##VIDEO ID:https://houstonisd.granicus.com/player/clip/334?view_id=1&redirect=true## Ready? Okay. Alright. Good evening, everybody. This meeting is now convened at 05:02PM. We would like to ask that everyone please silence your cell phones. A quorum of the board members is present in the Board Auditorium. They are from my right, Cassandra Ozan Bandy, Michelle Cruz Arnold, Jeanette Garza Lindner, myself, Audrey Momonai, Paula Mendoza, and Adam Ravong. If there are any elected officials here, I see mister Moore, please stand and be recognized. Thank you for being here with us tonight. We will now be joined by a member of the junior reserve officer training corps to lead our pledges. I would like to ask that, miss, doctor Michelle Cruz Arnold please introduce tonight's pledge leader. Thank you, president. Cadet first lieutenant Ashley Sanchez Navarette is a junior at Stephen f Austin High School where she oversees 120 cadets. She serves as the assistant to current operation in her cadet program. She maintains a 3.66 grade point average and is actively involved in the science club. In her free time, she enjoys science, going to the gym, dancing, and playing the bass guitar. She is determined to attend Texas A and M University where she will pursue a degree in neuroscience. She plans to enlist in the military while studying at Texas A and M with the goal of becoming an army officer. Once again, cadet first lieutenant Ashley Sanchez Navarette. Please stand for a moment of silent meditation and remain standing for The US pledge and the Texas 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, and with liberty and justice for all. Now the Texas pledge. Honor the Texas flag, I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one state under God, one and indivisible. Thank you, cadet first lieutenant Navarritz. Superintendent Miles, you have the floor. Thank you, president Audrey. January is school board recognition month, and I'd like to take this opportunity to thank all the members of our school board this evening for your dedication to children, families, and staff of HISD. Your commitment to ensuring the best outcomes for our kids is helping to drive transformative change in our district and is already resulting in significant improvements to the quality of education in HISD and to student academic success. This progress could not have been achieved without your support and leadership. You've answered a call to serve and are providing an important civic duty. You stepped up to serve our students, our community, and our city. You give of your precious time to make HISD and Houston stronger. This is no small task that you've taken on. It's noble. It's urgent. It's serious. It's important. Cassandra, Michelle, Jeanette, Angie, Audrey, Paula, and Rolando, Rick, and Adam, the the board members who a couple are not here. I appreciate your service and look forward to realizing our shared vision of providing an excellent education that our children deserve. Thank you so much for your service. Now in the spirit of appreciation, we are going to begin a new tradition at our board meetings. Each meeting will begin by spotlighting and celebrating the HISD community. Each day, week, and month, our students, teachers, staff, leaders, and partners accomplish incredible incredible feats. So at each meeting, we will showcase up to three members of our community. Tonight, I'd like to begin by recognizing the Waltrip High School Ram Band for its performance in the All State Sugar Bowl parade earlier this month. The marching band also won numerous awards, including the top prize at the Sugar Bowl's field show competition. So I would like the following people to to stand and be recognized. Please hold your applause to the end. Assistant band director Johnny Olivares, band director Brenda Corl Smith, who could not be here this evening, band booster president Cherish Chavez, band drum major Jacob Gamez, and executive director Rhonda Honore. We're so proud of you. Congratulations. On a on a personal note, I I wanna thank all the students and the parents, the band. I'm a a marching band dad myself. Spent many times watching my kids on the on the field. I know how much precision and practice it takes to really, do well and then be invited, to the, Sugar Bowl or any other parade. So thank you, and please thank the the students, on my behalf and the board's behalf. And then, as you know, we also had a crisis in in New Orleans, and I was so happy because I got these calls, but I could rest a little bit easier because the HISD Police Department, escorted the Waltrip High School Ramban to New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl. So if if the following people could also stand and be recognized, sergeant Melva Deanda, officers Marcus Henry, Kashana Connerly, Anna Contreras, Pedro Lopez, and Melissa Gonzales. Please stand and be recognized. Thank you, everybody, for being cool under pressure and really keeping our kids safe. That's, very honorable. Thank you very much. Now president Lemani will share our next two spotlights. Thank you. And I was a band member, so, congratulations. That is super exciting. I'm sure you all had a great time. I'd like to invite Mia Dominguez to the microphone. Miss Dominguez is an ambassador, girl scout with the girl scouts of San Jacinto. Miss Dominguez, come on up. Hello, Houston Independent School District board. My name is Mia Dominguez, and I am an ambassador with troop three zero seven two two one, and I'm from DeBakey High School for health professions. Being a Girl Scout is one of the things that I'm most proud of. It has allowed me to experience new things, help my community, and make great friendships along the way. I've been given the opportunity and I've been given the opportunity to earn awards such as my bronze and silver award for which I made a blessing box and little free library. So today, on behalf of all the Girl Scouts and HISD, I would like to thank you guys for making HISD a place where girls can challenge themselves, be confident, and make their community and the world a better place. So as a sweet token of our appreciation, we brought you guys Girl Scout cookies today. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Next, I'd like to invite Kathleen Ownby to the microphone. Miss Ownby is the executive director of the Spark Park program, which has partnered with the HISD for many years to develop community parks at schools. Ma'am, thank you for being with us tonight. Thank you. Well, happy New Year to everyone. I brought calendars. Thanks to the HISD print shop. They have done a great job again. This is actually our twenty fifth calendar that we've done. We printed 15,000. So if you can think of a friend or relative that needs a calendar, there's some in a box at the back. But, this is a great calendar, and we're so proud of it each year. This highlights, public art components in 12 schools. And this calendar, nine of the 12 schools are in HISD. And so y'all should be proud of this calendar. We are now working this is our forty second year of having Spark. And, we are in we have 167 active Spark parks, and we're working in 18 school districts. And, as far as HISD goes, in 2024, we dedicated eight parks, and, we are doing a great job in HISD, and we appreciate any of you. And, mister Rabone, I know you've been to one of our dedications, and I know miss Lindner has been in a dedication. I think miss Arnold has been in a dedication, and we always invite all of y'all to come to one of our dedications and witness, the transformation we make on a campus and the kids participating in the celebration of making their campus a better place and the community enjoying, the what we do on the campus. And we're sort of a two person shop, and so my other person is Elizabeth Hallie, and so she's here with me. And so, again, I wanna thank y'all for your support over the years. We wanna continue working with HISD. I'm a product of HISD. I went to Red Elementary and then Johnston Middle School and Westbury High School. My mother was on the board of HISD and at one time was president of the board. And so, HISD is in my blood. And so I wanna thank you all for your service, and thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for your support of our kids. The smart parks are amazing places for them. Before we begin to hear speakers to agenda items, I wanna note that the board is postponing discussion and action on the second readings of board policies BE Local and BED local, which relate to public participation in board meetings. The policies are not in this month's agenda. The committee needs more time to consider them, and we'll be bringing those back in the future. In addition, we will not be considering agenda item seven, approval of proposed revisions to board policy CH local per purchasing and acquisition first reading tonight. We will now hear from our registered speakers. We'll begin with public officials followed by student speakers both in person and on Zoom. We will then hear from in person speakers to both agenda and hearing of the community followed by all remaining Zoom speakers. Please note that Spanish live captioning is available for those viewing the meeting via livestream, and live Spanish interpretation is available to the people in the auditorium. Public comment during school board meetings will only be available to those persons who have signed up to speak prior to the meeting time per current protocol. Verbal and other disruptions by persons during the school board meetings are not acceptable as they inhibit the board's ability to conduct business and the public's ability to observe those processes. Persons who participate in such behavior will be given one warning, and if the behavior is repeated, they will be asked to leave the meeting. We have 79 speakers who will be limited to one minute each per board policy as we have more than 30 people signed up to speak this evening. We ask that you please stay on topic and refrain from naming individuals, especially students as their identity is protected under the law, but you may name your own child. I ask that you please respect our procedures and the other speakers and end your comments promptly when your time has expired and the timer rings. We will start with public officials. Will HIIC board of education, trustee Savant Moore please come to the microphone, sir? Thank you for your service. Happy New Year. Feliz Nuevo Anos. If it can be reversed, UnitedHealthcare has a historical of denying claims and overcharging for medication. Choose another insurer. In the bible, Jesus came into the room and he said, you have turned this house of prayer into a den of thieves. I hope that you're not turning this house of education into a den of deficit. 664. If it truly was a mistake, we forgive you, sir. But we ask that you replace the board rule of a hundred thousand dollar purchase back in state like it was previously. Read the room. We would like you to remain the president of the board. If not, please pick someone like mister Martinez. He's bilingual. He's actually seen in the community. Don't pick anyone that has certain allegations where the community's gonna kinda say something. He's a great man, but right now we need to, you know, keep us out of news as best as possible. The community will be pushing for the nation to be able to begin the transition in June 20 Thank you. Okay. Our our next speakers will be, student speakers, and our first student speaker that I have that is present is Eliana Gottlieb. Yes, ma'am. Earlier this week, we learned HISD state appointed superintendent, Mike Miles, spent $870,000,000 over a sixteen month period without the appointed board's approval. And can I just say, for a group of people who are so hung up on following procedures, like carrying a traffic cone to the bathroom, would you think you would follow your own procedures when spending almost $1,000,000,000? If you want the trust and partnership of the community, you have to be fair. You have fired teachers, principals, and administrators for much less. When asked by the media if any employees have been disciplined or fired because of this incident, Mike Miles said, not yet. Superintendent Miles, you are in charge, and this is your responsibility. The buck stops with you, sir. Board members, please address this lack of oversight the same way you would at your businesses or jobs. Both you and the community know that a formal investigation is absolutely necessary for this kind of incident. Thank you. Thank you. Our next, speakers that are student speakers, I believe, are on Zoom. Is that right, miss Smith? Adida Sage Bintner. You may begin. Oh, we can't hear you, honey. Oh, wait a minute. That screen is off. Miss Smith. We can come back to you if you wanna reset your audio. Yeah. Let's do that. Okay. We'll come back to you. Ella Taylor, You can unmute yourself and begin. We can't hear you. Is this us? Let's check. Is it possible it's on our end maybe? The control room's gonna need to check. Okay. Let's come back maybe. Let's see if they can check on the audio and see if that's if that's our problem or something else. Okay. So let's go to, adult speakers. Our first speaker tonight is Kathy Beasley. And if the first do y'all have numbers? If the first ten folks wouldn't mind coming forward, that'd be super helpful. I think it'll help us move along. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. My name is Kathy Beasley. This is in memory of my mother, a teacher on what would have been her 80 birthday. I dream of classes of children enjoying learning and not fearing what is who is coming to the door to observe. I dream of students not worrying about what is happening to their teacher and being able to focus on the joy of being a child. I dream of wraparound services being restored to all children, having access to the help they need. I I dream of underprivileged students not being used for the sake of appearances. I dream of adults who behave in adult like ways as an example to students. I dream of a public education system that is not riddled with greed and blatant misuse of funds. I dream of teachers not being belittled and demeaned. I dream of returning to a school that I once loved. I dream of good things happening to good people and exposure happening to the bad. But most of all, I dream of an end to this odious takeover and the restoration and return of this public school system to its rightful owners, the taxpayers of the great city of Houston. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Carmen Nuncio. Miss Nuncio? Good evening and happy New Year. This is for Mike Miles, superintendent. We have been trying to work with you. We have been trying so hard to work with you, and yet you keep doing things your way. I think we deserve an explanation as to how you were allowed to spend $870,000,000 $870,000,000 without receiving required school board approval. When the board when the bond didn't pass, you said you we didn't put kids first and that you were gonna put them first. You can't put kids first when you are putting teachers last. We are trying so hard to work with you, but now I feel that we really need to try to get a superintendent that cares about our kids. Thank you. Miss Smith, have we okay. We're gonna go to the student speakers. If you'll just give me one we're gonna do the two student speakers who are on Zoom. Apologies. Miss Taylor? Just a second. Your audio is on on our end. Okay. Can you unmute yourself? Hello, Taylor? Okay. I'm sorry. We're not able to hear you. We'll hold on. We're gonna come back to you. Adida, do you wanna try again? Let's see if that solved the problem. Adidas Sage Vintner. Please begin. Okay. Keep working on it. Yeah. Okay. Sorry, sir. Yes, sir. Mister Stinson? Yes. Please come on up. Yeah. You'll hand him over there. Yes, sir. Yes. Sorry. Yes. Superintendent Miles and members of the board, what you have before you or what you will have before you is our values proposition pack packet that outlines the pricing for the Kickstart Kids program, an example of our monthly quote and our compliance proposition with TEKS sub chapter a for character traits through our Kickstart Kids values curriculum. I heard from a little birdie that there were some concerns about our cost of the program, but I I want to shed some light on what it is that we provide for the fiscal commitment of HID. Also, please keep in mind the intangibles that come along with our program, which is missionary passion. Secondly, I wanna shed some light on our TEKS compliant values curriculum that helps ISDs that we serve meet the sub chapter a for character traits mandated August 2021. We are currently executing our various curriculum in every Kickstart Kids classroom in HISD. So you all, not to say that you would need it or not, but we are Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker, number four, Michelle Williams. Go ahead, ma'am. And twenty five years of certified current teaching experience. Mister Miles says spending $870,000,000 that that wasn't that wasn't authorized by the board of managers. It was a good faith error. Do you really believe that? Mister Miles has not only violated HISD board policy by authorizing purchases without board approval because we know that procurement doesn't process purchase purchase orders without a signature. His. Since he says that this is a good faith error, then is violating consultation policy a good faith error too? Or violating Texas Education Code by making major curriculum changes without teacher input? One, two. Or when he had the principals monitor the teachers when they were taking his survey so he can get his hundred 26,000 bonus. Mister Miles is in breach of contract. An elected board would have placed him on administrative leave by now. We've asked that his contract be terminated due to policy speed violations. And if you can't do that of elect Thank you. Our next speaker, Brianna Van Borsen. Yes, ma'am. It's handled Hold on. Your mic's not on. Okay. Good evening. I'm here tonight to speak on the subject of mishandled fiscal procedures that have come to light. The purchase orders in question began on 08/22/2023. Would you be shocked to know, mister Miles, that it only took you eighty two days to start circumventing a process that is partially intended to increase transparency? Would you be surprised to know that you have held your seat for nineteen months and sixteen days and the order spanned sixteen of those months? Seventy two days ago, this community made themselves clear. Mike Miles cannot be trusted with four point four billion dollars. Little do we know that he was already practicing ways to mismanage HISD funds. Board of managers, tonight, you're tasked with retroactively approving each of these orders. Please do not sweep this under the rug. Add this, good faith error to the long list of Mike Miles negligence and do the right thing. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Anne Eagleton. Speaker number six. Miss Eagleton. Good evening. I had signed up to speak for item number seven. I'm glad you've pulled it, but I will tell you my recommendation. I think you need to roll it back to a hundred thousand dollar threshold requiring approval from the board. Trust is earned, not given. Clearly, this debacle is big enough that you need to there needs to be a consequence. If your kid crashes the station wagon, you don't replace it with a Ferrari. Okay? This is at best, this is gross incompetence. At worst, it's chicanery. Until you have fully sorted that out and published a report on the website from an independent auditor showing this was a good faith mistake, roll back the spending authority. Otherwise, you are abdicating your financial stewardship responsibilities that you have. It is your job. You are in charge of the purse strings. Take charge now. Thank you. Mhmm. Our next speaker is Greg Carrier. I'm sorry? Yes. Number seven. Yes, sir. My mic on? Yes, sir. The board's community engagement committee report brags about supposedly engaging community members in addressing critical areas. We're not buying it. If you did prioritize meaningful dialogue and actionable outcomes, then long ago, you would have fired Miles. You would have put real libraries back in schools. You would have acknowledged the toxic intimidation and fear this administration has created. You would have hired a superintendent to undo the harm Miles has wrought on this community. You haven't done any of that. Your surveys are not anonymous. Your key stakeholders are now conditioned to fear retribution for any constructive criticism. You didn't engage any of the thousands of education community members who left the HISD since the takeover to ask their opinions. You disingenuously cherry picked data to push your bogus narrative. I have a dream that soon this sham administration is gone, and the phrase board of trustees regains its intended meaning. Thank you. Our next speaker is Eduardo Abruzzo. Is my mic on? Yes, sir. Okay. First of all, I detest your sentiment from the election. Don't play politics with our kids. Understand that you being here is playing politics with our kids. Continuously ignoring the public through your totalitarian rule is hurting our kids. Kids are massively under underserved and sped because of you. Your colleague cries about spending too much time at the meetings because of complaints about issues that are caused by this board. Our wish is that we didn't have to spend way more time than that trying to protect our kids from the inadequacy of this board and all the chaos it's caused. Uncovering all the malicious decisions you've made are already coming to light with your good faith errors. The Rick Tampeau decision will be next. I stand in solidarity with everyone that wants you out. The kids you're harming with your tactics of ignoring, framing information, and attacking advocates for our children, such as miss Castro Atlanta Elementary. Every first letter of these sentences in this speech before my solidarity statement spells out the words you mouthed to a parent as they walked away, which was caught on video. You, sir, are in good behavior. Our our next speaker is Daniel Santos. Daniel Santos. He's coming. Good evening. I'm Daniel Santos. It is my nineteenth year as a public school teacher, and I have a dream, a dream in which a community engagement committee actually engages with the community, that my school district leadership is competent, that my school has a functioning library, all the fine arts arts, and 100% certified teachers, that I am evaluated honestly by a legitimate evaluation tool. Wait. That is not a dream. It is a reality to me at my new school district, not HISD. All of it is true. I was even evaluated as a distinguished teacher last month. HISD parents, students, and teachers deserve the same. The community must remain skeptical and critical and, above all, engaged. Only the community has the power to make dreams come true for HISD, not a committee. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Jay Zizikz. Sorry. Okay. Okay. Everyone hear me? Yeah. Try again. I can speak really loudly anyway. So we must rouse the sleeping giant, the public. Our superintendent, he's irrelevant. This isn't about him. He's small. This is about us, the collective giant. So to all teachers, staff, students, the city of Houston, and even mayor John Whitlessmeyer, we must treat livelihoods as lives because then we can finally realize that we have been fired upon and the casualties are in the thousands and thousands and thousands, a Houston massacre, our Boston massacre. Therefore, this isn't a series of school board meetings but escalations to war, a Houstonian revolution in the defense of Houston's independence in our independent school district, and for public education as we know it now and for future generations. Teachers, it doesn't matter if you resign or flee to another school. This is our war. It knows no boundaries. Staff, you're gonna be thrown out before the holidays again. This is our war. It knows no morality. Students, your lives are not going to get better. This is our war. It knows no humility. Help us. Thank you, sir. Sir. Thank you. Our next speaker is Guy Buford. Mister Buford? And if the next 10 speakers, cinemas 12 through 22, don't mind coming forward, that'd be appreciated. Thank you. Yes, sir. Good evening. My name is Guy Buford. I've been teaching. This is my thirty fourth year of teaching, and my salary has been cut. You got the paper in front of you? It's been cut. It's like before you came, I was making $81,000. The year that you came, I made 90,000. This year, I've been dropped always down to $71,000. And it's it's it's a shame. It's like you took my thirty four years well, my two twenty something years, and you just threw them out the window like it didn't matter to me. And, you know, do you know how many days I I came here in 2015, and I have probably missed five days. I probably missed five days. But for you to take the years that we have worked and earned so forth, and you just throw them away like they don't even matter. And I worked every day, and it it is sad. Please give me my years. You have the power to give me Thank you, sir. Our next speaker is Victoria. Fredette. Good evening. I'm here to address the same 80 hundred $870,000,000 in HIC spending that was done without the required board approval. I cannot say this better than the first student that spoke today, but I'll read my speech anyway. Mike Miles says, oops, but it's fine because no laws were broken. This puts the bar of acceptability accountability and integrity pretty freaking low. But what can we expect given the last year and a half of complete chaos under the current district leadership? Not to mention when this current board vice president himself is currently currently being sued by our federal government. Board. I implore you to raise the standard and hold Mike Miles accountable because even though he doesn't think so, this is a big deal. I do have a dream that we'll soon all wake up from this nightmare. Our community, students, and our teachers deserve better. Thank you. And I'll note mister Martinez to join us. Okay. Our next speaker is Sarah Maller, number 13. Is the mic on? Okay. I'm Sarah Maller, and I have two kids in HIFC, and I have a dream. I have a dream that our district will rise above the shadows of mismanagement and financial recklessness. I have a dream that we will reclaim our schools from the hands of Mike Miles, who spent nearly a billion dollars without the approval from the school board. We stand at a crossroads where transparency and account accountability must guide our path forward. I have a dream where an elected board of managers takes back control, ensuring that every dollar is spent to benefit our students and our community. I have a dream of an H ISD where we can unite to pass a transparent bond that prioritizes children's education. I dream of a district that treats teachers fairly and where qualified teachers are vying for positions in our district. We stand united in front of you to demand change, to restore integrity to our district. Let's make this dream a reality. Thank you. Thank you. And I think we have a student here, Sophie Grace Rojas. You ready to speak? Okay. Come on up. Oh, Sophie. Alright, Sophie. Hello. Hello. My hello. I'm Sophie. I was in an NES school where I only did AI worksheets where I didn't even understand what I was learning. Any, but I don't I don't do that anymore. I have moved to a new school that is non NES, and I'm doing great. Now I get to have fun while doing my work. Here, I wrote a song for science class about push and pull. I have to find it. I'm sorry. I might break your eardrums while saying this, but push and pull is a force we be, help us move things easily. Push away or pull things near, forces move things here and there. Pull your chair to take your seat, push your pen to make a beat. Push and pull, they help us see how we use them simply. Pull a rope or push a ball. These are forces, big and small. Thank you. K. Our next speaker is Maria So to. Miss So to. Speaker number 14. Miss So to. Elizabeth Chapman, number 15. Hold on. I don't think your mic's on. Pull it closer if you don't mind. Okay. Let's try again. A year ago, I spoke to you in my capacity as a teacher in HISD for more than a decade. I attempted to call your attention to the way that the district's policies were driving away experienced qualified educators and making it difficult to recruit and hire new ones. Today, I'm addressing you as a parent. My five year old daughter at Coulter Elementary has not had a teacher in her kindergarten class for eight weeks. It appears that she will go the rest of this academic year. Seven out of ten months of instructional time. With the substitute. Leaving her and her classmates with significant deficiencies in their learning. At a vitally formative time. I'm returning to you after this time to implore you to rethink the practices that are denying my child the education that she is owed. I have the resources and privilege to compensate for for the way that she is being shortchanged by the district, but thousands of other parents whose children are being affected in similar ways. Thank you, Laura. Okay. Our next speaker is Sister Mama Sonia Lucas Roberts. Oh, okay. Miss So to? Yes. Yes. Come on up. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Good evening. I am reading an extract of our advocacy group teacher and staff exit survey. A toxic work environment can have a profound impact on both personal well-being and professional productivity. Facing constant negativity or overwhelming stress, it erodes morale and leads to burnout. A culture of poor communication, favoritism, or lack of support stifles collaboration. As doctor Martin Luther King Junior said, I have a dream one day that all individuals, regardless of background, do feel valued, supported, and empowered to contribute their best work. Was a victim of gaslighting, I was almost convinced by the new administration that I didn't know what I was doing despite my extensive work experience. The day before I resigned, my blood pressure was one sixty over 98, and one of my eyes was bloodshot. I have a dream, however, that one day I can return to the district I love and put these five months behind. Thank you. Alright. Miss Lucas Roberts. I have a dream that Mike Miles will get a heart and forego his hard hearted legacy. I have a dream that the board of managers will stand up for themselves and not be afraid to stand up to Mike Miles and do what's right. I have a dream that scholars will get back to loving education. I have a dream that real fine arts will return. I have a dream that teachers will be given the respect that they deserve. I have a dream that Trump's twenty twenty five project at Cullin go away. I have a dream that scholars be given the respect and not have to take tones to the bathroom. I have a dream that f like Miles would not be able to spend almost $1,000,000,000 willy nilly, and custodians' salaries were cut. I have a dream that one day, we will be able to say, free at last. Free at last. Thank god almighty. We'll free at last from you all. And as like Miles, the tyrant, and his minions. And then we will probably sing. Respect that by listening to someone, get out of agency, go back where you belong, Thank you, ma'am. That we will take it back. Thank you, ma'am. Our next speaker is Minh Dawn Tran. Speaker number 17, Minh Dawn Tran. Hi. Speaking on item number two, community engagement. I have a dream that the district advisory committee will be elected community members, that HAIC will truly listen to all families, including the underprivileged ones whose parents don't go on walks with board members, That the district will have true consultation with the unions of teachers that teach your students. That teachers will have four hundred and fifty minutes of planning time every two weeks as dictated by state law. Time that is at the teacher's discretion to create lessons, grade work, collaborate with colleagues, and conference with families, that teachers will be valued and trusted as experts who earned a degree and hold professional licenses, and that because of their expertise, teachers will once again have autonomy to make lessons that are appropriate for their students and have autonomy to adjust the pacing of lessons to differentiate for diverse learners with varying skill sets, primary languages, and educational backgrounds. Lastly, I have a dream that HAISD will be governed by an elected board whose members have a background in public education. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Jasmine Turner. Good evening. My name is Jasmine Turner, and I'm the social action chair for the Houston Metropolitan Alumni Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated, an international public service organization. Our service area includes the Houston Independent School District. As we gather here today, I urge you to address the critical issue of ensuring that all teachers in our district are fully certified. Teacher certification is vital for maintaining high educational standards and providing our students with the quality education they deserve. I respectfully request that the board explore avenues to support and facilitate the certification process for all educators, including professional development and opportunities for mentorship. By investing in our teachers, we ultimately invest in our students' success. Furthermore, it is important to acknowledge the previous instances of of fiscal mismanagement that have impacted our district. Transparency, accountability are essential as we move forward. I urge the board to prevent, financial oversight to prevent further mismanagement. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Our next speaker is Christy Brewster, speaker 19. Unspeaking of item two, community engagement. Community engagement. For real? Or is it just the chosen community that you all engage in? The private invitations to the so called PTOs that you wanna talk to, the pro mile organizations, that you may wanna speak with, or you just engage and to engage with yourselves and just checking the box. CBOM, your right now is killing you later on. You're not doing anything. You rubber stamping everything he wants. You all had the nerve to even give him a bonus, and you agree to every termination he brings up. So forget the later on. No political careers. Forget that. No board appointments. Forget that. And any land that you may steal from us, you won't get any kind of real estate advancement. Forget that. Thank you for all that you're doing because you're helping us. See, we, the community, we're still walking and talking. I have a dream. We're gonna get our local control back because y'all Thank you. Our next speaker is Jessica Dugan. I find it so funny that you wanted us to give you $4,400,000,000 of tax dollars when you can't even account for $870,000,000. The superintendent is constantly having to defend to defend himself on how he's not breaking the law. And you, the board, was supposed to approve this and rubber stamp everything, and it's even more suspicious that you have it. The community message has been clear. Fire Mike Miles, who continues to police our community, and then only then and only then will we work with you to do right by our kids. And what since I have thirty seconds left, I'll talk about special ed. I've got a kid that's supposed to start next year. The special ed procedures are even harder than ever. And the only reason I missed last month is because my kid got kicked off of UnitedHealthcare because there's no place in Houston that UnitedHealthcare will cover to send him to therapy. Thank you, ma'am. Thank you. Ma'am. Thank you. Ma'am. Thank you, ma'am. Ma'am, your time is up. Ma'am, thank you. Our next speaker is Sarah Terrell. Yes, ma'am. You are being told to sweep potential fraud under the rug. This was circumventing policy. This was not skipping a step. Emphasizing budget compliance, Miles insists that you have no responsibility for protecting us from waste and fraud. He tells you to reward his failure with even less oversight, and you know this is wrong. A systemic sixteen month error in cash disbursements is likely a material weakness. It reveals a serious weakness in the control environment. If the tone at the top is that compliance with financial controls is not important, the entity is open to fraud. This is how you get a control failure that lasts sixteen months. This is how you get Enron. Groupthink sets in, and people lose their critical ethical perspective. You have fallen prey to groupthink. Miles subdues you with a limited audit that missus Elizondo refers to as it did come back. It Refuse to put an up his mask. Investigate this darling and reveal Thank you, ma'am. Thank you. Our next speaker is Ruth Hoffman Lack. There we go. This is two likely material weaknesses in cash disbursements and in control environment. This is a fatal combination for fraud. On November 7, Weaver and Tidwell signed a clean audit opinion for HISD. No material weaknesses or significant deficiencies. Yet just one month later, admin had found this long standing error, quantified it, and prepared a 40 pages of retroactive approvals for our December consent agenda. Who knew about this and when did they know it? Your auditors should have been informed and given a chance to modify their opinion. How transparent was HISD with its auditors? Was this hidden from them? Was Terry and Miles would Terry and Miles attest to their representation letters in the to the auditors? When did they know about this? Enron also failed because the auditors were actively overlooking accounting irregularities. How can public have confidence in your audits when they miss a problem this serious? Fire the liar. Thank you. Our next speaker is Brianna Mohan. I'm speaking this evening in honor of my late father-in-law, Ambikaipakar Arnaisalam, who was an excellent internal auditor and an excellent union organizer in Malaysia. The audit committee has not met since November 5. Is a systemic failure in purchasing the process that is subject to the highest risk of theft and fraud not important enough for a meeting? Who authorized the audit that came out in perfect shape? It could not have been the audit committee. Where is this audit? When will your great transparency allow us to read it? Why did internal auditors not find this failure? Does this change does this change the 2025 audit plan? There must be a closer look at purchasing and disbursement. Yet Myles' solution is for you to sweep it all away, sign off on contracts retroactively, and increase is that we demand that you can work for failure. Thank you, ma'am. Our next speaker is Ruth Kravitz. Good evening. I appreciate the work you do, and I look forward to changes. How did the 870,000,000 in unapproved spending go unchecked for sixteen months? Why did this come to light publicly after the bond election and right after HISD got its clean audit opinion? Where were the internal controls? As Maya Angelou said, when someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time. If the system's failure had happened under the HISD elected board, the TEA would have imposed serious consequences, but now TEA is silent. This error persisted so long that it's clear that there were no backup controls. As required by your own LSG governance framework, control control should have detected this. You should share publicly how and why everything has failed. Your first step is to publicly stop calling it an oversight or saying that there was no mal Thank you. Our next speakers speaker is Karina Quesada. Yes, ma'am. It's on? I think so. Rick Campo says that procurement is complicated and mistakes remain. He looked into people's eyes and there was no malintent. All's well. His tone from the top minimizes compliance with controls and policy and tolerates incompetence in procurement. Mister Campo is actually quite fraud friendly. He would never be so merciful in his own company. The responsible employees would be fired, but Campo is happy to pave over Miles's and Terry's failures with retroactive approval of $870,000,000 in contracts with no discussion, an astronomical amount, 40% of our annual budget. Our money is not worth protecting. Mister Martinez says it's not a board issue. He appears to believe the board has no fiduciary responsibility. The massive failure is an operational challenge that Miles will fix. Protecting our tax dollars is not his concern. Our board operates under the old motto, good enough for government work. Our next speaker is Tracy Riley. Miss Riley? I think we I'm 27. She's 26. Oh, I'm sorry. You're right. Miss Candida? We're on? Okay. This is a procurement failure where the risk of fraud is highest. This deliberate mistake persisted unchecked for sixteen months. Miles' very first task was to increase the unsupervised spending authority from a hundred thousand to 2,000,000. He wanted the monthly agenda not to show what he was doing. Miles hid 870,000,000 in contracts and also hid the fact that he was not getting them internally vetted or bid. Cooperatives were a useful loophole in the approval process. More than a mistake, this was circumvention of controls. Now he insists you make the loophole permanent with yet another policy change. This situation is ripe for contract steering. Take Outreach Strategies, the 1,600,000.0 consultant used for the bond election. It seems unlikely you'd choose that from a cooperative stock list. Could HIST have placed that vendor on the list itself then chosen it? That would have been that would be contract steering, and that is fraud. Fire Mike Miles. Our next speaker is Amanda Parrish. I'm sorry. Tracy Riley. Thank you. Good evening. A review is not an audit. Everyone up here professionally knows that. A real audit would explain what went wrong. How this was discovered and why it went undetected for sixteen months. An audit should include the review of each of the $870,000,000 contracts, a sample of other purchases to ensure admin identified all of them, and in what circumstances is it justified to purchase through co ops rather than an internal HISD vendor vetting, bidding, and approval, or a review of each agreement. Review the cooperative's procedure for vetting vendors. Determine whether a member of the coop can request to add vendors and then choose them. What is in the best interest of the public? You say that it's not your board work, but your governance gives you points. How can we spend the children's money that doesn't go to them and have no review and call it not board work? Aspects of good governance, transparency, accountability, participation, rule of law, responsiveness, equi Thank you. Our next speaker is Louis DeCote. Hi. I'm sorry. Amanda Parish. Yep. Yes, ma'am. It's me. Okay. Hi. Amanda Parrish. I'm a parent of HVAC students and taxpayer and community member. What to talk about today is is was really hard to select. I am project management professional, so I really, really tried to gravitate. I really tried was definitely gravitating towards all these audit and the concerns, and the fact that it's on the consent agenda is alarming. That should be pulled from the consent agenda. Number 14, on these millions and millions and millions of dollars, please pull it from the consent agenda. The other point I want to talk about is also on the consent agenda, number eight, and how it relates to item number six in in regards to programs and magnets. When I read the community report and the feelings from there, I, as a community member, do not relate to those commentaries. What I see is multiple times programs being cut without real engagement. There needs to be time put into where there's actually data reviewed and plots to sitter. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Louis de Cote. And if our our next speakers, from twenty nine to thirty nine don't mind coming forward, that'd be helpful. Thank you. Good evening. I'm here to express solidarity with others on Superintendent Miles failure to secure this board's approval of $870,000,000 in spending during the last sixteen months. For the last sixteen years, I have advised corporate boards on a wide range of corporate transactions and governance matters. To hear superintendent Miles characterize a failure of this magnitude as an administrative oversight and deflect blame to his subordinates for his own gross incompetence was profoundly disturbing. Since this body is either unable or unwilling to hold superintendent Miles to account, I'm here to remind you that this board's responsibility for oversight of the district's finances is kinder grade corporate governance. What happened here was not only a breach of trust, it was a breach of your duty to oversee the superintendent. And while I'm on the topic of accountability, this is normally the part of the speech that we've been asked by Donald voters. What if we stop electing leaders of integrity? But then I am reminded none of you were elected. Thank you, sir. Our next speaker is Laura DeCote. Yes. Yes, ma'am. Are you Laura? Yes, ma'am. My name is Laura, and I'm a parent of three HISD students, two GT, one with an IEP, and one with a five zero four plan. My youngest two attend Wharton, and my oldest is in Lamar's IB program, and I'm sorry. Lamar. I also hold a master's in curriculum and instruction. I've watched with heartbreak as current leadership imposed rigid changes on our schools. Reacher's confirms these policies fail to meet the diverse needs of students and disproportionately harm those with disabilities, English learners, and gifted students. My children have lost incredible teachers, nurses, and friends, people who made learning joyful. The recent near billion dollar error highlights a troubling lack of transparency and accountability. Instead of being treated as partners in our children's education, we are dictated to by those we did not elect. We need leaders who value transparency, foster trust, and collaborate with parents, not work against us for the success of our children. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Yin Rabe. Good evening. My name is Yin Rabe. I'm a former HISD educator and, a current HISD taxpayer. Also the Houston area start Houston area chapter leader of Start School Later. And I have a dream that all students will get adequate sleep and not have to wake up before they complete their REM sleep in the morning. According to Mark Ram Rasmus, MD, medical director of Everything Sleep Idaho, Delaying school start times in middle in all middle and high schools aged students is the lowest hanging fruit in regards to improving mental health and performance for our students. The science behind making the change is concrete, and the data clearly shows that it is cost effective over the long run. When students don't get enough sleep, they become irritable and make rash decisions. Thank you. Our next speaker is Shannon Swoop. Hi. Shannon Swoop. I'm here at speaker. Number five. F. Mac Miles, I asked you last year to do the hard work when you talked about creating a zero based budget. You obviously did not with a hundred and $25,000,000 of increase. You came in and redlined items without thought, without analysis just to hit a target. And you ignored your own 2024 efficiency report. Board of rubber stampers, now it's up to you. Do the hard work because this administration has failed. Do not allow them to do as they want and then come back and say, oh, please forgive us and ask for approval later. Ask hard questions. Keep drilling. I will actually give you some questions. Look at the purchase service, agreements. Are there redundancies? Are there inefficiencies? Why are we purchasing these services? Is it because we've eliminated our own employees, HVAC, maintenance, building, custodians, lawn, curriculum writers, certified teachers? Does this align with our long term strategy? Thank you. Our next speaker is Edgar Iscardo. My name is Edgar Escardo. I have two children in HISD. I, as well as my brother and many of my family members, are graduates of a HISD, as many of you board members are as well. We are example of successes. I ask you, the board managers, to hold mister Miles accountable. We can't do it. The community here can't do it, but you can. Relationships among teachers are lost. Teachers fear retribution. Teachers do not have the flexibility to make learning fun, which disinterest the students. My son comes home crying with anxiety over the pressure from testing. Our principal no longer makes time to engage with the parents. I ask you, board members, do your job. Keep them hold them accountable. Thank you. Our next speaker is Jessica Campos. Miss Campos. I had a dream. But the moment I laid eyes on my daughter for the first time, I knew that I wanted to protect her, and I knew that I would protect my kids, that I would give my life for my kids. And I'm pretty sure many of you have had that dream for your kids too. What I wasn't counting on was that there would be adults like you that would work systematically to dim their light and to silence their mother. I was so sure that I would be able to follow that dream because I am their mother, And I was sure that I would not fail them the way the adults in my life failed me. I didn't count on you adults. I have another dream now, though. I have a new dream that parents, moms, dads, students, teachers, and everyone stand together against this common enemy that we have. You. Thank you. Our next speaker is Darcy LaRota. Alright. The United States spends the most on health care yet produces some of the worst results. Therefore, it's unsettling that Mike Miles features our inefficient, mostly privatized health care system as a model for public education. Review the data regarding pay for performance programs in hospitals. You'll see that they have mixed success rates with key studies showing minor and only short term improvements. Miles' analogy, teachers are like surgeons, is also off the mark. Teachers are like nurses. They're both frontline workers helping people directly. They're both problem solvers who adapt their approaches to meet others where they are, and both do hard jobs under tremendous pressure for not enough pay. Additionally, in our health care system, the insurance companies control the purse strings, dictate what treatments are performed, and greatly impact how clinicians work and patient outcomes. It's obvious that superintendent Miles is more like a health insurance CEO, useless and despised by everyone. Our next speaker is Brandy Douda. Miss Douda? Good evening. I am Brandy Douda, a member of the community, and I am addressing agenda item nine. Eight hundred and 70 million dollars in purchases not approved by the board, and you are acting as if it is a paperwork mistake. This is not little Mikey getting caught forging his mom's signature on a failing DOL in fourth grade, then giving you sad eyes and saying, so what happened was mister Miles is not a charming nine year old hiding a failing grade from his parents. He is a small time incompetent grifter. Financial scandal follows wherever he goes. He spent nearly a billion dollars of public money without board approval. Yet you wonder why we would not trust you with $4,400,000,000 bond. Mister Campo, would you smile away a clerical error, call it an honest mistake if an employee spent 870,000,000 of your money on an Our next speaker is Linda Murray. Miss Murray? Linda Murray? Yes, ma'am. I had a speech all prepared, and it was wonderful, but I got accosted by neighbors. And I want to say, everyone here don't diminish it. You are representative of hundreds of people. I get calls. I get stopped in supermarkets. Name it. In 1956, my mother threw me on the back door of f w Woolworths to picket. We were in Queens, New York, and it was in support of those segregated lunch counters in the South in the segregated South. Ours was was desegregated. Those people supported and stood in support and boycotted what was happening in the South. So are we as we stand here, representative of hundreds of people. The parents that have to pay have rent to pay are not here because they don't get to make a 49¢ or an 87¢ mistake on their job. Okay? Thank you, ma'am. I'm sorry for you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Catherine Donis. Catherine Donis. I'm not there yet. Okay. Sorry. No. You're welcome. You're welcome to come up if you'd like. Yes, ma'am. Catherine Donnas. I had a dream. Adam, Paula, Rolando, Rick, Audrey, Angela, Jeanette, Michelle, Cassandra, that you guys cared. But it was only a dream because each of you don't care. But I know for a fact, your legacy of destruction noting all the investigation brought against Mike Miles from Colorado, from Dallas, and now Houston, and the latest, oops, error made by Mike Miles in the spending of $870,000,000 without board approval will be banned and burned because that is has become the board's norm, a guaranteed reality. But we will make sure that none of you forget. We will make sure of that. Thank you. Our next speaker is Ellen Walter. Okay. I'm Ellen Walter. 