[This transcript was generated automatically from audio using AI and hasn't been reviewed by a person -- it can contain mistakes, including plausible-sounding sentences that were never actually said. Treat it as a starting point, not a verbatim record.]

[0:05] Notice that a quorum is present. I hereby call this work study meeting, of the Board of Trustees,
[0:09] a Katie and a Penn school district ordered. Today is Monday, September 15, 2025, and the time is 5pm. Dr. Gregorski, will you verify,
[0:18] that we are in compliance with the provisions of Texas Open Meeting Zach with regard to the notice for this meeting?
[0:23] Mr. Rebman, I do confirm we're in compliance with the provisions of the Texas Open Meeting Zach for the meeting tonight.
[0:29] Thank you.
[0:30] KDISD police officer Robert Lister will lead us in the pledges of allegiance tonight.
[0:42] A pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for
[0:48] which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
[0:57] Honor the Texas flag, a pledge allegiance to the Texas, one state, under God, one, indivisible.
[1:09] Thank you.
[1:10] Do we have any scouts in the audience this evening?
[1:14] No, we do not.
[1:18] 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.
[1:26] As defined by Board policy, speakers who signed up by 2 p.m. on Monday, September 15th provided their first last name, mailing address,
[1:33] list the number of specific agenda items they tend to address.
[1:38] whether they reside in KDIC and if they have children in KDIC schools will be allowed to address the board.
[1:43] Speakers that fail to sign up in advance with required information will not be called to speak.
[1:49] We need to, we need to update this, right?
[1:52] This is update without we're doing it now.
[1:55] We've made some changes.
[1:57] So tonight, if you signed up by 2 p.m., you're eligible to speak whether you showed up and signed in or not.
[2:02] Speakers who signed up to speak on posted agenda items will be allowed three minutes to speak.
[2:06] If a speaker is not finished speaking at the end of their three minutes, the audio will turn off.
[2:10] 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.
[2:22] If a speaker is not attempted to solve a matter administratively through proper channels as stated in board policy,
[2:27] residing officers as initial advised the speaker to seek resolution through the appropriate policy.
[2:33] 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.
[2:56] Should a speaker wish to address one of these issues they must do so through the appropriate
[3:00] local grievance policy, FNG local, DGBA local, CKE local or GF local.
[3:07] Our speakers will be called forward in the order they sign up to speak.
[3:11] Tonight we have two speakers on agenda items.
[3:15] The first is Sandy Quavis, followed by Carrie Lowry.
[3:26] Good evening, members of the board.
[3:28] My name is Sandy Quevas.
[3:30] KDI is shaped me as a student and now as a parent and teacher.
[3:34] I want to make sure it continues to give every child
[3:35] the same opportunities I had.
[3:37] I love this community, and I'm deeply invested in the success
[3:40] of our schools, not only for my own children,
[3:43] but for every student who walks into our classrooms each day.
[3:46] I'm here to respectfully voice my opinion to the proposal
[3:49] that would allow the superintendent to submit a waiver to exceed
[3:52] the 22-to-1 student-to-teacher ratio.
[3:55] As a parent, I can tell you firsthand that class size already impacts my children.
[4:00] 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.
[4:08] Their experiences reflect what we know to be true. Smaller class sizes create better learning environments.
[4:14] 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.
[4:22] It doesn't matter how dedicated or experienced a teacher is when you stretch too thin, the
[4:27] quality of education suffers and our students deserve better than just enough.
[4:32] They deserve the best that we can give them.
[4:34] Approving this waiver may seem like a quick fix to enrollment challenges, but the cost will
[4:40] be paid for by our children.
[4:42] Larger class sizes means less individualized support, more distractions, and more students
[4:48] slipping through the cracks.
[4:48] This is not the kind of education that KDI-Z is known for, and not what our families want for their children.
[4:55] Instead of increasing class houses are Earth's district and the state to pursue real solutions.
[5:00] Hiring more teachers and paraprofessionals, exploring creative uses space to create more classrooms,
[5:06] improving teacher retention by offering competitive pay, manageable workloads, and
[5:10] strong support systems, and advocating at the state level for increased funding.
[5:15] We don't need to lower the standard by waiting class house limits.
[5:18] we need to raise the bar by investing in real sustainable solutions that put kids first.
[5:23] I urge you tonight to stand with parents, teachers, and most importantly students
[5:27] by rejecting this waiver request.
[5:30] Let's keep class sizes at a level where true learning can happen.
[5:33] Where children feel seen and supported,
[5:35] and where teachers can continue to give the high-quality education this district's prize itself on.
[5:41] If we want KDIZ to remain a district of excellence,
[5:44] We must keep class sizes small enough for excellence to happen.
[5:50] Thank you.
[5:52] Next will be Carrie Lowry.
[6:02] Good evening, trustees, President Redmond, Dr. Gagorski, cabinet members, fellow employees in the KD community.
[6:08] 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.
[6:16] Tonight, we will hear about the rising cost of health care.
[6:18] I don't think anyone realistically expects to pay less.
[6:21] However, when we're asked to pay more and the quality of what we're getting is less than
[6:25] what we should expect to access, given our 8,000 members and being minutes from the
[6:29] finest medical center in the world, we have a problem.
[6:32] We are losing teachers to surrounding districts who might pay more for insurance but get better
[6:36] benefits.
[6:37] Our plan is creating delays, denials, confusion, and frustration for employees.
[6:42] When you go to our benefit site and you look for an in-network provider, you can find a list.
[6:46] But if you call, you're often provided with a different list.
[6:49] I personally have then called KDISD and received a third list that was different from the first two.
[6:54] 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.
[7:00] This is creating a delay in care.
[7:03] In network doctors, sometimes request tests to gain more information towards the course of care.
[7:07] It would be assumed that those tests would be covered.
[7:10] We're finding denial of those tests is occurring too often.
[7:12] One employee passed out several times at work, was told to go to the ER, then told the
[7:18] good work cardiologist.
[7:19] He did, and was told he needed a stress test.
[7:21] Etna has denied his test, so he's trying to find the cheapest place to get a stress test
[7:25] to pay out a pocket.
[7:27] Another employee paid out a pocket for an ultrasound after her annual breast exam warranted it, and
[7:32] it was denied.
[7:33] My own husband is having an 8-12-hour surgery on Wednesday, and his cardiologist wanted
[7:37] him to receive a stress test before his surgery to be sure his heart was functioning well
[7:41] enough to withstand the surgery. It was denied. We don't have time to file an appeal, wait
[7:47] for a peer-to-peer review, be denied again, so he will undergo the surgery on Wednesday
[7:51] without that assurance. My husband has stage 4 bladder cancer. We started going to the
[7:56] ER and doctors in February, and it took three months to get this diagnosis. I'm convinced
[8:00] that if the test ordered an early March, we're conducted then, we would be facing a less
[8:05] daunting future. Even a PET scan was denied. Two appeals, peer-to-peer review, we paid the
[8:11] two thousand dollars out of pocket so that our oncologists could make the best plan for my husband.
[8:15] I was told by Katie by ISD Benefits Administrator that we would get it covered.
[8:19] It has not been covered.
[8:21] I hope what I hope that you hear from me most is this is not just about the money.
[8:25] We're asking for a plan that values access, timelines, and quality of care, not just lower premiums on paper.
[8:32] Please consider bringing back the Benefits Advisory Committee to give employees a voice in their health care.
[8:38] Explore options that expand access to providers, balance cost control with quality so we don't lose good people over health care.
[8:46] We don't mind paying more if it means we get better care, but right now we're paying more in getting less.
[8:50] And I'll be honest with you, nothing hurts me more than watching amazing teachers who love Katie and our kids,
[8:55] leave because they feel like their health and their families' health are worth more somewhere else.
[9:00] Thank you.
[9:02] Thank you.
[9:06] This concludes the open form portion of our meeting.
[9:09] The board will now convene in close meeting as authorized under section 551.001 of the Texas government code for the following purposes.
[9:16] Texas government code 551.071 551.076 and 551.129.
[9:24] One too many Cheetos.
[9:28] The board will now reconvene in an open meeting today is Monday, September 15, 2025, and the time is 6.32 p.m.
[9:35] On behalf of my colleagues, I welcome everyone to this evening's work study meeting.
[9:39] Each board member received the agenda and documentation for this meeting on Wednesday, September 10th, 2025.
[9:45] The board will receive information and recommendations from staff, administration, and the superintendent on these agenda items at tonight's meeting.
[9:52] 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.
[10:00] The board is just reconvened from close meeting in accordance with chapter 551 of the Texas government code any action arising from
[10:07] Discussions and a close meeting must be taken in an open meeting
[10:10] We'll move on to section six or item 6.1 KDI STA I administrative road map for innovation in efficiency with our presenter
[10:19] Dr. John Laune Laune chief information officer
[10:34] deepening President Reitman, Superintendent Gregorsky, and board members. Tonight I
[10:42] want to share with you the KDISD AI Administrative Roadmap for innovation and
[10:49] efficiency. Education has evolved with technology over the years. We started with
[11:00] the internet in the 90s and then moved to mobile devices and and bring your own device in the
[11:08] tens and one-to-one Chromebooks and cloud access in the 20s. Today we are entering a new era of
[11:20] AI automation. And it is not just the next tool. We think it is the next chapter in how
[11:29] schools operate.
[11:34] AI is already quietly improving our district and making an
[11:41] impact with productivity and document integration, operational support with
[11:47] book reviews or processing invoices and with access to AI tools like
[11:53] co-pilot, Gemini, and Chat GPT, and in advanced platforms created by KDISD to drive AI model
[12:06] development.
[12:10] Here are some examples.
[12:13] The black screen on the upper left corner shows how the district built AI agent cut whip
[12:20] filtering, helped this tickets turn around time as soon as it went life.
[12:27] Also, on the opposite corner, librarians are using locally developed AI agents to review
[12:34] books in accordance with our policies and and and laws.
[12:41] AI is already integrated into applications and available to staff on the micated cloud.
[12:53] Today, we're taking the first step of many into the era of AI automation with the KDISD,
[13:03] AI administrative for innovation and efficiency.
[13:08] This initiative emphasizes administrative functions.
[13:13] Our vision for AI administrative is simple.
[13:18] Leverage AI to make the district more efficient, so our people can spend more time focusing on students and families.
[13:28] Basically, three staff to focus more on people, not the processes.
[13:52] Administrative provides AI administrative provides the core features that serve as building blocks for AI-driven customer service.
[14:03] 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
[14:34] It's the legacy virtual high school,
[14:42] I'm sorry, we're missing some slides on this one.
[14:47] so forgive
[14:55] me some of my my slides here don't match this so but I'm going to be covering.
[15:00] Those missing slides anyway, because they're important. So one of these building blocks is going
[15:09] to be basically integrating all these features into the legacy virtual high school. And this
[15:19] is basically going to guide our students and parents through the enrollment, the registration
[15:26] and processes, offering 24-7 bilingual support via both chat and voice channels.
[15:36] These agents, when integrated into this environment, into this virtual high school, will answer
[15:42] common enrollment and course selection questions in real time or refer to a specialist as needed.
[15:50] They will provide parents with immediate help reducing frustration and waiting times.
[15:56] Ensure families have access to information at any hour, regardless of language barriers,
[16:04] it will be by lingual.
[16:06] We will start with English and Spanish.
[16:09] The result is a streamlined experience, faster resolutions, and reduced burden on staff freeing
[16:16] them to handle more complex cases.
[16:18] So,
[16:24] another building block is what we refer to as the AI Help Disk Assistant.
[16:29] The AI Help Disk Assistant guides staff through common and routine fixes in technology
[16:36] 24-7 and also bilingual English and Spanish, escalating when needed to human support.
[16:46] 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.
[17:05] The AI receptionist model, another building block, greets collars, answered questions, routes, calls, freeing front office staff to handle complex tasks.
[17:19] It can support multiple languages as well, available beyond regular hours, and
[17:25] relay messages via email when staff are unavailable, reducing workload,
[17:32] extending service, and improving response speed.
[17:40] Another AI building block is a
[17:44] chatbot. Model supports intelligent communication via text in a chat on a
[17:51] district websites at ESC and campuses.
[17:56] It's available 24-7, answer as parent questions, again in English and Spanish, and eventually
[18:03] we'll extend those to other languages without waiting for business hours.
[18:08] It can answer most common questions and escalates to appropriate staff when necessary, either by
[18:17] By sending an email or a message, a text message for follow-ups, it's 24 access, which means
[18:27] fewer calls and emails.
[18:35] Another one of those AI building blocks is the AI building access assistant model.
[18:42] It is placed at a safe location at the main entrance of a school.
[18:47] it can interact with visitors via voice. To facilitate visitors' access, it can
[18:54] answer basic access questions, validate appointments, and once confirmed, can guide
[19:00] the visitor through the badging process using a nearby badging panel all while
[19:07] staff remains safe inside at the front disc. It can also escalate to a life
[19:14] receptionist as needed. This enhances campus security and safety.
[19:22] The enrollment assistant
[19:23] model will help parents fill out enrollment forms correctly the first time. Reducing delays
[19:32] and frustration while it reduces staff workload and improved parents experience. It will be
[19:39] available 24-7, and will support multiple languages.
[19:44] It will make enrollment easier, faster, and less stressful.
[19:54] The AI call out a system model automates targeted communications to help with the annual enrollment updates.
[20:02] To ensure compliance with programs, eligibility, and regulations.
[20:08] It cuts workload while keeping families informed and supported.
[20:13] By
[20:18] the end of this implementation, we expect AI to handle at least 30% of common inquiries
[20:25] across the district.
[20:28] That means a reduced workload for staff faster enrollment with higher completion rates
[20:35] and 24-7 bilingual support for parents.
[20:40] We will also strengthen campus safety with smart building access.
[20:46] We
[20:50] are taking a phased, careful approach, a measured step-by-still rollout to ensure success.
[20:59] It includes pilots, expansion, and deployment.
[21:07] Phase 1 focuses on pilots at ESC.
[21:11] It will cover piloting these specialized building blocks, these AI models, for chatpots, voice
[21:19] assistance, building access, and the integration into the legacy virtual high school,
[21:27] this is a proving ground for district-wide adoption.
[21:34] Phase 2 expands pilot to include three schools for initial campus testing.
[21:42] The campus limited pilot expansion for chat pod, receptionist of all these building blocks
[21:48] will be a controlled test to measure and adjust for real-world impact at the campus level.
[21:59] These three under controlled expansion, we will grow to 40 schools.
[22:06] We will be scaling while keeping close oversight and adjustment.
[22:16] By the end of this project, which we estimate will take anywhere from 12 to 18 months,
[22:24] We will have full deployment of the AI administrative initiative across all campuses and ESC, including the legacy virtual high school.
[22:37] This step-by-step rollout ensures we learn, adjust and build trust at every stage.
[22:46] Our goal is for AI to manage at least 30% of routine inquiries delivering bilingual 24-7 support across our campuses.
[22:58] We believe with these capabilities, KDISD is setting the standard for AI-driven school operations, improving efficiency, expanding access, and lowering costs.
[23:21] implementing AI requires investment in people, platforms, and operations.
[23:28] Costs include development platforms, usage, fees, product maintenance, training,
[23:37] and other infrastructure elements, along with developing new skills and rules.
[23:44] By building many of those tools in-house, using enterprise resources provided by leaning
[23:53] vendors, we can reduce costs while tailoring solutions to our needs.
[24:02] Ultimately, the return on investment will show higher productivity, better quality, and
[24:09] lower operational costs.
[24:14] Finally, all transitions are naturally accompanied by a healthy dose of nerves and concerns.
[24:24] I want to emphasize, this is not about replacing people.
[24:29] It is about empowering them by taking on repetitive time-consuming tasks.
[24:37] This will allow our staff to focus on what matters most.
[24:41] First, our students and parents, KDISD has the opportunity to sit the national standard
[24:49] for how schools can responsibly and effectively use AI to streamline operation while increasing
[24:57] productivity and lowering costs.
[25:00] With your support, we can lead with vision, innovation and responsibility.
[25:09] And thank you.
[25:10] I will come any questions you have.
[25:13] Questions, Board?
[25:16] Mr. President?
[25:17] Ms. Gazelle?
[25:18] I happen to have a lot of little questions.
[25:21] Thank you very much, Mr. Allownay, for the presentation.
[25:26] First, I want to make sure I understand, are you developing this in-house?
[25:32] You said that towards the end, I believe, primarily, would you say?
[25:38] I mean, this is a really conceptual presentation.
[25:40] But we are developing this in-house, and we are using development tools provided by major
[25:49] companies, a lot of big companies, Google, Microsoft, and Amazon actually have a lot
[25:57] of those platforms that we are using to develop this environment.
[26:01] Sure.
[26:02] Okay.
[26:03] I just read a quote, and I'm sure you can appreciate this, and I'm not being a nacear or anything.
