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say this Pledge of Allegiance with me thank you Al flag of the United States of America and to the repblic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all and board we have some above and beyond Bo join me good evening Madame President Dr Smith members of the board and guests we are excited to bring to you tonight our above and beyond recipients could Patrice Carmen please come forward right next to M Johnson congratulations to Mrs Patrice Carman administrative assistant at ELC Amy Berlin for being selected to receive the above and beyond award Mrs Carmen consistently takes care of all staff at ELC Amy Berlin she shows initiative demonstrates excellent customer service with our families and addresses challenges way before they become problems we never have to worry when Miss Coleman is leading the office we're honored to present to you the above and beyond award congratulations [Applause] m c yes you come on over a little bit right perfect right here please one two three congratulations do you have family attending that you like to introduce have my mom and my brother all right thank you very next up we have Leonardo carvalo congratulations to Mr Leonardo caral our head custodian at Forest Glenn Elementary School for being selected to receive the above and beyond award Mr carvallo's work ethic is unparalleled and he is an incredible asset to Forest Glenn he often arrives early and stays late to make sure his work is done to the highest level Forest Glenn recently experienced a flood over one weekend Mr carvalo not only returned to the school after his shift but also remained until 3:00 a.m.

also available check them out at 126 selfstorage.com and thank you to Michael Kane for being a great underwriter for waca coverage of ashin high school football [Music] games welcome to Subzero the original liquid nitrogen ice cream store and home of the Cocker [Music] tonight's game is brought to you in part by Town House pizza subs roast beef and more be sure to fill up with the buffalo chicken cow Zone that's been called one of the best in the [Music] area located at 300 Elliot Street in Ashlin give them a call at 508 881-3010 or find them on the web at Townhouse Pizza roast be.com waca TV's coverage of tonight's game is sponsored and part by Mr Handyman the Home Improvement professionals they're your one call solution for a wide range of Home Maintenance and Repair needs performed by fully insured technicians located right here in ashin at 200 Butterfield Drive give them a call at 508 231- 4639 or request service at mrhandyman.com

Monday Tuesday and Thursday the following teachers have expressed an interest in touring after school from the high school we have Ria Fernandez l g warlo espa Dessa Mano elementary teachers Donette Williams Queen deloma Alona lria Lon cesno Corel abello an Abella Gia Espirito Gan Le bagarus and for J uh orlo espa Espiritu Alona lria Christine Daton charine Batista Nick elito Ron cesno and queen de Roma and Mr Casey any discussion is this because of umark uh Mr K Miss Olsen um this is for for a number of reasons just to be more proactive and to get students ready in advance of all the different assessments but um all have going kind of give a little bit more detail to Yes um every year we provide after school tutorials right and this year we're adding one more um program which is the k um support and the Jr support will be during the day and yes it will proactively provide the support that student needs students need and um for move on and reading for primary and provide gear two and Geer three support for upper grades grades grades three and up should be based on their Benchmark results whatever they have I thought we' already approved something like this that was intercession yeah inter inter questions comments next one okay approval of prek tuition increase the prek funding source first things first grant is reducing the number of students funded from 13 to 6 a break down the cost for student of the funding per student is below Administration is requesting increasing the monthly tuition from $275 to either option one $325 or option two $475 per month per request the last increase or PR pay was in May 2016 from2 200 to $275 cost per month was $500 in 2016 agenda item and backup for May 2016 meetings are attached in consultation with Consultants this recommended tuition increases to help cover the cost of inflation which is almost a 24% increase since 2016 seven possible families will be paying tuition prek is not funded by the state formula ADM Grant and tuition-based funding supports the program otherwise all supplemental funding comes from M if the prek student has an IEP there is some State funding to support that students's cost of services not tuition so remind me again of the cost of the school if you don't improve a tuition increase U Mr K Mr Guri um I know we have we have that chart that we could look at Miss can pull it up and and we've had since since the last time we talked about this we've had several several families that joined and then paying tuition since then but more or less if no but there's no kind of increase and it should pull up the chart right now um I want to say between 30 to 35,000 more or less it might be a little bit more or Le less as far as for what the district would have to cover is it the purple I broke it down it should be the purple yeah this one so this one right here is it no it's on the bottom so this is if we do not increase that's the district's yearly cost and then that's per and then this is 50 and then it doesn't go down that much but it goes down and then um if it's 475 this is the district cly cost this is what the district is paying out of the budget and we're just Bing it on on the number of students we have right now you know Mrs C has shared with us there maybe one or two join us in the near future next month but we want to just to uh you know her past experiences and best practices for Our advice of Mr Moore this is just based on the students we have right now so that gives us a pretty good idea and um you can see where it was last year and so we just want to try and um try and bring that cost down so remind me what a family's paying now per kid 275 275 and what would this go up to you that's [Music] 327 Mrs C is also here in case you have any questions for her she should be glad to answer any questions did you miss m did you we approved last month the uh the letter to send out to businesses did you get any response from that I think we got one one donation um on top of that Miss Ginger and I um put together a grant request for fre report so there was a Min grant that we submitted in September and there's another one for this month but we haven't heard anything so $30,000 is what are the cost is will we get for tuition increase just is for clarification not 26 30,000 um it comes from your District operational budget so it takes away from opportunity that you can do with salares Etc so it's just it's um you know a cost to the district to support this supplement this program pretty much and that's fine if the district Cho to move that way just just know that's less money back into the to the maintenance and operations bucket that your actual students your stay funded students are are not getting but you just cut our wages I think that's already been done so what's the percentage of our on be covering how much out of that this percentage wise mean percentage wise so it's mincle but yeah I to get back that's so what do you think you think a lot of parents will pull their kids out of preschool get jacked up what what have they been telling you we haven't really touched that bed with that one on their decision but I hope they won't pull out their children um but um after um August Bo meeting when was published in the newspaper we had three more involvements and the last three were also paying tuition and they were made aware of the positive that might increase so despite that they still put their children progr we have three more com right yes tuition my my thoughts on this are people already enough of inflation and educating your kids a major major thing um I personally don't have a problem with the district needs to absorb any funds to help these parents out to whatever availability is to help cover some of these costs I mean it's hard enough I mean we're we're a government organization here why don't we provide to our taxpayers and our families here that's my thoughts our responsibility education for kids and I understand the science that these kids go preschool they do better right or don't they do they do better asking you I don't have a research of back B on our so if we can look childhood education is it is we know it's just base on our I will give information from my child who went to prek with this fantastic teacher here and those before her and it made an immense difference in her educational career I don't think she would be where she's at without the time she had pre so I think it's important that opportunity for these students to be in prek without the added burden of where am I going to get this money to pay for this I want my kid to have a good education a good foundation I personally don't have an issue with the district picking up some of that so next year is there going to be another increase well that uh Mr K Mr Guffy that's something that we would bring back and and the board would decide we can always bring this is coming from administ ation Administration is one and two and three if you look at Mr Mar and so we're just we want to be transparent with you and show you what what it is cantly we agree with you wholeheartedly what you're saying I mean I'm I'm a product of Early Childhood uh in my career as well I started off teaching U prek bilingual Kinder bilingual first grade and I agree absolutely with what you're stating at the same time we wanted to show you the the numbers of what's involved and we would you know whatever your decision is on Wednesday at the vote we would come back again at the end of the year we can we can give you this update and bring it to you again at the start of next year before the end of the year the decision will be yours grandfather and the kids are already in the program that's how I would encourage yeah be a grandfathered approach you would you wouldn't put it families who already in the program be new families um and then to get it's about 1% 1% of your budget your operations budget is is being allocated currently to the the pr and we don't know what first things first is going to fund for next year like last year we had 18 15 15 and then they cut us down to six state to get away with all of Early Education had start everything so at that we don't know what person GNA it's going to it's based on the tobacco tax or sales tax toac smoking it'd be one thing if we were in the city and there are other options for families we're very limited on that here so back to this grandfathering idea is that for students currently enrolled and currently going or enrolled getting ready to start because we have three that are getting ready to start right so does that apply to those three speaking out I think whatever increase you do would be with the next school year and so whatever involement you get throughout the of this year would be grandfather day and then anybody starting has July next year that's how I would do again it's to board that's an approach that common Comm use everybody's aware the increase that increas is out there and then too bad that you're not a terrible teacher nobody would be in your program so this 2425 would actually we would change that to 2526 that to start next four year is that we are currently in so it's July right so the next school year is that what we're going to be voting on no we're from my understanding the board is voting on whether to do any kind of increase that would go into effect January of 2025 from January to June January to may there's some kind of decrease in what that deficit is right now so so those numbers up there are based on if you decide to let it remain at 275 for the rest of this year 1% would have to be absorbed to the ml budget per Mr Mar when he just stated if you decide to do a $50 increase be little less than 1% that would have to be absorb maybe 0.98 so these are for this year and so this would be applicable to students starting in January so they'll starting next month would still pay the 275 I I think if I understand maybe I'm if I understand this for anyone paying tuition right now their tuition go up at 3:25 in January so everybody so there's no kind of that granding not this year on how we started this conversation in AUST my question so it went from 13 to six of the grants did that already take effect or is that going to be for the 25 26 already takes we have seven kids right now that the parents are being out of pocket yes yes sir I do not want to raise that tuition on them during this school year I personally don't I mean if we have enough an on and M to cover that for this year I think I think we should you guys make the decision that's my thoughts you you know because whether it's $50 it's the $200 the motion I mean I know we're not making a motion right now but just so we know what the motion is going to be ONN we some well if it I'm just just saying if it were me making the motion I would make the motion that we maintain the current tuition rate with the district absorbing the difference for the remainder of this school year and you would or would not include the kids that are enrolling any any kid this year that's enrolling for this school year would to be the the 275 it would remain the same and we depending what first things first does next year then we could look at this again but I'm not comfortable with raising the tuition on these families in the middle year here now so then there's a question about the donation that was made so then if we're going to absorb the cost the donation that was made to be earmarked for this would that have to be returned because now the district is whatever cover the district first things first so it's the Tak have to for I 100 so if if if the decision by the board Wednesday is to not make any increase that number is going to be 26326 um Mr gy your question earlier if any of the I mentioned something I'm now recalling that I do have one family who mentioned that if it went up to 475 they it might be hard for them to send their kid to school and I do have two students who are siblings and they're both tuition based so times two and I'm I'm just speaking out to say that if I had a child in prek and this was happening I would be okay with doing the uh 325 because I would I would be able I budget for it you know if if the if their children's education is important to them I do think that they should be able to budget for that specifically so I personally think that the 325 is not out of range but that's that's just me what is it it's 275 right now 50e yeah a $50 increase or and the other options a $200 increase we took out the $600 that's not on we're just focusing on on 325 so when when I write a motion that comes out of my head you guys can change that you make it whatever it is you have to go I just don't want to have this conversation get it all done right now well I'm going to be very clear I'm going to ask for a motion to just maintain our current monthly fees and have the district absorb the rest for the remainder of the school year I don't think I'm give $50 that's that's my thing I'm okay with the $50 increase because again it would be important to me to have my child be educated so for me if it's important for these families then they'll find that they'll be able to budget those that $50 so they don't go to Circle K or you know something small like that you know they'll be they should be able to budget the $50 I get exactly what you're saying um I just think it might make it difficult for some of these families to do that right in the middle of school year be Proposal with a grandfather new families that way you start the trend of moving that direction they're not preschool forever the new iteration but at least you can start working towards that deficit but not punish the that are currently in the program so so basically it would be whoever's enrolled now and then in January whoever get starts sem or mid semester that they would start at the new rate work that language not punish the fam that there but then at least advertise that the new rates going forward are going to be yeah Mr K members of the board just this take direct me from the guidelines State you can go up to 20 students is that right um the space of the classroom can accommodate 18 to 20 so so she's at 15 now and she goes up to 18 November and you and you follow this this uh addendum from Mr Moore so in January two any two students who come in would pay the tuition if I understand correctly saying so two students instead of the two plus the three of November the five plus the seven that are currently pay tuition is that right we have an eight currently six under scholarship okay so that that's just so we all on the same page so my grandson's in there on the scholarship I think I push that in out there just so so if you guys think I recluse myself from the vot I will but he's in there scholarship they not paying not paying dation I think you if if they were paying tuition you should probably you're a scholarship should matter as far as the vot goes so tell me what the motion is going to be so the motion I would like to make tomorrow is any students currently enrolled they're grandfathered in any new incoming students would be at whatever the higher rate we decide to go now would be the 325 or which I am more comfortable with 325 over 47 I'm not comfortable with 475 person and then if we get add into the motion when the would come come in yeah approval January well you still get kids mid semester in so just we just need to make them aware hey these other students are tuition is lower since you're new you're going to be at the higher rate now yeah so basically effective the day we approve whatever we want to do that's the motion I plan Wednesday Wednesday Wednesday okay okay any other discussion or questions then we'll move on to the first reading of board policy review 801 most of the following policy advisor are updated to align with language and statute and Arizona code policy vaa and IGA remove language that was not statutorily required policy PJ and regulation DJ include languages regarding documentation of evidence for verifications to assist districts with their processes those our policy vaa the evaluation of school board board self- evaluation DJ bidding purchasing procedures uh regulation dj- bidding purchasing procedures policy gcfc professional staff certification and credentialing requirements exhibit gcfc D professional staff certification and credentialing requirements policy gdfa support staff qualifications and requirements exhibit gdf a-e support staff qualification requirements policy IGA curriculum development policy IMG animals and schools regulation img-r animals and schools regulation JL CD-R medicines administering medicines to students discuss Mr Kar um there's the summary that you all have at the start of each page that states page 142 it has the Su policy advisory discussion the summary and then on page two to page three it has each policy advisory regulation exhibit the title I can either read that or go into each specific uh policy um ADV policy regulation exhibit read the underlining part which would take more time um you guys give me your feed you give me your feedback you to just go that policy advisory discussion summary on those first few pages that suffice summarize it that okay yeah I will read in my teacher voice policy advisory discussion summary most of the following policy advisories were updated to align with language and statute and our Arizona Administrative Code policies baa and IGA removed language that was not statuto required policy DJ and regulation DJ included language regarding documentation of evidence for verification to assist districts with their processes policy advisory discussion 801 baa evaluation of school board board self- evaluation the language not in an annual meeting by October 30th for the purpose of a board self- evaluation was removed as it is not statutorily required language allowing for board discretion was included instead advisory 802 policy DJ bidding purchasing procedures regulation DJ languages added to ensure districts are purposefully documenting evidence for their verification process policy advisory number 803 policy gcfc professional staff certification and credentialing requirements and exhibit G gcfc the policy and exhibit were updated to include statutory language ars1 15-59 advisory number 804 policy gdfa support staff qualifications and requirements exhibit gdfa the policy and exhibit were updated to include statutory language and ars1 15-59 policy advisory number 805 IG curriculum development language requiring certified Personnel to serve on curriculum committees was removed due to a lack of statutory basis advisory number 806 policy ing animals and schools and regulation IMG language is updated and clarified based on the Americans with Disabilities Act adaa and ARs 11-102 and AAC r13 D13 d104 number 807 regulation jcdr medicines administering medicines to students Arizona Board of Education updated r s-2 d811 on seizure Management training this rle clarifies the application of SB 1654 regarding implementation of correct timelines for school compliance required maintenance of proof of completed training and appropriate publication of applicable resources and that concludes first reading Mr uh Mr President clerk M of thank you Dr I appreciate that yes sir have any questions comments if not we'll move on to the report on the jotc request Dr a presentation and findings about the JROTC program yes Mr President CL members of the board um I have some information to share with you uh on September 30th I uh first I passed around to different different districts I looked in Sunnyside um uh was able to contact the superintendent rugo from R Rico in Santa Cruz Valley Unified School District long story short the best feedback I received was from uh um principal sesad Manda at choya High School in tucon Unified School District we worked together inis unified he directed me to a major spce of the army jrc at Troya High School major spe shared with me on September 30th uh was very uh was very welcoming met with me for about one to two hours stated that 50% of the funding for a jrc instructor is from in this case he's with the Army at Troy High School 50% of the funding comes from the Army 50% comes from Tucson Unified School District normally it's 50 cadets for one instructor that instructor normally has a bachelor's degree the equivalent of a sergeant E6 a major spe inform me that Fort wuka Davis mon Air Force Base the 355th Squadron they donate uniforms they've helped him with his jrc army at tro High School their focus is teaching leadership classes they are inspected every three years it is very serious um they also have my notes Here inspected every three years and they shot for a 95% success rate so they don't want to just pass they want to pass it early perfect passing rate they have to also submit a portfolio marching inspection um there is a cap on these programs Nationwide there's about 3,000 jrc programs in the United States as stated one instructor for 50 cadets at Troy High School they have a population of at least 1,200 to 1500 students so they actually have 100 cadetes and two instructors usually one week in a month the students are busy uh on campus or throughout the community doing color guards games uh raids um so it's very serious um uh he asked for for our our demographics I shared with him we have about 130 high school students more or less and he gave me some good feedback he said maybe what you can do to start it off because there's a jrc but I also asked him about Civil Air Patrol and he's well aware of that too but he says those expectations are very rigorous and he stated why don't you look at if you have anyone on campus who has some kind of connection to the military we do have one uh one teacher who has a veteran uh who who served in the military um he brought up the idea of an after school club to see what the interest is so I did speak with one of our teachers who served in the Air Force and he shared with me he was going to talk with his classes get some feedback so he said it's great it's it's it's doable you have start off with an after school club maybe maybe that teacher gets a stien gauge interest from the community the places that I mentioned to you are they willing to donate uniforms um and he was very impressed when I just told him what we have here right now how we have a kind of he said if you have two flight simulators in your Aerospace program for CT he's like I don't think there's no High School in 2 USC that has two flight simulators in one classroom for a space he goes that's a great start with a focus maybe on Air Force don't try and reinvent the wheel you have the Air Force Focus already why don't you try and focus on that and I explained to him our every Friday in our l space class that the students have their flight suits with their names and it says assistant instructor and their name and he was blown away by you guys have that he goes we don't have that I don't know if other any other school in the district has that so he sees some promise and he really thinks that it be a it'll be a something very special for for our so that's where we are and um very very professional very share the details of of what would be involved and I also last more where he's coming from I believe they have some um jrc programs just for any input he has also to share with yeah program we have a couple we one RC program and yes um we combine both our high schools but we have a high school enroll over 5,000 so we have the student population we do struggle to get to meet the numbers even with our population so that that was one and you have to meet that minimum requirement to get that guarantee that % funding so um one of my I I kind of agree there's recommendation to open a club up maybe the Board site for that club andage interest and see if you get up to that number um it's a expensive Endeavor if you can't get that match um from whatever military branch that you're associating with so that's just my my two so if it's an after school club is it going to be once a week how how how's that going to work we we we could we could talk about that I mean we could first we have to find a staff member I went write to Mr CH because of this background of the Air Force but first we'd have to find someone who commits to it and then see when we would start it and then I think our our after school clubs right now miss how often for any of the groups that we have how often do they meet normally or any any any but that's not a club that's a sport so that's that's my thing my biggest thing how often are they going to meet and how's that going to interfere with any of the kids doing sports that would be that would be a a good challenge to have because that would mean that we have someone who wants to do it and that would mean that we have yeah but I don't want it to be a challenge where it's an ultimatum I want them to be able to be able to do either both if they want to right Saturdays that's fine we have to find the person who first wants to commit to being the sponsor after and we don't we don't have that right now does it have to be a staff member we can look into it you can look at all options because we do have the American Legion here and they're all veterans right you can look at some options sure each after school club when they they make their own club they have to come up with their own Constitution they have to say that we're going to meet every Tuesday at this time um this is going to be they have to vote their president their vice president their all of that kind of good stuff and they have to make that in consultation with their um their sponsor because they have to make their own it's their own club it's a student Club so usfr says they have to make a student if they're making a student Club it has to be up to them because they're going to e their fundrais or they're going to have this that they can't the district can't if it's going to be a student Club the district can't supplement the student Club they have to start for now uh student council can say hey here's this for startup or whatever because it's coming from student council but if it's going to be a student Club it has to be just like the classes and and NHS the student council they have to make so that it would be up to the students how often when where who their officers work all of that kind of so it's run by the kids it's run by the kids at student Club you you have a spor right that's the only thing that they can they can say hey I want teacher so and so but then the district pass to say you have to you know have this or pass fingerprint check and do background they have to be interviewed and it can't we can't just say well the kids wanted you know Mr whoever and that's who we're going to it still have to be like an employee we have to be back and all that but if it's a student clote the student the usfr is really clear about the student has to if it's a student Club it has to be run by the students within reason I always use the horse like when I explain to the eth graders the the usfr says it's students money and they can buy whatever they want with it now within reason their sponsor if they say they wanted to buy horse I would hope that their sponsor and this Dar Pond would say well you know let's think about this and do that for whatever but within reason it's the students money that they're fund it's their Club so they run it within reason I personally still want to see this happen I feel like it would be very beneficial for our students yeah well I I I'll keep looking into it and I can just as as more information comes out I can either include it in a report study session meeting or the Govern updates that all on the same page all right question or comment all right moving on next item for discussion is an possible assistant principal position um her board request I did make this request to Dr sotero um a discussion of creating an assistant principal position of my thought process behind this is um we have a great Administration right now we have a great faculty also we have a lot of administration and your faculty wearing a lot of hats shorter a lot of responsibility um I think it would be H us and the administration if they had a little better spanic control with a third administrator thus being a vice principal that could take some of the you know my big thing is we lost a bunch of money in the gr I think we just have a lot of pressure on people a lot of responsibilities that should be spread out a little bit split between administrations so we have better accountability um you know for example we had Lance here his first year he was a teacher he wasn't even couldn't even be a principal you know that could take some pressure off our current principle If the vice principal is taking whatever responsibilities the administration would like to give them if we approve this position and it could we have more people and the administrative duties and it also gives our faculty if they so choose to find any kind of upward Mobility an additional point to start that so let's say like the example I gave Dr sco he's going to want to retire one day you know he may not want to his wife's going to make him you know who say you know Miss can't bump up to that and then here hey we have this vice principal guard has all this EXP experience working with the administration we can move them up so it gives us a pool of people we can move up the ladder also and it gives our faculty another place you say oh I can promote into this I can get more education to qualify for this so for me it seems like kind of a win-win just for the fact it's going to be able to have better accountability and our Administration like be spread so thin with everything they have to manage and I feel and I'm 100% against it I know that doesn't matter but I am 100% against I just don't think we're big enough to have an assistant principal job I mean one time we had a not that long ago about a little bigger enrollment than we have right now been a superintendent was also the principal you know and I I wouldn't want to go back to that but I just don't believe that we're big enough in the school district to have an assistant principal I I just I'd rather spend that money in the classroom than I would on on Administration here I'm not fine that's fine and and it is just my opinion but I I could I personally could not support position of assistance to principal let that lady came to us and said hey I'm overwhelmed I'm overwhelmed there's too much for me to do I can't handle it and then I might consider it but but I I don't I don't know how she feels about that I me let's ask her how do you feel about it well currently for I think of all the years I've been here since M 11 there's a lot of things that we need to do um you know as a principal you have to consider like a wide range of needs from 3K to 12 El is a different need High School is a different need what I appreciate appreciate about myself is my experience is both so I have both but at the same time we want what's best for the kids so we want I want especially I want everything done right or as best as we can currently um we have strategies in place so we have team leaders and team leaders are this year really great uh we have four team leaders we have our move on and reading coordinators directors that's working with the primary to make sure that we have the support that's needed for elementary and what else do we have we have our un of students right now house at the the office and he yes his spread pin and and I believe once we have the two teachers or three teachers that will be joining us very soon we can like the the things that we're planning to to add like's adding oh rest started practices rest started practice um um coordinator we can add that at that point so what I'm saying is there there's a lot of things that we need and I think we're doing the best we can to make it work at the same time at the same time you know if we are are in the the ideal world it's great to have an extra administrator the ideal world again right now I'm like I'm I'm focusing INR as an instructional leader working in operations like spreading myself thin as well but at the same time are we in the are we do we have the budget that's where I'm coming from do we have do we have that extra money I know having an extra administrator is is more expensive and maybe an extra person not administrator the same extra administrator will be great but an ideal say we have a de of students that Mr K that's Mr KC so is he kind of like I've always considered him like a rights principle without ACC having the job Mr K Mr G that's correct that in other districts that model is used I know Mirana I know G UniFi they have a principal and de students so that is a model that that is is quite popular throughout Southern Arizona to answer your question yes so if we elected to have an assistant principal would we still have this position of Dena students traditionally no you do not have you do not have the Dena students and the assistant principal so if you have an assistant principal what we would have to first this is a good discussion I mean you know before I talk even more M Rodriguez I I I see you and I see your eyes your eyes are moving before I say anything I think it's good to hear from you and Mrs C has our head of also then I'll say what I gu no for me I'm I agree with Mr God I think if we're going to hire another person I don't think it should be an Administration I would love to see another primary teacher to get our classroom size is smaller the last year that I taught here I am in a class of 27 first graders that is incredible I right now I'm teaching first grade 12 students in my class okay 27 kids in a classroom first graders and I think it was 15 of them were El students is outrageous so if we're going to spend money on another Personnel I don't want to see it in administration I'd much rather see it as classroom teachers let get these classroom sizes much smaller than what they are that my two Sense on that Mr Mr C M go ahead thank you m Rodriguez got an excellent point um but I just remembered back in 2011 we have this grant called the C Grant that enables the school to hire different people for the school office so we have the principal we have the behavior coach we have the instructional coach we have the an um and there's one more and we turn the school around into an a school because we have these people in place everyone feels supported you know everyone was not spread thing but then again we had that Grant to support that that was in say 13 years ago no that's that's a gr I would love for us to not have that means we are an underperforming district and the of we got back then it made a huge Improvement the students I mean it was massive and then it was gone C grants are no longer available right they don't they're not yeah they went away the reason we got that was because we got we were in both schools yeah and we had to turn it around or the state said that we were going to get taken over so that's why the grant was offered Mr K um I also asked Mr Mor if he could give his perspective dist perspective the numbers that's why I like this discussion so we get all the perspectives I a couple what we do with our districts have you know a lot larger elementaries and so we do have AP but our our elementaries our smallest ones at 550 our largest are at at 900 plus um we do have a principle AP kind of set up within the instructional coach to help assist with some pulling differ students that have higher needs out of those classes to um kind of the model that's those are kind of the three at the at the head of the hel the elementes um in addition just looking at your spending right as a whole and and how AO is currently allocating um and I'll cover this in the AFR in a second but um your your administrative spending per student is is very high compared to your peers your peer District are assigned by the general and they're similar size in structure as well for students right you're about $2,400 per student is your Fe average that 2100 so um a lot of those districts are are allocating resources more in the classroom or supporting the classroom um and so that's it's really that's my outside looking in perspective I know I've been helping the district for about two years now but um I'm my Hite every day and I can't speak what's going on in the class looking at 10,000 foot level so no I look I you all have very selling points Mr K great Administration right now better SP control responsibilities better accountability more people hand Administration we went better accountability when you first called me I said it's a good idea this uh Miss Rodriguez that's a great Point you're making I mean when I T first grade bilingual first grade 20 years ago I had 30 kids in the B classroom oh my goodness that's a lot you know that's a lot so your point is very know I had a teacher assistant though every day full time that might be an option to help this out Mr Guth you make a good point uh enrollment uh small i' rather spend that money in the classroom that's a great point for teacher salaries to try uh I'm just brainstorming with you whatever the cost is for an assistant principal 60 70,000 how could that go out to all the teachers to help increase their salaries every year to where they we we make our our teachers their their uh salaries more marketable competitive with other districts um Miss made a very good point where BR your needs you're doing a great job just from from my perspective the teacher leaders plc's uh that is that is a very uh U um best practice that other districts do uh dor and and Bob beer a professional Learning Community model that's very positive we want reading directors Dina students um um as soon as we have these new teachers helping out too that's going to be a big plus especially with Mr and missano and and uh um Mr Romo uh to answer your question too uh I think Mr Duffy um we do uh do work in collaboration like she does have a full place so whatever I can do in my role to also help I serve as a 504 coordinator I also serve as a facilities director so the facilities on a day-to- day with our our custodial services and grounds team I'll take care of that that way she doesn't have that on her plate because as a first year principal if you have to worry about facilities too that's a headache so trying to take that off her plate um parent and community outreach or parent coffees we take care of that so she doesn't have to worry about that and the website we take care of that so she doesn't have to worry about that so we are trying to to help out to where she she she's in classrooms a lot and that's where she should be that's critical so she can see the instruction she's meeting with Paris so we're all trying to help each other out um we have talked though her and I have already reached out with uh Elementary School principal in TD uh at one of the elementary schools in The District in tucon to give us feedback on how to get a restorative practices coordin in place and try and pil it maybe at our fourth to sixth grade level based on where the need is right now so that's in place we've been given some options of trains to send a restorative practices coordinator to so that person can be in place helping out the de of students as well so we're trying to be proactive even before whatever happens with this happens and so but great discussion um he gave us perspective I look at it this way sure if you guys feel you need that that's always on the okay as long as you guys don't feel overwhelmed and you feel things are under good span control I'm okay with that I just think it need be a good discussion that we had which I think was good and it's always something to be on I do agree points absolutely absolutely I'd love to see more teachers hir that's going to take a lot of pressure on especially the students and I I think for right now we have we have someone in mind and we have some restorative practices trainings um throughout the state that we can send this person to to address the issue right now so it's a good start start anybody got else all right moving on to the big one annual financial report as required by Ariz statutes 15-4 the gry board of Beach School District shall publish an annual financial report for the prior fiscal year the financial report shall contain budgeted and actual expenditures for the preceding fiscal year and shall be prepared and distributed by October 15 by the school district with they copy to the county school superintendent ad and posted on the website I apologize for having the board receive this and approve this tonight but um deadline for this approval October 15 so right between board meeting so that is why I am here tonight um so this annual fincial report is for last fiscal year eternally um so what this means is from um July 1st 2023 through June 30 2024 so we're looking at last year I'll just read there keep it going um but what this is it basically it's required by Statute that the board that the complete these there's five fors Sor and it's called basic the Ann financial report these five fors include the AFR Food Service AFR colossum site fund narrative a school level report and a CTE worksheet as well as the distri also has South Lo K greeing report k budget so um there was over just a couple highlights there's over 8.4 million in total expenditures that's all funds um it was down 1.4 million from prior year the main reason spending was down a lot of those ESS grants were expired going into this year or the district expended most of us in in the previous year um over 20,000 accounting transactions so just sorry I'm just second so over 20,000 accounting transaction that that entails know Angelina Ginger glor going through each one of these transactions um making sure they're in line with the auditor general and they follow all the compliance next slide this P graph represents a uh estimated classroom spending report so each year the after these reports the afrs are submitted to the aitor general the aitor general provides the board with a classroom spending report in November so i' I've done a little bit of work and anticipated what that report will look like um and so again this is all spending all funds not just maintenance operations or Capital this is every single fund that District spend and uh to go to the next slide I break this down comparatively over the years so just looking at FCO 23 to 24 I I showed some percentage changes in in some of the category of spending so just to recall what these categories are for so classroom's pretty self-explanatory right that's spending that for teachers teacher aids substitutes General instructional supplies instructional aads field trips Athletics um that's encompasses 48% of your budget we talked a little bit about trying to increase that that has increased over over prior year by 1.4% um speaking our goal is to get that to 15% in this year so that is right in the middle of your peer District comparison so out of all districts that have comparative size you right in the middle with that 40% in terms of classroom instructional support what that means is that's your Librarians teacher trainings curriculum Development Special Education media specialist instructional related technology Services um Alo last year um utilized a lot of grant funding to increase spending in in this area and so you see that reflected by the 20% increase that looks large but it's a small percentage increase but it's uh because 3% 3.6 it's a it's a big move student support just for recap that is your counselors speech pist nurses social workers attendance services that is up over last year um again a lot of that Grant funded Administration that is down um so in 23 that was prior to myself helping the district you had a couple Finance individuals in the district Smith um and so that those expend in 23 had administration of higher whereas last year really so Finance ini the was my Consulting um not saying it's perfect but my my expenditures are a lot less than what it would be to St somebody fully on site um I'm not trying to to my horn because there is we do have like I try to work hard to get communication to Mar and Casey and it's not perfect with me being outside but yeah um making progress um but that is the direct correlation of why that decrease so not saying that's a permanent solution but that is why that category decrease in school plant these are all your spendings on on school building operations um Al Engel does a great job of getting school facilities board money um and so your expenditures in this category of increase because of a lot of the projects that you've completed over the last couple years um including Roofing your your fire alarm and several HBC units so does a great job getting that money I struggle to get that money in another District so um does a great job there the decreases are transportation and Food Service um a lot of that's a function of just different miles that you're traveling with your bus and spending in that area so there's small decreases though those those spending categories represent a very small portion of your budget on the next slide the two main funds I want to highlight are budget verus cash control I talked about the budget funds these are your state funded allocated budgets so your maintenance operations your capital and your state and federales your three main so every student you get there's a state funded formula for that money on the on the bottom is your cash controlled funds these are your main cash controlled funds um that have little restrictions in terms of spending so I like to highlight those because those are often utilized to help support instruction or various spending discing spending so at the next slide looking at the ml budget um over the past three years budget has has slightly increased so that's represented the big uh the first bar graph the budget balance carry forward is what you're carry what you're not spending in that here so you have a budget and the percentage that you're not spending um has stayed relatively flat it went down slightly over last year and we' discussed that uh a large portion was related to the grants that were had had to be picked up by the M operation so we're hoping to restore that going into 25 but that represents 14% of your budget that budget b carry forth and that's extremely healthy um you have enough money if any emergency comes to support that at any given time so that's a very healthy buds carry forward and a good number just stick on the capital size again relatively flat through the last three fiscal years um you've done a couple more capital projects and so you can see the number or you see the the light or uh orange represents your budget accounts carry forward and so that that is slightly um just under say 23s of your your total budget so that that is very healthy uh it's over 750,000 and what you're carrying forward in in unallocated or contingency Capital so again very healthy you guys are in a good place and that I know several distes talked about for Capital spending and so you have capacity to fund some of those now just a reminder the carry forward is one time right so you once you spend it it's gone just for um comparison your annual capital budget is like 300,000 so that's when you get the Ann right now from your state so um just keep that in mind when you're looking at that number on your cash control funds um they've increased across the board at the the top food service has increased over the prior year cic Center has increased its rental um again a lot of reason that that's increased we haven't really touched that so we continue to build some of these cash funds for contingency uh Community Education um you are now charging um tuition so you're going to see that start to increase and that's going to be basically used now um to support that that Community Education process you saw that that or study session your overall Community Education cost costing about 70,000 so when you take that 45 that's where you at that like 30 that you're going to be absorbing indirect cost that is costs that you can charge back for grants for to to cover your overhead so um the district all your Grant programs um typically have somebody casing myself somebody managing those grants right so you can charge back those grants overhead and cover the cost of of myself Casey and so that's we've been leveraging those grants and increasing um the money back from indirect cost so that's a resource I talked about utilizing that potentially um maybe lifting some burden um of casy and reallocating some of that money support grants in in a better capacity AO being a small District a high red per you got an infinite number of possibilities to for for Grant applications it's really an infinite number and so um allocating more resources to try to leverage more GRS something I would consider the to look into in the future and and that's really it just a quick summary overall uh the is performing really well I think some of the increases in the category spending like we're making good strides and targeting instruction decreasing Administration um and and that's going to continue to to show as as the years go going it takes a while for some of this some of the decisions you make to actually show in these reports but um you can see just from a year some of these decisions starting to reflect in a positive way any questions so the Food Service money do we receive money from the state for food service so that money is derived from every um breakfast and lunch that is there so there's a reimbursement um amount for every breakfast and lunch and so that's a federal program administered through a and so your meal count your enrollments actually up a little bit so your meal counts are are inre so you'll see your reimbursements increase proportionally so 7% inflation you well you you 100% free so it's yeah the ad does increase the reimbursement amounts every year so um yeah there there is a portion of that that is they do it per kid they do it per meal per meal yeah breakfast and lunch have two different rates I'm assuming it's different from elementary to high school is it or is the same same it's just by meal breakfast and they because it's a federal program they they watch our but the the Food Service basically can run it on its own it is really it uses District Heth but the what we have and and what we we gain from from the program it pretty much runs itself so like last year in April or in may they were like you have too much budget how are you going to to spend the budg because they don't want us to be full free and get this money and then start to you know um gain gain money off of the the it's supposed to go back to the kids so then we have to tell ad and we have to tell USDA how we're going to spend that extra that extra cash flow by this date or that date or that date so then they want to make sure that everything is coming together and we're spending the money either on kids on the food or on the cafeteria it's not going somewhere else so we have those budget are the employees paid for that or they're all paid five everybody's paid by 510 right yeah every every is paid from that that fund and then we did create a plan this year to start replacing some equipment in the cafeteria with with some putting it back that I get a motion to approve or disapprove motion to approve second all in favor say I I all opposed pass 4 you guys could all sign right there so we can get that have we have to Let's wrap up the meeting first okay so that's it um any possible agenda items for for Wednesday or the future um I used to have that oneing um reading intervention with the new teacher right that one yes um before on boarding that teacher so I'm not sure when she's supposed to arrive if it's in November then I like have it Wednesday later than that I supp we can push it out till November earli I know I know it's ready we have wednes anything else get a motion to adjourn I'll make the motion I'll second all in favor say I I oppos say noed don't forget everybody sign this

ensuring all the water was cleaned up and fans were set up he then returned to check on the progress the next day this is just one example amazing comes to mind when discussing Mr carvalo thank you so much thank you so much we apprciate Paparazzi here all right right here one two three congratulations your cousin [Applause] this is a combined work session and uh and regular monthly meeting so we will move on to our information items our Blue Ribbon update Mr Smith Madame President Dr Smith members of the board October 6 was a exciting day for the high school and School District in this community as we dedicated uh both high schools on that Sunday afternoon LC ribbon cut cutting ceremony as well as Ln ribbon cutting ceremony we continue on with the blue uh Belzer Middle School serving lines two of the four uh nearing completion hallways uh staff restrooms this is all new facility uh ful Creek Valley we continue uh demoing the hallways and entryways and we're almost done with Fall Creek Valley orchesta room hopefully in the next two weeks uh the auditorium we're putting in a new uh stage floor and also the acoustical panels going up here at LCC the bridge work is nearing completion we have some raing and some cating goes on and that'll wrap this project up continue on with the new LEC uh C work uh steel the erection of the major steel is almost finished uh roof decking and metal stud walls will be next Bo any questions or comments for Mr Smith I just have a comment the ribbon cutting ceremony was wonderful highlights were seeing the new pool at Lawrence Central um after I had heard about the um hot tub that had previously been there and also um interacting with alumni who came back and just seeing the excitement on their faces of the changes of both high schools so thank you anyone else oh I do yes um and I this was a question that I had asked earlier in the week so just want to make it public um I was asking I was asked about the wrestling rooms concerning Elsie and Ellen can you um give us an update on the if there's any differences within the wrestling rooms uh they're pretty much same one's a little bit larger than the other but uh three wrestling mats will be hosted in each one I believe all right thank you I think rer question is to relocate explain the relocation yes we did have to relocate their existing one which was behind the bleachers uh up above the gymnasium we moved that and put that second floor above the commons area which allowed us to put the uh move the wrestling room out from behind the uh bleachers into their own room more seats well yeah we added a a whole new second uh level in the uh gymnasium that uh as a result of moving the wrestling room we were able to add seating to the gymnasium okay but for both of the school they do mirror as far as amenities and yes thank you if there's no more questions we'll move on to the graduation rate update Mr good evening Madam president Dr Smith members of the board even though it was last June when we gathered together at the Indian Fairgrounds for our two High School graduations our high school is actually have till the end of September to help students graduate as of October 1st report that for the second year in a row our graduation rate for La Township is 95% you look at the different diploma types we had 7% of our students received a general diploma 64% received a core 40 and back on% the general 60% received a core 40 and 34% received an honor it's also important to note uh that we had down to only 1% that graduation rate of 95% does reach your board goal of maintaining over a 93% graduation rate the next layer to your to your board goal is looking at our different racial subgroups so up first with your black student subgroup graduating at a rate of 95% on this slide i' like to point out the honors diploma rate going from 25% up to 30% whichs that our goal of raising it by 5% next slide is our Hispanic student subgroup graduation rate of 92% up 3% for our honors diplomas from 24 up to 27% that's up 3% just shy your board goal but it's significant increase considering a growing student population next subg group is our white student population 97% graduation rate a 4% honors diploma increase and our last data slide here will be our multi-racial student subgroup at a 93% graduation rate uh the math teacher and me will point out that the percentages are very volatile on a slide like this because they're talking about a small subg group so one or two students one way or the other can drastically change your percents so that's a lot of data we always want to provide a summary for you and provide some conclusions over the last decade SL shows you where over a 12E period overall our graduation rate is up 8% across all subgroups pretty consistently across all different racial subgroups there our core 40 diplomas are up 12% overall it's important to note that percent could be even higher however we are pushing in this district for our students to achieve the highest possible for each of them individually that actually affects that number as more students the next category there of our honors diploma overall in our honors diploma we are up 5% overall with the highest increase being our black subgroup of plus 15% and it's not an error to have some negative numbers be in green is a good thing for us to be down in waivers down 12% overall over the last decade plus with the largest decreases in our black of 19 and 18% so we are already this year and it's important to talk about our next steps that are already underway we continue to work close that achievement Gap and of students achieving an acemic and for Technical Honors diploma per sub group per year goal one way we're doing that is by increasing the number of graduation pathway opportunities to meet the needs of our students be that increasing the capacity of the current Pathways that we already offer or adding Pathways we've done that last several years in terms of having Pathways that were not offered previously here in Lauren Township as we implement the next level programs of study and as you know the state is looking at changing graduation requirements and changing diplomas so we are closely monitoring the new draft diploma types that the state's presenting potentially improving uh still later this semester as probably latest December they're looking at a default new Indian diploma then have three honor seals in the areas of enrollment employment and enlistment and also a second layer that plus seal in all three of those areas has information and has answer any questions you might have it's done so my wondering is the state has not released graduation data yet so this is Lawrence Township data that has not been yet the the state has not yet released graduation data is that correct the state hased theall state okay perfect thank you any other questions comments just a comment that I our board goals are produced annually so given the changes that the state's looking at implement this could ultimately affect how we set our Bo board goals future forward future year yeah and I would just like to add as an emphasis looking from two 2013 to this year we see our graduation rate going from 87% to 95% and our waiver is going from 133% to 1% outstanding work outstanding work teachers outstanding work Administration outstanding work everyone thank you so much great news um um we'll move on to the application for common school loan Mr miles thank you madam president Dr Smith members of the board at this time I bring to you a request um to apply for our common school loan uh we typically do this each fall and spring those windows uh don't necessarily open each year at those times uh we brought this request last fall U the state didn't offer it they did offer it in the spring this is low interest interest loan that we're able to take advantage of and we certainly like to do so anytime it's available um it could provide the district with about 1.6 million dollar and those dollars have to be used for student uh technology so we use those for student devices and um and put those to good use so we would um later this evening like to ask for approval to apply for this but this at this time it's an information item due to the time sensitivity of when the application has to be submitted we'll bring it back for Action uh at the same meeting later tonight Mr miles what is the rate on the common school loan please it's a 1% loan thank you okay questions for Mr miles okay all right um we'll move on again Mr miles the request for vehicle disposal thank you madam president at this time uh as information again for action later this evening uh just bring to the board approval uh to dispose of one of our school buses that was unfortunately in an accident and is at a point where it's not repairable um so the the value is basically in the scrap so we per statute had to bring this to the board and we'll do so later again tonight um to to be able to dispose of this vehicle any questions board no questions we will then move on to the request for permission to advertise rfps for e e I'm sorry eate projects Dr gagl president must and members of the board Dr Smith it's time once again to prepare for the next round of e- rate funding that will become available in the summer if you recall uh rate is a government funded program to provide financial support to schools and libraries so they can build out their Network infrastructure and we qualify to get 90% reimbursements so we can get $100,000 worth of work done for $110,000 so we want to take advantage of this as much as we can in fact the state then tries to chip in and give us a little bit to fill in that 10% Gap so that will even be smaller if you look at our list uh it looks like there's a lot especially with number one uh you may be wondering aren't those schools already connected well they are uh some of them are connected on networks that we have leased going on 20 years and those contracts are coming to a close and think about it with your phone 20 years ago there were limited options now there are many more options to connect our schools because so much more fiber has been put into Lawrence Township so we want to go out and get the best deal possible for the corporation so we want to see uh as many vendors as possible to bid on these various connections um number two is the connection between McKenzie and our Lifeline data center that we have two data centers you have your primary and then your backup um the backup is down at the old Eastgate Mall and we want to get that renewed and make sure that that's the best price for us as well and finally uh number three are switches think of switches like um uh extension CES like um with the multi-head extension cords just like you do to plug in several items um power strip it's the same concept uh a switch allows you to plug various items that need data into there and what we found at the high schools is as big as they are there's a lot of stuff that wants to be connected with data so we need more switches for that so those are the three re uh items that we want to bring to you and later on we'll request permission to put those out to bid so we can get the best deal possible for the district or do you have any questions about that do have a question I know one thing that we've heard from constituents especially the Educators at Lawrence North is that uh Wi-Fi the network continues to be an issue parents have also expressed that to be a concern um so will this alleviate that issue and is plan yeah yeah we want to do as much as we can uh some of that's been alleviated we had some bugs in there that we've didn't know we going to be there and this brand new building but uh yeah these are all things to make things everything work faster what is that timeline approximately so for for this to this uh we would be able to apply and take uh possession in late spring uh or place the order in late spring you can't take possession until I believe July 1st so get us in time to then install for the next school year so in the short term though the issues at Lawrence North in particular have been alleviated so that I believe so yeah we're not getting near the the complaints that we were at the beginning thank you thank you for that question um any other questions for Dr gagin on the eate okay thank you very much uh we will move on to board chair reports Miss Norman Foundation thank you Madame President last week was an exciting week it was LT do good week I got to tag along to watch some of the Creative Impact grants being handed out to many deserving teachers and see the smiles on their faces as well as their students um among other donation drives next events up for the foundation are the retired teacher breakfast this Thursday at Lawrence North at 9: and then the thanks forgiving reception for our donors in November and that's all I have so thank you very much Miss Pucket Lawrence Parks and Recreation yes uh Lawrence Parks we have some fun coming up on October the 18th uh it's being um sponsored by the YMCA and it is called um Halloween Fest so this is the 18th from 6 to8 at our local y thank you um Miss D policy yes I have quite the update thank you very much for that uh it says that work on the value volume 36 number two policy revision packet continues and Remains the main focus of our committee the Neola revision packet consists of three parts Part One are revisions to the uniform Grant guidance regulations that are intended to improve federal financial assistance management transparency and oversight part two are revisions encompassing technical Corrections school safety School assessment and graduation requirements in part three are revisions to address needed administrative updates to nine policies from the spring revision packet first revision is anticipated at our next board meeting which is November 11th and then hopefully we will vote to approve those policies um at the session later that so thank you Dr har thank you son um any questions about our um committee updates we will move on to our action items um let's go to the approval of the application for the common school loan Mr miles thank you madam president this time I recommend that the board approve the application for the common school loan as submitted so moved second properly moved and seconded are there any further questions or comments all in favor of the approval of the application for the common school loan please I I I any opposed the eyes haveit we'll move on now to the approval of the request for vehicle disposal thank you madam president at this time I recommend the board approve the request for vehicle disposal as submitted some move secondly moved in seconded any further questions all those in favor of approval the the request for vehicle to osal i i i any opposed the eyes have it um the approval for the request for the permission to advertise rfps for eay Dr gine Madame President I request permission to advertise the rfps as submitted so moved second properly moved and seconded all in favor I I opposed the eyes have it Madam president I move that we treat action items 4.4 through 4.9 as it as consent agenda but withholding 4.6 approval of claims we have a second for that second properly moved and seconded all those in favor of a consent agenda hi hi any oppos okay um I move approval of the consent agenda withholding 4.6 do we have a second properly moved and seconded all those in favor I I I opposed great now we will go to our claims um and before approval of claims I do see that we have someone who would like to speak on our claims today and that would be uh Miss Amanda Rose could you please come to the microphone um we know you but for the record please please repeat your your name and your address oh she puto or your school building is fine yeah good evening Madam president Dr Smith and the board my name is Amanda Rose and I'm the Lea co-president and I currently have my dream job as the steam teacher at Harrison Hill uh beginning I would like to thank Dr Smith for working with Ela to secure a tenative agreement for the 2425 school year unfortunately our new contract is not enough to keep 19 of our amazing Educators from resigning within the first N9 weeks of the school year we also have currently have more than 45 teacher openings in the district Lea conducted a survey that resulted in 325 responses 75% of teacher respondents said they were considering leaving the district I think if you asked people why they wanted to stay in Lauren's Township you would be surprised at the lack of answers versus the amount of answers you would get if you asked people to why they want to leave during bargaining we heard from multiple teachers that working conditions are far more important than money but due to State Statute we cannot bargain working conditions teachers greatest concerns are class sizes the loss of prep time and the unmanageable workload associated with LSI Marzano lawence Township at a neighboring District handle teacher time in dramatically different ways in the neighboring District there's one PLC meeting per week and one staff or PD meeting per month compared to two plc's per week and one staff or PD meeting per week in Lawrence Township in the neighboring district teachers bring ideas for PD and curriculum to ad Administration and central office here LCC forces agendas on teachers such as LSI and Marzano as we bargained for our contract we heard multiple times that the district could not afford what we were asking however in the last two years alone the district has spent approximately $2 to3 million for services from LSI Marzano the amount cannot be fully verified as there were approximately $700,000 in expenses for the same date reported on three different claims reports LSI Marzano was cited as one of the biggest contributors to teachers claiming unsatisfactory working conditions not only could a re-evaluation of this contract free up additional funds for teachers but could also dramatically improve working condition in addition on tonight's claims report there are over $8,000 in expenses for meals newspaper subscriptions and other extraneous expenses for administration that teachers would be required to pay for themselves adding this money in monthly results in nearly $75,000 a year in expenses that combined with the money spent on LSI is nearly the same as the money we were able to bargain with I would like to encourage the board to become more active in the financial aspects of our district in addition I would like to see the board continue to advocate for our teachers in terms of a board policy for addressing class sizes and teacher prep time I urge the board in the district to return to teachers what will truly help our students time it costs nothing please understand that if the district does not give teachers back their voices and their time they will continue to express their needs and displeasure by continuing to leave the district forther EX exacerbating our current teacher shortage situation thank you for your time thank [Applause] you thank you Miss Rose for your leadership um then we need to approve claims that's all Madame President I move approval of action item 4.6 proberbly moved and seconded are there any further comments all those in favor of approving claims I I any opposed we have approved our agenda okay um this brings us to uh the end of our meeting and I would just like to make a quick statement we appreciate our teachers from the bottom of our hearts everyone on this board has Educators in their lives that have changed our lives Educators in our lives that have changed the lives of our children for the better our teachers are the engine of what makes our district work and we care deeply about our teachers the board of education for the MSD of Lawrence Township which wishes to reaffirm our unwavering support for our dedicated teachers and recognize the significant effort invested by the Lawrence Education Association in the annual collective bargaining process advocating for the well-being of our teaching staff we deeply appreciate the commitment and passion our Educators bring to their work every day shaping the future of our our community through their tireless efforts in the classroom we acknowledge that as per state statute the collective bargaining process does not Encompass discussions on working conditions recognizing the importance of addressing these matters we are formally announcing the formation of a task force dedicated to Gathering feedback from our teaching staff and developing recommendations to enhance the working environment this initiative demonstrates our commitment to supporting our Educators beyond the scope of collective bargaining our district remains committed to providing educational Choice with our schools a policy that has proven beneficial to many families in our community and reaffirms their decision to make Lawrence Township their District of destination we strive to balance this Choice with our commitment to maintaining op optimal learning environments and supporting our teachers we are grateful to our district administrators who always remain Vigilant and ready to serve regardless of day or time providing Direction leadership and support to staff and families regardless of the circumstances we believe that by working together board members administrators teachers and the community we can create an educational environment that benefits all stakeholders especially our students and on a personal level I would like to um thank the board for um incorporating in our board goals a teacher survey that came out last year and I want to make sure that every teacher in the district understands it is truly an anonymous survey so in conjunction with our new task force I would encourage you to encourage your peers to State everything that needs to be stated on that survey um there's room for comment not just multiple choice so please take advantage of that um we are here to serve our students we can't serve our students without you so thank you for being here tonight I appreciate it very much um further comments from the board M Norman um I just had one as a special ed a parent of a child with special needs I wanted to uh lift up and recognize our newest state champion the bo ball um which I had to study what that was but um at Lawrence Central um that was just an amazing celebration and well- earned hardware and thank you to everyone who pours into our kids I do I do um I've been with Lawrence for quite a while and Lawrence is something special and I say that because with you teachers you teachers are the ones that help keep my children here I've had some hardships I've had some hardships in in uh Lawrence which I'd say I failed forward in Lawrence that is one of the drivers one of my wives for being on the board were some of the barriers that I experience with my children the thing that kept me here was the teachers and the Educators and the admin also and so I want you to know that in certain ways in which I would have loved to be there with you to demonstrate however out of respect for our admin out of respect for you all and out of respect for good bargaining governance is at the top and making sure that there's mutual respect across the board I will continue to Advocate as I did in the third grade when my son had he is now a freshman in college that was one of my toughest years where I had people telling me pull them out pull them out there was a lot going on there was some tension I kept my children in Lawrence because of teachers so my investment isn't just from all the good times it is I have stuck through with Lawrence even in the bad times that's what a marriage is I've been married for over 20 years and it's not the good times that keep you there it's how you respond and react during those hard during those hardships so please know that I am invested I am here and I also this is a piece that nobody sees my husband sees it when he tells me to close my um laptop and go to bed I'm literally running around that state house I am Mak I have been it's been a blessing to connect State Leaders with other leaders who are looking I have skin skin in this game on a whole another level that people don't even realize I serve and I serve you all because it is a passion of my heart is a passion of my heart so please know please know that I am all in for you I am all in I will continue to be and if you want to I I can go out here I can't publicly say I can tell you what what some of those State relationships have produced I am going hard and I'm trying but in all of this in all of this as I always say tension is a beautiful thing tension is a beautiful thing and I'm going to have questions also because I do want to see I want to see how can I grow the Lea also how can I support for more diversity how can we expand that voice so that that voice is expanding to my area also I want to come along so I want to continue to be an ally I will continue to support our admin you guys have kept me here you have kept me grounded here and I thank you this is why I serve this is why I serve and I thank you for that and so I'm just going to ask I know this may not be the most comfortable but it is I have had eight years of being taught being in agitation disruption I could write a small book on it but the one thing that has stuck with me the most in all of it and I had a hard lesson in it because I I I sometimes like to run my mouth um is when I had a peer teach me on um holding space she pulled me to the side and she said Hey in this in this moment this moment doesn't need agitation Crystal this moment needs you to Simply hold space and so I'll just ask if we just take just 10 seconds we are not against each other we are here I appreciate how everything has moved forward tonight but in a sense of just Unity I ask us just to take 10 seconds 10 seconds to hold space for everybody in this room and then after that done thank you very much Miss Mars teachers thank you thank you for coming out tonight I was honored to be with you at the rally obviously we don't discuss collective bargaining that's not our role but being out on the rally line with each of you was a true honor because as we've all expressed in one way shape or form we care about our teachers and our teachers deserve conditions that create the best environment possible not just for you all but for for our students most importantly for our students and I know each of you agree with that so that means smaller class sizes I don't know how we're going to get there but we need to try to get there that also means you need the prep time that any professional would require in their profession and that also means that you need a voice you need to always be heard you need to always be an advocate for our students for this district and for this Township and and that's why we fought to get that survey in our board goals we want to make sure that your voice is heard so as Miss must alluded to please make that a priority this year we want to make sure that all of you have have a stake in the game and I just want to thank all of you for the work that you do every day to support our students that's it and when you please remind us um the Blue Ribbon phase three um that one of the things because the concerns because I I I hear what people say on for Glenn being bumped up on not bumped up but we hear and things are being addressed yeah give Miss I apologize Echo Marta sentiments teachers it's always great to be in your company as somebody who's been in education for over 30 years I look at each of you and in some way shape or form I see myself whether it was as that new teacher who was so eager and thought I knew everything only to figure out and tell my parents you never took work home and they laughed laugh at my face and said you must not have realized what we did honey I had no idea what it was like to spend hours and hours and hours devoted to the children in which I loved and served we were a family and I know the children in which you serve in your classrooms are your family they are our family in Lawrence Township and as such we need to teach make sure that we treat the mother bears the Papa Bears all the individuals who are serving the students our families their grandparents their moms their dads you are not just Educators you are many times counselors your nurses your support staff you go above and beyond the Call of Duty I saw something the other day about how the average teacher spends over $6,000 out of their own pocket to serve and support their students whether it's buying Trinkets and treats for your school's store or your own classroom store whether it's making sure everybody has that opportunity to participate in the events you are seen you are valued and you are heard as Marta said we hear you we support you and it was my great privilege to walk alongside of you most importantly because as you alluded to this issue is far greater than Lawrence Township this issue is an issue as secretary Pucket said that needs to go to the state house it is time that educators are taken seriously in the state and compensated in a way that they deserve so that they are not spending $6,000 out of pocket but they are earning a livable wage along those lines our classified staff also deserves to have a livable wage and right now that is not happening in too many districts across the state of Indiana so I stand in solidarity with you I see you and I honor you fellow Educators thank you for your service thank you very much I appreciate all the statements that have been made made I would like to add that um I have been a member of the AFM CIO all my professional life and the last time we were in negotiations our salaries were cut by 30% it was a rough year and when I told Dr Smith about that I saw him the next day he said I didn't get a wink sleep how could people treat their employees that way and I will just add um I I believe I believe in unions I believe unions work and I know that you've had an increase in your membership I think that's a wonderful thing um and about Forest Glenn about the issue of forest Glenn uh the minute the Portables went up in Forest Glenn and this is for our stakeholder ERS in the community the minute the Portables went up in Forest Glenn um Forest Glenn was immediately put back on the next Blue Ribbon phase and will be renovated and built onto um starting I think we break ground this summer Mr Smith we break ground this summer we've already um approved the designers and the Construction Group for Forest Glenn it's it's not suitable to have our children in Portables and um yet we know that it is best practice to have our preschool students our language preschool students with the other students at Forest Glenn so we hear you we hear our parents and we're working on that I thank each one of our board members for their work and I will tell you that um the night of the rally um several of us were at the city county building um letting the education committee know um what our Joys were and what our concerns were and speaking for you there so we may not have been on 56th street with you but I your Administration and few of the few of the rest of us we're there all of us speaking on your behalf so with that just for just for public to I like this is important to add just so the public can have an understanding also because we do try as hard as we possibly can and so just for public record um the total increase over the five years um of raises for a teachers and admin has been 2.77% with stiping totaling over $8,750 this will be an average annual increase of 4.35% and an average annual sipon of about 1,750 the average admin raise over the past 5 years um was less than it was 20.75 sorry so the teachers were 21.7 77% the admin was 20.75 which an average annual stien of 1,150 so that just wanted to make sure that it's note because it you know I want to make sure this I I want us to make sure that to not see things from a deficit frame for from a deficit frame our Township is moving forward we're doing great things admin I thank you so much but I just wanted to make sure that that was on public record that we are moving forward some of the um our highest raises were what 20 22 or 23 with 5.75% raise as on the base pay for teachers um so I don't we need to continue to move forward but we have to lift up also that we are trying we are moving forward but just wanted to make sure that that was part of the note on the raises and we also set the precedent um with our classified pay it needs to be more but we set it at $15 an hour with other townships following suit Lawrence started it other townships followed suit so I just want to make sure that that was noted on public record that we are we are moving moving the ship but I feel like that needed to be addressed if I if I could address one other subject here too um since we're all adding things tonight um I would also like to just call out that our teachers the gap between our teachers salaries and other like-minded districts that have similar student ratios is actually less than on average their pay is less than the majority of other teachers in Marian County on average I would also state that while raises are important it also matters the starting salary that the raise happens from so what I would what I would say is over the last several years Lawrence Township has had the highest rate for our admin our admin actually make on average um significantly higher rates than every other Maran County District we on average have 100 around $150,000 average for our top 100 earners within this District that is substantially higher than every other District around us I have a question what are we doing as a board on a state level to make sure that we are addressing these concerns because I'm at every state meeting at every Dr Smith makes it possible for us to connect with state and local leaders in order to address and to make our concerns heard are we collectively as as a board going to these things and showing up I mean I have not been invited to any if that's what you are G to ask me about but but what I would say inv I would what I would CH invited on what I would challenge all of you to understand is that the gap between admin pay and the rest of the district districts that are very similar is substantially higher in our admin than it is with our teachers our teachers rank on average less compared to their peers as compared to the admin salaries that is fact that is what's publicly reported within the Gateway I appreciate that and as a fact also each one of us has been invited to meet with our legislators oneon-one some of us make them make that a priority and some of us don't can I I'd also like to just add one more thing because I'm not sure in all due respect working in another District whereas I understand that Lauren paid the way which I I'm not sure about that statistic because in the district where I work our classified employees all have access to benefits and that's something that Lawrence Township does not offer but to a handful of classified folks so I think it's very important to look at all of the facts and not just base pay but also to look at things like working conditions the amount that folks are pain in health care um and so forth because to look at sheer numbers I think is very shortsighted in nature yes yes I I won't comment on the um District we'll just leave that there um a lot of my conversations that I've been having is just just the Govern portion of the board and so that continues just to be a concern with this current board um just the I'll I'll just let that sit there I think what we can all agree on is it's election season and all the way up to the top of the ticket if you're registered to vote make sure you vote um I'm thankful that we're nonpartisan and we can be a bridge to build between our Republican and Democrat legislators both locally and state and um that's all I have to say it's important it's important to build relationships I do I would be remiss because I am a little confused by the statement about this board in governance because I am very clear on the roles of a Schoolboard member and the school board member is to govern and not to manage when we are also part of our role is to listen to the vision and values of our community when we are listening to the vision and values of our community in representing vision and values I'm trying to understand how that is not in the in our role and within our responsibility because it was my understanding as an elected official that part of what I am challenged to do is listen to the vision and values of our community and to vote as such and so maybe we have differing views of what that looks like but by no shape way shape or form do I believe that I manage Dr Smith do I believe that I manage his cabinet do I manage anybody we are here to serve the people with whom we were to whom we were elected we are here to set policy we are here to evaluate hire fire the superintendent as you know which we are not in this case there's no talk about firing our superintendent but we are that is our goal and also to improve student outcomes at the core we are elected to ensure that we are representing the vision value of our community and that is what I feel as an elected official that I am doing and so to say or to allude to the fact that somehow this board is not living in to the vision and values of the community because they may differ from the vision and values that others may be hearing is I think shortsighted and I don't think it's appropriate to say that we don't understand the role of governance well can I please share this um as I said I would have shown up um I would I am off like I said said agitation disruption like let's do unity in honoring of good faith bargaining there should not in my opinion have been a board member there out of respect for the Lea and for the admin that is where we stay neutral and we allow out of respect for admin and uh the Lea to work that out I also question governance because when you when you make decisions you have shared your vote with the public on how you choose to vote yet there was never a conversation amongst your peers and for my understanding with Dr Smith so that's why I question governance and we are swor we are sworn in to serve for everything that you said for managing the superintendent the the uh budget all the things but my questions I I get concerned when the Optics are there's a side Chosen and I don't mean to I'll be honest it is our job to govern but when I see things on social media I now know how you're going to vote I found out how you're going to vote on social media in my opinion that is lack of good governance so that's why I question that but again I will leave that there I would to remind Miss Pucket that every vote we take on the day is public that topic hasn't came up yet though so that's where the concern comes in we have not and as I've continuously said I will continue to seek to understand but I cannot seek to understand when there's not an opportunity given to seek that your mind was made up the um decision was said and I read it and I was and it it made my heart sink because it further reinforced the lack of governance for our board and I take I take responsibility for that also because I don't know what to do to to continue to try to seek to understand but it's not appropriate to State your vote and where you stand before the topic is even on is um up for discussion so that's why again I reinforce I question the governance of this current board and I shut my mouth I thank you all for the Deep discussion and I will try to levitate the mood a little bit here and congratulate the wild cats on an undefeated season so far very exciting very exciting um Dr Smith I will allow you to have a few words but but but after I mention that our next monthly Board of Education meeting will be Monday November 11th um we do hope um to approve the teacher contract at that time and we expect and hope that we will have um a public um meeting and public board meeting where everyone can speak on November the 4th in advance of that meeting thank you Dr Smith thank you madam president and thank you board um board I hear your voice and I hear the assignment so Amanda and Eric don't don't run off on me because we got work to do as I heard where's Amanda did she run off on me oh she left okay all right Carrie a find her okay I see you back there Carrie so we hear the assignment and uh we will work accordingly as I am given to serve as superintendent so expect for that to happen a celebration with our football team this is a big deal and we're certainly going to represent well but something else happened the other night the wild cats defeated Cathedral for the sectional championship in soccer and we have a big game against Carmel I'm GNA say that real soloft carel because we don't like them we compete against them for at the regional uh for the regional for the boys soccer so please make sure that you're there we also want to send our good wishes out to the marching Pride because it is now time to compete for the band state championship they be moving on to the uh ban semistate so that's coming up and uh and just to remind everyone that next week we are on spring break and Madame President and board I have fall break I'm sorry almost there yeah it's a few years for me there's no doubt it is fall break guys thank you Madame President and board that's all I have for you do we have a motion to adjourn so moved properly moved and seconded we are Jed thank you know told me bye bye

