Good evening and welcome to the business meeting of the hays cisd board of trustees.
we appreciate all of you for being here and welcome everyone also listening online.
today is monday, march 30th, 2026 and the time is 5:30 p.m..
a quorum has been established and all members of the board are present at this time. Mr. Trustee will lead us off with the pledge of allegiance.
thank you. Trustee flores, will you please read our mission statement? Hays cisd makes it 100% possible. Yes it does.
trustee orosco. Will you please read our social contract? The board will trust positive And noble intent.
engage with respect, professionalism and purpose. Act with accountability and a growth mindset.
model unity as district ambassadors. Thank you.
at this time, we're going to move to our public portion public forum portion of the Meeting. I have 1010 speakers tonight.
with that we're going to do everyone's going to get three minutes.
when I call your name, you're going to come to the podium. We'll help you. There's a Little button on the on the mic,
little people. Looks like a little head. You push that on. This top part here turns green.
that means your mic is on and ready to go. And then when you're ready, You'll have three minutes.
and I'm also going to read some of this to you as well. During the public forum portion of The meeting,
we invite and welcome members of the public to share their thoughts, Concerns or comments with the board. This is an important opportunity for the board to
listen and understand perspectives of the community. However, Please note that the board members are unable to respond directly to comments made during
public forum. Any member of the public who wishes to address the board in public forum Must have completed a green sheet located at the front at the entrance of the meeting
room, prior to the board reconvening in open session, Which is. We're doing that beginning to change my script there. Public participation in board Meetings is limited to the public forum portion of the meeting, as provided in local board
and board policy b e d local. Please be aware that the audio and video of public forum is Recorded as part of the recording of the entire meeting,
and is published on the district's website, without alteration. Alteration. A person who chooses to speak in public forum is consenting to the online Publication of their comments.
okay, again, we have ten speakers. Everyone's going to get three minutes. The first Speaker tonight is going to be catherine haebe.
come on up. Thank you, mr.
dale. All right, there we go. All right. Good evening, Doctor wright and members of the board.
my name is catherine hebb, and I know you've probably seen me up here before, But just in case,
I am a parent and hays cisd a ptsa leader and an active volunteer on our campuses.
while I have some professional knowledge in school finance, I am here tonight strictly as a parent and an advocate for our students and teachers to
address agenda item k nine relating to the preliminary budgeting decisions for the 2026 2027 fiscal year.
I've spent a lot of time on our campuses long enough to watch educators in action, Hear their concerns,
and see that many of our students needs are already not being met. My children attend two of our largest middle school and elementary school title one Campuses.
I've seen students from all walks of life in our hallways. So when I look at these proposed cuts, I have some serious concerns.
I question how much campus level input was included and how the impact on larger and title One campuses was weighed,
because these decisions will not be felt equally. Cutting lifelines like communities and schools support in half impact students who are Already most at risk.
reducing fine arts and athletic opportunities while introducing participation fees creates Barriers to belonging and access.
these are programs that keep students engaged and connected. And while some programs already have fees, we know that that is already a barrier that Many students are facing.
increasing class sizes is also concerning. Research shows that larger classes harm student Achievement,
especially for at risk students. As a parent of a child receiving special education Services and another on a 504 plan,
I worry about how these challenges will affect teachers ability to provide individualized Instruction or small group support.
larger class sizes, strain legally mandated accommodations, And make behavior challenges and limited social supports even harder to manage.
and then there are the people that are impacted by these decisions. Our librarian is not an extra. She is a cornerstone of our campus, Supporting literacy, student leadership,
and connection. For students like my son, from a finance perspective, I understand the need to make difficult decisions.
but not all cuts are equal in their impact. Budgets are moral documents.
they reflect what we value. Hays cisd says it's 100% hays, But when the first proposed cuts affects programs and supports that serve our most
vulnerable students, I have to ask you, are you truly making it 100% possible for all Students in our district?
some of these cuts may result in greater losses over time through disengagement, Decreased attendance,
or families seeking opportunities elsewhere. I encourage each of you to spend time on our Campuses beyond celebrations and photo opportunities,
to see the day to day realities that our students and our staff experiences.
then I urge you to reconsider how these decisions align with the values that we say that We hold and who they will impact the most.
thank you. All right. Next we have up able. He.
got it. There you go. Good evening, doctor wright and members of the board. My name is abel. I'm a student at mccormick middle school. I'm proud to be a tiger and Also a member of njhs.
here to speak about agenda item k nine and how cuts in fine arts and athletics will affect Students like me.
last year I played on b team football and c team basketball. Being on those teams gave me a place to belong, Make friends and give me a reason to show up every day.
my coaches remind us that we are student athletes and student comes first. My coaches are also teachers. One of my favorite classes in middle school has been Engineering with coach, who's inspired me to take engineering cte course in high school
because of them. I ricardor in class every day and try my best on and off the field.
I've been putting in the work to get better and move up next year, But with these changes, I wonder what if I don't make the team at all? What if my friends
don't? Many of us can't afford to play outside of school because of costs, And if we do, will we be able to afford to play?
because some of my friends already struggle to afford shoes and cleats.
I'm also in band or school, just earned sweepstakes at uil. I want to continue in high school, even though doing band and sports won't be easy.
but now I wonder if my family will make me choose because of the costs. Showing up to school matters not just for us, But for funding too.
I wonder how many students stopped showing up when they don't have something to look for. These programs are not just extras,
they are reasons we come to school. The reasons we show up to work hard. The reason we feel like we belong. Cutting them doesn't just save money.
it takes away our chances to be a part of something we belong to grow and to have the same Opportunities as everyone else.
I hope you will consider what these cuts really mean for us when you make your decision.
thank you. All right. Next we have up bella beard.
I turn that little hit the button, the little people button to turn the light green on Your mic.
perfect. Hi, my name is bella beard. I'm a junior at hays high school, A captain on our speech and debate team.
and I also compete in uil academics. I thank you for this opportunity to speak, But I share almost everyone's frustration here with the lack of programmatic funding.
while academics is the only activity not covered by district funding, And our speech and debate program is funded only through the generosity of our campus
principal, tina salazar. I naively believed that this was because the district needed to Fund the students at the bottom who were struggling just to pass their classes.
therefore, they didn't have the funds to fund the kids at the top, Such as speech and debate.
but what thursday's email has opened my eyes to is the fact that our district does value Funding the top more than anything else,
just not the students at the top. After further research, I learned that doctor wright makes an approximate $364,000 a year.
that is more than 98% of district superintendents in the state of texas.
his cabinet makes an average of $190,000 a year, But the median median income for our district is 91,000,
and the average income for teachers is 64,000. Our district should be valuing its teachers the most, But we're not. To illustrate the importance of our teachers,
I would like to ask the district administrators to consider these questions and how their Answers might differ from those of our district's teachers. How often do you take hundreds
of pieces of paperwork home to work on after your 12 hour day? How often do you make the decision to not eat dinner with your families because you have To stay at work. How often?
how often do you. Are you forced to work through your 35 minute lunch?
how many times does a student in crisis come to you because you are the only trusted adult In their corner?
I can confidently venture to say that the answers are district administrators would Provide are likely not the same as our teachers. Our teachers are the most valuable asset
the district has. Yet we continue to decrease funding and increase workload. Now, To curb this issue, I have a few proposals I would like this board to consider. Number
one, each administrative member of the central office should work as a substitute teacher Two days a month.
this would not only save the district around $112,000 or two entire teachers, But it would give some perspective as to what the teachers of this district experience on
a daily basis, and what teaching in a post-covid classroom is really like. And then maybe Everyone would understand how vital their jobs are.
and hey, maybe we can even go crazy and make that three days a month for $164,000 of Savings.
second, the superintendent and his cabinet should no longer be given stipends for advanced Degrees, because if it's too much to pay teachers, then it's too much to pay them. I
encourage the board to not let this extremely unfair and top heavy budget pass. To quote doctor eric wright himself, it is imperative that students learn from highly Qualified role models and that their talents are recognized and used as a foundational
cornerstone. It's obvious to me, and I hope now it's obvious to you that we cannot let This budget pass and expect very good and high quality teachers to teach our students.
so we need to make the right decision and rethink the structure of the hays cisd budget.
next up will be jesse hargrave. And then when y'all leave, Y'all can leave the just leave the mic on.
when you walk, we just leave it on for the next person to come up. Thank you. Yep.
got it. Good afternoon, board members. Doctor wright.
I'm here to speak with you. Like much other people about agenda item k nine budget Proposal.
people across this district will lose their positions due to this new budget.
it is unfortunate and disruptive to many families. Further taxing tia employees. People that are bringing money into this district due to the 9010 split will be more damaging to their
families than it will be beneficial. These teachers are extremely qualified and have Worked extremely hard to both make money for their families and for the district which
they will reside. Stipends. By passing this budget, You will effectively take money away from your best,
highest earning qualified teachers. This will affect over one half of hays cisd teachers And these
teachers. Many of them may choose to go work elsewhere. And I frankly do not blame them. A stipend for an advanced degree is being taken away, A stipend that many of these teachers paid or signed up with.
with a two year contract. Under that two year contract, They were told that they would be receiving the stipend for two years.
this has been taken away due to this budget cuts. Sped stipends are another major issue, and the fact that sped is one of the most difficult Jobs to get filled.
that's why this stipend exists. If we take away these stipends, It will take away good qualified teachers and it will take away good,
qualified, sped and inclusion teachers as well. This district has bonded the community to death.
they have consistently passed bond after bond. It is no surprise that they finally had enough with the tree last election.
they said no more. They paid for this beautiful building that we're in. They paid for many other great pavilions that can be used during part time.
the community has had enough of this, and they want you to find a better way to balance The budget.
and that, in my opinion, does not include taking money away from what you all, As a board,
have considered your most important employees. Now, I'm not just a man with problems. I have solutions as well.
in your own outline, you mentioned selling property that you own. How much of that property is on the market right now? My guess would be zero properties.
that's an issue. If teachers are the foundation of this district, As I've heard many times from here.
you will support your teachers. You will back your teachers up.
we're the only group that is being asked to take less money next year than we are paid This year.
not doctor wright, who is a top ten earner of superintendents in the state of texas.
not his cabinet and not the people that work in this building. The teachers are being asked to take a cut and it's not fair.
please reject this proposal.
next up, ruth gleason. I pronounce that right.
okay, great. You'll have to turn your mic on when you get there, Too.
miss gleason. Yeah. There we go. Okay. Hello.
board and doctor wright. I'm rui gleason. I am the atp president for hays cisd this year.
this is my first year in that role, and I'm proud to speak on behalf of our members Tonight to all.
I'm here to speak about budget item k nine and are my members so far that I've heard from Since we've had the press release last week.
they're quite distraught, as you can imagine. There's a lot of teachers thinking of retiring, Going elsewhere, seeking other employment as a result of what's been put out.
I think they're most concerned about the stipend, Suspension and how that's going to affect their pay and they can foresee some problems
with their families for meeting, making ends meet. We're also really concerned about our class sizes.
I personally teach fifth grade at tobias. And just imagine 27, 11 year olds in one classroom,
because that's what my reality is going to be. And a lot of us fifth grade teachers, we've got large bodied kids in elementary sized Classrooms.
so we're really concerned about that. I know just on my personal team, And I know I'm not alone in that and my team is not either.
so we're just thinking about. Also, if we don't have enough subs and if we have to split Classes and things like that,
and how that's going to look, because we do that sometimes when we don't, When we have an emergency out,
teacher out. So I just we're just thinking of all the ripple effects. And I think we're just all really concerned because we know that we want to give the best Possible education to our students day in and day out.
and we feel like we're going to there's going to be no way that we can maintain that high Standard with so many students in our classrooms,
and also being just asked to do more with less. It's just a pattern that we keep seeing, especially since the covid pandemic.
and we're just, you know, it's a lot. So you can imagine one thing that's come up, We just in discussing is just
wondering about the stipends, if we could possibly look at making it more.
could it be like less per person? I don't know if that's legal. That was something that someone brought up. But just like even it out across teachers, Instead of everybody that has a stipend,
especially for an advanced degree, they work so hard for losing out on that. The other thing is, I'm just encouraging you all to look at your budget process, Make sure that we're thinking about maybe doing some baseline budgeting whenever we see
that coming up for next school year. And hopefully once we get to the point where we might Need to do a tax rate election again,
we can maybe make it lower instead of shooting for the stars and going for $0.12, Because that was probably what hurt us the most on that from what I'm hearing from
voters and community members. So but I do appreciate my time that I've spent this school Year with maribel and kristina
and doctor wright and I just know, I know that they they have really taken every Consideration they could to heart.
and I just hearing what they've talked about. I know that they've tried really hard to make this just like doctor wright has said, The scalpel approach.
and I know everyone's just in shock over it. So I'm hoping that there can be some Revisions in the plan.
a couple more seconds come up with something. So I just encourage teachers and staff Members to remember that things can change and probably will and hope we can find a
solution that makes everyone happy. So thank you for listening.
thank you. Next up we have alicia hill.
good evening, trustees and doctor wright. My name is alicia hill and I'm here to speak on The proposed budget budget cuts.
I want to start by acknowledging that administrative reductions are included in the plan.
however, they're not deep enough because the largest impact falls on the classroom.
we are seeing increased class sizes, additional pressure being placed on already Overworked teachers.
that raises serious concerns about priorities. When difficult financial decisions have to be made, The starting point should be protecting what matters most students and the people directly
responsible for educating them. Instead, we are seeing a plan where classrooms absorb the Greatest impact.
I want to bring in the data that reflects a broader trend in what we're seeing right now In hays cisd.
according to the federal education data from the u.s. Department of education national center for education statistics, Student enrollment has grown by roughly 400%,
teacher staffing about 500%. But non-teaching staff, Like the district offices, is over 1,600%.
that is not a small difference. That is a structural shift. And it raises an important question are we prioritizing classrooms or expanding systems Around them.
because when the largest cuts fall on classrooms through increased class sizes, Added adds strain onto teachers.
it suggests misalignment with how resources are being allocated at the same time.
families in the community are already doing more than their fair share, With ever increasing property taxes,
parents supplying the classrooms with basic materials to support their children's Education.
so when we are told more sacrifice is needed, The expectation is that those decisions reflect responsible priorities and those
priorities are set at the district level. If cuts must be made, The scale should be flipped.
administrative structure spending and compensation should absorb the greater share.
before classrooms are ever impacted, because increasing already crowded classrooms and Asking more of already worked teachers is not a long term
solution. And it's not sustainable. And to many in the community, It feels punitive.
if we truly value education, then our budget should reflect that.
that means protecting classrooms first. That means supporting teachers and not adding to Their burden.
and that means ensuring transparency and accountability on how funds are allocated.
cuts should be made from the top down, not the bottom up. Our students deserve that. Our teachers deserve that.
our community expects it. Thank you. Our next speaker,
miss carla perez. Good
evening. Doctor wright members of the board. I'm here to talk to you a little bit about Budget,
but I think you've heard pretty much how the community feels about the budget proposal This evening.
and so I'm going to actually talk a little bit about actually what you guys do.
some of you are actually going off this board. It is your last year in service. And so we are looking for new school board members as an Organization here in hays cisd.
I represent the hays educators association, sda, And we are very, very much about getting involved and also making
sure that we vote. I think that the predicament that we are in and facing in public Schools is because we have a government that is not friendly
towards public schools. And the truth of the matter is that we need to, As a community and as a state,
get back to basics and support public editor for the last 20 years, We have been under attack.
we have not been funded and we've been underfunded. And we, we are not doing our due diligence when it comes to providing for the future of Texas.
and I'm not talking about just public school. I'm public school teachers. I'm talking about our state legislatures.
and you are very important community members who have answered the call have come up and Stepped up to be school board trustees.
and on april 7th, from 6 to 730 at buda public library.
this next tuesday, wednesday. Is this next wednesday?
yes. And yes, tuesday. Sorry. We will be having and hosting a candidate forum for all of The candidates who have chosen
to answer the call and be part of the community and want to look for solutions to this Major issue that
impacts everyone in this community, because everyone probably has a student, A son or daughter a mom,
a brother, someone in the community that works for hays cisd who is going to be directly Impacted by this,
these budget cuts. And we know that they have been coming because we didn't pass the tree.
and so this is the plan. This is a proposal. And maybe we need to look at it a little bit Further,
but I want to make sure that people have a chance to voice their opinion.
and I applaud everyone who has come up here and talked to you tonight.
and we look forward to continuing to have the dialog with you.
for future conversations about budget. So thank you so much for everything that you do and We look forward to talking with you.
all right. Next up fabiola sanchez.
hello. Good evening. My name is fabiola sanchez. I serve as the ptsa president of the mccormick middle school.
