Second. Second by Danielle. Sydney, please lead us in a roll call vote. Meadows. Yes. Yes. Gonzalez Thomas. Yes. Yes. Slider. Yes. Yes. Arandu, yes. Motion passes. Thank you, Josh. Item 8.2, authorized contract for enrollment and facility planning services. Tony, we talked with the board uh last month about the possibility of conducting an enrollment study of our schools. It has been over 20 years at this point since we have made any modification to our elementary school boundaries and with the offing of several developments in town, we believe it is time to take a close look at that. doesn't necessarily mean that we need to make adjustments to our elementary school boundaries, but it is time to at least evaluate that because in the instance of two of these developments that would take place in Aurora, they would be within a mile and a half of Hooverwood School and unfortunately as it stands now though that particular area would is actually assigned to JB Nelson School.
I support by helping students with similar needs for targeted instruction, what we call engagement. Once are established, IR's teacher toolbox is just one of the many resources that teached instruction teacher. Thank you very much for watching this video and look forward to seeing your students succeed without um for families that want to delve deeper. Like I said, I tried to hyperlink what I could. Um, but you're welcome to go to the family center. The I Ready family center is linked at the very bottom of that page. So to wrap up, sorry to wrap up, um, I just want to share some next steps. Um, again, teachers were provided initial information to support awareness and learning. Um, similar to uh the UFly information, we created a section that was specific for I Ready. the teachers could go in and learn more about I Ready. There are some teachers that are like, "Let me add it.
Um, so we called and talked to uh Nick Balman from IASB and he explained the process for Press Plus for procedures. It looks like we are likely to be able to be on the list for next year, which is what we were hoping. Um, and we also asked again about the exhibits in the review. And what he said was, regardless of where they the exhibits land, they will be reviewed as we get the press packets. They get reviewed whether they're in policy or whether they're in procedures. Um he said it could be in either place. There are two policies that are out there that need to have uh some board action, but he said those then go into the procedural manual andor you can keep a separate folder with those two um actions. Um but he did say that the once the procedural manual is done, it will be just like press plus as we know it with the policies.
It would just be in the old-fashioned way. However, the procedural manual is updated by the administrative team, not the board. So it wouldn't bog the board down and trying to update those with those press packets four times a year. On the flip side, the other um potent so so there is an avenue for that and to be able to keep up with because they're they'll all be new now. They were all new in January, but there um if the board votes to remove them to procedures, there is still a path to be able to do that. The other thing that we could look at and this is actually what started us on the press plus uh journey in the first place is they do the same um procedure for press plus on the procedural end that they do for the policies. So that's originally we were looking at this probably two years ago.
So that was my intent of bringing that up. And so I know we had some discussion last week about sure, do we really want to get all in our organization's business? And that wasn't it for me. It was just more so of just understanding how can we be better if they're, you know, if we're using them as support arms and extension of who we are. But the policy in and of itself is pretty meaty. It's pretty meaty. I read it. I didn't recall all of that, but I'm like, "Oh, wow. Kind of says it all here." But again, to keep the vagueness out of it and have a a policy that's a considered a good standard, do we want to change that word from should to shall because it's very subjective now just from that one word. Yeah. Yeah. We don't have to do it now.
Another pitcher is going to have to come in here in a tough situation. Base is loaded, but when you're a pitcher, unfortunately, that's that's your reality. players still chatting a little bit. Looks like Lucas Petta is going to be in there to pitch. Pet wearing the traditional knickers. Nice old school uh baseball style out there. A couple players are uh for Ashlin have that going on. Hear the train in the background. Another train coming through Ashland. Some background entertainment while PA warms up here. All right, ready to go here. Let me see. Okay, running back in their positions getting ready to go. Number 11 up for Hopkins. I apologize I don't have his name. First pitch strike there. And that ball is rocked to the left fielder who's can't get back to get it. It's great foul trying to get that ball in. One run scores, two run score.
Um, and our unemployment rate has dropped from 14% to 4% which is aligned with our state and national numbers. So, we're really excited about that. Um, and as you could say that 2023 and our graduating class of 2024 um that those numbers are sustaining it is it's awesome to see like a new policies put in place. Is it going to make a difference? Like it it is amazing to see that. Um okay just a few final things. Um so another piece of our focus our plan we so we just talked about our core curriculum right in academics and in CTE. We also have these other layers of support um for students who um who need specialized support. Um and the idea is as much as possible you want to give them support and then remove the support as soon as you can as soon as they're ready so that um they can continue moving forward rapidly.