[Music] good morning I'm Evan and I'm Ray and you're watching Cat TV news last week Cat TV news reporter Steven interviewed Reggie dabs the motivational speaker who came in to visit Tech uh let's take a look hi I'm Stephen with Cat TV news and today I'm joined with Uncle Reggie I have a few questions ask if you don't mind absolutely it's good to be with you by the way thank you thank you so in your bio biography it says you've never done drugs before and have always uh chose not to what the first time you were offered what made you say no and continue to say no well by the time I was offered the drugs the first time I had already uh I grew up in the foster care system I did not have a mom or a dad my mom said I was a mistake and gave me away so I had enough demons right so I had enough problems that I didn't want to add to him and I seen the effects on drugs through other friends and older people by then and I just decided no not me yeah I feel um well you know we we like public speaking what made you get into that and have you ever been afraid like on stage I don't think I've ever been afraid I was nervous because the first time you do anything you're a little nervous I mean first time I put on a football helmet I was nervous but you get used to it and and then it comes down to the only thing that makes me nervous nervous is if I'm delivering the the speech I have to I need to make sure that the audience hears exactly what I'm there to deliver so I get nervous to make sure that I deliver exactly what needs to be done that's about it but the more you do anything like riding a bike you can jump on a bike after not riding it for 30 years and you'll be okay so it's like that oh ni I need to keep that in mind um so in your biography I read um that you hated playing saxophone like first starting out yeah uh what made you start like loving love to play it and continue to play it okay now we got to go way back cuz uh when when I was little my fost ha mom came in one day and I was throwing the cat across the room and trying to catch him before he hit the couch and she's like there's something wrong with him and so she figured out that I was a little ADD but she said I was a d d d d d all right so they she found out through just reading on stuff that music and Rhythm can help guys like let me calm down and focus so she went to the pawn shop and bought a alto saxophone and whenever I got fidgety she made me play with the radio in my bedroom and that's the way it started but now a lot of people say I'm really good at it I I hearded it today it was really good yeah thank you um well you were talking about your mom earlier I wanted to ask when you first heard uh the story of what happened is that what drove you to pursue what you do now today well before it before it led me to what I do it almost killed me um just to be rejected by your own family right and I and I thought I was alone you know until you hear other people start sharing their story of of their journey of the hurt and their pain uh I found out that hurt people can help hurt people yeah and that's one of the reasons I do what I do because somebody helped me so I want to kind of pass it Forward I want to do that and so that's that it did lead me to all of a sudden I've had people you know now because of modern technology through emails and Facebook Facebook and Instagram people just send me messages you know you you you you changed my life today and you know today after the freshman sophomore session kids were coming up like I've never heard a speaker like you and it's cool that you know you're giving somebody hope yeah I'm sure a lot of people were moved I from what I heard I I'm excited to see it later today well it'll be good I'm glad you're coming and um lastly uh I also read that you live in um Fort Myers in Florida Fort Myers Florida yeah we were just wondering um after the hurricane how how were you holding up how were you affected a lot I was very lucky that we didn't have any major major damage but we were able cuz I I'm I'm I'm a I'm a Believer in the community so we were able to help people and get some stuff and people who know me in the in the nation were calling there was a group called uh called Convoy of hope they call it and uh they were able to come in and we were help be able to help our neighbors and we're it took three years but it's you build back up so it it worked out but thanks for asking of course brings tragedy brings the best and the worst out of people and we just got to decide that it's going to bring the best out of us thank you thank you for joining me you did a good job man good job what up see y'all later peace go Cowboys wow that was a great interview what an excellent way to start our month of respect hey I heard Esports has been winning a lot of games so funny you mentioned that I did an interview with Mr Patterson the Esports coach really let's take a look hello Mr Patterson hello um so I want to talk to you about Esports sounds good how has this Esports season been going uh it's going awesome actually so we are third week in uh so actually our rocket League team and our Super Smash team are both three and0 uh and our overcook team is 1 and0 so we're doing really well we haven't lost yet I hope we don't lose so what do you think students gain from being in Esports uh so honestly a lot of the same stuff as regular Sports you know it's a lot of team building activities uh you know it's the same things that you would normally get playing on our basketball team or our baseball team you know we work together to be a team we get we get wins we have to suffer losses sometimes unfortunately you know and uh it's just all the normal benefits of you know working with a team and just working with each other learning how to work with each other in different situations and uh just you know give it your best what games do you guys play uh so in the fall we play rocket League Super Smash and we're playing overcooked right now uh as it's a new game so we're starting out this season with that uh in the winter we're going to play overcooked and OverWatch watch and then in the spring we're going to play rocket League again Super Smash again and valerent and what about orts for the future of our school what's that going to look like so uh super exciting we actually are building a new Esports room uh here at the school uh it is going to be the biggest Esports facility in South Jersey for high schools which is awesome and it's going to be the first facility for South Jersey high schools where your parents can actually come and you guys can come the students can come watch us play orts which is really exciting that's amazing wow that was awesome orts seems so fun the G May Tech after prom committee is collecting new or gently used shoes through November 15th to raise money for the after prom please drop off your shoes to the bin in your CTE class the CTE that collects the most shoes will have a pizza party oh it's your favorite part what question of the week yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes what is your favorite fall activity Smashing Pumpkins carbon pumpkins watching playoff baseball my favorite fall activity is eating every fall food I can think of hey my favorite fall activity I think is the food from fall like all the good Fresh Foods the pumpkin pies the apple cider Etc so good stuff U my favorite fall activity is to carve pumpkins um my favorite fall activity is going to Whole of houses with uh friends my favorite activity is carving pumpkins with my family well I'm a scare actor so my favorite fall activity is screaming at little kids what is your favorite fall activity I like hiking uh back home in my original uh County Sussex County I I would go hiking up top of mountains and uh and find any way I can especially in the fall see all the changing colors that was a little too much enthusiasm you're too much enthusiasm you wrote the script no I didn't you did okay but you have all the good lines okay that's not my fault oh hey what's your favorite fall activity uh I got to say probably jumping in leaves pretty fun how about you I love carving pumpkins ew that's all for this week I'm Ray and I'm Evan we'll see you next time on Cat TV news [Music]

very good okay we're live excellent well good evening everyone thank you for those of you who are able to join me here uh in person and for those of you joining us on the live stream welcome to the K through four and Hughes AI parent University uh my name is Dr Palo I'm the supervisor of educational technology here in East Brunswick I'm very excited to share this information with everyone tonight we had a really successful secondary uh a AI parent University last week very excited to speak with the elementary crowd and talk about specific things regarding uh Ai and how that's being rolled out uh in our in our elementary schools and I think one of the things you'll see uh throughout our presentation if you've seen any of my past presentations at uh board meetings last year if you were able to attend the AI parent University uh in the in the fall or I'm sorry last spring uh you'll see that you know we''ve been very thoughtful about this we've been collaborative we've been transparent uh we we have two websites here if you go to www.ebnet.org Center that's where that's kind of become our hub for all information East bronic related to AI all the teaching tools that we're using for staff for administrators uh for students our guidelines some of the things we're going to talk about tonight our AIU scale that we've been using at the secondary level and also future communications and information that we're going to share with uh you know with all constituents all stakeholders going forward is going to be there so I encourage everyone that tonight if you're here you're going to have all these slides posted on the website afterward uh the video will be accessible we've gotten a lot of uh hits on the on our stream from last week after the event took place which has been really exciting um but you'll have all access to the slides and information there um if you have questions I'll certainly be taking questions from the folks that are here tonight if you're at home and you want to ask questions there's not an interactive feature through the live stream but you can reach out to me via email and uh send any questions that you have or suggestions there's also going to be a feedback form at the end so folks here you'll be able to access that and Folks at home you'll see a QR code come up I suggest you have your phone out and you'll be able to uh share any feedback suggestions recommendations for future parent universities as well uh you know and things like that so really exciting uh to be here and I wanted to thank those of you who are a to join me both virtually and in person so let's jump right into our discussion tonight so when people hear the the the you know the term AI or the phrase generative AI you know these are the these are the official definitions these are from the state of New Jersey um and I think one of the things that I always like to point out to people that is that AI has been a part of our life been a part of our lives for a long time you know artificial intelligence you know it's been part of the Sci-Fi culture you know a lot of people think about uh different things with regards to machine learning and you know when you watch Star Trek in the spaceship you talk to the spaceship and ask it to do uh calculations and things like that um but in our in our um in our life we you know AI has been a part of our life in many ways a lot of the things that we see machines being able to do reacting uh to different information inputs things of that nature you know when you walk into you know one of my favorite things one of my favorite apps that's AI powered uh is an app called Shazam when you walk into CVS or you in the supermarket late night and a song comes on you're like wow what song is this you open up Shazam you click a button and in about four or five seconds it tells you what song is playing you go oh I haven't heard this song In Forever um so it's always a lot of fun so those kind of apps you know Alexa um you know Google um you know Siri these these things have you know these are all AI powered you know tools that have been really important you know any think of excel functionality and things like that AI has been part of our life for for a very long time the thing that I think you know when most people think about the new the AI that's been really impactful the last couple years is what we're talking about is generative Ai and with generative AI or gen AI we're talking about AI that generates or creates content it has the appearance that it's thinking and creating um things but it really is a response to input in inside of these large language models and it's really powerful cool technology um but that's that that's the relatively new wave of AI that we 've been seeing and that's where with the launch of chat chat GPT in November of 2022 that's where we've seen this this wave Usher in of what are we going to do about AI or you know what's going on with this wow it's really cool or wow it's really um you know cause for pause maybe and things like that so these are the official definitions they're very important and these are some of the things that when we talk about this with elementary students you know when appropriate these are the terms that they're going to learn and they're going to learn about privacy and safety on the internet and all those things so these terms are very important but one of the things I want to make clear to parents who are watching Guardians who are watching uh you know to students who might be watching as well with their parents or here tonight is I want you to start thinking of AI as a tool and just like the other tools you have up there on the screen you know hammers wrenches uh screwdrivers things like that does anyone know what uh anyone here know what that tool on the far right side is anyone know it's a glass cut it's a glass cutter awesome there's always there's one person in every crowd I've I've used this image in a few different talks I've done and trainings and somebody usually gets it thank you sir uh that is a glass cutter right so when we're using a tool you wouldn't use the glass cutter to cut wood right and you wouldn't use the hammer to put a screw in somewhere right tools you know are it's all about the you know what kind of project or what kind of goal you're trying to accomplish is going to depend on what kind of tool you're going to use so AI is very similar you know there's going to be a there's a lot that AI can do I'm going to show you some really cool stuff tonight that I think uh hopefully for those of you who have used AI you might be aware of some of these things for some of you who are newer to AI I I I hope that you're going to be uh pretty dazzled and and and amazed because it's some really cool stuff that it can do but it's not going to do everything maybe it's a little bit more of like a Swiss army knife where it has a lot of capabilities but it's a tool it's a tool and we have to make sure that it's not a substitute for our thoughts for our emotions you know for our creativity and Ingenuity but it is a really great productive tool and one of the a couple of things I'm going to share with everybody tonight is that it's a really it can be a really great thought partner and a really great work partner as well but it's all about how you use it and using it appropriately so when we talk about AI as a tool I like i' like to tell the story you might be thinking oh man like what what does mustard have to do with AI and and tools well I'm going to to share a quick little story with everybody H with regards to mustard because this is mustard is the is this story and mustard and AI right it's all connected for me this is a problem that I had that AI helped me solve that convinced me that maybe there was something to Ai and ultimate ultimately led me to this work that I'm doing right now that I've been really excited about for just over a year so I don't know if it was a byproduct of a couple things maybe you know collecting of food condiments and items uh coming out of covid maybe some barbecues you know when you get the value pack and you like the ketchup the the mustard and relish like you know what do you always end up with more of right the ketchup goes quick you use that on all your Burgers you use it for breakfast you use it for chicken nuggets and french fries but you always end up with a lot of mustard and a lot of relish well my house we got the two packs with just the mustard uh and then you know we accumulated some other mustards from other areas and I kind of had like a total dad moment where I was like okay that's it we got way too much mustard here I'm not throwing it out we're going to find a use for it I heard this AI stuff is really good with helping you you know come up with different things and all this stuff I'm going to find a use for all this mustard we're not throwing it out and that's it everyone in my house I have three kids nine six and four so at the time they were a couple years younger and and my uh my awesome wife they just like oh boy all right Dad's on a kick just he'll calm down eventually right he'll he'll be okay he's on one of his kicks so I went on AI chaty PT at the time and I typed in I have mustard I have chicken I have a few other ingredients what can I do with all this mustard so I don't throw it out that was pretty much my prompt some version of that and what it spit back to me was five different recipes that involved mustard that were quick and easy to make and all sounded really good I remember thinking wow all right well let me try one of these out like I don't have hours and hours to cook I have you know on my way here tonight I dropped my my son off at soccer my wife we did the tagout she's there finishing up soccer practice so I could be here I ate dinner in the back of the control room with Mr McManaman and uh you know no mustard actually there was some mustard in that dish it was a leftover from last night that I made with one of my recipes so I was so impressed with this and I said wow maybe there is something to this AI maybe if it can help me with this I wonder if I really took it out for a test drive could it help me solve other problems that I had or other other quick things silly things but other maybe more serious things that I that I need to work out so for me AI you know came to life and became a real tool for me when it solved this problem so I always uh joke with people like find your mustard moment if you're somebody who's really new to Ai and you like you're not really sure to believe the hype or you haven't had a chance to use it for some of the things we're going to talk about tonight I encourage you to find a a silly problem like mustard or ask it to do some fun things tell you a joke or something um you know help you write a a nice message to somebody on a holiday maybe uh those are going to be the things I think that open you up and go all right well let's let's let's start taking this thing out for test drive and try on some other things look for your mustard moment it's one of my big hopefully one of the big takeaways you have from tonight so before we jump into the specifics about the AI guidance that's been shared with teachers uh in the K to four schools and then the guidance that's been shared with uh students and with staff at uh hamers shold here at Hughes I wanted to talk about some uh specific ways that you can use AI in your life this is for the parents and guardians but you know we have uh we have a student here as well and maybe some students watching this as well some ways that uh you can use Ai and I just want to say for students who might be watching if you're under 13 right you have to make sure that you know Copa rules Children online Pro protection act right a protection Privacy Act you want to make sure you're talking to your parents you should be you shouldn't be using these tools without parental uh supervision and and most of the terms of service agreements for the AI tools do require to be 18 or over so just make sure you check with your parents before you sign up for anything and put your information anywhere so that you can keep your information safe a lot of our information is already out there they'll make it easier so make sure your parents know what you're doing and parents I would encourage you to uh have those conversations with your with your children as well so how can parents and Guardians use gen so two things up here that you know are are um are really important so drafting emails so this is one of the things that could be a huge timesaver writing a really good email could take a long time and I know over the course of my career I've been a a teacher educator for 19 years I got my start as a teacher at hamers shold in seventh grade history went to the high school for a while was uh instructional coach at the high school super uh was a department chair for social studies and media and I've been supervisor of educational technology for just over a year so I've written a lot of emails to students to parents to community members uh and in on the you know since I've been a supervisor and administrator um to all those groups plus vendors and people who reach out and have questions and things I like to write a lot lot of my own emails and I want if you have ever sent me an email uh you know it's likely that I responded to your email other times if I was trying if I was just having trouble with wording or if I was just having having kind of like a a blip you know like some like do I need coffee or something I I I would use I do use these tools sometimes to refine or condense a longer message and that's one of the really great uses you can use uh AI for some of the other things you know crafting a really good email for a property manager the mortgage company a customer service inquiry if you're upset about something trying to get a refund it could be hard uh if you're if you're not somebody who writes a lot of emails or maybe you know writing's never been your strength gen can be a great tool to help you with those things so I want to show you a couple examples here where you can use gen and how gen AI to do this and how simple it really is so in the first example we uh I know my kids uh go to Central School two of my three kids and um you one is uh he'll be there next year as a kindergartner so he's said he's a young guy in the family still enjoying uh you know you know his uh his being for and just you know having fun the others are having a blast at school love school love going every day we recently had the walk to school day now I didn't you really email about this uh but I it got me thinking this would be a great scenario for parents if you know we get a lot of emails you got some Blackboard messages from me I appreciate you reading those um and not automatically archiving or deleting them but let's say that you you remember like we got that message walk to school day when is it oh what do is there anything special I have to do and let's say you just you lost the email and you wanted to send a quick message to the teacher one of the things you could do is you can open up a gen tool and right here you have co-pilot and all I put in the prompt there is create an email from my second graders teacher reminder about details for walk to school day event apologize if the info was already sent and just with a you know a poorly worded sentence really um with a couple of details this generated a very you know solid email that I can copy and then paste right into an email that I'm that I'm creating and so what you can see that I'm doing here is you take the uh the subject you can parse that out you start to do some edits right and what you see me doing here in this process is this is the beginning of making sure the email is spoken with your voice so I didn't give it critical details about the teacher or my child's name or anything like that I gave it generic information because we don't I always encourage people not to put too much uh personally identifiable information into an AI chatbot not a not a great idea like I said before a lot of our information is already out there don't give it anymore so I got the I gave it the gist let it do the the the grunt work of making the email and then I go in and with a few clicks make sure it sounds right maybe delete a couple words maybe add a couple things and then I can add in the salutation that I want wanted to say my name my child's name and uh voila so something that might have taken me maybe what doesn't take you a long time to write emails but sometimes like I said depending on after a long day maybe you're just tired this thing can help you um do that really well make sure you delete all the other stuff from The Prompt and you're all good to send so that's that's a pretty impressive use of this tool and you know I think that that's something that could be a real timesaver right um one of the other things that I talk a lot that we deal a lot with is communication and I I before I show this example I just want to make clear a couple things like number one I think that we are able to best meet the needs of all Learners and help every student when we have honest conversation right and sometimes honest conversation about student situations it's not always you know sunshine and rainbow sometimes we have to have difficult conversations sometimes you know as a parent you have every right to be upset about something if you feel like something isn't being done that should be done so I want to show this example of how to revise an email not to discourage anyone from ever being honest with their child's teacher or a building administrator or curriculum administrator or or somebody else that works for the school but I also do want to say that I think generally we would all agree that if we can if we keep the conversation civil direct and honest but civil and we keep the tone such that it is it remains civil that we can get to a resolution faster when we do this that so one of the things that sometimes happens with email and I've been guilty of this myself I've I've been angry fired off an email uh to someone in my personal life and maybe even someone at work and maybe it didn't strike all the right tones that I wanted and you click Send and you feel good for about 5 seconds then you go oh all right maybe that that might not be the most helpful I don't think that really helped the situation you know and you might be like oh I probably should have checked the tone and sometimes even when you do those things it's hard to tell tone through email sometimes a very innocent email could come across like well what's that supposed to mean and you're like oh no I was just saying like yeah I guess we'll talk about it later I didn't mean like I guess we'll talk about it later but it's hard to do tone is really difficult sometimes through email so in this suggestion you'll see there's a scenario where maybe um you know as a parent you're upset about something that happened and um one of the things that you can use AI to do is run it through a filter ask it to just check for tone and um and and then it'll help you produce that email so that the communication is direct and honest but is getting us closer to resolution right and the other thing I'll just say too is if your situation isn't getting resolved after one or two emails I think the next email should be let's set up a time to call for a call and talk on the phone and I'm a big fan of Technology obviously but I I'm a bit I also believe in a blend of old school and new school so if you can't get that resolved through email recommend a time to call and I think that's always a good way if email is not able to resolve it so I say all those things to say here's an example ex Le here my child my first grade child came home from school she was upset about the reading group she was put in other kids distracted her said mean things this is ridiculous unacceptable write me an email uh to her teacher be direct I'm upset but be polite and what you can see here is it started to put together that email and when you use Google's Gemini you have a couple options if you if you have a Gmail account you can have a Gemini uh then you have access to Gemini you can have it sent to Gmail or can copy paste it into a word doc or or in this case an Outlook um an Outlook email and what you could see here that it did was it took my anger and some of the frustration that was in my email or that was in my message I didn't even really give it that much information I hope that's one of the things you're seeing is you don't have to give it information I didn't say the kid you know my my my kid's name I didn't say the teacher's name um I didn't really even give too much information I just told what the situation was and why I was upset and it helped formulate an email that expresses concern uh what happened she was quite upset today she's being distracted I understand grouping students can be a challenge but I believe it is important that every child feel comfortable and supported right these are things that are important right these are these are these are facts of the situation these are the feelings that you feel but it's done in a way that asks for you know explanation but also hey how can we move forward from this I want to work together so it checks that tone for you and it makes the next phase of the conversation one where um maybe there's an explanation you know sometimes there's there's other information there's other facts that you're not aware of you know you weren't there for the situation uh maybe the teacher didn't realize these things were happening I thank you for telling me that this happened I will take care of it right away um so I think that once again I want everyone to be honest direct I'm I'm a big fan of transparency and honesty um but also keeping the tone of the conversation civil is important um and like I said if you get to an email back and forth where you're not getting a clear answer or just maybe something's getting lost in the sauce of emails that next email should say let's set up a time for us to talk and that's and that's and that's great because then we're getting closer to resolution we're helping kids and that's what it's all about make sense right so I hope that that was that's a a pretty cool example and a good situation to see so another example I want to show is more about um the second situation dealing with a property manager or customer service comp CL this one uh is a is a situation where somebody emails their property manager about a heating issue in their apartment so take a look at this one this is on chat GPT the the tool that started the whole gen AI wave as we know it create an email for a property manager Marez explaining the heat is not working thermostat's not accurate I'm very upset so it creates this email and as I was doing this video I remember saying like that's a longer email so my next prom part of the prompt is condense to two paragraphs and then you click s and you'll see it takes that message above and kind of shortens it you know doesn't take out any information that I didn't want taken out but it condenses it to two paragraphs right I can copy that and paste it into my email and very quickly I'm expressing you know that I've reached out despite multiple times over the past week I've not received a response um you know you're being direct you're being honest but it's not you know you're not challenging anyone to a fist fight or anything or or uh you know making any threats or anything that might not resolve the situation but you're you're moving the ball forward and you're do you're creating a document uh your situation where you're documenting what happened and you're trying to get closer to resolution so um I think these are really uh great examples um you know I didn't give the AI tool my apartment number I did that afterward right um I did give in the prompt Marez uh you know name you know that I I probably could have left that out of the prompt but uh you know I don't think that uh that that's too bad I didn't you know give any specific necessarily information there but um you can see that that's a really helpful um really helpful tool very quick very very quickly lodging a complaint you know you deserve to have your heat work working and making sure that you're moving that ball forward is really important couple of other areas right so homework assistance this is a big one and I've experien this like I said I have a daughter who is a fourth grader and I have a son who's in first grade and another one coming up you know one of the big things I've talked a lot with parents at both uh Elementary and secondary level about AI people are very concerned especially at the secondaries about academic integrity and and people using AI to cheat which you know it it does happen um and we've put in in different things that I'll talk about uh in a little bit to try to mitigate some of that talk about creating a culture of collaboration with our teachers and students um but I think that there really is some value for parents when it comes to homework help um you know I'm lucky enough my my wife is is a great math teacher I uh you know I was a history guy coming up and be and and learned more about technology did my dissertation in cyber security in schools so I know a little bit about history know a little bit about technology math you know I I do okay I've done all right but I wouldn't say my strong suit so um this is one of those things when it comes to you know simple math or complicated math or maybe all math is complicated I know I've felt that way uh certainly a lot of my life where you can use AI tools not to get the answer for your kids not to just do the problem and get it done but you can ask it for help on how to help your kids answer these questions without doing it for them so I have a really great example I'm going to show you in a second about that um you know another thing that it can do is help with dinner ideas now I told the mustard story I have a fun example here where chicken and a couple of of other ingredients and it can very quickly give you some recipes so I want to keep it light and fun things that are practical and helpful but also some things that uh will help you with your with your kids homework you know we've all had those nights uh if anyone who's a parent with kids around my age and and older where it's like all right we should be getting ready for bed oh my goodness it's late like how are we doing this right now and you want to get you want to help your kid you know with that assignment but you don't want to do it for them so you're trying to find that balance and um so I think that what you'll see with this next example is something that's pretty cool so this is a Hughes uh grade five math problem from one of the units that they're working on right now uh and what you'll see here is I use uh an AI tool called Claude Claude AI really great tool and uh all the tools that we're talking about tonight they have free versions that are available as well and you'll see in this example what I do so I'm the parent of a fifth grader help me explain to them how to complete this math problem put the math problem in and then what you see here is I'm happy to help explain the math problem for your fifth grader and it creates the different steps for you to assist your child as they go forward to answer the question not just giving them the answer not doing it for them but it basically writes you a script so that you can help your child if they're getting you know having that moment of frustration if they get stuck on one of the points you can help them now at the end of this prompt says to make this more engaging you know you could use actual bills and things which like that's pretty cool if I had that much money lying around right um would you like me to elaborate on any part of this explanation so I I start typing in here yes breakdown steps I can take to help my child complete this problem without doing it for them that's the critical piece of this right and one of the things I fixed the spelling error but if you left it and just hit enter it would know what you were going to say anyway so I ask it to break it down even better so here's a step-by-step script that you can use to help your child now in the next example you're going to see and I I'm a big believer that in leadership whenever you give advice you usually I find within 24 to 48 hours I'm given an opportunity to follow my own advice pretty quickly and so as I was you know developing these tools for for the AI parent University last week and this week um and I was like wow this is a really neat tool my daughter came home and had an issue and I was able to use this strategy pretty effectively I'm going to show you in a second for fourth grade but you can see it gives you step by step so as your child is trying to get through the problem and you know that moment of frustration like I was saying before you're like it's past bedtime we got to get this thing well let's get this thing rolling let's go and you know but you don't want to do the work for them you don't want it to just do it to get it done you want them to have that productive struggle get to The Next Step this is a great tool to help you get there and then if you have a situation where your child's still struggling you can explain to the teacher in an email very very friendly manner as we showed before um what where the child had some some problems and where they might need some help or here's how we we did this and that's a great way to communicate with that teacher so you're you know understanding where you they are understanding where your child's at and you're able to help them as well so here's the mental math so I did this with my daughter this was last week and you can see on my my personal Gmail account if you have a Gmail account you can access Gemini and so I explain I you know what is mental math this is this is civilian herb Palo as a dad trying to help my my fourth grader with mental math I read this I read what was in the in the Envision uh textbook and some of the online resources that parents have I'm okay that matches up and then I give it the the problem use mental math similar to the previous example breaks down step by step all the information and then just like I did in the other example I asked for that same script you know how do how can I help my child uh you know without giving them the answer and go down visualize break down the numbers and what I found when I did this with my daughter was that by the time I got to like step 2.5 my daughter went from being really frustrated to Oh Daddy I'm really sorry I I I got it I know I know I I remember now I'm sorry I'm just tired no no no no it's okay hey it's let's let's get keep going you're hanging in there that's it's okay to get frustrated finish it up I'll check it after and then and then we're ready let's get ready for bed we got clearly we need some sleep I know I do right like I'm sure you could use a few little bit of sleep and it made for the whole trajectory of bedtime and get you know the end of the night changed and a lot of it was because of the you know it started with the tools we have available and then with the assistance that I was able to get from Gemini there so I think this is a really great uh tool I think math helping with math homework tends to be an area where I think I hear a lot of situations where parents struggle you know it's it's difficult this is hard stuff even fourth and fifth grade it's it's tough so I think that if this can be a tool a bridge to help students remember what the teacher taught them in class like my daughter was having or if it's a situation where they're having a little more trouble and they just maybe um you needed a little bit of reinforcement or presented a different way now when they go back in the next day they're more confident and they can talk to the teacher about these things and and I think that you know that that tension that sometimes happens because of frustration goes goes away and it can help it's not going to you know there are no magic wands in education um but these are some pretty powerful tools I think that can help kids and and parents too so this is a fun example I was talking about dinner ideas so uh this is a tool called perplexity uh which is a really great tool free tool I have mushrooms pepper spinach chicken legs in my fridge please provide me five easy dinner ideas at the top there you saw it CES all the information so you can click on the websites to see the actual recipes but right in the generated content there you have three I thought or five rather pretty good recipes and I was was reading through these I like I'm going to save this one this is pretty good and you can copy paste them into a Google doc or word doc or or whatever wherever you want to do these things one of the nice things perplex does is it also gives you uh follow-up questions at the bottom some of the other tools do this as well so let's say you're like oh you know what we're having friends over the vegetarians want to respect their dietary needs give me some vegetarian Alternatives and provide you with that as well as I said before you don't need to create an account with perplexity you can go to it and it kind of has a feel of a like a search engine uh which is pretty neat um so you can use it without creating an account and you can see pretty pretty neat ideas and you could kind of get lost in the rabbit whole pretty good with a lot of these other um search queries that are there so whether it's helping you know with revising emails whether it's helping your your children with homework or uh trying to plan dinner a lot of great lot of great uses for AI uh last area is for some work rated tasks I know depending on your work that you do uh I think that this is one of those areas where I talk to a lot of my friends who were in the corporate world um you know many of them are using these tools and if they're not they're kind of feel like they're maybe getting you know they're being they're falling behind or taking them longer to get some stuff done so there's great ways to write reports time management you know um making to-do lists all really important right so here's a an example of using this this let's imagine that I just took some rough notes I'm I'm working at a at a a management in financial management I'm at the quarter 2 management meeting and I want to organize all my just like random notes that are grouped together so I just ask it organize it in a in an orderly fashion and very quickly it took that glob of notes that was just in a in a in a big uh paragraph and it very nicely bullet pointed all those so I have all that information the DAT of the next meeting I can copy paste that right into a Google doc or an Excel sheet or word doc and I have a very nice uh list you can have see that in co-pilot you have these other examples here which are really neat our teachers and our uh our teachers have access with their ebet accounts to co-pilot and and very safe uh there's extra firewalls around to protect any of the data that's shared there uh students at Churchill and hire have access to co-pilot uh they've been able to assure us Microsoft who owns co-pilot that they have extra safeguards in place to protect student privacy blur out any information that uh you know if some private information or or names were mentioned that it'll blur those things out and it also doesn't return back to the large language model to train uh the large language model how to answer answer questions uh better if you use one of these other tools with a Gmail account or your Outlook account that's part of why I was saying before to make sure you don't share too much personal information because all your um prompting data goes back to the large language model and trains it on how to do those things better which is fine if you're not sharing anything that is proprietary or private um but just want to make that clear so we we take the proper safeguards in East Brunswick for our staff and student use um they have pilot access to some of these tools which are really neat but uh co-pilot and Gemini you have that extra layer of protection and that's the case too in Corporate America um other entities like that have Enterprise accounts that protect proprietary information that you don't want going into um the large language model this last one here you know I I don't know about anyone else here if you're with your spouse where you get a to-do list and sometimes you're just talking into the notes app on your phone or something like that um so this was a fun one uh create a to-do list for me the following items you know make sure you get the kids to soccer some laundry pick up dry cleaning and a gift for Nona cuz why not she's awesome right um so very quickly created that list for me that you can copy paste or uh have it put in a draft into a Gmail email uh you know you can have it make a checklist or put checkboxes next to it if I wanted to print it out uh you can have it do that uh so I can check off each as I complete it you know and you could like I said I'm and I there are some research that says if you say please to large language models that it does help with the results um I think it's just nice to be polite anyway but you can see it puts a little CH you know little check boox there and in Gemini you can copy paste it as I was saying uh or you can export it right into Gmail or put it right into a Google doc and it'll go right into your uh your Google Drive which is pretty cool so these are just a few examples that I wanted to share with everybody because I my big takeaway for the folks watching at home and folks here was to what's something you could do right now like what's a problem or an issue or a task that you've been putting off or something that you need to get done um that that you need to get done right now you can you can do those things with any of these geni tools um you know the district doesn't endorse anyone over the other we do like I said before co-pilot and Gemini for safety reasons those are the ones that we recommend the staff use and we just say be careful using the other ones Claude and um perplexity and chat jpt as well the big a couple big takeaways I'm going to get into the the guidance information which is really important in a second but two of the things I keep saying to our staff and and some of the older students uh Church Hill and the high school as we talk about these things is to start thinking of geni as both a thought partner and a work partner and I think that sometimes when people hear that it's a little it's a little scary it's it's it's it's a little you know think of a thought partner as like your colleagues and and I'll tell you I have some of the best colleagues in the State uh our you know our team when we get together as a curriculum team and trying to solve solve problems and help kids working with the building leaders as well um these are great thought Partners uh but one of the things that I've also found is that when we give uh certain survey data or we look we're looking at large data sets we're crunching information we're putting things together we're sharing out ideas one of the things that I've been able to do with like Google forms and other survey data and things like that is you take away all the the personally identifiable information you assign it numbers or letters and you ask you can ask I had a that data help me find the common themes within a survey help me find the outlier information and what I found is that when you when you take that information gen produces some thoughts about it you can then go to your colleagues your your your human thought partners and you can have really rich conversations about well should we do this in first grade or should we look at this in fourth grade or H how can we do better with with this program at at at Churchill or the high school and it's made those conversations much more rich and thoughtful because we were able to take large data sets and get some processed you know the information processed and analyzed and then talk about it after so thinking of it as a thought partner you know like that that friend that you call every once in a while to share some things and you have to say what was the last time we talked it's been a while where did we leave off well if you use any of these AI tools that archive your thoughts you don't have to do that it knows where you left off and you can pick up that conversation right where you left off which is pretty cool when I say think of it as a work partner I think think of a lot of like the grunt work like you know the those emails you had to get back to um some of those lists that you're generating you know creating those um you know those meeting notes and summarizing getting them sent out to people on your team um you know family events that you're trying to plan um this has been a great tool for a lot of those things so I think you know one of the things that I'm trying to you know encourage people to do is to that you know to get over that that fear you have about thinking of this as a thought partner and a work partner that's I think that's going to be a really big help for all of us for all the different things that we're trying to do very busy people get things done uh but very busy people can use help as well and I think that this is a great tool thought partner work partner so let's dive into a little bit about the guidance and some of the things that we're talking with staff about now like I said before with the students the big takeaway that I hope you get out of this tonight is when we're talking about elementary uh students we are not opening the floodgates for elementary students we think it's very important that we lay the foundational principles of what learning look like reading thinking math you know all the rich electives that we have at the elementary level we want students to be able to use technology safely and to build those skills out it's very important you know when we talk about exposing Elementary uh students to AI it's in a very thoughtful methodical controlled manner uh the K to4 situation we're talking about third and fourth grade with the media specialists at the same with it they talk about computer literacy privacy security and all those things when we talk about Hughes we're talking about controlled pilots in certain classes or certain units you know empowering teachers to think about these things say hey i' would love for kids to be able to see how this works and so it's monitored it's controlled very much in a safe way uh but for teachers we've been encouraging teachers to say look look if this can help you with lesson planning uh generating better test questions generating better essential questions in your in your lesson plans and uh guiding questions for discussion with your students that's where geni can be a huge huge help huge help so the with the exception of meta AI the other tools are the ones that really I've been encouraging staff uh to use there's another tool called magic school that's been a great tool for teachers but these are been the tools and you've seen that the those five are what I was using as the samples in those other um in those other examples in earlier so I've been telling staff like I said before uh co-pilot and Gemini you have access with your EET account those safeguards are in place um if you have a a Gmail account you have access to Gemini if you have an Outlook account you can get on co-pilot very easily um perplexity is one you don't need an account you can jump right on and start using it the same way that you jump on Google and start searching for things a lot of folks in the AI Community uh my fellow nerds as I like to say is a term of affection um that Claude um is is a very popular tool people like the layout the presentation the large language model so these are these are the tools that have been approved for pilot use I started adding meta AI into some discussions because I think that folks who haven't taken the leap with AI yet I think this is the first place that a lot of people are going to encounter Ai and if you don't believe me if you open up Facebook or Instagram right now the search bar that's at the top it has that meta symbol there that INF symbol and you know unless you're searching for like an old friend from high school or something if you're talking about like a a topic that's going on in the world you're trying to search for something a certain group and you click enter or you hit search on your phone it's going to have an AI generated response to that some of you I see a few folks maybe nodding right now where you might be saying oh yeah that's right it gave me an explanation about the Mets uh and the Dodgers and I was just looking for what time the game started or who was commenting on it so that's one of the first place I think if you haven't um taking that leap with AI you know most people have Facebook or Instagram and you're going to see that that's um that might be their first point of contact so I've been talking about that more one of the neat things when you're on a computer on a laptop using meta aai is you can ask it like imagine a cloudy day with a unicorn flying in the sky and in real time it will generate you'll see the image like change shape and it will create that image in real time which is pretty cool so um there's like serious uses for it and then there's there's fun and I think that when you keep keep the fun in learning and you keep the fun in in learning these things uh I think that's where we all learn best uh that was always my motto in my class room and uh it's continued in in uh as a supervisor as well so um let's talk a little bit about the overview so this is really important and I want to make clear that you know this wasn't like a herb you know Dr Palo project here um what when I applied for the the when when Dr veski Dr Bley and the Board of Education created a position of supervisor educational technology uh just over a year ago and I'm I was I privileged enough to apply for the job and interview you know my whole thing with with with Dr boy was I think we need to take a collaborative approach to this and we need to get our best people we have super talented teachers K to 12 and we need to get them together um and we need to talk about how what the best way to move forward what are we thinking about what have we not thought about and we need to work together we need to get our best together and I don't want just people who are um you know the the folks that always sign up to do things on committees or or or or groups uh or people who were super techy I want a little bit I I like healthy skepticism um I like people who were skeptical but interested in Solutions so we put together a working group uh at we had a K4 working group we had a Hughes working group we had a a Churchill AI working group and a high school working group all different departments grade levels um and what we did was we met you know four or five times over over the course of of last year and we this Vision here this overview was a direct result of those conversations and that work that we did together um very important stuff and it was great to be able to you know build that vertically articulated Vision so that we're building towards something we're not just you know um throwing the spaghetti against the wall to see what sticks we're we're we're thinking we're discussing and you know bringing research in hey uh everybody I read this article what do you think how would this work would this work in the classroom what do you think so this Vision here was a direct result of all that and as I said before you know K to4 AI is teacher facing we have staff guidance that I'm going to show you in a minute um staff used for various job related tasks you know we're talking about student AI awareness and limited limited pilot lessons once again very limited scope we want to be very careful and we want to be cautious you know I was on a call today with a vendor who had a really neat product and I've seen a lot of these demos and my first response is okay let me go back and talk to the team um we're you know I want to see what out what's out there but we're not overc committing to anything we're going to be thoughtful about this and we're going to see where maybe a pilot is a good idea or maybe the answer is not right now but we'll talk later and so I think that that's really important um so when we talk about limited pilot lessons we're talking about specials we're talking about media and maybe in certain classes if teachers are ready to do a small pilot we'll talk about how to do that safely at Hughes mainly teacher facing as well but we did create student guidance that is about edtech and AI as included in there because I can tell you last year we had some situations where we had to talk to kids about you know that you not not supposed to just copy paste uh work from Chachi BT or somewhere and it wasn't in a in a you know there was not a an overly disciplinary tone to it there you know we we talked about why that wasn't right and and and the right way to use it and those experience were good for for the student to learn but also for us so that we could put together a strategy we said okay next you know when we get this guidance together here are some points we have to make here's how we can help teachers have those conversations with students move the ball forward in a productive way um you know I was interim assistant principal for a couple months a few years ago um here at at Hughes and one of my biggest things I used to say to students was hey learn the right lessons learn the right lessons from this experience and we're all learning lessons the whole time we we go forward with AI uh staff defense students so it's about skill development uh certain classes units and lessons as well and then when we get to the high school we had to put some more safeguards and guidance in place because a lot of our Church Hill and high school students they are like they're on they have the apps downloaded so we had to take a little bit of a different approach um but I think it's been pretty successful so far we've had a lot of really great conversations we're forming student groups at Churchill in the high school to help us navigate those things and do it productively so uh on the AIC Center web page ebnet.org Center or you could just Google EIC center it's the first result that comes up which is pretty great um you can see all these guidance documents I'm not going to dive into the 7 to 12 documents specifically but if you want to go see how the the vertical articulation trajectory is going on I definitely encourage everyone to go and check those out um also the AIU scale this is something that was developed um for Churchill in the high school I just had a grant that from the East brunic Education Foundation for magnets for every classroom at Churchill in the high school these are going to go on the boards there the bear face the evb bear you're going to be able to move the teachers can move that magnet to any of the the the levels there for the for the secondary students so we're really excited about that um so I encourage you to go on and look closer at that but for elementary once again we're talking about awareness we're talking about piloting we're talking about very controlled opening of access to students um only when appropriate and safe right so let's look at the the guidance for the staff and student the staff and teachers rather here at Hughes you see it talks about you know why technolog is important to use uh how it can assist everybody uh with numerous tasks what our mission is here as Tech tools and AI evolve we continue to build our own capacity while up putting our core principles in every classroom right the foundational principles of weight what make for good teaching and learning those aren't going to change the tools we use and how we get there that's what's going to change right so we talk about specific guidance we talk about equity and communication planning and assessment differentiation and support you know specific those are specific slide presentations that that teachers can use that drill down so if they're having specific issues or have specific questions about those things they have tools and resources available that they can use but they also you know I've I've had many sitd Downs coaching sessions with teachers as well um that are really important so it lays everything out very nicely for them and gives them the proper guard rails that they need as well um talking about uh prior to assignments you know we should be clear with with students about you know not just about AI but teachers should State whether or not collaboration outside sources or technology tools such as AI are permitted for use and we we ask teachers that you know if we want students I always sit this as a teacher we have to be clear in our communication with students that's really important if we want them to do certain things or to not do certain things we have to be clear in our communication so just reiterate some points that oh a lot of our teachers do really well and is are the foundation of good teaching just remembering that with AI and other technology it's important to do that citation guides uh spent a lot of time this summer pulling from different uh universities and different uh resources to make sure we had the most up-to-date MLA and APA Citation uh guides there uh which teachers have really appreciated um you know the student guidance let see so the student guidance um you know just walks through with students about um you know different pieces that are really important they're going to encounter technology tools that can help them learn and complete tasks more effectively uh it's important to follow directions uh you know make sure they're listening to their teachers that they know what's appropriate that they talk to parents like those are really really important um some of the types of Technology they you know what are some of the type of technologies that you might use we use the Q&A format because we found that for both the students at uh Churchill and the high school but also our students um you know here is that that's an easy way for them to understand what we want them to do and how important that is uh and it's not just about AI it's about all the different technology and that was a big thing that the working group talked about was well we don't want to just lead you know with AI we don't want this to just be about AI we want it to be about all technology because you know just like we said at the beginning technology is a tool it doesn't mean it's always uh the answer to the to the problem or that it's the best way to for them to complete work but we also know that we live in 2024 and that technolog is critically important so it's about appropriate use right are students allowed to use technology tools for school assignments it depends on the task right and it goes through specifically right we're very Pro Tech here right I'm the supervisor of educational technology but I always tell tell people it's like educational technology right when I go in and observe teachers it's like you know well I didn't use technology I'm like yeah you did how did you put that how did you put you organized the groups so you communicated it on the slides and you thought about it or you prepared that reading for them to do or you organized the problems there and then they worked in groups you did use technology the kids were conversing about it and doing on paper or they did part of it on a computer but of course you use technology it's educational technology right that's the that's the critical piece of this that we don't want to forget so with students it's the same thing right yes you can but it depends and you know when you're not sure when in doubt be honest and just ask it's very important very important so I think that we put these documents together I hesitate to say that they're perfect because one of the things that we realize is that you know um there's always a better way to communicate It's always important to have conversations with the and we're going to keep the AI working groups together we're going to have some new members on there this year I'm excited to begin those meetings uh over the next couple of weeks in the next month or so um getting some feedback about how this is going you know what what's going well what are some things we need to clarify um what resources do you still need um but I think that so far this has been a really um positive experience and and it's been positive for for the kids when it comes to our K4 uh guidance for teachers and staff remember we're not as I said at the beginning you know this is not something where we really believe for students should be using a lot of AI that you know if if and when they're using it it's in a very controlled situation I think there's some opportunities maybe by the end of third grade and in fourth grade in media lessons with media specialist um and maybe in other courses and other specials or units of study within certain subject areas those are areas that we're exploring and we're looking at very closely we want to be thoughtful about those things so in the ca for K4 we have guidance for teachers and staff and very similar to to what we have for Hughes uh talking about how it can enrich the classroom some ways that teachers can use AI you know reaffirming what our goals are goal is to strike the right balance between technology use AI awareness and nurturing essential skills so you know and I believe that you know we've uh consistently produced excellence in K4 schools and then technology that's been no different because we've been thoughtful about it we've talked about it we're being collaborative um and we're not rushing to do anything but we're we're not afraid to innovate and try new things either talked about Equity communication planning and assessment differentiation and support so these outline specific uh recommendations and ways the teachers can use it and I just want to talk about you know equity for a second that you know Equity is extremely important and some people might hear that and go what what is equity had to do with AI um you know one of the things that we found in the early versions of AI is that AI can can be a great equalizer for students who maybe don't have access to some of the resources uh that other students and other families may have uh some of the the the tools that you're seeing about the math problems and things but certain writing assistance and things like that it could be a huge help for students who maybe don't have uh whose parents don't have the means to maybe pay for tutors and things like that um but the important thing is is that you we also have to keep in mind that when we ask it questions about certain topics that it may have a little bit of bias that's built into it and we do have to be careful and mindful of that uh image generators with AI have had some problems with Equity as well uh if you ask it to create an image of students in a classroom or students on the playground uh I've seen many times where AI tools do that in a very Equitable way and represent the community that you might live in and I've seen other examples where it maybe doesn't do that sometimes you have to be more specific with your prompting to make sure that it does that well other times it does it on its own I always remind people that just you know that um Ai and AI algorithms and large language models just like the humans that created it are imperfect right and you know Welcome To Earth right nobody's perfect but those are things that we have to be mindful of and that we have to talk to students about and then we have to talk to staff about so U while it may not be a quick connection you're like what Equity AI it is something that is very important it's why that there's been a big push to make sure that there are diverse voices in uh coding and in the in the back rooms where these algorithms are devel veloped so that the information that's being shared out uh represents uh you know the the world population and our communities and make sure that that information is being shared appropriately so just wanted to say a couple things on that which I think are important um so planning and assessment differentiation and support and then redirecting people to the edtech and the AI websites so I got a couple minutes left here and I I want to make sure we have some time for anyone who's here to ask any questions for those of you on the live stream uh there's not a Q&A format through there but once again you'll see a survey that will pop up in a in a minute or two please uh respond to the survey or you can email me anytime if you have any questions I had some great emails from parents after last week's session I look forward to hearing from folks uh after this one as well so I just want to reiterate the point like the two big points AI literacy and AI pilot use when we talk about students using AI those are the two areas that we're talking about K to6 controlled specific ific we want PE we want our kids to know what this with this technology is what it can do we want them to be exposed to it in a thoughtful controlled manner that's safe so that when they by the time they get to Hughes and then they get to Churchill they'll be ready to use it appropriately we're do going to do we're going to do more conversations with the community with parents so that they're aware of these things and then how to use them and then how to talk to their kids about this because it's really important that we all work together it takes a team effort right we all work together on this so um I just wanted to reiterate those points and we're really excited uh for some of the things that are coming so a couple things to keep in mind I want to leave you with here you know I think that one of the things I've been saying to staff uh for the last year plus that I've been in this job and even before that is to embrace the challenges and opportunities we don't have all the answers we don't know where the technolog is going to evolve to um but we you know we have to identify the challenges we can't be weighed down by them but we also have to look at the opportunities this is an exciting time and technology so um I think that it's something that uh we really can Embrace we can innovate and and you know bring back uh maybe some excitement uh uh at times where you know you know the where we we have opportunities to do that so I know I'm excited and I'm excited for what what we have coming down the pipe uh talk to kids you know about appropriate technology use right ask questions you know not just about AI but about social media I think that those are things be honest and support appropriate use of technology I think we encourage our kids to be honest with with us and we we got to be honest with them and that's how the best way we're going to keep them safe and also help them be effective you know they live in a physical world but they also live in a digital world and I think that you know we maybe Miss some of this when social media came out it kind of just it was kind of it hit us so fast we didn't really have time to react I do think we're doing a better job uh as a district and in some ways as as a society when it comes to AI um but we it's a continual effort that we have to we have to keep working at uh trust but verify so anytime you get results from uh a gen tool this is I'm a history guy before I was a tech guy and that's a phrase from the cold war that Ronald Reagan used to use when talking about um you know the Soviet Union trust would verify I think it's the same thing with AI check your sources uh it it it can hallucinate or make information up at times and the the AI tools will warn you about that so just remind your your children about that and remind your friends too if they're as they're dabbling with AI I talked about equity and repes presentation awareness very critical please keep that in mind dep if if you get a result back that sounds a little you know suspicious um you know ask more questions check other sources you know some of those tools that are going to send you to sources see where they're generating that content from so that you know what's what's happening uh make sure a Content speaks with your voice with the emails we talked about that the personally identifiable information uh privacy settings very important children under 13 should not create accounts uh children under 18 need parent permission so keep that in mind if you you know it's ultimately up to you what you you know when you talk to your your kids about you know you may not even be aware that they have chaty BT or you some of the students that we've talked to like oh you know my mom I think they know or my dad I think they know right ask them if you're not sure ask your kids and talk with them about it I wouldn't say maybe take it away right away or maybe as long as they understand responsible use that's what's important right so just be aware of the Privacy policies that each of these tools have I'm going to leave this slide up um you know and I would just encourage people if you haven't tried some of these tools if you've tried one but not the other pick a new one try it out think of a problem that you that you're trying to solve or a task you're trying to do right now and and jump jump into the deep end of the poem giving everybody permission right um you know be brave and um you know if you're not ready to create an account if you have a Gmail account use Gemini and or jump on perplexity um I really appreciate everyone coming out who was able to attend tonight I appreciate folks taking time at a soccer practice or making dinner or the number of things that parents and Guardians do every day for our kids in our community for joining us on the live stream I hope that you'll uh come to future events or join us on future live streams I hope that you'll reach out if you have any questions I i' love getting emails from folks and and continuing that conversation and learning more about um ways that we can work together um please take a few minutes to complete the survey uh because that feedback is really critical and important to our work and continuing to make sure we're doing the best by every single child in this district and serving the community as best as we can thank you so much everybody uh and have a great night thank you again e

