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So it can affect everything from judgment um to IQ. We have data that folks will lose about eight points of their IQ. Um someone who uses marijuana regularly um it's amazing data will have on average a one grade point reduction. So if someone could potentially be an A student, they have that natural innate capacity, that work ethic, they may be a B student or if they were naturally a B student, they may be a C student because of the interference of these substances in the functioning of your brain. Um whether it's the drive to study, to focus, um there are increased levels of inattention. So it's everything from cognitive ability to exercising good judgment to motivation and functioning well. It's everything. Good question. Thank you Dr. Sanuchi. The next question is since vaping, smoking, and alcohol is bad for you, why is it even being sold in stores?
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
Ah, another amazing question. So, whoever wrote that question, um, I think you're going to go into business and focus in marketing, but hopefully you'll be different from some of the folks that we deal with today. So, what's that all about? It's all about money. It's all about profit. It's about drawing someone in. And these folks who are doing this are really quite wise. They're not truly thinking about the effects of these substances. what they're thinking about is personal gain. And they're also recognizing they're they're smart and they're going to have a lot of money. They're smart because what they're recognizing is if you're 12, 13, 14, 15 years old, if you start using these substances in that age group, you're going to need those substances later on. So once you're hooked on this, you're going to be hooked on this for quite a long period of time.
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So that's why having this information and not starting and not falling prey to these marketing ps. I mean if you look at vaping vaping um there is like unicorn blah blah blah or cotton candy flavor. I mean they're not marketing these vaping um flavors for a 70year-old. It's for our teenagers. It's even for middle school kids. And so this is purposefully being done. But you know what? I would venture to say if you're at Denver Danbury High School, you're smarter than that. And so don't fall prey to these marketing ploys. And that's what that is about. And that was an amazing question. Thank you. The next question is um whether or not communities are being targeted to vape and why do they target these communities? Hm. So I think I can answer that question in a couple of different ways, but certain communities are being targeted and I would say there are communities if you look at them from an age group perspective that age group is being targeted.
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There are other areas where from a socioeconomic perspective certain areas or communities are being targeted like an affluent neighborhood may be targeted and I would see that in a more affluent area whereas I have to say in a region that I work in like New Haven Connecticut or in Bridgeport vaping wasn't something that we saw very much but in other regions like southwestern Connecticut or upstate New York we will see that a little bit more because of afford affordability and so there are certain communities that are targeted depending upon what we're talking about. Yes. The next question is whether or not medical marijuana has the same effects as traditional marijuana. Um so medical marijuana um which is approved for certain illnesses whether it's the treatment of neuropathic pain or treating someone who has what we call hypermesis which is vomiting vomiting vomiting with chemotherapy. There are certain reasons why um some folks would be eligible for medical marijuana and those are very finite and specific situations but once again these are folks who are generally older who have a fully developed brain.
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One of the major points that we have to I think recognize today is we are talking about the utilization of these illicit substances, illegal substances in an underage population with a brain that is still forming that is so vulnerable to the injurious effects of these substances. Once a brain is fully developed, 25, 27 years old, I'm not saying run out and start to drink or run out and start to smoke marijuana. But what I'm saying is if someone goes to a wedding at the age of 25 or 27 and has a glass of wine, that's very different from someone drinking alcohol at the age of 12, 13 or 14. You develop a dependency much more frequently with that young developing vulnerable brain. When a brain is fully developed, you can have a glass of wine, you can go to a wedding, you can be at a family function, and that's it.
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And you're done. There's not that likelihood of developing a dependency. And this is science. It's neuroscience. It's feedback loops. It's the amygdala. It's what we've done to neurotransmitters over time when we start to utilize these substances, whether it's marijuana or alcohol, early on. So the utilization of medical marijuana, it's the same drug, but it's used in a very different and controlled fashion in the older population. Thank you. And the next question really has to do with access. Um, how are kids getting all this stuff if you have to be 21 years old or older to purchase? and then what efforts are being done in order to help make it less access accessible to teenagers. So I don't want to go into too much detail about how it's being accessed because I don't want to plant any seeds. But I think sort of the umbrella statement would be there are many people who are out there who will make themselves available to students, to young people, to folks who are somewhat vulnerable.
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And what does that mean vulnerable? you know, as a teenager, as an adolescent, I have to say, God's honest truth, I would not want to go through adolescence again. Um, it's kind of a it's an amazing time period in your life, but it's also a very challenging time period. There's a little bit of a discordance, a mismatch. You may have students in your class who are 6'2. You may have students in your class who are 4 foot nine. There's a lot of um variation and differences amongst students. The same way you can have that there can be a discordance between body development and brain development. And it's really kind of confusing to be a teenager. And so by and large, teenagers are susceptible to certain things. We as a teenager, if I were a teenager right now, would spend a lot more time in front of a mirror than I would as a 58-year-old because I'm really, really concerned as a teenager about my appearance, how someone perceives me.
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I don't want to stand out in a crowd. I just want to fit in. We know this about teenagers and so that's a stress factor. Um, you're in school. You're in school for seven, eight hours a day. Then you get homework at night. You, there's a lot of pressure. You may have pressure to work a part-time job, pressure to study. There's a lot that's going on. And at the same time, it's an amazing thing. You're growing and evolving and you're learning and you've got the the rest of your life ahead of you and tremendous opportunity. So there are adults who are very very savvy who recognize that there are a lot of stressors on the lives of teenagers and at least in the short term being introduced to these things, alcohol, certain drugs like marijuana, you know, in the short term, oh my god, oh my god, I I just smoked a joint.
