Thank you.
Katy ISD · Regular Board Meeting
Katy ISD Regular Board Meeting, August 24, 2026
Find something in this meeting
Search every word of the automated transcript. A result moves the recording to the moment the words were spoken.
In this meeting
The headings and the descriptions beneath them are the district’s own words, taken from its index of this recording.
- 0:06 to 6:22 1. Call to Order - Upon announcement by the presiding officer that a quorum is present, the meeting will be called to order.
- 6:22 to 43:26 3. Public Comment/Citizen Participation
- 43:26 to 43:45 4. Closed Meeting
- 43:45 to 44:27 5. Reconvene from Closed Meeting
- 44:27 to 53:19 6.1 Katy ISD Council of PTAs Presidents Report.
- 53:19 to 1:15:37 7.1 Presentation of the 2026-2027 Proposed Budget and Tax Rate.
- 1:15:37 to 1:16:54 8. Consent Agenda
- 1:16:54 to 1:29:09 8.7 Consider Board approval of health plan options for Plan Year 2027.
- 1:29:09 to 1:29:39 9. Information Items
- 1:29:39 to 1:29:53 10. Future Meetings
- 1:29:53 to 1:30:19 11. Closed Meeting
- 1:30:19 to 1:31:37 12. Reconvene from Closed Meeting
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.
We'll move on to our Pledges of Allegiance. Your KDISD Police Officer Pickett will lead in the Pledges of Allegiance this evening.
Yeah, can I go ahead and as Officer Pickett makes his way over there, I'm going to introduce our musical performance tonight so we can roll right in from one to the other. All right. But tonight we have our Jordan High School band who will be with us performing National Anthem. That's Dr. Ethan Kroll is the principal. Music directors out there, Daniel Galloway, Lauren Batchelor, Michelle Verde. and Clayton Benoit and a whole bunch of students out there. Lily Kanepaki, Adriel Cabal-Rivera, Jacob Cook, Scarlett Staples, Anthony Gracia, Lydia Zhu, Dami Cody, Jason Hu, Nathaniel Richardson, Hudson Schaefer, and Edward Sun. But tonight from our music director, a quote here, tonight Jordan Band and Guard will present and a mini group of senior leaders to perform the national anthem. Jordan Marching Band and Guard has been nationally recognized with finalist finishes in both local, regional, and state national contests, defending champion of the KDISD Festival for the past two years, and have Bands of America, Winter Guard International, U.S. Bands finalist appearances, and championship wins. So we are very fortunate to have that group here today. so we'll do the pledge and then we will have our band perform the national anthem 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 Pledge allegiance to the Texas, one state, under God, one and indivisible.
All right, here we go.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Okay.
there we go at least you get air conditioning here
Great job tonight. Do we have any scouts in the audience?
No scouts in the audience.
3. Public Comment/Citizen Participation
We will now move on to item three, our public comment. So at this time, the Board of Trustees will give members of the public an opportunity to speak in accordance with KDIC Board Policy BED Local. As defined by board policy, speakers who signed up by 2 p.m. on Monday, August 24th, 2026, will be allowed to address the board. 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 three minutes to speak. Speakers who signed up to speak on non-agenda topics will be limited to the first 20 speakers. speakers that signed up to speak on non-agenda items will be allowed one minute and 52 seconds tonight if the speaker is not finished speaking at the end of their allotted time the audio will turn off if speakers wish to share written material with the board please provide 10 copies to the secretary for board services before the meeting begins tonight for board members the superintendent the chief communications officer and permanent record if a speaker is 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 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. employee. Should a speaker wish to address one of these items, 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 they signed up to speak. Tonight we'll start with the agenda items and our first speaker will be Amy McBride, followed by Martha Sepulveda.
Amy McBride.
Good evening, President Redman, Superintendent Gorgorski, and members of the board. My name is Amy, obviously, and I am a Katy ISD educator and member of the Katy, Texas AFT Union. I'm very happy. I love working here in Katy, and I'm proud to work for one of the best districts in the state. And I do want to thank all of the board members for listening to the concerns of educators who have stood before you and asked for changes to the health plans. The co-pays and the new Kelsey-Seybold plan are a really great start. Last week, you asked the district for employee survey data. So our union did send out a survey to ask Haiti educators what they thought of the proposed plans. Survey respondents felt good about the co-pays. In fact, 68% said that the new co-pays would have a positive effect on their lives. However, only 47% of the respondents said that they were satisfied with the proposed plans. The biggest concern was that people in the high deductible in the POS plans, and that includes parents of college students and people who can't change doctors, they would be unable to access those co-pays. and many people were still concerned about the cost and about the HEB pharmacy plan. Last month our union delivered a petition and asked the district to look into better prescription options including mail order. We know that there's a three-year contract with HEB but is there anything that can be done to help people whose prescriptions are denied or delayed or those people who live far from heb we also ask the district to look into implementing a program of incentives for healthy behavior and preventative preventative care that can be done to help people who's sorry which would reduce plan costs over time a leaf isd would be a great model to look at for that establishing a better system of communication between the district and its employees would also make a difference in a leaf there's a health insurance committee made up employees from all classifications who work with the district as they create the health plans katie already has naming and bond committees a health insurance committee would mean that employees would have input into and therefore ownership of those plans committee membership committee members excuse me would be able to communicate both the budgetary limitations and the ins and outs of the plans to their colleagues. Teachers, rather than risk management, would be the ones creating the engaging explainer videos. Our union is happy to continue to provide employee survey results to the board, but we do feel that a formal survey conducted by the district would be more beneficial. Currently, the only way... Sorry, I'm going to get cut off.
Thanks.
Thank you.
next is martha seppelvita
good evening board members and members of the kdisd community thank you for allowing me to speak about the proposed health plans um i am a new kdisd employee a resident of this community and a parent with a child in kdisd i am also a breast cancer survivor who is still undergoing treatment so i understand firsthand how important accessible health care can be i want to start by saying that I believe the new proposed plans with co-pays are a much needed step in the right direction. Making health care more affordable and predictable can encourage employees to seek care when they need it. And I know the task is not easy, so I thank you for your efforts. In my previous district, which she mentioned, I served on a 20-plus member district insurance committee representing teachers, administrators, nutrition staff, custodians, transportation, and other employees. Everyone had a voice and could bring back feedback from their department and that was powerful because health care decisions weren't made in isolation. The people affected by those decisions had a seat at the table. The district also prioritized prevention so they brought the Rose mobile mammography bus, flu shots and blood screenings directly to campuses.
Employees who participated in some preventive measures could even receive a small monthly discount on their insurance. It was during one of those mammograms that my life changed. I had no symptoms. I felt healthy. I was simply doing what I was encouraged to do, which was getting a routine screening at work. And that screening found my cancer.
Those words are something I will never forget, especially because my son was only five years old. In that instant, nothing else matters, work, insurance. The only concern was, will I be here for him? Thankfully, that screening gave me something incredibly important, early detection and a chance to fight. So I share my story, not to focus on my cancer, but to show why access to preventive health care matters so much. Another thing that they did, they had their own zero-cost clinic for employees and their families through a Memorial Hermann physician. They allowed time for staff to go and get checkups and promoted wellness through programs like Headspace, Walking Spree, Wonder, and Hinge Health with wellness challenges and cash incentives. These programs sent a simple message. We value our employees and want them to be healthy. And I hope that KDISD can continue moving in that direction. the proposed copay plans are a positive step and I encourage the district to continue looking at preventive care wellness incentives and meaningful employee inputs we spend our days taking care of our students and families we deserve a district that can help take care of us as well thank you so much for allowing me to share my story thank you
we will now move on to our non-agent items a reminder there's one minute and 52 seconds for your speaker we'll start with roxanne laza followed by gary brown
good evening i'm roxanne laza i come here as a parent and i'm asking the board to reconsider their policy on peanut containing products in secondary uh secondary schools thank you for Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to speak today. I'm here as a parent but also an advocate for student safety.
