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the district appreciates areas and all teachers efforts to transition to distance learning last year at the start of the pandemic the distance learning mou states that it will expire on june 30th 2021 or at such time as the school side opening or in full in-person instruction is permitted by the state or local order on march 23rd 2021 the state moved santa clara county into the orange tier for the state's covid 19 website the state has announced the county's move into the orange tier and the state has announced that schools may reopen fully for in-person instruction and that local school officials will decide whether and when that will occur as you know assembly bill 86 recently signed into law by the governor provides significant financial incentives for school districts who offer and providing personal instruction to the greatest extent possible for the remainder of the regular school year at a special meeting on march 23rd the board of trustees unanimously approved that beginning the week of april 12 2021 arusd will open up grade levels pre-k through eighth on a face basis to provide in-person instruction for students who have elected to opt-in to return to in-person instruction in district schools all parents and families in the districts were given the option to opt-in so that their child could if they wish return to some measure of in-person instruction in district schools the district received opt-ins from parents for 1832 students to return to in-person instruction the district team has been communicating and meeting with area since march 12th to try to reach an mou so that a sufficient number of teachers to return to providing personal instruction for those 18 1832 students who have elected in-person instruction unfortunately we have not been yet been able to reach a mutually acceptable agreement and the district will be shutting down for spring break for several days beginning this friday administration believes it is important to notify families and staff of what they should expect when they return after spring break the administration is committed to continue communicating and working with area and all bargaining units to prepare for the reopening of schools to best ensure the safe and smooth return to the classroom for students who have opted in for in-person instruction and based on the state's determination that schools may reopen fully for in-person instruction the administration is recommending and requesting that the board direct and authorized administration to notify all staff and the opt-in families that the district will be providing in-person instruction four days per week in the afternoons at the district's school sites and to take such actions that as are necessary to mobilize staff and resources to provide for the in-person instruction for those opt-in families for the remainder of the school year and to continue to provide distance learning for those families that did not opt-in this authority would include if necessary declaring the current distance learning mou expired for its terms and notifying area of its expiration respectfully presented thank you dr bauer for discussion purposes uh i'll go ahead and make a motion do i have a second a second okay uh at this time i'm gonna go ahead and open it up for public comment and then i'll bring it back for um board trustees comments or questions uh carlos do we have anybody on for public comment on this item we have one person brenda sandejas thank you welcome back brenda as soon as you begin speaking the timer will begin good evening board members um i do have a question with this um does this mean that if this is approved the students will be returning for four days without an mou agreement from um all bargaining units or what does this mean because i'm a bit confused because i know that you guys went into closed session and nothing was given but what does this do does this um go above bargaining units and just tell everybody to return or i just don't know how this works thank you mr moran yes we have adrian vane welcome adrian as soon as you begin speaking the time i will begin hello thank you um i spoke before um once again i am concerned about my safety i understand what dr bauer has put forth but what are the safety plans nothing in that thing said anything about the safety of our students of our staff we have i have currently 141 students that i teach daily and how am i supposed to do distance learning how am i supposed to teach them if they're coming back with no plan and i've seen the filters that are being provided in our classrooms those are not hospital grade those do not take away from the they do not protect us from copic 19.

obviously we'd have more students would have more funding etc and then because we're going against your recommendation and that we were wrong what would have to happen when we find out we're wrong and we don't have that funding so next year which is one thing i vowed to never do after the downfall in 2008 but at that point in time we would have to stop spending immediately we'd have to freeze all hires and we may have to take money back that was allocated out to departments and schools and their worst cases and worst case we're we're doing a mid-year rift worst case or or a furlough that impacts everyone or a reduction in all salaries and and i just want to highlight that because one of the questions that i've received in quite a few emails and conversations is well why can't you just assume you'll have higher higher enrollment and if you're wrong reverse verse later and as much as we would like to do that if we're wrong on that call the impact to the individuals affected becomes much more enormous because you have no notice you have no timing you have no opportunity to find alternative employment it it magnifies the effect of this decision on the actual individuals is that an appropriate summary right anything else okay to move to the next slide so in this particular case i've been talking quite a bit about one-time funding versus ongoing funding so whenever you have salaries or salary increases for anyone whether it's a teacher classified staff member professionals of all of all functions throughout the school district those are those what you would expect to be ongoing so we would need to have ongoing resources for those so more student counts to that point if we got if we got all those students back we would have the ongoing funding to be able to support those salaries in the in the case of the current year and largely for next year as well there is a tremendous amount of one-time money that's available which is could and very well will result in a cliff a year from now where we have a lot of extra expenses but no way to fund them so in this particular case you can see that our normal i came in in 2018 in a normal budget balance carry forward is right around six million so in this final revised budget it was about three percent of our total 238 million dollar budget was budget balance carry forward go to the the fiscal year 2021 adopted we increased the budget balance carry forward by about 5 million which seemed seemed reasonable and still an appropriate amount at 4 percent now our our budget capacity plummeted by 28 million dollars or so now our budget balance carry forward is 4.7 percent of that total budget capacity moving into the revised number one where we have a great deal where the enrollment stabilization grant is included and the additional budget balance carry forward that we were able to add by other mitigation strategies that we used during the summer resulted in 12.3 percent of our total budget capacity being uh provided by budget balance carry forward it's important to compare the 258.7 million at 4.2 percent versus the 260.5 million at 12 so the same total budget capacity but you can see the percent of budget balance carry forward went from 4.2 percent up to nearly 12 percent so that is accounting for all of that one-time money that is going to be gone next year so then going into our new budget budget projection again a drop year over year of about 10 million again i assumed a 17 million dollar budget balance carry forward which is roughly six or seven million dollars more than you would expect so about seven percent of that budget is in budget balance carry forward any questions on that okay the final slide so if i summarize the history of the 2020 2021 budget what you're telling me is without the esser and the and and all of those things that came in in revised budget one revised budget two our budget for 2022 is actually over what we had two years ago i mean it what we're really showing here is where that esr money and those federal funds and the emergent funding was received and spent during this year's budget and we're down from that emergency money but we're actually up from two years ago and and we are primarily due to the override because we have a we went from a 10 to a 15 override there's other details in here though in addition so that 250.3 million dollars the decline of the 10 million is the the um there is an override contribution to that number so the override is 15 of your revenue control limit which is calculated based upon your student count but it's the prior year student count so in this budget the new budget our override actually declined by about two and a half million dollars because it's calculated based upon the 21 student count and all of this does not at all consider classroom site fund which is a large component of our teacher salaries okay and then the final slide go ahead shawn so this is you eugenie you asked about proposition 208 so as you all remember proposition 208 was approved in november of 20 this past november so the annual revenue that was projected at that time was approximately 800 million dollars projected to be approximately 800 million dollars the legislative session began in january and starting very early the conversation centered around should we exclude small small business owners from that tax premium and so this has not been approved at this point in time nor signed but the projection is that if that goes into effect and the legislature approves that then the prop 208 revenue could go down to as little as 370 or 80 million from 800 million and then okay you couldn't wait until it was your turn well we're waiting mrs betts could you just um ex we've spent a lot on things like hand sanitizer um the sprayers that we use on the buses and so forth do you have any idea what a ballpark figure that might be for some of those outlays for the everything we've used to mitigate in during the pandemic so um all of the costs we are presently tabulating but we do believe it will exceed the 2.3 million dollars associated with sr1 okay thank you so um in addition the final point about proposition 208 we've had numerous meetings with my peer groups over the last couple of months and we've had meetings with the joint legislative budget committee the jlbc as well as the office of strategic planning and budget ospb which is part of the governor's office and all of them are giving us information indicating that please don't expect the proposition 208 money until fiscal year 2023 remember that the final tax collections will not come in until april of 2022 and that and also there is some implementation cost associated with figuring out how to allocate out the money and all of that and so any any tax revenues that are received early would probably go to the department of ed to implement the program so we're not expecting to receive any of the proposition 208 monies until um july of 2022 which is the start of the fiscal year 2023 school year so the other thing that's out there right now president biden approved the last round of federal stimulus dollars or federal relief dollars and we are affectionately calling that sr-3 to date the application is not yet available they indicated that we won't know the dollar amount than any school district will receive in arizona until probably the end of april so we have no visibility about that and then finally 20 percent of any amount must be used for learning loss so expected to be used for summer school tutoring that that type of thing so based upon that that's all i have and i'm ready to turn this over to mr mcintosh unless there's any further questions for me this wood yes thank you dr santa cruz i my question is um so i understand and we understand because you've been presenting this to us all along the the esther money the one-time monies we've spent it on um also on substitutes and costs all the costs associated with that um there's been lots of one-time costs and different things that we've used to mitigate now i also understand the enrollment and you've gone through that month by month with us as well we've been tracking it looking watching so i guess though i have had some people say well can't you find other other ways to fund this what other ways you know are there other ways to fund it and i i was looking we've been looking through we've carefully looked at our budgets every month every all the time i was also thinking about basically we've had out of the last six or seven years at least that i'm familiar with plus before that we've had enrollment loss except for one year and some of it larger than others and we haven't riffed at all we've found we've mitigated we've scraped we've scrimped we've found ways we've tried to cut back on every other place that we could i just wondered what is your thoughts on any other mitigation strategy so and where we could find any mitigation strategy that we would come up with would again be subject to one time so we would be delaying the inevitable um the other thing is we sh we need to fund the need so if we if we have an enrollment increase we need to hire teachers back to fill the needs for those enrollment increases but if we don't have the enrollment to support them it would be it would be difficult to to maintain that fte the other other thing that's always playing on on all of us and if you remember otm worked feverishly a year ago on the compensation study to make sure that we can continue to be competitive and attract and retain personnel all personnel district-wide and so i do know to date that higley is offering a five percent pay increase and i expect that queen creek will do something comparable to that so um we could we could stem this off um for probably a year but we'd still be at the end at a cliff thank you but it's all about your priorities all right dr santa cruz is hungry i just wanted to um provide some clarity to miss what mrs wood um there was i believe is in about 2016 we did have to reduce our budget and lay off people we were able to mostly use attrition for that but we did have to there were a few people that were a reduction force at that time thank you anyone else i i i would clarify that i think it was before that before 2016 i'm looking at the kafir over the last five years um and if i look at the the kafir in 2015 we had 1831 teachers in 2020 we have and 1 six so each of those years we've actually we've seen some fluctuation but we've seen a general trend upward in the number of teachers that we've retained um and just to answer one of the questions that we've gotten well you know why what about district positions and so on in that same five-year time period we had 208 supervisory positions at the district level from that's going actually i should say supervisory period that's going from dean of students all the way up to superintendent in 2020 we had 146.

it was determined that at the elementary level the number of fts needed it was a a score of 13 or below so principles evaluating had no idea where that cutoff was going to be no they did not neither did otm until we gathered all the data at the secondary level the score was that the score was at a 16. and below same thing the number of fts associated with the the loss of student enrollment and needed for the 21 22 school year at the secondary level was a score of 16 and below remembering that at the secondary level they had two additional questions so their total score was a 33 as opposed to at the elementary where the total score could have been at 27.

so please know we we have cut costs everywhere but teachers we've actually seen an increase in teachers over over that time period while we've dramatically decreased administrative positions so there's no other questions i'll hand this over to mr mcintosh thank you miss betts mr mcintosh thank you dr santa cruz governing board members and dr mccord i'd like to discuss the 2021-2022 staffing and the process used in determining those employees affected by the reduction in force it's by way of history in april of 2009 was the last time that gilbert public schools had to do a reduction in force and at that time there were 267 employees affected also in that year it was determined that it would be all first-year teachers and all those teachers that were on phased retirement later in that year the arizona state legislature revised the statute 15502 which prohibited using seniority and tenure as a sole factor in determining a reduction in force and this year and the year 2021 in january the policy was reviewed and it was slightly revised and approved by the governing board that policy reads as such on the screen the criteria used in formulating these recommendations shall include but not be limited to qualifications and certification of staff members to accomplish the district's educational program including certification requirements for specialty categories and designation as a highly qualified teacher number two overall teaching experience academic training ability and performance number three contributions to the educational program of the district again teacher tenure and seniority should not be considerations in the retention determinations and then lastly personnel to be released shall be notified as soon as as possible practical this chart here is our staffing and enrollment which you can see is the blue line represents the student population the red line represents the certified faculty and the fds associated with it up until may of 2020 we have maintained our fts with a slight increase in enrollment in august the start of the 2021 school year when enrollment severely declined even though student enrollment dropped our actual teacher ft increased this was to accommodate staff and student needs at global academy again i want to reiterate what bonnie had stated earlier our sr2 monies this year one-time funding was used to offset the increase in salaries for the remainder of this school year this allowed us to keep our staff employed through may despite the decline in enrollment so we formulated a student-centered staffing committee it was three elementary principals three talent management representatives and three secondary principals the following timeline is what the student-centered staffing committee um got together and met with principals so in january the committee was assembled shortly thereafter the approval of the policy and february the introduction meeting there was a history of the reduction in force mid february we did a process design and timeline february 24th this scoring rubric was developed and tested early march we sought feedback from all of our principals we also trained them for scoring and utilizing the rubric march 9th each principal between the third and the ninth each principal utilized the scoring rubric scored every faculty employee on their campus reviewed the scores and otm reviewed the scores and determined the fts that were needed in the reduction on march 17th an overview of the student-centered staffing committee results developed and we we developed the employee communications on march 24th was the final principal training and preparation for employee meetings and on march 26th the reduction of fourth force meetings and notice of the upcoming recommendation to the board this evening there's four steps that were involved in this in step one we looked at normal attrition first we ran our staffing numbers based on current staffing patterns to determine the total fte needed for the 21-22 school year this was compared to our current staffing as i noted two slides ago with the blue line in the red line you could see that we were overstaffed compared to the decrease in enrollment this determined the total number of the fte reduction for next school year aligned to the policy of gcqa the committee developed a scoring rubric which i spoke about and i'll show in a minute we're conducting training sessions with all our campus administrators teams to aid in understanding of the rubric and accomplish inner rate of reliability among those utilizing the rubric each campus administrator then scored their certified staff based on the rubric after campus scoring was completed otn determined the score thresholds based on the ft calculated in step one i want to reiterate that at no time on the scoring did we know the number the actual score that would be needed to meet the number of fts needed into next school here principals didn't know otm didn't know nobody knew what the score threshold would be that would need to meet the number of staff to be reduced next year dr santa cruz go ahead and mr judy mr mcintosh when we go back to step one with the fte projections that was with people that you knew that were resigning and or retiring correct correct in january we knew that those who had already planned to retire and resign for next school year those were taken into natural attrition first determining so that that's how you determined your numbers based on that those people were included in next year's fts first but we were still overstaffed right okay thank you so the rubric the committee along with advisement from our attorneys recommended a scoring system to measure certified staff completely district-wide so the rubric across the top has a score associated with criteria going up and down um on the far left side there was a zero for ineffective a two for effective and a three for highly effective the criteria used is what i'll read and then i'll give an example at the end so the first criteria used for every certified teacher was creating an environment of respect and rapport growing and developing professionally showing professionalism clubs coaching and extracurriculars leadership roles overall communication demonstrating flexibility and responsiveness participation and plcs and last was promoting campus culture there are two criteria that were used for second additional criteria that were used for secondary only and that was certification and specialty programs thank you bonnie there was certification in specialty programs and program attrition so if we go to the criteria of participation in plcs a highly effective teacher would have been scored a three that would have been somebody who actively contributes in plc's takes learning from plcs into the classroom takes on a leadership role in a plc team an effective teacher with a score of two would engage in plc and contributes positively in the meetings and in a score of zero and ineffective that would be somebody in participation in plc's who is negative does not attend is late or there but complacent go ahead just one question sorry um you have these numbers two a and four f where do those numbers are associated with the evaluation okay all right thank you the last criteria that all elementary and both secondary would be in promoting campus culture a highly effective teacher goes above and beyond to promote the school and gps finds ways to promote leadership values culture attends campus and district events in the community fosters a positive school and culture an effective teacher would have been somebody who displays general respect for students and staff displays positive attitude toward the campus and the district and an ineffective score of zero and promoting campus culture would have been somebody who's negative about the school district gossips has social media negative relationships with peers students or parents teacher is not sensitive to others disrespectful lack of situational awareness and the last bullet in effect would be a teacher who discusses district school decisions concerns publicly and negative so that is the rubric that was used and again every principal scored every single teacher utilizing the same rubric after our inner rate of reliability and at the elementary level it was then determined that the score for this the number needed to to get to the the reduction in the fts at the elementary level was a score of 13 or below so those teachers who scored at 13 and below at the elementary level were the ones that were notified of the reduction in force that was the cut score therefore every individual in the district scoring at the elementary level of 13 or before or below was placed on the reduction in force list mr mcintosh just to clarify that 13 or below was not known until all the valuations were done correct all evaluations were done the data was looked at and that number of ftes below the 13 is the number needed at the elementary to be reduced next year so so basically we nobody knows we knew with the staffing model we needed to eliminate 150 positions roughly yep um and then we just summed up how many people scored one two three four five until we got to that number that's correct so prior to us determining what that cut score would have been mr reed we it depended on the number it could have been a 10 or it could have been a 16.

