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Video-1: https://carrollisdtx.new.swagit.com/videos/389677

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Just these though. Yes. Good afternoon. We'll call this special meeting of the Carroll ISD Board of Trustees to order on 06/01/2026 at 5PM. Our first agenda item is executive session. Therefore, we'll adjourn two executive session in accordance with Texas Government Code 551.071, 551.072, 551.074, 551.076 and 551-0821 at five p. M. All right, good evening. We'll call this meeting back to order at six P. M. Our first agenda item is the opening prayer,

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pledges of allegiance and moment of silence. Will you all please rise? Heavenly Father, we come before you tonight with grateful hearts. We thank you for the many blessings you have poured out on our district this past week for a successful graduation and the completion of another school year. We celebrate the hard work, perseverance and achievements of our students, our teachers and our families. Lord, we lift up our LEAD Academy graduates and our class graduates. We are proud of their accomplishments and the paths they have taken to reach this

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moment. We ask that you guide their steps as they move forward, giving them wisdom, courage, and a strong sense of purpose. We thank you for every educator, staff member, and volunteer who has poured into the lives of our students this year. Bless them for their dedication and commitment to shaping the next generation. As we begin this meeting, grant us knowledge, clarity, and unity. Help us to make decisions that serve the best interests of all students and honor the trust our community has placed in us.

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May everything we do reflect integrity, compassion, and a commitment to excellence. We give you all the glory for the successes we celebrate and ask for your continued guidance in the days ahead. In Jesus Christ's name we pray, amen. Now you join me in the pledge. 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, justice for all. Now for the Texas Pledge, honor the Texas flag.

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I pledge allegiance to be Texas, one state under God, one and indivisible. Moment of silence. Seated. Okay. Tonight, our next agenda item is item number four, which is recognitions. We are first going to recognize the LEAP Academy graduates, and miss Parsons, you're up. Hello, President Bryan, Doctor. Glenn, and board of trustees. Thank you so much for the opportunity tonight to let me highlight, the members of our first annual LEAP Academy. LEAP stands for leadership experiences for aspiring professionals,

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And this academy was created to help develop the local talent, the leadership capacity within our district. Kind of grow our own if so to speak. So it was we did it through providing, learning and coaching. We had different, principals come in and do workshops, and then we did a book study. So we have four members today and it was led by myself and Melanie Kibodeau and Brian. And we have four people here today. Some of our members couldn't be here.

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But Jim Adams is not here tonight. Rebecca Beard is not here tonight. Here is John Buckner. Lindsay Garcia. Jen Williams, Kara Pickney, and then Marilyn Levin and Sydney Ruchi could not be here tonight. But we are so excited to see what the future holds for our very first Leap Academy graduates. Thank you. Congratulations. I'm good. Try this now. Thank you. Okay, next up is item 4.2 and that is our class graduates, Mr. Nickel.

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President Bryan, Doctor. Glenn, and members of the board, the Carroll Leadership Academy for Supporting Success, better known as CLAS, was created to give Carroll ISD residents a behind the scenes look at our district. Since its inception in 2008, the vision of CLASS has been simple, to build the most informed and engaged school community in Texas. This year's CLASS cohorts included 26 dedicated community members who committed their time throughout the year to learning more about Carroll ISD. They explored departments across the Administration Building,

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they shadowed our campus principles, toured our STEM center, took a deeper look into fine arts in our career and technology education programs. They also spent time, learning about our athletic programs and our tradition of excellence that has led to, Carroll ISV's success in the UIL Lone Star Cup. They even had the opportunity to experience the creativity and innovation of Old Union Elementary's first school year, Chingapalooza. One of my favorite parts of class each year is watching the participants gain a deeper understanding of the work that happens behind the scenes to support our students. What may begin as curiosity often turns into appreciation,

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advocacy, and a lasting connection with our schools and our staff. To our class participants, I wanna say thank you for investing your time, asking thoughtful questions, sharing your perspectives, and choosing to learn more about our district. Your commitment helps strengthen the partnership between our schools and our community, and we are grateful for your involvement. It's been a pleasure getting to know, this group over the last year, and we are proud to recognize them this evening. And while we have several members that are unable to join us tonight, I would like to invite those that are in attendance to please come forward so we can recognize you. Okay. Congratulations again.

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We'll move on to, item number five, which is public comments. We have one speaker, this evening. Ms. Yelton, will you announce the first speaker? Yes. Our speaker this evening is Mr. Tim Schutz. I'm glad I have no time limit tonight. You got three minutes. I should shoot. K. My name is Tim Schultz. I'm a resident of Blake and now a dad of a former student at Congratulations. Carol. Thank you. Pretty quick and easy. We can execute the phone issue. It's an execution problem. AI is not. Artificial intelligence is a challenge for every school everywhere,

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universities to kindergarten. I looked at our information for next year, program grading guidelines, very weak. If I was a parent, I'd read through that. I'd have no idea whether my students were abiding by it or not abiding by it. It is not clear. When I look at the plan, which we're discussing tonight, I think it's part three, which is technology. Almost nothing on AI is spoken about. They may be underneath some of those technologies. But AI, we need strategy, we need direction, we need our teachers, parents, and students to clearly understand

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where AI is or is not allowed, period. We need a strategy. Thank you. Thank you, mister Shoots. Alright. Any other speakers tonight, Ms. Shelton? Okay. We'll move on to item number six, which is consideration and possible action on personnel report. Any other matters addressed during executive session. I don't think we have any action, to to take on tonight. So we'll move on to item number seven, which is the president's report. Good evening again, everyone. As part of our USA two fifty celebration, we are proud to offer commemorative yard signs available for free pickup at the Carroll