870,000,000 in unapproved spending is not an in good faith mistake. This is the point that will make you realize that he is a mistake. Our district deserves better. You should be firing Mike Miles, and I also believe that you should be appointing anybody but Rick Campo for president tonight. Thank you. Our next speaker is Allison Newport. The taxpayers of this district deserve better. It's time for this board to demonstrate accountability and governance. Please reject the flawed audits from the past eighteen months and demand an investigation, a transparent investigation into these expenditures. Vote against the policy changes that further erode your oversight. This is so important. Take a stand and act in the best interest of the community. This is an opportunity to restore trust and show leadership. Please do the right thing for our kids. Thank you. The next speakers, as I have it, are on Zoom, but if we can get the oh, one more person. I'm sorry. Yes, ma'am. Your speaker 41? Okay. Good evening. Kelly Blickery. What the best and wisest parent wants for his child, that must we want for all the children of the community. Those words are from John Dewey, a true reformer of American education. Here is what I want for my child, a robust, well rounded education that fosters inquiry, discovery, and joy. I want him to be challenged not just to master TEKS or complete packets, but to think critically about the world and his role in it. I want a stable neighborhood school where teachers and administrators are celebrated for their strengths and supported in their growth. I want music, sports, art, laughter, and whole books to be a part of his school experience. I want my child to be seen as more than a test score. I want this not just for him or those at his school or those in magnet programs or certain neighborhoods. I want this for every child in HISD. And let's be real y'all, your system Thank you. Okay. Now we'll go to students on the Zoom. Okay. Ella Taylor, we're gonna try again. If you'll turn on your camera. Okay. Ella, we're gonna try one second. Okay. Go ahead. We're gonna see if we can hear you in the boardroom. Orange for poachers, but not meat. It reminded me of the clip charting Hello? Taylor, can you stop and start over, please? We got you, but we start in the middle. Go ahead. Alright. This week, I saw a picture of Crockett's data walls, green for masters, yellow for meets, orange for approaches, and red for did not meet. It reminded me of the clip chart in kindergarten. The good kids floated up the top in pink, and I was stuck to get green or down in orange, which was next to red. Sometimes teachers think that if you can't get moved up, it's because you aren't trying. But I was trying. I don't remember everything I got clipped down for. I only remember a general feeling of never being good enough. I do remember getting clipped down to red when I balled up a picture that my teacher made me erase and read you until it had a hole in it. Nobody, even me, knew at the time that I had to scrap you. All I knew was I wanted to be a good kid and that I couldn't give her what she wanted. I'm in eleventh grade now, and I still remember that. I have a dream that the adults in HIC will take the charts off the wall so that all kids can feel like good kids even if there's something that they cannot do. Thank you. Thank you, Ella. Adida Sage Bittner. Can I start? Yes, please. Hi. My name is Adida Sage Bittner, and I'm a fifth grader at Konta Elementary. I love learning and even won fifth place at UIL at the UIL competition for math, graphs, and charts. Someday, I want to go to college, so the information you share about students earning college credit is important to me. On page 16 of the August 2024 agenda packet, Mike mister Miles showed a graph about eleventh graders earning college credit. It said twenty four percent of students earned AP credit in 2023, and twenty six percent earned it in 2024. But in exhibit four of today's agenda packet, a new graph shows that only 1415.6% earned AP credit for those years. That's about 10% lower than before. Why are the numbers different? I hope you can explain this today because it doesn't make sense. Like doctor Martin Luther King Junior, I have a dream that the data and information you share is always honest and accurate. Thank you. Thank you. Christine Hurley, please turn your camera on. Unmute yourself and you may begin. I'm sorry. One second. Can you start over, please? Yeah. Go ahead. If peace means keeping my mouth shut in the midst of injustice and evil, I don't want it. I will continue to speak at board meetings and make you hear my voice until you listen as shown through your actions. Thus far, your inaction concerning Myles' corruption condones the numerous violations of community trust committed by this man. Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter, and the hottest place in hell is reserved for those who remain neutral in times of great moral conflict. Mike Miles is a con man, a grifter, a snake oil salesman, and the ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty wrought by him, but the silence over it by you, the self proclaimed good people. Finally, do something right by the students of HISD and actually help student outcomes by firing Mike Miles. Doctor Maria Benzone, please turn your camera on. You may begin. Hello. Hello. My name is doctor Maria Benzon, and I'm a parent and teacher leader who once ran to be a school board trustee because I believe in the power of public education. Like Martin Luther King Junior, I have a dream. I dream with schools where teachers feel valued and supported, where workloads are manageable, pay reflects their worth, and health care doesn't punish them for taking care of their families. I dream of teachers growing as professionals with real support, not impossible demands, unclear goals, or a lack of legally required planning time. I dream of teachers having lives outside of work, the freedom to collaborate for a better future, and a voice in decisions that shape their jobs. Do we share the same dream? If we want more eleventh graders earning college credit as seen in item one, we need sustainable working conditions for teachers because those are the learning conditions for our children. HISD deserves leaders who are accountable, trustworthy, and committed to this vision. Thank you. Thank you. Doctor Pamela Voveland, you may begin. Hello. My name is doctor Pamela Voveland, and I have a dream where vice is not turned into virtue, where I have a dream where slander is not true. I have a dream where arrogance is not humility. I have a dream where plundering assets is not aiding quality instruction. I have a dream where thievery is not turned into a mistake. I have a dream where benefits are not reserved for the overpaid elites. I have a dream where the chicken managers fulfill their oversight and are not and do not reward the fox for riding the coop. I have a dream where toxic environments are not the excuse for quality instruction. I have a dream where a normal curve is based on a math model and not an ordinal myth. I have a dream where librarians, custodians with benefits, teachers with certification, certified fine arts teachers are in their respective positions. I have a dream where community engagement does not mean scripted responses. I have a dream where managers are not under federal investigation. I have a dream where a FASI superintendent does not continue his history of fiscal missteps. I have a dream where by an agency that has a history of RICO charges Thank you, ma'am. Is resent. Thank you. Thank you. Crystal Norman, you may begin. Crystal Mormon, please unmute yourself, and you may begin. Hi. Can you hear me? Yes, ma'am. Anyway Okay. Great. Yes, ma'am. I'm I'm here, representing parents in Northeast Houston and surrounding, communities in H ISD. The state department is is terrible. Parents are complaining. We just need a lot of help there. On a positive note, I'd like to thank you guys for implementing the, metal detectors in the high school. Parents are are appreciating that level of security, at best. And, just the $870,000,000 mistakes was not the community is not so happy with, on top of, a lot of the ongoing things that we're finding. The timeline is pretty much start to finish. It gets He's been there. Mister Miles, it's just been horrific, and we just we we deserve it and we like change. We're a world class city. We deserve better. And, he's not connecting. There's no connection, with community. Our voices deserve to be heard. Our students deserve to be heard. We shouldn't really be up, all night at these board meetings pleading pleading our cases. But, again, I'd like to thank you guys for this platform. Thank you. Thank you. Franklin Tamburello, please unmute yourself, and you may begin. Unmute. Okay. I'm very concerned about Monday's Houston landing article describing how Miles has spent $870,000,000 without board authorization. Where are the basic budgetary control procedures? The board of managers is supposed to oversee spending, but where have you been? When Miles began as superintendent, HIC had a projected twenty three to twenty four budget deficit of 99,000,000. But under one year of Miles' leadership, that deficit is expanded to $285,000,000. This is no way to handle taxpayer money. No democracy, no accountability, no trust. Thank you. Thank you. Liz Silva, you may begin. Sorry. Some members of this board, especially one that is currently under federal investigation for professional business practices, frequently compare HISD to business. But the reality is that corporations and businesses enforce strict financial oversight and accountability. We should be doing the same. But instead we see hundreds of millions spent without following policy. So what now? Is the board backed into a corner to mass approve everything just because a handful of HISD executives need to work on their reading comprehension? That's not fair to you. That's not fair to us. It's not lost on me how quickly teachers and principals can be deemed not proficient and terminated but supposedly nobody caught this oopsie for sixteen months. It seems to me that Jim Terry, Mike Miles and many others might not be that proficient. We should fire them. First the bond, then the billion dollar oopsie and Rick Campo. The scoreboard isn't looking too good for the takeover. Thank you. Jessica Catrat, you may begin. Hey. Jessica Catrat, Monsoon HISD graduate and current senior student. Tonight, I just wanna ask you why our PTO needed to pay for rat control when Mike Miles was able to spend almost a billion dollars without permission. Spending enormous amounts of money and funds without your approval shows he's out of control and thinks he's above the rules. It's disrespectful to you and a breach of his contract. He should go. I urge you to use your power. Please help us get rid of the rafts, the ones at Lanier and the ones sitting next to you. Madam president, that concludes, Zoom speakers. We have two in person. Okay. Laura Henry, I think is right. Yes, ma'am. And then our last speaker, I think, for the evening is Camille Breaux. Hi. I'm speaking on item number one. I regularly encourage students to enroll in advanced and college level courses, but I'm attempting I'm concerned about attempting to get so many ninth and tenth graders into College Crest courses just to fulfill GPM 3.3. That's an adult goal, not a student goal. Kids have to want to take these classes and they need to be prepared. Otherwise, they end up not getting credit, and it hurts their ability to get scholarships and to get into college. Kids who wanna be, successful in college level courses need libraries, homeworks, novels, sophisticated writing and research opportunities, and they need teacher autonomy in the classroom. Scaffolded star sorry. Scaffolded star essays don't help children with college level writing. I have a dream that kids that wanna participate can participate because they don't wanna take these courses in college in high school, can still have an education that truly gets them college ready, and that involves much, much more writing and novel reading and long for reading and and no four minute checks for understanding so that they can really develop autonomy. Thank you. Our our speaker, miss Sprow. I'm speaking on item number nine. The $870,000,000 in cooperative agreements bypassing HISD board review violates policy and raises serious concerns about leadership accountability and transparency. Teachers face strict demands, while district leaders display a double standard. The culture of mismanagement and distrust contributed to the rejection of the $4,400,000,000 bond. If HISD can't responsively manage taxpayer funds, how can it demand integrity from its educators? Have each of you considered the professional ramifications for yourselves should you not handle this appropriately? Others may consider how you deal with a breach of policy, mismanagement of funds, or brand crisis. Conduct a comprehensive audit to review contracts, cooperative agreements, vendor vetting, fraud prevention, and go back to stricter oversight and transparency. Houston is watching. Thank you. That concludes our speakers for this evening. Thank you all for being with us. Our first item this evening is a report item from the community engagement committee. So I think y'all are down there. Alright. Okay. It went away. Oh, oh, up the back. Good evening, colleagues. Thank you for making time for Rolando and I to come and speak about our board community engagement committee overview and what we've done for, school year twenty twenty four, twenty twenty five. So what we'll talk about today is why community engagement is important and, really a requirement for what we do for students and families in our community. We'll talk about what we've done so far, our timeline, progress monitoring and feedback meetings. We'll talk about the student and family connections that we've made, some key feedback themes, opportunities for improvement, and then we'll talk about what's to come for the spring semester. So first, we wanna kinda set the foundation as to why community engagement. It's it's pretty intuitive as to why we do community engagement, but we wanted to spell it out here. So, first and foremost, our intention is to build strong community connection. So community engagement is a way for us to foster two way communication. We're looking to have productive dialogue where we can, listen to communities and be able to respond or take concerns back to the administration, to help us respond and meet the needs. We also wanna be able to celebrate and monitor progress. So this year, we've had some really great gains for our students who needed them the most. Our faculty and our staff and our teachers really showed up, and our students rose to the challenge. So we wanna celebrate that and educate the community on those successes. Next, we wanna empower stakeholders. So community engagement includes students and families in meaningful discussion and governance training, ensuring their voices are a part of shaping the district's future. In addition, community engagement is a statutory requirement. So in Texas, it's not just a best practice, but there are a lot of Texas education code statues that really encourage school districts to focus on community engagement. They're called out in district and campus improvement plans, so this is not, you know, a necessity just for us to bring the community along on our journey. But the Texas education code, really not only enforces it, but also, requires it of us. So here's just a call out on, you know, community engagement