For good evening everyone the work session of the Board of Trustees for the spring Independent School District is officially called to order on Thursday February 8th 2024 the time is now 606 p.m. trustees present are trusty Adams trusty kareah truste Durant trusty Jensen and trusty McDaniel I would like to ask everyone to
Please turn off or silence your electronic devices at this time our board Equity committee lead Natasha McDaniel will begin the meeting by reading the spring ISD equity statement thank you president Durant spring Independent School District strongly believes in educational and racial Equity as fundamental aspects of its core Mission
And purpose embodied through any program practice decision or action that affects all students with the Strategic focus on those choices and policies that most strongly impact marginalized students we believe all students regardless of their ability cognitive physical or social emotional ethnicity language race religion gender identity and Status should have Equitable access to
Opportunities resources support systems and educational rigor in order to maximize their academic success and social emotional well-being we believe every spring Independent School District student is valuable and possesses individual strengths and characteristics that make our district a great place to learn and grow moreover we seek to act on that
Belief instituting policies and practices that value diversity committing ourselves as a district to continued growth and development and working to support the success of every student in all that we do thank you truste McDaniel our first order of business is a review of the meetings from our minutes from our previous meetings do
Any trustees have changes or corrections to our minutes from the January 4th 2024 work session the January 9th regular meeting or the January 11th 2024 special called session not hearing any these items will be submitted as part of the consent agenda for Tuesday February 13th 2024 Board of Trustees regular meeting
Our next item are our superintendent remarks and so at this time I’ll turn the meeting over to Dr litaa in a second thank you thank you president Durant and so good evening to all of those that are joining us online our link is live so welcome and those of you
That are here today um with us lots of exciting things happening in the district and I wanted to start off um first first by um doing a special um thanks to um all of the volunteers that were out on Saturday this Saturday past Saturday was our boys empowerment and
Leadership Summit we had uh almost 300 young men that came out um many of them were brought by their parents we had school buses that brought the young men over we even had some young men that walked all the way in the rain because they wanted to make sure that they made
It and you know lots of volunteers were there a lot of professional uh uh men in uh with different careers uh but most importantly we had an amazing showing from the divine nine fraternities um we’ve always had fraternities there this year it was impressive not only the
Young men that are in college but also all those that are professional and so our young um young men our young males had the opportunity to not only learn go to sessions but most importantly get inspired and motivated um in all the different careers and all the different
Possibilities that were out there um special thanks to our own team that helped coordinate and uh Dr James out at um wiy um that was one of our co-sponsors and Mr Green one of our Behavior Specialists um also uh you I know you probably probably saw it online um yesterday Wednesday was the
National Signing Day across um the country and we ourselves had our own um group of young men and women that signed off uh I know Dr Jensen you were at all three signings I heard um so you went from 8 o’clock nine o’clock 10 o’clock
All the way through I know Mr rant you were also there uh Mr Adam it it’s just an exciting time for our young men and and I know at our um state of the districts I highlighted um U our student from Spring High School our um um uh runner that was going to
Iowa State when you look here you’ll see that it was both young men and women and I have to call out we had an impressive range of schools um here in the state and across the country so University of Houston University of Wyoming Iowa State University of Fort Lauderdale Rice
University Columbia University and if you’ll recall also Christian uh naasu that signed for Harvard and so just a special thanks to all of our coaches all of our teachers that make this uh possible and our athletic director uh coach Oliver uh for um just an amazing showing uh yesterday and our athletes
As you know um for us uh February is Black History Month um you you’ll see on your calendar we’ll be having our district uh Black History Month program uh but you also probably got an invitation from Marshall Elementary and they’re doing their annual uh event and so just across the district we are
Having uh different programs and celebrations in honor of black history month and I do want to do a huge shout out to our theater group out at do it Middle School uh The Playmakers they were at our principal meeting yesterday and did an excerpt of their um performance it was amazing these were
Sixth seventh and eighth grade students that you would know they were 12 13 14 year olds an amazing program so look out for for in social media uh for all those events that are happening across the district um just a way to celebrate Black History Month and most importantly African-American figures that have
Inspired our students and continue to inspire all of us in our individual Journey also February is our um uh counselor month we in spring want to do a big shout out to our spring bring ISD counselors elementary middle and high school this morning I did have the opportunity to go greet all the
Counselors and um uh I don’t know if Dr Collins yes Dr Collins is here you know we were talking about and and doing the analogy of a football team and so when you think about a football team the first or to many of us the first player
That comes to mind is the quarterback you see the quarterback you think about any Kansas City Chiefs you know you think of the quarterback well then there’s uh what’s his name Taylor Swift no I had to say that right but um you know Dr Collins was talking about the
Role that the counselors play in our schools and and yes we have the quarterback you think about the principal all those important people but we talked about our counselors as that left tackle somebody needs to be watching out for what what is happening in the field right and often times our
Counselors are those that are behind the scenes taking care of both the students and our staff and so it was a good way to stop and think about the Unseen unheard unsung work that our counselors are doing every single day and so it was a great opportunity to celebrate them
And for me personally to thank them um because in in a district such as spring we talk about all the work that we have to do all that that is compliance work and as a counselor so much of your work is compliance but what we want to move
To is commitment right commitment to our students commitment to the work that we’re doing commitment to our district and I believe that our counselors even though so much of their work is around compliance do this report fill out submit XY Z they’re truly committed to our students and truly committed to the
Work that they do and so just a big shout out to our counselors um this month and always for the work that they do and then last but not least just to remind everyone we have lots of things happening in our district as I said our Black History Month is here in February
At the end of the month we will be doing a meet and greet for our athletic director uh coach Oliver we have a um counseling as I said this week February 5th through the 9th we have a Career Connection expo Expo coming up this Friday and then last but not least you
Know our continued partnership with our own Education Foundation and we have a breakfast coming up um on the 15th but February is a month that’s full of celebrations for us and want to make sure that our community goes to our website very easy to look at our
Calendar and you can see see what’s happening across the district every single day and we ask you to stay engaged with us um stay involved and and show your support for spring ISD Mr an that concludes my remarks thank you thank you Dr inosa our next item is agenda participation this item
Allows members of the public an opportunity to speak on any items that are listed on tonight’s agenda so Mr Binkley at this time do we have anyone signed up for agenda participation no Madam President we do not great thank you so for our next item I’d like to
Recognize our Chief Financial Officer an Westbrooks good evening president Durant Dr HOSA and members of the board this evening we have our annual report on delinquent property taxes and I’d like to ask our guests who are here with us this evening Miss Yanda Humphrey who is an attorney and partner with the Purdue
Brandon law firm as well as Mr Justin Barlo who is also an attorney with the Purdue Law Firm to come forward and walk us through this report thank you so much for having us tonight um Justin is my right hand left tonight but right hand uh for working
Your accounts and so tonight he will be giving the presentation all right are we CED up all right so uh good evening Dr anosa good evening uh trustees so basically the way I like to phrase this report is this is Yolanda and I’s report card uh
You know we we have the privilege of representing you in your delinquent tax collection and this kind of lets you know what we’re doing and how it’s going uh so in the interest of time I am going to try to get through some of the charts and information a little bit quickly but
If anybody has any questions please do feel free to stop me so getting started uh this this chart is a representation of all the accounts that we have for spring ISD uh so this is any account going back to you know as early as the 1990s um so
That total amount in base tax is roughly $6.5 million and this shows you kind of where we are uh with each phase of the process for collecting those amounts so moving right along still talking about that I already have a question I forgot what bad address was
Uh bad address is is an address essentially where we thought you know Dr Jensen lived at 123 Main Street she doesn’t actually live there maybe she’s moved her business maybe she’s moved um her address her personal residence uh so it’s we’re trying to to do the research
To get the address to one contact dror any or Dr Jensen uh to either send her letters make phone calls anything like that before we move into litigation uh so moving right along this gives you a dollar figure uh breakdown of what the accounts look like uh you’ll
Notice that the 10,000 up figure is the largest figure um at 31% reason for that is because we do have a lot of industrial uh or industrial accounts business personal accounts um in spring so those do add up in the the based base tax amounts and moving right along this
Shows you again going back to uh 2015 and prior the amounts that we’re trying to collect for Which tax years uh specifically and we will take a closer look at that just to kind of represent to you all that we do take those those older years and we we continuously work
Though so at the onset when we were given the 2017 tax year uh it was originally $3.4 million I’m sorry yes the original tax year was originally $3.4 million and the first year we we had it we were able to sit with it we got 77% of that
Collected uh and this just shows you the the longer we’re able to sit with it the more we’re able to get collected moving forward uh same same kind of deal with the 2018 obviously it’s less time that we’ve had to work these accounts uh so
It only goes up to a fouryear span but it does show you in the first year 73% now we’re up to 88% 2019 started with 64% in the first year up to 85 and this would take us to our most recent year being the 2022 tax year uh
We’ve been working these accounts since July of last year and we’re up to 58% and obviously we’re going to continue to grow that number in keep pressing forward so that’s all we have for you today um are there any other questions and I do want to uh specify if
There are any suggestions anything you guys have questions on anything you think we can do better please do let us know and we’ll definitely take that into consideration thank you guys miss Westbrooks I had a question about the the delinquent I may have asked this before but is there any sort
Of a gap in funding for the delinquent taxes versus the timing when do we have an offset for the delin delinquent taxes or is it just kind of a I know it’s like a net zero calculation at the end of the day right if you’re
Saying as far as how we uh budget and the fact yes so we’re we’re always budgeting for our collections to be closer than 97 and a half to 98% so we know that there is some in that current year Levy that we’re not going to collect and Once Upon a Time penalties
Interest and delinquent collections would fill that hole and would still get us up to current the current Levy that’s not our scenario anymore now our delinquent taxes tend to be upside down and we’re doing refunds and waiting for the state to pay us the difference so
The long and short answer is that we budget for about 97 a half to 98% collections so we’re we’re not anticipating those to come in in that year but as you know each year you’ve got more that’s that’s coming in then we tend to find ourselves whole for that
Year many years down the road yes and if I can interject your tax office is great they’re great to work with and they’re collecting that 98% before we even receive it so so even though that 2% may be yaniz world it is you know a a testament to miss Dorset and her staff
On on how much they are actually able to collect and Miss Dorset is here this evening our tax assess collector Dorset everybody knows who you are thank you I’d like to thank Mr set and I also want to thank for do and Brandon we’ve had a very longstanding successful relationship with you guys
And so we really appreciate um all of your work and how collaborative you are with the district say thank you for being here I’d also like to announce that truste Ronda new house joined us at 6:13 PM uh for our next item I’d like to recognize our chief of innovation and
Student Success Dr Matt parasa thank you president Dr good evening members of the board Dr HOSA and all of those in our audience today um this item can be found uh beginning on page 45 of your packets you will see that the actual presentation is on 46 and then on page
62 is the complete uh taper report uh which stands for Texas Academic performance report um these reports are done at a district level as well as a campus level for all schools um in Texas um this item we we’re presenting today actually goes beyond with this formal presentation the
Requirements uh the taper report itself is the requirement and that it public caring is held um but in our work with our strategic plan as we work to um ensure that we’re meeting our student outcomes um that we’re ensuring equity for all students and um providing opportunities for students specifically
In college career and Military Readiness um we want to go a little bit deeper into the data with everyone today um and so what you’ll see is um similar to what we have presented in Prior years as we look at those components within the deck um the taper report
Uh is is provides us data looking at data disaggregated in a lot of different ways um specifically by um different groups uh different student populations um as well as across ethnicity um and it does provide us a comparison of where spring ISD is in comparison to the region as well as the
State so as required we um after it’s published uh we have 90 days to present um the information for a public hearing uh it was posted in December 15th but the the holidays that were closed those do not count towards that 90 days um after our public hearing uh we will also
Be posting um the taper reports individual and District um on our campus website as well as our district website so the first thing we’d like to look at is um the composition ethnic composition for the 2223 so um some of this data is based on 2223 school year
Some of it is based actually on the year before 2122 um and so it is you know we’re looking at data that is from last year or for discipline in a couple other areas from two years ago so as we look at this we can see where spring ISD
Falls uh compared to the region and the state um we do have a larger um percentage of our student population that are economically disadvantaged and that’s defined by free or reduced lunch um we also have a larger English language learner population and when we look at special ed well that number says
11% our I know special ed team is here tonight and they’ve been busy um doing evaluations on students we’re actually up to 12% so we’re almost mirroring the region and um in Texas now as we look at Hispanic we’re about the same as the state um and we have a
Larger African-American population than both the region and the state the others are very close across the different areas except for um our Caucasian population uh is at 5% next we’ll look at star um so this spe specifically looks at Star approaches or higher so the passing of
The star um test and so when we look at across spring ISD the region in Texas you’ll actually see um that we are slightly above um both the region and the state as far as our increases um we’re continuing every year to close the gaps um in alignment with our strategic
Plan actually houst uh Houston there’s a recent study done by Good Reason Houston um that even found that spring ISD um has closed the and and reached above the pre-pandemic levels um at a higher rate um than the vast majority of all other districts we were tied with one Galina
Park um and so we we have done a great job in closing those gaps Dr parasa Could you um maybe in our for update give us that um report the good reason Houston yes absolutely okay thank you made a note of it just now um and so
This was looking um across our different ethnic groups we’ll also look next at our um populations student group populations and you can see the similar Trends and those upward increases in Star across all um economically disadvantaged emergent and special ed um about the same as what
We’re seeing in the region and the state when we look at Advanced dual predit course completion these this is based on the number of students who um took dual credit classes and completed them and every year our numbers of students taking dual credit uh continue to
Increase and we’re very proud of that um and so you can see um there that again just like the region and the state that that we right in alignment um with 44% for 2122 and again this is one of those numbers that does Trail by a couple
Years as we look at our graduate group um this is another point of Pride that we have is that you can see that spring ISD um outperforms their region and the state in our foundation um distinguish level of achievement so um that means that students um are earning an
Endorsement as well as getting four years of science um and four years years of math and that’s not a requirement um for graduation but it’s that high level of expectation that we set forward for students and so that’s the reason that our number is higher gradu uh graduates in Texas this
Is also a field that is um lagging data in two years and this comes directly um from the Clearing House um so you can see this on the left hand there there’s two different charts uh the one on the left is the percent of students enrolled in Texas Higher Education and just to
Provide some clarity not only do they um the students need to enroll to be counted in these numbers but they must stay in school and complete um successfully a full year so um we we do have a larger number of students that enroll and sometimes there’s um Family
Situations but um those numbers uh you know we continue to see um growth um and so the other area is um without developmental courses and unfortunately that is an item that um has not been collected and so it’s not included it hasn’t been updated since 201819 by
Tea but there are that is metrics that we do look at locally um and so it’s something that we monitor as we work to help ensure that our students are college ready it’s why we’ve continued to increase um our SAT testing our Act we added ACT Testing um this year is
During the school day assessment and um for our TSI and then if the board remembers we also added Texas College Bridge which allows students to um take a course not every student is a tester does well on tests but they’re able to take a course to show their call their