My son has a severe peanut allergy. For him, exposure to peanuts is not simply an inconvenience. It's a life-threatening medical emergency. Even trace amounts can trigger a severe allergic reaction, requiring immediate medical intervention. Unfortunately, my son is not the only student in KDISD facing this same risk. There are other students who live with the peanut allergy, and they depend on the adults responsible for their care to provide a safe and learning environment. When discussing peanut allergies, it's important to understand the danger extends beyond the direct consumption. Secondary exposure is a very real concern. Children who eat peanut containing products who may not wash their hands touch handrails, desk handles, cafeteria tables, shared classroom materials, and countless other common surfaces without properly washing their hands. A child with a severe peanut allergy can then unknowingly come in contact with those surfaces and be placed at risk. As parents, we send our children to school expecting that they will be educated in an environment that prioritizes both learning and safety. My son deserves the opportunity to focus on his education build friendships participate in school activities without the constant fear That a simple trip to the cafeteria Classroom or elsewhere could cause a severe allergic reaction
Thank you
Next is Gary Brown followed by Anna Chononova
Thank you. My name is Gary Brown. I'm a professional engineer. I've practiced in the state of Texas for 43 years. I bring to your attention that on August 1st, a UIL law was passed for not only Kitty but Houston. Under the new law, it's health safety rules take effect for Texas high school athletes and band programs. And based on a new law, any activity when the temperature is greater than 92 degrees outside is to be halted and moved inside. And also, the schools are required now to have equipment on hand for full-body cold water immersion to treat heat sickness. I've been out to several schools. I'm telling you, it's taking place. today is 105 degrees outside if they're out practicing on that concrete what happens is you can have heat exhaustion and heat exposure and you know I don't want to lose it in our children because we're sitting here they're practicing outside on cement where it's 105 degrees outside this is about time it's taken place and I've been out to several of the sites and looked I was telling you this much this is not being conducted properly with respect to the policy i think the board has so i've given you each a copy of the law and the laws were 92.1 degrees higher no outdoor practice thank you for so much for listening to me and taking care of our children thank you
Anna DeGenova, followed by Meredith Seeley.
Hi, my name is Anna DeGenova, and I'm here to discuss KDISD's new tennis court rental fees. As of right now, tennis in Katy is both affordable and accessible, accessible, but the fees which the district has put forth will make tennis sparse. To put it simply, KDISD is charging $75 per court. If a program rents the maximum five courts, that's $375 per day. For a program like mine that operates six days a week, that becomes $2,250 per week and $117,000 per year. There are two things I would like you to consider. First, I would like to address why a tennis program needs a collection of courts rather than just one one coach working a few players may only need one court a tennis program however needs several courts at the same time the number of courts available is more important than the hours rented second i was told that kdisd looked at how other school districts handle matters such as these which is a huge disservice to kdisd because kdisd has 18 junior high schools participating in tennis that alone doesn't exist in any other district with roughly 40 players per team that's around 700 junior high players add the 10 high school programs and you have more than a thousand students participating in KDISD tennis that level of participation is completely unique to KDISD which begs the question why would this district look to other districts it should be the other way around the tennis community in Katy is exceptional with affordable tennis programs offered close to home. However, implementing fees such as these will change that and over a thousand students will be directly affected. I trust you will take into consideration our proposal which I have attached to the papers handed to each of you. Thank you for allowing me to share my time and God bless. Thank you.
Next is Meredith Seeley followed by Haley Chila.
Good evening, my name is Meredith Seely and I'm a member of Schools Beyond Screens, Katie. At the July work-study meeting, Dr. Bell presented the district's new artificial intelligence or AI framework and I want to thank Dr. Bell and the district for taking that initial first step by restricting AI access for students 6th grade and younger. There are legitimate concerns around generative AI and developing minds, including cognitive offloading, misinformation, unsafe advice, and data privacy. With this framework, the community would expect AI tools to be blocked on 6th grade and under Chromebooks. Yet, Google's AI assistant, Gemini, and Google.com's AI mode remain accessible. Both of these can be disabled by the district. So in practice, the district is making AI tools available while telling younger students not to use them. That's like putting a bowl of candy in front of a kid every day and telling them not to eat it. We cannot expect children to consistently resist an easy access tool sitting right in front of them. There's another concern. The district does not appear to monitor or flag inappropriate AI use, and parents have no visibility into whether their children are accessing AI at school. So I have to ask, is the district's AI policy simply an honor system? For 8th grade and above, students continue to have broad access to AI. In addition, they aren't taught about AI's pitfalls, how it can generate false information, manipulate them, and reflect bias. AI will inevitably be part of this generation's future, but that makes it even more important that our students leave high school strong critical thinking skills. If students use AI to routinely bypass the productive struggle that is essential to learning, those skills will not develop. Putting a rule in the student handbook is not enough. A policy is only as strong as the safeguards that enforce it and we are asking for better safeguards thank you thank you haley chillick followed by
chancy davis good evening my name is haley schillick and i am here tonight with schools beyond screens katie at the july work study meeting application of the technology cheeks was shared which included recommended technology usage for students in kdisd to be technology The presentation did not address how KDISD intends to track metrics related to technology use or misuse, boundaries regarding routine one-to-one usage, screen time limits, and effective web filtering. Research about technology use, screen exposure, and the impact of digital learning is clear. Reading comprehension and retention is significantly improved when reading on paper. Taking notes by hand increases memory retention and facilitates deeper learning. learning. Educational technologies perform below the effectiveness of ordinary classroom instruction. Constant device access encourages multitasking, which fragments attention in the moment and weakens the ability to engage in deep, sustained focus. Human connection is critical to learning, accountability, and motivation. As a result, other districts across Texas have implemented comprehensive frameworks that include screen time limits by grade. Some of the districts are Carroll, Richardson, Lockhart, Argyle, Hutto, Northwest, and Plainview ISDs. By emphasizing that all technology use must be intentional and limited, Carroll ISD has reduced their technology budget by nearly 30%. Texas Governor Greg Abbott has proposed limiting screen time in K-12 classrooms. We are still asking KDISD to provide a measurable and consistent plan that addresses grade level screen time limits, elimination of individual device use in pre-k to second, effective web filtering, elimination of routine one-to-one in grades three to eight, paper-based learning as default, and stronger standards for student data privacy and parental consent. Thank you for your time.
Thank you. Next is Chancey Davis followed by Tana Weiss.
Good evening, Dr. Gagorski, President Redmond, and Board Members. My name is Tana Weiss, and I want to remind our community that our State Board of Education Representative Julie Pickren is up for reelection in November. I am a product of Texas public education. My husband graduated from KISD. Our children attended KDISD from kindergarten through 12th grade. Administrators in this room were my son's teachers and principals. I come from a family of educators. I'm married into a family of educators. I have never seen public education attacked the way it is being attacked today, especially by people elected to represent our interests. Julie Pickren is one of these people. She has attacked our curriculum and is now attacking superintendent salaries on behalf of our governor and his appointed comptroller. Governor Abbott recently claimed that Texas is making historic investments in public education. Everyone in this room knows that does not reflect the reality our schools are facing. Since 2019, the basic student allotment remained unchanged until 2025 when HB2 increased it by just 55 percent of $55 per student. That is less than 1%. Public schools were designed to be the great equalizers of our society. Our community deserves state board representation that supports, not attacks, our educators, administrators, and students. I am asking everyone to pay attention to what is happening with our elected officials and public education it matters our community worked hard to elect this school board previous school board members would have applauded miss pickering and jumped on her bandwagon you are a reasonable district focused team without personal agendas let's not allow our representatives to derail our progress thank you thank you
Next is Lindsey Yang, followed by Jana Brigham Morris.