by the number. So what we have done. So we have, engaged a number of groups and organization, 24 to be exact. Some of these organizations we engaged when we first got appointed so that we wanted to kinda let them know what we've done so far. We want to get their feedback in the beginning and then revisit them to see what they felt, now that we've been in for this amount of time. We've had 20 engagements that included student feedback sessions, holiday visits to schools. We've heard, tonight, people are aware of our PTO, walks and talks, and, then other community meetings. And, you know, this is a a lot of these came to to get on our calendars, really, because some community organizations have reached out to us, and we encourage that. We are trying to meet all the needs and get those scheduled, actively. So a lot of that comes from this. We've engaged about a 20 adults and then around 700 students. We've had 12 student and family connections and eight sessions specifically for progress monitoring and feedback. So here's our time line. This is kind of an eye chart, but I'll try to go through it. In March and April, Rolando and I were appointed to this committee. In May, we had our first feedback session with students. There were about, I think, two students from each high school represented. They joined us here in the boardroom. We had lunch. We broke we had, breakout sessions, and they were very vocal about what has been working for them and what needs to be improved. Improved. And it was really a great way to hear from our students and give them the opportunity to share directly with us. In August, some of our board members attended, a number of school year kickoffs. September, we refined our engagement strategy and initiated outreach to different organizations. In October, some of the meetings we attended was the Mayor's Hispanic Advisory Board, Westbury Area Improvement Corporation, and the Houston Urban League. In November, we attended meetings with the Jewish Federation of Greater Houston and the Houston Hispanic Chamber of Commerce commerce. Excuse me. And in December, we met with the citywide coalition, Discovering You, My Brother's Keeper, and the Houston Health Department. We had holiday visits conducted at four campuses where board members passed out, breakfasts very early to at four different, campuses, which was a great way to, again, talk to the students. We had, some PTO walk and talks where, and and this was right before the holiday break. Well, actually, the twenty to twenty third, almost almost to Christmas, but we appreciate those PTOs engaging and actually wanting to do that with us. Again, meaningful dialogue, and, we are actively, addressing all community requests and visits. Rolando and I have meetings weekly, and so we go through the list and see where our requests are and, you know, who we're gonna meet with. Then we get on all you board members' calendars. I think you have the next one. I think this is my last one. So, as it relates to progress monitoring and feedback meetings, so our goals here are, again, to share the overview of what happened last year, 2324 school year. We wanna educate the community on the board's role. We wanna share data on the progress and then gather community feedback and questions. And and these are great ways to, really talk to the community and and talk to them about how we slice and dice the the data. We look at subgroups. We look at lots of different schools across the board, and it's a really surgical way to see how the the changes are, improving student outcomes. Again, here's some, callouts of organizations that have been represented. I mentioned a few of them. Some of them, Children at Risk, Ed Trust, Goodreads in Houston, Harris County, Urban League, Houston Health Department, Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Jewish Federation of Greater Houston, the Social Justice Learning Institute, Teach for America, Latinos for Education, My Brother's Keeper, the Citywide Coalition, the Parent Teacher Collaborative, the Mayor's Hispanic Advisory Council, Discovering You, and, again, Westbury Area Improvement Corporation. Thank you. Mhmm. And before I get started, I wanna thank, Becca and Ashlyn who've, I don't know if Becca's here today, but, thank you to them, for helping us out through this process. Next step. So student family connection. So one of the things that we wanted to ensure that we had was, as Cassandra mentioned, dialogue, authentic dialogue where we had two way conversations about, you know, their personal experiences or their students' experiences, but then misconceptions and misperceptions. So it's all of that. So, during the spring of twenty twenty four with regard to the student engagement, I think there's a report either at June, I think, of last year. I know some of you board members joined us as well where we invited, as Cassandra said, high school seniors, and they provided feedback. So as we mentioned, we had breakfast, we had walk and talks, and, and as Cassandra mentioned, this isn't with with just, parents in affluent communities. You you, want us to visit with you, there's an invitation. Any community member can can send us an email. And, of course, we have requested, meetings as well with other organizations. So what are the feedback themes that we heard during these sessions? So, what you'll find is family and community connections are just general overall experiences. And so the positives we heard that, the district fosters critical thinking through AP and IB, and so that's one of the measures we'll review today as a board. And so we wanna continue, ensuring that our kids have access to those great opportunities. In particular with students, they were, they were adamant that they wanted to continue to make sure that we had supportive teachers, and we had programs that continue to, encourage independent thought as well. And again, that's through AP and IB magnet programs and so forth. From a parent perspective, obviously, they, as we've heard in other meetings, they've, discussed their need or their request to continue having libraries released in those schools to to consider opportunities for those as well and certifications, through IBCs and things of that nature. Magnet programs, supportive third party agencies that help us through this process. That's one thing that students mentioned last spring is that we continue these partnerships and continue seeking opportunities for other organizations to help our students throughout the process and prepare for college and career as well. And so with regard to opportunities for growth, again, we wanna make sure we're expanding guidance and access to opportunities for our students, making sure there's counselors at each campus, that there's, equity of those counselors across our district, making sure that students with regard to feedback, making sure that we're balancing testing and actually on hands on learning and creative learning approaches as well. And one of the things that we've heard since the beginning is more access to mental health and well-being for our teachers and our students as well. So with regard to really LSG and progress monitoring, one of the things we've talked about is pre K enrollment. And I think at least one of the several most of the meetings I went to with regard to this aspect, was the importance of communicating opportunities to all of our communities and making sure that our communities were aware that we have seats available, especially in our lower income communities. So this is important. Individuals, participants appreciated the fact that we were opening up seats, that we were increasing the number of seats. I think for those who were there at the meeting, they understand the importance of pre k, but now how do we push it through to the rest of community as well. One of the things that we we've talked about as a board and the community is making sure that we continue to retain effective teachers, in order to continue to increase our student outcomes. With regards to family and community engagements, parents just want opportunities to really be involved on their campus level, and really as a district level as well. And so I know one of the things the reasons we're doing these meetings or having these meetings is to increase access to the board in a lot of these communities. For many of these organizations, this was the first time, perhaps, in years that they had formally received an invitation to talk to a board member. So this is what we wanna create for all of our communities as well. And we've talked about, you know, opportunities for students to continue, having, you know, access to supports for student emotional well-being, and then the communication piece. I I wanna make sure that we're, stressing that as well. Effective district communication, that is the one thing we heard everywhere because, again, in some of these discussions, things were brought up about rumors or potential things that they heard and it, in fact, was not correct. So we were able to clarify what resources we have available for our students in order to obtain those student outcomes. Alright. So here's opportunities for us as a board, follow-up in particular. One is to strengthen our survey. While, individuals provided feedback during the sessions, we wanna increase survey participation afterwards. So making sure that we follow back up with our organizations to complete a formal survey, to make sure that we're, providing the adequate information that they need during our meetings, that they feel like it's beneficial to them. These discussions are engaging. Everybody's participating, but just making sure we get feedback after the point. Again, being able to collect, anonymous feedback, candid candid responses, not necessarily from participants, but also from parents, and things of that nature. And, again, I'll always offer opportunities for input. And last thing and the thing I mentioned before is making sure and this is more from a governance perspective, and I wanna make sure that my fellow board members hear this, is that communities wanna hear from the board. They wanna have an opportunity to make sure that they know what the board is focused on, what is true LSG governance, what are our responsibilities and our duties, and that's where we have, an opportunity, to make sure that we're doing that effectively, through whatever media of communication we have or methods of communication, but ensuring that we do that more effectively. And so, for our, continuing opportunities, we are already trying to schedule a couple of meetings with the parent organizations that reached out to us, late in December. We're trying to reach out to a couple of outlined organizations that we're still trying to work through their scheduling as well. But we have additional opportunities as well. We're going to try to repeat the same spring engagement session that we had with high school seniors. We're going to try to do it again this spring, and then again other organizations will reach back out. Now where our focus for these meetings were, outcomes as it relates to our results, our results and our, GPMs, of last year. Now we're going to try to have to kind of refocus it and add part of what's going on through the middle of this year as well. So questions from the board. Mister Yvonne. Thank you all for heading up the committee. I know that, it it was not easy, to get all of us to do anything at one time, or to participate in these, matters that are so important. One of the things that that I think about and I wonder kinda what what you walked away with is, what did you what did when you when you look back, like, what do you find as kind of the most effective, or what was the most impactful thing that that, you saw as, like, a a process or a a tool that made you say, oh, we need if we do this, you know, this was the most effective thing we did. We we really got our bang for the buck on on this particular, thing. What what would you say that is if there is one? And, you know, perhaps as we continue with the committee, we can kind of include that in in some way, form, or fashion. So I assume you're talking about us bang for a buck as as a whole, us district and board. And what I'd I'd say first of all, small group meetings are targeted meetings that, create a place for two way dialogue. It's just a game changer, because, you know, we we sit here once a month and we hear community feedback, but we're not able to respond. A lot of times, I know some of us may, you know, reach out if we hear something or we'll ask someone in the administration to follow-up on some things, but being in a setting where we can have two way dialogue with community members, feel what they're saying, hear what they're saying is extremely valuable to us. I will also say that, you know, as it relates to what we've done, all of our engagements where we have shared the progress of our students, especially those who were furthest behind, is just amazing. We always, get some very positive feedback on that. Even in we we've even been in settings where we were talking to a group of parents that weren't at a NES school. One of the parents was a physician in an area where there was an NES feeder pattern. And she would talk about how you know, when when kids go to the doctor, they check-in with their doctor on how are you feeling, you know, what's going on. There's a lot of that as you go through those developmental phases. And she, she felt like her patients were being served well at their school. So just getting that type of feedback is extremely helpful. And I would just say that all of the hard work, again, that the administration, our our teachers, our staff, our principals, the leadership have done in this time of so much change, and the gains we've seen from our students has just been remarkable. And so that's that's really, I would say, the highlight of these types of engagement is showcasing that hard work. And I agree with that. I think just the the fact that we as a board are going out to the community to have true dialogue, I think that's that's a game changer. Having real authentic conversation, I think that's that's that's a game changer for us. Yeah. Yeah. May I? Of course. Could you go back one slide, I believe? Where when they do the surveys or when they respond, where does that go, and how soon do you get the information? Yeah. So so the survey goes to, so we have Becca and Ashton who support us. So that information gets sent over to them and they share that with us as well. Again, we didn't have great participation rates, of these surveys. Again, I think probably because we had true dialogue during the meetings, and so they felt like I've given you everything. Mhmm. But it's still an opportunity for us to kind of follow back up with them and make sure we're we're doing that. It's I think just in general, it's hard to get surveys back, period, no matter what the the issues or the challenges are the day. But I just wanted to know where they went because then I saw the enhanced feedback more anonymous feedback. So that's why I was asking where it went. And then if you can just I know you you were very clear that you wanted us to hear the the third one too. Couple of ideas of what you think that might be that we can do a little differently as a board or how we can help? I don't know that we've gone into that yet, Sandra. We need I think they just wanna hear from the board. I think whatever opportunities there may be. So I don't I don't know that we've specifically identified something in particular, but I think we as a board need to consider how do we communicate with our community outside of this poor meeting. Yeah. I think it I I I'd like to add. I think it starts with really the accessibility piece, Paula, because our community members have great ideas on on how they wanna receive information, and I think it it starts with with our accessibility, because, you know, I have started some of these meetings with, I'm not gonna have answers, But we wanna hear from you. We we wanna understand your experience, and we will be sure to follow-up and, you know, create that feedback loop. But a lot of times, we don't have the answers in that moment because we have these engagements. We don't know the specific, concerns that a lot of these organizations, parents, community members have. So it offering solutions in real time is not always the answer for us. And so that is we have tried to create this feedback loop where we're following up. We give things Beck and Ashland are there, give supporting, taking notes. But to the survey point, it would be helpful if we could capture some of that. And our the participation is poor, honestly, so we just need to figure out a better way to capture that so that we can keep it in a and archive it. You know? Miss Lindner? Can't thank you enough for making do like, doing this heavy lift because I know it's a lot of work, and I look forward to the upcoming sessions that I'm attending. I'm wondering about, a couple thoughts, but one is how, how you've seen that these conversations differ from I'm not sure if you've board mem board led meetings before this transition, and they were often just very