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good evening at this time i'd like to call this regular meeting of the dysart unified school district governing board to order let the record reflect that all board members are present please stand for the pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all before we get started tonight i just wanted to ask everyone to give me a thumbs up or give me some sort of signal in working at hospital i found i was exposed a couple days ago and just out of an abundance of caution from my fellow board members and i can't social distance i'm wearing a mask and i know it's hard to hear me sometimes so please just feel free to give me a thumbs up if you can't hear me with that move to recognitions and celebrations with b1 dance performance dr kellis thank you madam president members of the board and members of cabinet dr pulling will introduce this item madam president members of the board cabinet and audience it's my pleasure to introduce west point elementary dance they will perform led by miss hannah bradio i've always been the one to say the first goodbye had to laugh and lose a hundred million times had to get it wrong to know just what i like now i'm falling you say my name like i have never heard before i'm indecisive but this time i know for sure i hope i'm not the only one that feels [Music] whenever you want it baby [Music] i knew that was the end of it all i [Music] should know [Music] am i falling in love [Music] every time everyone [Music] whenever you want it baby [Music] oh [Music] what a beautiful job y'all did i see some uh future dance company and palmies over there you guys are definitely on your way doing a great job what grade levels are represented my goodness excellent job thank you for coming yeah with this a different group or the same group oh perfect perfect i keep fighting voices in my mind that say i'm not enough every single light that tells me i will never measure up remind me once again [Music] [Applause] when [Applause] and i believe [Applause] [Music] [Applause] the only thing that matters now is everything you think of me [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] it at your feet you'll have every failure god you'll have it that was a stunning performance for sure beautiful thank you for coming um madam president that was absolutely beautiful and young lady you have a gift that was wonderful [Applause] next we move to b2 city of el mirage and surprise essay winners dr kellis thank you madam president members of the board and members of cabinet dr pulling will introduce these students and would like to invite the board to come down to welcome them and congratulate them thank you madam president members of the board dr kels cadman audience so dysart partnered with the cities of el mirage and city surprise to host a my el mirage and my surprise essay contest for dysart students students submitted an essay that were evaluated on understanding of city services and amenities creativity clarity sincerity of thought and proper grammar each winner will be recognized or has been recognized by the respective cities so i'm going to call all four students if you are here if you would please come up and get a picture with the board so for the city of el mirage first place claire ibere el mirage school third grade city is yep [Applause] city of surprise grade winners for third and fourth grades caleb levitt freedom traditional academy for 5th through 8th grades casey dunn canyon ridge school [Applause] and for 9th through 12th grades valerie ortega at valley vista high school congratulations [Applause] thank you very much and congratulations again [Applause] all right next we move to audience uh with let's see seat one audience with individuals uh we have none next uh superintendent governing board updates do you won student update dr kellis thank you madam president members of the board and members of cabinet we have jocelyn poundstone here from the dysart student leadership council to provide an update good evening madam president members of the board dr kellis cabinet and community my name is dawson poundstone and i'm a member of the dysart student leadership council at our most recent meeting we continue to work on an upcoming event for all the councils to get together and learn from each other we also attended the aasc state convention at north high school this weekend where we went to different leadership activities we did workshops and we listened to keynote speakers and we collaborated with a ton of other councils from all across arizona valley vista shatterage and daisar were all awarded with the title of outstanding council of distinction we're excited to be planning a spirit conference for all of the student councils in the upcoming may and it's going to be held at the westmech northwest conference we look forward to sharing more information and accomplishments with you all thank you next we have superintendent update dr kalas thank you madam president members of the board and members of cabinet um just want to acknowledge that we had a tremendous showing of athletes at state playoffs we enjoyed wrestlers and basketball players and soccer players and we are still keeping an eye on the valley vista girls basketball team and we will be recognizing these athletes in a near future board meeting so congratulations to all them also like to put a plug in for volunteers we have some pretty significant events coming up with the dysart festival of the arts and the vista center for the arts and also we are still open our classrooms are open our schools are open and we're ready to welcome volunteers back into our schools then i would like to just excuse dr dean who's in here this evening he's not having very much fun on a very large boat so and he's not watching online either i hope not next we move to governing board update anyone have any updates um i do have a couple of them um had the opportunity to attend the concert that was at valley vista uh featuring the shadow ridge wind ensemble led by mr forrest and also part of that concert was with the glendale community college community band and that was under the direction of bill humbert who is the director of the concert bands at gcc and bill and i go way back we were in marching band together honor band and orchestra and so it was great to see him and not only listen to a lot of great music that was put on not only by shadow ridge but then also gcc uh also attended and it was just on the spur of the moment visited cimarron springs with dr kellis to hand out a couple of extraordinary pins and thank you miss richards and also an impromptu band number by the band and they were good so thank you mr may for that uh also attended yesterday i went to rancho gabriela to see their win innervate intervention time and win means what i need and that is about 30 minutes of the students all of them do it and it's about 30 minutes of getting that targeted instruction for what the students actually need it's every morning it's for all grades each all the special classes and everybody meets incorporating the writing standards in english into the specials and such as art pe music so thank you uh mr kerr i think he's over there yes and also went to uh countryside for their tutu and tiara taco tuesday with tie-dye shirts it was a lot but it was okay and yes i did actually put on a tiara and a tutu and i looked great i think but it was awesome we had tacos and quite honestly that was the quietest cafeteria i had ever been in and i the once miss hessler and miss hill explained to me is that um each of the classes are getting points and so um they have a point point system that by the end of the year if they've followed all the rules and regs and are respectful in the cafeteria they get points and so um there were a lot of points for each of the grades so that was awesome to see so thank this thank you miss hessler and miss hill and also i received an email um from scott thomas who was our former architecture teacher at with the program over at shadow ridge and he shared that we had two shadow ridge students juniors emma davis and sebastian st germain that won the nahb national championship so this is the fourth unprecedented national championship that the student chapter at shadow ridge has has won and so it actually stands for national association of builders so quite honestly i needed to to say that because this month is still for the next couple of days we're still celebrating cte month so um congratulations to these two students i had to say that that's it anyone else okay next we'll move to item e motion to approve consent agenda items i'll entertain a motion i move that we approve consent agenda items with the exception of items f3 and f4 they be moved to action discussion motion made by crystal chapman seconded by tracy sorry sinkville yep yes please motion carries next we move to information discussion items g1 information on district insurance policies and coverage dr kellers thank you madam president members of the board and members of cabinet at the request of the board we have invited representatives from the arizona risk retention trust otherwise known as the trust to present to the board information about coverage and liability coverage for the district and with that i'll let mr hicks introduce our guests thank you very much dr kellis madam president members of the board it's my pleasure to introduce mr chris welker um acting attorney or lead attorney for the arizona risk retention trust thanks mr hicks and madam president members of the governing board dr kellis my name is chris welker and i am here as counsel for the arizona school risk retention trust i'm grateful for the invitation to be here this evening i'm here just to provide a very brief overview of the trust and certainly to answer any questions or engage in any other discussion that the board would like to to ask or engage in the trust is the insurer for the district provides various forms of insurance coverage for the district its board members its employees and agents primarily the the main coverages provided include liability coverage and that applies when a claim is asserted against the school district or its employees or administrators board members the trust provides liability coverage provides defense and indemnity for those types of claims provided that their coverage by covered by the trust coverage agreement with the district there are various other coverages property coverages there is administrative practices liability coverage that is of particular interest to administrators and and board members that type of coverage is provided