>> good evening. I am dr. Lauren tyra board president, presiding officer, noting that a quorum is present.
I will call to order this board meeting of the plano isc board of trustees at 5:30 pm on tuesday,
january 20th, 2026. On the board's behalf, I would like to welcome everyone.
at this time, I will ask superintendent dr. Theresa williams to please verify that we are in
compliance with the provisions of the texas open meetings act regarding the notice for this meeting.
>> president tyra, I verify that this meeting has been posted in compliance with the provisions of the texas open meetings act.
>> great. Thank you. This segment is being recorded in compliance with texas senate bill 413,
which amends section 11.0621 of the texas education code.
the minutes of this meeting will reflect each member's attendance and their vote on any item.
additionally, the approved minutes, any adopted resolutions, and the recording of this meeting will be posted on
the district's website no later than seven calendar days after today's meeting.
board members, we will now proceed with the roll call. Kindly, please respond when your name is announced.
lauren tyra. I am present, nancy humphrey. >> I'm present.
>> tara lance? >> present. >> sam johnson? >> present.
>> michael cook? Michael is running a few minutes behind this evening.
we will announce his arrival when he gets here. Alisa klein? >> present.
>> katherine goodwin? >> present. >> great. Thank you, trustees. I'd also like to introduce all of our staff seated at the dais to my left,
superintendent, dr. Theresa williams. Dr. Selina freeman, deputy superintendent for leadership and operations,
on my right, mr. Johnny hill, deputy superintendent for business employee services and technology.
ms. Lisa wilson, deputy superintendent for teaching and learning, dr. Patrick tanner, assistant superintendent for technology services,
dr. Courtney gober, assistant superintendent for student success,
and ivan cantu, assistant superintendent for strategy and innovation.
we have a full room this evening. It's great. We'll now move on to item 2 on the agenda.
this evening, we're honored to have some of our choir students, who, I'm sure you all heard singing out in the lobby from
plano west senior high school here to lead us in the pledges of allegiance to the united states and texas flags.
would everyone please stand?
>>
>> >> thank you all. We're moving on to item 3 on the agenda, which is recognitions.
this evening, the board is pleased to have an opportunity to recognize some outstanding individuals.
our chief communications officer, mrs. Leslie range-tan, will introduce our first recognition for us.
>>thank you. Sorry, I'm running behind. We're trying to get everybody seated.
first, I'd like to ask dr. Williams to come down for this recognition along with vice president humphrey,
as we recognize our plano isd pro award winners for this month.
president tyra, dr. Williams board and cabinet,
and all our guests here. It is my privilege to recognize our january plano isd proud award winners.
I think that some of them may not be seated in their reserve seats, so if they have to come from the back, we'll just
give them some time to make their way up here. Our first recipient is petra morgan.
[applause] come on down, petra or come on up. Petra is the office manager at plano east senior high,
nominated by her principal, david jones. Petra is described as the heart of her campus,
which is a tall order for a school of 3,000 students and 240 staff members.
she is often called the mom of the building, welcoming, supportive, and always ready to help.
as an office manager, petra keeps things running smoothly, stays organized,
and finds ways to make everything more efficient, all with professionalism and a warm smile.
her colleagues describe her as someone who always goes the extra mile.
she brings humor and encouragement, even on challenging days and her door is always open for kind word,
a quick answer or even a piece of chocolate. From solving copier crises to stalking thoughtful comforts,
she makes life easier for everyone around her. Petra's dedication, cheerfulness, and caring spirit,
lift her entire school community every day. We in plano isd are so grateful for her service.
please join me in congratulating mrs. Petra morgan, one more time.
[applause] I'm going to ask, I think I see a full house. Would any guests of petra who are here with us this evening, please stand.
[applause] thank you all so much. Petra just stay up here.
you just get to stay up here the longest because you were called first. [laughter]. It is an honor to recognize our next recipient,
mrs. Lakisha webb, from transportation services. [applause] mrs. Webb truly
embodies what it means to connect, relate, and serve.
she knows every student on her bus route and nearly all of their families,
and she uses those relationships to advocate for students emotional and material needs.
she doesn't just transport children to school.
she helps them feel safe, valued, and seen. Whether it's noticing when a child needs extra support or quietly stepping in
to make sure a student can fully participate in a special school day,
like providing a princess costume so a child could join in storybook character day.
mrs. Webb creates moments of belonging that students will never forget.
her presence makes a difference every day, and her school community says bus 815 just isn't the same when she's absent.
rose hagar is on her route, and she is a celebrated member of that school community and a true asset to plano isd.
please join me in congratulating lakisha webb on this well deserved plano isd proud award.
[applause] now would any guests and I know I saw mark stand in the back,
but would any guests of lakisha who are with us this evening please stand to be recognized [applause] or just wave if you're already standing.
next, I am thrilled to recognize mrs. Shelby robbins.
she is a student support liaison at shepherd elementary, nominated by principal kristi james.
shelby serves as shepherd elementary's student support liaison
and was one of the first team members hired as the campus leadership took shape.
from day 1, her commitment to students, staff and families was unmistakable,
and she has lived up to that commitment every single day.
shelby has been instrumental in building strong systems and shaping positive,
student centered campus, culture, and she works closely with teachers to analyze data,
plan interventions, support, sore time, and advocate for students.
she is also a trusted partner for families, taking time to listen,
reassure, and build lasting relationships that help parents feel confident their children are truly cared for.
known for anticipating needs before they arise, shelby is the definition of a team player and leader,
always putting students and staff first, whether coordinating support, strengthening connections,
or quietly going above and beyond, her impact is felt across the entire shepherd community.
shelby, thank you for your remarkable service, your compassion, and your leadership, and congratulations on this well deserved honor.
[applause] now would any guests of shelby who are with us this evening please stand.
thank you for being here [applause]. We have one more recipient this evening.
I am very pleased to recognize krista benson from special education services [applause].
krista was nominated by a special education coordinator jackie mullins.
she has dedicated 22 years to serving our district.
first, as a campus-based special educator and now as a district social skills specialist.
her impact is felt in every corner of plano isd.
a plano east graduate, the daughter of a retired plano isd teacher,
and a current plano isd parent. This legacy, krista is a connection to the district.
her connection to the district runs deep. Krista is caring, strategic and impactful.
with a clear vision and an unwavering focus on student and staff needs,
she has developed high quality social skills resources that led to training
thousands of staff members and provided proactive support to every campus in our district year after year.
she consistently steps up to lead, innovate, and support others,
whether through professional learning, technology assistance, or district wide initiatives.
krista's passion for students, social emotional growth and her commitment to service,
strengthen our schools and our community. We are incredibly proud to recognize her
tonight and grateful for the lasting difference she has made to plano isd. Krista, thank you for your service [applause].
now, would any guests of krista who are with us this evening,
please stand to be recognized?
thank you all, and they've already been seated. Thank you all for being here tonight and congratulations [applause].
>> thank you, leslie. On behalf of the board of trustees,
two of whom are plano east graduates. We would like to congratulate all of
the january plano isd proud award winners, petra morgan, lakisha webb, shelby robbins,
and mrs. Krista benson, each of you embodies the spirit of plano isd.
each of you contributes uniquely and significantly to making plano isd a district of excellence.
your dedication, passion, and hard work are not going unnoticed.
you are all valuable members of the plano isd team and family, and we're very fortunate to have you.
thank you. Now, I'd like to turn things back over to dr. Theresa williams,
who will lead our next recognition. >> thank you, president tyra. Typically, our trustees enjoy this time and every month,
recognizing members of our staff, our students, and community,
but january is an extra special month because january is designated as school board recognition month.
tonight, we have the honor of recognizing seven of
our very dedicated trustees who help fill dreams as a unified board for the students of plano isd.
anyone who's ever attended a plano isd school board meeting or
viewed online has seen just a small glimpse,
a tiny glimpse of the countless hours that our board selfishly gives to the district.
all winning teams, our trustees are always prepared. They are focused.
they are committed to doing what's best for our students at all times,
and of course in alignment with our district beliefs, and as outlined in our new ae local policy,
which is a policy that the board has really worked on strategically over the last year.
on of many. Our plano isd board of trustees play a vital role
in the outstanding education that our district provides through their stewardship, dedication.
they help set the vision and goals that keep our district moving forward,
even in the face of challenges. Their steady guidance and consistent focus keeps students at the center of
every decision while supporting the needs of our families, staff, and community.
our trustees continue to fill dreams by advocating for
quality education and supporting opportunities that allow every student to step up to the plate and succeed.
their commitment ensures that our students are not only prepared for today but equipped for the future.
we are honored to recognize our amazing board and publicly say,
thank you individually and collectively. Thank you for choosing to serve for generously giving of
your time and helping turn the dreams of plano isd students into a reality.
we truly appreciate all that you do. A special thank you also to your loved ones at home.
thank you all are listening, thank you for supporting our trustees and as they serve so diligently,
our district at all times. President tyra, and members of the board to honor your dedicated service,
we have a proclamation from the city of plano and mayor john muns, which dr. Freeman will now read.
>> thank you. Proclamation, plano isd school board recognition month.
whereas the mission of public schools is to nurture the potential of every child and empower them to become capable,
engaged citizens who contribute meaningfully to a democratic society and an ever-changing world,
and whereas local school board trustees elected by their community,
serve with purpose to ensure that every decision reflects what is best for students.
whereas trustees collaborate with parents, educators, and community members to shape the vision and direction of our schools,
fostering an environment where students can realize their dreams,
and whereas trustees provide the framework and oversight to sustain a strong and effective school system,
ensuring a foundation for academic excellence and opportunity,
and whereas trustees are steadfast advocates for public education,
bridging the needs of the district with the expectations of the community.
the city of plano and the plano independent school district have long shared a proud partnership,
one that has fueled success and helped make plano a destination for choice of families,
businesses, and individuals from around the world. Now, therefore, I, john b. Muns,
mayor of the city of plano, texas, do hereby proclaim january 2026 as school board recognition month in plano.
I do thereby encourage all citizens to join me
and the plano city council in honoring the commitment and service of
our local school board trustees and in working together to build
an education system that prepares today's learners for tomorrow's opportunities in the city of excellence.
this was signed by mayor john muns, city of plano. [applause]
>> I'd now like for all to enjoy a very short video showcasing messages from various campuses to the board.
special thanks to the following campuses for their participation, plain os senior high school,
barksdale, st. Centennial, golg, hedges, hunt, mitchell, and bougas elementary.
can we go ahead and play the video?
>> you built it, I get to read in a library and play on fine playground.
>> because you built it, we get to participate in leadership opportunities at school.
>> you build opportunities for us by.
>> allowing us to develop leadership skills.
>> giving you resources to won and glow.
>> and empowering us to be the best we can be. >> because of your leadership.
>> we get to go to camp. >> because of your leadership,
we get to participate in the first [inaudible] scene.
>> we appreciate our school board.
you [inaudible] opportunities for us. >> because of you. >> every mitchell.
>> has the opportunity. >> to ignite.
>> their potential. >> and blaze a path towards success.
>> [foreign] >> thank you, plano isd school board.
>> well, that was fun, but it doesn't stop there. In front of you, you have several tokens of
appreciation gathered from our teachers and students across the district.
some of them are here tonight to join us in thanking all that you do.
next, I'd like to invite dr. Gober to share the next piece.
>> thank you, dr. Williams, and a happy board appreciation to all of our board members.
our students at pasar, and by the way, pasar goes on every day after school,
it's going on right now. But we have students at saglin, barksdale,
and mccall, pasar sites color and create this banner.
I don't know if all of you can see it, but maybe michael cook and you all can see the little colorful myths in keeping with the theme of team plano isd team,
the baseball theme we have going for that. I'm also excited that one of our site managers was able to make it,
brittany haris, if you don't mind, standing brittany. She's our site manager at saglin elementary.
she also serves as a pair,
so on behalf of pasar, we greatly appreciate all the things that you do for us. Thank you.
>> thank you, courtney. I now invite our director for career technical and education,
alex roder, to the podium.
>> good evening, dr. Williams, president tyre board and cabinet.
on behalf of the cte department, I want to thank you for your dedication to plano isd and especially for
your support of our career and technical education department.
because of your leadership and vision, we're able to provide over 30 different programs of study to our students,
preparing them to become leaders in tomorrow's workforce. As a token of our appreciation,
amazing students from all three of our senior high campuses have created some gifts to recognize you tonight.
from plano west, we have floral design students who are led by teacher carol gowen.
they have created the beautiful terrarium arrangements that are inside of your gift bags,
so they're tucked away in hiding. They're a fun surprise to find. From plano senior high,
our fashion design students, led by teacher jessica medley, have learned a new skill this semester in
embroidering baseball caps for you to support around the district.
from plano east, our culinary students, led by chefs steven pile and drew stock,
we've grown to two because of your support of this program. They whipped up a basket of treats for you to take home and enjoy.
I want to recognize and thank these students and staff for their contributions and celebration of you tonight.
and just thank you again for all of your time and dedication to supporting our students and programs in the district.
[applause]
>> thank you so much, alex. Thank you to all of our cte students and teachers for their talent and time in making these wonderful gifts.
president tyra, members of the board. We now have some additional items for you, and I'd like to now invite our fine arts director,dr phillip morgan, to the podium.
>> good evening, trustees. This is probably one of my favorite months because,
dr. Williams is alluded to this, you recognize us a lot, and from cte to fine arts athletics,
I know coach miller too, and all of our student competitors, you're always here recognizing us.
we try to find a very unique way to relate what you do for us to how we try to represent you,
and by we, I mean, our students out there too. I love the theme fielding dreams.
if anybody seen that 1989 masterpiece of cinema two,
I think people misquote it all the time, if you build it, they will come, he will come. It's all about historical relevance.
if you give the opportunity, there will always be pursuit of some success,
and that is a great encapsulation, I believe, of what you do for us. I've worked in many districts in the state of texas,
and I can tell you it is critical that the superintendent understands what you do and his or her staff understands what you do,
but it is imperative. Nothing happens if the board doesn't understand, and the board doesn't get it.
I can confidently say that I am very appreciative, and I speak for our department as well, and we say, we are very appreciative that you get what we do.
not only do you get it, but you show up, you're there, you cheer our students on, and you recognize them.
in that same vein, you may not have anything hanging in your office that reminds you of that,
so we have chosen this year to get you some tokens of our recognition and appreciation here.
you will find, for each board member, a beautifully framed piece of
unique and customized sheet music that will allow and I'll get one.