Readiness um and so through those scores they’re able to um show the ccmr Readiness and potentially not have to take a um developmental course at first year spring ISD staff is the next area within the taper report and it’s broken down into groups by percentage so when
You look at Spring ISD it’s showing that we’re 44.8% Which is less than the region of the state and the percentage of our staff who are teachers however you’ll see that we have a larger auxiliary and also a larger professional support staff um than the region and the state and
That ties to what we’ve heard from our teachers and the support that we um provide through the different roles um whether those take the burdens off through the administrative auxiliary staff and supports or through the professional development staff such a professional support staff such as um our instructional coaches um and other
Support staff uh did want to note you can see there campus Administration we are uh in line with the region and the state as far as that percentage uh Central Administration um we are below both the region and the state and our central office staff when we look at teaching staff by
Years of experience um you can see that we have a large um largest percentage of beginning teachers and teachers went uh went to five years and that’s um a challenge that we’ve had in spring for some time I know it’s something that part of our strategic plan is that grow
Your own and it’s work work that um Dr King and his team um have heavily been working on in their recruitment of Staff um as well as um growing growing staff from within and retaining staff and so we’re working to to change those numbers um and so that does show you know with
Spring we do have a larger group um and that less years of service when you look at salaries another um highlight here is that regardless of which group um beginning Year all the way up to 30 plus years uh spring ISD um has higher average salaries than the region and the state
So you know one thing that that that brings to point as we think about the other data is that the salary that’s our staff are receiving it um on average is not the factor the largest factor in the um recruitment of those staff because we are very competitive
In the last section um that is part of the um taper report looks at violent in criminal incidences or part of the public hearing um you’ll there’s two slides um and so these are all of the discipline codes just the discipline codes that focus on violent or criminal
Incidences um you’ll see that there is a count number that’s the total number of incidences followed by the percentage and that percentage is the percent percentage of the whole number of incidences that we have so um things such as we know like the largest factor that isn’t a violent or criminal
Incident is Defiance of authority that’s where most students may have um discipline infractions however that’s not a violent or criminal incident so it it carries the larger number but wouldn’t be included in these tables um you’ll see that there was a increase in um pams code 04 and that ties directly
To what the state has seen um um and why they pass legislation requiring daap placement for um for Vaping um a lot of what what is being found is that uh those Vape cartridges contain um products with with the marijuana um or other controlled substances and this is the second set of
Those beam codes while um pams code number 41 fighting mutual combat did increase in the number of incidences the overall percentage um decreased um and and part that’s because all of the other areas that come into play um with that that was also big work that the board um led
Us to do as we reviewed the student code of conduct and begin to address um and put very serious consequences in place for fighting um and so we have already seen uh an improvement in that data for this year other required reporting um is our accountability rating uh that is still
On hold uh due to the lawsuit we were actually in a Texas School Alliance meeting yesterday and based on the court proceedings um there do not anticipate a Court ruling until um summer um before the final Court ruling is released um the accreditation status we are edited
For 2023 um our first rating is superior achievement and we had previous the last item is the campus Improvement plans with the performance objectives and if you remember we presented those back um in uh October after the star results were released in September and that concludes the annual taper presentation
So Justin yes uh I was asking Dr inosa here before we started about the the region four numbers and I as I was kind of digging into them I started looking at the size by enrollment and I know it’s a state requirement the Region 4 is now included
In our report but as I looked at the breakdown numbers and this is more of just statement for awareness there’s 88 districts in Region 4 40 of those are charter schools and 48 of those are districts and when you look at the breakdown by size 39 of the charter schools are less
Than 25,000 students and 34 of the districts are less than 25,000 students so when you look at the comparison there’s really only 15 comparable schools to our district as far as size goes one of those being a charter in 14 of those being a district and so my
Question is as I’m looking at our taper report um and just my own personal opinion TAA is not really out to help us um it seems like the comparison from us to Region 4 those that that comparison is a little skewed because we know the charters work on a different set of
Rules than public schools and looking at the size the majority of the size of the schools are all 10,000 or less students so I would be curious to see how we would compare if we looked if we made it more of an Apples to Apples comparison
To what we really look like to the schools that really Clos to represent our district in Region 4 yes absolutely we can um we call those comparison groups uh and we can we can put together some data regarding that I know we’ve done it similar and that’s a
Work that we do with our principles as well um they even have down to their comparison schools uh normally that’s uh also tied with our accountability system where we we look at those comparable schools and so we can put together some data that is there something specifically um that you were interested
In in that taper report to see it that way or all of the different data just yeah no nothing in particular it just from a public perspective when you look at us and we’re constantly comparing ourselves to this region for a group and it looks like we’re kind of trailing
Behind now are we really trailing behind when you look at the whole picture so that’s it is a great point that it brings in um it brings in all students so it acts as if the whole region is one is one District um and so it’s not a fair
Comparison um because there is such a a wide difference and we know the impact that economically disadvantaged has um just having the resources even things like a room to study in on your own and a lot of our families and our students don’t have that um to the resources you
Have and so when you’re comparing you know in that same group you’ve got River bres and lots of other um areas that there’s more more resources and and and we can definitely pull that together um because there may be uh from that actually I know that there are some great
Celebrations beyond what we see just in this taper report um go to page five in the presentation page five it’s page five on my or 50 of that’s the one so this report is published by the Board of Trustees correct what’s with the Lo the tap the
Taper report is uh published by tea that the annual report that includes the taper that we are doing this hearing because the section of the Texas Education Code requires it that’s correct this report is published by the Board of Trustees um so I’m I’m asking about I questions around the production of this
Report and um I’m wondering the the thing that is sort of sticking in my craw right now is our focus on approaches grade level or higher um and why that’s the standard that we are examining here and and so there are as you’ll see in the full detailed report it does go
Into meets and Masters um and so for you know one of the the items that the board has challenged us with is to work to to condense H you know with the data team we love to get into all the things and you know I think you know we could have
A hundred slides and so we work to try to to focus on the most important components with approaches being the passing level for Star um however you know we you know as far as the report itself that’s the piece that is legally required to present the taper um and I
Know or Jeremy is here as well with legal counsel who could who may be able to provide us um more detail on any requirements on need to turn it back on how you had it on Mr Adams the full report is what’s published on the website yes yes I think you’re your microphone
Is coming back so yes on the website we are required to publish the full report and then each campus will also have it on the website and and it is in on page 62 of your packet the full report okay and that will be what’s publicly U displayed
Getting more of our kids um approaches um they used to say us when I was in the class that um getting your kids to approaches is a a indicator of their future success After High School and that a minimum requirement for post High School Success on Star was the meets
Standard right um and so when I look at where we are on it looks to me like we lost some folks that we meeting and we mastering now there can be lots of Reason like it’s a different test and I look at the trends across the state that
Happen to every everybody right but my question was around and drosa just answered it um why Focus approaches don’t think focus our focus should be on getting our kids to meeting the academic standard and if we’re gonna do a hearing like that that like if we’re gonna do a
Hearing and have a public meeting I want to discuss what we’re doing to meet our mission for our students which is academic standards and success after graduation and absolutely that is the expectation uh we actually had a meeting with our principles yesterday where our middle of year data was reviewed and um
Our principales engaged with our departments and in action planning and and work to address that and that directly followed our um state of the um schools that our assistant superintendents and um central office team met to review that data and part of that was um predictor so it was
Utilizing map as our middle of year year and looking at what that predictor is for that meets right the on grade level or above um and so that is our Focus the only way with student with this you know as we look at the redesigned accountability system it puts much more
Weight and emphasis on that Meats level um and so achievement is where we have to rise too um growth will only carry us so far I will say and I will speak for myself um there are some serious flaws I believe in the star exam the way it’s
Administered the way it’s produced um I am much more interested in what those map scores look like and what our map results look like so we’re being judged by the state they haven’t figured out but for me I see achievement in terms of our map scores which there is also a correlation
Between outcomes on map scores in future academic success right um I look at that a lot more closely than I do the results of the star in the ELC exam so that’s just for everybody’s information in terms of what I take really seriously and we’ll be sure U to include
That in the board update with um the meets and Masters if you’d like to see the data that way from the taper report so I’m happy to we’re happy to put that together and we’ll we’ll include it um and so that it in the taper and I like I you
Know if if we’re losing kids again the instrument has changed we didn’t get any Grace for for that transition in the instrument so I get there’s going to be that shift but I do think we have to take an honest and transparent look at what we’re actually
Doing Dr D do you mind if I jump because it’s along the same lines of um trusty Adams I wholeheartedly agree um that looking at Meats I it’s almost like you read my my notes here because approaches they passed the test but in terms of Standards um meeting grade
Level standards we know that that’s not sufficient so um looking at into the deeper report if we go to page uh 64 in this page three of the taper looking at reading for grades three four I went three four five six 7 eight so in terms of
Trends just like trusty Adam said it looks like our approaches stayed about the same um our Meats saw some decrease some stayed the same but there were notable decreases when it came to the Master’s portion and and I also noticed that Region 4 has some similar Trends but to trusty K’s Point
How you know how supportive is that really for us but my question was the only grade level that I noticed that did see gains and meets for reading was sixth grade so I’m wondering if there may be anything notable that could potentially be happening in sixth grade
Or how could we replicate what is happening in sixth grade um because that is from third through 8th grade the only grade level where Meats increase significantly and maybe this is a followup you know maybe dive more into it but that was a highlight that I noticed and you’re also seeing you know
I think that one of the key ties to that is our high high quality Structural Materials um so amplify and um cardig uh so those as in eure math so we’ve utilized them now for three years so you’re starting to see um the evolution of that increased rigor um starting to
Show up in our scores and I’m I know Dr quar may be able to add to that some of the work that was tied last year for grade six and specifically with reading o because that was my you know literacy that’s my focus so oh absolutely I think with the consistency
Of our curriculum and us not wavering from it I think we’re going to see a significant trickle up as especially in this year as we continue with the work that we’re doing and the focuses that we’re doing um I think there’s a lot of variables too um trusty McDaniel’s that
We can also look at as well um in terms of what could potentially be the reason for that um and I mean that that can that can be from a range of um even you know how many new teachers do we also have in that specific grade level um in
Comparison to other grade levels I have more stability um or our teacher state in and so we do know that we’ve had a lot of teacher turnover that’s been Statewide and so so I mean for me with you surfacing that question I think I would be interested too to do a deep
Dive myself to really kind of see you know where we’re most concentrated turnover areas and grade levels because I know that that would have a huge impact because I mean every new teacher that we get we have to retrain and train up especially utilizing our curriculum so that’s something too that’s front in
Mind yeah just something to do some investigating you know because if we’re seeing successes in that in that area then you know maybe there’s something we can replicate there um and then I’ll step back and Dr Jensen well I had two very distinctly different questions here one is uh we
Have a a high rate of um distinguished level of achievement the foundation graduations and I just wondered does physical science and Algebra 1 count with those endorsements so th those do um because of the four years um so those are both courses that can that are taken so
Algebra 1’s a required course um that students take and they have a start EOC tied to that but as part of those the four that would count as a high school math yes okay as one of the four thank you the other thing is on page uh 73 I
Was looking for a a ray of light uh and uh accomplishment in our kids uh progress and on page 73 the surprise to me it was Middle School um if you look at grade eight English language arts and reading and grade eight mathematics do you see how our district
Is higher than the state or the region are you looking at what I’m looking at yes okay page 72 this is page 7 uh 73 in my notebook 73 and the upper uh chart if you go down to grade eight reading and Mathematics 2023 and you compare the district uh has
Higher percentages of progress than the state or the region and I thought our middle schools were just suffering this is can you account for this and and so I will say that was also one of the findings um from that good reason Houston report um actually that
Spring ISD has had the greatest gain since 2019 um We Grew From 2019 pre- pandemic to have a 28% um meets level on star to now we have a 47% Meats level we are 19 percentage points Which is higher than any other District in the entire
Region I’ll jump back in to um trusty Adams point I also noted it would I would be curious to look at our map correlation to Star just because math is going to tell us more what’s happening I know this is the taper you know hearing
But I think we we know that stars is one day one test and so map is going to give us how our kids are really doing on a more day-to-day basis but going back back to slide number five we were just there with trusty Adams um number five on the the
Report or not the report I’m sorry the presentation so these Trends are very familiar um and historically it it tends to look this way to trusty Adams point we know that there are flaws in not only star but in standardized testing period there are biases cultural biases that are at play
Amongst other things um I I guess I’m just naming that I would be I would be curious to see how our work with cultural responsiveness and Dr IV trickles into the classroom and how that impacts does or does not impact um our star our star data absolutely it’s that holistic
Approach uh that does that impacts every area for our kids and I believe on Tuesday um is that correct Dr King the board will receive an update from Dr Ivory yes yes ma’am can you repeat for me why the presentation focused on approach and not means it uh it was just the selection
With that being the passing um approaches is passing for um the the assessment and so that’s why it was chosen as the metric to measure um however when you look at meets or Masters you’re going to see similar trends that you see here on this slide it’s not just approaches it’s
Approach or hire that’s correct yeah so this is shows approaches are higher when you when when we put the in the board uh update we’ll also show meets or higher and Masters I had just one observation on the on the violent the incidents page 13 and
14 when you kind of look at all of the incidents as a hole it’s either drugs or some sort of assault and so my question is you kind of touched on it when one of the questions I was going to ask was the changes in the way we code incidents has
That have you seen any sort of an increase in certain areas or decrease in certain areas kind of based on the changes in the coding system we can do a we can do an analysis for this year I know this year we provided um some great professional development um through Dr orand dando’s
Team um as well as more detailed with the Matrix and providing guidance to administrators um on that coding um and so each of these are individual pams coded Fields um that do provide a description um that administrators utilize and so as as they’re going through they’re they’re selecting the
One you know as outlined and there are there is more verbage so as you can see each of those have as described by this section um and so there’s much more detail um which is what is provided in our administrator training for the coding and then my my second question
When you’re talking about looking at the students as a whole and seeing that the majority of what’s happening with our kids is either drugs or some sort of an assault are we looking at that from a big picture and kind of taking a step back and say well
Maybe we need to to engage in some sort of a program yeah to to bring to the Forefront um you know are these kids that have gotten into this trouble are they involved in the school in any way do they have um you know Arts PE band sports are they are we pushing
Everything to the kids as much as possible to keep them out of trouble that’s that’s the question because if they don’t have anything to do they’re going to find something to do and Unfortunately they end up on this list the answer is yes yes um you know
Because we want to we always want to focus on a whole child um effort in terms of how we’re wrapping around our students um part of the discipline is also the restorative piece and the education and coaching piece and the support piece so yes I me all of our
Schools do a wonderful job at trying to engage our children um and the other part too um trusty karea is um I do anticipate since this is last year’s numbers when we look at next year’s taper that we are going to see a significant decrease in these numbers as
