Evening. It's Thursday, 11/20/2025. The time is 05:02. This is the regular monthly board meeting of the Keller ISD Board of Trustees. All trustees are present. We'll go into pledges. Bryce. Please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. Here to lead us in the pledges are some of the outstanding students from Lone Star Elementary. Immediately following the pledges, Principal Julie Maddie will come to the podium and introduce her students. I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and to the
Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Honor the Texas flag, I pledge allegiance to be Texas, one state under God, one and indivisible. Alright. Alright. It is my honor to introduce some amazing fourth grade Lone Star students tonight. They are part of our UCS leadership team led by our amazing Miss McCormick. These students represent the best of Lone Star through their leadership, responsibility, and commitment to
serving others. We have here tonight Harper Alsip, Everly Cox, Brinley Favier, Emery Randall, Clay Alsup, Anderson Bustamante, Natalie Yao, Cameron Russell, Harper Jones, Eliana Salama, Barrett Russell, Lincoln Lovelace.
Thank you very much. Now please join us for a word of prayer, vice president Washington. Heavenly father, we thank you for this Christmas season of hope and peace. We ask for your wisdom and guidance. We recognize that there are differing opinions and emotions among us. Please help us listen with respect, speak with grace, and work toward unity for the good of our students and families. May your light and peace guide our discussion and our decisions tonight. In your name we pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you. And to the awards, Bryce. Yes. Before we, celebrate some outstanding achievements tonight, we're delighted to present a holiday musical performance
featuring some truly remarkable young vocalists. With us this evening, we have the Timber Creek High School Chamber Choir joined by select singers from Trinity Springs and Timberview Middle Schools. They are led by Adrianne Curley, Caleb Benich, Clinton Ferry, Elizabeth King, Helen Schrader, and Emily Patrick. Please join me in giving a warm welcome, and we hope you enjoy this special holiday performance. Thank you again, these solid students and the directors for such a beautiful movie performance. How about one round of applause? Give them just a moment to to exit before we continue with awards. One second. As the, as people are leaving, I would just like to, say what a what
a beautiful a beautiful way to lead us into the Christmas, season, which is only a week or so away. So congratulations. Well, as they're trickling out, we'll go ahead and get started. In your board packet, you'll find Student Staff Achievements on pages three through five. Photos will be taken directly following each award inside the boardroom in front of the backdrop in the Southwest corner, where our board members will join award recipients for a quick photo. During this time, we ask that guests do remain in the seating area, and we invite you to take any personal photos outside in the courtyard or the lobby following the awards portion of the agenda. All group photos taken inside the boardroom will be shared via the Keller ISD Facebook
page. For our first award tonight, I'd like to invite Trustee Kocher down to help us honor our latest Hard at Work Employee of the Month. This month's recipient was nominated by Parkview Elementary Assistant Principal Heather Gaona, who shared the following. Ms. Taylor Coltrane is being recognized for her exceptional compassion and commitment to building strong, supportive relationships with her students. This year, she has provided consistent care and encouragement to a student facing major personal hardships, helping them feel safe, supported, and ready to learn each day. Her intentional approach and ability to foster trust and stability with her students exemplifies her
heart of teaching. Ladies and gentlemen, please help me congratulate our December 2025 Keller ISD Hard at Work Employee of the Month from Parkview Elementary second grade teacher, Taylor Coltrane. Just a reminder to employees to keep those submissions rolling in. You can nominate coworkers for Hard at Work Employee of the Month by visiting www.kellerisd.net/haw and filling out the You've Got Heart online form. That's how Taylor won. At this time, I'd like to invite Board Secretary Campbell to join Executive Director of Human Resources, Doctor. Narmika Williams, to celebrate our latest HR staff recognitions.
Good evening board and Doctor. Wilson. We're always excited to honor our quarterly FACE Award winners. The FACE Award celebrates operational staff members that provide friendly above and beyond customer service excellence. These three staff members exemplify excellence, dedication, and heart in everything they do. They go above and beyond to keep our campuses running smoothly, always stepping in wherever they're needed with a smile and a positive attitude, all while making a lasting impact on our students, staff, and school community. We are excited to recognize our three winners for this quarter.
The first one, unfortunately, was not able to join us, but we would still like to recognize from Freedom Freedom from Independence Elementary School, child nutrition specialist, Sherry Langham. And next from Vista Ridge Middle School, custodian Mai Lin Vu. And last but certainly not least, from Basswood Elementary School campus security officer Dante Jackson. Congratulations to all our winners again.
Thank you so much. We are certainly grateful for these award winners and their countless countless other employees who go out of their way to make the district, the very best they can be. Thank you for all the ways that you help support, protect, and serve the students and staff of Cali ISD. Moving right along, Vice President Washington, will you please join us, and CTE coordinator Debbie Schneeman as we highlight FFA state achievements by some of our aspiring agricultural students. Good evening, Mr. Burt, Doctor. Wilson, and Board of Trustees. Tonight, we are proud to recognize a group of outstanding Keller ISD students who achieved
remarkable success in the Texas FFA Leadership Development events held earlier this month on December at Sam Houston State University. These contests showcase students' skills in public speaking, leadership, teamwork, and agricultural advocacy, which are key components of the FFA mission to develop premier leadership, personal growth, and career success. Keller ISD students once again represented our district with excellence, earning top honors at both
the area and state levels. At this time, I would like to recognize our Keller ISD students who advanced to the state level. In Greenhand, Creed speaking, second at area, ninth place at state, we have miss Courtney Washington. For Ag Advocacy, this, we have second at AREA and they are state semifinalists. This group of students was not able to be with us tonight, but I would like to share their names, anyway. Grace Spivey, Samantha Krasinski, Tatum Clanton, and Allison Lindeman. For Greenham Quiz, second at area and state semifinalists, we have Jaden Eubank, Taylor Scarborough,
Valerie Lopez, and Layla Burnside. Senior quiz area champions and state semifinalists, we have Lexi Coutts, Kayla Botman, Morgan Moses and Danielle Waltz. In addition to these impressive results, Keller ISD was also named the area five leadership development sweepstakes champion. This honor is awarded to the school with the highest cumulative points and placings across all contests in area five, which includes a 136 FFA chapters across North Texas.
This recognition highlights the depth and quality of our students leadership, as well as the dedication of their teachers and advisors who prepare them for success at the highest levels. These incredible results would not be possible without the guidance and commitment of our FFA advisors who dedicate countless hours to mentoring our students. Please join me in thanking Miss Kaylee Carter, Hunter Bagwell, Jenny Kiggins, Bryce Gerhardt, Peyton George and Kendall Wallace. On behalf of Keller ISD and the Board of Trustees, I want to extend our
congratulations to all of our FFA leadership development event competitors, their advisors, and their families. Your accomplishments continue to bring pride to Keller ISD and reflect the strength of our agricultural science programs and the leadership values that FFA instills in students. Please join me once again in celebrating these outstanding achievements. As they take our fellow congratulations again to these state competitors, their hard work, leadership, and dedication, to Cary's CTE program proudly allows them to proudly represent our schools and
community at the highest level. Thanks. For our final two awards this evening, I please have Board President Burt and Trustee Kelly join Director of Fine Arts Kim Bland to to help us recognize an individual distinction on a national stage and a collective success at the highest level of state competition. And then Trustee Erics, will you please assist us at the photo backdrop? Good evening. Reagan Brumley, a senior at Keller High School, a member of the KHS Wind Ensemble, has been selected by Music For All to join the Bands of America Honor Band in the twenty twenty six Rose Parade in Pasadena, California.
Reagan will perform alongside more than 250 musicians from across the nation in this prestigious national ensemble. As a bass clarinetist, Reagan will spend a week in Southern California rehearsing and performing at the Tournament of Roses Bandfest, participating in special activities, and making a featured appearance in the world famous parade broadcast. Ladies and gentlemen, please help me congratulate KHS senior Reagan Brimley. And in case you missed it, we had more great news out of Pasadena this
fall. Timber Creek High School marching band has been selected to make its debut appearance in the twenty twenty seven Rose Parade. We're thrilled for them and we look forward to recognizing their achievement at a future meeting. Yes. You can clap for them too. After delivering standout performances at the six a area b marching contest on October 25, earning top marks for precision, musicality, and showmanship, both Keller High School and Timber Creek High School advanced to the UIL six a state marching contest on November 3 at
the Alamo Dome in San Antonio. At state, these talented student musicians represented KISD with pride as they competed against the top bands in Texas, ultimately both of them placing in the top 25, putting them in the top 10% of band programs in Texas and making KISD one of only three school districts with multiple programs qualifying for six a state. Congratulations once again to these outstanding leaders who are here to accept this award on
behalf of their entire marching band program. KHS drum major, Ashley Chung, and KHS color guard captains, Kinsey Simmons. The Keller High School band is under the direction of mister Daniel Bloss, Juliana Fletcher, Connor Coryath, and Edward Camareno. And for our TCHS drum majors, Kate Margeason, Catherine McGovern, Rebecca Flatus, Eddie Weber, and
Micah Howard. And our TCHS color guard captains, Liberty Thompson and Giselle Samuels. The Timber Creek band is under the direction of Brad McCann, Daniel Malecon, James Pyle, and Dan Chennajara. Out of two forty seven 6A bands, high schools in Texas, Keller High School and Timber Creek High School, probably ranked among the top 10% of bands statewide. These musicians exemplify excellence, their discipline, artistry and teamwork and we are honored to recognize them for representing their schools with pride and professionalism. Thanks again.
And that concludes our awards presentation for this evening. Thank you and happy holidays. We'll now move to, President's update. I sought guidance from the district and board's legal counsel, Haley Turner, with Walsh Gallegos regarding the statement I'm about to share. Trustee doctor Charles Rancliff submitted his resignation from the Keller ISD Board of Trustees, place six, on 12/10/2025. In accordance with state law, this resignation became effective today, December 18, eight days after
it was received by me as president of the board. Place six is officially vacant and doctor Radcliffe is no longer a trustee of KISD. We thank doctor Radcliffe for his public service over the past four years and the multiple contributions he's made to KISD, its students, educators, staff, and taxpayers, and we wish him well in his future endeavors. Miss Turner will be participating in executive session this evening to provide guidance on the
board's legal responsibilities and options for filling this vacant seat. All board members will have the opportunity to be fully informed and educated on the legalities before any public discussion or action. The board will not take any action or comment on this issue tonight. Proper discussion and or action regarding this vacancy will be placed on a meeting agenda in the near future. With that, I simply wish everyone a Merry Christmas, a happy holiday season, and a
blessed New Year. Doctor Wilson? Yes. So this evening, I did wanna point out one thing. We were we fully intended to bring you our first report tonight. However, we were we are required to post a notice in the newspaper which we weren't able to submit in time. So that is, that is that is something that I wanted to make you aware of. We don't anticipate any changes from last year, but we will bring you that forward in January, just as an as a point of clarification.
