Mike, thank you very much. The board will recess in a closed meeting into the board support conference room, as Permitted by the texas open meetings act code.
chapter 551072 and 551074. The board and the superintendent will discuss personnel and land matter and we will go Into closed session at 6:02 p.m..
can I just recognize real quick, I want to recognize mrs. Bieber for being here. So thank you so much for for letting us have ken.
I know it's going to be at least one monday evening a month.
so thank you so much. I appreciate you. Plus a tuesday coming up for sure.
all right. Thank you. He's already sworn in, so. Yeah. All right. We will go into closed session at 6:02 p.m..
somebody knew it was 7:00. All right. We will go ahead and reconvene into open session at 7 p.m.
and we will start with our pledge of allegiance.
it's like the united states.
are.
right.
thank you. And I do believe as pastor john wolf here.
oh, mr. Wolf, you will come up for invocation. We appreciate it.
thank you so much. Thank you, lord. Thank you. And I should say from crossroads church.
thank you, carl church. That's right. Yes. If you mind waiting, let's pray.
most graciously. Heavenly father, we thank you so much for this evening. Father, I thank you for this privilege.
and it's an honor, father, to be here, to be involved. God, I thank you for this night where work is being done.
god, we come before you. We humbly ask for your favor. We ask for your leading, your guidance.
father god, as I thank you for this this group of people who who lead and govern the Leading of our school.
I thank you for those who are interested, who come wanting to be part and putting their Input in.
and father we were excited about this school year, father, but not just about what takes Place tonight.
but god, we ask your favor upon this school year. Father, may our students be educated.
may our objectives be met. Father and god, I pray that you'd give these folks wisdom, discernment and knowledge as They lead our schools.
father, I ask for your favor once again this year. Father, protect us and bless.
and we pray this in jesus name. Amen. Thank you.
thank you, mr. Wolf. Appreciate that. As far as introduction and roll call.
here. Here.
thank you. We'll go into the reports of the superintendent. Mr. Gallagher. Yeah.
president olsen and board members. First, I want to thank mr. Wolf for being here tonight and also welcome him home.
this was his high school. For those that may not know, he went to high school here.
and I had the pleasure of touring this building with him and reliving a lot and relive He'd relive some of some of the memories from his day as a student here and shared
about the rock wall. So lots of fun things happen at the rock hall back in the day.
so thank you, mr. Wolfe. Yeah. Mr. Roberts is going to present on the first day of school give a brief summary of how the First school went.
yeah. Thank you, mr. Gallagher. President olson, board of trustees.
superintendent gallagher, first, I want to start off and say congratulations to mr.
bieber. There wasn't very much time at all. Put him right to work and he's ready to go.
and I'll take a few minutes. This time of year, we always summarize and share experiences that we had the first day of School.
I will say first couple of days. Talk about thursday and friday directly.
and just like pastor wolfe, I will say that we are very excited about this upcoming School year and I'll start my quick presentation, by this way,
and I think it sums it up. So thursday afternoon at dismissal time at oak point elementary, I was helping some kids Get on school busses and
saw two first grade boys walking by with a teacher.
and I heard the teacher say, did you have a great first day? And the young boy said it was the best day ever.
and so I think that is what we saw consistently on all of the campuses that we attended.
there were several of us that made it to every campus multiple days, and we had teams out Across the district supporting when
we when we could. And so very involved in getting students to and from classes and getting them settled.
I'll use a page to really wrap up our my summary.
our week started on monday, august 8th with prep the pack.
that is every transition that we have with our students. We have them come in early before the first traditional day.
so incoming kinder incoming sixth graders and incoming ninth graders, we have a day with Them where it gets them settled, gets
them in their routines, getting them to know their classroom teacher, so on and so forth.
and so our great start to the school year started on monday and then it finished Obviously at the end of the day on friday, where we had
incredible experiences and opportunities for our students.
I will conclude my quick update and I'll use a page from really the high schools Blueprint, which they are really
talking about thriving, not just surviving and really taking it to the next level and Really growing and really working to be
successful. And I think all of the adults that we came across on thursday and friday are Really creating that environment and those experiences for our
students, that thriving mentality. And that's one thing that made us so excited to look forward to this new school year.
so anyway, it was a great time and a great first two days and we're headed in the right Direction.
so any questions from anyone?
all right. Thank you guys for your support. Thank you, sir robert. All right.
next, I would like to ask rick martin, our executive director for construction, to Provide an update for the board and for the community.
good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for the opportunity to share this information with you.
we will. Show you our numbers first. Program is still healthy.
I'll skim through these and get you to the bottom line.
everything that was in the bond has been identified and price tag put to it.
some of it is still being scoped, but we appear to have the funds to be able to complete Everything that was in that in that program.
and this is just a list of completed programs, things that we've done projects, Renovations, conversions, new stuff, projects nearing
completion, the district wide spc three, we are in close out for that and we should Receive our closeout documents this week.
the indoor facility. I can talk more when we take a look at that, as well as the welding shop expansion.
there is your indoor facility. Walk through it today.
we have our tco for the indoor field portion today.
we expect to have the first floor with the locker room and the major coaches, football Coaches offices, the weight room.
I expect to have that by the end of this week and then another week we'll have the second Floor.
so by the end of this month, we expect to have full occupancy on that facility.
this is a good shot because it shows some of the other things that were involved in this Program the football, the track, the turf fields, the two baseball, the baseball softball,
the tennis court resurfacing. Those are all items that were in this bond that have all been completed.
some more. Different looks.
this. This was taken two weeks ago when they were still putting in the field and stripes.
that's all completely done now.
and the welding the welding shop expansion. This is also done.
they have already done the punch work in there. We expect to get our occupancy there this week as well that we added a classroom, we took The old indoor weight room, cut it in
half and put two classrooms. This will now support all the indoor sports, whereas the new indoor facility will support All the outdoor sports.
this was the space a couple of weeks ago. It's all completely finished now and furnished.
it's still under construction. We're actually probably pretty much done or got some final things that are being done.
we have a few things that didn't are still in transit that haven't made it here yet, but Those are fairly minor.
we've had some pretty good operations plus.
meetings, a lot of training. This place has been absolutely packed the last couple of weeks and we're still here.
this front lot. Don't know if you noticed coming in. It's now been striped.
there's a decision being made here lately or shortly about replacing perhaps the rest of The asphalt parking that's out front there, not just repairing it, but
maybe replacing it with concrete to match. That may be something that comes to you here next month, I would think, or if not before.
the space that we're in now.
this will probably be my last report on this one just because there's not that much more To talk about.
ok lebanon access drive. If you've been over by strike, you've noticed the construction work that's happening There.
you didn't see any activity there in the last few days, and that's because they have to Let the lime that they've mixed in with the soil after they've cut down to the
right level, it has to cook. It has to sit there at work for 48 hours before they do anything.
so I suspect they'll be able to get in there and start doing their forming by the end of This week.
and we'll probably start seeing some of that stuff coming back together in the next few Weeks.