I've also been named volunteer of the year for our campuses here. I am here tonight because what's being proposed is not only disappointing, It's truly unacceptable.
let's be clear about the facts. Hays cisd has consistently grown exponentially each and Every single year.
at the same time, funding pressures from expiring federal dollars, Shifts in revenue and other factors were not sudden,
nor were they unpredictable. These were known realities. Yet the plan before us is asking students and campuses to absorb the consequences of that Lack of planning.
you're proposing to eliminate 125 positions. I keep hearing that a lot of those, I believe 90 is going to be done through attrition.
however, whether that's accurate or not, it doesn't matter to our students what they are Going to experience.
are fewer adults on campus, fewer supports and fewer opportunities in schools are already Overcrowded,
like mccormick, which is exceeding 1200 students, Hitting 13 now.
we, as I mentioned, are busting at the seams. We are beyond capacity, and there's really no margin to do any cuts, Though we understand some may be needed.
one of the cuts that you are proposing is to eliminate our librarian, A role that is anything but optional.
this is a person who runs our njhs. Our makerspace leads battle of the books, Manages chromebook inventory repairs,
and coordinates the end of year collection across the entire campus, Which is a task that already requires five volunteers per day for a full week in order to
accomplish that task. Sorry. One second. Now she also leads a
lunch bunch where students develop a love for reading. They also find community and grow in confidence, So much so that a few students have already begun writing their own books,
bringing the drafts to their peers to further improve as storytellers. When students has already had their book published this year over the christmas break, Our library is more than just books on shelves in.
our librarian is at the heart of it. This is also someone that you yourselves recently Recognized as the district's librarian of the year.
just a year ago. That recognition now rings hollow.
you're also cutting the communities and schools for this program in half across the District,
removing critical direct support for students who rely on it the most.
while it's not intentional to damage and slap in the face to our schools doesn't hurt any Less.
then there's the cuts to fine arts and athletics, Including c and b teams. These are not just extras. These are the very programs that keep students engaged, Connected,
and showing up. If you remove these opportunities, You will see it in attendance behavior and in academic performance.
families are already talking about leaving the district, Not hypothetically, but actively.
they are looking for places where their children will still have access to these Opportunities without being priced out through new fees.
there's also a direct financial impact that you're ignoring. A mccormick ptsa funding is heavily supported by athletic concessions.
that money goes straight back into classrooms, Whether it's through supplies, ui materials,
student incentives, and staff support. And when you cut participation, You cut those resources about 15 more seconds.
while it's convenient and largely accurate to point at the state, That's not the full story.
these budget pressures did not appear overnight. Planning for them should have not started after the fact from a community perspective.
the message is clear the district asked voters to support bonds for new facilities and Quickly turned around to ask a tax increase to cover operational needs.
you can explain the technicalities all day long, But what families see as a district that's planned for expansion and lightly banked on a
successful tree vote, while failing to protect the core of the classroom. This plan is shifting burden onto students, staff, And families instead of addressing the decisions that led us here.
mccormick cannot absorb these cuts. Our students should not have to.
the community deserves better than reactive decisions, Reduced opportunities and explanations that come too late.
we expect, need, and hope that you do better. Thank you. Thank you. Next we have
anisha ortiz. Wong. I say that right? Anisa. Alright.
thank you. Come on up. Hello. Good
evening. Yes, my name is anisa ortiz wong, and I am a kindergarten teacher in this District,
and I proudly served our students in hays for the past six years.
I'm just here to express some concern about the increasing class sizes and how they're Impacting both student safety and their achievement,
especially at the primary level where students are, You know, they require more closer supervision and individualized support.
in my classroom, I do have students with specialized plans that require specific Accommodations.
and as these class sizes grow, it actually becomes increasingly more difficult for me as Their teacher to meet those needs fully.
additionally larger class sizes make it more challenging to ensure consistent supervision,
meeting each learner's needs and building relationships that are so necessary to help our Students trust us or trust
them. Trust us to teach them and protect them.
even small group instruction is unfortunately no longer so small.
in addition, many teachers, including myself, Use personal or stipend funds to create engaging learning experiences for our students.
these funds often go directly back into our classrooms to support creativity, Exploration,
and meaningful learning experiences with reductions to these resources.
those experiences become harder to provide with with we.
we do what we can as teachers and we make do with that.
but we shouldn't have to just make do. Given the current trajectory of staff reductions, Increased class sizes
and those reduced resources. I would just like to ask, What is the long term plan for maintaining student achievement
and teacher retention among these cuts? Because our personal admin on our campus already Does so much,
and they need the support as well to help support us.
thank you. And our last speaker will be mia arredondo.
hello, doctor wright and board members. My name is mira andando. And as a cheerleader and athlete it is very disappointing to see this happening.
teachers have been here for 5 to 10 plus years to build bonds and communities with Students,
but that doesn't matter. The new track that was put into their school, That takes money that we could be using for paychecks for these teachers.
don't prioritize the money. Prioritize the students. Imagine how challenging it is with a bigger class of 30 or more and only one teacher for Students that are already struggling.
I don't think you should be seeing much improvement in their grades. It is very hard to Say goodbye to teachers and as a student returning to the
school, how am I supposed to feel that way without returning teachers?
that's all. Thank you.
all right. Thank you all. All right, this portion of our meeting, We're moving to item f, which is our closed session item at this time.
the board will adjourn to a closed session in accordance with texas open meetings act, Texas government code,
section 551.074 and section 551.076 subchapters d and e or texas government code section 418.
183f. The time is 6:04 p.m.. Hey, team. Good evening.
we're back in open session. The time is 6:51 p.m..
a quorum has already been established and all members of the board are present.
doctor wright, turn over to you for our superintendent report. Thank you. President. Good evening, everyone. Welcome to our meeting.
we're going to start with superintendent report. And so miss gloria, if you could pull up the slides, Please, while she's doing that.
just want to give everybody an update. Our enrollment as of today was 24,995 students.
we've had many of our secondary students already graduate from live oak or from some of Our other schools.
and so we've decreased under the 25,000 threshold just a little bit.
but most of that's all been at the high school level and can be attributed to graduation.
our attendance rate is tracking right at about 93.6%.
and so we're moving forward with that. All right, So let's celebrate our kids.
so last week we had the hays cisd battle of the books.
our elementary kids from across the district met over at the performing arts center, And they had different,
different questions and they went over different passages and, And so it's kind of like, like super quiz in a way.
and negley elementary school was our championship team for this year.
so congratulations. Negley. Next we have the best communications
department and I don't know where mr. Savoy is. I'm going to brag on him even though he's not in here right now. We earned 13 texas school Public relations
association star awards and we won best in state for tim savoy one in writing and then tim Savoy
harvest goodrich and linda rosebrook rosebrook one in the posters, And then tim savoy harvest goodrich and linda rosebrook one in logo,
trademark and symbol for best in state. And so it's a tremendously high honor and so, So very proud of them.
and then you can see the gold awards and silver awards.
we have some of the best photographers and photojournalists in the in the state as well as In the nation.
and I love when we post things on our social media accounts because moses, Leo's can, can capture in the moment some of the best shots and,
and so, so very proud of our communications department. Tim. I didn't know if you were going to make it back in here or not, But congratulations to you and your team for all of your tips for star awards for
2026. If I knew you were going to do that, I would have stayed out.
I know if you'd have waited like three more minutes, We'd have been there. All right. Next.
wanted to brag on our skills usa team from johnson high school.
they advanced to state in architecture and interior design, And they came back with a blue ribbon in every single category.
and so we've had a very strong program over there for years. And so congratulations to the teachers and the kids in that program.
also at skills usa, the cosmetology team from lehman high school advanced to state and They were very competitive.
and as you can see, they look very sharp in their blazers. And they did a wonderful job at the contest. So congratulations lehman.
so is johnson. All right, so congratulations to johnson then.
I thought the caption I had said lehman. So sorry about that.
all right. Next we had I know this one is from johnson.
congratulations to the v a s state qualifiers.
it's the visual art scholastic event. And these seven pieces that you see on the screen Were
part of the 78 out of 1093 pieces that were selected to advance to state.
so it's, it's a very competitive process. And and so the art program there at johnson had Seven of the
78. So congratulations to, to the art team. Next we had we hosted our spanish spelling bee Over
at the old buda campus, and the champion this year was stephanie gonzalez from chapa Middle school.
so congratulations, stephanie. Next we had u-I-l middle school concert and sight reading.
every single middle school band that competed received hardware.
and I think five of the six received superior.
so congratulations to each of our middle school bands. Great job. Ewil one act play. We had hays high school.
their show this year was murder by poe lehman high school was defying gravity and johnson High school's was booby trapped.
the hays squad at zone this past week advanced.
so they'll be going to the next level. Lehman did not advance, But they had several that were recognized in the cast for doing outstanding work.
and then I haven't gotten a report on how johnson did because their performance was a Little bit delayed.
so I'll keep you posted on that one, but congratulations and best of luck with hays moving Forward.
next, we also had students from hays high school that competed at the distributive Education clubs of america state competition
and and performed very, very well and represented hays high school and hays cisd in an Outstanding way.
so congratulations to them. And then next, we did have a state champion at
bpa for digital media production. Olivier was a state champion and he's from johnson high School.
so congratulations, olivier. Our high steppers from hays high school won the national Championship at the crowd
pleasers dance competition. And so they're doing outstanding, Outstanding work over there as well.
and I know we had some of the other dance teams compete, But I haven't gotten an update from them as well.
so congratulations. Hays high. Okay. We had boys and girls
participate at the state powerlifting contest and I just wanted to highlight the one with The star.
eve jakubauskas is the state champion in her weight class from johnson high school.
so congratulations. I got the boys powerlifting results from
lehman high school. Isaac martinez finished third in state.
you hear alexander, fourth in state. James albritton, Fifth in state.
and then from johnson high school. This is on the boys side. Once again, christian landeros, second in state and styles ogden second.
and johnson's team finished fifth overall in state power lifting.
soccer playoffs. The johnson boys soccer team won the first round of the playoffs, Which was bi district.
and then unfortunately they lost by a penalty kick in the area round. So they didn't move forward. But they had an outstanding year.
so congratulations boys soccer. The girls soccer team at johnson made it all the way to The
sweet 16 to the regional playoffs. They won the first two rounds and then unfortunately They lost to lake travis this past friday.
and so they didn't advance, but they had an outstanding year. So congratulations to them.
and then last but not least, we we lost mr. Kimbrough, For whom the kimbrough building over at kyle elementary is named.
if you've ever been in the old gym over there. It was named in mr. Kimbrough's honor. He passed away last week.
for those of you that may not know him, he was a former teacher and a coach and then an Elementary principal over at kyle for many,
many years. And he's a well respected individual in hays cisd.
and while we're talking about tragic losses, I want to recognize dahlstrom middle school.
they have undergone two tragedies in the last couple of weeks.
and so our thoughts and prayers go out to them. As we move forward, it's, it's, it's unbelievably tragic and hard to lose a child.
and so for those parents and family members that are hurting, We want to we want to hold them in our thoughts and prayers.
and then also one of our neighboring districts, Isd today lost a child and a teacher was wounded in a,
in a school shooting at the, at the hill country college prep academy there.
and so we also want to lift them up as they go through the time in this time of need.
and, and I reached out to the superintendent and told him that if we could help out in any Way,
we would be more than willing to do so. For counseling, Support or emotional support animals or whatever we can do to help out.
so please, please hold all of those individuals in your in your thoughts and prayers.
and that concludes my superintendent's report. Thank you. Doctor wright team. Look to my left.
any questions for doctor wright comments, am I right? Any questions? Comments? All right. Thank you doctor. Right. You know, Having these meetings a month kind of,
you know, there's lots going on in our district. So it's a lot. A lot to cover all the Success that we're having a lot, a lot.
so anyway, I appreciate that detailed report. Okay team, we're going to move on to item I on page eight.
this is our student achievement report on advanced academics and our gt program Highlights.
I believe emily herring come to the mic to present this for us. And your folder is this presentation. Should you need it.
miss heron, welcome. Take it away. Good evening, President severance.
members of the board of trustees and doctor wright. My name is emily heron, and I serve as the director of curriculum and instruction for the District.
I'm happy to be here with you guys tonight. Like, Which way do I point?
here we go. So when we refer to advanced academics, I just want to clarify that we're discussing both advanced academic courses in grades six
through 12 and gifted and talented services for students identified as gifted and talented Through k through 12.
so I'd like to take a few minutes of your time this evening to acquaint you with the work Of our department and our goals moving forward with both of these programs.
so this slide has a lot of information on it. Let's talk a little bit about the pie charts on the left.
top left. This refers to students in advanced and college aligned coursework.
so I put the graph here from 2122 that was coming out of the pandemic.
we had 37% of our students in grades six through 12 participating in at least one advanced Course.
moving forward to where we are now, we've improved that a lot. We're at 57% of our students participating in at least one advanced course.
so I would say a dramatic improvement. We had been making gains before the pandemic kind Of stifled a little bit during the pandemic,
and then we've worked to continue improving. We have our demographic data there.
and then this table below. Again, just some historical data for you.
I did want to point out that this is just grades nine through 12.
and these are only the classes where students can potentially gain college credit.
so these are not the advanced english one, advanced english, Two advanced classes.
this is anything ap dual credit on ramps. That's why you would see 34% participation Versus the 57% in the pie chart.
so moving into our services for students identified as gifted and talented.
so again, a little bit of historical data. We are just finishing up our identification Process for this year.
so that's why you have this last year's information we were discussing about why were There so many referrals in 2223?
we've kind of normal doubt after that, if you will say, If you remember 2122 was that we started the year kind of funky that
year from our covid year. The year before 2223 was really our first year back in person.
and we also started with summer testing that summer. So I think we saw an influx of nominations that year.
and yes. Okay, so that's really the brief overview at this time.
I can take any questions you might have. Thank you very much.
it's been nice getting to have you come to the podium with us more frequently lately. So thank you. All right team, look to my right.
miss petrie, any questions for miss harriet? Hello.
miss heron, thank you so much for this very brief report, But talk full of good information.
as you know, I'm a strong advocate for advanced academics. I had two children go through our schools, one gt back in the day and then both in Advanced academics and I am so grateful
to all the work that has been done to increase these numbers.
what I would like to see, which I don't see is a breakdown by campus at the high school Level.
I'd like to see kind of where we are and, and, And you can group them together.
ap on ramps. Okay. And what's the ut ut on ramps?
dual credit for acc. And then I don't want to, I don't want to put this on blast too much,
but I do have some big feelings about ut on ramps.
has, has anybody dug deeper into the peer to peer model.
and whether that's working well. Are you. Might be just something to, To look at and think about,
especially when you're talking about college algebra, Physics and the children are learning from each other.
I just hear a lot that that's maybe not the best mode of education for children to be just Teaching children and guessing around.
and that's literally what ut on ramps expects. It's not, it's not that the teacher isn't teaching, It's that the, the model, you know what I'm talking about.
okay. I don't know if parents know this. I certainly didn't know this when I enrolled my Children in this class and then found out that they are just supposed to guess and learn
from each other. And I had pretty smart kids and they struggled with that.
there's also some knowledge sharing that could happen across those teachers that are doing That,
that have figured out ways to. You support the kids in their peer to peer learning better Than others,
and we've seen examples of that. Mr. Seibel and I have gone and seen that in action.
it's pretty great. So maybe asking I'm not telling you to ditch your on ramps.
I am a proud ut alum. As some of you know. But it's a weird setup with some of that the Learning
model for they're not all like that. There's like four different ways that the teachers Can teach.
and so I just want our advanced academic team to really ask the teachers, Is it working?
or what we could do different or do some knowledge sharing around about how it can be Better?
over, I mean, that's not something, I mean, that's, That's, that's a ut on ramps thing that is not a district thing,
but I know that we have wanted to continue to bring those programs into our school to Increase the college readiness,
and I do think it helps with college readiness. But having a kid at texas tech, she gets taught by teachers, She doesn't learn from her friends.
and so it's just a weird thing. So, I mean, if it were me, I would limit the amount of peer to peer educational opportunities we're offering our kids
because I just think it's hard. So yes, please, With the breakdown by high school for us,
how we're doing, but I love, love, love this 57% because it is a it was a struggle through Covid and after covid and we
have made great strides. I hope mr. Seibel has harder questions than I've asked you, But that's because he has a kid in high school now.
my spies are graduated, but that's all I have. Thank you so much. Trustee vela. Miss herron, Thank you for the brief, but a lot of information packed in there,
and so definitely want to echo a lot of what miss petrie mentioned already.
thank you for providing the breakdown on the advanced academics. The number of students as well as the percentages.
so my question is on the gifted and talented. It says we have 1938 students classified as gifted and talented or 8%.
how do we look year over year on that? Maybe for that same time frame of what we're Looking at on the advanced academics I'd like to see.
I'd like to see that. I will say briefly, we mirror the same, But I can get you the more we trained at about that 8%.
I think that sounds pretty okay. Yes. So even even with our student population growth, I mean almost 25,000 students now where we've shrunk a little bit to 2024.
995. But yeah, so I mean, you know, and that's just, It'd be good to see that data as well.
certainly. All right. Thank you. Trustee. Runkle.
yes. Hello. Miss herring. Good evening. Yeah, I would love to see that information by campus also.
so if you wouldn't mind just including that on any data that you give us moving forward on These reports.
that's just great information to have. They've asked lots of great questions and I know Mr.
seibel asked them on board blog. Will you what I want you to do is will you talk about the Identified and the referred.
so when people see that on that graph, can you explain the difference between the two?
certainly. So we can. Historically, the past couple years, We have done a second grade screener to try to identify more
students and parents can identify students can nominate students, Teachers can nominate students.
and then if a teacher nominates a student, the parent has to give permission for testing.
and sometimes parents don't give permission in that situation. But for the most for the most part, they do. So when we look at.
that graph when we're talking about blue, that's any any referral that we've had.
and then the red would be anybody who's been identified in k in first grade.
and first we do general intellectual ability. And then starting at the end of second grade, We identify by subject areas.
so in our district we couple math and science together and language arts and social Studies.
and I truly believe that is a benefit to our students.
and we can actually identify more students in that regard. I know with my own children, if they don't like one, Would not qualify if it was all subjects all the time in language arts,
because he's an okay reader, but in math, he's just got a different understanding and Level.
so I truly believe that's the best service model that we can. Every district does it a little bit different. Well, I'm glad I wanted you to explain that because I think it's incredibly important to hear.
and for parents that are, you know, venturing into gifted and talented and having all of These conversations.
that's helpful information to know. So thank you for sharing that. And I too, I share in the, in the sentiment that I'm, I'm, I'm, it's great to see these percentages increase and we want to continue to see them
increase. So I look forward to seeing the campus data and ways that we can help them Continue to increase students taking more college aligned
courses. So thank you for your presenting tonight. I appreciate it. Trustee flores yeah, thank you for this presentation.
I actually also had just a couple questions regarding the ut on ramps and I know it's a Flipped learning model.
