[This transcript was generated automatically from audio using AI and hasn't been reviewed by a person -- it can contain mistakes, including plausible-sounding sentences that were never actually said. Treat it as a starting point, not a verbatim record.]

[7:20] I would like to announce that a quorum is present. The meeting is duly called, and the notice of the meeting
[7:24] is in person, according to the Texas Open Meeting Act. The time is 6pm. The following board members
[7:31] are in attendance. Allison LaSawn, Dr. Stacey Barker, Katherine Cells, Michelle O'Kateb, Madison
[7:38] Lopez, and Jenny Prosnick. I've asked board member, Ms. Lopez, to leave us in prayer.
[7:45] Thank you so much for bringing us here together.
[7:48] Thank you that we had a safe winter break.
[7:51] You brought us here to accomplish good work for our community and for each other and for your glory.
[7:57] And pray that you would give us wisdom and courage and boldness as we continue to do the work that you've placed before us.
[8:03] And I pray a blessing and safety over all of the students, the administrators and the staff that have come back to get to work and continue learning.
[8:12] I thank you so much for this team that we're working with and I thank you for all of the good work
[8:17] that we're going to accomplish tonight and it's in your heavenly name and print. Amen.
[8:24] The board will now convene into closed session as authorized by Texas Government Code Section 551,
[8:29] specifically 551.071, 072 and 074.
[8:35] And the time is now 601 PM.
[9:54] We are back on the record and open session having returned from closed session.
[9:58] Let's see.
[10:00] Time is now 649 p.m. Please join us in the Pledge of Allegiance and the Texas Pledge.
[10:36] I've asked Board Member
[10:37] Missiles on to share our mission and vision statement. Our mission statement tonight is engaging
[10:42] in inspiring learners and leaders. Our vision statement is all students are confident, equipped
[10:49] with the knowledge and skills to thrive at a depth for their future. Thank you. Public comments are
[10:56] next on the agenda, but we have no speakers tonight.
[11:00] We will move on to item I discussion items.
[11:04] The superintendent's report, Dr. Ratt.
[11:07] Yes, Madam President, members of the board.
[11:09] I'm going to ask Ms. Gaule to come on up in Karen Spalding.
[11:13] Oh, and there's Lilliana.
[11:16] Yes, thrilled that she made it back.
[11:20] All right, so one of the things that we discussed with you all
[11:23] When we brought the turnaround plans forward, was that we would be doing a review district
[11:29] wide of our bilingual program and taking a look at if we needed to bring forward any changes
[11:36] to the current model that we have in place.
[11:38] So I'm going to turn over to the team to present those thoughts about that this evening.
[11:43] Great.
[11:43] Thank you.
[11:44] Good evening.
[11:45] Madam President, Dr. Rap.
[11:46] Members of the board.
[11:47] Thank you for allowing us the opportunity to share some follow-up information as Dr. Rap had
[11:51] shared.
[11:51] We have been considering a lot of things around the idea of making some adjustments to our
[11:57] dual-language programming as we have evolved and have learned a lot about what works and
[12:03] what we could improve upon.
[12:05] So with that being said, some of those recommendations that we're bringing to you tonight include
[12:10] program consolidation opportunities, instructional model information, sharing with you some staffing
[12:16] challenges and what we would look to do to support that and then reallocation of support
[12:20] from the district level, that we feel like could be a positive impact on the dual-language
[12:24] program.
[12:26] We're going to start with program consolidation benefits.
[12:29] Of course, that we're consolidation sounds to some people, as if there's a level of removal
[12:34] of a dual-language program, and I just want to assure you, and validate for everyone that
[12:38] dual-language has a very positive impact on our district, and it's strong, and it's healthy,
[12:42] and we will continue to make sure we do so.
[12:44] And that's part of the reason that we're here tonight is to make sure that we continue to offer
[12:48] a very robust dual-language program in our district.
[12:52] So those benefits that we've been looking at include
[12:54] efficient use of staff and resources,
[12:58] centralized support from the district.
[12:59] We have a great support system, but we wanted to talk
[13:02] about how we might be able to provide additional support
[13:06] in a more strategic way.
[13:08] Focus professional development for each of the program models
[13:11] that we're going to talk about one way and two way tonight
[13:13] for both the administrators and the teachers
[13:14] and the efficacy of the implementation
[13:16] of the program requirements for each model, so that it is operating true to what it's expected
[13:21] to be and what has the best return on investment for those programs.
[13:27] Lilliana is going to take some of the next pieces and share with you about how bilingual education
[13:32] is funded and what those program model opportunities are within the state of Texas.
[13:37] As you recall, the state defines bilingual education as a big umbrella for these various
[13:43] programs. I just want to know that in LISD, we have user program models on every single campus,
[13:52] that's the red part of the umbrella. Tonight, we're going to concentrate on the green part
[13:58] of the umbrella, which is the bilingual program models. Whereas in my way, I'm going to
[14:11] late or early exit programs.
[14:15] These programs are more of a subtractive instructional approach where students is out of
[14:21] the whole language and up to English only.
[14:25] We are proud to offer programs that aim for by literacy, right?
[14:35] All of the way back up of a student is what defines the different programs.
[14:40] In this slide, we can see that on our lower classrooms, the blue one, right, all students
[14:51] These are e-penies, whose native language is Spanish, and they'll learn anything.
[15:01] On the second one is what we call our two-way program, which our e-be is, our mix, our learning, our own side, Spanish language learners. The framework of a Spanish language learners, to be defined as a two-way classroom.
[15:22] Then we have our strip problems that we offer at Higgs and Wellington, and this
[15:30] presence and full of expansion learners who's native language is predominantly English.
[15:37] And then, at the Spokane, we have the ESL program and that we have a mix of EVs
[15:46] primary language come from all around the world.
[15:56] It's important to annotate that in 2019,
[16:00] the 86 legislative station passed the low HP3,
[16:05] which established the film,
[16:06] fundamental elements for various classroom sets.
[16:09] What is it? A plan one multiplied for EV students
[16:13] have on an ESL program.
[16:17] Students in our one way or two way that our EV
[16:22] is get a multiplier of 0.15.
[16:25] And our strategy is numbers in our two-way classrooms
[16:28] who see that 0.05 multiplier as well.
[16:36] So keeping all of that in mind, here's our consolidation plan.
[16:41] You can see in this table our current layout
[16:44] of programs we have 13 programs in all.
[16:48] And we're proposing that we reduce that number
[16:50] to 11.
[16:52] You can see which campuses serve our one-way programs
[16:55] 2A. We've got a couple of campuses that are currently in the process of transitioning from one
[17:01] way to 2A. Those are campuses in which we have seen a decline in Spanish language learner
[17:06] participation. And so we had already previously made the decision to roll that program off and
[17:13] just serve the E.B. at those campuses. And we continue to have our Spanish immersion program at
[17:19] and Wellington. So, with that, we've, with, um, at camey elementary, we decided several years ago
[17:29] due to low enrollment numbers that we would actually remove the dual-language program,
[17:34] and we'd roll that off one year at a time to keep our commitment to any current students that were
[17:38] in the program, and we are down to third and fifth graders only. There were so few fourth graders,
[17:46] those only eight in the program this last year that they already moved to Peter's colony.
[17:52] And with fifth graders being a graduating at the end of this year we propose that we go ahead
[17:58] and move that last third grade or rising fourth grade class to Peter's colony so that that
[18:04] campus can go ahead and be done with the dual language program and we can still serve the students
[18:09] well at Peter's colony. So with Kayney rolling off and mill street students being dispersed
[18:17] across prayer trail, Lakeland, and Lewisville for their participation in due language,
[18:22] we can reduce by two campuses. Additionally, we propose that Southridge and Vickory
[18:32] go from one two-way campuses to serving as one-way campuses. Southridge is already in
[18:38] transitional stage, they only have first through fifth graders right now that still have some
[18:43] Spanish language learners in their classrooms, but there's very few students across those grade levels
[18:50] that are Spanish language learners and Vickery has low numbers of Spanish language learners as well.
[18:56] I'll show you those numbers on the next slide, but if we moved all those, if we offered all of those
[19:01] families the opportunity to go to Parkway, they could still participate in a two-way dual program
[19:07] and it's very close to where they live,
[19:09] and that was strengthened the two-way program at Parkway,
[19:12] and allow victory and salvage
[19:14] to focus on their EB student success.
[19:19] With those changes, we would have more one-way programs
[19:23] than two-way programs.
[19:25] We really like the idea of having a two-way program
[19:28] and almost every feeder pattern,
[19:29] just to serve that program across our district.
[19:33] That's important to us.
[19:34] So we would want to do some strategic marketing
[19:36] to try to beef up the SLL participation in those programs, but I will say that our lowest
[19:42] numbers currently are at Peter's colony. There's still enough students there that we
[19:47] want to try and renew its health, but we would want to keep an eye on that in the coming years,
[19:52] in case we wanted to make the decision to consider if they should transition to a one way as well.
[20:00] Now, let's look at some of those numbers. Here is what that looks like across the campuses, so you can see our student totals from this year at each campus.
[20:11] And, recalling that Liliana just mentioned the state requires a one-third to two-third ratio between Spanish language learners and E.B.'s to be considered a two-way classroom.
[20:23] you can see that that's challenging in our two-way programs at this time.
[20:30] So we intend to do some strategic marketing where space is available and try to really beef those numbers up.
[20:37] But we only bring students in at the kindergarten level and we grow them through that program.
[20:42] So it takes a while then for numbers to catch up over the space of the whole school.
[20:49] You can see the numbers of students that the SLL call them for victory in Southridge that support what I was talking about there as well, why we propose that they might become a one-way campus instead.
[21:07] Those are the programmatic changes, but now I want to move into the instructional changes that we propose for those campuses.
[21:15] Thank you.
[21:17] On our two way program campuses where classes are made up of both eB's and SLLs, we would
[21:22] want to continue to offer what we have now, which is our 50-50 instructional model.
[21:27] Those numbers, 50-50 refer to the number of instructional minutes that are spent in each
[21:32] language.
[21:33] So all of our core content is taught in both English and in Spanish and what's called
[21:44] between English and Spanish either across days or weeks depending on the grade level.
[21:51] And we proposed, as I said, increasing marketing risk basis available to try to maintain that
[21:57] healthy balance of Spanish language learners any piece in this classroom.
