Nederland Independent School District will hold a special meeting of the Board of Trustees at 5:30 p.m. Monday in the administration building’s boardroom.

The first item on the agenda is discussion and public hearing for the 2018-19 budget and tax rate.

Nederland ISD Superintendent Robin Perez said the board will propose a reduction to the Maintenance and Operations and Interest and Sinking tax rate during Monday’s meeting.

“We are proposing a reduction to the M&O from 1.04 to .97 and the I&S tax rate at .36 to pay the district’s recently issued school building bonds, which is significantly less than the financial projections presented during the bond discussions,” she said.

Perez said the goals the board kept in the forefront of their minds when developing the budget were safety and success.

“We want to ensure safe and secure schools, maintain excellence in education and continue to meet the individual needs of our learners,” she said. “We want to increase salaries for our staff members in order to maintain a balanced budget and provide resources for the district goals.”

An additional topic of discussion includes the consideration and possible action to create a threat assessment and safe and supportive school program team.

“The safety and security of our students, faculty and staff has always been our top priority,” Perez said. “We look forward to working with this committee and our community partners to assure our campuses are safe and secure.”

The team would be responsible for providing guidance to students and employees on recognizing violent and threatening behavior, supporting the district in implementing the Multihazard Emergency Operations Plan and make determinations about a student’s risk to themselves or others.

Members would be required to have expertise in counseling, behavior management, mental health and substance use, classroom instruction, special education, school administration, school safety and security, emergency management and law enforcement.

The final item on the agenda will be the Nederland High Schools serving line renovation. Perez said the Texas Department of Agriculture selected Nederland ISD to receive a 2018 NSLP Equipment Assistance Grant last year.

“The grant was for one modular counter and the child nutrition fund balance will be used so that both modular counters are remodeled at the same time,” she said. “The terms of the grant require that we complete the project this school year. Therefore, the equipment and serving lines will be mobile and will be moved to the new high school once it is completed.”

Following Monday’s meeting, a community meeting will be held Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. in Nederland High School to meet with stakeholders and review the final architectural requirements set by the 2019 bond project.

Perez said design teams will begin meeting Wednesday to prepare preliminary drawings.

Tuesday’s meeting is open to the public to look through the document and celebrate many months of work put in by many people, Perez said.

“This summer there has been several design stakeholder meetings to gather input regarding each campus, and we want our community to come and be a part of Nederland ISD history,” she said.

For more information, visit https://v3.boardbook.org/Public/PublicHome.aspx?ak=123905.