Good evening. It's 5:30 p.m. And welcome to the regular board meeting of the round rock Isd trustees.
present tonight, we have trustee zárate, trustee weir, Trustee wai, myself, trustee harrison,
trustee markum, trustee landrum and trustee ross.
please stand for the pledge of allegiance and the texas pledge.
I pledge of
one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
honor the texas flag. I pledge allegiance to thee texas.
one state under god, indivisible. All right. We're starting today with item d.1 Recognitions,
handing it over to you, annie. Thank you. Good evening, President harrison. Trustees and doctor azaiez. We're starting this evening's meeting by recognizing and Showcasing some of our outstanding students and staff.
if you all could please join us at the front of the dais. We'll get started.
for our student recognition tonight, we're excited to recognize one of our students who Has excelled at the 75th annual regeneron international science and engineering fair.
her research on regenerating nerve cells and the effects of compounds on damaged brain Cells was showcased and won her the mary sue coleman award for life,
science and innovation and impact. The students innovative mission is to help find better Treatments for brain diseases and traumatic brain injuries.
well westwood student uma sthanu, science fair sponsor, Avni kantawala, assistant principal brian branch and area superintendent doctor zach
oldham, please come to the front for a photo [applause].
please. All right, y'all, one, two, three, and one more
one. Two. Three
now on to the staff and department recognitions. We are thrilled to honor the fine arts department for two separate recognitions tonight, Both being received by our director of fine arts visual,
tim lowke. The first award for the department. The first award the department received this year is the 2025 texas art education Association district of distinction award the district has received for seven consecutive
years. This recognition highlights the direct reflection of the hard work and creativity Of all of our visual arts, educators,
and performance programs. The second recognition is the district of distinction Distinction,
sorry all, exemplary district by the texas educational theater association.
this is the third consecutive year we have received this accolade, Which represents the success of our commitment to raising the standards of theater
education through excellence and achievement, Resource development, diversity, and arts advocacy. While director of fine arts tim lokey
and senior chief of schools and innovation doctor natalie nichols, Please come to the front for a photo [applause].
[laughter] one, two, three
one, two three
conclude our recognitions to watch our video for the evening, We want to take a moment to thank our outgoing board president, tiffanie harrison, for her
dedication, love and strong leadership that she has brought to round rock isd. We are so thankful that you serve this community as an educator, A trustee and board president.
thank you truly for the work that you've done and what you've brought to our educators and Students across the district [applause].
yes. Will our chiefs and additional leadership area superintendents everybody come up to The front for a photo.
all right
right. So if you want to
be here
any given
day I mean we won the battle and after that day
in the front row
[laughter]. Oh, no. [laughter] thank you. One.
two. Three
sorry [laughter]. Come on beautiful
there we go. No, I'm going to do this one okay. One, two. And one more
three. And I raise you
up
thank you everyone. Trustees, now is your opportunity to share any parting thoughts with President harrison.
I was going to say just an
it's so exciting and devastating at the same time.
you you mean so much to all of us up here and to the district and to me personally.
I'm so, so happy for you. And you will be really missed.
I can't agree more with chuy. I mean, you are one of the person that inspired me, Inspired me to run for this position,
and. I mean, everyone knows how much you have done for this district.
and I just want to say this is a good example we will always look forward to thanks.
it's not goodbye, but I do want you to know what a legacy you've left here as a student, As a teacher,
and as a board member. You leave a huge legacy and it will last for ages.
I'm so proud to know you. I appreciate the time that I've had on the board with you, And I'm so happy to see where your life goes from here.
so thank you so much for serving this district.
I met you for the first time in 2018 when you were a teacher at round rock high school, And I was running for the board, and you were an advocate for the district then you were
an advocate before then, and you're an advocate now. And I know it won't stop just because You've off the board now,
but it's been an honor to serve with you, to learn from you, And to grow with you.
we have lots of stories nobody would even believe [laughter]. And and I'm glad that I had You to go through all that with.
so thank you so much for all that you've done. It's not goodbye, See you later.
I don't know how to do this [laughter] thank you trustees. As we're watching our video, President harrison will make her way off the dais.
unless she would like to take a moment right now to speak. I just wanted to say thank you for the opportunity to serve this community. It has been an Honor and a pleasure.
I stepped into this role because I was a critical lover of our district.
I love round rock isd, and there are lots of things that we could do better.
and I'm still sitting here today believing that. And so I am really grateful. Congratulations to upcoming trustee fabian cuero.
I can't imagine a better representative to step into place 6.
and so I am so grateful. And I was actually so grateful to have so many great people to Interview.
and thank you for my colleagues. Thank you to my colleagues we've been through a lot.
you're right. There are things that people could never imagine.
there have been the highest of highs, of seeing students blossom, Grow in their confidence and their joy in their academics.
and then there's been some really scary and devastating times, Like wearing tennis shoes to a board meeting and having to have an exit plan because there
was threats of danger and violence. And I hope and I pray, That those are things that our community can continue to move past.
I hope we don't spend our time arguing against things that are inhumane and that don't Uplift students.
and I even where we disagree, I hope that we can honor the humanity of each and every Person in round rock isd.
and I hope the legacy is that there's more representation across this district.
one thing that makes me very sad is that as I depart, Public education is in an even worse state than when I came.
but I just want to encourage and charge round rock isd from my trustee colleagues to the Administration that we are a district of innovation.
and even though public education looks bleak, I really believe in round rock isd's ability to reimagine what is possible.
the best question ever asked to me on the campaign trail was, Do you have a favorite musical?
and I actually really love if you've ever seen it on broadway, Hadestown, and in hadestown,
it talks about a poor boy, and he had a gift to give, And it said that he could see the way the world could be in spite of the way that it is.
and so I know that the way the world is right now is really challenging. The way public education is right now is really challenging.
but I exit this board with a deep belief in my colleagues and in our community to see the Way the world can be in spite of the way it is.
I just want to say thank you. I will miss you. I am very excited about this next part of my life.
I have children now [laughter] for people that love to harp on me not having children, And I have always taken it my responsibility to be responsible and thoughtful for this
community's children to the best of my ability. Not perfect, but to the best of my ability. So such gratitude for the last five years and Such deep belief in the strength and the ability of round
rock isd. Thank you so much [applause].
okay. Thank you everyone. Here's an abrupt tone shift.
now we're going to watch a video [laughter]. We know our students across the district are Highly focused and working hard to grow and succeed in their goals.
tonight's video highlights the great commitment of our animal science students and the Dedication it takes to succeed in the program.
let's take a look.
I'll come in the morning and I'll just feed. I'll sweep their pens. You're okay, buddy. And I'll change water buckets and just make sure their area is clean And they're being well fed.
it's a lot of work. It's a lot of time commitment and just making sure we're being Consistent on everything.
the bottom of my shoes are all wet. All right off to school. Are you ready? So excited. So excited. Yeah I love aquatic science.
we made this, like this little hat. One more class? Yes I go to ap u.s history. And what do you do after that?
I come back to the barn. I do have a lot of time. Like after school. I will walk them for at least, Like 30 minutes and work with them.
do you want to work with them to where they're just staying still like this?
to where you can just walk around them. My lamb. You'll kind of see a difference. He hasn't gotten there yet.
he's a little escape artist, so he kind of knows how to read from my hand. He just likes to be a little difficult right now.
come on. Go. He's still making life so difficult. Come on, buddy. After school, I'm usually here until around 6:00 or 6:30.
weekends, holidays. We're always here. We think we learn a lot from it.
and we're really fortunate to have the opportunity that we have because, I mean, it's not something that's cheap.
it's pretty pricey. So we are really fortunate that we do have the opportunity.
we have to be able to do this every day. All done.
[applause] thank you so much. It's always good to see our students in action. And I love When we bring that here. Okay.
we're going to move on to item e.1 public comment.
at each board meeting, the board will set aside time to afford the general public an Opportunity to speak on items on the agenda.
we ask that concerns or complaints regarding specific individuals not be raised in this Public forum.
specific concerns about employees or former employees should be considered separately According to applicable board policies.
the board requests that comments, whether positive or negative, Be courteous and respectful. I would like to remind the audience and the viewers that the
comments of the speakers reflect their own positions or opinions. As a reminder, The board adopted an anti-hate resolution on january 20th,
2022, where the board reaffirmed its commitment to the well-being and safety of all People,
regardless of race, color, national origin, religion, Sex, gender identity, gender expression,
sexual orientation, disability, age, or political beliefs, And stands against speech that incites hatred and violence towards any person.
please note that while the public does have the right to speak, That right is not unlimited. Per texas penal code 38.13,
42.01, 42.02 and 42.05, and texas education code 37.105.
no audience member or speaker will be permitted to engage in any conduct that is Disruptive or threatening toward any speaker or other person,
or to violate the privacy rights of another person. The board shall not tolerate disruption of the meeting by members of the audience. If, After at least one more individual warning from the presiding officer, any individual
continues to disrupt the meeting by his or her words or actions, The presiding officer will request assistance from law enforcement officials to have the
individual removed from the meeting. The board may not discuss or act upon any matter that Is not listed under the action item portion of the agenda.
therefore, board members may not discuss the comments of speakers. Please understand that A lack of response from board members does not indicate agreement or approval of the
comments. Each speaker will be given two minutes to address the board.
trustee landrum, secretary of the board, will be the designated timekeeper. The first speaker is bradley taylor, and you are a parent in the district and you are Speaking on h.1.
good evening. Board members, on behalf of access education, Round rock isd and myself, I'd like to take a moment to thank trustee harrison for her
service to round rock isd over the past five years.
being a school board member is not an easy job. As you all know. It comes with personal sacrifice, Time away from family, late nights, and the weight of making tough decisions that impact
thousands of students and families. I want you to know that those sacrifices have not gone Unnoticed.
what has stood out the most during her time on the board is her professionalism and Unwavering determination to make sure every student in the district has felt,
represented and valued. When having to face pandering demagogue, She showed professionalism and patience when dealing with very difficult and often
divisive times. She never lost sight of the bigger picture, Ensuring that round rock isd remained a place where every student,
no matter their background or circumstances, Could access a quality education.
that commitment has been both inspiring and meaningful to the community. I also want to extend a warm welcome to fabian cuero.