This week was busy but it was also very enjoyable because we had our first board advisory committee meetings. On Tuesday we had our long range planning committee and our policy committee. And then on Wednesday, we met with our, budget committee. The participation was exactly what we had anticipated and what we wanted. The conversation was great, and I'm really looking forward to the work with these these groups do over the next couple months. I also wanna set the stage for what's coming up in January. So beginning right when we get back from, break, we will begin in earnest working
on our 2627 budget. Just so you know, it's not a surprise but costs continue to rise and revenue remains flat. This means that once again we're gonna have to, scrutinize our budget and we will be we will be having to find efficiencies in order to, present all of you with a balanced budget this this summer. This doesn't mean that we are going to be unable to provide raises. As each of you has let me know, that would be one of your priorities and you would like to see us do that.
However, the efficiencies that we're going to be able to find will determine the size of the raise that we're able to give our employees for next year. Our long range planning and Citizens Bond Advisory Council will also begin meeting jointly to assist us in identifying the criteria that we will be using to create our campus consolidation plan. This plan is going to be very hard. It's gonna be emotional work, but I do hope to bring you a recommendation for closures this spring, based on the committee recommendations. The bond planning begin the bond planning committee will then begin planning our next bond
package to address the mechanical, electrical, and plumbing issues that continue to plague our school districts. Our long range planning committee will then begin discussing existing programming to determine how each of those fits in our long term future. To end this evening, I want to share with you all a message that I shared, with the committees that I was able to meet with. In order to do all of this work and to get to the other side successfully, this entire community will need to work together. We have an opportunity so to solidify our financial stability, address the facility issues that
are negatively impacting our educational environments, and focus on what is most important, our kids and our staff. It's going to be difficult, it's going to be emotional, and it will take all of us working together. But I know that we can do it. I know how much this community loves our schools and I know how much they care. The next year is gonna be difficult, but I'm confident next year at this time we will be able to look back on all we have accomplished and be proud of what we have done for Keller ISD.
This district has a very bright future ahead of it and I look forward to the hard work that begins in January. And with that, I will turn it back over to Mr. Burt. Thank you, Doctor. Wilson. As we begin the rest of our meeting, I'd like to highlight the school board meeting protocol. As violations to these expectations, any violations to these expectations, could result in a request to be removed from the meeting. No signs are allowed as this presents a safety concern. Applause, heckling, booing, and verbal disturbances of any kind will not be allowed or tolerated
during the meeting. Please refrain from side conversations during the meeting as it serves as a distraction to others. Attacks of a personal nature and name calling against district staff and board members will not be tolerated. Members of the public will not be allowed to approach or walk in front of the dais at any time, during a meeting unless invited to do so. The business of the board begins with audience with individuals. This portion of the meeting is specifically for members of the public to address the
board. Your input is encouraged and will always be thoughtfully considered. Please address your comments to the board as a whole rather than to the audience or any individual. Trustees may not respond to audience questions or inquiries. Specific complaints or grievances against an individual should be addressed through the grievance process and not in this venue. We expect everyone to act civilly and with respect. Individuals who wanted to speak were required to sign up before the meeting began. Pursuant to board policy BED local, the amount of time each speaker receives may be
adjusted for effective meeting management. Tonight, each individual will have three minutes to address the board. A timer will be visible on the screen and will change color to indicate that you have thirty seconds remaining. Each speaker will be speaking from the stand alone microphone to your left. In order for speakers to hear when they are called and to be heard, we ask that audience members remain quiet and respectful of everyone. Bryce will be calling each individual up to speak as well as the individual who
will be coming up next so you can make your way to the microphone and be ready when it is your turn. Bryce, will you please call the speakers to the microphone? And first up, we have Garna Joshi followed by Delana Hambrick Barsanti. Garnet? Yeah. Right. Dalena Hamburg Barsanti followed by Rachel Jenkins. Good evening. My initial reaction to the recent resignation was mixed. I'm glad trustee Van Cleave would be gone but then it hit me. Wow. Once our strong beloved school district has come to this, we were a beacon for
districts to follow and now our bright light has faded. So many have worked tirelessly for this district. Teachers, administrators, parents, and community members. Now we're left stunned. I'm horrified that I've entrusted several of you. My faith tells me that I should forgive and forget. But when those who cause so much damage and refuse to take accountability, it becomes difficult for me to follow my faith. I hope this resignation starts a chain reaction with three new resignations to follow. This district and community, we need time to heal.
Rachel Jenkins followed by Fianna Campbell. Fianna Campbell followed by Anushka Girish. Hi. I'm Fiana, a junior at KCA. Here at KCA we understand that cuts have to occur but at KCA we just want to know that you made an effort. We can only get one graduating class through the door before you propose to shut down despite KCA offering and despite KCA offering associate's degrees, we still haven't been registered as an early college high school. This has made us ineligible for grants that could have never put us in a situation in the first place.
I'd have to wonder why was this program even started if you weren't going to put in the necessary effort. Despite being small in number, KC has a large student spirit and committed student led organizations. Show the students that you are at least willing to do something to preserve our organizations and community in what could be potentially the last years of this school. I would also like to remind you all that when every KCA student graduates, almost all students gain the board CTE or CCMR, bonuses.
This is because almost all KCA students graduates with an associate's degree or industry certification, gaining the district money as case your students graduate. The school has potential not only for its students, but for its district in metrics and money. Please consider that in the upcoming budget cuts. Thank you. Anushka Girish followed by Peter Romano. Hello. My name is Anushka, and I'm a KCA student. In the previous meeting, the board stated that they will phase out KCA, but have every intent of allowing the current students to graduate as promised.
However, I think what the board does not realize is how this impacts us. Obviously, the optimum option will be to maintain status quo until all of us graduate. However, if we are forced to take online schooling to remain in KCA, then we will be stripped of the opportunities we deserve. But if we are forced to go to other campuses, we will be unfairly competing with those who have had access to more AP courses than us. Both routes greatly impact our college admissions because promising a degree is not the same thing as promising a high school experience.
Extracurricular activities and further opportunities will be cut out, leaving us with a bare minimum to put on our college apps. Additionally, KCS students, especially juniors, some who have stayed here for four years and have been there to shape the foundations of the school, have made a commitment to take these rigorous courses and build reputation to acquire internship positions that cannot be transferred to other schools. What irks me the most is the lack of communication between the board and students. Because had this predicament been made public sooner, then KCS students would have would be
able to make informed choices earlier. Now what KCS students do more than ever is to have a concrete plan for the next three years regarding how on how school will be conducted so that we can salvage the best out of the situation. We may have lost our space and staff, but in futures cannot be compromised without accountability. Thank you. Peter Romano followed by Andrew Sternke. My name is Peter Romano. I'm a proud parent of two independent Mavericks students and the head of the Watch Dogs program for the school. Rest assured that while I may not be a familiar face to you at these
meetings, there are many of constituents and many of your constituents like myself that stay informed of the cynical nonsense that some of the members of this board get up to despite not being able to attend every meeting in person. On that note, happy first anniversary to the first time that the split came out. I'd like to thank doctor Rencliff for all of his hard work on the board, but it doesn't look like he's here. Since he's blocked me, my wife, and many of your other constituents on social media after his resignation, I wasn't able to read his post about his accomplishments. May I say I wish him all the success in the upcoming election race, if only for the fact that he will hopefully never be involved in my children's education
again. My only Christmas wish this year is that three other trustees would also follow his suit and resign in disgrace that would free up seats for the people who actually care about students, teachers, and district staff, keeping public education apolitical, and most of all, ridges to the parasite that is Tim Davis and his ever ballooning global hours. Do any of you actually know how much that's costing us? How many teacher raises could his fees pay? How many funding increases to the arts could his fees pay? The wonderful performances that you saw here, the success of our marching band, all depend
on funding for the arts, which we all know is the first thing to be cut in times of fiscal hardship. Thank you. Andrew Sternke followed by Catherine Woods. Members of the board, Merry Christmas and happy holidays. I'm here tonight to speak about transparency, accountability, and what happened exactly one year ago regarding the proposed split of Keller ISD. For months, Rump Board trustees engage in prior discussions about dividing this district, discussions that should have occurred publicly under the Texas Open Meetings Act. Those conversations continued until 12/19/2024 when trustees from Fort Worth's side were finally informed.
By then, the public had been excluded and decisions were already being shaped behind closed doors. Instead of acknowledging these failures to the public, we have seen efforts to avoid responsibility. Charles rank less resignation was not accountability. It was a move to run for Keller City Council while leaving the consequences of his actions behind. Walking away does not erase conduct that occurred well in office, especially when the holdover doctrine potentially allows continued influence until replacement is sworn in. The situation worsened with the role of attorney Tim Davis, originally hired under mister Ranklev's
leadership. His involvement has gone far beyond legal counsel with duty of care and loyalty to KSD on the board. What the public sees is political consulting presented as legal advice, advice that has escalated division, fueled secrecy, and wasted taxpayer money, especially with his role as Tarrant County Republican Party chair. This concern is not unique to Keller ISD. Just this past Monday, Princeton ISD removed Tim Davis as a board attorney due to their own concerns. Other districts are recognizing the cost and chaos of Tim's approach, while Keller ISD continues
down the same legal path. Instead of transparency, we get litigation. Instead of correction, obstruction. Taxpayer dollars are being used to defend actions that should never have occurred behind closed doors and to fight lawsuits brought by citizens simply asking for compliance with the law. The Texas Open Meetings Act exists to protect the public, not to be worked around. Accountability delayed is accountability denied. I urge this board to stop wasting public funds, acknowledge what happened, and commit to
transparency. Keller ISD cannot move forward until it confronts the past year and chooses accountability over avoidance. Thank you. Catherine Woods followed by Lady Cueva. Thank you for the opportunity to speak for three minutes tonight. I want to respectfully urge the board to move swiftly to fill the vacancy created by Charles Ramclove's resignation. In my view holding a special election would be the best path forward because it would allow the community to choose the person who will represent us and help set the direction for this district. Leaving the seat unfilled risks limiting the board's ability to address serious long term issues
facing our students and schools. Recent months have included several decisions that many in the community have experienced as rushed, unpopular, or out of step with what they believe is best for Keller ISD. This has understandably led to concern and speculation about whether those decisions were timed around this resignation. Regardless of anyone's intentions, the perception in the community continues to be one of mistrust, and that mistrust can only be held through transparency, accountability, and a genuine effort to include voters in the process of choosing representatives. Many of us are also deeply worried about the future of the bond program. Our students need safe, comfortable, and functional buildings.
