Good evening. Before we begin this evening's organizational meeting with sympathy to family and friends, we share in the sadness of the passing of Patient Gal on January 2nd. patients retired as an elementary school teacher and served on the OIO the school board of AIO area schools for 20 years. We thank her for her many many years of service all with a strong focus on education. This meeting of the AIO school board is being conducted in the boardroom at the educational service center. The meeting can be monitored electronically by streaming online from the district website. An archived recording of today's meeting will also be available on the district website. As acting chair, I declare that the organizational meeting of Independent School District 279 School Board is called to order at 6:01 p.m. on Tuesday, January 6th, 2026. Seated in front of you this evening from my left and your right are Kelsey Dawson, Erica Foster, Thomas Brooks, myself, Tanya Prince, Keith Tate, and Sarah Mitchell. Also present in the boardroom are Superintendent Dr. Kim Hy and members of the superintendent's cabinet. Those of you who can please stand for the pledge of allegiance. Director Mitchell, will you please lead us in the pledge >> allegiance 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. Is there a motion to accept the agenda as presented? >> So moved. >> Moved by Director Brooks. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Seconded by Director Dawson. Is there any discussion? All in favor say I. I. >> Oppose. Nay. Motion passes six to zero. The next order of business will be the election of officers. The process for officer nominations shall be as follows. Names are placed into nomination. There's an opportunity for the nominee or nominator to make a statement and then a roll call vote. For the roll call vote, each board member will state the name of the nominee they are voting for and there will be no discussion. Nominations are now in order for the office of chairperson. Are there any nominations? >> I will nominate Tanya Prince. >> Tanya Prince is nominated. Are there any further nominations? Are there any further nominations for chairperson? Are there any further nominations for chairperson? Without objection, nominations are closed. Tanya Prince has been nominated for chairperson. Would any nominators or nominees like to make a statement with respect for their nomination? Yeah, I'll just say I have appreciated your partnership um and leadership. I think as we've worked to uh settle in as a new board and actually improve the culture of our board um you know the culture of this board impacts every single one of our students and staff members and um look forward to that continued partnership um and engagement with the rest of the board over this next year. >> Thank you. All right. The board uh secretary will now call on each board member to state their choices. Chair, when your name is called, please vote. Please state I vote for Sherry. Please conduct the roll call vote. >> Director Dawson, >> I vote for Tanya Prince. Director Foster, >> I vote for Tanya Prince. >> Director Brooks, >> I vote for Tanya Prince. >> Chair Prince, >> I vote for Tanya Prince. >> Director Tate, >> I vote for Tanya Prince. Director Mitchell, >> I vote for Tanya Prince. >> Tanya Prince is elected chairperson. Thank you. All right. Nominations are now in order for the office of board vice chair. Are there any nominations? Uh so I'd like to go ahead and nominate uh Director Thomas Brooks for uh board vice chair. Um, you know, again, I agree with what uh you said and um this has just been a really great um collaborative working relationship and I think that um Director Brooks really brings um so much creativity, so much thoughtfulness, so much empathy um to the work that we do and the culture that we're setting and you really exemplify um our values and our leadership from the top down. Thank you. I did that out of order. I apologize. I was supposed to wait to do that. Um, okay. So, Thomas Brooks is nominated. Are there any other nominations? Are there any other nominations for vice chair? Are there any further nominations for vice chair? Without objection, nominations are closed. Director Thomas Brooks has been nominated. Would any nominators like to make the statement? I did that. Um, okay. So, we will move to the vote. Uh, board secretary and I'll call on each board member to state their choice as vice chair. When your name is called, please state I vote for Sherry. Please conduct the roll call vote. >> Director Mitchell, >> I vote for Thomas Brooks. >> Director Tate, >> I vote for Thomas Brooks. >> Chair Prince, >> I vote for Thomas Brooks. >> Director Brooks. >> I vote for Thomas Brooks. >> Director Dawson, >> I vote for Thomas Brooks. Director Mitchell. >> Oh, I'm sorry. Foster vote again. >> I vote for Thomas Brooks. >> Okay. Uh Thomas Brooks is elected vice chair. Okay. We will now move on to board clerk. Nominations are now in order for the office of board clerk. Are there any nominations? I nominate Director Keith Tate. Are there any other Director Keith Tate is nominated. Are there any other further nominations? Are there any further nominations for board clerk? Are there any further nominations for board clerk? Without objection, nominations are closed. Uh, director