18:03:29 I'm glad to have you.
18:03:30 Thanks.
18:03:29 And.
18:03:30 I'm sure I can do the same. I'm Ryan Malone. I am a parent of a child in pre K.
18:03:37 My daughter is in pre-K for at when And this is our second year in the district. So we're not brand new, but we're pretty new.
18:03:46 Oh, wonderful. We are so glad to have you as part of the shop.
18:03:52 Do we have any other guests?
18:03:56 That need to be recognized.
18:04:01 I know Diane Greta is joining us later. And we can introduce her more formally then.
18:04:08 Is there anybody else that's already on a call?
18:04:13 Of course, of course.
18:04:10 And we'll be introducing Dr. Reach in a moment, so, yes.
18:04:15 We do have one more.
18:04:15 Just to say hi.
18:04:20 There's one person. Kat, can you tell us who that is?
18:04:25 Go ahead and turn your microphone back on and go ahead and introduce yourself, please.
18:04:29 Sure, I'm Port Calinda Kitcher. I'm on the school safety and security committee.
18:04:34 I'm just here today.
18:04:32 Okay. That's my
18:04:35 Wonderful.
18:04:35 Welcome, glad to have you.
18:04:37 Thank you. Okay.
18:04:42 Belinda, we just now have a board member who's also joining us.
18:04:46 Wonderful. Who is that?
18:04:49 Trustee Boswell.
18:04:50 Wonderful. We're glad to have you, Trustee Boswell. Thank you for being here.
18:04:54 Yeah, thanks for having me. I may have to jump off for another meeting. That has come up, but I'll listen as long as I can.
18:05:01 Thanks.
18:05:02 Hi.
18:05:01 Thank you for being here. Okay, Addison, are you on the call? Can you do our Q, community communications?
18:05:11 Disclosure.
18:05:17 Yes, let me find it.
18:05:19 Yeah.
18:05:24 The, on the I'll be right back, hang on.
18:05:31 Okay.
18:05:32 She's getting started, Belinda. I'm gonna go ahead and go over the norms that you, that we agreed to if that's an okay thing.
18:05:38 That sounds great.
18:05:39 They
18:05:43 Okay.
18:05:40 We drop the norms into the chat for y'all to look at. I just, this is something that we talked about after last meeting to make sure that things are running a little bit smoother this time.
18:05:54 We're asking tonight if you please if you want to speak or ask a question, please raise your hand.
18:05:59 You have 2 choices. You can use a zoom Roy's hand feature or just physically raise your hand.
18:06:04 There are 5 of us on the call watching for that to make sure that we acknowledge anybody who does want to speak.
18:06:11 When we're asking, when you're asking to speak or if you're going to ask a question, we ask that you please stay on the topic at hand on the agenda.
18:06:20 There is time built into the meeting at the end to ask general questions. Or make general comments. And in addition to that, please, if you will please keep your comments and questions to one to 2 min.
18:06:31 We want to provide equity of voices during the meeting. If you have had the opportunity to ask several questions, we also ask that you please allow for other voices to be heard.
18:06:40 It's important that we do hear from everyone throughout the meeting. We want to make sure that everyone has an opportunity.
18:06:47 And as a reminder, guests are not, not allowed to ask questions during, during the meeting, but in a Zoom Meeting we have the opportunity for anybody and everyone to put their questions in chat.
18:06:59 Members, if you have questions that you've added to the chat, those are being recorded. And so we will make sure we put that together as a QA for all of you and get that information to you as quickly as we can.
18:07:13 Alright, I have my script.
18:07:15 Addison, go for it.
18:07:16 Good timing.
18:07:17 Alright.
18:07:19 Excuse me.
18:07:23 Alright, comments are limited to 2 min per speaker, 5 min. 5 speakers max. Persons wishing to provide public comments will be asked to state their name and acknowledge that they've read the note about public comments listed below.
18:07:36 If more than 5 people wish to speak, we slash the co-chairs will draw 5 names in random order.
18:07:44 Speakers and visitors are expected to provide comments in a respectful manner. If the presiding officer deems a speaker or visitor to be disrespectful that person may be warned or asked to seize any further comment or behavior.
18:07:55 Non compliance may result in ejection from the meeting. Public comment can be spoken or written. Shack does not ask questions about public comment.
18:08:05 Thank you. Addison. Do we have anybody that has public comment for us this evening?
18:08:18 Okay, hearing none, we'll move on to approval of the minutes. Has everybody gotten a chance to look at the minutes from our August meeting.
18:08:33 I'm hoping so. Can I get a,
18:08:37 Oh, I see.
18:08:37 I believe Nina might have a question, Belinda.
18:08:40 Sorry. Yeah, I can't see anything. So I should not be doing this.
18:08:43 Yeah. I will.
18:08:45 Nina, bring it up.
18:08:50 Hi, so I was not included in the attendance there. So if you could just add my name, that would be great.
18:08:57 Sorry about that.
18:08:59 No problem.
18:09:02 Any other corrections or additions?
18:09:10 Okay, can I get a motion to approve?
18:09:17 Mary, his motion to approve.
18:09:17 Okay. I second.
18:09:22 And the air seconded.
18:09:21 And that was Cynthia, I think. Perfect. Also. All in favor?
18:09:32 You can raise your digital hand or your real hand.
18:09:56 I see 12.
18:09:58 And quorum is 10, correct?
18:10:03 Okay, great. So it passes. Awesome. Thank you.
18:10:08 Remember.
18:10:07 Do we need to register the abstains or nays or?
18:10:14 Do we have any?
18:10:14 Yes.
18:10:17 Do we have any?
18:10:16 Does, okay. Are there. Are there any nays?
18:10:23 I see Leah waving away her and raised in the corner. Okay, I see I see no nays anybody abstaining
18:10:36 Okay, I don't see anybody abstaining.
18:10:42 Awesome. Moving on to our next section. Pat, do you mind introducing our next speakers?
18:10:50 Okay.
18:10:57 Okay. Oh, there you are. Like.
18:11:08 Okay.
18:10:57 I'd be happy to. Thank you. Sorry. I got lost in my, in my wonderful, Mess of a meeting here I've got going on so I am at this point in time I would like to introduce Dr.
18:11:13 Jacob Reach and I believe she's here. Is that correct? Jacob, do you, I don't see.
18:11:23 Oh, am I gonna have to cover her slides? I, you know what? She may be at her death, so if everyone will give me 1 min, let me because we're right next door to each other.
18:11:33 Let me check.
18:11:33 Thank you.
18:11:33 Okay.
18:11:33 Okay.
18:11:59 It is my understanding that. Dr. Reach and Edna, that's will entertain questions at the end of their presentation.
18:12:10 So, Yeah, I just wanna let you all know that there will be an opportunity to ask to answer or ask some questions towards the end.
18:12:21 It's coming on right now, but. How are you going through our slides for us or do I need to pull them up?
18:12:27 That's what I heard is that I'm going through and I have them ready. So you want the, Sped one first.
18:12:34 Let's do legislative first.
18:12:34 Dr. Reach? Legislative first. Let me start sharing my screen.
18:12:44 Okay.
18:12:42 Everybody forgive me for the mess that I have up. Because it's gonna be a little daunting when I get it when we hit share.
18:12:49 So let me get the legislative.
18:12:54 Peace up.
18:13:10 Okay. I know, I didn't lie to you, Dr. Reach. I know I have that somewhere.
18:13:18 And I apologize everyone, please give me a second to get that pulled back up. It was up before and I have lost it suddenly.
18:13:26 So let me get that up. Quickly. Dr. Reese, do you have it ahead of me or do you want me to go and pull it up?
18:13:33 I can pull it up.
18:13:36 You just need to let me share screen, please.
18:13:38 Absolutely, and you can do that so I will stop sharing. And then you should be able to share.
18:13:45 I apologize that was been up on my computer for an hour and a half. So.
18:13:51 Not real sure where it disappeared to you.
18:13:59 Alright, is that in the waiting room? She said she was logging in.
18:14:02 I haven't seen her yet, but I will grab it and see. I make sure. That we have her.
18:14:15 Well, let me, first thank our Shack members for starting off a brand new school year.