Good evening. I am a parent of a first grader and third grader at Amy Campbell Elementary. elementary. In past meetings, I brought evidence that our lunch menus are out of line with the new USDA dietary guidelines and that our district serves fast food and junk food. Texas has the sixth highest child obesity rates in the country. Since we are the fifth largest district in Texas, we must seriously consider how we as a community can come together to address this health crisis. This board should realize that we are not helping students so much as harming them by serving Doritos, fruit roll-ups, Rice Krispie treats, pizza, french fries, and mac and cheese every day to young children. High carbohydrate diets spike children's blood sugar, which impacts their focus, behavior, and academic success. But high carb diets are also linked to diabetes, Alzheimer's, heart disease, cancer, and other chronic diseases. When students develop a habit over 13 years of eating pizza and ice cream daily at lunch, I ask you all, are we truly educating on beneficial nutrition habits, or are we tempting children with sugar addiction? Our children make up a small percent of our population now, but they are 100 percent of our future. I ask this board to safeguard that future by continuing to push for improvements and and by requiring the Food and Nutrition Services Department to answer three questions. Why are we allowing any candies to be served in our cafeterias? Why are high carb entrees still the central feature of our lunches in our district? And what steps might be taken to provide salad bars at all school locations for students and teachers? Regarding an agenda item for today, I request that this board look into health insurance incentives that actively reward employees for
Next is Janina Breggin-Morris followed by Ashley Gardner.
Good evening. My name is Janina Morris. My husband and I have lived in Katy for more than 10 years and we are Katy ISD parents, residents and taxpayers. First, thank you for listening and allowing these tennis programs to continue using the high school courts. We genuinely appreciate that. I'm here tonight as a parent to tell you what access to these programs can mean to a child. My daughter, Adriana, here is 15 and plays varsity tennis at Katy High. There was a time when she had to step away from competitive tennis because the training she needed wasn't accessible close to home. When King Daddy became accessible here in Katy, everything changed. She returned to the sport, trained consistently consistently made the Katy High Varsity team as a freshman and was selected by this district's coaches as the District 19-6A Newcomer of the Year. She now hopes to play tennis in college. I tell you that because she is an example of what can happen when a young athlete is given access to the right opportunity. But access on paper isn't necessarily access in practice. If rental costs force programs to significantly raise tuition, reduce programming, or close, ultimately this affects the families, and eventually some children will lose access. I understand there needs to be a balance. These programs use district facilities, but they also serve children and families who live here, attend our schools, and are part of this very community. Our family has already experienced what happens when competitive tennis becomes inaccessible. Our daughter stopped playing. Thankfully, she was given the opportunity to come back. Look at what the opportunity allowed her to accomplish. I hope we don't create a financial barrier that takes that opportunity away from another child. Please help us find a solution that is fair to the district, but most importantly, fair to the kdic students and families these facilities were built to serve thank you thank you
ashley gardner followed by andrew marin
good evening board member members thank you so much for all that you've done for the tennis community we are i'm beyond grateful for each of you my name is ashley gardner and i've had the privilege of running aspen tennis academy here for 15 years when i think about aspen tennis Tennis Academy.
I think about the people.
I think about the five-year-old who walked to the tennis court for the first time, maybe nervous, maybe unsure, but looked up with a smile because they had just discovered something they loved. I think about the families in the stands every evening cheering for their children. I think about the friendships that have been formed and the confidence that's been built. because tennis has a way of doing something extraordinary. Tennis teaches you who you can become. And for us, this is the greatest gift of the sport. We have the privilege of sharing our love and passion for tennis with the community. We have watched our young people find confidence, discipline, purpose, and a place where they belong. And every time you step onto the court, we are reminded that we are not simply teaching tennis. We are attaching lives to the game of tennis. We have we have bring we bring quality tennis instruction into the community with a much more affordable place Children leave proud after tennis They they leave with something that belongs to them a new skill a new Passion and a beginning of a sport that can last the rest of their lives This is why access and affordability to tennis is so important because we provide access and affordability to tennis We aren't just providing access to a court We're providing access to opportunity opportunity to build confidence when you drive by Jordan High School in the evening It is so amazing to see so many families in the stands watching their children learn and grow the game of tennis Tennis is a privilege can be a privileged sport But by having these academies at the in the KDIC facilities it gives tennis accessibility and affordability So thank you for your time
Thank you Next is Andrew Martin followed by Victoria is geared
Andrew Marin
My name is Andrew Marin. I live in Katy, and I go to Seven Lakes. I'm a junior. I moved here last year from Toronto, and I didn't know anyone. The first place in Texas where I knew anybody's name was an out-of-school tennis program called King Daddy Sports. Sorry. Programs like these are one of the most valuable communities that Katie has to offer because they do something really unique. They bring kids from all across the district together. Katie High School, Seven Lakes, Thomas, sorry, Tompkins High School, all into one place, and that's something that's really valuable. With the new court pricing, pricing for these kinds of things increase exponentially. That money has to come from somewhere, and it's going to come from lesson fees. I don't know how many kids will drop or whether some of these programs will even survive, but the kids it affects most won't be the ones who have somewhere else to go. But it isn't just that. It's a few hours a week where a bunch of KDISD kids are on a court instead of a phone, with people who know their names and notice when they don't show up. When I moved here, that was the only place that I had. And I've learned more about losing and coming back the next day on these courts than anywhere else. And I want to be clear about something. If the cost goes up enough, the program doesn't shrink, it closes, and then it's gone for everybody, including the families who could have paid. There isn't really a backup, sorry, and it's KDISD's own teams that get worse. The kids at these programs are the same kids who play for Tompkins and Taylor and Seven Lakes this spring. If the outside training disappears and school practice was never meant to be enough on its own, then in a few years this district is just worse at tennis and we would have done that to ourselves. Even at our own tennis team, our coaches tell us that we're supposed to practice outside of school. Thank you.
Thank you.
Next is Victoria Esquerdo, followed by Matt Caldwell.
Good evening, Katie, ISD board members. My name is Victoria Izquierdo, and my daughter attends Morton Ranch Junior High. I'm here today because we took her out of another district to get her into Katie, specifically just to help us with getting her transportation for bus. We came to find out that she got denied. We went through the transportation center to request for a bus route and we're told that it was denied. The middle school physically is 1.8 miles from our current address, but we were told that it's measured by the property line. It's one of the main reasons why we moved to KDISD. There has been, and our daughter's safety is priority, just given information that we provided, there has been an increase with child accidents who walk the school being hit by cars our child does have to cross to heavy intersections with heavy traffic to get to the school and my husband and I did walk it and it is actually 1.8 miles which I think the qualification to ride the bus is more than a mile we're just asking to please authorize a bus route for our daughters to get on the the bus to keep her safe. We are working parents as many people here and our hours unfortunately do not allow us to pick her up or drop her off to the school as the earliest that she can be dropped off to the school is 815 and most of us have to 8 to 5 and we do live in Houston so it does take about an hour or two to get to our job so we just ask that you take the bus route into consideration from our location in our neighborhood. Thank you.
