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Tuesday or that's at Williams field I'm trying to combine things Tuesday is when we have williamsfield graduation at ASU at 2:30 in the afternoon followed by Higley High School's graduation at ASU at 7:30 on Wednesday May 22nd we have htap graduation at the hcpa that's at 9:45 and then nobody's looking forward to the last last day of school are you if you don't know what day it is it's the 22nd so that concludes upcoming events thank you Miss Richard and congratulations to everyone recognized um tonight um you are welcome to leave if you don't want to stick around for the reain of the meeting if you do awesome um thank you we're gonna um go ahead and move into a public hearing to discuss the budget revision for fiscal year 2024 with Mr Moore are you we ready all right good evening board president Anderson members of the board uh tonight I'm presenting the uh first revision of the FY 2024 budget um the board has seen this Arizona Budget timeline uh several times now um we are at the May uh 2024 uh dot on the timeline um we are required to revise our budget uh by Statute uh to the 100th day ADM uh as you know we adopted um our budget back in July or June excuse me and so we have not revised our budget uh to reconcile our average sh membership as well as sever of our other accounts that are included within our total budget um as we move forward uh we will look to propose our new budget fy2 in June 5th uh and then adopt that same Budget on June 26 and then we proceed into December uh if we need a budget revision at that time so why are we doing a school budget revision as I said this is required by Statute you can see the statute number right there AR 15- 905 um basically what that says is that uh we are allowed to revise our budget um with a notice uh and so the categories in which we can revise are our M our general budget limit our capital budget classroom site fund um and our um unrestricted Capital Outlet fund all those funds that I just mentioned are formula controlled by ADM um so when you revise the budget um those funds are adjusted accordingly so I'll cover those funds here on the next slide uh looking at the maintenance and operations uh budget I kind of switched it up a little bit I spelled out um what where we adopted um in terms of ADM So reading this from left to right I have budget categories our adopted budget again that we adopted in June and then what we're revising to what we're recommending our revised budget go to so as we've discussed um in regard regards to ADM uh we know the district has experienced some losses in ADM um and so at the this point in time we're uh down 226 um average that's average daily membership um that's not a student per se um that could be that's why you have Point decimals um it takes the average of the hunt first 100 days so um 226.50 683 uh that is the difference from what we adopted to what we're revising to um you can see how that affects the budget going down the sheet um so if you look to the revenue control limit um that actually increased and there's a couple reasons why um when we adopted the budget we take into consideration estimates with our group b weights kind of our um we get additional funding for students who have um additional needs such as special ed elll um English Learners um language Learners uh gifted free and reduce population and so taking in uh estimates in June not knowing where our student population will end up um when reconciling that to the um ADM numbers we experienced um several growths in our group b weight specifically with multiple disabilities autism and severe intellectual disability so those are some of the higher weights um that affected um the increase in funding in the revenue control limit moving down to the m transfer to Capital this has not changed since we've adopted our budget U we still transferred $5.6 million to a capital fund the Amo override we reconciled that slightly uh that increased about 111,000 um again it's just reconciliation to the ADM emo override is funded on prior your ADM um so there were some adjustments to our ADM from last year uh and which is why you see the increase there the budget bounds carry forward again back in June we were taking an estimate on where we would end the year um That official number is done uh and finalized on the AFR which is completed in October uh so there's several months of of estimating that we have to do so we I I always estimate conservatively knowing that uh we when it's a lot easier to go up than to go down um so you can see the difference there um we conservatively estimated that we carry forward 23 million uh we in actual carried forward 24.7 million and you can see the difference there being just over a million dollars uh the additional funding uh there's a proposition 123 um again that is uh adjusted based on weighted ADM and ADM num so um and reconciling that number uh that came down slightly um and so looking all the way down the sheet to the general budget limit you can see uh on the budget revision tonight that we're proposing uh it's an increase of $1.3 million again majority of that is related to the budget balance carry forward as you can see and the increase in the group b weight students that we are receiving additional funding to support looking at Capital um not uh again reading left to right uh we adopted a budget um again this is at the same time we do the M budget um in June what we're revising to um this evening uh is slightly different um on the first line the district additional assistance this is your formula generated um amount so this is the amount we get from the state based on our per student so at 7.4 million we were just off in our estimates so there's a small adjustment down uh for that um if you note on the I didn't put on the bottom but District additional assistance is also funded by prior your ADM um so when you have adjustments to Prior ADM that's where you see the change there um the M transfer to Capital as I mentioned in the previous slide Theo budget transferred 5.6 million to Capital so you see that as an increase on this slide uh that's an increase to the capital budget the budget balance carry forward much like M we budget conservatively we had a lot of summer projects that were taking place um we estimated that those would be more uh expensed or completed um when completing the adopted budget um those projects were still in place and still U working through uh delays and so we had carried over excess $2.3 million um again I was conservative with our estimate um and so bringing that up is a lot easier than reducing the capital budget so um the budget balance carry forward of increase of $2.3 million represents the majority of the change to the capital budget here um interest earn one note on the capital budget is you can um acrew um you can add budget capacity with interest earnings on the capital fund only and so um you can see the interest earnings um what we anticipated was 91,000 we actually garnered 128,000 the onetime state aid supplement um this was appropriated in the K12 budget for fiscal year 2024 um districts had the option to appropriate that to M or capital or how they see fit um the district uh appropriated that to the capital funds uh to use towards onetime expenses um you can see uh just a small difference in what we adopted to what we are revising to so all in all again majority of the difference uh in the capital budget is related to the budget BS carry forward increase again um a lot of the projects that we anticipated being completed and expensed out uh at the year end uh last year were not and they were carried forward into this year uh due to delays in construction or supplies so um those were not expensed and so therefore we're adding that money that was not expensed back into the budget capacity lastly um as we look towards the fy2 budget um we are still waiting on the state legislature to approve a K12 budget um there's a lot of different issues that they're working through the K12 budget is not one of their priorities right now um we will I we did get word from the Arizon auditor general that they would approve a temporary budget forms on May 23rd If there is no uh state budget approved so we will have something to bring forth on June 5th uh because our obligation uh we must approve a proposed budget by July 5th that does not change whether the legislature has approved a K2 budget or not so we will have temporary forms if the legislature has not approved a budget and then we will uh go to June 26 and probably bring that same budget forth to adopt um again on the adoption you can only decrease from the proposed budget you cannot increase so um there just a point of emphasis typically there's very little change from the proposed to the adopted budget and again that adopted budget must be approved by July 15th regardless of whether the legislature has approved a cave2 budget bill or not so um we will move forward with that and um in years past we had brought forth a budget Revision in early September or August when the legislature has completed their session um to maybe make any changes that will be reflected in their final proposed budget so that is an option um if we were way off or if there's drastic changes in the the final K12 legislation bill so with that I'll be happy to answer any questions no I don't have any questions but this would be the opportunity for the public to come up correct so there if there are any members of the public that have comments or questions regarding this Bally 2024 budget revision you're welcome to come up to the podium and ask questions or make comments please not all at once okay oh yes absolutely Linda Payne I do have some questions because I think this budget I think we could really increase our budget if we could change some things in this school that we're going to be talking about later but um we're having a lot of parents wanting to pull their kids from the school because of dress code and all also literature that is being presented and if we can work together and try to get a lot of this and resolved and get it back to where what we should be teaching our kids I really think that we can bring a lot of people that would like to come back to the school district because you have a lot of programs that are amazing but you also have a lot of things that are going on that are really need to be addressed and I think with that if you would do that I think we I saw what happened yester yesterday with his volleyball thing and there was such an output from the from the public and thank you for supporting us but it can happen also in this type of situation that's what I have to say thank you anybody else okay with that we will uh reconvene into Open Session are there any comments from the board at this point in time Mr Moore thank you I I really appreciate the time you put into this information and and how um you make it EAS easier to understand and and it's got to feel although you we live it and breathe it and you probably talk about it all day it's got to feel good to stand to come up here and just talk about your work and show show the work you do so I appreciate you all right next we're going to move on to the um public comics with the request to speak we value input from our constituents the time on our agenda has been set aside for anyone from the audience who wishes to address the board those that wish to speak should have filled out a speaker card which uh which is due prior to the start of our meeting members of the board may not discuss comment or take action on matters raised that are not specifically identified on the agenda therefore pursuant to ARS 38-43 1.01 I I believe action takes 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 a further consideration and decision at a later date also we ask the audience members practice proper public meeting to Quorum refraining from either negative or positive responses including clapping or verbal outbursts to ensure fairness to All Points of View those that refuse to follow these rules may be asked to leave in accordance with policy bedh public participation of board meetings if considered necessary the governing board president shall set a time limit on length of the comment period in order to ensure that each individual has an opportunity to address the board the president may also set a time limit for an individual speak speaker thank you for your Co cooperation first to speak will be Bob Parish good evening president Anderson members of the board and cabinet my name is Bob Parish I'm a retired Commander from the marope county sheriff's office I have about 35 years of experience I'm a parent and I'm currently raising my granddaughter who attends williamsfield High School I wanted to warn the audience said in a few moments I'm going to be reading an excerpt out of a novel that was assigned by several English teachers as required reading for Williamsville High School juniors the excert is extremely sexually explicit so I would ask you to leave now if you have any minor children present and do not want them to be subjected to such language the assignment required a parent signature but had no content warning for any of the novels if there was a warning stating the books contained sex explicit material obscenities drug and alcohol use sexual acts masturbation suicide abortion and police races and brutality those are all reviews from the internet on these five books I believe parents would have exercised more caution actually reviewed the books before signing a permission slip such warnings are required for movies and we use them to gauge what we allow our kids to watch my wife and I were suspicious we've never had to sign a permission slip for our kids to read a book so we took that time to actually review the five books after reviewing we noted four of the five books were banned by numerous school districts we also took note that there were no alternative novels offered due to board imposed time constraints I'm going to read from only one of the five novels the novel's titled 19 minutes by jod Pico and I'm almost embarrassed to read it but I'm going to do it just so people see what the these kids are being asked to read he pinned her hands over her head and ground his hips against hers she could feel his erection hot against her stomach it wasn't the way it normally was but Josie had admit that it was exciting she couldn't remember every feeling so heavy as if her heart was beating between her legs she clawed at Matt's back to bring him closer yeah he groaned and he pushed her thighs apart and then suddenly Matt was inside her pumping so hard that she scooted backward on the carpet burning the back of her legs wait Jose he said trying to roll away from beneath him he clamped his hand over her mouth and drove harder and harder till Josie felt him come Seaman sticking hot pulled on the carpet beneath her I believe teaching the sexually exp materials in violation of House Bill 2495 I spoke to principal Fox about the assigned objectional material prior to the consent for him being due I gave Mr Fox an opportunity to prohibit such sexually explicit material in the class room and told him it was his responsibility to stop it after two days review refused my request stating there was good messaging in the books and that the students had a choice on what to read I would State there are better books with the same messaging available absent OB objectionable content you may even say well they can find it on the internet recent studies from 2023 conducted by the American psychology Association and yell medicine.org show a decline in youth mental health teens can easily access inappropriate harmful content sex SE such as sexually explicit material suicide and self harm on the internet Studies have found discussing and reading this content can normalize these deviant behaviors introducing introducing this into our schools only exacerbates the moral decline of our youth schools should focus on the basics and keep the content appropriate it doesn't take this type of Highly objectional material to teach our youth about the challenges that that may fa they may face in life I want to conclude by urging the board to remove all sexual explic material from the curriculum and align schools and District policies with state law as they relate to approving reading material I would also ask that husd to modify and standardize the parental consent form requiring specific details regarding all objectional content providing non- objectional Alternatives and Implement these changes at all schools within the district Mr I just want you know that I I'm letting him know that the time had ended but thank you if I could I just wanted to thank you um our joint goal should be focused on use Mental Health and I'm confident this board will address my concern seriously and would like to thank you all for the opportunity to be heard thank you I appreciate your Your Enthusiasm but if you wouldn't mind let me run this meeting I I would greatly appreciate that all right next we have and forgive me is it Tamara Farah I apologize if I'm saying that incorrectly fa oh thank you good evening president Anderson and board members thank you for your dedicated service to Higley unified my name is Tamara Farah and I direct the smart families Network for Arizona women of action representing over 20,000 parents and community members across Arizona our mission is to protect kids and promote academics in our schools in the state the purpose of my address tonight pertains as well to a significant concern the content of the five books recommended uh for a recent contemporary literature assignment including 19 minutes by jod pult which was just mentioned this assignment featured books that contain sexually explicit material which according to ars1 15-120 parents are to be granted the opportunity to evaluate whether that that content possesses serious educational or literary value for minors and that is a quote directly from uh that statute parental notification and consent was Rec was required regarding these books but the school only provided the title and a description that did not include the pornographic content in the permission slip that went home to parents there is no respectable justification for a teacher to present books like this to minors for a reading assignment think about it what is the impact of pornographic mat material on the mind and the body what does it do to the brain what does it do to the emotions let's get real the fact that these books will stir up students sexually instead of Awakening them intellectually is obvious pornographic material at minimum delivers a mental emotional and physical distraction from Reading Writing math and higher thoughts related to critical thinking but it's much much worse than that as has been alluded to already according to Sage journals Studies have noted that early intentional exposure to pornography used in children and adolesence can lead to delinquent Behavior high-risk sexual behavior and substance abuse is that what we want for kids shouldn't students Minds remain healthy so they can focus on their future aspirations and proficiencies needed to succeed in their careers as a board will you consider removing this material from student lessons you have the authority to do so let's prioritize students intellectual and moral development thank you thank you next we have Taylor franc good evening Madame President and members of the board my name is Taylor Francis and as a dedicated parent of two husd students I come before you today to speak on the topic of mitigating risk in our daily lives we consistently assess risk and take steps to minimize them for example if I want to boy pasta I weigh out the risk of injury against that of feeding myself then deciding that the benefit of a meal outweighs the risk of injury I proceed with the process however while the risk of injury from from making pasta is low it is never zero so to minimize the chance of injury I employ risk mitigation techniques such as using a hot mitt and practice safe cooking I might even set a timer to mitigate the risk of over or undercooking my noodles I cannot help but remember back to the October 11th board meeting where Ray and Associates and cabinet members implored you board members to act now with haste to move forward with beginning the selection process for a new superintendent immediately despite your questions and doubts regarding the rapidity of it all however after being pressured you as a board relented the process was then rushed through the holidays and after then a less than perfect process Nate Carman was announced as H usd's new Superintendent at the February 21st board meeting the same Nate Cartman who appears to have been terminated from his former contract as a superintendent has been suspended until the end of his tenor in his current district and is leaving a district facing a $33 million deficit while Nate Carman may have the potential to excel as a superintendent here in H USD the uncertainty surrounding his past conduct and the financial troubles of his current District are considerable and must not be overlooked can we afford the risk of gambling with the future of our students and staff by entrusting such a critical position to someone with questionable credentials I earnestly implore you the board to reconsider Nate carman's contract and explore other options to ensure the best leadership for our School's district please resend or terminate Nate carman's contract our students and staff deserve a better superintendent and you owe it to them to mitigate this risk similarly at the last board meeting I heard from two fellow members of the citizens committee who presented the 73 vote of the committee to recommend the board place an $83 million Bond alongside the M override on the upcoming November ballot when the survey expert presented us on the committee with the results he indicated that with only 44% of respondents stating they would vote for both the bond and override if both were on the ballot there was a risk that the override would fail if presented alongside the bond rather than Al loone compounded with the fact that six month months ago Gilbert Mesa and Queen Creek bonds all failed and both of the last two Higley bonds overwhelmingly failed is it worth the risk of putting essential school funding at stake by combining the bond with the override on the ballot I do not discredit the merits of the items listed on the bond nor do I think anyone else on the committee would either to me however the risk is too great to place the bond on the ballot alongside the M override I urge the bond to elect to mitigate the risk and vote against putting the bond on this November's ballot too much is at stake as elected representatives entrusted with the well-being of our students and Community it is your duty to make decisions that minimize risks and prioritize their Ben best interests therefore I beseech you to take action to mitigate potential risks by eliminating Nate carman's contract and refraining from including the bond on the November 2024 ballot thank you thank you next is Amber fedck good evening govering board president Anderson members of the board and cabinet uh my name is Amber fedck I'm a teacher at Gateway Point Elementary and I just wanted to take a moment and thank you for approving our sixth grade science camp this year um for the students who were able to go this year they really had a truly amazing time um some of the things that I got to witness were blossoming of the love of Science and uh sorry I'm not used to coming up in front um in embracing uh nature and human connection instead of technology which to their surprise they did not miss at all um and also the friendships that they began to create even though they've been in school with students in their classrooms um that I hope and and know that they're going to have for going into middle school next year I'm really feel lucky and very grateful that I'm one of the few people that get to take these students up and give them this experience I have students that come back year after year and reminisce about their sixth grade and always science camp is one of them so I just wanted to take a minute and thank you and I look forward to working with you guys next year thank you next we have Kim Jackson good evening president Anderson and board members um I had seen a message on Facebook from a parent about the Verizon cell tower being installed at San Junior High School she learned of this at the April 3rd husd board meeting this was the first time I had heard about it so I went and watched back the meeting from April 3 prior to the April 3rd meeting I unfortunately have never attended or watched back a meeting nor have I met any of you or spoken to any of you I was super surprised to hear the cell tower topic wasn't passed through the board properly I was also surprised it was put into the consent agenda as there wasn't to my knowledge any conversation with us as parents of those students who could be affected by the tower addition to my knowledge there hasn't been a convo with teachers and admin about their feelings on the topic to my knowledge no attempts have made to involve the homeowners or HOA management of saam and Estates where the junior high school presides they will surely be affected by the potential of this tower being installed with all of that being said I share my experience and Thoughts with you with hopes it's not only received well but it's used to improve communication between the board and the community of admin teachers parents and students so we can not only be informed by proposed plans that you all are going to be making but you too can get our feedback on how we feel about these plans I would also like to address a concern of mine as I watched back April 3D's meeting I witnessed an unfortunate amount of degrading facials and different expressions from body languages from board member Wade being as you all are in position of power and Leadership representing thousands of us I hope you board member Wade as well as the rest of you will be cognizant of your body language when another board member is speaking or when a Community member is speaking kindness is taught to all ages in this District we look to you to set the tone for meetings by setting an example of neutrality with your facial and body language you then create a safe environment for others sharing concerns or thoughts that may vary from yours I hope moving forward each of you will set a positive tone with your body language and facial expressions while conducting board meetings to close I want to thank board member van Hoke for asking for the cell tower to be pulled from the consent aend agenda and bringing the conversation to the community I placed multiple calls to the district super intendent and to the director of secondary education with no calls back but I did call Tyler Moore and he was the only person to return my call and help answer my questions thank you Tyler I am looking forward to the town hall meeting that you all agreed to hold to chat about this topic I'd also like to ask the board to consider utilizing social media accounts to invite the community to these meetings I scrolled back months back and I have yet to find those social media accounts being utilized to communicate things like this to include your community I would also like based off of the complaints or concerns about the books for the board to consider creating a committee around this topic to help give the community the opportunity to make change and participate in that change and to help support the board thank you thank you next we have Callie Coons good evening I'm speaking in regards to the required reading assignment at williamsfield high for the 11th grade kids who could potentially be as young as 15 the book that was most alarming to me was 19 minutes my name is Cali Coons I'm a registered nurse here in Arizona I also have five kids ranging in ages from 23 down to 7 my kids have attended public schools here in Gilbert and most recently they enrolled in charter schools I decided in the middle of this school year after Touring chapparel that we wanted to give Public School System another shot and my kids were very excited however when I was told about the book list it sent me back to the drawing board of what my plans were going to be for my soon to be junior high and Elementary School AED kids I want to send my kids to the public school but these actions leave us with no other choice than to pull our kids out and send them to Charter Schools or home schools do you wonder why the enrollment is down a great example of this is out in Santan and Copper Basin there are so many families choosing to leave public school system and homeschool their kids instead homeschooling is becoming so much more popular not but not because these parents necessarily want to they don't trust the s school systems and they don't feel like they have any other options I sent the book list to my daughters who were in their early 20s who also attended williamsfield high and they were appalled as well it was only a few years ago that they were teenagers so they are a great resource for opinions on what kids would benefit from and what is actually relevant for these young kids they agreed that the material was extreme and they were actually appalled my daughter said as someone who was exposed osed to pornography for the first time on a school bus in 8th grade and dealt with it almost every single day in my face from classmat to 9th grade at williamsfield High School the last place I needed more porn was in the classroom in fact the last place a child should feel over sexualized or aroused is in a classroom we tell our youth all the time not to send explicit images to one another and use scare tactics when doing so so why are we letting letting books that talk about unhealthy teenage sex lives and classifying it as literature into our English classrooms there is a time and place for children to learn about sex and it isn't from a book about school shootings studies suggest that early exposure to pornography often before age 18 can lead to distorted views of relationships and unhealthy attitudes about sex Research indicates that adolescents who consume pornography May begin to see um see it as a realistic representation of sexual relationships which can lead to unrealistic expectations and a distorted sense of what constitutes normal there is evidence that repeated exposure to pornography can have addictive properties for some individuals this can lead to issues such as increased anxiety depression self-esteem for example a study found that among adolescents regular consumption of pornography was correlated with feelings of loneliness and a higher risk of depression another concern is about pornography's role in shaping aggressive attitudes toward sex some studies suggest that exposure to certain types of explicit content especially that which involves aggression or non-consent which is what the excerpt in that book was May normalize these behaviors among adolescents leading to misunderstandings about consent and potentially increasing the likelihood of sexual aggression we should be able to send our kids to school confidently knowing that they have their best interest interest at heart that the material they are being encouraged to read and study should be uplifting and thought-provoking it should broaden their minds and stir creativity my gra my background as an RN includes working with adults and young adults at drug and alcohol rehabil rehabilitation facilities behavioral health facilities and I was the director of nursing at one of the facilities well facilities as well I will tell you the disturbing fact four out to five of the women on the facil in the facilities report being sexually assaulted in their childhood or teenage years and when they would share this with me it was always difficult for them to address and when I would take do intakes on on patients your time is up are you almost done close okay if you could if you could go ahead and get to the get to we appreciate it just be consistent um when we put these thoughts into our kids Minds we have to remember that they're very impressionable we as adults are also still very impressionable we have to understand that filling their minds with these things and teaching them or or trying to tell them that these are normal teenage behaviors is is not normal for everyone and that it shouldn't be expected um I would at least hope that we would at minimum um be able to somehow rate the classes before people sign up for them and also rate the books so that parents have our a little bit more educated on what their kids are being asked to read thank you next we have Kelly Mullins board members I appreciate you letting me come and speak today my name is Debbie Thatcher Kelly Mullins had to attend a another higgle activity over at um the elementary school nope higgle high school so she texted me her comments and these are the things that she would like to say tonight thank you for all your hard work I don't envy your position I have two graduates from williamsfield and currently have two high schoolers so we've been here a while I'd just like to quickly add my concern to a few books being shared in the schools it's worth noting that many of the students where where the books are available haven't yet reached puberty so the themes in some of these books are too advanced for their age group we need to ensure that the material we provide aligns with their developmental stage why not save these books for college excuse me when they're adults capable of making their own decisions our priority should be offering educational resources that encourage learning and growth without prematurely exposing our students to adult content it is also important to review our policies to ensure they comply with state laws regarding appropriate reading materials in schools I'd love to see a revision to the parental consent form to give parents a clear understanding of any potential objectionable content and also provide Alternatives this approach will help us create an environment conducive to the intellectual and emotional development of our students that's the end of Kelly Mullins as Debbie Thatcher I had kids here in Higley when it was a one school district K through 8 and 200 kids so I've seen it change a little over the years and I have put five kids through school and monitored their reading materials and things there they see I also have worked for and retired from 23 years from a school a neighboring school district and have been in High School classes and have heard the discussions from books like this not like this for sure but books when they're being taught they're discussed and talked about and was appalled when I learned of the book choices that these kids are presented with with no alternative choice that wasn't represented on permission slips and told explicitly to parents I would like to see changes in how things are done and with all the literature that is outstanding in the world to uh encourage teachers to be able to present material that is correct for these students to learn in a high school situation I went to a principal and told them of a questionable thing going on on a classroom and changes were made immediately and I don't see this happening here when asking if they could have another book choice to read and to participate with and like Linda Payne said with issues that pull people away from Higley District it would be a shame if this is one of them and things aren't made a point of change so that this is a high spot for the district that change can be made thank you very much for hearing my comments thank you next we have Linda Payne this is on the same topic and I'm sure you guys have heard a lot about about it but I really think that we need to get this kind of stuff out of our schools we really need to get people back into our school district instead of running them out and this is going to run the parents out faster than anything because this filth is terrible and I know that most teachers don't even want to teach these sexual things and scen and pornographic things and I don't know if they're being forced to I don't know what the I don't know what the thing is but I think you as a board as board members and I think every parent in here would not want their child to be read this kind of garbage that was read today and that's what it was it was literal garbage and I hope and pray that we can come together as a community because this community is all of us and all of us together can make a difference I mentioned the volleyball thing yesterday there were so many people that came together to make that happen and it was good because it should have been that way from the beginning anyway I just wanted to thank you for listening to all of us because I know you I know that you and us together together could make a difference but we need to make a difference for our kids these kids are our future and if we don't stop it and stop it now we are doomed anyway thank you thank you next forgive me is it uh Donovan Hansen hey thank you my wife and I are here tonight because it came to our attention that a literature teacher at williamsfield high school gave pornographic material to his students to read as an assignment this is confirmed the principal was consulted he made the decision to support the assignment and the teacher rather than retract it and reprimand the teacher I pay taxes for the Higley School District we have three children who reside in the Higley School District uh they will never attend a Higley school unless and until we can rely on administrators to protect children from pornographic material in school we've removed them and applied their ASA funds Elsewhere for this reason parents should be able to rely on Higley schools to protect their children from pornographic material as stated before it is a violation of Arizona law to give pornographic material to a minor it's in fact a class 4 felony the teacher uh in question here should be terminated and the principle at least reprimanded more importantly Higley schools should have a policy prevent V ing students from being given pornographic material again thank you thank you okay moving on to consent oh I'm sorry yes Miss Van Hook um just as a as a direction to admin um I would like to um further dis I'm sorry I can't see you um I would just like to further discuss um what we we would do in these situations whether it's I don't know if we have a current policy I mean at a state law but if we can maybe look into a policy um and and look at what would happen in situations where state law is violated um and and how we would approach that um that would be wonderful we've already got some things going on and we'll be happy to report back thank you thank you Miss Van Hook okay now we're going to move on to the consent agenda I motion to approve consent agenda items 7.1 through 7.17 second that was Tiffany s my Tiffany all uh all those in favor I I I I motion carries 4 to zero Dr Lindsay do you have some introductions to make this evening yes I do president Anderson I have a couple of new administrators that I'd like to um share with the community um first up I would like to recognize Nicole mola she's standing right over [Applause] here Nicole Nicole is our current dean of students at San middle school and next year she will be serving as power ranch's new assistant principal as our current assistant principal Michelle Kota is going to start her well-deserved retirement um before Nicole was at San she was an assistant principal at Desert Wind Middle School in Maricopa um District she's been in education for more than 17 years serving in many roles including teacher instructional coach and administrator and we're really excited to have Nicole join the power ranch team and and I know she's looking forward to building relationships with the Power Ranch Community and looking forward to having you work alongside them so [Applause] congratulations additionally I'd also like to welcome and introduce to all of you Marsha hofstad Marsha's here she's right over there Mara is joining husd as our new assistant director at kolie and SAS and Early Childhood Development Centers as Stacy Utley is beginning her retirement at the end of this year Mara comes to us with 25 years of experience in education she has served as a special education case manager for grades k through eight and a reading instructor on special assignment for Gilbert public schools and Mesa Public Schools and currently she serves as the network 504 coordinator for ASU Preparatory Academy where she also served as an academic coach and an academic Dean so welcome to husd Marsh show we're so excited to have you join our little Spartan and our little cougar [Applause] communities thank you congratulations and welcome thank you Dr Lindsay um next we're going to move on to the information items and next we're going to receive aort on the Higley Leadership Academy from Mr Walker thank you madam president uh if I could ask our our four presenters to come on up to the podium um I'm I'm offering up the opportunity to present jointly with some participants from the Higley Leadership Academy tonight so like to introduce uh Miss Jennifer Kaiser Miss Maggie boury uh Miss Rachel vill NOA and Miss Elizabeth melter who's coming to help present on their experiences and uh their their in uh insight to the higly leadership academy so um before I turn it over to them I just wanted to give a little bit of a background on this year's Academy we had our largest um participant group ever we had 42 participants um and we expanded it to include five people from the certified uh I mean from the classified uh Staffing division from us as well um they're going to come and share about some of the goals and experiences they had U but another thing to highlight is this year we had this as a prior participant Le program so we had 23 previous members come back can help plan and Lead uh the various sessions throughout the year and so I'm going to go ahead and turn it over to Miss Kaiser uh and if she could go ahead and introduce yourself and and share some information about Hig Leadership Academy hello my name is Jennifer Kaiser um I've been a district employee for 12 years uh I uh worked in Community Education for nine of those and then recently I've switched over to certified world I'm uh the CTE Early Childhood educator at uh Higley High School so I'm thrilled to be here this is one of my favorite programs I've been a part of while I've been at Higley so I am here to share a little bit about the history of HLA uh hlaa started in 2014 um it was the inaugural year it had um two goals one was to help develop leadership skills and individuals ready to assume the role of a school leader in the future and the second goal was to apply curriculum Knowledge and Skills within their school context to improve student learning um this kind of became known as a principal Academy lots of great leaders were a part of this um program Through The Years um it's then moved into the year 201920 um it uh had to be paused for a little bit because of our season of covid and then it resumed back in 200 20 um to 22 um and that was kind of a very important year because before um there was always an opportunity with this program to uh Shadow with a principal but um when this resumed in 20120 they added the mentorship component so that was a really great um piece that they put into place um for HOA and at this point um participants had kind of graduated year after year um or not graduated I'm sorry participated year after year um because they always want to be a part of it um and learn new leadership skills but um they actually we graduated official graduation was 2022 so um the year had it the program has a start and an end and then it started up again uh reset this year from 2 the 23 24 school year um where they surveyed past participants um figured out what this was really going to be about and this was the first year um that it was uh developed and it was leader Le um so a little bit about my journey um I started in 2018 um I was excited to be a part of it at first I was like I don't want to be a principal I just really want to gain the knowledge I worked in Community Education um I said can I just audit it can I just take it I don't want to be go into further Administration I just want to learn about leadership um and so I was a part of that uh class participated in that year and then when they added the mentorship component I thought that was great because then you actually paired with a mentor and um because I was kind of like who who should I Shadow what should I do um and I was able to get paired with uh assistant principal todber over at Bridges learned so much from him and then that following year that's when I entered the classified world so um I'm sorry the certified world and um that was quite exciting for me because I learned a lot from there as well um one of my favorite Parts about HLA is no matter um what the session is you're always able to put more Tools in your tool leadership tool belt so I think that was great I'm always able to take something away from every single session I've attended thank you Miss Kaiser and then I'm going to go ahead and introduce Miss Rachel Ville and AA to talk about how the Higgly Leadership Academy aligns with our strategic plan all right good evening president Anderson and governing board members thank you for allowing us to speak today about the Higley Leadership Academy my name is Rachel vioa and I'm a proud teacher at SanTan Elementary this is my ninth year in the district I started my student teaching Journey at SanTan in a fourth grade classroom with an amazing Mentor named Jen bout upon graduating from Arizona State University I had the opportunity to take a position as a fifth teacher at SanTan where I taught for six years currently I'm a sixth grade ELA and socialized teacher and I've been in that position for 2 years not only have I had the opportunity to serve as an educator at Sant Elementary but I also serve in a leadership position on the staff Lighthouse action team in my position I collaborate alongside a small group of educational leaders on my campus to develop the school environment and culture using the eight habits of Stephen kovi within my role I work on the culture action team team to promote and improve student voice on campus I work directly with students to find ways to engage the entire student population to bring a sense of belonging and purpose additionally I spent the past two years earning my gifted endorsement which included 180 hours of coursework under my school gifted specialist shaa stingle and also the amazing District gifted and talent talented coordinator Kelly McLean although there are many wonderful opportunities I've been able to participate um during my educational Journey today I'll be talking specifically about HLA to start H hegley Unified School District's mission is to empower students to be responsible citizens with the knowledge skills and work ethic required for success in their future endeavors our district follows his mission statement by directly aligning our strategic anchors to our mission statement the Higley Leadership Academy aligns with anchor 2 which is the highly effective Personnel the goal of this anchor is to establish a culture and climate that sustains excellence and retains high quality employees anchor 2.1 reads recruit hire and retain exemplary administrators teachers and support staff districtwide anchor 2.2 reads provide the necessary professional development resources and training to support all employees the HLA program had three specific goals to ensure these anchors were met first one was to make sure that participants were able to get together collaboratively and come up with creative ideas secondly to demon rate integrity and empathy through Global awareness and also possess Knowledge and Skills needed to be good Community leaders to start as an HLA participant we strengthen our skills of working collaboratively and communicating effectively to accomplish our HLA service project this took an innovation creativity and teamwork to ensure that all HLA participants were well informed of community events and how to support these events throughout the year we also work collaboratively on tasks in our monthly meetings an example example of this is when we were discussing finance and budget and were tasked and teams to think like a building administrator and how to hypothetically allocate School funds the HLA program also focused on responsible citizenship each month we engaged with leadership topics to support our understanding of the Higley District topics included marketing and branding Finance human resource policy and governance and school operations we were also encouraged to stay informed about our district by listening to or attending governor board meetings finally the HLA program prepared us with the knowledge and skills needed to be successful leaders in our community by learning about the district and participating in two Shadow Days with our Mentor we learned more about the challenges that leaders face on a regular basis and how to navigate through those difficulties to support our students being a participant of the HLA program has helped me develop a sense of community I no longer just recognize the names and faces of educational leaders in my district but I also feel a sense of belonging and connection by hearing their educ leadership Journey stories for our Mentor Shadow days I was matched with a wonderful Mentor principal Broadley at Centennial who gladly answered all the questions I had about the roles and responsibilities of being a principal and gave and she gave me positive words of encouragement when discussing my own career goals and Visions furthermore I had the opportunity to receive support with resume and interview prep this benefited me as I learned how to tailor my resume to Future leadership positions that I apply for next year I will remain in my six grade teaching position but because of the HL program I'll be switching from role on my school's Lighthouse action team from culture to leadership as a leadership action team coordinator I'll be working directly with students to prepare them for public speaking tours that we have to do with students staffs and visitors and I will also develop ways to increase Community awareness and Vol and volunteerism within our school so I just want to say thank you today for letting us um share with you how the Higley Leadership Academy has developed me as a leader in our school district and how to continually improve our exemplary District employees thank you next I'd like to introduce Miss Elizabeth melter who's going to share some statistics about our our enrollments and some of the trends that we've discovered over the years with the HLA good evening president Anderson members of the board and cabinet my name is Elizabeth melter and I've been with the Higley school district for seven years in the capacity of third grade teacher for four years and a fifth grade teacher for three years as an a leader on campus I am the sponsor of the steam Club I am a student council sponsor and I'm also a PTO teacher liaison I serve as a administrator design when our admin team is off campus and I've had the pleasure of being the administrator for the summer school program last year when it was held at Bridges um I have participated in HLA for three years from 2017 to 2019 and again this year uh from 23 to 24 I'm going to share with uh you some numbers um about HLA uh referencing the slide you see above um HLA has seen continued growth over the years and this year was the largest enrollment to date the total participants over the years have been 249 in uh participants since the beginning 162 of those were one-year participants and 87 of those have participated through more than one year which is where you see the one uh excuse me the 87 um plus uh the individual of one six one I'm sorry my eyes are terrible 162 okay of all the participants of the Higley leadership academy uh husd has retained 78% of those individuals and of those uh that 78% um 36 uh individuals or 22% have seen advancement in their positions within husd um changes going from teacher to coach sometimes coach from to administrator but lots of different trajectories for individuals who participated in the academy and of those lead ERS that um have seen that advancement in their careers there have been uh 78% that have been have stayed with husd uh Through The Years um I want to wrap up with how HLA has been beneficial to me um it has allowed participants to develop a broader understanding of all the intricate uh aspects of creating and maintaining a successful District um has allowed all of us to network and create connections within the district um all of these leaders who are able and willing to help in the development of current and future Higley leaders it has provided opportunities for discussions and scenarios and an aim to tackle problem solving from the various perspectiv of the various husd stakeholders and it has also allowed us the chance to Shadow Higley administrators which has been absolutely invaluable as it allowed for observations discussions about topics that include maintaining positive culture climate uh student discipline and leadership styles a special thank you to Bruce Potts this year who um allowed to Shadow him and ask all the questions that I had and finally I would like to share that I do truly believe that HLA has been absolutely instrumental in helping me prepare uh for my new role that I take on next year as assistant principal at Bridges Elementary alongside fellow HLA graduate Jeff Beckle thank you and then I'd like to also introduce uh Miss Maggie boury she's going to talk about our leadership project that we uh implemented into the program this year good evening my name is Maggie boury this is my sixth year as the secondary English language arts instructional coach I work with all the 6th through 12th grade English teachers by providing professional learning during scheduled PD days and upon Administration request Mentor new teachers and provide support in curriculum instruction and assessment data analysis as an aspiring husd administrator what better way to gain leadership experience than in my home district and to learn from our own district and school leaders HLA provided us the opportunity to learn the ins and outs of what makes a school district efficient and successful uccessful from understanding the complexities of Finance to maintenance and operations one of my favorite parts of HLA was the opportunity to Shadow School leaders for a day I would like to extend a quick thank you to Brian banck the assistant principal at Higley High School and Terry pepper the assistant principal at chaal elementary for showing me all the intricacies of administration the HLA community service project was originally designed as a service project for the entire group to create HLA member Karen files to a initiative to create a Microsoft teams group for us to share our ideas and post discussions it was then decided that members would vote on their favorite project and the top three projects would be presented to District leadership Jessica D ambrosio's idea was for us to provide support at a senior living community with visits from not only us but with students Shannon Alexander had a great idea of having a day of many projects like campus cleanups and clothing drives I presented on a Higgly beautification day where we would divide and conquer to the various schools and beautify them to support our Higley helps initiative a merging of ideas occurred I became the contact person for schools to reach out and solicit help from HLA members to support various school projects for example a group of Academy members volunteered at Higley High School for their best buddies Carnival an event that made Statewide news one member Leslie cook took the initiative to be an extra chaperon at a middle school dance power ranch hosted a book drive at their literacy night HTA Academy members held donation drives for the House of Refuge and the military assistance Mission with their staff members volunteered at the Fine Arts Festival and this past Saturday a group of us supported Santan Elementary at their family hearing impairment picnic for the community if it wasn't for HLA I personally would not have known about all these amazing events except for the Fine Arts Festival the HLA community service project allowed us to be reflective of our core values to take initiative to collaborate as a team and overall to learn what all our schools have to offer I plan to use the Knowledge and Skills Acquired and apply them to my position as instructional coach and continue in HLA next year thank you thank you for that information and and just to conclude the where we're headed with the HLA moving forward is it has really three foundations that we've decided to to to work with uh in the future and and and the big one is it's going to be focused on staff development so what was said before initiated as a principal uh preparation academy uh we find much more value in the opportunity to develop leadership capacity amongst all of our employees uh whether you're you're in the custodial department or you're at the district office or if you're in it it doesn't matter we want to build capacity across our school district and so that aligns with the Strategic plan we want to have an opportunity for all employees and so we want to grow leaders in in all of our divisions and we want to promote this uh across the board so it's been in existence since 2014 uh this is the first time that I can recall we've brought it to the governing board and had a presentation about it to share with the public um I've Had The Good Fortune of being part of the program every year since its Inception I I began as a teacher uh and I have the the the the the Good Fortune again to come back and lead the program so it means a lot to me I've seen a lot of great success uh connected to the program and we want to continue to keep aligning it with the needs of our district uh we wanted to be a self-sustainable program so one thing I just want to commend everybody for um everybody's here tonight on their own accord um these individ ual these 42 people that have participated go above and beyond their workday and come back in the evening to take part in this and so they've they've reached out they want to be part of this they participated in projects um outside of their already busy schedules and I commend everybody for for taking the time to to learn more about our school district and to build their leadership capacity and we want that to continue we wanted the planning and development to be done by the past participants and we we look forward to having data driven decisions to improve the program moving forward so a new a new component of it this year as we surveyed the group after every single session rather than wait till the end of the year to get survey feedback this way it's fresh it's accurate and it's pertinent to the time of the session and we're going to take that information to better our sessions and that will be led by past participants moving forward so in the future one of the things also referenced earlier in the presentation is that for several years it became stale it was a great opportunity it grew leaders but it was really focused on that principal preparation and people felt obligated to continue to be part of it um and there really was no out so to speak and so we we created the ability to graduate out of the program but we don't want people to then be done completely so there's opportunities to come back as a mentor um to help with the community project and then to assist our candidates with resume and interview uh review sessions and so it's something that um I want to give credit to school district leaders who have taken time out of their uh busy days as well to help support the program and uh I appreciate it again thank you for your ladies tonight for for presenting it from your perspective these are four individuals who have different positions within the school district but they've they've all shared some valuable takeaways from the program so thank you everybody tonight for for sharing out and being here and I'll turn it back over to the board if you have any [Applause] questions board member Anderson Mr Walker um I just wanted to ask um so membership um I'm assuming it's optional anybody can join or not join it's evolved into that it's open for anybody uh we do ask that they they consult with their their supervisor to make sure it's a good fit um in the past it had more stricter criteria uh that's it goes back to the principal preparation Academy there was the request to have a master's degree or in a program for Ed leadership um and we've we've eliminated that because we want it to be available to everybody within our school district and are there dues or or is it free no it's it's free there there's no dues perfect thank you good questions outstanding outstanding I'm so so excited it's it's good to to good to hear that there are teachers or staff that want to move up into leadership positions but I was floored by tonight saying I just wanted to be a better leader like that's fantastic thank you ladies for sharing thank you for everybody attending tonight I do have one question um is this something can the board watch this in action can we be invited to to any of the events or meetings or anything just to see you guys at work uh board member Anderson absolutely um that's part of that data driven decision-making we we'll take that into consideration as we plan our sessions for next year absolutely thank you anyone else all right moving on to item 8.2 the special education private Day School report for fiscal year 24 third quarter we will be hearing from Mr Moore I'm so sorry yeah president Anderson members of the board uh presented is the uh thirdd quarter report from Miss Miller um the uh expenditures are trending uh below the approved budget that was approved at the beginning of the year so um no further comments no under budget sounds good thank you okay thank you Mr Moore next we're going to move on to the action items beginning with 9.1 second read for policy JKD student suspension are there any questions or comments before we motion okay I motion that the governing board approve policy JKD student suspicion suspension second all those in favor I I motion carries for to zero moving on to 9.2 second read for policy EBC emergencies do we have any questions or discussion I motion that the governing board approve policy EBC emergencies second is that y all those in favor I I I motion carries four to zero moving on to 9.3 second read jke expulsion of students questions or statements I motion that the governing board approve policy jke expulsion of students second okay all those in favor I I motion carries 4 to zero 9.4 second read of policy jlh missing students any questions comments uh president Anderson I will just Express just in case there are some people we all of these are just updating legal from the state legislature that we had to include in our policy that's why probably we're not making comments I just for those who were not here previously yes thank you uh do I I motion that the governing board approved policy jlh missing students second all those in favor I I I all those all those opposed um we're on 95 correct we are 94 sorry I motion carries 4 to zero explanation threw me off oh gotcha okay 9.5 approval to adopt a resolution calling for a special maintenance and operation budget override election questions and comments president Anderson um as I've as I said at the last meeting um we do have uh seven schools that are under 60% capacity um it's easy to go out to the community and say we want more money um it's always easy to spend other people's money um but we need to look at all the options that we have um and our enrollment is down um the funding from the state is some people might not like where it is but it's the highest that's ever been um and yet our expenses continue to grow um we need to look at all the options available to us um before we go out and ask the community for more money um so did you call for a vote no not yet okay um but that's my statement um we want to be um fiscally conservative um and I I know Mr Moore does a great job um as far as budgeting conser conservatively um but we need to um look within before we do that especially in the current clim um Financial climate that we're in thank you president Anderson um I would like to express again gratitude to the members of the committee that came together to discuss what was in our District's best interest they were presented with you know the status of our buildings I think uh for a lot of individuals who only drop off their kids or drive by they don't necessarily always go inside and see some of the status of the way things are I also wish to express uh gratitude and further elaborate with respect to Mr Moore um I feel like the the nature with which you present our budget and how you talk to the community and how you express what it is that we need going forward and what is in our best interest um has rely served this District well over the course of your tenure here and I'm very appreciative to all that you have done for that and I think as we go forward and looking at the things that we can do to improve and continue to make Higley a competitive District that people wish to go to and I recognize that there is enrollment at elementary schools that has some difficulty there are state things at play there for some of that um but we continue to see them come back in in middle school and high school and so looking for what that longterm is as well as the general growth in our area I'm very appreciative to the time that you have done with the community the committee members that gave up their time to do that I'm also very appreciative for what you put forward and how you not only presented that to the board but to Higley as a whole uh and it is greatly appreciated thanks thank you I motion that the governing board can consider discuss amend if desired and if deemed advisable to adopt a resolution ordering and calling a special budget over right election to be held in and for the district and declaring the deadline for submitting Arguments for and against the election to the Maricopa County school superintendent school Elections office as of August 9th 2024 at 5:00 p.m.