so with 27 possible using the elementary level you could score effectively in eight of the categories and you wouldn't have been below that threshold correct because you would have scored two on each if you scored effective in at least eight categories you had 16 points you would not have been below that threshold so you really had to score low on multiple categories to be below that threshold yep okay yes sir the reduction in force um we're still answering questions regarding the buyback per the mou we get lots of those questions those who qualify will be afforded the buy-back if they're affected by the ref so if they're five-year employees with 25 or more days they will be per the mou afforded the buyback um given we will update the question and answers we're working with gea on their receiving questions so we'll be updating that q a um given the circumstances regarding the ft we also afforded all of all employees late last week through april 2nd with another opportunity to re retire resign and take advantage of the buyback we're working closely with legal there's been some changes regarding cobra and the cobra plan from the federal government we hope to push out that information on the q a as well we're working to get some clarity on the cobra from the federal plan and we continue to work with ga to assist in answering those questions after the training principles were given the list of employees to meet with along with the script a copy of the policy and the questions and answer sheet to cause minimal impact on student learning meetings were scheduled immediately after school last friday it was important that the message coming from administration was consistent and therefore they were instructed not to deviate from the provided script shortly after the meetings were conducted employees received an email communication with the formal reduction in force notice a copy of the policy questions and answers as well as eap employee assistant employee assistance counseling confidential resources for our staff we understand that this was extremely difficult and it may have felt impersonal at the time but it is what was needed in order so that the message was consistent among all employees affected so for that we apologize if it seemed cold the principal as well received a list of the employees the script the policy copy of the policy and the question and answer sheet as i discussed earlier in the presentation we were significantly overstaffed as a result of the decline in enrollment it is important to note that due to that overstaffing this reduction does not impact next year's student-to-teacher ratio those ratios are still set they are still the same um miss you jenny do you have questions could you expound on that a little bit because a number of the messages and emails that we've received have been from parents who are concerned that there's going to be 40 kids to a classroom and that i think that's that's a misunderstanding that maybe we could clarify tonight it is a misunderstanding the current staffing ratio the one we've utilized for the past i don't know six or seven years will be utilized again next year so if it's a 27 to one class first grade then that same ratio will be utilized next year if it's 31-1 at the high school it will be still utilized next year so i guess adding on to that if if there are some classrooms and some the district that do have that maximum capacity right now and then someone within that team was rift so they so teachers and families are wondering how next year will you provide the same amount of students the same staffing ratio when they're already at the maximum and now there's one less teacher so that teacher will be replaced through involuntary or voluntary transfers of the remaining employees so they'll still have a teacher in front of kids okay thank you mr mcintosh could you talk about how we're going to staff things like special ed and other hard to find category of teachers so i've also heard a lot of concerns about that right um again the staffing patterns from special education have not changed there may be some program movements but the the if the program's there there'll be a highly qualified teacher hopefully in front of it again with the loss of students and teachers who may hold multiple certifications may be involuntarily transferred or voluntary in some cases into those classrooms so sometimes remembering that special education teachers are k-12 and that teachers work for the district not necessarily a school or a site so there may be some teachers that have to move campuses or move programs based upon their endorsements and their certifications but they'll be offered a contract all right thank you for that miss wood one more question just as you said that can you give us some maybe this isn't the time maybe that's later in the agenda to talk to about contracts moving forward i know there's some with all of this that's gone on how how what's the timing how does that look like now so this evening you'll prove the basically the content of contracts for all employees there's no substantive changes in those so that dylan mr messel can start to work on preparing those contracts hopefully um we will be on april 13th doing renewal of teachers and and staff and administrators at that time and then it takes about a week to get all of the behind the scenes names salaries everything put into a contract so about a week after the governing board approves those then we can start to push out contracts for next year can you talk just a little bit about employee groups um you know this this has totally been about certified staff um can you talk about classified staff or um what we've been doing or what we can do under those circumstances absolutely so the other employee groups we every single year we we look at them as a whole and then based on the needs of the district the students involved for example paraprofessionals currently we put a freeze on hiring those we had 60 vacant positions that were unfilled and we've closed those and taken down those postings in order to hopefully utilize our current staff in the following year but every year we look at the staffing across the board for support staff for psychologists speech and language etc and based on the needs of the district we determine where they'll be placed all right thank you in closing we're hopeful that our enrollment will increase allowing us to open and post positions in the near futures future are there any other questions that i can answer for you regarding this presentation mr carr um mr mcintosh you know because we approached this at a district-wide level versus versus a school specific there may be areas where where one school was impacted more than another or where one department within the school was impacted as miss miss wood kind of alluded to that i think in her question does that mean that we will have openings to make sure that we keep those counts i mean if i don't have enough english teachers in a specific high school and i can't necessarily transfer because there were too many in that department across the schools would we be backfilling that through openings that is correct and those types of situations we would post the position those who are affected by the reduction in force if they hold the certification would be welcome to reapply for that position and that was going to be my follow-up question so thank you mr jenny i'm gonna go back um to your historical um first slide i think it was late 2009 the arizona state legislature revised ars 15-502 you don't have to go back there but you know just based on my own personal experience from many years ago it was always done by seniority could you talk to a little bit about what happened or how that was changed so that we have a clear understanding that it has nothing to do with seniority it doesn't the reduction if i'm understanding your question miss you getting mrs eugetti the the law changed at that time where you prohibited using seniority right so shortly yeah prior to that it was that was the way it was done but then they actually came out and said you cannot do that anymore that is correct i think part of that was because so many first-year teachers were ripped and were in in the midst of the beginning or wherever we were at when it relates to a teacher shortage and i think that they thought that partly that would damage people going into the profession even further so any more questions this wood yes on your previous slide before questions you you have student teacher ratio which you addressed and then administrative cuts and other employee groups i believe you you talked about that a little bit what i didn't hear what you said about administrative cuts so currently our administrative cuts we are down 7 ft between the district office as well as site administration for next year i know that community ed has i think 50 un filled non-posted they're down 50 positions for next year and we will continue to review those staffing patterns based on our student enrollment and if enrollment comes up then and there's a need that community had then we would add a position the same could be could be said for those other positions that were cut some instructional coaches um were unfilled left unfilled for next year and will not be replaced okay so really really what we're talking about is um all of these things and some other difficult decisions that we have tonight is really driven by the loss of enrollment and that's what's that's what's bringing this to the head here and that's why we're discussing these kinds of things is that's how we are funded and that's how we determine the rest of the structure of the funding so that is correct it's difficult i hope this helps clarify the process used in determining those employees affected so i i do have a question for dr mccord is just obviously we want to bring people back as much as we can bring students back can you give us any indications of what we'll be doing as a district to work on that and to try and draw students back into our schools we continue through our marketing department don antestenis our director of communications and marketing she's worked with all of our schools to develop some kind of marketing strategy to ensure people understand that we have programs we have space available and we're ready to bring their students into our schools and to recapture some of those students that have left we you know it's hard to determine exactly where they when i think you and i had that discussion before and that is some have gone to charter some have gone to other school districts some have stayed home and some we have a difficult time knowing where they're at and so we've we've got to make the effort and we have all of our schools have picked up the phone and called those students that have left letting them know that you know back when we opened up fully that our schools are back open please come back and we did receive some more students through that method and we're going to continue doing that as we move into the next school year all right thank you i appreciate it dr mccord that's been an issue throughout the state of arizona not just gilbert where they actually don't know where some number of students are correct that is correct i think it i i read something the other day and i don't know how accurate is but it was a little over 30 000 students that were possibly unaccounted for i know that you're asking for questions but i would like to just make a comment before you do that miss beth had something to contribute now i'll refer to you i wanted to address mrs wood's um comment or question so um there's a significant difference between the reduction in force today versus back in 2009 because back in 2009 the state did not have the funding available to fund the students that were here in our schools so just to reiterate what mr mcintosh said we're not increasing class sizes we're just trying to right-size the number of teachers to the number of students we have so really it is totally based upon the enrollment thank you miss pets miss you jenny um without getting into the number of years that i've been doing this i a year ago we had to make some difficult decisions about graduation and a number of other things and i remember saying more than one time that this was the most difficult decision i've ever had to make as an educator and i never every time i said it i never thought that the next decision would be worse than the previous one but i have to say that for me personally this decision tonight is probably the most difficult decision that i've ever had to make and it is not it's out of our control you know i believe that everybody sitting in this room who's had anything to do with any of this has done it with the best of intentions including all of our principals and and everyone that's involved and you know i have to tell you that i've lost sleep my heart has been broken i know a number of people that are involved in this and it is not easy for any of us to have to to even be having this discussion and i can only say i'm very sorry and i hope i just hope i never have to make this statement again that the next decision i have to make is worse than this one thank you miss eugetti and just to follow up a little bit on some of what miss betts has presented and what mr macintosh has presented along the way since march of last year we have convened and discussed uh various mitigation procedures at as each critical point presented itself dollars from the rescue plan and how that first batch would be used working through substitute issues and trying to mitigate the impact to the individual and to the district in that regard application equipment and and software for online instruction and how to fund that and on and on and on the one-time money is almost a magic trick in some regards because it's the aggregate of funds that are available for one-time use to try to mitigate a hole in the budget which we did not create and so i concur with what miss eugetti has said and probably the sentiment of this entire board this is a human enterprise and we don't miss cue on that issue not one bit it's important because people's lives are a part of this decision and we know that and we want you to know that we know that uh nonetheless we're backed into a corner and must make some decisions for the benefit of the students in the district the remaining faculty and staff in the district and for the community at large there has certainly been enough criticism in the emails we've received regarding mismanagement lack of creativity on the part of the board and and staff lack of foresight etc and that's a paraphrasing of what it is i've interpreted but i don't believe i'm incorrect in some of those interpretations and uh we're sorry that that is the opinion of some but we will continue with all due diligence to do the best we know how to do to make things right for this organization for this district and ultimately and focused directly on the students we don't disagree that students have been out of school long enough they've been they've been back in now for a short period of time we're hoping that at some point between now and august again that will start to approach some sense of normalcy whatever that means so on behalf of the board we respect the work that everyone is doing throughout the district both on the staff and in the classroom and we appreciate all of the efforts and we apologize that we are at this point but we are dr mccord anything dad you know sir i'd just like to thank uh miss bets and mr mcintosh for their presentation again i i hope it helped bring some clarity it doesn't make the end result of the message feel any better but i hope this helps out to a degree thank you sir we move to item four which is a request to speak to the governing board we have about 19 individuals who have indicated they have an interest in doing that before we play the recorded message let me request on behalf of everyone here including the board that as you listen to the message uh pay closer attention to this than usual the request is that we refrain from any personal attacks or insults if that occurs then we'll be directing staff to bring the mic silent we'll have three minutes to speak if you exceed that point we'll also bring the mic silent so please assist with that and before i set the lineup we'll play the recorded message please the board may make an open call to the public during a public meeting subject to reasonable time place and manner restrictions to allow individuals to address the public body on an issue within the jurisdiction of the public body at the conclusion of the open call to the public individual board members may respond to criticism made by those who have addressed the board may ask the staff to review a matter or may ask a matter be to be put on a future agenda however members of the board shall not discuss or take legal action on matters raised during the open call to the public unless the matters are properly noticed for discussion and legal action during the open call the board requests that speakers refrain from voicing complaints against school personnel or any person connected with the district as it may impact due process rights policy k e k e b and k e d are provided by the board for disposition of legitimate complaints including those involving individuals forms required for use of these policies can be obtained from the gilbert public schools website first three speakers will be katrina nall angela fellpot and mike zadoluski katrina hi my name is katerina nall i'm a senior at mesquite high school and i came here to speak to you today about why i think that you should not be firing 152 members of the gps staff before i read what i wrote on my way here there were a few things that were said tonight that kind of threw me for a little bit of a loop the main one being the amount of amount of money spent on cleaning supplies because i for one have spent this entire year seeing teachers buying their own tissues buying their own hand sanitizer buying their own clorox wipes or not having all of these supplies in their classrooms and like a normal high school year there have still been days where the bathrooms have no soap stalls have no toilet paper so i'm really just wondering where all these magical schools of school supplies and cleaning supplies came from because i know that as a person who's been in person for the last about for the last majority of the school year i haven't seen them and superintendent mccord's letter to the teachers he states that it is that is that it is imperative that students needs remain at the center of the decision-making process tonight how are students needs being met by laying off teach laying out teachers with no warning how are students needs being met by only laying off teachers who have dedicated large portions of their lives to our schools who run academic departments clubs and student organizations you have contributed you have attributed the riffing to low enrollment and yes i will admit that i've seen firsthand that enrollment records were low this year however it is irresponsible and short-sighted to fire 152 teachers teachers will be back in our classrooms as quickly as they are safely able to do so and enrollment numbers will subsequently go back up coveted cases will continue to go down and enrollment numbers will subsequently go back up 16 people who are 16 year old 16 years old or older will not be able to get vaccinated which will help drive up enrollment numbers i believe one of the main issues here tonight is that you're thinking of these teachers that you're firing as only numbers and part of your budget the teachers you are firing are people like miss zachary who's the only arts teacher at my school whose passion for creativity coats the walls of the b building she is certified to teach ap classes mrs kristen thomason the only asl teacher at our school whose classroom has served as a safe space for students for years she has instilled in her students a love of an entire language and culture she is certified to teach weighted classes and dual enrollment and before the cleveland 19 pandemic was going to bring asl 4 to our to my school for the first time you're firing tracy weaver who speech and debate team has helped so many at mesquite find their voices and learn how to speak out about what is right like i am doing here tonight she is currently getting her second master's degree and is certified to teach ap and dual enrollment classes you've said tonight multiple times that what you care about is keeping certified teachers yet when i look to who is being laid off at my school the majority of them have worked here for years our department heads our foreign language teachers or specialized teachers who cannot easily be replaced they are the most certified teachers at our school they are the best of us and if you get rid of them why would people come to come to the school district why would they come and how will you get more people if you lay off every certified teacher time [Applause] and katarina i apologize for mispronouncing your name good evening my name is angela philpot and i'm a 7th and 8th grade teacher of english language learners at desert ridge junior high school i am a parent of three gilbert school students here in the district and i was rift last friday and not only was i rift without any warning but my twin daughters go to my school and so now they're wondering do we have to leave our school so i can follow my mom to whatever job that she has my son goes to desert ridge high school as well and he's wondering do i have to leave in the middle of my high school career to go to another school because my mother was rift i'm a 23 year veteran teacher with the master's degree and i was brought here because our ged program and our elo for adults program was in corrective action being placed in 25th out of 25 schools statewide so i came from the apache junction school district specifically for gilbert public schools to help get their program out of corrective action the first year i took over that program it went to 13th in the middle of all programs statewide over mesa public schools rio salado college and cochise college the next year it was number one in the state and we were program of the year and ged program of the year and if you're surprised to hear those accomplishments that i did for this district in two years it's because it wasn't publicized because the students that i teach or the unseen disproportionately um forgotten students in my in this district and so i do speak up for them quite a bit because my classrooms are 100 students of color and during this pandemic they have endured more than you can imagine i've had students that have had to work and help support their families because their parents were laid off i've had students without water and electricity and our social workers had to do that and so during a global pandemic when we should be providing more stability for our students that is a student center committee we're going to lay off their favorite and beloved teachers they're teachers that care about them now i'm sure that you've heard i'm also a fish a financial officer of an organization as well i'm the treasurer of the largest labor union and i provide financials just like this happened tonight every month and i keep my board informed and we've had to talk about riffs with members and with staff and they always know about it way ahead and i always have great financial data so that way we can make those educated decisions so no one is surprised and so that's why for me to be surprised that i was on a list to be ripped with having an elementary license a secondary license an adult license an endorsement in early childhood esl and secondary english as well as being accepted to law school before i came here it's just shocking and my students are now wondering who's going to be our ell teacher and sure you could transfer somebody else but is that what my students specifically need and centuries and centuries of education employees have dedicated their lives here and even though you say that it wasn't taken into account you can't look like you can't ignore that data and so i really hope that you table this decision and wait for that april money from [Applause] next three martha romero todd signer and sue frye excuse me though i think i may have skipped someone mike did i skip you yes sir go right ahead no problem thank you for letting me speak today my wife works at this district and my daughter attends gps schools my wife has been a teacher for 25 years 21 years in gilbert public schools she's a department head for years and the last 10 years as an ap government teacher for less aid over the last five years she has given up her prep hour to teach an additional class she has taught summer school since 2003 and she has been an online teacher for gps in the first when it first began in 2007 for several years she has she was a coordinator for curriculum for the district i mentioned all of this to let you know how involved my wife is with this district on multiple levels she's a quiet steady force on her at her campus she doesn't like or need the spotlight would rather work behind the scenes and helps the school and her district explain one recent example in the last year when the district shut down the teachers had to work at home her coordinator asked her to write a curriculum for the last six weeks of school for the whole for the all the district teachers to use in their subject i remember spending hours in front of their computer searching links i'm looking for other ways to create a curriculum and was engaging in students to learn remotely via computer for her district and all the all the teachers to use she did not get paid for any of this she you will not see this in her professional development folder she was not given a certificate she did this without hesitation i don't even think the administration at this school even is aware but my wife she doesn't search out the need for the spotlight she finds great reward and satisfaction to do her job this fall we had to make a decision on whether she should return to brick-and-mortar teacher due to her health issues she wanted to stay at home i wanted her to stay at home and teach me morally she would not and could not because as she told me her ap students needed her this is why she was holding tutoring sessions twice a week and throughout the whole month for of april including giving a practice exam every single day i worry that she would come contract covid she just went along with her day wore her mask and did whatever she need to do and again that is my wife how she did how she is dedicated to her profession and district you cannot find a more highly work working effective teacher than my wife for this district but after hearing some of the names of others who are on this rift list i realized she's not the only one she did not want to speak today and she's simply too shattered to speak for herself but again that is my wife quiet steady leader for this district how can this district take someone who has been highly effective teaching to every evaluation thank you time good evening this has been a very difficult year due to the covid global pandemic i would say the hardest year in my 19 years in the classroom teachers in gps and across the nation struggled with a new way of teaching with slow internet connection and many obstacles to hurdle over even though it was a very difficult year teachers were dedicated to give their students the best education experience through virtual hybrid through virtual hybrid and in-person teaching many decisions have been made on the back of this pandemic that will impact our district for years to come in january employees at houston elementary school were notified that the district is proposing to review to repurpose the houston building to newly traditional school that's where i work as if the year wasn't already stressful enough add the stress of closing our school worrying about where we will be teaching what position and where our students will end up even though repurposing the houston building has been rumored for many years i can honestly say i was shocked that the district decided to propose to close houston in the middle of a global pandemic it really feels like the district is not looking at the social emotional well-being of the students and staff of houston elementary rather than the financial aspects the community loves the students and staff of houston elementary we are devastated about the proposed closure we are a family this past friday the district notified 152 employees with a reduction in force notice stating their contract will not be renewed for the 2021-2022 school year again this came out as a shock employees were called into a room at the end of the day with other colleagues and read a script by their principal they were not given a reason or allowed to ask questions the lack of compassion is truly disheartening many of our veteran teachers who have dedicated their careers to gps are in good standing and have exceptional evaluations they deserve a right to see their rubric and know why this happened to them more students will come back to gilbert next year therefore the district will need to hire more teachers when this happens employees rift should be on a callback list to return before hiring others gilbert public schools is supposed to be a family the 152 employees rift on friday did not feel care and compassion from gps i urge the board not to approve the rift until all 152 employees have had an opportunity to see their rubric and ask questions to better understand moving forward i ask that gps work on their transparency and ways of communication thank you time [Applause] hello my name is todd seamer i'm a business owner here in gilbert my wife is a doctor i run her office we have two kids a freshman at gilbert public or gilbert high school and a sixth grader neely thank you all the teachers this year you've been amazing um there's a quote by an author udai yadali failure is the greatest teacher so one year ago the children of gilbert were thrown into a tailspin a back and forth between politicians public health bureaucrats and the media they were denied the very thing they needed the most a stable learning environment months passed and then mass mandates were enacted school was taken back online students were forced to stay at home under contract contact tracing policies you all have sat in this room before and heard the concern of parents we want in-person learning as an option you saw the decline in enrollment the transferring of students but did you ask yourself why did you launch an investigation into what the cause was of declining enrollment did you call together parents to ask how you could do a better job to bring their students back you sit here today with an opportunity an opportunity that's squandered will leave you more out of touch with gilbert parents and a continued decline in enrollment parents have spoken they want a choice a choice of in-person learning a choice of whether they put a mask on their child or not a choice about whether to vaccinate their child or not and still have the opportunity of in-person education do not rush to be rescued from this consequence of your actions sit in this moment learn from this moment i want to leave you with this one more quote by henry ford he said failure is simply the opportunity to begin again this time more intelligently thank you dr santa cruz dr mccord and governing board i'm sue frye and i am actually speaking on a different topic than most of my my fellow speakers here tonight but on behalf of the gilbert education association i would like to thank the governing board and all people who participated in developing and reviewing the memorandum of understanding that is also on the agenda for this evening i would like to say that we we appreciate being a part of that process and we will continue to make input into that process and do the best we can for the employees of gilbert public schools thank you thank you next three speakers amber franco carrie vanderpool and amy rowe good evening gps board members and dr mccord i'm speaking to you today as a president of the gilbert education association and on behalf of my members and fellow educators in the district this past friday a number of our colleagues received notice from the district that their employment will end at the conclusion of the school year these are loved and committed educators that have dedicated their lives to gilbert's children many were shocked and angered and receiving this notice on friday at the end of their work day these teachers are valued they are essential and it will be a huge loss to the district our gilbert community and gea this reduction in force isn't about good or bad teachers teachers on this list have worked successfully in this district in some cases for over 20 years they have built relationships with their students and the communities they serve they have changed lives this reduction in force is about the consequences of dealing with the pandemic in a state that has not proved to value educators or public education at a level necessary to maintain the high quality staff that we have enjoyed here in gps if you have been impacted by this rift my heart truly goes out to you you are valued and you will be missed by your students your gea brothers and sisters and the gilbert community thank you for your hard work and your commitment to education and gps still as the magnitude of the rifts become evident colleagues and members reached out to gea for support clarification and understanding there are a lot of unanswered questions gea agrees that in order to move forward and accept these difficult circumstances those with questions need to have their questions answered and transparency needs to be apparent we know the decision to riff was not taken lightly together we have overcome some of today's greatest struggles this year gea has worked collaboratively with board members and gps district office from summer meetings to address the safe reopening of schools to navigating how to handle the pandemic surge and all the while still effectively educating our students and through all of this discussions to do what's right for students staff and the community were always at the forefront every stakeholder had a voice in the room moving forward we would like the district to continue with the relationship and trust we have built together and continue to allow a teacher's insight and voice into the future discussions regarding educator concerns we know we cannot fix the past but looking forward gea as a partner stakeholder and voice for educators believes will be beneficial for us to be more involved in these processes in closing during these difficult times we are called to be compassionate empathetic to the educational world who have faced throughout the year with unprecedented situations and the effects of the pandemic we'd also like to thank our educator community and friends of educators your outpouring of support means the world to us during this difficult time through it all and moving forward i know our motto still ring thank you good evening my name is carrie vanderpool i am the parent of four children two of which attend gilbert public schools my oldest is a sophomore who is six foot eight taller and larger wingspan than michael phelps join the swim team for the first time this year try and get all of that under control a coach that guided him gave him some advice mid cramp in the pool i heard this advice come out of my son's mouth when he had to make the decision to drop down to the jv level to spend more time with his best friend in varsity volleyball a goal that he had made for himself for like two years yet this coach's advice rang in his ears this coach is dave peters he is a teacher at gilbert public schools in the gilbert high school he i'm sorry i'm shaking i'm really ramped up i'm so sorry um he took on the swim team at campo verde high school since it opened in 2009 in 2019 there is a picture of this board with that championship team right here how proud are you to call yourself the gilbert school that has coach of the year on their staff and yet he is the one included in his that got rift on friday he has spent 19 years teaching at gilbert public schools one year away from retirement one year how many teachers does it take to touch a child's life how many teachers can you say you remember had an effect on your life do you remember that teacher there are good teachers they're great teachers and then there's gilbert public school teachers these people have dedicated their life and their time to our kids like many others gave up a passing hour or a prep hour to take on yet another class so when does he do his prep hour at home on his own time the english department at campo has been annihilated the german department at gilbert public gilbert high school has been annihilated at what point are we going to allow our children our hope for the future the people that we are saying this is where the bar is rise to meet it here is mediocre examples of who to be or are we going to say here is the bar rise to meet it i hope that you take the time to table this topic this announcement was given very cold very unfeeling it was deemed an emergency meeting that was mandatory that was awful absolutely awful i hope this discussion amy good evening governing board members and community it's hard to follow that i i work at gilbert high school my name is amy rowe i am a special education teacher at gilbert high school and a graduate of gilbert high school i have over a decade experience teaching in this district i need seven more years to retire up until about a week ago i anticipated ending my seven last years at gilbert high school and retiring proudly for my alma mater but i'm here tonight to express my concerns excuse me with the implementation of the student-centered staffing reduction in force from the consent agenda i was going to reference some board policy and things that i had emailed you earlier but i see that the board policy was not exactly what was used as our interpretation from my understanding from the presentation earlier it did clarify a lot of things for me so thank you for that information it appears that our brand new principal of our high school was asked to evaluate our entire school and rank every single teacher at our campus not knowing what cutoff scores would be not necessarily knowing how those may be used but knowing they would be reported to a committee that was looking at possible riffing i can say honestly that all the teachers i work with he's probably not observed the majority of them at no fault of his own and that is very concerning to me i am concerned that on my personal campus teachers who are exemplary as the man who's been spoken about earlier has been rift while we have teachers that all of us on campus could point to and say that person is weak and needs more support to grow and move into that role i am upset that we have lost two special education teachers on our campus who are fully certified while we still have two remaining on our campus who are not certified and two who will be leaving after the end of the year which means we may have up to six vacancies on our campus in one department the most difficult department to staff i am also concerned that criteria talked about this um idea of contributions to the district at large and we are riffing teachers who are dual certified ap teachers special education teachers ell teachers math teachers at the secondary level and people who have developed programs on campuses that we cannot replace these people amassing the board table this consent agenda item until you have reviewed all the rubrics used to create this list of people to see that the board policy was actually followed i'd like you to survey the staff the gps employees to gather that accurate information about who is planning to leave that hasn't put in for it yet so that we can use natural attrition rather than riffing people on a friday after work also the money from the american rescue plan that was approved by congress how is that being used to retain teachers oh snap i'm going to run out of time i'll get cut off but i want you to know what will be cancelled destroyed at gilbert high school next year due to this time [Applause] next speakers will be heather bartlett elsie velasquez and bonnie hickman good evening president santa cruz members of the board and dr mccord my name is heather bartha and i currently have the privilege of teaching honors algebra 2 and geometry at campo verde high school i moved here from tucson during a pandemic um i want to thank you tonight for clarifying some of the reasons why i may have been ripped but i am going to ask you for my rubric to find out where i fell short this year as an educator this decision extends beyond my career and this affected my family as well because of my position we decided to open a role my daughter as a kindergartner in quartz hill this year as you can imagine this year has been quite a struggle trying to balance and manage distance learning from my students as well as my kindergartner and it was heartbreaking to tell her that she would not be able to continue at gps for first grade in the school that she loves with friends she has finally managed to make during this unstable year i understand the vote tonight is probably more of a formality in that your your minds have been made up um i want to thank parents for giving me such wonderful students to teach this year to dr cox and the other camp over the administration you did an awesome job this year i cannot imagine the weight of the board's decision has put on you and know that i am truly grateful to have been part of the campo family if even for one year and most importantly to my students you were absolutely amazing you've had to overcome so much this year and you did thank you for being wonderful this year has been stressful and it shows how strong you are that you made it through it has been an honor to be your teacher and i am grateful that i got to know each and every one of you i want to thank the district for the opportunity to teach here our students faculty staff and administration are amazing and i will miss them thank you [Applause] elise hi uh good evening uh my name is elise fieskis and i am a gps k-12 kid and up until this current school year i spent the entirety of my teaching career in the district i've worked in gilbert for almost 10 years i love educators i've loved educators since i was a child i was raised by family of educators and becoming one myself has been the best decision of my life and giller public schools is a big part of that the gps educators were a big part of that i am sensitive to the task you have before you to respond to serious budget concerns and a major decline in student enrollment has been cited as a big reason for the need for budget cuts and there has been a promise to work towards increasing student enrollment in the coming years i'm here as a proud gps kid my beloved sixth grade teacher is sitting next to me my former high school principal president dr santa cruz sits on the board other familiar faces are here too several of my former students sit in the overflow room what i'm pointing out here is the power of relationships you know what helps drive student enrollment relationships how does a school board support their educators honoring relationships it drives everything in our schools save the money on marketing efforts and honor the people who are behind those shiny programs my heart hurts to see this must to see this much institutional knowledge years of experience expertise and powerful relationships leave the district it's one simple ask please honor and protect these relationships thank you bonnie yep she was my sixth grade student um um well respected board and dr mccord thank you for allowing me to address you this evening my name is bonnie hickman and i have been with the district for 26 years as a sixth grade teacher i'm speaking as an individual and not as a representative of any organization as i will be on phased retirement after this school year most of this the decisions that have and will be made will probably not affect me personally i do not agree with the way in which teachers were notified of this reduction in force i understand that in our litigious society it was probably necessary to do it like this we hear constantly about the shortage of teachers in the state and unless people were paying close attention to board meetings and the district financial situation or were members of the gea it's very probable that they had no idea that a riff was even a possibility unlike back in 2008 when we all knew we were in a financial crisis however that's water under the bridge i would just like to request that the board consider smoothing the fed the ruffled feathers and do right by the teachers who have served through such an incredibly difficult year and were most likely blindsided by this decision according to our memorandum of understanding teachers must have been in the district for a minimum of five years and have attained at least 25 days of sick pay in order to request the sick days to be reimbursed as you know many teachers held on to their sick days fearing that they would have to use them if they became ill with covid as the cares act did not cover us after january my concern is for the stability of the classrooms for the remainder of the school year the students have also ridden this crazy train right along with us and they deserve to have their real teachers with them for the last 39 and a half days that remain in this school year i would like to propose that the board consider overriding the guidelines in the current mou and allow teachers with less than five years service in the district and or less than 25 days in their sick bank to be paid out at the end of the school year maybe there needs to be a caveat placed in it that they can't use more than a day or two of the sick leave during the remainder of the school year my concern is that these teachers have earned these sick days and if they know they will not get reimbursed for them they may choose to take them between now and the end of the year i looked on the substitute line and the district it looks like is attempting to prepare for this to happen but it seems like a gesture of goodwill to the teachers who are leaving and also stability for our students to reimburse the teachers for the sick days which they have already accrued again i want to thank you for your unpaid service to our community thank you [Applause] next three speakers heidi leyva paul del rio and luke davis sorry about that i was in the overflow room i graduated from gps ghs specifically in 2010 so i experienced those first riffs that we were talking about hi dr santa cruz [Music] i'm so so angry and so saddened by the current rifts i'm not an educator i'm not a parent and i'm not a student but i'm here because this affects me in fact it affects all of gilbert and the surrounding areas arizona not to be cliche but kids are our future i'm here because of the gps educators that profoundly i'm going to get emotional that profoundly affected my life and i'm here because of the way that the form the other riffs affected my life then during the 2009 riffs i lost a lot including both speech and debate coaches several ap teachers and one of my itinerants and so much more i won't go on as the first speaker did an excellent job relaying what is happening to her right now you cannot tell me that these are not like the rifts in 2009 because to me they look exactly the same but now we're in a pandemic and now according to your own data we have a significantly larger budget this explanation tonight quite frankly only upset me more as a board as educators yourself i urge you to do better i don't think that this is an acceptable way to go not during a pandemic but not ever in 2018 i offered to make sack lunches for children affected by the walkouts my team and i got thousands of requests for lunches by far the majority of people asking for help were teachers for their students as always they were putting their students first when i went to costco to buy sac lunch items in bulk i got asked multiple times if i was a teacher because so many other teachers were there and as they always do spending their hard earned two small paychecks on their students and now we're in a pandemic i can't say it enough we're in a pandemic if you follow through with this rift you'll be hurting incredible teachers you'll be hurting students of all backgrounds but especially those most at risk you'll be hurting the city of gilbert and you will need to answer for it please i know this was not an easy decision but i push back that there's not another route to go i push back that 400 loss enrollments how can you project something in a pandemic please i know you're educators yourself i know you care i need you to do better gilbert students and teachers deserve it hi my name is paul del rio thank you to the board for allowing me to speak now i don't have a prepared speech i didn't think i needed one due to the fact that i have now been a proud member of this great community since 2002 what drove me here the schools both my boys went to gilbert public schools and what draws anybody here why do people build homes uh for the schools the schools in my opinion is the core of any community but what's at the core of any good school great teachers longevity and what they teach our kids it's not the how great the school looks or your best you know you got the best pool or the best track field that all decays but the quality of teaching doesn't decay see that carries on throughout a person's entire life and earlier i heard a little talk about well how are you gonna you know beef up enrollment and i hear a lot about marketing this is its own marketing and it's not a good one see deterring uh this this you know uh firing of teachers it's in this day and age of of you know of social media and just the words gonna get out and just for gilbert public schools alone i'd like to see it build up too i like to see enrollment uh improve but we all know why we're wearing this we're wearing this because of a a pandemic that has turned the entire world on its head and listening to the numbers and i see the numbers and i was watching and i was following along but quite honestly you can't put numbers on the value of great teachers and i do want to follow um on what was said about my son attends campo verde and uh his coach which means who means the world to him he's down to his last year and i know that seniority didn't play a factor and that kind of bothered me a little bit because a person at the end of their at their end of of their career who devoted their life to teaching in this community and this is the way you repay them just wrong and uh i just want i just want to enter the fact that as far as um what was said earlier as i was listening to the board well we don't want to just base it on that because we will deter teaching this deters teaching okay so how you treat your teachers it does its own marketing and the word will get out and you're worried about enrollment this is not going to help and trust me when i say gilbert is growing so as far as the enrollment numbers the folks are going to be out there but they might go to charter they might go to private what's going to bring them into the public school district something to think about thank you luke davis hey um i am a sophomore at gilbert high school and getting rid of the teachers the best teachers all these people that are all the teachers are getting fired they're not the teachers that people don't care about they're the teachers that all the students they love everybody that i talk to they're like oh my favorite teachers they got rifted like why is that the way that you decided to go you know with getting rid of all the best teachers like for example again dave peters he's my german teacher and he's got like so many people that are like how did you get fired you're you're a coach you've been here for 19 years you've never done anything wrong you push people hard you're a great teacher and somehow he still ended up in the rift like that doesn't really make sense and people like outside of our district they all know like kids are texting each other they know what's going on they know hey all these all these students they are leaving because they don't have their favorite teachers anymore all the good teachers are leaving nobody wants to come to these schools nobody's going to come back because nobody's going to tell their friends to come back to the school because they don't have any reason to if all the teachers are gone all the best teachers who are there to support the students why would they tell their friends tell their kids when they grow up why would they tell them go to this school when all their favorite teachers got cut just because they're older you know the older teachers did get cut and i know you said that they didn't but i don't believe that that's true because they the older teachers who get paid more because they're better teachers got cut more and that's that's not the way that it should be done and i think you know there's also what i heard is that gilbert they have six assistant superintendents why why do we need six assistant superintendents to do one man's job and we're firing 152 teachers it just doesn't make sense and that's yeah that's it thank [Applause] our last two speakers are john stevens and nancy munoz good evening staff members board members dr mccord i'm here as a community member i'm bringing up some very important things that people may not understand teachers experience is invaluable the state recognizes this and gives them gives extra money to the district called teacher experience index this when teachers are dismissed with experience you don't only lose through you don't only reduce the amount of money that the district thinks that they will be saving by removing all the experience that you can't that you can't get back is very important is very upsetting when people move to gilbert because of the schools and expect the staff to be supported well you are you are also letting go of nationally board certified teachers teachers with master's degrees many special education teachers teachers with hard to fill positions such as science and math who are very hard to replace these special education teachers that support these students as a special education teacher myself and as a parent of special education students that went through this district i came to gilbert because of special ed not because it was the best place for me to find a cheap home because it wasn't i came to gilbert because my ddd case manager told me gilbert was where i wanted my special education students to be my other concern is the esser funds these can be used to help retain some of the teachers and allow you to use some of that to avoid the reduction in force so that you don't have to scramble in the fall when many teachers won't be available these teachers will have jobs i can tell you that already you are giving up lots of experience and i can tell you from experience my principal came to me this morning and said they are ready to steal up gilbert teachers as soon as they apply another thing you guys can look at that you may not have thought about was freezing salaries this year to avoid removing teachers meet um meet again in the fall when the increase in student enrollment comes back to give teachers pay raises that's where i wanted you to understand these teachers have built relationships with these students and i don't understand how administrators picked these teachers because they were all teachers with lots of experience and it's very sad to hear that my kids teachers may have been ripped i'm not sure who was but my next door neighbor her child is a special education student at gilbert high school and i sure hope his teacher was not rift thank you [Applause] john stevens hello thank you for the opportunity to speak my name is john stevens i'm father of a special needs child that goes to mesquite high school one thing i'll keep it brief and i don't have a prepared speech but one thing i wanted to mention in the program earlier uh it was kind of glossed over somebody mentioned that asked about special needs somebody mentioned that the programs may be moved that that might be something that would happen i'm relatively confident that nobody on this board understands the impact that statement for a child with special needs who very much needs consistency and has every right to stay at the same school their home school where they've gone as as any other kid does and that seems honestly in this district we've lived here for 20 years two kids going through the district one with special needs and it has not been an easy an easy thing to essentially deal with the district and and and keep some consistency in my child's life and really every kid deserves that special needs or not to have that consistency to be able to have the right to go to their their uh their home school and to stay there to so to say to gloss over and to say oh a program might be moved here or there that is a very big statement these kids are coming off of a pandemic many of them don't even understand why they don't see their friends anymore what happened now they're back in school they're not in school they're back in school my son's teacher who is wonderful who knows him runs a great program was let go how this happens i do not understand especially for someone that qualified who who knows their students who's who's valued there and is a very difficult kind of person to find i would urge you very strongly to rethink not only that decision but the decision of just to say oh some programs are going to be moved around like it's nothing it is not nothing it is not rethink that before you act thank you [Applause] okay that was our last speaker we move now to item five which is the consent agenda items uh before we ask for a motion just right on your agenda there is a correction item 15 5.15 the marching band and symphonic strings from highland high school those should be reversed the symphonic strings should be where the marching band is currently and they will be going to hawaii and the marching band will be going to chicago are you talking about 5.15 overnight and out of state rival correct okay that would be the correction i received just before the board meeting from mrs wilson did i state that correctly mrs wilson okay so item five we are open and for emotion i move that we accept the consent agenda as presented thank you miss humphries is there a second all second thank you mr carr it's been moved and seconded that we approve the consent agenda as printed any discussion seeing no discussion we will call for the vote all those in favor of approving the consent agenda as printed please signify by saying aye aye aye all those opposed the same motion carries five zero we're at item six on action items and before i move to that section uh is the board interested in entertaining a brief recess we've got a pretty long agenda i'd welcome that before we get into that okay so with that said then we will recess for five minutes sure the principles were the ones correct what is to prevent the principal from taking out any personal agendas on the teachers specifically gilbert high school if we can call meeting back to order please board members okay good thank you we're back at action item but before we move to item six i would like to thank and recognize representative pollock who has joined us tonight welcome item six we are ready to move to item 6.01 dr mccord anything by way of introduction yes dr santa cruz um 6.01 is the closure of houston elementary and gilbert public schools the recommended action is that it's recommended uh the governing board approved the closure of houston elementary and gilbert unified school district number 41 at the end of the 2020-2021 school year just by understanding we've we've had conversations with the staff we've held three community meetings we've received feedback from the community and this is and then we presented it to the board about a month ago and then this is the next step in in making this happen um as former principal of houston mr mcintosh former principal of houston this is not um something we bring to you with a glee or or a lot of joy this is this is a difficult thing you know we we talked about individuals who were rift tonight and we also talk about a community and i don't want that to to go unnoticed in the evening like tonight because i know that community i know the people that live there that work there and the students that attend the schools this is uh as someone put it earlier this is something that's been coming for a long time and we're at that point but it does not make it any easier at all so i just wanted to interject that as we move through this motion thank you dr mccord and item 6.01 just for information's sake and as we move through 6.016 6.03 you'll hear terminology that's used and that terminology that's used by staff meets the legal requirements because all of these have legal attachments to them and we are simply trying to comply with that so we are meaning no offense those are terms that are in the statutes so item 6.01 we're ready to entertain a motion for closure of houston elementary in gilbert public schools is there a motion so moved thank you mr jetty is there a second second thank you mrs humphries is there any discussion i i would like to make some comments go right ahead someone at the first meeting at houston elementary asked because this is the same square mile where we already closed a previous school gilbert junior high i asked what lessons have we learned from that and since i've been on the board the longest and because i lived those lessons that we learned i i wanted to answer that question um first we as board members do have to make hard decisions we've already made some really hard decisions tonight hard decisions have to be made in a timely fashion and we have to move on because i think one of the most egregious things that came out of the gilbert junior high debacle was that we got new but we closed the school new board members were elected we unclosed the school we came up with a different solution that solution was voted down and so for five years that community got shaken i mean periodically things would come up again and i think that's very unfair and so i know it's hard to make these decisions but they do have to be made in a timely manner the second thing is that our community has to be with us and we've heard from a lot of people tonight and it we've made a hard decision tonight but we do not have the students to support all of the staff that we have and one of the reasons we wanted to make that decision early was so that people have time an opportunity to look and and get a position in another district having lived this i've learned that people leave and big shoes are left to be filled and people step up and fill those shoes but also i've seen us scatter a lot of gems in other places where um they bring up the um the achievement and the the work of another district so the the third thing is i think that um we as board members we have to we can't have an agenda we have to look at items as they come to us and we have to make the best decision we can even even when they're hard decisions because we have to move forward as a district i wanted to mention that i think houston has been a wonderful school we should celebrate all that houston has given to this district um the first thing that i attended as a board member was a 25-year breakfast in december of 2012 and nearly every teacher that stood up that year had started their career at houston and so for many years houston has been the starting ground for wonderful people who have stayed in this district and even become superintendent you know i mean that's a contribution and i i wanted to especially say that i i feel like sam valles is a wonderful principal who stands up for his community he has absolutely let it been very frank and honest about um the feelings of the community both for gilbert junior high and for houston and i look forward to him having many more years in our district and wonderful work to do i know that the district is looking at opportunities for him and i know that there are many many wonderful staff members at houston and i hope that we can work to help them feel welcome as they change to a different school and that students and families will feel welcomed and i have been to burke and neely and i think either choice is a wonderful choice and i know that they will bring that community in and help them to feel a part of the school so while this is a difficult choice and it has been a long time coming and with the financial condition of the district and i i know it's hard but we need to make a decision while it's timely and we need to do it in a way that we don't undo the decision a year or two later and then have to try again i think that it's really important to have the consensus and move forward and and i just want to thank the houston community and staff and principal vallez for all that they have done because it it has been an incredible school and it's not because of the school that we're closing it it's that we have to make some difficult difficult choices again so thank you ms humphries any additional commentary yeah dr santa cruz i do to tag on to to what mrs humphries said and i would like to also add mr mcintosh and dr mccord may have been a principal but i was a founding teacher i started teaching and i didn't start teaching because i've been teaching for a long i was teaching for a long time but i went to houston the first year when it was at the holding school 87 and i think uh dr mccord and mr mcintosh were in first and second grade at the time uh i'm not sure maybe they were held back or whatever but at any rate um i remember how exciting it was to start that new school and um and how at that time and it was it was many years ago but we to think that we are here today after that and i remember at the time it was tempe was going through this and gilbert was just the opposite we were growing like crazy and every year we were opening at school now we're dealing with what tempe dealt with and what other what many other districts have dealt with through the years and so you know it once again it's an it's a very difficult decision but it's as mrs humphrey said we can't have an agenda anyone else seeing no additional commentary we will vote on item 6.01 all those in favor please signify by saying i i those oppose the same motion carries 5-0 item 6.02 is the expansion of burke elementary boundaries for the 2021-2022 school year dr mccord any introductory remarks yes sir it is recommended the governing board expand the attendance boundaries of burke elementary to include the current attendance boundaries of houston elementary for the 21 22 school year students currently assigned to houston elementary will be assigned to burke elementary beginning the 21-22 school year families can also decide to attend neely traditional academy thank you sir we're ready to entertain a motion on item 6.02 is there a motion i move that we expand the burke elementary boundaries for the 21-22 school year thank you mr jetty is there a second all second thank you mr carr any discussion the expansion the word expansion uh i hope can be interpreted as increased opportunities for that student population that aggregate population of burke and houston merging to become a student body that is bigger and more able to receive the kinds of additional programming that a larger population of students can afford with that said we're ready for a vote all those in favor of approving item 6.02 please signify by saying aye aye all those oppose the same motion carries five zero item six point zero three location move for neely traditional academy to 500 east houston avenue beginning the 2021 school year dr mccord any introduction it's just recommended the governing board approved the move of neely traditional academy to 500 east houston avenue gilbert arizona 85234 for the 21-22 school year you dr mccord motion for item 6.03 i motion that we move neely traditional academy to 500 east houston avenue for the 2021 2022 school year thank you mrs humphries is there a second a second thank you miss wood any discussion no discussion this is uh ready for a vote i was going to say something and i changed my mind uh all those in favor of item 6.03 please signify by saying aye hi those pose the same motion carries 5-0 item 6.04 is a resolution for closing a site location at 321 west juniper avenue dr mccord introductory remarks yes sir i'll state the recommended action and read the resolution it is recommended the governing board approved the resolution closing school site located at 321 west juniper avenue gilbert arizona at the end of the current school year subject to approval by the arizona school facilities board ars 15-341-g the resolution states uh resolve that gilbert public schools governing board has voted on march 30th 2021 that subject to arizona school facilities board approval in accordance with ars 15-341-g school site facilities located at 321 west juniper avenue gilbert arizona will be closed at the end of the current school year the reasons for the changes are one as a result of declining enrollment in certain areas of the economic efficiency considerations the governing board has approved the closure of houston elementary school at the end of the current school year which is presently operating at 500 east houston avenue gilbert arizona two neely traditional academy which is currently operating at 321 west juniper avenue gilbert arizona will move to 500 east houston avenue gilbert arizona location beginning with the 2021 2022 school year for the resolved that the gilbert public schools governing board respectfully request the arizona school facilities board approval to close school site located at 321 west juniper avenue gilbert arizona effective at the end of the current school year in accordance with ares 15-341-g thank you dr mccord you have heard the rationale and the resolution is there a motion for item 6.04 so moved thank you ms wood is there a second i'll second thank you mr carr it's been moved and seconded is there any discussion dr santa cruz i haven't commented on the last several items go right ahead thank you i just want to kind of glump one set of comments rather than making comments on each one um closing the school repurposing the school these are hard decisions we recognize that we're impacting neighborhoods many of you have already said that i just wanted to want to say that we recognize this is another decision we're making tonight that's disrupting the lives of staff it's disrupting the life of students it's it's not made lightly um and we we hope uh as we've discussed this and previous school closings we hope that in the end the pain that is immediate leads to better benefit in the long term and we know that that doesn't reduce the pain today um but uh just just want to convey to all those affected in whichever direction that it really is our goal to lead to long-term benefit as painful as the short-term and immediate impact is thank you mr carr anything else no additional commentary then we will vote on item 6.04 all those in favor of approving the resolution and the rationale associated with the resolution please signify by saying aye aye all those oppose the same motion carries 5-0 item 6.05 school calendar revision for school years 2021 22 22 23 and 23 24.

