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So some of them have just stopped using it or they've never used it at all. I also wanted to add that while this is newer, right, to carry 26, it is not new to education. And so, beginning last school year when we went to go visit different classrooms, um after we went down to um our our Apple experience, um we were able to see the displays in action. And speaking for myself, I as well have taught from a display. So these are things that are prevalent in in the school setting. I think it is now just bringing Carrie up with the times of technology of what is seen in the classroom. Um I don't know. Do you have a display in your classroom? I have a chalkboard. Um wow. Wow. I I Yeah. I don't We don't want to go there, I guess. Um, but I I was just out of curiosity because I wasn't here for the conversation.
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Um we kind of started that in November, December. So just a slight drop uh with some of those students. Um and then uh as we uh started to have our MTSS meetings, we have had now at this point probably uh 400 plus MTSS meetings. So that's administrator counselor that we shared earlier, teachers there, students there. So that's a lot of meetings. Um, and it's really cool as an administrator, um, to sit down and have those conversations, right? We don't always, um, have time to do that, to sit down with a teacher, with everybody present, uh, and work together on, um, a plan for student success. Um, so that's pretty awesome. Uh, term three, uh, when we looked at some early failure data after some of those virtual learnings, um, so about mid January, um, to, uh, right before spring break, we did see a decrease, um, of 39.8% 8% in the number of courses where there were failures.
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Like, we need to start having some real discussions about what we want as a community, who we are, and what we're willing to do that. Because at the end of the day, every single thing on that list is important. And the truth is there's not enough money to do all of those things. There might not even be enough money to do half of those things. And there might not ever be enough money to do half of those things if we don't figure out some other way to operate because there are only certain amount of taxes coming in and certain amount of fees or how whatever else they collect. And it's like our own family budgets. You know, at the end of the day, as badly as we need it, there's no not necessarily a financial ability. And I'm not saying what it is. I mean, obviously, there are things that we do and can take off the list.
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The discussion focused on two things primarily. First, what is the best path forward for the 202526 school year considering the timing of this change? And second, what is the most efficient and sustainable path forward beyond 2025 to 26? We are fully aware we need to pivot as the landscape is very different. Now we have two needs this evening. How to best move forward for the 202526 school year considering the current budget realities. We recognize any changes could significantly impact our students, staff, and families. But we also want to be cognizant of the decisions today having continual impacts into the 202627 school year. Considering all that has changed in the past few weeks, we may need to entertain an option that minimizes disruptions to students, staff, and families while maintaining support and services aimed at meeting the needs of all GPS students. Secondly, um so I guess I'll stop there and make a a motion um that we can discuss and then um you'll see depending on what comes of this motion, there's um another motion around um and some other framing around redistricting and reorganizing ad hoc committee.
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Chrome rubber. Um but that's the big issues that we have going and like I said, we'll straighten the uh we'll get the stairs straightened out next week at the facilities meeting and we'll bring that back in May so we can get that started also. Anything else? [Applause] correspondence. Anything? How many people are online? 55. Oh, we picked up one. Okay. Public comment. I'm not going to read this again. There's nobody here. Do you want to Do you want to say anything? Still good. Motion to adjurnn. All in favor I [Music] They're taking all the trees, huh? What? They're taking off.
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Thank you. We often not. Thank you. No, I think I think so. I have to check. Okay. Okay. I take entertain a motion to adjurnn. I make the motion to adjurnn. So,
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So anyway, I think that was excellent. I'm really thankful that the district put that on because I think those kids learned a lot and I'm hopeful that that bears fruit um in the future with kids behaviors. So that was really neat. Um I also um on Eric McDonald's invitation went um to OES on the day that John Krypo came and um did his magic around the campus. So, I followed him around um for three different classrooms and got to have lunch with E and um actually Michelle's daughter was there um from Riverbold just doing a little cross-pollination and um and Garrick and we had lunch and talked about everything and so yeah, they're doing some really neat things with these edgy protocols and um some teachers are excited about it and you know, John always is like, "Oh, poor link deris just you just got to keep up.