64 ADM average daily membership then that's where you get a shortfall of $1.6 million okay okay but that's just the starting point that's not the total number because what you have to do is you have to have the shortfall based on what your anticipated enrollment is and then you have to sit and say okay if we're going to give an increase to staff then that's obviously increase cost that we're going to have to come up with funding for and if we were to do a 1.9% increase for certified staff to exempt support Administration um it would cost us another 355,000 where did we get 1.9% that's what the support staff got in January based on the minimum the mandated minimum wage increase uh that support staff gets every January because of uh proposition I think it was 206 the minimum wage increase um and so we also have to anticipate the January 25 increase we're just starting to get some numbers on that uh Julie and I sat down and looked at what little information we had and we think it's going to be in the 3540 C range uh that is a guess at this point if we were to do what we've done in the past that'll cost us $75,000 now we don't have to do what we've done in the past and I think depending on the budget that's why I put that statement in there the final solution may be less depending on where we're at if we have increased numbers then it's easier to meet it if we have more than 108 kids that don't show up uh ADM then we may have to come up with a different solution what we've tried to do is spread that across the entire support salary schedule but the reality of the way the law reads is we just have to take those positions that are not at the minimum wage and raise them to the minimum wage we have not done that the last few years because we're trying to remain competitive with neighboring districts so we've put it through the entire salary schedule and got raises for everybody but obviously depending on what happens in January and depending on what's happening with the budget we'll have those discussions um but we went on the high side just so we know we we uh saved enough money and then you approve the health insurance increase where we picked up the cost for our employees for the base plan that was a little over 135,000 so if you add all those up you see the budget shortfall is actually two 2.1 million so that's kind of where we start from and then we take priorities and we start to take a look at all the different things we're talking about and saying how do we get back to the very first slide that I showed you which is we need a balanced budget so the recommendations what we tried to do is take a look and you can see up at the top the priorities we talked about staff retention Recruitment and and staff salary increases were a priority for both CCC and the leadership team so we started on that conversation when you look at salary increases you're really looking at two areas one potentially has limited impact on your budget the other one has significant impact on your budget the two areas are increasing the base which just means means how do we stay competitive with neighboring districts so for example higgle has just increased their base to $58,000 and so the first step is to say at a 1.9% increase you get about $1,000 so we're going to increase the base $1,000 that potentially does not impact you if we were not to hire anybody new then it wouldn't cost us a dime to increase that obviously with teachers were going to hire new teachers and so they're going to start at 53 but technically speaking if you didn't hire anybody you can make the base whatever you want because you're not giving anybody a new salary um we obviously understand that that is going to occur with our with new staff um but then the second part is to give a 1.9% increase to every employee um and I'll talk about the two options in a second uh to help save on m&o the school Improvement fund which is the fund 020 so the 20 fund used to be called Indian gaming it's money we receive as a result of Indian gaming in the in the state um we used to put 400 50 towards the base for all of our teachers out of that fund that fund is healthy enough that we could go ahead and put 650 towards that that just means that of the total amount that we're talking about for certified staff it's going to be 50,000 Less in terms of what comes out of the M budget so again remember when I'm talking about that 2.1 million that's the M budget that we're trying to to get to if we have money outside of the budget it doesn't have the impact okay so the discussion with both leadership and C CCC was there's two options here the first option is uh you go ahead and apply the base uh pay rate to everybody so we don't compress the salary schedule it also means those that are in the district longer percentage wise and dollar-wise will get or excuse me dollar-wise will get more than those that are brand new to the district and so you keep the salary schedule spread out and you don't get in a situation where uh theoretically a brand new teacher could jump a first or second year teacher in the district because of the increase the way it goes to the the first cell the second option is to in effect give everybody the same amount of money one% or one $11,000 in that case you will compress the salary schedule and what you'll get is you'll get obviously percentage wise somebody who's making 52,000 makes more percentage wise for an increase than someone who's making 60,000 so both leadership and CCC had a lengthy discussion about this and based on their discussion and then a consensus uh the recommendation was to go with option number one okay question the uh 50,000 that's saved to the district m is it would option one have been 350,000 if not that 50,000 no opt option one now for m is 250 if we had done option two would have been 200,000 this is the total cost we're just going to be able to tell you that because of the way we're doing it with the 020 account it's actually for emo 50,000 less okay so they came back saying they felt this was the best I will tell you based on for the most part this very first one was the lengthy discussion and then the next couple that we put up they followed the same pattern and said if we doing it for one we should do the same for other so when we came to exempt support staff uh $1,000 uh increase on their base I don't have the dollar amount because there's multiple positions in that salary schedule so every position the base went up $1,000 um and then they got the the they would get the 1.9% increase even though the support staff several years back we made the decision that we would give regular support the increase in January but the exempt support which is about roughly eight or nine people seven people we would give them at this time so that's why they're getting it and they didn't get it in January and that was just a decision we made as we moved through the budget that year again same thing make sure that longevity and and time within the district is covered by using option one versus option two and they agreed uh they agreed with that minimal uh cost just because of the the number of people that that are in there for administration same conversation same decision so in this case that would be all administrators in the district um across the the board okay here's a difference next one extracurricular stiens for a number of years even though the extracurricular stien was tied to the base salary we never increased the extracurricular uh stiens uh I think maybe my second year in the district I could be wrong might have been my first but I think it was my second we decided to let's start increasing it as we increase the base salary so it's gone up significantly in the last four or five years in terms of of what uh stiens are being paid I would say we're probably most competitive relative to neighboring districts in this area than we are in the other areas just because of the way the increase went up uh after significant discussion because the increase would be $100,000 um there was a conversation of do we freeze the stiens at the current amount and then change the calculation from a percentage of the B based to just a flat amount so if someone's making I'm making up the number because I don't remember all if someone's making $3,500 on a a position this year the next year they're making $3,500 if we decide in the future to make a change we would come back and say we would recommend the change for those guys to be this dollar amount we wouldn't tie it to the base if you tie it to the base and like a couple years ago when we put 9% into the base and we moved um moved around the money for uh uh performance pay we jumped up the base by close to $6,000 well that has a significant impact on this one over here so we felt this was a more conservative way over here um because we've been able to take care of um stip and positions uh and you will see in the uh salary schedule this year that we made some adjustments to reflect it in the uh in the salary schedule so when we get to that agenda item if you want me I can call it and I can explain to you what the what the differences were the other recommendations we already talked about the student grow typen and you approved it at the April board meeting again that is a situation that tries to incentivize people to make sure that we continue to uh Market the district and and bring uh students into the district there is no cost to the budget because if we don't hit the mark of 200 uh new students year-over-year on 100th day then there's no issue if we do hit it with the money that we get for increasing we will give a one-time stien it's not an ongoing stien so in the next budget cycle um all the money would revert into the budget because we're not committing Beyond just this one year we will continue to do student grow stiens probably in the future because I think it's a good way to try to incentivize people to make sure that we uh continue to work to attract students what we are recommending is we do a retention stiping um for this case case the retention stiens paid out of federal dollars essers this will be the last year they must be spent by SE end of September of this coming year and so the last first year we did the retention stip and it was 1% then we did two years of 2% we would have to go back down to 1% based on the budget that we have and I'll show you the budget at the end of the presentation this time instead of going out in October it would actually go out in September because we have to expend the funds before the end of September so we would bring to you guys guys on the September board meeting here's a list of people that qualified they have to be employed with us at the end of the school year in May and still employed with us in this case at the end of of August normally we'd want to do it to the end of September but we just can't because the money needs to be spended or expended so this is a an item on the agenda for you to decide uh but uh both CC and and Leadership was um what desirable what was the reasoning for the end of October before what we when we did it before we said we were trying to make sure that people stayed with us for the first quarter so they didn't get the money like the first of August and bail on us and so this way they would actually stay with us we now have to switch it so they can't give it back we can't have it in there that they have to give it back no if they if we give it to them and then they walk away it's their money there's there's no I mean we'll get it back to them potentially for uh certified and administrators because we have liquidated damages we can't get it back for classified because they're at will employees and so once you give them the the money if they were to leave two weeks later then they leave two weeks later price of doing business yeah okay so I have a question on that and I don't like I'm not necessarily I mean maybe this question was asked so what's the 1% stien based on so like let's say that we had uh someone who started starts this week and then they continue they're eligible for that stien right yes it it'll be based on their base salary so it's 1% of their base salary whatever the contract is that they're signing for next year for their base salary not uh extracurricular stiens not any of those kind of things it's their B people are people going to complain about that it's what we done they started here and they worked here for two weeks and then they're here and they get that it's what we've done the last three years and nobody's raised the complaint um it gets a little complicated what what we end up doing is in the year so I'm going to give you an example if I go up to student growth we would say in the student growth stien if you were hired after um January 1st you were not eligible for it um if you were hired after July 1st we would uh prated this one's a little bit tougher because it's it within the first nine weeks uh and the idea of retention right on good or bad you were here with us at the end of the year you're here with us at the beginning of year so you stayed with us and that's what the intention was uh I have not I don't know if the principles have I have not received any concerns over the last three years with it um but that they could raise that that's a legitimate concern all right I guess it won't matter because this is the last year anyway right and it's the last year because and we'll you we'll show you at the very end what the budget is for essers and how much we have left in essers okay the second one uh the major one that we're going to need to do to go ahead and get to where we need to get to is that we're looking at reduction of positions these positions are either vacant or um people are leaving them as we speak the projected anticipated savings is 1.1 million based on people that are leaving us in vacant positions there would be no employee layoffs the way we determined the numbers for the schools was based on the current student staff ratio and so if we had in some cases um higher uh more staff than we needed this is where we're going to reduce down to what it should be for the ratios uh I cautioned and I talked to CCC about this and the leadership team um we are small enough as cohort classes coming through that if you're teaching third grade somewhere and all of a sudden you have a big class is more than likely nothing to do with this it's that last year you might have had a small class next year you may have a slightly bigger class because the cohorts coming through the school are what the cohorts are coming through the school so we don't have five or six teachers in sixth grade or fifth grade that you can go ahead and and um spread out where the kids are going you have two teachers or three teachers in most cases with uh Elementary and therefore if a ratio of kids comes through if you have 60 kids you have that debate do I have two classes of 30 or three classes of 20 the ratio is 27 so in this case this year we're saying we're going to go with two classes of 30 now it is a guesstimate because we don't know what kids are going to show up on the first day of school so we may think we're getting two classes of 30 and we may get two classes of 25 or we may get two classes of 33 we won't know until we get there if we need to we'll make adjustments um the other piece I've changed this language so I want to make sure you understand what I'm talking about schools and departments will not be allowed to exceed approved FTE what that means is that if you are given 10 FTE and you only were able to hire eight I'm talk thinking of middle school and high school you may end up doing six fifths to go ahead and fill out the class because you're still below 10 if you were given 10 and you're at 10 and you've hired for 10 and you come back and say I want 6 fifths the answer is going to be no and I can't stress enough and I've stress this to leadership and I've stressed it to the CCC um if we do not hit the anticipated Savings of 1.1 million we got a problem in our hands now I can say that all I want and be as dramatic as I want and if our numbers the first day of school are plus 250 then this ain't a problem anymore if our numbers the first day of school are 108 or further down the hole then we got a bigger problem and so this is the guesstimate to make this budget work so we've tried to really uh highlight especially that second bullet no employee laughs and it is our employees in contracted Services I'm not responsible for contracted Services that's with a different company so I know last year we had a situation where a contracted person um was like oh but it had to do with the contracted Services Company not our employees I have enough problems with our employees I can't go ahead and take on other businesses terms of M Supply budget we spent about 1.6 million on supplies and so we're looking at reductions so um the two options were Reduce by 350 or reduced by 300,000 when we talk about supplies this is not just classroom supplies involved in supplies or gas okay there are all the different things that help us run the business that we need to run and so we would look to cut by $350,000 in the same vein when we talk about the district additional Assistance or the da AA budget that's for Capital items we get about 2.1 note uh a couple things with the daa uh first of all there are commitments in the daa so you don't get a new 200 2.1 million every single year because we have ongoing expenses like Synergy as a expense that we have to pay that's part of 2.1 so so there's there's about a million dollars that's already committed to before we even have this conversation so please keep that in mind historically we have transferred 750,000 over from uh daa temino uh that's allowable um you can go ahead and uh transfer uh the dollars that you need I will tell you in a former District I was in uh because of what we need to do we transferred 100% we had other funding sources for for Capital items and so we were forced to transfer % in the old days that was not allowed in the last I think decade they've changed the rules and I allow you to do it again there was the two same two options as we talked about with budget supplies and their recommendation was 350 the conversation so you're aware on both of these two items is you can put whatever number you want you could make it 250 you could make it 200 but when you do the math at the end if there's still money to cut then we're going have to go somewhere else to cut it Greg if could you go back to the M Supply budget yep so the option one is the recommended one of 350 out of 1.6 million which is over 20% yep I understand how are we going to accomplish that that we're going to change the line out of budgets and then we're going to have to St Hold Steady I mean there's not we don't have a choice in in what we do with this because if we don't get to these cuts um then we have to come from somewhere because at the end of the day it's got to be balanced so I I understand I'm just thinking that you know these are supplies that that are needed so how do we make accommodations for that there will be there will be some things that you're gonna have to go without and I think it's very important I'm going to give you an example and this is this is and it's not that I want to do this nor that the team wants to do but I'm going to give you another example on daa there's a track right now I'm an old track coach our track needs to be replaced the track replacement of the track is going to be possibly 750,000 I believe when you take off the top and live this as a track coach you're going to have to go down to the base I think it's close to 1.2 million we don't have 1.2 million we'll bandaid it but we don't have the money and so it's the same thing with these Cuts we're going to have to sit down and take a look at what are going to be the cuts and what is not going to get done and what is going to get done and there's going to have to be hard choices I think the Board needs to understand this is what I've communicated to everybody this current year if you remember we cut 2.3 million going to next year we're cutting 2.1 million so in a two-year period we've cut 4.4 million off a $30 million budget if we hit less than 108 if we lose more kids than 108 there are going to be some very serious conversations that we'll start having in September because it's getting to a point where I'm not quite sure where else we go to take care of this we can talk to the legislature we can talk to whoever we want the reality is the way they're funding things and with all the issues that are out there this is very very difficult and there's some tough decisions that have to be made if we stabilize at 30% um 31% capture rate we should go up that's what applied to economics because we have new homes coming in if we don't stabilize that at 31% then we're going to have even more this will be a whole lot different conversation starting next year on the daa um it says historic transferred 750,000 so this is another 350 on top of the 750 so we're transferring about half of the daa into M yep okay and we did that this year we had a little bit of a of a a safety net this year because of the onetime money the governor gave two years ago so it was a little bit easier so we actually transferred over money this year um but now it's it's a little bit a little bit different I think that when you say the Board needs to understand I think we understand quite well I mean I think we've been worried about this from the beginning when when the te when we were losing students right and I didn't mean I apologize I didn't mean to to suggest otherwise but I just this is a just to a point where there are some very big time decisions that are being made right now will continue to be made so how would you do that are you going to have like each site say Hey you have to cut this much how are you going to go about doing that yeah what you'll do is you'll take a look at the budgets and the budgets will be reduced accordingly and then you'll be monitoring your budgets and you won't have you'll be only able to spend I think in some cases you may have situations where there's money that is going to be or excuse me there may be supplies where PTO or or those types of groups give more in other cases you may not get as much um and in some cases there may be the answer is no um just because the number is what the number is so is this every site including like Department transportation and and uh the district office and all of the schools y it'll go across the board to everybody okay I'm not going to go through this per se because there's going to be a presentation in the uh um in the uh regular board meeting for instructional time model um we had the presentation last um last meeting so this is the second meeting but this is obviously a recommendation uh Tim and Nancy have been talking with staff members on this one um and so we'll we'll talk I know there were some concerns addressed by the board that or raised by the board and we'll try to address those tonight um but this is again we would hope and I the key point to hear I think we've talked about it but just as a reminder for everybody is that you really build your budget on expectation of all kids will show up all the time but obviously they don't so you lose a little bit given the the attendance issues not only in this District but across the state and across the country what we're trying to use is this new time model to uh have kids in attendance uh more regularly that way we um will gain more money in this sense that we that it'll be closer to what we anticipated getting isn't this what they they brought to the board last right we have to do two public meetings so we'll do another one tonight and ask for your approval so I'm not going to go in great detail because Tim and N are going to do it this is just the steps that we would do for this um for this particular step it's again same slide as as last meeting uh operational efficiencies through utility savings we've talked about this we make adjustments and set points on occupied mode and room utilization to go ahead and try to save 50,00 000 I will tell you uh as we've worked through this even since we've made this decision for breaks only uh if you're not aware panel County does not go on a normal um Sun Saturday to Friday meeting uh week work week they go Thursday to Wednesday and so that confuses things and so sopia has been meeting with Julie and I and we can do the four-day work weeks in the summer and we're going to send it out a couple more week weeks we cannot make it work in fall winter and spring because when you throw into holidays like you have a Thanksgiving break for two days or at Christmas time what happens is because of the way the weeks fall you end up working too many hours one week and not enough hours the next week then you got to roll the the money over because how are you going to make the difference and so the more we talked about it I will say that we just had the conversation yesterday afternoon um we will increase the 4-day work week like we did this summer but we won't be able to do it for fall winter and spring because logistically it doesn't work because of the Thursday to Wednesday work week versus a normal five-day work week uh and the County's done that for years I'm not totally sure what the historical reason is in panal County this is a first place I've been that's done it this way everybody else has been on a traditional uh uh five-day work week that's the way it is so um we're also doing a voluntary campaign uh with staff uh to see if we can reduce the use of manyi refrigerators coffee makers space eaters microwaves Etc in classrooms uh to go ahead and make some savings um and so at this point it would be voluntary uh one of the things that we look at next year being Tougher Than This may become not voluntary we'll just remove them a year from now for having this conversation um well there's an agenda item talking about raising the fees so we will uh present that piece uh there's a budget coding adjustment so this is uh ways that we're looking to to find every dime we realize that about 25% of the day leads work uh involves School cafeterias we have money in our food service budget which is different than M Ando budget and enough money to cover it so we're going to make an adjustment of it's a backend adjustment the employees don't get any less money but we'll just pay 25% out of the Food Service budget instead of M and that's an anticipated Savings of 146,000 uh We've when we first hired on with vary to do uh maintenance uh for HVAC and plumbing um we were short staffed and so we went had a certain contract with them now that we've gotten some people staffed up we believe we can cut that contract because we can pick up some of the stuff we don't have enough to do enough people to do all of it so we believe with the reduced hours based on this year's analysis we can make another 80 sa 880,000 savings there and then with some software subscriptions uh that we wouldn't use we could come up with another 30,000 okay health care I'm not going to go through this in great detail because we've already had this um uh conversation a month ago or two months ago and you guys approved it but this is just a reminder especially for staff uh What uh what took place with Healthcare premiums and then we talked about essers so right now we have 589000 in our ERS fund that must be spent by September 24th the #t Ford conference that we would continue for one more year would take about 230,000 the retention stiens 210,000 the 100 a little over 134 it's on the agenda tonight if you approve and that means we have about 177,000 left give or take uh now some of those numbers could go up or down based on the number of people that for example come to hashtag for conference uh so they're the best guests based on the trend data of what we' spent previously but in essence uh we will have spent all of the sers 3 money uh by September so if we actually do the math and you take a look at it um when you add all those totals in you can see we're down to zero so we have a balanced budget again if there's any changes that's okay but then we just have to come up from somewhere else to to to move it so somewhere where this was the conversation we had with CCC and Leadership if we take the da issue and change it from 350 to 250 not a problem except for now we're 100,000 short so we're going to have to come up with 100,000 from somewhere else so this is what we project to build a budget on um and this is how we we would achieve uh the balance budget that we talked about as a um uh as the goal or what we're required under State Statute and still trying to meet the priorities such as retaining staff by giving them a salary increase and those kind of things I I have a question excuse me has to do with the uh the carryover that we projected in the past we're always looking at anywhere three three and a half to 4% a million or so this past year we agreed or last year to reduce that down to a carry over around 750 and use that money to fill in where we needed it how does a carryover look on this budget carryover looks like about 500,000 to possibly 700,000 depending obviously uh we still have some open Po and some of those kind of things so we won't know the final numbers uh we have till August to finalize it but we would anticipate it's going to be in the 500,000 if a few things fall our way um then it could go up as high as 700 750,000 but um it will be less than it was in the past um and again it's getting tight yeah the reason I asked is when we you go through the um the uh what do you call it the um the budget I'm sorry the I can't think what I want to say the consent agenda and you looked at the uh M budget up to date it's much less than that and I know there's always year-end adjustments that happen that's why I was asking the question no and that and that that will that will happen that number will shift and Julie want to come up she can explain more but but basically as we close out and all that stuff um we'll see we see anticipated savings that will increase that we're believing based on everything we have we're at least going to be at 500 okay possibly a little bit higher okay um any of this i' talk about um the way we earn money like our facilities that sort of thing have we talked about yes how how to use that yeah what what we're looking at and that's some of the conversations so you guys approved the community facility rentals we talked about increasing those that's a way to increase uh Revenue uh the CMS CHS athletic fees that we'll talk about tonight it's not on the agenda for vote it's just for a talk is another way to address that issue we approved in December the uh DRP the Dropout recovery program and if you remember the Dropout recovery program was designed that we could actually get students from outside of our attendance Zone to uh uh uh be part of our our our numbers so that could be a potential increase uh I will tell you that we had some problems with ad approving it because they were getting confused between this year and next year so we did have a meeting with grad Solutions today and so we would anticipate actually not starting the program till July 1st just because of the we fought with ad from January to March before they finally understood what we were trying to tell them to do um but we would see anticipated increase in in numbers that way um something tells me there's one other that I'm missing but so yeah those are those are the conversations that we're having as as trying to come up with different ways uh uh to go ahead and increase oh the instructional time model is a different way it's it's not really per se bringing in new money but if we can get kids to be counted as present then that means we will get more money than we're currently getting so those are three or four or five different things that we're talking about uh with ways that we would hope that we would generate Revenue relatively speaking not super easy in a in a in a school district but that's what we're trying to do to to help with some of the problems other questions I guess I mean maybe this question doesn't have an answer but uh I mean I know budgets are always tight but how comfortable are we with these projections like on a scale of 1 to 10 five I would say I would I would say for me six or seven I'm not sure Julie's probably as the as the numbers person maybe a little bit more nervous I would say six or seven because we're looking at Trend data from applied economics I mean that's the that's probably your best guess that you can take a look at um relative to uh what's going on in the district and what's G traditionally not only in our district but but around these Valley and so that has to be a starting point obviously because we're projecting to the Future um no matter what number we use there's a little danger we could go with a higher number and let's just say instead of Nega 2.9% we go ne4 well then we have to cut significantly more our problem will be then when you go if we get the kids then we have to go find teachers which may not be available so it's it's a bit of a I won't say a guessing game but it is a guessing game trying to figure out how many and then what do we do and so uh I like I say six or seven for me um just because it's what applied economics did but the budget is based on uh estimated loss of 108 students is that right okay well 108 ADM right ADM also when you say um position attrition savings is that just particularly their salary or does that include their health care and yes what benefits and and salary now I mean it varies so if the person is a crossing guard as an example they don't get it but but anybody that gets healthare if they and it's varies a little bit I I just want to caution it varies a little bit because we don't know in some cases somebody may not take health care because their spouse does but if they do take health care then that's included in the savings okay and the way we calculated savings so everybody knows is is literally every position in the district has a number and so we took that number and who that position was and said this is the amount of money we get for that position and so for all the positions we cut okay we got 52,000 here we got 48,000 we got 22,000 you know all those positions and that's where we got the the 1.1 other questions and again some of this you will see agenda items on tonight that address this some of these others like utility savings is not really agenda item we're just going to try to you know save some some utilities but it's not an agenda item so that's why I wanted to share this with you um but there are other agendas salary increases and some of those things that are agenda items that we'll either talk we'll talk about again there is we got about 20 15 minutes before the meeting there is for sandwiches back there for you guys and grab a bite te before we have our six o'cl meeting so you can eatting there you're more than welcome to go to that e e e good evening everyone we appreciate your attendance here tonight we'd like to call the meeting to order at 6 o'clock pm.

this meeting is being recorded by gctv if any other persons present are also recording you must notify the chairperson at this time I don't see anybody uh so we're gonna um I'd like to take a motion to adjust our agenda to put the report of student representatives to the committee first is there someone who could make that motion so moved motion seconded all right motion from annechild second from Stacy ston any discussion uh let's all in favor say I I I the motion looked unanimous to me so um we will hear now from our student Representatives thanks for being here yeah thank you for the motion for allowing us to go first we appreciate it um so beginning first with student council the student council attended the regional student conference on April 24th Auburn Mass was elected the vice president for all of student councils in Western Massachusetts this month we'll be replacing Flags in preparation for Memorial Day at local cemeteries um celebrating teacher awareness week and holding class officer elections as well as eboard elections we also met with incoming principal Mr Browning to review concerns and hopes for the next school year uh Key Club just finished a very successful reading project uh reading to students at a and spending some quality gym and playground time as well as Distributing books to the YMCA learning null Hillcrest School and Head Start students they are planning another children's literacy event in may as well as a field day for a spring Sports have three weeks left in their regular season as of April 26th the state rankings are as follows baseball ranked 34th um at 2 and six with 10 games left softball 11th 6-1 with 11 games girls tennis is 16th they're three 3 And1 with 11 matches left western Mass playoffs start May 19th and state playoffs start May 29th with state finals happening June 14th through 15 boys and girls track and field pvic is Saturday mayth at mohawk with uh States being May 23rd through 25th boys track is 3 and0 and girls track is uh 1 and two both have three meets left um you can get all the schedules on Arbiter live and we hope to see you at a game soon uh 25 ghs students staff and parents had a very successful trip to France during April break they look forward to more educational field trips at home and abroad in the future French Club prepares for the spring coffee house talent show tomorrow night Thursday May 99th from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.

board.com um and I think that's it so happy Teacher Appreciation day and week and happy Mother's Day to all thank you thank you very much anybody any questions or comments moving right along public comment anybody from the public going once going twice Soul American approval of minutes the minutes are in your packet have you had a chance to look at them and if so does somebody want to make a motion motion Amy no second Sean any comments errors omissions additions subtractions going once sold them oh excuse me you need to vote do we have we have a motion we have a second all in favor so mer um committee reports curriculum yes so the curriculum committee met uh we had an update from uh Mrs Kil about um the professional development opportunities are going to be available on their uh May 24th day it's coming up um we had a discussion about the or she presented on how the literacy on how the science of reading in um is going with the Cycles by grade level they're close to finishing their third round of the professional learning in this area um and we also got the um report that their sback testing has um started so on getting the students all set up for that and working on any student accommodations that need to be met and that's off and running right now um we also had a presentation on the current report cards uh Mr Reed Swale and Mr quel gave us a detailed presentation on the current k6 district report card um they highlighted for us what has been working and presented areas that they're looking to improve on the committee uh provided feedback and we discussed additional ways to communicate things out to the families and uh there was really good discussion and the school is very receptive to Mr Kel and Mr re well we're very receptive to feedback that we provided and they seem really open to listening to feedback they've been hearing and trying to improve ways to report out student progress miss anything no you did great job questions or comments and we will not be meeting in June okay because they're done and they need a break okay that's fine uh EJ since you weren't here just to let you know we're going to have a trunc aded regular Board of bed meeting and then we're going take a 10-minute recess to meander over to the board of bed office and have our Bethany open Forum uh at the bet at the board of bed office facilities all right it's long but it'll be short tonight it's going to be very short um any further questions we can talk after all right facilities met last night um as you know we got a bunch of things on the drawing board first thing is um the hva system automation is in progress of being done um B guess from what would take next couple weeks phase one of that project will be complete um we're going to do it in phases which makes it a little more fiscally responsible but we're going to address our Hardware problem first um meaning the computer software all the programming and we're addressing the second floor um computer boards and that's in the process of being done half is done and the half is going to be done next Thursday I believe so that's in the progress um rooftop units that's also in progress to our luxury Kevin has found the as buils for this building whoa complete with grading plan which we'll talk about in a minute um huge win so we've had a couple contractors come in um give us their thoughts um we're going to look into it a little more maybe with a mechanical engineer doing some testing on the system to ensure we're going in the right direction and we can support it so there's more information to come on that lastly the north end of the building we received one quote on that so we're going to look for a couple other bids on the stair issue and the ramp but here's where it gets interested you guys all know last month we talked about we met with an architect to do an overall scope of the exterior of the building and look at truly what needs to be done now what truly needs to be done in the future so we can develop a plan for the Deferred maintenance on the exterior to building so the facilities committee agreed that we should sign with the architect and I believe Kay took care of that um it's like $14,000 he's going to give us a plan to what he sees we need to do with the exterior of the building with that said um the facilities commit is going to try to sit down with K and Kevin next week with the Architects so we can highlight what we consider our priority area which is the the stairs and the ramp at top and why I say that is we got some real numbers on the replacement of those if we could do some interesting things with the exterior of the building simple things as grading and putting in a sidewalk and eliminate the ramp eliminate the stairs and end up with a much nicer looking building and being highly fiscally responsible we want to view that as a possibility as a as a now need because we need to address those two areas so we're going to indicate to him that that is our priority of his first focus is to give us an idea what needs to be done up there um so hopefully we can get something you know quick back from him within the next month so we we get there before July 1st so we can get something in place to address the stairs and the slab at the top of the stairs so that's kind of where we're going we got a lot going on and we're starting to get back some real numbers and once we kind of figure out where we should go we'll bring it back to you guys anybody have any questions I'm keeping it brief because we want to go over there but there's a lot more going on sounds like those are the big ticket items yeah those are the big ticket items and and the nice thing is like I want to find out when it comes to how woodbridge's project de opening was because they're doing a very similar scope of exterior work there and he is the architect on record for that so the architect is silver Petra they're the guys who did the bus ramp canopy um and the exterior of the stair over here they did a nice job course which is why we retained them just to let you know it was 14 change um K sent it out last night uh we're trying to get a meeting she hasn't heard from David uh silver yet but as soon as she does we'll set up a meeting and allce it to everybody so that uh everybody's on board is it under 20 doesn't need to go out to bid that's correct but the problem that we're having now is the north stair is failing the ramp is failing the concrete at this corner over here is failing and so the idea is before we start ripping stuff out and replacing it by the way I called the con concrete tra contractor this morning and he laughed at me he said we're two months out before he even talk to us he doesn't even want to come down and look um but anyways um if we're going to replace the stairs and we're going to replace the ramp we should look at a um maybe we can get more bang for our buck and sof in the front of the school make it look a little bit more attractive I mean there's been a lot of deferred maintenance and that's what the problem is the doors are rusting I think Sean found 19 doors that are shot uh the masonry is is showing barging so this we want to the whole thing but the Sean said we want to concentrate on that ramp this corner of the stair and the and the and the north stair first because those are because it's a a disability access issue does that open up some potential other grant funding he should know that the reason we hired silver Petra these guys do probably a good hunk of the uh school work in the state of Connecticut they do quite a bit of school work and and I think EJ I I agree with you but I'm looking at it as if I don't have to pour a new ramp I can demo and get rid of it I don't have to pour stairs I can solve my sidewalk problem you know if we're $30,000 into it versus 150 I think it's a winner true yeah and that's what Sean had a valid point that's what Sean's thinking of and I tend to agree with it if and that's why when we talk to David uh uh David Petrelli not David S excuse me David Petrelli that's where we to concentrate on first but the enti do the entire upst in school it's a lot we got a ton going on there yeah and it's just all piling up and we're going to come up with a plan to see how we're going to do this we'll get there we're just going to need some help all right Finance Amie you're wrong finance committee met last night in the packet you'll find the operating budget summary as of april24 general education salaries are now showing a deficit in the amount of $ 23,7 78 this is due to our sub cost projecting higher for the year end this number is an estimate and may continue to climb as we get closer to June benefit projections are now showing a surplus of $523 43 which is lower than last month due to additional tuition reimbursements to staff general education services is now showing a deficit of $1,718 this is due to the purchase of additional threat blocker software that was not accounted for at budget time last year supplies and other budget lines remain status quo the overall general education is showing a surplus of $517 this is much lower than last month which is to be expected as we get closer to the year end under special education you'll see that special education salaries is showing a deficit this month of $1,498 due to the ongoing projection adjustments to our sub costs this is primarily due to the resignation of a parah and the additional PA coverage needed for extended illness related absences all other special education accounts remain status quo from last month they continue to use gr dollars to offset some of our budgeted expenses special education ends the month with a surplus of $732 under operations and overhead you'll see salaries are now showing a surplus of $118,800 due to the release of allocated funding for workers complains and unemployment compensation Brandy has also released any remaining fing against our workers comp and liability insurance policies as these have been paid in full for the year all their accounts remain status quo from last month with projections equal to budget requests or adjustments have already been made uh operations and overhead now ends a month with a surplus of [Music] $89,900 $1 this is a minimal decrease from last month's $2,421 our savings across the board for benefits is the biggest contributor to the Surplus howevers the num however the numbers are still functioning quite a bit today there was a meeting with the Departments to discuss their final budget needs now Brandy can start to clean up accounts and release funds and get a trer picture of where we'll be heading in regards to Surplus dollars as Brandy always tells us never an exact science but she'll try to project as best she can keeping in mind that invoicing for utilities and services continues to trickle in over June and early July so until all invoicing is received the numbers are only a best guess estimate they're still waiting on the second excess cost payment but those funds are already are already allocated and will not impact the final Surplus number as all the funds are expected to be spent as of you'll see at the very bottom as of April 30th the prek account balance is $825 438 and our 10 248a account is at $367,900 gloves and we thank Brandy for all of her services for Bing and we're glad that she'll still be with us okay thank you Amy one more thing uh the 102,000 is a preliminary out of that 102,000 comes 15,000 for silver Petra selli and 25,000 for the uh and that's going to go up 25,000 for the boards so that's going to go up okay so that 102 is not going to hold thank you Amy you're welcome and she made a valid point we switched over yesterday uh we now have Donna and Brandy and opposite roles and we're fortunate we're very fortunate uh policy oh need a motion to accept the uh the report on the budget make a motion second okay so second all in favor okay Sue you're on policy okay so uh on our agenda tonight are policies reviewed in the last committee meeting April 9th uh these are the remaining policies that have been marked mandated on the board's December 2023 agenda note the revision to the bullying policy was tabled as it has since become Obsolete and will be replaced shortly with a newly legislated policy called the school climate plan oh thank you uh these are the same revisions done by su Carpenter but since none of them were caused by any changes in law they are now marked recommended note however the policies themselves are considered mandated based on the Boe website uh these revisions generally clarify some language and practices in keeping with current procedures and contracts update some Personnel changes addresses and legal references and are consistent with sample policies offered from shipment and good winner C do we have anything else we have to do with policy do we have to accept them for that's under what's that we have to accept them for first read that's under unfinished businesses none so we move right to new business which is where we accept uh those revisions for first read and there's seven of them they're listed have any else well then that's motion to accept those for first read make a mo second all in favor moving right along administrative report superintendent um I'll start with enrollment um you'll find your summaries in your packet it's the last three years summar we started this school year with 445 students and as of April 30th 24 our current enrollment is 450 students last month we lost two this month we had two so we're still covering at 450 uh personel update Mr uh Trace Middleton care professional submitted a letter of resignation he is moving on to a position at ases and M Brook F care professional resigned her position due to medical reasons uh the vacancies are already filled currently um with our longterm Subs that we had in house from our sub agency have already arranged for be posted to have hopefully permanent people in place in the fall uh lastly since this is a Personnel portion of my report and this week is recognized as teacher appreciation week I want to take a moment to express my heartfelt gratitude to each and every one of our Educators please know that your dedication passion and hard work do not go un notice from the teachers to the pair of professionals administrators support staff and every adult working at BCS your commitment to our students growth and success is remarkable thank you for the countless hours of invest in shap the minds and futures of our students your unwavering commitment creates a nurturing and inspiring learning environment that empowers our students to thrive I want you to know that your contributions are valued and appreciated not just this week but every day your impact extends far beyond the classroom leaving a lasting impression on the lives that you touch thank you for all that you do your services appreciated that concludes my report I think uh I as chairman of the board and I'm sure the board members would probably agree with that comment thank you k uh director special service is Cheryl uro thank you uh Mr did such a great job you addressed everything that I needed to share today thank you questions if you have anybody got any questions impressive wow you understood the Mr reach whale you're on Deck oh man I was going to try and be sure but that that takes it that one won yeah you win all right uh just a couple of quick things I mean as you know it's it's May so we have a ton of things going on I'm not going to go through all of that uh just a couple of things uh as you heard we've uh We've started our Smarter Balance assessments for grades 3 to six um the kids are doing a really good job you know I actually um stopped into a couple of rooms just to support proctoring and they're really working um hard and I I tell the kids that's all we can ask right we're not we're not going to ask for Perfection we're going to ask for you to do your absolute best and kids are working really hard so we're really proud of them their teachers all the work that's been put in um do have an announcement we have several students uh going uh moving on through Invention Convention they're finalists uh so Luke pilage uh Indigo Ratner Paul BL Sam BL alakia Krishna morthy and alongo Krishna morthy are all moving on through our um through our Invention Convention we're really excited that they are finalists um really great stuff um if you ever get a chance um as we come around next year um stop in for Invention Convention it's really absolutely wonderful um and then the last just a quick update on the big ticket items at the end of the year we've got our um we've got our uh end of Year celebrations for prek so our uh our prek celebration is going to be on June 4th um our Kindergarten Celebration is going to be on June 7th um and then sixth grade uh as we did last year we're splitting out so we've got our Awards night it's going to be the evening of the 4th um and then our uh sixth grade graduation our sixth grade promotion is going to be on um the 10th in in the morning so we're really excited for all of those things uh lots of kids to celebrate it's incredible to think that it's graduation already you're not kidding thank you very much Tom welcome um chairman reports got very little of it hasn't been covered we have a couple of letters here from uh teachers uh for teacher appreciation Thanking us as a board for their support anybody wants to read them they here um we have uh night of gratitude coming up on the 16th uh details if you want them uh and I think that's basically it for now we do a truncated report and uh K telling me yeah shut up [Laughter] so uh so that takes care of Correspondence Chairman's report and and can I just say one thing everybody thank you we hit the ground running in January and I think it it for me anyways it seems like we have a bunch of round pegs and round bols things are working and I like to thank everybody for um putting aside any feelings you might have or any predisposition you might have and working together for a common goal which is the education of our our our students and uh the uh happiness of our teachers and staff and I like to thank everybody I think we're doing a very good job and I'm not trying to got myself on the back because it's not me it's everybody else here you know it's team so thank you uh public comment going once going twice sold American all right I can during the meeting uh take 10 minutes and what's that yeah well I'll just tell everybody we're going to take 10 minutes to get down to the uh conference room so this meeting is uh vote to adjourn move second all in favor this

e e identified on the agenda therefore action taken is limited to directing the administration to look into the matter responding to any criticism or scheduling the matter for future consideration and we do have one uh person uh David hello my name is D dear School members parents and guests my name is DJ I'm inquiring about the hiring process for coaches at do I need to apply for employment at the school how many coaches at ages for for the school in 2019 and 2020 I was head B our city coach for the girls year after year I would apply for this position only once since I received an interview and only once I was told the position was given to somebody else I would love to be given the opportunity to coach again because know means it would mean so much to your students and to the parents thank you for your time thank you uh next item on the agenda is the governing board report of current events does anybody on the board have anything to report at this time got a trophy over there coming up it's coming up I'm not GNA be quiet you're stealing somebody's Thunder okay then the next item is the superintendent report of current events Mr G now you uh this is long story short uh Mr President members of the board um all of the yo community that is in um in attendance uh before getting to what you're looking at there just want to extend an invitation we did send an email out to everyone today our final parent coffee of the year is this Friday May 10th at 8:30 a.m.

