This week legal scholars have started debating whether our federal leadership in Washington have caused our country to go into a constitutional crisis. All of the talk to overturn DEI, diversity, equity and inclusion, is in my opinion a very intentional false flag to ferment disunity so that we lose faith in our government and our fellow citizens. I'm not buying it. Remember, there are meritorious examples of "inclusion" everywhere, like this ramp that complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act rules. Two decades of education in a public setting and two and a half decades as a public employee taught me lots of important lessons, not the least of which is that inclusion as a governing concept is a net positive.
Below is the agenda for this meeting, and underneath that are my Agenda analysis and my Meeting review.
A. Agenda Analysis 1. Meeting Date and location: Note the meeting is on Wed, Feb 12. The location is the cafeteria.
2. 2024 Bonds, item 6 and 7: Item 6 is the placeholder that allows the Board to approve an unplanned item. I'm less clear on 7 - is it to approve the process of electronic bidding of the projects, or are they approving particular bids that have already been reviewed?
3. Ideal Impact, items 8 and 9: Ideal Impact is a private company being contracted with to help lower electricity costs. I covered this issue at the last meeting in my Meeting Review at B3. I keep electricity costs on the front burner because they are an easily understood factor in increased maintenance and operation expenses after a bond build out...and these costs aren't disclosed to the voters before the bond vote. Think about that big yellow sticker on the side a refrigerator when you buy it that says what the annual electricity cost is expected to be... It's there before you buy.
4. Administrative reports, item 10, a-c: Always important.
5. TASB policy change 124, item 11: Call me a board wonk if you will, but I think the most important role a board, governmental or nonprofit, can play is to help its executive implement and execute on policy and mission. Board members are supposed to be big thinkers, not big do-ers. I covered this extensively at B 4 here. I think these TASB items ought to be considered by the Board in a two step process. This month I found an example for this in the meeting notices for Hearne ISD, where they show the following on their agenda for their second reading:
This is an ideal posting because it shows both a two step process and notifies the public, staff, parents and students that these are the policy items up for a change. All of the policy items are important, but I've highlighted two. Certainly all school staff need to know in advance what changes are being considered. And, the community likewise needs to know their conduct may need to change. Though not shown here, these items on the agenda are under a topic heading called "Governance" suggesting to me this board understands it role in helping govern the school. Heady stuff? No, not really, so long as you accept that board leadership is a thinking role to assist the executive. Again, I think the greatest failure of the 2019 IC ISD board is that it passed an $18 million bond and then failed to build a single classroom. That suggests to me that they failed to execute on policy and mission. So much of the build out of City Gym can be attributed to raw unchecked self interest to have the best athletic facilities and the best win record in the district. No one was ever thinking about classrooms. 6. Closed session, items 16 and 18: There's a lot of meat on this bone! I highlight item 18 to make the larger point that we'll know nothing about this closed session unless the Board votes on a specific matter. A few of these look like voting matters, and important ones at that, so here is my standard advice: always stay to the end of a public meeting in situations where you know or think a matter will be voted on after a closed session. This kind of advocacy comes with a price, and it is a steep one. Time. But a governing body that knows the public is apathetic will merge a closed session into a free for all and ultimately superintendent and board member self interest will reign supreme. The interests of the community becomes the last priority when the public is not present.
IC ISD board members may have some sticker shock when the bids for stormwater diversion start coming in April. The only 2019 bond money spent on campus for floodwater diversion was for this caliche berm along the alley and this cement wall along a new parking lot, the GMPL. It undoubtedly would have been cheaper to have done this right by using the 2019 funds on the front end.
B. Meeting review 1. Closed session and action on closed session, items 16 and 18: a. Contract extensions: After a roughly 1.5 hour closed session, the Board came out of executive session and voted to approve an additional 1 year contract extension to Supt. Moore. My take is this in effect turns her 5 yr contract into a 6, thus giving her 4 more years with the District. (Here's a copy of her contract on the District's site.) Given the relative slow start up pace of the bond build out, this is likely a good turn of events because she will be accountable from start to finish for the expenditure of the 2024 bond funds. (A significant failure of the 2019 bonds was that then Supt. Brian Gray proposed and got the bonds approved, and then he left the District within a few months after the election. Then there was an interim superintendent, and then finally Supt Ray DeSpain was appointed...and he left under a budget fiasco within a few months after all of the 2019 funds and more were spent.)
The Board also approved 1 year contract extensions for Principal Jessica Parker and Asst. Principal/Athletic Dir. John Morrow. This is likewise a good thing in that they, too, will spend more time being accountable for the the spend down of the 2024 bonds. They were present, though in different capacities, for the entirety of the spend down of the 2019 bond funds, so there is some institutional knowledge and relative accountability for those funds as well.
b. Guardians: The Board approved the Guardians discussed in closed session, which is to say the names of the guardians were not stated in open session. This sort of secrecy is allowed under the law, but I think it is nonetheless troubling. First, guardian approved schools effectively have an approved secret militia paid for with public dollars. Second, since I monthly do a PIA request for the District's check register, I know that our tax dollars are being spent on ammo. (In Nov. 2024 the District purchased $1,665 worth of ammo.) And, third, I think our federal government and our constitutional form of government are currently becoming unstable. (Congress is not controlling the purse as it is obligated to under the Constitution.) So, knowing who is on the secret militia that is publicly funded in your community might be handy. For more reading, here's some info on Martial Law. You can see a photo of the District's warning sign about it being a guardian campus at the bottom of this page. 2. 2024 bonds, items 6 and 7: No action on 6, and the Board voted to approve item 7 related to electronic bids. This matter was merely to accept the bidding electronically, as opposed to by paper form. The IC ISD bidding page is on this page. 3. Electricity, Ideal Impact, items 8 and 9: The District paid just over $20,000 for its December energy costs, so this effort to reduce energy costs is much needed. The Board approved the service agreement and payment plan agreement. 4. Administrative reports, item 10: a. Supt. Moore: Plans for the band field and drainage should be complete by mid march, with electronic bids going out the end of March or early April. The elementary will likely not be ready for bid until May. Abatement of the current elementary is starting the end of Feb. Teacher raises update: the pending SB 2 potential raises are not going to be handed down through basic allotment but through teacher incentive allotment, which IC ISD does not currently participate in. The District will have to apply and be approved (a potential 2 year process) to receive these funds. The change here, essentially, is to base teacher raises on performance, not merely years of service. Otherwise, there is some legislative threat to the District's fund balance, so the fox is scratching on the hen house door. The District is going to lose a lot of flexibility if it has to hand over some of its fund balance to the State. The District has more in its fund balance than the required 3 mos. of expenses. More on this later. b. Principal Parker: Enrollment in elementary is 206, high school 133 = 339. Attendance 97.03%. 5. TASB policy change update 124, item 11: I don't know what changes were approved, and I attended the meeting! 6. Fees for transfers, item 13: The Board thought through aloud how to recoup bus expenses related to the transfer students. They approved a fee structure. 7. Miscellaneous: Board member Ashley Hill attended the meeting late and left early, so she didn’t participate in the closed session. Otherwise, Maegin Carlile, Ricky Rey, Tony Martinez, DJ Rainey, Taylor Douglas and Chad Koonce were present. Finally, keep in mind that as these projects like the bus barn and elementary go out for bid, the architects and engineers have already determined by mathematic formula what the water runoff will be. Here is an example of just how detailed these drawings have to be, Jeff Potter's drawing of City Gym. There is nothing mystical about how to protect our community from self inflicted flood damage. It's math.
Copyright 2025 G Noelke