[26:08] But part of the AI is we get answers quickly, we're a society that wants it now, right?
[26:15] And efficiency is beautiful, I agree.
[26:18] But sometimes it's the wrong answer, right?
[26:22] And in the area of security, it makes me uncomfortable to hear about acts of building access.
[26:31] And I'm sure that would be triple quadruple checked.
[26:35] but what thoughts are there on mistakes that an AI bot could make with building access, security?
[26:44] Right, so these platforms definitely have to have a lot of guardrails to manage what kind of information they provide
[26:56] and control also how they behave.
[27:00] So we're focusing on really simple processes, simple inquiries that we provide these platforms
[27:10] with very specific information about how to react and how to respond and how to behave,
[27:19] that if the interaction goes beyond what we specify, we instruct these models to basically
[27:26] call a live person to deal with that situation.
[27:30] So with building access, for example, all they're going to do basically is get basic information
[27:38] about who are you here to see, and then that model is going to get your name, and then
[27:45] the person you want to meet with, they will place a call to that office to confirm the
[27:52] appointment and then if confirmed then they will guide that person and you saw that image
[28:01] where there is a badging system next to it they will guide him through the badging system
[28:05] and then once that the person clears they will call the receptionist or somebody to basically
[28:13] allow this person to enter the building.
[28:16] So, yeah, with that process, we make sure, first of all, this whole interaction is happening
[28:23] outside the receptionist area where now they pretty much have to do it right there, but
[28:29] this happens outside.
[28:32] Okay.
[28:32] That's a good point.
[28:33] Yeah.
[28:33] Okay.
[28:34] Thank you.
[28:35] And then with the,
[28:39] you know, I just want to add, right, with chat GPT or even the CEO
[28:45] Sam Altman has stated, right, that he's surprised at how much we depend on chat GPT to give
[28:52] the answer, and that many times it's not correct. So just, I say that in light of that.
[28:57] This is a little different if you're building it in-house, but just, um, only, we're as good
[29:04] as the information we feed the bot. Right. So it's critical in certain areas that it's fed
[29:11] very well. For example, like our policies and what we the board have put in place, I'm hoping
[29:22] the bot would be built really well.
[29:26] And in light of library book reviews, my understanding was,
[29:30] you know, obviously it would need to be fed with policy, but that there was a dependency to review
[29:37] books. It's dependent on PDFs of the book. The bot needed the PDF of the book. But we
[29:46] don't have PDFs of all books, correct?
[29:49] Right. So these agents that we developed also in house, and I showed a sample of this,
[29:56] they have two modes. One is if you have the car
[30:00] 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,
[30:28] it will go and search the internet for any reviews out there, for any content that may be available,
[30:36] any kind of information available about this book and it will bring it to you.
[30:41] It will tell you this is basically what everybody is talking about about this book.
[30:46] Now this is not as good as having the content, but it does provide a lot of good information
[30:55] about that publication, and some of it is actually ranking from other reviews that were done online.
[31:08] 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.
[31:23] And I think to answer your question on, yes, it does, the PDF, if it had the content
[31:28] of the whole book, that's difficult to get, what this particular A, we call it air,
[31:34] and two of us help us do, is confirm up front if the book is in violation.
[31:40] Like, can, with everything that it scours the information, is it in violation of EFB, FAA,
[31:47] the four Texas penal codes that it could violate?
[31:49] If it's elementary, is it content per house bill 1525 that requires parental opt-in?
[31:56] We've dumped all that into it.
[31:58] So what the book will do is if it can confirm, and lots of times it can, it's harmful material,
[32:05] it's sexually explicit, or it requires parental permission, high school only, that type of content.
[32:12] Right there, that tells us how we need to move forward with it.
[32:16] and these be restricted as it need to be removed
[32:18] because it's one of the four Texas penal codes.
[32:21] If it can't confirm any of that,
[32:24] at least we've eliminated some of them,
[32:26] we don't have to read in its entirety.
[32:28] If we can't confirm any of that,
[32:30] then that book goes on and gets a divvy doubt
[32:31] for someone to read internally.
[32:33] But it's like it's becoming more and more intuitive.
[32:36] It can even, because of all the journal reviews
[32:39] of the books, it can find excerpts
[32:42] and give us those excerpts that will take us to that particular
[32:45] are part of the book to kind of scan and read.
[32:48] So it's really helped us refine our internal view process.
[32:50] No, it sounds really promising.
[32:52] I just, there's exceptions.
[32:54] And so I'm trying to figure out when I hear
[32:56] from a parent right now of a book that seemingly,
[33:00] I don't think, should be there.
[33:01] What would be the reason for that?
[33:03] If we have AI employed, if the book is on the shelf right now.
[33:08] Yep.
[33:09] If you become aware of a book, just like we become aware
[33:11] of books all the time for whatever reason,
[33:13] the neighboring districts, we immediately put a
[33:15] minor internal review.
[33:17] Like I guess what I'm saying is, AI is fast
[33:21] and it's supposedly thorough.
[33:23] And the input could be all at once.
[33:26] So have all our books been reviewed through the AI tool?
[33:31] No, we have over 500,000.
[33:33] So what are the iterations that you do with that?
[33:37] We have book we put one of the quantity wise.
[33:41] roughly like we have 1.1 million on the shelves or those aren't unique titles though so I don't know.
[33:49] I just curious how quickly it could be done.
[33:52] A weekly, a week, an internal viewing books across the district using the tool.
[33:57] I'll use the last Friday the first library librarians meeting that's the first thing
[34:02] and went over, trained the new librarians
[34:04] so that they're deploying it and calling their books
[34:06] and using it for their inventory.
[34:10] So has there been an increase in efficiency
[34:13] with reviews with the AI tool over this last year?
[34:16] In fact, today, we meet on Mondays
[34:18] and there were some books that were found in violation
[34:21] and been removed.
[34:24] I thank you, Board.
[34:31] Yeah, I just want the results.
[34:33] I know productivity is great in efficiency
[34:35] but I don't want results stunted, I want them to be good, and that is to have an alternative plan
[34:44] when the AI result isn't quite right.
[34:46] And I like the way you spoke about building access, that makes sense to me, and all of our library services, process, et cetera.
[34:54] 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.
[35:03] Thank you. I have a question.
[35:05] 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?
[35:26] Yeah, good question.
[35:30] So these agents will actually have a complete transcript, if you have a conversation with
[35:38] it, voice or text, it will keep the transcript.
[35:43] And we actually will hold all that data.
[35:47] We can manage it, either we can wipe it out or we can store it, retain it for a certain period
[35:53] of time.
[35:54] But that's available, that would be available for us.
[35:57] We own the data with all these agents.
[36:00] I would think it would be hard to just wipe it out at some point because you're hoping that the system is for
[36:06] 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.
[36:16] So yeah, it actually, those agents we don't really want them to learn so much.
[36:23] I agree with you.
[36:25] So what we do, we structure them.
[36:28] This is different than the general agents.
[36:31] So we tell them basically strict guidelines.
[36:34] We give them strict guidelines and strict very precise
[36:37] information to use.
[36:40] And we instruct them not to be creative with their answers.
[36:47] So that's slightly different that what really helps
[36:49] with these agents is the natural interaction,
[36:52] the natural language it uses, so it doesn't look like it's so timid and structured where
[36:59] it's like frequently asked questions type thing, it just really makes it easy for somebody
[37:05] to interact with them and ask but it is limited by the data that we give it.
[37:12] It does not add to the data, it does not learn, we give it a policy, it needs to follow the
[37:18] policy, but it's free to interact with you with your language, with your accent, and
[37:27] then be able to relay the information back to you.
[37:30] So that actually goes on to the next thing that I have on here.
[37:34] When we're talking about interaction with the, we'll just call them the agents, I guess,
[37:39] that's what we're calling them, right?
[37:40] Agents.
[37:41] So we're calling them our AI agents, and you have front office staff that is now kept
[37:47] away, right? So they're somewhere else, and then you're having either a parent or someone else
[37:54] interacting with this agent. Are we concerned about the loss of human interaction, developing
[38:02] relationship, developing between the people with the push for AI? I mean, I think that's a large
[38:10] question that we're asking socially, and I know that we're all driving like fast and furious towards
[38:16] of what anybody does, but can we stop and ask the question of, does this actually truly help us?
[38:25] All for the benefit of a little bit easier time.
[38:30] Yeah, excellent question.
[38:33] Actually, Ms. Hack, she tells me she uses, she uses the book reviewers.
[38:38] One, we actually have four of them.
[38:40] One is called Max and we name them.
[38:45] And she's telling me, you know what, I love Max.
[38:48] Unlike every time I want to do something,
[38:50] I'm always chatting with Max.
[38:52] Oh, that becomes intuitive.
[38:54] In regards to your, I guess I would call it
[38:57] the in-person customer service that we'd offer in KDIC.
[39:01] I think we were looking at the AI support is
[39:05] we've become very aware how large our district is
[39:08] and I'll use the start of the school year as an example.
[39:11] Three weeks ahead of the start of the school year, we could see that we still had a number
[39:15] of students what we call in the queue trying to get their enrollment processed.
[39:21] And what was happening was various reasons, they didn't have the right paperwork, they're
[39:25] having trouble uploading it, they needed password reset, that was a big one.
[39:30] So we went in person and set up down in the Merrill Center and we kept track.
[39:35] We probably saw well over I think 1,200 families in person because we went up quickly with that customer service.
[39:44] John's team was a big part of it down there.
[39:46] It was our district enrollment team.
[39:47] We had technology support down there.
[39:50] We had homeless support down there because it was coming in the doors with all kinds of things.
[39:55] But what we did, when we tracked all of it, what we found was a lot of it was they just needed
[39:59] someone to assist them through a process.
[40:02] 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.
[40:14] 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.
[40:21] 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.
[40:28] We have a callout team going right now.
[40:30] We have about 10,000 families that did not finish the annual student update.
[40:35] We need them to do that.
[40:36] We need them to update their information.
[40:38] We need to know what they want to opt in, opt out of.
[40:42] We want to make sure they have that opportunity to fill out that free and reduced appeal application
[40:46] before the benefits end 45 days after the school year, all kinds of things.
[40:51] We have a team calling Monday through Thursday nights and on Saturdays and Sundays.
[40:55] We've knocked out about 3,000, but again, it's very manpower-intensive, where a lot of it was with
[41:04] an AI support could do it. Let me help you, you know, and we can get through a lot of it without
[41:09] having the in person, but then take them to that. I think we would get through it much faster. So John's
[41:14] team's kind of pulling along with us on that, hearing the script, what we're doing, what needs to be done,
[41:20] and so that's something we're looking to pilot as well. When it comes to the campuses,
[41:25] We're already with the parents, whoever's visiting, you have to show your ID outside before you can get in.
[41:33] Having that, where you can scan your credentials, like whether it's Raptor or otherwise, and then it would say why you're there.
[41:41] It's that efficiency for that receptionist that once you enter is sitting right there.
[41:45] They know you're there for an R, they know you're here for this.
[41:48] Those kinds of processes on the front end.
[41:50] 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.
[42:02] 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,
[42:18] I don't want to talk to someone when I'm going to shop for my clothes.
[42:22] I'm just going to shop for them online.
[42:24] I don't want to talk to you in the store.
[42:25] They may sound rude, but when I go into the store, the sales clerks often don't know how to
[42:31] have a personal interaction with the person, and they're not really as quick as what I can find online.
[42:37] So it just continues to kind of chip away at that social engagement with another human being.
[42:45] 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,
[42:53] it actually makes it less socially.
[42:56] Does that understand the point that I'm trying to convey?
[42:59] It's a balance. I do think I understand what you're saying. It's a balance.
[43:02] And I think if there's things that we could be using AI efficiencies to do quickly,
[43:08] you know, some people they want to just tell me how to do it and I'll take care of it.
[43:12] but never lose that piece where we step in in person
[43:15] and assist our families.
[43:17] That's my concern.
[43:18] And one of the things we're focusing on with this,
[43:21] even these agents, they can feel the sentiment.
[43:24] So if the user is talking and getting a little frustrated,
[43:29] it will immediately transfer them to a live agent.
[43:32] The other thing is we disclose transparency is very important.
[43:36] That this is a virtual agent.
[43:38] At any point, if they say I want to talk to a live person,
[43:41] and I don't want to talk to this agent,
[43:42] they will transfer them to a life agent.
[43:46] The other thing, what we noticed with these agents,
[43:49] we've been testing these models.
[43:51] What we noticed is, you know, people are on,
[43:54] waiting on hold, waiting to get through the lines.
[43:58] We get hundreds of calls every day, for example,
[44:01] to the help desk.
[44:02] Now, this agent can now basically offer to assist.
[44:06] Can I help you with something?
[44:07] And yeah, can you walk me through my password reset, for example?
[44:13] And then while they're waiting, they actually can engage them and help them with that.
[44:18] And at any point, if the person says, hey, you know what, can you try transferring me to a live agent?
[44:24] This system will transfer them to a live agent.
[44:27] So it is really trying to kind of fill the void when you got a lot of calls coming in.
[44:36] This agent can basically help as much as possible, but still connect you to a live person
[44:42] at any point.
[44:43] I have one last question towards this.
[44:45] And then I'll be done.
[44:47] You said that it decreases or it takes on 30 percent of the inquiries.
[44:52] Did I read that right?
[44:53] Yes.
[44:54] So when we're talking about them, we're looking at our, I'm assuming that the person who is
[45:00] 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,
[45:29] complex issues to help parents and we see these models actually implemented in
[45:34] insurance companies or you know the virtual agent picks up, collects all the
[45:39] information, basic stuff. What's your policy number? What is your issue and they
[45:45] collect and then they can't spare you. And then you have to repeat everything that
[45:49] you just said to the AI model. The difference with AI models it actually already
[45:53] populates the system with all that data. So that guy first doesn't have to
[45:58] to spend all the time collecting these boring,
[46:02] tedious stuff instead of focusing on your issue
[46:05] and getting to the solution.
[46:06] Okay, I see you have an issue with this and that.
[46:10] I see here that you couldn't get that through.
[46:13] Let me help you.
[46:14] That reduces the amount, the life agent was expert
[46:19] on that, not collecting information,
[46:21] their expert on solving your problem,
[46:24] really getting into the problem
[46:26] and solving it for you.
[46:27] We hope the same thing will happen here.
[46:30] I'm going to hope and trust and have some faith that your development is going to be better
[46:34] than my insurance company's development of their AI model because I'm not super loving
[46:39] it.
[46:39] But I feel like you're probably going to be better at that than they are.
[46:43] So those were just some of my thoughts towards this, so thank you for entertaining in my
[46:48] pursuit of.
[46:49] Mr. President.
[46:50] Ms. Seamy.
[46:51] Okay.
[46:52] 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.
[47:05] And then I was wondering how do you all thought about AI for substitute scheduling? Remember last fall, not this fall, but last fall.
[47:13] And we encountered some, our staff encountered a lot of trouble with switching over to this
[47:20] new system.
[47:21] Is that something we could apply AI to?
[47:25] So these, and you know, I was missing a couple of slides, I apologize, you probably have
[47:30] it on your screen, but I didn't have it here.
[47:33] We're building these four models, and each model is actually customizable.
[47:42] So it's like a help disk for IT can be also helping for a program.
[47:49] It can help with other departments for maintenance, for example.
[47:55] So yes, I mean, eventually the idea, we haven't really targeted that area yet.
[48:03] But after we prove these models, then it's going to be really easy for us to replicate them.
[48:10] or any area of need.
[48:12] All we need to do is basically, you get the, you know,
[48:15] the baseline model has the ability to interact as the ability to transfer calls,
[48:21] ability to sense the sentiment of the caller, and then we add to it a customizable layer
[48:29] or subs, for example, how, learn the subsystem really good.
[48:33] Here's a document that shows you how the subsystems work,
[48:37] scheduling works and all of that, and then we basically give it a number for people
[48:42] to call 247.
[48:44] Yeah, I can, I think that's a great idea.
[48:47] That's a great example of where our subs are all hours of the day in the evening
[48:53] trying to pick up positions, and if they struggle, there would be AI's assistance
[48:57] actor hours on something like that, so I think that is something that's a good idea.
[49:02] Yeah, and I'm not, I'm only one person, but I would prioritize that.
[49:06] Just seeing the the struggles that our staff went through last year. Well, my husband is struggling to figure it out
[49:13] And I'm his AI's
[49:15] You know, I think that's a great idea. Okay, great. And then my last year husband know about Max
[49:21] Excuse me. Do you one more question? Did you see I know you'd briefly touched on it
[49:31] 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
[50:01] 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.
[50:09] 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,
[50:17] 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
[50:26] in our families, and we're working out the kinks on it before if we do deploy it to the
[50:31] campuses with our principals. So we'll be giving you more information. We'll have more
[50:36] information about legacy virtual next week, but we are looking at some of those AI features
[50:40] at John Reference on piloting on with that particular campus.