18:14:22 And always a pleasure. I know everyone looks forward to Texas. Legislative updates. It's probably some of your favorite things, but of course the good news is It only happens every 2 years, some less.
18:14:35 You keep having special sessions in which case we continually update through the year. But today we're providing a legislative update over the 88.
18:14:46 Legislative session. Miss Butts and I were asked to provide an update over items that pertain to Shack in some other very relevant issues with new legislation for Austin ISD.
18:15:02 And I will go ahead and start because I had the first slides anyway. And that's sharing about the new school safety bill, which is house spill 3 referred to as HP 3.
18:15:13 And this bill really focused on 5 major things. And that included mental health training. It included how we use disciplinary records.
18:15:24 It included having information available for other law enforcement agencies on campuses, which includes a map in the ability to visit those campuses.
18:15:40 And then I think one of the, oh, it includes information on safe gun storage, which I'm happy to I'll touch on that one also in a moment.
18:15:49 And then of course the big part was around the arm security for school districts and a new requirement.
18:15:58 That there should be a least one armed security officer at every campus within a school district. The legislation requires the board to determine that appropriate number.
18:16:11 Our board did set an appropriate number of one with some discretion to the district to determine if more than one is needed for a high school depending on needs of the campus or size of a campus.
18:16:26 But the law, did say what is a armed security officer. So they said you have a school district police officer.
18:16:34 We refer to those as SROs or school resource officers and that's pretty common language. And we for us, many of you probably know, we do have our own police department.
18:16:45 School districts also have the opportunity to work with a license commission police officer as a security personnel. Or work with a local police authority.
18:16:59 So it could be a city police department. It could be a county sheriff department. But some districts have chosen to contract with those groups, but we have our own police department.
18:17:09 So our plan would be to use our police officers. The law also created what they called a good cause exception.
18:17:16 And the good cause exception is if a school district determines that they can't meet the requirement either because they can't hire enough people or they don't have the funding to cover all of those people.
18:17:28 When a district takes a good cause exception, they are also required to create a plan on how they will alternatively address this requirement.
18:17:37 And the state basically gave 2 options on how someone could do that. The first is a what they call the school marshal program.
18:17:49 The school marshal program is where current school staff. So typically when they talk about this they are referring to teachers but it could really be any school district staff.
18:18:01 Does specialized training and then they would carry a weapon as part of their duties. The other one is called a school guardian program and it's similar but the major difference with the school guardian program is that it's not a staff member.
18:18:17 It's a volunteer. So they would still have to do training, but that volunteer, would then serve on that campus with a, with a weapon and served as an armed security officer.
18:18:30 As a school district, we have determined that neither of those fit the needs of Austin ISD, we are not trying to put additional requirements on teachers and why we very much appreciate and welcome volunteers.
18:18:43 We do not feel that armed volunteers is something that's gonna bring safety to our campus and also we recognize that volunteers are just that they volunteer.
18:18:55 And so we believe that having school police officers is what will serve us and ISD best to make this requirement.
18:19:02 So many people have asked, what does that mean for the police department? So currently we have 80 officers.
18:19:08 We would need to hire about 75 new officers and that's to cover all of our elementary schools.
18:19:15 In 4 special campuses. Overall, this would be an increase of about 5.8 million and, that's actually a increase of what the state provides us.
18:19:28 So that's new money. That's not money that's provided. The state is allocating $15,000 per campus as part of a school safety allotment.
18:19:44 Flat $10. And once we take all of that money into consideration. We do have an unfunded mandate of about 5 28 million that the district will still need to cover.
18:19:55 And I would also mention that that's using all of our school safety allotment just for officers.
18:20:02 In the past, we've used our school safety allotment for things like replacing cameras.
18:20:06 Fixing doors putting in brand new cameras and campuses. Fixing fences, putting up new fences, which is something that we do think is helpful and good.
18:20:16 And so all of that money now would be going towards this. So we mentioned on here the mental health training.
18:20:26 I thought we had something on here about the safe gun storage also, but I'll still mention it.
18:20:31 So the mental health training is a required that all AI SD staff receive mental health first aid training. Originally the requirement was only for counselors and staff who worked with mental health needs of students.
18:20:45 But this will increase to all staff who regularly interact with students. So what that means is that this would include people like bus drivers, custodians, food service workers, and teachers, teaching aids, central office, many central office staff and campus administrators.
18:21:02 So it seems like a lot, but when you think about it, we always say that the first educator that many of our kids see every day is a bus driver.
18:21:11 And the last one that they see every day is a bus driver. In these bus drivers and food service workers and custodians and TAs.
18:21:18 They actually see these students a lot. And so having all of these staff trained, we believe actually makes a lot of sense.
18:21:26 And this is something that we're excited to be able to provide to staff. We think this will be helpful.
18:21:31 So that all staff are aware of mental health needs, how they can help connect students for mental health supports and what signs we need to look for.
18:21:40 The other one I was gonna make sure was the safe gun storage. So that's a new requirement that a school district at the beginning of the year must notify families.
18:21:50 Of information about safe gun storage. For Austin ISD, for us that includes what safeguard storage is, what the law says.
18:22:00 What the law says about how a parent could or could not be held responsible for following safe gun storage rules.
18:22:08 The importance of such rules and also where they can find other resources. So for instance, Austin PD offers resources for families.
18:22:16 If they have guns at home, how they can maintain safety at home. With that. And then we're gonna look at other resources that we know are our quality resources that we would also share with families.
18:22:28 So for this school year, because this law went into effect after the school year started. We sent it out to our families in a newsletter.
18:22:37 But starting next school year, we will start including this as part of the registration process and families will be asked when registering to open up this one-page document about safe gun storage and then check a box saying that they've read it.
18:22:52 So that way we'll ensure that all of our families at least have seen the document and knows what those rules are.
18:22:59 So that's kind of the, the overview of HB 3. This is the longest one we're gonna cover here, but I'll ask, Miss Butts if she can go over some of our other ones.
18:23:14 And if you're speaking, you're muted.
18:23:18 Unmute. There we go. I dropped in the chat a link to our website that has a Summary of all the legislation and HB 3 that the doctor reached just went over very very detailed so you can read all about it by going to our website and seeing the the PDF of summary of select legislation.
18:23:42 So there were several bills passed regarding, opioids and fentanyl. The first one listed here is Senate Bill 629 and it requires schools to develop policies and training about administering opioid andagonists at grade 6 through 12.
18:24:02 And allowing the expansion to grades below 6. Our board passed a policy several months ago that already does this.
18:24:12 So we were ahead of the game there. Another bill, House Bill 3908. Regarding fentanyl prevention and awareness.
18:24:21 Requires districts to provide annual research-based fentanyl abuse prevention and poisoning to students in grade 6 through 12.
18:24:30 And Shaq shall recommend curriculum regarding dangers of opioids including fentanyl. So that's.
18:24:37 One of your, new duties. There was another bill regarding COVID that says that governmental entities may not mandate masks, vaccines, or order the closure of businesses or schools.
18:24:51 Next slide. Jacob, I think you're driving.
18:24:54 Oh, you're right. Dear electing my duties, there we go.
18:24:56 Yeah, sorry. Okay. More on student health.
18:25:04 Regarding seizures, TEA is to develop a form to be used. In in submitting a seizure management and treatment plan.
18:25:15 So I think the idea here was for schools to have. To have a uniform form that that requires certain information to be included in this management and treatment plan.
18:25:29 And there to develop that form no later than December, the first of this year. Hospital, 1,002.
18:25:37 Says that a district may include a chiropractor or physical therapist as a member of the district concussion oversight team.
18:25:44 Provided the person has had training. In evaluation treatment and oversight of concussions. And it also states that a student must be removed from.
18:25:57 Athletic practice or competition immediately. If certain persons, I don't think it defines the certain persons.
18:26:05 Believe the student might have sustained a concussion during the practice or competition. Another bill deals with the automated external defibrillators instruction and requires students in grade 7 through 12 to receive instruction.
18:26:21 On the use of an of an AED.
18:26:26 Epipens. The summary on this one is quite, is quite more detail than what I've provided here.
18:26:35 It allows authorized and trained school personnel and volunteers to administer medication. For respiratory distress caused by asthma allergic reactions and other conditions.
