-: We welcome everyone to April's 2020 Texas (mumbles)
I gave you this revision yesterday,
which is the a different (mumbles)
it's really such an amazing time for the country
the last six weeks,
and as long as we realize how this whole week,
we have everything we've developed
and everything under control that we didn't.
I think we've all spent some time
and reflection on what's really important
on a lot of things like our (mumbles) and family.
With the things that's going one,
the things that people running
in a million different directions at one time.
This country has always risen to the occasion
and is doing so again,
I mentioned yesterday during our meeting,
all those in the education system
that are working to make sure
our neediest students aren't left behind,
and also our heroes who are healthcare workers
on the front line.
So in recognizing the resiliency
of our country for student performance,
I wanted to have a performance
that pay tribute to our United States of America.
And also to that point, I made about slowing down our lives.
Last week I was doing just that
and taking our dog out for a walk in our neighborhood
and I ran across the Lufkin ISD Band Director,
Mr. George Little.
And of course all his students were at home,
and I asked him to virtually put together
a performance of his students.
And he has done that.
Under--
Woman: Now is fine.
-: He was unable to direct these songs.
He just sent them to, the collaboration from the music,
and they read it
and recorded their tracks completely on their own.
Not only did they overcome the challenge
of recording this on their phones,
the timing had to be just right
because all their tracks were merged together
for this finished product you're about to hear.
So in thanking Mr. Little and Superintendent Lynn Torres,
I present to you just a few
of the 500 member Lufkin High School marching band
that has a long tradition of excellence in music
and marching performance,
and Lufkin High School Panther Marching Band performs
in the traditional military marching style,
and is widely considered
one of the top military bands in the State of Texas.
They have taken first place at the
National Association of Military Marching Bands contest,
five out of the last six years.
So you here's Avery Durett, Kealan Morris, Dre Garcia,
Chrissa Holden, Willingham Sir, Toluca Jory, Joel Sarmiento,
Jerry Brown and Connor Haynesworth
playing America the Beautiful
and then Crystal Holden, Natalie Aguilar, Braden Lehmann,
all on trumpet playing the Star Spangled Banner.
There seems to be just a technical difficulty,
we're working on getting the sound turned on.
And bear with us just one minute.
(band playing American the Beautiful)
we got one more song, she will be queuing up.
(band playing the Star Spangled Banner)
Thank you staff for working so hard to get that together
and I wanna again thank the Lufkin High School
for performing that for us, their Band Director,
Mr. George Little, Superintendent Lynn Torress
to get us started today.
We will now move into the pledges and the prayer.
So Dr. Robinson, will you bring us the invocation
and lead us in the pledges?
-: Dear Lord, (clears throat)
please be with all of mankind in these difficult times.
Please help bring us peace, then show us your grace.
And above all else, please be with our leaders locally,
State and nationally, help guide them,
help bring them wisdom to make the best decisions
for all people.
In His name we pray Amen.
I pledge allegiance
All: to the flag of the United States of America
and to the Republic for which it stands,
one Nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty
and justice for all.
Honor the Texas flag,
I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas,
one state, under God, one indivisible.
-: All right, thank you Dr. Robinson for doing that today.
And we will now, call on staff, to call the roll.
-: Heathers?
(claps)
-: Here.
-: Miss Perez?
-: Here.
-: Mr. Cortez.
Child: Mama, (mumbles)
-: Miss Perez Diaz.
-: Here.
-: Mr. Allen?
-: Present.
-: Mr. Mercer.
-: Present.
-: Mrs. Bahorich?
-: Here.
-: Dr. Robinson?
-: Here.
-: Mrs. Cargil?
-: Here.
-: Dr. Ellis?
-: Here.
-: Mr. Maynard?
-: Here.
-: Miss Hardy?
Mrs. Little?
-: Here.
-: Miss Davis?
-: Here.
-: Mrs. Melton-Malone?
-: Here
-: Mr. Rowley?
-: Here.
-: Thank you staff, a quorum is present.
The first business to be considered
is the approval of the minutes
of the State Board of Education meeting
from November 15th, 2019, and from January 31st, 2020,
are there any corrections to either set of minutes?
Hearing none, there are no corrections
and both sets of minutes are approved.
Thank you, staff.
Did we end up, do we have any public testimony?
-: No, sir.
There's no public testimony.
-: Okay, the next order of business
is the approval of the Consent Agenda.
The consent is on page. Consent Agenda is on page 22.
You will take a moment to review that,
the items on the Consent Agenda
are the ratifications of the purchase
and sales of the investment portfolio, the PSF
for the months of December, 2019, January, 2020,
and February, 2020.
Recommendations for appointment to the Fort Sam Houston
Independent School District Board of Trustees
and recommendation for appointments to the
Lackland Independent School District Board of Trustees.
So, are there any items be removed
from the Consent Agenda for separate consideration?
Hearing none, the Consent Agenda is adopted.
And for our next item,
I will turn it over to Vice Chair Marty Rowley.
-: Okay, members where on the minutes
of the Committee of the Full Board.
The first item is Action Item 1,
it's on page one of those minutes.
And so we'll begin.
It's recommended by that State Board of Education Committee,
the Committee of the Full Board recommends
that the State Board of Education approve for second reading
and final adoption the proposed amendments
to 19 TAC Chapter 74, Curriculum Requirements,
Subchapter B, Graduation Requirements,
Section 74.11, High School Graduation Requirements,
Section 74.12, Foundation High School Programs
and Section 74.13 Endorsements
and that an affirmative finding be made
that immediate adoption of the proposed amendments
to 19 TAC Chapter 74, Curriculum Requirements,
Subchapter E, Graduation Requirements,
Section 74.11, High School Graduation Requirements,
Section 74.12 Foundation High School program,
and Section 74.13, Endorsements is necessary
and shall have an effective date of August 1st, 2020.
-: Thank you, Mr. Rowley, I would ask all those in favor,
please do so by raising your hand.
-: You may put your hands down, that's 14.
-: All those opposed by the same sign of raising your hand.
There are two thirds in favor
and the recommendation is adopted.
Moving on to the next item. -: Okay.
The next time is on page two of the Minutes.
It's Item 2, recommended that the State Board of Education
approve for second reading
and final adoption proposed revisions, to 19 TAC,
Chapter 126, Texas Essential Knowledge
and Skills for Technology Applications,
Subchapter C High School
and Subchapter D, Other Technology Applications Courses.
And Chapter 130, Texas Essential Knowledge
and Skills for Career and Technical Education,
Subchapter A, Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources,
Subchapter C Arts, Audio/Video Technology
and Communications,
Subchapter K, Information Technology,
Subchapter O, Science, Technology, Engineering
and Mathematics
and Subchapter Q, Energy,
and that the Board making affirmative finding
that immediate adoption of the proposed revisions
to 19 TAC Texas Essential Knowledge
and Skills for Technology Applications,
Subchapter C, High School,
and Subchapter D, Other Technology Applications Courses,
and Chapter 130, Texas Essential Knowledge
and Skills for Career and Technical Education,
Subchapter A, Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources;
Subchapter C, Arts, Audio/Video Technology,
and Communications;
Subchapter K, Information Technology;
Subchapter O, Science, Technology, Engineering,
and Mathematics;
and Subchapter Q, Energy is necessary
and shall have an effective date of August 1st, 2020.
-: All right thank you, members.
I'll ask all those in favor of the motion,
please do so by raising your hand.
-: You may lower your hands, that's 14.
-: Any opposed do so, by raising your hand.
All right, there are two thirds in favor
and the recommendation is adopted.
-: Okay, the next item is Item Number 3, it is,
actually there's a motion
and vote to suspend the Board Operating Procedures
that appears on the middle of page three, I'll go ahead
and make that recommendation
and ask that the Board ratify that action.
So it was moved and recommended
or was moved that the Board suspend
Board Operating Procedure Section 5.7
to allow Board members to provide proposed amendments
to the TEKS to staff by three o'clock p.m.,
April 16th, 2020.
So, Mr. Chair, we need a ratification of that action.
-: And is my understanding there were not any amendments
that were turned in that would have applied to that,
but I think just for due diligence, we'll go ahead
and go through the proper procedure for that.
So I would ask for those in favor,
please show by raising your hands.
(phone dings)
-: You may lower your hands, 14.
-: Any opposed, please show by raising your hand.
So there is a majority in favor, the action is ratified.
-: Okay, and then if you'll go to page eight of your Minutes,
the vote appears on this Item.
Is at the very top of page eight
of your Committee the Full Board Minutes
and it was erected, it was recommended
by the Committee the full Board that
the State Board of Education approved for second reading
and final adoption, proposed revisions to 19 TAC,
Chapter 113 Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills
for Social Studies, Subchapter C High School
and Subchapter D, Other Social Studies Courses as amended,
and make an affirmative finding
that immediate adoption of proposed revisions
to 19 TAC Chapter 13, Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills
for Social Studies, Subchapter C High School
and Subchapter D, Other Social Studies Courses is necessary
and shall have an effective date of August 1st, 2020.
-: And Miss Martinez, did we have any more amendments or--
-: Yes, sir, I think Miss Ramos has one item
that she wanted to bring to the Board's attention.
-: Yes, sir, so okay,
I sent you an email just a few minutes ago
with that language.
So as I was reviewing the amendments last night,
I came across a student expectation that I think could use
some additional clarification, it's 9.A.
and in your minutes,
I'll find it in your minutes for you, just a moment.
It's on page, at the top of page six
if you're looking at your minutes
so what I did is I looked back
at the original student expectation
in the approved Innovative Course,
because it was written that the current student expectation
wasn't quite reading correctly.
And so what we are proposing is the language up at the top.
Thank you, Kay for showing that.
Compare and contrast how the human rights ideals expressed
in the Declaration of Independence
and Bill of Rights influence
the political perspectives of enslaved
and free African Americans in the late 17 and early 1800s.
Dr. Ellis: Okay, are there any questions
or comments from members?
I saw this Miss Bohorich's hand up earlier,
if you still a, Miss Bohorich have a comment?
Miss Bohorich: No, thank you.
Dr. Ellis: Okay, any other questions
or comments from members on this change?
And please speak up, I'm back to the split screen,
where I don't have everyone's face in front of me.
So speak up if you do have any questions or concerns,
if hearing none on this change, if there's no.
Go ahead Miss Bohorich.
Miss Bohorich: Yeah, I kind of understand
the Human Rights ideals here.
But, I do like the idea of the unalienable rights,
'cause that's specific to life, liberty
and the pursuit of happiness.
And so I hate kind of getting rid
of the word unalienable rights, there to be honest.
Miss Ramos: So one of the reasons
that we are recommending changing it
from just specifically unalienable rights is that
it leads somebody to believe that those were the only ideas
that were influencing political perspectives
of African Americans.
I mean, we could, I'm trying to figure out a way quickly
of working that into the student expectations
so that we call it out specifically.
Woman: And you say ideals including,
life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?
Miss Ramos: Okay, the only thing I would say is,
unalienable rights is a very specific thing.
And that's why I really supported this amendment.
It's, you have those rights just as a result of existence.
The government does not give them to you.
Nobody gives them to you, you have them
because that's just part of,
that's what's unusual about
that specific concept, unalienable rights.
And I like calling that out.
Because it's not something granted by any government.
It's fundamental for understanding.
Woman: Maybe you could say human rights, ideals
and inalienable rights or inalienable rights
and human rights ideals,
to try to convey that isn't just that.
Which is I think, the issue that was originally raised.
Dr. Ellis: Dr. Robinson.
Microphone.
Dr. Robinson: I agree with what Member Bohorich is saying
and plus it also ties in the fact that,
no other countries ever mentioned that,
it's kind of an American thing, if you will,
even though it applies all humanity.
So I am, I would like to keep it in there.
Miss Ramos: So, one suggestion might be, let's see,
the inalienable rights expressed
in the Declaration of Independence
and constitutional rights in the Bill of Rights
or just constitutional rights?
Miss Bohorich: I like that better personally.
Miss Ramos: I mean, I agree with you.
But I feel like everybody knows
what the inalienable rights are,
so it's okay to not include the list.
If that's the will of the Board.
Woman: Shirley, I'm sorry, can you say that again please?
Shirley: Yeah, what if, let's see it
the whole thing again.
So human rights ideals, and,
well, maybe we should consider taking out
human rights ideals, then,
and just say how the inalienable rights expressed
in the Declaration of Independence
and constitutional rights
in the Bill of Rights.
Miss Bohorich: All right, I think that's inalienable.
Not un, with an I, yep.
Woman: It should be civil rights.
It should be civil rights, not constitutional rights,
civil rights.
Shirley: That's fine, I think that's good.
Woman: It is unalienable, not inalienable, unalienable.
Dr. Robinson: Mr. Mercer?
Mr. Mercer: And just to comment we're talking
about the 1700s, 1800s.
And what happened back then to political perspectives,
there were there were several blacks who petitioned States,
to change it to allow freedom
and the result of that was five
of the 13 colonies immediately abolish slavery,
the 14th State, Vermont in 1790 also became a state
and it abolished slavery.
So I'm not sure, I understand the civil rights,
but we're talking about the Declaration of Independence
and the constitution, in the 1700s what happened,
and how that influenced black Americans
who petitioned for their freedom.
I'm just giving a quick history,
but that's, we've changed the words a lot
at this last time, it will change the whole meaning of this,
and I understanding the unalienable rights,
and that timeframe is a Declaration
and the Bill of Rights.
And that then put and perspective how influenced,
we had black Americans who petition throughout
the five states in New England
for freedom to abolish slavery,
and it led to the 14 state which were Vermont,
Vermont was not one of the 13
but it became a State immediately, it abolished slavery.
Is that what we're trying,
remember the context is the 1700s, right?
Early 1800s am I correct?
Woman: Yes, sir, and what would you think
about the freedoms expressed in the Bill of Rights?
Mr. Mercer: Well, we had, we delineated life, liberty
and happiness, we made it pretty clear,
this if we look at what we had originally
and what we have now, this is completely different
but we delineated unalienable rights
and we delineated carefully, life, liberty,
and pursuit of happiness.
Those are the things they argued
and they actually partitioned back then,
to five different northern states, who agreed
and began to abolish slavery
in the first two decades of our country.
And again, I repeat the 14th State, Vermont came in there,
it abolished slavery before it even became a State,
so that was the influence they have
in the Declaration of Bill of Rights.
We're wordsmithing a lot maybe, too much.
That's my concern.
-: Miss Hardy, did you have a comment?
Miss Hardy: The Bill of Rights,
after the Declaration of Independence,
and the Civil Rights,
I have the constitution
because the constitution also assigns those Bill of Rights
as rights within the Constitution, as
(mumbles)
I don't know, it just seems like it might be more
complacent to just say constitution
which would include the Bill of Rights.
(mumbles) into the 1800s,
it would be in the (mumbles)
Miss Ramos: Well, one for the point
of the original student expectation
that was included in the Innovative Course,
was to make sure that students understood the different ways
that individuals reconciled the actual restrictions
that existed for African Americans in the colonies
with these ideals of freedom
that were being expressed during the time
of the Revolution and the Constitution.
Not necessarily going further
because if you look at the rest of the student expectations,
they are sort of in chronological order
and the 13, 14, 15th Amendments are included someplace else.
So I think this is focused on early Republic,
the revolution in the early Republic.
Dr. Ellis: Mr. Rowley?
Mr. Rowley: Yeah, I guess I'm at a bit of a loss
as to what we're trying to fix here
with the, with changing the language
and I appreciate Shelley's explanation there
but I'm, I personally am fine with the way
it currently read.
And that it does incorporate unalienable rights
and life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
And so it seems to me that it,
I don't know that there's a need for change.
And that's just my perspective on it.
Miss Ramos: If I could Mr. Rowley, there were two things
that caught my attention in the student expectation.
The first is such as,
because the inalienable rights are life, liberty,
and the pursuit of happiness.
Those aren't just examples.
So that was the first thing.
But then the second thing is that,
by removing revolutionary we're taking this out
of the context of the time period
that the student expectation was intended for,
which was the American Revolution.
So you could if you wanted to revert back
to the way it currently reads,
I would just recommend that you take out such as,
and perhaps you say political perspectives
of African Americans,
but then you add in in the late 1700s and early 1800s.
Mr. Rowley: Than I wouldn't have a problem with that.
Actually, I think that, if that remedies the issue
that you're seeing within the expectation,
that would be fine.
Woman: The only thing I would say,
I understand what staff is recommending here
with the Bill of Rights piece,
because the Bill of Rights also, are the civil rights,
those were the personal rights.
And so that has to do with, fair trials
and different things like that.
And so I, that they're in addition to,
because you're born, this is what you get,
and you deserve these things.
And then in addition to that,
are these other civil rights that are accorded you.
And so, I think there's some value
in both of those being compared and contrasted.
Dr. Ellis: All right, so maybe the best way to do this,
we have a recommendation for staff
as presented on the screen, let's use that as,
Kay help me out here, that can be the motion
that we were beginning with
and then we can work on amendments from here,
would that be proper?
Kay: Yes, sir.
Mr. Maynard: Inquiry.
Dr. Ellis: Mr. Maynard?
Mr. Maynard: Yeah, so this is second reading
and final adoption, it is Friday
and it's my recollection that in order to take up,
we suspended the rules to address the deadline yesterday.
But in order to,
do we need to suspend the rules to consider an amendment,
is this is not adding an instructional time,
it's not adding content.
What the rule says about that?
Member: Dr. Ellis if I may.
The move that you suspended is, as I recall it,
is amendments from individuals.
And generally you have permitted staff
to make recommendations and to amend things.
