Oh my goodness. And I did see a little sneak peek of her project and I have to say definitely one of the best. You guys want to be here so bad. Please come. It's super good. You're going to be slapping your knee out of laughter. All right. Really good. Oh, Diana, anything else? No, I think I'm going to head out now. They're I think they're calling me there, too. Oh my goodness. There she goes. >> Yep. >> Big smile. You know what? If you want to grab this now, I just saw him. He was right. He's sitting right next to Okay. When he comes back, grab him or if you want to grab someone else for anything, go ahead. Right now, we're doing pretty well. You guys You guys are great. >> Now's a good chance to All right, I'm going live. Three, two, one.
And I'm really bad at sports analogies. And for those of you who haven't noticed, because you maybe haven't paid attention, I'm a pretty big geek, right? So, I'm going to shift gears and I'm going to make a geek analogy. Um, and I'm just going to share a little something that really reflects on the depth of work you've done and the depth of work that you have ahead of you. So, show of hands, who knows who Stan Lee is? Okay, we got quite a few people. So, no, not Stanley the food person. aging guy. >> No, but that's a great question. No, Stanley, the creator of the Marvel Comics universe. >> No. And and and Ario, like I've been in this room and you've been wearing your Marvel Comics t-shirt. So, you were the last person that I was expecting to say. Well, you I I it is good to know that for future reference that I can't just enter a room and say, "Who knows who Stanley is?" That's fair.
Um and uh Dr. Lotman hosted did a great job. These parents were engaged. They were well informed. Um and it was really nice to be able to have the conversations directly with our representatives. So, I look forward to future opportunities um and uh for the Capitol to start hearing our voice here in Maricopa. Uh we do have I know we're getting close to summer, and I know there there's families out there that are going, "What are we going to do with our kids this summer?" So, for all of our elementary student families, you know, MUSD is going to have a unique summer uh break camp opportunity. Um there'll be uh themed weeks uh for the month of June uh for our K-3 5 students that they can participate in. And also um Boys & Girls Club will also have their summer camp. And that will start um May 26th and go through July 21st.
I So, that kind of really lit that up. Um maintenance for the grounds are busy and this is their busiest time, baseball, track, softball. So, Richard Haines is pretty much staying busy with that whole time and keeping things We do our own baseball, softball field mowing those, and he stripes the lines. So, he's busy with that stuff. Um our head custodian at the middle school, she's getting busy with uh going to be working closely with myself and Mike Chisholm and Dave and the principal at the middle school uh to move some of those programs over to the middle school this summer. So, we're going to start working on that pretty hard and to see where we can fit in them them people. Um the pavement they uh set up this Saturday from starting at 8:00 in the north lot and they said approximately till about 11:00 or 12:00.
Um, and I'll say the same about general government. They've seen very little increase uh over the past 10 years in general government aid coming out of the state house, right? it's been really flat. Um, you know, we were fortunate to have a couple years where it peaked at a pretty high rate. Um, but since then it's sort of leveled to that minimum aid of $75 per child. Obviously, there's advocacy that we can do and are doing at the at the superintendent level. And um, last year they moved off from the $75 per child and got it to $150 per child. I I don't know where that's going to stand. um in FY27. Um the most recent I heard was they increased it another $10. So what's that? It's about $20,000 additional money. Um that's it. Uh we needed to go up another 65 to get that full benefit of of$1 $150 a child gives us the 400 plus thousand of aid.
Um, so that one's on there for you guys to look over. And then I wanted to share Musco Lighting. Um, their bids on there as well. So, sharing a couple things. Musco Lighting, theirs is a 25-y year complete turnkey warranty. Um, whether it's workmanship, bringing cranes out, replacing light bulbs, they come out for 25 years. were in a partnership all the way through. Um they did send out one of their electricians to spend the afternoon with us to look at the scope of the project. Um they are also going to include another bracket on these poles for us just in case we want to add another lighting system if we get to this point where we are putting in a track and on those curves um we want some more lights. That way we don't have to put another bracket. they just have to come in and put another set of lights up there if we want once we get to that point.
>> Oh my goodness. >> Are we live? >> Oh, come on. >> Oh my gosh. Come in. Come in, guys. Come in. All squeeze in here. You can You can kneel. Kneel. Kneel. Kneel. Get it. We've got to fit y'all in here. >> Oh my goodness. Okay. >> They don't bite. I promise. >> Yeah, we don't. Maybe Robbie, but me. No. Yeah. >> Let's Let's There you go. >> Down. So, bend your knees a little bit. There we go. There we go. >> Oh, wait. Boys photo. Me included. >> Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. >> Adorable, guys. >> Oh, there. Okay. >> Gulp. Um, okay. Well, hey guys. Can we get your names? >> Nick, Michael. >> Name. >> Kyle Boo. >> Oh, got to get you over here. >> Alex, Sebastian. >> Okay. Great to see you guys. Thank you for coming. How excited are we about tonight's film festival?