with the Pledge of Allegiance everyone everyone please stand I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to Republic Nation indivisible withy and justice for all to welcome everybody here this evening uh Diana Butler is participating remotely her health issues won't let her leave her home right now so she is online with us on the phone and we'll be participating that way remotely so we'll Begin by turning some time over to Dr Wright for some special recognition Awards thank you we'll start out with the students of the month and let's go in reverse order Mr Grace if you'd like to announce your student of the month okay let's do it the other end yes sir Mr web let's start with you buy some time real slow all right thank you for coming out tonight having could we go ah and do a roll call pass the mic down actually if I could have Britney Eddie come forward she's going to be proxy for Morgan so this is Morgan Eddie's mom you have to give her a speech too no so so the high school we want to recognize Morgan and the so this is what we said about Morgan she's we recognize her for the student of the month for October she's an honor student taking a full load of Honor classes AP classes and dual enrollment classes for English Spanish and government and maintaining a 4.0 GPA in all of her classes over the years in addition to her academic load she stays busy with soccer and track being the soccer captain and she received honorable mention last year for soccer she's also been in student council all four years last year was the junior class secretary this year she's senior class vice president she's also super competitive and tremendous has tremendous determination she had a snowboarding accident her sophomore year right and that didn't slow her down while she was in the hospital she was still determined to C keep curtain with her grades and she did um she got back out on the mountain last year and and I happened to catch up with her group and she's competitive she wanted to race me down the mountain and I think she beat me too so super competitive um she's also got a heart and a lot of compassion and and love for the other kids and I saw that firsthand with one of the exchange students she really made this exchange student feel part of the school part of the community part of her friend group part of the teams everything that she was participating in she was one of the and that's what Morgan does she just reaches out to everyone around her and makes them makes them feel important so we want to recognize for Morgan for the amazing things that she does and she's not here tonight because she's she's at play practice getting ready to go and then she's got soccer this evening too so that's that's Morgan so we want to recognize Morgan thank you the junior high now miss hofm yes could I please have Riley Sherman come up to the front so Riley is an eighth grader at the Junior High um and she was nominated by a teacher um and then heartily um heartily selected by many others as well um Riley is an exceptional e8th grade student at bluid Junior High known for her dedication school spirit and involvement in both academics and extracurricular activities she's an active participant in various School sports showing commitment and teamwork on and off the field Riley also contributes to her community Through projects such as the Fall Festival Parade which we're still waiting on we're still rating on results from the float um but she was an instrumental part of that um and demonstrating leadership and a strong sense of responsibility her enthusiasm for school spirit events is contagious and she consistently puts her best effort into all her projects as a role model Riley inspires her peers with her positive attitude hard work and dedication to Excellence in everything she does so congratulations to Riley [Applause] Sherman Mr Grace or is chance here yet can have his uncle set in for him okay if it's okay with the board I'd like to do let's go to if it if it places the board then we'll go the next and come back to Chance is that okay Mr rero okay thank you it giving chances award means a lot to me and I know it means a lot to miss Dy and so I'd really like for him to be here so if if it's all right I would like to go ahead and move we're and uh acknowledge our teacher of the month is Miss Crystal reop Miss ROP is is one of the teachers that that we wish we could just clone and have whole campuses of she is an absolute Workhorse um every day day in and day out uh she does a phenomenal job with her class the kids love being there um my own daughter was in her class at one point my next daughter says she better be in her class or I'm going to hear about it um but Crystal embodies everything great that that we want in our teachers um she's there early she's she gets everything done that she needs to be done with with if I have bad news she says okay and then she gets back to work and if I have good news she says okay and then she gets back to work um we're absolutely blessed to have uh Mr resop on our campus so teacher of the month [Applause] CH Miss Doug Del for the uh BR Star Award [Music] great Karina come on up all right so our BR star this month is Karina so Karina is an invaluable member of the district office um staff um her dedication is truly inspiring she always has a positive attitude she's always willing to help she's constantly going to the schools and helping them with their Capital assets and their GFA items and disposing of things she has been instrumental in revamping our Capital asset program making sure that all of our assets are tracked which is important because we have public money and we need to safeguard our public money and she's just phenomenal at that she has done a fantastic job so I want to give Karina the BR Star Award for this month Miss dougill if you could hold on I'm going to come down there and meet you I'd like to uh recognize you yeah thank you so for the past about 18 months Kimberly has been working on um earning a certification it's a very rigorous program through the Arizona Association of school business officials International asbo and she has earned the designation of C excuse me SFO Chief Financial Officer and uh the credential is certified administrator of school finance and operations that's a mouthful and it was a lot of work corre and I would say that conservatively Kimberly is one of the top three in the entire state in terms of character number one thank you Kimberly let's take a picture all right chance come on down all right so our BR or our uh Elementary student of the month is Chance what cop um chance is is probably one of my most favorite kids around campus um and so his teacher says chance is a genuine BR Ambassador by exemplifying what it looks like to be an awesome friend and a kind human he is always willing to help his classmates and his teachers without being asked like opening and holding the door or letting others take the first turn when they're doing cooperative play Chance help students who may need extra help by getting them ready for the bus or holding their hands in the hallway so they don't get lost his Pure Love For Humanity and God shines from his heart and his laughter brightens our days we love chance and we are so proud of the young man he has become and we are truly blessed to be a part of his life way to go chance [Applause] yes sir you know these BR star awards for kids is a true reflection of their parents and we have their best parents in the best kids in the school district and it just warms my heart to see what they accomplish next item on the agenda would be uh a report from Matt Weber for our navit program Matt you have a mic there you go yes thank you well good evening everyone appreciate the opportunity to be with you tonight uh just want a quick review with you that blidge was one of the original five when we started back in 2000 and we are excited to continue our partnership and I'll be sharing with you the the estimated numbers based on attendance and uh just want to say thank you to superintendent Wright it's wonderful to work with Lauren with Chris uh just great great people and we love your students on our campuses um one thing I did want to Quick say just to sh quick shout out for uh Chuck Chuck and I go back to early 90s early 90s in current tech ed and I hear that he's kind of coming to an end here with his terms so on the board and so I just want to say thank you check for all your years of service on this board let alone the the district and pre appreciate what you've taught us over the years um just real quick uh we you are one of 11 total school districts in our current tech ed district and our primary focus is for your students your CTE students to have gainful employment once they to graduate from high school that's our number one number one purpose we also want to bring into your school as a funding stream and we'll go over those numbers here in a little bit and then for those who have the opportunity and have the time we do have the central programs that we offer through Northland pioner college and we'll show you a list of those and so just real quick uh as a reminder I I gave board members a paper copy of this um back back when you we first got started you were for 400,000 and and then of course in FY 12 you saw a big drop because that's when we lost our freshman funding and so now our you're just a little bit under 400,000 but grand total they're um I can't find the right glasses to wear at this distance 8.6 million so we appreciate the opportunity to bring that funding into your schools since uh fy1 so we're excited about that and so where does that go that goes into all the programs that you see up here on the screen and notice um for a 3A school this is a phenomenal offering we're excited to see that many programs being offered here at bluid high school and just know that's what generates that approximate $400,000 it's your students that are in your CTE programs right here at Blue Ridge and so we're excited about them we appreciate the hard work they do uh for just as a reminder for Cent teed teachers they're required to show proof that they're certifying their students not just going through the program but certifying students in their programs and so there's a lot that they that they work on and so this is the latest list of the central programs we offer the Community College the newer ones would be like Behavioral Health uh we're excited about that one we've got seven students in that uh overall uh administration of justice and Sports Med they were brand new last year and so administration of justice is for those who want to ultimately go into a police academy but what do you do until you turn 21 that's why we offer the administration of justice so they have the opportunity to be certified in either um security guard or dispatch and so we're excited about those offerings one of the biggest additions we had was the expansion of our Auto Tech program in sholo we have a lot of Blu-ray students there too and so we can take up to 40 students in the morning class in the afternoon class here in shlo so we're excited about those opportunities um with that I want to open up to any questions I learned many years ago if we can articulate this in about six minutes I lose everyone's attention I I recently heard HVAC is that one of the new programs okay I appreciate you bring that up that is nested in the industrial Tech in the it's it now in industrial technology trades and you blid have you supply all of our students in that program and so HVAC is about onethird of that so they will come out with an HVAC um certification they'll also have an eni uh an instrumentation certificate and then there's all also uh Alternative Energy but that's going to be in the curriculum next year for the most part and so that is one of the newer programs and we we appreciate Chris advertising that program here because you you're the only school that's represented in that in that classroom so you've got some great students in there they're excited to be there they love it any questions from the board just awesome job yeah thank you very much thank you Diana a question okay just confused no she said no okay all right be safe Diana thank you thank you uh miss hoffmire another presentation on AI uh and how it will affect the school district I understand we're not going to do anything about it till next year but this is information okay thank you good evening thank you for your time tonight I'm just going to take a few minutes uh just to talk about some of our efforts in research and practice in um the awareness of artificial intelligence as it's coming into education is becoming a bit more prominent um and so I'm just going to share a few things that we have discussed with our teachers um and then our what our efforts are going to be as far as sharing information with uh with community and uh our efforts moving forward um so one of the things that I just want to point out is what we're already doing um and so from we have a lot of uh vertical growth with digital literacy from some of the higher elementary schools and actually I mean our um even our younger Elementary School students now are getting pretty Savvy in using computers and learning some of that digital literacy um but as far as locating information communicating information um synthesizing creating and then human technal technical technological complexities we see that we are building upon that with each grade level really from grade 6 through 12 we are starting to build on that a lot more as students are doing more online work um and a lot of their projects are um are based with online activities so what we have to look at now is what's Bec a lot more prominent is AI in education um and so since chat GPT came out in 2022 that's really when it started to gain uh gain some momentum and really had uh schools just talking about how are we going to handle this new this new phenomenon in technology um and so what AI literacy does is teach the evaluation and effective participation in digital in the Digital World um so what we need to start looking at is teaching our students the the considerations of and costs and benefits of artificial intelligence understanding biases and then the ethics in AI because that's a big component of it as well oh sorry so the reason that this is really important for us to be focusing on it um is that we have um there is just there's a growing list of employers that are utilizing AI in the field and so preparing our students for the workforce we have to start considering how AI is going to look 75% of surveyed companies through the world economic Forum plan to implement AI by 2027 um and almost 20% of the workforce will be using Ai and so it's important for us to be thinking about how we are going to prepare our students for those complexities as we're moving forward um under the umbrella of artificial intelligence we have I mean from the the umbrella of artificial intelligence building machines to think connect like humans is kind of that big umbrella but then we look at what machine learning is deep learning and then what's really talked about right now is the um generative Ai and that's really what has a lot of uh teachers concerned and uh curious about how we're going to manage this moving forward with chat GPT um and so we're starting to have a lot of those discussions now in a study conducted in May of 2024 and so what's really fascinating is all of these it's changing so rapidly um and so all of these studies are coming out now on how employers are implementing it and who's using it and so in May of 2024 this study came out showing that almost 50% of each of these categories each of these groups of people are using AI so parents students teachers I mean that they everybody there are 50% of these groups are using artificial intelligence in some capacity and we need to be thinking about uh there's there's a lot of uh misinformation with AI there's a lot of bias with AI there's a lot that we have to think about with the ethics of using it um and so these are the conversations that we are having U and we're starting to move forward with this information was shared with teachers at the beginning of the school year um with so all of our teachers have had this initial conversation and so now we're working on moving into workshops and having people discuss how are we going to utilize this and how are we going to keep our students safe um and yet give them the opportunities to learn this new technology so what super exciting well I mean not not everybody thinks this is exciting I think this is really exciting Federal guidance was put out in May of 2023 um and the biggest emphasis here is that with any kind of artificial artificial intelligence it's important to keep humans in the loop right and so some of the concerns have been AI is going to take over all these jobs well it's not going to happen because we have to keep human values and human ethics involved in it um and the compassion and understanding for students so that's not as big of a concern um but there is a lot of guidance on just how how our schools should start looking at this and this came out from um the US Department of Education um and Arizona is the 12th state to put out guidance for teachers and school leaders on how we can start implementing artificial intelligence within schools in a safe manner um and and really start teaching students about the safe practices and providing resources to teachers so that they can start using it as well um so uh this is actually being uh presented in a lot of different places this um State guidance which was put out by the Arizona Institute for education and economy out of Na um and so this is a really this is a really important guidance for us because it starts with teaching about bias in Ai and that it is often um it's often Incorrect and we have to be the ones to start create critically examining whether it's useful or not so the uh the AE also put out a challenge for schools in Arizona and here's how here are some beginning steps that you can do and so we are just um we are just dipping our toes in the water right now um we're at the very kind of very beginning stages of looking at how this is going to how we're going to be using this in practice um but the three in three challenge is what schools should be doing within the first three months of their school year in preparing students teachers and parents um for for what is for AI and so the first one is determining and slow excuse me clearly communicating the tools the apps the dos and the don'ts for teachers and there are a number of strategies under this that we've already started talking about um we're still in the early stages and so we're encouraging teachers to research different applications and platforms and we're collectively having conversations about how we can use these resources what working as we're trying to use some of these resources and what's not um the next phase or the next step is oop sorry that's still part of the first one um we actually have so this part I want to just mention so we already have an acceptable user policy that every student and or every parent and student signs and every teacher signs every staff member signs this to say that we're going to be using our technology in an appropriate manner um but the trust has also put out information on acceptable use for AI um and so this is something to that we we are taking a look at their guidance as well on how we want to move forward with this um so we're also talking with the teachers about pitfalls to avoid a big piece of it and things that uh parts that people get concerned about are the privacy concerns with students um and so maintaining furpa um and HIPPA laws uh these are some important conversations that we're also having with teachers about if you're going to be using or or you know being curious about any of these applications we encourage you to try them but we also need to make sure that we're being very careful about any information we're inputting into that uh platform and then finally adopting a system to help teachers communicate the use with AI so what we're working on now is um is taking that guidance from the trust and putting out some information to parents on what we are seeing right now um so some of the concerns that teachers have is that they are seeing some students that are using it for homework help or for essay writing and so those are some of the immediate current concerns that have come up that we're starting to work on um we see it as a shift it's definitely going to shift some of the ways that we are instructing in classrooms because we need to find some different ways of communicating with students um that will maybe take them away from this you know let them use their technology to to research and to find all their information but then figure out some different ways to communicate it so that we can may we can really gauge their understanding um so a few different we do have the stoplight system that agaia school district is using and this is just something again we're not implementing anything this year we're just having conversations about these things but things that we teachers can say you are not allowed to use artificial intelligence for any reason for this or you can try it for this and typically it's going to be in the higher levels because students that are under 13 should not be on any of these platforms anyways right it's 13 and over on things like chat GPT these are some of the common AI platforms that we're seeing in education right now chat gbt one being one of the most common but magic schools is making a lot of Headway as well um with just some different resources that teachers can use on differentiation for for lesson plans and so there are a lot of great resources for teachers again we just are looking at how we're going to make sure that we are using them ethically and responsibly that's currently where we are with AI um as we move into the next school year we plan on starting the school year next year with some really um I say concrete but AI is changing so rapidly it's tough to say concrete steps but we definitely can put some uh we definitely want to make sure that we are putting information out to parents on how we how we expect it's going to be used and ways in which it should not be used in the school setting any questions for me on artificial intelligence she's an expert I better not say if I may Mr President this has been a a huge task and Courtney has done a great job of taking this on and we're not in a position to come to the board with a policy on this but we're developing practices but we've chosen to get in the middle of it and figure it out rather than ignore it because it's not going away and so rather than sticking our heads in the sand we're going to learn we we will make some mistakes but before the next school year we'll have policies and practices in place to address uh courtne has put in countless hours into this I wanted to thank her for that investment of time and for getting us this far along we're we're we are in a good spot comparatively and I think that has a lot has everything to do with Courtney willing to take this on thank you Miss hoffmire thank you I did notice that parents used it more than anybody thank you next item on the agenda is the um consent agenda and board are there any items in the consent agenda that you'd like to take out and vote on independently any speak into your mic so that can hear are one of the students here for early graduation yeah are the students here for early graduation no no if I may Mr President both students are requesting early graduation for personal reasons yeah questions all right we have a motion then to uh accept the consent agenda as presented a motion from Marg second from Jennifer all in favor Diana I thank you I I heard thank you um just a little bit awkward Diana uh uh item 3.1 recommendation to approve the new hires are any of these individuals here that we'd like to have introduced to us Dr right no nobody here do we need to read their names or just accept them as they are in the agenda accept them as they are in the agenda so can we have a a motion to accept the new hires in 3.1 a motion from Jennifer a second from Chuck all in favor I thank you that also is unanimous okay item 3.2 recommendation to approve the annual financial report School level and food service for physical year fiscal year not physical year fiscal year 2324 so do you want to present that Kimberly thank you let me turn my mic on all right it's that time of year annual financial report time of the year all of us Finance people love this time of year because we have to get this all done in a very short amount of time but I do want to give the auditor General's office props this year they released the forms very early it's the first time they've done that in a very long time so that was very nice of them we're on 3.2 service it's all together okay yeah um that's okay 3.2 and 3.3 will be present at the same time uh 3.3 is something different okay 3.2 is where we are yeah thanks um anyway so I just want to give them um Kudos because they did get it released very early which is very helpful to us because we have to start it's we need to start working on it it takes months to prepare so um I just want to give them Kudos that they got it out to us early um so the annual financial report is due on October 15th so right after the board meeting by law I have to upload it to Arizona Department of Education but I want to thank you for allowing us to have the board meeting so late in October because it just gives us more time to get everything um completed um so we don't have to rush to get it done so I appreciate that so thank you um board for letting us do it on the last possible day um so uh we're going to uh the AFR is the annual financial report and uh like President Merill said we're um we have food service AFR School level um AFR our K3 reading AFR which has already been um submitted to the state our classroom site fund AFR that will I'll submit that tonight as well even though it's not due till November 15th all of these are just documents reporting all of the money that we spent in fy2 24 um so um how do you prepare for the for the AFR we do all a lot a lot a lot of journal entries as Dryden in my office will attest to he was surprised about how many journal entries we do but um there's all these rules and um uh that the state has that we have to fund code things in a specific way um and then we those have to we have to make sure that everything lines up to the way that it needs to go into the report you cannot submit the AFR um if you have any errors so it has to be perfect um so it just takes a lot of time to make sure that all those errors are cleared um so when you're doing the AFR you're preparing it you are looking at your major funds like your you look at all your funds but you mostly focus on your m&o um your Grant funds our impact Aid and things like that so that's what we're going to see here so here was our total expenditures for 23 24 uh just under 20 million um including everything this is expenditures um uh not uh this is our our total expenditures for the year which was about the same as we had last year um our I just want to point out for our federal that's our um Grant funds that does include the last of our Esser so next year when you see that it will be considerably less because it includes um our Esser funds which was our covid money um our impact Aid is um it with our declining enrollment our impact Aid will get smaller and smaller as time goes on I just want to have that have have you have that in the back of your mind all right so here's a pie chart of um where the where most of our funds come from you can see that most of our funds come um are in maintenance and uh operations and federal funding again that Federal funding piece of the pie will get smaller um as time goes on because of um impact Aid um that's you the sorry the little yellow one will get smaller and then the purple one will get smaller as well because Sr money will be gone um and then this is basic this is what we spend our m&o budget on and as you can see the majority of the pie is benefits and salaries all almost all of our m is benefits and salaries um and purchase Services that's for like our op otpt um our speech pathologists things like that um our ESI um employees that's the purchase services and then you can see there's a small amount on supplies and then others like dues and fees for um groups that we have to be a part of all right and then here's our preliminary classroom spending report um the auditor General's office will go through the AFR um with a fine tooth comb then they will start calling districts they'll call us um and ask us questions about things that we submitted this may change I don't um anticipate it changing much um but just so you can kind of see um where we're spending our money most of it the majority of it is going to the classroom and supporting um classroom all right are there any questions yes I just have one when when does the State actually publish the results of your submission oh it'll be published as soon as I upload it as long as there's not any errors okay um sometimes uh with their system uh there can be errors but if there's no errors it'll be immediate just it takes 5 Seconds okay any other questions uh president Marl can I say one more thing and then um what will happen is um as soon as it gets posted to the um State website I'll post it on our um website that takes about 24 hours so anybody can look at it yeah all right thank you any questions or comments about that we about how easy it is for yeah how easy that is yeah yeah di knows so um you we have to vote on an approval of this submission so can I have a motion to accept item 3.1 3.2 as it's been submitted by Miss dugdale I have a motion from Jennifer second by Chuck all in favor Diana I thank you much I that isk you that is unanimous thank you so much kber will turn over uh for the U school facilities division this means the improvements at the state yeah have funded or is to fund right there's several funds yeah yes um the present there's two things that are happening in this agenda item just so we you understand one we have to approve something called the capital plan from the State Board of Education which you have in your or sorry the sfob from in your packet it's just a document that we have that you have to approve that says that you saw that the other part of it is we are um by law need to give a capital projects presentation every year um before um October 15th and honor before October 15th so we we're doing it at this meeting so we're just going to go through a quick presentation of the projects that we did last year some of the not an extensive list of the projects we did last year highlight some of the projects we did last year and then some of the upcoming projects that we're working on so one of the things that I wanted to point out is that the district office and maintenance work very closely together they're a great team this was a picture of both teams together we help this is not a capital project but it was a good picture of both our teams we helped sit Graves National Forest uh do a community service project last September of of 2023 this is just a picture of us all there doing that project we um worked on the hiking path next to the Nature Center um and one of the things that um part of the team did was repaint that sign on the very front which was a very tedious job because they had to painted it all brown and then they paint all individually every single um letter in there anyway so we have a fabulous team they're always willing to help um whatever we need to do they're always willing to do it all right so uh future adjacent ways projects so we do have some adjacent ways money left over um and so here are some ideas of things that we'd like to do um there's some improvements that we need to do at the elementary school parent um drop off adjacent ways again is our easements um where our bus where our buses go and our fire um trucks go um just like we paved um out here um we need to do some work um out and back where the high school um buses pick up it gets really muddy out there um and so we need to do some work there as well um and including the High School Bus Loop you can see here it needs some work so we're going to use some of our some of our adjacent ways money um to uh fix that we have about $300,000 um in adjacent ways it'll cover some of this it won't cover all of it I would recommend that next year we do Levy for some more adjacent ways so that we can get some of these things fixed especially the mud in the back of the high school it's really a problem so and hard to plow because it's all dirt um and then the the junior highest bed drop off we also need to um fix that so that it's more um accessible for our special needs students so sfob projects that's the old um sfb um they've they change their names like every other day or something so I never can keep up but now it's s soob b all right so one of the things that we did was one of the things that they paid for which is awesome was the auditorium lighting I think it's been a great blessing to our school district to have um such nice Auditorium lighting um this was just a picture that Roger sent me of the boards that they used to control the lighting don't ask me anything about them because I don't really know but it's just the I the lighting I've heard is just fabulous and it's been a great addition um we got the auditorium stage um through them as well and I think that that has also been a great great um asset one of the things that we got um not through um sfob but through the insurance company was new curtains there are a little bit of issues with the curtains we're trying to work through those issues um as well um to make it just the most fabulous Auditorium in the on the mountain um we do get new multi-purpose doors these doors are fabulous everybody that's seen these doors just loves these doors but they're high dollar um we need to buy some doors for the high school uh to make High School more secure so we're working on getting more funding to buy more of these doors um I see Lauren over there smiling and shaking his head these are really good doors um and I from my understanding it's very difficult to like Yank on them a lot and get them to open which is one of the problems we're having is with our old doors is the kids are able to like if You Yank on them enough they'll open so um yeah do these doors new doors have a center Mion no is my understanding correct but the reason they can't yank them open them cuz that thing just like yeah yeah they're really nice Stores um so we um between so I'm not going to say I'm going to say awarded not got not received because receiving money from the sfob is a project um but we have been awarded about $3.8 million in projects we'll eventually get that money um but as you can see we only have $33,000 in closed projects so it's a it's a process to get money from the sfob um Roger tuman is an expert at it um and he's on top of it I think our uh our SS sfob um account was in the negative only like $40,000 this year which is fabulous that just means that we've spent $440,000 that we haven't received from them yet we will get that we just haven't gotten it yet that's a really good number some school districts they can be in the tens of millions of dollars in the negative in that account just waiting for reimbursements from the sfob because the way that it works is you have to pay for it first and then they reimburse you so anyway so we're about $3.8 million in Awards which is awesome that's $3.8 million that the school district does not have to use to fund capital projects I have one question with that can those approved projects if they don't get funded within a certain amount of time do they have to be re yes resubmitted yes and Roger Roger just keeps working he has a um by he has a not bi-weekly he meets with the sfob lays on at least twice a week yeah and he has me sign things about once a week yes so Roger is very active in making sure that we have S so sfob projects constantly um being submitted to them one of the big projects that we need to work on um Roger is working on it is our Elementary School um is on a swamp so it's sinking and so we have floor problems um again Roger is working closely with Dave Ken and our sfob person to get this funded to get fixed these projects go slow sfob doesn't have a li unlimited amount of money so they have to prioritize um their projects there's a huge State lawsuit um which you're familiar with um about Capital funding that's going on it's the last meeting I was at about that they were anticipating that wasn't going to be settled for at least four years um so we'll just keep keep on keeping on um Roger does a fabulous job um keeping on top of them and submitting things all the time um here's just an example of the floor you can see this ruler um and how how much different is and of course this is a tripping Hazard so we need to get these things fixed um here's a roof that's that's you can see it's cracking so that needs to be um repaired so we have done repairs on the elementary school roof but because of the situation with the building constantly moving there's constantly leaks and new leaks and so we just keep patching them keep submitting to the sfob until we get a new roof and by the way that is in the design phase so we have been funded for it we're just going through the process and then here you can see more roof stuff um so just some current um project that we have with the sfob I'm I won't read the list but you can see there um I do want to point out the emergency notification and bell and paging system that um has been submitted it's in the design phase and um he Roger diligently working with the sfob to get that approved that is a $2 million project so it's a it's a big project to redo all of our paging systems and our Bell system and everything it needs to be done it's a um security issue um so he's working on it it's slow but I think it'll eventually get approved the district will need to um Supply some money towards it because they won't fund like the transportation building because there's not students in that building one other thing that I'd like to bring to your attention is the pump house the pump house will need to be completely redone again that's in the design phase Roger's working with us if we be on that that's probably going to be uh three we're estimating about a $300,000 project to redo the pump house they are a maintenance is doing a really really really good job keeping it running um but it's old and it needs to be replaced and so they're doing the best they can to to keep it going so that we have um Municipal Water as you know our Municipal Water is not pressurized um to the standard that we need it to be and that's why we have to have the pump house because Arizona Water Company water's not at the right pressure for a uh uh campus the size of this campus uh and of course Ryan doesn't have those this problem at the elementary school at all um all right so future sfob projects one of the things that needs to be done is all of the bathrooms need to be remodeled um and so Roger is working on that with the SF sfob as well um he's also working on as we talked about exterior doors lock and closures we do need to upgrade our lock system here to um mostly wre or W not wireless um keyless entry like this like the swipe cards um but that's a $750,000 project too just just Baseline to not even do every door um and uh we do need to have a complete HVAC replacement Roger working on that as well um but in the meantime he is every we have an HVAC compressor go out he submits that to the to the sfob so that's like a couple thousand dollars every time we have one go out he submits every single every single one of them but we will need to have our HVAC units replaced eventually uh sooner than later um and one other thing I want to um point out is Steve Murphy is going to retire um at the end of July in 20125 and I just wanted to recognize him and thank him for all he's done for the district he's diligently always working uh to make sure that things are running smoothly and he always has a smile on his face and he's always willing to help all right are there any questions yes uh what about the high school parking lot in front of the gym and the drainage for that oh yeah oh yes so there they're we're also working on the drainage with the sfob as well they'll pay for part of it and then the other part of it will pay for with adjacent ways I'm sorry I couldn't understand you sorry um so uh Roger working on that with the sfob part of it they'll pay for and part of it we'll have to pay for with adjacent ways okay once it's approved good this is something that I've been involved with for eight years yeah as you know chck we we have the river that runs through it when the monsoon comes and then there's an ice rink and so as part of the testimony that I gave at the state on this lawsuit was that our kids Des deserve the same type of safety as the kids that are in the valley we live in a climate where there are extreme elements it may not be a big deal to you that there's 6 Ines of ice in front of the high school that extends several hundred feet but it's a big deal to us and it might not be a big deal to you that there's 8 to 10 inches of water that's flowing and kids are trying to cross from one campus to another but it's a big deal for us the state is still said I essentially it's it's it's not part of Ingress egress it's you could walk around it's we're not going to fix it and so um we're going to continue to argue with it Kimberly and her team have made some Headway and we've kind of negotiated partially with that I think the reality of the situation is this the state would need to invest somewhere in the neighborhood of 1.5 billion just to satisfy all the approved projects that doesn't bring the state up to to park they'd have to they'd have to invest a couple of more two to three billion to bring all the facilities where they need to be well we know in the state of Arizona they're not going to do that so what we're having to do is fight for everything that we got since 2014 we've probably have received 3 million in sfb funds sfob and we're fighting now for an equivalent amount and so a lot of the districts have the budget capacity or size that they just ignore them they're not even working through it anymore we don't have the luxury so we're still fighting to get what we can get and we're still a pain in their neck and so uh Kimberly and her team have done a great job keeping pressure on that and we won't give up good glad to hear it how much did the state budget in her last budget for sfb I can tell you for the last several years um with the exception of the last two years they were they were committing about $20 million to fix 1,400 campuses 20 million wouldn't take care of the white White Mountain schools so it is uh it's the state's job to do that and that's why they're being sued and so it is uh and and by the way I don't think the matter will be solved anytime the next 5 to seven years and whatever direction that goes however the judge rules it'll be contested and there'll be an appeal and it'll take another four or five years so we're talking about probably seven or eight years if we do see any money there and so we're doing the best we can to be as careful as we can to take care of the facilities we have thank the lord we passed a $16 million bond in 2016 because that's why we have the buses and what we have now and we're trying to maintain that Advantage including a couple million dollars in our Auditorium so we're doing the best we can to maintain what we have but it's getting it's getting tighter questions or comments not we need to uh vote to approve the projects submitted and those that have been completed so can we have a motion to approve item 3 3.3 I have a motion from Chuck second from marget all in favor I thank you Diana thank you board Mr President you bet okay next item has to be a discussion with the community presentation regarding school facilities use and Becky Evans has asked to make a presentation and I hope it works you have the best of people to do this Sarah she's on my board and she's my moral support because I am used to being backstage and not in front of the audience so okay is that okay is that better okay okay so just as a quick um explanation of why we are here um my name is Becky Evans for those who do not know me I am currently the CTE stage craft teacher here at bluid high school um I am Al the theater director um but before that I created a nonprofit called White Mountain Performing Arts back in 201819 is when we got started the goal of that was to was to start giving um the younger generation an opportunity to learn theater and stagecraft so let me go forward because these are cute kids so we got started with Annie hence my Annie shirt um and we were getting ready to perform in 2019 Co shut us down and so had to recast and start over in 2021 um during that production I had the awesome opportunity to work with Dr Teresa dick and she and I became good friends and we found that we worked well together and she asked me to help with Beauty and the Beast and after that experience and it was a good success um the school asked me to stay on and teach stagecraft and theater so I just wanted to kind of give you a little bit of background about who I am and where I came from um so what is white man performing arts first thing I want to do is kind of show a little bit about how we align and and let me just rewind for one second we're here because um I know that we've got to do a lot of reevaluation with the faciliity use and so my goal at the end of this is hopefully to show you guys that the um Productions and the product that we bring is beneficial to Blue Ridge School District that you guys are benefiting greatly by us kind of doing this collaboration cooperation together um the Blue Ridge mission statement states that is the heart of our community and a family of diverse members committed to ensuring um a p i see I need I need different glasses too a purposeful Creative Learning environment within a caring collaborative culture for all we are rich in achievement tradition and Innovation which is such a great vision um our mission statement is that we strive to encourage youth To Shine On and On off the stage by enhancing self-esteem develop responsibility encourage Unity grow confidence social acceptance and youth that will endure in all aspects of their lives um I think a lot of what we do aligns beautifully with your mission statement um we are a volunteer nonprofit I just want to point that out here's our cute kids they are much cuter to look at than I am so look at them um so what do we do that benefits the students at blid um one thing is that we are trying hard to continue to develop this theater program that we have here um just like football we need to start kids in peeee level and kind of develop their confidence and strength on the field and it's very much the same with theater we want to get them young and get them really confident and learn all the terminology and all the things so that way when they get to high school they are already pros at that stage um so that's one of the big goals of wmpa is we're giving these kids A Elementary and Junior High School production that's not you guys remember the cute elementary school productions we did in the ' 80s 90s you know you got to hold the leaves and I got to be a rock once it was really fun so those are really fun adorable Productions and I love them that's not exactly what we do we provide a really high quality excellent Community Theater environment for them to be really proud of what they put on that stage um the mental health and self-esteem I could go on for hours on that so I'm not going to go too deep into that but I know the benefit to these kids is great when it comes to that so A couple of people I really want to touch on is um last year we had a student gra graduate her name is zaffre and um last year I got to send one kid to skills USA stagecraft competition at Eastern Arizona College they were only competing seniors because they were offering a full R scholarship attached to it zafree was my only one that was able to go she went she won that full ride scholarship and in August she sent me a text the day before school started telling me that she wouldn't be there if not for that scholarship so I believe passionately that these CTE programs and stagecraft can change kids lives um Z was our stage manager last year and she's going to come back this year she's not even in our stagecraft class but she was in the top four in the state of Arizona for stage management and she's coming back to do Into the Woods for us which is so incredibly exciting because she wants that on her resume that she wants to win that thing and then last I want to talk about Riley for two seconds um I've had Riley since the very beginning she's been uh backstage she's learned everything along the way and she's graduating this year so that hurts my heart I'm so excited for her but she wanted to say a couple things about um her experience working with white man performing arts it's like a family reunion it really is I'm all excited for hugs um so what White Mountain performer Arts has done for me they have given me a work-based learning experience backstage helping out can can you put the mic a little closer there you go okay and over my years working and learning with them and for them they have helped me choose what I want to do in college and for my job in the future career I want to be part of tech theater and my very top goal is to someday work for Broadway and I would not have that without Becky and white Performing Arts thank you okay so I'm so incredibly proud of her I'm so excited to see what she's going to do with her future um all the friendships teamwork things that they've learned if you were here because white man performing arts has had an impact in your life could you just kind of stand up for two seconds I know Sor I love you babies and you all know it any one of these kids could do this presentation so much better than I do I get it's funny I teach public speaking but I try to avoid it like the plague and now you know that all right guys thank you so much have a seat really quick okay so I'm going to move on and kind of plow through this because I just want to get to the gets of this when the things that I think white Mount Performing Arts gives to bluid school district in particular that is incredibly powerful is the collaboration that has started to happen between the CTE program so as I've learned about being a CTE teacher I've learned that I need to I'm required to offer 120 hours of work-based learning hours for students this is meant to be a safe transition for students to be in the classroom and then transfer into the industry at this point there is no other program on this mountain that I can send these kids to um however with white Mount Performing Arts these kids now have an opportunity to work on like their High School Musical but then they can also transition and start working for White Mountain Performing Arts in a myriad of different capacities um every hour they spend working with white mountain Performing Arts counts as a work-based learning hour for them that is something that they can track it's something they can put on their portfolio their resume everything they create for the show they get to take a picture of it and put it in a portfolio they can then show to PP perspective uh colleges or um employers so that's something that's really exciting that they can do they get to help design create and actually run some of these Productions that's something that um is kind of awesome so I've had um somebody like Sandy Ballard is going to be coming in to help run the spring musical for these kids Sandy Ballard is she's ran a theater program for 12 years candy Creek performing art she's currently the um theater DOR dor at NPC for their children's theater so they are developing these really cool networking opportunities by working with other industry professionals so she's already come into the classroom they've already worked through the script together they have been working on collaboration projects they've created scaled Box model designs for the set for Alice um they're working on makeup design a um pictures and they've been practicing on each other for different makeup technique options for the show and now they're working on costume plots so what I'm trying to get at is it's a really neat collaboration it's a very rare thing where you can work with a director that closely and have that director help take um uh relinquish almost some of the creative and work with these kids one-on-one on the creative process and that again is something that they get to put in their resumés um I'm just going to kind of skip through some of this but one thing I really want to point out is most schools only do one show a year um a lot of shows a lot of schools only do one show every other year cuz they are a lot of work they are a lot of work and um it's it's a lot to do so with our school we do one High School Musical a year um and then either spring or fall and then on the opposite that's when we squeezed in a junior production for with white mountain performing arts and then the kids have an opportunity to come in in the summer and do a summer program program with us as well so the kids have an opportunity to potentially work on three different shows in a year so someone like Riley who's going to be applying to college instead of putting on her resume that she's done two shows or maybe four she's going to be graduating with 11 shows under her belt because of the work that she's done with with us so yeah that's something that's going to look really good on that resume when she's applying to colleges and also the interest in the CTE program is growing I currently have 43 kids in my stagecraft classes that's a lot it's fun though and they are awesome and they're excited to be there so so our success is we've been teaching these kids to work really hard these kids created these shows that you're looking at the pictures of um last year I told you about zaffre but one thing that Blue Ridge has been doing lately is um the gamage high school musical theater Awards we got to apply for that we were accepted to that as a high school we were finalists in six categories um this is State of Arizona and this is not 3A versus 3A this is every High School in the state of Arizona that was competing and we were finalists in six categories four of them were Tech categories we were winner for best audio thank you Mr Bloom Strand and his audio team he teaches that um and then we were also finalists for best overall musical in the state of Arizona which I'm telling you I got to sit there with all those other directors and I had 25 directors look at me and they're like who are you and where did you guys come from so we getting a name for ourselves in the state and we want to keep that going and in order to keep a really strong high school program going I really feel strongly about teaching this younger generation and getting them that much more ready to be on stage um so so I want to take a second and point this out as well I did some research on how um theater in particular and the Arts have been beneficial to different schools so according to the American Alliance for theater and educ ation and I have to get close to this because it's so small students involved in drama performance coursework or experience outscored non-arts students on the uh 2005 Sat by an average of 65 points in the verbal component and 34 points in the math component drama activities improve reading comprehension in both verbal and non-verbal skills drama helps to improve School attendance and reduce high school dropouts um the 2005 Harris poll re revealed that 93% of public believes that Arts including theater are vital to a well-rounded education drama can improve skills and academic performance in Children and Youth with learning disabilities students considered to be at high risk for dropping out of high school they cite drama and other arts classes as their motivations for staying in school and students who participate in the Arts are three times more likely to win an award for School attendance than those that do not because they know they need to be play practice right so so they show up and they know that they've got to perform um like I we are currently the only school on the mountain the the only High School on the mountain that provides Junior productions for elementary and junior high schools um and also the majority of the community of our theater at this point um many in the community can't go down to gamage to go see the Arts they can't go down to the Phoenix to see a production so they're really enjoying coming to see multiple show shows at blidge and they don't always differentiate what's a blidge high school show and what's a wmpa show they just know blidge puts on really great shows on their stage and so they come so this is my final Slide the big picture is the cost so it's expensive to put on a musical um just for the rights to the show just to get scripts in your hand cost about $1,000 that's the cheapest one you can usually find all the way up to 6,000 those are the full ones like Beauty and the Beast um sets are expensive it depends on how elaborate you're going to go props costumes makeup lighting that lightboard that you saw picture of that's my favorite thing in this school so if you want to play with it I'll show you how to play with that um programming marketing printing costs everything adds up so the average cost of putting on a show is usually somewhere around 7,800 to $28,000 um I talked to Cynthia Whipple Phantom of the Opera cost them $30,000 she said I could tell you that um their average show costs over 20,000 bluid does not do that much but we do a lot with the money that we have um the average show that I put on for a junior production is usually somewhere between $7,000 and $8,000 so where do I get my money from the income um we try to have a annual talent show fundraiser which we just did we're hoping that we can keep that as part of this facilities use agreement hopefully we can make um we usually bring in the last year about $2,000 to $2,500 um student tuition we try to keep the cost really low I will never turn away a kid for money period um but it is helpful for them to pay a tuition of about $75 to help offset some of these costs we try to get sponsors in the community to try to help us out and then after that ticket sales so the way this works is you have to frontload the money and then whatever we make off of this show pays for the next show right so if you look at the numbers it's really tight and we often Break Even or we don't break even and when we don't break even the money magically appears just don't tell my husband so or or right so we have a lot of volunteers that help help us out so what is the cost to bluid school district to do a junior production like this right now it's 0 I've never used a penny of bluid money for any show that I have done through wmpa not ever um the benefit to bluid though has been that you guys have access to every piece of wmpa inventory um because I happen to know the director and we've got a good relationship and so we've used a lot of wmpa inventory to help with some of the bluid Productions I can give you a list if you want to see what was on that stage for sound of music that I provided um again the CTE benefit this has become so integrated in my curriculum almost that it's it's just just been a benefit I went to the Summer Conference over the summer and talked to a lot of other CTE teachers and I told them about what we were doing because they were trying to figure out where we going to have work based learning hours and I told them about this and they were drooling um so finally this gives um all the students in the district an opportunity to uh perform in theater and um I know that all of them would love to stand up and say something that they've benefited from this program um I know you guys don't have that much time I encourage you to talk to them a little bit afterwards because they are phenomenal kids look at they' set so well um and I hope that you will consider to wave the facilities use fee because with the numbers looking like this I'm barely breaking even and if I have to pay for my uh the auditorium on top of it I don't see a way where we can continue and I would like very much to continue these programs for these kids so sorry I'm an emotional person so if you would please consider uh waving the fee for wmp um we would appreciate that thank you if you have any questions I'm better answering questions don't run away okay don't run away you have an excellent program it has obvious benefits and exceptional people involved in it and uh you have a track record to prove it Dr R can you explain our policy and sure what what Avenues are open to us to keep this thing alive and why it is where it is right and if I've been looking distracted it's because I've been reading our policy I've been reading gift of public funds I've been reading ars1 15-105 the Constitution Arizona I'm trying to figure out where we land I think um our policy it it gives the superintendent a lot of latitude and flexibility so what I might propose is that the with each program and before every program the the person whether it's Becky or another person they come before the board they make their presentation and if they can demonstrate they can provide additionally insured coverage this would be for Blue Ridge students I think that's easy to say it's not a gift of public funds these are students enrolled in our district two and thirdly it does benefit kids in an environment where we're we're struggling to get kids out from video games and away from negative forces uh we have outstanding Fine Arts programs no doubt about it and I'm a supporter strong supporter I also have a role that I have to make sure I don't get the school district in trouble um but we would have to do have a couple of handshakes one is that the program would have to run just like it was a classroom so what's appropriate in a classroom would be presented on the stage now now there's some variation because you get tackled in football you don't tackle each other but there's still Rules of Engagement within Athletics there's still Rules of Engagement within theater Productions that means that it would have to look and feel like a classroom as well if there's a structure that's going to be constructed it better be reviewed by somebody that is an engineer and knows that kid's not going to fall and get hurt fourthly the kids would have to sign a waiver that if I'm injured their parents would wave and protect the district um we recently had we recently were sued when a student drowned that had nothing to do with our activity it was a camp that was run through an LLC it had nothing to do with us and that cost time and money and so we'd have to have the we'd have to have the district protected I am fine with moving forward with having seen your Productions um but I will be clear this is not done at zero cost to the district lights are expensive often we have overtime that we have to pay custodian there's an investment I think it's a worthwhile investment and I do believe I could argue if we were called on the carpet for a gift of public funds that there is significant value provided to our students of educational value and I don't disagree with and I've always known students and Fine Arts perform up and above uh so yes I I would say that um I would ask the board to continue to provide me the the flexibility to review it on on a case-by Case basis um you're working on a show right now keep going uh if if I would also say this it needs to go through a is it a 5013c a nonprofit and as long as those funds flow all there and they're going to benefit the your shows by extension benefits us we're fine um but there has to be supervision too I was it was a beautiful uh production that we had when the little lion got on that thing about had a heart attack I'm starting thinking oh he's the rested the I hope he doesn't fall what if he gets hurt um have we looked at that structure so there are all of those considerations that if we treat it like a classroom and you're a CTE person and you understand those parameters um so there's a number of ways you could do it you could do it through as an extension through the CTE and there's no charge you do an extension through a a qualified 5013c and there wouldn't be a charge but you would need to do what you're doing now present it to the board present your your plan and make sure assure the board and the superintendent that it's going to be properly supervised because I think what happens what causes us us being the district exposure if there's any harassment or sexual harassment that occurs when kids are getting dressed backstage and they're running around on sports bras and there's a there's a complaint we standing up here we're the ones that get sued not you we do and the district gets sued so it has to be supervised that wouldn't happen in in a classroom so as long as we're keeping it supervised and that the students understand their role and they I mean these are some all of our kids are great some are just a little more difficult to deal with these are easy to deal with kids they're they're they're kids that are engaged they're kids that do well in school we want to support the Fine Arts I think the the presentation and the point this is a feeder program just like we have for youth football just like we have for the other Sports so and along those lines I I I don't think there's a bright line here where after having read through the policy that there's a a gift of public funds I will say it's gray but I think it's probably there's probably enough provided it was supervised appropriately and we had U we were listed as an additionally insured the kids sign waivers and they're behaving as if they're at school I think we would be okay that's my perspective can you explain what the term gift of public funds refers to in a school district it it we have a duty to treat taxpayer funds as sacred All the Monies that are expended have to be tied back to tied tied back to an specific account that is approved for expenditure so this is it it's not it's not a school activity but it is a school it's it's a little muddled um this the policy and the statute does provide room to say to interpret well is it beneficial to the school and the students I would argue yeah of course it is we're keeping kids engaged in something that's constructive it's meaningful it's helpful there's in in some cases these are kids that this is how they express thems and we keep them safe great yeah so I'm sold on that I could back it up we just need to make sure it's organized and it's tight from a legal perspective too and that the kids are properly supervised you went through the training um that we had um miss you went through all that about eight parents backstage supervising we have about eight um parents usually backstage we have a lot of them here that are yeah we usually have a lot of people there perfect and that as long as it's appropriately supported and supervised all of the structures the kids stand on are built by actual construction workers they kind of overbuild because they build houses um but all of the platforms that you've seen and the various shows that you've seen they are built by construction workers and then my stagecraft kids come in and dress them and kind of do all the facade stuff anything that's like safety for kids is built by a professional I think the only one that I would have I I'm not sure I'll have to get some guidance with is the summer program that would be handed to me like a summer camp and we charge for those summer camps and so we can't not charge for one and in charge everybody else during school week summer camp is a is a little bit more maybe budgetable than you know a month or two of a junior program you know what I mean so that's something maybe we can talk about later I don't know talk about now well you could if you want to make that presentation Becky sometime in April or May in advance of that that would be great I'll get one of the kids to give it so I'm not sitting here like shaking gosh they're just chill you're a thespian you can just act that listen I'm a director there's a big different okay you tell somebody else how to act so I do the lighting I'll do that light board all day long the other thing that I the board should probably view this on a case-by casee basis otherwise if you just give a blanket I can tell you we cannot afford to have the lights on in on the fields all Fields Auditorium all through the school we we do not have the budget capacity for that um but we do have the capacity to support our established programs and so as long as they're organized and I heard Becky say there's a year we can do that we could absorb that uh we have uh Teresa has two main a year um if she had three we would allow three that's that's a fine arts program it's part of our our school music the the uh fundraisers also fundraisers too and that's something that we could probably assist with to help offset those costs um and we would like to partner with you and I think there we'll have to discuss the branding on it um and see how we would want to do that but uh I would say that I kind of I think we have more flexibility than I initially thought any other questions so I just had a s I thought of a suggestion I know that you have very capable parents I know some of them that are you use backstage but maybe um just to reassure us if we ever have to stand behind you you know for any reason you could run a little seminar for the parents as to what is appropriate what is not what can be allowed what can't be allowed how much responsibility they actually have with other people's kids you know just covering the basis not that there's not that going on but if you could put it into your program then it would be there and be visible to anybody that wanted to check on us yeah that's a good idea we can do that a lot of them already teachers and their fature print cleared cleared yeah along with every counselor ever gone to Camp with us they're all the fingerprint clear yeah so yeah we we do have those conversations but we can make it more formal I I would just D that we have limitations if you had let me just my wife's a music teacher very proud of her I know a little bit not a lot we're not going to have Peter Pan flying through on a wire I can tell you that fly system but if you have the extra money that would be amazing no but we're that's what I'm saying it has to be think of it as a classroom setting you anything we do do that's dangerous we will not be able to back that up a court will eat us up and then uh so it has to be and when we're dealing with props you can't have an eight or 10 foot prop where fall off six foot's the limmit there you go and so U as as long as we can meet those parameters and we deal with it a case-by casee basis I I don't see so basically what you're saying is that we don't have to vote on anything particular you have enough leeway with the parameters were're already set to to approve what or disapprove whatever yes sir it looks like we're going forward where we are right now and uh thanks for everybody for coming so I have a quick question do I need to declare any conflict of interest or since we're not voting if we're not voting I I think it would just be okay for the discussion you've been silent okay um I I mean you declare that that conflict UPF front in January so it's recorded okay perfect I I think that um to be clear I I don't like this part of my job and it drives my wife nuts I look for the everything all the stuff that could go bad that's where I live that's why I don't sleep at night all the stuff that goes bad I got to think about that because my number one job used to be academics now it's safety that's the number one job student and staff safety so we're not trying to do it to be a party pooper we're just trying to keep everyone safe and so if you can give me lead time I'm Becky like once this show wraps up let's get going with the next one and start talking about what that looks like and what those parameters are so you're not caught in a crunch and you're not waiting to get an approval for something that's going to happen in in a few weeks if you could give us lead time that'd be a great handshake okay so should I just set up a meeting with with you directly to have a me you can meet with Kimberly with facilities she can meet with us first that' be with us first okay us me and me and you or me with cimberly first US Sophia you would go there first and conversation because we're already going to get started pretty soon Becky you would go there first and if they felt like it needed to come to the board then it would go to the board but she'd always go there first to the superintendent or Kimberly Finance director district office all right I know you don't get paid enough paid to do this but I appreciate your dedication and your love Yeah it maybe works out to what 10 15 cents an hour if that much I actually mathed it out once do you want to know what it came down to yeah I'm sure it's nothing 23 cents an hour yeah well honestly appreciate you so much and what you've done for this community you brought a great deal of Pride to our fine arts program in the White Mountains and in the state of Arizona and if I might add Dr right I would add too that uh Mr bloomstrand and Dr D in the back there have been at this for a long long time and I've seen the program grow exponentially including our little Mighty band um our music program we're we're proud of what youall are doing and we're very supportive of that and so I wanted to make sure those two folks are represented and as well as all these lovely kids too absolutely thank you so much appreciate all you all three do I mean I've lived here long enough to be embarrassed from what we did in the past and I'm not embarrassed anymore so thank you very much Dr Wright we'll turn some time over to you for a uh superintendent report if it pleases the board um given the we have a number call the Public's I'll foro the general update I think where there's nothing pressing I will add and like to discuss uh the administration's determination on Esa and participation within that program there really two or three options one option is give the esa money back and come and roll and participate in all of our program programs a second option is give the esa money back and participate as a homeschooled student uh the district does have an option where we can charge for participation but why would we give up that secret sauce that we just talked about we have 200 students in our district that are on esas I think it would be very unwise to make it to treat this like a smorgus board come go ahead and have Fine Arts come go ahead and play in athletics I just don't think that would be wise I I have a question how much money have we lost as a district to to Esa funds at a at a ballpark figure we have around 200 students that's roughly a million bucks how many how many teachers could we employ at our average uh salary with salary and benefits we could probably hire 15 more teachers with a million dollars so it's a big deal so my my view is this um we love everybody we want you to come participate um but if you have an Esa you're not qualified to participate and we're not going to do it on a on a fee basis either and so um while I understand if I'm a parent and I'm in that situation I want what's best for my kids and I feel for you there I also sincerely worry how many other kids would we lose if we just allow it to become a smorgas Spore and I don't think it's about people paying money to participate I think it's providing access I also have a problem with people that aren't enrolled in our schools taking the role from another student that is enrolled doesn't seem fair but if they're homeschool student they have right to that access and we welcome them in we've done that regularly and if they want to enroll come on home turn the money back in and come home so that that's my determination on on Esa and the board have any questions or comments I do I do I have one question um if we had that billion dollar back or how however much it was would that have enabled us to stay with our schedule that we had before we lost the bond yes if we would have passed um the most recent bond that would have provided us the financial capacity to what we'd effectively done is move money from District additional assistance into M and what not have had to laid off 10 12 teachers so and the bond that we had we we were two things 2016 saved us Co oddly provided $5.4 million and that's been keeping us alive uh so without those funds um we made Cuts early so we'll have bad budget capacity for next year 25 26 school year um the following school year will get very tight so I think this has to be done on a case-by Case basis and we need to look at where we are and making sure we could still payer bills so if we hadn't lost as many uh students as you just said would we be in a better place schedule wise absolutely we would be a better place we'd have the teachers we just let go any other questions about that topic okay thank you okay the next item on the agenda would be um call to the public and we invite the public to make comments or a request of the governing board regarding items that are not listed on the time this time Elsewhere on the agenda those wishing to address the board or ask to submit a request to the to address the governing board form available from the secretary which we have members of the board may not discuss items that are not on the agenda therefore action taken as a result of public comment will be limited to directing staff to study the matter or scheduling the matter for further consideration and discussion at a later date the operating rules of the public are as follows individual time is limited to 3 minutes per person and cannot be seated to another individual so I have a list here and remember we can't comment yep we can refer this to be looked at by staff but I have a list of individuals here that would like to address the board and on the top is uh uh arm media Santana I see your husband's right be Santiago is right behind so oh s Santiago's your son that's right I know I remember uh remember well I just was handed a bunch of papers I have no idea what they they they uh this says uh I'll just mark them off as you go yeah so you were first on the list and it says Esa funding and wmpa White Mountain Performing Arts okay would it would it be okay if sure if Scott went first sure okay I don't care thank you so much I appreciate it okay you let me get this name down here so we can have right oh you have your form right there can you give that to Mary Ford please no I don't think he has a form his is turned in it's Scott Jensen I'm looking Scott Jensen there we go I got it thank you um I'm I'm Scott Jensen uh my I have uh a two two daughters that um participate in in choir and then in also in the stage Productions and um I'm grateful for the opportunity to to share a few thoughts I I I was grateful to have um Dr Wright share some of the board's um thoughts on the esa uh participation but that's the that's the position that we're in as parents right now um we we just received the letter um about a few weeks ago and in the mail we weren't aware of the board meeting so we didn't know that this was up for discussion and so we missed that um so it just came as a surprise when we heard about that that we uh were in the position of we we have the esa funds and our daughters are in have been in a choir have participated in the plays um during that time and we we just we received this notice just before the play um into the woods was going to have its auditions and we were told we had to make a decision as Dr Wright as you said that we had to relinquish our ESA funds um and then fill out a homeschool affidavit or that we weren't going to be able to participate in anything in the school um it just was it was a surprise because I was unaware you know of this and um it our our children for the year we had we've you know made educational plans with those dollars uh a plans plan in place with each child some of our children have um diverse needs and so we we've allocated some of those funds for classes that they have upcoming and we realize like I didn't understand your position um as a school board and many of the boards in in Arizona are doing the same thing that you're doing and so I I I don't really understand the Financial um things that are at play in your in your position or what you hope to accomplish by this decision but we I wish I had known about this um ahead of time so we could have we could have prepared for it instead of having to make this sudden decision as a family where we've already allocated the money and um we we would have liked more time to discuss and strategize as a family and consider our options um because we still would really it it sort of threw this into this uh this decision between two things that we love is participating in these in in the choirs in the in the plays and then having the opportunity to have these choices um I realize that you've got to protect your District I totally understand your I I don't totally understand what it's like to be your position but um diverting our funds at this time and in our classes would be would just seriously impact our children's well-being and as rehearsals are just are just about to start um so I my hope would be that we um would would be able to have some time to consider this in between the school year just so we it wasn't mid semester um but our children have loved participating in the district we've we've donated our time we've donated our our tax donations to the district U my wife's donated time and we'd like to continue to have a bridge be open um I understand that I don't know all the reasoning behind you know these complicated issues but I I just wanted you to hear from us as we're one of the few families that this this impacted but I appreciate the opportunity to talk to you and address you today Mr President given the item was on the agenda I believe I could respond to this gentleman first of all your daughters sing like angels I know who they are um if and here's my problem and we had this talk with Mr web at length if we allow your unbelievable children to participate then the next time somebody comes in I say no you can't I've got a discrimination problem um it is not there there there's some very tough choices and some of those consequences are tough too what public schools are up against Mr Jensen is that were operating on life support you hear that we get $133,000 per student that's not true we get just about five now there are sped funds that are available and they're never enough so uh My worry is that number of 200 will grow and I I want to be fair if it were arbitrary and I I tried to think of 100 ways I could say yes your your daughters are exceptional performers the teachers lobbied for these young women they're exceptional young women this is not that they're not worthy of our programs they're exceptional kids I just have to be fair and so it is a tough decision I will say if you want to take a week and talk about it and continue to have them prepare and then after the week you decide no we're not turning back the money then they would have to withdraw if after that time they decide you know what we're just going to figure it out then they're welcome to stay but I have to be fair and that's uh that's just part of our it's a tough tough role thank you though sir for and they're wonderful kids by the way I mean that sincerely thank you sir I'm Stephanie white the next one on the list and my daughter is ISA Staley do we have you filled out a paper yes and it's Stephanie I got to keep this organized just a little bit messed it all up Stephanie except for a couple of these people we're all old and we can hardly hear except for Jennifer and Margaret but the rest of the guys these years are really big but they don't work near like they used to don't want to hear anyway Stephanie white right I'm just thinking about dinner and got this that's better just speak up and we Pro we' got an air conditioner thing running back here too okay did you find me are you ready okay so I wanted to touch a little bit you you would spoke Mr Right on um uh discrimination and by allowing some of the students in and not allowing them in that would be considered discrimination um but we argue that isolating the esa students not just the homeschool students but the esa students is a form of discrimination especially in our rural community where we don't have many opportunities If This Were a big city it would be a different story but we do rely on the extracurricular activities for our students to get that needed socialization um the Arizona Revis statute 15- 80201 States the following not withstanding any other law a child who resides within the attendance area of the public school and who is homeschooled shall be allowed to try out for intercol actic activities on behalf of the public school in the same manner as a pupil who is enrolled in the public school it does not dictate whether they are receiving Esa funding or not we as parents choose to educate our kids at home and have the autonomy over their curriculum and teaching methods based on the Arizona home school laws which provide us the freedom to craft personalized educational experiences for our children I'm an entrepreneur by heart I'm tailoring my children's education based on that so that perhaps we don't have to go into the College Years and they can skip some of these things like participating in the CTE programs that you have I didn't know existed they seem amazing that there's more options for our kids than just going into debt and going to college and so we've tailored our beginning years for that um the Arts are so so important for the growth of their brains um and not just the Arts but the social ization as well we don't want to isolate our kids we want them to be a part of a community and take pride in something we don't want to keep them sheltered at home we want them to know what the world is but we also want to be able to tailor their education in a way that we as parents see is the best for them individually um isolation impairs brain development that are vital on social skills um the Arts help by bringing everyone together and fostering sense of acceptance and feeling supported in a group um there are many I did a deep dive on the effects of participating in the Arts and the brain and I'm not going to go into the detail on that because Becky kind of touched on that a little bit as well um but there's some statistics that Isa my daughter is going to read to you um that we came up with social exclusion and isolation contribute to anxiety PTSD depression panic attack and behavioral changes after the social isolation lock down to 2020 the suicide rate went to a record high in 2022 22% of high school students admitted to considering suicide and 10% attempted It 2 million teams attempted suicide each year it is the leading cause of death in children ages 14 to 15 and the second leading cause of death from ages 15 to 19 it is the second leading cause of death in college age student and cause me and cause more deaths a year than any single illness the increase in our use mental health issues includes discrimination and bullying teen teen teenage suicide attempts are associated with stress self-doubt pressure to succeed Financial uncertainty disappointment and loss many of the mental health issues can be combed with participating in the Arts social skills improve mental health language community communication a sense of belonging higher performance in schools improved ability to adapt and handle conflict increased kindness and empathy increased Reliance and lowers risk of depression the Arts have saved lives by boosting confidence and empowering while cultivating individual identities cause causing you to fully assert themselves now and later in life the long-term benefits are measurable at the beginning of the year I joined theater for the first time and performed on stage in White Mountain Performing Arts Lion King Jr is Nala I've had many hobbies from gymnastics to karate to soccer and dance but I have never been more passionate about anything than I am about theater it has given me amazing beautiful friendships a sense of community something that challenges me and helps me grow theater is a way I can express myself but the best thing theater has given me a purpose it gives me something to look forward to every day I urge you to think about how many kids you will be affecting if you cut the homeschool students thank you if I may Mr President uh there is a distinction a legal distinction between Esa those that receive esas the state has come up with statutes that said this is how esas are to be regulated um it is the district's right to deny access it is not discriminatory it would be however discriminatory to tell Mr Jensen's daughters they can participate and to tell that very bright very good reader that she can't participate now the the room that might exist for negotiation may be in the summer we're not in session um if Becky works that that doesn't put us at threat we're not going to be in session um I would be open to perhaps allowing Esa students in the summer program only um but not in any other fashion even if they were to pay a fee the statute allows the district to set a fee and for the esa students to pay the fee but again for all the reasons that bright young lady enumerated that's what makes us special we do not want to create a cafeteria plan you have a little of this but I'm not coming to school and so I'm sorry um I I I just I I feel that it would be der for me within my role to take a different position so I'm new to the esa um we've we homeschooled since 2021 um I'm new to Esa this year um for me I'm recently divorced and I'm a single parent of two and that funding has been vital for me to open opportunities for my kids and now I'm presented with a choice to be in the arts or accept the funding and my understanding of the esa is that it is not applicable for extracurricular activities it's applicable for during school hours from 8:00 a to 3 P.M but after school hours in our guidelines we are allowed to participate if it's not part of school hours if you're if you're um the distinction between homeschooled students and Esa are sharp and they're different the rights that homeschooled students have are the same as any in District attending students it's just not that way for Esa they don't have access to the programs unless the school grants it and I as I'd said before for the reasons I we have to agree to disagree I'm sorry I take no pleasure in it but I'm I'm glad I made the decision to tell the other two they couldn't because now I'd be having to tell this young lady well they could but you couldn't so we've been consistent but my I am sorry but that's an amazing young lady right there she is come on back to school we'd love to have her we'll take you tomorrow you'll be the BR star next month thank thank you okay so my name is Arma santen and um so I have a question um my question would be you say Esa I understand that Esa funding is different than homeschool and you say come on back to school but what makes a homeschool student different than the esa student because the homeschool student is not going to come to school they're just going to participate in the extracurricular activities I I may answer that in effect an Esa student has a tax rebate hom school students still pay school taxes um on a $500,000 home the property owner is going to pay about $200 in school taxes the average Esa is $7,600 that's a very different thing The Homeschool students are still paying taxes therefore they still have access to their guidance now these all these rules were worked out at the state legislature now next year and in the year in the coming years if the state says hey we're changing the rule and you must accept Esa students then we would but right now when they're giving us the flexibility to make the choice best for our district um I don't need to belabor our decision but that's why we're taking our position well I would just like to say too that as an Esa parent we actually still do pay taxes uh those taxes are not those property taxes we we pay um to to Blue Ridge taxes we still pay those taxes every year those taxes are not taken away because we're an Esa student right but you get a check for $7,600 the homeschool students don't get a check for $7,600 they pay their taxes and don't get a check you pay your taxes and effectively get a rebate but that money is used for their educational purposes understood understood but it's not it it doesn't come under the same uh Services as homeschooled students so the options are if you wanted to return Thea money and just operate as a homeschool absolutely welcome welcome him with open arms or come and Roll come tomorrow we love to have you well I feel like what I had prepared is not going to change your mind so I will just keep it to myself then well thank you and thank you for your say it okay thank you hold on I think she wants one more thing I'm going to say one more think we can still be friends right yes we're still friends we're still neighbors we'll still be neighbors um just let me I closed it up by accident so just just a second okay so my topic was on the contribution um the mission statement and vision of Blue Ridge is a family for achievement tradition and innovation Thrive and um you all know that these core values CU they're posted right behind you the core values are courage respect commitment Integrity um and within all of these it says take action and persevere through fear change in the unknown demonstrate understanding thoughtfulness and compassion towards all work willingly with persistence and determination and support of a common or shared Vision practice ethical principles while taking ownership for personal performance and results are a handful of um homeschool Esa students and parents reflect blue ridges mission and vision the children that this impacts the most our major contributors for your programs and to our local Performing Arts community and that intrinsic value should not be automatically tied to funding they hold leadership positions in the Blue Ridge choirs and theater departments um these students are committed to Excellence and are spending extra personal time volunteering by co-directing accompanying coaching and encouraging other students stagecraft lighting set building makeup countless volunteer hours taking on leadership roles The Faculty trusts our kids and as students leaders to the other students in the program these children have worked diligently to follow all of the district guidelines for years and have contributed positively to blidge these children have flourished in the areas of leadership knowledge confidence collaboration creativity teamwork and many other skills through the classes and programs at blid and these are the kinds of Role Models any school would want to represent their school when we truly value the ideas of Courage respect commitment and integrity we place the students our children as a community that represent family above and beyond a financial burden thank you ma'am anybody anyone else like Lorenzo good evening Schoolboard me Members my name is Lorenzo Santana and um thank you for allowing us to speak this evening um I'm going to speak on the topic of compensation and um at this point I wish I had the skills of a car salesman so I could persuade you but I don't but I'm going to still try to persuade you a little bit based on what we had prepared here um we'd like to propose kind of like the allar uh payt playay option for Esa students here I know that's the lowest option on the tier that Mr Dr Wright just um had mentioned um according to the current Esa parent handbook uh July 2023 version page 22 Services provided by a public school says Esa funds may be used to pay for individual classes and or extracurricular programs provided by a public school such as drama club band cheerleading Sports arts classes music classes speech and debate and so um you know there are many other schools here in Arizona that are allowing this alart or this payto playay option um such as a few that we found so far were the American Leadership Academy in Gilbert uh public schools in queen Queen Creek uh Messa public schools which is one of the largest public schools uh districts here in Arizona it allows Esa students to participate in their programs by charging each Esa student a participation fee for the programs and closer to us is the pacin public school districts which allow Esa students to also pay to play in sports or in um School classes or in extracurricular activities and there's probably many other schools and districts that we just um haven't found yet in our research but this would provide at least some funding to your school programs to offset you know the minor costs uh these classes and activities um that our ESA students incur um and um you know the you the Blue Ridge Unified School District wouldn't necessarily need to be an official vendor through the esa class wallet um families could just pay the school directly and then submit to Esa their reimbursements um and that that would require less administrative work for Blue Ridge um the pricing could be e easily determined by comparing to other school districts that are also doing this which we could reach out to and find out you know follow their method uh do some obtain some comparative pricing for what they're charging for sports or the Arts or any extracurricular activities um you know and determine a fair and reasonable price for these uh classes and you know as was previously mentioned several of our students here have continuously given numerous hours from volunteer time to mentoring um some of the students that are in theater um or coaching them or co-directing or doing set stage construction lighting makeup you know and you know um even just acknowledging their volunteer time how much time that they've put in um just as even inine service you know for these programs to help them be successful um you know U just recognizing their volunteer hours but um even at that you know we'd still be willing to pay for each class or activity that they're involved in and I we feel like this could be a win-win solution for both sides because right now we don't see the esa program going away right now the esa program is there and um instead of the school losing a lot of students and not getting anything out of it you know for those students that do want to come back and do want to participate and do want to be involved and do want to give back to the school and the community you know they could pay for those classes and so instead of it being a um all or nothing you know we think um you know the the program the school would end up getting some of that additional funding back and that would be better than just barring or Banning the students from all es from all programs here at school so I think sometimes you know the something getting something back is better than the All or Nothing option and we think that would be a win-win solution and um you know we would ask the district to consider consider that because another thing that is is really detrimental to all of us here that um are receiving Esa funds is the fact that this was just dropped on us about two or three weeks ago in the middle of the school semester and we had already asked in the summertime about enrolling our student in a couple of classes and we asked about the payer code options and they said it was approved so because of that that's how we planned our funding for the year but then all of a sudden out of nowhere where just one day boom all of a sudden this this policy change was dropped on us and we feel like that's not fair it should have been done in the off seon and it should have been done um you know it should have also allowed us to um have these discussions and allow the public to present their concerns and um and come to a good resolution together as opposed to that that's what we don't understand why all of a sudden in the middle of a semester that policy change happened this should have been a policy change that happened either in the summer this past summer or this next summer and that's why we asked Blue Ridge to consider allowing our kids to stay in the program through this 2024 2025 year and then give us all time to reconsider this discuss it open forum and um and then make a decision in the offseason so to speak in the summer so we think that would be a winwin solution for both of us I appreciate your civility um you've always we've worked together now on different things and you're always extremely civil I will tell you this we had no way of tracking how many Esa students there were out of our district until a few couple of months ago and it was shocking that we had 200 and so the financial impact of that coupled with not passing a bond put us in a very different position the that the way I look at it and it may be flawed I'm not perfect but I'll tell you this as a homeschooled student you pay your taxes you don't get a rebate as an Esa student you get a rebate and that's a very difference and the state has has had to work hard to create a list to hold people accountable to make sure that the the funds are being used appropriately I believe paying for participation would be an appropriate use but I also believe it gives away a recruiting Advantage for us and I don't think that's wise but I appreciate you approach Mr Santana have great respect for you and your family thank you sir thank the time to speak tonight I'm grateful for the opportunity to speak to you I realize that it's late um so thank you for taking your time my name is Deborah Jensen Deborah yeah I am Scott Jensen's wife um and I do have a hard copy of the letter that was emailed to each of you on your emails that are listed online um if you would like a hard copy it's here for you today um we would like to again I I realize that this has been asked but we would like to sincerely request the leadership to postpone this decision this policy change until next year so that we might have adequate time to prepare our financials and our plans for our families that have already been allocated for the rest of the school year um we need this mandate to be lifted for this year um and we need an opportunity to discuss its potential imp implications for next year um in the limited time that we've had to research this complex issue we have found that we have more questions than answers and we've named several we've asked several you've asked some of us but we have more questions than what I think we have time to discuss tonight and you speak about fairness and we agree we believe that freedom um promotes fairness and we believe that it's unfair to punish the few that are here today and not allow them to participate in extracurricular activities this year for the fear that there will be many to follow that we see as unfair Fair every family that receives Esa funding we do not have verification that they were all notified we a few families were notified two to three weeks ago right before an audition mid semester we see that as unfair was there a public announcement made prior to this decision an email that was just sent to us the day before auditions was there any opportunity for us to come and have an open Forum like we are attempting to do today certain students require not a cafeteria plan but a customized plan that's what Freedom of Choice allows we are willing to offer you our rebates we are willing to offer you excessive funding that we are being given stewardship over to customize our children's education I have special needs students others of us have very specific mental health needs that allow us to accommodate when we have funding for that student applied that we can decide how to use it's very critical because every student learns differently as you well know we are told either to enroll full-time or to take a homeschool affidavit but our question is why would brusd not allow our children to participate in electives and extra extracurriculars along with those who have a homeschool affidavit if they only receive fundings for full-time enrollment student students why is brusd not willing to discuss this allart option more fully wouldn't that be a win-win situation and an Apples to Apples compensation for you does Br USD know that the esa program does give back neither nearly $1,000 for every Public School school student in the state through the taxpayer funded educational add-on funds and that Esa kids are forfeiting that when they enroll in Esa how exactly are these Esa students causing a financial burden to be USD that cannot be recuperated per student through an allart payment these students don't receive laptops they don't receive your textbooks they don't receive your school supplies they don't receive paper handouts they still pay their activity fees they still pay for theater for sports for costumes for uniforms we are more than willing to pay to participate in summary we have all spoken Scott has spoken about the major disruption that this has caused our families Stephanie has spoken about potential discrimination that we feel has been shown to us as a minority here in your community and and um Arma has spoken and Lauren Lorenzo has spoken about contribution and compensation now we are asking for a more thorough examination of the issue thank you very much thank you anyone else would like to was he want to speak he was a new employee yeah we didn't see I still have a list those would like to speak there's no one else would like to speak we need a mo announcement we will have our next meeting a special board meeting to conduct superintendent interviews November 7th that time will be determined that could possibly go into executive session but our regularly scheduled board meeting will be November 19th at 5: pm at this at this location if uh if there's nothing further Dr Wright no sir I have nothing Kimberly nothing we'll ask for a motion to adjourn have a motion from Chuck second from Jennifer all in favor thank you

e e e um shot we're going to start our board meeting um Miss gibon M Clean we'll her shortly U members of the community who wish to address the governing board may do so in person or if you would like to visually virtually submit a comment please email hildah harez sps.org by 2 p.m the day of the meeting so that she can send you the link and instructions board members are not allowed to address items that are not on the agenda I'm going to call to order so uh we have um myself Miss mcrey and are you going by your new name yet did you do your land acknowledgement oh no I'm sorry I thought I did that first because then the land acknowledgement was below it no oh no you do the land acknowledgement first and en roll um pledge and en roll call okay all right um kraton School District land acknowledgement kraton School District understands that our community of school is located on the ancestral lands of the O oan JW and a odm people who descended from the hocom and have inhabited these lands since time in Memorial the O Odum whose name translates literally to people are a vibrant culture and Community spending countless Generations into the past continuing to thrive in the present and carrying a powerful lady Legacy a generation for the future with this acknowledgement the kraton school district formally recognizes that the traditional care and keeping of these lands by the indigenous people is an aspirational model of community stewardship that we are committed to honor with practices policies and human relations um Miss MC shery would you do to the pledge for us tonight sure IED Al to flaged States thank you all right now rul so we have Miss mcy here miss maleb here myself and Miss GI them and clean hopefully we'll be here shortly I want to welcome everybody tonight to the meeting and remind the audience of the request to address board cards that must be completed and submitted to the board secretary if they wish to speak to an agenda item or policy provides for two cards White cards to be submitted in order to speak to an agenda item and blue cards to be submitted in order to speak during public comments due to open meeting law board members are not allowed to address items that are not on the agenda approval of the agenda I move the governing board approve the agenda as presented I second all those in favor I I board and superintendent reports um Miss MB do you want to start tonight sure um I hope everybody got to relax a little bit over fall break those who don't get a fall break I hope you were at least able to reset somewhat and find some balance and get ready for Quarter Two um also want to congratulate Andy Gutierrez on his recent award as Arizona's nationally Distinguished Principal and that's all I have tonight This MC cheffrey I do not have a Bo report tonight all right um I just wanted to read um a little something from our president um she wanted everybody to know that she's in Texas graduating from a 9month um sofg implementation cohort um which she joined to further maximize the district's tools for improving student outcome governance and she also want to send out a reminder to hope that everybody has a voting plan as there are elections on the ballot that will directly impact our students and our community welcome hi do you have a board report that you like to give um no I apologize for being late I'm in trial and yes um we finally decided on a date for our advisory committee meeting is November 6th which is a Wednesday right here here in this room at 5:00 p.m.