No one is looking forward to spring when we will surely hear from our children and faculties that their classrooms are unbearably hot while the district is forced to spend precious funds on temporary fixes like portable air conditioning just to keep the schools habitable. Our kids deserve better than stop gap measures. They deserve a board that is fully equipped and fully committed to solving these problems in a lasting way. In addition, I'm asking the board to agree to the indictment from heritage lawsuits so that this matter can be resolved. Doing so would stop the district plans from being needlessly wasted on legal fees and outside attorneys and instead allow these resources to be redirected to classrooms, campuses, and student
needs. Choosing resolution over prolonged litigation would be a concrete step forward in restoring trust and demonstrating financial responsibility to the taxpayers in this community. If a special election is not pursued, I would ask at least that the board consider every possible step to reduce legal exposure, resolve ongoing litigation, and allow the district to move forward. This community is full of people who care deeply about public education. My hope is that you will choose a path that restores trust, gives voters a voice, and puts Keller ISD back on a hopeful and constructive trajectory for our children. Merry Christmas.
Lady Cueva followed by Shaina Shakur. Hello. My name is Lady Cueva and I am a junior that goes to Color Collegiate Academy. Keller Collegiate Academy was originally promoted as a school that encouraged exceptional students to flourish. Yet since its founding, we have lost the original Keller Collegiate Academy building, lost half our staff, and had the student body threatened to be split along with the district. Nevertheless, we KCA student students have learned how to strive under said conditions, maintaining our excellent brains and bringing pride to our school district through numerous prizes and recognitions. But now we face another challenge, this phase out plan that has been discussed.
We understand that you may know for our district, yet all discussed plans allow a few to suffer for the good of many. Can you guarantee that every graduating class will be granted an associate's degree as promised by the district? And would you would you send your child to a school that would be classified as dying? Many KCE Nate parents and students don't think so and have been talking about leaving our school and or have already been applying to other collision academies outside of our school district. KCE students should not have to worry every single year. We're worrying if we will be getting our associate's degree that we have to work so hard for it, yet every year we end up on the chopping block.
You cut our funds, half our staff. I noticed that you have the four flags of the high schools. You have, Central, you have Buffalo Ridge, you have Keller, you have Timberview, yet we are not on there. How do you how do you accept us to strive when you don't recognize us as a building? How do you accept us to strive when you cut our recess resources? Can we cultivate honor learners if we give them no place to grow? Can we inspire learners if we continue to break promises? Can we build a community of excellence? And we are always tearing the community down. Thank you. Shaima Shakur. Good evening, board members.
My name is Shayma Shakur, and I'm a junior at Keller Collegiate Academy. I understand as a board, difficult decisions need to be made. However, I stand here to urge you to limit the adverse effects of these decisions on us as a KCA student body. In your efforts to reduce cost by pausing recruitment and reducing our staff, you risk be leaving behind a shell of a school. We acknowledge and appreciate our efforts to allow us the opportunity to complete our associate's degrees, but what would our high school look like without half of our teachers? Our current staff of 12 already carry the responsibility of running KCA, including our Horsa
chapter, student council, NHS, yearbook, and other student led clubs. But with fewer teachers, we will be forced to make sacrifices. Beyond academics, Escrow experience includes extracurriculars, clubs, and leadership opportunities creating a well rounded student. A lack of these opportunities prevent students from being competitive co college applicants. What does this mean for the current freshmen and sophomores who may never have the opportunity to join or start clubs? KCU is a community where us as students grow, lead, and thrive in ways beyond
our academics. We ask you to keep that in mind as you make your decisions. Thank you. Thank you. Next we'll move on to the consent and agenda. Any item pulled for the discussion, will be held for a vote at the end of, in the board consideration at the end of the meeting. Do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? So moved. Second. Alright. We'll go ahead and take any discussion? No. All in favor? All opposed? Okay. Pass seven zero. We will move back one item. I misunderstood earlier, about the report.
We'll now hear the demographer's report. Mister Wilson? Yes. So recently, we, engaged with mister Templeton, to take a look at, our demographics, and he has presented his report. This is this is kicking off what, we're gonna spend the next year on. So I'm gonna turn it over to Bob and let him take it away. Well, thank you board president Britt, board members, doctor Wilson. It is great to be here with you tonight. This is where it all started for me over twenty years ago.
I started working for the Keller School District back in 1997. My two children graduated from Keller High School in 2010, 2011. They participated in the choir program at Keller High, so that was really a treat for me to to see them hear the choir tonight. I will touch on the kind of big picture from the economic conditions. I'll spend some time on the housing market, and then I'm gonna talk about the enrollment projections. Now we work with about 80 school districts across the state of Texas, many in the Dallas Fort Worth area.
And when we talk about the economy, there's a couple of things we like to look at. We look at the unemployment rates. We also look at job growth. The DFW region continues to have sustained job growth. The unemployment rates have moved up slightly as they've moved up across the country, but we still have relatively good unemployment rates at about 4.4% across the DFW region. The economy across the DFW region is very diverse. It's driven by trade transportation utilities, it's professional services, the finance industries, it's the, investments,
and so the region is still seeing job growth. When we look at the housing market, the housing market is, I would say, challenged with headwinds. These headwinds are the continued high cost, it's also that the interest rates are still relatively high especially compared to where they were back in 2021, but the new housing market across the country is stabilizing at about 700,000 homes per month. But when we look specifically at the DFW region, now the DFW Region is the
number one city in the country for new home construction. But even here in the DFW area, we've seen a turn where the housing is slowing. In this in the second, third quarter, it was at 43,753 starts, that's the annual start rate, which is the highest in the nation, but you can see over the last two quarters where it has slowing, it is slowing. It's those interest rates are definitely a part of this challenge. Again, we've seen a couple of drops in the Fed rate, but the fixed thirty
year rate is still above 6% and we really need that rate to get down in that 5% range to help those younger first time buyers. When we look specifically at the Keller School District's new housing market, you can see how it is slowing. It is slowing primarily because we're really starting to run out of land, so we just have smaller developments, what I would categorize as more infill top developments. But it is slowing, and it is gonna continue to slow slowly just due to the fact that we're running out of land.
When we break out that new housing data by your elementary attendant zones, you've got, I would say, some nice activity happening in Whitley Road Elementary where they had 52 new home starts in the last twelve months. You've got the Liberty zone with 31 starts. You've got the Florence with 22 new home starts over the last twelve months. We do have some future lots available in the Caprock zone, so there will be eventually some housing take place in Caprock. We've also got a nice supply of future lots that are pending in the Keller
Harvill zone. So there's about 441 vacant developed lots available for builders to build on today with an additional 490 future lots that are in the planning stages. Now those are lots that have started the due diligence process, so they've gone through the city, planning process, so they are categorized as futures because they haven't broken ground yet, but they are in that planning horizon. Now here's a map of your district. Those purple outlines are your elementary attendant zones.
Those green shaded areas are the subdivisions that are active that either have vacant developed lots or are building some homes. The yellow shaded areas are the futures that are in the planning stages. And where you see a red outline, those are areas where the development has started. So there's groundwork underway, the developers are working to deliver lots in those areas with the red outlines. We have 30 actively building subdivisions, we have 70 homes under construction, about 440 lots
available to build on, and 14 potential futures that represent almost 500 future lots. There is groundwork underway on about 200 lots. Now I'll touch on some of the highlights. We do have the details on all of those subdivisions. To give you some of the highlights, Adkins Park is 75 total lots, 13 homes under construction. They've, we geocoded your students to their homes to give us a yield of students per home and in Atkins Park that yield is point six six seven.
The Bella Casa is 31 lots with nine homes under construction, higher price point. There's, prices are up over 800,000. Across the road there, we've got Beverly Grove with 33 lots. The groundwork is underway on those lots. You can see the satellite image from October where those lots have already been kind of formed. They're about to start paving. So Bella Grove, Beverly Grove should be active in the spring with some foundations being poured and new homes started in Beverly Grove.
It's in the Shady Grove Elementary attendance zone and Bella Casa is in Willis Lane. Echo Court addition is 12 lots, the groundwork is just getting started and it's, close to the Whitley Road Elementary School. Greenway Park is 38 lots, six homes under construction. These are 90 foot lots. The pricing to be determined on some of those remaining homes, but it's in the Keller Harvill elementary zone. The Grove is 47 lots with six homes under construction in the Liberty Elementary zone,
so those will be higher price point homes as well. Normandy Farms, a 121 lots. The groundwork is underway and this is in the Woodland Springs elementary zone. Another infill development, this is the point at Cap Smith Lake, a 132 lots, the, pricing to be determined, it's also just west of Whitley Road Elementary School. Stony Brook is 47 total lot, six homes under construction, The student yield in Stony
Brook is point four one two. The summit at center stage, 42 lots, the groundwork underway. The it's part of a mixed use project which will include some loft style apartments. There's a bit of commercial and, there's some retail space in there as well. Westlake Ranch in the Florence Elementary zone, 32 lots. It'll be a very high price point, homes in Westlake Ranch. Homes will be well over $1,000,000 in Westlake Ranch. On the multifamily side, we are tracking several projects under construction.
Those are the purple circles. The purple circles represent about a thousand multifamily units that are currently under construction. There's nearly 400 of those that are senior housing, so there'll be no impact of students on that senior housing development. There's an additional 1,700 multifamily units that are in the planning stages. Those are the turquoise circles. Couple of highlights here, the Hillwood Alliance is three zero eight apartment units. It is just getting started. Leasing could be again this time next year.
Probably, it'll be '27 is when we'll see these apartments really, get close to being, leased and occupied. The Village at Golden Triangle, this is a single family rental cottage type community, we are seeing the single family rentals across all of our clients, it is a growing type of multifamily, There are 316 units. The single family rental units are cottage type. Leasing is underway, so expect it to be fully complete by April '26.
As I mentioned, we do geocode your students to the addresses. This is a thematic map to give you a reference of the multifamily yields for your multifamily across the district. We've got 3,244 students residing in about 13,366 total units in the district, so the average yield for multifamily across the district is point two four three. It's a thematic map, so those green shaded multifamily areas are yielding less than point
two five, the yellow are yielding between point two five and point five, orange and the red are the higher yielding ones, the orange are yielding between point five and point seven five. The red are yielding greater than point seven five, and this does include mobile home communities. So mobile home communities, do make up the highest yielding type of housing that we see with all of our clients, but you'll notice a majority of your multifamily is in that green category, yielding less than point two five.
