I like to have this be conversational. If you have questions or comments on your mind, I'd rather you speak them up now. Ask them, provide the feedback so that come June, you feel fully informed and prepared to approve of the structure of implementation and the goals hopefully that you want to move forward with um for the strategic plan. All right. So um this evening we'll do some brief introductions um and then I will introduce the structure of strategic plan implementation here in Betavia and what that has looked like over the last few months and what that will look like over the coming few months. Um and then we will get into the meat of today which is um those measurable goals. I know John said to everyone back in January, a short set is better than a long set. And we truly believe that. So, we've helped um align on a short set of measurable goals um and put together what we believe are aggressive yet achievable goals for Betavia.
They, you know, ideally they're probably not going to get above that 40th percentile. So, they feel that constantly versus now they can say, "I'm over my growth target and and be celebrated for that versus this this percentile thing we play now." And it's adaptive, right? So, in the video that I showed, if you rewatch the beginning, it gives you this chart. It it it adapts to the student. So it's not it doesn't pigeon hold and track a student. The student is always demonstrating. Does it like understand that student or is it like input? I'm just asking because I'm trying to understand like does it have the student data of the students with disabilities? Is it does it know if a student is dyslexic or if a student is an English learner? I'm not saying that's a disability, but I'm saying does it know what a student is where they're already having those issues addressed?
Um, I I would agree that this is a little bit restrictive. Um, should we decide to pass this as a board though, I would like to see the language changed uh to the superintendent or his or her design or their design or just designate just to make it more genderneutral." Um, but I I'd have a hard time supporting the constricting our business office. I understand the the the intent or the spirit of this, but there's enough oversight in the original language that would would give us that support. I don't disagree with anybody here. I'm not the finance expert or the finance chair. Um, I did want to bring this forward though. I do think though um and I'm not arguing for I'll vote no if nobody wants it. I'm just bringing this up for for board consideration. Do you think that it would be proper to maintain the language that says specifically that you are authorized to make those payments without the board board's approval as we're doing now?
So, what do you mean? Like, are you gonna are we going to leave it or are we Yeah, I just So, I saw your notes and I just wanted to kind of explain and make sure that that did not the language that was added that's currently in there does not include compensation or negate the need for the superintendent, myself to bring forward recommendations on any administrative compensation changes. That would be still something that we would bring forward the board. This language that was added only talks about like health, dental, our benefits packages. Those do align. They already do align. Um what administrators receive like our principles, APS, coordinators, it already aligns with what teachers receive because we don't negotiate a separate benefits package with administrators. So it follows that as well as leave of absence. For example, um administrators get the same amount of sick days each year because there's no other document that guides that compensation would still have to come before the board like we do each year when we bring um the administrative recommendations for any pay or compensation compensation changes that would still have to occur even with this new language in there.
Thank you very much for coming. Thank you. Thanks for having us. Yeah, we're always excited to talk about our work and the kids and everything. Thank you. I do want to introduce Sulano. Oh, do I need to disconnect? Director of grants, but she's far more than that. Tyler says she's director of grant workforce development. And what does that really mean? Well, if you look at, you know, particularly the last 10 years where we were 10 years ago with work development, where we are today, we 10 12 years ago, we had zero workforce development programs. Today, we have probably the most in the Commonwealth of any vocational school. And that is so important. Why is it so important? Because we have the highest one of the highest unemployment in the state. And so what we do for workforce development and her work in particular, she is the one that gets the grants and helps develop all the coursework and hiring the teachers, working with industry to find out what the real skills that are necessary, what kind of program should we be offering, working with the state to get the funding.
Miss, um good evening everyone. Um there is nothing like teacher tired at the end of the year. Literally like I feel like the the weekend after we stop I sleep like the whole weekend I'm just like out like a light. So, um, congratulations on making it a whole another year. Um, congrats to our students, um, especially the eighth graders that will be leaving us, um, to go on to high school next year. Uh, I hope everybody has a great summer and I hope that, um, our staff members get some rest during the during our break. Thank you, Miss. Um, first off, I hear her back there and I just want to say thank you to Miss Science Hernandez who's uh, interpreting for us this evening. She's also our educational support person of the year. She's amazing. Thank you. Uh wish everyone luck for uh the rest of the week.
