Belden will be chairing I think permanently so after going over the November financial report the majority of the discussion that we had was focused on the communication and presentation of the 2021 budget and we'll talk more about this later on when we get to that portion of tonight's agenda but the term status quo that we that we really were kind of talking about at our last December meeting we really broken it out into really what the drivers of this budget are so contractual and inflationary expenses outliers enrollment increases and then finally new investments so rather than just have the one column of status quo we now have broken out the status quo and investments into much more well defined and more specific columns we also talked about the special education costs which we might get a little bit of that tonight but we will be having our special meeting as you all know but for the public we'll be having a special Joint Board of Finance Board of Selectmen Board of Education meeting next Wednesday the 15th at 7 p.m.
kenderson the rest of the board thank you so much I have two problems first problem is I am long-winded second problem is I'm known to get emotional so I will go fast and I may be a little light in my comments and an effort not to embarrass my wife by crying so I wanted to stand before you today and tell you about a miracle that that happened in our family so I will go quick so I have three kids who've all been born and raised and spent their time in the Dysart School District my oldest son is graduated in living in Tennessee on a mission for our church right now but my two younger dog is I have a daughter and his son both in high school my daughter from the time she could stand and talk she could sing and dance and loved it and our children went through Marley park and they have a very fantastic arts program there and my daughter loved it she was in every play she did every song and dance and she was great my youngest son our baby would hide from his own shadow if he could and is very shy and timid and doesn't like to get out in front of people but we have a rule in my family most of my wife has a rule that all of our children will do something extracurricular during the year they will find something to do and we were worried about my youngest and what he would do and so my daughter being the older sibling kind of drug him along through the theatre program in Marley Park now he never got on stage he always was in the background he was the guy that was moving the set around he was the guy that was pushing the buttons and making sure that all that stuff was done correctly and it counted as extracurricular and he knew it well coming into high school my daughter my both my children go to Valley Vista all of my kids have gone there and my daughter has been in the choir program and and loved it and she convinced my youngest son that he could get a PD credit for going to show choir now I'm gonna tell you something now that you can't say I know this is on the Internet but this is some dad thoughts right now I thought to myself what in the world how is this gonna work there is no way this is gonna happen and sure enough mr.
here in the Brookfield High School Media Center and we are going to be talking about the significant overrun in this current year's budget and how that will affect next year's budget right now we're we're still waiting on some of those costs to be finalized but as much information as we can provide updated next week that we will do that and how we will communicate that was was the majority of the conversation at the at the Finance Committee meeting I believe that was that was pretty much it right ok any questions alright so next up is policy okay at our last policy meeting we welcomed Amy and Mike to the policy committee and I was elected chair so I'll be relations thank you we started out really by going over sort of a review of what the policy committee does and what we've been working on over the past year or so we're currently still going through the 3000 series which are really finance policies board policies so we we went over three policies that we'll review more in detail later on tonight but basically they were old policies that just needed some tweaking and updating some of them go back to 1992 so those are petty cash food service and free and reduced lunch which like I said are on our agenda to review later tonight and then we just had a small a short conversation about communications we talked about videos newsletters the website and budget Flyers again just to get our new committee members up to speed on what the communications portion of the committee does so that was it thank you mm-hmm okay so next up is the consent agenda recommended motion that the board approve the items listed below and the consent agenda is recommended retirements and resignations second any discussion on any of these all in favor okay awesome I just wanted to just congratulate mrs.
McDonald who I think has a PhD and helping awkward young boys stand on a stage and dance somehow worked with my son and helped him do this well just before the break they had their big show and the week of the show my son was sick and I thought perfect he's gonna get out of this thing right he's gonna wiggle off the hook he's not going to have to do it and he but he persisted he went and he danced on that stage in saying and I fit my head the whole time and now the reason I bring that up is those things don't show up in data we worry a lot about scores and data and what the schools are doing but from a father's perspective putting a boy in front of 500 people doing something that I wouldn't even do is way more valuable than a data point and so I would ask you I'm at a time I apologize I would ask you as you consider the future of the district we have to look at data I understand that I live with somebody who lives with data but there's things you can't measure and that doesn't is never going to show up on a report and so I would ask you to consider that little Brodie mykos standing in the front row nobody would have known that little redheaded kid was overcoming a huge fear I froze over I said Brodie on a scale one to ten what was that he said 11 and he did it and so I want to thank this district for giving that opportunity to my son to grow in a way that's not going to show up on a report and I'd ask you to keep that in mind as you have to make hard decisions coming in the future thank you for the extra time thank you for your service all of you I know arrows get slung it's not fun but you're doing the Lord's work thank you so much thank you all right we'll go ahead and move on to agenda item f-1 student updates we don't have a student update so we'll go ahead and move on to UF to superintendent I'll turn it over to dr.
cindy de Magli she has been for 17 years our payroll secretary and as we look back in the history of things I understand there were times where people before electronic banking went to the bank and the check had it wasn't there and then mrs. de Magali came in and worked on things and that's never been a problem in 17 years and including mrs.
Kellis Thank You mr. president members of the board and members of cabinet it's a first of all like to congratulate mr. Leonard and miss Dan's more on your new officer positions I look forward to your leadership and working with you on future board meetings as we start out another calendar year seems like we and education are fortunate because we get to New Year's every every year and so we're off to another new year and we're excited about what this year holds for the future of Dicer as a reminder we are now very energetically and unofficially celebrating our 100th anniversary which officially kicks off in July but July is part of 2020 and 2020 is now so we are celebrating our 100th anniversary as long as we possibly can I would like to welcome officer king who is a police officer moving forward we will have security at our all of our board meetings and just as for information for the board that's all you have to report thank you dr.