e e e okay uh good evening we're getting ready to start our meeting if you have a request to speak please submit it now thank you thank you I'd like to call this meeting to order we want second no Mrs Mrs Richards may I have the roll call please yes president Anderson let the record show that three board members are present thank you I now motion to convene an executive session pursuant ARS 38-43 3a1 regarding discussion and consideration of possible contract extension second all those in favor I I motion carries 3 to Z we'll be back here in the room after our executive session e e e okay we will now reconvene an open session um next please join me in a moment of silence followed by the Pledge of Allegiance e okay I motion to approve tonight's agenda second all those in favor I I motion carries three to zero okay Mrs Richards what do you have for today for Higley Adventures points of Pride and the upcoming events all right thank you president Anderson members of the board tonight in your next episode of Higley Adventures we want to pause and take a moment to thank all of our teachers if you're a teacher out there raise your [Applause] hand we're so very grateful for each of you and all of your colleagues amazing things are done in Higley because of you we had our Fine Arts Festival and we want to thank the artists the performers the vendors the volunteers attendees and all that contributed to the coordination and success of this year's Fine Arts Festival this was recently held at williamsfield high school and I think when of the most popular things is the shirt right Mr lsen Heiser absolutely Miss Richards can you elaborate on some of your leaders that made that possible yes and I would like to thank there's a whole group that puts this event together we start planning it in August to be uh done in April and there's some people that have really stood out that I'd like to give recognition to First any of our art and Fine Arts teachers who have the kids prepare and be a part of that I we appreciate their efforts and energies um we'd like to thank pam pam Simmons and Shaina Las serenza uh Deans at the high schools they helped coordinate our volunteers and so if you were there on that day you saw a lot of high school kids uh junior rotz kids as well helping out and supporting I'd like to thank Community Ed and Kim Ohanian uh for helping and support throughout this I'd like to thank Angie Walker who stepped up and helped with one of our booths and got a whole bunch of rocks and they got to sit in their car for a while so thank than you Angie for that um I'd like to thank McKenna pugnetti our admin assistant as she helps organize the event but there's two groups of people I think that really go above and beyond in terms of organizing this first is our PR team there's a lot that goes into the background and helping support not only uh get everything ready for it uh McKenna designed the wonderful shirt this year that was very popular and that we had ended up selling at the event but Alexis L McKenna mark thank you so much for all of your work on this and then over the past four years i' I've helped with this event three people have really stood out and continue to be leaders so Katie Atkins John Willard and Ashley Walden do such an outstanding job leading the art part of the Fine Arts Festival and they don't get enough recognition but they're wonderful and they volunteer their time all of this stuff happens after school all the organizations so thank you to everybody who helped prepare the Fine Arts Festival they do a great [Applause] job and and thank you Mr lenh haser for your leadership along with Miss Heidi Lindsay that put it all together all right Miss Richards can I ask a quick question Mr liser are there still shirts for purchase or did you sell out I'm sure if there's people who still want shirts we can find a way to make that happen all right we just celebrated our teachers of the Year this was on April 25th awards were given to all of our dedicated Ed Educators for their incredible teaching practices and the impact they have on our students this year husd started a new tradition by honoring one District Teacher of the Year from elementary and one from secondary so we're excited for that addition this year's elementary teacher of the year is from San 10 elementary teacher Adrien Raleigh and our secondary teacher of the year is Higley High Schools David [Applause] nle this slide celebrates every teacher of the year and I've said this before but interviewing these individuals was an incredible opportunity for district leadership to hear and see and witness Excellence it was a really difficult choice because they all should they all should have won this is Tyler Bella he's received his appointment to the US Naval Academy [Applause] we are so very proud of him and wanted to share it with the community he will also be recognized by the Air Force J Jor ROTC is their senior Cadet of the Year Tyler is Colonel V's first Cadet to go to a US Military Academy so Colonel Von's going to be bragging for a long time about this as he should um and we're forever grateful for Colonel V's leadership support and guidance Tyler I don't believe this [Applause] here I do believe there are individuals here with Miss Mr David nettle is that correct I can't see there's too many people in the room Higley High School's TV broadcasting students attended the journalism Education Association National Convent convention in Kansas City Missouri from April 4th through the six where they earned Superior excellent and honorable mention for their work congratulations to all of these students and a special thank you to Mr David nuttle our secondary Teacher of the Year great job [Applause] guys picture to yes you have to take a picture you know that right so the governing board you want to stand up called governing Bo [Applause] we have amazing kids in the school district and it just keeps going so Mr Len Heiser take this slide so it's with great pride that we want to talk about our uh state champion Winter Guard winners from kulie and williamsfield high school [Applause] today under the direction of uh Pam Edgar Beth Carlson Bob Edgar and Jenny huddle we had I think five different state championships between the two schools and I'm going to have Mr Edgar talk about them for a little bit today thank you very little I know you guys have a long night tonight so um real quick we're going to get this over to Beth uh one of our Color Guard instructors super proud of the students achievements this year two groups competing in different levels both of those levels uh they've won the state championship in so I'm gonna let Beth talk about that a little bit more here hey there um so we had our cougar Color Guard purple that is a mouthful by the way um they did great they're composed of seventh and eighth graders um and they took first out of nine groups this year their their division has really um expanded um and I believe this is their fourth year in a row winning that division um and they had an undated season and we were very very proud of them [Applause] so um the next group over here is our coie blackard um they are the the in the highest division and they um there is there is not another Junior High group that competes at the level they do and they are very successful every year and they set a very high standard of what junior high should be in um the State of Arizona as far as Color Guard goes um we are missing quite a few members from both teams by the way uh there's happens to be a dance showcase going on at the same time for kie that starts in about five minutes so a lot of them had the take off for that um but we are very proud of them this group of kids shows up at 7:30 7:45 every morning every morning before school to practice um and they are very dedicated I see flag bags going home on the bus and um just they are great group of kids and then I can't forget about Ken pots here she's one of my staff members that works with me every morning so thank [Applause] you picture time don't you get no no [Applause] next up we have our percussion Ensemble which is composed of uh our eth graders our eighth grade percussion Ensemble class uh these kids are amazing they they perform at a a very high level for middle school students uh compete on the a sheet which is a high school level sheet um so super proud of their achievements every one of them and look forward to having them up at the high school next year so this is the coie per cussion Ensemble state [Applause] champions We need to close down got [Applause] next up we move on to the williamsfield ensembles uh actually this is a a a co- Ensemble it had has uh students eighth grade students from kolie middle school as well as high school students it's our wins group um long line here while they're coming in I need to give in a little little nice plug here for Miss huddle not only did they win the state championship in the wins but she just received a superior with distinction rating in the concert Ensemble uh State Festival as well so kudos to miss huddle so a little bit about the season um this group here I know Mr edger just said that this consists of eighth grade through 12th graders um super proud of their hard work they were actually undefeated all season um and they actually were state champions by Five Points so they totally swept the board they did awesome and I'm very proud of their hard work and while I have a second I want to give a little plug shout out to Dr Danny baretti nerland he just got his Doctorate this week at [Applause] ASU e [Applause] all right this is our high school percussion Ensemble Scholastic a Champions we're missing quite a few students as well but super proud of all of the students that are involved in this program it's so nice having the vertical piece uh where they come in and and start receiving percussion instruction in seventh grade and go all the way through High School very very for forunate in our district to have ears uh listening to what we ask for and feel supported for the decisions that are made so not only are they hearing it but we're taking actions to support the Arts and we're very grateful for that and that doesn't happen everywhere so very fortunate thank you to our district percussion Ensemble state champions [Applause] thank you we have a lot to brag about so we'll just keep going okay all right the Higley Leadership Academy hit the ground running this year thanks to the leadership of Mr James Walker over there members of this group developed their leadership skills by working with mentors attending various professional development sessions as well as volunteered their time on various projects throughout the year you're going to learn more about this group later in Mr Walker's presentation do you want at some point are you going to embarrass them all and make them all stand up or let do it thank [Applause] you e e what an amazing group thank you Mr Walker for your leadership and that concludes higgle Adventures next next we move on to points of Pride thank you everyone for waiting and your patience this evening wait for Mark to first we have Bridges Bobcats I know that we have principal Bickle here and vice principal assistant principal Mr Todd BD this no i' love for thank you I would love for you to set on good evening president Anderson members of the board cabinet thank you for allowing us the chance to recognize our best and brightest at this point I would like to invite Trisha Jacobs up to the front with [Applause] me although Trisha Jacobs is new to our campus this year as our school psychologist she has made an incredible widespread impact on our entire School school and Community Trisha is exceptionally knowledgeable proactive systematic collegial and demonstrates a growth mindset day in and day out Trisha has built strong relationships with countless staff members and students this year as she has jumped at every opportunity to support in a myriad of ways although it is a rarity if Trisha encounters downtime she chooses it to spend or chooses to spend it in classrooms with our students and teachers as she strives to build relationships and make connections with others Trisha delivers professional development when needed helps build and Implement plans for students as necessary and demonstrates exemplary professionalism at all times our staff knows they can count on Trisha at all times as she is always willing to put in extra effort to ensure our students and staff are taken care of Trisha speaking on behalf of myself and our entire campus Bridges Elementary School is elated to honor you in this capacity as you are so unbelievably deserving of this Accolade congratulations and thank you for all you do for our students and [Applause] staff and Trisha who did you bring tonight I brought my son Alec and my husband [Applause] Corey we'll stay here right okay y thank you Stacy vat please join me up front [Applause] Stacy serves our campus as PTO president and let me tell you I've never encountered a more dedicated intelligent creative student and focused parent volunteer in my entire career Stacy has absolutely poured her heart into assuring our pto's clicking on all cylinders actually tell her to write a book like she needs to create a manual now it will sell I promise you um as she supports the entire board takes on extra duties as needed streamlines effective communication with School administration weekly and figures out ways to promote events by keeping the principal looking silly by allowing me to exercise my subpar acting skills while wearing ridiculous outfits I do appreciate these opportunities actually but uh it it is funny uh and ensures our campus is always feeling the support of our amazing PTO I can wholeheartedly say Stacy's impact has positively impacted everyone on the bridges campus students staff and parents included congratulations Stacy on being named Bridges is uner point of Pride this year you're so beyond deserving of this award thank you so [Applause] much con and Stacy who did you bring tonight they're watching from afar right yes they're at swim practice tonight by my son Giovanni and my husband Jason [Applause] awesome Liz Jackson please come up [Applause] so Liz is our classified point of Pride Liz Jackson is the epitome of an exemplarily husd employee as she exhibits all of the traits we look for when hiring an individual Liz serves as our campus as a PA Prof PA professional frequently impressing all of the students and staff she works with on a daily basis Liz is kind genuine caring intelligent proactive empathetic artistic and Beyond dedicated one of the on top of being a stellar prepared professional Liz is an active member of our PTO and if you've ever driven on her campus she is the artist that develops all of the signs associated with our school activities Bridges would simply not be Bridges without Liz Jackson's presence and influence on behalf of the entire Bridges campus we are honored to have the opportunity to celebrate Liz Jackson in this capacity thank you so and and who did you bring with you my husband stevenh and my girls Laurel Caroline and [Applause] Celia and our point of Pride student Jace [Music] [Applause] Robertson nice job Jay at Bridges Elementary School we teach our students to be safe respectful responsible and 21st centur Learners Jace Robertson embodies all of these attributes and more he has been selected as our student point of Pride for this school year Jace is described by his sixth grade teachers as being genuinely genuinely kind to all of his peers and teachers Jace is willing to take academic risks and try new things while always demonstrating a positive can do attitudes at all times Jace is organized responsible and comes to class prepared each and every day on top of all the affir ition attributes Jace brings to the table he also carries a stellar sense of humor on behalf of the bridges staff we can not be more proud to honor Jace in this capacity as he is truly an incredible student with a bright future ahead congratulations Jace ni job Jay and Jace who did you bring with you I brought my mom dad and my grandparents [Applause] next we have HTA I know out there right and we have can we advance the slide perfect so here's principal Karen bacon and assistant principal Amanda day [Applause] good evening governing board superintendent Richards cabinet thank you for celebrating with us tonight we have four very important people that we'd like to recognize I'd like to start first with our teacher Michelle [Applause] caragan so we're is a fourth grade teacher at Higley Traditional Academy and she's so loving and compassionate showing her unwavering dedication to our students each and every day she's collaborative and respectful team member and is always considerate of others we are both happy and sad because we're about to lose her she's going to be the gifted coach at Gateway point and she's embarking on that new opportunity which is welld deserved and she's GNA do great things over there um she will soon um sorry I already said that the positive impact that she's made on our campus and our students will forever be in our hearts and she's also a celebrity she was just on the Wheel of [Applause] Fortune on Marvel night so it was amazing yeah she's still teaching so she didn't win that big but why don't you share with us your lovely family that you brought here tonight my husband Carlo and my children and my parents mom and [Applause] dad all righty then our next point of pride is our parent volunteer Sarah Anderson [Applause] so Sarah is a parent at our school and amazing at volunteering she helps in our classrooms goes on field trips and is excited to help with any opportunity that comes her way she's a member of our PTO and with her time and Leadership she works tirelessly to plan events and fun activities for our students staff in the entire School Community she took on a really big project this year she and her dad who was also here um helped prepare our stage for our phenomenal drama performance we just put on Matilda Jr with Kathleen Richards who's also here another parent volunteer um amazing but she and her dad painted the stage and if you've ever taken a room from stark white to black black matte black and know how many co coats of paint that takes um she was covered from head to toe both her and her dad were covered head to toe in black paint but our stage looks phenomenal um so she um we can't oh sorry I lost my train of thought sorry it looks amazing we can't thank her enough for the hard work in supporting our school this year she has two beautiful children that go to our school so why don't you introduce who you brought with you yep Hannah and Luke and then my parents Mike and Don [Applause] all right all right I get the pleasure to introduce our classified staff for points of Pride Miss Cara [Applause] wheeler so miss Cara is what the kiddos call her she is our health aid fabulous health aid um she's kind she's patient she one of her greatest strengths would be her communication she's always reaching out to the families of every kiddo that she sees in there but just to hear her welcoming the kids when they come in with a boo boo or not feeling well smiling greeting them a lot of them just stop by for a water and to say hello to miss carara um but she welcomes them she takes care of them she takes care of our staff um our families communicates with them and we cannot thank you enough for all you do even when it is hectic in there she is on her game and ready to go so we appreciate everything you do thank you so much [Applause] right um I get the I didn't get to introduce this is Miss Shing she's one of our third grade teachers and she's going to recognize our student sorry no you're fine um so our third grade HDA point of Pride student is going to be F Ahmed so you can come on that [Applause] right f is a wonderful student who exhibits all the attributes of Rage raise each and every single day he shows respect every day by taking care of all his materials and student responsibilities he holds himself in very high esteem and speaks with the utmost maturity for his age he is always accountable for his actions and schoolwork he even goes above and beyond to help other students be accountable for theirs as well F does the right thing even when no one is watching one of his greatest attributes is his Integrity I once heard him say let's not tell them the answer but teach them the answer I don't want to encourage cheating while other while working with other groups he is an amazing student a pleasure to have in class and will go very far in the [Applause] future all right F who' you bring with you today I brought my mom and dad to this event [Applause] awesome and I have one more I didn't have Miss Cara introduced who she had and she has a crew here with her tonight to celebrate I do I have my daughter Riley my son Kaden my husband Eric I have her fiance and then my mom and dad as [Applause] well e yeah is this on yeah we missed administrative profess professional day we didn't have a board meeting on that day and uh so we wanted to take this moment to recognize um a very special and hardworking individual that keeps this board running and Beyond the board she keeps lotson Heiser quiet during meetings she keeps Sherry on track she keeps everybody smiling and up to date and keeps all the minutes and the agendas out there so Miss Christine zberman you [Applause] you make a difference in our lives and it's not just the board it's the community and the staff and which also affects the students and we're so grateful for you [Applause] Chris Christine doeses do an amazing job you just can't imagine all the bases she covers and she doesn't just take care of me she takes care of cabinet on occasion too so we appreciate her and we're excited that she got acknowledged so president Anderson there are some upcoming events Tuesday May 14th is our next job fair here at the district office so we're excited to have classified in the afternoon oh don't know okay come just come all day just come all day morning afternoon and you'll get an interview if you know somebody next on Monday May 20th we have hva graduation that's our pigley Virtual Academy we also have williamsfield high school graduation at 7 p.m.

second okay all those in favor I I I all those oppose nay motion carries 3: one item 9.6 approval to adopt a resolution calling for a special bond election on November 5th 2024 any questions or comments um oh no go for um I recognize that uh there's always a difficulty as a district to ask the community uh you know to to go to go for these things to vote on them um and we have seen in other districts them not be successful uh We've also seen it in our own District uh when these things are not successful uh as somebody who worked here during that time frame as somebody who neighbors Mesa as they are going through some of the difficulty I think things sometimes are beneficial to keep in mind what happens when these things don't pass uh and that is class sizes and the like for example Mesa which is one of our largest districts had to let go 400 staff that means there are electives that don't get done there are larger class sizes there are clubs that get cut there are things that you feel and I recognize and understand that it is difficult sometimes to ask the community to you know Step Up in ways that they feel are already stepping up and I understand that the nature of our state structure makes that very very difficult and so I'm appreciative of the weight of that uh I just think it is beneficial for us as we move forward and progress to look at the things that we hope to do with these bonds specifically um you know making expansion to areas that we have right now we've already had in past board meetings where we have to look at alternative parking options for some of our high school students because we are running out of space the bond addresses some of these needs that we have and so I recognize that when outwardly we look at you know student retention and how these things are some of that also comes down to the things that we have a failure to provide and part of the reason we have to you know tighten that belt is when these types of things do not happen and so as we go forward as a community I would advise community members to look at what happens to districts when these things don't uh end well when they don't go through or they don't pass because what you see routinely is just a year or two later they turn around and then pass them because they have to make up for the hardship that they experienc during that time frame and so I appreciate again the community and the work that people put forth and their recommendations to try to avoid having to go back up and try to make for some of the hardships as a result president Anderson board member Wade um I also want to throw in there um you brought up Mesa and we also have to consider the amount of students that Mesa lost as well that made an impact in that that's all uh this one um made me think a little bit couple of issues or a couple things that um I toggled with mentally and emotionally um i i attended a couple of the committee um a few of the committee meetings and there was concern about putting both on the ballot and they were concerned you put both on the ballot there's risk that both won't pass instead of having one pass over the other so that that one made me think um I I believe in a democratic voice I believe putting it out to the voters and let them speak and let them vote for what they want in this District um but I now I go back to the other side what I witnessed um in sitting in the last meeting put a lot of fearing me um about the people that um are for it and those that are against it because it got very very heated and um I don't I don't want Behavior like that out in the district swaying people or making people fearful or feeling like they don't have they can't express their opinion um because that reflects our district and that that will hinder the vote as well um and I those are my viewpoints on that okay I motion that the governing board consider discuss amend if desired and if deemed advisable to adopt a resolution ordering and calling for a special bond election to be held in and for the district and authorizing the Chief Financial Officer to comply with certain sections of the Internal Revenue code second all those in favor I I I all those oppose nay motion carries 3 to one president Anderson yes I just want to say that um you all made good points um and it is hard to ask for money but we asked a committee to come together um and that committee gave us a recommendation to to um for both of the override and the bond and so that's why I voted yes tonight because the committee spent weeks on this and they came together and and voted and also Mr Moore presented that we can't look within anymore we have so long that we can look within and what we can cut and I want our kids to have the best and our teachers and I want to have the best leaders and that's the most important and I don't want to have aging schools in our neighborhoods and I don't think anybody else does and we want our kids to have a great future so that's why I voted yes on both of those thank you next is 9.7 request for proposal no number 24-3 d29 Child Nutrition Food Services management company F fsmc president Anderson members of the board I just wanted to give a little context to this because it is just an action item but um the district is up for Renewal we had a five-year RFP request for proposal for a contracted Food Service uh Services um the district went through a full um RFP process uh considered the on the agenda item you can see the members that it consisted of um several site leaders um myself um and other individuals um the uh committee received two proposals um and the reason um we're just bringing an action recommendation because the committee the evaluation team um found it unanimous um to um recommend chart Wells uh as the option for uh this RFP so uh if there's any questions I happen to answer him um but that is the recommendation from the evaluation committee president Anderson um sorry Mr Mor can you correct me just because there's been a lot of information in the last week since we got this I just want to make sure the chart Wass one that's the one is that the width or without the high school the one that you're recommending I apologize president Anderson member Wade the committee did include in the red Cris for proposal um the option to look at um continuing to keep uh the high school on the national school lunch and breakfast program or take them off um some of the items that we looked at before submitting this bid out for proposal we looking at our demographics and um the national school lunch and breakfast program um inherently benefits students who have low social economical status and so with our district being about 21% free and reduced percentage um we were looking at options to help um provider families with uh different Avenues in which to um offer food and so um this uh proposal that recommendation we bring tonight does not includes leaving them on the program as of now but because it was included in the bid we do have the future option to go forth and and um bring them off the program um if we see fit so uh obviously we bring that back to the board um but this current this next year is with them on the program as is uh as we are currently offering does that um opportunity to decide or reevaluate that's During the fiveyear period that we have with this with them at okay I just want to make sure thank you a motion of the governing board award RFP number 24-3 d29 to Compass to Compass Group or Chartwells as the Food Service management company for fiscal year 2024 2025 second all those in favor I I I I motion carries four to zero president and they are in attendance of it maybe I'll embarrass them uh if they ask them to stand since they've sat through this meeting um so if chart Wills can stand please be acknowledge [Applause] so thank you thank you and thank you for helping me carry stuff in when I was coming to the for meeting president Anderson I would just like to add that um every event that that we've had the food has been amazing so I just want to thank you guys um you you've done an amazing job and all of it literally like I tried to have a little bit of everything just to taste it and it's been great thank you thank you for mentioning that 100% true are we good just kidding 9.8 approval of the fiscally year 2024 budget revision number one any questions or comments I motion that the governing board approve the revised expenditure budget number one for fiscal year 2023 2024 as presented second all those in favor I I I motion carries for zero moving on to action item 9.9 ratifying payroll and expense vouchers 1087 1090 1091 and 1093 questions or comments um I will address I have three items that I had asked to be pulled so I'll address all of them in a row um the first first one I had asked to be pulled is the American School Counselors Association um and I'll just read what I wrote um we are investing taxpayer funds into training um and the people attending this as school counselors and the assistant director of counseling um we are investing taxpayer funds in training for staff members who are legally restricted from providing mental health services to our students as they lack the required licenses by the Board of Behavioral Health this practice without a license is a class six felony aside from that the American counselors association's policy mandates counselors to affirm a child's gender dysphoria without parental consent or awareness and PR prioritizing the emotions of boys identifying as girls over the right um over the rights and safety of actual girls these practices not only violate legal and ethical boundaries but also disregard the important role of parents in their child's in their child's well-being and development the content of um asca's training material I've watched several um revealed concerning ideologies and strategies in um including decisions on topics like oppressed and privileged dismantling white people endless pronoun variations stonewalling parents concealing transgender issues critical race theory circumventing state laws this focus on divisive and controversial subjects along with tactics that undermine parental rights and student confidentiality is deeply troubling a recent conference hosted by the Arizona School Counselors Association featuring Dr Carolyn Stone you look gr up um who chairs the ASCA Ethics Committee openly advocated for providing contraceptives to a minor against her mother's wishes showcasing a disregard for Parental Authority and ethical boundaries given these concerns about legal compliance ethical standards parental lack of Parental involvement um and the promotion of controversial ideologies I would Oppo I I oppose further funding or support support for organizations like ASCA that exhibit such problematic practices within their training and policies thank you um actually I'll just go into the next one because it's all in one vote so are you in um it's we're on 99 no no I'm sorry which voucher are you ref I don't have the voucher number but I'm just going to ask you what if you could go back you were referencing what in the voucher then I'm sorry um the American School Counselors Association oh I'm sorry it's voucher 1091 American school counselor association yes these are thank you okay I got thank you um the next one is the um Arizona mathematics leaders and mind you these um these are expenses um this has already happened um so this is just the expense and I wish I would have caught it initially um but as far as the um Arizona mathematics leaders conference um the reason why I oppose this is because of the association with the um the book was given um building thinking classrooms in mathematics um and its association with Corwin publishing um I don't have a copy of the book um but I am aware that um Corwin promotes controversial IND divisive ideologies through their material um Corwin is known for um pushing um a racist critical theory math textbook that aims to dismantle what they perceive as white privilege this philosophy which emphasizes developing racial competency in white students is viewed by many as promoting a biased and discriminatory approach under the guise of equity furthermore one of Corwin's publishing co-founders um of the youth Equity stewardship program Wade sandal um provided a testimony testimonial for White Privilege Conference this connection raises concerns about the under Ling agenda and values promoted by this publishing company that this um conference uses um or the book that they use for the conference um indirectly they endorse and legitimize um these um ideologies and practices there's a need for educational resources and initiatives that promote genuine critical thinking skills without dis um divisive and discrim atory narratives um and I would hope that we utilize those options versus organizations that um use companies to push I such awful ideologies and um divide our youth that is absolutely unnecessary um the last one is um and that one had a couple uh vouchers 1087 and 1091 and 1093 um the last one is near pods um nearpod um I mentioned this um back at our May 10th meeting of 2023 and I just want to um bring it up again in case people weren't paying attention then um but near pod has a lot of um controversial ideologies as well it's an application that's used by students um last May I made it clear that um I cannot support nearpod due to these um ideologies um and I understand that it's assigned by teachers um and not chosen by students however despite this I had a parent that contacted me um last year conc concerning an assignment that was given to their child um centered around race um if we're going to continue to use near pods um I would like to request that we do what we did with PebbleGo and go in and and be able to block those modules um that don't align with our state standards um if that's possible um and I want to encourage parents um that they need to be vigilant um even though it's an online assignment an online application that's School approved um parents still need to pay attention um because you know just because it's it's used by schools does not guarantee um its safety or appropriateness um as we've witnessed tonight um it's essential for parents to Monitor and review the content their CH children are exposed to through all of these platforms I also want to remind parents that um you do have the ability to opt out of these applications and any um curriculum that you don't see fit for your children that's all thank Youk you so Vice President Van Hook and members of the board it's my understanding we don't have the capability to block components Within nearpod so we have looked at that um so we are relying on our teachers and their teaching of the standards but I wanted you to know we checked and so with near pod um as I asked with Pebble go with nearpod kids do have the ability to to go in and and play around with the app or they can just access the teachers are assigning components within nearpod so they they can't just wander around in there okay and so because of this one assignment that was I know that was addressed last year um we've had conversations with teachers that they need to ensure that when they are assigning that they are staying within standards yes thank you that is correct president Anderson um some things I wish to address uh that board member Van Hook uh talked about and there's a few things um I'll just kind of go in reverse order um I agree with you that I think parents should pay attention to the things that their kids are uh seeking or how they you know have access to stuff for example we have access to the internet in school and those types of things and we do the best that we can obviously while we are here at school but once they leave our classrooms and and go beyond those assignments it's really difficult for us to curb Free Will um and so I appreciate all of the things that our staff do routinely to notify parents of this is how you log in this is what I've specifically assigned to the students and those types of things because as long as you are going through what your teacher assigns in that process then that's kind of where we keep everything grade level appropriate because nearpod is for all of education and it is used throughout the United States so there are different areas that have different requirements um and so I think that is a very beneficial thing to express to parents to just keep it a reminder of you know what goes on at home and how your kids are using some of the devices that they are there for uh the second thing I'd like to express or address rather is the a math leaders um a lot of the issues that you brought up is with a Publishing Company um a publishing company is going to publish books and they would have a varying level of content so I think it is important to keep in mind that we are sending our Math teachers to go to a conference specifically about math we don't have control over the materials that they give we as a district and as a state have a curriculum that is assigned to us and within our district we have control over what our curriculum is and so they may be exposed to a book that might have something that is not valuable for our specific curriculum and then we just ignore it and move on with our lives but to express that because they are giving out a book that is dealing with a publishing company that also deals with some of these other things I think that's a pretty slippery slope for us to be concerned about because again we can't control the nature of a company operating in a capitalist market and making multiple types of books um beyond that this again serves multiple districts and so some of the content may not be valuable for our specific District but it might be valuable for districts that have demographics that look different from ours so again we are offering something as a state and as a state you have Math teachers from all over the state that come to be able to do this and I would argue you probably have some people from other states that also can come and get some of that so I think it's important again to keep in mind for those who might have concerns on some of the things that you've addressed here today that again we have a curriculum that our teachers are beholden to and how that process is and so just because they may have exposure to some of these things at you know differing trainings that they get doesn't necessarily mean that that's what comes back here in our class classrooms because again we're still beholding to that curriculum the final thing I wish to address is the counseling um first off counselors are not therapist but sometimes kids come in expressing pretty heavy stuff stuff that requires us to contact Social Services stuff that requires us to uh make sure that we provide for parents what this student may need going forward so for example I've had several students that uh I had inquired how are you doing today because things didn't look like they normally did and come to find out this kid was suicidal had a plan our first responsibility legally as a teacher is to contact counseling and have counseling go forward and contact and take the steps from there that requires conversation that requires some of these things but asking about that or inquiring about that is not therapy um beyond that some of the topics again that you addressed this is a national uh Association so again we're going to deal with differing States differing issues and states have different uh beliefs with respect to some of these topics and how they address them our teachers here at our district are held accountable to the laws of the state whether we agree with them or not that is the situation that we are in and they are also again held accountable to our standards the same is true for our counseling staff that we hire um there were periods of time in which we had counselors that were shared amongst campuses and I think families and students alike felt the pressure of that so I'm very grateful that we have been able to hire more counselors so our staff has these needs we've had over and over again parents come in during comment we've even mentioned it up here kids today are experiencing a lot and there's a lot of things coming at them so having counselors on campus to hear and receive some of this information and then take the next steps of providing what is best for this specific situation is not therapy it might get them to therapy and it might lead them to that and I I believe all persons can benefit from therapy so I think that's a a positive here but I also think it's important for us as we listen and receive some of this information that a counselor providing next steps to parents because they also don't do it without parents involvement when it comes to this information we are beholden to that we have to so for example if a kid's suicidal or if a kid talks about some of these things we provide that information with parents we often create meetings with the teacher who notified the counselor and the parents and the student themselves are sometimes separate from the student and then bring the student student in depending on on what that situation calls for and it's associations like this and it is the material that they provide that help guide our counselors in these difficult situations so I'm very grateful that we have managed to create more counseling opportunities for our schools so schools can have these instead of sharing because sometimes that can lead to things that are real hard because the student may feel like they don't have anywhere to go president Anderson um I understand what you're saying um but we also have state laws that need to be followed um and because of the recent change in the in the Board of Behavioral Health um they had a rule where they weren't monitoring school counselors and they were petitioned and they ended up withdrawing that rule um which no it specifically says like no Psychotherapy and when you look up Psychotherapy it lists all these things um that are considered Psychotherapy um and in my mind a parent should be contacted before a counselor un unless the parent is the problem and CPS needs to be called a parent needs to be contacted before um there's any type of intervention um but the purpose of me pulling this is to explain why I don't support them we also have a state law that says we can't use taxpayer funds to pay for any race-based training and um whether it's um a book I mean the the book is part of the course for for the math thing so um if we're using taxpayer funds to fund organizations that do race-based training and ideological training um we have a state law that says we can't um and yes our district has created an agreement that they have teachers sign um that they won't attend you know if there's several breakout sessions um the teacher signs a forum saying I won't attend this portion of the training that's you know based on Dei or whatever um bottom line is we're still funding it with taxpayer money um when state law says we shouldn't so um that's pretty much it I just wanted to explain why I won't I don't support um these expenses thank you I apologize president Anderson this will be my last thing um for those who who may not be in a classroom situation or work with students there is not always an opportunity that is in the safety of that student's mind for us to be able to contact the parent first before we talk to that student um there are literally a plethora of things in which a student could express um that is harm to them harm to somebody else not necessarily harm from a parent obviously in those cases we still have things that we have to follow with DPS and all of that um I I hear your concerns and again I think it's important to understand that counselors do not proceed without parent involvement especially in every Avenue that they are legally required to my knowledge there have not been any instances of our counselors Flatout breaking the law um in in these specific scenarios um and as far as being a member of an association that might do Dei training it doesn't necessarily mean that this specific thing is Dei training so I think keeping in mind the fact that again we have responsible individuals who are great at their job and are capable of recognizing what is and is not content appropriate and what is and is not within the scope of law that we are required to uh is one of the reasons why we have uh such great programs and and student outcomes here in hickley last comment um president Anderson um I'm sure the parents uh whose children were assigned these inappropriate books thought that um the specific teacher was great at his job and wouldn't violate state law yet it happened so it does happen unfortunately um and which is why I'm bringing it up and I want parents to be aware um and we need to ensure that our staff there's clear communication that these are the lines you can't cross it and if you cross it this is what happens that's all M was there anything you wanted to add or State regarding any of the information or I think that Mary Davis our director of PD looked into the thinking maps training and and what resources they used I don't know if you want to make a comment on that um in terms of that potential book or book study um this conference is actually organized um by the Arizona Department of Education in um managed by them so it is supported by our Department of Education um this is an instructional model that a lot of our teachers are utilizing and have found great success for our students to get them up and moving as they are interacting not only with math but other content areas to get them not just solving a problem but thinking through the problem and talking about um the math practice and how they can um solve it in multiple ways and have that conversation and talk about the learning and not just wrote memorize how to solve and allows the teacher to go through and engage with the students um on the various different ways that they are solving it and have those conversations so it's not just a one andone and move on um so we're excited for our teachers to be able to go and interact with other teachers across Arizona um on this topic um president Anderson and I'm sorry I didn't catch your Davis m Davis um did you attend the training yes I have attended and would you say that there was anything um ideological during the training that you would find concerning not at all um it it's all about how do you take a problem I I'll stick with math um and how do you talk through it through different solutions I'm working on saying I'm not math person because I am a math person um and T taking a risk and you don't have to actually take a risk you can solve it in um 25 different ways and how would you cut a square cake um so that everybody gets an equal slice when you have an odd number of people um and everybody can take a different um approach to how you would solve it and it's not there's nothing ideological about it it's giving students a chance to approach um how they're going to learn and how they're going to share their learning and it's giving the teachers um a different way to mix up their students and how they will interact with the learning as well thank you yeah I just um I mean recently you hear people say you know math is racist so um I don't know how that could be but um so I I just want to make sure that when when we have these types of trainings that there's no teachings that I mean that would cover the fact like math is race I don't know how I don't even know how to explain it um but I I appreciate your input thank you thank you everyone for your questions and and information and input on this um we are on item 9.9 correct okay I motion that the governing board ratifies the payroll and expense vouchers for 1087 1090 1091 and second all those in favor I I I all those opposed nay motion carries 3 to one moving on to 9.10 employment agreement between the hgle Unified School District and Dr Carmen I'd like to read a statement from the governing board during the superintendent hiring process that we recently went through applicants were asked to provide true correct and complete applications including disclosing ongoing reviews of possible misconduct they were specifically asked to explain any current or past situations that might impact their application the candidates were notified that misrepresenting or omitting facts could result in rejection of or dismissal from employment Dr Carmen faed to disclose material facts during the hiring process the search firm we used also failed to bring these facts to our attention had Dr Carmen provided us with correct and complete information we would have made a different decision and in our view his actions constitute just cause to resend the employment agreement and it's now open for discussion questions comments okay I motion that we resend the employment agreement between Higley Unified School District and Dr Carmen for Just Cause effective June 30th 2024 and authorized legal councel to provide notice to Dr Carmen second I'm that one to Anna just heard her all those in favor I I I motion carries board to zero okay thank you moving on to 9.11 selection of the superintendent for the 2024 2025 school year open this up for discussion would do you want to do you want to read yeah I think that's better oh who yes gotcha that would be I mean I didn't want to steal it from you it's all right I motion that the governing board select just kidding Sher Richards as the superintendent for 2024 2025 and interent contract negotiations with the selected candidate second all those in favor I I I motion carries four to zero thank you Miss Richards for and congratulations on moving into our superintendent not interim superintendent position for thank [Applause] you president Anderson I just want to say again thank you Miss Richards for all you have done over the course of the last year uh I said this last year we didn't really give you much of an option and I appreciate uh your willingness to take this option with us um your love for Higley clearly knows no bounds uh and we are very grateful for another year with you thank you I appreciate it I I just want to Echo uh the comments I know you attended the retirement ceremony and already had your your Beach vacation picked out and everything but uh we can get you um some beach music playing in your your office thank you very much all right moving on to um item 10.1 items for future agenda um I I would like to put on there um I should have I meant to look and I yes put back on there our communication protocols because we had a lot of things kind of tabled and we're expecting a different superintendant and then also our board meeting dates and times needs thank you needs to be put back put on ASAP absolutely thank you anyone else have any item add not currently not currently yep no I just uh want to say congratulations to the class of 20124 since we will um this is our last meeting and good luck to them yeah see you guys at graduation all right I motion that we adjourn this meeting second all those in favor I I motion carries 4 to zero good night everyone thank you for attending for

for so good all right okay I get to call to order okay I'd like to call order to the all right I'd I'd like to call the study session to order at what time at 5:0 1 p.m sorry Shelly all right Dr wman go ahead thank you um what I want to do more than anything else uh for tonight um da to me as out as we were doing the agenda that there are a number of agenda items in the action items that are related to the budget recommendations but there are also items within the budget recommendations that don't need board action and so my thought process was we've had several conversations and meetings about uh about the recommendations obviously with you guys as well as with CCC and the leadership team and it dawned me that you guys wouldn't have the whole picture so you may have some action items but you wouldn't necessarily see the whole picture so the the intent uh of tonight is to take about uh 40 45 minutes uh just to kind of explain uh all the different pieces we've talked about much of this but I can give you the perspective of leadership in CCC in terms of some of the uh some of the positions that that they've taken um also there's a couple Minor Adjustments that come up as we uh have a conversation about some of the stuff please feel free uh to ask questions as as we move along some of this is is repetitive so I'm not necessarily going to spend a a ton of time on it but uh we will okay again as a reminder um we have to have a balanced budget uh State Statute requires that of all school school districts the state legislature still does not have a budget um I think they're starting some of their small group meetings and they might have someone but there's some um belief that it may not hit until about mid June um so that creates its own set of issues we are expecting 2% which is uh mandated under law um and so if they were to go back on that it would create its own set of issues but that's what we're expecting um what's that yeah it's been done before there's been a lawsuit too so we hoping they're realizing that the lawsuit before that they lost that therefore they would want to take on that fight and all indications are that they're not necessarily going to to do that um but I just put that as a caveat because we don't know again the key piece for our budget is student enrollment we'll talk about that in a second uh but we're really looking at that demographic enrollment analysis that applied economics presented uh I think a couple board meetings ago and then we'd love to build a budget that meets staff and Leadership priorities based on uh meetings that have been taking place over the last four or five months oops I'm not going to go through all of these I've shared these with you before these are um the CCC that comes uh collaboration committee their priorities what I have tried to do within the document itself is link any of the recommendations to a specific priority so that you understand where the priority or how the priorities get themselves uh wrapped into the recommendations uh can't necessarily say that we got every single one of those priorities uh as an example of the increased communication is not necessarily in the recommendations but I've been sending you the district uh updates that I've been doing doing the last uh couple months that was in direct response to CCC asking for increased communication so in some cases we just naturally did it it's not necessarily in a in a recommendation I have a question on this are these in order of their of of of priority no they just uh uh we just they just went ahead and and and put dots next to the ones that were important so there were several of them that so you gave them a wa they they came to we did it with both CCC and Leadership where what is the priority areas and they gave a list of of far more than this and then uh any questions about what do you mean by this or what do you mean by that and then in a second meeting they came back and said okay on your priorities you get five votes and go ahead and and pick the ones that are your top five and these are the ones that rose up uh of all the different ones they uh that they had so that's how they get to that the committee uh for CCC both CC CCC and Leadership is is approximately 20 people each that do this so it'll be reflective of about 90 or excuse me about uh 40 people uh there has been communication with the different School sites from the members of CCC for input um that's where some of the priority issues came from you will see a degree of consistency with leadership priority areas a couple differences um but in many cases uh uh very similar uh there staff retention recruitment attendance and student retention recruitment attendance attendance in both areas happen to be the highest priority just because of of some of the stuff that's going on relative to student enrollment okay so where we're looking uh to build the budget and how this recommendation is working on uh the last time or maybe two times ago when we met we talked about three I can't remember three or four different options in terms of building the budget and the key piece in building the budget is what do we think is going to be the student enrollment next year obviously in the old days it used to be on prior year funding and you would KNE what know what your budget's going to be because you knew what your numbers were since we moved to current year funding there's a guesstimate of how many kids are going to show up and we talked about a 0% growth uh we talked about um uh uh a loss at 50 kids and a loss at eight kids 108 kids excuse me this 108 represents a negative - 2.9% loss and it was based on the applied economics uh Trend data so when we decided where we wanted to look at we felt that was a good number to start with obviously because it is just Trend data and recommendation that number could go positive or negative next year depending on any number of factors um and we would adjust accordingly uh if you just take the projected shortfall of 108.