[50:45] Thank you. Mr. President.
[50:48] Mr. Fox.
[50:49] Dr. Lonnie, thank you for the presentation. I really like how you said you want to
[50:56] 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.
[51:07] I had some of the same concerns you've already talked about, like all those new families at the beginning of school.
[51:15] There were calls and concerns about, I brought the utility bill but still not being cleared at the campus.
[51:24] And it's like, yeah, there's hundreds of children in line and as many people as possible to
[51:31] get that done.
[51:31] And if that kind of automated thing would make it easier and quicker and more efficient
[51:36] that would save angst and get our boys and girls in the door, you know, first day.
[51:42] And of course, you know, we as parents on vacation wait till the last minute to get back and
[51:47] get all the paperwork in.
[51:49] I would be guilty of that.
[51:50] When you talk about three schools, will this, am I safe to assume it's an elementary
[51:58] of junior high in a high school, and okay, I don't need to know which one, but who
[52:06] will decide will it be a feeder pattern, or do you know who it's going to be yet?
[52:11] We're working very closely with Ms. Hack on all the, we're, was partners on this project.
[52:18] She's a big fan of AI, so that helps a lot.
[52:23] We generally run pilots, like we were running the ID badges at three pilot schools.
[52:30] We broached it with the principals.
[52:32] We have to have principal by and they support the initiative.
[52:35] They want to run the pilot and you know that we would not force it, yeah, the discussions.
[52:40] And generally we kind of think about which whatever type of pilot it is, for example, we're
[52:45] and the student personal device pilot at Taylor High School,
[52:50] that is something that we knew initially
[52:52] that Dr. Stone would be interested in with her staff.
[52:55] And so we're getting ready to launch that next Monday.
[52:57] So, I would, again, I'm gonna guess
[53:01] that you'll use a bilingual campus
[53:03] so that you can test both of the language models there.
[53:08] Too.
[53:08] Let me just add to that, Ms. Fox.
[53:10] So, we are piloting the same models over here.
[53:14] we call in foundational pilots, right here at ESC.
[53:18] So once we're happy and satisfied with them,
[53:22] we still want to pilot them with these three campuses.
[53:27] And part of that is really, you know,
[53:31] the social aspect of it.
[53:33] How does the community interact with that
[53:38] and how do they deal with it
[53:40] and also work for our own staff as well.
[53:43] So, at the campus level, we want to see how can we modify and adjust the model to better
[53:51] serve a school environment?
[53:54] Yes, that's excellent, because, and the questions will be very different at a campus, then
[53:59] it will, at an administration building, I have a couple more, is it all right?
[54:04] So I think help desk tickets, this sounds like a great idea because those are the same ones
[54:09] over and over, right?
[54:10] Right.
[54:10] Like I use a Mac book at home and I use here, we use the different.
[54:16] And so I'm constantly like, how can I get my Apple computer to do what I need it to
[54:22] do from home and I'll call the help desk and they know all the answers.
[54:26] But that would be something that AI would be able to do like that.
[54:31] You already talked about, you're writing some of them and you're using some of the models
[54:39] in places like Amazon and Google and those things that I have, right?
[54:46] So would this be something that they could use?
[54:50] Let's take an elementary school as an example.
[54:53] Like the end of your celebration when all of the parents or grandparents come and they're
[54:58] trying to get badges to wrapped or in.
[55:01] You know, and they're out to the driveway and maybe when I lined up, I think that we could
[55:08] be even more efficient on the front end before the event actually occurs.
[55:12] Yeah, I think that would be great.
[55:14] I have learned to appreciate AI and a chat GPT and asking questions I find that it's
[55:23] like Google, it's my, you know, Dr. Alaini, you know how computer fancy I am, but it's
[55:31] like Google only instead of giving me all of the articles to go read, it summarizes all
[55:37] of them for me so I can get a sense of which direction and the thing I like most about
[55:43] it is when you ask it your question or to give you input, then it says, would you like
[55:49] me to, and it gives you a suggestion, put it in a PDF, make a schedule for you, do the,
[55:56] would you like more information about this or that, and it's like, you know, those are
[56:01] the kinds of things that will be so helpful when someone asks a question, they give the
[56:06] the answer, now would you like to know where to go with that?
[56:08] Would you like to know what kind of utility bill you need?
[56:11] Would you like to know how to upload it?
[56:13] Those things, I think will be so helpful to our families and
[56:16] save time for our valuable employees to be able to service more of the on campus needs.
[56:24] Mr. Cross can have a lot more examples and I have thank you for the presentation.
[56:29] Mr. President, so thank you again for the presentation.
[56:33] What I'm really interested in is what that's going to look like when it shows up at the
[56:42] campuses.
[56:43] In the sense of the folks who are going to be impacted by it most, again, the front
[56:49] office folks, those people who really serve the public right out of the gate.
[56:54] So I guess my question is, is feedback, understand on the AI side of it, you get, you know, it's
[57:03] doing that as things happen.
[57:07] On the other side of that, the people side of it, is that going to be kind of a real
[57:11] time?
[57:12] And is that a check-in with principals at these pilots to say, okay, what are your folks
[57:17] saying?
[57:18] Like, you know, after so many weeks of this, you know, what do we, has this become more
[57:22] 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.
[57:36] 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?
[57:46] Absolutely. I think anytime we run a pilot, I'll use the Taylor High School one.
[57:52] And when we've been out there meeting once a week to get the campus ready for
[57:58] the kids that opted in and were approved, they will go live with their student personal devices next Monday, October September 22nd.
[58:07] And then we are scheduled working with communications doctor groom's team every three weeks,
[58:12] 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?
[58:19] What do you think?
[58:20] What are things we need to know?
[58:22] And when we go live with the next pilot that is out at one of the complexes, we'll do
[58:27] the same type of feedback gathering.
[58:30] And that feedback, just to add to this, is really crucial for AI development.
[58:38] Because you refine the model based on how people react to it.
[58:44] So, whether it's the staff side or even the community side, and then you tweak that model
[58:50] to make sure it fits, you know, AI like ChatGPT is a general model.
[58:57] So, when you're interacting with it, there are very limited guardrails to it.
[59:01] It's not really confined in behavior or they do have some guardrails, but our environment
[59:09] is going to have even more guidance on how it interacts based on what we hear from our
[59:15] own community and especially the schools, from the school itself because we want it to really
[59:21] be part of that school.
[59:26] Mr. President, I have one question. Biometrics, are you, is any of this
[59:34] plan AI or otherwise, are you going to be planning any sort of scanning, biometric scanning?
[59:41] Not part of this initiative.
[59:43] No.
[59:44] Okay.
[59:44] Not part of this.
[59:45] I would not be in favor of that.
[59:49] Usually, you know, we have like building access system that relies on proximity.
[59:54] We don't even use biometry.
[1:00:00] 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
[1:00:29] part of it that we're not sure with kids how that's going to work, but yeah.
[1:00:35] Thank you, Dr. President.
[1:00:36] Dr. Aronne.
[1:00:38] All right, so I enjoyed your presentation to you.
[1:00:42] I do have some concerns and some of them have already been mentioned, but lots of them are really good.
[1:00:48] Like, for example, I used to help every year at Taylor when I was there with the registrar before school.
[1:00:54] And I know that those counselors and the registration people were there sometimes 12 hours a day.
[1:00:59] doing that, and that's silly, and then they had also volunteers too.
[1:01:05] So that was a lot of work for, that's just one school.
[1:01:08] So I'm sure it's like that every year, campus district wide.
[1:01:13] So I think things like that are going to be good.
[1:01:15] What I am concerned about is actually Mrs.
[1:01:18] Calhoun brought it up very well about the, I'm just worried about
[1:01:23] the interpersonal relationships that you have.
[1:01:27] And, you know, there's always, I can always tell when I go into schools.
[1:01:31] You know, those front office people always kind of set the tone for the school.
[1:01:35] 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.
[1:01:43] 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.
[1:01:49] And I just hope so because that's, that is a really good part of the personality of our district is
[1:01:57] those people that are there to greet you.
[1:02:00] And then the last thing I'm going to say is,
[1:02:02] I get a little bit afraid about the telephone calls
[1:02:05] with the, you know, that you want to speak to a person
[1:02:09] because, you know, we all have an insurance company
[1:02:12] like Mrs. Calhoun who said or whoever.
[1:02:15] And you want to speak to someone,
[1:02:16] but then you say, I'd like to speak to representative
[1:02:18] and they go, just some more information.
[1:02:21] Please let me speak to representative.
[1:02:23] What is your cat's first name?
[1:02:25] I don't know, it's just on and on and on and it's just by the time you finally get the
[1:02:29] speech to someone, the person will meet is so upset that you know it took me 20 times
[1:02:35] to say can I please speak to someone, I'm hoping that that ours isn't going to be like that
[1:02:41] because that is such a negative way to talk to someone especially and maybe sometimes
[1:02:49] for the first time to speak to KDIs D. So hopefully when you roll this out and you get
[1:02:57] the feedback and all that, that'll all be part of the feedback that you'll receive.
[1:03:02] And hopefully that'll be a question on your survey. How was your, did you have to ask
[1:03:08] a question over the phone and how did that go?
[1:03:11] So good, good point, excellent point because I'll tell you, when we started talking,
[1:03:19] we've
[1:03:19] and a year or two even.
[1:03:21] And you know, my own capin' members,
[1:03:23] they had the same feedback, you know.
[1:03:27] It's like, John, what is this?
[1:03:29] Is it gonna be like the frequent last questions
[1:03:30] where you're just gonna go in circles with it all the time?
[1:03:34] That's fantastic.
[1:03:35] Yeah, and it did in particular, he was.
[1:03:39] So, this model is much more advanced and more intelligent.
[1:03:44] It actually, we have to put a disclosure at the beginning that it is virtual.
[1:03:51] It's not real.
[1:03:53] And it interacts with you using natural language that you will not be in, you know, going
[1:04:04] in loops with it the way some of those systems are, and I agree with you, those systems are
[1:04:09] first training, they're using older technology.
[1:04:13] And, you know, the technology we use is a lot
[1:04:17] more advanced. And I wish we can demo that someday, but it is different.
[1:04:25] We could just call the help desk and say we lost our password, right? We could interact
[1:04:29] with it today.
[1:04:30] Absolutely.
[1:04:31] Absolutely.
[1:04:32] I actually have another question.
[1:04:34] Ms. Kelly.
[1:04:34] This is speaking to the one-to-one device while the Taylor High School pilot program
[1:04:40] that is on that.
[1:04:42] So if a student says that yes, they want to bring their own device, what kind of security
[1:04:46] measures do they then agree to under KDISD, what does that look like?
[1:04:52] At the point that they opt in for consideration to be in the pilot, the opt-in form
[1:04:59] requires them to acknowledge all the requirements of the pilot and the acceptable
[1:05:04] 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.
[1:05:15] They must remain in that environment throughout the instructional day backing out of that environment.
[1:05:21] Basically that becomes a personal telecommunication device and is now subject to like if you pulled your cell phone out.
[1:05:27] 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.
[1:05:37] This week, the students that have opted in will be coming in on Thursday.
[1:05:41] There's no students on Friday. It's the end of the first six week's grading period.
[1:05:45] 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.
[1:05:59] not downloaded, get it right for me, enrolled, enrolled into the environment.
[1:06:04] And so when they leave on Thursday,
[1:06:08] their laptop will be ready to go, and they will turn in their Chromebook,
[1:06:12] or retain their Chromebook there at the campus, because they'll have to check it out for
[1:06:16] certain tests that they'll have to use a Chromebook.
[1:06:19] When they come to school on Monday, they will be able to use their personal laptop.
[1:06:25] teachers at Taylor High School, they will all be notified which kids are in the pilot.
[1:06:29] They are going to kind of, I don't know how they're going to do it, so when they have their laptops open,
[1:06:34] they can tell the personal devices, which you probably could because of the size.
[1:06:37] But Dr. Stone and her team had some ideas about that.
[1:06:41] But the teachers will know the number of students that are approved in the pilot.
[1:06:45] It will stay those students through the end of the fall semester, and
[1:06:48] that's who we will be guarding the feedback from in addition to the staff and the families.
[1:06:53] So, my again, I sound like a conspiracy theorist. I can't help it. I'm sorry,
[1:06:58] calling what you want. I don't really care. At this point, so when you bring
[1:07:02] in your own device and you go into the KDISD operating system, is that what
[1:07:09] we're saying? We're calling it for more, better or less, an operating system.
[1:07:14] Platform, platform, platform. So, that's downloaded onto that child's device.
[1:07:22] So it's really not downloaded what happened with this process.
[1:07:30] We configure the device, which is a temporary configuration.
[1:07:35] The device is configured to act in a certain way, basically to mimic a Chromebook, which,
[1:07:41] by the way, nobody's doing this anywhere.
[1:07:44] 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.
[1:08:03] Kind of acts like a guard dog.
[1:08:05] Yeah, you cannot protect it.
[1:08:07] Yes, it basically gives you the browser, it prevents it locks it to the browser.
[1:08:14] So we don't really download anything on the machine, we configure it to act that way.
[1:08:20] And then how does the student remove that configuration?
[1:08:23] Good question.
[1:08:24] So what they do, they have to basically sign out of their machine, they basically have to
[1:08:31] reboot the machine, sign out of it.
[1:08:32] When they do that control, I'll delete or it gives them the ability to sign out and then
[1:08:41] sign back in.
[1:08:43] When they do that, they're back to their normal environment.
[1:08:46] Okay, so when the student graduates from Katie, let's say, how do they remove that entire
[1:08:51] programming from their computer so that it's no longer there?
[1:08:55] Yeah, absolutely.
[1:08:56] So they can always, they do enroll at the beginning and they do an enroll or an install it at the end.
[1:09:05] So they will be, they will go to our my Katie Cloud event right now with the pilot who are doing things slightly different.
[1:09:13] But eventually when we roll it out for the district, they will go to the, they don't need us actually.
[1:09:19] They can go to the cloud and enroll and they can go to the cloud and enroll.
[1:09:24] And is it like almost like a monitor, like you're monitoring them during the school day while they're on this KD platform?
[1:09:33] 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.
[1:09:48] So there's not any necessarily like when they leave the building or they leave they're at home they're not
[1:09:53] 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
[1:10:02] No, nothing now. What happens also if you log in with our credentials
[1:10:08] every student has a KDISD user ID and if you log in to your browser with our credentials,
[1:10:20] then we do have some applications like our filtering system, our there's a product called
[1:10:27] beacon which monitors which behaviors on risky behaviors. Now when you log in with that, we do
[1:10:39] 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.
[1:10:49] If you log in with our KDISD credentials.
[1:10:53] Okay, all right, that's all I wanted to know, thank you.
[1:10:56] Any other questions, Board?
[1:10:58] Mr. President.
[1:10:59] Ms. Fox.
[1:11:00] Thank you for the update on that.
[1:11:02] Do you, is there very much interest in bringing their own devices?
[1:11:08] I know they talked a lot about they needed a better, stronger, different computer to do some of the AP classes.
[1:11:15] Is there a big enrollment, or is it wait and see?
[1:11:18] Yeah, they seem to be very happy with utilization of the district Chromebook.
[1:11:23] So it's a small pilot group.
[1:11:25] We're looking to possibly expand to two other campuses that they are interested in joining to kind of expand that group.
[1:11:31] But that's still in the test phase, but we do want to move forward, even if it is a small group,
[1:11:36] 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.
[1:11:43] And I think the kids that do opt in, they probably have a vested interest that they want to use their own device.
[1:11:48] 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.
[1:11:56] 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.
[1:12:05] 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.
[1:12:24] And so because they're so old by the time they leave, if they've had it four or five years,
[1:12:29] you can't, you know, they're outdated anyway.
[1:12:32] And they get to take that in all of their research that they've done, and all the work they've done,
[1:12:36] and maybe some of their portfolios that they've created is on the Chromebook.
[1:12:40] And they, oh, it was a superintendant of the year interview that said that, that they let them take it with them.
[1:12:46] What a great idea.
[1:12:47] So, I thought, just, I'm not saying anything just a thought in my last thing.
[1:12:52] Dr. Lonnie, how long have you worked for KDSD?
[1:12:59] 13 years.
[1:13:00] 13 years.
[1:13:00] 13 years.
[1:13:01] 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.
[1:13:09] And here you are once again, and I appreciate you very much.
[1:13:11] Thank you.
[1:13:14] Thank you all very much.
[1:13:15] We appreciate you.
[1:13:16] 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.
[1:13:39] It ain't being President Redmond, super vinegar, horsey and board.
[1:13:45] It'll come as no surprise to you as we've talked about this tax rate now for a couple
[1:13:49] of months.
[1:13:50] What I'm going to be going over tonight, but as per tax code 26 and 26, the tax rate must
[1:13:57] be adopted as two separate rates.
[1:14:00] One for maintenance and operations and one for interest in sinking.
