November 17, 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:  Congratulations to Emma Suarez and Joshua Baker. Their AgriScience Fair Project titled, "Battle of the Bits", placed 7th in the National AgriScience Fair in the Power Systems, Division II..

Congratulations to the Buffs and Lady Buffs Cross Country teams. The ladies won the 5-3A District meet and the men finished as District Runner-ups. Senior Ella Morrison won the district meet and is District Champion. Both teams advanced to the Regional Meet in Lubbock where the Lady Buffs finished in 13th place and the Buffs finished in 17th Place. Congratulations to Ella Morrison, Carissa Morrison, Sophia Koch, Alondra Martinez, Allison Swanson, Brooklyn Stanfield, Ember Phillips, Max Pearson, Mauricio Ortiz, Axel Martinez, August Kuehne, Carlos Moreno, Parker Jaimeson, and Alexander Garcia on a great year!

The Florence High School Marching Band finished a great marching season by finishing in tenth place at the UIL Area D Finals, their highest finish in school history. Representing the band are Drum Majors Braeden Seaboch and Lilli Lacina Brown, Color Guard Leader Nerisa Hill, Section Leaders Betsy Bradford, Roy Scott, and Zane Smith, and band members Carissa Morrison, Jane Gower, Ella Morrison and Danie Monahan. During the season, the band received a First Division Rating with Ones from all the judges at the UIL Marching Contest, finished in Second Place at the Comal Classic Marching Festival, and won several awards at the Vista Ridge Marching Festival, including Best in Class, First in Music, First in Visuals, and First in General Effect. They began the year by winning their division at the Capital Area Marching contest in Austin. A fantastic season. It is a good thing the new band hall has lots of storage space to display all of those trophies and awards. Congratulations on a record-setting season!

 

Description:  Micaela Gonzalez has been named as the FISD Teacher of the Month, and we are extremely happy that she chose to come to Florence. From her nomination: Ms. Gonzalez teaches 8th grade ELAR at Florence Middle School. She gives her all every day and works tirelessly to get kids writing. Ms. Gonzalez continues to hold the bar high for our students and works hard to provide scaffolding for those who need it. She is a pleasure to to work with and has been a great addition to our team here at FMS. She is always working to make activities for her students fun and engaging. Congratulations Ms. Gonzalez.

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:  Mr. Kirkpatrick will review the recommended changes to local policy.

Description:  Mr. Kirkpatrick will provide an update on the Landscape Analysis portion of the Texas Strategic Leadership program as well as an overview of actions taken so far.

Description:  The summary schedule combines the latest recap property values from the two counties. 

Description:  Minor changes to EFB (LOCAL) policy have been made to adjust to the evolving interpretations of the new laws governing EFB policy since they came into effect in July. We recommend you approve the EFB (LOCAL) policy as presented.

Description:  In order for the District to apply for the LIFT grant through the LASO IV process, the Board of Trustees must approve the application. It is a three-year commitment and will have three phases: Implementation, Deeper Implementation, and Sustainability. This will require the District to adopt the Bluebonnet Curriculum. Our intent right now is to apply for implementation next school year, so our staff has one year to be trained and familiarize themselves with the new curriculum before the new testing program begins in the 2027–2028 school year. If we receive the grant, we would be eligible to receive just over $400,000.00 in year one. The amounts for years two and three have not been announced.

Description:  These goals are based on the House Bill 3 required goals and goals from the Strategic Plan. They are SMART goals and comply with the requirements for superintendent evaluations.

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 Florence Elementary School. Joeris Construction completed the project $2,630,756.00 under budget. The original contract sum was $36,129,835.00 and the final sum owed by the district is $33,499,079.00. The cost savings were primarily in allowances that were not required to be completed. These were credited back to FISD in a final change order. Attached is the final pay application for approval. The final payment due is $1,674,953.95.

Description:  The certified property values provided by the Bell and Williamson County Tax Appraisal Districts provide a basis for the District to propose tax rates for the new school year following the Comptroller’s Truth In Taxation guidelines. The certified Freeze Adjusted value total was $1,167,733,213. The fall Freeze Adjusted total is $1,144,608,732. The appraisal districts calculate the tax imposed on each property included on the rolls according to Section 26.09(e), of the Property Tax Code. The appraisal districts enter the amount of tax, in the tax roll, for the District. The total combined levy calculated for the 2026 school year is $12,160,185. The 2025 school year fall levy was $11,324,251. The increase in collections is due to the growing property values in the District.  16.7% growth in Freeze-Adjusted values.
 

Description:  House Bill 3033 from the 88th Legislative Session created Texas Government Code 552.0031, which defines business day for purposes of the Texas Public Information Act. School districts are permitted by law to designate no more than 10 additional non-business days during a calendar year in addition to those non-business days established in statute. For a day to be eligible, the district's administrative offices are closed or operating with minimum staffing.  Authority to designate districts’ non-business days is provided solely to the Board of Trustees. Per the calendar below, the District recommends January 2, January 5, March 16, March 20, July 2, July 3, November 24, November 25, December 23, and December 30 as non-business days.

Description:  Education Connection, under the umbrella of Christ Together Greater Austin, has developed a literacy program where volunteers read to third grade students to help ensure that all students are reading on grade level by the end of the third grade. Education Connection provides a Literacy Partner who will coordinate the training and the volunteers and the campus will assign the students and provide a place where they can read to students. This program started in 2010 with 45 volunteers in one school to 1058 volunteers in 106 schools in 2025. We are actively recruiting volunteers and all volunteers must be trained before entering the campus and pass the district background check. There is no cost to the district to implement this program.

Description:  The District of Innovation (DOI) Plan amended and approved by the FISD Board of Trustees on March 25, 2024 is presented for approval. The 89th Legislative Session brought about new laws that impact local policies. The changes in the document reflect the addition of local innovation strategy to exempt FISD from the grievance requirements impacting DGBA, FNG, and GF local policies and a local innovation strategy to exempt FISD from the Commissioner-created Universal GPA Weighting System. We recommend approval of the plan as submitted.

Description:  FISD is closed on February 13 and 16 per our academic calendar. The District would like to move the February Board Meeting to February 23rd.

Description:  As a taxing entity in Williamson County, Florence ISD is allotted 25 votes to vote for a candidate or split between candidates for the WCAD Board of Directors. There are three candidates running for the WCAD Board and their biographies are attached.

Description:  The three book lists attached are for consideration for future purchase. The titles have been through our internal vetting process and were submitted by the District Library Materials Coordinator.

Description:  The FISD Wellness plan is intended to implement policy FFA (LOCAL). In accordance with law, the district is required to periodically measure and make adjustments to the wellness plan on a triennial basis. The plan was reviewed by the SHAC and the committee made adjustments. 

Description:  There were no new hires or resignations this month.