Reynolds and all our good friends and Eric and Kathy and all our tech people we made sure even on the macro burst that we found a waiting crank the power literally here at the high school and make sure people got paid during the macro burst so we're really proud of her and we're happy for her only wish her well in her retirement thank you thank you okay now we have new business first up is policies okay recommended motion that the board approved policy 3450 one petty cash for a first reading as recommended by the policy and communications subcommittee okay so this is probably the easiest thing that you do oh sorry a second this is probably the easiest thing that you'll do tonight this policy has to do with pay cash funds the original policy as I said before goes back to 1992 so we just took a look at it and we discovered that basically the entire first paragraph about use of petty cash funds was unnecessary because we don't allow petty cash funds so the policy was rewritten to just say the board of Brookfield Board of Education does not permit the establishment or operation of petty cash funds so we're ready for that yeah so we're bringing it forward tonight for a first read any questions on that one all right thank you so we'll know we can vote on that person so all in favor aye all right now we can recommend a motion that the board approve policy 35:42 for food service for a first reading as recommended by the policy and communications subcommittee Oh second [Music] okay so this one also is not quite as old this one goes back to 2002 it really just outlines the fact that we will operate a school lunch program under the supervision of the Director of Business and Finance that we shall include hot lunches as determined by the National School Lunch Program we didn't make any I don't think we made any changes to it you just check it out nope nope so basically we are we had a discussion over whether or not we had to get anything put anything specific in here about price because it just says the Brookfield Board of Education shall approve annually the price is set for school lunches and I found out from Ken that we actually haven't done any changes to our pricing for school lunches in four years so we're good on that aspect not the way it's written right now you read it as we should be voting on everything we should vote on no change also it would say you vote on every year whether there's a change right Dave had said that shall approve annually any changes to prices and I think I would say yes we're probably I think the question we had was whether the price of the lunch was covering the cost of rice ken we were talking about that so there was no need to change the price was my understanding right we have not changed the prices but I think Bob's point is that the policy says even if we don't change it we should be approving it than we save up yeah that's what I'm saying what it sells so we just said we can pick that up at the entity that's part of the second read I think it's a simple change you just say any changes to the price yeah so we again this one is coming forward as a first read is this a cave policy or just a revision to this it's our current policy okay any other questions [Music] okay the next policy is recommended motion the board-approved policy 3540 2.31 free and reduced lunch for a first reading as recommended by the policy and communications subcommittee second okay now this one this one we the our policy is behind the cave one [Music] we recommend that we adopt cabe's version which is what you see here [Music] yep we got it so the paragraph down towards the middle this is on free or reduced price lunches the paragraph towards the bottom part of the page that is completely blacked out does not apply to us so we can eliminate that and again we just thought that cabe's version was pretty clean and straightforward so we would like to adopt Gabe's version with the change that's indicated okay any questions all right all in favor all right and for all these policies when would you like any comments so I was thinking to would like to looking at by February 14th because our next policy meeting is the 19th so if I get comments by the 14th I can bring them to our next policy meeting the week after that okay everyone's good on that that's just before the board meeting that day so would this be on the agenda for that board meeting for the second read to it it could be yeah if we don't have extensive changes all right so we can move on to old business and first up is the review of these superintendent's proposed 2020 2021 budget and this is just an action so doctor Burrell would you like to intro oh yes sure sure just kind of dovetailing on what you said from the finance report Roseau to get things started is we took the feedback Ken and I and team took the feedback from the board on December 18th and over the break we incorporated those categorized items that I considered investments and categorize those into either enrollment increases via contract or inflation and the old status quo and rolled them into that and they became contract inflation so as Rosa describes is pretty straight forward I sent the slides on Friday afternoon and the weekend update that were adjusted and I've included that at least had just passed that out hardcopy to you and your your binders section - and those slides I think seven eight and nine color them yellow so they're very easy to identify number seven eight and nine put page numbers on notice that was a little tricky for all of us last time and you can see the drivers are very clean and clear based on those four categories again contractual inflationary increases enrollment driven increases outlier increases which is really only the focus on special education health placements and transportation tuition out placements and then the investments totaling around two hundred and seventy thousand dollars it's broken out very cleanly so I will start by saying sort of in another follow-up to the email that I sent out we really need to get into it tonight any big changes that you know you sort of had in mind or you want to exercise we sort of need to do that tonight so that we can try to stay on track to adopt this budget at our next meeting and we can have everything sort of you know Anna Rosa I think may be a good place to start after this introduction is just a reminder for the public and a reminder for the board so after the December 4th meeting there was several comebacks and so we sent answers to a good number of questions and we talked and we exercise those questions at the December 18th meeting since the at the December 18th meeting besides this comeback which was breaking out the budget differently while it still is a six point eight percent proposed increase at this time in the preliminary superintendent's proposal there were a number of come back so we roses should we go start to go through those maybe to get the ball rolling yeah that's my first release to start and those were sent out so I don't know if you have your copies in front of you on Friday Rose do you want to walk through those who walk through the the email sent through email yeah take our time so everybody can make sure they have everything in front of them I knows a lot of paper it was part of the Weekend Update young [Music] okay so we talked about the revised slides yes that was number one yep okay so now I know yep so health benefits and the FICA is now in the salary figure which I think makes sense because that's how we had historically estimated salaries right right you know [Music] okay so providing reconciliation of special education outplacement budget to actual current year expenditures we'll have that later on and I think that that particular question regarding special education over general obviously we've talked about it we talked about it earlier at the forum that's something we're really going to talk about great detail and hopefully we have even more information we made an incredible amount of progress we certainly could have conversation about that this evening but I know there's so many other things and we're giving a lot of time to that already so maybe kind of put that on the back burner for now and then continue through and my intent is to get that to the board yeah least a couple days before Wednesday's meeting in case anybody has any questions yeah that would be great thank you so the next was we asked dr. Brill to provide the cost savings and class size implications if one teacher was reduced from each grade so reducing 13 teachers would reduce the 2020 2021 budget by 1 million one hundred fifty eight thousand nine hundred and eleven dollars this assumes the average teacher on the master SEP 7 salary grade including health benefits like a total of per teacher expenditure of eighty nine thousand one forty seven so that brings class sizes in the elementary grades brings kindergarten to 21 first grade to almost 21 second grade 23 third grade twenty three fourth grade to 22 fifth grade 24 sixth grade 22 almost 23 some of those are still with within our guide someone one of the other rates all with they're not all within our guidelines or it was kindergarten in first grade no no but they just get out of the guidelines okay yep when we clean our staffing each year I apply a mathematical formula to our projected enrollments to come up with how many sections keep us just under the max one section less I'm not gonna read through the implications for the middle school in high school because that's that just gets lengthy and I think you guys all have it in front of you and you can all saw it so if you want we can start our discussion there sort of see how you guys feel about you know some of these implications I think these are too scary of numbers for elementary school I don't especially considering the fact that let's just be honest they've been our enrollment projections have been off every single year and underestimated so I don't feel comfortable with numbers any bigger than that and I certainly don't want to have to ask for a special appropriation the beginning of a year again so I don't know where you guys I think the reality is though those numbers are probably gonna be I mean - the teacher just covered this in the last meeting that this is still attractive town families are still moving here mm-hmm I mean this is down one teacher per grade kind of sharing your in your concern that those numbers could be higher making without the teacher okay great and that's a lot in elementary school we have to realize that our elementary school teachers don't have Parra's and help in the classroom and and some districts have you know more pairs that float around or even regular pairs that are in the classroom more regularly I volunteer in my daughter's classroom and it's a lot of work oh I can't imagine another two or three kids you know in some of these classes so um and I assume if we were to make any reductions to staff it wouldn't necessarily be a clean sweep one teacher per grade probably right so when you look at a reduction in force typically obviously you look by district need you have to you first you have to look at the teacher contract and a lot of time you're looking at district need you're looking at certification you're looking at the grade level you're looking at teacher seniority so there's a lot of factors that go into that so it's not a linear mrs.
kaylis all right we can go ahead and move on to f3 governing board updates Thank You mr. president oh that sounds weird mr. just a couple of quick things I had highlighted attending the ASB a a sa conference in December and I made sure that dr. Keller well when dr. Kellis was there I made sure he stood up and even though I was accepting it on behalf of Dysart I made sure he stood up and we took a picture so yes had you there great conference I do appreciate also the board's support as I was nominated for ASB a secretary but did not get it somebody ran from the floor that was from the rural district and I think they were wanting more of a rural voice on the executive board so that's fine I was ok with that let's see congratulations to those that received the Dicer Education Foundation mini-grants I'll just go through these really quick dr.
