Since we got popular, a few folks have asked us to explain the agendas. We’ve watched a lot of district meetings over our years, so we will do our best.
So according to the Open Meetings Act (Chapter 551 of Texas Government Code) agenda has to be published 72 hours prior to a meeting. This is why Fridays are big days for Monday meetings in Spring Branch.
This Monday, the 6pm meeting is at the Duncan F. Klussmann Education Center (which you can’t actually map to, so you better know the address is 9016 Westview Drive or that it’s where Cornerstone, Academy of Choice, and DAEP are).
Yes, yet another location…just to make it a little harder, but this one does have plenty of space.
Here’s the agenda overview. And here are the meeting resources, or a scaled down version because there will be more provided to the Trustees. We will do our best to break some of this down, but honestly you have to be there to really see it.
1. Opening Remarks by the Superintendent
Dr. Blaine will set the tone for the meeting. She will likely talk about the bind the District is in because the legislature has failed to act. We agree. We are also tired of the “Victim mindset.” We all own this problem–and the solutions. Complain all you want, but the KIPP and YES partnership was established during the 2011 cuts. Government entities have to right-size. In Spring Branch ISD’s case, they should be focused on protecting learning, not adult jobs.
2. Public Comments on Agenda Items
Speakers have to sign up before the meeting starts and have between 1 and 4 minutes to speak. The board president will decide at beginning of meeting. You have to speak on agenda item, really any agenda item. You could even talk about the approval of the Minutes from a November meeting and talk about what happened at that meeting.
3. Executive Session
During this time, the board can only speak on items on the agenda and allowed in “the back room” (send us photos if you have them).
In this case (A) “personnel matters including duties of employees and public officers” and (B) “consultation with the board’s attorney regarding all matters as authorized by law including legal issues surrounding public finance. Now this is interesting. We can’t be IN THE ROOM (where it happens) but we 1) notice that the language for 3A changed in October with the addition of “including duties of employees and public officers” this means they can talk about ALL STAFFING and ALL OF THE WORK OF THE BOARD. This is super broad and very suspect.
Before October 10, 2023:
After October 10, 2023:
Lastly (B) the “legal issues surrounding public finance” tells us that a lawsuit of some sort might be forthcoming…or they are figuring out why they are cutting a budget to afford to make a recapture payment that they voted not to make in August of 2024. We can only speculate though.
4. Request for Approval of Routine Personnel – job titles will change; people will get contracts.
5. First Reading of Policy
After this first reading, the board allows at least 5 days (BF (LOCAL)) for public comment through their website. From listening to old meetings, this comment period used to be a month but the board recently changed it’s policy and now, we’ve got 5 days so be ready…
In this case, they are going to set the timeline for EFA (LOCAL) – Instructional Resources – Instructional Materials Selection and EFB (LOCAL) – Instructional Resources – Library Materials.
Ie, books. They are going to dig back into the policies on books.
There’s a lot to review here. EFA (LOCAL) is 8 pages long; and EFB (LOCAL) which was updated 13 months ago is 7 pages long. We are linking to the proposed policy, but we will have to dig into that later. Not sure if 5 days is enough time though.
6. Second Read and Adoption of Policy – CS (LOCAL) Facility Standard
This is a Bathroom policy. It’s short, so we’ve pasted it below.
7. Action
A. Request for approval of resolution to close Panda Path School for Early Learning
B. Request for Approval of Resolution to Close Treasure Forest Elementary
C. Request for Approval of Resolution for Cancellation of the SBISD-KIPP-YES Prep Partnership Agreements
We dug into these school closures with an earlier blog (and here’s the one about the KIPP and YES Prep contracts).
Again, closing schools doesn’t save real money, and changes an entire community for generations to come. People still talk about Spring Branch High School and Westchester High School closing in the 80s. And again again, these three closures only affect low-income communities. (Insert Palm to forehead emoji.)
8. Consent Agenda Items
A. Approval of Acceptance of Gifts
Spring Branch is community. These gifts include $609,575 for field improvements by SBMSA, Stratford Booster Club support, and a Trees for Houston donation of trees at Hollibrook.
B. Minutes approval for November
9. Closing Remarks by Superintendent – Depending on how late the meeting runs, this could be interesting, too. Sometimes nothing is said.
10. Meeting is adjourned – Yeah not much to see here, folks.