Well just because of our new approach to discipline so I’m very very very confident um that these percentages will almost be double in terms of the amount of decrease that we’ll see just because of our approach um was specific to these pieces from the beginning of the year um
So your answer yes and yes can we all go to page 10 of the um presentation the staff break down by type so it’s been said a couple of times and I’m going to repeat it the the Texas data I don’t really see it as useful for
Us for comparison sake but uh as to truste Korea’s Point there’s also a lot of noise in the region for data set and so what would be interesting to me is to see spring um compared and we do this all the time I don’t me and trusty Durant do this we
Pull out a sampling of the surrounding districts and similarly situated districts and do a comparison with that data instead of all the extra stuff and all the outliers that are in the overall Region 4 data that can skew these numbers quite a bit I’m wondering for Dr
Hos and the administration if we see as we approach budget conversations any opportunities in the way our breakdown of staff is presented here and and you know one of the things that you we’ll see in March um is that a data and um they are able to do a
Breakdown with that looks at the staff at the courses and then the expenditures um you know if if we’re using 10 staff members what’s the result uh as far as the expense the cost and then it correlates it to the star data that we have available to the test data
So I think the able report will give us exactly what you’re looking at um and then this is something that we are um we’ve had conversations already with the prin we’ve had conversations internally ourselves because we tend to um provide more support staff whether it’s coaches Specialists
Um coordinators on the campus to support teachers which is different than what the numbers are showing across the state many um districts put more teachers in the classroom less te less staff outside of the classroom and we have historically had more staff out of the classroom so um the able data will help
Us really understand that plus um now as we are looking at the situation we’re in we really have to analyze all the support staff that we’ve been having and do we need all that support staff based on the data that we’re looking at and do
We need to move some of that to the classroom yeah like I said like the state data is for our purposes for comparison here virtually useless because so much of the state um is comprised of rural districts that have you know just really different Dynamics in terms of what their Staffing would
Look like so um and like you doing it by region is a little better but there’s still there’s a lot of extra data in there that pulls the numbers one way or another so I like the question you know um earlier we were talking about Does it
Include Charters and when you break it down I it’s half of the region are charter schools and we know that they’re staff differently and we know that the inance requirement and is different for those Charters than what we have so to be able to break it down to size and
Then also looking at you know the needs um because our needs are different than our neighboring District right um so to be able to do that analysis is something that Dr Paris on the research team will be able to do for us Dr King and from the HR perspective
We can then the board update since it’s dealing with Staffing we can just do a comparison of of the taper data the staff data for some comparison districts in Region 4 um I can we can get get a list of I have some districts in mind
But we we can confirm that list and get that to you in a uh board update so you can see it side by side and the data analysis committee yes I’ve been writing notes okay thank thank you everyone thank you Dr parison for our next item I’d like to
Recognize our Chief Financial Officer again an Westbrooks thank you and so you should all have a copy of the PowerPoint presentation at your seats we wanted to just start off this evening by going through some of our boilerplate information at this point that we’ve talked about several times as we’ve prepared ourselves for
This 2024 202 budget season and so as we know we’re we find ourselves in a budget deficit situation that we’ve been talking through and working through over the last several months and so of course we know that’s as a result of ongoing inflation uh compensation increases that have been
Provided over the last few years the impact that the pandemic continues to have on the school district particularly related to the enrollment loss and the low lower average daily attendance and of course we know that our Sr funds are going away at the end of this year and
They’re no longer available to offset the deficit that we that we find ourselves faced with and so another point of clarification that’s not up there but I wanted to make sure that I make it clear is we’ve also talked about the the financial side of our medical plan the
District self-funded medical plan and so at the end of the January 11th board meeting we talked about the board helping to Advocate on behalf of the district to help have more options and opportunities with that medical plan but I wanted to be clear that that cost that
We’re seeing and that we’re dealing with with our medical planing being underfunded is not a part of the budget deficit that we’re discussing here this evening and that we’ve been discussing with our medical plan we budget for the district’s contribution to the plan the employees make their contribution to the
Plan and then that’s how much we have to pay for our administrative costs and our claims so when that plan is underfunded for the year when those costs are are exceeding the revenue that’s in the plan then the district is funding that below the line with the transfer from our fund
Balance so that’s not a part of the picture that we have here and I know we’ve talked a lot about the medical plan and we’ve often talked about it in con Junction with the budget discussion so I just wanted to have that point of clarification and then also as a
Reminder the board did vote on the interlocal agreement that we have with tasby now and Dr King and myself are working behind the scenes to bring forward some options to help rightsize that medical plan and and hopefully stop that that underfunding that’s happening there so just a point of clarification
As we continue to work through this budget uh Chief Westbrooks I want you to know that uh Miss Hodges and I uh especially Miss Hodges tried to present this at our Grassroots meeting last night and we were told no that was a Grassroots meeting for priorities and on our chart here we get
To bring this forward as a resolution beginning in March okay we’re on it okay thank you very much much appreciate okay so again some information that we’ve seen quite a bit over the last uh couple of meetings but just want to keep it top of Mind as we
Continue to work our way through this process here’s just a look at our 2022 budget 2022 2023 and our 2023 2024 so we know when we passed our uh budget for the fiscal year ended 2023 we had a 35.4 million deficit we’re utilizing those Esra funds to help offset that deficit
Um using $20 million of Esser funds in the 23 fiscal year then when we move into the 2324 fiscal year the adopted budget now had some of those those approved proposed uh excuse me those approved budget reductions were included and we had a budget shortfall of 25.3 million in this current fiscal
Year and again we’re able to offset that deficit with our Sr fund funds so just a look back at where we are and what’s taking place and just where our starting point was so of course our starting point as we began to work through the budget reduction for 2425 was this 25.4
Million so again just to look at those approve reductions that took place in this current year in 2324 that told total is 9.2 million of which as we’ve discussed before 1.7 million were related to the central office at the January 11th board meeting we brought forward the proposed reductions from the four subcommittees
And we had our principals and our central office team come in and present those reductions the total reductions that were presented were $1.9 million at that time we received feedback from our board and we remove the proposal to uh return to the TW mile transportation we put the school
Interventionist at the high schools on hold pending some additional information from the principles and so on Monday you all received a copy of that information electronically from our High School principles we also at the time put the proposal of reducing the CTE teachers at the high schools by one position on hold
Pending the results from the able study and those results will be provided to the board at the March board meeting the last item was the central office reductions and we were asked to bring forward the Ed genomics grid with the details related to the the items and the amount of the central office
Reductions so so this is just a look back at that excerpt from the secondary proposed reductions with the two items item H and item I that we had on hold and so we know that we’re still pending the final information with the able report that as I mentioned will come
Forward in March at the March board meeting but we did want to have a moment to ask the board if you have any additional questions related to the two High School interventionist position positions and to see if we would be able to remove the hold on on that item this
Evening and you do have a copy of the proposed information for the high school positions in your folders as well do we have a copy of that I didn’t bring it with me we have it you have a copy in your I thought this was for the central office this is
Everything this is central office right central office is that one this was from last last uh month and so we do have it if you want us to project it we have the full document where we can project it this evening but we didn’t provide a new copy of
It okay so one can we get trusty Hodes a copy of the red folder you okay so I I thought we had some not not answering your question but I thought we had some concerns what weren’t there interventionists at the elementary level we wanted to know how they were going to be
Able to identify and work with their students that needed additional support when we walked away on January 11th we had three items that were pending information or to be removed and it was the two on the screen the interventionist at high school the CTE and then the buses um the question was
Brought up that evening and the elementary principles in the room addressed addressed it as far as how they were planning to utilize existing staff to take to take up those responsibilities but if there is some additional information that you still need we can go back to the principles
And get that but we left with items hi and the the school buses as the only items that needed to be removed or on hold Chief Westbrooks was that where the the principal spoke about uh how she had kind of pilot tested that the item you’re referring to is the
Assistant principles at middle school I don’t remember the it was the student support specialist they said they were going to utilize the student support you have several questions yeah I was asking about if they also do behavior and academics if they could support they could still support and they say
Yes I’d like clear information on how that’s going to work clear information on the Elementary yes and how they’re planning to do their correct okay okay so that item we did not have on hold so are we going back to put it on hold and then bring forward
Information M Westbrooks I also if you’ll double check for me but I think the inter Elementary interventionists are all the Esser funded positions how many are Esser and how many are the elementary to put the interventionist is stay comp bed funded not not related to Esser so that one was
Not we didn’t walk away that evening with that one still on hold so if there’s additional information we can certainly get that from the principles but we didn’t discuss the Esser interventionist the reduction list was only related to general fund funded positions I didn’t bring that list with
Me so I can’t and we have it we can put it up on the screen uh Mr Sheffer has it available and ready so we can scroll through it if we need to the other one yes thank you and Can Am I am I controlling it right now okay thanks
So the item we’re referring to is item C do have it oh J I’m making it bigger on my screen but they can’t see my screen can you make it bigger so item C is a little easier to see I do have it good it’s item C and that was
Scroll oh I can scroll thank you right here so this was the interventionist position one per campus it’s state comped funded and this was presented by Dr Amerson and she talked through the committee’s recommendation and how they would utilize the existing staff and to truste McDaniel’s Point you’ll see in
Column f is where they refer to um utilizing the student support specialist position to help with with some of those duties and they felt as though they would be able able to to make that happen I’m just we just went through the taper report and I’m really struggling
With where we have uh positions in place to intervene with our students that need that additional support uh I’m just struggling with removing that out of um as part of these budget cuts I think if we’re going to continue to see the growth if we’re going to identify our
Students that need that extra help um that we should not be uh removing interventionists at any level uh I’m not in support of it uh so I don’t know if it’s on hold or not uh but I’m not prepared to approve a budget that’s taking away interventionist at
Any level that are on our campuses to help support and identify our kids that need extra help and that’s for me I think we have an opportunity to look at other areas uh to identify where we can uh meet that deficit but not at the expense of supporting kids that need extra help
Can you go back to the high school interventionist please so just to clarify this correlates with the packet for high school principal reduction that’s correct so we we asked the High School principles to identify which positions they would put and they’ve actually updated a couple couple of
Those since we prepared it and sent it to the board but that’s that was in response to this item being put on hold yes and looking at this it indicates that some principles have that position but they don’t have a person there so they’ve been doing without a person a body doing
This position but the position has been listed on their budget as having when they actually haven’t had one so they’re okay with not with removing this FTE from their budget because they haven’t had it anyway and they’ve been doing this uh and they’ve been making good use with what they have by
Uh changing things around in the school changing Personnel around so it looks like from what I’m looking at here the principles are okay with uh reducing this FTE on their campus accepted I would say the committee was okay I would really like to hear that from the principles at the elementary
Level as well as these principles here not the one that was on this committee I need to feel comfortable that they’re all on board with this so saying that they’re all right with it um well the committee worked together and they represented their principles and they also talked to the principles
And we’re we’re honored this evening to have Miss Warford as well as Dr Amerson in the audience we don’t have all of the elementary principles we do have the assistant superintendent from elementary back there that can speak to it as well but without taking a vote from each of
The principles we have been relying upon the work work of the committee and that communication with the assistant superintendent and the principles to walk us through uh this process so we do have Miss Warford who is an elementary principal at the time and Dr Amerson who
Is one step off the campus and so if if you would like to hear from those two individuals I’m I’m sure miss Warford you’re used to this by now I’m I’m sure um they wouldn’t mind coming up she’s looking at me like I didn’t know that but while she’s coming up like the
So we haven’t been we’ve budgeted for this position but haven’t staffed it at the high schools the student outcomes kind of reflect that um I I mean that doesn’t mean that the position has been vacant every year all year it means that some of the ones
Who’ve put the position on the on the docket are saying that at this time that position is empty and or is vacant so that doesn’t mean that none of the positions have been filled Bui it just means that at the time that particular campus may be without it and to trusty
New House’s Point they’ve been able to fill that Gap some way somehow but I’ll um turn it over to miss Warford if you want to speak on behalf of the elementaries Miss Walker is here and has been working uh handin hand with the High School principles I don’t see any
Of the High School principles here but we did have them in the room on January 11th and oh I’m sorry Stacy is here miss West Brooks and I’ll Tee It Up really quick too and miss Warford and Dr Amerson um played an integral role we did meet with principles recently and um
Really went through some exercise and activity to talk through them you know what are some possibilities and opportunities for us to do some job consolidation how do you feel about this we did work with every single Elementary principal um that Miss Warford and Dr Amerson and Dr Harris facilitated um at
The same time um um trustees we also had the secondary principles meeting as well as a group um looking through the individualized plans one of the things that the board did request at the last budget work session was that we knew at the high school level especially that
This was going to look different per High School um in terms of what the impact would look like and how we would be able to the FTE would look different as well uh which is reflected in the high school plan uh we did sit down with the High School principles and go
Through each of it um um individually um working through each plan um so I do want to also assure the board that um we did work with them um we took their feedback in terms of what they felt was going to be best for their kids um but
With that being said I’ll go ahead and let Miss Warford talk a little bit about that meeting with the principles and some of the discussion that transpired good evening Justin uh president Durant members of the board Dr henos a good evening um we did uh we did
A a number of things to ensure that um all of the principles all 25 of my colleagues were on board with um with the decisions that were uh brought forward by the reduction committee we started by um looking at the current SSS job duties so I was asked to put together a spreadsheet
Every single principal filled out that spreadsheet um and talked specifically about what their SSS did on their campus um when we looked at that we found that there were several different variations of what the campuses were utilizing that position four um so we um under Dr clar’s
Assistance Dr Harris Dr Amerson and I facilitated a meeting two weeks ago um with all of the elementary principles so every principal was there was represented in the room we looked at that spreadsheet and we came together as a team and discussed what were the top five um elements that the student
Support Specialists needed to continue to keep on their plate um and so they we discussed that as a team we um came up with a collective top five things that the SSS needed to do as far as for compliance um and then as far as for instructional um purposes we also um
Discussed at length a um um action plan for how we would start to delineate those other job duties who could perform those other job duties that we were removing from the SS because we felt like if we were adding additional time for them to intervene with students we wanted to make sure
That they had the time available to do that so who else could um take over those job responsibilities and then the principal’s also um came together as a team and decided the actual schedule for the ssss um what part of their day would be the compliance piece and what part of
Their day would be the instructional P piece also remember remember Dr H’s charge to us was we would have a reading interventionist and a math interventionist on the campus so the SSS would be in addition to those two positions one of those being paid out of
Title funds and then one of those also being paid out of sece so in essence we have three people who will be intervening with our students in reading and in math um we left the meeting with a um with a consensus on um that this
Was doable and that um as a team we could work together to actually make a physical daily schedule for them um and then we also started revising that SSS job description so that we can send that out not only to the ssss but to the campus principles to ensure that we are