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I actually feel kind of good. Oh my god, I just drank something. You know what? I'm not as worried about stuff as I was before. That's how it starts. But that is awful because that moment of maybe feeling okay will lead to another moment of maybe I need that and then that dependency evolves. I will share with you. You can feel really, really, really good about achieving something, really, really, really good about helping someone, really, really, really good about being on a team, whether that's an athletic team or some sort of a team or a club at school where you get the same neurotransmitters affecting your brain with a feedback loop making you feel very, very good. So kind of a vulnerable time period with adults who are assessing this situation and seeing it as an opportunity to introduce these toxins and then what are we doing about it as a society.
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It's what we're doing today and it's what we're doing by way of regulation and having you know people have to show their ID. You can't buy a a can of paint at Walmart without someone coming and checking your ID to make sure you're over a certain age group. So there is enforcement, there are regulations, but nothing is 100%. So we have to be 200% and make sure we're arming oursel with knowledge and knowledge is power. Thank you. Another question is that the use of marijuana is being legalized and spreading across the United States. Does that mean that marijuana is no longer addictive? So, it is addictive. That has not changed. And there are some folks um it's actually sort of interesting and that was um it's a complicated um question and a thought process. Some people think that if you legalize it in certain venues that folks won't find it quite as appealing.
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It's almost like when we were little kids and your mom said to you, "Don't don't touch that. Don't touch that vase. Don't don't touch it. Don't touch it." And what do you want to do? You want to grab the vase and then you drop the vase. Um, so that's the thought process there. Whether or not we're going to see an ill effect of that, I think is yet to be seen. And for someone, uh, a student asks, "How would you tell the difference if it's abuse? How do you know that you are at a place of abusing um drugs or alcohol? So what the embedded question is there is um when is it a problem? And I would say for the age group that we're speaking about it's a problem from the very first drink. You don't want to start. You don't want to introduce it.
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You don't want to be exposed to it. When is it considered abuse? When is it considered something pathologic? When there's something that interferes with your daily functioning, when it's something where you're craving this, it's something where you're thinking about this and it's something where you need it. That being said, I would say even occasional use can be a major problem. And we look at the case that we presented. This was a true case with Jeremy. Jeremy was not a drug addict. Jeremy utilized alcohol and he utilized marijuana on this afternoon. But because of the acute the real time effect of those substances on his brain, it changed the trajectory of his future. And so the question is an amazing one, but we've got to take the information in total and recognize the hazards of these substances. Thank you. Sure. And I think there were about two questions here just about responding to peer pressure.
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Um they're very similar um and they were upvoted. So, um, is peer pressure what makes most students, um, engage in drug and alcohol use? You know, I wouldn't honestly be able to say, um, if it's most students, but I would say that there is a factor there. And, um, you know, it's kind of interesting with regard to peer pressure. Um there may be an individual who tries to force something on someone else or wants to make someone feel like part of a group and to be part of that group you have to participate in a certain activity. I would venture to say, and I've seen this countless times, um, for any person who might be doing something like that and wanting to get someone to engage into something, there are probably 10 times as many people just like yourself who would like to say, you know what, thanks so much, but I really don't want to participate.
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I really don't want to do that. Um, and I've got other things that I need to do, and I I don't need that to have a good time. I enjoy your company just like it is. Um, and so I think if someone has the courage to say something like that, that person next to them, they have the courage to say that as well. Um, and something I didn't mention and I usually do, um, in addition to affecting your brain as it's evolving, there's a genetic component to all of this as well in terms of addiction and dependency. And for each and every one of us who are on this call today, we don't exactly know the extent of our genetic loading and which ones of us are more likely to develop a dependency or a need to have these substances. There is absolutely a genetic piece to this too.
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But the fact of the matter is, if someone has an addict addictive personality, if they never start to use marijuana at an early age group, we're not tempting fate and making that happen. If they're not starting to use alcohol at 14, 15, 16 years of age, we're not challenging that genetic coding, that DNA. And this is really, really important. And I can't tell you how many children, young adults, older adults in the m midst of COVID where it was all hands- on deck. And I was taking care of adults where they would come in the victims of alcohol abuse for 20, 30, 40 years and come to find out that their mom, their dad had a problem with addiction. They didn't know that when they were growing up and got introduced to alcohol. Um, and so that was another piece that I usually talk about that I think is just so important for folks to be aware of.
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Thank you. And the last question that I have is are there varying effects between different genders? So the effects of alcohol and drug use are there different effects amongst the gender? So that's kind of um a multi-layered um question. So there are effects from the standpoint of um who or what someone may be genetically in terms of personality types and things like that and levels of activity and propensity of things like attention deficit disorder and things along those lines. And so um alcohol may affect someone and make them much more outgoing and boisterous if they're a young man. and alcohol may make a young woman um just feel a little bit more relaxed but that may lead to that person getting into a little bit more trouble. So acutely there are behavioral differences that we may see. Um in terms of longterm the effects are really quite similar in terms of the effects on the body on the brain and we didn't even talk about things like the effects of alcohol on the liver and increased likelihoods of things like cerosis or even even hpatic cancer which is liver cancer.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
Um, and so there are many similarities, but there are gender nuances that are there as well. And I have to say, Terry, um, and and and Fallon, I don't remember us ever having these many intellectual amazing questions um, in prior years. This is really amazing. It's amazing. Thank you. I I'm also amazed at our students and I want to thank them as well for being very honest and candid and open and asking questions and not being afraid to to ask those questions that are on their minds and thank you for for answering them. Oh, my pleasure. My pleasure. I'm so impressed. I'm so impressed. Thank you. Um so that's all I have for questions. So we're going to move into the the next part. I think that's Mr. Davidson's going to close us out. Thank you, Dr. Sanuchi for taking the time out of your busy schedule to come talk to us.
