[Danielle Weston]

My focus is always on providing an excellent education for our students. As I said in the 1 Apr 2021 board meeting: What 9/11 did to our country, this pandemic has done to education. It’s unlikely that our enrollment is going to return to the pre-pandemic level anytime soon and certainly not next school year. What I will be advocating for is the same thing I would be advocating in any organization…understand what we do well, focus on that, invest in that, recruit for that. If we try to be all things to all people, we will do nothing well.

There are a wide variety of preferences in our community regarding what folks want in the NEXT SCHOOL YEAR (2021-2022). Most want on-campus education and some want virtual education. Some want mask choice for all and some want all persons to be required to wear a mask until all children have been vaccinated. Some want block scheduling and some do not. We hear from all of these perspectives on a regular basis which is helpful.

No matter what decisions we make on these issues and others, some families will not return to RRISD in 2021-2022 as a result. The pandemic has changed everything. Enrollment has changed. Our goals have changed (we are in that process now). A new superintendent will lead our district in the 2021-2022 school year.

As a trustee charged with oversight of the entire district, I am looking to position RRISD as the competitively superior pre-K-12 education District of Choice for parents and students who reside in RRISD. It is clear to me that the majority of parents and students (but not all) want on campus education and mask choice for the 2021-2022 school year. When we commit to serving the enormous demand for this service, I believe that we will capture the vast majority of students who once populated our schools in large numbers. In addition, I think our enrollment number will grow every year going forward.

When looking at budget decisions for the NEXT SCHOOL YEAR, I will be making decisions and advocating to invest in what RRISD offers that no one else does in the RRISD footprint: A world class free public education for on campus students where masks are optional.

We are all anxiously awaiting the outcome of several bills the Texas legislature is considering which will impact RRISD. And we are all waiting to see if they will grant authority to RRISD to offer virtual learning past May 2021. As of today (14 Apr 2021) that hasn’t happened but there is over a month left in the session.

This ties into our budget strategy. It is clear that our staffing formula is not justified given our current 48k student enrollment. This isn’t my opinion, it comes from funding and allotment limitations that are decided at the state level. Payroll constitutes almost 90% of our M&O budget. Decisions need to be made.

I am not inclined to embark on an endeavor to recruit students outside of RRISD to grow our enrollment number. The parents/guardians of these students will have no say in trustee elections. They will have no vote at the ballot box in future bond elections. I seek to provide clarity to our community on what they can expect in the 2021-2022 school year. I will invest in the staff that will execute that mission. I will make budgetary decisions (as one of seven votes) that will ensure a world class education for our students. If the legislature approves RRISD to offer virtual learning in 2021-2022 and funds it, let’s make it a great virtual campus and serve (with fidelity) the unique needs that students in that learning platform deserve.

[Danielle Weston]

I think Redbud lends itself very well to the area where the school is located as well as the architecture of the building as shown in the images at the 25 Mar 2021 board meeting.

Juanita Craft’s impressive legacy is mostly tied to the Dallas area if I understand correctly. I know there are buildings and landmarks named after her in that area including the Juanita Craft Rec Center in Dallas and the Juanita Craft Post Office in Dallas. Her former Dallas home is a recorded Texas Historic Landmark. Her connection to RRISD that I am aware of is that she was born in the city of Round Rock in 1902. RRISD was established in 1913. Do we know if she attended RRISD schools?

There are many people that have invested in our RRISD schools and students who have never been publicly acknowledged. If naming a school after a person is desired, it might be worth elevating a lesser known and previously unacknowledged local hero for this school or the next school we open.

Just my thoughts.

[Danielle Weston]

Thanks for the response Trustee Xiao. I think we should stick with trustee appointments. I also think a 4 year term is a long time. I am open to changing that if others agree.

[Danielle Weston]

Pres Weir, I favor a summer workshop of the entire board to comprehensively address needed changes in our policies. I appreciate you seeking input here from the entire board on this.

I am confused by your posting of Trustee Bone’s agenda item request here on the message board. I have not seen her request so I don’t know exactly what it says or requests. My understanding of our policy is:
1. Trustees must e-mail requested agenda items to the board pres and superintendent.
2. The board pres decides whether or not the requested agenda item will appear on the agenda.
3. If the request is denied by the board pres, the board pres will offer the trustee the opportunity to seek support for the agenda item at the next meeting.

