[0:03] I call this workshop meeting of the Spring Branch Independent School District Board of Trustees, so order. Let the record show that the time is now six o'clock in a quorum of board members' present. This meeting has been duly called, and then noticed for this meeting has been posted in accordance with the Texas Open Meeting Act. Texas Government Code, chapter 551, 041. Dr. Blaine, do you have any opening remarks?

[0:26] I do have just a few short opening remarks, so we have two items on the agenda tonight,

[0:31] reports and discussion. We have a discussion of boundary recommendations and we also are

[0:35] going to discuss the budget. So I want to take a minute to touch on the budget. We've had several

[0:40] budget presentations as you all have known. This one will go a little bit more in depth into each

[0:45] line item and so that you all guys will be able to ask questions, but I just want to make note

[0:49] about the budget and what's looming on the horizon and want everybody to pay very close

[0:54] attention, as I know we all will, as to where we are headed.

[0:58] So we're grateful to the state.

[0:59] We did get many in this legislative session, but we noted there were strings attached to

[1:03] that.

[1:03] So we're grateful to have many for teacher raises.

[1:07] We always have always helpful, and there were some funds added for safety and security.

[1:12] Although those funds added, do not mirror cover all the cost that it takes to put an officer

[1:16] on every campus and provide all the things that we know that the chief is required to do for

[1:21] our school district.

[1:23] If you are at your house, you know, your utility bills are getting higher.

[1:27] If you happen to have a diesel car in your driveway, you know how much it costs to fill

[1:33] that up.

[1:34] So we have buses to fill up cars, so my point is the fixed costs.

[1:38] So like the gasoline that it takes to operate buses in the white fleet are maintenance costs.

[1:44] Our utilities, if you've listened to the city and how high the water bills are going.

[1:48] all of those things are beyond our control and those things will continue to rise and so as you

[1:55] listen to Miss Porter talk about the budget this evening and the situation that we find ourselves

[2:01] in along with our colleagues across the state and the deficit remember that 87% of our budget is

[2:09] personnel cost salaries and just about the rest of it sits in your fixed cost so there's very little

[2:18] and very little wiggle room left with what you have remaining in that budget so just wanted to set the stage for that as we think about budget and we think about that conversation.

[2:32] Thank you Dr. Blaine. The first item is public comment on agenda items.

[2:36] At board meetings, public comment time is set aside for individuals who wish to address the board.

[2:41] During special meetings workshops and retreats, comments regarding agenda items while regular meetings individuals can comment on both agenda and non-agenda items.

[2:53] Individuals who wish to participate during the portion of the meeting designated for public comment shall sign up by completing the appropriate form on the district website by submitting the form in person at the administration building or by sending an email with the district form as an attachment to the email address listed on the form.

[3:09] Public comment forms must be received no later than 12 p.m. noon on the day of the meeting and shall indicate the agenda item or topic on which they would like to address with the board.

[3:19] The length of public comment shall be at the discretion of the board president not to exceed four minutes.

[3:24] We will do three minutes today because individual rights are protected by various laws and board policies.

[3:30] Complaints regarding specific employees or students should be directed to the administration.

[3:34] If a person makes complaints about a specific employee or student during public comment,

[3:39] the board president has the discretion to move the board into closed session to hear such complaints.

[3:45] If anyone makes a complaint about a specific employee by name or by job title, the board may hold the public comment until the end of public comments and hear all such complaints individually in closed session.

[3:56] Under the law, the board cannot deliberate, discuss, or make a decision on any subject that is not on the agenda.

[4:02] So, as a general matter, the board does not respond to questions at public comment.

[4:06] Specific factual information or review of existing policy, however, may were legally

[4:11] allowed be provided in response to inquiries or questions.

[4:15] At this time, we will begin public comment, and our first speaker is Katherine Isherhol.

[4:29] Good evening, Dr. Blaine and Trustees.

[4:30] I'm Katherine Arcadee, Ister Holden, I reside at 5.10 Hally Drive.

[4:34] I'm here to address agenda topic 3A.

[4:36] I respectfully request that the trustees choose to not rezone a portion of bunker hill

[4:41] elementary to frostwood beginning with the 26th, 27th school year as was presented at

[4:46] the March 23rd beating.

[4:48] Simply swapping enrollment totals from bunker-held of frostwood does not address enrollment

[4:52] and capacity issues across the district.

[4:55] It simply transfers those issues from one school to another.

[4:58] Moving 55 students over from bunker-held of frostwood puts frostwood at a projected 18 students

[5:04] over its 750 student instructional capacity.

[5:08] The 2526 school year is the first year since the 2020-2021 school year where Froswit has

[5:13] been under instructional capacity.

[5:16] Froswit is no stranger to the challenges that enrollment exceeding instructional capacity

[5:20] can bring.

[5:21] Over the course of the last few years, we've used Froswit community-based funds to pay for

[5:25] supplemental staff, such as counselors and paras among other positions.

[5:29] We've repurposed our existing spaces like multi-purpose rooms to accommodate each school

[5:33] year's enrollment needs.

[5:35] These constant decisions allow for us to successfully navigate enrollment that exceeds

[5:39] instructional capacity over the majority of the last six school years.

[5:44] Following the presentation made during the March 23 meeting regarding rezoning, I respectfully

[5:48] asked the trustees to consider it if the following are thoroughly vetted during the research

[5:52] process.

[5:53] One, is each school visited to determine which spaces in that school are available to be repurposed

[5:58] to accommodate a temporary influx in enrollment totals.

[6:02] Two, how doographers determine incoming

[6:04] Kinder students is accurately as possible?

[6:07] As someone who attended a non-SBISD preschool,

[6:09] I can attest that we were not given information

[6:11] to enroll in SBISD for kindergarten,

[6:14] but had to rely on word of mouth or neighborhood

[6:16] social media channels.

[6:18] Three, when statements are made that no additional buses

[6:20] would be needed to be added in a rezoning proposals,

[6:23] do demographers verify with the transportation department

[6:26] And exactly how many students on each bus are serving as school.

[6:30] For example, many of the buses at service-rossway are almost a capacity.

[6:34] The March 23rd, rezoning plan stated there would be no changes to middle school or high school,

[6:39] just a change in elementary school.

[6:41] The presented plan does nothing to address.

[6:43] The fact that Memorial Middle is one of the most crowded schools in our district.

[6:47] rezoning should be done with the entirety of a student's kindergarten through 12th education

[6:50] in mind, rather than solely addressing a temporary influx in enrollment at one school for

[6:55] school year. We know that district is working with limited funds, which may be further decreased

[7:00] with upcoming years given the recently implemented school voucher program. As such, every effort

[7:06] needs to be made that all costs associated with rezoning such as staffing needs, transportation,

[7:11] and others are calculated as accurately as possible to see if rezoning is physically responsible.

[7:17] In light of the foregoing, I respectfully request that the Board of Trustees pass on rezoning

[7:21] portion of bunker hill to frostwood for the 2026-2027 school year.

[7:25] Thank you for your consideration of the request.

[7:28] Thank you.

[7:29] All right.

[7:30] Next speaker is Kate champion.

[7:42] Good evening Board of Trustees. My name is Kate champion, and I live in the frostwood zone. Thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight. I respectfully urge the Board not to resume students from bunker hill elementary to frostwood elementary, with fewer than 30 instructional days left in this school year. My main concern is capacity, specifically instructional capacity, not building occupants.

[8:09] We have heard that Frostwood's capacity is 950 students, but that number is the building's maximum occupancy.

[8:19] Not how many students the school can effectively educate.

[8:24] The district has, I believe, but would look to you all, confirmed the Frostwood's instructional capacity is 750 students

[8:33] after accounting for special education programming and other required services.

[8:38] This difference matters.

[8:40] The district's enrollment data shows

[8:42] broadswood often exceeds its instructional capacity.

[8:46] Over the last 10 years, average enrollment is about 767 students.

[8:52] Already above that capacity.

[8:55] Over the last 5 years, the average is about 795 students.

[9:00] over nearly 50 with enrollment peaking at 839 students.

[9:07] During these high enrollment years,

[9:09] Frostwood families raised funds for teaching aids

[9:11] and the school repurposed multi-purpose rooms as classrooms.

[9:16] One of which is still used as a classroom today.

[9:20] Even this year, our low enrollment is only 15 students

[9:25] below instructional capacity.

[9:27] This year is only one data point after nearly a decade of consistently being at or above instructional capacity.

[9:37] One or even two lower enrollment years do not show a clear trend.

[9:42] Resoning 55 plus students based on limited data would depart from the practices and the long range planning the sport is known for.

[9:51] Resoning has lasting effects on students, families, and campuses, and should be based on sustained trends,

[9:59] not short-term fluctuations, which could set a concerning precedent going forward.

[10:06] Lastly, this rezoning would introduce a new feeder pattern to Frostwood that has not been present before.

[10:12] For these reasons, I asked the Board to pause this proposal,

[10:17] evaluate capacity using instructional capacity,

[10:21] not the legal occupancy of the building.

[10:24] Consider aligning feeder patterns and consider long-term solutions

[10:28] that protect educational quality for all students.

[10:32] Thank you.

[10:37] Our next speaker is Jamie Matthews.

[11:00] My name is Jamie Matthews and I live in Williamsburg Lane.

[11:03] I'm here to also talk about topic 3A.

[11:06] When the district first introduced boundary proposals at its November 3rd meeting, it confirmed

[11:10] Bucker Hill is the only elementary school in the district that is over enrolled.

[11:14] Current enrollment is 783 students.

[11:17] Capacity confirmed that that meeting was 753 students.

[11:21] Bucker Hill raised concerns then that the initial plan did not meaningfully address the capacity

[11:24] issues.

[11:25] We urge the district to develop a plan that would make a quicker and larger impact.

[11:29] The current proposal does just that.

[11:31] This is important today because Bunker Hill is not only over capacity now, but the district's

[11:37] data predicts that it will remain so for the next decade.

[11:40] So, how do we get here when the new school opened just four years ago?

[11:43] Historical enrollment numbers tell us that Bunker Hill has steadily increased in students from

[11:47] 630 and 2019 to 783 today.

[11:51] There's an obvious explanation for this growth.

[11:53] Our boundaries include the I-10 corridor and its many new multi-family developments that have

[11:58] added numerous wonderful families to our community.

[12:01] Our community understood this trend when the school was built, and it pleaded for a larger school.

[12:05] But those pleas were disregarded then, and we now have a four-year-old building that cannot contain our enrollment.

[12:10] Much less accommodate our expected growth.

[12:13] The district prides itself for not often changing school boundaries.

[12:16] I respect that it takes these decisions seriously and knows that those decisions have lasting impacts on students and families.

[12:22] But so does not make changes when they are needed.

[12:25] We are out of creative solutions that we can do at the school level.

[12:27] It's now time for the district and the sport to meaningfully address Bunker Hill's capacity issues.

[12:33] Addressing the issue through the current proposals should not be controversial if one understands of circumstances at those schools.

[12:39] I was surprised with the last meeting when the district presentation emitted critical data such as available capacity, classroom numbers and predicted future enrollments.

[12:47] Had the district discuss that data, it could have explained the urgency of addressing

[12:51] bunker health capacity, while also a suasion concerns that this proposal was rushed and

[12:56] didn't take into account historical trends or projected enrollments.

[13:00] It could have explained that Frostwood's capacity is 950 as it is stated of student capacity

[13:04] on the bond documents.

[13:06] Or that Frostwood has room for 200 more students than they have today.

[13:10] Much more than the 55 us in need to be resumed.

[13:13] Or that even when the school had higher enrollment numbers in 23 and 24 that it still

[13:18] had room for 100 additional students with multiple classrooms available for growth.

[13:23] It could have stated that it's proposal was not a response to one low kindergarten class,

[13:28] but a small class that will be at school for the next five years, which tracks the demographers

[13:32] projections that there will be meaningfully declined enrollment at that school for the next five years.

[13:38] It could have pointed out that Bunker Hill is expected to be over capacity for 10 years that we don't have a single room that can be converted into a classroom because we've already filled all of our flex space.

[13:49] In November, Dr. Blincated that with respect to boundary changes, they try to be efficient with our resources and do what makes sense for the system.

[13:56] This proposal does that.

[13:58] Thank you.

[14:01] Thank you.

[14:02] Our next secret is Moira Lail.

[14:04] Good

[14:12] evening. My name is Moira Lail. I live on Duchess Court and I have students at Memorial

[14:16] Middle School in Bunker Health. I'm speaking also on agenda item 3a. I'm here to speak

[14:22] in support of the district's proposed boundary recommendation to adjust a boundary that

[14:25] will result in 55 students being resound from Bunker Health to Frostwood. My support is based

[14:31] on the size of the schools and the number of students who can be taught in actual classrooms

[14:35] at each school. According to the building plans that were approved by the Board of Trustees during

[14:40] of 2007 and the 2017 bond projects.

[14:44] I first won the acknowledge that we are very lucky.

[14:47] Just over a mile apart, there are two A-rated schools

[14:49] with beautiful buildings, fantastic teachers

[14:52] and administrators, which are available

[14:54] to serve all the children in our community.

[14:57] However, I would like to mention

[14:58] that Frostwood and Bunker Hills Kim.

[15:00] campuses were designed and utilized space differently, and each can accommodate a dramatically different number of students.

[15:06] Not going to talk about capacity, and we're going to talk about classrooms.

[15:09] Bunker Hill was built for 750 students with only 33 classrooms with 22 students in each

[15:17] of those 33 classrooms that equates to 726 students.

[15:21] When 3 units of special education students are added, Bunker Hill is at 742 and reaches

[15:28] just about that 715 number that the school was built for.

[15:32] Despite only having 33 classrooms, Bunker Hill has 35 units of K-35 classes, so two units

[15:39] don't have a classroom. To accommodate this, the fifth grade class is being taught in the only

[15:44] one collaboration room we have in the entire building and the first grade class is being taught

[15:49] in a music room. This leads bunker hell without any collaboration rooms without adequate

[15:54] teacher planning spaces and with only one music room. Music is currently taught in a special

[15:59] education room and the displaced special education students are receiving resource intervention

[16:04] and various places around the school, including a book storage room, hallways, and open spaces

[16:10] in the library.

[16:12] A bunker hill we are now exploring, putting up dividers in open spaces in the hallways and

[16:17] the library to cobble together instructional spaces for our students.

[16:21] While bunker health campuses want awards for architecture, there simply are not enough rooms

[16:26] to accommodate the growing number of students.

[16:29] Frostwood's approved building design includes 36 regular classrooms with 22 students in each classroom that equates to space for 792 students that can be taught in classrooms today.

[16:43] According to the bond approved building plans, Frostwood also has five collaboration rooms, three of which are full size classrooms.

[16:49] So, with 39 classrooms, with 22 students in each, no class over their capacity, that equates to 858 students who could be taught in regular-sized classrooms.

[17:00] I'm running out of room, but I'd like to say, as I urge you, to approve this proposal that will provide much needed relief to bunker hill,

[17:07] and will not create a burden for frostwood due to the number of classrooms they have.