e e e I figured you were yep are you ready okay Welcome to our Tuesday October 15th 2024 work study and brief board business meeting we are going to begin I'll call this meeting to order and we actually are going to start with 2.02 and then we'll follow with 2.01 so we'll start with the FY 2024 annual financial report and school level reporting presentation Dr McCord thank you Mrs Woods governing board members tonight we have two things for you on the docket for the work study again the annual financial report as well as budget override report and I will kick it off and give it over to Miss Bonnie Betts our associate superintendent business services and she will uh have some help with friends it's always good that you have friends so um I'm very happy to present to you the annual financial report for fiscal year 2024 and with me is Jackie Matan the director of um finance and Miss Lauren toska who is the budget manager but she's also the one who put together the annual financial report this time um so um they are both going to present and then as always I will tag team and add commentary hopefully not too much so and with that being said I'm going to go ahead and pass the mic over to M Matten and I'll I'll drive Jackie okay thank you Miss pets Dr McCord governing board members we are here to present the FY 2024 annual financial report or AFR this is UN an un audited report we will bring to you the annual comprehensive financial report or act for in December for 2024 um before we go on I do want to uh give a shout out to the team especially Lauren this is a very heavy lift and um we are short staffed at the moment so thank you Lauren uh so today's report will include uh the m and unrestricted Capital details of cash balances revenues and spend classroom site fund other funds average teacher salary the Food Service AFR School level reporting and then there's an appendix at the end so this is uh the ending cash balance is from page one of the AFR so we wanted to share this with you however we want to remind you that this is not the beginning fund balance or I'm sorry the be the budget balance carry forward into FY 2025 sorry oh sorry that I'm confused but which presentation do I need to be looking at the budget and over one in your hand right there okay y all right thank you you're welcome just need to get on the right page that's okay so the Grid on the bottom shows the budget balance carry forward into FY 2025 these These are um estimated and will be shared in the first revision that we bring forward in February this is not from the adopted budget but the ending cash balance is not the same as the budget balance carry forward so we wanted to make that clear if I could add um so you can see the ending cash balance in m&o um is like $7 million more then the budget balance Carri forward so due to state law any excess cash that we earn through interest earnings or whatever they're posted to our M fund but we're not allowed to increase our budget capacity accordingly so that's why we're showing the difference between the ending fund balance ending cash balance and our budget balance carry forward this is a goofy rule but you have to abide by it you can keep that I have a feeling you'll need it oh maybe oh you can see it that's good so next we have M and unrestricted Capital Revenue by Source this is a year-over-year comparison you can see in 23 the revenue was 287.4 and in 24 303.2 million we combine these as they are the major contributors to our operating fund um it kind of mirrors the monthly reports that we share you'll also see a small amount in County last year uh in fy22 the legislative session um changed the way that they're alloc out the revenue so the county is not reflected in 24 anymore it's part of the state allocation and then you can see from this slide where the state funding has increased so in the past when we had the county uh the county contribution that was a property tax against the local property p uh taxpayer and so now the state general fund has absorbed that property tax amount and that's why you see where the state is contributing 64 % instead of 60 almost 63% and that that 193 million instead of the 180 million in the prior year so just wanted to make sure that that was clear to to all of you so Amino and unrestricted Capital expense comparison year-over-year in FY 23 you'll see $33 million uh expense and in FY 24 that went down to 91.3 but please remember in FY 23 we had a $20 million prepayment um of for asrs so um that is reflected in the benefits amount the 75.2 versus the 57.2 so just some notes on M specifically uh the spend did decrease year-over-year however if you exclude the prepayment of the asrs uh the in the spend increased by 8.2 million um that is uh partly due to compensation increases and some inflation increases are there any questions before we move on um sorry my voice is kind of gone today um as we're going through this would you mind um reviewing reviewing the administrative costs that the district incurs sorry about my focus it's okay so on page uh two of the AFR it's broken out by function and that's how the state uh determines what is Administration and what is instruction or instructional services um so on page two the 2300 is General Administration salaries and benefits um total 2.8 million um of the full actual spend of 272 million uh so it's really a a small amount in comparison to our actual spend um and then also I did um was curious about the district spending report from a from the prior year this for 24 we'll have this um in March or April but last year in FY 23 um GPS had a a spend per pupil of $951 uh our peer average was over $1,000 and the state average was $127 so according to the auditor General's report we are considered low in administration thank you you're welcome and then just keep in mind that the administration does include our school administration so that's a function 2400 so as Miss maton said the 2300 was just under 3 million and the um principals and the staff at the principal level at each of our schools is about 16 million I think so um so even if we were able to eliminate everybody at the executive Administration so every every one of us at the district office and then U that would only be a savings of about 2.8 million and then and then if we added and got rid of all the principles and all their staff at the schools and just had teachers and students the total that we'd be able to reduce is$ 18 million and our reduction without the override would be 36 million so um and I think you could make a case that it would be very difficult for the school district to operate without some leaders in place so but just to give you some some details and these are questions that are always asked that in my history even annually it's asked so thank you for asking the question thank you so we're on to unrestricted Capital spend by category and we'll go into some more detail on the next slide but our total spend in 24 was 19.11 million and this grid shows year-over-year by category uh you can see a decrease at the school level we um were conservative in our allocations in FY 24 in 23 for athletics they did purchase some scoreboards which are pretty high ticket items uh curriculum is an increase because of the math adoption and I also wanted to point out that we used sr3 for this curriculum as well um totaling about $5 million operations uh we included the mares last year in the operations spend and that uh we didn't have any Marquee expense this year um the other includes a final copy or release payment but also some departmental um Capital needs for example Visions is a finance function so that's ours um professional growth and development marketing uh those types of departments have some Capital need as far as software uh technology increased uh in 24 due to the phone system the computer refresh we will see fluctuate year-over-year depending on need and then Transportation uh minimal change um I did have a question about the math adoption so here you're showing that we spent 5 million on curriculum but we used additional funds from the s or three because the total price was if I'm correct around $8 million for that curriculum adoption which went K12 that's correct so you know I mean um I I think it's a pretty exciting adoption but remember that in order to have higher achieving students we need those upto-date materials we if we're using materials that are 10 20 years old they get to be very updated so thank you next we have classroom site fund so this is our classroom site fund history the amount per student uh last year FY 2024 we ended the year with 27.1127 192 and I wanted to share on this slide um note that the ending fund balance this was as of June 30 and we did use classroom site fund to help fund the pay increases going into 25 but note that the classroom site fund cannot be used for anything other than teacher salary and benefits and so and we're not allowed to supplant if you're familiar with that term where if we had a cost that was in our general fund maintenance and operations in 2023 we would have to only use classroom site fund Monies to supplement or ADD add to those salaries so I just wanted to make sure it was clear the amount of fund balance that we're sitting on in classroom site fund the other thing is um do we have the slide in here that's the graph it's next okay I'll just shut up then oh I I did want to ask you a question about that so just a reminder that that classroom site fund comes from the sales tax is that correct that plus the state land trust funds okay thank you spoiler alert this is the a graphical representation of classroom site fund history you want to add anything to this yeah so the only reason why we wanted to share this is you can see there were some significant fluctuations in the per student amount depending upon what's happening in the economy at any one time so the last four years we've seen consistent increases in that dollar amount but note that between 2021 and 2022 it zoomed up pretty quick quickly and so as we are deliberating about the available resources we have we're we're always a little bit shy of making sure that we're not spending all of it because we want to make sure that we don't ever have to reduce salaries that we're always going to be able to add so just wanted to point that out so I I do have another question since you mentioned the state land trust um prop 123 is expiring it's my understanding that the state is going to back fill those amounts and so we don't have to worry about that I I read something from the Arizona School Board Association on that but give me some clarity about what's happening with that that it expires in 20252 yes so the information that I know indicates that that's a proposal it has to be approved and it has not been approved okay it hasn't been substantiated yet okay thank you wanted to share uh just a few other funds with you nutrition services and Community Education Revenue comparisons so nutrition services um you can see uh 15.17 million in revenues um and Community School is has been steadily increasing over the years um animation so we really wanted to highlight um during the pandemic uh that they took a dip in Revenue but they are rebuilding uh that Revenue and then the child care Grants falls under Community Ed uh and they had some Revenue in the last three years as well but along with that basically this Revenue covers their services it does they're basically they they they budget for what they can bring in and they make then they serve so this doesn't not much of this ever goes into our fund maybe we take a small amount for the um lights and things like that utilities okay thanks yeah that's important there is no funding source from the state of feder or federal government for any any of these um partially nutrition services of course gets Federal reimbursement from the meals that they serve um but the other revenues are all coming from parents so so FY 2024 average teacher salary this is required uh to be placed on the AFR and you've seen this many times 2024 Food Service AFR uh we'll go through some more detail about the food service AFR but on this slide in particular we wanted to highlight the $560,000 of m&o expenditures we are required to um code a a specific calculated amount into M for food service so we change the function so that it appears as a food service expense oops and then we also wanted to highlight the beginning balance of 8.76 and the ending balance of 7.37 so we did draw down fund balance by 1.39 million so if you recall uh last year we brought to you a request to increase our meal um prices by 10 cents across all grade levels because we anticipated that we would be drawing down fund balance um we asked for a minimal increase because we're still right sizing based upon all of the um increase in Staffing that we were required to do due due to the universal um free breakfast and lunch and so we're continuing that process of making sure that our our staffing is U appropriate for the amount of meals that we're serving on a daily basis um but also know that uh the food prices have continued to increase just like we have all seen increases in our um home grocery budgets nutrition services is also seeing those inflationary that's another example of an inflationary increase so just wanted to make sure that was clear to all of you guys you want me to go ahead sure so um so this is the Food Service Revenue Trend so you can see in fiscal um 2020 um we did not operate for one quarter during fiscal 2020 in 2021 of course we started the school year late and so um uh but in 2021 is when the federal government came back and they said okay we're going to go ahead and go to free a universal free breakfast and lunch so you can see in 21 and 22 the very very small amount of the local revenue and the large amount of the federal revenue going into the total revenue and then you can see in 2022 again we were still under Universal free uh breakfast and lunch and then right sizing in 2023 and in 2024 you can see that in 2024 actually in 2023 and 2024 our Revenue um has increased across the board uh from 2019 which was what we call our last normal year um before these fluctuations so that's just revenue and then this is the revenues and expenditures again to point out 2022 you can see the large uh amount of Revenue in comparison to the expenditure during 2021 and 2022 we were able to build a very comfortable fund balance in nutrition services it's another reason why we wanted to be very careful about asking for meal price increases because we want to draw down that fund balance and so absorb as many of those costs as we can knowing that there are increases uh nutrition services gets um hit very very um hard by the minimum wage increases as well uh so all that is accounted for um but you can see that in 2023 and in 2024 the expenditures did slightly exceed the revenues received in those years again on purpose and being very conservative with what we're requesting from you in terms of meal price increases and then finally the meal service Trend obviously with universal free breakfast in 2022 and 2021 you can see where there are a lot of meals uh that were served in 2022 but you can see in 2024 the meals are approaching what we had in 2019 so the increases in revenues were were more evident um just because the meal prices have increased and the Federal reimbursement has increased over that time um but we are approaching the same number of meals that we were serving uh back in 2019 and that's all on the food service so are there any questions before we move on to the school level reporting okay great so today's report for the school level AFR will include a short summary and then we'll do a school by school comparison Gilbert Elementary and Carol R Ranch we have compared those two schools for the last 3 years so just a note um caution everyone when reviewing this report and comparing school to school uh there are expenses that are at the district level that are not um allocated out at the school level for example Transportation um it's um be careful to cons to compare school to school they are um they vary in in size they vary in programs and services provided um and that will um uh we will show you with Carol Ray and Gilbert Del and so Jackie um the utilities are not allocated out to each school either is that they not correct okay so we uh we have chosen Gilbert L and Carol Ray because they are very similar in size but very different in programs uh so just over 500 um unweighted attending student count in both schools this first slide here is 1,000 instruction only so these are teachers and Pa professionals um so salaries you can see that the Carol Ray is higher than Gilbert Elementary that doesn't mean that the people at Carol Ray make more money than the people at Gilbert Elementary it means that the class sizes are smaller because of Carol Ray uh Carol Ray ranch's um special ed population and the benefits tie in of course with the salaries just a note on Capital uh that is most likely part of the school allocation and their unrestricted Capital request this slide shows all functions including 1,000 so again you can see um overall instruction Carol Ray is higher because of the smaller class sizes and also higher in 2100 which is support services for students that's where your otps are your speech language Pathologists those employees who provide services to specialed students and also uh field trips at the bottom the 2700 is uh not student transportation as we as we think of student transportation at the district level these are um because so many funds are included in this report these are field trips that are based at the school so I really wanted to make sure um that's why we're so careful when we present this information so you can see that we're spending about $1,500 more per student at Carol Ray in comparison to Gilbert L just wanted to make sure that it's clear to all of you that we allocate out the same the same formulas to every single School in Gilbert Public Schools like all elementaries are treated the same all Junior highs and all high schools the differentiation comes in the special education population so we have allocation formulas for teachers based upon regular education students um but all of our special education teachers and support staff are all allocated out from the central level so that that's in addition to those uh formulas that uh otm um allocates out every year so and we do not ever give dollars to our schools in terms of to for them to choose how many teachers it's purely FTE and then we are we calculate ated on based upon an average teacher salary so that we're not no one is ever incentivized to make decisions based upon how much a teacher makes so I just wanted to make sure that that was clear to all of you that's what's so difficult sometimes about the data and what we're requested to do because it often misrepresents what's really going on so well I think one of the things that to me um when I look at this is that it's going to really depend on the faculty at that school School some schools might have faculty that have been there for many years and are nearing retirement and then some schools might have already had that turnover where they have more younger teachers and so you know it's very much the faculty and and the needs of the students and I think it's really important to understand that we're providing what those students need um to be successful and someone in a special education classroom has has different needs than someone in a typical classroom and we're making sure that those needs get met and so I I think I'm I want to ask what you learn from going through this but I honestly think the legislature has given you a huge headache and it's not to me very helpful because there's so many qualifying factors that we really can't know um and it's almost you know individual by student and what their needs are are an individual by teacher and where they are in their career well it's interesting if you look at the school administration 2400 you can see that the dollar amount per students is exactly the same in these two schools so it's another reason why we chose these two schools because they're so um similar in size so their Administration allocation is the same so um that is an indicator it does if you point out that one area it is an indicator that our allocation formulas are fair and Equitable throughout our elementary schools so wanted to point that out any other questions before we move on okay that is it and that's it there is an appendix at the end of this presentation we won't go through it but it U might help you or um the general population to um navigate through this form and then please remember we will need your signatures um after approval on action item six 01 so Jackie came up with the idea of adding that appendix a couple of years ago just to provide more information that goes along with the actual AFR forms and so just it's there for you if you want it and then we're absolutely happy to answer any questions that are that come out of that any review that you might have I thought it was very helpful to read through the appendix so thank you and all of the these are reports that are required by the legislature so that also dictates how we report it and why report it and the timing that kind of a thing as well so I appreciate that are there any other questions on this report okay thank you we will now move to the budget and override report Dr M thank you Bonnie and her next set of individuals coming up pictures and stuff in this one it's pretty cool who's coming up first they don't seem really eager to it's just you it's just me for a little bit all right we'll know if you get up and start wandering around we'll be good my turn I think I'm up for the duration so um so good evening again and this um this report is about our override and our bond spend we we did have available Bond dollars to spend during 2024 and um and in addition because we still are under an override we uh are obligated by State Statute to present a report to you annually on how we spent those dollars and so this is the AR references uh requiring us to do that so today's report going to go through the M override commitments our 2024 ml override Revenue comparisons this is uh yearby year uh the 2024 override spend getting into some details there and then all of my friends in the audience that you're seeing there will come up to share their particular uh portion of the um of their bond spend by operational area and then finally at the end we'll go through some details about the outstanding debt the tax rates and assessed values that are here in Gilbert Public Schools so I wanted to share that um that Mr McIntosh and Miss Udall provided a lot of information regarding the class sizes to me and that's all included in here and so I'm just giving you a heads up Mr McIntosh that you might be called upon um and just for clarity if there are any questions regarding class sizes so just um a reminder the 15% override was approved in November of 2019 remember that this was increasing the 10% override that we had since 2015 15 up to 15% that was what was approved in 2019 so the 15% override generated 35.8 million in budget capacity for 2024 and then just a reminder the override dollar amounts are calculated based upon prior year student counts along with the current year dollar per student that the legislature establishes as well as the any new student weights that there might be so it's all based upon we we call call that combination the revenue control limit so in 2015 I'm only sharing the 2015 override details with you because we we presumed that since we were we were very specific about what we were going to spend the additional 5% on we were still obligated to meet the commitments that were made in November of 2015 so we have carried forward those commitments since that time and have reported out on them in this manner so you can see that that uh the last year of our 2015 override at 10% we spent $1.8 million on offering wages that are competitive we uh spent about $4.3 million on bringing down class sizes I wanted to make it clear that we did not change the class size allocation formulas but within those formulas we were still able to add more teachers to the tune of about that $4.3 million and then quality student academic programming uh this this may have included uh adding traditional education at a couple of other schools that kind of thing uh affordable student access to Visual and Performing Arts about $800,000 and then support College and Career Readiness through post-secondary advising so making sure that we were Shoring up our counselors at our Comprehensive High Schools to the tune of 1.5 million so so that 18.5 million we've maintained in November of 2019 we're asking for additional resources to go into retaining and attracting high quality Personnel so that $7.8 million roughly is added to that first dollar amount the $1.8 million to provide competitive salaries for all staff uh we added social workers and Mental Health Counselors and we also committed to a $2 million class- siiz reduction allocation where every year we can look at the greatest needs throughout the school district and offer additional FTE additional teacher FTE to bring down a particular um school that really could could use um the additional FTE and so that total was 11.6 million added on to that $18.5 million so this is how we reconcile our commitments and our spend um is on this particular uh grid so offer competitive wages retain and attract high quality staff the total um since 2022 has uh been $ 59.1 million of of increases so as an example between 2022 and 2023 we increased about $20 million into 2023 and then we increased another $10 million into 2024 so just wanted to make sure there was some understanding about what we were doing obviously we didn't get increases in override we were using a lot of State Monies to do that but it was important to share that because it's a priority in our strategic operating plan so we continue to drive uh competitive wages for all of our staff members in order for us to be able to reconcile it down to that $ 35.8 million though we need to reduce that those wages by the dollar amount you see that that was actually provided by state Equalization M and classroom site fund you can see the continue the soci social workers and Mental Health Counselors at $1.8 million it's clear that all those social workers now cost more but all those increases are in the first line so we're just keeping the dollar amount the same and applying their pay increases in that offering of competitive W wages line and as you're reviewing this I I just want to comment that um the reason that we made that commitment in 2019 was students came to us in a board meeting with a resolution asking for help for additional Mental Health Counselors that their peers were struggling and um so we made that commitment based on student input and then main maintain or reduce class sizes increased $2 million due to the additional 5% override so it was 4.3 from the 2015 override and we increased it by two million that 2 million is not ongoing at each of the individual schools it's reset every year depending upon the needs of the organization uh continue academic programming continue affordable student access to Arts Athletics and co-curricular and then continue the postsecondary advising so those all total up and you get the $ 35.8 million at the end so that's how we've continued to spend the those additional taxpayer dollars that were uh approved and awarded to us back in 2015 and 2019 so before I go any further are there any questions on that well I do appreciate that we've received more money through the state allocation from the legislature that has helped us to continue to fund those competitive salaries y I mean the override is a piece of it but the state has provided more as well so um here is the 2014 to fiscal year 2026 uh projected GPS override amounts so I wanted to point this out because um the whole M override is based upon our Revenue control limit which is largely our student count so over time we are anticipating that we are going to continue to lose students so in 2026 presuming that we are successful this November we um we are estimating that our override value in 2026 would be 35 million about $800,000 less than than in the current year and then this is just a grid to show you how the override compares to the revenue control limit um so again it's a an obscure it's obscure language what the heck is a revenue control limit right so basically in your minds it should just be the dollar amount per student that's awarded annually by the legislature along with the number of students and then the type of students whether they have a special education disability whether they're Elementary or preschool or high school or secondary um they will all um that will all go into the calculation of the revenue control limit and then the 15% is applied against that so M salary and benefit expense increase from fiscal year 2023 you've already seen these two pie charts because um Miss maton shared them with you just wanted to point out the salaries you can see immediately that the salaries in 2024 were 185 million in comparison to salaries in 2023 of 178 million so you can see clearly about a $7 million increase in salaries you can also see that it's a little bit harder on the benefit side when you have salary increases you have increases in benefits but because again of that Arizona State Retirement prepay um it shows the benefits are quite significantly higher in 2023 than in 2024 everything else is stayed about the same I do have one question going back to preschool when the state funds us for preschool that's just for those um special needs preschool students like language delayed or that's correct it's not every preschool student we don't fund preschool across the board um parents are paying for just the typical student to attend preschool that's correct and our preschool programs are within our community ed program yes so so yeah so um always wanted to share the the local districts beginning an average teacher salary I don't have the 2024 data um I will have it after tonight as everyone in our peer group uh submits their AFR so then I'll have the data um but so I I just chose to use last year's data to show this comparison so you can see that Gilbert we are not the highest in in terms of starting salary but we are definitely within the mix and then you can see that when we look at our average salary again we're also not the highest but we're definitely within the mix so therefore we believe that the override award has been able to allow us to to improve our competitiveness within the East Valley and then this is just an example so since the uh since the 15% override or since November of 19 the beginning teacher salary has increased by $10,000 so we have used the dollars as we intended uh finally to talk a little bit about class sizes so there are planning ratios I shared a little bit about that um I received all this information from Jason Martin and from uh Sean Macintosh so you can see that these are our planning ratios um if if a classroom approaches any of these limits at that point in time we may split uh depending upon the circumstances we may add another teacher and split the class uh what happens um most often because school is often already in session uh we would add instructional assistants to provide support for those larger classrooms but the good news is that when we actually looked at the averages you can see that they are lower than those allocation formulas so kindergarten is 25 to1 versus TW just under 21 um and you can see even in sixth grade the allocation formula is 34 but they're down to 26.5 this is average there's no question that there are highs and lows throughout the school district so there might be some that are higher or lower um but we have um taken this whole class size uh conversation to hard as well and done what we've can to to bring the class sizes down doesn't this also depend on the school I mean if you have a certain number of students at one school um sometimes it might be a little hard to divide into those smaller classes other times it it might be possible um and that's true and but if we're approaching 36 students in a sixth grade class and our allocation formula is 34 um yeah I mean there's a a lot of conversation regarding should we had another teacher now we have a sixth grade classroom that's only got 18 or 19 students in it um but those conversations are had regularly in the fall there would be situations like if if we want we needed to break a section and we didn't have the physical space to do it we would look at things like okay well can we put art on a cart in order to reduce a drastic number like that and we've done that in years past we really haven't had to do a lot of that in recent years so okay all right thank you but you're right at Greenfield Elementary as an example they might have five sections so if they have each section approaching 30 it would be probably an easy decision to add a teacher to bring them all down to 25 as an example yeah whereas a smaller school like Gilbert Elementary it would be more difficult to do that okay thank you so secondary class sizes so just a reminder secondary is 7 through 12 um so the allocation is on a student teacher ratio of 31 students per teacher and I I meant to make this clear on the elementary as well please know that those are regular education classrooms with regular education students again these allocations are made considering them only special education allocations of staff are done separately through the special education department so these are pure classroom uh student teacher ratios so the actual average class size for the 24 school year in junior high was about 25.2 and the average in the high school is 24.6 again averages don't tell the story so we wanted to share an example in our Comprehensive High Schools we have marching band in one of our classes that have 111 kids in it right versus a calculus one of the highest math classes that are taught here in Gilbert Public Schools they have 10 so that's a pretty pretty disparate range um so averages don't tell the whole story don't want to to say that there aren't freshman or sophomore classes English or math um that are exceeding 30 students so this is just averaging at out over the school district okay so class size reduction targets we uh did not quite allocate out the full $2 million but you can see how we allocated it out and again we are addressing it K12 based upon the greatest need and you can see that we added about 15.5 FTE teachers um to shore up that that class size reduction effort okay so now um going through the general obligation Bond so um I wanted to just preface this by letting you know that we are closing out this authorization we have been uh spent spent down on the 2015 authorization for um about a year now and now we are we we are sharing with you that we are fully spent on November of 2019 so remember that we do have some encumbrance and planed spend in the current year which we will share with you monthly on the monthly financial report um but this the intent of this presentation is to close out the 2019 Bond Authority so this will be the last report that we will be obligated to to provide to you um uh and meet the the uh statute requirement okay and also as we go through some of these um you can actually go uh chart happy and you could create five million slices associated with how you wanted to present the data I'm not going to share the details of all of these um of all these charts with you I'm just going to go through them fairly quickly uh just so you know that they're there and if you have any constituents that are looking for data by school how much have you spent at a bond at Settler's Point or how much have you spent at Highland High it's very easy to pull that data we have it all aggregated um and we can put put together any kind of presentation uh whoever is interested in seeing them okay so um at the highest level we're just shairing this is what we estimated that we were going to spend the 2019 Bond proceeds on and you can see the years Etc when we were expecting to um to uh spend them um we went ahead and and took a look at how we spent the 2019 authority to include our projected spend in the current year and how how things changed slightly so you can see first of we never anticipated a cost of issuance so there's a little bit of cost of issuance about $400,000 you can see that we anticipated a $10 million spend in security the security project the security camera project came under that uh technology was a little bit less than we had estimated and then Transportation was also a little bit less than we anticipated but facilities renewal was more than we anticipated so you I think you've seen on our monthly reports where we've done some transfers toy try to shore up the facili renewal um amounts so I'm only sharing this is because that's the amount you can see the cost of issuance is about $460,000 and you can see where facilities renewal we anticipated 66.6 million and we actually have spent or encumbered 69.2 million so that is roughly a a $3 million Delta we are allowed by Statute to have a 10% variance in what's in our pamphlet 10% of $100 million would be uh $10 million so $3 million is well within that 10% limit so we are in compliance with those requirements and expectations well I can think one of the um unexpected expenses that we had on facility renewal was when Greenfield Junior High lost their HVAC system yeah and had no air conditioning what are some other examples of things that came up unexpectedly well um I'm not I think we were putting our best foot forward back in November of 2019 regarding what we anticipated okay um but now we have way more visibility uh you approved the purchase of the of the asset planner that's allow allowing us to maintain our facilities and add data Every Time We Touch them uh to make sure that we have an ongoing record so as we move out you know in a few years of making potentially another request for Bond authorization we would be very specific about the things that we need because we have it outlined and identified already okay good to know thank you well I think also we could not have anticipated the inflation costs of every single building project that's true too the materials that's true too astronomical inflationary costs that went into those things as well so that's true and the final thing the note at the bottom um so during 24 um about $26 million was spent out of bond and about $20 million out of unrestricted Capital so a full spend about 46 million dollar and I'm only sharing this information with you because we and the finance office have been getting a lot of questions regarding regarding how we're funded why are we requesting an override why can't we live within our means um all of those types of questions and so so that's been we if we if we had $46 million ongoing every year we would be able to um meet our obligations for both our ongoing unrestricted Capital needs which should include software our computer refreshes um all that along with anything that could go out like Greenfield Junior's HVAC equipment as an example right so and so so doing I took a look at the dollar amounts for for Capital that Charter Schools receive in comparison to school districts so if we were to have the same dollar amount per student that Charter Schools receive for their Capital we would have received revenue of 68.7 million during 2024 so that would have been more than enough to be able to meet our ongoing Capital needs here in Gilbert Public School so you know when I share this too uh to constituents they said well why is that well back in the early 2000s Charter Schools were receiving about the same amount of money per student that district schools were receiving but they didn't have access to go out and ask for an override or a ask for a bond at that point in time the legislature felt like well we wanted to create a Level Playing Field and allow them an opportunity to do that so that's the the rationale has since kind of turned around and it's it's probably a Level Playing F field on the other side now um where where school districts are at risk because we are obligated to go out and ask for additional funding every five years for um for an override and and then whenever we think we really need it for a bond so so the difference is is that they don't have to ask for it correct we have to ask for it that's correct via the voters that's correct that's correct and partly because they don't have well I mean we've gone away from boundar schools more but because they don't have a specific boundary for a charter school it makes a little more difficult for them to do that but um I wanted to also mention that's guaranteed money every year because so that dollar amount would come out of the state also the charter additional assistance had inflation added to it true which helped it to grow over time where the District additional assistance has not had inflation added the occasionally the governor like Governor Hobs has added inflation for that but it's not a guarantee um and that was the lawsuit that prop 123 was supposed to resolve so that's correct can I just add something I apologize about my voice again I think it's good to distinguish that charter schools actually also get bonds they just go through private Equity they still have to be paid back by taxpayer money um not by taxpayer or not well yeah I mean they they have to they have to pay their Debt Service out of their maintenance and operations budget which is funded which is funded from the state which includes all of this which is still taxpayers money it's still taxpayers money you're correct that's true but they don't have to go to the public to ask for them they just get to scirt around and go to private Equity so Charter Schools still do receive bonds just as the public schools ask for them also I they just don't have to ask for the authority they're making their own decision to a lot of people don't understand the charter schools also receive bonds it's just from a different source and they still have to be paid back through State funds which is still taxpayers money that's true thanks ask they do have to ask their boards yeah they that's boards yes but it's much different to just ask a board than to ask the whole community so so um so again this is what I prefaced before we began about the fact that there are so many ways to slice and dice the data when it comes to uh our bond spend and because we are closing out the the 2019 Bond I thought I should I thought I should at least show you some examples of how we spent the full $100 million so to begin um these are the all the bond spend categories cost of issuance security mechanical grounds and structural um so and I'm missing techology it's in there I just have must have fallen off sorry about that I will correct that um so the total Authority is 100 million and the total spend was 100 million so we absolutely received all of the uh Bond Authority and we have spent it all um to include the cost of issuance uh this is the bond spend by fiscal year you can see that in 2023 was the greatest spend about $18.7 million and in 2025 as we're as we're um winding down the spend it's just under 2 million if we go back to that previous uh graph um I don't I think the technology might be the dark blue because you don't have that on your um so that's the technology yeah okay thank you it's about 9 million okay thank you but still I I will make sure it's clear okay um and then the total school facility Bond spend by category and then the decade of construction so again this is an indicator of how old our buildings are and how many so in most of our buildings were built between 1990 and 2000 that explains the large spend in that grouping um in the building between 1950 and 1960 is Gilbert Elementary so it's only one school um so keep that in mind as you're looking at this and then the various category is all the district wides spin like the network refresh and all of the audio visual refresh fresh refreshes that hit every single school so that all that is still at our schools it's just um identified a little bit differently and then this is just by grade level again you would expect that Elementary would have the largest spend because there are more facilities 26 facilities versus um five and six at the element at the high school and the junior high and then here's the districtwide bond spend summer this is applicable to the spend in 2024 only so this is how we spent about $26 million you can see the cost of issuance security technology transportation and facility renewal the largest piece of the pie was of course in facility renewal and with that I'm going to go right into a little bit of detail with technology um John uh actually presented Mr Castellano presented all of the details about about their technology spend uh last October most of his spend was planned for last summer and we completed the spend in the current year but there is about $7 million in the current year of Technology spend so I thought we should share um some of the spend with you really quick so we wrapped up the districtwide network refresh uh completed that project and then um I think there was just a small amount of bond that was used for for the phone system upgrade most of that was born by unrestricted Capital um but those were the two big projects that actually were completed during the 2024 school year but were started in the spring of the 23 school year and and you know I I sometimes people wonder why do we have to have all this technology well number one if we graduate students who don't know how to use technology they're not literate they can't function in this world and number two we have to be effective and function well and I know previous to this telephone replacement we'd had our telephones for 20 years and could no longer get parts and things from the previous replacement which was about 5 years ago yeah and um so we have to be able to um respond and keep up and and have technology to to be a functioning I mean sometimes they say run government like a business to function like a business we have to have technology and and be effective in what we're doing and I I think that people need to remember that that we we can't function on what we did 40 years ago it has to be updated regularly and now I'd like to bring up Mr um Alan Kae to go through the 2024 security details I'll drive for you Al all righty Dr mcord uh St board members thank you for allowing me to speak this evening um I wanted to present to you the final Bond spend for our district camera project uh as you know I've been in front of you a few times over the last few years and kind of bitter suweet that we're finally closing this project out uh but it's this was the first since I've been employed by Gilbert schools this was the first time I did a request for proposal and I'd like to say it was fun but I'd be lying um but but I learned a lot from it and uh we're finally closing the project out so this is kind of just a culmination report of where the bond money went and where we're at so now that the project is completed the entire Gilbert School District's camera project is done we have 26 elementary schools completed five Junior highs seven high schools as well as four district offices did you want to say that I'm going to skip over that so on the slides there's a couple quotes from some of our administrators and I actually have two at the end I was just going to read okay good yeah okay um presently we have 1339 cameras deployed districtwide and of those 1339 that is it uh provides us with 3,310 views and what that means is an individual camera may have four lenses on it so that camera could potentially have four views that's why there's far more views than actual cameras okay um all as you may know all of our cameras are visible by the administrators at that campus and all cameras districtwide feed to our office which is overviewed by our security operations center or sock as we refer to it as that sock is now staffed from 9:30 or during all school hours and also from 9:30 p.m.