I know it's team oriented, which means students teach each other. And I was just curious. I know that ut on ramps provides because I did teach on ramps for History for,
for once, and that was my first year teaching and it was not fun. So I will ask it's a lot for, you know, a new teacher.
what's the criteria we look for when we look for on ramps teachers that are.
I mean, I'm sure there's an experience level that is needed to to teach an on ramps Course.
correct? Ideally, it would not be a first year teacher. Of course not. That that sounds like a lot a lot.
so definitely we're looking for teachers who are have great classroom management, Number one,
who can connect and question students and understand how to you know, I think a lot about the socratic seminar and how to be able to
navigate conversations with students. And really, You're not the sage on the stage.
you're the guide on the side and help students through that learning journey.
and through the productive struggle, those would be some of the criteria that we would Look for in teaching staff.
yes. Teachers who have been successful with students on level or maybe have tried a dual Credit class or an advanced placement
class would also be a good opportunity. Ut does provide the training as you're familiar With.
they have the professional learning institute in the summer, And then they have a fall opportunity and a spring opportunity that are required for
continued professional development. I know that's really important. How often just.
I'm just curious. You don't have to answer this now. Do mentors that are ut they have Mentors because you never really communicate as a teacher with the college professor
that's teaching the college side in dual enrollment. How often do mentors meet with the teachers? I'm just curious about, I know it was it once a week or once a month or so.
I have a biweekly meeting with ut on ramps with the, With the cohort of texas schools.
and then we break into regions. And so I have a mentor that I talk with, And then she reaches out to me and says,
hey, I noticed, you know, this class insert name needs a couple students to pass the Class.
can you reach out to that teacher? And so there's mentors for me in that in the Implementation of the program.
and there's also she would connect them with the professor or with whomever needs to be Having conversations.
absolutely. Again, it's a great opportunity because you also, As a student, you get these resources,
including access to their library, which I think is great. But I do agree with trustee petrea in that when you get to college, As many of us know, it's lecture based.
you're going in I taught briefly. You have your coffee as a professor, You give your lecture and then you leave,
which is fantastic. But the team based model, I know it's great. I love ut on ramps. I know based on this, most kids have accepted their credit except for Pre-calculus,
which I'm sure that sounds very challenging. I need to do a little more digging into that.
yes, please. But all in all, I appreciate this. And I hope we continue to improve this model for teachers and make sure we have teachers That are,
that are well qualified to to handle this. Thank you so much. Yes. Trustee. Orosco. Yes. I wanted to add a little bit to the request made by miss petri And miss runkle,
so mr. Sibel can can write it down. I do want to broken down by campus and program as Well.
and I would like the previous years since you listed from 2018 to present, I would like the same thing for those numbers.
I know we have been very strategic in targeting our other campuses that were not Performing as high.
so I would like to see what that trend looks like and definitely how we are improving Because I know we are improving.
so it would be great to really highlight that. Also for the gifted and talented can you provide the numbers for, And mr.
sibo can capture this as well for how we compare to the state, How we compare to the region and comparable districts.
right? Because I think that's very telling of where we're at in regards to are we trending In the right way?
are we're outperforming or so on? So that would be really good to know.
also I would like to see campus gt population and I would like to see that trend since you Started from 2122.
I would like to see what the campus gt population is beginning with. 2122 for each of our campuses. I know that when we have discussed this in our showcases, This always comes up.
you know, what are those gt numbers? What are they doing to increase those numbers?
because you know, referring them is one thing, But actually being identified as gt is another.
and if you can, please provide an update to the gt pilot that we were doing at some of our Low socioeconomic schools where we're at.
did we discontinue that or are we continuing it and did it help?
and what were those trends like? Okay, so those are some things that I would like to, To see from this.
thank you. Sure. Trustee. Sablan. Yes. Thank you, Miss heron, for presenting tonight.
yeah, I'll start with gt. Questions first. I'm just again for education in the community, I guess.
what is the characteristics of a gt student versus a non gt student?
that's a great question. So when we think about I'm going to use my two sons as an Example.
I have a son who when he's working in math explain concept one time.
and then he can do that and he can apply it to other concepts without the explanation of How to apply it to other concepts.
my other son, you explain it maybe once, twice, Three times, depending on.
and then he might need an explanation of the application for the on level concepts.
so when we're looking at students who are gifted we test in the ability, We have an ability
testing and then we have achievement testing. You can see that some of our gifted students in like a nonverbal test will score very high In a nonverbal test.
they might not be achieving very highly. There could be other things going on that would Prevent them from high achievement.
but that ability pops up. Now, you might have a high achieving student where their Ability,
according to the test, is average ability, or maybe a little above average ability, That student would be a high achiever.
and I think that's one of the biggest biggest challenges when we're trying to really Disaggregate using test scores.
another characteristic of gifted students. We do not service creativity, But that one is one that comes with all of this.
you know, I had a student once who described his we were watching something about the Constitution,
the signing of the declaration of independence. And he goes, Is that a number two feather?
I started laughing because number two, pencils at the time were very important in our World of state testing.
and all the rest of the kids are going, what is what is that? So those kinds of things where they can think outside the box, There's they can take what you're saying and apply it to unfamiliar situations without any
kind of prompting. That's when we really start talking about giftedness. There are kids who are gifted in athletic abilities as well.
those obviously we don't have that in the classroom.
we don't service that either in the classroom. But there's many ways that giftedness can Show up.
yeah, I appreciate it. I was cued in on the word creativity there because I think as Parents,
you know, I have a high achieving student that doesn't mean necessarily gifted. And it's a way of thinking and processing information versus just being able to perform Well in the classroom.
and as parents, it's you. We just think that, Oh, they're high achievers, so they're therefore gifted.
and that's not necessarily the same thing. Conversely, When we look at the data, you know,
by looking at some of our subpopulations here, We have some misrepresentation between overall district versus gt,
which could indicate that we have, you know, Some room for growth in the category.
obviously, some awareness for parents to signs for them to look for in their own students.
obviously, it's much harder, as you pointed out, When we have language barriers to identify students.
but you know, we have ways to do this. And so making sure that these students that may be Coming in from different backgrounds and opportunities,
that we recognize them and make sure that we provide them the rigor that their minds are Capable of handling through this.
so appreciate that. Okay. On ramps questions, I know.
I appreciate you answering a few questions on your blog. I appreciate you tackling all those. Curious to see all the scores and everything.
I'm getting the chance to really dive into all those. You know, I've having a student go through this process for the first time this year is very eye
opening. It was, I'll be honest, not quite the experience I was expecting or didn't really Know what I was really to expect.
but it's been different. Feedback from students and student advisory, You know, it's a much different format,
a little bit disconnected. They feel it's a little bit impersonal.
and so my basic question is, you know, it's obviously a much higher college rigor that We're providing these students.
it's ut I mean, this isn't baby uti. This is.
these are uti courses that they are taking. This is the real deal, As if they are uti students,
which is obviously, you know, one of the top universities in the entire country.
personal feelings aside about uti, but that's fine. You know, so how do we provide these students with that college rigor and still have high School level support for students as they're going
through this? So I don't know if you can talk about that at all now or later, But so one of the first things I would say is,
yes, I'm a longhorn as well. That's not the first thing I'm going to say, But the, it is a semester course,
so it's a three hour ut course spread out over the entire year.
so theoretically, we've got some points in there where we should be able to get more Grades for our high school students instead of the four that they're going to get in
college, maybe 1 or 2 more if the professor allows.
and so theoretically the time should assist with that.
and the teacher should be able to use some of our high school pedagogy that we can use in The classroom instruction for reteaching.
for connecting back on. Hey, I saw that assignment didn't really go so well for you.
let's talk about it. There's definitely opportunities for improvement.
I think I'll leave that there. But it is a college level course and, You know, there's a resource research that
miss philpott had provided me with. Taking a dual credit class, An on ramps class and an ap class,
and how students benefit from all three, that it's not necessarily just one pathway to go Down,
that there's benefits from all three. And one of them being this is, This is your college level course.
this is the level of rigor at which you'll see our students are pretty successful in the Course once all is said and done.
on the credit. And I do want to look at the pre-calculus credit.
students have to choose whether or not they're going to take their credit. In february. So they haven't finished the course yet, But they have to let you.
know whether or not they are going to actually get a transcript from you t well.
before they've completed the course. So if students were not maybe on the borderline of Not passing,
I could see where they'd say, I'm not going to get a college transcript with this grade on It.
I'm looking at the pre-calculus and all the other course offerings that we offer.
I know we have ap, you know, sister courses with a lot of these.
but pre-cal is definitely one where I wonder if it's a matter of filtering students that Some have chosen to go to ap pre-cal route
versus on ramps. And so just similar to how we see. Seventh grade math scores kind of struggle in the same kind of fashion.
with that, I know we have fantastic teachers that are teaching on courses. I've been in petrea and I visited a number of those classrooms and. You know, It's, it's a pretty unique setup.
we hear the word productive struggle a lot. And it's mr. Mcdaniel's favorite words back there. And you know, I see it in my own student getting through the year and it's like,
okay, you start to see corners turned and trying to figure out like, Yeah, you, you may have always done well on your own,
but you may have to go to tutoring. So that's not a bad thing to instill in these students That even smart students need help.
you know, but balancing the productive struggle with throwing the baby in the deep end of The pool type scenario and expecting them to swim.
so just ensuring that we have those high school guardrails in for a college level rigor Course and learning as we go through it.
I do agree there are benefits to each of the three designs dual credit on ramps, Ap courses,
you know, test takers. You know, if you're a really good test taker, You know ap courses great.
getting through that exam is a is a bear no matter which one you're taking. You know, on ramps, you have a much more, you know, Longevity of kind of ability to kind of prove your worth and,
and abilities throughout the course of the year. Dual credit is just a little bit Different level of rigor.
you know, so it's just trying to balance out and making sure that we're still offering and Making sure our students are actually learning the material. I think there are some
opportunities to have some prerequisites for some of these as they kind of go into them.
and so maybe, maybe something to evaluate as kids go into it, But overall, I appreciate the information.
so thank you. Thanks. Trustee. Petrea. I just had one thought as trustee was talking, This was something as a parent that I wasn't educated
about. So for anybody listening, this might be helpful.
and it may not be at every college, but but when when my daughter was not doing well in Her ute on ramps,
I was worried about taking that college credit toward her gpa at tech.
turns out tech only cares about your institutional gpa, So the fact that she got, I don't know,
a c or whatever it was in college algebra at ut on ramps did not affect her college gpa.
I didn't know that. I found that out and so we figured it out.
but that's another like educational piece for this. I mean, not that we want kids to, like strive for c's, But it's stressful when you're a senior or junior and you're like,
oh, I don't know if I want this to be on my college transcript. So, And like I said, I don't know how widespread that is.
my assumption is that it's pretty normal for the for the college to take just the, The institutional gpa.
but that was just a learning another learning curve for parents.
doing this advanced academic business there. I would say that is a great consideration for Any one of these advanced pathways
to look at a couple of the places you might want to go and see, Are they going to take the ap exam?
if I get a three, 4 or 5, are they going to take this acc transcript.
and what does that look like? How does that transfer in? Yeah. I mean I will like the ap at tech. I think she got she did so good on the ap bio was Eight hours of credit.
so yeah, I mean that's a really good point. And the colleges are usually pretty good at Telling you this equals this equals this. This doesn't get you know,
you have to make a five on your stats. No. Not happening. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. Thanks for putting this together.
I know our team's asked for some historical information and some other data.
campus data and team I for this presentation for tonight, I ask them to shorten this presentation a little bit just because of what we had on the.
budget for tonight or on the agenda for tonight. So just keep in mind the state is readily Available and they'll be willing to share this with us on our blog down the road. So thank
you for preventing this tonight. And my only question for you is there such thing as a Texas state on ramps program or a texas a&m university on ramps program?
and I just asked that because I just don't know. Okay. Thank you. Thank you for your help. I appreciate that I was a bobcat too.
okay. All right. Well, great. Thank you so much for presenting. Appreciate it. Thank you. Okay,
team, we are moving right along. We're going to get into the last thing we're going to do Here real quick is we're going to do consent agenda.
there is only that's going to be on page 15. There's only one item tonight, Which is has to do with our minutes.
anybody have any, any pull this item to speak before we vote on the consent agenda Minutes.
no. Okay. All right team, I move that the hays cisd board of trustees approve the consent Agenda as presented by trustee flores.
any further discussion? All those in favor? Aye.
any opposed? Motion carries seven zero. All right, Team, everybody listening online.
we'll let you know that the our k-9 item tonight is review on page on our dice folder team On page 84.
we're going to be moving that up to the first thing we're going to talk about tonight.
so team in your folder that's going to be page 84.
doctor wright. I know you're going to lead this one off for us for I would love for you to Go ahead and take it away.
thank you so much. I do want the clicker unless you want me to do like I did when I
was teaching and say next slide. Next slide. Yeah. Thank you. All right. So we heard many speakers
tonight speaking in public comment and thankful for everybody to come out and share their Thoughts with us.
this process actually began in earnest after the failed tax ratification election.
and for for many of you you got to hear me come to your department or to your campus.
and we spoke at length in the community about the why behind the need for a tax Ratification election.
and at the time many people asked, you know, What, what happens if the tax ratification election doesn't pass?
and at that time, we were projecting we needed to cut $20 million per year over the course Of three years or 200 positions per year in order to
make it work and to make our budget sustainable moving forward. And and so let's, let's talk about that and, And and so after the, the tax ratification election failed,
and I want to thank everybody that voted in this particular election because we had more Votes than we've ever had in any particular bond election.
and I know with what was happening in november with all of the constitutional amendments And,
and the actual buying down of the tax rate, it was, It was a, it was a little odd to have tax ratification election in conjunction with that.
but in the state of texas, you can't have tax ratification elections in any any month Other than november.
and so we put it in november. And and we actually received more than 6000 votes.
affirmative for that ratification. However, there are a lot of people in our community That we suspect aren't affiliated with the schools in any way.
and they didn't have a chance to come and, and listen to the educational opportunities to Learn about the tax ratification election.
so we had more that voted against it and rightfully so. And and we do respect the democratic process.
but now what are what do we need to do to move forward, To make sure that hays cisd is going to remain sustainable?
and why are we in this position? So on this first slide, You'll see and I shared this one at the at the tree talks.
the basic student allotment has not kept pace with post pandemic inflation.
and in the state of texas, I think many of you that spoke in public comment get confused About the two buckets of money that we have.
we have two buckets of money. One is the maintenance and operation bucket of money, And that's the one that pays salary in our district,
pays for the light bill. It pays for fuel for our busses, Pays for all those things, all the operational resources.
that's one bucket. And it is totally funded by the state.
so in a fast growth area such as ours, these people sitting up here on this dais don't Have a choice in the tax rate.
the state tells us through tea what we are mandated to charge and whatever excess money That we bring in,
because we are growing both commercially and residentially. We send it back to the state. So as you can see from 2020 all the way through 2025, We've received the same amount of money in the form
of the basic student allotment. And that particular allotment is the only discretionary Money that we have.
the rest is all earmarked, and we are mandated by the state to spend it in certain Categories,
whether we need to or whether we don't. And we get audited every year based on how we Spend that particular pot of money.
and so you can see in that bottom slide at the bottom part of the slide that the buying Power in 2020 of a dollar was a dollar.
and now over the course of the next six years, It's decreased to about $0.80.
and so just like your household budgets, our budget is very similar at the school district Level and fuel is going up.
electricity is going up. Benefits in health care have gone up drastically.
and and so we haven't had any discretionary money to deal with that.
so I want you to understand how that works. And then I talked about the other bucket.
someone mentioned that we got a new track at mccormick and a new field.
well, that particular project was paid for out of the interest and sinking budget.
and that is one that is funded locally and locally alone.
sometimes we get a little bit of money for a new instructional allotment, New and also existing debt allotment.
but it's very, very minute. Most of that we do get to keep all of that money and it is Based on growth.
and that's why we typically don't ask to raise the tax rate when we have a particular bond Election.
and so I would love to be able to take the money that we spent on the track and the turf And pay salaries with it,
but by law, I can't do that. Okay. So those are the two different pots of money.
and so today we're not talking about the interest in sinking pot of money or any of the Bond elections or the money that built this building or any of that.
we're talking about money for operations and salaries.
all right. So let's look at the state of texas and how it fares compared to the other 50 States in the nation.
if you look over in the blue column, the the state average for all 50 states nationally is $17,870
per kid in the in the state of texas. When you consider all the money that we get that's Earmarked,
we receive $14,104 per kid, and we're ranked 38 out of all 50 states.
when you look at the local funding per student, And that's what we generate locally before we have to send it back to austin to be
distributed amongst other school districts, and to put into the rainy day fund.
we do pretty well. We generate $8,200 compared to the nation's average of $8,000, And we ranked 22nd
amongst all 50 states. But then when you go to that pharr column and you look at what Other states are spending from the state level,
the average is 9861 and the state of texas spends 5835 per kid.
and so we ranked 47th out of all 50 states. All right.
so since 2019, texas has increased the maintenance and operation bucket of money by $12 Billion.
and that includes student growth. Texas is one of the fastest growing states in the Nation.
and and so typically we add across the across the state, You know, anywhere from, oh,
200,000 kids to. And it can go up even higher than that in hays cisd.
we're a fast growing school. So we typically add anywhere between 600 and 1000 kids per Year of that amount.
most of it is absorbed by retention allotments, Student growth, state mandates, hold harmless funding and programs for certain districts,
teachers and students. And so the hold harmless funding. As taxpayers, we can all be really proud of it.
we got to buy down our property taxes because property taxes are extremely high and school Districts are number one for that.
but our founding fathers created it that way because in the 1800s, Of people all had had cattle.
they all had ranch land and they could make money off their property.
we can no longer do that unless we sell our house. We can't make money off our houses. And so we have an antiquated formula that nobody at The state level wants to touch.