So, um, and apparently Lee is a fairly common last name, and I should have been aware of that. So, I'm glad somebody didn't say the guy who made those Lee jeans. Right. So, anyway, um, some just quick thoughts because I was someplace and somebody said, "Can you give us a piece of advice?" And of course, you know, my geek brain went straight to with great power comes great responsibility, right? The famous Spider-Man quote. Um, and it got me thinking about Stan Lee because, you know, obviously, you know, he's the creator of Spider-Man, right? He's the creator of the Marvel comics universe. When he created that universe at that time in comics, characters were very two-dimensional. And what he really wanted to do is breathe life into them and breathe internal struggle into them to turn them into more of a three-dimensional character on those two-dimensional comic panels.
So, here are a couple of opportunities if families are looking to help keep our kids engaged and active over the summertime, so maybe they're not sitting at home in front of the video games as much. So, we look forward to that. If you guys got any information If you need information about that, you can go to musd20.org or Boys & Girls Club of the Sun Corridor. All right. With that, we're going to move on. We have our spotlight recognition. Miss Terry. >> [applause] >> All right. Well, good evening, and thank you all for being here tonight. The Maricopa Unified School District is excited to honor spotlight recipients across three categories: MUSD employees, students, and student athletes. Before we begin, I'd like to thank our sponsors at Freddy's Steakburgers and Frozen Custard, Baskin Robbins, and UltraStar Circle Entertainment for making tonight special for our honorees. Our first honorees are spotlight employees of the month, and they're dedicated staff who go beyond above and beyond to meet the needs of our students and school communities.
They'll be set up and ready to go on Monday. And we had a pretty successful meeting with them recently and uh they gave us a pretty strict guide uh timeline for four weeks is what they're hoping to be out in. So, we'll get that moving here on on a Saturday. So, that is uh that's kind of what we're we're [clears throat] doing right now. Um as I see these head custodians preparing for summer, you see the cleaning supplies getting longer and and uh they're getting geared up. It's kind of a I kind of the last 2 days I've walked all my buildings twice and it's kind of neat when you hear your custodial staff on days going to miss the students. They're already thinking that way. They love them. They become pretty close with having them work with them at lunchtime or at cleaning up and stuff.
Um, so and and grant money coming from federal government, as you know, >> lots of politics about federal grants, uh, and how much they're being reduced. Um, and we don't know the full effect of that, but we fund probably 15 to 20 educators, not just teachers, but pair of professionals through a variety of grants, whether it's a special ed grants andor title one grants. So, it's pretty significant. If we don't have those funds, how do we then fund the operations of a school system uh without pulling those educators into the operating budget? Right? And again, that goes back to what I'm trying to do with the override is to take the eight teachers who we fund through school choice, pull them into the operations, um, and pull that $400,000 of additional operating expenses into the operations, the budget, so we don't have to worry about that in the future.
So, um, Musco Lighting, whenever you look around and I've reached out to other superintendent, this is the top of the line, uh, company that most school districts have had a great reput. They have a great reputation with the other school districts with with Great Ben, Hoisington, um, Dodge City. They're working on a project down in Dodge City. So, um, very reputable dealer. Their total cost quoted, um, was $231,000, and again, that's with a 25- year warranty. They did have some other options with that, too, that's included. They have a show light package that they give you a like an iPad. They come out and they diagram um, four or five different songs. It could be your band songs. It could be, you know, whatever it is that you want. and then they choreograph the light show for entrances and halftime shows and things like that to go with the package.
>> Oh, I'm so ecstatic. I couldn't wait to be here all day. >> That's right. >> I'm really excited. >> Waiting all year. >> Yo, very excited. Yo, >> Rob, you get them over there. >> Been waiting all year for this. I'm so excited. >> So excited. >> Now, >> you're already here. Everyone's so excited. And you could be, too. So, >> you good. You could. Now, quick question. Does anybody have a project in the film festival or are they an actor in some of them? >> You Let's get over here. Robbie, get them. >> I'm an actor in >> Robbie's film. Oo. >> So, >> okay. Can you give us a little without letting go too much can kind of describe what's going on in this? >> Just the word sadness. >> Sadness. Oh. Oh, no. Another tearjerker. Maybe worrying. Um, well, we can't wait to see what that's about.