Still all on the same page um the meeting was extremely productive um we got great feedback from the other principles even principles that I spoke to yesterday felt like the meeting was extremely productive and that they could start to see the vision for how this position could be realigned to ensure
That our students were getting what they needed what push back did you all get I’m sorry what push back did you did you get from principles what feedback push back oh push back um it wasn’t necessarily push back at all it was just the um the need for them to understand
How it could be facilitated on their campus it was never a piece of push back it was okay how do we do this and so the meeting was around developing an action plan for how it could be done and is that action plan developed I’m currently working on that
Right now um dqu has asked me to put together um a schedule um for what the day could look like we actually decided um as a team that they would be 50 so part of their day would be um um DPMS and compliance pieces and then part of
Their day would be intervening um we also decided that on certain campuses they would flip-flop that so maybe the am on um at Cooper is um instructional and the PM is compliance um at McNab it may be different so I am going to put together skeleton schedule for them but
Also knowing that on different campuses there are different needs for when that person would intervene depending on the principal’s job assignment for them and president Durant I do want to preface also that um all of this feedback was collected by the principles so um we collected all of the feedback
In terms of what the revised job description would look like based off of their feedback and also based off of what their duties would look like during the day in terms of what Miss Warford was saying if it was 50% um focusing on students and the other 50% on compliance
That was also the majority of the feedback from the elementary principles as well in terms of a preference of what a day-to-day schedule would look like okay so let me make sure I’m clear that there had there is a reading and a math interventionist along with an SSI
SSS SSS yes ma’ so there’s three positions yes at each Elementary campus to support intervention yes and the one that’s on row C here item C would have been a fourth position that we’re recommending yes that we eliminate yes um and I just will say that I’ve been at
MCN for nine years um we didn’t initially that was the structure the inter the additional interventionist that we’re talking about with seu was added at a later date um and some of the we like to say experienced principal some of us call us old um we um we actually operated under that structure
And were successful with that structure okay I I I I don’t want to come across like I don’t appreciate all of the work that’s been done and that we had a committee that was very collaborative but we just went over the taper reports um and I’m not happy with where
Our kids are so when you start talking about eliminating interventionists and things along those lines that gives me heartburn I I so not um that I don’t trust the committee or or whatever you know what’s going on I have to look I have been elected by the community to
Speak for them and right now our students aren’t where they ought to be and to me we have other opportunities we need to look at um from a budget perspective without eliminating those key positions that are strictly focused on intervention so that that’s where my my heartburn is with the with the item
At all the other thing um Miss Warford will you also talk about the review of the job description for the reading interventionist or reading specialist math Specialists and the ssss I think that’s a a big piece of the discussion that the principles had sometimes you have so much overlap in roles and responsibilities
That we don’t really know who’s responsible for what work absolutely um and especially with the SSS job description um there were a lot of administrative responsib ilities um that some of the ssss were taking on that um can be given to other members of the team um and that honestly should be
Shifted back to students so um over the years honestly I just think that the job description has gotten skewed and so um with looking at that Excel document we did notice where there were places that some of the um newer principles that didn’t know um had used them in a
Different way than they were originally utilized for so um that was where that collaboration came in of talking about okay what are the things that this person really should be doing and when we did that we discovered that they do have time in their schedule every single day to be intervening with
Students thank you thank you Miss Warford and did was there another question I’m sorry right s i well I need so so I’m gonna just sort of payy back on what you just said right um and I’d have to look at the taper data more closely but my recollection
And correct me if I have this wrong but when a child approaches we’re required by law to provide intervention is that correct we’re not so it’s when they don’t meet the standard right the and and of course the principles will tell you if there’re at approaches we’ve already put them on
A list and they’re in a group and we do do in yes those are your bubble students and we do do group um there is no legal require that’s there’s no legal requirement it says if they failed okay then there is the legal requirement and House Bill 4545 was originally off
Subjects the new bill that just came out was focused on the reading and the math and that that intervention U the 30 hours needed to be provided during the day in Spring we do much more than that um and we actually have it worked into our schedule um daily schedule so the
Students are grouped if they failed the star exam to make sure we get the required mandated and then of course we use other data to continue to intervene but by law it’s only those that failed and were required to provide only 30 hours we do much more than that so that
Makes my argument less compelling um but I still will say that if our kids are not meeting the academic standard then I feel like we have a duty to provide intervention um and so what I’m hearing is with the Staffing suggestions from the committee we can meet the
Requirement for that intervention so I just want to be sure about that because I keep hearing that we either not Staffing a position that we need for intervention or we’re Staffing it and then the people are being used for administrative duties and bus Duty and whatever else but not helping kids who
Need help get the extra help so and I do believe that that’s you know the focus of the committee and you know all the principles and teachers that were there I mean we want to make sure that we’re meeting the needs of the kids
At the end of the day we don’t want to eliminate a position that has a direct impact with students and we also realize that we’ve gotten comfortable with the additional funding the you know um Miss Warford says the old principles right but it’s you know those of us that
Have learned and understood how to use our staff and you focus on their roles and responsibilities um we’ve had and you can see from the taper report that we’ve added a lot of support staff and sometimes we end up overlapping um this is going to make us be more
Stream Ed and focused on Whose responsibility it is to intervene for reading and whose responsibility is it to intervene for math that was our discussion yesterday we need to we need to know who at each campus is responsible for this specific group of students and then of course you know
With the progress monitoring how do you group the students how do you you know document and demonstrate that they’ve mastered the specific skills that they need and how do we continue to grow them um at the end of the day we do not want to by any means eliminate any position
That is working with students that would hurt or or or uh deter any progress being made we believe that by Red by clarifying roles and responsibilities updating those job descriptions working with our principles to make sure they understand the scheduling because it is all about scheduling and how do you move
Kids through that we will be able to do that work um and when you saw in that um the grid I know we had it up a little while ago that we need to continue to monitor that work right so if you know we eliminate this additional staff
What’s the risk and so the risk may be that our students are starting to struggle that needs to be monitored along the way because if we do realize that we get into the end of the nine weeks or the end of the semester and we we’re struggling we’ve got to do
Something it can’t be that we eliminate the position um and then just keep moving I think that was the beauty of the the grid that it made us put the stake in the ground to say what are you going to do what’s the risk and how are
You going to monitor and what are you going to do with the outcome is not positive I guess a piece of the issue um for me is I know we’re looking for the results of the APL work um and like that would be a powerful tool if we’re able
To utilize that but to your point you just made Miss Warford is a veteran principal and we’ve been turning over principles and so we don’t have a lot of Miss warford’s walking around in the district that can properly utilize their staffs and so we’re going to be leaning
On Miss Warford or or the a project uh Mr Reynolds those folks to make sure that people are where they need to be to support students um and so that’ll be the accountability piece for all of us at the end of this ab and when it comes to accountability I’m wondering what
Data do we have um to measure how well our interventions are working like our students when it comes to uh response to intervention they should be going in getting support and coming back out are they staying year after year in intervent receiving interventions like how effective I would like to see that
Data to see you know how is it working and what is the impact um because sometimes we can have a slew of interventionist but does it show the the making the impact that we really want to make so that data is certainly the data that we track I see um Dr Amerson Miss
Warford he know Dr Harris all nauy because that is the work that we need to be doing a student should be an intervention all year long and you just keep doing the same thing you know it’s the quick burst um that the program offers and so we’re supposed to be able
To intervene you know work really hard with them and push them on out the next group of students come in that’s a successful intervention cycle with a successful interventionist in place because the just a you know just put it in a frame around it the taper is one
Data point we have to look at multiple data points thinking about how kids are really progressing so just to reframe because I know it’s Statewide and we have to report but it’s just one snapshot and it’s not the full picture of how students are really doing I’ve
Had kids that would fail the star but they’ve made significant gains across the school year so it can’t always be measured in just the data uh the tape I just I’m sure this goes without saying but I I just want to ask the question just for clarity because Miss Warford
Brought up a good point um sounds like there’s a silver lining in this process and that now we’ve kind of um what’s what’s the word not streamlined but um clarified the role and responsibilities of this position right it sounds like we were utilizing it for other things things and so the
Question is I would assume and I would hope that we’re doing the same thing for all of our other positions because I would imagine if this is the only POS if this if this happened in this situation how many times is happening in other positions absolutely um one of the
Things that we did discuss at our principal advisory committee is you know we looked at we have eight new principles that came into our system but eight new principles are already walking in into a fixed you know fixed Staffing and fixed schedule and so when you walk
In you walk into only knowing what you know and that’s the and that’s the schedule that you have and the staff that you have so how it’s being utilized is what they’re walking into so part of the conversation was is you know how do we continue um to train educate and
Professionally develop our new leaders around what staff utilization looks like also gives us an opportunity from a central office standpoint to completely recalibrate look at our job descriptions and make sure it’s directly aligned to where the most value is for kids um so there is no wiggle room anymore uh there
Is no flexibility this is what this position does this is how it will be utilized um and moving forward we actually have a standard um so a lot of that conversation came up um it gives us a great opportunity to do just that um and I think now is the perfect
Time let’s get back to your questions on the holds before did anybody else have any okay are we talking about the Grid or did we pass that I had a question on on one of the line items here oh go ahead it was just a statement that I saw on oh
Gosh Child Nutrition trusty Korea are you on the central office one or Okay so can we bring I apologize can we bring Clarity and closure to the campus one before we go to central office because did did you still need to hear from the high
Schools and and so I want to the reason why we’re we’re putting an emphasis on getting these nods from the board early on is so that we can put these plans in place and fully utilize this time to make sure sure that we are ready for the
2425 school year and so the principles need to know what the Staffing is going to look like and that’s where we’re trying to get to so we can get their budget Staffing meetings done so we we really want to walk away from these meetings with Clarity for them so that
They can plan and move ahead and I I agree with that and I and I understand that ask historically since I’ve been on this board we don’t get numbers before April uh so way ahead of the game right now and I do understand that we want to
Move as quickly as we can because we have a bigger deficit than we do typically but I don’t want to rush the board into a decision when they’re they still uh want to do more research uh and are more comfortable with it so I want to just make sure that we understand
This Westbrook’s concern to give our administrators as much lead time as possible but we’re actually way ahead of the game by being here February uh trusty president Durant I just want to just I I totally Echo what you’re saying right because this is not a decision we
Want to rush correct um one of the and one of the things that from the Staffing perspective is like all of these position reductions know these are a spring family and so we are not we we are ensuring that this this staff will have positions for 24 25 and so from the
HR perspective for example when you give a nod that allows me to go ahead and start p pooling positions looking at hardat look at Surplus to be able to start identifying staff so then I can start matching them up to vacancies and we talking about the hundreds of
Positions and people um that that does take time to get it right so that people know as soon as possible uh okay here’s where we found your home or here’s where I found another home and so that that is just one additional piece consider as the Staffing piece so for example when
We get the elementary interventionist when uh I receive that nod in January I I’m working on spreadsheets for every campus with their people so I started pulling interventionist sorting by hiring dates to help make these decisions easier for the principal to identify staff so it’s just there’s a
Staffing implications too to get people into their new homes again I understand that I just don’t want to rush the body if they’re not ready right another point to Dr Kings when when we say that typically we bring numbers in April we bring numbers in April however the budget season kicks
Off for us in January and so typically by now we would have already begun having our budget Staffing meetings with our principes and in those budget Staffing meetings when we’re not in the circumstance that we’re in right now the principes know what their Staffing is because they’ve had those meetings and
We’re just following the Staffing guidelines we can’t start those meetings with the principles until we know what their Staffing is going to be so though the numbers don’t come until April a all of that work beforehand is happening in January February and March and so to be
Honest with you right now we’re actually behind schedule because that behind the scenes work can’t happen until we get that that in we haven’t even scheduled our budget Staffing meetings yet because we’re we don’t have that final Clarity on exactly what we’re doing and the principles have asked us to please know
What our staffing allocations will be before we have our budget meetings because they don’t want to move ahead with a plan and then that plan changes that’s what happened last year and it causes confusion so so it’s we’re ahead in some ways but we’re also behind in
Other ways they want to be out hiring for any open positions before we get to spring break and we can’t do that if we don’t have this information laid out so we we are behind the eightball right now even though it appears that we have a lot of time we really do not
Historically how have we managed it because we didn’t make decisions this early before because the Staffing guidelines were what they were and we weren’t bringing a proposed change to the Staffing guidelines so in January and February we were allocating our staffing based on the approved Staffing guidelines and so right now the proposed
Reductions or changes to those Staffing guidelines and so we need to know what those what those changes are before we can give their allocations and that was a request that came straight from the principles they said please know what our staffing allocations are before we have budget Staffing meetings so how
Have have all of you had an opportunity to look through this data we just need a knob for the high schools right now right yeah so I think the question on the floor uh the question you’re asking us about are uh the information the items that we had on
Hold from the January Mee okay all right looking at what we have here from the discussion that we’ve had personally myself just just me I am okay with removing the ho for the intervention of specialist for the high school ones right for the high schools has two per
So that’s two according to the Staffing guidelines that would leave us with how many intervention is on the campus to at the okay so we’re talking High School right because she was talking about elementary so I asked her if it was high school we done with element yeah I asked
Yes she we talking about high school now and so the high schools we have provided them with a great deal of autonomy over the last couple couple of years if you recall starting in 23 24 we we created a pot of funds for their at risk positions
And we allowed the principles to say that how they wanted to use those funds and then we’ve allowed some flexibility with some of the other positions so the long and short of that is it’s going to vary from campus to campus Because we’ve given them autonomy which is why they’ve
Also had the autonomy to say which positions they wanted to give up so that variance makes me nervous because um we have at our Comprehensive High Schools we have one long-term veteran building principle at DEC and the other two are relatively new we just finished talking about the advantage
That Miss Warford has is a nine-year veteran principal and so when if if we’re giving autonomy to you know baby principles effectively that makes me a little nervous I just want to correct you there miss Hunter at westfi I understand I’m she’s been a building principal though for two
Years um she I don’t know how many in Spring but she’s been in HISD an area superintendent in HISD that kills that argument for her so she’s she’s well she’s well endowed knowing so that that shoots that one we she can work budgets and definitely so miss Westbrooks it
Looks like the body is prepared to respond to your question oh okay and so Mr Adams I I can’t tell what you all can see can you only see it up there well okay so this is the high school staff and guidelines and so this is the support that the high schools
Currently have and so last year during the budget reduction we gave them again the ability to say which of these positions because as part of the work with the equity committee we were moving towards allowing campuses to make decisions based on their unique needs and so that’s where that autonomy comes
From so these are some positions and it still can vary because at during this budget reduction process last year different campuses gave up different positions based on their individual needs and so but these are the positions that are avail ailable to the campuses it just may have varied now simply