it was determined that at the elementary level the number of fts needed it was a a score of 13 or below so principles evaluating had no idea where that cutoff was going to be no they did not neither did otm until we gathered all the data at the secondary level the score was that the score was at a 16. and below same thing the number of fts associated with the the loss of student enrollment and needed for the 21 22 school year at the secondary level was a score of 16 and below remembering that at the secondary level they had two additional questions so their total score was a 33 as opposed to at the elementary where the total score could have been at 27.

dr mccord any introduction dr santa cruz these are revisions that we've discussed at work studies as well as during board meetings and we have those final revisions for your approval this evening and these calendars were the same as presented at our last work study session so we will entertain a motion for item 6.05 i move that we approve the school calendars as presented thank you mr humphries is there a second i'll second the motion is there any discussion um i i just wanted to um i have one question and a comment on the 2021 and 2022 calendar the only revision is putting in those professional learning afternoons i guess i would call them is that correct i believe so yes there was one other thing i believe the original calendar that we approved two years ago had a teacher day on the monday after october after fall break and we moved that to before the school started is that correct i believe that is correct yes we talked about that like a year ago yeah we just hadn't entered it officially on the calendar yes we did it this year as well but we hadn't changed that calendar so that was the only other thing you are correct any other comments dr santa cruz i had one question we had had a few emails we've had a few questions about this one thing that came up was how do you determine and i'll ask mr martin since he's there how do you determine which weeks are the breaks why sometimes are we with mesa schools why sometimes are we with chandler schools why are we not with them and that impacts people their neighborhoods their ball teams and the different things to not be in the same so what how does that how is that determined and is there is there any way to change it or is good questions uh well currently right now as you know we're on the one two one which for the upcoming 21 22 school year we will still have one week of fall break and one week of spring break when i uh did look the earlier today at what some of our surrounding districts are doing this upcoming year which was approved originally two years ago all of our fall breaks will overlap with queen creek chandler mesa and higley realizing that many of those districts have a two-week break so our one week of fall break will overlap in the spring next year a year from now higley and chandler we will not overlap but we will overlap with mesa schools and right now when we're only having one week of spring break and fall break we either make it and we have that overlap or not now when i looked at the 22 23 and 23 24 calendars some of the surrounding districts have come out with their calendars and except for queen creek school district but chandler mesa and higley we will overlap with all three of those districts those two years when we have the two weeks of fall break and two weeks of spring break it may only be one week of overlap with some of the districts that also have a two-week fall break or spring break but they will be overlapping and the reason for that is every school district even has a different start and end date too and so even though we're many of us now will be on the 222 calendar some of our sister districts will still be starting a week earlier in july than we are and we always try to even the days out around 90 days per semester and then also even amongst the quarters we try to keep them close to 45 days and the 22 23 calendar and the 23 24 calendar all of our quarters will be between 43 and 47 days per quarter thank you any other discussion sorry i i didn't get to give my comment if i could do that um one of the things i do appreciate about these calendars is the four professional learning afternoons half days for students and then teachers have that professional development in the afternoon and um you know teaching now um it's all about keeping up with change i mean it's not we're not teaching the same thing year after year we we are continually changing innovating and trying something new and that that's a lot to ask for our teachers so giving that them that professional development and giving it into to them in small increments so they can take it use it in their classroom um make it theirs before they get another little dose of professional development i think is is a really helpful tool for them and a way to help them to be excited about the things that they're doing and just giving them that opportunity to do it during their work day because there is a lot to be a teacher and if we had to pay them for all the hours that they put in we wouldn't be able to afford that on the budget either so i really appreciate those professional learning afternoons thank you ms humphries anything else no other commentary then we will vote all those in favor of item 6.05 please signify by saying aye aye those pose the same motion carries 5-0 items 6.06 party administration dr mccord yes we recommend you approving the third party administration tpa services and network for self-funded ppo medical and cobra administration under rfp 21-10-1 we have mrs betts and mr mcintosh here because they run the trust and they will be able to help you out thank you dr mccord we are ready for a motion on item 6.06 those no we won't vote let's have a motion first is there is there a motion so moved thank you mr sun breeze any second second thank you mr g jetty discussion just could you give us a quick overview of the change or the difference sure the next three items 606 607 and 608 are all related to the same rfp we went out to bid to because we were due to take a look at all these specific contracts so generally we do one rfp and often they are awarded to multiple providers so we separated out into three agenda items for each to account for each vendor that was awarded that portion of the rfp the most important of course is the tpa services and the network so by by going to amira ben as our tpa administrator we are able to maintain the blue cross blue shield of arizona network so it really minimizes the disruption to our employee base here in gilbert public schools in addition i'm just going to go through it all the medical utilization management is also the same provider that we have been using and that particular service is to provide case management to those undergoing a long-term illness and then finally the flexible spending account administration was awarded to a new provider we expect that to be of greater benefit to our employees to minimize the administration and the let's see the constraints i think to the use of their flexible spending account so we believe that these three recommendations are in the best interest of our employees and mrs eugenie if you have anything else to add that would be great no i i i agree we're trying to keep things as consistent as possible for everybody okay any additional commentary okay just for the record item 6.06 6.07 6.08 are all associated items but we will vote on 6.06 and the other two independent of one another so those in favor of item 6.06 please signify by saying aye aye all those opposed the same we move now to 6.07 medical utilization is there anything more that needs to be said no sir ready for a motion i move that we approve the medical utilization management rfp 21-10-10-25 thank you mr jetty is there a second a second thank you mrs wood any comment seeing none we'll vote on item 6.07 all those in favor please signify by saying aye okay all those posed the same motion carries 5-0 item 6.08 flexible spending account ms betts also reviewed that with us just a bit ago anything else to be said there dr mccord no sir we will entertain a motion to 6.08 i motion that we um we adopt the flexible spending account administration under rfp 2110 1025.