and we're all struggling in the state of texas for finances because they won't fix the Problem.
they want to put band aids on problems. And that's why we're in the bind that we're in.
and so the amount of money after giving teacher pay raises this year, Which is a wash, it comes in and out.
it's not new revenue. And I'm, I'm certainly proud that the state decided to do it because Our teachers definitely needed a pay increase,
but the amount of money that we got for discretionary spending in 2026 was 380 million Across the state of texas,
which equates to $69 per student. If you want to keep up with inflation?
the cost would be about $1,000 over that course of time, And we got $69 when we needed 1000 to keep pace with inflation.
all right. So when you look at 2526 staffing across the state of texas and staffing versus Hays
cisd, you'll see that the largest piece of the pie is in teaching staff.
the state of texas, the average is 48%. In hays, We have 48.4%.
and that doesn't mean that we have more teachers than the average. It means we pay more. And we made a conscious effort when I first got here, Because we had a high turnover rate and we had a shortage.
and so we intentionally wanted to be number one in the central texas area in certain areas So that we could attract and,
in and keep teachers. Okay. If you look at administrative staff, Because I hear all the time,
we're top heavy. We're top heavy. We have too many administrators.
the state of texas averages 4.7% and hays cisd, We've cut that down to 3.4%.
auxiliary staff. The state of texas is 25.1. Our auxiliary staff is 30.9%.
and the reason that we're a little higher than the state was, I don't know if you recall,
but several years ago we had a massive bus driver shortage.
and so at that time, we weren't offering bus drivers eight hours a day.
and so we were having a hard time getting bus drivers.
so the transportation team came and, and we had a transportation leadership council Meeting and we decided,
you know what? We're going to make sure that we give all of our bus drivers and our Monitors at least eight hours a day so that we can recruit and retain bus drivers.
so we're a little bit higher. Across the state. But it's it's fared well for us because we've been able to retain our bus drivers.
support staff for state of texas is 11%. Hays cisd is 10.4 paraprofessionals across the State 11.2.
and we're at 6.9%. So I wanted to give you those comparisons.
all right. So right after the pandemic, the board that we had at the time, And I think there are only two of you that are left.
where are you? Here too. All right. So after we got our fund balance up to 71,000,000 in 2021,
our board said, look, our teachers, our custodians, Our child nutrition staff, they're all dealing with this massive amount of inflation.
and we don't feel comfortable sitting on this type of money in our account when we could Pass it on to our employees.
and so you'll see that we went a lot higher than the normal rate of inflation, Which is around 1.98%.
and we actually have averaged 5% over the course of time on pay raise across the district For all employees.
and we did that because the theory at the time was, Let's go ahead and advance the money now so that they'll be in a position to combat
inflation the best possible. And I remember having the spirited debate at the time, Well,
what happens if in 23, the state legislature doesn't give us any new money?
or what happens if in 25 they don't give us any new money?
they said, well, let's let our employees enjoy the money now. And at whatever time that occurs, we'll draw a line in the sand and we'll have to we'll Have to address it.
well, the state legislature met. They didn't give us any new money in the basic allotment.
and so we are at that place where the line has been drawn.
all right. You can see, though, over the course of time that we have decreased our tax Rate over 21%.
it's it's decreased from $1.40 6.77 to $1 1546 for the m and o.
so we've compressed it by $0.31 over time. And so that's why we thought that we might have An outside chance of getting our
taxpayers to vote for the tree, because the tax rate has been decreased every single year.
but it's just bad timing. And the voters spoke and so just wanted people to understand That we have been consciously trying to decrease it over the course of the
year. So the general operating and capital expenditures you can see on there.
and just wanted to, to make that note, we the capital expenditures is the I and s bucket.
that's the bond funds that we spoke of building new buildings. And the general operating budget is the one for maintenance and operation, Of which about 89% is in salaries.
okay. So our plan for moving forward during the tree talks, I did mention that we were looking at a three year turnaround of
20 million a year to try to bolster 60 million for our fund balance.
we need to get back to around 70 million or so. We can live with 65. Our, our cost per month for payroll and accounts payable is around 22 Million a month.
and right now we're sitting at 25 million, as you can see.
that was our latest audit numbers. And so instead of a three year plan decided to roll This out to a five year
plan so that the, the pain wouldn't be felt all at one time. And as our team looked at potential cuts, instead of taking an ax to programs, We, like I mentioned in the letter,
we took a scalpel to it. And there were some things that we just they were off the table.
we just couldn't live with it. And so none of the cuts that we're going to recommend are Good.
they all are harmful. But it's at a point where we have to be sustainable and we have to Get this account built back up so that
we can continue to make payroll and continue to pay the bills. So this first year the fiscal year of 27, which will be next school year, The 2627 budget we're
looking at if the board adopts this, we're looking at about 12 million in savings and we Do have a
land sale deal for our affordable housing development for hays cisd and looks like we'll Probably receive around $5 million for that land
sale. And so we can put that back in and we do have a couple of other properties for sale Right now.
and and so right now the market's not real hot on, On land sales because of the interest rates.
and that's why a lot of our established neighborhoods aren't turning over. That's a, That's another story.
so if we make the cuts this year and then we just earmark it in the budgets for each of The next four years,
then we will be able to put back into the fund balance $90 million.
and why is that important? Because with the bonds that we've already passed, The bonds are built out of the interest and sinking
fund, but they're maintained. And you have what I call an opening the box cost that comes Out of the fund.
so from that 90 million, we need 25 million in cash to open up the new schools.
and it looks like we will open up elementary number 18 in the fall of 28.
it costs $5 million to open up a new school for hiring a new principal, A new ap, a new child nutrition department,
all the things that require staffing for the opening of that school.
and then it looks like in the fall of 2030, we will be able to open middle school seven Should it pass and in a future bond,
and then the next comprehensive high school. So we would need 20 million to open up both Of those campuses.
and with that 25 million that would would leave us 65 million in order to make payroll and To cover when we receive our money.
so a lot of people say, well, you have 25 million in the bank.
why, why do you need more? Well, we get paid from the state at odd times, And then we get our,
our tax payments from our taxpayers around december and january and february.
and the bulk of that money will allow us to survive throughout the year.
but there are months where we don't get any revenue from the state or any revenue from tax Payments.
and so you have to have a fund balance in order to fill that void or that gap.
all right. So like I mentioned before, to recap this past legislative session, They did give us a little bit of money,
talked about the $69. So they gave us $55 in basic allotment plus $14 in everything
else that we could use for discretionary money. That got it up to 62. 15 per student. And we needed 1000.
and so we're we're well short of where we need to be. And so we over the course of time have made conscious decisions not to add to departments,
not to add to administration. Matter of fact, If you walk around this building or you go upstairs,
it looks like a ghost town because for the last three years, We have been reassigning people from curriculum instruction,
which is our largest department back to the campus level.
and I'll be happy to take people on a tour anytime they would like to see all the empty Spaces upstairs,
but we've consciously not added at any of those levels because we knew that this funding Crisis was,
was a possibility. All right. So in the actual cuts that we're recommending I sent all This out and I sent my letter
out. So I'm not going to go over everything, One line item by line item, because I know you guys will have questions,
but central office and district staff personnel cuts. Just to give you the logic behind it. So we tried to make our cuts as equal as possible Throughout the district so
that we could still have a, have a functional and high performing school district.
and that's what, that's what we've done. So central office and district staff personnel Cuts,
we're proposing 2.6 million in cuts. And in that we are looking at reducing from two Deputy superintendents to one.
and we used to have four deputy academic officers and other districts.
they call those assistant superintendents. We're going to reclassify and move down a pay Grade and reduce that to three and then
reducing the total number of central office positions by 5%.
and, and I'll give you the comparison of, of what the other projected cuts would, Would be in a percentage as well.
so increased class sizes. We're looking at the teacher to student ratio for up to 24 to 1 In
pre-k through four, up to 27 in fifth grade, Up to 30 to 1 in six through 12.
and the reason that we chose those numbers is because when we add our virtual
program, which we're going to stand up for the beginning of next year, Where we won't have as many students in class.
you know, we heard tonight about the supervision issue and that's real. So we were wanting to make sure that we still have as, As, as few, a number of kids in each classroom.
so if we once we stand our, our virtual program up, We think that we'll be able to have a
reduction by 4 or 5 kids in each one of those areas, Six through 12.
in the content core content areas because of virtual and we'll have a lot of people, I think that will take advantage of that program.
we'll see. We're going to be sending out surveys this spring to see how many people Actually want to stay home and learn.
and we're going to have a potential hybrid model too, Where if a kid wants to be in, in athletics and fine arts and cte,
they can come for those classes and then they can go back home for the rest of their Virtual.
and so that way they kind of get the best of both worlds, But that should reduce those numbers as well.
and the total percentage across the board to do that was 4.8%.
so central office is 5% 4.8% for those cuts. Then we moved on to fine arts and athletic Reductions.
we wanted to make sure that we still were able to offer everything that we've added Because of 100% hays because we know and we believe
that it's, it's crucial that we have those programs. That's what brings kids to school. That's the hook.
that's what that's what they, they really enjoy and they'll, They'll, they'll make it through all their other required classes just because they know
they're going to be able to participate in certain areas. So we didn't want to want to remove any of our programs.
so we didn't, but we're going to have to think differently.
and so the ones that we are proposing doing away with we have a support plan to make up The difference.
so when we talk about taking away c teams from middle schools, For example.
what we would be looking at is adding numbers to our a and b teams.
and then coach moffat had a great idea of having a fifth quarter so that the kids that Maybe didn't get to play in the first four quarters
would get to play in the fifth quarter. So we're looking at potentially doing that.
and we just have to work with the other teams in our middle school districts in order to Make that happen.
and then we talked about removing the extra teams at the high school level too.
so in every, every sport, we would still have a varsity, A jv and a freshman team, but our numbers may increase.
and that would be our answer is we would allow as many kids on the teams, But we would play a fifth quarter to make sure that they actually got to
compete and weren't just standing over there. And then for as far as the fees are concerned, We haven't come up with what that fee ratio might be yet,
but we're talking about cutting the athletic budget by 8.5%.
parts of athletics are money making at the gate and parts of them are not.
and so we're going to be analyzing the revenue from the money making piece of it and Seeing how much that can offset so that it can be as self-sustainable as
possible. And so just know when we start looking at the fees we want to make sure that Those aren't exorbitant so that it would not
cause people not to be able to play. And so we are also looking at a sliding scale Methodology,
whereas if you're a free lunch student, you would pay the lowest fee, A reduced lunch student would pay somewhere in the middle.
and then if you're not on free and reduced lunch, Then you would pay whatever the price would be for that particular fee.
and we think that that would help people fill out those free and reduced lunch forms, Because then if they qualify,
they don't have to spend as much, which then brings us in more federal money, Which could help offset some cuts that we would be be looking at making.
and so that's fine. Arts and athletics, suspension of certain staff stipends, Incentives and surcharge
payment coverage for $2.2 million. This one was, Was was kind of difficult.
we we put early on a recruiting stipend in for sped and bilingual because we had such a Shortage and it worked very
well. It was originally intended just to be a11 year fee, But we went ahead and made it perpetual.
but our, our actual stipend for bilingual and for sped is like one of the tops in the Area.
and so the, the amount that we would be looking at reducing is not their core stipend.
it would be just that recruitment stipend that is on top of their, Their core stipend.
now, the, the one that was, was a little more difficult was the master and doctoral degree Stipends.
you know, we encourage people to be lifelong learners, But in certain job descriptions, masters and doctoral degrees aren't required.
and for those that are like for, for our teachers at the high school level that have 18 Hours in a master's degree field.
we're still going to pay them their stipend because it is a part of their job requirement.
and so if they teach for uti, onramps, which you guys have been talking about, Or for austin community college,
they're still going to receive their, their fee because it is a part of their assignment.
and so we're looking at all those different things. And so we're just looking at at suspending that.
and after talking to our presidents of our teacher organizations, They said that if you find a windfall of money,
could that please be the first thing that you restore? And we said, absolutely, it can. And then the second thing that they talked about was Class sizes.
could you could you cut that down a little bit? And so we've already been talking about if we receive more kids through virtual or our Growth is higher than what we thought.
that's certainly something that we could look at. So that's why we use the term suspend The stipends.
so we'll continue to do that because if we did receive a great windfall, That's something that you can pay at any time in the in in the school year.
and the last one we talked about in that particular one is teacher incentive allotment.
we we discovered that, you know, this is a very new program and we had a transition of, Of chief financial officer
and we actually didn't require our employees to pay the deductions that they should have Paid for any of us.
uncle sam's always going to get their money, Right. And so whatever you earn, there's a deduction that's commensurate with that.
and we found that the school district was paying that when we should have been paying it. And we aren't going to ask anybody to pay that back.
but moving forward, we're going to ask that we we we handle our finances, Right.
and we we deduct appropriately. And so that's one that we, We discovered with our new cfo that we had been paying and we shouldn't have been paying
that. All right. The next thing restructuring of attendance teams reporting, We are looking
at cutting back the number of days for attendance clerks on our campuses to just a little Bit over the number of days
that our students will be in school, and that will save a little bit of money. And then we're going to consolidate. If this passes, Our teams will leave all of our teams clerks at the high school because they have to.
transcript. They do so many different things at that level. But then the rest will be consolidated so that we could handle the crucial information That we have to submit to the state of
texas. Next is library and social services reduction.
we are not cutting any library services at the elementary campuses.
the circulation numbers at the elementary campuses is off the charts.
that's where kids are learning how to read. They actually will go and check out books.
and so this was done with data. And when we started looking at our actual circulation Numbers at the middle school and high school level especially
at the at the high school level, we just weren't seeing kids go to the library and check Out books anymore.
and it's being used more as just a testing facility or a place where they go and do do Some research,
but they actually are getting their printed materials through their ap classes or through Their regular english classes.
and, and so we saw that as an opportunity. And so we would restructure by having a lead Librarian for the high school level,
a lead librarian for the middle school level. And then we would keep all of our library texts and each one of our libraries across the District.
and then social services reduction, we talked about the cuts in communities and schools or People in public comment did,
and we're looking at cutting those programs in half.
but the way we're going to support this, we've had for attendance specialists in the Districts that are all social workers.
and so we're going to reassign them from being attendance specialist to the campuses that We remove this from,
so that we will be able to stand up support just like we've had with this.
and so we can pay for that out of our federal budget instead of our local budget.
and that way we still get the same support level that we we would have had with c, I s but coming out of a different pot of money.
all right. So those are the cuts as a whole. These are the things that could make a Tremendous difference moving forward.
so we do have additional revenue possibilities.
we have a legislative session coming up in 27. We have one coming up in 29, and we have one coming up in 31.
and so I love how people come locally and talk to their locally elected school board Because they're accessible.
but the people that you need to be talking to are your state senator and your elected Government officials,
because they're the ones that are making these decisions, Not these people up here.
and and so I love how people always come to us. Like we're the ones that created the system that the state has handed down in the form of Mandates.
and so if you, if you can talk to them and tell them we had a $32 billion surplus this Year at the state level,
that's your money and my money, that's, that's taxpayer dollars that they could have given Every,
every kid $1,000 and they chose not to. And so you need to, You need to be visiting with them about that.
and instead of just funding traditional public editor, They're trying to fund three different tiers.
now they have public schools, they have charters, And now they're going to have vouchers.
and there's just not enough money to go around to fund all three and to do quality.
and you'll see that. So the next thing is we could potentially have another tax Ratification election down the road if we feel that that's in the best interest of
the district. $0.03 additions would add $12 million a year.
and whoever spoke earlier may be right. We we may have asked for too much.
we may should have just asked for $0.03, but we didn't. And and so we could take a look at that down the road.
I spoke to land sales a while ago. I spoke to virtual students and we could have general Student growth.
we're going to continue to look at it for the first time since I've been here.
our our demographer missed the mark on student growth.
we were supposed to be at about 25,700. And because of all the variables that are going on Now.
we, you know, at the high point, we got to like 25, 200 this year and we budgeted for 2400.
so we'll see a little bit of a hit revenue there. And so we're, we think that we're, we're, we're good as far as our staff is concerned Because if we make the cuts of 125 position
this year, we staffed for 25,400 kids. And next year if we maintain what we have based on The low growth
will only be at 25, 400. So we should be in a, In a good situation to support.
and then the last thing is improved attendance. Attendance is important for many reasons. It's for engagement of kids and, And to teach them employability skills for the future.
because when I talk to ceos of different companies, They want people that are reliable, that are going to show up to work.
and that's one facet and you can't learn if you're not here.
but the other side of it is for every percentage point that we gain or improve in Attendance.
it's $1.5 million for the school district. And so that's something that, You know, we've we've looked at for for a long time now.
and our education foundation has given each school an incentive amount to try to, To get more kids to come to school on a regular basis because it does speak
to the sustainability of the, of the district. So that is the slideshow. Mr.. President. And I'll, I'll entertain any questions or let you guys discuss.
and anybody on cabinet is ready to answer questions as well.
thank you. Doctor wright. I want to say I do appreciate it's it's nice to hear some of the Rationale on how we got to some of these decisions.
I know these things weren't made, these decisions weren't done in a vacuum.
I appreciate the collaboration and I know this team is going to have some questions and Some comments as well.
so team, I'm going to look to my right. Mr.. Vela.
yeah. All right. Doctor wright. Thank you for that thorough overview.
I took a lot of notes. Of course, we've talked about this.