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Sure. Gender ideology, things of that nature. Um are those things that you that could have an effect on that voter base that we're relying on? Absolutely. Negative or positive? depending on what the how it was proposed and what was happening and and how it was debated and what the outcome of it, it certainly could have an impact. I I can't speculate about one issue or another. I will say it's a certain segment, it is the conservativeleaning segment that tends to believe schools are out of control and gets very fixated on those types of issues. It really is depends on issue to issue. What I see in a broader spectrum, I'll say, is just a general anti-ax sentiment. I'm just sick of paying taxes. I pay too much taxes. The general belief that schools have enough money if they just spent it wisely. Those are really sort of the top of mind general beliefs that the negative anti-school folks have.
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Thomas to talk about gifted. So Dr. Thomas, so special services starts with child find. Child find is part of the IDA law. Um and childf find is looking for students who may um be suspected of having a disability. We do it in a number of ways. We do it through our preschool screenings, our kindergarten screenings, our benchmark assessments that we do both on the academic side and on the social emotional side as well as uh working with private school and homeschool proportionate share. So these are all ways that we're seeking in the schools or in the community students who may qualify or be suspected of having a disability. The next piece of that is the MTSS system. So looking at supports that a student uh might need and making sure that we've gone through the different tiers. This is part of making sure that we have uh we're looking at the least restrictive environment.
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I'm sorry for the board attorney. Yep. No, I know the superintendent one's different and I'm going to suggest we have that one too. But um yeah, it was the same that it was the same comment on that as the other one. it. That was something they just said is you just have to make sure that it aligns with your district practice. So, if this isn't our practice, it it their suggestion is it's not something you would put in there for the future. It's you put it in there for what your practice is. It doesn't mean that 216E couldn't come in, but we would want to make sure it's aligned with what we actually So, I guess we take a look at that and make sure that it is in alignment. And well, no, I don't think I'm going to disagree with everybody here because this is clearly, if you look at it, it's 2160E checklist for selecting a board attorney.
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Um, from what I'm reading, what I'm also hearing is that there's no need for a projector that saves a lot of cost projector bulbs and all that, right? So, um, and I'm just curious, are these uh wireless or is it still wired into the computers? So, it'll be wire. Oh, you take the floor. Go ahead. So the TV or display itself has the ability to be wired or wireless. The teacher's laptop will connect via HDMI and the iPad has the um ability to maintain the interactivity and be wireless throughout the classroom. I think that's awesome. I the mobility piece I don't know like so yes I have um a chalkboard, I have a screen, I have a projector. I'm not completely out of touch but um but the I think for teachers to be mobile and not be completely wired in all the time is also very important.
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So, so that dropped uh tremendously. Um now, do we know if that was solely because of our MTSS meetings? Um I think it played a role, but we also are going to keep doing this every term. Um so we can compare that um as we take this finish out this school year as well as heading into um next school year. Um when we look at uh some of the other things going on that our students um um have the opportunity to be involved in, uh we have a fall and spring testing day. Um and that is a lot. We have a lot going on on those days. Um so the the fall testing day uh we're looking at uh 10th grade and 11th grade. They're participating in the PSAT NMSQT. Um and we have freshmen doing community service that day. Uh we also um had a career fair going on for seniors um that that John Shudy helped um kind of put together.
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But there's also a bigger conversation, I think, about, you know, what what's what are the priorities of all of us in town. And are we willing to start talking about, you know, overrides and things like that. I know that's a curse word, but um you know, otherwise we go round and round like this every single year, right? And I think our point of just we're willing to we understand you guys are in a you know a difficult situation with Ashlin basketball. We do pay rental fees to rent the gym and it goes back in. So it's you know we're willing to try to get as creative as possible like knowing it's a player safety issue. How do we use the rental fees we're paying to kind of eventually and as Jim mentioned that in particular we we do have some funds that can can help.
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So the motion would be to continue with redrawn lines with a hold on moving any grades out of their buildings for the 202526 school year. So and this is bas based on um that we did do significant work on two areas of re redistricting. One was the grade changes, but the other really significant and important one was re redrawing the geographic lines for greater equity. Um, so I would like to hear a motion uh for us to consider continuing with the redrawn geographic lines with a hold on moving any grades out of their current buildings for the 202526 school year. So moved. Is there a second? Bring it up for discussion. I'll second for discussion on that. Okay. Um I'll say a little bit more. It's just that I think that the um if we we're not expecting uh enormous increases in funds for the year after this one.