I am excited about the knowledge and experience that you bring to this board, And I look forward to the ways that you'll help continue moving our district forward in
service to our students. Thank you. Thank you our next speaker is mary bone.
and you are a parent in the district and you are speaking on agenda item h.1 and it just Says others.
good evening, board of trustees. I watched the interviews last night and was deeply Disappointed by the board's decision to select a candidate with extreme left leaning
views, especially following the tragic loss of charlie kirk, Who was targeted for his beliefs.
round rock isd had a chance to move away from the radical agenda pushed by activists like Tiffanie harrison,
who has refused to pledge allegiance to the american flag alongside trustee chuy zarate And melissa ross.
the appointment of fabian guerrero sends a clear message to conservatives. Your values are not welcomed here in round rock isd.
fabian has repeatedly used this microphone to attack conservatives, Labeling them white supremacist and christian nationalists.
such rhetoric risk inciting violence against conservative community members, As we saw last week.
someone with these views should not be in leadership role overseeing children and should Step down immediately.
if you would like to see fabian's remarks, go to doctor bone number 14tx on x or facebook.
additionally, concerns have arisen about the district's misuse of bond funds, Including expenditures on salaries and software that do not meet the legal criteria for
cloud computing. The board should investigate these irregularities, Irregularities and consider placing the superintendent and cfo/coo,
which that's kind of like the fox in the henhouse, Isn't it? On administrative leave, pending a thorough review, Tiffany's legacy is while millions are spent on questionable expenses,
expenses, academic performance is declining. Cd fulkes have received a d rating for four Consecutive years,
risking state intervention if it fails again. The board's focus on enriching contractors and administrators over improving classroom Outcomes is failing our students.
do better. Thank you so much. Okay, we are going to move on to we're concludes public Comment.
and we're going to move on to h.2. We will strike items f and g because we handled that Business in our board meeting last night.
and have already voted and selected a new board member.
so we will move on to h.2 and I believe I'm turning it over to annie.
yes, ma'am thank you. The next item on the agenda is the ceremonial oath of office.
oath of office for our newly appointed place 6 trustee fabian cuero.
it has been our district's practice to have a ceremonial swearing in of new trustees at a Monthly board meeting and invite their families to participate.
trustee cuero, will you and your guests please come up to the mic?
I will have you repeat after me, please, sir. The oath of office. I, fabian cuero, do solemnly swear or affirm.
I fabian cuero do solemnly swear and affirm. That I will faithfully execute the duties.
that I will faithfully execute the duties. Of the office of trustee place 6.
of the office of trustee place 6. Of the round rock independent school district of the State of texas.
of the round rock independent school district of the state of texas. And will do the best of my ability. And will do the best of my ability.
preserve, protect and defend. Preserve, protect and defend.
the constitution and laws of the united states of this state.
the constitutions and laws of the united states of this state.
so help me god. So help me god [applause].
congratulations, trustee cuero, you may now take your seat on the dais. And this concludes the ceremonial swearing in portion of the meeting.
thank you and welcome, trustee cuero. Okay, we're going to move into closed session item I.1 pursuant to texas government code 551.071 and
551.074. The board will consult with attorneys to discuss the duties, Roles, and responsibilities of a public officer or employee.
are we doing closed in here or back there?
okay, so you guys can remain in here and we're going to go in the back.
I'm sorry it is 5:54 and we are in closed.
it is 6:06 and we are back in open. Trustees, I have a script I'm going to read from, so just bear with me as I get through it.
board members, we will take officer nominations beginning with president, Followed by vice president followed by vice president.
and please, because our buttons are broken, please raise your hand and wait to be Recognized before making a nomination.
and as a reminder, you don't need to be recognized in order to second the nomination.
the board will vote in the order of the nominations. We will open nominations for president, trustee weir.
I nominate trustee alicia markum for president. Second. I have a motion and a second. Are there any other nominations for president?
did you raise your hand? No seeing no other nominations? Trustee. Alicia markum is president by acclamation.
is declared president by acclamation. Okay moving on to vice president.
I nominate amy weir for vice president. Second. I have a motion and a second. Are there any other nominations for vice president?
seeing none, trustee weir is named vice president by acclamation.
and we do not need to vote on secretary because that position is not vacant right now.
so we will we are going to take a 15 minute recess, Trustees to rearrange the dais and take a quick
picture, and then it may be plus or minus 15 minutes and then we'll be back.
it is 6:08 and we are in recess.
it is 6:25 and we are back in session. We are going to move to agenda item l.1 Accountability ratings update.
and I'm going to turn it over to doctor azaiez.
okay. I gotta get used to president [laughter] markum now right? But good evening everyone. President markum, Board members, community members.
I want to again take one more time to also welcome fabian.
right? Thank you, sir, for chosen to be [laughter] and working with our board here.
so thank you for your service. So it's that time of the year where we tea released the Accountability system,
as you remember there were two pending lawsuits. That kind of did not allow, I guess, tea to release the data for the 2023 and also for the 2024 school year.
so [laughter] so they pretty much those lawsuits eventually, I think they, they were dismissed.
and so tea actually released three years worth of accountability in, In, within a month.
so we there was a lot of information that not just our district, But other districts have to kind of manage and try to dissect and also understand
so what we're going to talk with you today is obviously talk about the 2025 accountability System,
but you're going to see that also, we'll be talking about the 2023 along with the 2024, Because so many things,
as I said, has changed since then. But with the start staar 2.0, But also all this data.
all was released just last month. So with us tonight is doctor nichols, Natalie, and also erica simmons.
so will take us through some of this information and explain to you where we're at as far As academy rating for our district and our schools.
thank you, doctor azaiez. Good evening, everyone again doctor natalie nichols thankful to Be here.
I serve in the capacity of senior chief of schools and innovation, And I'm proud to represent the work of our principals,
our staff, area superintendents our various departments, Accountability, teaching and learning,
student support services. It definitely takes a village in order to bring this all to Pass.
and I thank the parents for having trust in us in order to make sure that we do the best That we can for their students and make sure we give them a bright future.
so that being said, let's go ahead and not just report information, But hopefully add some understanding to what the scores mean.
and then also talk about our next steps as a district as we move forward in order to Improve the scores that we need,
just to get in a more positive light. To start with.
we really want to make sure that everyone understands the tea accountability methodology.
there is a domain 1 which is called student achievement.
domain 2 which is on growth. And then domain 3 I'm sorry, 2.a and then 2.b which is relative performance.
and then a domain 3. What happens is that the 70% is either based on domain 1, Domain 2.a
or 2.b they take the highest of one of those scores, And then afterwards the remaining 30% is based on the closing the gap domain 3.
this is for both elementary and middle schools. This is only for elementary schools. This is based on 3rd, 4th and 5th grades for middle schools.
it's based on all three of the grade levels. In elementary they are tested on math, Reading and science.
in middle school, they're tested on math, reading, Science and social studies.
for high schools it's very different from other levels. In high schools, we have the same four domains, But there's a little bit different things that are added to it in high school domain 1 is
not just staar assessment that we're tested on, But we're tested on ccmr, which is college career and military readiness.
and then we'll also have points assigned to us based on our graduation rate.
that's 70% in domain 1 is made up of 40% in staar, 40% ccmr and 20% for the graduation rate.
domain 2.a is the same as it is for the elementary and middle we're measured on growth, And 2.b is based on staar performance and ccmr.
relative performance and relative performance we are compared. We have schools that are similar to us, and we are compared against those schools to give A sense of how we're rating and how we're doing in comparison.
and again, we have domain 3 and domain 3. Again, Just like in the other levels there's academic achievement and also growth in there
but specifically for the high school. Also ccmr comes into play again.
graduation rate comes into play. And of course el proficiency both in all levels where There's 10% for that.
so a lot of different things are measured in a lot of different ways for accountability.
for the 2025 rating we are at 87. You see that it's broken down into three different Areas.
student achievement represents domain 1. We were at an 88 a b.
school progress at an 80. That was a b, and then after under school progress you see the Two a and two b that we were referring to academic growth at
79, which is a c and relative performance which is an 80 or a b.
closing the gaps, we are at a higher b with an 86, Again, 70% of the three domain 1 2.a, and
2.b to take the highest out of the three. And we were at for us that is going to be Student achievement.
and then the 30% left is closing the gaps. So some overall highlights that we wanted to Speak to.
we were very proud of the fact that we were able to maintain over 2024 to 2025 38 schools Achieved at a b or
an a. We saw that union hill improve its rating from a d in 2024 to a c in 2025.
blackland elementary, brushy creek elementary. Terra vista grisham and mcneil improved their rating from a b in 2024 to an a in 2025.
you had live oak elementary school improved its rating from a c in 2024 to an a in 2025.
this is the first time in its history that live oak was able to earn an a in reviewing Their information.
I think the highest they had received was a b previously, So we're very proud of that accomplishment.
and we had five elementary schools where they earned all the available distinction Designations.
and so what we wanted to go through is just this is just a different way.
we all learn and [laughter] understand things differently. So I wanted to represent the domains and just a different look so we know exactly what We're looking for.
again you have domain 1. Student achievement. Domain 2 is broken down in 2.a which is based on growth and then relative performance, Which is 2.b you looking.
they always take that 70% is based on the highest of those three areas.
whichever domain is highest is the one that they take, And that is average with the 30% from closing the gaps in domain 3.
and so important to know that because oftentimes every a or every b does not represent the Same thing.
and so we will go through that a little bit later to understand. Because you're taking the highest of the three.
and a may mean something totally different for one school than another.
we have with us as far as our a-rated campuses, Those are on projected on the screen.
we had 27 campuses, or 51% of all of our campuses.
received 27 received an a or a-rated campuses.
everyone from blackland prairie, brushy cactus ranch to some of our schools.
mcneil high school. Mcneil high school has been an a previously, But this is the first time in many years they were able to go back and receive receive an
a. So very proud of that. Brushy creek for a good many years has been a b.
I'm very proud of them that they were able to get back to an a again.
live oak from a c to an a. Purple sage. We had her present sarah nelson, Principal sarah nelson present doing amazing work in regards to
early literacy. And we see where it's paying off in regards to purple sage and where it's Consistently able to earn an a.
so very proud of many of these schools. Terra vista again went from a b to an a.
so a lot of great things happening with our schools.
we have campuses. Let's see
creek, forest north, jollyville, old town, palm springs, Redbud, voigt, chisholm, hopewell,
cedar ridge, and stony point. One of the things that we wanted to point out specifically For example,
old town, again, a lot of successes has gone consistently, Even in the new 2.0 staar 2.0.
accountability has steadily increased every year, When previously it had been on a downward trajectory.
so very proud of the principal of that campus where she was able to get that b rating up To an 88,
where previously, even in staar 1.0, it was hovering around the mid c's.
so a lot of great work has gone into that campus as some of the work she's done.