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We really do appreciate it. We had a record attendance this year. Thank you so much. We had well over 700 people at one point watching which is which is pretty awesome and it was going back and forth. So so really great turnout. So thank you all for coming. Um the freshman forum committee, thank you for the time that you put in to make this happen again. Kazzy, thank you for joining us today. Um stand together make a difference. Danbury substance abuse prevention council for bringing us this program. And ultimately, if if um if you guys fill out that survey, we need to make sure that we get as much information as we can so we can continue to bring this program to you. So, if you haven't done so, please fill that out. Um I want to lastly say if you have questions or you need help, please uh don't be afraid.
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Reach out to your counselor, um your family doctor, or a trusted adult. Help is out there and and we'll get it for you. You just have to to reach out and tell us that you need it. So thank you all.
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all right we'll call the meeting to order um let the record reflect that all board members are present and we will stand for the pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all all right we have item b1 for the agenda form and i will make a motion to approve this agenda form consistent with governing board policy and temporarily suspend any policy with which this agenda may be inconsistent oh i'm having some difficulty over here oh good i'm going to log back in uh my vote is a yes if you need a verbal though no i need a vote yes did i kick you off okay give me just a second we got logged out all right moving on to item c1 for national board certified teachers dr kellis thank you madam president members of the board members of cabinet um this evening we're very happy to recognize several of our extraordinary teachers and this evening mr jim dean will introduce this item good evening madam president remember the governing board dr kelsey members of cabinet i'm going to turn this over to our director of public relations renee ryan for the celebration good evening madam president members of the board superintendent kellis and cabinet it is my pleasure to present to you dysart's newest national board certified teachers national board certification is the highest certificate an educator can achieve in the united states with only three percent of teachers earning it it's rigorous and a reflective process that can take up to three years to receive with dysarts newest additions we now have 54 national board certified teachers and i don't believe any of them are there with us tonight hopefully they're virtual with us so from surprise elementary we have kelly gregg also from surprise elementary we have jessica raim and i understand she started at surprise and moved to asante when that opened jean vogel please join me in congratulating our three new national board certified teachers so next we have audience with individuals we do have one i'll go ahead and read the statement this is the time for the public to comment members of the board may not discuss items that are not specifically identified on the agenda pursue it to ars 38-431.01 h action taken as a result of public comment will be limited to directing staff to study the matter responding to any criticism or scheduling the matter for further consideration and decision at a later date in order to facilitate accomplishing the business of the district in a timely manner a time limit of three minutes will be imposed for each individual group addressing the board when you approach the podium please state your name for the record and tonight we have beth simek madam chair members of the board my name is beth simek and i am proud parent of a fourth grader at mountain view elementary school i am here on behalf of the community to request that the board as our elected officials please work with us to advocate about two bills that are in the legislature this year that will have serious ram of ramifications on the dysart community the first is house bill 2069 which is an attempt to eliminate the permanent early voting list the second is house bill 2070 which will require that all signatures on ballot envelopes be notarized prior to returning to the county recorder's office these bills are not in the best interests of our community and i'm hoping that the board will be using your voice as our elected officials to be advocating on behalf of our community to ask representative kevin payne to withdraw these bills let me put it in terms that we can all understand of all the voters within the dysart unified school district who cast a vote in the november 2020 election 82.9 percent of those are on the permanent early voter list according to the arizona or excuse me the maricopa county recorder of the 2020 election results in the override election 78 256 votes which constitutes 93.2 percent of all the votes were cast early compared to 5 683 votes which is 6 cast on election day in the school board race 154 806 votes which is 94 of the vote were cast early compared to 9657 votes which is six percent cast on election day bear in mind that people do come up come and vote for three candidates during that time which is why the number is higher elimination of the permanent early voter list will be a major deterrent of over 90 percent of the electorate in this area notarization of signatures isn't free and not easily available without an appointment this will affect working parents teachers and community members and will find it difficult to vote and will become disenfranchised with the process we need as many eligible voters as possible to support our students in our schools and it's with the critical funding our kids cannot afford to lose further some of you are coming up for election wouldn't you much rather have 90 of the electorate be part of that potential victory or are you counting on maybe 18 showing up on election day do you really want the fate of the district in the fate of our of your campaigns hinging on what would be a considerably narrow margin as advocates for our children i'm hoping that you will use the power of your positions to engage with representative payne to explain to him how these bills will hurt our community and request that he withdraw thank you very much thank you that's all we have thank you all right moving on to the item e1 student update dr kellis thank you madam president members of the board members of cabinet we do have some student representatives here this evening who would like to provide the board with an update good evening board members dr callison cabinet my name is dominique and i am a member of district leadership council we have lots going on in dlc and so many moving parts that we are excited to share with you guys we are excited to announce our community-wide covet and canned food drive is in full effect we wouldn't be able to do this without the support of the cabinet the community and our sponsors such as the city of surprise valley view food bank and spencer's place coffee we have additional information on our social media accounts such as what we are accepting and locations to drop off all of our high schools are currently focusing on our mascot campaign valley vista has already started with temporary profile photos on their social media banners and posters around campus and soon we hope to see that district-wide we also would like to take this time to thank our school counselors who have been working tirelessly year round as next week is counselor appreciation week thank you thank you very much for that update we have a superintendent update dr kellis thank you madam president members of the board and just so the board is aware our student representatives are always here to represent the students so the board has