for actions that are brought by the department of education or other governmental entities that can be brought against the district or its agents board members employees the trust always interprets its coverage agreements as broadly as reasonably possible to provide coverage uh as often and as broadly as it can now the coverage agreements that the trust provides the district do contain exclusions for various activities various acts various omissions that would prevent coverage so if an exclusion applies then the coverage provided by the trust does not apply and those things are determined on a case by case claim-by-click claim cause of action by cause of action basis whether something is covered or not cannot be determined until the trust knows exactly what is asserted and what is claimed but for purposes of covering the school district its employees and its board members the trust is the entity that provides that coverage if something is not provided by the trust or if it's excluded by the trust coverage agreements then there is no coverage available for the employees board members agents etc again the trust always interprets its coverage agreements as broadly as reasonably possible to provide coverage wherever it can and has had a long relationship with the district so that's a general overview in summary of who the trust is and what it does and what it provides happy to entertain any questions or discussion anyone may have but i don't have anything else prepared in advance but just wanted to provide that overview in summary and let you know who the trust is and what it does thank you for that information um do any board members have any questions i do go ahead down you can go first you mentioned um the exclusions is it possible for us to get a listing of those exclusions i know that they're you you can't guarantee coverage until you're presented with the situation but are there guidelines that we could be provided with absolutely in fact the district should have a copy of the coverage agreements that it has with the trust those coverage agreements uh outlined in various sections of the exclusions for instance the main section of the coverage agreement with the trust is appendix a1 that is the largest section regarding liability coverage and then section two of appendix a1 contains all of the exclusions to the liability coverage there are 35 specifically identified exclusions in appendix a1 the administrative practices liability coverage is endorsement 6a to appendix a1 and that has its own set of exclusions those are contained in section of endorsement 6a to appendix a1 again these are all agreements that the district should have in its possession if not i am more than happy to provide them thank you and do we know where we can find those like are they posted for us somewhere um madam president members of the board we have a risk manager she has our policy yes we'll get him emailed out to the board i'm emailing her right now thank you so if something is not specific to that exclusion um and there is some sort of lawsuit um if we create a policy and somebody doesn't like that policy and then they decide to sue us you wouldn't be able to tell if it's excluded until you actually know what it is correct coverage can only be determined based on the actual claim asserted and so until it's known what is being alleged or asserted it's impossible to make a coverage determination it has to be done on a claim-by-claim or or action-by-action basis in general terms the the coverage agreements will define what is covered in the ensuring language it will specify what typically is covered what types of activities and acts for instance in order for an employee or a board member or any other another agent of the district to be covered they must be acting within their authority granted they must be acting in their official capacity so someone outside acting outside for instance of the course and scope of their employment when something happens wouldn't be covered by the coverage agreements because they're not acting on behalf of the district at that time so generally speaking you first consider the insuring language to make sure that a claim that is asserted falls within the insuring language if it does then you look to the exclusions to ensure that that the acts alleged don't fall within one of the exclusions to coverage and again until those claims are asserted it's impossible to know whether the insuring language applies whether certain exclusions may apply okay and then another question as far as a mandate versus a law if congress has not made a law and this is a federal mandate then are we still within our i guess are we still able to create our policy if it is a if it's not written into law so if there's a federal mandate and then we create a policy it's not a law congress makes the law so i how would that work in a mandate versus a law again it would depend on the specifics it would it would depend on the facts alleged and the nature of the claim asserted before coverage can be determined but i'll i can quote you some relevant language for for instance from the administrative practices coverage there's an exclusion that may be relevant to to the hypothetical you're posing there's an exclusion for any uh acts allegedly or actually arising out of or contributed to by any acts or or or omissions where the results of the axor missions were intended or should have been expected by the covered party covered party meaning either the district its employees its board members under either an objective or subjective standard so again this mean this exclusion means these acts or missions are excluded if they were intended or should have been expected to be any dishonest or unlawful act or omission so the term used is if it's an unlawful act or omission that term unlawful is not defined but it doesn't just mean violation of a statute a federal statute it goes on to say that the exclusion applies to any knowing or informed violation of arizona or federal statutory requirements so it includes violation of statutes laws made by congress at the federal level or the arizona legislature but it's broader than that so it the exclusion applies to any acts that should have been known or expected to be unlawful that is broader than a violation of a federal or state statute violation of a federal or state statute is included in the in the exclusion but it's not limited to violation of federal or state statute so again without knowing the specifics of a claim or an action it's impossible to make a specific coverage determination but that gives you a general idea of how the exclusion reads it it excludes coverage for anything that was known or expected to be unlawful and the term unlawful you just said isn't really definable at this it's not defined in the coverage agreement we know because it includes violations of stat federal or state statutes that it's broader than simply a violation or federal or state statute so that's state statute and just to clarify for myself does that include any federal mandates again it depends on the mandate it depends on who's issued the mandate does it have the force of law so that violating it would be unlawful those are all the types of specifics that would have to be analyzed so what if a case were to go before supreme the supreme court and the supreme court upheld a particular lawsuit even though there's no law would something similar be considered a violation of a law even though it's not typically a law again it's difficult to prejudge without knowing the specifics of a claim or a lawsuit that's brought but courts can create law court decisions can have the force of law so following that conversation when we're talking about these exclusions and i'm sorry i wish we could have had that in really plain language back there but um a court case would be considered unlawful if we tried to go against a court case again without knowing the specifics it's impossible to render a determination without knowing the specifics of a claim asserted or or an action brought either by an individual or a government body it's impossible to make a coverage determination without knowing the specifics of a claim asserted but with that generally speaking courts can create law okay that that can have the force of law court decisions can have the force of loss or something certainly can be unlawful if it violates in the right circumstances a decision by a court with jurisdiction you know there's another exclusion to the general liability it's a little speed it's perhaps doesn't contain so much legalese the the liability coverage afforded by the trust is meant to cover fortuitous acts or omissions meaning not intentional generally liability coverage does not apply to intentional acts they're in what i mean by intentional acts knowing violations of law typically are not covered by insurance coverage or policies and the coverage agreement provided by the trust is no different it contains a very common exclusion that is often used in insurance policy insurance policies for any alleged or actual liability caused intentionally by or at the direction of the covered party so typically liability coverage is not afforded for intentional or knowing acts that are in violation of law it's typically provided for fortuities accidents things that are not intentionally done or knowing violations of law so if we were to you know hypothetically have an executive session and invite you back then we could get a little bit more specific with our questions hypothetically i would have to consult with that i would have to consult with the boards council to determine the extent and scope of the executive session and whether the law would allow such an executive session hypothetically if there was a policy being discussed and there was a lot of questions about the policy and the language of the policy whether or not it's lawful legal or not legal or not would the trust look at that policy ahead of time to say that that would not be a wise path to take or you can still go down it and not knowing what's going to happen but can they do it ahead of time the district is always hypothetically the district's always welcome to submit questions to the trust at any time the trust is there to answer questions but the difficulty is there can be no final coverage determination ever issued without knowing what a claim or cause of action is a coverage determination cannot be made in a vacuum on based on hypotheticals it can only be based on an actual claim asserted or an action brought either by an individual or a governmental entity the trust can provide as i am the language in the