[17:11] I'd also urge you to discuss an explanation of education.

[17:19] Thank you.

[17:21] Our next speaker is Jenna Gibbons.

[17:31] Hi, my name is Jenna Gibbons and I live on Call of Sone Drive.

[17:35] I'm here to speak on topic 3A and express my support for this proposal.

[17:39] Since the 2019-2020 school year, Bunger Hill has grown by an average of 25 students per year.

[17:46] This growth is not surprising given the area our boundary serves.

[17:49] We have seen significant development along the I-10 corridor, both residential and commercial, including remodeling and construction of 12 multi-family developments, a hundred percent of those zone to VHE, with an additional development plan, this enrollment trend is not going to slow down.

[18:07] I grew up in this community and attended SBIC schools myself. I now have four children with my oldest currently in kindergarten.

[18:14] I should have another 10 years at BHE, but given the ongoing capacity challenges and no clear

[18:20] and insight, I cannot confidently say this is the best option for my family anymore.

[18:25] I'm also here in the same concerns about large class sizes for other families as well.

[18:29] It's difficult to accept this situation knowing there is available space that other schools bordering our zone.

[18:36] Hoping that enrollment simply balances the self out is not a strategy.

[18:39] We need a thoughtful proactive plan and I believe this proposal is exactly that.

[18:44] It is a strong and practical solution.

[18:46] This proposal addresses the issue in a way that can impact enrollment much faster than

[18:51] the previous proposal.

[18:52] It focuses on an area within the BHZone that has both higher student yield and higher mobility.

[18:59] When grandfathering is allowed, as I fully support that being an option, the most effective

[19:04] way to achieve near-term enrollment relief is to focus on areas where new families are

[19:09] moving in most frequently.

[19:12] These developments have higher mobility rates, and this should be a key factor if not the most

[19:17] important factor to focus on with coming up with solutions to alleviate our capacity issue

[19:22] in the short-term and long-term, and this proposal does exactly that.

[19:26] It also resounds students to school that has the capacity to absorb additional enrollment

[19:30] without creating new overcrowding issues.

[19:33] I'd also like to remind the board that in 2024, nodding him elementary faces similar capacity issue.

[19:40] Like BHE, it opened its brand new campus and was already at capacity.

[19:44] The board acted quickly, approving a rezoning plan in March of that same year.

[19:50] This focused on an area with higher mobility, multi-family development, re-assigning approximately 66 students.

[19:57] As a result, nottingham saw enrollment relief this year, which is the first year the proposal went into effect, and they are now below capacity.

[20:06] This is real local data within the same district showing that this type of rezoning works.

[20:12] We have the same need here, and we have a solution in front of us.

[20:15] If you are on the fence about this proposal, I implore you to visit Bunkerhill and visit the neighboring schools, compare the space of each

[20:23] At each campus, along with a number of students in each classroom, I'm confident and will quickly become clear to you that Bunger Hill does not have the capacity to

[20:36] Thank you. Our next speaker is Jennifer Dordy.

[20:51] I'm Jennifer Dordy, and I reside on South Durett, and I'm also here to speak on agenda topic 3A.

[20:57] I'm honored and privileged to raise children in Spring Branch, I see as I'm a proud graduate of Nonningham Elementary, Spring Forest Middle School, and Stafford High School.

[21:07] Midway through my time at Naughtingham, a boundary change

[21:10] resumed my sister and me from Naughtingham to MetaWid.

[21:13] My parents ultimately decided to keep my sister and me at Naughtingham,

[21:17] and we were grandfathered in.

[21:19] The remainder of our time at Naughtingham felt unsettled,

[21:22] kind of like we had a foot into different communities.

[21:26] Because even when boundary changes are thoughtfully considered,

[21:30] carefully planned and well executed,

[21:33] they still disrupt the lives of children,

[21:35] impact families and can fracture school communities, which is why I urge you to please

[21:41] not rush this decision. We have only 29 instructional days remaining in our

[21:46] school year, and when decisions of this magnitude are made under a time crunch,

[21:51] the risk of unintended consequences only increases. In November the

[21:56] conversation center around shifting students out of frostwood and now just a few

[22:01] months later we're talking about shifting students into Frostwood and this kind of reversal

[22:07] without transparent communication makes it incredibly difficult for families and school leaders

[22:12] to plan or feel confident in what's ahead. I would encourage you to pull back and take a broader

[22:20] more strategic view, looking across our region from Rommel Creek Elementary School to Memorial

[22:25] drive elementary school and first prioritize solutions that

[22:30] String thin feeder patterns from kindergarten through 12th grade. And second, let's focus on long-term

[22:37] sustainable outcomes rather than short-term one-year fixes. Let's not solve one school's challenges

[22:44] by shifting them on to another. Moving 55 students from Punker Hill to Frasward may relieve pressure in one

[22:51] but it risks recreating overcrowding at frostwood.

[22:56] Something we experienced as recently as 2022,

[23:01] 2023 and 2024, with our enrollment in the 800s,

[23:06] but an instructional capacity of 750.

[23:10] I recognize this is complex work.

[23:12] I appreciate all the time and effort you are dedicating to it.

[23:16] I humbly ask that it be done with transparency,

[23:18] see, intention, and the time our community deserves.

[23:22] Thank you also much.

[23:24] Thank you.

[23:25] Our next speaker is Sean Gambini.

[23:37] Thank you for allowing me to speak my name is Sean Gambini.

[23:40] My family lives in Springshadows.

[23:42] I am speaking on agenda item 3B.

[23:44] First I would like to ask the board

[23:46] how many other high schools have lost sponsors

[23:47] for athletic activities due to the budget cuts for next year.

[23:51] My guess is none of them.

[23:52] Well we did at our school and we lost one last year too.

[23:55] This past summer and June we enrolled our daughter on the north side. I had to move mountains to even locate the chair coach over the summer because nobody at the school even knew who she was because last year their chair sponsor was removed as well.

[24:07] I had to resort to messaging the coach on TikTok to try to get my daughter on the team because all of the information I was given was wrong.

[24:14] I will not speak on the events surrounding last year's chair coach, but I can't speak on the disappointment I have after all of the work I have done to support this year's chair coach.

[24:22] Our coach took this job at the end of last year alone.

[24:25] She started from zero and had to completely rebuild the morale of the team and the parents

[24:29] because of the loss of last year's coach.

[24:31] That's what happens when there's no continuity in a program.

[24:35] unnecessary conflict.

[24:36] It took months to recover from this which set us behind for the entire year.

[24:40] Last week we found out that our current coach's teaching position was eliminated.

[24:44] I was assured by a qualified person that this had nothing to do with the coach but was

[24:47] because of the budget cuts.

[24:49] I have been assured we will have a replacement and even an assistant chair coach this next year.

[24:53] But my question is if we didn't have the money to keep the one we have, how are we going to afford a new sponsor and an assistant?

[24:59] Before school began at our first chair meeting last year, I reluctantly accepted becoming the chair parent liaison.

[25:05] And I have done the best I can with this position, hours and hours of work to raise money for the girls and help our coach with no assistance.

[25:12] And when we didn't have the money we needed, I paid for it myself.

[25:15] How do you expect us to make a difference in these kids lives from nothing?

[25:18] When I look at the photos of the other schools, I see money, and I see people that

[25:22] and decision-makers that care about them.

[25:24] Well, what about us?

[25:25] Do we not pay high taxes on this side of the freeway so that our kids should have the same opportunities as those kids on the other side?

[25:31] The disparity in treatment is disgusting.

[25:34] We reused your uniforms that were so faded, they looked gray instead of black.

[25:38] These are children that deserve the same opportunities as all the others to thrive.

[25:42] You want to know why enrollment is down?

[25:44] I can tell you, it's because the new people moving into this community don't want their kids

[25:48] going to the north side schools because they don't have the proper support they deserve.

[25:52] The bond pass around the sports facilities, but what about the cheerleaders that support the sports?

[25:57] Because this school district's adults couldn't balance a budget, we are now losing the scraps that we've had and starting over again.

[26:03] Our school population is obviously much lower on the socioeconomic scale, but I refuse to let these kids be invisible.

[26:08] You want to be leaders of this district and do something and fix these budget problems in a way that doesn't affect our kids.

[26:15] My kid.

[26:16] Over the summer our kids attended chair camp and during the event they didn't even have ace bandages when our one of our kids was injured.

[26:22] I had to drive to college station to get them some.

[26:25] Now with this decision to eliminate our existing coach due to budget shortfalls,

[26:29] we may not even have a qualified coach to make sure our kids have a safe or even have a chair team next year.

[26:34] Without a qualified replacement, my fear is I have been promised more empty promises.

[26:42] Thank you.

[26:46] Our last speaker is Laura Pruitt.

[27:05] My name is Laura Pruitt.

[27:07] I live on 1, 2, 1, 1, 0, Perthure.

[27:10] I'm speaking on item 3A regarding the Bunker Hill Boundary recommendations.

[27:14] I have three children at Bunker Hill and a fourth in Pre-K.

[27:18] And I support the boards proposed boundary changes.

[27:22] Six years ago, during the planning phases of building our new school,

[27:25] The PTA, neighborhood committees, and teachers voiced our concerns that the plan building was not big enough.

[27:32] Multiple parties advocated for more classrooms. We were not heard.

[27:37] We were told again and again that this plan would afford our growing student body the space it needed.

[27:43] Unfortunately, here we are, less than four years after our new school opened its doors and we are over capacity with projections for the next decade to continue to be over capacity.

[27:53] Our concerns were not addressed six years ago, and we are overcrowded just as we feared.

[27:59] We come to you again asking to be heard.

[28:02] While the size of bunker hill has fallen short in meeting our students' needs,

[28:06] the size of frostwood far exceeds the current and projected need for their student body.

[28:11] The silver lining is that the solution is simple.

[28:14] There is, in fact, space in another new building at a wonderful school, only a mile away from bunker hill,

[28:20] that has more than enough space to accommodate the over abundance of students at Bunker Hill.

[28:28] Bunker Hill has only 33 classrooms for 783 children while Frostwood has six more full-size classrooms for only 733.

[28:38] We are squeezing our K-35 classes into our music room, special education rooms, instructional special rooms, we have no extra space.

[28:47] In our January bond meeting, Bob Templeton noted with a strong level of confidence, including

[28:51] the new high-rise plan for Memorial City, it is likely that the Bunker Hill student body

[28:56] grows to 830 and the next 3-4 years.

[29:00] This is happening quickly.

[29:01] It is important to change things now.

[29:04] Over the next decade, Frostwood's population will remain well below their capacity.

[29:10] Even with the luxurious addition of pre-K for next year, Frostwood's enrollment is projected

[29:15] to be only 713, and a school designed for 900.

[29:20] Frostwood has unused space, meanwhile, bunker hill is making plans for setting up dividers

[29:25] in our library and hallways for instructional space.

[29:30] Bunker Hill currently has 12 high-rise multi-family apartment buildings with more on the

[29:34] way.

[29:35] This many high-capacity dwellings is certainly a contributing factor in bunker hill's rise

[29:39] in student population, while other schools and SPIC in general has seen declining enrollment.

[29:44] Resoning, just four of these buildings to Frostwood is a more equitable distribution of multi-family dwellings.

[29:52] Appartment buildings have significantly higher mobility rates than single-family homes.

[29:56] A more equitable distribution of large apartment buildings across multiple...

[30:00] Multiple schools will better enable our SB ISD elementary schools to absorb the changes and enrollments.

[30:13] Thank you. The next item on the agenda is a discussion of the fiscal year 2027 budget.

[30:21] Sorry, guys, we got to have the discussion.

[30:24] The next item on the agenda is a discussion of the boundary recommendations, beginning with the 2026-2027 school year.

[30:32] So we've heard lots of impassioned please and there's not a person that has stood up tonight that has I had a great point.

[30:38] So thank you for coming and for saying what you needed to say and I want you to know that we take what you have to say to heart.

[30:46] As y'all know we've had a myriad of different scenarios over the course of the past couple of months and this is an easy solution.

[30:54] I think you heard one person say this is complex work and I wrote it down beside that it's a really good way to put this.

[31:00] But as we peel, peel back the layers, and we look district-wide and

[31:05] systemically, you all know, and we've talked about how we have schools that are

[31:09] growing, we have schools that are flat, and we have schools that are declining,

[31:14] and we have everything in between. Because we're land-locked, you guys know,

[31:19] our enrollment tends to Evan Flow and our schools, and we've seen that over time.

[31:23] But we definitely have schools that have continued to increase over time.

[31:27] When you couple this information and you look on the horizon specifically the impact of

[31:31] vouchers, we're not really sure how that's going to impact us.

[31:37] We've had, you could see it either way.

[31:40] You really just don't know.

[31:41] It's just really an unknown, but we know that it will impact us somehow.

[31:44] We're just not sure.

[31:46] So we're watching that and we're watching our enrollment from month to month change.

[31:51] Evan Flow, which is what we've always done.

[31:53] I've been here 25 years.

[31:54] I run an elementary school and I've seen enrollment go from 650 to 400 back up to 500 back up to 600 and back down again.

[32:02] This is what it does.

[32:06] So we know that this is a much larger systemic issue.

[32:09] We've talked about middle schools.

[32:11] We've talked about we have middle schools that are really crowded.

[32:13] We have middle schools that are under enrolled.

[32:15] So to all of these parents points, this is a large systemic puzzle that we have to piece together.

[32:21] And when we look at the growing number, as you all know, a special education,

[32:26] self-contained units, we've gone from, I believe, in 2021, I looked up the other day,

[32:32] 48, to, I believe we're sitting at 68 right now in counting.

[32:37] And so when you think about the specialized classrooms, you have not 24 kids in a room,

[32:43] you may have five to nine, depending on the unit, and then another several adults that are in there.

[32:49] And that plays into the situation because those kids need a place to be, and in some instances,

[32:55] those kids may be all zoned with a particular school.

[32:58] So my point is this is a lot bigger problem to solve and situation to deal with than just

[33:04] a small tweak of a boundary, which is really where we were originally.

[33:08] We also have gentrification in parts of our district, and that is playing into a lot of the declining

[33:15] enrollment in places where you see fewer multi-family dwellings that and you see more single

[33:21] family homes coming online which net fewer kids. All of that to say that this is not an easy

[33:28] problem to solve and I know that you all know that and we've talked about it. So my recommendation

[33:34] to you at this time and this is not going to make everybody happy but it is my recommendation is that

[33:39] we hold on making any adjustments at this time and we continue to watch the trend.

[33:45] And so I'm going to put that right there. You guys are happy to answer questions. Staff is happy to answer questions, but this just isn't something that we can.

[33:54] I don't feel comfortable solving with a move because I don't think it really solves the bigger issue.

[34:00] I think this requires further study.

[34:09] I'll jump in if I might.

[34:12] And I appreciate your explanation and your consideration of these issues, but I know one of the things is we've been presented information.