I just wanted to also wanted to point out, for example, Forest north, one of our title one campuses she has consistently worked very hard to
deliver consistent high b's or a's for her campus.
so again, lots of great work happening where there are things that people are able to Figure out and do differently based on the resources given to them.
and we also have voigt elementary for the last two years has been able to consistently Earn a b.
we have seen in her reporting in early literacy, Where she has really put up strong numbers in early literacy,
which has allowed that campus to really turn the trajectory as far as not just earn a b Rating based on growth,
but has consistently because she has put up such great growth, And also helped by early literacy and her early numeracy from the lower grades,
where she's turning the tide as far in her domain 1, As far as the number of kids who are able to pass the test and achieve at higher rates.
for our c rated campuses that there are ten of our campuses you have from berkman, Caldwell heights.
double file. Gattis. Robertson. Union hill. Wells branch. Deerpark. Hernandez. Success high school. You have, For example, where we have hernandez,
one of our campuses, who previously in years past has had really struggled.
and now here consistently, we see that every year they are getting stronger and stronger.
as far as even though they're a c, there's lots of successes there as far as how much they Have been increasing their rating and again,
taking growth every year and turning that around as far as to increase the number of Students who are achieving in domain 1.
so a great turnaround story there and really proud of everyone in the work that they're Doing.
we do have, however, some d&f rated campuses.
we have anderson mill, joe lee johnson, callison elementary, Bluebonnet, and cd fulkes.
for our campuses, some of the campuses, this is the first time that they have appeared on The list and some of the campuses.
they have appeared multiple times. And so we are.
we will go through our plan for these campuses and the things that we're doing Specifically,
and also talk about some of the differences as far as what are some of the things that Have gotten some of them there,
and what system changes that we're making to make sure that they or any other campus don't End up there again.
so now we look at distinction designations. There are seven possible distinction Distinction designations that a campus can earn.
because at elementary level they take all of the different tests, But they don't take a social studies test.
elementary campuses can only earn up to six distinction designations, While middle school and high schools can earn all seven.
we have the campuses that have earned all of the designations. Brushy creek, canyon creek, chandler oaks, elsa england elementary and patsy sommer Elementary.
that is a huge accomplishment as far as putting up great numbers, But a huge accomplishment to be able to own all six of those designations so we can
congratulate them on their success. For reading language arts, We the campuses, we have 12 campuses who have earned distinctions.
brushy creek, canyon creek, chandler oaks, elsa england, Herrington, laurel mountain, sommer,
pearson, early college, mcneil, round rock high school, And westwood high school.
we congratulate these campuses as well. For math, We have 16 campuses who have earned math distinction designations.
brushy creek again, cactus ranch, canyon creek, Chandler oaks, deep wood, elsa england, laurel mountain,
sommer, canyon vista, chisholm, hernandez, walsh, Early college, mcneil, round rock and westwood.
for our science distinctions we have seven campuses who have earned these distinctions as Well.
again, brushy creek, cactus ranch, canyon creek, Chandler oaks, deep wood, elsa england, forest north,
herrington, laurel mountain, redbud, sommer, Voigt, wells branch, cedar valley, mcneil, round rock,
and westwood. For our social studies, our campuses who have earned social studies Designations,
there are seven of them. Canyon vista, cedar valley, Grisham, pearson ranch, walsh, round rock,
and westwood. And again, elementary schools are not able to earn that distinction.
the test is only given at the secondary level.
now, for the campuses where you have a top 25% comparative academic growth.
we talked about the fact that when it comes to domain 2.a, That all campuses have a set of other campuses that they compared against.
so in order to earn this distinction, you have to be in the top 25% of that group of Schools that you're compared with.
and we see again the campuses who have earned that distinction.
there are 13 of them. Brushy creek, cactus ranch, Canyon creek, caraway, chandler oaks, deep wood,
elsa england, forest north, laurel mountain, Live oak, sommer, teravista, voigt, wells branch,
canyon vista and pierson. And lastly, we have the campuses who have earned comparative Closing the gaps.
so that's our domain 3, where they are in the top 25% of their comparison groups.
brushy creek, cactus ranch, canyon creek, chandler oaks, Deep wood, elsa england, forest north,
great oaks, laurel mountain, live oak, sommer elementary, Teravista, and westwood.
oh, and one more post-secondary readiness. And for post-secondary readiness, We had 22 campuses who have earned college,
career and military readiness distinction brushy, Canyon creek, chandler oaks, deep wood,
elsa england, forest north, great oaks, herrington, Laurel mountain, live oaks, sommer, spicewood,
canyon vista, cedar valley, grisham, pearson, Cedar ridge, early college, mcneil, round rock,
stony point, and westwood. I want to do a special call out to our high school campuses.
they have worked incredibly hard as far as for their post-secondary readiness, And despite the changes made to the accountability system,
they have put up exceptional numbers. So, for example, Westwood, 99% of their students are ccmr ready.
round rock high school, if I remember correctly. Please shout out if I'm incorrect. I believe they were at 94% or 95%.
mcneil was at 97%, early college high school 100%, Cedar ridge high school 94%, and stony point
96%. Am I lying? No, it's 96%. Because he corrected me the other day when I was wrong.
so, yes [laughter]. So they've done an exceptional job as far as, Like doing the work to make sure each and every one of their students are earning
that ccmr credit. So one of the things I wanted to kind of go through and explain is what Happened before staar 2.0 and the changes
that staar 2.0 has corrected. Oftentimes when we're looking at data, Context is so incredibly important.
and a rating from before staar 2.0 is absolutely not the same rating.
for our current accountability from 2023 on. And so you may see the numbers represented in The same way.
but when you dig into the accountability and all the different things that have changed, There's a lot of nuance to it.
so we wanted to make sure that we speak to some of those and also point out then for us, Some of our victory has been really pushing more
schools towards a's and b's, but also because of the changes, There's a stress that it creates on some of our campuses where we have some more
vulnerable learners. So part of what the system is also trying to do is how do we protect Those learners,
how do we change systems in order to make sure that they can have and celebrate successes Along with their peers.
so again, we had reviewed this many months ago, But just always good to refresh in staar 2.0 for reading language arts.
they changed the format for the question. They increased use, Of course, curricular reading passages.
there was evidence based writing. Now the students, Especially in elementary, had to do a short constructed response,
an extended constructed response. And then there was grading by artificial intelligence.
part of the issue was that was the fact that we were seeing that the artificial Intelligence was rating their essays way lower.
and if we as a district, need to challenge it because we think that the student had earned A higher grade,
we first have to put up $50 [laughter] per test in order to figure out, Can we even challenge it?
can we afford to challenge it? It's not something that that is going to be cheap.
it's going to cost to challenge the score. It's a fully online testing.
the scale scores are readjusted. And so what is passing then is not necessarily passing Now.
there was an increased number of points and increased number of higher level questions.
and the higher level questions are worth more points. So for example, think to yourself if you're being given a test you and a peer, You have the same test.
you have different teacher, teachers. One teacher gives the test.
each question is worth a point. Another teacher some of the questions are worth five Points.
so on and so forth. So you would get one point, One question wrong.
that's worth a point. They get that same question wrong. It's five points. And so it's a matter of there's a difference now in then exactly.
then how much it costs a student in order to get something wrong. So when we say staar 2.0 we hear staar and we think it's the same test.
it absolutely is not. Even as it relates to ccmr for our secondary campuses, Our high school campuses,
what it took previously in order for them to earn that 40% is very different before an a And ccmr was I think
60%? 60%, and you would earn an a, they changed it in the middle of the cycle to 88%.
so for the high schools to put up a certain number and earn a certain grade is so much More in order to earn those ccmrs points than before.
so all that being said is, yes, we're always going to be up to the challenge, But there has to be a recognition that we're not taking the same test.
also for math again. New question formats, online testing, Scale score adjustment, increased number of points,
increased number of higher level questions, and higher level questions that are worth more Points.
now I'm going to go ahead and speak to the last two very specifically.
so you have a visual of what that means. Now whenever we talk about performance levels Everyone is very used to knowing that,
hey, my student, based on the score he or she achieved, Performed that that did not meet approaches,
meets or master's grade level. We're used to that, To that terminology.
we also understand that if our student scores at approaches, Meets or masters, that that is considered passing.
but we also know that we want all of our students to pass at the meets or masters level, That if they are passing at these levels,
it means that I have a 60% 60% chance of being college ready if I'm performing Consistently at meets and a
75% chance to be consistently to be college ready if I'm performing at masters.
so the idea of performing at approaches while it's passing it is not what we want.
we want to push students towards meets and masters meets and masters does not represent Above grade level.
it does not represent gt. It is on grade level right now here.
recently within staar 2.0 that same terminology has been used to explain the level of a Question.
so it is possible now where they can write a question, A staar question, and that did not meets level at the approaches level,
the meets level or the master's level. And so that when we say that tests are given, Questions are assigned different points.
it's because then they're assigning at different points, Because they're saying the content in the question and or the question format
is making it more difficult. So now that question is considered a master's level test Question and is assigned more points.
now why is that important? Because there has been a change in staar 1.0 versus 2.0, Where before the number of
questions written at the meets and masters level was only about 30%.
and all of the other questions were written 70% of the test was written at the did not Meet and or approaches level versus in
staar 2.0. 70% of the test is now written at the meets and master's level.
so oftentimes it's possible that the board members were may receive emails saying the Curriculum [laughter] is too difficult.
the curriculum is written at the meets and master's level, But because of how things were previously,
I think system not just ours, but the entire state of texas had gotten used to.
if I perform at this level, our students will pass. That is no longer the case. We must consistently teach and make sure we get to grade level Each time we teach the students.
so we have to make sure that they're used to answering questions in regards to a certain Level of content and answering the questions in certain ways.
so for math, for example, it's not a matter of being able to just simply solve.
sometimes it may ask you about the process. Which of these steps would not be a part of How to solve this question if you're solving it using xyz?
and so we really have to make sure that we're teaching in different ways and understanding What is the what is the state asking of us differently.
and based on the ticks that we're given. So very important to understand.
while I know I had said specifically, where is it increased number of points, Increased number of higher level questions,
I really wanted to drive home what exactly that means and what does that look like, And what is the impact on our students as it relates to these tests.
all right
and actually then what that means and where we are.
and then even as far as the fact that some of our campuses were able to move to a b or an A or some of those very campuses
where before in 2022, 2019, we were able to earn a c, That the c is not the same c.
they have to do better than they did before in order to receive the same grade.
so now I want to come back to domains and give again a little bit more context and look at A data story,
so to speak, to now kind of get a sense of a campus.
we had celebrated live oak elementary. And so this data story is theirs.
previous to in 2024 live oak earned a 71 in domain 1, A 75 for growth, that is, domain
2.a and a 58. And 2.b relative performance, and a 72 in domain 3, Which is the closing the gaps.
and so I want to really speak into what that means. It means that well, I have what, about 75%? Is that the scale score or the
I'm trying to remember for them. And so what this is saying, Number one, when you see that 71,
it means they earned a c in domain 1. That is saying that I got a good percentage, A decent percentage of my kids not just to pass,
but maybe some of them to perform at meets and masters. We always want domain 1 to get higher and higher.
the higher domain 1 is that means we have more students that are performing at the meets And masters level.
so it's very possible because I take the best out of the first three that a campus might Get a b or an a,
but we're not yet seeing that domain 1 is at a high level.
when we say we want exponential growth, we have to, Especially for these campuses to get exponential growth year after year.
because the whole point is we need to turn around domain 1 so we can get to college Readiness.
all right
it actually is more it's more so the friend of domain 1.
what that is saying is, I think that this campus, Not natalie nichols think, but based on how tea sets it up,
they do an algorithm. And what they're saying is based on the economically disadvantaged Rate of this campus,
they can do better, right? They're saying that they're performing at a f level and this Campus can do better.
there's more growth that the there's more achievement that they should be enjoying.
so when we look at scores, we're looking at the entire data story to see what it tells us.
so it's possible that within all of our data, I have a campus that's an a, but based on the relative performance,
I'm like, we can do better. Let's look at specifically then what that means for your Campus as far as how we need to work with that campus,
that principal, those teachers, in order to increase that score.
so this was live oak last year. And this is live oak this year.
and so this is what allowed them to go from a c to an a, You see, within growth, they're at a 90.
and then closing the gap they're at a 91. Remember we choose the highest of the three.