general exclusions that apply to its coverage but unless and until a claim is actually asserted it's impossible to make a coverage determination but keeping in mind the general principles are liability coverages are afforded for unknowing or accidental acts or omissions typically and again there are exceptions to every rule but typically liability coverage is not there to provide coverage for intentional or knowing acts or known violations of law and again that whole unlawful unlawful word is very subjective unless you know the specific situation correct without knowing the specifics it's it would be impossible to make a determination whether it's an act or omission was unlawful without knowing a claim asserted or a cause of action filed it would be impossible to know whether the cause of action is alleging an unlawful act but the and that is not a defined term so it will be given its ordinary meaning but the exclusion does apply to exclude coverage for acts that were either known or expected to be unlawful so if i just kind of give you an outline you can kind of give me uh maybe maybe not if i give you something more specific with more specifics we can provide probably more language from the coverage agreements that may or may not apply there still cannot be a specific determination on coverage unless and until there's actually a claim or an action asserted or filed well i have a question just in general um it was my understanding that as long as you're working within your scope as a board member then as far as any liability as well um you're not going to be personally held responsible as long as you aren't going outside of your scope of a board member then you're covered so is there something that you if that's not always the case are you able to provide some information on when that might not apply sure so as i mentioned earlier there is there are two primary components to determining coverage for any particular claim or cause of action first you have to determine whether the potential claim may fall within the ensuring language or the cover covering language and that includes whether the person against whom the claim is asserted was acting within their official capacity course and scope of their employment if so then they're a covered party so that's kind of the first hurdle to get over is the person against whom the claim is asserted a covered party were they acting within their official capacity that has to be met for their for the coverage to apply any time someone is acting within the course and scope of their employment within their official capacity they meet the definition of a covered party so that the insuring language could apply but then the second determination is are there any exclusions to that apply to the coverage so even though a person an employee a board member may be a covered party because they were acting in their official capacity or in the course and scope of their employment they could still be subject to exclusions to coverage which is the second analysis they may be covered as a covered party but then does the claim or the lawsuit or the action brought assert acts or omissions that would give rise to an exclusion for coverage and the the hypotheticals or general issues we've been discussing touch on some of these exclusions where there are exclusions for intentional or known acts or omissions that are unlawful or that violate there's another exclusion i can give you this language too there's an exclusion for known for any alleged violation of statutes regulations penal quotes or ordinances committed with the knowledge of the covered party and knowledge is defined to include whether the covered party actually knows or reasonably should know that the acts or omissions may violate the statute regulation penal codes or ordinances at issue again the general idea being though a covered party may be covered by the insuring language because they're acting in their official capacity or within the course and scope of employment the exclusions may then take away the coverage to the extent the acts oral missions fall within one of the exclusions and for our purposes if we've been as we've been discussing those could include intentional or knowing acts okay so let me give you a hypothetical but make sure i understand this so let's say for example speaking to that exclusion about should have known i don't know if that's exactly what you said not is that should have known or had reason to have known actually knows or reasonably should know that the acts okay or emissions will violate a statute or ordinance or penal code so maybe how this could fit is are you saying like for an example the board writes a policy that they want to paint every every building in the district pink and in in writing that policy the attorney says i really wouldn't do that and we say well we're we think we're within the law we're going to write this policy and then someone sues us personally is the attorney that said i wouldn't do that kind of us reasonably should have known does that fall into that exclusion i don't know of any law outlaw outlawing painting buildings no no no that was a total hypothetical yeah no i i'm in other words if whatever the whatever the ish the policy is if in the midst of drafting it the attorney says ex uh expresses concerns or advises against and the board does it in a way where they they feel is within the law or tries to be very careful about it whatever and and and it passes and it's a and it's a policy and then someone brings a lawsuit forward and um not just sues the district but also individual board members as their own person that exclusion that speaks to should have reasonably known is that position going to hold up simply because you should have reasonably known because your attorney told you you shouldn't move forward do you see what i mean i do i understand the question so again with without seeing the specific claims or the specific lawsuits it's impossible to make a coverage determination but in general terms or discussing general principles if an employee or board member or anyone is sued individually and accused of knowingly violating the law and it it is shown that it was a violation of law there is a risk that that exclusion would apply and and so that there would be no grant of coverage to the individual accused of knowingly violating the law well no that's assuming they i don't think and i would hope nobody would openly try to violate the law and write a policy that was definitely unlawful i'm saying things are up to interpretation and if someone out there says i i think that's wrong and i'm going to sue you for it that's what i'm talking about and and so to your hypothetical if if an individual had been advised that their acts were unlawful and then someone another individual ultimately sues the employee or agent of the district saying in fact the the la the acts were unlawful yes the the the information that the employee or representative of the district had received would be relevant to determine whether they had should have reasonably known that their acts were unlawful so any and all information would be relevant to that analysis including advice given by other board members by council by administration all of that would be relevant to determining whether an individual reasonably shouldn't have known they were acting in an unlawful manner thank you so what happens if there is an exclusion what happens if we create a policy and then somebody decides to sue us and the upcourt the court upholds the lawsuit what are what are the ramifications of that even if there isn't if there is an exclusion and then if there isn't well if if the lawsuit filed is against an individual who is acting in their course and scope of employment or within their official capacity so that they're a covered party and the lawsuit is the type that is covered by the coverage agreement and no exclusion applies then the trust provides a defense and ultimately potentially indemnity for that individual if an exclusion applies and again that only can be determined once the claim and or lawsuit is filed to determine whether the exclusion actually applies if individuals are sued personally and individually and an exclusion applies so that it is not a covered claim then the trust would not step in to defend or indemnify if the exclusion does apply to remove coverage okay so let me just make sure i understand if there is no exclusion and if something happens somebody decides to sue the district there's no exclusion um worst case scenario we end up having to pay out the money are there consequences from that are we going to lose insurance or anything like that that gets into um the district's loss history the district pays contributions into the trust and those are based in part on the district's loss history so it could affect the amount of the contributions for the insurance but if they're if a claim is clearly covered and the party against two bits asserted is clearly covered and no exclusion applies again then the trust will defend and pay for any covered claim down the road it could factor into the to the district's ultimate contribution for the insurance going forward that would be the case of everything's covered and no exclusion applies again on the flip side if an exclusion applies or the claim asserted does not fall within the insuring language it's not covered then the trust again would not provide the defense and would not pay the claim thank you so to that point um if there's an determined that there's an exclusion and board members are not covered then each board member would be responsible for their own legal service is that correct correct if the trust does not the trust is the insurer for the district and its board members and its employees so if the trust does not provide the coverage then the employees board members would be on their own to provide their own defense to look to whatever other sources of insurance they have okay thank you so it all depends on that one definition unlawful i don't want to i don't want to put it that simply because the coverage agreement is hundreds of pages and there are 35 exclusions just in appendix a1 and there are multiple endorsements and other appendices and so again it's it's not as simple as it's just this one exclusion that was one relevant exclusion for the hypotheticals posed um but there could be numerous provisions relevant to any analysis of coverage for a given claim thank you any other questions um yeah so i i know that there are statutes at the federal and state levels and laws and case law that that you have to consider and this board considers those as