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ISD Administration Building. While there is no cost to the public, these signs were funded by the district. If you choose to display one, we encourage you to consider making a voluntary donation through the district website by clicking on the donation button. Every penny donated makes a difference and helps us continue initiatives that bring our community together in meaningful ways. I'd like to provide an update regarding the sale of surplus district property. Carroll ISD currently has several properties in various stages of the disposition process as we

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continue working to maximize taxpayer value while ensuring compliance with all state requirements related to the sale of public assets. First, the land located behind the Administration Building, commonly referred to as the Old Dragon Stadium property, remains under contract. Carroll ISD continues to work collaboratively with the city on the transaction, and we anticipate closing this month. Our understanding is that the City intends to utilize the property to expand park and recreational opportunities for our community. We believe this represents a win win outcome for taxpayers by preserving community focused use

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of the land while also returning value to the district. Second, the former CIS building located at the corner of Highland and North Carroll is also under contract. That contract was recently extended an additional six months to allow the buyer more time to complete the city's planning and zoning process. Currently, we anticipate closing in October or November 2026. Additionally, the district has a small parcel of property adjacent to Old Union Elementary under contract.

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The prospective buyer is currently working through zoning considerations with the city. Though there is not yet an anticipated closing date associated with that transaction, it will likely be in November 2026. Finally, the district has secured a broker for the Durham Intermediate property. District administration is currently working through all required state bid and notice procedures in preparation for formally listing the property. Our goal is to have the property under contract by August 2026,

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with the understanding that real estate transactions of this scale can often take up to a year or more to fully close. As a reminder, the sale of school district owned property is detailed and highly regulated process. Texas law requires school districts to follow specific procedures related to public notice, competitive bidding, appraisals and fair market valuation to ensure transparency and responsible stewardship of taxpayer assets. Throughout each of these transactions,

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the Board remains committed to carefully monitoring every step of the process to ensure compliance with all statutory requirements while protecting the financial interests of the district and our community. In addition to these property matters, Carroll ISD has multiple facility improvement projects underway this summer as we continue investing in the maintenance, safety, and long term functionality of our campuses and facilities. One of the most visible projects was the lighting replacement at Dragon Stadium which was

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unveiled during graduation ceremonies. The upgraded lighting system significantly improves visibility, efficiency and the overall experience for students, staff and community members utilizing the facility. We are also preparing for the replacement and modernization of the stadium elevator along with a variety of additional maintenance projects designed to preserve and improve our aging facilities district wide. As we are preparing to consolidate campuses in 2027, we will also begin projects such as the conversion of the former computer lab space

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at Old Union Elementary into a more flexible and structural area designed to better support current student learning. Safety and security enhancements also remain the highest priority. This summer, the district will be adding security fencing at both Old Union Elementary and Carroll Middle School to further strengthen campus security measures. In partnership with our outstanding booster clubs, we will also be renovating some of our girls' locker rooms to better support our student athletes and provide updated spaces that reflect the pride and tradition of Dragon athletics.

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Lastly, once tax increment financing or TIF funding is received from the city later this summer, the district plans to move forward with several additional projects at Dawson Middle School, Eubanks Intermediate School, Old Union Elementary, and Dragon Stadium. These projects reflect the district's continued commitment to maintaining high quality facilities, protecting taxpayer investments and ensuring our students and staff have safe, functional and welcoming learning environments.

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Thank you and go Dragons. Okay. Next on our agenda is item number eight, which is an information portion of our agenda 8.1, which is strategic plan action team updates end of year four. Mr. Nickel? Good evening, President Bryan, Doctor. Glenn, and Board of Trustees. This evening, I'm gonna be talking about year four of our strategic action plan and giving you updates on where we are. One thing that, I think is to note that now that we are about to enter year five of five, that, a lot of the work that was initially set out has already been completed. Also, when you're five years away from when you initially make goals,

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a lot of times the things that you're wanting to do now maybe don't always reflect where you were five years ago. I know even in talking to, to Randy Stewart, you know, I know when he was initially with his team talking about technology, it was about how do we stay most up to date with technology, how do we make sure every kid has a device, how do we make sure they have the most up to date device, and now it's how do we make sure that they have the skills they need to be in the world that we're putting them out in while at the same time, minimizing their reliance on screens and being able to still, you know, work socially and problem solve and do all the things. So, five years is a long time.

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So, anyway, tonight, I'll be giving an update and talk talk about where these committees are and the work that they feel like they've accomplished in the last year. So, first, I'll be looking at goal one in curriculum. Curriculum is a is a never ending process of alignment. When you were talking about changing staffing, changing objectives, changing, resources, you're constantly working back through and trying to make sure that you have alignment alignment on your teams, alignment between grade levels, alignment between campuses. And so that is an ongoing effort that they continue to do. A big piece on this slide too that I wanted to point out is the

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fourth bullet point. In the ADI legislature, they they put out that there there needed to be a universal GPA policy, and, that is going to start becoming affected with seventh grade of 26, 27. And so there will be more conversations about that, but that is something that the state just late in the spring started putting information out about and that we're going to have to adapt to. But, that is definitely a big piece on the horizon that does impact some things. In let's see. Here in objective one three, talking about our special programs, Dragon XL was able to start,

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their own business with the Dragon Exchange, and that that was a great success out here in the front of the building if if you were, I think you all were probably able to see that during the year. And then also, on the third bullet point, students in special education in grade three, five, seven, and nine who took the MAP assessment showed significant improvements between beginning, middle of year, and end of year, assessments. And I think that that's one that you can actually carry over to all of our students. MAP was something new for us this year, that we were able to do through, through some of our title monies. It was something that I think that was a significant,

