The time is 5:30 and a quorum is present, dr. Stinson, will you confirm that the meeting was duly called and a notice of the meeting was
posted in accordance with the texas open meetings act? Yes, president tolbert. We did post and advertised this meeting in accordance with the law.
we will now convene into closed session as authorized by texas government code 551, specifically .074 personnel, .072 real property, .071 consultation with the board's
attorney and .076 security. The time is 5:31 pm.
the time it's seven o'clock and we will now reconvene in open session before we begin,
I'd like to start by thanking the uae for providing us with dessert tonight and
particularly for the crumble cookies. If you've never had crumble cookies, that could be addictive.
good job. Thanks for supporting us and everything you do for us and now I'd like to call
on dr. Conklin, principal of cheney hills, to introduce the students who are with us tonight. Dr.
stinson, president tolbert, members of board, thank you for having us here tonight. I'm really excited to introduce two of our most outstanding students at cheney hills
elementary school. I like to introduce norma trevino and norm was with her and she's so
excited to be here. I think I've got like five hugs today at school because she's so
happy. She's been. She's been asking me when the big night was for about three weeks, so.
and I like to introduce her parents, her parents, kerri and carlos trevino and then we
have also anna horton here and anna is a fifth grade in her favorite subject in school is
science, and anna serves on our cardinal crew club. It's a fifth grade leadership group and so you can see anna every morning greeting our
students and our staffs as they come into the building, whether it's rain, sunshine or
really cold like it has been the last few weeks and so she's a great leader on our cardinal crew club. She's here with her mom, ashley, and her little brother elijah, so
we're going to go ahead and get started again. Just thank you for allowing them to be here tonight with us.
you go ahead and stand.
allegiance]
pledge]
mic]
staff from both schools have made the transition easier for me
and the other students as well. Thank you. [applause] norma and anna, if you could bring your principal up
here and they're going to give you a certificate and then parents, parents of norma and
anna, if you could give us just a second. They're going to take some official pictures and then we can let you guys come down.
so dr. Conklin, if you could keep them there until parents have also had an opportunity
and yeah, I promised the parents they could.
[applause] norma, you did a great job on the pledges, and
anna, that was look, you probably don't know it, but that means a lot to us.
what you said combining those two schools was was a new thing for us and seeing those two
cultures come together and making one making better out of two things, making it better
into one. What you said to not struck me right in the heart. I just got to tell you, I loved your words of encouragement and you have the coolest
bridge in town, right? Yeah. Mr.
thomas, there you are. I moved on you.
I will say about the bridge. Dr. Stinson, I ask her if she liked the bridge. She said, no, it's too tall.
so I told her I didn't like that. I could feel it
yeah. Mr. Tolbert, members of the board just want to start this evening by personally, you know,
starting by thanking each of you for what you do. As our board members, many people don't realize the many hours that you volunteer.
this is not a paid position. It is. It is a time that you sacrifice away from your families and others, and we so
appreciate you as as members of the cabinet and superintendent's cabinet. We we truly appreciate you.
we're always looking for ways, you know, in birdville isd, we do not lack for talent and
it's always fun to highlight those and so we've got a special video that we want to share
with you here in just a minute. I want to thank clarence simmons and lorraine [inaudible] for working with our principals
to get helping us get some video footage for this and members of dave lambson's team in
putting this video together. So I'm not going to take a lot of time tonight is to honor you.
for those of our guests that are here this evening, this is school board appreciation
month. January of each year is is always a time where we stop and say thank you across
the state to our board members. So if you can either watch the screen behind your push your video button and it's not
working, so you may have to watch behind you because I know we had some technology. What would it be ok, I mean, we can all turn around or you can step out to the front to
see the video. It's about three minutes. So either way, ok?
[video] thank you school board for your service.
we are six grade students at haltom middle school. We are the tigers. We just want to thank the school board for all you do.
we appreciate you so much. Thank you. Bye. Just like, thank you so much for just volunteering to do something like that.
like, it just means the world to all of us students. So thank you so much. Good morning.
this is richland high school student council and school board. We just want to say a huge thank you to everything that you've done.
help people, if they get hurt and put a band-aid on them.
what does president tolbert do for his job. Make presents.
go back to the room and play in their room. They play in their room?
yeah and make good decisions for the kids.
I know you all don't get paid for this job. Thank you for your time and volunteering for us.
I just want to say thank you so much for all that you do. Thank you for always putting us students first and putting in extra work to give us the
best environment in school, in sports and in fine arts. Thank you so much.
thank you bisd board, we love our new school.
[inaudible] we love our school board
. Thank you mr. President joe tolbert for everything you've done.
thank you, mr. Dilks. I wanted to thank you for everything that you do for the school and for being our
distinguished alumni. [inaudible] thank you, mr.
richard davis, it's so cool, we have the same initials. Thank you. Thank you for all you do for us.
thank you ms. Brenda sanders-wise. Thank you, mr. Womble. Thank you, mr. Kunkel, for everything that you do and hopefully I'll see you out there
cycling away. Thank you, mr. Kris drees, for all that you do.
thank you for being a friend.
traveled down the road and back again. Your heart is true.
you're a pal and a confidant.
thank you for being a friend.
I'm going to let that play on out.
[applause] so the banners on the walls around us this evening and others that we see throughout the back side of the building that the public doesn't always get to the
opportunity to see where it created for you in honor of you. Our trustees and those are from our campuses and the baskets that you received this
evening, especially for our new trustees that have not been part of this with us before.
these are donations from our campus, our different campuses.
so again, they like us. We appreciate what you do and what you sacrifice for us and so thank you for that and I
think at this time, we are going to move on, mr.
tolbert, if I may just go ahead and recognize joseph showell to come ahead and do the
recognition for thanks for the video, by the way. We're going to get a picture here in just a minute with
the board, but we'll move on. Why don't we do the picture when we do something else?
combine those, ok? Dr. Showell.
dr. Showell, while he approaches the podium to honor officer cage, I'd like to recognize
that the administrative staff for haltom high school is in the audience. If you don't mind standing and they're here to support officer cage in his recognition.
[applause] dr.
showell, before you get started, I would also like to thank you number one, the orange
tie for representing haltom high, but also I'm going to think that represents the university of texas a little bit as well.
thank you. [chuckling] always, always covering them both. Yes, covering them both, of course.
so president tolbert, members of the board, dr. Stinson, it gives me great pleasure tonight to be here to honor officer cage as the
haltom city officer of the year. Our role in student services works closely with the officers, and I have just a little
bit to read about officer cage. Officer cage started as a school resource officer in 2017-2018.
he is currently at haltom high and has been there since 2018-2019.
officer cage was a united states marine for six years.
he has worked at haltom city as a police officer for 15 years.
he did 10 years working on the streets as a patrol officer. As an sro, he was over haltom middle, north oaks, spicer, stowe, wt francisco, david e.
smith, west birdville, major cheney and birdville elementary schools.
he perpetually shows sincere concern and commitment towards the student body.
he sees them not as mere statistics or sources of a job, but instead as people who
require care and guidance. Officer cage takes the time to learn about each of them and their unique problems.
he seeks to assist them and mentor them in whatever capacity he can.
he's an invaluable asset to the sro program, haltom high school, birdville isd and for
more than just his technical skills. Officer cage is calm and caring, but firm with great patience.
he goes out of his way to show students he's there for them. He came in hours early just to go run with the cross country track team.
he's going to bring me next time. [chuckling]. Officer cage is well respected by the students and staff, as well as bisd
administrators. He is always visible, and since he works so many sporting events and
other after school activities, he's well known by the parents and has a very good
relationship with them. Officer cage was awarded the national association of school resource officers (nasro)
practitioner certificate. He is recognized as an officer who has excelled in the area of school based policing, has
shown leadership in his specialized field of law enforcement and has been recognized by
nasro as an officer who is committed to serving our nation's youth along with the community and school districts he serves.
finally, officer cage was nominated for employee of the quarter twice in 2021.
he was selected as employee of the quarter for the third quarter of 2021 and finally,
officer of the year for 2021. Please join me in honoring officer cage, haltom city police officer of the year.