well um but i am wondering hypothetically if you're presented with a situation and you analyze that situation yet you have two separate case laws that contradict each other or two statutes you know a federal versus state how do you determine whether that's the intent to go against one of those laws or statute that's all part of the analysis that's why it's so dependent on what the specific allegations are made against the district or an individual the coverage determination cannot be made without analyzing the specific allegations of a claim that's asserted against the district or one of its agents or representatives the specifics of the claim is obviously vital to the to any analysis of the coverage just one more example because i mentioned that there are numerous exclusions and numerous provisions there's an exclusion to coverage for any alleged or actual liability which is caused by or done at the direct direction of a covered party with the covered party's knowledge that the occurrence or offense or wrongful act would violate the rights of or injure another person and again this is it says in this exclusion for purposes of the exclusion knowledge shall conclusively be deemed to exist when the covered part party actually knows or reasonably should know that the acts may violate the rights or injure another person so that's just one more example there are numerous but that's one more exclusion that could be relevant to any coverage analysis for a claim asserting someone's rights are violated a knowing act an act that knowingly violates the rights of another is part of this exclusion thank you thank you very much for all your information appreciate thank you again for the invitation it's a pleasure to be with you all right next we move to g2 update on restroom use dr kalis thank you madam president members of the board and members of cabinet at the request of the governing board administration is set to provide some information regarding the use of restrooms within the district we have several pieces of information that several of us will be presenting so first of all i'd like to just talk about why we're talking about this and this is obviously to protect the privacy of students when they're in the restrooms one of the things that we have been looking at as ways to look at the physical facilities that we currently have and how they might be retrofitted to provide more privacy for students and then we also have an estimate on what the cost estimate would be to provide additional human resources to monitor student safety or privacy in hallways or traffic to and from restrooms and we have also developed and communicated procedures regarding the use of restrooms that the board has had access to not the restrooms the procedures and then just as a note that these procedures have been communicated to administrators through professional development training and then the board had asked for information about the types of accommodations that students receive whether it's medical safety or other for the use of restrooms so to start off with the first would first couple of items the estimate for retrofitting bathroom facilities to ensure greater privacy mr ken hicks will provide this information thank you very much madam president members of the board and just looking at our restrooms we have over 1600 restrooms or fixtures within our district but just looking at groups at the school level we have about 161 groupings of restaurant restrooms that have multiple fixtures in all of the locations and so looking at if we were able to reconfigure and look at it the option two that was put before the governing board to reduce out and take out all of the fixtures the urinal fixtures and then extend the the doorways which would require some metal doors and frames to extend to increase privacy within those would be about sixty thousand dollars is the estimate we have to do that if we did that now there's a caveat we have not researched the ada requirements and other health code requirements of the number of fixtures on every facility there are health code requirements of number of fixtures you have based on your occupancy and anticipated occupancy and such and so our facilities director has started looking into that and has not got a response back on that so that is why um if i looked and said could we take one of those groupings and do this modification so it would be only one at every heist at every elementary and then one per building at the high school so that would create approximately only 43 instead of 161 groupings to kind of whittle it down that would be around 2.5 million dollars to make that modification and then the other cost requested for me to look at was to if we had a restroom monitor um if we paid that person on a 190 say 97 day calendar at the minimum wage knowing that minimum wage is going to go up in january since that is the one thing that's tied to inflation will guarantee to always go up and so um just estimating um what that would be the second half of the year um the total cost is around with benefits for a fully um fully benefited person full fte there's about 30 a little over 32 000 a year for that position total cost of the district that's not that's salaries the arizona state retirement and also the fica as well as the medical benefits also following that same lineage of one um one per k-8 um and then at the high school putting one at every one of the one building per building would be 43 of those which would cost about 1.3 million if you only did one per site it's about eight hundred thousand so eight hundred thousand one percent one point three million if we did added a little bit more for each of the buildings at the high school level and that was just my own editorial cost of adding the high school and there was no reasoning behind that except for just wanted to provide one thank you mr hicks the and we can come back and take questions the next one was procedures for students who request to who request assistance with bathroom use and when we talk about requesting assistance there as i mentioned are multiple categories there's could be for medical reasons it could be for feelings of feeling safe as they need to use the restrooms it could include being allowed to leave class a couple minutes early there could be some some emotional issues with using the bathrooms in public where they're allowed to have an accommodation to leave early or be late or whatnot and then any mixed gender type accommodations and so those those procedures have been provided by the board i think they're in the word packet but basically to start off with if a parent or guardian or a student presents to administration a request for assistance the administration will meet with the student and the parent to make sure that both are part of this plan they will develop a personalized plan including available options to use other restrooms such as the health office it could be a private single use restroom the communication with staff to make sure that there's an awareness that if a student is out of class early for whatever reason that they know that they have permission to do so so communication and then obviously the monitoring of the plan and then these plans would be reviewed regularly to make sure that they're working or that they need to be revised it's important to know that every employee currently is responsible for student safety at a school and that includes monitoring restrooms and locker rooms employees and students must report any misuse abuse or misbehavior in and around restrooms or locker rooms and then if if that's the case then those reports would be investigated just like any other report of misconduct and then regarding the meeting with administrators last week there was a full all administrator meeting and these procedures were shared with the administrators and then the question was about the accommodations the number of accommodations that are being provided four restrooms and we have collected that data and dr pauline will share that information thank you madam president members of the board dr kelson cabinet um dr dean and i did reach out to our principals who you know you supervise different principles and to get an estimated number of of how many students are on you know a commission plan and um for the medical category probably about 27 students across the district k-12 for safety plan about eight about eight students across the district and for gender identity about seven across the district k-12 those are the ones that have approached and made a plan so with that information we're open to any questions from the board i'm sorry could you repeat those numbers again yes the first number is 27 the second number was eight second number her third number was seven what were the the 27 was uh for medical like an iep or or uh health and safety or health plan second category was for uh safety that was eight and the third was for gender identity and that was seven okay thank you you're welcome dr kellis when you were going over the the safety plan you you quoted it i think correctly however in print for the step two um the school administration will meet with the student or parent or guardian but you stated and uh ms desmore thank you for that clarification it is the intent that whenever this plan is developed is done with both students and their parents or guardians right but in print it's ore we will correct that thank you okay so do we currently do we currently have students using restrooms based on their chosen identity not their biological identity madame president miss jaffen yes so if i don't want to use the restroom with a biological male i have to get my parents to sit down and meet with an administrator to come up with a plan madam president miss chaffin if you and your parents would like to meet with administration to discuss the uh challenge that you have or the the concern or complaint then yes that would be done with the administration and then so what if we have i don't know ninety of of our pers ninety percent of our students asking for individual bathroom plans and we've got forty five percent of those who are you know being released from class early third period and then 45 percent of those who are late to fourth period we've got a ton of students wandering around the halls how how do we anticipate to monitor that madam president miss chaffin right now with our current numbers we are not seeing that volume and right now the plans that are being developed are definitely manageable so as far as the what ifs if we had that many then we would have to regroup but we're not seeing that happening right now so what