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substitute increase in stipend that was approved a couple meetings ago estimating at seventy thousand if we have more people that stay with us longer uh you know to get to the Loyalty stipend that could go up a little bit if we have an increased fill rate that's built built on a fill rate of 50 50 if we were to move up to 70 fill rate then that number would go up uh anticipated support staff increase in January is 130. extracurricular co-curriculars twenty thousand so you see employee raises are 833 753 and then classroom site is the 276. so remember we started with 1.254 mil and all we spent to this point is 833. so the idea is we can aggressive trying to go ahead and move uh dollars close to what our neighbors are doing but conservative that we haven't gone ahead and wiped out all what we believe the money will be coming in just on salaries okay questions yes for the growth that we talk about the 200 students are we going to specify what grades those are for no it's what we did the last two times is we look at the hunter State count in January and it's across the entire District as a plus 200 so you may see a minus in one class so are you talking preschool through 12th grade yeah and we use the the based on the last two years we've done the same thing do we get as much money from preschool as we do we don't get no but but because it's a stipend the stipend can support this the I mean excuse me the increased growth can support the stipend we're not going to get 200 kids just solely in preschool uh it's just not gonna happen especially since preschool what you see is a number that's fairly low at the beginning of the year and it just slowly grows over the course of the year as kids hit the right age and so where we would anticipate the K uh 12 kids would really be the factor that would drive us on ADM to get to the number that we need so is it a good idea to base that number on K-12 instead of preschool we can do that yeah yeah I mean either way I believe that the funding sources that will come in will cover it if we want to and this would be part of the board and I can make the adjustment Julie can make the adjustment we can modify that to K-12 it's just a factor of taking a look at the ADM at the 100th day and taking out uh the Pre-K kids and looking at the kindergarten and and we're fine we look at it both ways because again either way if we don't hit it nobody's getting it okay other questions okay health insurance just quickly know that we went through health insurance with um both CCC and and the leadership uh the real issue we're with Smith School medical insurance trust our belief was because we were the biggest of that group which was a small group and our population was younger and healthier that we are actually carrying that group and we're not seeing the benefits of what our population of employees would be and therefore we had to go out on the market to look based on what we got We believe We were correct on that so what we did was we're going to go with Kairos the recommendations go with Kairos uh representative will be here tonight if there's questions during that agenda item basically we got a six percent decrease which with not necessarily every group but it'll be 95 of all the different groups that we fund employee employee plus spouse employee plus children all those different combos we'll see uh decreasing what their premiums are the district will also see a decrease because we pay for the basic plan for everybody that savings is 164 thousand dollars we continue to pay 100 of employee basic the basic life and the 100 of the basic plan excuse me which is what we've always done we say if you're an employee and you're eligible for benefits we will pay for it okay uh we do pay life insurance also that doesn't change with Kairos 1.5 times up to salary up to 50 000 it's up to 150 000 for administrators here's something different that will do in trying to be competitive with other neighboring districts right now your insurance doesn't start until the second month after day to hire so if you start in July you're not going to get your first Insurance until September some people are saying well thank you I'll go some work for somewhere else where it can start in August so we will now start on the month after day to hire so if you're hired on the 25th you're going to start your insurance on the first if you're hired on the first you're going to start your insurance on the first of the next month so it'll vary that's what most districts do if employees want to buy up they can still buy up they have the same plans as they have in the past in some cases we did add employee plus children to take advantage of maybe a single parent who has kids the rates are a little bit different than if you just employ plus one or employee plus family and if those individuals I forget the number we have of them they would see significant Savings in their premium because of the decrease because kids don't cost as much in insurance so there's a couple different ways with the change to the higher date we'll also be able to spread the premiums across an extra couple paychecks so so our employees should see a savings with these changes to Insurance where these are all the same we had before with the exception of pet theft identity and and legal those are new voluntary plans that people can buy if if they so desire that was done out of a request from employees to look at some additional types of plans and since they're voluntary fine with me and Carol's offered bills okay and but we will be changing from Blue Cross Blue Shield to United Health question setting aside the the cost in terms of the medical services that are being provided are they comparable between the two because I wouldn't want to pay less but get less in terms of medical services they're they're the same or and it's it's all over the place same or maybe they offer a couple more things but maybe not a couple things but generally speaking for medical in the big picture it's identical questions yeah I I guess I didn't realize that we were doing um life insurance is that term I believe it is yes and we've been doing it and we're not the only ones all school districts have done it and done it for years um and so that's no different than what we've been doing in the past everybody becomes critical that people don't understand that that is a that is uh uh uh a benefit right and how does that work when they leave then they don't get it anymore no okay unless they they want to pay for it but but nobody does I don't think very many people realize we're doing that that's why we're putting that as an idea some Personnel reduction changes oh this one went wonky on me apologize for that okay we're looking you have an agenda item we cannot hire people to do our HVAC electrical and plumbing because we're not competitive the current employees that we have we have two out of five the other three just we've been trying to replace a couple for a while so we went out to bid you'll see an agenda item asking vergie who did our um who did our uh Esco to go ahead and provide the services and actually we will see about a fifty thousand dollar savings with what they're paying and with compared to what we're paying for staff we're going to decrease three to five teachers in the district enough people left with no teachers going to lose their job that 195 represents three if we did a couple more then the number would be higher and it is based on student enrollment based on some student enrollment we're we're moving people around and in some cases we're reducing because we didn't have as many kids uh we will not fill the doc's position for some of you been here a while that was a position Deanna crane failed this year we went ahead and gave some additional responsibilities to Liz Zoyo and uh did not fill the position so nobody's going to lose the job there because it's an unfilled position that's fifty thousand we had a 0.5 nurse that we did not need this year therefore it went unfailed so we'll eliminate that that's 35 000.
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we've had a CHS EDP counselor that we have not filled for two years because we've been able to cover it so we will not replace that that's 65 000. uh we have our preschool teacher that we did not fail we don't believe we'll need with the preschool next year there's 65 000 uh parapro position unfilled for about 30. is there one more I can't see with the way it went second Transportation routing position and we've had Bob and I have had experience in much larger districts where they only have one routing dispatcher and so we've always had two given our size districts that are three times our size only had one we did not fill position this year so we will not fill it again there's your 540 000. I mean you say that it's we didn't we didn't actually pay some of those though right there built into the budget as a position spot so when you built our budget last year it was allocated to spend that much money and so when we create the new budget this year we're saying no we're going to actually take it out of the budget completely and it's not even going to be allocated this year every one of those positions was allocated in the m o budget does that make sense I have a question I understand not filming positions but I also think we've talked about class sizes and isn't there something we could do to not lose those three teachers or five teachers and lower class sizes in the district potentially it depends when you take a look at some of the class sizes we had are significantly lower than even the standards we have and we believe we can still be within the standards we have and meaning the approval that you did a couple I think a month ago um I would say they were significantly lighter of that and so um well you know getting back to those those approvals I view those as you know I don't know maybe it's not the right way to say it a worst case scenario getting to that high level uh kids will learn much better with smaller classes there's no doubt isn't there a way to to keep those positions in and to uh somehow I'll give you an option in a second and you tell me but there's a cost to that option so if you wait I'll get a little bit down and I'll explain another piece and then then we'll come back and visit that it could give me a second a couple minutes okay a couple will no cost of budgets we're looking to reorganize CIA uh through uh some reductions and it's a zero cost a few different titles uh we're trying to really work with new teachers because we're turning over so many uh uh staff we have a lot of new teachers coming in so we want to give them additional supports this year we had 4.0 for HR but we only filled the 3.5 we would look to go back to 4.0 uh we'll take three certified FTE from CHS and move them over to the middle school that's based on student enrollment projected student enrollment uh CSS ccss the alternative school we're going to increase the administrative assistant in a few hours so there's someone there during the day when they when they need it there was an unfilled position that we were going to put there we'll use the money from there so there's actual overall savings and then food nutrition we're going to move a position to 12 months modify the title and job description we'll come back to that next month with you we need someone in the summer to help with our summer programming and with only one person here in the summer it's hard to go ahead and run the programming for the full year so that's what that is that that is supported by their own budget not by the mno budget but I still put it up there so you're aware of the change okay do we do we know which um High School teachers are going to the middle school where it's not anybody going to the Middle School giving the number of people that are leaving us as a position it's a change of a position oh so we're just we're not taking this position but we're adding these positions right we're saying you're leaving us I mean we have 10 people that left us okay we're going to move this this this position that are being advertised and then we will hire those positions and that will be who are the changes what about um the 0.5 position at the HR it says unfilled so what was what was that position 2.0 position that the person coming in only work one could work for some reasons related to retirement at a point five and they're interested in only staying at the 0.5 so we'll look to see if we can have a 0.5 that would help out that would fill out the rest of that position in terms of providing more time these are just small ones but I know the board had a concern as has the staff so we are looking at doing a little bit of adding the 0.8 for elementary specials because we're trying to readjust the Elementary schedule for the specials to help less travel create some people on classrooms that could help with teachers that are in the classroom at the elementary level to give them some PLC time we're also trying to create consistency consistency of teaching time throughout the district we've had several meetings with principals and I think on at least three meetings with specialist teachers I will tell you up front not all the special teachers agree with the with the concept I would say probably 80 to 90 percent do but there's a couple that are not crazy about it and so we have not made a final decision we had a meeting this afternoon we're going to give some more a couple more proposals and adjustments to what their concerns are I still believe that we might have some that aren't excited with the change and so um that's with everything in life we can't get 100 on everything we're going to do three days at the start of school however it's paid out of essers we've done that for the last couple years but we're going to take one of them and protect it for Teacher time in the classroom only okay so it just gives back a little bit more time instead of doing three days of PD so it's not huge things with time we'll continue to look to see if we can do more but that's at least a starting point to to know that we are listening what concerns are that people have raised thank you uh for the daa again to align item contingency we will uh please note that we got an allocation of 2.3 mil if we do the savings we also have annual licensing fees like for Synergy our student database and other ones that add up close to eight hundred thousand dollars so in this process we have about 1.2 million a little short of 1.3 million to spend we'll focus on upgrade of furniture at the district office excuse me throughout the district schools uh Reese key some schools and move towards some access points because we have a lot of keys out there we need to start pulling back and we'll upgrade the bus radios to line with the district radio system but there'll be other things that we'll bring to you this is just an initial list so in summary real quickly and moved on me if you look at the two percent increase we said it was three hundred thousand the health premium savings is 164.
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raises are going to cost us 8.33 position reductions are 540. the budget from the daa is 250. so we have a remaining budget of 420 000. that we're not spending based on the amount we'd have so I did this if we gain money that money can be used to add features if we lose excuse me gain money if we gain students the money will be used for for the increase if we lose students then that's a start on what we'll have to cut so to your question Bob could we not cut 195 000 for teachers sure you're 420 just went down to 220. and so that becomes a an issue and it's not either right or wrong but that's what you end up that that's the cost that's associated with that because as we stand right now the 540 gets us to the 1.25 mil and gets us to the savings of 420 000.
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if we want to adjust any of those numbers if you said well we want to give everybody another one percent cool we'll give one percent but you just are getting closer to the 1.25 million therefore there's no wiggle room if we turn around and lose kids next year then somehow we're going to have to cut the the loss so that's the way we're trying to be aggressive yet conservative that's a possible option that we can go back and address no I understand that and when we had our discussion about um substitute pay right and the million dollar carryover and at that point in time I said I'm okay if we don't have a million I'm looking at it from the point of view of our our students test scores and their performance not being as aggressive in terms of increases I would like personally would like to see so if it takes more teachers to accommodate that I personally would be willing to say spend the money keep the teachers do something to increase the test scores so I I understand there's that Dynamic with the money but this is something I think that's good to spend money on and I think the issue that's out there and Julie will have to explain this because I'm not sure I even understand it but we have a million in our budget but when you go ahead and if you change the million carryover to a different number that changes all the different numbers and in fact it impacts us not let's just say we're going to cut it to 750.
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the impact is not a savings of 250 it cuts into the budget because now you're not carrying that forward to the next year if I'm doing this right please step up therefore you're going to hit over the the um the way it translates through the rest of the budget to greater than a two percent greater than a 250 000 hit to the budget so in fact by trying to save more and contingency you're going to end up cutting more to the budget than you anticipated because of the way the budget works again Julie may have to come up and explain it in better detail than I am but I was going simplistic oh it's 250 thousand dollars cool it's what two hundred fifty thousand dollars on a line item but that's not the way the budget calculation works in the budget no no I I understand that I'm just saying that if our focus is Student Success I'm willing to spend money on Student Success I don't know how everybody else on the panel feels but just giving you my point of view and how I view the cutting of the and if that's what the board would like we can get some direction from the board on that but I'm just telling you that because of the way contingency works it has a bigger hit than we think so so you're you're narrowing that Gap to what you have left to spend and you only have 420 extra so just note that that it does create those problems I would say I wouldn't be opposed to it but for to core classes I'm fine like not to electives they are currently core classes that is where those positions are we'll work some numbers and we'll come back we can still move forward with the other stuff in the agenda today but we'll work some more numbers I just want to go through this quickly because sometimes I think we pass through this stuff and we wanted to let people realize when I got here and I'm only using my time here because that's all I can control was the time that I've been here we're running 39 000 when we first got here and we're up to 52 000 for a base salary when you look at the increase again these these numbers are jiggered on on this picture but certified staff has gotten a 24.63 percent increase support staff at 22.02 percent increase Administration a 19 increase with increased substitutes three different times so 15 you're seeing a calculation that was run off of 35 000 for our coaches it's now run off at 52 000.
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okay so you're seeing increases there we gave a covid stipend I have two percent but I may have missed it may have been one percent okay I apologize for not fixing that we've done retention stipends for two years three years in a row if you approve it tonight and we've increased from one percent to two percent we've done the growth stipend last year we did this substitute loyalty stipend and remember last year because it was an issue about signing bonuses we called it uh experience adjustments so everybody that was currently in the district got an adjustment between 500 and 2500 based on longevity that was built into their base pay so offset if anybody was brand new to Combs they got between 250 and 1250 and that was a signing bonus we just called it welcome to Combs we didn't want anybody to jump somebody that was currently here that's why you see that the experience adjustment for our our employees was double the amount that the welcome was um then we've gotten several different curriculum that we purchased over the last four years we've done a tremendous amount of technology and our one-to-one initiative in terms of what we've done uh to make the assist the the district be able to take a one-to-one for all the kids we put especially the 2021 17 million into the district without going to the the Community for taxes and so we continue to upgrade we'll continue to work on on that with sflb as well as other funding sources and so I just point that out because sometimes we do a lot of things and we pass through it we get in the middle of a budget discussion and we forget what we've done any questions on that yes okay I do not understand the contingency discussion so I got a job so I don't I don't understand it maybe and if and if I don't understand after this I'll set a specific time for my own tutoring session one of the things when we fill out the forms it has the revenue control limit we have to add and subtract the various items depending on what we carry forward that's going to impact our bottom line and our budget anytime the revenue control limit which is based off of the ADM and what we're getting per student the trickle-down effect is not necessarily oh well if I take 250 here it's 250 here there's so many other factors in regards to the carry forward that it's not necessarily a specific dollar amount it could be impacted by anything else that's on that budget sheet which would be our Energy savings it could be the prop one two three it could be whatever we're receiving for the budget carry forward it could be whatever we're allocating between daa and or capital and our mno so there's a lot of little factors that in some ways you can't say yes it's this and this as long as you take out all these other little factors does that make sense it's just because of all of the line items that are on that specific budget sheet that if I take 250 here if everything Remains the Same it's 250.
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but the likelihood that everything else is going to stay the same is now does that help I'll schedule a tutoring session I'm so sorry it there's just a lot of factors that come in when we get down to what our actual budget number is it's not just one number and in addition the other thing to consider is when we do take into effect that change the state does look at it and say well did you use more of your contingency and is that a yes or no and in some of the audits they look at they'll say yes and some people consider that a ding against us some don't but it's what are you using and what are those dollars being used for and what we'll do even after Mr Ray's tutoring session uh when we when we get the budget approved in June and July I'll make sure that Julie shows you that specific page and it shows you how the different impacts the one example is is if you remember on the Esco the the debt Services goes up on the Esco so the debt Services is going to be the same number as it was this year because there's a lease payment on the debt services so the last thing I just want to follow up on what you said because I think it's very important that the 250 if everything else stayed the same the 250 would flow through but whether we spend that 250 or not there's still the option of everything else not staying the same so you have all those variables so that those variables do not affect the 250.
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the 250 is a standalone those variables are going to happen whether you approve another well it's actually 195 was a number for the three the teachers those variables are going to happen and change whether or not you keep or reduce teachers so so so that's that's the issue that everything else is going to happen no matter what so then the last thing that I put up there and we don't have to have a lengthy discussion otherwise uh Miss Hargis will point out that it's five minutes to 5 45 and I'm between you and the food um but I do think at some point you have to we're going to have to have a discussion and it may be at the next board agenda is um it's impossible to get and squeeze this budget enough to be competitive with every District to the west of us who's on a 15 mno override now what understand all the conversations all the factors CCC had a conversation about this and concerns about all the factors if we don't go for an override we don't go for an override if we go for an override and someone says no that's fine but understand that that all the celebrations show you all the work we've done to get there but the celebrations are going to get smaller and smaller because we're squeezing every place I think I'm pretty good with a budget I've lived with flat or declining enrollment for my entire career as a superintendent and I know a lot of ways to save money and I got to tell you run out of ways to figure that out now problematic with all this just so you can think about it so we can come back if you want May and have a bigger conversation if we're going to go out in 23 then we have to call it no later than June you have to get a pat going and you have a lot of work to do and it's pretty short timeline problematic is there's a lot of people out there that are suggesting that 24 is not the year to go out for anything because if you go with the national election on the president and we put in all the factors that we have at the political level on the national scene that the chances of more people coming out than ever before and being upset and and disenfranchised in one force portion of another is probably going to harm stay uh School District budgets excuse me overrides or uh Capital bonds so then your next one is to go out in 25.