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gain for for our students. As a parent of Dragon Students, I can tell you that it was a great thing for me to be able to see, my own children and see where they were beginning, middle, and end of year and see their growth in, you know, skill by skill basis. So, that was a a great add for this year and something that I think was a was a good accomplishment, something to celebrate. In student wellness, our elementaries in particular continue to partnership with Region eleven behavioral support. We've heard a lot of our teachers talking about that they, have seen behaviors that are they're not used to seeing and having to to learn to to manage, some things differently that they have not,

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maybe had experience in. And so, we were able to bring in region eleven, and that's gonna be an ongoing, effort to partner with them to continue to, educate and train our staff. We also began the rollout of HB3's mental health first aid training, which is a required thing. We are required this school year to get 25% of our staff trained and we surpassed that. We have four years to make sure everybody is trained, but after this summer we should have close to, if not 100%, completely trained in that. Also if you see on under where it says, I guess it's the fourth or fifth bullet point there,

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we introduced school links. Previously, we had Naviance. If you remember hearing about Naviance, which is how we shared transcripts, it's how students would do interest inventories, see what colleges had majors they were interested in, helped them see what the entrance requirements were for those those colleges. It had a lot of things there. School Links, was decided to be a, even more user friendly, more robust system than what Naviance was. We, transferred over to that this year, and the data that I saw from miss Euler that she presented at the end of the year, it looks like we had significantly more, student engagements with school links than what we did in Aviance.

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And I think that that will only improve as we continue to roll it out and find a we're working to have a system where it is very intentionally implemented through each grade level. So our our students come back and are are used to working in there, not only for transcript distribution, but also with all the other tools that are available. On, human capital, some great things here. Student teachers, we went from 19 student teachers last year to 35, this year. We had great success through our job fair. So far, we've hired 11 of the people who came through the job fair.

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We've already talked about the LEAP Academy. This is a great opportunity for us to take some of the staff that we have and continue to work with them and help train them for being future future leaders in the district. So those are some, great, celebrations there. Also, T test calibrations, we worked with Region eleven to help calibrate our administrators in the way that they are doing, classroom evaluations and how they're giving feedback to teachers, which I think is great for our, development of our our our leaders and our classroom teachers. Then, we've talked a lot about, the the work that's been done, for salary increases.

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And so we were able to increase, salaries of pretty pretty much every every employee through one mechanism or another. Technology, they've looked to continue to increase the life cycle and stretch out the life cycle of devices, so we're not having to, replace as often. Worked to implement a BYOD process for our high school and senior high students. Implemented a new firewall and implemented a, a multi factor authentication process for staff just to improve our security and and make it, you know, make it hard to to have our our network accessed and hopefully reduce some of

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the cyber issues that we deal with. And they will, as far as goals, they're gonna continue to invest in cybersecurity and try to make sure we protect the network, protect our staff and our students, and, constantly going to be looking for ways to, minimize our technology expenses while making sure that we still have all the things that we need to educate our students as best we possibly can. In finance, huge celebration for, the VADER from the fall. We've got the land sales that we just just talked about for Old Dragon Stadium, utilization of the TIF money to make sure that we are keeping our facilities up

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to date and get the best use out of those. As far as communications, communications worked hand in hand with with our VADER, to to help make sure that we're getting the correct information out there, getting our our messaging out and make sure that people understood what the VADER was for and its purpose. Helped launch an internship program, expanded our video production efforts, and then had a lot of work in supporting our district initiatives like the service academy forum that we did this spring. As far as on the marketing side, launched the Silver Dragons partnership program, and then expanded our community partnership opportunities and tried to help increase our visibility and

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value for our sponsors through just the enhanced branding and then updated a lot of our signage at Dragon Stadium. Questions, comments? All right. Thank you, Mr. Nickel. Great presentation. Super proud, of you and district staff and our community and this board, for implementing and following through, on this five year strategic plan. And, you know, I sent out my president's report, our last meeting, some of the accomplishments that have occurred, through decisions of this board and and this this administration in our community over the last five years.

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But that was just a highlight. This presentation that you're giving is also a highlight, but it goes into more detail on some of the things that we've been able to accomplish, in the last four years that, we've been operating under the strategic plan. I just wanna let the community know that, every decision that we make as a board and as a district, our rule is it has to go back and apply to an element within the strategic plan, or we're not gonna do it. And so, I just wanna commend you, doctor Glenn, and you, mister Nickel, and your entire staff for making that happen.

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And I know we have a few items left to, conclude in your five. There's not not that many, but I know that we are gearing up, to not just stop at year five. And we are going to, put together another effort, to build another five year strategic plan because we have things have changed over the last five years and I know that we need to, address those changes. So, with that, just a couple of questions for you, mister Nickel. One is, is there anything outstanding on the strategic plan that you feel like is, super important for us to get,

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concluded? Or do you think that we weren't able to get to that we need to include on the next strategic plan? If you know that, that's fine. If not, get back to us. And then the other item is, and maybe this is for you, doctor Glenn, when will we be renewing and starting the new five year strategic plan moving forward? Just to the first piece, I would really like to talk to the individual committee members and see if there's something that they feel like was pressing. I know that I'm a part of most of those committees or at least a lot of them, and I know that,