would you say what would you say to those parents who bring up the loudoun county virginia incident where there was a boy who identified as a girl on two separate occasions in two separate instances and sexually assaulted a young female in the restroom at one high school and then identified as a girl went into the women's restroom and continued to sexually assault another girl um what would you say to those concerns madame president chaffin the details of that incident there's many details i think you gave a brief summary there were other details of that case that are specific to that case as we have included in the plan that we do not tolerate the misuse of restrooms and what happened in lounge county could happen in any restroom across the america america schools airports movie theaters anywhere where there is ill intent and misbehavior so as it says on the plan that any misuse or abuse or misbehavior would be should be reported we still have boys restrooms and girls restrooms and if students are inappropriately using or accessing the restroom then there are consequences to that so we we really can't do anything until something has already happened and what about locker rooms what if i am in a pe class and i do not feel comfortable what if females or males don't feel comfortable undressing in front of someone of the who is of a different biological sex madam president miss chaffin um just to clarify your first statement that we can't do anything until something happens is incorrect we do have as i stated in the plan that every employee is responsible for monitoring the safety of students on campus including restrooms and so that is preventative as far as students in locker rooms this these procedures also apply to locker rooms and individual plans can be made i have a question so um so we have seven seven students right now with plans and that's the circumstance of a potentially a biologically male student using a female bathroom and a biologically female student using a male bathroom right madame president that is correct okay so um and it looks like just based on this plan here you're saying that um you know the step one would be the parent or guardian um needs to be involved and requesting a conference to have that happen i'm assuming so not everyone is just randomly using whatever bathroom i'm correct madam president that is correct okay so what if and again honoring the rights of of everyone and looking out for the safety and discomfort of everyone what if you have a student who say feels uncomfortable going into a bathroom where they know a student of a different biological sex is going into that same bathroom and they feel uncomfortable with it but they they don't necessarily have the opportunity to tell their parent hey because this is happening at my school can i have a plan to go to the nurse's office if i want to or you know what i'm saying to where i don't know that we should require and i don't know because i again i it's new area as far as the legalities and everything of it but i feel like we need to make sure all of our students are comfortable and if there is a student who maybe witnesses another student that's not that identifies with a different gender than their the bathroom and they don't want to go in there they shouldn't feel forced to or feel like that's their only option because they haven't had a conference i feel like we should be able to just in general allow if a student doesn't feel comfortable going in there then if they want to use the nurse's bathroom then that should be like no questions asked they should be able to do that so they're comfortable because they're not going to be able to in the moment say oh i i got to talk to my parents about having a conference madam president i would agree with you 100 percent that no student will be will be denied access to a restroom where they feel private fill the need for privacy and i would confidently say that anytime a student goes to the nurse and asks the nurse to use the restroom that they would not be turned away from using a restroom in the nurse's office if this becomes a norm i mean they're they're if the student's in a little bit of a crisis right there and needs to use it right away then we're not going to ask to have a conference with a parent but if this is something that the student feels like there's a need for ongoing and continuous then it would be required that there's a meeting with the parents to work out this plan so an ongoing issue could just mean they know that there's maybe a student on their campus who's transgender and uses their same bathroom they would have to have their parents come in and have a meeting to get them excused from using their right their their bathroom that they had been using so they could go to a nurse's office to use the bathroom madam president with such any time a plan is developed it would be developed with both the student and the parent i i don't know i i think we might want to consider changing that step one only because um i mean i underst i don't know i'm torn on it because there could be several students who maybe you guys are going to have meetings all the time then you know if there's students that say i just don't i i want to have privacy or i don't feel comfortable being a a girl in a bathroom where there could be a boy or being a boy in the bathroom where there could be a girl coming in and that maybe is that's unfamiliar to them and their family or uncomfortable um that they should without causing a big thing of maybe parents taking off work or having a huge meeting to say hey can i just if you know they're not telling people they can't go in the bathroom they're just saying i want to go into a bathroom where you know the door goes all the way down or i can shut it or whatever whether it be a staff restroom or a nurse's bathroom that that should be allowed and then in regard to um on this valley vista plan as far as delete the urinals patch walls i don't i think that's a lot of wasted money to spend when you can i don't know why you have we would have to rip the urinals out i think that again looking at the comfort level of all students because you know we all have different opinions and different lifestyles and i don't think one lifestyle should trump another and there's the truth of the matter is there's going to be kids that are uncomfortable and that's that's okay for them and i don't want anybody to feel um at a disadvantage if they say they don't feel comfortable so as far as again using those two other options for bathrooms if we were to retrofit um you know adding the the doors that go all the way down in the stalls as an option i think would provide some privacy for students that feel they need it but then as far as the monitors 32 000 per position that's an awful lot of money um when we have students or the earth teachers the expectation it'd be in between like passing periods and things they're supposed to be in the halls kind of monitoring student behavior so if i'm outside my classroom and and that's the bathroom then i just watch it you know i and it's it's it's not like a because you were saying as far as to miss schaffen's point of you know doing something when it's too late and you had mentioned well everyone's responsible kind of for watching we can say all of our staff are responsible for student behavior but we know we have student behavior problems so i think i don't think we can we can be as hands off with it and just assume that if something happens we'll report it i feel like because of you know times are changing and and now we know we have um transgender students that are using bathrooms that they identify with which could cause some discomfort for some students that we need to be more deliberate maybe in our planning of not necessarily hiring people at 32 000 but just again if i'm that's the bathroom and this is my classroom i'm just watching the bathroom so and then to that point so during passing periods students can feel like okay if i go in this bathroom especially before we get the retrofit done if that's what we do um i know that if i'm if i'm uncomfortable if another student comes in who's not who identifies differently with a bathroom then um there's a staff person there like maybe that will give them a feeling of security or safety and i don't want to speak to it too long because everyone's different and to one to some people they could say that's ridiculous why are people upset well that's some kid's realities just like i mean it goes both ways so again honoring the position of all students i feel like um we have to be mindful of that and so that in between passing periods someone's watching but if someone has to go the bathroom in the middle of class then i think because of i think we need to be flexible in there's a student knowing okay no one's watching that bathroom my teacher's not watching like they normally do i'm going up to the nurse's office we can't have nursing staff turning students away or saying no you have to go to the other bathroom we have to make sure the message is clear that it's allowed madam president yes um so lots of comments to respond to as far as ripping out all the urinals um one proposal could be that there's one modified restroom at a in a building or where students know that okay if i really want that privacy this bathroom has the the all the way to the floor and almost the ceiling doors um in both the boys and the girls bathrooms um the urinals could be taken on just the one bathroom because they secret to all who don't use the boys restroom there are no partitions um on the urinals but you could just choose not to use them if you were uncomfortable that's correct and so those could be those could stay there as far as the cost for the the doors and the the partitions um the sixty thousand dollars could be reduced by uh minimizing the scope of the of the retrofit as far as teacher monitoring of hallways yes that is an ongoing expectation for all of our schools is that during passing periods referring to middle schools and high schools who have passing periods um that yes that there are teachers in the hallways that they're monitoring to guarantee that every teacher is going to be stepping outside their door there might be a student who's asking the teacher some questions after class they will try very diligently to assist the student and know that they need to be out monitoring as far as a restroom monitor the the position that mr hicks mentioned that was a suggestion certainly not something that would make or break the plan because as you mentioned all employees are responsible for student safety everywhere on campus