We don't do it often.
But I believe that you have done it
during your actual meetings previously.
Dr. Ellis: We do this, with it still require
a two thirds majority vote.
Member: No, sir, it's still an amendment.
And the only thing that is always true
in Robert's Rules of Order,
is that every amendment always takes a majority vote,
unless rules specifically call for it to be different.
And I'm unfamiliar with a rule that would require
that to be different at this time.
Dr. Ellis: Okay, so that answer your question,
Mr. Maynard?
Mr. Maynard: Yeah, I think so
and I understand that that rule related to that, is,
was really, the intent of that was
to slow down the addition of content,
but I just wanna make sure
that we don't run afoul of our office.
Woman: Mr. Maynard, if it helps, I'll go ahead
and read the rules to you.
It says, Aa member wishing to amend
"Any Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills being considered.
"For second reading and final adoption,
"shall submit the amendment in writing to staff
"no later than noon on the day prior
"to the final vote of the adoption of the text.
"All amendments shall be made available to the public
"to the extent possible,
"the rule may be suspended by a two thirds vote."
So I think that does as as Kay mentioned,
specify amendments that members wish to have considered.
I think this was really more a clarification
of language from staff
and you have allowed us when you make a bunch of amendments,
and then come back and look at the rule text,
you have allowed us if we identify anything
that perhaps needs some clarity,
we have been able to do that in the past
without you suspending any rules.
Mr. Maynard: Thank you.
Dr. Ellis: Can you recommend
that a staff can't make a motion,
does a member need to make a motion
as presented on the screen and a second, go from there?
Okay, would someone like to make a motion
for the motion on the screen?
Bahorich?
Miss Bahorich: Yeah, I propose revision for 9.A.
to be compare and contrast how the unalienable rights
expressed in the Declaration of Independence
and civil rights in the Bill of Rights
influenced political perspectives of enslaved
and free African Americans in the late 1700s
and early 1800s.
Dr. Ellis: We have a second?
Member: Second.
Dr. Ellis: Okay, so we have a motion and a second.
So we have a starting point here.
So that being said now,
is everyone happy with the amendment as written
or would there be any changes that someone like to make?
Mr. Mercer.
Mr. Mercer: For discussion,
in their timeframe back there was,
Declartion in the Constitution.
Civil Rights is the common term we use right now,
we understand that, but their timeframe again,
the first seven states, Alaska, New Jersey in 1804,
all four seven northern states abolished slavery
and the next day was Vermont, but that was there, again
and Shelley's correct, what the inalienable rights are,
life, liberty and pursuit, that's it, that's what they are,
as we have in the current amendment right now,
I'm just concerned, when we said in civil rights,
I would say, and I would keep it what it was,
Declaration in the Constitution.
That's what the black Americans use back then
to compare that saying,
"Hey, should we abolish slavery based on this?"
I think we're changing a lot.
Remember the timeframe says, the late 1700s
and the early 1800s, okay?
That's our mind frame there.
They had the Bill of Rights in the Constitution,
and they were applying that
and the impact was that these seven northern states
abolished slavery before 1804.
That's a very important concept
that I want all kids to know that
that stuff was abolished in 1804.
The first seven northern states abolish that
using the Constitution,
I'm just concerned, we're wordsmithing a lot
and I kind of go back to where Kearney reads.
Explain unalienable rights, which are life, liberty,
and pursuit of happiness, influenced political perspectives
of African Americans, I could say
using the Declaration in the Constitution,
civil rights says that we all support,
but that's more of a concept,
back then they called the Declaration in the Constitution.
I'm not sure if we call it now civil rights,
but is that what they turned it back in the 1700s?
Someone tell me that, you understand what I'm saying?
I concern is we wordsmith it too much,
I look at the current new one and the new one.
And we're, I don't know we're having a lot.
We're can say Declaration of obviously constitution.
I'll stop there.
Dr. Ellis: And Miss Hardy?
Miss Hardy: I think, that the first revision
is very clear, I like the fact that you don't have to put
(mumbles)
If someone doesn't know what unalienable rights are,
then they will find out by looking at it.
(mumbles)
And I don't think there are people that don't know that.
The terms civil rights just speak to the teacher
was teaching us today.
And so that first experience
as far as a teacher going after this,
that the Civil Rights are expressed in the Bill of Rights,
(mumbles)
that time frame.
So I just had to read the terminologies of that time frame
this is what I don't understand it today,
I think the first revision as it is right there right now
is very clear and very good.
Dr. Ellis: Miss Bahorich?
Miss Bahorich: I think what's important here is that,
the reason I'm in agreement with Member Hardy
as well on this is that,
civil rights are the rights of citizens.
We want them to specifically compare
and contrast personal rights.
There are other rights that are written in there
but they're not necessarily personal.
It's, but whereas unalienable rights
and the civil rights which are personal rights of citizens
to political and social freedom and equality.
That's the depth of discussion.
Dr. Ellis: All right, Mr. Maynard?
Mr. Maynard: Yeah, I and just to respond to the concerns
of my colleague from District five.
And what I'm hearing is,
is that the term civil rights is not true to the period
that we're describing.
And I understand that, is that maybe
that they didn't really talk about civil rights,
but that's how we term it today.
And so regardless of how they termed it,
and how they thought about it,
and how they articulated it back in the late 1700s,
early 1800s, this is how we articulate it today
and regardless of how they described it back then,
they were civil rights.
And so we are, it is a, we're casting a backward look
back into the late 1700s, early 1800s
and talking about civil rights
and looking at it through the prism
of how we think about those things today
and so, while it may not be the language
as expressed in the revision may not be true to the period.
We are discussing these things today and not in 1800.
So, I would support the proposed revision.
Dr. Ellis: Miss Davis.
Miss Davis: I also support the revision,
I like that you have the unalienable rights
and it kind of leads the students
and teachers to research more about what it actually is,
as Member Hardy was saying,
and even a quick search of what unalienable rights is,
tells you all about the rights are given
because you're a human,
so I think that leads to even more research
and in depth conversation.
So I sincerely support the revision.
Dr. Ellis: Okay, any other comments on the amendment
as presented on the screen?
And hearing no other amendments to the amendments,
let's go ahead and take the vote
on the amendment as presented.
Everyone ready for that?
All right, all those in favor of the motion
do so by raising your hand.
Staff: You may lower your hands 14 in favor.
-: And all those opposed show
by raising your hands.
All right, the motion carries.
Thank you, Miss Ramos.
Yeah, before we get to the final,
do we have any other amendments from members?
Miss Perez.
-: I have two, Miss Kay, if we look, please at 4(G) and 5(B).
It's--
-: I'm sorry, you're gonna need to give me a second
because I was unaware that this was coming up.
So let me find the file from yesterday
and bring it back up if I may.
-: Hey, we'll send you the file that has the amendments.
I'm sorry, I thought we had done that.
-: While they're doing that could Miss Perez repeat
which standards we're gonna be looking at?
-: Yes, please look at 4 (g) and 5(b).
It says discuss and I would like to change it to describe.
-: You know where they are in our minutes
since I think everyone has that up now.
-: It's page three of the Rule Test
that I attach to your Minutes, if you have that handy.
(background noise)
-: 4 (G) and 5(B)?
-: Yes.
-: This is the original 4 (G) and 5(B), correct?
-: Correct.
-: The first reading.
-: It's just the changing of the verb specifically, because
it's, to use the word discuss
is not an instructional strategy.
-: Before we get into deliberation, I think we need,
let's make sure we all have it.
I think, I need to ask Miss Kay also,
if we have to suspend the rules to take up this motion.
-: So it's page four of your minutes
and it looks like from the Rule Text,
the proposal is to revert back to the original language
before it was amended yesterday.
So 4 (G), did say, describe and that was stricken
and replaced with discuss.
So you may want to, it sounds like
you're wanting to revert back.
-: How about 4(L)?
What do we have discussed now?
'Cause it's kind of hard to figure this out
'cause I think that's what she's trying to address.
-: So in the new 4 (G) on the Rule Text
that we sent you last night,
it's currently says discuss the impact
of the U.S. Supreme Court decision Plessy v. Ferguson.
You can see there that describe was stricken
and replaced with discuss yesterday.
-: Okay, Miss Kay, do we need to suspend the rules
to take up this motion?
Miss Kay: Yes, sir, I would suggest that you do.
This is an amendment by a member that was not presented
by three o'clock yesterday afternoon.
Dr. Ellis: Members as she stated,
we do have amendment that's being brought to us now
on Friday at second reading,
so if it is the will of the Board
to take up this amendment as she stated,
we will require a two thirds majority to suspend our rules.
So, I assume I have to have a motion to do that.
Okay, does anyone have a motion to suspend the rules?
Mr. Mercer: I have have two questions.
Member: So moved.
Dr. Ellis: Okay, so parliamentary inquiry Mr. Mercer?
Mr. Mercer: Do we have to take that vote per amendment
or just overall, all amendments are now welcome?
Dr. Ellis: Each amendment as brought.
Mr. Mercer: So if we vote yes,
then all amendments can be brought up
and we can reopen the whole thing now?
Dr. Ellis: So be it be, per amendment.
Mr. Mercer: It's per amendment, okay,
can I see the amendment first again,
before we decide how to vote?
Repeat it please.
Dr. Ellis: So this is the discuss
or describe the impact of the U.S. Supreme Court,
is that one 4 (G) or 5(B)?
Miss Kay: So 4 (G)-- Miss Perez: It applies.
Miss Kay: 4 (G) currently says,
"Discuss the impact of the U.S. Supreme Court decision
"Plessy v Ferguson 1896."
Dr. Ellis: Okay.
So we have a motion from Miss Perez to suspend the rules
and take up 4(G) as an amendment, do we have a second?
Member: Second.
Dr. Ellis: We have a motion in a second.
All those in favor, suspending the rules
and taken out 4(G), please show by raising your hand.
Miss Kay: You may lower your hands,
I believe I counted 11.
Dr. Ellis: All those opposed to suspending the rules
to take up 4(G), please show by raising your hand.
Miss Kay: You can lower your hands, three.
Dr. Ellis: Motion carries.
Miss Bahorich: Parliamentary inquiry.
Dr. Ellis: Yes ma'am.
Miss Bahorich: I think the intention
and Member Perez, can, if I'm wrong,
I think the intention is to change any of the discusses
to describe, is that correct, Miss Perez?
Exactly if we have discuss anywhere,
then we wanna change it--
Miss Perez: It's just those two.
Miss Bahorich: Well I just wanna make sure,
I'm not clear, so.
Dr. Ellis: Understanding that you are correct
Miss Bahorich, so that was our intent
but there are only two of those situations.
Miss Bahorich: Oh, okay, for sure Kay,
look they are there.
I just wanna make sure that,
'cause I can't really tell from the notes to be honest.
I mean, it's hard for me to figure that out.
Dr. Ellis: We have a motion, we have a second,
Miss Perez, if you want to speak to your motion.
Miss Perez: I think it's pretty simple.
The reason that I'm requesting or proposing
that the word discussed be revised to describe is because,
describe as a cognitive process that can be demonstrated
by discussing, writing, painting, etc.
It tells, it gives a specific instruction to our teachers,
what's it, what they need to teach,
and it tells our students exactly what's expected as well.
It has to be more than dialogue.
Dr. Ellis: Mr. Rowley?
Mr. Rowley: Yeah, so, if I'm understanding correctly,
originally, it said, describe,
and then as a result of the amending process yesterday,
we changed it to discuss
and now we're changing it back to describe?
Miss Perez: I believe that's correct.
Mr. Rowley: So what was the motivation
to change it yesterday?
And what has changed since then?
Dr. Ellis: Miss Perez, would you like to respond to that?
Miss Perez: To be honest with you, Mr. Rowley,
I don't know the motivation of changing it yesterday,
it could have been just a typographical error
on the part of who read it, I know I typed it,
but I can't, my document has so many notes
and so many changes, I can't explain.
But my sincere belief is that it was simply an error
while preparing the documents for amendments.
I don't believe that there was anything more
to it than that.
Mr. Rowley: Okay, thank you.
Dr. Ellis: Miss Hardy?
(mumbles)
Miss Hardy: Discuss is limiting,
you could do it by other things.
Whereas this way you could have a,
like someone mentioned to me yesterday
a PowerPoint describing
and that you would be completing that coverage of
that (mumbles)
a chance to discuss that, maybe we'll get that right.
(mumbles)
Dr. Ellis: Mr. Mercer?
Mercer.
Mr. Mercer: Thank you, okay.
I do not like last minute changes on Friday, however,
I will support the amendment
because you know my discussion before,
how important Plessy v Ferguson is,
and Gina is correct, that the describe is a,
intellectual value, you're actually doing
some action in there.
So I will support the amendment describe the impact
of the Supreme Court decision Plessy v. Ferguson, 1896.
Thank you.
Dr. Ellis: Miss Cargill.
Miss Cargill: I supported it as well
because it will make it consistent
throughout the whole document.
So it makes sense, thank you for catching that Miss Perez.
Dr. Ellis: Any other comments?
All right, we are ready to take the vote.
So I will ask all those in favor,
please show by raising your hand.
Miss Kay: Miss Pat's hand.
Dr. Ellis: Are you, your hand up or not?
Miss Pat: Not.
Miss Kay: I count 13.
Dr. Ellis: You may lower your hands.
All those opposed, please show by raising your hand.
All right, the motion carries.
Now I would take up a motion to suspend the rules
to take up Item 5(B).
So if anyone has that motion.
Member: Having a motion to suspend the rules
to take up item 5(B).
Dr. Ellis: Do we have a second?
Member: Second.
Dr. Ellis: We have a motion and a second.
This will require a vote to suspend the rules,
so I'll ask all those in favor suspending the rules
to take up 5(B), to show by raising your hand.
Miss Kay: You may lower your hands, I believe I count 10.
Dr. Ellis: All those opposed to taking up 5(B),
show by raising your hand.
Miss Kay: You may lower, I count one.
Dr. Ellis: All right, the motion carries.
So I call this tennis to clarify her motion.
Miss Perez: In 4(G).
Dr. Ellis: It should be on 5(B).
Miss Perez: Thank you, 5(B), please change,
discuss to describe.
Dr. Ellis: Okay, do we have a second?
Member: Second.
Dr. Ellis: A motion and a second.
Would like to speak to your motion
if it's any different than the last one?
Miss Perez: No, sorry.
It's exactly the same reasoning for.
Dr. Ellis: Any further discussion on the motion?
Mr. Mercer: Mr. Chair.
Dr. Ellis: Yes sir, Mr. Mercer.
Mr. Mercer: Just a comment.
I've always talked about how the top 10 Supreme Court cases
and applies it in a Sweatt v. Palmer,
Brown v. Board of Education,
Plessy v. Ferguson in the lives of the same way
they're important cases
and the kids should be not discussing but describing it.
Thank you.
Dr. Ellis: Okay, any further discussion on the item?
I'll ask all those in favor of the motion,
please show by raising your hand.
Miss Kay: You may lower your hands, I count 14.
-: All those opposed please show
by raising your hand.
Not sure if Mr. Mascott is scratching his head
or he's opposed to the motion, one of the two.
All right, so the motion carries.
All right, are there any other amendments by members?
Hearing none, before we take the final vote,
we're still in discussion.
So if there are any members who would just like to make
any comments on getting to the completion here
of African American Studies,
this would probably be an appropriate time.
So if anybody--
-: Mr. Chairman, if I could just before that begins,
and I apologize for this,
but staff that is smarter than I am, have pointed out,
a place where we might ask for a technical edit
to the amendment to 9.A. that was made earlier.
We just would request that you flip the order
so that it read, and I'll wait till Kay pulls it up,
compare and contrast how the political perspectives
of enslaved and free African Americans in the late 17
and 1800s, were influenced by the inalienable rights
expressed in the declaration.
So we're just flipping the order of that, SE
so that students, it doesn't appear that they're comparing
and contrasting the Bill of Rights
and the Declaration of Independence.
-: Okay,is there any objection
from members on allowing staff to make that technical edit?
All right, hearing none, that's approved.
Thank you for catching that.
-: Thank you, sir.
Dr. Ellis: All right, Mr. Maynard.
I see your hand raised.
-: I just have a question for staff.
Remind me when the social studies standards come back up.
-: Great question.
Let me see if I can find it really quickly.
-: I think the point I was gonna make is that
the good news is that I think we will have
a few years in the classroom with these standards.
And then I'm assuming then this is that,
when we go into the normal social studies review
and revision that this
and Mexican-American studies will be part of that revision.
And so, we'll have a couple years in the classroom
before we can come back
and make some recommendations for some changes,
in terms of, is the volume of content appropriate
and some things added
and after people write curriculum for it,
perhaps after people write instructional materials
for it is, I think that it's kinda like building a building,
you don't really find the little blemishes in there
till you actually occupy it.
And, so that's probably what we're gonna see
when you have a set of standards like this
but the good news is, is that,
we will probably have the opportunity
to (mumbles) a little bit more the next time
we do social studies, which is when?
In a couple years Monica?
Miss Kay: You're scheduled to begin
in the 23-24 school year.
-: Okay, yeah, so very good.
-: Okay, I have Miss Hardy and then Dr. Robinson.
Microphone, Miss Hardy.
Never get a response.
-: This is for staff, I think I've asked
but I never got a response on this,
I didn't get the question to you, that is,
if one student goes to take one semester
and get a credit for one semester
of African American Studies if they can take both semesters?
-: So Miss hardy is a general rule a student,
if a student completes half of a course,
then with School District Board approval,
the District could award proportional credit.
