Okay, good afternoon. This meeting is now convened at 01:06PM. I would like to ask everyone to please silence their cell phones. A quorum of the Board members is present in the Board Auditorium. Our first order of business is to hear from speakers to agenda items. However, no one has registered to address the hearings today. We'll now conduct the hearings scheduled for this meeting. Our first hearing is a procedure to consider the recommendation of the independent hearing examiner in the matter of Ann Kieran, on August 14. The purpose of this meeting is to consider the recommendation of the Independent Hearing Examiner
in the matter of Anne Kieran, Special Education Teacher at E. White Elementary School. Hearings involving complaints against district employees are to be held in closed session unless the employee who is subject to the hearing requests an open hearing. If both parties request an open session during this hearing, the Board may go into closed session to consult with its attorneys under the terms of the Texas Government Code Section 551.071. If any Board Member wishes to seek the advice of counsel, please tell me. For the record, Ann Kieran is present,
Erica Graham, HIC's Deputy General Counsel representing the administration is present and Tasha Woods, HIC's General Counsel is also present. Ms. Kieran, do you wish to continue an open or closed session? Do I have her? She's not here. Okay, well there you go. She's not here, but she did she did receive notice, so we're gonna proceed with the hearing. Okay. So we're gonna do the hearing without her. Okay. Okay. So, Do you think we need to have it in closed session? Pardon me? We will need to have it in closed session. Okay. Great. So let's,
do that then. So the Board will now resource, recess to closed session under Chapter five fifty one of Texas Government Code Open Meetings Act Subsection 551.004 through 551.089. Should Board final action, vote or decision of any matter considered in the closed session be required, Such final action, vote or decision shall be taken at the open meeting covered by this notice upon the reconvening of the public meeting or at a subsequent public meeting of the board upon notice thereof. The board has recessed to closed session at 01:08PM on August 14.
So with that said, we have, is there a motion? Do we have the Yes, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Sorry, I went too fast. Okay, the Board has now reconvened, in open session at, 01:13PM on 08/14/2025. Do we have a motion from the closed session? I move that we adopt the decision and recommendation of the independent hearing examiner, adopt the findings of facts and conclusions of law recommended by the independent hearing examiner and adopt the independent hearing examiner's recommendation that this case be dismissed.
Okay. We have a second, a motion and a second. Please vote. Okay, we have six yeas and three absent, so the motion passes. The board has voted to approve the motion. A letter notifying both parties of the action of the board shall be prepared and signed by the Executive Director of Board Relations as soon as possible. This hearing is concluded at 01:15PM. Thank you. Okay. Do we have the parties here for our next one? Lorenzo Grace. Lorenzo Grace. There you go. Okay, so let me get started here first before you go.
So the purpose of this meeting is to consider the recommendation of the independent hearing examiner in the manner of Lorenzo Grace, teacher at Beller High School. Hearings involving complaints against district employees are to be held in closed session unless the employee who is subject to the hearing requests an open hearing. If both parties request an open session during this hearing, Board may go into closed session to consult with its attorney under the terms of the Texas Government Code Section 551.071. If any Board member wishes to seek advice or cancel, please let me know. For the record, Lorenzo Gracie, is present.
Elizabeth Rice with Spole, Nichols, Lampen, and Legolas, representing the administration is present. Catasha Wood, HIC General Counsel is also, present. Mr. Gracie, do you you want to continue in open or closed session? Okay. Alright, any parties that are not involved in this hearing, you must leave the auditorium at this time. The Board will now recess to closed session under Chapter five fifty one of Texas Government Code Open Meetings Act Subsection 551.004 through 551.089. Should Board final action vote or decision on any matter considered in the closed session
be required, such action, vote and decision shall be taken at an open meeting conveyed, covered by this notice. Okay. The issues before the school board are whether to accept, reject or change the independent hearings, examiners finding a fact, conclusion of law and proposal based on the review of the record. We may reject or change any finding of fact if after reviewing the record of the proceedings before the hearing examiner, we find it is not supported by substantial evidence. If we reject the independent hearing examiner's recommendations or make any changes, we must state the reason and legal basis in writing.
Mr. Grover, you will proceed first. You'll be allowed ten minutes to make your presentation and I guess we won't have a presentation by Ms. Jones. So go ahead. Thank you. May it please the board. As you stated, miss okay. As you stated, miss Jones was employed as a special ed chair at HRSD Secondary, PAEP. She was recommended for non renewal, for several reasons, including deficiencies in her performance, failure to fulfill her jobs, not following policies and regulations.