[34:20] And we've also heard from the community one of the things that I'm saying is there's an uncertainty about the demographers information and such a time as this which is something that I would like us maybe to be able to see if we can get some additional support or explanation from the demographers.

[34:44] But I'm also confused by all of the different numbers they get tossed around about the capacity of a school.

[34:53] And I understand the difference between instructional capacity and building occupancy.

[34:58] But is there a way that we could so that we can all be on a like page when we have discussions about this in the future to get something from

[35:09] on each of the campuses with regard to what we're counting is instructional capacity.

[35:15] And I think that would just help, because again, we, you know, even tonight, we heard

[35:19] the difference between Frostwood with a great deal of capacity and Frostwood with no capacity.

[35:25] So, that would be helpful.

[35:27] Yeah.

[35:27] And without getting too into it, because you could go down a rabbit hole with all these numbers.

[35:31] But the bottom line is we build three, three sizes, and I'm going to ask Travis, you please

[35:36] pipe in, but I think I'm going to explain this pretty well.

[35:38] We build small medium and large campuses, you have 5.50, 6.50 and 7.50, that's how we, and we can categorize every campus we have into those three categories, that does not necessarily mean that more students can't fit or less students might be there.

[35:55] So that's where you have to look at the programs and its entirety. So let me give you an example.

[36:01] Hunter's Creek, I believe, and Dr. Wolf correct me if I'm wrong, Hunter's Creek has built to 750.

[36:08] But they have five, I do believe, four, four specialized units on their campus.

[36:13] So you've taken four classrooms offline that would ordinarily hold 24 students a piece.

[36:20] And you have, I don't have the numbers and all of those units, but it could be anywhere from five.

[36:25] We never have more than 10 and 10 is way too many.

[36:27] And you don't like that, but you usually have anywhere from five to seven

[36:29] with several adults, depending on the needs of the kids.

[36:33] So you can say 100 screen holds 750, but it doesn't right now.

[36:38] It doesn't right now.

[36:39] And they also have some flex space where we could have some swing

[36:42] space in their classrooms.

[36:44] I will also submit to give you a second example.

[36:47] Edgewood Elementary.

[36:49] They are built to 750, I do believe, 750, correct?

[36:53] I remember this from the 20s, 2007, bond.

[36:55] Edgewood is built 750, and they have what anybody, and that's an area where we have declining enrollment.

[37:02] Would anybody like to think about how many units, specialized units they have on their campus?

[37:09] I don't know if they just...

[37:10] I'll answer it for you.

[37:12] It's Annie 7 or 8.

[37:14] It's a very large number.

[37:16] And the reason for that, as you can imagine, is because they have the space to do so.

[37:21] And so, and so, when you look at that campus, you take, I'm going to say seven.

[37:27] It's, you know, Dr. Wolf, it's quite a number.

[37:29] You take those.

[37:30] Can't you take those classrooms offline? They would normally have 24 kids, but they don't. Because they have a unit, they may have five to seven kids. So when we start talking about capacities and you heard parents and you heard people talk about instructional capacity, the instructional capacity can fluctuate depending on the programs on the campus.

[37:49] But when you talk about the capacity as a whole, you're talking about so in an architect looks at capacity.

[37:56] They're looking at the cafeteria space because there's kids normally in the cafeteria space, right?

[38:01] We're talking about the music room.

[38:03] We're talking about the gym.

[38:04] We're talking about the art room.

[38:06] Those all count to the capacity.

[38:09] But we don't have 24 kids sitting in there in a home room.

[38:12] But that doesn't mean the space doesn't count towards the capacity.

[38:15] So it does get very confusing.

[38:17] And unless you deal in these numbers every day, like I did for six years, and I even had to

[38:22] re-educate myself because I haven't talked about it in a long time, but there's just

[38:26] there the capacity can fluctuate.

[38:28] And so yes, we can get that for you, but I will tell you, one year, a campus's capacity,

[38:34] Hunter's Creek's capacity could be 600 right now, and I'm at please don't write that down.

[38:40] I'm just saying a number based on the units that they have, if we pull to units from

[38:45] that campus what happens to the capacity, it goes up, okay, so it depends. So the number

[38:50] I might give you now, might look different than the number that you have next school year

[38:56] depending on where those units get shifted. We also have to look at where those kids live.

[39:01] So for example, you may have an Apple unit at a campus and all seven of the kids are

[39:09] down to that campus or six of the seven or zone to that campus.

[39:13] So it becomes challenging as a leader to tell a parent,

[39:16] all every single one of your kids is zone to your school,

[39:19] but we're going to make you go over here to school

[39:23] because they have more space.

[39:25] So you have to think about the least restrictive environment.

[39:28] You have to think about all of those things that are incumbent,

[39:31] especially when you're working with kids,

[39:33] IEPs and special education.

[39:35] So that's just a piece of the puzzle,

[39:37] although we're talking a lot about special units, but I could go on and give you, I could

[39:41] talk all night about this.

[39:42] But the bottom line is to get a number that sticks all of the time is not going to happen

[39:47] because it fluctuates.

[39:48] But what I can tell you is that when we build campuses in spring, we build small, medium,

[39:54] and large.

[39:57] Okay, so I mean, I'm looking at the Zonda demographics study and the capacity numbers that

[40:04] they give on there, then are potentially misleading to the community.

[40:09] Because when I look at Rumble Creek, it says the capacity is 835.

[40:13] When I look at Frostwood, it says 894.

[40:17] When I look at Bunker Hill, it says 753.

[40:20] You know, and according to what we're just discussing,

[40:23] it's going to be 55650 or 750.

[40:27] So maybe this presentation that was given by the Demographer, excuse me,

[40:33] was misleading to some of these families and led them down the wrong trail and I think

[40:37] unfortunately that's creating a big part of this issue that we're dealing with right now.

[40:43] I'm glad you brought that. So let's talk about that for a second because you also heard

[40:47] about the size of the building and I know that's not really what we're here to talk about but I

[40:50] want to address that because when you're building a facility and again I don't mean to get into

[40:54] your area but I ran it for six years so I think I can we dealt with this all the time you know

[40:59] And when you look at Frostwood, it sits on the corner of Memorial and Guestner.

[41:03] It is a huge piece of land for which you have to build.

[41:08] Collaborative spaces are something that we value in our build, as you all know, in our teachers

[41:12] use them all the time.

[41:14] In some campuses that are larger in terms of the land they were able to build on, those collaborative

[41:22] spaces can be turned into classrooms if you have to, but that is not the design or the

[41:29] purpose of them. Okay, let's mirror that to like a bunker hill or a rumble creek. I'm trying to think of my head, the designs of the buildings, but you hear the parents talking about what we said we needed more space, but let's talk about that because when that PAT met and we talked about it at the Bond oversight committee, the lands you have to build bunker hill on is not that big. If you're going to keep.

[41:59] your play field, which was something that the P.A.T. said they wanted, and their lovely

[42:05] playground, which we would never want to take.

[42:08] So when you take offline that space, you only have so much room to build a facility, and

[42:13] you can't go up more than two levels.

[42:16] I would never feel comfortable building a three-story elementary campus nor with the village

[42:20] is allowed.

[42:21] And each jurisdiction of authority is going to require certain amount of parking,

[42:29] or

[42:29] drop-offs, off the streets, and then on to our site.

[42:33] So there are-

[42:33] All that takes up site.

[42:35] It all takes up.

[42:36] So you can't always build the building bigger.

[42:41] And so when you look at the collaborative spaces in those campuses,

[42:44] they have them.

[42:46] But they look more like an oversight.

[42:48] You've been in there more like an oversized hallway, where there's places,

[42:51] where kids can sit, and they can work in groups.

[42:54] But it's not a huge space where you could put a large number of children.

[42:57] So, unfortunately, we're just dealing with different, different sizes of, like, all of that factors into this, and I know that it's not helpful when you're not getting the decision that you want, but I'm just trying to be very honest with you all about all of the factors that go into building into capacity, how that's figured, and everything that we have to take into consideration when we're making these types of decisions.

[43:20] So that's a great question, and I'm just, and I think that if we're going to move forward with more discussions about how we handle the situation,

[43:27] And we're going to have to have actual numbers.

[43:30] We cannot continue forward with the numbers

[43:31] that we're given in this demographer study,

[43:34] because they're not reflecting the actual numbers

[43:37] that we can have on the campus.

[43:38] And I understand there's the fluctuations.

[43:40] I understand the sped classrooms and all of that.

[43:42] But I think when I look at that, and I see 894,

[43:48] I mean, that looks like a lot of room left in there.

[43:52] And so we need to get more realistic

[43:54] So that we know what we're actually dealing with.

[43:58] Well, and if the projections are correct,

[44:00] and McGregor Hill continues to go higher in their numbers,

[44:04] I would anticipate that, with time,

[44:07] more substantial change may need to happen.

[44:09] That is for, I mean, just with all of these schools,

[44:11] when you talk about middle schools,

[44:13] would you talk about, you know,

[44:14] cleaning up boundaries, all of those things?

[44:17] I think it just sounds like more discussion has to happen,

[44:20] so that we're being thoughtful for the long term.

[44:23] Yes, and I will tell you, you know, my desire when we went into this was to try to solve this issue really it was, which is why we brought it forward.

[44:32] But the more we pulled back the layers and started looking at all the factors that need to be considered.

[44:38] It was just a conundrum about what you do because it is true.

[44:42] You could be solving one problem in creating another one and then three years down the road neither works and then you're moving kids again.

[44:48] So, you know, one of the parents said tonight that boundary changes, I mean they do disrupt families,

[44:53] which is why we try not to do it, you know, and it is true.

[44:57] So, the last thing I want to do is make a recommendation to you.

[45:10] I have a few things that I want to say in a dress in a couple of questions. So bear with me. The first thing is when we are talking about all of the boundary adjustments and we've talked about it in meetings before this.

[45:26] I believe some people in the community have started to spread rumors and said that I was

[45:36] for moving wheelchair and remote-create kids from Memorial Middle School to Spring

[45:42] Forest and I want to go on the record saying I do not believe that I would not vote

[45:48] for that.

[45:49] I don't think that is a good idea.

[45:51] I just want to be clear with everybody in the community.

[45:55] The next thing I want to talk about with middle school capacities is we have got to be extremely thoughtful and the next couple of years we're going to be rebuilding all the middle schools except for land from which we've already done so I don't want to run into these issues like we've had valiokes and bunker hill.

[46:20] I don't know how to avoid that, but I don't think we need to get into those things without having a solution for that problem because we keep hitting that running into that same wall.

[46:32] So we've got to figure that out whether it's a different demographer, whether it's multiple demographers that we have got to have a better plan going forward in my opinion.

[46:45] This next question is for the district and you know, Travis, Jennifer, at Bunker Hill are we in a Valley Oaks situation in your experience and that all of the Valley Oaks build and you know plans and the PAT and all of those things was before my time on the board so I wanted to hear it from you guys.

[47:11] Do you think that we are in a situation where just like a Valley Oaks, we're going to need to build more for bunker hill?

[47:18] Is that even a possibility on their land?

[47:22] Because it's smaller.

[47:23] Talk me through this.

[47:24] Let me take the first part and then I'll let you can talk about the building of the actual space.

[47:29] No, we are not there yet.

[47:30] So that's, I think that's the point in looking at the trend data.

[47:34] But they are trending up, and happen trending up, that is true.

[47:37] And I want to say that's not true.

[47:38] But it's not a, it's not a Valley Oaks situation at this point in time, couldn't get there.

[47:43] I mean, I don't know it might.

[47:45] It's a wonderful school, a wonderful community.

[47:47] It's very desirable.

[47:48] And I know people will want to move in over there.

[47:50] But it's not, no, it's not there yet.

[47:52] And we did not add a wing.

[47:55] Gosh, we watched Valley Oaks for four or five years.

[47:58] Before we add, in fact, the only way we were able to add the wing,

[48:01] as you all know, was through a 2022 bond program.

[48:03] We don't, we don't have money in the general fund to build something like that.

[48:07] So when we finally made that decision, it went into a bond.

[48:13] So they were crowded for five or six years with enrollment

[48:18] continued to going up.

[48:20] And as you probably know, and y'all probably know,

[48:23] the issue of Valley Oaks was that you didn't necessarily have multi,

[48:28] you had multi family housing units coming down with some homes

[48:33] going in place, but that would have theoretically taken me

[48:35] down, right, because you don't have as many kids. What happened was there were a lot of

[48:40] developments, like there was a, there were several extrip centers, there was a K-mart, I

[48:44] don't know if you all remember that, it was over there at one time. All of those pieces and

[48:49] parcels of land that had non-family dwellings on them, so they were businesses or whatnot,

[48:56] were bought up and homes were put there. And so that was something that a demographer may or may

[49:02] be able to anticipate. So we watched it over time, but we realized we were going to have to do something,

[49:10] and sure enough that wing is being used. If you go over there, they have over 900 kids.

[49:15] So I don't let you talk about the building part of it, please.

[49:19] So the district is very intentional when we design a bunker hill to make sure,

[49:23] like we do with any of our elementary schools, that our classrooms have the ability for natural

[49:28] light. So the ability to view outside. Anytime we meet with our PAT, they're always talking

[49:33] about that connection with nature. So when you look at Valley Oaks, we have the ability

[49:40] in terms of additional sight to expand. We do not have that to do at the bunker hill.

[49:47] Now if we did, we would look at closing in court yards, which would mean that you've got classrooms

[49:53] with no exterior windows. We can't reduce parking. I've had conversations with Annie kind

[50:01] of jokingly, can we take the playfields offline, can we take the playgrounds offline,

[50:06] all of which is part of the educational process. So we do have a limited site on Bunker Hill

[50:13] as it stands now.

[50:17] My last question with all of that being said about Bunker Hill and with the recommendation

[50:24] that you guys have brought to us tonight, what are we going to do to support bunker hill in the next year, in the next two years?

[50:34] If we're looking at data and making decisions, what are some actual tangible things that we're going to do to support those teachers?

[50:43] And how many classrooms are we going to be having in hallways?

[50:48] How many special ed units in book closets?

[50:52] like, what are the actual things we can do to help support the educational experience?

[50:57] When you look at their class sizes, we don't show, in effect, I think the largest student

[51:04] teacher ratio, and I don't remember the grade level, is I think 23 to 1 and then the lowest

[51:09] is 20 to 1 and everything is in between. That's what their projection show, but we will be ready

[51:16] to help facilitate additional, I mean, some of it is additional assistance in the classroom

[51:22] if they're overcrowded, I mean, you know, I will tell you, you know, having been an elementary

[51:28] principal, splitting kids in the middle of the year if you had the space is not ideal

[51:33] anyway. And if you go in and you split the kids, nobody wants their child moved into another

[51:39] classroom. So, so some of it is providing additional set of hands with teachers. So, we can

[51:46] do some of that. There are some creative uses of space that we can accommodate and we're

[51:52] looking at that with Dr. Rios.

[51:56] Sorry, promises the last question.

[51:59] What are the partitions that we heard about in is that talk me through that?

[52:04] So, they do have small groups, intervention groups that are occurring in the library and other spaces.