so growth was the highest. And so that is averaged for 70% with the 91 to give them a Rating of 91.
if I remember correctly, I think they were 90 or 91. And so but again you see relative performance.
it's saying, okay, that domain 1 score that's decent.
you're heading in the right direction. You're now in a b you this is where you should be And higher.
and so the relative performance tells you how much more can you and should you do in Domain 1 based on your economically disadvantaged rate.
now I also bring this up to explain something. Every school has very different demographics that they're dealing with.
and so part of this campus data story was who their students are.
they have a high percentage of students who are special education and who receive resource Services.
and so when you are in resource, it usually means in some way, Shape or form that your curriculum may be modified.
many, many years ago, we used to have a staar m a staar modified.
and what that said, for students who are in special education and received modified Curriculum,
then you were allowed to get a modified test that aligned with your iep.
that got taken away. So all of our students, Regardless of if you receive modified curriculum,
take the regular test. And so again, these things and contexts that happen within the System,
now that if I have a campus and you have a high percentage of students who are receiving This needed service,
it hits the campus very differently. And in order to get them to achieve, It's a very different prescription and things that we have to put in place to move
them. The principal had called us in. Doctor mercer was assigned to another campus.
we had lost the principal. And so we were all doing rotations, And we usually walk with our principals.
tier I instruction was absolutely amazing. I'm like, This is an amazing school.
you're doing great. Your teachers are doing wonderful. I don't understand how you're a c campus. Can we can you send the data?
he also worked with one of our other principal. Other area superintendents doctor ephlin in the stony point.
she's over the stony point learning community to just kind of really look through his data And see exactly what is happening.
and so he took the initiative on his own to rethink and the curriculum that was happening Within his resource spaces.
and that is what led to the difference. A student cannot do what it is that they do not Receive.
and so he worked with his staff and figured out what can we do differently within our our Learning organization?
one of the things that we speak to a lot is the fact that it's a symbiotic relationship.
district may initially teach into something, But then the system's responsibility is to give us back what works?
what does not work? Experiment, do something different, And then you teach us, and then we see what works,
who's the exemplar, and then we spread it to the system. This has served as one of our exemplars as far as what can happen differently with our Students receiving those services so that they have a fighting chance in order to
achieve at high levels. So again, so as you ask for next steps, I think it was important to kind of give
that that context to understand then how the system itself has then given us back Information to figure out what
to do differently in order to help with campuses. So today, for example, I was meeting with one of the area superintendents and the Principal discussing his data and his next steps.
and again, for elementary only 3rd, 4rth and 5th grades dictate your accountability.
and here are the numbers that he gave me. He has a total of 179 students in those three Grades.
of those 179 students, 21% are sped 38 of those students.
of those 179, 56% of them are emerging bilingual.
and he has a high mobility campus. When you look at data, You cannot look at data without the context of what is happening within that school.
so for each of our campuses, the first thing then we have to do is look at the context.
then once we look at the context, we use something called effective schools framework in Order to audit their context.
so for example, one of the things for some of our campuses, The issue itself was whether or not they had teachers.
and so they, they were not able to find all the teachers to hire.
and so they went a great percentage of the year without teachers within the classroom Space.
and, or they had high percentage of people up absenteeism, Absenteeism for their teachers,
which, again, if I'm not getting that firsthand instruction from the teacher, What am I going to do?
or we have some campuses where a high percentage of the teachers were zero or first year Teachers and alternative certification.
so based on that, each and every campus was different. We have to have a different way that we figure it out.
so the very first thing, what is your specific context.
and then audit the campus in order to see what to do differently.
I think that we have celebrated with the community and with the board the fact that we are At 99.13,
eddie [laughter] hired for our campuses. One five?
99.5 I'm sorry, sir, that I cheated you out of your extra point four.
and so eddie and his team first of all, they were able to give us the data to just kind of Look through and figure out what is the root cause of
some of this. Once we were able to study that, We studied that in january for these campuses.
we were able to immediately put a plan in place to figure out what to do differently.
and so very proud of the fact that eddie's team was totally responsive and did some things Differently.
so for some of those campuses where the matter is of. I did not have teachers until a certain time within classrooms.
we started hiring for those campuses in february. And usually we don't hire for next year's contract, But we knew they were going to take longer.
and traditionally, historically, our title one campuses have taken longer for us to staff,
and usually we have our newest teachers less veteran teachers at those campuses.
so that creates a problem for one of our campuses. Not only were we able to fully staff, but because then they had a high percentage of Teachers who were 0 to 1 year.
we worked with a company. It meant then that we would not have enough mentors on that Campus itself to serve it.
usually the way then you teach and you bring them in, You have a veteran person that is on staff,
and they're immediately able to take someone, A new teacher under their wing and teach into them and help them.
so for those campuses, if that's not available, And we saw that from the data, then for one of our campuses we contracted with,
in order for each and every one of those teachers to have a personalized mentor that is Working them through their data,
their teaching, getting their classrooms set up in order to make sure that they have that Personalized care,
where they're meeting with them once a week, And where we as a district and their campus team is able to say,
based on specifically what they need to be successful, Here is what you need to teach into and what you need to do with the campuses and why.
so again, even though these seem very general, It's so specific to the campus.
once we went through that data analysis, we also looked at data analysis by academic Programs.
we saw then that campuses had different percentages of students within programs, And we wanted to see how the students within those programs we're doing versus
students out of programs in some of the campuses. What we saw is that many of those students were not doing well, And or but the rest of the campuses was doing fine.
so we know tier I instruction was working, but there in some way, Shape or form, there was a reason that these students were not getting tier I at the level
they needed. For some of the campuses, that might be a matter of the master schedule did Not facilitate it.
it may be a matter of hey, did we teach into that staff?
as far as what the curriculum should look like? Is the student being pulled out during tier I based on the master schedule, And should they be staying in that tier I space.
all of those things. Is the student not getting access to tier ii intervention because of Another service that they're receiving?
so there were a lot of things when we interrogated even master schedules to figure out What to do differently.
so because of that, then I'm looking through at the campuses. There are specific contexts. Doing data analysis.
we were able to goal set very specific to their issues.
and and each of those campuses that are d&fs, It's very different reasons why they're there.
there's not one single thing. We made sure that we then created a campus professional Development schedule that was specific to them.
we have been working with relay, which again, Their work is based on the effective schools framework,
which also is aligned with our t test, the teacher evaluation system and also tpes get Better faster where they're doing
learning walks with each of these campuses to give feedback and to make sure that they're All their processes are in line,
as well as working very diligently with their area superintendents and our teaching and Learning staff and with our
research and evaluation staff ed connective has offered with them to teach into making Sure that they have mentors for the
campuses where we don't have enough veteran teachers to serve within that capacity.
and we have also creating very specialized progress monitoring plans where they're not Generalized or they're waiting for large checkpoints,
but where we're looking at micro data as we go in order to make sure where we are, What we're doing,
and if there's anything wrong within those systems. So thank you for all of your support as always.
thank you to my team and all the work that they have done and just boots on the ground in Regards to everything.
and thank you for having faith in what we have the ability to do. And I will take the first question. Thank you so much for the update, And certainly always appreciate getting data and reviewing data within
context. Trustees, we are buttons still do not work.
so if you have a question, just go ahead and raise your hand and I'll do my best to keep Up with who is raising hands.
so I'll open it for discussion. Does anyone have a question? Trustee landrum. So can you help me understand how success high school gets their scores?
they have a pretty mobile population. It's my understanding the majority are going for Graduation credits.
so just a better understanding of how success high school has, Kids qualifying for testing and things like that.
so success high school, they're being evaluated on exactly the same things the Comprehensive.
what's different though is what number they have to hit to earn an a or b or c.
where they are also different is this oftentimes in success high school, Especially as it relates we talked about in domain 1.
for example, ccmr is 40% of domain 1 and success high school, For example, because most kids only get there in their last year
if they're coming, oftentimes without it, that greatly impacts and they don't have a lot Of runway to impact their ccmr.
so for them this year, we've done a lot of things differently. Their area superintendent nancy. Doctor nancy guerrero, Has worked with her principal ms.
blanca valencia, to institute classes to where now we're teaching into tsia.
in order to make sure that the students can get that ccmr credit.
I think they're putting an avid class in place. There are lots of different things that we've changed up, Knowing that that model does not fit in order to help that campus do well.
another thing to know that oftentimes students may have already taken all of their tests And they may qualify for an igc,
which is the state says then if you've passed enough test, You can go through.
and there's an alternate form of testing where you turn in a portfolio.
so what that means oftentimes is there's not a lot of kids who are taking tests that would Dictate their score in domain 1.
so oftentimes they may have a very small group of kids. And so once they take it, whether they pass or don't, It really impacts greatly that score.
so they qualify in the same way. But the limit they have to hit is different.
but they also have very special issues that they have to contend with based on how their Population comes in and the fact that their population usually only comes in the last year
that they're in high school. Okay that helps me a lot, Because isn't the majority of high school testing done their freshman and sophomore year
when it comes to staar? Right, so they may still have tests that they have to take. But again, it's not going to be usually a lot.
they may have 1 or 2 right. Okay thank you for that clarification.
I really appreciate it. And great job live oak and all the others that have made some Impressive changes this year.
so thank you for the update. Trustee wei. I was just curious regarding these five campuses Rating
d and f, do we have any specific plan to help them or?
absolutely. And is there one you'd like to go through specifically or?
so they have presented to the superintendent myself, Their area superintendent teaching and learning.
and again, each one is different. So for example, I can go through let's say we're talking about joe lee johnson.
jolie's johnson's case was a matter of they had lost their principal.
they did not even have all of their assistant principals. Neither did they have counselors. They had a lot of teachers that were not hired, So we were missing a lot of teachers.
not only were there a lot of new teachers, but there were also a lot of subs.
and so cost a lot of great disruption for the campus where what we did is we had all of Our district level folks serving at
the school as administrators and teachers to try to stabilize the campus.
that was one of the campuses where and doctor mya mercer then filled in as the principal Again to help stabilize.
so we had created a plan for that campus all the way back, Actually in in january or february,
knowing then, hey, it's so we need to start working on hiring early because it just had Not for a great many years.
they did not have a full staff to start the year. So that was one of the campus through working with hr that we started hiring for them all The way back in february.
as far as making sure that everything is in place, We started the year. I think maybe we had one teacher, mya one teacher?
full staff or counselors, assistant principal, The principal everyone was in place because that was their major issue as far as why that
campus was destabilized and where they got that their f.
and also a big data point for that campus was the fact that if we have about maybe 52, 53 teachers,
about low 30s or 0 to 1 year and maybe alternatively certified.
so we knowing that who we're hiring and that we did not have enough mentor teachers in the Building,
we had to create something to have those mentors but also teach heavily into management, Classroom management.
so one of the first things that we did with the teachers was put together a very specific Plan.
as for what everything needs to look like, it's called a minute by minute.
as soon as the kids enter, what do you say? What do you do? How do you say it? How do you set up your classroom?
everything is highly choreographed and taught into with those teachers to make sure.
then we have an environment where the students are able to learn.