[applause]
and I know with officer cage, he has his wife and his two daughters here, as well as
members from the city of halton police as well.
officer cage, thank you so much for what you do. You've got such a bond with those students. Thank you. Then the purchasing department award of merit.
good evening, president tolbert, dr. Stinson, board of trustees.
I'd like to ask our director of purchasing shelley freeman to come forward.
well, I'm honored tonight to recognize ms. Freeman and our district purchasing department.
they have been recognized by the texas association of school business officials with the
2022 award of merit for purchasing operations. The award of merit was established in 2009 to recognize texas school districts committed
to following professional standards in the acquisition of goods and services.
for 2022, only 58 recipients met the strong stringent criteria to qualify for the award,
so that's out of 1200 districts, so we're very proud of our department.
as texas school districts face ever increasing pressure to use funds efficiently, we
recognize the work of our department as they streamline operations, comply with
regulations and set the standard for how to utilize taxpayer dollars.
I will tell you, over the last several years, the compliance that has been added to the
work of ms. Freeman's department has been really unbelievable. We have something we fondly call edgar.
I don't know exactly what all it stands for, but I know it's a manual about this thick that we have to comply with for every federal purchase we have now and ms.
freeman works with our departments. As you know, we've struggled with supply chain issues this year like everyone else, but
she has found ways to find us everything we need and I will tell you that thanks to ms.
freeman and our facilities department, in the spring of 2020, we got on those purchases
that we were going to need for ppe to start our school year and there were districts that
were scrambling in august and did not have what they needed, but because of ms. Freeman and our facilities department, our campuses had everything they needed to start
that very difficult year after the pandemic. So I want to thank mr. Freeman as she is amazing.
I've worked with her for many years, and I just want to thank her for the work that she does for birdville. So thank you very much.
[applause]
just to reiterate just a little bit of what ms. Bowman was saying, it's one thing if we're not able to find a little toilet paper at the
grocery store or a stack of paper plates, but it's another when you've got you've got
several hundred students about to walk in and you don't have those supplies. So they've been doing everything they can to pull all that stuff together.
a lot of you probably don't remember the old m*a*s*h show, but I think of radar, [chuckling] radar always used to pull out of hats and "where'd you get?" I don't want to
know where you got it. Just we got it. So thank you, but yeah, a super job.
as a point of privilege, I'm going to move up representative klick presentation.
I know you're very busy and we appreciate you being here. I want to say a few words before you come up the representative.
a lot of people don't know what this is about. Back in 2015, you know you heard anna tonight give a sweet little talk and that's part of
our moment of student expression where a student can come up and maybe because I'm a lawyer, maybe because of my dad and what he did, but to me, being able to get up in front
of a group of people and be able to speak as one of the most important things that can
really propel somebody forward and so to have these kids being able to get up here in
front of all these people and on a microphone and a front of a camera being able to
express themselves and however, they want to do that if it's a prayer, if it's a poem, if it's just a words of encouragement like tonight, then that I think is a part of being a
full rounded person. In 2015, a young man came up and he said a sweet little prayer, as he chose to do at that
time and there was somebody in the audience that night that disagreed with that found the
humanist association and they sued not only the district, but the then sitting seven
school board members, including me individually saying that they should be able to say or
express basically anything except for prayer. They should be prohibited from saying a prayer, even though they should be able to say
anything else and so there was a difference of agreement with this board and the position
they were taking in the lawsuit, and there were some unsettled law on that.
you're probably familiar with the fact that congress starts with a word of prayer.
you're probably familiar that some city councils and other things, but there was a split
in the courts about whether a school board enjoyed that same privileges as some of the
other bodies, deliberative bodies is what they call them.
so was birdville isd and other similarly situated independent school districts in texas,
are they deliberative bodies like a city council like congress like austin?
that was a question that wasn't known. So the question was were we going to just go ahead and agree that students can say
anything they want except for expression of their faith?
or were going to stand for their right to express what they wanted, including if that if
they choose to say a prayer? And we chose the latter.
it was not without some personal difficulties and for everybody that was associated with
that and since that time, four of our former board members have moved on, hopefully not
because of the heartache of that time, but I think that dolores is not here tonight.
ok, so I think we've got three of them. We've got brad green, if you'd stand please.
we've got jack mccarty, if you'd stand please and then I don't know who that guy is besides you. I think hancock is the last name [inaudible] hancock is right here.
they were all on the board at the time that this happened. So we appreciate you guys coming and being, we're going to take some pictures after
representative klick has her proclamation. Also, I don't know, do we have anybody?
I know that rick [inaudible] from the hills was here a little bit earlier with his wife,
jamie. It looks like they had to step out. Any other members of...
yes?
thank you for being here and so I'm so sorry.
thank you, randy. John fletcher, pastor of victory baptist church. Thank you. It's good to see you guys.
thank you. So with that, I didn't even know, but I got a call in from representative
klick's office and said that she wanted to read a proclamation that she had presented down
at austin for that. It seemed like a battle that nobody really knew about.
I mean, we were the only ones that did, and so I really appreciated that call and so if
you would come forward and present your proclamation.
thank you, members of the board for allowing me to be here tonight.
if I remember correctly, not only was the district sued, but I think individual board
members were also sued. I understand a little something about being sued is part of your elected position and
think that it's, you know, hugely important that we commemorate this and I have a
resolution and if I may read it? Yes, please. Ok.
in november of 2017, the united states supreme court left in place an appeals court
ruling allowing the board of the birdville independent school district to continue
opening its meeting with a prayer and whereas for more than two decades, birdville isd
had begun its school board meetings with the pledge of allegiance and a brief student
statement. Youngsters sometimes share a poem or an inspirational quote, but often they
choose to recite a sectarian prayer. The district was sued in 2015 by the american humanist association on behalf of an
alumnus claiming that the prayer violated the establishment clause of the first
amendment. Whereas the aha went on to appeal its case to the 5th circuit.
a number of organizations filed friend of the court briefs asserting that the prayer
constituted school sponsored religion exercises, while texas attorney general ken paxton
led a 15 state coalition that filed its own amicus brief urging the court of appeals
uphold the religious freedom of bisd students and whereas an exception to the
establishment clause permits the legislative and deliberative bodies to conduct prayer in
government buildings. A three judge panel from the 5th circuit court of appeals considered the question of how
school boards should be categorized, and it ultimately ruled that there were legislative
bodies, much like city councils and therefore birdville isd's practice was
constitutional, and the supreme court announced that it would not review the appeals
court decision. Birdville isd was vindicated for its stance, whereas birdville isd has demonstrated a
strong commitment to the freedoms guaranteed by the first amendment to the u.s.
constitution in the judicial system has supported the district in its defense of students
freely expressing their deeply held religious beliefs in public forums.
now, therefore, be it resolved that the fourth anniversary of the u.s.
supreme court's denial of review for the american humanist association vs.
birdville isd be commemorated and that the birdville independent school district be
commended for its steadfast support of religious freedom. Thanks. [applause]
I'm going to have the board and then also the prior board members, if you come down, we're going to take some pictures of representative klick.
we'd like for you to be in the center of those pictures, if you would, and then mark,
after we get through with those pictures, can we do the board pictures that you were referring to earlier?
while they're walking back up here, I want to thank representative klick for recognizing;
that was a very trying time. I've never had my name before the supreme court before and I really don't want to do it
again. It was really discouraging what people were saying and doing and how the attorneys
got involved, but I'm proud to say that the seven members that were there, including
dolores, who's not here tonight, we did what we knew what was right. We did what was fair and what was good for the freedoms of our students and freedom for
our constituents and we overcame and lord willing, we won't have to worry about that
again and I guess is jack the only one left?
yeah, I guess so, anyway. Yep. Thanks, jack and dana, prayers with you for what was it, surgery and recovery and
then covid for your husband all back to back. So, glad he's walking around.