-: On this and on the American Studies class,
is there any way that we can from the State point of view
of what, I have credit, is it still full credits?
-: So just to make sure everyone's clear,
Miss Hardy's asking if the Board can award half credits
instead of full credits.
Remember, you've gotta determine the amount of credit
that's warranted, based on the content,
if you are saying that you believe
that this is only, the completion of all of this content
is only worth a half a credit,
then you would change the type of credit.
You can't, the only way to do it would be to create
two half credit courses.
So there would be two separate courses.
I don't think that you can do that right now.
But you would have to separate them out
into two distinct courses
and make each one a half a credit.
-: What you're saying is a local District.
If you'd rather take,
and you are (mumbles)
and you're scheduled to take one semester,
you can take one semester to get half the credit for it.
-: For any course, you have an administrative rule that says
that a District has the authority to award
proportional credit if a student
only completes half of a course, that's true for any course.
But it would be a local District decision.
Miss Hardy: Okay, so (mumbles) thank you.
-: Dr. Robinson then Miss Perez Diaz.
-: I just wanted to briefly say
that I'm very proud to be a part of this vote today.
I think that for African American kids,
growing up in poverty,
they would be easy not to feel
like they're part of the system
or gonna be a part of the system.
But I mean, I don't know if you can overstate this or not,
but I think that this could really change lives
and make it to where they not only stay in school,
but just look forward to having a life that's different
from maybe the part that they grew up in,
and just to be inspired to further their education.
So I just think this is a great thing that we're doing.
That's all I wanna say.
Dr. Ellis: Thank you, Miss Perez Diaz.
-: Thank you Chairman,
so I wanna say that I am really excited
about being a part of this,
I don't think that it's of benefit just to look up
one particular population of student,
I think that learning about this history
is beneficial for everybody, including the educators
that are gonna learn through this process
more about a history that's never been taught.
So I think that it's really exciting.
I also wanted to add that I think
that there was a lot of work
that went into creating this course to make sure
that it has some bulk and some teeth.
And so the expectation, at least from my perspective,
is this needs to be a full credit course.
And so the Districts that are committed
to implementing this course
that they're committed to a full credit course, right?
Not cutting down everything that all of our advocates
across the state just worked for,
to create a full credit course.
And so, I definitely wanna remind just this Board
and the viewers that there were
a lot of really passionate people across the State,
including some Board members on this Board
that worked really, really hard to make sure
that we're listening to our community,
that our students are gonna get something
that's really fruitful
and way past the superficial
that we're used to in our history books.
And so I'm just very excited to be a part of this.
And so thank you all for your support
and I'm looking forward to seeing
this full credit course implemented across the state.
-: Mr. Mercer and then Mr. Cortez.
-: Mr. Chairman and members first,
I wanna publicly thank Marisa for her hard work
and leadership and the collaboration
with so many leaders throughout our State
and country on this.
And let me just secondly most important say,
we all became part of this Board,
this perspectives for one reason,
we wanna make a difference,
now always believe in life,
if you're called to make a difference
and the 17th of April where we're making a difference.
The State Board is making a difference, thank you.
Dr. Ellis: Thank you, Cortez.
-: Y'all hear me?
-: Yes sir.
-: Okay, this mute area, unmute, sorry.
Yeah, this is an exciting day.
And I want to just echo
some of the statements that were made.
I do agree, I do believe this should be a one credit course,
not a half credit course.
And just to follow up on what Member Mercer said is,
this is, April 17th is gonna to be a historic day.
Member, Davis, I wanna thank you for all the hard work
and effort that you put together
with this coalition getting this as as far as you did
on African American Studies.
I mean, we've, we as a Board,
we've all come a long way
from getting Mexican-American Studies approved
and that took us over five years to get done,
to see where this Board is today.
And having fast tracked this course.
I'm very proud of each and every one of you
for being very open minded about some of these
ethnic studies courses that we're looking into
and I did hear earlier
and one of the testifiers, or one of the statements
that were made either today or yesterday
that there was works of a Native-American studies course,
the fact that we get to hear this
and there's not a lot of pushback from this Board.
Those of you that came on when I came on,
I think Member Rowley you were one of them, you remember
and a lot of people said it before we came on the Board was
completely dysfunctional, (chuckles)
we read about it in Statewide publications all the time.
And I'm proud to say that while we may not be perfect
and while we still have our disagreements at times,
we as a Board from that post-2010 Board
have come a long way.
And so those of you that are gonna be cycling off this year,
I want you to know that I'm very proud
to have worked with each
and every one of you to get this done.
And I just wanna thank all of you.
Dr. Ellis: Miss Harvdy and then, Mr. Allen.
-: I need to make something very clear
that my comrades on the Board don't understand.
There's a very limited amount of time
that some kids can take courses.
And if I can get one half a credit for this course,
and that's all they can work yet, (mumbles)
They maybe be able to work in it yet,
just as a happenstance,
oh, I have an opening in my schedule.
So I can take the course,
that is not demeaning the course in any way whatsoever.
It is a one semester course.
But it will very much limit the number of students
who can take the course,
because it is a one semester course.
Believe me, I've been in the game for a long time.
And I know how it works,
(mumbles)
So that was the point of making it able to get credit
if you took one semester, otherwise,
you say, "Sorry, you can't take it (mumbles)
"then you don't get credit at all for the same course."
So that's a simple explanation of why I wanted to make sure
there was some avenue for them to get a one-semester credit.
One-half of the credit for the course.
And that's all important to the students.
Thank you.
Dr. Ellis: Thank you for that clarification, Miss Hardy,
Mr. Allen.
-: I also wanted to thank everybody on the Board
for your diligence and working to bring this to a reality.
And, in fact, this conversation is probably been going on
for about 15 years in order to get to this day,
and it's truly appreciated.
The one thing I want us to continue to do
is when we finish today,
we have to go back into our local Districts
to make sure the students are taking advantage of the work
that has been done by the Board,
and to encourage all of our Districts
to make sure the course offerings are out there.
So students can take advantage of this great work.
That is the number one concern of the individuals in Houston
is that we must go before Boards,
inform them of this opportunity
and all the research that's out there
about the benefits of taking ethnic studies
and to make sure that our students are engaged,
not from a perspective of this being for African-Americans,
or Mexican-American studies, being for Hispanic students,
but all students have an opportunity to grow
and to engage in this literature
and this work that will benefit all of our Texans.
And so I think this is our time
to hit the pavement, put on our boots
and go before and communicate with our other trustees
in the District to let them know
of this great opportunity of the students,
that the students in the State of Texas have.
I certainly want to thank Ken
and Donna for their leadership
and Barbara over the last six years on this Board
because as we talked about that curve of growth
and connectivity and togetherness,
it does not happen without good leadership.
So I just wanted to thank you for putting children first,
and making sure all of our children have what they need
to be productive citizens in the years to come.
So, thank you very much.
-: Thank you, Mr. Allen.
I'm calling Miss Bahorich next.
Microphone.
-: Yeah, I wanna to thank Miss Davis
and her cohort in Dallas, you really got this ball rolling,
they worked really hard on getting us a high quality course.
Just as the folks in Houston worked really hard
to give us a high quality course
in Mexican-American Studies.
I really like the bottom up approach
that we've adopted in taking on these ethnic study courses.
I think it's a great way to do it
because you've got local folks
who are engaging in a local way
around an important topic where they were pulling in experts
from all over the State, both locally
and all over the State,
themselves creating this quality of course
and then going through the process at the Board after,
they've done that bottom up work
and I think it's richer because of that.
And I, we just want to thank the groups both in Houston
and Dallas for helping us get this far.
And I'm in agreement with Miss Hardy
about this half credit thing,
I certainly hope that if a student can fit in,
even a semester opportunity to do a deep dive here.
I wouldn't wanna discourage that,
just because they may not have a full year to give
because I think just a deep dive even for a semester
is gonna be pretty impactful a thing for students.
So and we've got so many students that move
and so you definitely don't want to miss out,
a full credit would be the ideal,
but I'd really like more exposure for all students
to have that opportunity.
-: Miss Cargill.
-: Yeah, I'd like to piggyback
a little bit on Member Bahorich.
And I just, I wanna thank the teachers who came together
and did this because one of the reasons
that Mexican-American Studies took so long
is it was put kind of on that wish list, remember,
and we wanted the agency to create the course
and so, but then the legislature wanted us to do calculus
and some other math courses and etc.
And so that was also part of the delay.
So I wanted to remind the Board of that.
And so then when teachers came together
and created the Innovative Course,
then that was a whole different ballgame.
And that gave us the platform to be able
to adopt TEKS for it.
And so I just wanna encourage teachers who are
and other educators who are thinking
of creating Innovative Course,
that's such a great pathway to get it
to become a Statewide TEKS-based course.
So, just wanted to touch a little bit on that
and say congratulations to all.
So thank you all.
Dr. Ellis: Thank you, Mr. Rowley.
-: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I want to add my voice of appreciation
and really congratulations to the Board as a whole
but particularly Member Davis, Member Perez,
and others that have worked on this course.
As I'm entering the twilight of my SBOE career,
one thing that I've observed
and that has always impressed me is that,
not any one member can attain a complete knowledge
and understanding of everything
that comes before this Board.
And what happens is each of us
kind of step into our strengths
and step into those areas of expertise perhaps
and understanding that we that we have attained.
And, then we all come together as a Board
and come up with a great product.
And I think that's, this is a perfect example
of that being done,
I think this is a very, very solid course.
This isn't just some kind of survey course
that a student can take as an elective.
It is a very substantive, strong,
a lot of strong student expectations
and it's a very good course.
And even, but even beyond that,
it's a shining example in my opinion,
of how this Board has evolved, if you will,
and to the point where we can each of us lend our strengths.
And each of us lend our understanding
and our perspectives to achieve a good final product.
And so congratulations to everyone.
But that getting a little sentimental
as I'm moving to the last few meetings,
but I just wanna say that I appreciate very much the work
that all of you have done,
and the harmonious atmosphere really
that we have began to experience as a Board.
So thank you for that.
-: Thank you Mr. Rowley, Miss Melton-Malone.
-: Well, I just wanted to add my thanks
to everybody who worked on this course
and all the contributions that everybody made.
I'm proud of this course
and the Mexican-American course
that we're offering for our students.
And I am so proud of this Board in the way we work together.
Everybody has their talent
and their ability that they can contribute
and we all have come together
and we all have the students best interest in mind.
And I just wanna say how proud I am
to be able to work with this Board,
and to come up with things that are gonna make our students,
better students all the way around.
-: Thank you Miss Melton-Malone, Mr. Maynard.
Microphone.
-: There we go, I would just echo a lot of the things
that have already been said.
And maybe I would say that it makes me sound
like a broken record.
But some people watching this,
wouldn't even know what that is, a broken record.
So we've got a lot of young people
that have never used vinyl to listen to something
but I think first of all,
and Miss Davis, I know that as a new member,
as a freshman member on the Board is that,
there's always that expectation that as an freshmen member
that you can't really do much,
you just have to kind of sit in the corner
and kind of learn and and watch
and observe and be a bit of a spectator
but you certainly have not done that
and I appreciate that and that you've stepped forward
and in the very early part of your tenure on the Board
that you've really taken a leadership role
and done something that is a real legacy project,
and those kinds of projects
that really echo into eternity
and you just never know, when you plant those seeds.
It kind of goes back to the idea of planting trees
under whose shade that we will never sit,
we just don't really ever know,
the impact that you might make on a young person's life.
And so, Miss Davis, thank you for that.
Thank you everybody.
I think people kind of get tired of,
sometimes I'll dredge up historical references,
but history is important,
because it really tells us a lot.
It gives us a lot of context
and it really tells us a lot about the present.
And it tells us a little bit about,
how to move forward on certain things.
And so, what the Board has done is,
it's given students the opportunity
to take some really deep dives into
some very specific things.
I think one of our challenges in social studies
and is that, some of our courses are so broad
and they cover so much ground
and so much material, it's very, very difficult to,
for students to really take the time to dig into some things
that are very, very specific.
And it's hard to take those really deep dives
and very reflective kinds of things.
And these courses that we've adopted,
provide that opportunity to do that
because a lot of the history that we're talking about
is not necessarily in our broad survey type of courses,
because there's just no time instructionally to do that,
it's just hard to do that.
And so I think it's a great thing
and I would hope that perhaps that moving forward
that there would be some other courses
not just necessary, not necessarily in ethnic studies,
but in a lot of different areas.
But I will tell you that I think this is a real real asset.
And that really puts the state of Texas on the forefront
in a lot of different ways.
And so, thank you to everybody.
And I would, I really appreciate the work of Dallas ISD.
And I think it really underscores the remarkable talent
that we have out there with our teachers.
We have a lot of really smart, clever,
talented teachers out there
that can really deliver the goods.
I mean, really get things done.
And so, this is a real challenge to everybody out there.
What do you, if you got another course,
well, let's talk about that one.
And so, anyway, I guess that's all I've got to say
about that, to quote, great force.
And thank you and look forward to taking a vote.
-: Miss Little.
-: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I echo all the things that my colleagues have said it
but one thing I wanted to remind them of,
of how impressive it was that day
that we had that busload of students that came to testify,
and how important that must have been for those students.
That was absolutely a historic day for them,
and felt like they were making a difference,
which in fact, they have.
And even though I haven't been on the Board, longer,
as long as many of you have to work on this.
I'm extremely honored to be able to vote for it.
Dr. Ellis: Thank you, we call Miss Perez next.
-: So this is specifically to my very good friend
and colleague, Aisha, I remember in 2016
when we were in DC together,
and we toured the Smithsonian
and we walked through that museum for I think an entire day
until we walked across the mall in the rain.
And we went back to the hotel and started writing this
and back then, you displayed such courage
and the willpower to make sure
that this course came to fruition.
So congratulations to you.
-: Absolutely, well said,
and I'm gonna give Miss Davis the last word
before we take the vote.
But I do wanna say also that just how proud I am of this.
I think students are,
they look for themselves in what they study
and to Miss Pere-Diaz's point,
it's not just Africa-American students,
who will taking this course.
It's all kind of, it's all,
all students should be taken this.
But now that we have a Mexican-American studies course
and an African-American studies course
and maybe some other ethnic studies courses of the futures,
when our students see themselves in what they're learning,
you have an engaged student,
when you have that engaged student,
I think that's when you see some real student success.
So I'm so proud of what we've done.
And I'm gonna call on Miss Davis for the last word.
-: Thank you, I'm trying to keep it together.
But I just, this has just been an amazing journey.
I've learned so much about myself
and I've got to connect with so many,
just dynamic people who care about kids.
This course exceeded anything I ever I thought it would,
it's so rich and it's something I wish I could have taken
when I was young and Chair Ellis, I appreciate how,
you've kept this on a steady schedule
and you've prioritized this and made sure it happened.
And former Chair Bahorich, starting this off,
I sincerely thank you guys for all of your support
from the beginning.
But one of the things that touched me so much
is when my colleagues,
when you guys come to me with these facts,
and you're so excited about it, like,
Member Hardy was so excited about convict leasing.
And that's a hard, tough topic to talk about,
because by some estimates,
more African-American people die from that,
than slavery by some accounts.
That's not an easy thing to talk about.
But she knew how important it was
for students to understand that.
And Member Maynard, when you talked about,
that second Morrill Act,
and you involve those agricultural Black Colleges,
Alcorn State University was one of my favorite schools
growing up in Mississippi.
And, I'm from rural Mississippi,
so I know a lot of people who went there
so that they can be industrial farmers
and that school is so important,
FAMU you is one of the most prestigious HBCUs there
so I didn't even know that fact.
And I just I appreciate it that so much so,
everything that you, and Marisa receive you,
getting those folks from San Antonio,
so involved, they're coming to Austin, multiple times,
all the phone calls late at night.
Like I just, I'm just overwhelmed by just all the support
and Member Perez, I just whenever I think
about everything you've done for me,
between you and my mother and my grandmother,
y'all have made me a stronger woman.
And I just want more kids to have that strength,
and that empowerment
and that's what I think the course will do.
So I just, I can't thank you guys enough
for listening to 60 testifiers
and being so excited about them,
and welcoming them back to Austin
and welcoming that group that came together multiple times,
honoring their work, offering more work.
I just, I'm so grateful.
And I'm grateful that I'm serving on the Board
when I am now, I was just saying the other day,
everything happens when it does for a reason.
And me and Pat and Pam, when we were talking
before the social studies, science coordinators,
even Pat said, this is some of her best times
to serve on the Board.
Because of the way we work together.
We all sincerely love kids,
and that's our priority.
And you can tell in our actions,
everybody who I interact with, they all say,
"How did you get the Board to be unanimous and supportive?"
I didn't have to do anything.
You guys already had it in your heart.
So I sincerely thank you, for everything,
like kids for generations will become better people
because of this course.
And I guarantee that other states are gonna pick up on it.
So we're talking about making Nationwide changes here.
And that's something that's always gonna be dear to me.
And Member Cortez, Native-American Studies is being piloted
in Grand Prairie ISD.
I'm really excited about that course moving forward,
'cause that's even more opportunities
to learn about a culture that I don't know much about.
So thank you guys.
Thank you so, so, so much for all of the support,
all of the patience, and everything else.
I sincerely, I'm truly blessed, I am
and please know I truly appreciate everything.
Thank you so much.
-: Well, well said after listening to each
and every one of you, I'm so proud to have each
and every one of you as my colleague
and be a part of this Board.
So that being said, I am going to request
that we do a roll call vote for this item.
So Miss Martinez.
(phone dings)
-: Miss Perez?