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they have not had anything other than things like I talked about at the beginning curriculum. We're going to be aligning our curriculum for the next forty years. That's just part of how it works. But, I don't know that there is any significant piece that they're like, we've just never addressed this in four years. But, if there were any pieces that needed to carry over, that's something that our committee leads could help, share with us. And I think there's two key pieces that are gonna have to carry over. One is academics, learning and development. So, at the foundation of everything we do, academics, making sure that our kids are getting a good quality education,

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that'll be in any strategic plan moving forward. How we do that is probably going to change. It was alluded to in our public comments and we talk about it pretty frequently. Technology is one aspect of the strategic plan that has changed dramatically over the last five years. I don't anticipate that, past five years, especially as we see families and research say that we need to pull away from screen time at the elementary level. So I think that's something you're going to see. And then also, finance, knowing that we have a declining enrollment and just this landscape of public education just in general has changed. And so we need to be mindful, of where we stand financially as a district because we see a lot of public

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schools getting themselves in trouble. So those are two areas that I see, us continuing with moving forward, just maybe taking a different approach, as far as our take on some of the same goals but different strategies. And then things like human capital, community engagement, those are always great, building blocks, but we may want to restructure what we prioritize, because you really wanna keep that strategic plan at four to five goals. Right? Four to five met four to five main themes. So, if I were, putting a timeline, president Brian, I would say the end of next school year, we would look to form a committee to begin building on it.

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Yeah. I appreciate that. And it's just, you know, we talk about it with our our town halls and when we go out in public and talk about kind of the accomplishments that have been made, by this board and this administration over the last five years. Strategic planning works. If you have a strategic focus, it keeps everybody engaged. And the fact that, we've went from, what, 96 National Merit Scholars to a 155. 55, National Merit Scholars is not just a fluke. It's not just something that was coincidence and it happened. We strongly believe because we have,

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horizontal and vertical alignment in our curriculums amongst our campuses, in our district, that we've been able to focus, more on academics, rather than, the values, behaviors, and beliefs. Reading, writing, and arithmetic is what we believe in, and this is what this strategic plan was all about. We've been able to implement that to a tee and I appreciate you Doctor. Glenn and your staff for buying into that and the fact that our community has bought into it, has paid dividends, as we're still ranked in many news outlets and experts as in the Des Moines School District both academically in the

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arts and athletics in the state of Texas and the fact that we're about to announce officially that we have won our tenth Lone Star Cup and 6A is pretty remarkable, three out of the last five years. So we appreciate everything that you guys have been doing and thank you for buying into this concept, especially financially. The strategic plan said that we're gonna go with zero based budgeting. That's the way to go. And I know it's tough, on these departments to to really sharpen the pencil, and implement zero based budgeting, but it's the reason why,

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financially that we're in pretty good shape compared to the rest of the ISDs across the state of Texas that are failing, financially. So appreciate you guys for everything that you've done and I can't wait to get this process started again. So I'll open it up. Any questions, comments? Yes. Just being on the Technology Committee, you're right, there hasn't been an area of that strategic plan that has not had more change. And I want to credit and Mr. Stewart, you're back there, you can wave. He's had great leadership, Mr. Stewart, in terms of that department and that team.

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And a lot of people might say, well, we're referring to the strategic plan for our decision making and that's great, that's been our guide. But at the same time, we've not been afraid to make some tweaks. And I think about where we were in technology five years ago and what this district did and everything, it's changed so much. This whole ISD, everybody involved here has been made some pretty bold decisions when it comes to technology and it's really changed quite a bit. So it's not like we're only going to do things that were mentioned in the

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strategic plan. That's not true. We have made some areas and there's probably others, but that's one that stands out to me that it wasn't a rigid rule that we changed in our community. We had to make, you know, changes into curriculum. So I think that's a great example of just being flexible. We've had a great strategic plan but we've also been flexible when needed to be. Thank you, Trustee Yeager. Comments? Trustee Stacy? Yeah, I just, I wanna say thank you to all of the directors for every single, I mean, this has been a true labor of love and it has been hard, but being part of the original strategic action team that helped create this plan,

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and we had so many people that were so diverse in thought, and we truly all came together in those meetings to create this, and then the directors that took it upon themselves to make sure that, every every meeting was facilitated very well. I got to be on part of two of the curriculums, student staff wellness, special programs. It just it really speaks to you, we all can come together when it comes to our kids. And I just I love that, and so it's actually kind of exciting that we're almost at year five. And I look forward to the next strategic plan. Trustee Stacy.

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Trustee Bynum? Yeah. I just wanted to add one comment. So as you were kind of going through these things, gosh, I remember, sitting up here, like, having some difficult conversations about things like technology and BYOD or even, you know, bringing, student teachers and mentorship programs, like, ways that we could, in real time, be more efficient with our dollars, kinda think outside the box. And I just think of, like, looking at all of those put together, that really did help to bring us to where we are, where, yes, we've had to make some changes, but we're in a much better situation than many districts.

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We're in. So thank you for everybody's work. Trustee Bottom. Okay. Thank you Mr. Nickel. Thank you. Appreciate it. Okay. Next up is Item 8.2 which is consider replacement of rental rates and rental policy. Mr. Park? President Bryant, doctor Glenn, Board of Trustees, good evening. We're here, today to provide information about our, facility rental policy updates and our rental, schedule. So I will, hand it over to mister, Mooney here who's done the line share of the work with with his staff, to go over the actual details, and then I'll be here to answer questions.