[22:01] But additionally, we really need to increase the amount of cross linguistic strategies
[22:06] that are being used in the classroom and bridging lessons that are within our curriculum,
[22:11] built within our curriculum to help students make that transition every time they rotate
[22:16] between languages so that they're really connecting what they're learning in English and
[22:21] what they're learning in Spanish. That's going to require some additional training and
[22:26] some additional curriculum work to beef up what we provide for those teachers in our two way
[22:31] campuses.
[22:34] Now in our one-way classrooms where our classrooms are made up of only emergent
[22:39] bilingual students, we would like to move to a more robust sequential model.
[22:46] So instead of simultaneous teaching both English and Spanish at the same time, we would
[22:51] actually teach their home language of Spanish first and then follow up later with English
[22:58] instruction.
[22:59] So we currently have that model in our pre-K and our kindergarten classrooms, but in kindergarten
[23:06] right now we only teach the sequentially in literacy. We teach the first semester of literacy
[23:14] in Spanish before we start that rotation in the second semester. What we're proposing is
[23:19] that we would actually move to an 80-20 approach where the whole year in all content would be
[23:26] spent teaching in Spanish to get that really strong foundation of content in place with 20% of
[23:32] instructional and it's going to English instruction so that they have more intellectual
[23:39] velcro in which to attach that English learning to because their L1 their first language
[23:45] is so strong.
[23:50] And in doing so we would then roll that percentage up a little bit and first
[23:56] going to a 70% 30% model, where we'd take on a little bit more English instruction, and by
[24:03] second grade, we feel like our emergent bilingual students would be better prepared to handle
[24:08] a 50-50 simultaneous approach because they would have so much of a strong foundation in their first
[24:15] language. We propose that we roll out this approach in Precane, kindergarten, in the 26 and 27 school
[24:23] and that the adjusted program would roll up with those students so that they're set up for success.
[24:30] We could currently serve our first through fifth grade students in our current program model,
[24:36] and just work to strengthen it by increasing those instructional strategies that I spoke of earlier
[24:41] and make sure that we're following program with great fidelity.
[24:48] Now, our staffing challenges are tricky.
[24:52] We have a hard time hiring bilingual teachers.
[24:57] They are...
[25:00] Not as plentiful as we want them to be, and we face competition with other school districts that offer competitive salaries and competitive stipends.
[25:10] And so with that in mind, and our program changes requiring some additional training that we would require teachers to participate in, we propose that we should consider increasing the bilingual stipend.
[25:25] That's certainly part of Dr. Rapp's compensation plan that's going to be presented at the
[25:30] next board meeting. So I know that's already been on hearts and minds for a while now.
[25:37] But with that, we would like to consider creating an ESL partner stipend as well. When our teachers
[25:43] partner do a bilingual teacher with ESL partner, those people are also having to do special instructional
[25:51] strategies that are unique to a dual-language classroom, and those teachers need to come to
[25:55] those same required trainings. And if there was some way to consider offering them a stipend
[26:01] as well, that would really help us continue to keep strong ESL partners in our dual-language
[26:09] classroom, which is not as challenging as hiring bilingual certified teachers, but we do see
[26:17] turnover in our ESL partnership, so we hope that that would be a strategy that would help there as well.
[26:24] And then finally, at the district level, we're looking at redefining some of the support positions that we already have in place in order to maximize service across these two models so that we can have some people that are really dedicated to the success of these models on their campuses.
[26:41] We're reviewing our language acquisition support role to increase the currently provide both compliance support and instructional coaching.
[26:52] And we'd like to strengthen that instructional coaching side of the model to give us more people to help teachers be successful.
[26:59] And we're analyzing our district staff needs in order to make sure that the curriculum that we have in place has enough of those strategies written into it.
[27:07] So our teachers are given exactly what they need to be successful.
[27:12] With that I will welcome any feedback you had about these program proposals and just want to say thank you for all the support that you give us both as a learning and teaching team, but specifically for our emergent bilingual students and our dual language program.
[27:29] Thank you so much.
[27:31] Anybody have any questions?
[27:33] I have just a couple and maybe some more of a comment, I'm going to challenge you to be very creative in the marketing of these programs.
[27:46] We see it in other districts and I think if you just do the same, it's going to just fall to the wayside.
[27:54] So just a challenge to be very creative and I guess that'll be done through our communications
[27:59] team.
[28:01] But even if that means some outside help, maybe, just to make sure that we're not redoing
[28:10] what our community is already seeing in some ways.
[28:15] And then I'm curious about the new splits, the 80s, 20, 70, 30, and then to the 50, 50.
[28:22] Are those determined by lesson plan guidelines of times and then how is that monitored to ensure for accuracy and then how is it decided what contents are within those and I think that's
[28:38] That was something that I wanted so that was the other thing and then also and I would love to see comparison of stipends and salaries and area districts
[28:49] So, but back to the splits if y'all could.
[28:55] Absolutely.
[28:57] So, in our current 50-50 model, the split of teaching is taught by rotation.
[29:05] So, all content being taught in Spanish for a certain amount of time,
[29:08] and then all content taught in English for a certain amount of time.
[29:12] What if we move forward with these proposals,
[29:15] what we'd like to put in front of principles and teachers
[29:17] to get their feedback on. So the details of this are still very much in draft form. But we would
[29:23] like to propose that we are a little more specific about which contents are taught in English
[29:29] and in Spanish. And that would actually help our, some of our teachers become content experts
[29:36] in that role. So we could move to a model where that 50, 50 time is split by instructional minutes,
[29:45] but does not necessarily teach all content in both languages every day.
[29:50] So for example, we might choose to teach fifth math in the second through fifth grade, only in English, and do some brick.
[30:00] Judging to Spanish so that they get exposure to the Spanish language, but might not be taught full math lessons in Spanish, or we might choose to teach science in English, and then focus on literacy in social studies in Spanish.
[30:13] There's creative ways that we can break up the instructional minutes differently than we currently do.
[30:19] One benefit of that would be to simplify that rotation, so that students would get some Spanish and some English every single day, and teachers would not have to change what content they are teaching.
[30:30] depending on which rotation that they are within.
[30:35] And I guess I'd like to say good answer because I love that.
[30:40] I absolutely love that.
[30:42] I will be curious to see the students that if we do go into this new model.
[30:49] Dr. Fitzview, just be prepared.
[30:53] I would really love to see where they are and
[30:59] how their growth is compared to those that we only had.
[31:02] in the 50-50 in the kindergarten state and just kudos to your team for looking for ways,
[31:11] as we always do in LASD, what's best for students and I'm excited about this, so thank
[31:19] you.
[31:20] I do have a quick answer to the bilingual question because from the review that we did in
[31:25] August, our bilingual stop-ins were under the market.
[31:28] we had a 15 reporting in our market group where the our current stop-ins 3500 dollars in the
[31:36] market group stop-in was 4,570. First go ISD is a 4,000 stop-in for bilingual teachers
[31:43] Plano's 5,000 Garland's 4, McKinney's 3 Irving is 4 in Northwest is 6. So we're proposing
[31:49] to move that stop-in from 3500 dollars to 4,000.
[31:57] Dr. Becker, thank you Madam President.
[32:00] I had a similar question about the split, so thank you, Ms. Cells, for bringing that up.
[32:06] And I'm pleased to hear your answer, because S-Lar and E-Lar can be very different.
[32:11] So being able to have teachers be content experts, I think that'll also help with assessment decisions, right?
[32:16] If you are entirely taught in Spanish, for S-Lar, then you should take the Spanish start test.
[32:22] If you're entirely taught in Spanish for math, then you should take the Spanish math test, right?
[32:27] So I think that will make some ease of use in terms of the assessment decisions.
[32:34] My question is what happens, both funding and compliance wise, if we don't hit that one
[32:41] third SLL mark?
[32:49] We continue to market our campuses as one way or two way regardless, like that's who's
[32:55] eligible to attend.
[32:56] In some of our two-way campuses, where we have fewer SLL students, there might be two classrooms,
[33:04] and we ask the principals to group the Spanish language learners together so that they have at least one classroom that meets that two-way model,
[33:15] rather than splitting the students up where there might only be three students in each classroom, right?
[33:20] So, the school, I mean, because their instruction and the model is, they use the same curriculum.
[33:27] They're learning the same lessons.
[33:29] That part is still an equitable experience,
[33:37] but it groups them in a way that allows us to,
[33:40] for peans coding, actually call that a two-way camp, a two-way classroom.
[33:44] So we actually have to code each classroom as one-way or two-way in order to meet the
[33:49] of the law to the state.
[33:51] Now, funding wise, we get that multiplier for our
[33:54] emergent bilingual students, whether they're in a one-way or a two-way program,
[33:57] so that part's fine.
[33:59] The only thing we would lose then is that extra SLL funding multiplier.
[34:05] Perfect. That was the answer that I thought.
[34:07] So, thank you for clarifying.
[34:12] I'm very glad for your answer because I was concerned.
[34:17] Because in an answer to me, you said 50, 50 dual, two-way.
[34:22] is the gold standard, and it is, it is the gold standard, and in the presentation that you
[34:26] gave us in December that the numbers prove that out, that that is the gold standard in really
[34:35] giving students the opportunity to be truly bilingual and have mastery of two languages.
[34:41] I also know that until you master your native language, you can't adapt in which is why we sometimes
[34:48] is that that star score lags, if you will a little bit in some of our Spanish language learners,
[34:57] especially.
[35:00] But my question has a little bit and maybe more for next week. When we talk about our Spanish immersion, students and the stipends, are we looking at doing the same kind of stipend for those partner teachers at Hicks and Wellington that we are at the one way in the two way campuses?
[35:22] I mean, we're definitely, you know, open to whatever the feedback from the board is when it comes to those stop ends.
[35:32] They're not right now calculated in the numbers that you see in that presentation for Monday night, but if that's desired, we can definitely go back and calculate those figures.
[35:43] You know, one of the things that's interesting is the word that's coming to mind, but we are kind of competing against ourselves in the way that we offer these programs because we have really talented bilingual teachers spread across our compliance programs and our Spanish immersion programs.
[36:07] And having two locations that compete with the bilingual schools is an interesting
[36:14] talent.
[36:14] I'm not sure the other districts that have Spanish immersion have it in multiple
[36:18] locations.
[36:19] And as hard as it is to find great bilingual teachers, you know, it's hard when you
[36:25] create competing programs like that.