I'm sure we all have a lot to say. So I have a list of questions to get through, But doctor wright,
let's take your your saying, you know, throw the skunk on the table.
in general terms, we're looking at the data, We're looking at how we're going to get to where we need to get.
thank you for that roadmap. But in this families are affected, Staff members are affected,
our communities affected. Just kind of walk me through the general conversations that We've had with our staff,
if you can. Again, no specifics, but but just walk me through the human human side of Things,
please. Absolutely. So any, anybody that was impacted, We wanted them to have a face to face conversation.
if they were going to be losing days or if they were going to be reassigned or if they Were no longer going to have a job,
we wanted that to happen face to face. So our our hr department met with all the hiring Managers and anybody that was infected and then gave them
information to speak to the individual employees that would be impacted.
and we wanted to, to get this out soon enough because this is for, For next year.
so we'll start in august. And so we thought if we if we handed out the information in March,
it's the right thing to do because this is impacting people's livelihood. We know it's any dollar that you take away is a is a dollar that was crucial to that Family.
and we want to be respectful of that. And, and we know that that some people will be Looking and they'll have to make a choice which which is best for,
for their families. And so we wanted to give them april, May, june, july before next year to to find out.
you know, if they want to come back or if they need to search for something else.
it's my hope that you know, they'll, they'll come back and we'll be able to ramp up and Find a windfall and make things right again.
but until then, I mean, you know, we wanted them to have the information so they can make An informed decision.
yeah. Thank you. Doctor wright. And I know that those conversations are never easy. You Know,
I sit at a table sometimes and have to have conversations with employees who are losing.
and it's you want to be as forthright as, you know, Have the dignity and respect for them.
so not easy. It's not easy for them to hear. And it's not easy for us to, For you to have to be the messenger or,
you know, or the, your staff. Gosh, I look at all these, You know, these great years here.
and actually just another month, I will be the second most tenured board member on this Team.
and I look at these raises that we gave year over year. Look at. I look at the the number of tax rates.
I mean, I'm proud to be a part of this team. I'm proud to be a part of this district.
and the things that we have achieved through your leadership and through even different Iterations of the board.
before that where were we in terms of salary before we started taking this initiative back In 2020,
2021? Where were we ranked as far as pay? We were ranked toward the bottom in central Texas in 19 out of 20,
am I does that sound about right? You're correct. We were. We were really far behind. And that was a conscious decision.
we kind of changed our philosophy when we wanted to make sure that we got experienced Teachers.
so we we started focusing our efforts on, on five, Ten, 15 years, 20 years of experience.
and now we are ahead of the curve by a pretty good, Pretty good margin.
yes, sir. So I, you know, I say that, of course, It's, you know, not tongue in cheek, but it's to show that,
I mean, we, we value staff. And so that's why I asked you about the human side of things About those conversations,
because even, even in having to deliver some tough news, I mean, you're still valuing people to say,
look, we're giving you an opportunity to find something else within our district.
if the skill set is there and the opportunity is there, Or, you know, unfortunately, in some cases moving on to other other districts and other
professions, that's a great point you just made. So for any position that is going away, We are holding jobs internally first so that anybody was thank you.
that was impacted. Will get a chance to find a position in the district that is vacant.
yes, sir. Well thank you. Thank you for that clarification. You know, Does it does it make it easier?
but it certainly you know, I mean, we do want to be a staff friendly organization, As we have demonstrated for six plus years even before that.
so I can only speak to to my time on this board.
increased class sizes. Doctor wright. You know, Thank you for for addressing that as well about just the concerns of whether it's
security, whether it's just feeling, you know, Having a healthy learning environment.
our average daily attendance right now, you said is 93.6%.
so did we factor when we look at if a class is going to 27 bodies, We're factoring in at 93% that are there on any given day.
I know it doesn't always work out exactly that way, But is that also part of the reasoning that we're looking at increased class sizes?
yes. Because on any given day, we do have about 93% of the class in and I know when mr.
and I've been doing our walkthroughs, we look in, In the classrooms and on most classes we like at the elementary level,
we don't have 22 kids in a classroom. Even though we staffed at 22, We typically have 17 to 18 because we have such high absentee rates
and. Yeah. Doctor wright thank you for that. I, I mean, I'm a parent first before I'm a board member,
before I'm anything else. I mean, you know, my son, I know that he sits in a class that is very full already.
I mean, I'm glad that that class is full. It's a very, A very gifted class, a lot of bright minds,
probably a lot of challenging ones as well, my son included.
doing a great job. I'm proud of you, son. But for his grades, So sorry, but yeah, I
mean it we're looking at so average daily attendance. We're at 93.6. We budgeted at wright at 93 for this year.
so we're slightly ahead, maybe to the tune of 750,750,000.
excuse me, 750 million would be great. Okay. And then what do we have projections as far As what we're going to do for next year on our average daily attendance,
what we're going to base our budget on, it looks like we'll do 93 again because by the Time we get through the spring semester,
it will probably flatten out to about 93 if the last several years trends hold true.
yes, sir. So yeah, you know, parents vela household included doesn't mean that we're Trying to only hit 93%.
I mean, we know that students aren't learning when they're not in the classroom. And so we really, let's, let's blow through that number and, And then we can really complain about class sizes and of course,
do something positive on the other end, right? Is that the idea? So. All right. Doctor wright what was the average daily attendance kind of.
do you top of mind? What was it before covid? It was right at 96%. Yes, sir. And we have yet to hit even.
we're not even close. We haven't been close to 94%. I think we've been some close some at some points this year, But we have not been quite to that number.
yeah. Earlier in the year we were we were right above 94.
but it shifted back down. Yeah. Okay. Just because I caught this and I know I've heard a Little bit more.
I want to make sure that our, that our public hears this, But talk to me again about some of the virtual options that we're looking at that's going
to alleviate maybe some of the class sizes as well as improve attendance.
so can you can you give me a little bit more on that? Yeah. So we're just now building that plane. And so you know, We had the experience during the pandemic and,
and it wasn't optimal. So it's going to be different from that. But we are looking at a, at an asynchronous model with, With check ins and then testing would be in person.
but miss cdo and her team miss her. Is she still here?
yeah, they're, they're looking at the options. We've been looking at what some of the Other school districts are doing that started offering it this year.
this was the during this legislative session, They allowed virtual attendance to, to occur.
and you know, we coming out of the pandemic, We kind of had a bad taste in our mouth because we didn't feel like it was best for kids,
and I still don't know that it's best for kids. But if if if, If parents are inclined to support their kids virtually,
then I think we need to need to offer it. And, And and so we're going to create a much better version.
we don't have it all ironed out yet, but we'll be putting in guardrails for kids to make Sure they're getting what they need and have check ins.
and, and so we'll, we'll, we'll have some criteria for those that will be able to you Know,
sign up for it. People that are already struggling probably wouldn't do well to move over Into that option,
but we hope to pick up some kids. We know that we had many kids that were adversely Affected by ice
and that because they were worried about their immigration status, We see them in the area,
but they're not enrolled anywhere. And I think because they're fearful.
and so it's possible that we could see students in that predicament that may sign up.
and so we'll see how it goes and I'll keep you guys apprized as we, As we build the program,
we're going to start doing surveys this spring. Okay. Thank you. I need there be more to follow. I just wanted to. Yeah, Trying to get ahead of the curve there. So again,
families that are listening, let's stay tuned.
let's talk about our demographer for a little bit doctor wright because I know we've, We've really relied on demographers forecast and how many students we're expecting and how
many we're expecting at each campus. What has been their trend prior to this year?
so prior to this year, we were 99%. And that's been the case for each of the last five Years.
this year, they, they missed it statewide though, Because everybody really thought that interest rates would begin to decline.
and so it's impacting our, established neighborhoods.
and so you're not seeing turnover and you're seeing families age out in in one particular Neighborhood,
whereas we used to have starter homes and then people would move around according to bumps In their salaries and that type of thing.
and now we're seeing pretty much just new development growth because the, The developers can actually finance
themselves and offer a lower interest rate as an incentive to buy a brand new home.
so we're seeing the growth, but it's all pretty much in new developments as opposed to People moving from neighborhood to neighborhood as they did in the past.
and that's occurring throughout the state because of the six and three quarter interest Rates or 7% interest rates.
so not pointing a finger at a demographer, just we we had what we thought was great intel,
great, great data, very consistent data. And we go with we usually get a high projection, A low projection.
and what do we do as a district on those projections? We go with which one. We typically go to with the middle projection.
and we were kind of, we were kind of worried about it this year.
and so I didn't even use their low projection this year. We went about 200 students lower than their lowest projection.
I'm glad we did. And so for this year, if we were expecting 25,800 students, Is that what I heard earlier?
no. They they've since revised their projection. And so we're looking at 25,382 students next year.
what was the original projection that we that we budgeted on this year. Yes sir. 25,400. Okay. So like you said, there's going to be a hit with that.
okay. Doctor wright I got lots of questions. I don't want to hog the mic all night. I'll just 1 or 2 more that I'll graze on here.
teacher incentive allotment. I think it's worth repeating. What, so what, what is going on with that? Because I, I feel like you're taking money from me. Doctor wright. I've worked hard and I'm a,
you know, I'm being, you know, rewarded. Can. Can you give me just a little bit more? I'm gonna let christina answer this one because She's the one that's been getting to deal with it. So, christina, if you'll weigh in.
sure, I'll explain, but I'll let miss ok fill in whatever I fail to touch on, Because it's actually you know,
having to do with payroll and deduction and the practices that occur in a business office All the time.
anytime that we are paid money from an entity, We have to pay deductions and taxes for that money.
the teachers have been paying for taxes and deductions from that money.
but apparently there is an item called employer required benefits.
which includes things like unemployment compensation or worker's compensation and other Things that
are called employer required benefits. And those pieces were previously inadvertently paid For
by local money rather than coming from the actual payment itself.
so you give us a payment, we get deductions, But the district doesn't pay for some part of the deductions.
all of those deductions come from the money that I've earned and worked really hard for.
and so in this case, I've learned that for the past couple of years, The district has inadvertently paid for deductions that should have been coming
from the allotment itself, as would be the practice for any other payment made to any Other employee in any other
organization. And so rather than saying, oh my gosh, We need to recover this, we used local funds for it.
it's like, nope, we made that mistake and we're not going to ask for that back.
we're going to eat that because that was our mistake. But moving forward, we need to do it correctly.
miss, have I left anything out of my explanation?
no. Not really. Just to simplify it, though, The teacher incentive allotment is a pot of money.
all costs have to come out of that money. And all costs were not coming out of that money.
and so that's what we are trying to rectify. And so the question is, Well how did that happen?
and the main reason is because t e a emails teachers and tells them
the amount of funding that their work has generated.
and that's at the 100% level, but normally that isn't how it works.
we get a pot of money and we determine all costs involved how much the teacher will Receive,
which is a much lower amount because we have to cover all the costs out of that allotment.
thank you, miss carson and miss for that clarification. So again, because I want to make sure we had some folks speak about it and even in the Community it feels like teachers are being penalized.
there's no penalty in this. It's just we are, We are accounting for the taxes or whatever,
whatever monies are due back to the government is what we're recouping.
the largest part of that is teacher retirement system.
so it is their retirement account. Thank you again for that clarification, Doctor.
I'll just ask one more question because I know other board members are itching to ask Theirs.
you mentioned kind of the hold harmless funding earlier. Can you just give us a couple of examples? Because hold harmless.
in my mind, back in 2020, 2021, we weren't held to an attendance standard.
and so we didn't miss out on our average daily attendance money at the end of the year Until we found out middle of the 2022,
2021, 2022 school year that we were going to be penalized and that we missed out on the Tune of what,
like $2 million that we got penalized that we weren't accounting for. Even going back that far. So what are some other, What are some other hold harmless examples that you can give us?
the hold harmless that I'm referring to is the buy down of property taxes.
so when the homestead exemption went up to 140,000 then the amount of money that we were Unable to collect locally,
the state replaced that money so that we were able to maintain that same level.
we didn't get any new money, but it was we were held harmless at that 60 215 amount.
okay. Because it's not just for the the homestead. It's also, I mean shout out to our veterans. Hey, Hey you know, anybody that is, is due based on disability ratings and things of that sort.
I mean, you know, there's in some cases no no home tax or property taxes.
and so we're held harmless for that as well. So the full value of what the district has Evaluated,
we're getting that money, whatever exemptions passed in the constitutional amendments.
then we were held harmless for those particular new additions. Yes, sir. Okay. I have other questions, but I'll definitely I'll pause and turn it back Over to president for who's next.
trustee. Petrea. Thank you. Let me get organized here.
I've got some notes. This is so hard. I've been on the board since 17 and
after next to covid, this is the hardest thing.
I've, I've had to deal with. Look at this, this board.
I don't want to speak for my board members, but this, This is the hardest thing. Personally, I've, I've had to, to go through but I feel like some people, You know, may be new here.
so I wanted to kind of go through some stuff again as, As evidenced by the slides, this has been coming and it's terrible.
we made some cuts last year. We had speakers come and we're real mad about it.
it was very small. It was like you said, kind of a scalpel. But we, we've been we've been making people mad for a few years now.
and to his point, it's empty upstairs. We could all probably move downstairs.
we we built this thinking that, you know, the 60 one 60 would be 71 60 by this point.
I personally could not do business. I work at a law firm.
we get raises every year. In the real world, You get raises every year for your in your revenue goes
up every year. Kind of commiserate with your raises. Certainly law firms are in the business of making money.
so, you know, their revenue goes up. The the challenge for us is we're we're held hostage.
we're at the mercy of the state's funding. And they they're in a big fight over there.
I don't know if you've ever spent any time at the capitol, But it is petty and childish and I don't know what I do.
I would never move beyond this level in elected government.
it is this is, you know, advocating for students is, Is, is something I care about.
being an elected official is not something I care about. And I don't even know how those people sleep at night because I don't feel like they do a Lot of good in the world.
so I have some questions that are somewhat rhetorical, But I want to, I want to just kind of paint a picture for,
for what's been happening. So doctor wright, I think you can answer this question, but do cities or counties have to go out to the
voters to ask for a tax increase? Who can answer that?
does anybody know the answer? Yes. They have limitations as well.
okay. But it's a much higher limitation because I feel like my city and my county went up On my taxes this year,
and I didn't remember seeing that on the ballot. They have a larger leeway amount than we do. We have something like built in it
when all the calculations are done. There's a couple percentage leeway in dollars not, Not rate in
dollars. And they have something along the lines of 8%.
don't quote me. Okay. But so they have more leeway than we do. Yes. Thank you. And doctor wright, can you just say it again for the people in the back?
can we use bond funds or interest in sinking bucket to pay teacher salaries or principal Salaries or your salary?
not legally. I wish we could, but we can't. Okay. Thank you. So I want to. This is a couple one.
I got some unpopular opinions I'm going to roll out here. One is as a fine arts parent, I've had to pay a lot of money.
I didn't realize athletic parents weren't paying any money. I didn't get that memo. So I kind of feel like fine arts parents.
it's it was $800 a year for my kid to be in band.
so maybe I pushed her in the wrong direction in sixth grade. So I do think that there's some equity that can be had with our athletic parents.
and I hope that parents will understand that that fine arts parents have been paying a lot Of money for a while,
maybe not all of them, but, but certainly dance and cheer, Which is sort of athletic, sort of fine arts band for sure.
and then do I theater choir, I'm sure has paid paying some money.
so, so I think that's a, that's a good thing that we're trying to do there.
and I agree with you. Doctor wright. I hope that people sign up for the free and reduced Lunch and get a sliding scale. Because I know,
I know that other programs have been doing that. Y'all, I want to address kind of the elephant in the room and that's doctor wright salary Because that's come up a lot.
and I want to, I want to tell you why that is and I'll be brief, But I sat on the two days of interviews when we hired him in 2016 and y'all,
there wasn't a close second that came before us.
this could be a lot worse if we didn't have the people in the leadership roles that we do.
and he's paid well because otherwise other districts would steal him.
for example, in leander, they pay their first. I have a question. Doctor wright how long have you served as a superintendent in the state Of texas?
how many years have you served as a superintendent?
23. What year did you start as a superintendent?
2004 2004. Okay, so the leander isd superintendent makes $343,000.
he started in 2009 as a superintendent. The austin isd superintendent makes 362 k he Started in 2024.
so those are the districts that could easily hire him. And we don't want that. We don't want to hire them away.
he's a creative problem solver. He listens, he's approachable, He does really care about kids,
and no one wants to be in public education right now. This is a hard job. Nobody wants to do this job. I wouldn't want to do this job.
and so I know that this is an unpopular opinion. I'm rolling off the board in may so y'all can come after me then.
but I want people to know that he's one of the best in the state.
and I personally appreciate the leadership that he has shown over the past many years.
and this is not an easy thing for him to walk through. And he's done it with grace and compassion. Other districts will probably wait till the Last second to make some of these announcements,
and we're trying to be compassionate and let people know that their livelihoods are going To be impacted and they can make decisions accordingly.
