Sure. Alright. Good afternoon. We'll call this special meeting of the Carroll ISD Board of Trustees to order on 03/10/2025 at 5PM. Our first agenda item is executive session. Therefore, we will adjourn to executive session in accordance with Texas government code 551.071, five hundred and 50 one point zero seven two, five hundred and 50 one point zero seven four, five hundred and 50 one point zero seven six, six, and five five one dot zero eight two one at 5PM. Alright. Good evening, everyone. 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? Dear lord, we come before you today with grateful hearts, seeking your guidance and wisdom in our discussions and decisions. Bless this meeting and grant us clarity and compassion as we work for the good of our students, staff, and community. Help us to listen with open minds, speak with kindness, and act with integrity, always striving to serve with your grace. It's in Jesus Christ's name that we pray. Amen. Will you please 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 and Now please join me for a moment of silence. Thank you. You may be seated. Bless you. Alright. Our next agenda item is public comments. Miss Shelton, do we have anybody signed up to speak tonight? We do not have any comments this evening. Alright, thank you, Ms. Shelton. We'll go straight to item number five, which is consideration and possible action on any matters addressed in executive session. And we have none, so we'll go straight to item number six, which is the president's report. And I'm going to read a just a brief statement,
which I'll send out in an email tomorrow. And then I wanna turn it over to our lead for our legislative efforts, Trustee Bottom. So let me just read this statement, and then we'll, turn it over to Trustee Bottom. I wanna take a moment to announce that trustee Dudley Jordan has submitted his resignation today, effective immediately, due to his move out of the district. Dudley has been a dedicated and valued member of our board, and we are truly grateful for his service. He will be greatly missed. We will discuss next steps at a future board meeting. Thank you. Trustee Bottom.
Hey. Well, I am extremely proud of our Dragon community and thrilled to give a recap of our Legislative Action Day, which was last Tuesday, March 4. In total, we had 26 advocates from CISD who rearranged their schedules and braved some very, tricky weather and road conditions, to get to Austin, including three board members. So it was vice president Eager, secretary Stacy, and myself, four principals, administrators. We had PTO presidents and then CISD committee and community members. Additionally, the trustee group that trustee Stacy and I were on,
joined together with five additional trustees from school districts across Texas, including the number three and number seven largest school districts. And we all advocated together pushing on the same issues. During that day, we executed on 30 legislator meetings, including many with public education committee members and chairs, freshmen legislators who may not yet be engaged in public school finance, and we had collaborative conversations with our very own state senator and representative. Beyond the scheduled meetings, dozen more packages were left with other legislators,
to provide education about Texas School Finance and Carroll ISD's legislative priorities, which as a reminder are an increase in the basic allotment. We wanted to fund underfunded mandates, specifically special education and recapture reform. And then part of that basic allotment is an increase in teacher pay raises as well. Training our community and scheduling meetings, creating all of the resources that we use that day was a very heavy lift. So I do want to give a very big shout out to our communications team. So that was Jacqueline Harwell and Jeff Brady for their contributions to make that day
a great success. I can say that Carroll ISD, we absolutely moved the needle. We felt a lot of momentum that day. Our conversations were productive and fruitful. And there are several key bills that are starting to move through committee. They're getting a lot of momentum including one on special education that's getting heard tomorrow morning at 8AM. So just big heartfelt thank you to everybody who contributed and participated on those legislative efforts and we'll keep everybody updated on things as they pass forward. Excellent. Thank you, trustee Beiner. I appreciate your leadership in this effort. Anything Trustee Stacy you wanna add to that before we move on?
Okay. Alright, let's move on to item number seven, seven point one, special programs department report. Miss Parsons, you're up. So good evening, can you hear me? President Brian, Doctor. Glenn, and other trustees, thank you so much for this opportunity to present the special programs board update for the 2425 school year. So but before we start, I have to quickly introduce the team that makes all this magic happen. First, we have Allison Fike for she is the coordinator over federal programs.
Jenny Glick, she's the coordinator coordinator over specialized behavior supports. Sarah Mayo, she is the coordinator over specialized curriculum and instruction. Sherry Meadows, she is the MTSS specialist. And Mary Davis, she is the ESL and pre k specialist. None of this could happen without these amazing ladies, so I appreciate them so much. Alright. Let's dive into special programs by the numbers. First off, we have 932 students served in special education.