I was I was feeling sorry for you, so, thanks for coming.
all right. I guess now we'll move into the addresses to the board and general topics
first. I've got two general topics for those that signed up to speak regarding general
topics. Please note that public participation is limited to this open forum based on the
number of individuals who signed up, each will be given the full three minutes.
personal attacks on the staff for students will not be allowed for the texas open meetings act government code 551.042 and local board policy bed.
the board shall not deliberate or take action regarding any subject that is not on the
agenda. So first, I'll call judy p.
if you'd come forward, please and then, judy, if you'd state your name and address two
things. Good evening, I'm judy p., I live at 6917
herman jared drive in north richland hills. President tolbert, board members, dr.
stinson and cabinet. My name is judy p. And I am the president of birdville united educators association.
I am a 21 year employee of bisd and a proud fifth grade teacher at smithfield elementary
school. Speaking for uea, I would like to thank the board for their service.
public service can be thankless. It takes strong, innovative individuals such as yourselves to deal with today's complex
and demanding challenges. School board members are ordinary people who demonstrate extraordinary dedication to our
public schools. In fact, school boards are the caretakers of public education.
uea appreciates everything you do, whether it's dealing with the sale and purchase of
real property handling budgets, auditing reports, planning long range for facilities and
technology, adopting and approving curriculum, dealing with personnel issues, adopting
policies by which the district is governed, or analyzing and redefining the overall
vision and goals of the district. We know that our district is in great hands.
the bisd board, with their sustained vision of excellence and quality leadership,
demonstrates a consistent commitment to our entire district, including teachers,
students, staff and community. Again, thank you for all you do for bisd.
thanks, judy. Are you all still loving that building? Yes. [chuckling] may I say thank you for the cookies?
yeah, yeah. Thank you for the cookies. I'll tell you that old building went down super fast.
I know they're good at that stuff, but wow
seventeen years, oh, wow. A lot of memories, thanks. Thanks, judy. All right, mr.
ross. You know the routine, I think. Thank you. Jared ross 6024 morningside drive north richland hills.
I apologize in advance for being a little bit more real. This has been a lot of good natured stuff and I don't mean to be negative, but I'm here
tonight to address some concerns I have. I want to address them publicly about the ongoing attacks at our public school system is
facing from certain politicians and political action groups. I think it's a real present threat to our public school system and our teachers and the
whole institution that we have here that we are all part of and we advocate for.
I think our community needs to be paying attention, and I ask that you all because you have the ears of the representatives like ms.
klick even more so than we do as average citizens to let your voices be heard as well so
that we can help keep our public schools sacred.
recently, our governor spoke at a charter school in lewisville about the parents bill of
rights, which he's proposing to add to the texas constitution, which is going to happen.
probably this legislative session have some significant concerns about it, not because I
don't believe in parent rights, I absolutely believe in parent rights and as you all know, they're already enshrined in the texas education code.
parents already have a right to review curriculum if they want to. They have a right to file grievances.
they have a right to request meetings with teachers and administrators. In my opinion, this is another example of fear mongering for political gain, and it comes
on the heels of the fear mongering that's been going on for several years now about library books and crt and mask mandates and now is the perfect time to write in on the
white horse with parents bill of rights. So I just ask that we not fall for it, that we I trust our public schools, right?
we have mechanisms in place to vet all of those things. Those things are all important. I'm not discounting that we don't need to evaluate books or whatever concerns parents may
have, but in my opinion, this is another solution without a problem.
again, I'm sorry for being a little real, I'm trying not to be fired up here.
in my opinion, this is really done for political purposes. This is done to get people elected and reelected, right?
and it's also done to drive divisions between our community and drive divisions in the
public school system so we don't trust our teachers and then what do we do? Then we're more willing to take our kids to charter schools, which we all know who that
benefits. I don't blame any individual parent for making decisions about charter schools
or whatever decisions they make. I'm just I'm blaming the people that are that are that are kind of moving this movement.
so I just asked that we take the time to appreciate and understand what's going on, that we advocate for our public schools by letting austin know that we're not going to stand
for this and we're not going to have the wool pulled over our eyes. Thank you. Thanks and then for those signed up to speak regarding a topic on tonight's
agenda, please note the public participation is limited to this open forum based on the number of individuals signed up.
each speaker will be given three minutes. First, we will be hearing from ms.
watson, and then ms. Chandler. So, ms. Watson, you'd be first, if you would state your name and address too please.
well, first, I can attest jared's actually a really nice guy, even though he kind of brought the meeting down a little bit.
[chuckling] adrianna watson 8508 newman drive and I first wanted to start by appreciating
you, I love school board appreciation month. I love the balloon theme this year, it's great and we do know that you have hard
decisions that you have to make as a school board and you do volunteer time. So thank you. As a parent in this district.
I am grateful that you chose to run and were elected and now serve, and I know that the
pre reads are hard and decisions you have to make are hard and you invest a lot of time
away from your families and you do that because you love kids and you want to see this district succeed and I know that is the intention of every board member on this board.
I did come and speak to you previously when our covid 19 leave resolution was on the
agenda, and I see it tonight on your consent agenda. I'm here to ask that one of you pull that off for discussion and that you guys share with
the community why you continue to believe that leave should only be available to fully
vaccinated employees. I still don't understand that. I still don't understand why unvaccinated or not fully vaccinated employees should not be
eligible for that same ten days as vaccinated employees and I think that your employees
would really love to hear why that is. I know that I spoke to several teachers prior to this meeting, and it feels to them like
punishment because they've made a personal choice not to be vaccinated, that they then
are not being permitted that extra 10 days and we know we've heard stories that
vaccinated individuals are getting covid just like unvaccinated individuals.
yes, we do hear that their hospitalizations might be more significant, but we do know
that they are also getting covid. So I don't believe that this is a fair practice for our employees who have chosen not to
be vaccinated. I do believe that you have many teachers who feel like this is unfair and it is
punishment and in the resolution, it was stated that the purpose of this offering was for
morale to boost morale and I believe that you have missed an opportunity here to boost
morale in your unvaccinated employees and I implore this board to consider and at least
discuss openly and publicly why you continue to believe that these ten days should only
be provided to fully vaccinated employees because I believe you have a number of those
employees that would disagree with that. In my 30 seconds, I'll turn the tables back and just say, I do know that you have the best
interest of the employees at heart. I do believe you have a reason for that.
I would love for people to be able to hear it. Thank you so much.
do you know why we're not getting video?
we're not seeing the video.
chandler, I'm sorry if you would state your name and address to please. Thank you. Ok, my name is tiffany chandler.
I live at 4208 field street and haltom city, texas.
you guys have a lot more fun here than we do at city council. I'm just going to say that most of you probably know me as councilwoman chandler.
some of you know me as mom. First of all, I'd like to say thank you to each and every one of you for serving on our
school board during a very difficult time. I applaud all of you for navigating that professionally and with respect to students,
teachers and parents. I came here today to talk to you about their current agenda item that is listed for
tonight in regards to opening a program for three yearolds to attend preschool if they qualify for the program.
first, let me say that my four year-old has been evaluated by bisd and was found to have
a speech delay. The process that she went through for the evaluation at bisd was amazing,
but it ended with my daughter not qualifying for preschool.
even though she had a speech delay, I was told that there was three criteria that was
used to determine, and I found out today there's actually more criteria than just this,
but I'll list the three that I was given in order to qualify for pre-k.
she would have to be a dependent of a military parent. She would have to be low income, or she would have to have a family member living in the
house that speaks a different language than her. I was also told that I could not even pay for my daughter to go to preschool at the
school. These are guidelines which I was told were used to decide whether she was able to
qualify for pre-k. I do also realize that some of these issues are at state level and will take a quite a
bit of effort to change hb three. I can see that all of the initiatives behind this are well-intended, but missed the mark
when we're discussing kids who don't get the extra jump start on education.
for my daughter specifically, it would have helped a lot. She already is delayed, and that should have qualified her, probably for pre-k, in my
opinion. [inaudible] won't benefit from me standing here telling you this today because
you know she's fixing to go to kindergarten, but someone else's kid might.
so I came tonight to tell you that while I absolutely approve and I'm very happy that
other parents are going to have the option to pay for pre-k. I think there's always room for improvement and I think that if we can find state funding
for qualified students for three year-olds, we should be able to find money to provide
pre-k to all four year-olds as well. I appreciate everything that you guys do and thank you for letting me speak tonight.
thank you. Thank you, councilman. Appreciate you being here and everybody's spoken out will get a response back from the
district and that segues nicely councilman into our next topic and ms.
