Alright. Good afternoon. We'll call this regular meeting of the Carroll ISD Board of Trustees to order on 12/15/2025 at 05:01PM. Our next agenda item is executive session. Therefore, we'll adjourn to executive session in accordance with Texas government code five five one 071, five five one dot zero seven two, 551074, 551076, and 551-0821 at 05:02PM. Alright. Good afternoon. We'll call this meeting back to order at 6PM.
Our first agenda item is the opening prayer, pledges of allegiance, and moment of silence. Will you all please rise? Heavenly Father, we come before you this evening with grateful hearts, thankful for the opportunity to serve our students, staff, families, and community. We ask for your presence to guide our thoughts, our words, and our decisions as we conduct the business before us tonight. We give thanks for the many accomplishments we are blessed to celebrate. We are grateful for our high school recognized as the campus of the month for the dedication and excellence it represents.
We thank you for our Super Substitute of the Month whose service and commitment make a meaningful difference in the lives of our students. And we praise you for the remarkable achievement of our state champion boys cross country team, an example of discipline, perseverance, teamwork, and leadership. As we move into the work of this meeting, we ask for wisdom, clarity, and mutual respect during our discussions of the recommendations from the Tiger Team Task Force number two and all the other important agenda items before us.
Help us to listen thoughtfully, speak honestly, and collaborate in ways that place students and staff at the center of every decision. May our actions reflect integrity, unity, and a shared commitment to what is best for those we serve. We ask for your continued guidance and blessing on this board, our superintendent, our district leadership and our entire community. It's in Jesus Christ's name that we pray, amen. Mister Holliday. Good evening, doctor Glenn, mister Bryan, and the board of trustees. I'm tonight, we're presenting our our the pledge of allegiance,
a moment of silence will be presented by some of our Carroll High School art students. If you are able, may I remain standing? I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Please join me for the Texas pledge. Honor the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one state under God, one and indivisible. Please join us for a moment of silence. Alright. Next up is item number four,
a recognitions part of the agenda. 4.1 is, we are re recognizing the campus of the month this month, and that is Carroll High School. Take it away. Hello, doctor Glenn, president O'Brien, and members of the board. My name is Jan Barzatini, and next to me is Pamela Roanhaus, and we are the very proud teachers of our art department over at Carroll. Between the two of us, we teach six different classes. We teach Art one, which introduces students to a wide range of art media and foundations in art. We teach advanced art, which builds on their prior knowledge and gives them more student voice in their work.
We Pam teaches, AP art history, which looks at the very first drawings such as cave drawings to present day, digital media, which explores the entire Adobe suite. And lastly, we have, Partners in Art, which serves our our, special needs programs. We recently just had an art show, was a big success. I wanted to thank mister and missus Lannon for attending. We've brought you a little video to kind of show you what's on display at our campus. Students have worked really, really hard, and I hope you enjoy it. And then there we also brought some students with some artwork to show you and give you a brief description of their their work.
Thank you. Hi. My name is Nolan. I'm an advanced star. Eyes right there. Show class. And, we got here is a full on brawl. What happened was, I started with a few doodles, you know, and then this girl named, Emily. Emily again. She started putting up her, and, Technical difficulties. What happens? They had the old version on? Okay. Alright. Can anybody sing? Hi. They they gave us they gave us the one second finger, so or maybe one minute. Sorry. There we go. I see it. You're up. Hello, board. I am Lily Dodson.
I am in ceramics three, and this is a rainbow trout that I created. It took me about three weeks, and I wanted to take the more realistic elements that come with ceramics and incorporate more abstract kinda elements to it. So and I incorporated complimentary colors to make it all flow together even though it kinda doesn't necessarily match with the structure that's in. Thank you. It's awesome. It's a great job. Yes. Beautiful. I'm Nolan Chitwood, freshman in art one, and these are two art pieces of fish I enjoy to draw.
This was made with acrylic paint, and this was done with colored pencil. Thank you. Hi. My name is Emily Lou, and I'm a tenth grade sophomore in advanced drawing. And this is a self portrait that was done in miss Barzatini's advanced art one class, and it's also the recipient of a vase gold seal. And I just wanna say how thankful I am that Carroll High School really supports the creative arts so we can continue participating in competitions such as Vase. Thank you. Hello. My name is Vivian Terry. I am a current ninth grade student at Carroll High School,
and this is my pace, my piece, She Was Wood inspired by the story of Saint Joan or Joan of Arc. Her story is very inspiring to me, and it makes me realize that, we don't have, you know it could just just like, oh my gosh. But That's okay. Just like take everything. Don't take everything for granted. So I know. Great job. Beautiful job. Hi. I am Grace Engleking. I am a freshman in advanced art one. This is my reduction print raccoon series. Reduction printing is when you take a stamp and you carve it between each print
to add layers. This is inspired by a random artwork warm up that I wanna turn into a full piece. Awesome. Hello. My name is Millie Black. I am in Advanced Art one as a freshman. This is my project, of an anatomical heart. It's based off the metaphor, My heart bursts for you. I thought it would be fun to make. It's just made out of tape and paper. Yes. Hello. My name is Owen Handy. I made this painting using acrylic paint of a draft. I made this because I like drafts. Thank you. Hi. My name is Priya Sampath. I am a ninth grade student in Advanced Art,
and this is my heart metaphor project based on how too much generosity can lead to self destruction, but giving in general can be good if controlled. And it's made out of various materials such as watercolor, acrylic, and I wrote a poem on the back of it that's way too long to say. But I'm really thankful to be in miss Farzicini's class. She lets my creativity flourish, and I am overall very happy to be this student. That's awesome. Good job. Oh, I'm short. Hi. My name is Sylvie Barnes. I'm a tenth grader in advanced art this year. And this is my Heart Met For piece,
that is about authentic self expression in art and some of the difficulties I think that artists face, when trying to validate our art that when sometimes we're just trying to pursue simple joy in what we create. And I don't mean to, embarrass miss Carzatini, but I want to say that she is an incredible teacher. She does so much for us. I don't think that I can remember a time when I haven't seen her smiling. She's an incredible teacher. She gets us any materials that we need. She encourages our creativity. And, like, this canvas, she went out and bought this for me. She's she's she's gonna be humble,
but I think she's an incredible art teacher. And whereas a lot of the time, I think that I can feel like being an art kid can be weird sometimes, she always makes me excited to create and feel like my work is something worth sharing, and I think that she should be appreciated for that. Alright. Well, I just wanted to say thank you so much for letting us come and show off their art. Pam and I are really, really proud of everybody. Definitely wanna say thank you to mister Holiday for his encouragement and support, and thank you to all the administrators and the school board. We'll have another show in the spring. We hope you all come, and, go Dragons. You know, some of us weren't able to,
make the art show, but one good thing about trustee Lanny Landon making any event is he takes about 300 pictures, and we all get to see the wonderful artwork. So thank you, trustee Landon. It was, what you posted online looked remarkable, and these students are, really incredible. So thank you, mister Holiday, for for bringing them in. Absolutely. Absolutely. Okay. Next is our board recognition, sponsored by Potbelly sandwiches, the dragon super substitute of the month. And, mister Holiday, take it away. Alright. Good evening again, doctor Glenn, president Bryan,
and members of the board. It's my honor to introduce the Carroll High School Inspire Excellence Dragon Super Sub of the Month, missus Jeanne Wells. Hey. Miss Wells may technically be a substitute teacher, but at Carroll High School, we don't think of her as a sub at all. She's truly a part of our CHS family. This semester, she's been on our campus nearly every single day. As a matter of fact, a quick story is that she wasn't supposed to be there today, but I welcomed her into the building this morning not realizing that. And she realized after a little while that she wasn't supposed to be there today. So she got to go home and work in the yard.
So as, so as a retired teacher, miss Wells brings deep expertise, calm professionalism, and a heart for students to everything she does. She supports our classrooms, covers long term assignments, and even jumps in at the front desk when she's needed, all with that same positivity and willingness to help. When asked our staff for comments about her, the responses were overwhelming. Teachers described her as a treasure, someone whose dedication is unmatched, and whose work ethic is unparalleled. She is their go to because they know their classes will run just as smoothly with her, in charge.
She routinely goes above and beyond because as she says, what do you always say? The kids deserve it. She always tells me that the kids deserve it and I love that. When she was a long term sub, I caught her up there on the weekends and in the evenings and she always told me it's okay. The kids deserve it. I love that. So students love her. Teachers rely on her, and our campuses better every single day because of her. So please join me in recognizing our super sub, of the month and cherished member of the CHS family, miss Jeanne Wells. All right. Next recognition, it seems like we do this every year.
Well, I think we haven't done it every year for the last fourteen years or something like that. Tom. Is recognizing our state champion boys cross country team. Coach Leonard, take it away. Thank you for, thanks for having us out. We really appreciate it. Every year, I look forward to the, email from miss Yelton. So always know that's a good sign and the reminder email too. I really appreciate that. But, also, like to start out by thanking the school board, our administration, athletic department, and, mister Holiday and miss Lewis for all their support that they do. Our kids do, these kids are amazing. And right now,
we are on a, unbelievable run as a cross country program. I don't think that there's been any sport in UIL history that's on the run that our boys program was on. So the last sixteen years, our boys team has finished either first or second place at the state cross country meet for the last sixteen consecutive years. And this year, this team won the seventh straight, state championship. So it was a phenomenal feat, and we're excited about that and everything that they were able to do. And I wanna introduce our runners. First one is senior Michael Fuller. Michael stepped up this year and had unbelievable leadership.
Beginning of the season, we had a couple of kids out, and Michael stepped into that leadership role. And he's, narrowing down his college choices where he's gonna go run it. So we're excited to see the future where he has. Jackson Glenn. Jackson was huge for us. He takes the top five scores to score a state cross country meet or a cross country meet, and Jackson was consistently our number three and four runner all season long. And without him, we would not be in this situation. Junior Claudio Ahns. Claudio, has a great finish. And at the Macquarie Regional Meet, he saved us and passed about 20 people in the last 200 meters to secure
our win. Senior Caden Leonard. Caden is the first ever, runner in the largest classification five a or six a to win three consecutive individual state championships, and he was able to accomplish that this season. So great career that he had. Kai Gutierrez, sophomore, finished fourth place at the state cross country meet. He finished twelfth place at the Nike national meet. So we're really excited about his future and him continuing the legacy of people that have come before him. Grant Norgart. Grant, he doesn't look that big, but he is. And, he, stepped into a role this year.
Every year we graduate kids, we're gonna have kids step up, and he did that this season, and junior Evan O'Donnell as well. And, he had a great great year and stepped up and made our team successful. And so these kids do a great job. They come to work every day. They work hard seven days a week. That's what we say as cross country is a lot about a lot like life. Set goals, work hard, and good things can happen. And, we wanna thank the parents. And I'd like to also thank the city of Southlake for letting us use Bob Jones. I think we run probably 50 to 60,000 miles a year at Bob Jones Park.
Keeps our kids safe, and we're on grass. And I really appreciate the city for doing that for us and the relationship that we have. Our kids are blessed, and a lot of times we don't show enough gratitude for our school district, I believe. We get to travel all over Portland, California, and do all these trips, and these things would not be possible if it wasn't for a supportive administration. And I think you hear a lot of negative things out there, but I stand by this. Carroll ISD is the greatest school district in The United States, and I I really believe that. And, we appreciate y'all. We appreciate the parents, and we look forward to being back next year.
Thank you. Hey, coach. Real real quick, I wanna I wanna say something. And, you know, I had the opportunity to go to your banquet. And, and real briefly, I know, and you said it. You were like, he's my son, so I want to say something about it because he's done such an amazing job. But you kind of went through it real quick. And so since you can't say it, I do want to say it. Kaden Leonard, three time State Champion in 6A, four time overall Cross Country State Champion on the team. The last two years he's finished third at Nike Nationals, just came back from a race this weekend where he finished third at New Balance.