Jones is you know new to this particular grade level so hope mrs. Jones won't have a job it could mean mrs. Jones has to teach a different grade or something like that so it's all in it or it might not be mrs. Jones and people make assumptions so we talked about positions we never talked about people the to me the seventh and eighth grade numbers look equally as troubling I mean 2730 yeah a lots are - it's really really high in terms of the high school I see the the percentage of sections that are are these the numbers that if they are currently I didn't actually go back to take a look but okay so what they would be is on some of these over half of the classes would be over and depending on enrollments - inna or subtracting one teacher from those for subject areas would cause the average class sizes to go up by approximately three students for class and would undoubtedly increase the number of sections above guidelines okay so now it's specific because it says science it says math there's there's lots of different math classes and they are designed for specific grade levels so I kind of feel like these numbers really aren't like the full story like you know there's chemistry there's biology I would sue most kids are taking biology at a certain grade and other kids are thinking so I'm kind of one is is that taken in I mean he says the largest class size is 27 so like what can happen there and again exactly what you're describing cuz things vary at the high school depending on levels depending on course depending on grade level I mean all kinds of factors go in so that's average so you could have classes quite a bit higher than that and then you because of the way the schedule works out and all of the other constraints to get kids as many courses for their schedule in their pathway as we can another class might only have 10 or 15 depending on the situation so it's going to fluctuate into at this point in the year before the program of studies is even distributed for next year to the students and those discussions have even started it's it's an exercise we did for the math but it really isn't for the finances of the math but it's really not a fair exercise to at a high school to try to figure out right now and to that level of detail we just can't do it but I understand it's it's premature how's this guys my guess my point was its you just off just based off these numbers to make a decision positions would be would be murky at best yeah agreed thank you for understanding so does anybody have any other sort of input in terms of staff reductions I'll just say I approach it from a different point of view maybe not completely different but I'm fighting to know what the amount of money and the impacts are thank you for doing that but it's this portrait it's this board's responsibility to advocate for the best education for our kids and I don't think even if we as much as we have a big problem we have to advocate for proper class sizes at all levels and so that's our job and so we need to advocate right so let's advocate I would not cut a single teaching position out based on this I would agree I would agree and the point that you made about ability that REM Romans going up scary to think that that's the case it's a kind of position at each level or what not knowing that okay so what is the total cost of the K through six World Language Program this is for our Spanish our exploratory Spanish program the total cost of that is four hundred thousand our four hundred and thirteen thousand five hundred seventy eight that is the cost of four teachers including their benefits books and supplies this is a tough one I think for me personally but I know when this was contemplated a couple of years ago that is when you really saw parents turning out to board meetings and really speaking out in favor of keeping this program but it does need to be stated that I think I didn't even really have an understanding that this really was more of an exploratory program not designed to be a language acquisition program and I think that's what we need to sort of figure out as a board is what where our values and what do we think you know is best for students in terms of how they're utilizing their day so there's any thoughts I'd say first and foremost something that needs to be said is that social has mandated its Amanda mandated content area and at this point we're neglecting it and why is it being neglected because of the world language exploratory program again it's an exploratory program I don't think we're in the position to be putting this exploratory program over the mandated and neglecting the needs of our students I think that's what we're doing with unfortunately with with this exploratory program and we're spending a lot of money to give our students a program that that they're not being put in a place where they're any better if they didn't have any Spanish yes Monty please um like I guess cuz I'm not familiar with it like what exactly do they learn in the program like do they like begin like learning like Spanish or is it more like the culture like what does it mean my exploratory maybe one of our administrators but yeah please well for fifth and sixth graders for us the 20-minute push in that they do have into the social aid class every other day is students are learning basic Spanish skills then the specials that we have for fifth and sixth grade they have a rotation special is built in to learn more about the culture of spanish-speaking countries so that's where that part is doesn't necessarily mean that they're speaking they do speak a little Spanish but it's more the learning of Spanish and the basics is in the social studies class that's a continuation obviously of what they are learning down at the lower levels so mr.
John Hamill band director with Dicer del and Luke Elementary Sarah Mendoza the art teacher over Rancho Suzanne Putman art teacher over at Sunset Hills Rachel Kelly I explore teacher at Asante Michelle Gillespie exceptional student service exceptional services teacher at dice our del sits 6th grade teachers Rebecca mock Julia Marshall and tomorrow Washington over a Kingswood we have Catherine boss I explore teacher at Marly brandy more art teacher at shadow you here on the art theme going here Laurie McFarland preschool teacher at Mountain View Emma harlech American Sign Language at willow canyon del Berta Smolinski teacher at River View and Lisa Moberg teacher at Sunset Hills congratulations to those dye started Education Foundation continues to give them mini grants to enhance the learning that's in our classrooms also please keep in your thoughts we had a student that of a situation that was during the holidays faith be in Nueva she was a senior at Valley Vista High School I think you guys have seen the newscast please keep their family and Valley Vista admin and students in your thoughts thank you and I just really quick want to thank mr.