thank you Matt Caldwell followed by Julius Parthaban good evening I live in
Katy ISD and both my daughters attend district schools I also co-own Arco fit gym which is in Katy just down the street from Jordan high school we employ local residents and we pay property taxes that support this district my 13 year old daughter plays on her school tennis team and trains through a local academy king daddy as a parent taxpayer and business owner i ask you to pause the proposed fees on the tennis courts and develop a reasonable policy with the affected stakeholders and already went through the mass so i won't rehash that with limited time but this is not a modest user fee this is an existential cost the academy cannot absorb it families will face far higher prices participation will fall and employees will be lost programs will shrink and junior tennis and katie will suffer i want you to think about the first time you played catch kick the ball or picked up a racket it probably was not when you joined a school team these experiences build bonds with parents friends and coaches they teach discipline resilience accountability and work ethic quality that children carry with them throughout their lives like baseball soccer football basketball and volleyball tennis players begin developing years before entering school athletics school teams inherent that develop development I urge you to ask the district's own tennis coaches how effective and beneficial these local academies have been for their teams Academy trained students arrive with years of instructions that school programs lack the time and resources to recreate. KDISD has always invested heavily in athletics because it understands the value. Protecting that investment means recognizing that development starts years before a student puts on a district uniform with local coaches, small businesses, committed parents, and accessible facilities. If one Academy behaved improperly address that Academy. Establish enforceable rules, preserve community access, require reasonable accommodation of recreational players and revoke privileges for repeated violations if misconduct is the problem regulate the conduct if academies are agreeable to pay a reasonable community program fee but remember thank you we'll
now move on to Julius Partham on followed by Suman Patel
Good evening, board members. My name is Julius. I'm a KT parent and a tennis community volunteer and a tournament organizer. I'm here today to speak about proposed tennis court rental fees. My kids along with many other local students participate in after school tennis coaching and tennis camp and UTR events mostly at Tompkins High School area court. These programs are very important to our community. Our UTR events in particular are held during non-peak hours usually on Sunday mornings. when many of these courts are completely empty, not being used by any residents. On these courts, our kids aren't just playing tennis. They are building character, learning discipline and resilience and working hard to improve their UTR, a National Recognized Tennis Rating System. Right now, these events are affordable for local families conveniently located close to their homes. However, the proposed facility rental fees could change that. This is not a minor increase. These fees could create a significant financial burden that increases the cost of coaching, tournaments and other tennis programs throughout the KT area. When these programs become too expensive, our kids are the ones who ultimately pay the price. They lose access to local competitive sports and healthy and constructive activity outside of the school. We respectfully ask KJST consider a reduced rental rate for youth tennis community and tennis programs. Thank you. Thank you.
Next is Sumit Patel, followed by Brian Furman.
Sumit Patel. Then our final speaker for the evening will be Brian Furman.
Good evening. Appreciate you letting me spend a few minutes talking to you. I am a coach that has been teaching here in the area for tennis for around 15 years. I'm also a basketball official and a volleyball official who serves primarily the Katy area. You've had a lot of representatives here today come up and speak about the areas of Jordan, Tompkins, and those school areas. I teach primarily in the lesser school areas like Maid Creek, Morton Ranch, Taylor High School. The proposed court fees after discussions with other coaches that do private lessons, they've told me that they're probably going to close shop. The district needs to have private coaching so that the kids can flourish. I'm not sure if you're aware, but your district every year has plenty of representation at the state tournaments. You will lose that if you do not find a reasonable way to charge court fees if you would like. I would prefer that you didn't but that is the school district's decision I'm just here to plead with you to try to find a way that we can keep the programs with high level of tennis play Thank you Thank you
This concludes the open forum portion of our meeting the board will now convene in closed meeting is authorized under section
4. Closed Meeting
551.001 of the Texas Government Code for the following purposes. Texas Government Code 551.071 and 551.129.
5. Reconvene from Closed Meeting
The Board will now reconvene in open meeting. Today is Monday, August 24, 2026 and the time is 626 p.m. On behalf of my colleagues, I welcome everyone to this evening's regular Board meeting. Each Each board member received the agenda and documentation for this meeting on Wednesday, August 19th, 2026. The board will receive information and recommendation from staff, administration, and the superintendent on these agenda items at tonight's meeting. And board members will be able to ask questions, receive answers, and should be prepared to take action. The board has just reconvened from closed meeting in accordance with Chapter 551 of the Texas Government Code. Any action arising from discussions in the closed meeting must be taken in open meeting. We have no action to take from closed meeting and we will move on to section number six reports and
6.1 Katy ISD Council of PTAs Presidents Report.
Look at agenda item 6.1 KDISD Council of PTAs president report and our presenter is miss Kathleen Brennan our president of KDISD Council of PTAs
Good evening superintendent Grigorski and board. My name is Kathleen Brennan I've met some of y'all over the years through leadership KDISD and advocating together at the Texas Capitol School board trustees and PTA executive board share a core purpose. We are elected to faithfully serve the school community. The difference is scale. I am the new president of Katy ISD Council of PTAs, and I appreciate the opportunity to talk with you. The mission of PTA is to make every child's potential a reality by engaging and empowering families and communities to advocate for all children. This involves four different PTA groups, national, Texas, council, and local. State and national provide the structure and continuity on which local PTAs can thrive. Texas PTA supports locals by providing education, resources, and guidance. PTAs must maintain good standing by November 1st each year to preserve their tax-exempt status, use of the PTA trademark, and eligibility for awards and grants. This requires reporting officers, maintaining governing documents, submitting at least 20 members to Texas PTA, and filing appropriate tax returns. Each local PTA functions as a self-governing, nonpartisan 501c3 association. The executive board is made up of elected officers, appointed chairs of standing committees, and the principal or their representative. representative. Finances are mission driven. The board creates plans of work and membership approves the budget. Financial reports are presented regularly and a reconciliation is required at the end of the fiscal year. In Texas, there are 52 PTA councils which exist to unify local PTAs in a certain geographic area. We provide support and guidance to local PTAs so so they can focus on fostering meaningful school family connections for their community. We do this through training, monthly meetings for local presidents, five council delegate meetings per year, and being available to answer questions along the way. Like a local PTA, the council executive board is made up of elected officers and appointed chairs of standing committees, all of whom have experience with the business of PTA and can be a resource to our local PTA leadership. leadership. I've included our board roster in your handout. Katie ISD continues to have an active presence in Texas PTA. We earned outstanding council gold and four spotlight awards last year and had 28,881 members, maintaining our record of highest membership district in Texas. Northside ISD in San Antonio is always close on our heels though. And two of our council leaders, Kathleen Pittman and Georgia Strickland, serve on the Texas PTA Board of Directors. We serve 71 local PTAs, each of which provides programs unique to their campus, which might include sponsoring field trips and special programs on campus, hosting family nights, supporting school traditions, recruiting volunteers, coordinating teacher appreciation, and organizing spirit wear sales. Reflections is probably the most well-known PTA program. Over the course of 50 years, millions of students have found a creative outlet in the areas of dance choreography, film production, literature, music composition, photography, and visual arts. With positive recognition as the focus of this program rather than competition, competition, students of all age and abilities can experience the benefits of creative expression and help finding their own voice telling their own unique story. Last year, Scarlett Park from Roosevelt Alexander Elementary received Texas PTA Overall Award of Excellence and National PTA Award of Merit in the category Primary Literature for her poem, Many Worlds in Our Classroom. The theme this year is What My Culture Means to Me, and we're excited to see what creativity this inspires. Council-level submissions will be on display at a reception in the spring, and we'll be sure you receive an invitation to join us. Edna May Fielder Elementary School PTA earned the 2025-2027 National PTA School of Excellence, a program grounded in the national standards of family school partnerships that guide PTAs in schools through a structured year-long process to strengthen family engagement and advance school improvement goals.
Congratulations to Fielder for earning
this designation, recognizing their leadership in creating welcoming, inclusive school communities and lasting change. Enrollment is currently open until October 15th for the next cohort. Schaefer Elementary School PTA earned the Platinum Voice for Every Child from Texas PTA for recruiting members equal at least 100 percent of their campus student enrollment this was the second year in the row in a row for them to earn platinum after three years straight of earning gold voice for every child i encourage you to join your local pta or take advantage of our council community membership program details of which will be distributed via deborah davies in the coming weeks and help us exceed last year's membership numbers that goal of a voice for every child is especially important as we look ahead to the 90th Texas legislative session where we will continue to advocate on pillars including student success, health and safety, accountability, and public school funding. Advocacy is at the core of the PTA mission to make every child's potential a reality. Our local PTAs are doing amazing work and I look forward to sharing highlights throughout the year. Please let me know if you have any questions along the way and if you would like to join us for one of our council delegate meetings thank you for your time thank you miss renan board do you have
any questions hey there thank you um if a board member wanted to join a pta given that our kids
have already graduated um how would we go about doing that so you can uh we will hand out uh y'all will be receiving your community membership information if you wanted to join a local pta you would just join as a community member. They are a valuable part of the PTA community.
Mr. President.
Ms. Fox.
I know in the past we have gotten a list from Debbie Davies of our adopted schools and their PTAs and how to join those PTAs. And so some of us generally do that, just join the PTAs that are in our adopted schools, and then everybody has representation from the board. So we'll be getting that from Mrs. Davies soon and you'll give that to her.