and we need to adopt tonight's agenda so any I move to adopt the agenda as presented I'll second okay all in favor I I five nothing yeah all right please join us in the Pledge of Allegiance I to the flag of the United States of America and to the repic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and Justice all right all right first on our agenda we have superintendent's report no no we have to oh yeah sorry we need to approve the am minute the minutes from board meeting last board meeting April 10th 2024 I move to a to approve the minutes from the regular board meeting on April the 10th 2024 I'll second yes you will okay all in favor I sorry all all right passes 5 all right now superintendent's report thank you Mr President uh a number of different things we're getting to that time of year where there's lots of uh accolades that go out to staff and students and a lot of things happening as we close up the the school year uh the uh CHS student council was recognized by the National Association of student councils as a 2024 National Gold Council of Excellence uh winning the war is Testament to the highest standards quality leadership Innovation and Community engagement uh this is third year in row that that the student council has been recognized that way Mike Griffin the ad at um the high school was named Arizona inter Scholastic Association fora region director uh of the year uh for all the positive change and the positive impact he's had not only at Colmes but throughout his career uh the t t TIG impact Awards uh were received by uh teachers uh at CMS uh Mr Palm Mr Lee and Mr Griffin uh for their impact uh for the use of the program in Spring of 24 it's a CTE uh program uh the principal at the middle school Laura Ridge was named the Arizona School administrators um distinguished administrator for middle level division there you go there you go good job she will uh she will receive a recognition award at the ASA Summer Conference in Tucson in June um let's see Esports uh has made it to the playoffs continues to excel both uh the varsity and the junior varsity team uh finishing uh with one loss um and uh it's been a very successful program throughout um for those uh for those students uh Miss Ferman uh received a award from the Arizona Diamondback foundation and the University of Phoenix uh for $10,000 for furniture and they went to the May 3rdd Diamondbacks game I think there's a whole group of uh teachers and staff from the high school there uh this is teacher appreciation week I do want to uh give a shout out to Kayla pulmer what we did this year she what she did I say I did it um was we asked for parents and kids to to write thank you notes or notes to teachers uh We've highlighted uh them on social media some of them on social media but we actually had over 200 different uh submissions from people throughout the district and Kayla was able to share those with the individual teachers that they were written for and I think it was uh something that was uh very much appreciated uh by the teachers to get those notes from again it could be a parent it could be a student just thanking them for the impact they had on on their uh on the year um we also had Central Christian Church working at both the middle school and and Simington in love our school uh our schools uh day which is just part of the community Forum we did the Community Cafe in January one of the outgrows of that was to continue to work with Community uh groups to um uh help uh them help our schools any way they they uh feel they can uh we will continue that uh we'll look to do it in the fall next year um and we'll be working with them CSS CCS continues to uh get graduates early or making up graduates that are fifth or sixth graduates they hit their 40th graduate of the school year uh this week um you will see in some cases sometimes our numbers go down um uh in our attendance and enrollment and in some cases it's a positive not necessarily a negative uh because as an example here we 40 students have left us early because they've gone ahead and been able to graduate so that's a positive we did do the celebration for ranch and their A+ School of Excellence I will tell you of all the celebrations and all the other stuff the most popular person there was was a rocky the Road Runner and so he had more excitement than anything else you know I know there was a nice uh uh plaque type thing that's going to go up but I think Rocky was a little bit more exciting than anything else we do have some students that got some significant awards at CHS Gabriel matoli is a 2024 Andrew Carnegie Award winner beating out 60 other students it recognizes business management students for the highest academic score of the year and is awarded by the fbaa business management chapter and the adaah less Award winner went to uh Aiden lri uh was um the war recogniz recognizes computer science student with the highest academic score also the fbaa business management chapter uh recognized it uh in this case Aiden beat out 24 other students um we also had several and we continue to have several winners in the skills USA CT uh courses uh those are uh the CTE courses have competitions both at the state and National level so they're winning at the state level in several of the different CTE programs we have and in some cases moving on um we also have uh elworth wrapping up the year with some events on May 16th talent show on a multicultural night uh we have kids that's competed at at uh State this past weekend in track and field um and Harmon uh has uh their Kinder Camp was a huge success they had their annual Hawk days at the end of April early May uh they had their Touch of truck night which was a community event so there's just a lot of positive things happening throughout the district that they wanted to share to go into recognition yep okay uh now's a chance for us to recognize uh couple different groups uh this is a time where we we take and recognize a variety of different uh employee groups um throughout the year this year we we wanted to uh recognize three groups um uh the month of May is uh National physical education and sports month so we wanted to recognize our PE teachers so I'll call them up they're here and then I'll say a few words so those uh teachers in PE in our district include Lauren Reeves not sure's here let's see Steve Larson Michael sa I saw him Reena baldenegro Adrien arel Rod ker and Jeff CRS and again when we when we recognize our staff uh again for many people who don't come every month there's a ton of different job jobs that people do throughout our district and they all have a huge impact on our kids in many different ways PE is obviously one of those areas that meets the needs of a group of kids that that need that activity need to get out and run around um these gentlemen along with the others that I just read uh go ahead and make a difference and and we're one of the lucky districts that we have PE that goes all the way from the Elementary grades up through High School uh so it's a chance for kids to get out and and especially those that enjoy that uh those activities uh they do amazing things uh they are kid magnets because everybody wants to be in their classes uh so we thank you very much for everything you do for our students thank you wor on May 3rd we have school lunch hero day so we want to recognize staff and food and nutrition uh Laura sein [Applause] Christina ederton Bianca lagona Kaylee Dal Laura Shaw Nara Aras Medina and tonina balisa Pana Scott and Sher mhal and this is a set of unsung heroes that every single day help to feed our students and just so you know in many cases they feed students who otherwise would not get a meal and so they are one of those important people that work behind the scenes um to help all of our kids uh we have some kids that are lucky enough that they can afford the meals but then we have others that don't have a meal every single day and these individuals give her themselves to make sure they have a meal and when you go into the cafeterias they're the ones that have a smile on your face they're the first kids off the bus that the kid that many of the kids see because they come and get their their breakfast and then they see them again at lunchtime and it's those little things that make a tremendous difference and when you've been into those cafeterias they dress up on special days they make it so that it's a unique and fun time and it's something that our kids enjoy and our kids look forward to every single day so thank you so very much for what you do with [Applause] our on May 9th it's National School nurses day so we'll introduce some the nurses and then I'll say a few words let's see Jessica Moffett Christa [Applause] Claypool Amber [Applause] Austin Jamie Mendes Wendy cabanis Holly [Music] Blazer Lisa Marie rero [Applause] Lilia Ramirez and Sher [Applause] Wells again a vital role that a different group of people play in our school to go ahead and meet our kids' needs we have many kids with a lot of different needs and their ability to go ahead and make sure that they're there and present for our kids every single day is so important uh more and more school are being asked to make sure that we take care of issues that kids have um and so when you talk about epip pins and and kids using an epip pin because they have a specific issue um those are the kind of things that didn't used to happen in the old days and start to happen nowadays uh and so we these individuals are there for your children every single day and any number of children can have a little oops on the playground and fall and skin their knee and they just need some TLC or it could be much more serious if they're sick and they need to be called and go home home they're there uh again you don't always necessarily see them especially if you have a healthy child but these uh ladies do an amazing job and we thank them for everything they do for our children thank [Applause] you the last group we would recognize and this is always a Bittersweet time I have told some of these people that sometimes right at the beginning of the new school year because we run a different kind of calendar than lots of uh regular businesses because we have a start and end point we start July 1st we end end of May early June but we have those people that retire um and what we want to do is take a few minutes to say thank you uh the job of an administrator excuse me of a teacher is a unique job and what I think people don't realize they say the eyes are the windows to the soul and if you look into the eyes of an educator what you see is a soul that's huge that goes out of its way these individuals to help kids in some cases we have people that will be recognized uh that are coming back to a second career may have only worked for us for a few years in other cases we have Susan Cruz as an example who's been in the district 33 years Mark DSes who's been in education 30 years plus uh seven in the district they've made an unbelievable impact on kids throughout their career and although we hate to see them leave we want to say thank you we want to take a moment to say we appreciate what you've done for our children for your colleagues for our community we want to make sure that they understand the impact that they've had and I've talked to one of these people I won't name the person but they indicated and although they have not been in the district a long long time or in public education a long long time the kids get into your heart the kids make it hard for you not to want to to be there the next year we have amazing kids in The District in large part because of the people in this room the parents but also in large part because of what our staff does every single day they care about your kids and they bring that caring to school every single day and so we want to say call these people up and just say thank you I don't have all their years of service I just have those years of service with uh with our district we know some of them have worked for many years in other districts we'll start at the bottom of our way up Jeff CRS who's retiring after one year with us but has spent a career in other areas I'm not sure if he's here Ivon Howell who's been with us for one [Applause] year Janet Harvey who's been with us for four years oops um Jenny Cruz who's been with us for five years Kayla fmer who's been with us for five years come on down Kayla she's not retiring what's that what we did is up through I thought that's what I said Jenny Ortiz is Jenny here I'm sorry [Applause] sorry what we've given is a a um certificate for those that have been with us one through uh five years if you've been with us more than five years where you give a plaque um with uh Apple um as a signifying of the impact that you've had so we have Dr Mark dupus years with us Wendy Singleton nine [Applause] years Larry Smith 11 [Applause] years hero pabalan 14 years [Applause] Alice goodrick 15 years Richard RC quavis 16 years Diane alette 17 years Deborah Willoughby 17 years and Sue Cruz 33 [Applause] years again to these thank you so very much we hope you're as successful in retirement as you are in your job um that you were for the last number of years uh you may have a frown the first day of school but the second day of school you'll be back to a smile trust me thank you guys we also take this time to recognize volunteers we try to recognize different volunteers uh throughout the community and uh we would ask uh that uh um flat iron Church apologize to Mr Daly if he's here to come up what we provide for we have a tradition in this District that says we want to give you a blue apple and that signifies that uh a little something special of what you do for us and so representing um the flat iron Church's the youth and Youth and Young adults director Cliff daily I apologize for not having your name to begin with flat iron church has provided hygiene products for students and staff in need as well as items to assist assist with Community vigil events at Coles High School this year the hygiene bags were distributed throughout the school year for homeless migrant and foster children and any else in need of these um products whenever we have something going on and we need support flat iron church steps up to help us out so we just want to take this time to thank them so very much for everything they've done so thank you very much it's okay so that takes as student of the month there we go Mr President board members Dr Wyman Miss Judy all of our colleagues here our leaders here and students and I'd like to also um thank my wife and my son for being here because today is the last time I get to do this and as you know's your favorite it's the best part of my whole day and my whole month so thank you for the opportunity of being able to read the students of the month for the last seven years could I have Steeler who your marara come up from comes now I've been told your name is a little longer than that so maybe say your full name for me for the record my name is Steeler Tacomo mcra Fuji McGary there you go all right Steeler you got to turn around and look at everybody and smile okay yes Steeler has the ability to be a member of a team with confidence Knowledge and Skills Steeler joined our campus ccs and has embraced finishing his courses with an amazing drive and ambition we are happy to have Steeler as a member of our school congratulations Steeler on a job well done that was written by Michelle guest congratulations could I have relli Suarez come up from comes High School how about Lincoln Wallace from comes Middle [Applause] School all right Lincoln Wallace is someone that once you've met him you feel like a better person knowing him he's filled with compassion for everyone he meets he loves to meet new people and make them smile and when he's on campus traveling to classes going to the library going to the cafeteria or picking up trash on campus he finds on the ground opening doors for others and saying hello to everyone he makes eye contact with he's a wonderful man for everything that he does on occasion you can catch Lincoln jumping up with his fist in the air making a jumping sound as if he's Mario Brothers game doing this not only makes him happy it brings him joy to those who are around him when he does it it's our hope that all people will have a chance to meet this beautiful soul and be touched by the sincere and genuine acts of kindness congratulations Lincoln Wallace you going to do the J [Applause] Rock oh yeah there you go could I have Noah Benson chenowith come up from col's Traditional [Applause] Academy Noah reflects citizenship through being respectful to others being eager to help and his willingness to learn Noah is a well behaved student that listens participates and gives his best effort and also dresses very nicely he is also a great student leader and he's quick to volunteer at many musical activities within the classroom such as conducting for the class playing musical solos and sharing his thoughts on musical pieces congratulations Noah good job could I have Ivy Davis come up from Ellsworth there it is yes Ivy's a hard worker who always does her part to make our classrooms on campus and the school Community better Ivy shows integrity daily by doing what she's supposed to where she's supposed to be and can always be count on Ivy making the right choices Ivy upholds the rise code admirably by being respectful to both staff and peers and by maintaining a positive attitude Ivy consistently demonstrates outstanding qualities that contribute to a positive learning environment she is diligent responsible and shows integrity in all she does congratulations Ivy good job could I have Caitlyn Santiago come up from [Applause] Harmon this is Kaitlyn Kaitlyn throughout the whole year has been amazing she's like a superhero in class because she always tries her best and never gives up Caitlyn is a super smart and really hardworking individual she's like a shining star in our class because she pays attention and practice her skills every day we all look up to her because she's a great role model and leader Caitlyn shows us how to be kind and helpful to others we're so lucky to have her in class congratulations [Applause] Caitlyn could I've have Hadley dolles come up from [Applause] Ranch this is Hadley another one of my friends Hadley does an amazing job in preschool and she is a very good preschool citizen she is kind and caring to her classmates she off often helps them when they're not feeling great about coming to school she will smile at others offer a hand and even a hug to her classmates she is the first to hold out her hand to help another child who's upset she cares about the classro often helping teachers to pick up items and other that others leave out or pick up trash on the floor she will bring other students their backpacks and water bottles they've left behind and their Cubbies are on the floor she's a great help helper an awesome friend an amazing student and Hadley is going to make one awesome kindergartener next year congratulations Hadley could I have Cole MSA come up from [Applause] Simington Cole stands out as a shining example of exceptional citizenship within the school community in the classroom he is consistently demonstrating respect with his peers and his teachers he Fosters an atmosphere of inclusivity and cooperation and Cole is always eager to offer assistance to his classmates whether he's helping out with assignments or offering words of encouragement during challenging tasks beyond the classroom Cole's commitment to service is truly remarkable he actively participates in school events and initiatives aimed at bettering the community Cole's dedication to making a positive impact is evident in all he does congratulations Cole good job we're now going to take a fem minute break this is a great opportunity for you to take pictures of your children and you don't have to stay for the rest of the board meeting if you don't choose to thank you for us that's e e e okay that brings us to 7.5 anything from governing board members I I know that I got to experience the I know that Miss Ridge isn't here she wasn't there when I did it but I got to experience the wheel and like oh wow yeah and then I got into the isab Bendy house I think it's the green one so yeah it it was fun and then I went to trap practice and some of the kids at the middle school are in that house and they're like yes it was fun anyway I got to experience that that was my only thing all right I was able to go to the plate into the woods and wasn't it awesome it was so go yes so good Mr Smith did such a great job he did and the kids also it was really good so it was my first play and it was awesome and I'm yeah I'll be going back for sure yeah awesome well I went to the C Bob and I went attended the CTE um you know award ceremony so Mr scrogum thank you for that it was it was great and I thought uh you know and I thought it ran it went very very smoothly so it was uh great to recognize all those students and see all those students and parents that was great and and last night I attended the uh the high school senior scholarship night and it was great to see all of our students in how well well they've done and how much money they earned in scholarships and I want to thank Tanya for putting on a wonderful show last night that was great all right awesome thank you all right um any public comments no not at this time okay so that takes us to our consent agenda any questions on any of those or I'll take a motion to approve that or any questions I'll make a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented I'll second hold on I don't type as fast as you okay we have a first and a second all in favor I I I Mo motion passes 0 that takes us to 10 let me get I'll get there all right 10.1 discussion and consideration of approval to changes to the 2024 202 District calendar uh you will note with the district calendar there's this a different format to see it uh to show it um and there's just a couple minor changes uh minor changes to start um uh preschool uh the first day of school and then adjust the last day and then there's also a minor change relative to high school and they'll rather than open house they'll do a back to school night after the kids have their their calendars um or excuse me their schedules uh are handed out uh the other thing I will remind everybody next year is the last year of fiveyear calendar so we'll be coming back to more than likely in this in the fall um I doubt in the spring but in the fall so can plan with a new five-year calendar again it starts to give people an idea what it looks like for 5 years but obviously can be change uh at any point in time during that you're not locked into it but just as a reminder it is coming up but so I recommend approval as presented okay I move to approve the changes to the 2024 2025 District calendar as presented a second all right we have a first and a second all in favor I I motion passes 5 Z okay 10.2 discussion and consideration of approval ofou renewal with AARP Foundation experience cour that's the program we have with the members of a come in and read to our kids uh Miss H and and Dr Fountain as part of the report I think a week a month ago talked a little bit about the success it's at Ellsworth this is the new commitment for another year we're looking to expand the program to multiple sites obviously the expansion of the program will be dependent upon finding enough volunteers we have talked with them about uh not only reaching you throughout the community but the two big uh centers that potentially would be there for uh retirees that may want to do this would be in Cana but also Ovation is probably an untapped market and then the new uh age uh restricted uh um apartment complex that's going in off of uh aao and and right by um Chipotle is another one that we'd like to tap in when they finally get opened up so we believe we'll have enough that that we can recreate that positive experience that uh the individuals had working with their kids and the positive experience their kids and teachers had so I'd recommend approval as presented all right any questions all right I moveed to approve the renewal of the with AARP Foundation experience corpse as presented I'll second okay we have a first and a second all in favor I I motion passes 5 10.3 discussion and consideration of the adoption of the 2023 2024 annual expenditure budget revision number two Mr President members of the board community members colleagues I'm trying to see if there's any community members here um action item 10.3 is to comply with ar ar5905 which requires districts to complete their physical year expenditure budget revisions for governing board approval no later than May 15th posting those to the superintendent of Public Instruction no later than May 18th the 2324 annual expenditure budget revision number two that's presented tonight is our final expenditure budget that will will carry us through the school year and our encumbrance period which runs through the end of August this revision is still subject to the July 2023 approved action item 8.2 that authorizes expenditures in excess of money budgeted within the M section and subsections as long as we do not exceed the total budget changes in the budget revision number two from our de December revision one budget are a slight reduction in our ADM of 65144 not bad but to answer your question of are we going to meet our carryover the good news is this budget as you'll see on page one increases our M budget by $39,600 this is largely attributable to our group b weighted average which identifies um additional funding for our special needs students primarily it also includes our K3 gifted and our free and reduced lunch I would like to take a minute and acknowledge Dr Fountain Mrs Zoya and our food service team they worked on the free and reduced pric uh lunches to make sure that the two systems which do not speak to each other it's a manual update I know another one of those yeah make sure that the information is correct not only is it going to help for our Title One it also increased our free and reduced lunch count by 198 2735 students which gave us over $21,000 additional in this budget so I really appreciated all those efforts our unrestricted Capital increased slightly just under $116,000 the other changes they are minimal primarily it's where the money was budgeted it the slight changes were to identify the function code and the object codes where we actually spent money is that where we had it budgeted or did we need to tweak some of those numbers they were minimal throughout the rest of the document are there any questions with your approval I will come by after the meeting to get your signatures and then we will get it to County and to the superintendent of Public Instruction by the 18th so if we approve do we get paid for giving our signatures no okay what kind of candy you cut that out of the budget hello I like Snickers sorry okay Snickers next month you got dinner yeah that's true all right I'll take a motion I move the governing board I move that we the governing board adopt the 2023 2024 annual expenditure budget revision number two as presented I'll second all right we have a first and a second all in favor I I thank you motion passes 5 O 10.4 discussion in consideration of approval of 2024 2025 salary increases these would be what was talked about in the study session the 1.9% increase uh across the certified staff the exempt uh support staff and the administrative uh staff um the I put in there on the support staff themselves there's no increase because they received it in January and then the extra Duty stien um we talked of freezing them at their point and um uh taking it off the C culation based on the base what you have in front of you is uh every individual in the district that is going to get an increase uh you just have the dollar amount between what they were given a contract for a couple weeks ago or a month ago and what this new increase is and we're just providing you with that information per our legal counsel to make sure that everyone's aware of what the increase would mean for the different individuals uh we've had advice that says we should always tell you what the the number is for any dollar amount so that's the attachment but I would recommend approval as present are we recommending based on the I mean you had some you recommended the CCC is that the one right yeah this this would recommend what I presented to you guys it would be CCC and leadership's recommendation for the 1.9 but there's definitely one that you guys right and that's and this is what's reflected here okay any other questions I don't all right I'll take a motion I motion to adopt go ahead you go I motion to adopt the 2024 25 salary increase for all District employees as presented and Grant District staff the ability to correct any minor errors that may may be discovered during the release of contract agenda agenda agenda word agenda I second all right we have a first and a second all in favor I all right I motion passes 5 Zer and thank you for all that hard work I know was a lot of work and with the challenges to do that we appreciate that very much all right it takes us to Tim .5 discussion and consideration of approval of 2024 2025 salary schedules So based on approval of the previous agenda item these would be the new salary schedules that would re reflect those changes so for example when we talk about base salary increases that's where you'll now see that you will note that um there's support staff salary schedules in here even though there was no increase uh in the course of reviewing the salary schedule we found uh several different errors or as an example in the salary schedules it talks about the district contribution to health insurance obviously when you approve the health insurance increase it changed the number so we had to go through and change all of the salary schedules uh I'm more than happy to open up any of the salary schedules that you need I would uh open up ask the them in the room to open up the extra Duty so stiping schedule just so I can point out a couple things on that particular one so on this one you will note a couple things we used to have the percentage that they would get for uh each position and that column is now gone the other thing you will note is you will see uh special education up on the top right special education positions these are positions that have been funded before you have approved them but they were not in the salary schedule I felt it was easier to just put them in the salary schedule they are Ida funded not ml funded but we wanted to make sure that there was a consistency in in in what we uh what we've done um and so other than that there were some minor changes um but it reflects um the new format of what we're going to do so I didn't know if there'd be questions so I just want to show you that but more than happy to discuss any of the other uh salary schedules otherwise would recommend approval as presented all right any questions all right I'll take a motion motion to adopt the 2024 salary schedule as presented schedules as presented I'll second all right we have it a first and a second all in favor I all right I motion passes 5 all right 10.6 discussion and consideration of approval of retention stipend again this would be what was presented in the study session this is using the ERS dollars given the 1% for those that are employed with us at the end of the year um and still employed with us by the end of August uh we will bring back to you at the J excuse me at the September board meeting the actual names and amount that everybody would receive um and so I would recommend approval as presented all right any questions I do have a question so why why are we approving this right now because do you are you telling them this or like what yes this will this presentation and the budget recommendations go out to the staff so they have an idea that it's coming um and it's part of the CCC recommendation for retention um but from a uh uh practical standpoint a legal standpoint we still have to give you the numbers in September okay all right any other questions all right I'll take a motion I motion to approve the onetime retention stien for all returning staff for the 24 25 as presented I'll second all right we have a first and a second all in favor I I I all right motion passes 0 10.7 discussion and consideration of approval of a new District instructional time model for 2024 2025 second all right good evening Mr President members of the board Dr Wyman and Miss wigner uh this should look quite familiar because we are required to give this to you again this month um so I'll be relatively brief um in going through this but just a reminder the of the purposes of the instructional time model and where it came from um addressing educ ational changes resulting from the pandemic uh the Arizona revised Statute language that uh references the flexibility that we can have in how we maintain and count attendance and the alignment with CCC and leadership team budget priorities um the rationale for change reason one increased instructional time so we're trying to figure out how to ensure that students get U those instructional minutes um reason two meeting learning needs of all and reason three which we adjusted slightly is really to limit lost ADM so it's not really revenue generated but it does limit some of the loss that we get because of attendance issues um the required components of the itm plan include that instructional time definition and the instructional approach um how we measure that time um which is a piece that we're working on behind the scenes and then how we track that attendance as well um again as a reminder the instructional time model and approach can reference any one of these approaches um a lot of what we're looking at is really Project based or Mastery based learning uh giving students opportunities to to gain credit for their work or for their attendance um based on the completion of work that that would have otherwise happened if they were physically in class um one that we've mentioned as well is that opportunity for some Independent Learning practices um that we've talked about in some of those elements as well um possible ways that we measure that so so student communication with the teacher um we can utilize things like the Google Classroom um or paper tutoring that automatically logs students minutes um we can again use completion of project s um or daily assignments as a means to measure the students attendance um or the work that was missed while they were out so again the basic concept being very similar to the traditional approach to makeup work um one thing that came up in our conversations with teachers that I think is of note is that element of future Readiness and the idea that one thing that we've learned post pandemic is that the job environment the the traditional work environment really has changed and for a lot of us we have um some opportunities throughout the the work environment to flex some of that time and do some of that learning remote um and so this is an opportunity to share that same approach with students that even if you're not there there's still work to be done and that we want to encourage and promote that notion um because that's really going to help make them Workforce ready um we did spend some time uh we reached out to all of our site principles asked them to give us three to five names on their campus that we could go speak with uh so Dr Scott and I have been working on that um going out a meeting with those folks about halfway through that list right now um got to nudge a few people to respond to us because it's that time of year where they're getting kind of busy we've asked them for 30 minutes of their time and just asked them to share with us what are your what are your pluses what are your Deltas what questions do you have I would say that the the general consensus in those conversations with our Educators uh has been cautious optimism you know that uh I think the the statement that summarized it best for me is we have to do something um but I think there's defin def itely concerns over but let's make sure that it doesn't send us the wrong direction and I think that's the same conversation we had at our last board meeting so um lots of good ideas have come out of that about parameters that we want to consider putting in place in terms of limiting the overall number of days um limiting consecutive days some of those elements to ensure that this really is a way to enrich The Learning Experience for students not to take the place of being in class on a regular basis um so so those are some of the things that we've talked about again for the legal requirements um part of it is these two public meetings um and those definitions of instructional time model and Technology um the submission to ad is a relatively generic approach so we we kind of speak in generalities to that that gives us flexibility on our end to be more succinct in our definition um we're also starting the process of meeting with some of our attendance folks to really make sure that we have good systems in place for how the system will record a student attendance and how that will be adjusted based on whether or not the project or external U work is completed um so our recommendation is of course to approve um this instructional time model and I'm happy to take any questions you might have I have a question if you could go back to the slide that says possible measuring of time and attendance and there's three I two columns with three items in each column yep under paper tutoring so that's using paper to track the this work how how can we differentiate between students who are using paper for normal reasons like we've been all along and then for them to get Cor credit for classroom attendance it would look at the the time stamp for the attendance right so if it's happening during the school day the one of the things about paper is that it records when the student is in that session so if that's occurring on a day that the student was measured as absent I keep referring to this potential approach is flex days just because it's easier for my brain so if they're in the attendance model as a flex day and we're they're able to show or we're able to look at paper and show that they spent two hours on paper getting tutoring support let's say in math um then those two hours could count as attendance for that day um they can also do that on the evening or on the weekend um and and I think that that's one of the pieces that again we're still navigating through a little bit but it's a good example of how students are working outside of the Traditional School Day hours and this statute allows us to take some credit for that and so we want to do that because that helps us it encourages students to get the work done um in fact I I almost skipped over this but I'll share it with you because I think it's great data to have um and this is thanks to Miss Thompson um so when this the senior survey came back this is just some interesting information to look at there are 149 respondents and 107 of those 149 said that they are working while attending school 65 of those 107 stated that they work 21 hours or more every week and 28 of them said they work 30 hours or more per week so 26% of our respondents said that they're working 30 hours or more a week and so we know that that flexible learning environment is something we just have to figure out how to get to students because they're looking to do their work and complete those things on different points in time during the day um and and in that same survey 61% said that they participate in a non-school sponsored club team or youth group in the community so we know that they have competing interests so that idea that potentially um if they missed a day for some reason they could work on a Saturday and they could complete that work they could use things like paper um some of our teachers have done some things in the flip classroom model where they've recorded many lessons for students um and they can still access their learning while knowing that they're involved in work and Community clubs those are the kind of students that we're trying to to figure out how to Target to make sure they're not missing out on learning opportunities thank you any other questions all right I'll take a motion I'll motion to approve a new District in instructional time model for the 2024 2025 school year as presented I'll second all right we have a first and a second a second all in favor I I motion passes 5 Z 10.8 discussion and consideration of approval to purchase new Mini buses Vans for evit transportation there a slight change from the last board meeting only that we expanded I think last board meeting we spoke more about bands as we went ahead and looked uh there seems to be a tight market for Vans as well as uh buses uh Mr Anderson's doing some research and we uh found a couple uh mini buses that are slightly used uh one I think had like 20,000 miles on it so not not big miles on it um uh and tuls so that we could go pick up and save some dollars uh and then another one um that had uh less miles than that on it and so we went back to the to the minius versus the van because we found uh we looked at Sprinter vans as an example because there was a a a shortage in the market out there uh for them in terms of getting them in time for the start of school and so the the uh recommendation is either many buses are Advanced uh if we get one and that's all we want to purchase initially but then we need a second one based on on student enrollment we just want to have the flexibility to find something if if it comes up to second semester next year uh we need to buy another one um but we have some uh options out there uh and this should again be funded out of CTE not out of daa um as a capital item uh and John has the uh the dollars in his budget to handle it and so I would recommend approval as presented and then we would move forward to to talk to them tomorrow so that we would have the uh the new buses in in time for the start of the new school year um just refresh my memory wasn't there an issue with the type of license that was required for a van versus a bus if you if you have a if you have a minib buus you don't need a CDL license if you're going drive a regular bus you do so uh anybody can drive a a mini buus or a van uh with your with your regular license and so our teachers could if necessary drive it or if we have someone in in transportation that has not yet received their CDL still working on it they could still drive these buses and it would it would expand the pool of of drivers great okay any other questions all right I'll take a motion I'll motion to approve the use of CTE funds for the purchase of up to to 15 passenger vans or mini buses as presented I'll second all right we have a first and a second all in favor I I Mo motion passes by V all right 10.9 discussion and consideration of renewal of intergovernmental agreement between panal County Sheriff's Office and Jac's Unified School District district for school resource officer did we find one no not yet so the district has has filled out the school safety program Grant uh for the last number of years uh and we have received uh approval for SRO uh School uh safety officers um however uh there's a shortage within panel County uh Sheriff's Office and so uh we have not been able to secure one this renewal will allow us to continue to work with them and if they can find one uh uh they're short any number of of officers themselves but if they were to to to get a group of officers coming in they could find one they thought they had one last year but they couldn't find someone to replace him over on the west side of the of the county that he could come over here so we were not able to receive him um but this would put us in a position where if they could find someone we would be able to get them and the state would pay for this this would not be a m cost it would be a state Grant cost um and so we need this agreement with panal county in in the event that they do find them uh and the state funding uh will be there it's uh I Believe Miss Thompson can tell me threee uh or fiveyear threee three-year Grant so uh I do not have any concerns about the grant not being funded matter of fact most of they've expanded the grant to counselors and social workers the reason why we have either two counselors or social worker and a counselor in our all of our schools is because of the grant so the grants is continue I'll be shocked if it's not continue to be funded for all the different reasons that are taking place in society today this will position us to to be in the list what they do when you do the grant is you have to resubmit but you're already in there because you did it and they will fund you first um the problem is just whether there's actually any officers available to come and be part of it are we limited to just panal County or can we go to Maricopa or to Queen Creek and see if there's a resource officer available I believe we're limited to panal County because Queen Creek doesn't go into um jurisdictionally into uh Colmes High School uh it's around us but it's not in Colmes High School uh we could go to some uh they're looking to expand off-duty officers um and utilizing off-duty officers um the concern would be you would have a different officer every single day and so therefore the ability to to develop the the the key to an SRO that's effective is building strong relationships with kids and if you're going to sit there and have different officers coming through every single day uh might be the same officer once every two weeks or something uh and so we can look into that uh we would have to re R talk to the state because those officers are a little bit higher in Pay than than a regular officer um but but we have some reticence with with the lack of ability to create relational capacity we are talking and looking at what some other districts are doing but but it's so new It's Just Happening as we speak um people are still trying to figure out whether that's actually a viable solution it's important to have that continuity the same office what about Apache Junction since they're in panal County but again it's it's more jurisdictional for where we are and so Apache C Apache Junction I I know you know this because I was up there some of our schools when I was at Apache Junction use Apache Junction officers the county had to use pcso you can't go across jurisdictional lines all right go ahead so what so it says that the the grant provides 110,000 but the anticipated salary is more we would go to uh uh the state and ask for the increase we asked for it last time and they uh they approved it but then we didn't use it because we couldn't find one so it's a it's just a process of of reaching out uh to the state to ask for the additional dollars uh and they don't have a problem with that um but again like I say until we get someone it's that number may move depending on who you get maybe a little bit more a little bit less based on experience all right any other questions all right I'll take a motion Jason I motion to approve the IGA between the panal County Sheriff's Office and the joles Unified School District for a school officer resource officer at CHS as presented I'll second all right we have a first and a second all in favor I I motion passes 50 10.10 discussion on possible action of to submit policy priorities for inclusion in the Arizona school board's Association 2025 political agenda so you have last year's agenda this is an opportunity if there's something you want to add to that what will happen in this process is if you add anything to it then they will go ahead and collect like that from around the state and they you come back in June with uh uh do you want to approve the new agenda if there's anything there I think in looking and reviewing it it's pretty comprehensive political agenda but if there is something specific that one of you wanted to bring forward and the board approved it then we would submit it to asba for that so it's really up to you guys if there's anything additional that that you want added to um uh to the agenda I know when I read that over I thought it was pretty comprehensive so I no additions okay we can send another delegate if anybody wants to volunteer we we will bring the delegate in June so you everybody has time to talk to Mr Ray about how much fun it is and and be ready to raise their hand to be a delegate it's a it's a good experience once I I wasn't I've been serious I I think I've been there going there for like five years now all right if there's no other questions I'll take a motion going again you don't want to do this one I don't know what I recomend yeah recommend approval of the two the 25 political agendas presented yeah okay I'll I'll I move to recommend approval of the 2025 political agenda as presented I'll second all right we have a first and a second all in favor I I motion passes 5 10.11 discussion on possible action to approve the ka8 general music physical education and Technology curric curriculum adoption good evening again Mr President members of the board Dr Wyman and Miss Winger I uh we brought this to you last month for the first consideration and uh this is the general music physical education technology adoption Kate eight um I'm going to skip through those because you've seen them before um but just looking at um trying to fill some of our Fine Arts and electives which was part of our 2024 adoption cycle um this is utilizing the some of the remaining Esser dollars to fill those learning gaps uh a reminder this was our committee um one of them is in attendance tonight so thanks for being here Laura we won't embarrass her too much um and our adoption timeline so we started this back in November getting through the reviewing of the materials uh development of the rubric um scoring of that and of course the final presentations um that started with the developing of priorities um we we utilize this as a pretty standard format for setting our criteria and these were the vendors that we selected to review Quaver Music spark physical education Quaver physical educationand learning.com um these were our finalists Quaver Music spark and learning.com um those are on display now um both via our website and in the lobby um there's been a resounding very few folks signing up to review that but it's available to them uh per statute um so this is some of the nitty-gritty here that we did not share with you at the first meeting um so the Quaver General music k6 um we are proposing a five-year adoption um that's a per teacher licensure so it's $10,500 per teacher we get a 9% discount for multi-year um so the average cost is about $6,100 a year or about $1,200 per site per year um one of the things that we were passionate about was making sure that we had the materials to support the adoption um so part of that was working to make sure that we had things like wood blocks jingles and Recorders and all of those fun things um if you really want to get into that nitty-gritty I've hyperlink that for you so you're welcome to peruse the wish list that goes along with it uh some fun stuff in there but the Quaver General music U comes out to be a 42,1 42 for the five years spark PE um which we will utilize K8 if I go back real quick the general music is k6 because we don't have General music at the Middle School uh spark P K8 um is a print adoption the the curriculum itself is is pretty inexpensive um the supplemental material so equipment balls cones Nets carts um had a really good time diving into that list along with the music list I got super excited about the notion of pickle ball I was like you know this is very trendy we can teach pickle ball here um so that total cost with the supplemental materials for the spark PE is 2,433 learning.com is our technology for k6 it's the most expensive of the three pieces um the original cost was 79875412 for the learning.com technology it is solely housed in an online platform um but you can see the total cost there of $69,000 and $ 69,1 um hopefully for Mr Delena I got all my math right I double checked it uh so we got 132,50 7665 was the total um we had $134,000 budget you'll notice we're a little bit under budget um we're waiting for the final quote on the supplementals for the music piece so there will be some shipping and tax associated with that so we we should be pretty spot-on uh to come in under our budget and again providing each of these for five years um just just since you brought it up I do need to point out a slight math error oh no1 because when you have um a total that's 65 cents and a budget that's 65 cents you can't have a 93 Cent difference just you since you brought it up I mean I set myself up for that so we'll go with it we'll run with it um yep so the the overall budget is there um you know obviously we're recommending approval for this just want to bring up again because I think it's important that this is a really valuable tool not only for our special Area Teachers um but for our core classroom teachers this is the opportunity they get during their day to uh step away from the classroom to have some of their planning time during the day and refresh um I'm very proud to say that we've extended that time in the last two years it used to be only 30 minutes for some of our lower grades it's now 45 um and so we're we're looking at that even moving forward how we can continue to expand that I'm going to be The Optimist and believe that we'll have student increase next year and that will will help us in the process um but really good for our teachers too definitely one of the struggles in these three areas as we try to get teachers is not having that curriculum I think Miss frier could speak to that that's tough when you going out trying to recruit in her case a music teacher and saying would you come teach music for us but we don't have anything for you to teach with so we're really helping hoping that this helps us in the recruitment process in the future because we've got curriculum and materials for them to work with any questions uh I do in the motion uh the motion says to approve the recommendations for k through eight General music shouldn't it be K through six General music k through eight physical education and K through six technology curriculum I think the music was K I think there no I think the first the first the third were k6 and the middle one was K8 correct okay so when when I make the motion I will make it that way if that's okay the quav music does go K8 we just don't have the class offered at the middle school level okay I do have one question does the digital learning with that help with the instructional model do that help at all with that or no it could because these are some components where um students who would have normally missed a music or a technology class would not have had access to that learning outside of the school because there wouldn't have been anything to learn from um so I think you know the technolog is a good example of that where if a student missed their technology block that day they could complete their lesson by logging in through our clever platform and getting credit for that hour that they would have attended the special class so yes it it would help the itm all right okay any any other questions if not I'll take a motion okay I move to approve the recommendations for K through six General music K through 8 physical education and K through six technology curriculum adoption as presented a second okay I have a first and a second all in favor I I I motion passes 5 I do really like that you've taken that looking at extending that planning time for teachers that 30 minutes truly is not enough for sure by the time you get the kids there stop for the restroom see someone in the hallway you have to go back pick up the kids and it's over yep make some copies so the I mean 45 minutes probably isn't enough either for as far as actual effective planning but at least you're trying to push that way so it shows your consideration for the teachers I appreciate that our next step that we want to work on is uh looking at a a multi-a rotation maybe a Six-Day rotation we currently utilize four of the five days but that's the next step in the process so um 11.1 is our our regular um information on student achievement um we don't have our test scores back yet so we don't have that but we did miss a piece um under the AARP that you voted in favor of extending um and I'm going to turn it over to miss hyim so she can just share a little bit of information on that good evening Mr President board members Dr weinman and Miss Judy um we did work really hard to make a video to Showcase just a little bit of uh the program for you so I wanted to make sure you got to see that this evening um as we are approving that uh you for another year go ahead Craig action we really wanted a program for our students that could really help them grow um not only in their confidence but their love for reading and their ability to um read fluently I love to read and I have hundreds of books at home so it's positively impacted the kids in the sense that they they do very much enjoy the reading program and uh because of the way that it's set up with the the reading games is is usually how the tutors teach the students it's something that the kids enjoy to do and it's making them love reading more so the students are really thriving I was just in the classroom the other day with one of the students and she was more than willing to participate now raising her hand feeling more confident she really really has grown all of the students have really grown with their confidence when it comes to reading I enjoy seeing the kids being able to to learn to to read better and see them grow over time and to see where they start and at the end of the school year at the end of even just a semester seeing how much they've improved and how uh better they are at reading and how they've gotten more fluent at reading and just seeing that growth knowing they are able to get through the same stuff as you know some of the higher are gives them more of that confidence boost and excitement to learn how to read so I think that's the biggest thing I've noticed and also I think like when they're reading stuff off the board or to the class they're able to more fluently get through it it was so easy because I like could have sounded it out but I didn't cuz I didn't want to so I just tried saying the word and I got it correct encourages them to read more and to to learn more and it also gives tutors an opportunity because most of these tutors are retired being members of ARP uh to have something extra to do in their life and they they love teaching these kids and getting to know them and and things like that I really hope that we can continue to add more students to the program um and we really hope that we see the success that we're already seeing with the small number of students that we have really grow into like their testing so that it can transfer into everything that they're doing and not just when they're one-on-one with their tutor the hopes for the program is that it would expand to more schools right now in this school district it's only at Ellsworth Elementary so hopefully it would grow to the other elementary schools in ja comes and that way more kids will be part of the program more kids will benefit positively from this program and overall become better readers cuz I like to read and I really want to get better at reading so when I grow up I could read the text on my phone our team for helping us put that together um really just to highlight the program for you um I have a couple quick little facts so at Ellsworth this year we were able to work with 16 students they were able to get in just over 20 sessions with their tutor um the goal for the program is always at least 35 but we didn't start till the end of January so they worked really hard to meet with their um tutors all of our tutors were virtual this year um they're working really hard with the program to promote the in-person tutoring um as Dr Wyman mentioned so we're hopeful to have both inperson and virtual um tutors next year in fact one of our tutors from Boston has fallen in love with Ellsworth and has requested to be there again next year so um we are excited to have her back um and as I was looking through some of the testing information to see how the kids were doing who've been in the program we're still in the middle of some of that end of the year testing but I did want to share a couple of success stories with you um there was a second grader uh when the year started was only 62% accurate in their reading so about every four out of those 10 words in correct makes it really hard to understand um what you're reading um and at the beginning of the year was only reading eight words in a minute that's how we measure their fluency is um time them for that one minute passage um at the end of the year this student is now I want to say it right over 95% accurate and is currently reading 67 words a minute nice so has made quite a dramatic uh gain and Improvement we had another student a third grader started the year reading um 33 words a minute so pretty far behind that grade level and is now currently up to 82 words a minute so we are starting to see some growth uh with this program we're very excited to bring it on for the full year to see out what we can see um over that next year and they're really excited to try to get us into a minimum of three schools so and a minimum of 20 students at each School and I know there's a few principles who've anxiously been waiting for the program to come to them so that is the goal for next year and I thank you very much for approving that and we're going to continue to work with them to help our students if I could just say there were a couple of things I noticed in that video one was a sign in the background in the classroom kids at work which I thought was fantastic and the other one B has a belly you know little things that kids will remember so that I think that's really cute and very absolutely absolutely it's been wonderful to see the kids and the tutors even on computer in that virtual setting really Bond um and we even had two of the tutors come in person to the end of the year celebration so um that was really nice they've had a good time so far thank you thank you all right 11.2 discussion and information on District enrollment numbers any questions or um you did have a question yeah we looked we didn't come to a consensus um I guess the question is on the email that you sent us and the report um when we looked at the districtwide figures there's a chart at the top that shows the decrease month over month in terms of enrollment then there's a supplemental one at the bottom that shows an increase of 156 and as we were discussing this we couldn't figure out how the two fit together right and and we've made several changes throughout the years we tried to correct the the data that we're pulling from and so uh what we started at the beginning of the year and what we've learned over the course of the year you're not going to there's going to be inaccuracies in that number as we speak we're we're trying to give you the write up from the principles to talk about some of the things that were going on we would hope that next year based on what we learned this year that the the two of those will connect tighter from the get-go uh we made several changes as we learned some stuff ourselves about what we the data we were collecting and so we realized there are problems with the data which we've had for most of the year and we hope because of what we learned that beginning next year won't see those inac in inaccuracies um there are a lot of different reasons we've probably met I can't tell you how many times trying to figure out where the data was and so you're in all honesty from month to month you're not really seeing Apples to Apples uh the last couple three months maybe four we've gotten a little more consistent what we're doing but for the fall we learned some things ourselves and so you're not going to see there there's inconsistencies because what I think would make sense as Jason and I were talking about it if we see over the course of an academic year a loss of 300 students right well that means we gained some we lost some but the net result is a loss of 300 so if we could see how that gaining and lossing or losing if there's a way to even up on a spreadsheet just to show us because it's kind of difficult to Envision that with that report that we're getting and that's and that's what we're looking to to make the changes again because we carry the data through and if I carry data from September to October and there was a mayor in there going back because the way Synergy works as a moment in time you can't just go back and recreate uh September 2nd and run it again because if kids have moved in or out post when we ran it the first time you're going to get a different number that's just the way Synergy works and so therefore uh we've learned what what we need to do at this point going forward um and we hope to be able to correct that issue in in the in the future but but we're aware of of some of the inaccuracies of of the of the information and it's just based on on what we've learned and how we tried to bring that information forward so we're just trying to get through this year and we'll do something slightly different next year would it be beneficial then to not even provide us with that second part of the report because all it's doing is creating confusion yeah we can do that yeah no no we can do that we right we we can do that we'll have one more report so if you don't want that portion in the last report because we'll just do the report even though it says the May report actually it's the April data and so we'll have one more report so we can we can take that out so we take care of the confusion yeah until we can get that you know worked out in the future that's fine simpied yeah version of it I guess is that okay with you yeah just the two just didn't match up wasn't sure to read it it could be Synergy it could be but one shows one shows a negative number and show and another one shows a positive number it's like well if we're the positive number then what's all this scare about losing students we're doing all right right but right right obviously there's some students that we're losing so aware that I just wanted be able to see and make sense of the numbers that are given the number that you're given is that the ones that were enrolled and that we had enrolled that like okay so we had 150 new enroll Lees but we lost this many we still have a def deficit is that what is that what that one one is that what it is well if you look at the top two charts just the big numbers but the one the second part of that chart the second chart right it's very clear to say number of students that left number of students we gained and that that chart says we have a gain of students but if you look at the big one before with all the big numbers it shows a decline of like 23 now like I say that's a big difference right like I say from the get-go there was errors in the beginning and we didn't recognize in some cases because we' never done the report in the second and third month we realized what some of the errors were even the way we coded kids uh when we go to Synergy we found I can't remember what month that there was a coding issue that that we were missing a group of kids based on the the query statement that we asked to write to pull out the data so we knew that the data that we had we didn't know that until we ran a new query statement and realized what the error was so so there have been errors from the get-go and and they're just compounded on a regular basis and you can't go back and recreate you can't go back and say I'm going to now recreate that day because of the way Synergy works so we had to live with the errors and they just compounded over time but we're hoping that next year we won't have the problem based on what we learned and and you'll be able to get the the the numbers without the the inaccuracy Seas we're just reading your reports that's all once you know we appreciate it all right 11.3 discussion and information regarding landscape RFP we we just want to bring this forward again just so you're aware next uh at the next board meeting you will get the actual we've got the RFP out we've got vendors that will submit um it's coming up and then we will make a recommendation to you guys uh got delayed a little bit so we're just bringing it back to you because the last time we talked to you we thought we were going to bring it to you in May and it's now June so we just wanted to bring you the updated dates so that you're aware what's going on um and then it's a bit of a tight timeline to get it flipped over um by July 1 um but we'll be working with the vendors that we select to to take care of that issue do we know if the vendor we're using currently is going to submit a bid I have not seen who submitted the bids so I I do not know if they are they are not um I believe they are but but until we see the bids I don't deadline okay all right 11.4 discussion and information regarding possible increase to athletic fees at CHS and CMS yeah so what we're looking at as we as we've taken a look um uh and we see what it takes to operate the the sports programs uh Middle School and High School come to us and asked about a possible change um uh in what we charge uh it's a little bit uh when you get into course fees and what you can't can't charge uh there's some restrictions relative to um uh Middle School versus high school but I I have a memo in there what we're looking at I don't believe I put in the memo so my apologies um uh but we're looking at the the potential of a $15 increase so at the middle school right now we're $75 at the high school we're 90 so that would put us at 105 uh 90 and 105 um you can see relative to uh in that memo um if you can call up the memo so that others can see it uh on there you can see that the comparative costs uh compared to what some other districts are charging you have a little bit all over the place um and so when you look at high school we would be on the low end uh and you got Gilbert Higley that are significantly higher uh and then when you look at the um at the middle school in some cases we're a little bit lower other cases I'm not sure in Florence and Chandler how they're how they're doing what they're doing based on the the numbers that they have in both cases uh the cost of the program uh exceeds what we raise uh I think with uh uh the middle school if you were to raise them you would get yourself fairly close to what the cost is so it uh be close to revenue neutral at the high school you're going to operate a high school at a deficit just based on everything you got going on with with high school um there's cost associated with with everything uh dues for AIA officials uh Lots dependent upon gate receipts on a year-over-year basis depending on any number of factor you may have more or less gate receipts um and so those those gate receipts uh if they're higher some year can be more beneficial lower other years I just took the one year uh Mr Griffin's here if you need more information I know this is just a discussion Point uh Mr Ray and I talked about this on our meeting uh and I try to get the points that he had asked for but if there's questions Andor more information that you need uh more than happy to bring it to you for the uh for the June meeting so this just gives you some the basic information of of what it's costing us to run our programs what some of the neighboring districts are we've reached out to Pache Junction they have not returned calls and so therefore that's why Apache Junction is not on this particular list Greg just looking at the memo my gut reaction without you know any more information is I would hate to see us go to 105 I would like for the high school topped out at a 100 and that way we're in line with Florence Queen Creek Chandler and at the middle school I'm willing to accept that deficit and not change the middle school at all my just my gut by looking at this I don't know how everybody else feels I don't want to increase at all sounds more well so this is a good time to ask any questions and so much participate yeah but you still have to cover some costs you and the big deficit is at the high school not at the middle school so you know if we're going to take an operational loss at the middle school four to 5,000 I think that's doable uh but you can't raise the high school more than other districts or else kids are going to stop participating or maybe leave our district to another District so that's just my gut 100 for the high school and keep the middle school where it is what do you think I think that we get a month to think on it yeah yeah okay that's why I brought it up and what I'll do just so you know I'll I'll take into consideration that so we we might put some uh options available to you that would then and and try to punch some numbers a little bit more uh to give you more detail okay thank you all right so that brings us to 12.1 requests for future agenda items and I have one um I would like to get a um I know that we were going to circle back on this and ask for some feedback on that teacher evaluation that we um approved I guess I was just wondering like how it went like how did the teachers feel did they feel like they um that they knew what they were being evaluated how did the valuators feel how did it how did that go all of that we we have done a survey and and we're collecting the data uh we did it with all the employee groups my intention was to bring it um uh to the retreat but I can bring it earlier we have the the data we have the data but uh so I can um I haven't looked at it to tell you exactly what it said um but it was I'll just say my quick perusal was was fairly positive relative to all employee groups and the instrument um and so but I'll collect it we'll get it to you either June one of the two meetings in June we'll have for you because we know we're going to have to make if we want to need make changes we're going to go from there right has our district seen or done anything with project momentum School Improvement through the ad are we involved in that not at this point uh Dr F can help me out if I'm wrong but just from what I've known as I've contacted ad about it for different resources of my own the financial benefit and the the benefit they're seeing in test scores it's definitely seems like a grant we should be looking to P there are a great number of schools in the state that are that are being part of it and they're seen some credible results even paying teachers more for their planning time so would benefit teachers would give us even additional coaching and support in each of our campuses and for principles and the increase they're seeing in test scores I would encourage maybe the district to look at it and see is it something that we could be a benefit for us happy to answer that question we have looked into it um we actually met with the project momentum folks this past semester feels like a year and a half ago but it was just this past semester um and we also had a conversation with our colleagues in the Buckeye School District who are currently project momentum um we've had conversations with the folks at ad about that U we are currently waiting for that to be open again it's not yet open for our for application but we have looked into it um yeah I guess I have one the does the district do we still do the surveys yes we're in the process of doing those right now and we'll have those uh as part of the uh The Retreat also we did the parents okay we did the students at the upper grades and then we do the staff so the students and staff closes next week and the parents closed I think a week ago I'm looking at the data as we speak okay how how are you going to give that to us like last year like we saw right like the breakdown of what all of them were you'll get you'll get a break down not summarized right right okay you mean comments or yeah yeah you can get either way um there's ways to do it yeah we had the comments okay now I'll give it to you individually okay all right any others all right that brings us to 13.1 adjournment oh look at that you thetion motion oh I moved to adjourn the meeting a second at what time at 7:32 and still second all right I have a first and a second all in favor I I okay we're adjourned oh all right

good evening and welcome to the Greenfield Public Schools school committee meeting for Wednesday May 8th 2024 um member Den would you call the roll call please yes secretary Den I'm here Vice chair Martini is she virtual she is I see her here okay chair Johnson mad I am here mayor dorer member Goodwin member Childs here member sexon here all right we are all here except for mayor disorder all right I am here thank you Katherine I had you on mute so you didn't hear anything that was happening okay thank you oh thanks for joining us and thanks for those joining us from home and thanks for your patience with some audio uh issues we're working on today to have some folks able to to attend remotely um so the meeting was called to order at 6:07 p.m.

