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Dear Trustee Bone,
The concerns you cite regarding the incident referenced above were addressed. We all know the answers provided us. I can understand if you felt the answers were inadequate. But to say those of us who were satisifed with the answers don’t care, is just not correct. Moreover, it is disrespectful to your fellow trustees. Your tone and content above is very disrespectful. You know we all take this responsibility of choosing a new superintendent very seriously. To say otherwise is to defame your fellow trustees.
Just as an addition, if this behavior at the meetings continues (the intense anger and outbursts), I don’t know how effective I will be. It took everything in me to make it through the last meeting. I was so emotionally distraught, I left the dias several times to compose myself. I felt ill. I pray we can lower the intensity in the room and that those in the community who are upset can present their concerns in a respectful manner.
Dear Fellow Trustees,
Trustee Weston above cited the fact that I went home after open. I wish to explain why. The truth is I was afraid of physical harm to me. Those in attendance at the meeting were so angry in their demeanor, I felt afraid for my person. That may have been misguided and I admit it may have been driven more by my emotions than the reality. But it is how I felt in that moment. When that much anger is coming at you, your brain has an autonomic protection reflex. You can’t control it. That is especially true if you are a small female and don’t have much means of self-protection. Please consider this when you judge my going home to recover. Please consider how scared I got (whether warranted or not, it is the reality).
Dear Fellow Trustees,
Trustee Weston makes a valid point in the amount of debt RRISD has. However, the voters of RRISD approved this debt. They felt it necessary to meet the maintenance and facility needs of the district. In terms of our I&S tax rate, our CFO clearly stated his plan. He wants to pay off the debt as quickly as possible to save the taxpayers interest. It is like paying extra on your mortgage each month. I am sure many citizens in Round Rock ISD do that (pay extra on their morgage payment), because they see the benefit long term of paying less in interest.
Trustee Weston is also correct that we often do not realize the entirety of our projected deficit. But may I remind everyone of my cautions. The deficit projected (about $17M if we don’t use the golden penny) is likely understated. If we lose students because we cannot provide a virtual option, that could increase it significantly. Moreover, the 1% raise for staff was not sufficient. If we want to fund the additional $500 stipend originally proposed or a stipend for the 60 hours of training required by the legislature for the Reading Academy, we could be facing a significantly higher deficit – maybe even in the range of $30M or more.
In terms of efficiencies, our district spends less per student than any neighboring district. I looked at the PEIMS data and will email you the charts. So, while there may be limited efficiencies to be found, they are limited. We are already spending the least. How much less can we spend before we impact the quality of education we can provide?
I hope these clarifications inform your vote next week. If you have other questions of me, I am happy to answer.
Dear Fellow Trustees,
This morning we received a Public Information Request asking for our Score Cards for the final two candidates we interviewed. What I submitted was a partially filled out first page. Why? As I was filling it out, I realized that I just couldn’t make a decision based on a score card. Both candidates were qualified. Both candidates had pluses and minuses. In the end, it came down to other things: 1. Who is a better fit? 2. Who will work better with this board? Those who hire regularly know that you use score cards to weed down from a multitude of candidates. But the final selection is more about the things I cited above. Your final candidates could all do the job. They wouldn’t be in the finals if they couldn’t. Then it becomes about the fit.
I am posting this because I believe in transparency. It is a core value of mine. So, I reveal this to you, my fellow trustees, and the community because I have nothing to hide. I stand behind my decisions. I don’t make them lightly. I can back them up. And if I can’t, I reconsider.
I just received this legislative update. I will have staff look into what this means. If we can get a new TEA waiver, that would be a game changer.
Failed to Pass
HB 1468 (Bell) – Relating to a local remote learning program operated by a public school.
The bill would have allowed the district to create online classes. During this school year, the district was able to teach virtually through a pandemic-related TEA waiver. The district and other districts throughout the state will be discussing whether we can continue and enhance our online learning opportunities in the upcoming school year through a new TEA waiver.
Dear Fellow Trustees,
I am so sorry that this has been the first chance I have had to comment on this draft proposal. I appreciate all the time, effort and thought that went into this proposal by Trustees Bone and Weston. However, I have some concerns as I study it. It seems that a lot of responsbility is given to volunteers. It seems that the commitment level of said volunteers would be significant – way beyond anything we have ever asked of a volunteer previously. Not only hours of commitment, but level of responsibility. They must approve change orders and timelines, do site inspections to “investigate” delays, the list goes on. I feel like this is beyond the scope of a volunteer. I would prefer we cut down on the level of responsiblity and commitment required of these volunteers to a more reasonable oversight role. As I wrap things up with session, I can really dig into this deeper and consider how we could accomplish what we are looking for without burdening volunteers with responsiblities that are not appropriate for unpaid, volunteer work (especially when not elected to do this work).
