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Notice that a quorum is present. I hereby call this work study meeting, of the Board of Trustees,

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a Katie and a Penn school district ordered. Today is Monday, September 15, 2025, and the time is 5pm. Dr. Gregorski, will you verify,

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that we are in compliance with the provisions of Texas Open Meeting Zach with regard to the notice for this meeting?

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Mr. Rebman, I do confirm we're in compliance with the provisions of the Texas Open Meeting Zach for the meeting tonight.

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Thank you.

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KDISD police officer Robert Lister will lead us in the pledges of allegiance tonight.

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A pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for

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which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

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Honor the Texas flag, a pledge allegiance to the Texas, one state, under God, one, indivisible.

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Thank you.

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Do we have any scouts in the audience this evening?

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No, we do not.

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This time the Board of Trustees will give members of the public an opportunity to speak in accordance with KDI's deep board policy, BED local.

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As defined by Board policy, speakers who signed up by 2 p.m. on Monday, September 15th provided their first last name, mailing address,

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list the number of specific agenda items they tend to address.

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whether they reside in KDIC and if they have children in KDIC schools will be allowed to address the board.

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Speakers that fail to sign up in advance with required information will not be called to speak.

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We need to, we need to update this, right?

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This is update without we're doing it now.

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We've made some changes.

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So tonight, if you signed up by 2 p.m., you're eligible to speak whether you showed up and signed in or not.

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Speakers who signed up to speak on posted agenda items will be allowed three minutes to speak.

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If a speaker is not finished speaking at the end of their three minutes, the audio will turn off.

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If speakers wish to share written material with the board, please provide 10 copies to the secretary for board services before the meeting begins for board members of the superintendent, the chief communications officer and permanent record.

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If a speaker is not attempted to solve a matter administratively through proper channels as stated in board policy,

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residing officers as initial advised the speaker to seek resolution through the appropriate policy.

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Finally, pursuance to Texas government code section 551.074 and 551.0821, the board will not permit the presentation of personally identifiable information regarding a student and will not discuss the appointment, employment, evaluation, reassignment duties, discipline, or dismissal of a public officer or employee, or to hear complaint or charge against an officer or employee.

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Should a speaker wish to address one of these issues they must do so through the appropriate

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local grievance policy, FNG local, DGBA local, CKE local or GF local.

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Our speakers will be called forward in the order they sign up to speak.

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Tonight we have two speakers on agenda items.

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The first is Sandy Quavis, followed by Carrie Lowry.

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Good evening, members of the board.

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My name is Sandy Quevas.

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KDI is shaped me as a student and now as a parent and teacher.

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I want to make sure it continues to give every child

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the same opportunities I had.

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I love this community, and I'm deeply invested in the success

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of our schools, not only for my own children,

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but for every student who walks into our classrooms each day.

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I'm here to respectfully voice my opinion to the proposal

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that would allow the superintendent to submit a waiver to exceed

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the 22-to-1 student-to-teacher ratio.

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As a parent, I can tell you firsthand that class size already impacts my children.

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They come home telling me how noisy it can be and how hard it is to focus and how difficult it is to get the help they need when so many other students are demanding the teacher's attention.

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Their experiences reflect what we know to be true. Smaller class sizes create better learning environments.

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As a teacher, I see the other side of the struggle every day. With every additional student the time I'm able to spend helping guiding and encouraging each child decreases.

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It doesn't matter how dedicated or experienced a teacher is when you stretch too thin, the

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quality of education suffers and our students deserve better than just enough.

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They deserve the best that we can give them.

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Approving this waiver may seem like a quick fix to enrollment challenges, but the cost will

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be paid for by our children.

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Larger class sizes means less individualized support, more distractions, and more students

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slipping through the cracks.

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This is not the kind of education that KDI-Z is known for, and not what our families want for their children.

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Instead of increasing class houses are Earth's district and the state to pursue real solutions.

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Hiring more teachers and paraprofessionals, exploring creative uses space to create more classrooms,

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improving teacher retention by offering competitive pay, manageable workloads, and

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strong support systems, and advocating at the state level for increased funding.

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We don't need to lower the standard by waiting class house limits.

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we need to raise the bar by investing in real sustainable solutions that put kids first.

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I urge you tonight to stand with parents, teachers, and most importantly students

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by rejecting this waiver request.

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Let's keep class sizes at a level where true learning can happen.

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Where children feel seen and supported,

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and where teachers can continue to give the high-quality education this district's prize itself on.

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If we want KDIZ to remain a district of excellence,

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We must keep class sizes small enough for excellence to happen.

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Thank you.

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Next will be Carrie Lowry.

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Good evening, trustees, President Redmond, Dr. Gagorski, cabinet members, fellow employees in the KD community.

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My name is Carrie Lowry, and I'm a proud 25 year employee of KDISD, a graduate of KISD and a parent of two KISD graduates.

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Tonight, we will hear about the rising cost of health care.

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I don't think anyone realistically expects to pay less.

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However, when we're asked to pay more and the quality of what we're getting is less than

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what we should expect to access, given our 8,000 members and being minutes from the

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finest medical center in the world, we have a problem.

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We are losing teachers to surrounding districts who might pay more for insurance but get better

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benefits.

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Our plan is creating delays, denials, confusion, and frustration for employees.

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When you go to our benefit site and you look for an in-network provider, you can find a list.

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But if you call, you're often provided with a different list.

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I personally have then called KDISD and received a third list that was different from the first two.

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Employees sometimes find that when they go to the appointment, they're turned away with information that they're not on that Memorial Hermann Plan.

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This is creating a delay in care.

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In network doctors, sometimes request tests to gain more information towards the course of care.

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It would be assumed that those tests would be covered.

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We're finding denial of those tests is occurring too often.

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One employee passed out several times at work, was told to go to the ER, then told the

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good work cardiologist.

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He did, and was told he needed a stress test.

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Etna has denied his test, so he's trying to find the cheapest place to get a stress test

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to pay out a pocket.

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Another employee paid out a pocket for an ultrasound after her annual breast exam warranted it, and

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it was denied.

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My own husband is having an 8-12-hour surgery on Wednesday, and his cardiologist wanted

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him to receive a stress test before his surgery to be sure his heart was functioning well

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enough to withstand the surgery. It was denied. We don't have time to file an appeal, wait

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for a peer-to-peer review, be denied again, so he will undergo the surgery on Wednesday

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without that assurance. My husband has stage 4 bladder cancer. We started going to the

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ER and doctors in February, and it took three months to get this diagnosis. I'm convinced

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that if the test ordered an early March, we're conducted then, we would be facing a less

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daunting future. Even a PET scan was denied. Two appeals, peer-to-peer review, we paid the

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two thousand dollars out of pocket so that our oncologists could make the best plan for my husband.

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I was told by Katie by ISD Benefits Administrator that we would get it covered.

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It has not been covered.

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I hope what I hope that you hear from me most is this is not just about the money.

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We're asking for a plan that values access, timelines, and quality of care, not just lower premiums on paper.

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Please consider bringing back the Benefits Advisory Committee to give employees a voice in their health care.

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Explore options that expand access to providers, balance cost control with quality so we don't lose good people over health care.

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We don't mind paying more if it means we get better care, but right now we're paying more in getting less.

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And I'll be honest with you, nothing hurts me more than watching amazing teachers who love Katie and our kids,

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leave because they feel like their health and their families' health are worth more somewhere else.

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Thank you.

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Thank you.

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This concludes the open form portion of our meeting.

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The board will now convene in close meeting as authorized under section 551.001 of the Texas government code for the following purposes.

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Texas government code 551.071 551.076 and 551.129.

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One too many Cheetos.

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The board will now reconvene in an open meeting today is Monday, September 15, 2025, and the time is 6.32 p.m.

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On behalf of my colleagues, I welcome everyone to this evening's work study meeting.

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Each board member received the agenda and documentation for this meeting on Wednesday, September 10th, 2025.

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The board will receive information and recommendations from staff, administration, and the superintendent on these agenda items at tonight's meeting.

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Board members will be asked to ask questions, be able to ask questions, receive answers, and should be prepared to take action, although we won't be taking action tonight.

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The board is just reconvened from close meeting in accordance with chapter 551 of the Texas government code any action arising from

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Discussions and a close meeting must be taken in an open meeting

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We'll move on to section six or item 6.1 KDI STA I administrative road map for innovation in efficiency with our presenter

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Dr. John Laune Laune chief information officer

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deepening President Reitman, Superintendent Gregorsky, and board members. Tonight I

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want to share with you the KDISD AI Administrative Roadmap for innovation and

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efficiency. Education has evolved with technology over the years. We started with

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the internet in the 90s and then moved to mobile devices and and bring your own device in the

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tens and one-to-one Chromebooks and cloud access in the 20s. Today we are entering a new era of

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AI automation. And it is not just the next tool. We think it is the next chapter in how

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schools operate.

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AI is already quietly improving our district and making an

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impact with productivity and document integration, operational support with

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book reviews or processing invoices and with access to AI tools like

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co-pilot, Gemini, and Chat GPT, and in advanced platforms created by KDISD to drive AI model

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development.

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Here are some examples.

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The black screen on the upper left corner shows how the district built AI agent cut whip

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filtering, helped this tickets turn around time as soon as it went life.

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Also, on the opposite corner, librarians are using locally developed AI agents to review

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books in accordance with our policies and and and laws.

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AI is already integrated into applications and available to staff on the micated cloud.

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Today, we're taking the first step of many into the era of AI automation with the KDISD,

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AI administrative for innovation and efficiency.

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This initiative emphasizes administrative functions.

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Our vision for AI administrative is simple.

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Leverage AI to make the district more efficient, so our people can spend more time focusing on students and families.

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Basically, three staff to focus more on people, not the processes.

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Administrative provides AI administrative provides the core features that serve as building blocks for AI-driven customer service.

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many of these core features will be integrated into our legacy virtual high school initiative that the district is about to lunch next year and Ms. Hack who is a big fan of AI will be presenting this next week to you and we will be integrating a lot of those building blocks into it and one of those building blocks is the

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It's the legacy virtual high school,

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I'm sorry, we're missing some slides on this one.

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so forgive

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me some of my my slides here don't match this so but I'm going to be covering.

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Those missing slides anyway, because they're important. So one of these building blocks is going

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to be basically integrating all these features into the legacy virtual high school. And this

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is basically going to guide our students and parents through the enrollment, the registration

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and processes, offering 24-7 bilingual support via both chat and voice channels.

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These agents, when integrated into this environment, into this virtual high school, will answer

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common enrollment and course selection questions in real time or refer to a specialist as needed.

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They will provide parents with immediate help reducing frustration and waiting times.

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Ensure families have access to information at any hour, regardless of language barriers,

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it will be by lingual.

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We will start with English and Spanish.

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The result is a streamlined experience, faster resolutions, and reduced burden on staff freeing

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them to handle more complex cases.

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So,

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another building block is what we refer to as the AI Help Disk Assistant.

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The AI Help Disk Assistant guides staff through common and routine fixes in technology

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24-7 and also bilingual English and Spanish, escalating when needed to human support.

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This model can be replicated to other areas like operations and maintenance, and it translates into faster 24-7 multiling or reliable support for staff, students and parents.

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The AI receptionist model, another building block, greets collars, answered questions, routes, calls, freeing front office staff to handle complex tasks.

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It can support multiple languages as well, available beyond regular hours, and

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relay messages via email when staff are unavailable, reducing workload,

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extending service, and improving response speed.

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Another AI building block is a

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chatbot. Model supports intelligent communication via text in a chat on a

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district websites at ESC and campuses.

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It's available 24-7, answer as parent questions, again in English and Spanish, and eventually

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we'll extend those to other languages without waiting for business hours.

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It can answer most common questions and escalates to appropriate staff when necessary, either by

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By sending an email or a message, a text message for follow-ups, it's 24 access, which means

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fewer calls and emails.

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Another one of those AI building blocks is the AI building access assistant model.

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It is placed at a safe location at the main entrance of a school.

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it can interact with visitors via voice. To facilitate visitors' access, it can

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answer basic access questions, validate appointments, and once confirmed, can guide

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the visitor through the badging process using a nearby badging panel all while

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staff remains safe inside at the front disc. It can also escalate to a life

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receptionist as needed. This enhances campus security and safety.

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The enrollment assistant

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model will help parents fill out enrollment forms correctly the first time. Reducing delays

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and frustration while it reduces staff workload and improved parents experience. It will be

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available 24-7, and will support multiple languages.

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It will make enrollment easier, faster, and less stressful.

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The AI call out a system model automates targeted communications to help with the annual enrollment updates.

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To ensure compliance with programs, eligibility, and regulations.

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It cuts workload while keeping families informed and supported.

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By

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the end of this implementation, we expect AI to handle at least 30% of common inquiries

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across the district.

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That means a reduced workload for staff faster enrollment with higher completion rates

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and 24-7 bilingual support for parents.

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We will also strengthen campus safety with smart building access.

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We

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are taking a phased, careful approach, a measured step-by-still rollout to ensure success.

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It includes pilots, expansion, and deployment.

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Phase 1 focuses on pilots at ESC.

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It will cover piloting these specialized building blocks, these AI models, for chatpots, voice

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assistance, building access, and the integration into the legacy virtual high school,

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this is a proving ground for district-wide adoption.

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Phase 2 expands pilot to include three schools for initial campus testing.

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The campus limited pilot expansion for chat pod, receptionist of all these building blocks

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will be a controlled test to measure and adjust for real-world impact at the campus level.

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These three under controlled expansion, we will grow to 40 schools.

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We will be scaling while keeping close oversight and adjustment.

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By the end of this project, which we estimate will take anywhere from 12 to 18 months,

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We will have full deployment of the AI administrative initiative across all campuses and ESC, including the legacy virtual high school.

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This step-by-step rollout ensures we learn, adjust and build trust at every stage.

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Our goal is for AI to manage at least 30% of routine inquiries delivering bilingual 24-7 support across our campuses.

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We believe with these capabilities, KDISD is setting the standard for AI-driven school operations, improving efficiency, expanding access, and lowering costs.

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implementing AI requires investment in people, platforms, and operations.

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Costs include development platforms, usage, fees, product maintenance, training,

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and other infrastructure elements, along with developing new skills and rules.

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By building many of those tools in-house, using enterprise resources provided by leaning

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vendors, we can reduce costs while tailoring solutions to our needs.

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Ultimately, the return on investment will show higher productivity, better quality, and

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lower operational costs.

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Finally, all transitions are naturally accompanied by a healthy dose of nerves and concerns.

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I want to emphasize, this is not about replacing people.

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It is about empowering them by taking on repetitive time-consuming tasks.

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This will allow our staff to focus on what matters most.

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First, our students and parents, KDISD has the opportunity to sit the national standard

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for how schools can responsibly and effectively use AI to streamline operation while increasing

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productivity and lowering costs.

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With your support, we can lead with vision, innovation and responsibility.

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And thank you.

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I will come any questions you have.

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Questions, Board?

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Mr. President?

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Ms. Gazelle?

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I happen to have a lot of little questions.

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Thank you very much, Mr. Allownay, for the presentation.

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First, I want to make sure I understand, are you developing this in-house?

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You said that towards the end, I believe, primarily, would you say?

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I mean, this is a really conceptual presentation.

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But we are developing this in-house, and we are using development tools provided by major

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companies, a lot of big companies, Google, Microsoft, and Amazon actually have a lot

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of those platforms that we are using to develop this environment.

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Sure.

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Okay.

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I just read a quote, and I'm sure you can appreciate this, and I'm not being a nacear or anything.

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But part of the AI is we get answers quickly, we're a society that wants it now, right?

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And efficiency is beautiful, I agree.

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But sometimes it's the wrong answer, right?

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And in the area of security, it makes me uncomfortable to hear about acts of building access.

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And I'm sure that would be triple quadruple checked.

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but what thoughts are there on mistakes that an AI bot could make with building access, security?

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Right, so these platforms definitely have to have a lot of guardrails to manage what kind of information they provide

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and control also how they behave.

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So we're focusing on really simple processes, simple inquiries that we provide these platforms

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with very specific information about how to react and how to respond and how to behave,

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that if the interaction goes beyond what we specify, we instruct these models to basically

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call a live person to deal with that situation.

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So with building access, for example, all they're going to do basically is get basic information

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about who are you here to see, and then that model is going to get your name, and then

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the person you want to meet with, they will place a call to that office to confirm the

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appointment and then if confirmed then they will guide that person and you saw that image

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where there is a badging system next to it they will guide him through the badging system

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and then once that the person clears they will call the receptionist or somebody to basically

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allow this person to enter the building.

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So, yeah, with that process, we make sure, first of all, this whole interaction is happening

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outside the receptionist area where now they pretty much have to do it right there, but

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this happens outside.

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Okay.

280
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That's a good point.

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Yeah.

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Okay.

283
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Thank you.

284
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And then with the,

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you know, I just want to add, right, with chat GPT or even the CEO

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Sam Altman has stated, right, that he's surprised at how much we depend on chat GPT to give

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the answer, and that many times it's not correct. So just, I say that in light of that.

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This is a little different if you're building it in-house, but just, um, only, we're as good

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as the information we feed the bot. Right. So it's critical in certain areas that it's fed

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very well. For example, like our policies and what we the board have put in place, I'm hoping

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the bot would be built really well.

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And in light of library book reviews, my understanding was,

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you know, obviously it would need to be fed with policy, but that there was a dependency to review

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books. It's dependent on PDFs of the book. The bot needed the PDF of the book. But we

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don't have PDFs of all books, correct?

296
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Right. So these agents that we developed also in house, and I showed a sample of this,

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they have two modes. One is if you have the car

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And if you don't have the content in house, you feed it the content and it can go through massive number of pages in no time, and analyze it, and you know, you can actually have, you can ask it for confirmations on paragraphs. Can you read this page again? Can you tell me the context? Or the other mode it has is if you don't have the content. If you don't have the content, if you provided with the title of the book and the publisher,

299
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it will go and search the internet for any reviews out there, for any content that may be available,

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any kind of information available about this book and it will bring it to you.

301
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It will tell you this is basically what everybody is talking about about this book.

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Now this is not as good as having the content, but it does provide a lot of good information

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about that publication, and some of it is actually ranking from other reviews that were done online.

304
00:31:08,000 --> 00:31:22,860
Okay, you know, and it's probably fair to ask library services how it's been going because they've been using this roughly for six months, would you say, roughly a year, probably a year.

305
00:31:23,380 --> 00:31:28,680
And I think to answer your question on, yes, it does, the PDF, if it had the content

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of the whole book, that's difficult to get, what this particular A, we call it air,

307
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and two of us help us do, is confirm up front if the book is in violation.

308
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Like, can, with everything that it scours the information, is it in violation of EFB, FAA,

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the four Texas penal codes that it could violate?

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If it's elementary, is it content per house bill 1525 that requires parental opt-in?

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We've dumped all that into it.

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So what the book will do is if it can confirm, and lots of times it can, it's harmful material,

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it's sexually explicit, or it requires parental permission, high school only, that type of content.

314
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Right there, that tells us how we need to move forward with it.

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and these be restricted as it need to be removed

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because it's one of the four Texas penal codes.

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If it can't confirm any of that,

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at least we've eliminated some of them,

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we don't have to read in its entirety.

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If we can't confirm any of that,

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then that book goes on and gets a divvy doubt

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for someone to read internally.

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But it's like it's becoming more and more intuitive.

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It can even, because of all the journal reviews

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of the books, it can find excerpts

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and give us those excerpts that will take us to that particular

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are part of the book to kind of scan and read.

328
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So it's really helped us refine our internal view process.

329
00:32:50,680 --> 00:32:51,960
No, it sounds really promising.

330
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I just, there's exceptions.

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And so I'm trying to figure out when I hear

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from a parent right now of a book that seemingly,

333
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I don't think, should be there.

334
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What would be the reason for that?

335
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If we have AI employed, if the book is on the shelf right now.

336
00:33:08,160 --> 00:33:08,240
Yep.

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If you become aware of a book, just like we become aware

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of books all the time for whatever reason,

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the neighboring districts, we immediately put a

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minor internal review.

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Like I guess what I'm saying is, AI is fast

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and it's supposedly thorough.

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And the input could be all at once.

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So have all our books been reviewed through the AI tool?

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No, we have over 500,000.

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So what are the iterations that you do with that?

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We have book we put one of the quantity wise.

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roughly like we have 1.1 million on the shelves or those aren't unique titles though so I don't know.

349
00:33:49,640 --> 00:33:52,460
I just curious how quickly it could be done.

350
00:33:52,700 --> 00:33:56,860
A weekly, a week, an internal viewing books across the district using the tool.

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I'll use the last Friday the first library librarians meeting that's the first thing

352
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and went over, trained the new librarians

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so that they're deploying it and calling their books

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and using it for their inventory.

355
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So has there been an increase in efficiency

356
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with reviews with the AI tool over this last year?

357
00:34:16,920 --> 00:34:18,960
In fact, today, we meet on Mondays

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and there were some books that were found in violation

359
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and been removed.

360
00:34:24,910 --> 00:34:26,230
I thank you, Board.

361
00:34:31,930 --> 00:34:33,510
Yeah, I just want the results.

362
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I know productivity is great in efficiency

363
00:34:35,710 --> 00:34:44,300
but I don't want results stunted, I want them to be good, and that is to have an alternative plan

364
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when the AI result isn't quite right.

365
00:34:46,480 --> 00:34:54,320
And I like the way you spoke about building access, that makes sense to me, and all of our library services, process, et cetera.

366
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We're usually in across the district, I believe we're very efficient, and we're consistently, and constantly reviewing books to make sure they're compliant.

367
00:35:03,080 --> 00:35:04,360
Thank you. I have a question.

368
00:35:05,920 --> 00:35:26,100
So mine's more towards data, the data itself, so when you're taking in all this data, let's just say what the plan is, to take in all of this data that you're getting from inquiries or from, we'll just say, like, personal information that you'd be checking in at the desk or anything like that, who holds that data?

369
00:35:26,100 --> 00:35:29,400
Yeah, good question.

370
00:35:30,220 --> 00:35:38,160
So these agents will actually have a complete transcript, if you have a conversation with

371
00:35:38,160 --> 00:35:42,780
it, voice or text, it will keep the transcript.

372
00:35:43,580 --> 00:35:46,940
And we actually will hold all that data.

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We can manage it, either we can wipe it out or we can store it, retain it for a certain period

374
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of time.

375
00:35:54,360 --> 00:35:57,360
But that's available, that would be available for us.

376
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We own the data with all these agents.

377
00:36:00,800 --> 00:36:06,520
I would think it would be hard to just wipe it out at some point because you're hoping that the system is for

378
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better or lack of better word learning based that's the AI is it's learning based off of what's being input on into it constantly.

379
00:36:16,620 --> 00:36:23,840
So yeah, it actually, those agents we don't really want them to learn so much.

380
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I agree with you.

381
00:36:25,520 --> 00:36:27,640
So what we do, we structure them.

382
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This is different than the general agents.

383
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So we tell them basically strict guidelines.

384
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We give them strict guidelines and strict very precise

385
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information to use.

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And we instruct them not to be creative with their answers.

387
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So that's slightly different that what really helps

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with these agents is the natural interaction,

389
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the natural language it uses, so it doesn't look like it's so timid and structured where

390
00:36:59,900 --> 00:37:05,440
it's like frequently asked questions type thing, it just really makes it easy for somebody

391
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to interact with them and ask but it is limited by the data that we give it.

392
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It does not add to the data, it does not learn, we give it a policy, it needs to follow the

393
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policy, but it's free to interact with you with your language, with your accent, and

394
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then be able to relay the information back to you.

395
00:37:30,200 --> 00:37:33,360
So that actually goes on to the next thing that I have on here.

396
00:37:34,440 --> 00:37:39,660
When we're talking about interaction with the, we'll just call them the agents, I guess,

397
00:37:39,780 --> 00:37:40,560
that's what we're calling them, right?

398
00:37:40,760 --> 00:37:41,100
Agents.

399
00:37:41,420 --> 00:37:47,780
So we're calling them our AI agents, and you have front office staff that is now kept

400
00:37:47,780 --> 00:37:54,440
away, right? So they're somewhere else, and then you're having either a parent or someone else

401
00:37:54,440 --> 00:38:02,860
interacting with this agent. Are we concerned about the loss of human interaction, developing

402
00:38:02,860 --> 00:38:10,480
relationship, developing between the people with the push for AI? I mean, I think that's a large

403
00:38:10,480 --> 00:38:16,040
question that we're asking socially, and I know that we're all driving like fast and furious towards

404
00:38:16,040 --> 00:38:25,880
of what anybody does, but can we stop and ask the question of, does this actually truly help us?

405
00:38:25,900 --> 00:38:30,120
All for the benefit of a little bit easier time.

406
00:38:30,920 --> 00:38:33,020
Yeah, excellent question.

407
00:38:33,180 --> 00:38:38,300
Actually, Ms. Hack, she tells me she uses, she uses the book reviewers.

408
00:38:38,540 --> 00:38:40,260
One, we actually have four of them.

409
00:38:40,360 --> 00:38:43,820
One is called Max and we name them.

410
00:38:45,220 --> 00:38:47,440
And she's telling me, you know what, I love Max.

411
00:38:48,260 --> 00:38:50,520
Unlike every time I want to do something,

412
00:38:50,720 --> 00:38:52,000
I'm always chatting with Max.

413
00:38:52,420 --> 00:38:53,280
Oh, that becomes intuitive.

414
00:38:54,120 --> 00:38:57,300
In regards to your, I guess I would call it

415
00:38:57,300 --> 00:39:00,320
the in-person customer service that we'd offer in KDIC.

416
00:39:01,340 --> 00:39:05,320
I think we were looking at the AI support is

417
00:39:05,860 --> 00:39:08,400
we've become very aware how large our district is

418
00:39:08,400 --> 00:39:10,540
and I'll use the start of the school year as an example.

419
00:39:11,560 --> 00:39:15,960
Three weeks ahead of the start of the school year, we could see that we still had a number

420
00:39:15,960 --> 00:39:20,620
of students what we call in the queue trying to get their enrollment processed.

421
00:39:21,360 --> 00:39:25,800
And what was happening was various reasons, they didn't have the right paperwork, they're

422
00:39:25,800 --> 00:39:29,420
having trouble uploading it, they needed password reset, that was a big one.

423
00:39:30,020 --> 00:39:35,260
So we went in person and set up down in the Merrill Center and we kept track.

424
00:39:35,260 --> 00:39:42,920
We probably saw well over I think 1,200 families in person because we went up quickly with that customer service.

425
00:39:44,260 --> 00:39:46,420
John's team was a big part of it down there.

426
00:39:46,420 --> 00:39:47,900
It was our district enrollment team.

427
00:39:47,900 --> 00:39:49,860
We had technology support down there.

428
00:39:50,000 --> 00:39:54,540
We had homeless support down there because it was coming in the doors with all kinds of things.