in the ghs auditorium admission is $5 and refreshments are included lastly in partnership with the French Department of Frontier and Hopkins ghs welcomes a group of high school students stents from NES France who will be learning about American culture and creating International connections during home stays in our community through May 12 AV club is currently on break until Mr Carina returns from paternity leave uh Spectrum recently designed and ordered their t-shirts to wear in their Franklin Country Pride Parade in June this month they will also be celebrating their senior members and preparing for the parade and rally um and then student Representatives the ones present at the table um have held two meetings with the administration regarding the content of the student reports with a fixation on the discussion of bathrooms conversations have occurred in an effort to gain a mutual understanding of the ongoing issue at our school within the building one that impacts the Safety and Security of students when using the facilities such meetings have been organized to address a separation in administrative and student understanding and we hope that they will be a continued means of administrative involvement in the future as a means to receive the direct voices and opinions of students um that concludes our report today it's pretty brief but if you have any questions we'd be happy to answer any questions thank you very much really appreciate it have a good [Music] night okay we'll move to our vote to enter into executive session pursuant to massachus General Law chapter 3A section 21 A3 to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining or litigation if an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining or litigating position of the public body and the chair so declares the committee will return to open session we have a motion to enter into executive session for that reason so m a motion from secretary Den is there a second second second from Member seon any discussion roll call vote secretary um secretary J I'm yes Vice chair Martini is yes okay chair Johnson mad yes mayor dorer yes uh member Goodwin yes member Childs yes member seon yes it is unanimous okay we will go to Open Session and we will return [Music] oh [Music] for us to start we don't have oh we do have everyone home all right okay welcome back we are back from our executive session um and now um I would hear a motion to approve the contract for Boe it employees some is there a second second okay motion from Member ston and a second from mayor dorer any [Music] discussion I just like to publicly thank um the team that worked on this the administration and Stacy seon represented the school committee while in these negotiations and sounds like everyone came in good faith and worked cooperatively so we love that uh and so I would uh let see let's call the um the vote all in favor say I I I I member Martini do you want to I oh okay and um and I will abstain and the motion carries um oh uh with uh unfortunately with with member good went out out of the room unfortunately but uh the M motion carries so let's see we will move on to reports of the administration and I believe that Andy pette will be joining us by um speaker phone all right Andy are you there I'm here can you hear me yep we can hear you can thank you excellent okay so you have in your packet the we're on the home stretch here so our monthly report of the local budget and the revolving accounts um We are continuing to go through Year End closing and journal entries um we're reviewing all encumbrances to make sure that we've got everything incumber there will be some encumbrances coming for some normal year- end expenditures that you know we're just getting final numbers on that will ultimately increase the incumbered amounts uh and payroll is also going through and doing another review to ensure that we are have all our you know incumbrances for the summer pay for those that get paid over the summer uh and we'll be doing some re classes you know potentially if you look at the revolving accounts as of right now you know the only one with a uh quote I say deficit is the prek tuition uh and that could be again looking at the revenues we're just reviewing to see if we've got more revenues outstanding that we're going to collect but if need be we have the funds available to address that through whether it be another revolving account or reclassing expenditures back to the local fund similar to what we've done when there's been an athletic uh a deficit in the athletic revolving account with that said I can answer any questions that anyone might have yes member Goodwin Andy I just have a couple questions because I didn't know what what those numbers meant and the math teacher in me likes to know what numbers mean so there was at the end the year to date on page eight it just says business administration [Music] manager the accounts payable person and the two people in the payroll office okay and then another question about the Vans which like so I read the warrants and one of the bills was to replace a water pump in the Honda so the Hondas as I drove a Honda for 20 years so it's only got 25,000 mil on that van didn't it come with a warranty when those things were bought I would have to review that um if it's 1300 bucks for a new water pump you you know and that was the bill and I was like most Hondas it's 100,000 miles before you have to pay anything so that was just one of my questions and then so I'm looking a transportation like you're paying $400 a month to transport a child to Springfield and I've held those van doors and I've done that but couldn't one of our vans have done that I mean is somebody really looking at the efficiency of our vans versus paying another company to transport kids so what I can tell you is that well go ahead Andy no you you can you can start I'll fill in if you if I don't agree yeah you'll agree um the um day-to-day scheduling of our vans is over seen by the transportation coordinator so any runs that can be done by our Fleet are done by our Fleet um depending what the bill is and I don't know specifically and obviously we don't want to talk about specific children but at times there are um we are transporting students under mckin vento which often or they're always should be a cost share situation so the warrant wouldn't reflect the offset set from another District if that's the case Okay um but I can tell you with certainty that we are um using our Fleet to address the fiscal pieces so if we're transporting if we are paying to transport that's because for whatever individual reason um that was the most effective way to get the student transported so you're the only person who really knows this you and Andy are the Vans making money for us oh Andy can tell you that quite clearly we've but before he says his answer I will tell you as part of the Strategic plan y one of the pieces was going to be um an evaluation of the transportation structure that we have in terms of the internal transportation and then we had a change in coordinator so we've not asked the new coordinator to do that yet she's still getting the lay of the land um but that is part of the Strategic plan okay so Andy do you want to give her the answer was it the question about are our vans making money for us that is the question yes uh I have to admit honestly uh yes and I was somewhat surprised we've seen a steady increase over the years as to the revenue that the transportation program is generating so if you look last year uh on the transportation revolving account we had 265,000 as of May 6 we've collected 310,000 400 31,41 310,000 38 uh tripping over my tongue there so it is generating revenues to offset the overall Transportation program uh and if you were to look at the trends uh it is been consistently increasing over the years since uh I guess the Vans were bought prior to our arrival so yes uh like three years three years years steadily steadily increasing as to their revenue generated so you think even with the salaries of the drivers and the insurance and parking them someplace and that you know they're now five years old so it's it's never going to be a self-supporting program when you look at the total cost for it which you know uh would be it would be pretty we'd have to charge the districts that we are currently providing services to you know they would they would end up going elsewhere looking for okay uh their transportation providers from what it is that we're doing so uh but it's you know that's not out of the out of the norm for uh you know we do have as much as I hate to use the word h a hybrid approach of providing our own transportation and Contracting out what it is that we we can't provide so when you look at the total funding sources for our transportation and the transportation both regular Ed special education um yeah it's uh you know it covers you know uh not you know doesn't cover half of it but for what it does cover we'll say that it's increasing okay just thinking the future because getting older well that's why we have that um analysis of the transportation structure as part of the Strategic plan obviously it won't be done this year but it is part of the fiveyear fiveyear plan thank you any other questions for oh yes uh let's see go with secretary den and then the mayor hi Andy I had two questions um just because I was wondering if you could just tell me what the line item means on page eight the second to the last one above the school committee it just says contracted service but could you just tell me what contracted service that covers just so that I know in the future when I'm looking at this sure that is the contract for our services that's the TMS Services line correct okay and then the the other one and that's 148 320 correct like we're looking at the same thing yes okay and then the other one that I wanted to ask about is on page seven and it's the same question I'm just not 100% sure what it means um contracted professionals or professors it just says p rof and that's to 2295 $70 so I'm just wondering so I know in the future what that means sure that's a combination of medical therapeutic otpt speech services those are the special education providers that provide our instead of the staff if we have to go out for specialized contracted services for medical therapeutic that's what that primarily is okay all that is okay thank you I appreciate it mayor hi Andy I have a couple questions um what is while we're on this page I have one that I want to know on page seven um oh it's about seven or eight down what is Administration for 310,000 224 it's under school lunch special education the director of special education the assistant director of special education and the uh SP chairs or I forget what their team etls etls yes sorry thank you I have I have three more is that okay y you have the floor um what is what what is your order of spending what do you spend down first Grant Capital operating uh well the grants most of our grants are written for specific expenses so we have to spend the Grant in accordance with what the grant was written for um so it's kind of a two prong you know I'd say that's a I'd say a unique thing so we we use the grants for you know and yes we do amend grants when if there's a potential change in plan that we'd be allowed to do but uh they're pretty much written and we adhere to the grant plan as was written uh there are parameters regarding for example circuit breaker circuit breaker we're required to spend at least the prior year balance that we received the amount that we received so we have to spend that and then uh you know the the local budget uh we again adhere to our plan for a local budget but again with just a quick history with Ed reform uh School committees were provided significant flexibility as far as the use of their fund because of the value that at Reform Act of 93 placed on education um you know kind of stating the obvious but so we end up using the funds and that's why even though we see negatives there's a balance at the end but you know that balance is going to be eliminated with our end of the year spending that hasn't been encumbered yet and dealing with potenti deficits as I alluded to earlier uh and uh we'll be uh looking and re-evaluating if there are things with that balance that we need that uh we had to either cut or that would help out for the future as Allowed by ever fourth thank you and we have to vote on um every time when we do the budget we have to vote on revolving fund B balances do you um no revolving funds spending limits does the do schools need to do that or there different regulations I just honestly have no idea the I'm I would like to think when the revolving accounts are voted on uh I believe education revolving accounts are included in what the city would vote um but there are no Bal the only limitation regarding some of the revolving accounts specifically build use obviously it it's its title tells you what it is that it can be used for to offset expenses for any organizations that use the building uh school choice is used you know it's the definition of the school choice revolving account says that it's used to educate those students that are taking part in the Greenfield Public Schools through the school choice program can be used for salaries which we do use it for circuit breaker again that's the one that really has the the the restri of you cannot carry over more than the prior year receipts that you or I should say you have you have to spend at least the prior year receipt amounts that were received uh and carry over no more anything that if you were to carry over a balance more any balance above that uh would get turned over to the town or the city thank you okay last one and this one I certainly don't need the answer to today this is on the capital expenditures um and so you can you might have to look it up for the next time on the high school um when the high school was built it looks from looking at this one and I'm not sure um that there's $185,000 left and um I and the reason I'm asking about it is because I went to watch one of the um I went to watch a baseball game and they were asking me about the lights and we've set aside $20,000 I think for lights and if they're LEDs which are more efficient it's going to cost a couple hundred, to put lights on vet's field which that's what I would like it to be I'm going to talk to Carol to see if there's something you know if there's any kind of grants for that but um I did see that there was Field improvements used there so I just wanted to put a bug in people's ear or ask about that this is on page five of the capital um of the things that we borrowed for so um it would be at the high school and it looks like you the whole amount wasn't expended I didn't know if it was like that's what happens with our capital projects we still sometime we have retained things and we can repurpose it and so I was just wondering maybe to the next meeting if you could check and maybe I'm off base I would like to check though cuz the the line that was identified for vets field Improvement was fully expended okay on this um but I'd like to see if we can figure out what that was um I think solar wasn't I think perhaps solar wasn't but I just was looking at it knowing that there was another Energy Efficiency perhaps and I I'm getting ahead of myself but I thought I would just mention it so that's probably a good um history for us to review because the um Andy and I and if I may you may let me put you back under the mic the thing that would need some research I I have that money was used with msba borrowing and debt exclusion vote so obviously any use of that would have to be in line with what the debt was Deb exclusion vote was um so I I would say we would just need to to recommend that the city would check with either Bond Council or legal counsel as to whether or not if we're talking and I I apologize mayor are you thinking about potentially using it for lights well it wasn't actually it it was just a discussion item I know that people have asked me they've come into the office and asked me about lights and then there were people that some people came in and said if we did that real quick we wouldn't have to buy those energy efficient ones which I would prefer to buy the the ones that were recommendation my recommendation would be though whatever is decided would you would just want to run it by Bond councel uh to see as to whether or not um it would fall in line with a debt exclusion vote because any vote if you're going to repurpose funds that were voted via a debt exclusion it has to be for a comparable project in line with what the debt vote was and is that something we're all everyone is supposed to agree on does Andy do you know that can you repeat the question there is that something that everyone's supposed to agree on or how does that work I can I can save that for off I'll save that for later okay that's a that's that's a legal council question as to whether or not quite honestly as far as like the the author to repurpose it uh uh I would think would have to go at a minimum to city council but I I very easily could be wrong on that so again not being an attorney I would recommend asking legal counsel as to whose authority it is to repurpose that thank you that's that's all thanks a lot yes remember good one okay Andy you've been doing our books for quite a few years now so are our sped costs like what percentage do you think they're going up what percentage do I think they're going up as far as from 24 to 25 or yeah like every year are they going up is there a like a pattern to this do you see a pattern oh no there I mean it's very hard to say a pattern when some of our tuition costs which are the biggest ones are dictated by the OSD rate setting okay where previous year was 14% this year we're at like six and change I believe is what they said um and then uh we have the the standard I'll say the transiency of the ins and outs of the uh the the population um but I mean I can do a quick uh look and see as far as what we're looking at for overall special education if you just give me a second here I think some of the other factors that are going to challenge looking at any pattern is um Staffing that has you know we've had Staffing challenges especially since um pandemic so I think that's that's going to be a challenge in looking at any kind of consistent expenditures yeah like our contracted services are going to definitely be um representing the fact that we've had a hard time getting School sites so we've had to contract which is you know on the whole going to be much more expensive than hiring a staff person so some things are not Apples to Apples I guess I would say post pandemic costs you know so here's that here's an example I mean when you look at the trends you know we've had from 21 to 22 the overall actual expenditures in special education in the local budget went down 700,000 but the use of other other funding sources increased so it was about level 25 22 to 23 we saw a significant increase of 1 million 1.1 million 23 to 24 we are down in our local but we are increasing because of again with the funds available when you get an increase in circuit breaker that means we need to use more of that to do so and projecting for 24 to 25 when we look at well you know we saw uh some students aging out or moving out uh we're looking at an overall 9% decrease in our special education in total but as Christin I mean that's as of right now you know that that could very easily change and we see those fluctuations I mean the number of times that we have met with uh Mr messing to go over changes that we've had to make in his budget for year because of whether it's increased needs of services that weren't budgeted for um it's bit regular we'll say okay so here's the big question you have some amazing human beings sitting here who went to Boston to meet with legislatures to fight for the schools where do you think the fight is MoneyWise is it special ed cost is it transportation is it you know additional f funding for the homeless what is the where would the best bang for the buck go if we're talking to I'm going to say yes yes yes and yes okay all kiding aside but what I mean without being good but I mean I'm gonna say that the biggest my this every year it comes up with the fact that you know whether it's a circuit breaker and or even cly at the federal level the Ida legislation was supposed to be for 100% reimbursement for special education costs that has never occurred and unfortunately you know I'm GNA be very cynical I don't think it ever will and that's where you know one of the things that I I say you when I do these trainings with school committees and administrators it's all well and good to be talking about the foundation budget formula and all these things as far as net School spending required local contribution but when time comes for the budget velopment process down in Boston all the rules go out the door you know there's no penalty if they say you know there is never been a penalty about fully funding circuit breaker every year we're budgeting at 70% we're lucky if we get it up to 75% you know so it's things like that where you know I mean all and I'm all kidding aside again but I would say you know keep advocating for all of it because sooner or later you similar to what happened with the student Unity yet you know there was enough you know human and cry over it and then once they started to do the research it said yes we need to do another adjustment to our funding for Education that's you know that's I'm gon to say just we need to keep doing that okay thank you thank you any other questions all right let's move on to the assistant superintendent report thank you Andy thank hanging good evening everyone um updates on professional development we have one more half day on May 24th for our PD session last one of the year we've been continuing our work with the teaching lab and our instructional strategy work we are going on walkthroughs this week our last walkthrough of the year with all six buildings we will again share that data and plan our last professional development with uh faculty meetings that are ending the school year along with collaboration teaching lab will be on site on May 24th investigating history we've been working with educurious and naen extrom and she will be coming May 24th to finish up with the PD she's been providing to our Middle School history teachers on the new curriculum resources that we've adopted this year and our High School Math teachers will continue to get their ongoing support and illustrative math their last session this year is called enhancing access and that will will take place also on that PD day some curriculum updates with regards to Civics um Miss Zimmerman our eighth grade history teacher took our kiddos to Old Sturbridge Village where they got to attend an 1830s town meeting I shared a photo from the day the kids were very excited to go back to Old Sturbridge Village and I love sharing photos with all of you so you can see what they get to experience they did have to debrief and write um some Reflections when they returned and I got to read a few of them and it was nice to see that not only did they think it was educational but they had a really good time and thought it was fun and then um title one has funded some field trips and we took our third and fourth graders from every Elementary to the new Greenfield Public Library and uh really want to thank the children's librarian there she provided a great tour did a scavenger hunt with our kids so they got to explore the whole Library they had a fabulous time and you'll see that uh some of our Newton Elementary students they shared their photo with me of how much fun they had at their scavenger hunt title Von also tries to keep reading and math the focus when students are on vacation so that they're continuing their learning and they always sponsor a challenge over April vacation everyone who participates gets a little gift and then we do a raffle for students by grade level and they either Got a roundabout books gift certificate this time or a magic wings gift certificate to go to the butterfly museum so uh some of our very happy Federal Street Elementary School Prize winners are shown here and then just lastly as Christine and I continue our transition planning and our roles shifting here um I begun to meet with three high school student groups already thus far I spent the day at Greenfield High School and today I spent the day with Newton Elementary folks and I will continue to do that um it's just been a really great experience thus far just getting feedback from folks um really proud of all the work that we've done and started and they're really excited to see where we're going to continue um with the transition being smooth since we've been together for so long so it's just a really good day I'm also going to try to include some family and student Community groups um and those are to be determined I just haven't pick times and places but I'll get that information out as well and that's it thank you let's hear for the superintendent and then we'll get questions for both of you okay so first I'd like to make sure that we all know that this week is Teacher Appreciation Week and um I know that um our buildings have had some nice activities provided from pto's from some of our administrators trying to um somehow how reflect the level of gratitude and appreciation that we have in all of our Educators it's teacher appreciation week and I would also like to add to that that all of our staff have the opportunity to educate our students and have a positive impact and we appreciate all of them um the other special thing for today is that it's actually national school nurse day so our School nurses are being celebrated with within teacher appreciation week so that's also a wonderful thing we're very fortunate to have a full compliment of School nurses at this point and um they do a wonderful job with our students so we in Greenfield are extremely proud of the staff here and know the positive impact that they have on their students um speaking of staff not teachers but we have some administrative updates that I'm very happy I'm announcing them um because I can't but they're going to be Karen's administrative team so Destiny maker will be joining us at Four Corners she is taking Mike Browning's spot you folks might remember that Mike is moving up to the high school effective July 1st um destiny is coming to us from the Hoy public schools and she was able to be at Four Corners this afternoon with the staff meeting to meet the staff and interact with them a little bit um stie cororo will be taking over as principal of Newton School effective July 1 um Darlene is moving into our 504 coordinator position which we're very pleased to have and um stie is also coming to us from the Hoy Oak School so we're happy about that and she was also at Newton this afternoon to meet with the staff you're seeing a pattern that was planned um and then um Mr Morrison has moved his last day in green field to May 17th so Roland joyle who is a veteran administrator he was the principal of chicke high school for 18 years and then an executive director at the lower Pioneer Valley collaborative will be moving into the interim position at the high school for the last month of school Roland has actually been serving us as an interim Middle School associate principal since February and loving it here and so um despite the fact that he would have been quite happy to finish out at the middle school he did agree to move to the high school um having a veteran principal step in will allow him to take care of the logistical work as we close out a high school year including the logistics of graduation um and that will allow Gina Johnson and Michelle Gould or associate principles to keep supporting our kids and focusing on that instead of having to worry about some of the day-to-day operations so so I think it's a good option to um ask him to fill that role for us um speaking of graduation all the school committee members had at your spot your um a copy of your graduation and Senior Awards night invitation so please let us know if you'll be able to join and I'm very happy to share that we will be hosting our graduation on Saturday June 1st at 10:00 a.m.

e e e meeting the Beth Board of Education order will start with the Pledge of Allegiance Pledge of Allegiance the unit States of America indivisible and justice for all thank you very much for anybody and everybody coming this is going to be a a little bit different type of meeting tonight we're going to run this as a very truncated meeting very truncated reports um what we're going to do is we're going to have our a brief regular meeting and then we're going to adjourn for 10 minutes to the uh Board of Ved conference room where we're going to run our uh open Forum via owl or Zoom or whatever it is um so uh we'll try to keep everything short sweet to the point uh we've got a couple reports we do want to get through but uh uh we want to keep it short and sweet so we can get to the open form so with that being said uh PTO report hi everyone uh first off um happy Teacher Appreciation Week um PTO kicked off teacher appreciation this week we wanted to do a CH on block this past Sunday evening but unfortunately the weather was not cooperating so we had to cancel that but we started Monday morning um we purchased flowers and volunteers were at all the entrances handing out flowers to the students as they entered to school and then they in the students in turn presented their teachers with flowers to make a unique bouquet um and for the non-classroom staff we did purchase um potted plants for them so they lefted out and the PTO is also um catering a lunch I think tomorrow I'm not mistaken uh for the staff as well um so again huge thank you to all our teacher staff we truly appreciate everything that you do for our students and I just want to shout out to Sarah Culbertson our teach coordinator who has been working hard actually all year but especially this week in the PTO circles this is known the Super Bowl of of events for for the year so thank you to her um today we also wrapped up our spring plant sale um and chanti ordered organized a plant sale in the Pavilion yesterday and today um so the students could come purchase plants for um their moms aunts grandmothers whomever they wanted to get the plant to my understanding is that we had replenish plans I think four or five times um and went over to um farads to make sure we had enough plants to all the students so thank you to Agnes and to all the volunteers who worked on that se as well um we are still looking for people to serve on the board for the 2024 2025 school year um we have several positions open most are one year's uh positions the only two-year term we looking to fill is the vice president's role so um anything other say is available on our website uh bcsp to.pt board.com uh we're having our final general meeting for the PTO this coming Thursday it's our last public meeting for the school year um and that will be held here at 6 o'clock we will have one more meeting in June but that's a closed meeting because that's a board meeting uh May 17th is field dag um PTO is working with the school to going to be watermelons Clementines and we purchase popsicles to pass out to the students uh during field day so we're collecting watermelons we have bins outside the office we're looking for people to help cut the watermelons in the morning and help pass them out as well as the hes um for the two sessions at field day um also on the 17th is quasy night with future Road school um quasi closes its doors to public and it's only open to to schools and their students and families um you can prease up until this coming Monday for a discounted price um tickets will be available at a higher price at the Gate of the day of the event um if I don't haven't seen weather report but if it looks like we're not going to be able to hold the event for weather um myself the the Beach Road president u p president and posi will make a call early in the week about whether we're going to hold that event and if not quasi will honor whatever tickets have been purchased to that point um the big well uh the other thing that's coming up is Spring Fling um that's scheduled for May 24th tickets are available for purchase for that that's healthare at the school we're going to have Inflatables we're going to have food trucks um Pizza uh magician face painting silent auction it's a great event um kids just run around having fun parents hanging out it's a great event so tickets are also available for purchase for that as well the ticket your ticket does get you admission but it also counts for your food too so purchase that a food truck that's all included in your ticket you don't have to pay anything extra for that um and then lastly June 14th is uh BCS night at the Harford yard hoods game tickets are available for purchase now on our website um we only have 100 tickets available um I didn't look at the numbers yet but we still have tickets available as of like two days ago um again everything's available for purchase on our website um www PCS pto.

Tuesday or that's at Williams field I'm trying to combine things Tuesday is when we have williamsfield graduation at ASU at 2:30 in the afternoon followed by Higley High School's graduation at ASU at 7:30 on Wednesday May 22nd we have htap graduation at the hcpa that's at 9:45 and then nobody's looking forward to the last last day of school are you if you don't know what day it is it's the 22nd so that concludes upcoming events thank you Miss Richard and congratulations to everyone recognized um tonight um you are welcome to leave if you don't want to stick around for the reain of the meeting if you do awesome um thank you we're gonna um go ahead and move into a public hearing to discuss the budget revision for fiscal year 2024 with Mr Moore are you we ready all right good evening board president Anderson members of the board uh tonight I'm presenting the uh first revision of the FY 2024 budget um the board has seen this Arizona Budget timeline uh several times now um we are at the May uh 2024 uh dot on the timeline um we are required to revise our budget uh by Statute uh to the 100th day ADM uh as you know we adopted um our budget back in July or June excuse me and so we have not revised our budget uh to reconcile our average sh membership as well as sever of our other accounts that are included within our total budget um as we move forward uh we will look to propose our new budget fy2 in June 5th uh and then adopt that same Budget on June 26 and then we proceed into December uh if we need a budget revision at that time so why are we doing a school budget revision as I said this is required by Statute you can see the statute number right there AR 15- 905 um basically what that says is that uh we are allowed to revise our budget um with a notice uh and so the categories in which we can revise are our M our general budget limit our capital budget classroom site fund um and our um unrestricted Capital Outlet fund all those funds that I just mentioned are formula controlled by ADM um so when you revise the budget um those funds are adjusted accordingly so I'll cover those funds here on the next slide uh looking at the maintenance and operations uh budget I kind of switched it up a little bit I spelled out um what where we adopted um in terms of ADM So reading this from left to right I have budget categories our adopted budget again that we adopted in June and then what we're revising to what we're recommending our revised budget go to so as we've discussed um in regard regards to ADM uh we know the district has experienced some losses in ADM um and so at the this point in time we're uh down 226 um average that's average daily membership um that's not a student per se um that could be that's why you have Point decimals um it takes the average of the hunt first 100 days so um 226.50 683 uh that is the difference from what we adopted to what we're revising to um you can see how that affects the budget going down the sheet um so if you look to the revenue control limit um that actually increased and there's a couple reasons why um when we adopted the budget we take into consideration estimates with our group b weights kind of our um we get additional funding for students who have um additional needs such as special ed elll um English Learners um language Learners uh gifted free and reduce population and so taking in uh estimates in June not knowing where our student population will end up um when reconciling that to the um ADM numbers we experienced um several growths in our group b weight specifically with multiple disabilities autism and severe intellectual disability so those are some of the higher weights um that affected um the increase in funding in the revenue control limit moving down to the m transfer to Capital this has not changed since we've adopted our budget U we still transferred $5.6 million to a capital fund the Amo override we reconciled that slightly uh that increased about 111,000 um again it's just reconciliation to the ADM emo override is funded on prior your ADM um so there were some adjustments to our ADM from last year uh and which is why you see the increase there the budget bounds carry forward again back in June we were taking an estimate on where we would end the year um That official number is done uh and finalized on the AFR which is completed in October uh so there's several months of of estimating that we have to do so we I I always estimate conservatively knowing that uh we when it's a lot easier to go up than to go down um so you can see the difference there um we conservatively estimated that we carry forward 23 million uh we in actual carried forward 24.7 million and you can see the difference there being just over a million dollars uh the additional funding uh there's a proposition 123 um again that is uh adjusted based on weighted ADM and ADM num so um and reconciling that number uh that came down slightly um and so looking all the way down the sheet to the general budget limit you can see uh on the budget revision tonight that we're proposing uh it's an increase of $1.3 million again majority of that is related to the budget balance carry forward as you can see and the increase in the group b weight students that we are receiving additional funding to support looking at Capital um not uh again reading left to right uh we adopted a budget um again this is at the same time we do the M budget um in June what we're revising to um this evening uh is slightly different um on the first line the district additional assistance this is your formula generated um amount so this is the amount we get from the state based on our per student so at 7.4 million we were just off in our estimates so there's a small adjustment down uh for that um if you note on the I didn't put on the bottom but District additional assistance is also funded by prior your ADM um so when you have adjustments to Prior ADM that's where you see the change there um the M transfer to Capital as I mentioned in the previous slide Theo budget transferred 5.6 million to Capital so you see that as an increase on this slide uh that's an increase to the capital budget the budget balance carry forward much like M we budget conservatively we had a lot of summer projects that were taking place um we estimated that those would be more uh expensed or completed um when completing the adopted budget um those projects were still in place and still U working through uh delays and so we had carried over excess $2.3 million um again I was conservative with our estimate um and so bringing that up is a lot easier than reducing the capital budget so um the budget balance carry forward of increase of $2.3 million represents the majority of the change to the capital budget here um interest earn one note on the capital budget is you can um acrew um you can add budget capacity with interest earnings on the capital fund only and so um you can see the interest earnings um what we anticipated was 91,000 we actually garnered 128,000 the onetime state aid supplement um this was appropriated in the K12 budget for fiscal year 2024 um districts had the option to appropriate that to M or capital or how they see fit um the district uh appropriated that to the capital funds uh to use towards onetime expenses um you can see uh just a small difference in what we adopted to what we are revising to so all in all again majority of the difference uh in the capital budget is related to the budget BS carry forward increase again um a lot of the projects that we anticipated being completed and expensed out uh at the year end uh last year were not and they were carried forward into this year uh due to delays in construction or supplies so um those were not expensed and so therefore we're adding that money that was not expensed back into the budget capacity lastly um as we look towards the fy2 budget um we are still waiting on the state legislature to approve a K12 budget um there's a lot of different issues that they're working through the K12 budget is not one of their priorities right now um we will I we did get word from the Arizon auditor general that they would approve a temporary budget forms on May 23rd If there is no uh state budget approved so we will have something to bring forth on June 5th uh because our obligation uh we must approve a proposed budget by July 5th that does not change whether the legislature has approved a K2 budget or not so we will have temporary forms if the legislature has not approved a budget and then we will uh go to June 26 and probably bring that same budget forth to adopt um again on the adoption you can only decrease from the proposed budget you cannot increase so um there just a point of emphasis typically there's very little change from the proposed to the adopted budget and again that adopted budget must be approved by July 15th regardless of whether the legislature has approved a cave2 budget bill or not so um we will move forward with that and um in years past we had brought forth a budget Revision in early September or August when the legislature has completed their session um to maybe make any changes that will be reflected in their final proposed budget so that is an option um if we were way off or if there's drastic changes in the the final K12 legislation bill so with that I'll be happy to answer any questions no I don't have any questions but this would be the opportunity for the public to come up correct so there if there are any members of the public that have comments or questions regarding this Bally 2024 budget revision you're welcome to come up to the podium and ask questions or make comments please not all at once okay oh yes absolutely Linda Payne I do have some questions because I think this budget I think we could really increase our budget if we could change some things in this school that we're going to be talking about later but um we're having a lot of parents wanting to pull their kids from the school because of dress code and all also literature that is being presented and if we can work together and try to get a lot of this and resolved and get it back to where what we should be teaching our kids I really think that we can bring a lot of people that would like to come back to the school district because you have a lot of programs that are amazing but you also have a lot of things that are going on that are really need to be addressed and I think with that if you would do that I think we I saw what happened yester yesterday with his volleyball thing and there was such an output from the from the public and thank you for supporting us but it can happen also in this type of situation that's what I have to say thank you anybody else okay with that we will uh reconvene into Open Session are there any comments from the board at this point in time Mr Moore thank you I I really appreciate the time you put into this information and and how um you make it EAS easier to understand and and it's got to feel although you we live it and breathe it and you probably talk about it all day it's got to feel good to stand to come up here and just talk about your work and show show the work you do so I appreciate you all right next we're going to move on to the um public comics with the request to speak we value input from our constituents the time on our agenda has been set aside for anyone from the audience who wishes to address the board those that wish to speak should have filled out a speaker card which uh which is due prior to the start of our meeting members of the board may not discuss comment or take action on matters raised that are not specifically identified on the agenda therefore pursuant to ARS 38-43 1.01 I I believe action takes 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 a further consideration and decision at a later date also we ask the audience members practice proper public meeting to Quorum refraining from either negative or positive responses including clapping or verbal outbursts to ensure fairness to All Points of View those that refuse to follow these rules may be asked to leave in accordance with policy bedh public participation of board meetings if considered necessary the governing board president shall set a time limit on length of the comment period in order to ensure that each individual has an opportunity to address the board the president may also set a time limit for an individual speak speaker thank you for your Co cooperation first to speak will be Bob Parish good evening president Anderson members of the board and cabinet my name is Bob Parish I'm a retired Commander from the marope county sheriff's office I have about 35 years of experience I'm a parent and I'm currently raising my granddaughter who attends williamsfield High School I wanted to warn the audience said in a few moments I'm going to be reading an excerpt out of a novel that was assigned by several English teachers as required reading for Williamsville High School juniors the excert is extremely sexually explicit so I would ask you to leave now if you have any minor children present and do not want them to be subjected to such language the assignment required a parent signature but had no content warning for any of the novels if there was a warning stating the books contained sex explicit material obscenities drug and alcohol use sexual acts masturbation suicide abortion and police races and brutality those are all reviews from the internet on these five books I believe parents would have exercised more caution actually reviewed the books before signing a permission slip such warnings are required for movies and we use them to gauge what we allow our kids to watch my wife and I were suspicious we've never had to sign a permission slip for our kids to read a book so we took that time to actually review the five books after reviewing we noted four of the five books were banned by numerous school districts we also took note that there were no alternative novels offered due to board imposed time constraints I'm going to read from only one of the five novels the novel's titled 19 minutes by jod Pico and I'm almost embarrassed to read it but I'm going to do it just so people see what the these kids are being asked to read he pinned her hands over her head and ground his hips against hers she could feel his erection hot against her stomach it wasn't the way it normally was but Josie had admit that it was exciting she couldn't remember every feeling so heavy as if her heart was beating between her legs she clawed at Matt's back to bring him closer yeah he groaned and he pushed her thighs apart and then suddenly Matt was inside her pumping so hard that she scooted backward on the carpet burning the back of her legs wait Jose he said trying to roll away from beneath him he clamped his hand over her mouth and drove harder and harder till Josie felt him come Seaman sticking hot pulled on the carpet beneath her I believe teaching the sexually exp materials in violation of House Bill 2495 I spoke to principal Fox about the assigned objectional material prior to the consent for him being due I gave Mr Fox an opportunity to prohibit such sexually explicit material in the class room and told him it was his responsibility to stop it after two days review refused my request stating there was good messaging in the books and that the students had a choice on what to read I would State there are better books with the same messaging available absent OB objectionable content you may even say well they can find it on the internet recent studies from 2023 conducted by the American psychology Association and yell medicine.org show a decline in youth mental health teens can easily access inappropriate harmful content sex SE such as sexually explicit material suicide and self harm on the internet Studies have found discussing and reading this content can normalize these deviant behaviors introducing introducing this into our schools only exacerbates the moral decline of our youth schools should focus on the basics and keep the content appropriate it doesn't take this type of Highly objectional material to teach our youth about the challenges that that may fa they may face in life I want to conclude by urging the board to remove all sexual explic material from the curriculum and align schools and District policies with state law as they relate to approving reading material I would also ask that husd to modify and standardize the parental consent form requiring specific details regarding all objectional content providing non- objectional Alternatives and Implement these changes at all schools within the district Mr I just want you know that I I'm letting him know that the time had ended but thank you if I could I just wanted to thank you um our joint goal should be focused on use Mental Health and I'm confident this board will address my concern seriously and would like to thank you all for the opportunity to be heard thank you I appreciate your Your Enthusiasm but if you wouldn't mind let me run this meeting I I would greatly appreciate that all right next we have and forgive me is it Tamara Farah I apologize if I'm saying that incorrectly fa oh thank you good evening president Anderson and board members thank you for your dedicated service to Higley unified my name is Tamara Farah and I direct the smart families Network for Arizona women of action representing over 20,000 parents and community members across Arizona our mission is to protect kids and promote academics in our schools in the state the purpose of my address tonight pertains as well to a significant concern the content of the five books recommended uh for a recent contemporary literature assignment including 19 minutes by jod pult which was just mentioned this assignment featured books that contain sexually explicit material which according to ars1 15-120 parents are to be granted the opportunity to evaluate whether that that content possesses serious educational or literary value for minors and that is a quote directly from uh that statute parental notification and consent was Rec was required regarding these books but the school only provided the title and a description that did not include the pornographic content in the permission slip that went home to parents there is no respectable justification for a teacher to present books like this to minors for a reading assignment think about it what is the impact of pornographic mat material on the mind and the body what does it do to the brain what does it do to the emotions let's get real the fact that these books will stir up students sexually instead of Awakening them intellectually is obvious pornographic material at minimum delivers a mental emotional and physical distraction from Reading Writing math and higher thoughts related to critical thinking but it's much much worse than that as has been alluded to already according to Sage journals Studies have noted that early intentional exposure to pornography used in children and adolesence can lead to delinquent Behavior high-risk sexual behavior and substance abuse is that what we want for kids shouldn't students Minds remain healthy so they can focus on their future aspirations and proficiencies needed to succeed in their careers as a board will you consider removing this material from student lessons you have the authority to do so let's prioritize students intellectual and moral development thank you thank you next we have Taylor franc good evening Madame President and members of the board my name is Taylor Francis and as a dedicated parent of two husd students I come before you today to speak on the topic of mitigating risk in our daily lives we consistently assess risk and take steps to minimize them for example if I want to boy pasta I weigh out the risk of injury against that of feeding myself then deciding that the benefit of a meal outweighs the risk of injury I proceed with the process however while the risk of injury from from making pasta is low it is never zero so to minimize the chance of injury I employ risk mitigation techniques such as using a hot mitt and practice safe cooking I might even set a timer to mitigate the risk of over or undercooking my noodles I cannot help but remember back to the October 11th board meeting where Ray and Associates and cabinet members implored you board members to act now with haste to move forward with beginning the selection process for a new superintendent immediately despite your questions and doubts regarding the rapidity of it all however after being pressured you as a board relented the process was then rushed through the holidays and after then a less than perfect process Nate Carman was announced as H usd's new Superintendent at the February 21st board meeting the same Nate Cartman who appears to have been terminated from his former contract as a superintendent has been suspended until the end of his tenor in his current district and is leaving a district facing a $33 million deficit while Nate Carman may have the potential to excel as a superintendent here in H USD the uncertainty surrounding his past conduct and the financial troubles of his current District are considerable and must not be overlooked can we afford the risk of gambling with the future of our students and staff by entrusting such a critical position to someone with questionable credentials I earnestly implore you the board to reconsider Nate carman's contract and explore other options to ensure the best leadership for our School's district please resend or terminate Nate carman's contract our students and staff deserve a better superintendent and you owe it to them to mitigate this risk similarly at the last board meeting I heard from two fellow members of the citizens committee who presented the 73 vote of the committee to recommend the board place an $83 million Bond alongside the M override on the upcoming November ballot when the survey expert presented us on the committee with the results he indicated that with only 44% of respondents stating they would vote for both the bond and override if both were on the ballot there was a risk that the override would fail if presented alongside the bond rather than Al loone compounded with the fact that six month months ago Gilbert Mesa and Queen Creek bonds all failed and both of the last two Higley bonds overwhelmingly failed is it worth the risk of putting essential school funding at stake by combining the bond with the override on the ballot I do not discredit the merits of the items listed on the bond nor do I think anyone else on the committee would either to me however the risk is too great to place the bond on the ballot alongside the M override I urge the bond to elect to mitigate the risk and vote against putting the bond on this November's ballot too much is at stake as elected representatives entrusted with the well-being of our students and Community it is your duty to make decisions that minimize risks and prioritize their Ben best interests therefore I beseech you to take action to mitigate potential risks by eliminating Nate carman's contract and refraining from including the bond on the November 2024 ballot thank you thank you next is Amber fedck good evening govering board president Anderson members of the board and cabinet uh my name is Amber fedck I'm a teacher at Gateway Point Elementary and I just wanted to take a moment and thank you for approving our sixth grade science camp this year um for the students who were able to go this year they really had a truly amazing time um some of the things that I got to witness were blossoming of the love of Science and uh sorry I'm not used to coming up in front um in embracing uh nature and human connection instead of technology which to their surprise they did not miss at all um and also the friendships that they began to create even though they've been in school with students in their classrooms um that I hope and and know that they're going to have for going into middle school next year I'm really feel lucky and very grateful that I'm one of the few people that get to take these students up and give them this experience I have students that come back year after year and reminisce about their sixth grade and always science camp is one of them so I just wanted to take a minute and thank you and I look forward to working with you guys next year thank you next we have Kim Jackson good evening president Anderson and board members um I had seen a message on Facebook from a parent about the Verizon cell tower being installed at San Junior High School she learned of this at the April 3rd husd board meeting this was the first time I had heard about it so I went and watched back the meeting from April 3 prior to the April 3rd meeting I unfortunately have never attended or watched back a meeting nor have I met any of you or spoken to any of you I was super surprised to hear the cell tower topic wasn't passed through the board properly I was also surprised it was put into the consent agenda as there wasn't to my knowledge any conversation with us as parents of those students who could be affected by the tower addition to my knowledge there hasn't been a convo with teachers and admin about their feelings on the topic to my knowledge no attempts have made to involve the homeowners or HOA management of saam and Estates where the junior high school presides they will surely be affected by the potential of this tower being installed with all of that being said I share my experience and Thoughts with you with hopes it's not only received well but it's used to improve communication between the board and the community of admin teachers parents and students so we can not only be informed by proposed plans that you all are going to be making but you too can get our feedback on how we feel about these plans I would also like to address a concern of mine as I watched back April 3D's meeting I witnessed an unfortunate amount of degrading facials and different expressions from body languages from board member Wade being as you all are in position of power and Leadership representing thousands of us I hope you board member Wade as well as the rest of you will be cognizant of your body language when another board member is speaking or when a Community member is speaking kindness is taught to all ages in this District we look to you to set the tone for meetings by setting an example of neutrality with your facial and body language you then create a safe environment for others sharing concerns or thoughts that may vary from yours I hope moving forward each of you will set a positive tone with your body language and facial expressions while conducting board meetings to close I want to thank board member van Hoke for asking for the cell tower to be pulled from the consent aend agenda and bringing the conversation to the community I placed multiple calls to the district super intendent and to the director of secondary education with no calls back but I did call Tyler Moore and he was the only person to return my call and help answer my questions thank you Tyler I am looking forward to the town hall meeting that you all agreed to hold to chat about this topic I'd also like to ask the board to consider utilizing social media accounts to invite the community to these meetings I scrolled back months back and I have yet to find those social media accounts being utilized to communicate things like this to include your community I would also like based off of the complaints or concerns about the books for the board to consider creating a committee around this topic to help give the community the opportunity to make change and participate in that change and to help support the board thank you thank you next we have Callie Coons good evening I'm speaking in regards to the required reading assignment at williamsfield high for the 11th grade kids who could potentially be as young as 15 the book that was most alarming to me was 19 minutes my name is Cali Coons I'm a registered nurse here in Arizona I also have five kids ranging in ages from 23 down to 7 my kids have attended public schools here in Gilbert and most recently they enrolled in charter schools I decided in the middle of this school year after Touring chapparel that we wanted to give Public School System another shot and my kids were very excited however when I was told about the book list it sent me back to the drawing board of what my plans were going to be for my soon to be junior high and Elementary School AED kids I want to send my kids to the public school but these actions leave us with no other choice than to pull our kids out and send them to Charter Schools or home schools do you wonder why the enrollment is down a great example of this is out in Santan and Copper Basin there are so many families choosing to leave public school system and homeschool their kids instead homeschooling is becoming so much more popular not but not because these parents necessarily want to they don't trust the s school systems and they don't feel like they have any other options I sent the book list to my daughters who were in their early 20s who also attended williamsfield high and they were appalled as well it was only a few years ago that they were teenagers so they are a great resource for opinions on what kids would benefit from and what is actually relevant for these young kids they agreed that the material was extreme and they were actually appalled my daughter said as someone who was exposed osed to pornography for the first time on a school bus in 8th grade and dealt with it almost every single day in my face from classmat to 9th grade at williamsfield High School the last place I needed more porn was in the classroom in fact the last place a child should feel over sexualized or aroused is in a classroom we tell our youth all the time not to send explicit images to one another and use scare tactics when doing so so why are we letting letting books that talk about unhealthy teenage sex lives and classifying it as literature into our English classrooms there is a time and place for children to learn about sex and it isn't from a book about school shootings studies suggest that early exposure to pornography often before age 18 can lead to distorted views of relationships and unhealthy attitudes about sex Research indicates that adolescents who consume pornography May begin to see um see it as a realistic representation of sexual relationships which can lead to unrealistic expectations and a distorted sense of what constitutes normal there is evidence that repeated exposure to pornography can have addictive properties for some individuals this can lead to issues such as increased anxiety depression self-esteem for example a study found that among adolescents regular consumption of pornography was correlated with feelings of loneliness and a higher risk of depression another concern is about pornography's role in shaping aggressive attitudes toward sex some studies suggest that exposure to certain types of explicit content especially that which involves aggression or non-consent which is what the excerpt in that book was May normalize these behaviors among adolescents leading to misunderstandings about consent and potentially increasing the likelihood of sexual aggression we should be able to send our kids to school confidently knowing that they have their best interest interest at heart that the material they are being encouraged to read and study should be uplifting and thought-provoking it should broaden their minds and stir creativity my gra my background as an RN includes working with adults and young adults at drug and alcohol rehabil rehabilitation facilities behavioral health facilities and I was the director of nursing at one of the facilities well facilities as well I will tell you the disturbing fact four out to five of the women on the facil in the facilities report being sexually assaulted in their childhood or teenage years and when they would share this with me it was always difficult for them to address and when I would take do intakes on on patients your time is up are you almost done close okay if you could if you could go ahead and get to the get to we appreciate it just be consistent um when we put these thoughts into our kids Minds we have to remember that they're very impressionable we as adults are also still very impressionable we have to understand that filling their minds with these things and teaching them or or trying to tell them that these are normal teenage behaviors is is not normal for everyone and that it shouldn't be expected um I would at least hope that we would at minimum um be able to somehow rate the classes before people sign up for them and also rate the books so that parents have our a little bit more educated on what their kids are being asked to read thank you next we have Kelly Mullins board members I appreciate you letting me come and speak today my name is Debbie Thatcher Kelly Mullins had to attend a another higgle activity over at um the elementary school nope higgle high school so she texted me her comments and these are the things that she would like to say tonight thank you for all your hard work I don't envy your position I have two graduates from williamsfield and currently have two high schoolers so we've been here a while I'd just like to quickly add my concern to a few books being shared in the schools it's worth noting that many of the students where where the books are available haven't yet reached puberty so the themes in some of these books are too advanced for their age group we need to ensure that the material we provide aligns with their developmental stage why not save these books for college excuse me when they're adults capable of making their own decisions our priority should be offering educational resources that encourage learning and growth without prematurely exposing our students to adult content it is also important to review our policies to ensure they comply with state laws regarding appropriate reading materials in schools I'd love to see a revision to the parental consent form to give parents a clear understanding of any potential objectionable content and also provide Alternatives this approach will help us create an environment conducive to the intellectual and emotional development of our students that's the end of Kelly Mullins as Debbie Thatcher I had kids here in Higley when it was a one school district K through 8 and 200 kids so I've seen it change a little over the years and I have put five kids through school and monitored their reading materials and things there they see I also have worked for and retired from 23 years from a school a neighboring school district and have been in High School classes and have heard the discussions from books like this not like this for sure but books when they're being taught they're discussed and talked about and was appalled when I learned of the book choices that these kids are presented with with no alternative choice that wasn't represented on permission slips and told explicitly to parents I would like to see changes in how things are done and with all the literature that is outstanding in the world to uh encourage teachers to be able to present material that is correct for these students to learn in a high school situation I went to a principal and told them of a questionable thing going on on a classroom and changes were made immediately and I don't see this happening here when asking if they could have another book choice to read and to participate with and like Linda Payne said with issues that pull people away from Higley District it would be a shame if this is one of them and things aren't made a point of change so that this is a high spot for the district that change can be made thank you very much for hearing my comments thank you next we have Linda Payne this is on the same topic and I'm sure you guys have heard a lot about about it but I really think that we need to get this kind of stuff out of our schools we really need to get people back into our school district instead of running them out and this is going to run the parents out faster than anything because this filth is terrible and I know that most teachers don't even want to teach these sexual things and scen and pornographic things and I don't know if they're being forced to I don't know what the I don't know what the thing is but I think you as a board as board members and I think every parent in here would not want their child to be read this kind of garbage that was read today and that's what it was it was literal garbage and I hope and pray that we can come together as a community because this community is all of us and all of us together can make a difference I mentioned the volleyball thing yesterday there were so many people that came together to make that happen and it was good because it should have been that way from the beginning anyway I just wanted to thank you for listening to all of us because I know you I know that you and us together together could make a difference but we need to make a difference for our kids these kids are our future and if we don't stop it and stop it now we are doomed anyway thank you thank you next forgive me is it uh Donovan Hansen hey thank you my wife and I are here tonight because it came to our attention that a literature teacher at williamsfield high school gave pornographic material to his students to read as an assignment this is confirmed the principal was consulted he made the decision to support the assignment and the teacher rather than retract it and reprimand the teacher I pay taxes for the Higley School District we have three children who reside in the Higley School District uh they will never attend a Higley school unless and until we can rely on administrators to protect children from pornographic material in school we've removed them and applied their ASA funds Elsewhere for this reason parents should be able to rely on Higley schools to protect their children from pornographic material as stated before it is a violation of Arizona law to give pornographic material to a minor it's in fact a class 4 felony the teacher uh in question here should be terminated and the principle at least reprimanded more importantly Higley schools should have a policy prevent V ing students from being given pornographic material again thank you thank you okay moving on to consent oh I'm sorry yes Miss Van Hook um just as a as a direction to admin um I would like to um further dis I'm sorry I can't see you um I would just like to further discuss um what we we would do in these situations whether it's I don't know if we have a current policy I mean at a state law but if we can maybe look into a policy um and and look at what would happen in situations where state law is violated um and and how we would approach that um that would be wonderful we've already got some things going on and we'll be happy to report back thank you thank you Miss Van Hook okay now we're going to move on to the consent agenda I motion to approve consent agenda items 7.1 through 7.17 second that was Tiffany s my Tiffany all uh all those in favor I I I I motion carries 4 to zero Dr Lindsay do you have some introductions to make this evening yes I do president Anderson I have a couple of new administrators that I'd like to um share with the community um first up I would like to recognize Nicole mola she's standing right over [Applause] here Nicole Nicole is our current dean of students at San middle school and next year she will be serving as power ranch's new assistant principal as our current assistant principal Michelle Kota is going to start her well-deserved retirement um before Nicole was at San she was an assistant principal at Desert Wind Middle School in Maricopa um District she's been in education for more than 17 years serving in many roles including teacher instructional coach and administrator and we're really excited to have Nicole join the power ranch team and and I know she's looking forward to building relationships with the Power Ranch Community and looking forward to having you work alongside them so [Applause] congratulations additionally I'd also like to welcome and introduce to all of you Marsha hofstad Marsha's here she's right over there Mara is joining husd as our new assistant director at kolie and SAS and Early Childhood Development Centers as Stacy Utley is beginning her retirement at the end of this year Mara comes to us with 25 years of experience in education she has served as a special education case manager for grades k through eight and a reading instructor on special assignment for Gilbert public schools and Mesa Public Schools and currently she serves as the network 504 coordinator for ASU Preparatory Academy where she also served as an academic coach and an academic Dean so welcome to husd Marsh show we're so excited to have you join our little Spartan and our little cougar [Applause] communities thank you congratulations and welcome thank you Dr Lindsay um next we're going to move on to the information items and next we're going to receive aort on the Higley Leadership Academy from Mr Walker thank you madam president uh if I could ask our our four presenters to come on up to the podium um I'm I'm offering up the opportunity to present jointly with some participants from the Higley Leadership Academy tonight so like to introduce uh Miss Jennifer Kaiser Miss Maggie boury uh Miss Rachel vill NOA and Miss Elizabeth melter who's coming to help present on their experiences and uh their their in uh insight to the higly leadership academy so um before I turn it over to them I just wanted to give a little bit of a background on this year's Academy we had our largest um participant group ever we had 42 participants um and we expanded it to include five people from the certified uh I mean from the classified uh Staffing division from us as well um they're going to come and share about some of the goals and experiences they had U but another thing to highlight is this year we had this as a prior participant Le program so we had 23 previous members come back can help plan and Lead uh the various sessions throughout the year and so I'm going to go ahead and turn it over to Miss Kaiser uh and if she could go ahead and introduce yourself and and share some information about Hig Leadership Academy hello my name is Jennifer Kaiser um I've been a district employee for 12 years uh I uh worked in Community Education for nine of those and then recently I've switched over to certified world I'm uh the CTE Early Childhood educator at uh Higley High School so I'm thrilled to be here this is one of my favorite programs I've been a part of while I've been at Higley so I am here to share a little bit about the history of HLA uh hlaa started in 2014 um it was the inaugural year it had um two goals one was to help develop leadership skills and individuals ready to assume the role of a school leader in the future and the second goal was to apply curriculum Knowledge and Skills within their school context to improve student learning um this kind of became known as a principal Academy lots of great leaders were a part of this um program Through The Years um it's then moved into the year 201920 um it uh had to be paused for a little bit because of our season of covid and then it resumed back in 200 20 um to 22 um and that was kind of a very important year because before um there was always an opportunity with this program to uh Shadow with a principal but um when this resumed in 20120 they added the mentorship component so that was a really great um piece that they put into place um for HOA and at this point um participants had kind of graduated year after year um or not graduated I'm sorry participated year after year um because they always want to be a part of it um and learn new leadership skills but um they actually we graduated official graduation was 2022 so um the year had it the program has a start and an end and then it started up again uh reset this year from 2 the 23 24 school year um where they surveyed past participants um figured out what this was really going to be about and this was the first year um that it was uh developed and it was leader Le um so a little bit about my journey um I started in 2018 um I was excited to be a part of it at first I was like I don't want to be a principal I just really want to gain the knowledge I worked in Community Education um I said can I just audit it can I just take it I don't want to be go into further Administration I just want to learn about leadership um and so I was a part of that uh class participated in that year and then when they added the mentorship component I thought that was great because then you actually paired with a mentor and um because I was kind of like who who should I Shadow what should I do um and I was able to get paired with uh assistant principal todber over at Bridges learned so much from him and then that following year that's when I entered the classified world so um I'm sorry the certified world and um that was quite exciting for me because I learned a lot from there as well um one of my favorite Parts about HLA is no matter um what the session is you're always able to put more Tools in your tool leadership tool belt so I think that was great I'm always able to take something away from every single session I've attended thank you Miss Kaiser and then I'm going to go ahead and introduce Miss Rachel Ville and AA to talk about how the Higgly Leadership Academy aligns with our strategic plan all right good evening president Anderson and governing board members thank you for allowing us to speak today about the Higley Leadership Academy my name is Rachel vioa and I'm a proud teacher at SanTan Elementary this is my ninth year in the district I started my student teaching Journey at SanTan in a fourth grade classroom with an amazing Mentor named Jen bout upon graduating from Arizona State University I had the opportunity to take a position as a fifth teacher at SanTan where I taught for six years currently I'm a sixth grade ELA and socialized teacher and I've been in that position for 2 years not only have I had the opportunity to serve as an educator at Sant Elementary but I also serve in a leadership position on the staff Lighthouse action team in my position I collaborate alongside a small group of educational leaders on my campus to develop the school environment and culture using the eight habits of Stephen kovi within my role I work on the culture action team team to promote and improve student voice on campus I work directly with students to find ways to engage the entire student population to bring a sense of belonging and purpose additionally I spent the past two years earning my gifted endorsement which included 180 hours of coursework under my school gifted specialist shaa stingle and also the amazing District gifted and talent talented coordinator Kelly McLean although there are many wonderful opportunities I've been able to participate um during my educational Journey today I'll be talking specifically about HLA to start H hegley Unified School District's mission is to empower students to be responsible citizens with the knowledge skills and work ethic required for success in their future endeavors our district follows his mission statement by directly aligning our strategic anchors to our mission statement the Higley Leadership Academy aligns with anchor 2 which is the highly effective Personnel the goal of this anchor is to establish a culture and climate that sustains excellence and retains high quality employees anchor 2.1 reads recruit hire and retain exemplary administrators teachers and support staff districtwide anchor 2.2 reads provide the necessary professional development resources and training to support all employees the HLA program had three specific goals to ensure these anchors were met first one was to make sure that participants were able to get together collaboratively and come up with creative ideas secondly to demon rate integrity and empathy through Global awareness and also possess Knowledge and Skills needed to be good Community leaders to start as an HLA participant we strengthen our skills of working collaboratively and communicating effectively to accomplish our HLA service project this took an innovation creativity and teamwork to ensure that all HLA participants were well informed of community events and how to support these events throughout the year we also work collaboratively on tasks in our monthly meetings an example example of this is when we were discussing finance and budget and were tasked and teams to think like a building administrator and how to hypothetically allocate School funds the HLA program also focused on responsible citizenship each month we engaged with leadership topics to support our understanding of the Higley District topics included marketing and branding Finance human resource policy and governance and school operations we were also encouraged to stay informed about our district by listening to or attending governor board meetings finally the HLA program prepared us with the knowledge and skills needed to be successful leaders in our community by learning about the district and participating in two Shadow Days with our Mentor we learned more about the challenges that leaders face on a regular basis and how to navigate through those difficulties to support our students being a participant of the HLA program has helped me develop a sense of community I no longer just recognize the names and faces of educational leaders in my district but I also feel a sense of belonging and connection by hearing their educ leadership Journey stories for our Mentor Shadow days I was matched with a wonderful Mentor principal Broadley at Centennial who gladly answered all the questions I had about the roles and responsibilities of being a principal and gave and she gave me positive words of encouragement when discussing my own career goals and Visions furthermore I had the opportunity to receive support with resume and interview prep this benefited me as I learned how to tailor my resume to Future leadership positions that I apply for next year I will remain in my six grade teaching position but because of the HL program I'll be switching from role on my school's Lighthouse action team from culture to leadership as a leadership action team coordinator I'll be working directly with students to prepare them for public speaking tours that we have to do with students staffs and visitors and I will also develop ways to increase Community awareness and Vol and volunteerism within our school so I just want to say thank you today for letting us um share with you how the Higley Leadership Academy has developed me as a leader in our school district and how to continually improve our exemplary District employees thank you next I'd like to introduce Miss Elizabeth melter who's going to share some statistics about our our enrollments and some of the trends that we've discovered over the years with the HLA good evening president Anderson members of the board and cabinet my name is Elizabeth melter and I've been with the Higley school district for seven years in the capacity of third grade teacher for four years and a fifth grade teacher for three years as an a leader on campus I am the sponsor of the steam Club I am a student council sponsor and I'm also a PTO teacher liaison I serve as a administrator design when our admin team is off campus and I've had the pleasure of being the administrator for the summer school program last year when it was held at Bridges um I have participated in HLA for three years from 2017 to 2019 and again this year uh from 23 to 24 I'm going to share with uh you some numbers um about HLA uh referencing the slide you see above um HLA has seen continued growth over the years and this year was the largest enrollment to date the total participants over the years have been 249 in uh participants since the beginning 162 of those were one-year participants and 87 of those have participated through more than one year which is where you see the one uh excuse me the 87 um plus uh the individual of one six one I'm sorry my eyes are terrible 162 okay of all the participants of the Higley leadership academy uh husd has retained 78% of those individuals and of those uh that 78% um 36 uh individuals or 22% have seen advancement in their positions within husd um changes going from teacher to coach sometimes coach from to administrator but lots of different trajectories for individuals who participated in the academy and of those lead ERS that um have seen that advancement in their careers there have been uh 78% that have been have stayed with husd uh Through The Years um I want to wrap up with how HLA has been beneficial to me um it has allowed participants to develop a broader understanding of all the intricate uh aspects of creating and maintaining a successful District um has allowed all of us to network and create connections within the district um all of these leaders who are able and willing to help in the development of current and future Higley leaders it has provided opportunities for discussions and scenarios and an aim to tackle problem solving from the various perspectiv of the various husd stakeholders and it has also allowed us the chance to Shadow Higley administrators which has been absolutely invaluable as it allowed for observations discussions about topics that include maintaining positive culture climate uh student discipline and leadership styles a special thank you to Bruce Potts this year who um allowed to Shadow him and ask all the questions that I had and finally I would like to share that I do truly believe that HLA has been absolutely instrumental in helping me prepare uh for my new role that I take on next year as assistant principal at Bridges Elementary alongside fellow HLA graduate Jeff Beckle thank you and then I'd like to also introduce uh Miss Maggie boury she's going to talk about our leadership project that we uh implemented into the program this year good evening my name is Maggie boury this is my sixth year as the secondary English language arts instructional coach I work with all the 6th through 12th grade English teachers by providing professional learning during scheduled PD days and upon Administration request Mentor new teachers and provide support in curriculum instruction and assessment data analysis as an aspiring husd administrator what better way to gain leadership experience than in my home district and to learn from our own district and school leaders HLA provided us the opportunity to learn the ins and outs of what makes a school district efficient and successful uccessful from understanding the complexities of Finance to maintenance and operations one of my favorite parts of HLA was the opportunity to Shadow School leaders for a day I would like to extend a quick thank you to Brian banck the assistant principal at Higley High School and Terry pepper the assistant principal at chaal elementary for showing me all the intricacies of administration the HLA community service project was originally designed as a service project for the entire group to create HLA member Karen files to a initiative to create a Microsoft teams group for us to share our ideas and post discussions it was then decided that members would vote on their favorite project and the top three projects would be presented to District leadership Jessica D ambrosio's idea was for us to provide support at a senior living community with visits from not only us but with students Shannon Alexander had a great idea of having a day of many projects like campus cleanups and clothing drives I presented on a Higgly beautification day where we would divide and conquer to the various schools and beautify them to support our Higley helps initiative a merging of ideas occurred I became the contact person for schools to reach out and solicit help from HLA members to support various school projects for example a group of Academy members volunteered at Higley High School for their best buddies Carnival an event that made Statewide news one member Leslie cook took the initiative to be an extra chaperon at a middle school dance power ranch hosted a book drive at their literacy night HTA Academy members held donation drives for the House of Refuge and the military assistance Mission with their staff members volunteered at the Fine Arts Festival and this past Saturday a group of us supported Santan Elementary at their family hearing impairment picnic for the community if it wasn't for HLA I personally would not have known about all these amazing events except for the Fine Arts Festival the HLA community service project allowed us to be reflective of our core values to take initiative to collaborate as a team and overall to learn what all our schools have to offer I plan to use the Knowledge and Skills Acquired and apply them to my position as instructional coach and continue in HLA next year thank you thank you for that information and and just to conclude the where we're headed with the HLA moving forward is it has really three foundations that we've decided to to to work with uh in the future and and and the big one is it's going to be focused on staff development so what was said before initiated as a principal uh preparation academy uh we find much more value in the opportunity to develop leadership capacity amongst all of our employees uh whether you're you're in the custodial department or you're at the district office or if you're in it it doesn't matter we want to build capacity across our school district and so that aligns with the Strategic plan we want to have an opportunity for all employees and so we want to grow leaders in in all of our divisions and we want to promote this uh across the board so it's been in existence since 2014 uh this is the first time that I can recall we've brought it to the governing board and had a presentation about it to share with the public um I've Had The Good Fortune of being part of the program every year since its Inception I I began as a teacher uh and I have the the the the the Good Fortune again to come back and lead the program so it means a lot to me I've seen a lot of great success uh connected to the program and we want to continue to keep aligning it with the needs of our district uh we wanted to be a self-sustainable program so one thing I just want to commend everybody for um everybody's here tonight on their own accord um these individ ual these 42 people that have participated go above and beyond their workday and come back in the evening to take part in this and so they've they've reached out they want to be part of this they participated in projects um outside of their already busy schedules and I commend everybody for for taking the time to to learn more about our school district and to build their leadership capacity and we want that to continue we wanted the planning and development to be done by the past participants and we we look forward to having data driven decisions to improve the program moving forward so a new a new component of it this year as we surveyed the group after every single session rather than wait till the end of the year to get survey feedback this way it's fresh it's accurate and it's pertinent to the time of the session and we're going to take that information to better our sessions and that will be led by past participants moving forward so in the future one of the things also referenced earlier in the presentation is that for several years it became stale it was a great opportunity it grew leaders but it was really focused on that principal preparation and people felt obligated to continue to be part of it um and there really was no out so to speak and so we we created the ability to graduate out of the program but we don't want people to then be done completely so there's opportunities to come back as a mentor um to help with the community project and then to assist our candidates with resume and interview uh review sessions and so it's something that um I want to give credit to school district leaders who have taken time out of their uh busy days as well to help support the program and uh I appreciate it again thank you for your ladies tonight for for presenting it from your perspective these are four individuals who have different positions within the school district but they've they've all shared some valuable takeaways from the program so thank you everybody tonight for for sharing out and being here and I'll turn it back over to the board if you have any [Applause] questions board member Anderson Mr Walker um I just wanted to ask um so membership um I'm assuming it's optional anybody can join or not join it's evolved into that it's open for anybody uh we do ask that they they consult with their their supervisor to make sure it's a good fit um in the past it had more stricter criteria uh that's it goes back to the principal preparation Academy there was the request to have a master's degree or in a program for Ed leadership um and we've we've eliminated that because we want it to be available to everybody within our school district and are there dues or or is it free no it's it's free there there's no dues perfect thank you good questions outstanding outstanding I'm so so excited it's it's good to to good to hear that there are teachers or staff that want to move up into leadership positions but I was floored by tonight saying I just wanted to be a better leader like that's fantastic thank you ladies for sharing thank you for everybody attending tonight I do have one question um is this something can the board watch this in action can we be invited to to any of the events or meetings or anything just to see you guys at work uh board member Anderson absolutely um that's part of that data driven decision-making we we'll take that into consideration as we plan our sessions for next year absolutely thank you anyone else all right moving on to item 8.2 the special education private Day School report for fiscal year 24 third quarter we will be hearing from Mr Moore I'm so sorry yeah president Anderson members of the board uh presented is the uh thirdd quarter report from Miss Miller um the uh expenditures are trending uh below the approved budget that was approved at the beginning of the year so um no further comments no under budget sounds good thank you okay thank you Mr Moore next we're going to move on to the action items beginning with 9.1 second read for policy JKD student suspension are there any questions or comments before we motion okay I motion that the governing board approve policy JKD student suspicion suspension second all those in favor I I motion carries for to zero moving on to 9.2 second read for policy EBC emergencies do we have any questions or discussion I motion that the governing board approve policy EBC emergencies second is that y all those in favor I I I motion carries four to zero moving on to 9.3 second read jke expulsion of students questions or statements I motion that the governing board approve policy jke expulsion of students second okay all those in favor I I motion carries 4 to zero 9.4 second read of policy jlh missing students any questions comments uh president Anderson I will just Express just in case there are some people we all of these are just updating legal from the state legislature that we had to include in our policy that's why probably we're not making comments I just for those who were not here previously yes thank you uh do I I motion that the governing board approved policy jlh missing students second all those in favor I I I all those all those opposed um we're on 95 correct we are 94 sorry I motion carries 4 to zero explanation threw me off oh gotcha okay 9.5 approval to adopt a resolution calling for a special maintenance and operation budget override election questions and comments president Anderson um as I've as I said at the last meeting um we do have uh seven schools that are under 60% capacity um it's easy to go out to the community and say we want more money um it's always easy to spend other people's money um but we need to look at all the options that we have um and our enrollment is down um the funding from the state is some people might not like where it is but it's the highest that's ever been um and yet our expenses continue to grow um we need to look at all the options available to us um before we go out and ask the community for more money um so did you call for a vote no not yet okay um but that's my statement um we want to be um fiscally conservative um and I I know Mr Moore does a great job um as far as budgeting conser conservatively um but we need to um look within before we do that especially in the current clim um Financial climate that we're in thank you president Anderson um I would like to express again gratitude to the members of the committee that came together to discuss what was in our District's best interest they were presented with you know the status of our buildings I think uh for a lot of individuals who only drop off their kids or drive by they don't necessarily always go inside and see some of the status of the way things are I also wish to express uh gratitude and further elaborate with respect to Mr Moore um I feel like the the nature with which you present our budget and how you talk to the community and how you express what it is that we need going forward and what is in our best interest um has rely served this District well over the course of your tenure here and I'm very appreciative to all that you have done for that and I think as we go forward and looking at the things that we can do to improve and continue to make Higley a competitive District that people wish to go to and I recognize that there is enrollment at elementary schools that has some difficulty there are state things at play there for some of that um but we continue to see them come back in in middle school and high school and so looking for what that longterm is as well as the general growth in our area I'm very appreciative to the time that you have done with the community the committee members that gave up their time to do that I'm also very appreciative for what you put forward and how you not only presented that to the board but to Higley as a whole uh and it is greatly appreciated thanks thank you I motion that the governing board can consider discuss amend if desired and if deemed advisable to adopt a resolution ordering and calling a special budget over right election to be held in and for the district and declaring the deadline for submitting Arguments for and against the election to the Maricopa County school superintendent school Elections office as of August 9th 2024 at 5:00 p.m.

