>> good evening. It is 6:00 pm. Let us come to order for the regular board meeting of
the board of trustees for september 24th. Let the record show that all trustees are present with the exception of dr. Crutchfield.
she will be returning this evening. We'll now move into item 3, closed session.
adjourned to closed session pursuant to texas government code section 551.074 personnel to deliberate regarding the appointment,
employment, evaluation, reassignment, duties, discipline, or dismissal of a public officer or an employee,
or to hear a complaint or charge against an officer or employee, 551.071,
consultation with the board's attorney, 551.072, real property,
and 551.076 to conduct deliberations regarding security devices or security audits.
we will now recess into closed session at 6:01 p.m. We will now
reconvene from closed session at 7:01 p.m.
please rise for the prayer led by school board member craig tipping and the pledges led by
board member courtney lackey wilson and the presentation of colors led by the summit high school, jrotc.
>> please pray with me. "heavenly father, we come to you now and we thank you for another beautiful day that you've given us,
or just another opportunity to share in your beauty that you've created.
lord, I thank you for this opportunity that you've given us to meet here as a district with one another with a common goal,
and that's to love on our kids and just to help to educate them and get them prepared for the next stages of their life.
lord, I pray that you will continue to watch over each individual in our district,
help keep safe the teachers and the students, the parents, the staff,
the police, the bus drivers. Lord, we ask for your hand to be on them at all times.
lord, we ask that you give us wisdom and insight into your truth and your light tonight so that we can make the best decisions moving forward.
we ask all of this in jesus' name, amen.".
>> [background] >> if you'll please
join me in the pledge to the united states flag and followed by the pledge to the texas flag.
>> thank you. We are going to move on to district recognitions, dr. Cantu? >> yes, ma'am. I would like to ask laura jobe to come forward
and do our district recognitions for us for this evening. >> thank you, dr. Cantu.
good evening, board president farrar,
dr. Cantu, members of the board, cabinet, and the public here with us tonight.
tonight, we're going to begin our recognitions with our school board superstars.
each month during the school year, students from our elementary schools are selected to receive
the school board's superstar award for outstanding citizenship. These young students have been chosen from
their campus based on the virtues of outstanding character, citizenship, fairness, honesty, kindness,
respect, responsibility, and trustworthiness. Before we bring our superstars up,
I'd like to ask you to please turn your attention to the screens to learn what makes these young scholars so super.
>> jalil exhibits the four common values we teach here at jandrucko,
which are kindness, excellence, respect, and service. We're so lucky to have a student like jalil here at jandrucko.
>> getting the award makes me feel good. Because I was kind.
>> for me and her fine arts teachers, we've had the privilege of seeing abigail grow from third and fourth grade,
and we have gotten to see that she's extremely hard working and focused in class.
beyond all of that, she is hilarious and brings creativity to everything she does,
so that for one of the many reasons, is why we picked her for this award. >> I think I got the superstar award because
I was good in class and I was nice to other students.
>> cameron had a great start to the school year, which is why our principal nominated him for this honor.
cameron plays really well with others at recess.
>> getting the award makes me feel good.
>> I chose chad as my superstar because he is always a leading lion.
he's responsible, he's respectful, and he is just an outstanding student all around.
>> getting the award makes me feel good because I was being
the leader and I was given the motivation to have integrity.
>> I chose evan wren as a superstar for wba because
she exemplifies all the things good that we have going on here.
she assists me with any type of task. It's always done correctly and thoroughly,
and she always wants to make sure that she's doing a good job. >> the award makes me very happy,
because I think I'm really kind to other students, and I help people if they need help,
and I help the teachers. >> we are just so happy with thaxton.
he's been such a blessing to have in our classes this year. When he came to daulton,
he was really nervous about a new school and meeting new friends, but now he's excited about coming to school.
>> he's done such a great job with completing his classwork, getting started.
we are just so proud to have him as one of our own. >> I feel so proud of myself.
>> I chose benny as our superstar because he brings an immense amount of joy to our classroom.
benny is kind and funny and a hard worker, and I absolutely love the joy and the positivity that he brings to everyone around him.
>> I think I was chosen for the award because I'm nice, I make people laugh, I work hard.
>> [applause] superstars, this is your special time, and students, as I call your name, please come forward.
come to dr. Cantu to get your special recognition, and then we'll have you come over and stand right
in the center until all of our students have been called, and we'll take pictures.
representing louise cabaniss academy of young scholars in the first grade,
please welcome cameron tims. [applause]
representing the dr. Sarah jandrucko early learners academy from pre-k is julio valentine.
[applause]
representing the willie brown academy of young scholars in fourth grade,
this is evan wren. [applause] our next superstar
is from j.l boren elementary school in fourth grade, jesse zagel.
[applause] I believe jesse goes by benny. That was my mistake.
from janet brockett elementary school, representing fourth grade is chad pickett.
[applause] from
kenneth davis elementary school in the fourth grade, abigail homestead.
[applause] our final superstar
for the evening is representing anna may daulton elementary school in the third grade, thaxton bragg.
[applause] everyone together for a picture,
and congratulations to the students again.
we'd also like to give a special thank you to our parents, grandparents, teachers,
and administrators who are here with us tonight and have helped to shape these young leaders.
let's give one more round of applause for our students and their families.
[applause] moving on to our next recognition, I'd like to invite dr. Georgie swize,
area superintendent to the podium.
>> hi there. Good evening, board president farrar, dr. Cantu, and members of the board.
I have the pleasure and the privilege of announcing tonight that we have six mansfield isd students who
have been named semifinalist in the 2025 national merit scholarship program.
this is an honor given to less than 1% of the students in our country.
these students earn their distinction based on their psat scores.
today, we are going to recognize kaitlyn ferguson and kaden nguyen,
of frontier stem academy. [applause] we also have
lizeth calderon of mansfield high school. [applause].
from lake ridge high school, we have christopher do, emma fenton, and andrew yacenda.
[applause]
congratulations to these students. Let's give them one more round of applause. [applause].
>> thank you, students and thank you, dr. Swize [applause].
at this time, I'd like to invite dr. Darwert johnson, director of fine arts, to the podium for our fine arts recognition this evening.
>> thank you, miss. Jobe. Good evening, board president farrar and dr. Cantu and board of trustees.
for the second year in a row, mansfield legacy high school theater has been chosen as one of
the exemplary schools of distinction by the texas educational theater association.
this award shows that legacy has a strong educational theater program through the number of productions,
quality of coursework, the amount of community outreach, and support from the campus and district.
directors jeremy ferman and sara corley would like to thank mansfield isd for
their consistent support of the arts and especially theater arts education.
also with mr. Ferman and miss corley are their student leaders, brynn thompson, micah miller,
zoe navarte, and emily keating. [applause]
let's give them another round of applause. [applause]
>> thank you, dr. Johnson. Let's give one more round of applause to all of those who are honored tonight.
[applause] that concludes our recognitions.
[background]
>> [background] thank you all for sharing all of those exciting students and things that are going on in our district.
as they are exiting, we will go ahead and start to move on to our district introductions. Dr. Stoker.
>> yes, ma'am. Thank you very much. Board members this evening we have one individual to introduce to you in her new role.
if you please make your way to the podium, I'd like to introduce you katie flowers.
katie is our new director of community relations and advertising and our communications and marketing department.
she most recently served in our district in the same department as a community relations specialist.
>> thank you, dr. Stoker. Good evening, board president for dr. Cantu, and members of the board.
my name is katie flowers, and I'm honored to continue my career as the director of community relations for mansfield isd.
I have the unique privilege of serving the community that raised me and I look forward to strengthening mansfield isd's relationships with families,
organizations, and community partners in a way that will benefit our students, faculty and staff.
tonight, I have with me some of my incredible team in the communications and marketing department.
then also, I have with me my biggest supporters and fans, my mom, and my dad, and my son johnson,
who in more ways than one, keeps me going every day. I would also be remiss not to mention
the many mansfield isd educators and leaders who have shaped me into the person that I am.
I truly appreciate the confidence you have placed in me to serve this community,
but I also want to thank you for your personal support of the partners and education program by being mentors and volunteers in our schools.
as someone who is passionate about public education, I've always felt that my role goes beyond simply providing resources or programs.
I have the great pleasure of waking up every day to build opportunities for students. Thank you.
>> congratulations. We're excited to see you in your new role.
we're going to move on to item 8, which is instructional focus, dr. Cantu.
>> yes, ma'am. I would like to invite dr. Tiffany spencer to come forward and share with us some information about
one of our core values and how we train and maintain continuous improvement throughout our district in our system.