[inaudible], if you want to take over for pre-kindergarten updates.
hello, everybody. Happy school board appreciation month, we appreciate you and everybody
has said thank you, so the kids said it the best on that video.
I really appreciated what they did. So tonight I am going to be talking about our youngest kiddos, which are the pre-k.
we would like to expand our pre-k offerings, and this is due in part to what our speaker
just shared about engaging students in their early years and providing a foundation for
success in their future. We want to expand these pre-k program opportunities to also increase district enrollment.
so these are the criteria that students that are qualifying for four year-old pre-k right
now in our district had to qualify under one of these categories. The child is unable to speak and comprehend the english language, and that's done with the
language test. The child is economically disadvantaged. The child is an active military dependent, the child is homeless.
the child is in or has ever been in conservatorship of the department of public services
and there's documentation for cps or the child as a dependent of a first responder who
died in the line of duty. So those are the qualifying characteristics criteria.
so what are we going to recommend? We would like to recommend to add four sections of pre-kindergarten to accommodate our
tuition based pre-k on all campuses. Right now, we have three campuses that do not have pre-k.
green valley, walker creek and also snow height. So green valley and walker creek do have space, but if we move to program from snow
heights, we'd be able to offer there as well. So we're pushing a registration up earlier.
normally, we wait until april 1st to open up registration, but we're pushing it to
february 7th to take advantage of those people still making decisions.
we would also like to offer a tuition based pre-k to those students that don't qualify for
the pre-k under those criteria, so registration for that will begin on march 1st and
those are for the students that did not qualify for pre-k under those other criteria that
were shared earlier. And what we'll do is place those students that we register on starting on february 7th and
then fill those spots up with the kids that qualify and then open up spots on march 1st
for our tuition based. So how are we going to do this?
well, for starters, we'll look at our current employees and they will be given first choice for available space for the tuition based pre-k and then any remaining spaces will
be done through a lottery system, much like we did with the cab. So I didn't know this, but I learned this from katie that the texas education agency
provides each district with a tuition limit base, so if we were to have pre-k this year,
the tuition based, we could have charged up to six thousand eight hundred dollars and
eighty seven six thousand eight hundred eighty seven dollars. I put some cents on there.
the rates haven't been published for this year, but in order to stay competitive, we looked at other districts.
heb charges six thousand five hundred dollars and keller charges sixty one twenty three,
so we would like to propose an annual rate of six thousand or six hundred dollars per
month. Also, we would like to add half day three year-olds back into the system, we had
taken those classrooms out of rotation. I guess if you want to say that because we needed space for our four year-olds to have
the full day pre-k program that was required by house bill three. So we want to accept registration for those three year-olds in order to fill four units or
eight sections an am and a pm section and so there will be a three year-old section in
each of the feeder patterns and then we'll also offer a bilingual pre-kindergarten section again based on space availability.
so in summary, we want to add four year-old sections, we want to open the tuition based
pre-k at a cost of $6000 per year and allow for three year-olds to attend
pre-kindergarten based on available space. So with the little people comes little needs.
we have some furniture needs for our smaller students. We would like to purchase 12 classroom sets of new pre-k, pre-k, classroom furniture for
twenty one thousand dollars per classroom, and we'll bring an action item to the february
board meeting for board consideration.
I would like to point out just for the board's memory with house bill three, the districts
had a three year period to get all four year-olds to full day. So we do have all of our four year-olds at full day now.
we are only funded for half day for the four year-olds and those qualifications are the
only qualifications we're allowed to consider. The three year-olds, one of the reasons we're doing half day is because we're only funded
for half day, so the state has yet to fund full day pre-k, even though it's required in
law. Any questions down on this end?
yeah. Yeah. Go ahead. No question just a comment. I had a very robust discussion with a lot of [inaudible] employees, maybe about two
months ago. This is going to be very well received. It's something I'm wholeheartedly in support of.
I'd just like to thank you for your work on it. I know mr. Drees has worked with you and talked about it too.
so both of you, thanks for that. I know it's going to be very well received by the public if we can make something like
this happen, you have my full support. I think it's awesome that we're even talking about this. So thank you. Thank you.
mr. Drees. Yeah, I did want to say thank you as well. I love that we're undercutting the other districts around us at six thousand.
can I say undercut? Say competitive. [chuckling] we're being competitive; we're offering it for less.
I like that. So yeah, I'm just I love that we're doing this.
I support it fully. I did have kind of a question. Have we considered it all giving any kind of discount?
I know we're giving to our employees first come, first option.
have we considered a discount of any kind to kind of help them out? That is something that we can certainly bring to the discussion.
we have a team working on this and dr. Clark is a part of it. Katie is a part of it.
so we can, certainly with dr. Stinson's guidance, bring that to the discussion.
sure, I'd appreciate that. Thank you. Yes, sir. Good job. Thank you. Yeah, no.
I think it's a great point, and I think it's obviously something to consider. You know, we work through katie's department and we have to ensure that, you know, there
are costs that come along with it and like she said, we're only funded for half day. So I think it's important for us to remain competitive in the market.
you know, obviously we want all of the three year-olds that we can accommodate the
earlier, the better, but also it needs to be cost effective. It's not something that schools make a profit on, so you just want to you have to have
enough money to support the classroom for half day and that's what we'll consider.
maybe that would be something we could consider, then once the state funds us for full
day, wouldn't that be great? Yeah, if that happens.
absolutely part of our advocacy at the legislative level.
mr. Kunkel? Is it wrong to think about this as an investment because these children get into learning
positions so much earlier has got to benefit them, which will then benefit our community
tremendously. I remember when I first got elected to the board, one of the first
conversations I had with the previous superintendent was regarding preschool.
this is just one of the greatest. It was one of the greatest needs back then. It's one of the greatest needs now in our community is affordable child care at all ages,
and this is just three and four year-olds, but this, however, many children we get to
serve, it will be a tremendous help to a lot of families. You're absolutely spot on.
the research is very clear about early literacy, pre-k, education, and there
are certain thresholds that are research based, data driven clear and one is by third
grade and reading levels and literacy and the earlier that we can accommodate students,
the better. You know, our children in our community are our responsibility and, all
students, the goal is reading by the third grade level and students come to us at very
different stages for very different reasons and so it's our responsibility and our call,
hopefully that by third grade everyone is as at a level of competency for reading and
particularly for literacy, because research is very clear that at the third grade level,
that determines competency at the ninth grade level, which determines competency for
graduation rates and so forth and so our students are our responsibility.
we want them as early as we can get them and I think this is a baby step, but an
excellent step forward and we are thrilled that the conversation is on the table and it's
gone beyond the conversation to a call of action now for our three year-olds.
s, thank you for the drive. And that's a good phrase: baby step.
[chuckling] they're not babies at three; they're grown up. [chuckling] they're actually running by three.
just a quick question. If it's more complicated, we could talk, talk separately, but feeder pattern, I mean, if
the kid gets in the lottery, is it just space available or is it where the closest place?
it's space available. That's what I thought. Okay. Anything else?
and without getting too complicated, it has to do with transportation as well and so
that's not feasible. You know, if we were trying to feeder pattern for the three year-old is the driver, in
terms of making this economical and doable. Well, we're not providing
into if you had a student, a three year-old in one part of the district and needed to go
to another. That would be a request that we would not be able to accommodate. Gotcha. Thanks for the clarification.
yes. Ok, good questions. Ok, I think we're good. Good presentation.
ms. Bowman. Bipolar ionization.
you probably didn't know you're going to be talking about bipolar ionization when you graduated. [chuckling] I want you to know that I have a very simplistic katie brain
explanation that it once donnie tells you about bipolar ionization.