Now I wanna touch on the enrollment trends. We have, geocoded your student database for several years and when we geocode the student data file, we do a comparison to the previous year and that's where we can identify new students to the district for new student IDs and then the turquoise bar is the missing student IDs, those are students that have left the district. You'll notice some anomalies here, you'll spot in twenty twenty, twenty one, that year was
the year of the pandemic and that was the result of the high levers was because of the pandemic. We saw that across the country and so that was a phenomenon that wasn't specific to Keller ISD, but in that year, that was the COVID impact. In the 2122 year, when we had three thousand eight hundred and forty four new to the district, that was because of the COVID returners, so that's why that year was up and the levers dropped down to about 3,200, and then you'll notice in
2022 and in 2023, the leavers have outnumbered the newcomers pretty significantly and we again are seeing that pattern across many of our clients. It's the expansion of school choice has really already started. So even though the vouchers haven't gone into effect yet, there are many families that have already started making some of those choices as it relates to charters, as it relates to transferring patterns to neighboring districts. But the biggest area that we're seeing is the homeschool movement as it relates to
homeschooling and micro schooling. So this phenomenon that we're seeing is already underway and it is growing. In fact, the homeschool numbers far outnumber the charter school numbers and it is growing in popularity and across the country as well. We do use the birth rate data to help guide our kindergarten projections. How the birth rate data works is we look at the births within the district and then we compare that to the lagging five year kindergarten number so that we can see a ratio.
So that very first row, 2013, the district had 2,257 births and we compared that to the 2018 kindergarten number to give us a ratio. What you'll notice back when we were growing a little faster, that ratio was well above one, but then we saw that ratio drop pretty significantly in the twenty twenty three, twenty four school year when the ratio dropped below one. And then in 2024 year, it dropped to point nine one seven.
This year, that ratio is point eight eight five. And because of the expansion of the vouchers and the expansion that we're anticipating across the state, we dropped that ratio slightly to point eight seven three for next year and it stays near point eight seven for those following years. With that said, you can see how that kindergarten number is dropping below 1,700, it's gonna stay below 1,700 for the next four years. That has a big impact on the forecast because your high school grade levels are
significantly larger. And so it's that, you know, smaller coming in, higher numbers graduating out, so when you look at those, those patterns, this year's twelfth grade class, so that 20 five-twenty six row is your October enrollment when we had 30,400, four forty three students, that was a drop of about, you know, almost 1,600 students, but that twelfth grade number is 2,661 compared to the kindergarten number of 1,693.
So when you just simply roll up those kids, the district's enrollment could be dropping 12 to 1,300 students just because of that phenomenon of smaller in, larger out. Now that table on the bottom is a cohort table, so it's showing you the grade over grade changes and anytime you see a number less than one, that means that grade is declining. And so, the first grade class continues to have growth, That's because we have a lot of first graders that come into the district at first grade.
So they may not have been in the district at kindergarten because it's not compulsory. So we see that phenomenon across most districts. But when you look at those grade levels, you'll see fourth grade was point nine seven, fifth grade point nine seven nine, sixth grade point nine eight, a majority of your grade levels below eighth grade were dropping or below one. Ninth grade again is a little bit of an outlier because you've got some ninth graders that don't become fresh sophomores, so they pin up there a little bit and
we call those fresh mores. That happens at virtually all high schools as well, so it's not anything specific to Keller ISD, it has mostly to do with credits and how they lag a little bit before they advance to tenth grade. The key takeaways here is when you look at that elementary cohort, this year's a point nine eight five, your intermediate was point nine eight, that's the averages of those grade cohorts, they're all below one, so all of them are declining. Now with the forecast, here's the grade level forecast and you'll notice that we are
declining, we're gonna see significant declining enrollment for the next five years. I am also encouraging all of my clients, really focus on the five year, we we're providing a ten year number but there's a lot of uncertainty with the upcoming voucher bill, the expansion of choice, so, you know, planning on that five year number of about 25,900 students, I think makes a lot of sense and unfortunately, it is the reality that we're seeing for a majority of the school districts in Texas.
Birdville, I just did a report for Birdville, same picture, declining enrollment. Did one for Carroll ISD, declining enrollment. And, you know, as you know, Fort Worth, Carrollton Farmers Branch, all of the core school districts within the core of the DFW region are all declining in enrollment. And so there's a lot of factors there, but definitely the birth rates and the expansion of choice are leading this drop in enrollment. Here's a look at your campus projections at the elementary schools. You'll notice that, you know, this fall, our elementary total is about 11,171 and in
five years that number could be below 10,000. So it could be at about 9,900 students in the twenty, thirty, thirty one year. You'll notice that there are several campuses that are dropping and it again, it's spread through a majority of the schools, elementary schools across the district. At the secondary level, currently, you know, Keller High is at its capacity, so it is a little bit over capacity right now at that capacity of 2,750. But you'll see over time, you know, it's dropping anywhere from two to 300 students
over the next five years. In fact, all of your high schools are going to be seeing declining enrollments and again it's that wave, those big classes working through and those smaller classes coming in behind. We have prepared three sets of projections, we have a low range projection which assumes a continued slowdown in housing, there is an increase in the home schooling and private school enrollments because of the expansion of the voucher bill that'll start in the next school year, resulting in lower kindergarten, lower elementary grade level enrollments.
So this school of choice options are causing this low forecast. The mid range forecast is what I have showed you with the previous slides, but it has your projections, you know, the economic conditions are relatively stable, we are continuing to see some housing growth, but it's, you know, still seeing the effects of those smaller incoming kindergarten classes. The high projection, it's still dropping but not as much, this would see some benefit
from future interest rate cuts or a little bit of a surge in housing, but most importantly, it could be surged based on some marketing efforts by the district, some real, aggressive campaigning, and also considerations for how you deal with transfers. We're seeing a lot of districts that are changing their approaches for out of district transfers. It's just something that districts are starting to consider. Carroll is considering that, and so we're seeing multiple districts that are changing their approaches for out of district transfers.
So kinda key takeaways and I'll go back and answer some questions. The district is seeing significant enrollment decline just like what you've seen over the last couple of years. In fact, the five year decrease has been about 4,370 students. This year, the decline was almost 1,600 students. The housing is softening, and it's softening for two reasons. It is we're running out of vacant land, so therefore, the rate the amount of land available for housing is is diminishing. But it's also the fact that the housing market is challenged with these higher cost
and higher interest rates. One of the things that we're saying is people are staying in their homes longer because they likely got those really good interest rates from four years ago, so we're not seeing as much regeneration or mobility in the existing homes and districts that have over housing really need those homes to turn. So our forecast for the next, five years puts the enrollment excuse me, for '26, the enrollment could be between 29,100 to 29,500.
And in five years, your enrollment could land between 25,300 to 26,900. Be happy to answer any questions. Can you go back to, the there's the, the page where it kinda shows the one and under one, you know, to show the decline in enrollment. Yes. Okay. So I understand, you know, the kindergarten and ninth grade, example you gave. But one thing I noticed is for twelfth grade, you kinda see the a similar
kind of effect where it's above one. Do you under do you know what why that is? For the twelfth grade to be less than one? No. Above one. For this year? I don't know what would have caused that, but you can see at the you know, this year's twelfth grade class of 2,661, last year's eleventh grade class was 2,633. I mean, it's not a great number, it's 30 something kids, but you have 30 something kids didn't have caused that twelfth grade class to be larger than it was
last year. It could be, again, like the ninth grade, a credit issue where they didn't get enough credits to graduate. Okay. Thank you. Mhmm. Any other questions? Bob, I would just like to say, I was on the board when I hired you, and you've gotten a little grayer Yes. But your love for numbers has not changed. When we discussed, your services when you were working for the district in 9798, we were looking at the flip side of these numbers and thinking and figuring out where
we're gonna put all these kids based on the developments that were coming forward. I know you remember that because that was that was sort of fun, but not so because now look at our we got 42 campuses. So anyway, glad to see you, back with the, you know, the the district as a third party. I had a, just a a couple of questions, and that really has to do a little bit and you covered some of it, the student yield. Of course, your presentations are a lot more polished now than they were back in
in '97, but I'd say the tools are obviously a lot better too. It used to be and I think you've addressed it with the birth rate, but I remember having a discussion that, you know, a single family household presented, and I'm gonna say this just that's not gonna sound right, was worth about two and a half kids roughly. Mhmm. And and an apartment family, was x number smaller than that but obviously now we're
below one, which is incredible, considering the campuses that we have and the slide you showed, showing what the projection was by campus, and that leads obviously to the conversations we've we've been having and now the ramped up conversations about what do we do, with with some of the under capacity, campuses. But great report. Will we have access to this, doctor Wilson, somewhere?
Excuse me. Yes. She will. I'll we'll be sending that out to you this evening. I would also note that Bob will be back, once again to work with our long range planning and our bond planning committee to share his presentation and and allow for some questioning there as well. And I think I've asked this before but will all of this be on our website so our citizens can see it and see if this is really bad. Well I just want to reiterate what we're seeing is a new this is a
new era in education. We've we've never experienced anything like this with a billion dollars set aside for the vouchers. We really don't know how much of it's gonna be home school driven, how much is gonna go into private school. The comptroller's office just recently released the, the guidelines for that so I believe it's gonna start in February where the portal's gonna be open, where they'll start, you know, applying for those vouchers And so it's it's really gonna be a a interesting couple of years as we let this settle in to see those effects.
Bob, do you wanna share you did your informal exit survey at the conference you were at, the homeschool conference. Do you wanna hear do you wanna share the the rationale Yes. With some of our families? So I love my job and we have gone to the Texas homeschool conference the last couple of years as to to and we've attended the sessions. We have, interviewed families and I had two of my staff members this past year with me and, they have it at the Kalahari Resort in Round Rock, Texas and
they fill it up. 7,000 families that fill it up. We actually geo fenced it so we could capture their mobile IDs and see where they were coming from and it was fascinating. And the Trade Exhibit Hall had a 150 vendors and it was nothing like I had ever seen. And the presentations were very well presented but when we interviewed the families, we found
some surprises. There was not a consistent beef against public ed, they weren't mad at the school districts, they didn't have these hot issues that were driving them to homeschooling. The common theme that we found was flexibility. It was all about the flexibility of the school day. Many of those that we interviewed had multiple kids and when they would describe like, Wow, if we go to the public school we gotta get up at six in the morning and we gotta be out the door at 06:45 to get to three
different schools and and it was the logistics of that that caused them to go, wow, homeschooling really solves that logistical issue and then they can set it up very flexible but it was a flexibility driven more than a Christian worldview as a driver. It was mostly about this mindset of flexibility. And this flexibility on the school year, the ability to pack up and go to the beach for a week so that they could, you know, count that as some,
of a learning experience. They're also now, because of technology, they're co opting. Homeschooling is no longer an individualized experience. These homeschool parents are connecting, they're forming these micro schools, they're collaborating and it is more of a communal event than it is an individualized experience. And the technologies have advanced so much around the delivery of the the contact, you know, it is it is, very competitive in that landscape of of online learning.