I should have some finished pictures for you. The next report. Zelda's early childhood, we have started the deconstruction of some of The
finishes on the inside. If you want to go over there and take a look at the mob, you need to go now because Another week it's going to all be gone.
we're working. We're on schedule for that. We started our oic meetings that we meet every week and have walked through it several Times.
it's able to take a group of our future teachers through it.
and I think none of them throw anything at us. So I think they like what they saw.
other activities. Again, closeouts we do have we finally finalized all the closeouts for Walker middle school.
still working on them. On strike. Prestwick we're done.
closeout procedures and phase two. We're done with that. We'll receive phase three, close out documents this week.
still have some safety and security items that need to be scoped. No, we have funds left available to do some of that, as well as some additional exterior Campus improvements and playground expansions covers that kind of thing.
additional high school work revolving around the athletic areas that will be vacated.
we still have to do some design work there and get it scoped out as to what it's going to Convert to.
feature bond planning. You'll hear more about that tonight.
it leaves me with that.
any questions? Thank you.
appreciate it. All right. Thank you, mr. Martin. Next, I would like to ask our facilitator and presenter for the long range facilities Planning committee, mrs.
serrano. Winfrey if you would come up and share with the board the recommendations from The long range facilities planning committee.
good evening. Do, and we got it loaded. Okay, great. Thank you, mr.
gallagher. I appreciate that. Again, I am sirona winfrey representing the long range facilities planning committee.
since the bond. Did not pass.
sadly, in may, we got back together to discuss our options moving forward.
and I believe we have a couple committee members, if you would stand because you worked On it, too.
you worked hard. I would like them to be recognized.
so obviously this was a commitment, you know, of time. And, you know, we were lucky to have folks that were dedicated to trying to come up with Ways for us to meet
the challenges and demands that we are probably going to be seeing here with our Attendance.
we're already actually starting to see. And. Next.
we had three meetings. Obviously we met before when we did the presentation to you back in, I believe it was February.
so we reconvened. We met. Over the three months this summer.
kind of what our options might be moving forward in terms of bonding capacity.
we, you know, had to take into consideration inflation, escalating construction costs.
we discussed project priorities, what changes might be needed.
and we were also able to study the results of a recent poll, which was talking with Voters about issues that were included in the last bond
election. And these were some of the.
considerations. View the highlights from our discussions, including, as I said, the Escalating project costs.
obviously we've missed out on a few months and so the things that we wanted to include Initially, some we could, some we could not.
we wanted to look at reducing the overall total of the bond package, make it a little less Expensive.
reduce the time frame. And we thought it was important to add safety and security projects, you know, which is Something obviously we're always concerned about and the district has
addressed. But even as mindful as we are after the recent uvalde, the situation, Obviously it's very top of mind for a lot of a lot
of the voters here in the district.
so here I'm going to show you and I know you are familiar with all of this, but these are The enrollment projections.
obviously, it's steadily increasing, projected to go from nearly 8300 to more than 10,000 By the 2020 627 school year.
and so while we all talk about projections and looking to the future, I think we are also Equally concerned that, you
know, we're already there. We're already impacted. You know, many of the schools.
we are already seeing the growth that we're going to be seeing across the board.
and here are. Some of the numbers.
the green area that you see there that indicates where we will exceed functional Capacity, which includes oak point, elementary strike middle school next year.
the yellow shows where we are exceeding maximum capacity and we are actually already There at the high school this year.
and were it not for some well-placed portables at point elementary, we would already be There at oak point as well.
one of the pieces of information that we had to work with, which was very helpful, was a Survey that was conducted of voters here in the district.
and. It showed us where their actual concerns were because we initially thought that maybe It was specific projects or things within the bond package
that people were not for or voting against and that kind of thing. And. What we actually found out.
was that the voters didn't really have an issue with any of the items in the package per Se.
they. They were for building schools. They did not want to see portables.
everything that was in there. Was favorable, anywhere from 65 to 84% favorable.
and once they understood more about each of these elements of the initiative, they were Even more favorable.
so you sit there and kind of scratch your head and say, well, if everybody's for Everything, then you know what possibly happened.
and what we found out. Perhaps no great surprise is that those voting against the bond, the majority cited taxes And the economy as
being the reason for for not voting in favor. They simply don't want to pay more money, don't want to see their taxes go up, can't Afford paying more.
we actually saw some specific comments from voters.
they talked about the counties increasing our home values so much, it's gotten very Expensive. I don't want any more increases, especially when I don't have children.
it's getting too expensive to live here. I know they say it doesn't raise our taxes, but how could that be?
I don't want my taxes raised. Bonds are not a good way to address the issue, which I thought was interesting, since Ironically, that's the only way we can address the issue.
but again, that goes to sort of the knowledge and what's out there and trying to educate The voters on what we're trying to do, how this works, and that it actually
will not raise their taxes the way we are proposing it.
so from the survey, some of the recommended messaging and these are the highlights here, Obviously to focus on growth because that is really everyone
understands growth. You drive around little elm, you understand growth.
so again, two more elementary schools. A big expansion at the high school, which is desperately needed.
again, talking about the capacity that we are already reaching and will be reaching in The next few years at our other other schools and
also the financial part of it, which is the other component that, again, the survey was Telling us is very important.
so we are cutting the initial proposal by more than 100 million.
and. To do that. Of course, we had to make some changes.
and there it is. You can see the. Kind of the summary there.
those things I was just discussing. And here's what we gave to you back in may, which you are familiar with, which included The high school renovations, three new elementary schools,
a third middle school, the relocation of the daycare employee, daycare, orchestra, Technology, playground busses.
so that's what we went out with back in may. And sadly. Did not pass.
so going back to the drawing board and after discussion throughout the summer.
what we are now recommending is what you see here. And we have included the escalated costs.
we would table the daycare relocation at this time.
we would reduce the timeline. So we would take out elementary school number nine in middle school number three, which Would be towards the end of the initial period that we had gone out for, which was
about nine or ten years. So we've scaled that back to more.