there are opportunities to monitor students not just in the bathrooms but in the cafeterias the playgrounds the hallways everywhere and we take that that responsibility seriously um so yes as far as monitoring the restrooms as part of the responsibility of the staff and it's not just a teacher's responsibility for the students the safety of students it's everybody's responsibility um that would definitely as it mentions in the procedures is part of the plan so these procedures basically speak to to students um who are not transgender um we couldn't create procedures for students who choose the transgender lifestyle president miss jeffen just for clarification these procedures are not for any particular group of students any demographic of students this would be for any student for whatever reason is requesting an accommodation it's just cut sorry go ahead you go ahead okay i was just going to say it kind of reads like cisgender students have to go out of their way to make sure that they're comfortable and most students don't care what particular lifestyle anyone chooses like i don't care what you can identify whatever you want to don't really care live your life but most a lot of students do not feel comfortable and i'm sure they're students in our schools who are using restrooms not with their biological sex that administration and parents don't know about um i guess it just seems to me like we're having to cater to one small group of students the cisgender students are going to have to go through this whole process just to make sure that they can use a restroom without having to be in front of somebody of the opposite biological sex but that's assuming that that that that that person hasn't already made accommodations you're assuming that the other person has not made accommodations are you talking about are you talking about the transgender student yes so if a transgender student gets accommodation to go into the opposite sex bathroom so now we have cisgender students who are going to counter that to go to a private restroom it just it seems kind of complicated it seems pretty simple to me they can they ask her transgender whoever has asked for an accommodation through the parent and there's the procedure has the district received any complaints from anybody regarding this procedure about a student going in inappropriately to the bathroom or locker or whatever madame president miss grant um that's a impossible question has the district hypothetically the if any individual in the district has received a complaint i can tell you that the superintendent's office has not received any complaints about this um as far as as has a teacher received a complaint has a custodian the district is everybody so i i would i would has that made it to the superintendents uh madame president mrs grant no it has not okay thank you well maybe it hasn't made its way to the district office because people just don't know that it's happening on a regular basis maybe you can always assume but maybe maybe people just haven't been made aware people like who maybe haven't been made aware maybe but you said earlier that most students really don't care so most students probably don't go home and tell their parents oh by the way so if there is a student that is uncomfortable i'm sure they would have i would assume they've told their parent and it's not been i don't know if a principal we haven't surveyed the principles to ask them but if there's a problem i would like to clarify that most students probably don't care about somebody's choices but they do care they might care when they have to use a restroom with somebody of a different biological sex like they i mean they don't care what you do as long as i don't have to use the same restroom and as you do whatever you want to do but then when it starts coming to them using the biological the restroom with somebody from a different biological sex that would make them uncomfortable because then it affects them and again we're going to assume that i i think according to all of this these students the transgenders etc have asked for accommodations and i don't know if there's other students out there that have never asked for an accommodation maybe but i don't think they want to bring attention i mean there's a whole lot of other things we're going down a very slippery slope right now i'm not i think we could what if forever and a lot of what-ifs can happen today and it has nothing to do with um that person's choice of life it can happen just because so this is a restroom and locker room safety plan um so getting away just from the gender piece for a moment yep it in step three we're talking about employees and students must report misuse abuse or misbehavior in restrooms or locker rooms to the school administration how are those things being handled right now um potentially for bullying or vaping or maybe some other inappropriate activity that's going on in the restroom spitfalls i don't know something ripping out sinks tick-tock challenge right madam president miss densmore per the discipline matrix there are different violations of of behaviors so depending on what the violation is if it's bullying we have a bullish bullying consequence if it is destruction of property then there's a vandalism consequence the discipline matrix outlines multiple pages of behaviors that those behaviors could apply to and that isn't necessarily specific to the bathroom but anywhere if it's vaping the same thing tobacco all those would fall within the designated discipline category but do we have a schedule where some staff members are really truly monitoring those restrooms or you know those hiding spots where things tend to happen madame president densmore i think it would be dependent on school by school generally if you look at the lower grades they're the students walking online escorted by a teacher from place to place as you get older into the middle schools and the high schools um typically the general supervision is um is assigned for before and after school lunch time there are duties that teachers have they tend to rotate those then or depends on the school okay um but as far as one of those assigned duties being the restrooms i would say probably not but that would be the general you're in charge of this hallway you're in charge of that hallway for supervising that would be dependent upon each school's plan okay in regard to the locker rooms um again not violating anyone's being careful not to violate anyone's rights or putting restrictions on anyone how does that look as far as if [Music] male or female identify as one or the other they're in a locker room with their peers and you're disrobing we can't make them [Music] separate out to go somewhere else but we can't that how is that handled then madame president with regard to locker rooms i think you would see that there is definitely some pre-planning that happens and that we consider the privacy of all students in that plan probably have some very close communications with our attorney on that one okay so what does that look like when you say um each student has a plan can you kind of give me a little bit uh more specific what that what that might look like man president chef and i would say right now with the plans that we currently have in place that schools have with the various categories that were mentioned with medical safety and and gender they want to use the nurse's office and then for those monitoring locker rooms are the pe teachers responsible for monitoring locker rooms am i president miss chaffin yes yes so they're the ones um when they get these requests the pe teachers especially have to accommodate them whoever it is in their locker room and while they're monitoring it the pe teachers are basically kind of enforcing these uh procedures in the locker rooms and president yes the pe teacher if it's a pe class is the adult supervis responsible for supervision of the safety of students if it's a athletic team then the coaches but the employees of the district the adult employees of the district are responsible for the safety of students in the locker rooms on the court anywhere but yes absolutely in the locker rooms and then how how do the pe teachers feel if there is a male pe teacher and he has a biological female and this biological female is trying to just stay under the radar just really wants to identify as a male just trying to keep their head down what if that puts the male pe teacher in a compromised position where he doesn't feel comfortable being monitored over this biological female memphis chaffin as as i mentioned just minutes ago that plan would have to be very carefully drafted with the assistance of the attorney and typically we would make sure that the rights and privacies and the supervisory responsibilities and comforts of the staff are all taken into account just a couple of quick questions dr kellis um we don't have locker rooms in elementary schools correct um madame president of source think bill i'm looking tour the person who knows every inch of this district mr hicks i would say no but as soon as i say no there's going to be one somewhere not that quick but i would say no no so we are looking at the high schools for this and in the high schools speak into it you had just said miss chapman we have not only male high school pe coaches and female high school pe coaches so i would like to think that they would be part of that plan that if the male pe coach was not comfortable in supervising or that particular area i believe i hope that he would be he would be able to team up with that female high school coach in order to alleviate anything like that well my question to dr kellis mr hicks what would that look like because typically the men's locker room was over here the women's locker room was over here the boys were over here dressing out and then the girls are over here dressing out so if you have a female who identifies as a male and that male pe teacher is uncomfortable but this person has an accommodation to where they can undress in the male locker room i want to make sure our staff members are protected too because i mean anybody can make any sort of accusation madam president miss chef and you're correct and as i mentioned that that would be a significant part of the plan and just to clarify also there are girls and boys locker rooms absolutely for pe and there are also athletic locker rooms that are very closely and separated from but close to the the pe locker rooms so there are two boys locker rooms two girls locker rooms and there could be some some greater privacy it could also be done in the nurse's office