e e good [Music] evening I'd like to call this meeting to order Mrs Richards may I have roll call please thank you president Anderson let the record show all five board members are present thank you please join me in a moment of silence followed by the Pledge of Allegiance e I motion that we approve the agenda an a seconded all those in favor I motion carries 5 to Z okay okay Mrs Richards and the upcoming events um we're looking forward to our visit to Cortina Elementary that will be on Thursday October 24th we also have a parent event it is a drug Trends um I've got different stuff here drug Trends district office Board Room that will occur on the 24th also there is another board business meeting on October 29th and everybody's anticipating election day on November 5th that says bullying prevention and my notes say drug Trends Miss Miller it's bullying rather than drug trends for the uh there's a typo on here or something because I've got drug Trends district office boardroom October 24th and up there we have I believe it is bullying prevention for parents and students that's good what's up here is correct what I said is not thank you thank you for the clarification yes okay next is the public hearing we will now move to a public heing for an update on the current maintenance and operation override with Mr Moore good evening president Anderson members of the board uh tonight I'll be presenting our annual override report for fiscal year 2024 just a reminder what is this override report this override report is a requirement by the Arizona revive statute 15- 481 y I'm not going to read through that whole thing but essentially what it states is uh the district's obligated to present uh in a public form how the district spent its override if it does have a voter approv override or Bond uh currently we do not have any bond funds remaining so we had no bond expenditures for 24 but we do have a voter approv override so that is what I'll be presenting tonight that report needs to be presented between September 1st and October 31st um this board meeting is the uh we can present that um and so I will go into how we spent that override in 2024 first I want to remind the board um this override was passed by voters in 2019 the override was passed uh to allocate additional resources to these six bullet points uh the first one increased teacher compensation second one maintain and improve Elementary specials such as Arts music PE and Athletics the third bullet provides Staffing to maintain average class sizes four supports gifted special education and all day kindergarten and lastly provide educational resources for a lot of those programs looking at how the override expenditures took place in fiscal year 24 this is again last fiscal year um the override totaled an additional $13.8 million uh in additional M capacity for the district majority that money was utilized to uh maintain and increased teacher compensation uh second maintain and improve Elementary specials uh third was maintaining average class sizes and then last two supporting gifted sped all day kindergarten and provided educational resources to the classroom in addition uh this year the board approved our fy2 budget within that budget um we the board approved our estimated override amount in the amount of 14.1 million just a reminder uh here's a little history in timeline of our current override and and what voters have approved in the past um so Higley has a a history of passing overrides back to 20 2003 excuse me at that time it was a 10% override That Was Then renewed in 2008 um at that but this was um in 2012 and 2013 that uh did fail the uh District did bring back uh override in 2015 in that past and then the district renew that in 2019 So currently we're operating under that 2019 renewal uh just a timeline um the emino override is a seven-year authorization but only five years of fully funded uh this is our last year of our fully funded override from the 2019 renewal again that Financial implication as I just highlighted in the last slide was about about just over $14 million in additional M budget capacity that that's providing the district um the board did approve a resolution to put uh the renewal of this override on the ballot this November um so year six will look a little different depending how that election turns out if that election does not pass uh we'll need to move into what they call the phase down a reduction year so year six and seven of the override include a phase down approach um that uh amount and of reduction is outlined in statute so that first year would be a 33% reduction and I've earmarked what what that estimated would uh approximately would be it' be about 4.6 million we would have to reduce out of our budget if the district or board did not uh choose to go out for uh an override renewal after year six uh we would go then proceed into year seven and that would be a 67% reduction of this 2019 override which would equate to about $9.4 million reduction in M budget capacity and then ultimately year year eight would be the full um elimination of the semino override and with that it's a brief presentation um but that if there's any questions I'll be happy to answering no questions or comments from the board okay um I'm sorry yeah I was to say thank you um so we're gonna open it up to the public for public comments regarding the current maintenance and operation override but I want to read a statement before we begin the district is prohibited under state law from using public resources to influ influence the outcome of an election accordingly we ask that all speakers refrain from discussing candidates or issues that will U that will present in the upcoming election and it's now open for anybody from the public that would like to make a comment okay we will now reconvene an open session moving on to the consent agenda I motion to approve consent agenda items 5.1 to 5.11 second Amanda seconded all those in favor I I I motion carries 5 to zero okay moving on to our information items with beginning with 6.1 the annual financial report for fiscal year 2024 we'll go back to Mr Moore for the presentation thank you board president Anderson members of the board in kind of tagging along to the override report um we are also um on the agenda is the 2024 annual financial report this is a summary of all our expenditures for last fiscal year so what is the AFR again like I said this is a expenditure report required by the auditor general that's a summary of all our expenditures for fiscal 24 it encompasses five plus reports we did actually get a report off the list this year which is rare but the results based funding um as you know last legislative cycle was decommissioned and then put into um the operating budget um that results based funding was incentives for um High letter grades and test scores um but that now was distributed um across the maintenance and operations fund as a whole so that report is not required anymore um which is nice because we have a lot of reports that we do um this report encompasses over 182 million in total expenditures and again that's all funds uh not just maintenance and operations in capital and also uh 353,000 accounting transactions and so um this is my one time to give kudos to my team I get the pleasure of presenting this information but we have a finance team that really um looks at every single one of those transactions and make sure they're in alignment with state law and uh I I do give them Kudos because they're a great team um and I just get the liberty of presenting this information so we'll dive into the report um a part of submitting this annual financial report uh this report is used by the auditor general uh to create the classroom spending report this classroom spending report will come to you in November from the auditor general but I did I took the liberty of presenting what that may look like and when you get that report um classroom spending um or instructional spending represents um majority of our spending which as it should we are instructional institution um and I'll go through a little bit of these on the next slide but um this pyap was just a kind of visual representation looking at the specific numbers in a more graph form um I'll go line by line on how the district uh spent or how the total expenditures aligned into these categories that and these categories are assigned by the auditor general and so um I'm not making these categories up I'm just showing you how they're going to present the information as well so looking at the first line classroom um from prior to this year that down 3.8% we did have a board member asked questions on why that was down the main reason in declin is in 2023 uh the district adopted uh science curriculum uh for 2 .7 million that curriculum is in is expended from that classroom kind of category uh so when you take that out in 2024 you're going to see a reduction in classroom or instructional spending um those adoption Cycles right are are not annually but they they um happen year um on a five to seven year cycle so we'll see that fluctuate that's that's rather normal looking at instructional support this category compasses our Librarians teacher training curriculum Development Special Education media Specialists Etc uh there was a slight decline in that a lot of that was because in 2023 uh the distri utilized Co relief funds for retention siphons those retention siphons were expenditures across all these categories because we have employee Personnel that work in all these categories um so that small decrease was because in 24 as these Co relief funds are expiring those retention cment were not offered in 24 um so you'll see a net decrease that's going to come across the board in all these categories but that was the main reason that category uh saw a decrease from prior year looking at student support just for a reminder this encompasses our counselors uh speech pathologists nurses social workers and attendance Services there was a slight increase from last year just so we saw uh increases in group b weight so our sped students um and so the proportionally you'll see increases in costs Administration we saw an increase of 6% from 2023 to 24 again this was asked um in our board questions um a majority of this increase this is the largest turnover in administration the district's had in a long time a lot of our administration were tene employees uh they had a lot of time that that was owed to them uh we do have board policy that state that outlines how the district pays out vacation and sick leave and so um a lot of those tender administrators um were paid out for their leave as they either left or uh retired from the district so that was a that was a large cost I anticipate that coming um that percentage swinging back the other way next year um but again this this report is a snapshot of that year um and if you look at the averages we're still well below administrative spending um compared to our peer groups which are North at 12% looking at plant um plant encompasses a lot of our maintenance equipment repair Building Maintenance custodial Services grounds keeping Etc it also includes property insurance um we see our insurance rates are are skyrocketing um from year to year that's a f a function of not only we have we've had losses but a function of the reinsurance market in addition uh utilities are also paid from this category uh utility rates the town of gero just increased drastically um we're this 24 would have been year two of two of that increase which saw a 50% increase in utilities so naturally uh you're going to see more expenditures from there as those um costs increase and the district's obligated to pay those so Transportation a very small increase there um also results can really pick out a specific thing um it's just increased cost of a lot of the services that we typically do inflation um a lot of the repairs that we make on buses fuel costs um there was just slight increases across the board uh which resulted in that small increase with food service um we have uh a lot of our costs coming back um from the co era so when everything was free in 22 you'll see that 5.4% uh 22 and 21 there was a a portion of time when that was all free and so every single meal uh was was basically if a student wanted one they was free and so we were reimbursed for all those meals but we also paid for all those meals um those um subsidies ads offering still some subsidies for for free meals um we're also utilizing a lot of their fresh fruit and vegetable programs and stuff like that that are increasing cost but these are again the costs are associated with students using these services so um we're seeing a lot more um meals served breakfast is served in that program which would increase cost looking at our budget control funds versus cash control funds I'm my first touch on our budget controlled funds um these are our main our main players our M maintenance operations budget and our Capital outlay um our federal and state grants just a footnote are are also um technically budget controlled we do get um those budgets based on ADM or free to reduce percentage and so um that's why those are listed I won't I won't dive into those details but I just wanted to footnote that looking at the maintenance and operations budget and it's budget balance carry forward over the last five fiscal years um I've not shied away of how the district used Co Rel funding um and you can see from 2020 to 2023 the district um received just over $20 million in Co relief funds and with um the board you know voting to go back into session we we had very limited Mass reductions we didn't use a lot of that covid relief money um for for a lot of those causes rather we um spent money for retention sement salaries um and supplemented some of our operational costs in that in those time periods um that created a budget balance carry forward uh which balloon from again 2020 to 2023 as those relief funds are expiring we're going to start to see this budget bounce faer forward decline um you can see that uh starting in 24 as we are now coming down from 25 million to 23 million which is down 3% from prior year and represents approximately 18% of our of our budget which is still really healthy um I know the board member re has um seen this uh budget balance fluctuate over years um and has been an adant component of being conservative we are still very conservative and have a healthy Reserve at this point in time looking at the capital budget uh this graph is a little crazy um but I felt it was kind of important to highlight these four points because our capital budget has been used um probably different than maybe other districts in the sense that um on the first line looking at the graph we have a our state allocated capital budget and so you can see from the last five fiscal years from 2020 um that capital budget was just fully being um reinstated in ter in terms of full funding from 2020 to 2023 um you can see that state allocated capital budget was was minus School compared to what it was today I do want to footnote though on 24 um the 11 million there was 3 million of a one-time uh supplemental funding and the district appropriated that to Capital funding so we'll see 3 million reduced in 25 um but we appropriated that 3 million additional Capital funding or budget capacity to Capital uh for projects looking at prior your carry forward um that amount uh in previous years has been relatively High um it has been a goal of myself and our our maintenance department to work to prioritize projects and and spend some of that money down because um it does no good sitting in in account so we've allocated that to projects we've made um extremely Headway on on trying to uh repair um fix a lot of our issues and be Mak some preventative uh expenditures to our hbac and a lot of our um operational areas um so that that is going to continue to go down you'll see that after fiscal 25 drastically decrease um as what was approved in the board budget for f25 was uh carrying over $2 million so um we are using those funds for our needs um but at some point we we will run out of carry forward and will be then U relegated to our state allocated budget our M transfer again this is a area I wanted to highlight because I feel like this district has used that in different capacities uh versus maybe another District so we've utilized the M transfer to Capital to fund uh major projects um again as the the bond expired from 2013 um we still had a lot of capital needs again and so we've been transferring M dollars to Capital to fund those needs um as approved in 25 you know we are now just transferring the the the basic cost for our Middle School lease which is 3.5 million so again we are utilizing our Capital funding um for our projects and our needs and um you're going to start to see that um lower and in Decline uh as as we're spending those dollars and then the last line really highlights that what have been emphasizing is we're spending our Capital dollars on our needs and from 2020 to 2024 um over the last two fiscal years we spent $ 38 million or $38 million um trying to address our our our Capital our buildings um and projects so um we are putting U money back into our schools but again that will that's only going to go so far and so uh we'll see that in 25 um drastically come to a a lower um expenditure amount um but and then I just want a footnote on top in 23 and 24 a lot of those big expenditures were for the Higley High building in addition um we that the williamsfield uh field and track uh were also expended in 24 all right and cash controlled funds um just a footnote these are not derived from the state these are these are revenues that the district has brought in and then expended out and so these are um completely um um supported by just the revenues the district brings in in the the budget that they that roll over from year to year looking at the the four major funds we look at Food Service again from 21 to 24 when um everything was free we saw a drastic increase in expenditures and and sub sequential reimbursements from the federal government um so that fund has increased in addition in 23 ad had an interpretation on how the district um if you're contracted Food Service you can only transfer $25,000 to indirect cost previously it was up to 25% of your total expenditures which was equated to about $ 750,000 800,000 so we saw a drastic change in how they allowed us to utilize those funds which now is causing that balance to balloon a little uh unfortunately we we do have a capital plan to continue to replace um food service equipment uh I know Mr Dolan's here we have a whole new serving line coming at williamsfield um we've done a lot of serving lines at other districts we're addressing um our walk-in coolers and freezers but there's only so many times you can replace those those um those pieces of equipment and so I'm personally working with ad to try to get a different interpretation on on the if you're contracted Food Service on why we can't transfer additional dollars to support our op you know the operational needs um contacted food services using the same indirect areas as a self op program would be and so um they're still using the same electricity the same water um and so I'm working on that but until then um that fund is pretty restrictive we can only use that towards food service operations so um we'll continue to get creative and and try to leverage those dollars to enhance those areas and then that program and Civic Center that is um the proper term but that actually is our rental account um we've had a goal of of getting a fund balance to 750,000 we've rebuilt this account um we've established a new um rental system fmx um we've created new agreements with a lot of our renters um that align with our approved rental fees and so um we've seen an increase in revenue and so we're going to start to leverage that fund and put that back into those heavily rented areas and maintain them or enhance them uh so they can continue to be rented Community Schools uh that encompasses both the preschool program and the before and after school program um that those two uh programs are combined to what we call Community Schools um over the last three years um Community Schools was eligible for a lot of Co relief grants um I see Miss Reese nodding um so they they they were able to leverage a lot of that to rebuild their fund balance um we have had a goal and we still have a goal of getting a one year's Reserve their annual expenditures are are North as $6 million and so um having an annual Reserve to to cover costs in case of any instance again this is a cash controlled fund we're completely dependent on what money we bring in um and so we still have some work to do there um we are we do have a future presentation to talk about um our rates and how we continue to uh continue to build that program um we did see a net loss from 23 to for um and again I think we have a future presentation uh with Mr Armstrong and community and preschool will be there as well to talk about that and how we're going to move forward with um continuing to to build a fund balance to support that program both programs indirect costs um this is a account that we um collect and we can charge back to Grants um for the operational overhead to administer those grants um so my entire staff is paid from indirect costs um that's about 560,000 annually um the reason this account has again increased drastically over the years is we've leveraged um a lot of the co relief grants have had a percentage um that we can charge back indirect costs from those grants uh we've had we've utilized that we've charged a lot of these Co relief grants indirect cost because we do have a lot of people administering these including Miss Garland who's here tonight um m entire staff you know there's a lot of reports that we do um to make sure that we're in Alliance with the federal guidelines um so that account while it looks high right now it's going to it's going to see a drastic decrease over the next couple years as we um continue to support a number of staff from that fund um which is good because it saves operational dollars from M and then just a footnote on top um all our site cash funds so that includes like auxiliary operations extracurricular activities Student Activities um all my team does is really account for those those funds are all held and and managed with the sites and their and their clubs um and so that's why those those cash funds are not included because they're really 100% site driven student Le and and student owned um we just are responsible for making sure they're accounted properly and uh deposited within our our County treasure so some of I have three key takeaways uh kind from the Ana financial report and kind of fiscal 24 in a whole um one our our budget balance is is decreasing and so there there was a board question on on do we have a ending budget balance policy to adopt or in future or do you have draft language I do have a draft language that I would like to bring to the board and and have an information session to review um I feel coming um creating a policy would be uh transparent in the sense that both the board has uh a number or a percentage or some Avenue in which to make sure that the district stays in alignment with and that we also have that same Target so we can we can one work towards that Target and and everybody in the community knows this is a a board approved um fund balance that that we strive to to get to so um I feel that's a that's going to be an important policy or or something the board should consider as we work through a lot of these Co relief funds falling off and we work into um potentially you know um depending on the election on what the district is going to do in the future with these fund balances um and this it kind of um uh balances off the first note but the evaluating future cash balance funds so one emphasis is the community education preschool as I just mentioned we saw a drastic decrease in in their ending fund balance um so we need to I think it' be prud to review and possibly discuss increase in tuition pricing as we've seen expenditures and costs in those programs Rise um again I think we have a future agenda item on the next board meeting to to discuss that in an information session and then declining capital budget so future Capital expenses uh will be drastically limited um unless it is Capital funds become available um we're still working hard to address um and try to reach out for Grants from the school facilities board um I do have a capital update kind of a um construction update at the next board meeting where I'll highlight a lot of the grants that we've we've tried for um a lot of the grants that we have pending um for to try to supplement and and support our Capital needs um as we as as some of this fund balance starts to go away so with that I'll be happy to answer any questions president Anderson Mr Moore um I did ask um as far as our uh classroom spending uh going down um and I was wondering if you have an idea um what we can expect for classroom spending to be um in 25 I it's we're only 3 months into the school year I think um and we have we have budgeted um an adoption that uh for ELA tentatively um but again like a lot of our plants and expenditures it's it's it's too soon to to really know how we are trending um some expenditures for us are front loaded the early months of July as construction takes place so if I pulled the report now you would see School Plant heavily inflated um while a lot of our classroom spending catches up throughout the year um so I don't have an indication on how we're how we're going to trend for 25 until we get to the second half of the Year probably closer to Spring do you expect that um we can see more spending going towards the classroom um I know it's you know predicting but um I just my concern is classroom spending is going down and I know you said you know it's due to um curriculum um but I would like to see more funding going to to the classroom um for instruction for um teacher salaries um and and you know I discussed this when we voted um for the bond and override but I just I want to ensure that because right now you know yes Administration is up um due to uh salaries and retirements and things like that um but when you look at I pulled a bunch of reports and um so from 2023 24 to 24 to 25 our teachers went from our our student enrollment is down um but our teachers went from 700 to 732 so we increased by 32 teachers um our our Administration has stayed flat by 42 yet um there is that increase so um and then we're you know not only Administration but we're also seeing extra dollars going going towards buildings um and so I would like to be um be able to see those dollars going into the classroom because that is a major concern for community members um they want to see our teachers paid well and they want to see money spent on instruction um and for the people that I've talked to it's you know it's a matter of seeing educated students versus shiny new buildings um but just looking I and I compared it to Mesa Gilbert and Queen Creek um and as far as our teacher salaries um we are I believe um in third place um at about 64,000 and I understand that that's probably due to hiring um less experienced teachers um but the average turn your mic on sorry is your is that 65,000 the average it is it's the average 2025 salary we're looking at about 645 compared to Mesa um being at 666 and Gilbert being the highest at um so I would like to see that um and then you mentioned on page six of the presentation the carry forward um um I I looked at 25 so 25 looks like um the m is forecasted at 28 million and you mentioned that the capital um the reduction in the the 3 million is it because it was moved from Capital to and0 or or is that the the three additional million will move to Capital capital or maybe I'm mixing that number up well this report summarizes fiscal 24 and back so where did you see fiscal 25 um not 25 I'm sorry it's in the presentation on page six you mentioned um Carry forward reduced by 3 million and I'm wondering if that's because it's going to the dollars are going to be moved to Capital maybe maybe you can answer your question I'm not sure how to answer I I mean this is our budget balance car for M from 23 to 24 I don't that reduction is due to expenditures I understand but um I'm just curious to know is it 3 million or is it 3% 3% is what I yeah the the dollar amount from that is not 3 million it's just under 3 million um on the slide it's 3% from 25 to 23 million that's a 3% reduction okay sorry for the confusion it's okay um and then page seven 3 million to Capital um or M soor the state allocated capital budget is inflated by $3 million the FY 24 legislation had an appropriation of additional one-time supplemental funding and during the budget process we allocated that onetime supplemental funding to the capital budget which is why you see $1 million in the state allocated capital budget all our annual capital budget is um 3 million less than that okay sorry just reading my notes here and I do appreciate the fact that um you mentioned that um you guys are using those indirect funds um from the the cash funds um in order to save money um from the M budget so I I do like seeing that that we're utilizing it where we can um and then as far as the Community Schools fund so um any portion of that if needed um can be transferred to M correct those aren't yeah but as I stated their annual expenditures are6 million just over $6 million and so they ended the year with $2.6 million but coming into this year they don't even have enough money to to to fund out a whole year if they if the revenue completely stopped um and so one of our goals is to get that to one year's balance to make sure they are self sustainable um and the district doesn't have to come in and supplant that program with M dollars um I think a couple of board members were on here in the past and the in the program in the past has run in the negative and the district has had to supplement that program with M dollars which then hurts our ability to spend that money in the classroom or other um initiatives for the district so uh that particular program we are working hard to to build that fund balance to one year's balance to again to support that minimally fund that program for one year after that fund balance is built to 6 million we can certainly look at transferring that money to help um to ml to then um put back into the classroom as you stated earlier so um I know Miss ohanyan and our new preschool director are working hard to um modify those programs and I know they have an important presentation they they want to bring to you at the next meeting to discuss that further so great thank you one more thing before I stop I think I'm good president Anderson oh sorry um Mr War um I know we've always been talked about negative with the with the preschools and we want to hire certified teachers and still provide lowc cost so um I'm glad that there's a way that we're working to be able to to change that you said there was a presentation coming is that okay yeah so we have an information presentation at the next board meeting I may be cheating and letting know but um we know this is a priority for the sik um we've been we've been working in monitoring it um we just wanted to give our new preschool director some time to evaluate the program um because Miss Gleason was here for 10 years and so yes um you know give a fresh out of eyes on it and and give her time to formulate some plans for the future um before we brought those to the board but uh yeah we do have some ideas on on ways to change or refresh the program and potentially make that a little more profitable to then help the district uh in future years um so yeah I know it's been a concern for the board in the past with the preschool so I appreciate that thank you president Anderson um Mr Mor can correct me if I'm summarizing this inaccurately from what I take about this um part of the reason that we have been able to do some of the great things that we've done in the past years with respect to teacher salaries uh for example um is because you as well as District individuals were quite responsible with our Co relief funds and how we've managed to use them and when we talk about the importance of looking to you know mno override and how things can continue in the Future Part of That necessity currently of what we see on the immediate Horizon for us starting you know next year and the year after and so forth um is because we no longer have access to those same type of funds so we got balloon payments if you will are different grants to handle and manage some of these things and much credit to all of you because I was not on the board for this but how you manage things appropriately considering we know that some other neighboring districts haven't always made the same decisions and so they're experiencing some of the hardships currently that we're kind of battling if you will um and so I just want to make sure I'm clear and understanding part of the the importance of how we look to coming years with respect to our finances and the needs for our community to look at what is important is because these funds that were aail able during this time frame that we have used to the best of our ability are no longer going to be available to us and that is going to lead to us to have to get really creative if we aren't capable of renewing uh the m and so forth is that correct yeah I'd say you're correct in the Assumption and yeah it's it's when you uh again we've received just over $20 million in cover funds over the last you three to four years and so an influx of50 15 to 20% of your budget is nice right and we've spent a lot of money back on retention sions and keeping our staff and and paying staff and um investing in our buildings with hbac and infrastructure which are allowable in those um Federal Federal monies but um yeah that that is now you know expiring and and we are sunsetting those those monies and so why they're nice to have we do have to create you know make some tough decisions fiscally on on how we're going to proceed forward for sure thank you uh the other thing I wish to express just because it it plays into some of the budget things that we've talked about currently um board member Van Hook you talked about the importance of classroom spending first off to be clear as a former teacher obviously I am 100% uh behind that the fact that teachers have to buy their own stuff uh is is frustrating my daughter's teacher just now ran out of white paper and used her homework on card stock and I was just like the precious value of this card stock is crazy um but I also think it is important and some community members may not be aware of this we had an uh an AC situation at williamsfield that was very difficult and as a teacher yes I care about you know materials and things in my salary absolutely important but as an individual who's had to work in a classroom in which the AC is broken uh it's risky and it's dangerous and it's not great and it is really hard to learn or do anything when you wish to you know punch people because you're really really hot and uncomfortable um and I think that matters we had a situation in which we had to look at do we close Cortina for a day and what do we do for that I think it is important for us to also keep in mind that all of these things that we've been doing are great as we move forward but we have these things that come up like all folks do everybody does and it is increasingly hot in our summers which means our systems are working far harder for longer and all of this and so I think it is important important for us as a community to kind of keep that in mind when we talk about our funds and the needs of things going forward because I mean these things will continue to happen as some of our buildings are you know it's been a while since they've been updated so I appreciate the uh you know the mention of that President Anderson Mr Moore we um our utilities are being paid out of which um area as I mentioned earlier this comes out of that plant category again I'm just that's the categories assigned by the auditor general and so that I'm just kind of aligning those with how we spent our money so and then what about technology depending on where that technology is administered if it's in the classroom that would be in the classroom category if that's technology to support you know this room here that would be an Administration and so it just depends on and where that technology is implemented um and I do want to mention and and we've talked about this before um and I've mentioned it many times that um when we got those Sr funds um you know those funds were also meant for HVAC repair um and I don't know how many um how many we were able to do with those funds um but they should have been used um in those areas you know where where we needed them um also we've made permanent decisions with those temporary funds such as hiring three counselors um and and now that these These funds are gone we're having to pay for those um so I want everyone to keep that in mind as well um I you know we did get a lot of money um and and these are the decisions that were made um and now going forward um where we're having to pay for for things that you know maybe could have had a different outcome um considering we knew that those funds were going to go away um and I know and I did see that we we managed to allocate um majority of those funds uh prior to them expiring and I believe we were left with about $9,400 um and as is that what we have to give back or do we still get to because that was the budget balance for the SR we we obligated all our funds down to the penny oh on the um on the spending report um there was a a balance of 9,400 so that spending report from the forms the AFR forms um the the monthly Financial reports I'm sorry it looked like there was a 9400 that may have been because we just received the last reimbursements I don't know the exact date of that but all of the fund all of the funds were spent okay from Sr 3 yeah it's um line 24 it shows 948 okay um sorry let me look back at my notes here um and do you know what the um I I know have we reached the 100th day of school yet um do we have an idea of where we're at with um with ADM uh 40 days do we have a 40th Day number I I believe we I mean ADM as we trending right now we're seeing a slight decline as projected but um we can certainly come back with a a board agenda to talk about ADM if You' like um yeah I just because I I pulled the numbers I was just curious of where we're at um when we're looking at enrollment um because that that's part of my concern is you know enrollments down teachers are up um salaries to the classroom is down uh not salaries spending to the classroom is down but up on buildings and administration so um so I'd love to be able to get that number um from you uh so maybe next meeting um we can definitely discuss that that'd be great you can do a status update as well yeah Vice President Van Hook Marcus Burk shers in here and he's in charge of student information and data so I bet he could help us get that in status for you guys to see where we are great thank you so much sorry board member Anderson was last thing just to I apologize um when it comes to things like classroom spending right I think it is important to notice when you look back how year toe that it can change because I think while yes enrollment is down and I think that is important that is a national issue it's not just an our issue um and I think that matters and a lot of times what happens too is you see lower and enrollment in elementary and middle and then we catch them back when they come to high school um and so that's why some of the needs of our high schools have are at capacity or Beyond capacity for some of the things that they can function for example williamsfield parking situation that's led us to going to other places um so I I do think it is important to to keep in mind how these things affect from year to year and kind of what those things are happening because I feel like the the depiction that you know we're just spending in the areas but we don't have the same needs um is is not necessarily the most clear picture of what is or is not happening from from year to year especially when we have to update curriculum or how those funds come and because we know we have a curriculum update and it is going to cost a couple million dollars we have to budget appropriately that year and so I do think it is important to keep in mind Beyond just a singular year because we plan ahead uh and we know what what to look for that we as people do in general budget accordingly understanding this year might look a little bit tight and that year might be a little bit different so thanks president Anderson Mr Moore can you clarify um is it that we spent less in fiscal year 24 in the classroom or is it that we spent more because of the adoption in fiscal 23 because I don't know that saying I get the numbers but I don't know that saying that classroom spending is down so outside of the adoption is the adoption what inflated fiscal year 23 and it's not that we have less money than any other year going into there it's just that we had a larger expense for that or do we have less money going into for our classrooms than typical no board member re as I I answered in the the board questions too but yeah like the when you take 2.7 million in 23 you know that science adoption is all classified in classroom you immediately remove $2.7 million going into 24 um that will swing percentages the amount of money actually spent on teachers um there has been consistent raises that has gone that has consistently gone up the the dollars actually uh spent on teachers has been uh proportionate over the years um we continue to outperform our peer groups who are are in the in the neighborhood of 53.1% um and so board member Wade pointed out these percentages can fluctuate year to year based on on different needs that arise and like a science Tex adoption will will swing that 3% um in in one year so it's not that we have less money going into the classrooms it's just we had an in an infusion of more money because of the adoption correct okay thank you president Anderson Mr Moore um so full year 2023 we were at 60.1% in instructional spending um and so we're down 3.8% are you saying that that 3.8% equates to the $2.7 million for the curriculum not directly because there there's a that is the the bulk of our spending so there's a number of different things that have changed um from 23 to 24 but I'm saying that represents probably 75 80% of the 3.8% change um that 2.7 million okay and so now we're at 57.8% and our lowest fiscal year for instructional spending was in 2011 at 54.2% so we're like right in the middle between full year 2023 and our lowest point of in 20 2011 um so this is what I mean when I say I'd like to be able to see more in this area because we are getting close to that the lowest point we've ever been for the district um and then as far as um seeing higher enrollment in our high schools yes but looking at the trajectory as the kids in we and we've discussed this before as the kids in elementary get older and go into Middle School we're going to see the decline in in middle school and then when they get to high school we're going to see that decline in in high school so we can't look at it and expect that the high schools to remain at the capacity that they are right now because these kids are going to get older and get fill those classrooms and and we'll see that trajectory reduce um so I I don't believe it's fair to say that our high schools will continue to see this increase which based on our current numbers that's not accurate um and so we need to um acknowledge that um that's all we have those high school students here currently though right so I hear you in 5 years of time might those numbers change when we see through the six years of Elementary we didn't have the same you know student body but our high schools currently have students that are at a capacity that is larger class sizes this year alone I know at least at williamsfield the class sizes are a lot higher than they have been in a while um those things are happening now so I hear you but what do we do currently when that need is right in front of us for the things that exist at our our our our high school so I I think it is safe to say that in 5 years from now might we be having a different conversation for sure but until that is our reality I think it is important to keep in mind what currently is board member wait I think that might have to do with the birth rate too if we can convince people to have more babies as well so um and we do um board member band we get them back in high school which we've said a couple times is that they might homeschool or go to somewhere else and then they come back in high school because of our programs too so that's why it fluctuates there oh sorry it's hard to see whenever we're stuck to these categories where the spending is going right so we've got increases in student support what does that mean does that mean that that's going towards some classroom supplies that's going to other things so um I think we all are here and passionate about going everything going to the students and the teachers um is there a outside of this auditor general classification and I know you have a thousand reports that you give us and forgive me if you've given us one but is there one that breaks it down a little bit more um I'm not going to say it's easier to read but so that we can just kind of see more where those that spending going is because it sounds like a lot of it we're talking about salaries and we're talking about curriculum but I know there's a lot more in between that truly is and we have that fear of okay yeah you know we have that shift in spending but that that doesn't mean that like each Department's getting less to buy supplies for for their classroom when we when we have to do our purchase orders and everything but we can we just assume or you know we have that fear of that's what's happening president Anders uh yes we are stuck to this categories unfortunately and that this prescribed by other General um as of right now I don't have another way to present that but I can certainly create a report um ultimately when November comes around the auditor general releases this report comparatively to other districts I think that's where we we shine because it highlights um how efficient we are in spending our resour ources um but yeah unfortunately you know I wanted to show this report it's not the greatest report but this is what is going to be public and shared throughout you know newspapers the news and so um it's I might as well share it with you and and give you a preview of how it's going to look and tell you why some of these changes have have been made um but right as of right now this is the the best report to share I mean I'll be happy to look at trying to create something else but I know you're really busy but if it's something you know you've got a weekend off and you feel like just kidding if you happen upon an easy like generate report button and it does that great but of course it just helps to provide Clarity and calm some nerves and and answer some questions that we may have um as a board are there any other questions or comments I just want to say on the plant um category then it's not the shiny new buildings also we're we're getting older as a district and so we're needing to use these funds as far as HVAC and things like that go and maintenance and everything then when we were a brand new baby District growing so that's why that one goes up I know in addition to utilities as you mentioned which continue to rise president Anderson um I will share some of the reports that I used to pull this data um as far as um teacher admin specialist numbers there's a um report called s SD um sd30 um it's on the ad website and then there's the Tei average number of years um it's the teacher experience index um that will show the experience of our teachers um and then they also have the enrollment report on the ad website site um and then also the salaries come from The District budget but the other three are on the ad website thank you okay does that conclude our discussion and comments all right let's uh let's go ahead and transition over to our work set if we could take about a five minute break for that to happen and um then we will Comm me into our work study thank thank you and thank you Mr Moore for your information e e e okay I think it's a good time to go ahead and reconvene and begin our work study and we're going to begin with 7.1 danielson's framework for uh teaching review president Anders members of the board um tonight we have the opportunity to present the review of our Danielson teaching for framework tool um using the Danielson model and Melissa Garland is going to be doing the majority of talking but before she starts I do want to give her a huge huge shout out throughout the entire implementation of our Danielson model she has been so receptive to principles to anyone that's saying hey can we try this can we add this to the online tool she's going to talk a little bit about that but she deserves a huge round of applause for all the hard work that she's done over the last couple years as we go ahead and implement this tool so if we can give her a huge round of applause all right Miss Garland all you yes no pressure I'm blushing now um so of board president Anderson governing board members um tonight I have the pleasure of giving you an overview of the Danielson framework and how it got started first off is the history um it was in the spring of 2022 when we officially decided to move to using Charlotte danielson's framework for teaching um the process of this started well before then prior to the pandemic when we heard feedback from teachers and administrators that they wanted um a better way to provide effective feedback for teachers and also for teachers to understand more clearly areas that they may need growth in or areas they're doing well in and also how that translates into um total composite scores with um at the end of the year as well so that started us on a journey that got us to 2022 during that summer we had extensive training for our current School administrators and also District administrators who um evaluated certified employees so um during the 2223 school year that was year one for us and so it was a huge learning curve um there was lots of training not only for administrators but also for for our staff as we went along during the year um the administrators um had calibration visits throughout that year we actually had um a person a representative from the um Danielson group to come and help lead those days with us which were very valuable and throughout that first year that gave us an opportunity to revisit in the spring to decide um how we wanted to move forward board and I'll go through that in just a couple of minutes um first of all an overview of the framework the framework has been around for quite some time it was developed by Charlotte Danielson well before teachers were required to be evaluated in the sense they are now where part of your evaluation is tied to pay for performance and all of that and it was developed as a way to help teachers grow and it it was also developed in the sense that it didn't matter what content or what grade level you were teaching it reflected what a teacher does every day and those activities that teachers engage in every day are found in the four domains and you all should have the smart card that's on the screen right now so those are the four domains and these are the areas in which teachers are um formally observed oberved and assigned ratings we also have walkth through um protocols that cover primarily components in domains two and three which are classroom environment that's what you see every day in a classroom as well as instruction domain one for planning and preparation that's a lot of the behind the scenes things that happen but you see the results of it when you walk into a classroom whether it's the activities that students St are doing um the types of Assessments that they're doing the engagement that all had to be part of planning and preparation and then also domain four which is professional responsibilities those are things that Encompass what teachers do every day communicating with families keeping up with grade book um reflecting on their practice and participating as a professional whether it's with their grade level their site or with District opportunities or Beyond so not only do these four domains relate to classroom teachers but the um framework for teaching also has evaluation tools for all certified employees and so it doesn't matter if you're um an a occupational therapist a physical therapist there is a form for that person and so the four domains transcend all of those positions but they they are also tailored to meet the actual responsibilities and activities that those teachers perform on a daily basis and so one of the things that we've done to continue the implementation and Mr Armstrong mentioned it a couple of minutes ago after year one we gathered feedback from all of the administrators um because they were the ones putting the time in to complete all of the walkthroughs the formal observations and also the summative um conferences at the end of the year and we took their feedback and we found out ways that we can work more efficiently but also it caters to allowing the teacher to be very active in this process so the teacher has the opportunity to give input in terms of what happens in their pre um pre-observation conference they're providing evidence of their practice they do that in the post observation conference as well and then during the observation and walkthroughs everybody gets both parties administrators and teachers get the opportunity to dialogue about what was seen and what was heard in the classrooms and all of our evidence that is collected throughout the year it maps to the summative so you can see an overall picture of everything that has happened in a walkthr in a formal questions that have been posed answers that have been provided all of that is there for our administrators and teachers to see so that they can have a conversation about where that teacher is in terms of their ratings for that observation and also ultimately overall for the year and our administrators have continued to go through um professional learning as well well and Jeff if you want to mention a little bit about that yeah and before we do that we want to talk about how impactful this tool has been before we were using a certain tool and it it provided you were teachers were evalua on domains but this is getting into the nitty-gritty of the day-to-day practices that our teachers and and staff go through so if you take a deep look at the card you have and you look at just the instructional piece we're talking how are students or teachers really communicating with students um the expect ations for learn being specific this all goes back to our strategic anchor two of Highly Effective Personnel talking about question and discussion techniques engaging students in learning using assessment and instruction and demonstrating flexibility and responsiveness that's just the instructional component that administrators have to evaluate a teacher on and th that domain in itself is very impactful when we talk about what does that dialogue look like between teacher and administrator to go ahead and continue with the with the growth of growth of the teacher the other aspect is we continue with our we did calibration visits right and that was us how are we using the tool what does that look like and is everyone kind of seeing the same thing well this year what we've done is we've now gone into what we call a team not Mr T and those guys but Academic Teams where they go ahead and they discuss a school and we have two principles here who have already gone through it at the elementary level where the principal identifies and says hey we're working on differentiated instruction we're working on question we want to look at our assessments and how teachers are performing when it comes to check for understandings and assessments in the classrooms and what we are doing now is when we do walkthroughs that's kind of our Focus area we still look at other components that the principal would like us to look at but we really dive in and say we want to see this and then we come back at the end of that visit and all the administrators get to sit down looking at the tool and say this is what I saw on the teacher this is what I think is the teacher is ranked and then we have a true dialogue just on that one component and since we we've done all three of our academic team visits this quarter or in first quarter not this quarter um and I will tell you that the conversations that are taking place among principles and and APS who are aspiring to be principles it is truly impacting think about it this way and it's okay for us to say hey we saw this but you're te the teacher could probably improve here and it's good for that administrator to say yeah we're on the right track or o Maybe maybe I need to start thinking about this um and that should we're we're doing that three times a year so we're going to have one in second quarter and we're going to start one in the third we're going to have one in the third quarter as well but the but when we talk about collaboration we talk about the continuous development it's not someone getting up there and presenting to us the best professional development is that water bottle conversation and that's what these these principles are having every time we do these 18 visits and it's been truly impactful so and that that um Mr Armstrong just mentioned also feeds into the administrator meetings so as we're planning those like the one we had today everything we're doing it aligns to what our focus is for the district which is also aligned to what does it mean for Teacher feedback and for student outcomes and so there's not anything new we're just we're refining the practice of using this instrument as well as um how it fits with everything that we're doing and with that that's it if anyone has any questions president Anderson um I have a question and I don't care who answers um I actually I'd like the look of this having had the luxury of doing what we did years ago here um because I also when I worked back here was during covid and so things were all so different during that time frame uh where I went and taught in Maryland uh made me a better teacher teacher and part of that reason is because they did more stuff like this and sat down with you in a way to give you feedback that was meaningful that uh helped me look at how I I teach in a different way for example one of the things talk about how I just moved around in the physical space um was very interesting to to be able to see some of those things one question that I do have that I think is important is what does this look like like different from an administrative perspective in terms of how many times they go into a classroom or how they use this for a brand new teacher a new hired a district or like a seasoned teacher because I'm assuming there are differences right a new teacher would definitely benefit from this in ways more frequently because you know it takes about three years to even figure out what kind of teacher you hope to be um and I'm just curious because I don't know what that looks like for us yeah so as a district our group one teachers are those teachers who are with us no matter years of experience or not you have if you're a group one you're three or years less and you get two required formal observations in which the the remember the process for this that's a pre-observation meeting a minimum of a 30 to 45 minute minimum a 35 45 minute observation where we're sitting and collecting data and then a post conference meeting and so those individuals twice a year and then our group two teachers are teachers that have more than three years experience and they it's mandated for one that meets ARS now all of our principles I will tell you all of our principles utilize this information when we have walkthroughs we have two mandated walkthroughs that are in MLP that they can utilize but we have the luxury of adding more to go ahead and utilize this tool or some things that common practice that I used to do is we when I would walk in even if it's for me to take a break from my office I would sit in there do some work listen provide feedback and then it to which domain or which component it is so it's a continuous communication of what that what the teachers are going to see by the end of the year when it comes to their Summit of evaluation or Summit of meeting President Anderson Miss Garland um my biggest um or the the most important is how this trickles down to the students and the and the student outcomes um and so can you and and thank you whoever answered all my questions about Danielson but um I I would like it if you can elaborate on um how the student outcomes are measured based on uh the professional development that the teachers are getting does that make sense do you mean professional development overall are related to the observations whatever the development that they're getting through Danielson um what are we utilizing to measure the student outcomes student well I would assume that professional development ultimately is to improve student outcome correct so the professional development that teachers receive the one thing we try to make sure we do like whatever topic it is we do align it to how it can improve their teaching performance or part of this Danielson because everything a teacher does can be found somewhere in one of these domains in terms of student outcomes um like Miss Davis can probably speak to like next week there's going to be a K2 um professional development session she is presenting on so whatever that is that present the topic of that is tied to an academic component and so she can speak to how that would relate you know in terms of the student outcomes directly but in terms of this the the whole premise of having the evaluation tool like this specific speically is that you can see what a teacher does in a classroom they are reflecting on the assessments that they give students they're looking at that that's part of this process um in a postc conference for an observation a principal will talk about how did they do on this particular standard you were working on that day they can speak to that and say how they may have changed their practice it's all about the reflection and what you're going to do to make it better if needed or realizing they got it we're moving on to something new so vice president miss Van Hook I bet Marcus Burkshire wants to say something I can tell he's like I got something to say here in terms of student performance and assessment I just wanted to check did Miss Garland answer your question actually have another question based on what she said so um so if a teacher determines that whatever they imple implemented in the class so how how did they determine that okay maybe this didn't work and I got to try something else so what is what do they utilize to measure is it student grades um or it could be it could be a grade it could be a like like an inclass like check for understanding it can be a ticket out the door whatever they're choosing to have the student do to show their learning that's what a a teacher would do in the classroom every day to determine next steps like when we look at overall student outcomes like um when we think about like our state testing and all of that that is not part of this particular thing it's just how a teacher is assessing their students on a daily basis and using those results to make the next decision for their students other the class as a whole or individual students great thank you may I add a comment sorry did interrupt um I don't well did you want I wouldn't mind a PE elaborated just a teeny bit president Anderson if you don't mind I'm so sorry I another question and didn't let you answer no that that's okay um because I'm not sure what you mean by student outcomes um so certainly as part of the evaluation process the and the the observation collection of data around teacher performance principles are going to be having those reflective conversations with teachers as to this is what I see happening in your classroom this is the evidence of what you're doing and the impact and and teachers have those conversations with princip principles on a regular basis that all goes factors into that Summit of evaluation of where they are in each of those domains related to whatever specific piece they're looking at um in terms of student outcomes tied to the teacher evaluation that's a whole bigger issue at one point the state had a state law that said that a portion of a teacher evaluation had to be tied to um pre and post test result um which became very problematic because we have pre- and post test results that are very valid and reliable in ela and math and nothing else so you had a whole group of teachers that really couldn't be evaluated on student results in a valid and reliable way and and became very inequitable in terms of how th those evaluations were done they've since changed that law we have a lot more flexibility in terms of what we consider to be that so as a district to ensure sure that we're addressing all of our students and all of our staff our that portion of the evaluation instrument is around our district letter grade uh and and that allows us to ensure that every teacher is supporting us as a district and being evaluated based on how we do as a district so hopefully that answers that that question A Little Bit Stronger yes thank you so much now I'm not sure it's been almost 10 years since I've talked in this District in District I currently work in we have a data specialist at our school and um we don't the teachers don't meet directly with the principal all the time but we meet weekly at lunch and we take our data and we share it with him which he puts into a sharable form which shows our our test results our average scores and things we and we talk about what questions what standards did they struggle with um what do we how do we plan on um addressing it it's kind of like the PLC motto as well what do we want them to learn how do we know they learn it what we they don't want to learn it right um so that's that's one way um that we assess uh student achievement but um it has also been tied to in our my district to our evaluation we would have to fill out a spreadsheet that we would upload with our evaluation instrument to show growth or our scores through our district assessments which we call benchmarks and at one point in time we were doing Galileo whenever I worked here right do y'all do you not use district testing um to look at student growth here anymore so there's a lot of research around the use of test scores and teacher Effectiveness and most of the research says the minute you tie test scores into a teacher evaluation system you add in a huge element of desire to cheat to doctor the scores pressure on teachers a and and it really turns out that it's not about learning anymore it's about getting that test score um so what we've tried to do with our benchmarks is really turn around and focus on how do we use these benchmarks to impact instruction in the classroom so so when we administer the benchmarks we're asking our teacher teams to look at items and do a strong item analysis looking into why did kids perform in a certain way on this particular item how does that relate to how I'm teaching the standard and then what am I doing in the classroom in order to adjust my instruction and looking at formative assessment results to really look at where my kids are one of the challenges right now that we have is in developing our our instructional Maps is that we don't have those common formative assessments developed yet at the district level those would allow us to do a very strong analysis of where we are in terms of teaching specific standards that are prioritized and that's on the drawing board but we want to make sure we've got good maps in place first before we start talking about those common formative assessments so at this point in time we don't have a district um data repository where we're talking about teachers that's really more at the PLC level and our site principles working with their teachers on where are your where are your students based on those benchmarks what are you doing to to adjust your instruction around that and how are you formatively assessing kids in fact uh Melissa talked earlier today about we did a principal PD with our elementary principles today was focused on assessment practices at the site and really having a dialogue about what what they do with their site uh plc's okay and that's nice and thank you for explaining that in in no way are you um going off assessing students are you all using like the act or sat um scores for uh teach evaluation either or School evaluation like we set goals for increases and scores and all that the only thing tied to teacher evaluation in terms of data is our district uh letter great very good thank you president Anderson Mr Armstrong I just have a question because you said it twice a minimum of 30 to 45 minutes what are the average sessions then they're spending observing well I can tell you minimum is 30 minutes uh I'll be honest with you I was a little stubborn and I hung out in there a little bit longer than that maybe up towards an hour um because the more data we collect the better off it is uh but I can I I mean the two principles that are sitting here and everyone else when we have these conversations 30 minutes is the bare minimum and how much do you get in a 30 minute session and so we want to be sure that we're in there either a little bit longer or throughout the year we're in there more frequently um and when we I'm going to go back to the tool I've used this tool before so I'm a little biased but the tool that we were using when it comes to true feedback and when we're talking about the continuous growth of our teachers of our Educators this is so specific to the point where during a post conference I can say I'm not going to pick on you miss SCH but miss Schultz this is the questioning this is what I saw this is where I want to improve so let's go ahead and let's dive into this and this is what I'm going to be looking at over the course of the next couple of months and that way it's much more specific rather than a general consensus of how how you're doing as an educator sorry president Anderson just to piggyback on that for for those of us who also may not be in the classroom or have classroom experience first off good Educators routinely always do formal and informal assessments routinely and assuming you're not on an island and that you're the only one who teaches that subject we give the same test we give the same quizzes we share assignments we don't necessarily always give the sh same assignments but then we can talk about how did your kids do how did my kids do what did you do why was that better Etc something that is beneficial for this because the one that we used in the past is looking at how many of my kids are performing well on this test how many didn't what steps did I do to improve them what percentage of those kids improved and that is what I got evaluated on and to Mr bur shire's Point that's not necessarily showing how I'm effective at my job if I am just improving test scores necessarily because some of these things kids are smart and they will do on their own as their brains continue develop my kid may not be able to do all the site words right now but by the time at the end of the year just from merely growing up she is now capable of doing these things and I may have not been important in that endeavor as her teacher and so what's nice about some of these these breakdowns and the different categories is if I'm a teacher who my scores and everything else look okay but yet I'm still struggling with engaging with my students and how I do that and so I I talked about how I moved in my classroom one of the things that I was talked about in Maryland he drew everywhere I went in the classroom for the entire class period and showed how I stayed in a very specific area which we all do because it's comfortable and then what he asked me to do is go look at those students who exist on one side of the classroom versus the other the side I was routinely in and see if they're performing in the same level and they weren't and it's not something I ever thought about it was no way I would have ever been able to do that just some kids don't perform as well and on my list they're alphabetical but in my classroom they're not and so being able to see some of these things is what actually makes me improve as a teacher and how we can break some of those things down and I think a lot of times we get stuck in data as that's important because that's where we get finances from that's what people tend to care about the letter grade all of that but that's not necessarily helping you to be a better teacher and so looking at this now obviously I would like to see how the teachers feel on some of these things and where their feedback is If there really was growth for them personally but looking at at this and and being a part of of what we had before and and something that was very similar to this I think it is very beneficial from both an admin perspective but from teachers to be able to figure out certain areas that I can improve on that data alone might not have given me so I I am appreciative and I look forward to seeing some of that there is one one more thing that I want to add because we need to with the Danielson um tool we received the special education component so when we go in and observe our students or our teachers of our crosscat classrooms they're using the same tool but Danielson has provided us with what it would look like in a cross-categorical classroom so that it's specific to the students disabilities and and it gives such a different input for those teachers because it I'll admit it's hard to walk into a crosscat class and say okay I want you we're talking about environment where we have we may have students that are visit Al unable to control their bodies this provides us an opportunity to evaluate those teachers specific to that as well so it is a great tool um I I thank you for asking about the data of how how teachers feel that was one of the things I wanted to know because I I would I'm the teacher that looks at this and I would see I feel it's a little nitpicky I feel it's a little heavy like on micromanaging but that's just how I see it I'm not living it so you're probably like no no no it's not like that but I am that teacher that I will go through every every Dot and make sure that um I do my best to cover it but um one positive which I hope it fixes or helps not saying it's there's a problem but um there's a rotation like we have our approved evaluators and then one year I may get evaluated by this principal and then the next year it's another principal and there are two totally different people and how they you think some people right are a little more stric or I'm hoping that this makes it a little more consistent so you're not yay this evaluator this year versus like crud there are critical attributes within each one of these and there's look fors for every level of performance so the whole premise of this is when you gather evidence it's it's what you see and what you hear and um it Danielson really focuses on not having the bias and part of that so as uh an administrator is in a classroom and they're Gathering evidence they can clearly you know they can write down you know a teacher asked this question you know whatever the question may be which lends itself to that was a great way to engage the class in because it it fit in that category because it had the critical attributes needed to be distinguished or proficient or whatever so that the C you're looking at is just a snippet of what principles and teachers have available to see these are examples of what that looks like in a classroom and many many distinguished marks for a teacher to receive when we talk about the instructional component going back to uh vice president V Hook's question is it is student driven so in order to receive a distinguished Mark a lot of the the critical attributes speak to our students the ones asking questions are students the ones assessing one another are stud so that you know uh president Anderson your question about teacher that was kind of hard because teachers were usually distinguished according to our previous school but when we go into a classroom and they're doing most of talking and students aren't as doing as much talking then that distinguished Mark uh kind of goes to that proficient Mark which is good because it shifts their mindset to say okay now I need to figure out a way to get students more engaged in this in this lesson and moving forward from that point of of course you walk in the next dat it is that way you just snapshot that one day right could every [Laughter] time no no um no my classes are loud but um Can Can you show me how this evaluation tool takes into account um class sizes number of preps that teachers are teaching um number of special ed students the high percentage of students that some teachers may have and some of those that are in six fist where they those create a whole different um teaching experience than just the normal I don't know what normal is anymore for teaching but I mean those are higher stress and sometimes less prep time and um it it can like the days it can look bad on some days and really great on others so how does that take into account those experiences for those teachers yeah on the on the C you see the professionalism piece and there's pieces in there when it comes to the critical attributes that speak to that and so teachers who are willing to give up preps teachers who are willing to come to events that are after school on a consistent basis they're going to receive a little bit of a higher marking when it comes to that that difference between proficient basic distinguished they're going to receive a higher marking in regards to that and it's going to be it should be documented as evidence within their evaluation thank you is there ever a way for this to be um reverse used is there could we be one of these leaning districts to where the teachers can use it to evaluate their administrators let me make sure I understand are you asking if there's a are teachers using this tool to evaluate us as admin would that yes as like a future like hey would was that something that could be this tool could be used for if the district should say hey you know what that that's something that we want to take into account some time well this doesn't have a tool um but I will say that I think a a lot maybe I'm misspeaking but I will when I evaluate after our post conference the last thing I have before we leave is hey what is there where is there an area of growth for me that is in terms of supporting you and I think that open dialogue between us is going to help increase the the it should right it should help increase the relationship and it should help increase the reason why we're doing this particular tool or process to help both of us grow um we also have a variety of different thing end of the year climate and culture surveys and that kind of stuff that we have that that people evaluate us on so president Anderson um principal's assistant principal directors are evaluated and the tool doesn't say the exact thing but it looks similar so we are giving each other feedback which is important to all all of this there it just be nice to have a formal document to have documentation of feedback from teachers you know and I think you know he mentioned the culture and climate survey which talks about leadership too so that's something we've started doing again and I think it's been very beneficial because our principles are using it to set goals moving forward so they look at academic achievement data but they also look at that feedback and do I need to work on my culture and climate and hear some steps because your staff is the best source of how you're really doing a lot of times because sometimes I might think as a principal everything's fine and then Christina the second grade teacher comes and tells me it's not Sherry you have a problem so and maybe components because obviously much of this wouldn't apply to administrator but maybe there are components that could be used to build that climate survey well and a lot of a lot of the components that we talk about within that card I shouldn't say a lot but there's a handful the I mean our culture and climate surveys ask us about our communication our relationship our praising so we're talking we already have a bunch of those culture pieces and when the staff fill it out they give us that that evidence piece towards okay thank you thank you anybody else okay all right thank you everyone for the information and and for the presentation just one question can we get can you send us what the culture and climate survey a copy of that yeah I don't remember if I've seen it or not but I just want to see what it what it looks like or if anyone else does yes thank you okay thank you great ask um let's move on to 7.2 the hel UniFi School District cell phone policy with Mr Walker correct yep that's correct good evening governing board uh president Anderson uh tonight I'm here to share some information regarding our our practices uh and our response to cell phone use in our schools um first and foremost I think it's universally agreed upon that cell phones and social media is a big problem especially with adolescence um untethered uncontrolled access to the internet and social media is is dangerous we we do offer our social media dangers of Snapchat presentation um elicit drugs trafficking um there's all types of things that are happening online so the first um as a father and as a as an educator to to share with the community is that it's very very important to um be in tune with what your children are are accessing and have access to um so as a societal issue it's it's a big big big problem um what we do as a school that's what we're here to talk about tonight and I don't know if we can solve that issue as a school I wish we could um if I can snap my fingers and create a way to uh control cell phones generally speaking I would love to be able to do so um but in schools this year the Hot Topic that we've heard in the media is cell phone bans so we've heard about select school districts Banning cell phones so my first question when I hear that is what does that look like you know as somebody who works with policy and works with student discipline um supporting staff supporting students um as a former classroom teacher myself just curious what what does that look like so a recent Unified School District a peer District uh came forward in news they're they're kind of the flagship spokesperson for the ban um they came across with a ban but if you look into it they voted to ban the use of cell phones in school okay so that's that's interesting what does that look like if you dig further and what they really have is this your standard Progressive disciplinary practice first time a student has a phone out without permission they get a warning the second time it gets confiscated by the teacher and then the third time the parents have to come pick up the phone so that's kind of your standard Progressive discipline that you'll see for not just phones but for any type of misconduct that's not egregious that we like to work through that with the communication and education piece um information not to do this here's why secondary consequence tertiary consequence and it progressively increases um if the behavior consists so that's that's one of the districts we've seen um so they're banning not necessarily the possession of the cell phone but they're banning the use of the of the cell phone um another one they've kind of come up with a a catchphrase away for the day so they're not technically banned really the students are able to bring the cell phones to school but they're just expected to keep the cell phones stowed away uh throughout class um their goal is to decrease cell phone addiction uh remove classroom distractions and cut down on cyber bullying so when we talk about classroom distractions um from as a as a classroom teacher myself anything that's disrupting the classroom teachers have always had the authority to limit that so it's never been if a student has their phone out and you ask them to put the phone away because we're in the middle of instruction and they said no there's there's no policy that says I have to it it doesn't work that way the students are expected to comply with the instructions of the teacher and that's universally understood it has been uh 15 years ago when cell phones were not as prevalent but still a nuisance at the time um students were complying with directions and if they don't comply then there's Progressive disciplinary consequences for insubordination essentially um but when we pull our language from our handbook I really wish we would have maybe put an article in the newspaper because we would have been pioneers of the cell phone band so this language is not new um I've gone back as far as uh 20145 and similar language has been our practice in our handbook since um and it's according to the handbook this year this is this year's language students personal electronic devices including cellones may not be used during the school day except in the instance of being asked to use them for an explicit educational purpose and under the direct guidance of the classro teachers otherwise electronic devices are to be often not displayed for use if a student uses a personal device to engage in misconduct under another violation area the student may receive additional consequences so that kind of gives us you know the why right we have this this is the expectation the handbooks communicated to all of our families um parents have to see that at the beginning of the year acknowledge it it goes out uh secondary students see this they have to acknowledge it this is when people ask where does that say that in writing well it says it in our handbook and this is what we use to support our learning environment because we have this expectation is everything in the handbook followed to a te with 100% accuracy at all times if so I probably wouldn't have a job because everybody would be utopic applying themselves to every single consequence right but it's not but we do have language that helps us support our position on where we're at with cell phones and then it it further goes on to say the school May confiscate personal electronic devices and return them to a parent or Guardian at the end of the school day students are not permitted to photograph other students or staff or to record audio or video of anyone at any time throughout the school day unless granted permission the school's not responsible for loss theft or damage of the devices so that's kind of where we're at as a school district that's our language now how is that applied at our campuses what does it look like at our schools what measures can be taken bless you we're you know we always work with the spirit of continuous Improvement I think things can always be better so the moment that we stop pursuing ways to make things better then that's the moment we make a mistake right so what can we do to make things better well we've had some suggestions come our way um one of the things that we hear is these lock bags are kind of like a pencil case where students would have to come and lock their phone up before school starts and unlock them at the end of the day maybe you guys have gone to a comedy show or a concert or something where that's that's becoming more prevalent um in in in places but if we think about it from the lens of a high school 20200 kids what does that look like in reality of filing in kids to make sure their pencil cases are locked up and then unlocking them all at the end of the day and then they're $30 per bag so if we want to buy a bag who's going to buy the bag where's the money to buy the bags who's going to manage the bags is that something that we're interested in doing it's an option out there but it's a discussion grander than just myself do we want to invest the time effort energy and money into a a program like that um there's been suggestions to bring lockers from a disciplinary safety standpoint I would strongly say having lockers on campuses um is not a good move um we don't have lockers and I'm very thankful that we don't because lockers create a whole another element of school safety um and management that we don't have to worry about today even if they're small lockers or cell phone lockers where are they going to go who's going to manage them who's going to lock and unlock them those are all the further questions that we want to ask if that's something that we would want to consider sounds great in practice cell phones are locked up out of sight but the managerial process of it is some really questions that we'd want to ask what does this look like in practice and so we have the financial implications we have the thousands of students to manage and the reality of it is the compliance issue would be exactly the same as it is right now if a student just circumvents the pencil case or the locker or they lock up the iPhone 7 but they have the iPhone 15 in their pocket it would be managed the same exact way there would be a progressive disciplinary there would be a request to surrender the phone there would be a conversation and we would process it the same exact way that we do now without the expend Ure or the time effort energy and those type of um systems so we had a board meeting a few months back where we had um several community members come and express their concerns um rightfully so about just the concern of children and access to cell phones and so from that I surveyed our administrative team sent out a survey to kind of see where where we're at let's let's get the boots on the ground approach and see what our schools are experiencing what does this look like because for me from my lens I see only a snippet of it when you're actually managing the school managing your staff you're in direct contact with your teachers daily what what do we feel so 22 people were surveyed or 21 people were surveyed um 10 responded School administrators principles assistant principles and Deans do you see cell phones is problematic on the campus 10 yes 11 no it's not really valuable data kind of shows that it's kind of split um but the next question was do you have measures in place to address cell phones on your campus not the one that came up was no I was like no like what yikes um but I I was able to kind of dig into the no and find out more that was a a new administrative team at a school they were this testing out what their staff would need so they they were very black and white with the answer like at the moment in time when that was asked they didn't have it developed yet but they were working to put something together so since that it's it's 21 yes and zero NOS but so all of our schools have something in place to address cell phones on the campus and then the next line of questioning in the survey was and this is really just opinion uh there's really no supporting facts to back it up and it's just kind of getting a holistic lens from our administrative staff do you think a sweeping wide District ban prohibiting cell phones from being brought on campus is reasonable enforcable welcome warranted necessary or unreasonable unenforcable unwelcome unwarranted Ed unnecessary and that just again it's it's almost I wouldn't say useless data but it it just to kind of get a feel it's kind of all over the place which then makes it really difficult to come up with a consensus decision because you don't have a 100% yes it's enforcable yes it's welcome yes it's warranted if that came back and that was 21 across the board for all of them I think it would be a no-brainer to say we need to beef up where we're at and create something something new but since we're kind of all over the place it doesn't really give us a strong position to to change what we have right now again we can we can use what we have right now to better support our needs and so that's why I have uh select principles here to kind of share what it looks like on their campuses and so thank you to Mr Griggs and Mr Bickle from the Elementary School Mr pots from the middle school and Mr dlan from the high school they're here just to share with with the governing board what cell phone management and situations look like on the campuses specifically and we'll start maybe with Elementary if you guys wouldn't mind sharing what you guys do uh on a daily basis and what it looks like is it a problem is it a distraction how many teachers are they coming to you constantly asking for help are students compliant and that's what we're kind of looking to see what that looks like more more in tune with the day-to-day operations on the campus yeah so I'll start so I'm Brian Greggs from cornado so president Anderson members of the board what it looks like at Coronado um communicated um obviously through the handbook and then also actually in our back to school message before students even report on campus hey here's what we do with cell phones and even linked to the handbook so families can reference it in that email when you walk through the gates of Coronado it's in your backpack and it's off on silent and then when you walk out then that's when you take it out and you coordinate your ride home and and things like that so some kids may need it for that and so we're good with that but it's once who are walking out of the campus um really um I can count maybe on one hand you know if a cell phone goes off in a backpack and it's usually mom trying to coordinate you know you know pick up that in the afternoon typ type thing um and even our sixth grade you know team meeting with them uh during the summer talking about it and it wasn't really a concern of theirs you know kindergarten use of the cell phone is a lot different than sixth grade use of the cell phone and so with them um just making sure that everyone was on the same page of Once you walk in it's on silent off backpack and then go from there president Anderson members of the board thank you um I Echo the same sentiment as Brian it's not really an issue on our campus our kids are very compliant too if we see them out we just ask them to put them away and it's it's infrequent when that happens so um at the elementary level at least on our campuses I I don't see this being a a big issue and um like Brian said uh I really can't even recollect the the last time this became a major issue with a specific student even um our our kids really follow rules nicely good evening uh president governing board principal Sasa Middle School um just for you know I've been at sasman all 12 years so I've had a lot of experience from a teacher the dean handling the discipline on the principal role and so uh we communicate the expectations at our open house that's kind of the biggest to get that message out to families uh double down at our curriculum night um when when teachers enter the classroom teachers can talk about classroom specific expectations um whether that's in a backpack as a teacher that was my favorite location um taking attendance hey uh I see two cell phones in the pocket as I finish uh attendance make sure those are put away I see three you'll see five students put them away right and so quick easy way I never had it is an issue uh that we have our math department likes to have it in in the pocket folders um it's way for them to take attendance uh and so uh that's that and then in terms of disseminating our expectations to students um for the last couple years we spend one full entire day and the three administrators um are in the science classes and we present face Toof face a 15minute presentation then I bounce another class for 15 minutes and I bounce another class for 15 minutes and we squeeze all that in uh to those eight classes and we set the expectations for students our expectation is one they're in the building uh that cell phones are not in use um and so um it's not an issue um they they're allowed to have it during passing period outside of the building so if you've been on our campus before we have a main building and then a b building where our gym and our some of our Performing Arts elective classes are as well as some art classes so if they exit the building um they can then check their phone to do whatever um I stand in the courtyard well I kind of mix whether it's the hallway or the courtyard depending on where everyone else is we communicate every pass hey where are you where am I where am I going to go I don't see kids using them T typically transitioning um so typically it's before school or lunchtime when they're allowed to be out because that's that's outside um you'll see kids in the hallway sometimes checking them um they'll look at you and immediately put them away and I always you know we've tried to focus on the positivity assessment so I'll go up and just give that student a fist bump and just say hey thanks thanks for putting that away so they know the expectation just like adults they're going to check them there's time where you know they want to check those but um overall um it's not it's not a problem we're one to one school and so there's really not a need for it um to use them in class with our hsd devices president Anderson uh members of the board uh thank you for allowing me to kind of share with you what is going on over at williamsfield um I was online for a couple years so I love videos so uh uh for me when it came to expectations when it came to overall expectations but partly with cell phones uh I would send that home in the beginning of the year to families uh we don't necessarily have an open house like they would have at middle schools that would afford me that opportunity so I utilize that as far as in the classrooms we uh utilize our staff members to kind of share expectations for kids when it comes to phones on uh our high school campus they can use it prior to the day they can use it at lunchtime they can use it after school and they can use it in their passing periods uh there was the conversation of hey do we not allow them during the passing periods and I said I I'm not going to be able to uh police that going to kind of piggy back onto what uh Mr pot said I agree you know if expectations are set I know I can walk into a classroom and there are times do a kid does a kid have a phone app yeah should they no uh my biggest message has been you can use those phones at that point in time because once you walk in the classroom that's your learning environment put it away we have some teachers that have uh Pockets we purchased them for them heck I've even gone as far as saying hey I will buy you Chargers with five six seven different things on it and maybe that's the way you go after a kid using a positivity thing too like hey I see you're using your phone is it dying just plug it in here you know and and um trying again to make kids realize that uh the expectation is when they're in that classroom it is to learn uh I told teachers because some teachers are like well I need to use it for X well if you tell me what that app is I can reach out to it and maybe that's something you don't need to use on that phone and it gives us another ability to say that no we won't have to pit this teacher against another teacher because you're utilizing that particular phone on our campus the only classroom that is allowed to use their phone is our um criminal justice they have a I don't know what you want to call it but it's some sort of a glass thing that goes over their camera so they can look like a like a CSI person at those things so um I actually went into those classrooms and explained to the kids that you're you're kind of lucky you you get to do this so please don't blow it because this is part of your class um you know we want to afford you guys this opportunity so please please take care of that um as far as issues with it I I wouldn't really say that we have issues I I think think there's kids in anywhere they're going to challenge what we ask so we've tried to put in some positive things for kids when it comes to that you know whether it's uh announcements um or seeing kids and thanking them for you know they see you they put it away it's like that's when we see the police officer I slow down um you know I'm speeding but I slow down so I I think it's the same thing in the class but also those kids that aren't getting we did we do have some contracts that we put them in and Progressive discipline kind of goes into exactly what's already in our policy thank you um and then just to conclude you know we're here to support so if if a family or you know parents or students feel that there's not support there's distractions in the classroom we encourage that to be reported so we can address that right um same thing if if a teacher is not feeling supported um that they're bringing Progressive disciplinary issues to their Administration and their students that are still being defiant and it's not being addressed we need to know that so we can support that I I will say just managing discipline in general um our students in our school district are are are very well behaved relatively speaking compared to other school districts you guys see the suspension report you know if if somebody's suspended as a result of defiance or insubordination that's not the first time they've done that it's it's a couple occasions that lead up to that then the progressive discipline doesn't stop but you'll never see somebody who's long term suspended from our school district because they've been defiant so many times it leads to that our we have measures in place to meet with families to discuss expectations to put things in place to help support our learning environments um but drastic measures can be taken if there is a refusal to comply which we we don't have that and so if there are issues that our our people are not feeling that they are supported we we do ask that we're we're made aware so we can help to support that but um I'll conclude with that thank you to the individuals who came out of uh their schools tonight to present and if you guys have any questions I'm happy to answer president Anderson um Mr Walker thank you so much I know that I had asked for this presentation and I appreciate it uh because community members had asked about it um and thank you for taking your time this evening too um I think we maybe just need to toot our own home a little bit more and say that we have these things in place so that the community knows that we have them in place um and then that might be might have the issue I know that being the parent of out of two of the four schools then I know that Mr Griggs is correct I have a sixth grader I think she follows the rules most of the time and she is very diligent that she cannot have her cell phone at school until she walks out of the campus um and same with uh Mr Dolan my uh ninth grader is not on her phone um I think in junior high maybe she was a little bit more which she would sneak it but um uh but I or middle school I'm sorry but I I know that she follows those rules and the and the um uh Cubbies thank you work very well but I do appreciate that I that a full ban wouldn't work because of the reasons that you said as far as using it for a CSI person and in different ways that they look up things and stuff like that so um I think it's just working together as a community to try to keep kids off of their phones as much as we can and engaged and so I appreciate everything that you're doing thank you president Anderson thank you for taking the time and going through this obviously these are Big topics um can you tell me how many of you guys spoke to your teachers asking them if there's a problem I know we have administrative responses did you go out to your teachers and ask them do you have cell phone problems yeah so one of the things that I did coming in is new principles I met with folks in July and said hey what are things that are working what are things that are not working and and one of the things that sixth grade asked like hey are we still when when they walk in we're still good with you know the the phones are off and backpacks I'm like I don't know if that was working you know because I had been gone for a semester at Power Ranch so I was making sure that here we we still good you know doing my fact finding and and I'm like yeah know that that lines up with what what we do and so yeah no that was that was part of the the fact finding just coming in as a a new administrator so you stole my thunder uh coming in same thing meeting with uh teachers community members kids uh one of the big things that they talked to me about was just kind of the follow through would there be follow through what if whatever we were going to do um and uh there was a policy in place but they just felt that sometimes it wasn't as consistent so um for me uh it just to me it's about communication if we keep communicating the same message uh and the teachers something they wanted to make sure the kids understood that hey I I want you to be engaged in my classroom uh so I would say for williamsfield it as long as we communicate the teachers did share that there was something they wanted to make sure that uh kids understood please put them away I I know several teachers and the reason I ask is um I think and it may depend on their campus it may depend on their subject some of the responses is it's not a policy so I'm not going to enforce it and I have too much other things to do than to worry about if a kids on a cell phone um you know I've got to get through my lesson I've got you know so if this one's on their cell phone I I can't stop class to address this one and and I've told that one I don't know how many times and this one's mom won't quit texting them in class and you know and so I mean just hearing different things from different teachers I know our our handbook and our words are around it I don't know if the word policy helps that any it doesn't necessarily mean it needs to be different but that it's an actual policy that maybe then staff could feel more supported they can feel instead of going we'll reference your handbook I can reference the policy that we don't allow this during our school day I I mean I'm just throwing some of these things out because I don't know if teachers just and I'm not saying all obviously but that they don't necessarily feel that there's support behind them and I'm not saying not support from their administrators but that that there's something to go back to and I know one of the biggest frustrations of what am I going to face because it is the parent that's continuously texting this child and if I take their phone away and that parent's upset because then they can't communicate with their child that that's not the interaction that the that the teacher really wants to necessarily invite with maybe you know some particular parents so I'm just wondering I mean has these things come up to you guys I know I've heard of these things so just kind of throwing that out there yeah I guess here's what I'll say um again going back to the just the general idea of communication so you gave some specific scenarios so if talking to teachers and they share that what's important to them is that they want the ability to teach their kids and some of the struggles they have or dress code or kids get into class on time or cell phones so if we all as a staff make a decision that that's something we're going to do to me it's about collaboration and talking to everyone to do that so if we all say that we're going to follow through with that hopefully we've already kind of said well there is a policy this is the things we need you to do but then there's the follow through too so whether it be the Principal the assistant principal Etc helping them out by walking through classrooms and sometimes you do see it out right and like I said me driving my car you know I'm going to slow down you see the kids kind of put that away and then maybe that leads to a nice conversation with the teacher like Hey how do I help you because it seems like you're you feel like you're you can't tell a kid this but know that we're going to be here for you that to support that while I can't help it because Johnny's mom keeps texting him okay well can you do me a favor email Johnny's mom and tell her something along that line that hey you know you can call the front office if you really need to see Johnny but please don't text them while he in the middle of class CC me on it so I can respond myself so again I think it's the communication making them feel that they're supported by us hopefully can help U not cut down because it's still going to happen but get them to feel the support so they can kind of follow through with whatever the expectations of the campus are if I can add as well one thing that I think it's important to remember and of course special education kind of muddies the water in this regard but assisted technology is huge huge for the special education population and unfortunately a lot of the apps and things that are available to that population are found in the Apple Store and you don't find them in the other stores to upload on some of our devices that are the one toone devices for example we have several kids that lack the ability to speak and they use their phone as their communication device so that makes it really hard for administrators too to walk into a classroom and you have a student with their device app that is their voice that you cannot ask them to put that away or take that away from them so just something to kind of keep in mind as well I just wanted to bring to perspective we have four schools representing but our data that was brought to us says 10 said yes that cell phones are problematic even with 20 saying yes we have measures in place so some of these teachers may be from those schools or I mean let's I mean I'll be the bad guy it it it is hard to be consistent and my kids went to williamsfield and I know that teachers some teachers were a little more lenient than others and I was the mom that drove down to get my kids phone one day um um and and we did put we my husband spent hours if not evenings locking down his phone only for him to figure out how to unlock it all um maybe a couple nights but um um it so my question going back to is are we working with those schools that said yeah we have measures in place but no I mean yes they are a problem so if you guys are champion championing this maybe it's a good time to go work with those schools and have teachers work out but um uh thank you for bringing up the apps um that was one thing um as I talked to some teachers and teachers that were also parents is um yeah there's like medical apps on there that they use too that that they desperately need um and so I started out being the teacher of Hey listen you know I'm going to treat you like a human you're going to treat me like a human and you're going to learn how to adult with a phone in a classroom it's going to come out and I'm going to say put it away we're going to play that game and um I I became a little lenient because I became exhausted about it and yeah I I just don't want to you know you're picking your you're choosing your path you know but it comes to a point where you you work so hard to teach them where I finally said that's enough and I started looking at what other teachers doing and the pockets are definitely working in our schools and thank you for purchasing it for your teachers because I just bought my own um overbreak which I plan on using in my classroom um but I didn't ask that they would point being is um I gave I gave the talk to my classes I said you know what it's coming I was like District sard to talk about the ban don't give teachers a reason to want to support Banning your phones I was like it's coming I said but I'm also going to go ahead and imple Implement in my room and I had a couple kids mad and I stopped and I said wait a minute why are you mad why are you mad that I'm asking you to put your phone away whenever I'm giving every second of my life and I said I'm giving more time to you than my family many nights why does that make you angry then I'm saying please put your phone away when I just want to teach you for 52 minutes not a response not a response and I tell you that changed I'm not saying oh that was the thing that changed their life and they have they don't use hell phones anymore but I saw a drastic less use of a cell phone and it's going to be even more so when the pockets get used but you can also use it as an incentive um I said okay pockets are coming later this week um but you're performing performance may enable you to you know maybe you don't need to put it in the pocket that day or or you can we can work our way to you have more control of your phone in the classroom which is growing you to know you have able to be disciplined and and work in a classroom with that distraction put away you're making the choice to put away and that's where I want these kids to be when they leave school I like the idea of the policy it's it's not that it's like it's not putting a sign of no weapons on campus and people just stop bringing weapons on campus but I like how you said if I'm taking it right way but it helps empower the teachers to say it's the policy and the policy protects me and if I need to take your cell phone then that policy backs me up and then when the parents get pushed back well I'm following the direction and I have a backing when it's policy I've got a backing of the board I've got a backing of my Administration and other teachers and possibly you know other parents in the community so that I I was I was perplexed whenever I was looking at ji student rights and responsibilities and jic student conduct I was oh we don't have a policy um quen Creek has a policy and their language is pretty good and not to go off task but to say when that time comes if we do just have a discussion it be a good good thing to look at thank you president Anderson Mr Walker when you did the survey and the 10 people that said they didn't how did you proceed from there or I mean you don't have to did you have a discussion or was there no at that point that was this initial perspective of where we're at with our schools okay thank you president Anderson I'm conflicted um about a complete ban um I understand that the the intention behind it is to provide a Better Learning environment um but I do see concerns regarding student safety um personal property practicality um I also see an issue with any of those like Cubbies that are used some teachers have like those shoe racks on the doors um most of these phones are around ,000 um so that opens up for the situation of phones being stolen um and then we have a polic you know our existing policy says we're not responsible for loss or theft um so that's a bit contradicting considering we're telling them to relinquish their phones but then we're telling them we're not going to be responsible um because they're valuables are unprotected um while I do have major concerns about um addiction to cell phones um social media uh em MF radiation um but I think that we need to look at a balanced approach um I think an you know instead of an outright ban um the the silencing when they come into a classroom and being able to keep it in their backpacks um and um and I I know that our teachers do a lot in the classroom and that's just one more thing that they um have to monitor um but I think it just unfortunately comes with the environment um I also think that um aside from you know to prevent theft um I think the kids should be able to have their phones and their backpacks in case of emergencies um and as we seeing the results I mean it's split um but I would like to know what is the difference between the two um the ones that said you know they may go back to so uh problematic so why do I mean it's almost split so what is the difference why do some think it's problematic and not others are the ones that don't see a problem are they using a specific process in their classroom that might work yeah it's not a clearly defined um question question I mean to be honest it's a pretty generic question problematic is defined individually so who knows I mean we can definitely expand upon the survey and and and dig a little bit deeper um that was just kind of a initial approach just to kind of see can gauge where we're at right I agree that that would um be better suited with some more specific language about what that means for sure perfect um I think um implementing a ban um just complete ban um you know obviously creates uh we have we have to ensure that they you know if we do have a policy in place that it is consistent obviously across the board um but I also believe that um they should be able to use their phones during lunch breaks um especially for those students that like to sit by themselves um you know I I would hate to see them um feeling more isolated um when they're having lunch by themselves and they don't have their phones to entertain them um but so based on that um you know I think that we can work um to find something that benefits everyone um versus a complete 100% ban at a school that's all thank you any other comments or information thank you all for coming tonight and staying late and helping us understand I was I was very curious about elementary school are they on their phones they have phones they to have phones Wild there way you're right thank you all right let's president Anderson sorry one more question um how do you handle um watches smart watches is it do you have them turn those off as well I can speak for my campus we just ask that they're used as a typical wristwatch and that's it um but again it's kind of the same mentality if it becomes an issue we ask them put it away put in their backpack that type of thing you that that was something that it did emerge in discussions that no the phones aren't the problem at the elementary school but the watches are the problem I have a six-year-old who's snapping pictures and taking videos on his watch um but the kids that often that ride the bus and the parents use that it's that's another hard one how do we manage that because it serves a very valuable purpose on one hand but it can become a distraction on the other so it's the same type of thing Communications expectations relationship building um but at the same time it's Elementary School and if a student's seven years old it's a learning experience and it can definitely be frustrating for an elementary school teacher to be managing it I think it's like a 21st century problem to have and we're it's emerging and this came about that the phones are okay but the watches are the one that's really the pain right now so and and just to um remind everyone we did have a a bill that passed and unfortunately or Fort you know like I said I'm split about the situation but the bill was vetoed um and I believe that was for a complete ban um so yeah I'm I'm very split I I do know that superintendent horn has formed a task force and I'm curious to see what comes about from that because if the ad imposes obviously will comply with whatever they request and so that's in the works too as we speak and so it's kind of waiting to see that was kind of happening in concurrence with um the board meeting that we had when the com complaints and concerns came forward that was happening around the same time so I've yet to hear an update of where they're at with it I'm assuming they're probably in the same boat because it is a pretty challenging um circumstance to navigate to come up with the right answer so and most likely they'll probably introducing introduce the bill again um next session and see where that goes yeah potentially but then again the ad has the authority to kind of go outside of uh the legislature to have their own ad enforcement measures as well too so we'll kind of see what that looks like thank you okay let's move on now to uh 7.3 the governing board initiatives for the 2024 update president and Anderson I want to thank these four administrators that go to work early stayed here late this evening we appreciate you guys all right so we're excited to share with you andette dat on the governing board strategic goals and initiatives I'm going to pass the packs the paper down if you're interested in paper because you'll have a hard copy of what we agreed on you'll also have it in this format if you want to take notes here you'll also have this other document that you guys approved for the superintendent evaluation you don't need to use paper because it's my understanding at some board docs if you want to make any notes you do not have to take notes all right so I'm gonna let Christina pass that down will somebody pass it quicker yeah all right you get to see this over and over on purpose how important are our mission vision and core values everything we do isn't about individuals but the team which includes the governing board cabinet administrators teachers support staff and very importantly community and parents so we want to provide quarterly reports to keep you a breast of the progress we're making and also give you the opportunity to give us feedback all right so I am going to brag and I don't have to because you've heard from a lot of the individuals in the room tonight and I say this over and over uh we do we have the best team here that supports our schools and our teachers and our parents so I'm really proud of them so I hope you're bragging on them too when you're out in public because I certainly am all right you know about our four strategic anchors and our indicators so tonight you're going to hear more specifically what what have we done this first quarter all right teaching and learning Student Success we're all about that right so we have to ask ourselves are our kids motivated and are they resilient because we're learning more and more how important that is are we giving them enough leadership opportunities what are they doing in terms of working with the community you know about Higley helps and then are we given them a strong background not just in reading and writing but what about math and science and stem or steam so beginning in January we've decided we need a student uh leadership or superintendent team advisory team is what we're going to call it so you'll remember when we created our strategic plan we brought in sixth graders middle schoolers and high schoolers and the wisdom a lot of it came from the kids obviously so we're going to put that back and force and we're going to learn what are we doing and doing well and what kind of suggestions do they have for us moving forward and we'll come back and report and maybe they'll come report to you guys too so um I was fortunate enough to attend a national leadership conference for superintendent last week and it was a it was a opportunity of a lifetime there were over a hundred superintendents there and it was in Annapolis Maryland which I think somebody at the end of the row down there knows about right um topics they covered included effective leadership effective evaluation addressing Innovative models of instruction Smart Learning environments student engagement Mentor Rich organizational cultures and we got to hear from this gentleman named Dr Mark Bell who's the superintendent of an anaro County public schools in Maryland you anybody want to guess how many kids he has no he probably wishes do you know okay 85,000 students and I it blew my mind he has about 6,000 teachers but it was incredibly motivational um in terms of of where he's been where he's going how he works with his community how he works with his staff um so it was a great opportunity yes how this is his second year I believe he came from Kansas City which was even inspirational itself because I didn't realize that that's a tough District the can Kansas City schools he had worked really hard to increase their student achievement and work on culture and climate and he told the unfortunate story that two kids went in a restroom when they each had a knife and one of them didn't make it and he said I hope and pray that nobody else goes through this experience so you know he worked through it and he finally decided you know I think I need a new opportunity but he said nothing will rip you up as a school Community like that so anyway I just say that because he's still on man that he got 22 job offers so very inspirational men and I think he can handle 85,000 students and it's 85 for how many school um I have to look at the exact number there were 6,000 teachers but it's significant right and spread out but I also wanted to share with you uh we had the opportunity to visit the Naval Academy which I would never have that opportunity in my lifetime if they talked about an overview of the application process um they brought in a leadership panel of kids and also we toured the academy itself and the reason I'm sharing this is I wanted you to see their academic Majors I wanted to highlight they told us over and over how important project-based learning is Hands-On learning is the strong stem background the leadership experience which these are the things we're focusing on and also working with the community so his his kids go out or their kids go out they tutor they shovel driveways because they have snow there which you guys don't know what that is but anyway but hand in hand the community works with these midship men was which are their students and they almost adopt them so I was inspired by this and I wanted to share it with you and I want to I want to reemphasize that we are working so hard and this team of people are more committed than anybody I've ever worked with let's see we'll see I want to show you a short video maybe it'll work maybe it won't so I show that to you and I'm not advocating that we ever throw a game right athletic director do I say throw a game no we're not going to throw games okay but there's we're not throwing the game but there's a bigger statement here about leader ship supporting one another and modeling it all the way from the adults down to the kids and so just so happened today I went to saucan to visit classrooms and I see things very similar to this I went in a Spanish classroom and my little my little student from Bridges when we open Bridges is sitting on the front row and I can recognize her she's all grown up but I learn she was in Cross cats at Bridges nonverbal now she's in honors classes at saucan taking Spanish and one of the leaders well does that make your heart jump there's a lot of good things happening then I go to Unified sports today and this just was like magical I walk in and I see another one of my kindergarteners who's an eighth grader that's in their you know General Ed working with these kids and she said I couldn't recognize her hey Mrs Richards she said I love it in here and let me tell you what I'm going to do when I graduate I said really what she said well I've gotten injured so much in sports I'm going to be an orthopedic surgeon or maybe a physical therapist listen either one of those is fantastic so it all ties in and it all ties together and I just wanted to share every time I go in a building I'm blessed so now you're going to hear from the rest of the team and you're going to hear about the work we're accomplishing so far and I'm going to attempt to use the clicker appropriately we we've got another Clicker Marcus has got it he's ready to go I have a clicker too okay and so from the uh Educational Services Department we're going to be presenting today on strategic aner one teaching and learning Student Success and so when you see uh we have Mary Davis and Marcus Burkshire that will each give you an update remember this is an update this isn't the end of the plan but this we just wanted to share where you were on focusing on our goals so far Marcus all right um so our first goal um is to increase the district ride proficiency rate by 2% is measured by ASA Ela in math and our ACTA in math um to date right now um it's really small to read but um we have really focused in on being intentional and our district professional development so our sites are all doing professional development at the on those early release Wednesdays and with their their staff but as a district what we are focused on uh working with principles uh since admin Retreat we've really focused on that um supporting teachers in aligning their resources and instruction to our district instructional Maps um and in addition what Melissa was talking about earlier today we've also been very intentional in trying to ensure that what we talk about has a tie in to the Danielson framework as well so so as we work with principles how can you see these things that we are talking about in your classrooms and and provide feedback to teachers around these uh in addition at the elementary level with teachers uh we are working on the district PD days analyzing using data to make instructional decisions has been the primary focus there uh secondary on their um PD days uh We've we're doing a format of assessment practices and application uh series with them as well um and then uh we had talked about benchmarks earlier we we we do administer benchmarks with our our staff but really trying to shift that conversation around how do we find value for that at the district level in terms of gaps and Trends and that kind of thing but then at our site level what kind of conversations are our principles having with teachers around those benchmarks and and helping them to see the value to it's it's not the Benchmark is not what we should be planning off of but we are using the Benchmark to identify where we need to make adjustments in terms of our instruction and really how does that get reflected back into our format of assessment so we'll have we start those uh Benchmark conversations this week actually tomorrow is our first one right um so those are kind some of the things that we're doing in order to get to that 2% increase at a district level thank you um one of our next um goals this year is to continue the development and implementation of our district instructional maps and what that looks like is adding on our Ela and math instructional maps for K5 last year we were able to do kindergarten and first grade ELA maps and that involved identifying our priority standards for kindergarten through um sixth grade and this year we will continue that we will have our Ela Maps completed by mid November I'm very excited to have those up and ready for teachers and then for our K5 math instructional Maps um we will start to roll that out more in the second half of the year um I do have a new um elementary math coach so get allowing her time to get settled in this role and work with teachers to identify those priority standards um I have mid-February up there it might be finished more mid-march depending on the assessment schedule as well um and then for the secondary Fine Arts and electives um we are working on getting that rolled out so we can schedule time with teachers especially our Singleton teachers um for the Fine Arts and electives it's not as easy to pull a whole group together so working on how we can pull um and work with those individual teachers so that's where we stand with our maps and then our next goal is adopting and implemen menting a comprehensive District instructional coaching model or framework to ensure common practices throughout the district um and have Clarity on the role of instructional coaches our progress update on this is we have done um surveys um of our instructional coaches and our Administration to kind of better understand what the coaching roles look like currently and what a framework would look like throughout our district um this year we're hosting quarterly District um coaching meetings with our instructional coaches K12 so this year we have instructional coaches in the secondary role as well um so bringing them together to understand what their roles look like and how we can work together to have a more unified approach to coaching and have that framework um put together we are looking at um Frameworks such as Jim Knight or Diane Sweeney will pull together a task team to help us really dig into what that looks like so is a decision um across the district not just me Mary Davis saying I like this let's go with this model we want to make sure we have a um representative voice um that will best support all of our coaches and our teachers as this is something that will impact teachers and students in terms of getting them the best support back to you and it's back to me uh star fourth goal uh in teaching learning is uh to develop District uh professional learning community and multi-tiered systems and support Frameworks to ensure uh districtwide alignment to the Strategic plan Danielson and Clarity on using data and research-based practices within a collaborative culture um so we have put together two task teams one for mtss one for PLC uh they will start that work uh next week actually to to Really identify what as a district we We Believe means when we say we are a professional Learning Community the district what does that mean what does that look like um some common practices and expectations districtwide same for mtss so we'll start with the theory of action and really identifying what that those if and then statements that we need to accomplish in order to get to that goal a and then do A needs assessment as to where are we currently as a district sight by sight and where are those gaps that we need to start looking at um we have K12 representation on those task teams as well as from various stakeholders trying to Ure that this is again just like Mary was talking about with the coaching framework a districtwide unified uh framework that applies to to all of our school sites um and for all kids good evening this is Mike Q we're on number two thank you Sher um highly effective personnel and I apologize for the voice already uh strategic anchor number two and our Focus so far has been on one continue to provide meaningful professional development and support to all employee groups number two continue to evaluate and seek effective means to pass on potential benefits and cost savings to employees so just a little bit about our progress um thanks to Mrs Miller who's not in the room uh she has been providing some special education professional development she had 23 new special education teachers this year with monthly professional development as well as 138 classified staff meaning our par ones and Par twos that have been provided quarterly professional development we're very proud of that next you'll see our progress that we have now created a new classified evaluation tool we heard a lot about Danielson tonight so we took some of the information from there as well as uh kind of ped other school districts to see what they were using and we have now created a new classified evaluation tool which is all online in uh mlpf Frontline we're using the same software Ware system for Danielson as well as the classified evaluation tool the evaluation tool does have an element I want to make sure that um the board knows about the element of self evaluation which is really great an employee can go in and start evaluating themselves and putting their goals in there as soon as August of the of the new school year so they can go in with their supervisor or they can do it on their own they can have the conversations with their supervisors we're providing Hands-On training and both for the employees and the supervisors most recently over this fall break uh myself and Nina frankone uh who has put this all into Frontline went and we did uh a training with all of the plant managers and the facilities folks so worked out really well we'll continue to review this tool and see how we can um make it even better as we go along this is our first year we had the pilot last year and a few of our departments used it but this is our first year of implementing districtwide next a little bit of progress on recruit hire and retain we hired over 100 teachers this year to join us um on our journey of teaching the students of Higley we had we hired over 200 40 uh staff members and this is just in the first quarter we continue to hire we still have a few vacancies remaining Mrs Miller had told me the other day she still has two special ed teachers that we need to hire so that's just a little bit of what we're at but we're doing the best we can and one of the things you'll see in here is the additional advertising we're trying to reach out to specific areas where we might be able to recruit specific teachers or other staff members as needed so we're really looking at what we can do um in that respect we had the new employ orientation we added the more than sad when folks come in to learn about their benefits and get uh orientated to Higley we have added the morida sad training to that dayong where they come in they learn about benefits they learn about more than sad they do their Vector training all of that happens in a day uh we did have an additional Vector training unit added this year um we are working on and we just had three employees get certified in our health services so that we can offer free CPR and first aid training and recertification to employees that it is part of their current job description so those are usually employees that are at the lower level of pay we thought this would be an addition benefit to the employee again reducing the out- of pocket costs for our employees and giving them a benefit where we could provide this the cost was minimal um employee recognition uh years of service Tyler Moore and his um staff put that together and then turned it turned that over to HR this year and we're happy to have it and recognize our employees I talked about the additional advertising the other thing that has increased due to advertisement and um a better how do I say this a better format for people to follow is how they can increase their salary through salary advancement and that's educating themselves with um college courses and applying for additional salary advancement so we saw a 42% increase uh kudos to Nina again Fran Con and the HR staff that are really promoting this and I have to say Kudos also to the benefits uh Department because they do a fabulous job of orientating our new employees as well great things are happening so we have um and this is thanks to James Walker sitting next to me um he leads this program of professional development this is our um Higley Leadership Academy and we have 35 candidates this year and and about half of them are certified employees and the other half are classified employees we opened it up last year and had a good response this year we had an even better response from a variety of employees who really want to take on leadership roles in the future so we're looking at that I think we have another class this week right yeah Thursday night the finance session oh boy so yeah and I'm sure yeah so okay work please there we go another area of progress um and this is a benefit to our employees is the wellness we hired the nurse Navigator this year through uh kyus and her name is Meredith alur and she is doing a fabulous job of reaching out to our employees and um sharing how she can help them find places like uh for instance like where should I go to to have an MRI what would be most beneficial how can I reduce my cost my out-of-pocket cost as an employee so she's working with employees on that we also have the benefit Fair coming up on November 13th looking forward to that we have many vendors coming as well as we will offer Biometrics for the employees that are currently insured as well as um vaccinations just for employees that are in Curr currently insured as well well so we have uh Wellness Wednesdays which is great we have contest of how many people can answer the wellness questions correctly and we're just offering all kinds of things in the area of Wellness to our employees and really looking at the data that's available to us to focus on those areas of needs for our employees okay there we go and Jessica's next that's me good evening president Anderson members of the board I'm excited to talk a little bit about um our efforts in communication and community relations tonight um so the marketing and public information team worked really hard this summer on the launch of our new website um our priorities uh align with strategic anchor 3 which is to engage all stakeholders through transparent respectful timely and consistent communication that's a huge component of that um we're also continuing to refine our branding our engagement efforts and our marketing this quarter so at the end of last school year we set out to focus on this year's efforts on indicators one and two and that's to establish processes for communication and relationships in our community so we're proud to have accomplished several of the board approved action items already this year especially as it pertains to what I mentioned the website launch and implementation we have completed two training events um for the website content contributors across the district this is um every office manager at each site has been trained to manage the content on their website we had a second training that was optional for those who'd taken it before um I would say almost every single one came to you know ask specific questions or to get a Refresh on that content management system and then we opened it up as well to anybody who managed um specific Pages for their sites and that was optional for them um we've ALS also uh implemented the board approved directives including um some tweaks to that communication and website eliminating those um extensive teacher pages and making it in a staff directory uh which also makes better use of the system itself um and then prominently displaying board meeting dates and other events um the website has a calendar integration that works really well with that um so uh those are some of the the website area action items we accomplished in the area of Community engagement we've also established a subscription button on our website for our district newsletter open to anyone in the community who wants to receive that newsletter and we implemented a new format thank you to those of you who attended the business and Community partner breakfast this fall um we worked with school connect and um brought more brainstorming and project um integration into that event and it aligned with our hickley helps in initiative and we sent out a postevent survey that was um widely received so people um gave a lot of really great feedback on the new format for that event our ongoing marketing efforts continue with the goal of boosting Elementary enrollment and recruitment in the district uh quarterly marketing campaigns focus on our special offerings and our running strategically targeting relevant audiences and we have some analytics uh that pertain to that first quarter of the digital marketing campaigns um as you can see we've had more than 4,000 click-throughs to our enrollment page from our digital ads these are ads that are running across social media Facebook Instagram um we run recruitment ads specifically on LinkedIn um we also have search ads and display ads um that are uh you know managed through the marketing and still to come we are excited to continue enhancing communication by launching and implementing a new Mass notification system so if you recall the transition of the website was due to the fact that Blackboard um the company that was hosting the website previously was purchased by a company called final site they um also had purchased that element that Blackboard owned which was the mass notification so those emails text messages attendance alerts uh we are going to be transitioning that system over next um so we're going through training that ourselves as our admin team right now um and we're going to be rolling out that uh new system in the second semester of this year we're also um finalizing new content to promote each specific school and we're excited to continue that um that's slated to be complete and ready to print before enrollment opens up in um the end of the semester strategic in care four uh we focused on 4.2 and 4.4 uh so in the in the area 4.2 we look to identify and seek additional Revenue sources I see this as additional Reven sources above and beyond what we do every day so I remind the board we are constantly looking for Grants working with the school facilities board to to Garner Revenue um to support our Capital needs um so a couple areas in addition to that the uh review of District fees I've mentioned that already um looking at commun and preschool making those programs profitable so we can then in turn um bring some of that money back into the operations budget a Commerce Bank this was a a board approved agreement uh to pay vendors via a if they so choose um these are vendors who want uh do not want the papercheck they want their money instantly um and we have an agreement in place where we can charge them a fee if they want that um paid via a so that has just been implemented so we we don't have a complete progress to that yet but um we'll look to uh watch that and track that Revenue um in addition we have a lot of other programs that help supplement our district um one of them being our foreign exchange uh students that uh the district um Services those uh students uh are brought in through an agency uh Mr liser um kind of oversees that um that money is is comes into the district pretty much unrestricted and so we typically try to put that back into the high schools and so leveraging um maybe a higher fee to some of these agencies um or more foreign exchange students um to get uh additional Revenue um back into a district that's kind of un um unrestricted uh is an area we're looking at and then more um our our Sports programs all our extracurriculars are costing more and more um the cost to take a student trip or to um coordinate um with the AAA and and all our fees um we know we we try to avoid asking more fees from our parents in terms of participation fees uh gate fees stuff like that um but we are getting close to the point of subsidizing now with operational dollars to to support those programs so um as I think I've been a rhetoric uh looking at fees again to make sure that we are at least bringing in what we need to bring to support those programs uh is something we're continuing to evaluate in addition uh we um I mentioned earlier in the AFR um that fund balance is continuing to to grow and how do we leverage those revenues into in that specific fund that's relegated just to Food Service um to our fullest advantage and so we're researching um the benefits of being contractive ver sell Bop um ways like I've mentioned to reinvest back into equipment um and and seeing how we can leverage that those Monies to best support the district I think James has the 4.3 yes uh 4.3 our security updates so we're currently underway in our camera phase number two which is our secondary schools we have 105 new cameras distributed amongst both uh Middle Schools they're currently being installed and and uh sent online as we speak and then there's 164 cameras that's going to be distributed between both high schools um that order is in place and once our our technicians are finished with the installation at the Middle Schools they're going to be moving right on into the high schools um another phase that we're working towards is our uh traffic control traffic calming and so the first phase of that is the the speed bump analysis and so that's been complete and then the speed bump installation uh is is taking place throughout the district so we'll see that um over time all of our schools will be outfitted with strategically placed uh speed bumps to help control traffic and create a safer environment at parent pick up and and drop off and then our mass communications protocol for Emergency Operations um by way of informacast um that pilot process has begun and we anticipate um rolling that out gradually throughout the district uh for the remainder of the school year thank you any board comments or questions president Anderson yeah um Mrs Johnson Ro Fest did you how many did you say how many teachers we were short I know you mentioned just to special ed now right now that's that's what I thought I just wanted to make sure I understood that it was only yeah which makes me happy because I think last year we were in a different place yeah we've pretty much filled everything uh we may have some long-term subs and some positions based on people being out on a leave or something but overall we're doing really well we just filled a high school math and I believe no we didn't get the third grade but we will'll get that one so yeah I believe I got an email from Mr Dolan about we just hired a new algebra teacher correct for extra support so that's great because I know that's a very hard starting soon very soon very nice um thank you you're welcome and then I just had a question for um Jessica uh you said highlight each school on which platform on the they rolling out to highlight each school on what was your oh this the school specific communication so what we're doing is we're putting together branded um uh one sheets and supplemental material for each School site to actually distribute and also um it'd be used for the school tours um but we are also using that information and content to make um branded uh digital advertising a lot of our advertising right now is districtwide and it's for enrollment specifically Elementary um but we've also got um advertisements running that have say DLI programs highlighting those different um uh things that initiatives that are happening at specific schools that we can kind of call out and promote as well I love that thank you and I couldn't bring this up before because it wasn't on the agenda but you mentioned the business education breakfast and I loved that format it was the best that I I've seen and done especially attending other events like that so it was great and I thought it was very helpful in getting the community involved um with our schools as well we're hoping to do a similar format for our um spring with College and Career Focus I loved it thank you president Anderson um m Batista um I've had several people reach out and say certain things on the website don't work yes so we are still in the process of optimizing all of uh the pages of the website um we we you know launched over summer um with the knowledge that some of the work was going to continue to be done throughout um so we're still cleaning I'm I would say we are probably 95% there but um we've also um sent communication to our sites and we're receiving that feedback um so as we get those different um you know broken links or something like that a lot of the content um on the previous Blackboard website some of it um didn't migrate correctly and so we're going back and kind of retrieving and fixing those different things a lot of that work has has been successfully completed um but we are you know still receiving feedback here and there and we urge anyone who has an issue to come forward with it sometimes also it's a matter of the user having to clear their cash or clearing their cookies in history and then refreshing that website so that it's not pulling up that old website information is there a um does the site like list something where like for technical issues if um call here can we make that Avail like easily available so that if they do run into an issue they know who to contact or email by phone yes um our departmental address is the contact for the website but we can make sure that information is clear on the footer yeah that'd be wonderful thank you thanks and then I do have one more question for you um you mentioned the morn sad training um can you tell me how that's utilized how it's utilized how like their how the training is implemented it's in person while they're here on boarding and it's about a 30 minute training and it's something that we are mandated to do it's a mandatory training for all employees and then do the employees then implement it in in the schools in the classrooms is it all administrators all teachers all staff all staff are trained I'm more than sad yes yeah more than sad uh satisfies requirement from the Mitch warock act if you recall I presented maybe a year and a half ago or so to the board um we're obligated to present a suicide awareness uh training protocol that's prescribed by the state through project aware and um um the more than sad is the um the module that we've elected to use and so we we have to train everybody um the law dictates 6 through 12 that deals with students in 6 through 12 we've elected to go above and beyond and then this to all of our staff because as a K12 Unified School District we never know who is and who isn't uh exposed to sixth graders right so with that being said we it was a it's an efficiency step because we didn't want anybody to get lost in the shuffle because we do district-wide trainings to start the school year but we have so many employees that start after the start of the school year that it made it really hard for the schools to track who's starting when and who's delivering the training so now we can catch everybody really before they start at the orientation wonderful thank you one last one sorry Mr Moore I just have a quick question you had mentioned um you know everything's costing more are we in line with other districts as far as what we're charg for sports or do we have wiggle room uh really varies all over the place some districts do do a lot more uh supplementing from their operational budget in there and they've kept some of those fees low where then we have other ones that are probably double where we at we are through the course guide process you know we bring back a fee SC schedule to you for approval through that and we are going to be examining that and presenting that to you in November and then December as we take a look at where we're at thank you president Anderson um the fees for sports goes into the Student Activity fund correct or does that get applied to another account because in auxiliary or or tax credit however the parent designates okay and that's that's designated back to um a portion goes back to the athletic director to cover cost for game entry transportation of the game um equipment Etc and a portion goes to the program itself as well so when we get the Student Activity fund reports is that part of that's a separate fund that's uh Club monies oh got it and that's obligated to be reported separately okay thank you okay thank you again uh let's move on to uh we are at 7.4 the novel committee selection process with Mary Davis good evening um so I'm going to go over our selection process for the novel committee um all the details are up on the slide but I'll walk you through it so you don't have to read everything up there um our applications were open from August um 1st through August 21st um from there or during that time frame each school was provided with a um snippet of information to include in their newsletter that they sent out over that time period giving us a reach of over 15,000 people which garnered us 94 applicants which was a much higher number than what I was expecting which was exciting um and then we were able to very verify the um which applicants were eligible using the two um Criterion that we went over during our um board meeting at that time which was July 23rd I want to say um and those criteria were they needed to be an husd teacher um a district office staff member husd administrator or um an husd parent legal guardian or Community member that resides in husd boundaries and then as the application they also had to check that they were willing to commit to reading a novel every four to six weeks um that might be outside of their usual preference um and because we had so many applications um we did opt to do a blind selection or a blind draw um meaning that they were randomly selected put the names into a bag and Drew them out by their stakeholder group um and that process was done with seven members of our ed services um group um we were in the room for that um we then Drew like I said from each stakeholder group the number needed for that stakeholder um group we wanted to make sure we had equal representation between Community member and husd members um our goal like I said was to have that proportionate representation to get to that 28 members of the committee um so the breakdown of applications that we had we only had one site administr Ator apply so that person we automatically moved in same thing for three District staff members and then we had 10 teacher applicants um so then we drew from them to create that 14 um higgle Committee Member group and then the rest were all community members parents legal Guardians which is super exciting so we drew from that group to get 14 parents legal Guardians community members um we also have a chair which is myself and a co-chair which is Miss Miller um and that's how we comprise the 28 members of our novel um committee and then um president Anderson you did ask for an update of our um committee so far um we have met once for each committee um we met on September 10th for the 6th through 12th grade novel Review Committee the meeting was pretty easygoing because we just reviewed the purpose of the committee the Norms the expectation and we went over the rubric um that they'll use to review the novels as the requests come in um pretty much every applicant said that they would go for any grade band so we identify what grade band they would like to work with as they read novels and then um review um requests came in for new novels um um that week so I was able to assign those out um the books came in and so they're reading those books and submitting their rubrics so that we can discuss those um recommendations during our October 23rd um meeting so a week from tomorrow and then our prek through 12 supplemental material Review Committee met on September 25th same breakdown of how that meeting went um we did have um one supplemental material submitted at that time it's a K3 writing material um and I have two more that have been submitted at that time that I can now roll out to those um members are all very eager to get their hands into the work and start reviewing material um so that's where we are so far any questions president Anderson Miss Davis I'm trying to find my um list here but um when I reviewed the uh list of the 28 out of the 28 17 of them were staff members um and only I believe 11 um had no employment ties with the district so that was concerning for me because I I do want it to be equal um as far as the different categories um but obviously we do have employees that are also parents um but when you look at the the 28 members with yourself and Miss Miller being um chair and co-chair is um and then the remaining um there are 17 that are employees out of the entire list um to point of clarification um for Miss Miller and myself we will not be reviewing the novels along with the members we are there to facilitate the meeting um that is just part of how the committee Works um but we went through Synergy and we identified exactly who is a staff member and exactly who is a parent we are very clear on if you are a teacher you are a teacher you won't count as a teacher and a parent um so if you're a teacher you were a teacher first um so there are 14 um husd staff members and 14 Community or parent legal Guardians I'm trying to to pull up my list real real quick so I can okay I mean unless something changed from the the last employee list that I received um that I was able to compare to um I was able to locate 17 and and let me go back a slide it is an husd teacher there's a teacher there's a lunch a it's teacher is the category it's a teacher a office staff member from the district office or a site administrator we it is open outside of that we are only counting teachers in that count so if your parent outside of that that was open okay so three um weren't teachers so they are counted parents correct out of the 17 okay because yes there are categories where teacher district office site administrator parent Community member legal guardian those are our four categories okay thank you of course any other questions yes sorry um I was waiting for somebody else to speak in case they had to um one um thing that I will mention also for future agenda items but um for here I wanted to um to find out if all the committee members have been um notified of the state laws that apply to book selection and curriculum yes that was part of our first training for both both committees was going over all the the state laws that pertain to um reviewing the books and reviewing supplemental committees and that um on board docs we have a dropdown um for both committees where you can find our agendas and what we reviewed is in there and ARS 151 12.03 is in there as what we went over okay so is it just that one statute that is the one that is pertinent for our novels yes okay um okay thank you so much thank you and um just to put it out there uh to say publicly that the if you go to about husd correct and then you go to um District committees that's where you can find the dates and the information for this committee and then in board dos is where you can find the correct minutes and everything yes okay so so all information about the meetings the agendas will live in board docs and then the meeting dates will be um on the website under about H USD correct thank you okay let's go on to uh 7.5 the summary of board meeting minutes this one's um going to was requested by Miss re um are you going to be leading this one yeah I just wanted to be able to have a conversation with with the board um I've been seeing some repetitive questions in our superintendent reports um whether it's come up before or I really notice um after a board meeting that there's several questions regarding information that was covered in the board meeting so I wanted to give us an opportunity to have a conversation to see if there's a process that we can put in place that would help for us I know we used to get the summary of the board meeting um and I don't know if getting that again would help um but like I said I I've just noticed that there's some repetitive questions so how can how can we create something that that can help us find that information and if it was a in a board meeting if that summary would help try and help cut down some of their time answering the same questions or again that something that we had just covered in a board meeting so is there a process that we wanted to consider is there something that could help us president and I was just say Mr doesn't the staff receive a summary currently or do they still or I can't remember sorry yes the staff is receiving a summary but I don't want to put you on the spot but Christine sending that out right okay so is it the same thing that we would receive then I mean I know the first question was asking what this was so it's probably a good idea to have a summary I don't know if it used to be more detailed cuz now I feel like it's almost this was the agenda item here was the boat help me Virginia if I'm wrong it was more DET it used to be more detailed and now it's more like they discussed whatever and here was the boat and so if we need to go back to being more detailed we certainly can you know well we used to get that as well I think Mrs Ree what we used to get was was the same thing that the staff got which was more detailed yeah than I what I remember and like I said since the board questions the first one was asking about what this was then maybe it would be helpful to jog our memory during it we can do that for sure I mean if the benefit is ultimately saving District time so you don't have to repetitively answer the same questions I think also the benefit too is either we can just store them someplace but we can have it listed this board meeting on this one and that's the one you can click so like if you know there was a topic you wanted to go back to or whatever because sometimes looking at the agenda and then going through and like reviewing the video sucks so the idea of having that summary you know sounds nice okay um are you um president Anderson re um are you talking about just the superintendent report or what exact what questions are you referring to yes primarily the superintendent report when we get a weekly report that has board member questions I I'm seeing a lot of repetitive questions of stuff that was covered in a board meeting and so I'm wondering if we have the summary we I don't know if you ever received that summary we used to get ever seen a a good summary of what transpired not as DET well maybe similar to the minutes but it's not the minutes if that makes any sense and so if something comes up it's like wait we talked about that in the board meeting let me let me go back and so we had a reference point and that way we could go back back and reference stuff that was covered in the board meeting so that way we have a reference point that we can go to like board member Wade said that we're not reviewing all the video or something that we have a reference point that we could go back to that would answer our question if we can try and have something like that first before sending it to them that where we have some resources of our own to go back and reference right then and there are there are several instances where we do let's say discuss something at a board meeting and we request the information and then we don't get the information then it's a followup to get that information or if it's having a meeting um and requesting information and then not getting that information again and then having to request that information again so sometimes it gets listed multiple times because I still don't have the information that I've requested yeah I'm not referring to information that was requested I'm referring to information that was provided in the board meeting I I get what you're saying yeah I'm a little confused as to like what exactly like you're talking about which is why I at the top of my mind before when I asked for this that I I can't necessarily think of I don't know if anyone has any specifics um but it was something that I had noticed it's like wait we talked about this in the board meeting we you know that I'm seeing it wait this was covered in the board meeting this is the same answer that that we had in the board meeting so I'm just wondering because sometimes yes after a board meeting you're thinking about some things um and not it it was covered is what I'm saying and so if we have a summary or something to ref refence to first before we're asking cuz going okay we covered that topic in the board meeting let me see what it was okay so um as an example um prior board meeting there was a question about I believe Brain Pop and so I had asked a question regarding that specific item and the response to my question was we've already answered this well no the prior one was about Pebble go it was not about Brain Pop and so before I ask questions I actually search excuse me um I do a search in all of our board meetings because I can do keyword searches and things that come up and I can look and see at the at the meeting minutes what was discussed regarding items and if something doesn't pop up with the key word then I have to ask be able to ask that question okay but I never even said it was you asking the question I'm just I'm just giving an example so I'm giving you an example because you're not giving me an example so I'm giving you an example of a situation where there might be a repetitive question so I'm I'm explaining that that's one reason why um that might seem repetitive so I don't know what your example is so I don't I'm just trying to understand well I don't I brought this up what was it three so weeks ago so it was like I said at the top of my mind at the time I had requested it to go on there um and I I don't even know who's asking the questions that's why I'm saying that if there's something that we could a process that we could have that maybe help all of us review so if we have a question about what took place in a board meeting is there something that we can quickly review a summary asking if we want that summary again so I guess that's all I'm coming down to because I am seeing repetitive questions of oh well that was covered in the board meeting that was covered in the board meeting and again I just I can't give you a specific so I'm asking I guess the board if it would be helpful if something's coming up and we're asking maybe having a summary of that being easier to reference yes oh sorry I think so sorry Mrs go ahead no we don't have our control up there you know limiting us to two I was going to say ultimately I don't think an example matters so much as I think this would be a benefit right we may not have an exact example of a repetitive question at the present moment time let's remove the repetitive question from this this will still be a benefit for us so I think we should just do that if that's possible got it yes but if it's a topic that that's hit a lot though if it's if it's specifically the budget or if it's specifically the policy it's something then then that that would be okay then let's we're we need to maybe come back and and better explain or whatever but yes let's I like the idea let's get that back on track we can decide this because Christine's not here she'll be fine with it let's go on to uh our action items correct okay action item 8.1 um regarding the approval of the fiscal year 24 annual financial report I motion that the governing board approve the fiscal year 2023 2024 annual financial report and attachments as presented are there any questions or comments second Amanda all those in favor I I I motion carries five to zero uh 8.2 the approval of the Field Print fingerprint Services agreement um are there was there any discussion for this one okay president Anderson I just had a question about this and I didn't send it before but Mrs Johnson I think you're probably the one to answer this um are employees paying then for the service I was confused about the $18 then do they cover that or we cover that President anderon um no they will not be covering that what they will pay for is the cost that they currently pay for to get a fingerprint card the district would absorb that cost based on offering a convenient easy location here a service that we could provide to people that will speed up the the hiring process excuse me so they would come here and do their fingerprints here and we would have access to that information as well so it would speed up the process we would only be offering this service to volunteers coaches and applicants who are applying who don't have a card we're trying to um provide an additional service for that $18 and it will cost you know some in labor of current you know people here doing those we currently only do them for volunteers and we do them by Inc this would be electronic this would be a service that would be provided to people that are going to be either volunteering or working for us and we cover the $18 they cover the cost of the $67 paying the $67 we're just yeah they have that is a cost that we couldn't absorb at this time right um so we we would take on the cost of the 18 in the internal labor that to do those fingerprints okay thank you very much you're welcome president Anderson just throwing this out there I mean is that something that you would or that the district could consider offering as a service and charging people the $18 um James is g to go he's been working on this project along with um myself so so we've been working very hard to try to create um an Enterprise solution for it where we can set up shop as a fingerprint Center for anybody and then make it a profitable however Field Print has essentially two different models um one is that would be the in-house version that we're bringing for you guys tonight the other one though is contingent on their um region reps and they explore business developmental areas and they wouldn't put that with us because it wouldn't be profitable in their lens if there's another one somewhere close by so I really don't like to go to Higley and Baseline I would really like to go down the street I've been making a strong pitch that we have the warehouse we have the print shop we have an opportunity to provide centrally located Gilbert they're in New Jersey they they don't see Gilbert I think like we see it but we're still fighting to try to bring that to our school district as an option but right now our hands are tied they won't let us do that until they give us the approval so okay keep working Mrs ree I agree I think a lot of the government services has have gotten rid of it too that used to offer offer an in-house so it would be helpful president Anderson is this where I can second the motion no okay a motion wasn't made yet a motion yeah um I've emphasized before that um we need to scrutinize our spending and focus on Necessities rather than wants when the district is requesting an 83.1 million bond from uh million doll bond from the community it's vital to prioritize essential needs over conveniences while fingerprinting is necessary allocating funds for an on-site fingerprint machine may not be the best use of resources under such a large Financial askk the community expects These funds to go directly to supporting students and Educators spending $9,000 annually on a convenience service undermines that expectation especially when combined with a $2500 setup fee there are already plenty of available fingerprint locations and while scheduling an appointment May be inconvenient this is a small burden compared to the importance of ensuring that funds are directly are directed to the areas that have direct impact on students approving this agreement risks setting a precedence for future spending of conven ices rather than straining the budget um and shifting Focus away from the district educational goals we must ensure me and spending $9,000 annually for convenience I don't believe is it thank you we apologize for the backround music Mr Walker please remind me how far off were how how far off are we from possibly having that opportunity offer the services here it likely somewhat likely I it's really hard to say I mean right now they've essentially said no without saying it by being unresponsive um they' basically said don't call us we'll call you we have your number and if it's something that we find to be um beneficial for the organization so don't know but I think this if anything puts our foot in the door with the organization who knows but I I couldn't honestly answer that with confidence right now president [Music] Anderson um yeah I mean so obviously it can't be used as a revenue Source but at the same time I feel like if somebody's going to schedule an appointment to come here to get a fingerprint what's the difference of scheduling it down the street to go get their fingerprints um and um the minimum required is like 500 prints um and even with if we were able to cover our entire staff what would it cost us as um as the absorption of dat the fees and how is that beneficial so the $9,000 is the minimum we have to pay to them for the $18 times 500 people 500 prints basically is what you're talking about so we have about 700 volunteers a year um not all of them need a card because of the different tiers that we have as I stated tonight we had aund over 100 teachers and 240 employees hired a staff uh it is we believe that we would come close to that number each year depending on turnover um resignations Etc you know so it yes it is a convenience but it also um provides us with security in in a quicker fashion and we can get people hired faster if it's right here and we extend the hours we plan on you know looking at when people can come coaches coaches work during the day you know they're going to have to make an appointment at some point you know we'll look at the hours and what we need to do to accommodate the people who need these fingerprint cards some people come with them already others do not it it it brings us another level of security a lot quicker because without that card they can't they can't start working right and not put them in a job as of now well we haven't put them in the jobs but we would not put somebody in a job working for us without a cleared fingerprint card and background check and you know and we shouldn't um but I as I said I think there's so much we can do with $9,000 um and I think spending that annually um for the sake of convenience um I don't believe it's beneficial um for a district and um especially at a time where um we need to scrutinize um our spending um because we're asking the community for a lot of money and if um if that doesn't pass um this is a big ask because yeah we can do a lot with this money thank you m Johnson quick question um does this have any effect on how many volunteers we would be able to have in a year I know that there's sometimes or nothing I just wanted to probably not um volunteers at you know we turn people away because of the fingerprint costs like as far as no cuz as far as clearance currently we already um we are doing those in housee and sending them okay I'm sorry yes but I can tell you that process is very cumbersome yes I know I've rolled all the you roll them then we have to cut a check CU they don't take anything else then we have to mail them to them and that process alone could take 10 days before before they even get the fingerprints this way we could do them electronically they would go immediately and be done and within probably anywhere from usually one to three days we have results back so if we needed a last minute chaperone it could be possible absolutely it can be also in a sense that through Field Print we'd be able to have immediate um documentation of approval whereas now we're waiting for the card to get delivered in the mail and then you run into somebody lives moves and gets lost in the mail or they live in an apartment complex and it goes to the wrong you know all those things that can happen this way we have a direct connection through field front with the employee and we can get them cleared um and volunteered or on you know the sports field or hired much sooner with confidence that they're approved and they're they're in compliance with the background check through the DPS card president Anderson we also talked about at a board meeting previous viously um an issue with essentially sped and some of the outside busing that we do and a issue that another District had with respect to you know those types of things so I I do think there is some benefit not just wasted in terms of just merely convenience of having the capability of of doing it ourselves getting that quickly getting the answer quickly in order to fill these positions but fill these positions with the confidence of yes we can go forward with this individual based on the information we have um I recognize that you know the the cost of it doesn't necessarily seem like a benefit when there's other things but if we can't get some of the the certified or the classified staff that we have or the volunteer positions or or coaching those types of things we may lose people um in in in ways that we may not want to in that they aren't getting the task done they aren't going to do those things and so then we have to go someplace else start the search again Etc because that person fell off um and I think there is some benefit at least to being able to say hey yes you agreed now let's go into this other room and accomplish that task um so I think there is more than just convenience factor even though that's the large driving force of this there is still I think some benefit to the overall functionality because if we can't get somebody in there then we have to fill that position with somebody else at the present time subbing Etc and that's still leading to more cost president Anderson board member Wade speaking on the special edification piece with the need of par Professionals in our district we hire those based on student need not on you know any other reason and when we have to wait that 10 days and sometimes it's more than that based on where the individual has lived in the past that's 10 days or more of time that our students needs aren't being met and a lot of times on top of that that's a classroom disruption because that additional individual is needed in that classroom to support that student for whatever reason and so the convenience of this for the special education means that those students needs that have already been identified by an IEP team would be met much sooner and minimize the distractions in the classroom that are occurring because that student doesn't have the supports that they need thank you president Anderson um the incident that happened in the other District these employees don't even work for us so we can't even fingerprint them so to to compare that situation it's not comparable cuz we are using their services they're being fingerprinted by their own company and then doing a third party service for us um I get it convenience is great that's why we order pizza instead of cooking I get it um but ultimately it costs us and the bottom line is $9,000 annually this isn't just a one-time fee this is every year and I don't believe right now is the time to consider spending $99,000 when we've gone out and told our teachers that if you don't push this Bond and it doesn't pass your job's going to be cut or we're going to have to make Cuts we need to consider right now is not the time maybe let's see what happens with the elections and then come back to it um to to go out to the community and ask for millions of dollars and go we want to spend $99,000 a year because it's convenient for us I don't think it's practical and I don't think it's fair to our taxpayers and our community members and so because of that I I think that we need to hold off on this um and see what happens but I I truly don't think it's fair to to say you know let's let's make it easy because you know we can't keep doing what we've been doing all these years um and spend this money that's all president Anderson what what was the determination on not charging them this this $18 because you want to work in this field you pay it and and I'm not saying that saying that to say you pay us it's when I use fieldprint I have to go somewhere my fingerprint card doesn't cost me just $67 costs me $85 or $89 is what it is I think because there is that Associated fee so why I mean I think that that's definitely great to be able to I agree you have them here do it um but I why would we look at at waving that when if you're going to work in this field you're going to have to go somewhere and I I am concerned about the 500 because how many really really come with of our teachers and everything how many people are we really hiring that don't already have one many of our um many of our classified staff do not have a fingerprint card if they've not worked in education before so to to meet that 500 every year because they're good for six years we hired 240 classified staff so far this year and you some had some didn't so yes I won't deny that I mean that's that is true right so I mean even at that that's that's half yeah um we do have tier 2 and tier three volunteers that we're already doing um that we already do their fingerprints with ink and mail those in 10 days later or whatever um so you're talking about parents that go on field trips right you know shop around during the day things that when they're going to be with the kids for long periods extended period of time of course of that would help and that those were already doing so that would just be added to that number I get you know um why not charge them to 18 I mean we can but again we want to create an environment where we're helping our employees like we did with the CPR and the first aid we can make them pay for that but this is a benefit of being an employee here is we're going to help you by giving you the right credentials that you need to and these are our low you're talking about our lowest paid employees our hourly employees mostly that need this service so you know they might have to wait two weeks before they can afford to pay for fingerprints we can give them the option of having it taken out of their paycheck too if we want to that's another benefit to this as well but we could do the same thing if we were charging them the $18 we could charge them the $18 absolutely I agree I think that this is definitely something to explore I'm just and I hear you about the benefit um again we're trying to attract people here we're trying to get people and give them the smallest of benefits I I don't I don't I I understand what you're saying and if it's if the board wants us to charge the $18 back we can we can charge them the 67 plus the 18 that's probably what you paid right 89 or you know whatever it is we can charge that fee back to them like I said my bigest concern is convenience is it's just here instead of having to go down the street my biggest concern is that 500 requirement that yeah and we thought about that too but we think we can fulfill that each year at the current rate of hiring you know be and our volunteers so we've got volunteers and hiring and we hire throughout the year we pay for background checks we PID a a lot of money for background checks and have that done we're not we're really not asking them we're asking them to pay for the card um and not the fee at this point but if the board is inclined to want to pay for the fee then we can do that as well if the concern is about the 500 and meeting that number then I mean there's there's compromise here absolutely president Anderson Miss Johnson uh so what happens if we don't meet that 500 we still have to pay for it it's a minimum requ um I mean yes we we want to make it convenient for our employees but you know do we do we provide housing for our employees do we you know pay child care I mean there's so many things we can we can do um to make it life convenient for employees but when when they apply they know the requirement is to have a fingerprint and so they that's something that they just have to do so to say we're going to lose employees because we put this requirement on them um and they can't get it here so they might just quit no they applied for a job they know this is a requirement so they're going to have to go somewhere and get the service like they've been doing all these years um so you know we can do do a lot of things to make life just very convenient um like I said you know put little Cubbies outside that they can sleep in and they can just wake up and be right at work but realistically speaking you know we are spending taxpayer money and we need to make sure that is it needs or is it wants and in this environment we need to make sure that it's absolutely necessary um and that's that can I just share that it's just not about convenience it's about the hiring process and Expediting that hiring process is important to our administrators to have those people people in the classroom whether they're special ed or just gen Ed or a new assistant helping somebody or registar it it's it will expedite the process of hiring so is it a convenience fee maybe is it Expediting and retaining and attracting people I think it is so this is something that we've looked at we feel that and I say we because we have thought about we talked to all the HR staff that we'll have to do this work because it's not something they currently do um other than the volunteer fingerprints so I believe that it will expedite our hiring process and give us an advantage in that in that in that way and is it worth the money I don't know that's why we bring it to you that's why we let you decide can you can you remind me it's been a while when they go to places and they get fingerprinted wasn't it at some point in time where they could just bring you the receipt the paperwork and say hey I got printed and that was sufficient enough and then they could begin their job um yes and unfortunately um we've had issue with that so we are no longer allowing them to start their position until they have their car makesense they are cleared yeah that makes sense so that is something of the past today and it will no longer be done okay until they are officially cleared and that we can see that and we can prove it um they do not stop okay and then um I just found out over break because my fingerprint card was expiring and I needed to get it on the brink and I thought dear God I got to drive down to wherever it is I think it's in Mesa was the one and uh but now I can just do it online the re RS are now online which is nice but it used to be we'd have to come back in and get printed again so um that that takes away some of the numbers you're going to have your initial prints and then that's it there's no more and so I see where our numbers um could be affected or just meeting that requirement if we're being if that's what we're holding on to is an issue well there's not many places that do the weet prints anymore because when you go through the DP s website to renew your fingerprint card it is online and it takes you right right to Field Print and then it tells you the different locations you can go to and you set an appointment and you go and it takes two minutes because you get a you your application's filled out online and you go in their electronic it takes 2 minutes if you have Cooperative print but um the last time I and I hear you on the not the last time I did mine like I said it was at higgle and Baseline Little mail place um by the time I got home I already had an email that it was completed and done and my new card was being sent because the electronic is much faster yeah same here like I was like oh that's that's great great Mr Walker where is that other location at are there cross streets for that one I I don't know at the top of my head no I I haven't looked to see that when I got mine it was at uh kirene and Hardy so I mean it's yeah that's not close so yeah the closest one here is higgle and Baseline that that I know of when I did mine two years ago okay um I motion that the governing board approve the agreement with Field Print for fingerprinting Services second Amanda seconded all those in favor I'll say I I you said I all those oppose n n I'm sorry was that a n a n and a n okay and it's a a for b as well so motion fails sorry let me have to take my notes real quick okay president Anderson can I just say something that if they could the motion could come back with $18 it might be something I don't know to consider that okay I think that's that's valid thank you oops moving on to 8.3 the consideration of possible selection of superintendent search firm Are there any comments or questions I mean we we're g to we're going to go through it but um I just wanted to bring up the um I I talked to Miss Richards um earlier and asked about you know what would it be like if the in-house was considered not and it doesn't have to be fully in-house but maybe there could be more of an involvement of our Administration this time and are there any firms that are versatile like that and so I would I would like to put it out there that hey is that something that when you go out for the search if if the board likes to say um do we have a more flexible team or or firm absolutely yes we can um go out as a requirement of the quote that we would like that to be a collaborative search committee of both the board members if that's what you're asking for is both the board members and some administrators is that what you're asking for I wasn't thinking board members but if that's if that's what other board members would like I was just thinking more of cabinet um and being involved with the firm but it's open for discussion right now of course can I interject and just say in some of the discussions that I've had sometimes they'll come back with different models or whatever for you guys to look at like let's say it's ASA I'm just using that as an example they might come back and say hey here's a Model A District choose where they they the board worked with cabinet or District administration at this phase that phase or whatever so I'm not suggesting anything believe me I think if we're gonna if we go with a firm I think we can tell them what we want I didn't know if it existed if you know I didn't even know that was an option with our last experience um well I think that can always be discussion and saying these are the this is what we want this is how we want the people to be involved this is the process president Anderson I'm a little confused as to what so you just want the the search process to involve Administration it I'm open it can be just that part it can be more more involved in other parts as well I just I just wanted to say we if there was an option where we didn't have to fully rely on a firm and and just be given information if we had more people and our team involved um this time so are you just asking because we've done that before are you asking primarily that our HR department handle the process that maybe the firm feeds us people I I don't have the big picture Vision I just wanted to bring forward an idea of this time instead of solely being the firm if there was a way to involve that they could work with the firm I don't know at what point in process I I just there was it was just an idea if there were any firms out there that were flexible and like Miss Richard said maybe they have some things some plans out there like hey this is how we can involve your team then you might be able to decide you know we we like this firm this group or whatever and then get down to what it looks like but I haven't done it either so and I'm not coaching you guys but I think we could get information and bring it back to you so you could have a discussion off track okay I I I think we can figure out how all that works once we determine a firm yeah president Anderson I think you're asking to because it would save us money as well I would think if we're just using partial Services I know that Mrs Johnson previous ly you talked about that it your expertise you we would prefer to have a firm come in to help but if it's something that could save us money as well so I guess you're asking uh the HR department myself to um go ahead and get quotes is that yes yes yes please okay with different types of models is that correct yes okay and we did start last time we started in October correct uh we actually started a little bit sooner so we're a little little behind at this point but not terribly behind if we move forward soon okay and I just ask that we do not do what we did last time where we were put on the spot at a board meeting when we were not expecting to be got it thank you I motion that the governing board requests The District administration to acquire quotes for conducting a superintendent search second that was Anna for a second all those in favor I I motion carries 5 to zero future agenda items um we had already had a request maybe it goes in status for the 40th Day ADM information um are there that was yours correct that 40th Day um average daily membership but that might be to status was there any other items that we wanted to add or request for discussion I do have a couple more um so I would like to uh discuss all laws related to curriculum and book selections there's actually a lot um and just the process of you know um the laws that relate to board member approval um of these things um and so I'll send a list of all that I was able to find um and then we can go from there um another item is the counselor policy um and then um sorry I would like to um look at um like a sample of the vector training if possible yeah I mean we can figure out a way I mean there's multiple modules um kind of if you can be more specific about exactly what you want to see I can we can make it work figure something um maybe just go through a couple modules just to see like you know what the training looks like what kind of um information that they're sure I'm just curious and I I just it'd be good to see it um and then another question I have is um I know uh Department of v um superintendent horn has a new SRO Grant and we've talked about this all the time but I I really want to see if we can um get some of this grant to um to help pay for the SRO even if it's for a year um and I know it's first come first serve so if we can see if we can take advantage of that and how you know if they would be willing to give us this grant to cover knowing the situation and just knowing how much Queen Creek is charging um so well we're working towards that as we speak so we've already been in contact with Chief Bryce from Queen Creek and also with uh the grand application process so oh perfect so I don't know if you'll have enough um information back in time for the next meeting but at some point um I'd love to discuss that that's all I have any others uh moving on to adjournment I motion that they we adjourn this meeting second that's Amanda for second all those in favor I I motion carries 5 to Zer good night everybody or almost good morning just kidding