That's 11.5% of our total student enrollment. We have five nine fourteen students in five zero four. We have three thirty five students identified as emergent bilingual. 1,002 students are have intervention plans through our MTSS intervention program, and we have two seventy four three- and four year olds in our pre K. A little bit about the MTSS. We have about 500 students that are receiving either tier two or tier three interventions,
and that's when they're pulled out of the classroom and they either work like tier two is, two to three times a week, sixty to ninety minutes, and tier three is four or more times a week for sixty to one hundred and twenty minutes. A hundred and thirty four students this year were exited from the MTSS program because they tested with within the grade level expectations for reading and or math. So that was that's a huge accomplishment. And fifty one of the students came in had an initial evaluation,
and they qualified for special education. So we are supporting them more fully. And then our precious pre K program, we have six three year old classrooms for 102 students, one hundred and two three year olds, nine four year old classrooms. We have one hundred and 70 four year olds. And today was a very special day. We went live with our pre k enrollment and last check, we had over a 20 students.
We had, what, 60 in the first three minutes. So it's a huge program here. It's a big success and our community loves it. Our pre K program is housed at Carroll Elementary, Old Union, and, Rock and Ball. So let's go and let's dig a little deeper into special education. Our this is primary eligibility, so that's the most handicapping condition. You can also have a secondary and a tertiary, eligibility. But we're just looking at what is the main driver.
So the biggest one we have is a specific learning disability, and thirty four percent of the students in special education have that. A hundred and ninety or twenty percent of that is dyslexia. So we have had a big increase in our special ed numbers and that the big driver in that is moving dyslexia, which was historically housed under five zero four, up underneath special education. Speech impairment is thirty three percent. So those are our two biggest areas.
Other health impairment is thirteen percent, emotional disability seven percent, autism five percent, and deafblind is four percent. And every year after an ARD Committee, each ARD Committee member is given a chance to provide feedback on how the ARD went. In this slide, you will see that ninety five point seven percent of the respondents said they were satisfied to very satisfied with how the ARD meeting went. We're very proud of this,
measure because it shows that our ARD meetings are, being effective, and we're making really good IEPs for our kids. So that's the last slide, but I also kinda wanna dig in a little deeper on all the unfunded mandates that we serve in special programs. Special education receives 4,500,000.0 and spends about 8,900,000.0, giving of giving Carroll ISD a deficit of 4,300,000.0 in special education alone.
Dyslexia receives about $270,000 spends about $720,000 giving us a deficit of around $450,000 Bilingual allotment, we receive 167,000, spend 188,000, giving us a deficit of 21,000. So you can see that the special education portion of that is the biggest driver, but when you earlier this year So earlier this year, Carroll ISD, with the help of Eubanks Intermediate School, partnered with TEA
to work on a pilot study to look at a different way of funding. Historically, special education has been funded on a location model. If you were in mainstream, we got this much money. If you were in resource, we got this much money, etcetera. However, that doesn't really show and tell the whole story of what we do in special education. We our goal is to have children in general education as much as possible. That's where the best learning happens.
