the lower level of on the ballot so it's not necessarily that they're low
low informed it's just that they have lower information about these certain
candidates so what I've written is that you want to change our elections to
November so that more community members have a vote in our electoral
process which by the way I would love to have also I'd love to have more
turnout alone is not the only important measure of an electoral system's success
Success.
Voters might participate in elections but may not understand the choices they are making,
particularly in the lower on the ballot that they go.
By the way, voter fatigue is also referred to in a lot of these studies.
They're talking about the voter fatigue with such a long ballot.
The further they go down on the ballot, the more exhausted they are and the less that
they know about people.
The decision to vote in an election cycle does not lead to equal attention across all positions.
Lower level positions do not have the same attraction as more prominent positions and potential voters may not pay them much attention.
The general electorate, and voters in particular, may not increase their knowledge of lower level candidates, leading them to cast ill-informed votes.
There is a trade-off involved with concurrent elections.
Clustering elections together produces higher turnout overall, but it may not improve the
quality of votes cast for the lower level offices.
There's no major academic study that meaningfully captures exactly the reason why people don't
vote in school board elections, but there are people who have actually interviewed people
that have voted in a presidential election for a school board member, let's say, but
didn't come out to a local election.
and they have asked them and there's there's various reasons that are given
but so why they why but that's not a capture anywhere in data with numbers so
given this lack of district specific research it's critical that our approach
to elections reflect active community connection not assumptions based on
other places a may school board election offers one of the clearest opportunities
for that casting a vote in a standalone local election rather than being
one race among many other and a heavy November ballot. It helps focus attention
on school governance, education policy, and the issues that matter
directly to our students and families. And something I'd like to say too about
I'm not going to get into all the nitty-gritty of the cost because you did
talk about that but I looked up something that was really interesting.
The average per capita income in Katy, Texas is $45,000 to $63,000.
Recently, candidates in a neighboring school district, I'll just say who they are,
CyFair, and they have their November elections, they spent an average of $26,000 to $30,000,
with one candidate spending $62,000.
The average person in Katy could not afford to run for school board election unless they
they had support by an outside PAC or some donors or something like that.
So in my mind, I've always thought that the average person in KD
should be able to run for school board.
Some 25-year-old that's making $30,000 or $40,000 should be able to para.
If they weren't employed by KDIC,
you should be able to have the ability to run for a school board election
without going in debt.
It's not supposed to be a partisan thing either and I think that moving it into November makes
it more partisan.
I have something written on that.
The vast majority of school board elections across the U.S. are formally nonpartisan.
Voters may not even know the candidate's party identification.
Local issues may not fall neatly along partisan lines.
Moving the election to November can make our local nonpartisan school board elections more
political and more partisan and so even though we're still not you know the
school board candidate would be at the bottom of the ballot it still wouldn't
say you know Don Champagne comma whatever I am but the people who are
representing the different party affiliations you know there's precinct
chairs and stuff and they make a list and they'll tell you who to vote for
or along those party lines.
So it does become partisan,
which I'm completely against having that in our school board.
And so I am completely in favor of keeping our elections in November.
I find it interesting that the three people on the board
that want to have it changed could have had it changed
during the first two years that they served, but they didn't.
So, and I also find it kind of hypocritical a little bit that there are community members who've come in the past and spoken against certain policies.
And it seems like the majority of the board then didn't care about what the community members thought.
But now all of a sudden, you want them all to vote.
So I just think that that doesn't align with me very well.
all and also one last thing I agree with this person that spoke earlier when I'm
talking about this I'm not saying that this is a forever thing I'm saying that
this is a for right now thing you know maybe one day we can reevaluate it and
think about it more but it's too quick right now we have to make a decision by
January and I just think that this is too important of a decision to make that
quickly mr. president mr. cross just a couple thoughts to tag tag along um it's
certainly not unreasonable to want to move an election to November that's not
like a whole this crazy idea I acknowledge participation definitely
would go up you know an uninformed of voters probably an unfair term I'm
thinking you know what I think about I think sometimes it's more like I'm an
unimpacted or I believe I'm an unimpacted voter you know like how does
this apply to me I don't really care about you know local school board because
my kids are grown or I don't have kids or whatever the case may be and so it's
not that they're we they may choose to be uninformed because they're like this
it's not my world it doesn't impact me and that's not a judgment on anybody
I've been there I imagine many of us have over the years as as we've gone
on through elections. I do think that we are presupposing some things like November versus
May voters, that we're assuming that May voters are voting for a certain reason and November
November voters would be voting for a certain reason, and that's a hard one to decipher.
I do agree with what Ms. Champaign said earlier in that I think if you go to the polls in May,
you're thinking of an individual, a person.
I think when you go in November, you tend to think party.