429
00:39:55,500 --> 00:39:59,880
But what we did, when we tracked all of it, what we found was a lot of it was they just needed

430
00:39:59,880 --> 00:40:02,080
someone to assist them through a process.

431
00:40:02,760 --> 00:40:14,740
something that probably an AI-intuitive enrollment assistant could do, and then at some point it got to the point to finalize, or it was something a person needed to do, it would take you to that person.

432
00:40:14,880 --> 00:40:21,260
I think we could have been a lot more efficient that way instead of having the families wait until they get to an in person.

433
00:40:21,860 --> 00:40:27,600
And we had a big team down there but we still had a big weight. I think it could help us there. That's an efficiency.

434
00:40:28,120 --> 00:40:30,400
We have a callout team going right now.

435
00:40:30,540 --> 00:40:34,820
We have about 10,000 families that did not finish the annual student update.

436
00:40:35,240 --> 00:40:36,360
We need them to do that.

437
00:40:36,500 --> 00:40:38,040
We need them to update their information.

438
00:40:38,640 --> 00:40:41,180
We need to know what they want to opt in, opt out of.

439
00:40:42,000 --> 00:40:46,240
We want to make sure they have that opportunity to fill out that free and reduced appeal application

440
00:40:46,780 --> 00:40:50,860
before the benefits end 45 days after the school year, all kinds of things.

441
00:40:51,600 --> 00:40:55,840
We have a team calling Monday through Thursday nights and on Saturdays and Sundays.

442
00:40:55,840 --> 00:41:03,700
We've knocked out about 3,000, but again, it's very manpower-intensive, where a lot of it was with

443
00:41:04,420 --> 00:41:09,840
an AI support could do it. Let me help you, you know, and we can get through a lot of it without

444
00:41:09,840 --> 00:41:14,720
having the in person, but then take them to that. I think we would get through it much faster. So John's

445
00:41:14,720 --> 00:41:20,320
team's kind of pulling along with us on that, hearing the script, what we're doing, what needs to be done,

446
00:41:20,700 --> 00:41:24,660
and so that's something we're looking to pilot as well. When it comes to the campuses,

447
00:41:25,320 --> 00:41:32,320
We're already with the parents, whoever's visiting, you have to show your ID outside before you can get in.

448
00:41:33,480 --> 00:41:40,920
Having that, where you can scan your credentials, like whether it's Raptor or otherwise, and then it would say why you're there.

449
00:41:41,460 --> 00:41:45,020
It's that efficiency for that receptionist that once you enter is sitting right there.

450
00:41:45,100 --> 00:41:47,720
They know you're there for an R, they know you're here for this.

451
00:41:48,060 --> 00:41:50,020
Those kinds of processes on the front end.

452
00:41:50,020 --> 00:42:01,960
And I can appreciate that for efficiency's sake and I understand because we can all, we're demanding and it's like Trustee Cruz-Ella said, we want it now, we wanted it five minutes ago, we want a good customer service.

453
00:42:02,000 --> 00:42:18,620
Right, we have to put customer service, but I guess my pushback a little bit or my hesitation, I'm going to say my hesitation towards this, is as we've become more automated socially, the customer service hasn't necessarily gone up because when I go shopping,

454
00:42:18,620 --> 00:42:22,160
I don't want to talk to someone when I'm going to shop for my clothes.

455
00:42:22,600 --> 00:42:23,940
I'm just going to shop for them online.

456
00:42:24,300 --> 00:42:25,520
I don't want to talk to you in the store.

457
00:42:25,920 --> 00:42:31,460
They may sound rude, but when I go into the store, the sales clerks often don't know how to

458
00:42:31,460 --> 00:42:36,660
have a personal interaction with the person, and they're not really as quick as what I can find online.

459
00:42:37,100 --> 00:42:44,520
So it just continues to kind of chip away at that social engagement with another human being.

460
00:42:45,220 --> 00:42:53,220
So my hesitation and my concern with this is that in the name of efficiency and in the name of making things smoother and faster,

461
00:42:53,660 --> 00:42:56,200
it actually makes it less socially.

462
00:42:56,960 --> 00:42:59,360
Does that understand the point that I'm trying to convey?

463
00:42:59,700 --> 00:43:01,980
It's a balance. I do think I understand what you're saying. It's a balance.

464
00:43:02,440 --> 00:43:08,460
And I think if there's things that we could be using AI efficiencies to do quickly,

465
00:43:08,780 --> 00:43:11,660
you know, some people they want to just tell me how to do it and I'll take care of it.

466
00:43:12,360 --> 00:43:15,580
but never lose that piece where we step in in person

467
00:43:15,580 --> 00:43:16,740
and assist our families.

468
00:43:17,260 --> 00:43:18,100
That's my concern.

469
00:43:18,320 --> 00:43:20,600
And one of the things we're focusing on with this,

470
00:43:21,000 --> 00:43:23,400
even these agents, they can feel the sentiment.

471
00:43:24,200 --> 00:43:28,340
So if the user is talking and getting a little frustrated,

472
00:43:29,180 --> 00:43:32,400
it will immediately transfer them to a live agent.

473
00:43:32,720 --> 00:43:35,760
The other thing is we disclose transparency is very important.

474
00:43:36,240 --> 00:43:37,640
That this is a virtual agent.

475
00:43:38,380 --> 00:43:41,160
At any point, if they say I want to talk to a live person,

476
00:43:41,160 --> 00:43:42,400
and I don't want to talk to this agent,

477
00:43:42,840 --> 00:43:45,820
they will transfer them to a life agent.

478
00:43:46,440 --> 00:43:49,000
The other thing, what we noticed with these agents,

479
00:43:49,000 --> 00:43:50,500
we've been testing these models.

480
00:43:51,560 --> 00:43:54,120
What we noticed is, you know, people are on,

481
00:43:54,120 --> 00:43:57,620
waiting on hold, waiting to get through the lines.

482
00:43:58,740 --> 00:44:01,120
We get hundreds of calls every day, for example,

483
00:44:01,120 --> 00:44:01,980
to the help desk.

484
00:44:02,720 --> 00:44:06,280
Now, this agent can now basically offer to assist.

485
00:44:06,720 --> 00:44:07,800
Can I help you with something?

486
00:44:07,800 --> 00:44:12,180
And yeah, can you walk me through my password reset, for example?

487
00:44:13,060 --> 00:44:18,220
And then while they're waiting, they actually can engage them and help them with that.

488
00:44:18,740 --> 00:44:23,700
And at any point, if the person says, hey, you know what, can you try transferring me to a live agent?

489
00:44:24,340 --> 00:44:27,260
This system will transfer them to a live agent.

490
00:44:27,460 --> 00:44:35,720
So it is really trying to kind of fill the void when you got a lot of calls coming in.

491
00:44:36,360 --> 00:44:42,700
This agent can basically help as much as possible, but still connect you to a live person

492
00:44:42,700 --> 00:44:43,600
at any point.

493
00:44:43,940 --> 00:44:45,680
I have one last question towards this.

494
00:44:45,920 --> 00:44:46,740
And then I'll be done.

495
00:44:47,260 --> 00:44:51,880
You said that it decreases or it takes on 30 percent of the inquiries.

496
00:44:52,580 --> 00:44:53,640
Did I read that right?

497
00:44:53,800 --> 00:44:53,920
Yes.

498
00:44:54,420 --> 00:44:59,980
So when we're talking about them, we're looking at our, I'm assuming that the person who is

499
00:45:00,000 --> 00:45:29,660
By 30% would be front office? It's going to be, I think, spread. I mean, we have, you saw these different models. Some of them are receptionist model, helped this model. That can be replicated easily to do similar roles somewhere else. But yes, these people will be basically relieved by having the AI pick up that work. But the point here is to really have them focus on more, maybe,

500
00:45:29,660 --> 00:45:34,820
complex issues to help parents and we see these models actually implemented in

501
00:45:34,820 --> 00:45:39,760
insurance companies or you know the virtual agent picks up, collects all the

502
00:45:39,760 --> 00:45:45,360
information, basic stuff. What's your policy number? What is your issue and they

503
00:45:45,360 --> 00:45:49,200
collect and then they can't spare you. And then you have to repeat everything that

504
00:45:49,200 --> 00:45:53,900
you just said to the AI model. The difference with AI models it actually already

505
00:45:53,900 --> 00:45:58,560
populates the system with all that data. So that guy first doesn't have to

506
00:45:58,560 --> 00:46:01,860
to spend all the time collecting these boring,

507
00:46:02,080 --> 00:46:04,940
tedious stuff instead of focusing on your issue

508
00:46:05,500 --> 00:46:06,820
and getting to the solution.

509
00:46:06,960 --> 00:46:10,060
Okay, I see you have an issue with this and that.

510
00:46:10,340 --> 00:46:13,240
I see here that you couldn't get that through.

511
00:46:13,580 --> 00:46:14,420
Let me help you.

512
00:46:14,860 --> 00:46:18,800
That reduces the amount, the life agent was expert

513
00:46:19,580 --> 00:46:21,340
on that, not collecting information,

514
00:46:21,340 --> 00:46:24,080
their expert on solving your problem,

515
00:46:24,800 --> 00:46:26,240
really getting into the problem

516
00:46:26,240 --> 00:46:27,260
and solving it for you.

517
00:46:27,260 --> 00:46:30,260
We hope the same thing will happen here.

518
00:46:30,600 --> 00:46:34,900
I'm going to hope and trust and have some faith that your development is going to be better

519
00:46:34,900 --> 00:46:39,120
than my insurance company's development of their AI model because I'm not super loving

520
00:46:39,120 --> 00:46:39,440
it.

521
00:46:39,700 --> 00:46:43,480
But I feel like you're probably going to be better at that than they are.

522
00:46:43,780 --> 00:46:48,480
So those were just some of my thoughts towards this, so thank you for entertaining in my

523
00:46:48,480 --> 00:46:49,020
pursuit of.

524
00:46:49,420 --> 00:46:50,140
Mr. President.

525
00:46:50,980 --> 00:46:51,300
Ms. Seamy.

526
00:46:51,960 --> 00:46:52,100
Okay.

527
00:46:52,100 --> 00:47:03,800
I really like the 24-7 idea that is something, you know, that you can't, if you have to go in and enroll, maybe this is nice, you can do it 24-7.

528
00:47:05,400 --> 00:47:13,840
And then I was wondering how do you all thought about AI for substitute scheduling? Remember last fall, not this fall, but last fall.

529
00:47:13,840 --> 00:47:20,980
And we encountered some, our staff encountered a lot of trouble with switching over to this

530
00:47:20,980 --> 00:47:21,560
new system.

531
00:47:21,560 --> 00:47:24,400
Is that something we could apply AI to?

532
00:47:25,220 --> 00:47:30,560
So these, and you know, I was missing a couple of slides, I apologize, you probably have

533
00:47:30,560 --> 00:47:33,280
it on your screen, but I didn't have it here.

534
00:47:33,640 --> 00:47:41,880
We're building these four models, and each model is actually customizable.

535
00:47:42,680 --> 00:47:48,760
So it's like a help disk for IT can be also helping for a program.

536
00:47:49,320 --> 00:47:54,740
It can help with other departments for maintenance, for example.

537
00:47:55,420 --> 00:48:03,340
So yes, I mean, eventually the idea, we haven't really targeted that area yet.

538
00:48:03,480 --> 00:48:10,940
But after we prove these models, then it's going to be really easy for us to replicate them.

539
00:48:10,940 --> 00:48:12,740
or any area of need.

540
00:48:12,980 --> 00:48:15,540
All we need to do is basically, you get the, you know,

541
00:48:15,880 --> 00:48:21,600
the baseline model has the ability to interact as the ability to transfer calls,

542
00:48:21,920 --> 00:48:29,040
ability to sense the sentiment of the caller, and then we add to it a customizable layer

543
00:48:29,040 --> 00:48:33,260
or subs, for example, how, learn the subsystem really good.

544
00:48:33,440 --> 00:48:36,940
Here's a document that shows you how the subsystems work,

545
00:48:37,600 --> 00:48:42,920
scheduling works and all of that, and then we basically give it a number for people

546
00:48:42,920 --> 00:48:44,520
to call 247.

547
00:48:44,860 --> 00:48:47,060
Yeah, I can, I think that's a great idea.

548
00:48:47,320 --> 00:48:53,080
That's a great example of where our subs are all hours of the day in the evening

549
00:48:53,080 --> 00:48:57,900
trying to pick up positions, and if they struggle, there would be AI's assistance

550
00:48:57,900 --> 00:49:02,300
actor hours on something like that, so I think that is something that's a good idea.

551
00:49:02,560 --> 00:49:06,520
Yeah, and I'm not, I'm only one person, but I would prioritize that.

552
00:49:06,520 --> 00:49:13,520
Just seeing the the struggles that our staff went through last year. Well, my husband is struggling to figure it out

553
00:49:13,520 --> 00:49:15,340
And I'm his AI's

554
00:49:15,340 --> 00:49:21,200
You know, I think that's a great idea. Okay, great. And then my last year husband know about Max

555
00:49:21,200 --> 00:49:31,600
Excuse me. Do you one more question? Did you see I know you'd briefly touched on it

556
00:49:31,600 --> 00:50:01,520
but do you anticipate any shrinking or short or termination of staffing because that is a little bit concerning to me or termination of I know you touched on it and I know that's not your goal but I I am a little nervous making it's more efficient with the existing staff that we have a couple things that our reference earlier where we were what I would call out numbered I think having this type of support is much more cost effective and we still can provide that

557
00:50:01,520 --> 00:50:08,560
in-person support, but there's a lot of things that wouldn't require maybe every time an in-person and it would make us more efficient.

558
00:50:09,160 --> 00:50:17,140
So I think John and I, in discussions with Dr. Grigorsky, when we go up with Legacy Virtual and we'll get more information about that next week,

559
00:50:17,580 --> 00:50:26,480
what that looks like planning and moving forward, that would be a great campus to pilot these efficiencies with and it's not with our existing kids in the seats

560
00:50:26,480 --> 00:50:31,820
in our families, and we're working out the kinks on it before if we do deploy it to the

561
00:50:31,820 --> 00:50:36,540
campuses with our principals. So we'll be giving you more information. We'll have more

562
00:50:36,540 --> 00:50:40,740
information about legacy virtual next week, but we are looking at some of those AI features

563
00:50:40,740 --> 00:50:44,960
at John Reference on piloting on with that particular campus.

564
00:50:45,800 --> 00:50:48,120
Thank you. Mr. President.

565
00:50:48,380 --> 00:50:48,620
Mr. Fox.

566
00:50:49,600 --> 00:50:56,300
Dr. Lonnie, thank you for the presentation. I really like how you said you want to

567
00:50:56,300 --> 00:51:06,460
The position KDSD as a national leader in K-12 AI driven operations people continue to look to KDSD as a leader and I think this is an excellent way to do that.

568
00:51:07,360 --> 00:51:15,700
I had some of the same concerns you've already talked about, like all those new families at the beginning of school.

569
00:51:15,700 --> 00:51:24,340
There were calls and concerns about, I brought the utility bill but still not being cleared at the campus.

570
00:51:24,340 --> 00:51:31,120
And it's like, yeah, there's hundreds of children in line and as many people as possible to

571
00:51:31,120 --> 00:51:31,660
get that done.

572
00:51:31,900 --> 00:51:36,240
And if that kind of automated thing would make it easier and quicker and more efficient

573
00:51:36,240 --> 00:51:41,960
that would save angst and get our boys and girls in the door, you know, first day.

574
00:51:42,320 --> 00:51:47,420
And of course, you know, we as parents on vacation wait till the last minute to get back and

575
00:51:47,420 --> 00:51:48,860
get all the paperwork in.

576
00:51:49,420 --> 00:51:50,660
I would be guilty of that.

577
00:51:50,660 --> 00:51:58,760
When you talk about three schools, will this, am I safe to assume it's an elementary

578
00:51:58,760 --> 00:52:06,580
of junior high in a high school, and okay, I don't need to know which one, but who

579
00:52:06,580 --> 00:52:10,760
will decide will it be a feeder pattern, or do you know who it's going to be yet?

580
00:52:11,240 --> 00:52:17,840
We're working very closely with Ms. Hack on all the, we're, was partners on this project.

581
00:52:18,920 --> 00:52:21,700
She's a big fan of AI, so that helps a lot.

582
00:52:23,000 --> 00:52:29,900
We generally run pilots, like we were running the ID badges at three pilot schools.

583
00:52:30,480 --> 00:52:32,260
We broached it with the principals.

584
00:52:32,320 --> 00:52:35,700
We have to have principal by and they support the initiative.

585
00:52:35,820 --> 00:52:40,360
They want to run the pilot and you know that we would not force it, yeah, the discussions.

586
00:52:40,360 --> 00:52:45,090
And generally we kind of think about which whatever type of pilot it is, for example, we're

587
00:52:45,090 --> 00:52:49,370
and the student personal device pilot at Taylor High School,

588
00:52:50,050 --> 00:52:52,410
that is something that we knew initially

589
00:52:52,410 --> 00:52:54,790
that Dr. Stone would be interested in with her staff.

590
00:52:55,370 --> 00:52:57,270
And so we're getting ready to launch that next Monday.

591
00:52:57,870 --> 00:53:01,010
So, I would, again, I'm gonna guess

592
00:53:01,010 --> 00:53:03,250
that you'll use a bilingual campus

593
00:53:03,710 --> 00:53:07,070
so that you can test both of the language models there.

594
00:53:08,310 --> 00:53:08,630
Too.

595
00:53:08,730 --> 00:53:10,210
Let me just add to that, Ms. Fox.

596
00:53:10,770 --> 00:53:14,710
So, we are piloting the same models over here.

597
00:53:14,710 --> 00:53:18,170
we call in foundational pilots, right here at ESC.

598
00:53:18,750 --> 00:53:21,270
So once we're happy and satisfied with them,

599
00:53:22,110 --> 00:53:26,230
we still want to pilot them with these three campuses.

600
00:53:27,110 --> 00:53:31,190
And part of that is really, you know,

601
00:53:31,390 --> 00:53:32,730
the social aspect of it.

602
00:53:33,710 --> 00:53:38,070
How does the community interact with that

603
00:53:38,070 --> 00:53:40,190
and how do they deal with it

604
00:53:40,930 --> 00:53:43,350
and also work for our own staff as well.

605
00:53:43,350 --> 00:53:51,250
So, at the campus level, we want to see how can we modify and adjust the model to better

606
00:53:51,250 --> 00:53:53,450
serve a school environment?

607
00:53:54,170 --> 00:53:59,310
Yes, that's excellent, because, and the questions will be very different at a campus, then

608
00:53:59,310 --> 00:54:03,350
it will, at an administration building, I have a couple more, is it all right?

609
00:54:04,170 --> 00:54:09,410
So I think help desk tickets, this sounds like a great idea because those are the same ones

610
00:54:09,410 --> 00:54:10,450
over and over, right?

611
00:54:10,770 --> 00:54:10,850
Right.

612
00:54:10,850 --> 00:54:16,130
Like I use a Mac book at home and I use here, we use the different.

613
00:54:16,750 --> 00:54:22,250
And so I'm constantly like, how can I get my Apple computer to do what I need it to

614
00:54:22,250 --> 00:54:25,590
do from home and I'll call the help desk and they know all the answers.

615
00:54:26,230 --> 00:54:29,370
But that would be something that AI would be able to do like that.

616
00:54:31,650 --> 00:54:39,110
You already talked about, you're writing some of them and you're using some of the models

617
00:54:39,110 --> 00:54:43,130
in places like Amazon and Google and those things that I have, right?

618
00:54:46,530 --> 00:54:49,730
So would this be something that they could use?

619
00:54:50,350 --> 00:54:52,630
Let's take an elementary school as an example.

620
00:54:53,030 --> 00:54:58,690
Like the end of your celebration when all of the parents or grandparents come and they're

621
00:54:58,690 --> 00:55:01,290
trying to get badges to wrapped or in.

622
00:55:01,670 --> 00:55:08,330
You know, and they're out to the driveway and maybe when I lined up, I think that we could

623
00:55:08,330 --> 00:55:12,290
be even more efficient on the front end before the event actually occurs.

624
00:55:12,830 --> 00:55:13,710
Yeah, I think that would be great.

625
00:55:14,290 --> 00:55:23,830
I have learned to appreciate AI and a chat GPT and asking questions I find that it's

626
00:55:23,830 --> 00:55:31,950
like Google, it's my, you know, Dr. Alaini, you know how computer fancy I am, but it's

627
00:55:31,950 --> 00:55:37,770
like Google only instead of giving me all of the articles to go read, it summarizes all

628
00:55:37,770 --> 00:55:43,530
of them for me so I can get a sense of which direction and the thing I like most about

629
00:55:43,530 --> 00:55:49,710
it is when you ask it your question or to give you input, then it says, would you like

630
00:55:49,710 --> 00:55:55,790
me to, and it gives you a suggestion, put it in a PDF, make a schedule for you, do the,

631
00:55:56,190 --> 00:56:01,890
would you like more information about this or that, and it's like, you know, those are

632
00:56:01,890 --> 00:56:06,290
the kinds of things that will be so helpful when someone asks a question, they give the

633
00:56:06,290 --> 00:56:08,530
the answer, now would you like to know where to go with that?

634
00:56:08,650 --> 00:56:11,090
Would you like to know what kind of utility bill you need?

635
00:56:11,410 --> 00:56:13,010
Would you like to know how to upload it?

636
00:56:13,390 --> 00:56:16,450
Those things, I think will be so helpful to our families and

637
00:56:16,450 --> 00:56:24,530
save time for our valuable employees to be able to service more of the on campus needs.

638
00:56:24,950 --> 00:56:28,530
Mr. Cross can have a lot more examples and I have thank you for the presentation.

639
00:56:29,290 --> 00:56:33,170
Mr. President, so thank you again for the presentation.

640
00:56:33,170 --> 00:56:42,330
What I'm really interested in is what that's going to look like when it shows up at the

641
00:56:42,330 --> 00:56:42,870
campuses.

642
00:56:43,390 --> 00:56:49,310
In the sense of the folks who are going to be impacted by it most, again, the front

643
00:56:49,310 --> 00:56:54,270
office folks, those people who really serve the public right out of the gate.

644
00:56:54,270 --> 00:57:03,870
So I guess my question is, is feedback, understand on the AI side of it, you get, you know, it's

645
00:57:03,870 --> 00:57:06,350
doing that as things happen.

646
00:57:07,010 --> 00:57:11,610
On the other side of that, the people side of it, is that going to be kind of a real

647
00:57:11,610 --> 00:57:11,970
time?

648
00:57:12,070 --> 00:57:17,370
And is that a check-in with principals at these pilots to say, okay, what are your folks

649
00:57:17,370 --> 00:57:17,830
saying?

650
00:57:18,230 --> 00:57:22,790
Like, you know, after so many weeks of this, you know, what do we, has this become more

651
00:57:22,790 --> 00:57:34,870
Are they able to do the, I love what you said, Dr. Alana, about, you know, really doing the more complex things and for the folks that really need that personal touch.

652
00:57:36,530 --> 00:57:46,990
So I'm just curious, like, is there a, is there a thought on that piece of it on the campus feedback from the actual human beings who are being impacted by it?

653
00:57:46,990 --> 00:57:52,410
Absolutely. I think anytime we run a pilot, I'll use the Taylor High School one.

654
00:57:52,410 --> 00:57:57,750
And when we've been out there meeting once a week to get the campus ready for

655
00:57:58,390 --> 00:58:06,830
the kids that opted in and were approved, they will go live with their student personal devices next Monday, October September 22nd.

656
00:58:07,250 --> 00:58:12,570
And then we are scheduled working with communications doctor groom's team every three weeks,

657
00:58:12,790 --> 00:58:19,530
beginning with the second, six weeks progress report, a survey will go out to the staff, to the students, to the parents, how's it working?

658
00:58:19,530 --> 00:58:20,410
What do you think?

659
00:58:20,590 --> 00:58:21,870
What are things we need to know?

660
00:58:22,510 --> 00:58:27,410
And when we go live with the next pilot that is out at one of the complexes, we'll do

661
00:58:27,410 --> 00:58:29,330
the same type of feedback gathering.

662
00:58:30,680 --> 00:58:36,250
And that feedback, just to add to this, is really crucial for AI development.

663
00:58:38,090 --> 00:58:44,770
Because you refine the model based on how people react to it.

664
00:58:44,770 --> 00:58:50,850
So, whether it's the staff side or even the community side, and then you tweak that model

665
00:58:50,850 --> 00:58:56,650
to make sure it fits, you know, AI like ChatGPT is a general model.

666
00:58:57,150 --> 00:59:00,990
So, when you're interacting with it, there are very limited guardrails to it.

667
00:59:01,090 --> 00:59:09,090
It's not really confined in behavior or they do have some guardrails, but our environment

668
00:59:09,090 --> 00:59:15,110
is going to have even more guidance on how it interacts based on what we hear from our

669
00:59:15,110 --> 00:59:21,310
own community and especially the schools, from the school itself because we want it to really

670
00:59:21,310 --> 00:59:23,250
be part of that school.

671
00:59:26,020 --> 00:59:34,280
Mr. President, I have one question. Biometrics, are you, is any of this

672
00:59:34,280 --> 00:59:40,140
plan AI or otherwise, are you going to be planning any sort of scanning, biometric scanning?

673
00:59:41,580 --> 00:59:43,140
Not part of this initiative.

674
00:59:43,560 --> 00:59:43,680
No.

675
00:59:44,260 --> 00:59:44,520
Okay.

676
00:59:44,820 --> 00:59:45,500
Not part of this.

677
00:59:45,500 --> 00:59:47,000
I would not be in favor of that.

678
00:59:49,160 --> 00:59:54,880
Usually, you know, we have like building access system that relies on proximity.

679
00:59:54,880 --> 00:59:56,800
We don't even use biometry.

680
01:00:00,000 --> 01:00:29,940
But we don't use it for building access. We use. Yes, I'm aware I'm just moving forward. Is that a vision at all part of the vision of anything? I have not really. Okay, be honest with your thought about it to use biometrics. Okay, because like the airport, right, they scan your face. And it's pretty quick, but I wouldn't want us to be tempted that way. Especially fingerprints. I know at some point we considered it for computer access. But it requires training. And that's

681
01:00:29,940 --> 01:00:34,920
part of it that we're not sure with kids how that's going to work, but yeah.

682
01:00:35,220 --> 01:00:36,640
Thank you, Dr. President.

683
01:00:36,740 --> 01:00:37,520
Dr. Aronne.

684
01:00:38,760 --> 01:00:42,260
All right, so I enjoyed your presentation to you.

685
01:00:42,360 --> 01:00:48,300
I do have some concerns and some of them have already been mentioned, but lots of them are really good.

686
01:00:48,540 --> 01:00:54,120
Like, for example, I used to help every year at Taylor when I was there with the registrar before school.