It's also heavy into technology. That group is really into that aspect of it. Can you briefly, the phenomenon of the elementary, age kids doing the homeschool, school, and then the reentry Yep. Into public education as they get into the, fifth grade, sixth grade, and on on through for the sports and the fine arts. I I do believe that is gonna become an emerging, cohort pattern that's gonna stick to where we see that yes, these parents at the younger grade levels, it's the
content's not that difficult, you know, per se, the kids are still fun, but as the content gets more difficult, think about science labs and the difficulty of that aspect and then we are seeing that they're coming back to public ed primarily for fine arts, athletics, the extracurricular, that whole experience, but it's also peer driven because there's a little bit more of a desire to get back to, the, kind of traditional experience
that they want with their peers at that middle school. So it's starting to happen at fifth and sixth and then we see it also at ninth as well. Bob, do you mind if I ask you a couple questions real quick? Mhmm. So, I don't know what slide it was on where it was, kind of laying out the ten year of what we think enrollment is gonna look like. What I'm wondering is because we don't know with vouchers how large that program is actually going to be expanded to, is that being taken into consideration with your numbers?
That's my low. So my low assumes kind of the worst case on that. Sure. It there's still a lot to know about how it could change over time. Does it expand? Do they change the the, criteria? You know, we have seen in other states. So we've been studying what's been going on in Indiana and in other states that have had the vouchers and what we've seen is that over time they they change the criteria. So right now there is an income limit on the preference or the priority Right. But in five years that could be gone. Okay.
Yeah. Because I on that, slide it actually showed an increase. Like, after we get the two I think it was the seven year mark, there's like a slight increase. In elementary? No. I believe it was the higher sorry. The the slides were kind of going fast tonight, but Mhmm. But you're right. In elementary, you can see it kind of bottoms out at about $119,900 and then it starts to make a small return. So it does kinda come back a little bit at the elementary totals. At the middle school, it doesn't get its return. We don't see that middle school bounce.
So maybe it was that slide. And then the high school stays declining all the way. And the reason that elementary is gonna at some point make a comeback is it's already seeing its lowest numbers, so therefore as that bubble leaves then that allows for some rebound growth to happen at elementary before it could happen at the middle school and the high school. Gotcha. So the the homeschooling summit that you just went to, are you at did you ever ask any of the families, like, would you be participating in the voucher program?
Was that part of your question? We did. We sure did. And I would say a majority of them had not planned to participate because at that point, they were thinking there could be some accountability or some tracking. They didn't want their that any association with I don't know if I'd call it accountability but but just having to report to TEA or having to do some kind of reporting. Okay. Well, and then that kind of, leads into my other question is that I know for our school district we've done this and I don't know other school districts that
have done this, but, I just wonder too if we're going to see any, downturn in in the trends of enrollment, kind of piggybacking off of what John asked, you know, kids coming back in in middle school because of fine arts and athletics and things like that. But we've we've actually made it to where they don't need to come back. They can participate in those things, and they don't need to be enrolled here. Mhmm. Is that something that we're seeing across the state of Texas, like our other school districts that they do that as well? Or are they also in that same pickle where the kids won't have to come
back, but they can still in these things as our enrollment is declining? I am seeing, a a small number of school districts that are embracing that, well, if you take an online course or participate online then you can participate in fine arts or, extracurricular, either fine arts or athletics. So I am seeing some districts exploring that. I still hear a lot of our clients say, No. So I'm getting that from a lot. I'm encouraging districts to really think about their relationship with homeschooling because I think that
if you work with them, they will come back. There are examples where when they came back to do those districts that allowed them to participate in fine arts and once they got with the kids and started spending time with them, they ended up coming back for the full full program. Awesome. Well, thank you so much, Bob. Those were the questions that I had, and I hope you have a very merry Christmas. Thank you. Bob, it's good to see you again. Well, thank you. It was great to be with you. This is a a special place for me. Okay. Our first action item is the approval of employment recommendations, contract, and contract renewals.
Johanna. Good evening president Burt, trustees, and doctor Wilson. On page 42 of your board book, we are requesting the approval of contractual employment recommendations for the following positions. Josh Boyd, principal, Keller Collegiate Academy. Sean Crawford, director of curriculum and instruction. And Doctor. Aramie Cottle, assistant superintendent of elementary education. The administration recommends that the board of trustees approve the employment of the administrative positions for the twenty five-twenty six school year as presented.
Do I have a motion? So moved. Second? I second. Okay. Any discussion? We'll start down with, Chelsea. Any Jennifer? Randy? All in favor? All opposed? Alright, six zero. I would like to ask a new principal, director, and assistant superintendent and their families to come up to the podium so we can congratulate them. Okay. Because I saw this, I need to share this with you. I saw, I was looking back here at our folks and when the vote was taken, when your hands were going up, they were cl And then it was up,
it's like, oh yes, so congratulations to all of you. Alright, and that's a true story by the way. Good evening, members of the board. It's an honor to stand before you tonight. If you'd have told me when I graduated from Fossil Ridge in 1998, first class, but this is where I'd be standing today, I would have laughed you in your face, but God has better plans for us than we have for ourselves. I'd like to thank, the trustees, doctor Wilson, doctor Guerrero, miss Nahala for your confidence and support. Thank you to my wife, Allison, my daughter who I think is watching online, for
your unfailing love. To my mentor and dear friend, Tracy Arsenault, thank you for giving me an opportunity and sometimes a swift kick. To our KCA staff, thank you for always believing. And most of all, to our KCA Owls, and you heard several of them tonight. Thank you for your daily inspiration, for your passion for learning, and your commitment to excellence. And as always, make it a great day, KCA. Good evening, Doctor. Wilson, President Burd, and members of the board. I just wanna thank you so much for this opportunity. Our family moved to Keller ISD three and a half years ago and felt immediately
welcomed into this community. And since then, our desire to further establish ourselves and deepen our roots here in Keller has only grown stronger. I have loved every minute of working with and supporting our secondary English teachers these last few years, but I'm incredibly grateful for this chance to broaden my impact across grade levels and contents in CNI. I promise to give my very best for the teachers and students for Keller ISD and I thank you again for the opportunity to do so. Good evening, mister Bart, doctor Wilson, and the board. I'm thrilled to join Keller ISD.
I believe this truly is a destination for excellence and I just can't wait to join all of you and, we have great things to do in the elementary schools coming up. I have my husband and my son here with me, my daughter is at Texas A and M enjoying watching us hopefully. So thank you all and I look forward to joining. Congratulations to all of you. Our second action item is the approval of the district's annual comprehensive financial report. John. Thank you, mister Burke. It's, my pleasure to, once again welcome, miss Gonzales from Weaver.
As you know, we are required to have a, annual financial audit performed by an independent third party every year. And, miss Gonzales is back to to give us, an update on our most recent audit. Great. Thank you so much. Good evening and thank you for having me here, to present the results of your audit as of 06/30/2025. I think we're trying to get the presentation up. I can go ahead and get started. So, my name is Jackie Gonzales.
I serve as your engagement partner. I'm with Weaver. We are a national public accounting firm, with our government practice being one of the largest practices within the firm. We currently have over 170 professionals serving in our public sector government practice area and serve over 300 governmental clients. There we go. Those include state agencies, cities, over 50 school districts in Texas, colleges and universities, as well as local and regional entities, and over 50 of those are GFOA award recipients.
In addition to myself, I also had working with me Lisa Gilbertson who's a senior manager in our practice, And then Sarah Roberts served as my quality control partner, who after we have completed the audit, she comes in after us and gives that independent set of eyes over the review of both our file and substantive procedures that we perform, and the single audit that we perform, as well as the report that's in front of you this evening. We do perform our audit in according to generally accepted auditing standards, as well as generally accepted government auditing standards. We do perform not only a financial statement audit but also an audit of your
federal awards or the single audit, which is required, for you because you receive over a certain amount of federal awards in your current fiscal year. That is, governed by the uniform guidance which is put forth by the federal government. We also perform tests of compliance, both with BFIA as well as TEA requirements, throughout the course of our audit. Here's a summary of the results of our financial statement audit. So we have issued an unmodified opinion or a clean opinion if you will, which is the highest level of assurance that we as your independent auditors can provide.