Caden will actually leave when he graduates. Carol is one of, the most decorated six a athletes in the history of the state of Texas, and one of the the greatest high school runners in the nation. He is he is bar none, probably one of the best athletes ever to come through Carroll. I'm not sure that we could put every medal that he's ever won around his neck and get him to walk in the room. He is phenomenal And and I know you and your wife, Nikki, are so proud of him and you all have done a great job raising an incredible young man.
And also to you, coach Leonard, 19 total state championships in the cross country program. It is it truly is a dynasty. When we say protect the tradition, you guys live that year in and year out. So we're gonna miss Caden, when he graduates. We look forward to how many medals he'll pull off in, track season. So we get a little bit more time with him before he heads to the University of North Carolina on scholarship to run. But it is truly been remarkable getting to be a part of you and your son's journey over the last four years. So thank you coach, thank you Caden, you all have been amazing. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Pretty amazing accomplishment. What did you say, seven years? Unbelievable. A row, 19 total. That's pretty amazing. And, thank you, Doctor. Glenn, for pointing that out about the coach's son. He's, truly an amazing athlete and really the best that comes through that has come through Carol, so appreciate you pointing that out. Okay. Next on our agenda is item number five, which is public comments. And, we have one speaker tonight, so we'll give her three minutes. Ms. Shelton, will you please call our first speaker? Marissa Mahan is our first speaker this evening.
Good evening, trustees and Doctor. Glenn. There's some really important discussions tonight, and I hope some items can be addressed in further detail. Historically, our board moved the needle with increased transparency back in the 2021, committing to posting all presentations that would be discussed. Tonight, you all are having discussion of recommendations from a subcommittee, and it would really help, continue to build that transparency by posting those in advance. Second, I'm concerned our legislative guidance is not timely or accurate. I met with miss Parsons and mister Nick mister Nickel in September and brought up this concern as they were waiting on policy guidance from TEE.
I also spoke on this in July's public comments, regarding the cameras in qualifying classrooms. And I want to go on record to note that I asked for the sped camera policy amendment being passed tonight to be updated last month on the day we passed the first revision of a legislative update a month ago. What concerns me most about this is that we have a plethora of policy updates and consent agenda tonight that were not updated timely as required by September 1. I would greatly appreciate if someone is able to connect with TE and inquire why it appears as we did not get timely accurate and accurate guidance on policy recommendations
as these are statutory requirements from the eighty ninth ledge that can lead to substantiated violations of old policies have been followed for something like discipline under house bill six. I'm also curious if we did an assessment to ensure that we followed the laws the updated laws during this month's delay in obtaining legislative updates. Lastly, I'd hoped tonight's agenda would bring forth requests to con for the board to continue to relieve our parents from the burden of requesting qualifying cameras in special education classrooms. Doctor Golan, last week you stated you didn't need you didn't see a need to spend money
on a problem that doesn't exist. This was concerning as camera legislation is designed to be proactive. It isn't of any value to install cameras after an incident, and special education cameras have been a very positive, thing for our district. As I have shared, our community of parents of kids with disabilities really appreciates, the placement of cameras in all qualifying classrooms and being relieved of the burden and stigma, when we request it. While I believe you are proceeding with the cameras you mentioned last week after a parent requested them, I would like to work with you on two things in specific. One is that parents would like the board to continue to approve the qualifying classrooms,
and to clean up our local policy and process to ensure it is aligned with the intent of the law. Like, right now, we don't even have a form available to request the cameras. And second, referencing the handout I just provided, I would like support with you all, on following up with to TEA's associate commissioner and chief program officer for special programs on why she did not disclose the true fiscal impacts to this camera mandate. And the same for the bill author of House Bill fourteen eighty one regarding technology. They continue to put financial burdens on us as unfund underfunded mandates,
and I feel like it would be great for us to partner, with senator Parker and whoever a house rep is going to be for the next legislative session, and create a bill to identify fiscal accountability and a pathway for compensation if the fiscal impact, for an educational mandate is not truthfully disclosed. Thank you. Thank you, miss Mahon. Shelton, do we have any further speakers? We have no other speakers this morning. Okay. We'll move on to item number six on the agenda which is consideration possible action on personnel report. Trustee Yeager? I move that the Board approve, the personnel report as presented in Executive Committee.
Second. We have a motion to second. Any further discussion? All in favor? Motion carries seven to zero. Thank you, Trustee Yeager. Move on to item number seven which is, the President's Report, 7.1 are Committee Reports. I know we have at least one, and we'll start with, trustee Stacy. Okay. Mine's long. Are you ready? Yes. We're ready. Alright. So, we had our special education, strategic action team meeting. And so I kinda wanted to go over what we went, what we talked about in there. And so I've I am extremely pleased to report that in goal one, which was our strategy one point three point one,
we talked about, ensuring compliance. And our expected result or impact on that was 100% compliance based on TEA monitoring indicators. And our current result is the district is at 100% compliance on indicator 11a and 11b. And then we also had strategy one point three point two, which is to evaluate the effectiveness and alignment of our instructional programs, that are, for our identified populations in SPED, five zero four, dyslexia, pre k, and ESL. And our expected outcome was improved educational experiences and outcomes for identified populations,
evidenced by a measurable growth in the progress monitoring assessment data in the areas of ELAR and math. And so I'm also happy to report that our current outcomes, what we're doing is the district has taken the beginning of the year map test, which we started this year, so this is our first year to do this. And the, middle of the year evaluation will begin in will be given in January. So our end of year will be given in May. And progress, we're gonna measure in third, fifth, seventh, and ninth grade. So currently, we're not doing,
we're not doing high school, and we that was a recommendation from this committee that we start looking at high school and if we can actually start measuring that. And then we also, in strategy one point three point two, we looked at special education teacher retention baselines. And so in our 2425 school year, we had 17 teachers resign at the end of that school year, five moved, left education and retired, and 12 teachers left the district for other reasons. The benchmark for measurement item is to be under 12 teachers, leaving the district for reasons other than moving, leaving education,
or retirement by this school year, which comes approximately to about 20% turnover in special education. And And the teacher turnover rate for the twenty four-twenty five school year has not been published, but the statewide rate for the twenty three-twenty four school year is 21.3%. And typically, the special education turnover rate is much higher than the total turnover rate. And then we also have 11 parent training opportunities that are coming up in January, so we've already had quite a few. But starting in January, we have 11, and so those are gonna those should be posted or they're going to be posted
so that our parents can look at that. And then I just wanted to kind of update you on what we were looking at in our committee So I really, really appreciate the committee members that are on this committee with us along with our staff but we discussed our compliance measures So last year's monitoring and action items, and this year, we're at the 100%, so we don't have a corrective action plan required. We discussed our map assessments. We discussed, assessing January measurement for middle of the year, and that we are actually gonna meet to, to go over that data in January. We're gonna look at the data from the high school.
Right now, we're currently looking at measures of fourth grade, sixth grade, and eighth grade, and it was a recommendation of our committee to consider moving it to third grade, fifth grade, seventh seventh grade, and ninth grade if we can gather that high school data. Additional measurements as we looked at when they entered special education and see if they had made gains across their time here. And then another measure is we wanted to look at how much, when they ended up getting an IEP and their progress in that. So that was another thing that we wanted to to start going over. On teacher retention, we we asked HR to give us feedback from the survey when special programs teachers
leave, And then we wanted to do a better measure of percentage of total special programs teachers versus number on who resigned, so that we could we could kinda compare that to the Tarrant County and the state, the state averages. And then we also had a few parents that expressed some things that they wanted to see. One of the parents expressed a desire to explore additional ways for parents to participate, during the workday, and that those that are working, if we could start live streaming those or recording those for parents that are not able to be there. We also looked at some trainings on parents are inquiring about a transition planning presentation,
mainly in regards to financial and educational planning for their kiddos that would be at night, so that most could attend. And then we wanted to start working so that parents could attend, if we could start working with our CTE classes to help provide childcare during that time, and then consider hosting at a campus to ensure that volunteers have access to materials for child care. We discussed having a speaker on financial and legal planning at the transition fair this year. And then we had a parent that would love to include a happy hour, for for parents. Obviously, the district could not do that,
but maybe like special programs. The the booster club could do that. And then some other topics of trainings that we wanted to look at were maybe for parents would be some art refreshers, parents' rights, transitions, how to get your child involved in extracurricular activities, and then we also have been talking about wheelchair accessible doors. Wow. That's quite the report, trustee Stacy. Thank you. Thank you so much. We had a great meeting. Appreciate you writing that up and presenting it, and, we'll certainly get that out to community tomorrow morning when we send out our blast email and social media posts. Okay. Trustees, any other committee reports?
Trustee Yeager? I do. On December 11, the strategic plan committee for communication and marketing met. And everybody, we had full attendance, which is wonderful, three members of our community plus myself and all four members of our department our communication department. And in line with the strategic planning goal of community outreach, we discussed topics both forward and backwards. Most recently, we looked at the department and how they did. We sort of assessed ourselves, if you would, with some of the topics such as the VADER.
And I think we got really high marks for the department in communicating. There's always room to do more. Also, the famed Dragon logo, that is a trademark and that trademark does come up for renewal and we'll have a subsequent audit. So that's something that the Department is preparing. Another community outreach that I think they did a wonderful job, if people do not have these, this is a plug and that is the Senior Citizen Dragon Card. And this gets you in if you are 60 or older and you live in Southlake to any of our events,
whether those football games or fine arts or whatnot. But this is a great example of the communication team and the outreach that they're doing with our senior population in town. And then lastly, we talked about some new concepts which President Bryan and Trustees these will be you'll hear of in meetings coming up. Thank you. Thank you, Trustee Jaeger. Okay. Trustee Sexton, you have a report. All right. So Trustee Lannon and I are on the Audit Committee and last week we received the annual audit report and we noted that there was no
an unmodified opinion with no findings. So that is the best you can get. Great job, to the team. It was a very well run committee, I thought, and we had really good engagement with a lot of good questions. So we had the right people on the on the team there. And I would also say that the committee acknowledged that the finance office's long standing record of clean operations, was noted, by several in the room and that was part of it. So great job. Okay. Yeah. Absolutely. Thank you. And more than happy to assist you. Thank you, trustee Landon, for attending that important committee. Any other committee reports?
So Okay. Trustee bottom? Student and staff wellness committee met on November 18, and there were several different things that were addressed. One of the main ones was the rollout of HB three for, mental health first aid training. Region eleven is offering chance training for teachers. So that started on December 1, but it's gonna roll out kind of every single year to make sure that we got everybody up to date. But it really is meant to help, like, minimize referrals and and help the officials and other behaviors that were identified. Another goal is really on,
helping our kids move from one campus to another. So one of the biggest projects is switching from Naviance to School Link. We've gotten great feedback on that program. Not only did it save us money, which, you know, is very important, but it's also a lot more user friendly, and the kids are going in there and and using it a lot a lot more regularly. Additionally, one of the things I think is great was a great addition this year was college application workshops for our seniors. So they actually had people coming in, talking about, who accept college applications and telling them giving them guidance on how to fill out those applications to help them be successful in that process.
Something else that is a focus for our campuses right now is making sure that we've got enough mentorship and leadership programs. So allowing our students to take on mentorship rules, PALS programs, different things on campuses to really help facilitate the leadership on our campuses. So those are a few of the highlights. Awesome. Great, great reports. Thank you all, trustees, for your complete committee reports and for taking the time, in addition to your duties as a trustee to attend these committee meetings. So it's very much appreciated.