Keith Tate has been nominated. And would any nominators or nominees like to make a statement with respect to their nomination? So I director Tate um has done an excellent job as a first year board member and in the role of co clerk and I really appreciate you jumping in and serving on some of the committees that actually require a lot more time than others and um just appreciate all that you do and how you serve. Okay. Um the board secretary will now call on each board member to state their choice as board clerk. When your name is called, please state I vote for Sherry. Please conduct the roll call vote. >> Director Foster, >> I vote for Keith Tate. >> Director Mitchell, >> I vote for Keith Tate. >> Vice Chair Brooks, >> I vote for Keith Tate. >> Director Tate, >> I vote for Keith Tate. >> Chair Prince, >> I vote for Keith Tate. >> Director Dawson, >> I vote for Keith Tate. And Keith Tate is elected board clerk. Nominations are now in order for the office of board treasurer. Are there any nominations? >> I nominate Sarah Mitchell. >> Sarah Mitchell is nominated. Are there any further nominations? Are there any further nominations for board treasurer? Are there any further nominations for board treasurer? Without objection, nominations are closed. Sarah Mitchell has been nominated for treasure. Would any nominators or nominees like to make a statement with respect for their nomination? >> Yeah, I um nominate Sarah with because she's such a she's a person of integrity and I feel like uh she did this position last year and it's nice to have continuity especially as we've gotten used to each other for a year and now another year in advance. So um yeah, I look forward to her leadership in this role. The board secretary will now call on each board member to state their choice as treasurer. When your name is called, please state I vote for >> Would you uh please conduct the roll call vote. >> Chair Prince, >> I vote for Sarah Mitchell. >> Vice Chair Brooks, >> I vote for Sarah Mitchell. >> Board Clerk Tate, >> I vote for Sarah Mitchell. >> Director Dawson, >> I vote for Sarah Mitchell. >> Director Mitchell, >> feels weird to vote for yourself, but I vote for Sarah Mitchell. Director Foster, >> I vote for Sarah Mitchell. >> Sarah Mitchell is elected board treasurer. >> Okay. The next agenda item is to establish compensation for schoolboard members for 2026. Um, I move I'm going to go ahead and move to adopt the 2025 schoolboard compensation levels as the 2026 compensation levels at the rates of $1,350 per month for the board chair and $1,250 per month for all other members. The monthly compensation rates are inclusive of a $50 monthly reimbursement for indist. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Seconded um by director Foster. Is there any discussion? All in favor say I. >> I. Oppose. Nay. The motion passes six to zero. >> The next agenda item is the consent agenda. Board members, the consent agenda includes several business and organizational procedures and authorizations. Are there any items that you would like to remove for separate consideration? Okay. Seeing none, is there a motion to approve the consent agenda as printed? So move >> uh moved by director Tate. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Seconded by Director Mitchell. Is there any discussion? All in favor say I. >> I. >> Oppose. Nay. >> The motion passes six to zero. The next agenda item is to approve the schoolboard committee and joint board representatives for 2026. Is there a motion to approve the schoolboard representatives to committees and joint boards for 2026 as listed on the document titled proposed 2026 schoolboard committee and joint board representatives? >> So moved. >> Moved by Director Brooks. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Seconded by Director Foster. Is there any discussion? Okay. So, um just a note, um all of the board members are continuing on in their um current board assignments and we'll continue to kind of revisit that at the start of the school year as schedules change. Um but um as was mentioned, it's really nice to continue to have the continuity um and and expertise of the board members. So, thank you for that everyone. Okay. Uh any all in favor say I. >> I opposed nay. Motion passes six to zero. Informational items. Informational items on this evening's agenda are the schoolboard operating protocols consisting of the resolution protocol and the agenda setting protocol. The information is for review. No action is to be taken. Our otherformational item is the reminder there will be a work session following adjournment of this organizational meeting. The work session will be in the forum room here at the ESC and is open to the public. The board secretary has several documents requiring our signatures. will take care of that before we move to the forum room. And our last agenda item is adjournment. We'll take a 10-minute recess before uh reconvening for the work session. Do we have a motion to adjourn the ISD 279 Ocio Area Schools organizational meeting at 6:13 p.m. >> Moved by Director Tate. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Second by Director Brooks. Any discussion? All in favor say I. I. Oppos. Motion passes 6 to zero and the mo the meeting is adjourned at 6:13 p.m. Three years in a row of Dr.