[52:09] and when I talked to Dr. Reyes, which is not in common by the way, we've all had them as

[52:14] elementary principles before. It is nice if you concurrence, take a space and kind of give some

[52:21] privacy. And so we're going to look at, particularly, where we are going to purchase them

[52:26] and partitions that are somewhat selfless.

[52:30] So the teachers can work in small groups and pull those intervention groups and not be loud. But if you go to other campuses, we do have intervention groups and students that are pulled out in small group that are in those collaborative spaces. That is non-uncommon.

[52:45] So you're saying the highest student teacher ratios, 23 to 1.

[52:49] Let me look, but I believe that I think I, because I, just to clarify, because I saw some of the issues in their heads.

[52:55] If these kindergarten classes, I know they got the letter that happens at a lot of other schools,

[53:00] I'm not saying that, you know, and they've got kids sitting at 24, 25 in a classroom.

[53:05] I just think it would be helpful if we could just clarify that.

[53:08] Well, that's something that we all feel the same way.

[53:11] Right.

[53:11] So when I checked just on Friday, last week I asked the question, where are we with projected

[53:17] class sizes and teacher units that I've been allocated?

[53:21] Bunker Hill, the largest projected class right now is 23 students per classroom and

[53:28] per grade so 23 or next year.

[53:30] Which I'm at next year and with the lowest being 20 to one in kindergarten the other

[53:38] classrooms are anywhere in between theirs, 21, 22, 23, yes that's what we show next year.

[53:45] Because I think someone did tell me that they've hired I don't know for which grade level

[53:49] but another teacher already.

[53:51] Yes, they probably, I don't have their staff in it for me.

[53:53] Yes, that's pretty bad another unit for next year.

[53:56] Classroom teacher, I can't remember who told me that.

[53:58] We get you the staffing, which would help with the numbers.

[54:06] So

[54:12] happy to answer anything else you all have.

[54:14] And again, I want to just say this is not easy for anybody,

[54:19] and it's a very passionate topic.

[54:21] But we do have a very interesting enrollment scenario happening

[54:28] in our system right now and it's unprecedented and we have a large portion of our community

[54:34] that is growing, we have a portion of our community that is shrinking and we have to figure

[54:41] out how to balance it all and it is a much larger puzzle to solve than a small boundary change

[54:47] which was what we were trying to do to alleviate the crowding but we just upon further review

[54:52] feel like it just could solve a very short term problem and we're going to be sitting right

[54:58] back here next year, trying to solve something else.

[55:01] So that number you gave should not,

[55:03] that should be black and white.

[55:04] There shouldn't be any question of that.

[55:06] But I know that there's some people that think,

[55:08] I can tell I'm not going to switch number here.

[55:10] The 23 to 1.

[55:11] That's that.

[55:12] That's yes, I just asked this question

[55:14] to project it.

[55:15] Project it.

[55:15] That's what I'm just saying.

[55:16] I just want, I mean, I don't think you can promise that.

[55:19] If that's what you're looking for,

[55:20] I think that's when you say projected,

[55:22] that's our best educated guess.

[55:25] I understand what that means.

[55:26] But I mean, so what are you looking for?

[55:30] Well, it seems like I can, the tension, I mean,

[55:32] I know that these moms have worked so hard on this.

[55:35] And they've talked a little bit about it.

[55:35] Tell them where you got those numbers.

[55:37] Just so maybe those are the enrollment projections per grade level

[55:42] that you all would have, well, you all would have seen the enrollment

[55:44] projections.

[55:45] You might not have seen by grade level with school.

[55:46] We wouldn't have brought that to you in the fall.

[55:48] But that's where those come from.

[55:49] So I just asked this question on Friday of HR.

[55:56] Are those those are internal numbers?

[55:58] So you got it from HR, is that okay?

[55:59] Yes, thank you.

[56:00] Yes.

[56:01] I'm sure.

[56:04] Thank you, Dr. Vain.

[56:05] Anyone else?

[56:07] Okay.

[56:09] Now, the next item on the agenda is the discussion of the fiscal year, 2027 budget, Dr.

[56:13] Blaine.

[56:22] Porter, you're going to go to the podium.

[56:23] No, I'm not.

[56:24] I'm not.

[56:24] Getting the clicker.

[56:25] Oh, not it.

[56:41] Thank you, Dr. Blaine, President Mayhand and members of the board.

[56:45] I appreciate the opportunity to update you on where we are in the 2627 budget process.

[56:54] This is that draft document that is back up for the agenda item.

[56:59] It includes actual estimates and a draft of the 2627 budget, but I'm going to break down the pieces of this page.

[57:08] This page shows the first four columns which represents the actual audited data starting with the 21-22 school year through the 24-25 school year.

[57:21] The net effect on fund balance is indicated with the red circle.

[57:26] In 21-22, we increase fund balance by 10.4 million and in 22-23, we increase fund balance by 9.7 million.

[57:34] That was done primarily through the effective use of ester dollars, those COVID relief funds.

[57:42] We were able to use those dollars to fund programs so that we can ensure that student learning

[57:46] was prioritized as we went through that recovery period after COVID.

[57:52] Then, in the 23-24 school year, we used fund balance of $14.6 million.

[57:58] This was a planned use of fund balance, as we ensured that we were maintaining specific programming

[58:03] focus on student learning, and as a note, the legislature met in the spring of 2023 and did not provide any significant new money for the

[58:13] 2023-24 or the 2024-25 school year. The last column represents last fiscal year, 2024-25 or column A.

[58:24] We went into it having worked through a $35 million cut to the budget, and still use fund

[58:30] balance of $19.8 million.

[58:33] We knew when we determined the amount to be cut, we were still going to use fund balance,

[58:39] but we had it to use.

[58:42] And after that use, we were still meeting the local policy of maintaining 19% indicator

[58:47] by the blue circle.

[58:48] Those cuts were necessary to keep us moving forward to ensure financial stability as we

[58:54] waited yet against to see if the legislature in the spring of 2025 would do anything

[59:00] about the increasing cost of educating students across the state.

[59:14] You can move forward one page. Thank you.

[59:18] I'm going to discuss what is under Colin B, the adjusted budget for 2526.

[59:23] This has changed from the last presentation that I didn't February.

[59:27] So I want to remind everybody of what's happened throughout this year.

[59:32] First, the legislature did pass bills that provided increased spending to school districts.

[59:37] But they didn't do that until the very end of the session, the end of May, beginning of June, actually.

[59:43] So we've been spending this year attempting to understand how they implement those changes.

[59:50] The first major component is net state revenue, circled here in green, which includes three key pieces.

[59:56] tax revenue, state funding, and a reduction.

[1:00:02] This may sound repetitive from before, but I believe it's critical that we all understand how the pieces come into play in the calculation.

[1:00:11] On the tax revenues, we received our certified values in August, and continue to get updates to these values every month.

[1:00:18] Every month, HKAD sends us these values that both add and subtract from our taxable property values.

[1:00:26] The additions are values that are finally getting certified, and subtractions are due to

[1:00:30] things like increased exemptions being added, or adjustments to values because taxpayers

[1:00:35] disputed their values. At this point, we're estimating around 28.7 million in tax revenue,

[1:00:43] which includes both current and delinquent tax payments, which is that first line in that

[1:00:50] This includes the required compression of the 5.33 pennies on the MNO tax rate, along with the changes to exemptions.

[1:00:58] The primary to being the 40,000 increase from 100 to 140 k, 140,000 for all home-steads, and the 50,000 increase from 10 to 60,000 for home-steads that qualify for the over 65 or disabled exemption.

[1:01:15] It also includes the adjustments to frozen levies to account for these changes for a home

[1:01:21] said that have been frozen prior to this year.

[1:01:24] So if you were frozen two years ago, you got your frozen levium out was reduced to account

[1:01:30] for these changes.

[1:01:33] The next two lines in the Green Circle come from the summary of finance formula calculation,

[1:01:38] which calculates our amount that we will get from the state along with that required

[1:01:42] recapture payment calculation.

[1:01:44] In order to complete the estimated calculation of this, there's two key pieces along with

[1:01:50] that tax collection.

[1:01:51] We need our student enrollment, including their various designations, depending on the

[1:01:56] services they receive, along with the counselors' calculations of our property values.

[1:02:02] And as you're aware, we did not meet our projections for the 2526 school year by over

[1:02:07] 1,000 students, so now I'm accounting for that in that funding formula.

[1:02:12] We received our pre-pulmonary values in December and just received our preliminary values back at the end of January.

[1:02:20] All of these pieces are key to determine what we were received from the state.

[1:02:24] And as a quick note, those final data pieces of student enrollment and weights along with the actual tax collections will be adjusted when the state will be turned into the state when the state will make that adjustment on near final calculations and September of

[1:02:41] 26, three months after we've ended the school year, which is why we use our templates using

[1:02:50] our most current data estimates to determine our funds and don't use what the state might

[1:02:54] have on their site.

[1:02:57] But here's something I want to focus on that is a change from when I presented this.

[1:03:02] As recently as last month, TEA changed their methodology and how they calculate the frozen

[1:03:08] of the whole term loss.

[1:03:12] Basically, they're determining lost revenue in a current year

[1:03:17] using current year calculated levy.

[1:03:19] So what's our levy for this year on all the homes?

[1:03:22] What are the levy this year on all the homes

[1:03:25] that have a frozen levy?

[1:03:27] And subtracting the levy lost to that freeze

[1:03:30] within without the changes to exemption.

[1:03:36] Previously, they were using a levy

[1:03:40] calculated based on their reductions, not happening at all,

[1:03:45] and using that net loss and comparing that loss

[1:03:47] against the current year, net loss.

[1:03:51] Clear as mud, I know.

[1:03:55] But across the state, they had seen some inconsistency

[1:03:58] on how this data was being reported from various cads

[1:04:02] or appraisal districts across the state.

[1:04:05] So this is how they decided to be consistent

[1:04:07] and the data they received.

[1:04:10] And some school districts all increases, some some great decreases, and this changed

[1:04:17] to reduce our net state revenue by $3.5 million.

[1:04:22] And now, on top of that, they are going to completely change how this data needs to be submitted

[1:04:28] to the state.

[1:04:30] Our software company is working on this, but we won't be able to send it until we do the first

[1:04:35] property value audit. And it cannot happen until early this fall. So until we get that data,

[1:04:43] until the state uses that form, it will be difficult to determine if we'll see any change

[1:04:48] in that 3.5 million dollars. I'll continue to monitor this, and we'll make adjustments to

[1:04:54] the final amended budget if there's a way I can determine how that data is going to be used

[1:04:59] at the state. We have a couple of statewide organizations,

[1:05:05] moccacy, and tazvo, that are working with the state to make sure that we can clearly

[1:05:09] understand how this can affect that data. However, at this point, I have to use the data

[1:05:15] that the state is using and plans to use. So I want to add something here. TGA still doesn't

[1:05:23] have all of our data yet on their site where they show the summary of finance for school

[1:05:28] districts. They have the preliminary property tax values in the summary of finances, but they

[1:05:34] still won't know all of our student data pieces until the end of the year. They will make

[1:05:39] some adjustments based on student enrollment in February and March because they got the data

[1:05:44] from us in that PIN submission back in October and they also because we've started submitting data

[1:05:50] on, we did the first semester data of student enrollment and we'll start submitting it every six weeks.

[1:05:58] But they won't make those adjustments till May.

[1:06:03] But it just shows again the major differences between TEA and our estimates.

[1:06:06] They only have what they know, and they apply their statewide estimates across the state.

[1:06:12] We, however, have our current data and can better estimate for the entire year now.

[1:06:18] So armed with these pieces, let's discuss what's in that funding formula.

[1:06:22] During the session in spring of 2025, the legislature provided funds to school districts and civil areas.

[1:06:29] Just like we mentioned before, there are raises for some teachers, not all teachers.

[1:06:35] There are raises for other staff, including excluding administrators.

[1:06:39] There is a basic allotment increase, but was funded by funds that they would have used

[1:06:45] to allow us to keep more funds of our golden pennies.

[1:06:47] So that really is just moving money from one pot to another pot.

[1:06:53] There was a new allotment for basic increase at funds some of the inflationary pressures.

[1:06:59] There was an overhaul of the special education funding formula that primarily

[1:07:04] want occur until the 2627 school year.

[1:07:07] However, the initial evaluation funding piece is occurring this year.

[1:07:11] We're getting funds for that.

[1:07:13] There is an increase to the school safety allotment and then some adjustments to the early

[1:07:18] So key thing to note here is the specific requirements we have to spend almost all of these funds.

[1:07:27] Almost all of these funds are not flexible dollars.

[1:07:30] We must be spent on only specific processes. An example is the teacher raises. While we appreciate what

[1:07:37] looks like a large increase in state funding of $9.3 million, we must spend those on teacher

[1:07:43] raises, which we most assured we want to do to be clear. I'm just trying to explain that

[1:07:49] it's not flexible dollars. When the legislature touts that they added so much money to public education,

[1:07:55] and they basically told us how to spend it and did little to help combat the inflationary

[1:08:00] pressures we felt for the past six years.

[1:08:04] All of these pieces, the tax collections, the student enrollment and cultural as property

[1:08:08] values, bring our total net state revenue to 334.5 million dollars, as indicated in the

[1:08:16] yellow line at the bottom of that green circle.

[1:08:20] So I want to talk about the adjustments we've made on the expenditure side which is circled

[1:08:24] in Brown. On the expenditure side, we adjusted for all those required spending pieces, which we

[1:08:30] need to do based on a legislative intent, along with decisions that were made to salary schedules

[1:08:35] across the board, and other adjustments that normally happen throughout the year. For instance,

[1:08:40] carryover and come rents items like that. So at this point, are there any questions about where

[1:08:49] we are now.

[1:08:51] I'll jump in Christine.

[1:08:53] So when we hear the big headlines,

[1:08:56] the additional 8.5 billions upon a then.

[1:08:58] Our state funding goes up $27 million.

[1:09:03] When people in the community ask us,

[1:09:05] where did that money go into our budget?

[1:09:09] Looks like 16 million to additional payroll.

[1:09:13] So that's some of the teacher raises.

[1:09:16] And the rest went to safety and security spending.

[1:09:23] Can you tell me how you're getting to the 16 million?

[1:09:26] I mean, I was just looking at the difference.

[1:09:27] The payroll difference between, oh.

[1:09:29] Was that 3-11 and 3-27?

[1:09:31] Yes.

[1:09:31] From calendar to calendar.

[1:09:33] So that accommodates for the raises for the teachers,

[1:09:37] it accommodates raises for other staff excluding administrators

[1:09:39] and then other raises.

[1:09:40] Okay, so the council accounts for the large increase to benefits

[1:09:45] that are tied for any of those raises and benefits and then if someone in the community said

[1:09:52] where did the additional state funding go? I don't know the safety and security

[1:09:56] allotment went out, still not enough. When I'm just about a million dollars it still falls

[1:10:02] about two million short funding the officer at every campus. It also we got a little bit

[1:10:11] special ed represents about a million dollars for 1.3 million for the

[1:10:17] evaluations that are being done. And then we got about $3 million to fund

[1:10:25] inflationary pressures.