18:26:46 And it defines the medication for respiratory distress as those 3 bulleted items. Which I can't pronounce.
18:26:56 So. You can read them. And then it also authorizes administration either on a school campus or to school sponsored or school related activity on or off school property.
18:27:10 I believe that. A previous the previous law may have just stated on a school campus but this expands it.
18:27:16 To a school sponsored or school related activity off school property. The bill requires parental consent.
18:27:26 However, failure to obtain consent does not preclude administration. Of the medication in in good faith. I ran out of room here.
18:27:36 But the bill states that school personnel may opt out of administration of the Epipen.
18:27:46 Chaplains. There's a lot of misunderstanding about this bill because as this bill was introduced, It, it said that chaplains could be employed or could volunteer as counselors.
18:28:03 And the bill as finally passed. Took out any reference to counseling or counselors. So the bill is passed allows a district to employ chaplains or accept chaplains as volunteers.
18:28:18 To provide student support, services, and programs assigned by the board. The bill says chaplains don't have to be certified by S.
18:28:30 And then I wanted to point out that we already have a policy. That permits volunteers in schools and We don't and Jacob, you may have something to add on this one, but.
18:28:42 You know, if a person who happens to be a chaplain wants to volunteer, they just go through the process that any other volunteer would go through.
18:28:52 We, a lot of our volunteers come through, for example, communities in schools. Or Api, awesome partners in education.
18:29:02 Boys and girls clubs, etc. So. They would just You know, have to go through what everybody else goes through to be a volunteer.
18:29:14 The bill does require the board to take. To take formal action one way or the other on whether they're going to permit this.
18:29:25 And it may be that our board just says we already have a policy on volunteers.
18:29:30 Next slide. Okay. And I thought you would be interested in knowing what did not pass. A bill, 2,100, and one relating to the grade levels at which human sexuality instruction may be provided in public schools and it specified grades 5 through 12.
18:29:51 Senate bill 1072. Relating to local school health advisory councils the shack and human sexuality instruction provided by public schools.
18:30:00 I didn't go into the details of these because they didn't pass, but. You have the bill numbers and if you want to see what didn't pass.
18:30:07 You can you can look these up. And then interestingly, the, the one HB 478.
18:30:16 That had a, this is relating to parental approval for students. Participation in human sexuality instruction.
18:30:24 You'll recall that there used to be. An opt-out and this and the bill that passed I think a session ago or 2 sessions ago required opt in.
18:30:35 And it had a sunset date of August first of 2024. This bill would have removed the sunset provision.
18:30:44 And it did not pass. And Jacob, you may want to say something about this one, but.
18:30:52 Maybe not. What's next? I, when I did this slide, it was a possible special session in October and yesterday the governor announced that there will be a special session.
18:31:05 In October on. He doesn't use the word vouchers, but I think he calls it parental choice.
18:31:15 And it'll be in October. He didn't specify a date, but everyone seems to think it will be October the tenth.
18:31:23 And you may, I don't know if you all already follow these organizations, but they always provide.
18:31:31 Good information on what's happening at the legislature. Raise your hand, Texas is one that I follow.
18:31:37 Texans for Public Education is another that I follow on Facebook. Coalition for public schools is not quite as active, but they're another organization that you may wanna follow.
18:31:50 And then I provided there the link that I provided in the chat. If you want to dig deeper into the legislation.
18:32:04 Right, well, I guess we'll Go back to Miss Montgomery with Karen.
18:32:11 That's it for our. Legislative update would you like to do? Presentation questions, presentation questions, or would you like me to move into Sped right now?
18:32:22 I think we, for time, I think we need to move into Sped right now if you don't mind.
18:32:27 Okay.
18:32:28 I appreciate the updates very much. That's great information. We appreciate it.
18:32:35 Thank you.
18:32:32 Thank you. So Jacob. Can I leave? I'm still working by the way. I'm doing a lot.
18:32:41 I'm reviewing legal contracts. So. Alright, thank you for having us.
18:32:48 Alright, so I'll move into our next. Legal update. So we wanted to provide with you a special education update and this is around the recent action with TEA and to provide some context in a bit of a timeline.
18:33:05 This actually goes back to 2020 when TA opened a complaint into Austin ISD around a backlog of evaluations for students.
18:33:17 So that report went on. After about 2 years, PA said that you were not complying with that and they opened a special investigation.
18:33:27 At the very end of 2022 I think it was literally December thirtieth 2022 TEA.
18:33:36 Officially closed that investigation and gave a preliminary report and then on March, 2023 they provided a final report and that final report recommended to the Commissioner of Education that a team of conservators, to the Commissioner of Education that a team of conservators be placed over special education that a team of conservators be placed over special education that the district be required to do, a, amount of training.
18:34:02 And that an external audit be conducted of the special education department for us. This work, which happened in March.
18:34:13 We had actually made a lot of changes starting in January of this year. That started with the interim superintendent that's currently still here.
18:34:21 Matias Sagura who put in place a lot of new structures for special education. And so because we had begun to address the backlog, move forward with our hiring, move forward with training that was already ongoing.
18:34:33 We felt that we not only had a address some of the concerns, but that we had a really great plan that was going to meet everything that TA said we needed to do.
18:34:42 So in April of this year, we requested of TEA for an informal review. And then in May, we've met with the Commissioner of Education.
18:34:52 We presented our plan and asked the commissioner to consider placing a monitor in the district in place of a conservator.
18:35:00 On August thirtieth just a couple of days ago TEA provided their response and a proposed agreed order. And they've asked that our Board of Trustees take a vote on that proposed agreed order by the end of this month.
18:35:15 So I mentioned some of the work that we've done since January and I went to highlight it a little bit before we look at some data and then talk about what's in that order.
18:35:23 So since the beginning of this calendar year, we've actually been able to decrease pending evaluations by 40%.
18:35:32 The And in a second, we'll look at a chart of what those numbers actually look like. We've also tested 80% more students than we did this time prior.
18:35:44 We've also tested 80% more students than we did this time prior last year. And we know that a lot of that is due to our ability to increase the we have here in the district and also increase our support of external providers to help with the valuations.
18:35:58 So to give an idea, we started last school year with 22 evaluators. We started this school year with 74 evaluators.
18:36:07 And that's LSSP and diagnosticians. So that's made a huge difference in our ability to conduct evaluations for students.
18:36:16 And to get towards IEP development. We also provided 2 days of special development. I'm sorry, of special education training for all of our Sped staff and our administrators at our campuses and a administrators at Central Office.
18:36:31 And we did that over the spring in the summer. We've also included about 50 additional staff to help because as you can imagine we're getting through more evaluations.
18:36:42 These evaluations are letting us know of additional support students may need. So we need to hire more staff to keep up with that.
18:36:49 And we have. And we've added 50 staff this year and altogether we've increased our budget for special education by about 30 or a little over 30 million dollars.
18:36:59 So this first chart shows how we've done on evaluations this year. And last year. So the purple line, the one that's on top.
18:37:10 Shows where we're at with their valuations and that we've gone or that this last year We've had about 539 evaluations every month And that's compared to the prior year where we conducted about 350 every month.
18:37:25 The other number that I wanna call out is August. As you can see, we had a big increase in August this year. Compared to last year.
18:37:35 And that was an intentional effort by our Sped department and our interim superintendent. To ensure that those evaluations continued and we did that by offering many of our evaluators either an extended contract in August.
18:37:49 Or compensatory hours. I'm sorry, not contain story hours, extra duty hours. In August to continue to conduct evaluations.
18:37:57 Typically that was a month to where those staff were not. Not on staff at that time. They weren't, they, you know, just how their contract worked.
18:38:05 They were off during that time. We know how important those summer months. Cause so many students first request for those evaluations.
18:38:14 Prior to the start of school year. So it's important that we not wait till the school year starts to start evaluations, but to get them done during the summer.
18:38:23 So we believe that this is gonna make a big difference. This is my favorite slide and this really goes home to what TEA first indicated is their concern.
18:38:34 And that's that the district was not doing a good job. Of timely evaluating students. And we want to own up to that.
18:38:43 We want to make sure that we put things in place to address it because no students should be out of timeline on an evaluation or development of their IEP.
18:38:52 So what this graph shows us is pending evaluations. In the black line shows us all the stew or how many students were paths do.