informational. Like, they had to have it because something was changing, and here it is, and here's some flyers. And if you got questions, you know. And, these and the ones I participated in have been very impactful because they've been very two way, you know, communication. But and we've tried to set it up in a way that we are trying to help our community members and our neighbors understand the role of the board. As you've done many of these, and I've only done a few, have you, noticed some ways that are, approaches to how we share this information that do help our community members start to pick up what we're trying to put down about how board work is different than administration work and how, you know, governance is different, how we focus on student outcomes and and and and trying to help them understand why it might be frustrating to come with a complaint or a concern, and it might feel like we're not responding. I wonder about maybe how you've, seen the transition as you've done this work and maybe, you know, learn some things or approaches that might help because I find that to be always a challenge. It's kind of the same answer to the previous question, but I'll say that one of the things that's been helpful is that group sizes have been in a manageable size. So I'll say that, when groups become a little bit larger, we have the organization in English perhaps may have some questions ahead of time. I know that was the case with, Westbury Corporation. They had some questions ahead of time that perhaps we could answer. Again, it's it's it's different when It's on their time when they're inviting you to their meeting versus when you're holding the meeting. When we're holding the meeting, we have a little bit more, we have more opportunities to really have go back in questions, things of that nature. But I think it's it's it's managing the group size and an understanding that we're gonna come into this meeting to have a real conversation. I think that's the thing. Now in in some communities, it's the same feedback we've heard here during the board meetings. And in other communities, it was quite different, to be honest with you. There are some communities that were excited about the changes, and then some communities that just needed clarification on the changes. So that was helpful as well. But I think to to Cassandra's point, one of the things that, what she mentioned earlier, Becca and Ashley were there to answer operational questions. And so that was helpful as well. When when, community members did bring up questions about this campus or this school and how it's working, we were able to say, okay, well, Ashen and Becca can answer that question. If they can't answer, then they're gonna get back to you. And they did a fantastic Alright. Thank you for your time. Thank you. And, earlier this month, I reappointed them for the next year. So keep it up. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Yes, over to you. Yes. So first of all, thank you so much for your work. I mean, really, it's awesome. There are two things. One is, I I really enjoyed the the organization of, the breakfasts during Christmas. It was probably the most fun I've ever had at a at an elementary school. I went to Shadydale. And while it was cold out, it was really interesting, with, watching the kids come in, some with their hoods, some with their big coats, and and backpacks, and and they were all very bright eyed and ready to go, and and it was, it was a really great experience. I happen to have my son has this really festive, like, sport coat that's, like, Christmas lights on it, stuff like that that I wore. And, and one of the things so the kids were amazing. I I thought that was just amazing doing that. But the other thing that I did is I spent time there too when I before I got there with the principal and with their teams and their staff and then we went to classrooms and saw how that was going. And so I thought that the teams on at the school really appreciated the fact that we came there and I was the only board member in that particular school, but I had Becca was my handler there and she was with me as well. So, I think it's really important because those folks that are on the front lines really appreciate when we show up, right? And I think that's important. The second thing is that I think we need a mechanism to, reporting and I'm going to I'll talk to Becca and Alice about this. But in the last probably two months, I've had at least five or six different meetings with different groups that didn't start out as HISD. I'll give you an example on Tuesday, I spoke in front of a lunch group and it's like a kind of a typical networking lunch group, right? And it was a Carrabba's on boss. And there's probably 30 people in there, including Rosie Carrabba, which is kind of cool, Johnny Carrabba's mother. But and the original reason for them inviting me to speak was not because of HIST, but it was just broad other subjects. And so I spent about fifteen minutes, twenty minutes talking about that. And then I did Q and A for an hour, and it was all HIST. And, and and it was the good, bad, you know, some people were very positive, some people weren't, you know. But but I think that the key point here is that that was community outreach. And we need I know that everyone does that Mhmm. Here, so we need to kinda get a a repository of what of that, of those meetings because those are really, real community engagement meetings when you're at a separate event and then all of a sudden it becomes an HEISD thing for an hour is probably a good thing to at least put on the list because you've got a list of a lot of groups that we talked to. And it was very organic too, which was interesting. We definitely need to capture those meetings. So send us an email with all five of those, please, because that has happened before. Yeah. It turns into something and it becomes an opportunity to have that dialogue. About the breakfasts, I wanna give a shout out to Naja, deputy of, community out external affairs face. I think I saw it right. Thank you so much for coordinating. We told Naja, like, the week before, hey. We wanna go to schools before break. And she really helped us, so thank you to her and her team for that as well. And thank you for y'all because I know some you were probably there, like, 06:00. Yeah. So thank you. Alright. Thank you. Thank you. Oh, sorry. Yes, ma'am. Yes. Can you share again how the community can make a request for meetings? And also second question, have we been able to meet all the requests for engagement? Okay. That's a great question. Board services emailing board services is the best way to do that. They have access to all of our calendars, and and we'll work to get, board members at different meetings and and work with the schedule. What What was your second question? Have we met all of the requests? Thank you. Thank you. Actually, no. And it's because I think we request started coming in either the November or maybe early December, and we had already had our calendars kind of booked. And so, we are starting that engagement. Some that were left over from last last year were already have some scheduled, and we're working on the others. So we are actively trying to meet the request and and work on those calendars. Okay. Yes. Thank you all. Thank you. Thank you so much. Very good. Okay. Superintendent Miles, you're going to present board monitoring update on goal three progress measure 3.3. Yes, ma'am. I'm going to ask Chief Kristen Hole and her team to come up. Let me know when you're ready. Alright. Okay. Good evening, members of the board. Today, we're reporting out on goal progress measure 3.3. Goal three overall is the percent of students graduating TSI ready with industry based certifications, and we've shown to be on track for that last year. But 3.3 more specifically is the focus on the percent of eleventh graders who qualify for college credit, and the goal is that they will increase from thirty three percent in May to forty eight percent, in May 2028. So, wanted to start with just looking at the high level results of this goal progress measure. On the left side, you see, reports out at BOI, MOI, and EOI for the past three years. I first wanna call your attention to the BOI score each year, and you can see that it was 19%, twenty three %, and 26%. So at the BOI, you see it increasing over time, which is a good indicator that we're improving in this metric. Also, within one year, what you see is that at the beginning of the year, we start lower significantly lower than at the end of the year. And that's because at the beginning of the year, it's really measuring students who obtained college credit in ninth and tenth grade. But by the end of the year, we're actually able to also count students who got college credit in their eleventh grade year, which is why you'll always see it go up from BOI to EOI. And so if you're looking at end of year last year, you see we already actually exceeded this year's target. We were at 38 last year, and the target for this year is 35. So we're anticipating that we're going to exceed it again, and that we're on track for this metric, both because we're seeing beginning of year growth and because last year end of year results were really strong. When you look at this, data split out by student group, we generally are seeing that overall increase from BOI to BOI. We're seeing some significant increase in Asian and white students, but we did see a decrease for black students, for, EcoDIS students, and for students with disabilities. We dug into this a little bit more, and one of the things that we are observing is that when we're looking at enrollment and current college coursework, we're actually seeing enrollment increases for these subpopulations. So for black students, for example, we saw a 6% increase in enrollment currently in their college coursework, which just tells us this number will likely improve, by the end of the year because they're currently seeing increases in enrollment even though the BOI to BOI saw a decrease. So it was just a way to say that some of the things we're doing to improve this, this data for subgroups, we anticipate to be working by the end of the year. We also just wanted to look more specifically about the different ways students can obtain college credit. So there's four ways in HISD where you can get college credit. First is our advanced placement courses, our AP courses. Second is IB. Third is dual enrollment, which is, you with our with UT through our on ramps program. And fourth is dual credit, which is college credit through HCC, as well. So what we've shown is in 2022, '20 '3, and '24, at the beginning of year, for each of those subgroups, what the results were, And you can see for all four of well, for AP, for dual enrollment, and dual credit, we're increasing, beginning of year college credit in all of them. And that's actually a really good sign because it what it means is we're not cannibalizing college credit in one area by just increasing it in the other area. They're actually going up, in all four types of college credit. For IB, you see it zero, but that's because students take the IB test in eleventh grade. So at the beginning of the year, it will typically always be zero. So that's what, this helps us track as well. The other thing you'll we'll we'll notice is that students will get college credit in multiple types of these, so they might get advanced placement credit and dual credit at the same time. And, overall, this report is showing that we're on track, and I do just want to name some some really big successes in this area. College board did actually call up HISD recently, and they said that we saw, just for advanced placement courses alone, we saw a 15% increase in unique students taking advanced placement courses, a 24% increase in the number of advanced placement tests that were being taken, and a 5% increase in the pass rate of advanced place course courses. And they anticipated that this was a $15,600,000 tuition saving for students, this improvement, which is just such a huge win. They also shared that it was from their data, the highest numbers they've seen in HISD's history. So it's just really great progress, in that work, and I do think some of the, things the policies and procedures we're putting in place to increase these numbers are demonstrating to be working. The next big thing is to just pause and talk about some of the things we're doing. We have talked about opt out scheduling and advanced course scheduling before, but that work continues. So we still have the opt out scheduling policy, and we're improving it. So when students are scheduling their courses, if their academic data shows that they are prepared for college credit courses, that is what they will see in their course selection tool, and they will only be able to take on level courses with parent and counselor approval. So that way, they can continue to enroll in the courses that they are ready for. Once they sign up for their course schedules and they actually get placed in a schedule, we also have a tool to make sure that that happens appropriately. So there's multiple checks and balances in the system. We looked at a couple of example data. Whenever we were looking at math, we looked at the percent of students who are ready to take advanced courses when we started this work. And in math, we saw it was thirteen percent of students who are ready that were actually getting enrolled. And in, reading and language arts, thirty percent of students who are actually ready were now getting enrolled. In this most recent scheduling, we are at seventy three percent of students who were showing that they were ready were actually getting enrolled. And so we really are being very intentional about using data to make decisions about which courses students can be most successful in. In addition to that, the and so that's really just one policy that focuses on access. The other policy that I still wanna name is once students are demonstrating readiness, we're improving their scheduling. But we also have to get more students to that readiness bar, and so that's that continued focus on improving, math and reading, throughout even in ninth grade and, tenth grade, that double block in math and reading for our high school students. So more of them are more likely to be ready for that advanced coursework as well. And then always, we are continuing to focus on high quality curriculum for these courses, as well as high quality instruction for these courses because that's once once we improve access, improving actual attainment of credit does ensure that, all of those teachers are teaching those students at the right, rigor of the standards for that college coursework. And that's it for today. Great work. Thank you so much. Okay. Questions. First of all, I will say, this board has submitted 22 questions on the monitoring report. So let's not go over tactical stuff that we've already asked about. But so strategic, if we can try. Yes, ma'am. Doctor Arnold. Thank you. Before my question, I wanna commend the administration on the use of AP potential as a data driven tool to get students into courses that they have proven that they are ready for. I know that there are a lot of other states and districts that do not use the tool, and when they ask for data driven solutions, the College Board mentions this particular tool. So kudos to the district for doing that. My goal is to grow the demand for these courses, have we had a problem or do we see a problem having the right teaching force available to teach all of these courses? Yes. And that that differs by the type of college credit course. So for example, in dual credit, we can get a we, the the teachers the instructors that teach the course, they can either be HCC instructors that they're sending to us, or there are instructors, and that really can just depend on availability. But that can be a really hard thing to figure out sometimes if we can't get that instructor. It it really does often depend on even prerequisites to be that instructor, which also can be a barrier. Sometimes we've been able to be, we've had a lot of success. If we can't if there if HCC dual credit path doesn't work, we also can look at UT on ramps. They have slightly different requirements for how you can be instructors, and that's actually been a really help and give us some flexibility. Over the last I think in the last year, we grew the dual enrollment 237%, those available courses because they had a lot of flexibility in how we could find instructors for those courses. And then for AP courses, we need to make sure they are properly trained and they attend the the AP trainings as well. Thank you. Mister Yvonne? I, I also want to commend the, operation of the district in this regard. The results that that we're seeing in bringing more students into the fold is is so impactful. I mean, obviously, you've you've read the kudos from, the college board, but, I think it's it's critical that we continue to focus on, not only students that are challenged, but students who are not receiving the service they should and and be pushed, to exceed and excel in the things