I would want that if I was going to be facing something like this.
but social media has a way of making him sound like a really not good person because he Makes good money,
but that's because otherwise he would be gone. He would be at a different district that will pay him more because he has more years as a Superintendent than probably any superintendent you can
find online. I challenge you to find another superintendent in this state that's as good As him.
that has the record he does, because some of y'all weren't here in 2015. In 2014, I'm looking in the back when when, when we were circling the drain and and Campuses were making f's year after year and teacher
morale was terrible and teacher turnover was high and nobody wanted to be here.
everyone was going to death valley and lockhart.
and then we got doctor wright and things started to change. So I implore you to go look at the news articles from back then and some of us that were Around on the board that that helped to bring doctor wright in to make changes that were
positive. Please trust us that that he is a very good leader and I can I don't want to go Around the room,
but I can probably. I'm going to ask miss altman, How many times have you left at 5:00 since you got here in july?
oh, how many times? Well, none. Okay. And I could probably ask all of the cabinet that This is a this
is a thankless job. And they work 24 seven. It's they're here. Like this is normal. We're just we're going to be here. We'll keep them here probably till Ten,
I could guess. And that's normal. I could go on and on.
everybody else is going to talk a lot about budget and this is hard.
what I what I wanted to say was it could be worse if we didn't have the leaders that we Had.
it's what I truly believe. I think that's all for now.
trustee. Runkle. Thank you, miss petri, for speaking about doctor wright such great kind Words.
and I will say that I agree with everything that you said. I was a parent in 2015. I know what this district was like at that time, And it was a nightmare to be a parent in this district.
my son went to fuentes elementary at that time. A couple of things. I, I have a lot of notes.
this is hard. I think everyone in this room is feeling exactly the same, If not some more than others.
doctor wright talked about the state of texas. We've talked that inflation has not kept up. Our teachers are asked to do more and more.
our staff is asked to do more and more. And our district is not unique to other districts,
especially here in the state of texas. You know, We've heard a lot of people say accountability.
and I hear you yes, the state of texas is the largest issue that we have in funding, But I'm not going to sit up here and I'm not going to tell you
that we don't bear responsibility as well because we do.
we vote. We vote on budgets. We vote on salary increases.
we do all of those things. Over the last several years, Our district has made strides in our in our people and,
and protecting our people. By giving raises, Putting money into the classrooms and really investing.
and those were all the right priorities. I don't regret any of those decisions that we've Made over the years,
the last several years. And to doctor wright point, We did hope that the state was going to come through.
we shouldn't have hoped. And that's where I will hold the accountability.
I, I, and we can't, we can't hold out on the state of texas to come through for us and Future legislations.
that is not something that we can bank on. So that is not something that I'm willing to Bank on as we talk about future budgets.
we looked at some other areas of some funding revenues, Those are promising.
but here we are having to make big decisions. Yes, we tell you to go advocate at the state level.
absolutely advocate at the state level, but advocacy alone isn't going to balance our Budget.
so we have to do both. And here we are having to do both.
this administration has tried really hard to protect the environment of the classroom.
I've heard comments that they don't spend enough time in the classroom.
they spend a lot of time in the classroom. They are in the classroom every day.
if anyone thinks that they sit in an office in this building all day long.
that is not accurate. I know that because I'm here.
we are in the classrooms. We've heard comments about picture taking and things like that.
we all have full time jobs. Thankfully, our employers are very gracious and know that we Also have another full time job because
hays cisd board trustee is a full time job. With this many students and this many Campuses,
we take our time away from our jobs. We take our time away from our families and we are on Campuses every day.
every week, one of us, if not all of us, are at events or on campuses showing our teachers And our families and our
students that we are present and that they can always come to us.
we have been we have always been that we will always continue to be, That our focus has always been on students and our staff,
and our focus will remain on students and staff.
but as I said, these are not easy choices. They're very difficult.
mr. Vela said it first. We're all parents. We're parents first before we are trustees.
our kids get on busses, our kids go to the school each and every day. So all of the teachers, all of the principals, The custodians, the librarians, every single person.
they are people that have touched the lives of not only our children, But your children, and they have become our friends and our family.
so everything that is happening today is not just affecting them.
it affects all of us. We all feel it. So I just want to say that because there's been a Lot of things that have been said tonight.
there's been a lot of things that have been put out on social media about this Administration and this board.
we are not paid. I think I've seen that online too, That board members are paid.
we are not paid. We get paid in our children and these students, Every time we go on to a campus or every time a teacher asks us to come read,
that's that's our payment. And we happily accept it because we love it.
so all of the comments and all of those things, I want you all to know and everybody hearing that they are hurtful and they're painful to
everybody. I do have a couple of questions. I've heard a lot from coaches and fine arts Teachers
with a lot of confusion about not really understanding the whole b team, C team and the levels of
teams, so varsity, jv and freshman. So I would just ask that as our fine arts and Athletics.
they continue to have conversations about these particular things that you guys are having Deeper conversations and being real clear about the
communication because it's very unclear right now.
you know we, they fundraise, we have a lot of boosters that fundraise.
we have a lot of ptas that fundraise. Those types of things need to be factored in.
when we're having conversations about charging students participation, Participation fees,
a lot of our ptas, a lot of our boosters sometimes support a lot of those fees.
so, you know, we need to be having conversations with our ptas and our boosters as we have These conversations.
but I. Actually mr. Moffatt, can you speak to that?
actually, at the high school level so that we can get some clarification now and I think Doctor wright touched on it.
and I heard a little bit about fifth quarter and I think that probably some people really Want to hear some more about that.
I did hear a comment tonight. Are we really 100% hays cisd?
I'm not going to lie, that's something I'm struggling with the last week.
and so I really want to make sure that when kids want to participate in athletics or they Want to participate in fine arts,
that we're not turning kids away. And we're finding ways to make them involved.
so will you talk to me a little bit about what this fifth quarter is and how you're going To handle the changing of key teams and at the high school level?
we're, we're in conversations with that. We this was kind of rolled out to us last monday.
so we met with our coordinators last wednesday about a three hour meeting about line items And how this was going to look in terms of what we went through.
so we're still working our way through it. Those were ideas. Doctor wright mentioned it that he and I talked about the specifics of the fifth quarter And what that looks like.
we certainly are going to limit participation in any manner that we haven't already done That some of our sports already do cuts in the high school level.
the whole c team issue was always to continue to develop kids.
that's always what we've wanted to do in athletics and we'll always continue to do that.
the 100% hays issue is we want as many kids in athletics as possible. Our number one pillar, the athletic department is to continue to increase participation.
I don't want to speak publicly about what exactly that's going to look like because we're Working on that right now.
the fifth quarter is an idea that I came up with. It's an idea we've, we've done in other schools that we've been at before.
and we have a great staff of leadership people working through this.
and so we're going to come back with specific presentation of what that's going to look Like before.
to your point, before booster clubs start to plan their fall activities.
I mean, that's coming. So this communication is, Is going to need to be you know, firmed up what you guys are doing
fairly soon. When you guys start talking about participation fees at the like at the Athletic level,
I also want to be clear, it is a little bit different than fine arts. Football teams aren't going and doing dance competitions.
they're not traveling to florida or various places.
so there is a difference of, of funding and participation fees that needs to be factored In here,
because fine arts is different than athletics in terms of what exactly they do and where They go.
so if you guys but what I want to make clear, Though, is that the communication needs to be clear and it needs to be early.
I parents are involved. Students are involved in a number of athletics.
we've always said that we want kids to participate in anything and everything that they Want to participate.
well, now anything and everything is going to cost that parent anything and everything Money.
and so they need to know what that plan looks like, What is going to be expected of them so that they can start to plan for that well in
advance, not the summer. The summer is too late to know these types of things.
boosters and pta start planning for next year. Already. They're having those conversations in april.
so I would just say that as the conversations continue to happen where it's going to cost Families money,
we need to make sure that that is real clear and that conversation and that communication Is happening very early.
yes, ma'am. And I will just say that's all I have on athletics.
I will say the hardest thing for me on this list is the increased class sizes.
I don't like it, I hate it, I share that with administration. There's nothing about it. I like. My kid sits in those classes too, And I've been in them and they are full.
but what I do know is that I know that we have amazing teachers, And I know that our teachers always figure it out,
unfortunately, because that's what they've had to do and we're going to figure it out Again,
and they're going to give the best quality education to our students because they are the Best teachers and because that's just who they are and that's what they do.
so I'm going to trust in our teachers, and I'm going to trust in our administration that We're going to stick to this and and stick through this together,
and we're going to weather the storm. Because it certainly is one, But I do, I just want to leave that that none of this is easy.
in fact, if you've had a conversation with us in person you've probably gotten some tears From some of us and some pretty hard
conversations because it is very hard. And I'll just leave it at that.
thank you. Trustee flores. Thank you. Doctor wright for for laying out, You know
everything that we're facing here today. I do want to thank those who showed up to speak.
I want to thank those that showed up to take their time away because they care about kids The same way we all up here care about kids in our district.
we're all parents. We either have kids in the district right now or we've had kids that Have graduated from hays cisd.
so, you know, we all feel this. But but I want to be clear you know, Everybody's feeling pain,
everybody's feeling uncertainty. And that's, That's the position that we've put in.
but I want to be a little bit more clear about what god is here.
as was mentioned earlier, texas is at the bottom and in public education school funding.
but I unfortunately, I'm going to state clearly that this is by design.
by those in power at the state level, by a handful of billionaires who have chosen to Create a cycle,
which is to defund public education. They then will provide unfunded mandates to school Districts from anything from special education to safety and
security. They then blame teachers and staff for any gaps or learning gaps or student Outcomes that are not meeting
requirements. They then will sometimes pit administrative, Administration and teachers against each other.
they will then create divisions within the community, Creating divisions between community members and their local school districts.
this is all by design. And then they will then offer alternatives such as vouchers and the Privatization of public education.
this is the cycle. Rinse and repeat. So let's be clear of the headwinds that we are all Facing,
not only us on this board, but every local school district in this state, Many of which have closed campuses,
such as my hometown in corpus christi. They have closed multiple campuses, Cut many positions,
and are in a very tough position, much tougher even than we are facing right here.
so that is the position we are in. At the same time, The cost of living living is going up.
it is continuing to rise. Yet we are still not getting the funding that we deserve.
thousands of dollars below where we should be in public education school funding. Let's be clear about that. So this is all by design, But we in hays cisd still maintain a solid accountability
rating. We are still one of the best districts in the state, And we will still get through this by leaning on each other,
by leaning on our community like we always have.
but we are where we are. And I do want to ask a few questions about, You know, you know, some of these decisions that we are
facing and the results that may come. I do have a question in regards to the supports that Are going to be provided for teachers who are going to see
those increased class sizes. I know that some of the individualized instruction is lost.
I'm a teacher that has a classroom full of 30 kids at a title one campus, So I understand it is hard to pull small groups for those kids who have learning gaps,
such as dyslexia. What supports can we provide if you can speak to this going forward?
I know that this is going to take a while. A lot of trial and error. What supports can we Provide for teachers that are actually in the classroom facing these challenges?
that's a really great question. Trustee flores what I can tell you is that I'm going to Have to we're going to have to visit with our administrators
and lean on some plan for supporting some of our new teachers.
I can tell you that the district level, we're going to, We're going to do everything we can to continue supporting our novice teachers through our
inspire program, still providing mentors. But when it comes to a teacher that is having to Serve 24,
25, 27 students, I'm going to lean on our administrators to determine what their needs Are,
and then we could possibly design some professional support that will come from central Office.
now, I want to be really clear is that we won't have very many central office Administrators to go out and support teachers like we've had in the past.
but what I can tell you that is that we will work collaboratively with our administrators That will see the struggle on a daily basis and design something that
will address the needs of individual teachers. Thank you. And you know, my next question kind of ties in is, You know, being a teacher, I can tell you,
especially right now as we prepare for star, Students are preparing for star across the, across the state or back in what we call
shocktober teachers feel it. There's burnout. It is real and it affects our kids ultimately.
so, you know, same question somewhat like what can we do to provide, You know, just support extra support for teachers
mentorships, etc.. If you could speak shortly to that, I can we've actually seen shocktober in september.
because we really start earlier in august. And so I can tell you that many of our Administrators have been super kind and have
really offered a ton of grace to give teachers time back.
maybe not pulling them and asking them to stay for faculty meetings and just really giving Them time back to plan.
and so they're always negotiating and really trying to give teachers time back by not Holding them,
you know, to a meeting and, and just disseminating information differently.
many of our administrators have worked with teachers that just need the extra time to Plan.
we have literally paid for teachers to also have, You know, planning during the day.
we've used some of our federal funds so that we can provide some of that planning, Because that's really where, you know, teachers struggle when we ask that they have their
lesson plans ready and that they're ready to teach. And many times they're stretched. And they just don't really have the time.
so that is one way that our administrators have worked with our teachers to provide that Support.
also through our plcs we do that by collaborating and working together, We're stronger together in the same way that we're having to deal with budget cuts.
now we excuse me, we ask that administrators work with our teachers to give them that Time.
mentorship central office support. We're going to do all the things that we can.
we will be stretched, like I said, but we will continue to do what we can to support Individual teachers.
thank you miss. And I have another question that's more on the financial side.
when, when can the board receive updates on actual savings as compared to projected Savings?
just how often would we get that number? I'm just curious about that.
miss, miss, miss. I'm sorry. Yes. The financial statements are presented every month, But
expenditures are not ratable. So every month it's not the same amount of expenditures.
and so it's hard to see where you're at through at any point of the year.
if you're saving compared to the budget because it, It's constantly changing the
number enrolled, the attendance rate are huge parts of that change.
and certain expenditures come at certain times of the year.
and we don't have that budget laid out by an every day calendar.
so it's hard to see that, but you will have the financial statements every month to, To help with that,
we can give updates as we feel. I will have a better feel for it next year once I've been Through the entire
year here at the school district to know how the expenditures and revenues flow.
thank you. And my last question is regarding pertains to mccormick middle school and Johnson high school.
we know that we are as, as listed here, pushing the opening date for our comprehensive High school number four,
as well as our new middle school, which are going to ease the burden at mccormick middle School with those high numbers as well as johnson high school,
which in the case, especially with mccormick, Are experiencing just you know, a large number of students,
which as, as I mentioned, you know, will put extra burdens on educators. But how do those, how was, how will this address you know, As we push it back, how can we update those plans in
trying to mitigate the that growth at those schools. Yeah. So you're aware we added on to the building and then we added all the portable Classrooms.
would we add max total of, of eight total classrooms. And and so the like the demographers missed and we were supposed to be over 1300 this year At mccormick and we're still almost the
same amount that they had last year. And so we're still still below that, That number.
so I think we can go up around another 150 kids, But to keep it around a functional mark will
institute the cap and overflow model at some point. So once we get to that maximum number, then we will start routing kids to other middle School campuses that have open seats.
so like right now, dahlstrom, because of the aging neighborhoods, They are they have a lot of space.
barton's full wallace has some availability. Chopper has availability.
and simon's being added on to now. And they're they're going to be full once waterstone is Built out.
so we have the ability to flex and to cap an overflow to take care of that need until such Time as we can open up that next middle school.
yes, sir. So we could we could update those numbers. And obviously this obviously the I Know mr.
savoy is not here, but this will push back the rezoning that we were planning to do in the Next couple of years.
correct. Okay. Thank you. Again I just hope everybody understands that, You know, these were not easy decisions.
doctor wright. I thank you, you and your team for for going through this. And there was no easy way to do this. And my last question is, Let's just say that we continue our current spending levels and staffing levels into next
year. We don't change a thing. Where would we be in regards to our fund balance?
and for those listening, can can you mention what a fund balance actually is just for for Those listening and just in simple terms,
yeah, it's, it's our cash account to pay the bills. And if we were to do nothing, then we would be, We would be spending more than we're bringing in.
and so that would accelerate that time where we wouldn't have, You know, it would reduce the fund balance even greater than it's been reduced up to this
point. Yes, sir. I think I just want to, you know, Mention that, you know, there are what the alternative is.
and that's really the important thing to understand. What is the alternative to, You know,
having to make tough financial decisions, which is not easy. And I just want to, you know, bring that up because as if we deplete our fund balance too Low,
obviously the district will be in a very, very hard financial spot. Correct? Yes, sir. But again, thank you so much, Doctor wright.
that's all I have for now, but let me just and reemphasize when we say 100% hays cisd.
that's exactly what we mean. And we are going to get through this. I know trustee orosco went through as union president years ago went through this.
and here we are. And we are a, you know, a growing district.
we are fantastic. We have made strides and we will do that and we will end up better on The other end.
that is my that is my faith. But I have it. Thank you.
trustee. Sablan. Surprise. Okay there's no way to put this
other than this is awful. And june 2024 is my second board meeting.
and that was the first time going through budget cycle. And we were talking about just Shifting teachers from campuses. And I got emotional at that meeting. And so this is hard
because we, we treat everybody here as family and, And it sucks that these teachers are putting their heart and souls into the classroom
every single day and what they deal with on a daily level and asking them to do more with Less and across the board.
this isn't singling anybody out. It's, you know, We're trying to do this, like you said, with a scalpel and,
and making sure we're doing it the right way. We've been, we operated with a $17 million budget deficit in the 20 2223 school year.
and we've been slowly reducing that budget deficit each year, Trying, hoping that we would receive additional funding.
you know, we don't have a choice like a business or other governmental entities even to Increase revenue.
there's nothing we can't increase rates for water or you know, Any other aspects that people charge for services other than just minor
little things of, you know. Cost of renting facilities or, You know, minor things.
so our only choice at this point is to continue to cut where we can.
unfortunately, the biggest portion of our budget is salary. And so that's unfortunately where we're going to, To see cuts the most at this point.
so you know, I guess I'll just ask a simple question and start you know, If our budget is 89% salary
and we needed to cut that down, ideally we operate that at 85% roughly or even lower than That at some point.
but you know, why can't we just cut 4% salary across the board?
what prevents us from doing that? So you have to have, Especially at the secondary level specialized certifications,
and then you have the mandates for are your emergent bilingual population, Your special ed population.
and so you have to tailor the teachers that you keep. And so you can't just have a unilateral cut because it just, We wouldn't be able to function that way.
yeah. And there are contractual obligations as well, Right. With salaries and reducing cuts in salary is different than stipends because stipends are Annually renewable.
cost versus. That's right. We chose not to declare a financial exigency.
and so with that in mind, we, we have to target those areas that we have some flexibility.
and so that's why the decisions were made the way that they were.
and I know others have asked on this too, you know, And you laid it out pretty well at the end of your presentation as to why we need,
you know, our operating or our fund balance to be at 25%.
the other part we haven't talked about is we we had to go out for a tan earlier this year Which is basically we needed a payday loan is what we
said at the time. Is that no other words to, To put it in layman's terms in order to make sure that we made payroll then,
and, you know, I want to talk about what's potentially for the rest of this school year, But,
you know, we get paid once a year, basically in a lump sum, And then we get some payments throughout the year from the state. And so we're asked to
operate a $300 million budget on a very sporadic payment schedule.
and so operating a healthy with a healthy fund balance is critical for us to make sure That we meet the cash flow requirements throughout the year.
it's not like we can take that money. Ideally, Like a business would run is you would have a healthy fund balance,
you would have it invested into various funds, And you would be earning interest off those funds and be able to use that as another
source of revenue. We don't have that luxury because, You know, if we had $70 million in the bank.
we still need that as a cash flow balance item that you could not put in illiquid assets That you can't just grab.
correct. Okay. All right. All right. I'll just touch on.