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so that just means and I say this because we're not competitive in Lots areas so you see we've got a projection today to go help with HVAC plumbing and and electrical we did substitutes we're losing bus drivers we're having problems with Administration we're having problems with teachers if those issues raised during the school year and there's no additional dollars we're not going to take contingency to zero so it's going to get harder and harder to address that so we we just have to understand that and if if if we try and we lose then that is one issue if we don't try then that's another issue and again I'm not here to Advocate one way or the other but I just want to bring up that that it is that is getting very difficult to remain competitive when we're at a 15 disadvantage with everybody that's probably going to be attracting many of our employees because they might live over in that part of the world anyway so it's less of a drive and so if you want me to bring something back in May so we can have a discussion it's not going to be a big presentation it's really going to be these are the things we're going to do and there's probably more discussion of how do you feel as a board relative to this issue and when do we think or not think we should do something and then based on that direction we would move forward or not move forward or do whatever it is we want to do I can give you some ideas but I just need you to to know that I put this question up because I think we've done a great job and I appreciate all the work that the administrators have done over the over my career here to do some stuff but it's getting harder and harder and harder my um suggestion I guess is that make sure that I I think that if I think we have two people for sure that don't unders probably understand what an mno override is and how it goes in all of the ins and outs of it so I think that there needs to be some sort of study session or um something that we do before because there's a lot of things going on um for example if we do it with the presidential election we don't have to pay for it to get on to the ballot correct we have to pay for some of it but it's cheaper because of the existing stuff that's taking place then if we don't do it on an election year then that's and it's all the only thing then we're right we're fully we have to pay for that we run the risk in 23 and 25 nothing else being on the ballot right before in 26 we at least there's gubernatorial or presidential election correct so anyway there's just a lot that goes into it there's I'm not I'm not saying one way or the other I'm just saying that I think you guys need to be fully educated so on that before you make a decision so based on that would you like me to schedule a special session okay at the end of April or would you like me to bring an hour-long meeting like we did today uh and talk about it before our May meeting I can do either one but you guys tell me which one you need I think we need to have a discussion about it so I think an hour is appropriate I just don't know how everybody else feels I'm okay with any time me too don't matter would you guys is it easier for you to do it okay maybe just an hour before okay so we'll plan on May 10th uh board meeting being similar to this board meeting with 45 minutes a little bit longer we'll have food in the 50-minute break and then we'll continue with the rest of the budget okay so then we'll go to break and then come back at at six o'clock did you have other questions Bob no that was it okay but if you have questions or you think about things are part of the conversation as we get to some of the agenda items not all the budget recommendations are in this one there'll be some that show up in May but just know that you can go ahead and ask this question during that portion too okay thanks thank you thank you Greg so it's in the it's in the kitchen picture sandwiches chips all sorts of stuff foreign did you get my text no about what oh we still have to wait for one more so it's fine I will I'll put that down on my record sheet recovery which answers oh well that's the whole thing not supposed to I have a book yeah oh I know you have a book I like that I think we just met and I still gave him so much crap that day I think he was like I think he was like I wish [Laughter] okay I'm gonna call the meeting to reconvene at uh so it's not late right it's right convenient that's right that's right 603 um gosh darn it all right let's go ahead and oh we need to approve we already approved the minutes oh the agenda I mean oh we don't have okay all right the Pledge of 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 okay so we're we're going to go ahead and um table the meeting minutes correct correct we'll do that next time um so we have the superintendent's report thank you madam president uh again looking at um student enrollment numbers are relatively speaking unchanged we've had a few more leave comparison last month we're still running at a deficit compared to previous years so I'm not going to go through each and every one it is that time of year just so you know two things are happening this time of year first of all State Testing so we do have State Testing going on through the end of the month so all of our sites are are working on that um please note that there's a lot of illness out there so we are having a lot of makeups just based on kids missing um due to due to that they have to make up the test they missed before they can go on the other tests so it gets a little bit complicated as as we move forward we also the second thing besides the testing is it's that time of the year for um lots of exciting things happening throughout throughout the district in terms of things that are are taking place in variety of programs for the Middle School prior to spring break thanks to the Gold Canyon Arts Council they had a string Trio come in and and work with kids and perform with some of the kids in choir and Orchestra down at the uh down at the middle school and it ended up being a very very positive experience both for those that for the kids but also for the the trio that was making the presentation and the representative from GC the Gold Canyon Arts Council said this Ensemble Express Delight in the manner to the students responded to them and spoke of that school experience during their Friday evening concert so very much a positive for the Middle School keeping in the music theme also for the middle school they also had kids perform at the aboda All-State choir Festival Madden Hastings Mason Dunn Madeline Finney Alexis Rojo and Isabel zerbinos so again our kids are excelling down at the middle school in lots of different areas including Fine Arts and I know they've started off the last quarter of this sports program also being very successful same thing happens at the high school the choir received an overall rating of Superior and rating of Excellence on sight reading and Superior performance at the state Coral Festival winter drum line earned second place overall and took home the highest score what's called a caption award for music performance and music effect they'll be looking at this weekend doing the Drumline state championship trap and skeet over spring break participated in the state amateur trap Association students did accept exceptionally well in a slightly different format than they're used to and they start their competitive season this weekend and it will be the first in line or in live skeet and trap shoot before it was we would compete in kids at other places would compete and and the scores would be posted online we're going to have I think Mr Hill said three teams four teams three teams present it's over at Casa Grande so that's a positive we have robotics many people will not realize but during robotics the robotics team during spring break competed in the Arizona first eastern regional competition the team named awe 1991 I'm sure there's a reason for that but I don't know what it is they were the highest seated rookie team and just barely missed the playoffs and received some awards for that so again it just speaks to the variety of things that our kids have available to us yearbook was featured by Jostens in their lookbook which selected 479 books out of a thousand reviewed and then their book and the areas that they were awarded for will be shared with other schools Across the Nation in Canada to say here's what good yearbooks look like you may want to if you're looking if you if you're not if you're a new sponsor or something you may want to take a look at what some of these different districts do and so this is that's a positive Sports Medicine showcase their skills at HOSA and it's for the first time in history they were recognized as a bronze chapter we have a couple students that play second in that in that area and qualified for Internationals in Dallas ffcla State leadership you remember zohed division is was on the state board for ffcla so she was a student representative I believe it was Treasurer or vice president but I could be wrong she's spoken on the stage the crowds of over a thousand people help with newsletters help guide the members Statewide of ffcla everybody's just raved about the job she's done and so uh overall very positive she's also going to compete at Nationals again coming up and I missed a couple so give me two seconds let's see because I know Student Government also received an award um this uh over spring break uh they were for the second consecutive year uh recognized as an exemplary record of leadership service and activities to improve the school in the community um they got the 2023 National Gold Council of Excellence by the national student council which is also associated with a National Association of secondary school principals so again it's just record recognition of success prior kids across the board for a variety of different areas that we wanted to just highlight and now we'll go to some employee recognition this is the time each board meeting where we just take a few moments to take a look at those employees based on employed group that are even asked or that are having during this month either a National Day a national week or national month so we're going to call up some people and recognize them no you did not yeah you can start to do these yes you can start to do these okay oops for the first group we want to recognize I'll call them up and then I'll write it but this is the only list of names I have so um the first group we want to recognize uh last Wednesday April 5th was Pro appreciation day and so I'll call these people up and then um go ahead and speak a little bit and Shelley can sign real fast while I'm speaking and then we'll make sure we give them their receipt so from Rice pair Pro Erica bejarano do you want us to sign real quick from Ellsworth Annie Peterson [Applause] from Combs Traditional Academy Cheryl Tapia stay just stay just stay right here [Applause] from Combs Middle School Kelly Edens [Applause] from Combs High School Heidi bush if you're not aware what we're saying is we'll say a few things if you're not aware of parapro appreciation day they're the they're the people that work in many cases with the special needs students throughout our district they go above and beyond every single day um they're called paraprofessionals as semi-professional Educators and they make the connection with kids in the special education program they make all the difference those kids look for are we missing one I don't have the name so go ahead can someone feed me and Julia O'Dell from Ranch [Applause] and so again if if you're in uh if you're in if your kids are in special education these are the people that make the one-on-one connection with those kids and those kids look forward to seeing these pair Pros every single day and if you've been in some of the programs and you had a chance to walk into some of this classrooms you cannot imagine the light in the eyes of the children when these parapros walk in they're just thrilled to death to see them every single day they're there for their teachers but they're also there for the parapros and the job that they do and to watch them work with these kids and to watch them take these kids and move them to places that probably you as a family member or as an educator may have not thought they could get these people do magical work every single day and so because of April 5th but also for everything you do we want to thank you so very much for the job you do with our kids thank you [Applause] okay we have uh it was also the week of the third through the 7th so April's a very busy week we have three people we'd like to call up for assistant principals week which is Michael Griffith Carl Hill [Applause] and April Kaczynski thank you and again this is another set of people that that you may not see them every single day if you're not at the high school you won't necessarily see them but they're doing the Yeomans work they're doing all the things that need to be done in behind the scenes they're taken care of how many nights they have to be there for sporting events or they have to be there for uh that's probably where April is they have to be there for plays they have to be there for uh concerts they have to be there for any number of different activities and oh by the way it's not just one day a week it's not just for one month a year it's for the entire year and then in many cases they're there in the summer working as we have practices as we start things up and so again there's so many people that make a district run there's so many people that do amazing jobs many of them quietly behind the scenes that don't get a lot of recognition that's why we have this event and so again we want to thank our assistant principals very much for the job they do [Applause] ah the let's see these signs okay on April 4th we have National School librarian day so we're going to call up some people that are librarian or librarian assistants in our district at Combs High School the librarian Ann Matson foreign [Applause] [Music] at Ranch Wendy blackfeather at Harmon Ashley slug at Combs Middle School Shannon snowball [Applause] and again these are I can just speak for my own personal experience with one child that the library was their Lifeline the library was a place that they know that they could go that they could go ahead and take their love of reading are we missing another one Cheryl Tapia come on down I don't have one yeah um and so we forget sometimes that of all the kids in our district they all find a place they all find the people that are special in their life this is another set of of individuals that make a difference for our kids that are there that are safe place uh that kids especially those that have a love of reading can go every single day and go ahead and explore their love of reading and explore and grow and they just do it quietly behind the scenes but without the Librarians and the librarian assistance we couldn't operate so thank you again for everything you do thank you okay the next group we have are administrative assistants and that is actually their recognition day is the 26th but we have Jill Miller from Combs High School [Applause] Angelique Q Flores from Combs Middle School Josie Carpenter from Ellsworth [Applause] Martha Morrow from Harman [Applause] Debbie Mertens from Ranch Janet Hardy Harvey excuse me from Simonton Shannon scargham from CTA [Applause] okay this special group of people if you ask who runs the school this would be the group that run the school and so they're the ones that many times you as parents will be the first ones to see or hear talk to on the phone uh they're the ones that are taking care of issues when we have a individual that's out that's not going to be present that day they really juggle a thousand balls in the air to keep everything going to get the the day running the day moving and the day ending and they do it again behind the scenes you may see them in the office where their office is at but really there's a bunch of principles out there that would not be able to operate without what these individuals do for them because of the job they do it's just an amazing job and once again it's just a group of people that do a job that maybe not everybody notices but is invaluable for everything we do in this District so thank you so very much what you do and we'll be sure to celebrate on the 26th with some social media thank you thank you and then I'd be remiss if I didn't say this although no one's here because we had a confusion on on the date but again at the end of the month uh we have a school bus driver day April 25th and so we will recognize those bus drivers too um that's again any of you that have done that kind of job where you're driving every single day I drove for a couple years for UPS back in the 80s it is an interesting job when you're driving there are some days you could probably close your eyes and drive with one finger and then there's other days you can't get two feet without sphere of getting an accident and imagine that as a rolling classroom with anywhere between 30 and 50 kids on that bus every single day now I know we all know that our children are angels but on the off chance that someday that they're not Angels just imagine if you were driving that bus when those children were not angels and so they do it and nobody in this town or this area is probably at all ever said anything about the traffic patterns and just how easy it is to get in out of this uh area but imagine you're doing that with a Bus full of kids and looking out for their safety and so they do an amazing job every single day and so we'll be sure to recognize them and thank them for the job they do and that's the end of my report thanks so you want to do school and staff recognition first as opposed to student of the month that is oh okay student of the month Madam president board members Dr Wyman and special guests thanks again for allowing me to do this it's my best part of the day and I always say that but I truly mean it if I could have Lorenzo Rodriguez come up from ccs [Applause] Lorenzo has grown so much this year as a student and a young man he's friendly and has a great sense of humor which we've all come to discover he works hard in his classes and his attendance is outstanding Lorenzo demonstrates trustworthiness by his academic integrity and actions in the classroom and on campus we are proud to have Lorenzo represent CCS as our student of the month congratulations Lorenzo [Applause] could I have Kayla Bowen from the high school come on up could I have Shaylee Hyman from CMS [Applause] Shaylee represents the best of combs Middle School she lives by a high standards in and outside of school her desire to be trusted can easily be demonstrated by her humble approach to learning she will be the first to admit that she doesn't know every answer nor she is one who will not make excuses for herself she strives to be better in everything she does in the classroom congratulations Shaylee Heyman could I have Carly Mathis come up from CTA all right thank you again look at that she did great job good job all right CTA can always count on Carly to do exactly what it is asked of her she is an excellent she's excellent at standing staying on task and helping others around to do the same we feel if we needed anything she would do it she's a wonderful young lady and we love her attitude in class as well around as around school she treats everyone with great respect and we appreciate her at CTA congratulations Carly [Music] could I have Bryant walbeck come up from Ellsworth [Applause] oh Ryan follows our rise code specifically to Integrity by sitting down and getting his workout he trusts we trust that he is able to get from class to class on his own when Bryant is asked to complete tasks we know that he'll get them done Ryan's actions show Integrity because he understands what the expectations are in the classroom Brian also shows integrity by taking control of his learning and always staying focused congratulations Brian thank you could I have Haley Rodriguez come up from Harman [Applause] harman's student of the month is our sixth grader Haley Haley's kind polite hard-working and most of all trust a trustworthy young lady she's always willing to help others and comes into class every day with a smile on her face and ready to learn here it is she works consciously and diligently and always strives to do her best she shows and she shows courage to do what is always right and willing to try new things congratulations Haley [Applause] could I have Oliver Wright come up from Ranch [Applause] this is Oliver Oliver is a good friend to everyone in the AM preschool class preschool he takes his job as a peer model seriously he's always lending a helping hand in his kind to everyone he meets when he's absent everyone in preschool is sad and wonders where Oliver is he demonstrates trustworthiness by always saying what he knows is wrong to the teacher and by helping everyone play nice in preschool I I congratulations Oliver [Applause] could I have Briella Castillo come up from Simington foreign that concludes this portion parents if you want to take pictures with your students at this time we're going to take a quick minute break and then we'll start with the rest of the agenda thank you now yeah 2014.
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um experience [Music] those are all my notepad what I'm thinking about too yeah okay you guys ready to move on yes all right any uh public large comments none of this time I think we need to name Jennifer to be the official hander outer of the certificate she does such a wonderful job [Applause] okay so um any questions on the consent agenda um do we not have public comments no they said no oh I'm sorry I missed that yeah I apologize it's okay you were you were naming her the official handwriter um okay so any any questions on the consent agenda if not then I will take a motion I moved to approve the consent agenda as presented second all in favor aye aye aye motion carries five two zero so now we are skipping nine one right we're tabling that yes nine two discussion and consideration of approval Community use of the district facilities fee schedule this is an annual report that or an annual requirement that we bring to the board uh so you will see that uh what I provided for you is there's three classes of people that or groups that can rent our facilities class one which is generally those associated with the district and kids then class two and it varies on whether educational institutions or for-profits and so we have a dollar a month that goes to it this is exactly the same as what it was last year with one exception um SSC if you remember is uh in charge of ranch the high school and the district office their fees are slightly higher and so for the CPAC and the rental CPAC you will see that the custodial fee see the fees I won't think went up to thirty nine dollars I think there were 30 or 32 before that's the only change and it's just so that we're in compliance contractually that we we the law requires that you get the money that it costs you to operate the facility to the best of your ability and that would allow for that but everything else is the same as it's been in the past so I'd recommend approval as presented any questions no all right I'll take a motion hey I moved to approve the community use of District facilities fee schedule for the 2023-24 school year as presented second all in favor aye aye motion carries five to zero um 9.3 discussion and consideration of approval of employee medical insurance plan for 2023-24.
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let president members of the board Dr Wyman members of the audience that are still here the district has been part of the school medical insurance trust or Smit over the last decade comsta District administration had concerns that even though our employees represented the largest of the five district pool we may not be receiving the benefits that were the best for our staff the cost and quality of insurance is a consistent priority for the Combs collaborative committee which is CCC and the leadership each year based on these priorities District administration used the employee demographics for Combs and our claim history to request insurance quotes and determine if favorable rates were available without decreasing we wanted to maintain or increase our level of benefits the district requested quotes from seven different providers that was four trusts and three health insurance a committee composed of Miss Garcia and payroll Mrs almond HR Dr plessis and HR Dr Wyman and myself reviewed the quotes and invited two groups to make presentations Arizona School Board Insurance trust and Kairos were our finalists information from the presentations were then shared with CCC and Leadership who then took the information back to their different sites and departments to provide feedback based on the consensus of the committee leadership and CCC this agenda item is to recommend a change in our insurance provider to Kairos the district and our employees will see a premium decrease of approximately six percent or a savings of approximately 164 thousand dollars to the district in the majority of the cases the employees who buy up to a richer plan or pay for dependent coverage will see a decrease in their premiums the district is moving from a three-tier system which we had employee employee plus one or employee plus two were going to a more beneficial system to maximize the benefits for our staff and we will now have employee employee plus spouse employee plus children and employee plus family those in the employee plus children category will see a significant savings dental and vision insurance under Kairos will be slightly higher but the district is also looking to make a change in the insurance availability for our staff making it the first of the month after the date of employment currently they have to wait 60 days two months the district will continue to use American Fidelity for our life insurance that the District covers on behalf of the staff we will continue with our short-term disability Critical Care Hospitality Indemnity cancer and additional term in whole life options as benefits for our staff plus we are including pet insurance because we have to take care of the fur babies identity theft Insurance and legal insurance for the staff those three items are items that we had received requests from the staff to provide we will also continue the health savings and savings accounts that are currently available if you have any questions we are very fortunate and tonight we have I hope I don't mess this up D ostrichly ostrichi and Jennifer Sherman here with Kairos if you have plan specifics I know that the question did come up earlier are the plans comparable and yes we did look and make sure that we evaluated the plans and they're comparable to what we have do you have any questions about this recommended change yes I do um I'm looking at employee only obvious what that means employees plus spouse would be just the two of them no children correct employee plus children would be the employee of the children and no spouse correct okay okay so you have a single family home okay and then employee plus family is the whole thing yes perfect got that um can they open this is just a very quick look and you'll notice that when our current individuals was Employee plus two if it were children if it were spouse or one of each those individuals you'll see are going to see a significant savings there's only um two categories and it's in the Combs primary that there would be a very minimal increase to those individuals but you can see across the board everything in red is a savings and as Dr Wyman mentioned earlier we will be able to um or what we are looking at is dividing that across a few more pay periods so that will also help our staff um one other question um I don't recall so you probably talked about this before high deductible health plan we have one of those in effect right now yes sir so this is just a continuation of that time plan perfect um you'll notice that um on the slide it says Alliance silver that is what we currently uh offer as our primary plan the now plan will is the PPO or we're calling it The Combs primary the alliance gold there was not a comparable um but the value gold will now just be called our copay it's equivalent our Classic Gold will become the Combs core and then our high deductible will stay as a high deductible welcome any other questions thank you very much foreign okay if you don't have any other questions I'll take a motion I move to approve the employee insurance and benefit plans and rates for the 2023-2024 school year as presented second all in favor aye aye motion carries five to zero so discussion and approval of the asba policy Services agreement for the 2023-24.