[1:10:31] Is that enough to touch the inflationary pressures?

[1:10:33] No, that only covers it at about a third. Maybe. I really need every year

[1:10:39] would need an additional $3 to $4 million to cover inflationary pressures.

[1:10:47] Every year needs to be an additional amount.

[1:10:49] Not just that, same amount.

[1:10:52] Thanks for speaking.

[1:10:54] And is that, is that $3 million?

[1:10:58] Is that in staying?

[1:11:00] That's sticking.

[1:11:00] But we're just, we would need more year over year.

[1:11:04] So we're going to carry the $3 million forward.

[1:11:07] But we would like to talk about like those fixed costs.

[1:11:17] The water bill for the school district has probably been the greatest.

[1:11:23] One of the fastest growing inflationary pressure item we have out there.

[1:11:29] And losing a thousand kids is not decreasing our use of water.

[1:11:33] We still, I mean, we may have a few less kids at the water fountain, but we're still watering grass, we're still using water in the cafeteria, we're still all the athletic fields across the district, so like that doesn't go away because we have less kids.

[1:11:51] And so that's going to continue.

[1:11:54] I think we're hearing an increase of maybe seven to eight percent increase rates specifically

[1:12:03] on water.

[1:12:04] So right there is a seven to eight percent increase that is not going to be covered because

[1:12:10] that inflationary, that ABC, new alignment for basic costs is actually tied to our number

[1:12:16] of students.

[1:12:17] So, it is not going to just because we've lost students, we're still going to have those

[1:12:23] same offset increases with those fixed costs.

[1:12:28] Now, that has to be part of discussions moving forward, yes, but the point is, it doesn't

[1:12:32] erase just because the kids don't show up.

[1:12:40] What are some other fixed costs?

[1:12:41] I'm thinking my head, gasoline.

[1:12:45] Gasoline, electricity,

[1:12:48] insurance, on technology side.

[1:12:52] I mean, we still, we have to maintain cybersecurity.

[1:12:55] We have to maintain access, just email addresses.

[1:13:02] The services that, just like we have increased inflationary pressures,

[1:13:07] so do entities that are providing us services.

[1:13:09] Yeah, like IT servers.

[1:13:11] There's something to do.

[1:13:12] Well, even services that were provided are ERP system has a set increase every year.

[1:13:20] And we can say we want to switch.

[1:13:21] But I assure you, we go back out there.

[1:13:23] Some of the prices have even higher than what we're spending.

[1:13:26] Now, at least we got them to lock in to only a low increase

[1:13:29] over five years.

[1:13:33] A school itself has set costs.

[1:13:37] 10 less kids does not mean we need 10 less kids worth of a principal.

[1:13:42] A principal is still a principal at a high school, at a school.

[1:13:46] So, again, while we have to look

[1:13:49] across the district at enrollment, and what's happening at all of the schools, just having

[1:13:55] us kids does not dismiss those needs.

[1:13:59] And the other thing is tied to projections this last year.

[1:14:02] We projected that those over a thousand kids are going to be here.

[1:14:06] We staffed based on that.

[1:14:08] We staffed teachers based on that.

[1:14:11] Christine, I was just going to say that you can explain how you're staffing in your contractual

[1:14:17] obligations will be a year lagging with your, yes, yes, that's important here.

[1:14:25] So back last April, contracts, well the projection was set was used to staff, contracts were

[1:14:33] issued to teachers across this district, but when those over 1000 students didn't show up,

[1:14:40] we can't just go, okay, we didn't, so there is a way to do it, but that's, we weren't in that

[1:14:46] need to do that. But we don't just go and say midyear by the way, we don't need you anymore

[1:14:52] because we're going to combine these classes. It takes at least a year and almost two years to act.

[1:15:00] We actually worked through a loss of students, because, again, if they all left in these perfect little boxes of 24 kids or whatever number at the, in exactly the same types of students, that would be easier, but that's not what happens.

[1:15:17] And so it takes a year and so this last year on these projections, overall for the district, we saw student counts going down.

[1:15:25] So using that student counts going down, that could be why a high school is losing teachers.

[1:15:33] They don't have the same number of kids, so therefore then they have to make adjustments to their schedules.

[1:15:41] However, and so while we're on the topic of high school, if you talk with any financial advisor to a school district,

[1:15:49] the high school schedule is the most inefficient, one of the most inefficient pieces of running

[1:15:56] a school district.

[1:15:58] And the reason for that, and it doesn't matter what schedule you have, pick a schedule.

[1:16:02] It's not about the type of the schedule you pick.

[1:16:05] It's about the number of kids you have, but they still have to be offered the program of studies.

[1:16:10] So you're still offering the same courses at a high school with a lower enrollment as you

[1:16:14] are at a high school that has, not a, you know, has a solid enrollment or even more

[1:16:18] of enrollment. Now we're doing a lot of sharing of teachers right now, which is helpful, but

[1:16:24] you can't do that in every situation. So what you don't want to do, and what we used

[1:16:28] to do, that I think Dr. Stahlworth's about to this, to several meetings to go, what you

[1:16:37] don't want to do is just because you have a high number of students in a healthy enrollment

[1:16:41] at a campus, you don't want to, you want to make sure if kids want to take engineering,

[1:16:45] that they have an opportunity to take engineering classes.

[1:16:49] That's fair.

[1:16:49] We didn't use to do that.

[1:16:51] If you didn't have enough kids that wanted engineering,

[1:16:54] then too bad you didn't get to take it.

[1:16:56] What we are able to do now is to share teachers across the system.

[1:16:59] And if we can't share teachers across the system,

[1:17:02] we can ensure that the kids have full accessibility

[1:17:04] to the program of studies no matter what school they're going to.

[1:17:08] And not super important, but it makes the high school schedule.

[1:17:11] Whatever schedule it is, just inefficient.

[1:17:13] It doesn't matter the seven period days and if they put all in efficient it, because it's

[1:17:17] unless you're maximizing those class sizes, you're going to have some classes that are

[1:17:22] lower attended than others and to your point, you know, at the elementary level where you have

[1:17:27] the 24 to one class size, they just don't all leave in nice little pockets so that you can

[1:17:33] condense and combine, you know, it just doesn't work that way, so it becomes a challenge.

[1:17:38] So that's why all of this we've talked about tonight becomes a challenge about how you balance

[1:17:42] things and the budget.

[1:17:46] If I could just clarify the enrollment, the 1,000 student drop in enrollment and this

[1:17:54] current school year would translate to a lower teacher count next year's budget.

[1:18:00] Correct.

[1:18:02] Correct.

[1:18:03] It doesn't reflect itself in this year's budget.

[1:18:06] That is correct.

[1:18:07] That is correct.

[1:18:08] That is correct.

[1:18:09] That is correct.

[1:18:13] We find ways to move kids around, but that isn't always easy, especially in some schedules.

[1:18:22] Christine, you mentioned insurance, her case isn't less than two months away.

[1:18:27] Have we dropped any of our coverages or changed our premiums or policies to try to reduce money we spent on insurance?

[1:18:34] So, we should be getting something in the next few weeks or so, I think, by the beginning of May,

[1:18:43] is, or may, I'm looking at David, because he's working directly with our insurance.

[1:18:48] We have gotten positive remarks about the fact that we hopefully should be able to save money and actually improve some of our coverage.

[1:18:58] I believe it in shirts and light of how FEMA may or may not be funded in the future to use that as a backstop coverage protector.

[1:19:15] I don't think is as easy as it sounds. We found it actually dealing with the, I mean we're still dealing with FEMA from the 24 storms by the way.

[1:19:27] So, but I believe we'll see a little bit of a lower cost, but it's not going to be in the multi-million's.

[1:19:35] So we're not reducing our coverages.

[1:19:38] Okay.

[1:19:39] I do not look to that.

[1:19:43] I've asked you this before, but I've seen it more common in large corporations that are offering employees a cash.

[1:19:50] And cash instead of taking the entrance, is that something we could do, or since we have TRS with that work, or is it the same group rate?

[1:19:59] It would be the same group rate across.

[1:20:04] You're talking about, okay, like we offer benefits or you can take whatever.

[1:20:10] A drink of money each year.

[1:20:10] I would recommend, I'm not saying we couldn't look in that.

[1:20:13] We definitely have to look into the legality of that because of the requirement we have to make sure that everybody has access.

[1:20:20] But we actually, currently, depending on plans and ensuring that we basically have a free plan for covering one, you know,

[1:20:31] coming back to themselves, ensuring that we have that.

[1:20:38] And at just another note, we're actually required by the state to contribute at least a certain amount.

[1:20:44] It's around 153 might be a little higher to, we're actually per person.

[1:20:49] even if they don't take it.

[1:20:50] Now, if they're taking an interest by,

[1:20:53] we have to pay for at least that much.

[1:20:58] But does the state give you any money to help in that mandate?

[1:21:03] Do you remember the concept of how I talked about hold harmless?

[1:21:06] So way back when, when they did this,

[1:21:08] I was actually at a previous district,

[1:21:09] so we're talking 20 years ago, when they set the amount

[1:21:13] that we have to help.

[1:21:16] For a while, they gave us a dollar amount to help for that,

[1:21:19] but it's gone now.

[1:21:20] So they just soaked it up into it's now in our basic alignment.

[1:21:25] It's no longer set aside as funds to help that.

[1:21:32] Okay, so let's talk about 2627.

[1:21:36] Column's seek.

[1:21:39] Now, I want to say make it very clear.

[1:21:41] We continue to work with this and analyze it.

[1:21:44] David, Kristi and I, we meet weekly,

[1:21:47] and we continue to make sure that we're using the most accurate estimates

[1:21:53] as we get through this.

[1:21:56] And like every budget year,

[1:21:58] net state revenue,

[1:21:59] circled in green,

[1:21:59] is the first major piece we have to estimate.

[1:22:02] And like I presented in February,

[1:22:04] I estimated drop in net state revenue.

[1:22:07] And this is due to two major pieces of data.

[1:22:10] We continue to project an overall drop

[1:22:12] in a number of students that will be enrolled next year.

[1:22:16] And, as a reminder,

[1:22:17] that whole harmless clauses that were set up in

[1:22:19] 25, 26 are transitional in nature and are expected to face out eventually.

[1:22:26] Those permanent tax breaks that were offered to our property.

[1:22:30] Members, consumers, are supplemented with one-time hold harmless clause.

[1:22:36] So, I'm still estimating that same

[1:22:37] job, and comparing the two years. But now I want to talk about the total expenditures which

[1:22:43] is in the brown circle. Since we've estimated that decrease in net state funding, we have

[1:22:49] to ensure that we are right-sizing our budget to account for that loss of students, which we just

[1:22:54] talked about. I also want to make note that I asked all of Seniors staff to look at their central

[1:23:00] office operations and cut 10 percent, and they all did that.

[1:23:07] One thing I would like to note is that this estimated expenditure budget does not have a

[1:23:12] raise budget at this time.

[1:23:18] Circle in red, I'm showing a use of fund balance of $23.7 million.

[1:23:23] And that is using some available sources of funds that we maintained in other funds to support

[1:23:28] this general fund budget that circled in purple of about $5.8 million.

[1:23:33] And example of that is we have rental fees that we've collected, maintained in another fund, outside the general fund.

[1:23:46] That now we're going to use directly support this general fund.

[1:23:50] Kind of like some of those rainy day dollars that the state talks about.

[1:23:54] I'm now tapping into those to use these funds going into this next year's budget.

[1:23:59] So with the reduction expenditures and you can see this shows a $6 million decrease, that's again tied to staffing for lower number of students.

[1:24:11] Use of other funds and with no raise being built in, we're still expected to drop fund balance to 17% at this time circled in blue.

[1:24:20] As a reminder, we have a policy about fund balance.

[1:24:24] The exact wording in CE local policy is that it is the goal of the board to maintain the

[1:24:29] fund balances of the general and debt service funds at an adequate level.

[1:24:34] The level of adequacy for fund balances shall be 19% of the current budget for the general

[1:24:40] fund.

[1:24:43] This level of fund balance shall protect the district against potential revenue shortfalls

[1:24:47] and shall provide operating funds until tax revenues are received.

[1:24:52] If the board determines that this level of fund balance is not obtainable in the proposed

[1:24:57] budget being considered, it shall be the goal of the board to reach this level within

[1:25:02] a specified period of time no longer than three years.

[1:25:06] That's how that policy reads.

[1:25:10] So it does support a short term use of fund balance dropping below the 19%.

[1:25:15] but should be re-established over no longer than 30 years.

[1:25:20] It is critical not to drop too low

[1:25:22] or we will have to figure options for cash flow purposes in the future.

[1:25:28] One thing to note is we do normally end years better than planned.

[1:25:32] Remember my budget always assumes we receive every dollar

[1:25:35] and we spend every penny that's budgeted.

[1:25:39] So as we get closer to the end of this current year

[1:25:41] we will have more of an idea of where we will end

[1:25:43] which is the starting point for next year.

[1:25:47] But I don't believe we're going to find tens of millions of dollars,

[1:25:50] but it could improve this.

[1:25:52] So as I explained to the findings,

[1:25:54] ladies on last week, President Mayhand and Vice President Bennett,

[1:25:58] this is still an unfortunate effect of the state mandating

[1:26:01] specific spending and truly not recognizing the inflationary pressures

[1:26:05] that school districts continue to have.

[1:26:08] Almost every day, there's a story about school district

[1:26:11] and their own budget struggles.

[1:26:14] As a matter of fact, I've seen some emails

[1:26:16] where CFOs are starting to talk about raises.

[1:26:19] And over half of them are in their comments are not sure

[1:26:24] how we can ever do a raise with our declining enrollment.

[1:26:28] My goal is to continue to work with our estimates

[1:26:30] of both revenues and expenditures and continue

[1:26:33] to refine this throughout the spring.

[1:26:35] But as you can see, we cannot continue to use fun balance

[1:26:38] at this level.

[1:26:39] And we have purposely used it in the past.

[1:26:42] I'm not discounting why we, and I was comfortable with it in the past.

[1:26:48] Because think about it.

[1:26:50] If we had a super hefty fund balance of 32%, how would anybody support cuts just to maintain that?

[1:26:58] We use that fund balance to keep us moving as we wait to see what the legislature would do.

[1:27:05] But we can't continue to use fund balances this level, and we will have to consider cuts over this next year of $20 to $25 million.

[1:27:17] So on that grim note, open this up for any additional questions or comments.

[1:27:23] I do have a question about other sources.

[1:27:26] The way you were describing it, it sounds like that's something that has been accruing.

[1:27:30] So that's not going to be that amount every year going forward, correct?

[1:27:34] Correct. It will be one time funding.

[1:27:36] Okay. Yes. Thank you.

[1:27:43] Long those lines.

[1:27:45] Your discussion about the policy regarding the use of the general fund,

[1:27:52] or the fund balance.