Rendon tell question for you so I want to say it was two years ago when we had or two or maybe three years ago when we had this big long set of discussions around more time for social studies and cut back and restructure the middle school the Spanish program that's where we put some of it into the special rotation and so forth I thought it was very creative when you came up with that by the way that was a highlight that year how's it working are we getting better results ins in social studies or is it not making an impact well I think when you say there's no I guess direct data based on you know tests or anything to that nature per se we would definitely be able to get to more curriculum we're definitely able to the ability to have the amount of time to for students to do more writing in there that was one of the reasons I know couple years ago we talked about our upper levels we're seeing a big difference in the students ability to write because at the lower levels at that time before we made that change because it was every other day there wasn't really a chance to that the teachers had the whole entire grade of students so there was as much writing involved in it and I think that's one of the biggest things I know our lower level fifth and sixth grade teachers have talked about is they have more time for discussions and follow through with the curriculum that we've had in the past because obviously it more time so when we had that discussion the part of the reason we actually were compelled to add time in for social studies because I agree at the time we were we all had the reaction we were neglecting social studies but it was based on test scores we were looking at test scores in in the more more critical writing more critical interpretation type scores those same test scores are we looking at them to see if this is having an impact so we're what we were talking about was and the way you can address is the the spec scores for literacy yeah because our students weren't we had discussions about there were some folks I said oh you can teach social studies through ela and the point that I would make is that we needed that social studies tying back was there's a difference between literacy a big umbrella term and disciplinary literacy and disciplinary literacy is teaching students they this skills and providing them the opportunity to learn how to read like a historian which is very different than learning how to read like a mathematician or a scientist because people in different disciplines reading the content of those disciplines who read it in a very different way so you can't teach one subject necessarily through another subject so we wanted to increase the social studies time to have it be what it should be the full complement of social studies so that students as as Dean was explaining would have the opportunity to be reading primary source documents but not just being provided with those documents to read but engaging in conversation doing argumentation and doing argumentative writing and that that's where we excuse me weren't seeing our students performing well on s back we're seeing the scores slowly creeping up are we that was my question it was that we took like a half step that when we went through that whole process we reduced the amount of sawdust Spanish and increase the amount of social studies my question is are we seeing results from that or do we have to go further we that's what you're asking me my professional opinion I I think that other people what a great we we're still not where we need to be with the opportunities that we need to get these are you know they're middle schoolers but they're still little kids and they need a lot of support and writing I think almost everybody could agree is probably the most difficult thing that we asked children to do and it needs to be consistent continual every single day and one of the hardest things and there are other educators on the board who can speak to this as well one of the hardest things to help students even college students graduate students understand is that you know the rating is never done it's a it's an iterative process you have to keep going back to it and that's one of the reasons why we need more time to provide that type of experience for our students I understand the concept my question is are we seeing anything in our measurements less he actually formally look at in order to tell us that the degree of impact or not what I said was we've seen small increases in ela but I can't tell you that that's attributed to social studies I mean I'd be making that up so I would or the question being what data do we have to prove that it's been productive and solid exploratory program what if our students gain from that your hope and of the Spanish Sun yeah the Spanish side the data on the Spanish side I last me I said there was thank you what area there is nothing social so I think we just you're saying is there has been spoiling pieces but I think also you have to understand depending on the types of questions and things that are asked on the smarter balanced testing to has effect I mean social studies if you're asking more content driven social studies you know nonfiction type questions we don't actually know that because obviously it's just the smarter balanced testing but in though in that that ability to write nonfiction use sources use other sources to back up their claims and things of that nature is are invitations a big that's a big skill that stood is a great skill as students need to be successful on these tests and so well we don't have you know standardized test course to talk to the house what we're I think what our teachers are seeing in the in the classroom is that the student skills are increasing and I think that over time that's gonna really hit big at the high school and we will have data from SAT because SAT does give us content area disciplinary scores in you know social studies and science and we are will talk a little bit later about the what we're doing with curriculum and the next phase of new curriculum revision and recreating is going to be in social studies and so the amount of time that we have for social studies is going to be critical to be able to provide the students with the type of social studies instruction that we really should be providing for them knowing what it is they need to know and be able to do in in school in the times that we're in and the art we talked about the argumentation and that is key and you really social studies is the one of the the one domain where that really comes through I mean just look at the world it's all argumentation it turn on that news this is like taking facts and being able to make your case and social studies just lends itself to that orally and then writing I have another question if that's okay um so when I was when I was in fifth and sixth grade that was like six or seven years ago we had like on her 80s and BJ's like one day would be Spanish and one day would be social studies so like is was that not sufficient enough at that time so we try to increase it well we actually did increase it right so social studies is more consistent and moved some of what was in the Spanish content into the end of the specialist rotation what do we like try to allocate like more time for Spanish then like separately like if we gave social studies to full core like what do we still have Spanish being taught in fifth and sixth grade cuz I still feel like that's a really valuable skill that like we started learning my brother started learning Spanish I think in like third grade it was like I think they started earlier than when my grades started but I I feel like that's still like a really important aspect of us like just being exposed to other cultures especially like in the world we live in today I'm not sure why I feel like tonight is the first time I've heard this program being referred to as exploratory I mean that's that's yeah that's what I mean remember the last meeting at the last meeting we did but that was the first time I had really heard it described that way as well so no I think it was a couple of years ago when Kevin was presenting on it she shared that it was an exploratory exposure kind of a program that it wasn't a full flesh his foreign language Elementary School which would when you say flesh you assume language acquisition it just it never was there was never time dedicated to it being a plus program and I don't know what the messaging was prior to this administration's arrival in terms of bringing it on as elementary program but there was just never going to be enough time talking to me at least three days a week so um so there's a lot Lane we just don't have that time considering all the needs and science social studies math and ela that's part of the issue okay big part of the issue so so didn't mrs.
Pritchard for her service is our board president I really appreciate your leadership and having done that before it's I mean it may seem simple but it requires a lot of extra time and just just mental preparation for meetings because you just kind of have to be prepared for anything that can happen so it I just appreciate your service and leadership mmm-hmm Oh like Oh miss Tanner as well thank you so much for being willing to step up and your insights always very valuable and I think you're an excellent board member and an even better board president so I appreciate your leadership and everything you've done over the past year so thank you for that ditto ditto everything they said about you Richard I really appreciate everything that you've done and and everything helping me out being a new board member it's been invaluable help to me so thank you anyone else 20 months all right let's go ahead and move ahead let's go ahead and now we're on g1 motion to approve consent agenda items no that's not right that is right that is correct all right it changed and then it changed again all right I'll get used to this all right we're going to dr.