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this is an annual uh item uh that we bring forward I'm bringing it forwarded specifically in this manner this time uh my recommendation is to stay with asba for policy Services other additional Services out there and so I did want to pre-assume uh that the board wanted to remain with asba versus the trust if if you need to know I can tell you why my recommendation would be to remain with asba but it's a it's an annual thing I just want to make sure that I'm not like I said assuming that the board wants a specific Direction so I brought it for an eye action item and discussion but I would recommend staying with asba as presented any questions why um what I would say this is policy services and this is what takes where they take the laws and put them in the policies um I was asked to help review some of the policies for the trust there's nothing wrong with the policies of the trust in the sense that they they follow the same laws that asba does how are they trying to slim things down in my estimation and I've shared this with individuals with the trust and I don't believe in the society and the situations we live in today that it is good for us especially as more and more new people come into into positions whether you're a board member or administrator to have policies that don't have the depth and some of the additional forms because that's when mistakes are made and when there's a potential issue and I think asbas is far more robust and therefore it gives us the most protection if the individuals that are using it are willing to look it up and utilize it and read it carefully and so that's my record reason why I would have that recommendation do we use I noticed that when like what they offer um do we use all those things this let me see not necessarily there are times where we've used some there are other times where we haven't it just varies okay I think the advantage is uh what you said Greg in terms of the robustness of the policy but also the the calendar that they put out to keep us on track at what needs to be approved at what times during the year and that's very beneficial for us as well all right any other questions okay I'll take a motion so I'll move to approve the asba policy service agreement for 2023 2024 as presented second hi I'm Aries um 9.5 discussion and consideration of approval of the 23 24 salary schedules so as part of the budget recommendations uh I've re uh restated what I said in the presentation earlier about what the what the increases would be these new salary schedules uh represent those changes uh in the attached forms you'll note that they say proposed if you approve them then they would they would become um uh adopted what will happen with this after your approval in May will bring back the exact increased amount for every single employee so that you'll know what that is we're trying to do that but with Eastern a couple other things we just couldn't we just couldn't get it together fast enough to get that stuff up but so anybody that's already signed a contract would then get the updated four percent and that the difference of what their contract is and what the four percent or the five percent were depending on which the group is you'll get that in May but so this is the first step so I would recommend approval as presented so in terms of the numbers we see here they're reflective of the budget presentation you see early and all your recommendations okay I have a quick question so the support staff didn't we just give them a two percent right right and and the supports that I've got a seven percent raise I know but I think I'm probably thinking wrong but just a few months ago when we did um in order to bring the minimum wage that was in January it was a seven percent this uh this um salary schedule just reflects what we did in January there's no there's no change to that one all the rest reflect the increase what will happen is we'll come back in November December once we're finalized what the what the increase will be uh for the new increase because it has to occur every January 1st and so you'll see a change but I just wanted to make sure that we had all the documents approved at the same time so that because then it starts getting changed around but but it reflects no increase because we did that in January question any other questions I do I'm looking at the schedule for support staff and you know we've talked about the difficulty with maintaining and attracting bus drivers um I know we're not the only District that has that problem but have we considered raising the rates for bus drivers to track them and keep them yes but here's the issue that we have when I first came into the district what had happened previous to me being here and you're gonna you're gonna hear this at many districts right now is we used to have a salary I don't know what that looked like to be totally honest but what I know happened is we had a through z let's just make it simple and we just basically when the recession came and everything else we just started lopping off a and moving A to B and then Lop enough B and moving A and B to C well by the time I got here we had a through F all into one line and G so we compressed the salary schedule so when we brought the uh uh consultant in who worked with school districts from across the East Valley he had a system like most of them do that takes a look at every single job and so when you look at the salary schedule you'll see that there's a number next to the letter 101 102 103.
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the way they calculated the way he calculated those numbers was based on experience based on educational level workload a variety of different factors I don't know them off top my head I can bring it to you and so then it's a national he does studies for or compensation studies across the country and it was based on that that we then rated those people so we can but we're starting to do something that in some ways is no different than lopping off rows in that that now we're elevating different positions not necessarily equal to what the new level is going to be based on some criteria and so I hesitate because very easily we have several that we could rise up that way if we had not gone out on HVAC that one should be probably higher and so which ones do we choose and where do we place them and what's the system that we're using to choose those and I get a little concerned that if we're reactionary we blow up the schedule in a different way but you get the same kind of results as when you compress the salary schedule before more than willing to look at other ways to rate but I think you have to be careful because of the fact that you're looking at uh expected level of of knowledge and so a bus driver has a skill set but it's not the same as a mechanic in terms of of uh certification the responsibility for what happens with the bus driver is that more or less than when you're when you're fixing the bus and since there's a system I just am cautious because I don't know how to rate all the different positions and we're going to move people out of position and that system that he did for us actually runs all the way up to the superintendent so it goes from 100 to I think 160 so teachers get a rating assistant principles get rating and it's all based on all of those kind of things so that's my only hesitancy and why we have not why we have not jumped into it because we would and we had to adjust what his ratings were anyway because we couldn't afford to do what you want us to pay for it but but that's the hesitancy that I have and I haven't been able to find one that really rates people different than he does they're pretty close so it's a standard it's a standard for the industry and so we can do that and if you ask me to I will but that's my hesitancy is that uh again I'm now taking out of what work was done for all the other positions that are support positions well I actually I appreciate that explanation in how the ratings were arrived at probably with experience and knowledge and education all of that but I'm also thinking the impact of the free market supply and demand right and you know so some jobs are going to have a big Supply and little demand and some jobs are going to have a very big demand and a very little Supply so maybe for um on a temporary basis or um we do a sub category for that in that impacts or that takes into consideration supply and demand and the fact that we got to get the kids to the school so right I don't know if there's a way to look at that well my only concern would be that I that I would raise is that I would say right now this is supply and demand issues for every single position and support staff and so that's why we're Outsourcing custodial that's why we're Outsourcing HVAC that's why we took a a mechanic position and effectively didn't have it replaced for three months that's why we have so many unfilled pair Pro positions that's why and so so the problematic issue is I can't tell you which one's most important at a certain time of the day every one of them is important if I don't have cooks and I don't have servers at lunch then that's more important than the bus driver but if I don't have the bus driver in the beginning of the day that's more important if I don't have the pair Pros that were up here in the classroom especially like a Rise program then that's more important and so so what we're really saying is give everybody a raise which given the budget constraints that we have which is why we're trying to give the 30 cents and the 50 Cent because and that's back to the quite frankly the discussion on an override and why because I we just can't stay up with the people to the west of us without 15 more because we're going to be nickel and diamond and trying to fix this thing and we're going to screw it all up thank you if not I'll take a motion where I am I moved to adopt the 2023-24 salary schedule as presented second all in favor aye aye aye motion carries five to zero okay discussion consideration approval retention stipend this is the same retention stipend we give in the last two years you'll see the numbers 500 000 in here and it was 250 on the pro on the on the presentation I debated switching it I just left it at the high end we're not going to be close to 500 000 but those are the numbers of what it represents if we do uh all of our employees obviously we have a number of Employees leaving us we will get you the list in September for who's going to get the raise and how or who's going to get the stipend and how much uh it'll be based on anybody who's working with us as of the end of May and who's still working with us as of the end of September not any new employees so it is Esther's dollars and we continue to remind everybody that this retention bonus will be around next year and then the Esser dollars will be gone and the retention bonus unless there's more money through mno will not necessarily be continued in the future and that would not just be for us that would be for districts around the country that are facing the same issue questions okay if there's no questions I will take a motion I'll move to approve a one-time retention stipend for all returning staff for the 2023-2024 school year as presented second favor aye aye motion carries okay um discussion and consideration of approval of student growth stipend again another one that we're bringing forward from previous years that would just uh not be paid out until March uh again uh we're looking at closer to the 500 000 only because that's for all employees that last with us but if someone quits in December we're not going to hunt them up and give money but and we'll Pro with anybody that's hired after the beginning of the year like we did two years ago but if we get 200 kids based on uh K-12 uh on the Hunter's day ADM that we would go ahead and pay it out the reason we're paying it out in the end of March for the new board members is the same reason one of the other reasons we pay out the previous agenda item in October we have some classified staff that with our support staff that would not otherwise get paycheck because we're on a vacation and this allows them to get some money to offset the fact that they were not getting paid while we were on the spring break break so we'll pay for it after spring break so they don't see a total loss of of money for a two-week spring break again it's no cost to the district we don't get the growth but if it is it's a way to thank the people and hopefully we can start to work on maintaining and keeping our students in the district it's not just about uh growing but it's also about retaining its capture rate but if we capture more kids but we don't retain them then the capture rate is irrelevant because we're losing the kids at some point I I guess I have a comment maybe not a question I'm not opposed if we include preschool I just was right I mean if we're basing this on growth money preschool doesn't necessarily bring the same growth money but if we do get additional preschoolers the hope is that they would continue so I mean I'm not opposed that I just wanted to make sure that we had the funds to do that so what I'll do to to compromise that piece is we will as we watch the the growth the hundred day if we get to the point where we're at 300 with or without preschool doesn't matter if we're at 195 without Heist without preschool but 204 with preschool we'll look at the numbers and if we feel it's advantageous to us we'll bring it to you but the the key piece that I'll promise you is that we're not going to move forward with this until it is it is unless it's financially advantageous to the district we're not going to put the district in the position where we're paying out more than we should so I would offer that compromise no I mean I think if we get a lot of preschoolers that's potentially going to help us maybe not next school year but right the school year after that right so yeah as long as we have the funds that's all I'm and I will tell you the one issue that we do have with preschool because many of the charter schools in the area do not offer preschool as we get significant numbers in preschool but when it comes to kindergarten we lose significant numbers to the two charters who now offer kindergarten but not preschool so our numbers that you see generally on those reports are higher at preschool and then we see a drop off at kindergarten because many of the families then take them to the school that they have other kids at that are not our kids so it is a problem with we get them but we can't retain them because of maybe where their siblings are attending school any other questions okay I'll take a motion I'll move to approve a one-time student growth stipend for all staff as presented second all in favor hi motion carries five to zero okay discussion and consideration approval of additional days for coaches and Specialists for summer 2023 another one that we've gone ahead and brought forward previous years and it's just it gives uh our our instructional coaches and content coaches an opportunity to help plan for what we do when they come back again as we said in the presentation of the three days for the essers funded PD we'll only use two days for PD and one day we'll for Teacher time in the classroom but this is just these people are not on on 12-month contracts so it allows us to bring them back that number is a bit floater because some people already have plans and can't make holidays other people can but over the last couple years we've spent about that much and so I would just recommend approval because it's a way for us to plan for not just the PD days with hashtag Ford but also new teacher orientation summer camp there's any number of different things that just gives a little bit more time to do some planning do let me see here do we need to make it uh a little bit more specific when we when we say coaches in our motion do you know what I mean I suppose yeah because like correct yeah you can make it as an instructional coach but if you're gonna do that I also say content coaches yeah because we have two sets of coaches and instructional because yeah I think it needs to be a little more specific you got it good idea yeah okay let me yeah make a motion I do you can't you can't change now Bob you gotta I moved to approve additional days for content and instructional coaches and Specialists for the summer of 2023 as presented second all in favor aye aye motion carries five zero um let's see item uh nine nine discussion consideration or approval of content and with vergee and uh HVAC electrical and plumbing service yes this is what I explained in the in the presentation uh we just are not competitive with uh maintenance techs we have a team of five we've lost three a couple retirements uh another situation where a person decided to go elsewhere and so we can't replace them uh and so we started talking to a variety of different um individuals to see if they would provide this service we actually Bob looked at I think Bob what about five five or six individuals but we only got two quotes we interviewed both individuals gave us a quote uh we choose ver we chose vergee because of the depth and and and how how how many resources they had the other company could not provide the electrical or Plumbing to the same degree that that Barry G could barigi still shows us the savings uh based on the salary we spent you can see that the attachment for a shows you exactly the number of days that they'll be in place for the rest of this year and then we'll sit down with them for the new year and set up a very similar schedule to say this is when we need you in here obviously if there's an emergency they would come out and help us the good news is by having this daily rate or this hourly rate we're not at the mercy right now if we have an emergency and we call up a company they're going to give us a three hour minimum they're going to go ahead and do a late or a trip charge they're going to do all those kinds of things that takes a a situation that maybe not that expensive and they're going to run it through the roof by having these hours we've locked it in and we have a much better chance to identify and understand what it's going to cost us to go ahead and make sure our our equipment is up to speed we do not have an electrician or a plumber on board have not had electrician and plumber on board to my knowledge in the last X number of years so we've been basically calling people in emergency status for many of those issues that's why we added them to the HVAC piece any questions uh yeah um what recourse do we have for non-performance bivarity well I think with as with any contract we would look to to go ahead and sever the uh sever the agreement there's a piece that allows for the severance of of the agreement if it's if it's not there on any number of different factors and so we believe we have a very strong working relationship with them and so but it doesn't mean it's not going to happen but if just like with any contract if we don't get the services that we're asked for and provided or supposed to be provided then we would go ahead and eliminate it it could be at the end of a contract that we do it or it could be in the middle of a contract just depending on the situation uh and and what's taking place but I think we do that with with any of our any agreements that we have with people that we would then say I was looking to see if there was a provision about terminating in the middle and I guess with these short periods of time it's not a big deal but if you have a yearly contract then it becomes more critical because this is just you know two sections through May 24th and then it from the 26th of May to June the 30th right but if you have a full year contract I'd like to see maybe something that talks about non-performance and recourse for that and this well two things there's two lines there's there's a short term plus then there's a total agreement price for the term of seven one twenty three to six thirty twenty six right so it is it is we put the uh we put the agreement in for the rest of the year so you could see but but this is a long-term agreement and so um it's not just uh it's not just for those two no it's not just for that that period of time okay okay yeah the agreement may be terminated by either party for any reason upon giving 30 days prior written notice uh specified there's also on I believe it is and there's another one that says if they're oh W the agreement shall be governed by a construct construed in accordance with the laws in the state of Arizona and if we have a problem the venue for our arbitration is Maricopa so County Maricopa County so there are Provisions that if we're not getting if we're not satisfied then we will go ahead and and move forward in a different direction okay good thank you okay any other questions okay I'll take a motion I'll move to approve the contract the vergee to provide HVAC electrical and plumbing services for the district beginning April 16 2023 under igpa contract number 22-14 pv-07 as presented is that igp or one GPA one GPA oh one GPA I'm sorry second all in favor aye aye aye motion carries five to zero okay discussion and consideration for approval of five-year IGA between uh Joe Combs Unified School District and the greater Phoenix educational management Council gpmec guppy Mac for short uh guppy Mac has been around for for probably 30 plus years they have 60 school districts right now and so they're just a resource that we use uh both from a curricular standpoint as well as from a lobbying standpoint uh um or a political standpoint I've been very satisfied with the relationship that's been going on for two or three years I can't remember which year I brought it in uh but that that agreement was up and so we're now moving into five year for right now the fees are Thirty One hundred dollars a little over thirty one hundred dollars uh a year which is a pretty nominal cost for the services we get obviously in the future it may go up depending on any number of factors but it won't go up significantly and so I would recommend we move forward as presented in terms of getting out of the agreement there's a provision in there I think we have to give 90 days notice but then we could go ahead and get out of it so if we think something changes and we're not happy with what we're getting out of them next year this time I can make bring you a recommendation that says we'd like to remove ourselves from it it's a good thing well if you say it's a good thing it must be any other questions all right I'll take a motion yeah right okay I moved to approve the IG between the Joe Combs Unified School District and the greater greater Phoenix educational management Council g p e m c for the 2023-2024 school year through 2027 through 2028 school years I'll second we're just mixing it up all in favor aye aye aye Martian carries five to zero okay so now we have some an April report for the student achievement okay I'll be playing the role of Miss Denise Dunwoody this evening unfortunately Miss Dunwoody is ill today and not able to be with you so I'll do my best impersonation that I can and walk you through a little bit of the data that we have so obviously um our commitment to continue to share with you our student performance data we have some information to share from our third quarter data that's going to lead us into our end of the year reports first one here is for our high school quarter three Benchmark data as you can see we've got a little bit of inconsistency in performance the concerns here are reflecting what we've been talking about all along this year which is that as we go along in the assessment cycle we increase the depth and complexity of those questions and this has been the consistent performance of our students that they do well or better at the start of the year on those more basic functions and then as we get later in the year the depth and complexity shifts we see those changes so that's a piece that we've been looking to address but we we've intentionally adjusted our assessments in some ways it might sound like we're shooting ourselves in the foot I would have because we're we've made those assessments more complex to better prepare our students for those State assessments that are going to ask them to do those things so some of that is a natural reaction to those questions so um more specifically when I show you the math data on the next slide one of the things that's happening and you'll see the algebra one as an example we've done a lot of work on that one to change the types of questions that we're asking students but one of the things that we see on those are multiple answer questions and that's a huge struggle for our students they'll solve the equation or solve the problem to get an answer but oftentimes the question is calling for more than one answer and that's a real struggle for students in terms of their test taking skills and their test taking ability so we've we've taken and done some work with our benchmarks to emulate that so the short term is you're seeing some of those drops and scores in some areas the long term is we think it'll better prepare our students for those State assessments as they start to work through those questions types it's it's such a balance of the rigor of trying to grow students but also what's the state assessment saying sometimes questions that are compromising either one of those so do you feel like the rigor of the questions are kind of matching the State Testing yes so that's what we've been working toward and like I said so the short-term reaction is that we see our numbers look down yeah so that's a frustration but we feel like we've got to do a better job preparing our students for those types of questions so that they're ready for that because we have a little more control over these kinds of numbers we can adjust things but it's the state test that we don't have I mean the results of the results at that point and the community gets to know those the community is not necessarily gonna you know try and dig into these numbers correctly so um I will say just as a side note because this was discussed earlier in Dr Wyman's presentation and Mr Delana asked um specifically about teachers um I will tell you that the schedule that was created for the high school moving into next year has an emphasis in math in terms