[1:14:04] In order, leving a maintenance and operations tax rate and the debt service tax rate for
[1:14:08] the Katie Independent School District for Tax Year 2025 is presented at the board's consideration.
[1:14:15] And I'm going to read that in a minute.
[1:14:17] The adoption of the maintenance operations tax rate of 0.7271 per $100 valuation will provide
[1:14:25] funding to the service, the school district's maintenance and operations for the 2526 fiscal
[1:14:30] year.
[1:14:31] and the adoption of the interest in sinking tax rate of 39 cents or 0.390 per $100 valuation will provide funding
[1:14:40] to serve the school districts that service fund or interest in sinking fund for the 2526 school year.
[1:14:48] That order reads a levy maintaining an order, levying a maintenance and operations tax rate.
[1:15:00] 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.
[1:15:29] 0.7271 for the purposes of maintenance operations and 0.390 for the purpose of payment of principal
[1:15:38] and interest on debts.
[1:15:40] So its taxes are to be assessed and collected by the tax office officials designated by
[1:15:45] the district.
[1:15:47] And then again, just a little rhetoric on that, it is the same tax rate as we've had last
[1:15:53] last year for maintenance and operations, that's broken down to 0.6169 as our maximum
[1:15:59] compressed rate. And again, that is the same rate as last year, but the DEA sets that
[1:16:05] on our behalf on this board's behalf. And then it has eight golden pennies in it and three
[1:16:13] copper pennies or 3.02 copper pennies. So the 6169 plus 8 plus 3.02 adds up to the 72.71
[1:16:22] maintenance and operations tax rate.
[1:16:26] It is recommended that the Board of Trustees approve the tax rate of 1.1171, which is effectively
[1:16:36] a 1.54% increase in the tax rate, and further recommend the Board of Trustees approve the
[1:16:42] order adopting the maintenance and operations tax rate of 0.7271 per 100-dollar evaluation
[1:16:48] 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.
[1:16:59] And I'll be glad to answer any questions.
[1:17:02] Any questions, Board?
[1:17:03] Mr. President?
[1:17:04] Ms. Fizzell?
[1:17:05] Thank you, Mr. Smith.
[1:17:06] How is this different than what we did last month if you don't mind me asking in late terms?
[1:17:11] How is it worse?
[1:17:12] This agenda item, is this just a formality, some document required?
[1:17:16] This is required by tax code that an order or a resolution, it's the district kind of choice.
[1:17:21] Which one to choose to formally adopt that rate last month?
[1:17:25] We just discussed the rate that drove the numbers in the budget that we talked about last month and that as a proposed rate.
[1:17:33] This is the month that we have to take action through the adoption of the order or the resolution.
[1:17:39] In our case, the order to formally adopt those rates.
[1:17:43] Okay. In essence, it's been adopted because of our budget being adopted.
[1:17:49] If it was used to, those, the rates that I'm recommending tonight were used in the budget adoption process.
[1:18:00] But it's not been adopted.
[1:18:02] Right. Thank you.
[1:18:03] I'm asking for a public who've asked, like, why are we looking at this again?
[1:18:06] Didn't you set it last month?
[1:18:08] But this is a formal proposal for that.
[1:18:10] Yes.
[1:18:11] Thank you, sir.
[1:18:14] Any other questions, Board?
[1:18:17] I will note, President Redmond, that this is one item that really by tax code cannot come off the beyond the consent agenda.
[1:18:25] 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.
[1:18:34] Thank you, I will now move on to item 7.2, discuss and consider Board approval of the July 2025 financial reports.
[1:18:42] Presenter will be Jamie Hines, our Assistant Superintendent of Finance.
[1:18:56] I can't see it without this.
[1:18:59] Good evening, President Redmond, members of the Board of Trustees and Superintendent Nicaragorski.
[1:19:05] We have tonight, for your approval, our financial reports for through the month of July, including our financial statements.
[1:19:13] our construction report, our tax report, and a summary of our check registers for the month of July.
[1:19:19] The good news is this is the very final financial statements and reports that we have to do for fiscal year 2025.
[1:19:28] So just a little bit about this, the financial statements as always provide analysis of our expenditures and revenues by both function and object.
[1:19:41] Our construction report has got a summary of all of our capital projects.
[1:19:48] Our tax report has our current budget levy, budgeted levy, as well as our collections and our certified levy.
[1:19:57] 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.
[1:20:10] And we're seeing about the same underpinning that we've seen in the past.
[1:20:14] So I'm not going to go further into detail but we're seeing the same things.
[1:20:19] And again, this is the last set of financial reports that we'll see.
[1:20:23] So I won't come up here again next month for the financial statements.
[1:20:28] I'll come back in January when you all will see and approve the Act for
[1:20:34] the Annual Comprehensive Financial Report.
[1:20:36] So that'll be when we see the final piece of this fiscal year.
[1:20:42] That's all I have for the financial reports, and I'd be glad to take any questions.
[1:20:46] Any questions for it?
[1:20:50] We'll move on to item 7.3.
[1:20:53] 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.
[1:21:02] The district for events, central appraisal districts in Harris County appraisal district.
[1:21:07] 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.
[1:21:26] I'm just going to go into a little bit of detail, but this essentially is your item to discuss.
[1:21:33] But all three, since we have two large appraisal districts that now go by a state standard,
[1:21:40] they actually have the ability to nominate two candidates each for four year terms.
[1:21:47] That would be for Fort Bend Central Appraisal District and Harris Central Appraisal District.
[1:21:52] And then we've got Waller County that abides by a little bit different rules.
[1:21:56] So they're actually replacing all five of, they're not replacing, but having an election for all five of theirs.
[1:22:03] And so they have five positions available and those are at two year terms.
[1:22:11] For all of these, as in the resolution, you're able to nominate up to the number of candidates
[1:22:18] It's allowed for those positions, so essentially two in Fort Bend Central Appraisal District
[1:22:25] and Harris Central Appraisal District, and up to five for Waller County Appraisal District.
[1:22:32] I'd be glad to answer any questions about this.
[1:22:35] Any questions, Board?
[1:22:38] It feels like we just did this.
[1:22:40] Yes, ma'am.
[1:22:41] It's already time to do it again.
[1:22:43] A Mr. Paul Stamonis did request he lives in Katie, and we have nominated him before,
[1:22:50] and he did request a nomination so I'm sorry I forgot to say that earlier.
[1:22:58] 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.
[1:23:11] Yes, ma'am, that's correct and so the new criteria or scenarios they have is they actually
[1:23:20] every couple of every year they'll elect additional nominees for the directors and so they're always overlapping.
[1:23:31] 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.
[1:23:41] Now they have four year terms and each year they have additional directors so that's why there's only two this year.
[1:23:48] So, we're only considering, too, the ones that are expiring December 31st, 2025.
[1:23:55] Yes, ma'am, that's correct.
[1:23:56] And the others are just for our information, but not for consideration, because it says these three people
[1:24:02] end in 27 and these three end in 26.
[1:24:06] So, we're not considering those people in an exhibit A that has all that on them.
[1:24:10] That was just information that the CAD provided.
[1:24:13] Okay.
[1:24:14] Do we know if both of these people are seeking re-election?
[1:24:16] or Harris County.
[1:24:21] They are both listed.
[1:24:24] Melissa Noriega and Martina Lamont-Dixon.
[1:24:27] Yes, ma'am.
[1:24:28] Thank you.
[1:24:31] Any other questions?
[1:24:35] All right.
[1:24:35] Thank you.
[1:24:36] We'll now move on to item 7.4 discuss and consider board approval of the September 2025
[1:24:41] budget amendments.
[1:24:43] The presenter will be Esperanza Rios, Director of Budget and Treasury.
[1:24:59] Good evening, board president Redmond, board of trustees, and Dr. Cagorski.
[1:25:02] 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.
[1:25:15] 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.
[1:25:27] Any questions, Board?
[1:25:30] Mr. President.
[1:25:32] Mr. Salon.
[1:25:32] Thank you, Mr. Rios.
[1:25:33] So my question is, we just set the budget.
[1:25:40] We just started our financial year, it may not be a really year question.
[1:25:44] 9-1, and we're already doing a budget amendment.
[1:25:47] I realize it's a capital expenditure, it's where we're getting the funds.
[1:25:52] But why wasn't this part of the regular budget that we set, we just set.
[1:25:57] And it's already been a plan, is it?
[1:26:00] I can answer that.
[1:26:03] The board adopted budgets for legally adopted budgets for the general or the maintenance
[1:26:09] and operations fund, the interest in sinking fund, and the special projects fund, which in
[1:26:15] our case is only food services.
[1:26:18] So those three funds that board formally adopted a budget, this is the capital projects fund.
[1:26:22] The board does not formally adopt a budget yearly.
[1:26:28] We present the financial statements to you, and since last month, we approved this expenditure to move forward the expenditure.
[1:26:36] We are just putting this in a formal budget amendment to kind of solidify it, if you will, in the back end.
[1:26:43] You've approved the project.
[1:26:44] Now we're just trying to get it cozy in its little place.
[1:26:47] No, I got you.
[1:26:49] We weren't presented a number though last month.
[1:26:53] I think we work as-
[1:26:56] Not a number. We approved the plan. There was no number, and I probably should have asked for the number.
[1:27:03] There was a percentage based on the total project cost, but not a detailed dollar for dollar if I remember correct.
[1:27:11] A percentage of what number? We didn't have a number last month.
[1:27:16] I might go ahead and ask Mr. Verily to step in and explain a little bit with how that works.
[1:27:21] You bet, so we based it on a construction cost of about seven and a half million dollars.
[1:27:26] So, yeah, and that wasn't presented last month.
[1:27:29] I didn't see 7.5 million, and I didn't know 30 percent, or so I would just say 30 percent.
[1:27:36] So, I just, it's first time I'm seeing the figure this month.
[1:27:44] And then, so the question though was, why wasn't this part of, I guess it has to be a part of the,
[1:27:53] The only way to expense this is through capital expenditure?
[1:27:57] No, right?
[1:27:58] We could have decided.
[1:27:59] You could use undesernated bond funds.
[1:28:01] You could use the general fund or project savings in bond funds.
[1:28:05] You could use the general fund or this source.
[1:28:09] Okay, so that was part of the agenda in last month
[1:28:13] that it was going to be CAPEX, correct?
[1:28:17] It was going to become out of the capital project.
[1:28:18] You were financing it through that.
[1:28:20] That was presented, but not a figure.
[1:28:22] I didn't see a figure.
[1:28:25] 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
[1:28:31] I just know that that number got to our offices what we need to put in there is a budget amendment
[1:28:36] Yes, and I understand the role here of this agenda item. So okay
[1:28:44] There
[1:28:46] would be one second. Let's see okay trustees
[1:28:49] I did want to I while we're sitting here. I'm not super familiar with this item because it's not my shop
[1:28:55] But I did pull up the AIA documents that were attached to the last board meeting.
[1:28:59] In under section 1.13 of the owner's budget, you'll see that the $7,500,000 number.
[1:29:08] So that was presented to the board last month in that contract.
[1:29:12] Mr. President, just so you're aware, General Counsel, usually I see that we, the board, see that in our board documents.
[1:29:21] I know the document you're talking about, a lot of pages.
[1:29:24] is usually we see that summarized in the agenda item.
[1:29:28] So that's where I'm coming from.
[1:29:30] All
[1:29:33] right, I guess I'll stop there.
[1:29:37] We've already had CAPEX expenditure,
[1:29:40] two million from June.
[1:29:42] I know we're in a different financial year.
[1:29:47] And another two million in July
[1:29:50] for the electric content management system.
[1:29:53] So I'm just trying to keep track of all the CAPEX
[1:29:56] it's nice to know
[1:30:00] Bigger. Thank you. Any other questions, Board?
[1:30:06] 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.
[1:30:15] 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
[1:30:31] as the new Paying Aging agent.
[1:30:37] Any questions, Board?
[1:30:39] I just wanted to make a clarification on that.
[1:30:41] Mr. Smith, I know that you had spoken about your dissatisfaction with the original trust company that we had had.
[1:30:50] Can you speak a little bit more to that just for a transparency sake?
[1:30:54] Sure.
[1:30:56] Our prior Paying Aging essentially sends us an invoice.
[1:31:00] And that invoice has all our outstanding bonds and the payment amount that's due.
[1:31:03] And then we send the money from our cash account to theirs and they disperse it on our behalf to the bond holders.
[1:31:12] I think it really just boils down to customer service.
[1:31:15] I'll be honest with you, there are invoices that are titled with my predecessor.
[1:31:20] I've been in this position for 13 years and my predecessor's name is still on one of the invoices.
[1:31:28] We've been asking to have that change for years, probably not 13 but a lot of years.
[1:31:33] But I think Ms. Rios can probably talk about more details if I don't cover it in a depth
[1:31:37] enough.
[1:31:38] But it's just, we have to work within to make sure that we're sending the right amount
[1:31:42] of money.
[1:31:42] We don't want to over-send or under-send those payments.
[1:31:46] And it's difficult to get answers with our current one.
[1:31:52] I think Rude, I've heard it several times, Kurt, and as I understand it, there are other
[1:32:01] organization similar to ours that are doing the same thing.
[1:32:05] 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.
[1:32:10] We pay about $500 an outstanding series to the bank to have it done.
[1:32:15] So we're not talking about a large item at all.
[1:32:18] It's just that that's where the money flows from our account to them, to the bond holders.
[1:32:25] And it's a service issue.
[1:32:26] Thank you, I appreciate that.
[1:32:27] Any other questions for Dr. Allow me can we maybe record the interactions we're
[1:32:35] having with that bank and put in as a negative model on our AI don't end up like
[1:32:40] that. All right further questions. I will now move on to item 7.6 discussing
[1:32:48] the approval of the voluntary benefit products for plan year 2026.
[1:32:53] Senator Lance Norman, director of risk management.
[1:32:56] And Mr. Alman, you'll be with us for 7.7 and 7.8.
[1:33:00] Correct, and I'll present from here if that's okay.
[1:33:04] Good evening, President Redmond, Dr. Gorskian, Board of Trustees.
[1:33:09] Board policy, CR legal states that a district may procure with any insurance company,
[1:33:15] authorized to do business in Texas, to ensure its employees.
[1:33:18] voluntary benefits made available to district employees through payroll
[1:33:22] deductions are offered to provide access to services that promote and
[1:33:26] help and enhance the health of employees and their dependents.
[1:33:31] These benefits are presented to the Board of Trustees on an annual basis.
[1:33:35] The number of offerings in plan structure for plan year 2026 remain unchanged.
[1:33:41] Premiums will be the same for this period except for a sliding increase in the dental program.
[1:33:48] It is recommended that the Board of Trustees approves the voluntary benefit products for plan year 2026.
[1:33:57] Mr. President, I'd like to ask a few little questions, because I,
[1:34:06] so I know that the insurance issue is a huge issue,
[1:34:11] not just with KDIs, but around our country, around our state, and not just with ISDs, but with everybody.
[1:34:18] 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.
[1:34:36] And then another one is, can we, because of, well, I guess that all be one question.
[1:34:41] If we did the customer feedback and found out some things that may not be going well,
[1:34:47] like some providers supposed to be covered, and then the customer finds out that they're not covered, for example.
[1:34:53] Then that could be part of the feedback that you'd receive, and then maybe somebody could go along and
[1:34:58] check out those things and make sure that what is told to them in the plan is actually what
[1:35:05] that they're getting, that it all matches that.
[1:35:08] So that, like our speaker said tonight,
[1:35:11] that they're not having to, you know,
[1:35:14] assume that something's covered and then find out
[1:35:16] when they get there that that's not covered.
[1:35:20] And I just think that we had some kind of feedback
[1:35:22] from our employees and maybe we are doing that already,
[1:35:27] but if we're getting the feedback
[1:35:28] that maybe we'd hear some of these problems,
[1:35:32] and then somebody, I don't know if it's you
[1:35:34] If you were someone on your team, we'd go and investigate these problems and iron them out for people.
[1:35:39] 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,
[1:35:49] we sit down with these carriers and they've got customer satisfaction reports that they present to us and we review those.
[1:35:58] And we handle most of, I'm going to say, concerns on a one-off basis and work with those
[1:36:04] employees to address whatever that may be.
[1:36:08] And it varies from coverage to coverage, what the issue may be.
[1:36:14] We see, too, when there's a, I'm going to call it a customer service issue, we deal a lot
[1:36:21] with providers, improper billing, things of that nature that can cause this to exist up.
[1:36:29] But we do try to address each one in every one and work with the employee to resolve those situations.
[1:36:36] But is there a way?
[1:36:38] So if you saw that this was going on, some employee has some kind of issue,
[1:36:44] but then this was a recurring issue.
[1:36:46] This wasn't just this one time, this one person had this one problem.
[1:36:50] But this seem to be a continuous going on and on and on.