So what we did is we looked we are TEA, asked us for help on a service intensity model of funding. And I'm very excited about this model of funding. One, because it will address in Carroll ISD, we are doing a co teach model in fifth grade up, and that will better fund that co teach model because it's more intensive. So I'm excited about this new model. It is included in House Bill two and Senate Bill five sixty eight,
which is getting heard tomorrow morning. And I am still working with TEA to fine tune this model, this service intensity model. So and I just want to finish by saying thank you so much for your unwavering support of all of our students that are in special programs. We really appreciate it. So any questions that you may have. Thank you, miss Parson. Great, presentation. Very pithy, which is great. This board loves that. Thank you again for, you know, putting on that. The pre k is great. I mean,
that is just awesome news that we are building that program and we want to keep building it and building it. So we appreciate that. And I too totally agree in the service intensity based formula is going to help us out, a great deal. Just curious, and maybe Trustee Boddam, you may be best to answer this, but as part of that bill, if it does get passed and then it goes over to the House and a similar bill gets passed, you mentioned the $4,000,000 deficit in SPED. I mean, we're projecting an $88,500,000.0 deficit, in our district. Half of that is because we don't receive the full reimbursement from the state,
which is, you know, total fraud. So I'm just wondering if, this bill, if passed in its current form, is gonna give us total relief? Or is it, something less than total relief? And do you know what that is? I do not know what the relief looks like at this time. I my, person that I've worked with at TEA is Kristen McGuire. She has not released that data yet on what the act unless you have seen I have I have some like as it relates to us specifically I don't have that granular but I can say that we know overwhelmingly Texas underfunds special education by
$2,000,000,000. That is proven. They've put $1,800,000,000 into this bill. So it's not all the way there. No. But it's very close. It sounds close. So we're looking forward that. So we can expect 3,800,000,000.0 more instead of the I sure hope so. Can you be on record, Trustee Bonner? Yes. I I I really hope so. And I'll I'll make all the phone calls I could I need to make. That's great. Thank you so much. I do need to brag on miss Parsons. I mean, this was a heavy, heavy lift that just so you all know, a lot of school districts said no to TEA. They did not want to have their staff participating in this,
but it's because of her efforts. And mind you, this was, like, her first week here. And and her engagement with staff and getting buddy getting everybody on board that she has been able to shape some of the language in the bill and give real time feedback. So they even called her to to testify and she's kind of on hold to have conversations. So thank you so much for for your efforts. Thank you and your entire team for being here today. Here that's where the magic happens. Yeah. We appreciate it. For sure. And do we who's the sponsor of SDC? The center of SDC. SDC. Is SDC five sixty eight.
And then Buckley has a house bill too, which has some of the same language. Same stuff in it. Yes. Okay. Alright. Mhmm. Alright. Any other trustees? Any questions? Yeah. I just wanted to say that, since I'm on campus a lot and I get to speak with a lot of principals, they have been talking so highly of you and your team and the culture of y'all being on the campus. They are so appreciative. I I just I can't even tell you how many compliments I get that they are so excited. They love having y'all. And so thank you for kind of shifting that culture to where y'all are more of a presence for them because I they really see it,
and it's a value to them. Well that is wonderful to hear. Thank you so much for sharing. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Anything else? Trustee Land? Okay. Thank you. Alright. Doctor. Parsons, thank you ladies for being here to support her. Alright, moving on to 7.2, consider request for qualifications for property broker services. Doctor Glenn. Thank you, mister president. Trustees, you have in your packet, a sample RFQ for property broker services. As you might remember, I believe it's been probably about a couple of years ago, the district went out and did an RFQ Q for brokers. We do have one property,
currently that is in default, that we need to look at liquidating. That is the old CIS Building. That property went into default in the fall. What we would like to do is go out for an RFQ for brokers. At that time, the trustees, you will have the opportunity to, accept one broker, to work with or you can choose multiple brokers to work with, as we, look at the liquidation of surplus property. My recommendation, at our next meeting will be that, we go ahead and submit an RFQ. We see what brokers are interested in working with the district.
You guys will have the opportunity to evaluate them and decide how you wanna move forward, from there as we look to, eventually sell off some of the surplus property in the district we're not using anymore. I'll be happy to answer any questions. Yeah. So thanks, Doctor. Glenn, for that. I appreciate it's unfortunate that we find ourselves in this in this position. That's millions of dollars that we're potentially leaving on the table, but hopefully, we can make it up with this new bid. I was just curious, I know this district in the past has gone out for qualifications and picked one broker through whatever method it is,
that we decide. This last go around, we didn't use a broker. We did it ourselves. Within your experience, what's your experience? One broker, no broker, multiple brokers? What's your experience? Yeah. I've always used a broker in helping, trustees sell land. It's just better to have that experience. They can cast a wider net, when looking at potential buyers. Some districts will engage with multiple brokers. Obviously, whenever you go to sell a piece of property, you're gonna pick one that you feel will be able to best, get the word out and sell, you know, one particular piece of property. But in the event over a six month period that broker is not able to
come back with a bid that, that you're comfortable with selling the property at, you can certainly, rotate and go to one of the other brokers that are on your approved list. So it wasn't so they're not using it it's not two brokers simultaneously. It's like one primary broker and then okay. Yeah. But if you have multiple properties up for sale, you know, sometimes you'll you'll cast those to different brokers. Again, it it really is the, pleasure of the board, how you decide to assign and sell that property. What the law is gonna require is that we're gonna have to put appropriate notification in the paper. And so we're gonna have to make the publications as required by law to sell
the property. In addition to that, we'll have to conduct an appraisal of the property, and the board, will be tied to the fact that they cannot sell, you cannot sell the property for less than the appraised value. Okay. In the event that, there are any, there's any outstanding debt on the property once the, the facility and again CIS, I think we all know that building was paid off a long time ago, but let's just assume for a second that there were outstanding bonds on it. The proceeds from the sale would have to go toward paying off those outstanding bonds first. Or towards capital improvements,
right? Capital improvements, correct. That were in the previous bonds, okay. And given that we do have to make those announcements and those types of things, what type of timeline are we looking at for our ARPU? Yes. So it's two consecutive weeks, has to be posted in the paper. So time, let me back up. So timeline for the RFQ, we would post that out for for two consecutive weeks, in the paper. So, given that our next board meeting would be on the and I don't think this is this is information tonight. So the thirty thirtieth, '30 first is our next board meeting. So we would come back and post the next two weeks after that.