I'll probably. I'll be here for you.
our choir students, no doubt where you all at our choir students. They have seen sheet music
about a zillion times in their high school career in middle school. But this actually has a really nice background to the field of dreams soundtrack.
the piano sello that there too. We just put a little custom thing in that it says fielding
dreams on behalf of the department of fine arts. Last year, we made our trustees honorary drum majors.
this year, be it known that our trustees are hereby named as honorary district section leaders by
the department of fine arts for the 25 26 academic year, for their commitment to arts education, our district,
allowing thousands of students to pursue their achievements and showcase their unique talents in our department.
thank you for your ongoing sacrifices of service in this 25 26 school board recognition.
we are continually grateful for your work and dedication to psd and to our fine arts program.
we got these for you all to be able to hang them up in a special place to remind you. Thank you all on behalf of our department,
very much for what you do. [applause]
>> thank you, dr. Morgan, and thank you to our fine arts students and teachers,
and staff for these beautiful gifts. I love the creativity. Super cute.
I now would like to invite our athletics director, kendall miller, to the podium. Coach miller.
>> to the board, and I want to piggyback on what philip said,
a thank you so very much for what you provide for us and the support that we have in athletics right now.
we're really excited about our facilities and where we're headed in that.
we've brought today some of our baseball and softball players in the district, and this really relates directly to them.
adding on the upgrades to our baseball and softball facilities here in the district.
adding the clubhouses and locker rooms to the dugouts really places us like a minor league baseball field.
when I brag to other coaches outside to other districts, they always get the wow something they always wanted,
and it sets us apart from a lot of the other districts. We really appreciate during this time,
we're so excited about where our athletic facilities are going and the support for athletics.
like philip said, that does not happen without the support of our school board.
so we love it when I heard the choir was going to be performing out in the lobby.
before that, I tried to match it. We wanted to have batting practice out there, but then they said that might not work as well.
instead, we just decided to bring in some of our players today.
I'm just going to introduce them, and they're going to bring up a token for you guys. I've often said this about athletics.
is athletics the most important thing in a school? No, it is not. It is the education and the lessons that we leave.
but I do believe, and I mean this, that athletics is the front porch for every school.
it's the biggest advertiser that we have. Is athletics.
our players and our students that are also athletes on that campus, they get the opportunity to go in front of so many other people and
other districts online and show what we represent here in our district.
these students that we brought today, they are some of our finest,
and what they go through and how they represent us each day. I'm going to introduce them, and when we do,
once I give you your entire school, then they're going to bring up a gift in a token.
their today is assigned softball and assigned baseball for each one of you,
and you'll take that with you and hold on to it in a few years when they're making a whole lot of money,
then that ball is going to be worth a whole lot of money. We'll start with plano east first.
I'm going to have you stand when I say your name, and then when I get through your softball and baseball team,
you'll come up and place the gift up here. Start plano east softball and number 17, pitching, savannah leonard,
number 15 and catcher audrey hopper, and playing third base,
number 18 caylee miller. Baseball, playing shortstop, number 1, tristan parker,
on the mound, pitching number 5, landin ledi, and catching behind the plate,
number 10, tyler laba. Plano is bringing their gifts. [applause]
we thought about having a school board dot race too, but that didn't work out, really.
introducing plano now at this time, plano softball, starting with number one and pitching caroline evans.
number 3, center fielder melody walker, number 8,
ofelder riley miles, and number 17, catcher darby dejan.
plano baseball pitching number 7 ethan crist and first baseman number 24 marshall con.
plano baseball and softball.
and last but not least, introducing the plano west softball team.
number 1, middle fielder abby quayar. Number 4, playing shorttop, abby jennings.
number 10, and middle number 10, middle infielder,
ades vela, and catcher, number 12, brooke reasoner.
and plano west baseball, middle infielder, number 1, alex leon, and outfielder,
number 3, keller cook. Plano west baseball softball.
and there is one is a baseball and a softball for each one of you,
so thank you very much. >> thank you, coach miller.
this time, I'll invite our k-12 visual arts coordinator, cowen mccrae to the podium.
>> good evening, everyone. I feel like we've all been thanked a lot,
and we probably could thank all day for everything that we do and everything that you guys do for us.
gosh, on hours on end on some of these meetings.
I'm lucky enough to watch sometimes from a comfortable seat. I know what you guys do,
and we do thank you for that. Yes, I am colm grand, visual art coordinator,
it's an honor of mine to be able to present the board with an artwork each year.
it also makes me a little nervous. Because what are we going to get this year that's going to
actually make a statement or really say something means, every single year, our kids come through, and I think that's something we should probably all think about,
whether we're a teacher in this room or a parent in this room or on the board or a principal.
our kids do. They always figure out a way to come through. And I think that's something that we owe them for what we make decisions on each day.
this particular year, it is january.
it's a time of thanks and a time of thanks for our board,
but it's also a time of community and bringing people together.
>> what was chosen this year is a quilt. Now, it's not an actual quilt; it's an artwork quilt.
but each one of these squares was done individually by an artist by young artist from barn elementary.
if you look at each individual square, they help remind you,
myself, everybody in this room that every square and every student is different.
they've got different patterns, they've got different colors, yet somehow,
with all of their differences, when they come together, they make something beautiful,
just like we do as a district. When you guys make those decisions, I just thought it'd be cool to have
something wherever you put it in your house or in your office.
it reminds you of every single one of these kids that you guys make a difference is a different kid with a different background,
but you all make a huge impression on them. Thank you. Good. Thank you very much.
I need some water. [applause] thank you.
we're lucky because we have two of the artists with us and their teacher, because that's a big part.
she has to coordinate all this stuff. If they would, please stand on val.
she's my sole sister, by the way. Val, would you stand up? That's val foster adam.
she is our teacher from barn elementary. She's art teacher. We're both from new york, so we cry a lot.
we have kingston with us. What greats kingston in this year? I know.
I saw him last year, and he was about half that height, and we also have mckenzie with us.
everybody, you in mckenzie in fourth grade, would you guys give applause to our artist and or our teacher?
[applause] val, I don't want to make you cry anymore, but really, thank you.
this is a wonderful artwork. Should. Everyone, thank you so much. Enjoy.
>> thank you, colin, and thank you to all of our visual art teachers across the district and all of our talented students.
I did not say this about our coaches, in our athletic teams, but thank you.
our coaches teach all day, and then they coach well into the evening,
and sometimes with tournaments, it's weekends and a lot of weekends, and a lot of practice.
thank you to the athletic department and to our student athletes.
I would agree it is a front porch, and I think our student athletes are
true leaders at their campus and all they do. Thank you for that.
now, invite dr. Jennings from our fine arts choir coordinator to come up,
and I think you're next on my agenda.
>> well, dr. Morgan's already introduced our syncopation,
our group from plano west, the group that I just sang for us at 5:15, 520.
but they are the ones who signed the piece of music.
but I do want to brag on what you all do that influences our kids and our teachers.
this is a year of eight for eight. If you want to know what that means, that means eight all-state qualifiers from plano west.
all auditioned, and those of you who did that. Can you please stand for. This was just last week.
[applause] this is a testament to the excellence that we pursue and that you influence.
thank you to our students and our directors for plano west, will be sarah counsel and eric feldman.
[applause] I can echo what coach just said: when they're famous,
keep that, because we have some famous people in the making. Thank you all for everything you do to support our kids.
>> do we need a group photo? Just making sure.
many thanks to all of our students and staff who are here this evening and who
helped make this year's board recognition extra special. I now ask each board member to join me down
at down on the floor for one final presentation. We have one last token of appreciation for you,
so our communications team has produced their very own baseball card to showcase and to celebrate your service to the district.
if you'll please make your way up to the front of the room to receive your card,
and if you'll join me for a group photo. >> are we wearing the hats?
>> I think y'all should wear the hats. [laughter] that's it.
to our trustees on behalf of the district. I want to express a heartfelt gratitude to
each of you for your dedication and commitment to our students, families, and staff of plano east.
your service helps create the conditions where dreams can take root,
grow, and where students can ultimately succeed. As we you during the school board recognition,
please enjoy these expressions of gratitude. Tonight and always, we thank you for being such an essential foundation of
the success of our district and team plano east. Thank you.
>> one quick piece of business. We need the record to reflect that trustee michael cook
arrived at 5:45 pm during recognitions.
on behalf of the board of trustees and the district leadership team, I would like to again express my most sincere gratitude to all of
you who've participated today and contributed tonight's program.
we'd like to recognize and thank plano syncopat for leading our pledges and starting our meeting,
and for the beautiful vocal performance in the lobby this evening,
as well as our framed music. Psr students for their amazing artwork,
and a psr mom right here. My kids do psr at our campus,
such a valuable program. Our culinary art students from plano east for the delicious food items,
and I'm like staring at these cookies, just really intrigued by what's in this basket this evening.
our fashion design students from plano senior high for these beautifully embroidered baseball hats.
our floral design students from plano west for our surprise arrangement in the bag.
the art students from barn elementary for their gorgeous artwork, that is so great.
I love the quilt theme. Our varsity softball and baseball players from the senior highs for our very own team,
plan osc baseballs and softballs. Finally, to the communications team for the video
and messaging on our commemorative baseball cards.
this is always every year, a really touching and fun evening for us,
and we truly appreciate the recognition and generosity of everyone who
so thoughtfully has contributed to this and making each of us feel honored and special.
it is certainly our honor and pleasure to work on behalf of all students and families in plano east.
I know I speak for my colleagues and all of us that we are so
exceptionally proud to be a part of this team and to support you,
students, and staff, and the work that we do every day.
please join me again, giving all of our participants another round of applause.
[applause] for all of our honoree,
s participants, and guests, all are welcome to exit the board room at
this time and enjoy the rest of your evening unless you want to learn about the budget.
you are welcome to stay, but we're going to give you an escape moment here.
no one took me up on my offer to stay for the budget presentation,
so we will now move to agenda item number 4, public comment session on agenda items only.
at board meetings, the board permits public comment regarding agenda items. Agenda-related comments will now be heard at this time.
dr. Freeman, do we have any speakers regarding agenda items?
>> president tyra, we do not have any speakers regarding agenda items this evening.
>> thank you. We're moving on to item 5, closed session.
if there are no objections from the board, we will now adjourn to closed session as authorized under the texas open meetings act for the following purposes.
section 551.071, section 551.074, and section 551.76.
the time is now 6:16 pm.
the board will now reconvene open session. The time is 8:40 pm.
we will move on to agenda item 7, the consent agenda, which consists of routine items grouped together for approval with no discussion.
board members, are there any requests to remove items from the consent agenda for further discussion?
seeing and hearing none, we will proceed with the approval of the consent agenda.
trustees, may I please have a motion?
>> I move that the board of trustees approves the consent agenda.
>> I second. >> I heard nancy louder. I have a motion by
trustee sam johnson and a second by vice president nancy humphrey, that the board of trustees approves the consent agenda.
all those in favor, please raise your hand. That motion passes unanimously, seven to zero.
with the approval of the consent agenda. I will now welcome dr. Gober,
our assistant superintendent for student success, to introduce our new director of the welcome and enrollment center. Dr. Gober.
>> thank you, dr. Tyra. First, before I do that, let me just take a moment of privilege, I guess,
to just thank carina trotter for opening our first-ever welcome center and
making it the wondrous machine that it is today to welcome our new families to plano east rina.
we're going to greatly miss you. Thank you for all that you've done for our welcome centers in our district.
with karina's leaving, that opens up a position that's a very hard-to-fill position.
as such, after a long search, we landed on somebody that we all feel great about,
and that's dr. Trammy tran. Trammy joined plano east 26 years ago as a bilingual teacher at forman elementary.
she served 17 years at forman as a teacher, special ed teacher, counselor,
assistant principal, and principal. She transferred to doy elementary in july 2016,
serving as the principal to the dragons. For the last three years,
she has been the head principal of murphy middle school. She is known to build collaborative relationships with
her communities and has been honored as a pta lifetime member at all of her campuses.
her knowledge, skills, and advocacy for students and family will be a positive addition to
the student family community services as director of our welcome and enrollment centers, dr. Trammy tran.
[applause] tranny is joined
tonight by our executive director for student family community services, dr. Jennifer miley, and our current director of the welcome in roma centers,
carina trotter. Thank you.
>> congratulations. I always love seeing folks who have been with the district and move throughout positions,
just really finding new challenges,
settling where you are, finding new ways to learn and grow.
with that, that concludes the consent agenda, and we are going to move on to item 8 on the agenda, discussion and action.
the first item is item 8.1, approval of the comprehensive financial report,
acfr, for the fiscal year ending june 30th, 2025.
I will invite jenifer ripka, our audit partner with weaver,
to the podium to please present.
>> good evening. Thank you so much for having me here tonight. My name is jenifer ripka,
and I'm the partner in charge of our public sector at the firm, but also the engagement partner at weaver that
performs the external audit for the district. This is just a little bit of information about the firm itself.
I won't spend too much time on this. The weaver team is myself as the engagement partner.
also have michelle in the audience, she's the engagement supervisor.
we have two quality control technical review,
a partner and director that work on this engagement. Then also we have subject matter advisors as needed to assist with the district's audit.
we do perform the audit in accordance with generally accepted auditing standards as well
as generally accepted government auditing standards. And we perform both a single audit over federal financial assistance,
and that's performed in accordance with uniform guidance. Then we also do compliance testing outside of the federal financial assistance,
and that's going to be over public funds investment act as well as various types of compliance requirements that tea requires.
this is our audit timeline. It's very extensive.
the district staff, not only your business services group,
but people throughout the district have to deal with the auditors.