desires to engage them in discussions and to get their perspective um you are welcome to do so um this evening i would like to just uh extend an invitation to all board members we have several things that are coming up each every other month we have our parent advisory council and these are representatives from each of the schools and our next one is this coming monday there's always a time in the agenda if there are any board members who are present and want to speak to the parents or hear from the parents um there's a time in there and that's a virtual meeting and we'll be sending that information if you want to participate also i do [Music] several times a week school visits and if any board members would like to join me on those school visits and be more than happy to have you tag along and typically we spend some time with the principal and then and go out and visit some some classrooms and do some window waving from the from the hallways but um just any opportunities that the board would like to be engaged with with the community i'd be happy to facilitate that to our community we will be having our annual parent survey coming out in the next couple of weeks and i would encourage everybody to please consider completing that survey this is important as we make decisions in the district and your input is appreciated also the staff and student parent staff and student surveys will be coming out in about a month or two and then finally a reminder to all of our parents that we have our k-8 parent-teacher conferences coming up and i would like to invite you all to please sign up and to have that conversation with the teachers and that's all i have to report sorry next we have the governing board update and i do not have an update i don't know if you all watched it but i watched the city of surprise a virtual martin luther king day of celebration and it was really a great program but mostly the students from marley park countryside valley vista and shadow ridge had amazing performances so if you all get a chance please take the time to see it because it was really very inspiring and then i did take advantage of visiting school so today i was with dr kellis at dysart high and dysart elementary and then mrs sawyer sink bell joined us at valley vista high and the uh valley vista stuco meeting and that was very informative and it was a nice day just a couple of quick things um just to reiterate congratulations to the uh three that have come on board with the um attaining their national um i couldn't think of the word national board certified certified teachers nbcts that is a lot of work that they put into it and um i hoping for more than 54 but it is a lot of work and so congratulations to those three um let's see uh i finally thank you to mr hicks and mr stanley i finally got to see the dysart food truck in action so thank you very much they gave me a tour it was totally awesome and they had i had just gotten there right after the first wave they were about to get the second wave at shadow ridge and uh um there's a lot of prep work in that and i think they start about six or seven o'clock in the morning and um i'm pretty sure they are tired but it was it was totally awesome so thank you i plan on going back and the burrito was delicious and uh i attended the certified staff advisory meeting that was on monday here and yes um attended the valley vista student advisory stuco uh with dr kellis and ms grant and of course it brought up old memories from being on student council for so many years and i told the teacher that your work is never done on student council even after and i guess i'm dating myself i'm planning my 40th class reunion within the next couple of months so once a student council person always a student council person so there's a lot of work being a sponsor with that and so i think all the schools for their efforts with that so that's it [Applause] next we're moving to item f1 and i will make a motion to approve the consent agenda items as presented second motion passes next we have information item h1 dr kellis thank you madam president members of the board of members of cabinet um this evening mr croto will introduce this item thank you dr kellis madam president members of the board superintendent kellis cabinet and guests tonight we continue in our monthly policy monitoring tonight we are looking at section 8 of the governing board policies and that would be meet and confer there are two policies in section eight and we do not have any changes at this time okay does anyone have any discussion or questions on that okay madam president if i could just interject that at our study session on february 17th and we will be having more conversation about future review of governing board policies great thank you for that all right next we have age two information on end of year celebrations dr kellis thank you madam president members of the board and members of cabinet this evening mr dean will introduce this item good evening madam president member of the governing board dr kelsey members of cabinet this evening it is my pleasure to present information on some of the end-of-year celebrations that are coming up very quickly someone reminded me today that we are down to 74 days of school remaining um sometimes that sounds like it's a fast amount or that it will come quickly and then there's some days um in this covered world when it seems like it's 740 days still to go um but the end of the year is quickly approaching um and we are moving forward with our end of year celebrations the first piece to discuss or to share this evening with the governing board is graduation and high school graduation is a district planned event it is scheduled for may the 19th and um we are scheduled currently for graduation at the university of phoenix stadium um with graduation times um being the traditional times that we have of one um starting at one o'clock and um the last ceremony ending uh or beginning about seven o'clock as well the university of phoenix stadium is our primary option for graduation including this year it is the best of our options for graduation we do anticipate limited attendance um if if that is the venue that we use and in conversation with them last week they indicated to me that they are planning on hosting the graduation ceremonies they it they indicated that it's too far out to forecast at this point in time what limited attendance may look like i mean when we talk about limited attendance we'd be talking about a certain number of tickets for each graduate but again they indicated right now it's too far out for them to forecast that and it would certainly depend upon the covet situation moving forward the university of phoenix stadium did roll forward our deposit from last year so our deposit is on file with them for this year they did that for all of the school districts one thing to note is that if we did not use the stadium this year and they hold graduation ceremonies we lose our priority place in line with them for anything in the future so the way that they the way that they hold priority for selection of dates in the future is they go by the order in which school districts began using the stadium and so i believe that peoria is first on that list deer valley is second tallest in union is third we're currently fourth alwa freya is fifth and glendale union is rumored to be trying to get into the stadium as well and so that is the information on the stadium that we have at this point in time and as more information becomes available we certainly will work to provide that information to the to the governing board we are however also working on a contingency plan should the stadium not become not be available and that contingency plan would be to hold graduation on may 19th a scheduled date at each one of the high school football fields um that graduation time would be consistent it would likely be 7 30 or 8 p.m due to the heat to