Throughout the course of our testing, we do perform tests of internal controls over your financial reporting and we have no material weaknesses, no significant deficiencies, and no matters of non compliance related to those financial statements. As I mentioned, we also perform that single audit. We have completed our single audit of three major programs. You'll see down there in the bottom right that we audited title one part a as well as title two part a and the American Rescue Plan or ESSER program this year. We've issued unmodified opinions on all of those programs And the district does qualify again
as a low risk auditee, which means that you cannot have had any material weaknesses or compliance findings in at least the previous two years. We had no material weaknesses in our internal controls over compliance, which are controls specifically related to these programs and those requirements. We had no material weaknesses, no significant deficiencies, and no findings in any of those three programs. I will mention, as you know we are typically in front of you in November, which is one hundred and fifty days after your year end. Obviously, we're here in December this year. And that's a result of the delay, in the compliance supplement that's issued by the
OMB, which guides us as auditors in that single audit. And so we were told by the, AICPA that we were precluded from issuing our single audit until that compliance supplement was released. So it was released shortly after Thanksgiving, so we were able to complete that audit and then be in front of you today. As a result of that delay in the compliance supplement, all TEA has also issued an extension, so we are on time and in compliance with all required deadlines. So here you'll have in front of you, if you are have the book in
front of you, I'm on page twenty four and twenty five, or the c one, the balance sheet for all of your governmental funds. So this includes everything including your general fund, the federally funded grant funds, your debt service fund, the capital project fund, your state funded grant funds, and your local funds. So you can see for the year ended sixthirtytwenty twenty five you had total assets of $207,600,000 against liabilities of 52.475, deferred inflows of $3,200,000 which brought you to a total fund balance of $151,900,000 Now
if we move forward and just break out the general fund, you can see those total assets were just over 96,000,000 against 43,000,000 in total liabilities and that brought your general fund fund balance to 50,700,000.0. Moving forward to pages twenty eight and twenty nine, which is your statement of revenues, expenditures, and changes in fund balance for those same funds. You can see you ended the year with over 40 $482,150,000 against expenses or expenditures
of 478, almost 479,000,000. Other financing sources of 2,500,000.0, which brought us to a change in fund balance of $5,700,000 Again, if we break that down just for the general fund, you can see you had total revenues of $324,800,000 against expenditures of $320,600,000 bringing you to a total positive change in fund balance of $4,200,000 So if we break down that revenue and look at where those sources
are coming from, you can see 59% of the revenue in the general fund comes from your local and intermediate sources or property taxes largely. 40% is coming from the state program revenues, largely from the foundation school program, and then school program, and then 1% from federal program revenues, which is largely indirect costs that are being recognized in the general fund. When we turn to expenditures, you can see 57% of total expenditures related to instruction, 11% related to facilities maintenance and operations, 6% in school leadership, and then 20, 6%
in the remaining functions. And as I mentioned, we added $4,200,000 back to fund balance, largely due to a taxable value audit that was conducted by the state and resulted in about $3,000,000 in revenue that was not anticipated at the beginning of the year. Now we're gonna go to page 70, which is your budget to actual comparison for the general fund. And so here you can see the original budget against your final budget and then those actual amounts for revenue and expenditures in the general fund. And actual amounts for revenue and expenditures in the general fund and then the variances
there. So the final budget in revenue was at 340,600,000.0 versus the 324,800,000.0. That was our ending actual for variance of 15,800,000.0 against expenditures that were amended budget of 347,370,000.00 against actuals of 320,600,000.0 for a variance of 26,700,000.0. So that variance in our revenue was about 5% between med amended and actual and they were less than our expenditures were less than, budgeted by 8%.
That concludes my presentation. I'm happy to take any questions, but congratulations again on a successful audit and thank you for allowing us to serve as your auditors. Yeah, so, I want to say good job, doctor Wilson. Everyone, I mean, I I like the for I feel like it's been a long time since we've been able to say good job on a budget. It actually worked out well. We've had some years where we thought we had a balanced budget, and we didn't. So, it's good to it's good to see those numbers. The one question I have though is on the 4,200,000.0 of my balance, I didn't see a lot of them in there.
Is the recapture payment calculated in that or no? So that would be under the state amount. It's calculated and figured into there. Okay. But it it it is calculated within your numbers. Yes. Within the foundation school program, the recapture comes through there. Okay. Thank you. So I just had a real quick question on here. So did you say that we had an 8% of, I guess, savings on what we actually projected to spend? So 8% savings on spending.
So your yes. Original budget for those expenditures came out just over $340,000,000 amended up to $347.37 and you came in at $320,000,000 Impressive. Impressive. Thank you. Any other questions? I would just like to also reiterate what Chris said. Great great job to the administration, to the district, and I'm glad you pointed out the 4,200,000.0 because I think that's a good news story that we weren't anticipating actually.
So, thank you. So before I make, the recommendation, I do want to thank missus Williams and her entire team, for their oversight and hard work on, again, another very successful audit. It's very time consuming for them when the auditors are here on top of their normal job of operating the district. So I just wanna commend them once again, for fine work. So with that, the administration recommends the board of trustees approve the twenty four-twenty five
annual comprehensive financial report as presented. Do I have a motion? So moved. Second. Any discussion? I would just like to reiterate the same thing. I'm I'm very impressed. I'm glad that the audit, you know, had a successful outcome. And, I just wanna say congratulations again to saving 8% under spending. That's great news. And yeah. And just to reiterate the the gratitude to Kristen and her team. Great job. Yep. Okay. All in favor? All opposed? Six zero.
Thank you. Thank you. Our third action item is approval of the memorandum of understanding between Tarleton State University and Keller ISD for the Tarleton Today dual enrollment program '26 through '27. Jennifer? Hey. I would like to welcome Kristen Elamar, Director of Counseling, to the conversation this evening. Before we, ask for, your approval, I would like to give the board some background
information. In the 2024, we began exploring alternative options for students to earn college credit. Our decision to pursue change was driven by several key concerns. The first, budgetary uncertainty. Under our partnership with TCC, the district lacked a clear understanding of financial obligations related to dual credit courses. Each semester, costs varied without a comprehensive outline of potential expenses. Although we requested a detailed fee structure and advocated for the exclusive use of open
educational resources, we were informed that individual faculty members selected their own textbooks and materials, leaving expenses unpredictable. The second was communication challenges. Changes to registration processes and procedures were not communicated in a timely or transparent manner creating confusion for both students and staff. And the third, delayed grade reporting. Final grades were consistently reported weeks after the start of a new semester. This delay caused scheduling conflicts and hindered our ability to provide timely support to students.
In response to these challenges, we engaged in discussion with neighboring districts. Many had already transitioned to Tarleton or or were planning to do so in the upcoming school year, reinforcing our decision to explore this alternative. So I'd like to share some positive things that we've experienced, so far this year in our first semester with Tarleton. We have seen, we've already seen significant growth in our dual enrollment participation. With English three, we've increased our enrollment from 438 students
Last year to 555 students this year. In US history, we've increased from 162 students last year to 212 this year. US government, one seventy four last year, 195 this year. College algebra, this is a new newly offered course this year with a 108 students enrolled. Additionally, we have seen a remarkable 40% increase in participation among our economically disadvantaged students
taking at least one dual enrollment course. Last year, 87 students qualified for free or reduced lunch, enrolled in a dual credit course through TCC. This year, that number has grown to 227 students, each qualifying for free or reduced lunch and taking at least one dual enrollment course we're taught Tarleton. We attribute that increase. With TCC, there was an assessment requirement, called the TSI. With Tarleton, there is not an assessment requirement, so we attribute that increase, to that.
While we've experienced a slight decline in English four and economics, the overall expansion has been substantial. Importantly, Tarleton enables us to offer math and science courses in addition to the English and history, broadening opportunities for our students and strengthening the dual enrollment program. So I'd like to, the administration recommends that the board of trustees approve the memorandum of understanding between Tarleton State University and Keller ISD for the dual enrollment program as
presented. I have a motion. A motion. Miss Erickson, do I have a second? Second. Miss Washington, any discussion? Yeah. I just wanted to say thanks for presenting the information, and that's fabulous, especially around the 40% to see that growth in that amount of time. Do you think it will continue to be able to build on that? I do. We, you know, started this year and have I've already had parents reaching out to me about how with the eighth grade registration, we'll be starting in January, so what they can do for with their children to get them prepared to start taking Tarleton
classes once they get to high school. So, I remember us talking about this and you kinda highlighting all the reasons why you thought it was a good idea, and so it's good to hear that, seems to be working. I know I I've gotten some emails that doctor Wilson and I have. I'm sure some many other trustees have. I think they've been forwarded to some of you guys with some concerns, some things that they've seen that, some parents have seen that they're, not necessarily pleased with. I'm not an expert on those programs by any means but, to my understanding, there's
a difference in the way they apply the grades? Yes. So and I tried to make it, a point last year in presenting to the board as well as to the parents and to our staff that with Tarleton, it's a dual enrollment program. With TCC, it was a dual credit. And so how that looks different is with TCC, our students take one class, but they receive two credits. They receive a high school credit and a college credit, and no matter what grade they earn, that that grade goes on their college transcript as well as their high
school transcript. With Tarleton, it's a dual enrollment class, so they're really enrolled in a high school class in which our Keller ISD teachers are teaching the content. The curriculum is provided through Tarleton, but they are teaching the content. They're they're the teacher of record when it comes to grading. They have their own separate high school Canvas course. Tarleton is teaching professors are teaching the college credit. They have their own Tarleton Canvas course. They're the teacher of record for that grade. While the curriculum is aligned, it kind of scaffolds so that the high school curriculum
is really preparing those students to be successful in the college curriculum. With Tarleton, if a student earned a grade that they did not wish to go on their transcript, they can simply forfeit that grade and then they forfeit the credit, but then it doesn't show up on the transcript. So where we have seen some benefit with that, with TCC, we saw some students who maybe made a 70 in one of their classes. That's what goes on their college transcript, and that's what's going to follow them. If they didn't want that with Tarleton, they have the opportunity to decline that.
That makes sense. So it's it it's treated really more like a true college class where you get to the end of the semester. It's not you're looking too hot. You can withdraw and move on. Right? Yes. Well, I mean, in reality, it it seems to give us the students more utility. It gives them more more flexibility to, you know, make some adjustments if they need to moving into their college career. So I think that's probably a good thing. I can understand the confusion, though, from the parents that are singing in, but I think it'd probably be wise to, I haven't get to see the assume the responses yet, but kinda make that clear to the parents that this is actually a good
thing for your kid if, things aren't going quite the way that they hope, right? Give them another shot and have a swing of the bat, so to speak. So And some of I will say some of the parents who have reached out, I've actually visited with them, and one thing that I can also say about Tarleton, I have taken the parents' concerns, made note, and then addressed them with Tarleton, and they've quickly responded with a solution or a way that we can look at changing our process or our procedure moving forward into the next semester. Okay. Thank you.
One other thing I'd add on to to what you said. You're right. It's more like a college environment and the feedback that we are getting is the coursework is more rigorous. And that that's a good thing, that we wanna push those students who are who are taking those courses. I would expect dual enrollment, dual credit. Again we are awaiting the commissioner's decision upon the GPA. We were part of the last legislative session. Again, the legislators, they passed a bill requiring equal weighting for dual credit or dual
enrollment and AP courses. Once that happens and once commissioner Morath makes his ruling and it's standardized across the state, then we're I anticipate many kids, taking many more dual enrollment courses because it's gonna be an equal footing as AP with regard to their GBAs. Any idea what the timeline looks like for or we're just at their mercy as you're We are at the mercy of whenever they get to it. At first, they told us that it would be December and then the most recent
update was this winter. Yes. Very generic. I have a couple questions real quick. So, I know whenever we first introduced, this MOU, there was a lot of concern, excuse me, especially with the $50 enrollment. Are we seeing that being a huge discourager when when it comes to enrollment? Have you heard anything about that? Not at all. And actually, our numbers went up, and so yeah. Nobody has had any issues. I will say that, we had a couple of students who this is not really
relevant to your question, but we had a couple of students who qualified for a foster care grant, and they were the really the only families that reached out and regarding how can we do this? We have this grant, and Tarleton was great to work with them and make sure that was taken care of so they didn't pay that money. Awesome. Are we hearing anything about the, the courses that are being offered? Is there any issues that we're seeing from our parents within the district, something's lacking, or anything like that? I haven't received any feedback of that nature.