But one of the things that a lot of people don't know about Stanley is that he served in World War II. He entered um the US military, I believe, in 1942 and he served in the signal corps. And so his one of his main responsibilities was to go around fixing the signaling equipment. So, and I just think it's kind of cool to know that because here's a guy who in some ways is one of the greatest communicators of the modern age, right? Like think about the popularity of these characters and the messages that they communicate through a medium that was traditionally considered a children's medium but then spanned the gap of of that those limitations of that medium. And ironically like his specialization in the military was communication, right? And so when he when he brings forward a thought like with great power comes great responsibility.
Congratulations, spotlight employees. As I call your name, please come forward to receive your certificate and give a quick fist bump to the governing board and Dr. Lotman, and then head to room 123 for a group photo. And Mr. Harmon, give us a wave. That is where room 123 is. All right. Congratulations to Ginger Walters, library aid from Butterfield Elementary School. Heidi Ashworth, librarian from Maricopa Elementary School. Diana Sanchez, behavior specialist, Pima Butte Elementary School. >> [applause] >> And Whitney Harden, library aid from Saddleback Elementary School. Jesse Gibson, resource paraprofessional, Santa Cruz Elementary School. Diana Lazaro Rivas, attendance clerk from Santa Rosa Elementary School. James Lair, sixth grade math teacher, Desert Wind Middle School. And Reed Martin, seventh grade math teacher from Maricopa Wells Elementary School. Mary Beth Garrett, receptionist, Desert Sunrise High School. Tamika Kimbrough, ELL teacher, Maricopa High School. Teresa Flint, administrative assistant from Ram Academy.
So, they they get pretty excited when they see them crossing the stage to graduate or moving up from the junior high to the high school. So, it's kind of a fun time for them right now. So, do you guys have anything for me? We've been getting a lot of rain, but the roof on the elementary getting any No. [clears throat] damage coming through? Can I knock on the wood in front of you? We're going to authorize a number today. We are. Correct. On the If you're lucky. On the weekends like Sunday I took my turn at 6:00 in the morning cuz [clears throat] I could hear the wind all night. And then Craig was here throughout the day on Sunday, so I knew he would check it. Then we had somebody check it Sunday night cuz of the rain. And so far as I Craig says we we're doing well.
um otherwise, you know, in another year down the road, we're looking at um potential huge layoffs. And so, >> so, so thanks for for filling that in a little bit. Um, and you know, you're talking about basically having to address this structural deficit and talking about, you know, teachers and and folks, but I think it would be helpful for some of our listeners to >> uh understand >> specifically what this override is going to address like what are the actual stakes for students and families here like and and and I have a few questions around that too, but I'll have you kind of start there. I'll try I'll try to keep it as simple as possible because I think the messaging that that families are trying to wrap their head around is okay what's really going to happen in our school system right so there so there are a few things that are happening right with an override here's what here's what will happen one uh we will have the ability to pull in >> the eight teachers who are funded outside of the operations so those eight teachers are funded with school choice money and I'll explain that in a second okay But uh and then there's $400,000 of operations also funded by school choice.
Um, that is an additional $8,000. They also do have another option for putting like school colors on another light that would shine on your bleachers that would turn them a certain color. Um, when I reached out to other schools about that package, they weren't um as impressed with that package as they were the other parts of it. I guess if you were talking about additional packages, the one thing that that um is something to think about though with the light show side of it, it would be cool for our families, it would be cool for our community. One part of it that that when I was talking to Miss Murphy about it today is, you know, a lot of our football games start off, the lights are not even on because it's still sunny outside. So, you know, you would have the light show package for some of the other parts of it if you wanted to.
Maybe get your tissue boxes ready. A little worrying. Okay. Anything else you guys want to add? >> No. Silence crickets. Oh, man. All right. Well, >> just like everyone needs to come to the film festival here. >> Yeah. Like right now. >> Right now. Immediately. Immediately. Run. Run. Run. Run. Run. >> Right. Right now. >> Yeah. And they mean it. Don't mess with this guy. Don't mess with him. >> Especially him. >> Don't mess with Kyle Frell. >> Look at him. So scary. All right. Well, we're going to go ahead and let you guys go. All right. So, have fun. Goodbye. >> Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Huh? >> We're out. Yes. Obviously. Whatever you guys Rob, you want to sign it? >> I'm here with Mr. McConey, the cast two and three teacher and like the father of all this. >> How are you doing today?
I feel like part of what influences that as well is if you think about his background he served in World War II. So that's the time probably where the US military flexed its muscle the greatest. Right? We were one of the most we really probably weren't entering the war, but because of the nature of us being separated from Europe, our industrial capacity, our population, we were one of the most powerful nations on Earth at that time. And we stepped into a conflict that we didn't necessarily need to get into. I mean, you can make arguments for Pearl Harbor. >> Well, yeah. So, and and I'm not trying to get into an ethics thing about World War II. Was it right or was it wrong? But my point is you could see why that would have some impact on someone to think about power and responsibility, right?