Correct. That's one of the services that our membership chair provides to y'all is making that a little easier for you to join the PTAs you represent.
Yeah.
Mr. President.
Ms. Hempain.
Thank you so much for your presentation. Kathleen, you gave so much great information and I've always been a big, I mean, that's where I got my start was through the PTA. and PTA gives them great training and that's where I learned a lot about what I've learned through about Robert's Rules and Orders. I went to the convention and all that and I just appreciate and I am such a big supporter of PTA and I'm so happy that you're the president this year and Corinne's has done a great job too and before that Kathleen so it's just good to see it continuously left in good hands and um and the local ptas are just i know they're invaluable to the the administration and the teachers and the staff at the schools i remember someone telling me lunch it was at exley elementary when my kids were a little it was actually elizabeth nick nicholas now but she was elizabeth cleland she said we just see the pta as like little fairies that just leave little fairy dust and make everything so good so I just encourage every everyone that's at their their local schools to be involved in PTA and one of the models we used to have was to give eight which was just means if everyone just did eight hours of work volunteer a year then everything would be covered so I really appreciate you and I look forward to attending some of the meetings and seeing you in the the future with your great reports thank you very much thank you all so much we'll now move on to
7.1 Presentation of the 2026-2027 Proposed Budget and Tax Rate.
item 7.1 presentation of the 2026 2027 budget proposed budget and tax rate our presenters are chris smith our chief financial officer mrs esperanza rios director of budget and treasury and jamie hines our assistant superintendent of finance
Good evening, thank you. President Redman, Dr. Gorski, good evening, and board.
I think this is the ninth month that we've talked about budget and the preparation of this. And as I mentioned last night, that this should be a little quicker since we've gone over the details of the budget. prior to this point. There are the months that we've talked about the budget. The budget must be legally adopted by August 31st by the Board of Trustees. A lot of districts have moved their fiscal years to end on June 30th. We have not, and so a lot of districts have passed their budgets already. We are passing ours hopefully tonight. We've posted this. It's been in the newspaper along with the legal requirements associated with truth and taxation. And of course, it's on our webpage as well. We would have this public meeting to discuss the public, the budget and the proposed tax rate here tonight. Enrollment growth is in the budget that you're seeing is zero. It's flat enrollment growth or actually a very slight decline in enrollment with I think within 20 kids our students new campuses there were none that we opened this year first time in quite a while that we haven't opened a campus we do have an elementary school number 49 that'll be coming on next summer so there are some small expenses associated with bringing on a school because we start our budget on September 1 and so there will be expenses associated that that campus in this fiscal year, but not the full budget of a new campus. Uh, we are using a tax based growth based on our certified certified values from the tax appraisal districts. Waller Harris and Fort Bend counties at 1.5% our lowest in quite some time. Um, salary increase. I'm glad to say that there's a 1% ongoing in here as as well as a lump sum payment that will be delivered on August 31st that will come out of the current fiscal year budget, the 25-26 budget. And then in the budget that you're seeing tonight is the second of which of a lump sum payment to be delivered in December. It will be in the fund balance. When you get your audit, there will be a fund balance number, and we are essentially spending a portion of that fund balance that was earned in the 25-26 school year next year. So I'll talk a little bit more on that when I get there. Also, maintenance and operations and INS tax rates are there. Those remain unchanged from the previous couple of years, and you'll see a little bit more on that in a minute too. Our goal is to maintain a balanced budget. I'll cut to the chase like I did last month, and unfortunately we don't have a balanced budget. It'll be the fifth year in a row. we don't have a balanced budget. More on that in the next slide or next couple of slides, but we don't have a balanced budget. Maintain a competitive compensation plan. We're working really hard at that and I think that we've made some progress moving that direction. Maintain and improve our health care program. I think we've made some good progress on that that we've heard tonight and last week headed headed the right direction. Our priority on student staff safety, always. That's a big priority in our budgets. I will say that those two inside bullets are making, or actually all three of them make it really tough in the environment we're in where we're essentially on fixed income. The only way that we can create rooms to give things in those areas is through more efficiencies or doing more with less. And we've done more with less, mostly in department budgets and not really affected the classroom. And I think that's really important and probably why we have the reputation in Katy that we have in our classrooms, which is a great thing. Back to those tax rates. You can see back in 2019 with that passage of House Bill 3 that 38-cent tax reduction over those next few years. And then we've leveled off those tax reductions these last couple of sessions, in lieu of compressing the tax rate further down, we've increased the homestead exemption, which is a good thing for the homeowners, not necessarily for the businesses or the people who own rental properties, et cetera, but for the homeowners who have a homestead exemption, it has taken away some of the increases that we've seen in our property values. values.
Talking about the deficit, there's the last five years of deficits that we have adopted and because of conservative budgeting practices, we've not had, we did not really see a deficit when we were presented our audits. We actually added the fund balances in those years because of conservative budget practices. We don't budget for unknowns. owns. Uh, things like property value audits. I'm going to talk in a minute about if T. A. S. Uh, or the state is not clear on what what they may be doing to that will affect one of our revenue streams. We just act as if it's current law and that not change is not happening. And if it helps us, we'll add that and amend the budget. Anytime there's something significant that can help that helps the bottom line, we will amend the budget. And I want to to remind everybody that the budget is a spending backstop. Nobody goes out and says, hey,
I've got budget. I need to spend it. Because of turnover, because people don't spend their budgets, we always underspend. Mr. Hines speaks at that quite a bit every month and points out that we indeed have underspending. I can't stand in front of you today and say that we will have underspending, but I've seen underspending my entire time in Katy and in this business. We we don't spend our budgets. And so we will likely have under spending next year as well. And then we have already worked on a property value audit. The final one for the 2022 value that was sent to the Texas comptroller's office last week confirmed receipt today, which was the deadline to get the 22 ones in and then over the winter we'll be working on a 2024 property value audit. Don't know how much that will yield yet. Um but But it'll help the bottom line, but didn't want to hedge on that. Eighty-nine percent is salary and benefits in our district. And so there's where your spend is, is 90 percent in salary and benefits. The other big expenditures that we have are utilities is number two, and software would be number three when it comes to the three big items that we spend our money on, and salary benefits, utilities, and software. where after that there's really a very small percentage of things that we can decide on what we do or don't need when it comes to items like supplies, staff development, etc. Proud to say that 67, a little over 67 percent is instruction and instruction related or spent directly in the classroom and then 15 15% more on that or 83% is spent directly on kids. That is one of the higher ones that I've seen where we spend our money in the classroom, and that's what we should be doing, spending our money in the classroom. Historically, we've spent around 2% in our administration and have historically one of the lowest, if not the lowest, one of the handful of lowest administrative cost ratios in the state. Our general fund is going to start in the year with, as far as our July amended budget goes, with a $374 million fund balance. I do think when things are said and done and we close out that year, in fact, the amended budget you'll be passing tonight is a surplus budget. I think it was $4 or $7 million. I can't remember which. But it is a surplus budget, and we won't spend all the expenditures in that. And so we will add the fund balance again. Again, right now that $374 million is about a little over four months of a fund balance, or about 34%, which is a good, healthy fund balance. There's plenty of information about our fund balance and the history of our fund balances on our website, on our transparency website. So even if we spent that entire deficit, we would still have a very healthy fund balance of over 30%, which would be over four months. So, let's see what else I want to say about that. But we do have our revenues, our budgeted revenues, are short of our budgeted expenditures by $25.6 million. And again, $7.5 million of that is fund balance that we're going to end the year with that we are spending as part of the 1% lump sum payment to be delivered in December in this budget year. So if it weren't for that, we would just be in our fund balance and not working for the people of this district. Food service fund is probably maybe even more conservative than that. I think we'll finish the year quite a bit above $9 million in our fund balance. Revenues do exceed expenditures by $7.5 million, and I'm pretty confident that that's a conservative number as well. well. That service fund we're doing as much as we can to pay down principal as quick as we can for the for the taxpayers of the district to minimize interest expense. Our revenues are two hundred fifty nine point nine million dollars. I will point out that thirty four percent of the thirty four million dollars of that is in the Asahi, which is an acronym for additional state aid for homestead exemption. And that thirty four million dollars is a direct result of when it increases and homestead exemptions