that they do. And I, I'm very pleased to see the results, and I I'm excited about what's to come. And I do think about capacity, as well, and ensuring that that not only we can, provide for those students, but in all areas of the city where it's needed, so that, so that all of our students get an opportunity to to be in that place. Any other yes, ma'am. Miss Ozanne Bandy. Thank you so much for the information. That that's great to hear those stats that you called out. I'm wondering if I'm a student and, you know, all my scores identify me as, someone who could benefit or who qualifies for AP or dual credit courses, and my school doesn't offer them. What what options do I have if I wanna do AP chemistry and there's no AP chemistry class at my school? That's a great question. One of the things we actually do we do two things to that. One is in all of our core contents, we are standardizing the core sequence to say, what courses follow other courses to ensure we can provide access to those advanced placement courses in our core content areas so that we can at least say those are a commitment. Sometimes there's AP courses even outside of those that may differ across campuses, but for our core content areas, we wanna be very clear on, what we can provide in that path for students. The other piece of that is actually about the scheduling. So once we identify who is, you know, who's what students are ready, students go and collect their schedules, and that actually will tell us the number of teachers we need and the number of courses that we need at a particular high school so that when we go to do our scheduling, we actually can make sure we have the right number of teachers to teach those courses. And so that actually is a big part of how we make sure we're planning appropriately on the schedule side as well. Missus Lindner. Thank you. Few questions, but first, if you could I I can't see the slide anymore, but it looked like dual credit, the the percentages of dual credit is about half of what AP is. And so I'm wondering why we don't see more dual credit. Like you said, there's a huge savings, potentially for students in college. So I'm I'm wondering if you could speak to to that. The first thing I'll clarify, there's savings across all of these, as well. So the savings, the five fifteen point, 6,000,000 number, that was actually for AP. And a lot of it, just depends. So for our dual credit courses, for example, we have to find a course at that institution that matches one of the TEA required courses and crosswalk that. And so every time we could find the like course because, again, they're they're students are enrolled in HCC at the same time as they're enrolled in our high school, so those courses courses have to match. One of the things that we actually are in the process of doing even for dual credit is integrating our foundational programs of study for CTE with our HCC partner. So we're going through every course to say, do you have dual credit courses in our CTE programs of study that can overlap so we can provide dual credit and CTE at the same time. But for us, it's been a process of sitting down and finding those points of overlap, because when we do, then we can increase the course offerings for our students in dual credit. Thanks. I wanted to get to that, which is yeah. What are some of the barriers or things that we need to to address to try to make this more available to more more students and bring Mhmm. Coursework that that ties to realistic, you know, work outcomes that we want them to be prepared for. Mhmm. Right. And one of the hard parts is we can't just give them any HCC course that HCC has. It has to align, and so we're increasing by doing that alignment work with them. The related to that, I'm wondering about college readiness. I hear anecdotally so many examples of even though students, you know, got into college, they show up and realize they are just terribly unprepared for this. And so I wondered about while they might be earning dual credit, how does that equate to actually college readiness? And and what are some of the gaps or barriers there that you're thinking about? I would say two things. One reason why this is so important is because the research does show that even if you take a college credit course in high school and even if you don't pass, you you actually increase your predictability of college graduation. So even being involved in the rigor of a college course before you get there, research shows could help. So that's, I would say, one thing that's really important. And then the other thing is real that's really important is as we, as we focus on this, more students will get more and more credit, which gets them even further along in their college entry point, which can save them more money. It can kind of build them towards a path or even towards towards some sort of stacker stackable credential, certificate. And so that also can just really help, relieve some of the burden on college whenever they're transferring. And then the last piece I would say that truly is important is some of the rigor of these courses, and the focus on this can still help make sure those students are meeting that TSI readiness threshold so they don't have to take that remedial coursework. One more. As we go back to the slide where we see the the breakout by student by student population, I think, you know, some of those disparities are are are unfortunately not shocking, but they are, you know, disappointing. And I wonder about what your thoughts are about what do we need. Right? What do we need to accelerate our students who are not, you know, at the same level as some of our other student populations, to to really accelerate their their their growth in this area as as soon as, you know, as soon as we can. Mhmm. I think two things for this. First is with the focus on a student's readiness data to be the decision that places them in the classroom, that actually helps raise that expectation for all student groups. Our data has shown that a lot of these student groups have been placed in advanced courses at such low rates even when they're ready. And so using data to make that decision, through processes that have checks and balances, I think raises that expectation that all the kids across the student groups with readiness data can rise to that level. So I I would say that's the first thing. The second thing is really that really important focus on if students are not yet ready, how are we making them ready? And that is the the purpose of that focus on high quality instruction in all grades, kinder, first, second, all the way up. And even when we get to high school, that that double block in ninth and tenth in reading and math again to make sure that as many students are ready for that as well. Because if, the other thing I didn't talk explicitly about, but we have ways to say if a student is not ready when they come in ninth or even tenth, but they become ready, we have ways to catch them up so they can still get to that advanced coursework before they graduate. We have things that we can do in the schedule to catch them up. And so again, I think it's that focus, to to raise the achievement and growth for all of those students who are not yet at that threshold. Any other questions? Alright. Thank you, chief. Thank you. That was a great presentation. Thank you. Okay. Do I have a motion to accept the board monitoring update presentation of goal three progress measure 3.3? Oh. Uh-oh. Our screens are Gotta hit my computer. My computer. Hit my computer. Maybe a couple of times. Oh, mine's not working. There we are. Okay. Motion to accept by, miss Linder and a second by miss Vandy. Please vote. Nine in favor. Zero opposed. Alright. Now we are gonna discuss the items that are pulled from the consent agenda. May I have a motion to approve agenda item six, approval of proposed revisions to board policy AE local educational philosophy second reading? I have a motion by mister Campo and a second by mister Martinez. Now this item, relates to constraint three. There was a the committee met after last, last month's meeting to consider the discussion that we had at the last meeting. The committee sent out a PowerPoint presentation to everybody. Hopefully, you had an opportunity to look at it. We can pull it up if we need to talk through the changes that were made and the reasons for them and, the considerations that were made, we had a pretty robust I guess, we met once or twice. We met twice to talk about everything that was raised during the meeting last time. And so you have our final draft. The administration took a look at it again. Everyone's comfortable with the the current status of what's in front of you, but the committee is ready to answer any questions. I'm sure the administration is as well. So, and we can pull up the PowerPoint if we want to and walk through the changes if that's something that somebody wants to do. But any questions, comments? You wanna pull up the PowerPoint? Okay. I made a promise, and now I have to fulfill it. Okay. I need help. I have no. You don't you have the PowerPoint. It's the one that's been posted. Can we put it on the screen? Okay. Sorry. Oh, great. Thank you. Oh, okay. What item was? 966666666. Just one. Okay. I have my I have it up on my iPad, if that's helpful. Yeah. On my iPad. Okay. Sure. Is there any questions in the meantime before we pull it up? No? Okay. Yes, yes ma'am. Sure. Thank you. Can we speak to one of the bullets under the recommendation that reads the results of stakeholder engagement related to the anticipated changes to programming or school options. Can we define stakeholder engagement and just kinda talk through what that looks like? Yes. Let me find that. Oh, I'm sorry. Okay. So you're talking about, the the language that reads that what you just said. So you're talking about what is the stakeholder engagement. Yes. Chief Hull actually did a nice job of talking about that last time. You talked about the work that was done. I think we're comparing or explaining through examples the work that was done with respect to the changes to the programmatic changes that were done to the schools that we approved or heard about over the last several months and what was done in those engagements. It sounds like to me that the engagement depends on what the change is, but maybe you can speak to what's anticipated in terms of some standardization or otherwise. Yes. Of course. I think one of the things we mainly wanted to make sure we were supporting principals and communities in doing was, ensuring they were getting staff, engaging the staff in the decision, engaging the community, in the decision as well, and then engaging the students when that made the most sense. So, and then they could use those three points of input, across all of those different stakeholder groups when they were proposing the change and considering the change, and that's included in each of the impact reports, that are part of meeting the constraint. And where are these impact reports located? Are they accessible to us, the public? How do we because, again, I think it's great that we are actually, placing those somewhere because for historical purposes moving forward, we can look back and see why we made changes and things like that. So how accessible are they? The board does have them, and we can look into a process for that. Thank you. Any other questions without the aid of demonstratives? No? Okay. We got it? No? Oh, uh-oh. K. What? I have one question. Yes. There was a there was a timing piece, I think, that you bring up that tied to, like, EHBJ, where we we had, like, maybe a fiscal year and we changed it to a year or or vice versa. That's right. So, you wanna talk about that issue? Just in general. So chief Cole talked about that. I think the part of the question at the last meeting was about communication to the parents and timing on that. And that's something that I don't I don't know if this directly answers your question, but that's something that the committee thought about, talked about. And one of the things we considered was should we implement some kind of deadline? Because from chief Hall's discussion, it sounded like, for the most part, these changes are gonna occur in the fall before school choice so that people can know what they're choosing. The one exclusion from that is the NES changes. And so we had a robust discussion about whether the board should be the ones to determine that date or, like, put something in the constraint in that regard. And it was our collective view that, no, that's really a decision that needs to be made by the administration. And so we did not we chose not to put that into the constraint, understanding the concern, which is parents wanna know what's gonna happen to their school next year. So I don't know if you wanna say anything or the committee wants to say anything more about it. Committee members? I think to add to that sentence, I think it was we know community wants to know, but we also know that the administration needs to be responsive. And in the case of NES, there there's a responsiveness, timing ness that that I appreciate, as that that I take away from the discussion as being significant. K. That answer your question? Okay. Okay. So let's, can we pull up can we start from the beginning? We're gonna run through this pretty quick because we've I mean, whoever did the screenshots did an excellent job with that. Okay. Constraint three committee. Why did we do it? We had a lack of consistent interpretation between the administration and the board of the intent of constraint three. We we've talked about that. So what was the charge? Look at AE local to determine whether the constraints properly represent the community's values, what we expected when we put constraint three in place, offer some written clarification or definitions, that became evident as a really important point that needed to be addressed by the committee. And then, as appropriate, make recommendations of, other potential modifications to policy language. We considered all things from adding additional constraints to taking away constraints. But, ultimately, the decision was by the committee, let's stick to constraint three. Let's focus on it and make it better so everybody understands what's going on. Okay. So then what were the recommendations? Number one, recommended updates to constraint three to address the timing concerns. That is when is the report gonna come to the board. Number two, clarify the application. What is it that's the substance of the things that we're looking to get an update on? That's number two, clarify the work to be conducted by the administration to meet board expectations of constraint three. This is where, chief Hull really, dug in and helped us to understand what what can be done and what should be done and what what we need to know and how y'all can function within this constraint, because we didn't wanna put a constraint in place that was, something that would hamstrung the administration in any way, and was consistent really with what you were planning to do anyway. So, number four, recommend updates to AHPJ local to make consistent with constraint three. Okay. So the first Why is it black? So we highlighted, but it came out as a black a strikethrough. Okay. Oh. The word is first. You wanna pull it up? Can you pull it up in in in PowerPoint? Yeah. We get the gist. Okay. Time. Okay. First, there's gonna be a the the the conducting of the work and the communication is going to happen before the change. Okay. So that was one. Let's move on. Next. It's okay. Let's just keep going. Alright. The super alright, guys. Shall not make significant changes. I know it now. Memorize. Sending significant changes to programming. So this is original language. Let's go to the next. What we needed to do was define what is a significant change because there was a question about that. So here's what we came up with. These are the the very specific things that become a significant change. We had a discussion, and I think there was a question in the q and a, about where did we come up with these 30%, ten % numbers. And, the real reason that we came to these conclusions was we did some actual testing amongst ourselves. Well, would this change actually have triggered a reporting obligation on the administration? Do we want that? Is that appropriate? And we thought collectively that that these numbers work to, miss Bandy's point at our last meeting. We'll monitor this. If it becomes burdensome or if it's not tight enough, then we can deal with that later. Okay. So next was clarify application. Let's go down. So what what is a a magnet, and what is a specialized programming? We wanted to clarify, the application again here to what is it that we're talking about in terms of what are the programs that are changing that are then gonna trigger this obligation. Okay? The work to meet the board constraint, these are the three items that are going to be done. Again, this is what we talked about a moment ago with with, chief Hull. These are the things that are going to be reported on, stakeholder engagement impact to the programming or the school options, including the impact on