687
01:00:54,460 --> 01:00:59,320
And I know that those counselors and the registration people were there sometimes 12 hours a day.

688
01:00:59,320 --> 01:01:04,720
doing that, and that's silly, and then they had also volunteers too.

689
01:01:05,000 --> 01:01:08,320
So that was a lot of work for, that's just one school.

690
01:01:08,580 --> 01:01:13,340
So I'm sure it's like that every year, campus district wide.

691
01:01:13,860 --> 01:01:15,440
So I think things like that are going to be good.

692
01:01:15,600 --> 01:01:18,160
What I am concerned about is actually Mrs.

693
01:01:18,300 --> 01:01:23,100
Calhoun brought it up very well about the, I'm just worried about

694
01:01:23,100 --> 01:01:27,200
the interpersonal relationships that you have.

695
01:01:27,200 --> 01:01:30,300
And, you know, there's always, I can always tell when I go into schools.

696
01:01:31,300 --> 01:01:35,240
You know, those front office people always kind of set the tone for the school.

697
01:01:35,660 --> 01:01:43,240
Like, you know, it's either like really nice to see you as a campaigner is like, you know, next, I mean, you know, and that kind of thing.

698
01:01:43,500 --> 01:01:49,920
So, but you've, you've kind of reconfirmed, you know, you've confirmed that a lot of that's still going to stay there.

699
01:01:49,920 --> 01:01:56,420
And I just hope so because that's, that is a really good part of the personality of our district is

700
01:01:57,300 --> 01:01:59,280
those people that are there to greet you.

701
01:02:00,220 --> 01:02:02,120
And then the last thing I'm going to say is,

702
01:02:02,440 --> 01:02:05,400
I get a little bit afraid about the telephone calls

703
01:02:05,400 --> 01:02:08,460
with the, you know, that you want to speak to a person

704
01:02:09,700 --> 01:02:12,500
because, you know, we all have an insurance company

705
01:02:12,500 --> 01:02:15,140
like Mrs. Calhoun who said or whoever.

706
01:02:15,520 --> 01:02:16,800
And you want to speak to someone,

707
01:02:16,800 --> 01:02:18,860
but then you say, I'd like to speak to representative

708
01:02:18,860 --> 01:02:21,200
and they go, just some more information.

709
01:02:21,940 --> 01:02:23,100
Please let me speak to representative.

710
01:02:23,720 --> 01:02:25,120
What is your cat's first name?

711
01:02:25,120 --> 01:02:29,480
I don't know, it's just on and on and on and it's just by the time you finally get the

712
01:02:29,480 --> 01:02:35,780
speech to someone, the person will meet is so upset that you know it took me 20 times

713
01:02:35,780 --> 01:02:41,900
to say can I please speak to someone, I'm hoping that that ours isn't going to be like that

714
01:02:41,900 --> 01:02:49,780
because that is such a negative way to talk to someone especially and maybe sometimes

715
01:02:49,780 --> 01:02:57,460
for the first time to speak to KDIs D. So hopefully when you roll this out and you get

716
01:02:57,460 --> 01:03:01,900
the feedback and all that, that'll all be part of the feedback that you'll receive.

717
01:03:02,300 --> 01:03:08,360
And hopefully that'll be a question on your survey. How was your, did you have to ask

718
01:03:08,360 --> 01:03:11,180
a question over the phone and how did that go?

719
01:03:11,760 --> 01:03:16,340
So good, good point, excellent point because I'll tell you, when we started talking,

720
01:03:19,100 --> 01:03:19,120
we've

721
01:03:19,120 --> 01:03:20,520
and a year or two even.

722
01:03:21,720 --> 01:03:23,640
And you know, my own capin' members,

723
01:03:23,640 --> 01:03:26,820
they had the same feedback, you know.

724
01:03:27,660 --> 01:03:29,000
It's like, John, what is this?

725
01:03:29,000 --> 01:03:30,960
Is it gonna be like the frequent last questions

726
01:03:30,960 --> 01:03:33,920
where you're just gonna go in circles with it all the time?

727
01:03:34,500 --> 01:03:35,140
That's fantastic.

728
01:03:35,420 --> 01:03:37,960
Yeah, and it did in particular, he was.

729
01:03:39,280 --> 01:03:44,700
So, this model is much more advanced and more intelligent.

730
01:03:44,700 --> 01:03:50,600
It actually, we have to put a disclosure at the beginning that it is virtual.

731
01:03:51,140 --> 01:03:51,920
It's not real.

732
01:03:53,500 --> 01:04:04,540
And it interacts with you using natural language that you will not be in, you know, going

733
01:04:04,540 --> 01:04:09,260
in loops with it the way some of those systems are, and I agree with you, those systems are

734
01:04:09,260 --> 01:04:11,440
first training, they're using older technology.

735
01:04:13,980 --> 01:04:17,020
And, you know, the technology we use is a lot

736
01:04:17,020 --> 01:04:23,560
more advanced. And I wish we can demo that someday, but it is different.

737
01:04:25,940 --> 01:04:29,480
We could just call the help desk and say we lost our password, right? We could interact

738
01:04:29,480 --> 01:04:30,020
with it today.

739
01:04:30,020 --> 01:04:30,260
Absolutely.

740
01:04:31,120 --> 01:04:31,600
Absolutely.

741
01:04:32,500 --> 01:04:34,000
I actually have another question.

742
01:04:34,400 --> 01:04:34,640
Ms. Kelly.

743
01:04:34,640 --> 01:04:40,840
This is speaking to the one-to-one device while the Taylor High School pilot program

744
01:04:40,840 --> 01:04:42,560
that is on that.

745
01:04:42,680 --> 01:04:46,940
So if a student says that yes, they want to bring their own device, what kind of security

746
01:04:46,940 --> 01:04:52,220
measures do they then agree to under KDISD, what does that look like?

747
01:04:52,660 --> 01:04:59,840
At the point that they opt in for consideration to be in the pilot, the opt-in form

748
01:04:59,840 --> 01:05:04,200
requires them to acknowledge all the requirements of the pilot and the acceptable

749
01:05:04,200 --> 01:05:15,120
We'll use some what will happen in the event that's violated that they must remain in the A plus learning environment that John and his team develop, which is basically putting them in the my Katie environment.

750
01:05:15,680 --> 01:05:21,240
They must remain in that environment throughout the instructional day backing out of that environment.

751
01:05:21,560 --> 01:05:27,800
Basically that becomes a personal telecommunication device and is now subject to like if you pulled your cell phone out.

752
01:05:27,800 --> 01:05:36,280
And so all of that is spelled out, the knowledgements are, the parents acknowledge it, sign it, the student signs it, and then the campus retains copies.

753
01:05:37,000 --> 01:05:41,060
This week, the students that have opted in will be coming in on Thursday.

754
01:05:41,500 --> 01:05:44,960
There's no students on Friday. It's the end of the first six week's grading period.

755
01:05:45,180 --> 01:05:57,340
They'll bring their devices in on Thursday. Jeremy Frazier and several members of his team will be out on the campus and make sure that their laptops meet the specs in order to have a plus learning environment.

756
01:05:59,260 --> 01:06:04,380
not downloaded, get it right for me, enrolled, enrolled into the environment.

757
01:06:04,820 --> 01:06:07,200
And so when they leave on Thursday,

758
01:06:08,160 --> 01:06:12,700
their laptop will be ready to go, and they will turn in their Chromebook,

759
01:06:12,880 --> 01:06:16,280
or retain their Chromebook there at the campus, because they'll have to check it out for

760
01:06:16,820 --> 01:06:18,740
certain tests that they'll have to use a Chromebook.

761
01:06:19,080 --> 01:06:24,340
When they come to school on Monday, they will be able to use their personal laptop.

762
01:06:25,080 --> 01:06:28,720
teachers at Taylor High School, they will all be notified which kids are in the pilot.

763
01:06:29,680 --> 01:06:34,160
They are going to kind of, I don't know how they're going to do it, so when they have their laptops open,

764
01:06:34,640 --> 01:06:37,760
they can tell the personal devices, which you probably could because of the size.

765
01:06:37,980 --> 01:06:41,100
But Dr. Stone and her team had some ideas about that.

766
01:06:41,320 --> 01:06:45,260
But the teachers will know the number of students that are approved in the pilot.

767
01:06:45,560 --> 01:06:48,720
It will stay those students through the end of the fall semester, and

768
01:06:48,720 --> 01:06:53,080
that's who we will be guarding the feedback from in addition to the staff and the families.

769
01:06:53,080 --> 01:06:58,520
So, my again, I sound like a conspiracy theorist. I can't help it. I'm sorry,

770
01:06:58,660 --> 01:07:02,940
calling what you want. I don't really care. At this point, so when you bring

771
01:07:02,940 --> 01:07:09,820
in your own device and you go into the KDISD operating system, is that what

772
01:07:09,820 --> 01:07:13,560
we're saying? We're calling it for more, better or less, an operating system.

773
01:07:14,060 --> 01:07:20,600
Platform, platform, platform. So, that's downloaded onto that child's device.

774
01:07:22,880 --> 01:07:30,200
So it's really not downloaded what happened with this process.

775
01:07:30,240 --> 01:07:34,160
We configure the device, which is a temporary configuration.

776
01:07:35,040 --> 01:07:41,900
The device is configured to act in a certain way, basically to mimic a Chromebook, which,

777
01:07:41,980 --> 01:07:44,360
by the way, nobody's doing this anywhere.

778
01:07:44,360 --> 01:08:03,400
And so it turns your laptop, whether it's a Mac or Windows, into basically a browser and it holds off all the bushes back, all the other windows or Mac resources so you can't access them.

779
01:08:03,720 --> 01:08:04,760
Kind of acts like a guard dog.

780
01:08:05,360 --> 01:08:07,040
Yeah, you cannot protect it.

781
01:08:07,040 --> 01:08:12,660
Yes, it basically gives you the browser, it prevents it locks it to the browser.

782
01:08:14,080 --> 01:08:20,060
So we don't really download anything on the machine, we configure it to act that way.

783
01:08:20,460 --> 01:08:22,860
And then how does the student remove that configuration?

784
01:08:23,460 --> 01:08:24,180
Good question.

785
01:08:24,860 --> 01:08:31,100
So what they do, they have to basically sign out of their machine, they basically have to

786
01:08:31,100 --> 01:08:32,880
reboot the machine, sign out of it.

787
01:08:32,880 --> 01:08:41,360
When they do that control, I'll delete or it gives them the ability to sign out and then

788
01:08:41,360 --> 01:08:42,620
sign back in.

789
01:08:43,200 --> 01:08:45,820
When they do that, they're back to their normal environment.

790
01:08:46,220 --> 01:08:51,100
Okay, so when the student graduates from Katie, let's say, how do they remove that entire

791
01:08:51,100 --> 01:08:54,980
programming from their computer so that it's no longer there?

792
01:08:55,380 --> 01:08:56,040
Yeah, absolutely.

793
01:08:56,040 --> 01:09:05,200
So they can always, they do enroll at the beginning and they do an enroll or an install it at the end.

794
01:09:05,480 --> 01:09:13,740
So they will be, they will go to our my Katie Cloud event right now with the pilot who are doing things slightly different.

795
01:09:13,860 --> 01:09:19,220
But eventually when we roll it out for the district, they will go to the, they don't need us actually.

796
01:09:19,340 --> 01:09:23,540
They can go to the cloud and enroll and they can go to the cloud and enroll.

797
01:09:24,200 --> 01:09:32,740
And is it like almost like a monitor, like you're monitoring them during the school day while they're on this KD platform?

798
01:09:33,200 --> 01:09:48,400
So we created this special, well, because we're trying to guard the security for this, but let's just say only while they are in our schools, that this model will work, it will not work at home or outside our school.

799
01:09:48,400 --> 01:09:53,960
So there's not any necessarily like when they leave the building or they leave they're at home they're not

800
01:09:53,960 --> 01:10:02,860
There's nothing that's been monitoring them at home in any way shape or form from like browser data or keystroke data or anything like that

801
01:10:02,860 --> 01:10:08,520
No, nothing now. What happens also if you log in with our credentials

802
01:10:08,520 --> 01:10:19,200
every student has a KDISD user ID and if you log in to your browser with our credentials,

803
01:10:20,180 --> 01:10:27,540
then we do have some applications like our filtering system, our there's a product called

804
01:10:27,540 --> 01:10:37,880
beacon which monitors which behaviors on risky behaviors. Now when you log in with that, we do

805
01:10:39,260 --> 01:10:48,740
monitor, monitor, we don't collect, we monitor if somebody, if somebody going into a risky website it actually alerts us that this person is doing something.

806
01:10:49,000 --> 01:10:53,000
If you log in with our KDISD credentials.

807
01:10:53,400 --> 01:10:55,740
Okay, all right, that's all I wanted to know, thank you.

808
01:10:56,380 --> 01:10:57,520
Any other questions, Board?

809
01:10:58,280 --> 01:10:59,280
Mr. President.

810
01:10:59,560 --> 01:10:59,840
Ms. Fox.

811
01:11:00,500 --> 01:11:02,220
Thank you for the update on that.

812
01:11:02,220 --> 01:11:07,780
Do you, is there very much interest in bringing their own devices?

813
01:11:08,180 --> 01:11:14,460
I know they talked a lot about they needed a better, stronger, different computer to do some of the AP classes.

814
01:11:15,220 --> 01:11:18,060
Is there a big enrollment, or is it wait and see?

815
01:11:18,700 --> 01:11:23,580
Yeah, they seem to be very happy with utilization of the district Chromebook.

816
01:11:23,820 --> 01:11:25,040
So it's a small pilot group.

817
01:11:25,100 --> 01:11:31,680
We're looking to possibly expand to two other campuses that they are interested in joining to kind of expand that group.

818
01:11:31,680 --> 01:11:35,840
But that's still in the test phase, but we do want to move forward, even if it is a small group,

819
01:11:36,600 --> 01:11:43,500
it's we're learning so much and what the work that the team put into this, and it's really fascinating to see it.

820
01:11:43,640 --> 01:11:48,460
And I think the kids that do opt in, they probably have a vested interest that they want to use their own device.

821
01:11:48,600 --> 01:11:56,220
And we want to see how that works because if it does work, then we can put them in a protected platform using their own device.

822
01:11:56,220 --> 01:12:04,740
I appreciate them wanting to do that because what you'll collect is, you know, it's worth it, or it's not, and our children will tell us.

823
01:12:05,360 --> 01:12:23,660
Did we, very quickly, did we talk about this here, or did I hear this at a conference where a school district said that the child has one-to-one device, and they take it with them when they leave the district, and it has all of their work on it, and they take it to college if they want.

824
01:12:24,460 --> 01:12:29,120
And so because they're so old by the time they leave, if they've had it four or five years,

825
01:12:29,660 --> 01:12:32,200
you can't, you know, they're outdated anyway.

826
01:12:32,380 --> 01:12:36,340
And they get to take that in all of their research that they've done, and all the work they've done,

827
01:12:36,340 --> 01:12:40,240
and maybe some of their portfolios that they've created is on the Chromebook.

828
01:12:40,440 --> 01:12:45,800
And they, oh, it was a superintendant of the year interview that said that, that they let them take it with them.

829
01:12:46,140 --> 01:12:47,000
What a great idea.

830
01:12:47,380 --> 01:12:52,820
So, I thought, just, I'm not saying anything just a thought in my last thing.

831
01:12:52,820 --> 01:12:55,240
Dr. Lonnie, how long have you worked for KDSD?

832
01:12:59,100 --> 01:12:59,980
13 years.

833
01:13:00,200 --> 01:13:00,440
13 years.

834
01:13:00,440 --> 01:13:00,700
13 years.

835
01:13:01,080 --> 01:13:08,580
In that time, I just think of all the innovation that you have brought to KDSD that has proven to be something other people look to.

836
01:13:09,340 --> 01:13:11,780
And here you are once again, and I appreciate you very much.

837
01:13:11,860 --> 01:13:12,120
Thank you.

838
01:13:14,060 --> 01:13:15,160
Thank you all very much.

839
01:13:15,500 --> 01:13:16,020
We appreciate you.

840
01:13:16,020 --> 01:13:35,640
When I move on to our discussion items for the meeting, first up will be item 7.1 discuss and consider board adoption of the 2025-2026 maintenance and operation tax rate in the 2025-2026 debt service tax rate and our presenter tonight will be Chris Smith, our chief finance officer.

841
01:13:39,980 --> 01:13:43,040
It ain't being President Redmond, super vinegar, horsey and board.

842
01:13:45,560 --> 01:13:49,500
It'll come as no surprise to you as we've talked about this tax rate now for a couple

843
01:13:49,500 --> 01:13:49,940
of months.

844
01:13:50,280 --> 01:13:57,900
What I'm going to be going over tonight, but as per tax code 26 and 26, the tax rate must

845
01:13:57,900 --> 01:13:59,580
be adopted as two separate rates.

846
01:14:00,160 --> 01:14:03,380
One for maintenance and operations and one for interest in sinking.

847
01:14:04,320 --> 01:14:08,360
In order, leving a maintenance and operations tax rate and the debt service tax rate for

848
01:14:08,360 --> 01:14:14,620
the Katie Independent School District for Tax Year 2025 is presented at the board's consideration.

849
01:14:15,240 --> 01:14:16,760
And I'm going to read that in a minute.

850
01:14:17,520 --> 01:14:25,040
The adoption of the maintenance operations tax rate of 0.7271 per $100 valuation will provide

851
01:14:25,040 --> 01:14:30,980
funding to the service, the school district's maintenance and operations for the 2526 fiscal

852
01:14:30,980 --> 01:14:31,280
year.

853
01:14:31,280 --> 01:14:40,220
and the adoption of the interest in sinking tax rate of 39 cents or 0.390 per $100 valuation will provide funding

854
01:14:40,220 --> 01:14:47,720
to serve the school districts that service fund or interest in sinking fund for the 2526 school year.

855
01:14:48,220 --> 01:14:54,780
That order reads a levy maintaining an order, levying a maintenance and operations tax rate.

856
01:15:00,000 --> 01:15:29,880
District for the tax year 2025. Be it ordained and resolved at the Board of Trustees and KD Independent School District that on this 22nd day of September 2025, we the Board of Trustees of the KD Independent School District. Do hereby levy and set the tax rate on $100 valuation for the school district for the tax year 2025 of 1.1171 or $1.1171 to be assessed and collected by duly specified assessor and collector as follows.

857
01:15:29,880 --> 01:15:38,580
0.7271 for the purposes of maintenance operations and 0.390 for the purpose of payment of principal

858
01:15:38,580 --> 01:15:39,440
and interest on debts.

859
01:15:40,300 --> 01:15:45,860
So its taxes are to be assessed and collected by the tax office officials designated by

860
01:15:45,860 --> 01:15:46,420
the district.

861
01:15:47,840 --> 01:15:53,520
And then again, just a little rhetoric on that, it is the same tax rate as we've had last

862
01:15:53,520 --> 01:15:59,220
last year for maintenance and operations, that's broken down to 0.6169 as our maximum

863
01:15:59,220 --> 01:16:05,600
compressed rate. And again, that is the same rate as last year, but the DEA sets that

864
01:16:05,600 --> 01:16:13,040
on our behalf on this board's behalf. And then it has eight golden pennies in it and three

865
01:16:13,040 --> 01:16:22,440
copper pennies or 3.02 copper pennies. So the 6169 plus 8 plus 3.02 adds up to the 72.71

866
01:16:22,440 --> 01:16:24,660
maintenance and operations tax rate.

867
01:16:26,300 --> 01:16:36,080
It is recommended that the Board of Trustees approve the tax rate of 1.1171, which is effectively

868
01:16:36,080 --> 01:16:42,520
a 1.54% increase in the tax rate, and further recommend the Board of Trustees approve the

869
01:16:42,520 --> 01:16:48,360
order adopting the maintenance and operations tax rate of 0.7271 per 100-dollar evaluation

870
01:16:48,360 --> 01:16:58,360
in the interest in sinking tax rate 0.390 per 100 dollars of valuation for the tax year 2025 as reflected in the order I just read to you.

871
01:16:59,260 --> 01:17:00,780
And I'll be glad to answer any questions.

872
01:17:02,040 --> 01:17:02,940
Any questions, Board?

873
01:17:03,340 --> 01:17:03,960
Mr. President?

874
01:17:04,100 --> 01:17:04,440
Ms. Fizzell?

875
01:17:05,000 --> 01:17:05,980
Thank you, Mr. Smith.

876
01:17:06,620 --> 01:17:11,160
How is this different than what we did last month if you don't mind me asking in late terms?

877
01:17:11,160 --> 01:17:11,600
How is it worse?

878
01:17:12,160 --> 01:17:16,060
This agenda item, is this just a formality, some document required?

879
01:17:16,060 --> 01:17:21,500
This is required by tax code that an order or a resolution, it's the district kind of choice.

880
01:17:21,880 --> 01:17:25,220
Which one to choose to formally adopt that rate last month?

881
01:17:25,700 --> 01:17:33,420
We just discussed the rate that drove the numbers in the budget that we talked about last month and that as a proposed rate.

882
01:17:33,740 --> 01:17:38,500
This is the month that we have to take action through the adoption of the order or the resolution.

883
01:17:39,060 --> 01:17:43,200
In our case, the order to formally adopt those rates.

884
01:17:43,880 --> 01:17:47,960
Okay. In essence, it's been adopted because of our budget being adopted.

885
01:17:49,920 --> 01:17:57,840
If it was used to, those, the rates that I'm recommending tonight were used in the budget adoption process.

886
01:18:00,180 --> 01:18:01,720
But it's not been adopted.

887
01:18:02,080 --> 01:18:02,980
Right. Thank you.

888
01:18:03,040 --> 01:18:06,120
I'm asking for a public who've asked, like, why are we looking at this again?

889
01:18:06,620 --> 01:18:08,140
Didn't you set it last month?

890
01:18:08,480 --> 01:18:10,600
But this is a formal proposal for that.

891
01:18:10,620 --> 01:18:10,760
Yes.

892
01:18:11,020 --> 01:18:11,520
Thank you, sir.

893
01:18:14,280 --> 01:18:15,460
Any other questions, Board?

894
01:18:17,500 --> 01:18:25,780
I will note, President Redmond, that this is one item that really by tax code cannot come off the beyond the consent agenda.

895
01:18:25,880 --> 01:18:34,140
We'll have to talk about it again next week. I'm sorry, but we'll have to be in red in the order and everything will have to be read again.

896
01:18:34,140 --> 01:18:41,960
Thank you, I will now move on to item 7.2, discuss and consider Board approval of the July 2025 financial reports.

897
01:18:42,360 --> 01:18:45,380
Presenter will be Jamie Hines, our Assistant Superintendent of Finance.

898
01:18:56,820 --> 01:18:58,440
I can't see it without this.

899
01:18:59,140 --> 01:19:04,840
Good evening, President Redmond, members of the Board of Trustees and Superintendent Nicaragorski.

900
01:19:05,580 --> 01:19:13,500
We have tonight, for your approval, our financial reports for through the month of July, including our financial statements.

901
01:19:13,500 --> 01:19:19,140
our construction report, our tax report, and a summary of our check registers for the month of July.

902
01:19:19,940 --> 01:19:27,360
The good news is this is the very final financial statements and reports that we have to do for fiscal year 2025.

903
01:19:28,360 --> 01:19:41,680
So just a little bit about this, the financial statements as always provide analysis of our expenditures and revenues by both function and object.

904
01:19:41,680 --> 01:19:47,780
Our construction report has got a summary of all of our capital projects.

905
01:19:48,060 --> 01:19:55,180
Our tax report has our current budget levy, budgeted levy, as well as our collections and our certified levy.

906
01:19:57,600 --> 01:20:10,840
Through the 11th month, or July, which is about 91.6% of the fiscal year, we've seen essentially the same thing that we've brought up month over month, and that is underspending.

907
01:20:10,840 --> 01:20:14,660
And we're seeing about the same underpinning that we've seen in the past.

908
01:20:14,840 --> 01:20:18,620
So I'm not going to go further into detail but we're seeing the same things.

909
01:20:19,340 --> 01:20:23,560
And again, this is the last set of financial reports that we'll see.

910
01:20:23,900 --> 01:20:27,740
So I won't come up here again next month for the financial statements.

911
01:20:28,220 --> 01:20:34,480
I'll come back in January when you all will see and approve the Act for

912
01:20:34,480 --> 01:20:36,580
the Annual Comprehensive Financial Report.

913
01:20:36,580 --> 01:20:40,320
So that'll be when we see the final piece of this fiscal year.

914
01:20:42,320 --> 01:20:45,940
That's all I have for the financial reports, and I'd be glad to take any questions.

915
01:20:46,640 --> 01:20:47,620
Any questions for it?

916
01:20:50,830 --> 01:20:52,990
We'll move on to item 7.3.

917
01:20:53,650 --> 01:21:01,630
Mr. Heinz will be our presenter again, and discussing considered board approval of nominating candidates for positions on the board of directors for the Waller County appraisal district.

918
01:21:02,070 --> 01:21:06,590
The district for events, central appraisal districts in Harris County appraisal district.

919
01:21:07,910 --> 01:21:26,690
Item 7.2, unlike last month when we were filling a vacated spot in one of our appraisal districts, this is actually the formal nomination process or month for formally nominating for all three of our appraisal districts.

920
01:21:26,690 --> 01:21:33,210
I'm just going to go into a little bit of detail, but this essentially is your item to discuss.

921
01:21:33,630 --> 01:21:39,950
But all three, since we have two large appraisal districts that now go by a state standard,

922
01:21:40,530 --> 01:21:47,010
they actually have the ability to nominate two candidates each for four year terms.

923
01:21:47,610 --> 01:21:52,030
That would be for Fort Bend Central Appraisal District and Harris Central Appraisal District.

924
01:21:52,030 --> 01:21:56,510
And then we've got Waller County that abides by a little bit different rules.

925
01:21:56,730 --> 01:22:03,110
So they're actually replacing all five of, they're not replacing, but having an election for all five of theirs.

926
01:22:03,950 --> 01:22:11,490
And so they have five positions available and those are at two year terms.

927
01:22:11,890 --> 01:22:18,870
For all of these, as in the resolution, you're able to nominate up to the number of candidates

928
01:22:18,870 --> 01:22:25,330
It's allowed for those positions, so essentially two in Fort Bend Central Appraisal District

929
01:22:25,330 --> 01:22:30,430
and Harris Central Appraisal District, and up to five for Waller County Appraisal District.

930
01:22:32,200 --> 01:22:34,220
I'd be glad to answer any questions about this.

931
01:22:35,020 --> 01:22:35,660
Any questions, Board?

932
01:22:38,390 --> 01:22:40,310
It feels like we just did this.

933
01:22:40,890 --> 01:22:41,710
Yes, ma'am.

934
01:22:41,990 --> 01:22:43,310
It's already time to do it again.