If this is the policy, I am unclear why discussion or support for this particular agenda item is being solicited here on the message board. Perhaps you can clarify?
My experience in establishing board officers is limited to my first board meeting on 19 Nov 2020. I just reviewed that agenda and I see:
Item G: Closed Session
2. Pursuant to Texas Government Code 551.071 and 551.074 the Board will meet to discuss Board officers

Is there a legal requirement that this particular agenda item receive a certain threshold of support before being placed on the Closed Session agenda?
Without knowing the details about what is being requested and since my experience on this matter is limited, I’m inclined to honor any request a trustee makes for an item to be placed on the agenda just as a matter of good practice, regardless of what it is. I don’t think placing an item on the agenda or discussing it expresses support or lack of support for the agenda item. Perhaps I am missing something?

Lastly, I think the 15 April 2021 agenda is quite full and am not inclined to support adding more agenda items (on any topic) to that particular meeting.

I’d like to know if my understanding of our policy on how a trustee places an item on the agenda has changed or if I have misunderstood it. I appreciate any insight you can offer when convenient.

I appreciate all you do and appreciate these President Updates.

[Danielle Weston]

TX Senate Education Committee met on 18 March 2021 for 4 hours and 25 minutes. It can be found on the Texas Senate website.

Some things I will point out:

First testifier was Mike Morath, TEA Commissioner.
8:24 Morath, “The data is in and on campus instruction is safe. We have campuses around the state with 95% of students on campus and there is no evidence of any kind of viral outbreak.”

12:20 Morath regarding the extensive learning loss, “It’s bad…it’s historically bad in terms of where our kids are and what we need to do to support them.”

25:50 A state senators says of the learning loss data, “These numbers are catastrophic.”

31:00 Morath, “The nature of our recovery to Covid (learning loss) is not a one or two year project. This is a four to five year project, assuming we are aggressive and successful.”

1:04:50 Morath speaks about the TIA (Teacher Incentive Allotment) that is part of HB3 (approved in the 86th legislative session).

1:11:50 A state senators says, “This (Covid/virtual learning) has hammered student development and hammered student confidence and it has set them back. We passed HB3 in the nick of time but we also have to take a serios look at these trends.”

1:16:01 A state senators says, “Now with this federal money we have an opportunity to really, significantly, dramatically change the public education system for the better.”

1:33:05 The discussion on virtual learning starts.
Morath, “While remote instruction has been a boon to some students, it is probably detrimental to most.” He went on to explain that only on-line schools approved by the Texas Virtual School Network (TVSN) were allowed by law to offer remote learning prior to August 2020. Morath said he used an emergency power to allow all ISD’s to offer remote instruction for the 2020-2021 school year. He went on to discuss with senators that action is required on their part to allow remote instruction past May 2021 for ISD’s beyond those approved by the TVSN. All 5.4M students in TX are eligible to enroll in a TVSN school at any time.
This discussion went on until the 1:46:20 mark and I encourage everyone to watch it. No decisions were proposed or made regarding changing the law to allow RRISD or any other ISD outside of the TVSN to offer virtual learning after May 2021.

2:00:49 Lots of discussion on how rigorous the STAAR test is.

2:31:40 Morath’s testimony ends

2:32:00 Several proposed senate bills were discussed

[Danielle Weston]

Today (16 Mar 2021) the Texas House committee on Public Education, discussed several proposed bills and heard testimony on them. They also passed three proposed bills out of the committee and sent them to the full House for consideration. Those three bills (HB’s 690, 773, 1147) were previously discussed by this committee and mentioned in other updates I posted on this thread. The hearing is on the website separately as Part I and Part II as they took a break midway through.

Part I
1:39
HB 159 – Relating to improving training and staff development for primary and secondary educators to enable them to more effectively serve all students.

19:30
HB 129 – Relating to requiring a digital citizenship curriculum.

30:10
HB 1114 – Relating to providing mental health services and mental health education to public school students at school-based health centers.

1:01:00
HB 1603 – Relating to the use of individual graduation committees and other alternative methods to satisfy certain public high school graduation requirements.

1:04:10
HB 785 – Relating to behavior improvement plans and behavioral intervention plans for certain public school students and notification and documentation requirements regarding certain behavior management techniques.

1:16:01
HB 725 – Relating to the eligibility of certain children who are or were in foster care for free prekindergarten programs in public schools.

1:21:50
HB 1080 – Relating to the eligibility for participation in University Interscholastic League activities of certain public school students who receive outpatient mental health services.

Part II

0:12
HB 445 – Relating to instruction in positive character traits in public schools.

11:07
Pending business: Previously discussed HB’s 690, 773, 1147 all passed out of the committee. These now go to full house for a vote.

16:40
HB 759 – Relating to the operation of threat assessment teams in public schools and the establishment of a student threat assessment database; creating a criminal offense.
*of note* many testifiers both for an against this bill

2:21:20
HB 353 – Relating to the consideration of certain student differentials based on sex under the public school accountability system.