Okay. On to my president's report. I'd like to begin tonight by celebrating several outstanding accomplishments across our district. First, again, congratulations to our boys cross country team on winning the state championship. This is an extraordinary achievement and a testament to hard work, discipline and commitment of our student athletes and coaching staff. We are incredibly proud of you for representing our district at the highest level. I also want to commend our football team on an exceptional season that concluded in the state semifinals. While the final outcome did not result in a championship appearance,
the team's performance, perseverance and sportsmanship throughout the season brought great pride to our district and to our community. Next, I would like to recognize Ms. Shatina Lewis, principal of the Senior High School and her entire administrative team. For the first time in four years, the Senior High School has successfully passed the TEA Intruder Audit. I'm gonna repeat that, for the first time in four years, the senior high school has successfully passed the TEA Intruder Audit.
This is a significant accomplishment and reflects intentional leadership, preparation and a renewed commitment to student and staff safety. Ms. Lewis has made safety a clear priority and tonight we applaud her leadership in the collective efforts of her team. Congratulations, Miss Lewis. I also want to note that all elementary, intermediate and middle school campuses in our district have passed their intruder audits every year and we are grateful for their consistent diligence
focus on safety demonstrated by our principals and staff across those campuses. Finally, this evening the board will begin discussion of the recommendations from Tiger Team Task Force two which include considerations related to facility consolidation. These conversations are important as we continue to plan responsibly for the future of our district ensuring that our facilities align with enrollment trends, fiscal stewardship and the long term needs of our students and community. Thank you to our students,
staff, administrators and community for your continued dedication and support of our award winning district. And on behalf of the Board of Trustees and our superintendent, we hope everyone has an awesome Christmas break. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. We'll see you in 2026. We'll move on to our superintendent's report, item number eight. Doctor. Glenn? Thank you, Mr. President, and Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. As December winds down and we prepare to close out the first semester of the 2526 school year, I wanna take a moment to reflect on the many accomplishments of our students,
staff, and our community. But since this is the last meeting of 2025, I think it's important that we reflect just a second on the last five years. I have a PowerPoint I think they're gonna pull up for me. This board for the most part your leadership over the last five years you all have been super intentional as the District has dealt with unprecedented challenges, challenges that we see across the State Of Texas specifically here in the metroplex with our neighbors. And I think it's important to take a second to speak to how intentional you
guys have been about preparing for this moment in the decisions we face in the coming months. When we look at the biggest challenge facing the District, I think it's easy to point out enrollment. Probably just before many of y'all took over, we as a district hit our peak enrollment of 8,525 kids. And you can see where we're at today at 7,870, knowing that we'll likely lose 100 to 150 kids next year as well. A trend that will likely continue as Mr. Brady will point out for the next five years. And so when we talk about those numbers,
we're talking about millions of dollars, probably the tune of over $8,000,000 in funding revenue that the district has lost due to declining enrollment. Now as we move to the next slide, I do want to acknowledge that our VATRE did pass. One of the reasons I believe it was successful is because when many of you came on the board and I know, Trustee, one of the highest in the metroplex. The Board has been very intentional to drop the tax rate to the point where we were able to go to voters, ask for 3¢ and still in '24, '25 and 2526 adopt a tax rate below the no new revenue tax rate,
which is absolutely remarkable. So that was super intentional planning knowing that at some point we would have to go to voters and ask for an increase that would allow us to generate and keep more of our recapture dollars. It's hard to talk about tax rate without talking about the debt. For those of you that were on the Board in twenty twenty, twenty twenty one, you inherited about a half $1,000,000,000 in debt. And I know you all have been intentional every year when you adopt the budget to do a defeasance. And as y'all have done that and paid down debt, it's nearly cut the amount owed by our district in half,
which again, I think is remarkable and allows us financial flexibility. So when you look at districts that are making decisions about school closures across the metroplex, know that when our BRAC committee met, they didn't have to make a decision with a six or eight month window. That plan is a five year plan. And one of the reasons it's a five year plan is because the board has been good stewards of the taxpayers' dollars. They put a lot of money in fund balance. They've paid down debt. They kept the tax rate low. And at the opportune moments, they went out to voters asking for funds needed to pay our teachers and protect
our programs. So despite all these challenges, if you move to the next slide, you'll see that we continue to be the top district in the state of Texas. And so, I'm gonna talk about it in terms of Lone Star Cup finishes because the Lone Star Cup measures, not only our academics and our fine arts but also where we rank athletically. All of these programs are important to all of us, right? We saw our art kids tonight. We wanna be the best in everything here in Carroll. And so if you go back to 2021 when that enrollment started declining, the last in the last four years,
we have been the number one district. Two of the last four years. We've never finished lower than third. Third best in the entire State of Texas and currently, we're number one again even with the challenges we face. And if you'll move to the last slide, I know this Trustee Yeager's favorite slide, he takes it all over the state of Texas. When you talk about what we're doing for our kids, these are the reading scores in Tarrant County. And you see, not only are we the top academic school district in terms of reading in Tarrant County, it's not close.
And there's some great schools on there. I mean, Alito is a great school district. Grapevine is a great school district. But again, no one measures up to what we do in Carroll. And so I want to commend this Board on just being strategic, being intentional, recognizing the problems that you inherited five years ago and bringing us to this moment. I appreciate it and I know our community and staff appreciate you looking out for them as well. This semester was highlighted by the successful passage of that BATRE and we're deeply grateful to our community for its continued trust and support in investing in our schools and
most importantly, in the future of our students. We're proud to celebrate the academic excellence of our students. 32 National Merit Scholars recognized this year. That's an extraordinary achievement that reflects both student dedication and the high level of instruction provided in our classrooms. In addition, our student athletes brought home two State Championships showcasing not only their talent and hard work, but also teamwork, discipline and leadership that define all of our athletic programs. Tonight at 06:30,
you can come by Town Hall and Mayor McCaskill and the City Council will be recognizing our State Championship Volleyball Team. So as we look ahead to 2026, we do so with optimism and excitement. The foundation this Board has laid positions us well for continued growth and success in the years ahead. As part of tonight's report, I do need to share a bittersweet update with our community. Today, Whitney Wheeler, Principal at Durham Intermediate School, announced to her staff at a meeting after school that she has accepted a middle school principal position in Argyle,
which will begin in February 2026. We congratulate Ms. Wheeler and we are grateful for her leadership and the positive impact she has had on the Durham campus. We wish her a continued success in this, the next chapter of her career. Ms. Wheeler will be sending a message to Durham Intermediate families this evening. In the meantime, I am pleased to share that long time Carroll ISD Administrator Paul Pinson will be returning to Carroll ISD to serve as an interim principal at Durham Intermediate School. Mr. Pinson brings a wealth of experience and a deep understanding of our district and we
are confident he will provide strong, steady leadership during this transition. We appreciate the continued support of our families and communities as we celebrate both of these leaders. Our Communications Department will be sending out an official press release after tonight's meeting. Finally, on behalf of our Board of Trustees, our administration, and our teaching staff, we wish everyone a safe and restful break, a merry Christmas, and a happy New Year. Mr. President, that's your report for December. Thank you, Doctor. Glenn. Moving on to item number nine, which is the information portion of our agenda.
9.1, consider final recommendations from budget reduction action committee, the Tiger Team Task Force number two. Mr. Brady, it's all yours. Alright. Thank you, president Brian, trustees, doctor Glenn, Jeff Brady, your executive director of communications, members of the community. I'm delighted to be here tonight. I'm I'm merely the spokesperson for the tiger team number two that you referenced earlier in the meeting. So and before I begin the presentation, I just wanna say a sincere thank you on behalf of all of us here in the district, district leadership. This tiger team has met since September, at least once per month.
And it's important to remember that this this tiger team is made up of citizens, so it's a group of committed parents, teachers, family members, administrators, some principals, all of whom kept the the, the best interest of the districts top of mind throughout this entire deliberative process. So what I'm presenting tonight is the the best effort and I think a wonderful opportunity for the district to consider, how to right size significantly in light of the, the trends that doctor Glenn just outlined. So, and not only is it a a team of 19 people who made this presentation,
but as, I think both of you referenced, it's also a, the direction they were following the direction of the BRAC, which was formed about, about a year ago, the the budget reduction action or advisory committee. And so the the great thing about the BRAC is it wasn't a short term plan. It was a five year plan that BRAC developed. And so the first leg, the first piece of that plan, as all of you remember, was the legislative action. Many of us went to the legislature to lobby For help for financial help from Austin, little bit of little bit of,
adjustment there, not a whole lot. And then the second piece of BRAC was the VADER, the recommendation of VADER. As we all know, VADER was recommended and the, there was a positive turnout there. The the voters, for the most part, supported that idea and that provided great relief. But the third leg, the third piece that BRAC recommended was to consider rightsizing. And so that's what this Tiger team dealt on and focused on for the last four, five months. What does rightsizing mean? What would consolidation mean? And how do we go about it? So their directive was really,
set up primarily by the BRAC, by the, the BRAC committee. And so this is the five year plan, just kind of an overview. And then these enroll some of the things that I wanna point out here that this Tiger team kept in mind, Doctor. Glenn has already mentioned, so the enrollment trends are clear. This is something we discussed every single time the Tiger team met. This enrollment trend is is not changing. It's very definite and it's consistent. So for the last four years, you can see in this slide about twenty two to twenty three were almost 8,500 students and, dropped down just below 8,000,
this academic year to seventy eight seventy. And that trend is projected to continue from seventy six ninety four, down to just over 7,000 students. So the question became, what does that mean? What does that mean for this district, and how do we adjust? It's not necessarily a bad thing, dropping enrollment. It's happening all across the state, but how do we, as stewards of public trust and public dollars, adjust to address that? So the enrollment trend led to another direct, impact on the district, and that's the financial impact. As most people know,
we're compensated by the state based on the enrollment. How many warm bodies do we have in seats across the district? Peak enrollment was twenty nineteen, more than 8,500 students. But as I just said, we've dropped down below 8,000 students this year and that trend is projected to continue and that has a real impact in terms of dollars that we are receiving from Austin. CISD has lost approximately $8,000,000 in annual revenue since 2019, and that's not a one time impact. That's year after year after year.
So the district has to adjust. So that's trend number two, and that leads to the third thing, and we discussed all three of these factors every time, the Tiger team met met. And the third piece of this is declining enrollment means empty classrooms. Almost a 100 empty classrooms all across the district. Every campus has at least one or two empty classrooms. So you think about that. Our taxpayer dollars are paying to heat, to cool, to ensure, to supply, to protect,
and to, at times, upgrade empty classrooms without a single student. So the question became for this Tiger team, is that really a good use of public dollars? And I wanna also say before we go forward that this team considered a lot of options. There were many good ideas that came forward. How can we right size? How can we adjust? What can we do to be better stewards of the public dollar? And so the plan that we're gonna present tonight is one of many that were considered, but this one consistently rose to the top as the best idea for all,
not just for one campus or one grade level, but for the entire district. This rose to the top. So the idea would be, to shut down a campus. And for reasons that I'll explain here in just a couple of minutes, the campus that this team focused on was Durham, Durham Intermediate School. So under this configuration, we would keep we would retain the five elementary schools. We would reconfigure the middle school process in our district around two middle school campuses, which would encompass three grades, not two. So six, seven, eight at the middle school level,
and then the two high schools would remain the same. So fifth grade would move down and every elementary school campus would now accommodate k through five. And then there would be one of two the students would attend one of two middle school campuses, six, seven, and eight. And then the high school campuses, as I said, would stay the same. So that's the overview of what this would look like. The benefits. Why go this route? What are the opportunities that this plan affords? Well, there's a lot of them, and I'll just provide a few here.
There are many, many granular details that we could get into, which we probably don't have time to do right now, but, we can at a later time. And some of these decisions, some of these very granular, plans and details have to be worked out in the future. We we don't know exactly what every, decision will be that will accommodate this plan. But overall, the student experience is going to be much better with this plan. It's the least disruptive to students. The student experience remains central. This plan remain retains continuity and provides stability.
Carol point number two. Carol ISD's elementary schools are a true treasure to the community. And that has been evidenced by award after award after award and how much community support there is around each of our elementary schools. They're often highlighted as top elementary schools, consistently perform above peer districts in culture and academics. And so this plan keeps our fifth grade dragons on these treasured campuses one more year. And then thirdly, this plan aligns with what would be considered a more customary public school district configuration.