935
01:22:43,650 --> 01:22:50,850
A Mr. Paul Stamonis did request he lives in Katie, and we have nominated him before,

936
01:22:50,850 --> 01:22:56,850
and he did request a nomination so I'm sorry I forgot to say that earlier.

937
01:22:58,390 --> 01:23:10,070
So when we're talking about the H-CAD ones, there are two that terms will expire this December and then it says 2027 and 2026.

938
01:23:11,130 --> 01:23:19,790
Yes, ma'am, that's correct and so the new criteria or scenarios they have is they actually

939
01:23:20,510 --> 01:23:31,550
every couple of every year they'll elect additional nominees for the directors and so they're always overlapping.

940
01:23:31,990 --> 01:23:41,110
So it looks a little different than it did in the past when everybody was elected on the same year and serve the same number, same term.

941
01:23:41,770 --> 01:23:48,570
Now they have four year terms and each year they have additional directors so that's why there's only two this year.

942
01:23:48,570 --> 01:23:54,790
So, we're only considering, too, the ones that are expiring December 31st, 2025.

943
01:23:55,030 --> 01:23:55,930
Yes, ma'am, that's correct.

944
01:23:56,290 --> 01:24:02,810
And the others are just for our information, but not for consideration, because it says these three people

945
01:24:02,810 --> 01:24:06,270
end in 27 and these three end in 26.

946
01:24:06,610 --> 01:24:10,630
So, we're not considering those people in an exhibit A that has all that on them.

947
01:24:10,710 --> 01:24:12,950
That was just information that the CAD provided.

948
01:24:13,570 --> 01:24:13,770
Okay.

949
01:24:14,110 --> 01:24:16,830
Do we know if both of these people are seeking re-election?

950
01:24:16,830 --> 01:24:20,930
or Harris County.

951
01:24:21,150 --> 01:24:22,170
They are both listed.

952
01:24:24,070 --> 01:24:26,730
Melissa Noriega and Martina Lamont-Dixon.

953
01:24:27,170 --> 01:24:27,550
Yes, ma'am.

954
01:24:28,010 --> 01:24:28,310
Thank you.

955
01:24:31,270 --> 01:24:32,150
Any other questions?

956
01:24:35,140 --> 01:24:35,260
All right.

957
01:24:35,600 --> 01:24:35,860
Thank you.

958
01:24:36,300 --> 01:24:41,400
We'll now move on to item 7.4 discuss and consider board approval of the September 2025

959
01:24:41,400 --> 01:24:42,460
budget amendments.

960
01:24:43,200 --> 01:24:46,640
The presenter will be Esperanza Rios, Director of Budget and Treasury.

961
01:24:59,090 --> 01:25:02,270
Good evening, board president Redmond, board of trustees, and Dr. Cagorski.

962
01:25:02,270 --> 01:25:15,130
Today, we present a budget amendment for the Capital Projects Fund and the amount of $292,500 for design services for the proposed opportunity awareness center facility approved by the board at the August Board meeting.

963
01:25:15,950 --> 01:25:24,690
The design services will be covered with the bond interest proceeds and this approval of the amendment will result in no impact to the Capital Projects Fund balance.

964
01:25:27,450 --> 01:25:28,290
Any questions, Board?

965
01:25:30,330 --> 01:25:31,190
Mr. President.

966
01:25:32,090 --> 01:25:32,570
Mr. Salon.

967
01:25:32,910 --> 01:25:33,750
Thank you, Mr. Rios.

968
01:25:33,750 --> 01:25:39,490
So my question is, we just set the budget.

969
01:25:40,110 --> 01:25:43,510
We just started our financial year, it may not be a really year question.

970
01:25:44,090 --> 01:25:47,330
9-1, and we're already doing a budget amendment.

971
01:25:47,890 --> 01:25:52,630
I realize it's a capital expenditure, it's where we're getting the funds.

972
01:25:52,990 --> 01:25:56,930
But why wasn't this part of the regular budget that we set, we just set.

973
01:25:57,670 --> 01:26:00,310
And it's already been a plan, is it?

974
01:26:00,310 --> 01:26:02,490
I can answer that.

975
01:26:03,870 --> 01:26:09,810
The board adopted budgets for legally adopted budgets for the general or the maintenance

976
01:26:09,810 --> 01:26:15,210
and operations fund, the interest in sinking fund, and the special projects fund, which in

977
01:26:15,210 --> 01:26:17,690
our case is only food services.

978
01:26:18,290 --> 01:26:22,250
So those three funds that board formally adopted a budget, this is the capital projects fund.

979
01:26:22,870 --> 01:26:28,410
The board does not formally adopt a budget yearly.

980
01:26:28,410 --> 01:26:36,070
We present the financial statements to you, and since last month, we approved this expenditure to move forward the expenditure.

981
01:26:36,530 --> 01:26:43,110
We are just putting this in a formal budget amendment to kind of solidify it, if you will, in the back end.

982
01:26:43,550 --> 01:26:44,750
You've approved the project.

983
01:26:44,910 --> 01:26:47,170
Now we're just trying to get it cozy in its little place.

984
01:26:47,790 --> 01:26:48,430
No, I got you.

985
01:26:49,150 --> 01:26:51,570
We weren't presented a number though last month.

986
01:26:53,350 --> 01:26:56,410
I think we work as-

987
01:26:56,410 --> 01:27:03,070
Not a number. We approved the plan. There was no number, and I probably should have asked for the number.

988
01:27:03,330 --> 01:27:09,310
There was a percentage based on the total project cost, but not a detailed dollar for dollar if I remember correct.

989
01:27:11,340 --> 01:27:15,160
A percentage of what number? We didn't have a number last month.

990
01:27:16,280 --> 01:27:20,440
I might go ahead and ask Mr. Verily to step in and explain a little bit with how that works.

991
01:27:21,560 --> 01:27:26,180
You bet, so we based it on a construction cost of about seven and a half million dollars.

992
01:27:26,740 --> 01:27:29,100
So, yeah, and that wasn't presented last month.

993
01:27:29,440 --> 01:27:34,680
I didn't see 7.5 million, and I didn't know 30 percent, or so I would just say 30 percent.

994
01:27:36,280 --> 01:27:44,240
So, I just, it's first time I'm seeing the figure this month.

995
01:27:44,640 --> 01:27:53,460
And then, so the question though was, why wasn't this part of, I guess it has to be a part of the,

996
01:27:53,460 --> 01:27:56,640
The only way to expense this is through capital expenditure?

997
01:27:57,500 --> 01:27:58,220
No, right?

998
01:27:58,480 --> 01:27:59,160
We could have decided.

999
01:27:59,220 --> 01:28:01,020
You could use undesernated bond funds.

1000
01:28:01,020 --> 01:28:04,900
You could use the general fund or project savings in bond funds.

1001
01:28:05,020 --> 01:28:07,340
You could use the general fund or this source.

1002
01:28:09,880 --> 01:28:13,720
Okay, so that was part of the agenda in last month

1003
01:28:13,720 --> 01:28:16,020
that it was going to be CAPEX, correct?

1004
01:28:17,020 --> 01:28:18,620
It was going to become out of the capital project.

1005
01:28:18,660 --> 01:28:20,000
You were financing it through that.

1006
01:28:20,120 --> 01:28:22,100
That was presented, but not a figure.

1007
01:28:22,580 --> 01:28:23,460
I didn't see a figure.

1008
01:28:25,160 --> 01:28:31,700
That's why I'm asking yeah, I appreciate it. Sorry. I answered that you were an item. I'm barely wrong on that apologize

1009
01:28:31,700 --> 01:28:36,500
I just know that that number got to our offices what we need to put in there is a budget amendment

1010
01:28:36,500 --> 01:28:41,800
Yes, and I understand the role here of this agenda item. So okay

1011
01:28:44,300 --> 01:28:44,740
There

1012
01:28:46,860 --> 01:28:49,600
would be one second. Let's see okay trustees

1013
01:28:49,600 --> 01:28:55,460
I did want to I while we're sitting here. I'm not super familiar with this item because it's not my shop

1014
01:28:55,460 --> 01:28:59,320
But I did pull up the AIA documents that were attached to the last board meeting.

1015
01:28:59,800 --> 01:29:07,500
In under section 1.13 of the owner's budget, you'll see that the $7,500,000 number.

1016
01:29:08,220 --> 01:29:11,040
So that was presented to the board last month in that contract.

1017
01:29:12,040 --> 01:29:20,880
Mr. President, just so you're aware, General Counsel, usually I see that we, the board, see that in our board documents.

1018
01:29:21,220 --> 01:29:24,300
I know the document you're talking about, a lot of pages.

1019
01:29:24,300 --> 01:29:27,300
is usually we see that summarized in the agenda item.

1020
01:29:28,320 --> 01:29:29,540
So that's where I'm coming from.

1021
01:29:30,880 --> 01:29:31,440
All

1022
01:29:33,900 --> 01:29:36,300
right, I guess I'll stop there.

1023
01:29:37,200 --> 01:29:40,400
We've already had CAPEX expenditure,

1024
01:29:40,780 --> 01:29:42,120
two million from June.

1025
01:29:42,860 --> 01:29:44,480
I know we're in a different financial year.

1026
01:29:47,040 --> 01:29:50,080
And another two million in July

1027
01:29:50,080 --> 01:29:53,100
for the electric content management system.

1028
01:29:53,380 --> 01:29:56,300
So I'm just trying to keep track of all the CAPEX

1029
01:29:56,300 --> 01:29:57,280
it's nice to know

1030
01:30:00,000 --> 01:30:03,400
Bigger. Thank you. Any other questions, Board?

1031
01:30:06,310 --> 01:30:13,210
When we move on to item 7.5, discuss and consider approval of an order, authorizing the replacement of the Bank of New York Melon Trust Company.

1032
01:30:15,130 --> 01:30:31,630
We present for your consideration in order to replace a Bank of New York Melon Trust Company, which is our current patent agent for the KDI SD bonds for payments that are made in February and August. So we're asking the Board to authorize the appointment of UMB Bank as a

1033
01:30:31,630 --> 01:30:33,690
as the new Paying Aging agent.

1034
01:30:37,940 --> 01:30:38,940
Any questions, Board?

1035
01:30:39,400 --> 01:30:41,340
I just wanted to make a clarification on that.

1036
01:30:41,500 --> 01:30:50,600
Mr. Smith, I know that you had spoken about your dissatisfaction with the original trust company that we had had.

1037
01:30:50,700 --> 01:30:53,980
Can you speak a little bit more to that just for a transparency sake?

1038
01:30:54,280 --> 01:30:54,420
Sure.

1039
01:30:56,680 --> 01:31:00,000
Our prior Paying Aging essentially sends us an invoice.

1040
01:31:00,420 --> 01:31:03,960
And that invoice has all our outstanding bonds and the payment amount that's due.

1041
01:31:03,960 --> 01:31:10,080
And then we send the money from our cash account to theirs and they disperse it on our behalf to the bond holders.

1042
01:31:12,840 --> 01:31:15,260
I think it really just boils down to customer service.

1043
01:31:15,880 --> 01:31:20,420
I'll be honest with you, there are invoices that are titled with my predecessor.

1044
01:31:20,740 --> 01:31:27,780
I've been in this position for 13 years and my predecessor's name is still on one of the invoices.

1045
01:31:28,220 --> 01:31:33,240
We've been asking to have that change for years, probably not 13 but a lot of years.

1046
01:31:33,700 --> 01:31:37,860
But I think Ms. Rios can probably talk about more details if I don't cover it in a depth

1047
01:31:37,860 --> 01:31:38,120
enough.

1048
01:31:38,780 --> 01:31:42,040
But it's just, we have to work within to make sure that we're sending the right amount

1049
01:31:42,040 --> 01:31:42,340
of money.

1050
01:31:42,480 --> 01:31:45,540
We don't want to over-send or under-send those payments.

1051
01:31:46,220 --> 01:31:52,500
And it's difficult to get answers with our current one.

1052
01:31:52,880 --> 01:32:00,440
I think Rude, I've heard it several times, Kurt, and as I understand it, there are other

1053
01:32:01,580 --> 01:32:04,360
organization similar to ours that are doing the same thing.

1054
01:32:05,380 --> 01:32:10,120
This bank does not, I don't not sure how they make their revenue, but they don't make a lot of money off KDISD.

1055
01:32:10,320 --> 01:32:15,180
We pay about $500 an outstanding series to the bank to have it done.

1056
01:32:15,300 --> 01:32:17,400
So we're not talking about a large item at all.

1057
01:32:18,140 --> 01:32:23,980
It's just that that's where the money flows from our account to them, to the bond holders.

1058
01:32:25,040 --> 01:32:26,440
And it's a service issue.

1059
01:32:26,780 --> 01:32:27,640
Thank you, I appreciate that.

1060
01:32:27,640 --> 01:32:35,600
Any other questions for Dr. Allow me can we maybe record the interactions we're

1061
01:32:35,600 --> 01:32:40,220
having with that bank and put in as a negative model on our AI don't end up like

1062
01:32:40,220 --> 01:32:48,880
that. All right further questions. I will now move on to item 7.6 discussing

1063
01:32:48,880 --> 01:32:53,040
the approval of the voluntary benefit products for plan year 2026.

1064
01:32:53,040 --> 01:32:55,840
Senator Lance Norman, director of risk management.

1065
01:32:56,600 --> 01:32:59,820
And Mr. Alman, you'll be with us for 7.7 and 7.8.

1066
01:33:00,440 --> 01:33:03,420
Correct, and I'll present from here if that's okay.

1067
01:33:04,520 --> 01:33:08,500
Good evening, President Redmond, Dr. Gorskian, Board of Trustees.

1068
01:33:09,440 --> 01:33:14,500
Board policy, CR legal states that a district may procure with any insurance company,

1069
01:33:15,320 --> 01:33:18,080
authorized to do business in Texas, to ensure its employees.

1070
01:33:18,080 --> 01:33:22,080
voluntary benefits made available to district employees through payroll

1071
01:33:22,080 --> 01:33:26,620
deductions are offered to provide access to services that promote and

1072
01:33:26,620 --> 01:33:30,680
help and enhance the health of employees and their dependents.

1073
01:33:31,040 --> 01:33:34,760
These benefits are presented to the Board of Trustees on an annual basis.

1074
01:33:35,560 --> 01:33:41,100
The number of offerings in plan structure for plan year 2026 remain unchanged.

1075
01:33:41,760 --> 01:33:46,660
Premiums will be the same for this period except for a sliding increase in the dental program.

1076
01:33:48,080 --> 01:33:53,640
It is recommended that the Board of Trustees approves the voluntary benefit products for plan year 2026.

1077
01:33:57,690 --> 01:34:04,030
Mr. President, I'd like to ask a few little questions, because I,

1078
01:34:06,150 --> 01:34:10,970
so I know that the insurance issue is a huge issue,

1079
01:34:11,410 --> 01:34:18,170
not just with KDIs, but around our country, around our state, and not just with ISDs, but with everybody.

1080
01:34:18,890 --> 01:34:36,170
So, I understand that this may be a little bit off topic, but since we're on the topic of health insurance, I want to just see, do we ever do any kind of customer feedback type thing, you know, to see how things are going that would be one question.

1081
01:34:36,170 --> 01:34:41,770
And then another one is, can we, because of, well, I guess that all be one question.

1082
01:34:41,910 --> 01:34:46,790
If we did the customer feedback and found out some things that may not be going well,

1083
01:34:47,030 --> 01:34:52,830
like some providers supposed to be covered, and then the customer finds out that they're not covered, for example.

1084
01:34:53,810 --> 01:34:58,570
Then that could be part of the feedback that you'd receive, and then maybe somebody could go along and

1085
01:34:58,570 --> 01:35:05,410
check out those things and make sure that what is told to them in the plan is actually what

1086
01:35:05,410 --> 01:35:08,130
that they're getting, that it all matches that.

1087
01:35:08,790 --> 01:35:10,970
So that, like our speaker said tonight,

1088
01:35:11,190 --> 01:35:13,470
that they're not having to, you know,

1089
01:35:14,270 --> 01:35:16,690
assume that something's covered and then find out

1090
01:35:16,690 --> 01:35:19,030
when they get there that that's not covered.

1091
01:35:20,130 --> 01:35:22,750
And I just think that we had some kind of feedback

1092
01:35:22,750 --> 01:35:27,310
from our employees and maybe we are doing that already,

1093
01:35:27,350 --> 01:35:28,850
but if we're getting the feedback

1094
01:35:28,850 --> 01:35:31,530
that maybe we'd hear some of these problems,

1095
01:35:32,050 --> 01:35:34,450
and then somebody, I don't know if it's you

1096
01:35:34,450 --> 01:35:39,230
If you were someone on your team, we'd go and investigate these problems and iron them out for people.

1097
01:35:39,430 --> 01:35:49,130
Well, let me just kind of speak to that on an annual basis and sometimes a semi-annual basis, depending on the type of coverage that it is,

1098
01:35:49,490 --> 01:35:58,110
we sit down with these carriers and they've got customer satisfaction reports that they present to us and we review those.

1099
01:35:58,110 --> 01:36:04,670
And we handle most of, I'm going to say, concerns on a one-off basis and work with those

1100
01:36:04,670 --> 01:36:07,150
employees to address whatever that may be.

1101
01:36:08,810 --> 01:36:13,790
And it varies from coverage to coverage, what the issue may be.

1102
01:36:14,570 --> 01:36:21,930
We see, too, when there's a, I'm going to call it a customer service issue, we deal a lot

1103
01:36:21,930 --> 01:36:29,070
with providers, improper billing, things of that nature that can cause this to exist up.

1104
01:36:29,230 --> 01:36:34,750
But we do try to address each one in every one and work with the employee to resolve those situations.

1105
01:36:36,530 --> 01:36:37,990
But is there a way?

1106
01:36:38,410 --> 01:36:44,290
So if you saw that this was going on, some employee has some kind of issue,

1107
01:36:44,570 --> 01:36:46,370
but then this was a recurring issue.

1108
01:36:46,550 --> 01:36:50,470
This wasn't just this one time, this one person had this one problem.

1109
01:36:50,470 --> 01:36:55,230
But this seem to be a continuous going on and on and on.

1110
01:36:55,330 --> 01:36:57,330
Is there something that can be done?

1111
01:36:57,530 --> 01:37:01,710
Because by the time a person needs this help,

1112
01:37:01,710 --> 01:37:05,370
sometimes they're at their weakest moment.

1113
01:37:05,690 --> 01:37:06,450
You know, they're not,

1114
01:37:08,530 --> 01:37:10,650
they don't have 100% energy level.

1115
01:37:10,930 --> 01:37:14,450
You know, they're in desperate need right now.

1116
01:37:14,910 --> 01:37:17,970
You know, they don't have all this time on their hands

1117
01:37:17,970 --> 01:37:24,570
to go research all this and some people are alone, you know, some people don't have an advocate for them.

1118
01:37:24,850 --> 01:37:29,930
Well, we, I think we take a lot of pride in being an advocate because we, our team constant.

1119
01:37:30,030 --> 01:37:34,150
We have several meetings with different providers on right now.

1120
01:37:35,210 --> 01:37:39,110
I can think of a prop again with our pharmacy team.

1121
01:37:39,230 --> 01:37:43,650
We meet weekly and help identify issues as we roll out new platforms.

1122
01:37:43,650 --> 01:37:54,990
It could be with any of these voluntary carriers we have standing meetings, and if we notice a trend, we will address it, so that answers your question.

1123
01:37:55,530 --> 01:37:56,230
Mr. President.

1124
01:37:56,630 --> 01:37:57,150
Mr. Fox.

1125
01:37:57,750 --> 01:38:07,090
Mr. Nowman, did you hear the speaker tonight concerns which were not one but many, an example of a few, let's say few.

1126
01:38:07,850 --> 01:38:12,410
And we hear about those two of others similar.

1127
01:38:12,410 --> 01:38:16,750
What is your plan to fix the concerns expressed tonight?

1128
01:38:17,430 --> 01:38:31,350
Well, we need to look at the individual events and go back to the carriers and identify what has transpired and look at those on an individual basis and go, do we have a trend here or is it?

1129
01:38:32,510 --> 01:38:33,470
You understand what I'm saying?

1130
01:38:33,470 --> 01:38:39,190
Well, did your office provide different lists of providers to employees that work?

1131
01:38:39,190 --> 01:38:45,370
My office does not provide lists, it's through the, uh, an navigator platform.

1132
01:38:45,770 --> 01:38:51,130
And something to understand about with those platforms is providers go, or very fluid,

1133
01:38:51,290 --> 01:38:52,410
in and out of those contracts.

1134
01:38:53,090 --> 01:38:59,890
So sometimes an individual may go online and say, well, it's Dr. X on the plan.

1135
01:39:00,510 --> 01:39:05,650
Well, he or she may not be, but then if, if the doctor's office is saying there is,

1136
01:39:05,650 --> 01:39:09,650
Because they are, we will begin to communicate and say, where's the disconnect?

1137
01:39:10,230 --> 01:39:16,370
So those platforms allow people to research within their plan, whether it's the POS,

1138
01:39:17,290 --> 01:39:23,010
the Memorial Herman ACO, or the high deductible, to see where those providers are they in that plan.

1139
01:39:24,930 --> 01:39:25,250
Okay.

1140
01:39:27,540 --> 01:39:37,260
One other thought, how's your office considered putting together, I don't even know if this is

1141
01:39:37,260 --> 01:39:42,100
is helpful, but I was just trying to be how do we communicate to our employees some

1142
01:39:42,100 --> 01:39:43,600
of the confusion?

1143
01:39:44,020 --> 01:39:45,580
How do we settle it for them?

1144
01:39:45,760 --> 01:39:50,480
Can we take people who have been through, like, you know, someone who's navigated the

1145
01:39:50,480 --> 01:39:50,920
whole thing?

1146
01:39:51,120 --> 01:39:55,260
Could there be a video of different employees in different situations saying, this is

1147
01:39:55,260 --> 01:40:00,720
what happened to me, and here's what I found to be helpful so that maybe what one person

1148
01:40:00,720 --> 01:40:06,880
has been through would be able to have a video on our website, on your connections.

1149
01:40:06,880 --> 01:40:12,380
that would help them, you know, maybe we have our own AI of like, here's how you do it.

1150
01:40:12,600 --> 01:40:16,580
You know, when it says this, try, you know, ABC, don't give up.

1151
01:40:16,800 --> 01:40:17,220
Here's the thing.

1152
01:40:17,540 --> 01:40:22,640
Because Mrs. Champagne's right, this is not the time when you're just trying to figure

1153
01:40:22,640 --> 01:40:25,340
out how to get your deductible for a new windshield.

1154
01:40:25,980 --> 01:40:27,880
It's, you know, it's gut wrenching.

1155
01:40:28,040 --> 01:40:32,920
And when you're going into surgery, but you're not allowed to have no stress test to make

1156
01:40:32,920 --> 01:40:36,680
sure you're strong enough to do it, that's risky.

1157
01:40:37,720 --> 01:40:39,460
And time is of the essence.

1158
01:40:40,100 --> 01:40:41,480
So what can we do?

1159
01:40:42,360 --> 01:40:44,940
You and us and you need our help.

1160
01:40:44,940 --> 01:40:50,120
We're here to help you serve our people who are out there serving children and taking

1161
01:40:50,120 --> 01:40:54,560
every ounce they have during the day to do that and then have to fight these battles hours

1162
01:40:54,560 --> 01:40:56,220
on the phone and in the offices.

1163
01:40:56,840 --> 01:41:00,300
That's something we can take back and consider and kind of think through.

1164
01:41:01,460 --> 01:41:06,500
There's mechanics that we have to work through in terms of privacy issues, identify

1165
01:41:06,500 --> 01:41:13,320
to find events that people might have experienced, but that's something we might have to consider.

1166
01:41:14,200 --> 01:41:19,680
I'm pretty sure that our people would be willing to help others of our people, but I'm

1167
01:41:19,680 --> 01:41:25,640
quite concerned about how do they find the answers they need as quickly as possible,

1168
01:41:25,640 --> 01:41:32,120
and with as little red tape as possible, like who the doctors are, and then how do they

1169
01:41:32,120 --> 01:41:42,780
They advocate for themselves to get the coverages that would be expected like a, like a colonoscopy or like a stress test or those kinds of things should be covered.

1170
01:41:43,000 --> 01:41:46,840
And if they're willing to pay more, help us figure out what that is.

1171
01:41:47,000 --> 01:41:48,680
And then we will get our people to explain.

1172
01:41:48,920 --> 01:41:51,920
This plan is worth the money when you really need it.

1173
01:41:53,060 --> 01:41:57,960
We tend to offer three, if I'll explain to you later on, I guess here in just a moment,

1174
01:41:58,060 --> 01:42:03,120
the three different plans that we offer, and we try to educate our people what those plans are like.

1175
01:42:03,360 --> 01:42:05,600
What is it consumer driven?

1176
01:42:06,140 --> 01:42:10,380
Is it within the Memorial Harmon Network, or is it a broad network, like our POS2?

1177
01:42:10,880 --> 01:42:18,900
And we go through open enrollment, we send out communication, flowers, educating our people to make those decisions.

1178
01:42:20,280 --> 01:42:21,200
Mr. President?

1179
01:42:21,500 --> 01:42:28,020
Board, can we finish up the voluntary benefits, and then we'll move on so you can do the presentation, and then question on health plan?

1180
01:42:28,880 --> 01:42:31,640
Any questions on the voluntary benefits, or 7.6?

1181
01:42:31,840 --> 01:42:32,580
Yes, Mr. President.

1182
01:42:32,860 --> 01:42:34,040
That includes dental, right?

1183
01:42:34,320 --> 01:42:34,440
Yes.

1184
01:42:34,700 --> 01:42:37,960
Sorry, I'm toggling between a couple of agendas looking back.

1185
01:42:39,200 --> 01:42:48,660
So, the premiums are roughly, they're up a little, perhaps, but how do we see what the coverage

1186
01:42:48,660 --> 01:42:52,780
actually is because you know sometimes you pay a premium might be the same but your coverage is different.

1187
01:42:53,060 --> 01:42:59,460
Now you got to pay for X-rays or you got to pay more for a crown etc. Do we have any indicator with

1188
01:42:59,460 --> 01:43:04,800
what kind of coverage? Particularly on the dental you have a high plan and a low plan. You think it in

1189
01:43:04,800 --> 01:43:14,240
terms of a richer benefit and not so rich benefit. And that's outlined during open enrollment. We

1190
01:43:14,240 --> 01:43:17,400
We present those, we give employees prior to open enrollment.

1191
01:43:17,880 --> 01:43:27,880
We bring all of our partners in, every partner in the voluntary and the health side, and give employees the opportunity to come down and sit and talk with them individually.

1192
01:43:27,880 --> 01:43:30,260
Is this the best plan for me, for my family?