So likely our first April meeting, you'll have the opportunity to select a broker. From there, we will go ahead and put the, the property, out for sale. Again, notice has to be published, two consecutive weeks. Probably wanna do three or four, just to make sure we're casting as wide of a net as possible. Then when bids start coming in, the, the board will have the opportunity to to review all bids. And so just because a bid comes in, doesn't necessarily mean that you have to accept it. So, it has to be over the appraised value. But if you think, hey, you know what, this property, let's just say the CIS Building is appraised at $8,000,000
I'm just pulling a number. But, your low bid or your high bid comes in at $9,000,000 and you're like, you know what, I mean, that's 18 acres. I feel like we could get more for that. You absolutely as a board have the potential to set a minimum threshold and say, if we don't get at least 10, we're we're not even gonna gonna consider selling the property at this time. So you have a lot of flexibility. You just have to make sure that, one, it's declared surplus. Two, we get the appraised value. And three, that you get a a bid that's acceptable to you. And so if someone comes in with a bid of $1,000,000 for that 18 acres,
you know, we don't even have to bring it to the board for consideration. We can just call it immediately. So calling on your experience again, as a long time superintendent, doctor Glenn, and going through multiple land sales, I'm sure, throughout your career. Would it be smart, for us to either work in conjunction, with the sale of this property or even wait to go out for an RFQ, to approach the city? The district approached the city for a zoning change knowing that the current zoning is not the zoning that's that's, appropriate for what is probably gonna be, this land use. So No,
absolutely. So I think in this, interim time while we're making our appropriate publications, I definitely think it's wise for us to go to the city and, and look at a rezoning of that property, specifically, the property around CIS. I believe it's zone residential at this time or maybe education. So I don't know if we want to do a multi use where it can be residential or commercial or if we just want to do commercial, but, I think the city would be willing to work with us on zoning. And I do think that would make it more attractive to a potential buyer. And I I think so too because that you know, with all what's going on at at the city right now with,
you know, residential and commercial developments. It seemed like to me that we would wanna go to the city, take a look at whatever that is in the city master plan for that piece of property, if there even is anything in there because it always has been, you know, CIS, and ask the city, ask the city manager, whomever is appropriate, what would be the appropriate, zoning we would go for as a district? And can that district actually go to a city, a government to government? And do they have to go through that whole the same process as any other individual would or because we're government to government,
would we We're government to government. I think the yeah. I think, just because we have a good working relationship and a synergy with the city, that they will fast track us through the process. But, obviously, I do believe the city is gonna we're still gonna have to move through their process. Can you take an IOU to get with the city manager and, see what she recommends on that? And I'm assuming that we could just do this in parallel. Absolutely. Absolutely. Okay. Any other questions, trustees? Okay. Thanks, Doctor. Glenn. Moving to 7.3, consider amendment to the academic planning guide and grading system for off campus physical activity
programs. Miss Petty. Good evening. Good evening. I am here tonight. As you are aware, we have an off campus PE, physical activity program that is in place for our students in grades nine through 12. Currently, those students are not receiving a numerical grade on their report card. What we are seeking is to get a numerical grade added for our students in grades nine through 12 well, it could be nine through 12. They could also just go nine and ten just like all the rest of our kids get in nine and ten when they're in PE,
they could do the they get the numerical grade and then when they're in grades eleven and twelve, they could do the waiver that we have, which we put in place for several different different other organizations. Those students could then opt out and they would not have to receive the numerical grade. But we do feel like this is a very elite group of students that we are talking about. They are non UIL activities. And so we feel like for the work that they put in, allowing them a numerical grade would be fair. And we do have two teachers well, the two retired teachers who are running this program for us.