e e e we move back into Open Session can everyone please stand for the pledge the flag right there I pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all all right does anybody have anything to add to the agenda can I please have a motion to approve the agenda motion second Ash Tiffany all in favor I any oppose I just have it academic Spotlight M oh yeah I will all right um I'm gonna turn the mic over to uh Dr bian colana to introduce the elementary okay all right good evening everyone we're very excited to be launching what we're calling an intergenerational volunteer program uh last year uh we had a delightful intergenerational volunteer former teacher um who came in um each each week worked with our students was a great experience and um so uh I had a chance to get together with Marcel draal who was the host teacher and create uh work together to create a program um that we could use more widespread throughout the building uh since the pandemic you know volunteers have been coming back in slowly but surely um which is really working to our advantage for our children so Marcel is going to take a few minutes to share with you some information and uh she has a a couple of guest speakers as well so Marcel Draco hello okay so determining our why and everything we do is super important especially in the realm of Education um it helps us make sense of our purpose and gives us Direction it guides us to make a meaningful impact with that being said the why of our intergenerational program um is to increase Civic engagement between Generations promote crosscultural um a awareness and provide resources to students that may otherwise be inaccessible Our intention for this program is to redefine roles at each stage of life and create ways to strengthen um the bind that ties us so meaning we are responsible for one another in our education so here's our plan we're on step two and three we started with um finding interest so we took surveys of um parents Guardians family members and of teachers and there were there was lots of Interest which um we were excited about after we found that interest we started assigning roles so we paired volunteers with teachers based on their interest for example small group reading time small group math time um just spending quality time even with the kids pen pals clerical work all kinds of opportunities um and now we are having a joint participation in regular activities for a fixed period of time so it'll last all school year um with these pairings um eventually we want to do a community outreach um so we can connect more with the community outside of Big Hollow um and have that back and forth communication and now I want to introduce Liz Hunning the one that sparked um the interest of this program so welcome Liz Honey hi um I I was a career teacher 40 years in both the public and private sector and as a te classroom teacher I always had help in fact I even had Korean TV in my classroom and they got to learn the culture and I feel it's really important that our kids don't always have the opportunity to meet grandparents or older community members and I think this is a good way and it teaches them respect and they can learn from them I have been my life has been enriched being in Marcel's room today I walked in there and the kids had painted a pumpkin for me I mean that was that's a beautiful gift but the kids come up and they will you work with me today will you listen to me today and it's it's really good for the kids to reach out and Trust adults we need that trust in their kindness so and of course I was there for my Charlotte okay go ahead I really liked it because Miss Henning was a really good teacher and she made it fun for us to learn I think having a visitor in the class is fun because grandparents can make things funner thank you very much that was very all right and then just a little bit of research um with this program um we found or they have found that it improves self-esteem in students um Behavior improves reading skills and academic engagement and that is all does anyone have any questions thank you for taking a risk trying something new very cool awesome all right accomplishment recog Mr Gold Miss Mullen do you want to come up and start with primary we're going to introduce some students and employees of the month real quick here and I'm going to turn around and invite Miss jany up to introduce our primary student of the month okay um I am proud to announce that the P Primary School's student of the month is my amazing student my first grade student ker panid Singh can you come up here koned [Applause] and I wanted to sh stand here hold it carefully um kpan comes to school each day with a positive attitude and an eagerness to learn he has excellent participation during instruction and he always shares great ideas with the class especially during math time kpan is a kind and patient friend to his peers he has done an excellent job learning our classroom routines and expectations and sets a great example for his classmates kpan is a wonderful example of a Big Hollow star [Applause] Dr beon colana okay I'd like to First Call up our uh this is elementary student of the month and it is Grayson Grayson Gentile so come on up Grayson a round of applause and then I'd like to call up um his teacher Mrs Michelle Connelly who nominated grayon for this award so I'm not as uh young as Miss jany so I need to put the glasses on so this is this is Grayson he is a star student in every way he works hard in class and wants to learn he participates in every disc and adds on to what others are sharing he's a great listener not only to teachers but to peers he helps classmates when they're struggling academically and socially he's taken on the role of Mentor for a new student in our class and for a student that needs a little extra um Grayson was not asked to do this he just saw a need and filled it so I'm proud to be Grayson's teacher and so proud that he's the elementary student of the bun [Applause] Mr Cornell good evening everyone I'd like to call up Miss Kelsey Zach to recognize our student of the month at the middle school us okay um my name is Kelsey Zach and I nominated Phoebe so Phoebe can come on up um Phoebe after I nominated her I found out two situations that happened Phoebe actually won this award in sixth grade correct yes and she was running against her fifth grade brother Nash this month so that's actually pretty hi Nash pretty exciting um so I nominated Phoebe because for our first month of first month of school she's been a shining example of what it means to be a big Hollow Warrior both in the classroom and outside of the classroom um so she follows our expectations of being safe responsible respectful um in activities not just in the classroom and in the hallways so she's constantly pushing herself to be her best best version um she's involved in many things throughout our building including epic buddies which she works during our epic period with our Lop students so our students who have special needs um choir soccer geometry Advanced Ela um I feel like I'm forgetting something anything else you do njhs okay um she's kind to all of her peers all adults and even her brothers when she sees them in the hallway right Nash and Finn yeah she advocates for herself and is very inclusive with others we are excited to see Phoebe and all of her accomplishments this year as an eighth grader keep up the great work and keep being a role model Warrior [Applause] okay I have our employee of the month and I'm going to tell you he's very nervous about this tonight so Francisco Paco is what we call him Paco is one of the hardest this was an anonymous post or recommendation is one of the hardest workers I've ever seen it seemed like he doesn't have an off switch he's always moving and not at a slow pace he always has a smile on his face and will always stop to say hi I can tell you the I can't tell you the times I've have seen him stop what he is doing to help someone else out either by opening a door or help carrying a box he takes great pride in his work and it shows on the elementary side we are lucky to have someone like Paco on our facilities team also nominated by a teacher who states Paco has been wonderful he is consistently cleaning all afternoon and evening he stops to help students who are in need I have watched him do that several times and I can just say um he's a joy to have in our buildings um and we are glad to honor him tonight I told him he had to give a speech but I promise you we won make you do that come on up [Applause] Paco yeah yeah yeah thank you everybody for uh how me um I like my no no too much to speak English but I like it my thank you everybody that's [Applause] great you can see why everybody likes Paco so much all right well that's all the exciting stuff you guys are more than welcome to stay but if you would like to leave that's completely up to you um you're welcome have a good night don't I didn't know he was going to talk we're almost done we have two more weeks left basically we've been having all right we'll just keep moving on yeah board member code of conduct review Brian you're up what am I doing now you got to read it out loud okay I was strive to keep my board focused on primary work of clarifying the district's purpose Direction and goals and monitoring District performance all right does anybody have any questions on the consent agenda can I please have a motion to approve the consent agenda motion Second Joe and Doug yes yes yes yes my report superintendent's report Mr right all right uh item a is the uh just some information for you District leadership team we actually have a meeting coming up this week um it's a group of teachers administrators from across the district we meet three times a year I shared with you the objectives that we talking about this year it's just an update uh item Item B is a uh an exhibit 10 is Health Life Safety annual report we had a inspection done this fall um actually I will say it was probably our best one in the last 10 years so we did it was a good good inspection um they commented on how how much progress they feel like we've made in some areas um I've we've already responded to all of the issues every one of them was minor so uh Derek uh swerski did a really nice job getting ready for that and uh we feel like we've we've come a long way in a couple years so uh item C I'm going to let our building principles step up uh we do you guys can go ahead and come on up um we do uh annual School Improvement planning and each of them has spent a lot of time working on their school Improvement plan for their particular building um I believe we have this set up right I should have checked beforehand exhibit 11 is the indetail school Improvement plans for all three buildings what they're going to share is just a quick summary overview of that so we're not going to go into all the details but what you'll see are the are the uh in the weeds details of each School Improvement plan they will keep that plan in front of their leadership teams throughout the year um and that those are things we're focused on throughout the year and then in the spring we will take a look and see uh once we get assessment results back from the I it helps us dump uh feed information into that plan we'll find out figure out where they ended up with their plans so I'll let the principles take over all right so Mr Gold said a lot of what I was going to say sorry that's fine um so each of our three buildings are using the goals from the district strategic plan and we created our building level School Improvement plans from those goals sorry thought we' easier into it you know first time so our building leadership teams and grade level teams uh have already been analyzing data from various assessments and we'll continue to do so including I map uh the kids assessment and gold uh we'll also continue to use fastbridge a tool that we adopted last year to more regularly monitor students progress toward their goals and make adjustments to instruction and supports when necessary uh specific targeted goals and action steps will be set at each building level based on the assessment used in each grade level so we're currently in the process of analyzing the I results and taking the teams through that so we're setting goals around that currently and then they'll do the same with the other assessments at the other buildings um as has been the case the past few years the teaching and learning team and building administrators are facilitating a thorough I analysis they actually took place today uh for middle and then in addition for grade levels that do not take the I assessment we are setting measurable goals using our map growth to ensure that we are collectively working to improve our I scores which begin in third grade and then more information about the specific strategies and implementation plans as Mr Gold mentioned can be found in your in each building School Improvement plan okay and then our second goal um just similar to the the first goal but first goal is on focus on academic second goal is on culture and climate within the building um each of our buildings um we focus and continue to focus on um how we can foster empathy and a sense of belonging in each of our buildings um fortunately a couple of years ago we established some baseline data which has been very helpful to move things forward for all of us um looking at the humanex data that we obtain from our staff uh staff members uh five essential survey information as well um from both staff members and parents uh and then our PBIS uh School climate surveys that we um uh solicit information from our students and uh we use that information obtained from those surveys uh to create our very specific and measurable efforts um any plans any new plans that we might um generate uh for you know as each year comes comes along here um the whole Focus being to have a positive impact on the community's perception of our buildings being safe um secure and inclusive uh learning environments for our students um and then if you wanted to take a look and you had any um questions certainly we're happy to answer those but taking a look at our school Improvement plan really drills down to what each of the buildings are um offering and um as uh action steps and and goals and all of that so any questions at all very good at the end of the month the State's going to release the school report card for the districts so we actually have I could I was wanting to present that this month but uh it's under we can't do it till the end of October it's under like uh um forget what they call it but the Press can't release it yet so uh next month we'll share our school report card results which includes I from last year and those kind of things that's all the data they're going through right now do you guys feel you have the resources you need to get some of these goals are pretty admir they're pretty lofty I mean it's good to have those but I'm just saying you guys have the resources you need to get what you want done done yeah I mean the instructional coaches in particular are I mean our the coaches in our building as you guys know it's year two and they're fully booked for round one of teaching of uh coaching cycles and we're already taking people signing up for round two so that's made a big difference in people improving their instruction we've got PD coming from outside side so we can give the teachers you know the skills and knowledge that they need to to move the needle so yeah definitely awesome thank you so much appreciate it item D I've uh shared with the board we the uh School violence prevention program Grant we received $500,000 award uh this month we were notified last year we thought we were going to get it we were hoping and uh but what's happening now is uh that there's been a lot more interest across the country in this grant so it's very very much uh very competitive um so we were one of 10 districts in Illinois that got the grant so it was very good to hear that um we have uh projects underway that I will be talking to the uh building the facilities committee soon um we are I'm working with the architect right now to drop a um request for proposal for uh window film Project which would basically be uh um what we're looking at is all interior windows and all first level exterior all first level exterior windows with a uh window film that um I mean bulletproof wouldn't be the right word but it would be it's it's basically going to uh provide that Ty that type of security um and then also a door lock new door locking mechanisms across the district on every door uh it would become a key fob situation instead of hard keys and it would be uh controlled through the network um through Bluetooth technology and we would be able to lock things down from a device uh so it's just another security layer that we're going to add so those those projects will be covered uh by the Grant and I'll go into more detail in the coming months as we uh before we approve any projects it'll come to you so any questions on that all right residency update just real quick I thought I'd bring it to your attention in case uh uh it comes to your comes your way uh in the community but we are we we are doing a deep dive into residency this fall uh teamed up with national investigators and uh it's a group that will they take our database run uh our addresses through their database sorry their database and um they're determining if we have any what they would call Red Flag situations and they're visiting homes double-checking make sure parents or kids kids are coming from homes that live within our district and uh we've been navigating this for probably six to eight weeks and uh we have a significant number of families right now that are under question I would say we're uh above 20 would you say Melissa yeah above 20 families so that would be number of students would be higher than that so uh we we're still some have withdrawn our already some are we may have to go to residency hearings and that'll involve the board so um just want to give you an update on that any questions on how we do that or yeah what is if they choose not to leave the district what is what are the options protocol what is it that's a great question because I've not um so what we'll have is we'll have a residency hearing if they and then we will determine that they can't can or cannot attend um what I haven't ever had happen is if they refuse to leave after that we probably would just have to go to some Extreme Measures if they showed up we'd probably have to have somebody take them back to their like law enforcement or something I've never had that happen but uh um we're at that stage right now where we're getting ready to determine what to do next so resident to hearing or are you going to with just withdraw yeah then uh the ISB resolutions committee um this would be new to uh Brian uh everybody else would would know a little bit about this but the Board conference there's an i the IB has a resolutions meeting and uh in your packet it's exhibit 14 there are some decisions that we have to make tonight on guidance to give viven Vivien is our is our uh our representative so she will attend the meeting and she'll vote how the board determines the uh the vote to take so um I I can lead us through this com this discussion trying to on the uh they have several uh resolutions that they recommend that we that you do adopt and and let me I guess I should clarify what you're going to do is tell Vivian where the Board needs to vote on these and she's going to vote ISB will determine which way that vote goes with all the representatives and then it still doesn't change anything as far as any laws there's no it just change it tells I ISB where they want to advocate for change so um there was uh five six areas dual language ebf which is evidence-based funding tax in tax increment financing there was Faith law Health Care coverage and polling place those are six items that they put in there I don't know if you had time to read through all of those but they recommended that we do adopt those did anybody have any uh questions on any of those or um I read through them I'll say and none of them them are alarming to me that the the ISB should put their all right I agree okay Tiffany when you read those was there anything that was like you were surprised about or that you okay yeah there was nothing for me either uh the HealthCare coverage one is interesting uh getting all public schools able to pool together for health insurance would be interesting I mean if they can pull it off it'll be great yeah yeah so the bigger the pool usually the better your rates so um I don't know if they'll be able to pull that off but so I guess I maybe the way to go about this is does anybody have a problem with uh the recommendation if the ISB to adopt to vote to support those any of those in those that first six otherwise we'll have Vivian just go with that okay and then the no the no adops were uh cell phone and uh their I think isb's uh position on that was to keep this as a local decision local that was their position um the Office of the Inspector General I don't remember what that one was about that was to make sure that all the money is being spent correctly and all that yeah but I mean they said leave it a local decision doesn't the cell phone Ashley cell phone are you talking about yeah I mean then we don't have to worry about dealing with it oh yeah it's a good point I mean I think it's something yeah the way things are moving it may get to that well State there's like several states that already did seems like it's going the schools are getting landed through whatever decision you're right yeah I mean we already have ours we do but I think it would help other schools I mean if they did a state ban then it would help other schools not yeah do with it but um the office Inspector General I that one I don't I just I don't remember exactly uh why we would nothing was alarming of that one Faith's law their rationale was um I read that I was guess it was just kind of confused in general so like we hire an employee they they come here with a clear background they're here for 10 years they get arrested for domestic battery yeah they don't tell right their ad in any part of AD a chance that could happen so you have no there's no like continual I guess for like us our driving records get sent to our employer every month yeah which comes up if we're arrested pull over anything like that automatically because I get teachers don't have that I didn't no we don't so once they apply for position right we do the background check then that's it right you're done forever you're done forever right kind of the question I'm not sure of is if there's some uh sort of like uh misconduct that is a a legal misconduct that would prevent somebody from teaching I think there's a process in place where is there State Board of Education notified but i' I'd have to check on that because we've had that happen where then it gets to us through the back door we didn't know something happened and they comes back through the State Board of Ed so they must they have something in place but I honestly don't I'd have to research that a little bit this the faith law is new and what it does is every time if every time if you apply for a job in a district um and we hire you we have to reach out to your prior employers and they fill out a form that says you've not had any it's basically around sexual misconduct they've never left a job or been accused of or sexual misconduct at a prior job that's new okay and uh I think they're trying to streamline that to make it easier um uh because it is it's a lot of paperwork that flies around right now and we're relying on districts to um get us that paperwork and they don't always do it so uh so it says they're rationale for uh not supporting it says committee members determined that conducting the ehrs which is the process to get the paperwork for current employees could cause confusion impose legal and Collective bargain challenges for school districts given these challenges these employment decisions are best left at each Local District and attorney so yeah so they were wanting us to get basically do the same thing for all employees at this point which we that would be very difficult to do but uh to Kevin's question I would need to do a little research to see if there's something that could happen legally with somebody that we not become aware of it's possible so that one I need to do a little research on well do you guys want to keep this at do not adopt what do you want I just don't understand why it would be a bad thing to be able to review your staff I I don't yeah I don't understand why they're saying no I mean I see why they're saying it because they're saying workload but we come up with issues that we for the safety of the student why you yeah let me do a little on that I's aess I think they're saying that I think yeah I think they're saying it'd be difficult to impose that on all districts but could we make that decision yeah yeah I'll do a little research on the feasibility of that uh on our end as well and then criminal background check was for for board members school board members right that should be put on the the county clerk should yeah yeah like this I think that's what they were thinking too County clerks are in charge of the ballot if doesn't want to pay to run back that's her problem yeah you run me go [Laughter] ahead is that the last one then yeah yeah okay the are not present so I'm going to do a little checking on the Aaron's law okay okay Faith law Faith law yeah Faith law sorry all right so we got Vivian's ready to go um and then I just the last one is exhibit 15 uh I won't make Dr Pitman present on this but it's uh uh from ISB the performance report that we did meet meet expectations on that so thank you Dr Pitman for your leadership over that uh there have been years in the past where we've had failure on that so we're very good there very good and that's all for me all right anybody have any questions on the September 24 employment Report with the addition can I please have a motion to approve the September 2024 employment Report with addition motion second Doug and joeff oh it all [Laughter] good yes yes yes yes yes yes anybody any questions about the school maintenance Grant can I just say one thing on that real quick the um because I didn't get the facilities committee together uh I will soon we're going to meet in a couple weeks within the next couple weeks um but in this this is the $50,000 and we match it so it's $100,000 project so we have we plan on doing one more classroom which we've talked to the facilities committee about at Primary Elementary one more classroom construction inside and we'll probably going to stop there so uh that would be next summer that's usually about a $70,000 project and then uh I we really have been wanting to do this for a few years but we've been having trouble getting a uh any companies to help us with it I don't know why but uh we really want to make our playgrounds eventually accessible to all students we have students that have uh are there in wheelchairs and they can't access our access our playgrounds so I finally have a contractor who I just actually met with again today he gave us a proposal I mean it's a big proposal so it's something we're probably going have to phase in over a few years but I figure while we can get some matching money maybe throw pieces of that proposal into it so we'll I'm going to meet facilities committee and and see if there's we can take some of this matching Grant to do part of that pro project so uh we have an increased number of students that are in that situation when they can't access our playground say it's really hard to see at recess for so one of those playgrounds over there new since we since Co we have put money into those to uh fix them so one of these proposals is going to be uh one thing that can make them immediately accessible is just taking out the mulch and putting in the uh if you've seen the playgrounds with the rubberized surface they could at least wheel out there and be out there with their friends and stuff right now they can't even get to the they can't even get to it because it's all so that's that's one I don't really want to take down to Ash's point we put a lot of money into fixing those playgrounds so I don't want to take them out right but we can get rid of the mulch first and put in those uh rubber the rubber they did that at the township at Grant yeah yeah Fox like to did all access I have not talked to him but that's this type of stuff we're looking at yeah yeah yeah so that's what we're looking at I'll talk to the facilities committee about it more all right anybody have any questions on the school maintenance Grant can I please have a motion to approve the school maintenance project grant for 2025 motion Joe and [Laughter] Tiffany yes yes yes yes all right anybody have any questions on the audit report I do have two hard copies if anybody would love to take one you can very well done yes very well done report was very very good for those of us the board on a while it they didn't always used to be very good so they're very good now thank you all for everyone for your hard work thank you can I please have a motion to approve the 23 24 audit report motion second Doug and Joe yes yes yes yes yes yes um we accepted a resignation from Heather adamy Elementary lunch monitor we accepted a resignation from Jessica Walters food service worker do we have any public comment no um anybody any questions on the foyer request one question yeah so that request for evacuation plan doesn't include our safety loc it we didn't uh they requested but we denied it okay because of that reason okay so we didn't give them anything okay okay yeah anybody questions monthly reports for the board no our next regularly scheduled board meeting will take place on Monday November 11th 2024 with Clos session beginning at 6 pm and Open Session be beginning immediately following Clos session can I please have a motion to adourn motion second Ash and Tiffany all in favor I I any poos

e e testing testing 1 2 3 testing 1 2 e e e all right I would like to call this meeting to order for cre mon School Board 201u regular board meeting December o Tuesday October the 15 2024 6:30 p.m.

[Music] launch your podcast Journey at waca studios are you ready to elevate your podcast idea at waca Studios we're dedicated to helping individuals and businesses transform their podcast dreams into reality join our community and learn from season podcasters while experiencing the magic of podcasting firsthand during a live recording session the community media center of Ashlin will hold an open house on October 22nd from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. the open house aims to honor the dedicated volunteers who contribute to waca TV's programming and engage community members interested in exploring the behind the-scenes workings of local media what you'll discover how to create engaging audio and video content ways to connect with your audiences on a deeper level and strategies to grow your brand and expand your reach a special thanks to Marathon Deli for generously providing food and sha Liquors for generously providing Refreshments we hope to see you all there [Music]

[Music] hello hell everybody Welcome to calling all kids I'm your Storyteller Jennifer Temple and I'm so happy my friends at home are watching and joining us today but I have three very special guests that are here and let's find out who they are hi my name is Kaa hi Kaa hi my name is Brady hi Brady hi my name is Rose hi Rose I'm so happy the three of you are here today and you all look amazing in Halloween costumes are you getting ready for Halloween yes yes you look great ke who are you dressed up today with i a witch you look like a great witch and Brady who are you I'm a ninja wow what a great ninja costume and Rose who are you today I'm a chef well you look like a great chef and I'm so glad that you're here and guess what you came ready because today our books are going to be about Halloween are you ready yeah all right let's start with our first book it's it's called trick or treat smell my feet that kind of a silly top a silly silly title yes it and it's written by Diane de Gro let's find out what they mean by trick or treat smell my feet have you ever heard that saying before yeah it usually goes trick or treat smell my feet give me something good to eat are you going to say that when you go trick-or-treating this year oh my goodness we'll have to see what the people say if they'll still give you candy or not what do you think all right let's read our story and find out what happens this is Gilbert and he is our main character and let's find out what this book is all about here we go this is Gilbert and this is his little sister Lola here we go look Gilbert I'm a ballerina Lola twirled around in her tutu it's for Halloween she said said what are you going to be Gilbert held up the mask he was making and said I'm going to be one of the Martian space Pilots Captain zigg but don't tell anyone I don't want anyone to copy my idea Lola suddenly stopped twirling I want to be a martian States pilot too she cried but I just finished making your costume mother said you wanted to be a ballerina you don't have to do everything I do Gilbert said your costume is nice if I were you I would be a ballerina you would MOA asked sure said Gilbert but I'm not you I'm going to be Captain zigg you ever heard Captain Zig before no no look he's making quite a cool costume here the next day was Halloween and Gilbert ped his Martian space p pilot costume into a paper bag so that he could change later at school for the Halloween parade do you have a parade at your school yes we do oh great so you can connect to what Gilbert is talking about Lola copied Gilbert and put her paint ballerina costume into a paper bag too here too little to go to school said Gilbert I'll take you trick-or-treating when I get home okay okay said Lola I'll practice she held up her bag opened it up in front of Gilbert and said trick or treat smell my feet Gilbert answered I don't want to smell your feet ew said Lola that's what you're supposed to say in Halloween Gilbert said Lola laughed and sing trick or treat smell my feet Now give me something good to eat here's a treat Gilbert said and he dropped a piece of toast that he had just been eating into her bag is that what you want to get when you go trick-or treating a half eaten piece of toast I don't think that sounds too good but they're just practicing where they yeah after breakfast Gilbert grabbed his paper bag and headed for the door goodbye Gilbert father called from the kitchen we'll watch you in the costume parade at school so this it sounds like the parents can come and watch the parade can they come and watch you at at your parade I think I don't think it I don't think there's room for all the parents Lola followed her brother and said I want to be in a parade too you can come and watch Gilbert said I'll wave you remember I'll be the one in the Martian space pilot costume so he has his little bag she has hers and off he's going to school Patty here's Patty was waiting for Gilbert at the corner what are you going to be for Halloween she asked Gilbert don't tell anyone Gilbert whispered but I'm going to be Captain zigg I'm going to be a martian space pilot too said Peggy said Patty I'm going to be Admiral Zena hey Gilbert said being a martian space p it was my idea I guess we have the same idea Patty said I hope no one else does do you like when everyone has the same kind of costume or do you like everyone to be different different if everyone had the same costume like it wanted be took a treat that's right it wouldn't be as much fun would it look at here we all have different costumes on right it's fun after lunch Mrs bird their teacher stood in front of the class and said boys and girls principal Pines will be leading the parade today we will all line up in the hall and then March single file out the school entrance and around the school block stay with your class and if you see your family or neighbors you may wave to them but please do not leave the line then when we come back to our classroom we will have our Halloween party sounds like a fun day doesn't it now you may line up to get your costumes on Mrs bird said but quietly Lewis lined up behind Gilbert so this is Lewis here's Gilbert he waved his monster mask in front of Gilbert's face trick-or treat Gilbert laughed and said smell my feet everyone snickered and laughed except for their teacher Mrs bird leis Gilbert please go to the end of the line she didn't like like that part about smell your feet were they just being silly yeah yeah they were the last ones in the boys bathroom and some of their classmates were already in their costumes Gilbert counted five Martian space Pilots oh no everyone's dressing up like he is I'm Captain zigg Frank said in a deep Captain Zig voice I've come to save your planet well Frank said it looks like there's a lot of people that have the same idea as you Gilbert they all wanted to be captain zigs and this one here he looks kind of more like a monster doesn't he yeah that is scary when the other boys finished dressing they went back to the classroom not Gilbert he wasn't excited about his costume anymore he wished he had thought of something different he didn't want to be like all the other kids and be Captain Zig but it was too late right cuz he's at school and has his costume he opened his bag he closed it quickly and blinked his eyes hard he opened it again and looked inside he wasn't looking at his captain Zade costume he was looking at Lola's ballerina costume what do you think happened she swapped it yes did he take the wrong bag he he's like oh no gilbertt pulled out a frilly pink tutu this must be some kind of trick he said he shook the bag and a half eaten piece of toast dropped out remember that was the treat he put in and this is definitely not a treat what do you think he's going to do he's going to be mad you think he's mad let's see Gilbert thought for a moment if I if he had Lola's costume she must have his costume and she is probably wearing it right now waiting for the parade Gilbert needed to get the his costume back from Lola before the party started but he didn't want Mrs Bird's teacher to catch him outside without a costume on she would think Gilbert forgot to do his homework and bring his costume to school and she'd already gotten mad at him once remember when he was fooling around in line so Gilbert put on the tutu tugging it as far as it would go because remember it was kind of small as for his little sister tugging it on as far as it would go then he picked up the paper bag and tore out two holes for eyes what do you think he's going to do with this bag and he made two holes in it oh like a put it on his head to make it look like he's not actually like 100% a ballerina okay or he's just trying to cover his face yes like a mask cuz right usually at Halloween we might wear a kind of mask good idea oh no it's because like if people like know he has a ballerina costume he's gonna get humiliated but like if they don't know who's in the costume they're like it's just a random guy all right let's find out I like your great ideas here we go and he picked up the paper bag and tore out two holes for the eyes it wasn't exactly a mask but at least it was a disguise he didn't want his friends to see him dressed as a ballerina here be bis when Gilbert stepped into the hallway his class was already passing through no one recognized him so he followed them down the hall and out the door can you see him here yeah and do you see is there Lola over there yeah yeah there's Lola looking no one recognized him he the street was lined with people watching and waving and taking pictures Gilbert looked up and down the street cutting in and out of line but he couldn't find his sister anywhere hey quit pushing someone yelled it's not me a TOS space pilot said it's that person in the paper bag please stay in line a teacher said Gilbert recognized Mrs bur's voice behind him then he heard another voice he knew look daddy Gilbert's wearing my ballerina costume and she has his Pilot costume on right the swap costume up ahead he saw Lola standing next to father and she was wearing Gilbert's costume hey Gilbert she called and she waved Gilbert looked around to make sure Mrs bird wasn't looking and because would she get upset if he left the line yeah and he rushed over and grabbed Bola I need my costume quick said Gilbert give me mine too said Lola stay with your class boys and girls the teacher said Gilbert grabbed Lola's hand and pulled her back toward the line with him Lola thought she was going to be in the parade with the big kids but Gilbert pulled her right through the line and headed for the school hey where are we going said Lola some place where we can switch costumes Gilbert said quick this way but Lola wasn't very quick she kept tripping over the two the twoo big costume cuz she's wearing her brother's costume so it's a little too big have you ever tried on something it's too big and want trip it she kept tripping over the costume by the time they reached the classroom they were out of breath Gilbert pushed the door open and there was Lula standing in his underwear hey wait till I finish let's get changed come on maybe we can go into the other part of the classroom and change there said gilber they ran down to the hall to Mrs Bird's room they had just reached the door when Lola tripped on the two big costume and Gilbert tripped on Lola and they tumbled right inside the classroom in the middle of the party uh-oh what do you think's going to happen he's like going to be b k you think they're going to be surprised Gilbert's paper bag mask had flown off everyone was staring at him and his chooo Gilbert did the only thing he could think of look at what he did he stood up and twirled around the room raised his arms up and said Tada there was a long silence Gilbert Frank finally said what are you supposed to be he's a ballerina silly Lola said as Mrs bird helped her to her feet and I am captain Zig Patty said well G Gilbert at least you didn't have the same costume as everybody else remember that was his worry throughout the whole story he didn't want everyone had the exact same costume and did he have the same costume being a ballerina no no of course not gilber said I wanted to be something different my sister here wanted to be a space pilot like everyone else but not me he said proudly then he twirled across the floor to the refreshment table and what do you think he said soon father appeared at the door to take Lola home Mrs bird gave her some pumpkin cookies to take back with her trick or treat Mrs bird said handing her the bag guess what Lola said smell my feet Lola said to the teacher she passed Gilbert on the way out are you still going to take me trick-or-treating tonight Gilbert I guess so he said and Gilbert what said Gilbert this time when we go trick-or-treating I want to be a ballerina no um and you can be the Martian space pilot no so she took her father's hand and she left and guess who's going to be the ballerina tonight trick-or-treating him Lola and what is going Gilbert going to be he's going to be Captain Z Captain Z they'll be in their other costume and here they are in their costumes that they made and do you remember what they said can you read it with me trick or treat smell my feet give me something good to eat what do you think did you like that story yes do you think you're going to be saying the same little rhyme like they were seeing in the book maybe maybe do you think Eon would would like that little saying about smell my feet now some might not like that like Mrs bird the teacher didn't like that oh you did a great job that was kind of a fun story wasn't it I just hope you're careful and make sure you don't mix up your costume with a brother or sister or a friend are you ready to read another story this one starts off a little spooky cuz at Halloween is it kind of spooky we wear spooky costumes and it's dark out right this one's called Annie was warned I wonder what she was warned about what do you think oh I think it's like some Haunted Mansion maybe a haunted mansion maned great haunted house is scary but Haunted Mansion is like next level is that even scarier yeah do you think Kaa maybe she's scared of a haunted mansion yeah let's find out Amy was warned okay let's see here we go some kind of fun dark pictures I like so here we can see Annie walking down the stairs at night I hope she has a flashlight or something do you see something Rose side oh no do you see something over on the side here look like Mom and Dad or something you think it's their parents maybe in the shadows maybe I hope so on Halloween night Andy sneaked out to the creepy old Montgomery mansion do you think her parents know that she's sneaking out of the house onow try I see a the face like there's a black face in like a big Shadow yeah yes I wonder what that is is it a cat or could it be ghost it's like a mystery character let's find out Annie's parents told her to go told her not to go and go back to bed it's got bad at the Mansion they warned her bats don't scare me Annie said Annie's big sister said you should stay away from the Mansion it's full of creepy spiders oh I like spiders Annie said Annie's friend James nodded that place is haunted all right he said with a shutter then he grinned I dare dare you to go do you think she's still going to go yeah they're trying to tell her don't go don't go she doesn't want and she has a flashlight and she's going by herself she being brave yeah let's look here Annie was warned so what was she warned about um like don't go to the mansion right I see some ghost so did you see the ghosts here yeah do you think they're going to jump out and say Boo I actually think that at the end of the book she's going to figure out that all the stuff was like a fake or something let's I like how you're already predicting let's see so she's walking down the dark street but Annie wasn't scared nope she's looking she what's that she sees a couple ghosts yeah she's on the dark Street heading to the mansion she stole down the quiet street the moon was shining the wind was howling the tall trees swayed in the breeze and Annie wasn't afraid of anything after all she was born on Halloween night so what does that mean she's not scared of anything she's like scare prooof yes her birthday is the same day as Halloween so that mean today is her birthday wow I mean like so she has lots to celebrate right Rose her birthday and Halloween so maybe that's why she's not scared do you think BR it's actually bad to have a birthday in Christmas cuz people just say all the presents you get count for one thing oh and not just your birthday yeah well let's see so maybe this is why she isn't scared cuz she was born in Halloween let's see out of the corner of her eye she saw something black black fly guy was it a bat you think it was a bat ah here's her but there was only a cat licking its paws so it's like the Shadow from from a cat and not the bat why is it a cat Annie turned the corner and crept across the churchyard oo I think I'd be kind of scared going through a graveyard would you yeah something tickled the back of her neck was it a spider do you think it's a spider Andy spun around quick it was just the leaves falling from the [Music] trees she's getting closer to the mansion she's overreacting do you think she's overreacting yeah let's see the Mansion loomed large in the night Annie thought she heard Whispers was it haunted does it look haunted Rose yeah looks a little spooky yeah I'm pretty sure that like someone actually lives there and like it's haunted on the outside so like people don't try and Rob it do you think it's like a real house in the inside yes do you think so I thought there's going to be ghost you think there might be ghosts in there or Rose do you think it's just someone who's going to give her some candy when she says tricker treat nope let's see Annie took a Jeep breath and began to climb the stairs one by one she saw signs that said scram shoot stay away danger don't go any further keep out is she going to stop now after she see scary signs would you stop if you saw these scary signs i' stop I would too would you when I saw like a bloody sign like you know that bad I would run what about you ke would you stop let's see if she stops I'm warning you whatever you do do not open the door or else should we not open the door just end the book open or should we open the door are you ready hold on to your seats are ready she open the door surprise happy birthday Annie what did they do they do her a birthday party on the Haunted Mansion yes they gave her a surprise birthday party in the mansion and does it looks spooky inside the Mansion now no no it's all her friends dressed up for Halloween so that's where they go and they have a birthday cake and there's the candy corn candy that freedy you said you liked all of the the the scary stuff was just to get her like to come there do you think that was cuz you knew that she was curious let's see what the nice page says Ah it was the best scare she'd ever had and do you think she had the best birthday in Halloween ever yes what a fun story and what a surprise at the end she was worned but she was still curious and wanted to find out what was going on love it well we it's almost time for us to say goodbye but I want to read to you a couple of trick-or treat poems do you know what a poem is yeah yeah what's a poem ke it's maybe like have R there might be rhyming words in it is it as long as it's a story it's usually like not that long yeah it's shorter and rhyming so let's start the first poem I want to read is called Hollow started making some poems did you write some poems love it and this is called hollow's Eve this means it takes place the day before Halloween the day before Halloween are you ready the wind is howling the leaves are blowing a sliver of moon is barely showing the whistling wind plays an eerie song while unknown known fiends cast Shadows long and goblins and ghosts and other ghouls Haun the dark where Terror rules with shrieks and howls and make believe let's howl the night it's Hollow Eve wow good like the monst do you see the MS rest up here oh do you see the Shadows up here is that what you mean ka yeah yes really fun story now now I hope you all have a wonderful Halloween and when you go trick-or treating at Halloween time what kind of candy Kea are you hoping to get I hoping to get fish oo that sounds yummy I what about you Bri what kind of candy candy cor and NS ooh do you want to get them mixed together or in two separate boxes two separate boxes oo yummy Rose what kind of candy are you hoping for Rees what is it Reese's Reese's yummy and you know what kind of candy I would hope to get butter fingers butter fingers so can we look at the cameras and wish our friends at home a happy Halloween we say happy Halloween happy Halloween and thank you to all my friends at home for watching and joining us for our Halloween stories today I hope you have a wonderful Halloween and have a great time trick-or treating getting your favorite candy this is Jennifer Temple saying goodbye until next time thank you for watching we all leave goodbye to our friends [Music]