>> thank you. Good evening, president farrar, dr. Cantu and members of the board.
this evening, I have the pleasure to present on our misd core value of
continuous improvement and just the steps that we're taking to build capacity and our administrators to be able to strengthen our system.
of course, everything that we do is founded in vision 2030,
our mission and our vision and our values. One of the values that we are going to speak
about tonight is just continuous improvement and just what we're doing as a district to continue to strengthen everything that we do and that we
live what we're doing to make sure that we are continuing to be a destination district committed to excellence.
organizational improvement. There are two ways that organizations typically look at improvement.
one is a traditional system in which excellent work does get done,
but it's the results of efforts of heroic people. They're the smartest, or they're hardworking,
or they have technical or content expertise. They're inspirational and morally upstanding,
holding all people like them and they're hard workers. But that's a diamond in the rough.
you're looking for someone that fits that mold. As far as continuous improvement is concerned and really what we do here in mansfield,
isd is really create a system that allows for excellent work that results from ordinary people doing ordinary things,
but in a system that's tight. Really, what are we doing in order to create a systematic process that we
can bring people into our process and teach them the way that we do things? How are we setting goals for ourselves and for our campuses and our departments,
and what are we doing to continuously improve to make sure that we're making the strides that we need to in order to do what's best for our students every day.
I think historical context is important. Larry, how did we get here?
where did this come from and what are we doing to move forward? The historical context is vision 2020.
in 2015, dr. Fashaskas and his team, he got a committee together.
I think I participated on that committee to develop vision 2020.
of course, one of those values is still there, our values are the same.
continuous improvement in the things that we were doing were really important. But what was also important is taking
the things off of the page and actually putting them into action. It's great forwards to be on a page,
but it's even better if we're living what we're talking about. In 2016, we have meetings that are called pdc.
monthly, we meet with principals, directors, and coordinators, and it's a time to provide everyone updates about what's happening in the district,
but it's also time for us to build capacity and our leaders in our district to be sure that they know what to do moving forward.
I remember being a baby, brand new principal in these meetings,
and dr. Vee and holly t and shan scott and other members that are here presented to us every month.
I remember leaving those meetings feeling so inspired to be a leader.
every time I left, I had something new to do. I learned about root cause analysis, looking at data,
really understanding what we're doing, what we need, and making a real plan. What's my goal?
what am I going to do to reach that goal? It was month by month,
this intentional learning and training, not a development. It was consistent in what we were doing and so that's how we spent the year of 2016.
we learned what continuous improvement really was and what that meant to live it out as a department,
as a campus principal, as a coordinator. From 2017 to the present,
we've been doing the work. This is a systematic process that is in place for us,
for our campuses, for our departments. We've been able to maintain that through a cadence of accountability.
that's that we're holding everybody accountable. We know what our goals are, through our scorecard,
through our dashboards, and we're keeping track of if we're doing what we said we would do.
the cadence of accountability is just what are we doing to be sure.
our principals have a cadence of accountability three times a year. Beginning of the year, they tell us what their goal is,
what they would like to accomplish. They're able to take us through their root cause of what data did they look at,
what quality tools did they use, and then they tell us their plan for how they're going to address that problem.
then they come back in the middle of the year and they present if they're on track, and then they come back at the end of the year to let us know
if all of the things that they did was effective. Our departments also follow the same process,
so they meet and then they go through their goals if they're meeting their goals yearly.
how did we get here? In 2024, we have started looking at pdc.
one of the things that we know that from 2016-2024, there has been a lot of change and shift and growing,
and so I've had the pleasure to work with jeff brogden and with rita denton to really plan for pdc for this year and what we're going to do.
so let's set the picture of what pdc consists of. There's about 160 or so principals, directors, and coordinators.
we started with an activity called this or that. The first activity was,
you're going to come over here for this and this was all of the people. If you were in mansfield in 2016,
which when we originated and started training on continuous improvement,
and you were a principal, director or coordinator. We wanted you to come to this. We were in this room.
come to this side of the room and there were about 30 people. I don't know if you can see in that picture,
but there were about 30 people that were in the room when we were trained in that particular year.
then we had event. If you were not in that group and we call that group moving on up,
you have been in mansfield at the time, but you may not have been a principal and you may not have been a director or coordinator,
so you didn't receive that initial training or you may have been somewhere else and we have a lot of that.
people want to be here, who are destination district. So we had about 130 people on that other side,
which means that they didn't receive the initial training. Now it doesn't mean we didn't train them.
every year for our new principles, we have an onboarding. Well, we bring them onboard,
we onboard them with continuous improvement, root cause analysis, what does cadence of accountability mean?
we do that for all of our new principles. Our departments onboard people with our continuous improvement.
but it's like a game of telephone. Some departments are all new or all of them have come after 2016.
you get a little piece of this and a little piece of that. It was really important for us to hit reset and be sure that
everybody had the same learning and was on the same page. We really are focusing on building capacity in all of our principals,
directors, and coordinators this year in the terms of continuous improvement. There are some things that we've just learned that we need to
do a little bit better with continuous improvement. We started with the misd planning process.
how do we plan? We start always with the district mission,
vision and values and our department and our campuses mission, vision and values have to align to that.
if we're not aligned, then we're not working towards the same goal. Then looking at our key strategic objectives.
what do we want to be able to do as a district and our department goals and our campus goals need to align to that as well.
what we learned about our department goals and this is one of those learning pieces.
some of our departments, they can align to guiding statements.
department of instruction, it makes sense for their goals to align to guiding statements,
all students reading on grade level by the beginning of third grade and staying on grade level. But if you remember chief presented last month and talked about how important it
was for him and his team to build positive relationships with community, with students, with staff,
that's really important so he's tying his back to our values, which makes sense.
just being sure that we are in close alignment with all of the things that the district expects for us.
then looking at where did we start? We started with a book called the one thing and focusing on the wildly important thing.
this is really our goal. How do we determine what we're going to focus on?
before we determine that, we really want to talk to our leaders about looking at data and using data in
order to make that determination and being sure that we're getting down to the root cause of really what's the problem.
a lot of times people want to address the symptoms or the easy things, but really what's the thing that's going to have the biggest impact.
one of the things that people say when we talk about the one thing is, you all just do one thing at your campuses?
no, we do a whole lot of things and we do a whole lot of things well. However, really getting down to what's going to make the biggest impact as far as
student teaching and learning is really important and even in our departments, how are they contributing to learning and making that really impactful for our students?
then the four disciplines of execution is another really foundational pieces of the work that we do.
number 1 of the four disciplines is focused on the wildly important. It aligns to the one thing.
we're not doing something different, we're doing something that's in alignment. Then the other thing is acting on lead measures.
this is something specific to mansfield isd. You can act on lead measures and look at lead measures,
but we do something in particular, looking at fidelity measures. Fidelity measures are specifically,
what is the adult behavior that we need to focus on in order to have a impact on our student performance and on teaching and learning.
for example, we want to set a goal and we want our students to read on grade level.
that's great. But what's going to happen in order to get our students to read on grade level?
our teachers need to teach small group guided reading potentially every day with fidelity.
it's on an adult behavior instead of focusing on what students are going to do differently.
then keeping a compelling scorecard. Being sure that everybody knows what we're doing.
it is not a secret, it's about being transparent with our campuses, with our departments.
mr. Brogan's team does an amazing job. You work into the facilities building and it's displayed for everyone to see.
it really is an exemplar of what we want to see as far as having a compelling scorecard and being sure that everyone knows what's happening.
then developing a cadence of accountability. This is important just that everyone is holding everyone accountable.
for us, you all, as the board receive executive council accountability every month.
that's if we are doing what we said we were going to do as a department, here's our goal,
and we present those things to you because we want to be transparent and there is a cadence of accountability for everyone.
for our continuous improvement, we work through what's called a plan do study act or a pdsa,
you will hear people use the acronym. In the plan, and we're working through this in our pdc and chunks.
right now, we're just focusing on the plan piece, and we're giving time to that. But what are we trying to accomplish and we really want
our department leaders and our principals to really think about, what does your data say?
what's going to have the most impact? What has the biggest effect size?
are you just picking something? And then does it align a vision 2030?
if it doesn't align a vision 2030, it's not something that we're going to focus on, it has to be in alignment.
then with the do, what lead measures so what do we want to change with adult behavior,
and what performance measure should we expect to see as that change in that result.
then what can we change to make sure that that will result in improvement?
we have to study it. We said we were going to do this. We have our professional learning plan or all the things that we're going to do.
is it working or not? If we get to the end and determine that it's not working, then that's too late.
the study piece is really about having the checks along the way, the cadence of accountability.
then finally, how we know we made the change? That's the final piece of the act.
do we need to continue with this goal? Do we need to move on to another goal?
is it sustainable? If it's sustainable, we may need to look at what's going to have the next biggest impact moving forward?
as we started planning this and mr. Brogan and I and rita were talking about what we really wanted to do,
it was important for us to have a year at a glance for our leaders.
what are you going to learn every month? We've broken it down for what they're going to
learn as far as our continuous improvement model. How does it relate to our core process of
continuous improvement and then what part of the pdsa are you learning about? For august and september, we're sticking to the plan.
it has a description and then deliverable. One time it's not enough,
you come on august 29, and then you leave but we want you to come back and bring your learning back.
we have little checkpoints to be sure that we're making progress along the way. But really, this is really about leading learners.
it's been great to work with jeff and rita because it's a different perspective.