district staff has gone in and worked with them also. Doctor ikonne who's over mtss. That's intervention for behavior and goes in there and Works with that staff and all the behavior
coaches to add extra support. We changed up as far as where certain classrooms are.
so if they're a student is having a behavior issue, Here's where they go.
so lots of different things that we did for that campus.
interventions were lacking as far as interventions as far as tier ii instruction.
so we had lindsay gonzalez where she went in, She and her team and taught into that exclusively for each plc and grade level to make
sure that they understood exactly what needed to happen.
doctor mercer is on that campus often as far as doing pulse checks to make sure that if There's something that they've taught into what percentage of the
staff is able to do it to capacity. So lots of different things. But again, each campus and their plan is very specific to the campus because each campus Had a very different thing that was impacting
those numbers. Can I add to that? So the idea is to do a root, A root cause analysis for every campus.
and it's very, very, very sometimes it's hard to, To find like the same root causes or that causes cause the campus to maybe decline
academically in the writing from, let's say, C to d or an f. So the first thing is really to do a root cause analysis.
and based on that, you come up with a plan. As a matter of fact, I was, natalie's right.
many of our principals actually presented their plan to me, And we are actually thinking of bringing 1 or 2 of them to present to our board so we
actually can see exactly what what is the plan?
obviously, if we do five, we'll be like, we'll take the whole board meeting, I guess, for the whole evening.
so we may bring 1 or 2 of our great principals so they can take you through their process.
and it's obviously it's a team effort. It starts with the principal and then obviously the Principal working with his or her admin team,
as well as our teachers and lead teachers and counselors, Also the support of central office,
because we also have to own it, right? If we have to provide extra support, Extra training,
extra mentor or pd. Whatever we need to do because we want to make sure that we help them.
the goal is not to have a rollercoaster rating, Meaning you don't want to be a c one year going f go up again to c,
go down again to a d and f. We want to create some consistency
we're going to go up, we're never going to go down again. Right? So voigt is a great Example that our principal there with her team and teachers and area sub work and
everybody working together in us, central office, Provided those systems.
and now, for at least for the last couple of years, They maintain a b and they are one of our title one campus and also dual language
campuses. So that's why we want to see in each one of every actually campus in our in our District.
but we'd be more than happy actually. We talked about bringing actually maybe joe lee Johnson.
she's our new she's a new principal, but she's an experienced principal and when she Presented it to us,
her plan was a robust plan. And we actually go and we've seen it in action also when we Walk the school.
so we'd be more than happy to do that for our board members. All right thank you. That'd be great if you can hand that. Yeah
trustee cuero? Yeah, my first question [laughter].
I'm excited. No, a comment and the question. Right?
so sometimes we're in a community, we see the scores, And we automatically think we're failing the campus without knowing context.
so thank you for clarifying that. My question is outside those outliers, Because of their unique circumstances,
are we also sharing best practices between vlcs?
thank you
as a share across the principals. So we have principal meetings.
we have what's called our council meeting. And so the council meeting is all of my direct Reports and then some of their direct reports where we bring all the
problems and the issues together. We look at data together, We figure out what's happening.
the area superintendents they have their meetings together where they share across.
here's a good idea. Some of the things, the way we capture data and we think about our Walks in order to figure out what's high
leverage, what are the things that this campus needs to work on? What do we need to do for pd? That came from doctor guerrero and one of her campus Principals.
I'm trying to. Who should I give credit to nancy? Jessica borunda
this is perfect. Now, we taught into it for the entire district.
brooke, from sommers elementary, there was something that she figured out.
she has a high achieving campus, but it was a matter of she's like, I want to make sure that I get my students to even higher levels of performance.
there's something called performance level descriptors. We alluded to it in the presentation where the state then says for this objective, This objective,
here's what it looks like. If it's written at the at the did not meets level, Here's what it looks at the approaches level.
here's so on and so forth. So when we looked at her data, It's like, brooke, how did you move this?
and she then came in and she taught into it to us. And then as a matter then we took that incorporated into our tier ii intervention process,
and ms. Gonzalez then trained her team and then pushed it out through the entire district.
so when I say we're a learning organization, Everything is a back and forth as far as information.
someone may start something, we may start something, But the whole thing is we send it out to the system and everyone understands their job is
to perfect it and they give it back to us. So we're constantly trading information back And forth.
and can I add to that? I think I think it's we have a as you know, We have amazing obviously teachers,
but we also have amazing leaders right? At every campus. Right? And, and and it I mean, being a principal of, Of title one campus versus a non-title one campus,
it varies even within non-title one campus. There are so many things that demographics Could be different too.
right? So I can think of our principal at cactus ranch. Right? Vicki
but when you look at her, her student achievement, Which is like amazing, you think, okay,
her students, maybe they are already prepared. They're ready. There's a lot of parental support, but you see that even when it comes to the growth, Her students are shown,
even like them being prepared, they're still our teacher there with under her leadership Are actually growing more and more.
right? So that tells you there's a lot there. They're taking looking at every kid individually.
right? Seeing where they at every year and then working with them obviously with our Parents,
our teacher, everyone. And they're showing growth regardless how they came to them.
right? So that's really what we want to see at every one of our campuses. Again, regardless where the kids, how the kids came to us again, Whether they're title one or non title one campuses is we want to see growth.
every kid deserve and needs to grow at least one. We want an exponential growth which is meaning more than one year, But we want a bare minimum of one year of growth.
again, we want more than that, but a bare minimum is to be one year of growth as long as They're with us.
and so again these are sharing these best practices because she can work with school like Her campus with similar demographic.
but then you see let's say I talked about void you know, You see share share over there working with like,
robinson and working with maybe union hill who have maybe similar demographic, Similar programs in their campuses and like having this plc
conversation. And now, as I said, our principal are very like they work together, They collaborate all the time,
and we want to encourage them even more. I mean, Even our principal meeting, we want to encourage them more to present to each other.
and as presented to them, I mean, obviously, We have to, you know, pour into them and teach them stuff sometimes,
but we want more them collaborating and sharing best practices among themselves.
thank you. I do have a one more follow up regarding maybe a clarification for me.
regarding you mentioned, the questions are online for for staar?
I'm sorry, I'm not understanding. No, I think I understood the question. So, Yeah every kid now take the staar online.
yeah.
is the system or is the test smart enough to adjust to their scores or to how they answer The question?
right now it does not based right now based on how I answer. It does not give me then a different type of question.
it's not interactive in that way. There were interims or t-tap it called it where it did That.
it reacted to how you answered and they gave you lesser questions or higher questions, But the test itself does not do that.
I think you're talking about an adaptive, more like an adaptive test. And I think tea and The state,
that's what they want to move. I heard there's a there's a senate bill 8 or one of the Bills that just passed the last special session.
now, the governor did not sign that bill yet, But if he signs it, there will be our students will be taking what nellie was saying,
boy, moy, eoy and the beginning of the year and middle of the year, End of the year online still,
but will be more like an adaptive test. And that I think, Starts on 27, 28 school year, if I remember correctly,
if obviously our governor signed it because right now it's sitting on his desk.
thank you. Trustee landrum. I do have one more question, Doctor azaiez, there's been some online chatter
that we may have a campus that's received a fourth year in a row of a failing score, And we're in trouble of being been taken over?
it's not. That's not how it works. So so in order for tea to take a campus take a campus, Take over campus,
you heard that there was a chat around, actually, Austin isd. Right? And and that's what they did with houston isd as a matter of fact, A couple of years ago,
in order for campus to be taken over by tea, They have to to fail the five consecutive years with an f.
so, so if you get a d a d1, what we call a d1 year one d year two d and year year three d,
it's equivalent to one f, so three ds is one f. So so even if let's say you have a campus who had like that would be their first f, Then remember you have to have five f's in order for,
for tea to take them. Now the caveat here after their third f a d becomes like an f, Whether you get a I'm sorry it's complicated,
but I hope I'm explaining it correctly. So the fourth year, The fourth year, whether you get an f or d becomes it's an equivalent of an f.
so so in other words. So let's say one of our campuses gets a cd fulkes.
I think that I heard the talk conversation around it. So 3 ds is only their first f, right? So that's why that's why we have a plan.
but it takes five f's or three f's and two ds after the three first three f's [laughter] To get tea to come and take over.
so we're not going to let that happen, but we're way, Way years away from that.
anyway, thank you for the clarification.
that no
but we're not at that point is the point that I'm trying to make
as I said, because of everything like the first three days count for one half. That's pretty much it. Thank you for the clarification.
I don't see any other hands. Thank you so much for this information.
there's certainly room for improvement, but we also have a lot to celebrate.
so congratulations to all of our campuses on your successes and hard work, Thank you.
okay, we're going to move on to l.2 round rock isd a library book acquisition process.
doctor azaiez, thank you again. Yeah and so I know if I remember last month when we had a Conversation about the new,
the new bill that was passed around library books, And I think our board wanted to hear more about some of our members,
wanted to hear more about our plan, and how can we obviously stay in compliance and ensure That given our parents all the tools they need.
so we put the presentation together for you, And are you going to be running it or?
I will not be running it I will intro okay, well, we have the experts with us. I'm going to [laughter] go ahead and get started.
back. All right. Thank you so much. Tonight we have with us stephanie inzana.
she is our director of library services. Absolutely fantastic. Has done a lot of great work for us. We had gone through senate bill 13, And we had spoken about that as
a board and as a team and the implications. There were still some questions, And we wanted you all to know specifically then,
not just how it would work, but there were also some nuances as far as what it would mean To our families and to our community.
and so we wanted to make sure that we painted a very explicit picture as far as all of the Rights that our community,
our children, our parents would enjoy on top of this process as far as how everything Would go together.
and so we wanted to make sure that everyone was aware and just let them know if we see This as win win for everyone involved.
all right, stephanie. Okay awesome
this evening, we are going to walk through our book acquisition process. We will highlight how our libraries are complying with the state laws.
our library, our librarians book selection process that they go through when adding books To the library,
and our new acquisition process that also includes school board approval of the titles our Librarians would like to purchase.
so we'll start with overview and compliance. Senate bill 13 has a number of requirements, But the ones that pertain most to our families are these first two.
the first requirement is that parents have the right to access their student's library Checkouts,
and the second is that parents have the ability to restrict titles that they do not want Their children to access. I'd like the board to know that round rock isd has already been
in compliance with this and has been for years. Our compliance methods are that our parents can access student checkouts at any time.
there are various methods they can use. The one that we hope they use is that they log in With their child into their insignia account within classlink,
so they can discuss with their child what their with their child, What their student is reading. They can request the checkout information from the campus
librarian, and they also have the ability to log into a parent account that they are in Charge of.
with that parent account parents are also able to restrict specific titles for their Students.
okay our library management system is called insignia.
this is a new system to us and we are very excited that insignia really streamlines the Parent account system.
parent accounts are automatically created for all of our parents utilizing the email that They have in eschool,
they can access their account using directions that are publicly available on our library Services website,
and we also share that information via campus newsletters.
parents can, within their parent account, search for titles that will restrict their Children from checking out those items.
and then the restriction is very seamless in the campus library so that the student no Undue attention is drawn to that student when those checkouts are blocked.
also, if a parent would like to remove restrictions at any time, They can do so as well through that parent account.