I will tell you and you'll say, oh, that's what that is. I will tell you. I've read a lot about bipolar ionization.
so tea came out with a grant a couple of months ago called the covid 19 school health
support grant, all districts were given an allotment. There was around two hundred and dollars million provided.
there were a lot of different things in this grant, but there was one line item that
actually, and I'm going to pull all of my things on here.
so there was one line item on there about purchasing air filter type small equipment.
one of the examples were those little hepa filter machines that you put in classrooms,
which we just can't support as a district from an electrical perspective and they're
noisy and they really don't help you a lot in the campus, but we have been doing
something in the district, and I'll have donnie tell you all about that. In just a second called bipolar ionization.
it's a small piece of equipment that is attached to the hvac system and helps rid our air
of a number of things. So I initially, as I started looking at it, I reached out to tea in late november and
asked them if this equipment would qualify. The initial response, which took about two weeks, was no.
so we kind of dropped it. Well, another one of my staff members had been working with tea on this as well, and they
sent her an email that said maybe, maybe it would qualify under that.
so that was on the 9th and so we got the application in and we've been waiting.
I have about four people and myself that call and email tea every day.
I finally got an email from them today, this afternoon, actually, and they've approved
our grant. However, they were supposed to contact me so we could talk about the bipolar
ionization. They've approved a grant through that line item. So I reached back out this afternoon and they're supposed to be giving me a call tomorrow
so we can talk about this specific piece of equipment. I think we're probably going to be fine, but just in case I have a little contingency
that I'm going to put in your language tonight on the action item. We've already done our federal procurement, so you do have an action item this evening and
we've been using, as you can see--donnie will tell you about this--we've been using
bipolar ionization since 2016. Donnie has a lot of research on it; it's very interesting.
we have, of course, birdville high and haltom high in process. So one of the things that donnie is recommending is we go to the campuses that don't have
it and we add it to the common spaces, the libraries, auditoriums, locker rooms, as you
can see the other areas. The equipment on this grant, it is a very tight timeline.
it has to be ordered installed prior to march 31st.
so that's why it was really critical that we get this done. I will tell you, I'm very thankful to ms.
freeman and her staff who got that bid on the street before christmas, and they did a lot
of evaluation so we could meet the federal requirements. So what I have tonight, when you do see the action item, I'm requesting board approval
contingent upon tea approval and the ability to see the equipment prior to the end of the
grant period. So we've told the vendors when we did the bid that we will only accept
items that can be delivered by the middle of march because donnie's staff then have to
install those by the end of the grant period. So I will let donnie now tell you a little bit about bipolar ionization.
so the bipolar ionization, the way it works, it's a small box that we mount inside the
unit and there's some little brushes in it. It has to do with ions, positive and negative ions and basically, what it's going to do
is it's making the particles in the air become bigger so that it can be filtered out more
effectively. One of the other good things about it is that it inactivates the rna coating
on the virus itself, so it makes it inactive to where if you were to inhale it, it's been
inactivated.
this thing is a small device. Our team can install one in about 10 minutes.
altogether, there's probably about roughly three hundred devices to install in all the
schools and the common spaces like we had talked about and we can remove them and place
them in another unit. They stick on with a magnet next to the fan inside the ac equipment
and like katie had mentioned, we will be installing these with our team.
we've talked to manufacturers and we can get the equipment in and we can get it installed
pretty quickly and we'll be able to meet the deadline. Like katie had mentioned, hepa filtration is probably not the best option for us because
there's filters in that, and then we have too many spaces to effectively get staff out
and change filters and there would just be a lot of continued cost to where when we buy
this device. It's a one time purchase. We install it, it's self-cleaning and then we do preventative maintenance on the
equipment every year. So while we're there, we can also verify that it's working properly.
it's not mentioned in here, but other benefits of this is it actually eliminates odors
and it helps with getting other contaminants out of the space, so it improves indoor air
quality in other ways other than just the virus itself.
let's see. I had mentioned that it does inactivate the protein coating on
the virus, on the rna. The main goal here is it's a process called [inaudible].
there'll be a slide that kind of explains it, but basically the virus is a very small
particle and we're making it bigger and we use good filters already in the district.
so that, coupled with this technology, gives us a merv 13 rating and it makes sure that
we're catching the particulates as they go through the air and here's a slide that kind
of demonstrates that. You take a small particle, the negative positive ions, they cause it to get bigger and
bigger and if it doesn't collect on the filter which it typically does, it will fall out
and it will get cleaned up. Aaron, does that look like they're catching a lot of mickey mouse's in that filter?
I knew you would appreciate that. Ok, all right, but and we have been using this since 2016.
this wasn't just some decision we randomly made. We worked with the district's [inaudible] engineers to look at solutions to make our our
equipment more efficient and make sure we have better indoor air quality and so some
districts started using this at the onset of this whole pandemic but we have been using
it since and it works and it's tested and it's effective effectiveness as far as cleaning
out odors and things like that. In conclusion, again, it inactivates the virus.
it gets rid of the mode of transportation for it, and it makes the indoor learning
environment safer for everyone and reduces the need for continual surface disinfection at
the higher operating cost of other required methods and I think, too, as as we continue
through our bond processes and we continue to replace air conditioning systems, hvac in
our buildings, this technology will be available in all buildings at some point. So we're trying to make the most of this.
if we can get tea approval, we'll be able to do quite a bit with eight hundred and
seventy thousand. Are you ready for questions?
yes, sir. Any questions down here? Yeah, I'll just say I've been in the birdville high football locker room, and if this
thing eliminates smells alone, it's worth its weight in gold. [chuckling] so that'd be awesome.
put six of them in there. Well, we actually did that in haltom high school.
we were having a major issue and we were able to go install this and make some other adjustments and it helped.
I was actually thinking middle school bathrooms, but same idea. So essentially with this technology, the more we implement it that our schools are safer
than children's homes and other places that they are. As my understanding whether they have a mask on or not, they're going to be safer at
school than just about anywhere else. We do have good indoor air quality, correct?
do you think down here? I hate to ask you said you do it [inaudible]. Are these powered units?
yes, sir, they can be installed almost at twenty four volts, up to two hundred and forty
volts, and so we use power that's local into the unit. It's got a wide range that it can.
yeah, no kidding. No, that's great work and I appreciate all your team working on this.
it sounds like we may be a little bit out there if tea. Is this new to tea?
honestly, I don't know. They have so many new people. The guy that called me back today, finally got a call back, he said, I would like to help
you, but I'm an intern so I can't make decisions. So he's going to get his boss to call me tomorrow.
ok, but I appreciate you guys jumping on it. This sounds like a win win for everybody.
it was pretty obvious today on the commissioner's call that a lot of districts have not
applied for this grant because they can't find anything to spend it on. One of the challenges that we have when tea, over the last two years, as they've put
federal money out before in front of districts, they'll usually say, ok, here's the grant
today you can go back six months and get reimbursement. The problem with that is the reimbursements have to be for items that were federally
procured, well federal procurement is very challenging. We actually have a person that just does that in the purchasing office.
that's all they do and so if you didn't know you were going to need to federally procure
it, we can't go back. So this grant could reimburse us for cleaning supplies, ppe, but we
didn't know that we needed to go out and federally procure it and with the supply chain
right now trying to go out and do a federally procured bid for some of these items, we
won't get them in in time and not only do you have to get them in, you have to use them
and so we would have to use up anything we purchased from a ppe and cleaning standpoint
before the end of march or we wouldn't be qualified to have it. We can't just bring it into inventory.
so that's been the challenge all along with these tea grants.
it's great to go back. So I think that's why a lot of districts have not applied for this money because it's so
difficult to spend it. So we try to be creative with this one.
like I said, we may not get it, but we're doing everything we can to see--I actually sent
this powerpoint presentation to the guy at tea today. So I said you show this to your boss and you know, and I told him it's small equipment and
it had to be portable. This is portable because it removes it, you know, with a magnet.