I think that was one of the things that we learned from the first time around. We focus a lot on the instructional side,
but we can't do what we do every day without our departments. Just really having a balance of them providing a different perspective
and us working together in order to be sure that we have an instructional perspective, but also a department perspective.
we're really just excited about the learning that we're doing this year and hope to just continue to get better.
that's all I have. Questions. >> board members, I'll start to my right.
does anybody have any questions or comments? Dr. Reed.
>> great presentation, dr. Spencer. Thank you. I just wanted to know how you and mr.
brogden and ms. Denton were able to come up with that.
you may have stated that. I'm sorry, if I mistakenly didn't hear you,
but how did you all come up with the plan? >> I think all three of us were here for the original 2016 rollout,
which is nice because we all have perspective of how it started.
I think we started to work backwards and use our continuous improvement process,
what was missing from the original plan. Some of the pieces that were missing is that we didn't have different perspectives,
and so that was really important. For me, was to go slow, to go fast.
we don't have to do everything really quickly, but we need to do it well.
we just plan backwards of what we believed were some of the holes in the first time,
not good better in between. But you learn and you continuously do better.
I think that it was just a collective effort and perspective.
>>thank you for that. The reason I asked, I think you alluded to that.
the three of you are in three different areas. To have you come together, of course,
the focus is the 2030 mission, so in the vision.
that's the reason I asked that question if anybody is wondering because being in different disciplines,
you have to come together with one mission and get it done. Thank you for answering.
>> thank you. >> anyone else to my right? To my left.
I'll start with ms. Newsom. >> I still have my one thing book.
from 2016, about [inaudible] courtney.
to get to watch this evolve over the past few years,
I'm sure it's exciting for you guys as well. To be able to see how it grows,
and ebbs and flows. I'll never forget when we first got cadence of accountability binders.
they were six inches big and they were like, "here you go." we were like, "what?" but it was the coolest thing to look through.
we finally got to jump drives at one point. But to look at every campus and to let
them talk about their one thing and to talk about what they were doing to improve it,
and how they got there, and how they worked through their root cause and to have presentations on it and stuff like that.
I still think that that's something that I think parents in the community still miss
that aspect of that work that goes on right now that you guys are doing in pdc and such.
but it's amazing to work because then it really means something to that campus.
it's so personal, and it's so mission driven and stuff. Kudos to your team.
I love the way you guys are making sure that we're backtracking and always revisiting.
it is like that game of telephone though. You lose track and stuff and
so refocusing and making sure everybody learns the same thing, says the same thing, and it's super exciting.
I love to watch the work in progress, so congratulations. Thank you.
>> mrs. Wilson. >> my hearing aids aren't real good tonight,
so you all can say whatever you want about me. [laughter] going back to some of what ms. Newsom said.
we were all here, most of us or a lot of us back when it started, and it was dr. Vee's remember his big dream
up when he found a book in an airport, I believe. Looking for something to read, and it was the one thing.
but what I found so neat about that was when we implemented the one thing and each campus came up with their thing,
because I also appreciate that and given some autonomy to the principals and the aps to know what their campus needs to focus on.
then I remember everybody started showing up as ms. Newsom said with
their coas and everybody was making improvements in the one thing.
then I got a panic attack when they started picking their next thing,
and I remember asking dr. Vee, so, "you all don't want to let that go?" he goes, "no."
then one person handles that to make sure we stay up on it and we move on to the next thing.
I've got to be part of these studies and it's taken off because people have watched all and watched mansfield and how that's worked for us,
and other districts have also done it as well. It showed up for us. I still have
my big notebook on my desk because I like looking at it. [laughter] I'm an old school paper person,
but you guys are awesome, and the plan is amazing. To what dr. Reed said on the fact that you all got
so many very departments and everybody just pulling it all together and making it all happen.
I think that's what's always impressed me with our team and the fact that you'll realize it does take everybody.
it take a village. Thank you. >> dr. Crutchfield.
>> thanks for the presentation, dr. Spencer. I'm so happy that our staff have access to this.
I know it's very comforting to be able to look at a challenge and to actually have a plan.
thank you all for this work. I just wanted to potentially illustrate even further some of this good work.
if you look at the pdc year at a glance, this chart talks about problem statements,
and something that folks are working towards. Are you able to give us an example of what a problem statement sounds like?
what are some people working on? >> I think we hear some things.
one of the great things about the cadence of accountability is learning for us as well on the department and on how to get better.
but one of the ones that we heard this last week we just had coas last week,
wednesday, thursday, and friday. But one particular campus specifically focused
on made a statement about their domain 3 scores,
which in accountability is closing the gaps and looking at how all of the student groups were performing and
that particularly her domain 3 was not meeting the needs because they weren't meeting the needs of all of their student groups.
basically, that was her statement. All of the achievement of her student groups were not at the same level,
and that was the problem that she wanted to address. It was just interesting that she again,
digging down to the data and what's going to have the biggest impact moving forward.
>> thanks. >> thank you so much for the presentation.
just to piggyback on the one thing. I remember the first time I got a packet of all the cadence of accountability and I was like,
oh, my gosh, this is a lot. While this is a lot of work that goes into doing this,
I was just fascinated by it. The one thing came up and I started
asking questions about the book and then the next thing I know, I think maybe either that board meeting or the next one,
the book was sitting right here, and I had a chance to read it also, and just encourage anybody that hasn't had a chance to read it.
we use it in the education realm, but really I've used it in my own business.
it just makes you focus on the things that are important instead of getting lost in all the weeds.
I take comfort in knowing that that's what we're doing and then just the accountability just rechecking and going back.
thank you for all the work, all the campuses that they put into this. We appreciate it so much.
>> thank you.
>> we have our next presentation coming up? >> yes. I would like to invite dr. Derek johnson,
our director of fine art come forward and give the fine arts systems report. >>thank you, dr. Cantu.
good evening, board members. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to brag about our department a little bit.
we have obviously on the director of fine art to the district, and we have our assistant director, chuck roe,
and we have our coordinator fine arts, brooke parlin. Those three of us,
we look at all aspects of the district on the fine art side of things.
then when we created the fine arts academies, we're very fortunate to add a fine arts integration specialist,
and our very first one that we had was ashleigh joyce. Then we added two more academies,
we were able to get some assistance, and we have crystal kelso as our second fine arts integration specialist.
let me drag on those two ladies a little bit. They work with those teachers in plcs,
coaching teachers, provide feedback. They're also working coaching principals.
they're on those fine arts academy campuses all the time,
spending time with teachers and those principals to make sure that we're implementing an integration model with fidelity.
I'm going to show you a little information about their department, outside of our department later.
about three years ago, we came together with 274 of
our teachers and to come up with a vision and a mission. Our vision is to inspire all learners to appreciate the arts,
and our mission is to be leading district for the arts in the state. I think you guys can agree there.
we are definitely on the way of being a leading district in the arts.
did you know that 73% of our students are in a fine arts program?
that's k-12. You may wonder how is that even possible? Well, k-4,
it is a state requirement that all of our students are in an art or music class in a rotation, k-4 grade.
in fifth grade, our students are in a rotation. They take general music in fifth grade where they learn about band, orchestra,
and choir, and then they get the general music aspect of that program in a six weeks or nine week period.
that's k-5, it's 100% of those students. When they get to sixth grade,
they get to start choosing what elective or what fine arts that they
are excelling in that they would love to do and focus on from 6th-12th grade.
we would love to keep them in that same fine arts all the way through 12th grade. But we know students make different choices.
when you add all that together, there's about a little over 27,000 students that we serve in our fine arts department.
also, we also have 70 plus fine arts courses that we offer in our district.
that ranges from elementary art music, all the way up to ap art and music classes.
a little snapshot of our fine arts academies. This is year 4 of our fine arts academies,
and we know research shows that students that are in the fine arts program two plus years of more tend to perform a little bit better on act,
sat, staar assessments. Just a little snapshot of what our students did in 2004 in the fine arts academy.
as you can see there, our fine arts academy students are performing well on staar assessments.
three years ago, we charged ourselves in our department.
we had 42% of our students in a secondary fine arts program.
over the three year time period, we are now at 52% of our students between sixth and 12th grade,
they're in a fine arts program. You can see those numbers increasing in four of those areas.
you may say, well, why did art and theater stay the same? Well, a lot of our students who did not participate in a fine arts program,
maybe in sixth grade or middle school, they decided, well, I have to graduate high school,
so I got take a fine arts credit. Typically, that's theater art.
those numbers are very vast there because majority of students take those classes.
brag about this department. We are constantly asked to present at different districts or maybe conferences,
and so we have provided a lot of training and pd in different state and national conferences.