Okay. Okay. Also so this is more on, like, the the financial piece, but as far as having them as a partner, I know some of the issues that we had with TCC is that we really didn't know how we were gonna budget for certain things. Are we seeing anything like that with Tarleton? No. Because Tarleton, the, tuition piece, the families who don't qualify, they're not fast eligible, free reduced lunch, they're paying that tuition piece a $150 per class. But Tarleton utilizes Canvas, they utilize the OERs, the open educational resources, which are completely
free. So there's there's no unknown cost to the district. Okay. Good. Good. Sounds like we've had a good first year, and that's awesome. Thank you so much for that. Yeah. I would simply, add to what Chelsea said. You know, there was some angst as we ran into this. The unknown is always difficult, but I am I'm glad, to hear and see the results have, proven beneficial not only to our students, but to our, our fam their
families and from financial and some of the issues we were having with DCC have, ironed themselves out with this transition. So, nice work. And I'm sorry. Can I just ask one more thing? If there is ever a program that a parent is wanting to or, maybe a student is not seeing a particular program and they wanna see that somehow expanded with Tarleton, I I mean, can they just reach out to you and try to figure out how something like that could happen? I don't really have an example for you, but if there is something that's lacking there they can Tarleton is very responsive.
Okay. I will that that is, one one reason of many that we looked at moving to them is their responsiveness is Okay. Very quick. Awesome. And I will say to your point, there are some of our neighboring districts are already taking advantage of of the different programs and the different courses that Tarleton's offering and expanding that. So if there was a parent or a student who was hoping we may be able to offer another course or something of that nature, we could definitely look into
that. Awesome. Thank you so much. Okay. Hearing no more conversation, all in favor? All opposed? Six o. Thank you. Our fourth action item is the approval of the twenty twenty six twenty twenty seven instructional calendar. Jennifer? Yes. So, I'm here to, present the the finalized instructional calendar. I just want to say thank you to DEIC, the calendar committee staff who responded to, the survey. We did, we heard some consistent themes around the start date, the placement of professional
development days, the balance of breaks throughout the year. And so based on this feedback and while still meeting all of the requirements, that is an instructional calendar, we've incorporated the following updates. So Good Friday, which is on March 26, when we're talking about the 2027 calendar, and that will be an EQ day, providing both staff and students and with a holiday. Monday, 03/29/2027, will be designated as a teacher work day and a student holiday.
Friday, 04/23/2027 will be an EQ day, providing another long weekend for staff and students. And the last day of school for students will move to Wednesday, March 26, with teachers finishing the following day on Thursday, 03/27/2027. Here it is in a in a visual format. And so the administration recommends that the board of trustees approve the twenty twenty six-twenty
twenty seven instructional calendar as presented. May I have a motion? So moved. Second. Discussion, starting with Chelsea. Thank you. So I I happened to be at the meeting where we were having this discussion and, unfortunately, had to skirt out just because my daughter had a choir performance, which was really good. But it was so wonderful to see how many educators were in that room and the way that you were collaborating with all of them, and I loved that they were able to put their stamp on this calendar. And so that just that made my heart happy.
So I was happy for them to to be a part of the process and get to do that and then, you know, also happy for our district with the results. So thank you so much for your hard work and spearheading that, and thank you so much for the educators that were able to to put their input and put a stamp on this. So thank you. Thank you. Randy. Chris. Yeah. Thanks for all the hard work, you and the team, and all those that had input to it. I know there were some, some loose ends that needed to be considered, and, thank you and the team for taking those into consideration. So, all in favor?
All opposed? Six zero. Thank you. Our fifth action item is approval of the 2026 count local calendar for public information act purposes. Bryce? On page 71 of your report, you'll find the approval of the 2026 local calendar for public information purposes. Shared at last month's meeting, HB thirty thirty three from the eighty eight legislative session allows governmental entities to designate only up to 10 non business days other than Saturdays, Sundays, and national or state holidays for the purposes of complying with the Texas Public Information Act. Even with, the adjustments to the now approved instructional calendar, we have not made any
changes, since it was previewed in November. Happy to answer any questions about this, but the administration recommends that the board approve the 2026 local calendar for public information purposes as presented. May I have a motion? So moved. And second? Second. Any discussions starting with Chris? All in favor? All opposed? Six zero. Thank you. Our sixth and last action item is the approval of TRS active care medical plan. Sherry or John, you've taken it? I'll be taking that one this evening. They're just a a few items since we've had a fairly extensive conversation around our,
health care. This evening, the administration will be recommending that Keller ISD move to the TRS ActiveCare. And for a number of key reasons, these are not all of them, we have, worked with an employee benefits committee, every year for at least twenty five years as well as multiple employee surveys. And there are certain things whether it's this year, two years ago, or five years ago, our employees have asked for in a, medical, plan.
And the majority of the items that that I've listed here are from their feedback. For the district, as we think about, the the risk and responsibility we have, there's greater fiscal predictability with TRS ActiveCare if you look over the last several years in rate changes and swings, and that has a great deal to do because of the risk pooling. When we, both were self insured as well as fully insured, we're standing on our
own in our own risk pool. Being part of TRS, you're seeing a much larger risk pool which, can have a, most likely a positive impact on rates. There's no financial risk to the district. As we've talked about before, one of the issues that we had with our self funded plan and, the multiple iterations trying to to make that plan successful is that the district, eventually had a $20,000,000 deficit within the the the health care.
Where our current fund balance sits, where our revenue sit, we do not have the ability to take on any financial risk when it comes to health care. Our employees have asked that, they want a comprehensive provider network, and they they want, good plan options. They were they were most interested in looking at the larger providers as in Blue Cross Blue Shield, UnitedHealthcare, and some of those others because of the the network options that they provided. It was, very clear that, our employees and this is even more prevalent this year
as we talked about moving from three PPO plans to, an HMO plan, that they want that mix. And for many of them, it's because of the PPO aspect of having students out of state attending school and and, those types of of coverages. But more importantly, it was they wanted their own choice, and, to not be restricted by, an HMO option. TRS, lower deductibles and out of pocket maximums as we compared our current plan to
the current TRS plan. There is not a single TRS plan that had higher deductibles or out of pocket maximums compared to our current plan. And then another component is the state does support does support TRS. They also take care of all the compliance that's required for, a health care plan under the Affordable Care Act. So that removes that, from the the the district's requirements. And they contribute $75 per employee enrolled in insurance per month, so that's a total
of $900 per year, which is part of the reason that their premiums, tend to be tend to be lower. So those are, not all the aspects, but the the primary as we looked at it in getting our employee feedback both from the benefits committee and the employee survey. So with that, the administration recommends that the board of trustees approve Keller ISD moving to TRS ActiveCare beginning 09/01/2026 for our medical plan. Do I have a motion? So moved.
Second? I'll second. Discussion starting with miss Kelly. So the $75, is that actually already factored into what the the cost that the teachers see, or do the teachers see that that money and then there's also 75 off of that? They contribute that to the TRS active care system. So it's not something that the the teachers will see, but it's what helps offset the premiums. Gotcha. Okay. Alright. I I, took the liberty of, looking at the TRS website, specifically at the, district
leadership portion of the TRS website, which should be addressed to, trustees like ourselves. And so I've just read a few notes from the days here. What TRS provides for you, and I'll just read some of this verbatim, The bigger the fund the more leverage we have in the market with over 430,000 participants. We're able to negotiate with pharmacy benefit managers for low costs offer specialty drug coverage procure medical plan administration. Provide high quality personalized twenty four seven service secure some of the lowest medical services
prices in the market. And it says that over 97% of the health fund pays for medical prescription and drug, claims. The remaining 3% goes to program staff and claims processing. So that is about efficient as I've ever heard any insurance company. You know, the whole thing was was quite impressive. They gave an example of a district with a thousand employees with one claimant has 1,500,000 a year claim. In TRS ActiveCare, that would only add 41¢ per month per participant.
In the open market they would probably add a $125 a month per participant in that given scenario. And then the website goes on to list operational costs and the risks. And some of these are gonna simply be, regurgitation of what mister Allison's already said. There are risks that we can avoid and we should because you've already, at one point dug a $20,000,000 hole. So I think we, we're not the insurance business. I don't think that we should try to do that. I think we should let the professionals take care of that, and I have confidence that TRS is the right move.
Miss Washington. Yeah. I just wanna say thank you because I know this has been, a long time. We discussed insurance and I know it's been discussed for many years prior to this and I know how much research and analysts and and discussions that have gone on. So, I appreciate y'all looking into all the different options that are out there and then coming to us with this choice. Mister Coker? So I'm not gonna go down the rabbit hole of self insurance because the last time I wanted to bring up an RFP that got hijacked with that conversation. So we're just gonna say that we're not gonna talk about that now. We're gonna talk about how TRS is not efficient.
I can create a fancy website that says anything you wanted to say to make it sound really cool, but the reality is that PBMs, they don't have negotiating power PBMs. In fact, TRS is an insurance reseller for Blue Cross Blue Shield, the very same insurance that we have right now. The difference is that most people don't realize that just because you have Blue Cross Blue Shield or UnitedHealthcare or anything of that matter, there are thousands of plans associated with each insurance provider, and they're not all equal. TRS is riddled with excessive prior auths, partial partial coverages on insurances.
It's a it's a weaker plan, which is one of the reasons you can get lower premiums. The real problem is that we're really just moving from one dud to another dud with no real look into what options are out there. That was the intention of the RFP that I request in September before the debate was shut down on the Dallas. That was the intention of my request for an RFP on this agenda, because we haven't looked into the options out there. We were suggested to go to TRS, which I've done the numbers.