[1:36:55] Is there something that can be done?
[1:36:57] Because by the time a person needs this help,
[1:37:01] sometimes they're at their weakest moment.
[1:37:05] You know, they're not,
[1:37:08] they don't have 100% energy level.
[1:37:10] You know, they're in desperate need right now.
[1:37:14] You know, they don't have all this time on their hands
[1:37:17] to go research all this and some people are alone, you know, some people don't have an advocate for them.
[1:37:24] Well, we, I think we take a lot of pride in being an advocate because we, our team constant.
[1:37:30] We have several meetings with different providers on right now.
[1:37:35] I can think of a prop again with our pharmacy team.
[1:37:39] We meet weekly and help identify issues as we roll out new platforms.
[1:37:43] 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.
[1:37:55] Mr. President.
[1:37:56] Mr. Fox.
[1:37:57] Mr. Nowman, did you hear the speaker tonight concerns which were not one but many, an example of a few, let's say few.
[1:38:07] And we hear about those two of others similar.
[1:38:12] What is your plan to fix the concerns expressed tonight?
[1:38:17] 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?
[1:38:32] You understand what I'm saying?
[1:38:33] Well, did your office provide different lists of providers to employees that work?
[1:38:39] My office does not provide lists, it's through the, uh, an navigator platform.
[1:38:45] And something to understand about with those platforms is providers go, or very fluid,
[1:38:51] in and out of those contracts.
[1:38:53] So sometimes an individual may go online and say, well, it's Dr. X on the plan.
[1:39:00] Well, he or she may not be, but then if, if the doctor's office is saying there is,
[1:39:05] Because they are, we will begin to communicate and say, where's the disconnect?
[1:39:10] So those platforms allow people to research within their plan, whether it's the POS,
[1:39:17] the Memorial Herman ACO, or the high deductible, to see where those providers are they in that plan.
[1:39:24] Okay.
[1:39:27] One other thought, how's your office considered putting together, I don't even know if this is
[1:39:37] is helpful, but I was just trying to be how do we communicate to our employees some
[1:39:42] of the confusion?
[1:39:44] How do we settle it for them?
[1:39:45] Can we take people who have been through, like, you know, someone who's navigated the
[1:39:50] whole thing?
[1:39:51] Could there be a video of different employees in different situations saying, this is
[1:39:55] what happened to me, and here's what I found to be helpful so that maybe what one person
[1:40:00] has been through would be able to have a video on our website, on your connections.
[1:40:06] that would help them, you know, maybe we have our own AI of like, here's how you do it.
[1:40:12] You know, when it says this, try, you know, ABC, don't give up.
[1:40:16] Here's the thing.
[1:40:17] Because Mrs. Champagne's right, this is not the time when you're just trying to figure
[1:40:22] out how to get your deductible for a new windshield.
[1:40:25] It's, you know, it's gut wrenching.
[1:40:28] And when you're going into surgery, but you're not allowed to have no stress test to make
[1:40:32] sure you're strong enough to do it, that's risky.
[1:40:37] And time is of the essence.
[1:40:40] So what can we do?
[1:40:42] You and us and you need our help.
[1:40:44] We're here to help you serve our people who are out there serving children and taking
[1:40:50] every ounce they have during the day to do that and then have to fight these battles hours
[1:40:54] on the phone and in the offices.
[1:40:56] That's something we can take back and consider and kind of think through.
[1:41:01] There's mechanics that we have to work through in terms of privacy issues, identify
[1:41:06] to find events that people might have experienced, but that's something we might have to consider.
[1:41:14] I'm pretty sure that our people would be willing to help others of our people, but I'm
[1:41:19] quite concerned about how do they find the answers they need as quickly as possible,
[1:41:25] and with as little red tape as possible, like who the doctors are, and then how do they
[1:41:32] 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.
[1:41:43] And if they're willing to pay more, help us figure out what that is.
[1:41:47] And then we will get our people to explain.
[1:41:48] This plan is worth the money when you really need it.
[1:41:53] We tend to offer three, if I'll explain to you later on, I guess here in just a moment,
[1:41:58] the three different plans that we offer, and we try to educate our people what those plans are like.
[1:42:03] What is it consumer driven?
[1:42:06] Is it within the Memorial Harmon Network, or is it a broad network, like our POS2?
[1:42:10] And we go through open enrollment, we send out communication, flowers, educating our people to make those decisions.
[1:42:20] Mr. President?
[1:42:21] 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?
[1:42:28] Any questions on the voluntary benefits, or 7.6?
[1:42:31] Yes, Mr. President.
[1:42:32] That includes dental, right?
[1:42:34] Yes.
[1:42:34] Sorry, I'm toggling between a couple of agendas looking back.
[1:42:39] So, the premiums are roughly, they're up a little, perhaps, but how do we see what the coverage
[1:42:48] actually is because you know sometimes you pay a premium might be the same but your coverage is different.
[1:42:53] Now you got to pay for X-rays or you got to pay more for a crown etc. Do we have any indicator with
[1:42:59] what kind of coverage? Particularly on the dental you have a high plan and a low plan. You think it in
[1:43:04] terms of a richer benefit and not so rich benefit. And that's outlined during open enrollment. We
[1:43:14] We present those, we give employees prior to open enrollment.
[1:43:17] 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.
[1:43:27] Is this the best plan for me, for my family?
[1:43:30] 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,
[1:43:41] particularly in the environment of vision, dental, and a few other lines, it has gotten
[1:43:49] so that people are just trading dollars with a lot of these benefits.
[1:43:54] And for some people, it's a good thing for some others.
[1:43:56] They use their HSA or their FSA to manage those expenses that we face.
[1:44:02] 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.
[1:44:10] Right, and we look at it this way, we want our partners, they're the subject matter expert.
[1:44:17] We want our employees to talk face to face to make sure they understand what they're purchasing.
[1:44:22] And I will conclude with this one thought.
[1:44:26] 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.
[1:44:32] 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.
[1:44:43] Okay, I'll save my other questions for the next one.
[1:44:46] Any more questions on item 7.6, Board?
[1:44:51] No, all right, 7.7, all right, discuss and consider health plan that's medical.
[1:45:00] 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
[1:45:29] The cost of care per member per month, PEPM, of the KDISD self-insured plan was 30.2% lower in 2024.
[1:45:39] In recent years, the collection of premiums for the plan did not keep pace with medical trends,
[1:45:44] and the unexpected collateral costs associated with COVID.
[1:45:48] The district absorbed those direct losses without passing them directly to the plan participants.
[1:45:54] Specifically, in the PLS2, the program premiums will increase along with program deductibles
[1:46:05] from 4,000 to 5,000 for individuals and from 7,000 to 8,000 for families.
[1:46:12] Next, the Memorial Hermann ACL plan will see premiums increase along with the increase in deductibles
[1:46:18] from 1,850 to 1,950 for individuals and family deductible moving from 3675 to 3775.
[1:46:28] 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.
[1:46:42] For those planned members requiring pharmacy services, the provider will change from
[1:46:47] express grips to HEB.
[1:46:50] KDIST continues to provide chronic disease pharmacy managed to staff to avoid unnecessary
[1:46:55] expenses related to primary care visits.
[1:46:58] Virtual care continues to be included at no charge to plan participants, providing convenience
[1:47:04] and time savings when quality care is needed.
[1:47:07] Risk management continues to verify those individuals seeking enrollment in the plan through dependent care verification process.
[1:47:16] Once the verification process is completed, staff members will no longer be required to do so unless there is a qualifying life event.
[1:47:25] In this program, this program provides fairness and equity to all members seeking healthcare benefits.
[1:47:32] 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.
[1:47:51] You will see in 2019 we were in the red negative 1.7 continuing across in 20 to 2.6, 13.1, 16.5.
[1:48:03] and 13.7 and through playing year 13.1.
[1:48:09] One thing to note is you will see that our participants have remained relatively flat across this time slot.
[1:48:16] And it's important to note that every month the district contributes $385 per employee per month to their health insurance.
[1:48:28] It is also doubly important to remember that during these years in which we had a deficit,
[1:48:34] that the district did not pass that deficit onto the plan members, the district absorbed it.
[1:48:41] So if you look across in this exhibit, you'll see in 2019 the actual contribution made,
[1:48:47] which would be the 385 plus the deficit of 19 was 404.
[1:48:52] And that continues to grow across as we continue through time.
[1:48:57] And it's quite clear you can see where the pandemic began.
[1:49:01] And the continued cost of care continues to rise.
[1:49:10] This example shows what our medical infarmency spend is.
[1:49:14] And you will see that it is very important, and the last Mr. Harris to make the contribution
[1:49:21] to this commentary is that medical friend is staying anywhere from five to six percent.
[1:49:27] Correct.
[1:49:28] But talk a little bit about what's driving the pharmacy.
[1:49:30] 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%.
[1:49:46] So if you have medical trending on average at 6 and pharmacy at 11, that gap is going to continue to grow.
[1:49:52] For instance, in the early 90s pharmacy was about 2% of the cost of health care.
[1:49:55] now nationally it's 40% of the cost to healthcare, and it's mainly due to specialty drugs.
[1:50:03] 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.
[1:50:12] Employees are utilizing that tremendously, and we're very encouraged by that.
[1:50:17] And what it does, it keeps employees actively pursuing their healthcare,
[1:50:24] They're managing their chronic diseases and keeping them out of urgent cares and stand-alone ERs, which is saving us money.
[1:50:35] Where are we?
[1:50:36] Fiscal Year 2425.
[1:50:39] We had a negative 17.9 in terms of contributions versus expenses.
[1:50:46] And this is through the first 11 months for the fiscal year through July.
[1:50:51] And then for plan year, we're trending through seven months at a negative 11.04.
[1:51:04] Mr. Harris, could you give us some comments?
[1:51:06] We're looking at our 2026 projection.
[1:51:08] Kind of walk us through how we get to, what do we, our walls pick?
[1:51:12] I'm going to use that term, an insurance word.
[1:51:14] What do we, our total expected losses will be?
[1:51:17] What say, Mr. O'Donard, do you introduce Mr. Harris to serve?
[1:51:19] I'm so sorry, my bad.
[1:51:21] Tommy Harris was balled in a group who's our benefit consultant.
[1:51:24] I apologize on that for granted.
[1:51:28] So what our underwriting and actuary team do is we have to gather historical data and
[1:51:33] then project that forward into the future.
[1:51:35] So we're trying to do a loss pick for 18 months out from now so that we can budget our plan
[1:51:40] design accordingly.
[1:51:41] So we gather two years of historical data and then remove large claims, we trend that forward,
[1:51:47] using the medical inflation trends of five or six percent in pharmacy of around ten.
[1:51:53] 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
[1:52:03] incurred but not reported claims, so we're having to take this data and trend it a year and a half into the future.
[1:52:10] And so that's what we've done here with what our annual projection is or what our spend is going to be.
[1:52:14] It's never going to be perfect.
[1:52:16] I mean, it's never going to be exactly what that trend is because we're looking out so far into the future.
[1:52:20] But this is a very good estimate, and we've been pretty close to accurate so far.
[1:52:24] So when you see what the annual projection is, it is a 1 if.
[1:52:28] It could be worse, it could be better, depending on the utilization of the population.
[1:52:33] So one thing that you'll see here, one, we know what we're going to spend in medical.
[1:52:37] We know what we're going to spend in pharmacy.
[1:52:39] And then we have our stop loss premiums for our individual stop loss.
[1:52:43] And then we have our program oversight from Etna as the administrative of our plan.
[1:52:48] One thing you'll see here, which was a big win, is in the pharmacy rebates.
[1:52:53] And this is what caused the switch from express groups to HEB, is we were able to negotiate
[1:52:58] a much more favorable contract for the plan and its members, and you'll notice
[1:53:04] the increase in rebates went up from $5 million to $13 million.
[1:53:08] So then what happens is you take your pharmacy spend, those rebates come back to you
[1:53:13] from the pharmacy benefit manager from through the manufacturers, and we get that on a quarterly basis.
[1:53:19] And then down at the bottom where we get the total, then it's going to show what our gains are
[1:53:24] losses is. And you'll see that the deficit is finally starting to move in the correct direction.
[1:53:30] And this is really a function of what we're doing with the high performing network,
[1:53:35] with the Memorial Hermann ACO model, the tightly managed pharmacy, and then the ready-and-deed
[1:53:40] direct primary care, which is very valuable
[1:53:43] for population health and closing gaps in care.
[1:53:48] This next slide, I would like you to take a look
[1:53:53] and this shows you what the premiums will be for 2026
[1:53:59] compared looking at 25 and then with the increase,
[1:54:03] the dollar increase, and then the far right column
[1:54:06] what the premiums will be.
[1:54:08] And I've also notated what those deductibles
[1:54:10] are switching to as I alluded to earlier in the presentation.
[1:54:17] And here's the question that is always asked is, where do we stand against TRS active care?
[1:54:24] You will see that, for example, let's just look at employee only, tier one, for plan your 26th,
[1:54:34] the premium will be $255 per month, for TRS that will be $628 per month.
[1:54:42] For the ACO, it will be 127 compared to TRS active care, which is 268.
[1:54:50] And then the high deductible at KD was 85, with a comparable plan at TRS at $185 per month.
[1:55:01] And the uncertainty of TRS active care continues to be a great concern with funding from the legislature.
[1:55:10] It's to be, it's to be, to be determined.
[1:55:15] So, that's what I have for you this evening.
[1:55:20] Or, questions?
[1:55:21] Mr. President?
[1:55:22] Mr. Champagne?
[1:55:23] Okay.
[1:55:23] I just want to continue a little bit on, thank you very much.
[1:55:25] I know that this is very complicated.
[1:55:27] I actually used to do some of this work before, and I know how complicated it can be.
[1:55:35] And, and it just never seems to get better.
[1:55:38] So, but my, I did ask a question earlier.
[1:55:41] 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
[1:56:11] or another every month in a while.
[1:56:13] That's my first question, then the next question I have,
[1:56:17] or not really a question, it's more of a suggestion,
[1:56:19] and I know that we're operating at a deficit,
[1:56:23] so I know that's hard, but maybe a good idea would be
[1:56:26] for us to have some kind of patient advocate
[1:56:29] that would be at the district to handle.
[1:56:32] Some of these questions, I know like Medicare has people
[1:56:35] like that, and I don't want to compare it to Medicare
[1:56:37] because they're very hard to get in touch with.
[1:56:40] But there are people like that in Medicare that are just there to answer questions.
[1:56:46] 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.
[1:56:56] I don't want to do research.
[1:56:59] I'm laying in the hospital and I need some help right now.
[1:57:02] 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.
[1:57:11] If there was just one, maybe just one person that I knew that I could call and say, look, I have these issues.
[1:57:18] I've already tried a couple things.
[1:57:20] Can you help me or can you direct me to who's better to talk to, you know, something like that?
[1:57:27] The way we work that is if we have something an issue brought up by an employee.
[1:57:32] They will call our office and then we will ask the question, where does that person need to go?
[1:57:37] 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?
[1:57:45] And we reach out to Edna and work through the back door to make sure those things get handled.
[1:57:50] So that's how we approach that, we have a team and that's what we kind of spread that service piece across.
[1:57:58] And people know about this?
[1:58:01] 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?
[1:58:07] We do not do a survey, no, ma'am.
[1:58:10] Well, that would be a suggestion I would have.
[1:58:13] 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.
[1:58:20] But it might be good because we do surveys for a lot of other things.
[1:58:23] You know, even like the rollout of AI and the rollout of those, you know, I don't know,
[1:58:31] the personal computers that people are going to be using at Taylor and things like that.
[1:58:35] You know, maybe if everyone saw we did some kind of survey and that way,
[1:58:39] if you saw like a continuous pattern with such and such, whatever it is,
[1:58:44] then you would know that that was a problem.
[1:58:46] Noted.
[1:58:51] That's a question.
[1:58:53] How many other providers, sorry, Mr. President, I have a question.
[1:58:57] How many other providers do we have to choose from at this point?
[1:59:02] Like, for how much wiggle room do we have here?
[1:59:05] 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?
[1:59:14] So we just recently took the health plan out for bid.
[1:59:17] And I presented that to you, I believe in this.
[1:59:18] I remember this.
[1:59:19] June and July.
[1:59:20] 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.
[1:59:29] But now it's shrinking down to basically what, three or four different flavors.
[1:59:32] Yeah, we've got four major carriers, Blue Cross United, Sigma, Netna.
[1:59:36] And then there's dozens and dozens of third party administrators where you shop your stop loss and
[1:59:42] And you shop your pharmacy benefit manager, and we open it up to the entire market to be able to bid through this process.
[1:59:50] And this is the best we got.
[1:59:52] Correct, I know it's the clear winner on this.
[1:59:55] What are this other districts?
[1:59:59] Thanks.
[2:00:00] Are there other districts, are they seeing increases in the same way that we are? What is this looking like?