I mean, that's the general thought, unless you happen to know that person.
But if you don't, then it can possibly become this very partisan thing, which I agree with Ms. Champagne that we sit on this board.
It's supposed to be nonpartisan.
Had a gentleman from TEA talk to us.
Mr. Redman and I were there and talked about being trustees for the children of your district.
And so we take care of all the kids.
and and so I just think that you know and I know miss Cazale you mentioned
successful elections and and I think if successful you meant high voter turnout
then I wouldn't argue that that we would get more of that I don't know that I
automatically call you know increased voter turnout successful could be but I
I just tend to believe that, man, I wish, I so wish we had more people voting in all our elections.
And I've been guilty at times of skipping out for various reasons or letting myself, oh, gosh, I got busy and didn't vote, and shame on me for that.
But I think that in May, I will say this, I don't think we're disenfranchising anybody.
anybody. I think if we had a Saturday election from 9 to noon at one location, that's disenfranchising
voters. I think two weeks' worth of early voting and election day, and I feel like we
try to communicate that as best we can to the public through social media and the media
media itself and emails and the whole, you know, the ways we communicate with our public.
And I feel like people choose not to participate in that process for a variety of reasons.
And I don't pretend to know all those reasons.
I just know that a lot of people, I have a feeling, think it doesn't really, doesn't
matter to me.
It doesn't impact my daily life.
And, you know, if that's the case, it's the case.
I think local elections do impact our lives.
whether it's a city council or mayor or school board,
but I don't think we're disenfranchising people,
and I have to agree with Mr. Graham
and not acknowledge what you said, Ms. Cuzela,
about the numbers are still low,
but at least we're trending the right direction, right?
I mean, we're not doing this, but at least we're doing that,
and my hope would be that we continue to see that,
and then it's 10%, 15%, 25%.
I don't know what those numbers will be, but I just feel like that with that May election,
then those are the folks who really are paying attention to what's going on in and around the district
and the folks who are up for election.
And that's just why, you know, that's my thought on that, and I feel like that's,
even though the numbers are lower, and again, I wish and I would encourage our public to come out
because it does matter whether you're a parent an educator a community member or
taxpayer all those things it matters so I would encourage people to show up and
vote in May but I just feel like at the end of the day that's probably our our
best representation of the folks who will spend the energy and take the time
to do it because they're invested they have enough of an investment that
they're willing to to come come cast a vote so that's a two cents mr. president
I don't think you appreciate I would like to respond first of all trustee
champagne I definitely take issue with this I believe this is what you said
that I that you believe three board members up here do not didn't care about
what community members thought uh in your in our first couple of years i guess is that what you're
saying that's the way i felt yes okay so that's completely inaccurate and um i take issue with
that and that is definitely not true uh i don't don't don't appreciate that comment
um and that we do take care of all kids up here every board member does our decisions affect
all families and all children so to say that I don't know if that's what you
said mr. cross or mr. champagne but that is definitely an inaccurate statement
and I don't appreciate that comment either we serve every single child in
this district the you know it's interesting because you would think if
you care about all families here and you care about all children we have 96
96,000 children enrolled. That's a lot of people, right? And they're not voting. I don't know how many more ways to say this. If we took 96,000 kids and they each have a parent, okay, so I just took 96,000 times two, 192,000. Let's say some of those families are three or four kids. Let's say 150,000.
We don't have anywhere near that many people voting.
We only have, what, 15,000, 18,000 people voting.
We don't even have 10% of our electorate voting.
So that's since we've existed, right?
That's why I looked at 10 years.
I don't see how we can think that that's acceptable.
And we should be continuously improving, which we do in many areas,
but somehow here I don't understand why we're stuck on this we allow bonds to be
voted on are you are you proposing now mr. cross and miss champagne that bond
should be voted on in May is November appropriate we are we are going to town
going to the ballot box to ask a voter to approve last year it was what 840
and 40 some odd million dollars but those voters are uninformed well i mean is it better to have it
in may based on your logic that you're sharing tonight well remember i didn't call them uninformed
what do you remember the word i used fine don't use that in form but why why not may then
for the bond election then we could what you said we could i mean we absolutely could you want five
percent i'm not saying i'm not saying we should do that i'm just saying we can move it to may
What I'm talking about is, again, you're making a, in my opinion, you're making a jump to say that higher voting turnout equals like this automatic, then we got the right people in.
So why do we vote on bonds in November?
Well, I can answer that question, Board.
Okay, yes, thank you.
I'm not asking council.
I'm sorry, I'm asking you, Mr. Cross.
Well, I don't know because it's been done as long as I can remember.
I mean, I've been in this district 23 years, and I don't remember it not being November.
I mean, I can't.
I don't remember the moment that we went, well, let's see, why are we doing November?