[Danielle Weston]

Thank you Trustee Bone for getting this started. I’d like the parent leaders of the Booster Organizations throughout RRISD to be specifically invited to participate in some capacity if they are interested. These organizations are comprised of armies of parents who collectively volunteer tens of thousands of hours and raise millions of dollars every year for the direct benefit of RRISD students.

I’d also like to see an opportunity for students to be heard and am glad you listed them first. I’d specifically like for interested members of the class of 2021 to be included but other grades too perhaps. I believe it’s important to capture their thoughts before they leave. Listening to their feedback on what RRISD does well and where improvements lie is incredibly valuable to capture as this board and the next superintendent move forward for the benefit of future RRISD classes. I’d like to see a broad diversity of students represented including but not limited to those at all academic levels, those highly engaged in extracurriculars and those who are not, those who are headed to higher ed and those who are not, racial diversity as well as geographic diversity with students from all 5 comprehensive high schools, ECHS and Success HS. The student group should be broad, but a size not so large that the variety of student perspectives would be lost.

[Danielle Weston]

On 9 March 2021 The Texas House of Representatives Public Education Committee met and heard public testimony on several proposed bills. These are the minute marks and bill numbers that were discussed in this hearing for those who are interested in learning more about each.

2:34
HB 690 – Relating to training requirements for a member of the board of trustees of an independent school district.
*Of note*
The discussion here was about adding a school safety training requirement for elected school board members in Texas. One speaker from the Texas Association of School Boards spoke “on” the bill, not “for” or “against” it. He shared that trustees are already the only elected officials in the state of Texas who are required by the Texas legislature to undergo any training requirements. He said 25 training hours are already required in the first year of a trustee’s tenure and between nine and 16 hours per year every year thereafter. That this is more than any other US state.

21:01
HB 699 (Riley’s Law)- Relating to public school attendance and promotion requirements for students diagnosed with or undergoing related treatment for severe or life-threatening illnesses.

37:35
HB 773 – Relating to indicators of achievement under the public school accountability system.

45:48
HB 434 – Relating to the curriculum requirements for public high school students.
*Of note*
This bill garnered (by far) the most discussion from the committee and public speakers who spoke both “for” and “against“ it. The bill would allow for high school students to decline taking the current requirement of one fine art credit and instead taking a Career Technical Education course instead. The exact language of this bill and all bills can be found on the House website by searching the bill number (434 in this case).

2:32:00
HB 1147 – Relating to military readiness for purposes of the college, career, or military readiness outcomes bonus under the Foundation School Program.

2:40:30
HB 547 – Relating to authorizing equal opportunity for access by home-schooled students to University Interscholastic League sponsored activities; authorizing a fee.

[Danielle Weston]

Thank you for weighing in here Pres Weir. I appreciate you sharing FMD as it’s helpful here. I respect your decision to deny our request based on this policy the professionalism with which you are doing so.

My preference would be for things to have never gotten to this point. When RRISD weighed in on one particular non-RRISD related event (prom) in official communication it opened the door for scrutiny. Resentments about the inconsistencies in access to extracurricular activities between campuses have been building all year and, for many parents, the lack of equitable access to off-campus prom events was just the last straw.

My understanding is that RRISD employees in the finance dept have played a helpful role in facilitating the organization of prom events in recent years. I understand the district’s reluctance to officially endorse a prom event this year. However, it is still my hope that a basic level of administrative support will be offered by the high school campus leaders to prom organizers to ensure all students have access to this rite-of-passage (off-campus) event as has been requested by the organizers. I am extremely uncomfortable with access to these events being limited to those students whose parents have personal connections to event organizers. I’m confident that a happy ending can be achieved without this coming to the dias in a board meeting.

[Danielle Weston]

Earlier this week I was surprised to see RRISD offer quarantine/medical suggestions in official communication about the private prom plans currently in the works at some high school campuses by parents, unrelated to RRISD. Some interpreted this as a directive. This led to concern in the community about possible punitive action that could come to students who participate in these non-RRISD related prom events. Because I do not want that to happen and because I share Trustee Bone’s lack of equity concern that is about to play out across our high schools, I think it important to get ahead of this and clear things up for the community.

All of our students have had a school year mired in fear, distance, isolation, learning loss, etc. Some have lost a loved one to Covid-19 and for many, their mental health has suffered tremendously. This year’s senior class has paid a particularly high price because this is it for them…there is no hope that next year in RRISD might be better. There is no next year for them in RRISD. I would like to see all of our efforts being put towards salvaging everything possible for these students in the remaining weeks of the school year, including prom. I don’t believe RRISD should be offering quarantine/medical suggestions in official communication regarding this or any other private event nor do I believe that students who attend these private proms (or any of the many other private events held in our area) should be required or threatened with quarantine just because they attended.