I just want to brag about our department a little bit because these guys do a fantastic job around the state and nationally.
last year alone, we had 169 students that either may state,
won a medal estate, or participated in a state activity in our fine arts program.
you see on the right hand side there we broke it down for you in which level.
but overall, we had 169 fine art students at the state level.
we're also very proud that we recognize our seniors. Now these are seniors that may be decided they want to major in a fine arts program,
or they receive a scholarship in a fine arts program, or you can't major in cheerleading,
but they tried out for cheer at a university and made their team or squad.
we recognize all of our seniors who have those accomplishments at our senior assigning day.
something new that we're doing this year is that we're having a fine arts career fair.
we have had a lot of interest from universities across the state to come in and see and visit with our students.
we're very excited on november 12th to have our college fair day for our fine art students.
to brag in our department some more, for three years in a row,
we've been named best communities in music education and district of distinction
in our arts education association and the theater association,
and this is our second second year to have the distinction award or exemplary award,
and our department won the exemplary award this year. As you remember, legacy high school has now won that two years in a row.
do you have any questions? >> board members just under my left this time.
do you have any questions or comments? Dr. Crutchfield.
>> thank you for your presentation. I wanted to clarify the 27k.
if you'll go back to that slide, that outline who was in fine arts,
I think it was right here. Did you know?
I just want to clarify the 27k students in k-12,
those are in academies and throughout because it's required in some of our elementary schools.
>> yes. >> it's across all of our campuses. If you go to the next slide,
this is not all of those students. These are the students in the academy, is that right?
>> yes. I'm working on the data for the entire district. I'm working with our assessment office to provide that for our next time that I
get to meet with you guys and to show you how it looks at our comprehensive site. >>thanks. I just wanted to make sure I knew what I was looking at. Thank you so much.
>>yes, ma'am. >> anyone else to my left? Mrs. Wilson.
>> I just have to tell him out loud that he knows he's my favorite. [laughter] in that way,
all the other kids over here know that they've got to step up their game. I'm just teasing. But no, he does know that I am very proud
of our finance department and just seeing the number of medalists, I mean, that is amazing.
I know you know, but I was looking down at the rest of the board can you believe that number.
but now you guys are doing a great job, and I do like that what dr. Crutchfield brought up.
that would be an interesting number as well, because we do have programs of some sort in our campus,
but I know that this is specifically to the academies. Thank you for what all you guys do. I know they're there.
>> they do. >> arms here, so thank you. >>thank you very much. >> four members to my right. Mrs. Anderson.
>> I just want to echo, thank you so much for the presentation.
a couple of things stood out to me like the slide before this with the 27,000 students,
and I totally understand, basically, k-6th grade has to go through something.
but what really stood out to me was the 52% after that.
I think it's a testament to this department and how much we put
focus back on something else that kids can enjoy and be a part of.
the testament is almost every week we have somebody from uil with another metal.
I just want to say thank you to you and your department for making this relevant in our community. Thank you.
>> thank you. >> dr. Reed. >> thank you, dr. Johnson.
I had questions, you answered my questions. I wanted to just highlight a couple of things.
one is the fact that these students put in so many hours from elementary school,
many of them into high school, and so you have opportunities for them to be
showcased by higher education representatives.
I think that's phenomenal because they put in the work since they were five or six-years-old. Thank you for that.
then congratulations to you and your team for not
only providing these platforms for the students and providing the best opportunities,
but you all are going out and you're presenting and bringing back any new information or styles or whatever the technical terminology is in fine arts.
I'm not sure. But I appreciate that because it means we stay at the forefront, which I'm always bragging about.
we're always leading from the front. Thank you for showcasing that because I didn't know that prior to.
I knew that you were academicians, but it's great to know that you're going out there and you're not only bringing it back,
but you are demonstrating what we're doing here and you're staying on the forefront in fine arts. Thank you.
>> thank you. >> yes, I agree with everything everyone said.
I too was blown away by the, I think a 10% increase over three years in the fine arts department. That's incredible.
that's just a testament of what you guys are doing as a department, so thank you for doing that.
then really for me, the comparison data on the accountability.
there's quite a bit of a gap between the fine arts and the rest of the district, so I think that is a testament to why this is so important.
I think it'd just be interesting to see the data across the district,
so I look forward to seeing that. But thank you for providing all of this information.
you go above and beyond. I'm excited that we're having a college fair for them this year. That's awesome.
I think we're one of the few districts that does a signing day for them when we post pictures,
we're like, "I'll do that for them." thank you for taking the time to showcase all of our students and all the amazing things that they're doing.
>> thank you very much.
>> we have one more presentation. Dr. Cantu. >> yes. I see jeff brogden and rita denton are already there and ready to
go for facilities and operations annual report. >> president farrar, superintendent cantu, board members.
this is my favorite time of the year to give our annual report, but I'm actually not giving it.
I'm just introducing it. That's even better for me. I want to talk about our little family.
we have a great team. I'm so blessed to be a part of it.
rita denton, you're going to hear from tonight that leads our student nutrition department.
she's also the keeper of our metrics. I started that little wall in our facilities building and then I thought,
man, somebody else can do it better. She volunteered and you can see now it has pictures and metrics and magazine articles,
so it's much better than just the data that I started with. Derrel douglas is new to us.
he's the director of facilities planning. He's doing a great job in his new role.
I'm blessed to have shawntee cowan our cto, would not have survived without her and technology.
flo torres, leading our center for performing arts, brian merchant back with us.
he's been with us a little while now. Transportation is in such great shape and he's so blessed to get new buses in our bond program.
oscar barbour leads our custodial services. He's a director, fantastic individual.
gina rietfors took over officially in our risk management a little over a year now and one of the greatest compliments I can give
her is I feel like you've been with me forever. She's doing such an amazing job.
kelly campbell has been leading our energy conservation department. It's a giant department of two.
one of the greatest compliments kelly said to me just a few weeks ago,
he said, "jeff, chris munoz can do the job better than me now."
he has poured into chris, and that makes me so happy. That's our mantra. We pour into each other and develop each other.
gary walker new to his bond program manager role. You remember gary from last month he gave
the longest acceptance speech of all the new people.
gary are you here? I didn't see him out there.
I thought I was safe with that for a minute. But it's a great family.
our mission. We have the same mission. We praise each other,
we lift each other up, not just professionally, but personally. We do team building together.
I'll give you a little bit example of why we're family and how that bleeds over into team building.
6:15 this morning, I got my first text. It says, I love the smell of victory.
well, we have a fantasy football league on our team, and so the first thing out of the texas morning was trash talk,
just like a real family. But we lift each other up professionally, personally.
we laugh together, we work hard together, and you're going to see the fruits of our efforts.
ms. Denton is going to go over all of our metrics and we'll stand around for questions. Most of the team is here.
>> thank you. Good evening,
dr. Cantu, president farrar, members of the board. I am so honored to get to lead you through our annual report tonight.
first, I will start with a bird's eye view of what we do and all about our operation.
our mission statement in facilities is to facilitate the process of students
learning by providing a clean and safe learning environment.
that really starts the moment our very first student steps on a school bus every day.
the sun is not even up yet. That's when the process begins and we make it through the school day,
we make it through mealtime, and we are then sending our students off and back home.
all through that, we are very dedicated to this mission. We manage over 7 million square feet of building space,
and that spans over 900 acres across our school district.
there has 60 buildings that we take care of,
that we clean and maintain. That includes our campuses and our auxiliary buildings, and of course,
our office space as well. There it is.
this is our cadence of accountability structure. Our rhythm, our cadence and facilities is once a month.
we sit around a conference table with one another. Department heads are there,
our associate superintendent of facilities, of course, mr. Jeff brogden is there,
and we are reporting to him and to each other the progress on our annual goals,
a snapshot in time. We aim to do that every single month.
you can see that, as has been described, we put that on the wall outside of our conference room,
and that serves many purposes. But what I love about it is it really keeps it in our forefront.
it is not hidden in a binder, it's not safe to our desktop,
but it's right there. It's very visible for us. Not only us as department heads,
but for our team members as well who walk those halls. They know that their hard work every day is going towards a mission,
and they're able to see that progress, which is really great. All of that in the spirit of what gets measured, gets done.
like dr. Vee and holly tig used to say around here, what gets measured in public, gets done faster.
that's what we really like to do. We love having that visibility. We are proud to be a data driven division.
that's really important for us because our departments that fall within facilities,
we are service departments. For us, what that means also is that our full focus is on efficiencies.
when we are able to not sacrifice quality, but work very efficiently in all of our different departments,
what we are able to do is maximize dollars in the classroom. That is a very win win for us.
we're using data to make routine decisions, staffing structures and those kinds of decisions,
and then also right up to our large scale projects and
our large scale decisions about procurement and those types of things.