I don't know if many people do know that, but we start with our initial audit planning, that's internal,
then we move on to our interim field work, and that's really where we're looking at
the internal control structure with regards to the district.
we do final fieldwork. That's really where we're diving into the various types
of account balances within the financial report. We presented to the audit committee on
january 7 and then here today to present to you all.
these are the significant risk with regards to the audit. This doesn't mean that the district is doing anything improper.
it's just these are areas of risk at a lot of districts across the state.
management override of controls that's going to be pervasive risk across any type of engagement,
not just a government audit. But with regards to districts themselves,
because of the way that the revenue is received, with regards to foundation school programs,
that is an estimate. That does create a situation where it is a higher risk item,
and so we spend a significant amount of time performing various types of tests with regards to that,
and then also revenue recognition for the grant funding as well.
when we were doing that testing, we had no audit findings throughout any of the testing that we performed.
this is just an overview of the audit itself.
the most important things is that you all received an unmodified opinion,
that's a clean opinion. It's the highest level of assurance that can be placed on a set of financial statements.
that's for the financial statements themselves. Outside of that, again,
is the federal financial assistance testing that we do, and we have an unmodified opinion with regards to that report as well.
over on the right hand side, we like to point out that you all had
no significant deficiencies and no material weaknesses with regards to the testing that we performed.
there were also no past adjustments or no significant audit adjustments.
that means just during the course of the audit, there weren't any adjustments that we brought forth to management
to include that weren't otherwise included.
financial highlights. The governmental funds is going to include the general fund,
debt service fund, capital projects funds. Then also all the special programs that the district has,
you all ended the fiscal year at 1.5 billion in fund balance.
that was an increase from the prior year. That's primarily due to the bond issuance that you all had for the 609 million.
then we'll expect that that will be spent over time with the various projects that the district has underway.
budgetary highlights, you'll notice that when you're looking at adopted and amended budget compared to actuals.
revenue exceeded both the adopted in the amended and then on the expenditure side,
it was lower than both the adopted and amended.
when you're looking at it from somebody who typically doesn't spend a lot of time looking at the financial statements,
that's exactly what you would want to see. Revenues are higher than what the district expected,
and then expenditures came in lower than what was expected.
on the capital asset side because you are issuing
bonds with regards to doing various types of projects,
new construction, building renovations, facility upgrades.
there was a increase in capital assets of 155.3 million,
and we'll expect that to increase over the years as that money is being spent down.
then long term debt, total bonded debt, 1.1 billion,
you all still have 49.9 million authorized bonds that remained unused as of
the end of the fiscal year and that's really the end of my presentation other than many of you know this,
but this district is really great to work with. You'll have a great team.
they did undergo a software conversion this year, and so spent a lot of time,
a lot of work to get ready for the audit. We really do appreciate everything that went into it,
but we do just want to point out that your team is really awesome to work with and we appreciate all the hard work that goes into the audit.
I turn it over to you all for any questions you have. >> thank you, jennifer. Trustees. This is a discussion and action item.
if you have clarifying questions for jennifer, you can ask them.
otherwise, to open discussion, we'll need a motion on the table.
>> I move that the board approves the annual comprehensive financial report,
the acfr, for the fiscal year, excuse me, end of june 30, 2025.
>> second. Thank you.
I have a motion by board vice president and retired auditor nancy humphrey,
and a second by board secretary tara lance that the board of trustees approves the annual comprehensive financial audit,
afcr for the fiscal year ended june 30, 2025.
trustees, is there any further discussion, and I'll start, and I'll just say, always happens with the afcr.
the audit committee met with jennifer, went through the findings in some detail,
went through the report, provided feedback to the team. This year, the audit is myself, nancy, and sam.
just to let everyone know that we did have that meeting reviewed
and met with jennifer prior to this being brought to the full board and committee.
as much as you like us, being a good district to work with, I think we really appreciate the work that weaver does for
us every year and the software conversion is hard on our team.
it was hard on your team, and certainly the patience in
working with the district as we move through that is greatly appreciated.
>> just because we may be talking to some folks online there,
just if you could tell
me it's been a lot of years that you've been doing our audits for us.
how many years of that? >> I think that I have been on this audit in some capacity for 10 years,
but I've been the partner on this engagement for six years.
>> weaver has been working with us for 10 or more years.
in all of those years, I'm going to speculate that we've come out with a clean bill of health every single time.
>> yeah, from what I remember, I work with a lot of districts across the state,
but for this one in particular, I think that you all have come across with definitely an unmodified opinion for sure.
I think there may have been a couple of years where we've had some findings,
but nothing in the capacity where it would modified opinion.
>> great. Just for clarity, I just want to make sure that obviously this is
a really important financial responsibility is important to our community and our taxpayers,
so I'm going to make clear that we're doing a good job. >> that's correct.
>> I just wanted to quickly follow up on that because sometimes we will hear in the community,
our public schools are not run well
or we will hear disparaging comments about how we're mismanaging funds.
but it's the finding that that is not the case and that these 172 pages lay out and are very transparent in the budgets and how they work.
>> I would encourage people who have said that to go out
and actually read the annual comprehensive financial report.
I feel like most people do not go out and read it. There's a lot of information with regards
to not only what's happening for the fiscal year, but the 10 years prior to that is in the back of the report itself,
and there's a lot of information for those out there that do have questions with regards to the district.
>> it's more than just, what are the budgets? It's questions about, are we paying things on time?
>> correct. >> all of that is answered in here. If any community members dying to find out about different finances,
the information is here. Just some light bedtime reading. Thank you.
>> you're welcome. >> I'll just add to that as someone who has not previously gone
online and looked at this is just a parent in the district.
for those watching who are interested in this information,
and as someone who says, I do words, not numbers. There's great explanation in here in pros and words of what these numbers mean,
how these numbers show the district's responsibility, how we're complying with the various programs that govern,
how we get our money and what we can do with it. For anyone who's interested but might be intimidated by a stack of financial reports,
there's a lot more than just numbers and figures in here and it's very digestible, I thought.
>> that's a good point. I think that kudos have to be given to
the staff who consistently for every year I've been on the board,
and this is my 15th year. I think we've always had an unmodified opinion,
and a lot of work has gone into it. I forget how many 33 years worth of excellence report award.
>> 40. >> 40. Sorry. See I'm behind. I've been around.
>> say back to 42. >> she would know. I'm just saying that thank you to the staff
who consistently has stewarded the financials of this district,
the way you have and gotten the unmodified opinion. I know that having a firm for as many years as we have had,
there's benefits to that because they know how you work and so on and so forth,
but there's also a great level of independence and I know that she's able to stand here confidently and give the report that she's able to do.
but thank you to the staff johnny and everyone on the team.
>> thank you, trustees, if there are no further questions or discussions, we do have a motion on the table,
so I will call for a vote. All those in favor, please raise your hand.
that's seven hands up. That motion passes unanimously seven to zero.
thank you, jennifer, and thank you to our accounting and finance team again.
this is huge work. We will now consider item 8.2,
consideration and take possible action of proposed termination for tracy ryoid term contract employee,
pursuant to board policy dfba legal. Trustees, may I please have a motion?
>> I move that the board considers and takes possible action to propose termination for tracy red,
a term contract employee, pursuant to board policy dfba legal.
>> I'll second. >> that's katherine. Thank you.
trustees. I have a motion by board secretary tarrah lantz and a second by trustee katherine goodwin,
that the board of trustees approves the consideration and takes possible action to propose termination for tracy ryoid,
a contract employee pursuant to board policy dfba legal.
trustees, is there any further discussion? Seeing and hearing none. All those in favor, please raise your hand.
that seven hands up, that motion passes unanimously 7-0.
we will now consider item 8.3, consideration and take possible action to propose termination for jacob hard,
a probationary contract employee pursuant to board policy dfaa legal.
trustees may please have a motion. >> I move that the board considers and takes
possible action to propose termination for jacob hard, a probationary contract employee pursuant to the board policy dfaa legal.
>> I second. >> thank you, trustees. I have a motion by board vice president nancy humphrey,
and a second by trustee lisa kline that the board of trustees approves and considers and takes
possible action to propose termination for jacob hard,
a term probationary employee pursuant to board policy dfaa legal.
trustees, is there any further discussion? Thank you, seeing and hearing none.
we'll call for a vote. All those in favor, please raise your hand. Thank you. That seven hands up.
that motion passes unanimously 7-0. That concludes discussion and action for the evening.
we will now move on to a very lengthy report session this evening.
we are going to kick it off with agenda item 9.1,
which is our demographic report. I will invite johnny hill, deputy superintendent for business employee services and technology.
to, please introduce rocky our pornographer from zonda.
>> he's already up here rearing to go. Thank you, dr. Tarrah, members of the board, cabinet.
>> really needs no introduction. He's worked with the district for probably 20 plus years,
but rocky gardner is, in my opinion, out of all of the demographers that I've worked with in the past,
and even with zonda, he is the a team. I'm very thankful that he's here to present the report.
it's our annual report for demography. I've looked through it. It's a lot of really good information.
with further ado, I'll turn it over to rocky to go through the report. >> thank you, jonny. That was a little over the top there.
but thank you. It's pleasure to be back in plano. I do enjoy coming every year.
I'm going to run through this and of course, we'll be plenty of time for questions. I bet there'll be a few. We're going to start out,
we always start out with economic conditions. This chart is a little different than what you've seen before, but just want to pick a couple of things off
unemployment rates still sit in even though they've gone up a little bit, they're still below 5%, which is considered full employment.
we still have strong unemployment rates. Then of course, looking at unemployment change year over year,
education and health services grew by 3.3%. The largest employers are your professional business services at 18%,
trade and transportation at 21%. Those are where the most, I guess,
they're not growing the fastest, but they have the most employees in those sectors, going forward.
annual starts and closings in dallas fort worth, they're sitting right around 45,000,
you had 46,000 closings. This was at the end of the third quarter. Keep in mind.
fourth quarter data doesn't come out for about another week. You're seeing there that we saw a dip in starts and closings,
almost for three straight quarters or we had done it for three straight quarters. Things are dropping back down.
we expected that to happen once things got back on track after covid,
they got a little ahead of themselves again. Now it's coming back down, but we suspect as we go into summer with interest rates now falling down to around 6%,
we might see some activity. Fortunately in plano, there's just not a product that brings in
a lot of students for what's being built. But we are you'll see 157 their starts so far this year.
this fourth quarter will probably be right around that 30. You'll probably fall below 200 starts for the first time and I don't know many years,
for as long as I've been in plano, your closings are going to stay strong just because they're working off that inventory.
you're still going to finish probably over 250/260 closings for the year.
but again, we're not yielding very high from that product. Where there's activity.
you see this chart, there's color. Where you see colors, where you see a little bit of activity.
we don't put every attendance zone on here, every elementary school. We only put the ones where there is activity.
that's why this list is a little shorter than your normal list. You can see a few of these are probably going to drop off like barksdale.
they just closed three homes in the last year. Whenever that drops off, they'll fall,
and I think the centennial is also getting close to dropping off the list there.
we do still have some activity down silar with 115 annual closings.
they save a few vacant developed lots. We've got 26 active subdivisions,
but 100 homes under construction. You can see there how slow the pace is.
there's a 2,600 under construction, 600 vdl or vacant developed lots,
though those are ready to be built on right now. Then we got 33 potential future subdivisions.
there's still 3,100 single family lots. They're called single family because that's what they're designated,
a lot of those are almost attached town home product or very small garden homes.
we've got ground underway in about 380 of those. The big one that's been going for a little while now is collin creek.
they've got six homes under construction, 1088 occupied. This has been going gradually,
but now you can see they've dropped down to just six homes under construction, that price point around 450-600.
they've got several different builders there. There's a bullet that says all homes completed last year,
and that's a bullet that I think we should have pulled because we're talking about building homes and I'll fix that,
because they can all be built and under construction at the same time, just not possible.
I just saw that. Plano gateway townhomes, again, a town home product, 100 homes occupied.
you can see 14 under construction. You see a picture there where we got some ground underway on future lots.
that was just from november of 2025. They're moving lots. We're going to see some activity there. Saddle brook.
this is a 111 total loss. We actually see quite a few students here.
there's just 50 occupied homes. We can see that 0.8. We've almost got a student per home in that development there.
grayson farms and durning estates is going to come shortly. We do have a little bit of groundwork going on there.
you can see on that august. August was the most recent area. It's amazing how the satellites can just skip areas over time.
we have some that are two weeks old. Middleton villas, 169 total lots,
13 homes under construction. It's almost done with 155 occupied homes.
this is an example of a really low yield, on a very dense product. We're just not seeing students.
three thousand multifamily units across the district,
about 100 are age constriction. They're under construction.
it's hard to see some of those. They're a little purple that you see on there. Then you see the future ones of 7,200 future units.
with various stages, but there's some of that's age restricted. Now, we know that a lot of these are also seeing low yield.
a lot of it's because the bedroom type. There's just not many two bedrooms.
they're building more one bedrooms than two bedrooms. We're not going to see as many students,
you see a few here at the buckley. Looking at these yields.
what's really interesting about these yields is the green, the less 0.25, your overall is 0.2,
so the average is less than 0.25. If we pulled up a slide from three years ago,
there'd be a lot more red and orange on it. But we've lost some students,
the yields have declined in some areas, and so we're seeing that turn a little bit,
and some regeneration at some of these apartments may begin to happen,
especially as they get a little older and the rents begin to come down. This is a newcomer leavers.
we've been using this for a couple of years. I'm not sure if you remember, explain to you what it is once again.
we track your students each year through a student database that's provide to us by the district.
we use student ids, and we look at the student id from last year to this year.
if that student id was in the system last year, and it's not in the system this year,
they're considered a lever. That student has left the district. Now we don't count 12th graders as leaver,
so that's k through 11. The newcomers, just the opposite of that.
this is a student id that was not there in 24/25,
but is there in 25/26, and that's a first through 12th graders.
we don't count kindergarten students as newcomers. Now, we did see a little bit of double whammy in plano this past year.
we had about 500 less newcomers, and we had about 150 more levers.
that's combination of about 700 student net chains there,
a little bit different. Then birth rates have dropped once again.
you can see there that your kindergarten enrollment this year is 2,683, about a 76% capture rate.
we look at zip code data for all the zip codes in plano, and then we look at kindergarten enrollment five years later.
we only get it at the zip code level. Zip codes don't exactly match the school district.
that's why some of this change happens. What I've done with the main forecast is,
I've said, let's hope this is the bottom. Now we're going to stay at that 76% capture rate.
well, because of the increase in birth, next year's kindergarten enrollment could jump up to 2,766,
could be 2,800 in a couple of years. That would be great if we could stay at that 2,800 number.
but we know birth rates are going to dip here and there.
this year, we lost 2,712 students, that enrollment was 43,838.
the first, about 1,000 of that is just from attrition. We just saw a bigger 12th grade class leave than what entered.
then what we saw was really interesting in my mind is if you look at the bottom row there,
those are cohorts, that first to second, second to third. That's what the math is there.
from third through eighth grade, we saw the lowest cohorts we've seen.
that was some pretty big drop off right there, and I think that was around 800 students,
decline between third and eighth grade. Historically, we've seen that if you go back three years,
it's the exact opposite of that. We saw 800 increase in those years. But that's why I think this was,
I believe, it was a one year thing.
I think that next year, I'm putting that 1,652 growth is basically
saying that we're going to get back on track, if you will, for what we've been doing previously instead of losing a cohort change of 1,400 students.
next year, I'm forecasting that change of about 700. You're still going to lose students,
just not the pace you lost this year. My forecast for 42,186 is a blend of the last three years,
is what I've tried to do there for that forecast. But the scary thing is,
we've got a lot of things in the air right now. We've got vouchers coming up, we've got a lot of unknowns.