This is the really, in my 23 years here, I also don't recall, like, arguing over May versus November elections.
Maybe we did at some point when I was, you know, a principal, but I don't remember those conversations.
So I don't know.
Again, this is kind of the first time that this has really been brought to the, I guess, forefront where we're having these discussions.
So I don't know.
I just know it has kind of always been that way since I've been here.
So I don't know why we chose November.
There is some law.
I think it's new, though.
We've been doing November elections since 1999 for bonds.
So I just don't understand the distinction of how we're okay with that.
I'm happy to provide the answers to that if you'd like them.
But I didn't ask you.
I'd like to hear your answer, Mr. Greer.
So the question is, as best I understand, why did we do bonds in November?
If bonds are good for November, why not move the trustee elections to November?
that's the logic that's been proposed. So in the decade that I've been in this
district and I wasn't part of bond packages prior to 2017 but it is my
understanding having looked at the bond packages that were put together in the
long-range planning that happens in KDISD and if you'll recall for those of
you been around a while bond packages and bond committees and bond planning
processes happen years and years in advance and they happen we've that this
district has a long-range strategic plan long-range strategic design that this
board that all boards have been part of and it has been the decision of every
past board and I understand that some there are a couple trustees of several
trustees including mr. cross which were not part of the board when those last
bond packages came forward but it has been my experience in KDISD that we call
for bond elections when our children need them when our community needs it we
don't worry about the calendar about is it May or is it November we look at the
needs of the facilities we look at the age of what we've what we're dealing
with the problems that we may or may not have along with the enrollment I mean
I mean, guys, we had a long presentation by PASA.
You've seen the thousands of pages of documents that we go through.
For those of you who participated in the bond committee process,
that is a long process where we look at everything in the district.
And so, again, so the decision, why are some bonds in November and some in May?
Our last one was in May.
But why are some in November?
No, not our last one was in November.
Anyway, so why are some in November and why are some in May?
It has only to do with what does our district need, what our children need, what our facilities need.
Mr. President.
Ms. Champagne.
So I'd like to address something.
Thank you, Mr. Graham.
But I'd like to address something.
In the 2020 election, which, you know, I was around then and I was really involved in that election,
there was 154,914 votes cast.
asked. But I have never assumed, and neither I don't think would any of the candidates,
including Mr. Lacey, Mr. Schulte, any of the candidates would assume that 154,000 people
came out to vote for them. They came out to vote mostly for the presidential election.
When you look at these scholars who study this and they question people, why did you
you go down the list and keep voting, they feel compelled to do it.
And, yes, there are lots of studies to show that females are favored in school board elections
and first on the ballot are also favored, sometimes giving them 7% to 10% on those long ballots.
Now, those numbers have been confirmed by many different people,
and the same numbers keep coming up.
So it's not that they necessarily knew who, I'm sorry, but they not, they didn't
necessarily know Greg Schulte or Bill Lacey, but let's face it, Greg Schulte was
first on the ballot, no shame given there. Leah Wilson was second on the ballot, but
she was the only female running. So I'm just saying that time and time again, you
can look at these studies and see that this is a never-ending thing. Now if you
had the May election where people were more knowledgeable about school board
candidates you know that outcome may have been different you know for those
that year so having more numbers I'm just going to reiterate does not mean
you have better that that's better more numbers doesn't equal better because not
Not necessarily are they voting for someone because they've read their history on our website and all that or worked with them at a school or talked to them individually at a meet and greet.
But there's one little thing I'm going to say, too.
I kind of alluded to being publicly mocked by a couple of the board members on social media.
And so these people who, on our board, who want to have this extended, would have their
tenures extended by 18 months.
But people, to me, that are on boards are supposed to be working together and mocking
other board members is not a form of working together.
So this would be another, an additional 18 months of a dysfunctional board that we, nobody
will is allowed to vote for so the people in our community probably want to
vote they probably don't like to see this this dysfunctional board I don't
like to see it so the option of keeping the May election to me is is even more
promising it's even more of a reason why I'd want that I've never I just wanted
I just wanted to just, this is my last thing I'll say.
I've never publicly mocked any board member here,
and I just never would have thought that that would have occurred,
especially during a non-campaign season.
Mr. President, Ms. Champagne, you have mocked me.
In a campaign season?
Yes.
Mr. President?