She requested even though she requested a hearing with TEA, she didn't engage in the process. Neither her attorney or her ever participated in any of the pre hearing conferences. She didn't show up at the hearing. We had the hearing. The evidence was put on, the documentary evidence and the testimony of Mr. Barragato, the principal at the campus. All of the evidence was found by the hearing examiner to support the reasons for non renewal. Specifically, you know, she Ms.
Jones failed to report an injury to the child. Not only didn't report it to the principal, but didn't report it to CPS. Her record keeping was horrible and she didn't follow directives and didn't show up, consistently on time. The hearing exam Thank you. And last, Jimmy. Okay. The Board is now reconvene in the Board Auditorium, out of the closed session at 01:39PM on 08/14/2025. The Board is ready to vote. So do we have a motion?
Yes, mister president. I move that we adopt the decision and recommendation of the independent hearing examiner, adopt the findings of fact and conclusions of law recommended by the independent hearing examiner, and terminate Sherry Jones' employment with the district effective immediately. Thank you. We have a second. Members, please vote. The Board has voted six-four and zero against. A letter notifying both parties of the action of the Board shall be prepared and signed by the Executive Director of Board Relations as soon as possible. This hearing is concluded at 01:40PM.
Thank you. Okay. We have the matter of Christopher Jones coming up next. What's that? That's what I see. There you go. Okay. Are you ready to go? Looks like it. Okay, great. The purpose of this meeting is to consider the dispute filed by Christopher Jones, Teacher Apprentice, Cashmere High School. Hearings involving complaints against district employees are to be held in closed session unless the employee who is subject to the hearing requests an open hearing. If both parties request an open session during the course of the hearing, the Board may go into closed session to consult with its attorneys under the terms
of Texas Government Code 551.071. If any Board Member wishes to seek advice or counsel, please let me know. For the record, Kimbal Urutia? How do I say that? Urutia. Got it. Perfect. My grandmother would be upset with me, I couldn't pronounce it. Houston Federation of Teachers representing Christopher Jones is present and, Ashley Yee of Houston, HISD Assistant General Counsel representing the administration is present and Katasha Woods, HISD General Counsel is also present. Do you wish to be open or closed?
It can be open. It's fine. Open it is. Okay. The issues before the school board are whether board policies and administrative procedures were correctly applied, to the to the agreement and whether the administration has violated those policies and procedures. Mr. Jones, you have your representative will proceed first. You'll be allowed to make a ten minute presentation to the Board followed by a ten minute presentation by, by Ms. Yee. Presentations must be based on the Level two hearing transcript. You may reserve part of your ten minutes for rebuttal to matters presented by Ms.
Yee. Both sides will be available for questions after the presentations. How would you like to split your time? We would do five and five. If there's additional time from the first five, I'll just carry it over to the second half. Sure. Okay, great. Well, you may begin. Alright. Good afternoon. My name is Christopher J. Jamelle Jones. I'm an employee at Cashmere High School, as a, CTE teacher. I've currently been with, with HIC for approximately eight years now, either in the capacity of a teacher of record, at the middle school level, and then a teacher apprentice later on at Cashmere High School where I did two
years as a teacher apprentice, and or in the capacity of, project manager for Communities in Schools and HIC School. I'm coming to you with agreements based on the fact that, I was hired in a position of Teacher Apprentice with a salary of $73,000 given my, experience or prior experience for that matter in education, that was $5,000 more than the, base of $68,000 which is a range. And, and the grievance is based on that the salary changed,
the second year of my teacher apprenticeship without my prior knowledge. There was nothing written, nothing spoken to me The salary would change for that matter. And, it just caused me to file my starting grievance. And given my experience as a prior teacher and also being a military, I'm currently in the reserves, Army reserves, steel drilling and, also, my years of experience with, with youth, which is over twenty years in some capacity or another. And I'm also a school,
a coach, a youth coach. Been with AAU track for a few years now, also Little League Baseball. So, it's nothing new that, to say that I have experience and, that, in the two year apprenticeship that I fulfill my obligation as an apprentice. I was hired on as a, teacher of record, at at Cashmere where I've been. So, we've, my performance has been stellar for that matter, and I think that's one of the reasons why I was retained as a teacher. I'm currently on an intern certificate and I look forward to continuing teaching. I mean,
I just love teaching. Anyway. That completes mine. Yes, absolutely. Go ahead. Okay. Ms. Yi, you may present. Alright. Good afternoon, President Campos, board members. My name is Ashley Yee, and I'll be representing the administration today. Joining me, I have Britney Kagan, and she is our executive director in our compensation department. Together, we are here asking the board to uphold the level two decisions of the hearing officer because mister Jones, for one, did receive the entirety of his $73,000 salary in full as a teacher apprentice for the twenty twenty three-twenty twenty four school
year. And two, his base salary of $68,000 for the twenty twenty four-twenty twenty five school year was in alignment with the compensation plan for last school year because teacher apprentices were no longer receiving experience based pay. Now to start, in regards to mister Jones' full $73,000 salary that he was given, At the level two hearing, the district had presented, his last pay stub for the 2324 school year, which can be found in the administration's exhibit number three.