64 ADM average daily membership then that's where you get a shortfall of $1.6 million okay okay but that's just the starting point that's not the total number because what you have to do is you have to have the shortfall based on what your anticipated enrollment is and then you have to sit and say okay if we're going to give an increase to staff then that's obviously increase cost that we're going to have to come up with funding for and if we were to do a 1.9% increase for certified staff to exempt support Administration um it would cost us another 355,000 where did we get 1.9% that's what the support staff got in January based on the minimum the mandated minimum wage increase uh that support staff gets every January because of uh proposition I think it was 206 the minimum wage increase um and so we also have to anticipate the January 25 increase we're just starting to get some numbers on that uh Julie and I sat down and looked at what little information we had and we think it's going to be in the 3540 C range uh that is a guess at this point if we were to do what we've done in the past that'll cost us $75,000 now we don't have to do what we've done in the past and I think depending on the budget that's why I put that statement in there the final solution may be less depending on where we're at if we have increased numbers then it's easier to meet it if we have more than 108 kids that don't show up uh ADM then we may have to come up with a different solution what we've tried to do is spread that across the entire support salary schedule but the reality of the way the law reads is we just have to take those positions that are not at the minimum wage and raise them to the minimum wage we have not done that the last few years because we're trying to remain competitive with neighboring districts so we've put it through the entire salary schedule and got raises for everybody but obviously depending on what happens in January and depending on what's happening with the budget we'll have those discussions um but we went on the high side just so we know we we uh saved enough money and then you approve the health insurance increase where we picked up the cost for our employees for the base plan that was a little over 135,000 so if you add all those up you see the budget shortfall is actually two 2.1 million so that's kind of where we start from and then we take priorities and we start to take a look at all the different things we're talking about and saying how do we get back to the very first slide that I showed you which is we need a balanced budget so the recommendations what we tried to do is take a look and you can see up at the top the priorities we talked about staff retention Recruitment and and staff salary increases were a priority for both CCC and the leadership team so we started on that conversation when you look at salary increases you're really looking at two areas one potentially has limited impact on your budget the other one has significant impact on your budget the two areas are increasing the base which just means means how do we stay competitive with neighboring districts so for example higgle has just increased their base to $58,000 and so the first step is to say at a 1.9% increase you get about $1,000 so we're going to increase the base $1,000 that potentially does not impact you if we were not to hire anybody new then it wouldn't cost us a dime to increase that obviously with teachers were going to hire new teachers and so they're going to start at 53 but technically speaking if you didn't hire anybody you can make the base whatever you want because you're not giving anybody a new salary um we obviously understand that that is going to occur with our with new staff um but then the second part is to give a 1.9% increase to every employee um and I'll talk about the two options in a second uh to help save on m&o the school Improvement fund which is the fund 020 so the 20 fund used to be called Indian gaming it's money we receive as a result of Indian gaming in the in the state um we used to put 400 50 towards the base for all of our teachers out of that fund that fund is healthy enough that we could go ahead and put 650 towards that that just means that of the total amount that we're talking about for certified staff it's going to be 50,000 Less in terms of what comes out of the M budget so again remember when I'm talking about that 2.1 million that's the M budget that we're trying to to get to if we have money outside of the budget it doesn't have the impact okay so the discussion with both leadership and C CCC was there's two options here the first option is uh you go ahead and apply the base uh pay rate to everybody so we don't compress the salary schedule it also means those that are in the district longer percentage wise and dollar-wise will get or excuse me dollar-wise will get more than those that are brand new to the district and so you keep the salary schedule spread out and you don't get in a situation where uh theoretically a brand new teacher could jump a first or second year teacher in the district because of the increase the way it goes to the the first cell the second option is to in effect give everybody the same amount of money one% or one $11,000 in that case you will compress the salary schedule and what you'll get is you'll get obviously percentage wise somebody who's making 52,000 makes more percentage wise for an increase than someone who's making 60,000 so both leadership and CCC had a lengthy discussion about this and based on their discussion and then a consensus uh the recommendation was to go with option number one okay question the uh 50,000 that's saved to the district m is it would option one have been 350,000 if not that 50,000 no opt option one now for m is 250 if we had done option two would have been 200,000 this is the total cost we're just going to be able to tell you that because of the way we're doing it with the 020 account it's actually for emo 50,000 less okay so they came back saying they felt this was the best I will tell you based on for the most part this very first one was the lengthy discussion and then the next couple that we put up they followed the same pattern and said if we doing it for one we should do the same for other so when we came to exempt support staff uh $1,000 uh increase on their base I don't have the dollar amount because there's multiple positions in that salary schedule so every position the base went up $1,000 um and then they got the the they would get the 1.9% increase even though the support staff several years back we made the decision that we would give regular support the increase in January but the exempt support which is about roughly eight or nine people seven people we would give them at this time so that's why they're getting it and they didn't get it in January and that was just a decision we made as we moved through the budget that year again same thing make sure that longevity and and time within the district is covered by using option one versus option two and they agreed uh they agreed with that minimal uh cost just because of the the number of people that that are in there for administration same conversation same decision so in this case that would be all administrators in the district um across the the board okay here's a difference next one extracurricular stiens for a number of years even though the extracurricular stien was tied to the base salary we never increased the extracurricular uh stiens uh I think maybe my second year in the district I could be wrong might have been my first but I think it was my second we decided to let's start increasing it as we increase the base salary so it's gone up significantly in the last four or five years in terms of of what uh stiens are being paid I would say we're probably most competitive relative to neighboring districts in this area than we are in the other areas just because of the way the increase went up uh after significant discussion because the increase would be $100,000 um there was a conversation of do we freeze the stiens at the current amount and then change the calculation from a percentage of the B based to just a flat amount so if someone's making I'm making up the number because I don't remember all if someone's making $3,500 on a a position this year the next year they're making $3,500 if we decide in the future to make a change we would come back and say we would recommend the change for those guys to be this dollar amount we wouldn't tie it to the base if you tie it to the base and like a couple years ago when we put 9% into the base and we moved um moved around the money for uh uh performance pay we jumped up the base by close to $6,000 well that has a significant impact on this one over here so we felt this was a more conservative way over here um because we've been able to take care of um stip and positions uh and you will see in the uh salary schedule this year that we made some adjustments to reflect it in the uh in the salary schedule so when we get to that agenda item if you want me I can call it and I can explain to you what the what the differences were the other recommendations we already talked about the student grow typen and you approved it at the April board meeting again that is a situation that tries to incentivize people to make sure that we continue to uh Market the district and and bring uh students into the district there is no cost to the budget because if we don't hit the mark of 200 uh new students year-over-year on 100th day then there's no issue if we do hit it with the money that we get for increasing we will give a one-time stien it's not an ongoing stien so in the next budget cycle um all the money would revert into the budget because we're not committing Beyond just this one year we will continue to do student grow stiens probably in the future because I think it's a good way to try to incentivize people to make sure that we uh continue to work to attract students what we are recommending is we do a retention stiping um for this case case the retention stiens paid out of federal dollars essers this will be the last year they must be spent by SE end of September of this coming year and so the last first year we did the retention stip and it was 1% then we did two years of 2% we would have to go back down to 1% based on the budget that we have and I'll show you the budget at the end of the presentation this time instead of going out in October it would actually go out in September because we have to expend the funds before the end of September so we would bring to you guys guys on the September board meeting here's a list of people that qualified they have to be employed with us at the end of the school year in May and still employed with us in this case at the end of of August normally we'd want to do it to the end of September but we just can't because the money needs to be spended or expended so this is a an item on the agenda for you to decide uh but uh both CC and and Leadership was um what desirable what was the reasoning for the end of October before what we when we did it before we said we were trying to make sure that people stayed with us for the first quarter so they didn't get the money like the first of August and bail on us and so this way they would actually stay with us we now have to switch it so they can't give it back we can't have it in there that they have to give it back no if they if we give it to them and then they walk away it's their money there's there's no I mean we'll get it back to them potentially for uh certified and administrators because we have liquidated damages we can't get it back for classified because they're at will employees and so once you give them the the money if they were to leave two weeks later then they leave two weeks later price of doing business yeah okay so I have a question on that and I don't like I'm not necessarily I mean maybe this question was asked so what's the 1% stien based on so like let's say that we had uh someone who started starts this week and then they continue they're eligible for that stien right yes it it'll be based on their base salary so it's 1% of their base salary whatever the contract is that they're signing for next year for their base salary not uh extracurricular stiens not any of those kind of things it's their B people are people going to complain about that it's what we done they started here and they worked here for two weeks and then they're here and they get that it's what we've done the last three years and nobody's raised the complaint um it gets a little complicated what what we end up doing is in the year so I'm going to give you an example if I go up to student growth we would say in the student growth stien if you were hired after um January 1st you were not eligible for it um if you were hired after July 1st we would uh prated this one's a little bit tougher because it's it within the first nine weeks uh and the idea of retention right on good or bad you were here with us at the end of the year you're here with us at the beginning of year so you stayed with us and that's what the intention was uh I have not I don't know if the principles have I have not received any concerns over the last three years with it um but that they could raise that that's a legitimate concern all right I guess it won't matter because this is the last year anyway right and it's the last year because and we'll you we'll show you at the very end what the budget is for essers and how much we have left in essers okay the second one uh the major one that we're going to need to do to go ahead and get to where we need to get to is that we're looking at reduction of positions these positions are either vacant or um people are leaving them as we speak the projected anticipated savings is 1.1 million based on people that are leaving us in vacant positions there would be no employee layoffs the way we determined the numbers for the schools was based on the current student staff ratio and so if we had in some cases um higher uh more staff than we needed this is where we're going to reduce down to what it should be for the ratios uh I cautioned and I talked to CCC about this and the leadership team um we are small enough as cohort classes coming through that if you're teaching third grade somewhere and all of a sudden you have a big class is more than likely nothing to do with this it's that last year you might have had a small class next year you may have a slightly bigger class because the cohorts coming through the school are what the cohorts are coming through the school so we don't have five or six teachers in sixth grade or fifth grade that you can go ahead and and um spread out where the kids are going you have two teachers or three teachers in most cases with uh Elementary and therefore if a ratio of kids comes through if you have 60 kids you have that debate do I have two classes of 30 or three classes of 20 the ratio is 27 so in this case this year we're saying we're going to go with two classes of 30 now it is a guesstimate because we don't know what kids are going to show up on the first day of school so we may think we're getting two classes of 30 and we may get two classes of 25 or we may get two classes of 33 we won't know until we get there if we need to we'll make adjustments um the other piece I've changed this language so I want to make sure you understand what I'm talking about schools and departments will not be allowed to exceed approved FTE what that means is that if you are given 10 FTE and you only were able to hire eight I'm talk thinking of middle school and high school you may end up doing six fifths to go ahead and fill out the class because you're still below 10 if you were given 10 and you're at 10 and you've hired for 10 and you come back and say I want 6 fifths the answer is going to be no and I can't stress enough and I've stress this to leadership and I've stressed it to the CCC um if we do not hit the anticipated Savings of 1.1 million we got a problem in our hands now I can say that all I want and be as dramatic as I want and if our numbers the first day of school are plus 250 then this ain't a problem anymore if our numbers the first day of school are 108 or further down the hole then we got a bigger problem and so this is the guesstimate to make this budget work so we've tried to really uh highlight especially that second bullet no employee laughs and it is our employees in contracted Services I'm not responsible for contracted Services that's with a different company so I know last year we had a situation where a contracted person um was like oh but it had to do with the contracted Services Company not our employees I have enough problems with our employees I can't go ahead and take on other businesses terms of M Supply budget we spent about 1.6 million on supplies and so we're looking at reductions so um the two options were Reduce by 350 or reduced by 300,000 when we talk about supplies this is not just classroom supplies involved in supplies or gas okay there are all the different things that help us run the business that we need to run and so we would look to cut by $350,000 in the same vein when we talk about the district additional Assistance or the da AA budget that's for Capital items we get about 2.1 note uh a couple things with the daa uh first of all there are commitments in the daa so you don't get a new 200 2.1 million every single year because we have ongoing expenses like Synergy as a expense that we have to pay that's part of 2.1 so so there's there's about a million dollars that's already committed to before we even have this conversation so please keep that in mind historically we have transferred 750,000 over from uh daa temino uh that's allowable um you can go ahead and uh transfer uh the dollars that you need I will tell you in a former District I was in uh because of what we need to do we transferred 100% we had other funding sources for for Capital items and so we were forced to transfer % in the old days that was not allowed in the last I think decade they've changed the rules and I allow you to do it again there was the two same two options as we talked about with budget supplies and their recommendation was 350 the conversation so you're aware on both of these two items is you can put whatever number you want you could make it 250 you could make it 200 but when you do the math at the end if there's still money to cut then we're going have to go somewhere else to cut it Greg if could you go back to the M Supply budget yep so the option one is the recommended one of 350 out of 1.6 million which is over 20% yep I understand how are we going to accomplish that that we're going to change the line out of budgets and then we're going to have to St Hold Steady I mean there's not we don't have a choice in in what we do with this because if we don't get to these cuts um then we have to come from somewhere because at the end of the day it's got to be balanced so I I understand I'm just thinking that you know these are supplies that that are needed so how do we make accommodations for that there will be there will be some things that you're gonna have to go without and I think it's very important I'm going to give you an example and this is this is and it's not that I want to do this nor that the team wants to do but I'm going to give you another example on daa there's a track right now I'm an old track coach our track needs to be replaced the track replacement of the track is going to be possibly 750,000 I believe when you take off the top and live this as a track coach you're going to have to go down to the base I think it's close to 1.2 million we don't have 1.2 million we'll bandaid it but we don't have the money and so it's the same thing with these Cuts we're going to have to sit down and take a look at what are going to be the cuts and what is not going to get done and what is going to get done and there's going to have to be hard choices I think the Board needs to understand this is what I've communicated to everybody this current year if you remember we cut 2.3 million going to next year we're cutting 2.1 million so in a two-year period we've cut 4.4 million off a $30 million budget if we hit less than 108 if we lose more kids than 108 there are going to be some very serious conversations that we'll start having in September because it's getting to a point where I'm not quite sure where else we go to take care of this we can talk to the legislature we can talk to whoever we want the reality is the way they're funding things and with all the issues that are out there this is very very difficult and there's some tough decisions that have to be made if we stabilize at 30% um 31% capture rate we should go up that's what applied to economics because we have new homes coming in if we don't stabilize that at 31% then we're going to have even more this will be a whole lot different conversation starting next year on the daa um it says historic transferred 750,000 so this is another 350 on top of the 750 so we're transferring about half of the daa into M yep okay and we did that this year we had a little bit of a of a a safety net this year because of the onetime money the governor gave two years ago so it was a little bit easier so we actually transferred over money this year um but now it's it's a little bit a little bit different I think that when you say the Board needs to understand I think we understand quite well I mean I think we've been worried about this from the beginning when when the te when we were losing students right and I didn't mean I apologize I didn't mean to to suggest otherwise but I just this is a just to a point where there are some very big time decisions that are being made right now will continue to be made so how would you do that are you going to have like each site say Hey you have to cut this much how are you going to go about doing that yeah what you'll do is you'll take a look at the budgets and the budgets will be reduced accordingly and then you'll be monitoring your budgets and you won't have you'll be only able to spend I think in some cases you may have situations where there's money that is going to be or excuse me there may be supplies where PTO or or those types of groups give more in other cases you may not get as much um and in some cases there may be the answer is no um just because the number is what the number is so is this every site including like Department transportation and and uh the district office and all of the schools y it'll go across the board to everybody okay I'm not going to go through this per se because there's going to be a presentation in the uh um in the uh regular board meeting for instructional time model um we had the presentation last um last meeting so this is the second meeting but this is obviously a recommendation uh Tim and Nancy have been talking with staff members on this one um and so we'll we'll talk I know there were some concerns addressed by the board that or raised by the board and we'll try to address those tonight um but this is again we would hope and I the key point to hear I think we've talked about it but just as a reminder for everybody is that you really build your budget on expectation of all kids will show up all the time but obviously they don't so you lose a little bit given the the attendance issues not only in this District but across the state and across the country what we're trying to use is this new time model to uh have kids in attendance uh more regularly that way we um will gain more money in this sense that we that it'll be closer to what we anticipated getting isn't this what they they brought to the board last right we have to do two public meetings so we'll do another one tonight and ask for your approval so I'm not going to go in great detail because Tim and N are going to do it this is just the steps that we would do for this um for this particular step it's again same slide as as last meeting uh operational efficiencies through utility savings we've talked about this we make adjustments and set points on occupied mode and room utilization to go ahead and try to save 50,00 000 I will tell you uh as we've worked through this even since we've made this decision for breaks only uh if you're not aware panel County does not go on a normal um Sun Saturday to Friday meeting uh week work week they go Thursday to Wednesday and so that confuses things and so sopia has been meeting with Julie and I and we can do the four-day work weeks in the summer and we're going to send it out a couple more week weeks we cannot make it work in fall winter and spring because when you throw into holidays like you have a Thanksgiving break for two days or at Christmas time what happens is because of the way the weeks fall you end up working too many hours one week and not enough hours the next week then you got to roll the the money over because how are you going to make the difference and so the more we talked about it I will say that we just had the conversation yesterday afternoon um we will increase the 4-day work week like we did this summer but we won't be able to do it for fall winter and spring because logistically it doesn't work because of the Thursday to Wednesday work week versus a normal five-day work week uh and the County's done that for years I'm not totally sure what the historical reason is in panal County this is a first place I've been that's done it this way everybody else has been on a traditional uh uh five-day work week that's the way it is so um we're also doing a voluntary campaign uh with staff uh to see if we can reduce the use of manyi refrigerators coffee makers space eaters microwaves Etc in classrooms uh to go ahead and make some savings um and so at this point it would be voluntary uh one of the things that we look at next year being Tougher Than This may become not voluntary we'll just remove them a year from now for having this conversation um well there's an agenda item talking about raising the fees so we will uh present that piece uh there's a budget coding adjustment so this is uh ways that we're looking to to find every dime we realize that about 25% of the day leads work uh involves School cafeterias we have money in our food service budget which is different than M Ando budget and enough money to cover it so we're going to make an adjustment of it's a backend adjustment the employees don't get any less money but we'll just pay 25% out of the Food Service budget instead of M and that's an anticipated Savings of 146,000 uh We've when we first hired on with vary to do uh maintenance uh for HVAC and plumbing um we were short staffed and so we went had a certain contract with them now that we've gotten some people staffed up we believe we can cut that contract because we can pick up some of the stuff we don't have enough to do enough people to do all of it so we believe with the reduced hours based on this year's analysis we can make another 80 sa 880,000 savings there and then with some software subscriptions uh that we wouldn't use we could come up with another 30,000 okay health care I'm not going to go through this in great detail because we've already had this um uh conversation a month ago or two months ago and you guys approved it but this is just a reminder especially for staff uh What uh what took place with Healthcare premiums and then we talked about essers so right now we have 589000 in our ERS fund that must be spent by September 24th the #t Ford conference that we would continue for one more year would take about 230,000 the retention stiens 210,000 the 100 a little over 134 it's on the agenda tonight if you approve and that means we have about 177,000 left give or take uh now some of those numbers could go up or down based on the number of people that for example come to hashtag for conference uh so they're the best guests based on the trend data of what we' spent previously but in essence uh we will have spent all of the sers 3 money uh by September so if we actually do the math and you take a look at it um when you add all those totals in you can see we're down to zero so we have a balanced budget again if there's any changes that's okay but then we just have to come up from somewhere else to to to move it so somewhere where this was the conversation we had with CCC and Leadership if we take the da issue and change it from 350 to 250 not a problem except for now we're 100,000 short so we're going to have to come up with 100,000 from somewhere else so this is what we project to build a budget on um and this is how we we would achieve uh the balance budget that we talked about as a um uh as the goal or what we're required under State Statute and still trying to meet the priorities such as retaining staff by giving them a salary increase and those kind of things I I have a question excuse me has to do with the uh the carryover that we projected in the past we're always looking at anywhere three three and a half to 4% a million or so this past year we agreed or last year to reduce that down to a carry over around 750 and use that money to fill in where we needed it how does a carryover look on this budget carryover looks like about 500,000 to possibly 700,000 depending obviously uh we still have some open Po and some of those kind of things so we won't know the final numbers uh we have till August to finalize it but we would anticipate it's going to be in the 500,000 if a few things fall our way um then it could go up as high as 700 750,000 but um it will be less than it was in the past um and again it's getting tight yeah the reason I asked is when we you go through the um the uh what do you call it the um the budget I'm sorry the I can't think what I want to say the consent agenda and you looked at the uh M budget up to date it's much less than that and I know there's always year-end adjustments that happen that's why I was asking the question no and that and that that will that will happen that number will shift and Julie want to come up she can explain more but but basically as we close out and all that stuff um we'll see we see anticipated savings that will increase that we're believing based on everything we have we're at least going to be at 500 okay possibly a little bit higher okay um any of this i' talk about um the way we earn money like our facilities that sort of thing have we talked about yes how how to use that yeah what what we're looking at and that's some of the conversations so you guys approved the community facility rentals we talked about increasing those that's a way to increase uh Revenue uh the CMS CHS athletic fees that we'll talk about tonight it's not on the agenda for vote it's just for a talk is another way to address that issue we approved in December the uh DRP the Dropout recovery program and if you remember the Dropout recovery program was designed that we could actually get students from outside of our attendance Zone to uh uh uh be part of our our our numbers so that could be a potential increase uh I will tell you that we had some problems with ad approving it because they were getting confused between this year and next year so we did have a meeting with grad Solutions today and so we would anticipate actually not starting the program till July 1st just because of the we fought with ad from January to March before they finally understood what we were trying to tell them to do um but we would see anticipated increase in in numbers that way um something tells me there's one other that I'm missing but so yeah those are those are the conversations that we're having as as trying to come up with different ways uh uh to go ahead and increase oh the instructional time model is a different way it's it's not really per se bringing in new money but if we can get kids to be counted as present then that means we will get more money than we're currently getting so those are three or four or five different things that we're talking about uh with ways that we would hope that we would generate Revenue relatively speaking not super easy in a in a in a school district but that's what we're trying to do to to help with some of the problems other questions I guess I mean maybe this question doesn't have an answer but uh I mean I know budgets are always tight but how comfortable are we with these projections like on a scale of 1 to 10 five I would say I would I would say for me six or seven I'm not sure Julie's probably as the as the numbers person maybe a little bit more nervous I would say six or seven because we're looking at Trend data from applied economics I mean that's the that's probably your best guess that you can take a look at um relative to uh what's going on in the district and what's G traditionally not only in our district but but around these Valley and so that has to be a starting point obviously because we're projecting to the Future um no matter what number we use there's a little danger we could go with a higher number and let's just say instead of Nega 2.9% we go ne4 well then we have to cut significantly more our problem will be then when you go if we get the kids then we have to go find teachers which may not be available so it's it's a bit of a I won't say a guessing game but it is a guessing game trying to figure out how many and then what do we do and so uh I like I say six or seven for me um just because it's what applied economics did but the budget is based on uh estimated loss of 108 students is that right okay well 108 ADM right ADM also when you say um position attrition savings is that just particularly their salary or does that include their health care and yes what benefits and and salary now I mean it varies so if the person is a crossing guard as an example they don't get it but but anybody that gets healthare if they and it's varies a little bit I I just want to caution it varies a little bit because we don't know in some cases somebody may not take health care because their spouse does but if they do take health care then that's included in the savings okay and the way we calculated savings so everybody knows is is literally every position in the district has a number and so we took that number and who that position was and said this is the amount of money we get for that position and so for all the positions we cut okay we got 52,000 here we got 48,000 we got 22,000 you know all those positions and that's where we got the the 1.1 other questions and again some of this you will see agenda items on tonight that address this some of these others like utility savings is not really agenda item we're just going to try to you know save some some utilities but it's not an agenda item so that's why I wanted to share this with you um but there are other agendas salary increases and some of those things that are agenda items that we'll either talk we'll talk about again there is we got about 20 15 minutes before the meeting there is for sandwiches back there for you guys and grab a bite te before we have our six o'cl meeting so you can eatting there you're more than welcome to go to that e e e good evening everyone we appreciate your attendance here tonight we'd like to call the meeting to order at 6 o'clock pm.