it could be done in other private areas in the area typically as as you mentioned most people don't want to draw attention to themselves and they want to [Music] have the the discrete protections of their own privacy and are very willing to find private areas where they're not making other people uncomfortable or drawing any attention to themselves i i appreciate that i just want to make sure that our staff members are protected too yes and if our staff members are uncomfortable then we would do whatever we could to accommodate them also yes i guess i just want to just want to add that this is a not about because i miss grant had referenced just as far as maybe things happening or whatever i this isn't about criminal behavior or criminalizing this whole situation this is just speaking to discomfort people's perception is their reality and i wouldn't want a transgender student going to school in fear with anxiety of going into a bathroom where they feel they could be bullied or harmed and i don't want a cisgender student going into a bathroom where they have in their mind a real fear of maybe being a little girl taking her clothes off or rosin right next to another male student who comes in just going to the bathroom but for that child it's upsetting to her and that's her reality and whether you're transgender and worried about being harmed in the bathroom or a little susie going in and feeling uncomfortable knowing there could be a boy right next to her it's very real to them it's going to impact their ability to learn and focus in school and that should be our focus is making sure our kids are getting educated properly and i just feel like we need to be sensitive all the way around so it's not like oh we need to do all these things to avoid these headline awful things from happening it also just comes down to everyone feeling comfortable everyone feeling like they have an option available to them without judgment and not being because i to be honest dr kell is my my biggest fear is if a student if a cisgender student feels uncomfortable and asked to go to the nurse's office they're going to be told no or they're going to be told to wait and i just want to make sure just as everyone else has opportunity to choose their bathrooms that means everybody because i don't want anyone feeling uncomfortable for one second because again it's their reality we can all say that the statistics say it's not going to happen it doesn't happen in our district and we can firmly believe that our schools are safe but for that one student who you don't know what goes on behind closed doors in their home or their traumas or whatever they may have gone through that that's their reality or that's their biggest fear i feel like if it's just a little accommodation to allow them to go into a bathroom that makes them feel safe if it's a nurse's office then that's the least we can do so they can focus on their academics and their social growth when they're here you know it shouldn't be a headline issue or a criminal issue it's just everyone feeling safe and comfortable regardless of what gender they identify with madam president yes absolutely as i mentioned earlier no student will be denied access to the private use of a bathroom okay thank you i just have a follow-up question it's a follow-up to ms densmore's comment about safety and vaping etc what are the sro's roles in all of this especially now in middle schools how will they fit in with this guideline madame president grant the sros are an exceptional resource that we have resource school resource officer but they're an exceptional addition to our our schools and provide extraordinary assistance to the administration to the teachers and they develop amazing relationships of trust with students so that they can assist them but the role of the sro with the bathroom usage would only rise to the level if there is a crime committed but they are also part of the adult supervision on the campus they also monitor hallways and inside outside corridors and so as another adult on campus they would share that responsibility well i'm sure they hear i mean when we're talking about bathrooms we could be talking about kids going in trying to vape or smoke a cigarette or other things so i'm sure that that's where the sro would hear from other kids the rumblings of keep an eye on that bathroom or whatever that's a good one to go into [Laughter] so i know this was an information item but we did talk about some things that at some point would we'd have to take action on if we wanted to move forward as far as any construction or retrofitting current bathrooms things like that so at this point dr kellis i guess we would just determine whether the board wants to either have a continuation of discussion specific to construction or an action item at some point or what were your thoughts on the follow-up to this item madame president thank you for that clarifying question this absolutely is an information item to provide the board the opportunity to discuss the matter together and to ask questions moving forward the intent is that if there is direction tonight we will proceed but we could bring back recommendations based on the conversation that we've had this evening for a future agenda item with possible action i think i've um and i don't know what the rest of the board thinks but as far as i know i'm not interested in spending 2.5 million dollars on renovations for bathrooms um especially like for you know patching urinal hall ripping your arms out maybe if we start with um again for making all everyone feel comfortable maybe one bathroom i think dr kellis you and i had a discussion about um starting maybe with one on a campus that has the stahls go all the way down might be a start to get some information on maybe what that would cost as again a starting factor maybe starting at our middle schools high schools um i don't know i just like to get maybe more kind of now narrow type pricing on what that would look like and present we can bring that information back i i agree as far as the getting the pricing on something like ms pritchard said i guess my bigger concern is if we start having all of the restrooms completely closed off what that looks like in the opposite you know the safety perspective if someone gets locked in there we there's no way to access so if they someone barricades themselves in because they're having you know a mental issue whatever uh what does that look like so do we do i mean if you looked at the actual materials themselves or i mean do we have doors that can be unlocked from the outside madam president miss densboro as you can imagine this is not a unique question to dicer this is a national topic it happens with the new construction of airports movie theaters college dorms and as you consider the market yes there are products that are now very explicitly designed for this type of of accommodation as with our current bathroom stalls right if there's an emergency happening then whatever steps are necessary to take we will make sure that there's we will do what we have to do right all right anything else all right thank you for the information next we'll move to g3 school report west point elementary thank you madam president uh members of the board members of cabinet dr pulling will introduce this item mr president members of the board and cabinet it's my pleasure to introduce miss amy michaels principal west point elementary good evening madam president members of the board dr kellis cabinet and community as stated i am amy michael so i am currently the interim principal at west point elementary and been serving in that capacity since the end of august i would like to have my team you heard them do a little hoop and holler if they could stand i'll introduce them as well i'm joined tonight now they're embarrassed by miss jennifer evans our assistant principal laura orcad our tls teresa de long our our fourth grade team lead lisa salas our first grade team lead and heather berner our second grade team lead so i appreciate them being here to support tonight so at west point we currently have 706 wildcats on campus our colors are navy and silver and we are very proud um to offer the arts academy you saw a little picture of that this morning or this afternoon when our dancers were performing and we that is one of our pride and joys at west point as we've talked about and discussed opportunities that we've taken this year and needed areas of growth we've narrowed those down into three areas so first is academic growth and achievement our student behavior management on campus and building instructional practices so i just want to talk briefly about each one of those so as we analyzed our azmerit data from last year we noticed that there was going to be a need to focus on our proficiency levels in both ela and in math as well as our student growth levels while our growth was actually really in good shape our proficiency levels were needing some significant intervention so our goal was all has been all year to reduce our minimally proficient students and help them move along in that proficiency so to do that we have worked to establish an instructional support team which we are thrilled as a as a title one school we have two reading interventionists on campus that are full-time we have two full-time math interventionists and we also have a full-time data specialist and so that team has been instrumental in moving learning forward at west point not only are they working with students right to get them moving forward and making growth but they've also been providing their expertise with our teaching staff to help again build that instructional practice on campus we've also been able to have a lot of district support um our focus with that district support and that's with ms dana dana noble and her team has been it's very hard to not say dana k um has been to focus on our third grade reading and eighth grade math and while both have made improvements through that support process we were thrilled to see that our third grade reading scores um the growth level was the highest in the district when we looked at benchmark one to benchmark two another area of academic growth and achievement has been what we call our pick six so each teacher on campus has identified six students that are within that minimally proficient category and um they have committed to moving those students forward so there's a variety of ways that they've done that but um tier two interventions um working with them independent individually so that pick six has been um an area again that we've that we've been to target our growth and