-: A very heartfelt yes.
-: Mr. Cortez?
-: Hell, yes.
-: Miss Perez-Diaz?
-: An ecstatic yes.
-: Mr. Allen?
-: I will try not to curse, but yes.
-: Mr. Mercer?
-: Absolutely.
-: Yes.
-: Mrs. Bahorich?
-: Absolutely.
-: Dr. Robinson?
-: Yes.
-: Mrs. Cargill.
-: Yes.
-: Mr. Maynard?
-: Yes.
-: Miss Hardy?
-: Mrs. Little.
-: Yes.
-: Miss Davis?
-: Yes.
-: Mrs. Melton-Malone.
-: A very excited yes.
-: Mr. Rowley?
-: Yes.
-: Dr. Ellis?
-: A proud yes.
So there are two thirds in favor
and the recommendation is adopted.
Thank you Board.
Okay, we will now move along to Item Number 6,
I believe, which is a Perkins Reauthorization.
Actually are we finished, Mr. Rowley, do we have more?
-: Well, we have actually, Mr. Chair,
I think Item 4, the proclamation 2022,
that's not on your script,
but it is on the next, on page eight of the Board Minutes.
Item 4, Miss Cruz.
Isn't that correct?
-: Mr. Rowley, we do need a vote on that item, yes.
-: Yes, okay, and so I have another question about that.
We just vote on that as amended,
or do we need to note that the call
for PE instructional materials will be for teachers only
and not for students?
-: You can just vote as amended.
And then what we do is reflected in the Minutes as amended
and recommended by the Committee of the Full Board.
-: Perfect, okay, very good, okay.
So members, then we're on on Item 4 of your Board Minutes,
it's in the middle of page eight.
And the vote then is that it is recommended
that the State Board of Education approved
Proclamation 2022 of the State Board of Education
Advertising for Bids for Instructional Materials as amended.
-: Members, you've heard the motion.
Any further comment?
All those in favor, please show by raising your hand.
-: You may lower your hands, at 13 in favor.
-: And all those opposed, please vote by raising your hand.
All right, there are, there's a majority in favor
and the recommendation is adopted.
-: And the next item is Item 5,
it's on the top of page nine of the Board Minutes.
And it is recommended
that the State Board of Education approve,
the Texas State Plan for strengthening career
and technical education for the 21st Century Act Perkins V.
-: We've heard the motion,
is there any further discussion?
If none, all those in favor,
please vote by raising your hand.
-: You may lower hands I count 12.
-: All those opposed, please vote by raising your hand.
If there is a majority in favor
and the recommendation is adopted.
-: And Mr. Chair there was no action taken on Item 6,
and so that's all the recommendations
of the Committee of the Full Board.
-: Thank you, Mr. Rowley, we will now move
to the Committee of Instruction.
I'll turn this over to Miss Melton-Malone.
-: Thank you Mr. Chair.
Our first item of business is Item Number 1
in your Board minutes.
It is the proposed repeal of 19 TAC, Chapter 110,
Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills
for English Language Arts and Reading,
Subchapter C High School, 110 through 30,
through 110.34 and Subchapter D,
Other High School English Language Arts and Reading courses.
110.85 and Subchapter, I'm sorry,
and Chapter 128, Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills
for Spanish Language Arts, and Reading
and English as a Second Language.
Subchapter C High School 128.30 through 128.32,
the Committee on Instruction recommends
that the State Board of Education approved
for a second reading and final adoption,
the proposed repeal of 19 TAC Chapter 110,
Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills
for English Language Arts and Reading,
Subchapter C High School, 110.30 to 110.34
and Subchapter D Other High School English Language Arts
and Reading Courses 110.85
and Chapter 128, Texas Essential and Skills
for English Language Arts and Reading
and English as a Second Language,
Subchapter C, High School 128.30 to 128.32
and make an affirmative finding
that immediate adoption of the proposed repeal
of Proposed Repeal of 19 TAC Chapter 110,
Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills
for English Language Arts and Reading,
Subchapter C Highschool 110.30 to 110.34
Do you want me to go ahead
and read the rest (chuckles)
and Subchapter D, Other High School English Language Arts
and Reading Courses, 110.85,
and Chapter 128, Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills
for Spanish Language Arts and Reading
and English as a Second Language, Subchapter C, High School,
128.30-128.32 is necessary
and shall have an effective date of August 1st 2020.
-: You earned your paycheck (mumbles)
All right, I would ask all those in favor,
please do so by showing your hand.
-: You may lower your hands, 14 in favor.
-: All those opposed, please show by raising your hands.
There are two thirds in favor,
and the recommendation is adopted.
-: Thank you, Mr. Chair, Item Number 2
on the Committee on Instruction Minute is
an Action Regarding Origo Education.
And I think many of you probably remember the discussion,
we had back in January,
about this particular company
that we were trying to work with
to be in compliance with our rules
and they were very hesitant to do it.
There is one motion on here that is not on your Minutes.
And that is that the Committee on Instruction
recommends that the State Board of Education,
approve the changes that have been submitted
by Origo education.
-: Okay, do we have that motion, Miss Kay,
do we need to go through a normal,
is this just a normal process?
Okay, we have a motion there.
So all those in favor please do so by raising your hand.
-: You may lower your hands, 14 in favor.
-: The opposed, please show by raising your hands.
There is a majority in favor
and the recommendation is adopted.
-: The next motion is on the liquidated damages
that we would like to assess Origo.
The Committee on Instruction recommends
that the State Board of Education assess liquidated damages
in the amount of $113,494.
-: Okay Miss Bahorich.
-: Can you give me a like, that's just so specific, 113,494
like how did it, how did we get to that?
And then what is the total value of the contract
to this company for doing business?
-: Rowley, I saw your hand up,
do you wanna speak to that? -: Please.
-: Yes, we spent a lot of time looking at numbers
and coming up with
the contract itself between Origo and the State,
had what was called the Liquidated Damages Provision
of $1,000 a day, for each day,
that the publisher was not in,
was clearly not in compliance, essentially.
And then in addition to that,
the law, case law basically says
that you can assess as liquidated damages,
an amount that's reasonable.
But it can't be a penalty.
And so what we did was we started with the fact
that, I think it was January the 30th or it was 31st,
somewhere in there of 2020,
that it became very clear
that this publisher was out of compliance.
And that was 78 days, (clears throat) 78 days ago.
And so that added up to $78,000.
And then there was an additional amount of $35,494
that the State was going to be out
and in order to create Braille
and large print instructional materials
from this particular publisher.
So we took the $78,000, 78 days times $1,000,
then we took the 35,494,
which we anticipate the State would be out
and that's how we came up with that number.
-: Okay, Miss Bahorich.
So, they don't get penalized?
I guess you're saying we can't,
we can do something reasonable
but not penalize that's just kind of odd.
But if you can't go above what it cost you,
is that basically what we're saying, Mr. Rowley?
-: No, that's really not above,
it's not above what it costs us.
It cannot be considered a penalty
instead of liquidated damages.
So there has to be some reasonable basis upon
which you arrive at a particular, Miss Hoang,
I see Christine is here with us, TEA Legal Staff,
she spend a lot of time researching this if,
with the Board's permission, Chair's permission,
she might chime in,
but that was the way we were it was presented to us.
-: But I am specifically wondering about a cost
to the local Districts that whoever's using this material,
so as to, how we thought about that.
Are they shipping them new stuff?
Or are they somehow, what's happening?
-: Christie, do you want to speak or go ahead either way.
-: Well, that's pretty complicated.
Kelly Callaway I see is all in on the meeting
and that's probably best addressed by her.
-: So Mrs. Bahorich, there shouldn't have been any cost.
Any financial cost to Districts.
We were able to work with Origo to get them the new Braille
and large print products to match
the Origo changed products,
even though the changes hadn't
yet been approved by the Board.
So Origo paid for those new products.
So the the cost to the District was simply
in the inconvenience
that might have been created by having large print
or Braille materials that didn't match the materials
of the other students.
-: Miss Little.
-: I also wanted to respond.
I think part of Miss Bahorich's question was,
what is the total amount of the contract
and I believe we were told yesterday that in the six years,
we've been purchasing materials, it was $10,659,000.
I think another cost that we need to consider
is the time that the TEA staff spent trying
to get company in compliance.
And I, Miss Callaway this morning,
something that really didn't come up
in our meeting yesterday.
We started with a date of October of 2016,
when we first discovered that they were out of compliance
and TEA reached out to them,
gave them the rule of what this was.
And then, numerous times after that day,
worked hard to get them in compliance.
And yesterday, the CEO of the company told us
that he thought they were in compliance,
and that's why they didn't respond.
But he had multiple notices from TEA
that he was out of compliance.
-: There was another hand up, was it a,
who else had their hand raised up?
I think I missed, Miss Davis?
-: And one of the things that we were also discussing
was the contract, the contract is extended.
This doesn't end until 2022,
so then it was a matter of what it would,
wanna do moving forward with that contract
because they still have a couple of years,
but it just really made me feel uneasy
that they purposely didn't contact the agency
even though they were given information
about them being out of compliance,
they still just chose not to respond for years and years,
even after our January meeting,
until they really kind of got a threat.
And then that's when they wanted to get involved
but it took like really, really pushing them
to make them wanna correct those mistakes.
-: Miss Cargill?
-: What is the timeline of them paying the penalty
and what happens if they don't?
Can you kind of give us a outlook into the future?
-: That's gonna be one of our other motions,
is the timeline for them paying.
-: Okay.
-: And I will just, I'm gonna throw out a number Mr. Chair,
if that's all right.
If we assess, the thousand dollars a day from,
the 2016 date, it would be $1,284,000.
This, so y'all will know that that's what,
if we assess that, those damages from October of 2016.
-: Clarification, that's for information purposes,
you're not amending the motion, are you?
-: No, that's just for a, or just for information.
-: Okay, Member Rowley?
-: Yeah, I think one thing
that we spent a lot of time talking about,
that needs to be noted
and that is, that I read the original Origo product
that was approved, had about 70,
this is a math instructional material.
In fact, there were four Districts that use it,
Fort Worth ISD is the biggest,
we had a letter of affirmation,
if you will, from Magnolia ISD.
Talking about what a good product it was,
originally, it had only 75 to 80% coverage of the TEKS.
So what they, what happened was they came up with changes
in those materials to where it then covered,
98 to 100% of the TEKS.
And so the version that was being used,
that had not been approved by the State Board
was a significant improvement from the earlier version.
And so part of our action was to approve those changes
because otherwise Districts would have been relegated
to using the, an inferior version of the product
and so we approved that, the revision itself.
And then the question became the compliance
or the lack of compliance on the part of Origo
with our procedures and with our processes.
The CEO appeared and spoke extensively
in our committee yesterday.
And my personal feeling was he was honest
about the situation,
he admitted that it was probably neglect on the part
of some of his management and officers.
I didn't have the impression that it was anything done
with an ulterior motive,
or that it was done to try to beat the system.
It was simply, I believe,
Origo dropping the ball on the situation.
He assured us, he apologized profusely, I felt like,
but he assured us that he would pay this amount
as soon as they received an invoice from us,
even though we'll see here in a minute
that the dates June 1st of 2020.
And so it's $113,000 that's gonna come into the coffers,
essentially, of the Instructional Materials Fund
as a result of this publisher not being in compliance.
And so that was kind of my thought anyway,
in terms of my vote from the committee.
-: For staff clarification, is this the first time that we've
this fine has been assessed to a publisher?
-: To my knowledge it is.
-: Okay, Miss Perez?
-: I want to make sure that everybody knows
a little bit more detail
and I don't and this is not in any way meant to disagree
with my colleague, Mr. Rowley.
But this publisher received emails dated back to 2016,
and numerous phone calls,
and were invited by TEA to participate
in our Committee of Instruction meeting in January,
which they refused or simply didn't attend
or play semantics didn't care to communicate with us.
And so, while his apology yesterday appeared to be sincere,
and he did say that he will pay the invoice
as soon as he receives it,
my fear is that sending it by email,
he may not see it, just like all the numerous emails,
he didn't see dated back all the way to 2016.
And so while again, his appearance was sincere,
I don't believe that new communication dated yesterday,
changes the realities of what they did,
and I want to remind everybody that the issue
that we're talking about is,
it impacted specifically students with special needs,
being Braille and large print needs.
And I don't think that should be overlooked
in the slightest.
And I don't think that the appearance
of an apology on a Zoom call yesterday
after four years of attempted communication
with this publisher, who by the way has a $10 million sales
contract in our State should be overlooked in the slightest.
-: Thank you Miss Bahorich?
-: I just wanna make sure that I'm understanding,
when did we first contact this company to say,
"Hey, these don't match up here?"
-: That would have been in October, 2016.
-: I'm sorry, we started in 2016?
-: Yes, ma'am.
-: And I believe the correspondence
was with different individuals.
So I don't believe the initial correspondence
was with the CEO who participated in the meeting yesterday,
it was with his staff.
Kelly: That's correct.
-: Well, it seems like to me we gotta least count $1,000
for every email that was sent
and not responded to over that time period.
My goodness, that doesn't, I'm not understanding
why four years is why this has taken so long.
And so this percentage,
so we didn't account for any of Staff time.
This is all just what we had to pay to get the Braille
and all that up to standard?
-: The 32,000, o, the 35,494 is what they still owe
on bringing that up the original amount,
hang on just a minute, I'm gonna take my notes.
They had already paid $32,620 for bringing the,
and Kelly you might want to chime in,
for bringing the materials into compliance.
And in order to Kelly, am I right?
-: Yes, ma'am, just a little clarification.
We only order Braille or large print materials
when a District requests them, so,
as of this date, that's the amount
that they have been invoiced for District request.
And then the additional amount that Mr. Rowley mentioned,
that is part of what you're considering
for liquidated damages would be
what we would then have to pay should Districts request
the additional grade levels in the additional formats,
that haven't already been requested and paid for by Origo.
Mr. Rowley: Mr. Chair.
-: Go ahead, Mr. Rowley and then Miss Cargill.
-: I think it would be helpful if we hear from Miss Hoang
about the basis of liquidated damages.
And kind of the parameters within
which we are forced to operate.
$1,000 per email, for example,
is not something that I think we could consider
as a basis for liquidated damages.
But Miss Hoang may be able to clarify that.
-: Miss Hoang would you like to chime in?
-: Sure, so I'm looking at the contract
and on the four corners of the contract
is how we like to say it in Texas,
a Special Provision A 17C,
discusses liquidated damages, that it has to be fair, a fair
and reasonable estimate of the damages reasonably expected
to result from the publishers breach,
it is not intended to be a penalty.
And when it's assessed in the amount of $1,000 a day,
as long as the default, during the default period.
So we're also looking at different ways
to calculate the days within the lens
of what is reasonable
and fair and an estimate that will be held up in court.
If it gets to the point where someone can argue persuasively
that it is unreasonable,
such that SBOE wants to put down a hammer
and penalize the publisher, a court could make a judgment
that the liquidated damages were then
improperly assessed as a fine
and then consider it, deem it void,
and so we would get nothing.
And so that is what really led the conversation,
is trying to remain within the realm of reasonableness
and away from perspective of penalty, fine and punishment.
We looked at it as an estimate.
-: Thank you and Mr. Chair.
-: Sure.
-: Just to further clarify that,
there's no indication in our contract
that we can look at the total value
of the instructional materials
or the total value of the contract to the publisher.
We talked in terms of future modifications
and amendment to, I'm practicing,
'cause you can't just single this one out
to be able to look at how much money did the publisher make
off of instructional materials in Texas.
But our guidance from legal essentially said
that's not a consideration that we can make
under the parameters of the contract.
-: You think for our (mumbles) Miss Hoang?
-: I might speak to that, it is correct
that the contract specifically stated as $1,000 a day.
From the discussion in the committee,
I believe that legal was given direction to come back
to the Board with recommendations
about what flexibilities there are to modify
the Liquidated Damages Provision for future proclamations.
-: Miss Cargill, did you also have a question?
-: No, they answered it, thank you.
-: Mr. Cortez, and then Mr. Mercer.
-: Thank you Chair, Mr. Rowley maybe I missed it
but did they already remedy the concern that we have
or is this just the fine on the Lds
and then the other or when we get to the next motion
to say you have a date by which you have to pay this.
Is there gonna be?
Are we considering an additional ramification
if it's not cured by that date?
It seems that if, while thousand dollars,
it seems like they're getting off easy,
but I would only say that if,
I would only believe that if it's already been cured
or remedied what, why is we're assessing these fines.
If we're gonna assess these fines
and why they're being fined hasn't been cured,
then I think we still have a bigger issue
that we need to get to
and I would agree that this is long, long overdue.
-: Yeah, thank you, Mr. Cortez.
Yes, it has been remedied by all accounts.
They paid $32,620 already, which was an amount necessary
to create the instructional materials
that had been requested by Districts
and so that's in the past.
And then, they have also submitted now for our approval,
the changed or revised set of instructional materials,
which then has put them back in compliance, essentially,
subject to our approval,
which is what the first motion did,
the first motion approved that,
so that Districts could continue to use that materials.
And by the way, so that Federal Funding would be available
to pay for those materials,
because with, if we'd hadn't approved those revisions,
then Federal Funds would not have been available
to District or the state to pay for it.
So yes, my understanding is
and I guess Miss Callaway can speak to this particularly
but they have remedied everything.
The problem was it just took them a long time to do it.
-: And if I can just follow up on that,
so from the time that they did remedy,
is that when we're starting this thousand dollars,
or are we starting from the time
that there was an actual communication with the CEO?