this meeting is being recorded by gctv if any other persons present are also recording you must notify the chairperson at this time I don't see anybody uh so we're gonna um I'd like to take a motion to adjust our agenda to put the report of student representatives to the committee first is there someone who could make that motion so moved motion seconded all right motion from annechild second from Stacy ston any discussion uh let's all in favor say I I I the motion looked unanimous to me so um we will hear now from our student Representatives thanks for being here yeah thank you for the motion for allowing us to go first we appreciate it um so beginning first with student council the student council attended the regional student conference on April 24th Auburn Mass was elected the vice president for all of student councils in Western Massachusetts this month we'll be replacing Flags in preparation for Memorial Day at local cemeteries um celebrating teacher awareness week and holding class officer elections as well as eboard elections we also met with incoming principal Mr Browning to review concerns and hopes for the next school year uh Key Club just finished a very successful reading project uh reading to students at a and spending some quality gym and playground time as well as Distributing books to the YMCA learning null Hillcrest School and Head Start students they are planning another children's literacy event in may as well as a field day for a spring Sports have three weeks left in their regular season as of April 26th the state rankings are as follows baseball ranked 34th um at 2 and six with 10 games left softball 11th 6-1 with 11 games girls tennis is 16th they're three 3 And1 with 11 matches left western Mass playoffs start May 19th and state playoffs start May 29th with state finals happening June 14th through 15 boys and girls track and field pvic is Saturday mayth at mohawk with uh States being May 23rd through 25th boys track is 3 and0 and girls track is uh 1 and two both have three meets left um you can get all the schedules on Arbiter live and we hope to see you at a game soon uh 25 ghs students staff and parents had a very successful trip to France during April break they look forward to more educational field trips at home and abroad in the future French Club prepares for the spring coffee house talent show tomorrow night Thursday May 99th from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.

in the Greenfield High School AO torium and um as I shared with families and staff yesterday Gina Johnson has agreed to deliver the um graduation speech for our class I think it's a wonderful um opportunity for them to hear from her administrator who's been with them for the past three years and she's very much looking forward to it and I appreciate her willingness to step into that I accidentally in all my excitement to share Gina was going to do the graduation speech accidentally mentioned that graduation was June 3rd it is not it is June first so um I apologize for that little mistake um the budget Karen and I intended the ways and means budget discussion that was held somewhere at the end of April and we shared the same budget presentation that night that you folks saw when I did the superintendent budget presentation we answered some questions and at this point um to the best of my knowledge mayor we're waiting for the city council to deliberate and vote on a budget so thank you questions from the committee yes member deneve I would just like to thank you Karen for all of the photographs that you include in your updates we're so far removed from the students lives so getting to see that makes it really worthwhile for us you're welcome I'm big on photos and staff always cringe when I'm around because I usually am like smile so I'll start sharing more of them as well thank you other questions or comments all right thank you I just need to find my agenda do I think I found it uh where on to our consent agenda and um I think um just in case not I know we have at least one relatively new member the consent agenda offers us the opportunity to vote on a batch of things that are sort of proor at the same time however if anyone wishes to take any item out of the consent agenda and vote on it and discuss it separately we can do that so first is there anyone who would like to remove anything from the list of consent agenda items not hearing any I'd hear a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented so moved is there a second seconded all right uh and so any discussion yes member ston I just had a quick question about what's happening with the picnic tables after we declare them just where where they going well so when first of all I will share they were purchased in fy21 and um they were purchased with the first round of covid money the covid um Relief Fund and um most of us administrators of the schools didn't know that they were where they are and so the mayor actually identified that they were on some city property and so what happens once we the committee declares them Surplus let me share we're not declaring all the picnic tables Surplus um the schools will retain some uh primarily we have some toddler sized picnic tables and some handicapped accessible ones that will definitely retain and there are others at schools already that we're keeping um so when the school committee declares um any items Surplus the first thing that we do is share that information with all other City departments who if they are interested reach out to mention that they would like to take the property that has been declared Surplus so unless I'm completely and totally Off the Mark which I don't believe I am I think that the city will take them and use them rather than purchasing new picnic tables so yeah great any other discussion on the consent agenda all right let's vote all those in favor say I I I any opposed and I'll abstain so the motion carries thank you all right we are uh close to the end of our policy review process that's been happening for um more than five years and so I'm very excited to say that we um we have some uh I had the um the motion all set up in my uh my computer but now it's going to require password which is hard for me so give me just a second I will I I can find these relatively quickly all right so we're going to take each um section of the first read at a time and um superintendent I know you have some items that um are school committee policies where we may you know we get to think about whether we want to retain that policy at all so if you can flag for those in those for us in the discussion that would be great um so the um the motion I'd like to hear a motion that we approve um the first reading of amendments to section H negotiations as presented so moved motion for from the mayor is there a second second and second from Member Goodwin uh any discussion uh superintendent just for clarification on this first section you'll see two copies of policy HF school committee negotiating agents um the one that is marked up the first draft I am recommending that the committee delete and um adopt the second version um the reason for this primarily is that the Greenfield original version was voted um in 2006 the second version is an updated masc draft from 2022 and Liz lefon who is here our masc rep um confirmed for me that no additions or updates have been made since 2022 on this through masc so that is a current policy for your consideration great thank you um and so so I think we can assume that the um document as presented is making that recommendation and thank you superintendent for clarifying that was the intent of the document um is there any discussion on uh on this section not hearing any let's call for a vote on that all those in favor say I I I and I will abstain so it pass um next we will move on to uh I would like to hear a motion that we approve the first reading of amendments to section K community relations as presented so moved motion from the mayor is there a second oh there is oh remember good one okay sorry I didn't hear you all right uh superintendent any comments on this section I believe there will be um primarily the the general format if you don't remember from all the other 100 sections prior to this is that there are generally a Greenfield um prior drafted section and then if there is an masc version of the policy it follows most of the time the language is fairly similar but generally masc had updated statutory language um and any legal changes that have been required since our policies were adopted generally in 2006 if not exactly that year so for the most part the deletions recommended are deleting the outdated Greenfield draft and then adopting the current masc draft um I'm going through I did recommend removal of um regulation policy is the school committee's belief about what should happen regulation is how I'm supposed to make it happen po uh regulation almost every time is not included in a policy manual with the exception of the concussion protocol that's required um to be in policy um I also took out some notes that were in there from masc such about why um particular language changes were made I just want to make sure I had no outstanding questions from the committee for the committee I apologize um I apologize I don't think so in this version no so anything that's redlined are the changes no outstanding standing questions for the committee thank you any questions or comments from the Committee Member goodwi I guess you know when I read it and I've been reading a lot of policy as a new Committee Member I I just was struck by everything that was the wording about inclusiveness was all read ined and then when I read the the newer version it I just wanted a statement of inclusion that was and I don't know if it's somewhere else and I just haven't read that piece can um so like on School parent relations goals can you tell me what the letters are um kba so yes it's very different I guess it's is is where I'm at um the masc version is very different than the Greenfield version right I mean I've read them multiple times and I would have printed it out but my printer and I are having issues so um it's like it's encouraged instead of it's a little more yes I think one of the things I know about the people in this room is we're all about inclusiveness and and um and basically making sure that parents are included so it just can't it one reads very strong and the other is not quite so strong as as a reader I just was like one says something really strong and the other doesn't and I'm fine with the other because it's more legal E I guess and that's what this is supposed to be um so the second the second one the kbba a different right so it so it's all there's all red strikes through it so is there another document that replaces that yep the the following policy okay so the language of kba um KB K well I guess I'm going back to her first comment about um you know if there's as we've done with every other section if there's um language that you want to um have the policy subcommittee of which you are a newly elected member consider will be later in the meeting oh I apologize let the cat out of the bag um which you may be a newly elected member to um you know that's that's the point of the subsequent policy subcommittees um it's your your choice around language um but k BBA the first was the Antiquated sorry Antiquated Greenfield version from 2006 the second identical kbba is the updated masc version so there is a following version of the policy and I respect that completely that because I know that lawyers are involved with what is written absolutely and that's what I like so okay so just to clarify the kbba the non-custodial parents rights that is all based on law that's not our preference that's the requirements this everything that is being updated has been it has been reviewed by masc recommended and then in any place where there were questions um and sometimes when there weren't questions but just particularly um legal heavy policies they were reviewed by our legal Representatives as well perfect thank you any other discussions on Section K yes please member ston well this is more of just some of some of them are red highlighted and not red stricken out and I was wondering if that means the same thing I'm just looking at one that's highlighted red yes I believe it was just weather whether I highlighted and hit delete or did it did the recommended deletion in a different order of things sometimes the uh editing functions were a little wonky thank you any other discussion or questions okay let's vote all those in favor of approving uh section K community relations on first reading please say I I hi all right and I'll abstain so that passes yeah um I'm clarifying I believe that the ones that are highlighted read such as kbba A- uh are because that at one point there had been a comment connected so that document that exhibit as um evidenced by the- E and the next page which is- r meaning it's regulation I have a little note on the bottom of the second page that says regulation should not be in policy so I believe that is the distinction okay is that okay that I think that makes sense because I'm also looking at the one beneath at the case CB where it happens again you're probably right yes there's comments on that as well great great all right so we just passed on first reading uh amendments to section K community relations now I would like to hear a motion that we amend section L Education Agency relations as presented on first reading so moved motion from Member p and seconded second from member ston um discussion on section L Education Agency relations superintendent just there's very few changes in here the only piece I want to highlight for the committee is um LBC relations with non-public schools this is should the um committee need to vote on the um addition of a private school in the district our attorney recommended the added language as the steps that should be followed so that's why that chunk of red line is there that's added language thank you any other discussion or questions on section L yes member deneve I just was hoping to confirm this process so L is the last one right oh yes so so once we do our second reading right around the corner I'm sure we're so efficient then it goes up to be hosted by m right so then will be a searchable database correct which we can cross search other districts and see how our policies stack up and and that opens the door for change that's all I'm saying I'm just the part I'm focusing on is section L is the last one for last I'm just I'm just planning the where we're going in the future with it okay wonderful it's been such a long journey thank you wonderful yes M ston you might not know the answer to this in that fine um is there any precedent around what substantial changes means is there like is there do we know because that's in our policy now do we know what that actually means and when we could invoke it if we wanted to are you referring to a particular I am referring to the brand new process that our lawyers suggested we put in of private schools it that would be driven by the legal references that are below um I am happy to confirm but I believe believe that that is actually the language in the statute but um that's F I can I can I can do the background read if there's a um additional question for clarification I'm happy to get that thank you sure okay anything else on our um section eight of our agenda policies okay and just so folks know the the process for these first reading ones we will have a policy meeting between now and the next meeting so if items occur to you or additional feedback or questions and you want to refer that to the policy subcommittee um you can do so and then it these items will come back to us in June um for final vote and speaking of that at our last meeting we approved on a first readings um amendments to um policy EAA Walkers and writers so um I would hear a motion to affirm our amendment of um I'm sorry um can I have a quick point of order did we actually vote on l oh no we did not oh I apologize in my mind we had all right all those in favor of um approving uh amendments to section l i i all right and I'll abstain so the motion carries thank you very much that would have been sad uh all right I would hear a motion that we amend policy EAA Walkers and writers as presented on second reading a motion from the mayor is there a second second all right uh any discussion on this who uh we'll say member pool um I'm I'm sorry there's an anpo in my life your anch child's I don't know who anpo is I can't even tell who she is and the name's just in my head second from M Childs is there any discussion on uh the second reading of this policy hearing none uh yes uh no it's um move that we amend policy EAA Walkers and writers as presented on second reading thank you yep and any discussion on that motion all right let's have a vote uh all those in favor I say I I I okay and I will abstain um so the motion carries and we're getting there it's very exciting all right we're moving on to the request for the field behind Greenfield High School to be named Donna Woodcock field superintendent so the um coach Mike kesy had reached out with the desire to have the um field hockey field named after Donna Woodcock who um sadly passed away actually one year ago today so it's I think very fitting for the committee to be hearing this today um the process in school committee policy is that we first need a written request which we got um very nicely outlined by coach Kay then if it is a building specific request which I considered this to be um related to the high school given that the field is behind the high school it needs to go to the PTO or school council so the school council did in fact um vote to support coach K's recommendation you have in your packet um coach Kay's letter and then on the back side of that same page the minutes um from the school council reflecting their support so then the um school committee policy speaks to a period of allowing for public comment so um I turn it back to the chair for the next step okay great well I think first we could start if there are any uh comments from school committee members on this um proposal all right so I guess I would propose that our P public comment period be um that we welcome um feedback from the community and perhaps that our we can um encourage people to come to our next school committee meeting and during the public comment period if they want to provide more input on that does that timeline work okay it does and then that would allow um it would allow us to order a plaque if the committee votes in favor it would allow us time for a next prior to the close of the fiscal year if we vote at the next meeting correct great all right we'll plan on that we'll have a public comment period um just our normal general public comment period and then we'll have a public comment pering which will be a hearing on this particular item um at our June meeting does that sound okay to everybody all right and any comments from um the committee at this time I understand we're just learning about this now so if you want to make more comments next time but when we discuss and vote um would welcome that discussion all right and um excusing the superintendent for the rest of the evening we are moving on to the superintendent evaluation training um the superintendent had her last uh evaluation with us last year um so as part of our transition to a new superintendent we get to do this without you thank you and welcome Liz um why don't you do you want to just come right here and turn on the microphone you just press the button sometimes you have to press it twice to twice to get it to stick when it turns green you know it's working there you go I so I it's almost like I'm in an alternate universe here tonight sitting back here some in during this meeting yeah it's really wonderful to have you back with us it's been a long time well we're a whole new group since the last time we were here third since you started policy third mayor um Counting the interim the third superintendent that's right um and just to sit here and hear the the collegial interest and discussion is blowing me away welcome to the new Greenfield school committee thank you so much for having me here and if I do say so myself Donna Woodcock is a field hockey Legend as my girls attended Smith Academy and we had some incredible battles over the years coach Sherry Webb while I was sitting there I did notice computers out and since there is no screen um I emailed everybody the presentation that I had prepared for tonight because I only printed these teeny tiny little slides because it has you know sometimes Powerpoints and since this one is a little busy I have to say takes up a lot did you s it to me not on the scho committee link I will for around if I got it I'll send it and so this presentation really has two parts I found myself today four different times juggling the order of the slides um so I'm going to give you kind of a nuts and bolts first and then we're going to talk about Green Field now let me I don't know if you might want to take another uh second to resend cuz I don't think any of us okay great CU you know I used my Hotpot ah we do have Wi-Fi in the building and I can give you the yeah oh look at that okay glasses on glasses off um okay turn off the hot spot this first actually this is going to be a longer section we will go past 8 o'clock in all likelihood so why don't we um maybe not but why don't we take a f minute break now and then we can uh come back for fresh for our training see you back as the clock is turning from 7:37 to on your computer [Music] ah a [Music] a [Music] a he [Music] a [Music] a [Music] a [Music] a [Music] he [Music] a [Music] a [Music] 39 and we are Rec reconvening for our evaluating the superintendent training with Liz lefon from the Massachusetts Association of school committees welcome Liz thank you again it's very very nice to be here um I don't know you all but I have been involved with this District since around August of um policy was interesting and then Christine came on board and said you know I think the process is going to work like this like do we really need a meeting can you and I share Drive can I ask you questions can you know Mark up the document can we communicate that way on our own time and she just took off I'd get in a couple of days after I noticed comments in the drive and she'd already moved on to the next section so she's like yeah don't just call me next time um anyway thank you I appreciate being here we're going to talk about superintendent evaluation and Karen um because I'm not the one who actually actually I've been evaluated with a similar tool um but not as a licensed educator so just jump right in if I say something that's not right the beauty of this process is um that it's something that you will talk together about and make decisions together about before you get to the I've never I think uh yeah when you move the mic is it better when she moves the the no there's only one microphone that's on and then she has her laptop but I wonder actually if you move the microphone closer to you and if the then the sound level can be reduced then maybe it would get less interference if you can move it even a little closer this like see how I have it kind of like right in like this yeah but you could move the microphone closer but I guess you have some stuff there but I could move it closer okay how's that I think that might work better yeah okay thank you so the first few slides are going to be sort of the des's point of view on evaluation it's it's the kind of the technical side um because that is makes the most sense to start there um when desie initially introduced their evaluation system um the rubrics was so big and so cumbersome and it was dropped on school committees all at once and it was such a big change from the evaluations that talked about is a good communicator dresses well answers questions in a timely way that it took School committees a very very long time to accept the changes by the time school committee members had um clawed their way through that really cumbersome process for three or four years um desie went through and reduced the rubric um and made some recommendations that really made the process a lot easier um and then committee members really started to say this is good we can do this this is what helps us to grow together right as a team and this is what desie says the evaluation system is about um in that second slide and it does the whole know of as I was reflecting back on this when I was putting this together I think my favorite part of the being evaluated was doing um the self assessment piece this is what I said I was going to do did I do it if I didn't why didn't I do it um and it was very helpful um to start that way and understand how I could get better at at what I was doing before I even went into my evaluator and we had that discussion um it does link criteria in the rubric to you know the work that's being done and it has descriptors that talk about um what the work looks like as it's being done if it's being done well adequately not so well maybe um it requires a lot of attention so throughout the course of the year um after you've talked about gold and we'll get into this a little more deeply but you'll talk about goals um as they tie into specific plans you have in place for the district why these goals are important what will be the focus what um standards will tie to the goals um and what indicators are best used um to evaluate specific parts of the um goals that that you reach and agree upon so not only does that require some deep attention and communication but throughout the year you will hear things at the school committee meetings um that will be tied directly to the evaluation at the end of the at the end of the year um I often suggest to people that you make a note um so that people can keep a notebook or some folks have even liked the idea idea of a note catcher if there's something specific on an agenda that ties back to the evaluation and you have a note Catcher And you can jot down notes about the evaluation um it's helpful to understand how that builds throughout the year and how the work you're doing here at the table ties directly to the evaluation more on that so there's the desie tells us there's these three key components um it's a fstep cycle um where you where goals are created um and they're tied for the evaluation purpose to the standards outlined by desie and the and the administrators um in this case the superintendent's evaluation rubric so that fstep cycle starts with that all-important self assessment um and it really is um an affirming process in many cases is um and a good way to sort of uh write write yourself um and get back to what you in in the case of a superintendent so my job was certainly not as intense um as a superintendence but um you're constantly responding to what's happening in the moment because we're talking about students we're talking about staff we're talking about other emergency situations um and sometimes it's easy to become distracted from from those maybe not the overarching sense of the goals but the steps that you had agreed in your mind that you would take right and with the committee so there's the self assessment that brings you to goal setting you see the self assessment you talk about that as you're setting the goals you're looking at your strategic plan as you're setting goals and any other District goals or District Improvement goals that you have once those agreements are reached um the superintendent begins to implement the goals across the district right um to improve outcomes for students essentially you should have a midcycle checkin uh desie calls it a form formative review I like the notion of a check-in um right around December or so so that you can talk about you know we've gotten the start of school off we've gotten through the holidays here's where we are is there a need to make any adjustments in the goals that you've set based on what's happened to date or what might be coming our way um is there are any of these goals now less important than others do we want to shuffle the order of the uh priority of the goals that kind of thing um and then from there really the rest of the year goes on Focus um from the superintendent is on the work that has been indicated would be done and you don't come back together again until I don't know what your cycle is is it does it end before before election time or do you then evaluate in the summer there another piece you're going to agree on and we'll talk a little bit more about this what is the cycle because you have spring elections here right fall elections fall elections yeah perfect Jan school year yeah very good the two-part tool um as described by desie involves those smart goals that we've all heard about for many years um and how they tie to the performance rubric in other words what are the indicators what are the standards and indicators that will best tell us if these goals have been accomplished and to what degree and that rating system um ensures that that desie has establish ensures that you're rating on the goals the St and the standards um that they've determined um will lead to um growth in leadership improved performance as a leader in an educational system in Massachusetts desie loves to tell us how we do these things um in any case I think at the end of the day and with the changes that have happened um in the evaluation system it's a pretty good tool if you can commit to the process um and when I say if you can commit to the process um if you haven't been committing to the process it can take a little bit of adjustment on everybody's part right so when you create the evaluation document with the superintendent um specifically you are going to um the superintendent's going to bring in some draft goals based on the Strategic plan um do you have District Improvement plan no that is that but we also would be using the district prioritization plan with the ssos team as well excellent so you already have some established documents that talk about the work that essentially needs to be done and each year as the superintendent drafts the goals related to the evaluation you're prioritizing what needs to be done now sort of do now um the plan contains more things than anybody could humanly these plans three together now than anyone could do in one year um so you're prioritizing as you go um and you do that based on the draft goals that the superintendent brings in um there's a discussion um I expect that it would be a pretty robust discussion um and you reach some agreement on what what the most important priorities in the district are for the superintendent to focus on in addition to that I guess let me back up just a minute this work can be done either with the full committee or by a subcommittee larger committees sometimes create and this is not an overly large committee but sometimes they create a subcommittee for superintendent evaluation where three people will sort of meet go over the goals um talk about um um you know what the priorities are estab talk about the in the standards and indicators that will will measure that progress and all of that will then come back to the full board for approval because the full board has to approve this process ultimately just depends on where you want to do the work um sometimes a workshop setting with a small group like this can work quite well also so the superintendent ultimately gets evaluated each year against all of the four standards in one way or another they tie in there may only be three or four goals but you will pick indicators from each of the standards to help measure the um performance on those goals even desie recommends that you use you do not use all of the indicators um you'd Drive yourselves crazy if you did that um you come to agreement with the superintendent in terms of which may be between depending on the number of goals you have anywhere between eight and 12 indicators maybe six 8 to 12 indicators depending on how those match up to the goals and how they're going to measure the work being done if you tie yourself to more than 12 indicators um you're spending an awful lot of time in and you're going in very very deep um sometimes less can be more if you can find um agreement and settle in on something that really is going to get to the meat of the work being done and Liz can I just add you know what's been helpful since I think Jessie came out with them right when we came back from covid was the focus indicators worksheet we use it with our teachers because the Edie Val process is just as lengthy and and um filled with minutia with the indicators and substandards with those so it's been very helpful in aligning the work that not only administrators focus on but then how does it trickle down to our Educators so those are always helpful so as we as we get to the Green Field I'm just trying to hit the highlights according to desie here but we'll talk about how all of the goals tie teacher goals administrator goals superintendent goals um support staff goals I'm sure you you probably evaluate everybody here in the district right everybody has an evaluation based on the goals of the district so if you are a custodian for example and there's a a buildings and maintenance and operations goal you might tie your work you may only have one goal for the year but you might tie your work to see how do I support that work going forward um in any case getting my ahead of myself there some committees uh maybe with a mathematician on board talk about how they might wait some of the goals um the standards differently um it's I'm not a mathematician and I would never understand that as hard as you would try to explain it to me but you can wait goals it put more significance on one goal versus another um if that's something you all agree to as well and as you're discussing this you're going to also talk about the artifacts and the kinds of presentations as we mentioned earlier that will build on that will help you to gain an understanding throughout the course of the Year about how that work is going so I I just took a snapshot of standard one uh 1A curriculum under instructional leadership of des's um rubric here uh to introduce you to this you'll see it again um as it ties directly to Greenfield as we move along um there's the IND there's the goal which is instructional leadership the indicator is curriculum and in this case there's the series of four descriptors that talk about um how to measure the progress you've seen as it's described here um from unsatisfactory or with a new superintendent can be called developing which is much more positive um term to use than unsatisfactory um developing in needs Improvement uh it's another thing you can talk about and agree upon um nobody was um being a new superintendent regardless of your experience takes some work even if even when you have a mentor like Dr dear um I think you know that you know what you're in for um desie tells us that nobody's exemplary um I'm not sure what planet that desie works from because there are some exemp ex exemplary administrators out there certainly not across the board and if your administrators are getting your superintendent getting exemplary across the board certainly in their first three four five years you're not working hard enough together as a team um they say proficient is what we should strive for um however um I think it's extremely unrealistic to say as that last sentence under exemplary is a model or models this practice for others I think we're all capable of that not across the board um but so the structure of of the rubric provides that Continuum from the standard to the indicator to the descriptors this is uh it's the instrument itself um takes thought to accurately measure the work and you'll see why now you ask yourself how does this really all work together it does um and Karen knows a lot more about this than I do so from my perspective we start with those District goals um from which um as the superintendent begins to draft their goals for the coming year they consider what are the most critical needs what are our strategic priorities our Focus priorities in this case um and then goes to clarify the direction that that the work will go in um what are the desired outcomes which are going to be talked about in the goals if this then that right and as part of that process the superintendent's engaging critical Partners or stakeholders um as they think through how this goal is going to play out over the course of a year so the superintendent goals come as we said from those plans that already exist that you've already approved that that we've identified you've identified as the needs in order order to continue to improve the outcomes for students in the district which is really at the at the heart of all of our work um we don't do any of that work without the incredible uh staff teachers and administrators um Cooks custodians secretaries everybody's a part of the work um and everybody in the district is thinking through their goal or goals for the year um and how they can support the work that's happening uh superintendent also needs to think about the needs of the staff uh while trying to support the staff in their work as they're supporting these District goals um and how to engage family and community in supporting the schools and just simply engaging them in the schools so that they feel welcome and honored when they step in the door whether it's central office or a school building so step one of the process is where this group meets together and defines how the process will roll out you've got draft goals you'll come out of that meeting or perhaps two meetings with agreement on what the goals are and how they'll be measured on the tool that's going to be used I see the questions per calculating it's a lot I'm going to just you know what let me get through this slide and then I'm ready for the questions that midcycle check-in especially with a new superintendent is key so you all know how everything's progressing um where's the work on this goal has something happened Co do we now need to shift the work that we're doing right are we are we tweaking a goal or are we totally Shifting the goals at this stage of the game um and then the work really continues to progress through the summi of evaluation the superintendent has the extreme pleasure of being evaluated publicly by the school committee um and I don't really mean that that's tongue and cheek I don't I don't think I would enjoy being evaluated on television but you know you're a public figure now Karen or you will be soon um and so every individual member will complete an evaluation form those forms will go to someone uh maybe a subcommittee maybe the chair to create a composite the composite is to ensure that um the strong themes are highlighted but also to be sure that everybody's voice is heard in the compos composite right that composite is shared out with the public at the same time it's shared with the school committee you'll talk about it in an open public meeting and everyone will be so delighted with the process this is where sometimes the difficult discussions can take place um we would always always always encourage you if you have questions questions to bring them to the superintendent um before you come to that meeting especially if they're the tough questions um to see if you can better understand maybe there's a piece that you're missing maybe there isn't um but just so that um you're not getting at this open public meeting with you know being broadcast out to the public you'd be surprised how many people watch and so that neither side is surprised always a good way to build a trusting relationship so again the outputs are those presentations you'll get at meetings sometimes the meetings themselves um are focused on a particular topic um they will be evidence that comes from other meetings that happen within the district or supports that are being provided in other ways um the superintendent will provide you with evidence be before you complete the evaluation form including data on student growth not necessarily achievement alone but growth in other ways you know what kinds of programming has been offered what has been the increase in student participation in those programs um uh most talked about it day on the hill AP classes why were a classes only for those kids that were the top performers it's amazing what school dist districts have found out um when they've opened up AP to more students how many students have blossomed right students who were non-traditionally AP students um who were able to participate in AP classes that really enriched their lives maybe they maybe they passed the AP exam maybe they didn't but what difference did it make in the life of those students right so there's many many things you can think about there and all of those outputs are assessed against those standards and indicators last line um so instructional leadership standards management and operations family and Community engagement and professional culture across the district it's a big job do we want to stop for questions here Glenn sure that'd be great we can stop anywhere someone wants to raise their hand and ask a question I find that the best way to go nobody really likes to be talked to so we can have a conversation as we go other questions for Liz M Den Eve I'm so glad you're here um I am too this process I think has been a real pain point for this committee um in the past we have never had ever a year-long agenda or school committee goals and we've never worked as a team on creating those until recently we have draft documents that we've lightly discussed and hopefully we can look at those soon but um we've never worked as a team on this so that doesn't surprise me given where you've come from yeah so so we had a lot of discussion about how much we hated this rubric and how awful it was and and I had a little subcommittee that didn't get off the ground of finding another rubric and um looked at other things but having you here now makes me wonder if maybe the problem was that we just never worked as a team on this like we just didn't have these we didn't have this info and we didn't know what we were supposed to do because we've never done any of this you're not alone so I'm wondering if if we just to know do we have to use this rubric or can we explore other ones like a 360 degree interview process or something such has you can adapt the tool created by desie I know that there's been discussion by committees and I'd have to check with my colleagues I i' be quite surprised that anybody did the 360 successfully and part of the reason for that is anyone whose input or feedback or evalu evaluative comments that are used as part of the evaluation become public along with yours um um so there's that that's a huge piece and that would take um discussion with the superintendent and agreement on how that process would roll out I think there's legal implications to that because of the public nature of that process um I think that if I were a committee who were doing this for the first year before you know maybe we want to talk about this but maybe we don't want to do it the first year maybe we want to talk about ways we can really get at the things we want to know through through looking at the indicators maybe or maybe that's a good first step MH but remember it's it you need to have agreement on how that's going to roll out and folks who are going to participate um I know it's something that gives us at masc all a little bit of a twitch when people say let's do a evaluation um it's something you'd want legal counsel to weigh in on none of us are attorneys although we do have an attorney um I'd say to this committee work on understanding this process and grow from there see how you can grow from there okay so then um when we create the composite how do we share it with the public what is that process like well it's interesting because the law describes that and it must be made available to the public as soon soon as the committee gets it so if it's email so for example I think best practice says provide at the night of the evaluation meeting I don't know that I think that's best practice because now you're having the meeting and you're reading the composit all at the same time I tend to prefer the notion if you agree on it that you get it ahead of time so you can ask question what if you have a question for the superintendent that you want to ask right so but if it's email to you as part of your packet to get your packets electronically some of them yeah it should be posted on the website the packet with that composite at the same time so that the public can access it the same time you're accessing it okay and if you're coming to the meeting and folks think they want to access the composite there should be some paper copies available for them okay um so we so then my other question is just to confirm that we should align all of these goals that we work on together and that the superintendent brings in it should all be aligned with our year-long agenda well yes that's what the yearlong agenda is for so we have to make a yearlong agenda and we have to identify District goals and priorities as a committee in concert with the superintendent or super we create them separately and then she creates them separately and we come together she's bringing in her draft goal and since we're talking about you specifically I'll stop saying the superintendent she'll bring in draft goals that you will discuss and you will come to agreement on maybe they're perfect and ready to go maybe they need a little tweaking maybe they just you know need a little feedback right if now you're talking about the committee creating goals so um when the school committee creates goals the notion is your your work the goals you create for yourself the things you commit to doing will support the work of the superintendent and the district towards achieving those districtwide overarching goals that have already been approved um so it wouldn't be like to make sure that the marching band gets new uniforms or that we put a new sidewalk in front of the high school um it would be a thoughtful process with the superintendent how how can we align our work through a yearly agenda for example we'll create a yearly agenda so that the superintendent can tell us when things are going to come in so we can learn about what's happening with the goals um if there's u under um academic leadership instructional leadership um I heard you're using illustrative math so let me just make something up and say um you all want to understand how or one of the goals is to support this illustrative math with professional development watching the data seeing how it's working understanding um understanding how this is all rolling out in the system you may all decide in this year-long agenda that at some point the math director or curriculum director is going to come in and give you a report on sort of Benchmark data what you know whatever this curriculum person decides you're going to get to learn about illustrative math um you've done assuming Benchmark data throughout the years with the kids what are the changes what are you noticing where are you seeing the deficits where are you seeing the kids are doing well right what are the adjustments they're making because of this new program um it's to help you better understand that work that deep and thoughtful work that's happening in the schools every day you should be hearing from the various instructional departments about what's happening particularly in the areas of need right but you also want to hear about what's going really well so that you have a good balance so I'm going to follow up on the idea of a yearlong agenda with you okay are you done with your questions yes I just um you just shook something in my head because I know the masc talks about having staff presentations and you just talking about that and we've never had anything like that so that like for example that's something we put on our little draft goal list having staff presentations so that something that it has been mentioned is maybe not in our purview as a school committee but I feel like is it not something we should be hearing yes okay and it's also part of building a trusting relationship together with your CEO right these are never oh wait till this comes in um it's never about that it's about listening to understand what's happening in the schools right um how do you know how all this money you're spending is working if you're not hearing from various departments and again and I'm going to look at how far you've come in such a short period of time and so the time could be now for this right um this was one of the nicest school committee meetings I've been to in some time usually people talk to us when they have a problem they want us to solve if I had a magic wand everybody would get along and talk and work together and assume positive intent and I've worked myself out of a job I do you want to acknowledge people Glenn I know feel free to acknowledge people yourself I don't want to not acknowledge the mayor but um Melody had her hand up today is a special day I mean I worked for Greenfield Public Schools for 10 years thank you okay so four superintendents M and 10 years M you've seen a lot change so Karen has been here and she knows what needs to be done and that's why she's sitting there we have needed curriculum work for the last 15 years if you listen to the teachers the last curriculum documents were written by Carol Jacobs and Buzz nimow and they're up in an attic at Federal Street Elementary School the binders are so old they have countries that probably don't even exist anymore so the curriculum work that needs to be done to make our scores go up has been critical for for years and it hasn't happened because um I can tell you that in my presence in front of me three different superintendents made a public statement to their principles the reason they couldn't get the work done was because they were dealing with the school committee so I'm going to say to you we need to keep being positive and listen to the person who's in charge who's going to make things happen um I think this is a special day because in this room are positive people who want to be inclusive who can listen to parents and children and hear what needs to be done so I'm pretty impressed with the people that I have met and that I have um talked to and there's a lot of teachers hoping for good things um and they're saying great things about this this year um Christine has done a a great beginning three years to start it and Karen gets to make it all happen Christina's really laid uh a solid foundation here and over the past many months as I've listened to and read about the staff that's been attracted here I'm incredibly impressed there's got to be some really good work happening in these schools for the caliber of the people that are coming here to be coming here not one not two not three not like they're coming here I just heard of two really strong teachers that were hired to come in here tonight um you're doing some good things so be part of the team right that's going to continue to help build that now your com your comment about listening to to parents and community members that's your job but remember so that's a whole another separate conversation that we could have about roles and responsibilities and how that connects with the administration right um what we're talking about here tonight is just to Circle back is is incredibly important because it's tying to these things that you have already said are really priorities in the district um and it's something you want to keep your focus on those presentations from staff as they tie to your goals can be a great help to these school committee members throughout the course of the year so they can uh understand along with you the work that's happening again I don't know that the foundation was there before now for that to start happening um and it's not it's um a presentation that you might have follow-up questions for the person presenting you might be inquisitive to know something something more um but never put that person on the spot so that others in the district oh my gosh don't want to come here and give a presentation again we're always assuming positive intent in all the work we do sometimes that doesn't prove to be the case but that's the exception rather than the rule right um and when you've been through a tough time um sometimes shaking those feelings can take a little little effort uh but you've got a good team here now and from all accounts you've got um someone that lots of folks would like to have leading their District so you've got a lot to work with mayor sorry turn your mic on so I think there's four of us that are new to school committee here some of you have been through this before um I'll speak as someone who's new that the first couple of months was having a lot of difficulty just with the initials of things and so I just this is I'm tying this into the presentation part I love you always come with the superintendent notes and you have pictures and I feel like that's a wonderful thing and it really gives me an idea of what's going on and um I I do feel like just speaking for myself I would have some trouble evaluating some things for example we talked about illustrative math and I'm I'm sitting here thinking no idea I'm I'm probably not the only one but you know a little something about what that would be like um that that picture that you give in the pictures is a good thing and so I just wanted to that's a comment and the other thing the way this works is the superintendent comes in and superintendent has goals is that I've watched some of these I actually I just watched part of your meetings before it didn't seem uh it's part of the process that the superintendent and the committee will work together on the superintendent's goals so that's one key element that that you're really uh you know um evaluating the superintendent's um progress on those goals and it follows at the beginning of the year I'm just trying to get the calendar part of this so so now it's May and do you meet do we meet in during the summer does a school committee meet all year we do yeah and so um so I'm sure that you've been thinking a lot about this getting prepared so you come up with your things and then there's school committee get together and they have ideas too is that how this works I think the way it's worked in the past and Karen and I can figure out together about how it might look going forward but that the superintendent has put together draft goals for this school committee to consider and then it's an item on the agenda when we discuss and we vote on whether to approve their goals or whether to you know modify um and so on and this is a an authentic discussion about this is how this is how she sees the work uh the priority work going into this particular year right and this is the Desi approved one this one that we have in front of us this is what most committees use is this what most school yes okay they do so sounds good to me the vast majority okay um yes and what once you've it's not an easy process initially but it gets easier the first one under your belt the second one you're not sort of like afraid of now you understand the process um and as you've worked together for a year and you understand the kinds of information the committee needs to get to help them through this process year two gets easier um Pro process it's all about process and figuring out what works best for everyone you know for a deeper understanding of how it how the how it needs to roll out the kinds of information the committee needs to get along the way it's very difficult um to get all of that that whole data dump at the end of the year and evaluate someone um I'm the kind of person who likes to take notes on things um anyway so I think that if their committee understands that perhaps someone's coming in or a report's coming in on a particular topic that's tied to one of your goals um flag that for them on a on an agenda and say tied to goal three um indicator two uh 3C or something right so that as they listen you listen for understanding and then you reflect back on the rubric later and say oh this is what I heard and this is how it ties in here for example what might I want to hear um going forward or what questions might I ask going forward to deepen my understanding uh were any professional besides you professional Educators in the room right so we need to work as committee members to deepen our understanding about the work that's happened in the district as a lay person we're not experts but we're tasked uh our key responsibilities budget oversight policy making superintendent hire and evaluation we have a lot to learn every single time we come to these meetings none of us comes knowing it all I have a question yes so one thing that we I feel like we we are good at but maybe need to keep getting better at is being clear about what our roles are as school committee members as opposed to the superintendent yes and part of what that means is we don't get involved in the operations of the schools correct but then essentially some of these standards are kind of about how well is the superintendent op operating the schools you know so we don't have have much of a view in there sometimes other than the artifacts and presentations that the superintendent presents that seems I mean I think that like you were saying before there's kind of a limit limitation to the process where a 36d evaluation probably wouldn't work in this setting because everybody's feedback needs to be transparent open to the public that's right and I feel like there's another element of that that maybe we just have to acknowledge is a limitation of the proc which is we don't have a ton of data on some of these things because we're not if we're we're mining our PS and q's and staying in our role we're not getting into all that you know but maybe you can speak to that I can in fact that's another conversation that we could have on another evening right because I think I really love the roles and responsibilities piece yeah um and finding Clarity from both sides on what that is um it makes everybody's life less stressful um but for example uh the focus again is on the critical need what are the priorities what's been identified here's the goals this is where the Deep work is happening maybe every day maybe not every day because you're putting so many fires out all the time um you have a relatively small administrative staff very quality qualified and capable administrative staff um but to have enough people to address everything that comes their way every single day you couldn't afford so the best way to afford and maintain this relationship is by building it building trust um and creating a team essentially you're working together to ensure that well maybe this goal didn't get accomplished fully and maybe it needs a lot of work wow but look at this goal and look what happened here it's always a balance and understand that everything you do is to help move these goals forward in the district right um trying to think while I'm talking about something you people in the community are going to talk to you first of all you were musty TV for a long time right I'm not kidding you were must see TV for a long time the best way to know that you're working as a cohesive trusting unit as a team people aren watching anymore because you're boring no there was no one here for public comment and you're getting work done guess what you're doing what you're supposed to do um and if you're the district that can keep but you've been here how many years tell me who the truth I'm ending my 15th next September will be my 16th thank you if and that doesn't happen a lot anymore in education and you know the number one reason that people leave their districts the school committee yes yes especially administrators but teachers feel that pinch too they want to be in a place where there's it's it's a team atmosphere people feel supported they feel respected and valued everybody has a bad day everybody makes mistakes well now we all make mistakes I make an awful lot of them myself guess what I'm going to try really hard not to make the same one twice especially when I feel supported and valued in my efforts the average um tenure of a super in tendency I think has dropped just below 3 years recently 2.8 2.6 be the district that keeps the superintendent by creating you know those Rich relationships trust one another talk to one another especially around this evaluation you'll learn a whole lot if you're not a professional educator Ator around this evaluation process as to what's happening in the district the important work uh community members parents angry parents especially are going to call you I was a school committee member for 10 years I made it a point to call the schools on the regular to tell them what I was happy about because I never heard from anybody who was happy yet you know there's good work happening all the time don't ignore that anyway enough of my pontificating um I think it's important when you're working together with anyone it doesn't matter if it's a partner if it's your children um when they're young when they're grown uh your grandchildren now uh the highlight of my life uh be vulnerable sometimes right nobody's always right okay back to superintendent evaluation okay all right so you're going to agree on the goals I'm going to so I'm into the I'm into the I'm going to get back to the slideshow so I can see what I'm reading um in Greenfield again just to sort of um come back to where I was you're going to agree on goals superintendent brings to you as a draft and as you do that you're thinking about what outcomes what outputs will these goals bring to Greenfield how are they going to benefit the schools the students right um at the same time you're going to agree on those applicable indicators from the rubric so what are we measuring what's most important for us to measure here don't overdo it on the indicators some of the work's very important the superintendent will have an idea of what rubric what indicator will um descriptor will best measure sorry indicator will best measure the work so listen be thoughtful but also look through those indicators to see if there's something else that intrigues you that you want to have that open conversation about if there's some area needing special attention have to discussion about is there a goal that we want to wait a little stronger than another Maybe that's something you want to get through one year before you think about that um and build that relationship with your new superintendent or maybe you're ready to roll maybe the superintendent's ready to roll with it but have that conversation you want to discuss the kind of evidence you're going to get and how you're going to get it will you see some presentations from curriculum leaders from principles um will you get reports will you use these superintendent reports start putting those in a folder called superintendent evaluation right so that you can go back and reflect on things you heard on a on a regular basis from the superintendent don't wait until the end of the year until you get something like this that you're weeding through while you're trying to answer those questions create that ever important yearlong agenda so you can get to hearing about about those things that are important uh that are that are highlighted as a superintendent goal so there's District goals this is there's not a graphic in here there's the district goals through the various plans that you have that I've been identified the focus priority areas superintendent builds goals on that all the administrators in the district including principles build goals on those plans the school Improvement plans are built from those goals teachers build their goals based on the Improvement that the school Improvement plans say that the schools are going to make everybody's goals originate in the same place and they're all for the same purpose so we're all working in the same direction and not at odds with one another so you will again um I love the midyear check-in and it's just a temperature taking it's not a really deep detailed uh we're going to dig in right here checking the temperature superintendent's going to tell you how it's going how the work is progressing you're going to ask what can we do to assist you what can we do to further your progress on these goals how does our work help you um so that again then then everything kind of goes away and the end of the year holidays come and you get through the the mcast and testing and graduations and then after you've forgotten about evaluation now it's summi of evaluation time but if you've been thinking uh from the beginning of the process and keeping a folder or notebook or however saving a a file on your computer um however you do this keep track of things that you want to refer back to later things that you look at like those reports tonight and say wow this was really informative to me scan it in your computer and save it somewhere drop it in the drive um so when the composite evaluation is completed at the end of the year um the chair typically will do that or it does maybe it's a vice chair maybe it's another member of the committee who already has deep experience in that area maybe it's a subcommittee that you've decided will do the composite for fairness but discuss that early on in the process so you know how it's going to be done and vote on it most importantly seal it right take a vote so everybody knows how it's going to be done um the compositors important um there are going to be varying comments there's going to be themes first of all that's the good news there will be themes um and then there'll be sort of those comments on one end of the spectrum or the or the other uh it's inevitable it happens we're all human um but the composite is designed so that not all comments are included but that everyone's voice is included right right so maybe it's the theme that's highlighted and not a particular comment some people love to see their own words not only in evaluations but in minutes not what minutes are for either right a minute minutes are summaries just what the composite is for you want to know about the themes you want to know the highlights and the low lights um ni a question Miss yes please so what if like what if there's a comment in kind of the raw data from the evaluation that really is not in keeping with the evaluation or might be you know um inappropriate in some way like how is that handled if so if number one if it is not en tied to the goals or keeping with those standards and indicators that you've said you're measuring it doesn't belong in the composite but as chair I would want to talk to that member and find out you know sort of what's behind it how can we where can we work on whatever this is good bad or IND different thank you you have a lot of responsibility Glen okay I think I can handle it but we'll see I do too so I have a quick question I don't remember which superintendent did it but it worked really well with this document was an an email like a little survey was sent to all of us and it was you just answered like so many questions and then it went back to the superintendent to give them feedback about their performance and it was really simple I know we did it as principles and I assumed it also went to school committee members but is that like it wasn't public it was just something like a check-in you know the midyear review is always kind of like it's it feels like as an evaluator I do the midyear review and I always said the state is like behind like Christmas is here and you're all of a sudden like doing all this and then you feel like you've just gone through all of this stuff and you're hit with the summative that the midy year is not really mid year midy year is like a month before where you sort of you can see the growth you can see it happen right so is it possible I'm just thinking that to collect so that the feedback is given through a different method you would agree on that early on with the superintend yeah and privately I mean that's the the thing about all of this is the the public piece is just to me offensive I mean this is really like offensive I wouldn't want to be evaluated public so I think you know to to seek feedback is is to me is a good thing it's reflective I mean that's the piece that really isn't as much in the superintendent as it is in the teachers where they're asked to reflect more yeah there's more observations Reflections so that's why I call the midyear a temperature taking I don't know if the superintendent wants to think forward about that and whether there might be some sort of check in along the way um the so the work that's done on teacher evaluations is quite a bit different because you're talking about um individual classrooms and the growth right among a number of students in those classrooms MH but I'm glad you've done that work how many teachers did you have to evaluate depended on the year a lot a lot and a lot of first year teachers right thank you pandemic and so to your question that's something you want to talk about in that initial meeting whether it's handled by a subcommittee but it'll eventually get to the school committee or if the full school committee does this if we have comments that are outside of the structure of the evaluation which is based on the goals it's not pertinent to the evaluation you know have that conversation so people understand ahead of time and they're more thoughtful when they're completing the evaluation right let me keep my focus and if there's this comment I want to make my best advice to anybody here is to have you know meet with superintendent have coffee every couple weeks once a month I don't know bring I don't know find a way to have that chat you probably meet on a on a regular basis with the superintendent you know don't be intrusive there's a ton of work going on but you should know one another and and each other how to best support one another I think that's a really good point that there are comments and questions that school committee members might have that just basically lie outside the scope of the evaluation but there's still valid and important conversations that that can be had that's on you Glenn but they are valid and important conversations so people want to be heard they don't they want to be understood um they want they want their input to be valued so you know you you're in a position to honor that you are a good person to do that you know your kids have you ever had teenagers anybody have teenagers middle schoolers right listen you still have to talk with them ultimately you'll raise good human beings if you do um just think of it that way sorry sorry not sorry but it's all part of the process we all were sometimes we all get a little for whatever reason we've got to be heard we want to be heard we want to talk through it um sometimes the difficult I think always the difficult conversations help us grow question sorry I'm taking up way too much of your time but I could sit here and talk about this well I want to say that time I think it's incredibly valuable and I'm not worried about like getting through all of it I think there will be a point where we start to fade and I welcome members to let me know when you're hitting that point um but we may need to ask if you could come back another time also but just looking around like I see people seem to be getting a lot out of this so um so thank you so much so I took a look at um Christine's strategic priority goal one for example and I I don't know what number slide this is cu for some reason slide um instructional leadership goal provide administrators with support for review of data and implementation of best practice to provide all students with access to high quality instruction that's was her student learning goal the indicator from the rubric was one being uh two of them and 2 C so from two different standards so the uh one of the agreed upon indicators was to provide feedback to administrators following um review of practice and artifacts to ensure that the principles are identifying and promoting effective instructional practice so the superintendent has uh is spending time with administ ministrators to ensure that they're effectively um evaluating their staff members and And discussing how where I want to see the artifacts I want to see the feedback you're providing um and if it goes deeper than just this feedback I want to know what you're doing how have you documented it um to see uh family and Community engagement is C use multiple sources of data related to student per perance to identify areas of strength and need create a plan to improve areas of need um you might be horrified at the amount of time your staff spends breaking down data in right Am I Wrong individual student data where are Liz's strengths where are her weaknesses if this is a weakness how are we going to address it if this is a strength how can we best use it to help others in the classroom for every single student in the classroom um superintendent is often times in on these things or reviews with principles why it's happened um what they've learned from it right um I'm glad that you're sitting here and you can help with those pieces because these half days they're either sitting in professional development and they're learning strategies or they're pulling apart data piece by piece question by question question student by student to determine how to be more effective Educators so then you look uh across at 2C which is the indicator from the rubric and look at the descriptions about what that performance looks like in each of the four categories and it's only something you get better at by doing it um authentically there's the desie rubric on the next slide um so 1B I guess I've highlighted which was meeting with the principles to ensure that they're collecting the correct artifacts you read the descriptors and you say okay all right I can see that the superintendent for example monitoring and supporting principles and instructional staff um to ensure that these practices are taking play that looks pretty proficient to me or something other than that um I think desie has made it much easier for us once we understand what we're looking at and why how to evaluate the work that's actually happening um and because we're getting to the end here does anybody have any questions on that so far you've done it hundreds of times you don't have questions on it you could be leading this um desie has done us um everybody I don't say this about desie much and if you know me you know that's true desie has essentially done us a pretty good favor with this in terms of we're not making it up from our own opinions in terms of how we think or feel the superintendent's performing it's very clear how we measure it um and we have some resources on our website um that will help you there are some recordings I think of previous um learning lunches up there about superintendent eval by different um field directors but I will tell you again and I'm not often complimentary but desie has some fantastic resources including um video series on how to evaluate um that I've looked at many times myself and I've learned something each time it's hard to take it all in at once until you start the work and um Believe It or Not Glenn I know I've taken up a lot of your time but that's sort of where I'm coming with this I think the key to this is um understanding you are one member of a team uh your mission your the work that you're doing is the most important work sorry mayor being done in this town because it is City it's to educate the students who are are all of our futures right sorry mayor I'm a I'm a strong proponent of of really educating all of our kids to to the the very best we can some you know if we only had all the money in the world which we don't um teachers would be paid like professional athletes because as we heard at the state house without teach with with teachers all professions are possible right they're the people who make all professions possible and we all can think about teachers who've helped us get to where we are and so the work that you're doing um is more than just sitting at board meetings talking about finances it has a deeper meeting thank you so much Les are there final questions or could we have a brief discussion I guess about what what do members see as next steps or is there more you want to learn at Future meetings on this topic I think one of the things that I would be interested in even as a retired person is like and Karen's I know you are organized a calendar like with all the events that are going on in the schools because to me that's the indicators right there we can go see like you know graduation absolutely you know but things that are happening after school um there really isn't the central calendar I mean and I can even say as a principal I was bad about it making sure it got on the central calendar but even the newsletters like I picked out some things that were happening on the newsletter that I would go to and see it and Glenn was an amazing school committee member who came to my school and we always appreciated that because it meant he cared about what was happening in the schools um we never felt threatened we always felt appreciated and I think that's what we all want to do is make people feel appreciated so um it some calendar and I don't know if that can just come from if we got all the newsletters um and there were some in this packet but not all that have those things that are happening so that we can be part of that and attend them I know everybody's interested in doing that um we want to be seen so that we can hear what we need to hear and they also could be even if there's something special you think is an indicator okay don't get crazy as an English teacher and write a bunch of stuff so I'm hearing two items like on the one hand I think kind of off the topic of superintendent evaluation nice for the school committee to to know about events and be able to attend things but you're talking about the calendar in regard to the superintendent evaluation as like an artifact to show some of the things that are happening thank you other comments or questions somebody in central office may already have at least the beginnings of such a calendar and may not be thinking about sharing it um but you're right open houses um like the student reps were saying sporting events just remember if you want to visit a school during the day while they're functioning that always goes through the superintendent right other questions or I mean other thoughts about next steps or more needs around learning about the superintendent evaluation process seon I don't know if it's it's a a need but I am really looking forward to whatever session we have where we actually set out the Rules of Engagement that we would like to agree upon with each other and have this process question and I'm thinking for your sake that should probably be a session where we suspend the normal rules of order um so we can actually have a real conversation about it um when we get there yeah we could we could have that conversation I could kind of gather people's thoughts and then come back with the proposal for a process at a future meeting or something like that could be a way to go um one thing I'm wondering because I think part of the reason for this was like as member Den mentioned there was a committee that was kind of working on um on the evaluation tool itself and I I wonder if people are with me where I am with this is very much kind of what Liz was saying is like we're learning this process we're learning about the rubric together and we have a tool that's in place that will be in place when Karen begins so maybe we're really maybe we think about like trying it for this next cycle with our existing tool with some more training and information and then seeing if there is a need to change the tool or if the problem was more that um we need to increase our ability to collaborate together as a school committee with the superintendent and um and have a deeper knowledge of what you presented tonight so that's kind of where I am are there people seeing it differently mayor I I just want to say listening to this I think this is a different group and I think this sounds like a very good tool and I just look around the room and I see everybody is very cooperative and wants to work together I'm for trying this because it sounds tried and true throughout many school districts as opposed to a different one we seem to all talk and listen just remember Glenn the new superintendent needs to agree to the tool that's right and I think she has agreed to our existing tool basically is so this part of her contract if we wanted to change that mid contract we would need Karen's agreement on that um so uh right so it wouldn't just be oh do we want to change it it would be do can we get Karen on board with the idea that A change is needed as well correct and if I could just wait as someone who's evaluated hundreds of people using a desie tool that at first glance seems overwhelming and cumbersome um I've really have enjoyed des's Focus indicators which I know we will agree upon goals but when you have your sites specifically fine-tuned in on specific indicators that we really believe um together are going to be the best to move student growth and achievement I think it makes the rubric less overwhelming because then you aren't having to deal with 300 indicators and in all of these different areas but they really are the ones that we've agreed upon are most important for our students right now so I think um that's part of what's made those Focus indicators even better for Eddie Val for our teaching staff and having us have that waterfall of the district admin is doing this the building admin is doing this the staff in the buildings are doing this and it's really collaborated the efforts about where we're all rowing in the same direction because the focus is on that exactly I have a timeline question so when is it that we plan on setting the goals and selecting the indicators when does that usually happen and when will it be happening for you since you're new superintendent couple weeks I would presume oh you wasn't thinging it's that fast slow down um no I would think that Glenn and I could talk about that but for the teachers process your self assessment is in September draft goals are in October agreement on those goals is November formative happens in January summative in May so I would think there would be some similar sense to that but certainly a conversation Glenn and I can think about yeah maybe for the June meeting we could come with like kind of a draft timeline to share with the committee and get your feedback on it I and I would love to learn more about the focus areas you're referring to Karen so maybe we could have a presentation on that as well sure um I don't believe they're out for next year but I can bring 2023 is that we use this year with our Educators and administrators be great that would be great than you it's a great way to kick off your focus okay great speaking of focuses yes nice uh any other comments or questions or thoughts about next steps member Den when you're bringing this all together in June can you also include um our process of making the yearl agenda since if we're starting it at the beginning of our year which is really summer um it would fit in maybe nicely and then we would really know what we have ahead of us great yourong agend school committee yearlong agenda item in June as well thank you so much okay that's a lot less intimidating than it sounds okay that's good I mean I've heard about it before but um and I guess just remember like anything else in this field um there could likely would likely be uh the opportunity to have to shift things as the work moves forward but um it provides staff too with good notice if they need anything to be ready and you know that's planned thoughtfully in terms of all the other things that are happening in the school so do it once you're an old hat and if you could share with me some exemplars Liz of other committee that would be great thank you any other next steps people see from this conversation all right thank you very much Liz so much for coming and being so generous with your time and your year and knowledge the batt old days thank call text email you know me any one of my colleagues all having answer the most you're preparing young people really our thank you good night all right um I guess I would encourage members to note the hour as we move through the rest of the agenda item and feel free to make motions to table things um as as you think would be Ser best serve yourself in your bedtime tonight um so we're on to day on the hill report back and next steps member Den all right um this will serve also as my report for legislative representative so you could take that number nine off the back for our bedtime great um all right I'll try to read quickly but not too quickly uh on May 6th we attended the masc day on the hill event we prepared for this event with a meeting in March and in April with our division five leader Humera fudin and Jason Frasier uh we created a collaboration between districts here in Western Massachusetts those districts were lllo Sunderland Gil monu Hadley and Mohawk we had meetings with Senator olera Senator Jason Lewis who is the Senate chair of the joint committee on education representative ultrino who is the house Vice chair of joint education committee Senator Eldridge Ian O'Neal the education analyst for the Senate Ways and Means Committee along with senator Paul Mark and an unexpected meeting with Senator hwit we also have zoom meetings scheduled for next week with representative whips and representative sabadosa who were not at the State House on that day what we focused on was rural Aid that needs to be fully funded at 60 million rather than the 15 million presented in the governor's budget this was cut to 7.5 Million by the house ways and means but as of just recently like last night Senate Ways and Means moved rural schools funding back to 15 million and there are amendments being stopped for increase uh we also discussed the impris implicit price deflator that of 1.35% that more fully reflects actual inflation of 4.5% um this is something that we didn't know if we would be able to affect very much in um fy2 but people are filing to make the change for FY 26 with some catchup Provisions um so far there hasn't been any movement on this as of last night but this is something that we discussed um in all of our meetings we also discussed the per pupil minimum proposed uh at $104 by the house Ways and Means and um they did put an amendment on the floor for 200 per pupil minimum masc would like to see $100 the minimum moving forward in next fiscal cycles and as of last night the Senate Ways and Means concurred and $104 minimum has passed uh we also uh discussed uh Regional Transportation issues and special education Transportation issues um and we also discussed um setting the circuit breaker at 75% for both tuition and transportation cost as some Transportation costs are now higher than tuition costs for out of District special education and as of last night the Senate Ways and Means included language to reimburse out of District special ed Transportation at 75% there were also a number of other bills that masc identified um since it's late at night you'll probably all get these things in the mail if you get the little handouts you can you can read about them and um what they do but I'm happy to uh put something together and uh send them off in an email for your information um but some of the next steps that we identified as a group were that the legislators feel that may is too late to make really effective change and some of the meetings we were watching the budget go down the hallway as we're talking about the change we wanted to make so um we are suggesting that we continue to build this multi-district Coalition but starting in the fall and having virtual or in-person meetings with legislators quarterly next year is the beginning of a new legislative session and so that will be time to identify and bring our priorities to the table and the few legislators that we discussed this with thought that that was a good idea so hopefully we can start to create a little bit of a schedule to be uh in their faces earlier and more regularly um we were also approached about earmarks again and we were given an unexpected crash course course on how to do them properly so an important next step is to identify what Greenfield needs and have that info uh ready approved and collected so that requests can be submitted right away so that's something that we should really get right on and uh that's what we did so if anyone has any questions I'm happy to answer them and I hope to all see you there next year and hopefully we can bring along some teachers and some students because it is available to them as well questions or comments for Elizabeth that was excellent um I would that was a good job uh I think that's really wise and I would just put in a little FYI if you're doing this again for the fall if you write to Janine because I never can get to my other email I'll try to get on my schedule too because I think it would be important for me to go to some of those where we're meeting with the legislators oh absolutely just that's I I like be three days in before I get to the school one but just I know Stacy knows to write to the other one but I'm I'm quite interested and impressed thank you whoever went who went who went to the days on the hill you went and you went and Kate okay thank you for going because I think that's what's going to make a difference is people advocating it's a squeaky wheel that gets the oil and it's a lot of work to do all the preparation and go all the way there so I'm grateful on behalf of the people here it was a ton of work and I really do appreciate it uh your leadership in particular remember kind of breathing life into our legislative uh advocacy which has been dormant since before I got here so many you're very welcome and it was nice to see them sort of really excited to see so many of us packed into their offices we took all the seats and then some um and I think that that made a real big difference to see a group from Western Mass it's targeted on top of it from all the different districts lended a lot of weight absolutely and um if there are already items where we could put them together as a resolution that the school committee could vote on so uh so it's really the voice of the whole school committee you know the power of us voting on things like that I think would be great so as soon as you have any items ready we can get them on an agenda no problem I will send them all to you just one last thing I was asked for those ear marks our delegation for things for the city and I wouldn't want to step on your toes Karen um but if we're talking to them and you have lists of things that you need maybe you'll put some things together they gave they told me things from 50 to 100,000 and I put a bunch of them and then I told them about the fire truck that was 2 and5 million but we did get one of the things and I you know I'm was very pleased with their advocacy I made that list of things up myself but as soon as they asked for it I wrote it right away but that would not be within my purview or I I wouldn't think any of us so if you had some thoughts sounds like people are going to be going meeting you know so thank you yeah I think it speaks to like the coordination between the city and the schools and between the school committee legislative advocacy and the district's Administration and the mayor and trying to really all be working in harmony with each other yeah it which is tricky to do because sometimes you get a rep who's just like what do you need yeah it's very fast all of a sudden they're like okay give me your stuff and I'm like I need to talk to this person and it might take a week and they're like well we're like we're done so having something ready and maybe having it pre-written out and and being like if you want to empower me to hand those things off I could I could facilitate that when it falls in your lap which is exactly how it happens unexpectedly at random moments so it's hard to not it feels frustrating to not be ready and I want to be ready to facilitate whatever you guys need yeah and I and without Christine here I'll just double check whether tomorrow but I do believe she had talked to uh Joe comford on earmarks in that conversation so I'll just follow up to see what the content of that conversation was so I know what if anything was asked for thank you any other uh next steps on Dan on the hill great all right um so the next item is subcommittees and representatives and I don't have in your packet um the uh proposal for the um for the eval uh the assignments for the subcommittees with our new member it's very um not complex I just put member Goodwin's name in Where um where member pret's name was which means that the new assignment would be um member went to policy and program subcommittee um to be the representative to the collaborative for Educational Services and to be the representative to the district Wellness committee so I would love a motion to uh approve the revised subcommittee and representative assignments um uh dated May 2024 as presented so moved seconded all right a member a motion for member seon and a second for member child's any discussion all right all those in favor I I looks unanimous I will abstain um so welcome to the uh policy and program subcommittee member goodwi great to have you on board and I'm sure the collaborative end can someone tell me who made the the most motion again sorry member SE and who seconded sorry member child's okay thank you all right so that passed and then the next item is um one item in our policy um says that you will all of us will be presented with um the functions and duties of each subcommittee and I um have made a good start on that maybe you'd say a good start I've got a lot of feedback to incorporate from um Christine and Karen before it's ready to bring to you um so that'll have to wait another month but um I think you know just given the conversations that are happening by a shared document on Google Drive between me Christine and Karen it's becoming clear that these um these functions and Duty descriptions are a little bit overdue and I think will be a useful tool for us uh in um sticking within our our roles um in these different subcommittees so stay tuned but in the meantime if you if people have um thoughts um about your um committee and what kind of scope you would like to see or what functions you envision for yourself um please feel feel free to share those with me any questions on all of that okay um um great now we're on to school committee reports um report of the chair I will just say um really pleased with um the the training tonight I think that was a one of the big strategic things that we we wanted to do this year and uh really grateful for Liz for coming and for the the work that was done to to coordinate all of that so um from the administration so thank you all very much so we'll move on to report of the budget and finance subcommittee um member Martini do you want to give a report yes uh so budget and finance had a meeting on May 1 and the uh items covered were an update on fy2 budget and also an annual budget calendar for the school committee uh and to sum up uh R DeBarge provided a summary of discussion that took place um uh her presentation to the city council Ways and Means Committee uh at which she answered uh questions along the lines of uh items about staff changes line item fluctuations the church parking lot rental uh at and uh and Christine you admitted comment you wondered if you uh talked too long but I have watched that meeting I thought you did a great job um we'll pass that along to her Christine left before the superintendent evaluation presentation sorry I must have Miss that uh in any case uh following that uh she provided alongside Andy an update in regards to uh the FY 25 budget so uh to put in a very small nutshell uh essentially as you all know the mayor recommended a 4% budget increase rather than the 5.86 uh that was voted by the school committee which results in a $400 and some thousand difference and uh fortunately we will be able to make up most of that because of a billing issue with the bus company through which we will have a substantial credit as well as using uh some of our special education revolving and as a result of that we will be uh provided that the city council goes ahead and um appropriates the amount of money proposed by the mayor we should be able to avoid losing staff uh and following that discussion uh we talked about an annual budget calendar this is something that many school committees around the Commonwealth have and something that I have learned about through uh other trainings provided by the Massachusetts Association of school commun um attended previously and uh we began a discussion about developing one for green fields and this is not something that we have had up to now and uh so we began with reviewing samples from other school committees around the Commonwealth and I would encourage um anybody interested in this topic to go on the website and take a look through the meeting materials for that May 1st meeting so that you can see what I am talking about um we were able to go over themes that could be pulled out from this uh set of examples from other committees and uh those themes relate to time frames for uh important parts of the budget development cycle um such as for example um when school committees adopt their annual budget calendar which usually takes place at the beginning of the school year and then important points along the way um such as when Capital Improvement project requests uh are in when budget instructions and forms are distributed to leadership and when they're due back and are reviewed with Administration and um when a review of the FY next uh budget development is provided to the school committee so that the committee can identify its budget priorities within that and uh then of course come all of the annual items that most people think of as budget season um such as a preliminary budget presentation to the subcommittee and then to the school committee and a posting and a public hearing and uh and a vote by the school committee and presentation to city council so uh what is evident from looking at many um examples from committees around the Commonwealth is that there's uh a purpose to having an annual budget calendar for the committee and also for I think the public uh for the committee the idea is to help us to uh take a more organized approach to our responsibility in regards to to the budget um as one of the three main goals of the school committee and um for the public you will see that there is alignment um of committee time frames alongside um Administration the city and the state so that a person can have an at a glance view of a comprehensive big picture understanding of budget development uh and so we had a a good discussion about this and the next step will be to develop a preliminary draft of a uh of a budget calendar for Greenfield school committee so uh I would encourage anyone like I said interested to go ahead and take a look at the materials that were posted and please um feel free to share your feedback thank you so much wow I'm impressed okay any questions or comments from the committee not seeing any thank you so much member Martini um policy and program subcommittee our work is visible to you on the agenda that we did tonight uh there is not more I I don't think at this moment but if there are policies ever policies you have questions about or want us to take a fresh look at certainly let us know we could put it on one of our agendas um the executive subcommittee did not meet uh redistricting and reorganizing at hoc committee we also did not meet did not meet did the school committee handbook ad hoc committee meet we did not meet but I'll be pulling for a meeting in June great okay and uh we approved the contract tonight so thank you very much member ston for your hard work on that bargaining committee and our collaborative representative position was vacant this month so um we don't have anything on that City Planning and construction rep uh the regularly scheduled April meet not April May meeting sorry is next Tuesday okay wonderful uh we've had our legislative report our mask report and the district Wellness uh rep was uh vacant as well this month um so I think we can move on to adjournment I move that we adjourn ah excellent all right who was the second Melody remember good one okay all right all those in favor uh any discussion all those in favor of adjourning I I I I won't abstain from that one we are adjourned at what time is it my classes 9:22 9:22 p.m. thank you everybody that's the longest one we've had [Music]