[1:27:56] I know your chart goes as far out in the crystal ball to next year, but as we look beyond that,

[1:28:02] I know we'll have a legislative session that will potentially come up, but I'm sorry.

[1:28:08] I'm not optimistic about any better results than we've gotten.

[1:28:11] So, any use of the fund balance below that 19 percent, also meeting the plan for three

[1:28:23] or payback.

[1:28:24] I mean, are you seeing or forecasting anything that would help provide any other relief

[1:28:32] aside from the state, somehow come into their senses and improving the funding?

[1:28:38] Well, if we had an increase in student enrollment and they came in these perfect little spots in a district in certain classrooms, that would be fabulous, that would work.

[1:28:49] But increase enrollment would help.

[1:28:52] Because so, however, that happens.

[1:28:55] If there's an increase just because more people move to all areas of the district or focused programs, you know,

[1:29:03] can help, because I know we've talked about where we are allowing people from outside that

[1:29:10] district come to some programs or schools we have.

[1:29:16] The unknowns are two things, Dr. Blings talked about the vouchers.

[1:29:23] We've seen all kinds of data that indicates that for well over half of the vouchers being

[1:29:29] asked for, it's being asked for by parents who already have their kids in private schools.

[1:29:34] But the point is it can you imagine what a billion dollars coming into public education could support?

[1:29:43] And when you hear numbers like in the next five years it could be up to eight billion dollars.

[1:29:50] I'm sorry that's eight billion dollars being taken away from public education.

[1:29:53] Plain and simple.

[1:29:56] But we don't know that effect yet.

[1:29:59] Because...

[1:30:00] Because we know there's this whole people have to be accepted into the school. They cannot be accepted

[1:30:07] in the school. Did the money get to the school to begin with? And then do we get them back

[1:30:12] for the whole year, which we don't, because we only get them from when they started and became

[1:30:16] part of our average daily attendance. And where are they coming on whatever level of whatever

[1:30:23] grades that they're coming in?

[1:30:28] The other piece is the legislature.

[1:30:33] And that's a completely

[1:30:34] And when we have seen, when you saw some of the questions that were asked in the primary,

[1:30:42] during the primary, on people went in and voted in their primary elections, you can see

[1:30:49] where I believe they're going to use that to focus their energy on.

[1:30:54] They believe they have put a lot of money and that they've solved problems for school districts.

[1:30:59] So, I wouldn't count on it being a great amount.

[1:31:04] So, that being said, assuming nothing changes.

[1:31:10] We run out of money.

[1:31:11] We completely run out of money in three years.

[1:31:14] If we don't make these type of changes,

[1:31:17] these cuts that need to happen over this next year.

[1:31:20] Because that 20 to 25 million just makes this whole.

[1:31:25] And it doesn't add back necessarily to that fund balance.

[1:31:31] And I've said this for a few years.

[1:31:35] The only way districts across the state are coming

[1:31:38] able to give raises is by having cuts.

[1:31:42] If money isn't infused to allow for increased

[1:31:45] dollars into the system.

[1:31:48] And Christine, one of the things that made me want to just

[1:31:52] mention this for anyone that's here in anyone that's listening

[1:31:55] when you're talking about the attendance.

[1:31:56] There was a survey that went out to all of the parents in the community, as far as choice

[1:32:01] goes.

[1:32:02] And I think it's really important that you tell your friends and neighbors to complete

[1:32:06] it because when we're looking at how to get creative and how to get competitive in this new

[1:32:12] era of what education is looking like, it's really valuable to have that information coming

[1:32:17] to us to let us know what we can do to be creative and try to attract more people.

[1:32:22] And they were going to try last time we spoke, we were talking about giving it out to people who are not currently enrolled, but do live in our district.

[1:32:29] And so that's not just something that I hope people are passing over because it would be very helpful.

[1:32:36] Because establishing a new program or a new type of campus to attract outside kids.

[1:32:43] But because if they're within our district, all we're doing is moving. Kids around. It doesn't necessarily provide additional funds.

[1:32:48] But keeping kids in our district that would look elsewhere is super important, as well as figuring out a way to attract kids from outside our district.

[1:32:57] But I think one of the most important things we need to do is attract kids who already live in our district.

[1:33:02] I mean, we have a lot of taxpayers that already live here and don't send their kids to our schools.

[1:33:06] And so that, to me, that is the number one primary way to quickly increase funding to the district.

[1:33:14] and that was going to be another question I had for you is what do we see as other options

[1:33:18] to increase revenue besides just attracting more students? Are there any other things

[1:33:21] that we can do proactively?

[1:33:25] I'm going to talk a little bit about attracting students though because one of the things we're

[1:33:30] going to look at, especially as the ANA movement, talk about what we've started talking about

[1:33:39] because our CTE got the re-building, whether or not there's capacity there to open up to kids

[1:33:45] who aren't in our district, or attending our kids, excuse me, not attending our schools, but

[1:33:52] that could access maybe some of the certification programs we have for a fee, making sure,

[1:33:58] and because that is actually a way that we could tap into those voucher dollars, because

[1:34:04] they can use those funds to pay for things like that.

[1:34:07] We have to become a vendor and a proven vendor.

[1:34:11] So let's say you have a home school student,

[1:34:13] it's living in SPSD that wants to take culinary classes.

[1:34:18] All right, I like that I do.

[1:34:19] What are the realities in terms of numbers that we can

[1:34:22] can backfill there at Guthrie?

[1:34:26] I couldn't begin to answer that, not knowing exactly where the club,

[1:34:30] because it may not actually say it happens during the school day.

[1:34:34] we may determine based on maybe some of these responses we get on the survey that would determine

[1:34:42] maybe and after hours program for a specific certification would be the best way to support

[1:34:48] those. Because the other issue we have are kids attend every day. One of the issues behind

[1:34:56] homeschool and some of those homeschool need schools, micro schools is that they're not attending.

[1:35:04] every day. So how can we provide that service? So not I would say we're not ready to even know

[1:35:11] that yet but I've leaving that charge to Amy to figure out that we can hopefully implement

[1:35:16] that by going into next year. Another one may be and we've been approached about this is

[1:35:24] the pre-case school that we already offer in our available classroom space for the kids that

[1:35:30] are defined as eligible, whether or not our school could be considered a private school

[1:35:38] vendor, but there's still the TEA still hasn't finalized how our pre-case have to be partnered

[1:35:50] with other outside pre-case programs.

[1:35:53] And we're still working through whether or not we would be grandfathered because we already

[1:35:57] have ours in place, whereas sub-school districts

[1:35:59] may not have a super strong pre-K program.

[1:36:02] So that would be something that parents could use

[1:36:04] that voucher money for as well.

[1:36:06] And if we had space could then allow more people

[1:36:10] to come in that are eligible.

[1:36:12] And so like this year, the voucher applications

[1:36:15] closed at the end of March, they were extended.

[1:36:18] So I mean, we would have to know that well in advance.

[1:36:20] So parents could apply for those vouchers,

[1:36:23] potentially use them in our district.

[1:36:24] because there would be a process that we have to go through T.A. to be an approved vendor anyway.

[1:36:29] And then we would tell that really last.

[1:36:31] Do we have any idea how long that process is?

[1:36:36] I don't know, but I definitely want to talk to that school of Florida who got in on our Texas

[1:36:40] vouchers as an approved.

[1:36:41] But we could find out how that.

[1:36:44] But we could find that out.

[1:36:46] I believe that happened kind of during the fall.

[1:36:49] I'm looking at Anix and we talked about how the people had to know the private

[1:36:54] schools before the application opened up.

[1:36:57] So I'd say by January the private schools knew if they were an approved vendor.

[1:37:00] And it was some more got added on.

[1:37:02] But I think primarily by January the schools knew.

[1:37:05] So we definitely pushed it back during the fall.

[1:37:09] And then I'm, oh, sorry to hear it.

[1:37:11] I was just, and this may be jumping the gun.

[1:37:13] Because I know you talked about, you know,

[1:37:15] you asked everyone to cut 10% and we came up with,

[1:37:19] what is that six million?

[1:37:21] Right?

[1:37:21] That's not getting us very far.

[1:37:23] So what are our next steps look like?

[1:37:25] It's next of six million includes.

[1:37:30] The reduction happened because of the less students as well as the 10% cuts across our central office.

[1:37:39] Came to still, what are the next steps for making our deficit smaller going forward?

[1:37:44] What else was left to cut?

[1:37:45] Right.

[1:37:46] Yeah, there you go.

[1:37:47] Let's just be direct.

[1:37:48] What else is that?

[1:37:50] I mean, we have to look at efficiencies across the district campuses that might be super small.

[1:37:59] We have to, I think it's important to see what happens with enrollment comes September, I think this is a process that will start in August, as early as August.

[1:38:10] I think every program is on the table for how, you know, that has to balance between a required to serve and how we're serving it.

[1:38:18] Can things happen at campus levels versus at central levels?

[1:38:23] can some of our specialized programs be increased in a way that can attract more students

[1:38:30] into the system?

[1:38:34] So really what I'm worried about is that we don't cut enough this year and we're kicking

[1:38:40] the can down the road.

[1:38:43] Is there anything more we can do this year to make things leaner so that we're not doing

[1:38:50] below that 17%, make cuts from 20, from column B to column C, from 26, I mean,

[1:38:56] we know that 26, 27, we're dipping to 17% and then the next year, we don't have

[1:39:03] any words to go. So does it be who us to make some more cuts for this coming year so

[1:39:08] that, like less in the blow? Right. So yeah, I'm not just making waiting next year to

[1:39:13] for the, for the, for the gear team to drop.

[1:39:19] Well, from my perspective, yes, it'd be great to make additional cuts to this.

[1:39:23] But with timing of when contracts are coming to you all,

[1:39:28] those discussions, it's a year-long process that need to happen before

[1:39:35] some of those discussions would happen.

[1:39:37] Some of them will be, can be shorter, shorter done.

[1:39:41] One of the things, for instance, I've talked with my own departments, that if you get a vacancy

[1:39:47] now, you're not automatically filling it.

[1:39:50] We're going to talk now, so I think, like potentially, not at the teacher level,

[1:39:57] because

[1:39:58] it was stay away from that, but any vacancy across the board actually needs to be discussed and

[1:40:05] approved before gets filled.

[1:40:10] The other thing is just ensuring that we're implementing

[1:40:14] the required, any required raises, for instance,

[1:40:17] that TEA provided to us that we ensure that we're coding

[1:40:21] everybody correctly so that we get the money to handle

[1:40:26] those raises.

[1:40:28] Superfocus on students' data to make sure that we're getting

[1:40:31] every bit we should get from the state, for those types of students.

[1:40:39] I mean, part of why we're dipping down to the 17% is because of the change in the states,

[1:40:46] methodology, how they're implementing one of their whole harmless.

[1:40:49] It's possible that money is going to come back

[1:40:54] on this new form, the new process by which

[1:40:56] we submit that data.

[1:40:57] And I hope I can have that, I'm going to be spent, well, we're sitting time in that

[1:41:01] over the next couple of months, and so I can talk to that possibility.

[1:41:05] So we'll use that we won't know by June when we have to vote on the new budget, right?

[1:41:11] If I feel strong that the estimate is there, I would put it in the accrual for the money

[1:41:17] set are coming in for this year and next year.

[1:41:21] I would put it in that if I could feel strongly about that.

[1:41:26] So yes, there's opportunities but to find 25 million, it's going to take a deeper dive than a real quick, but there are potentially some, and I believe primarily focusing on vacancies and ensuring that every vacancy must be filled or does it get handled differently.

[1:41:48] do we disperse those duties?

[1:41:50] Because as I've told my staff, it will be easier to get rid of an empty chair than a person sitting in that chair.

[1:41:57] But make to be very clear, these will be cuts that are felt.

[1:42:04] We felt the other cuts.

[1:42:05] Yeah, if my thing about this too simply, but

[1:42:09] $380 million and 85% of that is

[1:42:15] So you're talking about $55 million that we could look at to cut $25.

[1:42:23] Without touching staff.

[1:42:24] Everything outside of staffing.

[1:42:27] I mean, that's an impossible equation.

[1:42:30] That's the electricity, the gas for the buses, the water bill.

[1:42:34] So it's cut half of the budget that we have to actually make decisions

[1:42:38] other than people.

[1:42:42] And then the only way to then diving to that is to look at how we provide services.

[1:42:50] When you mention, there's required services versus services that we offer that we don't

[1:42:54] have to.

[1:42:57] So what do you probably don't have those numbers, like what are the,

[1:43:03] I don't, but I can tell you

[1:43:05] like an example in the past is we have to provide bilingual services, so we've made decisions

[1:43:10] to only do them at certain campuses, or when a campus falls and there's only less than 20

[1:43:16] kids across a campus, it makes sense to move that program and combine it with a larger

[1:43:22] bilingual program in another campus. So that's a required service, so would be that type of

[1:43:27] thing. It would be, that's probably the only thing I can think of, but going back to the master

[1:43:34] schedule. If you only have 10 kids and one campus in this class over here and 10 over here,

[1:43:40] how can we share a teacher? And what type of hybrid can it look like? Can it be online?

[1:43:46] Half the week over here with the teacher at the other campus and switch, you know, so they each

[1:43:52] get, you know, true face time with the teacher. Of course, then I'm going to be totally

[1:43:58] going to an area that the high school and schools were telling, I don't know what I'm talking about,

[1:44:01] but it's those types of things to look at.

[1:44:04] This is going to have to look at it.

[1:44:05] Yes, and it looks like that in college, not anyway.

[1:44:10] I also think, and this is unpopular, but I'm going to say it,

[1:44:14] you know, where we have declining enrollment,

[1:44:17] we're going to have to look at what our enrollment is in August,

[1:44:19] and if we have schools that are very, very small,

[1:44:22] and we can consolidate, we will have to do that.

[1:44:25] And that means closing schools.

[1:44:26] I'm just putting it out there.

[1:44:28] It's not popular, but you're watching it happen all over the place.

[1:44:31] In fact, TEA just did a request for, and you can talk a little more about this, and I want to know how we're using all of our facilities, and are we being efficient, and there's a whole litany of forms we have to fill out, and send in to TEA, that is a mountain of information that's going to take a whole lot of people to get it done.

[1:44:50] But when we put a number on that, I mean it may not be fair, but if you were to close a middle school right now, it would save you how many?

[1:44:58] I've got a million and a half to know.

[1:45:00] A million to a million and a half. Well, from now on, yeah, it would be recurring. Yes. I mean, if I took, I would, yes. But what I was, and so, but let me, so to, to interject, sorry for just a minute. So would we consider choice programming? Should that go before a school or how does, how do we prioritize where what needs to go first to save some of those dollars?

[1:45:29] I think that you're plea for the start.

[1:45:32] Let's talk about, I'll give you an example.

[1:45:35] It looks like a corner standard academy.

[1:45:37] Corner standard academy has an enrollment of just over 400 now,

[1:45:40] because we increase their enrollment if you guys recall.