18:39:02 So you can see at the start of this calendar year, we had about 1,700 students who were out of timeline.
18:39:09 They were past due and needing their evaluation. We've decreased that number to 488.
18:39:16 As, of August. And of course, we will get that number to 0 and we will keep it at 0.
18:39:22 Now I have these other lines here because we want to show the context. It's important for us to get through those past due.
18:39:30 That is a strong priority. But we also know that we can't do that at the expense of just making other students now pass due.
18:39:37 That we also must maintain the students who are within timeline within their timeline and still conduct those evaluations as well.
18:39:46 So that red line shows you the within timeline and it's doing exactly what we want to see. It's somewhat flat.
18:39:53 There will be some months that are higher and some that are lower, but it needs to be somewhat flat.
18:39:58 We will never have 0 in timeline evaluations because families are always requesting additional evaluations or new evaluations for students.
18:40:08 And then this blue line shows our total pending overall. And sooner or later, that line will be unnecessary because the only other line will be in timeline.
18:40:20 And that's it. So, again, our goal over the next 18 months is to ensure that we are at 0 out of compliance and that those in timeline stay in timeline.
18:40:32 So this proposed order from TEA has requirements for the board and requirements for the administration. The main part of it is that PEA would appoint a monitor.
18:40:43 Not a conservator, which was our original request. But some additional things that TEA shared.
18:40:49 First is that they wrote into this proposed order that if we were to fail to comply with any of the requirements in there, then they May and most likely would appoint a conservator or a management team immediately.
18:41:03 They're also asking the district as part of agreeing to this order to waive our right to appeal.
18:41:10 Whether through the. The, what the soap, the state office, I'm gonna get it wrong.
18:41:18 I, I may need someone to help me. I know many people know. So basically it's the state department that's in charge of hearing administrative hearings and administrative appear appeals.
18:41:28 We would wave our right to go to them or to look at other options. And then as I mentioned just before this, TA could just immediately appoint a conservator if we fail to apply, comply.
18:41:40 So some of the key points for the board. The main one is around Lone Star governance. And that's that the board take part in Lunstar governance training, which they had voluntarily already completed last month, but also hire a Lone Star governance coach and go through the Lone Star Government's implementation, which is a 2 year process.
18:42:01 Is part of that implementation, they would require the Board of Trustees to be at their meets focus level, which is their second highest level.
18:42:09 So it does not meet approaches, meet some masters, just like the accountability system. They would also require the board to spend 50% of all board meeting time committed to student outcomes.
18:42:22 And for TEA, that's student outcomes as defined by our scorecard. So what does our scorecard say is a student outcome.
18:42:30 And then they'd also ask our board to ensure that our scorecard aligns with loan star governance.
18:42:38 So implicitly that would mean that they may need to revisit the scorecard and set new outcome goals.
18:42:43 They would also require board policy revisions. This includes policy revisions on purchasing authority for special education on hiring authority for anything, not just special education.
18:42:56 But then also some policy revisions around staffing, staffing, evaluations. And staffing questions when dealing with special education.
18:43:05 All pause here for just a moment. I'd like to see if Trustee Boswell has anything she would like to add.
18:43:11 And then I'll continue on.
18:43:13 Yeah, thanks, Dr. Reach. I think there are a couple of important things. I think, and Student Outcomes has many different meetings.
18:43:22 I think we can all think about. What contributes to student outcomes and our experience and our understanding of that term, I think, you know, we can say that mental health contributes to student outcomes that, teacher turnover contributes to student outcomes, a lot of things.
18:43:38 Loan star governments has a very specific definition of student outcomes they expect when they say committed to student outcomes, the time that counts for that is time spent talking about 3 to 5 items.
18:43:53 That, we will adopt for the scorecard. We likely have to change our scorecard as part of this after work with the community.
18:44:03 So 3 to 5 items. That are measurable. By regularly collected data which is most likely test scores things like college career military readiness and graduation rates things like that so very specific measurable things and student outcomes they are a scorecard is allowed under Lone Star Governance to have between 3 and 5.
18:44:26 Student outcome goals. Those are the 3 to 5 things that that 50% of time is expected. To be used for and everything else we do planning for a bonds discussing the budget.
18:44:39 I'm deliberating on issues taking care of our you know finances all of that. Needs to fit into the other 50% and we have, you know, statutory duties and then if you've ever watched a board meeting discussions about a lot of other things that come to us.
18:44:58 So when, when they say student outcomes, it's what's in your head may not be what they intend that buy.
18:45:07 The other part of loan stark governance is they.
18:45:11 Expect not only the PAL they are proposing some very specific policy revisions that in their proposed agreed order they say connect with the work to address the special education issues.
18:45:25 Lone Star governance also envisions boards and getting rid of all local policy that is not required. So we had to take a vote on HP 3, the armed officers, there other things we have like a family engagement policy like a dual language policy.
18:45:41 And we've been talking about putting a special education policy in place that really encapsulates our vision and values as a community and those things they are saying are not the board's role.
18:45:50 And that we should not have that. So really, Lone Star governance defines the board's role more narrowly than the text education code does.
18:45:59 And that is really what we're talking about with this. So just, wanna share some clarity.
18:46:06 On that part of this. And also want to say the part, that is the administration's work to address all the special education needs.
18:46:16 You know, we have every reason to believe. That it is very achievable and that.
18:46:25 It will really get us where we need to be and we've also been reassured. By the administration.
18:46:30 That they're looking for something more than compliance and really looking toward making sure. We lean into an inclusion in a deeper way that we're, you know, kind of going beyond and just what to is requiring.
18:46:43 So I think this is, you know, these are the decisions that we're going to be making as a board.
18:46:49 And I think the question is, you know, kind of how do we continue to have this conversations as a community to be sure questions are answered and.
18:46:56 And. You know, asked and answered by our community and by the trustees and and that we all have the information we need for the transparency that we've worked hard to create.
18:47:04 And moving forward. Thank you. And also just why for one more moment want to really commend. Interim super and the whole team including Jacob.
18:47:20 And Dr. Reach for all the work that's been done. I mean those charts that that were shared.
18:47:26 That since January it shows an incredible shift in approach focus and impact. So really excited to see that and my goal with, whatever decision we have to make about this is the work on.
18:47:43 Special education continues and that all of the other good work in the district continues and that's really the decision we have to make is what is going to give us the best chance of doing that.
18:47:56 Thank you, Trustee, as well. So I have one more slide on the administration requirements. And TA has broken the administration requirements up into 4 priorities.
18:48:08 Priority one is really that major legal portion of it. It's satisfying open corrective action plans.
18:48:16 And we recognize that the reason ASD is where we're at right now is because we have these open correction active plans that we were not timely completing and they shouldn't.
18:48:28 To be fair, we shouldn't have corrective action to begin with. For, people who may not be familiar with how corrective action plans work.
18:48:37 So when people submit complaints to TA around special education. They typically respond to those complaints and they ask the district to also respond.
18:48:47 And in the vast majority of these, the district responds, a TA says, okay, you need to do X.
18:48:53 And this is closed or they say, okay, the administration missed that deadline, but they did this to fix it.
18:48:59 So now we're good. The majority of them just end after the complaint. And after a short investigation, if they don't or the district is not able to say how we've addressed it, then TA may open up corrective action plans.
18:49:13 . Currently we have about 8 outstanding corrective action plans including the 2 that first started this special investigation, which was focused around the backlog of evaluations for students in focused around not complying with what's needed for child find which is for our youngest students and getting them identified early.
18:49:35 Those were the 2 major issues, but we recognize some of the other issues that TA addressed and have indicated in these corrective action plan.
18:49:44 Also included, the development of IEPs and then ensuring that what those IEPs are in place, that students are actually getting the services that they need and that they're meeting their IEP goals and that they're meaningful IP calls.
18:50:00 So those are what TAs kind of indicated. Here are the major things that you need to fix. As a district we want to own that we need to do better on that and of course ensure that we satisfy all of the open corrective action plans.
18:50:13 Priority 2 is really around. The training and programmatic piece. So it's implementing new practices to address special education compliance.
18:50:24 And there's 2 major parts to this. The first is ensuring that there is training around special education, especially around things like child find identification in working with students with special needs.