1193
01:43:30,780 --> 01:43:41,580
So we give them that opportunity, and I will tell you this as Mr. Harris would test to, is the way insurance is going these days,

1194
01:43:41,580 --> 01:43:49,580
particularly in the environment of vision, dental, and a few other lines, it has gotten

1195
01:43:49,580 --> 01:43:53,600
so that people are just trading dollars with a lot of these benefits.

1196
01:43:54,000 --> 01:43:55,920
And for some people, it's a good thing for some others.

1197
01:43:56,360 --> 01:44:01,560
They use their HSA or their FSA to manage those expenses that we face.

1198
01:44:02,040 --> 01:44:10,200
Okay. I'm just hoping that it's clear when it's an open enrollment time and they can clearly see what they're trading in.

1199
01:44:10,200 --> 01:44:17,340
Right, and we look at it this way, we want our partners, they're the subject matter expert.

1200
01:44:17,560 --> 01:44:22,340
We want our employees to talk face to face to make sure they understand what they're purchasing.

1201
01:44:22,900 --> 01:44:25,820
And I will conclude with this one thought.

1202
01:44:26,240 --> 01:44:32,320
We're at the end of this plan year 26, we're at the end of a three year guaranteed cost, if you will, program.

1203
01:44:32,320 --> 01:44:42,400
We will be going out to the market next June, May or June, to re-up and re-look at things as we normally do, as the market changes.

1204
01:44:43,040 --> 01:44:45,920
Okay, I'll save my other questions for the next one.

1205
01:44:46,960 --> 01:44:49,740
Any more questions on item 7.6, Board?

1206
01:44:51,580 --> 01:44:58,900
No, all right, 7.7, all right, discuss and consider health plan that's medical.

1207
01:45:00,000 --> 01:45:29,700
For a year, 2026. With a district move to a self-funded health care plan in 2004, the main objective was to reduce the long-term impact of health care inflation while improving quality options for employees. Since its inception, the year-over-year inflation seen in the plan has ranged from 5% to 8%. While the national average saw trimming rates averaging from 9% to 12%. When compared to the same industry sector with Etna's Book of Business, the cost

1208
01:45:29,700 --> 01:45:38,540
The cost of care per member per month, PEPM, of the KDISD self-insured plan was 30.2% lower in 2024.

1209
01:45:39,460 --> 01:45:44,420
In recent years, the collection of premiums for the plan did not keep pace with medical trends,

1210
01:45:44,780 --> 01:45:48,080
and the unexpected collateral costs associated with COVID.

1211
01:45:48,520 --> 01:45:53,520
The district absorbed those direct losses without passing them directly to the plan participants.

1212
01:45:54,400 --> 01:46:05,580
Specifically, in the PLS2, the program premiums will increase along with program deductibles

1213
01:46:05,580 --> 01:46:12,200
from 4,000 to 5,000 for individuals and from 7,000 to 8,000 for families.

1214
01:46:12,840 --> 01:46:18,100
Next, the Memorial Hermann ACL plan will see premiums increase along with the increase in deductibles

1215
01:46:18,100 --> 01:46:27,840
from 1,850 to 1,950 for individuals and family deductible moving from 3675 to 3775.

1216
01:46:28,460 --> 01:46:42,880
Lastly, a premium increase will be noticed under the high deductible health plan with a company increase in deductible from 5,250 to 5,350 for individuals and from 10,500 to 10,600 for families.

1217
01:46:42,880 --> 01:46:47,560
For those planned members requiring pharmacy services, the provider will change from

1218
01:46:47,560 --> 01:46:49,160
express grips to HEB.

1219
01:46:50,100 --> 01:46:55,840
KDIST continues to provide chronic disease pharmacy managed to staff to avoid unnecessary

1220
01:46:55,840 --> 01:46:58,320
expenses related to primary care visits.

1221
01:46:58,960 --> 01:47:04,200
Virtual care continues to be included at no charge to plan participants, providing convenience

1222
01:47:04,200 --> 01:47:07,480
and time savings when quality care is needed.

1223
01:47:07,480 --> 01:47:15,660
Risk management continues to verify those individuals seeking enrollment in the plan through dependent care verification process.

1224
01:47:16,330 --> 01:47:24,760
Once the verification process is completed, staff members will no longer be required to do so unless there is a qualifying life event.

1225
01:47:25,740 --> 01:47:32,300
In this program, this program provides fairness and equity to all members seeking healthcare benefits.

1226
01:47:32,300 --> 01:47:50,800
And with that, I would like to move into my, I guess, brief PowerPoint and kind of give some historical perspective as what we've been doing in the plan and what we're looking at if you don't mind historical performance from 2019 to 2024.

1227
01:47:51,960 --> 01:48:03,440
You will see in 2019 we were in the red negative 1.7 continuing across in 20 to 2.6, 13.1, 16.5.

1228
01:48:03,440 --> 01:48:08,740
and 13.7 and through playing year 13.1.

1229
01:48:09,480 --> 01:48:16,140
One thing to note is you will see that our participants have remained relatively flat across this time slot.

1230
01:48:16,820 --> 01:48:26,660
And it's important to note that every month the district contributes $385 per employee per month to their health insurance.

1231
01:48:28,840 --> 01:48:34,680
It is also doubly important to remember that during these years in which we had a deficit,

1232
01:48:34,680 --> 01:48:41,140
that the district did not pass that deficit onto the plan members, the district absorbed it.

1233
01:48:41,540 --> 01:48:47,500
So if you look across in this exhibit, you'll see in 2019 the actual contribution made,

1234
01:48:47,660 --> 01:48:52,220
which would be the 385 plus the deficit of 19 was 404.

1235
01:48:52,780 --> 01:48:56,880
And that continues to grow across as we continue through time.

1236
01:48:57,460 --> 01:49:01,900
And it's quite clear you can see where the pandemic began.

1237
01:49:01,900 --> 01:49:06,740
And the continued cost of care continues to rise.

1238
01:49:10,420 --> 01:49:13,960
This example shows what our medical infarmency spend is.

1239
01:49:14,600 --> 01:49:21,540
And you will see that it is very important, and the last Mr. Harris to make the contribution

1240
01:49:21,540 --> 01:49:27,700
to this commentary is that medical friend is staying anywhere from five to six percent.

1241
01:49:27,980 --> 01:49:28,080
Correct.

1242
01:49:28,540 --> 01:49:30,980
But talk a little bit about what's driving the pharmacy.

1243
01:49:30,980 --> 01:49:46,100
Yes, so really was driving the pharmacy especially drugs, and that why we've got, we've got a really tightly-managed drug program currently right now nationally and just depending on where you are regionally in the type of plan you have, we're seeing on average pharmacy trend at 11%.

1244
01:49:46,100 --> 01:49:51,740
So if you have medical trending on average at 6 and pharmacy at 11, that gap is going to continue to grow.

1245
01:49:52,100 --> 01:49:55,840
For instance, in the early 90s pharmacy was about 2% of the cost of health care.

1246
01:49:55,840 --> 01:50:00,640
now nationally it's 40% of the cost to healthcare, and it's mainly due to specialty drugs.

1247
01:50:03,150 --> 01:50:11,370
And I would also add in this exhibit I'm presenting to you right now, as you'll notice how we've been a big advocate of our virtual care model.

1248
01:50:12,030 --> 01:50:17,590
Employees are utilizing that tremendously, and we're very encouraged by that.

1249
01:50:17,830 --> 01:50:24,730
And what it does, it keeps employees actively pursuing their healthcare,

1250
01:50:24,730 --> 01:50:32,550
They're managing their chronic diseases and keeping them out of urgent cares and stand-alone ERs, which is saving us money.

1251
01:50:35,330 --> 01:50:36,350
Where are we?

1252
01:50:36,690 --> 01:50:38,430
Fiscal Year 2425.

1253
01:50:39,110 --> 01:50:45,330
We had a negative 17.9 in terms of contributions versus expenses.

1254
01:50:46,370 --> 01:50:51,030
And this is through the first 11 months for the fiscal year through July.

1255
01:50:51,030 --> 01:50:56,710
And then for plan year, we're trending through seven months at a negative 11.04.

1256
01:51:04,260 --> 01:51:06,320
Mr. Harris, could you give us some comments?

1257
01:51:06,500 --> 01:51:08,380
We're looking at our 2026 projection.

1258
01:51:08,720 --> 01:51:12,360
Kind of walk us through how we get to, what do we, our walls pick?

1259
01:51:12,440 --> 01:51:14,460
I'm going to use that term, an insurance word.

1260
01:51:14,880 --> 01:51:16,820
What do we, our total expected losses will be?

1261
01:51:17,160 --> 01:51:19,220
What say, Mr. O'Donard, do you introduce Mr. Harris to serve?

1262
01:51:19,320 --> 01:51:21,240
I'm so sorry, my bad.

1263
01:51:21,860 --> 01:51:24,660
Tommy Harris was balled in a group who's our benefit consultant.

1264
01:51:24,660 --> 01:51:27,340
I apologize on that for granted.

1265
01:51:28,300 --> 01:51:33,380
So what our underwriting and actuary team do is we have to gather historical data and

1266
01:51:33,380 --> 01:51:34,960
then project that forward into the future.

1267
01:51:35,500 --> 01:51:40,400
So we're trying to do a loss pick for 18 months out from now so that we can budget our plan

1268
01:51:40,400 --> 01:51:41,140
design accordingly.

1269
01:51:41,760 --> 01:51:47,340
So we gather two years of historical data and then remove large claims, we trend that forward,

1270
01:51:47,720 --> 01:51:52,840
using the medical inflation trends of five or six percent in pharmacy of around ten.

1271
01:51:53,280 --> 01:52:03,920
And the oldest years, we have to trend an extra year further ahead with the most prior year we're trending ahead 18 months because in a plan year, you have 12 months of claims, and then you have six months of

1272
01:52:03,920 --> 01:52:09,620
incurred but not reported claims, so we're having to take this data and trend it a year and a half into the future.

1273
01:52:10,120 --> 01:52:14,200
And so that's what we've done here with what our annual projection is or what our spend is going to be.

1274
01:52:14,400 --> 01:52:15,640
It's never going to be perfect.

1275
01:52:16,140 --> 01:52:20,280
I mean, it's never going to be exactly what that trend is because we're looking out so far into the future.

1276
01:52:20,280 --> 01:52:24,420
But this is a very good estimate, and we've been pretty close to accurate so far.

1277
01:52:24,840 --> 01:52:28,100
So when you see what the annual projection is, it is a 1 if.

1278
01:52:28,660 --> 01:52:33,140
It could be worse, it could be better, depending on the utilization of the population.

1279
01:52:33,860 --> 01:52:37,480
So one thing that you'll see here, one, we know what we're going to spend in medical.

1280
01:52:37,660 --> 01:52:38,960
We know what we're going to spend in pharmacy.

1281
01:52:39,500 --> 01:52:43,180
And then we have our stop loss premiums for our individual stop loss.

1282
01:52:43,460 --> 01:52:48,020
And then we have our program oversight from Etna as the administrative of our plan.

1283
01:52:48,020 --> 01:52:52,880
One thing you'll see here, which was a big win, is in the pharmacy rebates.

1284
01:52:53,000 --> 01:52:58,420
And this is what caused the switch from express groups to HEB, is we were able to negotiate

1285
01:52:58,420 --> 01:53:04,240
a much more favorable contract for the plan and its members, and you'll notice

1286
01:53:04,240 --> 01:53:07,940
the increase in rebates went up from $5 million to $13 million.

1287
01:53:08,580 --> 01:53:13,660
So then what happens is you take your pharmacy spend, those rebates come back to you

1288
01:53:13,660 --> 01:53:19,340
from the pharmacy benefit manager from through the manufacturers, and we get that on a quarterly basis.

1289
01:53:19,980 --> 01:53:24,160
And then down at the bottom where we get the total, then it's going to show what our gains are

1290
01:53:24,160 --> 01:53:30,440
losses is. And you'll see that the deficit is finally starting to move in the correct direction.

1291
01:53:30,960 --> 01:53:34,780
And this is really a function of what we're doing with the high performing network,

1292
01:53:35,240 --> 01:53:40,260
with the Memorial Hermann ACO model, the tightly managed pharmacy, and then the ready-and-deed

1293
01:53:40,260 --> 01:53:43,800
direct primary care, which is very valuable

1294
01:53:43,800 --> 01:53:46,000
for population health and closing gaps in care.

1295
01:53:48,470 --> 01:53:53,150
This next slide, I would like you to take a look

1296
01:53:53,150 --> 01:53:57,690
and this shows you what the premiums will be for 2026

1297
01:53:59,310 --> 01:54:02,630
compared looking at 25 and then with the increase,

1298
01:54:03,070 --> 01:54:06,550
the dollar increase, and then the far right column

1299
01:54:06,550 --> 01:54:07,850
what the premiums will be.

1300
01:54:08,410 --> 01:54:10,570
And I've also notated what those deductibles

1301
01:54:10,570 --> 01:54:14,390
are switching to as I alluded to earlier in the presentation.

1302
01:54:17,630 --> 01:54:24,090
And here's the question that is always asked is, where do we stand against TRS active care?

1303
01:54:24,910 --> 01:54:34,750
You will see that, for example, let's just look at employee only, tier one, for plan your 26th,

1304
01:54:34,810 --> 01:54:41,390
the premium will be $255 per month, for TRS that will be $628 per month.

1305
01:54:42,230 --> 01:54:49,230
For the ACO, it will be 127 compared to TRS active care, which is 268.

1306
01:54:50,030 --> 01:54:59,630
And then the high deductible at KD was 85, with a comparable plan at TRS at $185 per month.

1307
01:55:01,770 --> 01:55:10,070
And the uncertainty of TRS active care continues to be a great concern with funding from the legislature.

1308
01:55:10,070 --> 01:55:13,190
It's to be, it's to be, to be determined.

1309
01:55:15,150 --> 01:55:17,350
So, that's what I have for you this evening.

1310
01:55:20,240 --> 01:55:21,120
Or, questions?

1311
01:55:21,380 --> 01:55:21,940
Mr. President?

1312
01:55:22,520 --> 01:55:22,880
Mr. Champagne?

1313
01:55:23,160 --> 01:55:23,360
Okay.

1314
01:55:23,500 --> 01:55:25,600
I just want to continue a little bit on, thank you very much.

1315
01:55:25,640 --> 01:55:27,280
I know that this is very complicated.

1316
01:55:27,520 --> 01:55:32,940
I actually used to do some of this work before, and I know how complicated it can be.

1317
01:55:35,040 --> 01:55:37,420
And, and it just never seems to get better.

1318
01:55:38,040 --> 01:55:41,620
So, but my, I did ask a question earlier.

1319
01:55:41,620 --> 01:56:11,600
But I want to make sure I, you understand what my question is and I get, you know, you tell me that the answer is, do we, do we give not the providers a survey, but the actual employees a survey to, to our participants, to every once in a while to see how things are going, what their problems are that way, if we did that, then you could see if there was some kind of trend going on, rather than just arbitrarily hearing from one person

1320
01:56:11,600 --> 01:56:12,980
or another every month in a while.

1321
01:56:13,840 --> 01:56:16,400
That's my first question, then the next question I have,

1322
01:56:17,020 --> 01:56:19,780
or not really a question, it's more of a suggestion,

1323
01:56:19,940 --> 01:56:22,940
and I know that we're operating at a deficit,

1324
01:56:23,180 --> 01:56:26,320
so I know that's hard, but maybe a good idea would be

1325
01:56:26,320 --> 01:56:28,300
for us to have some kind of patient advocate

1326
01:56:29,100 --> 01:56:32,000
that would be at the district to handle.

1327
01:56:32,800 --> 01:56:35,960
Some of these questions, I know like Medicare has people

1328
01:56:35,960 --> 01:56:37,540
like that, and I don't want to compare it to Medicare

1329
01:56:37,540 --> 01:56:40,280
because they're very hard to get in touch with.

1330
01:56:40,280 --> 01:56:45,180
But there are people like that in Medicare that are just there to answer questions.

1331
01:56:46,040 --> 01:56:56,240
Because on myself I've been through a traumatic event in my life and when that happens I don't want to watch a video.

1332
01:56:56,720 --> 01:56:59,120
I don't want to do research.

1333
01:56:59,360 --> 01:57:02,500
I'm laying in the hospital and I need some help right now.

1334
01:57:02,500 --> 01:57:11,260
And sometimes if I go and look at my insurance or I call the phone and I have to answer 20 questions and all this to tell them who I am.

1335
01:57:11,840 --> 01:57:18,740
If there was just one, maybe just one person that I knew that I could call and say, look, I have these issues.

1336
01:57:18,980 --> 01:57:20,540
I've already tried a couple things.

1337
01:57:20,740 --> 01:57:27,040
Can you help me or can you direct me to who's better to talk to, you know, something like that?

1338
01:57:27,040 --> 01:57:32,300
The way we work that is if we have something an issue brought up by an employee.

1339
01:57:32,560 --> 01:57:36,800
They will call our office and then we will ask the question, where does that person need to go?

1340
01:57:37,000 --> 01:57:45,120
And we'll reach out to Edna and act as that advocate to find out what's the issue, is it a bill, is it approval, what it may be?

1341
01:57:45,360 --> 01:57:50,360
And we reach out to Edna and work through the back door to make sure those things get handled.

1342
01:57:50,360 --> 01:57:58,620
So that's how we approach that, we have a team and that's what we kind of spread that service piece across.

1343
01:57:58,920 --> 01:58:00,500
And people know about this?

1344
01:58:01,040 --> 01:58:07,900
Well, people call risk management and we ask what is your issue, what is your concern, and then do we do survey suit to that?

1345
01:58:07,940 --> 01:58:09,560
We do not do a survey, no, ma'am.

1346
01:58:10,300 --> 01:58:12,320
Well, that would be a suggestion I would have.

1347
01:58:13,040 --> 01:58:19,660
So I know I'm just one person and I'm not, I'm just one board member and I'm not trying to tell you all what to do.

1348
01:58:20,240 --> 01:58:23,620
But it might be good because we do surveys for a lot of other things.

1349
01:58:23,840 --> 01:58:30,560
You know, even like the rollout of AI and the rollout of those, you know, I don't know,

1350
01:58:31,080 --> 01:58:34,820
the personal computers that people are going to be using at Taylor and things like that.

1351
01:58:35,480 --> 01:58:39,580
You know, maybe if everyone saw we did some kind of survey and that way,

1352
01:58:39,740 --> 01:58:44,020
if you saw like a continuous pattern with such and such, whatever it is,

1353
01:58:44,420 --> 01:58:46,160
then you would know that that was a problem.

1354
01:58:46,160 --> 01:58:47,180
Noted.

1355
01:58:51,200 --> 01:58:52,020
That's a question.

1356
01:58:53,000 --> 01:58:56,880
How many other providers, sorry, Mr. President, I have a question.

1357
01:58:57,820 --> 01:59:02,140
How many other providers do we have to choose from at this point?

1358
01:59:02,660 --> 01:59:05,120
Like, for how much wiggle room do we have here?

1359
01:59:05,380 --> 01:59:13,500
If we're not liking what we're getting here with this plan, do we have the option to take it out for bid or I don't know how this works?

1360
01:59:14,060 --> 01:59:17,280
So we just recently took the health plan out for bid.

1361
01:59:17,280 --> 01:59:18,920
And I presented that to you, I believe in this.

1362
01:59:18,920 --> 01:59:19,520
I remember this.

1363
01:59:19,680 --> 01:59:20,360
June and July.

1364
01:59:20,820 --> 01:59:28,660
And what we're seeing in Mr. Harris can comment to this, but I'll say this, I guess when I started in my career, we had a vast array.

1365
01:59:29,200 --> 01:59:32,920
But now it's shrinking down to basically what, three or four different flavors.

1366
01:59:32,920 --> 01:59:36,660
Yeah, we've got four major carriers, Blue Cross United, Sigma, Netna.

1367
01:59:36,900 --> 01:59:42,000
And then there's dozens and dozens of third party administrators where you shop your stop loss and

1368
01:59:42,000 --> 01:59:50,440
And you shop your pharmacy benefit manager, and we open it up to the entire market to be able to bid through this process.

1369
01:59:50,880 --> 01:59:52,600
And this is the best we got.

1370
01:59:52,960 --> 01:59:55,340
Correct, I know it's the clear winner on this.

1371
01:59:55,920 --> 01:59:59,240
What are this other districts?

1372
01:59:59,240 --> 01:59:59,440
Thanks.

1373
02:00:00,000 --> 02:00:05,020
Are there other districts, are they seeing increases in the same way that we are? What is this looking like?

1374
02:00:05,220 --> 02:00:06,120
Absolutely, there's some.

1375
02:00:06,200 --> 02:00:08,020
Percentage-wise, could you give a comparison?

1376
02:00:09,120 --> 02:00:13,040
Well, so it's a little bit different because every time, and I get that question a lot,

1377
02:00:13,160 --> 02:00:16,340
I've got a population of this size, and I've got a population of this size.

1378
02:00:16,480 --> 02:00:21,380
It has so much to do with the own utilization of that group because this plan is considered

1379
02:00:21,380 --> 02:00:23,080
100% actuarially credible.

1380
02:00:23,580 --> 02:00:28,020
You know, if everything above a thousand employees on a plan is 100% actuarially credible.

1381
02:00:28,020 --> 02:00:38,320
And so it's very difficult even with the same carrier, even with the same networks to compare populations because it's all based on population health, it's all based on your own utilization.

1382
02:00:38,980 --> 02:00:51,280
So it's really hard for me to make the statement except for the fact that, again, back to medical inflation or trend, which is an aggregate basis is going up 6% and 10 or 11%.

1383
02:00:51,280 --> 02:00:53,560
So you're going to see a combined trend around 9%.

1384
02:00:53,560 --> 02:00:58,000
And that's just as a whole, but it's really hard for me to compare populations.

1385
02:00:58,260 --> 02:01:03,220
I think you can see from the TRS numbers that, yes, it is going up.

1386
02:01:03,500 --> 02:01:10,040
And they had an increase this year depending on the plan design of up to 15% based on what the plan design was.

1387
02:01:10,540 --> 02:01:14,380
That was on the TRS open enrollment information.

1388
02:01:14,940 --> 02:01:18,320
And there's most likely going to be another increase next year than that.

1389
02:01:18,320 --> 02:01:29,740
Well, that was my next question, so what's the anticipation for us for next year if we're seeing increases like this right now, with our employees looking at this, and they're saying, what am I supposed to do?

1390
02:01:30,180 --> 02:01:31,740
How am I supposed to do this?

1391
02:01:32,120 --> 02:01:34,940
How are they supposed to, what are they supposed to anticipate for next year?

1392
02:01:35,820 --> 02:01:42,320
That's going to be a function of what our claims activity begins over the next eight months or so.

1393
02:01:42,320 --> 02:01:52,460
And we will begin, we'll start looking at trend again in April or May when I come to you and present in May and say, here's where we are, you'll begin to, we'll get an idea of what's going on.

1394
02:01:53,940 --> 02:01:59,280
So that's, that's kind of, it's hard to say, well, it's going to be 4% or 6%.

1395
02:01:59,280 --> 02:02:10,000
But something to keep in mind is during those, during the COVID period, the district decided it made a formal decision that we weren't going to increase premiums.

1396
02:02:10,000 --> 02:02:21,150
So, as we go through this cycle, if you will, we're having to catch up to premiums just kind of like your credit card bill, right?

1397
02:02:21,730 --> 02:02:26,570
You don't pay the full balance every month that compounding interest happens.

1398
02:02:26,990 --> 02:02:28,070
And it's the same way with health care.

1399
02:02:28,250 --> 02:02:32,450
And you're seeing that across the market, whether it's in the private sector or the public sector.

1400
02:02:33,630 --> 02:02:37,290
And health care is just in a bad situation right now.

1401
02:02:37,290 --> 02:02:47,890
And I will tell you this that on the administrative piece of the oversight of the plan, we had a significant savings.

1402
02:02:48,290 --> 02:02:56,870
I mean, we went from 36.02 down to 2475 in terms of savings, and it was a tremendous win for the district.

1403
02:02:57,290 --> 02:03:04,310
And all those little levers that we pull in terms of that with the pharmacy and all that, that helps keep that trend going

1404
02:03:04,310 --> 02:03:10,990
for upwards to eight to nine percent so we try to manage most as we can on on the administrative

1405
02:03:10,990 --> 02:03:17,130
piece and be creative and be cost effective but I will also add too if you were to take

1406
02:03:17,130 --> 02:03:22,310
out our large losses we're trending very well but there are some things we just cannot

1407
02:03:22,310 --> 02:03:31,070
predict you know premature babies answers hard attacks things like that that's just that's

1408
02:03:31,070 --> 02:03:33,510
It's just an anomaly that's very, very hard to predict.

1409
02:03:35,530 --> 02:03:41,450
I do want to add something, and I can't remember my history like I used to, but back in the 2000,

1410
02:03:41,830 --> 02:03:49,970
I left before 2010, the state, when they adopted the DRS Act of the Care, they also said at that time,

1411
02:03:50,150 --> 02:03:58,030
and they funded it as school districts must commit a minimum of $225 a month towards health insurance premiums.

1412
02:03:58,650 --> 02:04:03,670
That somehow is now baked into the funding formula cake, but the state of Texas through

1413
02:04:03,670 --> 02:04:09,310
the funding has not increased that dollar amount in all of those years, specifically

1414
02:04:09,310 --> 02:04:10,230
for health insurance.

1415
02:04:10,850 --> 02:04:13,070
It's been done at the local level for all those years.

1416
02:04:13,530 --> 02:04:19,190
Now, similar to what we've done, we've covered the losses that dollar figure wasn't in

1417
02:04:19,190 --> 02:04:23,910
that one slide that showed the extra contribution we kick in to make it even, but the dollar

1418
02:04:23,910 --> 02:04:26,310
amount for the last five years is over $60 million.

1419
02:04:27,070 --> 02:04:31,050
The state has also done the same thing to cover the losses to TRS active care.

1420
02:04:31,310 --> 02:04:50,310
In fact, this last year in order to keep the premiums to the level that we talked about over there earlier was we need 492 million dollars insertion of state cash to keep these premiums at the levels or we're going to have to increase even more.

1421
02:04:50,310 --> 02:04:54,630
So they took those big increases, but the state covered that, but that's for only the

1422
02:04:54,630 --> 02:04:55,670
TRS active care.

1423
02:04:56,710 --> 02:05:00,690
So we were letting our representatives know that when you do that TRS active care, you're

1424
02:05:00,690 --> 02:05:02,290
only doing that for about half the state.

1425
02:05:02,710 --> 02:05:07,090
Those of us that have our self-funded plans are getting any of those additional dollars.

1426
02:05:07,610 --> 02:05:11,630
So to my knowledge and my recollection, yes, when you increase the basic allotment, or they

1427
02:05:11,630 --> 02:05:18,690
added the ABC fund that can go toward health insurance, specifically for health insurance,

1428
02:05:18,690 --> 02:05:32,010
The state hasn't done anything, or given us the funds to do anything, to my recollection anyway since the 2000 and before again, I don't know if that added anything.