board adopted outcome goals, enrollment, and budget, which were items that this committee thought were very important, and then any related or potentially related research based studies, which we talked about last time. Okay? Recommendation four, other policy impacts because EHBJ and and this policy, AE local, are intertwined in one regard. The modification of the magnet program, we talked about this issue in terms of timing, of when the change can actually occur, and it will be the next academic year. Okay? Other policy impacts. There was a question about major modification, minor modification, and the question and request that that the committee can consider and come up with a clarification of what a major modification is. We've done that here. So this is an update from the last version that you all saw in December, and it really is intended to say if it's going to undermine the integrity of the magnet program with the which the administration has added some additional language around, what does it mean to to, modify or undermine the integrity of magnet program? This is intended to to clarify that so that there's not any difference in understanding. Okay? This particular change that we see on page slide 14, is a clarifying term that was added by the administration to speak to in the establishment of a magnet program what is expected in terms of community involvement. And it sets a bar of what must happen. And so that was a welcome change, and the committee considered it, and we're happy with with that change. Last alright. This is a pickup by the board services. Thank you for this. We needed to update this portion of AE local I'm sorry, EHBJ local to make it consistent with our current, status in terms of our vision statement. This just had some old language in it that needed to be updated. So there's no material change here. It's really just updating. But we wanted to highlight it so the board could see the change. Okay? And then the last. So as as I said a moment ago, we we considered all the things that were talked about during the meeting, in December, and, we determined that we would make the certain changes that we have already talked about. Some things we have left out, including specificity of application of constraint three to campuses which are moved into or out of the NES system. The creation of a timeline for required changes, I. E. We're not we're not dictating a particular deadline by which changes have to occur. We're gonna leave that to the district to decide, the administration. And then, there was a question last time, I think, from miss Flowers about a the creation of a plan of communication or how that actually should work. And like the other, we'd leave that to the administration to make a decision on how best to communicate to the community within the structures we've already talked about. And that's it. Does anybody have any questions? Yes, sir. Just one. So when it comes to the the monitoring of of the item, do you feel like you've got sufficient space and opportunity to to create the monitoring reports that that align to what we're requesting? I hope so. She pulled us. I know she does. We are prepared to submit our impact reports for all changes. Yes. Yes. I think so. We are very much on the same page. So, I think if nobody has any questions, we'll take a yes, ma'am. The only question I have is the language, the last bullet, I'm on page seven, any part of a group of students that is impacted in a way that both the board and the superintendent agree is significant. I just wanna raise the point that if the superintendent does not think it's significant and we don't know about it, there's still this wiggle room. How are we both gonna agree to something every time something's going on when he's working, and that's not our job to be in the middle of it? Where where can I communicate? I think I think, you can start to I mean, I I think it was I almost everything will be captured by the bullets before that. Mhmm. And this was just, a way to say there there might be something outside these bullets that we still believe is significant. Maybe there's maybe for some reason, the school has a, I don't know, history of this program, and it's not 30% or 10% of a class. It's, you know, eight students out of 25 or something like that. And so we we we say this is significant anyway. So, I mean, it it's hard to imagine something that it's it'll be an exception. My only question is, I could see how you could reasonably think that, but what if a board member disagrees with your estimation and then doesn't know why you brought it to us? I'm saying when we're saying both Yeah. If we disagree with what you do and then after the fact come back to you saying we don't agree, that seems a little Yeah. So problematic. Both means both. So, we would have to communicate well and explain the rationale. If it doesn't meet the threshold of the others, then the the default is it's not a significant change. Okay. Yeah. And I think yeah. To your point, it has to be both parties believing that it's significant. So and I think, chief Hull talked about this last time and because you're actually receiving requests from principals to change programs. So if something comes to your attention that you think, may it doesn't meet these specific requirements, but let's go talk to the board and see if this is something that they wanna hear a report on. Probably at that point, you're doing the research anyway, so you can probably do a report. That's my guess. That's correct. And I think it it was a way to give us additional ability to say something as important beyond what's in the bullets. So we will do if it meets significant, we will do the report regardless. That sentence doesn't allow us to not do a report. It just allows us to add reports. K. Alright. Thank you. Thank you, committee. Okay. Let's vote. Somebody's got their screen up. Oh, I knew they had mine up here. Alright. The motion is to approve the changes to AE local. Please vote. Motion passes nine in favor. Thank you very much. Okay. We are gonna move on. Our next motion, that's needed is with respect to EHBJ local, which we just talked about as well. It's also been pulled from the consent agenda. Do I have a motion to approve agenda item eight, proposed revisions to board policy EHBJ local, special programs innovative and magnet program second rating. A motion by miss Arnold and a second by miss Mendoza. Is there any further discussion? Seeing none, please vote. Nine in favor, none opposed. Okay. Next, may I have a motion to approve agenda item nine, ratification of cooperative vendor awards from 08/11/2023 to present. We're gonna go click. We will after. I wanna get a motion. We've got a motion by miss Lindner and a second by mister Campo. We are going to move to closed session to discuss this item. At this time, the board will recess to closed session under chapter five fifty one of Texas government code open meetings act subsections five fifty one point zero zero four through 551.089 should board final action, voter, decision on any matter considered in the closed session be required, such final action, voter, decision shall be taken at the open meeting covered by this notice upon the reconmeeting of this public meeting or to subsequent public meeting of the board upon notice thereof. This board has recessed to closed session at 07:40PM on 01/16/2025. Alright. Are you ready? We got what we need? Okay. We are back from closed session at 10:14PM. We had a motion to approve the ratification of cooperative vendor awards from 08/11/2023 to the present, effective 01/17/2025. That was pending, before we went to closed session. That's agenda item nine. I believe that our audit committee chair has a comment to make, and then I will make a comment, and then we'll open it up for any further discussion. Yes, ma'am. Thank you, madam president. Yes. So I wanted to update the board to just make clear that we asked our internal audit team, which is an external firm, RSM, to review the, items where, the purchases were over a million dollars or more, over a million dollars to validate that the spending followed the approved appropriate processes, approvals, budgeting, record keeping, and, there was a memo that we shared to summarize that work, that that was done. And just wanted to reiterate that the results of that work were that, the, our internal audit team found that all of the, all of the processes that were followed were appropriate. And so wanted to just make sure that that was noted, for for, each other and for our community to understand that we did leverage our internal audit team to review those purchases. And as I understand it, that will be published. Is that correct? Yes. We'll we'll publish that to make sure it's available. Okay. Alright. I'd also like to make note of the the changes that are anticipated on a going forward basis. The first being that there will be a full audit of the procurement process that will begin immediately, which is to be managed by the audit committee. There will be quarterly follow ups, follow-up audits also to be managed by the audit committee. And as I understand it, the administration will adopt a regulation that will require the addition additional legal review of the procurement process and other process improvements. Fair. Okay. Alright. Are there any other discussion items that the board wishes to have, talk about with respect to this item number nine? Yes, mister John. Just for a point of clarification, so we'll post it on the audit website. Is that the plan? Because we didn't say specifically. Thank you for clarifying. Yeah. We've got a we've got a place on our website that we can make that available. That'll be in the same area. It should be in the same area where, folks would be able to access, the audit reports when those come out. And just another clarifying point. The audit committee requested the internal auditor to conduct the review, the internal auditor being RSM, the company that is external to the district. Yes. It is rather confusing, but it can be. So thanks for clarifying. The the audit committee asked our internal audit team to do that. Okay. Thank you. Alright. Let's move forward. If there are no more comments, there's a motion and a second. My name is Lindner and mister Campo. Can we vote? We have, one against, seven in favor. I didn't read it fast enough. One abstention on the ratification. Okay. We are gonna move forward. The next item that we have is, election of officers. Actually, I'm gonna let's do the consent agenda first. Do I have a motion to approve tonight's consent agenda by consensus? I have a motion by miss Cruz Arnold or doctor Cruz Arnold and a second by miss Mendoza. Is there any discussion on the consent agenda items? No? Okay. Let's vote. Motion passes nine in favor. Okay. The last item, we have a couple of things that came out of closed session. Who has the motion or motions, I should ask? Yes. Yes, sir. I have a motion with regard to employees. Yes. Alright. I move that the board approve the termination of the probationary contract for the employee listed as teacher four dash a, generalist employee ID 22480 on the personal agenda on the terms discussed in closed session. We have a motion by mister Martinez and a second by miss Lindner. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, please vote. Eight in favor, one abstention. Motion passes. Next motion. Yes. I move that the board approves a closed session personal agenda, including specifically that the board approves proposed terminations, nonrenewals non renewals of continuing term performance and probationary contracts and authorize the superintendent or designated to provide notice of same that the board approves suspensions without pay for continuing term and probationary contracts and authorize the superintendent or designate to provide notice of same that the board avoids term, probationary, and performance contracts and authorize the superintendent or designee to provide notice of same, that the board approves, withdrawals of contract recommendations, and that the board approves issuance of final orders on contract terminations and non renewals as discussed in closed session effective 01/16/2025. Motion by mister Martinez. I have a second. Second by mister Campo. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, please vote. Motion passes nine in favor. Any other motions out of closed session? Yes, please. Okay. Yes, ma'am. I move that the board declares the Brookline facility, Chatham facility, East Area office, Fairchild facility, Fawn Wood facility, Grimes facility, Harper facility, Haviland acreage, Kirby And Orem acreage, North Forest acreage, North Forest Mesa Strip, Rhodes facility, Ryan facility, South Area Office, Southbank acreage, Terrell facility, and Tidwell acreage, a surplus and authorized sales procedures. Thank you. We have a motion. Why don't you sell Happy Megg while you're at it? We have a motion. Ma'am, please. Ma'am. You have a most disappointed Ma'am, this is a warning. This is your second warning, ma'am. Thank you. Please leave the building. As I directed earlier today, two warnings, and we're gonna ask you to leave. Ma'am, please. Ma'am, thank you. I'm gonna ask you to please leave the building, ma'am. Okay. The board's gonna take a brief recess at 10:22PM. At 10:26. There's been a motion with respect to certain facilities by, miss Lindner and a second by miss Vandy. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, please vote. Nine in favor, zero opposed, motion passes. Any other motions out of closed session? Okay. The last item we have on our agenda this evening is the election of officers. We'll proceed with the election process conducted in accordance with board policy BDAA local. But before we do, I wanna say to this board, it's been an honor and pleasure to serve this board and the district in the role of president. During these last eighteen months, the board has worked to maintain our focus on our students while also being attentive to matters that are important to long term success of the work that we're doing and ultimately the work to move the district back to elected control. No matter who is in this seat, this board, I know, will continue the work together. So as was our process last year, I will take a motion for a slate of officers. Miss Mendoza, what is your motion? Madam president, I'd like to make a motion that the slate be Rick Campo as president, Audrey Mamanee as vice president, and Angie Flowers as secretary. We have a motion. Is there a second? There's a second by miss Linder. Is there any discussion? No discussion. I'd like to make a comment. Yes, ma'am. You very much for Ma'am, miss Heiner, we're trying to conduct business. This is your first warning. Go ahead, miss Mendoza. Just a comment, not a question. Thank you very much for your service. Thank you. Thank you. Anything else? K. Let's vote. Nine in favor I'm sorry. Eight in favor. One abstention. Motion passes. Alright. I will now install the new board present, Rick Campbell. We're now ready we're not gonna switch up anything. We're now ready to hear reports and comments from board members. We can start down here, miss Vandy. I understand you you're welcome to say something, but I have a comment about you. You have been elected to continue your service on the Harris County Appraisal District board of directors, and you began a three year term on January 1. So congratulations to you for that. Any comments from this end? A quick one. I know that our students are taking their moi right now. And so this week, the middle of the year testing side, just big, big thank you to all the teachers and administrators making it happen and to all the kids who are just doing the needful. And, I know it's, I've heard some complaints from my kids. It's been a busy week, but, I'm glad we're doing it. Okay. Anything over here? Yes. Miss Mendoza? Thank you. I would like to, give a big congratulations to, teacher Mazaharian out of Heights High School. He just retired after forty years of service as an algebra teacher and counselor, and he was my son's homeroom teacher, back when he was in high school. So I wanna give him a strong congratulations on his retirement and all the students that he provided such good guidance to all these years. Great. Thank you. Anybody else? Mister Herrmann? Just wanted to, give recognition on on at this time, also for your service, and, thank you for the time that you spent and the guidance that you've given and the leadership that you've exhibited for this board. It's much appreciated. Also, I wanna take a moment to, recognize the fact that, coming up, we'll have a Martin Luther King Day, one of my, esteemed fraternity brothers. And, I hope that, we get the opportunity, and each of you consider, ways to serve, the community in your own special way, in recognition of that day. And, so I look forward to that. And, again, thank you all for the service that you provide, on this board and this month of, board appreciation. So Yes. Mister superintendent, anything? Okay. Very good. Then, our next regular board meeting will be on 02/13/2025. And with no further business to conduct, we are done tonight at 10:31PM. Thank you.