try to push it back as far as we possibly can should that be the issue we would also anticipate limited attendance even though it would be our event we have not filled our our stadium with um you know just to capacity during this year whether it be sports or other things so we would anticipate a limited attendance even if we held it on our own stadium and the way that we would operate that is that we would we would break up members of cabinet and the governing board and assign them to each football field location to be present and assist with the ceremony that are officiated by the high school principals at that point in time so that's the that is the current plan for graduation um and i'd like to thank bob young and his crew who are helping us in that contingency planning as we move forward so we're really going down two tracks right now for graduation the other end of year celebration that we hold is 8th grade promotion and eighth grade promotion is going to be or is left to the schools to determine the activity that best suits their needs and their community needs and so our schools are currently working on those eighth grade promotion plans examples of plans um may include a drive-through eighth grade promotion um opportunity for students like they did last year there was great community feedback um with our a lot of our schools and the desire to continue that into the future um schools may also choose to have a ceremony um so the activity it will be school-based and again based on the needs and the desires of the community those activities will be held anywhere between may 18th after school which is the day before graduation they can hold them after school on that day or in the evening they can hold them on may 19th as long as they end by noon and the importance of ending by noon on may 19th is that we want to make sure that if we have a parent who has an 8th grader and a high school graduate that they have plenty of time to get to the stadium or to wherever the graduation is or they may hold them the last day of school as well before school is over so they have flexibility in that again a school-based decision and they are moving forward with those plans as we speak and i'd be happy to take any questions or provide clarification mr dean don't you mean state farm stadium did i say university of phoenix stadium three times yes just kidding i do mean the state farm stadium and if i didn't say it it was the state farm stadium and we anticipate the state farm stadium being our graduation location we know what you were not saying got it very good i have i'll jump in then if nobody else has questions um regarding the high school graduation when how far advanced noticeable week will we have in regard to knowing whether or not we need to shift to the football or the contingency plan i'm not just thinking about if they completely cancel but if for instance they say each graduate can only have two tickets that can be kind of devastating to some families to where if even if they knew if they knew that they could have it in a football field with more they might prefer to have it outside in the evening as opposed to having an indoors with two people especially even families i mean just immediate families with siblings or things like that or people already making you know flight arrangements and things so how much time do we have to make those decisions or when we think that information might come out we'll be madam president member pritchard we are we've been in in touch with the stadium almost on a monthly basis at this point in time we will ramp that up to every two weeks as we move forward into february and then the stadium will start holding weekly graduation meetings um about the middle of march i i would guess at this point in time um that we would be looking to make decisions towards the middle of april um as to where that would be the state farm stadium held hosted the fiesta bowl in which they had more than 9 000 people in the stadium at the end of december beginning of january so we would be quite hopeful that that they would allocate more than two tickets per graduate it is unlikely that they that they will have an unlimited capacity as we have had in future years but but we believe that the two-ticket piece um is also unlikely at this point in time do we know how many as how many guests we usually have for each graduation off the top of your head i mean i can't even think we have 9 000 do we in a normal year i believe that the largest estimated crowd that we have ever had is right around ten thousand um our our crowds typically average anywhere between four to five thousand um you know so it's it just depends on the size of the graduating class and you know who has lots of relatives and who doesn't but again we would anticipate that the stadium would allocate more than two tickets per um graduate and as folks can attest to last year we were the loudest voice on that train um fighting against a very limited number of of um of tickets per graduate as the board will recall um the past year for graduation we backed out the day before the stadium closed it down for everybody and so um again we anticipate the stadium fully anticipates being able to have graduation um the project the medical projections um would indicate that they would be able to have the graduation ceremonies um we'll know more obviously in in the upcoming months but i would imagine that a month out from graduation we would be at a place where we would need to start making some decisions okay well that's good to know um regarding the eighth grade promotions i know you've referenced the drive-through um and that like even with the high school last year i just personally i feel that was so unfortunate um that but if you're saying that feedback you've received is that some parents uh liked that then you know i guess i would just ask that um hopefully the decisions at the individual eighth grade buildings i mean hopefully the principles will engage their community and and let the community be involved in that final decision rather than because i i don't know that that's going to be the most popular among families just from what i've heard i know people are already kind of cringing about what's going to happen for eighth grade promotion and graduation so do you feel like the principals will engage their communities when they're making those decisions we do you know our our principals meet with their communities regarding eighth grade activities and obviously they won't be doing that as they normally would hold a big meeting um in a cafeteria this year it would be a virtual piece or reaching out through other means but our school elementary schools are very good at engaging the communities in that and it will be a school by school basis um you know there were some schools that absolutely the community thought it was it was better than anything they had ever had before and encouraged them to continue to have it moving forward and then there were we have other schools who the principals have told us no our community wants a ceremony um and so we are allowing our schools to certainly make the decision that best meets their community needs one thing to note is that any eighth grade promotion ceremony that is held is also going to come with limited attendance as well um and so you know that's something that people will need to to consider as we move forward um and um you know this far out we can't guarantee the availability of each one of our high school auditoriums um on a certain date for the ceremony um and so if they were to hold those in their cafeterias um or the cafe gymatoriums then you are looking at a very limited attendance probably two tickets per person just to meet fire code and those kinds of things but we certainly have encouraged our schools and continue to work with them to contact the high schools if they're interested in doing that um but other than the vista our high school