[2:00:05] Absolutely, there's some.
[2:00:06] Percentage-wise, could you give a comparison?
[2:00:09] Well, so it's a little bit different because every time, and I get that question a lot,
[2:00:13] I've got a population of this size, and I've got a population of this size.
[2:00:16] It has so much to do with the own utilization of that group because this plan is considered
[2:00:21] 100% actuarially credible.
[2:00:23] You know, if everything above a thousand employees on a plan is 100% actuarially credible.
[2:00:28] 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.
[2:00:38] 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%.
[2:00:51] So you're going to see a combined trend around 9%.
[2:00:53] And that's just as a whole, but it's really hard for me to compare populations.
[2:00:58] I think you can see from the TRS numbers that, yes, it is going up.
[2:01:03] And they had an increase this year depending on the plan design of up to 15% based on what the plan design was.
[2:01:10] That was on the TRS open enrollment information.
[2:01:14] And there's most likely going to be another increase next year than that.
[2:01:18] 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?
[2:01:30] How am I supposed to do this?
[2:01:32] How are they supposed to, what are they supposed to anticipate for next year?
[2:01:35] That's going to be a function of what our claims activity begins over the next eight months or so.
[2:01:42] 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.
[2:01:53] So that's, that's kind of, it's hard to say, well, it's going to be 4% or 6%.
[2:01:59] 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.
[2:02:10] 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?
[2:02:21] You don't pay the full balance every month that compounding interest happens.
[2:02:26] And it's the same way with health care.
[2:02:28] And you're seeing that across the market, whether it's in the private sector or the public sector.
[2:02:33] And health care is just in a bad situation right now.
[2:02:37] And I will tell you this that on the administrative piece of the oversight of the plan, we had a significant savings.
[2:02:48] I mean, we went from 36.02 down to 2475 in terms of savings, and it was a tremendous win for the district.
[2:02:57] And all those little levers that we pull in terms of that with the pharmacy and all that, that helps keep that trend going
[2:03:04] for upwards to eight to nine percent so we try to manage most as we can on on the administrative
[2:03:10] piece and be creative and be cost effective but I will also add too if you were to take
[2:03:17] out our large losses we're trending very well but there are some things we just cannot
[2:03:22] predict you know premature babies answers hard attacks things like that that's just that's
[2:03:31] It's just an anomaly that's very, very hard to predict.
[2:03:35] I do want to add something, and I can't remember my history like I used to, but back in the 2000,
[2:03:41] I left before 2010, the state, when they adopted the DRS Act of the Care, they also said at that time,
[2:03:50] and they funded it as school districts must commit a minimum of $225 a month towards health insurance premiums.
[2:03:58] That somehow is now baked into the funding formula cake, but the state of Texas through
[2:04:03] the funding has not increased that dollar amount in all of those years, specifically
[2:04:09] for health insurance.
[2:04:10] It's been done at the local level for all those years.
[2:04:13] Now, similar to what we've done, we've covered the losses that dollar figure wasn't in
[2:04:19] that one slide that showed the extra contribution we kick in to make it even, but the dollar
[2:04:23] amount for the last five years is over $60 million.
[2:04:27] The state has also done the same thing to cover the losses to TRS active care.
[2:04:31] 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.
[2:04:50] So they took those big increases, but the state covered that, but that's for only the
[2:04:54] TRS active care.
[2:04:56] So we were letting our representatives know that when you do that TRS active care, you're
[2:05:00] only doing that for about half the state.
[2:05:02] Those of us that have our self-funded plans are getting any of those additional dollars.
[2:05:07] So to my knowledge and my recollection, yes, when you increase the basic allotment, or they
[2:05:11] added the ABC fund that can go toward health insurance, specifically for health insurance,
[2:05:18] 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.
[2:05:32] 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.
[2:05:45] 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.
[2:06:05] 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?
[2:06:18] Well now we have to do our plan against ERS, which is the state system.
[2:06:25] The state system is extremely rich, but yet we're still compliant because of our program.
[2:06:31] And you mimic, we always compare ourselves to the TRS richness, if you will.
[2:06:37] I think TRS is what 81% and we're lucky to 88 points, something.
[2:06:43] We'll do that calculation here.
[2:06:46] It's an actuarial value calculation on the plan design's offered.
[2:06:49] And we have to be within a certain range and we're well within that range.
[2:06:53] So I would just add that to the conversation, which is very important.
[2:06:58] So I guess it's kind of, the complications are obviously minutes here.
[2:07:07] So you have an employee who has to go have surgery and they need a certain test,
[2:07:14] I'm going to make sure that they're fit for surgery like was stated before, but now that's
[2:07:20] not covered, but then in order to prevent further losses, so to speak, to the plan because
[2:07:27] of the cost of surgery going up if something doesn't work out the way that it's supposed
[2:07:30] to that would have been found out had they had the test covered. Does that make sense
[2:07:35] on like where I'm going with that? That's a little, it seems a little convoluted here
[2:07:40] that were, make that make sense for me.
[2:07:44] Okay.
[2:07:46] CERNICAL procedures, I'll just list a few.
[2:07:51] MRIs, CAT scans, things of diagnostic nature or surgical nature, go through a pre-authorization
[2:07:58] process and they will evaluate the reasonable and customary necessity of those procedures.
[2:08:07] Sometimes when it could be the wrong CPT code is put in on the provider side, then it's
[2:08:15] not, well, wait a minute.
[2:08:16] That doesn't make sense where are we doing this and they'll talk.
[2:08:18] And sometimes you have peer-to-peer, you'll have a doctor from that, and let's
[2:08:21] talk to the doctor at ABC group, and they come to an agreement, well, that's not
[2:08:27] needed, let's try this other process.
[2:08:29] So every procedure that goes, there's a pre-authorization process that is implemented.
[2:08:38] I hear what you're saying, I hear that, but when the patient's doctor says you need this test
[2:08:46] before you go into this surgery, that what, why does that then have to go to a peer
[2:08:54] to peer to where the, that doctor has never met this patient, the doctor doesn't
[2:08:58] know.
[2:08:59] So does that make sense of what I'm saying?
[2:09:02] Like, I hear what you're saying, but the way plans are structured is, is that pre-authorization
[2:09:09] process takes place?
[2:09:10] So I guess my question is how do we overcome that hurdle because we see that there's a problem
[2:09:16] here. We see that there's obviously a situation. So how do we say, okay, we're going
[2:09:21] to move that out of the way? Like, it can we do that? Do we have the capabilities of
[2:09:26] doing that? Or are we just telling our employees, and I mean this very, very gently,
[2:09:30] you're just up a creek without a paddle, because this is the best we can do.
[2:09:36] You know, I don't see the district getting, let me, let me, I'm trying to be as respectful
[2:09:41] as I can.
[2:09:41] Yeah, I understand.
[2:09:43] We can't get involved in the middle of the pre-authorization process because of HIPAA.
[2:09:50] Right.
[2:09:51] So our hands are kind of tied, but that's the reason we have our carrier to handle those
[2:09:56] things for us.
[2:09:57] And I will say very
[2:10:03] 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.
[2:10:11] And sometimes if it isn't getting approved, we can try to find out what the reason is for that.
[2:10:18] And every carrier has pre-authorization, every single one of them, they all go through that.
[2:10:23] 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.
[2:10:40] 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.
[2:10:51] So every carrier and every third-party administrator will also have some level of pre-authorization within their plan.
[2:10:57] And we also have that same environment and work with the concedures.
[2:11:02] Mr. President, thank you.
[2:11:05] Mr. Allen, thank you for this.
[2:11:08] I know we talked about this in our finance committee meeting.
[2:11:11] I think my heart breaks for the instances like we heard tonight.
[2:11:18] And I
[2:11:23] just look at, for the third year now, I've looked at the premium on the spousal coverage.
[2:11:30] It's quite substantial, and I wish I could make it all better, and I can't right now.
[2:11:40] But I do know that I wanted to offer this as a resource, maybe.
[2:11:46] And this is just who my husband and I use.
[2:11:51] They've, there's some new products out there that we're self-employed, so we've since 2010
[2:11:58] we've been out on our own, but I found this one agent and he's phenomenal and we pay
[2:12:04] the two of us pay less than what the employee and spouse pay for us and we can go to any
[2:12:12] doctor we want.
[2:12:13] So I was just going to give this email if that's okay to our community and ask them if they're,
[2:12:20] You know, especially on the spouse, I think that would be where I would focus, is maybe
[2:12:25] you could contact, his name is Luke Elliott, he's in Dallas, Texas, he's phenomenal, he
[2:12:30] answers his phone calls, his emails immediately, and his email is Luke at Trinity Insurance
[2:12:38] GRP.com.
[2:12:39] And I like it because there's very low deductible, we can go to any doctor we want, there's
[2:12:46] no pre-approval, there's no waiting period.
[2:12:48] and it's just been 15 years since we found anything decent.
[2:12:54] So I know that doesn't help, you know, people that are facing surgery right now,
[2:12:59] I hate that, but maybe this could help some people, especially in the employee
[2:13:04] and spouse category, and that's all I'm trying.
[2:13:07] I'm not getting any benefit from it.
[2:13:08] In fact, I asked him, I said, can I just give your email out to the public?
[2:13:11] Would you be okay?
[2:13:12] And he's like, yes, I will respond.
[2:13:14] So maybe that can help.
[2:13:15] 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.
[2:13:35] The spouses here, the Tier 2 spouses have been driving the expenses of our planes elsewhere, up through the roof.
[2:13:44] And that's a heavy burden, so we have to try to recoup as much as we can in terms
[2:13:49] of premium to help balance those claims out.
[2:13:53] And I understand that, and we talked about that, and I appreciate that, but I'm just
[2:13:59] thinking there might be a better avenue for people to come, you know, like employees,
[2:14:04] like if I were working, maybe it would be good to cover me on KDIC's plan.
[2:14:09] But my spouse might be better on this because it's, we can go anywhere.
[2:14:14] Any time, no pre-approvals, so which is phenomenal, I've not seen that since Obamacare, right, so that's great.
[2:14:26] 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.
[2:14:37] Mr.
[2:14:40] President, thank you very much for presentation.
[2:14:44] I understand it's expensive and it's just getting worse.
[2:14:48] Same thing at my house, you know, my husband works in oil and gas.
[2:14:52] Same thing, it's all, so I'm not going to talk about cost.
[2:14:56] I would like to talk about customer service and the kinds of things.
[2:15:00] 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.
[2:15:09] 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?
[2:15:23] There's not a pamphlet.
[2:15:25] We utilize the ad in the website to navigate, it's called the ad in the navigator, to what
[2:15:32] things are covered, what's preventative, who the providers are based on zip code, things
[2:15:37] of that nature.
[2:15:38] That tool is available to them.
[2:15:40] Does it tell them what's covered, what kinds of things are covered?
[2:15:43] Yes.
[2:15:45] Okay.
[2:15:47] And it would also be too something to think about too is, you know, generally speaking
[2:15:55] the POS2 is a very rich plan, is a very broad network of coverage and providers.
[2:16:02] The Memorial Herman, okay, is specific to Memorial Herman ACO providers.
[2:16:09] The high deductible is a broad plan, but you have a high deductible.
[2:16:16] So it's up to the point to make those decisions and how they feel what level risks they want
[2:16:24] to take in terms of their health care.
[2:16:28] Personally, I went to a different insurance for myself.
[2:16:33] I had to go to someone to help me understand the difference between this and this and this
[2:16:40] based on me and my situation and our family situation,
[2:16:43] what was best, you know,
[2:16:45] a fanage supplement, what's all the things,
[2:16:47] because they just sound crazy, you know,
[2:16:52] too hard to understand, complicated, not crazy.
[2:16:54] Okay, I don't know if that's something you can do,
[2:16:58] break it down, I've just constantly thinking,
[2:17:01] what could we do when I get confused and need a simple thing?
[2:17:05] I go to YouTube, try to find something right,
[2:17:07] is there something we can do to help our employees know
[2:17:10] that when they're choosing, and if you want, if you think you might need this, it's probably
[2:17:14] worth the cost now instead of later.
[2:17:17] Okay.
[2:17:18] If a doctor recommends it like an ultrasound with the mammogram for reasons, maybe risk
[2:17:26] or something, who decides if it's denied?
[2:17:31] The way the process works, provider will submit a request to Etna through the pre-authorization
[2:17:41] process and that will be approved by Etna based on the diagnosis, the expected outcomes
[2:17:48] and things of that nature, based on the CPT codes that are being submitted.
[2:17:52] I don't know if this is still accurate but I, a few years back, had someone who worked
[2:17:57] for insurance, and they said, we deny everything the first time and make them come back.
[2:18:02] That's just what they're taught to do at insurance, because I don't know.
[2:18:05] I mean, I don't know of an insurance company that does that.
[2:18:12] I mean, I have my personal experience in it, I'm not saying that it wouldn't happen in the market.
[2:18:16] But when I first got started in the business way back in 86, I was taught as an
[2:18:23] adjuster on a way to pay a coin and it's reasonable. I don't know that insurance
[2:18:27] companies intentionally do that. Who would deny a stress test before a major
[2:18:32] surgery? I don't, you know, each case is unique and separate but I don't think
[2:18:36] if if we were having that as a trend, we would be I would be aware of that. So when
[2:18:45] intentional intentional. Okay, I'm just trying to get through some some clicker
[2:18:50] things in my head because I'm a marketing communication person and I'm trying to think
[2:18:55] how do we communicate well to our employees so they know what they need.
[2:19:01] When something is denied, how do you tell the people and how long does it take?
[2:19:06] Are they told about an appeals process?
[2:19:09] Do they know what to do?
[2:19:11] Well the doctor's office will go through an appeal process and the doctor's office will
[2:19:15] have to communicate to the employee, this was denied, or this reason, maybe a lack of information.
[2:19:23] Maybe it's not reasonable in customary. There's a whole Whitney of things that
[2:19:27] procedure could be denied for. So the doctor would probably call and say, got denied,
[2:19:33] we're going to redo it. Did I leave something out? Was I not clear enough in my diagnosis?
[2:19:38] Right.
[2:19:40] Okay.
[2:19:40] Could be anything.
[2:19:41] Could be.
[2:19:41] Okay.
[2:19:43] Do you have any sort of a committee of teachers or something that could, like, with a variety
[2:19:51] of needs, benefits committee or something that would give you advice from what they're
[2:19:57] thinking, because like Mrs. Champagne said, do you hear from them?
[2:20:00] Do they have a way to give you feedback?
[2:20:02] We communicate through the campus, through our benefit liaisons, things that are pushed out, what we're changing.
[2:20:08] But we did have, if you'd be perfectly honest with you several years ago, we had a benefit advisory committee.
[2:20:16] And that literally became, in effect-
[2:20:21] Complete department, because of us.
[2:20:23] I'm trying to say it very delicately.
[2:20:25] It became, everything was complaint while, in the primary focus that was going on was, our premiums are so high.
[2:20:33] Why are our premium people weren't folks we couldn't get any results we've actually then we I think
[2:20:39] If I recall I'm to the best my ability and knowledge we did send out some surveys prior to that
[2:20:46] But the people just focus on the premium
[2:20:50] majority of the time right and that wouldn't be that's that's what they see
[2:20:55] 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
[2:21:02] I get that, but maybe on things, well, maybe we can help them.
[2:21:07] These are quick.
[2:21:08] Do you have people to help navigate the roadblocks, right?
[2:21:12] Any sort of struggles, and you've said you do,
[2:21:14] you connect them to an advocate of some kind,
[2:21:16] some advocate like Mrs. chimpanzee said.
[2:21:18] I'm all in favor of that.
[2:21:21] And can employees request the meetings with one of your people
[2:21:25] to talk through stuff, if they can come to our office,
[2:21:29] they can call us and figure out
[2:21:31] what the absolutely.
[2:21:33] Okay, great.
[2:21:34] Thank you for hearing my questions.
[2:21:37] I hope that I'm asking questions that people are at home
[2:21:41] screaming into their computers.
[2:21:43] I don't know what they are,
[2:21:44] but just from having conversations with them
[2:21:47] and things I would want to know if I were on that side.
[2:21:51] Thank you for letting me ask
[2:21:53] and thank you for taking care of our people the best you can.
[2:21:56] Health care is difficult.
[2:21:58] And we can be better and thank you for taking our suggestions.
[2:22:02] 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.
[2:22:26] I had never heard of that.
[2:22:27] Might be something to revisit.
[2:22:29] What I'm hearing is not, I mean, sure, premiums,
[2:22:32] but what we're hearing is I got a list of providers
[2:22:37] and coverage from my district of what's covered in my plan
[2:22:41] and I went to go use it and they're saying
[2:22:44] they have a different list.
[2:22:46] So that's what I'm hearing.
[2:22:48] And that seems like something we could certainly fix
[2:22:50] and do better at.
[2:22:51] That doesn't, that's not a dollar figure on that, right?