Concern about lack of equity really needs to be considered here as well. When parents plan a prom, they do not have access to information to reach every senior and/or junior student. Some kids will inevitably be overlooked. Some high schools will be overlooked altogether as I believe is currently the case for at least one of our high schools. A student’s access to prom should not hinge on knowing (or their parents knowing) the right people who are planning it. All students should have access to prom, not learn about it on social media after the fact.

Earning a high school diploma can be done on-line. But becoming a Raider, Warrior, Dragon, Maverick or Tiger can’t be done on-line. Our school district has rich traditions and culture that has shaped generations of our students who have gone on to become contributing members of society. It all started here for them with meaningful rites of passage…fine arts trips across the country, winning and losing in sporting competitions, those great big mums at homecoming, banquets, NHS induction and prom…just to name a few. These rites of passage are important to many students and a big part of why their families choose to live here.

Given the fact that our understanding of who is most at risk for Covid-19 in Mar 2021 has evolved tremendously since Mar 2020, our practices and decisions should evolve as well. I do not favor standing in the way of these important rite of passage events any longer. ALL students should have access to them and they must be optional. I trust families to decide whether they are willing to accept the risk of their child attending prom. For some families, it would be unwise to attend because their student may be medically vulnerable or have a high risk family member at home.

As I look around, I see other organizations have evolved. Last weekend the city of Round Rock Parks & Rec Dept successfully held the annual Daddy/Daughter dance at Kalahari Resorts. And according to their website, the PIE Foundation is planning to hold their annual Gala (fundraiser that tremendously benefits RRISD students) at the Dell Diamond in May. These are meaningful and optional community events and like prom, should be made available to those who are willing to accept the risk.

I believe our students deserve a prom and whatever else can possibly be done to salvage this school year. We should leave our seniors and their families with good memories and a positive impression of RRISD as their days in RRISD come to an end.

[Danielle Weston]

I am 100% in favor of a SPED/504 Town Hall.

And the more two-way communication the better. Trustee Vessa talks about and advocates for this all the time. I am in full agreement with you Trustee Bone.

[Danielle Weston]

I appreciate the support of Dr’s Xiao and Bone in joining me to place financial audit types as a discussion item so that we as a board can ask questions and learn about the different types of financial audits so that we can later decide which one makes the most sense. Thank you and I look forward to seeing that on the Feb 2021 agenda.

I am also open to adding a discussion on an equity audit and appreciate Trustee Harrison bringing that up because it’s absolutely appropriate here. I know the last superintendent hired an Equity Chief after the last school board voted unanimously to create an equity department in summer 2020. My understanding is that the Equity Chief is pursuing hiring staff members as well. It’s important for me to understand how this expenditures (and all expenditures) is going to improve student outcomes. A discussion on an external equity audit certainly merits discussion.

I also agree with Trustee Harrison in supporting a SPED/504 Town Hall. This is entirely appropriate.

Finally, in order to lead, and make decisions, this board of trustees must be briefed on (as Truste Harrison states) what RRISD is “paying for compensatory ed services as well as settlements”. I am now asking for a spreadsheet going back five years of all of these expenditures including but not limited to:
-The date (month and year) of the expenditure
-Forum in which the settlement was made (arbitration, litigation, mediation, etc),
-Which campus the situation came from
-Total expenditure amount
-How many students RRISD is paying for to attend private/charter/parochial schools as a result of these settlements
-Who was the decisionmaker in such decisions (RRISD superintendent, a judge, board of trustees, etc)

This information essentially serves as feedback to RRISD leadership (admin and elected trustees) on where some of our areas of improvement are and whether there are areas that require our focus and attention in ensuring we are meeting the needs of students while respecting taxpayer dollars. Every dollar that goes to a settlement is a dollar that will never make it to an RRISD classroom.

To the extent that this information can be made public, I’d like it made available to the public as well.

[Danielle Weston]

I agree Dr Xiao. Since our 14 Jan 2021 board meeting, we have received some helpful, actionable and useful feedback from parents with suggestions about how to make the on-campus education experience better.

[Danielle Weston]

I totally agree Trustee Xiao. I know of other local ISD’s that stream their meetings on YouTube and archive them on the district YouTube channel. This makes it very easy for folks to find and watch meetings live and on demand. It also provides metrics about community interest in meetings since the number of views is displayed on YouTube videos. I join you in asking for an analysis of what we currently have and its ROI and considering other options and the ROI therein.

[Danielle Weston]

At the end of last night’s (14 Jan 2021) meeting, I forgot to ask for a discussion item on different types of audits for us to consider to be placed on the agenda. I know next weeks 21 Jan 2021 meeting is probably already packed. Can we please put this discussion item on one of Feb 2021 meeting agendas?

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