[1:45:42] There is a waiting list of equally as many kids.

[1:45:46] Now, those kids, probably three quarters of them.

[1:45:51] I don't want to quote me on the number.

[1:45:53] Go away to head and went to their zone middle school.

[1:45:55] But there's a chunk of them that did not.

[1:45:59] So you would have to ask yourself, would it be prudent to not offer cornerstone where you

[1:46:03] have all these parents that want this program, or would you be better off to figure out how

[1:46:09] to build that program and bring more kids in on the flip side you could have, I'm so cornerstones

[1:46:17] in middle school because it's stay with a middle school example.

[1:46:20] If you have a middle school that has very low enrollment and we just talked about trending

[1:46:24] enrollment patterns and the training enrollment pattern is down, would you keep that enrollment?

[1:46:30] Would you keep that middle school open? Or would you consolidate and find a way to build

[1:46:35] something parents are demanding? So that's how we have to look at this now. And so it's not

[1:46:39] popular, but this is the competitive game we're having to play. The state is spending three

[1:46:45] educated. It's a part of the problem. You've got three strands of education that three

[1:46:50] different systems that they're funding right now.

[1:46:52] They're funding charter schools, which is a different

[1:46:55] funding formula.

[1:46:56] You're funding public schools and you're now going to

[1:46:59] fund vouchers.

[1:47:01] And you just can't be done.

[1:47:04] So that's, I mean, it can't be done, but it's going to

[1:47:07] come at a cost.

[1:47:07] So the other thing I was going to say is that we're going to

[1:47:10] have to also look at it.

[1:47:12] They're going to have to look at how we increase our revenue.

[1:47:14] And so this is not a short term solution, but it is a

[1:47:16] long term solution.

[1:47:17] And the good news is that property in spring branch is very valuable.

[1:47:23] And so would we look at some of our properties that we have, you know, you could always

[1:47:28] sell a property, which may or may not want to do, depending on how much it's worth, or

[1:47:34] do you groundly support property, which is the car conversations that we've had with some

[1:47:37] of our parents in our community that have knowledge of how that process works, and we've

[1:47:42] had several conversations about that, which would be reoccurring income.

[1:47:47] So, I mean, I think that you have to, you know, we're going to look at the cut side of it,

[1:47:52] but I think you just made a really good point.

[1:47:54] The cuts are only, you can only go so far, you know, so we're going to have to also look at

[1:47:59] how we're smart with what we have, what are parents demanding, what can we provide more

[1:48:04] of knowing it may require us to cut something else.

[1:48:08] So, again, those will not necessarily be popular decisions with people

[1:48:12] that whose school is closed, but that is how we have to look at this and T.E.A. is asking

[1:48:20] us to write size our campuses and we now have a whole bunch of forms to fill out for them

[1:48:28] to see how we're using our campuses.

[1:48:31] We did.

[1:48:31] We just heard from T.E.A. and it's a huge spreadsheet they want every building, every building,

[1:48:38] what it's used for.

[1:48:38] So not just schools, we'll have to figure, they want to know how many rooms, how many classrooms

[1:48:47] they have, how many enrollment data, all this data, and it will be used against us.

[1:48:56] So they're going to try and dictate.

[1:48:57] Absolutely.

[1:48:58] Yeah, that's what they're getting.

[1:48:59] Yeah, that's what they're getting.

[1:49:00] That's absolutely what they're getting it for.

[1:49:02] I mean, we cannot submit it, but I don't know if you guys are hearing about that school district,

[1:49:06] that's going to have a takeover because they're not handling self-impulsively the right

[1:49:10] side.

[1:49:10] So I think it's not responding, and I do not recommend for a district.

[1:49:15] So, so.

[1:49:16] Countess of the point, Chris made, you know, if we're looking at the portion of the budget that

[1:49:20] has $55 million worth of expenditures, and those I think you alluded to, those are fixed

[1:49:27] cost areas, areas based on your comments in the beginning.

[1:49:32] Those are the costs that are going up just due to inflationary forecast, and yet the think

[1:49:40] of us being able to make the cuts that are needed to that area is, you know, I mean,

[1:49:47] I don't see the cuts.

[1:49:48] I don't see the number being enough to move the needs that fix our shortfall just with cuts

[1:49:55] in there.

[1:49:56] We will not do with how to fix that.

[1:49:58] But what the part that if there is any encouragement that I'm hearing in this discussion is the thoughts around increasing revenues and that's an area where I know we've had some discussion, but I think that's an area that we're going to have to really, really direct some energy, whether it be capturing more students who are already reside in our district, students who are living outside the district, increased choice programs.

[1:50:25] I mean, those going to be the areas where it seems like we have the potential to create some help and some relief in this formula.

[1:50:37] And I think that I want to make sure you get a chance to say.

[1:50:40] But one of the up to just to, you know, in terms of the survey, like somebody might be thinking to themselves, why on earth are they sending a survey out, asking about choice programs when you don't have any money?

[1:50:50] Well, the answer to that is we have to rethink how we're doing business.

[1:50:53] And we have to rethink the programs that we're offering.

[1:50:56] We have to figure out what are our parents demanding,

[1:50:58] what are they wanting, if they're leaving,

[1:51:00] why are they leaving, what are they leaving for?

[1:51:01] Can we provide those programs?

[1:51:04] Where can we shift?

[1:51:05] Where can we take property that's not being used anymore

[1:51:07] and use it differently?

[1:51:08] Are ground lease that are sell it?

[1:51:10] I mean, it's more of a business model, honestly.

[1:51:13] And that's just something, I mean, I, you know,

[1:51:16] not something, those of us that are educators

[1:51:18] around this table necessarily have experience

[1:51:21] in all of those things, but we have an amazing,

[1:51:25] partners and business community and many of you all sitting around the table are not educators

[1:51:31] of you are business people and you will be in pivotal in those conversations to help us

[1:51:36] figure out how we change the way we do business. So if you're asking yourself not you all

[1:51:42] but if you're listening you're asking why on earth are you asking about adding stuff it's not

[1:51:45] really about adding stuff. It's about changing what we're doing to accommodate people wanting

[1:51:52] to come here.

[1:51:54] I was in a say, just make sure I think it's so important people thought that survey.

[1:51:57] I'm glad you said that.

[1:51:59] I think I think change is exciting and I think it's great to see new things happen sometimes

[1:52:03] really good things come out of this and I think we have to stay positive, especially.

[1:52:08] I don't know, parents have gone kids, just you know, if you feel that survey out and we do

[1:52:11] know kind of where people want to go, it is very helpful.

[1:52:14] And I think we need to in the future discuss private funding and what we are going to allow

[1:52:21] outside people to find, and what we're not, I think we need to get both specific on that.

[1:52:25] I know, I mean, I want to do a bunker hole in elementary and the PTA paid myself, very soon.

[1:52:30] I think we need to get down to any gritty on that and decide what we want to do, and I do think that we have lots of opportunities with marketing, but I mean, it's out there. We just need to go get it.

[1:52:45] When is this serve? When does the survey close again? Can we remind the public?

[1:52:49] Yes, the survey will close on the 22nd and we will have a reminder going out this week and a reminder going out on Monday.

[1:52:57] We've already had close to 900 people take the survey and both English and Spanish, and that was as of 11 o'clock this morning.

[1:53:04] So we're very pleased with the number of families who just didn't like five days have taken the survey.

[1:53:11] So we'll keep pushing and trying to get that number up as high as we can.

[1:53:14] Christine, you talked about, we've talked about parents, we've talked about staffing, increasing revenue.

[1:53:20] I want to talk about what is our process when it comes to planning and staffing and elementary campus?

[1:53:27] So I have two little elementary kids in my house, I hear often, PTA leaders from across the school district will say,

[1:53:34] we're losing a pair, we're getting this, we're losing this head count, we're adding this head count.

[1:53:39] For transparency sake, how does that process start at our elementary schools?

[1:53:45] So it starts with the projection of students.

[1:53:48] And then we have staffing, allocations, all the way down.

[1:53:53] Number one, a school gets a principal.

[1:53:57] And then based on number of students, they either get one, using elementary as example.

[1:54:01] I get one or two APs.

[1:54:06] the counselors. We changed the counseling model last year and so we've got some that are

[1:54:14] coming out of title because they are at risk counselors. They may have a different definition

[1:54:21] of the duties that they perform or they have to focus on. And then we had essential counseling

[1:54:26] model for campuses that don't have access to those funds. Then we get down to other positions

[1:54:34] I won't have this exact but you know teachers based on 24 to 1 for non for everything

[1:54:41] fourth grade and below and fifth grade is 27 to 1. That's how the teachers are staffed and

[1:54:49] then Paris are staffed based on some number of students and I just don't have that memorized and

[1:54:56] that's something we could get Brian to provide. So Paris are based on another number and then

[1:55:02] other head counts, music, art, STEM, PGP, that's all based off of just overall.

[1:55:09] Some of them get them automatically because they're school and some may get more because

[1:55:14] of their counts.

[1:55:15] So every school gets a music teacher in our teacher and health fitness teacher.

[1:55:19] But if they reach a certain threshold, like over about 750, they may get a point five,

[1:55:24] like a, so music teacher may split between two campuses or they might just teach, you know,

[1:55:29] part-time. The paraprofessionals a lot of times are allocate. You'll get a certain number of

[1:55:33] pairs to run the front office and do those kinds of essential functions. If you're on a

[1:55:38] campus that has a high bilingual population or high EB population, you may get a paraprofessional

[1:55:44] or two to address the needs of those students and or like the L-PACS, which is like

[1:55:50] the, it's like the, thank you.

[1:55:55] Yes, it's the committee that determines the needs and the placement of the student, so there's paperwork that goes with that, so you could get a paraprofessional that addresses some of those.

[1:56:03] Okay, so that might be.

[1:56:04] It depends if you could be losing parents because your student count has gone down.

[1:56:09] So yeah, sort of a student, if we have a school that's losing their EV population, they might be losing a parent or even two for next year, right?

[1:56:19] And then you mentioned the councilors, so we're still going forward with the model, where the title 1 campuses,

[1:56:27] we're using federal dollars to fund their counseling positions, and then we're asking the community to cover.

[1:56:32] No.

[1:56:33] No.

[1:56:33] We have essential counseling programs.

[1:56:35] Some campuses don't like that.

[1:56:40] And so community members have chosen to raise funds to have a specific counselor at their campus every day.

[1:56:46] We did not ask the community to do so this central counseling program and then

[1:56:53] Those positions are still

[1:56:55] Responsible for testing

[1:56:58] Responsibilities on campus a portion

[1:57:00] A portion of it. Where is that?

[1:57:02] I don't know. Sorry depends on the depends on the schools. If you have a centralized counselor and I

[1:57:08] And I want to say I understand why the parents don't like the model. I don't really care for either

[1:57:12] Right, but it is what it is. That's the only way we could make sure

[1:57:15] that every school had access to a counselor.

[1:57:18] Can you explain this centralized model for the community?

[1:57:20] I can't really explain this because some people probably don't know.

[1:57:22] Yes, so you're going to have to make sure I say that.

[1:57:25] So when you're using federal funds, you cannot supplant.

[1:57:32] So that means what that means is you cannot have a position across the system at every campus,

[1:57:38] and use federal dollars to pay for it on campuses with lots of low income kids,

[1:57:42] and use general fund dollars to pay for it on campuses without low income and they're doing the same job.

[1:57:50] So with the same job description, same job title, you can't that's illegal.

[1:57:55] So what you can do is you can create, you can use your title funds to create like an app risk account,

[1:58:02] you call it an app risk counselor and they're providing services for those kids because they are at risk

[1:58:07] and the needs that come with that population of student,

[1:58:11] and we can pay for those out of federal funds

[1:58:13] because those campuses largely have low-income kids.

[1:58:16] You cannot use those dollars at a campus

[1:58:19] that does not have a large number of low-income kids.

[1:58:23] And you cannot have an at-risk counselor there.

[1:58:27] It has to have a different function.

[1:58:30] And the different location is a lot of rules

[1:58:33] I could go down a rabbit hole, but essentially,

[1:58:36] The only way we could do that and make sure everybody had a counselor was to provide the at-risk counselor at the campus for the Taiwan campuses and then take the general fund and create what we call like a cadre of counselors that are funded centrally, so they're not funded to get tied to the campus because that would be supplanting their tied centrally and they're deployed to the campuses.

[1:59:01] is now we try to make sure, and Tyrah Walker is in the audience here, we try to make sure that

[1:59:08] you don't have to come forward. I've got this one. We try to make sure of centralized

[1:59:14] counselors deployed to the same campus. Right. But you might want to sort of be correct,

[1:59:18] but that isn't always happened. And so it was a way for us to leverage the dollars and

[1:59:24] provide everybody a counselor. And the reason we did that was because for those of

[1:59:28] who have been here for ever in a day.

[1:59:31] When we cut the, made the huge breads,

[1:59:35] budget cuts in 2011, that some of you guys

[1:59:37] probably had smaller, my, our kids were smaller,

[1:59:40] but they were now in elementary school.

[1:59:43] We took our, what we did was we took all the elementary counselors,

[1:59:46] and we cut the group of them in half.

[1:59:48] We just said, you get, there's half the counselors,

[1:59:50] and each counselor services, two counselor services.

[1:59:53] And when I tell you, it was the worst decision we've ever made

[1:59:56] In this district, it leveranks in the top five. It was terrible.

[2:00:00] A train wreck, nothing got done. Nobody got services. And I said to myself, if I was ever in a decision making situation, that I would never, ever, ever recommend that again. That's how bad it was if you were here. Was in Annie's position at the time and managing it was an absolute nightmare. And nobody really got anything done. So we were not going to do that again. And we know elementary schools have to have a counselor. And so this was a way for them to have a counselor, although not preferred,

[2:00:29] It still provides the service.

[2:00:31] So is this maybe?

[2:00:32] One second.

[2:00:33] One second.

[2:00:33] I'm sorry to interrupt.

[2:00:34] I just need to note something for Stacy.

[2:00:36] This is just procedural.

[2:00:37] I have an unavoidable conflict that I have to step out for.

[2:00:40] And so care, I suppose.

[2:00:41] Oh, I'm sorry.

[2:00:42] And so, Caroline.

[2:00:43] I'm sorry.

[2:00:43] She's going to take over.

[2:00:45] So can you just note that?

[2:00:47] And I'm sorry.

[2:00:48] So.

[2:00:49] Thank you, Shannon.

[2:00:50] Is this why some campuses, the testing responsibilities,

[2:00:54] might be done by Councillor and some campuses.

[2:00:56] Maybe they're done by an assistant principal.

[2:00:58] might be correct. Because you probably as an elementary principal, you're not going to turn

[2:01:06] the testing responsibilities, which is a large job, a very technical and you mess something

[2:01:13] up on your state testing and you talk about a take over, you'll have a whole other issue

[2:01:17] on your hands. So you really need somebody that's at the campus full time, and so that's

[2:01:22] why you'll see some campuses have the counselor doing it because they have funded their

[2:01:26] and they can do that. If you're a campus that has a centralized counselor, if you're the

[2:01:32] PTA's paying for a counselor, they may give them those duties they may not. Some schools

[2:01:36] will trade units and create what we call a case worker. It's a testing, essentially testing

[2:01:42] coordinator. Some of our campuses have that. And or they've used their own title funds

[2:01:46] to fund that. So you'll see a variety of different structures for how they handle testing.