So in most public schools, you have a an elementary experience, and then you have a middle school experience, and then you have a senior high experience. So this configuration is really putting us much more in line with what would be considered a standard public school trajectory across the district for all of our students. And I wanna say also that, as we went through this plan, the thing that kept coming forward that this, Tiger team really wanted to emphasize is how can we retain the best possible experience
for our students? What can we do? How can we right size and keep that student experience for every single Dragon top of mind and for at the forefront? And two, how can we emphasize and continue to promote our teachers? And three, how can we keep our great programs, that make the Carroll experience what it is? So these are some of the student experiences. And then the I mean, some of the student benefits, financial and operational benefits. Many people say, well, what about the VADER? Didn't the VADER solve much of our problems? The VADER was fantastic, and we're very grateful for the opportunities and the financial benefit that the VADER provided,
but it was primarily focused on staff compensation and student programs. It didn't fully address the long term constraints that this this district is facing and, the empty classrooms. You know, the VADER doesn't really address that. So that was one financial and operational benefit of this plan that it helps us there. Two, Durham Intermediate School is the campus most in need of repairs and upgrades. There are more than $8,000,000 in required upgrades at that campus alone, and that's merely to get Durham up to a standard,
of maintenance that it it deserves. If we kept it, we would face that much just to bring, Durham up to that standard. And then thirdly, the closure of Durham Intermediate School has the potential to net the district about 2 and a half million dollars in annual savings and revenues. That's not only in the money we would save from not having to run Durham, but also represents the benefit of putting that land up for sale. So those are the financial and operational benefits. And there are many more, but we're giving you kind of an overview here. Now what would this look like? The the the I think one of the real benefits of this plan is that
nothing would happen immediately. Okay. Let me say that again. Nothing would happen immediately. That means nothing changes this year. Nothing would change next year either. The only time we would look at the real changes that this plan represents would be in the 2027. So that is a long runway. That's about a year and a half, about eighteen months, in order to dial in to each facet of this plan, determine what's gonna be best for all the students in the district, and to ease into this in an appropriate way that,
again, is best for the students, best for the staff and the teachers, and that saves our cherished programs. So there's three phases. The first phase would be about two months. It would be from about now through the first part of next year, and that's the discussion, the decision making for the board to consider what this would look like. And the second phase would be about a year long. It would be from the first part of next year through early twenty twenty seven, and that's when all the planning would take place. So what does this look like on a very detailed basis? What are the new boundaries of the district that determine who goes where?
What's the staffing look like? What do bus routes look like? What's the lunch schedule going to be at each campus? So we do a lot of planning there, and it would be up to the board possibly to appoint, some more tiger teams or some task forces to determine what's gonna be best for students for each of those categories. And then the last phase would be, just before school starts in perhaps late summer, 2027, and that would be the implementation where we we put it put it to work, basically. And those last few decisions you made about, the the, boundaries and the bus routes,
etcetera. And some open houses probably to welcome the kids to different campuses as needed. How would we get this across? We have many tools to convey all the information to people. Parents will have questions. Staff will have questions, understandably. There'll be plenty of emails that go out, through the course if the board decides to do this. Plenty of emails that we could send out, of course, across the next year and a half, social media to address concerns, in person meetings as we did for the VADER. There would be opportunities for town halls, campus tours, and, of course, the website would be the primary, reciprocal,
basis for all of our information. So we'd have FAQs there. We'd have maps perhaps. We'd have schedules for when the meetings were gonna be, in person meetings, etcetera, and a video library, as needed. Okay. So on a more granular level, phase one, what would that involve? Discussion and decision making for the board, get any more questions answered, that that are required, make some decisions. If the board decides to proceed with this plan, Perhaps in January, there would, of course, be notices that would go out. There would be plenty of emails, staff emails, faculty meetings to address questions,
press releases. Again, the website will be the primary vehicle to answer questions and steer people in the right direction. Phase two would probably start we don't have specific dates here because we wanna be flexible, and so we would wanna be responsive to issues that came up or questions that occurred, you know, as this information is conveyed. But phase two would be about a year, first part of next year through the 2027. More presentations, attendance boundaries issues would be addressed, campus assignments, teacher training as required, team building, more events, student transitions, campus realignment plan.
And to get into those or to determine those granular decisions, those very detailed and important decisions, the board might consider some some transition teams, like I said before, maybe some more tiger teams on each of these topics perhaps. Curriculum, special programs. What about our special programs community? Transportation, zoning, and the legacy of Durham. Just because we're closing one campus does not mean we can lose that important legacy. So what do we do with that? And how do we reflect that, those important contributions made by that family? So there might be a Tiger team to address that.
The six month lead up, as we get closer to that, new opening date, there would be very specific campus assignments, teacher training, the final boundary decisions would be made, more events to welcome students to campus, maybe an orientation, open houses led by the principals to answer any questions and make sure the parents are comfortable. And then phase three. Phase three would be that last phase as we lead into, the new school year. But, again, that would be eighteen months away. Can't say that enough. I think one of the real, pieces, one of the real advantages or benefits of this plan is that there is a
very long runway. And so nothing would happen right away. Not this year, not next year, not until the 2027. And so, again, this is our new configuration, kind of a five two two. It's very important to make sure people understand there would be no dramatic change to the elementary schools other than there would be fifth grade would now be at each of the elementary schools, so k through five. There would be some transition for middle school campuses. We'd transition to just two middle school campuses, but there'd be three grades each, six, seven,
eight. And then for the high school campuses, no change at all. So I know that's a very broad, brushstroke, presentation, and there probably are many, many, more specific questions you may have. So I have my colleagues here, the experts in each of these fields regarding, all the different departments that would be involved if you have, some specific questions. Absolutely. Thank you, mister Brady. You always do an excellent job, clearly reporting, in your presentation. So really appreciate this. It was, high level but, to the point, and, I think it makes a lot of sense. I I wanna take a moment just to thank, the members of our Tiger team task force too.
Some of them are here, in the room tonight. And we had, what, four or five meetings. Trustee Yeager, trustee Stacy, and I were the board members representing, on that team. We had community members. We had, teachers. We had principals. We had admin staff. It truly was a, a great effort with a 100% attendance in all of our meetings. A lot of discussion, a lot of, thoughtful discussion and decisions made. And, I just wanna say on behalf of the board of trustees, doctor Glenn, thank you for those that participated on that that task force. It really has,
come to, a recommendation that makes, a whole heck of a lot of sense. It's not only gonna benefit us financially, but it makes a lot of sense, in terms of, academics as well. And I I will mention that, you know, we're in the process of selling some surplus property now that's gonna net millions tens of millions of dollars, to the school district. This, Durham, intermediate sits on 30 acres, a prime residential, space. So, if this board were to consider, moving along with this recommendation, it'll probably happen in January is when we'll,
take the vote. We're most likely gonna immediately put that piece of property, up for sale. So, we are really, focused on long term effects of how we can not only protect, our district, but also, pay our teachers, commensurate salaries, and keep our academic programs that we're so proud of. And also to the community, there's gonna be plenty of opportunities. Mister Brady, will you take it back to that slide with the, potential teams of, yeah. There we go. And this is just some of what we were thinking about in terms of, subject matter experts that we'd bring in from the community,
our teachers, principals, board members that we can iron this out. And I do wanna emphasize again that this is 2027. It's eighteen months away. This is not like our neighboring districts and districts around the state that all of a sudden, decided that, oh, we're in financial, hurt here, and, we need to close campuses, like, immediately in multiple campuses. We're not in that situation. We've been extremely fiscally conservative, over the last five years that I've been on the board. We've paid down debt as doctor Glenn showed you. We've reduced, the tax rate.
We've been able to build our fund balance up to a, a big number, which allows us to not have to rush, rush to judgment and rush to close schools. So, we're very proud, of this, accomplishment and think that this recommendation, in my opinion, is the best one that we could have come up with knowing that we are our enrollment is reducing year by year. And we have so many empty classrooms and empty space that just makes this just makes total sense. So with that, Doctor. Glenn, do you have any comments you want to make before I open it up to
the Board? No, I do want to thank the Tiger team members. I know that a lot of discussion, a lot of good healthy discussion happened from our teaching standpoint staff. We know that the academic integrity of this district has to be stabilized in any plan. And so Jeff, I appreciate you pointing out these transition teams. These are teams that our teachers are going to be a part of. And also to our teaching staff, we know that this can be a scary time anytime a district is talking about closing a campus. But know that this board has the foresight just like I talked about the foresight
financially to see what was coming. We also have the foresight to know that we want to protect the positions for our teaching staff, for our paraprofessionals, for our campus leadership. We want to protect positions in this district. And with an eighteen month runway knowing that no decision has to be made, nothing is going to happen until August 2027, we're going to have the ability to do that. People that want to be Carroll Dragons will have the opportunity to stay in this district and be Carroll Dragons. And so look forward to getting out on campuses and having those discussions. And I know that I'll be there,
our trustees will be there. We'll sit down at the lunch and learns. We'll be at faculty meetings to answer questions for all staff because we know this is a big decision for our district and we want to make sure that our staff has a voice in this decision as well. Thank you, Doctor. Glenn. Open it up for comments, Trustee Yeager? Yes. Being part of the BRAC from the original BRAC, which had so many people from the community and it had stakeholders from our teachers, every PTO president, we had every principal, we had people from admin.
60 people. Yes. When we got into these Tiger teams and the three officers were a part of this, It reminded me of the day that we went out to some campuses for lunches and, a lot of people know we added in an employee daycare and that's now here in this building. That idea came from us A teacher. You were there trusting that from a teacher. And oftentimes people say, I don't like the board making decisions. We don't make decisions in a vacuum. And in fact, the best decisions come from people who come and give their thoughts.
They also come from these committees. And this recommendation, I think, was such a great example. This wasn't on my radar exactly how it kind of came about, but it was principals and teachers and members of curriculum and special programs. And y'all were so buttoned up. And I came away from this, and obviously we have to vote on this later, but with to to to tell the community, I have no worries. I mean, in this particular plan because each one of you were so confident, I really looked at it as a chance for actually for us to do some
things and be even better, right? So one of them is we've got an amazing math program, Right? We're gonna hear probably about some of these details. I'm like, wow, this actually is going to improve. But this wouldn't happen without five incredible campuses of our elementaries. And the leadership at each of those campuses I mean, we get the elementary schools of the year in Blue Ribbon and we have some of them here. The leadership at all of our campuses, but in particular, and for some reason, and I think I know why,
so many districts they go and they close and consolidate. What do they hit first? Elementary's. And it's because the smaller class sizes, right? So, you've got the larger sizes in your high school and you look down and all they do is they look at the empty classrooms and they think, well the younger ones. And they close in elementary. But again, back to the creative thinking that went on with our team, it wasn't, oh let's just close in elementary because that's what we've got. It's actually, we're playing to our strength by putting fifth grade back into those elementary and utilizing
those classrooms. I just thought that was a brilliant move. And I really do believe that our students are going to be well served by this. But, everybody who is here tonight and those that are who are on this committee, you guys deserve the credit because these are really sound ideas. I'm very proud of it. Just as a point of clarification for anyone looking at the graphic, CMS would be a six-eight middle school and Dawson Eubanks, those buildings are right next to each other, that would be a six-eight middle school. Doctor. Glenn, will you talk about real quick about the enrollment, the space size of middle schools now and what they've lived?
You know you were talking about that. Great point, President Bryan. And so currently, Carroll Middle School has about 150 more kids than Dawson. And so under this proposal knowing that we have essentially two buildings that are going to be combined into one in Dawson Eubanks, that building would need to flip and carry about 150 more kids than Carroll Middle School six through eight. So Dawson the Dawson Eubanks combo of six through eight would be the larger of the two middle schools, whenever this plan shifted into action. And as far as impact, doctor Cohen, we had talked about this.