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You just get on the ride and you just keep on. You hold on for dear life. So, I did that and uh but I learned a lot and um and it's exciting and and Garrick's really excited about it and wanting to learn more and so he and I had a few email exchanges and he wants to invite me back again. So, I'll be happy to do that. Um and I'm happy you guys get to house free break. So, again, I keep saying it. I said it last meeting. You're almost there. You really are. You're almost at the end of the school year, so keep it up. And last but not least, this is a fun fact to know about Denise Cut about spelling. So, you may not know this about me, but I'm going to go ahead and brag that I was the mountain area spelling champion two years in a row.
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The the DEI type portion of it is a smaller segment. It's a very vocal segment. So if you if something happened that jinned them up to the point where they came out in opposition, that would be a big deal. But it I mean it's it depends on the issue itself. Thank you. Jason, do you have anything? I have one question. Um, seeing our um, data and knowing that you have done several others, how do you compare theirs to ours? Like, can you compare? I mean, what are you seeing out there? So, it's that's a fantastic question. Every district every district is a little bit different. Uh, so I I'll compare you to other suburban districts. Perfect. Uh certainly uh with a growing population, changing demographic, conservativeleaning Maricopa County and the surrounding areas, Panal County in particular, um it is in the growing areas is growing more conservative.
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So we're looking at is there something just in the general classroom at tier one. Tier one instruction is for everybody. Are there some adjustments a teacher can make in the classroom that would support the student? If that's not working, are there other uh needs under tier 2? Really, we go through that because many kids will be caught with that. um uh instruction in the classroom when teachers are differentiating instruction and things like that that they don't need to be qualified for an IEP to get support. There are many many ways in the schools to get support and our teachers do a fabulous job, interventionists do a fabulous job. So there are a lot of ways that that's done. Um after MTSS, if a student is still struggling, they've gone through multiple tiers, they've gotten multiple interventions, then we look at doing individualized assessment. So individualized assessment is required for every student who is being considered for eligibility for special education.
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It says the school board selects and retains the board attorneys. The board may use this checklist for guidance when it selects and retains attorneys and/or law firms. It doesn't say that we must. This is just simply something that should a board 15 years from now. And Julie sitting there, she can go and use the checklist. If we need an attorney, but if we need an attorney, there's nothing that stops us from finding one and using this as guidance. I think to Dr. Thomas's point, when it's in the policy, it's policy. What's the point of it having there? Why why have six pages of what we may do? We have policies for RFPs. We don't do RFPs for attorneys unless we were putting down a retainer that's more than $25,000, right? Cuz that's when in our May. You know the difference between may somebody on the if somebody on the board 15 years from now, they're not even going to know that this even exists or that this is even a thing that could ever be helpful.
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So if the iPads can connect to these with ease I think that that is a huge selling point. Um mobility in the classroom for classroom management is just a really important part of every day not just the touchcreen. I just wanted to add on to that. Not only will it be the teacher's ability to project and display, but a teacher could then tap into a student to have the student project and display and show their work to the class and be able to explain their logic, their thinking and whatnot. We also have taken it um you know into consideration how can we help our teachers truly implement that gradual release model and that interactivity within the classroom. And so the ability for me to be able to have this and I can really walk anywhere in this classroom and I could be writing on here and have it project up to the screen and doing math in real time and them seeing it.
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Uh there were uh that career fair, not only seniors were able to attend that, but we had all grade levels come down and visit that. So um it was probably when uh Mr. Lawhead was assistant principal that we shifted over as a high school um because the testing day um when we did switch to the SAT um being a school day test, it would disrupt the whole day. Um, right. So, can we change it just for those that group testing? So, what we ended up doing is is is, um, making sure we were purposeful and intentional what we were doing that whole day. Um, so, uh, the spring testing day then has our, uh, juniors taking the SAT and the freshmen are doing the PSAT. Uh, there's also community service in the spring. Um, as well as, um, we had a, uh, uh, career discovery meetings for our seniors.
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