Ms. Giselle?
um just about the mocking um the post was your quotes like verbatim i was very careful to make
sure whatever you were saying is what was shared uh miss Cuzela i'm i'm sorry but you left out
the part that you came prepared with the three-page uh thing i did not come prepared i
know i've read this information about the the voter turnout being the high higher on the ballot
the female and all this but i don't have citations quoted in my head that's okay so i know but this
is what you decided to show i'm not mocking you by preparing a statement you didn't prepare a
statement you used my my uh situation with between myself and mrs calhoun she asked a question i was
unable to answer it quickly because i didn't have pieces of paper but i do now you don't you know
okay you you don't have to answer a question if you're afraid you're gonna that you feel like
that's mocking that's not mocking you're you are welcome to prepare a statement and be prepared for
a board meeting anytime we've now moved off of discussing the agenda item okay sure i will
continue the amendment to consider the average person can still run there's nothing precluding
anyone from running in november i don't agree that's not an issue at all um
more voter or did you did you say that more voters is not better
More voters are not necessarily better if they're uninformed.
Yes, ma'am, I did say that.
Okay.
And you also said.
Do you think they're better if they're uninformed?
I think more votes is a sign of a better of election, correct?
Even if they're not informed.
I am no judge of who's informed or uninformed.
I should not be judging that.
So they're going to vote.
They're just looking at a list of names, and they don't necessarily know who they are.
That's democracy, and that's in every election we vote in.
Right.
but when they go in may they they have a more concentrated uh vision of who they're going to
vote for and you also said the quality of votes cast how do you know the quality of someone's
vote that they cast what is that based on miss grizzella i'm reading things that other people
have written and that's why i brought this do you believe that the quality of the vote cast if they
are uninformed I don't think that that's a good vote. They're uninformed. If they are
and that's not their fault necessarily. If they don't have the information about
a candidate and that's not necessarily the voters fault. I've many times gone to
vote and don't know who the judges are or the county seats are and things like
that and I'm not necessarily felt compelled to vote for them if I don't
know who they are but some people are so I asked the board why why not November
and what I'm hearing is that there's uninformed voters I'm still hearing that
from Miss Champagne maybe not mr. cross that there's certain quality of votes
that are cast in November compared to quality of votes that are cast in May
That was not my overall gist.
Okay, I know you really want to get me in a bad quote so that y'all can video me saying this,
but I'm not saying overall, that's not my overall gist.
You want me to reread everything I wrote?
Nope.
Okay, and I have pages and pages more we could go on all night.
But generally speaking, when you have a vote in November, what I've read over and over again,
there's about ballot fatigue what why do you think there's a hundred and fifty
four thousand voters in November of 2020 and only whatever eighteen seventeen
thousand in May because they what I why thank you for the question it's because
they don't know that there's a May election I know that's hard for us to
understand because we live and breathe the school district but there are
thousands of people that have no idea there's an election in May it's not just
school board for that matter there's an election there's always there's some special elections
that happen in may for for different things as well it's always low voter turnout that's a fact
all right that's one last thing i'm saying and all all voters right they pay taxes into this
district this is a public entity that should be run by a school board that's elected by the people
and I want better representation on this board with the public's votes I want us
to be also very transparent with our voters right and November is a visible
election and it's cheaper than May all right so I agree with you I want more
voters too but when they come out to vote in May they are going to vote for
the president they a lot of people that have been interviewed across the nation
don't realize even that there's going to be a school board person on the bottom
of the ballot they don't even realize that till they get there what about
cipher Houston ISD they have November elections do you think that they're
making mistakes we are circling around in our discussion everybody is starting
to repeat themselves so we'll go ahead amendment is on the table uh ms gazzola you made the
amendment to change the motion to uh to change the date from may to november correct november
3rd of 2026 jointly a joint election with harris county fort ben county and waller county
all right so board we're voting on changing the motion we're voting on the amendment so this is
not to pass it this is to change the motion that was made for a may election to november
3rd 2026 joint election with each of our counties so i vote for is to change the motion a vote
against is to keep it as a may election and we will now proceed to vote on your screens on your
keypads all right in the motion the amendment fails three to two we'll now proceed to our main
motion which was miss champagne made to consider the board adoption of the order
calling for regular election on the school board trustees to be held on May
2nd 2026 an authorization of the administration to provide official notice
of the election is required by the Texas election code you now proceed to vote on
your keypad and the motion passes three to two we now completed our consent
9. Information Items
agenda information items we did not have any board committees meet since our last
meeting the board has received donated items list and madam secretary do we
have any requests for the board tonight um there was one request and it was for um the virtual
school that's my future yeah that pictures okay dr gorshi do you have everything you need to get
that answer yes i do all right uh the next work study meeting will be on monday january 12 2026.
10. Future Meetings
the regular board meeting will be on tuesday january 20th 2026. the board will now convene
be an enclosed meeting is authorized under section five.
Trustees, I have heard from the grievance they are not going to be able to call in this
evening, so we will not proceed with the grievance.
All right.
Disregard the last sentence I said.
There being no further business before the board, this meeting is adjourned.
The time is 9.02 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.