[36:27] But for right now, our first priority was our schools with our compliance programs, but we
[36:33] can definitely bring those numbers, if y'all wish.
[36:37] And then, has there been any consideration?
[36:39] Because I do know that they do this at Hicks and Wellington,
[36:42] which I know is a completely understand
[36:44] that I know that it's a completely different kind of program.
[36:46] But they also sometimes like, students start in first grade,
[36:50] not just kindergarten.
[36:53] So we have that opportunity already existing
[36:56] for the dual language programs.
[36:58] Typically, we would do some language testing
[37:00] to see if it is an appropriate placement.
[37:03] for them to start in first grade with no experience in this Spanish language, so it's very similar process.
[37:10] And then kind of along those lines, and I'm sorry that I don't know this off the top of my head,
[37:14] but all of the campuses that we're going to have to wait to, they have pre-K on those campuses,
[37:18] so that we could start that two-way discussion on those campuses.
[37:25] Because we're talking about if the earlier we can get the Spanish language learners,
[37:30] Right and get them interested in participating in that program and so that's just a you don't have to answer that now
[37:37] Because that's a but but that is that is something that came to me as we are talking about
[37:43] The strategy and lettering of of these programs. I'll take a look at him Parkway will be
[37:49] Will not because we are obviously hosting two pre-case centers within the Lewisville feeder pattern
[37:57] are independent as a yes and then here's a yes.
[38:02] So, it's a yes and if may I add a little Jackson, I'll partner up with Ms. Bell and we
[38:11] talk all their Spanish language learners so they get offered the opportunity to continue
[38:17] right in the do-all-end-age program in other campus.
[38:21] So one of the things that we do usually is when we spend the priority list to this gets
[38:29] in pre-K, to those families, to continue, you know, the choice to continue the program in,
[38:35] you know, as the casualty, little Jackson in another campus.
[38:39] Yeah, and to Ms. Sel's point, I do think we need to get creative in letting parents know that
[38:44] this is available to them and some of the benefits are.
[38:50] Even if you don't become a proficient Spanish speaker out of it, I mean the benefits of just language in itself with vocabulary, et cetera, I think is and the cultural exposure as well.
[39:02] I think that we have opportunities that parents may or may not know about, because they're already flustered trying to get their kindergartner at the right campus and doing those right things.
[39:14] But I greatly appreciate the work.
[39:16] I appreciate the thoughtful consolidation.
[39:19] I appreciate the latter approach.
[39:21] It is, I would note, two years earlier than a lot of other districts
[39:25] do for 50, 50, they don't get to 50, 50, don't fifth grade.
[39:29] And so I'm getting to 50, 50, at third grade, I think.
[39:32] Once again, it gets us back to the gold standard,
[39:36] which is what I think is always best for kids.
[39:40] So thank you.
[39:47] Moving on, you're still up, Dr. Rap. It's just the school start times report.
[39:53] I am. Thank you, Madam President. Members of the board, Dr. Miller's going to
[39:57] come join me for this.
[40:00] Presentation, as if this is a follow-up to our conversation about the calendar. So just as a quick reminder, historical background on school start times there in March of 2010, there was approval for the current order that were in, which is elementary high middle. In April of 2016, start times were discussed due to transportation being triple routed.
[40:27] At that time working with the vendor that we had, we had 30 minutes between routes which were difficult for drivers to cover.
[40:36] So there was a little bit of adjustment there and then in the 2016-17 school year there was an additional 15 minutes added to the elementary day,
[40:45] to have elementary, middle, and high all have a 435 minute day.
[40:50] then in June 2017, and the adjustment was made to the start times to increase those
[40:56] times again between the tears. So, Edward, the elementary day was shortened
[41:01] then by five minutes. So, it just goes to show you that when it comes to school
[41:06] start times, this has basulated over the years, culminating in April 2018 was
[41:11] really the last time that it was re-adjusted to get back to having all three levels
[41:16] have 435 minutes. And it's varied on, as we took a trip down
[41:22] history lane, it's varied on when it's been voted on versus information and
[41:28] and that kind of thing, it's just varied over the years. So I'm going to
[41:32] turn over to Dr. Miller to do some discussion about what she's seen when she
[41:37] put a focus group together last year. So if you recall last year prior to the
[41:42] calendar committee convening to develop the calendar, we had a focus group who
[41:46] looked at, start times and the length of the school day. So during that study, we noted that
[41:54] the majority, and I shared the districts that we looked at, that the majority of the districts
[42:00] had the start time order that was elementary the middle of the high, and also we noted that Louisville
[42:07] was had one of the shortest instructional times of 435 minutes. So in your work called that from
[42:13] We talked about all that whenever we looked at that so we in December, you know, we sent out a survey to you pair our parents at all levels and then staff at middle school and high school
[42:27] So we have the results
[42:29] The number of results that came in over 50,000 families received the survey. We had 5,000 little over 5,000
[42:38] submit. The responses in it was across all three levels were really good representation across.
[42:45] So, in then staff members we had about 2,000 staffers we sent it out to because it was only
[42:49] middle school high school and we had around 1,300 that responded back to that, sorry.
[42:58] So, the results I put numbers so that you could see the actual count but the percentages are
[43:04] more helpful for me to kind of see, but for parents, you have the high school was the one
[43:12] that was more just straight down half and half, half when they have the other elementary
[43:19] and middle school mean more towards the supportive side, that high school was definitely
[43:25] split straight down the middle, and then first staff came out exactly how we thought were the
[43:29] So I was supported and I didn't split.
[43:32] No school supported at high school, not supported.
[43:35] So again, whenever we looked at it at the committee last year,
[43:40] it was totally split.
[43:41] I mean, it was like 4951 split down the middle of.
[43:46] So if we were to adjust the worker,
[43:51] we would the order would be the start time and end time
[43:55] be as above if we kept our same instructional minutes and then we included staff just so you
[44:02] can see me included this also whenever we did the staff survey out so that they would know
[44:08] like this means you would report it this time versus other time.
[44:15] So one of the things that we talked
[44:16] about with the calendar and it was important just to bring back up as a part of this conversation
[44:21] and how the state is changing that if some of our campuses have to close early, they really
[44:28] want you to have enough minutes baint in order to deal with whatever that is.
[44:33] In the past, we've been able to submit, you know, a Miss school day waiver or something
[44:38] of that nature when we faced situations.
[44:42] And so with the current calendar that was approved at a 435 minute instructional day, we have
[44:49] One bad weather day built into that calendar and we're banking enough minutes for another bad weather day, which you have to be able to cover two bad weather days.
[44:58] And so that would have.
[45:00] Wow, an additional 180 minutes, faint beyond a second bad weather day, and that's it.
[45:07] So if you went back in time to last spring and we had to close campuses again, like we did
[45:14] in the city of Louisville, where we had to close about those 13 schools, right?
[45:19] For the boil water, notice in the water, one main break. If we did not have, if we had to use those
[45:28] for bad weather, then those schools would have to come back just those schools because they
[45:35] wouldn't have enough minutes baked. And I'm not for sure, you know, as I look at the transportation
[45:41] team sitting over there, I'd have to get bus drivers back, I'd have to get childhood nutrition
[45:45] staff back, or we'd have to lengthen just the school day for just those schools and not quite
[45:51] for sure, you know, that that's really feasible, right?
[45:55] And then, or we could bring them back
[45:59] for a day after everybody else has done.
[46:01] So those would be our options.
[46:05] Yep, all of them, you know, problematic in their own way.
[46:09] So we've noticed, you know,
[46:11] that districts, neighboring districts have added
[46:13] anywhere between five to 10 minutes
[46:15] as they're banking more minutes
[46:18] to deal with any concerns that may come up.
[46:22] Now, one of the things that Y'all discussed quite extensively last year when we were talking about adding minutes was the constant request we get from staff to have time more work time.
[46:36] not necessarily more PL time but more work time.
[46:40] And the way that we get teachers time right now in the calendar
[46:43] without more minutes think is through the PL waiver days.
[46:48] So the PL waiver days allow us to have teachers spend time in PLC,
[46:54] which is a way to get their collaboration and work done,
[46:57] but it doesn't meet the need of just straight work time,
[47:01] like you often hear that they ask for.
[47:03] And one of the questions that Ms. President had asked when we were going over the agenda review for the meeting was,
[47:11] what would it look like if you gave teachers a couple more days,
[47:14] how much would that cost us to do that?
[47:16] If there was a couple more days on their contract somewhere.
[47:20] And so you see those dollar figures there.
[47:23] In order to do that, we'd either have to bring them back early in July.
[47:27] You'd have to figure out where are you putting those days.
[47:29] because there's really not a place in the calendar to put them.
[47:34] But I think we're all wrestling with and you're all wrestled with in your conversation
[47:41] last year with the calendar as we all get the attention between
[47:45] enough days for instruction for students, but yet recognizing there's this tension
[47:50] with staff needing time to collaborate, plan and get worked on.
[47:55] And there's not an easy answer there because the fewer instructional days
[47:58] that students go and you think about what we just heard with bilingual programs and school improvement.
[48:04] You know, that's not an easy answer either.
[48:07] So we recognize the heartburn that comes with this conversation.
[48:12] So we worked up just a few options just to consider to put out there.
[48:17] If you wanted to increase the work time for staff,
[48:22] I can say adding two contract days that are calendars so tight that
[48:28] I mean, it's down to the instruction minutes.
[48:30] So if you were the add two days for staff,
[48:32] you would have to either come back and July,
[48:34] which there were two options for July
[48:36] that they did not pick.
[48:37] Remember when we add three choices,
[48:40] that you would have to do a holiday,
[48:42] but now have to become a work time,
[48:44] which though they want a more work time,
[48:45] they're probably going to want the holiday
[48:46] of the size of the work time, right?
[48:48] Or come back after Memorial Day to have work,
[48:51] like it's just so tight in our calendar
[48:53] that there isn't a flex day to make.
[48:55] Or work time right now.
[48:57] So, just two options if you wanted to remain our calendar next year that was approved is at 174 student learning days.
[49:07] If you wanted to keep that same number, if you added 10 minutes that would give you enough instructional time that you could change if you look at the election day on our approved calendar.
[49:21] It's half PL half work.
[49:24] We have to do half PL because we need those instructional minutes.
[49:28] So if you added 10 minutes on today's,
[49:31] then you can make that all just the work day,
[49:33] because you now have extra minutes to count.