I'm sure most people in this room have seen them at this point. If not, I suggest you look at them. It is not more cost effective. It may not cost the district any more money, but it costs it costs the teachers more money, and that's a fundamental problem. We did a survey to the teachers. We talked about this, doctor Wilson, before the September board meeting. That one of the things the teachers really wanted is they want a choice. They didn't like HMO options. Moving from the traditional Blue Cross Blue Shield Plan wrong now to a TRS managed,
TRS resold BCBS plan, we're eliminating that we're essentially effectively eliminating our true one true major major medical option and going only to HMO and, and high deductible. So it actually takes away choice from teachers, while effectively not really lowering the price at all. And you can see that in the bridge rate that they gave us. If we were to accept if we were to move into TRS in September 1, if we wanted to start on January 1, they gave us a bridge rate. And that bridge rate dictates how they look at our risk pool, and you can
use that to correlate how the premiums will increase over time. So if you have the data to cross reference back into the total amount of TRS members, which, you know, they the number they gave you, doctor Wilson, was, what, 61,000 it was six it was it was 61,000 when you gave it to me. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Was so I know it's not an exact number, but it's a pretty close number according to the numbers they gave us. You can you can back those numbers out, and you can pretty much determine how the premiums will increase overall for all of TRS people come September 1 if our
risk was to be associated into that. These are all things that our broker should have done. They did not do. So whether you believe my numbers or not, I know that they're accurate as close as they can be with the assumptions we have to make. The trained data of TRS over time is not that it's cheaper. It's that it's overall more expensive as a as a policy package as a whole. You add that to the fact that come right now, you're being asked to vote on joining a plan that we meet that we don't even for a 100% know what the rate's gonna be come come September 1.
It's like buying a house before you know what it's gonna cost. Right? I think it's I I don't think it's the correct decision. I think the more appropriate plan would be to stick with our current BCPS plan, which we're gonna have to do anyway till September 1. Give it another year, spend the next year of time, go out for an RP, find a broker, and discuss what other options are out there. Self insurance is not the only one. Now I will still go out down the hill that's gonna be the most cost effective for the district and save the most money. I'm certain of that, but there are other options as well, not just TRS.
So I'll just leave it at that. So I wanna come back just real quick to the, $75, per employee. And so if you analyze that against our participants in in major medical or health plan, what what does that annualize out to roughly? Roughly about 1,500,000.0. 1,500,000. And where does that money go? The state pays that into the TRS Active Care Fund for each enrollee.
So they're they're helping support the the cost of the program. Okay. So in addition okay. So in the the overall scheme, the financial benefit to the district, by entering into TRS results from what? The the the financial aspect for the district is it is it removes any risk that that we have moving forward. It if you look at the track record, over the last several years in the
rates for those outside of TRS compared to to those inside TRS, TRS rate increases have been less, in most in most cases. So it provides a little bit of potential, predictability for our staff as they, consider what future health care costs may look like. It's always a a changing market, but, that's the for their predictability in their budgeting,
that is a a potential advantage. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? Yes. I have a different question. Actually, Chris, I wanted to say thank you. Thank you for all that you've done as far as researching everything on the self pay or on the, on the district. I'm I'm sorry. How do you say it? As far as Right. But what what's what is your argument as far as, like, what would be the better option for our districts? Self funded?
We're talking about TRS. I don't wanna go on a self funded Oh, okay. No. No. No. That's that's not what I was trying to do. Saying TRS is not the option. That I can definitively say because I don't wanna get in discussion back and forth about whether we're gonna do self insured now or whatever because that's what happened last time. I'm saying that TRS is definitively not the option that we should be looking at mostly because not only do we not not every year when it comes into to January every December, we're gonna have to determine whether we're gonna join TRS the next
September 1, and we don't know what those rates are. So all we know right now from TRS is that we know what their current rate is. We know that they're, at minimum, increasing by 9.7% across the board, and there'll be potential additional regional increases on top of that. So that's the data that we know. And we know how they manage our risk pool. We know that from the bridge rate that they gave us from January to September 1, essentially. Gotcha. So what that means is even the numbers that I gave you, that's not including
a potential regional increase once we're added. So I actually gave you the bare minimum numbers of what I think it would cost our district as a whole. And when I say that, I mean, not just the district. I'm talking about the teachers. I look at us as a whole. Right? So it really it really cost our teachers because we're playing the same no matter what. It's the teacher's cost that goes up, but but with other decisions we make. And so, ultimately, those are the bare minimum numbers that teachers will pay more by joining TRS in September for someone. It could go up depending on the regional increase they give, but we won't know
that till probably April or May. But at that point, it's too late because we already hit star lagging at TRS. Thank you for clarifying. I wasn't trying to get you started again, but I wanted to actually say thank you for all the research that you've done. I understand that, it has been something that has kind of been a thorn in the side of this district as being the ones that have to, carry the torch of health care. And I think, moving us over to TRS, which is what most of the school districts in the state of Texas do, I think that's something that, is in the
best interest of this district. So we get out of the the health care business. We get back to business of educating our students, and we're and we're being competitive with what the other school districts around here are doing. So, I know there could be a thousand different options that might be able to provide cheaper costs to not not just our our staff, maybe even some cheaper costs of the district, but I think from what doctor Allison is is recommending to us, this is going to be something that will not only be a benefit for our
our staff, but will also be, you know, no risk to to the district. And that's what we need to focus on right now because there are a lot of things that we're gonna have to focus on in the next year that, we we don't need to divert our attention away from that. So, just again, thank you to Chris for everything that you've done as far as everything that you've researched, And then, again, thank you to, doctor Allison and your team, everybody that has brought this forward. Yeah. I think this is gonna be a good option for us. Well, you know, I've I keep hearing that that we don't wanna be in the insurance business.
We employ over 4,000 people, and we provide health insurance. You're in the insurance business. I think that I think that's a cop out. I think that ultimately, at the end of the day, if you provide services to your staff and you're providing something to people, you have a right to give them the best possible effort you can. And you you off you offer insurance. You're in the insurance business. I'd argue we're in the transportation business. We transport kids all over the this district. So, yeah, does that mean you don't pay attention to our cost to look for
transportation or the safety of it or anything else because we're not in the transportation business? No. We would never say that. Right? But now, because it's it's an easy solution to just go to TRS, Here's what I think. I think that ultimately the reason that most schools go to TRS and everyone suggests TRS is because I would venture to say that nobody in this room knows very much about health insurance. Right? And it's so it's much easier to just put it on another government organization and say you do it, so I don't have to worry about it anymore.
Well, government organizations aren't ran too well. They don't always make the best decisions. They don't always do negotiate the best contracts. And so now I think it's an extreme disservice to our teachers to do that and use the try to use an excuse that we're not an insurance business. Of course, we are. It matters. It matters a whole lot that we do the best we possibly can to reduce the cost of our teachers. And, I just think TRF I I think going that pathway, if we join TRF, the likelihood of us ever going away from it, it will likely never happen.
And that's a problem. That's a problem for our teachers. And so, we'll just see how the goal goes. Just real quick. I just wanted to say thank you to all of the staff who've been working on this. I know we've had conversations since day one since I started talking behind the scenes after the election, to people. And, you know, I feel like there has been a lot of thought and a lot of intentionality to the discussions and how we can move forward. And so I just wanna thank you for taking the time and I know it's something that is deep in the hearts of all the people working on it because you're on the insurance.
You have deep respect for our teachers and others, and we're just trying to find the best option. So thank you. So I think I'll just I'll just close it close this out here. Brian, Chris, I don't wanna patronize you, but I do wanna thank you. None of us are insurance, experts, at least on this board except for for you. And, so I do thank you for raising the level of of, awareness on insurance. We'll see where the TRS goes for sure. I'm convinced, based on the conversations I've had with some teachers, not all teachers, obviously,
but that there's been enough vetting through the ex through the professionals in our version of the benefits, plan as as you said, Jennifer, but, I said I don't wanna patronize you but I do wanna say thank you because you are you have more knowledge on this than than the rest of us. And, but I think where we are at this point in time, the TRS represents the best option, not only for the district but for our staff and educators.
Any other comments, questions? All in favor? All opposed? Five one. Thank you. There was no, items pulled from the consent agenda. Doctor. Wilson? Oh sorry preview right here yeah I'm not sure we could have it here. Tonight we have a preview that takes association of school boards policy update one twenty six. I'd have his call this one the biggest updates in returns primarily due to the amount of legislation impacting public education that was passed during the eighty ninth session. There were updates to a 141 legal policies and, then recommended changes to 29 of
Colorado State's local policies, which were noted in this evening's agenda. This is only a preview, item, and we'll bring these policies back to the board for consideration in the future meeting. I will note, though, that, the twenty twenty five, twenty six policy review committee did meet, earlier this week. And then, as part of that initial meeting, we looked at the first nine of these recommended updates. We're looking at, into their input and we'll bring the final recommendations to you at a future meeting. But, with that, I'll be happy to answer any questions about this item. Thank you, Bryce. I've never seen such a dump of, policies in my life other than this, dump
one twenty six. So I encourage, all of us to do some reading over the, holidays. The policy committee, as you said, did start doing its review, but, yeah, a lot of a lot of reading, to do for sure on on that. Thanks for asking. Yeah. Make your make your notes, if you have questions or additions. Doctor Wilson, you want them to come to you or to Bryce? Yeah. Go ahead and send them to me. So if they have any additions, changes, corrections, or whatever, send them to doctor Wilson.
That brings us to, a work session and discussion. Doctor Wilson? So tomorrow is the last half day. Teachers get another four hours, before we all get our kids for the next couple weeks, and we give, our our staff a break, which is which is, they're I know that they're very much looking forward to, as am I. So future on December 22 through the twenty fifth, we do have our winter break. We'll be back in January.
And then once again, it's it's always it's always odd because we're out for two weeks, we come back for two weeks, and then we're out again. But we do have the nineteenth off, and then our next regular board meeting is January 22. I would also add it's not listed on here, but I believe January 14 is the first date that our long range planning and bond, groups will be meeting. And so that is, that's gonna be an important date for us as we kick
off January. Alright. Thank you. The trustees will now go into exec session, executive session for the purpose permitted by the Texas Open Meetings Act, Texas government code section five five one dot zero zero one through five five one dot one four six, section five five one dot zero seven one, consultation with attorney, section five five one dot zero seven four, personnel matters, appointment, employment evaluation, reassignment, duties, discipline, dismissal, complaints, superintendent, section five five one dot zero
seven six, deliberation regarding security devices, deployment, implementation of security personnel and devices, section five five one dot zero eight two, school children, school district employees, disciplinary matters, or complaint. And section five five one dot zero eight two one, personally identifiable information about public school students. The items under discussion are listed, report of intruder detection audit findings, attorney consultation on
board vacancy, and related issues. The time is 07:35. We will return as soon as we can. We are back from executive session at 08:30. That is the end of our agenda for the evening. I'll take a motion to adjourn. Motion. Second. All in favor? All opposed? Six o. Six o. Thank you. I heard something then. Thanks, Chris. Alright. Thank you.