If this were to pass, we wanna keep kids that are in fourth grade, in the 2627 school year at their elementary schools that they're at, not rezoning them to to other elementary schools, but stay in the school that they're at for fifth grade and then also try to keep Carroll, and Dawson Middle School, in place. Yes, you're absolutely correct, President Bryan. One of the great things about this plan is the elementary campus zones don't move. So, if you're in an elementary zone and you're sitting there in Old Union, you're going to stay in Old Union. This shift would likely happen, at the six,
seven, eight level. But keep in mind, we want to grandfather families in. We don't want to take a student that's been going to Dawson and say, hey, we've got to shift you to Carroll Middle or vice versa. So if your kids are at Carroll Middle or Dawson, you're going to be grandfathered in and you'll go through that system. And so through these transition levels, we actually have fewer transitions now too. So kids get to stay on their elementary schools a little longer, but when they leave that elementary, they're going to go to a junior high for three years. And then obviously, we still have the split at the high school level. Thank you, Doctor. Glenn. Okay. Open it up.
Yeah. Just wanted to say thank you to the BRAC Committee for all the work in doing this. And, you know, I didn't get have the privilege of participating on the Committee, but the three things that I heard tonight and on many occasions the last, you know, month or two is this is the least disruptive plan. So kids will have continuity. It delivers the greatest amount of cost savings. And to me it's thoughtful because it's literally a couple of years away. We have a long time to plan. And if you guys have heard about what other school districts are doing,
they're making announcements about changes that are going to happen in the next couple of weeks and people are panicking. And I just appreciate that you guys were really thoughtful, you look for the least disruptive plan and you look for the most cost savings. So thank you very much. Thank you, Trustee Layner. I wanted to say that's what stood out to me the most. I'm thankful that I got to be a part of serving with our with our Tiger team too. Every discussion was extremely thoughtful in terms of what was best for students and what was best for staff and then what was best for the future of our district.
And I really, really appreciate that. I feel like this plan is extremely thoughtful. I know we're saying we have a long runway. We have the eighteen months. But what that really means is it gives each of our departments eighteen months to get it right, to plan for the specialties of our district and what make Carroll Carroll. And that's what I'm excited about is for these special teams that are going to start meeting so that they have the time to get it right for our kids, to get it right for our staff, and then to get it right for the future of the district. That's exciting to me. Yeah. And I wanna piggyback on Trustee Stacy's comments because I know she was a champion
for making sure that our teachers are taken care of through this process. And so for those teachers that are at Durham right now and they're at Eubanks, that fifth grade staff, you know, we're going to engage those teachers to give them a voice and give them ownership into which elementary school that they're going to go to. And for the teachers that are at the sixth grade level, if you're at Eubanks, you just stay at Eubanks. If you're at Durham, you're going to go to Carroll Middle. And so even for staff, the transition is going to be simpler than some of the other plans the committee reviewed. All right. I want to bring up some of the curriculum,
because I know that we had several parents that reached out to us about math. And what is that going to do, bring in fifth grade down into elementary? Are we going to have to are we going to lose our great math program and how that is all gonna work? And I know, miss Petty, that you had talked to the Tiger team about that. So can you, express, the answers to those? Yes. Yes. We have. We have talked about our math program. Back in the day when we created our three levels of math, we were the only ones in the state that had that math program. Since that at that time, other districts have taken on similar programs,
not exactly that program, but a program similar to ours. We realize the importance of that math program. We also have heard from the community that they would like for our math program to be moved down further to the fourth grade to where we start that program a little bit earlier. So we have looked at numerous different models. We have gotten input from some of our staff members that were on that were on the Tiger team. So we've got some ideas in place. We're gonna work with our transition teams to make sure that we get input from our teachers for our math programs.
We have no doubt that that math program that we will continue to have high expectations of our math program. Thank you. Miss Petty? Miss Petty? Miss C Sec. If I may, will this allow for any other, efficiencies such as the math program? Will we be able to move some of the curriculum to the left? Like, will we be able to increase our offerings at the middle school, for example? Yes. This would allow us to be able to do that. We've been looking at trying to do that anyway, especially with our our CTE programs. But yes, we could get a start a little bit earlier on those. Thank you. Any other questions for Ms.
Petty? Okay. Ms. Parsons? Thank you, Ms. Petty. Sure. Ms. Parsons, I know that there has also been concern about special programs with what would be the impact to special programs. Is there do you foresee any impact, or are there things that we really need to sit down and talk about and think about? I think this gives us a great opportunity to kind of level out our programming in, our elementary schools. We have some elementary schools that have lots of programming. When I'm talking about programming, I'm meaning, like, self contained classrooms. Other, elementary schools don't have any at all.
So this is gonna give us a great opportunity to say, we're gonna put a class on every campus so kids can stay at their home campuses and get the services that they need. Yep. That's great news. And we're gonna have a, a team form for special programs, correct, for for this effort. We're gonna work all those. If anything comes up, we're gonna work all of that out. We're gonna work it all out. I have a lot of faith, and I'm very excited about it. Excellent. Thank you, miss Parsha. Any questions for miss Parsha? Thank you. Mister Mooney, facility wise,
I know that you've taken a look at some of this. I know that we're gonna have to do a little bit to, Eubanks Dawson to connect, those two buildings in some way. But, is there any other construction related type, projects that will be needed with this type of No, sir. The, dropping the fifth grade down is very minimal amount of cost. There's a couple of schools made like, Old Union has a computer room that'd be made back into a classroom. The the overall process, if we decide to connect, Eubanks and Dawson with some kind of enclosed structure, that would be the only cost. Okay. Maybe backfilling a little bit of furniture,
but the all the cost is very, very minimal. Okay. And Eubanks Dawson is in the TIF zone. Yes. And that, TIF money is generated by the city and given to us to to, put towards infrastructure improvements. Correct? Yes, sir. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Rady. Any questions for us? Yeah. Just one and that is if we go back to the financial savings, not everybody knows the where I say the status if you would or the health of all of our campuses. But that slide specifically stated, you know what, Durham, if you haven't gone in there, it's the campus that has the greatest needs.
But also part of our budget is maintenance and we talked about this months ago when we had roofs that were redone from Tifso. It saved us money because we had to put money into repairs. Can you just speak a little bit I'm kind of pointing to the screen, hopefully that slide can come back. Can you talk a little bit about Durham, how we've been able to just sort of you know, kinda patch it and, and been spending money on things and and how that will be a big saver? We spent last year alone over $300,000 in in just repairs. That's not that's not including labor.
So that's just subcontracting roof roof repairs, fire alarm panels, whatever we we had to subcontract or the material we had to buy. But it the the, it was it was second to almost senior high school. Senior high school is three times as big. So comparatively square foot right square foot wise, Durham is off the chart compared to any other school Yeah. Maintenance wise. Right. So somebody in the community said, well, how did you pick that campus? I mean, there's a lot that goes in it. But in your eyes, mister Mooney, it was this is the campus that is in the most need and Absolutely.
Yeah, for maintenance expense. In order to bring, that campus Durham up to our standards, is that where that $8,000,000 in cost comes from? Is that conservative? That's pretty conservative because we've all we've all walked through the elementary's CMS, everything else. So to bring that up, you're you're talking about a a a gut and rebuild. But that's not the only thing. The biggest cost would be things like a new mechanical system going into it. That is probably our biggest cost in that, in that building. And I know, and maybe Doctor. Glenn or maybe you can speak to this, Mr. Mooney, is that, you had mentioned there's very little zoning changes that go along with this recommendation,
maybe some zoning for kids that go to Carroll or Durham now may change over time. I know people are going to ask, well, what about bus routes? Are we going to be changing bus routes and are we going to be really messing with the zoning? And I know the answer is no, but can you explain that or Mr. Moon? Yes. And I'm happy to explain. So from a transportation standpoint, it's going to be one less campus hopefully making us more efficient. We know that we've had an issue with drivers something that Deputy Superintendent Park and
our HR Director, Melanie Kibbeau, they're trying to put a plan into place to make sure that we can recruit drivers at a higher level next year, which obviously will involve compensation. But being able to shut down a campus is going to make us much more efficient from a transportation standpoint. But more importantly, when we have these conversations about zoning, keep in mind, you're really only talking about two schools, Dawson, the Dawson Middle School and the Carroll Middle School. So from an elementary standpoint, we do not want to touch those zones. Ideally, we would like to probably figure out a feeder pathway so that we could keep
kids that go to elementary together together when they go to junior high. So right now, you know that like Carroll Elementary, for example, some kids will go to Dawson. Some kids, will go to Carroll Middle. So if we were able to put together a plan where all the kids at, let's say, Carroll Elementary could go to the same junior high and the same thing for Old Union, the same thing for Rock and Ball, the same thing for Walnut Grove, I think that's better in the long run because now you're with that same cohort of kids from kindergarten all the way through eighth grade. Well, really through high school because I mean once you get into those buildings,
everyone's together as well. So we're keeping kids together. They make friendships and those friendships don't have to get tore apart during that sixth, seventh and eighth grade year. So I don't know what's in this number, but I mean it looks to me if I'm reading it right, this is about $20,000,000 over five years in cost avoidance? Is it that one? Yes, it's substantial. I mean the investment Mr. Mooney brought up the $8,000,000 is would be just to kind of get it on par. If we were to do a renovation like Carroll Elementary received as part of the 2017 bond, you're talking significantly more.
I think the estimate two years ago and keep in mind estimates always go up, but the estimate from Huckabee Architecture was well north of $17,000,000 to bring Durham up to the standard of what some of our other campuses are already. I think the real immediate savings would be $2,500,000 annually. But if you add in what we would have to pay to keep Durham, it's significantly more. I think is that where you were going to have that in your question? Yes. And keep in mind, part of that when we talked about that revenue aspect, the committee looked at being able to take that land sale,
invested in a high yield account. And just like right now, we draw interest off of our fund balance. We want to be able to continue to invest those monies, as legally allowable. But there's the potential there for 1 point dollars just on the sale of that property alone and that's monies that can be used to protect programs or to give staff raises. Doctor. Glenn, you spoke about grandfathering. So I'm just kind of thinking, right, if you have a child who's gonna be in fifth grade in 2026, and then they're gonna be the one that's kinda caught in that transition,
can you just go a little bit more into detail about Yeah. That that's a really that's a really good question. Because if I'm watching this at home, I'm thinking how is it gonna affect me. Right? And so, so if you have a third grader right now, then you know next year they're going to go into fourth grade and, and let's just pick a campus, let's say Walnut Grove, they'll be at Walnut Grove. When they go to fifth grade, they'll just stay at Walnut Grove. So there's really, it really doesn't impact them, right? It does I guess because they would have gone to an intermediate school and now they just stay at their elementary an extra year. But for the most part,
that child is not going to feel like something was shifted or taken away. However, if you're currently a fourth grader, next year you are gonna go to an intermediate school. So the kids at Eubanks, they'll go to fifth grade at Eubanks and the kids at Dawson, they'll go to or I'm sorry, Durham, they'll go to fifth grade at Durham. The next year, the transition would happen. And so if you're at Eubanks, you really you're staying at Eubanks because you're just going to sixth grade at Eubanks. So there's really you're not feeling you're not feeling any hardships either. But if you're at Durham,
you're going to transition to sixth grade at Carroll Middle School. So for the kids that will be that are currently in fourth grade, that will be in fifth grade next year at Durham, that group, that cohort of kids will see the largest change because they will go from an elementary campus in fourth grade to fifth grade at Durham to sixth grade at Carroll Middle School. But keep in mind, once they get to Carroll Middle School, they get to stay there three years. So the transitions really slow down after that. And then obviously, they'll go to high school and senior high. Thank you. And I think you mentioned that there was a little bit of rezoning just to
kind of grab some kids. So would they have the option if they had an older sibling at one to stay or how long? Absolutely. We want to grandfather as many kids as possible. And then and we get requests all the time where I'm zoned for Johnson, but I want to go to Old Union. And so we try and honor those and we're pretty good about honoring most all of them. In time, Eubanks Dawson that combo can hold 1,500 kids. We're nowhere close to that, right? The Carroll Middle School is just over 900 kids. So the where it's all going to pan out if you were to go and
look and I think our demographic report is online and I know that, communications is going to be putting up an FAQ. But essentially why we have to rezone at the middle school level is because we need to flip that. We need more kids to go to Carroll Middle than or I'm sorry, to go to Dawson than go to Carroll Middle. And so we likely will carve out a current piece of the Carroll Middle School zone and add them to Dawson, so that over time we can build the capacity there to about 150 more kids. We envision Dawson probably settling around eight fifty kids
and then Carroll Middle will probably be at 700. Now that will be in time because keep in mind we are looking at a further reduction over the next five years before we start to plateau. Thank you so much. I do want to mention to you that and Mr. Muni, you can talk about this and Doctor. Glenn is that, in all of our town halls, we usually had the question of well, our enrollment is decreasing and we're probably gonna see that trend for the next four, five, six years before it levels out. We always got the question, well, what if 25% of our community who are empty nesters decide to all move out
and we get a whole bunch of new families that come in with kids and all of a sudden our enrollment, starts to increase. Where then or do we have facilities or room to accommodate that? But I I know your answer, I'd appreciate it if you go ahead and and say that. But I I know that, you know, we don't think that's gonna happen, and there's there's, communities out there even close to us that have examples, of that happening. But if it does happen, what in the world would we do? Yes. And another great thing about the Tiger team is we had these conversations as well.