button is stuck. There we go. Tonight, I would love an opportunity to share for each of the departments that
fall within facilities to share our dashboard metrics with you all tonight.
let me back up and just describe a little bit why we call them dashboard metrics.
if you can visualize your dashboard in your own personal vehicle,
you have different indicator lights that come on from time to time.
it's things like your check engine light, it might be your low fuel light.
one of my personal new favorite indicators in my car is the seat belt indicator.
when the vehicle senses weight in a seat and there's no buckle, it will let me know.
it puts an x on the dashboard on that seat, and I can look in my rear view mirror and know exactly what kiddo to
get onto. Those are indicators. What those do with us, as the driver,
all of you in your own cars, picture this, visualize. What it does is it signals that we need to take some action.
it signals. It's giving us a chance to make some pivot or some corrective action,
and we can choose to ignore the indicator for a little bit of time. I personally, sometimes or
frequently will ignore my low fuel for a little bit of time as long as I can.
but that can only last so long. Think of your check engine light,
you need to go and get it to a shop. You need to have the vehicle diagnosed.
these metrics serve us the exact same way.
the departments, the department leaders, we are running these different equations, reports, metrics periodically.
sometimes there are daily type of metric, weekly, monthly, is very common.
anyway, we'll walk you through. We won't go through each and every one for every department, but we'll pick one,
and then we will also be sharing our results of last school year as well.
let's start with the maintenance department. One of the lesser talked about metrics that they
track is the number of site visits conducted per trade per week.
this is very important because it does not only provide that visibility for their own individual teams.
this is the supervisors of each of the trades. It gives morale boost when the teams are able to see them out there,
but they're also able to inspect our grounds, our buildings, our facilities, under their level of expertise,
under their perspective and expertise. That can really help us in preventative maintenance and getting to fix things faster.
that leads us very nicely into one of their first annual goals,
which is to track our percentage of total work orders that they strive to do
at least 80% of the total work orders within five business days.
they did a really great job last year and the end results was in the green at 77.8%.
then their second annual goal is to dedicate at least 23% of all labor hours to preventative maintenance.
I will point out that this goal has become more aggressive over the years as well.
it used to be more in the tune of 20%, which was industry standard.
we kept doing so well that we continued to challenge ourselves. That goal is now at 23%,
and they did awesome last year at 22.5%, which put us in the green.
back to our dashboard metrics. This is for custodial services department.
he looks at lots of different things to stay efficient. One of the very creative and unique measures that
oscar tracks is the number of safety training hours. He put this in place in order to tackle
a problem that he was having within the department. He still to this day tracks that to be sure that we
are staying safe within the custodial services department.
that leads beautifully also into his annual goal of reducing the amount of workers' compensation claims in that department.
we strived to be under 8% of his total department, and he exceeded that annual goal last year.
then second goal is to complete his work orders within 10 business days.
he strives to do at least 80% of them. Again, exceeded his goal there.
that was a new goal for '23, '24. The student nutrition department,
lots of different metrics, many which involve of course menu, and of course, our team.
one metric that is fresh on my mind actually is one that we do seasonally.
this is an example of more of just a seasonal dashboard metric, and it is revolved around our grace period time.
when I say grace period, that refers to our free and reduced meal application window,
and it rolls from year to year, but only for 30 days.
for the first 30 days of school, we are tracking on a daily basis.
we are running that report and generating that data to see which students are on an old application,
who were able to contact, who were able to get that word to, and to be sure that they get their benefits continued for the school year.
I do want to take this moment and opportunity to thank jennifer powers in the guidance and counseling department.
they have done just a phenomenal job partnering with us this year, and we have really been able to reach families in new ways.
I think early on in the month of september, we had 3,000 students facing that drop off period,
and we were able to capture at least 1,500, if not more, through their help and through our campus administrators' help as well.
it really does take a village and all hands on deck. Neat current metric that we had there.
our meal participation goal last year was to serve over 5 million meals or 5 million or more,
and we did knock that out of the park. I think there was an ice day in there and maybe even a rangers day in there and we were still able to hit that goal.
we are going to have a more aggressive one or we do have a more aggressive meal goal
this year at 5.3 million based on our performance.
>> then our food cost margin goal is to be 40% or less,
and that is the ratio to our revenue. I joke that this is the stop light slide,
the green, red, yellow. Some of those fluctuations, especially the extreme reds and extreme blues,
have to do with our billing cycle. All of our meal sales and our meal revenue are not nice and neat within one month,
as you can imagine, as much as we would want it to be. But that's really important of why we are to look at it as an average through the year.
it was a tough year in this category, but we did finish in the green and we did raise this goal to be 41% this current year.
great job by the team. Our energy conservation department,
these guys are always writing reports. They're always looking at the numbers,
this department of two that mr. Brogden described. One of the ones that really stick out as far as
their dashboard metrics to me is the cost avoidance by commodity per location.
they, of course, look at water bills versus water bills, but they also get very creative and nimble to
group like buildings together to then examine those types of commodities.
for example, buildings of the same age and the same size,
and they're able to look to see, hey, who's doing really great in the savings,
and what are they doing. What are the best practices there? Then similarly, they look, hey,
who's not actually saving that much and why? They get in their vehicles and they go and they examine, they ask questions.
they're always after answers on that thing. That's a very important dashboard metric for us that leads to a lot of savings.
their annual goal is to reduce energy consumption districtwide by 20% off of the baseline.
they did a really great job this year. It was a tough year.
if you remember exactly a year ago, maybe like a year and a month ago, how hot it was.
we had a very extreme heat when we returned to school, so they had to battle that and rebound that from that.
of course, irrigation systems running constantly and everything that comes with hvac. You know how that goes.
with our risk management department, these are her dashboard metrics,
a few of them anyway. One that is just a little less commonly talked about is our incident categories.
these are our report onlys. These incidents did not actually turn into actually medical claims,
but gina still analyzes those and they track them to see what they could change or do differently,
perhaps fix something in order to prevent an accident from happening in the future.
it's very important data. Her annual goal is to reduce the total paid workers compensation claims,
and so the goal was based on several years past to be $800,000 or less.
amazing results here, and gina does such a great job organizing
and orchestrating everything and communicating with campuses and departments alike.
but this data up here represents the hard work
and the careful work of every single mansfield isd employee.
this is everybody's results right here. We are very proud of that savings.
gina has also been able to set a more aggressive goal this year.
I like pointing that out too. We are not status quo with always having same goals as well.
we always want to be competing and getting better,
competing against ourselves even. Then the center for performing arts.
of course, this beautiful building, lots of different measures that they are able to analyze.
one really neat one that they look at is the event attendance reports.
they are able to see who attended, how many attended.
was this a great time of year for this event? Actually, they look at data before the event,
during, and after as well. Flo and her team do an amazing job.
they set out to make sure that at least 25% of events that occur here at the center were dedicated to misd fine arts,
and you can see that they really blew that out of the water with 65% of the events were dedicated in that nature.
last, but certainly not least is our transportation department.
a lot of dashboard metrics. Brian merchant is probably the king of dashboard metrics.
he calls these his kpis, and lots of these he reports on every single week.
the transportation department, they are all about efficiencies.
one that definitely pops out, and I want to point out to you, is they track the number of preventable bus accidents.
the powerful nature of that metric is that really, if you think about it, with a bus accident that could have been prevented,
it not only could take the bus out of service, but it could also take our driver out of commission and be
injured for their family and for us here at work as well. It's almost a double whammy when it comes to our goals,
and for him to track that is very powerful and great.
his annual goal is to make sure that out of the whole fleet,
less than 12% of our buses would be out of service on any given day.
he tracks that on an average through each month and we have the year to date.
we have struggled in that area, as you all know for years, the last few years.
you can see even at the beginning of this year was a little rockier than how they finished.
brian and his team, they worked tirelessly on this. We did finish higher than that 12%,
and that is, of course, higher than industry standard, but we can expect that to improve very soon as we continue to welcome
those new buses funded by the bond to our lot and you'll be seeing more and more of those driving in the streets.
that number will continue to improve. I think brian has had a huge smile ever since the bond passed.
I think all of us have. All of that to say that the numbers are extremely important and we can't do it
without crunching that data and looking at those ways for efficiencies.
but we know that it's the people that really bring this to life.
the people are creating the numbers and the progress and the continuous improvement,
and the people are bringing experiences to our students. I am just very proud when I walk the schools,
when I'm walking and examining the cleanliness and the floors are shining and our team is just so embracing.
it makes me very proud. At this time, we will entertain any questions that you all have.
>> thank you. Board members to my right. Mrs. Anderson.
>> I don't really have any questions. I just want to say thank you for that.
year after year, you will keep setting higher and higher goals,
and each time I'm thinking, not that I doubt anybody,
but we're just really getting up there. Year after year, you exceed them.