of teacher load and so they've they've done some work to create some sections for some remediation work for our students so in terms of your question Mr Delena about providing some resources where we need them this is a good example of that and we are doing that at the high school they've made some efforts for that moving into next year so um so when you said that you have um that you you switch you have changed the questions to dive in a little bit more when were those questions like implemented so those have been implemented over the course of this year this year yeah so we've been revising the the benchmark assessments to bring in some more of those question types um so what you're seeing in terms of this year itself that is realistic from test to test where it might look different as if we were to look at more of a longitudinal piece of trying to compare that to last year it'd be a bit of an apples to or just comparison but it's helping to highlight some of those areas that we have some concerns about but we know that we have to work toward which is those those more complex questions if you're making those type of aggressive but beneficial changes you can't compare last year the next right it's tough to compare them together and when you say you're addressing them are you are you gonna get to that in this presentation or is that a question I should ask now it's a question you can ask now and I will give you my best Miss Dunwoody answer okay um so what I say addressing them now I mean part of that is in the creation of those assessments and getting kids the opportunity to practice those skills part of that is happening now and feeding into next year in terms of the work that's going on um part of what Dr Wyman presented to you that has to do with the CIA team is some of those organizational pieces this piece specifically um it's semantics a little bit but but miss Dunwoody currently or at least in past practice when it was Mr Berkshire supported some of the curriculum instruction pieces a majority of those are now on my plate so that Miss Dunwoody can focus on the assessment and accountability pieces so part of what we're building into our structures for next year are more of those opportunities to have those data talks and to really talk not just about what the numbers say like we do with you but really about what we're doing about that right what that looks like and how we can make those adjustments so to Mr beech's point it's it's a short term we're not there and we know the work we have to do it'll take some time to make those shifts um but I feel good about the work that's happening to get us there is a slower moving wheel that any of us would like I wish we could do a you know one hour PD and woo it'd be fixed right that's just not the case so see those are the kind of things where the kids need to have these skills developed and that's where it takes extra work and Remediation and all that kind of stuff which is why before I always go where I was going earlier with let's keep those teachers and have them assist in those efforts so okay just another Point yep um so when we see you next month there'll be some updates because we'll be getting through the end of the year testing and some of those assessment pieces as is always the case with the wonderful State Testing I never know exactly when we get that data back a little bit after the fact you know how soon I'll get it yep so we'll we'll see the timing on that piece yeah um and and honestly I think that to the point we just talked about some of those shifts and adjustments we've made we're not going to see in this year's assessment data it's usually about a year to two years removed but what I would expect to see some significant shifts as we move into next year with the work that's been done in regards to that and if you have extra follow-up questions I'm sure you can shoot them our way in those those numbers you're talking that you just showed us do they connect to the fast Bridge type of is that fast bridge that you're using there no fast bridge is fast bridge is different because fast bridge is an assessment that really looks at students ability to be successful in the environment so it's sort of like think of it like prerequisite skills the fast Bridge measures more for students ability to learn at red flags where they have gaps in their learning that might make them lack performance on some of those state level assessments because they don't have the foundational skills so it's a different type of assessment fast bridge is more used as a screener for us to kind of raise those flags for us so we know what we're dealing with yeah as opposed to the the state assessments are really more of the standards based so standards-based versus skills based really making sure I pause long enough so I don't stop on zombies question stop you do it I'm good with that all right uh from a curriculum lens this feeds in nicely so just a quick update in terms of of some curricular work that's happening we have been in the process of taking on a Core Curriculum adoption in mathematics conveniently time there you can see the lovely display in the back of the room if you want to peruse through a good math book or two you can see what we've been looking at what's presented in the back of the room right now are our materials as part of our 60-day public review there are three finalists that we whittled down to you can see them on the screen there Houghton Mifflin Harcourt that program is known as into math McGraw-Hill which is known as reveal math and Savas which is known as Envision the committee had about and I think nine vendors present to us we whittled that down to three we had a fourth one in contention that very bizarrely in the mix refused to get back to us on some questions so they remove themselves from the mix I haven't seen that before that was a new one um but these are the three finalists where we are at in the process which I think I share with you on a future slide is that um again we have those up for public review uh week after next the committee comes together for the final time uh the last piece of the equation is the cost we always intentionally leave out the cost until the end because we want them to review them for Quality materials first and foremost and then we bring the cost to the table and say okay is this one worth that much more if we like it or do we like that one just about as much but it's significantly cheaper and we kind of bring that piece to the equate of the equation in so in our main meeting we will bring a recommendation to you for a selection from the committee that could be one of these vendors as a K-12 adoption or it could be an elementary secondary split depending on what they decide but we have both options available to us on the table what you see represented in each of those three potential adoptions um I'm really excited to say is is not the most basic version of any of those packages um we are within our budgetary range for all three of these to get maybe not quite the Cadillac version of what they offer but but most of the resources that they have available to us so what you see there are both digital licenses as well as things like practice books or homework journals some of the consumables teacher editions under McGraw-Hill the review with Alex and the arrive math those are both differentiated supplemental support programs and Savas you see the the Blitzer Bakken damana those are Partnerships that they have because they don't actually provide the secondary text themselves they're through a different different producer a different vendor so it's good stuff again digital licenses practice workbooks and they're all currently on an eight-year adoption is what they're they're bidding on so we don't use Alex right now do we do we have Alex right now no because I know that we did that's not true actually we have it on a pilot basis so we have I think we have a teacher or two who's using it it's not a district-wide piece but we had it when my oldest son was yeah um in ninth grade Alex has been around for a little while and arrived version that was not good do um all of our Math teachers get an opportunity to review these the curriculum for all three companies right so there's a couple of different ways that we go about that the first one is is representative in nature where we have representatives from the various Elementary uh classrooms Middle School classrooms and High School classrooms to serve on the committee um and those folks all got notification just like our community that these are on display there's a QR code back there where they can submit any information they want to us and we have a way to share some of those resources obviously not every piece but some of those resources digitally as well as soon as we send out that notification I would say I've probably talked to four or five community members that had some questions since then it's been very very quiet we just kind of monitoring the form so we can go through our process I mean knock on wood it's math it's pretty straightforward um so usually it's just some some questions about how the material is presented and how much longer will the material be on display in the back it'll be on display through our next board meeting in May right right about that same time we'll conclude our 60 days is there a way to make this easier to review for individuals online yeah so we have we have most of the resources they do something they refer to as a padlet which is kind of an abbreviated summarized version of those so we have a padlet version of all three available um some folks who've reached out and asked for that we've been able to send that to them can you send it out before they ask for it we could yeah I mean I think it'd be a good idea just to send it out and say click this to see what the new curriculum is so that you can put it on the website is it yep we could do that we can we can link those digital resources right I think that would be a great idea just so that we can you know say hey these are all the things that we did to let everybody know what we were trying to adopt just I think any way that we can make that available would be a really good idea for sure letting more the community know what we're trying to do yeah right get the word out right yeah I agree perfect we will work on that not a problem all right so as I mentioned before that's kind of where we're at in the process I won't read it to you but you can see we started back in October so it's a long arduous process when we present the final recommendation to you I will share with you the folks who are on the committee so that we can recognize them for their work as well because it is a commitment to serve I always like to know who's on the command and they've been wonderful about coming in and calling through those materials and like I said we are on the April 2023 so we're on the selection of finalists and acceptance of best and final offers and we'll review those with the committee and and again bring that recommendation to you so that slide's supposed to skip but it didn't so ignore me we'll stop on that one any other questions on the adoption yeah I just uh when we when we come with the final I think it'd be a really great idea to see you know as part of that summary you know how this information was presented to the community because we could certainly put it out on Facebook and all that as well and I'd like to know how many views we got just just so that we could have that information I think that'd be a great part of the final information on the uh you know when you come to present that I think it should be really good information through that as part of that final presentation have any more burning questions nope comments concerns no okay so I'm gonna make a motion to adjourn second what time at 7 18.
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all in favor hi hi motion carries five to zero good job Madam Prez thank you again
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thank you [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] the workshop to order on Thursday April 2023 at 5 30 P.M roll call I I'm president Melinda sabrowski Charlene Diaz here Fred Rushton here Barbers arzicki here we have a ghost member but we'll fill that tonight maybe thank you very much um D.C New York trip is there anybody here that wants to talk to that would you please come on up here and introduce yourself and talk to us about it good evening my name is William Tafoya I'm the attendance clerk at Bullhead City Middle School and this past March we had the opportunity to travel to Washington DC and New York with 17 of our Bullhead middle school students and eight adults including myself by plane by Subway by bus all through New York and Washington DC it was a fabulous experience that I want to thank everyone here for and just for having that opportunity um to be able to take place in uh for allowing our students to have that wonderful experience and you know have have it be something that they'll remember because I know I will remember it for a very long time well tell us a story there's got to be stories one that I would really love to eventually forget is our lovely duration on the subway and I was actually just talking about it but um I was very nervous going going into the subway knowing that we would be in the Subway because I had traveled to New York with my family previously and the uh um tour guide assured me you know we have and he explained to myself in the other tour um tour group that was with us their leader he explained to her and I the um his thoughts on it and we all agreed that I would be in the very back of the group and the other tour um leader would be in the middle of the group and he would be at the very front and he had a flute with him uh and he'd play a little tune and we'd all quack on the subway and know that it was time to get off but it's I was still very nervous to have 17 students of my own along with um the I believe 12 students from Mississippi that were with us all on a subway car together and knowing when to get off um but you know we we made it we all got off we all uh had an awesome experience but I I will very Happily Never ride the subway again if I could avoid going back to New [Laughter] ton well that's really cool um the hotels were good for you and they were outstanding um the the students were amazing in in terms of their behavior there they uh were all very respectful of the fact I mean mind you they were all very tired each and every day because it was jam-packed from 7 A.M till about 10 11 p.m so they were well ready to make themselves go to bed and get ready for the next day but they were very respectful of each other very respectful of the other guests in the hotel and I'm very proud of of the experience that they um of their performance on the ship as well did you get to go to a Broadway show what did you get together got to see um Peter Pan goes wrong and it was in a hilarious performance I was I walked away from that show in tears of laughter and I would definitely recommend that if you get to see it to to go see it because it was outstanding um from the costume changes a very small cast but they they made it work and they owned that stage okay um and the students were very respectful at the Lincoln Memorial um in DC as well as the Vietnam and Korean War memorials very um aware of their of what was being presented to them and um I had one student in particular who was very eager to see Arlington Cemetery because he had family members who were in service and whether they were buried there or not I I'm not sure but he he was very excited to experience that and and um think the soldiers who who did fight for our country who were very there it has to be very impressive absolutely um did you guys get to go see the Statue of Liberty yes um were there any oohing and awing about that the uh their their hopes were kind of diminished in that area because they they were hoping to be able to take a elevator ride up top but they they're not allowing that very much anymore because of the age of the Statue of Liberty and just wanting people to be careful in um safe while they're visiting Liberty Island but they were still very impressed by the um the overall appearance of it and just seeing it in general was was for some of them very very much the highlight of their trip did they get to experience snow while they were back there they didn't we didn't see any snow except maybe a little bit on on the way from New York to DC or DC to work um on the side of the road but it was it was very minimal we did get to see the cherry blossom trees um and that there were very few but and beautiful absolutely gorgeous great thank you so much for taking the kids thank you for your time and I appreciate it again thank you thank you thank you thank you we have a whole bunch of rattling going on down here did you guys get a whole bunch of awards that you want to share with us would you guys come up and talk to us please come on you guys we're into stories too I'm into stories tonight are you guys in the stories tonight come on tell us a story come on okay okay hold on you want me to talk first sure okay so I'm Mrs Martin and I am the coach I have the privilege of being the coach of our Science Olympiad team at Fox Creek for now our okay here maybe six maybe seven I'm not sure and this is just half of our team this year we were a 10 member team um the other five that aren't here are believe it or not off playing baseball games softball games those kinds of things throughout the season we have had basketball players and volleyball players on our team as well and they've all split their time very well to come home with all this clankiness and they just want to give you a little bit of insight from their season especially their trip to the state tournament this year holy cow [Music] come on you've got two you got two medals so what what do the metals represent for the for what them was for like green generation which is like an environmental science uh-huh type of competition and oh no no one of them was for building a like vehicle like a a rubber band powered vehicle and the other one was for bioprocess lab but like biology um science so you use rubber bands to power your your car your vehicle with a pencil how many rubber bands flew across the room [Music] Mission okay well thank you and congratulations wonderful wonderful well we got to talk to you yeah what's this trophy for what's the blue one it's what oh the State won holy cow third place okay so what you've got Metals around your neck too what do they mean and I build Mission possible um it's like it's like a roller coaster there's like different obvious Parts where you have to go through like the ball the marble has to go through different like obstacles yes um I did the same one this year where it's actually called a roller coaster and I made a roller coaster marble going down through many obstacles as well so you had to build the the roller coaster for the marble to go down yeah [Music] yeah you're doing testing but we managed I managed to win first place for this one for roller coaster and the uh oh the The Regionals I also won first place my other first place is cancer to founder and we were testing powders we weren't supposed to like figure out the powder we were just making in not in French observation for it and yeah I have two first places hi I'm impressed hey who else did who else needs to talk oh look it the only guy in the group oh man so you got a whole bunch of you got a whole bunch of ribbons too what's all this stuff come on be proud invitation spot um well two of them were for State I don't know which ones they don't put the it doesn't matter these ones were from State um this one was second place for codebusters which is crypto cryptography and crypto analysis and this one was for Canada she did and this was first place in meteorology which is all about the study of the atmosphere okay so your cryptology thing what were you guys doing uh translating or were you actually making up code too I had a set coat and we had to take a ciphertext and decode it oh okay all right they didn't give you just a set of letters and ask you to tell them what they had said right well it gives us a ciphertext which is a message that has been encoded and you need to decode it it gives you the code that was used but it doesn't give you all the information like the key you have to figure it out I'm impressed yeah yeah next time I do a crossword puzzle I'm calling you thank you thank you though for doing that what you did thank you you guys need to realize she taught science so it takes a lot to impress her with what you're doing this is good Miss zabroski taught science so so who haven't I picked on the two ladies the two ladies over here let's see what did you what do you got hanging around your neck okay um I have two of these badges uh these two are third places and one of them is um anatomy and physiology oh my gosh where I hated that stuff like uh stuff about the Digestive uh system and immune system and respiratory system and I got third place for that and this first place was with American named roller coaster and this third place I forgot where I got it um yeah we got I got these two and then this was from our North Central Regional where we got first place that's the team award yeah that's cool that's cool all right come on up here tell me a story so I only have one medal that's okay cause it's second place so this is from weird vehicle which Valeria is also in and it's we so we made like a vehicle out of piece of like thin wood and then we put what's it called it's good like the metal bits yeah I know I'm doing um that's always so much fun I love to do that with kids you know I don't know who would be worse to have the kids in the Subway or the kid these kids on the bus so they didn't so I want them to tell us about the science lab that they visited outside of the Olympiad so you need to tell these folks about where you went to visit uh outside of the Olympiad okay well do the slideshow yeah we talked about our Awards so um out of the top the every event we were in the top eight in everything for each one yeah there you go yeah talk about it all genomics where we had our guide Kristen costs cause and um she told us about like the history of tijan and what they did there and the research they did to like make cures to help other people um and we did experiments up there you can see us working on it and it was like gel electrophoresis where we would put the genes in these different slots as like gel and while we waited we took a tour around tjm and she showed us the different like workplaces Laboratories and when we came back we could see how the genes were like similar to each other and we figured out um oh our task was to figure out who like who murdered this one guy and we use evidence to figure it out and we found out it was our third suspect using the gel electrophoresis I bet that was phenomenal [Music] that's really cool butterfly land okay yeah where else did we go guys and the aquarium both of those pull the microphone down oh okay hello okay okay oh so the butterfly land we learned about the history of the Butterflies it was a calming experience since the next day was going to be a very stressful day taking all of the tests it was coming to be in the the place where we see the butterflies and because each of each one of them it had it's not really good it was really it was really nice and calming it wasn't that stressful we were if we were glad we were really happy um I'm we learned about what butterflies what butterflies were before as to being ancient species and uh the the migration yes the the development of the butterfly species and then the aquarium this is correct the aquarium was really big it was such a thrilling experience it was so it was exciting um when we went to this bathroom there was this it wasn't really a mirror but when you go to the sink where you were supposed to wash your hands the mirror that was It was supposed to be a mirror it was actually a huge aquarium filled with sharks and fishes it was so you kind of hurried out of there huh no no I actually so much oh really so what kind what kind of things did you guys get to touch did starfish and that stuff um stingrays stingrays okay we touched uh we touched um stingrays sea urchins [Music] starfish stuff you don't get to touch in the desert huh yeah yeah alligators we saw crocodiles we we saw different species of birds sharks and birds and scorpions and um jellyfish the jellyfish it was called a moon jellyfish and it was really cool I it was just it was was it one of the ones that kind of fluoresce it yeah I mean yes they they glow in the dark yes it was insanely amazing it was a memorable experience to the science of them yet team since this will be my last year to being in the Science Olympiad too and to being in America too so yeah but you had a good time you got a lot of stuff rattling around your neck and that's that's cool okay thank you guys oh oh we got a couple more pictures here we got a couple more you guys kind of looking tired a little bit tired in those pictures foreign we sat in a field and they ran from the field to the Student Union all the way down to University and back and yeah it was from one end of the university to the other end of the campus so you guys had a great time can't beat that can't beat that and thank you for representing our school district and your in your junior high school so well yeah you make us proud [Applause] and I think we have a real true science teacher here did you see the periodic table and um a lady after my own heart we're going to be looking uh ladies and gentlemen I appreciate it we're going to be looking to see what you guys do in the future and following you congratulations that was great this is great so do we have some people here from Diamondback that want to tell us about their school Improvement thing plan well thank you so much for having us tonight um thank you Dr Stewart and president of the school board ma'am sabraski and all the members of the school board thank you so much for having us my name is Byron Boland I'm the principal of Diamondback Elementary School Margaret emlin assistant principal at Diamondback Elementary well tonight what we want to do I think we're getting close to being out of time but I want to quickly go through we've got lots until 6 30.