in the ghs auditorium admission is $5 and refreshments are included lastly in partnership with the French Department of Frontier and Hopkins ghs welcomes a group of high school students stents from NES France who will be learning about American culture and creating International connections during home stays in our community through May 12 AV club is currently on break until Mr Carina returns from paternity leave uh Spectrum recently designed and ordered their t-shirts to wear in their Franklin Country Pride Parade in June this month they will also be celebrating their senior members and preparing for the parade and rally um and then student Representatives the ones present at the table um have held two meetings with the administration regarding the content of the student reports with a fixation on the discussion of bathrooms conversations have occurred in an effort to gain a mutual understanding of the ongoing issue at our school within the building one that impacts the Safety and Security of students when using the facilities such meetings have been organized to address a separation in administrative and student understanding and we hope that they will be a continued means of administrative involvement in the future as a means to receive the direct voices and opinions of students um that concludes our report today it's pretty brief but if you have any questions we'd be happy to answer any questions thank you very much really appreciate it have a good [Music] night okay we'll move to our vote to enter into executive session pursuant to massachus General Law chapter 3A section 21 A3 to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining or litigation if an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining or litigating position of the public body and the chair so declares the committee will return to open session we have a motion to enter into executive session for that reason so m a motion from secretary Den is there a second second second from Member seon any discussion roll call vote secretary um secretary J I'm yes Vice chair Martini is yes okay chair Johnson mad yes mayor dorer yes uh member Goodwin yes member Childs yes member seon yes it is unanimous okay we will go to Open Session and we will return [Music] oh [Music] for us to start we don't have oh we do have everyone home all right okay welcome back we are back from our executive session um and now um I would hear a motion to approve the contract for Boe it employees some is there a second second okay motion from Member ston and a second from mayor dorer any [Music] discussion I just like to publicly thank um the team that worked on this the administration and Stacy seon represented the school committee while in these negotiations and sounds like everyone came in good faith and worked cooperatively so we love that uh and so I would uh let see let's call the um the vote all in favor say I I I I member Martini do you want to I oh okay and um and I will abstain and the motion carries um oh uh with uh unfortunately with with member good went out out of the room unfortunately but uh the M motion carries so let's see we will move on to reports of the administration and I believe that Andy pette will be joining us by um speaker phone all right Andy are you there I'm here can you hear me yep we can hear you can thank you excellent okay so you have in your packet the we're on the home stretch here so our monthly report of the local budget and the revolving accounts um We are continuing to go through Year End closing and journal entries um we're reviewing all encumbrances to make sure that we've got everything incumber there will be some encumbrances coming for some normal year- end expenditures that you know we're just getting final numbers on that will ultimately increase the incumbered amounts uh and payroll is also going through and doing another review to ensure that we are have all our you know incumbrances for the summer pay for those that get paid over the summer uh and we'll be doing some re classes you know potentially if you look at the revolving accounts as of right now you know the only one with a uh quote I say deficit is the prek tuition uh and that could be again looking at the revenues we're just reviewing to see if we've got more revenues outstanding that we're going to collect but if need be we have the funds available to address that through whether it be another revolving account or reclassing expenditures back to the local fund similar to what we've done when there's been an athletic uh a deficit in the athletic revolving account with that said I can answer any questions that anyone might have yes member Goodwin Andy I just have a couple questions because I didn't know what what those numbers meant and the math teacher in me likes to know what numbers mean so there was at the end the year to date on page eight it just says business administration [Music] manager the accounts payable person and the two people in the payroll office okay and then another question about the Vans which like so I read the warrants and one of the bills was to replace a water pump in the Honda so the Hondas as I drove a Honda for 20 years so it's only got 25,000 mil on that van didn't it come with a warranty when those things were bought I would have to review that um if it's 1300 bucks for a new water pump you you know and that was the bill and I was like most Hondas it's 100,000 miles before you have to pay anything so that was just one of my questions and then so I'm looking a transportation like you're paying $400 a month to transport a child to Springfield and I've held those van doors and I've done that but couldn't one of our vans have done that I mean is somebody really looking at the efficiency of our vans versus paying another company to transport kids so what I can tell you is that well go ahead Andy no you you can you can start I'll fill in if you if I don't agree yeah you'll agree um the um day-to-day scheduling of our vans is over seen by the transportation coordinator so any runs that can be done by our Fleet are done by our Fleet um depending what the bill is and I don't know specifically and obviously we don't want to talk about specific children but at times there are um we are transporting students under mckin vento which often or they're always should be a cost share situation so the warrant wouldn't reflect the offset set from another District if that's the case Okay um but I can tell you with certainty that we are um using our Fleet to address the fiscal pieces so if we're transporting if we are paying to transport that's because for whatever individual reason um that was the most effective way to get the student transported so you're the only person who really knows this you and Andy are the Vans making money for us oh Andy can tell you that quite clearly we've but before he says his answer I will tell you as part of the Strategic plan y one of the pieces was going to be um an evaluation of the transportation structure that we have in terms of the internal transportation and then we had a change in coordinator so we've not asked the new coordinator to do that yet she's still getting the lay of the land um but that is part of the Strategic plan okay so Andy do you want to give her the answer was it the question about are our vans making money for us that is the question yes uh I have to admit honestly uh yes and I was somewhat surprised we've seen a steady increase over the years as to the revenue that the transportation program is generating so if you look last year uh on the transportation revolving account we had 265,000 as of May 6 we've collected 310,000 400 31,41 310,000 38 uh tripping over my tongue there so it is generating revenues to offset the overall Transportation program uh and if you were to look at the trends uh it is been consistently increasing over the years since uh I guess the Vans were bought prior to our arrival so yes uh like three years three years years steadily steadily increasing as to their revenue generated so you think even with the salaries of the drivers and the insurance and parking them someplace and that you know they're now five years old so it's it's never going to be a self-supporting program when you look at the total cost for it which you know uh would be it would be pretty we'd have to charge the districts that we are currently providing services to you know they would they would end up going elsewhere looking for okay uh their transportation providers from what it is that we're doing so uh but it's you know that's not out of the out of the norm for uh you know we do have as much as I hate to use the word h a hybrid approach of providing our own transportation and Contracting out what it is that we we can't provide so when you look at the total funding sources for our transportation and the transportation both regular Ed special education um yeah it's uh you know it covers you know uh not you know doesn't cover half of it but for what it does cover we'll say that it's increasing okay just thinking the future because getting older well that's why we have that um analysis of the transportation structure as part of the Strategic plan obviously it won't be done this year but it is part of the fiveyear fiveyear plan thank you any other questions for oh yes uh let's see go with secretary den and then the mayor hi Andy I had two questions um just because I was wondering if you could just tell me what the line item means on page eight the second to the last one above the school committee it just says contracted service but could you just tell me what contracted service that covers just so that I know in the future when I'm looking at this sure that is the contract for our services that's the TMS Services line correct okay and then the the other one and that's 148 320 correct like we're looking at the same thing yes okay and then the other one that I wanted to ask about is on page seven and it's the same question I'm just not 100% sure what it means um contracted professionals or professors it just says p rof and that's to 2295 $70 so I'm just wondering so I know in the future what that means sure that's a combination of medical therapeutic otpt speech services those are the special education providers that provide our instead of the staff if we have to go out for specialized contracted services for medical therapeutic that's what that primarily is okay all that is okay thank you I appreciate it mayor hi Andy I have a couple questions um what is while we're on this page I have one that I want to know on page seven um oh it's about seven or eight down what is Administration for 310,000 224 it's under school lunch special education the director of special education the assistant director of special education and the uh SP chairs or I forget what their team etls etls yes sorry thank you I have I have three more is that okay y you have the floor um what is what what is your order of spending what do you spend down first Grant Capital operating uh well the grants most of our grants are written for specific expenses so we have to spend the Grant in accordance with what the grant was written for um so it's kind of a two prong you know I'd say that's a I'd say a unique thing so we we use the grants for you know and yes we do amend grants when if there's a potential change in plan that we'd be allowed to do but uh they're pretty much written and we adhere to the grant plan as was written uh there are parameters regarding for example circuit breaker circuit breaker we're required to spend at least the prior year balance that we received the amount that we received so we have to spend that and then uh you know the the local budget uh we again adhere to our plan for a local budget but again with just a quick history with Ed reform uh School committees were provided significant flexibility as far as the use of their fund because of the value that at Reform Act of 93 placed on education um you know kind of stating the obvious but so we end up using the funds and that's why even though we see negatives there's a balance at the end but you know that balance is going to be eliminated with our end of the year spending that hasn't been encumbered yet and dealing with potenti deficits as I alluded to earlier uh and uh we'll be uh looking and re-evaluating if there are things with that balance that we need that uh we had to either cut or that would help out for the future as Allowed by ever fourth thank you and we have to vote on um every time when we do the budget we have to vote on revolving fund B balances do you um no revolving funds spending limits does the do schools need to do that or there different regulations I just honestly have no idea the I'm I would like to think when the revolving accounts are voted on uh I believe education revolving accounts are included in what the city would vote um but there are no Bal the only limitation regarding some of the revolving accounts specifically build use obviously it it's its title tells you what it is that it can be used for to offset expenses for any organizations that use the building uh school choice is used you know it's the definition of the school choice revolving account says that it's used to educate those students that are taking part in the Greenfield Public Schools through the school choice program can be used for salaries which we do use it for circuit breaker again that's the one that really has the the the restri of you cannot carry over more than the prior year receipts that you or I should say you have you have to spend at least the prior year receipt amounts that were received uh and carry over no more anything that if you were to carry over a balance more any balance above that uh would get turned over to the town or the city thank you okay last one and this one I certainly don't need the answer to today this is on the capital expenditures um and so you can you might have to look it up for the next time on the high school um when the high school was built it looks from looking at this one and I'm not sure um that there's $185,000 left and um I and the reason I'm asking about it is because I went to watch one of the um I went to watch a baseball game and they were asking me about the lights and we've set aside $20,000 I think for lights and if they're LEDs which are more efficient it's going to cost a couple hundred, to put lights on vet's field which that's what I would like it to be I'm going to talk to Carol to see if there's something you know if there's any kind of grants for that but um I did see that there was Field improvements used there so I just wanted to put a bug in people's ear or ask about that this is on page five of the capital um of the things that we borrowed for so um it would be at the high school and it looks like you the whole amount wasn't expended I didn't know if it was like that's what happens with our capital projects we still sometime we have retained things and we can repurpose it and so I was just wondering maybe to the next meeting if you could check and maybe I'm off base I would like to check though cuz the the line that was identified for vets field Improvement was fully expended okay on this um but I'd like to see if we can figure out what that was um I think solar wasn't I think perhaps solar wasn't but I just was looking at it knowing that there was another Energy Efficiency perhaps and I I'm getting ahead of myself but I thought I would just mention it so that's probably a good um history for us to review because the um Andy and I and if I may you may let me put you back under the mic the thing that would need some research I I have that money was used with msba borrowing and debt exclusion vote so obviously any use of that would have to be in line with what the debt was Deb exclusion vote was um so I I would say we would just need to to recommend that the city would check with either Bond Council or legal counsel as to whether or not if we're talking and I I apologize mayor are you thinking about potentially using it for lights well it wasn't actually it it was just a discussion item I know that people have asked me they've come into the office and asked me about lights and then there were people that some people came in and said if we did that real quick we wouldn't have to buy those energy efficient ones which I would prefer to buy the the ones that were recommendation my recommendation would be though whatever is decided would you would just want to run it by Bond councel uh to see as to whether or not um it would fall in line with a debt exclusion vote because any vote if you're going to repurpose funds that were voted via a debt exclusion it has to be for a comparable project in line with what the debt vote was and is that something we're all everyone is supposed to agree on does Andy do you know that can you repeat the question there is that something that everyone's supposed to agree on or how does that work I can I can save that for off I'll save that for later okay that's a that's that's a legal council question as to whether or not quite honestly as far as like the the author to repurpose it uh uh I would think would have to go at a minimum to city council but I I very easily could be wrong on that so again not being an attorney I would recommend asking legal counsel as to whose authority it is to repurpose that thank you that's that's all thanks a lot yes remember good one okay Andy you've been doing our books for quite a few years now so are our sped costs like what percentage do you think they're going up what percentage do I think they're going up as far as from 24 to 25 or yeah like every year are they going up is there a like a pattern to this do you see a pattern oh no there I mean it's very hard to say a pattern when some of our tuition costs which are the biggest ones are dictated by the OSD rate setting okay where previous year was 14% this year we're at like six and change I believe is what they said um and then uh we have the the standard I'll say the transiency of the ins and outs of the uh the the population um but I mean I can do a quick uh look and see as far as what we're looking at for overall special education if you just give me a second here I think some of the other factors that are going to challenge looking at any pattern is um Staffing that has you know we've had Staffing challenges especially since um pandemic so I think that's that's going to be a challenge in looking at any kind of consistent expenditures yeah like our contracted services are going to definitely be um representing the fact that we've had a hard time getting School sites so we've had to contract which is you know on the whole going to be much more expensive than hiring a staff person so some things are not Apples to Apples I guess I would say post pandemic costs you know so here's that here's an example I mean when you look at the trends you know we've had from 21 to 22 the overall actual expenditures in special education in the local budget went down 700,000 but the use of other other funding sources increased so it was about level 25 22 to 23 we saw a significant increase of 1 million 1.1 million 23 to 24 we are down in our local but we are increasing because of again with the funds available when you get an increase in circuit breaker that means we need to use more of that to do so and projecting for 24 to 25 when we look at well you know we saw uh some students aging out or moving out uh we're looking at an overall 9% decrease in our special education in total but as Christin I mean that's as of right now you know that that could very easily change and we see those fluctuations I mean the number of times that we have met with uh Mr messing to go over changes that we've had to make in his budget for year because of whether it's increased needs of services that weren't budgeted for um it's bit regular we'll say okay so here's the big question you have some amazing human beings sitting here who went to Boston to meet with legislatures to fight for the schools where do you think the fight is MoneyWise is it special ed cost is it transportation is it you know additional f funding for the homeless what is the where would the best bang for the buck go if we're talking to I'm going to say yes yes yes and yes okay all kiding aside but what I mean without being good but I mean I'm gonna say that the biggest my this every year it comes up with the fact that you know whether it's a circuit breaker and or even cly at the federal level the Ida legislation was supposed to be for 100% reimbursement for special education costs that has never occurred and unfortunately you know I'm GNA be very cynical I don't think it ever will and that's where you know one of the things that I I say you when I do these trainings with school committees and administrators it's all well and good to be talking about the foundation budget formula and all these things as far as net School spending required local contribution but when time comes for the budget velopment process down in Boston all the rules go out the door you know there's no penalty if they say you know there is never been a penalty about fully funding circuit breaker every year we're budgeting at 70% we're lucky if we get it up to 75% you know so it's things like that where you know I mean all and I'm all kidding aside again but I would say you know keep advocating for all of it because sooner or later you similar to what happened with the student Unity yet you know there was enough you know human and cry over it and then once they started to do the research it said yes we need to do another adjustment to our funding for Education that's you know that's I'm gon to say just we need to keep doing that okay thank you thank you any other questions all right let's move on to the assistant superintendent report thank you Andy thank hanging good evening everyone um updates on professional development we have one more half day on May 24th for our PD session last one of the year we've been continuing our work with the teaching lab and our instructional strategy work we are going on walkthroughs this week our last walkthrough of the year with all six buildings we will again share that data and plan our last professional development with uh faculty meetings that are ending the school year along with collaboration teaching lab will be on site on May 24th investigating history we've been working with educurious and naen extrom and she will be coming May 24th to finish up with the PD she's been providing to our Middle School history teachers on the new curriculum resources that we've adopted this year and our High School Math teachers will continue to get their ongoing support and illustrative math their last session this year is called enhancing access and that will will take place also on that PD day some curriculum updates with regards to Civics um Miss Zimmerman our eighth grade history teacher took our kiddos to Old Sturbridge Village where they got to attend an 1830s town meeting I shared a photo from the day the kids were very excited to go back to Old Sturbridge Village and I love sharing photos with all of you so you can see what they get to experience they did have to debrief and write um some Reflections when they returned and I got to read a few of them and it was nice to see that not only did they think it was educational but they had a really good time and thought it was fun and then um title one has funded some field trips and we took our third and fourth graders from every Elementary to the new Greenfield Public Library and uh really want to thank the children's librarian there she provided a great tour did a scavenger hunt with our kids so they got to explore the whole Library they had a fabulous time and you'll see that uh some of our Newton Elementary students they shared their photo with me of how much fun they had at their scavenger hunt title Von also tries to keep reading and math the focus when students are on vacation so that they're continuing their learning and they always sponsor a challenge over April vacation everyone who participates gets a little gift and then we do a raffle for students by grade level and they either Got a roundabout books gift certificate this time or a magic wings gift certificate to go to the butterfly museum so uh some of our very happy Federal Street Elementary School Prize winners are shown here and then just lastly as Christine and I continue our transition planning and our roles shifting here um I begun to meet with three high school student groups already thus far I spent the day at Greenfield High School and today I spent the day with Newton Elementary folks and I will continue to do that um it's just been a really great experience thus far just getting feedback from folks um really proud of all the work that we've done and started and they're really excited to see where we're going to continue um with the transition being smooth since we've been together for so long so it's just a really good day I'm also going to try to include some family and student Community groups um and those are to be determined I just haven't pick times and places but I'll get that information out as well and that's it thank you let's hear for the superintendent and then we'll get questions for both of you okay so first I'd like to make sure that we all know that this week is Teacher Appreciation Week and um I know that um our buildings have had some nice activities provided from pto's from some of our administrators trying to um somehow how reflect the level of gratitude and appreciation that we have in all of our Educators it's teacher appreciation week and I would also like to add to that that all of our staff have the opportunity to educate our students and have a positive impact and we appreciate all of them um the other special thing for today is that it's actually national school nurse day so our School nurses are being celebrated with within teacher appreciation week so that's also a wonderful thing we're very fortunate to have a full compliment of School nurses at this point and um they do a wonderful job with our students so we in Greenfield are extremely proud of the staff here and know the positive impact that they have on their students um speaking of staff not teachers but we have some administrative updates that I'm very happy I'm announcing them um because I can't but they're going to be Karen's administrative team so Destiny maker will be joining us at Four Corners she is taking Mike Browning's spot you folks might remember that Mike is moving up to the high school effective July 1st um destiny is coming to us from the Hoy public schools and she was able to be at Four Corners this afternoon with the staff meeting to meet the staff and interact with them a little bit um stie cororo will be taking over as principal of Newton School effective July 1 um Darlene is moving into our 504 coordinator position which we're very pleased to have and um stie is also coming to us from the Hoy Oak School so we're happy about that and she was also at Newton this afternoon to meet with the staff you're seeing a pattern that was planned um and then um Mr Morrison has moved his last day in green field to May 17th so Roland joyle who is a veteran administrator he was the principal of chicke high school for 18 years and then an executive director at the lower Pioneer Valley collaborative will be moving into the interim position at the high school for the last month of school Roland has actually been serving us as an interim Middle School associate principal since February and loving it here and so um despite the fact that he would have been quite happy to finish out at the middle school he did agree to move to the high school um having a veteran principal step in will allow him to take care of the logistical work as we close out a high school year including the logistics of graduation um and that will allow Gina Johnson and Michelle Gould or associate principles to keep supporting our kids and focusing on that instead of having to worry about some of the day-to-day operations so so I think it's a good option to um ask him to fill that role for us um speaking of graduation all the school committee members had at your spot your um a copy of your graduation and Senior Awards night invitation so please let us know if you'll be able to join and I'm very happy to share that we will be hosting our graduation on Saturday June 1st at 10:00 a.m.

to get on the bus between 6:30 a.m. to 7:00 a.m. and they arrive home approximately 5: to 6:00 p.m. or those involved in sports get home at like 6:30 to 8:00 p.m.

half million in that budget balance but that's just because it's being held in reserve to being paid for the in the next fiscal year in the fall so this is um the mainten and operations fund this is where you see that four roughly $4.4 million adjustment upwards again that 4 and a.

I did type it up between 12 and 2 yeah thank you all right um did we get a second yeah all those in favor I I thank you thanks action thank you okay next item is j6 Dr streer president Lopez governing board members members of the audience in 2012 the Mirana schools 2340 foundation in Arizona nonprofit tax exempt Corporation was formed to provide additional resources and supplement education and en en richment programs for the students and staff of the Miran Unified School District the 2340 Foundation board of directors is comprised of one class one director which is myself the ND superintendent it's three to five class two directors who are appointed by the governing board of musd and class three directors who are elected by the class one and class two directors of that Corporation the bylaws of the 2340 Foundation state that not less than two class last two directors shall be a member of the governing board of musd currently Dr Marbel Lopez and Mr Tom Carlson are serving as class two directors the Morana schools 2340 foundation's board of directors is respectfully requesting that Dr Lopez be reappointed for a one-year term and that Mr Carlson be reappointed for a threeyear term I move the the governing board reappoint Dr marabel Lopez for a one-year term and Mr Tom Carlson for a three-year term second what's what's the foundation all about I I I session I move that the governing board conduct an executive session pursuant to AR RS 38- 43103 A5 for the purpose of Consulting with and or instructing the board's Representatives regarding negotiations second I'd like to thank everyone for coming tonight and wish you guys a Happy rest of the year next couple of weeks and thank you for everything you do so thank you e e e okay we're we are live when they get back to their seats thank you you're welcome a lot of smil okay you ready okay we are back from our executive session so we're now moving to item K is there any board member request no no so we'll move to item L future meetings I don't have it front of me but we know when the future meetings are so can I have a motion to adjourn I make a motion that the governing board adjourn second all those in favor