I looked at that, I went through every single number that is provided,
with the exception of maybe three. We were over and above.
with those three, it's by one point maybe two.
I cannot imagine us doing better and better,
but we continue to do so. It's a robust department.
there's so many moving parts and yet continually exceeding.
kudos to every one of you, and thank you so much for everything that you do.
>> thank you. >> mr. Tipping.
>> yes, thank you. First of all, I just want to say,
I love seeing the depth which you all go to to get to the numbers and to really dig in and so forth.
but even above and beyond that, the accountability that you have within each department by posting it and by showing it,
I think that gives that drive to always be better.
I appreciate seeing that. If you don't see it daily,
then how are you going to know what your goals are and how are you going to know what you're striving for?
I really appreciate the way that you'll go about that within your department.
it's good for all of us to see that goal every day so that we have something to strive towards.
again, thank you for doing that. >> thank you. >> dr. Reed.
>> yes, thank you. Great presentation, ms. Denton. I just noticed something about the waste,
the amount of food that we may waste. I hate to say it that way,
but what can we do as parents or students on campuses,
board members, what can we do to assist with reducing the amount of waste of the food, is what I'm talking about?
>> absolutely. Great question. Thank you. The good news is that most of that food waste reduction does occur behind the scenes.
does occur with our trained kitchen managers, our amazing teams.
we give them the training and the tools to forecast very carefully.
to order in just enough ingredients or at least very tight. Then we have awesome systems in place to really monitor our food storage areas.
for example, our walk in coolers and freezers. We have 24/7,
365 monitoring on those pieces of equipment to prevent any kind of loss when we have weather events or anything else like that.
you asked how the kids can help in that process as far as plate waste and waste on the cafeteria seating side of things.
I think that they could help us the most and something that definitely aligns with being
a productive citizen and growing in that manner is to avoid taking items that they know they're not going to consume.
we see that the most with milk, I think. I think it's a large misdomer that you have to take milk with a meal,
so we do see a lot of milks getting thrown away and that thing, but I would encourage them if they are picking up a juice just to get the student meal,
we also see that a lot, I would encourage them to try something new. Try to take some cucumbers,
try to take some melon. Even a few nibbles out of those little side dishes would
cause less waste rather than throwing away that juice carton, if that makes sense.
as far as families go, giving us feedback. That's where food waste prevention can really help the most.
we have a great platform already built into our menu app where families are able to rate us on each recipe,
one star all the way to five stars and even leave comments with name or without.
you can do it anonymously too, but we really rely on that feedback to help mold and shape our recipes in our menus.
that ultimately helps food waste as well. Thank you for that question.
>> thank you. Board members to the left. Dr. Crutchfield.
>> sure. Thank you so much. It is obvious from presentation and from visiting
your offices that you are a data-driven department, so thank you for doing that.
I think it helps people to be on the same page with the critical systems that you all are in charge of.
I had a data question just to think of.
if you guys drill down a little bit more, a lot of the data you presented is in aggregate form.
I wonder, I know you have it, but how are we making sure that there's parity,
let's say, and response times with work orders? The cute kids at [inaudible] we want to go there as soon as possible if there's an issue.
how do we make sure that we're getting there in a similar amount of
time or on par with the school next door, eisenhower?
>> sure. That is a great question. You want answer that? I can take a stab,
but I bet you could answer it even better. >> work orders are prioritized in the order that they're received.
but obviously, there's going to be other priorities. If there is a work order that comes in that can be a life safety issue,
doors that are not locking, exterior doors, classroom doors, obviously, those are going to take priority.
but no campus is more valuable to us than another campus.
they all are received and worked on in the order that they come.
sometimes they're delayed as well. We try to have great communication with the person that put that work order in.
for instance, we're going through it today. I believe it was yesterday, we had a lightning strike at elizabeth smith,
and this morning, guess what, air conditioning did not return to normal.
we're working through that and obviously, everybody's at elizabeth smith because air conditioning is down.
then, unfortunately, one of their pieces of equipment is going to continue to be down because it requires a replacement.
we have to look at all those factors. We try to get to everybody in the order that it's received,
but obviously there are higher priorities, if it's life safety or if it can cause further property damage,
those are going to take the highest priority. But rest assured, we're coming right back to that order.
once that crisis is averted, we're going right back to the order. Nobody gets preferential treatment.
you picked the perfect school because if I was going to give preferential treatment
[overlapping] I'm looking to see how many principals are out there.
[laughter] it might very well be jericho. I love it there, but everybody gets treated the same.
>> great. Thank you. The other question I had is probably for you, ms. Denton.
looking at how high the meal participation rates have gone up,
and I know you guys still have higher goals. Is there extra opportunity to increase meal participation?
is it across certain areas, campuses, or is it everywhere?
>> that is a great question. We do have opportunity to grow, really, everywhere.
we are able to filter the data at a sense of who has the highest participation on any given day.
but I will say from menu day to menu day, that fluctuates, but we love looking at it in a percentage format.
but then we also hone in on out of our free eligible kids,
where is there the biggest gap of service. That is a very interesting route to go and we do that.
same with the reduced category, and same with paid category. But the short answer is we have opportunity to
grow everywhere and we want to serve everyone. We want this to be like google,
the corporation of google. Yes, I set the bar very high as is when I want teachers to
come down and feel like they've got a great meal at a great value. I think google it's included in their workplace,
so that wouldn't be the case. But it's low cost and we know we have growth there.
we survey our teachers, what would you love to buy here during the workday.
our lunch box kids. You love to bring your lunch. Great, what else would you want to supplement your lunch box?
those would be areas where we can grow and just getting more and more kids to love our service.
I will point out that we are serving, I think, right out of the gate, over 62% of our enrollment that's in attendance every day, so that's impressive.
we know that will only grow as the school year goes as well, but we love where we're starting at,
and we know we're going to grow more. >> great. Thank you so much. >> thank you.
>> mrs. Wilson. >> two quick questions,
what are you all doing all day because it doesn't seem like there's much going on?
then with fine art sitting here, I just have to ask, how many of your people have medals?
[laughter] because they have a lot. But other than that, no, really,
I love that you pointed out that you all reached your big goal. Because I remember when you set that goal and the fact that I hope
everyone realizes that not just the overall district scorecard,
but all our campuses and our different departments have that too.
what I love about that the most is that means that we all really are working for the end user.
because we all have the same goal in mind. Then we find ways to make sure all our departments and all our areas work for that,
for the greater good, and again, our best assets, which are our students,
of course, for those of you that may not be. But I do appreciate all of that.
I love that you mentioned just now with the question that we're already would you say 62%?
that is actually amazing. That's not even every day being pizza day.
>> it's higher than 62% on pizza days actually and not today. >> it actually goes down. That's amazing because it did not when we were kids.
it was square pizza. I just really appreciate all that you guys do.
I love the equity and I know you made the joke, and of course, who wouldn't pick jan rucos like the happiest place on earth.
but we have and I've had friends that were
maybe in the custodial or maintenance departments that have gone and worked in other districts and then want to come back,
of course, because they recognize that we had that going for us as well, of course,
we want it academically, fine arts, athletics, whatever the extras are across the district.
but we also take pride in our facilities and the fact that they are gifts also from our communities,
and so we take pride in those and you don't know the difference no matter where you're at on a campus,
like what it holds or if it's socio-economically challenged, whatever that means.
but you don't know from walking into the building. Everybody is treated as important,
every neighborhood schools as important because they all are. I really appreciate you guys because
that's also being good stewards of our money as well, even though you don't directly see it and you get to do it
and taking care of and making safe places for our students. It's really important what all of you guys do.
it just of course, I was teasing, and you typically are behind-the-scenes people.
we don't get to see you all all the time doing what you do, but we get to read the benefits when we're sitting in these nice campuses.
we're seeing the great lunches you provide. Thank you to all of you guys and your team,
and I'll buy you some medals. [laughter] >> thank you so much.
>> thank you, mrs. Wilson. She really touched on at the direction I was going to go as well.
I think a lot of these departments get overlooked a lot, but they are so vital to making our students successful.
getting them to school on time and home and feeding them. Thank you for everything that all of these departments do.
because like I said, I think we focus on what's going on on each campus sometimes and
you guys are in the background constantly making everything else happen. Thank you.
>> thank you.
>> that is going to move us to the public comment portion of the meeting.
the correct procedure for addressing the board during public comments is as follows, each speaker should address the board from
the podium microphone and state his or her name before speaking. All speakers will be limited to three minutes to make comments regarding items on
the agenda unless modified by the board president based on board policy bed local.
copies of the presentation should be made available to all trustees and the superintendent.
board policy prohibits the discussion of complaints against district employees during open form.I believe we do have one public comment,
is that correct? Mr. Jesse cannon.
>> good evening, board. Doctor farrar, doctor cantu.