And so there's multiple options. One, and I know President Bryan has pointed it out, We have a lot of acreage on all of our campuses. So it would be easy to add on to any of our buildings if we needed just to create a little bit of capacity at every campus. But the other building that we have is the building that we're sitting in right here, which has been a high school, it's been a middle school and so this could be converted back into a campus. We do have administration here right now, but it's pretty easy to relocate an administrative staff, right? We can go find something in the industrial district or we can build on some
of the acreage that we have in the district, a smaller building because we don't need a building this big for admin. And so we are fortunate that throughout this entire process, we are going to keep a campus that could easily be converted back to a school. Okay. Anything else, trustees? Okay. Thank you, Mr. Mooney. Thank you, Mr. Brady. Anything any closing comments? If more questions come up, we're happy to come back with additional information next month. And this is discussion only tonight, but for your consideration for action next month. Jeff, talk about where people who are listening online could get more information if they were
seeking? We'll be putting out a statement about this consideration, this discussion that took place tonight. And we're prepared to put a lot more on the website as the board decides if the board decides to take action next month. So but the the website will be the primary repository for all this information about what we know. And as decisions are made, that'll be the first place to go. And then it wasn't on your slide, but I do wanna point out something that was effective during the VATRE election is as mailers because keep in mind, we do have a large portion of our community that they're not plugged in, they don't, they don't get e blast anymore, and,
they don't watch our meetings. And so, we want to make sure that we're being good stewards and we're communicating to those taxpayers as well. But they may have senior citizen discounts. And so I appreciate Trustee Yeager talking about those senior If they do, they're gonna need to be blast. That's right. Anybody tonight doesn't have one coming up. I just wanted to mention again, there will be questions and from what it sounds like Mr. Brady, not until we have the vote, this was information next month, would the FAQ be up on the website, right? You just don't put this before the vote. Okay.
Good point. Yes. And again, that allows the Board to make any changes necessary, before any decision is reached. So nothing is final until you guys vote. Okay. Great conversation. We'll move on to 9.2, which is considered teacher attendance incentive program beginning next year. Miss Caboteau. Hey. Good evening, Doctor. Glenn, President Bryan, Board of Trustees. I'm excited to present to you the potential of a attendance incentive program. Consistent attendance strengthens instructional consistency and benefits student learning.
And so, research shows, that attendance incentive programs can improve daily staff presence while also supporting employee satisfaction and retention. So, I've pulled some data, for your review and I kind of broke this out. School related absences versus, non school related absences. And down at the bottom you'll see, what classifies under each of those. So school related would be anything like an athletic event, school business, staff development pull outs.
And then non school related would be any type of sick leave, whether that be personal, family, extended leave, or jury duty. So my focus tonight is going to be on the green area, overall total absences. And so you can see here I've broken it down by day of week. And so as you progress through the week, you see by Friday, there's an increase of absences at fourteen sixty one absences on Friday for a total of 4,857 absences.
And this data was pulled from August 5, through last Friday, December 12. So Friday, can really pose some issues. Going back, I didn't really look at August because we don't have as many absences in August as school's just beginning, but September to, through December on Fridays, we've had anywhere from 83 absences all the way up to 109. So that can really, cause some challenges, at the campus level in making sure that those classes, are covered.
Which, having 14 fourteen sixty one, that's 30% of our absences, just on Friday. So, what impact does this have on the district? These absences affect obviously instructional continuity, substitute coverage, and staff workload. Sometimes with the substitute coverage, they have to get very creative because they don't have all the positions filled so they have to move subs throughout the day. And, addressing attendance aligns with the district's goal of reducing teacher absenteeism while retaining high quality
educators. The purpose of an attendance, incentive program would be to, recognize consistent attendance. I want to emphasize that this is not to penalize staff. It's to increase our attendance and make sure that students are getting the instruction that they deserve. Encouraging, thoughtful use, by our staff of leave, support retention, and enhance Carroll ISD competitiveness, when we are recruiting staff to Carroll ISD. So, areas that we are looking at for consideration, one of those being a blackout calendar for critical days.
Those would include, professional development days, before and after a holiday, and any, state testing days specific to the different, campuses. It would, also, we'd also consider approval for absences exceeding three consecutive days, so any employee that was gonna be out for more than three consecutive days they would need to, get approval for that. The current practice is more than five days. And then also looking at buying back, of unused local days and also retirement incentive of unused state leave days.
And so our next steps are to really start digging in and coming up and refining our program details, including what district impact that would have, what the cost of that would be, and to make sure that we're in alignment with the district goals. And so, and that we would next step when you see me next would be a final plan to present to you, with all the details outlined. Scuba Dough, we go back to that your previous slide. I have, interest in what what does that look like, buyback of unused local days and what what does in a retirement incentive for unused
days? What does that kinda look like? So on the unused local days, every staff member, professional staff gets five, local days per year. And so if they were not days per year. And so, if they were not absent then we would look at, buying those days back from them, at a certain rate which we would have to determine that rate. Yeah, and I'll make a point of clarification. Our teachers know this but community members may not but teachers get five state days and five local days for a total of ten days. So we would be specifically looking at buying back the local days which they're required
to use first. So if they don't use them, they can earn additional pay, right? And that's what we're talking about is we're trying to incentivize with money to say like it is better for our kids when our certified teachers are in that classroom and so we're willing to make a monetary investment to encourage staff not take off work to make sure that they are giving that instruction each and every day to our kids. Doctor. Glenn, so many of us work and we understand our PTO. You get to know it really well, right? Those five days from the state, so every teacher in a public school has those.
But you just mentioned five local days. Is that something that we do differently as a district or how is that compared? So that's our district. At some point, this district made the decision to go above and beyond and provide five additional days more than the state which is not uncommon in our area especially for our size district. Some may do a little more, some may do a little less but typically the standard is five. And so teachers their state days can carry with them when they leave so for example if a staff member was to work here for three years they would accrue thirty
total days if they never missed a day but if they were to leave us and go to Keller 15 of them would transfer with them, the fifteen state days, the local days would then disappear whenever they left the district. Which kind of encourages teachers to burn them, right? Because if like, hey, I know that they're not going to go with me then I'm going to burn them. So what we're saying is rather than miss time in burn days we want you in the classroom, we're willing to make that financial investment. And so as we have conversations about a VATRE, as we have conversations about consolidation,
We're having these conversations so we can free up monies to put them into programs and to take care of staff. And so this would be one of those avenues. The retirement incentive, let me just touch on that for a second. You do have staff, that work thirty years that accrue a lot of days. Some of them can have in in, you know, well over a hundred days. Well, when you've worked your entire career and you have over a hundred days and you're sitting there thinking, wow, you know, I only have, you know, two years left to work. I have well over a hundred days. I'm gonna, you start taking every Friday off just because I've done such a good job for
twenty eight years. You know, let me just burn every Friday because I've earned it, right? Those are my days and if I don't use them, I lose them. They're totally worthless to them, right? So, so the retirement incentive is to encourage staff that have been good stewards of their days, they haven't missed work to say like, Hey, we recognize that and rather than burning days, let us give you a financial incentive not to use your days but to finish strong and that way you're not getting you're not losing something for nothing,
right? Sure. Sure. Ms. Kimito, there was a number in there. If you could go back, I don't know, Mr. Stewart, if we could go back to the Friday. I mean, wow, that's a lot of Fridays. I know some people who teach in districts and they have days where they can't take off. Right? They're blacked out. Right? Like the Friday before Thanksgiving or Christmas break or something like that. Blackout days are very common in school districts. Our district does not have that policy currently. Obviously, this would be part of the bigger plan, right? We want to put some guidelines in place to protect,
student instructional time that is precious to us. And we also want to incentivize staff. So it's really a two tiered approach. But, yeah, it's common for districts to have blackout days. And it's also common for districts to say, Hey, if you're going to miss more than a certain number of days, we need to see a doctor's note. And, and so we certainly if staff are missing five, six, ten days in a row, we want to have that conversation like why. And, and certainly there are going to be times when it needs to be given but also, because I don't want to pay peak pricing for Disneyland in December on Christmas break,
I want to go at the December where it's half price that's not really great for our kids. This I'm glad you put it in red too. Match my jacket. This to me, this is a very expensive trend if you would because we've got a lot of substitutes, right? So, you know, I mean, on Monday, you've got 700, right? But when you have double the number on a Friday, that I don't even know how we could possibly find the number of substitutes because they're moms and dads and people too,
and they like to take the Friday before Thanksgiving and and travel or something. So And that's that is honestly where our campuses do have to get creative because they don't have enough like, if you have 109 teachers out on one Friday, that's hard to cover. Right. And we talk about the students, putting the students first and that makes it difficult for them to get the best training. Yes. And so the principals have to get creative and that's when they're doubling up classes and we don't love that. And it's also when you're having to have a pool of 100 plus subs, it waters down the quality of our applicants as well,
so How much did we spend on subs last year? Well over $1,000,000 By incentivizing them with this program would we be spending over $1,000,000 It would be interesting to see what the cost breakdown is. I don't think we're going to save money and I don't think that's the goal. In fact it will likely cost us a little money but I think if we can come back and say we spent a little extra money but, teachers were in the classroom with our kids, I think we're a stronger district for that and it's a good investment. And they weren't being penalized like that one who stays for twenty years and improves.