Because we’ve allowed them to keep or or give up based on their campus needs now they also have a pot of funds that’s about $300 per atrisk student and with those pots of funds they get additional atrisk teachers and sometimes they may get an intervention ins out of those funds so
We were extremely prescribed and everyone had exactly what was on the list but we’ve slowly moved away from that to allow them the opportunity to to make those decisions based on their data now they do have the guidance of their assistant superintendent they have the guidance from our academics team to help
Them make those decisions with their data but it’s not as prescribed as it was maybe three or four years ago I’ll say um at our January meeting the request was for principals to come with the plan and so they’ve come up with a plan so I’ll have a not as
Well I’m a little concerned about the library Aid because I understand that the libraries of the high schools will actually be shut down for certain numbers parts of the day is that correct that there will will not be anybody they have to actually close the library to students when I ask Dr quar
To speak to that the libraries will not be shut down yes no ma’am libraries will not be shut down libraries are an integral part of our day-to-days especially in supporting um our instruction and so we you know we really depend on them especially for not only for our literacy initiatives and our
Work but also in supporting our students in in multiple ways so libraries are an integral part of our um day-to-day teaching and learning environment that there always be a librarian or a librarian Aid to check out books you have my promise I thank you is is there any concern with the hall
Monitors how many Hall monitors are we left in high school because that say would go back to the original allocation which was five Hall monitors so we we started with five we moved up to 10 and now we would go back to the five per Comprehensive High School okay with the
Autonomy and an equity lens that if you needed more you could CB together the funding to have more or if they would like to use their app risk we would have to make a case for it of how that would fall into the at risk category but we we entertain anything
The principles bring forward okay we entertain it and make sure that we can make it happen with the funding sources so for clarity with the campus list I just want to make sure that we walk away again on the same page so with the campus list we’re going back to item
H which is the high school interventionist and we’re saying that we can remove the hold yes item I which is the CTE teachers will continue to hold until we get the able data next month and then with the elementary interventionist position we’re moving forward yes okay thank you for your patients
Trustee carea now if we want to move to the central office reduction list we also have that available on the screen so we can scroll to each one of the items but of course you have the list in your in your packets yeah we just we bounced around
So much I wasn’t quite sure where we were at times so I apologize um there was a note that I saw for Child Nutrition it was item 70 70 no 80 sorry line 80 and I think I noted this somewhere else too leveraging the Child Nutrition
Dollars I guess as a as a supplant to the general funds um but the note says Child Nutrition the federal funds are not approved by the Texas Department of Agriculture to pay for this expense right so we did we were able to clarify that with our Child Nutrition team and
So we’re looking at risk and so the risk would be that it’s possible that maybe in the future the federal funds through Child Nutrition wouldn’t be able to pay for that however our Child Nutrition department has confirmed that it is an allowable expenditure and and did I see somewhere
Where it said one of the expenses I trusty career what what item are you on that was I item 80 80 but I think there was another notation about the trash trash services yes removal yeah that was on um item my colleague to my right is telling me
I just had it and I’m not scrolling very well 43 item 43 is also uh Child Nutrition supported just for the benefit of everyone uh Child Nutrition is a federally funded program we do have the ability to charge direct costs that are associated with Child Nutrition um from
General funds to Child Nutrition funds if they’re approved by the Texas Department of Agriculture and we do we did get get approval on all these items we were filling out the risk column on this document and um we determined that the risk would be any future um unapproved items so if in the
Future Tex TDA decided that they disapprove these items that would be the risk but um Child Nutrition operates with a very healthy fund balance um we uh close out each year with a surplus um we haven’t had any anything less than a surplus since the pandemic and obviously
You can imagine the pandemic didn’t do us any favors for Child Nutrition but um therefore we’re able to use some of these funds to offset um as it states kind of in the um in the desired outcome we’re leveraging these Child Nutrition dollars so that our student dollars can
Go further in general funds and you touched on a point Child Nutrition always has a a healthy balance left over and so I know noticed that the cost on that line was only a third of the right and we are we scrubbed and scrubbed and we’re looking for ways that that we can
Use those funds if if we find others um we’ll certainly do that as well thank you there are other things that aren’t on here that we’re already charging the Child Nutrition so we’ve already in in years past have already have been scrubbing you know that to make sure
That we were able to cover as much as we could we were just able to find some additional doll that we could cover are there any other questions I had one for question number two I was wondering um for the face director moving to coordinator how much that will impact
The work of face or what will that look like that’s Miss Luna in the face she was actually um when she took that position it was lowered to a coordinator position so she wasn’t reduced to a coordin coordinator position but she was promoted to that position and so she’s
Doing a phenomenal job uh in face uh leading that work right now so she’s essentially already Beena correct I didn’t have any questions for this one I don’t know if anyone else okay looks like you met the needs for the ask from January um I do have one before we move for
Number five and I guess I maybe I could have done some math the emerge um how will that impact our beloved emerge program a zero impact so you know one thing that we’ve been doing through this budget season is meeting with our partners um and you know sharing where
We are as a district where we are with the state with not funding adequately um and emerge um met the challenge and helped us help secure some additional funding on their side so that is a complete save with no change at all to the services continue to be that great
Program and great partner with us awesome thank you I’m sorry I did have one more question 62 the police replacement vehicle engines so I my question is historically were we were placing engines in the vehicles or I wasn’t quite They Carried a line because we had so many old vehicles in
The police department before we had Bond dollars we carried dollars to be able to refer bingin when we needed to but now because we have Bond dollars we don’t need to carry that line item anymore got it and you’ll see later on in our in our procurement that we are purchasing
Vehicles I just wanted to comment on how much I appreciate the way this is done um this is a really useful way to look at the information um so thank you and I’d like to thank um trusty MC Natasha McDaniel who brought forward the format so I want to thank you for
That okay guys GNA assume we can move on okay all right M Westbrooks this going to turn it back over to you president Durant for the board member reduction recommendations thank you there is a manella folder that I handed out um as part of the budget process I took
The opportunity to uh PLL the board to bring forward any recommendations they had for reductions um to help us balance the budget this year and I want to thank uh those board members that did send forward recommendations and I’m actually going to have you guys uh speak to those
At this time I did put it all together in one document and I’ll let trusty hes go first I got yours first all right okay so um good evening everyone so president Durant did ask us as board members to give some recommendations um and so is this the
First time this document is being presented or have they did they see it prior to today I provided it to the administration on Monday so they would have an opportunity to be prepared to respond I did just email it to you guys today okay okay so I I’m not sure
It’s my first recommendation is looking at Sal reductions um as it Rel relates to the central office staff recommending uh possibly a 2% reduction in staff salaries in review of the salaries that were presented to us looking at the data that we received as it relates to uh
Some of the um districts that are close are comparable to ours our salaries um were a little heavy in the um um central office staff so that was my first recommendation and then after looking at the data that was provided as it relates to the eliminate um as it relates to the
Allowances um I recommend this discontinuing both car and cell phone allowances to further optimize expenses and that would be more so for um staff members that are not um I understand there are those well let me say this looking at the car allowance and also the cell phone allowances some
Of what we were paying in cell phone allowances were kind of absorbent but I from my understanding I was told that this was part of their a compensation so I’m I’m a little unclear on on how you you can do that and y’all may want to speak to
That from an HR perspective but with the data and the information that I receive these are my recommendations also um someone corporate cell phone account instead of uh having um paying the um cell phone giving a cell phone stip and then maybe we can consider exploring the option of acquiring a corporate account
And providing cell phones specifically for essential staff members and and that’s including Dr HOSA uh shared transportation in L of car allowances I propose allocating two SUVs for central office staff this will facilitate car pooling to meetings as necessary throughout the day mileage reimbursement I just wanted to note that
The IRS permits mileage reimbursement for work rated travel and this um offering this as an alternative solution for transportation expenses for uh central office and also um other staff members as well so those are my suggestions and so I think uh some of the data that she was referring to I put
To there’s a little Grid in here from the uh taper report um that kind of summarized the uh percentage of our staff um compared to some of the like districts so if you guys I just wanted to point out what she was referencing all right um Miss Westbrooks yes we were
Able to review the data that you shared with us and we Jason can you do you mind helping with passing the orange folders I think that’s it and I share why she’s passing this out and I believe this was page 31 of the taper report I’m correct okay and so
Just according to the 2223 taper report our percentage of staff that provided actual instruction is 5% lower than the state average but our turnover rate for teachers is 10% higher than the state average despite the fact that we pay 10% more than the state average Meanwhile we’re paying our average central office
Personnel is 24% higher than the state average in salaries Mr shepher I emailed you a copy of in your folders that we just passed out there’s a document that looks like this and it’s it’s the H the numbers information for the data that you’re that you referencing on the taper report and so
Mr shepher is going to put it up on the screen so everyone can see what I’m referring to but it looks like this and so the data that’s on the taper report when we first saw this information when we’re comparing data between the districts it’s really important to make
Sure that we’re doing an Apples to Apples comparison and one of the things that we’ve noted before is that with Pen’s reporting there are some areas where there is discretion and you’ll discretion in how items are coded and some of that was evident when tasbo came and presented at the January 11th board
Meeting where when we saw the librarian numbers per student and Al Deans was 2,700 and springs was 300 and we said that’s coding that’s how they’ve chosen to code some of their staff and some of that is is Rel here as well um and so we’re going to put it up so we
Can make sure everybody sees the same thing okay so do you all have a copy of this information at your seats okay so the number that is quoted here for the average central office salary in Spring ISD on the taper report is 139,900 so the concern comes in Jason
Can you make it bigger the concern comes in when you’re comparing spring ISD to Al Dean a leaf and particularly Umble and so if you notice if you look at Kleins and you look at Springs they look a lot more comforable and so what you have here on the right hand side are
What we refer to as roll IDs so all of the data that you see in the taper report it’s all submitted to the state by all school districts so TAA tells us which codes are included in the central office codes and so if you look that’s on the right hand side and
If you look on the left hand side you see the school districts you see their average salary and then you see the taper count and what that count is is that tells you how many positions are being coded to those roll IDs that make up that average and so you look at alins
And they have 133.7k positions that are in there Umble 82 and Klein 28.5 the difference is is who they have chosen to code to these categories and so it’s very clear we only have one superintendent every District only has one superintendent every District only has one business manager tax accessor
Etc and we would get a a code that would kick out if you tried to put two superintendant in does that make sense however when you go to program directors 012 that’s where some of that discretion comes in so if you look at alin’s number
At 133 versus Springs at 32 and Klein at 28 there’s discretion there spring is only reporting those role idees that are there we only have if it’s a director of multilingual they’re in there if it’s a director of gifted and talented there and there because those are our program
Directors but as you can clearly see other districts interpret that differently so if we’re only including our superintendent assistant superintendent our program directors our number by and large is going to be higher than a district who’s taken the discretion to include instructional Specialists and other positions that are
Bringing that average down so my point here is that this is not an Apples to Apples comparison spring ISD is not paying 25% higher than the state average when you look at Central Administration you’re not comparing Apples to Apples and the point is to show you the number
Of positions that are being included in each one of these districts that skews that number and so that’s just context to go along with the data and the research that was provided to to make these recommendations okay that sounds like a strategic or policy choice that they’re making what what
Would you speculate is the reason they would do that the conversation that we’re having here this evening it it looks as though they’re spending a lot less and I I do not want to speak for another District because that that’s not my place I represent spring ISD but it is discretion and it
It does look really non-comparable to the state so trusty Westbrooks in looking at um the information and the data that was presented and knowing that we have budget cuts in in your expert opinion where where do you recommend we cut budget have budget cuts in the central office we actually brought this list
That has 80 or 90 items actually on about as it relates to how would we determine as far as salary cuts and things like that what what do you well we have been for the past four years working directly with tasby who has the salary data for the school districts and
They’re doing the comparative analysis to determine whether or not spring ISD salaries are within the market range and so that’s looking at all of the 15 districts surrounding spring and so that’s what we’re using to determine whether not we’re fairly and adequately compensating our staff because that’s that’s real data this
Data it’s real data but you can see the discretion that’s in here that’s in this data the the counts dilute the average and so if I were making decisions I would make decisions based on that data because that data is truly Apples to Apples compared so with that being said
Is it relate it relates to taper I mean we use that data to make a lot of decisions so how do we I guess my question is and how do we determine or know when we’re comparing apples to apples and oranges to oranges because one I feel
Like now my time is wasted because I spent hours delving off looking and doing my job as as an elected official what I was asked to do in representing my community and looking at this and now I’m getting a report from from you and I appreciate the context but I have a
Problem with that because I spent a lot of time and and put a lot of thought and Research into to determinate you know I didn’t just type up you know those three suggestions without reading the data so I have a problem with that and I know at
The end of the day we have a huge deficit and we need to figure out where we’re going to make Cuts so we need to figure it out I just if I may like one of the things that I’ve come to realize just sitting here right now me
Too A lot of the data from the state is full of garbage it’s full of noise um extra stuff that doesn’t mean anything any outliers that are getting lumped in and that’s my point my where where do we draw the line because we’re making sometime we make decisions using
It in C certain areas some areas we don’t we don’t use you know and I need to figure out I think we have to look at the data that we’re get from the state just with we have to weigh it accordingly I mean it is alarming yeah it is and I
First of all I just shared this information with um Administration on Monday and I want to thank Miss Westbrooks for uh pulling this together because it it it definitely is eye opening so great job but um to truste just point it’s frustrating uh cuz we’re sitting here elected by the
Community responsible for closing a $25 million deficit how do we get there I think is what Miss H’s question is because even with what’s come out of the committee we’re only at 10 what 1011 million where do we get the rest from and not only technically it’s not just
The 25 million to me it’s 36 because we’ve got the 11 million from the health care plan that’s going to hit the fund balance too so it’s 25 plus that 11 so help us well we’re doing we’re controlling what we can control and so Dr King and I are working behind the
Scenes as we mentioned with the the guidance that you all provided us with the interlocal agreement to work on getting the cost under control with the medical plan we met with our elected officials to ask them for their assistance as well so we are absolutely controlling what we can in control um we
Have other mechanisms that we’ve also discussed as well that we may we may look into at a later date as well so and we are chipping away at this and trusty Hodes we appreciate the work I know you did your due diligence behind the scenes
And we just dug a little bit deeper and and gave some additional information to go along with the data that you provided I app that cont yes and and also I’d like to um it’s it’s a lot of work right um and and also look at the data that we provided
Or that Dr King provided last month because that one also has our salaries for every principal director assistant superintendent and then there was another attachment that was part of the tasby study um you might want to talk about that Dr King because it’s hard to understand market value um so talk about
That and then I’ll come back to expand on some of the work that we’re doing in central office yes thinkk say so just because I don’t want to beat a dead horse with this so my my clarifying question is our central office staff salaries are comparable to the market rate they
Are and so if you look in your your packet we handed out again tonight the the tasby uh salary benchmarks and so now we’re currently undergoing the salary study for this year so when that data is available for this year we will bring it to you but this is from last