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time I'd like to call in the meeting to order let the record reflect all board members are present please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance thank you we will start off with recognitions and celebrations Dr crotto thank you madam president and members of the board tonight we have the honor of having Cimarron Springs Middle School band here under the direction of Christian Torres and before I start or before they start I'm not starting they're starting uh this Ensemble just competed in the aboda Regionals large group festival and they took home the highest rating of superior with distinction so congratulations on that and they will be competing in the state on May 11th so with that congratulations Mr Torres to you and your band and the floor is yours [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] [Applause] kind of what you got to hear was a little bit of the selections that we are taking to the state Festival these are still in their early stages so a lot of the students are actually still getting better and familiar with their parts we're going to finish out with red giant uh the kids love this tune and I think with the energy in the piece you're going to be able to tell so thank you so much for coming out thank you so much for the support of our Administration and again we couldn't have gotten this Superior with distinction if it wasn't for our families our school and again just this great District so we really really appreciate you guys coming up thank you [Applause] oh [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Applause] all right thank you Mr Taurus you guys sounded excellent very nice job this sounded wonderful and everybody sounded great but it was just really nice to hear that low brass it just it really makes a difference so great job guys I do feel like I should share this uh Zoe body our net was actually fortunate enough that she auditioned for uh Allstate this year and she actually placed first chair tuba at Allstate for seventh grade awesome great job it just men I remember in college in our Orchestra we played a Von Williams tuba concerto and that was the most beautiful piece of music I was like yes so it sounds great good job thank you next we will move we do not have a student update we will go to the superintendent update Dr Credo oh sorry I skipped it again ah audience with individuals Ms Densmore this is the time for the public to comment members of the board may not discuss items that are not specifically identified on the agenda pursuant to ARS 38431-01 action taken as a result of public comment will be limited to directing staff to study the matter responding to any criticism or scheduling the matter for further consideration and decision at a later date in order to facilitate accomplishing the business of the district in a timely manner a time limit of three minutes will be imposed for each individual or group addressing the board when you approach the podium please state your name for the record our first speaker is Janet LeBlanc gotta go lower good evening my name is Janet LeBlanc and I am speaking on behalf of myself and Larry LeBlanc tonight we would like to take a moment to take to thank Dr Tsai and her team for identifying all the Committees bringing them up to date and placing them on the main page of dysart's website and bringing us into compliance through this added transparency we're hoping more community members will find interest in getting involved with the direction of their local schools so thank you for making that resource available regarding the most recent curriculum adoption we would like to extend a thank you to the board for listening to not only the recommendation of teachers and administrators but also to that of the community thank you for stepping outside the box and trying to find something new and trying and trying something new by piloting the implementation of the Spalding curriculum it will be interesting to see the measures of successes between Savas and Spalding regardless of the grade differences like we've always told our kids nothing will change unless you make a change so thank you for being insightful for this through your direction we are Marching toward the road of academic success for Dysart and its students and we thank you and lastly even though Dr Dean is not here we would like to thank Dr Dean for his leadership over the years with dyes art but most recently as superintendent although the stint for us was short it has been a real pleasure working with him Larry and I both thank Dr Dean for all the time that he allotted answering our many questions and although he will be missed we extend our sincere best wishes as he Ventures into a New Journey thank you our next speaker is Mike Albertson good evening last time I was here I had a simple request of accepting five dollars an activity and even though there's lip service given to that it didn't come to fruition at this time I have another concern I wish it would take take me seriously that there's some concerns I have at Shadow Ridge regarding the abuse and targeting of children I've spoken to the principal the principal has asked me to provide a public information request as you know that's uh path of Last Resort before legal action if there's any interest in the Dysart board talking to me resolving my issues with the abuse that's being taken there I encourage board members to read your email I've given you an example of some of the things that have some very strong parallels with what's going on at Dysart specifically at Shadow Ridge in the athletic Arena I just hope that this can come to a resolution before it goes any further for the protection of the kids and the programs thank you thank you yes we'll follow up with them now we will move on to the superintendent update Dr crota thank you madam president and members of the board um each year as you know Dysart hero awards are presented to our classified and certified and administrators as well as volunteers and the Hero Squad goes around and identifies among other schools and some of the board members have joined us for that and we we honor them for their positive contributions to our district while the time has come to have that evening and just want to remind everybody that on April 20th at 5 PM in the Vista we will be honoring our Dysart Heroes for this year so it's a great opportunity to say thank you and recognize all our heroes with that too we also have it's the time of season of uh of awards so dsb live is having Awards uh in the in this boardroom actually on 6 pm on April 26th so we will honor all those awesome kids that shoot the videos and all the events throughout the year they do a great job and they're very talented and we'll we'll be honoring them there so please join us for that and one last piece is uh you know we've talked about the summer workshops and we're excited about the summer workshops to start looking at our curriculum and our alignment to the standards while we began this week preparing the teachers the leaders of the leaders so they're kind of going through the workshop they will be teaching the workshops we are very excited they've gone very well we've had two of them this week so those lead facilitators are very excited they're working very hard and and we're looking forward to that coming up in the end of May and that is all I have for you thank you Dr kroto next we'll move to governing board update um let's see I only attended one thing this time since our last board meeting and that was the city of surprise Marion council meeting where they recognized Dysart students for the the winners of The Bookmark contest and there's some really talented students in Dysart and if you ever want to see them please go to the library they're all on display thank you I also attended the library bookmark contest recognition for Dysart schools congratulations um I also attended at Canyon Ridge the stem Spring Festival that was very interesting um lots and lots of activities robotics we shot off a a rocket it was pretty interesting so we had a lot of fun then I also attended the PTSA awards ceremony where they handed out the gingerly Francia award ceremony and just congratulations to the teachers the paraprofessionals staff and community members who received an award so thank you I didn't have an update until Miss Grant um reminded me um so I also attended the city council meeting where our some of our students were recognized for their book for the bookmark challenge I also attended um with Miss Drake the Dysart special education PTSA award ceremony and that was just really special um and I can just tell that from all of the recipients of those awards that they truly find fulfillment in all that they do and that's my update I didn't attend any events this week but I just did want to extend my words of thanks to Dr croteau it's been a very full week and I'd appreciate you being as responsive as you've been all week to managing the operations of the district and Dr Dean's absence so thank you very much all right thank you very much that concludes our governing board update next we will move on to consent agenda I will entertain a motion Ms Grant I would like to move the approval of the consented agenda items with the exception of item number nine and that item uh be moved to discussion and action I will second that's not the motion that was made okay yes we're just testing you Jenna you're here everybody that's right yeah okay at this point we will take a verbal vote I will vote I motion carries all right you can restart we can move on all right thank you very much we'll move on to item G information discussion Dr crotto thank you madam president at the request of a board member we put this on the agenda to review the process of which board members request an agenda item be put on the agenda just want to go over the options and then turn it over to the board for discussion so right now one of the options are is to follow the continue the process that we currently have and that's in which if a board member wants an item then they fill out the official request form and they submit it to the board secretary and once that form is received the agenda item is scheduled for a meeting so that's the current practice an additional option would be the process in which a board member requests an item and then the superintendent or an assistant superintendent as assigned would follow up with the board member through email to gather further information in order to meet the request the important piece in that is we just need some specificity as to what's being requested so we can prepare so either way is good I'll yield to the discussion but we just want to make sure we know exact details of what the board would like in order to prepare that so we don't prepare something totally wrong for you so with that I will stand for questions or the board can have the discussion all right thank you do we have thoughts the only um piece I wanted to add to this discussion at least for the time being is that um there is a process at the end of each meeting where we have the opportunity to add a future agenda item or request one um so in my view if we do request that in a meeting in an open meeting then that request should be honored um and I think that potentially there were a few instances for myself where those were not necessarily honored um with that said I do understand that if I request an agenda item that maybe cannot be on the next meeting because there's not enough time to gather the information or to action something like that I understand that I would be consulted with and advised of that and come into some sort of an agreement so I have no issue with that but I guess my my concern is I don't want to be forced to do the form if I've already requested it in an open meeting I would I would agree um the form I think it became cumbersome because it was like um you almost had to justify why you wanted the item and as board members we all have equal opportunity and equal authority to request an item and so it was like link it to strategic plan link it to policy governance and you know I agree that I don't think we should have to be forced to fill out a form I think if it's on record um it should be clear but if you know there's more clarification needed I like Dr crota's suggestion of someone reaching out to the board member to get more specifics or maybe the board member knows exactly what they want so I know like for me I've had like follow-up emails that say just like this these are things I definitely want you to hit on so I'm not I'm not crazy about having to it's just one more extra thing to do filling out a form when it's already on public record anyway so I'm I'm good with letting the but I would agree too like if we could get a time frame if it's not going to be on the next meeting agenda then having the assistant somebody assistant superintendent superintendent follow up and let us know when we can expect it because sometimes things are asked for and maybe they're not going to be on the next agenda but then they never seem to make it and they kind of get lost in the shuffle Madam president member Pritchard and member Dinsmore we can definitely do that that's not a problem we have developed a form too and I believe Dr Dean shared that form with you we are going to start a form listing all the requests when they appear when they were presented so we are going to start tracking that and have a formal process to do that so that is definitely something we can do it's not very hard to do we can make sure we follow up with you and communicate to as to what is being presented and when that's not a problem so how does Administration do we just rely on the recording secretary for these items to put when you're organizing them for the next agenda do we just go back to the previous meeting and say these items were requested Madam president that's correct she records them and then they will be placed on the agenda when she goes back and starts building that agenda for the following week or following meeting all right thank you I don't personally have a preference either way I think I think if it's made in a public meeting that that should be sufficient but if you need additional information then they would follow up but I am concerned like Miss Densmore is is that if a board member makes a request that it is followed through on and it is made at a public meeting at some point I realize it may not be the next meeting but within a reasonable time we can we can do that very easily we'll make sure that happens can I ask for clarification too are are we open to just sending emails and requesting agenda items like does it have to be during a public meeting that they requested or can we at any time email Administration and say hey this is something that I would like placed on a future we are open to it as I said in the options we are open to it as long as we can get that the details of what we need presented so we're we're open to that that is fine and just to add to this I mean I know that just want to make sure that this is within the scope of this discussion um hold on one second okay so um when I was governing board president I would field requests many times from governing other governing board members to place items on the agenda so that would be within um an option as well correct so we could just reach out to miss Chaffin and request those items and then she would then in turn request it from you I remember Densmore that is a that is an option okay um I believe that used to be in our policy or procedure I don't believe it is any longer um but I believe that was thinking back to those policies I think that was in there and that's something we can certainly do we we are good to go as long as we get the details of what needs to be presented and how so we're good to go with anything that the board wishes on them with that said is the form going away or will it continue to be an option we we can leave it if you want it sounds like it sounds like it's not a popular thing it's not we can leave it and have it but um yeah if you don't want to fill it out we just need to be specific and do them thank you so what I'm hearing from Administration as long as we communicate to you what we would like on the agenda it will get on the agenda and what I'm hearing from the board is we need to communicate back with you and when it's going to be on the agenda so yes the communication's the key in this thank you okay any other questions or comments all right thank you next we will move to action discussion H1 Dr crowdo thank you madam president I'm going to turn over our audit report to Mr Hicks thank you very much good evening Madam president members of the board assistant superintendent Dr crota colleagues and community members it is my pleasure tonight to introduce this agenda item I know most everybody knows this but I'm going to say it anyway a lot goes into an audit um we're preparing we're training we're pulling reports we're doing all the support that goes into all the aspects that go into an audit and it takes a lot of effort not just by one or two people by a lot of people across our district so first I'd just like to thank everybody that participates and helps us on our efforts for our audit they do an amazing job so thank you I would also like to just specifically thank Miss Francie Wolfe Bauman she kind of quarterbacks all of it from the district standpoint and she does an amazing tremendous job I'm a little biased but I would say she's best in the state but I am biased and I don't want her leaving so nobody tell her that um so before I hand this off uh to um uh our amazing Director of Finance Miss Mary Dal Speidel and the wonderful Miss Jennifer Shields our audit partner I would just thank everybody there's a lot that goes into us a lot of sacrifices I will also hate to admit this publicly but we're ahead of time so I'm going to keep talking um I've probably watched about eight different governing board meetings across the state during the audit season just to see how it's presented and I uh also a little biased our presentation is the best in the state of that small sample size of eight and so you'll have a great presentation here and so I appreciate it and as a reminder at the end of this agenda item it is required that we do a Voice vote to accept this presentation so take it away Miss Mary Dallas by now Dr croato members of the board so um as Ken mentioned we will be presenting the information we'll have Miss Jennifer Shields from heinfeld meech take over the first part of the presentation and then I will speak to as it relates specifically to Dysart thank you Mr Hicks for that wonderful introduction um usually people like to run away when the Auditors show up um but I would um just before I start like to definitely second what he said about Francie Wolff Baumann she helps coordinate um a whole plethora of information that we request and then of course we deal with a lot of individuals throughout the time that we're here both on site as well as the time that we're working on your audit and everybody here at the district is incredibly helpful and prepares an awful lot of information for us so with that I will get started and I apologize I didn't do the formal introduction Madam president members of the board it's a pleasure for me to be here Dr crowdo um so I'll get started let's see audit summary for those of you that have been with us here in the past this will look familiar to you from prior years but um you know I am from heinfeld meech we are your external Auditors so although we are contracted with a district we are not um you know District employees we are hired through the district's competitive procurement process and fiscal 22 audit represents the second of a five-year contract that was in place after that competitive proposal um for audit services in the slide now just kind of talks about the timeline of the audit some of these are required Communications between auditor and the board so just so you are aware of the timeline it starts awfully quick it starts usually in April goes all the way through until we issue the reports the financial statements themselves were issued in December and then some of the other reports follow-ups shortly thereafter so I know it seems like we're just now barely getting the June 30th 22 audit but as Mr Hicks alluded to there's a lot of information that goes into preparing all of this information so the timeline is very similar to every for the last probably five or six years here at the district so that's good news this is just a slide that shows that there's four different um reports that we issue and I'll go over each one kind of briefly um in terms of the letter to governance the communication some of those required Communications the scope of the audit Services is up there for you basically we are hired to perform an audit that is performed in accordance with various standards including generally accepted auditing standards more specifically also government auditing standards and then also uniform guidance which is the federal piece of everything and then we are also hired to complete the uniform system of financial records compliance questionnaire and that's a document that's put out by the state of Arizona Office of the auditor general in terms of responsibilities but you know the auditor has responsibilities management has responsibilities you can see kind of those on the slide we are we are charged with the responsibility to perform an audit to provide reasonable but not absolute assurance that the financial statements are not materially misstated so ultimately management is responsible for those financial statements regarding fraud Communications I know we do contact a member of the board every year have a conversation with you about those types just types of controls that the district puts in place and again responsibility for fraud prevention and all internal controls at the district rests with management and the board in terms of new accounting policies or standards there was a very large accounting standard that was implemented last year that was Gatsby statement number 87 and it dealt with leases and um kind of in in conjunction in the private sector there's also a new lease standard going in to effect as well so like you know just um in terms of businesses and Fortune 500 companies and those types of things so um gasbi 87's version of Lisa's is sort of like a sister accounting standard that was implemented so you do have some new information in your audited financials related to that but the district management worked really hard to gather all of that information that was necessary to do the implementation in terms of significant estimates in the financial statements financial statements always contain estimates you can see there's three of them up there for you most notably Capital assets you know depreciation of assets and their useful lives the um what's called incurred but not reported so claims expenses for employee health and accident insurance is one of those and then also assumptions that are made at the state level with the state retirement system related to the pension um for employees that's not necessarily the district's liabilities that's the liability of the state retirement system however it has a trickle-down effect into your financial statements here at the district I'm pleased to report that there were no um audit adjustments that were made that are required to be communicated to you so that's good news um in terms of non-audit services so I mentioned that we are hired to perform the audit and we also perform non-audit services in conjunction with the audit Services as well and that includes the preparation of you know the financial statements that hundred and some odd page set of financial statements we take information from Finance through the district's accounting system and we sort of massage that data into the accounting I'm sorry rather the uh the the external financial statements as they're reported under gaap so you know it basically starts with the district's accounting Rec records that you're