The pay stub had accurately reflected an annual salary amount of $73,000 for mister Jones. Additionally, miss Janavi Khabru, who is the director of our payroll and our compensation department, went further and testified to a complete salary breakdown for mister Jones, detailing the calculation of his regular pay, his escrow, accrual, payout, and adjustments, any additional payment from district closures, and personal lease as well, which totaled an amount of $73,000 Miss Cobry's testimony can be found in pages 23 to 25 of your transcript.
I won't go down and bog you into all the numbers, but the entire salary breakdown can be found in the administration's exhibit number four for you to review. Now when addressing Mr. Jones's salary for the twenty twenty four-twenty twenty five school year, a new or modified compensation plan was implemented for the twenty four-twenty five school year allowed by Board Policy, DEA local. Ms. Kagan here had testified that compensation plans can be updated every year. So in accordance with the twenty four-twenty five compensation plan, the base salary for teacher apprentices was $68,000
That did not change. Meaning, mister Jones made a base salary of $68,000 for the twenty three-twenty four school year. He made a base salary of $68,000 for the twenty four-twenty five school year. But what did change with this new compensation plan is that teacher apprentices are no longer receiving additional pay based on experience. This change was not specific to Mr. Jones, nor was it specific to teacher apprentices that just teach at high schools, but for teacher apprentices all across our districts.
So those that teach at elementary schools, middle schools, and high schools. With that, mister Jones made a salary of $73,000 for the 2324 school year because he had that fixed base salary of $68,000 And under the 2324 compensation plan in our district, he received an additional $5,000 as an experience based supplement for three years of experience. An excerpt of the pay table along with the experience pay ladder for teacher apprentices under the twenty three-twenty four compensation plan can be found in the administration's exhibit number
seven. So now with the discontinuation of the experience pay altogether in our twenty four-twenty five compensation plan, mister Jones, with every other teacher apprentice in our district, only received their base salary amount of $68,000 That excerpt of the salary table from the 2425 compensation plan can be found in the administration's exhibit number six. The new compensation plan was released in March 2024, and Ms. Kagan testified that all district employees received email notice of this new plan to review
it. It was also posted publicly online on the district's website, and ultimately, mister Jones mister Jones's base salary aligned with the new compensation plan for the twenty four-twenty five school year, and he did receive email notice of this plan. And it appears that Mr. Jones had failed to review this email for five months until he received his next paycheck in August 2024. And as teacher apprentices, Mr. Jones was an at will employee who was not bound by any type of contract,
and the administration was within the law to change the terms of its employment, which includes its wage. So therefore, the administration would ask this board once more to uphold the level two decisions of the hearing officer. Thank you. Thank you. Good day. I'm Kimo Garuda, and I will be speaking. As you just heard, and I just want to clarify some stuff. The administration just simply said that Mr. Jones received notification in email. Now, Mr. Jones received, just like all employees, the compensation manual in March 2024.
HISD did not send Mr. Jones a particular email notifying him that his particular salary would be changing. That's the conversation that we're having. We're not asking you to change the law, we actually recognize the law. We understand that the law says this is he's an at will employee. And if you read the transcript, the transcript, if you go the transcript, the administration all at the level two simply kept stating and the hearing officer actually asked them, asked Ms. Yee at the level two, Ms. Yee, how what is your stance, what's HIC's stance on notifying an employee?