are approved by our voters and by the Texas legislature, the state steps in and makes up for those lost tax dollars. That's what that's for. There is a big blank on the existing debt allotment and the instructional facilities allotment. Those are monies that some districts, very few now, are eligible to receive. We're eligible to receive them, but our wealth is too much, which surprises me, because they haven't changed those yields since 1999. So we outgrew existing debt allotment and instructional facilities allotment some 10 years ago, or more than 10 years ago. Interest in principal payments totaled $257 million to a slight increase in fund balance, and we were able to use those interest earnings or that $2.6 million. million dollars. If we can, we will have a refunding again this year. We're gonna try to pay more principal down with that. Um, and and maybe by this time next year when the taxes come in and and are more solid, we may even ask for to be able to spend a little bit more into fees, bonds or pay pay some principal off to save interest expenses to our taxpayers. There's a summary of all funds 1. Uh, four five 3 billion in revenues and 1.484 billion in expenses. If you used all that fund balance, which we won't, you'd end the year with $418.9 million in fund balance. Again, general fund balance is the key that you want to keep healthy. What you don't want to do is have a too low a fund balance where you have to borrow money to make payroll, and you've seen some of that in the headlines across the state where districts are having to borrow money, and that's creating an interest expense. We do reach our low cash amount in about November as do most districts but we are because of that healthy fund balance we're earning interest on that not paying interest on that which is a win-win for our classrooms that's our budget by function you of course you have the details of this was mr. Rios went over this last week in detail and you can see the budget by function that's a legal requirement and again that this all this information and more is on our website as we move to next next year. We're going to closely monitor expenditures like we always do. We're going to have some timing amendments. Unfortunately, I know of one right now. There may be more one where we've made the order. Hope that we thought it would come in by the end of August, and it's not. If it comes in on September the third, guess what? It's next year's expense. That's the accounting rules, and so it will be next year's expense. And if that's the case, we don't want to penalize that person's that department's budget. What What we want to do is amend it slightly, and again, it'll be in fund balances. Kind of six one-half dozen the other, but we would have to amend that if we have a prior year amendment. Property value audits, I've already mentioned that. We filed one for 2022 and confirmed that the Comptroller's Property Tax Division has that today, and we will be filing another one in the wintertime at some point for the 24 property tax year. year. TA rulemaking interpretations, that does not include the additional monies that the state set aside. I think it was $250 million.
Yeah, I think it was $250 million. I may be misspeaking
that. I apologize if I am. But we don't know how they're going to formulate that yet. We've spent this summer reporting information on our special needs students to the agency. The the agency is going to crunch all those numbers and have some formulas, estimates to provide the legislature when they start in January. So until January, we won't know what that's going to happen, what that's going to produce for us. But if you take the amount they allotted, and basically my back-of-the-napkin estimate would be somewhere around $2.5 million gain. That's not in this budget. Again, that would be speculative and not fair for me to assume that that's what it's going to be. If it came in less, that wouldn't be good. Again, I'm going to estimate it's going to be around $2.5 million. And then we plan under current law. We'll start planning again already next month for the 27-28 school year, and we'll use current law. Even though the legislature will be meeting in January, we will be beginning a budget in these next couple of months looking at current law revenue. Avenue. Again, legislative session kicks off in January and we really need some assistance in public ed when it comes to really funding our employees and the health insurance and the employees because they're subject to inflation as well. So there's where we've been this year and we are completed with the budget process. I would like to thank Dr. Gorgorski and the board for their leadership and of course the cabinet and all the budget managers, probably over 100 budget managers, principals throughout the district put a lot of work in this. They didn't get an education to build a budget. I get it. But that is the nature of the beast that we have to do budgets. And Ms. Rios, Esperanza Rios, does a wonderful job for this district, wrapping her arms around this and doing as much as she can to keep everything under control. And I think the history of our fund balances and our audits and our schools first reports so that although we have a deficit budget, it's just a deficit budget. It's not real realistic because we are not going to spend it all. And I think when it's all said and done this time next year, I can't promise you that we'll actually have an actual surplus. But I don't think it'll be catastrophic by all means. And again, if we did spend all of that, we would still have a very healthy fund balance. And that's what health fund balances are for, for kind of rainy days or to get you through some tough times. And public ed right now, funding-wise, is in some tough times. So that's all I have for tonight.
Thank you, Mr. Smith. Any questions, board?
Mr. President.
Ms. Champaign.
First of all, before I speak to you, Mr. Smith, I want to just go back to the Katy Council PTAs. I forgot about Georgia Strickland, another great former president. But on to your discussion, I just was curious about this, and I'm sure that I know the answer to this, but I just want to hear it. But when, you know, year after year after year, if you continuously see or your, you know, your team continuously sees underspending in a certain line item, you know, continuously the same one. I don't mean just maybe one year is something strange happened or something. Will you readjust that? that? Or will you, you know, you have a budget for it, but year after year after year, maybe it doesn't get spent to that level.
And would that be something that you would reconsider adjusting? I see your point. And at one point, we did do that. And we do take out the fact that we do do underspending. And underspending is built into the budget. It was built into all these budgets. but there's underspending on top of that underspending. And what the risk is is when we do that, we kind of tie the hands of the administrations or the budget managers for if they need something, then we have to be at the mercy of coming to the board for a budget amendment. And, again, if we're not going to spend all of the budget, it's tough to put those budget managers in a position to do that because that interferes with what we're trying to do in the classrooms.
Okay. Okay. Mrs. Grease, can I say something else? Okay. And I just want to say thank you to you and your team. And I know there's a lot of people involved in it, including, you know, the financial clerks and all the way down. You know, they're all very, the ones I know are very cognizant of trying to do a good job with their schools and all that. And one time, I just want to say I went through that department and all the cubicles. I had no idea there were so many people over there. So that's a large team and I understand it's a big budget. So we need those people to do their jobs. And I just really appreciate all that you do to keep us afloat year after year after year. Thank you.
Any other questions or comments for Mr. Shipley?
One of the first comments you made, I might have asked about this before, you referenced that a number of districts have shifted to a June 30 year end.
Yes, sir.
What what's the strategy behind that or why what's the benefit to shifting to that? I
Think the benefit that jumps out to me first and foremost the one that I see people Gravitate towards is it it gives you a short year when it comes to expenses a district that makes that change Still gets the vast majority of their revenues that they earn in that short year, but they only have ten months expenses And so what would happen is a district that, like us, if we did that, we would add overnight to fund balance by well over $100 million. It wouldn't affect our cash position. We would still hit the low cash area around November. But districts have done that because it props up their fund balance. It makes it look healthy. I've always considered kind of a foe, if you will, because again, cash is the cash position where you are in November or at your low point is really what matters in my opinion. And so, but I think that's kind of the primary reason. The other reason is, let's be honest, and this is more practical and probably is when When a campus leaves for the summer, they leave that budget. And then they get back in August, and they have a fresh budget. And unfortunately, that doesn't happen in Katy. They have to save a little bit of money to kick their budget off in August and have some remnants left. That's probably a backup to say the reverse. That's probably the main reason why they make that. It's easier on the campuses. We've been this way so long, or for 100 years, that we are the campuses that pretty much morph was morphicized into and it becomes a way of life they know they got to finish their year with with a little budget budget left over so they can start the next school year that's probably the primary reason for a good shift another a negative on it would be the legislature doesn't pass the state funding laws until June late May early June and then they're not signed into it and so you're adopting a budget that may or may not become law and so it's a lot more speculative but you can always amend the budget but that's that's another downside of moving to june 30th in my opinion okay thank you
any other questions or comments board thank you very much mr steve i believe in next item 7.2 has received public input regarding the 2026-27 proposed budget and tax rate but we do not have any speakers signed up to speak tonight
8. Consent Agenda
So we'll move on to our consent agenda. Consent agenda shall include items that were discussed and considered at the previous work-study board meeting, as well as items of a reoccurring nature. The board shall be furnished with background material for each item, and 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 Legal and BE Local. Are there any items that the board members would like to remove from consent agenda tonight? Mr. Ghibli?