-: We're starting basically from our last meeting
committee when we emphatically stated they were out.
(phone rings)
I think they were, by all accounts,
they were clearly out of compliance for three years,
probably, something like that.
And that's that $1.2 million figure at $1,000 a day.
And but there was some question
about the level of communications that took place
and the communications that were received.
But the date we chose was the date
of our last committee meeting.
-: And if I could interject here.
The reason and correct me members, I mean,
committee members, if I'm wrong,
the reason we looked at that January date
is because of what Mrs. Hoang said
about having to have a reasonable amount.
And we have the documentation
and everything to that, from there on.
And before, prior to that,
we don't have all the documentation we would need
if it should come to a court case, am I correct?
-: If I might address that slightly.
-: Sure.
-: It's very clear and it'll be very easily proved
from the point of your last meeting to this meeting,
that there was out of compliance.
Before that, there would be a, "he said, she said" situation
where we would be asserting, a, we've told you
and then asserting, well,
we thought you meant something else.
And I think that was part of the conversation
that we heard yesterday so,
so I think that's where we resolved as the last meeting
was the most clear and easily defensible position
to start the liquidated damages from.
-: All right Miss Bahorich?
Mr. Mercer. -: I was just wondering.
It seems like we could,
did we not send them a certified letter
that they were gonna be in front of the committee?
And then they just, I mean, declined, or I mean,
it seems like there should have been some kind
of official notification that went,
before the last meeting to say,
"Hey, show up here, you've got a major problem."
Dr. Ellis: Mr. Rowley, do you have a comment on that?"
-: Yes, that was even, I think by Miss Galloway's account,
or Staff's account, it wasn't real clear
that they were being summoned to our last meeting.
Let Miss Martinez or Miss Calloway speak to that
but there was not essentially a statement,
you need to be at this meeting.
I think they were invited
and chose not to attend.
But maybe Miss Martinez or Miss Calloway could speak to that
'cause my understanding was,
it was not altogether clear whether
or not they were being ordered to be there
or in some way compelled to be there.
-: That's correct, Miss Bahorich,
we did not send a certified letter.
I think the one thing that Board members
may not be aware is that the individual
who joined the meeting yesterday is in Australia.
And so I will take responsibility
that we were not clear,
that we should have made a more formal
and official request for them to be in attendance
at the last meeting.
And so I just, I wanna make sure
that we do take responsibility for not being clear on that.
-: Mr. Mercer?
-: Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and two questions, first,
I noticed a Committee members said,
he thought it'd be a short meeting,
he adjourned it at before six last night,
and also the original motion failed.
But there is a past motion to reconsider,
which takes a member of the prevailing side
to reconsider that
and he went to two different motions
and you said on the 113.
What does that tell me?
And just a question for my consideration is that,
it just says that it was carried,
was it a majority vote, was a unanimous vote for the fine?
-: It was a majority vote.
-: It was a majority vote?
-: Yes.
-: But there was a lot of deliberation involved.
And secondly, for Staff
and I thank you for the Christine for your comments
about the fair and reasonable,
my words words we're not targeting,
but in terms of staff or precedent.
I remember coming on Board
and I know there are many times before we had not punish
we'd fined a publisher for errors or mistakes.
Isn't that true?
I don't think this would be the first time we've done this.
-: Mr. Mercer, you're correct.
You have rules that allow you to assess fines for errors,
as you mentioned, that is different than this situation.
And I think that's why both Miss Hoang
and Mr. Beyerki, keep reminding us
that this is liquidated damages related to the contract,
not a fine that you have the authority
to assess based on a publisher
who is out of compliance with your rule.
-: Then Madam Chair, Sue Melton,
I wanna make sure that we're deliberating now,
you went through five hours yesterday deliberations,
or four and a half hours or so,
so I don't want to relitigate what's happened.
But can you summarize, obviously,
you came to agreement, it past the majority.
The publisher's seem to be in agreement with that,
I don't wanna relitigate all those things now,
but can you summarize (mumbles)
and what happened and why the motion passed?
-: [Miss Melton-Malone] Which one are you talking about,
the amend?
-: The final motion to go ahead
and pass the fine in the amount and for $113,000.
Again, you did four and a half hours of deliberations.
I don't want to repeat that.
I just want a good feeling of what the committee,
the work of the committee, thank you.
-: You're welcome, well, as we said before,
we came to that amount because we assess
the liquidated amount as,
we took the amount that would have to be paid
in order to make those books when they were requested again.
And then we figured out from January
when we emphatically said,
this has got to be corrected.
We took from that date to yesterday.
And that's where we came up with the 78,000.
And then we put those two numbers together
and came up with a 113494.
And as Christine had said, we had to come up with an amount
that was reasonable
and an amount that we could actually say,
"Okay, we have documented evidence
"that from this date to this date,
"they were not in compliance."
Because there were some inconsistencies
from the October, 2016 date until January of 2020.
So we had to come up with a number that was
a reasonable amount for them to pay.
And that's just through a lot of discussion
and a lot of putting numbers together.
And a lot of different options that we discussed,
we decided that that would be our best course of action
in this particular case.
We are looking at, as morality standard,
we are looking at changing the contract for the future
on our contracts with our companies.
That would give us more leverage if they do not come into,
if they're not in compliance.
And we're going to vote after this motion.
There's one more about the date that we set
for them to have those liquidated damages paid.
And we even talked about some of the possibilities
that if they don't have it paid by this time,
what's our recourse then
and legal's looking into that for us to tell us
what we might be able to do should they not pay it.
Now as Member Rowley said,
the CEO yesterday promised us faithfully on the spot,
you send me the bill, we'll pay it,
so that we're still waiting on to see
if that comes to fruition or not.
And if not, then we will have to deal with that beyond that.
-: Thank you, Madam Chair, Mr. Chairman Ellis,
if I could just ask one more questions to legal, Christine.
-: Before you do, I do wanna remind us
that we have the motion on the floor is about
the liquidated damages
and not on whether materials were approved or not.
So we need to make sure we stay on that.
-: Right on the liquidated damages,
Christine mentioned very that the (mumbles) contract
and we're talking about what Miss Melton-Malone
just mentioned about being fair and reasonable.
I'm assuming we've met that, the committee deliberated
and the final amount was what they thought was fair
and reasonable, Christine, is that a good assumption?
-: Yeah, if we wanna be persnickety,
we wanna keep it to $1,000 multiplier.
So it could be 113 even or 114 even,
where you're having a 78 days
plus around an estimate of 35 days,
if you wanna look at it that way,
to kind of give you a buffer
of different time dates to be reasonable.
That's the only other comment that I have to stay strictly
within the four corners of a contract,
is that you have the days, times 1000.
-: Thank you, Christine, Mr. Chairman.
-: Miss Little.
-: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Mercer, I felt like the committee would have assessed
a much higher damage if we thought we could have gotten,
it could have been not challenged in court.
I think many on the committee felt like,
that they are getting off way too easy.
And a concern that I have about this whole situation
is the precedent that this sets for future publishers
when something like this comes up.
And I really hope that in the next couple of meetings,
we can look at our contracts
and get them a little tighter.
And this is especially true,
because in Senate Bill 6 in 2011 opened it up
for smaller publishers to participate,
this is what we're gonna see.
Because smaller publishers don't have the ability
to do two separate print runs,
they can't run a Texas edition,
and then run a national edition.
Now, in this particular instance, it was almost flipped.
And I do feel like the content is an improvement.
But going forward,
we might be in a situation where this happens
and the content is not an improvement,
in fact, might even go backwards.
So I just think we have to be very careful
about the precedent that we set
for future incidences like this.
Dr. Ellis: Miss Bahorich.
-: So one of the concerns I have,
okay, so we've approved the changes now.
So what is the mechanism?
What is the expectation?
What is it they're going to be sending to the Districts
that spent money for these materials?
Built their lesson plans around the materials that weren't,
I don't know if they built the lesson plans
around the approved material already,
and we don't have to worry about that.
But I just, that's a lot of Staff time all over the State.
I just kind of wondering about that.
If maybe the lesson plans were built
about this illegal material,
then they've already built that.
But, I just don't understand,
what happened around those discussions.
-: Miss Calloway?
-: Yes, ma'am, the improved
and I believe that's Miss Little's word,
materials have been in District classrooms
for multiple years.
Miss Bahorich: Okay, so we don't have to worry, okay.
-: Matching accessible materials for them.
-: Okay, any other questions or comments from members?
Miss Little.
-: To Miss Bahorich's comment.
At some point, the teachers had to change their lesson plans
because they adopted one product
and then unknowingly were sent another one.
And I wanna point out
that these were some substantial changes.
It wasn't like a page number here, or word inserted there.
There were multiple changes,
many of them for the Spanish version.
And they were, in many instances, totally different lessons.
So at some point, they still had to make an adjustment.
-: Okay, all right.
Is there any other comments or questions from members?
So we do have the motion on the floor
that the Committee of Instruction recommends,
I'm sorry, yes, the Committee of Instruction recommends
the State Board of Education,
assess liquidated damage the amount of $113,494.
Miss Bahorich, do you have something else to add?
-: Yeah, just one more quick question.
So around that, when they made this change,
it sounds like it was made in 2016, correct?
Did they do they send information to the Districts
that the people who bought or this,
did they send any information to say,
"Look, we are changing this from this."
'Cause usually there's some kind of a crosswalk
or something that kind of says,
"Here's what it is, so it's easy to go back through it."
Or get people go surprise, this book is not
what we thought we were getting, like how did that?
-: So I don't have an answer to that question.
We became aware of the situation in 2016.
As far as we know, the materials had been changed prior
to their ever being received by Districts.
That the reason we found out is
because the District contacted us to say,
"My large print version doesn't match the version
"that the other kids are using."
-: Any other further questions or comments from members?
Seeing none, I want to ask all those
in favor of the motion as presented,
please vote by raising your hand.
-: You may lower your hands, 14 in favor.
-: All those opposed, please do show raising your hand.
There is a majority in favor, the recommendation is adopted.
-: Thank you, Mr. Chair, we have one more motion
and that is on the timeline for payment
of those liquidated damages.
The Committee on Instruction recommends
that the State Board of Education establish
a due date of June 1st, 2020
for payment of the liquidated damages.
-: Miss Little.
-: I wanna follow up with a comment
that was made by Miss Callaway yesterday.
My feeling when we set the June 1st date is,
we want it immediately.
This is damages and we wanna be sure
that we get immediately,
Miss Callaway commented that because
if we were to get it now
and/or June 1, and did not have anything to spend it on,
that we only have until September the first to spend it.
So that's a very short window.
So my comment to legal is,
let's say we get the money June 1st,
and by some chance, we don't have anything to spend it on.
I can't imagine that situation in our State right now.
Would we have to give the money back if we don't spend it?
'Cause I certainly would not want to do that.
-: And so the answer is-- -: If it is not
earmarked for something.
-: The answer is no, the money would not go back.
The General Appropriations Act sets this requirement
that you spend your liquidated damages
within the fiscal year that you receive them
but the consequences of that is the ledge sweeping the funds
not that they're returned to the person who paid it.
However, the Instructional Materials Fund
is not a fund that gets swept
so it's not entirely clear to me
that it would be subject to that.
However, we've had preliminary discussions
with our finance persons
and we believe that the chance
that this is a problem is very low.
And even then there is some options
as long as you do not restrict what that,
what the liquidated damages can be spent on,
meaning that they can be spent on all allowable uses
under the Instructional Material Fund.
Miss Littlee: Thank you.
-: So Miss Melton, you have the motion presented.
-: I do, the Committee on Instruction recommends
that the State Board of Education establish
the due date of June 1st, 2020
for payment of the liquidated damages.
-: Miss Bahorich.
-: Okay, so I, it doesn't seem unreasonable to me
that we should have a late fee.
If they don't make the June 1st in spite of promises,
they don't make the June 1st,
why can't we do a late fee per day?
-: So if I may address this,
unless you're like wanting to
install an addendum to the motion there,
if they do not meet the June 1st date,
we would come back to you in your June meeting
with a series of options that you could take,
which could include terminating the contract,
us going to seek the AG to go after this in court,
or as you'd indicated,
reassessing, rethinking your liquidated damages.
And my apologies if I jumped in in too early,
if you were thinking about amending the motion
to add late fees.
-: I would declare that I was anticipating
that we would have an Action Item on your June Agenda,
so that we can provide an update to the Board
on whether or not the payment was received
and provide you with an opportunity
to take any subsequent action at your June meeting?
-: Well, I would recommend
that we add the thousand dollar late fee per day now,
so that it's understood that there will be a late fee.
And if you don't pay by January, June 1st,
this is what happens.
-: Is that a motion?
-: Yes.
-: All right, so we have this would be
an amendment to the motion, correct, Miss Kay?
All right, so we have an amendment to the motion.
So we have a second?
-: Second.
-: We have a motion and a second.
Anyone would like to speak to this?
I know there's a couple of hands raised,
if anyone wants speak to this specific.
Mr. Rowley?
-: Yes, thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Well, one concern I have about us setting
that in place right now is,
we may want to take more stronger action than that.
I, we wanted to hear from legal about whether
or not we had the ability to terminate the contract
and to otherwise extract a larger penalty
and some type of a more a stronger leverage,
point of leverage if they chose not to pay?
So I don't know that I'm in favor of setting it
at a particular number right now, it may be,
in my, that if they just virtually ignore us at this point,
then it may be more than just $1,000 a day.
Something stronger than that.
So that's my sense of that.
And, besides that thousand dollars a day
is a liquidated damage number.
And it really isn't relevant now to this question
because now we're talking about their refusal
to pay a fine as compared to their refusal
to come into compliance.
So there's two different arguments there,
that I don't think equates necessarily
to the $1000 a day.
-: Miss Bahorich, you wanna reply to that.
You hand was up. -: Yeah.
I wasn't tying the $1000 a day to that,
the liquidated damage, whatever that,
what do you say, Mr. Rowley?
I wasn't trying to make those equal.
I was suggesting a thousand dollars a day.
Yeah and then the other question is I have,
just because you charge a late fee,
that's understood up front,
doesn't mean that you preclude any other action.
But Bon can tell me if that's wrong.
-: Well, I think you you raise an interesting question.
I'm not sure our contract currently authorizes a late fee.
So that's something I can't assure you
that you right now have the authority apply.
I don't know if there's other general law,
that would authorize that.
Which is I think, why the the original thing
was to come back to you in June
if they are out of compliance with a series of options
that you would have to do that.
And so, Christine, I'm looking to you,
in case there, I've missed something
or if you would agree with things that I've said.
-: I agree with what you said.
And it's and also how Mr. Rowley laid it out,
where we're looking at a calculation for liquidated damages.
And this is how we calculated per the terms of the contract.
The other things is, what do we do
if they don't pay liquidated damages?
Miss Monica Martinez discussed
that that will be on the agenda in June.
And at that time, we can give you a buffet of options
that include what happens,
when we don't keep your promise to the State of Texas.
We walked through some of those scenarios hypothetically,
with Mr. Burnett on the phone,
on the Zoom call from Australia.
Just hypothetically, it would could include litigation.
It could include them having to hire a lawyer
in the United States, specifically in Texas
while they're based in Australia.
And those legal fees would be astronomical.
Hence, it's up to them whether or not,
they want to make that business decision
that was laid out in an open meeting.
And he heard it, I'm pretty sure,
based on his facial expression.
So that's something I think we can powerfully address
in June if they don't pay.
And he promised to pay before June,
as soon as he gets the invoice.
-: Mr. Cortez, yes, I call Mr. Cortez, then Mr. Rowley.
-: Thank you, Chair Ellis.
Yeah, I just wanted to,
I guess, agree with Member Rowley
that I don't believe we should add $1,000 a day late fee,
or we should even be considering that.
I think because of the infrequency of how often that we meet
and School District's decision in
purchasing an instructional material
in advance of the following is clear.
Maybe we should just consider now adding language
that if it's not paid by that deadline,
that their contract is just put on hold
and their instructional materials aren't allowed to be sold
as as one of our approved materials.
And then we can review any other swifter action
that we need to in June.
Because if we do it in June,
by the time we enact it, by the time this goes on,
and the length of their contract,
they've bought themselves through the end of the year
before we've even heard halted their ability to,
I mean, this has gone on since 2016.
They're just now remedying it now, April 17th, 2020.
I mean, at what point do we draw the line?
I think we're in a situation right now, where we can
and as a Board, we have the ability to do so,
as a function of this Agenda Item,
I think that 100 some odd thousand,
is them getting off easy.
And I think that we should be more swift in our action,
and I think that rather than $1,000, late fee,
we should say if it's not paid by then,
then we suspend your contract until you come into compliance
and then we figure out what next steps to take in June.
I don't know if we're able to do that.
I don't know Vaughn could you.
-: So, your contract has a termination provision
which they can be terminated, I believe by convenience,
which means you can just decide to terminate,
but it does take a 30-day notice.
-: And, that kinda speaks to, make you wonder,
that kind of speaks to what I'm talking about when,
if we don't meet till June, when do we meet again?
We meet in September.
Are we gonna have a special meeting to do this?
And if we do it in September, then we give 30-days notice,
by then they've already sold instructional materials
for the 2021 School Year.
If we do this now, and exercise our right to terminate,
we send a stronger message to any entity
that is currently out of compliance, if there are any.
I don't I don't know if there are,
and if there isn't, then great,
but at least we'll know moving forward
that publishers will know not
to do these sorts of things.
