Board considers contract reallocations for special education services and approves memorial resolution and tax-credit request

Sheldon ISD administrators asked the board to approve reallocating funds already budgeted for open staff positions into contracted services to maintain special-education services through the end of the school year, and the board approved a memorial resolution for a late teacher/coach and a district request tied to a Section 313 tax-credit agreement.

Thomas Stewart (district administrator in the presentation) told trustees that staffing shortages, particularly for speech-language pathologists, make it difficult to hire certified staff at this point in the year. He asked to convert some salary dollars allocated for open positions into contracted services for the remainder of the school year so students continue to receive evaluations, therapy and ARD timelines are met. Stewart identified specific vendors and extra funding requests described during the presentation: an additional $40,000 for BlazerWorks/Laserworks (speech and therapy support and testing), $10,000 for a Seagull Ventures contract to provide direct services at a specific campus, and about $33,000 to extend Stepping Stones'provided services (progress monitoring and Medicaid billing support). Stewart said many of the contracts had been previously approved in May 2024; the current requests would allow the district to exceed earlier thresholds to finish the year and to bill Medicaid where applicable.

Trustees discussed recruiting and the difficulty of hiring bilingual and credentialed clinicians; staff described local recruiting efforts with institutions of higher education, on-site job events and efforts to grow candidates from within the district (including support for certification tracks). Stewart and other administrators said some contracted staff live locally and have been effective in closing caseload gaps.

Separately, the board read and adopted a resolution honoring Moulay (Mulei) Abdel Moonen, a French teacher and girls'soccer coach who served the district for about 18 years. Family members were invited forward and trustees offered condolences; the resolution was recorded as adopted in March 2025.

On a separate business item the board considered a recommendation to approve a request for additional state aid related to a tax-credit grant for FMC Technologies under Texas Tax Code Section 313. The recommendation as read asked the board to approve a request for additional state aid in the amount of the tax credit grant for the 2024'25 school year; the meeting record shows the board sought and received approval after discussion (no individual mover/second or roll-call tally was reported in the public excerpt). Trustees also discussed several consent and procurement items during the meeting including facility services, a box truck purchase intended for warehousing, and a security personnel/device package; the minutes show the board considered those items in sequence and the meeting record indicates board approval on routine business votes during the session.

District staff said they will bring budget amendments or contract documents forward as needed to reflect the reallocation of salary dollars to contracted-service accounts and to document any threshold increases for the vendors named.