I'd like to remove consent agenda number 8.7, which is considering approval of our health plan options.
All right. 8.7. Any other items?
Mr. President?
Ms. Fox?
I move that the Board of Trustees approves the consent agenda for items 8.1 through 8.9, except for item 8.7, which has been removed from the consent agenda.
Okay.
It is moved and seconded that the Board of Trustees approves the consent agenda for items 8.1 through 8.9 except for 8.7, which has been removed from the consent agenda. We'll now proceed to vote. All those in favor, use your keypad.
And the motion passes 7-0.
8.7 Consider Board approval of health plan options for Plan Year 2027.
We will now move on to item 8.7, consider board approval of the health plan options for plan year 2027. Mr. Shipley.
Thank you. Um, so the health care plans that we were presented last week, um, for the 2027 calendar year, the feedback that I've received from the community and from, you know, teachers, et cetera, has been positive that this is a step, a great step in the, in the direction of what a lot of people are looking for. I do have some questions around our pharmacy plan. I know we We talked about the H-E-B plan, which is we're in the middle of a three-year contract. I'm curious to better understand if there's mail order options, if that's part of the current plan or something we've considered, and what that might look like. And I don't know.
I'm going to ask Mr. Nama or Mr. Harris to come up and speak to that. We were talking about that just a little while ago.
Good evening, President Redman, Dr. Grigorski, members of the board. So currently the H. E. B. Program that they have and it's the same program they have for all of their 120 something thousand employees as well as a San Antonio Spurs and Dallas Cowboys currently does not have a mail order offering. If that's something that we wanted to explore, maybe that's something they can develop for us. What was negotiated with the savings achieved by H. E. B. Is as it stands currently. So there currently is a retail only option.
Okay. Yeah, I didn't bring this up last week, but it is something, just listening to feedback, thinking my own experience with how I use pharmacies, the health plan moves I'm excited about. I'd be curious to know, and I don't know from a timing standpoint how that would work. I don't know if we're late to the game on this, but being in the middle of a three-year contract, what would that look like if we were to say, hey, we want to add to the HEB plan? plan with the cost be terms, etc. That's something we can start working on and see if that's available. There would be a cost associated to it. You know, it would it would affect the pricing of the drugs. So we just need to put a number to that. I think with would that delay our vote or could we vote on the plan as it's been presented and then get additional information for a future consideration on the couple of thoughts on that one is the previous board when we brought this item had already
approved the contract the contract is good for three years and we're eight months in as August eight months into a three-year contract so the item that is before the board tonight on health plans has nothing to do with our HEB pharmacy plan but we are under contract for that but if the board would like us to go back and renegotiate that contract and talk to HEB about other options that This board would like to see in our pharmacy plan. We can go have those conversations at any time. That's correct
That's correct. That's helpful context. I didn't yet. That's a pretty for splitting those two things up. We've got a medical plan We're seeing some notable. I think improvements on Pharmacy were eight months into 36 month contract, but there could be some other things that we could consider But we don't know what we consider without knowing cost implications of the current contract So that's something I think would be great to see
I can go ahead and move forward with doing diligence on the process just to see what we have available. Thank you.
Mr. President.
Ms. Fox.
So thank you very much for the presentation. I'm hearing great feedback. People love the option of the co-pay. I mean, they're just like, thank you for more options.
So let's revisit the discussion we had about what if an employee has children off at college, and they're not close to a Kelsey Seabold. What are their options, and what would you recommend if they were at a college in Texas or a college outside of Texas?
Yeah, just depending on how far they are from the Kelsey area. In emergency, you've got the Aetna RAP network. But as far as a kid at college, a child at college that's got maintenance care or ongoing underlying health conditions, most likely, unfortunately, the high deductible health plan would be the best option for them or the POS with the large national PPO network. ACOs are regional. It doesn't matter if it's Baylor, Scott & White or Piedmont, Atlanta. I mean, it's a function of the ACO model and the way that they were built is they're always going to be a regional health care solution.
And do you, sorry, I'm just asking for teachers who have asked me, do you know anything about, like there are college specific plans where the kids while at college could enroll in a college student plan. Do you know anything about that? Is that something that would be, because they really want to be in this copay plan?
Yeah, every university has their own healthcare type plan that's available there. and I don't have the exact, it's been many years since I've been in college, but each one of them have their own types of health care and health care facility plans that are available at a premium, and then emergency services are always provided.
That doesn't apply to, you know, a great majority of our people, but for some, you know, whose children who are still in their plan, And that was just the questions that I, the only questions I had.
Ms. Fox, I can share from some personal experience, if you want to hear that part about having two kids in college. I've been on the Memorial Herman plan for a number of years, servicing our family. And I get what you're saying in that. And I like what our experts are sharing. If there is an emergency, I know my kids will get the coverage they need. They've been in four different universities all around Texas, five universities now, all around Texas, from El Paso to Houston, everything in between, down to Corpus and whatever. There is a way to get care for your children in college when you have a specific type of plan, like a Kelsey plan or a Memorial Hermann plan. There are ways to work that, and it's worked well for my family. I'm not trying to give anyone any advice, but I do think it's important to know that just because you have kids in college, it doesn't mean these plans will not work for you. Correct.
Mr. President.
Ms. Champagne.
And let me just say, and also, you know, we have the tele-doctors, too. So when your kid is in college, that's for us, you know, when my kids are in college, unless it was some kind of emergency, you know, that was kind of what they would do is do the tele. And I wouldn't remind you that virtual care is a great option for a college student. They don't have to go down to the local clinic. if they're on campus they can call in and get the prescription done it's just like there it's the ongoing care but emergency care is is is available and covered through the RAP network with that minutes mr. Harris was explained
mr. Taylor mr. president um I know I asked a lot of questions at the last meeting I kind of feel like I grilled you and I think whenever I do that I need to come back and say what you all did right because there were things you all did right so I don't want feel like I don't want you to feel like you didn't do anything right.
Providing a co -pay option was definitely something that people wanted. You heard it today. People spoke in open comment. You beat healthcare inflation. It looks like you came down a good 4 % lower than what we're seeing in other plans within the state.
I asked you all about the return on investment study regarding self-insured, whether we should stay that way or we should be whole insured. And it looks like you all made the right decision there.
You all saved us money because we had gone whole insured. It looks like there had been almost a 30% cost difference to us and all I ask you know that's a lot of information that you're going to have to provide to our staff that you really consider that comms plan and and how clear you make it there's some great options it can be a little confusing and you know we want to make sure that our staff has all the information so they can make the right decision thank you any other comments
support the only other thing that people didn't mention was there were questions about how can GLP ones get covered and and I shared some about the ready MD and that there is a program that they can look into that it's not going to be as if insurance is totally covering it but there there are some ways that and those already exist right there the ready MD that is correct okay Mr. President this Ms. Fox.
How is the communication plan coming, and what have you heard from our employees this week?