used to seeing every day and we sort of take that and push it into a different um Vision but all of the numbers um are really from the district so and then there's also the schedule of expenditures of federal Awards and the data collection form which both of those items are related to the federal audit no disagreements with management to report to you this evening so I'm pleased to announce that at the end of the audit management did provide all of the required information including the management representations that are required for the audit and then just in terms of our responsibility to make sure that we are in fact independent and maintain our own ethical requirements in accordance with our standards we have no issues to report no concerns to report with respect to that moving into the actual reports that we've issued the um and I apologize I have an error on the side it should say annual comprehensive financial report there are some highlights there as I mentioned it's a very large document 167 pages so there's in case you want to maybe you know know where you should look the I point out page 22 because that is the independent Auditor's report and that is the thing you're probably most concerned about within that and that is that we had an unmodified opinion so we had no no concerns with the financial statements themselves so it's what's what used to be referred to as a clean opinion so that is good news and then you can refer to those other areas if you want to look at a little bit more information in detail and then one of those other reports that we issued is called the single audit reporting package that is the federal piece of the audit so if you directed yourself to page 11 you would find something called the schedule of findings and question costs and that sort of summarizes the um you know any findings that may exist and some information related to which federal programs we audited there was one one finding that was reported in this report this year and it related to some eligibility documentation over the title one program so we work with management to get a planned corrective action on what what will be done to remediate that and that is also included in this particular report in terms of the federal programs that we audited um we looked at the SR program so that was um specifically uh you know we look at um you know like the what did you spend the money on what types of purchases were made did were you in compliance with the rules and regulations that are set forth there we looked at the title one educational and disadvantaged program and then also a new program this past year was called the emergency connectivity fund and that was a new program through USAC it's somewhat similar to an e-rate program but that uh that was new this year and I believe the district was able to purchase a lot of technology for students with those that funds those funds um and then the last report that we issued is the uniform system of compliance uniform system of compliance well it's uniform system of financial records compliance questionnaire it's a mouthful sorry um anyway there it has about 26 different areas of um it's just 26 different areas of compliance that we look at and this is where we we look at things like your student attendance we look at Student Activities making sure that deposits are made timely all sorts of different things and there are often minor um non-compliance items that are noted and I believe um Miss Videl will talk a little bit more about those um but just overall um my final comments are that you know I said it already but management and staff were incredibly helpful and Cooperative during the whole entire audit process and I look forward to working with them again this coming year and um not to be outdone by leases we do have another new accounting standard that will I'm sure challenge us all as we do implementation of some subscription based information technology arraignments so we have that to look forward to this coming year so with that I will step aside thank you very much Miss Shields so as Michelle's reference there is the uniform system of financial records and that is a it's about a 400 page manual that's issued out by the office of the auditor general and so what they do is it outlines all the minimum internal controls and procedures that districts should have to ensure that we are safeguarding district assets and so it monitors the areas of accounting here's just a few of the categories payroll classroom site funds student attendance reporting Etc and so they what the auditor general then does is they extract from that large manual specific questions in this case there are 170 items that they review and the Auditors then come in they sample various size of school sites departments they kind of do them on a rotating basis and so they use this questionnaires used to determine our level of compliance as it relates to these areas so material materiality thresholds are not considered so for example if in one instance something's coded incorrectly it's a no and so that's noted on these items and so in in this on this page it summarizes there was a no item as it related to a payroll financial reporting an accounting records and then student attendance so overall it was a 95.88 compliance rating so that is something while we know that there's always going to be some instances for us to work on and identify and what can we make improvements on it is also something of success to look and see that there wasn't 96 percent compliance rating so on the next slide we'll go over those items so this you've been provided in advance and it's the same format if you've seen these in previous years where we go over what's the questionnaire question that that's item or that's noted what were the auditor's comments when they come and do the test work and then also we then reach out to the various departments and or School sites that are responsible for it and identify what corrective action has been taken just to ensure that this is correct and moving forward and then just for context and reference we do include the last five years just to see is it an ongoing issue or is it just a clerical error this one time or is it something pervasive we need to address and provide training on so um you'll see on on as you work your way across on that I know my answer means it was not denoted as a as a prior year finding Etc so on the first item just briefly going over those the first item related to a misclassification of Revenue it was basically 266 000 that was coded as federal revenue that really should have been state revenue um it was corrected and addressed and a journal entry was done on our financial records to properly state it but again the Auditors note that item and so it's noted as a no but the financial records were properly done um in payroll it was a clerical error that was noted it was adjusted the pay of some employees when we noted the the error we went back in and adjusted it and so the employees were paid accurately for the remainder of the year but it was an item that was noted by the Auditors and then the final one on this page was um a discrepancy between the district's annual financial report and a subsidiary report that's extracted which is the Food Service AFR and basically the number on that AFR report didn't agree to the main District AFR and so again that was a manual adjustment so on here we've noted what actions have been taken whether it's incorporating now more of an automated process to be sure that we're capturing all the proper codes to be sure all the financial statements are are accurately reported and on this page it is the area of student attendance reporting I know that there's it's always an ongoing item that will be looking I Look to miss Pritchard because I know it's something that we address every year and so it is one and it's something that we consider it's like with the amount of complex transactions the volume of transactions the amount of different people that kind of come in and out of the position what can we do to address this and what training can be provided and so I know our student Information Systems team continues to do a great job of going out doing training in fact they are this week out there doing audits at the identified sites so they do go their target is to go to every single School site in the year they do start with those that are more higher risk do they have a new staff is it ongoing issues all the time is it what what can we address and how can we correct it so a great change that they've done this year and you'll see that in the district action taken is that they've implemented a support staff accountability plan so the planning department the sys department and the records department have all collaborated on identifying this is the minimum thresholds we need to see to be sure that the sites are compliant if they start seeing a site that's getting to that threshold and it merits a site visit they work with School administration to identify that provide the needed support and training and then possibly as I mentioned continued issues are then included in staff evaluations along with reporting on those performance Matrix so it's something that we understand that there is a clerical possibility of things being inaccurate but at the same time we have to ensure that we are putting in accountability plans in place to be sure that this is something that's taken seriously at those sites and then the last item was as Miss Shields referenced it this was the finding as it related to title one so it was a single audit finding and it was related to not being able to readily provide the low-income count support so again in references on the the district was determined to be in compliance but really the finding related to us not being able to quickly and accurately and readily provide that information so it did leave us susceptible to it not being correct if we can't provide the information quickly so we are now working with changes have been made in that area and so we are now working with our new federal projects director and Department to just address make sure everyone who needs to know about it is in the know that all that information is accessible for everyone so that we can readily provide that to our auditors and so um all those changes are currently noted on here and so at this point as I mentioned you've been provided all these reports in advance and so I'd be happy to answer any questions thank you very much this sounds like a very lengthy process so thank you for all of your hard work both of you and your team and your department thank you Mr Hicks um I feel like we do a really good job because most of these audits go really smoothly so I want to say thank you to our finance staff our department great job guys we appreciate you thank you I know it's not easy it's it's a challenge but and especially with all the changes that are constantly coming at us and I knew with a lot of the covid relief funds and they come with additional requirements and so I do want to point out and just really give recognition to our school site staff our department staff really everyone that's out there that manages and has financial responsibilities because while our department compiles it and we gather it and we have the work one-on-one with the Auditors all of this is really being done by by a lot of our School site staff and so we will be sharing the results of this audit with them as well on our Monday meeting we meet with them and so we'll be going over the same presentation and letting them also know the results of the audit so that it's transparent and available for everybody thank you so much for um specifically coming up with a plan for to track the attendance and for a new system to address that in a different way I really I really appreciate you remembering that and taking time to do that and congratulations on your your high ratings consistently high ratings with your amazing team that you all have really appreciate it I mean things can go terribly wrong if you don't have the right people in your finance department and I just feel very thankful to have all of you thank you appreciate that all right thank you very much thank you next we'll move on to oh sorry point of order if we could have a Voice vote to accept this action item of this presentation we can and I will go grab another cup of coffee all right I will move to accept the financial audit and compliance questionnaire from heinfield meech and Company certified public accountants for fiscal year ended June 30th 2022 can we have a verbal vote please I will vote guy motion made by Crystal Chaffin seconded by Joe Grant I motion carries Now we move on to H2 Dr croto Madam president members aboard uh is that this time of year where we're going to welcome two new members to our Dysart family so with that we'll have Dr pulling um introduce our new guests thank you Dr Crow Madam president members of the board cabinet and Community Administration is proud to recommend Norma Chavez for the position of principal at Riverview Elementary School for the 2023-2024 school year Mrs Chavez received a Masters in Education degree from Edge in educational Administration from Grand Canyon University and a Bachelor of Arts degree in elementary education from Arizona State University she has extensive educational experience as well as three years administrative experience as an assistant principal Mrs Chavez will receive salary and benefits commensurate with the position her education and experience her resume is attached for Board review a comprehensive selection process was used to identify Norman Chavez for this position this position was posted internally and externally for a sufficient length of time for candidates to apply a paper screening was conducted and a pool of candidates was determined through a screening in basket and multi-interview process the process consisted of feedback from Community School District and cabinet team members and I believe Mrs Chavez is here tonight and with that I will stand for any questions thank you Dr pulling do we have questions okay I moved to approve the appointment of Norma Chavez as Elementary School principal second motion made by Crystal Chapman seconded by Don Densmore motion carries thank you next we will move on to H3 Dr crotto thank you madam president and we will continue on with Dr pulling sorry madam President we will continue with Dr pulling for our next introduction thank you Dr Credo Madam president members of the board Cadman Community Administration is proud to recommend Joan wick for the position of principal at Surprise Elementary School for the 2023-2024 school year this week received a master's in education degree in educational Administration from Marion College a master of arts degree in educational Sciences technology and vocation from the Ohio State University and a master of science degree in school health education from Southern Connecticut State University and she also has a bachelor's in education she has extensive educational experience as well as 18 years administrative experience as a principal she will receive salary and benefits to measure it with that position her education and experience her resume is also attached for review a comprehensive selection process was used to identify Miss wick for this position as I had just outlined so this week is also here and I will stand for any questions thank you Dr polling I moved to approve the appointment of Joanne Wick as Elementary School principal motion made by Crystal Chaffin seconded by Joe Grant [Applause] motion carries can you please stand Miss Chavez and Ms Wicks please stay yes please stand Ms Chavez Miss Wick congratulations to you both congratulations thank you congratulations and welcome next we will move on to item H4 Dr croto thank you madam President we will go to Mr pulling for this item thank you Dr crota Madam president members of the board cabinet and community Administration is recommending a revision to policy 3-109 under procurement and following Arizona revised statutes as well as state code we are recommending a piece on job order Contracting this allows Administration to have more efficiencies and Expediting procurement this will satisfy procurement and allow us to move forward for example and on many of our sfb projects Bob Young his Department worked very hard on those and this allows us to move forward whether it's adding a wall or maybe fixing a wall doing concrete work it just allows us to keep moving forward in an exhibitious way and this is following again state code as well as state law and with that I'll stand for any questions and Mr Hicks is my backup for very difficult questions much do we have questions okay I will move to adopt revised policy 3-109 procurement motion made by Crystal Chaffin seconded by Joe Grant foreign motion carries we will move on to H5 Dr crota thank you madam president um in November of November 20 2022 uh the governing board approved uh the dinosaur District to go out for a RFP request for proposals for exceptional student services for supplemental materials they did that and went through this process it is a long process and just ending now and before you is a list of vendors that have replied and have met the requirements of the RFP to become vendors for the district it's important to note that we're not improv approving supplemental materials at this time we are approving vendors that have met the requirements if we were to use this the any of these vendors they still need to go through the process of these supplemental adoption process so it is still brought back to the board for approval and and questions and that whole process there so this is kind of a piece where the loss changed a little bit and we use federal funds so we had to go out to RFP to identify vendors who are potential vendors that we would use to buy supplemental materials for ESS should we need some so with that I will stand for any questions thank you Dr codo I do have a question um looking at something some of these companies their vision statement and what they produce goes against our desert values so why would we have vendors why would we approve vendors that go against our Dysart values and even have the possibility of approving materials that would go against our policy Madam president when we put out a request for proposal we have certain criteria that we look for in this proposal it's very broad so we look at all the vendors it's sent out we don't get into down into the weeds of all the curriculum and those values and those pieces that is through the adoption process so we look at companies that it can provide materials um so in this case supplemental materials and if they meet those requirements they go on as a possible vendor again if the values in those pieces in that curriculum is looked at at a different process and that is through the adoption process they have met the requirements to be a vendor but they may not meet the requirements later down the road as we go through this the adoption process so there that's the difference in this case and then we kind of had a discussion about legally having or the the process correct and how it applies to state law and why I mean is it possible to approve some of them but not all of them that is a very good question Madam present they have met the requirements I will I will tell you they have met the requirements of the RFP so pulling them out would be against them meeting the requirements they have met the requirements to be a vendor from the RFP that is published I would not recommend that we pull anybody out again we're not getting down into the weeds of the actual curriculum we are stating that they have met the requirements legally to be a vendor under what we have published so I would not recommend that we pull anybody off this list because they have legally met the requirements we have asked I have a question so if the they meet the requirements of the RFP and then we if we approve them tonight as potential vendors and I obviously we're not approving future purchases like you said but I'm going to piggyback off of the past agenda item where we just auth we're just devoted unanimously to have authorize the district to make purchases under a certain dollar amount so does that conflict Mr Hicks do you want to explain Madam president members of the board those are two separate the job order Contracting is for Construction Services specifically construction specifically Construction Services goodness kind of clarification this might have been where you were going with it I know years and years ago when we talk about approving different student clubs there might have been some controversial student clubs but the caution was if you have a set criteria to say you can be a club in our district if you meet this criteria then to not hold true to that and question certain clubs then it could you could kind of open yourself up to Legal concerned I don't know if this is similar since you know as far as that goes that they've met our criteria so to we could maybe open ourselves up to some sort of risk if we then say well we aren't going to accept you anyway for our own purposes and we should Miss just rely on the vetting process we have in place as far as deciding maybe not to adopt uh objectionable materials or materials that go against our vision I'm wondering or am I completely wrong Madam president member Pritchard you're exactly right that's exactly um what I was alluding to that they have met that and we should not pull them off the list and your example of the club's exactly right if they meet the requirements and that's the set forth process that we use then to do anything else would be discriminating against um any of the club one of the businesses we need to be very careful about that because they have met these requirements thank you would it be possible to maybe add to our criteria that they that we put out there for them to you know the criteria that we send out to the vendors is there anything we're allowed to add to that Madam president members of the board we could add to the criteria and the scope on the front end this is on the back we would have to avoid this one and start all over and we would not have this ready before the school year started and remember Drake We I think the question is we can add to the the last page on that RFP for the scope and of what we're looking for we can add to that definitely and is this just for this upcoming school year what is the time frame on these Madam president it's for next year so we would be voting again a year from now we would start this process over um Madam president members of the board this is an RFP that allows a multi-year award so this could be extended up to annually for five years although we've had in the past where we the board is requested to bring this back bring items back before we do the automatic renewal that comes in a general consent agenda items so that could happen um but I would I would still go back to we have our supplemental adoption process that gets vetted multiple times before it actually is purchased and back to the board so we still have our coverage in that sense so I feel comfortable in that sense too so if we wanted to we could come back and ask for a review of these companies redo an RFP and then that would be the time to be more specific on the criteria correct um Madam president um can you say that again I didn't uh what you're saying on an annual renewal to cut yes yes then yes yes sorry that's what I'm saying okay thank you thank you any further thoughts I will entertain emotion I motion to adopt her hold on sorry I skipped around it's not just me no why is this not updating sorry I motioned to approve the award of contract number 24 to 204002 RFP ESS supplemental materials as presented second motion made by Don Dunsmore segmented by Christine Pritchard motion carries next we will move on to H6 Dr crota thank you madam president I believe we we will turn this back to member Grant who had some questions about this item thank you um my suggestion is going to be that we table this item until the next board meeting after talking with Administration I had a lot of questions and um about the uh positions that these were approved for and these have been over four years or about four years if I recall but I asked like what about a I mean there's other positions uh that they could look at and so um I would just like for the administration to reevaluate the positions that are receiving the stipend will this impact any employees negatively by delaying the vote Madam president member Pritchard um Madam president members of the board this is annually paid probably in May so there's no we will be able to regroup get administration cabinet back together and relook at everything come back with another recommendation it will not delay anything so if we table it to the next meeting I'm sorry I didn't hear it if we table it to the next meeting yes that would that would be the motion I would make action and discussion on the next meeting I will entertain a motion I move that we tabled item H6 H6 you want me to read the whole thing or is that good enough just age six okay second um to the next sorry uh board meeting if that's possible I know that there might be a timeline but to the next board meeting um and that Administration reevaluate the positions that are receiving this stipend stipend are you asking them to open it up to see if other positions should be eligible yes that's all I'm asking motion made by Joe Grant seconded by Don Densmore motion carries next we have request for future agenda items I just I know I asked last time just want to make sure we're still on target for our cips they weren't on this agenda so I just want to make sure that the request is still in the queue thank you all right next we have a call for executive session I moved to convene to uh well first I will call for executive session pursuant to ARS section 38-431.03 A3 A4 and A5 to receive legal advice regarding the topics listed below and to provide direction to the attorney for the public body at this time I will move to convene to an executive session motion made by Crystal checkpen seconded by Christine Pritchard motion carries we will head to Executive session at this time I'd like to reconvene the regular meeting we will move item to K1 I will move to approved superintendent contract of employment for Dr John crowto second motion made by Crystal Chaffin seconded by I don't know Don Densmore okay why is my not working there we go motion carries congratulations Dr kroto next I will move to adjourn the meeting motion made by Crystal Chaffin seconded by Joe Grant I just didn't understand what it was listening it's okay Miss dense more motion carries we are adjourned