I did put a low forecast together. You see this low forecast at 41,830.
that kindergarten class is 2,696. That would basically be a 74% capture rate,
so just be a drop off just like what we saw this year. If that continues to fall,
then this is what your enrollment could look like. I think this is definitely one we need to keep an eye on with bottoms out about 35,000.
I'm using that word. It levels off, we don't know where that's going to be vouchers could take maybe in three years,
we're going to settle in with the voucher stuff and hopefully begin to see some regeneration,
because the housing is definitely there for regeneration as well.
the enrollment campus level forecast is based on that low scenario.
the enrollment numbers that you see here and these campus numbers, are all based on that low scenario and of course,
for middle and high school as well. This chart here gives you an idea of what these will be looking like.
again, the 41,830 is too low. We do include a high projection,
so say that things bounce back, we get some regeneration, not only a single family.
some of those apartment yields creep up. We're not impacted too much by the voucher programs.
then we begin to see a little bit of a bounce back and maybe we can get back to that 38,000 number in about 10 years.
with that, again, I'm forecasting you to fall below 40,000 students within about five years and
probably get down if we hit that low forecast could put it 35,000 students in around 10 years.
that was fast, but I'm here.
>> thank you, rocky for the report, trustees. This is a report. Questions,
comments, hotspots opinions for rocky.
>> hi. I have a few questions. On slide 2,
you have a bullet point about increases in jobs in health services and education.
>> yes, sir. >> is that broken? Is it possible to break that out any further to see where you can dig in there?
this is for the dfw metroplex. I had an inkling that that question might come up today tonight.
we did look at collin county real quick. In collin county, the education was about about 12% of the total employment.
the rest of the health services is a much larger category. We probably see a very similar things district wide,
dfw wide. But it's no. It was, I can't remember what the numbers were,
60/60 thing, something like that. Is that what you mean.
what I was curious, it's surprised me to see that education would have an increase.
I was really curious to see if there's a way to break that down more,
and is that because of charter schools opening up in the area? >> I think it's health services. It's really increased.
>> I don't think it's on that bullet point. It's really pulling that up. They are those combined there,
but definitely probably more health services. >> cool. On slide 7,
and this is probably obvious. I think I know. When you talk about maybe not seven then. Sorry, five.
>> you might be looking at the full report. >> not five either. Sorry. I was looking,
my numbers are off from the notes. But when you describe what a start is,
is that specific to new construction? >> yeah. Housing starts means they've broke ground.
>> got it. >> the developments got all the infrastructure and roads, but they've started a home on that property?
>> last question. >> you're good. >> age restricted units.
what does that describe? >> those are units that are dedicated for an over 55 population.
>> thank you very much. >> I think we also have some in the district that are
apartments that are associated with ut dallas. There's a couple of those in there too.
I was looking at the student apartments. >> student apartments. >> that are associated with ut dallas.
johnny's nodding at me, so I'm glad I didn't make that up. I had a couple of questions.
for anybody who's an avid reader of the dallas morning news.
as I am, there's been a couple of things in there that I wanted to touch on.
one is there was an editorial that specifically addressed the need for
affordable single family housing in plano and talking about
the three properties that were in the process of selling to the city and redevelopment of those.
while I was not super appreciative of the picture that they used and that editorial of a half demolished armstrong middle school.
the thing that I found very interesting in this was that plano
has the second highest median age of residents in collin county.
I'm curious how you talk about there being stock available for regeneration.
how do we get a handle on that? How do we move forward forecasting for that aging population?
can we look at what the median age is, and then at some point, say on average,
we expect regeneration in five years,
10 years, this thing, or is it more of an art than a science?
>> I think it's blended. Just like our forecast is. It's blended.
I believe that we've looked before and we haven't done that in a few years, but we've looked at the exemptions.
>> the tax exemptions. >> tax 65. Pick out. I mean, it's sad thing to do.
you're looking for where your next student might move in, and someone has to move out if that happens.
that's a thing we can look at again. We haven't done that in a few years.
I just look at areas where where our yields have dropped, and that's what I'd have to focus on to look for
the regeneration to see if we can get a swing back on some of those. I think the challenge is somewhat school of choice as well though.
I think I think in a lot of cases, our yields have dropped in plano isd students.
the overall student yield could still be at 0.6. It's just not all in plano isd.
we're going to a mobility report for you guys for our may report.
we hope to have some pretty interesting stuff there when it comes to charters and private and then home schooling.
>> great. >> that'll be really good stuff. >> the second large piece of news
is at&t relocating their corporate headquarters into plano?
this has been all over the news that they're moving from downtown to
what is formerly the eds property off legacy.
from everything I've read, they want to consolidate their plano employees,
or irving employees, or dallas employees, which is numbers like 10,000 employees all at this site after building a new building.
>> when you see those, like major, bring in 10,000 employees to plano-type corporate relocations,
how is that something that we can get a handle on and look at forecasting,
or do you see large impacts in districts that have this type of massive corporate relocation,
or is it depend on that at all? >> I don't know a lot about that relocation.
it was in dallas first, so most of those employees are already living here.
even though they might have to change their commute, it might not change where they live, necessarily.
you might get a few, but I would suspect, especially if they're in dallas, a lot of those might not have been attending
dallas isd anyway. There might be some options. We'd have to look at that, but we look at
employment to see what the unemployment rates can look like,
because that can cause people to move and change. But if unemployment rates stay below 5%,
then people aren't really moving jobs. They're moving jobs, but they're finding jobs.
the impact on our housing or our students isn't really happening very much.
I think it's going to take some different movement to get the students.
I don't think that that's going to bring a lot of students with it personally. >> great, thank you.
>> that was a lot to say, I don't think anything's going to come there, sorry. >> trustees. Other questions.
>> I just have an observation because I asked this question last year about all of the growth that's happening over on the east side.
when you look at the last column on the slide, and it highlights the future growth in future developments,
you've got hickey at 762, hunt at 475,
and 649 for mccall, all eastside elementary schools.
but even boggess, look, there's a little bit up there as well.
but there's room, if you go back and look at what can be the functional capacity of those schools.
there's plenty of room amongst those growths because just because there's 762 units,
it does not equal 762 kids. >> if you just multiply each of those,
you can actually do all of them that are in the east to multiply times 0.2,
and you'll get the yield. There's definitely capacity over there to take that all in.
>> again, I heard concerns from parents. They're like, there will be 660 something units.
that's 660 something kids, and I'm like that's not how it works.
>> it's amazing that is it. >> but that's the mindset that people see, they see a house, and they think kid going to school.
>> set a 0.2, if you do all 3,100 of those, you're talking about 600 kids,
and that spread from kindergarten all the way up through 12th grade. We'd love to see that.
>> yes. >> cause that would help, but there's definitely there's more than enough capacity there to take that in.
>> thank you.
>> anything else, team? Rocky, thank you. We appreciate it, and it sounds like we've got more coming in may.
>> yeah, we do. I think it's some neat reports. >> awesome. Thank you, rocky.
>> thanks. >> next up on our reports is agenda item 9.2 jrotc program report.
I'm going to invite dr kristyn edney, executive director of ccmr, to present.
while dr. Edney is walking up here, I will just say, really quickly, this is a report that trustee sam johnson asked for.
I talked to the superintendent, and we got it on the agenda. I think this is a great program for us.
we get athletics reports, we get fine arts reports, we get reports on advanced academics,
we get reports on bilingual. We get a lot of different reports. This is a program that doesn't necessarily fit neatly into any one category,
between extracurricular and cte and everything else. I just wanted to say,
thank you for asking for something, and I'm really happy to see this presentation this evening.
>> I just want to add to that, too. That trustee chambers, this was an area of great interest to her,
and I regret that we did not get this to her before she left,
and so maybe she's at home watching. I don't know. [laughter].
>> good evening, board president tyra. Board members, dr. Williams, and cabinet members.
I feel honored to present an update about the plano isd jrotc program.
I truly love giving these types of presentations because it is
all about incredible campus leaders doing incredible things with students,
and so excited to be here. Sharing that passion about jrotc.
tonight's presentation includes information about our incredible jrotc program.
the leadership, state changes to jrotc, and general updates.
first, stellar programs do not just happen.
they are created by visionary and talented leaders. We are blessed to have seven dedicated and exemplary jrotc instructors
who lead the program here in plano isd. I personally feel privileged to work with
these individuals and know the passion they pour into making strong programs and into building future leaders.
each one of them is a retired army officer.
let me introduce them. Their pictures are on the slide,
but serving at plano east senior high school is sergeant major anthony henry. He is our senior army instructor for the east cluster.
working with him is sergeant first class gervas wallace and pete loredo.
they are both army instructors for mcmillan and williams high schools.
serving plano senior high school is major michael mcgruder,
who is the senior army instructor. He leads the central cluster with sergeant first class jose murillo,
who is the army instructor at clark in vines. Then we have serving plano west senior high school,
lieutenant colonel bernard aikens, who's the senior army instructor. He was actually at plano east for 20 years,
and then two years ago, moved over to the west cluster to help rebuild that program there at the west side.
working with him is first sergeant kimberly jones, who is the army instructor at jasper and shefton.
this year, there are some exciting changes to jrotc,
and so let's dive into those. House bill 2 brought a lot of changes,
and along with that are changes to jrotc. These are exciting changes, though.
we had a lot of things happening, but these are some really great changes.
first of all, jrotc is now under the cte,
and it is a cte program of study under law and public service.
it's under that cluster. It now provides cte weighted funding,
which is very exciting for us, and it provides graduation endorsement credit for
our students who complete the four credits over four years in jrotc.
we are also looking forward to earning ccmr credit for students who complete the jrotc pathway once the state and tea finalize the criteria.
currently, there is no ibc for jrotc,
and they have not determined a cut score for asvab testing.
we eagerly await the state and tea to finalize these decisions so that we
can potentially earn ccmr credit for these incredible students that go through and dedicate themselves to this program.
another positive change from house bill 2 is
the ability for students to get double the amount of scholarships.
they basically allowed them to increase the amount that they can earn in the rotc program at the college level.
exciting things for our students who want to continue in that pathway.
not only are these changes at the state level for jrotc,
plano isd is leading an innovation for our jrotc program that is garnering attention from cadet command and fifth brigade.
before we dive into that, I just want to also mention that there are perceptions out there,
including I had this before I got to work closely with jrotc.
the perception that jrotc it's about recruiting students for military service.
however, the true purpose of jrotc is to create future leaders.
the values for jrotc are embedded in the curriculum and woven into the program,
and they include leadership, teamwork. Those are huge emphasis on service to the community,
and they do a lot here in plano isd. I'm going to tell you a little bit more about that in just a minute.
citizenship, discipline, and responsibility.
they also have a huge focus on academic excellence and just being prepared for the future.
the jrotc program has experienced some impressive growth the past few years.
you can see that the numbers were low after the pandemic. We're working on getting some enrollment numbers for you pre-pandemic so we can compare.
but the numbers were low after the pandemic. Rebuilding the program was a priority for the leadership team.
we are projected to exceed 500 cadets this coming school year in 26, 27.
the instructors are motivated to continue growing the program year after year, so more to come on that.
approximately three years ago, some of our army instructors were early adopters of stem and
introduced drones and robotics to jrotc as an after-school opportunity.
now all three clusters are engaged in stem activities, which we believe supported the increase in enrollment that we've seen.
our plano east senior high school jrotc program caught the attention of cadet command,
which resulted in a visit by three-star general king,
who serves as deputy commanding general. He wanted to see the program in action
because of all the great things he was hearing about it.
with the new focus on stem and leadership, several universities reached out to us to partner with us.
we are now partnering with university of texas dallas, university of texas arlington.
then texas a&m served as our mentor for our [inaudible] robotic students.
I got to two years in a row, go to the world championship is downtown here in dallas,
and countries from all around the world, high schools,
colleges, all participate in this world championship,
and our kids were right there with them. I was able to go and see them, and as a proud aggie myself,
it was really fun to see the whoop it team mentoring our kids,
coaching our kids, and then also competing. They were right there, neck and neck, for a minute.
part of being a good leader is service to others and the community.
our jrotc cadets engage in annual service projects and are committed to plano cares.
a few community service activities, you see on this sheet right here in the next slide that you'll see.
but just to name a couple, they helped with the back to school fare setup.
they are the ones that came early, and they unpacked all the backpacks and stacked them up.
all those nice, clean, neat stacks that was the jrotc students.
also helping families at the plano for your future event that we had this year at academy high school.
they served as tour guides, and they helped assist families get to the sessions.
also, presenting the colors at many events. You can see here where they're presenting the colors at
the frisco rough riders during the stem night. They also are very engaged in educating young students about robotics and drones.
they're very excited to share that passion, and it doesn't stop there.
plano west engaged with the children's advocacy center teddy bear ride,
where they had all these motorcycles with these veterans,
many of which were veterans that were taking the teddy bears and delivering them to students who needed and deserve them.
the cool thing, though, is that they didn't just help with securing the teddy bears and
providing a good experience for kids. They also talked with and interviewed
the veterans so that they could learn more from them about their experiences.
plano east collected over 1,100 pounds of food from mini's pantry,
but they didn't just collect the food. They also helped assemble it, and they helped deliver it.
you can see why they're very dedicated. On here, you see pictures where they hosted
a senior prom at community senior living centers, which I thought was really cool.
I got a little teary when I saw that. They also escorted the texas angels to a ball,
and I mentioned the others. Committed to plano excellence,
our jrotc programs are award-winning and recognized for their excellence.
this slide shows some of the recognitions that our jrotc programs have received last year and this year.
plano east jrotc, for example, competed in the national jlab competition in washington, dc.
only the top move up to the nationals. Plano senior high cadets receive recognition at the scottish rite national ceremony.
also, several of our teams competed at the vex robotics competition.
plano east, in particular, went on to nationals and then the worlds.
additional recognitions, you all, this is not even covering all of them.
these are just little slices of the recognitions that our cadets have earned,
and these incredible leaders have helped them receive. Plano east female color guard won second place,
plano east male color guard won first place, in inspection and second place in regulation,
and the plano senior high school drill team won third place in regulation.
lots of great things happening. Then these are just pictures where you see the rader team heading to
the fifth brigade rader championship that was in washington, dc.
our jrotc cadets are going places. I asked the senior army instructors,
where are seniors going? Right now, we have four students that are on target for west point.
we have one going to naval academy, john hopkins, texas a&m, ut austin, texas tech, smu,
ut arlington, ut dallas, lsu, washington university,
kansas state, oklahoma university, florida state, university of new mexico, and many more.
that's just an example, and we already know that that is where they're going. They're also majoring in a variety of high-demand areas,
such as, you see them listed here nuclear engineering. I'm impressed when I see this list: mechanical engineering,
industrial engineering, aerospace engineering. These kids are going places.
they're going to do amazing things. As you can see, the theme is about creating our future leaders,
and you can see it's happening. These are just additional pictures.
you can see the world championship where our kids competed in prior years,
and they'll be competing again this year. Our kids went to ole miss and visited the campus.