And her response at the level two hearing was, he's at will. That was the only argument at the level two hearing. He is an At Will employee. Again, we're not arguing that he's an At Will employee. We're arguing the fact that best practices, if you Google, if you simply just Google, can an employee an At Will employee, get it, it simply says best practice. The key word in a classroom is best practice. Why is it only the teacher has to have best practice, but not the administrative level? Mister Jones just testified and just stated he was on a two year contract. Or not two year contract, he was on a two year apprenticeship.
In your brain, if you're taking a job, you work this job for one year, you accept the other they offer you the job for the current the next year, you show up to work, nobody's told you, nobody sat you down and said, hey, the compensation manual changed again. Compensation changed again. Your salary is this. Nobody in HRISD goes through a training like that. So the expectation the expectation of what Misty just said is that for the employee to look up the compensation manual, for a brand new employee to understand what a compensation manual is. Not only that,
to receive an email, probably came around 05:00 or 06:00 in the evening, but then for him to return and read through that whole compensation manual. He is not a data person, he is a teacher, hired in a program. So what would make that particular teacher or any teacher based on what Masih just said, sit back and review? Nobody from HMIC notified. Our grievance is not about your policy, because the policy is right, or the law is he's at will. But best practice, that's $5,000 that's a lot of money to him. That's $5,000
that's a lot of money to me. To a lot of people, that's a lot of money. He took the job to come back, because he was expecting to make the same amount of money. He followed the grievance. We didn't even learn the policy or the rules, or he didn't learn the policies and the rules until the grievance. And then at the grievance, HRIC explained the rules. So it took a grievance to understand what HRIC's expectation of an employee is. How is that best practice? You are the Board of Managers. Today, later on today, you're going to be voting on policies and procedures. You're going to eliminate some policies and procedures.
You're going to add some policies and procedures. Ask yourself, when you do this, how is your workforce understanding the changes in these policies? It took a grievance. It took taxpayer dollars just to get to this point to have somebody explain to him how this policy works in HISD. And later on today you're going to eliminate consultation. A free process of the ability to communicate with the employees. But, you know, I'm not going to go there. I'm going to stick with him. Because he did not know the policy. Mr. Castro, the hearing officer at the level two,
when he asked the question, when he was done, Mr. Castro even was shocked with how the how HISD presented the case. He was shocked. If you read the dialogue through the transcripts, you will see that the communication is simply like, how is this it doesn't make sense. The expectation of HISD to their employees is up to you. We hired you, you need to figure it out now. Your salary is gonna change, but it's up to you to figure that out. It's not up to us, it's up to you. So when you create policies and best practice,
I think some of the things we have to look at is from your level, because you're the top. Again, we're not asking you to change the law, we're asking you to look at your policies and how you present it to your employees. If you're gonna change somebody's salary, we shouldn't be going through a grievance to have that. You shouldn't be expecting the teacher, or the employee, or an at will employee, who doesn't understand your own rules, to be the one having to figure that out. Mister Jones, do you have anything else you wanna say? Oh, I do wanna point out. They there was still a range for advertising. The range was 24 to 24 to 25.
And as he explained his experience, there was a range. So, HIC could have come back and had the conversation and looked at that range, and actually looked at what he did. As she said, there was a blanket change. A blanket change, but they didn't actually particularly look at each other individuals in the classroom. They just simply said, well it's on him. It's not our fault, he's at will, it's on him. With that, we're not asking again, we're not asking you to change the law. We're asking you to look at your best practices. Is your best practice to follow grievance to find out what the rules are for an employee? That's what we're asking. That's what you have to ask.
We're not asking you to give a whole bunch of money. Dollars 5,000, that was his expectation. Recognize, he followed a grievance, we had a level one in October, about thirteen months ago. Look at that. It's not his fault that he wasn't aware of it, it's HISD's fault. It's not his principal's fault, because his principal wasn't there to testify. It's the administrative's fault. If there are only practices, we don't have to worry about it, because the law says this, how are we looking at our employees and how are we working with our employees? He just said he's one of he was offered a job. He's a certified teacher now. He's this is his third year in the district.