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Thank you, mister Park. So like, excuse me, like mister Park said, we're we're asking for a discussion to to replace and update the the rental policy. We have some things that are they're not on the old, policy, things like the indoor facility, baseball, softball, turf fields, even stadium. It doesn't allow us to rent them even though we've made some corrections on it. And there's been some situations that people have made deals outside of the Board policy. We're trying to get within a new policy that's as much more stringent where we

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can control it better and take some of the pressure off the Board where you're not facing questions. So the we as a group went through all the adjacent districts, kind of got everything together. And I think we're very with the attachment we put out there is we're very fairly priced. We're in the very low end of almost everything. There might be a couple of things a couple of items that were inched up a little bit toward the middle. But I think we're fair to all the constituents that rents our properties. And the, I think the one of the most important things to our our teachers is is

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that we kept the policy that they'll only pay 10% of the of their gross, which allows them to be able to do the things that they, they've been accustomed to do over the last few years. I don't know if you've been able to go through the the the spreadsheet that we made you, but, we, there were some there were some rates that were a little bit out of whack, dollars 500, dollars 600 for certain things an hour. When we took the average or even below average cost, we were able to get them within a little bit more affordable situation with and

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allows us to keep our what I think is the best quality around of any facility. Chase and I were talking to some people today about the fine arts facility and how do how does that compare. Well, there's only one or two in the whole in the county. You have you have Arlington ISD and in Mansfield that they're we're the third one. So it's hard to compare a regular auditorium to something like that. We're trying to work it in to get these things rectified. Yes. So something that we know that the District relies on heavily is revenue from facility

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rentals as this board has tried to be creative with ways to generate additional revenue that's not subject to recapture. Rentals is right at the top. You mentioned the auditorium, and I know we spoke earlier about putting together like a recital package, knowing that from a fine arts facility standpoint, that's a really nice facility, but it's also underutilized as far as rentals. And whenever you all put together a number on that, you all are going to make sure that that number, like the numbers that are reflective here, are comparable to the Keller's grapevines just west or slightly below?

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Yes, sir. What we don't want is to price ourselves out of the market where people just stop renting from us because it's too high, but we also want to maximize those dollars. So how do how would you say we compare to districts around us? Well, on this particular case in the fine arts center, like even though it is one of the top ones in Tarrant County, we're at the very low end of the of what's being rented, even comparing our fine arts center to an auditorium. So it's a little bit uncomparable. We're still at the very bottom end of it. A lot of the other districts have a lot of add ons, and we've stayed away from that.

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Now athletically, we're starting to try to add on some of the things once people take advantage of it. Let's say like a batting cage or something like that. But we try to do we try to keep things in a in a, tight area where we're not having to, add utility fees or something like that. We we encapsulate the whole the whole, So we we do have some add ons though. Correct? We have very few of them. I mean, something that let's just say if mister Stewart's people were having to run the lights or sound for the fine arts center or we were going to add allow somebody

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to use a batting cage or something like that. There's very small except for our standard administration costs and our custodial costs. There's some very rare occasions that we have an add on. Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Moody. There's a couple of things now. I'll let, turn it over to you, Trustee Bottom. That is we appreciate you taking a look at this. I don't think there's been any significant changes to our rental structure in the last eight to ten years, and so we appreciate you, taking a look at that and comparing with our neighboring, districts. It's good to hear that,

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that we're able to, you know, change some of the rates, but still be able to receive a revenue stream as as a result, which is great. I know this board is a big believer in, the youth programs that, that have pretty much a 100% of Yes. Southlake kids on those get a get a break, as well because they're already paying property taxes. They're already paying Absolutely. Fees, for their sports at these schools. And so that, that allows them to charge less, for the registration fees and allows our, students, that that that live here the ability to use those facilities.

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I just wanna point out to the community too that, these facilities, rentals aren't taken away, anytime from normal school day or normal, wear and tear of our athletics, that's associated with our, Carol ISD within within our district. These are all after hours. They're hours where, we're not typically using these fields or these facilities as a, district. Is that true? Yes, sir. That's correct. No difference than the UFL being out of stadium for two or three months. And the fact that, you're saying that I mean, we are big believers in structure and protocol and procedure and the fact that we're

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you know, asking the district to come up with these recommendations which we appreciate very much. We also want the district to follow through, with the procedures and the protocol because we don't want any one offs. We don't want anybody being able to rent a facility without going through, our system. It just the district loses money as a result. And I know that has been the case, in the past and even recently. And so for you guys to get that under control and figure out who manages, those rental facilities and there's a single point of contact is very important,

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moving forward. So thank you very much for that. Trustee Bottom? Just one question. On the I know you were talking about add ons. So on the Fine Arts Concert Hall, does that include the piano, or is that an add on? It would be, but we've really stayed away from it. Faith and I, we both believe that this it shouldn't be used. I mean, there's a tremendous amount of cost there. The piano should buy. Piano. And that's that's my my opinion. I think it's Chase's opinion also. But, it's a $100,000 piece of equipment there that I'm sure hate to get fixed.

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So ultimately, that will be something that as a Board, you'll want to have discussions with. If someone's renting it for a recital, they're probably going to want to rent it specifically to use that piano, right? So likely that does need to be considered in the use of the facility. But also, to Mr. Mooney's point, our kids use it. They use it regularly, and it is a super expensive piece of equipment. So you would want to make sure that you had somebody on-site that was making sure that it was managed appropriately, right? Yes, sir. Any other comments, questions for Mr. Manning's support? No. The last thing I would say is when we come back,

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we do have some high volume users. And so let's just make make sure from a use standpoint that we don't price anybody out and that we're keeping comparable rates to our neighbors. Yes, sir. All right. Thank you. Mr. Park, you're up next, item 8.3, which is our first budget update of the year. Yes, sir. So we'll be providing a budget update in or ahead of, our budget adoption, at next, regular meeting. So I'll run through run through quickly.