So the way that we foresee this working is the sponsor, the coach, would would work with the students. They would take they would take into consider consideration attendance. They would take into consideration participation. The coach would then talk with with one of our our off camp off campus, PA volunteers or sponsors, and that's how we would receive the grade. So this is what we are seeking. We do appreciate the work that our students put in. They put in a lot of time and effort for these programs, and they represent us very well. So so right now, miss Petty, off campus,
a child that has off campus PE or whatever we're calling it in ninth and tenth grade, they don't receive a letter grade at all and they there's no credit whatsoever. There's no credit. And then in in eleventh and twelfth, if they're the same, it's there's still no credit That's correct. Whatsoever. And so what you're proposing is to change ninth and tenth to mandatory letter grade Right. And then optional in eleventh and twelfth. If they want a letter grade, we'll go with it. If not, then we'll agree to that too. That's correct. What is that is that a is that gonna be a popular choice,
for parents to say, yes. I want my child in ninth and tenth grade to receive a letter grade or We feel like it will be Okay. Because it is giving them the GPA points. I mean, it is helping them. I mean, they are earning it. They are putting a lot of hours in order to participate in these in this physical activity. So we feel like it will be it will be a plus for these students. Why wouldn't they? Because most of them, I would assume, it it's an a. Right? So Yes. You would assume that they would get a want a letter grade. What what would be the reason? The only group that would not want a letter grade would be your top,
to be quite honest, your top 2% Okay. Who that actually, as ironic as it sounds, a 100 hertz their grade because it's not weighted. And so those top 2% would have the option of of doing the waiver. Okay. So we try to be fair to all students in this. Okay. Thank you. Miss Petty, would this be for every every off campus PE option? Yes. Okay. That every That's part of our program. This part of the approved program. This part of the approved program. This part of the approved program. This part of the approved program. This is listed listed on the district website. Okay. Right. We have listed approved program?
Yes. Okay. So what about what about students that, they're still in high school and they're either currently in off campus PE or they've taken off campus PE nine through 12, but they're still here? Oh, I'm glad you said that. Thank you. I forgot about that. This would be starting with the incoming freshman class, so we would not start it until next year's freshman class coming in. That way we make sure that there's Can you please speak about why that's the case with a with a GPA change? Do what? Explain the reason why we do that with a GPA change. The reason that we do that with a GPA change is you wanna make sure
that you don't give any group of students an advantage over another group. So as you're looking at the APG, we always have to take that into consideration. You don't want to make you want to make sure that you didn't allow one grade level to have an advantage over another grade level, which could in some cases substantially change your top 10%. So essentially, you don't want to change the rules in the middle of the game. So making that change now wouldn't be fair to kids who did it. It would not be. But moving forward next year, those kids can start taking the, right? And we will make sure that we publicize that.