[49:37] And then you could also defend where you day right now
[49:40] in the group counter is a full PL day,
[49:43] because we need those instructional minutes.
[49:45] You could change that to half PL half work
[49:48] because you have enough minutes to cover
[49:51] those instructional. So, that you're just changing your adding some time and then you actually
[49:57] have some extra minutes for if the water.
[50:00] One of the main breaks if something happens, you have that. But you're keeping student learning days the same. You're just changing your adding ten minutes to the day.
[50:09] If you added ten minutes to the day and you reduced student learning by one day, so you're now at one 73 and so when 74, you actually add one and a half more days of work time.
[50:24] I changed where the October, and you have a little more of a far break for students, because you're adding a PLA in October where students would be off where they wouldn't be before, but that Friday at the end of this nine weeks could be a full work day, and right now it's just a half, and then the November and February are the same examples as the one before that I described.
[50:47] So those are just some different ways you could play around with getting more work time,
[50:52] but you would have to increase by 10 minutes in order to get enough time for instructional minutes.
[51:00] And then if, so then here's just the different options.
[51:04] If you change the order and you added 10 minutes, those are just the different examples of what this
[51:11] start in times would look like to consider.
[51:17] So those are just possibilities we want to throw out there for y'all to consider, whatever
[51:23] feedback you have and what your desire is we could work up for January.
[51:29] Yeah, we have on the agenda for January 12th we're happy to bring something for for approval based
[51:34] on the feedback from the evening.
[51:38] We'll go to the direction for Monday night.
[51:42] Dr. Taylor.
[51:43] I had a question on the, if you increased by the 10 minutes, I noticed that if you added
[51:48] the two days there was a cost attached. Is the same cost attached if you increased by
[51:53] 10 minutes?
[51:57] Yeah, the cost is only if you increased the contact days if you kept the same contact but added
[52:02] the minute.
[52:02] The minute it does not have a financial cost to the district.
[52:09] Dr. Barker.
[52:10] Well, going back to that discussion last year, I fought very seriously for, I don't even know how many minutes for additional staff work time.
[52:25] So I wrote in all caps, add 10 minutes, give staff time. So that's going to be my preferred.
[52:32] And I will say I would like us to stick to the calendar days that we voted on, and we decided,
[52:41] I may have voted no, but we decided as a board on those 174 days.
[52:47] So I'd be for the first option, giving them those work times that are already sort of embedded
[52:53] in the calendar in a way, then it doesn't change the student calendar at all.
[53:00] Am I correct in that?
[53:01] Do you have anything in on start time?
[53:05] Oh, well, as I put in my survey as a parent, I do think that it makes the most sense to go elementary middle high.
[53:16] I think that's what a lot of people anticipate.
[53:18] It was a little strange having a middle schooler that was the latest to come home that always felt a little weird as a parent.
[53:28] So I'm all for moving it to elementary middle high and my daughter will be happy to instead of getting to swim at five, getting to swim at six.
[53:41] Anybody else want to get feedback? Miss Cells?
[53:43] I just want to agree with her. I think that we've had ever since I've been on the sport people always question, why do we do elementary high school middle?
[53:52] And I think that with our times and our start times,
[53:57] I have always had heart palpitations every year
[53:59] with the number of students when I go by a middle school
[54:03] and the number of students that are outside of building
[54:05] because of the time it starts
[54:07] and because we are asking parents who are just trying
[54:11] to put rent many together in food on the table
[54:16] that you're dropping your kids off at 7.45 or 7.30
[54:20] so you can get to work on time
[54:22] And so I think it's been a big balance and ask for our middle school parents, and I am
[54:29] I'm looking forward to this change.
[54:31] I also was in Las Vegas at the PTA Convention many years ago and set through an entire afternoon
[54:38] presentation by a young gentleman who had done research on the fact that high schoolers
[54:44] performed better with the later school time.
[54:47] And so it was very interesting to me back then, and it's still interesting to me now,
[54:52] and so I am all for this change, and for keeping what we voted on.
[55:06] Thank you for taking the time to look into this. I know it was a lot of work for you guys to pull this together and the data and the research and the parent survey, and then going through that. I was one who also asked for it to be done, so I really do appreciate you taking the time and really serving our community and asking them what you think, because I definitely do agree that the elementary and middle high.
[55:30] Now, my incoming middle schooler will kill me for voting in favor of that possibly because
[55:38] she is so looking forward to a late start next year and her heart is going to be broken.
[55:42] But for a good reason, I definitely agree that we should keep the number of minutes in the
[55:48] number of instructional days that we voted on. That was something that we did last year. We did
[55:52] at this year and I know that was a huge discussion point. So definitely appreciate that. Thank you.
[56:00] Or 10 more minutes or not.
[56:02] Oh, 10 more minutes.
[56:02] I definitely agree.
[56:03] Teachers need more time.
[56:04] I think they will definitely appreciate that.
[56:06] That is one of the biggest feedbacks we get.
[56:08] I know as a teacher in the classroom, I relish any amount of time I could get to.
[56:13] Make a phone call to the parents.
[56:15] Do something that I needed to get done.
[56:18] That ten minutes will be very grateful.
[56:21] This low pass.
[56:22] I don't have too much to add.
[56:24] I remember back when I was in middle school.
[56:25] I loved that late start time.
[56:26] But it was a headache like beyond anything else for my parents.
[56:30] So I agree, elementary middle school high school, I think it makes sense.
[56:34] Yeah, we always get all those questions, so I think that that's best.
[56:38] And I'm all for the 10 extra minutes a day with our current calendar.
[56:42] Sounds great to me.
[56:47] Yeah, when you, I mean, last year I didn't vote for the more more minutes.
[56:52] This year, when we put it, you know, the way things are changing with needing really kind of needing the minutes for emergency purposes, it makes a lot more sense.
[57:05] I don't think it's going to result in a whole lot of extra learning time, but I am, so the 10 minutes is fine.
[57:12] I like that first option at 174 days because I don't want to take away another day of learning.
[57:19] The only thing I don't like about that one is I hate early release days.
[57:25] But, um, oh well, we'll just have to suck it up that day.
[57:29] Because that's an earth that would be putting in an early release day.
[57:33] There's not an early in the day so it's say the same so for October
[57:37] You get on on the Thursday students can on Thursday so Friday is just stuff. I'm looking at this thing where it's as early release in March before spring break
[57:51] Oh, that you wouldn't have that it's a student full day. They don't have an early release where we typically do have an early release
[57:59] But they won't have an early release. Oh, okay students won't have an early release. I think what I'm looking at it was different
[58:04] on then what's anyway okay so okay great yes there's no really really
[58:14] first great only on December before the winter break okay then as far as the
[58:20] start times go I mean okay okay you're not crazy good so good okay anyways it
[58:32] As far as the order, you know, I mean, I'm fine with changing it.
[58:38] I think my parents are very devoted to changing it because, I mean, honestly, I think high
[58:43] schoolers are more flexible, you know?
[58:46] You know, their activities may be now instead of saying an extra hour after school, they'll
[58:52] do an hour before school for a band.
[58:54] I don't know.
[58:55] I mean, it'll be less hot.
[58:56] I don't know.
[58:57] I don't know.
[58:57] We'll see what Mr. Jones decides to do, but, you know, I mean, that's just the
[59:02] That's my thought, so, you know, I'm finally changing the top.
[59:08] Dr. Taylor?
[59:10] Yes, I agree, or did, as my colleague normally says,
[59:15] with the 174 days remaining in the extra minutes.
[59:20] I do like the start time, you know,
[59:23] I'm finally whatever, start time.
[59:24] Because it can be driving, so I'm fine with all of them, so.
[59:28] No, I am, so yeah, I'm fine with that.
[59:34] I also didn't vote for the extraments last year because it was five and I felt that five
[59:39] to quote Dr. Bonner was like an eyelash on a nap. But I do think with ten minutes
[59:45] I think it gives a little more flexibility with passing time for high school.
[59:51] And I do think that you could certainly move in some advisory time with ten minutes a little bit
[59:55] more than with five. I thought five was.
[1:00:01] I also agree with my colleagues on 174 days as the calendar that we approved. And the ten minutes would give the teachers what they've asked for, which is as the work days, which I 100% agree it is something that they've asked for and that I would like to give.
[1:00:17] And I like to see that what my, you know, my always say I'm a great person with an idea that can cause a district a lot of money or that is illegal.
[1:00:24] So, you know, that's why I asked, well, what if we just extended the contract to give them those two days, what would that look like?
[1:00:33] I won't lie, I was a little shocked at the amount of money that that would just two days would cost.
[1:00:38] I think that should be an eye opener, maybe to the public of what two days in the district costs.
[1:00:46] You know, put that in, and that's, you know, but as we go to talk about compensation next month, that's just what two days are.
[1:00:54] We're talking teachers are 188 days, 87 days, and we're talking about 174 days for students.
[1:01:04] So, look at that, soak in of what we shell out, just in that staff for campuses.
[1:01:11] So, I think you have your feedback in your options for next month.
[1:01:16] Yeah, thank you so much. And one of the things that I always told that I'll follow up with is
[1:01:21] open-ended responses to the survey so we provided the call it the percentages and numbers.
[1:01:29] Tonight, Dr. Fisty worked up a document for you all so you can see everybody's open-ended
[1:01:33] answers as well. I appreciate everyone that took the survey and gave us feedback. I always
[1:01:39] say to people, it's so important. We need your feedback. We want your feedback and that we read
[1:01:45] every response that we get and so I'll turn around and I will be providing all that document
[1:01:50] from her after the board meeting this evening.
[1:01:54] Thank you so much.
[1:01:57] Next up is the Student Services Report, Mr. Kosh, the Transportation Update.
[1:02:29] President President, Board members and Dr. Rap, thank you for allowing us to come for our
[1:02:35] Transportation Update.
[1:02:36] As we were talking, I was looking back where we've been and going back and looking at all the
[1:02:41] updates, and it's very pleasant to be where we are right now.
[1:02:46] As you'll see, this presentation is a little bit as long as others, but we had three
[1:02:52] weeks of things in there, but we have some improvements to share.
[1:03:03] I'm busing by the numbers.
[1:03:04] This looks very familiar to what you saw last time except for that top number 207 routes.
[1:03:10] Last month, it was 209, so we're becoming more efficient, reducing the number of routes needed
[1:03:16] based on our capacities or our requirements to service different schools.