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Excuse me. There you go. I'll run through quickly, our current year's, operations. So as of the end of April, we are currently, at a high level. If you look down at the second to from the bottom, the green green bar, we are at currently a unrealized $2,100,000 deficit, with our with our financing sources in. We're expecting right now to land around $1,600,000 deficit. However, this does not take into consideration, the the realization of the, land sale that that will provide $8,750,000

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in in, funding, that will hopefully, will close in time to to include in this fiscal year. So, after after, speaking with our legal counsel today, I am optimistic that we will be able to, get that purchase sale agreement done and and all the inspection period done, in time to to to get funded for this fiscal year. So so some of the some of the, key factors, in our in our budget this year, from from our, adopted budget last June, to now is that, our local tax collections have come in lower than than budgeted.

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That's, mainly due to the homestead exemption, for, that one from 100,000 to 140,000 and then the, over 65 frozen levy that or, exemption that went from 10,000 to 60,000. So, just, you know, there was really no way to estimate that very well at the time of adoption. Another one, our our final recapture settle up from last fiscal year, came in and we this past week, we paid the state $840,000

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of additional recapture in settle up for last fiscal year. It's basically due to the audited collections that we presented in our final PIMS PIMS submission, that that that made our, tax tax collections come in $1,000,000 higher than what was reported to the state during our near settle up. And then several key areas, we did not hit budgeted revenue marks. Interest earnings, we're optimistic that this land here and then also the old CIS Building would have sold sometime during this fiscal year.

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And so when you budget in interest earnings on, you know, '25 to to $30,000,000, and and then you don't have that to, actually, happen, then then it's, you know, you will be short on your interest earning, actuals to budget. Also, additionally, facility rentals, as mister Mooney talked about, facility rentals and also aquatics program revenues, you know, those are those are both budgeted, numbers that that due to various reasons, you know, we we were not able to to hit those marks either. And so, you know, that the, facility around policy, hopefully,

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will will address that and and allow us to collect, what we budget next year. And then last thing, expenditure over budget. The, onetime payments that that the board approved, as a as a passage of as the passage of the VATRE, last November, That that was not that was not a budgeted cost, initially. And then, as we've all experienced, you know, few fuel costs in the last four to five months, and then, food costs this year, have have, you know, risen significantly. And then lastly, our extra duty and custodial cost just for for various, events,

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around around the district as well as, cleaning up after after facility rentals. That has really taken a toll on our budget this year. I wanna jump in while we're still on this page. And I think it just speaks to the stewardship of this board and y'all's engagement in the budgeting process and monthly, how you take the time to really ask questions and take deep dives into where we're at financially. Despite all of the challenges as it relates to the values of the district, the enrollment in the district, recapture. This district continues to maintain a super high level of fund balance.

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We have a lot of revenue on the horizon as it relates to property sales. In fact, Mr. Moonie and I were having a conversation of trying to get out of the land business and, and start putting our money to work for us educating kids. And so, even with all of the issues that I believe every public school district in Texas is is currently facing, because none of this is unique to Carroll. The district is in really strong financial position. Not only have we paid down what will be right at, dollars 33,000,000 in debt this year, principal and interest,

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We'll also look at likely reducing the tax rate pretty significantly as well. So there are good things on the horizon. So and some of that is compression, but some of that is just management of our bond capacity. That's a good segue, to our to our debt service. The board approved last last August a a, defeasance for this fiscal year, and so I'm working with our financial advisers and our and our bond counsel, to, defease $10,000,000, at the end of this month. And so, that'll realize a net, present value savings of around $800,000 to to our taxpayers.

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This year, we we started our our, or or the beginning balance, in the fund balance for our debt service fund was $17,500,000. We projected collections about 31 and a half. And like, doctor Glenn said, we we will we will have paid, $24,000,000 in in our debt service payments and then couple that with the with the $10,000,000 defeasance. We will still be at a healthy fund balance of over $16,000,000 at the end of this year in our debt service fund. Yes. And I think I just wanna reiterate the Board's position on this and that is

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unlike many other school districts around the state that are leveraging their communities or, up to their eyeballs in debt of billions of dollars, this board has a position that we will not do that to our community and future residents, of our community. In fact, we are, scheduled, to be virtually debt free around 2031 or so. That'll be the first. We'll be the first six a school district in the state of Texas, to be, debt free. And I think that's something to be said because, not only does that help the taxpayers,

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but also helps this district financially. And the fact that, you know, our m and o budget cannot, we do not have enough money in our M and O budget to preserve existing facilities. This gives us an opportunity to think about, smaller, baby bonds or short term bonds that, that we can, hit, you know, roof construction and HVAC replacement and those types of things that are very necessary on our campuses, without encumbering our the residents of our community out forty or fifty years. We can ask our community to be able to borrow $3,040,000,000

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dollars to make these improvements and pay them off in three years and then, start over. So that's that's kinda the direction. That is the direction that this board is going, the district has bought into. And, they don't let anybody tell you it's a bad thing to pay down debt and pay off debt, because that's that's exactly what we're doing. And thank you, mister Park, for buying into that concept. So moving ahead to, next year planning. So some remaining key dates. By the end of this week, we will have published our notice of public meeting to discuss budget and proposed tax rate. And then at the at our regular meeting this month,

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we will, present our proposed budget to be adopted. And then, in in July, we'll receive certified values from from the Tarrant appraisal district. And in August, we will present that, tax rate, for for, you to to be approved. And I'm assuming, mister Park and doctor Glenn, that we're working towards, a rate that's again below the no new revenue rate for the third year in a row here in this district? Absolutely. That's going to be the goal. So having a conversation with Mr. Park this morning, a large piece of what we have to look at is where our values are