That's probably an incredible teacher, right? So what we're saying is let's give them an opportunity to keep that great attendance policy but not be penalized for the days they've accrued. Absolutely. Okay. Miss Kividad, wouldn't you think you'll have a recommendation for us? So we have we're gonna iron out all the details and hopefully have that to you by February, March at the latest. Okay. Sounds great. Anything else for Trista? I mean, I think that was my my bigger comment was when I heard that there could be, like, a 109 subs that I mean,
we've had a couple problems with finding quality substitutes, so I think that that's a great option to Yep. Answer this out. Any other comments, questions for miss Kibbeh? Okay. Thank you. Mhmm. Alright. Moving on to the discussion action portion of our agenda item number ten, ten point one, consider and take action on twenty twenty four twenty five annual comprehensive financial report. Mister Park? President Bryant, doctor Glenn, trustees, good evening. We are here tonight to seek approval of our fiscal year 2425, annual comprehensive,
financial report as recommended by the audit committee, last Wednesday, December 10. And before I introduce Our audit partner from Snow Garrett Williams. I just wanted to kinda quickly recap our financial year. I I came here in March, so it was kinda almost toward the end of the year, and I quickly realized that, we weren't going to, you know, meet our budgeted balanced budget, due due to the land sale that that was, likely gonna default. And so, you know, immediately, we we looked at, kind of doing everything we could,
as a district, in order to, manage those, savings and and reduce that, deficit as much as possible. So through the administration and all the campus principals' efforts, you know, mostly through, budgeted vacancies, you know, other vacancies and also, operational, expenditure savings, We were able to reduce that that deficit to, just over $3,800,000, and so that was, cut that $8,500,000, structural deficit, if you'll say, almost in half. And so, extremely proud of that effort, you know, toward the end of last year. So and for that,
I'd like to thank Brian Myers, especially for, you know, this whole audit field work process. I know it's an arduous journey from from May through through now as it concludes today. And then, also, when I've done, we'll be, doing work to to submit our audit to the state, through the through the Christmas break and end into January, especially this year with all the delays with with, TEA's, portal. And so I'd like to thank him and and, his team. I'd like to thank doctor Glenn for, you know, the the firm leadership, in in setting the standard of of what we need to accomplish and and,
you know, helping, and and making sure that we all get there. So, with that said, I'd like to introduce, mister Rick Klein. He's an he's our new partner, this year. So Excellent. Thank you. Thank you all for having me. As y'all mentioned earlier, we met with the audit community last week, and, that meeting went well. And, so today's just gonna be a really quick overview of the audit report for the fiscal year ending 06/30/2025. This is the first twelve month year of the fiscal year and change last year. If you don't wanna flip through, you can. I think I'll have copies, or I can go through and I'm also gonna have these slides.
Again, this is a very brief top level overview. I'm not gonna show on the pages, but there is a certificate of the board that's unbound that I think you have up there and, that will be marked approved once you all approve it with the resolution. And, I'll get that signed by the president and the secretary, and then we'll get that back get that back to Chase so that y'all can get the stuff submitted to TEA. We're gonna start on page two of the report. So here we have our reporter on the audit for the financial statements. At the top, you'll see we have our opinions. We've audited financial statements of the governmental activities of each major fund and the aggregate
remaining fund information for Carroll Independent School District as of and for the year ended 06/30/2025. In our opinion, the financial statements referred to present fairly in all material respects as of 06/30/2025, and as it's known, is a clean or unmodified opinion. The basis for our opinion, our audit was conducted in accordance with audience standards generally accepted in The United States Of America and government auditing standards. There were no issues with the audit. There were no findings, and nothing noted that we needed to communicate, so everything went really well.
And we're gonna take a jump over to page 15. Here we have the balance sheet for the district. On the left side, you'll see there's four categories. We've got assets followed by liabilities, deferred inflows for property taxes and then fund balance at the bottom. Looking at the far right column for the total governmental funds, total assets of the district were $117,000,000 Below that, total liabilities were $50,000,000 Deferred inflows for property taxes of $387,000 for a total ending fund balance of $66,900,000 Looking in the first column of the General Fund,
total assets of $90,000,000 liabilities of $44,000,000 dollars deferred inflows for property taxes of $275,000 and again with the ending fund balance for that one for $45,900,000 Of that $45,900,000 the line right above that, you'll see that there's $35,700,000 that's sitting there for unassigned fund balance for future needs of the district. And then we'll take a jump two pages over to Page 17. If you have any questions, you can feel free to stop me. Happy to answer anything you'll have. Here we have the statement of revenues, expenditures, and changes in fund balance. This is more commonly known as,
like, an income statement in for profit business. We've got revenues followed by expenditures, other financing sources down there on the bottom, and then your net change in fund balance. For the general fund, there was a total of 121,000,000 in revenue, 125,000,000 in expense, and then down there, you'll see a net change of a decrease as Chase mentioned of 3,800,000, which I think came in a lot lower than expected. So it's looking good. The far right column, total revenues for the district for all funds, 165,000,000. Below that, you'll see total expenditures of a $178,000,000
for overall decrease of $12,000,000 in fund balance, which a big portion of that is from capital project spending and the debt service spending, which is planned expenditures. And we'll take you to jump over to page 50. And we're skipping a lot of pages, but it's the, notes of the financial statements that provides a lot more detailed information on balances and how they work and what goes into them and how they're calculated in just the accounting procedures and methods that the district uses. On the budgetary comparison scheduled on page 50, you'll see in the first column, you've got the original budget adopted by the board, followed by the final amended budget.
Third column is your actual results, and the fourth column is the, actual compared to the final. Total revenues came in 1.8 under budget. And then if you look at the very bottom, total expenditures oh, I'm sorry. It's on the next page. Total expenditures were at 7.7 under budget, so it looks like you'll do a great job budgeting. And one last page on page 74. These are some of the school first indicators that we're required to respond to as the auditors. I'm just gonna go through a couple of these, and I will go by the reference number on the left hand side. Excuse me.
Was there an unmodified opinion on the financial report, other financial statements as a whole? The answer is yes. Was there any disclosure in the report of any information concerning nonpayment and any debt agreements? The answer was no. I'm sorry. The first answer was yes. Excuse me. So the unmodified opinion was yes. Jump down to SF five. Any instances of material weaknesses in internal control? No. There were no instances noted. And right below that, were there any instances of material noncompliance noted? And, again, the answer is no. So all went well. It was a pleasure working with the district.
We do ask for a lot from Chase and Brian, so we really do appreciate that. So Thank you, mister Khan. Appreciate you being here and presenting, to us. I don't we don't need to spend a lot of time on this, but just I'm just curious. So I saw the fund balance at 66.9% and then I saw the final fund balance at 45.9%. I thought I heard you say, the difference is, a combination of deficit, which was 3.8 approximate, and then capital cost, which approximately 12 or or whatever. Did I get that right? So you'll see in the first column,
if you look there so for the general fund, you've got 45,000,000. And then in total, which includes the debt service fund of $17,000,000 and the capital well, the third column is the other, so basically includes everything else that's not a major fund. So it kind of aggregates everything into there. So that just kind of accounts for all the other funds of the district. Yes. That makes sense. Thank you. Appreciate that. Any other questions? No. Okay. Thank you, sir, for being here. Thank you, Mr. Clark. All right. Moving on to 10.2, or do we need to take action? Yes, I do believe. Okay. Trustee Yeager. Yes. Mr. President, I move that the Board approve the twenty twenty four-twenty five annual comprehensive financial report
as presented. Second. Motion and second. All in favor? Motion carries seven to zero. Okay. Thank you, mister Park. Next up is 10.2. Consider and take possible action to nominate a candidate to fill vacancy on the Tarrant Appraisal District TAD board of directors. And I'll I'll take this on because, we know that there was a resignation of a current TAD board member. So, school districts around the state or around Tarrant County can, nominate whoever they want to. And, we had somebody reach out to us that we know, that's a former president of the Mansfield
Board Of Trustees. She's no longer a trustee, but she, asked us, to nominate her at this meeting. She sent, her resume and all of her accomplishments to each one of these, trustees. So, her name is Kizzia Farrar, and I would like to, make a motion to, nominate her for the vacancy in the Tarrant Appraisal District, board of directors. I second that. K. We have a motion to second. Any discussion? Okay. All in favor? Motion carries. So we get an email started. Okay. So we've got six for against? Abstain?
Abstain. Okay. Motion carries six zero to one. Thank you. Alright. Mister Park, you're next. Consider and take possible action regarding district website donation page. K. Trustees, if you remember a a couple meetings ago, you had mentioned that you would would like to see, the possible creation, of a donation link, type type thing on our, district web page. And so tonight, I'm happy to, go through kinda what it would look like on our website once, you know, you deliberate and and, consider approval. And so our communications team worked on,
several iterations of of possibilities. And so currently, if you go if you navigate, you know, tomorrow to this link, southlakecarol.edu/donate, you will see something similar, you know, if it's approved. And so, you know, start off with just a generic, you know, donation kinda, landing page, and then we'll we'll continue to update this. We have a temperature gauge, currently to date. Right now, the we have received donations, of almost 370,000,000 thousand dollars, for for this year. And so this will continue to rise,
as we as we, recognize, donations every month at the board meetings. And, also, just as another added measure of transparency, we would kinda update this as the fiscal years end. For example, for the fiscal year 2425, a total amount of $1,700,000, was donated to the district, and, we will break it out. We've kinda set general, categories for for all the donations. And so, you could the, public could see kinda where the donations are going to. And then we we've broken out the donations kinda as you see here,
in this in this manner. There's currently links separate links, to, you know, if you wanna make a specific donation to the athletics program or to the fine arts program, if you wanna donate to to specifically, you know, supporting staff salaries. We have made separate separate, links. And so if you click on that specific link, you go in and you process your your donation, we will get in our descriptions of, you know, where it was, donated from and to. And so, we could we could categorize and then and then recognize,
record those, in our general fund, according to to what the donation was. And, additionally, we we can't leave out our PTOs, and our boosters and also the education foundation. And so, if you have specific donations that you wanna make to the campus, for instance, and you go to our homepage, then then we've linked all the PTO pages here, all the booster clubs that, that that are recognized by the district, we've linked here. And, also, if you wanna make a donation to the Carroll Education Foundation's, teacher fund, currently as it stands now, then then we've also provided that as well.
So, I think this is a positive, way forward for the for the district. Looking forward to to seeing kinda, how much activity we can generate this year, and it is a perfect time because, you know, this this is the end of the year. And so, if you have any last minute ideas, for, you know, tax tax deductible items, then then, you know, it'd be wonderful to consider Carroll ISD. Lastly, we are looking at other platforms that that kinda provide a little bit more robust, donation options such as recurring donations. You know, if you if you click that as you donate, then then on a monthly schedule or a or a annual schedule,
you know, that that can automatically be, processed. Also, some some, platforms have employer match. And so if you if you put in that information, you know, it would it would automatically send an email to whatever email you, designated. So their their employer could also match a donation to the district. And then and then we're continuing to to to look at ways to streamline and and and make this process more efficient. So, you know, we're continuing to explore. Pursuant to your questions Yes. Thank you, Mr. Park. And thank you for doing this. We've been asking for this for many years.
And I appreciate you finally, getting it done and making it happen. I do wanna emphasize that this does not replace Carroll Education Foundation or our PTOs or our booster clubs. It makes it easier. There's a one stop shop. You can go right to our web page, hit the donate button, and if you wanna go to the general fund, you go to the general fund because many people have asked us, hey. Why can't I just go to your website and donate to the general fund? I just wanna donate directly to the district. Well, now those people have the opportunity to do that.
They also have the opportunity to donate to CEF and PTOs directly on this website. So it makes it makes it easier. It's a one stop shop. I like these future considerations. I think that's those are some great ideas that, we can just kinda build on to this. And also the, the temperature gauge, showing the community exactly how much, has been donated thus far in a particular year and to, you know, what percentage go into which category. And I I just think that's transparent, physical responsibility and appreciate you, mister Park and your team,
for coming up with this and making it happen. So thank you. Yes, sir. Any questions or comments for mister Park? I do have a question, sir. Test the bottom. If you go back to the temperature gauge or actually, I'm sorry. Go back to the that that one. So, for example, staff compensation, is that, like, the CEF donations that we received in? What like, what goes into that number? That right now, the only donation last year that was made directly for for, staff compensation was, through the CEF, their annual fund. And so that that was the one donation for for that.