I want to first begin by thanking you all for your continued dedication,
as I've stated time and time again. Your dedication to the arts here in mansfield isd,
as shown in the presentation today. Sorry. While the arts may not factor into the state accountability rating.
we all know that they are vital to our students' academic, social, and emotional success.
also in the presentation, knowing how it's tied and correlated with numeracy and literacy.
hopefully, we'll get to a place where we celebrate the arts for the sake of the arts and not for what it does to test scores,
but that's a topic for another day. Doctor spencer, I want to thank you for your presentation on continuous improvement.
the principles you shared serve as a blueprint for all departments in the district,
especially with student services, where streamlining and efficiency are crucial.
I'd like to bring attention to this area once again, as it requires greater accountability and transparency, the enrollment process.
during our recent hearing, it was noted that the pms clerks are not on duty during the summer,
even though they are on a 202-day contract. Yet families are still expected to complete enrollment at that time.
this creates unnecessary frustration for parents and puts undue burden on the system.
the current process lacks clear communication and a streamlined approach. If we are serious about serving families year round,
there must be a central office position dedicated, and I'm sure we have central office staff that would sign up to do this.
dedicated to the enrollment process during summer months. By implementing stronger oversight and making adjustments to how you manage this process,
you can better serve our community ensure that all students are placed appropriately and
provide enrollment data to better help guide decisions in the beginning of the school year.
lastly, I would also like to recognize the student nutrition department for their exceptional work in feeding students across
the district and their commitment that guarantees that all students have access to the nutrition,
essential for their academic success and overall well-being. I would ask the district to consider the unique needs of students with food allergies,
particularly those allergic to dairy. I know we love nacho and pizza day.
however, when planning weekly meals like nachos and pizza, I would like to suggest that students have another option for those particular days.
I know it's easy to suggest that students simply bring their own lunch. However, this overlooks the fact that many students,
regardless of their situation, may have specific dietary needs or food allergies.
while our goal should still be to ensure that all students have access to safe and nutritious meals.
thank you again for your leadership and commitment to the students in mansfield isd. >> thank you, mr. Cantu. That moves us to item 11,
the human resources report, mrs. Newsom.
>> yes, ma'am. Today, I have one teacher with over 20 years.
miss brandy millsted. She's with 24 years with misd.
thank you so much for your time, your commitment, and your dedication to the students of mansfield and all that you bring to every student.
>> thank you, mrs. Newsom. Item 11.2 new hires for court approval, doctor [inaudible]
>> just ask that you guys approve recommendation is presented. >> may I please receive a motion to approve these recommendations.
>> have a motion by courtney wilson and a second by craig tipping.
are there any questions? All those in favor,
may I please see a show of hands? All those opposed. Passes seven, zero.
we now move to item 12.1 consideration and approval of teacher contract abandonment.
may I please receive a motion to approve these recommendations?
I have a motion by michelle newsom, a second by bianca benavides anderson.
do you have any questions? Seeing none. All those in favor, please raise your hand.
all of those opposed? Motion passes seven, zero.
item 12.2, consideration of a resolution number
25.09 regarding the vital role of educators and staff in texas. May I please receive a motion to approve these recommendations?
I have a motion by doctor reed,
to have a second, second by courtney wilson. Any questions? Seeing none.
all those in favor, may I please show a hand? >> sorry.
>> [inaudible] just a comment. >> we'll wait on the vote if you go ahead, doctor.
>> yes. I just wanted to make sure we talked about how we got to this version of the resolution.
if you guys bear with me for a second. This initially was a resolution we considered at the last meeting,
and it was directed to the tarrant appraisal district based on their reappraisal plan.
as a reminder of that plan, requires now a reappraisal every two years for tarrant county as opposed to every year.
there's been some discussion. I think we've been talking about this for three meetings now,
and so talking about that plan's potential impact on our funding.
with our cfo with other cfos around north texas,
particularly in tarrant county, there's been some concern about funding loss.
I think with the consideration
from I believe it was the texas association of school business officials.
for mansfield isd, I think it was amounted to maybe in the 10 million plus.
if we think about that, the last time we talked about it, $10 million of a potential loss,
the idea was to try to pass a resolution to
push back against this plan that could bring harm to our district.
if we think about the amount of funding, we think about our special programs,
we think about our choice programs, our highly qualified teachers and staff, we think about the promises we've made to voters in terms of
being able not to raise the tax rate and our bond repayments. All of that was part of the discussion last time.
when that resolution was brought to the board, it didn't pass the board and so it was brought
back to the advocacy committee. I'm on that committee miss. Farrar's on that committee.
doctor reed is on that committee and so we met and we looked at two different versions of
resolutions and one was titled the vital role of educators and staff in texas,
and that focuses on state level funding, increasing the basic allotment for the basic things we need to be able to run a district.
the other focus is on tad. The tarrant appraisal district plan
and the potential harm it could bring to the district. The idea was to bring together those two documents to draw up a compromise of sorts,
and so the resolution we're considering here looks like it mostly focuses on that state level,
and I think it was said that that's probably what the board would end up supporting.
I think in that way, it falls short of showing the community that potential harm.
as fiduciaries, we are to consider the community consider warning others about
any potential harm to come and I know that a $10 million plus shortfall is absolutely a concern for this community.
as is written, all that stated is it says, I believe,
if something were to happen with tad in terms of the values that we would ask them to reconsider.
I just think that I think about the excellent example that
the district had in terms of educating the community about the potential harm of vouchers.
that has not passed yet, but we know about the negative impact of
those because of the effort to educate the community. I think in the way that this is written that doesn't do that, it falls short of that.
I do think it does encourage the legislature to fully fund schools.
we know we're running about, I think several thousand dollars below the national average of the basic allotment,
and I think in that way, we know teachers are vital. I think that states it,
but it's about 90%, 10% that, and so we have to ask as mansfield isd trustees,
if we are trustees of this district and this community and
these students and not trustees of some other agenda. Thanks.
>> any other questions? Yes, doctor reed.
>> I didn't have a question, but I did want to say that I thought
that I was happy that we had gone down to the tad board of directors when we did,
and that was excellent to demonstrate that we did not agree with tad.
but what I wanted to highlight is that I believe tad excluded pivotal people.
they excluded what the cfos,
like miss trongard, who did speak, but excluded the cfos and their expertise and knowledge,
excluded the comptroller's office, excluded our stakeholders, our parents,
our students, our teachers, our staff, educators, and bus drivers, excluded informing
our communities of what this great impact could have on our school system.
what I would like for I am committing myself to doing this.
I'm vested in doing this, making certain that we don't exclude our stakeholders,
that they are aware of the probable impact that could affect our district.
if that's being at pta meetings, letting parents know the huge impact that could happen,
if we are $10-15 million, that's enormous.
I think it's imperative at pta meeting on yesterday evening.
many people did not know in the community. I think it's imperative that we commit ourselves to
informing our communities about the probable impact. We're hopeful that there may not be such an impact.
but in the process, let's make certain that we are providing them with the information and as it is today,
and making them aware that last five years we hadn't received the funding from the state.
let's write our local legislator.
>> let's ask them to fight for us at mansfield isd and the other isds.
let's ask our parents and student council to send letters to the legislator,
to send letters to us to help us to stay focused on our commitment and our stance that we are for public education,
and we want to make certain that we receive the funding and are not heavily impacted like this.
I think it's our responsibility, it's our duty, it's our honor to ensure that our communities are informed about this. Thank you.
>> I guess I'm a little thrown off by some of
the comments that are made because I was sitting in the advocacy meeting with the two of you, and we had a conversation.
we looked at both resolutions. We had someone there taking notes.
when we left that meeting, I was not under any impression that either of
you had any issue with the direction that we were going.
now we come together with a resolution,
this is the first that I'm hearing, and I was sitting in the meeting that there's still concerns with the resolution.
I'm not sure why it's now being discussed when we had ample opportunity to
get this right where we could all come back to the meeting and agree on something,
and so to now sit here and say that this doesn't go far enough when you had
every opportunity to do that in the meeting and you didn't do it. >> I'll respond. In the meeting,
I suggested several of the paragraphs that were part of the tad resolution that talked about the potential harm,
specifically to mansfield isd. I think your response was something like,
if we go after tad, this probably wouldn't pass the board. That's where we left it,
but when we did get the general draft of this resolution, I did send an email and I thought it went to everybody that said,
I don't think this goes far enough, so I'm not sure if that went to everybody. >> that definitely didn't go to me.
we rehashed the conversations that were had in the last board meeting
and the reasoning that the previous resolution didn't pass, so if we came back the following month with pretty much the same basis of a resolution,
I did not see that passing because it didn't pass the previous month.
that's where my comment was about going after tad, is that's exactly what we tried to do last meeting,
and it didn't pass. It failed two to five. In that meeting, I said,
I'm committed to going back to the drawing table to try to come up with an agreeable resolution,
and it was my understanding that that's what we did.