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in relation Into our enrollment. And so compression is gonna hit us, potentially, mister Park, what was the trigger for the was it 3%? Yes. So if our values grow 3% or or higher this year, we will experience some some sort of MNO Tier one compression. But as up to 2%, we won't experience any compression. Yes. So that's the first trigger that we're watching is where our Tier one falls in relation to compression. The other piece of it is the what we do with the I and S tax rate. And so, we leveraged this year the bond capacity that you have available to pay that extra

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$10,000,000 above and beyond our normal payment to make sure that we're bringing down our debt. It's always been a good balance for this board. I know you evaluate it carefully. You look at how much capacity we have knowing that likely we'll have a future election and we'll need facilities and facility improvements and we don't want to increase our tax rate, whenever we go out for an election. But we also know, that we have outstanding debt too, right? I mean, this board five years ago inherited a half $1,000,000,000 in debt, and have it down to right around $200,000 right? Or $200,000,000

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$200,000 would be right? $200,000,000 and decreasing pretty significantly every year. And so we want to look at that tax rate really close when we go to adopt it in August to make sure that you guys are comfortable not only with being below the no new revenue rate, but you understand how much that leaves for ad defeasance, as well as future possible short term bond elections. And thank you for that, Doctor. Glenn. And Mr. Park, I'm assuming that once we get the certified values that, we will probably be plus or minus whatever we pass as a budget.

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So we'll we'll have to, you'll have to present an amendment Correct. To the budget in August. Is that when it is? Yes, sir. We will we will look to to calculate that and then and then, provide a budget amendment to you once once we calculate all those, actual, projections. Yeah. And mister Park, you know, he and his team, they're fantastic. They do a great job. What's frustrating for us is that recapture number. Obviously, it's a big number for us and seeing how the state plays fast and loose with the values and where they fall and knowing that we could have settle up

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payments up to a year later. We can make it make it an additional hardship that that 80% of districts don't have to deal with in the state of Texas. Moving on to, key budget parameters that that we are, examining right now. The biggest one, you know, obviously, the the lion's share of our funding, comes through, what we produce through our through our enrollment. And so, we are we are projecting right at around a 200 student decline from from this current fiscal year at 7,670. I have dropped, a couple of tenths of a percent,

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on our on our average daily attendance rate, from from, I think last year, we budgeted around 96%. And so now, right now, we're at 95.7, for this, fiscal year. And so, I'm I'm just gonna start there at at 95.7, for this, upcoming year. And then, our investment earnings rate right now have it at a 3.25, you know, percent calculation for for for all of our, interest on our cash flow. And then as I mentioned earlier, we are, it remains to be seen how much how much, our our values grow.

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But but right now, I have conservative to to expect a projection of of anywhere from one to 3% growth. And that's our that student enrollment of 76%, 70% is our projected for 26%, 27%? That's the number that I'm using. We were projecting we're trending just below the demographers projections and Chase probably has that in a later slide. So we're going to try and give you guys the most our most conservative estimates. And so if we come in at 150 gig drop in enrollment, then that just generates more revenue that we'll have for the budget.

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But right now, we're gonna go with the most conservative approach. So, doctor Glenn, I know that Glenn, Andrew, and I were elected, on the board five years ago. Our enrollment was around eighty four fifty or something like that. Now it's 7,600, so we're down about 800 students, in five years. I know you've been talking about this a lot. That is not, not unique to Carroll ISD for sure. There's, districts all over the state that are declining, in enrollment. But, I know the community is a little bit concerned about, enrollment decline. Not only does it impact finance, but it impacts, facilities, teachers,

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you know, everything is impacted by declining enrollment. Your projection is that we'll probably balance out maybe in the next three or four years in enrollment and you won't have to worry about that number in the future? Sure. So it's been tough, right? Since 2019, we've lost about 1,000 kids, which is $10,000,000 in funding. And for a variety of reasons. Districts across the state of Texas have lost kids. Biggest reason for the state would be that, we're just seeing lower birth rates, kids coming into the public school system. You've got kids going to charter schools,

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home schools, private schools. For Carroll, that's not really the case. For us, it's property values, right? This is a geographically small district and the buy in is expensive. Families have to make sacrifices to come here. And it's tough for a lot of young families, to make those sacrifices to be able to afford homes in this community. And so for those reasons, we're not unlike districts like Highland Park that have also experienced enrollment decline. But eventually, it does level off. And so the talking point that I've used over and over again is the last two years, we've graduated classes of over 700 seniors and brought in classes of about 400,

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just over 400 kindergartners. And so when you see those big gaps of 300 kids from your senior class over your kindergarten class, even though we see kids move in in other grade levels, it's just not enough to maintain our current enrollment numbers. And so to your point, yes, we are probably going to see a significant shift over the next three years, before classes begin to level off at about the five fifty to 600 kid range. And, I believe when we start graduating classes closer to that five fifty, 600 kid range, you'll see a more stable economic environment for the district.