Today's recipient truly lives up to that legacy. And now we have the honor and privilege of presenting the Mason Taylor Musician of the Year Award to Adeline Adams. Mom, do you want to get a picture? You have the plaque here. Let's go. Next are the six Elks Excellence Awards presented by Mr. Ken Dickerson. [Applause] [Music] Good morning students, teachers, faculty, family, and friends. I'm here today on behalf of the Green Valley Elks Lodge to present six awards to six students who have achieved what I believe is the beginnings of greatness. The inspiration you experienced should be a path you follow your entire lives. Sometimes the inspiration comes from your teachers, sometimes from your families, sometimes from your fellow classmates and friends, but often that inspiration comes from within yourselves. However it happens, it's important that you recognize you are ultimately responsible for your own achievements.
And how are other districts able to do like a self-contained gifted program where we just have a once a week pull out and other gifted programs have a daily pull out for their children? So the dollars that I showed in the in the budget calculation that's about00 is that the same for every district? No, that's based on student count and but it's about 30 cents a kid. It's about Yeah, I'm maybe slightly, but it's ridiculous. So, what that means is that those districts who are doing a different program have either uh been able to u a procure a grant to help support that program or they're taking more of their regular ed dollars and pushing it into that area. So, it is just a a a decision made by that district to support that program in in a different fashion. I've been in other districts where um one of them I got a very large grant and I had more opportunities to do that.
Um, I know there might not be time for it, but I would uh like the board to reconsider that decision. Um, but I think me personally, I've had some up and downs through my high school career. Um, I had uh mental troubles um in December of this year that Clone has helped me uh combat. um he um me and him uh are very um connected through our class and um these last three years have been very important uh to me just because I plan I do plan on um going somewhat into that sports journalism field. Uh we we have had past students go uh into that field. Uh we have two students right now that are at ASU Kronhite in uh downtown Phoenix. One of them actually just got hired by ESPN recently. Um, so I think um, everybody that's going into the sports journalism field, including Jacob Frederick's um, have come out to be very successful coming out of our Highland broadcasting program and um, me personally as well plan on going onto that route.
So when kids can walk to school, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to put them on a bus and send them to another one down the road. So we've got some decisions that we need to make, but to make those decisions, we want to make sure that we have the right data in place. We want to understand what the dynamics are with our enrollments in a little more depth than I can do with my enrollment projections. And further, we want to make sure that we have a full understanding of our building capacities. particular how we use and program certain spaces in our schools right now and where we might have some opportunities to to move things around. So that's what the purpose of this particular contract would do. It would again look at our enrollment. It would look at uh housing in terms of how uh certain types of houses and um the v various number of bedrooms generate on on average a number of students.
I want to learn throughout the summer." So, we tried to provide something for them. We have other teachers that say, "Don't talk to me about it until we come back in August." So, we have training ready for them in August. So, it's a way to try to again meet the needs of the varying uh what teachers want. When staff come back on the institute day, we will have a kickoff implementation. That is the first training. There's a second training that will take place if you approve this um after the fall testing window. I Ready will come here and it's school-based. So, it's not everybody in one location. They will have one for Briergate, one for Three Oaks, one one for every school. Um and they will come after the fall window to teach our teachers how to pull reports, analyze, goal set, and how to use that to drive instruction.
So that's something that would be able to start being done right away. That way, um, when the, uh, exhibits go into policy, the board is supposed to follow those. If they go into procedures, then there's that information out there, but it's not part of policy. So, it's not something that has to be followed to the tea. It's it becomes more like what I think the board was envisioning, um, a guideline, something that we would use and we would update and we would keep uh, accurate. Um he the other suggestion he had was if they uh the exhibits were moved over to the procedures that um he would recommend the board voting to move those over prior to starting the project because then we can make sure that all of those proced or the exhibits continue to be updated as we update the procedures and then the entire procedural manual including the exhibits can be adopted at the same time.