I know miss runkle and others have touched on the key teams. Thank you, mr. Moffatt, for coming up and talking about that as well.
I think other options, you know, intramurals, You know, I talked about that before.
anything optional, you know, to get kids involved.
the end of the day, none of us want your 100% hays is there for a reason.
none of us want to lose sight of that. And what we're trying to do, Because having kids involved in extracurricular activities, no matter what it is, is
critical for them being you know, their attendance and all those other factors rotating Game day squads things that
are, you know, might not be off the table. You know, Your team may be stable, but your b team gets rotated as to what that looks like on game
day. Things. And we do that with, with dance teams. As far as you know, you may make the dance team, But you're not going to make all the actual squads for your actual routines.
and so different ways to look at that were some fine arts have kind of set some precedent For some of that ahead of time.
and again, you, you mentioned this earlier. Just want to be clear for everybody here too Master stipends for those that's part of their actual job
requirement. Can you give an example of, of what that might look like?
yeah. So if you're required to, to have a master's degree or 18 hours with 18 hours in Your content specialty with a
master's degree, and then you're, you're working for uti or for austin community college As well.
it helps us all. The research shows that our kids do better with a local instructor than They do from an adjunct that's coming in from outside that doesnt have that
relationship built. So yeah, we're going to, We're going to look at the continuity of those because it is specific to that content
area and it helps us with the dual credit. Yeah. Okay. So I just want to make sure everybody listening at home that, You know, if you have a master's degree,
you know, they've already been notified as to which stipends will be going away. But Something to keep in mind.
can you give some examples? Because we hear this about unfunded state mandates, Some examples of unfunded state mandates that we've received over the last few years that
have hurt us. Yeah. Like the, the mandate to have a certified police officer on every Single campus.
now they've increased funding for that, but there are about $1 million per year short.
in order for us to have a police officer at every single campus.
so that's that's one off the top of my head. And then second to last what are other Districts doing to make their budgets
work? Because everybody, we're not alone in this. Thankfully every other district around us is going through similar deficits and having to Make very difficult decisions like we are tonight.
so what are other districts doing? So the majority of the other districts in central Texas,
like leander has already passed a tree. Austin passed a tree.
pflugerville passed a tree. Most of them got ahead of the curve on the trees and passed That to,
to generate more money locally. But the vast majority of schools around us now are Consolidating campuses and closing schools.
because the flip side, I gave you the opening of the box cost. That same can be attributed if you close the box.
so if, you know, we're a fast growing school, Whereas a lot of them are not they've grown out and so they are reducing by closing
schools. You know you know, in the end, you know, Again, this is terrible in every which way and every single one of
these cuts are, are not going to be great. There's nothing that any of these that we want To do by choice.
big picture wise, I'm very thankful that we're doing this now in, In march, but it's, you know,
processes in june normally. And so thankfully, We're doing this in march and hopefully give people the opportunity to make the decision
that's best for their family. Like you said, I hope they continue to decide that hays cisd is still their best family.
but you know, for others, it may not be. And I'm glad they have that opportunity to make That decision what's best for them as they go forward.
but again, this is, this is not anything that we love doing. Not a single one of us is happy about this. You know, Trustee runkle touched on this, too.
you know, as to why we got here. You know, obviously there's a reasoning from the state Level we made.
I'll put it calculated risks decisions that that we were going to receive increase in Funding.
we invested in our staff. Those didn't come to fruition. And again, we've made $17 million of cuts to date to get back to a balanced budget this Year.
and now we're making additional 12 million to rebuild our fund balance. And that prior 17 million, you know, we heard some discussion of people coming in to talk Not nearly at the level we heard tonight,
frankly, because we've tried to keep those cuts outside of the classroom and away from Impacting students.
and unfortunately, we're no longer at that point. And every cut that we have to make today is going to impact students and teachers.
and that's the most awful part about it. But that's the reality of where we are.
so thank you to you and everybody on cabinet and staff and campus administrators and staff At our campuses as well,
for generally understanding the position that we're in and the work that they've done to Us,
understand that we're we're all rowing in this boat together.
and the best way we can for all of our students. So thank you. Trustee. Orosco. So this does take me back to
2011 and the cuts that were happening across the state.
and it was so difficult. I was union president, Was a teacher in the district.
we went to our meeting to find out there and then no advance notice that 200 teacher Positions alone were going to
be cut 200 alone. Today we talk about 125 positions that are going to be cut across the District,
whether it's teachers or paraprofessionals and through attrition.
but in 2011, it was 200 alone. And that's not everything that was cut.
we didn't have access to information. There was not that human component.
and it hurt. And as union president, I had to make sure to help all those employees try to Figure out how to get them back
on their feet, how to apply internally for the little positions that were left.
so it is a whole different way of thinking, the way the approach has been done this time.
doctor wright under your leadership and with your executive leadership, Not only have you met made it somewhat less painful.
yes, it is painful. Absolutely, I know how many tears there were back in 2011, And I know there's tears now and hurt,
but changing it from a three to a five year plan helps the district and helps our Employees and our students tremendously,
because we were going to look at $20 million worth of cuts this year alone.
we were going to cut 200 positions alone. Now, A lot of those positions, again are through attrition.
now we have it built out for five years. So we can look at cutting 12 million a year Instead of 20.
20 million is impossible not to touch every student and teachers out there.
so yes, there was some methodical strategic ways of trying to handle it the best way Possible.
is there a great way? Absolutely not. Do we want to lose any of these people when people Are at public comment?
talking about individuals, we're not. We're talking about positions.
and unfortunately, there's a human behind that position.
and I like that miss petri kind of brought this to light, But it's so important to understand that our superintendent and our
executive leadership, our cabinet, they are humans.
and when they were trying to come up with these recommendations, There was many sleepless nights from all of them and from the budget committee,
and there was lots of tears. And how can we do this differently? What can we do? There was so much angst around it because they are human and so it's very Upsetting.
like miss runkle said, and other board members have said it is very upsetting when you Hear misconceptions being perpetuated on social
media over and over. Acting like our superintendent and executive leadership are not Human.
we get no joy from making these hard cuts. No joy at all.
and like miss petri talked about, we are so fortunate to have doctor wright.
I travel the state of texas, meeting with superintendents and boards throughout over 1000 Districts that are out there,
and doctor wright is thought of as one of the most premier superintendents in the state of Texas,
and we are so fortunate to have his leadership. I have worked with five superintendents in this district as an employee, As a union president and as a trustee
and believe you me when I say that we have the best.
and like miss petrie said, he's been. People have been trying to poach him for years and Years since he started with us,
and he committed to hays cisd and he led us. And believe me, I know because I was there in the depths of hell of our
district. When people don't remember, not many people remember back then, Miss petrie, the depths of hell that we were in with so many
campuses that needed improvement, one that was almost taken over and doctor wright turned That around.
he built his team, turned it around, and we were not the laughing stock of districts in The central region anymore.
instead, we were sought after. People respect our district again because of the leadership Of doctor wright and his executive leadership.
so I will say that right now, right here. So you can put these misconceptions out there.
talk about salary all you want. But at the end of the day, If you didn't live it, you didn't know it.
you didn't feel the depths we were in with morale showing up in our turnover rate of 18%.
we need to look at history so we don't repeat ourselves. And it is so important to know where we have been so we never get there again.
people make it seem like it's so simple. It's so we just cut these cabinet people's Salary.
we just cut the superintendent salary. Our superintendent leads a district of over 3000 Employees with
25,000 students. Yes. He's not going to get paid $60,000 for making decisions that impact So
many students and families. So I stand firmly by our decision of that.
we have an amazing leadership team and superintendent, And I am so proud of the work that we have done and been strategic to increase salaries
for our employees. We are the most employee friendly organization in the state of texas.
and yes, these cuts hurt. And I will say blame us.
we'll take all the blame. If we were the only district in the state of texas going through These difficult times.
but we are not. There are districts all over the state of texas that like has been Mentioned,
are consolidating. Campuses are laying off, hundreds are shutting down.
all the libraries are cutting. Fine arts programs are shutting down football programs.
we are not. And our team has been very strategic and methodical in trying to do the least Amount of harm.
is it still harming some folks? Absolutely. Are we 100% perfect?
no, we are not. But it is important to see what we can control and what is out of our Control.
we have no control over what the state funds.
but how can we help? Because we're not just about blaming people and oh, Woe is me.
no, we need to take action. I always say actions speak louder than words.
and yes, it does talk. It does start with advocacy at the state level.
knowing who to talk to, knowing how to organize and advocate for public education.
yes, that is one way. But what other ways can our families help?
making sure that our attendance increases. Making sure that students attend school.
so we are not at 93% because every percentage is tied to money.
and yes, we don't want our kids to go to school sick. Yes, it is more than money. It's about learning as well because our students are not Learning when they are not at school.
another simple way to help is filling out those lunch form forms.
that also helps with funding those campuses and being eligible for title money.
so those are simple things that can be done. And then the fourth thing that can be done is Votes.
because even though we had over 6000 people that voted on this vader doctor wright.
if we look at all the list of people that voted.
it would be interesting to see. Because you know what?
your vote is on record, not how you voted, but if you voted so, Yes, please come tell us your concerns.
tell us your thoughts, but please make sure that you voted.
your vote matters. And those are four simple ways that you can help.
and I'm going to I'm going to disagree with you, Miss petri. You said it's an unpopular vote about doctor wright.
yes. Unpopular opinion. But you know what? That's a handful of naysayers that don't know Our school district,
that don't know public education and will never support public education and that have not Shown it.
so the people that are critics, what have you done?
how have you contribute to a better society? So thank you, Doctor wright and your leadership.
I can say more and more and address all of these misconceptions that were shared.
but I will tell you doctor wright, one thing I want to highlight is that seeing this Presentation in isolation can be confusing for people.
and that's why we have people coming to public comment because they see cuts to library Cuts to that.
so I am so glad that you took the time to go over the rationale behind it and what we are Doing
to combat some of the negative impact from those cuts.
that's important, and I hope that if you still have questions that you go back and listen To that part of the video where doctor wright addresses
some of those things. How did we get there? What's the rationale behind it?
how are we going to alleviate some of those stressors there?
like having, you know, for example, the service cuts, We love sis, but we needed to cut some things,
but we have social workers ready to go in place. So no, we have been thoughtful, methodical, and we have asked all the questions, All the questions probably
doctor wright can tell you. We have asked a million questions because we want what is best For our district as well.
these are our kids. All 25,000 of them are our kids as well.
so again, thank you for the folks that came out to share with us, Because that gave us the opportunity to make sure to address it during doctor wright's
presentation. Thank you, doctor wright. I am so proud that you are a superintendent with a Five superintendents that I have worked with,
and all the superintendents I meet across the state. You are the most humble, generous, thoughtful superintendent with an amazing leadership Team that follows suit.
and I can't say that about all other superintendents that I've worked with in this District.
so we are better today. We can be stronger together if we unify and work on addressing Some of these
issues at hand. Thank you. Yeah, y'all, this is this is heavy.
you know, doctor wright, after hearing you going through the detail of all of this, I.
I just want to say it out loud. You know, this stuff is cuts for now, But might not cuts forever,
right? So, you know, we're going to have to look at these things as we go along for the Next few years to monitor what's working, what's not. We have to come back and make some
adjustments. But right now, you know, this is what you've laid out for us and it's been Thoughtful.
I appreciate the sports context, the history, Historical context for some of us haven't been here as long as you had,
especially mr. Orosco. When you hear back when we went through this back in 2015 2011, Sorry you know,
I have some thoughts, you know, this board is really smart. I have to write everything down or I tend to go off on a fishing trip or something at the End.
so I'm just going to read a little bit. So just bear with me. I just wanted to say a few Things.
you know, I do believe that, that, that we are committed to managing this district's Financial responsibility through transparency and most importantly,
by protecting the high quality education we provide to every student, Our fast growth district.
these targeted budget reductions are difficult, But I think are necessary steps required to halt the ongoing depletion depletion of our
fund balance and begin rebuilding the financial reserves to a healthy, Sustainable level.
hays cisd is not alone in making these these decisions and these challenges across school Districts,
across the state. We've mentioned this tonight. We are facing the same challenges we are.
I'm not saying that that's okay. I'm just just I'm just saying it. We're not alone. You know, our fund balance, We've talked about that a lot tonight is that's what serves our districts like savings
accounts, so to speak, to enable us to manage cash flow for our payroll operations and Unexpected needs in the times in which we're not getting that money from the state.
throughout the summer months in the fall. So it's important that we, That we, that we build that fund balance back up.
I mean, I just want to say that I press, I want to express our deepest gratitude to our, To our dedicated teachers,
staff and organizational representatives. I mean, Your unwavering commitment to our students in the face of what we're presenting is,
is pretty amazing. You've come here to speak to us. I just want to say thank you for that. It's not easy to do.
I know it's hard. I know what you're hearing is not easy. And I want you to know this board feels that this is very heavy that we're going through This,
but, you know, together, we're going to have to figure out a way to get through this path. And we're going to lean on each other,
lean on each other to do that. Again, thank you, Doctor wright, for your leadership.
I know you and your administration, you know, Didn't take any of these things lightly. I know you definitely invested countless hours.
I mean, miss summers, you know, I'm pretty sure you haven't been here. You know, You've left ngowork before 10:00 pretty much every day since you've gotten here.
I know the rest of your team has done the same thing, And I know it takes a lot to get to where we're at today. I'm thankful that these cuts are
not as big as what we thought we were going to have to do. And so the thoughtful Leadership and spreading those out over a few years,
I think is going to help us out. I would like to thank our philip, My fellow trustees.
I mean this group, the collaborative side of this group, You know, behind the scenes.
and we do a lot of good work together and on this dais. And I don't think that without them our focus would be, You know, anything, what it is except for,
you know, what's good for this community, what's good for the education of kids. So we Have a really smart team here.
and I just want to thank you guys. I just want to go back and just kind of again, Just to just kind of recap some stuff,
you know, the moment that this board realized that we're not getting relief from the State,
you know, we adopted a balanced budget. We have not adopted a balanced budget in this District.
and I think quite some. I mean, ever. I don't know, But once we realized that like, we, we were like,
okay, we're this is what we're doing and we're going to have to make, We're going to have to make these decisions. I do believe that we remain watchful of your
public dollars while managing explosive enrollment growth, Inflation and rising costs.
and just to recap, you know, 22% inflation over the past five years.
I know this board is also through compression is also lowered our tax rate by $0.31 over The past five years.
our dedicated our continued dedication to our teachers and staff over the past five years Where knowing we,
we own that we were, you know, providing an average of 5% pay increases on average from The midpoint for the past five years,
thinking that the state was going to come through with the funding. So yes, To trustee runkle point,
like we we do own that, but I'm not I'm okay with that. I would probably do that again. I think that was important for morale and taking care of Our teachers and staff because,
you know, before you got here, I mean, I don't have any context of that, But but you know,
but I believe that, you know, you've righted the ship, So to speak.
you know, the primary drivers for this long, Long standing structural issues at the state level is just our basic general basic
allotment. You know, we haven't received that increase unfunded mandates.
we touched on that earlier. You know, but I do want to say that I'm very appreciative to Our community for your past support through our bond elections,
which have helped us address this fast growth. What we've this fast growth decision, we've opened four, Five schools under your leadership.
we've taken our instructional model from elementary schools to 900 kids per elementary School.
we've taken our middle school instructional. Our student to 1200 and our, Our, our high schools to 2800.
those were at seven 2922 50, I believe, before you got here.
so a lot of that and a lot of that takes a lot of planning and time. Like to thank our facilities bond oversight committee. Putting those bonds together is not An easy thing to do.
but we set ourselves up now where every every one of our elementary schools is being is Our to our educational model.
our same with our middle schools and now our high schools.
and I'm thankful for our community to support for that because we, We, we are, we do go out and ask our community,
hey, we need to do this. Do you support it? And they have been very supportive of that.
and I want to say thank you to the thank you to them. But however, like to our point, your bonds cannot fully fund our daily operations.
you know, by not passing the tree, it would result in some reductions. After the vote, our administration worked through the budget carefully and came up with What was presented to you before.
this was not done in a vacuum. It took a lot of time. It took a lot of energy, a lot of, again, countless nights and energy to make sure that What we were doing is,
is painful. It's heavy, but it's, it's I, it's strategic.
and what we're doing for right now. You know, I do believe that every decision has been made with student impact on the forefront.
we are prioritizing attrition, reassignments and reductions in specific areas to protect Classroom instruction as much as possible.
while these choices are painful, we remain resolute in our advocacy at the state level for A meaningful increase in the basic allotment,
full funding of mandates and equitable support for fast growing districts.
as a board, our singular focus is delivering the best possible education for every child In hays cisd.
we will continue working diligently through the budget cycle to support our exceptional Staff,
maintain strong instructional programs, and position the district for long term stability And success and success.
we invite our community to remain engaged as we finalize the 2026 2027 budget.
mike, we got I moved to this. I moved to hays county in 2006.
I've put two kids through this, the school district from kinder to graduation.
I was an oil brat, so I was all over the country in world growing up. So I didn't, I don't, I didn't get to stay in one district forever.
and this is the only school district that I've ever loved. And I know a lot of our trustees here also feel the same way.
