[0:03] Good evening. I'd like to call this meeting to order.

[0:07] The time is now 17:30 for regular board meeting, Wednesday, August 12th, 2026.

[0:13] Roll call. Orlando Lopez.

[0:15] Israel Villarreal. Present.

[0:17] Selena Gonzalez.

[0:18] Present.

[0:19] Dr. Ariel Cruz Bella.

[0:26] Present.

[0:26] Crystal Hernandez.

[0:28] Present.

[0:28] Rudy Corona.

[0:29] Present.

[0:30] Joel Abrego.

[0:32] Present.

[0:33] Alfredo Perez.

[0:35] Present.

[0:35] Tony Torres.

[0:37] Present.

[0:37] Next, we will have the Pledge of Allegiance and the invocation.

[0:42] Okay. Today we have Adrian Leos. And Adrian Leos is a 10-year-old fifth grade

[0:47] student whose favorite subject is mathematics.

[0:49] He enjoys playing soccer and the bass guitar and is actively involved in both

[0:54] academics and extracurricular activities.

[0:58] Adrian has demonstrated exemplary leadership and commitment to his school by

[1:02] serving as secretary of the student council, maintaining membership in National

[1:07] Elementary Honor Society, and performing as a member of the school rock band.

[1:12] He is the son of Debbie Leos and Medardo Leos.

[1:17] Will the parents of Adrian Leos please stand up to be congratulated?

[1:23] Very nice.

[1:25] Thank you for being here.

[1:30] And then next, for the invocation, we have Charlotte Leos.

[1:34] Charlotte Leos is a 10-year-old fifth-grade student at La Encantada Elementary,

[1:38] whose favorite subject is science.

[1:40] She enjoys expressing her creativity through drawing and making bracelets.

[1:43] Charlotte has distinguished herself through her leadership and academic excellence

[1:47] by serving as student council president, earning membership in the National

[1:52] Elementary Honor Society, participating in the Gifted and Talented program, and

[1:57] being selected as a member of the Leonettes Dance Team.

[2:01] She is the proud daughter of Arturo and Cody Leos and exemplifies the qualities of

[2:06] leadership, scholarship, creativity, and dedication.

[2:10] Will the parents of Charlotte Leos please stand up to be recognized?

[2:19] Thank you so much for being here tonight.

[2:34] I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the

[2:40] Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty

[2:46] and justice for all.

[2:48] Texas pledge. Honor the Texas flag.

[2:52] I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one state under God, one and

[2:57] indivisible.

[3:04] Good evening, school board members,

[3:10] administrators, families, and guests.

[3:11] As a student representing my peers across our district, I'm honored to open

[3:15] tonight's meeting with a prayer. Please bow your heads.

[3:18] Heavenly Father, as we gather here with a shared purpose to support, strengthen,

[3:23] and uplift our schools, we pray that you continue your influence and effort,

[3:27] touching our teachers and their teachers in the faculty office.

[3:31] We recognize this is a great responsibility based upon the shoulders of our school

[3:37] board members, and we ask that when making decisions this night, you would grant

[3:41] clarity and allow everyone here to have an open mind.

[3:45] With this meeting, we pray for a spirit of collaboration where different ideas are

[3:51] heard with respect and kindness. We also want to express our deep gratitude for our

[3:56] teachers and staff who pour their hearts and souls into us.

[3:59] Thank you, board members, for your time and your dedication to our

[4:04] education.

[4:10] We ask that

[4:13] you

[4:31] would

[5:14] lead us with wisdom and guide

[5:19] our

[5:20] conversations.

[5:27] Amen.

[5:31] Amen.

[5:32] I'd like to thank Ms. Garcia, principal of La Encantada Elementary, for being here

[5:37] and for bringing the students tonight. Thank you so much for all the work you do.

[5:47] Next item is public comment.

[7:21] The presiding officer may request assistance from law enforcement officials to have

[7:24] an individual removed from the meeting.

[7:26] If a speaker is seeking board resolution for a specific complaint, that concern

[7:30] should be addressed through the district's grievance process.

[7:32] District Policy DGBA has been established for addressing employee complaints.

[7:37] Policy F and G is the avenue for filing parent complaints, and Policy GF addresses

[7:41] community member complaints. Grievance forms can be obtained at any campus

[7:45] administration office or at the district central administration offices.

[7:59] Today for public comment, we have Mary Maney.

[8:37] But no, seriously, we do

[8:43] use it to help with the STEM activities at the high school

[8:48] with some various outings to state parks, and Green Power has some use in it,

[8:54] and Archery has some use out of it. So it really does help make our life just a

[8:59] little bit easier.

