July 21, 2025 at 7:00 PM - Regular Meeting

Description:  Announcement by the Board President whether a quorum is present and that notice of the meeting has been posted in accordance with the Texas Open Meetings Act, Texas Government Code Chapter 551 as required by law.

Description:  "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."

Description:   "Honor the Texas flag; I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one state under God, one and indivisible." 

Description:  The Board encourages comments about the district from members of the public.  Anyone who has signed up to speak in advance of the meeting in accordance with the Board procedures may do so at this time.  The Board asks that each participant's comments pertain to district business and be no longer than 5 minutes.  For any member of the public who is accompanied by a translator, your time will be doubled as required by law.  Remember that the Board may not discuss or act upon any issues that are not posted on our agenda.  In addition, the Board has adopted policies to provide prompt and equitable resolution of complaints and concerns for employees, students or their parents, and the general public.  Copies of our district policies and procedures on public comments and filing complaints are available on the district website. 

Description:  FISD uses a product called On Data Suite from ESC 13 to predict our accountability rating and grades prior to the official release from the Texas Education Agency. The latest rating and grades will be briefly presented.

Description:  Mr. Banfield will discuss the latest budget model based on the latest budget template.

Description:  A list of certified appraisers is attached below for approval.

Description:  The 2025-2026 TTESS Appraisal Calendar is attached for approval.

Description:  Each year, the board approves the attached resolution and Adjunct Faculty Agreement with the Burnet County 4-H Organization so that Florence ISD students participating in off-campus activities can receive state funding as the students are considered "in attendance" as long as one of the adjunct faculty members is directing the activities and participation of students at the event. 

Description:  This was a difficult year to determine pay raises for district employees. The 89th Legislature approved in House Bill 2 mandatory raises of $4000.00 for teachers with 3 or 4 years of experience and raises of $8000.00 for teachers with 5 or more years of experience. The District's recommended starting pay for teachers is $54,000.00 for the 2025-2026 school year. Because teachers who only have one or two years of experience are not guaranteed a raise under the HB 2, the District recommends a $1000.00 raise for these teachers. In addition, HB 2 provided a small amount of money to offset the cost of raises for Support Staff to include auxiliary, clerical, and paraprofessional employees. No funding was provided for raises for any positions in the administrative pay grade. TASB Policy Services has completed three models for raises for the 25-26 school year. All the models include the required raises for teachers and support staff and stipend adjustments to remain market competitive.
Model 1 provides for a 2% increase for those on the administrative pay scale and a 3% increase for those on the support staff pay scale. This is the minimum increase we can provide to our support staff to meet the guidelines in statute. The total cost to the District of Model 1 is $363,619.00.
Model 2 provides a 3% increase for those on the administrative pay scale and a 4% increase for those on the support staff pay scale. The total cost to the District of Model 2 is $391,691.00.
Model 3 provides a 4% increase for those on the administrative pay scale and a 5% increase for those on the support staff pay scale. The total cost to the District of Model 3 is $421,717.00.

Description:  Texas Education Code 42.155(d) allows the Board to obtain supplemental funding for transporting regular, otherwise ineligible students who live within two miles of the school. The Board is required to identify the specific hazardous areas for funding requests. The attached resolution clarifies all the requirements and would make these areas eligible for transportation and associated supplemental funding. 

Description:  The District recommends approval of the changes to Local Policy as provided by TASB Policy Service. Policy FFAC(LOCAL) is attached separately as FISD will allow the administration of unassigned medication for respiratory distress by those trained.

Description:  If approved, Education Connection Preschool and Child Care Solutions will open a center at the current Florence Elementary School and will provide both child care for children six months to five years of age and after-school care for our students 5 years old to 12 years of age. FISD employees will get discounts once the program achieves certain milestones. Once full, FISD employees will get a 50% tuition reduction for child care or after-school care.

Description:  The cost to provide one SRO on each campus has remained unchanged since last year. The total cost is $205,822.76. The SRO program has been very successful since implemented and meets the requirements in statute of having an armed peace officer on campus when students are present during the school day.

Description:  Board Policy CV (LOCAL) requires acceptance of work by the Board of Trustees prior to issuing final payment. All work and punch list items have been completed at the new field house and band hall. Braun and Butler completed the field house $64,642.06 under budget and the band hall $18,066.78 under budget. These were credited back to FISD in a final change order. The final cost of the field house is $5,529,034.94 and the final cost for the band hall is $4,481,824.44. The final cost for the band hall includes the change order amount for the new practice field previously approved by the Board. Attached are the final pay applications for both projects for approval.

