On October 8, the board of trustees for the Katy Independent School District, along with Superintendent Ken Gregorski and the district’s general counsel Justin Graham, met for more than three hours of team building. The training, which is required by state law annually according to the Texas Education Agency website, was facilitated by Robert Long III, division director of Board Development Services for the Texas Association of School Boards and consultant Jason Burdine, who formerly served as a school board member in Fort Bend County, and who is not affiliated with TASB.

The session, which exceeded the three-hour requirement, took place in the LGI Center at Cinco Ranch High School at 23440 Cinco Ranch Blvd. in Katy. It also included a short closed session meeting of the board but the topic of the closed session was not disclosed. There were no public speakers. Long said the meeting would be the first of several sessions.

“We have a small window to achieve great things,” said board president Lance Redmon as he kicked off the meeting. Redmon has stated that his goal is for the KISD board to win the H-E-B Award of Excellence.

Long said that the objective of the training was to clarify board roles and to distinguish between governance and management. “Teams move effectively at the speed of trust,” Long said, adding that an objective of the training was to get to a level of trust so that there would be “unity and coherence.”

Long’s first question to the board was to “name one board action that if done consistently would most improve student outcomes.” Trustee James Cross pointed to improved communication, while trustee Amy Thieme mentioned protecting teacher planning time which would help retain teachers, in turn improving student performance. Trustee Rebecca Fox addressed learning board “learning walks” where she asks each campus administrator about their “greatest joy” and “greatest challenge,” as well as innovation. Trustee Morgan Calhoun echoed the issue of protecting planning time and added the issue of staff health insurance coverage and costs, also expressing concern about helping low-performing campuses. Trustee Dawn Champagne recommended doing one thing needed at each campus, as identified by board members during their school visits. Trustee Mary Ellen Cuzela suggested that the board agree on an appropriate metric to monitor, which could be different from current metrics, and to “listen directly to teachers.” Redmon and Gregorski focused on the district’s strategic plan.

Much of the discussion in the meeting focused on the district’s strategic design plan, which Redmon said would be updated in the spring. Thieme, Calhoun and Cuzela expressed frustration that they did not have enough input into the current strategic plan. Calhoun described the plan as “corporate jargon” and “word salad” and asked that the plan be made “real” so that its effects could be seen by teachers at the campus level.

Long also asked board members if they felt “safe” and could ask “hard questions” during the meetings. Thieme responded, “Never,” while Cross said he did not feel safe, and Champagne said that she sometimes felt safe. Fox, Cuzela, Calhoun and Redmon said they felt safe and confident during the meetings.

Long said that he and his team prepared for the teambuilding exercise by reviewing video of all 23 board meetings (both work-study and regular board meetings) that took place during the last school year. The consultant also recommended three “micro behaviors” for the Katy board to adopt. Long said that his team observed board members making claims before asking questions and recommended that they adjust their behavior to ask a question first before making a claim. Long’s team also found the fact that of the average two hour and 38-minute-long regular board meeting, about 52 minutes was spent by board members in “adult conversation,” or “back and forth” exchanges among board members while 25 to 30 per cent of board meeting time was spent on academic outcomes. Recognitions, while important, took up a significant amount of time in meetings, Long said. Long’s third recommendation was that board members “assume positive intent and also taking a moment to write the person’s question down before you respond to it.”

Long said that the next teambuilding workshops would address board member commitment and a board self-assessment. No dates for those sessions were announced.