Year and so these are the last year salaries compared to the market and so it’s a little bit more uh Apples to Apples than the taper because it’s Chief HR HR officer in Spring to Chief HR HR officer in the other districts in the average and so uh the salary there is
Listed along with then what what it is in the other districts and it then it gives us a market comparison and so what if a salary has been between 90% to 100% of Market that means it’s compar is comparable to the market if it’s over 100% it exceeds that salary exceeds the
Market if if it’s below if it’s 89% or below it it is below the below the market and so we’re looking for to keep that sweet spot of 90 to 100% And so that the documentation you can see where our individual salaries our actual salaries fall into the market um there’s
Also I can explain it I don’t want to get you too confused but then it talks about midpoint comparisons in that and Market there that is it yes yes so I don’t know they’re in your orange we passed it out again tonight it’s in your orange folders I use for my
Recommendations What’s the title of it just to clarify is the spring ISD Market comparisons it’s in the blue folder from last but it’s it’s also in the orange folder that just got handed out yes we gave it again tonight yes ma’am like a lavender color it’s exactly the same if you have
Your blue folder or the orange folder from tonight it’s the same info or use your computer instead May on paper can I ask I know your lights on oh I’m I’m good so so I have experience with this because I used to do this so I understand this data my only question is
The district’s reporting because the positions have a different number of districts reporting for each position and so your your midpoint the market you know all of that is only going to be as good as your comparable you know districts I guess so this kind of goes back to the region
Four question again this is tasby and this is going to be a multitude of different schools so do we know that the districts reported that reporting into these positions are comparable to our district because that will definitely affect the final numbers on the list the closest one is a all them is almost
Twice our side and as we do this year’s report I have asked tasby for a different set of comparison districts uh because yes um and in fact in the Staffing review too we’re looking at a different set of comparison districts to try to get a
More comparable uh look and so yes we we when we present this year’s data uh it will have a different look um and we can get you a list of the preliminary districts because the report hasn’t even been drafted yet so we can tell them if
We can let you see the list and we can you can say we we would like this district is included now the caveat with the tasby survey is districts had to respond to it so for example was doing some work with them on on some other
Data trying to get it and I wanted some data from our next RB for Klein but Klein did not respond to this year’s salary survey so it’s if the district responds to it and the other caveat there is you know um I charge our team we report accurately right but everyone
Has to report accurate information I was just going to say and just just for the the board’s just my own personal research that I did on on some of these positions looking at kind of comparable you know what’s publicly available a lot of this data is very secretive and you
Have to pay for it um you want to share what you did yeah so I what I did see is that the positions that I did look at a handful we are kind of right in the middle of the pay so how’s the could you how how do we determine the midpoint I
Think I you mentioned something about the midpoint yes the midpoint is the midpoint of our pay grade from our Compensation Plan that’s Bo approve that that’s the midpoint representing 15 years of direct experience in a position and so that helps us look to see where our
If our pay scales need to be adjusted as when we when we’re looking at that market data okay okay thank you and so miss Hodes your question is how do we get there right like what are we gonna do we’ve got 25 million we’ve got about 10 million on the you know we
Did 9.2 Million last year we have 10 million right now um so it would leave us another 15 right that we will um so this is this proposal we’ve got two other uh pieces coming forward that we hope to be able to again squeeze out more um one is the able study that’s
Really going to be looking at our scheduling our our Master scheduling and I think there was one piece that um Miss Cora and her recommendations I can tell y all did a lot of research and there is a way to get you know uh more uh bang
For our buck in our Master schedules and so when we get to it I know she’ll talk about it and actually we did our own research and we’re moving in that direction and we know we’re going to be saving some money there um the other piece is going to be the tasby study
That Dr King um has uh commissioned that we will be getting and you’ll see some savings there and some some good data for us centrally you know how do we use use our central office staff and I think it was one of the recommendations Specialists or coordinators that are sitting in central
Office how are they being used um should they be at the campuses and so those are some of the works that we are doing now with our directors to make sure that we are taking care of the campuses first and not you know um taking care of the campuses first and
So I can assure you that all of our directors you know our Chiefs have that charge last year we were able to eliminate 1.7 million doll you know I was able to back then we had a cabinet and cut two Chief positions cut assistant superintendent positions director positions so last year we were
Able to cut 10 central office positions and tighten up and we are looking centrally again you know how can we continue to do that because we know that the focus has to be at the school and has to be at the students and so we will
Continue to chip away at this um we knew this was coming and so our work had started already um now it’s it’s here um can it be done in one year can we um cut $25 million in one year no there’s no way but we can do our due diligence and
You know talking to miss Westbrooks can we get to you know we were at 12 million earlier we took some back can we get to anywhere you know closer to 12 million so we’re halfway through the advocacy work that you all are doing um is going
To help and that will carry us one more year for the next legislative session uh if we can carry ourselves one more year to that legislative session and then um work with our elected officials to get the relief from the state that we need
To um we also had you know have had some other discussions of other uh opportunities that the district may consider with a you know a v vat that’s another option that’s out there so we want to get to at least 12 million this year without negatively impacting our
Students make the commitment that we’ll look towards that next 13 million um work with our elected officials um and this March 5th primary is going to be really important for us get to the next um legislative session and and work through that um so I I feel confident
That you know I think Dr Keem talked about it you know this is our spring ISD family and um you know Staffing is the largest percentage of our budget you know we’re at 86% 87% right along other districts they’re at the same percentage of of Staffing um so we want to make
Sure that we take care of our staff and the commitment has been made we’ve made the commitment that if you want to be in Spring there is a place for you in Spring this is not about um people not having a job in Spring I want to be very
Clear that everyone will have a place in Spring um our roles may look a little bit different and we may have to pick up more duties and responsibilities as we get get through this process but I can assure you we we’ll make it through thank you so much I’d like to U Madam
President I didn’t mean to monopolize all the time I know that my colleagues have um yes so I’m I’m done okay thank you I just want to make a comment and a couple quick comments and then I’m going to turn it over to Dr Jensen to go over her recommendations but
Um spring is a family and it takes a village and I think as a board and I can speak on behalf of everyone is that we appreciate and recognize the central office impacts and works for students as well so we recognize that and we appreciate that and we don’t want
It to come across like we’re not appreciating anyone um it’s just 25 million is a lot and we got to find it somewhere uh and I’m want to also thank my colleagues for accepting my Challenge and actually digging into the data um learning what it means I mean I learned
Some stuff tonight because I’m think I looked at that data originally from the taper and what Miss Westbrooks brings us tonight puts a whole different perspective on it and so we’re all learning as we go along and I know you all dedicate a lot of time to it and I
Appreciate it so Dr Jensen all right uh I uh am the one who requested to have information about how much it costs for trustees to travel to conferences and so on and from the data I’m looking at it looks like we could save for nearly
$48,000 if we no longer just put a year moratorium on our out of state travel now I am strongly supporting our within State travel like we I know uh we have had trustees uh with leadership tasby that we have supported absolutely worth every uh dollar
Um also uh I don’t want to give up our national membership to nasby uh but there are a lot of things that you can get online from the National Conference and uh I think that with for a year we could get along with that instead of moving our bodies over to someplace
Where they have a fairly expensive hotel and an flights are expensive and that sort of thing so um I’m proposing that we have a year moratorium on on that now um we have the r travel but then they have the district has to send an employee along with us so that we would
Also save so that’s why where I get to the about $48,000 we would save the next suggestion I have is uh asking Community Partners to support travel costs for students who are traveling to State national and international competitions I do not want to get in trouble with
UIL uh but there are some just amazing things that kids are doing uh at the national and even International level and uh if we have um uh the students going and we’re paying for them appropriately I know uh it would be wonderful to have uh some local uh
Business say you know we are a proud supporter of so and so uh the next thing is um could we reduce the amount of paper here I am sitting with all this paper you know and uh I will take a a lead from uh trusty
Hodes that and and at home I’m you I have all these notebooks I have saved sometimes and I thought why did I save this so uh I just think that perhaps we could uh reduce I I volunteer to uh get my notebook digitally okay and if any
Other trusties would I think we’d save people a lot of trouble uh the other thing is um uh part of the paper reduction I know we’re uh trying to provide Chromebooks to all our students and I noticed tonight in our U agenda that uh we are uh having to buy replacements for
Chromebooks because you know if they’re getting used by students they wear out and get broken and that sort of thing uh but uh hopefully uh it’s the age where we can actually uh deliver more um activities and um tests and that sort of thing by Chromebook we may already be doing
Maxing that out I’m this is just ideas the next thing is we’ve been uh had a a um business that we had come in and do a assessment of all our buildings and uh tell us how to save energy and I know one of the worst buildings in
The district was Spring High School so I know that when we build a new Spring High School we’re going to be saving energy costs there big time but in the meantime are there some simple inexpensive things we can do I know that um many of the schools you uh if you and
In this building if you’re out of the room for a while the lights turn off you know they’re automatic things but um uh perhaps uh in some of the schools they don’t have that I I if we could just look at that also um on bus runs
You know sometimes you see a bus with only five students in it and it may be at the end of the bus room and that’s why I’m seeing that uh but uh I’m sure that the um transportation department is always looking at putting um bus runs together to for more efficiency of
Delivery and pick up the students and um especially at the secondary level high schools sometimes high school students don’t want to ride the bus and I think that’s when I it really bothers me to see a bus not completely full but these are just a few
Ideas thank you Dr Jensen and I don’t know um Miss Westbrooks or or missos if you had any response to no okay um I do believe we wanted to speak to the Energy Efficiency yes yeah I did want to respond for a few of them touched on some of the things that
We are doing we we we did have an organization that was helping us with some of the energy we are saving money from that contract and we do have um some positions that we we do have that are coming to help us to continue to do some of those Energy Efficiency
Responses that you talked about so we will continue those programs in the school district so I’m really looking forward to that um so that’s one thing uh the other thing on the fuel that was uh really interesting that you mentioned that um and you may have noticed in our
Central office cuts that um one of the reductions was fuel cost um you probably remember in the last year that we were we had been really nervous about our fuel cost going very high um one of the things that we’ve been able to do because we’ve had some new Personnel in
Transportation that have that have done a really good job at looking at our routes is that that we’ve we have done um we think a better job of of looking at our routes and kind of the turns and the different things um and being a little more efficient in that and so
We’ve saved some money on fuels we’re also using some of our bond Monies to um purchase smaller buses um you may have seen them around if you’ve driven around they’re they’re kind of in Vogue a little bit in some school districts um they’re smaller 15 passenger I believe
They’re 15 passenger is that right I’m sorry 13 passenger buses um they’re white buses they don’t require a DL um and they’re going to be a lot more efficient for the smaller runs that you just talked about so we’re not running a 72 passenger bus on a smaller run um and
Again we can use those for runs that don’t require a CDL um so there’s lots of opportunities you also would have maybe seen some of that on our central office cut so um a lot of the things you tou touched on um you know great minds think alike because we’re we have those
On our central office cuts okay I did want to follow up with uh regards to our travel um I think there are opportunities there recently we had the government and advocacy uh conference coming up with tasby uh in Galveston and maybe that’s something the uh governance committee could attend and
Not the whole board uh so is there any objection to um us taking a look at how we can reduce our spending cost I just caution you about um cancelling for something that people are driving cars to uh and that is that we have to pay the registration anyway you
Know if you’re too late and uh probably one of the worst uses of truste money is someone who cancels at the last minute because sometimes um you can’t get the registration back and those registrations can be hundreds of dollars sometimes so I I use that conference as
Coming up up in two weeks as an example of how we can make changes moving forward so I just um just wanted to make sure that there was no one objecting to cutting back at our and looking at our uh travel expenditures okay so thank you Dr Jensen we’ll definitely um take a
Look at that we’re going to do our part also um trusty Adams I think you’re next on this list but I think we might have already touched on we did we did um so since I’ve been on so when I was first selected to this board I went to a baby board member
Training and there was a uh a training about um Finance which was the thing that I was weakest at when I first got to the board I didn’t know anything about finance and so I attended a session where they talked about the percentage of your District’s budget it should be a lot of
Payroll and at that time they were telling me that you should never be above 85% and if you’re above 85% you know somebody’s Wheeling cash out the back door um and we were always over 85% right and then the tasbo lady came and said your percentage of payroll should be between 70 and
80% what I have realized sitting here is we’re just sort of on the long side of the Bell distribution curve in terms of our payroll um and I wonder if there’s an opportunity to move us down and it looks like that’s already started to move us down from nearly
87% closer to the 80% that is where most of the people are under the Bell distribution curb in the state of Texas um I feel like that addresses a large well the Georgetown economics lab will tell you that the biggest bang for your buck is dealing with your payroll issues
That over the last 30 years the number of students in public schools has decreased and the number of employees serving a smaller number of students has increased and so my only suggestion for all of this is to look at ways where we can streamline and be more efficient where it’ll make the most
Difference which is in payroll we did have an opportunity to reach out to Dr brownson who is the tasbo representative that came and presented and I did ask her about her 70 to 80% comment that she made and so we we did find the actual data at the state
Level and it’s in your orange folder as well it has a payroll expenditure headline on it and so this is at the state level so the percentage for payroll I’ll give you a moment I know there’s a lot of docs in there it looks like this the header is payroll expenditures
Yes did you find it so that one you can see at the state level the payroll expenditures are 82.2 s% so that First Column is General funds across the state and then the second column is all funds and so you know with all funds sometimes they’re very specific what how those
Funds can be used but for general fund at the state level the average is 82.2 s% and so what we did is we went and we looked at each district using the same comparison group that was provided to us um in the taper report and so Dr HOSA actually has those
Notes I do it’s on your she looks forward I just want to thank you again because you did a lot of work from what I gave you on Monday and once again the taper data and as Dr HOSA looks uh for that information president Durant uh just want to Echo just reiterate something
That she alluded to earlier we are working with tasby again to do a staffing analysis uh of our central office positions because yes we did our central office budget reductions but this is coming from analysis from an outsider to say where do we have chances to gain efficiencies and so I’ve been
Working with them and so that recommendation will be coming on March that presentation will be coming on March 7th with recommendations you know from from outside lens and it’s a role where the um the tasbo look was a a function based uh comparison this is
Going to be role based and so now titles you know vary from District to District but we’re we’re looking okay what does this specific role do okay then how many of these people do you have that do this role now not all districts have all roles or we might have roles that other
Districts don’t have and vice versa but th this will give us uh specifically looking at uh every um central office function but by role so that we can say okay how do we compare in our staffing and are there uh efficiencies that can be gained from
There as well when was the last time we did that study just got I’ve seen it before but it’s been yeah the tasby study when we’re looking at Market values by RS last year we’ve done it annually since 2020 now that’s the Staffing no not that’s the salary oh the Staffing tasby
With t 2008 2008 yes I knew it been a minute okay so so just a clarifying question the information that we received from the lady who presented from tasbo last month last month how do we so did that data really pertain to us as a district or that brings in the question
So there’s a lot of noise in the data right you’re looking there’s more than a thous it’s like 1100 school districts in Texas most of them are tiny um you know 400 kids right so you just you just like when you lump all of that in there there’s there’s a
Lot of extra data that isn’t relevant to us so I only want data that’s relevant to us no as we did did have I don’t I mean is that doable when she was saying 70 to 80% I think she was talking about she I mean she was lumping in all these