It's been positive. I'll be just perfectly honest. We haven't heard any noise or anything that's negative. It's all been positive, pretty much neutral in terms of where we're going and what we're looking forward to doing. So that's kind of where we are. waiting for you all to put the final blessing on this and so that we can begin our communication piece out to our our staff members and
Sorry, and what does that communication piece look like? Mr. Shush? No, I'll let mr. No means that I was just gonna say from
Asking the feedback. I've heard very positive feedback as well. So
We will be putting out a schedule To our staff members. We're putting the final touches on it as we speak We meet weekly with my team and what we're going to do and we'll be working with Baldwin putting some videos together but we will probably will be looking at the latter part of September first of October which will be a bit there'll be a gradual push because what we have found is the sooner we get to open enrollment people will pay attention if we do a full-blown now there'll be outside out of mind we want to make sure that when they come to enroll it's fresh on their minds it's right there in front of them and it's like we've done in years past we have a benefit fair where we bring all the subject matter experts in and they can sit down and speak with the the expert and I will just tell you this is a sign up this last year last Thursday evening we had a special enrollment for our new hires and it was it was well received we were able to sit down and talk with them about the options and things that they can enroll in really helped a new group of employees that were coming on board it was very
successful mr president thank you very much sounds great and you're exactly right right before the deadline is when they're going to be listening the most and you have you sent out a one pager to us superintendent gregorski about ways that we're building communication with our employees through some assisted automated questions and answers and things and those are always very helpful so i'm hearing such great feedback and people going like appreciate extra options has has been encouraging this week so thank you for all the work you've done on it i look forward to all the extra things that we're going to be i don't know what extra things there'll be but i won't be here but all the things that continue to get better for our employees and for our district so y'all keep working on that all right i don't know any other questions or comments
then i'll entertain a motion
mr president miss fox i move that the board approve the health plan options for plan
year 2027 as presented second I have a motion and a second to approve the health plan options as presented for plan year 2027 board members if you'll use your keypad to vote and the motion passes 7 to 0 and then we move on to
9. Information Items
section 9 our information items there were no new library acquisitions posted on the KDIC public dashboard this month during the month of July. Mr. Secretary did we capture any requests from the board?
The only thing I have was the request about which they talked about following up on the HEB pharmacy plan any additions or the mail -in.
All right well then there will be a special board
10. Future Meetings
meeting on Monday, August 31st, 2026. The board will also have a work study meeting on Monday, September 14th, 2026, and our regular board meeting will be on Monday, September 21st, 2026.
11. Closed Meeting
The board will now convene in closed meeting as authorized under section 551.001 of the Texas government code for the fall of 2021. purposes Texas government code five five one zero eight two one and five five one zero seven four it's necessary now for everyone to please clear the room as the board will convene and close meeting in this room thank you the board will now
12. Reconvene from Closed Meeting
reconvene in open meeting today's Monday August 24th 2026 and the time is 7 48 The Board heard a level 3 FNG grievance 25-063 pursuant to Katy Independent School District policy FNG legal and FNG local regarding parent student grievances in closed meeting. In accordance with chapter 551 of the Texas Government Code, any action regarding this matter must be taken in open meeting.
Mr. President.
Ms. Champaign.
I move that the Board of Trustees denies the Level 3 FNG grievance in FNG 25-063, thereby upholding the decision of the Level 1 and Level 2 hearing officer.
Do I have a second? Second. It is moved and seconded to deny the Level 3 FNG grievance in FNG 25-063, thereby upholding the decision of the Level 1 and Level 2 hearing officer. Board, if you'll use your keypads to place your vote.
and the motion passes seven to zero there being no further business before the board this meeting is adjourned and the time is 7 50 p.m.
Official documents
Agenda
The district's own agenda for this meeting, as published on BoardDocs.
Official agenda, Regular Board Meeting Agenda, 24 August 2026 →
Board packet · 15 documents
The district's own backup material for this agenda, retrieved from BoardDocs. Each file was checked against the size BoardDocs states for it.
- 1 Financial Statements - June 2026 179 KB
- 2 Function Object Analysis - June 2026 209 KB
- 3 Construction Report- June 2026 2167 KB
- 4 Tax Report- June 2026 104 KB
- 5 Check Register - June 2026 176 KB
- 2025-26 Proposed Final Amended Budget 130 KB
- Notice of Public Meeting 2026 - publication copy 2026-08-07 44 KB
- 50-859 - 2026 Tax Rate Calculation Worksheet - signed 1205 KB
- Resolution to Commit & Assign fund balance 80 KB
- PubHearingTaxRateSignIn 26-27 156 KB
- August 2026 Budget Amendment Details 120 KB
- 26-27 Proposed Budget_July Amended_updated 94 KB
- Resolution-SIGNED 123 KB
- MIN_7_20_2026_Board_Work_Study_Meeting 631 KB
- MIN_7_27_2026_Regular_Board_Meeting 977 KB
Motions and votes
Recorded actions
MOTION 001 · AGENDA 8.1
PassedIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees approves the District's June 2026 financial statements.
7 Yes · 0 No
| Trustee | Vote |
|---|---|
| cicely-taylor | Yes |
| dawn-champagne | Yes |
| james-cross | Yes |
| jim-davidson | Yes |
| lance-redmon | Yes |
| nathan-shipley | Yes |
| rebecca-fox | Yes |
MOTION 002 · AGENDA 8.2
PassedIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees approves the 2025-2026 Final Amended Budget for the Katy Independent School District.
7 Yes · 0 No
| Trustee | Vote |
|---|---|
| cicely-taylor | Yes |
| dawn-champagne | Yes |
| james-cross | Yes |
| jim-davidson | Yes |
| lance-redmon | Yes |
| nathan-shipley | Yes |
| rebecca-fox | Yes |
MOTION 003 · AGENDA 8.3
PassedIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees approves the resolution to commit and assign fund balance.
7 Yes · 0 No
| Trustee | Vote |
|---|---|
| cicely-taylor | Yes |
| dawn-champagne | Yes |
| james-cross | Yes |
| jim-davidson | Yes |
| lance-redmon | Yes |
| nathan-shipley | Yes |
| rebecca-fox | Yes |
MOTION 004 · AGENDA 8.4
PassedIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees approves the 2026-2027 State Compensatory Education funding and other End-of-Course Assessment funding budget, as required by House Bill 5.
7 Yes · 0 No
| Trustee | Vote |
|---|---|
| cicely-taylor | Yes |
| dawn-champagne | Yes |
| james-cross | Yes |
| jim-davidson | Yes |
| lance-redmon | Yes |
| nathan-shipley | Yes |
| rebecca-fox | Yes |
MOTION 005 · AGENDA 8.5
PassedIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees adopts the 2026-2027 Official Budget for Katy Independent School District.
7 Yes · 0 No
| Trustee | Vote |
|---|---|
| cicely-taylor | Yes |
| dawn-champagne | Yes |
| james-cross | Yes |
| jim-davidson | Yes |
| lance-redmon | Yes |
| nathan-shipley | Yes |
| rebecca-fox | Yes |
MOTION 006 · AGENDA 8.6
PassedIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees approve the Remote Homebound Waiver.
7 Yes · 0 No
| Trustee | Vote |
|---|---|
| cicely-taylor | Yes |
| dawn-champagne | Yes |
| james-cross | Yes |
| jim-davidson | Yes |
| lance-redmon | Yes |
| nathan-shipley | Yes |
| rebecca-fox | Yes |
MOTION 007 · AGENDA 8.7
PassedIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees approves the Health Plan design for Plan Year 2027.
7 Yes · 0 No
| Trustee | Vote |
|---|---|
| cicely-taylor | Yes |
| dawn-champagne | Yes |
| james-cross | Yes |
| jim-davidson | Yes |
| lance-redmon | Yes |
| nathan-shipley | Yes |
| rebecca-fox | Yes |
MOTION 008 · AGENDA 8.8
PassedIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees approves of the Board Operating Procedures.
7 Yes · 0 No
| Trustee | Vote |
|---|---|
| cicely-taylor | Yes |
| dawn-champagne | Yes |
| james-cross | Yes |
| jim-davidson | Yes |
| lance-redmon | Yes |
| nathan-shipley | Yes |
| rebecca-fox | Yes |
MOTION 009 · AGENDA 8.9
PassedIt is recommended that the Board of Trustees approves of the minutes for the July Board meetings.
7 Yes · 0 No
| Trustee | Vote |
|---|---|
| cicely-taylor | Yes |
| dawn-champagne | Yes |
| james-cross | Yes |
| jim-davidson | Yes |
| lance-redmon | Yes |
| nathan-shipley | Yes |
| rebecca-fox | Yes |