so with 27 possible using the elementary level you could score effectively in eight of the categories and you wouldn't have been below that threshold correct because you would have scored two on each if you scored effective in at least eight categories you had 16 points you would not have been below that threshold so you really had to score low on multiple categories to be below that threshold yep okay yes sir the reduction in force um we're still answering questions regarding the buyback per the mou we get lots of those questions those who qualify will be afforded the buy-back if they're affected by the ref so if they're five-year employees with 25 or more days they will be per the mou afforded the buyback um given we will update the question and answers we're working with gea on their receiving questions so we'll be updating that q a um given the circumstances regarding the ft we also afforded all of all employees late last week through april 2nd with another opportunity to re retire resign and take advantage of the buyback we're working closely with legal there's been some changes regarding cobra and the cobra plan from the federal government we hope to push out that information on the q a as well we're working to get some clarity on the cobra from the federal plan and we continue to work with ga to assist in answering those questions after the training principles were given the list of employees to meet with along with the script a copy of the policy and the questions and answer sheet to cause minimal impact on student learning meetings were scheduled immediately after school last friday it was important that the message coming from administration was consistent and therefore they were instructed not to deviate from the provided script shortly after the meetings were conducted employees received an email communication with the formal reduction in force notice a copy of the policy questions and answers as well as eap employee assistant employee assistance counseling confidential resources for our staff we understand that this was extremely difficult and it may have felt impersonal at the time but it is what was needed in order so that the message was consistent among all employees affected so for that we apologize if it seemed cold the principal as well received a list of the employees the script the policy copy of the policy and the question and answer sheet as i discussed earlier in the presentation we were significantly overstaffed as a result of the decline in enrollment it is important to note that due to that overstaffing this reduction does not impact next year's student-to-teacher ratio those ratios are still set they are still the same um miss you jenny do you have questions could you expound on that a little bit because a number of the messages and emails that we've received have been from parents who are concerned that there's going to be 40 kids to a classroom and that i think that's that's a misunderstanding that maybe we could clarify tonight it is a misunderstanding the current staffing ratio the one we've utilized for the past i don't know six or seven years will be utilized again next year so if it's a 27 to one class first grade then that same ratio will be utilized next year if it's 31-1 at the high school it will be still utilized next year so i guess adding on to that if if there are some classrooms and some the district that do have that maximum capacity right now and then someone within that team was rift so they so teachers and families are wondering how next year will you provide the same amount of students the same staffing ratio when they're already at the maximum and now there's one less teacher so that teacher will be replaced through involuntary or voluntary transfers of the remaining employees so they'll still have a teacher in front of kids okay thank you mr mcintosh could you talk about how we're going to staff things like special ed and other hard to find category of teachers so i've also heard a lot of concerns about that right um again the staffing patterns from special education have not changed there may be some program movements but the the if the program's there there'll be a highly qualified teacher hopefully in front of it again with the loss of students and teachers who may hold multiple certifications may be involuntarily transferred or voluntary in some cases into those classrooms so sometimes remembering that special education teachers are k-12 and that teachers work for the district not necessarily a school or a site so there may be some teachers that have to move campuses or move programs based upon their endorsements and their certifications but they'll be offered a contract all right thank you for that miss wood one more question just as you said that can you give us some maybe this isn't the time maybe that's later in the agenda to talk to about contracts moving forward i know there's some with all of this that's gone on how how what's the timing how does that look like now so this evening you'll prove the basically the content of contracts for all employees there's no substantive changes in those so that dylan mr messel can start to work on preparing those contracts hopefully um we will be on april 13th doing renewal of teachers and and staff and administrators at that time and then it takes about a week to get all of the behind the scenes names salaries everything put into a contract so about a week after the governing board approves those then we can start to push out contracts for next year can you talk just a little bit about employee groups um you know this this has totally been about certified staff um can you talk about classified staff or um what we've been doing or what we can do under those circumstances absolutely so the other employee groups we every single year we we look at them as a whole and then based on the needs of the district the students involved for example paraprofessionals currently we put a freeze on hiring those we had 60 vacant positions that were unfilled and we've closed those and taken down those postings in order to hopefully utilize our current staff in the following year but every year we look at the staffing across the board for support staff for psychologists speech and language etc and based on the needs of the district we determine where they'll be placed all right thank you in closing we're hopeful that our enrollment will increase allowing us to open and post positions in the near futures future are there any other questions that i can answer for you regarding this presentation mr carr um mr mcintosh you know because we approached this at a district-wide level versus versus a school specific there may be areas where where one school was impacted more than another or where one department within the school was impacted as miss miss wood kind of alluded to that i think in her question does that mean that we will have openings to make sure that we keep those counts i mean if i don't have enough english teachers in a specific high school and i can't necessarily transfer because there were too many in that department across the schools would we be backfilling that through openings that is correct and those types of situations we would post the position those who are affected by the reduction in force if they hold the certification would be welcome to reapply for that position and that was going to be my follow-up question so thank you mr jenny i'm gonna go back um to your historical um first slide i think it was late 2009 the arizona state legislature revised ars 15-502 you don't have to go back there but you know just based on my own personal experience from many years ago it was always done by seniority could you talk to a little bit about what happened or how that was changed so that we have a clear understanding that it has nothing to do with seniority it doesn't the reduction if i'm understanding your question miss you getting mrs eugetti the the law changed at that time where you prohibited using seniority right so shortly yeah prior to that it was that was the way it was done but then they actually came out and said you cannot do that anymore that is correct i think part of that was because so many first-year teachers were ripped and were in in the midst of the beginning or wherever we were at when it relates to a teacher shortage and i think that they thought that partly that would damage people going into the profession even further so any more questions this wood yes on your previous slide before questions you you have student teacher ratio which you addressed and then administrative cuts and other employee groups i believe you you talked about that a little bit what i didn't hear what you said about administrative cuts so currently our administrative cuts we are down 7 ft between the district office as well as site administration for next year i know that community ed has i think 50 un filled non-posted they're down 50 positions for next year and we will continue to review those staffing patterns based on our student enrollment and if enrollment comes up then and there's a need that community had then we would add a position the same could be could be said for those other positions that were cut some instructional coaches um were unfilled left unfilled for next year and will not be replaced okay so really really what we're talking about is um all of these things and some other difficult decisions that we have tonight is really driven by the loss of enrollment and that's what's that's what's bringing this to the head here and that's why we're discussing these kinds of things is that's how we are funded and that's how we determine the rest of the structure of the funding so that is correct it's difficult i hope this helps clarify the process used in determining those employees affected so i i do have a question for dr mccord is just obviously we want to bring people back as much as we can bring students back can you give us any indications of what we'll be doing as a district to work on that and to try and draw students back into our schools we continue through our marketing department don antestenis our director of communications and marketing she's worked with all of our schools to develop some kind of marketing strategy to ensure people understand that we have programs we have space available and we're ready to bring their students into our schools and to recapture some of those students that have left we you know it's hard to determine exactly where they when i think you and i had that discussion before and that is some have gone to charter some have gone to other school districts some have stayed home and some we have a difficult time knowing where they're at and so we've we've got to make the effort and we have all of our schools have picked up the phone and called those students that have left letting them know that you know back when we opened up fully that our schools are back open please come back and we did receive some more students through that method and we're going to continue doing that as we move into the next school year all right thank you i appreciate it dr mccord that's been an issue throughout the state of arizona not just gilbert where they actually don't know where some number of students are correct that is correct i think it i i read something the other day and i don't know how accurate is but it was a little over 30 000 students that were possibly unaccounted for i know that you're asking for questions but i would like to just make a comment before you do that miss beth had something to contribute now i'll refer to you i wanted to address mrs wood's um comment or question so um there's a significant difference between the reduction in force today versus back in 2009 because back in 2009 the state did not have the funding available to fund the students that were here in our schools so just to reiterate what mr mcintosh said we're not increasing class sizes we're just trying to right-size the number of teachers to the number of students we have so really it is totally based upon the enrollment thank you miss pets miss you jenny um without getting into the number of years that i've been doing this i a year ago we had to make some difficult decisions about graduation and a number of other things and i remember saying more than one time that this was the most difficult decision i've ever had to make as an educator and i never every time i said it i never thought that the next decision would be worse than the previous one but i have to say that for me personally this decision tonight is probably the most difficult decision that i've ever had to make and it is not it's out of our control you know i believe that everybody sitting in this room who's had anything to do with any of this has done it with the best of intentions including all of our principals and and everyone that's involved and you know i have to tell you that i've lost sleep my heart has been broken i know a number of people that are involved in this and it is not easy for any of us to have to to even be having this discussion and i can only say i'm very sorry and i hope i just hope i never have to make this statement again that the next decision i have to make is worse than this one thank you miss eugetti and just to follow up a little bit on some of what miss betts has presented and what mr macintosh has presented along the way since march of last year we have convened and discussed uh various mitigation procedures at as each critical point presented itself dollars from the rescue plan and how that first batch would be used working through substitute issues and trying to mitigate the impact to the individual and to the district in that regard application equipment and and software for online instruction and how to fund that and on and on and on the one-time money is almost a magic trick in some regards because it's the aggregate of funds that are available for one-time use to try to mitigate a hole in the budget which we did not create and so i concur with what miss eugetti has said and probably the sentiment of this entire board this is a human enterprise and we don't miss cue on that issue not one bit it's important because people's lives are a part of this decision and we know that and we want you to know that we know that uh nonetheless we're backed into a corner and must make some decisions for the benefit of the students in the district the remaining faculty and staff in the district and for the community at large there has certainly been enough criticism in the emails we've received regarding mismanagement lack of creativity on the part of the board and and staff lack of foresight etc and that's a paraphrasing of what it is i've interpreted but i don't believe i'm incorrect in some of those interpretations and uh we're sorry that that is the opinion of some but we will continue with all due diligence to do the best we know how to do to make things right for this organization for this district and ultimately and focused directly on the students we don't disagree that students have been out of school long enough they've been they've been back in now for a short period of time we're hoping that at some point between now and august again that will start to approach some sense of normalcy whatever that means so on behalf of the board we respect the work that everyone is doing throughout the district both on the staff and in the classroom and we appreciate all of the efforts and we apologize that we are at this point but we are dr mccord anything dad you know sir i'd just like to thank uh miss bets and mr mcintosh for their presentation again i i hope it helped bring some clarity it doesn't make the end result of the message feel any better but i hope this helps out to a degree thank you sir we move to item four which is a request to speak to the governing board we have about 19 individuals who have indicated they have an interest in doing that before we play the recorded message let me request on behalf of everyone here including the board that as you listen to the message uh pay closer attention to this than usual the request is that we refrain from any personal attacks or insults if that occurs then we'll be directing staff to bring the mic silent we'll have three minutes to speak if you exceed that point we'll also bring the mic silent so please assist with that and before i set the lineup we'll play the recorded message please the board may make an open call to the public during a public meeting subject to reasonable time place and manner restrictions to allow individuals to address the public body on an issue within the jurisdiction of the public body at the conclusion of the open call to the public individual board members may respond to criticism made by those who have addressed the board may ask the staff to review a matter or may ask a matter be to be put on a future agenda however members of the board shall not discuss or take legal action on matters raised during the open call to the public unless the matters are properly noticed for discussion and legal action during the open call the board requests that speakers refrain from voicing complaints against school personnel or any person connected with the district as it may impact due process rights policy k e k e b and k e d are provided by the board for disposition of legitimate complaints including those involving individuals forms required for use of these policies can be obtained from the gilbert public schools website first three speakers will be katrina nall angela fellpot and mike zadoluski katrina hi my name is katerina nall i'm a senior at mesquite high school and i came here to speak to you today about why i think that you should not be firing 152 members of the gps staff before i read what i wrote on my way here there were a few things that were said tonight that kind of threw me for a little bit of a loop the main one being the amount of amount of money spent on cleaning supplies because i for one have spent this entire year seeing teachers buying their own tissues buying their own hand sanitizer buying their own clorox wipes or not having all of these supplies in their classrooms and like a normal high school year there have still been days where the bathrooms have no soap stalls have no toilet paper so i'm really just wondering where all these magical schools of school supplies and cleaning supplies came from because i know that as a person who's been in person for the last about for the last majority of the school year i haven't seen them and superintendent mccord's letter to the teachers he states that it is that is that it is imperative that students needs remain at the center of the decision-making process tonight how are students needs being met by laying off teach laying out teachers with no warning how are students needs being met by only laying off teachers who have dedicated large portions of their lives to our schools who run academic departments clubs and student organizations you have contributed you have attributed the riffing to low enrollment and yes i will admit that i've seen firsthand that enrollment records were low this year however it is irresponsible and short-sighted to fire 152 teachers teachers will be back in our classrooms as quickly as they are safely able to do so and enrollment numbers will subsequently go back up coveted cases will continue to go down and enrollment numbers will subsequently go back up 16 people who are 16 year old 16 years old or older will not be able to get vaccinated which will help drive up enrollment numbers i believe one of the main issues here tonight is that you're thinking of these teachers that you're firing as only numbers and part of your budget the teachers you are firing are people like miss zachary who's the only arts teacher at my school whose passion for creativity coats the walls of the b building she is certified to teach ap classes mrs kristen thomason the only asl teacher at our school whose classroom has served as a safe space for students for years she has instilled in her students a love of an entire language and culture she is certified to teach weighted classes and dual enrollment and before the cleveland 19 pandemic was going to bring asl 4 to our to my school for the first time you're firing tracy weaver who speech and debate team has helped so many at mesquite find their voices and learn how to speak out about what is right like i am doing here tonight she is currently getting her second master's degree and is certified to teach ap and dual enrollment classes you've said tonight multiple times that what you care about is keeping certified teachers yet when i look to who is being laid off at my school the majority of them have worked here for years our department heads our foreign language teachers or specialized teachers who cannot easily be replaced they are the most certified teachers at our school they are the best of us and if you get rid of them why would people come to come to the school district why would they come and how will you get more people if you lay off every certified teacher time [Applause] and katarina i apologize for mispronouncing your name good evening my name is angela philpot and i'm a 7th and 8th grade teacher of english language learners at desert ridge junior high school i am a parent of three gilbert school students here in the district and i was rift last friday and not only was i rift without any warning but my twin daughters go to my school and so now they're wondering do we have to leave our school so i can follow my mom to whatever job that she has my son goes to desert ridge high school as well and he's wondering do i have to leave in the middle of my high school career to go to another school because my mother was rift i'm a 23 year veteran teacher with the master's degree and i was brought here because our ged program and our elo for adults program was in corrective action being placed in 25th out of 25 schools statewide so i came from the apache junction school district specifically for gilbert public schools to help get their program out of corrective action the first year i took over that program it went to 13th in the middle of all programs statewide over mesa public schools rio salado college and cochise college the next year it was number one in the state and we were program of the year and ged program of the year and if you're surprised to hear those accomplishments that i did for this district in two years it's because it wasn't publicized because the students that i teach or the unseen disproportionately um forgotten students in my in this district and so i do speak up for them quite a bit because my classrooms are 100 students of color and during this pandemic they have endured more than you can imagine i've had students that have had to work and help support their families because their parents were laid off i've had students without water and electricity and our social workers had to do that and so during a global pandemic when we should be providing more stability for our students that is a student center committee we're going to lay off their favorite and beloved teachers they're teachers that care about them now i'm sure that you've heard i'm also a fish a financial officer of an organization as well i'm the treasurer of the largest labor union and i provide financials just like this happened tonight every month and i keep my board informed and we've had to talk about riffs with members and with staff and they always know about it way ahead and i always have great financial data so that way we can make those educated decisions so no one is surprised and so that's why for me to be surprised that i was on a list to be ripped with having an elementary license a secondary license an adult license an endorsement in early childhood esl and secondary english as well as being accepted to law school before i came here it's just shocking and my students are now wondering who's going to be our ell teacher and sure you could transfer somebody else but is that what my students specifically need and centuries and centuries of education employees have dedicated their lives here and even though you say that it wasn't taken into account you can't look like you can't ignore that data and so i really hope that you table this decision and wait for that april money from [Applause] next three martha romero todd signer and sue frye excuse me though i think i may have skipped someone mike did i skip you yes sir go right ahead no problem thank you for letting me speak today my wife works at this district and my daughter attends gps schools my wife has been a teacher for 25 years 21 years in gilbert public schools she's a department head for years and the last 10 years as an ap government teacher for less aid over the last five years she has given up her prep hour to teach an additional class she has taught summer school since 2003 and she has been an online teacher for gps in the first when it first began in 2007 for several years she has she was a coordinator for curriculum for the district i mentioned all of this to let you know how involved my wife is with this district on multiple levels she's a quiet steady force on her at her campus she doesn't like or need the spotlight would rather work behind the scenes and helps the school and her district explain one recent example in the last year when the district shut down the teachers had to work at home her coordinator asked her to write a curriculum for the last six weeks of school for the whole for the all the district teachers to use in their subject i remember spending hours in front of their computer searching links i'm looking for other ways to create a curriculum and was engaging in students to learn remotely via computer for her district and all the all the teachers to use she did not get paid for any of this she you will not see this in her professional development folder she was not given a certificate she did this without hesitation i don't even think the administration at this school even is aware but my wife she doesn't search out the need for the spotlight she finds great reward and satisfaction to do her job this fall we had to make a decision on whether she should return to brick-and-mortar teacher due to her health issues she wanted to stay at home i wanted her to stay at home and teach me morally she would not and could not because as she told me her ap students needed her this is why she was holding tutoring sessions twice a week and throughout the whole month for of april including giving a practice exam every single day i worry that she would come contract covid she just went along with her day wore her mask and did whatever she need to do and again that is my wife how she did how she is dedicated to her profession and district you cannot find a more highly work working effective teacher than my wife for this district but after hearing some of the names of others who are on this rift list i realized she's not the only one she did not want to speak today and she's simply too shattered to speak for herself but again that is my wife quiet steady leader for this district how can this district take someone who has been highly effective teaching to every evaluation thank you time good evening this has been a very difficult year due to the covid global pandemic i would say the hardest year in my 19 years in the classroom teachers in gps and across the nation struggled with a new way of teaching with slow internet connection and many obstacles to hurdle over even though it was a very difficult year teachers were dedicated to give their students the best education experience through virtual hybrid through virtual hybrid and in-person teaching many decisions have been made on the back of this pandemic that will impact our district for years to come in january employees at houston elementary school were notified that the district is proposing to review to repurpose the houston building to newly traditional school that's where i work as if the year wasn't already stressful enough add the stress of closing our school worrying about where we will be teaching what position and where our students will end up even though repurposing the houston building has been rumored for many years i can honestly say i was shocked that the district decided to propose to close houston in the middle of a global pandemic it really feels like the district is not looking at the social emotional well-being of the students and staff of houston elementary rather than the financial aspects the community loves the students and staff of houston elementary we are devastated about the proposed closure we are a family this past friday the district notified 152 employees with a reduction in force notice stating their contract will not be renewed for the 2021-2022 school year again this came out as a shock employees were called into a room at the end of the day with other colleagues and read a script by their principal they were not given a reason or allowed to ask questions the lack of compassion is truly disheartening many of our veteran teachers who have dedicated their careers to gps are in good standing and have exceptional evaluations they deserve a right to see their rubric and know why this happened to them more students will come back to gilbert next year therefore the district will need to hire more teachers when this happens employees rift should be on a callback list to return before hiring others gilbert public schools is supposed to be a family the 152 employees rift on friday did not feel care and compassion from gps i urge the board not to approve the rift until all 152 employees have had an opportunity to see their rubric and ask questions to better understand moving forward i ask that gps work on their transparency and ways of communication thank you time [Applause] hello my name is todd seamer i'm a business owner here in gilbert my wife is a doctor i run her office we have two kids a freshman at gilbert public or gilbert high school and a sixth grader neely thank you all the teachers this year you've been amazing um there's a quote by an author udai yadali failure is the greatest teacher so one year ago the children of gilbert were thrown into a tailspin a back and forth between politicians public health bureaucrats and the media they were denied the very thing they needed the most a stable learning environment months passed and then mass mandates were enacted school was taken back online students were forced to stay at home under contract contact tracing policies you all have sat in this room before and heard the concern of parents we want in-person learning as an option you saw the decline in enrollment the transferring of students but did you ask yourself why did you launch an investigation into what the cause was of declining enrollment did you call together parents to ask how you could do a better job to bring their students back you sit here today with an opportunity an opportunity that's squandered will leave you more out of touch with gilbert parents and a continued decline in enrollment parents have spoken they want a choice a choice of in-person learning a choice of whether they put a mask on their child or not a choice about whether to vaccinate their child or not and still have the opportunity of in-person education do not rush to be rescued from this consequence of your actions sit in this moment learn from this moment i want to leave you with this one more quote by henry ford he said failure is simply the opportunity to begin again this time more intelligently thank you dr santa cruz dr mccord and governing board i'm sue frye and i am actually speaking on a different topic than most of my my fellow speakers here tonight but on behalf of the gilbert education association i would like to thank the governing board and all people who participated in developing and reviewing the memorandum of understanding that is also on the agenda for this evening i would like to say that we we appreciate being a part of that process and we will continue to make input into that process and do the best we can for the employees of gilbert public schools thank you thank you next three speakers amber franco carrie vanderpool and amy rowe good evening gps board members and dr mccord i'm speaking to you today as a president of the gilbert education association and on behalf of my members and fellow educators in the district this past friday a number of our colleagues received notice from the district that their employment will end at the conclusion of the school year these are loved and committed educators that have dedicated their lives to gilbert's children many were shocked and angered and receiving this notice on friday at the end of their work day these teachers are valued they are essential and it will be a huge loss to the district our gilbert community and gea this reduction in force isn't about good or bad teachers teachers on this list have worked successfully in this district in some cases for over 20 years they have built relationships with their students and the communities they serve they have changed lives this reduction in force is about the consequences of dealing with the pandemic in a state that has not proved to value educators or public education at a level necessary to maintain the high quality staff that we have enjoyed here in gps if you have been impacted by this rift my heart truly goes out to you you are valued and you will be missed by your students your gea brothers and sisters and the gilbert community thank you for your hard work and your commitment to education and gps still as the magnitude of the rifts become evident colleagues and members reached out to gea for support clarification and understanding there are a lot of unanswered questions gea agrees that in order to move forward and accept these difficult circumstances those with questions need to have their questions answered and transparency needs to be apparent we know the decision to riff was not taken lightly together we have overcome some of today's greatest struggles this year gea has worked collaboratively with board members and gps district office from summer meetings to address the safe reopening of schools to navigating how to handle the pandemic surge and all the while still effectively educating our students and through all of this discussions to do what's right for students staff and the community were always at the forefront every stakeholder had a voice in the room moving forward we would like the district to continue with the relationship and trust we have built together and continue to allow a teacher's insight and voice into the future discussions regarding educator concerns we know we cannot fix the past but looking forward gea as a partner stakeholder and voice for educators believes will be beneficial for us to be more involved in these processes in closing during these difficult times we are called to be compassionate empathetic to the educational world who have faced throughout the year with unprecedented situations and the effects of the pandemic we'd also like to thank our educator community and friends of educators your outpouring of support means the world to us during this difficult time through it all and moving forward i know our motto still ring thank you good evening my name is carrie vanderpool i am the parent of four children two of which attend gilbert public schools my oldest is a sophomore who is six foot eight taller and larger wingspan than michael phelps join the swim team for the first time this year try and get all of that under control a coach that guided him gave him some advice mid cramp in the pool i heard this advice come out of my son's mouth when he had to make the decision to drop down to the jv level to spend more time with his best friend in varsity volleyball a goal that he had made for himself for like two years yet this coach's advice rang in his ears this coach is dave peters he is a teacher at gilbert