so please join us then for the uh continuation of the student conduct policy review other than that I do not have a report all right um I just want to wish everybody a welcome back I hope everybody enjoyed their break even though it was not cool um during the time it did not feel like fall um hopefully this weekend it will feel like fall um so I hope everybody uh rested and everybody's ready to come back I love second quarter it's always my favorite quarter because you have like the most days off and it's broken up really nicely um so second quarter is always my favorite all right we will move to superintendent report Mr Man thank you um I'd like to reiterate uh both the um welcome back from fall break and of course the congratulations to Mr Gutierrez so very welld deserved honor um in addition to that I'd like to just you know kind of give a round of thanks to some of our support teams because I know um a lot of times when there's things like fall break you know people are away but our support teams are here you know making the magic happen behind the scenes um so that way the resources and the tools are there um when we you know when those who are not around on fall break return from fall break um we kind of Leverage those windows of time when the schools are quiet to do what we need to do in those spaces and kind of in that same vein this week is also national school lunch week and so um with National School Lunch week upon us um I know our nutrition and wellness team um has some plans to promote the importance of the school lunch program and the impact that it has on our students both inside and outside of the classroom um they're actually running some specially decorated cafeteras some special menus this week and they've got a theme which is school lunch Pirates find your treasure so hopefully um that will be fun in our schools and uh we really appreciate that team and all the hard work and effort that they put in into making sure our students are getting a healthy breakfast and lunch that helps keep them focused on their learning and that is all I have for today thank you uh student outcome Focus governance we will start with Goal two progress monitoring report pass it over to Dr dupin all right y i I just wanted to set a little bit of framing um and I don't know if we can get the the actual sort of report up so folks can see it but um the goal two for us is very similar to goal one in that it's tied to both fifth and E well the goal itself is tied to eighth grade mathematics the interim measures are tied to Fifth and eighth grade so our current measure is eighth grade focused and our um interim measure is fifth grade focused and um the difference with this particular goal is that it focuses in on a specific subpopulation which is our black students who we identified we are not providing adequate supports to to help them be successful um in passing the ASA exam so um this first report is obviously based on pre-test data so we're not going to really see the the impact of the measures that are being put in place this year to begin to create movement but it does give us a baseline um as the original data set does it does raise some concerns and it also gave us the ability to sort of dig into that subpopulation and take a look at you know what specific needs might be there and how we might best serve and support those students to create improvements and so um the team will dig into that a little little bit more I know there was a couple questions we received prior to the meeting that we'll be addressing um as we review the progress monitoring report and I just really W to thank our team um Dr pombo is not with us tonight she's on the road um but maray twist was kind enough to join us she's she's our in-house math expert and we are talking math tonight um and the insights that we received from Dr dupin Tyson Meyers Dr pombo um and Marie are just really setting a framework for me of understanding why what we're doing is so important because if we weren't digging in on the subpopulation we wouldn't have dug into the data to the level of depth that we have and made some of the discoveries that we've made which I think will allow us to not only address the specific needs of this group of students but the way that we're approaching it will help us in addressing the needs of other students as well so when we've had our conversations and setting these goals about yes this is very specific to one group but if we do the work right All Ships will rise I think the types of learning and discoveries we're making are really ultimately going to help us um with this specifical and then also further to help create improvements for for All Ships so sorry it was way too long of a frame Eric originally I was trying to stall for the presentation to come up and then I got carried away with myself so so I will turn it over to Dr dup the first thing that I wanted is a volume check to make sure because I know last time I wasn't projecting well so is this is this better all right thank you everyone good evening Miss SS members of the governing board and fellow members of the executive team um this is our first progress report on goal two which is to increase Proficiency in math for black eighth grade students our goal is that the percent of eighth grade black students that score proficient on asasa math will increase from zero% in August 2023 to 28% by August 2028 and I'd like to provide just a little bit of context and framing to Jay's point about I'm sorry to superintendent man's point about our our this group of students it is a very uh unique and diverse community of Learners so when we we've actually gone through and looked through all of our data to understand who these students are and what I can share with you is that 63% of our black students in grades 5 and eight are new to our district in the last two years 21% of them have immigrant status and 15% of them are emerging multilingual Learners 24% of our black eighth graders are participating in our new algebra one2 partnership program with Phoenix Union High School District so that's that's the just some of the basic learning that we've been able to accomplish as a result of digging into the data and learning about these children and who they are what they represent we know that among those students who are emerging multilinguals they also represent probably five native language groups so it's a it really is a very diverse population akin to our our indigenous students they come from all over the country they were they have diverse aspects of identity different language backgrounds some of them have Urban living EXP experience some have lived on the various nations from which their families hail and so as a result um unique Learners and a unique profile of needs so it's cool and interesting to know uh just the the profile that these students bring so I just offer that as context as we move forward with the rest of the conversation um just briefly remind me again with that partnership are the students going to a Phoenix Union School and taking it or is there a teacher coming to them I just can't recall Miss twist that would be a perfect I would be delighted to a two minute summary um it'd be my pleasure to give you a two minute summary of our new algebra partnership I actually just finished up a meeting with the Phoenix Union teacher and our high school liaison 8th grade algebra Liaisons at each site about an hour ago and it was really exciting to get to meet with them and see just how passionate the teachers are about providing this opportunity for our students so we have 59 students at all of our schools except for Larry C Kennedy since they only go through fifth grade and builtmore prep since they are currently able to offer algebra as an in-person option so this is an opportunity for all of our students at our other schools that we don't where we don't have critical mass to be able to offer a full inperson opportunity just yet um it is an online course it's fully asynchronous and self-paced it's through the Phoenix Digital Academy at Phoenix Union High School District it's on Edgenuity which is the platform that we're using with the Virtual Academy um there is an iners there's a live teacher Miss Castile through Phoenix Union who supports the students she gives feedback she grades the work but the course really is self-paced so um in nominating our students the first thing we did is we looked at all of our students at all schools that were either proficient or highly proficient as possible candidates but then the next thing we did is we opened it up to the people that know them best which were their seventh and eighth grade teachers and we said okay we are looking for students who love math are highly motivated are self-driven and are looking for those High School opportunities because one of the things that we heard from Miss Georgia the principal at Phoenix Union and Miss Castile was that even for students that don't successfully complete the class it's a really positive opportunity for them it gives them more confidence when they do get into algebra their freshman year um and for those who do complete the class they don't have to take the placement test the algebra qualifying test through Phoenix Union they automatically get that credit which qualifies them to start geometry as freshmen which we know opens up the pathways to calculus as seniors which opens up the pathways to those highly competitive outof state universities that offer full ride scholarships to a lot of students like ours um this course is not in place of their eighth grade math their eighth grade math is their first priority and teachers know that know making sure that they have that strong Foundation as eth graders but um there's a couple of different ways that teachers are running it some teachers for example um M Ooa at the Katon Academy is working on a Model where te students take the module assessment at the beginning for their eighth grade math they're taking that first little module assessment as a preest and then if they have already mastered a lot of those skills they're able to work on their online course during the school day for most of our students this is something that they're completing on their own time and outside um we've also worked with the IT department to ensure that students have the necessary paperwork in place to be able to request to take home their iPads over weekends and over break to work on it so it's really exciting we're just getting started we are stumbling through parts of it we're learning a lot um but it's a great opportunity for our kids and we've already started to start to figure out how do we collect a little bit of data about the qualitative experience so one of the things that I asked our teachers to do today was to look at their list of students and do a personal check-in with each one of those 58 kids to see okay where are you if you're a little bit behind Pace right now what do you need to be able to move forward thank you so much and as Dr dupin said we have um six of the students that are in the program are from our black population awesome thank you so much for sharing all that I can't believe that they are doing it on top of eighth grade math curriculum um that's a lot of work to sign up for so kudos to them it is it's estimated to be about an hour a day five days a week it's about five hours a week I mean if you get everything the first time I was an algebra repeater so I know well then we we appreciate that clarification because one of the questions when Dr dup and I were talking earlier today was we initially didn't know whether it was in lie of and the concern I think when I talk to miss MC cheffrey you one of the concerns is like are we missing these eighth grade standards while we if we have five kids that are in this goal group right and all of the kids that are eighth graders in there are in our you know uh current measure group then are we also kind of shooting ourselves in the foot because they're not really focusing in on those eighth grade standards but the beauty is they're both focusing in on those eth grade standards and taking this extra layer so sounds like a the only person one is at BPA okay was there an inperson one at mon Vista last year I don't Valdez or the year we haven't offered an in-person one since before Co interesting okay wow I'm really glad thank you much yeah I'm super glad to hear that we're doing this um I have been asking for this for a long time we did have it at excellencia once because a teacher was able to do it it's really been like if there's capacity in a teach teach's classroom um and you know I just want to remind everybody I don't know six years ago we shortened the school day by 30 minutes I mean this is great um because I mean some families have the resources to offer enrichment you know tutoring um but this is great that they have this option to get online and do it at at their at their own time yeah I mean I'm sure it's it's uh challenging but I'm so glad that we're offering this so thank you everybody and I think in addition to the skills I mean you're already they may be I mean if if you're able to do an asynchronous program like this and have the self-starting stuff I mean that's going to be payoff in college as well um I mean let alone high school but yeah well it it may position those students to also be able to take some dual credit courses in high school that certainly to them otherwise because I know a lot of those are available in a similar format so we're very we're fortunate for our team putting the hard work into it but we're also fortunate to Phoenix Union as a partner District it's been a conversation for a couple of years to figure out how we could work together to do this and um it's just awesome that it's you know coming to fruition now because as everyone has pointed out in this conversation the challenge is always us being able to have the Staffing to offer it but if we have a partner District that can help us overcome that hurdle then we just need to be very thankful for our Math teachers that are willing to take on kind of juggling all of that and our students who are willing to take on the extra hour report so and thank you I say I just want to double down um that it is a great opportunity I know I don't even know how many years ago when I worked here we were looking at starting some online classes and algebra W was one of the um points that we were starting with because it was hard to do it in anyone site um so this is amazing and I was thinking to like the you know ability to do the asynchronous classes that is a skill in and of its own it requires a specific type of learner um and I know beyond the Phoenix Digital Academy like Phoenix Union also has pxu city which is more of a hybrid program that can give students a really personalized path so I think this is amazing thank you think so thank you and I also had another question Dr dupin um what was the percentage of the students that were eel sorry we got caught up and everything else that was I can answer that mergent language 15% of Fifth and eighth graders Y and there is just another piece to point out this is a dynamic population of students that we'll have to be mindful of um Mrs twist and I were talking just before the meeting and she let me know that in her analysis going through our roster of students there have been some changes just in the just since returning from break so so that number will fluctuate give or take as we talk uh through this goal and that's a function of just the overall size this is a relative small population within our students which is why it's such an important population to watch closely and support specifically now I know it's not going to I'm not asking for anybody to qualify anything or ask for anything like that but I I think it would be interesting to keep that information at hand i' just be curious when we get to the end of the five years what that fluctuation looked like over that over time in terms of the transiency of the population that's a great point and I takes me back to our study session when we were talking about you know kind of the difference between the population and the changes over time so that's a good segue into current measure and the interim measure so that interim measure focuses on this year's fifth graders those who will be the eighth graders in 2028 so I think every time we talk about that group of kids we'll be able to to specifically say well this is how many were with us in 2024 this is how many are with us at at this point in time and we'll be able to look at those students and potentially even now we won't be able to do it with like great we'll have to be careful because the numbers are so small but we will be able to likely in general terms say this is these are the similarities or differences between kids who've been with us the whole time versus kids that have have recently joined ouro I mean yeah you certainly would want to know if the entire population turned over too like that's a huge that would be a huge deal I mean not that that's going to happen but I think that information would be important it it it's not likely to entirely turn over although it is possible and now knowing the dynamic identity attributes that exist within this group it does invite different conversations about how we create meaning and connection with these families because in our research to date to ex to to to bring the community of black students into school there's in into um like a sense of excellence in school there's so much about the power of belonging feeling seen heard known by name um in our work just last week Mr Man and I met with a professor at Northern Arizona University that Mr gutieres introduced us to and he shared his personal experience of his father being an immigrant from Nigeria Nigeria so he he himself grew up in the United States but in you know as the child of immigrant parents and he described to us the the sort of intersection of of being an immigrant being a language learner and then growing up in that environment in the United States where where Blackness has a particular set of cultural attributes and and behaviors and even you know languages and ways of being and moving uh through community so that was a very eye openening experience for us because our population of kids and families kind of matches that multiple identity community no and I really appreciate that because the intersectionality and all of those layers are so important rather than you know we typically say a subgroup but it's very rare that one human child or adult represents only that specific subgroup so I just really appreciate that because we have kind of um decrease the SI the sample size that we're looking at that it's allowed the ability to really Di in and get to know you know what's working and what's not based on all of the layers of who these kids are so just a reminder we have the current measure which focuses on our eighth graders this year and we'll monitor that um throughout the year and then we have the interim measure which focuses on our fifth graders and we're talking about making you know small percentage increases in their proficiency during the course of this year so again because the population is so small it's it's not advisable practice to publicly report um in when you're talking about groups that might be less than might be 10 or fewer so I can't break down for you by school the specific numbers for just our group of black students because again the numbers are so small so I do share however the all student group so this is all of our kids together and what it highlights for us is the fact that there is not a massive disparity in on the post test how our black students in grades five and eight were I'm sorry on eth in 8th grade our black eth graders were scoring on that initial assessment in comparison to the rest of their peers districtwide so we monitor that for kind of proportional representation and again because they can't break out individually by school due to small numbers so when we consider uh the percent our current measure which is for eighth grade black students that score proficient on the DNA math benchmark assessment to increase from zero in May 2024 to 4% by May 2025 what we've observed and you can you know see the pattern it's been extremely consistent um that the the passage rate has has remained on all the assessments very very low um what we don't know looking historically at this data back through the prior years is the degree to which Mobility played a role I can't tell you with these kids how many of them were through you know have been with us um well throughout so or were with us for multiple years of instruction as eighth graders so but however the the pattern is very very clear um we did uh the percentage of our eighth grade students that scored proficient increased by 4% between ibm2 and the post test last year and so now we need to make a similar kind of increase this year in order to meet current measure 2.1 so that suggests to us because of past performance on this assessment that we are on track to reach current measure 2.1 by the end of this year so in considering our interim measure 2.2 and the percentage of fifth grade students scoring proficient in math again this is all students and you can see the same level of performance exists when we group all of our students together and then when we look specifically at our black Learners you see the same kind of pattern uh being present that very you know non-existent passage rates uh across multiple assessments across multiple years with the exception of the post test in 2223 when we did have a 5% passage rate there so the per the percentage of fifth grade students scoring efficient increased by 5% between ibm2 and the post test in 2223 so that does indicate to us kind of a sense of possibility around this goal uh but to incre to reach interim measure 2.1 by May 2025 we need to increase proficiency by 6% you know between now and the end of the year so because we don't have prior data to indicate that we've done that we are currently not on track to reach interim measure 2.2 and we have some proposals tonight or some strategies in mind that we'll talk about what we're going to do in response to that I I know that the last time we had a jump we had a different curriculum we weren't monitoring in the same way there's a lot of um additional variables there however was there anything in analysis that came to late that might have indicated why we saw a job honestly I know so much has changed that it's very app oranges there isn't U anything that comes specifically that I could offer as a as a definitive uh reason why that increased it could have come down to especially because of the small numbers it could have come down to the specific expertise of a teacher on one of the campuses um it could have come down to the impact of ongoing tutoring or effective instruction on a couple of students that had had acquired math knowledge in the past beyond that it would be pure speculation so in terms of you know what do we so what now what um as we discussed during the study session we did bring this data to our um to our kids Congress and we didn't speak with them explicitly about about black students in 8th grade we talked with them about math the kind of math learning experience overall and ask them for feedback and insights on their learning experience so the some of the things that they told us are that the teachers are trying very hard and they're providing instruction and practice and I can't stress enough how um complimentary the students really were of their teachers by name you know really recognizing the hard work that they feel their teachers are putting into to math classes they also indicated that Hands-On learning and the and the use of manipulatives is is very infrequent they don't they don't get that kind of practice now kids Congress is fifth through eighth graders so this is our Target group and we know based on our observations and practice that manipulatives you know blocks cubes um diagrams dice those are um tools that are commonly used in younger CH with younger children but are often not as present in the upper grades but we know now that we know that students in the upper grades benefit from those concrete examples as well so they can build their conceptual knowledge and then generalize so that stood out to us um as as valuable information and then they did describe um the the impact of long-term subs and the teacher shortage so they were very aware about the difference of having a teacher who's like their teacher and who's there every day versus a a a long-term sub even if it even if they're there for a while or certainly a daily sub and some of how that was described was that you know they know those teachers are trying hard as well but they don't feel like the other students maybe engage in the same way or behave in the same way and sometimes the behaviors actually create a distraction that prevents them from learning in classes where they don't have strong a strong teacher presence with strong management and strong relationships So based on that information we also inquired of you know based on our own observations and the information provided by our students we know that curriculum use is becoming more evident during the learning walks that's one of the things that we're looking across all of math instruction um to observe and we're not we're observing more frequent use of our adopted instructional materials Miss michaelb as you mentioned we do have we're in our second year of the the new Adoption of in maath um we're building our skills we building our awareness of those resources and it is becoming more evident um we have used the datawise process to identify a focus on increasing the use of success criteria ac across all grades and content areas and so learning walks for second quarter start again this coming Monday and we're going to continue to to monitor the use of that strategy and then support our teachers through the coaching process and through our assistant principles and principles to to do that work so what needs more attention for the future and this addresses the kind of where we're not on track greater awareness about the current and interim measures and annual targets need to be built with with and among our teachers so that means equipping our principles assistant principles our directors ourselves with with talking points and tools so we can go out and have the conversations to make sure everybody is aware of this priority and this focus and then the building of a sense of belonging for our black students that have been identified um to show them that they do belong in their math classes I think the algebra example is a really good one because again in this research what we discovered is that when students are highlighted because somebody thought to nominate them for this extra rigorous opportunity that sends a strong message of belief it sends a strong message of empowerment and then that in and of itself can motivate and Inspire those students to to do the hard work of the learning Miss Gibson mlan as you pointed out this is this is not easy for for kids to do and so taking on that challenge of those those that extra learning time is important so we're looking at several specific strategies um for our students specifically ideas include making sure that all of the lessons include what are like Windows and mirrors the concept of Windows and mirrors meaning in math problems that students get the opportunity to have a window into the lives and experiences of people who look like sound like and have lived like they have lived and then mirrors allow them to see themselves reflected in the content so that might mean a recommendation to purchase some differentiated instructional materials that are we we did establish a uh criteria when we adopted into maath as making sure that it did have culturally relevant examples but they might not be specific enough to this very specific group of students so I in continuing our research dug into like well what what can that look like and we got into some fascinating examples about how things like like like real phenomenon like subprime lending and how that has had an impact a disproportionate impact on communities of color um you know the high costs of like like the check cashing businesses and those kinds of things allowing students to Grapple with some of those real examples that they may have heard of may have seen um or may be aware of as they've navigated just their daily life could be of value um so that's just an example the way that interest rates work the way that interest rates are are sometimes unfairly distributed across Stu people of color and are um you know just biased quite frankly toward people of color those are the kinds of things I'm not saying that this is exactly what we would do but they're examples of Windows and mirrors that can be placed into um into learning experiences into curriculum that can help students feel more relevant and feel more more engaged can I ask a follow up on the students um is there a plan or talk of how to increase Hands-On learning and manipulatives that is this is such a fresh analysis that that's where we need to go next um so our our plan for that is to really look at the content of our professional development plan particularly for teachers of math grades five and eight and kind of start there and then unpack what's what has been planned and perhaps make modifications to to what has been planned you know our our instruction tends to focus on like the use of formulas the application of of like things you would memorize but not necessarily that deep content knowledge so we need to adjust the PD plan to set us IDE some of that and integrate some of these strategies we may also um and I wholeheartedly support what Mr Man said Marie is a phen Mrs twist is a phenomenal math expert um she and our four math coaches can't do it alone so we may need to procure some outside professional development support so that might look like going back to into maath and saying we've discovered or hmh is the publisher we have discovered that our students are not getting the practice that they would like or would benefit from with concrete examples realia and manipulatives we need professional development for our teachers on how to use the tools that came with our adoption more effectively please I was hoping you would didn't want to interrupt you um but actually our sixth through e8th grade math teachers started off the year with uh during our curriculum updates they started off the year with a two-hour professional development session on using algebra tiles which are a Hands-On manipulative that is relevant for sixth seventh and eighth grade students and is included in our adopted materials most of the teachers like I'm going to say 19 out of the 20 had not used them before they are amazing and there's a very steep learning curve and when you don't feel comfortable with a tool the last thing you want to do is get up in front of 13-year-olds and fumble with it and so we gave them the opportunity to work with a math professional development expert from the University of Arizona who was able to zoom in with us and provide a hybrid session with me for those teachers specifically um and then the course of our kraton professional learning sessions for the year one of the things that we have offered specifically for sixth seventh and eighth grade math teachers and some of our fifth grade teachers who are departmentalized um has been a partnership with the ad and their math content team on tools for building thinking classrooms which really encourage more Rich tasks and deeper thinking deeper collaboration among students as well as Hands-On learning experiences that are aligned with their standards so for example the session that they had in September gosh late August early September was specific to ratios and proportions and what kind of tools they already have again in their adopted materials in their classrooms ready to use to teach that in a way that's more concrete and more conceptual so giving students rather than teaching them this is how you find the ratio you flip it over and multiply instead of that it's like okay well how could you build a model how could you use your tiles now how could you turn that into a table how could you explain it to a partner what if we did it this way what would be a different way to do it so that's been some of the professional development we've already started their next session is going to be on math routines and again continuing the work with algebra tiles but we're working really closely with the facilitator from the Department of Education to bring really what's considered the gold standard right now which is building thinking classrooms and that connection between concrete like the things that you can touch pictoral and then abstract and the idea that the goal is not all abstract all the time and it's not a race to how do we get students to thinking abstractly that concrete pictorial and Abstract is something that you move back and forth between like you start off with concrete when you're building your idea about how to solve something but then even as you progress through being able to draw it being able to model it being able to talk about it or use an equation when you're confronted and we do this all the time in our real lives when you're confronted with something that is more challenging or a new or novel situation I know I like if I'm planning something at my we get out our piece of paper and we start to sketch it out again or we're going to encourage the students to get out their manipulatives again because it's a tool and it's not a crutch so we're really working to take away that stigma from oh you have to go and get the blocks to solve this too these are tools that we all use because they are helpful and they're engaging and really they make our math classes a lot more fun and a lot more interesting and so that's something that we're encouraging our upper grades teachers to really Embrace and run with for our students instead of something that students graduate from as they move out of the elementary years so I think our professional development plan for this year while it definitely still needs some adjustment especially for fifth grade specifically our Middle School teachers are really on a great path um and then another adjustment that we made this year is in the past our brand new teachers in their first couple of years have attended a new teacher professional development on those profession learning days which is really great and really helpful but also would have taken them away from the deep content knowledge that they need to be successful so this year those new teachers now participate in a brief one- hour monthly new teacher codre where they're getting those skills which frees them up to develop their content expertise on those crate and professional learning days and that's something that was really important to us this year because I mean these long-term Subs they are trying but Fifth and eighth grade math are complex so there's a lot we played with some of the math problems during our study session so we we got firsthand experience how hardly they're challenging they're challenging um if you're able and you and it's okay if you're not I'll put you on the spot can you talk a little bit about the coaching process and how our coaches are standing in the gap between an August PD session and then what comes next yeah absolutely we are so lucky this year to have moved into a more content focused coach model so instead of all of our coaches having to know a little bit of everything or a lot of everything um we have four coaches that are dedicated to math and science specifically so we have one coach that supports two schools they're paired and then one coach that supports three of our schools um some of the things that they've started off with teachers are learning how to use our resources learning how to analyze standards they've spent a lot of time planning with teachers in the day-to-day lessons but also looking at what is the data showing us or with our newer teachers how do we plan a lesson from start to finish how do we look at where your students are or how do we look at student work and figure out okay they got it wrong but we could have 10 kids that got this problem wrong for eight different reasons and we're going to address all of those reasons differently so being able to do some of that student work analysis um we've taken on impact coaching this year which is really student centered in the sense that it's all about about changing student outcomes student Bel attitudes um but really teacher driven as far as creating true partnership with our teachers so rather than coaches being more directive um working with teachers to have them analyze their own instruction analyze their student work analyze their student achievement and then determine what goals they want to work on as a teacher the coach will work with them to really clarify ify is it powerful is it student focused is it evidence-based and then develop a strategy to meet that goal coaches are going in they're doing a lot of modeling and co- teing with those teachers and then following up with support thank you very much so this concludes the the like formal narrative portion of the report um we have a set of questions that President CIO shared in advance which I'm prepared to speak to ALS so happy to answer any additional questions that you want to bring forward at this time if you're okay with it because I I think as we look at these three questions they're probably questions all of you had um and so it might and the team thank you team including some who aren't with us this evening um really kind of dug in like the depth of the answers was impressive to me as we were getting feedback so and just from an administrative and operational side we appreciate the opportunity to have the question in advance so that we can provide meaningful um information so the first question was what are the key factors influencing the current Gap in math proficiency rates for eth grade black students and what strategies are being used to address those root causes so we've already discussed some of those um you know the first is that our student community in grades five and eight is incredibly diverse and so it represents those different back backgrounds a different um language needs and different uh amounts of time within kraton schools the other Factor affecting um the Gap in proficiency is that the teaching of mathematics requires a high level of professional expertise and so as Mrs twist so eloquently described there's a lot of work going in right now to build that that professional capacity and teachers are working really hard to acquire the Knowledge and Skills that they need and then engage the students appropriately um but what we do know is that there are many new teachers in middle school classes um with limited classroom management experience and limited understanding of the math standards and they are very complex and so that that affects planning it also can result in less rigorous instruction and so that's being addressed through the professional development and coaching process I still believe that we need to really look at the way the coaching process is supporting Fifth and eighth grade teachers explicitly U because the coaches have kind of a case load and and we're being thoughtful about how we meet the needs of new teachers but then also what about a teacher who's in their third or fourth year but might be new to teaching math those needs are different so really trying to think of the teachers individually as the coaching plans are built and modified over time um our instruction as I've mentioned can be General and kind of at lower levels of thinking um with memorization of formulas and not that deep building of conceptual understanding that kids need and then um finally math lessons may not reflect and and frequently do not reflect the experiences and backgrounds of black students and this group of black students in particular and what that does is it doesn't feel like an invitation to engage for the kids so it's not on the kids for not engaging it's on us for not having content questions and opportunities to to invite them in so that's the first question her second question was by the end of the Academic Year how can we Implement and measure the effectiveness of specific strategies to empower and support black students in math classes and so the first piece that I'll offer is uh the use of time so we want to ensure that we're utilizing existing time and really this is monitored through through observation and reflection with the teachers and with our administrative leadership team we want to make sure that we're utilizing existing time and materials to provide instruction in two ways one is at the grade level of students even for kids who are two years behind they they must have exposure to grade level content so that is what kind of whole group lessons are designed to provide but then they also need small group time at their instructional level which is where you build basic skills um understanding and so our Master course schedule this year was designed with TW with 30 30 minutes 30 minutes of additional time for reteaching and enrichment we've provided flexibility about whether that time is used for ELA or for math um it is our position at this time that that especially for Fifth and eighth graders that really should be focused on math to help them you know really have a consistent an opportunity for that instructional level uh instruction and then also with the adoption of into math and with new tools that we've purchased through the the with the remaining Esser dollars there's a lot of new instructional resources for tier two and tier three which would be those instructional level groups and we you know there're so new that we're still really some of them we haven't even set up yet because we just bought them with the the very last of Esser so we have a lot to do to make sure that the teachers feel supported and that they can use those materials but that we are also kind of creating an expectation that those materials do are used for Effective instructional level practice and and support for the kids can I go follow up please do I love that the retach and enrich um is built back into the schedule if it's not in the schedule it won't happen um is there Flex ability like I agree with pushing you know specifically for certain groups of students um to use it for math is there also the flexibility though of like two days math two days Ela there is I think that's the right now that's exactly how it is you know it's it's at the discretion of the school team and the teachers to decide how it's going to be best used for instructional you know for their students needs um I think ultimately our data wise process the evaluation of our assessments can drive that decision you know when we look at the data in math it it suggests strongly um but I have to give a lot of credit to our site leaders because as we've discussed we talked about this at the study session the challenge with these benchmarks is that they are comprehensive so that kids don't they haven't had the opportunity to learn everything that's tested until the post test so we're not going to see big changes between the preest and ibm1 and ibm2 but our site leaders and our teachers are using all kinds of the like the common assessments that come with the curriculum they're building their own assessments to try to create more of the just in time um response to what the kids are showing them and so there is you know while we haven't we we're we're starting now to have conversations about how formal and how structured to make that across the district but there is a lot of work happening to get more formative assessment into place and then that would ideally Drive how that decision gets made does that make sense yeah yeah no I was just wondering because it's I know it's hard like you look at this and you say that has to be a priority but then you also typically we'll have students who need support in both and so it's a balancing act well that's a great point because when we also consider the 15% are emerging multilinguals that means they're also in one of the the um blocks for language development either the targeted or the the pullout or um even dual language so so we know that language acquisition also plays a role which for those students might indicate a benef a greater benefit if that time was devoted to language and vocabulary development versus conceptual development in math so it really is it's a lot of kid byid work with this group of kiddos see so we' discussed the use of time the use of the tiered materials we've talked about professional collaboration and professional development support um and then as far as progress monitoring to to monitor the implementation of these supports we Dr Pomo just constantly reminds us of the importance of Street data so those formative assessments those just in time measures that the teachers are utilizing or building will be valuable um we also believe that a structure that allows us to track the existence and the impact of interventions specifically for this group of students will be valuable so now we know who they are we know where they are we know who their teachers are and we are able to monitor with greater um finesse or greater uh detail the the kinds of supports the kids are getting and then one of the things that we wonder about at this moment is just for these kids the their attendance in particular and we're wondering also if through our our community engagement and Outreach team it may be appropriate to convene some focused groups or a focused group to talk with parents and kids just to Elevate this conversation because it you know one of the challenges for me personally and I'll speak only for myself with this school is it's like we're talking about people who aren't in the room and it feels uncomfortable so we would like to and Mr Man and I have been discussing this create some opportunities with the people in the room who are affected by this school not to ask them to solve the problems but just to include them in the conversation um and then create a greater sense of belonging create a greater sense of connection and if there are social emotional learning needs or Community like basic support needs that the Family Resource Center could help with that might be the kinds of tools and supports that create that belonging that create that connection for multiple years that can eventually lead to success in mathematics and I think oh there's one more what adjustments or addition resources are needed to meet the May 2025 targets and how will our approach change to accelerate progress so one of the strategies that we've used um with success in the past is individual goal setting again Mr Gutierrez is an example of uh leader and there are many who have done that work actually sitting with students identifying progress setting goals um we may need to invest in additional math focused professional development or invest in time for people to participate in the Partnerships that we've built in that we have in place that Mrs twist described um she beautifully described the content in our professional development plan I think that you know is is always going to require kind of the possibility for ongoing adjustment but the plan that's in place looks very strong um and also we want to make sure that we are meeting the needs of those fifth grade teachers as well and um Mr Man and I have been meeting with a series of leaders in the field of anti-racism and we believe that a a a multifaceted approach to address anti-racism that leads to great a greater sense of belonging and inclusion for black students in particular and all students um can also be part of our adjustment to more effectively respond to the needss of these [Music] students I have a question um Mr Man and I had a good um uh chat today and I just kind of wanted we talked about it a little bit um already with the data that you found about the subgroup and I think that's really that's great information to have and so helpful um one of the things you mentioned long-term Subs and behavioral challenges impacting learning um what can we do or what um about like overd disciplining over suspending our black students because we know that's happening um and we know it affects their learning so and we know we have if you're coming from another country leaving your your home um that's like an incredible amount of trauma that these families are facing and I think it's hard to understand probably for a long-term sub who isn't an expert in the subject matter perhaps or even classroom management yet so um I know where we've got our um student conduct Advisory Board which is a awesome start um but is that something that we're going to look at as well I would say that that's a um a profound insight it and one of the benefits of being able to literally know who all these students are across the district is that we'll be able to we and by we I mean our site leadership teams and our teachers will be able to cultivate you know really meaningful conversations with the kids and I think be better positioned to intervene proactively before suspension becomes an issue or before an incident would occur um because you start to know what what their um kind of what their triggers are if they exist what their you know kind of who their friends are and who they don't get along with and how to potentially build relationships so I think that there's an opportunity with both our assistant principal team to think through and carefully mindfully address strategies for all of these students and then also um for our community engagement and Outreach Specialists to know all of these families and to be able to then provide any kinds of basic need supports or the social emotional supports that would be necessary to equip the kids to to feel confident and well solve problems to to um engage effectively at school and there I don't see it here now but there was I loved the comment about making sure that um every like the teacher knows the names of all of these students I think that's kind of a a low bar but it's every kid needs to have somebody close by that knows their name you know um but I think that's like getting to know them so to prevent a suspension is that's really what I I love hearing that so and we were feeling like so with this group of students the reason that they show up in these groups is because their families declared when they filled out the annual enrollment paperwork that this identity reflects me and my experience so what that means is you can't walk into a to a school or a classroom and and identify who the black students are just by looking and so we wanted to make sure that we really did know who was explicitly self-identifying through the registration process to join this subgroup and so to know exactly who they are and not to generalize and also to be able to say the practices that we've described are really beneficial for everybody however there are some explicit Invitational and inclusive acts and celebratory acts that are going to be meaningful to this group of kids by name that's where we've gotten as a result of this work so I appreciate that feedback I think the only other thing to re recognize in that is um trying to word this correctly I'm sorry but um the only other thing to recognize in that is I appreciate the way in which we approached uh identifying this group however when it comes to the specific things Mi MC cheffrey is talking about I don't think it comes I don't think we analyze that issue from that Viewpoint you need to analyze it from the Viewpoint of how they're being perceived by the folks who are potentially disciplining them and that's because we're not trying to be color blind here and how someone may identify in a certain way and not present as black to some and it with these issues it's going to be all about how they're being perceived by whoever is potentially disciplining them so I just want us to be cognizant I'm not saying we aren't I just want to make sure we're pointing that out that's valuable feedback thank you yeah and I think that ties back into you know some of the things we're looking at with the work around anti-racism is being able to you know put ourselves in a position to be able to identify some of those lenses that that we see the world through um but even beyond that to create space and this is why you know when we talk about it one of the things that we've been trying to figure out and it makes it more challenging but we have multiple layers that we really need to approach and those multiple layers really lend themselves to different specific groups so um we've been talking a lot about the students and the teachers tonight all of that's true but we also need to make sure that the site leaders the PE the folks who are involved in some of those processes where these determinations are made that they're receiving appropriate support as well um we also need to make certain that the parents and the families are as well so as we've been looking at both sides of the coin the the actual specific goals and how to make those effective and you know the correlated guard rail that ties to the anti-racism which really ties into this very closely one of the things we're trying to be very cognizant about is making certain that the approach we develop even if it requires support from multiple different venues approaches each one of those different groups specifically based on what the needs are for that specific group to to help be part of the solution rather than you know absolutely unintentionally being part of perpetuating sort of the existing status of things so um and one of the beautiful things that's happened throughout this process I think I shared this I might have shared it in in our last conversation or it may have been in the Saturday study session but one of the amazing things that Dr pombo brought to us um is this datawise process that we're using and um you as we as we continue to develop efficacy and skill with that process it really gives us the tools to be able to drill down deeper into the data to look at the differentiation between satellite data and Street data and really kind of understand our students at a much deeper level and by being able to do that that's really not only going to be able to help us engage those students by name but it'll be it'll Empower our teachers and our staff to be able to engage those students by need as well and so I think it's really important for us to be able to drill down to that level not just for this subpopulation but ultimately for all our students to be able to do that in the limited time frames that we have requires a very very high level of skill so it's not going to happen day one or this year but as we continue to progress we'll we'll see more and more effective implementation I had some experience with a similar process in a prior district and over a five-year period we shifted from looking at schoolwide data to classroom data to individual student data you know what some of our schools were already drilled down to that individual student level so as I think we're on a fast track to get better stronger with that um and that will really help us be more effective and and I was noticing I was taking a look because I thought I had seen it our next item is the board self- evaluation and one of the items within that board self- evaluation is a question about um whether the board has used Root data analysis as part of setting the goals so I mean we did our best attempt to do that but the data that we primarily had was aasa testing data that we dug through we dug into some other Benchmark data and whatnot I don't personally believe we were at a level of sophistication yet to get to True root cause analysis data where I see that living is in this data wise process that we've been sort of developing facility with and so that's not a bad thing right we've identified some real hot spots and we're going to dig in on them and we're going to create improvements and we're going to leverage the data wise process to help us do that but one of the things that really struck me in looking at the outcome focused governance work and the board's role in it is that the next time that we're able to sit down and reestablish goals I believe that our team will be at a point to be able to bring the type of data to the board and build a level of facility for the board in being able to do some of that root cause root cause analysis leveraging that datawise process and that will take us even a step further further Beyond where we're at right now I also had after listening to the four of you um I had just a follow-up wondering because you had mentioned like the long-term Subs um and so and again I don't have Solutions but I'm just thinking in terms because long-term Subs are typically sourced outside so they're not full-time parts of our staff so they're not going to get the same type of professional development um so my wondering is just kind of are we thinking about other ways that we could have support systems in place because I you know I know that there'll be a great level team that's like they have a system this team whenever they have a sub in they've you know got a support for the sub um but have there been any conversations about how can we better support systematically our long-term Subs because they are guests in our district and it's difficult to come in um and not have the same amount of training not necessarily know all of the students know the curriculum Etc I don't expect a concrete answer in detail on that right now it's more just a I would say it's definitely a a um a point of discussion at this time and I don't know Miss twist or Dr Lauren if you have anything to add about PD for the subs and you don't have to but if you uh I I know that there is an expectation for certification when they recertify sub that they are required to have a certain number of hours of professional development and I think that we could work with our partner ESI on how we could provide some of that um so that's certainly something I can take back to ESI and see what we can do to support in that way and then this year we looking for those hours so yeah it's a great point and a great strategy this year we built on um a model that had been in place at bmore Preparatory Academy and the kraton academy and and I think one or two other of our other sites to have team leads and so we actually used our um targeted School Improvement Grant to fund additional compensation for team leads who who are taking on a variety of responsibilities um including helping to support the planning process so that and um so there's a little bit more direct support and partnership for substitute teachers who would be at at any given grade level but it's it's 100% a need and something that needs more attention anybody else have any questions comments all right thank you Dr dupin thank you to your team um for all the hard work I know it's um hard to delve deep into this and it sounds like there's been a lot of good um outcomes for uh everybody and discovering certain things um we have to approve yes so well I mean you don't have to approve you can choose not to but but the board should should take action to either approve or disapprove prog progress monitoring so um I move to adopt the progress monitoring goal goal two second all in favor I I I all right now we're going to move on to our board self evaluation um and I have um um I have some things that uh Miss Creo has um typed up just to explain um about the self evaluation uh buenos noas I am pleased to introduce Katon Elementary School District governing board's first self- evaluation this initiative is essential for our continuous Improvement and Effectiveness in governance so why conduct a board self- evaluation a governing board's performance plays a critical role in the success of their District engaging in a governing board self-evaluation demonstrates a commitment to continuous Improvement which is essential to achieving student outcome goals by conducting a board self-evaluation the governing board not only works towards enhancing the governing board's performance but also models the culture of continuous Improvement that the district must adopt to advance Student Success it is understood for most boards transitioning to an outcomes focused governance represents a significant shift this transformation won't happen overnight it requires intentional effort self-monitoring and a strong commitment to ongoing progress so using the framework we will utilize the student outcome focused governance or sofg structural Implement designed for the governing board as a whole the prayon governing board will score itself based on the sofg implementation rubric as a governing board in various practice areas with this tool these scores will combine to give us an overall score between 0er and 100 indicating our Effectiveness as a governing board and focusing on student outcomes so what's the process after scoring the president or the clerk will guide us through a collective planning process this will establish our starting points clarifying our strengths and areas for improvement during public meetings the governing board will publicly agree about where and how they plan to improve by the end of the next quarter we will revisit this process every 3 month months to track our progress and ensure our focus on student outcome continues to grow expected outcomes typically boards can Pro progress from a score of zero to over 80 within two years but this requires the support of a certified coach with this Guidance the necessary behavioral changes are easier to achieve in conclusion the self- evaluation is not just a formality but a commitment to the kraton elementary school district governing board's mission of improving student outcomes so hopefully everybody has uh gotten to take a look at um the rubric um I just we're gonna put that up right yeah it's just it's not let to be connect oh yeah there was like an internet problem for a second okay so we will get that um put up as soon as um we can because I would like but it is online too if it is online the manual just to reference it's on page 21 if you go to the attachment that's labeled student outcomes Focus governance manual and go to page 21 it starts I think I've got sorry connect mine has been saying no internet for some time but it just has been slow I think it's me yeah that's you that's an iPad yeah but should hopefully be legible sorry I didn't mean to interfere with the troubleshooting I'm an expediency guy so just for the audience purposes um especially because I'm an educator and a lot of you out there understand education the one thing that I think is different from this as to what we're used to um when we're doing evaluations is on here we have to make sure that each thing that is listed we are meeting in that area and if we say no to one of them then it's a no in that category so unlike um a lot of our evaluations if it's a yes in most things but maybe you know in a couple like we still get like that point or whatever so a much more intense rubric yeah so I like was like very shocked by that at first because I was like oh it's not like a okay it's almost all but um no it has to be every single um uh thing in that actual um section sorry just to clarify I was directing people to the actual evaluation section in the manual you all are looking at something else so you are looking at the rubric yeah the rubric is where you get the scores to put in on page 21 was my understanding but I wanted to clarify that too because you're like page 21 and I'm like wait what yeah that's where I was just because it wasn't clear it's just an entire manual that's uploaded here so if people are watching along and open this they're going to be like yeah no okay if you look at the table contents you would do what I would do and go immediately to board quarterly self-evaluation okay so um the first one that we're going to be scoring is vision and goals the board will in colaboration with the superintendent adopt goals that are student outcome focused so um I'm hoping that we've all looked at this and can maybe start at a starting point and then have discussions based on that instead of going through every single one does anybody want to start with this first one should we R I'm yeah I'm not sure what what we're doing so like I don't know if everybody's read through it but I've already read through it and kind of have made like some notes in like what I think I would give it then I think that we could have conversations about it then because we have to come to an agreement so instead of reading through every single one like if somebody says I think this is approaching like maybe we start there see I could do that for the vision and goals um when I was reviewing them I [Music] believe we are approaching I'm rereading them just to double check myself um because we have our smart goals we collaborate with superintendent we have the correct number we have interim goal three inome goals for each correct yes yes um and we're updating them throughout the school year well then I I would encourage you to take a look at the meeting column as well oh yeah no I think we we that's why I was like starting point I feel confident we've at least gotten approaching well I was gonna say we have at least meeting I didn't read through everything oning but I didn't think we're here at I did meeting on this one yeah I think we have done all these um on meeting on meeting I agree is there any one of those on meeting that anyone thinks we haven't done no are we comfortable with meeting for this first yes yes yes excellent all right let's move on to the next one next one values and guard rails the board will in collaboration with the superintendent adopt guard rails I um to be honest in between approaching and meeting so I I think for me this one is up for discussion as to which one um I'm leaning more towards I guess for the meeting I just don't know if it's an issue of semantics in terms of what we're not like saying theories of action out loud but I guess maybe if someone believes that we're doing that just say how we've done that I guess I I assume it's what you're presenting to us in the progress monitoring in terms of the path in which you're you've decided to try to take this there with with it with your team in conjunction with your team but that feels weird because it's saying the board is yeah it's it's it's interesting because in reading this one and and I feel woefully inadequate on it because it um it seems to be referring to a process that I'm not familiar with from the coaching process thus far so it may be something we haven't progressed into yet um but it it it implies that the superintendent was included in the theory consideration process which makes it sound like you were implying that the it was an activity by the board and I don't recall us doing that unless there's something we've done that I didn't interpret as being that like different language was used yeah so I think that's really the one that sticks out to me as we haven't done that yeah I would agree yeah and I would May a Culp on that top one too because while we have interim guardrail ending points we we did so we haven't I don't know that we have them for each year yeah so okay so approaching on this one is everybody in agreements yes yeah all right then we will move to the next one monitoring and accountability the board will devote significant time monthly to monitoring progress towards the goals so in this one um I just want to let you guys know that um I as a clerk I have been taking um times on each section um just to make sure that we are approaching like 50% of our time is spent on student focused governance and we are really close to the 50% Mark spending 50% of our meetings um so that first one says 25% so we definitely have hit are hitting that goal um in that one yeah I think it's like for me when I read through these I'm like it's hard to get to meet just because we haven't gotten to a full year so I don't feel good about saying we've done something even though we have a plan to do so we also haven't done the board has been provided copies of implementing board goals the in implementation instrument so I think we're still approaching on this one yeah I agree is everyone okay on approaching hold on okay um we have not get done a superintendent evaluation with this framework would be my caveat of what we have not met on a proing agree yeah true like I thought there was something on here and it's not bad that we're not there yet we just haven't had we just we haven't reached that point that's right yeah so should we drop it down to to not not student outcome Focus govern yeah all right okay excellent all right the next communication and collaboration the board will lead transparently and include stakeholders in the pursuit of the goals does anybody want to have discussion on where you want to start well we're definitely not meeting no I would start at approaching maybe and then go from there so all consent eligible items were placed on the consent agenda and all but a you were voted on using a consent agenda think we've switched over to that we have switched over to that the board tracks its use of time and board authorized public meetings categorizing every minute used as one of the following so we really have not done that I think and we haven't done the community engagement no we haven't really started yeah of the not at this one yeah I think so far because we've had um data provided to us as far as counting some of these categories on the for the minute but not all of them all right so are we in agreement for not student focused yes okay all right unity and Trust the board will lead with one voice in its pursuit of the goals well I think we're still we're at notd on this one as well we have not adopted a policy or procedure requiring that information provided by the superintendent to one board memb is provided to all board members we haven't reviewed all our policies etc etc yes I agree is there any other discussion or is everybody okay with that I'm fine with it yeah okay all right then the last one continuous Improvement the board board will invest time and resources towards improving its focus on the goals I know we're starting some of these pieces I been working on like the investment and the finances I don't know how much has been looked at as far as the time equivalents to the finances but I don't know that I don't think we're there for approaching no I think we're still at not I think we're totally at a not because this is our first cell phone and then yeah so like I don't know how we could have anything else but so is everybody okay with not student no not student outcome Focus yes yes okay so Hilda did you add those up by oh thank you I did not so 30 2 and the Z so then we just need to um make a motion to approve a goal of 30 or I mean not sorry not our goal our decision now just uh really quick though is maybe because I'm a lawyer but is somebody Gonna Fill In This template with our numbers and then keep it on files somewhere because we just said all this out loud it on my iPad but I'm just saying we need a record of this right H is 30 right now that what you have yeah yeah but what I mean is the actual form that's in this document is it going to be filled out kept on file somewhere so we have it well I think it'd be good if we could make like this template's good except across the top our the months don't match us oh the one yeah on page 21 so but if we could have running like Google that with that that this was sent to us as a PDF document yeah but you you can open it into a Google tried it wouldn't do it I have that on my compter at my desk and it it did not do well because I tried to like adjust it just because it drives me insane when something is on this page when it should start you Russell that's yeah I think that's a maybe I mean we'll manipulate Dr or maybe that's a Dr Ramos's question like or I can you know what I'm gonna email Dr R okay is there a fillable editable yeah it would be nice to have it like up on when you pull down on governing board on the website so that anybody can go there and see it transparency I'm ocing it right now if I can copy the spreadsheet out of there I will just put it I will just do it right now if it doesn't work then I'll be like whatever but I'm ocing it right now so do so do I just make a motion to approve the score of 30 yeah to basically approve the board self- evaluation okay cuz it's not just the score of 30 like we capture it what it was for each of the categories yes yeah okay then I make a motion to approve the um where is it wow I'm really like lost in here the board self- evaluation um for our first one in resulting in a score of 30 my second all those in favor I I all right next we [Music] have our consent no sorry our public comments Hilda do we have any public comments All right so approval of consent I move the governing board approve consent items a through G in accordance with policy gov I oh sorry all those favor I I thank you all right this leads us to our next section which is business implant all right Miss Shapiro hand it over to you thank you so while Miss Shapiro is setting up I um just wanted to share that this is our annual Bond and override proceeds presentation um there is a statutory requirement that we present on this um by October each year um in a public meeting that public meeting doesn't specifically have to be a board meeting we choose to do it as part of our governing board meeting um and Miss Shapiro and her team have been working to get all the numbers gathered together to be able to um provide the board with this Look Backwards to the 2324 fiscal year and some historical data about our expenditures sure the one time I'm not longwind it's we need more time sing for us um the only request I've ever received is to stop singing so i i s for you it takes a village every time really there I know I get real hot I'm like on fire I think it's happening it'll happen it's happening thank you um board member superintendent man tonight I'll be presenting um as required by Statute information regarding the use of bond and override proceeds during the 20232 24 school year the most recent Bond authorization was passed November 8th 2016 at a special election um obviously we've been expending those Bond dollars uh some of those bigger uh pieces were at the kraton Academy at Kennedy um this is the bond authorization that we are phasing out as we move into November election all three Bond sales for that authorization have been completed and we do need to um reasonably uh expect to expend those Bond sales within three years and that's an IRS ruling it's very tiny um let's see can I make it bigger oh cool nope I canot um our bond expenditures are broken out on this slide uh in order to let uh give the information by our School site and by uh the type of expenditures you'll see on here that there are um construction items some of our technology doors fencing flooring Roofing Plumbing those are the items that these Bond dollars are so important and critical uh to have access to in order to upkeep these types of systems uh we do not receive enough Capital dollars to upkeep this without these Bond initiatives and these are some historic Bond expenditures you can see that um these are three different authorizations that kind of overlap over the years since fiscal year um 2011 to current and again as we're phasing out this um last uh Bond authorization we have approximately 15 million dollar remaining those Bond dollars uh are planned in this upcoming year to cover some of our Safety and Security upgrades uh we've had lots of discussions with our uh board members regarding our EV buses uh some of these projects the Kennedy north um projects uh that were not included in the Kennedy build um a lot of those life uh Safety and Security Pro uh projects that you saw on some of those previous slides um the same types of items that we expend on every year the remodels fencing playgrounds um the things that we need to do to upkeep our schools and keep our facilities in good repair and safe for our students uh we are looking at some Marquee upgrades this year uh these things happen on a on a cycle that's why you'll see life cycle projects um as we move through it you don't want to replace all the fencing that would not that means then when they need repair would be all of the fences would need repair so you want to look at life cycle projects where one year at one school you might do painting and fencing and plumbing and at another school maybe you're doing a Technologies intercom and mares we do spread that out and do significant Capital planning uh working with our it Department and our facilities Department um and transportation to ensure that uh we can plan these projects out sometimes unexpected things happen like a grease trap um project that's going to have to happen at builtmore it's very pricey um and uh that's why those uh Bond planned projects stay pretty flexible in addition to those Bond dollars we also have um a d AA uh Capital override um we utilize these funding sources based on what's in our voter pamplets and what our voters have voted for um in this case our capital is being used for uh additional assistance those are some of those playgrounds um and other bigger projects at the school sites but also these are our curriculum materials this is our adoption dollars these are the instructional materials the manipulatives these are also for furniture and equipment and Technology at the school sites our planned Capital expenditures in 2425 um are going to be similar to what we were doing in 2324 um curriculum and supplemental purchases and licenses we're anticipating additional dollars being spent in these areas because of sofg so uh we wanted to make sure in our planning that we have that capacity to be very flexible as needs are defined uh when we go through our interim goals so a lot of the things that we've been talking about tonight uh when we're talking about our anti-racism and those layers uh We've budgeted dollars in to ensure that we have the capacity to step up to that once uh those determinations have been made in addition to those other uh voter initiatives we also have in place currently an M override uh that's a 15% override of our um budgeted M dollars that the state allows us to have um the override accounted for approximately 5 million budget capacity in FY 24 um again those election pamplets uh outline those needs this uh current emino override election pamphlet is supporting maintaining um not only teacher salaries but also programs such as full day kindergarten um our special areas opportunities additional opportunities for students um but also our assistant principles um a lot of those supervisory and um uh support positions for classrooms and um supplies and materials for classroom instruction each year the auditor general uh does a report on all School District spending and how we're spending our dollars this report is from FY 23 last year I had showed you fy or fiscal year 22 that'd be the school year of 20 2122 um the auditor general is it needs to wait until our financials are filed with the state in order to pull that uh information so this report is always one year behind the information I'll be sharing tonight with the annual financial report which will close up our fiscal year 2324 spending um it's kind of interesting because last year when I uh pulled the annual financial report I had noticed uh some decreases and increases that uh we put in our presentation it was nice to see that fall out into the auditor General's report which was a slight decrease in administrative spending um we know that uh this is happening because of some of our um efficiency look at some of our areas and uh uh some more alignment and reorganization of our areas we continue to be looking in those areas so I expect to see um probably in the future a slight decline in administrative spending um also what we had seen was an increase in that direct student support spending um outside of the classroom this is really directly because of those Sesser dollars so I expect to see that decrease um because we are completely sunsetting those S dollars that gave that opportunity to extend things that um uh and not have the direct impact that we would have normally seen in a declining enrollment state so because we're um we kept going and utilizing those dollars uh we'll start seeing some decreases and available funding uh as we move down the path of those uh dollars not being available and our declining enrollment situation but there's always strategies and planning and and we know it's happening uh and we have um sofg kind of supporting the decision-making and helping to focus into the important key areas so uh it is exciting when you talked about how we're tying these things together uh to have that laser focus uh even at this level which is not something that um I've always gotten to do when it ties budget and expenditures actual student learning so I really do get very excited about it and I just appreciate the board bringing something like this that really does allow us uh to make these connections and that is the end of that presentation thank you is there any questions all right then we move to B presentation and approval of annual financial report for fiscal year 203 ah I did it without help [Laughter] Russell um get to my thing uh again uh there is a statutory requirement to present the annual financial report to our governing board in a public meeting and also submit this report which I will be doing tonight to the auditor general by October 15th and Post links to that information on our website um the purpose of the annual financial report is to provide um our school district fiscal years are running from July 1 to June 30th so once our expenditures are completed in those years we have a couple of months in um July and August to close up the year then we spend the rest of September um up into October 15 uh shutting it down cleaning it up a lot of people working um at a frantic Pace to because at the same time we're running the next fiscal year so you have a a temporary amount of time that you are running two fiscal years uh it is fun to say the least um statute requires us to approve and submit it by October 15 luckily we had a meeting tonight the AFR also goes out very publicly and allows policy makers and taxpayers taxpayers to uh look at that information so that we can be very transparent um and we do put that out in many areas as I said it not only is it on the state's website uh but also on our own Local website it does need to be approved by the governing board and um and it is published so our M budget balance uh I know this is like one of the more interesting areas because it is uh it does make up um a large amount of our general fund and I wanted to do some comparisons this year I think in last year's um presentation we just kind of gave how did we finish up for this year and I like that historical comparison um it it has some interesting information in there so in the prior year uh py 2223 we had a budget of 45 million and because of some changes in the legislature and just um uh some foresight and planning our budgeted M expenditures ended up in 23 24 at 47 million our actual expenditures you can see there a 35 we increased to 38 uh that was uh primarily for funding salaries and benefits and then we have that ending budget balance so there's a um an interest in that budget balance carry forward so that's that in number and that's the number that we're caring for that we are focused on when we go into uh our meet and confer talks uh when we're planning the future dis District fiscal Health uh we are looking at and I've shared with the board um some mechanisms to have a fund balance Reserve policy as we move through this year uh I expect to have a fund balance Reserve policy that is presented and approved by the board um some of the um percentages that we've put out there is it takes anywhere from to 30% of a fund balance Reserve to ensure a District's fiscal Health it depends on risk level it depends on uh our Focus um having the ability to have flexibility as I said before as we move through sofg and we target certain areas there's an interest there to ensure that we are being very um precise and well thought as we move through that process so I expect to be bringing some of that information to the board in the future the other big piece this year that kind of came up in this last year budget was the quasm Meer I apologize everyone says it differently um lawsuit we discussed that a few times in and governing board updates the district was exceedingly lucky to have a cash Reserve balance in M um what that is is a fund balance because m is collected from taxpayers and it's a a function of tax collection you don't that doesn't tie exactly to budget so you're never going to see the same numbers there because of our tax collection and those cash balances the district did not have to go out to our local taxpayers and ask for more money to cover um the reserves for this lawsuit so um that was a really big win for kraton there were other districts that had to do Tans or had to go back out to their taxpayers uh increase their tax levies uh by millions of dollars so good planning I did some like I went a deep dive when this article came out and like I went through all of the like urban districts and per um like per capita I forgot what unit I was looking at we would be like the most impacted because it's like very strange the demographics financially of our district geographically speaking versus you know the population we serve and so um um it was just I'm glad we had the stuff in the reserves it still made me angry because if we didn't have that then we'd be footing the bill because of someone's mistake and way disproportionately than any other even the largest districts in the state yes it was enraging to me to watch and so I hope if no one's listening to this but I asked Jay at the time I hope we're sending a letter to the assessor's office to say hey this better not happen again this is ridiculous yeah so I hope it doesn't happen again I I do it was a scramble and it took us a while to figure out how we were going to handle it as soon as it uh became clear to me um what reserves were there I I felt pretty confident bringing that information to the board other districts did not have the same capability that we had so as you said we could have been very impacted and would have had to go out to our taxpayers and put that burden on them I think too like you know all of this is so complex and it's already a struggle when we're going out for bonds and overrides to explain where the funds go and how they're marked and how it all works and so when like I agree with you it's enraging because it can have the unintended consequence of losing more trust in school districts when the school districts had nothing to do with the mistakes that were made so I typed a novel on next door just this morning on and over I've changed know we didn't make the mistake we did not so um I think an area that's very interesting with maintenance and operation uh expenditures is where what category is it and we've done a little bit of um uh sessions uh study sessions with the board explaining kind of how these category or functions in the um uh expenditure side happen and it all comes from my favorite account codes and so because we have a very good structure of account coding within the district we're able to align uh these categories historically I can look at information um I can know so much by just looking at a string of numbers it's fascinating to me and so I just put a slide in that just makes me happy and I think brings the board good information classroom instruction is that like Direct in the classroom these are teachers these are materials being used right in the classroom and you can see um that there was a very slight decrease of in classroom instruction Uh I that primarily came from um the administrative section in schools not in general admin so not at the district office level uh but the in schools which were those assistant principles um that came about because that was directly in our voter pamplet and our voters voted to have assistant principles in our schools they felt that that was important and we needed to acknowledge that and get that put in place um we also uh see that about oh I can't see my notes um 70 plus percent is at the school site support so that's either direct classroom support direct student support um administrative support directly at the school site over 70% of our budget goes to there and then you can see the other areas our physical plant another one that is a bigger spend because we're upkeeping those facilities uh so those dollars are going straight to our school sites and then Transportation um and then slightly our our uh Central Services the other is our uh Family Resource Center and that support that we offer our community is a small percentage of our memo expenditures so I just wanted to make sure I pointed out some of the notable changes uh as Mr Man said this isn't something like this is what it is I can't go back and change what's happened these are where we expended our monies so I'd like to uh point out what we did um our ADM which is our average daily membership of our students when we're talking about that enrollment this is a number that pushes the dollars it decreased by 213 um that is a slower rate from the prior year the prior year was over 300 so it's nice to see that it is uh slowing down uh but we still none of the information or demographics are telling us that it's going to change in any way uh so we are just expecting a all the experts are telling us that birth rates have declined it's happening at all school districts it's happening at Charter districts and private schools it's happening across the state um our IMO spending increased by $3 million 2.2 million of that increase was in staff salaries and benefits which is where we're focusing those dollars uh we know our people are most important um asset and so we want to continue to support in that area the rest was due to those inflationary increases that I think everybody's been aware of how much things cost uh they cost more um that's another reason why we build some reserves because we did see some dramatic increases in inflationary um expenditures and luckily we were able to handle that and still continue to purchase the supplies and services that are necessary our federal uh spending has decreased by 4 million that's sunsetting those those covid funds the Esser we also know that we had decreased title funding that also is affected by um uh various demographic but includes declining enrollment we are going to continue to see decreases in that expenditure so what's really fantastic in kraton is that we have um core areas and in the Grants Department we have some just amazing staff who are very very good at what they're doing and we are working in Partnership to ensure that these funds they're not happening in a vacuum we talk about these and we collaborate to ensure that we're supporting each other as these funds are decreasing we want to have the maximum bang for our buck so we uh work closely with effective schools to ensure that they know what we're doing and we know that what they're doing our Capital spending decrease by 4 .3 million this is uh an interesting number because uh as we talked about that Capital spending and how restricted it is it can only be used for um the voter initiative dollars can only be used for that we have a very tiny amount of capital spending that comes in that's just um uh unreserved capital outlay and what that means is then we can use it on any eligible capital expenditure that does not include salaries and benefits that's um remodels Construction Equipment Technology uh those types of items but I'm not necessarily tied down to a voter pamphlet saying I can only spend it on a bus or I can only spend it on a on a disc so um we get very little of that money I kind of make sure that we keep that protected um but one of the things that kraton does a really good job is planning ahead and so you're going to see that Capital spending fluctuate as we plan ahead for bigger items like adoptions that cost millions of dollars so you'll see decrease spending for a couple years as we save up in order to have the bigger spend for a plann uh project just very it's been done very well here I just I don't know what else to say uh um and that's the end of that presentation I'll take any questions thank you does anyone have questions I mean I was going to say you can tell me off if I'm wrong but I just uh when we ever we get these presentations I thank you so much for your work and your whole team I know there's a lot of work that's going on and I know that we are in this position because of your leadership and I makes me happy every day that we've solidified our choice in leadership and I appreciate all the work You' done for years in leading that department well I I need to give kudos to Miss Shapiro because the improvements she's been making since coming on board are just order of magnitude and so um our ability to look at data has improved and I think our decision- making will get better and better and then with our I need to thank the board for being able to restructure our federal programs Department some of the adjustments and alterations we made in our business and finance department like the the conversations and the level of collaboration has never been higher and it has actually um bailed us out of potentially losing monies along the way over the course of this last six months or so and so it's I'm appreciative that the trust exists because the trust allowed us to make adjustments and bring new people into the mix who are really making a big difference and how effectively we can use our dollars and our fi Director of Finance yes yeah yeah gotta give this would be a great opportunity so I'm gonna give a big shout out to Dina dumal who's been our Director of Finance um for I think eight or nine years now probably nine years now and um honestly always been the voice of reason in finance um and one of the things and I've said this many times in the past that I really appreciated was having a finance director with the background of having been a social worker because the focus was always on what the needs of our of our community is what the needs of our students are um and that's driven you know a lot of her guidance and decision making over the years and it's one of the big reasons that we're in the wonderful place that we are so as we get ready to to celebrate her retirement um I think both mrir and I want to give a huge shout out because we would not be where we are without her and um having had the opportunity to work side by side with her for a length of time has been one of the great honors of my life it's like you have a lot of working relationships in your career um and there are some people who just make you better and she's one of those people um that I greatly appreciated she always made me better and never left me kind of hanging out there holding the bag wondering where we should be I always kind of had a sense of you know her support and guidance that helped with really really good and solid decision making and I know um our meet and confer teams over the years have also very much valued her her guidance and support yes absolutely 100% I'm not thinking too much about her retirement I'm just trying to think of all of the positive wonderful things she'll be doing uh I don't know how often you see um staff retire from the school district World they go off and then they come back and taunt you with their better skin and their just easy demeanor their lack of stress and less gray hair I have I don't know what happens after you retire but it's some mystical thing uh so I'm wishing all of the best and all the good things and uh she hopefully it won't go too far from us because we value and appreciate her so much thank you so seeing no other questions or comments I move the governing board approve the annual financial report for fiscal year 2023 to 2024 second I'm going to do a roll call um on this one so miss MC cheffrey hi um still maleb I I don't know why I'm not changing my name I don't know why I'm zoning out on your last name this GI mlan I and myself I all right we'll move on to 12 future agenda items does anyone have future agenda items that they would like to add um we did add the board self- evaluation number two for February I would like to just add two things one is if we could have a discussion on student L restorative practices or how we could Implement that into what we already do and then also maybe a discussion on a student Bill of Rights I know that's something that we may be disc discussing or maybe more appropriate for the advisor committee but it's something I just wanted to add to Future agenda items okay and then for accountability purposes I already made a word version of that template and I sent it Sophia and Hilda awesome anybody else have any future agenda items all right then we'll move to 13 um I motion I move the governing board adjourn second all those in favor I thank you have a good evening than this everybody needs to sign this oh yeah that one's important report since we did it in the 11th Hour

till 5:30 a.m. by our night security which makes it far more safer for them having to respond to burglar alarms and such remotely via cameras as opposed to having to physically walk into a dark building in the middle of the night um our sock during the daytime hours they respond to our 911 calls uh they'll respond to our tip line alerts um the night skurry responds to our alarms daytime responds to our lockdown drills as well as actual lockdowns um they respond if we have to conduct a reunification um and there's a lot of other things that go in behind it uh one thing I'll add that it's not necessarily under the camera project but one thing I'm proud of we've just uh connected with both Gilbert and Mesa police departments the sock now has a dedicated phone line to both departments where we can contact them with a push of a button and it goes directly to a dispatcher at the respective departments so we don't have to go through a call Taker and be directed and routed to the right person uh here in Gilbert we specifically have a dedicated ring so the dispatcher in the police department when they when they hear that distinctive ring on the phone they know it's Gilbert school's calling which is I think is a tremendous help it cuts down in time um so I can take questions now but I want to to tie up some loose ends here um so now that the project is completed uh installing cameras just wanted you to know that there's still work to be done on them we conduct daily tests on the related equipment and the cameras themselves which includes quality testing making sure they're running proficiently uh that the views that the schools and our office is seeing are not uh Vis the visibility is not blocked by trees or other obstacles that may come up um we we conduct continual ongoing staff training for new staff at the campuses both Administration and security officers at the campus we conduct uh and maintain hardware and software maintenance on the on the equipment as time progresses and uh we also I also uh work with benenson systems which is our partner that we partnered with the program on warranty Replacements because even though the equipment is fairly new 3 years old equipment outdates fast um and we also re have been responding to new camera requests as cuz now that they have these high functioning cameras they're seeing that oh we need more so we are constantly responding to those requests and we worked with the specific departments to get new cameras as they come up so on a few of these slides there were some quotes by some of our administrators and I've reached out to a couple of principles that over the last few years that have provided great feedback of how beneficial these cameras were and I'd like to read two of those to you um the camera system at our school makes our students safer and more secure every day I have had several parents send us their appreciation letters after and uh After School tours for our commitment to student safety students and parents have also thanked me for using the camera systems to ensure the students are cared for in many situations the camera system and the help of our security team is valuable to us at the school sites each and every day thank you up to our community and district for supporting these safety efforts in our schools that's from Trent Bren one of our Deans having been in elementary school since 1997 I can speak to the difference that cameras have made in the last few years cameras have been extremely beneficial in helping us to determine what has occurred both with students families and staff they allow us often times to identify specific events and students involved in what are sometimes situations with multiple viewpoints the ability to slow down the time while viewing incidents has proven to be extremely helpful we have also been able ble to identify and celebrate students and staff members going above and beyond in these moments in addition to this we have also been able to locate missing items and identify who was last with an item overall having multiple front office staff members trained on them has allowed our campus to hand handle situations effectively efficiently and timely Wendy Norberg principal at mosquit elementary that's it any questions um I know this isn't related to the bond but I wanted to ask you a question are all of our schools now they're all behind Plexi class right they are not oh they're not okay no they are not and what what you mean is the uh secured Entry Way the secured entry way yeah all of our high schools are completed we have one Junior High completed and two elementaries completed okay yeah and GCA and GCA okay and GCA correct well I included that in our high school oh okay thank you I just wanted to say I had an opportunity to tour the security office so impressive thanks so impressive so thank you for keeping our kiddos safe and I so appreciate all of your work and all of those that work with you your staff thank you well I think I think this has been a huge project and I do appreciate that it's been a benefit to the principals and staff at the schools as well as the students you know it's sometimes hard to you know two kids having a disagreement about what happened but if they can see the video and the administration can see the video that's that's very helpful to saying okay this is what happened and now we we have to deal with the consequences and and um help students to learn from those situations so I really do appreciate that you know it was a big undertaking um we didn't have I mean I remember we had a security team and they would if an alarm went out they had to go out in the middle of the night and figure out what it was and you know that's not a very safe thing to do um and I really appreciate the safety that has been put into place and and uh not just security cameras but the other things as well the fencing and everything else and I'm sure we'll get to that but uh it's been a big Endeavor and I I think that we're better off for it thank you thank you thank you Mr Kane thank you so much for this work and thank you to our taxpayers for the bond money that we could use effectively to help our campuses be safer appreciate you thanks thank you so next I'd like to bring up Mr Trace tolby to talk about the uh Bond spend in transportation you want to drive or do you want me to drive do matter okay um good good evening everybody thank you for having me come and talk um um supply chain and inflation hit us just like everybody else um vehicles are still incredibly hard to get and they're getting pricier by the day unfortunately um a year and a half ago we ordered these buses that we've got in right now and I'll explain what they are in later slides but uh three of the Thomas hxs which are the 84 passenger the big bus that you see with all the Gen ed kids on it um got three of those delivered at 696,000 this is the bus that you've seen for years it's the same style of bus that we've used for a long time we've upgraded them quite a bit over the years but to include like luggage compartments and the tented windows and really good AC um which was nice this year um you know and they're built for field trips as well as just general education back and forth so I I did want to ask if we I know sometimes we used to rent buses for field trips because of the um luggage capacity so are we able to rent fewer buses and use our own buses more under those circumstances we utilize some charter buses but that's mainly because we don't have enough drivers okay but we don't rent buses anymore um we've put luggage on pretty much everything that we can get now to avoid that okay you know it's it's not an expensive option when you buy the bus it's horribly expensive if you want to add it later okay thank you I appreciate that um the Collins type a bus it's a small little bus you can see it on the van chassis type thing it's 13 passenger plus a wheelchair plus a driver so 15 total and that qualifies uh under the DPS what they call 925 rule um as you know school buses are governed by DPS not do do so we fall under their preview it's a different set of rules different set laws everything like this um the 925 rule stems from a law that they passed 2 years ago trying to help the driver shortage for Nationwide or well Statewide rather um and with that said the intent was to have non-cdl drivers be able to drive school buses and how it kind of morphed through all of the policies and enforcement part was they came up with this bus which will qualify to have a non-cdl driver but he still has to have a student sht so our big bus drivers have a CDL and a student shirt both and these you only have to have a student sht which opens the driver pool for us because we can hire people that can't qualify for a CDL or don't want to and we can still have them do sped routes door too it still has a stop sign it still functions like a school bus it's just smaller so and we've already got uh we've gotten two of these so far we've got two drivers that have their studenter that were van drivers for us so their utilization went way up you know and it's easier to hire so um in the future uh we've got two more Collins buses like those that should be here the end of this month U for another 335,000 uh and then we're in the process of getting the quot and stuff for our 2025 uh purchase um and I'm kind of freaked out when you see the prices on them because they're going up but uh we're going to try to do one more big bus and then some medium and then maybe a couple of the more small ones so and once we have that quote we'll be bringing it to you for approval as it will exceed the threshold so yeah and that's it well I appreciate that because I do remember also when we had some very aging buses and at the beginning of the school year we had some breakdowns like the first week of school so I haven't heard of any breakdowns I haven't heard of anybody not being able to catch the bus or having a bus route change so it's been really quiet which means no news is good news so thank you very much to be under your radar well you have been I have I have not heard any complaints so um thank you very much I really appreciate it thank you yep I just add my thanks as well for rotating through the fleet making sure that we have the right buses that we need and also it's exciting to have these options for these smaller buses to keep our students safe but have drivers that qualify because I know it's still such a challenge to continue to find bus drivers so thank you we're we're still 30 4 35 short drivers so it's it's still rough it yeah thank you thank you for all you do thank you thank you very much appreciate it and the pictures are beautiful I love looking at school and again thanks to our taxpayers for the bond that we can have these these vehicles okay finally um I'll bring Mr Albert dutchover up to complete the presentation for this evening um this is just the summary the total planed spend we have some in encumbrance which you will see on our monthly financials but this is the total plan spend about $18.1 million and I will let Albert take the rest mine are mostly pictures you know a little less substance um we're going to get into the HVAC projects we hit three major projects this summer uh Gilbert High School Highland High School and Pad Del re we did the cooling towers um which is a key component to um the central plant system this is a picture of Gilbert High School you can see kind of in the middle there there's more superficial it's it's rust kind of in the wet section area so cooling tower towers usually last 15 to 20 years um we're roughly about 17 18 years with these towers here so we've we've maintained them pretty well um they're well traveled um but then you start seeing some not only superficial rust and some other um identifying marks of failure you start getting some mechanical failures as well so these are the two Replacements on on each site we replaced two cooling towers um Highland High with three um Gilbert High School you can see the new cooling towers and we also added a a maintenance platform so we wanted to kind of lean a little bit more towards uh maintenance our technician safety right here um up in the you you can see they're more prominent on the other Towers um but as they work on the cooling towers rather than working working off of of a vertical out ladder um they could actually work on a platform with their tools while they're working or trying to remove a a motor that may we weigh upwards to 200 150 to 200 lbs yeah a ladder doesn't seem strong enough for that and working from the side so it's kind of this is hopefully to create some more safety again same thing this is uh gilber or Highland High School uh these are the intakes again not only failure on on the tower the structure itself but on additional components uh to the right is the original layout you can see the ladders that run vertical to the to the towers and those those are usually the the platform they have to work at on the original towers and again replacing all three towers providing a a safety ladder as well as three individual platforms to walk across the entirety of the of the system this is pad Del re again you see that that's a little more than superficial that's a little um more of a destructive uh rust and again um we have some more up in the wet wet and dry section and then here's a complete rep uh replacement well I do appreciate that emphasis on worker safety I mean that's a lot oh yeah definitely so restroom remodels we have a few here I talked to Bonnie I think the kind of running joke is we could only see so many urinol and toilets so I don't think we have any on this slide uh but roughly uh we did um eight or we did eight schools uh five elementaries and um I just drew a blank sorry six elementaries two Junior highs roughly spending 8.8 million so this this is Greenfield Junior High School picture of the partitions again this normal Aesthetics tile tile walls that's a before yes uh this is the after and just kind of what we've gone with with the Standard wall to- wall um our Florida ceiling tile 12x 24 tiles um solid surface countertops upgraded um hand dryers as well as partitions and lighting all LED lighting when we replace them well I will say that one of my goals when I got on the school board was to have working hand dryers that would actually dry hands so I'm very proud of those and this is a before of Highland Jr and the after that looks really nice flooring at Desert Ridge uh junior high school Desert Ridge was one of our early flooring projects um and we kind of hadn't set the standard of do doing complete FL flooring projects at the time we were kind of breaking up life cycles until we found is more beneficial for us to do a complete um change out well Desert Ridge was one that had originally just carpet and there was quite a few deficiencies in their hard surface flooring so we went back in and replaced the rubberized surface in the gym area as well as uh lvt replacing the VCT with lvt throughout their hallways is that uh lvt right there no is more of a rubberized surface that it's familiar or common in um gym and athletic areas space Renovations so campal verie had wanted to put together a renovate their um I believe it's a resource or college Resource Center uh they have named it uh College and Career Center collaborative space they had some ideas they wanted a more open collaborative space that students would come and and um feel it feel inviting it was something that they they could work within um and it was also open so here you can see the first picture is obviously facing into the classroom the second picture is facing to the exterior we added a a rollup door garage style door uh with full view windows into a into a patio area that we created and this is just a picture of the door up and the exterior space uh again I believe they their plan is to furnish it so as we get into those cooler months students could come work on projects or or do homework or whatever may be um while sitting out in the space in the patio these are actually work surfaces aren't they out yes yeah so across the perimeter there's a counter space so uh students can sit and interact on well and my understanding with they wanted to be able to attract students into this space so they would come in and and get interested in looking at the the resources that were available and bring them in you know to get extra help or whatever they need so I think it's very attractive and I think that was a wellth thought out idea yeah Tyler and his his team put together a good design uh athletic venues again we continue to try to upgrade our athletic spaces um not only for Aesthetics and competition but also for safety this is the track at um Camp verie high school you can see we have uh quite a bit of cracking um as well as deterioration again as the track fails and we start getting into the the black undercoat um that's where the surface becomes hard it starts to fail and then again with cracking chipping there's tripping hazards for for athletes Albert that the first time we' re surfaced that since it was built it is and I don't I don't believe we did a resurface so similar to Asphalt right it's ideal for tracks every 5 years to Reco and then within your 20 at your 20th year 15 to 20 years you you do a a a complete breakdown um this has never had it um as far as my understanding I think we've just done patches and we did a complete tear down of this track and actually we're as you go we go through the pictures we're still in the process um they're actually coding it this week so similar like to Desert Ridge High School last year so this is a complete Milling here we take that down all the way to the the Aggregate and uh relevel and re relevel and rebuild so each side now we put new asphalt as a base coat and then this is kind of a overall view of each one of those phases and then now by the end of this week they'll have a have it coated and striped and how soon before they can use it um they should get be able to get on it by next week okay um we have pretty Max and his team have been pretty yeah they they've helped us out with timelines so good yeah they've been really good for us just in time though for Spring Track and Field right yeah yeah uh Safety and Security uh this is a continuation of uh Burke Elementary as you guys remember uh this was a large project there quite a bit of deterioration in the perimeter fencing and failure not only aesthetic but true safety hazards uh some of these areas were were fairly light I mean we could have ultimately just pushed them over so so what we decided to do is go instead of having the um 2 to 3T uh wall base we strictly went rod iron and there was some concerns with the initial at the initial ask of how we would maintain it um so what we've done is we we set out at least I believe a little over 5T of space um from the sprinklers to move them away from the fencing uh this actually has given um a little bit of a walking Track around the elementary so not only are we again working to save the the metal but we're a little bit of a recreational space as well that's awesome does that mean you also had to redo some sprinkler systems because of having grass close up to the fence we did we pulled all that forward and we worked with our uh landscape Partners in order to complete that okay okay that's all we have for operations any questions or thoughts no those are great examples I know know that there's a lot more that you did but um it's good to see some good examples of of what um is needed and and what we've done to improve things so that I think it's it's a point of Pride for our students when they have schools that are cared for and a point of Pride for the community too that our schools are in good condition and in good repair and safe and um attractive so thank you for that hard work thank you so much thanks thanks for the the efficient and thoughtful way you spend the money and enhance things as you go and make sure that there's appropriate environments for the students oh well thank you for all your support yeah appreciate you thanks thank you Albert okay the final uh section is on the outstanding Bond debt and the tax rate summary and assess values um outstanding General obligation debt so you can see that this uh By the time that 2031 uh comes along all of our debt would be paid off and note the small um the small yellow bar on each of the bars um those are our interest payments which are substantially lower than we anticipated keep in mind that when you get your truth and Taxation on your home mortgage um the amount of Interest you're paying is often five six times um the value of the house by the time you have an advertised so this is pretty remarkable um how quickly that we are paying back that debt and seeing some significant decreases in interest payments because of it again this is just the example that I've provided before um so we because of the acceleration the low amount of time that we're advertising the debt and taking advantage of the environment of the low interest rates so we have incurred uh $27.7 million of interest uh payments less than originally estimated just a reminder and that's for both 2019 and uh 2015 voter authorization that that is remarkable that's so remarkable savings for for that the money that we borrowed that's a great savings it's a great savings yeah for both of those so so this is our 2015 to 2024 assessed values so note that the black bars represent our full cash value increase you can see the blue bar represents the uh net uh value uh which is the value that is uh used for taxation purposes so you can see that on a market value basis or a full cash value bases our our housing market here in gber public schools has substantially increased state law though does not require any uh Property Owners assessed value for taxation purposes to exceed 5% which is what you see in the blue bar and then this is our GPS total tax rate levies again commensurate with um the low uh Bond and interest Bond principle and interest payments along with um the fact that our sus values have gone up you can see that our tax rate continues to go down um you can see even the override tax rate in 2016 you can see that there was no override tax rate that was when we didn't have the override at all in 2017 uh you saw from 2017 to 19 it was relatively flat through 20 2020 2020 and then you can see in 20121 it was increased that was when we were approved for the 15% override and then since 2021 you can see that that figure continues to decline um as we as we go through time well the other part is just that um those votes were taken in 2015 and 2019 so there is a quite a delay between the time that our voters approve override and um bonds and then the time that they're implemented in our budget correct the bond potentially uh and I can't remember when we sold I don't think we I think we sold the prior Bond we were approved in November of 19 but we had a bond sale in the spring of 20 so that was pretty quick but we do we were not able to Levy for the override funds until the subsequent school year okay but there is a it's not like next year we get the money takes time um for at least for the override next year yeah it would be if we're approved this November we're able to Levy for it for the 25 26 school year okay and that's the end of of this huge report so are there any other questions you've had some good questions already so and then just don't forget the uh that we need for you guys to sign the AFR documents before you leave this evening thank you thank you to you and your team and all the work that you guys do we appreciate it that's a lot of work and it's good to know that we're on solid Financial footing and doing well so thank you thank you we will now adjourn our work study and call to order our brief board business meeting um Mrs Wilson will you please roll call Mrs Lorie wood here Mrs Jill humph here Mrs Ronda pagee here miss wood you have a quorum thank you I will now go to item five the consent agenda items and ask five 01 the approval of consent agenda items board members is there a motion I move to approve the consent consent agenda items as presented thank you m h it's been moved as there second a second thank you m Fage it's been moved and seconded that we approve the consent agenda items as presented all those in favor please vote by saying I I I any oppose with nay that's pass 30 thank you and now we'll go to our action items 6.01 FY 2024 annual financial report and school level reporting form Dr mcord thank you Miss Woods governing board members as presented earlier in our work study uh Miss Betts and her team laid out all the financial information as well as the school level reporting we're asking for your approval board members is there a motion for approval or is there a motion I guess still moved thank you um thank you Miss Paige is there a second second great it's been moved and seconded that we approve FY 2024 annual financial report and school level reporting for is there any discussion I just think um it's a huge amount of effort to make sure that we're um financially sound and and spending our money really wisely and I think that uh our department our financial department has done an amazing job and thank you Miss Beth s your team for all of that hard work I mean it really does make a difference and not only that being transparent about how we spend it and letting our community know so thanks thank you seeing no further discussion I'll call for the vote all those in favor of approving FY 2024 annual financial report and school level reporting form please vote by saying I I any oppose with nay thank you that has passed 30 that will take us to adjournment board members is there a motion so moved thank you Miss humpr it's been moved is there second second thank you Mr Page it's been moved and seconded all those in favor of adjourning please vote by saying I I I any opposed thank you very much thanks and we'll sign the form okay