I'll say near-term things that we need. We have to have that we really need right now.
and you can see we've kept in the technology, the playground, the busses and added, this Is the new part, the safety and security, which we believe is very important
part of this bond initiative.
and again, you can see the total there to 89 five, which again is about 100 million less Than.
the package we went out with. Back in may. And here's the adjusted timeline.
and you can see where everything again, the same as what we had proposed before with the High school editions, elementary school, seven and eight that would be included in this
initiative. And even though we still know that we will most likely need elementary number Nine and middle school number three, that would have to be part of a separate bond
initiative in the coming years.
so the bonding capacity. This is something else we.
we want to stress and we tried to stress, but we obviously need to stress it a little More, is that this can all be accomplished without raising the tax rate.
and everyone focuses on. Yes, but my taxes are going up.
but we need to be able to message and get people to understand that, yes, although your Taxes may be going up, the tax rate is not.
and for instance, as we know, had this passed in may, everyone would still be paying the Same taxes they're paying this year.
and the bond would have already passed and we would have already been underway and Nothing would have been any different for anyone.
but when you see the language that says this is a tax increase, then people immediately Say, well, I don't want to pay more.
and so we think it's important to to not raise the tax rate.
and we want to be able to hopefully convey this information to the voters.
again, the tax rate history. You can see that we have consistently dropped.
it is the lowest tax rate that we've had in more than 14 years, and that includes bond Packages in the interim, including the one, in fact, that rick was just presenting on that
we passed back in 2017. So you can see the 2018 19 school year, we increased it by $0.10.
on the debt service side, but we've continued to drop it on the math side.
so our tax rate is better than it has been, as I said, in 14 years, which is which is a Good message, because it speaks well to how the district is handling its finances, which
is important. And I think people need to understand that, that the districts being good Stewards of the of the tax dollars that they are being given.
so here in a nice, clean version without all of our our work.
this is the the package as we would propose it to the board should you decide to bring it Up for a vote in november.
again the high school additions and renovations, which would start right away.
elementary, seven and eight. Interior and exterior updates as needed. Safety and security as we as we discussed, which would include all existing buildings and The new buildings as they are being built.
so everything would be brought up and it would have the same security measures that each And every campus, the technology infrastructure, again, not
computers that we're talking about, the the wi fi and the other technical capabilities And upgrades that are needed.
as we know, those change almost daily, it seems. Playground equipment orchestra again something that is equitable with other six a.
districts and, of course, busses that we would need as we continue to grow and have Additional schools.
and again, the total would be to 80, 95, which is about 100 million less.
then what we proposed last time. It focuses on growth and how to accommodate that growth.
it is less than what we went out for last time. And again, we can do this without increasing the tax rate.
and then these are just sort of the the highlights, the dates that are coming up.
obviously, this is a decision that would have to be made fairly quickly so that it can be Placed on hopefully on the ballot this november.
any questions? 14 questions.
as winfrey appreciate much. I think key some key things you pointed out there that I'd Like to highlight again was we cut the bond by 109 million from the last one.
but it's actually more than that because we have $25 million in escalations for the same Projects.
plus, on top of that, we've actually added a package of safety and security, which is Very well needed at this point in time.
but I think it's even more than 109 million at this point in time. And also the other key factor I saw there is over the last 20 years, we've passed two Bonds and our taxes are lower than they were back in 2002.
our actual tax rate is is better with all the bonds.
and the thing for the public to remind them is that at this point in time, that $0.47 on The I.n.s., the interest and sinking side was not
going to change. It's going to stay $0.47 for the next probably 15 to 20 years.
that part of the is not going to change the m&a side, which is the maintenance and Operations.
that's a formula from the state. We have very little control over that. So that could go up or down a little bit.
but to your point, taxes are going up from a house value perspective, not necessarily What the district is taxing.
we're actually going down.
any other questions from board members or anything?
ahead. Go ahead. One, I want to thank your committee for coming back to the table after our first go at it Did did not go.
this was an enormous project for you to figure out when we couldn't we didn't want to Lose anything.
right. And I just want to be clear that now we are saying we're delaying some things Because we've had to take such a
massive. As you said, it's more than one. It's a massive hit.
and we did need the extra schools, right? We still still will. And we still will. Number nine in the third.
yes, we will still need. But to make it more palatable to the voters, it's one of those things.
it's like ok. It's very important that we again, those near-term things that we have to have really Like today.
yes. That we can pair it down and do it in bite sized chunks.
right. As opposed to write the whole package. It would have been nice to have it done and not have to go back.
but did did a lot with very little but very little. I hope that people will pay attention to the green and yellow indicators.
yes, because those are just the numbers that we have to live with. The children are here, more are coming.
and we were already hitting capacity at capacity, and we really did need those numbers.
and so when people are looking at that particular part of the report, that's the reality.
and we have to we have to provide an education for the children who are here. Well, and it's it's something that we discussed, too.
the irony is, you know, people say, yes, we need the growth.
you know, we need the schools, and no, we don't want portables. And we're talking about safety and security and we're adding portables.
and there's no way to really make those portables part of what we're trying to do to the Schools.
and so it's really important and we know that, and we're just hoping that we can convey That urgency to the voters.
thank you, mr. Flores. Yes.
so you're in your research when you were interviewing voters, right?
I think it was 47% of the voters were concerned about their tax rate or increasing Correct as a committee if we call for a bond.
have you all discussed ways that we can defuze some of those concerns and how we can Address it with with the community?
and if not, maybe it's something we want to you all want to talk about. Well, it's something that we will be meeting.
beyond select committee members who are you know, we're going to continue to work Together to try to get the information out through direct mail, door to
door, you know, social media. You know, when we passed the bond back in 2017, there was there was a lot of
pushback. You know, then as you get with any with any bond.
but of course, now we understand that. This is the time that we're in.
and with the economy and inflation and potential recession and all of these things that Are happening, it's understandable that people are concerned about writing
a check for whatever reason. So we're really going to try to hone in on the.
it's not it's not raising your tax rate. If this is what you were going to pay, this is what you're still going to pay, whether The bond passes or not.
so it's just trying to sort of kind of hold their hand and walk through a lot of that Because, again, understanding that the language on the on the ballot has to say this is a
tax increase. I mean, that's hard to because somebody just quickly looks at that and thinks, well, Who's lying to me here?
if it says it's a tax increase, how am I going to vote yes for that? So it's going to take some time and hopefully the board of you decide to move forward With this.
that's the messaging to that. You'll be talking with your the folks in in your part of the district.
mr.. Montemayor well, you actually led right into what I was going to say is one of the Things that I heard over and over again is who's lying?
right. I mean, people came up to me and said, you're telling me there's no tax increase? The ballot says they're ballots as it is.
and I think that's going to be a big thing to overcome for all of us, is bridging that On. Well, neither one of us are.
it's just how you look at it, etc.. So, yeah, that'll definitely be next steps. But the other thing that I also wanted to point out is I can already I can already fast Forward to 26 when we go out again.
and the criticism then is going to be we just did this this, we just did this. Didn't we just do this? You're absolutely right.
we did. Why didn't you plan? Why? And we did. Why are you so shortsighted, etc.?
good news is we have video now. We did and it will be archived.
it'll still be shown. But I just want to highlight that too is that through the work of Your committee and the community members within it, I mean, the planning is there and like
mr. Thompson said, the kids are here and the kids are coming. So hopefully this will be one step to get us there and then we can move forward past That.
but those are some things hopefully stay out in the ether. Well, and I say it'll knock wood, it'll obviously be smaller.