Holly also say at the last meeting that I think we asked her how our students fare in Spanish language skills compared to say magnet students magnet school students when they both enter the middle school and I am pretty sure she said that magnet school students were no better than there was no difference in proficiency right they off perform at the low novice level okay so that seems to indicate to me that we're doing a pretty good job with an exploratory program that that for compared to a school that sounds like there's spending more time or perhaps getting more instruction but that's just here so we don't know that for sure we don't have the data on that we can't really make a valid conclusion on their experience in there I'm not sure that we can say they're getting nothing out of it yeah go both ways really Kevin did say there wasn't a difference between students so I think and if I could just interrupt I think what she was being very nice about is saying that there's no difference between the two populations of students ampuls of students because neither of them are achieving okay perhaps thought that's the point so there's not language acquisition through either through either programs and we and we can't I agree with you joy we can't sit and pass judgment on that other program cuz we don't know anything about it we don't know what they do or don't do so just on a budget mechanics point of view is there a proposal on the table to eliminate this program is that what's being bandied about here that's so there is a proposal to remove the elementary Spanish language but who's making that proposed me who's making that broke we're making the proposal you're making that I don't mean to make it a swift like you know acts here you know I think it needs to be massaged out a little bit but I mean for I mean these students aren't tested ultimately on a state level in Spanish and they are tested on writing an argumentative and I totally agree with all that I think that is extremely crucial I think if you look at other if Spanish is that important to waste there could be a club there could be I mean rosetta stone puts out lots of things I think I think learning another language can also be handled in other appropriate ways that doesn't involve class time during the day so I'd like to explore maybe some options that maybe we you know that doesn't involve budget money that are as much or as much as much budget oh yeah and we're not discounting the value before a language not at all I mean I absolutely would love for my children to be involved and receive a program to the fullest but unfortunately that's not what we're offering and to sort of facilitate that and sort of to your point if you know we as a board are valuing this as an exploratory program to Monty's point to just as an exposure to different cultures and and things like that more to our global awareness and if that's you know truly what we value and we're willing to you know put that amount of money there then fine but as long as we understand that this truly isn't again a language acquisition program that we think is going to make them better Spanish students when they enter seventh grade because the fact of the matter is they're probably not so it's not small my money correct I mean Jen if anyone values so social is probably the most I'm sort of thinking on a couple of levels because I hear mozzies point to about the idea of sort of global competency and cultural awareness are there other things that the Spanish exploratory program gives us that may not be language acquisition and is there value in that so I think that's one thing I'm thinking about and then I'm of course something about the social studies - in the argumentative writing so I'm wondering is there a middle ground somewhere if we value the exploratory nature of the program is there is is there value and still having it but not as often or would that kill it and its entirety okay so I'm les I'm focusing on what you're talking about what you're talking about with global awareness they don't need to do that through an exploratory Spanish program I mean global awareness should be a component of everything that we do it that and it is it's part of its how we select the literature that we that we use in instruction it's the type of books that we select for classroom libraries and for our library collections I know that our library media specialists when they and and the school-based folks can speak to this if you know need be when the library media specialists select books they are very aware of cultures I use grant money to purchase books through a company called language lizard and we have selections of those in the elementary schools where I work with Kevin Holly and look at the languages of the students that are in the schools and purchased books from them every language that it's available in from language lizard in the school so I'll give you an example like in the Mary Rosa school brown bear brown bear I mean like anybody who doesn't know that book raise your hand okay so brown bear brown bear we have a collection of brown bear brown bear in about eight different languages and the books that are produced by this published by this company has the language of focus whether it's Mandarin or or do or I mean we've got Portugal you name it we've got it if we can get our hands on it using grant money and it's English on one side and the native the first language of the student on the other side because we want to support children and we want to support families in maintaining their home language through having these resources and being able to if the parents read English that's great they can read both if the students can read them both that's great but if they if the home language is language other than English and that's the only language that the parents have we want to honor that by providing them with opportunities to have books in their home that they can reach to their children and then the kids can read in English when they learn to read in English so I'm using that as one very very small example of how we're honoring different cultures and trying to honor and respect an awareness of the different people that make up our community and global awareness is going to be built into social studies naturally and even in science when we talk about because um who are who are the scientists that discovered whatever it is the kids are studying what how is that happening throughout the world Eric is working with the Technology Committee because we are trying to decide which standards because there are no required standards in the state of Connecticut which standards we want to bring to Cape to look at it that having the board adopt so that we can look at all of those global technology competencies and not create new separate courses but include that we want to enrich the courses that we have for our students so I see that the the point and and appreciate what you're sharing but I don't think that that that's the only way to do that and the only if it's if we're only focusing on Spanish culture we're leaving a lot of people out of the picture so I think that we have to be mindful of that and figure out how do we want to really approach in a very systematic way what the board values about global awareness and how that should be part of curriculum [Music] Femi you haven't said anything what are your thoughts I think having the the language program is it's beneficial I know personally my children home and they haven't gotten a ton out of that I don't know there were some staffing issues at the middle school last year that affected my current eighth grader I think you remember Deb I think it's a worthwhile program I wouldn't be opposed to possibly making so much just months to up could I ask so at the elementary level Spanish is a special so mr.
Kellis Oh nope just make a motion all right I'll go ahead and do that to motion to approve the consent agenda items as presented second motion made by J Leonard seconded by missing Bell and that passes thank you all right let's go ahead and move on to agenda item week one all right let's go ahead and move the i1 policy governance we are going to be going over okay policy governance board monitoring of adopting the policies section seven personnel section seven point three three and seven point six five dr. kaylis Thank You mr. president and members of the board members of cabinet in our continuing review and monitoring of board policy this evening Lily will be continuing with section seven the later half mr. Dean will introduce this item good evening mr. president members the governing board dr.
Rendon explained how it was at the middle school but at the elementary school it's still a special so I know this is sort of like this is gonna be a very vague sort of question but is there any way that either of you could maybe describe how potentially that specials time might be utilized if Spanish were no longer in the picture and while the principal's are getting ready I appreciate that question Rosa one thing that I do want to caution in in terms of this discussion is that if a decision was made to you know eliminate for teachers and you'll hear from from Mary Rosa and Melissa that it doesn't necessarily mean or a decision was me to eliminate K through six or K through four Spanish it doesn't necessarily equate in a linear fashion to that direct amount of savings because there is some backfill issues and there's a there could be some other opportunities for more focus on our human tation we've been talking about that tonight or stem work or more time for the arts so there's some things we have to think about but those costs so there'd be a backfill so it isn't just a clean this is we can say four hundred thousand dollars I you know and you would have to get it put something and they'll be able to talk specifically to that because they obviously have their master schedules and can talk about the students experience and how that works so I just wanted to plant that seed and not be again I might use the word premature a couple of times because you know this is evolving and if ultimately they're you know I've been around five years now in Brookfield so there could be a comeback and so there would be work to do on what might be a backfill and what would be something really in line with our priorities and what the costs might be and then we could you know differentiate that so ladies [Music] okay thank you at centre school this is only the second year that Spanish has been a special so prior to that though our special teachers were full-time and what would happen is students would receive an additional the math or excuse me music period art period PE over the course of the year so there would be they do six weeks of having you know PE twice a week and then they'd have six weeks and I think music twice oh but you know I mean so that that's the way it really had worked in the past so there was more opportunity I think for as John was saying more and more using looking at the Arts in a way that could support other skills or being developed for students we talked a little bit about a esteem approach and what that might look like on those extra days you know so what how could we incorporate some of the other again other standards were working on and take them into a more depth with students but that's all again very broad possibilities but as John was saying there's the reality now that because Spanish is especial it does function as a specific purpose in the schedule other than just providing students with that exploratory program it's also part of our structure of our schedule so it would look a little different [Music] so on huckleberry it's pretty much the same it would be eliminating a period for our teachers and currently the six special that we have which is Spanish constitutes the the weekly PLC time that the teachers gather together further collaboration and right now it's wonderful because every grade level gets that once a week of that time together that's not that's in addition to their planning time so if we eliminated that special it would cause us to start having PLC's or planning time where we're eliminating a prep time and then trying to Constance you that those extra minutes and they're contractually somehow so you know either replacing that it's a balance if we take one away and we've talked about you know adding an art or music but for Huckleberry the class sizes that we have we would need double it's just like we have two PE teachers now if we wanted to add more art we would need to art teachers so eliminating a Spanish teacher might not necessarily mean a savings in salary with that answers your question it does just the one of the things we have to think long and hard about is just the reality is when you do eliminate a program it's never coming back so you just we have to think about that is that anything we would be comfortable with how long have we had the program like four or five years probably six so that's we just have to pause it we just have to keep talking into the microphone just purely / - and I understand that it's not a 402 your point that's that was my original kind of tiptoe around that was like hey is there other ways mm-hmm but if you just divide it by two that's two hundred six thousand dollars your new investments are two seventy I mean we're like they're almost so I mean 0.6 of that seven percent that you know rich brought up in the last meeting you know I think that's that's the type of this this is the type of discussion that I'm sure he's a representative of very large population wants to see a sure and to that point Mike one of the things we do we did have some again very preliminary conversations because we knew this meeting was coming and we wanted to obviously converse with the board the so you know in talking with Mary Rose and Melissa you know the the structure and the way things work at the elementary school is very different than the middle school and in talking with mr.