1429
02:05:32,210 --> 02:05:44,310
But again, that one slide, over $60 million, we funded to keep this thing afloat, because we do think that this is a better option than having our employees in the TRS Act of Care.

1430
02:05:45,630 --> 02:06:05,070
It's cheaper premiums on our people, it's better coverage than TRS active care has, and so we've consciously made that effort to infuse an excess of $60 million after the end of this fiscal year when you see the audit in January, it's going to be upwards of $70 million.

1431
02:06:05,070 --> 02:06:18,170
And if I would add this to, you know, two years ago, we have to do an annual study of our plan against TRS, right?

1432
02:06:18,930 --> 02:06:25,090
Well now we have to do our plan against ERS, which is the state system.

1433
02:06:25,550 --> 02:06:30,790
The state system is extremely rich, but yet we're still compliant because of our program.

1434
02:06:31,670 --> 02:06:37,310
And you mimic, we always compare ourselves to the TRS richness, if you will.

1435
02:06:37,490 --> 02:06:43,230
I think TRS is what 81% and we're lucky to 88 points, something.

1436
02:06:43,730 --> 02:06:45,510
We'll do that calculation here.

1437
02:06:46,010 --> 02:06:48,630
It's an actuarial value calculation on the plan design's offered.

1438
02:06:49,530 --> 02:06:52,330
And we have to be within a certain range and we're well within that range.

1439
02:06:53,070 --> 02:06:58,070
So I would just add that to the conversation, which is very important.

1440
02:06:58,070 --> 02:07:07,130
So I guess it's kind of, the complications are obviously minutes here.

1441
02:07:07,790 --> 02:07:14,390
So you have an employee who has to go have surgery and they need a certain test,

1442
02:07:14,890 --> 02:07:20,170
I'm going to make sure that they're fit for surgery like was stated before, but now that's

1443
02:07:20,170 --> 02:07:27,110
not covered, but then in order to prevent further losses, so to speak, to the plan because

1444
02:07:27,110 --> 02:07:30,790
of the cost of surgery going up if something doesn't work out the way that it's supposed

1445
02:07:30,790 --> 02:07:35,870
to that would have been found out had they had the test covered. Does that make sense

1446
02:07:35,870 --> 02:07:40,730
on like where I'm going with that? That's a little, it seems a little convoluted here

1447
02:07:40,730 --> 02:07:44,070
that were, make that make sense for me.

1448
02:07:44,390 --> 02:07:44,550
Okay.

1449
02:07:46,870 --> 02:07:50,030
CERNICAL procedures, I'll just list a few.

1450
02:07:51,790 --> 02:07:58,690
MRIs, CAT scans, things of diagnostic nature or surgical nature, go through a pre-authorization

1451
02:07:58,690 --> 02:08:07,150
process and they will evaluate the reasonable and customary necessity of those procedures.

1452
02:08:07,830 --> 02:08:15,490
Sometimes when it could be the wrong CPT code is put in on the provider side, then it's

1453
02:08:15,490 --> 02:08:16,430
not, well, wait a minute.

1454
02:08:16,510 --> 02:08:18,650
That doesn't make sense where are we doing this and they'll talk.

1455
02:08:18,650 --> 02:08:21,810
And sometimes you have peer-to-peer, you'll have a doctor from that, and let's

1456
02:08:21,810 --> 02:08:27,390
talk to the doctor at ABC group, and they come to an agreement, well, that's not

1457
02:08:27,390 --> 02:08:29,010
needed, let's try this other process.

1458
02:08:29,650 --> 02:08:38,290
So every procedure that goes, there's a pre-authorization process that is implemented.

1459
02:08:38,490 --> 02:08:46,050
I hear what you're saying, I hear that, but when the patient's doctor says you need this test

1460
02:08:46,050 --> 02:08:54,230
before you go into this surgery, that what, why does that then have to go to a peer

1461
02:08:54,230 --> 02:08:58,970
to peer to where the, that doctor has never met this patient, the doctor doesn't

1462
02:08:58,970 --> 02:08:59,290
know.

1463
02:08:59,830 --> 02:09:02,670
So does that make sense of what I'm saying?

1464
02:09:02,810 --> 02:09:09,650
Like, I hear what you're saying, but the way plans are structured is, is that pre-authorization

1465
02:09:09,650 --> 02:09:10,850
process takes place?

1466
02:09:10,850 --> 02:09:16,830
So I guess my question is how do we overcome that hurdle because we see that there's a problem

1467
02:09:16,830 --> 02:09:21,950
here. We see that there's obviously a situation. So how do we say, okay, we're going

1468
02:09:21,950 --> 02:09:26,050
to move that out of the way? Like, it can we do that? Do we have the capabilities of

1469
02:09:26,050 --> 02:09:30,510
doing that? Or are we just telling our employees, and I mean this very, very gently,

1470
02:09:30,950 --> 02:09:34,530
you're just up a creek without a paddle, because this is the best we can do.

1471
02:09:36,190 --> 02:09:41,050
You know, I don't see the district getting, let me, let me, I'm trying to be as respectful

1472
02:09:41,050 --> 02:09:41,630
as I can.

1473
02:09:41,770 --> 02:09:42,910
Yeah, I understand.

1474
02:09:43,770 --> 02:09:49,790
We can't get involved in the middle of the pre-authorization process because of HIPAA.

1475
02:09:50,510 --> 02:09:50,690
Right.

1476
02:09:51,070 --> 02:09:56,650
So our hands are kind of tied, but that's the reason we have our carrier to handle those

1477
02:09:56,650 --> 02:09:57,550
things for us.

1478
02:09:57,550 --> 02:10:00,750
And I will say very

1479
02:10:03,150 --> 02:10:11,290
rarely here of anything, I'll say rarely, I shouldn't say that, but I don't hear people calling in saying well that's not getting approved, that's not getting approved.

1480
02:10:11,830 --> 02:10:16,250
And sometimes if it isn't getting approved, we can try to find out what the reason is for that.

1481
02:10:18,530 --> 02:10:23,510
And every carrier has pre-authorization, every single one of them, they all go through that.

1482
02:10:23,510 --> 02:10:39,810
It's just a matter of, you know, communicating with the member population to understand that they do have advocates here at the district, so that we can work through getting an appeal done, because there is an appeal process, and so that's just something that we have to be on top of with good communication to the members.

1483
02:10:40,810 --> 02:10:51,150
Regardless of the carrier that we switch to, regardless of the third-party administrator we switch to, because there's stop loss insurance involved, too, so the carrier does have some risk above the stop loss level.

1484
02:10:51,150 --> 02:10:57,070
So every carrier and every third-party administrator will also have some level of pre-authorization within their plan.

1485
02:10:57,670 --> 02:11:01,930
And we also have that same environment and work with the concedures.

1486
02:11:02,570 --> 02:11:04,830
Mr. President, thank you.

1487
02:11:05,870 --> 02:11:07,890
Mr. Allen, thank you for this.

1488
02:11:08,190 --> 02:11:10,730
I know we talked about this in our finance committee meeting.

1489
02:11:11,230 --> 02:11:18,660
I think my heart breaks for the instances like we heard tonight.

1490
02:11:18,660 --> 02:11:20,860
And I

1491
02:11:23,680 --> 02:11:30,560
just look at, for the third year now, I've looked at the premium on the spousal coverage.

1492
02:11:30,600 --> 02:11:39,940
It's quite substantial, and I wish I could make it all better, and I can't right now.

1493
02:11:40,120 --> 02:11:46,240
But I do know that I wanted to offer this as a resource, maybe.

1494
02:11:46,740 --> 02:11:51,140
And this is just who my husband and I use.

1495
02:11:51,920 --> 02:11:58,380
They've, there's some new products out there that we're self-employed, so we've since 2010

1496
02:11:58,920 --> 02:12:04,540
we've been out on our own, but I found this one agent and he's phenomenal and we pay

1497
02:12:04,540 --> 02:12:12,480
the two of us pay less than what the employee and spouse pay for us and we can go to any

1498
02:12:12,480 --> 02:12:13,180
doctor we want.

1499
02:12:13,360 --> 02:12:20,080
So I was just going to give this email if that's okay to our community and ask them if they're,

1500
02:12:20,080 --> 02:12:25,040
You know, especially on the spouse, I think that would be where I would focus, is maybe

1501
02:12:25,040 --> 02:12:30,340
you could contact, his name is Luke Elliott, he's in Dallas, Texas, he's phenomenal, he

1502
02:12:30,340 --> 02:12:37,220
answers his phone calls, his emails immediately, and his email is Luke at Trinity Insurance

1503
02:12:38,300 --> 02:12:39,420
GRP.com.

1504
02:12:39,900 --> 02:12:46,380
And I like it because there's very low deductible, we can go to any doctor we want, there's

1505
02:12:46,380 --> 02:12:48,700
no pre-approval, there's no waiting period.

1506
02:12:48,700 --> 02:12:53,780
and it's just been 15 years since we found anything decent.

1507
02:12:54,160 --> 02:12:59,040
So I know that doesn't help, you know, people that are facing surgery right now,

1508
02:12:59,240 --> 02:13:04,000
I hate that, but maybe this could help some people, especially in the employee

1509
02:13:04,000 --> 02:13:07,300
and spouse category, and that's all I'm trying.

1510
02:13:07,400 --> 02:13:08,760
I'm not getting any benefit from it.

1511
02:13:08,760 --> 02:13:11,940
In fact, I asked him, I said, can I just give your email out to the public?

1512
02:13:11,940 --> 02:13:12,540
Would you be okay?

1513
02:13:12,540 --> 02:13:13,720
And he's like, yes, I will respond.

1514
02:13:14,360 --> 02:13:15,960
So maybe that can help.

1515
02:13:15,960 --> 02:13:34,340
I think one thing that really kind of answer your question, particularly about the Tier 2 in each one of the lost in the plans rather, is our spouses have historically been dropped over here, this is my 14th year here.

1516
02:13:35,980 --> 02:13:44,800
The spouses here, the Tier 2 spouses have been driving the expenses of our planes elsewhere, up through the roof.

1517
02:13:44,800 --> 02:13:49,720
And that's a heavy burden, so we have to try to recoup as much as we can in terms

1518
02:13:49,720 --> 02:13:52,760
of premium to help balance those claims out.

1519
02:13:53,220 --> 02:13:59,280
And I understand that, and we talked about that, and I appreciate that, but I'm just

1520
02:13:59,280 --> 02:14:04,340
thinking there might be a better avenue for people to come, you know, like employees,

1521
02:14:04,600 --> 02:14:08,980
like if I were working, maybe it would be good to cover me on KDIC's plan.

1522
02:14:09,060 --> 02:14:14,440
But my spouse might be better on this because it's, we can go anywhere.

1523
02:14:14,440 --> 02:14:25,900
Any time, no pre-approvals, so which is phenomenal, I've not seen that since Obamacare, right, so that's great.

1524
02:14:26,440 --> 02:14:37,700
So I just, I know we're restricted and I know, I know Mr. Nalman, I know you, and I know you're doing everything you can, but my heart still breaks.

1525
02:14:37,700 --> 02:14:38,580
Mr.

1526
02:14:40,800 --> 02:14:44,140
President, thank you very much for presentation.

1527
02:14:44,600 --> 02:14:47,660
I understand it's expensive and it's just getting worse.

1528
02:14:48,300 --> 02:14:52,180
Same thing at my house, you know, my husband works in oil and gas.

1529
02:14:52,720 --> 02:14:55,940
Same thing, it's all, so I'm not going to talk about cost.

1530
02:14:56,580 --> 02:14:59,840
I would like to talk about customer service and the kinds of things.

1531
02:15:00,000 --> 02:15:06,640
That I don't know, Mr. Nelmond, where, where you can help with this. But here's, here's some questions that I've just been thinking about.

1532
02:15:09,200 --> 02:15:23,020
How do our employees know what's covered? I mean, I see what they, you know, it's like, oh, this is a high deductible and that kind of thing. But how do they know what's covered? Do they have a thing like, okay, if you need this surgery, it's here, this comes with mammograms, this gets free. Is there a pamphlet?

1533
02:15:23,900 --> 02:15:25,020
There's not a pamphlet.

1534
02:15:25,180 --> 02:15:32,020
We utilize the ad in the website to navigate, it's called the ad in the navigator, to what

1535
02:15:32,020 --> 02:15:37,200
things are covered, what's preventative, who the providers are based on zip code, things

1536
02:15:37,200 --> 02:15:37,800
of that nature.

1537
02:15:38,480 --> 02:15:40,260
That tool is available to them.

1538
02:15:40,540 --> 02:15:43,680
Does it tell them what's covered, what kinds of things are covered?

1539
02:15:43,900 --> 02:15:44,100
Yes.

1540
02:15:45,260 --> 02:15:45,460
Okay.

1541
02:15:47,440 --> 02:15:55,120
And it would also be too something to think about too is, you know, generally speaking

1542
02:15:55,120 --> 02:16:01,640
the POS2 is a very rich plan, is a very broad network of coverage and providers.

1543
02:16:02,060 --> 02:16:09,400
The Memorial Herman, okay, is specific to Memorial Herman ACO providers.

1544
02:16:09,940 --> 02:16:16,040
The high deductible is a broad plan, but you have a high deductible.

1545
02:16:16,180 --> 02:16:24,760
So it's up to the point to make those decisions and how they feel what level risks they want

1546
02:16:24,760 --> 02:16:26,240
to take in terms of their health care.

1547
02:16:28,240 --> 02:16:32,540
Personally, I went to a different insurance for myself.

1548
02:16:33,900 --> 02:16:40,660
I had to go to someone to help me understand the difference between this and this and this

1549
02:16:40,660 --> 02:16:43,680
based on me and my situation and our family situation,

1550
02:16:43,860 --> 02:16:45,280
what was best, you know,

1551
02:16:45,560 --> 02:16:47,580
a fanage supplement, what's all the things,

1552
02:16:47,940 --> 02:16:52,080
because they just sound crazy, you know,

1553
02:16:52,200 --> 02:16:54,400
too hard to understand, complicated, not crazy.

1554
02:16:54,880 --> 02:16:58,160
Okay, I don't know if that's something you can do,

1555
02:16:58,780 --> 02:17:01,360
break it down, I've just constantly thinking,

1556
02:17:01,360 --> 02:17:05,480
what could we do when I get confused and need a simple thing?

1557
02:17:05,640 --> 02:17:07,700
I go to YouTube, try to find something right,

1558
02:17:07,900 --> 02:17:10,140
is there something we can do to help our employees know

1559
02:17:10,140 --> 02:17:14,620
that when they're choosing, and if you want, if you think you might need this, it's probably

1560
02:17:14,620 --> 02:17:16,860
worth the cost now instead of later.

1561
02:17:17,340 --> 02:17:17,480
Okay.

1562
02:17:18,990 --> 02:17:26,980
If a doctor recommends it like an ultrasound with the mammogram for reasons, maybe risk

1563
02:17:26,980 --> 02:17:29,440
or something, who decides if it's denied?

1564
02:17:31,220 --> 02:17:41,500
The way the process works, provider will submit a request to Etna through the pre-authorization

1565
02:17:41,500 --> 02:17:48,340
process and that will be approved by Etna based on the diagnosis, the expected outcomes

1566
02:17:48,340 --> 02:17:51,680
and things of that nature, based on the CPT codes that are being submitted.

1567
02:17:52,480 --> 02:17:57,860
I don't know if this is still accurate but I, a few years back, had someone who worked

1568
02:17:57,860 --> 02:18:01,660
for insurance, and they said, we deny everything the first time and make them come back.

1569
02:18:02,080 --> 02:18:05,500
That's just what they're taught to do at insurance, because I don't know.

1570
02:18:05,860 --> 02:18:11,660
I mean, I don't know of an insurance company that does that.

1571
02:18:12,280 --> 02:18:16,300
I mean, I have my personal experience in it, I'm not saying that it wouldn't happen in the market.

1572
02:18:16,740 --> 02:18:23,280
But when I first got started in the business way back in 86, I was taught as an

1573
02:18:23,280 --> 02:18:27,940
adjuster on a way to pay a coin and it's reasonable. I don't know that insurance

1574
02:18:27,940 --> 02:18:32,140
companies intentionally do that. Who would deny a stress test before a major

1575
02:18:32,140 --> 02:18:36,720
surgery? I don't, you know, each case is unique and separate but I don't think

1576
02:18:36,720 --> 02:18:45,180
if if we were having that as a trend, we would be I would be aware of that. So when

1577
02:18:45,180 --> 02:18:50,060
intentional intentional. Okay, I'm just trying to get through some some clicker

1578
02:18:50,060 --> 02:18:55,140
things in my head because I'm a marketing communication person and I'm trying to think

1579
02:18:55,140 --> 02:19:00,380
how do we communicate well to our employees so they know what they need.

1580
02:19:01,780 --> 02:19:06,220
When something is denied, how do you tell the people and how long does it take?

1581
02:19:06,840 --> 02:19:09,700
Are they told about an appeals process?

1582
02:19:09,920 --> 02:19:10,780
Do they know what to do?

1583
02:19:11,700 --> 02:19:15,600
Well the doctor's office will go through an appeal process and the doctor's office will

1584
02:19:15,600 --> 02:19:21,460
have to communicate to the employee, this was denied, or this reason, maybe a lack of information.

1585
02:19:23,000 --> 02:19:26,500
Maybe it's not reasonable in customary. There's a whole Whitney of things that

1586
02:19:27,800 --> 02:19:33,060
procedure could be denied for. So the doctor would probably call and say, got denied,

1587
02:19:33,340 --> 02:19:37,340
we're going to redo it. Did I leave something out? Was I not clear enough in my diagnosis?

1588
02:19:38,840 --> 02:19:39,320
Right.

1589
02:19:40,380 --> 02:19:40,540
Okay.

1590
02:19:40,640 --> 02:19:41,000
Could be anything.

1591
02:19:41,240 --> 02:19:41,580
Could be.

1592
02:19:41,820 --> 02:19:42,300
Okay.

1593
02:19:43,060 --> 02:19:51,480
Do you have any sort of a committee of teachers or something that could, like, with a variety

1594
02:19:51,480 --> 02:19:57,380
of needs, benefits committee or something that would give you advice from what they're

1595
02:19:57,380 --> 02:20:00,620
thinking, because like Mrs. Champagne said, do you hear from them?

1596
02:20:00,640 --> 02:20:02,220
Do they have a way to give you feedback?

1597
02:20:02,220 --> 02:20:08,060
We communicate through the campus, through our benefit liaisons, things that are pushed out, what we're changing.

1598
02:20:08,660 --> 02:20:15,380
But we did have, if you'd be perfectly honest with you several years ago, we had a benefit advisory committee.

1599
02:20:16,180 --> 02:20:21,350
And that literally became, in effect-

1600
02:20:21,350 --> 02:20:23,250
Complete department, because of us.

1601
02:20:23,570 --> 02:20:25,230
I'm trying to say it very delicately.

1602
02:20:25,370 --> 02:20:33,370
It became, everything was complaint while, in the primary focus that was going on was, our premiums are so high.

1603
02:20:33,370 --> 02:20:38,370
Why are our premium people weren't folks we couldn't get any results we've actually then we I think

1604
02:20:39,170 --> 02:20:45,210
If I recall I'm to the best my ability and knowledge we did send out some surveys prior to that

1605
02:20:46,730 --> 02:20:50,010
But the people just focus on the premium

1606
02:20:50,610 --> 02:20:55,010
majority of the time right and that wouldn't be that's that's what they see

1607
02:20:55,010 --> 02:21:02,830
You know the insurance is like I can explain it a hundred times and it's still cost so much and then you go and your co-pay is so much

1608
02:21:02,830 --> 02:21:07,130
I get that, but maybe on things, well, maybe we can help them.

1609
02:21:07,510 --> 02:21:08,310
These are quick.

1610
02:21:08,890 --> 02:21:12,150
Do you have people to help navigate the roadblocks, right?

1611
02:21:12,310 --> 02:21:14,190
Any sort of struggles, and you've said you do,

1612
02:21:14,330 --> 02:21:16,350
you connect them to an advocate of some kind,

1613
02:21:16,350 --> 02:21:18,470
some advocate like Mrs. chimpanzee said.

1614
02:21:18,750 --> 02:21:19,770
I'm all in favor of that.

1615
02:21:21,250 --> 02:21:25,450
And can employees request the meetings with one of your people

1616
02:21:25,450 --> 02:21:29,390
to talk through stuff, if they can come to our office,

1617
02:21:29,530 --> 02:21:31,170
they can call us and figure out

1618
02:21:31,170 --> 02:21:33,070
what the absolutely.

1619
02:21:33,450 --> 02:21:33,810
Okay, great.

1620
02:21:34,530 --> 02:21:37,290
Thank you for hearing my questions.

1621
02:21:37,510 --> 02:21:41,450
I hope that I'm asking questions that people are at home

1622
02:21:41,450 --> 02:21:42,910
screaming into their computers.

1623
02:21:43,350 --> 02:21:44,610
I don't know what they are,

1624
02:21:44,750 --> 02:21:47,490
but just from having conversations with them

1625
02:21:47,490 --> 02:21:50,330
and things I would want to know if I were on that side.

1626
02:21:51,930 --> 02:21:53,430
Thank you for letting me ask

1627
02:21:53,430 --> 02:21:56,310
and thank you for taking care of our people the best you can.

1628
02:21:56,390 --> 02:21:57,170
Health care is difficult.

1629
02:21:58,010 --> 02:22:01,990
And we can be better and thank you for taking our suggestions.

1630
02:22:02,670 --> 02:22:26,330
Mr. President, by this time most of the questions have been asked, but I just want to reiterate we realize I think the costs are here and we do our due diligence, but I do here we need to do a better job somehow or make improvements or look at how we're communicating with the employees through this benefit advisory council that we heard about tonight.

1631
02:22:26,330 --> 02:22:27,270
I had never heard of that.

1632
02:22:27,930 --> 02:22:29,050
Might be something to revisit.

1633
02:22:29,990 --> 02:22:32,630
What I'm hearing is not, I mean, sure, premiums,

1634
02:22:32,850 --> 02:22:36,550
but what we're hearing is I got a list of providers

1635
02:22:37,230 --> 02:22:40,650
and coverage from my district of what's covered in my plan

1636
02:22:41,010 --> 02:22:44,270
and I went to go use it and they're saying

1637
02:22:44,270 --> 02:22:45,530
they have a different list.

1638
02:22:46,410 --> 02:22:47,690
So that's what I'm hearing.

1639
02:22:48,330 --> 02:22:50,610
And that seems like something we could certainly fix

1640
02:22:50,610 --> 02:22:51,570
and do better at.

1641
02:22:51,710 --> 02:22:54,390
That doesn't, that's not a dollar figure on that, right?

1642
02:22:54,390 --> 02:22:59,210
Is that realistic and a fair ask?

1643
02:22:59,490 --> 02:23:02,190
Well, is it a fair ask?

1644
02:23:02,370 --> 02:23:02,470
Yes.

1645
02:23:03,030 --> 02:23:06,250
The challenge, if you will, is, I think I said earlier,

1646
02:23:06,450 --> 02:23:10,410
is providers making an election whether they want

1647
02:23:10,410 --> 02:23:11,350
to be a part of a network.

1648
02:23:12,250 --> 02:23:15,130
And so that sometimes can be a very fluid thing in and out.

1649
02:23:16,030 --> 02:23:16,470
So...

1650
02:23:16,470 --> 02:23:19,850
When you say fluid, like is there a...

1651
02:23:19,850 --> 02:23:22,090
Maybe we could look at it a little more often,

1652
02:23:22,090 --> 02:23:26,770
or is there a timeline we could adjust or what's fluid like month to month?

1653
02:23:26,810 --> 02:23:31,990
It can happen in 30 days and it can happen in 45 days.

1654
02:23:35,250 --> 02:23:41,550
For whatever reason the doctor's office or the practice decides we don't want to do this.

1655
02:23:41,610 --> 02:23:42,930
Which may be out of your hands.

1656
02:23:43,110 --> 02:23:48,510
And that's completely and usually in those situations we kind of find out about it after the fact.

1657
02:23:49,950 --> 02:23:57,710
And it's like, okay, well, I'm not familiar with Dr. X, and I was not aware that Dr. X left

1658
02:23:57,710 --> 02:23:58,130
the network.

1659
02:23:59,190 --> 02:23:59,890
Sure, sure.

1660
02:24:00,410 --> 02:24:06,050
So is there, so currently today the status quo of updating those coverage lists and provider

1661
02:24:06,050 --> 02:24:06,530
lists.

1662
02:24:06,710 --> 02:24:08,070
Is that a once a year thing?

1663
02:24:09,590 --> 02:24:10,330
Yes, it is.

1664
02:24:10,550 --> 02:24:15,590
Well, the provider lists are perpetually updated through the Etna Navigator online.

1665
02:24:15,590 --> 02:24:21,230
online. And the coverage is, we don't change

1666
02:24:21,230 --> 02:24:24,710
coverage is typically in the middle of the year. It's at the beginning of the year.

1667
02:24:25,890 --> 02:24:33,010
There may be some augmentation that we may go, we need to, I don't know, whatever it

1668
02:24:33,010 --> 02:24:38,290
may be that's not cost effective or people aren't utilizing. And we try to communicate

1669
02:24:38,290 --> 02:24:40,650
that say, hey, this is a benefit that's available to you.

1670
02:24:41,910 --> 02:24:46,290
just trying to see if there's a process that we can do or a quicker timeline on

1671
02:24:46,290 --> 02:24:53,130
something to avoid some of these surprises. I do have one money question which

1672
02:24:53,130 --> 02:24:59,210
is on page two slide two of your presentation and I may have missed this

1673
02:24:59,210 --> 02:25:04,690
apologize but you talk about that it's that yeah the history from 2019 to

1674
02:25:04,690 --> 02:25:09,750
in 2024, this is five years, technically six years,

1675
02:25:11,140 --> 02:25:13,130
the deficit, the average participants,

1676
02:25:13,720 --> 02:25:15,950
and then you have monthly district contributions.

1677
02:25:16,830 --> 02:25:21,190
And that number is flat across for six years at 385.

1678
02:25:22,110 --> 02:25:24,130
That's the contribution we're contributing

1679
02:25:24,130 --> 02:25:25,870
to an individual's plan.

1680
02:25:26,150 --> 02:25:27,790
That is per employee per month.

1681
02:25:28,130 --> 02:25:28,970
Per employee per month.

1682
02:25:29,130 --> 02:25:32,670
And it just struck me, it's a flat line for that many years

1683
02:25:32,670 --> 02:25:37,710
when inflation rises a good 5-6% every year, why is that flat?

1684
02:25:38,230 --> 02:25:39,950
Is there anything we could do to increase that number?