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The next is just a historical representation of our, appraised property values to our certified values. So historically, over the past five years, it's been about, about a billion dollar, or one point, you know, 1,100,000,000 $1,200,000,000 drop from from, what we get in April as our appraised estimates, to to our actual, certified taxable value. So, like, last year, we went from 14,800,000,000 to to 13,400,000,000. And so so this year, we were actually our April estimates were actually lower than than last year's April estimates

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significantly. And so so we'll we'll see where that certified values fall, this year. And then as we discussed, you know, you you hit it right on the head, you know, right around 8,500 students five years ago. And the the the blue line represents what the demographer's, estimate projections are were, and the the gray line there is what, our snapshot date actual enrollment was. And so, every year, you know, our actual enrollment has been has been slightly below what the demographer has projected. And so,

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the demographer is projecting seventy six ninety four enrollment this year. I went ahead and and, extrapolated out a little bit and and, took took another 24 students, off of that projection to get to to get to our, seventy six seventy number that I'm using to budget. Some some key assumptions, go through it again. Again, that that 200 student decline, it results in in about a $1,700,000 loss in funding from from this, current year. And so, naturally, to budget to our capacity, we need to do everything we can to continue to save through attrition.

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And so current and so far this year, we've been able to get to a net payroll savings of about $1,200,000, I believe, and and we're continuing to to work on that. But, you know, that's currently where we stand. And so, you know, we're not we haven't quite quite, equalized the the the loss in funding, but but, you know, we will we will try to maximize those opportunities to to to find the savings where we can. So, then after that, in in April, the board approved the three to 5%, raise raises for for next year.

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So, that that added about $2.42500000 dollars in funding. Or I mean, I'm sorry, in, in, expenditures. Through our strategic plan, you know, zero based budgeting was was a was a, emphasis. And so this year, again, through through zero based budgeting, efforts, we've we've cut our non payroll budgets by, at least $350,000. I say at least because, we still have our our property casually, insurance quotes, RFP. You know? It's open through through this, week. And so, but but we're expecting to to be able to shave anywhere from 10% to 20%

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off of our current current, insurance premiums for for next year. So Which would lift that number at about $4.50 to $5.50. Yep. So so hopefully hopefully, we'll be able to get well well over $500,000 in in, non non payroll budget savings going into next year. The one caveat is that transportation and child nutrition, due to fuel cost and food cost, we we've had to increase their budgets, slightly going going into next year. So but we still net right now $350,000 savings, in in, nonoperational pay budgets or non payroll budget.

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Sorry. And so and then last thing, the land sales, we have quite a bit of properties up right now. The first of which is is is the Old Dragon Stadium. We are we are still working on the, old, intermediate school building and then the two acres at at Old Union, the cell tower easements at the senior high school, the and and then also the, Durham Durham, Intermediate School property that that was, approved at s or plus at last meeting. So And our and our goal is to hopefully have that Durham property under contract no later than August, knowing that it'll likely take a year to close.

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And so we had a conversation, mister Park, Mr. Moody and I with Roxanne Taylor. So with that, I'll open up to questions. Thank you, Mr. Park. Great first presentation. Look forward to the fifteenth and see what you guys recommend. I'll open it up questions, comments for Mr. Park. It's pretty black and white. It frustrates people in the community. I know we've got some folks that have learned a lot about how school districts operate recently. And, when you see the enrollment number, it's just tough. You know, we're at Carroll and we see so many things that do this,

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right, reading scores, all of the excellence and how we achieve in so many different areas. It's just people aren't moving and young families can't afford to come here. And it's just one of those things that's really difficult. We're doing the best we can. I just want the community to know is you can either just pretend that's not an issue or you can do adjustments to capacity. And I can say being on a transition team, we're all on transition teams. The attitude of everybody on those transition teams from principals to teachers to community members,

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everybody is all in. And I think we're, as a community, understanding that this is there's going to be a lot of good that comes out of this. And I think between now and when we see that $1.5.2000000 dollars of savings when that campus is no longer taking money from this district in our budget. It's really between now and then, right? That's so frustrating. Because once we get there, we're going to see some new savings that's going to be perpetual. Yeah. You make a good point. And a lot of people forget about that. The the BRAC recommendation,

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the budget reduction advisory committee, it was a five year plan. It wasn't a one year plan or a two year plan. So it was it was solving an $8,500,000 deficit over five years. And, and then obviously, the team that, the Tiger team that targeted Durham did so knowing that right there is the opportunity to save close to $2,000,000 or more dollars per year. All right. Anything else, Mr. Clark? One question. Trustee Bond. Ma'am? Is our is our attendance rates, like, our daily attendance is going down from previous years? Is that what like, nominal or is it small? Or So,

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before COVID, this district was around 97.3%, in its attendance rate. And, after I mean, obviously, during during COVID, it it was low, but but it it hasn't quite recovered to to that, number, post COVID. And so last couple of years, we've we've been right around ninety six, ninety five point eight percent. And then this year, I think, in the last, PEIMS, ADA report that I looked at, I think I believe we're at 95.7. So So public school attendance, down since COVID is a national trend. It's at Texas particularly hard just to be down a point and a half is

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actually pretty good compared to how the rest of the state is running, which is closer to three percent to 5% down, over, pre COVID attendance levels, which is significant, right? Because, and last legislative session, I could have quoted the year the number, but like every percentage point is like close to $1,000,000 in additional revenue, that we receive. So if we could shift from $95,700,000 to $96,700,000 that would be $1,000,000 in funding that we'd make up right there because we're not paid on our students, we're paid on our students when they come to class.

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This is our yearly public service announcement. Take your vacations now, you're in the summer. We need you back in school. And, You're right. It matters because we have, like, like, we pay our teachers all year. Like, you know, when kids don't come, we still have the light bill, we still have the fuel bill, we still have, payroll costs. And so, the state just pays us when when kids show up, though. So it's, it can be tough to budget. Thank you. Alright. Thank you, mister Park. All right, that's it. No objection, we'll adjourn this meeting at 07:11 p. M. Thank you, Porter.