auditoriums are fairly small as well they they hold between 400 and 450 people first they could always have the option of holding an eighth grade promotion outdoors in the evening i mean they could certainly that would that could certainly be an option okay as long as they do don't do it on may 19th we're okay and then the only other two it kind of fits into the end of year celebrations that you didn't mention the um that parents are asking about our proms for our high schools um are those underway do we know i mean as far as the district level i know that would be a school decision as well as as far as like all the detail of things but the district is open to allowing that planning to move forward so problems are student planned events you know typically either a junior class or student council are the ones who are responsible for the planning for prom what we have talked with the schools about is that any prom planning needs to assure that any venue used any caterer used any dj used must be 100 refundable just like we've done with out of state travel and those kinds of things we want to make sure that if we're in a situation where things have to be canceled that that we're not putting the district's funds or even student raised funds at risk and so i will tell you anecdotally that some of our schools have had trouble finding locations that will guarantee refundability of funds we have some of our schools some of our high schools who have plans in place their soft plans at this point in time and we have some of our schools who have stopped planning um for prom we haven't had any school dances to this point in time because of the large number of students that would be involved there you know you think about even our athletic activities take the winter season out because there's some severe restrictions on fans there but even in in the the fall season for volleyball we had a limited number of people in the gym and then we would clear the gym between levels we haven't had a time where we've even brought like 300 people into the gym at one one time but i will tell you that with any aspect of school planning we are certainly open to working with our schools when they have ideas of how they might be able to work through things i spoke with willow canyon high school's principal late this afternoon and they had some pretty creative ideas of how they might be able to hold a school event possibly at school that might not look like prom but would be along those themes okay so our only the district's only restriction is that all deposits are refundable but otherwise as long as the students work within the restrictions of the venue we're okay with that yes absolutely and the other the other restriction that we would want to see in place and work with our schools on is the number of people in one closed area at one point in time so we wouldn't want to put 600 people in our gym for example um right now um in the future we'd love to have 600 people at a basketball game um or a wrestling meet or what have you um spirit line competition whatever the case may be but right now we would need to to look for opportunities that would spread our students out um as much as we possibly can okay and then the only other end-of-year celebration are the senior award ceremonies that they usually have for parents and students of seniors or student seniors um is that looking like that's something that we will allow so yes yes we we will encourage our our schools to move forward with all of that planning um because regardless of what the situation is at the time we can find a way to make that happen um even if worst case scenario it's a digital event and we broadcast that that's certainly the worst case scenario our high schools have opportunities in which they can they're very good at planning large events and they can plan large events safely and and we would encourage them to continue down that path so yes senior awards all of those types of things we will want to continue as we get closer to graduation we're going to need to have graduation practice and so the schools will work to make sure that we have safe environments for all of those events to occur but it is our goal and our plan to hold as normal of an end-of-year celebration period as we normally do okay all right thank you i have a follow-up question on what ms pritchard had just talked about with regarding prom so you have dj you have venue catering all that type stuff so you have um of the five different types of vendors um what if one of them comes back and says no we won't do a cancellation or we won't do 100 so now you've got four that say yes but one that says no are we going to have to scrap the entire thing or do they have to look for another one at such a late date or yeah madam president member sawyer sink bill i will tell you that we our schools are very good at working together and when they find um find places that will work with us on aspects they share that information the biggest deterrent that we are finding currently to prom for example is is venue um it is the venue piece that venues are being very we're hearing anecdotally that venues are being uh reluctant to guarantee a hundred percent refundability for deposits and those kinds of things one of our high schools has a deposit rolled forward um from last year at a venue in in in the north peoria part of the valley um and um the question is what what happens if they don't use it this year does it roll again to the next year and so these are the pieces that we're running into but to your point if you can find a venue that's 100 refundable and you can find a dj that's 100 refundable what happens if i think what you're asking is what happens if you can't find the catering company that will do that our schools are are good at sharing and pooling resources and we certainly are a resource for them as well we would use district resources to help them identify those locations if they exist they're becoming increasingly more difficult to find okay even with covet i mean i could understand their policies their policy but if it's just needing to be cancelled due to a covid related issue we're really coming up against companies and venues that are saying sorry even with covid we're not going to refund your money madam president member pitcher those are the stories that we're hearing um you know a list of those companies right i don't have firsthand experience of that but those are the stories that were here madam president um you have two students here if you have any questions about planning they could also be able to answer some questions about what kinds of challenges they're coming up against i would like to hear about that yeah i will too luis can you answer that call louise there you go okay is this on okay yes um i can say we are working closely with our administration dr seismin working with us and and coming up with a plan to alleviate some of the concerns you guys are having especially with vendors we have we have lots of approved vendors with the district that we look at and so i think it's a lot of it's working with people that we know and we trust so for example like seder entertainment and different djs that we work with they normally have people that we could what's the word pull from like mr demos saying and so a lot of them it's it's hard to find them but there are those out there and so i'm fairly confident with covid um restrictions in place that we will be able to have those events as long as we're we're careful and i think it's definitely possible and i know valley's looking into i know willow and shadow are looking into it and so it's definitely in the works we're trying very very hard and i know for us personally we've we've looked at a few venues to see what's best for our students but we're definitely trying to have problems so yeah any other questions well i think i mean aren't there is it like a one-stop shop and they're like for weddings