He's one of your good guys. He's one of your good teachers. You don't wanna lose good teachers. Thank you. With that, that's all we have. Thank you. Any questions from colleagues? Yeah. The only question I have is about this notice period. So can you describe what mechanics of the notice period is or the notice mechanisms are? I wouldn't know the exact notice procedures, but I do know that notice did go out on 03/05/2024. Four. Yeah. What does that mean exactly? Just help me. It's an email notice to all district employees to review the,
compensation manual that was updated for that school year. Thank you. Thank you. Anybody else? Okay. Do we would you like to discuss it? Okay. The parties have, completed their presentations. The board is going to, to go to the Board Conference Room to discuss this, so we'll be back in a second. I guess we have to go to closed session. Oh, okay. Yeah, because we were open session, sorry. The Board will now recess to closed session under Chapter five fifty one of Texas Government Code Open Meetings Act, Section 551,004 through 05/1089 should Board final action,
vote or decision on the matter considered in the closed session be required, such final action, vote or decision shall be taken at an open meeting covered by this notice upon the reconvening of the public meeting or at a subsequent public meeting of the Board upon notice thereof. The Board has recessed a closed session at 2PM on 08/14/2025. Let's go ahead and start the live stream please. Are we good? Okay, good. The special meeting of the school board is now reconvene in open session. The time is 02:28PM.
Woah, let's not do that. That should be off. Sorry about that. Okay. So we are in, do I have a motion? Oops, do we need to get our computers back on? At least mine does. Nope. Okay, we are good to go. So we have a motion and a second. We should go ahead and read the motion. I move that we deny all requested relief not previously granted by the Level two Hearing Officer and uphold the decision of the Level two Hearing Officer. Okay. Board members, motion is made and seconded. Please vote. The motion passes. The Board has voted six-four and zero against. Letter notifying both parties of the action of the Board shall be compared and signed
by the Executive Director of the Board of Relations as soon as possible. The hearing is concluded at 02:29 p. M. Mr. President, if I may, I'd like to make a comment to Mr. Jones. Absolutely. Mr. Jones, I obviously I made the motion on this. I believe this is the right outcome. What I wanted to communicate is that we appreciate your dedication to our students. We wish you all the best this year and in the years to come. And I know you've seen I hope you've seen the new salary schedules and particularly
the components of it that are tied to student outcomes. I hope you just crush it and make more money than you ever had before. Thank you. I agree with that wholeheartedly. Thank you. Thank you so much. Okay, so we will now the Board will now recess to Closed Session under Chapter five fifty one of Texas Government Code Open Meetings Act Subsession 551.004 through 551.089. Should Board final action, vote, decision or any matters considered in the closed session be required, such final action,
vote or decision shall be taken at the open meeting covered by this notice upon reconvening of this public meeting or at a subsequent public meeting of the Board upon notice thereof. The Board has recessed a closed session at 02:31PM on 08/14/2025. Are we good to go? Okay, great. We are now back in regular session at 03:46PM on 08/14/2025 at closed session. I do want to welcome, Board Member Flowers and also Board Member Mendoza.
Thank you for being here. Do we have any, motions from the Executive Session? Who has the motion? Yes, Mr. President. I have two. Thank you. The first one, I move that the Board approves the closed session personnel agenda, including specifically that the Board approves proposed terminations, non renewals of continuing term performance and probationary contracts, that the board approves suspensions without pay for continuing term and probationary contracts, that the board approve a finding of no good cause for educators to resign or abandon employment contracts without district consent,
that the board voids term probationary and performance contracts, that the board approves withdrawals of contract recommendations, that the board approves issuance of final orders on contract terminations and nonrenewals, that the board authorize the superintendent to give notice of all approved actions herein, and take steps to effectuate same pursuant to HISD board policy and state law effective 08/14/2025. Is there a second? Okay. We have a motion and second. Please vote. Motion passes, eight yea and one absent. Thank you. Do we have any other motions?
Yes, Mr. President. I move that the board grant the superintendent or designee authority to negotiate, execute and amend all documents pertaining to the conveyance of right of way to the Texas Department of Transportation and or the City of Houston for the infrastructure improvements known as the Sergio I. Rodriguez Memorial Pedestrian Bridge. We have a second. Please vote. Okay, motion passes, eight yea and one absent. And I just want to comment on this item. This is really great to see. This is the bridge that will go over the railroad tracks at Milby High School
and it's going to be dedicated to Sergio Rodriguez who was a Milby student who unfortunately was killed by the train. So this will be great to get this under construction and to make Milby Crossing much more safe for sure. Okay. Any other business or comments? If not, we stand adjourned. Yes. Yeah. We're adjourned. Thank you.