[1:03:23] Um, 30, 135 shuttles, we have the suburbans, the white fleets, the coaches, but once again
[1:03:29] every day we're looking at how to be more efficient and we're getting information from campuses
[1:03:35] as well.
[1:03:36] Hey, what about combining this route and taking this here and there and so they provide us
[1:03:40] with feedback.
[1:03:41] We share it with the team, they look at it, see if it's doable, if it's not.
[1:03:44] We have to caution them because what looks doable at one level has a trickle effect that it's, yes, it's great, we get the kids off campus quicker for you, but the delivery might be longer.
[1:03:58] So, but we do welcome all of their requests and so we're looking at it every day.
[1:04:10] So as of, I'll say today, bus drivers, we have currently one-ninety.
[1:04:18] I can't say that we do have three future drivers that should be driving next week once they complete their evaluation this week along with dry runs to ensure they are comfortable with those routes before we put them on the road.
[1:04:32] And also, I want to add, we have 10 applicants that we're contacting tomorrow that have already
[1:04:38] applied with the district and the art license.
[1:04:41] They may need their endorsements, the passenger and school bus endorsements, but that's
[1:04:46] some hope there.
[1:04:49] Bus monitors were actually sitting at 67, which is good.
[1:04:53] And then in office staff, we added two dispatchers since this report.
[1:05:00] So we're sitting at 20, 30 staff members and white fleet drivers, we're sitting at 6.
[1:05:09] And the leadership
[1:05:09] openings that we have is the executive director.
[1:05:17] Okay, I am going to go off-skrip just for a second. Do you think it's important to note like Mr.
[1:05:25] Kosh was saying, when the campuses are reaching out and saying, hey, you know, I've got two buses.
[1:05:30] I think we could combine the rounds. When they didn't need that feedback, I then will turn that over either.
[1:05:35] to lease that or some of the operations managers,
[1:05:40] the transportation management is almost fully stopped.
[1:05:45] And so I think the lease can finally kind of be
[1:05:49] the cyber-weave and they have the capacity to take a look
[1:05:53] at those requests and usually get them done.
[1:05:57] Whereas I think one person was being stretched
[1:06:00] to thin.
[1:06:01] So it's been really nice to have the staff who
[1:06:04] been such a huge help, and we're so happy to go with this.
[1:06:09] OK, so open routes, I did pull open routes and compared them from November to December.
[1:06:15] The last time I updated these numbers was the 16th of December.
[1:06:21] So they are slightly different.
[1:06:22] As of today, Mill Street has, so one, one, the colony has two open routes.
[1:06:30] Prenel has eight open routes. So a little bit different from the last time I updated that.
[1:06:36] I believe right now the focus was the colony bus sparring now it.
[1:06:42] Look, they'll see more on Prenel if that's what we're seeing the most open routes.
[1:06:48] There's the graph reflects December absences with drivers and monitors, but I kept in the November absences
[1:06:56] just so you can see the first thing consistent. Obviously Prenel has the most absences,
[1:07:02] but Prerna also has the most routes.
[1:07:11] So here we go.
[1:07:12] Stop finding the anticipation.
[1:07:15] So the two really excited about today because we didn't really know what to expect.
[1:07:19] So these numbers are slightly different.
[1:07:22] So as of today, we've seen out 40,870 invites,
[1:07:28] of course, the parents to activate their accounts.
[1:07:31] And we're sitting right at about 20%.
[1:07:34] So out of that 8270, so 8,270 parents have activated their counts.
[1:07:44] So obviously we didn't really know what to expect today, but the team was prepared because
[1:07:48] they've been trained on stop-finders as current as today.
[1:07:53] And one of the major complaints that were getting parents didn't receive the email, well we
[1:07:59] sent them out four or five times as late as January 2nd, and a lot of spam emails.
[1:08:06] And then also we're seeing where some of the geo alerts parents are not familiar with that.
[1:08:11] So I asked the team today who's here with us to create a video and send it out to our parents
[1:08:19] to just walk through how to do those geo alerts because it's pretty simple once you can verify
[1:08:25] through those videos.
[1:08:28] So the staff today received approximately 115 calls, which was an increase
[1:08:34] before we went on break. And again, it was parents with wanting to be able to track their
[1:08:39] bus, their students buses. And I say overall, it was a great day.
[1:08:50] With Evergiven, where you're continuing to increase, we're up now to 70-70-70-70-70 students.
[1:08:54] writing our routes split up between majority of me and McKinney Vento and still a lot of
[1:09:01] special ed and generally it's kind of just been that same group. In fact in today
[1:09:05] I added six more to routes as of you know five about seven noon so it's continuing to
[1:09:10] grow and it is very helpful for McKinney Vento because it's so varied in so many
[1:09:16] different locations and districts and linked that it the pool it would be for us to
[1:09:22] to, in fact, we were able to release some of our white fleet drivers helping with McKinney vento
[1:09:26] now to help with some of our kids that go to Ditton for the regional days of school and stuff
[1:09:30] like that. So it's, we're starting to feel the relief kind of, as we add on the kids to the
[1:09:36] different routes as well.
[1:09:41] There as far as, oops, I hate the button.
[1:09:44] Yeah. That we're at the e-zone, has 25 of them, central zone is 27, less on six and 19
[1:09:51] or the kids that live in LIC bounds, but go to school somewhere else.
[1:10:03] So, on the special education side, just prior to the break, we sent out communications to 68 families regarding either being on a transfer, I want to say there were eight or nine families who are on a transfer and receiving special ed transportation. And the remaining were just being transported to alternate locations, whether that be Ant-Nunkel's house, daycare places like that.
[1:10:31] So those communications have been happening, we've been responding to parent emails and phone calls,
[1:10:38] logistical things, how are we going to work this out and trying to help them navigate those logistics.
[1:10:44] We did find a barrier where if at some point, you know, sometimes you will accidentally block an email address,
[1:10:50] if they had blocked LISD, they may not have received that direct communication, which might be our stopfinder issue as well.
[1:10:57] And so, as we're becoming aware of those circumstances, we're giving those communications and then providing some additional time, so those families have time to arrange the logistics for that.
[1:11:08] Our goal is to, by next month, be able to have those routes cleaned up and just into support families and understanding the process and standardizing our transportation practices.
[1:11:21] Okay, so looking ahead, the GPS roll-out has begun.
[1:11:27] Today we trained 80 drivers on GPS.
[1:11:32] Here at the Bowling Center, we shuttle drivers to and from.
[1:11:36] We had two sessions, one starting at 930 and 1130.
[1:11:40] The same will happen in repeat tomorrow.
[1:11:43] We also have training built.
[1:11:45] Well, not built yet, I'll talk about that.
[1:11:47] But on Saturday, because it's hard to train our drivers throughout the day,
[1:11:50] because they have the mid days, they have the shuttles.
[1:11:53] So we have to train them on Saturday, which moving forward next year,
[1:11:58] hopefully we can build in some work days for the drivers as well,
[1:12:01] so that we don't have these challenges,
[1:12:03] because when we do have these trainings throughout the school day,
[1:12:08] it really affects the mid days in the shuttles.
[1:12:11] You know, you get the calls, they're late, where are they?
[1:12:13] And it's because they're training.
[1:12:16] So, the drivers today during this training, it was about 90 minutes, they did the classroom
[1:12:22] setting and then they were sent out to do test drives and to use those tablets for the GPS
[1:12:28] system to see how it works and the team created a QR code or form for the drivers to give
[1:12:35] their input on the pros and the cons and what worked for them and what did not work.
[1:12:40] So we weren't still working through that.
[1:12:45] So we are.
[1:12:49] So that is in the bit, but I do want
[1:12:53] as member came, and now we're in January,
[1:12:56] and it was 80 degrees.
[1:12:59] At some point, we're going to have very cold weather.
[1:13:01] And we've had a few cold weather days,
[1:13:04] but I'm going to let Lisa talk about,
[1:13:06] it's not in the presentation, but just our process
[1:13:08] around cold weather planning for the bus barn in those early mornings.
[1:13:14] Okay, so, Matt and I in the team met a couple months ago and we talked about weather procedures.
[1:13:21] So, without fleet, current fleet drivers, I'm sorry, current fleet staff, that could
[1:13:27] facilitate.
[1:13:29] So, we do have ice melt on hand, which is the rock salt that will be distributed throughout
[1:13:35] each bus point.
[1:13:39] That's the weather.
[1:13:43] staff members will be at Pernale.
[1:13:47] We have three that will appear to be a stream
[1:13:49] and then we have two of the fleet mechanics
[1:13:52] that will deal with the colony.
[1:13:55] So we have the ice mill.
[1:13:56] And obviously we have the de-ice
[1:13:57] in which is for the windshield.
[1:14:00] To keep our bus drivers and students safe,
[1:14:02] currently we're waiting on the spreaders.
[1:14:05] Just think of fertilizer.
[1:14:07] You husband fertilizing the, but we're prepared.
[1:14:10] And they're excited about it.
[1:14:12] And we hope to have it report to Mr. Kosh shortly.
[1:14:16] But we're ready.
[1:14:18] Also, there's a group of early morning drivers that get there very early to start up all the buses.
[1:14:24] For a year.
[1:14:26] And let me, I'm sorry.
[1:14:28] I didn't add that.
[1:14:30] So we do have volunteers that come in at 4 a.m.
[1:14:33] They get excited, you know, because drivers they want to be paid for, you know, their time.
[1:14:38] So what we've done here is it depends on who has that first route that goes out and whoever has that first route that goes out
[1:14:45] See it's 545. Their bus is addressed first. It started its units ready for them to go
[1:14:52] So we're excited about that and we had a lot of volunteers believe it or not once they realized they were going to be compensated
[1:15:03] That's not a word we use. So, short presentation, but there are some improvements there. And as we move into the spring semester, you know, we'll be looking forward to has just routes that we're going to be reviewing and addressing that comes up and later in the spring. But with ever driven, the special ed side of it, and then the hiring, I think we're, we've got a good momentum going.
[1:15:31] comments or questions? I have one and it's actually more for Ms.
[1:15:36] Fay and Ms. Cobb. At the last presentation I had asked, we had asked about working on
[1:15:42] drivers coming, getting their certification with us and then leaving that we were
[1:15:47] having that issue and you all said you were working on a solution for that. I'm wondering
[1:15:51] where we are.
[1:16:03] Fair enough, that's a good lawyer answer.