usually go to a venue whether it be a hotel or whoever and they usually have their own catering company they use and different like their list of people so is it a safe assumption that maybe you know they they would know or they would be able to say hey these are all people who work with us and and we're okay with 100 refunds so rather than you guys having to shop and kind of piecemeal it together are you finding that that's happening or is that that's not really yeah generally a venue will say these are the people we work with and we would prefer you to work with these people because they're reputable they have a contract with them and so ultimately it's it's best for the students financially and for the venue to work in that and so most places do have that preferred and when they don't is when we go through vendors that are already approved by the district and if they're not approved by the district that's when we go and try to make them an approved vendor so that way we can get that all sent so okay thank you wow okay thank you very much do we have any other discussion around that okay all right moving to item i one action discussion dr kellis thank you madam president members of the board and members of cabinet and this evening mr croto will introduce this item thank you dr kels madam president members of the board superintendent kelly's cabinet and guests tonight we are proud to present to you our recommendation for principal at valley vista high school this candidate has gone through an extensive selection process a pretty robust process about five or six steps we receive feedback from the community the school the district uh we got student feedback faculty feedback uh we had parents on the committee uh they've gone through a big process of videos and everything and we're proud to bring to you dr adam wolfe as our candidate dr wolf earned his doctorate degree in educational lead leadership management and policy from seton hall university he has a master's degree from grand canyon university he has an extensive background in in education uh three years in the queen creek district which he's currently in he is currently a principal uh in queen creek and he had three years of assistant principal experience also in the peoria unified school district at centennial high school so we're proud proud to bring that to you tonight and dr wolfe could not be with us uh here tonight he said um he's very excited about this position but he had a a planned event with his community tonight at this current school so he didn't want to cancel that on the community and we understand that fully but we will bring dr wolf back to meet the board and and all that should you uh vote him in tonight so i'll stand for any questions there was um just only one thing um mr croto and the fact that he is a biology guy um you know science is is fantastic especially for our schools and i just welcome another scientifical mind does that make sense um but yeah dr wolfe is a very neat guy it's my understanding that he will not be assuming the role of principal until next school year um madam president um member pritchett that is correct he will not be joining us um until july 1st because he is currently under and a principal at a school in queen creek so we hope that he will be joining us intermittently working alongside dr assad for that transition period um and he's excited to do that but he will not be joining us time until july 1st i think i think that's good as well just that would be the third principle the school community has had this year so i just think for continuity and for our students it's probably that sounds like a good plan he can finish where he is and kind of get some closure with his community and then we can just not throw one more change at our our communities correct i think it's best for both sides and we would never ask him to do that to a community that he's serving right now either so um it'll work out perfectly for both of us and just to confirm dr assai will be remaining at valley then for the rest of this school year madam president that is correct thank you all right i will make a motion to approve the appointment of adam wolf as principal for valley vista high school second motion passes thank you i'll make sure he comes back in the future and introduce him to all of you to item i to dr kellis thank you madam president members of the board and members of cabinet mr croto will introduce this item as well thank you dr kellis madam president members of the board superintendent kellis cabinet and guest tonight i bring to you a revision of our performance our performance pay plan as you know what this has already been approved this is in place for this year the committee got together a couple weeks ago to look at obviously in covid circumstances that we if we had to do revisions on this plan moving forward so this is not a plan for the future this is the plan that they are currently under that the board already approved last year we will be bringing a new plan to you for the following school year probably in april or may for you to approve for the next year so this is something that's always already approved we're asking for revisions uh the revisions on this plan um we are entering a bullet on page four if you see that says employees participating in the dysart phase retirement program will receive 80 of their performance pay that is a clarification piece that has been our practice the whole time we just wanted to clarify and put that in writing on here so there's no questions moving on in the future so that is included on page four and then on our chart which is on page and you may be looking at it electronically so you may not have the pages on the chart on page six we have two changes that the committee felt was very important the first one is in employee attendance or participation in approved activities as outlined above currently they need 15 hours of some activity so they're either few or four or fewer earned leave days um or they have to have 15 hours in participation in activity um that's outside of their regular school day the committee is asking that we reduce that to 10 hours because of some of the limited activities for instance we don't have any middle school sports right now as mr dean said we don't have dances those are things that uh teachers usually worked at activities so we reduced it by 10 in that category and then the other category is in student achievement right now k8 they have to have two of three areas those areas are move on when reading 80 percent or more we are not too sure that move on when reading is going to occur and so that poses a problem if that does not occur because they will not be able to get two of the three there will only be two left so the committee is saying uh is asking the board to revise that to one of the two remaining pieces which is 70 percent of students assessed with the district reading that they will maintain or demonstrate growth the word maintain is being added they felt that was important to add maintain because of the circumstances we're in with covid when you approved it before it was showing growth in those areas so they thought it would be fair to add the word maintain in there and then 70 percent of students assessed with the district mathis math assessment that's also maintain or demonstrate growth so if move on when reading is dropped out by the state and not a requirement then they would need one of the two of those either the reading assessment or the math assessment those are the changes on this document so i will stand for any questions just i know i i'd ask there's probably been maybe shortly after you got here um where we're still evaluating our the paper for borman's goals is that right we're just to make sure they're they're goals that are um relevant in their um i don't know what word i want to use for it i just it's something that they like a smart i mean smart goals what word