I also want to just reiterate that these decisions are not done like taken lightly.
they're not done in a vacuum. It's a lot of collaboration and I appreciate the Thoughtfulness that we put this together.
so. Okay. With that being said I'm going to the suggested motion is I'm going to move that The hays cisd board of
trustees accept the preliminary budget decisions for the 2026 2027 fiscal year as Presented and discussed,
second by trustee petrie. Any further discussions, Mr.
vela? Yeah. First of all, I feel like we've gone through every emotion that you can Possibly go through in these last,
I don't know, a couple of hours, but so thank you for all the insight and all the input.
I do want to go back to the question that trustee flores asked about how do we get the Report?
I know you said we get the monthly the monthly statements.
how can how can we boil those down to just some basics? Because I don't, I don't want to wake up and say, Oh, it's, you know, june 1st and we're going to get this lump sum of money. Like we
there's got to be some accruals or things. How can we come up with a tool, Some kind of dashboard that,
that gives that accountability and transparency to ourselves and to our community?
there's, we're in the solutions business. So how can we do something like that? And we may not have the answer right now. Doctor wright. But yeah, School finance is very complicated.
yes, ma'am. You're not going to be able to see at any point in time that you feel Confident.
we we can measure it as much as we can try. But you're not you're not going to be able to See
it because it's just it's not readable, not the revenues, Not the expenditures.
so we can estimate, we can estimate. And but that's what a budget is.
that's what a budget is. And so we're trying to plan for how that's going to turn out at The end of the year.
but as every day goes on, this is this is a, A large district with millions and millions and millions and
millions of dollars floating in and out all the time.
and so you're never going to be able to just pinpoint it. But that's what a budget is. It is trying to help us see what that's going to be.
and so we're planning on saving $12.2 million on the budget.
and we'll we'll continue to bring those financials.
so we'll start off with 12.2 should this pass 12.2 in savings.
so that will be earmarked. And our assumptions will be we're going to go with the the new Demographer's report.
and so the assumption will be be that. So if that tracks.
and we'll assume that the attendance rate will be 93%. If that tracks, then you should realize that at the end of the year, But there have to be adjustments made based on that throughout the year because those
variables change. Yeah. Thank you again. And I'm not trying to be difficult.
I just there's got to be something that we can put eyes on. I get it. Millions of dollars. I mean, I've worked for billion dollar corporations. I'm Not scared of million dollars of of a district.
there's got to be something that we can do. And it could be projections. It could be something we're calling some options, But there has to be some kind of dashboard that can be dumbed down for lack of better
words. I'm not a, I'm not in public finance. I'm not in, You know, education, budgeting, other than what we do on our,
on our annual budget as a, as a trustee, but as a member of this community, There's got to be something that I can look at and say,
you know what? The district is tracking in the right way. So if it is daily average daily attendance and how we're doing with our demographer, Then I'm just going to make a suggestion that we have some kind of dashboard on that.
maybe it's the superintendent's report. I'm probably getting a little long winded, But we've got to have something that I can put eyes on that john q taxpayer can put eyes
on and say, you know what? The district is trending in the right way when it comes to the Financial $12.2 million.
mr. Carson, do you have some comments to that? Thank you. Yes, I do. As has been shared, 88% of our expenditures are in salary.
and in identifying the savings here, the majority of this is in positions and every Position has a position
control number. And we are going to be tracking every position control number that is Deleted
from our system because it doesn't exist in the next school year.
so I'm going to be tracking every single pcn position control number for positions that Are eliminated.
and we have a report of every single individual that had been receiving these incentives Or stipends.
I can show you exactly who that impacted and how that is going away. Those are the things that I can show you on the hr side in terms of personnel.
are those pcn numbers and, and the and not having those stipends on, On record.
thank you, miss corson. And again, not to belabor this, But great.
so we can track the pcns. I don't think we need everybody's individual story, But I mean,
can we tabulate that? I and maybe I'll ask for a second later on, But there's got to be some kind of dashboard that we can create that,
that shows us that our budget to actuals already paint that picture. And the only difference is, is we don't have the assumptions on there.
yes, sir. So like if we just have the demographers projections and the attendance Projections,
then the, the budget to actuals that you get monthly, They should, they should paint a really good picture for us.
so we can look at that. Okay, great. Yes. I know again we're in the solutions business.
and so thank you for putting all of these bright minds together. I just want something simple that we can look at and hold ourselves accountable. As well As again,
anybody coming to a meeting or having a question, They can see that trajectory. So thank you.
president. Okay, we have a motion and a second.
all those any further discussion? All those in favor?
aye. Any opposed? Motion carries seven zero. Team.
it is 938. Do you want to take a five minute break and then come back to the dais?
great. We'll take a five minute break. We'll be we'll be right back.
time seven, five, seven minutes. Sure. It's 938.
thank you. Okay, team, we are. We are back and ready to go.
we're going to kick it off on k one on page 25.
this is the consideration of possible approval to seek waivers from the texas education Agency to provide remote general education,
homebound instruction. Mr.. Take it away. All right. Good evening. Board members, board president and doctor wright.
so we are asking the board to approve a remote homebound instruction waiver from the, From the texas
education agency for two of our students who are immuno compromised.
and so again, the the differential here, and I think we've done this in the past. It's really for two of our gen ed students. This will allow our students to be counted Present in accordance with the 2526 student attendance accounting handbook.
thank you. Tim, look to my left. Any questions from studio, Am I right?
no. Okay, tim, I move that the hays cisd board of trustees approved the request to seek Waivers from the texas education agency to provide remote general education homebound
instruction as presented and discussed. Second by trustee orosco.
any further discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries seven zero. Moving on to k-2 on page 27.
this is the consideration of possible approval of the purchase of instructional resources For secondary math.
mcgraw hill. Mr. Daniels, thank you for coming to the mic. Take it away. Thank you. President. This is for our secondary math adoption.
mcgraw-hill is the recommendation for six through algebra two.
this is a separate funding source through the instructional materials review and Allotment,
the new funding source that started two three years ago with the legislative session.
just to give you a quick reminder, that's $40 per kid per year, Which equates to about $1 million.
it does roll over and build. We currently have about 2.6 million in that account.
we are saving because next year is our big elementary literacy adoption, Which is by far our biggest instructional materials adoption.
and so this is for secondary math. Mcgraw-hill was recommended by our teacher committee.
we had about 25 to 30 teachers, administrators, Instructional coaches, instructional facilitators.
and it was the recommendation 9 to 0. Everybody recommended mcgraw-hill.
thank you. Team, look to my right. Any questions for daniels can look to my left.
just. Thank you so much. Thank you everybody, I appreciate it.
I move that the hays cisd board of trustees approved the purchase of instructional Resources for secondary math from mcgraw hill for an amount not to exceed 680
$656,886 as presented. Second by trustee vela.
any further discussion? All those in favor? Aye.
motion. What? Thank you. Motion carries seven zero.
we can get through this a lot quicker. Let's go. Alright. We're going to move on to k3 on page 32.
this is the consideration of possible approval of the guaranteed maximum price for 2025 Bond renovations and additions at fuentes elementary school team.
I want to remind you that we've already approved schematic designs for this.
we've already approved the sds for this. We've already approved the design development.
we've already approved the design to date. This is just now the approval of the price.
the maximum price. I believe. Max, you have some good news for us. Yes, Sir. The gmp. Yes, on page 34. That's the that's the the cost journey.
the one thing I want to say here is we are a little bit over budget on this one.
we are doing an additional parent drop off loop.
that was sort of guided by the city. It's going to make it a whole lot better for traffic Around there.
and then there were some off site drainage that we during schematic did not account for.
and then as you can see on page 34 it, if you look very closely, The budget for from 100% cd to gmp went up about
200,000 and that was from the 2023 carry forward. For the freezer cooler and the parking lot repair because we didn't want to do that work And then mess it up during construction.
so the total the total cost for the project is the seven or excuse me, The construction cost 17,000,002 56,
971. But the total budget is going to be coming in less than what we conceptually Estimated at the beginning of the project.
we're just over the total budget is a little higher. It went from 18 751. We added the 2023 bond back to it.
we we had purposefully pulled out some 2023 bond elements and added them to the current Project.
and so that's why I was explaining. That's why the the budget went up from 100% cd.
yeah. No, I'm talking about the when the origination, When we put this budget together is less than what we originally thought.
this entire project of 26 million. Yes. $28 is going to turn out to be.
yes, sir. For the conceptual estimate to gmp is a lot less. Right. So this is good news. It's just different. A little bit up from the cd.
okay. Yes, sure. Okay, team. I moved that the hays cisd board of trustees approved the gmp Provided by bartlett construction for the 2025 bond renovations and additions at
fuentes elementary school, as designed both by o'connell robertson architects.
in the amount not to exceed $17,256,971 as presented second by trustee runkle.
any further discussion? Mr. Runkle? Yeah, I just want to clarify that because you started Off by saying we were over budget and we are not.
so I just want to make sure that the public hears that and didn't hear the first part of That and only that.
okay. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. We were $200 over budget from the from the cd that we Did,
but we already talked about this good news in our previous item. So okay, we have any more discussion? All right, Team, all those in favor?
any opposed? Motion carries seven zero. All right. Moving on to item number k four on page 37. This is the consideration of possible approval Of the guaranteed maximum price for the 2025 bond additions and renovations at wallace
middle school. Again, I'd like to remind the team that the board reviewed the design and.
and back in 2024, we approved the sd for this project in october 28th of 24, And the board approved the design to date for the project and on december 8th of 2025.
max. Anything else to add? Just on page 38 is the cost journey and this one is also in Budget.
all right team, I move that the hays cisd board of trustees approve the gmp from bartlett Construction for the 2025 bond additions and renovations at wallace middle school,
as designed by o'connell robertson architects, For an amount not to exceed 19,351,000 $301,392 as presented.
second by trustee vela. Any further discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries seven zero.
all right, team, we're on to k5 on page number 41.
this is a consideration of possible approval of the right of way and easements to the city Of buda for a connector road at johnson high school.
max, can you want to give us a little recap on this project? Yes, sir. We have jason andrews from huckabee and lexi englund, Our civil engineer here.
these next three items are theirs. But on page 30, Excuse me, 42 is the the drawing that sort of highlights everything.
the items in yellow are the items being requested in this particular item for the city of Buda.
it's the actual road that will connect from our property up through the newly acquired Property to the cul de sac connecting into the new subdivision.
so there's a road, a right of way easement, and then also a pedestrian easement that they Are requesting.
thank you. Max, look to my right. The christian mr. Runkle. This is pretty standard, right? Yes, ma'am. Okay.
is this how are we on our permit? We have gotten past the tce permit, I believe, or really close.
what we are now faced with on page, you can see on page 42, There's this little line in purple that is a drainage easement that is
going to be required by permit for the from the city of buda across the neighbor's Property that we are working on next.
okay. All right. So we're moving along. We are moving along. Wonderful. Thank you. Anything else? Team? Okay.
so, max, this is do you have an estimated estimated completion date for this project?
I don't want to misspeak, so I would if I can have a little time. I can get you a real date. Yeah, I like to. I like to see that if I like, I like to, I like to see that I do,
I do believe this is a project that we're going to need to kind of help some of that Congestion. Johnson. So we look forward to hearing that. All right team. I move that the
hays cisd board of trustees grant access easements and right of way to the city of buda For a connector road at johnson high school and authorize the superintendent and board
president to negotiate and execute documents necessary and convenient to complete the Transaction as presented.
second by trustee petrea. Any further discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Opposed. Motion carries seven zero on page 43 is going to be k Six.
this is the consideration of possible approval of grant utility easements to the city of Austin for water service at our hays cisd comprehensive high school.
number four. This is a long runway that we're getting ahead of. These are just steps we have to get through. So.
yes, sir. Max, I just want to remind the board that we did approve the schematic design For this.
in october of 24, board approved this design development april 25th, And the board approved the joint development and cost allocation agreement with sunville
development and austin water to provide infrastructure back in december of 25.
max was going to give us a little more background if we need it. Yes, sir. I think the main things to look at are the.
on page 48. It's the actual survey sketch of the vault that the austin water will be Putting in.
again, on page 48. And then on page let's see here.
and then on page 59 is the actual survey sketch of the water line.
both of them. Austin is a little bit formal, Not not more formal than travis county, but there are some affidavit of liens and things
in this agenda that you will actually be part of the process is to get those signed.
and that's, again, this is also a pretty mundane routine thing that we've done before for Water lines,
but just a little more formal with the affidavits. Just a starting point to get this process moving in the long lead time needed to do that.
okay, team I move that the hays cisd board of trustees grant utility easements to the city Of austin and authorize the superintendent and or board president to negotiate and execute
documents necessary and convenient to complete the transaction as presented.
second by trustee runkle. Any further discussion?
all those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries seven zero.
all right. We'll move on to k seven on page 63.
this is the consideration and possible approval to grant right of way to travis county for Improvements at turnersville road for 2025 bond comprehensive high school number four
team. This is a. We've already approved this schematic design. On october 24th, the board approved the designs development in april of 2025, And we also approved the joint development and cost allocation agreement with sunville
development austin water in december of 2025. And then in january of 26, we approved the guaranteed maximum price for this project.
max, take it away. Yes, sir. So on page 69. That kind of shows the actual limits, The survey limits.
and so this is for the improvements on turnersville road associated with high school four.
and then also the deceleration lane and center turn lane on main street when it gets Constructed.
and so that's really, that's really all of that.
it's again, pretty standard stuff with the exception of the, You know, the formalities.
and in this case, the formality was we actually had to prove that we, That we, that we owned it.
and so it was just really formal. And this is just setting ourselves up for down the road.
we have to build this project that we've got enough space to, To put this road in.
that would be wright, that deceleration lanes, The acceleration lanes on those, those streets.
okay. Thank you. I move that the hays cisd board of trustees grant right of way to travis County for improvements to turnersville road and authorize the superintendent and or board
president to negotiate and execute documents necessary or convenient to complete the Transaction as presented.
second trustee sibel, any further discussion? Mr. Flores, just a quick question. Question mark.
so just so the public understands the pro rata cost, It's based on usage, correct?
in regards to the future traffic light. That's correct.
and can we just get updates on any on the timeline for completion based on what was voted On earlier?
yes, sir. The new opening of the high school just to the completion of this project, Just going forward.
yes, sir. That's it. Thank you. All right. We have a motion and a second team.
any further discussion? All those in favor? Aye.
any opposed? Motion carries seven zero. Thank you.
thank you, mr. Cleaver. All right, team, we're on k eight.
this is a board matter to conduct an election for place five on the education service Center region.
13 board of directors. I know we had some. We don't have to do anything replace to.
but we do have two candidates for place five.
does anybody have any recommendations or like to suggest a motion for this one?
mr.. Runkle. No, I'm just going to say that I'm personally not comfortable on voting on Either of these individuals.
I don't know them. All I have are resumes, but nothing behind that.
and I, that's not how I vote on things. So I'm not comfortable voting for people that I Don't know.
so that's, that's my, my take. Yep. And team, This is like, we don't, we don't have to take action on this.
we can, we don't have to, we don't have to. We don't have to know if you were so inclined To vote.
the incumbent, don rogers, is the former superintendent for ins isd and is the has been The president for the texas rural education association.
he's a he's a really good guy. He's been the chair of that board and has done an Outstanding job.
you don't have to take any action. But if you were to vote on one, That's who I would recommend.
we would like to make a motion. All right. Team would like to make a motion. I'd like to.
the suggested motion is that this board nominate and nominate don rogers for place number Five to serve as a region 13 board of directors.
moved by mrs. Second petrea. Second by trustee.
vela. Any further discussion? All those in favor?
aye. Any opposed? One motion carries six one.
congratulations. Mr. Rogers, you are. You are now elected from hays cisd for place five For region 13.
okay, we've already done canine, y'all. Moving on to our earl.
informational items. Miss skrocki, do you have any you have any updates for us on on one.
thank you. All right. On l2. Max, do you have anything on your district bond construction Updates?
I know that nate submitted us online or on board blog that the updates for this for this, For this meeting,
so I appreciate that. Anything else to add to that? No, sir. Not nothing prepared. Just that written document.
okay. Thank you. Tim on l3 on page 87 reviewing discussion with 20 2626 budget calendar.
does anybody have any questions on the budget calendar? Miss runkle? Yes, miss summers and you don't have to answer this right now.
you may need to come back. But on under march of 2026, There are some items here that have not been quite completed yet.
so I don't know if this calendar needs to be adjusted a little bit.
but there's some things that have not come to us. That's on the budget calendar. It is a draft of the budget calendar.
it's flexible. It'll change. And, and the we kind of had to get tonight out of the way Before we really
started implementing the the effect on the dollar. Okay. So a couple of the items that are in march, You're just pushing those to april.
which items are you specifically referring to? Contracts. April. Okay, perfect. Thank you, thank you.
that's all I have. Yeah. Thank you. Mr.. Runkle. This is I should preface this. This is a draft calendar.
this is the first look that we're going to have with this for so far this year. So some of The stuff is going to be fluid moving around depending on what we've done tonight with the
budget. So just be patient and we can definitely make sure that we get this stuff moved to The right bucket when we need to. Okay.
l4 on page 90. Financial statements. Anybody have any questions for miss amazon on this on Financial statements this evening?
no. Okay. Item m request for information from the board of trustees team.
and we have any questions that haven't been asked that we want to add to mr. For tonight. Mr.. Mr.. Miss. Runkle. Trustee.
runkle. Oh, raul, will you let trustee. Runkle borrow your mic?
okay. Pick it up that way. Can you please. Oh, No, it doesn't work.
don't pick it up. Okay. Miss tech? Yes. Can you please provide an update on upward Communities?
thank you. Okay, team our upcoming board meeting is going to be next april 20th at 5:30 P.m..
if there's no further objections, we're going to be adjourned tonight at 10:10 p.m..
good job. Thank you for letting me get through this. Thank you.