>> in alignment with this year's theme, it all begins here.
I'd like to brag on two of our trustees who participate in jrotc in plano id,
one at pesh and plano east, and one at plano senior.
from jrotc to our valued leaders of today, you can see jrotc makes a difference.
I want to thank you for allowing me to share about and
brag about the leadership and the cadets, and so if you have any questions.
>> thank you, kristen. We appreciate the great report. Did you know why they wanted the picture?
>> I should have put that together, but I did not put that together.
>> if you go back a slide. >> yeah. >> that young lady got a full ride to college because jrotc, full ride.
my husband is in his 18th year of service in the army.
it's hard to it's hard to quantify,
qualify, put into words at all, the way that this program impacted me and my life and everything else.
I was a lot more tan. Wow. But appreciate the presentation.
this is such a wonderful program. It's interesting to see how the program has changed, right? Because when when I was in school and sam, you're a little older than me,
but we used to go to fort sill every year and spend time where the army
does basic training at fort sill and spent time in basic training barracks and doing that sort of thing.
of course, after 911, all of that stopped. I'm very glad to see just the evolution of
the program and having things like robotics and and other 21st century super relevant things for these students to do.
now that I've spent my time reminiscing, trustees, what questions or comments or hot sports opinions do you have for dr. Edney?
>> I was just going to make a comment that actually my son did jrotc and I
know that it was instrumental and even though he went on to computer science and not into the military,
that it led to him being able to take a leadership positions at a company in technology.
a year after graduation, which meant that he gained leadership experience and could show it.
and invaluable lessons for him in his life.
I'm going to be excited. I'm texting him about how they do drones and aviation out
because he'll be excited to hear about that.
>> I just wanted to give quick kudos to the plano east cadets who will be at
my work this spring because one of them reached out and just said,
"hi, we would like to work with your nonprofit, and we are engaged in the community",
so they'll be helping at our hope door new beginning center resale store.
I think that is just so neat that there is a focus on not just service in the military,
but also service in the community, and what giving back looks like.
I think that is just amazing. It was such a well written email.
I'm constantly astounded at how poised and confident our students are,
and it's just so impressive. >> I got to say, I have never seen such dedication from instructors who go above and
beyond and spend weekends and evenings pouring into these students. It is incredible.
>> I just wanted to ask, you did a great job. Very enthusiastic report.
you always present so well. How many are in each brigade,
plano east, plano senior, plano west? >> the largest and if I go back,
battalions, brigade, battalion. I don't know all that.
I'm an accountant. If you notice,
plano east has three. They have one senior army instructor and two army instructors.
to support that cluster. For every so you have to have a minimum of
100 cadets to be able to have a unit or to have a program.
they have exceeded and they are almost above 200.
just at plano east.. Plano senior and plano west all
have at or above 100 and they're seeking to increase even higher than that.
>> that's impressive. Then also the drones, can you tell us more about what they do with the drone,
that's such fabulous technology for them to learn? >> the drone started at plano senior,
and the gentleman who was there, his wife got a transfer, and so he moved,
but it spread quickly over to plano east and now we have it across the district.
but they don't fly it outdoors. There's regulation for that,
but they have the netting and they converted space so that they could do it indoors.
for example, at plano east, they converted target the range
where they do their drones and their robotics in that space.
they repurposed it for the 21st century.
they do all sort of challenges, for example,
one of the challenges a couple of years ago when they were first starting out with this was they had to use the drones to put out
fires in a building and get the fire to stop and and stop spreading,
but also keep the people safe. They're doing problems like that and challenges like that, using drone technology.
>> very cool. Thank you. >> I just want to say thank you also,
and thank you dr. Williams and dr. Tyra for getting this on our agenda.
like dr. Tyra, going through jrotc in plano was a transformative experience for me,
and I know we have lots of different transformative experiences for our students.
but I was excited to see the increasing enrollment in the program,
and I hope that continues because like you noted, it's not just about moving on to the military.
some people do, and that's important. Some people don't and that's important too.
we were asked for some of the pr stuff for board recognition month to talk about a teacher who was really impactful on us.
my answer for that question was my senior army instructor and the two army instructors I
had a vines because there's such a focus on leadership and service to the community.
I credit my time in this program with a lot of who I've become now.
I just love that the program has evolved and is meeting those new needs for our students,
so they can also develop into our future leaders. Thank you again. Please pass on to our faculty in
this program to keep up the really amazing work they're doing. >> I will do so. Thank you.
>> thank you, dr. Edney. If anybody is ever wondering where my sense of direction comes
from and why when y'all take wrong turns at training, I keep going in the opposite direction.
actually did this program competitive orienteering.
talking about the impact on your life, I can read maps well.
thank you, dr. Edney. As always appreciated and great to have
a new item on the agenda tonight that is focused on our students.
we are going to move on to agenda item 9.3,
the 2026-2027 initial budget report.
I will invite courtney reves, our chief financial officer to please present.
>> thank you, dr. Tyra, board of trustees, dr. Williams, cabinet.
it feels like we just finished 25-26, doesn't it? I was just here last month.
it's that time again, we're going to start with our 26-27 budget season.
tonight's presentation is intended to provide that first look of our 26-27 budget.
we do have a lot of work still to be done, but mr. Hill and, I believe it's important to present this information now to ensure
early transparency and to begin those really important budget conversations.
I'd like to begin to walk you through our key budget assumptions for our 2026 2027 budget.
these assumptions form the foundations of what we used to develop this initial proposed budget.
first, we rely on our demographer, zonda, as rocky was just here.
I just want to point out he talked about his high and his low projections.
we did use his low projection. For our 26-27,
rocky was projecting a 4.6% decline in our enrollment,
that was his low scenario, which represents a decrease of 2,008 students.
next, we make assumptions related to our local property value growth.
this directly impacts our state funding and recapture. While we receive our certified estimate from
the collin central appraisal district in april, we're currently budgeting with the assumed growth rate of a 2.5%.
this assumption will be updated once we receive that certified estimate at the end of april.
tax compression remains in effect as a result of house bill three from 2019.
house bill two from 2023, or excuse me, senate bill two of 2023,
and then our senate bill four from 2025, that had just a little bit compression, not a lot, but I did want to also include it.
our budget also includes a planning placeholder right now for a 2% compensation increase,
and that's the estimated cost is 7.6 million, 1% of an increase costs a district approximately $3.8 million.
then finally, we're including a projected 3% increase for our non payroll budget.
this is just a placeholder and we'll refine as we continue to work through our budget process specifically when we're looking at our department budgets.
just again, in response to inflation, things that, continue to increase,
software costs, contracted things. Right now again, that's a placeholder we're putting in there.
I know mr. Hill went over our big budget,
our budget and our staffing calendar back in november. This is just a smaller snapshot of that.
of course, in november, you'll remember mr. Hill came and we talked about that calendar and our goals.
of course, january, tonight, we're going to talk about some assumptions and just a preliminary budget estimate.
february, we'll talk about a little bit of a peer review. March is all about compensation.
there's going to be some performance reporting comparisons, trends, compensation review and hopefully adoption of our compensation plan.
april is going to be about department budgets. May will be our preliminary budget summary.
I'll also come to the board and ask for an authorization to advertise our public hearing.
our public hearing will be in june and we'll also adopt the budget in june.
then lastly, I'll be back in august for us to adopt a new tax rate.
this is just our campus and department budget timeline. I know we're talking about this is the beginning of our budget season.
we've actually a finance department, our budget department started working on budget information back at
the end of october so that our departments would be able to start working on their budgets first of november.
they actually had to turn in at almost everybody turn their department budget in.I don't know if
there's anybody in the audience I need to get. They were due last friday. Then, we do distribute our campus allocations.
these are non payroll campus allocations. We'll distribute those on this friday.
the month of february, and that first week in march, we're going to review those department budgets.
then at the end of february, those campus budgets are due back to the finance department.
our budget process, remained really consistent.
obviously, our staffing analysis I know dr. Kendall and her team are currently working really really hard on our staffing model.
they are using all the information from rocky, and that's based on that projected enrollment.
department budgets, are going to be utilizing their zero based budget.
if you remember, we do an enhanced line item budget, we go through every line of our department budgets, line by line.
we incorporated a couple years ago, a three year trend analysis.
we look at the trend spin, three year trend spin on each one of these line and we align it to their actual spending.
in this year, we're going to implement just next layer with an implementation to a priority based software program evaluation.
we're looking at it from a couple of different lenses. Return on investment, mainly for our main softwares,
and then for academic softwares, an academic return on investment. What are these softwares giving bang for our buck,
not just our bang for our buck, but are we able to utilize those softwares
to again enhance our academic performance for our students? We're adding that this year.
then our campus allocation, again, these are non payroll related campus allocations.
the overall allocation that they receive is actually based on the 2026-27 projected enrollment,
and then they do get additional funding for their special populations, those student populations, gt cte, special ed.
those are actually based on their current pm snapshot. We don't try to project those out.
we'll use those current numbers in this last pm snapshot for those program allocations.
I know you're all very familiar with this graph, but if you'll allow me to briefly walk you through what it's showing.
those blue bars represent our actual enrollment for the year and those gold bars show us our projected enrollment,
and that red line across reflects the number of available seats each year. Again, we're utilizing rocky's low scenario, low projection.
as you can see, our peak enrollment was at 55,659 students in our fiscal year 2011,
2012, and we've experienced a steady decline in enrollment since that time.
but declining enrollment, our number of seats continues to increase.
our current fiscal year 25-26, we have 18,082 available seats.
when we break that down by cluster, it's roughly 74 of those seats are going to be in the central cluster,
05,400 in the east cluster and approximately 5,300 in our west cluster.
looking ahead to 2030-2031, available seats are projected to increase by an additional 6,794,
bringing that projected total to 24,876 available seats.
again, that's looking forward to 2030-2031.
I don't want to spend too much time on this. I know that we looked a lot at this information when rocky was doing his presentation,
I just want to walk you through what's been going on with our enrollment for the last couple of years.
24-25, our actual enrollment was 46,550.
our projected enrollment for 25-26 was 45,774.
but then our actual snapshot for 25-26 was 43,808.
that was a difference of 2,712 students from our prior year snapshot.
then our 26-27 projected enrollment is 41,830.
that's 4.6% decline in enrollment, and that's approximately about a $20 million reduction in our revenue.
>> this is our maintenance and operations tax rate compression.
since we're only doing 2.5%, again, there's not going to be the level of higher than to the 2.5,
we would have more compression. In this case, we have just a little bit of compression specifically from our senate bill 4 that we had.
again, you see that compressed rate, that tier 1 compressed down just a bit.
again, our tier 2 pennies, you'll see, those cop and golden pities, actually still say the same.
but overall, our m&o tax rate, you see a little bit of compression, and post '25, '26,
you see 0.8022, and we will compress down just a little bit to 0.7954.
again, our total tax rate for '25, '26 was $1.03955,
and for '26 '27, it will be $1.03275.
again, that is a decrease of 0.0068.
this bar graph is illustrating our property tax rate dating back 2018, 2019.
that dark blue portion represents our m&o tax rate while the light blue portion represents our ins tax rate,
and of course, you can see the total tax rate on each one of those bars. Our total tax rate has steadily declined since 2018, 2019,
largely due to the significant legislative changes, including house bill 3 in 2019,
and house bill 2 in 2023. If you compare our 2018,
2019 tax rate to our projected '26, '27 tax rate, our total tax rate will have decreased over $0.40 in this eight years.
it's actually under $0.41 and 0.4062.
it's pretty good in eight years.
this slide illustrates our recapture history dating back to 2018, 2019.
again, that dark blue portion represents the share of our property tax revenue retained by the district,
and then the light blue portion represents the amount that we were meant to state in the form of recapture.
as shown, there are some notable decreases in recaptures that align to again, those significant legislative changes specifically,
including house bill 3 in 2019 and senate bill 2 in 2023. Please forgive me. I should have put a line right there in '24, '25 and '25,
'26 to indicate house bill 2 and senate bill 4 because you can actually see
that impact of house bill 2 and senate bill 4 from 25 '24, '25-'25, '26.
of course, you see that decrease in recapture, but however, if you'll see in '25,
'26 to '26, '27, recapture is projected to increase by approximately $16 million.
pie charts. I've always talked about how much I enjoy the pie charts. Again, I think they're very simple and to
the point illustrations of what's going on only with our revenues, but our expenditures.
these pie charts illustrate the breakdown of our general fund revenues, incorporating our budget assumption of that 2.5 increase in our property values.
the chart on the left actually reflects our revenue distribution, including projected recapture, and the right
actually shows our revenue breakdown excluding recapture. Both charts, it's very clear our local funding represents the largest source of revenue,
while not all the local revenue is derived from property taxes, but of course, the mass majority comes from our property tax collections.
again, you can see after our local funding, our state funding is next and then of course, other sources,
and then we do get a smaller amount of federal funds.