18:50:44 Okay.
18:50:38 For almost all staff in ASD. So they would be some level of training that's for all teachers, all administrators, most central administrators.
18:50:50 Around how to identify students, how to work with students with special needs because, everyone works with all of our students.
18:51:00 And of course, Sped students are regular at students first and we wanna make sure that we're addressing those needs.
18:51:04 Hmm.
18:51:15 Hmm.
18:51:05 So there would then be more detailed training for some of our sped staff. Some training that we've already started, but then some additional training on best practices for special education.
18:51:19 Okay.
18:51:18 The other part of this would be around implementing a MTSS system, which is multi tiered system of supports.
18:51:27 Hey, ISD does have an MTSS system. So this would not replace our existing system.
18:51:34 It would complement our system, but there would be training that needs to be done.
18:51:37 Excuse me, Jacob. Can we just please have everybody mute who's not speaking everybody mute your so we can make sure we hear everything that Dr.
18:51:47 Reach has to say. Thank you.
18:51:49 Of course, thank you. So within TSS, we would, implement this new system to complement our existing system.
18:51:58 Our existing system won't go away. But we would need to provide training for teachers and campus administrators.
18:52:05 On this new MTSS system, especially around tier one instruction, which is the instruction for all students that first level of instruction.
18:52:14 And that requirement would take us about a year and a half from now. A priority 3 is about improving data management and reporting systems.
18:52:24 So we've shared that if you were to ask me or you would ask anyone. Hey, where were you a year ago on your backlog with special education?
18:52:34 We would not be able to provide that information for you. And that was a big concern for TEA and it's a concern for us.
18:52:42 Administration, but it's really a concern for our campus administrators, our families, and our parents.
18:52:47 We should have timely and reliable data that we can share and we should be able to easily report out on that.
18:52:55 So TEA identified that as a concern. It's not a corrective action, but they've said along the way.
18:53:00 But hey, you've never been able to reliably give us data or you have not been able to always tell us.
18:53:08 Matias Sagora, interim superintendent identified this is one of the number one priorities when he started in January.
18:53:16 So we've actually already done a lot of work towards priority through. Mr. Sergora implemented data strategies for special education and actually gave a new staff member to special education who's focus was to make sure that data was easily available.
18:53:32 And easily collected in a reliable system. The other part of this of course is around the system that our teachers use every day.
18:53:40 So actually not this school year over the year before we started a new system, Easy IEP and we hope that this system based off of how it can be used best practices is going to be more reliable.
18:53:54 For families, but we recognize that we've put a lot of our on our teachers. I shared earlier with another group that over the last 3 and a half years.
18:54:04 We've had 3 different special education systems. That's a lot of change. And we need to ensure that we have a system that sticks around for our teachers not continually giving them new systems and we need to give them easy ways.
18:54:19 To access those systems, use those systems so that they're meaningful for our students at the end of the day.
18:54:26 So that's what is really built into priority 3. Priority for our last one is around parent out.
18:54:33 I wanna of course acknowledge that there is a federal requirement that school districts have to engage families in the special education process and have to send information out to families.
18:54:43 We recognize that and on top of that, TAs wanting us to do certain things. And there's really 3 parts to that.
18:54:51 They want us to create a new website that serves as kind of a one-stop for any spend information that, families may have or students may have.
18:55:00 They want us to create outreach meetings in the community around certain topics in a round what family need to know about going through the IEP process or the art process or or getting special education services.
18:55:16 And they are asking us to create a brand new parent committee that will be focused on special education and talking about many of these things.
18:55:25 That I've been sharing on today and bringing in more parent perspective into that process. The other thing that we've heard is the district while doing these meetings.
18:55:35 Is that getting the information out to families is just stuff. One part of the process. We also need to make it easier for our families to get their questions answered and to know where to go to ask those questions.
18:55:49 So that's something that we really want to prioritize as well. It ensure that families know here's where I go to get those answers.
18:55:58 And that we are timely and quickly responding to families. We also need to ensure that that means that we're giving information and easy to understand method for all of our families in all of our staff.
18:56:12 For many families, the first person that they may ask. Is their students teacher. So we want to ensure that our teachers know, well, here's where you go get that info or here's where you go ask or here's the website to go to so that everyone's aware and families are timely getting information.
18:56:28 The delay of getting information is also we recognize very harmful. The worst thing that can occurs for a family to say, this is too much trouble for me to figure out.
18:56:39 And that's on us. That's us on a district. We cannot get to that part.
18:56:43 We need to ensure that it's an easy process for our families because at the end of the day it's about ensuring that students are getting the services that they need to be successful.
18:56:53 So that is what TA is requiring. That's kind of the overview of our order.
18:56:58 I'd like to turn it back over to our co-chairs to see how we'd like to handle, any questions that we may have.
18:57:06 Suzanne, well thank you. First of all, thank you, Dr. Reach. That was wonderful information.
18:57:12 I'm so glad to have the presentation both of the legislative pieces and of the special ed pieces. It was a tremendous amount of information and I know we all have questions.
18:57:21 But I think if Suzanne's okay with this, I think we should encourage.
18:57:26 That to happen and from the chat questions and also an email after. Because we're already behind on our agenda, but of course, Suzanne, I'm up for.
18:57:37 Discussion if you think we should do something else.
18:57:39 No, I think that's reasonable. If people do put questions here, when do you think we'd be able to get responses back to them just so we're not leaving them lingering.
18:57:49 Yeah.
18:57:51 Yeah, I'm happy to work. If they can go to Miss Warner, I'm happy to work with Dr.
18:57:58 Drew Robinette, our Associate superintendent for special education and ensuring that we get responses back.
18:58:04 And so we'll do it kind of like a an FAQ document, so to speak. So we'll just take all those questions, provide our responses to it, and get that document back over.
18:58:12 Okay, so.
18:58:13 And I dropped the website in the chat. That's the best place to find updates and information on what's going on.
18:58:20 With this proposed order.
18:58:23 Great. So if you if anybody throughout the rest of the meeting thinks of any additional questions that you want to make sure get answered, please make sure you put those in the chat.
18:58:33 That can be for our shack board members, but it can also be community members. This is kind of a unique situation, usually when we are meeting in person, we do not take questions from the people who are visiting but in this case we want to make sure that we get as many questions answered as possible so you are welcome to enter those into the chat and we will consolidate all those and get them to Dr.
18:58:59 Regent team.
18:59:04 Alright. And I just want to echo what Belinda said. Thank you so much. That was all really.
18:59:11 Incredible in-depth full information and I think we're all better off for learn and more about it.
18:59:19 Absolutely. Okay, so moving on to our district updates. Along are you here to give us a phone services update?
18:59:30 I am here. I'll make it quick and fast to catch us back up on time. We had a, just a bang of a start to the school year.
18:59:41 We have done everything we have set up to do as far as our high school and middle school nurses.
18:59:47 They are a fabulous group of ASD employees now. So we are fully staffed at both the high school and middle school levels and then we continue to work with our littles through Seaton and they provide a fabulous service for the littles all of our elementary.
19:00:03 So we are doing a great job in health services with helping those kids get an education and really. Being healthy while we're doing it.
19:00:11 So the staffing is, up to date. There's always a full website, so any COVID information, anything you all need to know about any forms as an action plan.
19:00:26 Any Narcan, anything like that. It's a fully updated website now so you can always go directly to the source for any forms you might need as parents or any questions you might have.
19:00:35 We have quite a few. Informational pieces on that website.
19:00:43 Sure.
19:00:41 We can get it in the minutes and see some parents maybe from searching. Where, specifically on the website should we direct people to for that information?
19:00:50 So you can type it in in the search bar or if you look on the health services and nursing page, that's where you'll find that plethora of information.
19:00:59 Thank you.
19:01:00 Sure. We are continuing the fentanyl awareness program and as you saw with Dr. Reach and with Miss Butts, that's gonna be super important, any fentanyl awareness, the NAR can continue to reach out with the AED program.
19:01:16 We're going to help the other groups facilitate those as well.
19:01:21 That's all I have if you all have questions for me.
19:01:32 Yeah.
19:01:29 Does anybody have anything for her like a 1 min something? If not, we'll just follow up with questions because we're we're still behind.