I mean, if we're just looking just looking at those two, I understand there may be other Needs by that time, but those those two items, elementary number nine in the middle
school, number three would be the main focus of the next one. So. Fingers crossed.
mr. Gallagher? Yeah. Just. I want to take a minute to thank ms..
winfrey. Thank members of the long range facilities planning committee for being here.
it was it's been a lot of work in this group, has spent many evenings here in this Building, as well as zellers.
we're over there and at several of our campuses. So thank you for your work and we appreciate each one of you all for everything you've Done.
thank you, mary. I want to say again, thank you.
and she's walking off. You're fine. Go ahead. I want to say thank you for working on the community.
and I think as a trustee, I have the unique perspective because I was on the 2017 long Range facilities planning committee and on the first
2022 long range facility planning committee. And one of the aspects because we are putting hopefully this up with a midterm election, We're going to need to really get the education out as well as spread the word because
we're going to have a lot of voters coming to the polls, hopefully.
thank you. Ms.. Flores any citizen input?
I'll remind everybody. We'll call your name up. If you'll come to the front podium. We will give you 5 minutes.
I will have a timer going when there's one minute left. I will give you a one minute warning. And so that way you can have your full 5 minutes.
so the first person I have is. Or is it on here?
garrett ghali. Growly. Sorry, gravely.
garrett. Garrett going once. Garrett going twice.
gear it's not here. Ty phillips.
yeah. My name is ty
phillips. And right now, social media is blowing up. So I'm going to go ahead and make a public statement.
I have started the process for making a formal complaint that this district is in Violation of its own policy.
may 15th school board meeting at the 2:00 hour mark. There is a discussion where mr.
gallagher asks for a broad policy change that would allow the superintendent to pull Books off the shelf during a challenge.
it's a very in-depth discussion, but I'm going to focus on the fact that mr. Gallagher and mr. Blackwood clarified that b policy does not allow for library books to Be removed from circulation unless it violates the penal
code or has been shown to hold no student interest during an annual maintenance.
if a challenge book goes to the formal review process, then the policy states.
a parent's ability to exercise control over instruction and instructional resources, Including library materials, extends only to his or her own
child as set forth in education code. Chapter 26.
mr. Gallagher made it clear that it was not about banning books, and he made it clear in His interpretation of this policy stating, quote, it will not be available for that
parent's child and quote, we are not going to pull it and ban it for all students.
now, in regards to the penal code, if anybody was paying attention when I addressed this Board in june, section c of the penal code states very clearly that it is not a
violation unless in c taken as a whole lacks serious literary, literary, artistic, Political or scientific value.
all elements of a penal code must be met. So during the may meeting, dr.
thompson point blank asked mr. Gallagher if any book had already been removed from the shelf and reviewed in Anticipation of the board approving the policy change.
mr. Gallagher eventually responded that he did not know where the challenge books were, But imagine that they were in the library.
days before that meeting, I was made aware by a now former employee of the school District that perks of being a wallflower was taken from the shelf for review.
now, mr. Gallagher denied in june that any books were rendered in secret, but it was in Fact confirmed that that book was being reviewed without public knowledge.
so therefore, in june I gave my own review of the book to the school board.
that book is now one of several books that have now been removed from circulation.
that book has won multiple awards, such as the number one new york times bestseller for More than a year, three local best books awards and numerous awards for the movie
adaption. The author has a very vivid writing style.
I myself recommended the book to my teenage son so that he could understand some of the Mental health issues that I have dealt with.
because, like the main character, I too was sexually abused as a child and I too dealt With post-traumatic stress disorder.
now librarians with master's degrees are supposed to be part of both the informal and Formal process.
thus, they are there to offer reconsideration committee a list of merits for the books in Defense of the section c of the penal code.
simply put, the district is violating its own policy by removing challenge books from Circulation of all students, when the policy only allows it to be denied access to a
specific parents child. Thus, I am starting the process for a formal complaint.
instructions have already been sent out to school employees that books violating the Penal code or deemed inappropriate by the committee shall not be allowed in classrooms or
libraries. And this now puts the burdens on teachers to review their classrooms at a time When we're already having a teacher shortage.
I have requested open records in regards to these reviewed books.
the school district needs to be transparent in how the decisions were made and the Justifications for removing them from total circulation.
now I do understand that the board looked at some of this policy last week.
however, I'm also going to state that the books were removed from circulation prior to Last week, as according to the website.
thank you, mr. Phillips. Phillip bagby.
mr. Bagby, you coming down? Remember, 5 minutes, and I'll give you a one minute warning. Thank you much. Hello, everyone.
good evening. Thank you for letting me speak to you today. I am the father of a former varsity football player, a current honor student and host Parent to a foreign exchange student, as well
as husband to a food nutrition manager, as well as son in law to one of your custodial Workers.
so. Family, right?
over a year ago, my wife wrote this letter and submit it to rene pentecost and leslie, And I wanted to kind of read it to you guys in case you didn't weren't aware.
and again, she read this over a year ago.
she wrote, and I want to make sure she wrote this not for herself, but for her Department, her department of just food nutrition.
this past year has been the most challenging year for all of us in the school district. And again, she was speaking of the year prior.
ignore that in child nutrition our numbers are sort of serving have almost doubled the School year, yet our staffing has decreased.
it's very challenging to keep your staff motivated when everyone is doing extra work, Barely hanging on by a string.
I printed serving numbers from last year in current year including staff members and Enrollment for a visual picture representation.
the main concern or complaint from our employees across the board. We do not pay enough.
really, we don't. The cost of living always increases, but the wages barely trickle Uphill.
every single year since I've been here, I saved these little elm isd. 2021 2022.
auxiliary salary schedules for every single position in our district for reference.
I am on year six and our child nutrition days have slowly become less. Currently not 178 when it used to be 182.
it is currently 173. These are the only positions that lose days.
I get that 75600 minutes are required for our students, but it is less school days.
so why isn't it less workdays for everyone's school district? If we just take a transparent business view of money that can be saved and moved Elsewhere, less days across all departments would in fact save money.
yet it only happens in the one. All of my employees will not be here next year, and I'm thankful I have them now.
some of them have been called from friends, trying to recruit them elsewhere. For example, mcdonald's, because they are paying $18 an hour.
and I cannot compete with that as I have zero control over the hourly wages. One of my employees works almost all of the football games because they pay $15 an hour And it's more than she makes in her day job.