[1:16:05] And I just wanted to commend the team for listening to those that are your employees, or that are our employees, our LISD family.
[1:16:20] People want to be heard, and even if a small percentage of those result in the savings or inefficiency are many for the district it's win.
[1:16:31] And I think that we lose that ability to listen to those that are involved in other things in the world today.
[1:16:40] The world in general, so I just want to commend you all for doing that.
[1:16:44] I also wanted to suggest maybe in that as we go through the new app that those campuses with high percentage writers that maybe reach out to them and make your presence at one of their activities.
[1:17:00] A lot of our families and our parents at those campuses don't really pay attention to the emails and stuff, but if you're there in front of them, they will stop and listen and talk to you.
[1:17:11] And so I would suggest that.
[1:17:13] And then I was just curious, and we've been talking about this for a while, but those 68 inaccurate deliveries. How are they identified?
[1:17:22] It did a cross check of the routes in the delivery and drop off addresses, compared to their
[1:17:31] home addresses, and it flagged those.
[1:17:34] We have identified in this process a few that maybe had an alternate address one or two
[1:17:38] days a week, and because the majority of it, like, the processes, there's always room for error.
[1:17:47] So we've identified like three or four that we're looking into that the parent reached out and
[1:17:52] I heard someone got this letter, this is my situation as well, why didn't I get the communication.
[1:17:58] So really, it wasn't, thank you.
[1:18:02] So in those scenarios, we're just working with those families, but it really was like a manual cross check,
[1:18:09] Excel, Formula's super nerdy, but I had fun.
[1:18:13] Perfect.
[1:18:14] And then, ever driven, is still successful and being very responsive and no issue with them not being able to fulfill the request we have.
[1:18:26] It's been pretty efficient. We've had a couple of survivors of miscommunications and things like that.
[1:18:31] But I mean, nothing, nothing if we just said all it's been moving along and as like I had more demand.
[1:18:36] There's still, we're pulling in more drivers working through, getting the approval through HR.
[1:18:43] I think this was one of your questions, but it came up last time.
[1:18:47] One of the biggest struggles that I've ever driven just as if we identified good candidate
[1:18:51] for it and the family isn't willing to utilize it as a service.
[1:18:56] That has been a challenge still.
[1:18:58] I would say to work through because there's been more people we've identified we could put
[1:19:02] on ever driven routes, but the families don't feel as confident about that.
[1:19:06] even though it's got a monitor and it's got tracking and all the things.
[1:19:11] So, I think is more of our family's fun success with this service and it becomes more
[1:19:17] something more standard that won't be a hurdle any longer.
[1:19:20] But we still do face that in this first year.
[1:19:23] I want to say thank you to the board because I know we've heard concerns from our families.
[1:19:28] They got special education and of course we did our very best.
[1:19:32] I know you all know this. We sent really three waves of communication. We sent the early one of
[1:19:38] we're taking a look at this. If anything has changed, please let us know. And then we sent
[1:19:43] the, you've been identified communication as well. Maybe it's a two rounds of communication.
[1:19:50] And we are giving all the way until February. I know Tina's pointed that out in the slide. I just
[1:19:56] I want to reiterate that that we did not
[1:20:00] Make it where you get this notification in an immediately changes. And so while these are very hard conversations to have, I do appreciate y'all support in working to clean the situation up.
[1:20:16] Dr. Taylor?
[1:20:16] I think you mentioned how many families it affected?
[1:20:19] Who was that number?
[1:20:20] Okay.
[1:20:23] I will add to the average driven. They're very fast to say, okay, we've got a call, we've got a driver, and then our question is,
[1:20:30] is there a camera in there and so we have made the decision great thank you for being ready
[1:20:38] to go but until we have that camera installed it does not transport LSD students.
[1:20:46] I appreciate all the hard work I look forward to not getting phone calls.
[1:20:52] Thank you.
[1:20:55] Next up Chief of Staff Report Dr. Miller, the annual
[1:20:59] efficiency assessment update.
[1:21:09] All right well we have a new annual report that we get to
[1:21:13] So, our efficiency report, so we'll call back, and which I know you don't need this recall.
[1:21:21] But to call back, remember that I'm on that page several years ago, 53,000.
[1:21:27] We are now slowly declining and forecast shows plattering around 43-ish depending on which update we get.
[1:21:37] And so last year before the closures of schools we had over 60,000 seats available for students in our district.
[1:21:47] And so in March of 24, y'all passed the guidance and ask that we create a community efficiency community that we look at the efficiency of our buildings, how we use our facilities and bring recommendations.
[1:22:01] So, at that time, is when the efficiency framework criteria was established, that is what the committee
[1:22:08] used to assess all buildings in the district, all school buildings.
[1:22:13] We, those were the criteria that we used.
[1:22:16] So, enrollment, we looked at what was the trend of enrollment over five years and what was
[1:22:21] the use of the facilities for the building capacity and efficiency we looked at wet special
[1:22:28] programs are there, how are they using the building and to what percent of capacity where we
[1:22:35] at what was compared to the optimal capacity, then we use the facility assessment document
[1:22:41] to assess each school building, the actual building. For the cost we looked at operational cost
[1:22:50] and how close the each facility was to running at the optimal cost that was things like insurance,
[1:22:57] utilities that kind of stuff. And then for staffing, we ran what was the average ideal staffing
[1:23:05] at each global elementary middle and high and then we compared that to each building and where
[1:23:10] they were running. So there's the criteria that we used that framework was established and then
[1:23:16] based off of that. Remember the results from when we first use it, you all remember. We had five,
[1:23:21] responses to that will cause closures and retiring of schools. We'll review the facilities
[1:23:29] used across the district and looking for trends. We're always looking on our enrollment
[1:23:33] trends and how they affect our schools. We're looking at alternative ways of how to use
[1:23:38] the existing space that we have in our buildings so we can make sure we're efficient with what we're
[1:23:43] doing. Special programs, student programs and district programs, how are you using our available space
[1:23:50] and then consolidating where we can to be efficient.
[1:23:54] So we ran that framework.
[1:23:57] Again, we just did that in December.
[1:24:00] Based on this year's numbers, we were at right now.
[1:24:03] And so those had been updated, if you remember,
[1:24:07] that there are four key indicators that we really
[1:24:10] use that each building gets a score in efficiency score
[1:24:14] based on those four.
[1:24:16] So it's how many out of four do they have?
[1:24:18] that's looking at optimal capacity, your five-year trend, as we're
[1:24:23] training out with the forecast looks like, well, they are as far as staffing is and
[1:24:29] then the operational costs for other things that don't account for the people in them.
[1:24:37] So, the efficiency assessment has been updated and it will be posted on our website later this
[1:24:44] along with all the data that was reviewed and looked at, but if you'll recall, remember that
[1:24:50] the key efficiency score is at the top, with those four indicators, and then below that,
[1:24:56] of course, add the indicators and criteria that we look at.
[1:25:00] There's a whole story behind it, but those are the four indicators that kind of get that score.
[1:25:06] So a few things that are just wanted to highlight of what we saw this year whenever we did this
[1:25:11] assessment, compared to when the committee did the assessment, was optimal capacity of the
[1:25:16] campus's fluctuated not only by enrollment, of course, we know some campuses have slowly declining
[1:25:23] enrollment, others are holding steady, but also how the building space is used for special programs.
[1:25:29] So if you think even like speech, when you might need two classrooms for speech, the next
[1:25:36] year you might need one classroom for speech, well then that opens up another classroom.
[1:25:40] So optimal capacity, the work capacity stays the same, but your optimal capacity could
[1:25:46] change based on how you're using the building and enrollment of students.
[1:25:51] So that was something to look at.
[1:25:53] Interesting, the operational cost, we saw an increase in utility cost, which that would not be surprising.
[1:26:00] Slightly lower costs in our property insurance when we average it all together are, and then as we
[1:26:07] right-size are staffing our administrative costs in our direct student support costs also declined.
[1:26:13] And whenever we compare it operational costs, and then we'll continue to look alternative ways for
[1:26:19] how we use our existing space in our buildings.
[1:26:24] So from that we'll be posting all of the stuff
[1:26:27] in our websites and coming up after tonight
[1:26:31] so that it's available for everyone.
[1:26:33] And so board you had all of that, of course,
[1:26:35] in boardbook with all the scores.
[1:26:38] We're really modeling this approach of updating this data.
[1:26:42] We don't have to reconvene the committee
[1:26:44] to update the data now that the assessments
[1:26:46] been built, it's simply a matter of running the data that we have through the established
[1:26:51] framework, so I appreciate the work and led by Dr. Miller to do that, but we do always
[1:26:57] want to just like we do with the facilities assessment. Basically that framework's established
[1:27:03] and Mr. Hughes come before you all, every file to report briefly on how did we get here,
[1:27:10] where did this come from, and then we always post the updated facilities assessment to the website,
[1:27:14] same cadence here. So all of that updated data will be posted to the website as well.
[1:27:20] And of course, we've already made the proposals about how to use existing space in schools
[1:27:25] that have lower efficiency scores.
[1:27:31] Comments or questions?
[1:27:34] Dr. Parker.
[1:27:35] Thank you, Madam President. I also want to reiterate my gratitude for the updating of this data
[1:27:42] and being able to see over time and I retirement of schools was the hardest decision to make.
[1:27:55] And we don't want to have to make it again, right?
[1:27:58] And so that's part of what this ongoing process allows us to do to be able to say instead of retiring this middle school,
[1:28:10] Can we put a program there that allows us to utilize that space effectively and then shift some other things around so that we don't have to go down that road again in the near future.
[1:28:27] And so I want to reiterate what you just said, Dr. Rapp, is that this allows us to see where we can move those particular programs.
[1:28:38] where is their space, where is their the ability to massage staffing.
[1:28:47] All of that, that's what good data does.
[1:28:50] It allows you to make good decisions.
[1:28:54] Not always easy decisions, but good decisions.
[1:28:59] So again, appreciate the data, appreciate the work of using the data to then determine what
[1:29:04] our next steps are in terms of housing programs.
[1:29:06] And we are well poised. I'll be at the hardest process any of us have ever ever been through.
[1:29:15] We are well poised with the law that was passed out the last legislative session where I anticipate
[1:29:19] we'll be having to provide all of much of this data through whatever platform TEA creates.
[1:29:26] As we know that there will be statewide analysis of facility capacity usage in schools.
[1:29:34] And of course, we're already having to submit bond data as well.