19:01:36 I'm with you.
19:01:38 I hear you. Thank you for your update.
19:01:43 Yes, she said that, Cynthia. The middle school and high school are fully staffed.
19:01:48 But you can speak to that, of course.
19:01:52 Yeah, everybody has their nurses in place.
19:01:58 Awesome. Thank you. We appreciate you.
19:02:03 Moving on to food services. Nutrition. What's on a
19:02:17 Yes.
19:02:16 Hi, I'm Belinda. Can you make so I can share my screen?
19:02:20 Pat's working on that.
19:02:22 Okay, got it.
19:02:23 You should be able to, Diane, that is set for anybody to share. Are you not able to share?
19:02:31 Let me see.
19:02:49 There you go.
19:02:49 Good.
19:02:49 Yeah.
19:02:55 Okay, well thanks for having me. I'm Dianne Brodeck. I'm the executive chef for the often independent school district.
19:03:02 I'm also a parent of both my kids. Go to authenticity schools and they. Lunch every day.
19:03:10 Let me get this off there.
19:03:12 So yeah, I'm here representing the, the, I'm trying to clear that top.
19:03:17 The food service department where our mission is to support the achievement of all students by creating food access, serving healthy tasting meals and providing learning opportunities about nutrition, cultural foodways, and the feud system.
19:03:31 So just a couple of quick numbers. We start roughly 60,000 meals a day, which puts us that 10 billion annually.
19:03:39 So really big 5 volume numbers there. We currently serve 30% of our students at breakfast and about 50% at lunch.
19:03:48 Though I will say this year we're having a really great start and both of those numbers are up and our goal is to hit 55%.
19:03:55 So our number one priority is of course to expand healthy food for all of our students all across the district.
19:04:02 That's really our number one priority. So what are we doing to make that happen? Well, we've got a couple of programs already in place.
19:04:09 We've got our DP program, which is where students at specific schools that hit, certain qualifiers based on demographics that they enroll are enrolled in SNAP.
19:04:20 Can automatically qualify where every student at the school gets free breakfast and free lunch. So they don't have to apply for anything.
19:04:27 It makes it super simple for us to really provide good access to everyone. We also have our breakfast in the classroom programs and we offer those at 45 different schools.
19:04:37 This year we started something new where we've got these. Breakfast cart that we're also using as snack carts and those are at 10 different schools primarily at middle schools and high schools because many of those, 74.
19:04:52 I'm sorry, many of those 45 schools that do BIC are elementary schools. We also offer after school and stack programs and in the summertime we're still rolling.
19:05:03 We were open up 50 schools this past summer. So a little background on breakfast in the classroom, which is a program that we really love because it means that food and nutrition is part of the school day.
19:05:15 So we deliver the right before the students get to school and then they sit at the community and they eat their meal together.
19:05:20 So. We like it because it means that they don't have to show up early to get. Food which sometimes can be stigmatizing to be the only one eating in a cafeteria and we love that it just builds community.
19:05:35 And I was gonna dig into these breakfast cards. We got a grant this year, so. The idea behind me is that we're meeting students where they are.
19:05:43 So if anybody's ever been to Booi High School. It's extremely sprawling.
19:05:48 So there's a ton of kids. That don't ever make their way over to the cafe in the morning and they're missing breakfast every day.
19:05:54 We're trying to get out of the cafeteria and maybe even out of the school. So this top picture here in the corner, we're actually set up outside in the courtyard at Lively because we saw that's where the kids are hanging out before they come into the school.
19:06:09 In the bottom we're at web we're set up on that hill there and the kids are sitting at picnic tables, they're hanging out and having their breakfast there.
19:06:16 In the middle, that's a setup at the column. So we decided to be right in front of the door with all the buses.
19:06:22 Drop the kids morning so that we can meet them there. They don't have to come to the cafeteria.
19:06:28 They can take their food and go. So. Every morning there we've got a couple of fresh options tacos after the day.
19:06:35 Cereal and 2 kinds of fresh fruit. 2 guys. So let's get into the food. The most important thing to know about our meals is that they are for everyone.
19:06:47 So we're really been working hard on destigmatizing what school lunches, what school food is.
19:06:53 And the biggest misconception is that school lunch either isn't healthy or it's packaged or a Cisco truck pulls up and we just take whatever's inside and throw it in a fryer.
19:07:04 It couldn't be further from the truth. We're really thoughtful about our procurement with thoughtful about our menus.
19:07:10 We're thoughtful about flavor profiles and we really want everyone to join us every day. We are run by the Department of Agriculture and there's a ton of restrictions and guidelines that we follow.
19:07:23 Some of those include serving whole grains. We work in chloric within caloric guidelines for each different grade level.
19:07:31 We watch our sodium, we watch our bats, we offer low fat and fat free milk.
19:07:35 So even if your kids out of middle school or high school where they have chocolate milk. You should know that that still low fat milk, if that's something that's important to you.
19:07:46 Some really important facts are that children who participate in our program are generally healthier. They have a lower, VMI than soon to bring matches from home.
19:07:56 And based on national data, students receiving career reduced meal. Lunch meals are Consistently lower in their obesity rates by at least 17%.
19:08:07 Families also find that students dining at our school save time and money and it's great exposure for kids.
19:08:14 I hear all the time parents who say they would have never touched at a mommy at my house or my kid doesn't eat meat and suddenly they're at school eating at a mom a and eating.
19:08:24 Meet even chicken eating beef enchilada. So we really love that. A 2021 studies of right after COVID.
19:08:33 Found that school meals provide the healthiest and most equitable access of all US food sources. So we want people to remember that this is a healthy option and it's not what it was maybe when you were growing up.
19:08:47 So this really came to light during the pandemic when we were providing those meals for families that went out to the homes.
19:08:54 And we realized how reliant people were on our healthy meals that a lot of times fresh fruit and fresh back vegetables were not something that a lot of families had access to.
19:09:05 So it brings us to this question of why is our participation always sitting at 50%? So I spent time doing this project where I went to one of those DEP schools.
19:09:16 So every student at school can get a free lunch and I was thinking what are they bringing from home? Like what are we competing with?
19:09:23 So I took these pictures at 2 different Cp schools. And you can kind of see that it's a lot of packaged food.
19:09:31 It really lacks protein or the protein is extremely processed. And a lot of times it's really just a series of carbohydrate snaps.
19:09:38 It's not nutritious, it typically lacks a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables, but I always just feel like that protein component is the most lacking because that's a hard thing to pack.
19:09:48 In a lunchbox with some something to keep it cold to last you know 4 to 6 h until lunch.
19:09:55 And then I look at, And I mean, I think these are a lot better looking. We still got a lot of favorites that kids are comfortable with.
19:10:04 We've got classics like chicken tenders. We've got pizza, but then we also are exploring new flavors.
19:10:10 And sometimes people say, well, that's not a real trade. These are real trays. Our team from the office we eat in school daily and we take pictures of our trays.
19:10:21 The important part to remember is that this is when we as adults take everything that's offered. So if your kid comes into the line and some of these pictures make their way to social media and they take let's take this tray with the infant on the top row.
19:10:35 They can take an infanata and the corn and that by US state DA Sanders is technically a full meal.
19:10:42 They're choosing not to take the apple, the veggies, and the salad. So when we get feedback from parents that it's not enough food or we're not offering in a variety.
19:10:51 We like to remind them that there's actually a lot of variety every day. It's just a matter of whether your student chooses to take it.
19:10:58 So at minimum, school length does have 3 components and one of those has to be a fruit vegetable.
19:11:04 So if you're getting a full reimbursable meal, you can't leave the line if you've got your fruit or your veggie.
19:11:08 Milk is not required, but went away several years ago. And we do have a step plate for pre K and if you get any of our menus those have asterisk next to them pre K so you know exactly what the plan is for your for your new eater with us.
19:11:24 Back to scratch cooking. We are cooking. A lot of new items this year and a lot of classics so here we've got our faith for breakfast we're prepping up our beans, we've got chicken drumsticks, we've got our fresh sloth, they're making manacotti.
19:11:45 So again, just reiterating that idea that we're not just taking food out of boxes, we've got real people making real food chopping herbs every day.