Description:  One of the statutory requirements for Teacher Incentive Allotment is the development of a spending plan that includes a clear distribution of allotment funds, specifically that at least 90% is spent on student-facing instructional staff on the campus where the designated teacher works and up to 10% can be used to support the designation system or to support teachers in getting designated. The FISD spending plan is attached.

Description:  FISD was awarded the LASO 3 grant for Instructional Leadership. The instructional leadership pathway will provide training, implementation support, and one-on-one coaching to campus and district leaders to build their own capacity and that of the educators they manage. We have contracted with an approved provider, Engage2Learn, to support us in this work. Attached is the contract for service with the provider for $109,150.00. 50% of the contract, $54,575.00, is due at the end of the month and the remaining 50% is due January 2026. The grant will cover the cost of the service.

Description:  SB 401 signed by Governor Abbott after the 89th Legislative Session allows districts to Opt-Out of allowing non-enrolled students to participate in UIL activities on the campus they would normally attend. Previously, districts were required to adopt a policy to allow non-enrolled students to participate, which FISD did not do. If a District wants to Opt-Out of allowing non-enrolled students to participate in UIL activities, they must do so prior to September 1, 2025. If no action is taken, non-enrolled students will be able to participate based on the guidelines developed by the district and per UIL policy. I have written draft guidelines if the Board takes no action and thereby allows non-enrolled student participation. If no action is taken, the District is eligible for $1,500.00 per non-enrolled student per activity. UIL only governs the following programs in FISD: Athletics, Band, UIL Academics, and middle school choir. It would not allow participation in our CTE programs to include our ag programs.

Description:  House Bill 1481, as signed by the Governor from the 89th Legislative Session, requires districts to adopt a policy either prohibiting the possession of personal communication devices on school property during the school day or storage of personal communication devices on school property during the school day. The District proposes to implement the YONDR storage pouches at Florence Middle School for the 2025-2026 school year (Florence High School implemented the YONDR storage pouches last year and will continue this year) and a ban on the possession of personal communication devices at Florence Elementary School. The attached policy was developed by TASB Policy Service to meet the requirements of the new law. 

Description:  SB 13 as signed by the Governor from the 89th Legislative Session, requires districts to adopt a revised policy regarding school library materials. The primary purpose of the bill is to provide parents with more oversight of what library materials their student is checking out. Several changes are incorporated into the policy as required by statute: 1) changes to the way the District procures library books, 2) changes to the process for challenging library materials in the collection, and 3) the requirement that the Board of Trustees must approve or reject all recommended library materials. The law allows for the formation of a School Library Advisory Council (SLAC), but the District does not have sufficient time to create the procedures necessary to start the SLAC. This policy could be revised in the future to allow for a SLAC.

Description:  The District contracts with outside providers for several categories of special education services. These services include occupational therapy, physical therapy, speech, psychological and evaluation services. 

Due to the expected level of expenditure for speech services, in excess of $100,000, these services are being formally procured for the 2025-26 school year. Since they are licensed and medical services an RFQ is used rather than a bid.

Vendors may be added as needed through the RFQ process.

The Administration recommends the attached provider list, including two who offer virtual services, as qualified to provide special education speech services for the District.   

 

Description:  Amend the General Fund, Child Nutrition Fund and INS Fund for year-end adjustments to Revenue.  Amend the General Fund budget for an increase to tax collection costs.

Description:  The Texas Education Agency has notified the District,  based on its estimates of student counts and property value for the 2026 school year, that the District's estimated local yield per penny per student will exceed the Tier Two guaranteed yield of $49.72.  

This is considered Copper Penny recapture since the $49.72 is the guaranteed rate for our TIER II pennies that were adopted/approved in 2011 with the TRE election. The District receives a significant amount of Chapter 48 Foundation School Funding, so any payment will be "netted" against those funds.

Increases in enrollment can lessen or eliminate the recapture payment as we move forward. The payment is currently estimated at $115,000.  This represents property taxes collected above what the District will  earn in total State MNO funding, for its attendance, FTE, and other funding totals.   

Appraisal District costs will reduce the amount paid by approximately $75,000 as noted in the last paragraph of the model agreement.  

This is the first official notice from TEA that the District has received and there are several steps to follow as we go through our budget and tax rate adoption cycle.

The District will notify the Commissioner of its intent to pay the recapture, and receive a certification back allowing us to complete the tax rate adoption process. The designated authority will then submit a contract to TEA obligating the payment.

The final payment amount will be determined on actual year-end District funding and collection totals. 

Description:  Due to legislation resulting from the 89th Legislative Session, the section of the DOI plan related to the designation of a Campus Behavior Coordinator has been removed. 

Description:  This measure is taken to continue the Guardian Program on all FISD campuses for the 2025-2026 school year.