>> I would not describe three paragraphs out of two pages as going after tad,
so maybe that's where we had a misunderstanding. From the few words that I think you suggested,
that's what's in there and so I think nothing beyond that.
>> but you had opportunities to also interject what you wanted to add in there. This wasn't me.
this wasn't keziah writing the resolution, saying, this is all we're adding there. We went around the table and said,
is there anything else? Is this everybody good with this? Did we not?
>> yes, let me respond to that as well. We did go around the table and say, would you like to respond?
you did say that. You did not think it would pass if it had tad.
>> I said if we had a resolution that goes directly attacking tad instead of focusing on the state level,
which is what everyone that voted against the previous resolution stated in the last meeting.
was that we really think our focus needs to be on the state? That's when we went back to the drawing board.
>> yes. I understand and I agree that we do need to focus on the state legislator, but we also,
in my opinion, we need to take a stance against their plan,
which is what I hope we had planned to do. We were going to take a stance against their budget,
but that did not happen, and so what I want to communicate is that we want to.
as a board, want to stand together in support of public education and the funding.
that's two-folding now. From my understand, it wasn't before.
we could have just said, state legislators, please support us, please release the funding,
please vote particular way so that we will receive our funding.
then all of a sudden, then tad decided without the comptroller's office insight,
without our cfos from the isds. This is something separate from the legislators.
I think we should always to talk to them anyway, but we definitely need to talk to them because
we hadn't received the funding in the last five years. Here's the thing, tad said, this is going to happen, so now as a board,
it is my belief that we're all for securing the funding for mansfield isd,
as well as the other boards for the isd. Now I think we need to take a stance to say that we disagree.
we did disagree on that. I think your position was,
do not include their name in the resolution. >> I did not say that.
>> again, I'm not sure where the miscommunication was. I suggested three particular paragraphs from the tad resolution,
and you suggested something different. That's where we ended, and I still shared that.
I think it didn't go far enough, so it may have been a communication issue.
at the end of the day, I think me personally,
it's about 95% of one of the things we talked about and only five of the other.
>> mrs. Wilson. >> I can certainly say
maybe I was under the impression also that we were going to go for the legislature.
I will say that, but really my question is because I did second this motion,
and I want to ask the committee, so do we want this to go through tonight?
I just really want to know or is this something that's going back to the table because now I'm confused.
I don't know what program we are for. >> I'm not confused on our stance.
I think where there is a disagreement is that,
I believe that as a board representing a public isd,
then when tad is saying, we're going to require you to give us this all of a sudden.
I agree with you. We do need to talk to the legislators. But now we also need to say, well, tad,
we disagree with what your stance is. That's all I'm saying.
>> you'll do approve it. I'm just asking so we know. I think the rest of the board,
since that leaves the four of us, which the four of us make the majority, that we would like to know that it
is something that you guys are wanting to push forward or is this something that we're going to vote on or do I need to take away my second.
[overlapping] >> I have a submission. [overlapping] >> I want to pay for it because like you said,
we haven't gotten our funding from the state and not only that pushing down is what's made.
it's so hard on our communities and our schools is the fact that it's starting at the state level.
it's been like that, and we all go at it here locally, but that's where we need to be is at the capital.
>> I'm not disagreeing with you.
>> we always have, yes, but I think it needs to get bigger and better and stronger.
>> yes. >> let me know what we mean at this time. >> I am not disagreeing with you.
I'm simply saying this was brought upon us, and so where do we stand?
are we standing with them? Are we standing firm as with other isds that are saying,
we do not agree with your approach to
requiring us to give you this enormous amount of money from,
I don't know, an imaginable configuration and excluding our cfos,
excluding what, disregarding what, the controllers offices?
I'm not disagreeing with you. Yes, we need to talk with the legislators and continue to call and
write letters and communicate with them. I agree with that.
>> because for me, most in the districts that I've communicated with everybody right now,
that's their focus is to go for the legislature. Because also even in our district,
not everybody's in terry county. I've got a lot of friends in the dallas county areas
and that's even you know that where I work. Right now, everyone's focus is on
the legislature and getting down to austin as soon as possible,
and we've talked about that too, where we want to make it a big group because there's power and numbers instead of
we stay over here at this county and they stay over here at this county and they come down here to this county,
and ultimately, again, we're mad at each other over what the states cost.
let's go for that. I wouldn't have made the second if I didn't want to vote for it.
>> I think it's fine. I think some of what we're trying to say, and I think it's already been said is,
it is fine, absolutely. The state needs to fully fund us,
but nobody else needs to hurt us. It doesn't matter if it's a plan for vouchers,
if it's a reappraisal plan, if it's the federal government doing something.
we are trustees of our district, and so we need to take a stand for them.
in that, this particular resolution doesn't, I think, outline the harm that the reappraisal plan from
the terry appraisal district can cause us based on their plan.
it doesn't mean that it's not a good resolution that does focus on the state and that does say that teachers are vital.
we know that teachers matter in the classroom. In that way, yes, it does say that.
it was supposed to be again, going back to the drawing board to try to do both.
it doesn't do both, but it doesn't mean that it's not doing something.
>> that's what I was saying. We're not saying ms. Farrar that we don't like the resolution.
we're simply saying that we do believe that there were some things that were
left out in this process originally.
from my statement I was saying, I am vested, and I'm hoping the board is vested in making certain
that our communities are informed and not excluded.
I believe, correct me if I'm wrong, that the cfos were excluded from the process,
and I disagree with that because I think that the cfos had been included,
then they would have been able to inform the tad board of the information that's
vital to continue to serve our students and all those persons who care for them,
from the bus drivers to the teachers. That's what I'm saying. I am vested,
I don't want to exclude what this impact could possibly have.
we're hopeful that it will not happen. But that's where the legislators come in.
but in the process, I think we do, as a board for public education,
we have to take a stance and say, we don't agree with having to pay this enormous amount of money,
all of a sudden, whereas we've not had to do that before.
>> well, I and then I'll hop off because I wasn't called on,
I will just say that I do think you all brought to the table what we discussed,
at least in my interpretation that we all talked about wanting to go at the legislature.
that's why I was willing to second it. I just want all to know that from what I gather from the last meeting,
we said, let's hit austin and tomorrow. I was under the impression that you all did a good job with it.
>> all those in favor of it. I'm sorry, I didn't see you. Yes, ma'am. Mrs. Newsom.
>> I think we're all agreeing about very similar things here.
I do want to bring to everyone's attention, who's not reading every line of this resolution that there is a section that says,
whereas if the delay in property appraisal valuations falls outside the 5% maintenance of effort margin and adversely affects misd,
and tarrant county schools due to the loss of state funding, then the board encourages the tarrant county appraisal district board to conduct
a timely appraisal study to ensure tarrant county isds do not lose state funding.
I guess, to me, that speaks to the fact that we're at least bringing
instead of just a resolution about what we're mad about and how we're not getting our way right now,
it's giving them a solution that we're bringing to the table.
that's how I read this. That's how I felt that this was appropriate for that.
we really talked a lot about going after the state where our fundamental issues are.
we as a board, don't have the ability to tell tad what they county can't do.
we don't have any way to say, I don't agree with your budget,
and I'm going to take it away. You don't get to do this to me, that's not in our scope.
I do believe that what we're saying here is this is wrong, this is what we value,
this is what's important to us, and here's some solutions and how we want to be a party to it.
sometimes I think that we have to figure out where we want to be. At the table, I definitely think that we should be
educators and we should be sharing information that we have to the public. That is completely correct,
but sometimes we have to make sure that we are the people sitting at the table.
when it comes time to have those conversations, we do want cfos there. We want to be there.
we want to be in austin, we want to be at tad, we want to be in all of those conversations where it affects our kids here in misd.
we need to make sure that we're always thinking about what that looks like and thinking about it one step further.
I believe that we're bringing a solution to the table here.
>> are we all good? All those in favor
of approving the resolution as written, please raise your hand.
all those opposed? Motion passes seven, zero.
moving on to item 12.3, consideration of resolution number 25-10 waiver remote conferencing, and/or homebound.
may I please receive a motion to approve these recommendations. I have a motion by craig tipping. Do I have a second?
>> second. >> second by courtney wilson. Any questions?
seeing none, all those in favor, please raise your hand. All those opposed?
motion passes seven zero. Let me just to item 13, consent agenda.
let me remind you that we vote the consent agenda up or down unless someone wants to pull an item.
does anyone want to pull an item at this time? All those in favor of approving the consent agenda as presented,
may I please see a show of hands? All those opposed? Motion passes seven zero.
moving to item 14, the superintendent's report. Let me remind you that this is for discussion purposes only.
is there anything listed in the report that they would like to discuss with dr. Cantu at this time?.
that moves us to item 15, adjourned, and we will return this meeting at 8:52 pm.