public schools in the gilbert high school he i'm sorry i'm shaking i'm really ramped up i'm so sorry um he took on the swim team at campo verde high school since it opened in 2009 in 2019 there is a picture of this board with that championship team right here how proud are you to call yourself the gilbert school that has coach of the year on their staff and yet he is the one included in his that got rift on friday he has spent 19 years teaching at gilbert public schools one year away from retirement one year how many teachers does it take to touch a child's life how many teachers can you say you remember had an effect on your life do you remember that teacher there are good teachers they're great teachers and then there's gilbert public school teachers these people have dedicated their life and their time to our kids like many others gave up a passing hour or a prep hour to take on yet another class so when does he do his prep hour at home on his own time the english department at campo has been annihilated the german department at gilbert public gilbert high school has been annihilated at what point are we going to allow our children our hope for the future the people that we are saying this is where the bar is rise to meet it here is mediocre examples of who to be or are we going to say here is the bar rise to meet it i hope that you take the time to table this topic this announcement was given very cold very unfeeling it was deemed an emergency meeting that was mandatory that was awful absolutely awful i hope this discussion amy good evening governing board members and community it's hard to follow that i i work at gilbert high school my name is amy rowe i am a special education teacher at gilbert high school and a graduate of gilbert high school i have over a decade experience teaching in this district i need seven more years to retire up until about a week ago i anticipated ending my seven last years at gilbert high school and retiring proudly for my alma mater but i'm here tonight to express my concerns excuse me with the implementation of the student-centered staffing reduction in force from the consent agenda i was going to reference some board policy and things that i had emailed you earlier but i see that the board policy was not exactly what was used as our interpretation from my understanding from the presentation earlier it did clarify a lot of things for me so thank you for that information it appears that our brand new principal of our high school was asked to evaluate our entire school and rank every single teacher at our campus not knowing what cutoff scores would be not necessarily knowing how those may be used but knowing they would be reported to a committee that was looking at possible riffing i can say honestly that all the teachers i work with he's probably not observed the majority of them at no fault of his own and that is very concerning to me i am concerned that on my personal campus teachers who are exemplary as the man who's been spoken about earlier has been rift while we have teachers that all of us on campus could point to and say that person is weak and needs more support to grow and move into that role i am upset that we have lost two special education teachers on our campus who are fully certified while we still have two remaining on our campus who are not certified and two who will be leaving after the end of the year which means we may have up to six vacancies on our campus in one department the most difficult department to staff i am also concerned that criteria talked about this um idea of contributions to the district at large and we are riffing teachers who are dual certified ap teachers special education teachers ell teachers math teachers at the secondary level and people who have developed programs on campuses that we cannot replace these people amassing the board table this consent agenda item until you have reviewed all the rubrics used to create this list of people to see that the board policy was actually followed i'd like you to survey the staff the gps employees to gather that accurate information about who is planning to leave that hasn't put in for it yet so that we can use natural attrition rather than riffing people on a friday after work also the money from the american rescue plan that was approved by congress how is that being used to retain teachers oh snap i'm going to run out of time i'll get cut off but i want you to know what will be cancelled destroyed at gilbert high school next year due to this time [Applause] next speakers will be heather bartlett elsie velasquez and bonnie hickman good evening president santa cruz members of the board and dr mccord my name is heather bartha and i currently have the privilege of teaching honors algebra 2 and geometry at campo verde high school i moved here from tucson during a pandemic um i want to thank you tonight for clarifying some of the reasons why i may have been ripped but i am going to ask you for my rubric to find out where i fell short this year as an educator this decision extends beyond my career and this affected my family as well because of my position we decided to open a role my daughter as a kindergartner in quartz hill this year as you can imagine this year has been quite a struggle trying to balance and manage distance learning from my students as well as my kindergartner and it was heartbreaking to tell her that she would not be able to continue at gps for first grade in the school that she loves with friends she has finally managed to make during this unstable year i understand the vote tonight is probably more of a formality in that your your minds have been made up um i want to thank parents for giving me such wonderful students to teach this year to dr cox and the other camp over the administration you did an awesome job this year i cannot imagine the weight of the board's decision has put on you and know that i am truly grateful to have been part of the campo family if even for one year and most importantly to my students you were absolutely amazing you've had to overcome so much this year and you did thank you for being wonderful this year has been stressful and it shows how strong you are that you made it through it has been an honor to be your teacher and i am grateful that i got to know each and every one of you i want to thank the district for the opportunity to teach here our students faculty staff and administration are amazing and i will miss them thank you [Applause] elise hi uh good evening uh my name is elise fieskis and i am a gps k-12 kid and up until this current school year i spent the entirety of my teaching career in the district i've worked in gilbert for almost 10 years i love educators i've loved educators since i was a child i was raised by family of educators and becoming one myself has been the best decision of my life and giller public schools is a big part of that the gps educators were a big part of that i am sensitive to the task you have before you to respond to serious budget concerns and a major decline in student enrollment has been cited as a big reason for the need for budget cuts and there has been a promise to work towards increasing student enrollment in the coming years i'm here as a proud gps kid my beloved sixth grade teacher is sitting next to me my former high school principal president dr santa cruz sits on the board other familiar faces are here too several of my former students sit in the overflow room what i'm pointing out here is the power of relationships you know what helps drive student enrollment relationships how does a school board support their educators honoring relationships it drives everything in our schools save the money on marketing efforts and honor the people who are behind those shiny programs my heart hurts to see this must to see this much institutional knowledge years of experience expertise and powerful relationships leave the district it's one simple ask please honor and protect these relationships thank you bonnie yep she was my sixth grade student um um well respected board and dr mccord thank you for allowing me to address you this evening my name is bonnie hickman and i have been with the district for 26 years as a sixth grade teacher i'm speaking as an individual and not as a representative of any organization as i will be on phased retirement after this school year most of this the decisions that have and will be made will probably not affect me personally i do not agree with the way in which teachers were notified of this reduction in force i understand that in our litigious society it was probably necessary to do it like this we hear constantly about the shortage of teachers in the state and unless people were paying close attention to board meetings and the district financial situation or were members of the gea it's very probable that they had no idea that a riff was even a possibility unlike back in 2008 when we all knew we were in a financial crisis however that's water under the bridge i would just like to request that the board consider smoothing the fed the ruffled feathers and do right by the teachers who have served through such an incredibly difficult year and were most likely blindsided by this decision according to our memorandum of understanding teachers must have been in the district for a minimum of five years and have attained at least 25 days of sick pay in order to request the sick days to be reimbursed as you know many teachers held on to their sick days fearing that they would have to use them if they became ill with covid as the cares act did not cover us after january my concern is for the stability of the classrooms for the remainder of the school year the students have also ridden this crazy train right along with us and they deserve to have their real teachers with them for the last 39 and a half days that remain in this school year i would like to propose that the board consider overriding the guidelines in the current mou and allow teachers with less than five years service in the district and or less than 25 days in their sick bank to be paid out at the end of the school year maybe there needs to be a caveat placed in it that they can't use more than a day or two of the sick leave during the remainder of the school year my concern is that these teachers have earned these sick days and if they know they will not get reimbursed for them they may choose to take them between now and the end of the year i looked on the substitute line and the district it looks like is attempting to prepare for this to happen but it seems like a gesture of goodwill to the teachers who are leaving and also stability for our students to reimburse the teachers for the sick days which they have already accrued again i want to thank you for your unpaid service to our community thank you [Applause] next three speakers heidi leyva paul del rio and luke davis sorry about that i was in the overflow room i graduated from gps ghs specifically in 2010 so i experienced those first riffs that we were talking about hi dr santa cruz [Music] i'm so so angry and so saddened by the current rifts i'm not an educator i'm not a parent and i'm not a student but i'm here because this affects me in fact it affects all of gilbert and the surrounding areas arizona not to be cliche but kids are our future i'm here because of the gps educators that profoundly i'm going to get emotional that profoundly affected my life and i'm here because of the way that the form the other riffs affected my life then during the 2009 riffs i lost a lot including both speech and debate coaches several ap teachers and one of my itinerants and so much more i won't go on as the first speaker did an excellent job relaying what is happening to her right now you cannot tell me that these are not like the rifts in 2009 because to me they look exactly the same but now we're in a pandemic and now according to your own data we have a significantly larger budget this explanation tonight quite frankly only upset me more as a board as educators yourself i urge you to do better i don't think that this is an acceptable way to go not during a pandemic but not ever in 2018 i offered to make sack lunches for children affected by the walkouts my team and i got thousands of requests for lunches by far the majority of people asking for help were teachers for their students as always they were putting their students first when i went to costco to buy sac lunch items in bulk i got asked multiple times if i was a teacher because so many other teachers were there and as they always do spending their hard earned two small paychecks on their students and now we're in a pandemic i can't say it enough we're in a pandemic if you follow through with this rift you'll be hurting incredible teachers you'll be hurting students of all backgrounds but especially those most at risk you'll be hurting the city of gilbert and you will need to answer for it please i know this was not an easy decision but i push back that there's not another route to go i push back that 400 loss enrollments how can you project something in a pandemic please i know you're educators yourself i know you care i need you to do better gilbert students and teachers deserve it hi my name is paul del rio thank you to the board for allowing me to speak now i don't have a prepared speech i didn't think i needed one due to the fact that i have now been a proud member of this great community since 2002 what drove me here the schools both my boys went to gilbert public schools and what draws anybody here why do people build homes uh for the schools the schools in my opinion is the core of any community but what's at the core of any good school great teachers longevity and what they teach our kids it's not the how great the school looks or your best you know you got the best pool or the best track field that all decays but the quality of teaching doesn't decay see that carries on throughout a person's entire life and earlier i heard a little talk about well how are you gonna you know beef up enrollment and i hear a lot about marketing this is its own marketing and it's not a good one see deterring uh this this you know uh firing of teachers it's in this day and age of of you know of social media and just the words gonna get out and just for gilbert public schools alone i'd like to see it build up too i like to see enrollment uh improve but we all know why we're wearing this we're wearing this because of a a pandemic that has turned the entire world on its head and listening to the numbers and i see the numbers and i was watching and i was following along but quite honestly you can't put numbers on the value of great teachers and i do want to follow um on what was said about my son attends campo verde and uh his coach which means who means the world to him he's down to his last year and i know that seniority didn't play a factor and that kind of bothered me a little bit because a person at the end of their at their end of of their career who devoted their life to teaching in this community and this is the way you repay them just wrong and uh i just want i just want to enter the fact that as far as um what was said earlier as i was listening to the board well we don't want to just base it on that because we will deter teaching this deters teaching okay so how you treat your teachers it does its own marketing and the word will get out and you're worried about enrollment this is not going to help and trust me when i say gilbert is growing so as far as the enrollment numbers the folks are going to be out there but they might go to charter they might go to private what's going to bring them into the public school district something to think about thank you luke davis hey um i am a sophomore at gilbert high school and getting rid of the teachers the best teachers all these people that are all the teachers are getting fired they're not the teachers that people don't care about they're the teachers that all the students they love everybody that i talk to they're like oh my favorite teachers they got rifted like why is that the way that you decided to go you know with getting rid of all the best teachers like for example again dave peters he's my german teacher and he's got like so many people that are like how did you get fired you're you're a coach you've been here for 19 years you've never done anything wrong you push people hard you're a great teacher and somehow he still ended up in the rift like that doesn't really make sense and people like outside of our district they all know like kids are texting each other they know what's going on they know hey all these all these students they are leaving because they don't have their favorite teachers anymore all the good teachers are leaving nobody wants to come to these schools nobody's going to come back because nobody's going to tell their friends to come back to the school because they don't have any reason to if all the teachers are gone all the best teachers who are there to support the students why would they tell their friends tell their kids when they grow up why would they tell them go to this school when all their favorite teachers got cut just because they're older you know the older teachers did get cut and i know you said that they didn't but i don't believe that that's true because they the older teachers who get paid more because they're better teachers got cut more and that's that's not the way that it should be done and i think you know there's also what i heard is that gilbert they have six assistant superintendents why why do we need six assistant superintendents to do one man's job and we're firing 152 teachers it just doesn't make sense and that's yeah that's it thank [Applause] our last two speakers are john stevens and nancy munoz good evening staff members board members dr mccord i'm here as a community member i'm bringing up some very important things that people may not understand teachers experience is invaluable the state recognizes this and gives them gives extra money to the district called teacher experience index this when teachers are dismissed with experience you don't only lose through you don't only reduce the amount of money that the district thinks that they will be saving by removing all the experience that you can't that you can't get back is very important is very upsetting when people move to gilbert because of the schools and expect the staff to be supported well you are you are also letting go of nationally board certified teachers teachers with master's degrees many special education teachers teachers with hard to fill positions such as science and math who are very hard to replace these special education teachers that support these students as a special education teacher myself and as a parent of special education students that went through this district i came to gilbert because of special ed not because it was the best place for me to find a cheap home because it wasn't i came to gilbert because my ddd case manager told me gilbert was where i wanted my special education students to be my other concern is the esser funds these can be used to help retain some of the teachers and allow you to use some of that to avoid the reduction in force so that you don't have to scramble in the fall when many teachers won't be available these teachers will have jobs i can tell you that already you are giving up lots of experience and i can tell you from experience my principal came to me this morning and said they are ready to steal up gilbert teachers as soon as they apply another thing you guys can look at that you may not have thought about was freezing salaries this year to avoid removing teachers meet um meet again in the fall when the increase in student enrollment comes back to give teachers pay raises that's where i wanted you to understand these teachers have built relationships with these students and i don't understand how administrators picked these teachers because they were all teachers with lots of experience and it's very sad to hear that my kids teachers may have been ripped i'm not sure who was but my next door neighbor her child is a special education student at gilbert high school and i sure hope his teacher was not rift thank you [Applause] john stevens hello thank you for the opportunity to speak my name is john stevens i'm father of a special needs child that goes to mesquite high school one thing i'll keep it brief and i don't have a prepared speech but one thing i wanted to mention in the program earlier uh it was kind of glossed over somebody mentioned that asked about special needs somebody mentioned that the programs may be moved that that might be something that would happen i'm relatively confident that nobody on this board understands the impact that statement for a child with special needs who very much needs consistency and has every right to stay at the same school their home school where they've gone as as any other kid does and that seems honestly in this district we've lived here for 20 years two kids going through the district one with special needs and it has not been an easy an easy thing to essentially deal with the district and and and keep some consistency in my child's life and really every kid deserves that special needs or not to have that consistency to be able to have the right to go to their their uh their home school and to stay there to so to say to gloss over and to say oh a program might be moved here or there that is a very big statement these kids are coming off of a pandemic many of them don't even understand why they don't see their friends anymore what happened now they're back in school they're not in school they're back in school my son's teacher who is wonderful who knows him runs a great program was let go how this happens i do not understand especially for someone that qualified who who knows their students who's who's valued there and is a very difficult kind of person to find i would urge you very strongly to rethink not only that decision but the decision of just to say oh some programs are going to be moved around like it's nothing it is not nothing it is not rethink that before you act thank you [Applause] okay that was our last speaker we move now to item five which is the consent agenda items uh before we ask for a motion just right on your agenda there is a correction item 15 5.15 the marching band and symphonic strings from highland high school those should be reversed the symphonic strings should be where the marching band is currently and they will be going to hawaii and the marching band will be going to chicago are you talking about 5.15 overnight and out of state rival correct okay that would be the correction i received just before the board meeting from mrs wilson did i state that correctly mrs wilson okay so item five we are open and for emotion i move that we accept the consent agenda as presented thank you miss humphries is there a second all second thank you mr carr it's been moved and seconded that we approve the consent agenda as printed any discussion seeing no discussion we will call for the vote all those in favor of approving the consent agenda as printed please signify by saying aye aye aye all those opposed the same motion carries five zero we're at item six on action items and before i move to that section uh is the board interested in entertaining a brief recess we've got a pretty long agenda i'd welcome that before we get into that okay so with that said then we will recess for five minutes sure the principles were the ones correct what is to prevent the principal from taking out any personal agendas on the teachers specifically gilbert high school if we can call meeting back to order please board members okay good thank you we're back at action item but before we move to item six i would like to thank and recognize representative pollock who has joined us tonight welcome item six we are ready to move to item 6.01 dr mccord anything by way of introduction yes dr santa cruz um 6.01 is the closure of houston elementary and gilbert public schools the recommended action is that it's recommended uh the governing board approved the closure of houston elementary and gilbert unified school district number 41 at the end of the 2020-2021 school year just by understanding we've we've had conversations with the staff we've held three community meetings we've received feedback from the community and this is and then we presented it to the board about a month ago and then this is the next step in in making this happen um as former principal of houston mr mcintosh former principal of houston this is not um something we bring to you with a glee or or a lot of joy this is this is a difficult thing you know we we talked about individuals who were rift tonight and we also talk about a community and i don't want that to to go unnoticed in the evening like tonight because i know that community i know the people that live there that work there and the students that attend the schools this is uh as someone put it earlier this is something that's been coming for a long time and we're at that point but it does not make it any easier at all so i just wanted to interject that as we move through this motion thank you dr mccord and item 6.01 just for information's sake and as we move through 6.016 6.03 you'll hear terminology that's used and that terminology that's used by staff meets the legal requirements because all of these have legal attachments to them and we are simply trying to comply with that so we are meaning no offense those are terms that are in the statutes so item 6.01 we're ready to entertain a motion for closure of houston elementary in gilbert public schools is there a motion so moved thank you mr jetty is there a second second thank you mrs humphries is there any discussion i i would like to make some comments go right ahead someone at the first meeting at houston elementary asked because this is the same square mile where we already closed a previous school gilbert junior high i asked what lessons have we learned from that and since i've been on the board the longest and because i lived those lessons that we learned i i wanted to answer that question um first we as board members do have to make hard decisions we've already made some really hard decisions tonight hard decisions have to be made in a timely fashion and we have to move on because i think one of the most egregious things that came out of the gilbert junior high debacle was that we got new but we closed the school new board members were elected we unclosed the school we came up with a different solution that solution was voted down and so for five years that community got shaken i mean periodically things would come up again and i think that's very unfair and so i know it's hard to make these decisions but they do have to be made in a timely manner the second thing is that our community has to be with us and we've heard from a lot of people tonight and it we've made a hard decision tonight but we do not have the students to support all of the staff that we have and one of the reasons we wanted to make that decision early was so that people have time an opportunity to look and and get a position in another district having lived this i've learned that people leave and big shoes are left to be filled and people step up and fill those shoes but also i've seen us scatter a lot of gems in other places where um they bring up the um the achievement and the the work of another district so the the third thing is i think that um we as board members we have to we can't have an agenda we have to look at items as they come to us and we have to make the best decision we can even even when they're hard decisions because we have to move forward as a district i wanted to mention that i think houston has been a wonderful school we should celebrate all that houston has given to this district um the first thing that i attended as a board member was a 25-year breakfast in december of 2012 and nearly every teacher that stood up that year had started their career at houston and so for many years houston has been the starting ground for wonderful people who have stayed in this district and even become superintendent you know i mean that's a contribution and i i wanted to especially say that i i feel like sam valles is a wonderful principal who stands up for his community he has absolutely let it been very frank and honest about um the feelings of the community both for gilbert junior high and for houston and i look forward to him having many more years in our district and wonderful work to do i know that the district is looking at opportunities for him and i know that there are many many wonderful staff members at houston and i hope that we can work to help them feel welcome as they change to a different school and that students and families will feel welcomed and i have been to burke and neely and i think either choice is a wonderful choice and i know that they will bring that community in and help them to feel a part of the school so while this is a difficult choice and it has been a long time coming and with the financial condition of the district and i i know it's hard but we need to make a decision while it's timely and we need to do it in a way that we don't undo the decision a year or two later and then have to try again i think that it's really important to have the consensus and move forward and and i just want to thank the houston community and staff and principal vallez for all that they have done because it it has been an incredible school and it's not because of the school that we're closing it it's that we have to make some difficult difficult choices again so thank you ms humphries any additional commentary yeah dr santa cruz i do to tag on to to what mrs humphries said and i would like to also add mr mcintosh and dr mccord may have been a principal but i was a founding teacher i started teaching and i didn't start teaching because i've been teaching for a long i was teaching for a long time but i went to houston the first year when it was at the holding school 87 and i think uh dr mccord and mr mcintosh were in first and second grade at the time uh i'm not sure maybe they were held back or whatever but at any rate um i remember how exciting it was to start that new school and um and how at that time and it was it was many years ago but we to think that we are here today after that and i remember at the time it was tempe was going through this and gilbert was just the opposite we were growing like crazy and every year we were opening at school now we're dealing with what tempe dealt with and what other what many other districts have dealt with through the years and so you know it once again it's an it's a very difficult decision but it's as mrs humphrey said we can't have an agenda anyone else seeing no additional commentary we will vote on item 6.01 all those in favor please signify by saying i i those oppose the same motion carries 5-0 item 6.02 is the expansion of burke elementary boundaries for the 2021-2022 school year dr mccord any introductory remarks yes sir it is recommended the governing board expand the attendance boundaries of burke elementary to include the current attendance boundaries of houston elementary for the 21 22 school year students currently assigned to houston elementary will be assigned to burke elementary beginning the 21-22 school year families can also decide to attend neely traditional academy thank you sir we're ready to entertain a motion on item 6.02 is there a motion i move that we expand the burke elementary boundaries for the 21-22 school year thank you mr jetty is there a second all second thank you mr carr any discussion the expansion the word expansion uh i hope can be interpreted as increased opportunities for that student population that aggregate population of burke and houston merging to become a student body that is bigger and more able to receive the kinds of additional programming that a larger population of students can afford with that said we're ready for a vote all those in favor of approving item 6.02 please signify by saying aye aye all those oppose the same motion carries five zero item six point zero three location move for neely traditional academy to 500 east houston avenue beginning the 2021 school year dr mccord any introduction it's just recommended the governing board approved the move of neely traditional academy to 500 east houston avenue gilbert arizona 85234 for the 21-22 school year you dr mccord motion for item 6.03 i motion that we move neely traditional academy to 500 east houston avenue for the 2021 2022 school year thank you mrs humphries is there a second a second thank you miss wood any discussion no discussion this is uh ready for a vote i was going to say something and i changed my mind uh all those in favor of item 6.03 please signify by saying aye hi those pose the same motion carries 5-0 item 6.04 is a resolution for closing a site location at 321 west juniper avenue dr mccord introductory remarks yes sir i'll state the recommended action and read the resolution it is recommended the governing board approved the resolution closing school site located at 321 west juniper avenue gilbert arizona at the end of the current school year subject to approval by the arizona school facilities board ars 15-341-g the resolution states uh resolve that gilbert public schools governing board has voted on march 30th 2021 that subject to arizona school facilities board approval in accordance with ars 15-341-g school site facilities located at 321 west juniper avenue gilbert arizona will be closed at the end of the current school year the reasons for the changes are one as a result of declining enrollment in certain areas of the economic efficiency considerations the governing board has approved the closure of houston elementary school at the end of the current school year which is presently operating at 500 east houston avenue gilbert arizona two neely traditional academy which is currently operating at 321 west juniper avenue gilbert arizona will move to 500 east houston avenue gilbert arizona location beginning with the 2021 2022 school year for the resolved that the gilbert public schools governing board respectfully request the arizona school facilities board approval to close school site located at 321 west juniper avenue gilbert arizona effective at the end of the current school year in accordance with ares 15-341-g thank you dr mccord you have heard the rationale and the resolution is there a motion for item 6.04 so moved thank you ms wood is there a second i'll second thank you mr carr it's been moved and seconded is there any discussion dr santa cruz i haven't commented on the last several items go right ahead thank you i just want to kind of glump one set of comments rather than making comments on each one um closing the school repurposing the school these are hard decisions we recognize that we're impacting neighborhoods many of you have already said that i just wanted to want to say that we recognize this is another decision we're making tonight that's disrupting the lives of staff it's disrupting the life of students it's it's not made lightly um and we we hope uh as we've discussed this and previous school closings we hope that in the end the pain that is immediate leads to better benefit in the long term and we know that that doesn't reduce the pain today um but uh just just want to convey to all those affected in whichever direction that it really is our goal to lead to long-term benefit as painful as the short-term and immediate impact is thank you mr carr anything else no additional commentary then we will vote on item 6.04 all those in favor of approving the resolution and the rationale associated with the resolution please signify by saying aye aye all those oppose the same motion carries 5-0 item 6.05 school calendar revision for school years 2021 22 22 23 and 23 24.