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next item is item k plans for future needs oh just King Board member quest for future didn't items anything cool perfect item L is just our next one just can't get a motion to adjourn I make a motion to adjourn second all those in favor aye please
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thank you foreign thank you foreign [Applause] okay you ready all right yeah I'm ready are you ready oh yeah good evening I'd like to call the meeting um to order please in a roll call Gloria here Mr Carl here Mr post is absent next can I have a motion to adopt the agenda please motion to adopt the agenda as presented second all those in favor aye aye I know please stand with me for a pledge of allegiance and moment of silence and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty um not like a pause with marados okay perfect absolutely next is we have some recognition item d Dr Streeter don't want to come with you yeah okay we have some exciting recognitions uh tonight I am really excited to go through these with you um we get to do students uh some really outstanding Young Folks so we're going to start this evening we would like to recognize Karen opoku APO Marana Middle School 8th grade student and before your 2023 Arizona state spelling bee Champion Aaron foreign Karen competed against 31 other spellers ranging from 4th through eighth grades all from Miranda's elementary middle and K-8 schools to become the Marana Unified School District's 2023 spelling bee champion students were required to spell a wide variety of words including embezzlement corpulent seclusion spelling bee ended with the student misspelling of the word erstwhile Karen was then given the same word and spelled it correctly she sealed her win as the spelling bee Champion by spelling her final word tubular correctly Aaron or Aaron Karen went on to represent the district at the Pima County Spelling Bee and then on to the 2023 Arizona state spelling bee hosted by the Arizona Education Foundation at the Arizona spelling bee Karen outspelled 26 competitors from around the state to win you you want on passage which is good the 25th Arizona spelling bee coordinated by the Arizona Education Foundation was held in Phoenix in March and spellers competed against each other from different School locations as I mentioned from around the state Karen's family shared their excitement and proud and pride in her and in her and her competitors Karen's father Mr opoku Apo welcome made this statement we were just talking about how the winning word passage doesn't really tell the whole story of how intense emotional and gut-wrenching the spelling bee finals was all 27 spellers were highly competitive it was incredible to see kids spell words that are absolutely mind-boggling well said Karen now advances to the Scripps National Spelling Bee in National Harbor Maryland the preliminaries will be hosted on May 30th and the finals on June 1st the Arizona Education Foundation supports travel for Karen and her chaperones along with the student placing second and his or her chaperones to represent Arizona as the official Champions at the Scripps National Spelling Bee Karen's principal of Miss Dixon said one thing that stands out about Karen is how humble she is she's a bit overwhelmed by all of the attention but is a great sport please join us in recognizing Karen for her hundreds of hours of hard work and for being a champion speller [Applause] thank you [Applause] it's not often you get to you're sending someone to the National Spelling Bee championships that's a big deal can I have uh Daniel and Lillian join us up front please [Applause] thank you [Applause] so tonight we would also like to recognize and congratulate the Mountain View High School All-State wrestlers Champions and their coach on February 18th and 19th the Mountain View High School boys and girls varsity wrestling team competed in the state championship wrestling tournament head coach Mr Ricardo mahaka shared that the very young team worked hard all year and peaked at the right time the team finished in the top six in the team Race and brought home five All-State wrestlers including two state champions Lillian gradius and Daniel Miranda [Applause] this this is going to get really good Daniel was unscored upon during the entire state tournament and defeated an All-American in the state finals he is committed to Arizona State University go devils [Laughter] and we will and and we'll continue wrestling in college for the Sun Devils Daniel's prior accomplishments include the 2021 state champion 2020 third place Allstate in a 2020-21 and 22 National High School coaches association academic All-American Lillian was unscored upon and won every match by pin in this year's state champ state tournament Lillian qualified for the Arizona Junior National dual team and will be competing on the national level this summer as she prepares for her senior season at Mountain View Lillian's prior accomplishments included 2022 third place Allstate coach mohaka stated this season the mountain lions finished with the team dual record of 18-9 finished sixth in the state and were the highest placing division two team in Southern Arizona Mountain View will bring back all but two wrestlers next season and looks to have a very talented team coming back coach mohaka also shared his gratitude for the Mountain View Administration and staff and noted that the program's success is attributed to all the people who helped support the team please join me in congratulating our state champions Lillian and Daniel as well as the entire Mountain View High School wrestling team coach [Applause] yesterday congratulations [Applause] thank you congratulations to all next we're going to move on to item e which is board Communications thank you Dr Streeter vice president Holt Mr Carlson I also want to thank the Administration staff and students for the wonderful School site visit I had at tortolita we had a great visit and I was impressed with the systems that are being utilized to support the students and staff I want to thank Marana middle school for their Hospitality when I went to their production at Fiddler on the Roof I also want to thank Marana High School for welcoming welcoming me to their production of Guys and Dolls I am so proud that musd values the Arts I want to thank the 2430 foundation for hosting an amazing luncheon celebrating our students and staff I want to thank Mr cortarno and Mr goligowski for their school bond presentation I want to thank our community for passing prop 491 I want to invite everyone to attend these Bond meetings I also want to thank the district for sending me to the National School Board association annual conference with Dr Lopez and Mr Holt we learned so much and I know I will utilize the knowledge I gain to improve the educated educational experience for our community I encourage everyone to come support our schools students and staff thank you uh yeah echoing what Mrs macrona said I had a great time at nsba besides the hotel issue we will not talk about that for the last three days I live there um yeah really wonderful knowledge besides um one of them not showing up but besides that everything else was great two speakers which was a former president um Bush's daughter that spoke there and then also somebody from Alexandria um TV show so it was really wonderful to hear that stuff next we will move on to item f super remarks from the public again we will be holding these to three minutes per our board policy Ms mccrones will give you a one minute up when you have one minute and the first to speak is Nicole Cozad s because you saw me coming I'm just gonna move the microphone away from her she doesn't need one good evening vice president Holt Dr Streeter members of the governing board Marana staff and Community my name is Nicole kozad and I'm a proud national board certified teacher and my 27th year at Marana High School my purpose tonight is to give you an update on the great work the Marana national board network has done this year and highlight our success as you know national board certification was was designed to develop retain and recognize accomplished teachers and to generate ongoing Improvement in schools Nationwide it's a highest certification a teacher May obtain in addition to being the most respected the three to five year process for initial certification is quite rigorous and teachers that achieve certification are then required to complete the steps to maintain certification every five years currently there are 14 national board certified teachers in the Mirena Unified School District because the process to achieve and maintain certification requires a significant amount of work outside the classroom many states and school districts offer programs to support their candidates the Marana school district has received a significant amount of resources from the Arizona K-12 Center to build a team of their own I am proud to be a part of marana's candidate support team along with Kendra Lewis from Twin Peaks K-8 Danielle Schroeder from Mountain View High School who's with me tonight and Carrie sejerson from Dove Mountain C stem K-8 I believe having both Elementary and secondary teachers that serve both sides of the district has already had a positive impact on our work this year has given us a lot to celebrate in December we had one candidate achieved certification and five candidates maintain their certification this year we coached 12 candidates pursuing initial certification and five candidates pursuing their maintenance of certification and had our last formal coaching session last night to prepare for the national board submission deadline of May 17th of course we anticipate many informal coaching sessions via Zoom email or at many of the coffee shops around the Marana community that offer Wi-Fi between now and May 17th I look forward to celebrating our new and maintained national board certified teachers when we receive the results in December in addition to providing support to those pursuing certification we also offer an eight-week pre-canidacy course during the three-quarter during the third quarter for teachers considering certification who wish to learn more about the process before making a decision to declare their candidacy this year we had seven teachers both Elementary and secondary complete the course and some have already indicated that they will be declaring their candidacy next year our goal for America for Marana is to increase the number of national board certified teachers in the district this year we visited the Marana education association's executive board and also attended a district principals meeting to encourage them to shoulder tap teachers at their sites to persuade them to consider certification and registering for the pre-candidacy course we are also taking steps to become more visible by creating t-shirts for Miranda's NBC teas and hosting Network events for our current nbcts candidates and pre-candidacy completers we appreciate the support the district gives us as well as our candidates many the community may not be aware that the cost of initial thoughts oh I'm sorry that's okay if I could just have a moment of personal privilege real quick we appreciate the support that you give us but I do want to acknowledge the the personal well I want to give personal thanks to Dr dumler for her hard work and support for the national board a lot of what the District offers to support national board candidates both professionally and financially is because of her I know I would not be standing here tonight before you if I had not been if it had not been for Dr dumber's leadership and her shoulder tapping me and giving me the inspiration of pursuit national board certification Dr dumler I'm not going to look because I'm going to cry your leadership has created a legacy that will live on through Miranda's teachers and their students thank you for all that you have done for for musd and I wish you all the best in your retirement thank you all for your support [Applause] thank you next ivy swingly Sweeney thank you hi good evening I didn't give like everybody you know thank you for letting me talk okay my name is Ivy Sweeney and I am a proud public school teacher I'm also a member of MEA and I've been teaching at Miranda middle school for 28 years but one of the one of the weird things I've seen lots of changes lots of things come and go right but one of the more disturbing things in education is school violence every year before school starts I have a conversation with my family in regards to school violence it's hard waiting to them to my family and friends that I'm not a hero I describe my plan you know the Sweeney you know The Sweeney plan if there's ever a gunman on campus I've told them that I will flee they'll be able to go to Miranda Circle okay they'll be able to find me with all my students you might ask why Circle K and not like the LDS parking lot right by our school it's because have you ever been on our cafeteria roof I have it's too close and everywhere else they'll all be in lockdown we won't have anywhere else to flee but to go as far away from the place as possible I have a plan for how we will escape but the shortest distance to Freedom requires me to be a contortionist through two gates not one but two where I have to wiggle around and try to unlock the lock that keeps people out but keeps me in I just want to know have anybody ever heard of the Breakaway Gates where you can just push them open I would really like that please I've timed myself practice but I cannot imagine what it's going to be like if I'm shaking or nervous for a bit if there's gunshots what will I do the second part of my conversation with my family is that what will I do if there's a shooter in my room you see my family knows me as a Survivor and I will survive but I will not watch well each one of my students are picked off only then and only then if there's a shooter in my room will I fight well that's the plan anyway how sad it is I have to have this conversation with my family that there might be a day that I don't come home and yes they all know my end of my life plans I've had a death book for years now not just because I'm getting older but because my job is not safe not only am I concerned about our possible school student but I also have other school safety issues our musd schools are in crisis why are teachers fleeing well one of the reasons is we don't feel safe discipline is lacks our odrs are down but we were told not to even write any the beginning of the year now please wrap up your thoughts teacher being abused by teachers we are being disrespected by students we're being cursed at by students students have laid Hands On Us spat on us and our admins responses did you call home calling home is not enough we are being desensitized to this abuse okay I'll say we are being groomed to accept abuse no more I will take no more we will take no more we are truly wary and physically and emotionally tired thank you Rayna York foreign good evening vice president Holt governing board Dr Streeter senior staff and community members as you know our nation was rocked once again recently by census violence in our schools in Nashville Tennessee you also know that our Marana schools are not exempt from these issues mea alongside the Arizona Education Association and the National Education Association support reasonable school safety legislation that supports School District security plans and Mental Health Resources in order to provide safe schools for our students employees and volunteers while we call on the legislator to appropriate funding to support school and District safety plans we call on you to look closely at the systems and resources our district is allocating to ensure that our kids and educators are safe I want to thank the administration and the board for prioritizing this discussion and allocating funds for some major improvements and I am also grateful to our community for passing our bond to allow for these improvements there are changes that must be made in regards to emergency communication student and educator resources for increased mental health support for social emotional well-being school-based violence prevention programs Community Education resources campus security student discipline specifically how we reintegrate students back into the classroom after aggression or violence related discipline or trauma our students and staff are rightfully scared and action will reassure them that you are doing everything within your power to protect them Marana has been at the Forefront of addressing educational issues in this post-covet world and I implore you to lead Marana in school safety as a model for everyone else to follow our lives depend on it next up is Mari Harrison ment well good evening my name is Mary Harrison I'm a resident of Marana and I'm speaking for Mikhail Roberts like most of several of us here I have heard that there are board members that are hoping to use taxpayer funds for a trip to a conference in Baltimore didn't we just pay for those same board members to go to Orlando for a conference I'm worried about board members starting to treat our tax dollars like perks education budgets are tight it worries me the board members see an amount like 500 and treat it like it's not very much who cares so I asked a teacher friend of mine to ask around her campus and see what they would do with five hundred dollars here are the answers she got all the necessary supplies to hatch chicks from my Kinder students incubator eggs warmer food pellets cage this could be used year to year and shared this could sponsor a student on their sixth grade field trip I could buy covers for the flowers and lights in my room and provide for all the light sensitive students in my room I could provide headphones for my students that are noise sensitive I could provide appropriate fidgets for students ones that are helpful for them and not distracting for the class they can always use more library books I could fund so many special aid needs as you can see 500 could help a lot of kids I know you have a board budget but every dollar you save will help the district that's undeniable our teachers are good at making every dollar count you should not be taking money away from teachers and classrooms for your perks please stop taking money away from teachers away from classrooms and away from our students you're supposed to be fighting for every penny for our kids not finding reasons to take them away thank you [Applause] Susan traba hi advice vice president Holt board members and Dr Streeter Administration um my name is Susan taraba I've been a resident in Aver Valley for 40 years with my husband we raised three children all went to Marana schools all graduated from high school ran high of course that was many years ago so it has come to our attention that a few board members have put in a request for musd to pay some expenses for a trip to Baltimore Maryland have you noticed any high prices at the fuel pumps or high prices at the grocery store we're retired we have to live on a limited budget and so musd has a limited budget you have a budget you need to work within so imagine how these prices are hitting your budgets fuel for buses food for the cafeteria supplies for teachers Breakaway Gates right that money could be used for safety okay musd board members should not allow money for other members to attend special events budgets are already strained as tax paying citizens my husband and I we profoundly object to this expenditure for travel once you open the door it's hard to get it closed but as I've heard the door has already been opened so is this going to happen again and again and again please stop thank you Carl herring good evening Dr Streeter board my name is Carl Herring and I would like you to urge to urge you to vote no on providing funds to school board members to attend the conference in Baltimore with the group local progress I've not heard good things about the group but I've decided to look into it myself the work they do seek to do is clearly political and Progressive but that didn't worry me as much as the people involved I decided to do some research on the people on the local progress School Board steering committee how are they going to urge our school board members well let's take a look at how these folks are doing in their own districts first up is two people have worked on in Baltimore schools as of the 2021 naep scores Baltimore city schools scores among the lowest in the country and are getting worse thanks anyway we don't need their help next we have several from California from districts in LA county that are failing and one that openly supported defunding the police Miranda doesn't need advice from someone with that track record and since I can't feel your time tonight with the long list of these folks folks failures I'll just leave you with this one one member of the steering committee is from Milwaukee Wisconsin where they have 39 failing schools and only Detroit has worse math scores please don't use our tax dollars to send board members to hear their advice these people are failures in helping students achieve Marana doesn't need anything they have to say thank you Kimberly McAllister them good evening my name is Kimberly McAllister I'm a resident of Marana and I have lived in Marana for the past 30 years I'm a mom of seven all seven of my children graduated from Mountain View High School and I'm now a grandma of 14.