[1:29:39] And so we're well poised with the data that we have gathered.
[1:29:45] And I feel like we will come out looking very efficient right off the bat.
[1:29:51] And we're not also then moving forward with any future bond projects or because we're
[1:29:57] causing our facilities in need.
[1:30:00] Future bond programs we need to request money for. We will have already downsize facilities that
[1:30:04] might have needed bond projects. And that, again, that's just what we do in Louisville, ISD.
[1:30:15] Okay. That just goes to show you, I mean, similarly, before those efficiency ever happened,
[1:30:21] before we can be in the committee, the district was already in the process of right-sizing,
[1:30:26] right-sizing at the campus level at the district level.
[1:30:29] This is a long process that's been happening regardless.
[1:30:35] So once again, Lewisville ISD is ahead of the curve.
[1:30:39] And I'm really proud to be a part of it.
[1:30:43] I just want to say that your work on this committee is like a scene.
[1:30:49] Because I think the work that you did was so good and it was so well,
[1:30:54] it was thoughtful and it was intentional and I think that it shows that you can use your same criteria
[1:31:00] and everything else and it works here after a year and it can look at three or four and five years
[1:31:07] down the road and I think that's a credit to you and your talent. We're very lucky to have you. So thank you.
[1:31:14] Next time for the finance report, Mr. Rare, who is probably just going to send Randy,
[1:31:35] Mr. Thight
[1:31:36] Welcome.
[1:31:37] All right.
[1:31:37] Thank you.
[1:31:38] Good evening, Madam President.
[1:31:39] Dr. Raff and the Board.
[1:31:40] So tonight we have a couple of GMPs for our 2023 bond projects.
[1:31:44] Again, these are INS funded projects through our 2023 bond.
[1:31:48] The very first one here is the County Ridge Elementary School 20 year life cycle maintenance
[1:31:52] and repair project.
[1:31:54] This one, V.O.K. is the architect, Joris is the CMER.
[1:31:59] Joris advertised and bid out the project to subcontractors per chapter 26 in the
[1:32:03] government code, George's evaluated and scope the bids and provided us with a guarantee maximum
[1:32:08] price.
[1:32:09] The guarantee maximum price is $18 million, $820,426.
[1:32:14] That GMP is within our overall project budget.
[1:32:17] Our recommendation to approve this GMP will be presented to the board next Monday night and
[1:32:22] work for this renovation is set to take place summer 2026 and summer 2027.
[1:32:29] We've got a few images here of the Arctic put together of kind of what the finished product
[1:32:33] We'll look like there, so as we kind of go through.
[1:32:36] There we
[1:32:40] go.
[1:32:44] On office there.
[1:32:47] Our second one, very similar school.
[1:32:49] Hicks elementary school, 20 year life cycle maintenance from repair.
[1:32:52] Basically, the same four plan on these two.
[1:32:55] Again, VOK.
[1:32:56] The architect to George.
[1:32:57] Again, is the same ER.
[1:32:58] Same process here.
[1:32:59] Everything was bit out to subcontractors, and they had provided us with the GMP of 20 million.
[1:33:04] 244,159,000.
[1:33:07] That GMP is within the overall project budget on this one.
[1:33:11] Recommendation to approve this GMP will be presented again next Monday night.
[1:33:15] And work for this renovation again is set to begin in summer 2026 and 2027.
[1:33:21] I do want to give a quick shout out to, you know, our VLK,
[1:33:25] the architects, also Brian, the mechanical MEP engineer,
[1:33:29] for their creative solutions and jurists and obviously working together with my staff.
[1:33:33] It takes a lot of work to get these things in budget these days, so there's a lot of work that went into these.
[1:33:39] I mean, it really is a testament to the CMER delivery method that they're part of the team working with us on solutions as we go along.
[1:33:46] I'm not going to promise that all the GMPs I'm going to be bringing forward during budget.
[1:33:50] I'm trying to get us there, but very proud that these came in in budget tonight.
[1:33:56] So here's some more images of Hicks Elementary.
[1:34:02] Go through all the way there.
[1:34:04] the image from the gymnasium looking into the cafeteria through the
[1:34:09] to the dividers there and then the library here.
[1:34:16] All right, so for our next steps, on the 2023 bond,
[1:34:20] again next Monday night, you'll see these two GMPs here for approval.
[1:34:24] As we roll into February, we're hoping to bring the LHS
[1:34:26] Kilo 20 year life cycle maintenance repair along with the
[1:34:29] rock brick and victory elementary life cycle maintenance repair.
[1:34:33] We're working on those right now.
[1:34:35] As we roll into the February regular meeting for our consent items,
[1:34:39] those three GMPs we hope to present as well as our final completions of the year one
[1:34:44] fire alarm project and the morning side fire alarm project. Remember the morning side
[1:34:49] kind of was an off cycle. That vendor that helped us with that did a great job and got
[1:34:54] that worked done very quickly.
[1:35:00] With that, I'll answer any questions you have on 2023 bond.
[1:35:03] I'll answer questions. Only that I'm so old, I remember Hicks being built and I'm still around
[1:35:09] and I'm around for the life cycle replacement. I was there as well. Yeah. I was just going to say,
[1:35:17] none of the refreshes has affected me as much as these because both of these campuses shared students
[1:35:25] with Castle Hills and they were both opened that second year that I have a student in
[1:35:33] LISD actually Hicks was the year actually later.
[1:35:37] We drove all the way there.
[1:35:39] Yes, and Y'all drove all the way to Castle Hills and so those students let me tell you
[1:35:44] came back together in middle schools and then again in high schools and never miss a
[1:35:48] and many became very successful. And so Kudos to just those whole staffs back then that
[1:35:56] wow, I'm feeling old.
[1:36:01] Okay, so we will roll into our 2024 bond.
[1:36:13] Okay, 2024 bond. Again, INS funds. This is not
[1:36:15] immunomoney. This is money that the voters approved and we're very happy that they did that.
[1:36:20] Our very first project here is the Hebren High School 2003 field house.
[1:36:25] year at Lifecycle Maintenance Repair Project, very long title, very specific, and this is the original
[1:36:30] field house from Hebrew and High School. On this one, Stanteck is the architect. Again,
[1:36:35] George is the CMAR. They again advertised and bid out this project to subcontractors per
[1:36:40] chapter 2269 of the government code. They have provided us with the GMP of 8,868,435 dollars. That
[1:36:47] GMP as well is within our overall project budget. Recommendation to approve this GMP. Again,
[1:36:52] will be presented next Monday night, and work for this renovation is set to begin just as soon
[1:36:57] as it's approved basically. So we're ready to roll on this one.
[1:37:01] I've shown some images of this one before, but I thought it'd be a great time to kind
[1:37:04] of bring it back and remember what we're going to see at the end there, brand new entrance
[1:37:08] to the stadium, and obviously a lot of work happening inside that old field house.
[1:37:15] Our next project here is an actual CSP project. This is the practice field and middle school
[1:37:20] game field turf for placement project.
[1:37:23] So the scope here is one practice field at each of the five high schools
[1:37:26] will be converted from grass to synthetic turf,
[1:37:29] as well as our three middle school game fields at Shadow Ridge,
[1:37:31] Harman and Griffin.
[1:37:34] So this project was a bit out as the CSP as I mentioned.
[1:37:37] Again, per chapter 22, 16 out of the government code.
[1:37:40] We received six bids for this project.
[1:37:43] We evaluated and have made a recommendation to award.
[1:37:46] There will be more information in boardbook this week for that.
[1:37:50] That recommendation is best value, which evaluates price quality availability, delivery timing,
[1:37:57] support, and the ability to perform work at all eight locations.
[1:38:00] This is a very massive project, and so we had to really think through the companies and the bids,
[1:38:05] and the ability of those companies to perform this work.
[1:38:11] Our next one here is another CSP.
[1:38:14] This is the CSP for the year one at track replacements.
[1:38:18] So this project here, the scope is track replacement at Shadow Ridge and Harman.
[1:38:24] Originally, Downing was a part of this, but we had put that project on hold and it will be done at the same time with the 20 year lives.
[1:38:31] But again, this project was built out as a CSP.
[1:38:34] We received three bids on this one.
[1:38:36] Again, we evaluated and have made a recommendation to award.
[1:38:39] There would be more information in boardbook for that.
[1:38:41] Again, recommendation on this one is Best Value, which evaluates price quality, availability,
[1:38:46] delivery timing, support, and warranty durations, you'll see creations there.
[1:38:56] Our next steps for 2024 bond are these two projects, these three projects, excuse me, I'm
[1:39:01] coming back next Monday night as I mentioned. As we roll into February we're hoping to bring
[1:39:05] the Marcus High School Baseball locker room addition and the Fireman High School Baseball
[1:39:09] and Softball locker room addition, GMPs. We roll into the regular meeting in February, we
[1:39:18] as well as the final completion for the tennis court resurfacing project and we're also
[1:39:23] planning on bringing the school board close out, which I've mentioned a couple of times.
[1:39:28] So with that I'll answer any questions that you have on the 24th.
[1:39:31] Are there any comments or questions?
[1:39:34] Just I'm so excited about the Hearenfield House.
[1:39:37] I won't lie.
[1:39:39] I'm looking forward to that for quite some time.
[1:39:41] I'm very excited.
[1:39:43] Thank you.
[1:39:44] And I know that someone is very excited about the track.
[1:39:51] So thank you so much.
[1:39:53] All right, thank you.
[1:40:00] And now it's time for Mr. Rare.
[1:40:08] Thank you, good evening.
[1:40:15] All right, so tonight we'll be looking at the Consent Agenda Cooperative Purchases Preview,
[1:40:20] that will be for the January 12th Board meeting.
[1:40:23] The last three items on the preview will be purchases that will be made from vendors that are on cooperatives.
[1:40:30] For items such as products and services that will be used by our facilities department,
[1:40:36] Also, online purchases from vendors for a wide range of supply products that will be used in classrooms,
[1:40:43] and then also additional printing options for product such as business cards and labels and workbooks.
[1:40:50] And so for those three items, the estimated expenditures will all fall in line with what we paid last year.
[1:40:57] In addition, those will be coming out of approved campus and or department budgets.
[1:41:02] And so those are the last three items, and then the first item that's on there is actually
[1:41:08] it's not an amount that we would be paying, but it's revenue that we could receive back
[1:41:13] for the district, and it's for using a vendor that's on a cooperative to recycle old
[1:41:19] technology assets.