am i looking for meaningful meaningful yes yeah you remember that conversation i do i do very much how is that going um that is going great we've actually had some great discussion with principals the committee has actually had that discussion we actually have that annually so we look at the goals we talk about what the goals need to look like and that they need to be meaningful so that is constantly something that is on the top of our list when we talk about that that area is 30 percent of that total on the 301 so as we address that as this committee starts to meet for the following year for next year's goals we will bring that up again and talk about that so it is it stays in the forefront i can tell you that and dr assai is involved in that um and dana noble's involved in those discussions about what are quality goals what are meaningful goals and when we say quality and meaningful it's about increasing academic achievement and promoting growth okay and then the only other thing i had with that um and again i think i brought this up before but just to reiterate superintendent gets extra money for when these goals are met the teachers get more money but to this to this state our principals don't get any extra money if their employees achieve these goals in their building is that right that is correct is that something we look at or have we have we looked at that um not since i've been here but it's not so i will tell you something we could look at they're not built into this pot of money because this is a state designated pot of money so that would be another pot that obviously ken would have to talk about but it's something we can definitely talk about but at currently right now they do not qualify for this 301 money okay thank you thank you for adding that piece for the minimum of 10 total hours for covet for this year thank you i think it'll be a good help for everybody good compromise and good good help mr carter just a quick question for you if everything returns to normal in august and we have no more restrictions um would the committee uh consider returning these standards back to the normal standards madam president members board superintendent kelly yes there there is language built in here right now obviously i said this is for this school year but what we're asking you to revise is for this school year only so it will not the new plan will come to you for approval of the entire plan coming up in april may so yes the answer to your question is yes this is for this school to finish this school year only is there language in here and i'd have to look at it again that that would actually reflect the fact that after this year it's going to revert back to previous year rather than this being the starting point next year and they just you know and they decide well maybe we'll just keep it at 10 knowing that it was only reduced because of covid madam presidents member pritchard yes for instance the language on the reducing to 10 hours it says for the 2021 school year hours will be reduced to a minimum of 10 hours required to do the covid so it specifically says for the 2021 school year it also says that in the student achievement part when they're asking it to reduce to one of the two if move on when reading it says it begins with for the 2021 school year only okay i guess um the only concern i have really is on the 70 of students the the other two options there um if they're simply maintaining potentially and not actually demonstrating growth i don't understand why the percentage wouldn't be slightly increased to have a higher expectation of of our students maintaining certainly a discussion we can have the the the committee um did discuss that as a whole and they felt like seventy percent in the conditions were in with covid in the teach in a different teaching environment as well as all the challenges they're facing that that was a pretty rigorous goal to have so but certainly a discussion that the board can have and we can have and superintendent kellis obviously madam president one thing that is often a challenge for our brightest students who are the highest performing is when we say you're at 99 you have to show growth and if you don't show growth you the teacher really doesn't get credit for that growth if it's at maintain that typically is used at that higher level i think that's not the case here and this is just because we don't want them to drop but if they stay or improve then i think that was the motivation but sometimes those students who are the higher flyers they can fluctuate between 97 96 99 but anytime that there's that fluctuation downward then the teacher doesn't get credit for that um as far as the start the baseline of where it starts with at the 70 percent um i don't know that we know the the history of war 70 i'm i'm guessing that's where it was previously and the only thing that was changed was just the the maintained part so my standard was seventy percent before yeah okay but do i guess what i'm saying is do you feel like 30 of our students are in that 95 plus percentile okay well before it's good because that's i didn't think of it that way i i see miss dunsmore's point in regard to before it maintained wasn't in there it was just 70 percent will demonstrate growth right so because of covid um it would it's more challenging i understand to demonstrate growth but as far as maintaining though um should we expect that if we're just asking to maintain that if there should be higher than that i know that and i i struggle personally with the fact that i don't because now we're we're at like a year um and we know our students a lot of our students are are failing if not failing struggling a lot and i i don't like that it's always back to well you know covet and covet and code so but i get it i understand that it's a reality but i'd hate to now move from okay so we're not seeing as much growth because of covid to now saying we're not even going to maintain and we might actually be okay letting kids fall because of covet i'd like to see maybe um i want to see us at least maintain if not grow but for sure maintain more than 70 unless i'm looking at it wrong and if so please explain to me where i'm what i'm missing but do you see what i'm saying yes and i don't think that we're maybe so there's two different 70 here that we might be talking about one is 70 percent of the students maintainer show growth not to be confused with the the students maintain the 70 percent proficiency or or grow or higher we're talking about of the students maintain or show growth um yes i i would like to see 100 of the students maintain or show growth i mean and i know in in previous conversations that's that's that uh that delicate conversation is it doesn't mean that they're not paying attention to the other 30 percent they want all of their students to show growth and we have some students who to use a teenage vernacular have ghosted their teachers and they just have disappeared those students are still on the teachers rosters and even though the teacher does extraordinary efforts to contact parents or to engage with those students the ones who are online they just are non-responsive so yes there are some coveted related mitigation issues here but i would say confidently that by leaving it at 70 the teachers aren't going to be satisfied that okay 70 percent did it i'm gonna not pay attention to the other 30 who didn't do it they're going to clarify i'm not saying that they would do that i'm not saying that they don't care about the 30 what i'm saying is just i hope you understood that yeah what i'm saying is if we're not if we're not requiring or expecting ice due to covid them to um show a lot of growth necessarily because of the challenges we're facing then just asking to at least maintain and not let anyone slip can our expectation be higher just to maintain rather than just stay at the 70.
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