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morning Wildcats we're back it's Friday fun day we've been on a little bit of a Hiatus here with spring break spring is here spring of course huh you know spring Rejuvenation rebirth everything's blooming all that crap well it's been beautiful we're gonna talk to our Wildcats see how State Testing has gone and how their spring is going so far I'm here with Aiden Aiden and Clarissa Clarissa what you're in school are you guys Juniors how State Testing gone this week um okay it could have been better it's probably not as bad as you think it could have gone worse actually and see how the score comes out we're gonna stick with the testing theme here it's springtime it's beautiful out this week there's some sayings about spring one of them is March comes in like a lion and it goes out like a I've never heard that before how about another one April showers bring us May Flowers all right they got that one all right Wildcats I'm here with Benjamin Benjamin what year in School freshman freshman how's freshman year gone so far it's going good it's like a little harder than Middle School like obviously but it's it's going well good to hear it should be harder than Middle School you know it's one step up stay testing go okay for you this week the last part I was kind of like struggling because I forgot a calculator but other than that it was pretty easy good advice for next year's freshman bring your calculators so spring is here the weather is turning it's nice nearly everybody gets twitterpated in the springtime there's this old saying that March comes in like a lion and it goes out like a like like wrestling that shirt and like a lion out like a another animal it starts with an out in like a lion out like a would it be the same thing the lion or no no it's not luckily that was not on the PSAT morning Wildcats I'm here with Allison Ballmer Allison what year in school are you I'm a senior you got some time off this week did you enjoy it yeah I spent a lot of time outside with family very good you know outside is kind of our theme today it's spring the weather's beautiful one downside to Spring though is the allergies kick up 40 to 50 million Americans are affected by allergies what is the number one source the cause of allergies say plants I don't know plants or trees she got it she got a pollen the number one source of allergies each spring great job Allison all right Wildcats I'm here with Abby Ellie well you're in school it's sophomore junior are you guys both on the softball team yeah you guys having a good season so far yeah we've had great weather haven't had a lot of rain outs things are going well it's springtime you guys had State testing this week how'd that go um it went fine um good sticking with the testing theme in Spring next week's Earth Day can you name the biggest mountain range in South America [Music] that's on the East Coast here in America Smoky Mountains also on the East Coast the softball teammates are not helping too much here Rocky's also here in the United States South America so not here in North America we live in North America we're looking for South America I'll give you a do you want a multiple choice yes we'll go with the multiple choice is it the Saint Elias mountains is it the Andes mountains or the Atlas Mountains Andy's Andy's they got it largest mountain range in South America the Andes Bond if that's on the SAT this week you got it right good job all right Wildcats I'm here with Julian Julian what year at school are you Julian I'm a sophomore currently sophomore currently at State Testing week how did State Testing go for you I think I did pretty good all right good to hear can you hear me with those headphones yes I can okay good just want to make sure next week is Earth Day there's a goal here in the U.S to have two-thirds of our cars by 2030 be Electric introducing the Mercedes double a class the first fully electric luxury sedan powered entirely by double a batteries can you tell me what country right now has the most electric cars per capita I don't know what if I gave you a multiple choice here Norway Germany or Ireland I'd say Germany good guess we allow retakes here at legal so you get another chance Norway Germany or Ireland Ireland good guess again we're gonna have you go to academic support and you're gonna get some help and you're going to take that test again Norway Germany or Ireland Ireland North Germany or Ireland Norway Norway he got it good job Earth day next week well I I saw food in my mouth but we're live okay all right Wildcats I'm here with Mark savinger repeat guest here on Friday fun day so the State Testing week Cedar's got a day off did you enjoy your day that was Prince off all my boys got outside it is spring we've had me too next week is Earth Day so even though you got the day off we're gonna test you a little bit we want to make sure you kept that brain sharp what is the longest river in the United States Mississippi that's what I would guess too but that's incorrect what the United States the United States that is not the Mississippi River I can give you multiple choice like sat all right the Mississippi the Missouri or the Colorado Missouri River it's not called the Mississippi River right no there still is a Mississippi River but there's also a Missouri River Missouri the question isn't it I'm not gonna go to the Missouri Missouri River Missouri River that is correct all right Wildcats great job on state testing this week keep enjoying that spring we got prom coming up graduation is just around the corner we'll be back in a couple weeks for another Friday fun day have a great weekend [Music]
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okay you are so tall we spent time together meeting to order and we'll start with the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and into the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you super excited to see such a great group at the school board meeting tonight I will remind everyone we are live streaming the meeting so the green light is on so we'll welcome those who have also joined us on the internet um we'll start with consent agenda items um I can get a motion to accept those consent agenda items I have a motion by Earl do I have a second so second by Travis any discussion all those in favor 7-0 next we'll move down to community non-agenda items is there anyone president who would like to speak on any item that is not on the agenda or any other topic hearing none I believe we have visitors and perfect we have two showcase presentations the high school is going to lead us off and they're going to Showcase Touch of Class and their mtss process yeah so first of all we have our Touch of Class group here with us they have their touch class showcase tomorrow night and Saturday night and it is the theme is a history of jchs so going through all the years uh I asked if I could sing with them tonight uh they turned me down but Mr Hartwell is actually a Toc alumni so they invite him to sing them so but if we want to step to the fight just now who would we would like to thank you so very much for um allowing us to come this evening we're so excited to be able to be here as Mr Roller said tomorrow night and Saturday night we do have our annual um showcase and we are doing the history of Jennings County um high school so it goes from 1968 through current um and when I was coming about this everybody's like oh it's a decade show I said no it's more than a decade show um the kids actually broke off into groups um and they have researched Each decade um they've dug into um National History they've dug through the yearbooks I think Mary Hendricks cries every time she sees my phone number pop up because she knows I'm like hey we need come down and borrow some yearbooks again um but and then they took all of that they wrote scripts we have a student technical director that has been working to learn how to actually do sound production and she has actually been accepted at IU into that program um and so she recorded the kids doing the scripts and everything and then we're very blessed to have some community members who have donated their time and talents into making um multimedia presentations with the kids um with all the information that they have gathered so that's just kind of one of the highlights we've we've done many many things this year uh in the music department we had Oklahoma just a few weeks ago and before that play even close I already bought the rights for Mamma Mia so we hope to see you all next February as we will be doing Mamma Mia [Laughter] so we were really excited to be able that's a show that we've never done the height excited to be able to um but we've you know we're looking to grow the department and get out into the community so that we have people who know what what's going on in Jennings County and all the great things um so tonight we are going to sing Fire and Rain um which was originally recorded by James Taylor uh it is one of our songs from our showcase um so [Music] laughs [Music] just yesterday morning and let me know you were gone [Music] to you I woke up this morning and I brought down this song I just can't remember who to send it to I've seen fire and I've Seen Rain I've seen sunny days that I thought would never end less seem all the times when I could not find a friend but I always thought that I see you again [Music] my body's aching and my time is at hand and I won't make it any other way I See Fire and Ice I've seen sunny days that I thought would never end I've seen lonely times when I could not find a friend but I always thought that I see you again [Music] foreign [Music] I See Fire and Ice I've seen sunny days that I thought would never end [Applause] I've seen lonely times but I could not find a friend but I always thought that I'd see you again [Music] I've seen sunny days that I thought would never end I've seen lovely times when I could not find a friend but I always thought that I'd see you again but I always thought that I'd see you again but I always thought that I'd see you again [Music] [Applause] great job guys everything like that well if you thought that was good it's even better no pressure guys uh no we wanted to come tonight also and talk about our NTS program which honestly a joke but as amazing as the talent that you just was is how amazing this program has been and the effect it's had on kids last summer we were able to convince Pamela Grove to come over as our mtss coordinator from Scipio Elementary it took a lot of convincing to get her to take the jump to the high school as she hit the ground running and has been an amazing partner to work with um along with her being the coordinator we have Josh Land as a remediation teacher in there and TJ Newton is a remediation teacher unfortunately TJ cannot be here tonight he is traveling the county delivering mulch for the football team um so he's all over the place but I just want to say before these guys come up and also Tevin Schultz is with us today we'll talk about our PBIS initiative started this was a missing piece for our high school we had a lot of areas where we had supports but to truly pull together all the supports we've had and and have somebody that could coordinate that and dial it down to what kids needed has been an absolutely amazing experience and I can't say enough about what Pam and Josh and TJ have done in that room uh directly what the impact has been so I will turn it over to Pam and Josh and Tevin so thank you guys thank you all right my name is Josh Lynn I'm a I was a 15-year social studies teacher before I moved into this spot and uh what we have created is it's called an mtss program but I'm not sure it's exactly the same way that it works at our elementary school so mtss stands for a multi-tiered system of supports it's a way to basically give give all students regardless of their academic ability the resources and the tools and the the teaching support that they need they need successful and so myself Miss lovegrove and Mr Newton the first thing we started the year off and this is a brand new program we had no blueprint for what to do we identified kids that had struggled academically in the past and we really struck kind of went with our core classes but with math and in English and so uh the list was huge uh we had we had tons of kids and we have eight different period periods at High School we were trying to you know figure out how we could help these kids in algebra one and these kids in and so we have put together a a system where we can we've identified these kids and we tracked their grades we track their missing assignments uh and we design specific small group and individual interventions that help those students succeed and so we have a room at the high school it's room 206 we call it the panther lab and that is where this remediation effort takes place so the panther lab the majority of the kids that started coming there were pulled by us and they were kids that we had identified as you know failed the class last year or had some sort of other issue we pulled them in during their study hall or during part of the class they were struggling in um but it has grown into something where a lot of these students instead of us having to go pull them out of class and force them to come it's a place where they want to come and so those are the options you know a teacher can send a kid at any time down there we requests to come to get this this extra help and so go ahead and go to the next slide there it's just kind of how MTS is supposed to work there's kind of three tiers to it the bottom tier the core instruction that's what takes place in in the normal classroom what are teachers doing to differentiate their lessons lessons so that that students can get the help that they need obviously that doesn't always work for everybody tier two and tier three these are the kids that we can Target these kids that really struggle in in that traditional environment maybe a kid just has too many distractions or they don't comprehend the material they they need that small group one-on-one intervention and so that's just kind of the layout uh go ahead to the next one I'm going to let Pam here talk about our numbers how many kids have visited the panther lab and we'll kind of get into we have had over 2 500 visits in the panther lab so far this year so that speaks well Mr land and Mr Newton and these kids they'll come to just for academic stuff sometimes they come in because they just need a pep talk they need they just had a bad morning or something like that and so they can come in they have a moment to kind of um get re resettled and um their day turns out a little full different than what it would have if they hadn't had that opportunity to come in and so we're seeing you know some great success with these kiddos Define [Music] um our first semester we saw um 186 fewer F's with our student body dimlet we had last year and that's 186 more kids that got a credit uh yes than compared to the last semester uh 102 few ER an impact on these kiddos and one thing I want to reiterate there to the board you'll also notice the days went down and what I what I reiterate that is rigor has went up our teachers are expecting more and rigorous went up as we've kind of recovered from covet and brought back that rigor but our D's and F's have gone down so that's something that I'm as proud of right there as anything is that we've helped these kids accomplish all right so you know as we move forward I did this year has been a huge learning experience for us the first nine weeks kind chaotic logistically trying to figure out how to manage so many kids uh some things that we we look to do moving forward that we're kind of in the process of getting started now and hope to implement next year more small group in class interventions a lot of our interventions a lot of the way that we help kids is typically class we want to find ways where we can Target a group of kids in the class so they're they're not losing that that classroom time in front of their their General Ed teacher that um that's kind of what we're gearing towards how can we we better group together a group of students in algebra and help them all at once in a classroom or in English or in ICP whatever second how can we work closely with teachers to develop better instructional strategies so you know when we see all these kids that come in that are struggling that you know these kids are really having trouble uh adding and subtracting negative numbers how can we relay that back to teachers so that we are better knows in the classroom how can we help teachers deal with some of the behavioral issues that we see classroom management type of stuff so develop that net ters how can we help them help themselves in the classroom make their jobs easier one of the things that we have struggled with a little bit of some of the higher level math and science classes that uh you know if a kid comes in with calculus help they're going to have to wait until Miss Buchanan gets there so um myself I've gotten a lot more comfortable with the math skills this year is a lot of stuff that I forgot but I think that as as we go on we're going to get more comfortable and be able to help more kids so those you know I I think one year under our belts we'll do better for those kids next year and I want to give a lot of credit for these guys these guys have actually gone in and joined Google classrooms for Math teachers from science teachers they're watching the instruction videos to re-teach themselves so they're ready to go help when those kids come in so they're I mean again 15 years of social studies he's not doing social studies every day he's doing math science English and Josh and TJ both and Pam included have really dove in to to learn the skills needed to support these kids a couple other things or really just one other thing the big thing that we've found this year is it's there's some kids that it's just hard to reach at times okay we typically try to help kids during their study hall we have an abundance of kids that go to Versailles for our career center and we find that a lot of those students also struggle in some of those core classes um and so how can we find the time when they're only at the high school for four periods every two days to get them some of that extra help and so we've got some plans for that we're bringing a lot of those career centered things that are in the process of coming back to the high school I think that's only going to help kids in the in these core academic areas so our ultimate goal is no less Perfection is hard to obtain but I think we're moving forward I've really this has been a huge a huge year for me just to need to change I love what I do the final thing I have here I recorded some of our regulars that come in kids that we see and I asked them one question how is the Panther lab helped you be more successful at school this year and so I think they better speak to how this has been beneficial than I could so I'd like to give you a chance to listen to what they Katie how's the panther I've helped you be more successful in school this year uh yes um when I go to the panther lab it really helps me because there's a lot of hand on hand help um I get personal interactions with people that could help me out and I think I think anything else um [Laughter] Austin how's the panther live helped you do well at school this year plaster was Wales thank you Colin how's the painter I've helped you to better School District it's a living Kaylee has a panther lab helped you guys do well matters um they also help us stay organized [Music] anything else all right thank you all right well look uh Tevin talk next about our PBIS all right so one of the new things that we are bringing to next year we have another acronym we know in education we have tons and tons of them um so PBIS it is due to us but it's not so how we see it as a group is a way for us to be proactive versus reactive I'll talk more about that so how PBIS works all of the kids have a solid layer of foundation that's left in the same oldings and on the buses they know they know expected of them right when they come in the building we have we'll have rules in Matrix we'll have rules and guidelines display throughout the building and classrooms that'll be more like a matrix that we've created and also whenever kiddos one of the nice things is when kiddos are following the rules and expectations where I think frequently those kids kind of get under the radar even though we know they're doing the great things that they are maybe they get missed so this is one thing that will help us Target them more I told Mary Lynn I was going to pick on her before this so we'll just say Mary Lynn's a struggling student in my room look with the behavioral issue so Mary Lynn comes into my room she's not prepared she knows though she needs to get started on her Bell work get her binder out and get prepared to be ready to go he's not prepared maybe I give her one negative thing and but I'm coming back with five statements that kind of the role that we have learned in our udl trainings is there's always five positive encouragements that are coming to maybe one area of concern that we need to focus next slide frequently in education we use this picture and I think it really works for every thing we do every initiative but again I said PBIS is all about leveling the the playing field for kids regardless of their abilities or disabilities and that's what this is doing they know the expectations they know the consequences of what's going to happen um frequently we hear well PBIS is just about being nice okay maybe a little bit but it's also looking at what is expected of the next slide um as Mr Lee had talked about with the tier system for mtss we have a similar thing for PBIS that we've been learning about tier one is the whole school population where they are all learning about the expectations the rules that are provided for them tier two is maybe those individual groups that might need some assistance in tier three high-risk kiddos that maybe they need a little more one-on-one um we've actually already started implementing this this year with some of our high-risk kids just to kind of test it out and get some some feedback from them that like what could we maybe change for next year for student s um Mrs lovegrove is actually going to talk about some of the high-risk kiddos that we've worked with um I have a just an example of student a and student B these are actual students that we we do work with on a daily basis student a whenever we was looking at at the beginning of the year had four failing grades an average of 10 missing assignments a week um 12 discipline reports multiple infractions in the classroom rude disrespect work those kinds of things this kiddo when he first started coming to school would not smile at you would not rarely speak to you if you greeted this person would not would not acknowledge you I was just in a bad mood like constantly um so we sat down created a plan with with the kid as well and found some incentives maybe that they would work for and what would what could we do to help and change things so we do a daily check-in and work sessions in the panther lab in the hub or with me um we've switched how we address with positive phrasing statements so um instead of don't do we need this from you those kinds of things he has work sessions in the panther lab specifically just and our celebrations for this kiddo um there we have fun feeling great proud of presence of for this his algebra greatest government 27 to a 65 English 52 to 86 he finished a research paper verbally early like the day before I'm excited now weekly we have a three missing assignments a week so sit late but we're getting them there um or reduce now he will look at you he smiles he greets he says good morning he has told a few jokes and to get work done he'll come in and tell us that at times not all the time because success is a journey not a destination he'll come in sometimes to tell us what he means he made primarily based on Behavior hey great well grades last year weren't very good but it's kind of holding their own this year and um just rude and disrespect blurred out whatever came in her head and so we let's let's see what we can do so again we met devised a planned and all of that kind of stuff and we're down to one discipline report and she has two A's Four B's from the C and it's much easier to get along with in the classroom and just just in general in the in the building so those are our top success stories there and we're pretty proud of our kiddos for me okay so at the high school as part of our plan with the ictq and other acronym um for our udl training is we have to have some type of building implementation team or the bits our bits are comprised are comprised of us three Mrs Kent and as well as several other teachers throughout our building and we sit down and we discuss what things do we want to see we look at the data and we've really been Guided by one question plus some other pieces of information um but how can we use positive reinforcement to encourage good behavior for our kiddos to consistently have that coming from them are they going to have bad days yes but how do we have that majority um and one other thing that as we were working with our bids is we we thought both secondary levels should have some type of alignment and we we started that connection with the middle school and I'll explain more of that here in just a second but having a similar plan along the way yeah there's some differences between um so PBIS is all data driven um so it is factual information this is what's happening we looked at what are some of the areas of concern one was excessive tardies um other areas throughout the building and then specifically passing periods that things might occur when most of our discipline happens um so like I said we're working with jcms to kind of have that consistent or congruency across the board when our kids come up as freshmen they already have been introduced to what we know as the Panther Way next slide so working with jcms we have really adopted the same method the do right say right act right looking at you know focusing on kiddos being responsible being respectful and being safe if you look at this I know it's kind of hard to see from where you're at but every statement or every bullet point is written in a very neutral manner it's not don't do this don't do that do this instead it's just very calm and Collective the kids will see this it will be a visual for them in the classroom as well as throughout the hallways they will know what's expected already been talking about how are we going to get this in so at the beginning of the year that's our plan to hit it right from the ground running I think that's if you can go to the next slide and then also what goes along with PBIS is the token economy system we are really research ings that are out there for our kids so we can keep track of the behaviors that are occurring or the positive behaviors that are occurring as well as using that data to guide us moving forward but overall our plan is to put into our PBIS plane into action in the fall so we will start from the ground running in August any questions last thing I'll say as they close is I just can't thank the group enough for the work they've done and one thing I will say about Pam you can see why she's so vital to us she is one that will bust in my office but it's never for a negative the exact story she just cut told she busted in my office the other day and said he turned it in early and I'm like what the research paper so it's amazing and I also want to thank Taryn Taryn has worked very very closely with these guys and pushing these initial and getting things going and without this group never have gotten to the level it has and it's it's a vital thing and it's extremely exciting for our kids so thank you [Applause] thank you for having Sand Creek here tonight thank you uh high school that was amazing boys this thing would get to look forward years to hide lots of great we're excited to um just showcase what makes Sand Creek great and that's our kids we love our kids we we presentations tonight we're going to start with our student council Council um Owen Owen Daly in Easton wow come on up and they're t or well their teacher but they're a sponsor for student council here at Sand Creek Samantha Lau is here tonight as well they're going to share what they've been doing this year we're excited uh with coven student council kind of slowed down for a while and this group has really taken care of it from the very beginning I think they'll they'll share like where it all started and the fun things that they've been doing and great things that they're doing for our school and moving forward the plans that they have so I'm going to let Owen and Easton take it away so yeah my name's Owen and um I'm the president of student council I'm the vice president I'm sure um and we're just going to tell you a little bit about what we've done this year and what we're looking to do we have many requirements to be in student council good work ethic peer relationships good um this year we got the kick start um as a student council with our homecoming parade it was really enjoyable and fun um and it really brought us together as a whole and something that we could all just enjoy doing and spending time together our leadership opportunities we have done the Veterans Day program where we have passed out papers that gave information about the program they've done multiple fundraisers and we're doing third grade buddies which is helping them get better we were doing a Spring Carnival and we're gonna make balloon animals for and on Awards day we're going to pass out programs um this year we got to donate food to Wayside Inn um so we took we told we set up fires and stuff throughout our building um and we did a competition between our neighborhoods our pods the gold pot ended up winding which consisted over to me it's our second grade classroom so our modern yeah yeah um and we donated all that food to Wayside and also as a sixth grade we made hot chocolate stands and opened up our hot chocolate stand to the school and they got to come in and buy a home so donated that money Valentine's Day posters sold Smencils and suckers for each 50 cents and then a soda that was a doll on Friday before Valentine's Day we saw it label and we put together eggs we put some different candy and treats and toy and twin then we sold them for 50 cents um mostly funded from Decatur mold um and the winner so we took everybody's name who bought an egg and put it in a drawing and the winner got like like animal thing um and and it was really fun to do run the stands and collect the money that would be no we'll be going to Majestic care to plant flowers and whole weeds we'll visit residents and agree with them so I'm excited to see the years to come with student council in Middle School do you have anything else to say do I have any questions did you make the presentation um no our wonderful teachers did [Applause] a wonderful job [Applause] they're really ambassadors in our younger kids really look council members and I hope we look forward now we finally get to prison boys come on up two of our fifth graders okay we have Ethan Osorio and Trayvon Prince and they are going to present an awesome stem project that they did and they just blew it out of the water we're just so very proud of them we Mrs Layton do you want to add anything you should probably ask more about this this is like they're teachers here tonight as well who is amazing at implementing stem in her classroom stem is really fun to teach just because it is a differentiate and meet everyone's needs and we started with the eia kits that were purchased by the corporation and the eie kids are fabulous they come with all the supplies but the truth of the matter is everyone ends up with kind of the same project so there's always that group of kids we heard from the high school the kids need a little extra help but we always have that group of kids that hold you to your toes right that you they make sure that you push them and that you come up with something a little extra special for them so that you challenge them and Ethan and Draven are most definitely two of those kids so they actually for their prosthetic project um were given a patient and the patient's needs and they had to purchase their supplies create a budget stay within budget and so what they did was just really cool and unique and it stood out from the other groups which I loved so they're really nervous but they're amazing kids they're going to be the leaders of this community you'll know it when you see them so they things like this are going to be necessary part of the leadership leadership and this is just one example of some of their projects like I walk through stay and how did you get how do you think does he had to like show and I was like that's amazing you know yeah there's regular ones that I'm like all the all the time regular times and I'm like yeah it's amazing yeah it really is so step up just a little bit if you could could you please put a presentation yeah oh maybe not just look at them and Nod when you're ready for them to switch how's that okay okay um Jenkins prosthesis by Ethan Osorio and traven Prince this was an image of our prosthetic our science class had to build build a prosthetic for a patient to want to meet the two of us chose a patient named Jacob Aiken he is nine years old and in the third grade he was born on December 28 2013.
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