This Board Meeting recap is a brief summary provided by Access RRISD volunteer scribes in order to help the RRISD community stay informed. It is not an official meeting record. Please refer to the official meeting video and transcript provided by Round Rock ISD if you require clarification or additional context.
Votes
- 2024-2025 Academic Calendar (from 9/21 agenda) – No official action
- Azaiez receives a directive from the school board to work with the calendar committee to increase the group’s transparency and offer more equitable calendar options
- Markum moves to approve Cori Vessa as the Nominee for the Travis Central Appraisal District (TCAD)
- Motion carries 5-0
- (Insert board member) moves to adopt the Legislative Priorities Update Related to Funding for Public Schools
- Motion carries 5-0
- Trustee Weir moves to approve all action items by consent (items H1-H10)
- Motion carries 5-0
- Consent items are listed below
- Approval of Board Minutes, Approval of Campus and District and Improvement Plans, Adoption of Tax Roll Resolution, Approval of Budget Amendments, Approval of the MOU for Travis County Juvenile Justice Alternative Education Program (JJAEP) for the 2023-2024 School Year, Approval of Goal Progress Measures 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, Approval of T-TESS Appraisers, Approval of Brush Creek Elementary School Atmos Gas Line Easement, Approval of School Health Advisory Council (SHAC) Member, and Approval of Homebound Remote Conferencing Services Waiver
Quotes
- Trustee Zárate: “I know that equity work is hard but we make hard decisions to be equitable so that everybody has the same playing field. We have to show that we are committed to equity and we don’t need to just say it.”
- Trustee Harrison: “When we are looking at an equity issue, the majority vote does not equal equity, because the people that are marginalized are already under-represented…”
Notes
- Trustees present: Feller, Harrison, Weir, Zárate, and Markum
- Trustees absent: Bone and Weston
- Before the October 19th regular board meeting, a public hearing was held detailing RRISD’s Financial Integrity Rating System of Texas (FIRST) score
- Dr. Azaiez announced that RRISD received an A, with a score of 98/100
- CFO Covington went through a detailed presentation explaining the financial evaluation metrics used to give RRISD its A rating
- Canyon Vista MS Band, Canyon Vista MS Orchestra, Grisham MS Band, McNeil HS Chamber Singers, Round Rock HS Symphony Full Orchestra, Walsh MS Honors Band, and Westwood HS Wind Ensemble all received the 2023 National Mark of Excellence
- Major points from the calendar discussion
- Constraints on the academic calendar include district policies that aim to align RRISD calendars with academic partners (such as Austin Community College, neighboring districts, and state laws), community feedback from calendar survey results, and keeping in mind the needs of educators
- Without a major adjustment of calendars and constraints, a staff development day could be moved to give students the day off for Eid
- Need to make sure staff can also celebrate holidays and receive support
- Need to actively recruit more diverse volunteers/faith leaders for the calendar committee, provide more notification about calendar surveys/votes, and ensure input from minority groups is weighted and considered (instead of simply going with majority votes from surveys)
- Dr. Nichols and her team gave an update on Goal Progress Measures (GPM) for the beginning of the 2023 school year (BOY 2023)
- Presentation focused on early reading and math GPMS (elementary students)
- Compared to prior years, a higher percentage of students are starting the year meeting literacy and math goals, with these percentages steadily increasing as the school year progresses
- Prioritizing early reading support over early math support, as Dr. Nichols’ team found that early literacy acts as a strong indicator for later student success
- Equity goals are embedded within GPM measurements, with a specific focus on measuring achievement challenges for economically disadvantaged students (due to race and language barriers often intersecting with economic disadvantage, these equity issues also receive attention when focusing on economic disadvantage)
- New implementation of an Early Literacy Parent Engagement Initiative at Title I elementary schools in RRISD is providing promising results
- Another presentation focused on Student Well-Being GPMs (from Spring 2023 survey results)
- Sense of safety in school and sense of self efficacy for 3rd-5th graders is higher than the national average (68% and 64% respectively), while 6th-12th graders are on the lower end of the national average for these GPMs (56% and 47%)
- To improve these GPMs, RRISD is implementing trained CARE teams to review data/ needs holistically, have student focus groups, and look into incorporating Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) into High School curriculums
- Trustee Zárate reports on the Mexican American School Board Association (MASBA) conference he visited, with the goal of helping the RRISD school board be more culturally conscious and better advocates for Mexican and Latino/a communities
- One presenter recommended student led Professional Development for teachers
- Another presenter recommended local businesses provide pressure/outreach to advocate for public education (as they often benefit from an educated workforce) and seeing bilingual students as people who possess a significant talent employers often look for
- Trustee Zárate recommends sending more board members to attend next year’s MASBA, as well as looking into having students attend on MASBA-provided scholarships