We were looking at our our procedural manual is more outdated than what our uh policy manual was. So, we looked at that and they said, "Oh, they have a service you can do with your procedural manual to be able to do exactly what we've done with Press Plus." But you can't sign up for that service unless you've done that with the policies. When we realized how much time, money, and effort that would save doing it with policies, we switched to let's do this with policies. So we could also do the same thing that we did with the policies with procedure, have that in the press plus procedural side and then we'd have all of our policies and our procedures completely up to date on press plus and in that regard they would come in every single time when we um have an update from the press the little packets that they do sometimes not so little we would have that for both the policies and the procedures.
But I'm just saying we don't have to take action now. But is that something you want to maybe talk about more? I don't want to beat a dead horse, but I think it might be something you want to talk about because if if I think Dr. Cognese, in the last year, I think you've tried to work with the PTO's and they're they're going away, right? Like they're harder to come come about. They've actually uh rebounded quite a bit, which is good because remember about a year a year year and a half ago, how bad were they? Yes. Once we started meeting as a group, we started getting them to work with one another and now they're up and running and meeting on their own now with one another school, right? Yeah. And what I what I and I'm sure the board probably feel the same way.
That's going to be a legit double there for Hopkinson. Scoring two more runs. Monster hit out to left field. Runners at second and third. Ground ball. Shortstop picks it up. Throws to first and it's an out. Ashlin able to get out of that inning. That was a tough inning for Ashlin. Seven runs scored for Ashlin. which I think brings the score to uh 14- five verifying with the coach on the score. Person's got a lot of work to do here at the uh bottom of the sixth inning. We're going to have a new pitcher for Hopkins. Looks like Shaw is out there. after Brooks pitched uh you know five good innings was going to come in and try to close this out. He was warming up on the side. Now he's in taking a couple of warm-ups. Temperatures dropping. Wind's picking up. It's been a very tough uh spring season for baseball in terms of weather.
So we shared this earlier in the year in January um that these these blocks um on the academic week we knew that they needed a lot of work. Um so one of our teacher action teams um and we I also I want to give a shout out to to um Becky Webster. She's um lead teacher here and helped to head up this process. Um we gathered data from across the school, all the students, all the teachers, what's working, what's not working. We also did learning loss of our own. Um and we found that um what was what we called enrichment block um that that needed a lot of work. So um again without getting into crazy details here happy to answer any specific questions but um highlighted in red anything that um sort of is changing or has changed significantly. So reading intervention in general um that we started that program this year.
You should appreciate and thank those whom you believe inspired you at some level. The Green Valley Elks Lodge Auxiliary added a small award to each of you with your certificates. On a personal note, I was inspired in my ninth grade. I was assigned to do a careers class. Choose a career, write a paper. I failed to do that. Towards the end of the year, the professor, my English teacher, came to me after class, had me sit down and explain to me, "If I didn't do it, nobody else would." That stuck with me. That was an inspiration through my entire life and career. I hope that something here today and through your course of your year and on through school inspires you to greatness. I have an award here for excellence in writing. [Music] Adeline Adams [Applause] I have an award here for excellence in perseverance to Jacel Bie Hernandez.
Um but in that district it was because I had such a large uh gifted program was why we were even able to accomplish that. So the budget um as it is does not support the gifted program. We have to take dollars and put them in that area. So for districts that do a daily pull out for those children, like I have a friend who's in another district, her son is pulled out every day for math and reading for their gifted program. Sure. And we're getting 20 minutes a week. Again, I would I would need to know like their funding. They could have that grant I was talking about. Um how do we get that grant? I doubt we could qualify for it. We only have nine schools. I had 50 schools in the one that I was able to qualify for. So, I I do think it's it's um you know, getting those additional we have some grant or dollars in a grant that we put towards some gifted cost, but again, it's it's not it's minimal.
So um, I would just ask the board to reconsider this decision. Um the impacts that this class this class has had on not just me but all these students has been very remarkable and I think you know even if there's not an interest for broadcasting um this class has had major major impacts on our students and um I thank you guys for hearing me out today um congratulations again on another finished school year and um yeah thank [Applause] you. Our next speaker is Samuel Stewart. Hi, I'm also here for representing for Highlands Broadcasting System and I personally believe uh if it was the board or the school or the district or whoever made the decision to cut the class is wrong. I've been there for two of the years of the broadcasting system. Unfortunately, I didn't take it freshman year, but I've seen it change people's lives.