so I'm going to talk my way, hopefully, I can talk myself out of this paper bag with this
guy and get approval. Good for you. Good for you. Thanks, guys. All right, I think that's it on bipolar ionization for the night and then, yeah, conan,
are you going to handle the bid results?
ok, I've got a few small project bid results for you here.
first one is hvac at north oaks. This was actually not one of the planned projects, you know, out of the pool of hvac
money in the bond, we had identified several projects and we're kind of well underway with
that. We've got birdville high school finishing up this summer and then haltom high school, but this one kind of rose to the surface as an urgent project due to some critical
urgent issues with the equipment just in the auditorium and the gym.
the auditorium equipment is just an irreparable condition in terms of refrigerant leaks,
and it's just to the point where we don't want to continue pumping refrigerant--that's
very expensive--into those, so that really needs urgent attention. As well as the gym, there's a bad unit in there.
it's twenty five years old, and so these two things really need to be addressed. So we put out solicitation for some pricing on that with co-op vendors got good turnout,
infinity contractors looked good on that one. We had about a $170000 budget estimate, but as you're going to see with all these ones,
I'm about to present to you, prices are high, as we know, because what's going on in the world, it's not a good time to be bidding things, but we have to.
so they are sitting at two hundred and twenty seven thousand one hundred and fourteen
contract amount and in light of the fact that budget doesn't really have any remaining
funds, we would need that entire amount and we're asking for that from the bond program
contingency, which has a one point eight million dollars balance right now.
so healthy balance there, as well as you'll hear later on this year, plenty of savings in
the bond program in general. So that would be north oaks.
next one is demolition of major cheney. We got that bid and good turnout on that.
garrett demolition is looking like the successful top ranked bidder for that one.
we thought that would be about one hundred seventy five thousand, actually came in higher at two fifty four.
they were the low bid on that one. So we're about, you know, close to eighty thousand over budget on that.
and we would also ask for program contingency allocation for that because that budget
happens to be one of the ones that's very low. Now the others have quite a bit of savings and then so it's just a function of that pot
is very low and we need to replenish it with some contingency to cover this and then
finally, the modular complex at cf thomas, we've got pricing it for that and again, from
some purchasing co-op vendors, good, good interest, good turnout on that, and it went
very well. Gliden industries is looking like the one we need to go with. They're a company we've been working with lately.
they're new to us, but we've been extremely impressed with them and would be very happy
to use them on this project. The budget outlook is a little bit complicated, but basically I've tried to refine it
down to four options for you here. As you know, it was a 10 classroom complex, and that was largely driven by the fact that
we're replacing what was out there in terms of we had 10 classrooms of current portables
and that's the maximum amount we can put there from north richland hills, after talking
with them about certain code matters, we looked at that, of course, it came in well over
budget. You know, at the ten classrooms as bid, we would be three hundred and nineteen
thousand dollars short. We then looked at some options of reducing that ten to eight classrooms.
we talked to dr. Owen b and studied the capacity and the growth potential there and really feel that eight
classrooms is very viable and would give us what we need and then some and so certainly
eight classrooms is a recommendation we're ready to make. So we've kind of shown with the black heading the 10 classroom options, so 10 classrooms
and we also have another consideration there of the hvac because that's a significant
dollar amount in the bid and at watauga elementary, we self-performed that work and it
went very well. So donnie and his crew are fully capable of doing that so we can realize
a pretty good bit of savings there. So if we were to go with the 10 classroom option, we would be three hundred and nineteen
thousand dollars short with the contractor doing the hvac. We did the hvac ourselves that reduces to two hundred and eighty seven thousand over
budget. Now, at the bottom, the eight classroom option, which we could do again with them
doing the hvac, we'd be about eighty four thousand short, but if we do it ourselves,
we're thirty seven thousand dollars short and at that point, we've talked to katie and
feel that the fm budget could absorb that overreach. So that's really what we're recommending tonight is that eight classroom option with us
self performing the hvac. We feel that's obviously the best cost situation, and we would be willing and able to do
that hvac save that money and everyone feels good about eight classrooms, but certainly
the board has either option and that's it if there's any questions.
I'll start this at this time. Any questions? Any questions?
oh, you do. Ok. I'm not understanding option three difference from option four.
if they do the ac, it's eighty four thousand dollars. If we do it, it's a thirty seven thousand dollars upside down.
however, you've got one hundred fifty thousand dollars there that we're going to cost the
project one hundred and fifty. Right it's factored into that total.
so the net of each option is that red number.
I understand. So, if my math's right, that's a forty seven thousand dollar difference,
correct? So it's only costing forty seven thousand dollars for them to do the ac work.
you're saying it costs one hundred and fifty.
well, the and I'm sorry if I'm not following you there, but.
well, option three says hvac by the contractor, right?
mm hmm. And we're eighty four thousand short. Right. Option four says we're going to do the hvac at a cost of one hundred and fifty
thousand dollars. Mm hmm. So the difference is forty seven thousand dollars there, but
what's causing that difference is one hundred and fifty dollars that bisd is going to do
the hvac for and I think that's for the equipment. If you notice the gliden industry, contract amount for the option three is two million
ninety five thousand, but then when they pull the hvac out, it drops to one million eight
ninety seven and then we add in the equipment cost of what we would have to purchase in
order to do the hvac. Is that what you're asking? It's not written that way, but yes.
yeah, it just has a different contract cost. What we should have probably done is said, here's
forty seven thousand dollar difference and the hvac is a hundred and fifty thousand
dollars of that. What could be what that could be is there were some differences in the
credits they gave back. So each option there wasn't a clean, perfect credit per option.
some of the credits varied as you changed classrooms, and I asked them about that.
they said, well, you know, who knows, that's just the pricing we're getting, and we can't really explain that very well, but there wasn't just an exact clean credit amount as the
options changed, so that could be skewing it a little bit, and I apologize if this was
confusing, and I can sure look at it some more and make sure it's the math-it's not
confusing to me. Just says that them doing the ac costs us $47000 more.
right between those two. Yeah, they're not giant credits for us to do the work, there's something, so it's
definitely optional. And we felt like it was manageable.
I will tell you, we struggled with this slide. Whether we just give you our recommendation, but I wanted you to see it in case somebody
might have said, well, we really think we need to get those other two classrooms and
donnie was willing, in fact, I almost didn't want him to do this part of it, but they did
such a great job last time with the modular building at watauga and at north oaks that
they kind of like to do their own so they know how it goes in and they also were able to
put central heating air in where the contractor before could not do that, and it saved
us. A lot of those wall packs are very noisy, and so I think we're really happy with what
we have, so. Is that it, mr.
davis. Sure. No, I'm not rushing you, sir.
I just don't see how they add up. Million ninety five, minus the one million eight ninety seven minus the one hundred and
fifty thousand equals the difference that forty seven thousand.