[2:22:54] Is that realistic and a fair ask?
[2:22:59] Well, is it a fair ask?
[2:23:02] Yes.
[2:23:03] The challenge, if you will, is, I think I said earlier,
[2:23:06] is providers making an election whether they want
[2:23:10] to be a part of a network.
[2:23:12] And so that sometimes can be a very fluid thing in and out.
[2:23:16] So...
[2:23:16] When you say fluid, like is there a...
[2:23:19] Maybe we could look at it a little more often,
[2:23:22] or is there a timeline we could adjust or what's fluid like month to month?
[2:23:26] It can happen in 30 days and it can happen in 45 days.
[2:23:35] For whatever reason the doctor's office or the practice decides we don't want to do this.
[2:23:41] Which may be out of your hands.
[2:23:43] And that's completely and usually in those situations we kind of find out about it after the fact.
[2:23:49] And it's like, okay, well, I'm not familiar with Dr. X, and I was not aware that Dr. X left
[2:23:57] the network.
[2:23:59] Sure, sure.
[2:24:00] So is there, so currently today the status quo of updating those coverage lists and provider
[2:24:06] lists.
[2:24:06] Is that a once a year thing?
[2:24:09] Yes, it is.
[2:24:10] Well, the provider lists are perpetually updated through the Etna Navigator online.
[2:24:15] online. And the coverage is, we don't change
[2:24:21] coverage is typically in the middle of the year. It's at the beginning of the year.
[2:24:25] There may be some augmentation that we may go, we need to, I don't know, whatever it
[2:24:33] may be that's not cost effective or people aren't utilizing. And we try to communicate
[2:24:38] that say, hey, this is a benefit that's available to you.
[2:24:41] just trying to see if there's a process that we can do or a quicker timeline on
[2:24:46] something to avoid some of these surprises. I do have one money question which
[2:24:53] is on page two slide two of your presentation and I may have missed this
[2:24:59] apologize but you talk about that it's that yeah the history from 2019 to
[2:25:04] in 2024, this is five years, technically six years,
[2:25:11] the deficit, the average participants,
[2:25:13] and then you have monthly district contributions.
[2:25:16] And that number is flat across for six years at 385.
[2:25:22] That's the contribution we're contributing
[2:25:24] to an individual's plan.
[2:25:26] That is per employee per month.
[2:25:28] Per employee per month.
[2:25:29] And it just struck me, it's a flat line for that many years
[2:25:32] when inflation rises a good 5-6% every year, why is that flat?
[2:25:38] Is there anything we could do to increase that number?
[2:25:40] We could, and it would come out of some other funding source, which has been stagnant since 2019.
[2:25:48] So like salaries and their ability to get salary increases, we'd love to increase that number permanently.
[2:25:53] Now, the 385 is stagnant across the board, but that's what employees can count on every month for the district's contribution.
[2:26:00] They can count on that when they sign up when it has a loss we're funding that to the tune of 19 dollars
[2:26:08] $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
[2:26:17] We had a great year and the fund didn't need it
[2:26:22] 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
[2:26:30] So when you look forward, it's 385 count on it.
[2:26:35] Look back, it was actually 5.30 last year, or 5.21 last year.
[2:26:39] That the district contributed every month.
[2:26:42] Yes, but yeah, thank you, and I respect that.
[2:26:46] So the deficit, like let's take the last year, or plan year 2024.
[2:26:52] 385 was contributed to the employee.
[2:26:55] the, the district had to make up a deficit of 136 per employee, but that, that, that,
[2:27:00] the Pum employee doesn't see that.
[2:27:02] The, the, that's a, a number of your questions.
[2:27:05] The employee does see that.
[2:27:06] The one-thirty-six.
[2:27:07] The one-thirty-six.
[2:27:07] That Mr. Norman would have presented the night would have been much higher had it not been
[2:27:11] for that predecessor.
[2:27:11] All right, not in the contribution, I apologize.
[2:27:13] Yeah, they would be contributing much more out of their premium, out of their pocket.
[2:27:17] And that, holding those costs down as best we can through that contribution, additional
[2:27:22] contribution.
[2:27:22] That is tough to communicate to the employee because they don't see that, right?
[2:27:27] They don't see how the district paying down the deficit keeps the premium even lower than it could have been, right?
[2:27:34] And again, that's why I said earlier, I wanted to get that, it's not shown here, but
[2:27:39] the shock and alpha factor is that it adds up to over $60 million.
[2:27:42] 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.
[2:27:52] of the plan, the losses because expense is healthcare expenses greater than the revenue of employee contributions plus that 385 every month.
[2:28:02] 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.
[2:28:19] And when, I mean, it was that part of, when do we see this number, we don't see this number per se.
[2:28:26] We see a aggregate number in the budget, I'm assuming, that we just approved, correct?
[2:28:33] Okay.
[2:28:33] So, I mean, I just would like to see if there's something we can move and change, so
[2:28:38] that something's more tangible to the employee.
[2:28:40] The contribution would be something they could see and understand but as a benefit, I respect what you're saying, though.
[2:28:48] Thank you, Mr. President, may I ask a clarifying question?
[2:28:52] Are you talking about the district contribution for the employee?
[2:28:57] Yes, okay, so that only benefits the employees who participated in this and not those who do outside.
[2:29:02] 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.
[2:29:09] 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.
[2:29:21] 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.
[2:29:35] In other words, the district can't once you give it, it can't take it the way.
[2:29:39] That's one of the things that factor into not increasing that number.
[2:29:43] We're covering that number from a marketing perspective, it may not work as, from a marketing perspective, but from a physical perspective.
[2:29:51] We're covering that deficit to the tune of $60 million over the time frame you see here.
[2:29:56] and it will be well over $70 million this year.
[2:30:00] 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.
[2:30:29] like whatever that plan incurs, we're not going to dump that back on the employee.
[2:30:35] Like when we're in these deficits, we're taking care of the deficits as well.
[2:30:39] 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,
[2:30:51] employee doesn't care about any of that, right?
[2:30:54] Like they just look at what is my, what am I paying per month?
[2:30:59] And I think I remember that about with TRS active care,
[2:31:06] and then the state only contributing the $200 and whatever dollars in a long time.
[2:31:12] But so I'm just wondering, and this is something Dr. Gurgorski,
[2:31:18] I don't know just how we try to make sure that information gets out.
[2:31:24] Somehow, you know what I mean?
[2:31:25] Where our employees understand that our district is not just leaving us hanging out to drive,
[2:31:33] that our folks really are.
[2:31:34] They're looking at plans.
[2:31:36] They're trying to find the best plans.
[2:31:38] We hire professionals who does that for a living to also help us with that.
[2:31:46] 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.
[2:32:07] So we'll go back in May, June.
[2:32:09] I think you said Mr. Newman and look at, you know, plans again and go through that process.
[2:32:16] I'm just also thinking that in the survey, the survey is important.
[2:32:23] Like what gets asked is important because if we don't ask the right questions, it will turn
[2:32:29] in to stuff.
[2:32:30] You know, maybe you don't want to say like, or you could say something like, um,
[2:32:37] ignoring planned costs, you know, what is something that, you know, used an employee?
[2:32:42] Did you encounter, you know, something frustrating or didn't work?
[2:32:48] Or, you know, I, again, I'm not a, I know so little about health insurance.
[2:32:53] But something that would, would give some valuable feedback to you so that when you are,
[2:32:59] or when you're going back and when the end of folks if we get this tremendous amount
[2:33:04] of feedback or get very little, you know, if you get eight people in the district who
[2:33:10] say something, either the people didn't, you know, it wasn't a big enough deal because
[2:33:16] you know how that goes like go to a restaurant and you don't usually take a review unless
[2:33:20] it's really awesome or it's really bad.
[2:33:23] And so, but I'm just wondering if there is something, again, something that has already been generated.
[2:33:31] So, I'm certainly not asking you to go reinvent the wheel and come up with your own survey and figure that.
[2:33:37] But if there's something that could go out to the employees, it can't be just all those years in education.
[2:33:43] 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.
[2:33:50] But if there's something that could be relatively quick and still, you know, get the information
[2:33:57] that you need, so that when you go back to talk to those folks and there, you know, we
[2:34:02] rate a bit out again that whoever it is, that they get to hear like, hey, here's some
[2:34:09] of the things our employees have some significant concerns about and if they, you know, and at
[2:34:15] At that point, at least, I don't know that, again, not knowing the insurance world.
[2:34:20] I don't know if that's negotiating power or not.
[2:34:23] It probably is not.
[2:34:25] I'll tell you this, we're of such, and Mr. Hershey coming into this, is we're of such
[2:34:30] size that we do, we leverage that A plus the sit in behind you.
[2:34:35] Oh, that's awesome.
[2:34:37] That's awesome.
[2:34:37] And our size.
[2:34:39] And we leverage that very, very hard.
[2:34:43] I feel very strongly about that and I have this pen on and it's very, I take it personally.
[2:34:52] It hurts me when I see the way inflation is going in healthcare.
[2:34:58] We pull every lever we can and I use KDI SD as best I can each and every day.
[2:35:04] In every little thing that we do.
[2:35:05] Sure. I know like the other trustees said it's a tough job and it's a tough
[2:35:14] world to navigate and so many factors beyond our control right like what's
[2:35:18] going on in the market and unexpected situations and all that but I'm just so
[2:35:25] I'm just wondering just maybe a couple things again something that our folks know
[2:35:32] know what we're doing. That word gets out so it's not just if you happen to see the
[2:35:38] board meeting Monday night.
[2:35:41] And, and then the other piece of just if there's something
[2:35:44] out there, they, I mean, you guys are the experts, so I'm not going to pretend to be, but that
[2:35:50] you could look at that there's something you go, you know what, this would be good information
[2:35:54] for us. Somebody's already, even if it's in the private sector, you know, they've developed
[2:35:58] up something, we love our employees to be able to send this into us and we feel like we
[2:36:05] get some good data from it.
[2:36:08] Just so there's something, because I understand, I remember the days, by the way, of the committees,
[2:36:16] the benefits, advisory, and I can remember sending folks over and you're right, the plan's
[2:36:23] 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
[2:36:30] a criticism of anybody but you're right. That's the first thing. I mean my you know my daughter
[2:36:36] and son-in-law working this district and that's the first thing. Dad insurance is going up you know
[2:36:43] and so I get that but but then you have folks like we heard tonight that you know when a comment is
[2:36:52] made I'm willing to pay more if we get something that works and and you know I
[2:36:57] don't know how much of this is a one-off situation. I pray that it is and I pray
[2:37:04] that we can get that fixed and that that folks can get what they need but I
[2:37:10] just feel like we we've got to get some employee feedback and then we need to
[2:37:15] let our folks know what we what we are doing as a district to try to help them to
[2:37:19] the best of our ability.
[2:37:21] I know it's hard when we don't have the money and we're not being funded in a way that
[2:37:28] allows us to do all the extra things like insurance, insurance, that's a biggie for everybody.
[2:37:37] And so I'll wrap that up, but just a couple of thoughts before we leave this.
[2:37:43] Mr. President may have had one thing.
[2:37:47] So on that survey that we haven't talked about, and I know I suggested that early on.
[2:37:54] But that could also be your, like Mr. Cross was saying, that could also double as the informational part.
[2:38:03] I mean, that information about what we're already doing could be on that survey.
[2:38:09] So that could be a double duty.
[2:38:11] But also just as a side note, insurance companies deny people for things all the time.
[2:38:20] We got denied today for an epic pen for my daughter.
[2:38:23] So I'm just saying and we're not, I don't work for KDSD.
[2:38:28] So I'm just saying that this is a problem, this is an insurance problem.
[2:38:32] This isn't necessarily a KDISD problem.
[2:38:36] Our Mr. Nowman problem, Mr. Harris problem.
[2:38:38] This is just, so this is not something that's going to be solved or anything because we're not the insurance companies.
[2:38:46] But just to have a little bit more an advocate type person or information or something like that,
[2:38:53] at least the people can know that we're thinking of them, we're not going to solve those problems so probably.
[2:39:00] I hate that but that's just the way it is right now.
[2:39:04] Now,
[2:39:06] as I look at the numbers, I think the other way to look at this too, that monthly deficit contribution,
[2:39:12] if we're in private industry, would have been increases in monthly payments for every employee.
[2:39:19] Because they're not, a private company's not going to go $16 million in the whole insurance for people to offer.
[2:39:26] 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.
[2:39:36] 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.
[2:39:54] I'm not self-insured, I don't get that option.
[2:39:57] But I do echo what the board said, that I think a lot of our employees understand those costs are increasing.
[2:40:10] 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.
[2:40:21] So I know what I'm hearing in the entire board says, we want to provide the best we can to our employees.
[2:40:31] 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.
[2:40:40] And I know that's your, that's everybody's desire in this room, too.
[2:40:45] So thank you board, any more questions or comments?
[2:40:48] I said one last comment. I just did a real quick thank you.
[2:40:52] Etna doesn't report its annual earnings, but as of last year it is assumed based off
[2:41:00] of CVS health that Etna did take in $60.6 billion in 2024.
[2:41:07] So I don't want to do a survey. I don't want to have our employees do a survey that gives
[2:41:18] gives them false hope that a $60.6 billion health company cares that they're upset.
[2:41:26] I care that you're upset.
[2:41:27] I care that you're getting denied.
[2:41:29] I think it's criminal.
[2:41:31] I don't think ethnic cares.
[2:41:33] I want to be totally honest.
[2:41:35] So what I would rather you spend your time doing is finding ways to make this work for
[2:41:40] our employees that are struggling.
[2:41:43] They just got raises this last year,
[2:41:48] what are they supposed to do?
[2:41:51] How are they supposed to do this?
[2:41:53] How are they supposed to keep their head above water?
[2:41:56] And I know it's not your fault.
[2:41:57] I said this to you privately, this is not you, I know that.
[2:42:03] But I appreciate this board wanting to hear your complaints, I do.
[2:42:08] But I don't want you having the false hope that these complaints are somehow going to make
[2:42:13] a hill of beans worth a difference to a company that makes $60.6 billion, doesn't it?
[2:42:21] That's a really awful hard truth to swallow.
[2:42:25] So, again, I would rather you spend your time finding ways that we can make this work
[2:42:31] for our employees instead of giving them something to scream at a wall.
[2:42:35] Well,
[2:42:40] Mr. President, for a point of clarification.
[2:42:43] Yes, Fox.
[2:42:45] My criticism on you.
[2:42:46] No, I just want to make sure that you know that I was not asking for a survey to go to Etna.
[2:42:52] I want to survey to how can you, do you need more people to help them navigate?
[2:42:58] And if that's what you need, and that provides a service to them, that's let us know what you need.
[2:43:07] people are expensive.
[2:43:09] I'm not making any commitments for Dr. Gorgorski.
[2:43:12] He's broken his eyes, wish I would stop talking.
[2:43:14] But if what they're saying is, I don't understand what I'm getting.
[2:43:20] And I signed up for that one because that's what my next door teacher neighbor
[2:43:24] signed up for.
[2:43:25] She has entirely different needs than I have, right?
[2:43:29] She has, you know, young children.
[2:43:32] I'm at this age where I'm going to need more medical.
[2:43:34] I don't need to sign it for what she signed up for.
[2:43:37] Who do you have who can help me understand it?
[2:43:39] Those kinds of things, whatever that feedback is, that would be that you can provide them information
[2:43:46] or hand holding to get them through what that looks like and why is the deductible so much?
[2:43:52] Those kinds of things, it's information and helping them because we're not going to be able to lower the cost.
[2:43:59] And I appreciate what you said.
[2:44:01] I agree, Etna doesn't care, they don't care how many times you're complaining, but
[2:44:05] if you could provide something to get to the Etna people for them or how to do that.
[2:44:10] 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.
[2:44:23] Thank you so much for taking our suggestion.
[2:44:25] Thank you, Mr. President.
[2:44:27] Any more questions for?
[2:44:28] All right, we'll now move on to item 7.8, Mr. Norman, you're still presenting,
[2:44:35] discuss and consider Board approval of claims administration for our unemployment compensation by TASB risk management fund.
[2:44:43] The district shall comply with the provisions of the Texas Unemployment Act,
[2:44:47] Labor Code 201.26.
[2:44:49] 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
[2:44:59] This is prov-
[2:45:00] 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.
[2:45:29] for plan year 25th of 26.
[2:45:33] Any questions, Board?
[2:45:43] I do like the fact, I mean, when we go back years, when we talk about all the ways
[2:45:47] that unemployment claims were just being approved by our government during COVID
[2:45:52] time and all the fraud that was happening, it's crazy to go back and look at 833
[2:45:57] claims back then and now just 183, like significant difference.
[2:46:02] I will add this just parenthetically speaking.
[2:46:06] We've had seen a spike here recently in the last few weeks in fraudulent
[2:46:11] claims being filed, and we fight those vigorously.
[2:46:18] See, there's just no questions.