part of senate bill 13 also requires that we follow selection criteria in our board Policy.
that's something that we have always done. All of our library books are selected following The library services collection development guidelines that we'll touch on later in this
presentation. Those guidelines are aligned with efb local, Which is in turn aligned with senate bill 13.
our current board policy includes that library materials must be age appropriate and not Contain harmful material, which is language that you'll see throughout legislation as well
as our local policy. Okay
the board members role in that process, which is new as and effective as of september 1st.
first of all, we have to have a library materials acquisition policy, Which we already do. And now senate bill 13 requires school board approval of all
purchased or donated materials that are added to the library collection. Part of the requirements of senate bill 13 also indicate that all of those materials that Are going to be purchased or donated must be publicly posted for 30 days.
and let me rephrase that, because that might have been unclear. A material might be Donated,
but it may not be added to the collection until it has been publicly posted for 30 days.
our school board members have the ability to propose changes to the list prior to the Vote,
and the board must approve or reject the list at the first open meeting of the board, Held on or after the 30th day,
that the list has been posted for public comment. There are a few exceptions to this rule. Because senate bill 13 indicates that approval Must be done by isbn.
that means that the only exceptions include when librarians are purchasing items that are Intended to replace a damaged copy of a book with the same isbn.
if they are purchasing additional copies of a book with the same isbn, Or if they're purchasing copies of a book on a previously approved list,
even if that item hasn't been purchased yet. If it's already been approved, They don't have to resubmit for approval. Okay
and then we've talked a little bit about insignia. Just a little bit more about that System. This is a new system that we went live with at the end of last school year,
and have been using daily, starting with the first day of school, And we are working out some kinks,
but really enjoying some of the added features within insignia. I already spoke about one of our favorite features, Which is that really easy parent access to accounts. Insignia is integrated with our
current district systems, which allows us to really be responsive and keep our records Updated very quickly.
the company insignia is also really focused on meeting the unique needs of our texas Schools.
senate bill 13 was passed in late june, and as of last week, They had a new enhancement available that allowed us to do a really seamless isbn check to
help us with that approval process. This is work that not many companies have done.
so we're excited that we're working with a company that does that. And one of our favorite Things is it saves us about 30% over our last system that we had as far as cost.
okay
so this is how our librarians are selecting books in the district.
linked here is a very lengthy document that goes into some of the minutia of library Collection development.
I'm not going to review this entire document with you because it is a lot, And it's not necessarily information that you all need to have committed to memory.
what I do want you to know is that our collection development guidelines are aligned to State law and local policy, and they provide very specific criteria for book selection.
if you would like to do a deep dive into this document, You are welcome to do so and I will happily answer any questions that you may have. The
highlight of this document is the selection criteria that are a direct reflection of ifb Local,
and in turn, a direct reflection of senate bill 13. I'm going to read these to you as listed on the screen, Because these are the areas that we look at when we're selecting books. We are looking for
books that are integral to the academic or personal growth of our students, Books that reflect the interests and needs of our students and staff that are appropriate
for the maturity level, reading level, and understanding of our students that have Literary or artistic value and include accurate and clear information.
professional reviews are a very important tool that our librarians use when making book Selections.
professional reviews are completed reviews by degreed professionals, Either librarians or literacy professionals,
and those reviews are then published in peer reviewed journals. These are not amazon Reviews.
these are very academic, professional reviews.
if a certified librarian. And oh, and I should also note that some of our librarians in Round rock isd actually write professional reviews for our review journals.
so we have very well qualified people in our district that are also helping to inform our Selections.
if a certified librarian has read a material and evaluated based on the selection criteria I've shared with you and that document of collection development guidelines,
then we consider that that material has had a professional review. If we are looking at a material that does not have a professional review in a peer Reviewed journal,
then we ask a minimum of three librarians to review it. And there's usually a lot of Professional discussion around that book to determine if it's a good fit for our
collections or not. Occasionally, there are items that we add to our collections in Absence of a professional review.
if you are interested in those specifics, you could look at page two of our collection Development guidelines. But I can tell you that those are books. Often titles in a series
where the first titles in the series have been reviewed. But for example, if you're familiar with magic tree house, There's probably 100 magic tree house books. They're not reviewing title number 99
anymore. We know that that's a good fit. That also includes books that were published Prior to the standardization of reviews.
so if we have books that are part of the literary canon or classic literature, We're not going to have reviews for frankenstein.
but we know it's a book that we would include in our libraries. And then also books in Languages other than english.
we do our very best in our libraries to make sure that all students have native language Books representing them.
and unfortunately, diary of a wimpy kid in mandarin is probably not reviewed, But we have a review of that book in english,
and we can say we know that the translation will also be appropriate for our library System.
okay, you might be asking why I'm telling you all of this about professional reviews. It's because professional reviews are one of the most important tools librarians have when Making book selections.
professional reviews are an industry standard. They are reputable. They're reliable. They're established systems. They're used across Libraries in the united states,
around the world, and also by the publishing world in general.
we typically have multiple professional reviews of all the books that we add to our Library system.
because there is such a booming review business, Many of the books that we add have three or 4 or 5 different reviews that we can use when
we're making selections. Our reviews allow us to be efficient and reliable in our Purchasing.
our librarians are very well supported in our libraries, Are well financially supported in our district,
which we are so thankful for. But that does mean that we're purchasing hundreds of books At each campus every year.
if our librarians were to try to read every one of those books cover to cover, They would not be doing much else.
so we use our reviews to help us make educated, Reliable selections.
we also provide additional support to our for our librarians as they're selecting books.
our librarians are consistently engaged in professional conversations, Both formal and professional development sessions, as well as just informal, everyday
conversations. I was a librarian in round rock isd for 11 years prior to this position, And I can tell you there's not a day went by that I did not talk to another librarian
about a book and what they thought and did it fit. That's just an ongoing habit of our department in general.
library services, myself and our library coordinator. We provide guidance and input on Professional purchase,
on purchasing decisions for librarians. And we also have a very robust state association In texas that does a wonderful job of providing professional development,
as well as generating suggested book lists for purchase for our libraries.
and we use those as we're making selections as well.
one of the areas that I think most people have concerns about is making sure that the Selections for our libraries are age appropriate.
one of the requirements that we have is that our books. When a review is written, an appropriate recommended age range is included in that review.
we ask that our librarians have at least one professional review that identifies the Intended age group.
you may note, as you're looking at this slide that we have for elementary, It's reviewed pre-k through five,
and we carefully consider titles for grades 5 through 8. For middle school we extend beyond middle school as well. And the reason for that is Supported by our campus data and our sorry,
in our climate survey. The question that they ask is, Of the students is my library has books that I want to read?
and our students who score that lowest are our students that are at the upper end of those Age ranges,
our 5th graders and our 8th graders, because they want the next thing they want to read What's coming up next.
so we are looking at looking very carefully at the ways that we extend the grade levels That might be represented in our library to make sure that the content is appropriate,
but the materials material is still interesting and challenging for those upper level Students.
we do have books that are called adult, meaning that they are published with an adult Audience in mind.
it does not mean that they are adult in nature, Just that it is written for an adult audience.
we will have adult titles at the high schools, Especially if we're looking at things about books like biographies about famous figures.
those aren't necessarily written for a young adult audience, But we know that they are appropriate for our students depending on the content. We also
might have books that are coded adult, but might be at an elementary or middle school Library because it would be a book that's instructional in nature.
if you have a cookbook and it's a, you know, A type of cooking that your students are interested in,
it might be at an elementary library because we know that instructional resource is Appropriate for students at that age. Another specific example when I was at elementary
schools, we had to have a book about the history of round rock, And there's no books about for kids,
about the history of round rock. Regardless of where the books are added to in our Libraries,
all of our library materials, none of our libraries will have material that is pervasively Vulgar or obscene or contains harmful material as defined by the penal code.
all right moving on to the actual acquisition process. This first slide talks a little bit about how librarians are actually selecting books for Their libraries.
our librarians follow efb local requirements, And they generate a list of books for their campus libraries.
they will use the library circulation system and some internal approval list documentation To verify which titles they are allowed to purchase without approval because they're
already in the system or already approved, and which ones they need to seek approval for.
and we will then create a list that has titles that are requested from our individual Libraries,
titles that are published in upcoming months and anticipated to be requested, And then also are gifted items as well.
library services will support our librarians through all of the steps on that previous Slide, but we will also be preparing the list of titles for the board to review.
we'll make sure that your list is compiled into a single spreadsheet. We're going to Double check for duplicates and isbns that may already be in the collection, and we'll
clean that list up. So it's just the new titles that are seeking approval and you're not Getting redundant titles.
I have two flowcharts for you on the next two slides. This first one is the library acquisition process flowchart.
and I'm not going to go over this whole thing, But we'll look at the blue boxes on this chart. This is exactly what our librarians are
doing as they are selecting books after they've made their list, The first thing that they will do is check that the requested isbns against our catalog of
isbns to determine which is not already in the catalog. Then, moving to the second blue box, they will check their isbns against our round rock Isd approved approval submissions,
which is an internal document that we maintain based on where those items flow from that Document.
they will then submit the book for approval if needed, If the book has already been approved,
or if it is already in the system, they can currently purchase it, And then it will go to the board.
and after the board meeting, the librarians will refer back to those lists to see what has Been approved and they can move forward with purchases at that time.
this next acquisition flowchart is the district flowchart. So the first box at the top is basically everything that happened on that last slide.
so librarians suggesting preparing suggested book lists according to our legal and Selection guidelines,
the law requires that the proposed lists are posted on posted and available for public Comment at least 30 days prior to the vote.
we have added in an additional role for our district, Where we are going to get the list to the board an additional week ahead of time,
so you have some time to review that list. And prior to us posting it, If you have suggested changes,
we can go ahead and make those right away. Prior at least 30 days prior to the final Approval,
the list will be posted online on our library services website, And we will also notify families via campus newsletter.
also at that time, when we're telling them the list is posted, We'll be sharing about the parent accounts in case they miss that information in previous
communication. During those 30 days, the community may make comments and those comments Will be made available to the board members they will use let's talk as their
commenting vehicle [laughter]. And then at the first open meeting of the board, Held on or after the 30th day of the date the list is
made public, you all, our school board will propose changes to the list and approve or Reject the list.
after the list has been approved or rejected, The librarians will move forward with placing their book orders. Okay
there are some district and board responsibilities I want to make sure are clear to Everybody. Our board members,
like we said, will be notified of the list 37 at least 37 days prior to the board meeting,
where approval can be given 30 days prior to the board meeting. The district will post the proposed list on our website and community members can submit Their feedback through let's talk.
this is our suggested timeline. Right now, we're suggesting an approval list at each of Our scheduled board meetings through the end of the year.
the reason that we are suggesting this monthly approval is because it allows our students To have the quickest access to the books that are coming out.
we want them to have those books in their hands as soon as possible, And also to hopefully ease the burden for you all.
if we're submitting on a monthly basis, that list is going to be a lot shorter than if We're submitting quarterly. That's going to get pretty lengthy and be a lot of review.
so our proposed action is to approve at each board meeting.