I want to get done. We need the portables if they can make the eight classrooms work and be efficient and be
functional. I'm all for it. I just think you need to really get your numbers right where you feel comfortable with
them, whether it be credits or whatever it is, because option three seems to be the most
cost effective for me, because you're spending one hundred and fifty thousand over there
that you wouldn't be spending under option three, but it would be in the contract price,
do you see the difference in the two contract prices? Ninety eight thousand.
no, between two million and ninety five and one million eight ninety seven. The difference in those two?
it's almost 200000.
when you compare to the two million ninety five. That's correct. Should be 2047 if my math's right.
something like that. Yeah. So compare the 204 versus the 209 and so do you pay them to do
the air conditioning or do we do it? Cash flow-wise, it's better if we do it.
correct. We're buying our own equipment and not marking it up. That's correct. Yeah and I would hope those didn't
work, but just tweak your numbers, make sure you feel good about it. We'll take a good hard look at it, but yeah, I wish those credits would have been a
little bigger, but they're definitely. Ok. If you remember, we were going to go with the 10 classroom because of the storm
shelter issue. So if we did building for building, we didn't have to worry about that
extra code. That's why we wanted you to at least see what the 10 classroom was because we won't be able to come back and do this at a later date just to see what the board, if
they were good with us going with eight. I see this with also the brick.
yes, sir. Like we did before. It'll look just like the one at watauga, right?
yes. Thank you. Good. Good questions. Yes. Yeah. So we're looking at reducing two classes here.
is that going to cause any problems? Actually, no. We had another building out there that was housing the japes clinic and so they let us
count that as another portable to get us up to 10. Ok, so we only have eight classrooms that we're utilizing right now.
that's right. We only have eight classrooms. So that's why we felt pretty good about reducing this down since the cost was so high
over budget.
ok, I just wanted to ensure that's not going to cause any problem with expanding the pre-k. No, sir. I don't think so. Is lorene in here? We had her kind of look at the class space and the looking at the demographer report and all, and we felt ok about now. You know, we never can know what's going to be in the future. Right, okay, thank you. Have we used infinity before? Yes. Ok. I've got a lot of experience with them in my past life as a contractor, and we've used them a few times. Yeah, they're very well known. Some reason it just didn't ring a bell with me and one of the differences this time I'll
mention and conan can correct me if I'm wrong, but last time we had multiple contractors
that did the work we had one group that came in and did all the site work and somebody
else that came into the building and that did not go well. Yeah and so we wanted we wanted a, you know, turnkey process this time, so we didn't have
to worry about that. We were almost our own general contractor last time, and we don't like to do that.
so yeah, they kind of got in each other's way as well.
seeing no further questions. I think we can move on to information discussion items. Sir, this is the first reading of texas association of school boards (tasb) proposed policy update 118 affecting changes to legal and local policies. It is noted that board policies dfe local, eie local and fl local include revisions recommended by bisd. I believe the board has been provided with local policy overview, explanatory notes, policy, manual update and the policy comparing comparison showing the recommended changes. The administration has reviewed the proposed policies of update 118. Each director has reviewed the proposed update for any changes in their respective areas of responsibility. This update is presented at this board meeting for information discussion in february and possible action in march. Any questions on this one?
baskerville the next one, please. Yes, this is the first reading of proposed revisions to board policy ehbe local special
programs, bilingual education, esl and board policy update 118 ehbe legal has a revised
to change the term limited english proficient to emergent bilingual and adds the
definition of the new term. However, tasb did not update ehbe local and update 118.
our local policy has not been updated since july 1991. Bisd recommends to revise our local policy, to include the new language and to designate
the dual language immersion program as the birdville district bilingual program with
terms and eligibility. This policy we presented at this board meeting for information for discussion in
february, in action in march and [inaudible] is here.
she is the person that saw the change in legal and recognized that we needed to address
our local. So the spotlight is on hand if you have any questions or any concerns, but I
want to applaud her for updating our policy and making sure that although tasb didn't
catch it, that we needed to update our own policy on that. Thank you very much. Good. Send tasb a bill. [chuckling] sure will.
any comments or questions on that one? Mr. Baskerville, you're doing great.
I'd like to say one thing sorry for the interruption, but ms.
cruz, I just want to commend you for your work. You know, as I work through my first year here in six and a half months in, you know,
there are some cream rises to the top. Let me just say it that way and she is absolutely one of our superstars.
so thank you very much, not just for catching the policy update that needed to happen,
but for everything that you do on a daily basis and I got to tell you, I thoroughly enjoyed the spanish spelling bee, so thank you for making sure that I got there and
stressing to me the importance of that particular event to get there.
this is, I think we've been in school ninety six or ninety seven days total and that was
my 114th event to attend. So that's one that I'll make sure I'll never miss and I'll note if you haven't seen it or
haven't been, make sure you get there next year. That is her baby and that is an event that was special to all of us.
so thank you very much for what you do. You absolutely are a superstar in this district.
this is the second reading of proposed addition of board policy ehb local curriculum
designed special programs and ehbaa local special education, identification, evaluation
and eligibility. I have no other recommended changes to either of these policies.
these policies were presented at the december board meeting for information discussion
this month and possible action in february.
any questions? Thanks, mr. Baskerville. Thank you. So our district calendar.
yes, in accordance with texas education code section 25.081, a committee of approximately
fifty five members consisting of parents, pta members, teachers, campus administration
and central administration created the proposed 2022-23 instructional calendar.
feedback from committee members and campuses was taken into account when developing the proposed calendar.
tea requires local education agencies school districts to provide seventy five thousand
six hundred operational minutes for its students. This includes instructional minutes, professional development, minutes for campus staff
and breakfast and lunch for elementary and middle school students. The proposed calendar generates seventy seven thousand four hundred and fifteen minutes
for elementary school students, which is one thousand eight hundred and fifteen minutes,
or four point thirty two days over the minimum requirement.
seventy six thousand five hundred and ninety minutes for middle school students.
nine hundred and ninety minutes, or two point thirty six days over the minimum
requirement and seventy six thousand three hundred eighty minutes for high school
students. Seven hundred and eighty minutes, or one point eighty six days over the minimum
requirement. This proposed calendar includes new suggestions from the calendar to committee, such as a nine week grading period, which will be new for the 2022-23 school
year. This change was discussed in a prior board meeting in november and also an increase
in professional learning community plc time for instruction, design and review.
four day weekend for students in october and february. Staff will have the opportunity to enjoy the same benefit with flex options in october.
it also includes early release days on selected wednesdays for campus workdays, parent
conferences, etc. Wednesdays were chosen instead of mondays or fridays, with the hope of not affecting
students attendance and uil events. The new federal holiday juneteenth national independence day, occurring on june 19th, has
also been designated in this calendar. The proposed calendar was posted on the district's website for public comment and
received mostly positive comments. The proposed 2022-23 district calendars presented here in january's meeting for
information and possible action at the february board meeting.
any comments on this item? Yes? Is graduation may 26, friday?
yes, it is. Do we have the contract for--we've secured the contract for the next three years and--on
fridays? Well, this year it'll be on sunday and then fridays for the next
speakers] I'm kind of for that. Yeah. Yeah, that'll be kind of nice.
I think students and families will be as well. Hopefully so well, the real target we wanted to do is get back to memorial day that
weekend because you have a better in doing research, I know this myself because last year
I had to do this a flying in and out of town and also giving an opportunity for families
to enjoy graduation, as well as incorporate the holiday if they so desire.
so one more sunday and then one more sunday and then we go back to fridays before
memorial day. Mr. Womble, I think, had something.
how does go into the nine week calendar affect uil eligibility.
that's addressed, there was an faq document that we posted.
it does require in the first nine weeks that six week period at the six weeks you have to
evaluate. Mr. Feris and mr. Detrick commented on that as well and we have also consulted with other districts that
have done this. So, if I'm correct, coach feris excuse me, mr.
feris, that nine week period is the only one. It's affected because the others fall on.