I'm going to briefly walk you through our key changes and our projected revenues.
first, of course, our local revenue is forecasted to increase by $7.15 million and primarily due to our property tax collections.
that's driven by our anticipated 2.5% increase in our property values.
state revenues are projected to decrease by 5.88 million,
mainly there's a couple of things, but it's mainly due to our available school fund or per capita rate.
that does, of course, that's based on our prior year average daily attendance.
for '26, '27, that rate is set a little bit lower at a placeholder of $400,
compared to '25, '26, it's $471.19.
again, it's that rate is going to be lower, but then also it's due to our declining enrollment,
so it's based on prior ada. It's decreasing not only because that rate is decreasing,
but our number of kiddos and ada is decreasing. That's the main driver.
our fsp did decrease a little bit as well.
our federal revenue is projected to decrease by 2.5 million.
this reflects the timing of our 22 shas cost report settlement.
if you remember, that was very delayed. We were hoping to receive that at the end of around june 25 at the end of last fiscal year.
we actually didn't receive that until about august of this year, we received that in early part of '25,
'26, resulting in a one time increase. Of course, it will not repeat itself moving forward to '26, '27.
other sources are projected to decrease by six million primarily due to the one time sale of land from our closed campuses that occurred in the prior year.
then finally, recapture is projected to increase by $15.97
million driven mainly for our higher property tax collections and then of course,
our projected decline in our student enrollment. Taking this together for '26, '27,
we are projecting a net revenue and other sources of $527.3 million,
which represents a $23.2 million decrease compared to our '25, '26 amended budget.
now, we've moved on to expenditures or projected appropriations.
of course, you can see, we like to break these down by function, and object.
a function on the left side represents the general operational areas in
school districts and object codes identify the purpose of those expenditures.
if you'll look on our left side for our function, the largest portion of our general fund is dedicated to direct instructional services.
that's so 64%, and of course, this includes our teacher salaries, classroom materials,
education programs, of course, demonstrating the districts strong commitment to
student learning and academic achievements. Next, you have 11.7 and our non student support,
that is actually where our facilities and our technology is. Then you have our student support at 8.3%.
that actually includes our counseling services, social work,
nursing, and then of course, it does have our extracurricular like, our fine arts, and athletics.
our instructional and school leadership at 6.6%, transportation 3.7%,
administration 2.3%, and then our safety security 1.7 and then all other at 1.7.
then, of course, again, on the right hand side is by object. Again, that's identifies the purpose of those expenditures.
for us, our greatest obviously, asset is our labor. We're very labor intensive industry.
our payroll obviously is our largest percentage at 83.5%,
contracted services at 10.8. That's actually where if you'll keep that in mind that our utilities,
our utilities actually are housed in our contracted services, your electric, your water, your gas.
supplies 3.1%. Operating, which is travel, dues, fees,
things of that nature, 2.5, and then bringing up the rear as capital outlay at 0.1%.
again, just going to walk you through those changes from our '25, '26 baseline.
this preliminary budget forecast for '26, '27. Again, we've talked about the increase in our recapture payment of just under $6 million.
our compensation increase reflects an estimated 2% placeholder percentage,
which is partially due to continued right sizing of staffing as enrollment declines,
and we manage those adjustments the attrition only. You do see an increase on trs behalf,
which is really not an increase in expenditure that's actually offset on the revenue side.
it's a wash. We just don't like and lump it in anything, which would be very clear.
but again, that was part of the revenue side and so it's just a wash. Then of course,
that non payroll inflationary factor, again, just building in for those non payroll pieces for inflation at $2.74 million.
again, that's just a placeholder again, we'll refine that as we work through department budgets.
of course, if you'll look at our net expenditures, that's net of recapture is $571.05 million.
where do we land and where do sum up? Our net revenue again was $527.3 million.
our net expenditures $571.05 million,
that gives us a projected deficit budget of just under $44 million at $43.75 million.
so that concludes my presentation. Happy to answer any questions.
>> thank you, courtney for the great report. Trustees, this is a report questions, comments,
hot sports opinions for courtney and nancy, you had your mic on first.
because it's the budget, I know. >> yeah. Well, I'm just going to make it simple.
can you go back to your little pie chart? It's like four slides or three slides up. There you go.
to log on to the mindset that you were talking about earlier.
tara. Well,
sometimes people speak without looking at the facts, and I just want to point out that
maroon pie slice on the left under the appropriations by function,
when you look at the administrative cost, it's 2.3% of our budget.
I just wanted to highlight that. Then I had a question that this is baby crystal ball thing.
yes. But when you go back to just what's going on in the world and
how the current trump administration
has eliminated the department of education pretty much. I know that they're saying that it'll go down to the states to administer everything.
do you feel like there's any potential loss of
federal funding because we have some title programs.
we have our usda food nutrition. We have quite a few federal things our carl perkins act.
do you have any crystal ball predictions on that? >> I have seen some documents, obviously,
that have referred to a couple of our federal programs.
obviously, we are trying to obviously keep in touch. We have [inaudible], of course,
we've got some great contacts there. We've not heard anything official. Of course, there are some things out there that target specifically our title 1 funding,
title 2, title 3, mainly our esa funding out there that, of course, have the potential.
we haven't heard anything official. Again, no one's really talking about it.
again, that's what I have read from some other documents
that come in depending on what continues to move in that direction,
obviously to cut federal funding. Those were ones that were specifically listed out there in documents.
>> last week, elisa and I met legislative subcommittee,
and of course, lauren wasn't able to meet, but we went ahead and met with congressman johnson's office, her staff,
just to chat and make sure that we keep that line of communications open.
the one good thing is that she said the funding for the usda portion has already been appropriated.
so we're feeling good about that because I think last summer we had that hiccup that.
>> yes, I think we so good about '26, '27.
it's just what is coming down the pipes after that. Again, just here rumblings,
you don't know what's going to flush out. Of course, we're trying to pay attention. Obviously, we're having a lot of great conversations.
we have a director that's over programs or directors over those programs, just having conversations.
obviously, we know we need these programs. I want to keep funding them and hope that the federal government does too.
but yes, to your point, nancy, we are going to get again, part of that for '26,
'27 should be good and should have those fully appropriated. Again, we're trying to plan for next year as we're getting those funds,
and then of course, we'll communicate anything that changes if we hear anything. >> well, thank you because I know that we need an educated workforce to
keep this robust eighth largest economy in the world going. >> yes, ma'am.
>> well, then I will address my questions about I think it's a slide before where it says from the pie charts,
nope, not that one. Yes, that one.
when we look at state funding, I'm more addressing my comments to our state leaders and not really to you, courtney,
because kudos to you and your finance team for taking what I feel sometimes are like table scraps that get sent to us from the state.
I'm sorry, I'm going to not have a filter. I'm not on the legislative subcommittee anymore.
so if our legislators are listening, thank you so much for that amazing $55 basic allotment increase last time.
you can stand to do more. Like we need more.
our students need more, our teachers need more because we are doing
amazing things in plano isd with the limited funds that the state is giving us.
an 8.5 billion increase in pub ed was spent with hb2 last session.
but as you see, we're still going to be operating with a budget deficit this next year.
we still have gaps, special ed. We still are going to have gaps in regards to transportation that's funded.
gas is more than $2 a gallon, and I think we get what $1 for every mile.
then on top of that, we have to pay for the buses and their maintenance.
all of those allotments and all of the talk of making up for years of stagnant funding of public ed.
we're at a point where guess what, pub ed is still not being funded by our state leaders.
if we do want to stay as the number eight economy in the world,
our leaders need to really look at education and take it seriously again in the next session,
and I'm so glad to pass the baton to alisa who can be on that committee because it
really just gets me passionate and a little angry that we're told we understand the problem,
but the remedies is not enough, and I will get off my soapbox.
>> one comment and one question. So I'll start with the question.
part of what did come out of the last legislative session that I've been pretty hopeful
about is the sped funding being tied to intensity of services.
where are we at in terms of like rule making, budgeting?
because that's supposed to go into effect next school year. But the last I had heard,
we didn't have anything from tea to understand how how that was going to impact our funding situation.
>> no, ma'am. Not yet. We haven't and of course, we do rely on a finance template. We've got a guru by omar garcia,
who usually puts out the template through region 13. I've I've been in keeping an eye out.
I don't think that we've heard anything, johnny, you jump in here, but as of yet,
that's not been built into our revenue templates, of course, to your point, it's not reflected here in these revenue numbers yet.
>> yeah, we've had conversations with our consultants through tasbo specifically about that.
the advice we were giving is because they're actually having a very very hard time of actually quantifying what that's going to look like.
they haven't got to that point yet. We were instructed for this year's budget to go by what we had in previous years.
then we are expecting a little bit of an increase, but what we've been advised it's not going to blow our socks off,
it's going to be minimal increases.
this is to start our budget process. We're hoping as we go through the next several months,
it will be more optimistic.
that would be one area that we would love to see some gains in. But right now we're trying to take
a conservative approach and we've been advised to do that. >> great. Thank you.
>> there is the $100 per evaluation and that has been factored in this budget already.
>> yes. Great. For comment, can you go back to slide 6.
>> yes ma'am? >> that's our enrollment and open seats, the bar graph with the line across.
I just wanted to make a point on this slide and again, to dovetail off of a different point tara made earlier.
but when we did the long range facility planning, I heard a lot of grumbling in the community,
like we're short sided. What if we need the seats,
this sort of thing. One of the things that struck me about this is we had let's see,
19,000 is open seats last year. This year, after retiring four campuses,
that went down to about 18,000 open seats. If we go with the modest projection next year,
we're already back up above where we were last year before we retired for canvases at over 20,000 open seats.
I have heard a lot of things from the community
about this being short sighted or what happens when you need those properties,
if you're selling them to the city. That sort of thing in just a moment to reassure the public here that these are
very much data driven decisions in tracking this data and the demography data as well
as I keep telling people to go drive by haggard middle school because it's like old haggard,
and then like new haggard. When you look at the size of our schools and the size of our campuses,
the newer campuses are just larger than the older campuses and can fit more kids.
as we go through this life cycle, trying to ensure not only,
we're right sizing the district intelligently,
but using the properties that we have really to the greatest effect,
whether it's rebuilding two small campuses into one larger campus
that works very well for that area or whatever the outcome may be.
but this really struck me in packet review this week and I think
it's worth pointing out that even one year after retiring four campuses,
we're still going to have 20,000 extra seats across the district next year,
and certainly something to think about in the future.
>> did you have something else?
>> no, I totally agree with you and that graph is extremely concerning.
I wanted to just point out, I think back when you were talking about all of your budget process,
I really appreciate the zero base budget and the fact that every dollar that's in the department budgets are proven every year.
it's not like, you got to spend it so that you'll get it next year. That's not how things are done here.
that's a misconception that people have, but every year, you build the line items and you scrutinized and you cut where you can.
>> yes, ma'am. >> thank you for pointing that out. Yes. >> thank you. Yes. They start from zero and they build their budget,
and it is truly a partnership, again, those our departments come to the table ready and willing and understand.
again, they watch these presentations too and so I'm just so grateful for the leaders in
this district because they do come to the table and be, what are we got to do? What do we need to do?
I'm very grateful for that, yes, and they are very good about providing so much detail. It's a great process.
doctor williams and our previous cfo, randy mcdowell, put this zero based budgeting in place.
we have definitely, there's been a lot of work and I just very grateful for
putting that budget process in place and then for the departments for being willing to sit at the table with us.
>> speaking about the shortfall, back to you, tara.
when you look at that bottom line being a deficit, of course, this is your most conservative.
I get that. Yes. But things will flush out better. I would expect.
but when you look at that one line item, that is almost the same amount as our shortfall for special education.
that doesn't include our shortfall for transportation and such.
I think you pointed out tara a lot of the nuances that caused those shortfalls,
but that's where the funding needs to be. I'm glad that they've got the based on intensity for the special lend funding,
but obviously, they don't have a model for it yet. >> well, they also didn't put enough money into it either, so?
>> yeah, it's just a frustrating dilemma. But anyway, I'll get off my soapbox now
>> well, johnny said something that made me want to jump back on mine. You started talking about $1,000 that we will be
paid by the state for the evaluations due to hb2.
and for those that don't know, if I am a parent who wants to send my kid who has special needs,
but needs the testing to go to xyz charter school that's next door to one of our schools.
we in plano isd are going to be conducting that evaluation,
and the state will reimburse us that $100. I am in advance,
thinking our staff who will be conducting evaluations because they know they do it for our students as well.
>> you're done? Okay. Thank you, nancy.
thank you, courtney. We appreciate the presentation.
many more budget presentations to come between now and the adoption of the final budget.
we will now move on to our last report this evening. >> this is agenda item 9.4 mid year measures of
academic progress for the 2025/2026 school year.
I will invite, there is anton spencer, director of research and accountability and some friends to please come and present.
>> good evening, doctor tara. Doctor williams, cabinet and board members.
we do have some good numbers for maps, some positive numbers, so we'll share with you here at the end of our meeting.
board members as well. Doctor davis and doctor aber, along with myself,
are here tonight to present an overview of the outcomes from our winter map administration.
as a reminder for everyone, in the middle of the year, map serves as a formative assessment that helps us understand where students are
in their learning progression and guides planning, instruction, and interventions.
knowing and using student data is a key component of the district's collaborative team framework and
an established expectation for teachers and administrators. Teachers along with campus and district leaders have immediate access to
winter map results and use this information to plan instruction and identify leverage points to improve student outcomes.
k-8 campuses engaged in winter map data analysis during the professional learning day earlier this month.
in addition, rp has developed protocols to support collaborative plcs in using this data effectively,
and my three specialists work very hard in that work.
this represents a highly valuable investment by the board as map data is
a powerful tool for informing instruction in driving student growth.
the rit scale has not changed, but the norm referenced group has,
meaning student comparisons now reflect today's national peers.
nwea also introduced the enhanced item selection algorithm, eisa.
you may remember from the fall. It's not eisa, it's eisa.
we're going to hold with that to honor nwea, which improves how questions are selected and prioritize its grade level content.
because of these updates, we typically see higher. I apologize.
we typically see slightly lower fall scores and higher winter and spring scores, especially in math.
this is expected and reflects the improved alignment of the assessment.
overall, these changes strengthen map as an instructional tool and make the data more relevant for guiding student learning.
we need to interpret the 2025 map norm shifts
with caution because several factors are influencing the changes. Pandemic related disruptions, slowed student growth and lowered achievement nationally,
and those effects are still reflected in the data. The new eisa algorithm also increases measurement sensitivity,
particularly in math, which can make growth appear steeper than before.
in addition, shifts in the demographic makeup of public school students may be affecting national trends.
taken together, these factors help explain why the updated norms look a little different.
now let's take a look at the data. I'm pleased to share that similar to our fall map results,
our winter map data shows that on average, our students are performing above national norms and have
demonstrated strong year over year growth from last winter to this winter.
achievement percentile helps us understand how our students compare to others nationally by
ranking their performance against students in the same grade and at the same point in the school year.
this gives us a clear picture of how plano isd students are performing relative to their peers across the country.
the rankings come from a large national norm study that includes millions of
test events from nearly 12 million students and over 25,000 schools.
it's also important to remember that the new norm study will continue to refine these comparisons over time.
a first chart.
this slide shows a winter map means student achievement percentiles
for grades k-8 in math, reading and science.
in reading math science and language usage, percentiles are at or above the 50th percentile as indicated by the red horizontal line.
which means our students continue to perform at a high level compared to their national peers.
as a reminder, a percentile indicates a percentage of students nationwide who scored lower.
for example, scoring at the 75th percentile means performing better than 75% of national peers.
one area we have monitored closely over time is eighth grade math.
these results reflect only our eighth grade on level math students since algebra students take the algebra math assessment.