I asked that we take a look at many others that work those games and see if it's the same For them as well.
so why aren't people applying for child nutrition in our district? Well, if we break down the starting for our position at 1125 an hour over 175 days.
4 hours, time's 1125 a day is $45 a day. That time, 175 days a year is $7,875 a year.
divide that by 12 months, they are making $656.25 a month before taxes or insurance.
not including the month they have to wait to proceed their first check or paying the $50 Out of pocket for fingerprinting.
now, it bothers me personally. She wrote that. Bothers me that child nutrition department had zero meetings over that Past year, not even as in meeting, but with among the
management. However, my wife, above and beyond, she was a sikh member.
I had many meetings. She attended those meetings. And she did tell me at some point, child nutrition, a bundt cake, was brought into her Kitchen as a way to say thank you.
it was not entirely well received.
and as I said, my mother in law also works in the school district as a custodial.
they work 240 days a year. But they need more time off than that.
I believe if you did a survey, I believe most of them would agree, especially in the Summertime when kids are not in school and there's less foot traffic and less mass.
now, I'm not saying take money away from them.
just give him some more days off and it will help to their quality of life. So she wrote over a year ago, we need to take care of the people that are here.
first and foremost. We have so many wonderful people that truly care and love little elm With all their hearts.
if you offer $1,000 for a new person to join, what about those who have been here through Thick and thin?
they'll be the ones training our new employees. So I understand that that actually happens.
right. We get we're giving $1,000 to everyone in the district. That's too late.
my wife's kitchen herself. She is at half staff.
we saw the numbers that they're increasing every year and where you can expect strike Middle school to be.
she's running the kitchen with four people. One more is leaving this week.
we are not being competitive in this district to bring people in. I understand other districts have done more.
I know she's done that research. She's not looking to leave herself, but offers come to her because she's good at her job.
so my timer. All right. So essentially, it was awesome to see how we are managing our money very well, this Meeting.
I assume that some of that can go to the people who do best and take the best care of our Kids.
those are the moms and sisters that work here. What does it feel? Thank you.
thank you, mr. Maggie. Appreciate it.
we're going to item number nine, approval of minutes. Hopefully, everybody's had a chance to review those.
do I have a motion from the board to accept the minutes as submitted?
so, mr. Flores, do I have a second, david?
do you have any questions?
I see. So I will. All those in favor of approving the july minutes.
please raise your hand. All those opposed motion passes.
thank you. We will go into our action items.
first one is consider approval of resolution authorized and redemption of bond. Ms.. Addams. Good evening, board members and audience.
this first item, as described in your agenda book, is really action that fulfills the Debt section or the debt series and strategy of finance
for our portfolio and to manage that plan for the district, creating as many savings as Possible.
and that is especially important now as we know that we're going to have future debt at Some point.
and so we are trying to make sure that we mitigate any debt that we can.
and so this resolution authorizes the redemption of bonds that we issued in 2020.
and I'll entertain any questions.
any question from any board members. Do I have a motion to approve the resolution authorizing the redemption of the bonds?
I move on a second. Second from david.
any questions for miss adams?
so, you know, so I will ask if everybody is in favor of this, please raise your hand.
all. All right, miss adams, again, consider approval of adoption of the tax rate for 2020 To 2023.
all right. This one will be a little bit more involved, but want to go ahead and note That the action that you just took to redeem those bonds is already included in the
calculations that have been presented to you here. And they have been included all along during our budget process here in the spring.
I want to walk through the fact that we did adopt the budget. You did adopt the budget in june.
that started on july 1st and for our fiscal year. So the tax recommendation that you have here has not changed since we proposed that back In the spring.
this is just formalizing the tax rate that supports the budget that you adopted.
but I know that it begs a lot of questions in some of the required publications that we Have that are quite frustrating.
I wanted to walk through a few of those with you. Always our decisions when we are developing budget and making recommendations, that we Are making recommendations that are guided by the values,
vision and mission that the board has adopted. And so I try to include that any time I'm presenting to you.
you'll notice on the right side a little tiny mini ad copy that was published in the Paper in the required
venues that we have to put that out into a circulated newspaper. We also put that on our website and posted it in our agendas, and that was published Prior to our hearing on june the 20th.
and the hearing was for both the budget and the tax rate. And we do not need to repeat that process because we're recommending a tax rate that is Equal to or below what that was.
so in the event that during the spring we were to recommend a tax rate that was higher Than that, we recommended a tax rate that was lower than what we came to you now
and said, okay, we need a higher rate. We would go through that entire process again. So we try to make sure that we have solid information, but it is liquid information that Moves in and out.
I included this because the formulas that we're going to talk through are complicated. There's just absolutely no avoiding that.
they're complicated. Even before you apply the calculations for truth and taxation, the funding mechanisms Themselves, and then you apply truth and taxation from the comptroller.
and as I told ms.. Watkins earlier today, it's truly ironic that these required legal Notices are really intended to clarify, but they tend to confuse instead.
and so I want to provide as much clarity as I can and explanation as I can.
and we're going to try to untangle this this ball of yarn. And I'm going to do so really reverting back to to try to simplify and untangle it.
I want to revert back to the glass illustration because I think that resonates most, Especially with our audience, but also with our board members.
and that is, you know, you'll see an explanation there on the right side of the screen About how a district's entitlement formula from the state is calculated.
and it gets pretty involved, even though that's pared down. But let's just look at the glass itself.
and the biggest message that we have here is that the way that the state formulas are Written and these are solidified in house bill three that was passed back in 1718
and began in 1819. The way that the formulas are written, the glass amount is set, the size of the glass is Set by the state.
it does not grow. It doesn't change in a district, can't adopt a tax rate lower than our voter approved tax Rate without financial penalty for the district, not only currently, but in the
future. And so absent legislative changes, we won't get more revenue per student.
it just depends on where it comes from. And thus we use this class illustration.
higher property values. And I know how counterintuitive this is, but higher property values do not mean more Overall revenue for the district.
it means that the state gives us less because we earn more locally.
and that's why we really use that glass illustration in the water, because the first Thing that we pour in are our property taxes.
so as we earn more of those to fill our set amount in our glass, then the state adds less To it to bring us to the top of that glass.
and then if we earn enough revenue that the glass overflows, that's when we go into what We call recapture or robinhood.
and our district has entered that era a few years ago under the new laws.
and so that net local funding stays flat. And really the only thing that will grow is the spillover, if you will, as the tax values Increase.