[9:01] I would like to go into my normal thank yous.

[9:04] The start of this school year has been incredibly good.

[9:08] Security has made life a lot easier.

[9:12] Maintenance and our custodial staff killed themselves this summer making the

[9:17] schools look as good and as helpful as they are.

[9:21] Secretarial staff has been just aces in making the start of the school

[9:27] year so much easier than if we didn't have them.

[9:31] They make it look like it's kind of a push-button

[9:36] organization, which is what we want it to do.

[9:40] Unfortunately, people forget that there are support structures that make that

[9:44] push-button application so easy.

[9:47] PDs that we had during this teacher thing, pretty good.

[9:52] Enjoyed what I was doing. But it did raise a question when I'm looking at the

[9:57] calendar. According to the calendar, at the end of the school year, you have four

[10:01] exchange days listed. However, this summer we only had three exchange

[10:06] days. Does that mean we have another exchange day coming up, or

[10:13] is there something wrong with our calendar?

[10:15] I'm not saying that I disagree with having to come in to work an additional day,

[10:20] but

[10:22] seriously, if we only get three in the summer and those are the only exchange days

[10:26] we have, how did three become four?

[10:29] And if we could use that, I would like to apply that same math to the mid-year

[10:33] stipend.

[10:37] Got to get that mid-year stipend thing going in there.

[10:40] But seriously, thank you very much for what we have done with it.

[10:44] I would like some clarification on that just to make sure that it's not just a

[10:50] misprint, if there is something else going on that we need to know, because it is

[10:54] labeled an exchange day, not a work day and three exchange days.

[10:59] All four of them are labeled as exchange days.

[11:02] And then again,

[11:05] if we get a chance, say thank you to those custodial and maintenance people.

[11:09] Now, if the HVAC people could come in and adjust the temperature of my room, I

[11:13] would be a lot happier, but I'm not going to complain too hard because then it

[11:17] becomes arctic. But no, we really are being very blessed with what we've done.

[11:22] It's just the heat wave outside is not agreeing with all of our poor buildings.

[11:27] But thank you very much. Again, do keep in mind, mid-year stipend, we could use

[11:31] some more money. And thank you very much and have a great day.

[11:36] Thank you, ma'am.

[11:41] Next item is board report. At this time, I'd like to welcome back all the parents

[11:46] and the students and the staff back to San Benito School District.

[11:51] I want to thank all the staff that's in the room who worked over the summer

[11:56] tirelessly looking at data, planning for events,

[12:01] everything that it takes to run this school district.

[12:04] There's so many moving pieces. Every one of you contributes to that.

[12:09] And you guys are the tip of the spear for this school district, and without you

[12:12] guys, we wouldn't be able to get this done, so thank you for your endless hours

[12:16] during the summer. I would also like to say we had an amazing convocation.

[12:23] And while we did have a great guest speaker, the star of the show was the students.

[12:29] If you weren't in attendance,

[12:32] man, all the performances that we have, we have so much talent here in San Benito.

[12:37] It is amazing. And I look forward to the day that we have these

[12:42] performances open to the public so they can come and see them too in the grand

[12:47] scale of what we got to see last week is truly

[12:53] amazing talent here in San Benito.

[12:56] At this time, if any board members have anything to say, I'd definitely like to

[13:00] give them the opportunity.

[13:08] Okay, we'll move on to superintendent's report.

[13:11] Good evening, everybody. Yes, I just want to welcome everybody back.

[13:15] When I see the kids in the hallways and getting dropped off and all that, it just

[13:18] makes me feel like the world is right again, so I'm looking forward to an exciting

[13:22] year. I do want to thank everybody who worked over the summer for what you all do.

[13:27] I know we had some long days, but it was good.

[13:30] There was a lot of good work that was done, so thank you all.

[13:33] Again, I do want to also shout out to Mr.

[13:36] Martinez, actually, for setting up the student performances at the convocation.

[13:41] Fantastic job again. So great job. And I do want to acknowledge Ms. Gonzalez.

[13:47] She was the one to get us Juan Quinones, so I know a lot of people were excited

[13:50] about that, so thank you, ma'am. But I look forward to a great year.

[13:54] I can answer the exchange day already, Ms. Mimi.

[13:56] The campuses will have one exchange day that they will have throughout the year, so

[14:01] one Saturday during the year. The teachers are going to have a specific training.

[14:06] It's going to be campus-specific, and then that will be the fourth exchange day.

[14:10] But other than that, everybody have a great year, and we look forward to another

[14:15] exciting one.