Kelsey members of cabinet this evening we bring the second part of section seven to the board for review administration has one recommended change from the human relations department it's difficult to see but it's on page two and the change reflects the current practice of evaluation and that is a change from the wording of domains one through four to domains one through three we're currently operating with three domains with our teacher evaluation that information was provided to the board in March of this year I'm in an information item and now that we are to section seven and yearly review we're bringing this change to reflect our current practice be happening ancienne answer any questions thank you any questions all right move on to agenda item I - information on the arizona arts performing seal dr. Callas Thank You mr. president this evening we're very excited to share some information with the board regarding the Arizona arts proficiency seal and dr.
Brenda some of you know if 5th and 6th grade Spanish were to be eliminated and he was exercising that it wouldn't increase time in the unified arts schedule for the other specials and then it would that push in time of 20 minutes a couple times a week I guess that his name would go back to social studies and then it wouldn't that wouldn't necessarily nesset eight necessitate a backfill of anything so it that might be a non cost at the middle school so those are things to consider how that how that again that's the complication that it happens to be a benefit in this particular case from a monetary perspective but those complications when you get into middle school and then certainly high schools the complexities of high school scheduling so could I make a comment I have five children all of them were exposed maybe not have language acquisition but they were exposed to language at rather early ages three of them are fluent in multiple languages as adults I talked to my oldest son about his language experience and he attributes his ability to pick up language as an adult to the fact that his ear was more tuned to languages as a child that he had exposure to it that he met and met people who spoke different languages it wasn't afraid of different languages the words come out of your mouth differently he attributes a lot of that to his exposure at an early age there's a lot of studies that say simple exposure is a good thing right because it trains the trains the body and the mind to be more tuned the language so just stick that in the back of your head secondly when we when there was a formal proposal to eliminate elementary school language Spanish how many years ago was that three four three three or four yeah three or four not everybody here was on the board at the time maybe the only one who was on the board at the time lucky me we had a lineup of parents and educators come in here we spent I would say we spent four hours one night talking about this program and with with comebacks but the thing that struck me the most was the very impassioned input from parents who said education you can work on the specifics of skill acquisition in education you can teach them to read you can teach them to write you can teach them to do math but the fullness of their children was enhanced by what Brookfield has done right which is we have good arts programs we've got good language programs we have good physique programs and it makes at the elementary level a more whole child they were passionate about this and I put those two comments together right at the child of mine who experienced the the lifetime growth and he's 37 now right so he's and he's an educator he's a middle school middle school gifted right now he looks back and said that was one of the formative points in his life and I marry that with what I heard from the parents and Antos tell you I would not give up this program rapidly I think it helps our children I really do it helps them be better better people not just necessarily the best writer or reader but better citizens and better learners broadly for their life and that's one of our goals right if you think about what we've talked about as the strategies to make better at better citizens out of our out of our students not just better proficient academically and I am passionate about the need to retain this kind of program I really want to agree with both of those points because I feel like like I I went to Mexico over a winter break and I was able to converse with so many people like genuinely like learn about them and their culture like at restaurants just at the beach and I feel like if I didn't have that exposure in fifth grade my brother had it even earlier he had an even more interesting time because like he was exposed to that culture earlier I feel like in some way shape or form it needs to be there for young children because like you were talking about the book and how like there's English and the students like native language or the parents native language and that's fine for students that are bilingual or like are not from you know don't speak English as their first language but there's so many students here that only speak English so I feel like there needs to be something for them so that they also learn and like whether that's just the language of 21 countries or the language of 35 countries I can get at least one is still something that like opens their mind like from a young age from second grade third grade fifth grade whatever that is to say like there's more out there for me to learn in terms of people like socially I just think that's important too we're in Mexico did you go so my son who's a as a administrator is actually an administrator at the American School of Monterrey Mexico he speaks fluent Spanish now he has four other languages he's relatively fluent in and and it's to him it became a lifetime passion as a language and international culture and I think language in international culture I would observe that Americans are the most country centric population in the globe you walk into you walk into France or you walk into Mexico they're speaking English right from a everyone of them they come in they know how to speak English you go into the u.s.
Pauline will introduce this item mr. president members of the board dr. Kelsey and cabinet very excited to have our arts director to name and really present on this she did a ton of work on this last quarter and if I understand correctly we're one of the first districts out the gate with this so it's exciting to break new ground and give a great opportunity for our students so with that I'll turn over to mr. Nelly here madam president governing board members dr.