I mean, they kind of fall in line. Students can regain eligibility absolutely at that first six weeks check.
so the only time in the school year that there is any differentiation is within that
first six weeks. So you treat the first six weeks as you would any calendar and then
after that, all the dates fall in place. I'd like to point out that a big thanks to coach feris and danny detrick, who pointed out
that we really have to watch how many days we're off in a week because it doesn't count
in the eligibility. That's something that if you have too many days off, like two days off, it could actually
affect the eligibility or gaining eligibility.
so we had to work through that and I cannot thank the participation of this district in
developing this calendar. Our goals were try to create a larger learning, I don't want to say areas, but going to
nine weeks. Instead of trying to get grades in that we give the opportunity for students
to have an increased learning time as well as make up assignments and things of that
nature. This is a, I can't think, dr. Hyman, dr.
jennifer perry and a whole host of folks. Fifty five people to get to a consensus of a calendar is nothing short of just a
collaboration of people and feedback and trying to understand that we're not going to get
everything we want every area, but looking at it, what's best for kids and what's best
for this significant time, I'm extremely proud of the way that everyone worked on this
and dr. Monica uphoff and the testing again, fine arts and athletics.
just to bring this together to address some of the things, to make sure we didn't miss
uil deadlines and things of that nature. So I want to commend them because this is although I'm presenting this, this is a voice
of quite a few people and I'm proud to have worked with them. Yeah. Mr.
womble to be more specific students per uil policy, you must be passing all of your
classes at the end of the first six weeks period to be eligible and then so grade check
would occur at the end of six weeks and then if a student needed to regain eligibility,
they would have three weeks to regain that eligibility and then become eligible at the end of the first nine weeks and from that point forward, the calendar matches the uil
calendar. And next year that would be september. Twenty third would be that check date.
good question, good discussion. Yes? On the staff development days, all of them are on monday except the one on november the
8th. Why is it on a tuesday? We took the feedback that we've been hearing for some time.
that's election day, and some of our campuses are used as polling places.
so we wanted to reduce the foot traffic.
we always want to be careful that our students and voters, you know that we try to keep
everyone safe. So that's one thing we could do. So staff will be there that day, but our students won't and the polling places generally
are large areas like cafeterias, gyms. So it restricts some of our activities.
so we wanted to take the benefit of that. And that's something that I've heard since I've been here since when dr.
kemp was doing that. So all the others are mondays; that's the only one that stuck out.
yes, it makes sense. Campuses are open, staff is there having professional work day.
students just will not be there. So we won't have cross traffic of the public and students at the same time in the same
facility. Thank you. That's a great question, mr. Davis. I had not noticed that.
yeah, great work as always. I didn't realize there was a little bit of pent up demand for this nine week thing, but
I've had quite a bit of feedback saying thank you and I was like, well, you never asked for it. The first time I ever heard of it was when she came intown.
so, yeah, there was a lot of people were excited about that and it's just like
everything. If I don't get complaints, that means that you're doing your job and I'm not
getting any complaints about this and so good work.
thank you. Thank you for taking that all in consideration.
ok, we're ready for the action items.
before we consider personnel items, I want to announce that dr. Stinson accepted fifteen resignations and eight retirements.
do I hear a motion for personal items? Mr. President I move the board approved and adopt all personnel items as presented and
recommended by the superintendent. That's a motion by mr. Dilks. Second?
by sanders-wise. Any discussion? Hearing none, everybody please raise your hand if you're in favor and it is unanimous.
next is consider order of the 2022 board of trustees general election for places six and
seven. Do I have a motion?
mr. President I move the board approved the order for the 2022 board of trustees general
election for places six and seven to be held on saturday, may 7th, 2022.
motion by mr. Davis, do I have a second? Second. And that's mr. Dilks. Any discussion?
hearing none, all in favor, please raise your hand. It's unanimous. Next, consider approval of a negotiated settlement agreement regarding
eeoc claim. Do I have a motion? I move the board approved the negotiated settlement agreement
regarding the eeoc claim. Second. All right. So we got a motion by mr.
kunkel and we've got a second by mr. Drees. Do we have any discussion?
hearing none, if you'd raise your hand if you're in favor and it's unanimous.
next, consider revisions to board policy fc local student attendance areas.
do I have a motion? Mr. President, I move that the board approve the revisions to board policy fc local
student attendance areas as presented. Motion by ms. Sanders-wise do we have a second?
I'll second and mr. Davis will second. Any discussion?
hearing none. Please raise your hand if you're in favor and it is unanimous.
next, consider a resolution regarding wage payments during emergency school closings.
do I have a motion? Mr. President move the board adopt the resolution regarding wage payments during the
emergency school closings as presented, and that's a motion by mr.
dilks. Second. Second by mr. Kunkel and any discussion on that?
seeing none, all in favor, please raise your hand, and it's unanimous.
next, consider contract for auditorium and gym hvac replacements at north oaks middle
school. Do I have a motion? Yeah, mr. President, I move that the board approved the contract with infinity
contractors ltd. For auditorium and gym hvac replacements at north oaks middle school and authorized the
allocation of 2018 bond program contingency is presented to fund this project.
a motion board mr. Drees, do I have a second? Second by sanders-wise.
any discussion? Seeing none. Please raise your hand if you're in favor and it's unanimous.
consider a contract for modular classroom complex at the academy at cf thomas. Do I have a motion. I move the board approve the contract with gliden industries llc,
under option four for new modular classroom complex at the academy cf thomas and
authorize superintendent to finalize the contract details and execute the contract as
presented. A motion board mr. Kunkel. Davis, do you want to second? Yes. So, davis makes the second.
any discussion? Seeing none. Please raise your hand if you're in favor. It's unanimous.
consider a contract for demolition of major cheney elementary school. Do I have a motion? I'm not gonna let brenda make this motion.
[chuckling] I was about to say. I was just thinking about that.
I move the board approve the contract with garrett demolition inc for the demolition of major cheney elementary school in south birdville and authorized the allocation of twenty
eighteen bond program contingency for the budget overage as presented.
thank you, mr. Davis. Do I have a second? Second by sanders-wise. [chuckling] she still got in there.
she likes the new one. She likes the new one. Who doesn't like the new one. Any discussion on that?
she got bulldozed.
[chuckling]
ok, so no discussion. Raise your hand if you're in favor and it is unanimous. Consider purchase of the needlepoint bipolar ionization equipment. Yeah, mr. President, I move that the board approved the purchase of needlepoint bipolar ionization equipment from facility response group frg holdings llc, contingent upon grant approval by the texas education agency and delivery within the allowable grant period as presented. Well done, mr. Drees. Anybody else want a second the needlepoint? I'll second. Mr. Davis and any discussion on that? Nope, all in favor. Please raise your hand it is unanimous. Consider trademark agreement with the kansas city royals baseball club llc. Do I have a motion? Mr. President, I moved that the board approve the agreement with the kansas city royals baseball club llc as present. All right, we got a motion by mr. Womble. Do I have a second? Second. Second by mr. Dilks and do we have any discussion on that?
if somebody wants to know the fabulous world of intellectual property, you need to go,
look at that and everything. The kansas city royals claims that they have a intellectual property right and it's
fascinating, fascinating, the minutia that out there, but anyway, it's been approved.
thank you for the hard work. Ms. Bowman, I know there was a lot, a lot of work to try to get that done, and richland
high school appreciates it. The hard work.
yeah, the hard work has been approved, so all in favor, please raise your hand it's
unanimous and all right.
I will remove item 2a from the consent agenda. It will be voted on separately. Do I have a motion on the rest of the consent agenda?
did I skip one? Donation. Oh, ok, I'm sorry, I can do that later.
let's go ahead. I move the board approve all items in the consent agenda, except the one
that you've mentioned that would be removed. And that would be by mr. Kunkel. Do I have a second?
yeah, I'll second and then that's by mr. Drees and any discussion.
hearing none all in favor, please raise your hand it's unanimous.
next, do I have a motion on item 2a as listed in the consent agenda?
make a motion for approval and that's mr. Davis. Do I have a second? Second and that's mr.
dilks, I think snuck in there at the last minute. Any discussion? Hearing none.
I'll call for the vote. Please raise your hand. It's 6-4 and then all against?
so 6-1, six and five one against.
then we do have thank you mr. Drees, I appreciate you calling this to my attention. The association for learning environments donated $3000 to smithfield middle on behalf of
the board. We want to express our sincere appreciation for this donation.
the superintendent reports the boards are reports that have been provided as information
to the board and have been made available to the board for review in board book. Does the board have any questions or comments concerning those reports?
just one quick comment from me on report number one open enrollment update.
positive news: we are up. Increased enrollment with open enrollment by one hundred and thirty five students over
last year. Just as an fyi. Katie, don't get too excited.
I know that translates into money in your mind. [chuckling] that's good. Good work all around to the team.
the next regular meeting will be thursday, feb. 24th, 2022 here in the boardroom.
closed session will begin at 5:30 and open session will begin at 7 p.m. As we have no further business, do I hear a motion to adjourn the meeting?
I'll second. So that was sanders-wise and that was drees and all in favor.
yes, it's unanimous and it is 8:38.