19:11:49 We're highlighting every year more and more our global flavors. So this year we've added in these vegetarian papooses which were kind of like a sleeper hit.
19:11:59 We had no idea that they were so popular and they were. You really well received, especially elementary. We added these Greek bowls, which we offer in a vegetarian option and a meat option.
19:12:08 The Caribbean bowl is really fun. It's got black beans or chicken. It's got a mango pico and it's served with roasted plantings.
19:12:18 We've got a ton of sola. So again, we have those classics for kids that might not be exposed to a lot of flavors and then we've got stuff for kids who are looking to be a little experimental.
19:12:27 You don't want to eat. The standard stuff all the time. And I also just want to focus on we have kids in this district from all over the world at this point.
19:12:34 So we try to make something that people can feel comfortable with, a little piece of home, we do our best to try to.
19:12:40 Have some foods that are represented from all over the room. We have another big initiative towards, plant forward option.
19:12:50 So we have the return of the sun butter and jelly sandwich elementaries which have gone back and forth with but that's just the classic and parents are wanting it and kids are wanting it.
19:12:58 So it allows us to have some vegan vegetarian option daily and that can also be made out of food red.
19:13:04 We just brought in our first sort of non meat product. We are inundated with tons and tons of marketing and turned on a lot of them.
19:13:13 This is the first one that we're using. It's called it's the brand is rebellious.
19:13:15 And it's the rebellious key contender. So we served that with fried rice. We always have vegetarian salads and a lot of our entrees have a vegetarian version.
19:13:24 So you can get it with beans. You can get with autonomous or just cheese We have a lot of options.
19:13:31 Every single day. And then let's not forget about breakfast. So at breakfast, there's gonna be at least 3 components.
19:13:37 We are not required to serve protein at breakfast, but we feel like it's important to do that.
19:13:43 So several days a week, even though the requirement is just that you need to have 2 grains. We are building in protein.
19:13:50 So we've got yoga, we've got some sausage patties, we've got smoothies, we just feel it's important for kids nutrition and for balance.
19:13:59 Our, is here tonight, but we do whatever we can to make sure again that everyone feels welcome.
19:14:05 So we can take your guide chair accommodation for. We can offer alternative milk. We can let you know what options are being in.
19:14:13 And vegetarian and angles free. We let you know what has work in it. All of those things.
19:14:18 We kind of think we're going above and beyond to make sure that. Again, everyone is welcome.
19:14:24 This school lunch isn't just for halves or have nots or it doesn't mean you can't participate because you have some dietary.
19:14:31 Exemptions. So beyond food. We're going to step into procurement. So we voluntarily take part in the good purchasing program.
19:14:44 So that's a focus on these 5 areas below, which is the supporting local economies, environmental sustainability, meaning do the companies we buy for support, us sustainable practices, valued workforce that can mean are the employees of the company we're buying from, are they in union?
19:15:03 Animal welfare? Are the animals being treated well? Are they treated with antibiotics? And then general nutrition.
19:15:08 So my favorite one, as a chef is supporting these local businesses. So here's just a quick little overview of some of the items that come right on the check.
19:15:18 Hyperlocal ones are the new product that, which are from a near wall just south of here.
19:15:26 The fiancee portias is right here in Austin. The Fiesta Tias is right here in Austin.
19:15:32 We get our bread from Guten Free or Self Kitchen, which is also in Austin.
19:15:33 And then all of our bread and our wolves. For all of the kitchens are prepared right in file text.
19:15:39 So we're really committed to quality the ingredients. It gets harder every year and we're trying to really stay strong on a couple of set standards.
19:15:48 So those are And there's nothing on our menu has artificial colors, waivers, preservatives, or sweeteners.
19:15:53 They're void of emulsifiers and flower treatment agents.
19:15:59 Sustainability is another huge part of our everyday work. So if you visited our kitchens or seen our Instagram, a big initiative was this self serve.
19:16:11 So we've got everything set out with Tom's at most grade levels and we let students help themselves.
19:16:19 So they're only taking the things they want and they're using Ts instead of single serve containers which cuts down on waste quite a bit both good ways and trash and single-use items.
19:16:26 Scratch cooking and composting again is done in all of our kitchens and then off of versus serve is also really important because we're not giving kids a step trade with letting them choose the foods that they want to eat and A or B entree choice and then choose how many cucumbers do you want, how many tomatoes.
19:16:43 It's not like they have to take everything. And then additionally, we have those share table.
19:16:48 So if you have to take that fruit to get through the line and you really don't like bananas then you don't like the reason you can put on the share table and some other kit can come and take it if they're still hungry.
19:16:58 We're really proud of the work we've made in the last few years around supporting our employees.
19:17:04 So everyone got a raise that came from the district, but beyond that we try to share our appreciation for their hard work by Giving monthly we have a kitchen of the month a manager of the month employee of the month We were really excited because we got an awesome Edmond to take all of our managers on a field trip.
19:17:23 So it's a six-part series where we do a well discussion and then we visit a vendor so we went to New World Bakery and saw how well bread was made and then we sit down and we eat a global meal together and that's kind of the best part.
19:17:35 So we've sat at big tables that takes the DPA and Indian restaurants and we just went to Oakland for Greek food and we let all of employees food and we let all the employees who are managers take a break for the, who are managers take a break for the day, get to know each other and kind of go over some of those pillars that are, pour into our department.
19:17:51 So, how can you help us continue to be successful? So this is really kind of eye-opening to some people, but the food service department is not funded by the district in any way.
19:18:03 So. Local property taxes, date funds, and federal funds fund district expenses. That's everything having to do with schools.
19:18:10 We are completely separate from that. We are solely funded by the Department of Agriculture. So we were very excited that all of our staff got raises.
19:18:20 They deserved it. It's a sustainable living. But our reimbursement rate from the government is pretty much flat and our raises went up.
19:18:29 So that's really a challenge for us to meet that deficit in our budget. So some of the ways that we need to do that to be able to pay everyone is.
19:18:40 Increase our old cart sales, increase adult meal sales meeting teachers. We are selling more on the cart and then have your students join us.
19:18:50 Every meal counts for us. Quick little budget recap here. Our payroll is 61% of our budget.
19:18:55 So anyone that's ever been in hospitality or full service. That number typically is that 30%.
19:19:01 So again, these people work extremely hard. They work all through the pandemic. They deserve the raise. We want to be able to support them.
19:19:09 And so we've got to find ways to make that budget work. So. What you can do again is to have your student even us.
19:19:18 It doesn't have to be every day. It could be just on Fridays when you're burned out.
19:19:21 It could be circling just the day that they like on cafeteria and elementary menu and by doing so you're helping us provide a living wage for our cafeteria staff.
19:19:30 You're supporting those local businesses who are buying from. And then when we have more buying power and participation, that gives us an opportunity to bring in even better food to all the students.
19:19:41 So this is a bit controversial, so I thought I would. Bring it up. We do sell all the part items and you can definitely go on your kids account and say no I don't want them purchasing those items.
19:19:52 But we rely on these extra sales to help us meet our financial goals. So. Everything that we offer is smart snack compliant, meaning that it's not the same product you see in the store.
19:20:03 So you might see Doritos on our line. It's not the same dirtos that you're seeing in HV.
19:20:10 We feel like We want to give kids an opportunity to make healthy choices and if anybody's been to a middle school lately, you're gonna see that they are elbow deep in huge bags of talkies and gas station snack.
19:20:21 So we feel like this is at least an opportunity to give some portion control and. Okay, we're having an increase in participation in our lines in our reversible meals and we're also having an increase in all the cartel so we're off to a really great start.
19:20:37 Another thing you do is help us advocate for more lunches, particularly at high schools, and longer lunches.
19:20:44 So the average high school lunch right now is 39 min and the point I like to always make here is that when you're eating real food if you're eating a drumstick.
19:20:52 Brown rice if you're eating a full apple if you're eating a whole grain bun.
19:20:57 It takes a little more time to chew and macerate that food than it does to eat a bag of ships.
19:21:02 And a coat and not calling not your lunch. So. We really need, if anybody is.
19:21:08 You're doing passionate about it, advocating to principals for longer lunches and more lunches.
19:21:15 Most of these high schools aren't even set up. To see even a fraction of the students that are after school.