1685
02:25:40,650 --> 02:25:46,970
We could, and it would come out of some other funding source, which has been stagnant since 2019.

1686
02:25:48,050 --> 02:25:53,310
So like salaries and their ability to get salary increases, we'd love to increase that number permanently.

1687
02:25:53,850 --> 02:26:00,730
Now, the 385 is stagnant across the board, but that's what employees can count on every month for the district's contribution.

1688
02:26:00,730 --> 02:26:07,450
They can count on that when they sign up when it has a loss we're funding that to the tune of 19 dollars

1689
02:26:08,570 --> 02:26:17,050
$29 added to it a month if we committed let's just make that let's say it was $400 and we moved from 385 to 400 and

1690
02:26:17,790 --> 02:26:21,490
We had a great year and the fund didn't need it

1691
02:26:22,410 --> 02:26:29,870
We've been at a loss, right? So we're committing 385 up front, but we're doing the best we can to cover the deficit

1692
02:26:30,650 --> 02:26:34,670
So when you look forward, it's 385 count on it.

1693
02:26:35,070 --> 02:26:39,270
Look back, it was actually 5.30 last year, or 5.21 last year.

1694
02:26:39,810 --> 02:26:42,410
That the district contributed every month.

1695
02:26:42,810 --> 02:26:46,010
Yes, but yeah, thank you, and I respect that.

1696
02:26:46,590 --> 02:26:52,250
So the deficit, like let's take the last year, or plan year 2024.

1697
02:26:52,990 --> 02:26:55,010
385 was contributed to the employee.

1698
02:26:55,010 --> 02:27:00,870
the, the district had to make up a deficit of 136 per employee, but that, that, that,

1699
02:27:00,870 --> 02:27:02,210
the Pum employee doesn't see that.

1700
02:27:02,630 --> 02:27:05,010
The, the, that's a, a number of your questions.

1701
02:27:05,010 --> 02:27:06,090
The employee does see that.

1702
02:27:06,270 --> 02:27:07,010
The one-thirty-six.

1703
02:27:07,010 --> 02:27:07,290
The one-thirty-six.

1704
02:27:07,510 --> 02:27:11,010
That Mr. Norman would have presented the night would have been much higher had it not been

1705
02:27:11,010 --> 02:27:11,590
for that predecessor.

1706
02:27:11,750 --> 02:27:13,310
All right, not in the contribution, I apologize.

1707
02:27:13,330 --> 02:27:16,890
Yeah, they would be contributing much more out of their premium, out of their pocket.

1708
02:27:17,310 --> 02:27:22,190
And that, holding those costs down as best we can through that contribution, additional

1709
02:27:22,190 --> 02:27:22,770
contribution.

1710
02:27:22,770 --> 02:27:27,030
That is tough to communicate to the employee because they don't see that, right?

1711
02:27:27,270 --> 02:27:34,390
They don't see how the district paying down the deficit keeps the premium even lower than it could have been, right?

1712
02:27:34,430 --> 02:27:39,470
And again, that's why I said earlier, I wanted to get that, it's not shown here, but

1713
02:27:39,470 --> 02:27:42,070
the shock and alpha factor is that it adds up to over $60 million.

1714
02:27:42,670 --> 02:27:52,110
If you look at it every per employee per month, that's a $60 million that the district's general fund on stagnant revenue has covered to fund the losses.

1715
02:27:52,110 --> 02:28:02,110
of the plan, the losses because expense is healthcare expenses greater than the revenue of employee contributions plus that 385 every month.

1716
02:28:02,430 --> 02:28:16,010
I gotcha, have we ever entertained and bear with me increasing it by a little of the employee contribution as a benefit that's tangible to the employee that they can see.

1717
02:28:19,680 --> 02:28:26,180
And when, I mean, it was that part of, when do we see this number, we don't see this number per se.

1718
02:28:26,900 --> 02:28:32,220
We see a aggregate number in the budget, I'm assuming, that we just approved, correct?

1719
02:28:33,160 --> 02:28:33,360
Okay.

1720
02:28:33,680 --> 02:28:38,740
So, I mean, I just would like to see if there's something we can move and change, so

1721
02:28:38,740 --> 02:28:40,460
that something's more tangible to the employee.

1722
02:28:40,700 --> 02:28:47,380
The contribution would be something they could see and understand but as a benefit, I respect what you're saying, though.

1723
02:28:48,420 --> 02:28:52,140
Thank you, Mr. President, may I ask a clarifying question?

1724
02:28:52,380 --> 02:28:56,600
Are you talking about the district contribution for the employee?

1725
02:28:57,040 --> 02:29:02,040
Yes, okay, so that only benefits the employees who participated in this and not those who do outside.

1726
02:29:02,240 --> 02:29:09,600
True, but yet it's something so tangible and it's been the same for six years, seven years, six years, I think you think.

1727
02:29:09,600 --> 02:29:20,880
And again, with the focus on this, I'd be derelict in being able to say that 225 established before 2010 is what the state's contributing towards the health care premiums.

1728
02:29:21,340 --> 02:29:35,240
And so it has been stagnant since 2010 at 225 and we're at 385 again, we could increase that to 400, 500 if we ever bail the plan and go to tear our sactive care, we got to live with that.

1729
02:29:35,900 --> 02:29:39,320
In other words, the district can't once you give it, it can't take it the way.

1730
02:29:39,920 --> 02:29:42,980
That's one of the things that factor into not increasing that number.

1731
02:29:43,460 --> 02:29:51,180
We're covering that number from a marketing perspective, it may not work as, from a marketing perspective, but from a physical perspective.

1732
02:29:51,340 --> 02:29:56,200
We're covering that deficit to the tune of $60 million over the time frame you see here.

1733
02:29:56,200 --> 02:29:59,580
and it will be well over $70 million this year.

1734
02:30:00,700 --> 02:30:29,080
When we close this fiscal year out. Mr. Cross, Mr. President, thank you. I would go back to the marketing issue, because I think you're right. For, you know, I don't know how many people watch this meeting and hear anything about it, maybe, maybe a hundred, maybe a thousand who knows, but it seems like we, I mean, because I understand what you're saying, Mr. Smith. If we, because we're going to cover it no matter what.

1735
02:30:29,080 --> 02:30:34,800
like whatever that plan incurs, we're not going to dump that back on the employee.

1736
02:30:35,360 --> 02:30:38,940
Like when we're in these deficits, we're taking care of the deficits as well.

1737
02:30:39,180 --> 02:30:51,160
I'm correct in that. So in my mind, if you bumped it up to 400 and you still needed an extra $121 to cover it,

1738
02:30:51,160 --> 02:30:53,840
employee doesn't care about any of that, right?

1739
02:30:54,140 --> 02:30:57,840
Like they just look at what is my, what am I paying per month?

1740
02:30:59,160 --> 02:31:06,240
And I think I remember that about with TRS active care,

1741
02:31:06,240 --> 02:31:11,840
and then the state only contributing the $200 and whatever dollars in a long time.

1742
02:31:12,020 --> 02:31:18,300
But so I'm just wondering, and this is something Dr. Gurgorski,

1743
02:31:18,300 --> 02:31:24,640
I don't know just how we try to make sure that information gets out.

1744
02:31:24,880 --> 02:31:25,600
Somehow, you know what I mean?

1745
02:31:25,740 --> 02:31:32,840
Where our employees understand that our district is not just leaving us hanging out to drive,

1746
02:31:33,240 --> 02:31:34,580
that our folks really are.

1747
02:31:34,840 --> 02:31:35,880
They're looking at plans.

1748
02:31:36,240 --> 02:31:38,220
They're trying to find the best plans.

1749
02:31:38,380 --> 02:31:44,200
We hire professionals who does that for a living to also help us with that.

1750
02:31:46,480 --> 02:32:05,840
And so I'm wondering if some of this is just communication and that we can we can find a way to let folks know I mean it doesn't it doesn't fix all the stuff it doesn't fix the individual things the situational things but the second part of this and then I'll be done is.

1751
02:32:07,300 --> 02:32:09,880
So we'll go back in May, June.

1752
02:32:09,880 --> 02:32:15,320
I think you said Mr. Newman and look at, you know, plans again and go through that process.

1753
02:32:16,000 --> 02:32:23,820
I'm just also thinking that in the survey, the survey is important.

1754
02:32:23,980 --> 02:32:29,120
Like what gets asked is important because if we don't ask the right questions, it will turn

1755
02:32:29,120 --> 02:32:29,940
in to stuff.

1756
02:32:30,120 --> 02:32:35,640
You know, maybe you don't want to say like, or you could say something like, um,

1757
02:32:37,440 --> 02:32:42,500
ignoring planned costs, you know, what is something that, you know, used an employee?

1758
02:32:42,660 --> 02:32:48,480
Did you encounter, you know, something frustrating or didn't work?

1759
02:32:48,720 --> 02:32:53,300
Or, you know, I, again, I'm not a, I know so little about health insurance.

1760
02:32:53,520 --> 02:32:59,080
But something that would, would give some valuable feedback to you so that when you are,

1761
02:32:59,080 --> 02:33:04,620
or when you're going back and when the end of folks if we get this tremendous amount

1762
02:33:04,620 --> 02:33:10,660
of feedback or get very little, you know, if you get eight people in the district who

1763
02:33:10,660 --> 02:33:16,320
say something, either the people didn't, you know, it wasn't a big enough deal because

1764
02:33:16,320 --> 02:33:20,820
you know how that goes like go to a restaurant and you don't usually take a review unless

1765
02:33:20,820 --> 02:33:23,380
it's really awesome or it's really bad.

1766
02:33:23,380 --> 02:33:31,160
And so, but I'm just wondering if there is something, again, something that has already been generated.

1767
02:33:31,160 --> 02:33:37,060
So, I'm certainly not asking you to go reinvent the wheel and come up with your own survey and figure that.

1768
02:33:37,220 --> 02:33:43,200
But if there's something that could go out to the employees, it can't be just all those years in education.

1769
02:33:43,220 --> 02:33:50,020
If it's going to take them 30 minutes to fill out a survey, then they won't do it in your way and your time and it won't do us any good.

1770
02:33:50,020 --> 02:33:57,540
But if there's something that could be relatively quick and still, you know, get the information

1771
02:33:57,540 --> 02:34:02,880
that you need, so that when you go back to talk to those folks and there, you know, we

1772
02:34:02,880 --> 02:34:09,160
rate a bit out again that whoever it is, that they get to hear like, hey, here's some

1773
02:34:09,160 --> 02:34:15,280
of the things our employees have some significant concerns about and if they, you know, and at

1774
02:34:15,280 --> 02:34:20,800
At that point, at least, I don't know that, again, not knowing the insurance world.

1775
02:34:20,840 --> 02:34:23,060
I don't know if that's negotiating power or not.

1776
02:34:23,360 --> 02:34:24,420
It probably is not.

1777
02:34:25,260 --> 02:34:30,380
I'll tell you this, we're of such, and Mr. Hershey coming into this, is we're of such

1778
02:34:30,380 --> 02:34:35,620
size that we do, we leverage that A plus the sit in behind you.

1779
02:34:35,980 --> 02:34:36,820
Oh, that's awesome.

1780
02:34:37,380 --> 02:34:37,440
That's awesome.

1781
02:34:37,520 --> 02:34:38,680
And our size.

1782
02:34:39,340 --> 02:34:42,280
And we leverage that very, very hard.

1783
02:34:43,340 --> 02:34:51,060
I feel very strongly about that and I have this pen on and it's very, I take it personally.

1784
02:34:52,860 --> 02:34:56,780
It hurts me when I see the way inflation is going in healthcare.

1785
02:34:58,440 --> 02:35:04,460
We pull every lever we can and I use KDI SD as best I can each and every day.

1786
02:35:04,820 --> 02:35:05,820
In every little thing that we do.

1787
02:35:05,820 --> 02:35:14,040
Sure. I know like the other trustees said it's a tough job and it's a tough

1788
02:35:14,040 --> 02:35:18,880
world to navigate and so many factors beyond our control right like what's

1789
02:35:18,880 --> 02:35:25,820
going on in the market and unexpected situations and all that but I'm just so

1790
02:35:25,820 --> 02:35:32,060
I'm just wondering just maybe a couple things again something that our folks know

1791
02:35:32,060 --> 02:35:38,200
know what we're doing. That word gets out so it's not just if you happen to see the

1792
02:35:38,200 --> 02:35:39,300
board meeting Monday night.

1793
02:35:41,620 --> 02:35:44,880
And, and then the other piece of just if there's something

1794
02:35:44,880 --> 02:35:50,540
out there, they, I mean, you guys are the experts, so I'm not going to pretend to be, but that

1795
02:35:50,540 --> 02:35:54,500
you could look at that there's something you go, you know what, this would be good information

1796
02:35:54,500 --> 02:35:58,460
for us. Somebody's already, even if it's in the private sector, you know, they've developed

1797
02:35:58,460 --> 02:36:05,700
up something, we love our employees to be able to send this into us and we feel like we

1798
02:36:05,700 --> 02:36:08,020
get some good data from it.

1799
02:36:08,620 --> 02:36:15,440
Just so there's something, because I understand, I remember the days, by the way, of the committees,

1800
02:36:16,860 --> 02:36:23,820
the benefits, advisory, and I can remember sending folks over and you're right, the plan's

1801
02:36:23,820 --> 02:36:30,600
going up $20 and they're like but what else and I don't know what she's going up and and that's not

1802
02:36:30,600 --> 02:36:36,920
a criticism of anybody but you're right. That's the first thing. I mean my you know my daughter

1803
02:36:36,920 --> 02:36:43,980
and son-in-law working this district and that's the first thing. Dad insurance is going up you know

1804
02:36:43,980 --> 02:36:52,200
and so I get that but but then you have folks like we heard tonight that you know when a comment is

1805
02:36:52,200 --> 02:36:57,560
made I'm willing to pay more if we get something that works and and you know I

1806
02:36:57,560 --> 02:37:04,720
don't know how much of this is a one-off situation. I pray that it is and I pray

1807
02:37:04,720 --> 02:37:10,280
that we can get that fixed and that that folks can get what they need but I

1808
02:37:10,280 --> 02:37:15,120
just feel like we we've got to get some employee feedback and then we need to

1809
02:37:15,120 --> 02:37:19,800
let our folks know what we what we are doing as a district to try to help them to

1810
02:37:19,800 --> 02:37:20,940
the best of our ability.

1811
02:37:21,420 --> 02:37:28,580
I know it's hard when we don't have the money and we're not being funded in a way that

1812
02:37:28,580 --> 02:37:37,100
allows us to do all the extra things like insurance, insurance, that's a biggie for everybody.

1813
02:37:37,380 --> 02:37:43,680
And so I'll wrap that up, but just a couple of thoughts before we leave this.

1814
02:37:43,680 --> 02:37:46,580
Mr. President may have had one thing.

1815
02:37:47,380 --> 02:37:53,760
So on that survey that we haven't talked about, and I know I suggested that early on.

1816
02:37:54,540 --> 02:38:03,360
But that could also be your, like Mr. Cross was saying, that could also double as the informational part.

1817
02:38:03,620 --> 02:38:08,740
I mean, that information about what we're already doing could be on that survey.

1818
02:38:09,520 --> 02:38:11,640
So that could be a double duty.

1819
02:38:11,640 --> 02:38:20,040
But also just as a side note, insurance companies deny people for things all the time.

1820
02:38:20,120 --> 02:38:22,500
We got denied today for an epic pen for my daughter.

1821
02:38:23,340 --> 02:38:28,020
So I'm just saying and we're not, I don't work for KDSD.

1822
02:38:28,200 --> 02:38:32,360
So I'm just saying that this is a problem, this is an insurance problem.

1823
02:38:32,500 --> 02:38:35,980
This isn't necessarily a KDISD problem.

1824
02:38:36,360 --> 02:38:38,520
Our Mr. Nowman problem, Mr. Harris problem.

1825
02:38:38,520 --> 02:38:45,780
This is just, so this is not something that's going to be solved or anything because we're not the insurance companies.

1826
02:38:46,460 --> 02:38:53,780
But just to have a little bit more an advocate type person or information or something like that,

1827
02:38:53,940 --> 02:38:59,640
at least the people can know that we're thinking of them, we're not going to solve those problems so probably.

1828
02:39:00,180 --> 02:39:04,040
I hate that but that's just the way it is right now.

1829
02:39:04,040 --> 02:39:04,100
Now,

1830
02:39:06,400 --> 02:39:11,860
as I look at the numbers, I think the other way to look at this too, that monthly deficit contribution,

1831
02:39:12,340 --> 02:39:18,120
if we're in private industry, would have been increases in monthly payments for every employee.

1832
02:39:19,260 --> 02:39:25,180
Because they're not, a private company's not going to go $16 million in the whole insurance for people to offer.

1833
02:39:26,200 --> 02:39:35,200
Not saying we should have raised prices, as I see that, there is some level of pride that we've been able to keep those premiums the same.

1834
02:39:36,180 --> 02:39:53,660
With hope that our income would increase to be able to cover it, but I'm faced in my personal life for my company with these increases every year and to see that increase go on and I don't get the opportunity to save it if we don't spend it.

1835
02:39:54,480 --> 02:39:56,240
I'm not self-insured, I don't get that option.

1836
02:39:57,500 --> 02:40:08,060
But I do echo what the board said, that I think a lot of our employees understand those costs are increasing.

1837
02:40:10,000 --> 02:40:21,100
Medical insurance and our medical industry got some great friends doing that and some great doctors and all those kinds of things, but it's getting expensive and it's, yeah.

1838
02:40:21,100 --> 02:40:30,660
So I know what I'm hearing in the entire board says, we want to provide the best we can to our employees.

1839
02:40:31,040 --> 02:40:39,040
We want to do that physically, responsibly, and we want it to be clear to our employees what benefits they have and how to best use those benefits.

1840
02:40:40,420 --> 02:40:44,080
And I know that's your, that's everybody's desire in this room, too.

1841
02:40:45,720 --> 02:40:48,520
So thank you board, any more questions or comments?

1842
02:40:48,520 --> 02:40:52,180
I said one last comment. I just did a real quick thank you.

1843
02:40:52,580 --> 02:41:00,280
Etna doesn't report its annual earnings, but as of last year it is assumed based off

1844
02:41:00,280 --> 02:41:06,080
of CVS health that Etna did take in $60.6 billion in 2024.

1845
02:41:07,300 --> 02:41:18,340
So I don't want to do a survey. I don't want to have our employees do a survey that gives

1846
02:41:18,340 --> 02:41:25,460
gives them false hope that a $60.6 billion health company cares that they're upset.

1847
02:41:26,100 --> 02:41:27,040
I care that you're upset.

1848
02:41:27,680 --> 02:41:29,300
I care that you're getting denied.

1849
02:41:29,880 --> 02:41:30,820
I think it's criminal.

1850
02:41:31,560 --> 02:41:32,720
I don't think ethnic cares.

1851
02:41:33,160 --> 02:41:34,300
I want to be totally honest.

1852
02:41:35,060 --> 02:41:40,840
So what I would rather you spend your time doing is finding ways to make this work for

1853
02:41:40,840 --> 02:41:43,360
our employees that are struggling.

1854
02:41:43,980 --> 02:41:46,500
They just got raises this last year,

1855
02:41:48,540 --> 02:41:50,640
what are they supposed to do?

1856
02:41:51,480 --> 02:41:53,260
How are they supposed to do this?

1857
02:41:53,640 --> 02:41:56,240
How are they supposed to keep their head above water?

1858
02:41:56,360 --> 02:41:57,300
And I know it's not your fault.

1859
02:41:57,880 --> 02:42:01,300
I said this to you privately, this is not you, I know that.

1860
02:42:03,220 --> 02:42:08,360
But I appreciate this board wanting to hear your complaints, I do.

1861
02:42:08,880 --> 02:42:13,980
But I don't want you having the false hope that these complaints are somehow going to make

1862
02:42:13,980 --> 02:42:20,960
a hill of beans worth a difference to a company that makes $60.6 billion, doesn't it?

1863
02:42:21,700 --> 02:42:24,500
That's a really awful hard truth to swallow.

1864
02:42:25,760 --> 02:42:31,220
So, again, I would rather you spend your time finding ways that we can make this work

1865
02:42:31,220 --> 02:42:35,880
for our employees instead of giving them something to scream at a wall.

1866
02:42:35,880 --> 02:42:35,940
Well,

1867
02:42:40,930 --> 02:42:43,150
Mr. President, for a point of clarification.

1868
02:42:43,530 --> 02:42:44,070
Yes, Fox.

1869
02:42:45,070 --> 02:42:46,030
My criticism on you.

1870
02:42:46,370 --> 02:42:52,530
No, I just want to make sure that you know that I was not asking for a survey to go to Etna.

1871
02:42:52,890 --> 02:42:57,670
I want to survey to how can you, do you need more people to help them navigate?

1872
02:42:58,410 --> 02:43:07,550
And if that's what you need, and that provides a service to them, that's let us know what you need.

1873
02:43:07,550 --> 02:43:09,170
people are expensive.

1874
02:43:09,430 --> 02:43:12,170
I'm not making any commitments for Dr. Gorgorski.

1875
02:43:12,290 --> 02:43:14,510
He's broken his eyes, wish I would stop talking.

1876
02:43:14,990 --> 02:43:20,470
But if what they're saying is, I don't understand what I'm getting.

1877
02:43:20,810 --> 02:43:24,230
And I signed up for that one because that's what my next door teacher neighbor

1878
02:43:24,230 --> 02:43:25,150
signed up for.

1879
02:43:25,410 --> 02:43:28,810
She has entirely different needs than I have, right?

1880
02:43:29,130 --> 02:43:31,650
She has, you know, young children.

1881
02:43:32,070 --> 02:43:34,930
I'm at this age where I'm going to need more medical.

1882
02:43:34,930 --> 02:43:37,390
I don't need to sign it for what she signed up for.

1883
02:43:37,650 --> 02:43:39,590
Who do you have who can help me understand it?

1884
02:43:39,890 --> 02:43:46,710
Those kinds of things, whatever that feedback is, that would be that you can provide them information

1885
02:43:46,710 --> 02:43:52,570
or hand holding to get them through what that looks like and why is the deductible so much?

1886
02:43:52,670 --> 02:43:59,650
Those kinds of things, it's information and helping them because we're not going to be able to lower the cost.

1887
02:43:59,890 --> 02:44:01,170
And I appreciate what you said.

1888
02:44:01,170 --> 02:44:05,210
I agree, Etna doesn't care, they don't care how many times you're complaining, but

1889
02:44:05,210 --> 02:44:10,270
if you could provide something to get to the Etna people for them or how to do that.

1890
02:44:10,790 --> 02:44:21,950
I think you really could provide some outreach and a hand out to them to help them figure out what these concerns are that are not just cost.

1891
02:44:23,130 --> 02:44:24,950
Thank you so much for taking our suggestion.

1892
02:44:25,750 --> 02:44:26,470
Thank you, Mr. President.

1893
02:44:27,630 --> 02:44:28,850
Any more questions for?

1894
02:44:28,850 --> 02:44:35,800
All right, we'll now move on to item 7.8, Mr. Norman, you're still presenting,

1895
02:44:35,940 --> 02:44:42,160
discuss and consider Board approval of claims administration for our unemployment compensation by TASB risk management fund.

1896
02:44:43,100 --> 02:44:46,940
The district shall comply with the provisions of the Texas Unemployment Act,

1897
02:44:47,300 --> 02:44:48,760
Labor Code 201.26.

1898
02:44:49,320 --> 02:44:59,620
The district is permitted by law to enter into a joint group account with other political subdivisions to share the cost benefits that are attributable to the services

1899
02:44:59,620 --> 02:44:59,980
This is prov-

1900
02:45:00,000 --> 02:45:29,520
In the employee of a group of account members, Labor Code 205.21, KDIST is provided these services through an interlocal agreement with TASB Risk Management Fund. The fixed contribution for plan year 2024 was $352,468. With the renewal set at $296,073 for plan year 2526. It is recommended the Board of Trustees approves the claims administration by TASB Risk Management Fund.

1901
02:45:29,520 --> 02:45:31,880
for plan year 25th of 26.

1902
02:45:33,940 --> 02:45:34,900
Any questions, Board?

1903
02:45:43,550 --> 02:45:47,910
I do like the fact, I mean, when we go back years, when we talk about all the ways

1904
02:45:47,910 --> 02:45:52,230
that unemployment claims were just being approved by our government during COVID

1905
02:45:52,230 --> 02:45:57,290
time and all the fraud that was happening, it's crazy to go back and look at 833

1906
02:45:57,290 --> 02:46:02,170
claims back then and now just 183, like significant difference.

1907
02:46:02,170 --> 02:46:05,910
I will add this just parenthetically speaking.

1908
02:46:06,110 --> 02:46:11,430
We've had seen a spike here recently in the last few weeks in fraudulent

1909
02:46:11,430 --> 02:46:15,830
claims being filed, and we fight those vigorously.

1910
02:46:18,900 --> 02:46:19,920
See, there's just no questions.

1911
02:46:20,080 --> 02:46:20,320
Thank you.

1912
02:46:21,300 --> 02:46:21,420
That's good.

1913
02:46:22,160 --> 02:46:27,000
We'll now move on to item 7.9 discussing, instead of board approval, for the district

1914
02:46:27,000 --> 02:46:28,160
performance objectives.

1915
02:46:28,500 --> 02:46:31,420
Our presenter is Natalie Martinez, executive director of School Improvement.

1916
02:46:31,420 --> 02:46:34,920
Good evening, President Redmond, Dr. Gregorski and school board.

1917
02:46:35,280 --> 02:46:39,060
Each year, the board is asked to review and approve the district performance objectives

1918
02:46:39,060 --> 02:46:41,500
that guide the district improvement planning process.

1919
02:46:42,040 --> 02:46:47,560
The performance objectives are all aligned to the nine strategic goals that are created

1920
02:46:47,560 --> 02:46:48,840
through three different processes.

1921
02:46:49,580 --> 02:46:54,800
Five of them are legally required, 17, or from our strategic design, and nine of them are

1922
02:46:54,800 --> 02:46:56,540
created from a needs assessment process.

1923
02:46:56,540 --> 02:47:03,320
You received a copy of the proposed district performance objectives, and at this time, I will answer any questions you may have.

1924
02:47:04,240 --> 02:47:05,320
Any questions, Board?

1925
02:47:10,840 --> 02:47:16,960
No questions, and we'll move on to item 7.10, discussing considered Board approval of the campus performance objectives.

1926
02:47:17,460 --> 02:47:26,160
Similar to the district improvement planning, each of the board is required to review and approve the performance objectives that guide each individual campus improvement plan.

1927
02:47:26,160 --> 02:47:31,080
the performance objectives are aligned to the district strategic goals and drive their work throughout

1928
02:47:31,080 --> 02:47:33,820
the year. At this time, I will answer any questions you may have.