And that ends my report for this evening. If there's any questions, I'm very happy to answer them. I have a question regarding the internal services print shop. So, I was reviewing the contract renewals that were that were is on our consent agenda tonight and I saw that there was a print vendor on there that we are renewing a contract and it's a not a small amount of money and I just wanted to know what the what what services they're providing that we're not providing in house. don't I don't know the answer to that question. I'm sorry about that. Yeah, if I could um if I could take an opportunity to get back to it, I'd appreciate it. And sometimes when it comes to prints, it depends on what it is and the quantity. I mean, they can only there only how many people in the print shop?
Um and then we will end with just talking about how the DCC has started and and subcommittees have started um prioritizing strategies in the um strategic plan to say what do we want to focus on now um and where we'll go from here. So, for those of you who are newer to District Management Group or didn't meet John or uh are just getting introduced to us now, um over the last 20 years, we have partnered with public school districts um to work on our mission to achieve systemic improvement in public education by combining management techniques and educational best practices. And our logo on the right here really is all about the intersection of three things. So we think about systemic and lasting change as um the intersection of first and foremost what's best for students. Everything should be about what achieves student outcomes, but to do that in a systemic and lasting way.
Yeah. No, that's a great question. So, it is a nationally normed assessment, which means that it is comparing students in that grade level that all of the nuances and individual pieces of the student. That's where we the educators come in. What it does do is it will say, okay, the student is taking the assessment and there's they've been in school X amount of days, right? That was something that they had shared. Um, it does take that into account. So that way you are being compared to your peers, not just that are in third grade, but third grade that have also had 60 days of instruction. So, it's not a comparison point of like let's say you came in later in the school year and they're comparing you to other third graders who've been here from August to sep or August to let's say January and then I'm a new student who just moves in January like they're basing it off of how many days of experience you've had in that grade level.
Well, it says that up in the second period, right? Well, those are very specific. No, in the black. No, I see. We can all just say no. Okay. Then then we need to vote because we done this. Okay. I have a motion to approve policy 460, purchases and contracts as presented. I did that motion. I moved. Is it 450? Yes, we're on. We already did 450. Oh, 450. Mindy and Catherine. Yes. Can we take a vote, please? Stacy Salt, no. Julie Jetty, no. Jason Jansen, no. Bridget Sandlin, no. Darling, no. Mindy Hartman, no. Katherine Potter, no. Okay. Motion does not approve. Next up, we have the approval of policy 460, purchases and contracts. Uh, may I have a motion to approve policy 460, purchases and contracts, as presented? Motion for discussion. Need a motion first. Potter. Is there a second? second it so we can talk about it.
Okay. So the sentence though in question is unless stated otherwise in individual employment contracts all benefits and leaves of absence available to teaching personnel are available to administrative personnel that was added to the policy manual when it got rewritten. It was not the policy the former D26 policy. So I guess my question is is short answer. Are you recommending that sentence be kept? Yes. Okay. That is language directly from press. That's not language we wrote. That's press's recommended and that's our current practice. Yeah. Okay. That was a really short answer. So if that if that policy is fine, should we is it fine for everyone to keep that language or do we even just not bring it back? That can just go on the consent agenda. We wouldn't have to do we wouldn't have to take any action on 350 cuz it was only a matter of is this sentence good or bad?
All of that is having a huge positive impact on our community. That's what we at GLTS is all about, training, preparing people for the workforce. And that's a big part of what we do. And I don't think that the public understands or realizes that work that we do there. And so it's making a impact in that. You'll see that every program we run. So if we run a 250 or 350 hour program when they finish, we Susan always has a graduation party for them. And uh and it gives us a chance. First, I get to speak at every one of these. She invites me to speak. And I love speaking at them because you're seeing adults with their families and the difference it's going to make in their lives and the work that they've now trained for something new in their life and they have new opportunities.
Um promotions are exciting. I'm going to go on vacation with my family. Uh because it's that time of year where if you still have little ones, sometimes you don't have child care for some days at a certain time of year. So, we got to find something to do. So, I wish I could go to promotions this year, but I'm not. I'll be at Legoland hopefully having the time of my life. Uh um so I I hope everyone has a great time at promotions. I hope people are able to take some time off in the summer and get some rest and relaxation in and take care of yourselves. Um and I wasn't at the last meeting, but I was pleased to hear, sorry, my brain's like also moving slowly. Um, I was pleased to hear that there was a great reception and presentation about um all the work we've done on the student conduct committee and an an encouragement and willingness and eagerness from the board or my fellow board members for us to continue that work not necessarily just with the student conduct but with the student bill of rights and also with uh staff conduct policies as well.