Dear Fellow Trustees,
As you know, last night was to be our meeting on board goals, to continue the work begun on March 4th. However, due to numerous circumstances which I will refrain from detailing here, the meeting had to be cancelled. However, we have this unique venue to continue the March 4th meeting and make progress towards the end of establishing new board goals, as we are a new board with four new members.
Before I begin though, I want to take a moment to publicly apologize for my behavior on March 4th. I apologize for any harm caused by my words. Trustee Harrison, I know you, in particular, felt harmed. I’m sorry. Please forgive me. The words I used were poorly chosen and I could have made my points in a way that was more diplomatic and less offensive. I commit to better learning how to do that. I also could have held my tongue and worked out my concerns offline so we could move forward with accomplishing the goal of the meeting. I contributed largely to derailing the meeting and that was a disservice to you and the community. It was selfish of me to center on my objections to the detriment of the entire process. Furthermore, I am sorry I behaved in an unprofessional manner at the end. I am trying to take steps to better care for myself so I don’t get into that mental and physical state of exhaustion again. I hope you all can receive this apology and we can move forward productively.
As for the board goals, I am in favor of NOT delineating by race. The way they are now groups everyone together for the official goals (not goal progress measures), which are by any standard, aggressive. While I believe we should track the progress of individual races, considering we are one family here in Round Rock ISD, we need to stand or fall together. I find holding all races to the same high standard (which seemed the consensus of the board on March 4th – correct me if I’m wrong) best achieved by grouping all races together.
The constraints can deal with any desire to differentiate. For example, currently we have a constraint that no campuses receive a D or F rating. We could add a constraint that says no race shall fail to improve its performance from the previous year. We could also add a constraint that requires annual improvement in performance for students diagnosed with dyslexia.
I look forward to a robust and respectful dialogue. I know I will do my best to guard my words and be open to hearing if anything I wrote caused harm. I encourage you to do the same.
Dear Fellow Trustees,
While I voted to keep our current protocols in place until the end of this school year, I think it is important we revisit this issue. Very soon, all of our employees who want to be will be fully vaccinated, and likewise parents. It is anticipated that soon (likely before August) all children 12+ will have a widely available and effective vaccine. Of course, variants are always a concern and I hope and pray that our current vaccines are effective against them. So far, it seems they are. I am hopeful that as vaccines become available to more of the population, the prevalence of the virus in the community will diminish.
It has been suggested that as a result of these steps forward that we move toward more mask choice for summer school and next school year. I am amenable to the idea to the extent it is feasible and warranted by pandemic conditions. For the 2021/2022 school year, I would like to explore giving parents choices in elementary in the classroom (a classroom that requires masks or where masks are optional), while maintaining masking in public spaces. I also think it might be feasible to lift mask requirements in high school (if all students have access to an effective vaccine) and with some limitations, because 6th graders are mostly under 12, in middle school.
I appreciated hearing your thoughts on this matter.
Last night evidenced a problem with this policy. Our student voices were muted because they were not given priority at the beginning of the meeting. I suggest we modify this policy to ensure students always get to speak at the beginning of the meeting, regardless of whether the item they are speaking on is scheduled for that time. We need to prioritize student voices above all else. I hope I have everyone’s support on this modification. It is such a joy to hear our student’s advocate.
I only got the idea because a community member reached out to me. But I will ask for that data. However, I would caution that those most in need of this assistance likely wouldn’t even know to ask.
I forgot to specify that it is shown that moving schools (especially districts) hurts student outcomes. I can find the data, but it is pretty widely acknowledged.
Thank you Trustee Weir for bringing up such valid points. It spurred me to think of other ways it could bless families and improve student outcomes.
One of the hardest things on kids is switching schools. If you look at our Title 1 campuses, they have the highest mobility rates. And this pandemic exacerbated that problem. So if these most at risk students could remain at the school where their more stable family member lives who cares for them after school, that would help improve their student outcomes.
Furthermore, if that family caregiver, who likely cares for multiple children family members, could have all the kids at the same school, that would enable that family caregiver to be more involved at the school. Maybe that family caregiver could volunteer at the school, could be involved in PTA, could sit in on the parent/teacher conferences, etc.
I keep thinking of more ways this could be a blessing. I bet those reading this will send us emails. I encourage them to do just that. Board_of_Trustees@roundrockisd.org
Dear Trustee Xiao,
I absolutely agree that providing the best education to our students should be the focus everyday in everyway. And that is my goal. I grew up in a place (California) with very little money and therefore very few supports for students. The classes sizes were large; we had no counselors, no art, PE, or music teachers in elementary. The list goes on and on. It impacted my ability to get a top notch education. My husband, on the other hand, grew up in Wyoming. His district had abundant resources and his education was far superior in many ways to mine. That is where I am coming from. I want the best for our students, but without the resources to attract and retain the best staff, and without staffing supports, the education we provide here in RRISD will grow to look more and more like that which I experienced growing up. I am trying to avoid that.