so to put that in a little more perspective, the local property taxes are 86% for 22, 23, 86% of our
glass. And our glass is calculated through that tangled formula I showed you at the Beginning that that mess I won't go through all that calculation with you, but I'm happy
to, if anyone's just interested in that. But that calculation spits out that for our district, the amount we're going to get per Student, 86% of that is going to come from the taxpayers and little elm isd as our
taxable values increase, not our tax rate is actually decreasing, but as our taxable Values increase, more of that is being more.
the glass is being filled locally, therefore less of the glass 14% is going to be filled By the state.
our recapture for next year has gone up. It's going to be about $1.1 million.
and even since we review this in the spring, we thought that this was going to be an 8020.
but since that time, we've even had more clarification and more certifications of our Taxable values.
and so the heart of the confusion that I was talking about earlier, surrounding the Required motion that you'll have to make in order to adopt a tax rate, is that an
effective tax rate increase is because the state portion of this formula that 14% is not Part of the truth and taxation
calculation. And so, yes, it is an increase in property tax value collections, but that Does not result in an increase in funding for the students
in little elm isd. And so that's why it tends to confuse more than clarify.
I don't like it. There's many things about it I don't like. I do think that it was a mr.
gallagher has said this so many times when we were during the bond election. I think that the intentions were good, that the tax that the state was trying to make Sure that taxpayers understood.
but you would have to really understand the entire state formulas to understand the Motion that you're going to have to make, that this is a tax increase, even though you're
going to be making a motion here in a bit if you adopt our tax rate to lower our tax Rate.
you know, as crazy as it is during a bond election that we have to say this is a tax Increase when this staying the same.
you actually now have to say it's an increase when it's going down. And so it's important for for me to try to walk through and explain this to you.
and in a nutshell, this rate represents the rate that would generate the levy this year That is similar to the last year's levy.
assuming that this year's base adjusted included a subset of taxable property that is the Same as last year's taxable.
and it doesn't. It just there's all these if, ands and buts that go in it. And the calculation represents the effect of the of the value growth, but disregards the State formulas.
and so I'm sorry and I'm sorry to interrupt, but what's really eye opening here, Especially for the taxpayers, I think if I remember on the slide,
it will show how much of a.
increase that local tax revenue. Is covering for that glass, correct?
yes. I love whenever you are listening, whenever I'm going over this with you.
this is perfect timing. Yes. This shows this wasn't planned at all, but this shows that mr.
gallagher gets it. And so that makes me very, very happy. I mean, of course he gets it. He's part of these calculations as well.
and we and we go over it often, but it really shows that five years ago.
and so this shows the impact of our property tax values growing.
and so five years ago, 70% of our money came from local and 30% came from the state, and Our recapture was less than half of what it is for
2223. If we take that a step further and go ten years ago, look at the difference there.
48% came from their local taxes. 52% came from state aid.
and so once that glass is set and you can look at it from 18, 19 across even statewide, There's not movement and how much the formulas are set to provide
per student. Really, the only way that you can increase the amount of funding that you're getting is To increase the number of students that you have and how often they come to school because
it's based on average daily attendance. And so thank you for that.
great segue, mr. Gallagher. So ten years ago, this is part of the reason that the state has a $2 billion Surplus right now, because locally the property taxes are
filling more of the glass. Therefore, the state doesn't have to put as much in and that is really directly related To our property tax values, not our property tax rate.
yet we can't decrease our property tax rate below what the voter approved tax rate is Without catastrophic means to the to the district and penalties and our
funding not only now, but in the future. So speaking of property tax rates, I thought this was interesting.
I just wanted to share it to put in perspective kind of the management and that the board Has adopted over the years.
this is statewide. This is not little elm isd, this is state wide. How property taxes across the state have gone down since 18, 19, and I only have through 21, 22 on there because 20 to 23 people are adopting those tax
rates the same as you are right now. So we don't have that information. But over that four year period since house bill three was implemented statewide, the tax Rates have gone down over $0.15.
and that's directly related to tax relief that's been given from austin and the shift in Where the tax burden is
in little elm, because we are growing faster than a lot of the parts of the state, the Whole state is growing, but we're growing faster.
so in that same four year period, the little elm isd tax rate has gone down almost $0.21.
that was through 2122 that we've declined or $0.05, if you want to put it this way, 5.3 Cents more than the average across the state.
and after tonight, we'll go down another 1.7 $0.04 for a decline over five years of 22.7 Cents on the side.
does that make sense? So our current tax rate for the 2122 school year was $1.40 303, with $0.96 on the m&a Side,
the same $0.47 on the inside. But we're recommending and the projected tax rate that the budget was built upon is a 94 To 29 on the m&a side.
and that's about, again, 1.7 $0.05 decrease from the previous year, same interest and Sinking rate.
and it's important to note that that 94 to $0.29 is not a number that the district comes Up with.
it is a number that is assigned by the texas education agency to keep us within a two and One half percent band across the state to keep districts with an equal amount.
and so they assign us a rate after our july 25th values come out, they assign us a rate We apply to that what our our voter approved tax rate
is, and that that's what sets our expectation for how much of the class that we feel.
yes, sir. Yes. Can you address really quickly, which I know the answer, but for voters And I think tonight, if the board does call for a bond,
can you explain for the voters watching, we're currently at a dollar 43.
if the board adopts the lower rate will be at a dollar 41.
how will that impact the tax rate? Because we've been telling voters we're not going to change the tax rate.
it won't go up. Well, now we're talking about lowering it.
so how will that impact a potential bond for $289?
so the tax rate, the right side that you see in blue there that you saw for last year was $0.47.
this year, we're projecting or asking and recommending $0.47. The item that you had just before this item to redeem those bonds is included in that so That we can use that $0.47 to redeem those bonds.
if you were to call for a bond and it were successful, if it were successful for 289 Million, next year's tax rate for the right side is still going to be $0.47.
and the year after that and the year after that, unless there is a some huge change in Our taxable values, it will remain at $0.47.
if there is a huge change in our taxable values upward, then at some point in the future That number could go down.
but we would not promise that to the voters because we can't read the future.
we do those projections based on a 5% growth over the next five years, but that number Will not change.
and that's a really good point. The 47 cent side will not change. The math side is mandated to us from the from the state.
and. And thank you for thank you for clarifying that. But I just know, as people are watching this, we're talking about a potential bond going Up for potential bond, but at the same time looking at lowering the
overall tax rate. So that helps. Yes. So and just this was new in 2021 that we include an appendix to the district's Budget that shows all of these
calculations that I've talked about. And the tangled piece of that. Jesse works with the tax assessor's office in the district to get the values and to Calculate the required calculations, their pages that are included in your
agenda. And we are required to attach those to our budget adoption.
and so we'll amend that budget adoption to include those that are included in your tax Rate adoption process tonight.
are there any questions? I know that's a lot to chew on.