These little big districts so we did go District by District to look and so um I found my aaf is at 89% 89.4% of their budget is and this is on the on the public pe’s web website so it’s not it’s on their public website so Ali is 8964 Klein is
9.77 Aline is 82.6 cyer is 8913 and Umble is 86.8 so you can see we’re comparable and I can attest to that because I did my own deal about two years years ago I did the exact same thing I just went and got the information publicly and yeah that our surrounding districts were higher than
Us and it surprised me trusty Adams are you okay and done with okay next is Trusty k so some of mine have already been kind of answered some of mine were recommendations some of them were just kind of musings and questions to think about um my first was uh we may need to
Consider salary reductions and cutting perks that come with the cost um I think we kind of already touched on that a few times um the question do we need to consider pausing any bond activities I know that the funds are allocated to that project but I was thinking more of a long-term
Cost like once we get the facility or whatever it is you know kind of thinking in those terms what are the long-term implications to our finances with whatever we’re doing with the bond funds and so that’s where my question was coming from uh if if we consider closing schools and
Consolidating um I had said we might want to revisit the two mile change to blessing but it seems like we’ve dropped that so um we might want to consider charging tuition for prek that’s not unheard of there are other districts that are charging and there is a what’s a state
Limit that we could I think there’s a state limit that we can charge um so that’s more from the income perspective uh our utility costs are high and so I know you had touched on Mr Miranda about um utilities you know are we doing everything to become energy efficient we’re applicable
Can we reduce the costs or you know do we have can we consider directing bond funds which I think we are in some areas um and my example was automatic switches to shut off lights when no one’s around you know that sort of thing um can we find cost savings on aligning
The entire District on scheduling of seven periods versus the block scheduling and I think that’s one thing that Dr inosa was going to discuss and a um I think I remember seeing a purchase order for upgraded police vehicles am I crazy I remember seeing it it was like a
Million dollars and I remember looking at the number and I was like oh my goodness um my initial thought was should we reconsider but it sounds like the long-term cost with not having to refurbish and and uh so there was that um um I had a question for
Positions being eliminated how was that money being reinvested that’s just kind of a general question um the salary survey that was one of my questions and then uh academic Roi we talk a lot about academic Roi and it seems like we’ve discussed it but I
Unless I just miss it I don’t I haven’t ever seen it on anything so my question was are we receiving the grid with the academic Roi but I’m happy that we got the grid because it’s a good start so that was it I had one question in reference to
Her her fourth item about um considering charging tuition for prek and this may be something I you may know it offand but with um what is it called where you get daycare assistance NCI NCI is that um thank you okay in NCI would that be an option given the demographics of of the
Community that we serve with prek for the for the individual parents now what we have found I’m saying us accepting could we accept I know you’re saying what if we were to charge charge for prek and then use NCI pay foruse Public School thinking I don’t I
Wouldn’t want you know I hear what you’re saying now what we did what we are researching is the possibility of offering prek 3 because there is full funding for for those students and so instead of them going to a daycare center they would be able to come to
Spring ISD we would receive full funding versus half funding for prek4 and the that would also hopefully keep them with us here in Spring similar to the program that we began with our prek 4S where even if they’re not eligible we’re bringing them in so that hopefully they’ll go ahead and stay with
Us K through 12 especially if they have siblings here in higher grades it would make it easier on the parents exactly so so trusty hajes that charge was provided to us by Dr hen hos and we are beginning that research project on offering that prek-3 yes and I did have one last
Question that I was thinking about after I had already submitted this when it comes our investment income I noticed that I think we’re using Hilltop Securities now um and I I looked at the and I’m not a financial adviser but I looked at the Holdings that we have and
I don’t know if that’s something we might want to relook at because where we have some of that money invested seems historically over this last year for example I think we have a lot in Securities and it seems like we might want to look at investing in the
Bonds because it seems like there’s more return on the bonds in a high interest rate market so we actually have 85% of our portfolio is in the local government investment pools and about 15% are in US Securities ah that was the other thing looking at some other school districts
There are some additional there’s like Tex pool and lonar pool those local government investment pools that’s Tex pool and Lone Star and we utilize all of those there were some additional ones that I had seen that we weren’t using and so I didn’t know yeah and so we do
We look at them and compare the rates and a lot of times their rates are very similar and so and matter of fact over at midwinter we had a couple that approached me and said you’re you using our pools would you like to look at our
Pools and so we do consistently look at them a lot of times they’re just not enough of a difference between them but we do try to diversify amongst the pools when we can so the opportunity is always there yes and we do work with Hilltop to continuously look and with our last Bond
Program we got more into into commercial paper than we had before which gave us some more opportunities for investment income so that is something that we do work with our financial advisors to just look holistically at at what our options are okay thank you I think Dr HOSA had some response to number
Six so definitely and I you know I chuckled when we saw it because with the work that the research that we’ve been doing with our middle school and high school teams and the data that’s the preliminary data coming from a it’s the straight schedule and so uh the assistant superintendents and the Middle
School and High School principles have met and we will be going to a districtwide for the comprehensive schools of course the specialty schools need something different um but all comprehensive middle schools and high schools will be going on a straight schedule we’ll definitely see savings but most importantly for our kiddos um
Because our students do best when they’re seeing their teachers every day when they come and miss new house you know they come on Monday you teach them you give them homework and then they forget by Wednesday right and so if this is seeing their teacher every single day
And being constant so it’s good for the students and it’s going to we’re going to end up with some savings um for the district I’m just really excited about the the opportunity for um prek and our nonqualified because our students qualify for prek and we get reimbursed
For half of them half of the um day um Dr Giller give me that number because for me bringing all kids to prek is important they need to be prepared and so we what is it are staying with us those students that did not qualify and we as spring ISD believe all children
They live in our district should come and they’re of age and so we’re not charging the tuition and what we’re finding is that they’re staying with us through first grade and so we’re tracking these kiddos to see how they do by third grade right when they start
Taking the start test because this is a group group of kiddos that would have been sitting at home or daycare or you know Granny or something so um this is going to number one it’s already giving us a boost in our enrollment and then number two now to look at threey olds um
Doing prek-3 um we’d have to find space but the you know it’s it’s a funding mechanism but most importantly it’s getting kids into school early as early as possible and then retaining them with us so we’re um Miss Westbrook’s got the charge I’d like for the team to look at
That and see what it would you know what it would be and it’ be good to see the impact on their third GR scores as opposed to those that don’t do the uh pre that’ be interesting let go you good okay so that just leaves me but I also think um some of
Mine were covered uh my first one was to review the central office Department job roles and responsibilities and identify where there’s overlap duplication of work and where are there opportunities to better utilize those resources so um Dr King I’m assuming that that one will be addressed with the um Staffing report we haven’t
Had since 08 right yes yes president um a hiring frees on non all essential Staffing um if yes so we have and I know Dr King you probably want to because it’s coming through him but we have done that already you want uh yes uh uh president Durant and trustees uh we have
Implemented a central office hiring freeze uh and a freeze at the campus too where all positions have to be uh come through SLT for approval so we look at uh the position the need determine if it’s essential and if it needs to be posted right now and so um all positions
Uh central office hiring frees went in place uh when it went into effect uh in December this campus hiring frees went into effect February 1st but now if position is essential especially with teachers and it’s kid facing we are approving it and so but for the other positions just making sure
Everything is getting reviewed okay all right and my last item was around the car allowance and cell phones were appropriate um putting a phrase on that but we’ve already talked about that um under Miss hes recommendations uh so that kind of wraps up um the recommendations from uh the
Board uh I’m going to pause a minute to see if any of my other colleagues had anything they’d want to add I did have a question as it relates to the data that was presented around the cell phone and car allowance is there any uh feedback or recommendations from
Um Miss Westbrook trust um Chief Westbrooks or any of the other senior leadership I’m not really sure in looking at that information that you provided um if that’s an area I guess what I’d like to know is I saw the numbers calculated the cost is there any
Um push back or or any questions related to us being able to do that that is there are there any risk involved I guess well uh when we’re uh talking about employees and and total compensation someone mentioned earlier about the allowances being part of the compensation package and so if when
We’re in salary negotiations and we make a salary offer uh that is part of of what we use to um we may not be able to meet the base salary but we can tell someone your compensation P package Falls in with with with the various
Allowances and so can you pause for me a minute um Mr Binkley are we okay with the conversation open you’ll after I didn’t I didn’t hear what TK was saying can you remind me what you were saying I was the question was around um car allowances and cell phone
Allowances and the responses around how it’s um utilized from a compensation Staffing perspective which typically when we’re talking compensation that’s in closed session I just want to make sure we’re okay so as long as we’re not talking about specific individuals and their specific allowances yeah in fact it would
Generally need to be an open session Open Session conversation all right just okay and and so I’m sorry I lost my sorry total total compensation yes yes is is part of the the total compensation package and so the risk might will be you know when we reduce uh employees compensation uh employees
Might choose to look elsewhere to to meet their compensation needs and so that is a risk uh when you’re reducing uh employee compensation can we explore I know some of our other districts in my research especially around the cell phones they actually got a they have a plan and they
Give their employees cell phones I don’t know if that’s going to cost us more or less I don’t you know is there any opportunity there can we look into that yes okay and we are committed if you look at the line item we are committed to cutting 100,000 from the allocated um
Cell phone and car allowance all put together we did this work back in 2017 2016 2017 uh we did a a major overhaul of the allowances and did reduce them and so we agree that it’s time to look at it again and so you’ll see it as one
Of the line items and we’re committed to um to reducing the total cost okay with that in mind I’m going to withdraw my request I don’t want to give you extra word if they’re already looking at it okay right okay thank you trust okay um that is just your first item isn’t
It so why don’t we take a break but let’s make it short so we aren’t here too late um let’s take a five minute break give everybody a chance to we’re going to reconvene the meeting and I’ll turn it back over to miss Westbrooks thank you president Durant
We’ll begin with item number 7.2 on page 95 which is the amendment with Harris County regarding the disparity study and so last month we brought forward a vendor recommendation to conduct the disparity study for spring ISD aaf ISD and Aline ISD and we said at that time
That it was contingent upon an amendment that was needed to the timeline so I wanted to call up our executive director of procurement Mr Philip Ellison to walk us through that Amendment and you have a copy of the amendment but you also have a copy behind that of the original
Agreement just in case you need to refer to it so I’ll turn it over to Mr Ellison thank you Miss Westbrooks president Durant Dr HOSA and members of the board uh so the uh adjustment that we’re making is the timeline to accommodate the study as the vendor had identified in their response
It was going to take additional time than what we had considered and it’s one of those things where you make decisions without asking people that have boots on the ground what the what’s going to happen and you end up having to adjust and so this is the adjustment that
Needed to happen essentially the initial engagement was 24 months two years the first 12 months were going to be the solicitation the award and then the time that the vendor would need to take to do the assessment and then the second 12 months would be our implementation of
Any necessary or needed um uh action that needs to be taken uh so what we did was we had to adjust the 12 months for the engagement the the solicitation the award and the engagement with the vendor to push it out forward and so what that did is that
Put us into that 24 months and that wouldn’t have given us any time to do our implementation of any necessary adjustments so we needed that additional 12 months for that and so it just shifted the initial engagement for that 12-month period And so instead of a 2-year period for the assessment it’s a
Three-year period for the and and this is all Maximum right this is a contractually agreed time so if it’s shorter than that it’s fine but that it has to be done within that period of time so it gives us the necessary time that the vendor is asked for um to be
Able to do their assessment it was engaging with three different districts uh so that so I know we um did the RFP we we we essentially had the one option yes ma’am if we went back out what is in your opinion the likelihood that we would get someone comparable
That could do it in a shorter time period There’s an opportunity for them to do it in a shorter time period but the three months that it would take us to do the solicitation and in the award we’re back in the same boat and we aren’t at risk for losing the
Funding to cover the cost of the disparity study potentially I mean it’s we are so commissioner Ellis’s office secured the cost or million for um four districts to be able to participate in a disparity study I think we’ve got three ISD and um a university let one star yes right those
Fund that funding is at risk if we expand the timeline to these three years I don’t know the answer to that I mean that’s question that’s their decision what do they want to withhold that funding but there’s there’s they’re they’re very very interested and very excited about us entering into this
Agreement they want to see uh results so that they could potentially get additional funding to roll out other programs other isds and public entities in their County so they’re pretty vested in moving forward with this so this amendment if we approve it needs to go back before Commissioner’s Court it’ll
Go to the Commissioner’s Court on February 20th uh in addition to Ai and Aline they both all three of them have their board meetings commissioner meetings on the 20th um but ours is now so ours would go forward um so that our our approved Amendment would go to them
For their uh agreement on the 20th and Mr Ellison I I thought I heard that there they because they’re very interested in doing this they’re they would approve the extension and our funding would not be at risk that’s correct that’s correct yes okay so you’re retracting what you just said
Before I think you misunderstood Justine um I I I your question was a little confusing okay um I think the risk he Mr Ellison is addressing is if we were to go back out for a new RFP yeah I moved away from that we might lose I misunderstood your question okay okay
All right thank you I’m I’m Lo I’m sorry I’m a little lost what’s the issue or concern what are we voting on again what’s the recommendation Okay so we’ve always districts would like to do a disparity study they’re expensive so some of our legislators put through a bill that was
So we have the funding but it’s going to take longer than we anticipated and I just wanted to make sure we don’t lose the funding our agreement with Harris County was for a certain period of time that we had to get it done by this period right right but it can’t get done
By that period because the vendor that we’re awarding to said it was going to take a little longer so we have to go back to Harris County to amend the agreement to allow it to be that long right and I thought that’s I’m I’m lost I thought that’s what we discussed last
Month and we were going to go back to them okay yes and so what we did last month is we said we want to Award with this vendor but we didn’t get the amendment yet from Harris County saying how we can change it so we awarded to the vendor contingent upon having the
Amendment in place and so what we’re bringing to you tonight is the amendment itself to say these are the changes and then Harris county is going to approve it on the 20th okay I know I can understand your confusion this amendment allows us to extend the timeline just a little bit to protect
That funding that that Harris County has is allowed no I yeah I for I guess what I wasn’t understanding is what the question what was what were we what are we a we’re asked are you just informing us or are we expected to vote you’re asked to approve the amendment now okay
I have to okay so we have to approve the amendment yes ma’am Tuesday okay got you I’m sorry and my initial question was around the one vendor you know I just we didn’t get a lot of response to the RFB very qualified vendor yeah okay all right thank you than
You our next item begins on page 148 and it’s our monthly list of taxpayer refunds and there’s a big one yes get number so we can talk to that one no questions on that for Miss Westbrooks yes Dr Jensen was speaking to the one that’s a high it’s a high amount and
So the value was $8 million higher than the previous year and so there was a protest for it and the market data supported the taxpayer and so we’re ined we’re paying the refund wow any other questions you can continue our next item is the monthly report of Cooperative purchases and it’s on page
152 and I also wanted to note that you all had a update update that was at your seats for this one page and I just wanted to point out that update was was related to the police vehicles and we had on the original version the unit
Price was swapped between the two so you have an update for the quantity of four versus the quantity of 15 so that was the update that you received and so yes trusty K you have been seeing these police they’ve been coming through questions we can continue um the
Next we can continue yes ma’am um item number 7.5 which is the annual report on purchasing Cooperative fees begins on page 155 and so of course we we utilize cooperatives where possible to leverage that buying power of the several districts that are that are utilizing