but if the board desires, we could change that as needed. Okay
librarians select the books. They follow the processes to determine what needs to be Approved. Library services compiles that list into an approval list.
it's shared on the with you all and on the website for community feedback.
community member comments are made available to the board. The school board approves or Rejects the list, and then our librarians follow our district processes to purchase their
newly approved titles. We want to leave you with some assurances of what you can feel Confident knowing in this process.
first of all, every book that we are purchasing for round rock isd follows board policy, Efb local,
and our collection development guidelines. Those align with our state law and with our District policy.
we do have a professional review requirement, Which means that each of our books is vetted through a professional review source or
through a certified librarian's full evaluation. We are ensuring that age appropriateness is ensured for all of our campuses.
our books are selected based on the maturity, Reading level, age, and the suitability for the grade level.
and we do not have harmful material as defined by law within our library collections.
this process is transparent for our parents and the community. We are posting those books online. We're ensuring parents have access to library accounts And we're collecting community feedback.
we have a systematic review and duplication check in place, So that the items the board receives are actual items that have to be approved,
and not items that have already gone through that process, And we have ongoing accountability and consistency for our librarians as they engage in
peer review and professional discussion of selections with guidance from library services And our professional organizations.
all right that wraps up my presentation, and I will happily take any questions you all may Have.
thank you for being with us today, ms. Inzana. I believe I had suggested this presentation because there were some concerns that board Members are now required to approve these lists and it's thousands and thousands
of titles. It is not our choice to have to approve it, And it's completely out of our control.
so I appreciate you providing all of the information about the acquisition process to make Our job easier on top of the huge load that you guys already have.
are there any questions? Trustee landrum. Sorry, I have quite a few questions [laughter].
first one is on slide 21. We it looks like we're past the first public posting date.
has that list gone out? We have not posted any lists yet. Oh and this. I apologize, that first public list should have been struck out.
that's okay I just want to make sure I hadn't missed something. No, You have not. We will actually be submitting if if it works for the board. Our first list
for approval for the november 20th board meeting. I apologize for that error. No problem.
sounds like we have a very robust process for things for the library.
what about our classroom libraries for individual teachers have and how that material is Categorized.
and can you talk to that a little bit? I can say that senate bill 13 does not encompass Classroom libraries.
so these same restrictions are not in place for classroom libraries. However, We do provide guidance to our teachers that if they have a question about the
appropriateness of a book, a good rule of thumb is to see if it's in a library at their Level.
and if it's not, it's probably not a good fit. So senate bill 13 does not apply to individual titles in a classroom?
no, ma'am. I did not realize that thank you very much.
another question. So it's been a while since I've had an elementary school, Kiddo.
but there was a thing when he they were in elementary with a birthday book and things
and if an individual parent wants to buy a book for the library, It'll go through this process,
it'll be posted that kind of? So our librarians have adjusted programs like the birthday Book program,
where a parent can make a donation to the library. Some we had the option previously where some campuses took advantage of parents being able To go online and order.
but I actually had your kiddo at blackland prairie back in the day. So at our school and what they're going to be doing currently is purchasing their books Ahead of time,
setting them aside for that special program, And then allowing students to select books from that.
so the books that the students will be getting for programs like that will already have Been approved. All right thank you very much. And the last question that I have really has
to do with slide 13, where I think that, yeah, We all know that we've had community members come up and
talk about that they believe that in their opinions there are books in our library that do Violate penal code and,
you know, contain harmful material. I'm not a librarian. I don't want to be a librarian. I trust our librarians.
what do we do in that situation where we have parents that are still not happy with titles That are in our libraries?
so round rock isd has had for many, many years a very robust reconsideration policy.
so if a parent has a concern about a library material, We have in our librarians are trained on this annually,
multiple times throughout the year. We have a very specific process where they reach out To the librarian to let them know their concern.
they set up a meeting with librarian to review the title, To understand why it's included in the library collection. If they're dissatisfied, they
can move forward to a meeting with the principal. And then we can also move on to a formal Reconsideration request.
we want to make sure that we are being very careful in our selection of books, And also careful in our removal of books,
because we want to guarantee that our students have access to the materials that they Really need.
so we encourage any parent that has a concern to reach out to their campus librarian.
many times those concerns are just solved by saying, Oh, you don't. Is this not appropriate for your child or is this not appropriate for any child?
and most of the time it's not appropriate for my child. And then we use that parent account to make that restriction. All right well, Thank you very much for the presentation.
I had all faith in our system that we were already doing things to protect our students And to protect our reading materials.
this is more of an editorial comment. I think it's absolutely ludicrous that trustees are Now inserted into this process.
we are not qualified or trained to be involved in this process. That's not your fault. It's just an editorial comment.
but it still irritates me a whole lot because
any other questions? Trustee cuero. Thank you stephanie.
my question is. So the process of acquisition, Right?
if there's a book already in another district that has been circulating, Can we bypass that?
no. Okay
you're welcome
I mean, we know, like, each month you had the list.
I just trying to estimate how many roughly. So we, Because of the way this law is written,
it's hard to put an exact number on that this year. It'll be much easier for us to put an exact number on it next year.
we typically add. 50 to 100,000 books to our library collection every year.
that's not necessarily new titles, though it might be titles that are already in the System, or ten copies of the bluebonnet books.
for us to know exactly how many titles you all will be approving is really challenging, Because we have never had to look at the data in this manner before.
so that is something that we'll have better information on in the future.
we do have our we have the beginnings of our first approval list in the works, And the first one is very lengthy because it's the first time we're doing this,
and we're at about 2,500 copies based on what we have collected from librarians and what They've submitted for approval.
I am estimating that a typical month would be more like 500, Which is still a lot, but is much more manageable than 2,500.
all right thank you. You're welcome. I don't see any other hands.
oh trustee cuero. Just real quick. Insignia. Yes.
parents restriction. Are they based on words, Phrases, ispn?
so parents can search the online public access catalog, What we call the opac, using any of the search terms that our students could use so they
can search by title, author, subject, and they can then restrict individual titles.
they cannot restrict everything that might have a specific word in it. That's not how the search works. But if they have a if they don't want their child to Check out books about llamas, they could search llamas and then restrict them all. Okay.
we appreciate that. The round rock isd library services department consistently serves as A model for surrounding districts,
and we appreciate all of the work that our librarians do.
I know that it's a really hard time for librarians right now. But please know that we we Value you and all of the work that you do.
so thank you for being here. Thank you, I appreciate it.
okay. We are going to move on to l3 construction contracting methods.
azaiez. Yes. Thank you again. So dennis will be taking us through.
we have a as you know, we we contract a lot of services, Especially now with the bond and stuff like that.
so I would like for dennis just to take a moment to go over the list of the contracting Methods,
explain a little bit more, and also answer any question that you may have. Thank you.
doctor azaiez president and board members these are the upcoming bond projects.
and according to policy cv local, the superintendent shall report at regularly scheduled Board meetings on the planned construction projects and the construction
contracting method to be used. So as you see up here we have three types.
the jlc, which is a job order contract. The ccmr is your construction manager at risk Contract.
and csp is your competitive seal proposal. Jokes are normally used for very small type Projects,
and we have a approved list of joke vendors based on what contractors based on what type Of work we're doing like hvac,
plumbing, and those type of things. The seymour is what you normally see with large Construction projects,
and those are bid out. And then the csp is for like this one for westwood is for different Athletic projects that we're going to do.
and you get better pricing doing those with csp instead of cemars.
and so those are the projects that will be coming online soon.
and so we have about like I said by cv local, We have to bring them to you all as a report to let you know how it would be selecting
these delivery methods. Thank you. Do I have any questions?
okay. Thank you. Thank you so much. Okay, trustees. We're going to take a quick recess. 815. Is that good?
okay. We'll come back at 815. It is 756, and we are in recess.
it is 816 and we are back. We're going to move on to agenda item m discussion items.
in one board, student outcome goals, time tracker. And I believe that is trustee landrum. It is still trustee landrum.
let me look at wahoo. Okay. That's the wrong one.
third time is a charm. All right. It is up on the screen.
but for the month of august, we had 58 minutes out of 292 that were spent on student Outcomes for an average of
19.9% for the month of august, so slightly below our minimum target of 20%.
so ask more questions on the student outcome agenda items.
any questions? All right. Thank you. Trustee landrum.
okay. We're going to move on to agenda item in action items for consideration by consent.
before we hear a motion trustees, we are going to pull item in 15 and bring that back at a Later date.
do I have a motion? Madam president, I move that the board approve action items n one Through 14 by consent.
second. I have a motion and a second. All in favor?
comment o any discussion? I just want to say please take a look at item n 14 unity day.
it's a really nice resolution with a really good purpose behind it. So if you're watching this, go read the resolution and wear orange on august october 22nd.
thank you. Okay, I have a motion and a second. All in favor? All right. Motion passes, seven zero.
now we are going to move on to agenda item oh, Action items oh one adoption of resolution.
setting the tax rate for 20 2526. And we will have a presentation before we hear a motion.
doctor azaiez. Yeah. Thank you again, president.
we have we have with us dennis and and rhonda. So, as you probably remember we had to our board approved the budget back in june.
at that time, we kind of set up a more or less. We kind of projected a possible tax rate. And obviously at that time, I don't think we had all our certified property.
we have we had we have some missing variables, If you will. Right. So by law, we have to actually adopt our our tax rate by the end of september.
and so here we are now that we get all our certified property values and things like that.
so we are here to share with you more or less where we stand as far as setting next year Tax rate.
thank you sir. Just so everyone knows, we were not required to have a public hearing this Year because the tax rate is the same as what you approved and adopted budget.
so we were not required to have a public hearing. So tonight we're going to talk about the 2025 year tax rate adoption.
let's look at the maintenance and operation side. Here's a comparison of tax year 2024 to tax year 2025.
as you can see there's no change. And there is a note that the t maximum compress rate is The floor.
that's the lowest that we're allowed to set the tax rate. The next line is the eight golden pennies that our voters have approved.
and that's what makes it 7101 425 no change from tax year 24.
the interest and sinking fund again is the same on the left. You see what was in the adopted budget at the 0.1830, Which would based on at that time, the tax collection
and the other local revenue and the state revenue of 106 million, And what expenditures of 105.6 million,
which would put us as a positive balance of 5.34. I will be telling that those numbers will change slightly, Because now we have the certified property value.
so we will recalculate the tax collection on the far right. You see our fund balance as when we've done this presentation.
it was at the $38,000 dollars. You add in $106,000 from this year.
you take out the february interest payment. The deficiency payment. And then we will make another payment in august of about 69 million.
and that will get us at roughly about $39.4 million in the fund balance as of this time Next year.
so if you look at the total tax rate comparison data, As you can see, the maintenance operations,
the 7101 homes are 7101 and the interest sinking fund is 1830 for a total tax rate of 0.8931.
and that is below the voter approved tax rate of 0.9066.
this is some of the surrounding districts total tax rate comparison. As you can see, round rock is the lowest tax rate of those listed and austin has the Lowest.
the highest decrease and they decreased by 2.5 cents.
this is just a comparison of the taxes. If you remember back during the budget Presentation,
in total for williamson and travis county, there was about a 2% increase in property.
now, individually, you may have gotten a 2% because this is an average.
there are some that has a reduction. So the next two charts shows a 2% increase and a 2% Decrease depending on what your property done for your
individual tax levy. So as you can see, for $750,000 home in 2024, 2% taxes to 765 same
tax rate, you will have $133 increase same calculations across those other variables.
even where you see the average taxable value of residents at 412 9439, Your taxes will go up and $47 if your
property individually property had an average property increase, If you had a negative decrease,
you would see that your property will go down, Your levy will go down. So your $750,000 home is now valued at $735,000.
with the same tax rates. Your property, your tax levy will go down $133, And the next one,
with the $500,000 home you see is 89.31. So this is the most important part for this Presentation.