Dr. Ellis: Mr. Rowley, (mumbles)
-: Yes, we deliberately chose that June 1st date,
in light of the fact that it would give us sufficient time
to put on the Agenda in July,
which is that meeting immediately following,
we have a meeting I think the very last of June,
in the first time few days of July is the plan right now,
at that point, we would know number one,
if this is even an issue?
According to the CEO, he said, I'll pay it,
as soon as you send me the invoice.
So it's probably a moot point.
But in any event, we would know the circumstances
under which the liquidated damages was not paid.
And we would know that in July, for that,
in time for that July meeting,
and we could take an appropriate response.
And I personally am not comfortable today taking an action
without clearance from legal to say,
"Yes, if they don't pay this fine.
"You got the right to suspend the contract."
I would rather find that out in June.
And then by that July meeting, make that determination.
-: Mr. Mercer and then Miss Boharich.
-: Thank you, Mr. Chair.
First thing can you just repeat for all of us
that the motion on the floor right now, please.
-: Motion on the floor right now is,
the Committee of Instruction recommends
to the State Board of Education to assess liquidated damages
in the amount of $113,494.
-: Are we debate-- -: no, I'm sorry,
I think it's the June 1st.
-: Mr. Chair, we're at the June 1 deadline.
-: I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
Did you have that?
-: I do, the Committee on Instruction recommends
that the State Board of Education establish a due date
of June 1st, 2020, for payment of the liquidated damages.
-: Point of parliamentary inquiry.
-: Rowley.
-: So did Miss Bahorich, Member Bahorich,
not make a motion to add $1,000 a day.
Damages or additional imposition of a--
Dr. Ellis: Sorry you're correct.
Miss Melton: She did.
Can I amend my motion?
-: Well, let me get back to that,
that's what I'm talking about,
make sure we know what we're debating right now.
That's my first question,
but, and thank you for what, with Pam and Reuben and Mark,
the whole committee suggested,
a lot of the background behind it.
I understand that Mr. Rowley is coming from particularly
in the yield Ivana and Christine right now too,
because we have June 1st,
we're looking back for a report from the committee.
Did we, be it Zoom from Australia?
And Christine, you're right,
the legal expenses of thousand dollars would probably be,
you would, quote, settle out of court, I guess,
if that's the right term, it'll be cheaper to pay that fine.
But do we already have an agreement right now
with a publisher that we're gonna see by June 1, or do we,
as Mr. Rowley alluded to, we already had,
could be a moot point.
If they pay it right away, is it done?
Or can we asses further damages?
Miss Melton: Mr. Chair.
Dr. Ellis: Miss Melton.
Miss Melton: Go ahead, Christine.
-: So to answer Mr. Mercer.
If they, do we have an agreement right now?
and we'll get back to that question.
I think once we get the approval from the Board today,
and I think we've already approved liquidated damages,
we need the date in which they have to pay it,
then we can have communication with a publisher,
or these are the terms we need you to
then execute on these terms.
Does that answer your question?
-: Well, I thought we had a term right now, 113,000.
We're looking day to communicate back, here's the date.
And Staff, at the next meeting.
Staff will tell us,
Monica will tell us the progress of that.
Was it done or not?
And to Mr. Rowley's thinking, it could be a moot point,
they've already given us a timeframe.
We say June 1st, they paid it five o'clock on Monday.
Are we done or is--
Christine: Yes.
-: I don't want, if we have an agreement,
be it verbally through Zoom, you should--
-: Well, I wanna be careful, like there is no agreement.
And this is, you all debating
under the terms of your contract,
whether to pursue liquidated damages.
Now, you have an oddity because we are a public entity
and you had a public meeting
and the person was there,
and you had conversations with them,
and then they have verbally told us what they would do.
But, and I mean, until a couple of minutes ago,
this body had not made a determination
on what the damages were, there was just a recommendation.
-: Okay, that's 113k, is that correct?
-: Yes, but if you all adopted June 1 deadline,
and you adopt 113,000, which you already have,
and then they pay for it,
then we will tell you that they complied
with your directive.
-: That's what I'm asking.
-: Yeah, and then if they don't,
then we will come to you with options,
options from terminating the contract,
options from sending us to ask the AG to go
and get the money, options to reconsider
and take a risk you're legal position
on what the damages are.
And, at those point, if they've refused to pay, I think,
then I'm forced to think of this as potential litigation
and we would have a lot of these conversations,
where we would give you the risks of pursuit
and things in a closed meeting
with consultations with attorney,
at which point then you would come out
and make a decision on your pursuit.
-: Mr. Chair?
-: Yes, ma'am.
-: I will say this much.
This, as we said before, as Christine said,
the CEO was there yesterday,
he heard all of these discussions.
He heard our thoughts and feelings about what has happened.
And he listened in, as we discuss some of the options.
And you could, if you can go by facial expression
and looking at his face yesterday, he got the message.
I'm pretty sure that we were very serious about this.
And then we didn't appreciate what had happened.
So if that helps out any at all,
I'm just saying that he understands
that we were very upset at this point.
-: Let's get back.
I have an amendment to the amendment that says
that we establish the due date of June 1st 2020,
for payment of liquidated damages with penalties of $1,000
if not paid by that date.
Miss Bahorich.
-: Okay, so what I would like to do is, if I remember,
Mr. Allen, maybe you can remind me again,
you you laid out, it was you figured the damages were
so much a day from a certain time, is that correct?
That's what I was understanding.
And that's what I was trying to say,
the clock starts ticking again, on the amount,
it's not a late fee, I said it incorrectly.
It's not a late fee, the clock starts ticking again,
to continue to add days past the due date.
So it would just, it's due to lack of response to this.
And you're right, none of this may,
it may all be a moot point if they follow through,
but they hadn't been able to follow through to this point.
And so my point is, let's continue the clock,
starting on June 1, make that very clear,
'cause I don't think that's gonna preclude anything
that happens as a result of us getting together in June.
The fact that we started the clock again,
due to lack of non-responses.
Mr. Rowley: Yeah, well, Mr. Chair.
-: Yes.
-: I'll respond to that, yeah, well,
so my concern with the amendment is that
it's based upon circumstances that we don't know.
That may exist at the, as of June 2nd.
And so my concern is if you say,
"Okay, let's assess $1,000 a day
"for their refusal, in the event they refused to pay."
That may not be severe enough for me.
I mean, after all we've gone through and I agree,
and I understand the sentiment of,
certainly my committee, fellow committee members
and now of the Board, that $113,494,
I mean, that's quite a bit of money,
but it's it, maybe it's not enough money to,
in some of your minds.
And if they refuse to pay, I would want to take
much more severe, drastic action than $1,000 a day.
And so, and I don't wanna have to back up from that
because I don't know about the binding nature
of a vote today.
Let's say that we say, "Okay, all in favor of the amendment,
"we are we're in favor of that a $1000 a day,"
and they don't pay.
And not only do they don't pay, they say,
never mind, we're not gonna have anything to do with you.
Well in that instance,
$1,000 a day is not enough in my mind.
At that point, I'm saying,
"Look, we suspend this contract."
And we even look at, if it's possible, divulging
or divesting them of some of the profits
that they made from October of 2016 until now.
I just don't wanna restrict us to a to a course of action
based upon circumstances that we have no idea
what they're going to be, as of June 2.
And then the second point is, I believe Mr. Burnett
was sincere he'll writes a check in return mail
'cause he's wanting to get this thing rectified.
But that's my concern with the amendment.
-: So let's focus on this amendment then,
is there (clears throat),
still your intention to move forward
with this amendment, the amendment Miss Bahorich?
-: Yes, but I'm probably not, I don't want to say late fee.
That's not what I'm trying to do here.
I'm trying to let them understand
that whatever our calculation was to get to the per day rate
that we charge them, that we would start the calendar again,
on collecting dates.
And so I don't know how to say that
with the right terminology,
Vaughn maybe you could help me with that.
-: Yeah, I think your your amendment would be to
restart the liquidated damages calculation
following, on June 2nd.
-: Maybe continue then liquidated damages, or yeah, continue
'cause now you are not restarting, right?
Okay, continue on the
liquidated damages would begin again,
on top of what we already approved.
Well, I don't know how to say that right.
Vaughn: Are you going to consider all of the time
between now and June 2nd? -: No, just the past,
just past that June 1st, if they make the June 1st date.
-: So maybe shall add an additional day of liquidated damages
for each day past June 1st.
That they fail to pay,
they'll do deliver their check or whatever.
Dr. Ellis: So Staff can-- -: I don't, yeah, Miss Kay,
I don't know if you can translate that.
(Vaughn chuckles)
'Cause they have to see it.
-: Is there, (Ellis clears throat)
Is there a second to the motion of Miss Bahorich
as noted by Vaughn Byer?
Is that a hand raise or a second Miss Perez?
Miss Perez: It was a second motion,
but I have a question.
Dr. Ellis: The motion is seconded,
would you like to speak to that--
Man: How can you second it?
-: Miss Perez.
Member: Miss Perez seconded.
-: During our meeting yesterday,
Miss little explained to us about the timeline
when School Districts start to spend the bulk of their money
being over the Summer.
And so my concern is that we have given this publisher
the ability to pay
or the invitation to pay or request by June 1st.
If this publisher chooses to remain out of compliance,
not paid by June 1st,
and the contract remains in place,
doesn't that mean that School Districts
can continue to participate in business with this publisher
while they remain out of compliance
during the Summer months where School Districts spend
the bulk of their money on textbooks,
and afraid that that June 1st date, it is,
leaves too many windows of opportunity open for a publisher
that, again, already has a $10 million business in Texas
while remaining out of compliance.
And so my concern is, is that June date too far away,
because what I don't want to see is this publisher miss
that June date, we try to go back
and assess any kind of liquidation
and damages and penalties or whatever,
but School Districts are still purchasing materials
from from this non-compliant publisher in the meantime.
Miss Kay: So Miss Perez, a couple of things
in response to that.
Number one, remember these are math materials.
Dr. Ellis: Miss Martinez, before you chime in.
(clears throat)
I do have to step out for just a minute,
I'm gonna turn the gavel over to Mr. Rowley.
Miss Kay: So most Districts will,
already have purchased their math materials.
They pretty much track with your proclamations.
And as you know, right now,
the focus is on purchasing materials
for your Revised Reading Language Arts standards.
So that's something to keep in mind that this is math.
I think the other thing that's important to note is,
even if you terminate the contract with this publisher,
a District could still choose to purchase their material.
Miss Perez: Exactly.
Miss Kay: No, I know that that June 1st date
is necessarily going to have the result
and the outcome that you just described,
because there's probably not likely
a lot of business to be had for math materials
in the next what is that?
Less than two months, I mean, we're talking June 1st is
about six weeks away.
Vaughn: And if I can add,
so we're in the middle of April, for June 1st,
we're a little over 30 days.
30 days is generally a very minimum
that you do for some type of accounting maneuvers.
I'm just worried with the actual impact in operations
that the agency has had to shorten that
too much may make it difficult for us to actually
go through the process.
Mr. Rowley: Okay, members, remember right now
we're discussing the amendment to the June 1st date,
which is in red there,
and shall add an additional day of liquidated damages
of $1,000 per day, for each day after June 1st, 2020,
if not paid by that date.
So I have Mr. Maynard, Miss Cargill,
and then Miss Boharich.
(clears throat)
Mr. Maynard: Excuse me,
so the discussion is on the amendment.
And in the amendment, as I understand it,
basically prescribes a continuation of liquidated damages.
Mr. Rowley: Yes sir, that's correct.
Mr. Maynard: And, Mr. Chairman, is that,
I'm just asking you,
I know you're now the presiding officer
and you're supposed to be fair and impartial
and not really take a take a position.
But I'm asking you this not as as the Chair,
as presiding officer currently,
but as a member of the committee.
But it is your position
that we don't necessarily want to prescribe that
or we want to wait and see what happens?
Versus going ahead and then prescribing,
is that your position?
Mr. Rowley: Yes sir, it is.
Mr. Maynard: That's what I need to know, thank you.
Mr. Rowley: Miss Cargill?
Miss Cargill: My, I have a question,
if we do vote on this amendment for the $1000 a day,
does that mean that we can't, at the June July meeting,
come back, if the publisher does not pay,
will this limit is from going back
and changing it to a higher,
more of a penalty, or is this the cap?
Mr. Rowley: I guess Miss Cruz,
you might be able to give us that,
some insight on that.
Would it be, would it require a motion to reconsider?
Meaning someone who voted on the prevailing side,
would have to reconsider this action,
if that were the case?
Miss Cruz: So your next meeting,
reconsidered will be out of reach,
reconsider can only take place at the same day,
or if the body's meeting over multiple days,
the very next day,
but it would be eligible to be rescinded
or to amend something previously adopted.
Now, those are the parliamentary answers.
There may be other issues
because you were talking about a contract
and legal issues to which I would of course,
always defer to my friends in the legal department.
Mr. Rowley: Mr. Byer, do you want to address
the effect of us passing this
and then taking for an action in the future
from a contractual standpoint?
And by the way, I don't have the capability, Monica,
I might ask you (mumbles)
lower people's hands after I call on them, right?
Because I don't think I can do that.
Like Mr. Maynard, for example.
Right, thank you.
Vaughn: Well, so as I said before,
so I can't say with 100% certainty,
but Christine will pipe up,
if she sees me leading us astray.
This is not an agreement with the other side,
this is what you are telling us to go tell them,
"This is what we expect.
"And if you don't comply with this,
"then we will pursue additional legal recourse."
So I don't believe it is binding until
and unless they actually comply,
because now we have someone kind of accepting the offer
and taking in action.
So let's say they don't pay on June 1st,
but they show up on June 3,
and they pay 113,000
and they add 2000 to it.
Now, you may, in fact be in a binding situation.
If we come to your meeting at the end of July,
and we are the end of June
and we tell you, "They didn't pay on June 1,
"and they haven't paid anything up to then,
"then I believe you would be able
"to reconsider what you want to pursue."
Mr. Rowley: If I'm understanding what you're saying,
then, if they paid on June the fifth,
then the most we could get from them
would be additional four, $5,000, that's it, right?
Vaughn: That that is what I believe would happen.
And Christine, since we have this on the thing,
I can't see your face, I don't know if you would agree
or if you're desperately saying what I'm saying is wrong.
But at that point, we do have an offer
and we have an acceptance and we have performance.
So I do believe that they could make this,
they could take the position that the issue is settled,
because they performed in compliance
with what you said would be accepted.
Mr. Rowley: And having missed our June 1st,
they would be off the hook for just $1,000 a day?
Vaughn: Correct.
Christine: I've been waving my hand.
Mr. Rowley: Sorry, I can't see, I'm sorry.
Christine: Yeah, because we have a screen share,
I'm not sure.
So one thing I want folks to be mindful of, again,
is that liquidated damages does not equal,
a fee, a fine, a penalty.
So having a discussion about a late fee,
a late penalty is not consistent
and in harmony with what liquidated damages
are supposed to be, which is a reasonable estimate
to make you whole based on that breach period
until the breach was remedied.
So one form of remedies is specific performance.
You can argue that they did that
because they have the corrections
and we've approved it.
Another form of remedy is,
what does that cost look like?
And then it could be argued $113,000 a day.
If you're looking at, what do we want to assess them,
if they don't pay on time?
That's a different conversation.
It shouldn't also be looped
into what liquidated damages should be.
So to have a liquidated damages,
and then have an additional tack on, of a late fee.
I just don't want someone to say,
now you're treating liquidated damages
as a fee, as a penalty
and now we've undermined what we've been trying to do
to make this enforceable.
Mr. Rowley: Okay, Kay and Miss Cruz,
can I ask you, members, it's okay.
I think we've all know the gist of the motion.
Can we maybe take down that screen share so that I can see.
Thank you, so I can see the other members
and Miss Boharich, you've had your hand up for a while.
-: So what I'm hearing, Vaughn say
and Christine is that, if we take this action now,
that, you're saying that might be considered the only action
that we could take,
and therefore we're gonna be stuck,
'cause I didn't think every preclude.
-: I think we've laid out two potential risk
which, by the way, we're happy to accept those risks
and pursue if that's the determination of the Board,
but two potential risks.
One is the shape and form of this sounds like a penalty
and could be argued that it's a penalty
rather than a damage
and as you said, liquidated damages have to be reasonable
and reflect that.
So that is a risk of of pursuing something like this,
but we would, if we move forward,
we would argue, that it is reflective of actual damages.
The other is if they are late
and they perform it, then they can reasonably argue
that they have complied with the offer of the Board
to remedy the situation and done that.
And so that may very well preclude you
from pursuing the other options.
For this instance, however, I believe in our contracts,
like termination is termination for convenience.
So generally you don't have to have a cause to pursue that.
So there would be some openings there.
But generally, if you said,
"If you do this, we're all okay."
And someone does that.
Then by the equities, we're friends again.
-: Okay, Miss Melton,
or were you done Miss Bahorich?
-: Yeah, I just wanted to make sure,
so there wouldn't be any reason like,
because you guys have a clock
that you figured to get to this $113,000.
Anyway, you had a clock you were looking at,
and it was as of the date of a certain meeting.
This just continues the clock is past June 1, which is,
that was my only point about that
and I didn't think it would necessarily preclude
but listening to your arguments about it.
I still think even if we terminated our contract with them,
as Monica said, Districts could still buy, I mean,
you can sell anyway.
And so, to me, trying to incentivize them paying on time
when there's been non-performance in the past
is a point to be made,
but I understand also
that you might wanna do something else.
I don't know what else really meaningful we could do,
other than drop them.
But, so I'll pull the amendment down.
-: So you're withdrawing the amendment?