and you say how many of you know how to speak my language right I have employees who come in and say they don't know any French they don't know any Spanish and they don't even try well guess what I'd like our our our youth in a global economy to be willing and interested to try right do you need a language acquisition program to do that no you need something that makes them comfortable that that like other languages are okay and I'm sorry I'll go on forever and I will I won't take our whole board meeting up but I feel very strongly that this is valuable to our kids valuable to our kids what what proves the value of it in a sense I'm not gonna understand your personal experience but your children that's great but I would empower you to really speak to the children at Brookfield which I've spoken to a lot in addition to my own children and I've I've written the emails year after year I've looked at the newsletters what has been taught what we covered and year after year it was the same thing we learned how to count we learned of the days of the week the seasons things like that and that's great exposure but again where was the validity and the effectiveness it just wasn't there and just to say that we had we're giving them exposure what seems that small or any present still she studies in so many other content areas that you that they can have this global exposure but I think the expense of so many other things I agree with you and so one of the experiences Bobby and I were talking about when we were talking about is he they had a pseudo curriculum when he was coming coming through his schools where he they learned the numbers and the color is one year but then they would learn different things the next day of different things in next year it didn't it was still just exposure it wasn't hard you know I'm gonna teach you grammar I'm gonna teach you how to write and all of that but but it did what certainly was not repetitive but I I hear Joyce point and I do think that there's value in the program but I wish it was a better program yeah absolutely I mean could it be a better program do we have the capability like I'd love I guess I would want to know if we were to keep it what what are the improvements that are gonna be made to the program that would make us feel more confident that the $400,000 is a worthy expenditure yeah I agree with that like that would that kind of we could bring miss Holly to talk about the the improvements that have been made and will continue to be made lots of things have been done to improve the program when the question was asked by the board we certainly put the cost of the program on there for everybody for this discussion and then we wanted to make clear when Miss Holly came here explicitly clear compared to a couple of years before if it wasn't to some that it is an exploratory program we didn't want people to make any decisions on any false pretense that kids were going to with the with the amount of time that we have available for the program that they were going to acquire language so you know again that's that's the point and is to to Rosa and Bob's point they were talking about was talking about this the value of the exploratory versus are we actually acquiring language what do we want as a school district I mean that's really what has to come down as a conversation into what Mike was talking about earlier in in a non mandated area when we have so many mandated have two areas and all of this is so very expensive I mean you know in but I put at times so but the the thing I react against is that we're sitting here deliberating on a budget and it feels to me like you got budget pressures let's just throw this thing out right and and so let's talk about it it's an elimination proposal and that that's why I asked the question earlier is there a proposal on the table because I don't think this is the right vehicle to to throw this out I would rather have many more heart heartfelt and thorough discussions about what is our program you know should we go down this path of making it better or should we go back down this path of pulling it back but I don't think the budget is the right place to have that discussion I mean that should be in our curriculum committee that ought to be something that we're actively talking about as a board I just feel like we're reacting and therefore let's just just pull it and that's what happened three years ago and guess what we heard about it in spades and about how valuable it was to our families so my opinion is 400,000 for a K to six or a language program isn't that much I mean I don't know I don't have any other districts to compare it to but that doesn't see the cost is really the teachers I mean that's that your staff of just as a reminder for everybody that when we're talking about programs around eighty percent of the budget is the staff that's always how it is so in any program that's what you're looking at and you know you're looking in next year the average teacher with benefits and all that comes with that eighty nine thousand dollars so just in your head as you add these things up and you think about it well you know Bob you bring up a good point because I think we do feel under pressure when we see a big budget increase we want to be responsible for the taxpayers so is it a better conversation to talk holistically about what is the board comfortable spending and starting with that big idea because otherwise what we're gonna do is we're gonna look at each of these questions and we're gonna like we said well we can't cut any teachers we don't feel good about that maybe we do the world language maybe not we don't feel good about that but what what does the board feel comfortable about in terms of or do they feel comfortable that the budget presented is appropriate it's a percentage increase that we feel we could stand behind or do we have to have like a bigger conversation about that just throwing that as another way potentially to look at the issue so we can like what do we think about that well I mean as our the very first part of the PowerPoint I think you know it says that this budget is a financial statement of this boards values this districts values so you know whether we were sort of debating between qualitative value which is something you might not be able to measure in the ways that you know some members here have described enjoy you might need more qualitative value to sort of you know support this clause so yes so you know I think it looks now that we're sort of not we're not really there in a conversation I think I mean I don't know if it doesn't look like there's anything that we can do tonight on this particular subject I don't think unless someone wants to sort of make that formal proposal I'm up to further discussion that needs to happen like in 3d or in another meeting what is your point qualitative and quantitative you know we got to see you know I know there's you know values meet a lot of different things so what is the value of this from a qualitative standpoint and you know obviously we're talking about the budget and Jensen playwright we're I'm looking at this and like okay well you know even if half this half this half of it is is a surplus or you know we can throw that at investments it's it's something it's not it's not a small number I think it is debatable so I I think I'd be open to that when Bob asked me am i proposing it I was more like I want to talk more about it that's the suggestion I think it puts it as a suggestion it just felt to me like it snuck up on us something we're actively talking about taking out of the budget and I just felt like it snuck up on us and I and I wasn't I didn't want to be passive-aggressive about it either were probably we were thinking about it or we're not thinking about it and at the last week I was yeah thinking about it after hearing what yeah I mean in reality if we feel that you have to eliminate the budget we could look at each of these things so in that eliminate athletics we can eliminate club you eliminate yards I would do the list if I could suggest so that was one question number six and we had 11 questions for comeback so perhaps we just go through the rest of them at least yes get that out there so it's out discussion and then kind of get to the rest of this okay so so the cost of athletics well actually Rosa I think you were leading that part do you want to yeah yeah yeah so the cost of athletics um and actually didn't have a question about this the cost for athletics is eight hundred fifty nine thousand four hundred forty eight that there's a lot that goes into that number right it's not just through that yeah its coaches and transportation it is transportation - oh sure officials and when we had pay to play was transportation something that parents paid for was that - that participate raised raised as I recall we eliminated it immediately when I got here is super ten and I was really proud of the board for being able to make that work I think it went holistically it we raised maybe sixty to eighty thousand dollars total don't quote me on that I'd have to go back and this is going about five years now they're in a very tumultuous time and then that that would offset the total athletic it didn't necessarily go to one particular account as far as I recall but then again the history was inaccurate at the time I became a superintendent of the budget history just wasn't accurate and Ken is there any way and in no way am i proposing this but is there some sort of differential that we if we were to like really strip it down to just mandated costs what this sort of what the differential is between what we're spending now and and what is strictly mandated for physical and health education no no this is not this is not says that in health this is actually this is not phys ed in health okay so athletics is not mandated no lettuce is actually not mandated all right so I'll just continue going down the list then so clubs and activities that is for huckleberry with skinnier NBA chess is 117,000 168 almost entirely stipends pay to Club Advisors the arts is 1 million five hundred thirty thousand four hundred seventy four there are fourteen teachers here coral and band stipend supplies equipment and travel to competitions [Music] so those are pretty much the non-mandated items that we can sort of so the arts the arts as a whole is just not mandated so how much is just the piece that is not mandated know this is the old hire program that is the total program salaries of teachers equipment I think that's why I was asking the question so it's a mix of mandated not mandated yes unlike much of which is mandated okay thank you Bob did you just want to know how much we spent on the REI I was interested in what we're spending in the arts but I was also interested in kind of a kind of a recap of what are the programs that we're doing and what are we doing on curriculum because it's not even mentioned when we go through our budgets or our curriculum reviews and I'd like to hear more about that that mate doesn't have to be for today sure meeting but I think we need to spend much like I feel pretty passionate about language I feel pretty passionate like arts us and as a value-add mrs.