thank you mrs humphries is our second second thank you mr it's jetty moved and said i didn't do you have a question sorry i was just going to open up your discussion and our question go ahead and make sure okay um sorry i thought you were going to move towards the vote so i wanted to get my question can you just explain that the flexible spending account is that with all the different insurance options and how is that different from a health savings account so um yes the flexible spending account is allowed um for uh is it a lot i don't see any i don't it's not the age yes so the flexible spending account is associated with an employee that knows that they will have a variety of expenses and are willing to put money aside to meet those expenses not just health benefits but also child care etc when so the fsa is only eligible under the ppo it's not eligible under the high deductible health care plans under those circumstances they would have an hsa so the flexible spending account the employee is able to put money aside to make those expenditures and it is tax-exempt so it's not the money that they put aside is not taxed however there is a risk so if they don't need it all during the year it is forfeited where the hsa once the money is taken from your paycheck but you have to be a participant in the high deductible health care plan in order to participate in the health savings account and the money stays with you forever it goes into your personal account and there's no forfeiture of the monies but it can only be used for medical expenses and cannot be used for child care expenses mrs betts i think an example of this if if i'm correct please help me is like if you know that your child is going to have to have braces that's when you would do that this one because that would you know you know you're gonna have to spend fifteen hundred dollars on braces this year and that's a great example can an employee opt for both hs hsa and flexible spending no you have to be a member of the ppo plan to to have a flexible spending account okay and the limit is 2500 to set aside and it's front loaded and then deducted from the employees pay throughout the course of the year and when this is open for open enrollment i suspect that there is a plan to present that to employees somehow correct okay those will all be options for employees just like they select their insurance option during open enrollment so some years they want the ppo plan and then they may decide due to their family circumstances to move to the high deductible health savings account okay all right any other commentary discussion okay we will vote on item 6.08 all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye those opposed same motion carries 5-0 item 6.09 base rate stipends and supplemental pays for 2021 2022 school year dr mccord introduction yes it's recommended governing board approved the 22 base rate schedule stipends and supplemental pays as presented this is something we bring to you on an annual basis for your approval thank you dr mccord and you have had an opportunity to review those in your packet uh is there a motion on item 6.09 i move to approve um 6.09 thank you mrs humphries is there a second a second thank you mrs wood been moved and seconded is there any discussion seeing no discussion we will vote item 6.09 all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye those oppose the same motion carries five 0 request for future agenda items item 7 7.01 as usual if you don't have anything to communicate related to an agenda item this evening please feel free to do so otherwise please transmit that request to mrs wilson and she'll be glad to take your notation and we'll work it into a future agenda item eight board committee reports item 8.01 mrs humphries well the gilbert education foundation is working its way through the scholarship applications and will be notifying the recipients and planning for their scholarship celebration i can't think of the word i believe it's april 22nd so we have that and we'll have several scholarships for students and and educators so i'm very excited about that thank you mrs humphries item 8.02 city of mesa liaison ms wood i don't have anything to report tonight thank you ma'am 8.03 town of gilbert liaison mr carr and 8.04 finance audit committee mr carr i have nothing report this evening thank you thank you sir item 8.05 insurance trust representative miss eugenie all mine were were on the agenda on the agenda and moved and passed item 8.06 as a legislative representative again uh welcomes pollock representative pollock and uh there has been quite a bit of activity downtown some of it favorable some of it not so much but to keep your eye on the ball and respond respond accordingly can i just interject go ahead i just want to again single out mrs pollock sheet she readily communicates with us gives us information asks our opinion i know as a governing board and me as superintendent so i appreciate that thank you for taking the time to do that and i would echo that sentiment mrs pollock all right meeting dates item nine nine point zero one dr mccord thank you dr santa cruz governing board members april 13th we have a board work study and a brief board business meeting april 20th we have a board policy committee meeting april 27th we have a board business meeting thank you sir we have now arrived at item 10 item 10.01 is a motion to adjourn is there a motion so moved thank you mrs humphries i was afraid we were going to camp today is there a second second thank you mr eugetti uh typically the deal of discussion for this item i did dr sanchez thank you who's sitting comments who came tonight thank you for the input that's been given along the way on different decisions thank you for just thank you for that in in this being a difficult subject thank you thank you miss wood appreciate that comment all right that having been said we will vote on adjournment all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye those opposed the same motion carries 5-0 we are adjourned thank you for your attendance this evening both live stream and in person we will see you next time

dr mccord any introduction dr santa cruz these are revisions that we've discussed at work studies as well as during board meetings and we have those final revisions for your approval this evening and these calendars were the same as presented at our last work study session so we will entertain a motion for item 6.05 i move that we approve the school calendars as presented thank you mr humphries is there a second i'll second the motion is there any discussion um i i just wanted to um i have one question and a comment on the 2021 and 2022 calendar the only revision is putting in those professional learning afternoons i guess i would call them is that correct i believe so yes there was one other thing i believe the original calendar that we approved two years ago had a teacher day on the monday after october after fall break and we moved that to before the school started is that correct i believe that is correct yes we talked about that like a year ago yeah we just hadn't entered it officially on the calendar yes we did it this year as well but we hadn't changed that calendar so that was the only other thing you are correct any other comments dr santa cruz i had one question we had had a few emails we've had a few questions about this one thing that came up was how do you determine and i'll ask mr martin since he's there how do you determine which weeks are the breaks why sometimes are we with mesa schools why sometimes are we with chandler schools why are we not with them and that impacts people their neighborhoods their ball teams and the different things to not be in the same so what how does that how is that determined and is there is there any way to change it or is good questions uh well currently right now as you know we're on the one two one which for the upcoming 21 22 school year we will still have one week of fall break and one week of spring break when i uh did look the earlier today at what some of our surrounding districts are doing this upcoming year which was approved originally two years ago all of our fall breaks will overlap with queen creek chandler mesa and higley realizing that many of those districts have a two-week break so our one week of fall break will overlap in the spring next year a year from now higley and chandler we will not overlap but we will overlap with mesa schools and right now when we're only having one week of spring break and fall break we either make it and we have that overlap or not now when i looked at the 22 23 and 23 24 calendars some of the surrounding districts have come out with their calendars and except for queen creek school district but chandler mesa and higley we will overlap with all three of those districts those two years when we have the two weeks of fall break and two weeks of spring break it may only be one week of overlap with some of the districts that also have a two-week fall break or spring break but they will be overlapping and the reason for that is every school district even has a different start and end date too and so even though we're many of us now will be on the 222 calendar some of our sister districts will still be starting a week earlier in july than we are and we always try to even the days out around 90 days per semester and then also even amongst the quarters we try to keep them close to 45 days and the 22 23 calendar and the 23 24 calendar all of our quarters will be between 43 and 47 days per quarter thank you any other discussion sorry i i didn't get to give my comment if i could do that um one of the things i do appreciate about these calendars is the four professional learning afternoons half days for students and then teachers have that professional development in the afternoon and um you know teaching now um it's all about keeping up with change i mean it's not we're not teaching the same thing year after year we we are continually changing innovating and trying something new and that that's a lot to ask for our teachers so giving that them that professional development and giving it into to them in small increments so they can take it use it in their classroom um make it theirs before they get another little dose of professional development i think is is a really helpful tool for them and a way to help them to be excited about the things that they're doing and just giving them that opportunity to do it during their work day because there is a lot to be a teacher and if we had to pay them for all the hours that they put in we wouldn't be able to afford that on the budget either so i really appreciate those professional learning afternoons thank you ms humphries anything else no other commentary then we will vote all those in favor of item 6.05 please signify by saying aye aye those pose the same motion carries 5-0 items 6.06 party administration dr mccord yes we recommend you approving the third party administration tpa services and network for self-funded ppo medical and cobra administration under rfp 21-10-1 we have mrs betts and mr mcintosh here because they run the trust and they will be able to help you out thank you dr mccord we are ready for a motion on item 6.06 those no we won't vote let's have a motion first is there is there a motion so moved thank you mr sun breeze any second second thank you mr g jetty discussion just could you give us a quick overview of the change or the difference sure the next three items 606 607 and 608 are all related to the same rfp we went out to bid to because we were due to take a look at all these specific contracts so generally we do one rfp and often they are awarded to multiple providers so we separated out into three agenda items for each to account for each vendor that was awarded that portion of the rfp the most important of course is the tpa services and the network so by by going to amira ben as our tpa administrator we are able to maintain the blue cross blue shield of arizona network so it really minimizes the disruption to our employee base here in gilbert public schools in addition i'm just going to go through it all the medical utilization management is also the same provider that we have been using and that particular service is to provide case management to those undergoing a long-term illness and then finally the flexible spending account administration was awarded to a new provider we expect that to be of greater benefit to our employees to minimize the administration and the let's see the constraints i think to the use of their flexible spending account so we believe that these three recommendations are in the best interest of our employees and mrs eugenie if you have anything else to add that would be great no i i i agree we're trying to keep things as consistent as possible for everybody okay any additional commentary okay just for the record item 6.06 6.07 6.08 are all associated items but we will vote on 6.06 and the other two independent of one another so those in favor of item 6.06 please signify by saying aye aye all those opposed the same we move now to 6.07 medical utilization is there anything more that needs to be said no sir ready for a motion i move that we approve the medical utilization management rfp 21-10-10-25 thank you mr jetty is there a second a second thank you mrs wood any comment seeing none we'll vote on item 6.07 all those in favor please signify by saying aye okay all those posed the same motion carries 5-0 item 6.08 flexible spending account ms betts also reviewed that with us just a bit ago anything else to be said there dr mccord no sir we will entertain a motion to 6.08 i motion that we um we adopt the flexible spending account administration under rfp 2110 1025.

to 2 40 and i'll be monday tuesday thursday friday so it'll be depending on the cohorts right so uh whether your student is in cohort a or b and so cohort a would be on mondays and thursdays and cohort b is going to be tuesdays and fridays okay yeah i was just concerned because the changing with him is it was not good that's why understood all right thank you so much i appreciate it you are welcome next question is from lisa ing you may i mute your mind hi i have a couple questions um so if we want if high school students want to stay online how do we opt into that is there like do we change something on aries or lisa that's a great question um no you don't have to change anything it stays the exact same thing and so all of everything remains distance learning until after lunch and if you opt in to coming to the in-person teams during those periods um that's up to you and your uh your family so you can continue on with distance learning it's not required that you come for the in person okay and another question yeah so the tim system is just like extra tutoring for what was taught in the morning yeah so the teachers will um you know will definitely let you know what that will consist of but um it can be yeah so it could be reinforcement from what was you know taught in the morning um it could be um just some additional support um it could be you know maybe working on uh you know a project it just depends what the teachers have but essentially yes it's uh would be just you know supporting the things that you've already been learning and getting that extra support and making connections with peers and you know your teachers as well yeah my last question so for the in-person tim's you only see one a class once a month depending on your cohort so you are going to see yes you'll see periods one and two the first week that's right and then the second week is um three and four and then five and six and then it'll it'll week four you're right it goes back to the um one and two again okay thank you you're welcome our next question is from thomas you may unmute your mic yes i was wondering is this going to be the same exact schedule for the middle schoolers as the high schoolers yes thomas that is correct it's the same secondary and so that's going to be 7 through 12 unless you unless the student attends ellington okay that's all i had to ask um also one more question are they are you guys going to let the let us or the students know what classrooms to go to to go to whatever teacher they need to see yes thank you for that question thomas uh so that's exactly right so for example the first week it's going to be period one and period two and so the school will let you know which cohorts you're in are you in cohort a and if you are then you would go to period one on monday and then you'd go to period two on thursday or if you're in cohort b you would go to period one on tuesday and period two on friday so yours your schools will let you know exactly which um which days you would attend and which classes it say that will it say the actual classroom they're going to be in oh you know what that that is a wonderful question yes so um because you would need to have a locator right so you know like what room is it that's what you're asking right thomas yes that's what i was asking yeah perfect um that's a great question um and i i believe it's on aries i could be wrong um but we will find that out for you and we'll go ahead and put that in the q a and then we'll make sure that let the principals know to reiterate that for for the students that's a great question thomas okay thank you you're welcome our next question is from isabella herrera you may mute your mic hi so for those who have a seventh period and decide to stay online how would that work like would they would the teachers be with both the in-person and online students at the same time that's another great question isabella thank you for that and so same thing with um the seventh period it's going to be cohorted as well and so um there will be students that will attend in the seventh period in a cohort a and students that will attend in person and at cohort b so we would if we have a seven period we would all have to go back in person um no it would be there would be a hybrid with that as well that there's a it would be a either one um yeah so there would be uh students who would attend uh in person and then also there would be a hybrid as well uh and on online as well okay thank you our next question is from leticia perez you may unmute your mind hi um i'm sorry i missed the part how often will they be changing the period for example if they're only going one time to period one and then in their next day on campus they're going to period two when does it change to period three period four and then how often does it repeat itself that's a great question um so it's going to repeat um so each week it'll be two periods so the very first week that we do this it will be periods one and two and then the next week it'll be periods three and four and then the next week it'll be five and six and then the next week it'll start over thank you you're welcome our next question is from alba you may mute your mic hello um do you think you guys could email each student the schedule for the distance but that's another great question as well we will definitely have the the schools will communicate how you will receive your locators and so typically when we're in person uh students pick up write their class locator go to you know room 27 for period one um so we want to make sure that you uh that you get those room numbers as well so we'll have the sites communicate out how they'll do that and if it's in aries or not i'm not sure but we will definitely do that for you our next question is from melinda forte you may unmute your mic melinda you may unmute your mind there you go oh thank you uh yes for students going to ellington um can they continue on with the home school that uh the distant learning that they are going through now and uh also um i i heard someone asked a question about uh ellington was different so can you go over that sure i'd be happy to and so ellington the ellington schedule is going to um to follow the elementary model and um uh and your student is in uh is in i'm sorry say it again eighth grade eighth grade okay got it and so the um the elementary model is um is in a an in person and has a hybrid option or a distance learning option and so students um uh are in person uh eight to eleven um and there are some distance learning uh after that as well and so there's um there is a uh an in-person group and then there is an online group as well and i believe lika can you um would you be willing to put that in the chat so it links to the exact schedule that we can put that in there that we have online the secondary schedule um that would be the elementary schedule oh got it yeah yes i can link to the re-ordering yep so melinda we'll put that in the chat for you so then you can see what that schedule is oh okay so it's not mandatory that they uh attend the school no it's no it's not uh they can still they can still attend in a distance learning format all right thank you you're welcome our next question is from a carvajal you may emulate your mic hey caraval do you have a question okay we'll move on to thomas you may unmute your night yeah you guys were saying that it's gonna be broken down into one and two three and four and five and six for the classes is it gonna be monday tuesday thursday and friday for the whole week periods one and two and then the following week could be the same thing monday tuesday thursday friday you'd get the second two classes and so on that's correct thomas that's absolutely right okay our next question is from anna figueroa you may unmute your mic hello so my question is for a student that does not wish to come on campus during the time that the students are supposed to be there will they be joining with through video or would they just be studying at home on their own that's a great question anna thank you for that so um so no they will just be on their own at home because this um this idea of this in person learning with the tims is about any extra support that a student might need it's about um you know mentoring it's about uh just that in person support that that the students can get um what i would recommend um and again it's not mandatory those the students do not have to attend that it's it's optional but we also have um that student family connections in the morning um four days a week from eight to eight thirty in the morning and that's a great time too for um you know for students as well as parents to be able to check in with their teachers if they need some additional support the second question i have is um let's say you know i'm trying to encourage them to go but right now they don't want to once it starts and maybe they feel more comfortable you know after the first i don't know two weeks can't they then go ahead and go back if they decide okay maybe i will go after all 100 yes they certainly can okay thank you they're very welcome and just for clarification right um in the in the morning time when they're going to their classes it'll still be distance learning with their teachers so it won't be asynchronous it'll be i mean there'll be some components of asynchronous but they will be with their teachers our next question is from cindy rocha you may meet your mic yes hi i just have a really quick question if a student is um is fully vaccinated um and they miss a day of the school do they and we go out of town for example do they have to steal quarantine so i i will take that question that's an excellent question right now the um vaccines are um i think the lowest age is 16 years of age is the lowest age for a person to be able to get the vaccination so if you have a 16 year old person or older who has a vaccine i believe the question is if they travel and currently would be traveling out of state would the person still need to quarantine is a question is that is that correct yes yes because my my student that goes to glaston she um she's fully vaccinated already okay my understanding that from the department of public health from los angeles county is yes the the persons who travel outside of the state will need to quarantine for 10 days despite having their vaccines really um i'm sorry because i know that i s the cdc is says otherwise well i don't know if it changes because she's a student i started doing note no i was just gonna just the nuance uh just to to be super duper clear because i think the question was that she traveled out of town and you're making the distinction that the quarantine only pertains if you actually go out of state if you are traveling out of town but you stay in the state of california then that quarantine does not apply correct correct correct and and i just want to um one of the one of the components of the different regulations that have been coming out is that at the state level the uh state uh department of public health or the center for disease control cdc can have a um a order but the um the los angeles county department of public health uh can be stricter than the state's um order and in this case the current california department of public health um it is recommended that individuals quarantine however in los angeles county um the the director reiterated that it is still a requirement to quarantine for non-essential travel outside of the state of california and i believe and will verify this that that still extends to individuals who have gone through their two doses of the vaccine and have gone through the 14 day period after the second administration of the vaccine okay thank you thank our you question is from lisa ing you may um your mind yeah i had a question about what if a student has a zero period would that would that be the same case as seventh period students or do they have like an in-person tens tutoring thing going on um no zero period is completely distance learning okay thank you thank you our next question is from a phone number that begins with eight five zero you make a new mac okay my question is um so the schedule you posted that's the schedule is gonna be uh online now right yes that is correct okay so is it mandatory for them to attend the teams no it's not mandatory they do not have to attend that if you do not want to attend yeah because i would like him to go but what if i can't make it to taking certain days that's why because of work-wise that's okay not a problem yeah because i work for you guys i work for the district but i'm online working during those times and i'm not going to miss work absolutely we totally understand that again if i could take him for that day i can't but if i can't it he will not be mark absolutely because he's been online already for those periods right correct correct yes thank you so much for that question all right thank you welcome uh we have our next question from nadine lopez you may need your mic nadine lopez okay can you hear me yes can you hear me okay listen my question is is this going to be the same for the rest of the year because i was actually hoping that we would try we were going to do more like uh in school learning so we could get all the kinks out of it for next year so we could be prepared for like you know how we're going to be going forward next year this seems just like added support like tutoring not really like going back to in how you know in school learning uh is it just for a short period or anticipate this is going to be it for this year the anticipation is that uh this will take us through the course of our i believe it is eight weeks if i'm not mistaken uh that are left of uh school uh so right now that is the the anticipation um that that would take us through the end of the school year wow because i know uh it's it's it's hard to to go back to to plan to do but if we're going to be doing this next year it's just going to put us you know we should we should i was hoping we could get all those kinks out so next year we would know exactly how we're going to be doing it like you know we have to go i mean the kids have to go back we should be like prepared to do that hopefully before the end of the year yes uh even with this ms lopez even with this um with this plan um we we will have uh the department of public health we have to submit all of our plans um it seems as if they will be coming out to verify that all of our health and safety measures uh are in place i hear you 100 percent in terms of next year right now on march 31st it's hard to tell what next year uh will will look like obviously that is important to us as well but we appreciate the feedback okay well we're hoping hopefully we can reach out to other districts because i know other districts are already going half half of the time and we don't want to fall behind we need to get going here yes thank you we have another question from the the eight five zero you may unmute your mic okay sorry but another question was earlier um are you guys having summer school for special ed yes as a matter of fact we are and we will be uh announcing our summer learning extravaganza plans very soon we're excited about that okay thank you so much very welcome it looks like we have a question from laura you meet meet your mike hello can you hear me yes yes okay my question is regarding the 7th and 8th at ellington um is the schedule posted for um because i know they were gonna add it in the chat box but i haven't seen it and i went under the link that was just placed in the chat box with uh uh just like this the reopening guidelines and i still didn't see the schedule the one i saw was tk to six is there a different one for seven eight the um that's a great question laura thank you for that so um ellington is going the seventh and eighth graders for ellington are going to follow that same one so we should make an adjustment on that on that schedule but it'll be the same schedule thank you you're welcome our next question is from nadine lopez you may meet your mike sorry i didn't think i raised my hand again i think i'm done for tonight thank you okay thank you and next question from angel clinton you may need your mic i wondered when that was going to pop up i can see it i'm curious on why the um why the zero period has no in person hi angel thank you for that question um yeah so uh so one one of the um one of the pieces with this is again just some of the the nuances with all of the different uh classes that we have and uh early college program and so trying to figure out how to make sure that we keep all of those classes uh in line um and just yeah with the schedule this was this was one of the options that we thought was probably the um the best the best that uh in terms of you know how we organize the the periods but that is a great question yeah it just makes it hard because that's when the drama period is i understood yep totally get that uh we have time for uh two more questions um so if there's if there are two more questions can you please uh bring them over lika uh yes there are actually only two more questions left um we have a question from a carbohydrate your mic okay second time it worked this time yeah i have a question as far as the tim's goes how many students are going to be allowed in each one of those classrooms i mean i know it's four feet apart i think it was mentioned that's the plan but even so how many students because high school classrooms are a lot larger than uh elementary schools so what is the class count you're allowing in the room so the class count varies and i'll take that one i'm sorry and the class count varies so we're literally measuring each desk and we're taking inventory so one classroom may have 15 one classroom may have 22.