19:21:20 So. That's gonna be a big initiative for us going into the next school year. We never turned on students for meals.
19:21:28 So what that means is that we're serving approximately 600 what we call courtesy meals daily.
19:21:34 So that means a child who is on paid status or reduce status who doesn't have money in their account.
19:21:40 We'll never say sorry, you don't get a lunch. We will never give them an alternative lunch.
19:21:45 But what it does mean is that we have to kind of eat that cost to the tune of $350,000 a year.
19:21:50 Now we can't get that money from the USDA. We have to tap into ASDs funds to cover that negative balance.
19:21:57 So if you want money that was earmarks for education staying with education, you can always donate to our negative fund count.
19:22:06 And here's just some love from families. We have families all over town. Joining us for food and we have a really active social media page so we get a lot of fun comments and This is about our apps.
19:22:22 You can see every item served at your kids schools, the ingredients, the allergens. And it might feel more comfortable for you to look at that before they come in each day.
19:22:31 And if you care to follow us on social media, we are on everything. So. Trudging that quickly.
19:22:38 Thanks for having me.
19:22:42 We're so glad to hear. I love hearing about your food from the first moment I met you.
19:22:49 You were passionate about food. From the first moment I met you, you were passionate about food for our play group, from the first moment I met you, you were passionate about food for our play group, when our kids were little and that just has grown and morphed and now you're doing again for all of our kids at all of our schools and I'm so proud of you in the work that you do and so grateful for your presentation
19:23:03 here. Like the last presentation, it would be great if we could send you questions. Are you okay with that?
19:23:10 Yeah.
19:23:10 And I'm sorry to cut you off and not allow for that, but we still. We still have stuff on our agenda.
19:23:17 Unless anybody has anything pressing that needs Diane's attention at the moment.
19:23:21 And you can send me an email, put it in the chat. We really do return emails, so.
19:23:25 Okay. Okay.
19:23:26 Oh, I know you did. I'm grateful.
19:23:28 My pressing point is for everybody to go follow their Instagram. The first time I saw you for this present few years ago at a Jack meeting I followed and it's just been such a fun account to follow and I've just enjoyed.
19:23:43 So much learning about, I mean, there are so many districts that need to take a lesson from ASD and the amazing work you're doing.
19:23:52 So. Great job.
19:23:53 Thank you.
19:24:01 Yeah.
19:23:57 Okay, wow, y'all, we're only 6 min behind on this agenda. I don't know how that is even remotely possible, but.
19:24:06 Here we are. I hope everybody got the chance to review the ESAC letter. We didn't have time in our agenda to have.
19:24:18 Conversation from the chair of ESAC, come and present about the letter. Just due to the fact that, I mean, as you've seen our agenda, it's, you know, bananas, it's too long.
19:24:29 But what we needed to get the information out, it was important to be able to present that information to you.
19:24:35 So our discussion tonight. It's only based on, are there any objections? With Shack signing the ESAC letter that has already been presented.
19:24:46 I don't think we can vote on it at this.
19:24:49 No, no, no, I understand. That's the discussion. But, are there any, I know we're not voting on it tonight, but are there any objections and discussion of objections?
19:25:02 To signing the ESAC letter.
19:25:04 We cannot sign it because we have not voted on it.
19:25:09 I understand that. We're not talking about voting. We're only talking about is there an objection?
19:25:12 Okay. Sign. Yes, there. Okay, so then fine.
19:25:21 It'll be my objection because If we sign a letter that we have not voted on, we are getting into governance problems and this is how we get sued.
19:25:29 I'm hearing what you're saying and I'm not in disagreement with that. What I'm saying is I'm trying to have a preliminary discussion with our shock members to make sure.
19:25:38 That when we bring it to a vote at the next meeting, there's not a lot of conversation that hasn't been had about if there are any objections about signing it.
19:25:51 You want to have like a pre conversation?
19:25:56 I think she just. Okay.
19:25:56 Maybe not even objections just is there are there any questions that we should be bringing up now so that we can work on getting those answers before we go into a vote.
19:26:07 The next meeting.
19:26:10 So, and there may be some people who because email inboxes are the way they are have not even had a chance to review it thoroughly and if that is the case this is the time where we want to make sure you know that it is going to be coming to a vote at the next meeting.
19:26:26 So we need everybody to take the time to actually read through it and have some thoughts around that for the next meeting so that we can have a really informed vote on that.
19:26:41 But does anybody have any questions just because it is a month till the next meeting and if there are questions on it that we can follow up with their chair on that we can make sure prepared for the next meeting.
19:26:54 Or that we need to get from another source. We would love to make use of this month that we have.
19:26:58 To have those ready so there's not a bunch of questions that keep us from being able to vote at the next meeting.
19:27:05 So are there any? Oh, I see one question. Cynthia.
19:27:09 I have a question. So I really, I am not a huge fan of the 35 expansion.
19:27:17 It's like literally gonna come out to my backyard. So, but I wish that we could pick and choose because I think the expansion that they plan to do over UT where they turn that area into like entirely pedestrian would be amazing.
19:27:29 And so I would have a hard time like saying that. Like a wholesale of like everyone hates the like expansion project.
19:27:37 As a whole kind of thing.
19:27:44 Okay.
19:27:51 Okay, so I would say since we don't have a lot of questions now, once you all do have a chance to dive into that a little deeper, you can send an email to either me or Belinda, you all do have a chance to dive into that a little deeper.
19:28:06 You can send an email to either me or Belinda, she has to dive into that a little deeper.
19:28:11 You can send an email to either me or Belinda and we can try to get some of those questions answered, from ESAC chair before we come into the next meeting so that.
19:28:12 We can have all the information we need.
19:28:18 Okay, so do we have any items for members? Do we have anything that we need to discuss amongst us?
19:28:24 Great announcements, Ernie. Anything pressing we can always discuss it or or communicate that via email but it's on our agenda so wanted to extend that opportunity here also.
19:28:36 Actually, I have I have a topic from a member. Only 8 people have filled out their surveys that are basically trying to pull together all the information about things that are near and dear to your heart, things that you want to make sure we have meetings about that we have guests to come and do amazing presentations like Diane just came and gave or even if it's just a segment of ASD or the how the district works that you just want a little
19:29:04 bit more information about. We need those surveys to be complete so that we can make sure that everybody's voices are heard as we schedule the remaining meetings, chat meetings for the rest of the year.
19:29:18 So please do those. I know there's more than 80 yet. There's more than 80 here.
19:29:23 So, And I have't even filled mine out yet, cause I know what I'm doing.
19:29:29 I know what you
19:29:29 Is and do you have the link for that survey that you can drop in chat so that people have it right here and don't have to go back into their email.
19:29:34 Let me do that while Belinda finishes some stuff up.
19:29:40 I think, I think that's it. There is some other stuff.
19:29:43 Well, I jumped in. Does anybody have any members issues?
19:29:45 Yeah, does it have anything else?
19:29:54 Okay, she's gonna drop that in the chat. There were 2 questions about food being provided at the next meeting.
19:30:02 And just look at that last email for me, the last update, fill out the survey. And we'll circle back with all this information at the next meeting.
19:30:12 I apologize for not having enough time for. Questions here but by some miracle we are only 2 min past.
19:30:19 It's time. So, we, we want to honor your time. So please send questions to anybody and everybody that presented tonight.
19:30:29 You have follow questions on if you're not sure who to ask. With a question that you have, feel free to send it to us and we'll figure it out.
19:30:38 And we so appreciate you being here. Our next meeting is.
19:30:50 I know Twilight is speaking on mental health, bringing mental health update. And it will be a person.
19:30:54 October eighteenth. October eighteenth is our next meeting.
19:30:56 Okay. Awesome. Okay, perfect. I like forward to seeing you all then.
19:31:03 And.
19:31:03 And you all prefer we, since we have so much valuable information in the chat. Whoever is in charge of closing down can we make sure that we have saved all the chat information before we close down.
19:31:17 It gets included in the ASD stuff.
19:31:19 Okay, great. Okay, I'm trying to pick this link and it is just being a bug.
19:31:21 Yeah.
19:31:25 There it goes. I think it worked. Nope.
19:31:29 Yes, it's there now. Thank you, Suzanne.
19:31:30 Okay, great.