-: Yeah, I'm gonna withdraw.
-: Is there any objection
to Miss Bahorich withdrawing the amendment?
Okay, it's withdrawn.
Miss Melton-Malone, did you have a point
or is it still relevant?
-: Well, if she withdrew her amendment, that pretty much,
I was just gonna comment the fact that personally,
I don't want to see us tie hands,
because this has been going on
for way too long with this company.
And I think that we need to keep our avenues open
so that we can, if they choose not to pay,
then we can really do some kind of an action
that will let them now
and let other companies now you don't mess with us.
-: Okay and so the the motion that's currently
before the Board now is the
Committee on Instruction's recommendation
that a due date of June 1st 2020 be established
for payment of the liquidated damages.
Everyone understand then?
To the main motion?
Mr. Maynard: Mr. Chairman?
-: Yes, Mr. Maynard.
-: Yeah, I do have a question, when you say due date,
what does that mean?
Is it a, does that mean that,
it maybe that's something that Vaughn can opine on.
But when we say due, so like, for instance,
when the IRS says this due,
that means there has to be pushed more,
or does that mean that we have to have received it by then?
What does that mean,
Mr. Rowley: Mr. Byer?
-: Well, I think that's a very good point.
I guess I had in my mind that it was,
we had actually received the money
and could use it by June 1st of 2020,
which would be close of business by June 1st, 2020.
But clarifying, I would not be opposed
to that clarification in your language.
-: So I would suggest that as an amendment
that the motion would be that
the payment must have been received by the agency
by close of business on June 1st 2020.
Member: Second.
-: Okay motion made and seconded.
and so Miss Cruz, do you want to
just put up quickly the screen
then I might ask you to take it back down.
Although I see Chairman Ellis is back anyway.
Miss Cruz, you gonna put that up for us?
Okay, Mr. Maynard does that?
-: I think that clarifies it,
because, when you deal with situations like that,
you don't want there to be any misunderstandings,
because most people will come back
and say, "Well, I just didn't understand."
-: Okay, is there any objection to
the amendment proposed by Member Maynard?
And I can't see people right now.
-: I don't have any objection, Mr. Rowley.
-: Okay, all right, so then the by unanimous consent,
then the motion is amended with the language proposed
by Mr. Maynard.
So now we're, oh, Miss Bahorich?
Microphone, please.
-: Just a point of clarification.
So close of business in Texas, right?
Does it say that?
I didn't, I missed the amendment there.
'Cause he's from Australia, so.
I mean, we're getting technical.
-: We are definitely getting technical.
Mr. Maynard: I think maybe we could, if we could,
in the language, is it put in parentheses?
5:00 p.m. Central.
Member: It would be daylight.
Mr. Maynard: Yeah, that's right, yeah.
Member: You could also say, "By TEA's close of business."
Mr. Rowley: Yeah, let's just say
"By TEA's close of business."
Mr. Maynard: There you go.
Mr. Rowley: Any have any objection to that?
Hearing none, but I wouldn't see them anyway.
It's--
-: I don't see any either.
-: Okay, it's done, all right.
So now, we're ready to vote, I think, on the main motion
which is to establish a due date of June 1st, 2020,
as of close of business for TEA
for payment of liquidated damages
or something to that effect.
Any further discussion?
Okay, all in favor of the motion signify
by raising your hand.
-: You may lower your hands, 13 in favor.
-: All opposed, please raise your hands.
Okay, none in opposition.
Okay, so the Motion passes.
Okay, so, Miss Melton Malone.
-: That concLudes the Committee on Instruction's
recommendations.
-: Okay, Mr. Chairman, do you wanna take?
-: So first formal business,
y'all have done very well.
Three hours normally are unmuting me
but at this point trying to get a bathroom break
or something.
Mr. Rowley: By the way, I don't have a plane
to catch today, so I'm fine.
-: We have the PSF Committee left,
we have School Initiative, also,
I don't (mumbles) should take long.
Mr. Maynard, how much time on PSF?
Mr. Maynard: Will, shouldn't take long,
we've got only about three things.
-: Okay, so my question is that if that's the case,
I wanna assume we wanna take a lunch break at this point.
Do you all wanna take a quick necessity break
or keep going.
Mr. Maynard: I'm good.
-: I'm hearing--
(mumbles)
-: When can I make a motion that Kelly Calloway not retire
before we lose her, can I make that motion?
Thank you, Kelly, you'll be missed.
-: Mr. Chair, could we take maybe--
-: Thank you, I'm gonna--
(mumbles)
And do the best of your ability to make this motion.
(laughs)
-: A break, 'cause y'all have done so well,
and we'll be back in five or 10 minutes.
There we go.
Okay, the next item on the agenda is
the Committee of School Finance/ Permanent School Fund,
I'm gonna turn over to Mr. Maynard.
-: Thank you Mr. Chairman, and remember that on
School Finance/PSF,
you've got two different sets of minutes.
You've got School Finance Items,
and you've got Permanent School Fund Items.
So we have two motions on the School Finance Items,
and that's where we're gonna start.
And so on behalf of
the Committee on School Finance and Permanent School Fund.
I'm move at the State Board of Education approve
for a second reading and the final adoption,
of proposed repeal of 19 TAC Chapter 105,
Foundation School Program, Subchapter B, Use of State Funds
and make an firm to finding that,
immediate adoption of the proposed repeal
of 19 TAC Chapter 105, Foundation School Program,
Subchapter B, Use of State Funds is necessary,
and shall have an effective date of 20 days after filing
as adopted with the Texas Register.
And Mr. Chairman, if I can, just quickly.
Dr. Ellis: Speak to your motion.
-: Yeah, just as a, this, all this motion does
is it brings our rule in compliance with the statute.
Many of you remember that the the old statute allowed
an indirect cost to be, for School Districts to use it.
percentage of funds generated
by a particular program for indirect cost.
And, for instance, in CTE that most recently, that was 42%.
Hospital, free, that, all of that provision went away.
And so all this does is it,
that simply makes our rule consistent with the statute.
-: Thank you, members, are there any other comments
or questions on the item?
Hearing none, we'll go ahead and take the vote.
That's all in support, please show by raising your hand.
-: You may lower your hands, at 14 in favor.
-: If you oppose, please show by raising your hands.
Alright, so there are two thirds in favor
and the recommendation is adopted.
-: Mr. Chairman on behalf of the
Committee on School Finance and Permanent School Fund.
I moved to the State Board of Education approve
for first reading and filing authorization
the proposed amendment to 19 TAC Chapter 109, Budgeting,
Accounting, and Auditing, Subchapter B,
Texas Education Agency Audit Functions,
109.23, School District Audits
and Agreed-Upon Procedures.
And if I may just offer an explanation of this.
This is for first reading, and filing and authorization.
And this again, just will bring the rule into compliance
with the statute.
The old statute you require that
if a school use an out of State firm,
that that firm hasn't been licensed
within the State of Texas.
That language was changed
and this rule change will bring our rule
into line with the statute.
-: For that summary, is there any other questions
or comments from members?
Okay, if none, I would ask all those in favor of the motion,
please show by raising your hand.
-: You may lower your hands, 14 in favor.
-: And any opposed, please show by raising your hands.
Hearing none, there is a majority in favor.
And the recommendation is adopted.
-: Mr. Chairman, on the the Permanent School Fund items,
there was only one item,
that was the ratification of purchases
and sales for which is approval consent.
But we did receive a report
from our Chief Investment Officer
and Staff and we also had with us in the meeting,
our Fiduciary Consultant than NEPC.
And of course I don't have to tell any of you
then we have experienced
a tragic economic crisis along with a health crisis.
And of course those two things are tied together,
in the last four weeks, we have the communists lost
22 million jobs, 22 million jobs
and these are serving members that are in line
or maybe even greater than what we saw
in the 1949 market crash
and also in the Great Depression.
Now, of course, there's some speculation as far as
when this thing bounces back,
the circumstances surrounding this downturn
are markedly different than what we saw
with the Great Depression.
So, but just to kind of put that in perspective,
the fair market, December 31, the fair market value of
the Permanent School Fund or at least our portion of it,
was about 35.9 billion.
On February the 29th, we were about 44 billion,
and on March 1st, we were down to 31 billion
and some change.
And so that was a, certainly a precipitous crash.
So about 29% of our allocation is what we call,
our defensive allocation.
Parts of that allocation performed pretty well.
What was a bit of a disappointment was Risk Parity,
our tips, fixed income.
Actually, the Hedge Funds performed pretty well,
in terms of cushioning that drop.
We have two Risk Parity Managers
and one of them performed slightly above the 6040 benchmark,
and one of them was below that benchmark.
So there's a couple things I think just worth noting.
And so everybody kind of understands there are some things
that were really positive for us.
First of all, is that, that our part of the fund
does not have a is, the underweight in energy.
So we don't have a big allocation in energy,
that's positive.
Now,the big energy allocation is with the School Land Board.
And so that's a real positive.
The staff has been taking advantage of opportunities
as we have them, they have the latitude to rebalance
and to do whatever they need to do.
And so when we come together in May,
we'll have a little bit better sense of the landscape
because we're about to go into
an allocation discussion later on this year.
What we don't really know is Real Estate and Private Equity.
Most things tend to the reporting on that is delayed,
is a little bit slower.
But one thing is worth noting, in Real Estate.
We don't have a big investment in retail,
we don't have a really big investment in hospitality.
And so that, those are some some positives.
The Liquid Fund, which is remember that school,
that Land Board funds that we are managing,
it is completely intact,
because we were only invested in fixed income.
And so, and now what is possible,
it is possible that the School Land Board may request
some of those funds back
because with the downturn in oil and gas prices,
they are still gonna have to make big capital calls.
But that's, that's how the fund was set up.
And so if that needs to happen, then that will happen.
So we're actually still being able to get returns
off that Liquid Fund.
We're still, we're about 77 basis points above the Treasury.
So that's kind of where we are with that.
Anybody have any, Mr. Chairman,
does anybody have any questions
in terms of where things are with that?
-: Any the questions for Mr. Maynard?
I see Mr. Mercer.
-: Not really a question, I want to comment.
Thank you for the excellent report and the detailed status.
I wanna remind that Member Cargill,
Member Hardy, Member Allen, 11 years ago,
our Board, were discussing
when a very ambitious landmark decision
about what happened in 89, what happened in 911,
what happened in 2006, 2007.
And we would set up a new asset allocation for our staff
and give all the the allocation that Mr. Maynard mentioned,
the different types of allocation
and percentage ranges.
And staff will tell you now because of that,
they had the flexibility to use their professionalism
to make some decisions when it came to rebalance
or reset or (mumbles) funds and to react.
All the things Mr. Maynard just delineated there,
as to what happens,
so that decision for those of us leaving the Board,
those who will stay on,
it was very important that we had those,
that asset allocation,
very landmark decision
for a public equity, public endowment,
but it gave our professionals the ability to rebalance,
to reallocate, to react to the changes
that Mr. Maynard just mentioned.
So just a bit of history on that, thank you, sir.
-: And, Mr. Chairman, just another note, of course,
one of the things that always is, interest people
in terms of (mumbles) funds,
in terms of how we're gonna stack up,
we received a fair bit of criticism in last month
because people didn't think that our returns were adequate.
And they were trying to compare us to funds
that were 50 or 60% of alternative investments.
And, of course, there's two answers to that.
First is that,
we have to maintain a certain level of liquidity
because of the Bond Guarantee Program
and number two, we're a public fund
and we are obligated to have some downside protection,
which we did.
So I think at some point, it'll be very interesting to see
how our fund, whether the storm would compared
to some of those other ones.
And we won't learn that until sometime this Summer
-: Are there any other questions
or comments about the report from Mr. Maynard?
Hearing none.
-: Thank you, Mr. cHair.
-: Report.
You have no other (mumbles) Mr. Maynard.
Okay.
All right, so I believe we're in Item Number 12.
Committee on School Initiatives.
I'm gonna call on Miss Cargill.
-: All right, so members.
Just to give you a brief update,
we did have a discussion item
on the Charter School Applications.
So I know we can't discuss this,
but just for your information,
there are 16 charter applications being reviewed right now.
And they go through five different reads.
So there are a lot of external reviewers who are reviewing
and staff etc, etc.
The interviews are still scheduled
for the week of July 27th.
And whether those are in-person
or virtual will depend on a lot of factors, as you know.
So that's just a quick update on that.
Our first Action Item is found on page two of your
Committee on School Initiatives Minutes.
And it was recommended
by the Committee on School Initiatives
that the State Board of Education adopt,
the review of 19 TAC Chapter 100, Chapters,
Subchapter A Open Enrollment Charter Schools,
and Subchapter B Home Rules School District Charters.
And this is just part of the four year review cycle
for all State agency rules including the Board,
this SBOE rules.
-: Are any questions or comments on the motion?
So I would ask all those in favor,
please show by raising your hand.
-: You may lower your hands, 14 in favor.
-: Any opposed, please by showing your hand.
Seeing none there is a majority in favor
and the recommendation is adopted.
-: Okay, and one more on page three is the motion
and this was for, the committee has recommended
that the Board take no action
on proposed amendments to 19 TAC Chapter 230,
Professional Educator Preparation and Certification,
Subchapter C, Assessment of Educators,
Subchapter D, Types and Classes of Certificates Issued,
Subchapter E, Educational Aide Certificate,
and Subchapter G, Certificate Issuance Procedures.
And this is being carried forward mainly for compliance
with legislative mandates.
Dr. Ellis: Any questions or comments?
Mr. Mercer.
-: Just two comments, first, to Mrs. Melton-Malone,
I apologize, I said your meeting lasted for hours,
it was two and a half hours,
I was using common core math, I apologize.
And Miss Cargill, refresh my memory
when it says take no action.
That means that, what happens then?
-: That means that we agree with the SBEC Rule
and so the rule would go forward.
So if you're, yes for the SBEC act, action,
then you would vote yes on take no action.
Mr. Mercer: Okay, thank.
-: Thanks for that clarification.
Are there any other questions or comments?
Seeing none, I would ask all those in favor
to show by raising your hands.
-: You may lower your hands, 14 in favor.
-: All right, any opposed by raising your hand?
Seeing none, there is a majority in favor
and the recommendation is adopted.
-: Do I get, do we get a price
for being the shortest committee update?
-: Of course, yes, of course we do.
(Miss Cargill laughs)
-: Just to ask a quick question to Barbara.
So what is the estimated timeline?
You said those capacity interviews were the 27th.
Is there any timeline beyond that?
-: Do you mean?
Well, then the Commissioner's proposal to the Board of the,
the charter applicants that make it through the interviews,
that are, that he decides on,
we would be notified in August
and then our vote on, the veto vote would be in September.
That's the timeline right now.
Miss Davis: Thank you.
-: Okay.
-: Are there any other questions for Miss Cargill?
All right, thank you.
Alright, so that is the end of our agenda.
We do have time now from, for any reports from committees
regarding Agenda Items posted for discussion
on Committee Agendas,
or reports from other State Board of Education members
regarding Agenda Items,
and educational activities
and concerns in individual Districts.
All right, so as they're seeing none, again,
that closes our Agenda Items.
And of course, we always take some time now to talk about
if there's anything personally going on
in any of the member's lives,
it's a good time to service
and always a good time for some good news.
Miss Cargill.
-: Well, I just want to take a minute
and say for I know we just heard the press conference
that the schools have been closed for the rest of the year.
And I wanna give a shout out to our teachers
and parents who are taking care of their kids at home.
I strongly disagree with the naysayers who say
that our kids will potentially fall so far behind
because I think our parents
and teachers are doing everything possible that they can
to make sure that our kids are still getting
a good education at their home
and there's nothing sweeter
than parents having more time with their kids.
So I hope, I know parents want to pull their hair out
sometimes but I wanna encourage our parents
and our teachers who are doing so much, just to carry forth
so I say well done and keep up the good work.
-: Seconded, all right, Miss Bahorich.
-: Okay, I'm gonna show almost two months now.
Here he is, hello Peter.
So that, I just had to give you another time
to look at a picture of my latest grandchild.
Dr. Ellis: These, what's the tally we're at now.
-: Seven.
-: Wow, I've heard they once you get one,
they grow exponentially.
All right, Mr. Mercer.
-: Again, I got a notice in my office in Colorado Springs.
I have a promotion in August to grandfather, finally,
I'm very proud of that.
And I'll be, it'll be a grandson, I know that now too, so.
What Miss Cargill said too,
I had a meeting last week
with several charter schools online.
And it was incredible what's happening.
How we're reacting to this
and what all (Mr. Mercer coughs)
all schools are doing.
I'm sorry, I close my mouth when cough, guys, don't worry.
But the concern was a technology
which is my whole life was twofold.
Not just the kids who don't have technology.
But those who only have one child.
If you have one device in your home,
and you have two or three kids in school.
Mom or Dad are working from home.
They're a given number like 15%
in the beginning but that's just a comment.
I wanna thank my colleague in the great State of El Paso.
Her work too, Georgina Thank you.
I want to recognize firstly, just Kelly
and Debbie Ratliff, I think Debbie retires we left last time
and for all the staff that (mumbles) Lenny Lane
kind of unsung heroes, they've done so much work.
The minutes coming across, the time, reminders.
And Sylvia, met with me last week too.
And I've tried to explain what I wanted to share before,
not just my moderator here, I see you all
but my other monitors how to extend that, not duplicate
but extended be able to have an agenda
and have split testimonies in the side
and Sylvia and Lenny, we talked about that with Sylvia,
that that is fantastic.
If you don't have that at home now, dual monitors
or even you have more triple monitors.