I'll read to you the top. According to texas tax code section 26.05 b, When the proposed tax rate will generate more revenue than the preceding
year, or the proposed tax rate exceeds the total new revenue rate.
tax rate. Special language must be used in both the tax rate ordinance and the adoption Motion.
the ordinance captures the impact on maintenance and operations, While the tax rate adoption language considers the result of the total tax rate.
so far as the ordinance, we will raise more, We will raise less money, but our
tax rate is above the no new revenue rate for m and o.
so if you look to the far right, you see our no new revenue rate is 0.6726.
our proposed tax rate is 0.7101. So that's a 5.5% increase.
it's not really an increase, but based on how you have to put these calculations, That's what it reflects as compared to your no new revenue rate.
so you see in the ordinance says this tax rate was raised more taxes for maintenance and Operations than last year's tax rate.
and the tax rate would effectively be raised by 5.58%, Which I showed calculate on the right and raise taxes for maintenance and operation on
$100,000 home by approximately $37.50. So if you see the calculation at the very bottom, The tax increase on 100,000 home.
and this calculation does not take into effect. Either your house went up or your house went down. This is a calculation you have to show On $100,000 home.
your rate. Your taxes for m and o will go up $37.50.
for motion tax rate ordinance. Same as I read before.
so here is the recommended adoption motion. Number one, I move that the board adopt the resolution setting tax rate,
which includes a maintenance and operation rate of 0.7101 per $100 of taxable assessed Valuation and an interest in sinking fund rate of
0.1830 per $100 of taxable assessed value for from the overall tax rate 0.8931 per $100
of taxable assessed valuation. The second motion is I move that the board approved the Property tax rate be increased by the adoption of a tax rate of
0.8931, which is effectively a 3.87% increase in the tax rate.
here, again, even though we have not raised taxes, The tax rate.
but when you compare it to the no new revenue rate, Our tax rate is higher.
so with that calculation being done, it will generate a 3.87% increase above the no new Revenue rate.
madam president, for questions, I'd like to make the motion that we waive our robert's Rules board operating policy so that we ask questions before motions,
since we have two motions we have to make on this agenda item.
there's a motion. Do I have a second? Actually, I don't think that you need a motion.
that's a president's call. I think as long as there's consensus, You're fine. I'm good. Okay. Is that okay with everyone to ask questions before we do a motion?
okay. So, do I have any questions? Trustee. Weir.
I just wanted to go back to page five on the ins when you said that now that we have the Tax certified property,
the certified property tax, that you're going to recalculate that. Yes. And I don't know If, you know, at this point how much change you're maybe looking at if you do.
but I don't know if I want you to give us an estimate. But like next time we have a budget Update,
is that when we would see that in october, we bring you the update on imuno and ins, Which will reflect the certified property values.
and we're not worried that it's going to like we still think this tax rate is going to be Good even after you recalculate.
yes. Thank you. Are there any more questions?
do I have a motion? Madam president, I move that the board adopt the resolution setting Tax rate,
which includes a maintenance and operation rate of 0.7101 per $100 of taxable assessed Valuation and an interest and sinking
fund rate of 0.1830 per $100 of taxable assessed valuation, For an overall tax rate of
0.8931 per $100 of taxable assessed valuation.
second. I have a motion and a second. I just want to clarify both of these motions require A record vote.
yes. Yes. Okay. So, trustee, is this the. We're now required to take a record vote on This.
so we will go down the line. I'll call your name. And you can vote in favor or against by saying yes or no.
trustee. Zárate. Yes. Trustee. Yes. Trustee way.
yes. Trustee. Markum. Yes. Trustee. Weir. Yes.
trustee. Yes. Trustee. Yes. Motion passes seven zero.
do I have another motion? Madam president, I move that the board approve the property tax Rate be increased by the adoption of a tax rate of
0.8931, which is effectively a 3.87% increase in the tax rate.
second, I have a motion and a second. We will take another record vote.
trustee. Zárate. Yes. Trustee. Ross. Yes. Trustee way.
yes. Trustee. Markum. Yes. Trustee. Weir. Yes. Trustee. Landrum. Yes. Trustee. Cuero. Yes. Motion passes seven zero.
thank you. Thank you. Okay. We're going to move on to item oh two.
approval of nominations for the williamson central appraisal district trustees.
you were given a little bit of background in your agenda.
let me pull it up real fast. So last year, in 2024, We were asked to nominate two
people for we were asked to fill one year terms and two members for one year terms and Three members for three year terms.
those one year terms are now up, and we are now voting on our nominating for a four year Term.
so last year, we nominated john lux and lisa berkman for the one year terms.
and they are both willing to serve again in the four year term.
do I have a motion? Madam president, I move that we nominate the yep.
those two people again. Sorry, I forgot john lux and lisa berkman for the williamson County appraisal district.
second. Second. Second. I have a motion and a second.
is there any discussion? Okay. All in favor? All opposed?
did you raise your hand, michael? I can't vote for lisa. I'm on the board, So I can't. Oh, okay. So motion passes. Six zero. One. Okay.
moving on to item oh three, approval of nominations for the travis central appraisal District.
again, a little background. You all received an email that pflugerville isd is Recommending that we nominate elizabeth montoya.
you all know that for tcad. We do not hold a significant amount of votes.
I believe it's 36 which is minimal. But this is a recommendation that came from Pflugerville isd.
do I have a motion? I move that the board adopt a resolution approving her name
again, elizabeth montoya elizabeth montoya as round rock isd's nominee to the travis Central appraisal district board of directors.
I second, I have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion?
does anybody on this board know elizabeth montoya?
I don't personally know her, but the email did come from trustee mayor in pflugerville Isd,
who is head of their government relations committee. And sounds like she was vetted through their committee and then through their I believe Their board's voting tonight.
but that's really all the information that I have and what was provided on her background In the email.
I'll probably abstain just because I don't. I don't know anything about her, But okay.
I have a motion and a second. All in favor? All opposed?
all abstaining. Motion passes 601 okay. Moving on to oh four.
consider and take action to adopt a resolution authorizing the issuance of the round rock Independent school district tax and revenue anticipation note.
I'm going to turn it over to doctor azaiez before we make a motion. Yeah, thank you for that. So yeah, we're here today to ask to consider and take action, Hopefully on on what we call it
anticipation note. Right. So it's a ten or tax and revenue anticipation note.
so I want to let dennis talk briefly about why we have to do this real quickly about the Two major things that happened this year that didn't happen previously,
right? There are two major changes for this year. Was one, the t changed our payment class from a class three to a class two.
what that does was our anticipated state revenue on the class three payment.
class three. We would have got 80% of it by the end of october.
and under class two you get 40%. And the other change is due to the legislature and taking The homestead increase to
the voters. As you know, that doesn't happen till november.
and our taxing offices will not send out notes for our taxpayers until after the election Is certified.
and so that would delay getting tax revenue in for the district.
thank you. Do I have a motion? I move that the board of trustees adopt the resolution Authorizing
the issuance of the round rock independent school district tax and revenue anticipation Note series 2025 as presented.
second. I have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion?
I'll just say that I appreciate that we are doing what we can within a system that we do Not control.
in order to ensure that our staff and our students have all the resources that they need.
with that, all in favor? All opposed? Motion passes, Seven zero.
all right, moving on to board announcements. I have a few.
and then I'll pass it over to doctor azaiez. We have three meetings in october, October 9th.
we have a called board meeting. That's a grievance. On october 9th, We are also having our team of eight training.
in october 16th, we have our regular board meeting, And it looks like everybody has rsvp'd.
yes. Assuming trustee cuero is a yes, I know that you're still getting ramped up on the Agenda.
but please let us know if any of those dates are an issue.
board committees. With trustee harrison's departure, We have a vacancy in the two way communications committee.
so if that is a committee that you are interested in yeah.
if that's a committee you're interested in then the process would be that you just email Me with your interest.
and then we will look across the board at how our committees are kind of shake out.
and I'll make a decision on who would fill that vacancy.
but we typically reorg our committees in january. Do we do it in december or january? Okay. So after.
yeah. In december we'll we'll look at committees again. So if you don't get it this time around, there will be other chances.
just a reminder that september is suicide prevention awareness month and brings awareness To the 98 suicide and crisis lifeline.
I also want to extend another thank you to trustee harrison for all of her service to the District.
I know that from all the words earlier. We all certainly appreciate everything that she Did here.
and then extend a warm welcome to trustee cuero once again.
we're very happy to have you up here with us and look forward to serving with you. Doctor azaiez. Well. Thank you. Well, thank you so much.
I just actually, we just got this information yesterday or two days a couple of days ago.
but I want to acknowledge our students, we actually received the number or the name of the Students and the number of students who
actually earn the national merit scholarship semifinalists. And I'm happy to share with you that we have 111 students from round rock isd, I think, the highest in any district in the state of texas.
last time I checked, this year and westwood high school had 63 of them.
so 63 students in westwood high school earned it. And that's the highest in any other high school in the state of texas.
and so on. The top ten high schools with the highest number of students who earned that The national merit scholarship semifinals,
we actually have number one was round rock, I'm sorry, West westwood high school and number ten was round rock high school.
we're also the only school district placed two school, Two high schools in the top ten.
so we're super proud of our students. I know that's not an easy achievement.
it's an amazing and but hard work from our students, Our parents, our teachers, community as a whole.
so we want to celebrate them. And as you know, I mean like you said september we actually there's a lot of things that we either
recognize or celebrate from suicide prevention month to deaf awareness month.
last last week, we recognized patriot day, or september 11th.
yesterday we celebrated constitution day. So it's a lot of things going on. And the whole Month from september 15th to to october 15th,
we also recognize and celebrate the national hispanic heritage month.
and we know that that's a that's something that is so important to our community and to a Lot of our students and their families.
so thank you for what you do. Thank you. Trustees.
any other announcements? Okay. We are going to go into president.
I would like to make a motion. What's your motion? That we limit closed session to ten minutes. I have a motion.
do I have a second? Second. I have a motion. And a second.
all in favor? All opposed? Motion passes seven zero.
okay. Pursuant to texas government code section 551.071, The board will consult with counsel for the district and board counsel to discuss pending
litigation. We will have closed session in this room, So we'll ask everyone else to leave.
it's 912 and we are back in open. Do I have any motions coming out of closed?
okay. Seeing none, we are adjourned. Or do we have any other business, Any other discussion?
okay. Seeing none, we're adjourned at 912.