[14:18] Does Ms. Gonzalez have a name for the person she's getting next year?

[14:27] The next items are consent agenda.

[14:30] In order to promote efficient meetings, the board may act upon more than one item

[14:35] by a single vote through the use of consent agenda.

[14:38] Consent items placed on the agenda shall be marked with an asterisk.

[14:42] Consent items are items for which no board discussion is anticipated and for which

[14:48] the superintendent recommends approval.

[14:51] Prior to the time which approval of consent agenda is had, at the request of any

[14:56] member of the board of trustees, any item on the consent agenda shall be removed

[15:00] and given individual consideration. Dr.

[15:04] Ariel Cruz, is there any items in the agenda that you would like to give

[15:07] consideration?

[15:08] Yes, I'm going to pull agenda item 7.1.

[15:16] Mr. Abriel? I'm good, thank you. Gonzalez?

[15:20] No, sir.

[15:21] Senales?

[15:23] No.

[15:23] Corona?

[15:25] Same one as Dr. Cruz. Other than that, no.

[15:34] For academic services, consent agenda item 5.1 through 5.3.

[15:43] What's that?

[15:46] Entertain a motion to approve- Okay.

[15:46] I'd like to entertain a motion to approve all the consent agenda items for academic

[15:50] services, finance and operations-

[15:54] With the exception of 7.1 ... and administration with the exception of 7.1.

[15:59] So moved.

[16:01] Second? Second by Mr. Abriel. All in favor?

[16:09] Motion passes.

[16:12] I'd like to make a motion to move agenda item 7.1 into executive session.

[16:17] Second.

[16:19] All in favor?

[16:23] Item 7.1 will be moved to executive session.

[16:30] Action agenda. Discussion and consideration on board approval of a delegate and

[16:35] alternate to the Texas Association of School Boards Delegate Assembly.

[16:43] Mr. Perez.

[16:46] Do I have a nomination for one of the board members to be our delegate for the TASB

[16:52] Delegate Assembly?

[16:57] Anybody-

[16:59] I'd like to nominate Ruel. And is there a second? Or just one?

[17:05] We'll nominate the delegate and an alternate. You want to nominate the delegate?

[17:11] The delegate

[17:13] Ariel, and then second Ruel.

[17:16] I second that.

[17:21] Second. All in favor?

[17:25] Motion passes.

[17:29] All right.

[17:31] Closed meeting. In accordance with the Texas Government Code, Open Meetings Act,

[17:35] the board may move into a closed session for the following reasons.

[17:37] Section 551.071, for the purpose of a private consultation with the board's

[17:42] attorney on any or all subject or matters authorized by law.

[17:47] Section 551.074, for the purpose of considering the appointment, employment,

[17:51] evaluation, reassignment, duties, discipline, or dismissal of a public officer or

[17:56] employee, or to hear the complaints or charges against a public officer or

[18:01] employee.

[18:05] Time is 5:48. We'll be going into executive session.

[18:11] The time is 7:54, and we will reconvene into open session and

[18:16] possible action on matters considered in closed session if necessary.

[18:22] Consent agenda 7.1,

[18:25] request for approval of revisions to the 2026/2027 compensation plan.

[18:31] I motion to approve the revisions to the 25/26 compensation plan.

[18:34] Second.

[18:35] I have a motion by Dr. Ariel Cruz and a second by Ms. Hernandez.

[18:39] All in favor? Motion passes.

[18:46] Agenda item 10.1, employment, resignations, retirements, and terminations.

[18:51] Yes, I ask the board to approve, as discussed in executive session, the employment,

[18:55] retirement, resignations, and terminations.

[19:00] Do I have a second?

[19:01] Second.

[19:03] I have a motion by Dr. Ariel Cruz and a second by Mr. Abriel. All those in favor?

[19:10] Motion passes. 10.2, discussion and possible approval of employment of secondary

[19:16] instruction director.

[19:18] Yes, I'm going to recommend Dr. Sarah Turon as the director of

[19:22] secondary.

[19:27] Do I have a motion?

[19:29] So moved. Do I have a second?

[19:32] I have a motion by Mr. Corona and a second by Dr. Ariel Cruz. All those in favor?

[19:39] Motion passes.

[19:43] I just want to thank everybody once again for coming out. Appreciate y'all.

[19:46] And at this time, I'd like to ask for a motion to adjourn this meeting.

[19:51] So moved. Motion by Mr. Corona, second by Mr. Hernandez. All those in favor?

[19:56] Thank you all very much.

08-12-2026 REGULAR BOARD MEETING

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