[2:01:52] Because you bring up another good point. I'm going trade trading units. So that's when let's say we tell a campus principal, a here's two pairs and they might say a instead of two pairs. I want to have a half of a teacher half of a teacher or a counselor or a stem teacher.

[2:02:07] Do we make those decisions like do y'all make that or did the principals have autonomy to make that autonomy our principals have quite a bit of autonomy. Yes, they're staffing. Yes, they do.

[2:02:17] Okay, I just feel like some people in the community, some of these school supporting organizations

[2:02:22] are just kind of starting to get a little-

[2:02:23] I mean, these are great questions.

[2:02:26] I mean, they really are.

[2:02:27] I mean, this is when we talk about being creative, this is what we're talking about.

[2:02:33] And then a lot of schools have reached out to parents.

[2:02:36] Please start your re-enrollment information.

[2:02:39] When are parents and teachers and campus principals going to find out, you know, the staffing allocations?

[2:02:47] to have them. So they're finalized.

[2:02:49] They got them in March.

[2:02:50] And March, okay.

[2:02:54] Walker, they will get preliminary staffing usually in December, which is really early, but we try to give it to them, especially at the high school level, because they're trying to do a master schedule, and they need time to do it.

[2:03:04] We'll give them preliminary staffing in December, knowing that they make the print, and then we give the principal an amount of time for which the principal can come forward.

[2:03:14] they usually do this with Brian and Christine, they'll say, I think my

[2:03:20] enrollment, I think my projections are off and third grade, let's say. And I believe I'm

[2:03:25] going to have, I've got this many in a classroom but I've had another 15 more kids who

[2:03:31] have come and they have their moving in. We've seen the paperwork for the home and they're

[2:03:37] going to be here and so if they can, if they can prove that then we may alter their

[2:03:44] they're teaching allocations at the US.

[2:03:46] The principal has some time to come to us and say,

[2:03:48] I don't agree, or lobby for things,

[2:03:53] and we take very hard look at all of that.

[2:03:55] We've been very conservative this year,

[2:03:58] and not given a lot of units until we see what we say,

[2:04:00] the whites of the eyes.

[2:04:01] Yeah, and that's kind of what we're doing.

[2:04:03] Yeah, so it's much, much tighter,

[2:04:06] but we do give them that opportunity,

[2:04:07] but they have their final staffing.

[2:04:09] So then what about navigating this?

[2:04:11] What I'll call like a triangle relationship.

[2:04:13] If you have the, you know, the PTA funding some positions, the campus district needs, the, the principal, you know, has some authority of their campus, is there, is there any framework in place for, for PTAs to kind of get some feedback on really, what they're funding, like if they're funding a math intervention list, can we tell the PTAs, they put out this many students for this many hours.

[2:04:36] You should be able to make sure to get that from friends about that.

[2:04:39] I used to have to report that too.

[2:04:41] We had that at Frostwood.

[2:04:43] Every year, when before we do our PTA budget,

[2:04:45] we would say, how many kids were serviced?

[2:04:48] How many kids were pulled out?

[2:04:50] What were the weekly schedules like?

[2:04:52] That should come from the PTA.

[2:04:54] Yeah, that's great.

[2:04:55] Because I feel like we want our PTAs to put in a lot of the PTAs.

[2:04:58] Some of these campuses, and I want to make sure that the PTAs are feeling valued and appreciated,

[2:05:02] but also getting some feedback on the time.

[2:05:05] It kind of goes to a principle may realize it's not math, that's their primary focus, it's now reading and so they need to be able to communicate that and the PTA understand that that might need to be a change of resources.

[2:05:19] Well, and the way it was worked, I actually understood it as the district now owns that unit is that correct.

[2:05:27] So the principle can decide what that's used for, not the PTA, even though they're funding it at some point they can change it.

[2:05:34] I think sometimes we need to remind some PTAs that the principal needs to be able to make the appropriate changes.

[2:05:40] And sometimes that's a tough conversation.

[2:05:42] It's very tough.

[2:05:43] Yeah, I'm not just going to want our PTAs to feel like they're just a piggy bank.

[2:05:46] I'm going to have some buy-in and some input.

[2:05:49] I mean, PTAs, I would be asking that question if I'm giving money to fund a physician.

[2:05:53] I mean, that's, I mean, I would hope that if we need to revisit that with our principles,

[2:05:57] we can absolutely remind them that they should be communicating with their PTAs

[2:06:02] the success of a position if it's helpful, not helpful, and what might be what a more helpful

[2:06:11] use of those people.

[2:06:13] Right.

[2:06:14] We've funded an extra science teacher, but I feel like next year we need to work on math.

[2:06:19] Some of these PTA staffing budgets are getting pretty large.

[2:06:24] There's even some PTAs that are talking about operating that deficit budgets next year

[2:06:27] to meet additional staffing, not obligations, but additional staffing had counts at their elementary schools.

[2:06:34] Yeah. All right. Thank you.

[2:06:36] You're having the same discussions that we're having. Yes, exactly right. I mean, I don't disagree.

[2:06:40] Yeah. And they have the same. It's a different revenue source, but it's the same concept.

[2:06:45] There's only so much money that is being provided. The place they're getting their funds.

[2:06:51] Those parents have the same pressures on their own person. I get it. Yeah. This is not the price at all.

[2:06:57] all of us at this table, our fixed costs are going up at our house.

[2:07:00] So what do we do?

[2:07:01] Maybe we don't donate as much to that elementary school.

[2:07:04] This time, yeah.

[2:07:05] These are all very tough conversations.

[2:07:10] So when just to prepare the public, what is the timeline

[2:07:14] look like for discussions?

[2:07:17] Can you just walk the public through over the years?

[2:07:21] What that looked like a couple years ago?

[2:07:23] and when would you bring to the public say schools needed to be closed or

[2:07:29] Thanks for watching, and I'll see you in the next video, and I'll see you in the next video.

[2:07:30] And to be centralized, when does that look like so we can start to wrap our heads around that?

[2:07:36] So, I think, you know, Christine said it perfectly. We really need to start these conversations in August.

[2:07:42] And I think the board would need to decide whether you want that to be recommendations we bring to you, or if you would want to have more of a community group.

[2:07:51] That would come together. And you wouldn't want to be too big, but we've done that before.

[2:07:55] So we would need to know what the pleasure of the board is in terms of the conversation and who's in the conversation.

[2:08:03] But our goal would always be as we did last time to be able to present what those reductions would be at least by January.

[2:08:15] And the reason for that is what we're talking, you know, if we're cutting something on a PTA would want to pick that up, we'd want them to have time to do that.

[2:08:23] If you're closing a school, you know, you want parents to have options, and so like we did

[2:08:31] and now that can always happen, and you know that we close to school very late in the

[2:08:35] game several years ago, and you could see some of that happening.

[2:08:40] But ideally we would like to do all of that in the first semester, that is not always possible.

[2:08:44] But I would say definitely we would want to have those decisions made by March, because

[2:08:50] then we have contracts and things we have to deal with.

[2:08:53] so we have to have it done in time for us to make changes.

[2:08:56] And also ideally, get them out before the choice application deadline.

[2:08:59] All of that is important.

[2:09:01] And what you might do is have some decisions made by December and other decisions we may still

[2:09:07] be working on.

[2:09:07] Which is how we do that.

[2:09:09] Yeah, definitely the programmatic changes, school closures, partnerships, things like that.

[2:09:16] Those decisions were made in the fall.

[2:09:19] So that parents could explore their options going into the spring, but some of the staffing we were still finalizing that and brought that later as part of the budget process.

[2:09:32] You guys would be part of the discussion.

[2:09:34] Like we were before, you know, some of those items were kind of tucked globally until we were ready to be with that detail.

[2:09:42] Because again, when you guys are seeing, it can't happen without affecting staff.

[2:09:49] And that's how to get through a school year.

[2:09:51] And that timeline that you were just discussing that.

[2:09:54] I deal with timeline.

[2:09:56] That those dates would apply to the 2728 budget.

[2:10:01] Not the 2627 budget.

[2:10:06] So we've already passed those dates for.

[2:10:09] There's still changes that could be made.

[2:10:10] Sometimes changes are made in the middle of the year.

[2:10:12] I'm going to go back to when we did these other changes.

[2:10:15] I went to senior staff early.

[2:10:16] that year and said give me money now. So they made some changes then and closed vacancies and

[2:10:24] things like that. They started making some centralized programmatic changes that very few

[2:10:28] people felt but we did that early. I just didn't let them wait and I made them make some 10%

[2:10:36] changes. That 10% cut, planning for 27, 28. So some of that some things could happen during

[2:10:43] the year of 2627. They can, because you can do it with vacancies and attrition. They

[2:10:49] will have to hear.

[2:10:50] So basically what you're saying is the budget process is a year-long process and formulation

[2:10:55] and in the review mirror also just from the standpoint of we're still going to be working

[2:11:00] out numbers for the past budget.

[2:11:03] We take about a week off and not talk about budget after the budget gets passed. That's

[2:11:09] I don't think it'll make sense.

[2:11:10] Your work is great.

[2:11:11] Yeah, I appreciate it.

[2:11:12] I appreciate it.

[2:11:13] But I do want to ask a question though, so as I'm looking at this, let's go back to

[2:11:18] the fund balance in the policy, so the number in the policy is 19%.

[2:11:23] This is at 17 right now, as we've seen this page line and up, if this word, the budget that

[2:11:31] we would be going forward with, we would need to, you need to get some directive from the

[2:11:36] toward to adjust the fund balance at this number.

[2:11:41] Correct.

[2:11:42] But meaning the decisions we make during the 2627-2728,

[2:11:49] one thing is about the budget, but it is also to add to fund balance.

[2:11:53] And so there's a resolution that you all pass when you pass the budget.

[2:11:59] And so we will, in my opinion, put some wording in there where you're directing

[2:12:04] administration to make sure we're working on this.

[2:12:09] And I had a question doing back to what we're talking about a minute ago about the program changes.

[2:12:13] And I know TA is totally unpredictable.

[2:12:16] When do they expect you to have all those numbers to them?

[2:12:19] And if they're deciding that they might want to dictate what school districts do,

[2:12:24] do we have any idea when they would come down with those directives?

[2:12:28] About the facilities.

[2:12:28] So it's to do May 15th and just know the two people who will lead that have an election and a budget to get done and also have three bond fund bond programs going on.

[2:12:44] So that's who it's going to fall to to get done by the 15th of May.

[2:12:50] Also I believe they will use this in the legislative conversation and it will come out of the legislature.

[2:12:55] So we might still be able to make decisions on our own

[2:12:58] for the immediate future, but going forward that like that.

[2:13:03] There is a legislative session in 27.

[2:13:06] They do pass things that make a requirement for 27, 28.

[2:13:10] That could make a requirement for 27, 28.

[2:13:13] Like they just did.

[2:13:14] So there would be last minute just months to it, which is why

[2:13:17] we need to be super conservative on any plan cuts

[2:13:21] so that we can handle the turnaround requirements

[2:13:23] that will come from the legislature and cost.

[2:13:27] So you think maybe some of these forms, they're saying like,

[2:13:31] you have this many classrooms at this campus.

[2:13:34] How many kids are there?

[2:13:36] They want to see our utilization rates of buildings and...

[2:13:38] They're going to say...

[2:13:39] With the state for school closures?

[2:13:40] They're going to say Spring Branch is saying they need to save $25 million.

[2:13:45] But I'm looking at a piece of paper that says four schools should be closed.

[2:13:49] So, they obviously don't, aren't being efficient in there by today.

[2:13:57] Yes.

[2:13:57] That's how they'll use the message to say they don't need to give us any money because

[2:14:01] we can find it by doing that.

[2:14:07] But then the reality, when we go to 17%, anything going forward, we have to have zero and then surplus.

[2:14:14] Exactly.

[2:14:15] I mean, so we're the following years going to be really brutal.

[2:14:20] This was coming.

[2:14:21] I mean, we saw this coming, and it just is now here.

[2:14:31] Thank you.

[2:14:35] Thank you, Christine.

[2:14:37] The next item on the, does anyone have anything else?

[2:14:40] The next item on the agenda is, no.

[2:14:43] The next item on the agenda is executive session.

[2:14:45] The board will now adjourn into executive session under the following sections of the Texas

[2:14:49] of meetings act, section 551.074 regarding the routine personnel and other personnel matters

[2:14:56] including the duties of employees and public affairs officers.

[2:15:00] Section 551.021, regarding deliberation of personal, personally identify a identifiable information of a public school student. Section 551.076, regarding deliberation of the deployment or special occasions for a momentation of security personnel or devices or deliberation of security audit.

[2:15:20] Section 550711, consultation with the Board's Attorney regarding all matters that have authorized by law, including that not limited to its discussion of Elzanovo versus Spring Branch ISD civil action number H211997, and legal issues surrounding public finance.

[2:15:37] The time is now 815, PM.

[2:15:41] This meeting is now reconvened in open session and compliance with the provisions of open meetings laws of the state of Texas.

[2:15:47] the time is now 8.59.

[2:15:55] Executive session has been completed. Just completed has been held for

[2:15:59] discussion of topics as well, but the law of no action was taken. The next item on the agenda

[2:16:04] is a request for approval of routine personnel. So we have a motion.

[2:16:09] So moved.

[2:16:11] Second. Any discussion?

[2:16:17] It has been moved by David Flattery and

[2:16:28] The motion has been approved by vote of 7 to 0, 6, 6 is 0, thank you.

[2:16:36] The motion has been approved by vote of 6 to 0 that we approve routine personal items

[2:16:40] is recommended by the administration.

[2:16:44] The next item on the agenda is a request for consideration of administrative requests for

[2:16:48] outside employment in accordance with House Bill 3372 of the 89 legislative session.

[2:16:55] Do we have a motion?

[2:16:57] So moved.

[2:16:59] Second.

[2:17:02] Any discussion?

[2:17:07] It's been moved by Jennifer Highland and seconded by Walker Agnew.

[2:17:11] All those in favor say aye and raise your hand.

[2:17:14] Aye.

[2:17:15] Any opposed?

[2:17:16] Say no and raise your hand.

[2:17:18] The motion has been approved by vote of six to zero.

[2:17:21] that we approve and ministerate a request for outside employment and accordance with House Bill

[2:17:26] 3372, A9th Legislation.

[2:17:30] Dr. Wayne, do you have any clothing or marks?

[2:17:33] I do not.

[2:17:36] There will be no further business to come before the board this morning.

[2:17:39] This workshop meeting is adjourned.

[2:17:41] The time is now 9 o 1 p.m.

Apr 13, 2026 Workshop

Agenda

Transcript