I know you're mostly already familiar with it because it's not the first time we've Talked about it. And for our audience, this isn't something that's thrown onto the agenda.
we've been talking about this exact same thing since february on a monthly basis and the Rate has not the recommended rate has not changed since that time.
and I need to read it with the two sentences in capital letters.
I just want to make sure. Okay. I got to read it as is ok on august 15, 22.
on this date, we, the board of trustees, let alone my independent school district, hereby Levy.
I'm sorry. Let me read you. Do I have any emotion? On this date, the board of trustees of little elm independent school district hereby levy Or set the tax rate on $100 valuation for the district for the tax year
2022, at a total tax rate of one dollars 0.412 $0.09 to be assessed and collect by the Duly specified
assessor and collector as follows. .942 $0.09 for the purpose of maintenance and operations and 0.4 $0.07 for the purpose of Payment of principal and interest on debts.
such taxes are to be assessed and collected by the tax officials designated by the District.
this tax rate will raise more taxes for maintenance and operations in the last year's tax Rate.
the tax rate will effectively be raised by 16% and will raise taxes for a maintenance and Operations on a $100,000 home by approximately
$194.90. So do I have a second?
second by marriage? Do I have any questions from the board for miss adams?
I am seeing none. All those in favor of raise your hand. All those opposed motion passes.
thank you. Thank you, miss adams. Miss adams doesn't get to go that far. She gets to stay here one more time for the consider approval of election order, calling A bond election on november 8th, 2022.
all right. As theron is so graciously presented to you earlier tonight, the Administration has conducted extensive work with the community based long range facilities
planning committee, and that group has recommended the need for additional facilities to Deal with the student growth and student needs in general.
and the fpc reconvened for a series of meetings after the unsuccessful may 22 bond Election and have recommended this modified bond package that addresses the more immediate
needs, the most immediate needs of the district. The administration supports the work and the recommendation of the rfp to call upon.
and so I will entertain any questions that you may have specific to the district.
first, let me get a motion to have a motion for the board to approve the election order Calling for a bond election on november 8th, 2022.
as presented, I moved the board approve the election or order calling for a bond election On november eight, 2022.
as presented. Do I have a second? Second, second from david.
now, do we have any questions about the bond? We've had to present it earlier from a long range planning committee for 298.5 or to 89.5 Excuse to $89.5 million.
do we have any questions? Cnn. So all those in favor of raise your hand.
all those opposed, motion passes. We will go out for a bond election on november 8th, 2022.
thank you. Thank you. And thank you again once again to the long range planning facility committee and all of Its members.
thank you all for all your hard work and your dedication for the district. We do appreciate it.
so now we're going to consider approval of tassie conference delegate and alternate.
so this is coming up again for tabby.
and we do have a person, I believe, that has graciously volunteered.
to do this. I'm trying to get down here to it. So, of course, this is for the naacp official delegate for san antonio this year, right?
correct. Okay. And so we do have one person that has put their name in the hat.
dr. Thompson would like to do that. So I'd like to ask if there's any other nominations.
we do need to have a primary member and an alternate. So if anybody would like to oc everybody.
good. All right. So do I have a motion from the board to accept dr.
monique thompson as our tasi official delegate and ms.. Mary watkins as our alternate?
I have that from david. Do I have a second? Second I have a second from alex.
any questions about that or the process or what fun they get to do? Oh, no fun in that.
all those in favor of raise your hand. All those opposed. Motion passes. Congratulations, dr.
thompson and merry y'all going to have fun down there in san antonio. All right. We'll go to item consider approval of tasb board of directors endorsement.
so if you guys received in your packet, we have four people that have emailed either Daniel sonia or myself asking for our board's
endorsement for the tab board of directors.
there is a new position for our region, position a that I think has been approved now.
and so we're they're asking for our kind of support and backing behind them to run for This position.
so we have max belmonte from lake worth, we have dr. Patsy sosa sanchez from denton isd.
we have tammy. I hope I don't butcher this nakamba from grapevine colleyville isd and julie cole from Hurst, euless, bedford isd.
so hopefully you guys have had a chance to read through the packets, look at their Qualifications.
each of them is very well deserving of this, but I would ask if there's anyone at this Point in time that would like to make a motion to move for one of these if we want to, we
don't have to if we want to endorse one of these candidates for region 11, position a to Represent us at task.
so. I've met dr.
patsy sanchez, and I would like to have her considered as our endorsed candidate.
perfect. Do I have a second to that motion?
I got married. Do you have any other questions about that?
about any of the other candidates? No. Well, then we have a motion in a second.
all those in favor, please raise your hand. All those opposed.
six. Oh, all right. Dr. Patsy sanchez, denton of denton isd will get our endorsement for the region 11 Position.
hey. Now, I do know on the conservative agenda as we go to item number 11, ms..
flores, we are pulling item b, correct. We're going to pull that to another meeting. Correct. And I believe we've got questions on another one.
yeah, that's cool. I see. Step further, explanation item c ok.
all right. So we're going to go and pull item c, so if we can, can we go and have miss Brown?
come up to the podium for a second. So before we go through the consent agenda, we will ask that you go ahead and.
I guess I need a sonia. I need a motion in a second. Right. With that one out.
okay. So do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda minus item b?
we're pulling that for another meeting.
antsy. Antsy. Sorry. I'd be antsy.
you have a motion? Alex, do I have a second?
second. I heard david first. Okay. So questions so we have we have now questions right.
to see. Oh, no, we're just doing the consent. All right. So do we have any questions about any other content items?
okay, have all those in favor. Raise your hand. Well as opposed.
okay. Motion passes. So now we'll go back to the consent to agenda item c consider approval of Reclassification of the l, n, l, v and position.
thank you. So a little bit of background information. So lv ins are licensed vocational nurses.
over about the past 3 to 4 years, the district has been moving away from licensed Vocational nurses as our nurse or medical
professional on the campuses. We've brought several reclassifications to move those lv ins to registered nurses.
we only have one remaining lv in position in the district and that's this one at oak Point just recently.
this person resigned about two weeks ago or so. And so this is the perfect opportunity.
this is what we've kind of been waiting for via attrition, like as they get vacated, Resigned from that, we then bring it to you for consideration for reclassification so that
we can have it's just an identified best practice to have a registered nurse rather than An lvn at all of our campuses.
so this is the last one that we're bringing to hopefully have a registered nurse at all Nine of our campuses.
we just want to make sure that the public. There it is public.
so do I have a motion to accept the considered approval of the reclassification of the Lvn position?
so, david, do I have a second? Alex, any further questions for miss brown?
all those in favor. Raise your hand. All those opposed.
the motion passes. Thank you, ms.. Brown. Appreciate it. No problem.
look, we'll go into board president comments. A couple items for me.