I'm pleased to share that this group showed significant growth increasing from
the 41st percentile in the fall to the 66 percentile this winter.
those are some really strong growth numbers, and moving this far from the 41st to the 66,
means that these students moved ahead of other students in their achievement,
which is a very good outcome for those students and shows that they were taught well,
that they put in good effort, and they're on the right track and showing that 66 percentile assess an indication
that these students are on their way to being closer to grade level.
our spanish reading results are at or just above the national average.
it's important to remember that these students are developing literacy in two languages,
while most of their peers focus on only one. Research shows that students in biteracy pathways typically accelerate and show
stronger gains as they move further into the program and into secondary grades.
this line shows the district's average reading risk scores from fall to
winter across grades k-8 along with subgroup performance. Across all grade levels,
we see expected increases from the beginning of the year to mid year,
and subgroup patterns generally follow the district averages.
you'll notice that in the upper grades, the risk scores appear closer together.
this is a normal pattern known as rit score compression. As students get older,
the risk scale becomes more condensed meaning that even small increases in score represent meaningful growth.
in other words, a few rip points in middle school reflect more learning than the same number of points in the primary grades.
overall, the data shows steady progress from fall to winter and consistent performance across student groups.
this chart shows the performance of our dual language students on the map reading assessment in both spanish and english.
it's important to note that the two tests use different rit scales and different norm groups.
the scores cannot be compared directly. Spanish reading is considered a separate subject from english reading,
which is why students who take both assessments have two distinct growth events reflected in the tables.
in both languages, we see strong rit growth from the beginning of the year to mid year.
>> this chart shows the reading comparison scores for our two way dual language program.
although we aren't able to directly compare the english rit scores with the spanish rit scores,
you can see similar patterns of growth. Across both grade levels and languages,
the rit score increase is significant, indicating strong academic growth and effective instruction.
this line presents fall and winter map rit averages for grades k-8,
along with subgroup performance. Across all grade levels, we see steady growth from the beginning of the year to mid year,
which is the expected pattern on the map assessment. The subgroup data generally mirrors
district trends with each group showing progress from fall to winter. As with reading, you'll notice that
rit scores in the upper grades appear closer together. This is normal because the rit scale compresses as students advance,
meaning smaller point changes represent meaningful growth. Overall, the data shows strong mid year progress across all student groups in math.
conditional growth percentile tells us how our students are growing
compared to other students nationwide who have similar achievement. It provides a fair comparison because it accounts for where students started.
this measure also allows us to track growth across multiple time periods.
in this case, from fall to winter and winter to winter. Typically, a full years worth of growth is reflected when students
score between the 45th and 55th percentiles. That range serves as an important benchmark when interpreting our results.
this chart shows the fall '25 to winter
'26 conditional growth percentiles for each grade level and the subject, including spanish reading and language usage.
only students with both a fall and winter rit score are included. As a reminder, typical academic growth falls between a 45th and 55th percentiles.
we're seeing particularly strong growth across all subjects with
almost all grade levels demonstrating growth above the 45th percentile,
with 27 out of 37 measures or 73% at or above the 55th percentile.
once you get above the 55th percentile and into the '60s,
we see that seventh grade science at 68, when you're looking at more than a year's worth of growth.
I apologize. To examine an academic years worth of growth,
this chart displays winter to winter conditional growth percentiles for student cohorts.
for example, students who were in kindergarten last year are represented in the grade 1 column showing their growth from
winter as kindergartners to winter as first graders. Only students with both winter 2025 and winter 2026 map scores
are included in this analysis. The red dotted lines mark
the typical annual growth range of the 45th to 55th percentiles.
across all subjects and grade levels, we see strong winter to winter growth for
students who have been in the district over the past year. What is especially noteworthy is that this is the first time
every grade level and every subject is at or above the 45th percentile,
indicating that all areas are meeting or exceeding expected annual growth.
that is a celebration indeed. This trend reflects broad district wide progress compared to
statistically similar peers and demonstrates the effectiveness of the district's instructional program.
we'll look at staar. This chart
compares last year's actual staar meets grade level rates, shown in blue with this year's winter map
based staar projection shown by the black line with variance bands.
the projections incorporate standard error to provide a realistic range of possible outcomes.
across grade 3-8, the winter map data suggests that our students are on track to
perform at or above last year star results. In all grades, the projections indicate the potential
for higher meets rates than last year. The variance bans help us understand the expected range of performance,
and even within that range, the projections remain strong. Overall, this early indicator shows that students are well positioned heading into
the spring and our instructional work is keeping us aligned with or ahead of prior year performance.
we have math. Here's the same estimate for math.
these lower estimates hold true to what we learned about the new math norms, but are still on track with the standard error metrics.
as a reminder, the seventh grade score shows only the performance of the on level student group.
this view shows star projections at the meets level and above.
I will add to that for going to ccr.
just a reminder that we have the projections is not necessarily a crystal ball.
the projections really are showing what the potential
is based on students performance and achievement at the winter checkpoint.
what needs to happen and what does happen and what dr. Aber and dr. Davis are going to talk about is
those instructional interventions and effective instructional strategies that happen in
the classroom from now to spring that have the greatest impact so that we can hopefully reach that potential that we're
seeing here and improve on it as well.
we want to get some value ad. We want a little bit more.
map provides a metric for us that shows the percentage of
students on track to meet sat benchmarks in reading and math. We've seen these.
this slide shows the percentage of students in grades 5-8 who are on track for
college and career readiness based on maps sat benchmark indicators.
the maroon bars represent students on track and reading and the blue bars represent students on track and math.
the horizontal line show the national 2025 sat benchmark rates,
57% for reading, and 29% for math for comparison.
across all grade levels, our reading percentages exceed the national benchmark with particularly strong results in grades 5 and 8.
in math, our students are performing well above the national benchmark in grades 5,
6 and 7 with grade 8 slightly below but still demonstrating progress.
just a reminder that only on level eighth grade math students take this particular math assessment,
so the honors and accelerated scores are not represented in this calculation.
in addition to that, math does not provide a calculation for ccr for algebra math.
the assumption is students who are in algebra and eighth grade have already met that measure.
if we add these students to that 25%, we would be well above that blue line.
these indicators will be used for ccmr monitoring and provide an early signal of how well
students are progressing towards post secondary readiness as they move into high school.
winter map gives collaborative teams powerful data to inform instructional adjustments and
student academic needs to ensure each student shows a year of academic growth in the spring.
additionally, rp created winter projected growth reports for campuses.
the projected growth or pgr report shows student growth by
quintile and is aggregated at the teacher and student level.
map reading fluency gives teachers reliable insight to support
readers while maximizing valuable instructional time. With speech recognition technology, group administration,
and automatic scoring, map reading fluency is part of the early literacy solution from nwea.
this assessment provides teachers a clear view of literacy skills and learning needs for an entire class in less than a class period.
again, this assessment is taken outside of the regular map window,
so we don't have these results at the same time as we have the other map tests, and in addition,
the map fluency is more of a classroom level diagnostic assessment
that doesn't necessarily give us a national norms and the growth metrics that we have with the other assessments.
now, dr. Davis will start us off talking about the instructional sign.
>> good evening. Thank you antone for that information.
now that we have middle of the year map data, I'm going to talk you through a little bit about how our teachers and us at the
district level use that data to make instructional adjustments.
nwea has reports that we use at the district school and classroom level that give us a lot of
different information about students achievement and growth data.
data is immediately available once students have taken the assessment.
teachers use this to know what the kids need,
their strengths, and their areas of need. We can break this information down by grade level and class.
then also, if you click on the student bar on any of these colors,
it will give you individual student data as well. Teachers have the data and information they need
to really target student support and instruction.
you've probably seen this before. This is the student profile report.
this is just an example of how much information we can get from the map assessments.
this is a sample nwea profile report, so we can show it.
it's just an example. It's not a plano isd student. The student profile report contains specific information
on student achievement and it breaks it down by growth, achievement, and instructional areas.
instructional areas include strengths for that student and also skills that they are ready to develop next.
then it also shows growth and achievement over time. If you're working with a sixth grade student and they've been with us since kindergarten,
it shows you their map history all the way from kindergarten.
antone mentioned a little bit of this already. We have our collaborative team framework that guides
our plcs and our collaborative team meetings.
one of the questions is, how will we respond when kids don't know what they should know and whenever they do.
the map information really guides teachers and knowing how to target individual students.
if you remember, we have a focus last year and this year on all students
being on grade level or above and all students making at least a years worth of growth in a year.
whenever we look at this information by quintiles, we can really pinpoint what each student needs in order to
make that appropriate growth to get to grade level or stay on grade level.
it also supports us with intervention and extension and enrichment for our students who have learned the material.
we've talked before about our work on student goal setting,
we are seeing a lot of progress in this area.
our teachers help students set goals based on their map growth.
if a lot of students know what their rit score was
and what they want their rit score to be on the next assessment.
it's done in a very positive way. It involves students in their.
it helps them take ownership of their learning and it helps them be engaged in their own learning.
it also helps us not have a one size fits all goal for our students,
but students feel like it's individualized to them and they don't have to do what everyone else is doing,
but they have a goal for themselves. It helps students track their progress, set goals, celebrate their success.
we also have a district improvement plan goal this year to develop
a common goal setting template that we're working on.
we've provided sample goal setting templates that
campuses have used and some campuses have even created their own.
but we're seeing across pretty much all the campuses,
students working on setting goals. Now, I'm going to move to the side a little bit,
and dr. Aber is going to talk a little bit about some secondary stuff.
>> thank you, dr. Davis. Good evening.
building off of the good work that is done at the elementary level,
our secondary students are engaging in
structured goal setting at very key points in the school year to build
their own ownership agency of their learning and
also monitor their learning throughout the school year as well as their academic progress.
during the first nine weeks, there is a strong emphasis on developing those systems and
really acquainting students with reviewing
their grades so that they better understand their strengths,
their habits, and areas that they may need to spend a little bit more time focusing in on.
we also set very clear action steps during
that time with students and those goals are revisited regularly,
almost every friday in our sixth grade future ready courses,
and in our seventh and eighth grade w classes are what I need classes, if you will.
we spend a lot of time focusing on that beginning of
the year map data that's used to establish those growth focus goals,
aligned to instructional priorities, and those goals are maintained digitally,
so that we can support ongoing progress with our students,
monitor and reflect and really use them
for targeted instructional practice and support throughout the year.
we know if we don't have a goal, we'll miss every time. We're really trying again to build off of that good work that is done at
the elementary level just looking at it a little bit differently at middle school.
student goal setting. Also at the secondary level,
student goal setting is supported through our professional learning communities.
our plc teams analyze that map data and they're provided district created protocols
within our plcs and within their agendas for their particular plc content area,
that include a review of rit bands and quintile reports to help guide instruction and
assist students in understanding where they are and what growth looks like for individual students.
the support is our departments support teachers in really looking at and knowing when to
offer the structures in a meaningful way and how
to frame those goal setting conversations.
as dr. Davis said, it really is in a positive tone,
but at the same time, we believe in smart goals in this district.
they are timely and we want to see kids be able to achieve their goals.
I'm going to talk a little bit about computer assisted programs.
you might hear me reference them as cais computer assisted instructional programs.
forgive me, I'll try to keep the nomenclature with computer assisted programs,
but I might slip from time to time. In both math and reading,
students may be supported using adaptive online programs that connect
their map rit scores and create personalized instruction for them that adjust to their instructional needs.
in grades kindergarten through eighth grade, students have access to the district supported
online programs that are aligned to map data.
these tools provide personalized adaptive instruction that supports intervention,
on level learning, as well as extension for some students.
teachers use the built in reporting to monitor progress, identify skill gaps,
and make timely instructional decisions and adjustments,
ensuring that resources are also used intentionally and supports student growth.
how map data really guides our program use.
map data is used to intentionally guide our instructional programs that are utilized.
the data identifies student strengths. Again, skill gaps, ensuring that practice and
targeted instructional needs are met for individual students.
our programs adjust and they adjust based
on student performance and growth while teachers monitor
the progress and the reporting tools to inform timely and responsive instruction for our students and continuous improvement.
I'm going to go ahead and hand it back over to doctor davis and she's going to highlight
some of our computer assisted instructional programs at the elementary level.
for math, we use dream box for k-5, all students align to their map right scores to
set a path that is personalized to what they need.
for literacy, we have several different programs. K-2, we use amplify,
which is more reading foundational skills. Then in 3-5,
we use read 180 flex and waggle, and then we also have k-12 summit for
our dual language students to build biliteracy and language development.
dream box is easy. Everyone uses it for math, but I do want to take a minute to break down the difference
between our literacy programs. 3-5, waggle is for students who have an on grade level or above rit score.
it focuses on on grade level instruction and practice,
as well as enrichment and extension. Read 180 flex is an intensive literacy support for students who have
a below grade level rit score with the goal of getting them up to grade level,
which then they would begin their work in the waggle program. K-12 summit supports the four domains of language development,
listening, speaking, reading and writing, and it also supports spanish literacy development.
you'll see that we really wanted our students to have what they need and
make sure that it's targeted in a way that will maximize their growth.
in grades 6-8, mathematics, students who need additional support receive
that targeted instruction through mathia and khan academy.
both are intentionally designed and aligned to map measures of academic progress,
that data and are used to identify. Again, you're going to hear me say
this once more specific skill gaps and learning needs that
help to inform how the program really adjusts and adapts to that individual students learning need.
the mathia it's an ai driven pathway that aligns to map,
the domains and the learning statements within map, allowing students to work on the precise concepts where a map has
indicated that maybe there is some growth needed or some skill gap filling that needs to happen.
through the applause reporting, and I promise that's not a typo that and [laughter] neither is mathia.
that is how they name their reports within their system.
educators can actually use that applause report to monitor progress over time and connect
student performance to expectations for end of the year assessments, including staar.
khan academy compliments this by providing adaptive practice,
aligned to map, aligned skills, and grade level standards,
reinforcing our foundational learning while accelerating growth where students are ready.
teachers receive real time reports in both of the platforms,
which can be reviewed alongside map data to adjust instruction,
and targeted small group support, as well as ensuring that intervention and is all
data driven and responsive to where our students are and what they need.
you'll see that I've talked about, two computer assisted instructional programs are represented here.
currently close to half of our middle schools are using mathia while
the other half are participating in a pilot study with khan academy.
this approach really allows for us to adapt to changes and the instructional landscape,
we know is changing vastly, and we want to be able to
evaluate what is in front of our students and ensure that it's effective.
also ensure that we're always placing our high quality tools in front of them.
that is the reason for a little bit of variance there.
moving over to the literacy part of the house in grades 6-8,
reading plus or also referred to as dream box at the elementary level.
reading plus is a computer assisted program that helps
us with data driven personalization as it relates to literacy.
the program continuously adjusts to the complexity and the intensity of content,
ensuring that our students are always working within their zone of
proximal development to maximize growth without frustration.
pushing them just up to the line and we reference that as zone of proximal development.
developing also the program also really helps to develop efficacy and fluency.
unlike traditional reading, reading plus uses what is referred to as a guided window.
that really trains the eyes to move effectively across the lines of text,
and it builds silent reading fluency that's necessary for our students to
increase text volume that's often required at the high school and collegiate level.
it also works with mastery based comprehension and vocabulary.
our students engage in high interest texts that require them to apply
analytical skills by focusing on academic vocabulary in context.
the program ensures that students don't just read words from the program,
but they actually have to comprehend at a much deeper level, the meaning,
the author intent, leading to higher proficiency with our state standards often referred to as arts.
it also the program really does help to build stamina for high stakes, success later on.
as students progress through the program, incrementally, it increases the text length and complexity,
allowing our kids to develop into more sophisticated readers,
which we know if they're sophisticated readers, there's reciprocity there with their writing as well.
this builds that reading stamina, but also directly supports the overall academic achievement in all core content areas.
just the reports that are available to our teachers allow for them to make
timely responsive adjustments to instruction as needed, using that data.
you might be wondering, how often are kids using these programs,
and what does that look like? Our students engage with cais
consistently each week with a minimum expectation of two sessions,
totaling about 60 minutes. This work occurs in class structures like our sixth grade course,
as well as targeted supports for seventh and eighth grade, through learn, through reading courses or through power math.
the programs are used as one component of a weekly instructional rotation that is designed to
strengthen learning alongside teacher led instruction.