Madam Secretary Ro call please sure miss s stumbris here Mr swales here miss rup is here Mr gyos here Mr alch here Dr Hall here president BR here let us stand for the Pledge of Allegiance by board member Alis giggles and mission statement following soon thereafter by assistant or vice president Dr Hall I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all our mission statement is to engage and Empower our students to positively impact their community and future thank you both do we have any public comments either electronically or here okay thank you Cheryl any board updates uh bpack uh next week on Friday the 25th we'll have a an event I believe will be here in this parking lot um it's going to be a uh like a trunk or treat uh we're also we might have pumpkins not sure um but it'll be a good time for our uh families to get together just before the holidays uh and costumes are welcome right movie craft movie crafts uh so uh good time had by all awaits Good Times awaits all right I just would like to if there's no other board updates I would just like to sure I just want to um real quick remind everybody that we play at Bloom on Frid on Saturday and then but the big game is K key next Friday so if you all can come out and cheer on your Warriors for the football game and any other event but I love football and that's k key yes that's the last one this is the last the last regular season last regular season yes and then and right now they are 5 and two and they have two games left so there's a possibility that they could play a home game doing the playoff yes okay yeah they they'll probably play a home game okay now well I guess the big weit now is to see if we're going to be 5A or 6A cuz we're always the lowest team in 5A as far as enrolling so cuz they go by and roll me okay did we ever get knocked down from 6A to 5A though because of been roing not recently but we could I know one year when I know my son was here we were the very last five 5A school I mean 6A School mhm like the very last one very last they they take the top two 256 teams at the end of the year in the first 32 or 8A second you know the next 32 or 7A Etc so right and so it kind of depends on your enrollment you could shift one year to the next and right now I guess he said we're toggling between the five and six five and six okay go Warriors all right I don't know if this is out of place but I hope it's not uh can we just take a moment of silence for the student that we lost this past just a few days ago thank you so much I appreciate it and that hit me hard when the sad news came from our superintendent and only to find out it was a student and they had a balloon release on Saturday I didn't know Alex was going to be out there I got called at the last minute it was a great crowd out there and sometime later on that day I saw a video of the young lady and it's just amazing how so much life someone could have only to be gun tomorrow so take every light every day of your life and live it to its fullness you don't know how to number your days because life is but a vapor all right no other board updates administrative updates superintendent all right I'm going to move on to our good news report um I've got two items this evening uh one I'm going to have Dr M he's got some special goodie bags here for for you so along with Dr Hall's invitation to the final home game for the football uh season the regular season we have our Warrior night of Wellness that the wellness benefits and wellness department is also do for our staff so we have some a nice giveaway that you can bring with you to the game is that a bear's cushion seat in here C SE all right wow thank you win ugly head here so again hopefully you will be able to to join us and continue to help promote Wellness that we're doing for our entire thank you so much can I use this as a flotation device you know I can't swim use it a you got a pillow and a blanket too okay oh man oh wow you don't be sleeping at the creep mon KN Warrior all right thank you thank you Dr M and Dr K so my other item um I've never done this before where I've had a bad news good news report so here's my bad news and good news for this evening so our our bad news or our sad news is uh Cheryl rup this will be her last meeting good news for her but bad news for us she coming back the next more meeting yeah she told so so um she is uh looking forward to with family is moving on uh going out of state uh her boys have both gone through our school system and uh Cheryl has been a not only an active mom over the last years but an active board member for seven and a half years uh it's hard to believe that time has gone so fast um she has uh really served the board well she has served as a vice president and a secretary to the board she has served on the insurance committee I think the whole time uh strategic planning she has been part of the cmea contract negotiations she's been out doing classroom visits all all those years she's volunteered in a number of venues such as the boosters craft show uh she's participated all the village parades she's uh participated in the concession stand and she was just working really hard at the last homecoming game and uh she was also my partner at uh the foundation fundr runs uh for for several of those so she has been an integral part and has just been a really solid uh member of our team here and so we will certainly miss you and we have just a little little something some of these pictures we have a couple little pictures it's short it's short so Calla put this together for us we had to go in the archives to find some of them but I remember that one and we're going send you this but we just have a couple slides you can see some of the events that she was back over time those in classrooms there a Laura and Terry here so anyway we just wanted to thank you that was wasn't no it wasn't I kept it very we can take some more can we vote to not accept the resignation I thought about that rejected yeah so um if we could I was going to say maybe we could have you come up there we because we do have a little bit of a photo okay I'll just say real quickly that uh I've enjoyed my time on the board I mean I'm not going to pretend like it wasn't a little difficult at first and a little contentious but U we worked through it and um I've learned a ton hopefully made a difference with everybody and uh yeah and I just appreciate that we all work so hard to work together and that we all have a common goal and that was what our Focus was and so I just hope wish you all the best and that you continue to do that and I know uh the sports Fields will be great I'll come back back yeah and uh yeah just thank you appreciate it well you might not make me work but other make comments now or before guys make comments any comments members well Cheryl you and I both came on the board at the same time and and it was a lot of hard work to kind of get things smoothed out at the beginning but you were intrical to that process and a very steady hand and getting it all done and the years that I served as president you were Vice President you were always great counsel to me and uh probably kept from doing some stupid things so I I do appreciate it and wish you all the best of luck yeah yeah I was going to say I I think we've volunteered together for besides this I think it's been at least 12 years doing stuff together so you're going to be missed for sure well we spent the last four years side by side and I enjoyed every minute of it we had laugh joke you have a a great sense of human personality and I thank you for the the work you've done over the years thank you I haven't been around as long but I just appreciated how welcoming you are and patient as I was getting used to what was going on so it was much appreciated thank you yeah thanks for um helping out uh easing us into the process uh I knew nothing of what being a board member was before this and you've been a really good example of how to be a board member so thank you very much sh you I mean just the first day of so that I really got a chance to meet you you just had something special about you and it's your heart you got a good heart you care about people and it it's very difficult for people to really kind of control me right but you would just look at me and say mauce I got it said Mo Mr Brown you wouldn't say a word but you gave me that look and I better shut up now better stop I'm going to miss that even as secretary you have a a level of sense that you can bring things back you can bring things back to where they need to go and you'd be surprised on how often I looked at you I looked at your demeanor I absorb the words that you said on as Nelson said conso indirectly conso to me so it hit me hard it did Hit me hard because as I think maybe Nelson said things were a little contentious when we first met each other overall as a board new board member but things really mellowed out and you had a big part to do with that so I wish you the best with your family and family for for the most part well for all the part is number one number one and I I did respond right did you get my email okay and I said and I mean it give me a call don't forget about me okay I like to join maybe you and Ken and I can see both of you in Tennessee okay but I wish you well I wish you well so we want to come up here we have AAL everybody oh my god with and you put in your house your new house any thank you for [Applause] she honored my wishes to cons agenda oh I just want one more thing one one more thing is all of those acal and I those think she did I'm like I am so far behind thanks chery for setting a bar High okay okay oh that's it all right moving on and number seven consent agenda approval can have a motion to approve the consent agenda if there's anybody want to take anything out or remove it and vote on it separately please state it now so moved second okay so as as is we got a motion to approve the consent agenda as is and it's been moved any questions or comments oh let me see I do have under business no that's I'm sorry is that under consent M it is isn't it yeah action report no you want to comment on that that's it that's separate okay the consent is a and b sorry okay and C oh andc okay all number seven okay uh any questions uh is Personnel separate from the consent agenda or that it is that's a number eight that's a consent is seven which is a b and c under seven number no is it yeah it isort normally the action starts with number nine okay so we made a mistake less so be seven and eight seven and eight yeah you're right okay all right it kind of got me there so seven and eight a b and c under seven and a and b under eight all right so that's the motion's been mve any questions or comments if not roll call please Madam Secretary all right Mr alre I miss s somus i Mr gigos I Mr swales hi Miss rups and I Dr Hall I president Brown I motion Carri moving on to number nine Action Report Alpha Board of Education can I have a motion to approve the board member to attend the cube conference in Las Vegas and in October 2024 some moved move by Alex second second by Jamie any comments and is this for dror Hall so I I mean we've talked about this you know in Clos and kind of beat this I I don't have an issue with it I'll vote Yes but just I'm hoping you come back and you know we the whole board can benefit from you going so you know bring back good materials and and U we'll see how that works okay any further comments roll call please Madam Secretary all right Mr alre I Mr swales nay Miss site stum nay Mr gyos nay Miss RS nay Dr Hall oh okay yeah that makes sense um president Brown uh nay okay motion carry it does not oh it does not carry all right all right action report number nine Alpha 2 can I have a motion to approve board member to attend a joint annual conference in Chicago in November 2024 so moved move by Alex now second second by Cheryl any comments or questions so is this for all the board members who are attending this is just for what happened was because I had gone to a conference before we settled like on what our final amount was uhuh um it was um over um like I think like 600 $700 over so that's why we have to vote on it because we came up with that the um the limit and then we came up with okay once you're over you you were there you so basically it was because of that got it okay we got a motion we got and move any further questions or comments if not roll call please Madam Secretary okay Mr swales I miss rups and I miss s stumbris nay Mr alch I Mr gigos nay uh Dr Hall is obstain President Brown hition carries carry okay nine Action Report Bravo business can I have a motion to approve the award to award the project of the creeky high school Sports plex renovation to burn and Jones Construction which includes a new multi sport Stadium new baseball and softball fields a practice field renovate tennis courts create pickle ball cours and new asphalt to all existing asphalt on the creek Mony high school campus so moved move by Alex second second by Nelson any questions or comments uh for the the uh for the the track that's going around the uh the football field uh do we have a number of lanes that are going to be put on there yeah it'll be efficient it'll be correct it'll be eight lanes and we'll be able to host track and field events at the high school eight Lanes it'll be regulation you know regulation and given the standard of high school sports so we will be able to hold competitions there is the will there be a um can we have maybe nine Lanes on the straightaways I it's going to be regulation so that we can run track meets because we don't run track Meats because it's not regulation so anything we need that we're supposed to legally have we will have correct I know when in the plans it's called for eight I can inquire about it it's going to be eight in the straight for like the 100 you know the and it's going to be correct eight full Lanes all the way around but can we do maybe a ninth on the straightaways what's it what's the purpose what's the purpose uh for uh other races for to have nine across for the the shorter races the 100 meter the uh those kind of uh I was we're going to have the correct amount of Ls for the hundred right I was asked um by one of the coaches of the Flames he's also a coach here yeah yeah yeah and and and the purpose too is for our kids to you know obviously we got six Lanes we want eight Lanes to help hold conf sectionals and things of that nature so that's what we're looking at but he pointed out to Alex andio this weekend he said it'd be nice to have nine has he seen the the drawings well I guess that's a move point he still looking at nine lanes because that's what college have okay so I just want to stepping up a notch he said if we can't get eight nine Lanes with the circular or circumference at least get nine on a straight I'm just assuming it's going to be ihsa approved yes whatever ihsa is if if if if they can do nine so he's he's you know he's have great experience doing this so he thought that was a good idea since we're doing it that it will meet the intent on what we want but it just give it a little bit more leverage of adding this one component to a minimum nine Lanes with with a straightaway or nine but minimum with a straightaway at least a n Ninth Lane but just a straightaway to run a 100 so you can have nine he said he's find gaps with kids trying to get acclimated coming out of high school especially those good Runners when they get into High School it throws them a curveball now they saying out of high school going to college they're seeing nine Lanes as opposed to eight my only concern with that is I I just think we have an under I think we have seven now which six so we can't host an event I I think we're whatever the specs of an ihsa would be because I think the Flames is an external it's not a it's not part of our high school right it's an external no that's just a feeder program okay but he's a coach with our high school he coached for the flames and he coached for a high school too right so and him and his brother they really been involved but he just brought it up he brought it up to Alex and our attention he said it' be nice just bring it up I said yeah we're going to be talking about it put him in contact with Mr yeah obviously yeah yeah and I said I I said it may be a move point I think it's water over the dam we in the process and you know I said well I'll throw it out Alex I said we'll put it out to the table and see you know have more conversation they can speak much better than Alex and I on this topic so um uh coach Franklin okay uh Franklin no I appreciate the suggestion um after gaining approval part of the design plan design committee I spoke with Mr keki and I was asking that all Varsity head coaches that are involved with anything to do with the sports FX be part of that committee so we have their so we have their Insight yeah that's what Dr cogn for saying as a committee there so you know you never get anything if you don't ask for it so that's that's my intent I say hey it's still fresh still hot you know I don't know if the Press here so put it out there and I don't know like I don't know if the plans have been like approved or anything it's still in the planning phase we haven't broken ground or anything so right now would be the best time to bring it up rather we haven't necessarily gotten to the rather than and hopefully you know this I know there's a monetary component and we approved x amount of dollars and all of that and we definitely don't want that to exceed but you just never know maybe they can fit fit it discuss it when we get to the planning stage sure absolutely that's all well that that brings up a good question there are no dollar amounts assigned with either one or two here what are we really what are we really voting on um for item number one the total cost is and the cost was presented previously last year um total was 14, 390,000 for the work done at the uh Sports plex Burns and Jones is going to honor that pricing so that proposal has been shared with the board on a few occasions it's been inced the in the board packet so that's what we're looking at to vote on in the amount so I I guess I'd like to amend yeah amend the action item to include that dollar amount yes I that would beine that works for me yeah so do you have that yeah 14 was it$ 14, 390,000 in an amount not to exceed something like that without coming back to the board I guess that works yeah we got a contingency amount in there I'm sure uh those prices are fixed in at with the proposal so from that point you know as we discussed with the Ninth Lane track that Ninth Lane is included in the proposal so if you guys would like to go over and have a small contingency in it um due to anything that comes up through the design process then no I think then that should come back to the board for another vote I I agree okay now what if what if the project came in at 12 million doll that'd be great that's what we pay right I mean hypothetically it could happen right if we were it in an amount not to exceed yeah so we get the we get and then so in terms of so we've got let's talk about the bonds to fund this okay so we went through we already had the bond hearing right the biner hearing yes so the binder hearing so and we've gotten through this the 30-day period yes that so it was posted we didn't get any objection to that so when and we know now that University Park has filed their paperwork to dissolve the Tiff yes so when will you come to the board to issue bonds Bob Lewis will be here next month to present at the committee a whole to go over the bond schedule okay I think that was 30 was that $ 35 million total it was you it was approved not to exceed the amount of 35 million the plan that we've laid out uh previously laid out by Ken serman followed by myself and Mr Johnson it's right around like 29 million2 200,000 so we're stand below that 35 million so the bond hearing was at 35 million but we can we'll issue fewer bonds correct than than that but we have a Max of like you said 35 that's already and that's already cleared through the I forget what the V of note the communities could come back and and requireed to go to referendum and we passed through that that hurdle yeah we went through that period the opportunity was out there okay the the B when they come back next month obviously they're going to have all the breakdown of the interest you know what the current interest rate and what our payment but we also want to make sure that you break that down cuz I pretty sure that's the sports BX the concession and the Middle School correct so I want to make sure we see all of that if you can with what their schedule is and maybe a timeline maybe they can put that together to make sure that as we're talking about this in the bonds that everybody knows that is exactly specifically what they're for so that as we're voting along it just it's it's just there's no later um yeah this is what we talked about in October that's what we talked about in November just so so they know exactly what it's allocated for yeah I can definitely update that presentation and have it to coincide with uh their presentation so what was the dollar amount again on number one, 390,000 1439 technical question do I need to do something differently here that we have to put as amended or have to redo it I think we need to have a motion to amend the action item right so I'll make a motion to do that okay so do we have to Res do something for the one that's already on the floor or it just goes away I'm sorry can we at what does that include the total for number two no that'll be a separate line item okay we can't do approve a change for okay perfect thank you no I think what we'll do is one at a time cuz the second one is like 4.72 3 million perect thanks I will second wait who moved I oh I'm sorry yeah I'll make the motion to change the amount to 14390 million so it'll re award the project to the creeky high school Sports plex renovations to buron Jones Construction which includes a new multi sport Stadium new baseball and softball fields a practice field renovate tennis courts create pickle ball courts and new asphalt to all existing asphalt of the creek money high school campus in an amount not to exceed 14, 390,000 yeah okay everybody good with that M all right so got the motion out we got the kind of amended verbiage thank you Nelson stating that out any further questions on Bravo number nine Bravo One good discussion thank you uh roll call please M secretary all right Miss s stumbris i Mr swales hi Miss rupis andai Mr G iOS I Mr alre I Dr Hall I president Brown I motion carry all right let's see how I'm going to verbalize this number nine on the action report B Bravo number two number two award the project and I have a motion to award the project of the creek M High School concession stand construction to Bear construction now we're going to do the same thing add in an amount not to exceed with the amended verbiage are they holding the price too yes this one does have a contingency in it I saw that for 205 yes sir how much is it so what's the dollar amount on that one 4,723 th000 uh $2 23,89322 389 and there is a contingency amount of 20553 $2 in there okay that contingency amount does not have to be stated right it's for information only yeah okay okay need a motion to so I need a motion to amend the current motion to state so so I move to amend the item B under business number two to read award the project of the Creon High School concession stand construction to Bear Construction in an amount not to exceed 4,723 second second any questions or comments on that if not roll call please Madam Secretary Mr Al I Mr gigos I M RS and I Mr SW wallish I miss stumbris I Dr Hall I president Brown I motion carry all right this is tough this is tough for me this would be the last time that our current Secretary I thought it was because of all the money [Laughter] [Music] but I have to stand up read this all right under action report number nine okay I have a motion to approve the school maintenance project Grant application for the maximum allowance of $50,000 so moved second moved by Alex second by Nelson any comments concern Madam Secretary for the last time am I supposed to stand can I ask the board the rest of the board to stand oh my gosh I really do this is this is an honor this is okay this is an honor okay all right you guys ready roll call please miss site stumbris I and then you can sit Mr swales hi Mr alre hi Mr gyos hi Dr Hall hi president Brown I'm go last I miss rup is and I and signing off no motion motion Carrie thank you so much Madame secretary I I will uh be sharing with the board our new secretary prior to next meeting with the board thank you all right do we have any old business any new business well speaking at a new business so what's the process then for replacing Cheryl between now and the election in April uh Dr you want to share that sure so um I have uh passed along Miss R's uh resignation to the Roe uh Regional Office of Education just to notify them uh we have 60 days calendar days to uh interview and appoint uh someone to take her place um at the starting starting at whatever 12:00 tonight we are going to be pushing out through social media and our website um this opening for district 6 we need to make sure that folks realize you know we're different than most most districts it's District six so we want to make sure people understand where that is so if you're listening out there look at our website and if you've got questions you can call our office here um so if people are interested they're supposed to contact U Mr Brown um then what we would do is hold a closed session uh interview for the person or people that are interested in that the board would then take action on that if there is nobody out there that is interested the regional Office of Education will appoint one for us if there's somebody to so has to be right I'm not sure how they're going to run that because of that someone out of we don't come to an agreement they don't you if so if no one seek the position it just stays open until until election and another thing is only those who want that lives in District sub district 6 is is eligible to participate in a interviewing process correct I was going to say is there any way you can make sure you put that subd District like everywhere so people don't apply from Chicago where I'm at right and just say hey I want to apply for the realizing it's got to be from a specific subd district and that appointed person would serve until the next election until April April right and when do the um ballots or what what am I trying to say when do they have to pull if they are planning to run November 18th is their due okay yeah so if someone's interested do not have a lot of that's a good that's a good point that's a good point so somebody who wants to come in and fill its vacancy still have to put in if they decided they want to continue on yeah they can't let that I think too with that being said is if no one files and then April comes I think we if that person is still that's what you want you do the interview process again that person can still stay but then they would only have a two-year term the following election I think is when that would be up so that way the position doesn't remain un that's a good point too so if that person doesn't file by November the 18th right but is appointed to the seat and the term ends April whatever they could reapply because we have the seat vacant again right cuz I'm assuming you have to redo that process again because her term will end on let's say April 2nd so on the next day we we'll have to have that once we get everybody seated then we would probably open that again do could that person stand that position for four years two I think it's two because that happened in in the village of mon where someone uh was appointed to to finish up the they missed yeah and then they filled out I think if we get to that point we'll have to consult with attorneys but I think that's how that works they could be if no one applies because of the time so short then we would go through that process again again interesting but first things first yes get out tomorrow specify subd district 6 and Cheryl you can reapply all righty anything else doc no sir okay no old business no new business so sure this is your official T can I have a motion uh no Clos session can I have a motion to adjourn so moved second mve by Nelson second by Alex and Cheryl I'm going to have you no you're not going to say all in favor no take a roll call again go ahead sure I'll spare you all in favor say I any Nays all right we are aured h

all right good evening and welcome everyone our Board of Education meeting for October uh we are going to get started with a few administrative items pled of and right into the AR October of the month so the public meetings law was enacted to Ure the right of the public to advanced notice of to attend meetings of public bodies at which time any business affecting their interest is discussed and AC in accordance with the provisions of this act Board of Education policy2 Board of Education of the book notice high school and other facts to the carer news cler South Board of Education and any person who request individual noce please [Music] stand uned [Music] States Mr B here Mr Dawson here M Gaz here M Carlton here Mr zco miss m Mr Minas here miss high here Mr bumer here Mr here president you have a quarum present this evening thank you Mr we are up to it 21 superintendent report okay good good evening everybody and Welcome to our October meeting at this time I would like to call up for our students of the month our first presentation have [Applause] Dr so good evening congratulations to Haley Vega Rivera and Miss Sanchez class haey has a brother named Luke her favorite school subject is learning about out letters and her favorite hobby is playing with Play-Doh when she grows up she wants to be just like her father congratulations [Applause] Haley congratulations to Samara Castro Galia and Miss nor house and Mrs cortz class Samara has two big brothers and one big sister her favorite school subject is coloring and pain painting and she enjoys watching TV when she grows up she wants to be a teacher congratulations Samara [Applause] hey congratulations to Christopher ciss in Miss pic's class Christopher has an older brother and sister he loves to learn and his favorite hobbies include saving money to buy candy and listening to music when he grows up he wants to be a businessman and sell ice cream congratulations Christopher [Applause] [Music] [Applause] one last round of applause [Applause] all next up from lafette school is [Applause] our second grade student of the month our second great student of the month is Jamila sonan agular she is from Miss Sia's class she has a sister named Allison her favorite school subject is Art yamila is a growing artist she loves to paint draw and color she also loves playing with her baby sister Allison and when she grows up Jamila wants to become a doctor congratulations art is my congratulations you're gonna go right back there okay watch your step [Applause] here our third grade student of the month is Sophia Moran Cortez [Applause] Sophia is in Miss civella and Mrs glassman's class she loves reading she loves playing house and when she grows up she wants to be a teacher congratulations [Applause] Sophia congratulations y those are yours congratulations [Applause] all next up small school we have this [Applause] winter so our fourth grade student of the month comes from Miss PX class Raphael Gonzalez come on down [Applause] Rael Raphael has a sister one sibling seven years old his favorite subject is math and in particular he says he loves rounding and multiplication his favorite hobby is soccer and he plays center field which is a very important position in soccer and his career plans is that he wants to be a policeman con [Music] sry it's okay congratulations to [Music] go congratulations our fifth grade student of the month comes to us miss Bowski class and that's Angelie [Applause] Miranda so Angelie has four siblings three sisters and a brother her favorite subject is Art and gym her favorite hobbies are gymnastics and dance and her career plans are to be an Olympic gymnast or professional dancer [Applause] congratulations conratulations [Applause] [Music] and our sixth grade student of the month coming to us St from Miss Bell's class who's with us tonight is Manan [Applause] car so Manan has a brother in Middle her favorite subject is math specifically D dividing fractions she likes to play video games hang out with her brother and she would like to be a famous baseball player [Applause] all right round [Applause] ofuse and next up for Community Middle School Dr Santa Sur [Applause] hello everyone first up for student of the month from the Community Middle School in seventh grade Mason [Applause] Lane Mason was nominated by his teacher Mr haiser which is a really sought after their nomination every year Mason has one sibling and enjoys computers class physical education and film favored Hobbies is playing basketball and when he grows up wants to be a basketball player and own his own clothing line [Applause] all [Applause] right next up for the Community Middle School in grade eight javante [Applause] Tony Devante has twoing and favorite subject is math favorite hobbies are basketball football video games and spending time with friends and when he grows up wants to be an FBI agent and or professional gamer [Applause] [Music] [Applause] congratulations Mr [Applause] Smith good evening everyone our first recipient for Crusader citizen of the month is Daniel [Applause] R Daniel has one older sibling named Joseph he's a graduate of Bound Brook High School as well his favorite subjects in school would have to be intro to drawing uh which allows him to let his mind run w r let his mind run free and his creativity run wild his favorite faor hobbies are playing basketball hanging with friends and Building Things with his hands in the future he hopes to own his own business after attending the institute for culinary education in Manhattan so it's a culinary arts school and uh when you do invite me to your restaurant [Applause] but on the table [Music] [Applause] congratulations our next recipient um is unable to attend tonight but I'm going to read his little bio anyway Anthony Garcia Anthony Garcia has one sister his favorite subject his art as well his favorite hobbies include skating with his friends and as for his future career plans he's considering taking up law so congratulations [Applause] Anthony our next recipient I'm not sure if he's able to attend tonight either but kayen B [Applause] Hayden B has uh other older siblings but they do not attend Bound Brook High School his favorite subject in school is environmental science um he enjoys playing games in particular playing football and Sports in general and his future career plans include a career in law of in some capacity so the lawyer [Applause] [Music] and last but certainly not least our final recipient for the high school is Andrea oando Carrera Andrea has uh one sibling uh hosu David oando Carrera she loves math and Ela but also loves to learn and listen about the history of our country she loves to sing play the piano go to church listen to music when she washes the dishes d uh lastly she loves to watch movies as well in the future she wants to either be a lawyer a business administrator or a surgeon she's going to work hard and see what God and life brings her [Applause] thank [Applause] you okay at this time we'd like to call forth our if you can get away from you can bring it down if you like I don't think you're be able to get away so the employee of the month for the district uh is a member of the high school team his name is uh Mr Kevin Thomas so a little bit about uh Mr Thomas who I've been working with for several years now has become um a great colleague and friend uh Kevin Thomas is a dedicated and passionate educator who consistently upholds high standards for his students while fostering an environment of accountability and gr his commitment to academic Excellence is evident in the way he sets clear expectations from day one ensuring that students understand the goals they are working toward and the steps needed to achieve them his ability to balance rigor and support has made him an invaluable asset to our school one of Kevin's most significant contributions has been his role in the schoolwide implementation of the AVID program which stands for advancement via individual determination he has seamlessly integrated avid's wicker strategies focused on writing inquiry collaboration organization and reading to learn into his daily lessons these methodologies not only enhance student engagement but also promote critical thinking and Collaborative Learning his lessons are Dynamic and Hands-On offering students real world real world applications of the concepts they are studying in science whether it's through group projects inquiry based activities or case studies Kevin ensures that students see the relevance of their education beyond the classroom in addition to his Innovative approach to teaching Kevin has embraced technology by incorporating digital notebooks into his curriculum this has helped students stay organized track their learning progress and improve their study habits skills that will serve them well both in in both their academic and professional Futures Kevin is also known for his collaborative spirit and willingness to contribute to the broader success of the school Community he is always ready to lend a hand to colleagues whether it's assisting with departmental projects co-developing lessons or mentoring new teachers his dedication to teamwork has strengthened our school's culture of collaboration and continuous Improvement this year Kevin has taken on the additional challenge of teaching AP Physics demonstrating his commitment to personal growth and expanding his skill set his enthusiasm for the subject and his innovating Innovative teaching methods promis to make this course a success providing students with a highlevel academic experience Beyond his professional experience Kevin excels in building strong connections with his students he knows how to balance high expectations with genuine care motivating students to rise to the occasion while ensuring they feel supported his approach helps students develop not only academically but also as individuals who are prepared to take on future challenges it is for these reasons among many others that Kevin Thomas has been selected to represent balbrook high school as staff member of the month his tireless work positive attitude and unwavering dedication to Student Success make him a true role model for both students and colleagues alike congratulations k [Applause] thank you so much congratulations another round of [Music] [Applause] applause okay this time we like parents and students of the month to come forward to be recognized on on stage to take a picture see second [Music] big two rows maybe the little guys should come I don't know they can tell us if we're we need to move further are we goodel [Applause] [Music] all right here good job de all right we'll just take a quick recess allow technology people to get set up and prepare for Mr Ross's presentation br think okay next we have uh Mr Ross who is going to present our spring 2024 R okay hello folks how are we tonight good so again to remind you where we came from last year when we did njsla reviewed pre uh covid to postco data and we saw that we had made some gains back back from where we were preo to post again looking at this data we have to be reminded that it took a lot of hard work from all these people out here to make this um administration of the test happen so thank you to everybody for having the test happen and then we have started to focus on focusing on students taking the test more seriously diving into it with a more strategic mind mindset so part of that is in the setup of the testing part of that is the whole building principles administrations supervisors working with it to just administer the test so this year we certainly set up a new president with that and that went into all the principal supervisors and everybody here thank you so before we get into the data um here we are our theme for tonight is consistency with a growth mindset so so we want to be consistent but we have to grow one thing you'll notice is that we've been very consistent but here's the caveat a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little Minds I.E we don't want to just stay focused on one thing and not being able to Pivot not being able to say to teachers in front of you you have multiple different students who need to have differentiation um who are performing at different levels on these assessments so that's the key for us so we're keeping consistent but we're looking at a growth mindset that shows us how we can increase our students success and in order to do that we're going to set a benchmark so my goal the district goal the conversation we're having with supervisors and principles and everybody is how can we get a 3% increase on those who are proficient to to become exceeding proficient or Advanced proficient how do we get a 7% increase on those people who are meeting expectations so that we can see a upward growth from our percentages in where we're going and then on the converse of that we'll lose 10% in the interim we want to get rid of you know those people not meeting right three and seven at that level are a little bit more negligible because I believe that our student are ready to grow and are at the cusp so as we break this down we're going to be looking at three different things there are threeyear you know data review we have to look at our subgroups and how they're performing and then us and then the state to see how we look in relationship to the bigger picture so the first thing that I want us to remember is that we have a lot of ongoing initiatives and systems going on from curriculum instructions going on from our multi- learn lingual Learners going on from our special education and gifted talented programs we have a lot of things that are going on that will be pointed out after we look at the data what are the initiatives that are going on in order to address and redress these numbers like I said last year these are not just numbers we don't sell widgets here we look at developing students into human beings who can manage and find the resources to be successful in life so this data is to figure out how we help kids grow to be successful people um so here's our three year comparison this is where the charts are going to start look looking very hectic all right so I'm forewarning you when we start to look at this chart there's going to be a lot of numbers I will point in two different directions we'll look at the horizontal line which is year to year that tells you about the programs that we're running year-to-year performance is a way for us to View and think about how that program is performing so third grade did this this year third grade did that next year third grade did that next year it's the teaching that's going on it's the program that's going on and that's part of one variable of what we're assessing when we look at the diagonals we're reviewing cohorts right so we see the person go from a third grader to a fourth grader and we see well how's that cohort group of kids doing are they making any gains or are they sliding backwards so as we look at this data we're going to be talking about that to ultimately drill down to what teaching practices are going to happen because of this data right that's the whole point so Our intention is to support levels one two three four five students right we could just say to you we're going to focus only on the bubble kids but no we're not going to just focus on them we're not just focusing on kids in level one or level five every teacher has to recognize that in front of them in a classro they have students who are achieving a level one and achieving a level five and how do you make that student successful in your classroom is our goal so what I did is I put these green lines to help give you a sense of what a teacher would be thinking so you have the level one and level two numbers those students who are struggling the most need the most supports that level three is what we typically call our bubble student we see a lot of students in that area for us who if with a little push could be successful to hit proficiency then we have our proficient and our exceeding you know expectation people so that's three different individuals in a classroom so in looking at the numbers I'll use a little pointer here you can see this big line here what I did is circle this because we're consistent why is it consistent it's nice that we went down negative 1.4% in those who are not meeting so we're declining in those who are not meeting which means the opposite more people are proficient we have a small growth of 3% increase in level four and five again consistent right but now we want to grow and see how we can increase that even more when we look at the breakdown from Year sorry I hit the wrong button here so when we look from year to year red versus green we don't want to see um increase in more people at level one and two right we also don't want we want to see sorry people going up in level four and five so for example we assess fourth grade overall we see in the cohort a increase in people who are not proficient that means we have to address something in that programming or is it the cohorts and that's the conversation that we're having these are the hard conversations that we need to start to have with teachers of what does it mean for us to grow students in this grade level and then when look from year to year so that would be the one example that I gave you here if you look at the third grade in 2023 we had 11.6% who were meeting expectations that next the next year they are fourth graders they're at 21% that is a sign of growth that is a direction that we want to go in that is data that we want to look at and figure out how that happened to make that consistent in growing them as a cohort if that makes sense so that's where we're moving forward so for me as an example talking to a teacher I would say to them and I gave this example in committee you have in front of you how do you support the students who are struggling at level one while helping those who are level five and the ones in the middle so for example you would give an open-ended question in an English class to students to help level five you would say please help me write this open-ended question maybe do some external research on it where in the level three group you would say okay I want you to answer this question and then discuss it with the level fives with the level one and two you say open-ended question but here's a word bank for you to focus in on those Target Concepts that you need to understand so a teacher could take this data and start to look at I am managing different students in the classroom how am I differentiating with a single lesson and that's part of the imperative of what we're doing with this data here's some of the intervention strategies and I do want to brag about the fact that this data and the information comes from the supervisors the directors themselves right we collaborated to understand what are the things that are currently in place and we're going to do so we're imple implementing connect forward learning in the preschool we've added an an essential piece is key if we want to build our staff we need to have targeted groups so we've added instructional coaches um we've added teachers again implementing the ASI and the ESL the Dual Lang having that ASI support is imperative right for us um key for me is also this partnering with the njts which is a taring system won't let me boom so this New Jersey tiered systems of supports is exactly what I was talking about for my example you have to tier your learning you have to address students where they are you have to go if you don't understand this skill I'm going to look back to a skill to help you move forward if you're Advanced I'm going to challenge you with a skill ahead and those are key things for us to R this so lama lama Annex and K3 you see we have multiple pieces going on we have the win program which is an imperative for helping students to connect with ways to grow and getting the supports that they need so these are some of the things that we're doing seventh and eth grade again I Exel data I ready data is imperative what can we do we can take a look at the njsl data put next to it The Benchmark data forl and for I ready and put next to it the students course grades those three data points are a way to reflect on how the student's doing the students doing very well in their classes yet they're po performing poorly on these benchmarks we have a way to Target and understand them so that's imperative and we see that happening 7 through 12 in a very intense way with the EXL um with writing benchmarks and then the big piece that we're adding is this common which with tiered readings and muel we've had for a while with these leveled readings which allow students to get the same content but to read it at different levels and allows them to be challenged and grow in a way that going to help them succeed so moving forward here's math right same thing we want to think about the three tiers we have our one two our three our four five do I want to label students in this way no what we're doing is we're saying students whove scored at this level students who have scored this level what do we need to do to Target their learning that's what we're asking we're not saying you're a one or a two human being again we look at the numbers here we're consistent we had a decrease in levels one and two minor right not as much as we'd want we also had a small decrease in level four and five but 0.1% decrease over three years is not bad right it's not where we want to go that's why we set this Benchmark of 3% to 7% increase and we want to then focus on what are we doing for each students so again in the math we added very specific things you have the adding the instructional coach employing data to make small groups is an amazing thing Benchmark data that we have the njsla data will help set up the groups of the various students in the classroom it's important um key for four through six adding a math coach and space for math targeting small Subs um key additions to what we're doing same thing here with seventh eth grade as with English EXL is important the fact that we've added I ASI support teachers for both seventh and eth grade is imperative that's the way we're going to take that minus point .

[Music] uned stes stand [Music] pi [Music] okay there we go I Kelly bino do Solly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of state of New Jersey that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and to the governments established in the United States and this state under the authority of people so help me down I Kelly B Jes who Solly swear that I possess the qualifications prescribe a law for the office of the member of Board of Education and that I will faithfully impartially and justly perform all the views of that office according to the best of my ability so help me go [Music] I have motion to approve yes Mr yes yes yes awesome do have each year uh we are required as school districts to share the outcome of New Jersey student learning sorry and so so uh what I would like to do tonight is to present data on how students performed along with looking at some democratic Trends as well as recommendations um moving forward that can continue to allow our students to demonstrate so if we um just understand what the nsla is it is sponsored by the New Jersey Department of Education and and uh primary purpose is us to identify our areas of strength in each of the test content areas and to really think about as I said what are the best meis that we use as a district to enhance our students performance we do know that New Jersey definitely has one of the most rigorous systems we know that across the country New Jersey students perform very well um and it is because the standards are written at a very high level um and you know we we try to adhere to those gr level expectations and try to move all our students in that direction on an annual basis so what we're going to look at is our student performance overall we will look at some demographic analysis um some conclusions that we can draw from what we're see and how we plan to move forward based on the conclusions that we're drawing so we're going to start with this start witha English language arts um these are these numbers are really tiny I apologize but this is is the way it's kind of given to us so I kind of just extrapolated a little bit and add some information at the top so for 2324 what we have here is the percentage of students who scor in the passing range so there are five uh levels of performance four and five are considered passing by the New Jersey Department of Education so in grade three we had 66% of our students pass grade four 63% grade 5 87% 76% 84% grade 7 and 69% grade and if we combine all of our grades together 74% of our students demonstrated Proficiency in English language arts so I think it's helpful to put this a little bit into perspective and again this has a lot of numbers on it that can be difficult to really pick apart but this is the temp we're required to share with you through the um through the NJ and I will break some of this down a little bit in some upcoming sles but what it allows us to see is what percentage of our students are at each of the rates over a threeyear term so you know level fourward most of our kids tend to be in 2022 64% of our third grader were there 2023 we saw a tip remember that same test different students so I'm going to talk about that in a minute 45% were there and then in 2024 50% if you come to these two columns on the right this also kind of giv you a snapshot just in the change of students who were level one and two year over year versus students who were level four and five years so in other words when we look at this we can see for grade three from 23 to 24 18.9 more students ended up in a passive range right but then we have to look down here see foro course graders 18.5% fewer students passed than the year before right so looking at these numbers um we see some fluctuations um and it can be you know attributed to many factors the other thing that I always say about these State assessments is that this one data point and a lot of data points we look at and every grade every student in a class you know they tend to have differences in cohorts as well so another way to look at this data which I think is a lot clearer rather than all of those numbers right is to say our grade three students in 2023 47% of them passed in 23 24 a different set of students who took that same test 66% of them asked right so in grade three you could say overall we had an improvement performance in grade three but the other important way that I need to look at this data is to trace it through corts as well so when we see our grade three students these were that them in 22 23 at 47% they are now our fourth graders in 2324 and what we can see is a significant gain for that cowork of students in terms of theity so I think it's important to look at the data both ways and what you really do see is that every grade level in ela had an increased percentage of performance except for grade AG right so even our fourth graders in 22 23 were a very strong group went from 81% to 87% our fifth graders 2223 as sixth graders from 71 to 76 79 to8 right like I said our seven our this seven grade did very well we saw a dip in them as okay so looking at the data both ways I think is really helpful um it helps us to think about those students who we want to Target where are our strengths um and then you know how can we get into the state bit more we'll talk about the other interesting thing to look at is um real compared to other not only the state but this is called our district Factor group it's called DFG it's what the student does to group schools in the count that are similar to your own um it looks at things like Soo economic status sometimes the size of the school but the DJ doe arranges these and they're arranged by letters um real happens to be a GH um and the letters go from a through j i and J are the highest socioeconomic status and your a are your schools that are at the lowest end of socioeconomic status so real classified as a GH and I think it's interesting to look at this because you know when you're comparing yourself to the state that is a wide range of all different types of schools right when we compare ourselves to similar schools I think that's a little bit more informative and so what we noticed here is when we compare ourselves to the TFG you know we can see grade three performed a little bit better grade four just slightly below grade five we said is a pretty strong Cort grade six grade seven and grade eight even though they had quite a dip they still performed just a slightly ahead of the the district fact that we are comp to um if we we look at ourselves across all bra you know I think we can be pretty pleased with what we're seeing happening in El and our student performance if we go on to math um this is I did same thing so you can see the numbers here right this shows you just % passing at every grade level um and again I want to look at it you can see this way again you can see these numbers here our third grade is really quite strong in terms of looking at different students say test and then fourth grade a little bit of from year prior um and then this was a really big change here to from six to seven right but again I think it's easier to look at it this way um same T different students from 23 24 right little bit less of a change in math I thought this was pretty significant shift um but the math tended to be even with saying Cod words kind of close to what it was before so these third graders were 52% 2023 53% 23 24 63 71 61 a little bit of different in sixth grade 58 60 kind of the same and then seven to eight and this number is very tricky because this most of our not all of our students take gradiate ma we have to look at our students who also take algebra one um so that number you know is a little misleading not all our students take the M many of our students are Accel into algebra and some into geometry as well so if we look at the DFG recognizing that the mes are a little bit lower overall right we do still see there are places we're ahead of the DMG you know and then other places where we're not okay so we said grade eight we recognized that they had um overall a dip in their performance and all of the assessments um but you know overall when we look at ourselves compared to the DFG we still are higher and significantly higher than the state so that gives you a little bit of picture here with math looking at science this is very interesting our grade four science scores were very high 71% of our fourth graders um pass the njsla in science and this is I mean five sorry not just say grade five up there I apologize I just realized grade five and eight I will correct that before I it um take science 71% of our grade five students demonstrated proficiency on the njsla and science it's it's an anomaly to me that 20% of our students in grade a pass the end of in science so I'll say this about the njsla in science um it is the last test that our students are given in the battery of standardized assessments and you know it's a long test the grade a test is three hours long it also is one where the students do not receive individual score report at home so we only get District results you know so I think about myself as an eighth grader the third week in may take a three-hour test for which I will receive no results it's very difficult to motivate them and not that I'm making an excuse but this has been my criticism of the njf science for quite a long time um you know when I think about what I saw at the grade eight science um they really do a huge thing at the end of the year where they've done a research project all year and they have to presented and they bring the kids through and parents through and you see the quality of that work and research and the data analysis this number does not reflect what I believe our eers are doing in science um so I do see it as definitely out and I think there are host of factors that that not to make an excuse you know I do think those SC should be better but I really don't think they are a reflection of our um here we have the same thing you can see this is a 25% drop from the prior year a number of students who are planing while our fifth graders increased by 9.4% what's interesting here is when you look I think they really strong Science Program here and when we look at this 71% DFG 38% and state at 27% um you know that really again SPS my confidence I know that we have really strong program and I think this is an anomaly but you see even the DFG is very low in science and state is also very low in that science lotors that play into that so if we look at some demographic analysis State requires us to share this with you as well um if we're looking at Ela comparing females and males uh we can see in the for range males and females are very close but females outperform the boys in the exceeding category which is the highest if we're looking at over a threeyear span you can see this is pretty steady um among the girls boys a little bit of a drop if we're looking at math the boys are outperforming the girls 53% to 66% overall in terms of those four on achievement and again this is not moved which is really interesting and and really you know raises some questions and things maybe for us to dig into the other thing we need to recognize is we're a pretty small District so if we're talking about 5% or 10% we're talking about a very small number of students so that's another thing to also keep in mind when we're looking at this you know two or three students can change this you know get if we're looking at science we can see here boys also outform the girls in science and yeah so we can see that there science if we ALS Al look at our section our students who have five cor plans our special education students as opposed to our general education students this is our performance in ela um you know we definitely see that our B for students seem to be um adjusting quite well and having accomodations in place that allow them to perform special ed you know we know that this is a struggle for some of the learning disabilities that they may have and then we just compare it to our and students so recognizing we need to Contin with our special education population and we can see this again um over three years how this has changed so a little bit of a change for FAL course a little bit of an increase for our special students so you know we're kind of getting some some big St we're looking at math kind of the same pattern right special education students really needing important in math as we move forward and looking at some things we may able to do for that and looking overall right that four Dro a little bit but this number in special ed over three years that is something that we should really pay attention to to see oural students to get that so if we're thinking about you know what we would like to do moving forward to really try to um get all of our students to to be able to pass the njsla get to that range there's quite a lot that's going on here um you know that you know we reworked parts of our schedule and Staffing this year so that we can increase intervention sooner so we do have more interventionists pushing into classrooms when kids are starting to struggle to catch it early um so that the gaps don't become WI or things that may become problematic don't get compounded so that our continue to struggle we are using our internal District benchmarks to monitor our student programs we use linkoln and ISL both and are really working toward um running reports uh if you're coming to parent teacher conferences your teachers teacher will be able to tell you which standards you're going to focus on with child this year and we really want to use those types of reports to Target small construction our classes um and really what we're going to do is after we do the New Year Benchmark we will have a half P day in January where the teachers will really sit and dig into that data and you know decide what are we going to do I'm noticing these four kids haven't made grow certain areas what can we do during our wind periods um what we with our interventionist to make sure that we are trying to bring our students the support that they we're also piling something called retach and enrich for grades two and three during periods so rather than just looking at your own class of students can the three second grade teachers look at their grade as a whole and identify students who we can say okay these students on this unit assess and math really struggled with these Concepts on Friday I'm going to take those kids whether they're your students or your students my students put them together and really retach that concept and then for students who need that challenge using that wi period from time to time say I'm G to pull these kids who Ace that and push them with the next concept so we set that up in our be able to do that um during periods two and see how that goes another thing that we did um was the state issues evidence statements every year that kind of break down the task how it's align standards and gives you data about how your kids did on each test item so last week in plc's our teachers pulled out those evidence statements gave them a list of questions sit and talk about um and then they notice certain patterns so one thing that came up I think it is for math Maybe they noticed that the standards that their kids had the most difficulty with and they shouldn't be a surprise right some of the standards they T at the beginning of the year so it said okay no to self we need to come back and spiral and and reinforce that concept of more times before the test so they have really been digging into those evidence statements um and looking at where our students did well where they didn't do well you know um another teacher last year has said you know every year I gu and I haven't spent enough time on Geometry and I feel rushed so that teacher even noticing last year said you know what I'm start to introduce some geometry concepts earlier in the year even if it's not what the unit we're doing and see if that helps and so you know we did see a little bit of you know um Improvement I you could say it's had a little more confidence with those geometry questions that tended to come later in the school so we also have been investing engineer in professional development we're really looking at the quality of our assessments are they rigorous enough are they challenging do they provide our students with opportunities to apply their knowledge not just give back knowledge um because we recognize that you know the njsla is a very challenging test and it requires Kents to look at multiple resources um to synthesize they've got multiple multiple choic there's you know it's a it's a very challenging task so do our home assessments really help our students develop the skills of D me so that when they are face with these complex um items on these njsla assessments they ready for them we're also working very closely with Dr ji from mon Clair state um on special education needs helping us write goals really tailor instruction data collection and progress monitoring for our special education students as well recognizing as it pointed out that we really need to get some extra attention to our special population lastly as part of a formal curriculum review we're looking at some MTH programs um we feel like there are some you know there are some weaknesses or or there may be better programs out there in map that we really want to explore so we're putting a committee together and we will conduct a formal curriculum review to investigat ma programs particularly gr two through five that's where you feel like the greatest is so that so as parents you know we nail these home a few weeks ago your child's individual score report um it looks like this it does give you information beyond the score of where your child did well where they had some difficulty there are sites um resources on the njc site which will be link presentation I will post you know I encourage you to monitor your child's progress communicate with his or her teachers if you're having difficulty or if there's um you know questions you have about our curriculum and how it supports New Jersey student learning standards and you know as always we encourage you you know support your child's learning at home ask about what they're learning read together you know look back in everyday things especially younger um you know and you know show your enthusiasm for learning as a way of model thank you very much any questions I love the action I like idea kids that help not out [Music] the gr science scor I may have missed it but we have they just start doing I did not post they I can tell you what they were have to pull them I did not them not I'm curious why so this is a New Jersey T and across the board they're doing very poorly so are we not doing a good job of teach science skills that wants us to learn or test Us toach kid disconnected the state requiring is test and no one in the state I think it's fair to say no one in the state is meeting it yes you know it is it is um I think about myself in a classro teacher if I gave a test and 20% of the kids passed it the first thing I would do is question did I write a good test right does this test really you know reflect what I expected my students to learn and you know these scores have been low for a very long time and I want to be too critical of the state however you know I have a feeling that's why they're not sending home well that's my question I don't I don't understand why they're giving us a test that they're making if this has been consistently this low I don't understand how this is an opportunity to make better not they're not looking at saying either we need to change how we're doing this or to change the test because this is doesn't make any sense and I think too the other thing about this is you know this was originally put in place many years ago as a field test and then they made it a requirement but they never put the same level of emphasis on science test as they have on the ELA and the math so you'll go into qac you know your science may not count you your District performance reports your science SCS don't count so across the board right the accountability and communication is just not what it should be if we want to really dig into this test I will say you know the science standards are very high level I think dat has done a really good job of working with nextg science cards which are National and balancing out you know Earth and life and physical science and you know layering in engineering practices and you know so SC themselves are very rigorous right but this as a data point is not something that I would look at and say oh we got to change our sence you know so you know I I you know it is a little discouraging I guess you can say um you know we love to see something that um doesn't leave us scratching our heads a little bit and also to give our kids feedback on you know this is where you're really doing well in science and here's something you need to work on just like we do with LA and we do not get the level of feedback on these tests this is aism using wants the kids to reach these standards and you're seeing 20% 27% I mean anything below 50 I would think you need to look at this right I I don't know I talk but I you know obviously I high school and so just like Stacy is saying it was a field test and these students knew fi test in the high school it's stating the fact that they know that in order to graduate high school Ela and the M SC are what they have to pass to get that so they aren't using those scores necessarily to do that we look at NJ scores right even here we're moving into right you know really even I was in a K12 District we did not use the njsla and science sign you know because we just don't feel like the test is really the reflection of our program our [Music] kids this will be provided and posted to the site so to see [Music] home it might more at this point we come to visitor busit pered to com agenda it at this time ask approach microne state name no correspondences quickly it brings us to reports uh doesent [Music] num then the director special services talked about their talked [Music] about at the director of guidance spoke she talked about how tomorrow's going to be over house for school it's really lot cration [Music] now we will Circle right back to and on Monday at on Monday after they provided a long day professional development gr teachers they um lovely he that all professional connected to their goals spoke about action plan that was just presented um it was really nice me to dis as and presentation just saw we talked about each slide over celebrations things that we to you know further investigate you know how we can do better that was POS was a nice time to go through that the one good thing was that we heard there's a change for preschool I didn't bring my notbook but I think we're swapping with times of the children so there's going to be the threey old in the they like afteron and then foury old program and then the school is being a little bit more having the open sooner versus later preschool friend here fill up so we have to make decisions sooner and later have that earlier in the year about that and then IED the I want to say thank you for organizing that um it was a really nice where we had time to really connect to what's happening with our children with zones of Regulation and it was fun parents were PR vulnerable and open about learning and gr and how to connect their children oce as always thank you very much Mr there's nothing on the agenda for policy no actions there some policies AI try think about the future this is be a big part of learning and how to utilize it for Learning and not just you know playing um SE has a wealth of knowledge about about this stuff so he's a good resource for us and Stacy's going to reach out to some of the other districts in high school to see if they have policies Place dealing with AI so that we can have to see if they align the values and finally I have a few reports um from our be app um on October 1st the bef planted a cherry tree in honor of the uh original founder of the Bri te Foundation his family was in town for his celebration of life and uh they were able to do this to honor his legy and they wanted to give a special thanks to Derek Hughes and his business Landscaping um who generously picked up the tree and helped with the planting of the tree um so it was a really nice way to uh you know more Mr D and um they also want to add that bf in conjunction with the PTO provided some flowers that were sent to Mr T um in recognition of the light and comp so couple things the PTO to add to what they have going on 50s are still available and they are still taking in new members um they are holding their first annual Fall Festival um on Friday they have local police and fire um that will be there the truck tree um of different content they have going on it sounds really fun event um and the eth grade is holding their giv pie U sale supplied by MERS I believe um so make sure to get those orders in than around corner and the did have their first meeting for the school year as spoke about that um and to add about that as well but as always really great um foundations and organizations that we have working in the school you know make this place activity in the first couple months [Music] thank us sure so some may be redundant but um I just would like to draw parents attention to the letter that I sent last Friday really encouraging parents to join PTO and participate learn the Education Foundation um these organizations do so much for our schools and um you know I really encourage our parents to get invol because the homeo connection and all the different ways that these organizations work together everything better wouldn't without our parents so really encourage you I'm so impressed so I encourage you to attend their next meeting um and again getting involved with the foundation is another great way to Clos link to our school community and also wonderful um PTO events as said we have truck retre first time that PTO is doing that that should be a lot fun Friday night and again 5050 one of my favorite phone calls make school year call the winner let them know been one that was really great last year so hopefully I'll be calling you you can only get called if you participate so I encourage that as well we also celebrated respect with a theme each day and we had assemblies for both our younger P four students and our students Compass there wasy of how all of us can be different music together so we really had a lot of nice events with students that week that we continue to reinforce you know those things of respect and empathy um so that you know we can continue um we did have for our staff assment we also had some teachers do their CPR training that day if they were coaches have you um so really great convers about continue our practice um we have Halloween coming up but I know and our all that come that day should be a lot of fun also be on the lookout for a letter about parent teacher conferences coming up in November those letters will go out public on Monday the 21st we are doing evening conferences both on Monday and Tuesday typically conferences have been done the Thursday before the Monday Tuesday Wednesday but that's how probably very well attended so we are doing Monday and Tuesday as our [Music] parond to you know have those sit down meetings with with your child's teachers um think just that one to [Music] even the redund okay that brings us to number n brings us 746 to action all AC below [Music] yes yes I'd like to make a motion to move for the action items under District [Music] operation yes yes yes [Music] okay we are now at visitors business where visitors are committed to comment on agenda and non agenda this time ask appr up very okay that brings us to the P of theills sure a motion that theob the treasure in amount of 13,533 yes yes thank you that brings us to the standard secretary certification and will not session evening you

evening Comm Mr Hopkins here Mr is pres M Olson here Mr Guri Mr Rodriguez here Dr ster here M Ed here Val here all pres and account for do not all in favor say I all say no un States com governing board report of current events does anybody on the board have anything to report okay then we on to the superintendent report of yes so Mr President members of the board first of all Mr President welcome back GL you're back from your your cross country trip relatively so I'll be brief uh want to just share with you take this time to share with you and and everyone in attendance and and uh the superintendent report just to share the r Ovations that we've been doing ongoing this just kind of shows the uh the uh gym locker room the boys locker room windows facing football stadium just get school colors trying to get everywhere the trim where we can get to our red rer red can go to there we go outside the gymnasium the north side facing the softball field just getting the trim and the the gutters and as much as we can to just help our school Stand Out campus stand out even more backside of the gymnasium we also have um there we go see the locker rooms and we have that schol Spirit especially getting ready for homecoming November 1st the gym mirror room north side outside of the weight room and the mirror room so we just wanted to have that looking Jack Peterson Stadium you see all the the metal underneath the Press boxs now is all red we had some beams that weren't so we want to just try and get as much of this to stand up before not just for homeing but every day all day throughout the day of all year and we have some additional uh pictures to share with you sorry sir we have a new sports scoreboard we wanted to highlight that as as the uh icing on the cake there with the flag for our football stadium it was beautiful uh beautiful setting with the sun and everything this is Hispanic Heritage Month from what I understand our miss working with the teacher the students gave feedback to the teachers and teachers and vice versa about trying to do some new some new activities new uh um lifelong learning old child activities if you can go back first Angelina real quick there we just have you see some beautiful pictures see okay wow it's one of our students and the bottom left that's right you guess to Mr gy that is goose gosage from the New York Yankees so um you see Selena right there to the left beautiful beautiful uh next video next picture uh Hispanic Heritage Month the trees with all the different flags very creative this is I believe on the seventh and eighth grade area going we have very creative start of something new to the right there all the different different foods from the different countries sixth grade seventh e8th grade there we have like a little walk I believe um this is really cool yeah this is the the high school wing it has the the different flags from the different countries and the students did all this work I mean from um Mid mid to late September to you know uh kept busy and and just it really like just really just really living things up room um this was all their creative imagination and so just really learning a lot about you know a little bit of everything and there these integrated thematic units at the teachers Incorporated um there Mr V his his group and was making some fresh drinks there um there's we have another video right here this is the fourth this is the uh this is the I'm sorry this is our high school everyone was creative we had about three or four Hispanic her month signs all students got into it really excited all the teachers really just encouraged there some little background some history there beautiful decorations the teachers dra into it and um there some more some more key points this is special education department pioneers of change really cool just really made everything look so even more lik so wanted to share this with you and um right so look at that I mean just every got into it all the different countries south central South America Spain there you have another poster participates spanic her month celebration very cretive look at that it's really cool all the visitors from the public from the community really enjoy so just to share with you what's going on here all the different flags very nice and I and this this is really cool look at all at all the smiling facesi down there was also our linebacker and running back Mr silus Manel in the door right I believe Selena right right very cool everyone got into it really cool board members and she guys parents grandparents and all our parents and uh teachers here really enj I think that's and also wanted to share this with you everyone can see uh signage in in the school office the newsletter is always flashing in both languages right there Mission Vision everyone parent goes in there they see it it's right there every day all day calendars really cool very nice very similar and there we have here the possibility of jrc civil air control program there's our those are our flight suits that are worn by our Aerospace students and they have their name tag and it says assistant flight instructor so we want to try and promote um I the students really love this we really wanted to share it with all of you they walk around their shoulders are up they're they're saluting each other and uh it's really cool just really to build self-esteem self-confidence and I mean that they can do anything so Mr President M of board I believe that includes our superintendent report okay next item on the agenda then is the awards and recognition yes Mr President the board we have our seventh e8th and ninth grade students being recognized for our students of the month and we'll start off with miss darara our PLC team leader for syon Solara it's all yours good evening to one and all it is an honor to stand before you tonight to the superintendent student award in seventh grade I do witness the remarkable commitment and dedication he put into his studies we are here to celebrate who has gone above and beyond for his academic excellence in the first quarter furthermore what's found out most about him is his character and behavior this is his typical um GRE in class he enters early wearing his smile he is fully engaged in classroom activities he Faithfully accomplishes his worksheets and assignments collaborates with his classmates and excellently completes his assignments he's quiet type of a person however he delivers having a student like him in class is very is every teacher's wish and aspirations he has been consistent in displaying the three Rs of a USD respectful responsible and ready congratulations on this well-deserved recognition continue to be a red rer inspiration a model and always made a positive impact to everyone please join me in gting Round of Applause to the seventh grade superintendent student award recipient Roman Leon [Applause] Garo congratulations St with okay so um this certificate is awarded to you for being selected by your teacher for your outstanding academic achievement based on excellence and growth in your classroom you have modeled great behavior that follows the AO Unified scho District rator expectation of being responsible respectful and ready to learn thank you for serving as an exceptional student leader in ano Unified School District sign Dr Roman sotero our superintendent our principal Miss Mercon and youri your teacher Middle School teacher [Music] congratulations one be calling you Miss marar it's all yours good evening everyone it is my honor to present the but before that allow me to share this few compliments on what type of student Alvin Moore is in my class so kid smart and thoughtful that is Alvin Moore he demonstrates exemplary work habits which means that he completes class work on time participates in discussion and offers help to students who need help with the test he maintains a positive attitude towards learning and willingly takes on feedback to improve his learning in his subject above all he embodies that we are respectful responsible and ready the certificate is awarded to Alvin Moore congratulations Miss Fernandez who is your high school teacher presentent Miss Queen good evening distinguish families administrators board members faculty and students it is my distinct honor that I stand before you tonight to present the superintendent student of the month award this Accolade honors a student who has consistently exhibited academic performance character Behavior effort and social relationship her firm commitment to our values that three ARS respectful responsible and ready and envisioning our vision which is everyone College everyone graduates College and Career reg have set a remarkable standard for all of us she consistently exemplified the qualities that makes an exceptional OBO high school student her dedication and perseverance EMB body of what this award stands for excellence is not an act but a habit and she embeded this as she continually strive for success as we present this award tonight let it serve as a symbol of gratitude and appreciation for her and for her parents let's also stand as a reminder that we as a Tim can achieve Great Heights it is with with a great pride that announce the super dependent student of the month award mrose F and thank you for the big hand for her outstanding achievements and bright future so I also request our parents to please come forward as you receive her award thank you and congratulations Closer Closer there you go awesome two else everyone's welcome to join in okay you want teacher can I come back sure sure teach where's the teacher it sorry where's our eth grade eth grade wa wait let me get just one paper okay we're good awesome eighth grade where's our eighth grade student come on up and teacher too come on up ready let's at missar first ready one two three missa that it got it right here in front nice Angelina I got two cameras on I'm done good student teacher come up at the same you do ready miss you ready yep one two three oh wait we're not ready yet we're not ready [Music] yet do two one time okay we're good good congratulations guys good job [Music] welcome toay for the meeting start good job guys good job next we apprent agenda second all in favor say I I I all oppos say no approve okay first item under personal certified employment of the 2425 teacher Mr President members of the board M who a teacher at all schools from 2017 to 2022 has been a for position as elementary teacher recommend the employment of honesto as an elementary teacher for the 2425 school year do we have discussion all in favor say I I I'll oppos say no approve 5 Z next item is certified employment 2425 teacher onon Mr President members of the board for the advice of the legal councel I would like to excuse myself from the room at this time for discussion on this item I will is on re only thing I have to say is I think this would be a fantastic addition to okay if there are no more comments or discussion on that have vot all in favor say I I all oppos say no approve was item up with the classifi resignation of preko teachers a Mal Mr President members of board of M Harley and professional teachers a has submitt a better resignation to Administration 2024 recommend the approval of the resignation of Bethany Mara hope I'm saying that right Mrs C how's the right way to say her last name Mor effective September 26 2024 excuse me may I have a motion on that I'll make the there any discussion I call for the vote all in favor say I I I all oppos say no approve zero next item certified stien for after school tutor Mr President members of the board Administration is seeking approval the P teacher stiens for after school tutoring from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m.