Haters invent is parallel to four of the six later FARC does not No bands or bandanas allowed. The use of cloth or disposable face masks is required. Facebook achievements in design is rather the Aynaoui of which it takes place without logos and the design of the bubbles must be aligned with the school's dress code norms. [Music] Medical [Music] to the ones. Each school will have designated entry points for students. Upon entering, students will go through the mega scan and have their temperature taken. The mega scanner has the capacity to scan the temperature of large groups at once. Our schools now have water bottle refill stations. Bring a water bottle to refill. [Music] Check in. There are caps. It is distributed and study medium is in decline. Business for your city and arts. All parents and visitors who conduct business at our schools must check in at the office and have their temperature taken before entering.

uh thank you okay ausd middle and high school students we are excited to welcome you back in april estudiantes de secondaria e preparatorio de ausd estamos muy contentos de dales la bienvenida al campus and abril this video contains important information about guidelines and changes that you can expect as we work to safely welcome you back [Music] we understand that you're excited to see your friends and we're excited to see you but for everyone's safety we must maintain our social distance while on campus [Music] this means not gathering in groups and when you're moving around campus follow the directional arrows and go straight to your destination esto certifica no reonisa en grupos e cuando camines por campes acuerda cete seguid las fletches direction throughout campus you will see directional arrows and markings indicating where to stand in order to maintain social distancing into the campus versus directionalism all students and staff members are required to wear a mask while on campus [Music] gators and bandanas are not allowed cloth or disposable face masks are required [Music] face mask logos and designs must be in alignment with the school's dress code policies [Music] each school site will have designated entry points for students upon entering students will pass by the mega scan which will take their temperature the mega scanner has the ability to take the temperature of large groups at once [Music] our campuses now have refillable water bottle stations installed please have your students bring water bottles to fill each day [Music] all parents and guests conducting business on our campuses must check in at the office and have their temperature checked prior to entry access to campuses will be strictly limited to students staff and essential business for your safety and ours [Music] negotiators and westeros campus devon registrarsina [Music] we encourage you to conduct business by phone and email as much as possible [Music] thanks for watching be sure to attend your school's reopening meeting for site-specific details see you in april [Music] hello good evening everyone on behalf of the board of education we would like to welcome you to tonight's town hall focusing on our reopening plans for secondary schools before we begin we would like to let you know that we anticipate having time to take life questions at the end of our presentation but just in case to make sure your question is captured please post it in the q a section of the zoom at the end of the meeting we will try and answer as many questions as we can in a live manner but for all the questions that we cannot get to we will be gathering all the questions and creating a frequently asked questions document to make sure that you have an answer to your questions because this is our second town hall we already have an faq document on our website and any questions that are not currently there we will be adding them to that we also want to let you know that the video you just saw and the guidebook you will be seeing tonight will be available to everyone via our ausd reopening school website you can also access the ausd reopening school website using the find it fast menu on our home page we will post a link to it on our social media and we will send it out in our next week's parent communication as well tonight we will be covering our goals health and safety preventative measures decision trees social emotional wellness learning models alternative programs and next steps as we have been planning and working on our reopening plans these four goals have been guiding our work first ensuring that we are following the los angeles county department of public health guidelines and orders which have deemed that opening schools for our secondary sites are now safe number two maintaining an inclusive caring and supportive school culture number three establishing protocols for health and safety and number four timely frequent and transparent communication this guidebook was created thanks to the collaborative opportunities we had with parents our bargaining unit partners and our administrators and because things change quickly and often right now we are committed to updating this guidebook and the decisions included here based on the department of public health guide guidelines and orders as you hear tonight and included in the guidebook we encourage you to speak with your students about the importance of following the protocol protocols that are outlined for example that they are to wear a face mask at all times while at school and as an fyi we will we will be providing two masks for each student we are encouraging parents to conduct school business remotely whenever that is possible if you are not sure please call the office and they will let you know if you need to come in or if it can be done remotely visitors are going to be extremely limited on our campuses with exceptions only being made for specific meetings all visitors must also wear a mask at all times prior to arriving we are also checking that parents conduct a symptom check of their students and the guidebook includes what you are to check for if the student is experiencing any of the symptoms listed they are not to come to school and we are asking that you contact the school and let them know immediately as options for coping 19 testing you can contact your healthcare provider or you can get tested here in azusa at memorial park and we want you to know that throughout this time nutrition distribution is going to continue at this point i would like to turn it over to jorge ronquillo our assistant superintendent of human resources thank you mr ortega and good evening to the community students and staff must stop screen for symptoms such as cough shortness of breath runny nose and fever at home before coming to school or getting on a bus anyone with the fever of 100.4 degrees or more should not go to school uh or get on a bus staff members uh are required to fill out the coven 19 system checkpoint prior to coming to the asus school site temperatures will be taken and south and health screening questions will be asked at site entry points campus entry points will be designated to allow for appropriate physical distances school sites will have signage throughout campus to encourage physical distancing and proper sanitation and student desks will have individual practitioners parents and visitors access to campus will be strictly limited as far as a travel advisory the los angeles county department of public health currently has a travel advice advisory requiring a mandatory 10-day quarantine for non-essential travel outside of the state of california for individuals who have symptoms on campus if the students or staff member a fever while at school it will be isolated from others parents some guardians of the student will be contacted to pick student up staff will be sent home sick staff and students will be advised to isolate according to cdc guidelines parents should contact their school principal prior to returning to school after an illness at this point i would like to turn it over to mr tasha jamal our assistant superintendent for business services thank you jorge so masks are required at all times with the exception of when a person is eating or drinking masks are required both indoors and outdoors while on any district property visual aids and how to links are available on the district website throughout campus visual aids are posted to remind us all how to properly wash our hands and how to properly cover while coughing and are sneezing hand sanitizer stations have been placed throughout the campus both outdoor and indoor additional hand washing stations have been installed outdoors to emphasize frequent hand washing throughout the day six feet social distancing while and outdoors and hallways offices and play yards will be monitored throughout the day additionally floor markers have been placed throughout all campuses both indoor and outdoor to remind us to remain six feet apart direction arrows have been placed both indoor and outdoor to minimize cross traffic student desks have been positioned four feet apart and each desk has its own three-sided plastic protector the use of playground equipment will be prohibited face coverings will be required for all students ages 2 and above unless an exemption is on file exemptions from wearing a face covering must be submitted prior for approval students and staff without mask will be provided a disposable mask to wear while on campus face coverings must cover both the nose and mouth at all times how-to videos are available on the district's website on how to properly wear a face covering visual aids reminders are throughout the campus including classrooms regarding face coverings and the requirements are posted throughout the campus face coverings can only be removed while one is eating and are drinking students will be instructed on the proper face covering protocol parents are asked to familiarize their children with the use of claw face coverings including the importance of being careful careful not to touch their mask or face area parents are encouraged to send backup face coverings in the event their students face covering becomes damaged wet and are dirty hand sanitizing stations will be located in common areas such as the lunch areas npr's front offices and priority locations that have been identified by the principal the district will provide face masks for all staff are required to wear face covering unless prevented due to a health condition or instructional communication needs in those instances staff will be provided with a clear face shield ppe that is available on every school campus includes the following face coverings which are required face shields masks gloves and disposable gowns temperature scanners the district has provided each school and district site with a temperature scanner anyone entering a campus will be screened as they walk past the scanner every entry point will require a temperature scan in order to enter a campus the district has also invested in both the cloaks 360 sprayer and the victory sprayer the sprayers will enable our custodial staff to more efficiently disinfect our campuses the units spray a fine mist of disinfectant solution that is statistically sorry charged and then adheres to the surface in the room ensuring coverage detailed attention will be given to high touch areas such as door handles desktops seeing candles handrails and restrooms throughout the day other safety so for cleaning the bathrooms will be cleaned and stocked with soap throughout the day disinfecting wipes and or disinfectant spray will be provided in every classroom daily cleaning schedules have been established and posted in the front office of every campus enhanced cleaning of school premises are being done when students are not on school grounds shared objects are being prohibited to the greatest extent possible when this is not possible objects will be cleaned and disinfected between users high-touch playground equipment will be shut down breaks recess and lunch will be staggered as feasible to allow if the schedule accounts for it drinking fountains have been disabled students should bring their own water bottles and may refill their water bottles at the designated stations on campus each site will have two outdoor water bottle refillable station and one indoor water bottle refillable station that is located in the cafeteria all hvac system have been serviced and inspected across the district to ensure proper operation in circulation of outside air all district hvac systems have had an ionization unit installed the ionizer has the following benefits it kills pathogens bacteria viruses and mold it helps control allergens asthma odors from smoke reduces pressure loss by keeping coils clean without the expensive uv system and requires no maintenance transportation drivers will perform pre-entry symptom screening for temperature checks with the temp i'm sorry a thermometer students not meeting the screening requirements will not be permitted on board the bus students should that become ill while in transit will be isolated in a designated seat behind the driver students will sit in every other seat with the furthest seat in the back being filled first face coverings will be required at all times at this time ausd transportation is planning to provide the same level of transportation services to our eligible communities drivers may remove face covering to ensure safe operation of the bus unless within six feet of the nearest passenger for meal distribution we will continue with our free weekly meal distribution at the following sites azusa high school murray elementary school and slauson middle school meal distribution protocols will remain the same who are asking all to remain in their vehicles while in the mill pickup line masks are required we're asking you to pop your trunk when you arrive at the front of the line and your meals will be placed in your trunk if you cannot open your trunk meals will be placed on a nearby table for you to grab if arriving on foot please watch for moving vehicles and alert staff of your presence your meals will be placed on a nearby table while in person grab-and-go meals will be provided daily to those that are enrolled and think together students receiving a grab-and-go lunch can still participate in the weekly meal distribution and at this time i will turn it back over to mr jorge rancho assistant superintendent of hr thank you mr mull i'll be talking about preventative measures as a district we are taking affirmative steps to assess our risk for cova-19 and we've listed here the strategies we are using to reduce the transmission of the virus it is important for us to be aware of the indicators of community transmission two key indicators that we closely monitor include the adjusted case rate per one hundred thousand uh los angeles county currently has an adjusted case rate of 3.1 per 100 000 people percentages of uh positive tests during the last seven days is another indicator we monitor and currently los angeles has a positivity rate of 1.5 similarly the district intends to administer coven 19 testing in accordance to screening testing cadence and requirements individuals who demonstrate symptoms or were close contacts to code 19 will be administered a test as well moving on to the notification protocols the district will balance the need for privacy of students and employees with the need to communicate with potentially exposed individuals this page articulates the steps that the district will take to contact trace and communicate with individuals and the school community the process begins with the school or district being notified of covid 19 positive employee or student the that person is directed to isolate and they are also interviewed in the contact tracing begins the individual is also provided with covid 19 resources notifications to the school sites and employees are sent via email as required and the district communicates with the la cdph and cal osha as is also required decision tree for students if the student indicates no symptoms or exposure the student enters the school if on the other hand the student screening indicates symptoms for cloven 19 the students parent or guardian are contacted to pick up the the student if a medical provider confirms that the system the symptoms are not consistent with covenant 19 the students must stay at home per medical guidance if the student is provided a test and the test is negative the student must stay home until he or she is symptom free if on the other hand the student tests positive then the student must isolate for a minimum of 10 days if the student is not tested we treat the case as if the student had tested positive and must isolate if the screening identifies a student with symptoms not consistent with covin-19 then the site administrator determines if the student should be excused if the screening identifies that the student was exposed to code bid 19 the student must is sent home and directed to quarantine for a minimum of 10 days and move on to the decision tree for staff if the employee indicates no symptoms or exposure this employee enters the school or district if on the other hand the students i'm sorry the employee screening indicates symptoms of cova 19 the employee is directed to not report to work if a medical provider confirms that the symptoms are not consistent with covin 19 the employee must stay home per the medical provider's guidance if the employee is provided a test and the test is negative the employee must stay home until he or she is symptom free if the employee tasks positive then the employee must isolate for a minimum of 10 days if the employee is not tested we treat the case as if the employer had tested positive and must isolate if the screening indicates the employee the employee go with symptoms not consistent with cloven 19 then the site administrator in consultation with the human resources department will determine the if the employee should be sent home if the screening identifies that the employee was exposed to coven 19 the employee is sent home and directed to quarantine for a minimum of 10 days this page also contains hyperlinks to covid19 resources this next page is on the it's a decision tree for both students and employees that develop symptoms on site during the school or work day if a student or employee develops covid19 symptoms or becomes sick during the school day the individual will be provided with the medical grade mass and will be required to isolate from others until they are picked up or for the employee and can safely return home if their test results are negative the employee or student must stay home until they are fever free for 24 hours without fever reducing medication parents slash guardians will will report their status to the school sites employees will be in communication with the hr office if the test is positive the employee or student must isolate for 10 days and cannot return until they are symptom free for three consecutive days and are fever free for 24 hours without fever reducing medicine if the classroom group needs to close students instruction will move online with their existing teachers until they are until they can return to campus and at this time i'd like to turn it over to dr mitchell thank you mr ankio we support student mental health wellness through a variety of services ranging from school wellness campaigns to more intensive and individualized support programs we work closely with partners and community service agencies for additional services to support students and families social emotional well-being and support and mental health assistance is available to all ausd families through care solace we also partner with mckinley children's center and foothill family who have provided workshops for both families and staff to support our students social and emotional health if you need assistance please call the office of child welfare and attendance we will now review our secondary grades 7 through 12 schedule the middle school and high school schedules are inherently different than the tk6 elementary bell schedule and although there are differences one thing remains the same we need to ensure that we are meeting the los angeles county department of public health guidelines with secondary there are different considerations such as courses like advanced placement and international baccalaureate that are scheduled for end-of-year exams we also have students who are taking citrus college classes on our campuses at set times taking all of these things into consideration here's how the hybrid schedule will work all students will continue with distance learning in a blocked schedule format as they are now so that they can continue maximizing their learning mondays and thursdays all students attend their assigned periods 0 1 3 and 5 in a distance learning environment tuesdays and fridays all students attend their assigned periods 0 2 4 and 6 in a distance learning environment on wednesdays all students will attend all periods in distance learning in a shortened day lunch break is from 30 to 1 30 on mondays tuesdays thursdays fridays and on wednesdays from 10 to 1 o'clock lunch is not served on campus however families can still participate in weekly meal distribution we've also moved our student family connection time four days a week to the morning from 8 to 8 30 a.m this is a great opportunity for all parents and all students to connect with your teachers with questions or clarifications so to reiterate four days a week monday tuesday thursday and friday in the morning all students will continue with the distance learning and all distance learning on wednesdays in the afternoons on monday tuesday thursday and friday all distance learning students will be grouped into cohort a and cohort b on these days students will have the opportunity to attend two periods a week of in-person learning week one students will attend periods one and two week two they'll attend periods three and four and week three periods five and six week four it begins again with periods one and two this in person cohorting by periods is called tim's which stands for tutoring intervention motivation mentoring and support we know that all students need in-person support from their teachers and tim's is open to all students the in-person tim's periods will be used to deepen students understanding of content as well as support and promote success and achievement in their courses and at the same time foster relationships with adults and peers the schedule is designed to protect core instruction as much as possible and still provide students with opportunities for in-person support from their teachers by period the sites will be working on the tim's a and b cohorts and will communicate to parents and students which cohort their students have been assigned finally although all distance learning students will be assigned to a and b cohorts the in-person tim's periods are not mandatory as the state is still allowing for parents to choose an all-distance learning model also students who have a seventh period will attend seventh period in person two days a week and also ellington tk8 will continue to follow the elementary scheduling model in addition to in-person learning we also have alternative educational programming in our home school program students in tk to 12th grade complete assignments independently parents provide the instruction and students check in with the teacher on a regular schedule the independent study program is also a tk12 program students are provided with assignments to be completed independently and students check in with a teacher on a regular schedule this year we offer a virtual academy which is a tk12 fully remote program and students are enrolled in online grade level content area classes for any of these programs if the student is receiving special education services the iep team will meet to determine if the placement is appropriate thank you dr mitchell at this point in time uh we have uh we have time uh to answer uh some questions uh live if you do have a question that you would like to ask please raise your hand so that we may uh hear your question but i want to reiterate that we do have the q a uh section and so if you type your your question there just in case we run out of time uh we we we will make sure that it uh lands on our faq so at this point in time we'll go ahead and move to live questions you have a first question from vasima panna you may unmute your mic hello hi hi um i just had a really quick question i'm trying to figure out um i'm trying to understand what um was just explained so the students will be going to school my daughter's a senior at gladstone so she'll be going to school one day a week am i understanding that correctly dr mitchell sure thank you for that question so she's going to continue to participate in uh in distance learning and she'll be doing that just the same schedule that she's doing now the difference is is that in the afternoons we are offering in-person uh learning with their teachers and so she would attend uh depending if she's in cohort a or b this the first week she would be going to her first period class and second period class in the afternoon even though sherrod may have already had those classes um in the morning in a distance learning environment so just to be clear so they're not the high school students are not going back um anything similar to the elementary students they are basically going into like a tutor type program is that something because that's what it kind of sounds like like they would go and get assistance from the teacher yeah correct so um that's just again combination of it could be tutoring it could be intervention um just any kind of support um that the the teachers would be able to provide that would support the instruction that they would be delivering during the distance learning but that's correct so was there a reason why the high school students could not go back and this is my last question was there a reason why the high school students could not go back to school in a similar way as the elementary students yeah so um it is it's very different um especially with the high school schedule so um in elementary the the students typically have one teacher and so we have um with the department of public health in terms of uh cohorting right and space in the classes you can only have so many students um in the classrooms and so if you um if you do that for one period the minute they change classes and go to like period two the configuration is completely different so the model has to be a little bit different because it doesn't align with the guidelines okay thank you you're welcome it's also important to note um that what we presented today the schedule that we presented today um is for this current school year this is not for next school year this is only until the end of this year we can move on to the next question lika uh next question from melanie cruz okay so well we have um after school band programs and would that change so ban thank you for that question melanie band is um we are allowed to participate in band now banned classes uh the department of public health is going to be putting out some additional uh protocols and they i have not seen that yet i anticipate that will be any time and so we will be communicating that to our music educators but yes you will be would be attending your uh your band classes we have next question from nadine lopez you meet a new year right hi um this is mrs lopez i was just inquiring i have a couple questions my first question is why are we doing the monday schedule on wednesday since uh mondays are most of the days that uh our holidays and we would lose in learning time for the students my other question is why do we have where are we doing the in school learning in at the end of the day instead of in the morning since most people work and they would drop off their children in the morning at school not not in the afternoon and my third and last question is as students know what cohort they they actually are assigned to and how we determine which students are coming back in which students have opted to stay at home so uh let me answer uh that last question is that um the it is it is optional for students to attend the in person tims and so all students have that opportunity but that's not something that's required and we do not have uh the sites will work that out the sites will definitely communicate with the families in terms of um which cohorts the students are assigned to um the other another question that you asked and this is a great question in terms of um why did you know why is it changed with um the you know the afternoon and the morning and changing that around one of the reasons is because we do have some very specific classes uh for example that are that are locked in so we've got students who are um participating in um our early college program for example with citrus college and so um it's not it's not easy to be able to change uh to change that schedule around so this one in particular uh was able to align uh with a lot of our our courses and i don't remember i'm sorry i don't remember the first one was the first question i think it was the one was it wednesdays yep so wednesday for the monday oh yes instead of the mondays yeah and in particular um this schedule just in terms of how it worked out with the way that our master schedules work um this was uh really the best option that we had for uh for all the students okay i think thank you for your answers uh my concern was i know children are uh when i have to walk to school uh you know about getting them in time for the end you know for the in-house or the in-school learning yeah so it's it's it's going to be a trial and error for a while it is thank you so much for those questions we really appreciate think it's also that to note while we're moving to the next question uh that our school sites i know we mentioned it but just to reiterate our school sites will be holding town hall meetings kind of like the one that we're doing right now but it will be specific to their school sites and so the principals will be able to get deeper into details and so look out for those i think we have schools that are already launching some tomorrow and some on friday so stay tuned for those our next question is from a guest who only has a number and not a name eight five zero you may unmute your mic my question is um my son he's in special ed so how would that work with him thank you for that question and so um your student is has um uh same classes that your student is going to have so your student will attend uh distance learning just the same way that your student is attending now and then uh for example um when we go back for that in uh the tims your student would go to their you know whatever period that tens is whether it's first period or second so they'll still be staying with their same teachers great question thank you so the schedule will remain still the same yeah correct yes except mondays is out gonna be wednesdays exactly yeah and then he'll be going online like you said the schedule that you showed but then it was going to go in class service will be in the afternoon that's right what was it was one of those times in the afternoon if he's gonna go in in class um school sure so um the it begins after lunch and it would be from 1 30 to 2 40.