The split screen is an incredible device.
It makes this so much more efficient.
But thank you for that.
And for the lawyers, this is last time around for Vaughn
and Chris and Christine, for your work on this too.
That's all I have, thank y'all, God bless y'all.
And always have a great Texas day.
-: Okay Mr. Mercer, Miss Perez-Diaz.
-: I just wanted to, again, thank all of the educators
and administrators across the State,
this has been a really difficult time in education.
And I too was able to hop on a call last week
with some educators
and really loved hearing from them, their own perspectives
because I think they get lost in the conversation.
I, we've heard a lot from parents
who are really struggling through this.
But our teachers are really struggling through it too.
There, are a lot of our teachers across the State
are parents as well.
And so they're having to decide, do we focus our time
and energy educating our classroom or do we educate,
do we continue to help educate our own children in our home?
And they're balancing out
and so it's just been a, it was really eye-opening,
to have a conversation with them.
And so I think that the Governor's announcement
today was a blessing to everybody.
I think it relinquishes a lot of stress.
And I wanna personally thank TEA for all of the work,
everybody has done so much work
to try to figure out what the heck's going on
and to put out as many resources as possible
for our Districts during this weird time.
And I also really, I appreciate,
especially here, like in our, in San Antonio, once again,
all across my District, actually.
But the work that's been done to help support the social,
emotional aspects of the work,
the humanity hasn't been lost,
and a lot of our counselors
and social workers across the State have really, I mean,
they've worked so hard to make sure that our kids have
enough resources, are getting the best that they can,
in a strange time.
So just really, really value all of that work.
And then lastly wanting to say,
we've heard a lot from the adults that are having
to navigate this really strange time.
But I'm really excited,
I'm gonna be a part of a public forum,
a Town Hall with with just youth.
So it's a youth like Town Hall.
We're trying to get as many students involved as possible
and (mumbles) the youth about their own experience
in trying to navigate their,
these challenges as well,
especially from the senior perspective
because that our senior year is really important
for a lot of our kids
and our seniors are really, they're struggling,
they're losing a lot of the celebratory pomp
and circumstance and all of that
and so, it'll be a great conversation.
I'm looking forward to it tomorrow afternoon.
We'll be on Facebook so it'll be good.
-: Good deal, thank you for that.
And Miss Melton-Malone's next.
-: I also wanted to just give a shout out to the teachers
and the staff and all the schools,
I have just been blown away by some of the reports
that they've been sending me
and that I've been talking to individuals over the phone
and over the internet at the things that the teachers
and staff are doing, to make this transition
that we're having to go through as easy as possible
for parents and for children.
And so big shout out to them
and just hang in there.
It's, you're doing a fantastic job.
And the other thing, one other thing is that,
I didn't take Town Hall again,
but I'd like to thank my Committee for all the work
that we put in yesterday,
we debated a lot of things, went into a lot of depth
and I just appreciate so much each
and every one of their opinions
and the fact that we work so well together
and we come up with a good consensus
about what we need to do for the kids in Texas.
And so thank you Committee
and thank you Christine and Vaughn and Monica and Kelly
and Shelly and all the others
that worked together to pull that off
so that we could have all the information that we needed
so that we can make good decisions.
And the other thing is this is not a positive.
I mean, it's a positive.
But I don't mean to be a downer.
But keep in mind, the folks out in the West today,
this was, it was seven years ago today,
that they had the explosion.
And so they have done a remarkable job of coming back.
And making West even better than it was before.
So keep them in mind today,
because I know they'd appreciate your prayers.
-: Thank you for those comments.
My. Maynard.
-: Yeah, Mr. Chairman.
Let me just say that I have a daughter
who's teaching right now.
So I get a lot of reports
and certainly that these are challenging time for educators.
The good news is, is that, we're Americans
and we're Texans, and we always find a way.
And there's just a lot of remarkable work being done.
But we would be remiss
if we didn't mention our Commissioner.
If you've had a chance to get on some of those calls,
and the some of the resources
that are being stood up is just amazing.
Dr. Ellis kind of mentioned to me, he said,
"Well, if we had proposed to do this,
"I think it probably, most people would have thought
"that it would take us two years to transition into this
"and we did it in a matter of days and weeks
"and put all this in place."
And, is it perfect?
No, but this is the hand that we're dealt,
and we know that the work of educating has got to go on.
I think that the work of
the Texas Department of Agriculture has been been terrific.
And so congratulations to Sid Miller, Mr. Miller
and his crew over there,
in terms of making sure that a lot of our
disadvantaged students that depend
on meals through the school system.
What an important blessing that is to a lot of families,
and particular, a lot of families, you think about,
22 million jobs lost in four weeks.
That's a lot of our neighbors
and all of a sudden have been furloughed,
they've been laid off,
and not sure how they're gonna pay the bills,
not sure how they're gonna buy groceries.
And so the, actually the school lunch program is a lifeline,
to a lot of these families
and so a lot of good work is being done.
Congratulations to our Commissioner.
I don't think he's sleeping very much.
I don't think any of the staff is sleeping very much,
I guess you lost your commute, but it's still your,
sometimes when you're having to work from home,
it's kinda like you have the front pocket from your shirt
and you keep reaching for things and you don't have them.
And so, I think also too, is we ought to keep in mind
our healthcare workers, I'm a little sensitive to that.
I have a daughter-in-law, who's a physician,
Sue up in Waco, (mumbles) white.
And he lives in West, actually, Leroy.
And I have a daughter-in-law who's a nurse.
And so, these people are on the front lines every day
and are actually dealing with Coronavirus and firsthand.
And these are, they have all,
there was there was a point in time
when we actually had some masks
and we actually sent them to one of our daughter-in-law
because they were out of masks
and because of the supply chains being disrupted
and such and, these are big well funded hospitals scrounging
for supplies and we see this all around the country.
Good news is I think that the system has adjusted to that.
It's not unusual, but, during these times I know
that there's a lot of uncertainty.
But there are also moments
when you are very proud of being an American.
And you see how the American people rally,
how they adapt, how they are problem solvers.
And, certainly is, is that we want to keep all these peoples
in our thoughts and prayers,
but at the same time is that we will overcome
and we will find a way because that's who we are.
That's who we are, Mr. Chairman, all right, thank you.
-: Thank you Mr. Maynard, Miss Hardy.
-: Yes, I've thought about the changing times,
just picturing education wise (mumbles)
and it was a huge joy, our (mumbles)
should be very privileged to what,
what I got to actually kind of feel good is not to do the
distance teaching but it had, it was one of my eye
was elementary (mumbles) and social studies.
And so we just had a great time, I enjoyed that eventually,
and it really gave me a lot,
you know how can always hear me saying,
that (mumbles) teaching Social Studies,
well, if any of these guys get out there
and their professor had them so prepared,
it was unbelievable, I was very, very impressed.
And I take back some of my criticisms
about cultures of education.
If the rest of them are half as good as them,
we are in good shape, thanks.
-: Thank you, Miss Hardy, Mr. Cortez.
-: Yes, thank you Chairman Ellis.
Yeah, I just wanted to echo some of the comments
that were made by Member Maynard.
About everything that Commissioner Morath
and his staff have been doing
to assist Texas Public Schools.
I've if y'all have not jumped in on those calls,
I would encourage you to jump in,
some of the information that's being shared
with every one of the Superintendents at times,
these calls have 13, 1400 people on them.
And the amount of support that the Agency Commissioner
and everybody involved has been doing,
has been, very, very remarkable and very impressive.
I know that as the Governor has officially closed
brick and mortar schools,
and we move to this digital learning
for the remainder of the school year,
I can tell you that as I sat here yesterday,
on this meeting with you
and as I sit here today, in the other room,
I have my wife who's an administrator of a school,
who's doing Special Education ARD Meeting via Zoom.
She's Zooming in and out of different classrooms.
I've got a fifth grader who wakes up every morning,
8:00 a.m., has virtual instruction with his teacher,
three times to give guided instruction
and then they do learning on their own.
I've got three high schoolers that are doing college work,
they're doing credits, doing regular work
through their high school classes.
And as we go into this new normal
for the remainder of the year, I wanna just go back
and echo some of the comments
that were made about our educators
and all of the support staff
that are working at our schools still.
All over the State of Texas, not just in District two,
but everywhere you have food service personnel coming in
and creating these meals
and you've got these curbside pickups all over the State
to help feed some of our most vulnerable students
and to witness what is going on in this very difficult time
for a lot of people, is absolutely amazing to see.
As I walk across the house
and I listened into my wife, jump into Zoom class
at one of her pre-K classes,
to see these pre-kindergarten students receive instruction
remotely this way, is such a joy.
We've got a routine every morning,
I get woken up very early
because as a principal,
she still wants to do the morning announcements
and Pledge Allegiance and the Texas pledge
and wish, teachers Happy birthday
and all of these things to keep this new normal for our kids
in this new, I guess, as Commissioner Morath is calling it,
at home, school environment,
to see the work that our educators
and everybody else is doing it's just very, very impressive.
But if there's some lessons
that we can take away from this is that we can go back
and evaluate afterwards.
It's gonna give us a big spotlight
on the extreme digital divide that exists in Texas.
And if there's something as a Board of Education
that we can do, on a go forward basis, to address this
and have these conversations
and obviously months down the road
after we've evaluated what is going on.
This would be a perfect opportunity for us to look back
and see where we have gaps that as a state we can work on.
Chairman Ellis, maybe that's something you wanna consider.
I know we've had, under I don't recall
if it was under Chair Bahorich
or chair Cargill, where we had some hearings at the Capitol
and we had EducationSuperHighway come in.
But this is going to be an opportunity for us to reflect
and figure out what we can do.
You've got organizations
and big companies that are offering free resources
to schools all across the State.
You've got them offering free professional development,
as teachers learn to transition into this new type
of meeting structure
and academic structure.
You've got teachers giving tests online,
I mean, it's very remarkable what we've been able to see.
And I think as a Board, we should we should figure out ways
to incorporate some of the challenges
that exist as a result of this pandemic
so that we can make it easier for them.
God forbid something like this ever happened again.
I think as a State we should be ready,
at least on the educational front, so
that's it.
-: All right, thank you Mr. Cortez.
I'm gonna call on Mr. Rowley next
'cause of a let me kill two birds with one stone.
I'm gonna call him him,
but I've also got to step out for a minute too.
So I'm gonna hand the gavel over to him also.
-: Okay, very good, well,
I just have a couple of quick comments
and then we can move forward.
Mainly directing this to staff, particularly Kelly Callaway,
I'm not sure if she's still with us or not.
There she is, but her video's not up.
There she is and so I just wanna say a special thanks,
Kelly to you and all the work that you've done,
you've always been very professional, very well prepared,
and very approachable as well and very collegial.
And I know you've been in a lot of long, tedious meetings
in which you had to put up
with a lot of our laborious discussions and comments.
But I just wanna wish you the best going forward
and to tell you, thank you for everything that you've done.
And so our appreciation to you
and as always, Monica and her staff, Lenny
and others that had made this possible,
this was an amazing accomplishment, in my opinion,
to get this meeting ready.
And for us to be able to accomplish everything we did,
with very, very few glitches. (member clears throat)
And so I think it was a fabulous job.
It's as always a, comment on the professionalism,
competence and ability that the staff has.
And so I want to tell you all thank you
and then also, Chairman Ellis has stepped aside
but he did a fabulous job.
I'm not sure we all understand the behind the scenes work
that he does, preparing for these meetings
and getting ready
and so just want to give him our appreciation as well.
And then finally, and not to be outdone by by Miss Boharich.
There is (laughs) Rowley.
He is five months old.
As you can see, he's reading the book there,
at the age of five months.
And so he's highly, highly advanced
and an amazing young man.
So there you go, okay, so, Miss Perez,
I think maybe you are next.
If not, you're up.
-: I want to remind everybody
that not everybody has internet.
I'm sure you guys all know that where I live,
there is no broadband.
And so while people are talking about
all of these amazing online resources
and online PD and online testing
and online ARDs and online, everything else,
there is no online for a large portion of Texas.
And so, that being said, we have a number of Districts
out here in West Texas,
particularly Ector County, which is Odessa,
which is my neighbor, Mr. Rowley.
They are sending their Resource Officers out to do
wellness checks on families
and students who are unable to check in
because of the lack of digital devices
or lack of broadband infrastructure
and WiFi access.
And so please keep in mind I bet that we have
a lot of students who are being pushed behind
because of this type of circumstance,
and particularly our students who live in foster care,
our students who are in a state of homelessness,
and our children who are still in detention facilities.
-: Very good, thank you Member Perez, Dr. Robinson.
-: Yes, I don't have any of my own yeah,
I don't have any pictures of grandchildren,
anything like that.
But I'll just update Joe on two of my children.
My daughter Julia is graduating next month
for the Master's in Public Health,
which I guess is pretty timely with everything going on.
She's graduating from Baylor,
of course they're not gonna have the graduation ceremony,
but she'll be still be graduating.
And then my youngest son's graduating next month
from College of Charleston with a Creative Writing Major,
and he just found out the other day that he is,
he wants to get into the publishing business.
And he does, was, got a NYU Publishing internship thing
is gonna happen in New York,
well, it's actually not going to happen in New York,
it's gonna be online.
Because it's in June, but,
so there's some update on those two of my kids,
and I'll just say that, I don't wanna get too sappy here,
but I miss all 14 of y'all.
And, I really, really, really hope
that we can have a regular meeting in June.
I mean, maybe as I'll need a doctor for all of us.
I'll bring masks to everybody, how's that?
Mr. Rowley: There you go, PPE.
-: Yeah, there you go, there you go, that's it.
-: Thank you, Dr. Robinson.
Member Allen.
-: Thank you very much.
The good thing about working with this group is
that they say everything that you wanna say
before you get a chance to say it.
And so, I wanna just echo the sentiments
of everybody's spoken,
but I did want to make one announcement.
I did retire from the Houston Independent School District
in February.
And so I've been off since we've been doing this thing,
but I will start working again,
I will be teaching in (mumbles) this Fall.
So I'm going from one level of education to the next
and so it's an exciting time for me and my family.
And we look forward to the next chapter of life
as we go forward, thank you.
-: Congratulations, Member Allen on that, that's awesome.
-: What will you be teaching?
-: They have not assigned a course to me,
but I will be in the School of Education.
-: And is that (mumbles) school?
-: I'm sorry, I can't hear a thing, I can't understand.
-: Related to--
-: Yes, ma'am, it isn't any of them.
-: Very good.
-: Great.
-: Miss Bahorich.
-: This is just a real quick shout out to the Governor
and the Commissioner for helping me with a constituent issue
that was brought to my attention
about the telehealth regulations,
really needing some additional resources
for speech language pathologists
and audiologists, behavior analysts,
hearing instrument fitters and dispensers
and dyslexia therapists and practitioners
that those rules need to be lifted in order to provide
more of the assistance to that area for telehealth
'cause only certain categories were allowed
to do telehealth, he, the Governor expanded those categories
during this crisis
and I'm just grateful for the Commissioner's help with that
and for the Governor's office acting on that so quickly
to all of those students across Texas that were affected.
-: Okay, thank you, Member Davis.
-: This is short and sweet.
I just wanna give a huge shout out to
the DeSoto Literary Scholars.
They were supposed to be our performers today
and they had a really, really exciting performance,
they are gonna tie in poetry and music and movement.
It was really gonna be exciting so,
I really wanna try to figure out how I can get them
before us, one of these days
but I just shout out the DeSoto Literary Scholars,
thank you so much for agreeing to come and perform for us.
-: Very, good thank you Miss Galloway before,
I don't see any, oh Miss hardy I'm sorry, yeah.
Miss Hardy, your microphone.
Mr. Rowley: Now you're on.
-: Can you hear me?
Mr. Rowley: Yes, we can.
-: I have to get some (mumbles)
helped me with a real major problem about a young man,
(mumbles)
and they gave me enough information
that I was able to talk to the UIL
and push the situation such that,
the UIL changed their position on something
that's very unusual.
And it's a credit to the UIL,
because what they were looking at, was that,
when we have sports for kids is to enrich their lives.
And I'm asking why and not just follow the rules
and so I really appreciate the work that the staff,
(mumbles)
And what UIL was able to do with that, thank you.
-: Okay, very good.
Okay, Monica and/or Kelly, certainly Kelly,
I would like to give you an opportunity if you'd like
to just kind of give some parting comments,
if you'd like to do that.
-: Thank you.
I would just say that I believe it or not have enjoyed
Board meetings over the past 15 years.
I've enjoyed working with all of you
and your predecessors
and this is one of the things about retiring
that I will miss the most.
-: Okay, very good, Chairman Ellis,
I'll turn the meeting back to you.
-: Okay is there any other comments from staff,
any other members that have anything?
I think we've got all the members through.
So again, I do wanna thank staff, Monica, Laney, Shelly
and Kelly, this is on top of everything else.
I know that you're doing at the agency right now
to support our students in this new era
that we're going through.
I wanna take a little bit more time to thank you
for everything you've done to support us
and truly this meeting went off without a hitch.
Everything went well.
And that's because of what y'all been able to do.
So we very, very much appreciate that.
And then thank you to the members for being patient,
for again, working through this process.
Again, as I said earlier,
I'm really proud to be part of this Board.
So we will get back with you hopefully by next week
on what the timeframe will look like for our May meeting
and gets a little more clarification for that
and possibly be virtual again,
but we just don't know, time will tell.
But we will work on both scenarios.
So I think that is it.
And if there's no other comment for everyone,
we do stand adjourned.
Mr. Rowley: Bye bye, everybody.