Yeah. So, but we feel like this is a fair this is fair for our kids and we think it'll be good for them. They do put a lot of work in. So anyway, any other questions? Thank you, Ms. Petty. Okay. Thank you. Alright. Moving on to seven point four, discussion regarding the acquisition of technology resources. Mr. Stewart. Yes. School board trustees, President Bryan. I bring for discussion, a possible acquisition of technology infrastructure items, including, the renewal of our firewall and, Internet filter system, as well as up, updating the firmware for our our network switches throughout the district,
making sure that they're current so that we can protect ourselves against, cybersecurity threats, as well as upgrading our cybersecurity system that rides on each of our endpoint and client computers, as well as refreshing computers that are located, with staffs, their staff laptops, office desktops, so that would be like your front office folks and your counselors and those, as well as, CTE, career and technology program at the high school, their desktop labs, as well as, Chromebooks for grades seven and eight. We rolled out this current year Chromebooks at grades five and six,
and they've been received really, really well by the teachers and staff and parents. They're essentially a a more stripped down computer, so it doesn't have the ability for students to stick, VPNs or find websites that that get around filters and install tools like that. It's really just the basically the Chrome browser that's on the computer, and so it provides for more security and less distractions for our students. It's also substantially cheaper, pretty close to half the cost of a of a regular Windows laptop. Also, to save resources, we made sure to meet with the teachers that were getting the new computer labs
and saying, hey. Do you really need these? One of the teachers said, hey. You know, we could probably just move to using the student laptops. So that removed one computer lab from the from the group. Another one said, hey. We used to use a more advanced tools in this lab, but we don't anymore. And so we could move from the more expensive performance desktops to the more cost effective standard desktops. And another lab said, hey. We don't need the 23 that are in here. We could do with 10. And so we've tried everything we could to help, save money along the way. And so I wanted to see if there was any questions That's one to one
for the seventh and eighth grades. It is. And that's what we did for fifth and sixth Yes. Last year? Okay. Do do we need and and my kids are little, so this is this is kind of a new world for me. But are the kids they are using their laptops at home. Like, do they need to take the laptops home? Or can they have a set that stays with them at school? I just I'm trying to They could have understand. They could stay at school. The issue is, most of our instructional resources, textbook adoptions and stuff are online. And so if they were needing to do homework at home and access those resources, that's the primary device through which they would access those.
So it would probably change instructional practices and possibly the amount of homework one gives if we were to say, hey. We're not sending these devices home. Do we have the ability to allow allow them to log in log in from a device at home? Yes. They have their own device at home. They can log in and do their homework. They can. Yep. All all those resources are web based and so it's not really any computer they can ask. What percentage of our kids do you think do not have access to a device at home? I would think it'd be a low percentage. A very low percentage. And, mister Stewart, just one question. You might have said it and I might have missed it,
but, how does this fit within the budget? Is it within your existing budget? Or It is within our existing budget. This does not pull from any other funding sources. These were budgeted funds allotted for these purposes. Thank you. So I guess, you know, we remember that, in trusty Biden, correct me if I'm wrong, but there's not a bill being, introduced right now in the senate or house side, right, that provides school districts an adequate amount of funding to purchase and repurchase and repurchase laptops for one to one in grades five through 12. There's some things that have been proposed, but whether they have momentum or not,
I don't know about that. Well, I mean Imagine how much that would have to be. Right. And that's probably over 10,000,000,000. Yeah. They'd have to set aside, and they don't even have that. Right? Mm-mm. So, I mean, we're gonna have to really start I mean, we've already talked about this at Nausea and for the last three years is getting away from always purchasing one to one. I thought that the seventh and eighth was just gonna be our last purchase before we really dive in to including one to one, in our future budgets. Right? Because I think we talked about that. Yeah. Okay. We budgeted for this, but we're not getting any more money.
We're we're getting no money for technology. So we cannot continue to do one to one in grades five to 12. It's just not possible. It's not feasible. We do not have the money. So we're gonna have to come up with a plan. We already did that for the eleventh and twelfth. Right? So in the future, we're getting away from purchasing, laptops for eleventh and twelfth. And so we're gonna have to work our way down, to ninth and tenth. And then for the lower grades, it's just we can't we can't sustain. It's not sustainable anymore. So that that's a discussion for another another board meeting. So I just wanna make sure technology understands that we're not gonna be approving one
to one Yes, sir. For these grades anymore. It's gonna have to we're gonna have to come up with some innovative solutions, to figure it out. How much, E rate funding do we receive annually? It's in five year segments that we get, E rate funding. I know we have we plan to dip into that at 1,500,000.0 for, the next year. Do you know what the total five year that's what's remaining. Is that our total is 1,500,000.0 for the five? I believe so. Yes. That's based off of the three This is John Salazar, our Director of Infrastructure and generally those E rate funds go to the infrastructure items
that his group manages. Thank you, John. Thank you, Randy. Any other questions for Mr. Stewart? All right. Thank you, Mr. Stewart. Thank you. Appreciate your time. Alright. If no objection, we will adjourn this meeting at 06:36PM. Thank you, Board.