I am extremely saddened that I was not able to attend convocation. I heard it was a great time.
great speaker. Fortunately, a business trip got my way, so I do apologize. But I'm glad the board members that could be there were there.
so thank you very much for showing up and showing our support from the board. Do you want to remind everybody we've got a workshop next tuesday.
so to the community, if anybody would like to come and enjoy 3 hours of fun with us, we'd Greatly appreciate you coming next tuesday when we have our board workshop.
through our board members. Also, I know ms.. Flores has sent the email out, but there is training we can do right now virtually.
you have about two more weeks, I believe he goes through the 27 or 26, 26 online Training.
I will tell you, please screenshot the certificate real quick before it disappears off Your screen because I had to redo one twice because I didn't take a picture quick enough
of the code. So when you're doing your training word to the wise, take a picture of the Screenshot, so you got the four digit code.
other than that, it's a great time. Most of the sessions I've been doing are about an hour.
so you can take two or three sessions, get a couple of hours in towards your training Towards the end of the year.
so I want to make sure all of our board members know that because we have paid for it, we Paid for one registration for all of us, so we can all take as many classes as you want.
there's a lot of good ones out there, so please take some time and look into that.
also with that just to the community. I know it's been a lot out here about the bond.
just, you know, I just want to make sure that everyone knows that the language that's on The bond and the way it's written is thanks to house bill three.
so whether you like it or don't like it, you can thank your state legislators for that, Saying that we have to raise our taxes even though we are not raising our taxes and our
tax rate is going to stay the same. You can thank your state legislator for that language on the ballot.
so making it so confusing, that is all for me. Other than that, I'll go to the board comments and I started on my own.
I'm almost start on my right. It's his first meeting. So mr. Beaver, we will start with you down there for board comments.
anything, sir? Well, first off, thank you for having me.
it was great going through the interview process and definitely I'm excited to get Started.
I will approve more things coming up here once I get it's only been a week so.
but thanks for the opportunity. I'm excited. I did serve on the long range planning committee, so it's nice to see that Bond come back on the ballot and excited to get those schools
going if it passes here in november. So thanks for having me. Thank you, david.
also, I'm a little disappointed that for his first meeting, we're going to be done so Early. It should be a midnight meeting.
but but I wanted to thank everybody for all the hard work.
it's nice being on non officer side of things.
you know, I did miss last month's meeting, but I know so much of that work, you know, It's funny.
people often ask, it's like, oh, summers must be a breeze for you guys. And we're like, no, that's when most of the work has to happen in front of the Administration side and the board and budgets and approvals and all the above.
so I did want to kind of take the time to say thank you for all that work.
I do apologize for missing convocation as well. I did see that the football players were there to throw out the t shirts that ordinarily Jason and I love have such a great time doing and the rest of us board members as well.
but I think they more than picked up the slack there. So thank you, everybody, and welcome aboard.
and also mary officially as well. I was not at the first your first full meeting either.
so welcome on board.
well, I just want to really, really tell the long wait. That was amazing that you guys came back together.
try it again. And I really, really, really hope that our family, our little community Will take into account our growth.
we are outpacing texas. Not just the area, but we're outpacing texas.
and please notice the clarity that was provided by miss adams about the $0.47 that after The bond passes, it would still be
$0.47. And I'm hoping that our community will just believe that your decision makes a difference And that the impact is significant to
our kids. They have to have a place to learn. We have to provide that.
and right now, we're looking at a portable.
I'm sorry the portables bothered me. I hope that they bother you guys too, so that when you go november 8th is what we just Decided on november 8th, that you will think about the portables and help us make sure
that our kids have a safe place to learn. Thank you. Thank. Dr. Thompson. Merry. First, I want to welcome ken bieber to your first meeting as a Trustee.
welcome aboard. I am looking forward to serving with dr.
thompson at tsb and finishing up some training, and I'd like to thank everybody sitting In the audience sitting on this side.
it's nice to look out and see people who took the time out of their schedules to come and See what's going on in our schools.
because when we take time to educate ourselves, we can do. We make our district stronger and we've got a lot of work to do to get our bond passed in November.
so, again, thank you, everybody, for coming. And that's all I've got.
same here. I want to welcome ken to the board and I look forward to serving along your Side.
mr. Gallagher, as you know, the t.a. Scores came out and they dropped it a little bit.
so maybe in the future we want to have a discussion about what we're going to do as a District to be able to maybe increase those numbers again.
I know we're all hard at work. There's been a lot going on over the last two years that have maybe changed our focus a Little bit.
but I'd love to hear some some ideas and.
set it. Thank you, mr. Gallagher. First comments.
first, I want to also congratulate mr. Beber. Welcome to the board.
I think you're going to be a great addition, a wonderful board. It's a great group to work with.
and I also want to take a second again to thank the long range facilities planning Committee, a wonderful job.
they did a great job, worked very hard on revising the bond. And dr.
thompson, I appreciate your words, because at the end of the day, it is for the students.
and I said that all the time for the students. So. Mr. Flores yes.
we actually will have a podcast coming up tomorrow. For those of you that haven't seen, we do a it's not really a weekly it seems like it's Been a weekly podcast with mrs.
jones and mr. Roberts was in one with us.
mrs. Adams but we'll have one tomorrow with dr. Tramel and it will be about our rating.
so yes, our rating unfortunately did drop, you know, we we were a b district while our Rating dropped to a 79.
and, you know, that one point, you know, obviously hurts. But more importantly, we want to focus on what we can do to raise that.
I've told people this for years, you know, this school district is much more than a Rating, just as any district, even a district that's an a, those
districts that are aid districts still have things to work on, you know, maybe even Outside of academics.
so we'll talk more about that tomorrow with the podcast. And then we also have a public hearing coming up.
I don't know the exact date probably at the next board meeting where dr. Tramel will present on the accountability that we just received from the state.
so look for the podcast that will come out tomorrow afternoon.
so thank you all very much. Thank you, mr. Gallagher. I want to go back to ms..
thompson for one more quick comment. I wanted to tell ken welcome.
and I meant to say that, but I was fired up about the bond. I'm sorry. That's okay.
yes. Thank you. And welcome to the moon. Yes, welcome, ken.
so with that, we are down to adjournment. So do I have a motion to adjourn this meeting?
mr. Bieber beavers first motion. He gets to adjourn it. Do I have a second?
second from alex. All those in favor because I'm assuming there's no questions.
all those opposed motion passes. We will officially adjourn at 8:20 p.m..
thank you to everybody.
now. Fun time.