Two people. And so with 4,200 employees, 39 schools, it it we have to contract out sometimes in order to get things turned around, especially during the summertime before school starts. What I don't know in addition is it might be print of of um of u marketing materials or t-shirts and those sorts of things. So I'll have to research that. Thank you very much. Thank you. Any other questions from the board for Miss Betts or Dr. McCord? All right. Thank you very much, Miss Betts. All right. Moving on to agenda item 6.02, teaching and learning academic spotlight. Dr. McCord. Thank you, Mr. President, governing board members. I will turn my time over to Mr. Ryan and he they have a nice little presentation for you tonight. Mr. President, governing board members, Dr. McCord, thank you. Uh we've had a great year of celebration on a monthly basis highlighting different academic um components to what we offer in Gilbert Public Schools.
You also have to ask the question, what's best for our staff and what's best for our budget and how do we find things that are best for all three of those. Um we've worked with hundreds of school districts coast to coast, different shapes, sizes, and locations. um to bring about transformational um and sustainable improvement. And we've done that work in a few different areas. So we have our DM learning which is our professional development. We have um conferences and we have a journal we put out uh every year. We have our consulting uh part of the organization where I live working directly one-on-one with school districts. Um, our DM schedules, our cloud-based scheduling software and our breakthrough results, which is 10 week cycles of fast action to achieve results quickly. And you met John, you're meeting me now. Um and in addition to John and myself, we have a colleague uh Lucy who's been doing a lot of work behind the scenes to really analyze and understand data and also bring together Betavia's data in uh the context of national kind of trends and and what we know about uh education.
So, it adapts in that way. But to get to the specifics of like the IEP or whether you're an English language learner or whether you are dyslexic or things of that nature, it's a nationally norm diagnostic assessment. So does Wait, is it Did you already ask it? No, but I've got a followup follow up to that question. But wait, if you want to get your question for the Okay. Yes, it is. Gotcha. So if there's a student with an IEP or 504 with extended time or time and a half, right? Get that. We get that and and they know that. So instead of 20 minutes, it's 35. Okay. Yep. Yep. And there are and that was also part of the rubric. If you kind of peek at the rubric, it was what are some of the features, the accessibility features. Um we wanted to make sure that the accessibility features were within this as well.
Right. Is there any discussion? I was just bringing this forward so we can discuss cuz as I this language was I believe added by D26 the in the former policy manual. Again, I'm not the um board finance person, but um I just wanted to again bring to the board that this language had changed and it was I think I believe D26 specific language um put there for a reason and I wanted just the board to consider whether or not we wanted to keep that. I think there's something very productive about the vendor contractor conflict of interest language that I am supportive of. I think there's something to be said about that. Um otherwise I I am not the policy expert that you are Katherine. Um so you may have this memorized. I'm going to ask you if you don't know the answer that is quite all right.
Is it going to come in to conflict with any kind of negotiations or nothing? If it's good with everyone, then we just keep it and we don't have to vote on it. No, we would just remove it from the section three manual review portion when the board would take So the board would only be taking action on 340E out of section three and then the policies that were under section 4. We all good with that? Okay, perfect. Uh was there anything else? Okay. Uh next up we have close session for the appointment employment compensation discipline performance or dismissal of specific employees of the public body 5 CS120-2C1. We have a motion to adjurnn to close session. So moved. Second. All in favor? Okay. We need to do a roll call to go into close. Oh yeah. Can we take a roll call, please? Yes. Sorry, trying to write fast.
So we've trained hundreds of people uh in these programs and that the trajectory of that and the success of that. A lot of that is owed to the work that Susan's done here. So I thank her for that. Well, you're welcome and thank you for having me here today. Um, as John introduced me, my name is Susan Almano and um, I'm the director of grants and workforce development and um, I'm here to talk to you today about a specific initiative that we're starting, but I want everybody to also see the connection. You know, as John said, I'm workforce development for adults, but also workforce development in terms of looking at the economy and where is our economy going and making sure that not only that we're training adults for that, but also um looking for funding to help us train and looking at how we can use funding for our high school program as well.
So, I'm excited and I really mean that even though I don't always sound excited um to continue that work. I think it's meaningful and it's um makes me feel I mean obviously we're doing things here but it just feels like we're doing something on the side too which is good to get multiple things done at once. It's nice to have different pots cooking at the same time. So um just happy to continue that work and happy to get that done and I'll turn it over to Mr. Man. Well um I will just second the kudos to our amazing translator in the back of the room who is our um our um education support person of the year. We also have in the room our um administrator of the year, Dr. Lissa Bombbo, who will be our assistant superintendent for teaching and learning next year. So, I'll give her a round of applause.