[1:41:21] And they're rest made in that we could receive upwards to about 36,000 dollars a year.
[1:41:26] Love that.
[1:41:28] And those items will all be brought as one consent agenda item on January 12th for approval.
[1:41:36] Thank you, Mr. Rare. Happy new year. Mr. Gerrard Connie, technology report.
[1:41:43] Yes, good evening board. It's not a few items from our 2023 bond program for technology.
[1:41:51] I'll just don't see you.
[1:41:55] Um, we have the second cell, so we're starting phase two of the classroom AV refresh project.
[1:42:01] We already brought the engineering services approval to you in December.
[1:42:05] You will see in the consent agenda for January the construction delivery method.
[1:42:10] And of course, step three will be to bring the final purchase to you at a future board meeting.
[1:42:19] The next item is the second cell engineering for stadium press box sound refresh.
[1:42:24] So we're refreshing the sound systems at the stadiums.
[1:42:26] step one is now which is the engineering services this will appear in the January
[1:42:30] consent agenda and then step two will be feature board meetings and step three will
[1:42:34] bring you the final approval and then we have cyber security upgrade specifically
[1:42:39] our web content filter. I do want to make note of this one we're looking to do
[1:42:44] just a six month renewal. This renewal falls in March which I think is odd so this
[1:42:49] is a chance to kind of fix that because if we ever wanted to move to a different
[1:42:53] vendor, then this disruption would occur during the school year, and we don't want to have
[1:42:57] that.
[1:42:58] So we're looking to do a six-month renewal, which will push that change into the summer.
[1:43:04] Because it is a six-month renewal, we don't expect it to go over purchasing threshold
[1:43:07] for it to need to come to you for approval, but if it does, it will come to you for approval.
[1:43:16] Next steps, as I mentioned, we've got the construction delivery method coming to you and
[1:43:20] These are generic agenda items, and then engineering for the stadium press box, then in February
[1:43:27] because construction delivery method for stadium press, press box sound system refresh.
[1:43:35] And not the second item, as I mentioned, because we're looking to renew only for six months on the web content filtering,
[1:43:40] but then the construction delivery method for stadium, press box in February consent agenda.
[1:43:47] that I would be happy to answer any questions you may have.
[1:43:50] Are there any comments or questions, missiles?
[1:43:52] I just want to make sure that because it's not stated on here that the vendor
[1:43:56] has approved the six-month renewal or are we awaiting?
[1:43:59] They did. They agreed to provide a quotation for just six months.
[1:44:04] Okay. I just had the question just because it wasn't being brought to us until February.
[1:44:09] Okay. Thank you.
[1:44:10] Yes, ma'am.
[1:44:11] Any other comments or questions?
[1:44:13] Thank you so much.
[1:44:14] Thank you all very much.
[1:44:16] All right, next up is the Board of Trustees reports,
[1:44:19] where chairs of our board committees give updates.
[1:44:24] Miss LaSanne, you have the floor.
[1:44:29] All right, so I am the chair of the naming committee
[1:44:33] along with Dr. Barker and Taylor.
[1:44:40] I don't know what I'm trying to play.
[1:44:45] Anyway, so the first we met with Ms. Bay back there right before we got out for break because we needed a little, I wanted us to have a little legal advice.
[1:45:01] So, but the first thing I wanted to bring up is that we are going to, we got a request from Memorial Elementary to rename the private drive that's in front of their campus. Right now, she's going to picture over the principal senate picture over.
[1:45:17] and it just says LM, school, or whatever.
[1:45:24] So they had asked the city of Lewisville about it,
[1:45:27] and so anyway, so we are recommending,
[1:45:32] they requested it to be named Maverick Way.
[1:45:34] It's just a private drive, and so the committee agrees.
[1:45:40] And so we have written up an agenda item
[1:45:43] that will be on the January 12th, a January, agenda next week, and as for those of you who don't know, the Maverick is their mascot.
[1:45:54] And so we're hoping to get that done, and they have been working with, they had, you know, kind of gone through the process of how to change a street name.
[1:46:03] And so they had already talked to the city of Louisville and as most cities do, they have a sign shop, they will make the sign, and hang it, and we will have to get them, you know,
[1:46:12] some, you know, formal stuff from for the agenda item for them to update their maps and such.
[1:46:18] Okay, then the next thing was, as I was, we've actually had three requests of different things
[1:46:26] within the district to name things, and so when I was looking through the policy about naming,
[1:46:36] I kind of felt like it was a little,
[1:46:39] to be honest, a little loosey goosey, a little vague.
[1:46:42] And so it just, as it so happens,
[1:46:46] Dr. Barker here is the Head of the Policy Committee.
[1:46:48] And this is where Ms. Bay got involved.
[1:46:51] Or we know we were asking her some questions.
[1:46:54] And so, and she will update you in a minute on that.
[1:46:58] But I have sent her an email with some specific things
[1:47:02] that I want the policy to committee to look at.
[1:47:06] to just, there's just some things that are very vague in the policy that as I was reading
[1:47:11] through it, I had a hard time saying, okay, does this fit? Does it snuff it? So there's
[1:47:18] that. So I have informed the other staff members that we're just gonna push a little pause.
[1:47:26] We still hope to get things done for sure in the spring, but just we need a little bit of time
[1:47:32] kind of figure out some things. We did, we know that we're going to have probably three other
[1:47:41] future requests for naming and the committee is most likely going to do some type of survey
[1:47:47] to get input from the public about those. Ms. Taylor, Dr. Taylor, is going to work with the
[1:47:56] personal parks department to come up with naming suggestions for the new park at
[1:48:02] Hedrick Middle School, which I happened to drive by there, was I yesterday? Yesterday.
[1:48:07] And I saw some kids out there playing on that little brandy little park out there, so we're
[1:48:12] going to work with them to figure out what we might want to name that.
[1:48:17] And then the final thing, Dr. Rappen, I had discussed, sailing down a little bit more of
[1:48:27] process to go through to request naming other districts have, you know, you
[1:48:33] had already looked at, I think you sent me examples of about four different
[1:48:36] districts and how they do it and there's a form and there's some specific, you know,
[1:48:41] things that they request and so that is something that the committee, you know,
[1:48:47] also was in favor of and so we're going to be going through that process.
[1:48:51] And again, it's not gonna take long, but it's just something that we want to do to put in place to kind of move forward.
[1:48:59] So, and so with that, I don't know if you will, you're in charge of the meeting, but Mr. Dr. Marker, we'll be talking about what the policy committee is gonna do.
[1:49:06] So, we'll just go around the table.
[1:49:08] I love it.
[1:49:09] Yes, so I am the chair of the policy committee, and I serve with Ms. Prasnik and Ms. Cells on that committee,
[1:49:16] and Ms. Bay helps corral us and get us together.
[1:49:23] So we will be meeting tomorrow, tomorrow, evening.
[1:49:27] And Dianne has provided some resources so that we can look
[1:49:32] through some other policies and make some adjustments based
[1:49:37] on the naming committee's recommendations.
[1:49:39] So I will share those with it.
[1:49:41] It was a nice bridge so it can be able to take the suggestions
[1:49:45] from the naming committee over to the policy committee and so we will be looking to bring very quickly
[1:49:51] a recommendation for updates to that policy.
[1:50:03] So, I have a couple of things. I am the chair of the appraisal district nomination. There was a member of the
[1:50:11] Debton County appraisal district, Robert Altman, who resigned. And so that leaves the vacancy, which does not leave us a great deal of time to put a nominee in place.
[1:50:21] And the committee through email, we decided that we're just going to use our votes.
[1:50:27] We're not going to do a nomination.
[1:50:28] We had nobody reach out to, if someone reached out to one of you, let us know.
[1:50:33] But no one reached out to anybody on our board saying that they were seeking a nomination from us.
[1:50:42] So we're just going to, we're going to wait and see who shows up kind of a thing.
[1:50:47] Your drops out of the woodwork to serve on the
[1:50:50] Denton Central Appraisal District Board.
[1:50:54] The other committee and a chair of is the chair of the program and budget review committee
[1:51:00] and we will be meeting in February.
[1:51:04] Ish, more than likely, early February, maybe this month look for a
[1:51:08] doodle poll near you and that would be Dr. Barker and Dr. Taylor on that committee.
[1:51:13] on Decad Missileson and Dr. Taylor and I serve on that committee.
[1:51:19] So with that, so we've got, we've got work coming up, we have a reorganization of our
[1:51:25] committees.
[1:51:26] I will send that out to everybody so that everybody has that.
[1:51:31] No chairs were changed for staff, so you don't have to find a new person, but we did do some
[1:51:38] organization so that we could bring this Lopez into the fold of board committee work.
[1:51:45] So with that, Dr. Barker. I also want to discuss the Bob committee, so sorry.
[1:51:53] Oh, you are so correct. So with that, I am giving a charge to the Bob committee, which will now
[1:52:01] system, Ms. Lopez, Dr. Barker, and Dr. Taylor, to do some amendments and to put a calendar
[1:52:13] together for the Bob. I think we'll also be here with what the naming committee is doing
[1:52:19] to incorporate that into the Bob so that we have what I like to call a one-stop shop for everything
[1:52:27] that is not going to be quick committee work. This is going to be some time and thoughtfulness
[1:52:31] And it will require some cooperation from all chairs and committee members to give that committee information so that they can bring it forward and we can do a formal amendment and then we can start those wheels turning thank you so much for reminding me about that absolutely and if I can just add to that I am really appreciative of this idea we we made some adjustments to the Bob last summer where we added descriptions of each committee.
[1:53:01] and we started to scale out what a calendar might look like.
[1:53:05] So this will really give us a chance to be able to determine what the cadence of our
[1:53:10] committees really look like as always.
[1:53:14] Louis to IISD has a process for everything.
[1:53:16] We have a calendar for what's going to happen each month that our board meetings and so this
[1:53:21] will allow our our business as a board to mirror that.
[1:53:26] So with that, I will be calling the Bob Committee together very soon for us to start that work.
[1:53:33] And as Ms. President mentioned, I'll be reaching out to all of the chairs to add to that calendar.
[1:53:42] All right. Anybody got anything else?
[1:53:45] With that, happy, happy new year.
[1:53:48] I look forward to the second half of the district.
[1:53:50] And with that, since there's no further business, this meeting is adjourned, and the time is 8.33, have a pleasant evening.