1929
02:47:34,560 --> 02:47:35,560
Any questions of work?

1930
02:47:36,260 --> 02:47:38,060
I just have a question, Mr. President.

1931
02:47:38,180 --> 02:47:38,520
Mr. Champagne.

1932
02:47:38,720 --> 02:47:44,640
This is a real simple question. I think I've probably asked it almost every year, so I just like to do it for clarification.

1933
02:47:45,440 --> 02:47:55,960
So all the campuses have their performance objectives and just for clarity purposes, who monitors

1934
02:47:55,960 --> 02:48:05,060
who is watching and making sure that each campus is trying to obtain the goals that they've set up for themselves.

1935
02:48:05,980 --> 02:48:12,140
So within our plan for learning system, there are quarterly reports and our assistance superintendents,

1936
02:48:12,200 --> 02:48:15,840
along with my team as well, we go in and monitor which ones have been reviewed.

1937
02:48:16,440 --> 02:48:23,200
So the principal and their teams are reviewing them and then my team and the assistance superintendents go to see that they are reviewed.

1938
02:48:23,200 --> 02:48:29,440
And then we turn in a report, at least on the district side, for all of those performance objectives.

1939
02:48:30,340 --> 02:48:32,460
There's multiple things in place to ensure.

1940
02:48:32,640 --> 02:48:40,100
And then if they're somehow not meeting their goals, we do rely on the principles to go through that process.

1941
02:48:40,320 --> 02:48:43,940
But they also have their assistance supers to help them.

1942
02:48:44,160 --> 02:48:44,400
Absolutely.

1943
02:48:44,780 --> 02:48:45,600
Okay, that's it.

1944
02:48:46,280 --> 02:48:46,760
Okay.

1945
02:48:48,380 --> 02:48:49,920
No further questions, thank you.

1946
02:48:50,420 --> 02:49:13,280
I will now move on to item 7.11, discussing considered board approval for the superintendents to prepare, sign, and submit a waiver application to the State Commissioner of Education for elementary school campuses that exceed the allowable class size of 22 to 1, in addition to campuses that could potentially exceed the ratio due to increase enrollment during the 25-26 school year presenter Brian Chuss, chief human resource officer.

1947
02:49:13,720 --> 02:49:16,140
Good evening, President Redmond, members of the board, Dr. Gagorski.

1948
02:49:16,520 --> 02:49:22,420
This is an item that we present to the board each year in September, and it is our class size waivers for the 2526 school year.

1949
02:49:23,040 --> 02:49:32,280
In your board agenda, there's a document that has a currently 49 class sections and pre-K through four that are over the 22 to 1 ratio.

1950
02:49:32,520 --> 02:49:37,660
Now, that is, so to give a little context, that's 49 out of 1,620 sections.

1951
02:49:38,120 --> 02:49:41,940
So when you look at it, big picture like that, that's a pretty small number.

1952
02:49:41,940 --> 02:49:48,100
37 of the 49 are over by just one student, so I think that's important information as well.

1953
02:49:48,820 --> 02:49:52,320
And as the board knows, we've talked about this in the past, this is after our enrollment

1954
02:49:52,320 --> 02:49:59,860
balance and process where we look at grade level class sections and class sizes and if campuses

1955
02:49:59,860 --> 02:50:08,060
have low enough numbers where they can afford to maybe have a reduction in staff, then we're

1956
02:50:08,060 --> 02:50:12,340
able to use those staff members at other campuses that are struggling with class size.

1957
02:50:12,600 --> 02:50:17,920
So, we've completed that process, but then each year, even after that process, we still have some waivers.

1958
02:50:18,640 --> 02:50:23,400
And, you know, an example, so the enrollment balancing process, very collaborative process,

1959
02:50:23,860 --> 02:50:28,660
our systems, superintendents, elementary, principals very involved in the process and

1960
02:50:29,480 --> 02:50:31,180
our decision makers in that process.

1961
02:50:31,440 --> 02:50:37,640
And so, you know, it happens each and every year that we may go to a principal and

1962
02:50:37,640 --> 02:50:43,900
say you're slated to receive additional teacher or growth, and that principal might say no,

1963
02:50:44,160 --> 02:50:48,560
I appreciate it, but I'm good. Even though I know I've got a couple of sections that may be over,

1964
02:50:48,740 --> 02:50:52,980
a few sections that are over about one student, I've got a great dynamic in that grade, right?

1965
02:50:53,520 --> 02:50:58,580
And we hear them say that to open up another class section and have a new teacher that sometimes

1966
02:50:58,580 --> 02:51:05,960
that can be disruptive, and I'm going to rock with the team that I've got. They're happy where they

1967
02:51:05,960 --> 02:51:12,220
So actually, that scenario is the bulk of these 49 waivers.

1968
02:51:12,600 --> 02:51:25,740
So, and one thing I would like to say is, this waiver is not an in general statement that the district now is okay with larger class sizes or that we're even pushing larger class sizes.

1969
02:51:25,820 --> 02:51:26,660
That's not what this is.

1970
02:51:27,000 --> 02:51:33,960
We're just required to report each individual section pre-K through four that is over the 22 to one.

1971
02:51:33,960 --> 02:51:38,160
I mean, I think, you know, when we do campus staffing, we staff at 22 to 1.

1972
02:51:38,280 --> 02:51:53,220
So, I think that shows that, you know, where we want to be, then that's why when we have staffing approved, we bring additional growth units for that reason that we can act when we see early on with enrollment if classes are going to be high.

1973
02:51:53,340 --> 02:51:58,580
So, anyways, that's what we have for you tonight, and I'll take any questions.

1974
02:51:58,580 --> 02:52:01,000
Any questions for Mr. President?

1975
02:52:01,320 --> 02:52:01,500
Mr. Fox.

1976
02:52:02,460 --> 02:52:10,460
So Mr. Schisch, if we were to not have waivers or not be able to get the waivers, we would need 49 more teachers.

1977
02:52:10,920 --> 02:52:21,860
We would need 49 more classrooms with desk, and that would add a significant amount to our roster, right?

1978
02:52:22,080 --> 02:52:24,840
Which teachers cost money and all the things that happen.

1979
02:52:24,840 --> 02:52:30,220
and that would mean that instead of having 23 children,

1980
02:52:31,300 --> 02:52:33,640
now you're rebalancing the whole grade level, right?

1981
02:52:33,860 --> 02:52:35,980
And so everybody, all the children,

1982
02:52:36,480 --> 02:52:37,680
it's a fruit basket turnover,

1983
02:52:38,060 --> 02:52:39,960
and then everybody's gonna be redistributed

1984
02:52:40,460 --> 02:52:42,300
after you've made friends, you know your teacher,

1985
02:52:42,460 --> 02:52:43,680
you've had the back to school night,

1986
02:52:43,840 --> 02:52:46,320
and you have your PTA, rim moms, all the things.

1987
02:52:46,920 --> 02:52:49,320
And now everybody's mad, right?

1988
02:52:49,440 --> 02:52:52,160
So I've been in elementary schools where we had to do it

1989
02:52:52,160 --> 02:52:54,340
because, you know, three classes went over.

1990
02:52:55,020 --> 02:52:57,820
And you switch them all around.

1991
02:52:58,000 --> 02:53:00,620
And all the parents are mad because they want their children

1992
02:53:00,620 --> 02:53:02,440
with that teacher or they want the children

1993
02:53:02,440 --> 02:53:03,860
with the friends they already had.

1994
02:53:04,260 --> 02:53:08,140
So when it's over by one, which is, did you say 37 of the 49?

1995
02:53:08,280 --> 02:53:09,140
37 of the 49.

1996
02:53:09,400 --> 02:53:11,440
Of the 49 are over by one student.

1997
02:53:12,320 --> 02:53:16,480
Maybe it's more beneficial all around to keep our students

1998
02:53:16,480 --> 02:53:19,540
together and give extra help to a teacher

1999
02:53:19,540 --> 02:53:21,140
who might be over or something.

2000
02:53:21,140 --> 02:53:29,280
So it's financially better, it's emotionally and academically better to keep everybody together once you've already gotten started.

2001
02:53:29,740 --> 02:53:36,320
Yes, ma'am, and we hear that too that, you know, relationships have been built and, you know, I just don't want to disrupt that dynamics.

2002
02:53:36,540 --> 02:53:47,300
So we hear that, yes, and it's very true if we had an all-out mandate that every single class must be 22 to 1 or lower.

2003
02:53:47,300 --> 02:53:52,440
Or one, it would take the decision making away from the principal and sometimes they purposefully do things.

2004
02:53:53,060 --> 02:53:56,080
But yes, it would require us to add a significant number of teachers.

2005
02:53:57,020 --> 02:53:58,120
Mr. Redmond.

2006
02:53:58,480 --> 02:53:58,720
Mr. Seany.

2007
02:53:59,540 --> 02:53:59,740
Okay.

2008
02:54:00,760 --> 02:54:02,980
Just a procedural question for you.

2009
02:54:03,320 --> 02:54:05,180
So understand the way versus the beginning of the year.

2010
02:54:05,660 --> 02:54:14,180
What about if like, after Christmas a class is goes over 22, or that class that's 23, goes up to 24.

2011
02:54:14,340 --> 02:54:16,780
Do we have to file another way, do we have to file?

2012
02:54:16,780 --> 02:54:18,860
I should have asked this a while ago, but-

2013
02:54:18,860 --> 02:54:20,600
No, no, it's a great question.

2014
02:54:20,880 --> 02:54:24,980
So, yes, so with this approval, so here we have 49 currently, okay?

2015
02:54:25,340 --> 02:54:27,400
But with this approval, this does give Dr.

2016
02:54:27,500 --> 02:54:31,380
Gorsi the approval to file additional waivers throughout the year, if that happens.

2017
02:54:31,580 --> 02:54:34,420
But last year, if I remember correctly, I should have written this down.

2018
02:54:34,480 --> 02:54:39,520
I think it's very similar number of waivers, maybe 47, but after that approval,

2019
02:54:39,700 --> 02:54:43,300
there were no additional waivers for the remainder of the year.

2020
02:54:43,460 --> 02:54:43,520
Okay.

2021
02:54:47,780 --> 02:54:49,680
Thank you, Mr. Schusch.

2022
02:54:50,340 --> 02:54:52,700
Do you know what's going on at Campbell Elementary?

2023
02:54:53,120 --> 02:54:54,160
So that's a good question.

2024
02:54:54,720 --> 02:54:57,720
That one does have, I think they had 13 waiters.

2025
02:54:58,160 --> 02:55:02,780
And that was actually one of the principals and campuses that said that they were fine,

2026
02:55:03,040 --> 02:55:07,160
that they were slated to get an additional teacher, but the principal said,

2027
02:55:07,520 --> 02:55:08,440
I'm good where I am.

2028
02:55:08,600 --> 02:55:10,600
I'm comfortable where I am and I want to sit tight.

2029
02:55:10,600 --> 02:55:14,920
So, and here's the thing, you know, we're here to support the principles, right?

2030
02:55:15,200 --> 02:55:17,540
And they're making the best decisions for their campus.

2031
02:55:17,760 --> 02:55:21,920
So, and sometimes we'll get asked, well, if I say no now, can I not get one in the future?

2032
02:55:22,100 --> 02:55:22,680
Well, of course not.

2033
02:55:23,060 --> 02:55:27,620
You know, if, let's say they continue to grow and in a Christmas, you know, they said, oh, you know,

2034
02:55:27,700 --> 02:55:31,760
I've thought about that more, I'd like to go ahead and add, then we'll do that at that time.

2035
02:55:32,260 --> 02:55:33,280
Okay, okay.

2036
02:55:33,760 --> 02:55:39,360
And then it's important what you said, that 37 of the 49 classes that we're talking

2037
02:55:39,360 --> 02:55:46,220
about that are over the 22 to 1, or just by 1, excuse me?

2038
02:55:46,320 --> 02:55:47,360
Or 23, yes, ma'am.

2039
02:55:47,540 --> 02:55:53,060
Okay, and so then that leaves 12 other classes, what are they all about?

2040
02:55:53,080 --> 02:55:55,260
Yes, so roughly.

2041
02:55:55,540 --> 02:56:00,300
You have 9 or over by 2 and 3 or over by 3.

2042
02:56:00,940 --> 02:56:03,920
Okay, so that gives perspective on this.

2043
02:56:05,540 --> 02:56:07,400
Okay, I think that's all I got.

2044
02:56:07,640 --> 02:56:08,000
Thank you.

2045
02:56:08,640 --> 02:56:37,980
Mr. President, first of all, I want to say it's awesome that there's no pre-K that's over, and there's only one kindergarten class, there's only two first grade classes, so this is kind of helpful to me, but I also wanted to say that I appreciate what Mrs. Fox said earlier because I did have a kid that was in a class that actually she had three teachers by November and first grade, and that was a terrible year, and thankfully she's of my three kids.

2046
02:56:37,980 --> 02:56:46,140
kids my strongest students so she survived but mom was having a meltdown but anyway that

2047
02:56:46,140 --> 02:56:53,140
was a long time ago I'm trying to get over it but also the thing is too is sometimes when

2048
02:56:53,140 --> 02:56:59,400
you have to redo all these teachers you have to disrupt another school because there may

2049
02:56:59,400 --> 02:57:05,660
be another school that I won't pick on but may have 15 kids per class and then you could

2050
02:57:05,660 --> 02:57:09,580
could find them and oh well here's an extra teacher over here at this other school that

2051
02:57:09,580 --> 02:57:14,120
we could combine all those kids and take this teacher over to this school to make another

2052
02:57:14,120 --> 02:57:18,760
teacher and then now all those kids at that school are unhappy and that teacher is not

2053
02:57:18,760 --> 02:57:26,800
happy you know so it's very very very very like a domino effect thing and I just suggested

2054
02:57:26,800 --> 02:57:31,800
if it's just one kid or even two kids and the teachers go with it it's a lot better just

2055
02:57:31,800 --> 02:57:38,160
to try to stay that way because I just know what we went through personally and it has

2056
02:57:38,160 --> 02:57:41,660
by the way I've been 21 years and I'm still get an eye to which when I think about it.

2057
02:57:42,300 --> 02:57:48,160
So I appreciate what you do, I know it's probably like a juggling act and I don't know.

2058
02:57:48,620 --> 02:57:54,080
It's probably a very complicated process for the principals because I've seen that process

2059
02:57:54,080 --> 02:58:00,180
this too, where they're placing all the kids in all classes and that's an SCO, an elementary,

2060
02:58:00,460 --> 02:58:03,800
a previous elementary principal sitting in the audience and I know she knows I'm talking

2061
02:58:03,800 --> 02:58:09,620
about it's very complicated so I really appreciate all the work that's been done in this and I feel

2062
02:58:09,620 --> 02:58:11,380
very good with it personally.

2063
02:58:15,480 --> 02:58:16,700
Any other questions for it?

2064
02:58:18,280 --> 02:58:18,980
Thank you.

2065
02:58:20,460 --> 02:58:27,380
We'll move on to number eight, information items, 8.1 donated items or donated items list

2066
02:58:27,380 --> 02:58:33,800
This has been received, 8.2 recap for Board Member request for information, Madam Secretary.

2067
02:58:34,020 --> 02:58:35,460
We captured any request from the Board.

2068
02:58:37,960 --> 02:58:39,740
Did you have anything, did you all have anything?

2069
02:58:40,080 --> 02:58:42,180
Oh, I just had a question about donated items.

2070
02:58:42,960 --> 02:58:43,660
Ms. Kuzil?

2071
02:58:44,400 --> 02:58:54,420
For the 10 commandments that are donated, I thought Dr. Gorski or something or Dr. Mr. Redman was going to.

2072
02:58:54,420 --> 02:58:59,460
But it's SB 10, people are wanting to donate them.

2073
02:59:00,200 --> 02:59:07,340
And I don't see that as something we should be moving on a monthly basis as part of this donation report.

2074
02:59:08,140 --> 02:59:14,020
So just wanted to, wanted to adjust that when they're donated,

2075
02:59:14,620 --> 02:59:19,640
they need to come here to the administration building as you had said, Dr. Gorgorski.

2076
02:59:19,640 --> 02:59:27,900
So they do have to be a certain size and they can't have whatever websites and such on it.

2077
02:59:28,060 --> 02:59:40,620
Here in Fenelia, it has to be the certain one that the state has approved and that they should be hung if the district's happy with that they're the right 16 by 20 size, et cetera.

2078
02:59:41,280 --> 02:59:43,720
So is that permissible here?

2079
02:59:43,920 --> 02:59:46,460
I mean, does anyone have any different feelings on that?

2080
02:59:47,340 --> 02:59:50,580
I think number one, we are going to hang them when they're donated.

2081
02:59:51,320 --> 02:59:56,060
I don't think the conversation is, will they be hung or not hung right, as soon as we

2082
02:59:56,060 --> 02:59:56,380
get them?

2083
02:59:57,120 --> 02:59:59,740
No, that was a question, and so that's what I wanted to clarify.

2084
03:00:00,000 --> 03:00:05,400
Okay, that we're not waiting on this monthly board meeting to approve the donation before they can be hung.

2085
03:00:06,660 --> 03:00:16,500
We do have a board policy about donated items. I can't think of what it is off the top of my head that I'm trying to think of a reverse

2086
03:00:17,100 --> 03:00:20,340
situation as something that would be donated that we want to make sure we're receiving.

2087
03:00:22,000 --> 03:00:25,300
Obviously, there's no discussion about not hanging them.

2088
03:00:25,300 --> 03:00:29,000
We, I mean, the state law says, when we receive them, we hang them.

2089
03:00:29,240 --> 03:00:31,180
Mr. Redman, let me step in here.

2090
03:00:31,940 --> 03:00:35,780
This board has policy, CDC, local, it's a local board policy.

2091
03:00:36,240 --> 03:00:41,040
And it talks about the board having final authority to accept unsolicited gifts,

2092
03:00:41,280 --> 03:00:46,020
which is why we present the items to the board on a monthly basis.

2093
03:00:47,060 --> 03:00:51,680
I will tell you, we're not in actively soliciting the ten commandments.

2094
03:00:52,880 --> 03:00:57,240
Postures were also not not soliciting the Ten Commandments Postures, we're simply following the law.

2095
03:00:57,760 --> 03:01:03,120
So we've given instructions to folks that are donating those items that they come to the campus to come to the ESC.

2096
03:01:03,620 --> 03:01:12,380
Here we will accept them and then ultimately put them as they come in, put them on the board agenda for this board to see the donated items list.

2097
03:01:12,860 --> 03:01:18,560
This is, I will board members, I will tell you, this is the same process that we follow for the in-god we trust signs.

2098
03:01:18,560 --> 03:01:21,200
So we get them, put them on the board agenda.

2099
03:01:21,660 --> 03:01:25,780
Once the board sees them, then we will put them up at the campuses.

2100
03:01:26,400 --> 03:01:28,560
So that's the plan, that's the process.

2101
03:01:29,180 --> 03:01:36,960
We're following your board policy, and it's working in the past, so we're going to continue to do that, unless this board would like to revise our policy to do something different.

2102
03:01:38,740 --> 03:01:43,860
So there's not room in the policy for something that state law to hang when you receive it?

2103
03:01:43,860 --> 03:01:54,990
I mean, because there could be a whole month or so before they can be hung, isn't there a problem with that?

2104
03:01:55,370 --> 03:02:00,310
Or could we handle, use, treat these differently, something that's in the law.

2105
03:02:02,010 --> 03:02:10,650
So how about this donated list ended on 826, would we be able to get an updated list from Monday?

2106
03:02:10,650 --> 03:02:15,050
Okay, then we would have up to the date on that one specific item.

2107
03:02:17,500 --> 03:02:19,480
It's a question for Mr. Smith.

2108
03:02:19,800 --> 03:02:22,000
His team handles all donated items.

2109
03:02:22,000 --> 03:02:24,720
There's a process, everything comes through electronically.

2110
03:02:25,340 --> 03:02:32,820
So Mr. Smith, how feasible is that to update the donated items list between now and Monday?

2111
03:02:36,430 --> 03:02:38,010
It's feasible that that can happen.

2112
03:02:38,190 --> 03:02:44,070
Now, we're relying on the campuses in the district to inform us of those donations.

2113
03:02:44,070 --> 03:03:03,350
because they don't run through our office, so there's a form that they fill out that they get set on that list, and if that form is filled out and sent us, sure we can update the list, it's going to fall out of practice with all the other donated items for the district, but whatever the board wishes, we can make that happen as long as we're aware of it.

2114
03:03:03,770 --> 03:03:11,310
Now again, somebody can be making a donation of that right now, and nobody knows about that in this room.

2115
03:03:11,310 --> 03:03:17,150
And we won't know about it in my office until that gets there on that form.

2116
03:03:17,970 --> 03:03:20,270
But yeah, that form can be updated, sure.

2117
03:03:23,580 --> 03:03:32,100
Mr. Graham, would it be possible for us to say on Monday in the board meeting to take action to say we pre-receive those?

2118
03:03:33,660 --> 03:03:37,740
I just say we can find out, we can find out this week what we've got donated.

2119
03:03:38,460 --> 03:03:42,360
We can work on that and get you a list for Monday.

2120
03:03:42,360 --> 03:03:47,100
So you can look at it on Monday, but again, I will tell you, you're talking about state law.

2121
03:03:47,500 --> 03:03:48,460
We've done this once.

2122
03:03:49,040 --> 03:03:53,440
We did this with the end-God, we trust signs, and so we have a process in place, and

2123
03:03:53,440 --> 03:03:58,060
we want to want to make sure that everything's hung, everything's hung appropriately.

2124
03:03:58,360 --> 03:03:59,800
It's not just slapped up on the wall.

2125
03:04:00,000 --> 03:04:05,440
I mean, it's, you know, Ted's team does a good job with that, but we have, you know,

2126
03:04:05,500 --> 03:04:06,540
the process that we've got to follow.

2127
03:04:07,000 --> 03:04:14,600
Mr. President, is this what you're saying is just vote next week that any time we get a donation

2128
03:04:14,600 --> 03:04:19,800
of those we're going to go ahead and approve it to be hung as long as it's within the measurements

2129
03:04:19,800 --> 03:04:22,680
and all that. You're saying just pre-approved all at once?

2130
03:04:22,800 --> 03:04:23,340
That's one of my questions.

2131
03:04:23,380 --> 03:04:24,760
Yeah, I like that idea.

2132
03:04:25,740 --> 03:04:25,760
Yeah.

2133
03:04:26,460 --> 03:04:29,080
Mr. Ritt, are you saying every month we have to do?

2134
03:04:29,100 --> 03:04:33,720
No, just for every campus, like pre-emptively accept them.

2135
03:04:33,720 --> 03:04:37,680
As long as they meet the criteria of the State, yeah, I think that's nice.

2136
03:04:38,160 --> 03:04:40,640
Oh, okay, yes, and that's what I'm trying to suggest.

2137
03:04:41,020 --> 03:04:42,660
Okay, that's what you're saying?

2138
03:04:42,880 --> 03:04:43,540
I'm trying to.

2139
03:04:43,620 --> 03:04:44,540
Okay, yeah, I apologize.

2140
03:04:44,980 --> 03:04:50,400
You know, our donations here are way different than the standard Ten Commandment posters

2141
03:04:50,400 --> 03:04:52,700
that are going to maybe hopefully be coming in.

2142
03:04:52,980 --> 03:04:53,900
I give what you guys are saying.

2143
03:04:53,940 --> 03:04:55,620
Well, that's some on the agenda next week, okay?

2144
03:04:56,060 --> 03:05:00,520
By worry, it would be that at some point, we're setting up a different protocol for other

2145
03:05:00,520 --> 03:05:07,940
items that are not just, yeah, there's something that, another item that's being donated

2146
03:05:07,940 --> 03:05:10,820
that, no, we're going to cheat these differently, so.

2147
03:05:11,100 --> 03:05:11,880
Okay, thank you.

2148
03:05:12,320 --> 03:05:16,440
Well, would it, I mean, this is mandated by law, right?

2149
03:05:17,200 --> 03:05:21,780
So, would the other items, I guess, this is a little bit different because this isn't

2150
03:05:21,780 --> 03:05:25,740
just something that's not, just something that's donated just out of the kindness of someone's heart,

2151
03:05:26,940 --> 03:05:29,980
I mean, I guess it is, but those don't come with,

2152
03:05:30,580 --> 03:05:35,040
mandates by state law to be hung and then accepted.

2153
03:05:35,520 --> 03:05:38,400
So I think there's a little bit of an asterisk there with what you're saying.

2154
03:05:39,200 --> 03:05:41,520
We're not talking about the same thing, there's a difference.

2155
03:05:42,220 --> 03:05:51,080
So I think it is appropriate to make some kind of new, whatever we need to do to make it happen because it's the law.

2156
03:05:51,080 --> 03:05:56,280
Well, and Mr. President, I think it's prudent that, you know, if somebody wants to donate

2157
03:05:58,660 --> 03:06:00,900
something to an athletic team, right?

2158
03:06:01,180 --> 03:06:06,200
You want to have the board make sure it fits the criteria of our policies, right?

2159
03:06:06,540 --> 03:06:10,780
But this is different because this is state law.

2160
03:06:11,400 --> 03:06:18,460
So that's why I feel like there's no, it feels to me like red tape and it feels like we're

2161
03:06:18,460 --> 03:06:27,480
not being good faith in applying the law to me, if we delay and delay and delay.

2162
03:06:27,800 --> 03:06:34,940
So that's why a preemptive vote on this I think would be very, this calls for that in my opinion.

2163
03:06:35,520 --> 03:06:38,900
Mr. President, I think what they're saying makes complete sense.

2164
03:06:40,040 --> 03:06:43,920
We're on this list today, there's an ice cream party for back to school.

2165
03:06:43,920 --> 03:06:48,300
Well, that's already been consumed, and we're approving it after the fact as like, you know,

2166
03:06:48,500 --> 03:06:52,340
someone donated it as kind of a thank you, and we're kind of being like, thank you.

2167
03:06:52,660 --> 03:06:57,380
So, yeah, I think it's perfectly fine to say that we're okay with those going in as they

2168
03:06:57,380 --> 03:07:02,960
come in, Dr. Gorski, your staff just executed as you can.

2169
03:07:03,560 --> 03:07:05,040
All right, we'll work on that.

2170
03:07:05,320 --> 03:07:06,120
So, yeah, that makes sense.

2171
03:07:06,820 --> 03:07:10,940
So, again, they point to Madam Secretary, is there any requests from the Board?

2172
03:07:11,520 --> 03:07:12,780
I did not hear anything.

2173
03:07:15,440 --> 03:07:21,660
All right, well then future board meetings will have a regular board meeting on Monday, September 22, 2025.

2174
03:07:22,780 --> 03:07:26,680
This being there being no further business before the board, this meeting is adjourned.

2175
03:07:26,720 --> 03:07:27,980
The time is 9.30 pm.