Kellison cabinet thank you for allowing me to speak this evening I'm here to present to you information on the state seal of Arts purposes proficiency it's an awful sorry you're gonna hear that a couple times tonight which is gonna be an extraordinary opportunity for high school Visual and Performing Arts students a little bit of background on the seal it was signed into law on May 14 2019 by Governor Doug Ducey and then there's a few other pieces the goal of this seal is identified by the state is to celebrate students who demonstrate high levels of proficiency in the Arizona arts education standards through personal expression and creative experiences in arts education identify pathways of artistic literacy that cultivates skills for 21st century success to prepare students for college and career readiness including active participation in creative industry sector and to promote increased access to well-rounded high-quality arts education across the state in order for students to earn this seal they must follow the following requirements again as identified by the state this is their exact wording so they need to first have a total minimum GPA of 3.0 or higher in all qualifying arts or CTE courses the second piece is that they have to have a minimum credit a minimum of 4 credits in one of the following ways so they need to have a minimum of 4 credits in one artistic discipline so for instance 4 credits of all band or 4 credits that are all dance so in one specific discipline the second way is that they can have 3 credits in one artistic discipline and one in one of the qualifying creative industries CTE credits or a separate artistic discipline it's a mouthful so basically they could have 3 credits of choir and then they could have 1 credit either in dance or one of the approved CTE courses and then lastly they could do 2 credits in one artistic discipline and 2 credits in a qualifying creative industry CTE class or a separate artistic discipline the third component to these requirements is that they need to have 80 hours of arts related extracurricular activities which we'll go through here in just a second and then the fourth piece is that they have to do a student capstone project so for the approved course requirement we've already turned all this into the state and it has been approved so we had to turn in a list of all of the courses that we felt met the seals requirements so right now currently in our high school course selection guide all courses under visual arts dance music and theater will qualify in addition to that under the CTE courses any courses that are found under the pathway of animation digital photography film and TV production and stage craft also count so I've given you a link that actually links to every single course if you really want to look at it it's available for you guys the next piece which is really the big chunk of it is the capstone project so based on what they're asking for in order to meet the capstone requirement students will propose a project-based learning opportunity that needs to include the following it needs to demonstrate knowledge of real-world skills and experience in the arts it needs to build connections between students in their community it needs to encourage application of knowledge and mastery through student interests and their goals and then finally define I'm not to find demonstrate artistic literacy so I worked closely with a committee that was made up of our high school lead arts teachers and we sat down together when we tried to determine the process for this capstone that was something not dictated by the state currently we have in honors by contract that we've rolled out this year on that student in the arts classes that are at a higher level are able to receive if they meet their requirements one of those pieces is very similar to a capstone project so as we wrote this we try to align with what that capstone project requirement is for the honours by contract so students that are doing the honors by contract and complete that capstone would also meet the seals requirement so we do actually have a lot of kids already that will qualify for this kids that have not or chose not to do the honors by contract can still have the opportunity by doing this capstone project as well the extra curricular requirements so this is a little different um seniors graduating in May of this year are eligible to apply for this seal the state is requiring 80 extracurricular hours that they be completed in order to qualify for the steel however this requirement is going to be gradually rolled out by the state over the next four years so this year's graduating class of 2020 needs to only complete 30 hours and then it's broken down for you by graduating class so by 2023 our current freshman class they will have to complete the 84 hours so right now on this year seniors can backlog their hours for this year so they should be able to easily meet that 30 hours extracurricular activities are defined by the office of arts education as any arts participation above and beyond regularly scheduled the regularly scheduled school day for which students are not receiving credit activities can be school sponsored or take place outside the school day or building so examples of that we did give them a whole list of examples in their informational packet um it's not limited to that but examples might be a child attends NAU summer music camp over the summer right there they're gonna knock out their 80 hours if a student studies privately if they're in a dance studio outside of class perhaps we've got some art kids that want to go down and work with the art clubs at the elementary or do some tutoring with the kids any of those hours will count so it's helping to build our kids within our own community and hopefully build up our elementary programs as well so this is the timeline suggested timeline that we turned into the state we were asked to turn it in in November so though it is what we turned in were not required to stick to it completely with the exception of that April 15th deadline in which we have to turn in a report to the state so as we roll this out this is what our plans are but as we see kind of what happens and bumps in the road we do have a little liberty and flexibility to move around with some of these dates so I'll give you guys a chance really quickly to look that one through so with this seal it's a wonderful opportunity for our students in Dysart the seal recognizes the hard work the dedication and the extraordinary amount of hours our students and teachers put into their craft in addition the seal offers students that may be wishing to continue their post-secondary degree in an arts field kind of another notch on their resume towards either scholarships I don't know how much everybody knows about getting into an arts program but typically when you go into college you apply to get into the University and there you also have to then go and do an audition to get into the particular school whether it's a school a dance the School of Music and so when they're looking at those resumes for these kids they're looking to see what they've done in high school and this is giving them that next notch to kind of just show that this child's willing to go above and beyond to perfect what they know in their specific content or discipline area so the state is expected to release a list of schools and districts that have been approved to administer the State Arts seal in the next few weeks what the information I could get from the state was that we do know that twenty two districts applied across the state in totaling eighty four schools and we do and have received the go-ahead that we are one of the districts and four of those schools that have been approved to deliver the seal to our students so it's a pretty big deal for the kids I have attached for you guys all of the documentation that will go to the students and also was approved by the state the first I'm not gonna click and open all these up but you guys have access to look at them that informational handbook is basically lays out all the details for the students and parents of what to expect with the seal the student application is the actual documentation that tracks the progress and is the evidence that we'll use for our final report to the state the extracurricular log is where the students are gonna go ahead and log their hours the teachers will sign off and that will be attached to their student application and then lastly that capstone rubric is what the teachers will be using to assess their capstone projects oh I added one in today so this state actually published everything today on the arts seal so it was on there it disappeared for a few weeks and I looked again literally about an hour ago and it showed up so I don't know if you've accessed that link I can email it to you guys if we need to but there's a link for the state that kind of it has a nice little pamphlet and some information on the seal with that are there any questions I just want to say thank you for leading the charge on this and and being willing to get it done and get it done in a very timely manner that definitely shows that that we as Darce are definitely interested in the arts and we want to make sure that it is a priority and you leading that pack really gives me the confidence to know that it is important to us so thank you for giving that excellent presentation as well yeah anybody else back didn't have just a couple of quick bins um do we know what the seal is going to look like yeah that's a really good question so they actually put out an application to all of the high schools or the competition for students to design the art seal and that competition I believe the deadline is in another week or so and I know based on talking to the teachers on Monday it sounds like we had at least five or six students that submitted artwork so there's a good chance the seal could be something from Dicer so we'll see and I'm just I echo mr. president's words about this that you've taken charge with this and then rolled right along and really excited for Dysart do we or did anyone with the state or even us happen to reach out to any of the arts colleges and universities just to see if they I don't want to say would treat our students a little bit different I know they have to do the auditions and that type stuff but how receptive do you think they've been I don't quote me but I believe that there were some members of nau and one of the other universities that were on the actual committee at the state level they were very selective about who got to be part of this committee so I do know that they had representatives I don't know what that's gonna look like at the collegiate level yet but that would be a great question for me to look - you're sure I would just love to hear what they think of Arizona having this type of seal right and it is an Arizona steel so I'll be interested to see how it gets recognized outside of Arizona okay thank you and forgive me if I was kind of writing things down as you were talking but I do appreciate all the work that you've put into this and you're taking the charge on this just really quick do we know for sure that all of our high schools offer the same courses as far as so if whether you go to shadow or dice or thereabout wherever you go you're still going to be able to have access to classes that would count for credit towards those four credits so we mr.