Okay. But but but, hopefully, through through these categories, you know, we will have other opportunities where where the public community can can donate directly to our to our district and say, you know, we wanna we wanna support our our our staff here. And so, there's other options now available. And I'm guessing the memos where they can do kind of like a directed donation for whatever category they want as well. We are looking at at continuing ways to to to make that more specific. You know, if they wanna if they say, oh, you know, I wanna provide x manipulatives for,
you know, the fifth grade science class at at at, you know, some intermediate school, then then, you know, we'll be able to go down to that granular level to to to record it so that, those teachers are able to access those funds. Mister Park, just because I'm in the development, field for my profession now, do you see this growing so that donor advised funds, stocks, estate planning, will we be able to may not be ready when it rolls out, but eventually be able to to take, you know,
donations in those categories as well? We've we've thrown those ideas out, you know, talked about them. But, I think I think we'd have to consult with, our legal team and, you know, how exactly that that would work. I know there's, especially through the foundation, you know, there's, estate or trust kinda kinda contributions you can make. And so, you know, when when someone sets that up and then and then if they you know, in the future, if they pass, then then that then that principal will then, you know, get go over to the to the foundation.
And so I know there's there's stuff like that available. We are just now beginning to to explore kinda how you know, what that would mean for our district. Okay. Should this be approved I'm sorry if I missed it. What the timeline is for it to be live? We would we would make it live, first thing in the morning. Tomorrow morning? Yes, sir. There you go. So folks How's that for timeline? There's ten more days left or fifteen more days left in the year. You can have your year end given. Thank you. President Bryan, I move to accept and I recommend that the Board approve the use of an online donation page for CISD as presented.
Second. Motion is second. Any further discussion? All in favor? Motion carries seven-zero. Thank you Mr. Park, appreciate it. Thank you very much. All right, moving on, we're going to combine Mr. Brady is going to present ten point four and ten point five and then we'll open it up to questions and comment. 10.4 is consider and take possible action on resolution policy amendment to move CIC trustee elections from May to November and 10.5 is consider and take possible action on resolution and policy amendment to establish a majority vote requirement for trustee elections.
Mister Brady? Exactly. Thank you, President Bryant, trustees, Doctor. Glenn. We, had this before the board as an information item last week, so you may remember we discussed it to some degree. And, tonight, it's before the board as a discussion and action item with resolutions and policy amendments. And so to just to be clear, your staff, myself, and others, we're not endorsing. We're not recommending one way or the other, but this is just to being being brought, to your attention for possible action, tonight. But as you mentioned, president Bryant, house bill thirty five forty six is the bill in question, and it amends the education code and the election code to grant independent boards such
as this all across Texas the ability to modify the general election date for, members of this board so that it would no longer be in May, but it would be bumped six months to, the uniform election date in November. Now keep in mind, if this is done by this board, it's permanent. So there's no going back. So it would be permanently affixed to the November date for the uniform election date. It also, by the way, also modifies, the length of the term of the trustee who would be the incumbent sitting in that seat who would be, elected in or up for reelection in May.
So that person would extend the term for another six months, to be eligible to run for reelection if he or she chooses in November. So that's, house bill thirty five forty six for your consideration. And, also, president Bryan, as you mentioned, this is not part of thirty five forty six, but it's also important to note that Texas law allows a board such as yourself to adopt a resolution to require a majority vote for these elections instead of a plurality vote. So people who are watching online may not understand the distinction between the two,
but the majority vote would mandate a runoff election if if no candidate receives more than 50% of the vote. So that would more than likely produce a runoff election. The plurality based, basis for an election, which we have now, is where a candidate merely gets the most votes would win that seat regardless of an absolute majority. And it's also important to note that most school boards across the state do have plurality based elections with no runoff required. But you have the option to change not only the date of the election for
this board, but also, the manner at which it is conducted. So you could go from plurality to majority. Thank you, mister Brady. And I I read some, points that we made at our last, meeting on this. First, I wanna just talk about real quick, the reasons to move school board elections from May to November. Number one, we talked about a significantly higher voter turnout. Mhmm. November elections consistently draw many more voters than, stand alone May election just because everybody's used to voting the second Tuesday in November. Also potential cost savings for the district holding elections in November allows the districts to
share election costs with state and federal elections reducing or even eliminating the expense of conducting a stand alone May election. Also, improved accessibility for our voters, in November. November elections offer more polling locations. May, we only have one and that's town hall. And it aligns with the state law. As as you said, mister Brady, a house bill thirty five forty six, which incidentally passed unanimously in both the house and the senate. So I think that is a statement by our legislative body and signed by the governor that this is where,
our legislative body in Texas wants our municipalities, local municipalities to move. And then the reasons I wrote down to move from plurality to majority voting is one, like you said, it ensures trustees have broad community support, majority voting requires a candidate to receive more than 50% of the vote. Very important in my opinion. It strength strengthens, legitimacy. When trustees are elected by a majority, it enhances the credibility of the board. And also I wrote down provides clear and decisive outcomes. Majority elections reflect, the will of most voters.
So just in conclusion, I said, you know, making these changes and doing so represents a proactive step towards stronger, more representative local governance. And that's all I had. I'll open it up for comments, questions from the trustees. Okay. We'll vote on these, independently, Trustee Yeager. So ten point four first, please. Yes, 10.4. I move that this board approve that trustee elections, CISD, trustee elections move from May to November as presented. Second. Motion is second. Any further discussion? All in favor? Motion carries seven to zero. Thank you, Trustee Yeager. Now for 10.5.
I move that this Board make a establish that a majority vote is required for trustee election as presented. Second. Motion is second. Any further discussion? All in favor? Motion carries seven-zero. Thank you, Trustee Yeager. And does Trustee Yeager need to read the resolution, into the record or yes. Yes, please. I always have to read the resolution. Yes. Do you have the resolution, Trustee Ager? I do. Thank you so much. Board of trustees, Carroll Independent School District resolution. Concerning moving trustee elections to the November uniform election date and election by majority vote.
Whereas Carroll Independent School District is a public school district located entirely within the bounds of Tarrant County, Texas. Whereas in the eighty ninth regular session, the Texas legislature passed HB 3,546, which amended the Texas Education Code 11.059 and the Texas Election Code 41.0052, allowing independent school districts in Texas to change the date of their general elections for trustees to November uniform election date, whereas Carroll Independent School District currently holds elections for trustees on the May uniform election
date, Whereas the Board desires to change the date of general elections for trustees in Carroll Independent School District from the May uniform election date to November uniform election date. Whereas trustees are currently elected by plurality and the Board desires to change to a majority vote requirement. And whereas, the Board has considered this resolution on a duly called and noticed public meeting in compliance with all applicable laws, board policies, and other authorities. Now let it be hereby resolved that the general elections for the Carroll Independent School
District Board of Trustees shall take place on the November date, that Board policy BBB Local shall be revised in accordance with the approval of this resolution that the terms of the trustees currently serving in places one, two and three who were elected on the May uniform election date in 2023 or a subsequent special election shall be lengthened until the date the November is canvassed. That the terms of the trustees currently serving in places four and five who were
elected on the May uniform election date in 2024 shall be lengthened until the date of the November 2020 '7 election is canvassed That the terms of the trustees currently serving in places six and seven who were elected in the May uniform date election in 2025 shall be lengthened until the date of the November 2028 election is canvassed that the terms of the trustees elected on the November uniform election date shall be three years that the future elections of members of the Board of Trustees shall be
by majority vote only and that if no candidate receives a majority of votes cast, then the Board of Trustees shall call a runoff election between the two candidates who receive the highest number of votes and the candidate who receives the majority of votes in the runoff election shall be elected to the Board. Presented and approved on this day, 12/15/2025, by a vote seven in favor and zero against by the Board of Trustees of the Carroll Independent School District.
Thank you, Trustee Yeager. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Brady. Move on to ten point six, which is consider approval of updates to the grading guidelines. Ms. Petty? Good evening. If you will recall, last week I was here and I brought you the testing protocols. I also brought you the updates to the grading guidelines. I am here tonight to seek approval for those. I just wanted to go over a couple of for people that might not have heard what those were last week to go over and kinda hit the highlights of those. So for our teacher protocols, which our principals have already gone over with our staff these protocols,
The protocols would be focused on classroom setup and supervision, electronic devices, and assessment security. Those protocols will also be also be placed in the employee handbook. So it will be an expectation that these three protocols are followed anytime assessments are given, to our students. So that's the first component, the teaching protocols. The second component deals directly with the assessments themselves and and the cheating and the plagiarism part. And that is the part that will go into the grading guidelines.
So that deals with the attendance and makeup, and it also deals with the consequences related to if the student is caught cheating. What we would like to do that our communications department has done a great job of already getting these communications out and letting the public be aware of those. However, in order to be fair, we would like to have a grace period and have these go into effect January 20. As soon as we get back from Christmas break, our principals will be, bringing in the student body at both of the high schools, and they will be having a a meeting.
And may they will make sure that all of our students are aware of the changes to the grading guidelines and what the consequences will be should children get caught cheating. Do you have any questions? Thank you, miss Petty, for, bringing that to our attention again. I think this is, great work, that you guys have done, you and your team, and, those that, assisted in building this, new policy. And I I'm glad that we're immediately implementing this, when the students come back to school. It's very strict, which I think is very necessary. So it's gonna be very important that we,
enforce, this policy, right off the bat. And so, and I know our teachers and administrators and principals will do a great job, educating our teachers and our students and our parents, on the changes to this. So thank you very much for your work. Trustees, do you have any comments or questions for miss Patty? Miss Patty, will you just remind well, you can remind me. When are you going to implement this? So I know kids are going you know, we're taking midterms. They go on break. They come back. It's is it starting on January 1? Are you giving time to educate? We are giving grace period until January 20.
Now we will start with our final exams. So the testing protocols go into a place immediately. They will be in place for our midterms. The other ones, for the most part, if you'll notice on the the consequences, really the most of the consequences that are in here, like receiving a zero, those consequences are already in place in the grading guidelines. It's the possible losing of the of the honor position that that's going to come at the January 20 date after we've made sure everyone has been informed. I also would like to make a special note that this this these as we
had talked about, these consequences will continue for the year. So if I'm a freshman and I let's say I I had my first offense. After the end of the freshman year, it starts over again. So at the tenth grade year, the student would start with a clean slate and then they would have the opportunity to go ahead from there. Yes. I just had one quick story and I wanted to share it with you. We had a student and I've never in four years heard from a student who was watching our last Board meeting with their mother and their Dragon student and we
were at an event and I saw them they came, Trustee Jaeger and they just said, I watched last week's meeting and when I heard that you were going to clamp down on cheating, she said, I've never cheated and my friends don't cheat, But I know somebody who does, a student who does. And she said, I just wanted to say thank you because I didn't fair it wasn't fair to me and my friends. And I just thought that was kinda great and I wanted to share that with you because, you know, we kind of think about who is this hurt? Well,
if it hurts somebody, they're probably not, you know, upholding what we kind of call indirectly the Dragon Code, right? They could be doing better and being honest. Right. So, I just think this is kind of putting what it is to be a Dragon into policy. And the support on the task force team from the teachers and the principals who came up with all of this, there really just shows you the integrity we have of the staff is impeccable. And I wanted to thank all of them. Thank you. Thank you very much on this. I move that the updates to the grading guidelines,
the academic dishonesty only, implementation to begin 01/20/2026 and this Board approve. Second. Motion and second. All in favor? Motion carries seven-zero. Thank you, Trustee Yeager. Thank you, Ms. Petty. Thank you. Last agenda item is consent agenda. I know we have a few donations. Trustee Yaker, you wanna We do. And as we often talk about just the the immense generosity, that new donation page is wonderful, but we will keep reading these because down at the campus level, so many organizations are completely generous, beyond just what we can even imagine.
So the first one here is from the Carroll Elementary School PTO, a very generous donation of, dollars 24,269. For a donation from the Special Programs PTO, a generous donation of $5,000 And from the Carroll Athletic Booster Club, a generous donation of $5,000 Thank you, Trustee Yager. I move to approve the consent agenda as presented. Second. Motion and second. All in favor? Motion carries seven-zero. If no objection, we'll adjourn this meeting at 08:24PM.
Thank you, Board.