I want to go ahead and emphasize alongside teacher led instruction.
here we have just a sampling of some reports from our reading plus program.
there is a wide variety of reports that you can pull from these platforms
where teachers can identify student needs that help to guide small group instruction,
as well as addressing student learning gaps and provide enrichment for our students that need something different from us.
this particular report is from one of our middle schools at the second nine weeks.
you can see it highlights student usage, frequency and time spent on the program,
as well as silent reading fluency gains and reading level gains.
this next report that is highlighted here
is one from our khan academy that really.
I have to just say that the pilot schools that are part of this, we are having a tremendous amount of fun,
as much fun as you can have with data and being able to pull and get to know
our students a little bit better as far as their performance within khan.
I'm going to go ahead and hand it back over to ashley again so she can talk to
you a little bit about elementary and their reports that they use.
>> similar to what doctor aber said, I want to show you and lean
into what she said a little bit about how these programs support our teachers. They align to map and students writ
scores and their instructional strands and what they're ready to develop.
then teachers students practice a couple of times a week,
the computer adapts to however they're responding. Then teachers have reports that can support their small group instruction,
as well as spiraling for the whole class. This is one report that breaks down proficiency.
it has overall proficiency listed, and then it also has student proficiency listed.
at a quick glance, they can see overall what the whole class all of the students are performing well on,
and what needs reteaching and support. Then they also can see it at the student level.
then of course, it also has the basic reports like time on task,
completion, which assignment students are working on, and things like that.
like I already said, I started with this. Having these programs supports teachers,
we take map three times a year. We have unit assessments and common formative assessments and things.
but this is just another tool that teachers have to help them support student growth and achievement.
I'll have anton come back over here just in case there's questions [laughter].
>> kristen ashley anton, thank you for the great report. Trustees, what questions, comments,
or hot sports opinions do you have for our team tonight?
>> I'm curious.
at a different campus or among even a different classes on the campus,
would the teachers use the assisted programs differently
or is there some consistency that you have expectations for or is it completely,
you go with where the data takes you? >> in regards to the students using the programs is consistent.
we set guidelines of how often they should be used and for how long,
even like we say no longer than 20 minutes at a time because kids can get bored and that's just no one was to be on there for that long.
our expectations for using the program are very consistent.
we even have time built into the schedule at the elementary level, we have a 90 minute block.
we say the last 30 minutes of class is designed to help students use these programs or work in small group.
now ask for teachers comfort level with using all of these reports, that might vary,
but we always train our teachers and support them and showing them what the reports can do and how they can use them to help.
once they understand how the different ways the reports can help them adjust their instruction,
then we see them using the reports more. >> a follow on to that, then,
you hear all these concerns in general society and
the media about ai and where it could go wrong for our kids.
I'm a little interested in if we've had feedback from
parents or if we're going to get any concern about you know what?
you guys are just sitting my kid in front of a computer and too much screen time situation.
is any of that coming on top of that, do you are you aware of any data that's coming
back with these tools on how effective they are,
is there any criticism coming in about how they're used?
>> a t the elementary level,
none of our computer assisted programs use ai with the students.
it really is just old school, if you will, working them through the personalized path that adjust based on how they answer.
we've had some parents ask about how often they're on the programs?
my team has worked with them to help explain that they don't do it like every day.
if it's two or three times a week, we try to help them balance it no more than 20 minutes at a time.
>> I haven't heard complaints about how often they're being used. Do you have anything?
>> sure. Thank you, ashley. I would echo that at the secondary level and just say,
it is pretty prescriptive, the way that it's written into the pacing for those classes.
again, I would just emphasize that whatever program
they're using is it compliments teacher led instruction.
nothing takes the place of that. However, it is also critical that
our students do know and understand and have the agility to be able
to use computer-assisted instruction because whatever your preferred future is,
often there's training that you do and that adjusts to how you respond to situations.
I know that conversation isn't necessarily about our high school students,
but I will tell you we're piloting something at the high school level. Funny enough, the name of it is called goblins,
and it is ai-driven,
and our kids are eating it up. [laughter] the tutoring that comes in just in time,
filling in those skill gaps, it's pretty remarkable so far.
I'm on the edge of my seat to see how all of that pans out.
you did ask as far as effectiveness of the programs,
we do see where we have students that are supported sometimes through hb1416-4545,
where there is growth, but that's in combination again,
with teacher led instruction that is often driven from the reports that they are able to get that formative data that
they're able to get just in time from the platforms that really help to
dictate what small group instruction will look like for a particular group of kids,
and it just allows us to be more responsive truthfully than just
playing that guessing game or a teacher sitting at the back of the room and doing a quick assessment with a student one on one.
>> I do want to add to that because I think you asked two really good questions that go together,
one about the efficacy of it, and two about what is too much time.
we do select our software very carefully.
we try to find the things that give us biggest bang for your buck, if you will,
in terms of not only time spent, but really focused on the skills,
the high-priority knowledge and skills that kids need to know to fill gaps.
we do have recommendations from the research behind each of these pieces.
we know what the time and how much time they need to spend.
the good news is, it's not all day. It's not lengthy periods of time.
it's short snippets complementing the instruction that happened throughout the day,
and we help our teachers understand what that fidelity of implementation looks like.
>> how does that tie back to I'm thinking,
johnny, we're talking about academic roi.
how does that go together then, and how we measure the return on investment on a software program?
is that the same thing? >> it is exactly the same thing.
we're spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on these programs.
we need to make sure that the programs are being used with efficacy, but also that they're giving us the biggest bang for our buck.
ever you heard courtney talking about it earlier? That's exactly what she's talking about.
>> I have a piggyback follow-up question to this discussion because I'm the parent that's like,
can I have my kid do this at home? I say that because dreambox was what my first grader did during covid.
I remember this distinctly. I understand it's complementary to their learning.
we want each kid to be reading 20 minutes in evening. But is this something that could then complement our learning on
the weekends during summertime or these longer breaks so that we're avoiding some of the slide?
>> yes, absolutely. Each summer, we send home newsletters that the campuses can
send out so that parents know what all resources are available to them,
so that they don't feel that urge to go by abcmouse or all of the prodigy test to get you in.
we say, no, this is a resources available to our students on weekends.
during the summer, during the breaks, and we have an at-home learning website
that we shared with the pta delegates as well as the campuses,
where parents can go to this website and see what online programs are available to them.
even our library has a section on there of resources that are available to students,
and we encourage them to use them.
now, we've had a couple parents reach out how much kids will set.
we sometimes have overachieving students. There was one student I was helping a parent.
she was like, well, he set a goal for 25 dream box lessons a week,
and I was like, whoa, we tend to recommend five a week.
it's that balance. We have to help students with that, too.
how many can I do? No, how many is not always the goal.
but absolutely, it is a resource that these programs we pay for them through the year,
and we do at the district level, collect usage data by campus, by grade level.
we always want to make sure that if we're purchasing something that is being used and it's being used well and it is leading to student growth,
and as a part of that, we want to make sure that parents know that they do have it available to use at home.
>> thank you, because I think this is the fun part of education for their generation,
that this is that gamification of education, and so I would much rather my kid be on dreambox or amplify or whatever,
instead of on youtube or roadblocks. Yes.
>> just a quick story last week. I was on the kitchen island after dinner with my son.
he was doing homework, and so all his little tiles are up for school.
he's in high school, and my daughter's in middle school. She walks by, she's like, I know those tiles.
I have some of those, too, and I think one of them was the academy. Just knowing that, she's utilizing the same resources and tools that he is.
I think she had this moment of realization, so I'm going to be doing that too soon again.
no, but in regards to computer time versus real teaching,
even today, my kids stay after school for math tutorials.
there's always the ability that teachers provide for a student to have additional instruction,
whether it's tutorials or what have you. There are so many different ways that we can utilize that we offer
our students flexibility, and yeah, if you've got those overachieving kids that want to learn
more or the kids that need that extra push, we can provide for the entire range.
thank you, guys, for what you're doing. >> of course, and thank you for recognizing that it's just one way that we have to meet our students' needs.
>> I had one comment, one question. I'll start with the comment. I love the goal setting,
and my children have been coming home talking about this,
and the tyra children can be a little intense. I will admit. But my 6-year-old
has come home talking about this and talking about how when she logs in to do math,
she can see her scores from previous tests and everything else, and she tells me what the little graphs look like and stuff.
I think that that's helpful not only to get kids involved in their education,
but I also think it reduces some of the testing anxiety for these kids that they're not just like,
here's a test and you don't know how you did and this thing.
but you go into it with a clear goal, and you come out of it knowing how you did.
this was an issue for my son. The first couple of years he did map, he came home,
and he was like, I totally failed that thing mom. It was bad. I was the last kid doing it.
I had questions I didn't even understand. But because the testing is adaptive,
it kept giving him harder and harder questions, and he came out 99th percentile.
then he comes home, and he failed the thing especially with adaptive testing like that,
I feel like this goal setting thing serves an additional purpose that I think a lot of people wouldn't appreciate,
which is just helping kids understand why this is important and that it's not something to be feared,
but that it's something that they are a participant in. That's comment. Question is,
if you go back to slide 14, and this is an atone question.
super excited to see this winter to winter.
everybody in the 45th or above.
what I would love to see is this data
broken down by quintile. Do you see what I'm saying?
because one of the things I think we think about,
I know, is on the superintendent's mind. Every student is going to get one year growth,
and the way that they have changed the accountability formulas.
growth is so much more important, and we can't just rest on achievement of high-performing kids.
we really have to show the growth of those high-performing kids also.
I would be very interested to see in a board update or something.
this growth, super excited about this progress,
but can we look at a step further and look at this broken down by quintile and see,
like, are we grow our top quartile or quartiles?
are we growing our top quartile the same as the second,
third, and fourth, and really look at meeting every student's needs based on where they started?
>> our pgr report by district shows the map growth by quintile,
but we can do other views as well. I like this view too.
I could do it like this. But we do have the pgr report, so already available and has already been shared with campuses.
>> great. >> I would like to share that in a board updates. >> perfect. On that same slide,
excuse me, I've had allergies all day. Anyway, you know how rocky talked about levers and newcomers?
I think winter to winter, that's measuring the students that you had last year and this year.
is there a way to tie that back to our leavers and newcomers somehow,
and just, this might be good information for rocky for his predictions?
that's all I'm saying. Is there a correlation for the mobility in this report?
>> like to show that if they stay in plano, they are growing. >> well, we know that. [laughter].
>> we know that. >> we know that. If we get them at kindergarten, have them through. But yeah, I was just wondering because this is not 100% of your students,
because some are new or some had left. Yes. And so you could look at that,
by east, central, west cluster, but you could also maybe tie it back to what rocky's looking at.
he's our demographer. I'm sorry. That was just a thought.
>> nice way to triangulate.
>> trustees, questions, comments.
thank you, team. Appreciate the report. Thank you. It's a great report.
love the map.
that will conclude reports for this evening. We'll now move on to agenda item 10, which is policies.
we will begin with item 10.1, approval of policy bdf local board,
internal organization, advisory committee on first reading. I will invite doctor selina freeman,
deputy superintendent of leadership and operations, to please present. >> thank you, president tyra.
revisions to bdf local have been made to reflect district practice.
this policy is presented for approval under first reading this evening.
>> thank you, selinda. We'll now consider approve of course, I'd like to bit into my mint.
we will now consider approval of policy bfd local. Board internal organization, advisory committee on first reading.
trustees, may I please have a motion? >> I move that the board of trustees approves the policy bdf local board internal organization advisory committees on first reading.
>> I second. >> sorry.
>> I have a motion by board vice president, nancy humphrey, and a second by board secretary tara lance,
so the board of trustees approves policy bdf local board internal organization advisory committee on first reading.
trustees, is there any further discussion? Seeing and hearing none, we'll call for a vote.
all those in favor, please raise your hands. That seven hands up.
that motion passes unanimously. We will now continue with item 10.2,
the adoption of policy bf local board policies on second reading.
I will invite dr. Selina freeman, deputy superintendent of leadership and operations to again, please present.
>> thank you again, president tyra. Policy bf local has been revised to designate
the central administration office as the location for the official district policy manual,
and to clarify that policies typically require approval in two board meetings
unless extenuating circumstances necessitate expedited adoption.
this policy is presented for adoption under second reading this evening.
>> great. Thank you, selinda. We will now consider the adoption of policy bf local board policies on second reading.
trustees, may I please have a motion? >> I move that the board of trustees adopts policy bf local board policies on second reading.
>> I second. >> thank you. Trustees. I have a motion by
board secretary terrance and a second by board vice president nancy humphrey, that the board of trustees adopts
policy bf local board policies on second reading, trustees. Is there any further discussion?
seeing and hearing none. I'll call for a vote. All those in favor, please raise your hands.
nancy. That is seven hands up;
that motion passes unanimously. We are now ready for item 11 on the agenda, which is adjournment.
if there is no further business nor any objections from the board, the meeting is now adjourned.
the time is 11:11 pm on tuesday,
january 20th, 2026.