The co-ops and so what we have to do each year is to bring a list of all of the cooperatives that the district participates in and more importantly to share the fees associated with those co-ops and if you look on page 158 it begins the listing of the cooperatives
And the fees associated with it and what you’ll notice is that it doesn’t cost the district to participate in the vast majority of the cooperatives and when there is a fee it’s a nominal Fe fee for example with the central Texas purchasing Alliance we pay $150 a year
To be a part of that cooperative and then where we do tend to have cost is on number 13 which is on page 159 when we purchase Vehicles there’s a fee associated with the purchase order so if we purchase 12 vehicles and they’re on one purchase order we only pay one fee
But if we have multiple purchase orders then we pay per purchase order so again in the look at the total cost the cost is still fairly minimal are any of these National there there are a couple that are National I think the the one that’s associated with
Um yes and the one that we use one of them says it’s a national IPS number six okay okay our next item um the district has asked that that be tabled to a later date um without any objections from the body we will table item 7.6 for Tuesday no objections all right Miss
Westbrooks you can proceed on page 164 thank you for that on page 164 we have a request for proposal for glass purchase and installation and we have two recommended vendors here and both are incumbent Vendors we have one listed as our primary that we would go to first but if there’s any concern or a need for the secondary vendor we’ll have that vendor authorized as well don’t have any questions Miss Westbrooks you can proceed to your next item okay and our next item begins on page
167 and it is the second budget review for fiscal year 2023 2024 the letter actually begins on page 169 and we’re looking at each fund type and the changes in revenues and expenditures and starting with general fund we have an increase of $2,376 on both the revenue and the
Expenditure side that’s uh part of it is for Insurance Recovery and the other is for donations and contest fees that we’ve received and then the equal offsetting cost are on the expenditure side the use of the Insurance Recovery fees the use of the UIL contest fees and then the donation
That we received from the Education Foundation that went towards the winter wonderland there’s no changes in revenues or Appropriations in the Child Nutrition fund nor in The Debt Service Fund in the special Revenue funds we did have an increas increase in our revenues and expenditures of a little over $900,000
And those are all related to the granting authorities and changes that have occurred um as a result of roll forward and those sorts of things with our capital projects funds we had an increase in revenues and appropriations of 1 point just under 1.8 million and that’s all associated with interest
Income on the bond proceeds with the Staffing allocations we had a net increase of 34 positions the administrative positions decreased by four professional positions increased by 22 paraprofessional positions increased by 16 and I want to make a note that those positions are largely related to special education where we’ve
Added positions um to accommodate our special education population and that was during our uh leveling process at the beginning of the year or as the needs arose um since then okay if there are no questions I’ll move to my last item this evening which is um yes yes ma’am did I see something
Recently about a change to the medic Medicaid reimbursement yes I did yes it was in we put it in two board updates to make sure that our board was aware of what the district was dealing with and so at the state level there was an overzealous um use of personal
Services for reimbursement with our school health and related services and as a result of an audit that occurred across the state there is a loss of funding and for spring ISD our potential loss and it’s a high potential loss of funding is $2.7 million and so we have I I think Dr Edis
Is left but we have worked hand she’s here yes our uh Special Education team working alongside our financial services team have disagreed with the results of um our cost report and we have submitted all of the data and information as a part of the review process in order to
Try not to lose all of those funds or maybe not as much as the 2.7 million but we we do realize that it’s highly unlikely that those funds will be recouped so it is a conversation that is happening across the state and everyone is aware of it it is not anything that
School district dists have done we’re um on the receiving end of this this error and this this problem that happened so yes we’ll keep you updated once we get a response okay and so if there are no additional questions then our my last item is on page
191 and it is the annual review of our investment policy which is CDA local and so we are required to bring the policy to the board once per year with any proposed revisions and so all of the revisions that are included here are fairly minor and they align with the
District’s practice it’s just working alongside our investment advisors they have suggested and we accepted and agree with them some language changes that just clarify some of the practices that we already have in place with our investments our first and foremost um goal is safety of our principal liquidity which is primarily the reason
We use uh so many of the local government investment pools because the funds are available within the day and then lastly yield so when the opportunity arises we would like to receive some interest income on our funds so Safety First liquidity and then um yield so all of the the changes here
Are just language clarifications that as I mentioned align with our our practice as we uh invest our funds the change on page 194 is very repetitive I wondered why that was done because it almost States the same thing two times in the first two sentences you’re absolutely
Right you’re absolutely right and so we may be able to strike the second sentence since it does seem as though it’s saying it says it’s slightly differently but it says the same thing are these tasby recommended changes or these are this is our local policy so it’s recommendations that us
Working in uh tandem with our investment advisers just to clarify some of the language so I see Dr Jensen’s point and we can strike that that second addition help me understand why it says design as opposed to the um Chief Financial Officer it says superintendent or design
Correct and so to me I would think it would be the superintendent or the CFO who else would it who else would it be so it it is myself I have that responsibility and of course my team we do have a senior accountant for cash management that works with our executive
Director of of Finance so but the responsibility falls on myself the superintendent ultimately I think the policy should be just the two of you we wouldn’t want to designate that to anyone else am I anyone else disagree okay I think I think if you leave it as design it it allows the superintendent
The option of not designating it if you say the superintendent and Chief Financial Officer or superintendent or Chief Financial Officer then the board has has instructed that the superintendent can’t D designate if that makes sense and which may be what the board wants to do superintendent or designated to the Chief Financial
Officer I don’t want it left open for anyone outside of those two so however it can be worded that way Mr Binkley we can certainly work on that or a rationale for why right that my first question is why are we saying so what we can do is compare it
To legal and see if maybe that’s where the language originated so we can take my guess is and and it may be but you know at one time we were going in and putting in or designate in a lot of places um and I know in in some of the
The policies we’ve actually started pulling that out because the superintendent can’t designate as long as it’s not statutorily restricted um I mean I think the Your Design doesn’t mean that anybody can come in and say I’m the designate I mean the superintendent still has to sayate this
Is the person who is the designate to do this um so it’s not just anybody could do it right uh Dr H certainly would not designate me to be the person in this because I am not a money person um I would like for our local policy to stipulate our CFO or superintended
Okay talking about our investments and yeah we’ll make those two um two adjustments and bring it back on Tuesday sure yes okay thank you Madame President that is my last item for this evening right thank you Miss westbr for our next item I’d like to recognize our chief of innovation and
Student Success Dr Matthew Parisa thank you president Durant this item can be found on page 204 of your packet uh this is a memorandum of understanding between Texas A&M University and spring ISD I want to bring bring you back to our December board meeting which I know it
Seems like an eternity ago but we had brought anou forward uh with Exxon Mobile um a new partnership involving stem where our students are going to be given the opportunity across our high schools uh to be transported after school to a stem lab be taught and um
Allowed to engage in a lot of Hands-On activities um as well as learning along with their teachers at high school um you know that full Grant uh was over a million dollars that we received through that part of that included um Middle School support right how do we help build our stem um
Students and stem programs at middle school and helps prepare our students as they move into high school um so this agreement piggybacks that um agreement that we had in December uh this is Exxon Mobile is directly contract uh contracted with A&M um and this one allows us to utilize the benefit of that
Funding that they’re providing to A&M um for our teacher so if you look on page 213 um there’s actually a flyer that summarizes um this and you can see that um in Spring ISD our teachers will be able to apply uh we have seven teacher spots that we’ll be able to utilize um
We’re going to prioritize sixth grade math teachers uh and but we also may consider Algebra 1 um as well in seven and seven and eight treat teachers so those uh teachers will be selected will apply then working with our principal recommendations and our district we’ll identify those Middle School teachers to
Go through the program they um will receive monthly training um through A&M uh as well as two summer uh institutes um and they’ll be paid $7,000 during the summer uh to attend as well and they’ll end up with a certification um graduate certification from A&M in the area of
Stem um so this directly um aligns to our strategic plan specifically in the area of leader our leadership pipeline leadership development and teacher Effectiveness for student outcomes good one uh I did professional development for many years and I will tell you that this is beautifully designed and in h full disclosure uh
Janet Meyer the um one of the directors there was my office mate at Texas A&M when I was doing PhD work and she is a former teacher from Westfield she taught in environmental science there uh there was just one thing I wanted to ask about
On page TW uh 207 you have a word I haven’t heard it’s NG is that Nung I’m sure it’s something it’s a typo right it’s under 1.3.1 the last sentence work in good faith in regarding to Nung programs uh yes I believe that is a typo and you for
Catching that we will let A&M know and get that updated thank you well the A&M um professional development um they’ll come trainers come to the campus so they’re still working on the details but it would be um a location within our area um we’re part of the possibilities that could be
Here directly um but what they would really like to do is have them come to that STEM Center that they’re building an Exon because then they’re getting experience with some of that stem equipment do okay thank you any more questions good all right thank you um Dr
Parasa for our next item I’d like to recognize our general counsel Jeremy Bley good evening um tonight I have two resolutions for you the first one you’ll find on page 214 uh resolution regarding school closures due to the winter storm uh the Strategic plan priority area that uh this focuses on as
Well-being um and unfortunately the by this time we’ve gotten pretty used to uh u weather resolutions right so we had to close on January 16th due to um ice in the area and and poor weather and this resolution will allow us to pay our employees for that closure uh we certainly have enough
Minutes built into our schedule that we don’t have to make up that day uh instructionally okay if there are no questions on that one if you’ll go to page 217 with me um this is a resolution of the board to accept chaplain as volunteers um our strategic plan
Priority Focus area on this is engagement and well-being um and as you know at Spring ISD we we have an incredible long-standing partnership with our area religious lead leaders through our ministerial Alliance um I know we have monthly meetings I know uh Miss Carol uh who’s probably not with us
Tonight um you know leads that up for us and has done an amazing job with that partnership um those Partners provide mentoring support and other programs to our students what this resolution does is based on um SB 763 uh reaffirms what we’re already doing with these Partners um allowing
Chaplain and other religious religious leaders to engage with our students as volunteers to provide them support to provide them mentoring and to provide them the other programs that that we’ve already uh been doing for quite some time wouldn’t they just have to go through the same process as typical volunteers yes like why
What’s the purpose of designating it’s okay because there’s a there’s a Senate bill that has no enforcement mechanism but we are going to play nice okay and reaffirm what we’re already doing because you know we have this amazing partnership and okay okay are there any other questions sorry
That might have been a little too Frank I apologize hopefully we also encourage rabbis and imams does that have and it says as long as they meet eligible requirements applicable to the district volunteers so it’s all in there I don’t I need this one pulled from the agenda
Okay do you have concerns regarding it I’m not going to be bullied by the legislature into doing this so I’m I’m a no vote likely for this so I need to pull okay we can pull it from consent I just had a question about the minutes built in so we had enough
Minutes built in to where we only had the resolution but when I saw that it it prompted me to think are we it’s good that we have the minutes built in but are we overbuilding time on our kids I it’s a bigger question but it is it um we’re not really
Overbuilding um we have from where we were eight years ago we’ve added 10 minutes to the day um and so you have small chunks of time that actually end up adding a little over two full days of instruction so it’s not really building more time for the kids it’s actually
Really accounting for all the transition time the restroom time the passing time things like that um but we haven’t done that remember we piloted it with the um the eyesone camp doing that extended day adding more time to the day and to the calendar and they
Didn’t want it so we a lot of districts have done that we are not doing that so it’s just a few minutes built in every single day to um to give us enough time in the whole year for two weather makeup days and it didn’t show any um gangs
Either exactly in doing that extended guy that is it for my items right so we will pull the second item the resolution um to accept chaplain as volunteers from the consent agenda thank you Mr Binkley our next item I’d like to recognize our chief District of operations Mark Miranda
Thank you president Durant members of the board superintendent um I’m on page 219 this is a recommendation that the board approved the cost to set up three Portable Buildings at Marshall Elementary School this project will allow the newly moved Portables to be utilized as six classrooms uh for the campus and will
Include the permitting of these um Portable Buildings to include ramps air conditionings awnings electrical data and exterior painting and of course all of the permitting includes um Ada and occupancy for these buildings this a onetime cost this is a onetime cost that’s a lot of
M did we research how much would it cost to just buy brand new Portables considerably more well don’t they have one how many do they have right now I drive P every day I can these are how many do they have now outside right these are just the
Three only I mean there’s no Portables out there right now these these three oh you’re saying these are these three are currently there right they’re currently there and they need to be um set up to be able to be classrooms oh so they’re just there right now correct we just moved them
There from Clark primary um because as you know their growth it continues to um expand and so we’ve moved them there using U federal funds and now we we’ve got to get them up to code so that they can actually use them so even with the rezoning there’re still um
Need yes ma’am the the numbers right now they’re they’re okay but they’re a little tight and we know that the families are coming both to burette and Marshall to that area and so um we moved a little about 80 students over um so we reduced them from the 900 I was looking
At the numbers 982 is where they were last year and so they’re at 800 70 some OD students 880 students so we reduced them but there’s still a lot of space that they used to use for collaboration that they’re having to you know transfer into classrooms so moving
These three Portables or six classrooms will allow them to have a little bit more space um and it would probably be like a grade level that comes out there and give them more room I’m just wondering at what point do we I to Ables
And is I know not ideal it it’s not the best whether the kid you can’t really monitor the kids as well and so at what point do we make other plans instead of putting them outside so we did you know definitely rezone and that was hard I
Know you all remember last year the meetings the parent meetings and you know it was hard and so that we will continue to Monitor and you know some teachers love Portables because they have more autonomy um it’s always your own air yes you have your own air and
Your own heat and you know principles don’t go out as off especially when it’s bad weather that’s right that’s right so um yeah we don’t want and and I know you know a beautiful building and then you put Portables right um so we will continue that’s one of the things that
Mr Miranda and his team do every year we continue to review our demographic um numbers you remember Rocky comes and so if the need uh arises now Smith Elementary is healthy we’ve filled it up the same thing with Anderson they’re healthy now um if we need to expand we
Need to consider other elementary schools and and kind of spread it out a little bit more but we’ll definitely be bringing that um data at the beginning of the year once we do our snapshot in October we’ll bring back data to see if we need to make any other adjustments
Did we only get three vendors on this bid yes one was even one was a no bit one was yeah zero right so two vendors the other vendor was 200,000 Above This vender so have we ever uh considered renting or leasing Portables as an option no not really
Because we’d still have to move them place them and then set them up with um permitting so considering that we do have empty t t buildings in our um at our campuses it’s easier to do this your next item I turned off my mic I forgot I add
One more item sorry about that the next item is on page 221 we have the Intruder detection so next Tuesday in Clos session we will invite Chief uh rodrig to be in close session with us and we will have one item to present in close session thank you okay
Um with that we’ll have that item in close session we’ll also hear from our uh internal auditor uh on Tuesday because of the length of tonight’s meeting we elected not to have a closed session and do that on Tuesday um so um at this time given that there’s no additional
Items on tonight’s agenda I will entertain a motion to adjourn Madam president I move that we adjourn tonight’s meeting of the spring Independent School District Board of trustee second it’s been moved by trusty Hodes and seconded by trusty McDaniel that we adjourn tonight’s meeting is there any discussion
Hearing none I’ll call for the vote all those in favor please raise your right hand tonight’s meeting adjourns at 9:54 p.m. I will ask if you guys can join me in the back for just a few minutes
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