[2:46:20] Thank you.
[2:46:21] That's good.
[2:46:22] We'll now move on to item 7.9 discussing, instead of board approval, for the district
[2:46:27] performance objectives.
[2:46:28] Our presenter is Natalie Martinez, executive director of School Improvement.
[2:46:31] Good evening, President Redmond, Dr. Gregorski and school board.
[2:46:35] Each year, the board is asked to review and approve the district performance objectives
[2:46:39] that guide the district improvement planning process.
[2:46:42] The performance objectives are all aligned to the nine strategic goals that are created
[2:46:47] through three different processes.
[2:46:49] Five of them are legally required, 17, or from our strategic design, and nine of them are
[2:46:54] created from a needs assessment process.
[2:46:56] You received a copy of the proposed district performance objectives, and at this time, I will answer any questions you may have.
[2:47:04] Any questions, Board?
[2:47:10] No questions, and we'll move on to item 7.10, discussing considered Board approval of the campus performance objectives.
[2:47:17] 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.
[2:47:26] the performance objectives are aligned to the district strategic goals and drive their work throughout
[2:47:31] the year. At this time, I will answer any questions you may have.
[2:47:34] Any questions of work?
[2:47:36] I just have a question, Mr. President.
[2:47:38] Mr. Champagne.
[2:47:38] 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.
[2:47:45] So all the campuses have their performance objectives and just for clarity purposes, who monitors
[2:47:55] who is watching and making sure that each campus is trying to obtain the goals that they've set up for themselves.
[2:48:05] So within our plan for learning system, there are quarterly reports and our assistance superintendents,
[2:48:12] along with my team as well, we go in and monitor which ones have been reviewed.
[2:48:16] So the principal and their teams are reviewing them and then my team and the assistance superintendents go to see that they are reviewed.
[2:48:23] And then we turn in a report, at least on the district side, for all of those performance objectives.
[2:48:30] There's multiple things in place to ensure.
[2:48:32] And then if they're somehow not meeting their goals, we do rely on the principles to go through that process.
[2:48:40] But they also have their assistance supers to help them.
[2:48:44] Absolutely.
[2:48:44] Okay, that's it.
[2:48:46] Okay.
[2:48:48] No further questions, thank you.
[2:48:50] 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.
[2:49:13] Good evening, President Redmond, members of the board, Dr. Gagorski.
[2:49:16] 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.
[2:49:23] 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.
[2:49:32] Now, that is, so to give a little context, that's 49 out of 1,620 sections.
[2:49:38] So when you look at it, big picture like that, that's a pretty small number.
[2:49:41] 37 of the 49 are over by just one student, so I think that's important information as well.
[2:49:48] And as the board knows, we've talked about this in the past, this is after our enrollment
[2:49:52] balance and process where we look at grade level class sections and class sizes and if campuses
[2:49:59] have low enough numbers where they can afford to maybe have a reduction in staff, then we're
[2:50:08] able to use those staff members at other campuses that are struggling with class size.
[2:50:12] So, we've completed that process, but then each year, even after that process, we still have some waivers.
[2:50:18] And, you know, an example, so the enrollment balancing process, very collaborative process,
[2:50:23] our systems, superintendents, elementary, principals very involved in the process and
[2:50:29] our decision makers in that process.
[2:50:31] And so, you know, it happens each and every year that we may go to a principal and
[2:50:37] say you're slated to receive additional teacher or growth, and that principal might say no,
[2:50:44] I appreciate it, but I'm good. Even though I know I've got a couple of sections that may be over,
[2:50:48] a few sections that are over about one student, I've got a great dynamic in that grade, right?
[2:50:53] And we hear them say that to open up another class section and have a new teacher that sometimes
[2:50:58] that can be disruptive, and I'm going to rock with the team that I've got. They're happy where they
[2:51:05] So actually, that scenario is the bulk of these 49 waivers.
[2:51:12] 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.
[2:51:25] That's not what this is.
[2:51:27] We're just required to report each individual section pre-K through four that is over the 22 to one.
[2:51:33] I mean, I think, you know, when we do campus staffing, we staff at 22 to 1.
[2:51:38] 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.
[2:51:53] So, anyways, that's what we have for you tonight, and I'll take any questions.
[2:51:58] Any questions for Mr. President?
[2:52:01] Mr. Fox.
[2:52:02] So Mr. Schisch, if we were to not have waivers or not be able to get the waivers, we would need 49 more teachers.
[2:52:10] We would need 49 more classrooms with desk, and that would add a significant amount to our roster, right?
[2:52:22] Which teachers cost money and all the things that happen.
[2:52:24] and that would mean that instead of having 23 children,
[2:52:31] now you're rebalancing the whole grade level, right?
[2:52:33] And so everybody, all the children,
[2:52:36] it's a fruit basket turnover,
[2:52:38] and then everybody's gonna be redistributed
[2:52:40] after you've made friends, you know your teacher,
[2:52:42] you've had the back to school night,
[2:52:43] and you have your PTA, rim moms, all the things.
[2:52:46] And now everybody's mad, right?
[2:52:49] So I've been in elementary schools where we had to do it
[2:52:52] because, you know, three classes went over.
[2:52:55] And you switch them all around.
[2:52:58] And all the parents are mad because they want their children
[2:53:00] with that teacher or they want the children
[2:53:02] with the friends they already had.
[2:53:04] So when it's over by one, which is, did you say 37 of the 49?
[2:53:08] 37 of the 49.
[2:53:09] Of the 49 are over by one student.
[2:53:12] Maybe it's more beneficial all around to keep our students
[2:53:16] together and give extra help to a teacher
[2:53:19] who might be over or something.
[2:53:21] So it's financially better, it's emotionally and academically better to keep everybody together once you've already gotten started.
[2:53:29] 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.
[2:53:36] 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.
[2:53:47] Or one, it would take the decision making away from the principal and sometimes they purposefully do things.
[2:53:53] But yes, it would require us to add a significant number of teachers.
[2:53:57] Mr. Redmond.
[2:53:58] Mr. Seany.
[2:53:59] Okay.
[2:54:00] Just a procedural question for you.
[2:54:03] So understand the way versus the beginning of the year.
[2:54:05] What about if like, after Christmas a class is goes over 22, or that class that's 23, goes up to 24.
[2:54:14] Do we have to file another way, do we have to file?
[2:54:16] I should have asked this a while ago, but-
[2:54:18] No, no, it's a great question.
[2:54:20] So, yes, so with this approval, so here we have 49 currently, okay?
[2:54:25] But with this approval, this does give Dr.
[2:54:27] Gorsi the approval to file additional waivers throughout the year, if that happens.
[2:54:31] But last year, if I remember correctly, I should have written this down.
[2:54:34] I think it's very similar number of waivers, maybe 47, but after that approval,
[2:54:39] there were no additional waivers for the remainder of the year.
[2:54:43] Okay.
[2:54:47] Thank you, Mr. Schusch.
[2:54:50] Do you know what's going on at Campbell Elementary?
[2:54:53] So that's a good question.
[2:54:54] That one does have, I think they had 13 waiters.
[2:54:58] And that was actually one of the principals and campuses that said that they were fine,
[2:55:03] that they were slated to get an additional teacher, but the principal said,
[2:55:07] I'm good where I am.
[2:55:08] I'm comfortable where I am and I want to sit tight.
[2:55:10] So, and here's the thing, you know, we're here to support the principles, right?
[2:55:15] And they're making the best decisions for their campus.
[2:55:17] So, and sometimes we'll get asked, well, if I say no now, can I not get one in the future?
[2:55:22] Well, of course not.
[2:55:23] You know, if, let's say they continue to grow and in a Christmas, you know, they said, oh, you know,
[2:55:27] I've thought about that more, I'd like to go ahead and add, then we'll do that at that time.
[2:55:32] Okay, okay.
[2:55:33] And then it's important what you said, that 37 of the 49 classes that we're talking
[2:55:39] about that are over the 22 to 1, or just by 1, excuse me?
[2:55:46] Or 23, yes, ma'am.
[2:55:47] Okay, and so then that leaves 12 other classes, what are they all about?
[2:55:53] Yes, so roughly.
[2:55:55] You have 9 or over by 2 and 3 or over by 3.
[2:56:00] Okay, so that gives perspective on this.
[2:56:05] Okay, I think that's all I got.
[2:56:07] Thank you.
[2:56:08] 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.
[2:56:37] kids my strongest students so she survived but mom was having a meltdown but anyway that
[2:56:46] was a long time ago I'm trying to get over it but also the thing is too is sometimes when
[2:56:53] you have to redo all these teachers you have to disrupt another school because there may
[2:56:59] be another school that I won't pick on but may have 15 kids per class and then you could
[2:57:05] could find them and oh well here's an extra teacher over here at this other school that
[2:57:09] we could combine all those kids and take this teacher over to this school to make another
[2:57:14] teacher and then now all those kids at that school are unhappy and that teacher is not
[2:57:18] happy you know so it's very very very very like a domino effect thing and I just suggested
[2:57:26] if it's just one kid or even two kids and the teachers go with it it's a lot better just
[2:57:31] to try to stay that way because I just know what we went through personally and it has
[2:57:38] by the way I've been 21 years and I'm still get an eye to which when I think about it.
[2:57:42] So I appreciate what you do, I know it's probably like a juggling act and I don't know.
[2:57:48] It's probably a very complicated process for the principals because I've seen that process
[2:57:54] this too, where they're placing all the kids in all classes and that's an SCO, an elementary,
[2:58:00] a previous elementary principal sitting in the audience and I know she knows I'm talking
[2:58:03] about it's very complicated so I really appreciate all the work that's been done in this and I feel
[2:58:09] very good with it personally.
[2:58:15] Any other questions for it?
[2:58:18] Thank you.
[2:58:20] We'll move on to number eight, information items, 8.1 donated items or donated items list
[2:58:27] This has been received, 8.2 recap for Board Member request for information, Madam Secretary.
[2:58:34] We captured any request from the Board.
[2:58:37] Did you have anything, did you all have anything?
[2:58:40] Oh, I just had a question about donated items.
[2:58:42] Ms. Kuzil?
[2:58:44] For the 10 commandments that are donated, I thought Dr. Gorski or something or Dr. Mr. Redman was going to.
[2:58:54] But it's SB 10, people are wanting to donate them.
[2:59:00] And I don't see that as something we should be moving on a monthly basis as part of this donation report.
[2:59:08] So just wanted to, wanted to adjust that when they're donated,
[2:59:14] they need to come here to the administration building as you had said, Dr. Gorgorski.
[2:59:19] So they do have to be a certain size and they can't have whatever websites and such on it.
[2:59:28] 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.
[2:59:41] So is that permissible here?
[2:59:43] I mean, does anyone have any different feelings on that?
[2:59:47] I think number one, we are going to hang them when they're donated.
[2:59:51] I don't think the conversation is, will they be hung or not hung right, as soon as we
[2:59:56] get them?
[2:59:57] No, that was a question, and so that's what I wanted to clarify.
[3:00:00] Okay, that we're not waiting on this monthly board meeting to approve the donation before they can be hung.
[3:00:06] 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
[3:00:17] situation as something that would be donated that we want to make sure we're receiving.
[3:00:22] Obviously, there's no discussion about not hanging them.
[3:00:25] We, I mean, the state law says, when we receive them, we hang them.
[3:00:29] Mr. Redman, let me step in here.
[3:00:31] This board has policy, CDC, local, it's a local board policy.
[3:00:36] And it talks about the board having final authority to accept unsolicited gifts,
[3:00:41] which is why we present the items to the board on a monthly basis.
[3:00:47] I will tell you, we're not in actively soliciting the ten commandments.
[3:00:52] Postures were also not not soliciting the Ten Commandments Postures, we're simply following the law.
[3:00:57] So we've given instructions to folks that are donating those items that they come to the campus to come to the ESC.
[3:01:03] 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.
[3:01:12] 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.
[3:01:18] So we get them, put them on the board agenda.
[3:01:21] Once the board sees them, then we will put them up at the campuses.
[3:01:26] So that's the plan, that's the process.
[3:01:29] 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.
[3:01:38] So there's not room in the policy for something that state law to hang when you receive it?
[3:01:43] I mean, because there could be a whole month or so before they can be hung, isn't there a problem with that?
[3:01:55] Or could we handle, use, treat these differently, something that's in the law.
[3:02:02] So how about this donated list ended on 826, would we be able to get an updated list from Monday?
[3:02:10] Okay, then we would have up to the date on that one specific item.
[3:02:17] It's a question for Mr. Smith.
[3:02:19] His team handles all donated items.
[3:02:22] There's a process, everything comes through electronically.
[3:02:25] So Mr. Smith, how feasible is that to update the donated items list between now and Monday?
[3:02:36] It's feasible that that can happen.
[3:02:38] Now, we're relying on the campuses in the district to inform us of those donations.
[3:02:44] 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.
[3:03:03] Now again, somebody can be making a donation of that right now, and nobody knows about that in this room.
[3:03:11] And we won't know about it in my office until that gets there on that form.
[3:03:17] But yeah, that form can be updated, sure.
[3:03:23] 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?
[3:03:33] I just say we can find out, we can find out this week what we've got donated.
[3:03:38] We can work on that and get you a list for Monday.
[3:03:42] So you can look at it on Monday, but again, I will tell you, you're talking about state law.
[3:03:47] We've done this once.
[3:03:49] We did this with the end-God, we trust signs, and so we have a process in place, and
[3:03:53] we want to want to make sure that everything's hung, everything's hung appropriately.
[3:03:58] It's not just slapped up on the wall.
[3:04:00] I mean, it's, you know, Ted's team does a good job with that, but we have, you know,
[3:04:05] the process that we've got to follow.
[3:04:07] Mr. President, is this what you're saying is just vote next week that any time we get a donation
[3:04:14] of those we're going to go ahead and approve it to be hung as long as it's within the measurements
[3:04:19] and all that. You're saying just pre-approved all at once?
[3:04:22] That's one of my questions.
[3:04:23] Yeah, I like that idea.
[3:04:25] Yeah.
[3:04:26] Mr. Ritt, are you saying every month we have to do?
[3:04:29] No, just for every campus, like pre-emptively accept them.
[3:04:33] As long as they meet the criteria of the State, yeah, I think that's nice.
[3:04:38] Oh, okay, yes, and that's what I'm trying to suggest.
[3:04:41] Okay, that's what you're saying?
[3:04:42] I'm trying to.
[3:04:43] Okay, yeah, I apologize.
[3:04:44] You know, our donations here are way different than the standard Ten Commandment posters
[3:04:50] that are going to maybe hopefully be coming in.
[3:04:52] I give what you guys are saying.
[3:04:53] Well, that's some on the agenda next week, okay?
[3:04:56] By worry, it would be that at some point, we're setting up a different protocol for other
[3:05:00] items that are not just, yeah, there's something that, another item that's being donated
[3:05:07] that, no, we're going to cheat these differently, so.
[3:05:11] Okay, thank you.
[3:05:12] Well, would it, I mean, this is mandated by law, right?
[3:05:17] So, would the other items, I guess, this is a little bit different because this isn't
[3:05:21] just something that's not, just something that's donated just out of the kindness of someone's heart,
[3:05:26] I mean, I guess it is, but those don't come with,
[3:05:30] mandates by state law to be hung and then accepted.
[3:05:35] So I think there's a little bit of an asterisk there with what you're saying.
[3:05:39] We're not talking about the same thing, there's a difference.
[3:05:42] 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.
[3:05:51] Well, and Mr. President, I think it's prudent that, you know, if somebody wants to donate
[3:05:58] something to an athletic team, right?
[3:06:01] You want to have the board make sure it fits the criteria of our policies, right?
[3:06:06] But this is different because this is state law.
[3:06:11] So that's why I feel like there's no, it feels to me like red tape and it feels like we're
[3:06:18] not being good faith in applying the law to me, if we delay and delay and delay.
[3:06:27] So that's why a preemptive vote on this I think would be very, this calls for that in my opinion.
[3:06:35] Mr. President, I think what they're saying makes complete sense.
[3:06:40] We're on this list today, there's an ice cream party for back to school.
[3:06:43] Well, that's already been consumed, and we're approving it after the fact as like, you know,
[3:06:48] someone donated it as kind of a thank you, and we're kind of being like, thank you.
[3:06:52] So, yeah, I think it's perfectly fine to say that we're okay with those going in as they
[3:06:57] come in, Dr. Gorski, your staff just executed as you can.
[3:07:03] All right, we'll work on that.
[3:07:05] So, yeah, that makes sense.
[3:07:06] So, again, they point to Madam Secretary, is there any requests from the Board?
[3:07:11] I did not hear anything.
[3:07:15] All right, well then future board meetings will have a regular board meeting on Monday, September 22, 2025.
[3:07:22] This being there being no further business before the board, this meeting is adjourned.
[3:07:26] The time is 9.30 pm.