as long as they're four feet apart then that will be the maximum capacity for each learning in-person instruction group and how is that going to be determined as far as i mean parents have not been asked and we haven't been notified i have two students in high school so i need how are we going to get them to go in the same cohort so that they can get the the assistance they need that is an issue because i have a senior and then i have a ninth grader so they're completely different schedules how can it could be worked out so they can both go in the same day but get the help from the teachers that they need that's a great question our sites are going to be holding site-specific uh town halls like the one that we are doing right now uh with more specific uh details uh in terms of the cohorts and the groupings and how those things are going to happen um and this this obviously will be a consideration uh in terms of trying to match up um siblings and such okay and then um one more question um what does it look like for graduation for our seniors uh we've been asking that question since january thank you for asking that question um it it we are we are waiting for official word but right now we are we are hoping that we are going to be able to offer some type of in-person graduation ceremony uh we don't know what that would look like we don't know what the restrictions would be but we are we are very hopeful and very optimistic that we will be able to to provide again some type of in-person graduation ceremony this year have um have has the field been considered for a senior graduation at each of the high schools yeah i know when my daughter graduated from fullerton it was out on their field so i mean yes you can do cohort eight and cohort b for graduation you can do a through a certain group a through m and then you could do n through z for cohort b might that be a consideration that can be thought of for graduation and be used on their same campus on the field yes that is definitely a consideration okay thank you you're welcome uh our last question uh lika please yes our last question is from maya rico you may and your mike thank you can you guys hear me yes hi um my question is i have two students in seventh period at the this is a high school and it's orchestra and i was wondering how is that going to work since it's the elementary school students and the high school you know together in class yep that is a great question um and so we will be working uh with our music educators in terms of how we'll uh group the students and cohort the students for that for that course okay thank you you're welcome so that is all the time we have tonight uh but as a reminder we will take all the questions and turn them into a frequently asked questions document and share those with all of you in the next couple of weeks your school sites the next couple of days and some in some situations we'll be holding similar meetings like tonight but we'll be tailoring it tailoring it to their specific sites and will be providing greater detail as well lastly as a reminder that we have a dedicated web page to all things school reopening so please visit our site we want to thank all of our staff that has been working extremely hard to ensure that the return of our students is safe we can't wait to welcome them back and we want to thank you for joining us tonight have a good evening everyone thank you

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to 2 40 and i'll be monday tuesday thursday friday so it'll be depending on the cohorts right so uh whether your student is in cohort a or b and so cohort a would be on mondays and thursdays and cohort b is going to be tuesdays and fridays okay yeah i was just concerned because the changing with him is it was not good that's why understood all right thank you so much i appreciate it you are welcome next question is from lisa ing you may i mute your mind hi i have a couple questions um so if we want if high school students want to stay online how do we opt into that is there like do we change something on aries or lisa that's a great question um no you don't have to change anything it stays the exact same thing and so all of everything remains distance learning until after lunch and if you opt in to coming to the in-person teams during those periods um that's up to you and your uh your family so you can continue on with distance learning it's not required that you come for the in person okay and another question yeah so the tim system is just like extra tutoring for what was taught in the morning yeah so the teachers will um you know will definitely let you know what that will consist of but um it can be yeah so it could be reinforcement from what was you know taught in the morning um it could be um just some additional support um it could be you know maybe working on uh you know a project it just depends what the teachers have but essentially yes it's uh would be just you know supporting the things that you've already been learning and getting that extra support and making connections with peers and you know your teachers as well yeah my last question so for the in-person tim's you only see one a class once a month depending on your cohort so you are going to see yes you'll see periods one and two the first week that's right and then the second week is um three and four and then five and six and then it'll it'll week four you're right it goes back to the um one and two again okay thank you you're welcome our next question is from thomas you may unmute your mic yes i was wondering is this going to be the same exact schedule for the middle schoolers as the high schoolers yes thomas that is correct it's the same secondary and so that's going to be 7 through 12 unless you unless the student attends ellington okay that's all i had to ask um also one more question are they are you guys going to let the let us or the students know what classrooms to go to to go to whatever teacher they need to see yes thank you for that question thomas uh so that's exactly right so for example the first week it's going to be period one and period two and so the school will let you know which cohorts you're in are you in cohort a and if you are then you would go to period one on monday and then you'd go to period two on thursday or if you're in cohort b you would go to period one on tuesday and period two on friday so yours your schools will let you know exactly which um which days you would attend and which classes it say that will it say the actual classroom they're going to be in oh you know what that that is a wonderful question yes so um because you would need to have a locator right so you know like what room is it that's what you're asking right thomas yes that's what i was asking yeah perfect um that's a great question um and i i believe it's on aries i could be wrong um but we will find that out for you and we'll go ahead and put that in the q a and then we'll make sure that let the principals know to reiterate that for for the students that's a great question thomas okay thank you you're welcome our next question is from isabella herrera you may mute your mic hi so for those who have a seventh period and decide to stay online how would that work like would they would the teachers be with both the in-person and online students at the same time that's another great question isabella thank you for that and so same thing with um the seventh period it's going to be cohorted as well and so um there will be students that will attend in the seventh period in a cohort a and students that will attend in person and at cohort b so we would if we have a seven period we would all have to go back in person um no it would be there would be a hybrid with that as well that there's a it would be a either one um yeah so there would be uh students who would attend uh in person and then also there would be a hybrid as well uh and on online as well okay thank you our next question is from leticia perez you may unmute your mind hi um i'm sorry i missed the part how often will they be changing the period for example if they're only going one time to period one and then in their next day on campus they're going to period two when does it change to period three period four and then how often does it repeat itself that's a great question um so it's going to repeat um so each week it'll be two periods so the very first week that we do this it will be periods one and two and then the next week it'll be periods three and four and then the next week it'll be five and six and then the next week it'll start over thank you you're welcome our next question is from alba you may mute your mic hello um do you think you guys could email each student the schedule for the distance but that's another great question as well we will definitely have the the schools will communicate how you will receive your locators and so typically when we're in person uh students pick up write their class locator go to you know room 27 for period one um so we want to make sure that you uh that you get those room numbers as well so we'll have the sites communicate out how they'll do that and if it's in aries or not i'm not sure but we will definitely do that for you our next question is from melinda forte you may unmute your mic melinda you may unmute your mind there you go oh thank you uh yes for students going to ellington um can they continue on with the home school that uh the distant learning that they are going through now and uh also um i i heard someone asked a question about uh ellington was different so can you go over that sure i'd be happy to and so ellington the ellington schedule is going to um to follow the elementary model and um uh and your student is in uh is in i'm sorry say it again eighth grade eighth grade okay got it and so the um the elementary model is um is in a an in person and has a hybrid option or a distance learning option and so students um uh are in person uh eight to eleven um and there are some distance learning uh after that as well and so there's um there is a uh an in-person group and then there is an online group as well and i believe lika can you um would you be willing to put that in the chat so it links to the exact schedule that we can put that in there that we have online the secondary schedule um that would be the elementary schedule oh got it yeah yes i can link to the re-ordering yep so melinda we'll put that in the chat for you so then you can see what that schedule is oh okay so it's not mandatory that they uh attend the school no it's no it's not uh they can still they can still attend in a distance learning format all right thank you you're welcome our next question is from a carvajal you may emulate your mic hey caraval do you have a question okay we'll move on to thomas you may unmute your night yeah you guys were saying that it's gonna be broken down into one and two three and four and five and six for the classes is it gonna be monday tuesday thursday and friday for the whole week periods one and two and then the following week could be the same thing monday tuesday thursday friday you'd get the second two classes and so on that's correct thomas that's absolutely right okay our next question is from anna figueroa you may unmute your mic hello so my question is for a student that does not wish to come on campus during the time that the students are supposed to be there will they be joining with through video or would they just be studying at home on their own that's a great question anna thank you for that so um so no they will just be on their own at home because this um this idea of this in person learning with the tims is about any extra support that a student might need it's about um you know mentoring it's about uh just that in person support that that the students can get um what i would recommend um and again it's not mandatory those the students do not have to attend that it's it's optional but we also have um that student family connections in the morning um four days a week from eight to eight thirty in the morning and that's a great time too for um you know for students as well as parents to be able to check in with their teachers if they need some additional support the second question i have is um let's say you know i'm trying to encourage them to go but right now they don't want to once it starts and maybe they feel more comfortable you know after the first i don't know two weeks can't they then go ahead and go back if they decide okay maybe i will go after all 100 yes they certainly can okay thank you they're very welcome and just for clarification right um in the in the morning time when they're going to their classes it'll still be distance learning with their teachers so it won't be asynchronous it'll be i mean there'll be some components of asynchronous but they will be with their teachers our next question is from cindy rocha you may meet your mic yes hi i just have a really quick question if a student is um is fully vaccinated um and they miss a day of the school do they and we go out of town for example do they have to steal quarantine so i i will take that question that's an excellent question right now the um vaccines are um i think the lowest age is 16 years of age is the lowest age for a person to be able to get the vaccination so if you have a 16 year old person or older who has a vaccine i believe the question is if they travel and currently would be traveling out of state would the person still need to quarantine is a question is that is that correct yes yes because my my student that goes to glaston she um she's fully vaccinated already okay my understanding that from the department of public health from los angeles county is yes the the persons who travel outside of the state will need to quarantine for 10 days despite having their vaccines really um i'm sorry because i know that i s the cdc is says otherwise well i don't know if it changes because she's a student i started doing note no i was just gonna just the nuance uh just to to be super duper clear because i think the question was that she traveled out of town and you're making the distinction that the quarantine only pertains if you actually go out of state if you are traveling out of town but you stay in the state of california then that quarantine does not apply correct correct correct and and i just want to um one of the one of the components of the different regulations that have been coming out is that at the state level the uh state uh department of public health or the center for disease control cdc can have a um a order but the um the los angeles county department of public health uh can be stricter than the state's um order and in this case the current california department of public health um it is recommended that individuals quarantine however in los angeles county um the the director reiterated that it is still a requirement to quarantine for non-essential travel outside of the state of california and i believe and will verify this that that still extends to individuals who have gone through their two doses of the vaccine and have gone through the 14 day period after the second administration of the vaccine okay thank you thank our you question is from lisa ing you may um your mind yeah i had a question about what if a student has a zero period would that would that be the same case as seventh period students or do they have like an in-person tens tutoring thing going on um no zero period is completely distance learning okay thank you thank you our next question is from a phone number that begins with eight five zero you make a new mac okay my question is um so the schedule you posted that's the schedule is gonna be uh online now right yes that is correct okay so is it mandatory for them to attend the teams no it's not mandatory they do not have to attend that if you do not want to attend yeah because i would like him to go but what if i can't make it to taking certain days that's why because of work-wise that's okay not a problem yeah because i work for you guys i work for the district but i'm online working during those times and i'm not going to miss work absolutely we totally understand that again if i could take him for that day i can't but if i can't it he will not be mark absolutely because he's been online already for those periods right correct correct yes thank you so much for that question all right thank you welcome uh we have our next question from nadine lopez you may need your mic nadine lopez okay can you hear me yes can you hear me okay listen my question is is this going to be the same for the rest of the year because i was actually hoping that we would try we were going to do more like uh in school learning so we could get all the kinks out of it for next year so we could be prepared for like you know how we're going to be going forward next year this seems just like added support like tutoring not really like going back to in how you know in school learning uh is it just for a short period or anticipate this is going to be it for this year the anticipation is that uh this will take us through the course of our i believe it is eight weeks if i'm not mistaken uh that are left of uh school uh so right now that is the the anticipation um that that would take us through the end of the school year wow because i know uh it's it's it's hard to to go back to to plan to do but if we're going to be doing this next year it's just going to put us you know we should we should i was hoping we could get all those kinks out so next year we would know exactly how we're going to be doing it like you know we have to go i mean the kids have to go back we should be like prepared to do that hopefully before the end of the year yes uh even with this ms lopez even with this um with this plan um we we will have uh the department of public health we have to submit all of our plans um it seems as if they will be coming out to verify that all of our health and safety measures uh are in place i hear you 100 percent in terms of next year right now on march 31st it's hard to tell what next year uh will will look like obviously that is important to us as well but we appreciate the feedback okay well we're hoping hopefully we can reach out to other districts because i know other districts are already going half half of the time and we don't want to fall behind we need to get going here yes thank you we have another question from the the eight five zero you may unmute your mic okay sorry but another question was earlier um are you guys having summer school for special ed yes as a matter of fact we are and we will be uh announcing our summer learning extravaganza plans very soon we're excited about that okay thank you so much very welcome it looks like we have a question from laura you meet meet your mike hello can you hear me yes yes okay my question is regarding the 7th and 8th at ellington um is the schedule posted for um because i know they were gonna add it in the chat box but i haven't seen it and i went under the link that was just placed in the chat box with uh uh just like this the reopening guidelines and i still didn't see the schedule the one i saw was tk to six is there a different one for seven eight the um that's a great question laura thank you for that so um ellington is going the seventh and eighth graders for ellington are going to follow that same one so we should make an adjustment on that on that schedule but it'll be the same schedule thank you you're welcome our next question is from nadine lopez you may meet your mike sorry i didn't think i raised my hand again i think i'm done for tonight thank you okay thank you and next question from angel clinton you may need your mic i wondered when that was going to pop up i can see it i'm curious on why the um why the zero period has no in person hi angel thank you for that question um yeah so uh so one one of the um one of the pieces with this is again just some of the the nuances with all of the different uh classes that we have and uh early college program and so trying to figure out how to make sure that we keep all of those classes uh in line um and just yeah with the schedule this was this was one of the options that we thought was probably the um the best the best that uh in terms of you know how we organize the the periods but that is a great question yeah it just makes it hard because that's when the drama period is i understood yep totally get that uh we have time for uh two more questions um so if there's if there are two more questions can you please uh bring them over lika uh yes there are actually only two more questions left um we have a question from a carbohydrate your mic okay second time it worked this time yeah i have a question as far as the tim's goes how many students are going to be allowed in each one of those classrooms i mean i know it's four feet apart i think it was mentioned that's the plan but even so how many students because high school classrooms are a lot larger than uh elementary schools so what is the class count you're allowing in the room so the class count varies and i'll take that one i'm sorry and the class count varies so we're literally measuring each desk and we're taking inventory so one classroom may have 15 one classroom may have 22.

Haters invent is parallel to four of the six later FARC does not No bands or bandanas allowed. The use of cloth or disposable face masks is required. Facebook achievements in design is rather the Aynaoui of which it takes place without logos and the design of the bubbles must be aligned with the school's dress code norms. [Music] Medical [Music] to the ones. Each school will have designated entry points for students. Upon entering, students will go through the mega scan and have their temperature taken. The mega scanner has the capacity to scan the temperature of large groups at once. Our schools now have water bottle refill stations. Bring a water bottle to refill. [Music] Check in. There are caps. It is distributed and study medium is in decline. Business for your city and arts. All parents and visitors who conduct business at our schools must check in at the office and have their temperature taken before entering.

We'll see it in April from Peter Senior School's instruction and the first by site-specific titles if enabled [Music] Well, good evening everyone. Hello, on behalf of the board, we would like to welcome you to this meeting, this meeting we are calling Town Hall tonight, which focuses on our plans to open high schools.

Access to our schools will sometimes be strictly limited to students, people, and essential businesses for safety and our health. The email to our password. We recommend that you resolve issues by school for specific details.

Before we begin, we would like to inform you that as this meeting progresses, if you have any questions, please write them in the Q&A section at the end. At the end of the meeting, we will try to answer as many questions as we can while we are here live. For all the questions that we are unable to answer today, we will compile them and create a FAQ document to ensure that you have an answer to your questions. As this is our second attempt, we have already started one and it is available online. We also want to inform you that the guidance you will see tonight will be available to everyone through our Steve website. You can also access it through the West website and use the "Find it quickly" menu on our homepage. We will post the link on our social media and send it in next week's parent announcement as well.

We'll see it in April from Peter Senior School's instruction and the first by site-specific titles if enabled [Music] Well, good evening everyone. Hello, on behalf of the board, we would like to welcome you to this meeting, this meeting we are calling Town Hall tonight, which focuses on our plans to open high schools.

Tonight's topics will be our goals, health and safety, preventative measures, decision trees, social-emotional well-being, learning models, alternative programs, and the next steps as we plan and work on our reopening plans. These four objectives have guided our work: number one, ensuring we are following the guidelines, orders, and guidance from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health; number two, ensuring we are maintaining a school culture that is inclusive, preventative, and supportive; number three, establishing health and safety protocols for everyone; and finally, communication that is timely, frequent, and transparent. This guide you are seeing today was created through collaboration with parents, our union associates, and our district administrators. Because things change rapidly and frequently, we are committed to updating this guide and the decisions included here as orders, guidelines, and guidance change according to the Department of Health. As you listen tonight, and as included in the guide, we encourage you to talk to your students about the importance of following the protocols described in this guide.

Before we begin, we would like to inform you that as this meeting progresses, if you have any questions, please write them in the Q&A section at the end. At the end of the meeting, we will try to answer as many questions as we can while we are here live. For all the questions that we are unable to answer today, we will compile them and create a FAQ document to ensure that you have an answer to your questions. As this is our second attempt, we have already started one and it is available online. We also want to inform you that the guidance you will see tonight will be available to everyone through our Steve website. You can also access it through the West website and use the "Find it quickly" menu on our homepage. We will post the link on our social media and send it in next week's parent announcement as well.

For example, they must wear a face covering in At all times while at school, for your information, we will be providing two face masks for each student who wants one. Parents, we encourage you to conduct school business remotely whenever possible. If you are unsure, please call the office, and they will advise you on whether you need to come in or if you can do it remotely. The presence of visitors to the campus and our schools will be limited, with one exception for specific meetings. Visitors must also wear a face mask at all times before arriving. We also ask parents to check their students for symptoms, and the guide includes what to check. If a student experiences any of the symptoms on that list, they should not come to school. You are also asked to contact the school and inform them immediately. For options for COVID-19 testing, you can contact your healthcare provider, or you can get tested online because here in the USA...

Tonight's topics will be our goals, health and safety, preventative measures, decision trees, social-emotional well-being, learning models, alternative programs, and the next steps as we plan and work on our reopening plans. These four objectives have guided our work: number one, ensuring we are following the guidelines, orders, and guidance from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health; number two, ensuring we are maintaining a school culture that is inclusive, preventative, and supportive; number three, establishing health and safety protocols for everyone; and finally, communication that is timely, frequent, and transparent. This guide you are seeing today was created through collaboration with parents, our union associates, and our district administrators. Because things change rapidly and frequently, we are committed to updating this guide and the decisions included here as orders, guidelines, and guidance change according to the Department of Health. As you listen tonight, and as included in the guide, we encourage you to talk to your students about the importance of following the protocols described in this guide.

And we want you to know that meal distribution will continue, and more will be shared about that later. Now, I would like to give the floor to Jorge Rocchia, our Assistant Superintendent. Thank you, thank you, Mr. Ortega. To discuss health and safety, students and staff must self-screen at home for symptoms such as difficulty breathing, runny nose, and fever before arriving at school or boarding the bus. Anyone with a fever of 100.4 or higher should not go to school or board a school bus. Staff members must complete the Symptom Check Form before coming to a U.S.-style site. Temperatures will be taken and health screening questions will be asked at site entry points. Entry points will be designated to allow for proper physical distancing. School sites will have signage throughout the campus to encourage physical distancing and proper sanitation, and student desks will have regular partitions. Parent and visitor access to the site will be strictly limited.

For example, they must wear a face covering in At all times while at school, for your information, we will be providing two face masks for each student who wants one. Parents, we encourage you to conduct school business remotely whenever possible. If you are unsure, please call the office, and they will advise you on whether you need to come in or if you can do it remotely. The presence of visitors to the campus and our schools will be limited, with one exception for specific meetings. Visitors must also wear a face mask at all times before arriving. We also ask parents to check their students for symptoms, and the guide includes what to check. If a student experiences any of the symptoms on that list, they should not come to school. You are also asked to contact the school and inform them immediately. For options for COVID-19 testing, you can contact your healthcare provider, or you can get tested online because here in the USA...

Travel advice: The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health currently has a travel advisory requiring a mandatory 10-day quarantine for non- essential travel outside of California. Regarding symptoms: If a student or staff member develops a fever while at school, they will be isolated from others. and the student's parent will be contacted to pick them up. Staff will be sent home to be advised. Sick staff and students are advised to attend according to the tips provided. Parents should contact the school principal before returning to school after an illness. Now I'm going to ask Principal Garcia Medina to speak about the services area. Good afternoon. I'm going to talk about personal protective equipment and protocols. First, we want to notify you that the use of face coverings is required at all times except when a person is eating or drinking. This face covering is worn both indoors and outdoors while on any Success property.