achievement so the second point is student behavior management so as we came into the year this one honestly cut us a little bit off guard but i think you've heard throughout the school year that behave that student behavior has been a concern across campuses not only at district the dysart district but across the country and so are we are not unique to that our students we see them struggling in the classroom to engage in their learning we're seeing adverse behaviors that have been a challenge and so while our referral data really has stayed consistent we're seeing that some specific behaviors have intensified so disruption defiance and disrespect in the classroom have been kind of what we're targeting so to do that we've revisited our sparks if you've ever been to west point we have spark logos throughout and spark stands for being safe productive always responsible respectful and safe and so we've revisited these core values with our staff and our entire staff to make sure that we are having common and consistent language we are teaching those expectations as well to our students and then re-teaching and sometimes teaching again we've instituted an adult mentor program for students who are struggling and so they're connected with somebody outside of their classroom teacher again we want to focus on relationships and connections and helping them feel safe on campus and so that extra person that extra familiar face and happy face is one way to do that we have a positive referral system where teachers can nominate students for exhibiting spark on campus and so administration will have that positive phone call home to do a little celebration for that referral and then we are thrilled within the last month we've been able to hire for our sst that's the student support technician and she's already made a world of difference on campus with some of our students who have we've been seeing some high behavior needs i'm so that person that's dedicated to checking in on behavior interventions has been really crucial for campus and then our third was building instructional practices so we've been uh very stro focused on west ed protocol and so when we walk through our classrooms we're gathering data specific to the west ed protocol and then planning professional development based on the needs that we're seeing and the data that it shows um we're also noticed that math scores were a little bit of a were a struggle more than ela from easy merit and so we've utilized again those math interventionists to do some professional development specifically on how to use math manipulatives and that conceptual understanding of math so celebrations arts academy is always the the pride and joy of west point and so whenever i talk about west point with anyone in the community it's always let me talk to you about the arts academy but we're always looking to to grow that which we'll continue to do but we have expanded our dance program to include kindergarten through eighth grade so if you ever want to feel a little joy i would invite you to come see kindergartners in dance class um it is an exceptional experience um our play for the year is going to be little mermaids so you'll be receiving invitations that is the end of april and then we also have a before school dance club and a choir club and so those are just ways that we we continue to roll out and expand our arts academy the second celebration is our mtss routines so we've again had a lot of support from district on how to just have a separate set of eyes look at our systems and routines and how can we improve those to make sure that we're using our time wisely and so rti routines have been realigned and and we have a team in place that's really focused student by student on the interventions and be able to track their progress and then we're focusing on tiers of instruction and how we can really help support teachers in lesson planning as well for the uh to to to improve those instructional practices and then just back to data driven decisions everything we do is based on what we see and what the numbers tell us to do so those professional development opportunities are planned from data as well as our tier two groups our win groups so you've talked about when so we also have a win time on campus of what i need and so those groups are planned by what the students truly do need as we're looking forward and the focus for the year and actually moving on to next year again it's those three core areas so student learning and achievement spark school expectations and building our instructional practices so we believe at west point that change happens by degree and so we're taking step by step to make those changes that we need on campus so that we are having a positive impact on our student achievement we want to continue to foster a love of learning that i feel it was lost a little bit during the pandemic when students were at home on a computer and so fostering that love of learning is important to us at west point we also want to refer back to our mission and vision which is to have authentic learning experiences and then continue to expand our arts academy by really looking at what's happening inside the classroom during the day can we have more arts enriched opportunities for students so again with spark we're just going to continue to focus on that tier one what is our core expectations having that common language and consistency on campus and then building our instructional practices you've heard in previous presentations about the plc plus so how can we um help provide structures within our plcs where the plus is also valued which is that adult learning opportunity so with that do you have any questions for me thank you very much it was a great presentation and i appreciate you taking the time to outline your interventions that you're implementing so thank you thank you anyone else just just really quick i'm glad that you are utilizing the win intervention uh like i said i really liked it over at rancho so i appreciate you using it there tell me just a little bit more about that adult mentor program i know you team up one of the students with an adult what does that look like a little bit more well it really will depend on each student's need so students might be recommended for that program for a variety of reasons maybe maybe they come from a single-parent household and so they need that mentorship in a different way maybe it's because of behavior adverse behaviors that we're seeing in the classroom so the expectation is that one to two times a week that adult mentor will check in with that student maybe it's before school and they have a standing appointment at their classroom door while they're greeting students to come check in see how their week is doing maybe it's to set goals for their behavior and check in how they've done on those goals and just be that follow through for that student awesome awesome and you had mentioned more arts enriched programs what besides dance and music classes what else is there well we have a vision that arts would be used in ela math science and social studies so for example if it's in the social choice classroom we might make sure that we are incorporating art from the different areas that the students are our genre or air is i'm sorry the areas that they are studying so that that is also part of that arts enriched opportunity for them okay thank you all right thank you thank you all right next we move to information [Laughter] for board monitoring of adopted policies section 10 students 10.0 to 10.34 dr cullis thank you madam president members of the board and members of cabinet dr croto will introduce this item thank you dr kellis madam president members of the board secretary kelly's cabinet and guests tonight we continue with our monitoring of our policies our governing board policies and we bring to you tonight section 10 on students 10.0 through 10.34 and at this time we do not have any changes to that so we'll stand for any questions you may have or comments any questions or comments from the board all right thank you next we move to item five board bond dream adopted policy section nine instruction nine point two five to nine point five zero first read of an additional update to policy dr kellis thank you madam president members of the board of members of cabinet um this specific policy 9.29 is brought to the board with a modification and is presented as a first read the added language says permission to volunteer in the dysart unified school district may be revoked or suspended due to current misconduct or unreported previous misconduct happy to answer any questions again this is the first read any questions i appreciate the language being added thank you i have a question regarding um how we're defining misconduct does that need to be outlined or defined in some way i'm asking like an open question do you think that that should be in the governing board policy or in the procedure i don't know that's why i'm asking yeah well either i think i'm from what i remember i mean normally the procedure tells us how to carry out the policy correct so it perhaps makes sense to have it in um i guess i don't have a preference either way i just feel like it should be in there um for when it's time to take action on it madam president just as an fyi typically when we reference misconduct um there are multiple policies that refer to staff conduct which would apply to volunteers so staff conduct misconduct it's there's ethics there's there's multiple pieces and parts that could be included within a definition of misconduct but generally it would apply to the same [Music] expectations as our employees when it comes to conduct so we can before it comes back for action you can maybe attach that whether it be in the policy or the procedure for review madam president yes we will include that in our procedures thank you thank you any other questions i'm a little confused in the the procedure is the policy just to clarify more of the procedure because the procedure says oh heck i just lost it any volunteer whose actions are not in the best interest of the school or students will not be permitted to continue to volunteer unprecedented grant yes that is covered in procedure but it is codified in policy with this recommended language i think for something as big as potentially revoking a volunteer badge i think we should not leave anything i think we should we should not have it remain like a subjective i think it's misconduct you know i like that we're gonna be more clear because i think it would be a big um a big deal to revoke a volunteer badge so i wouldn't want it to just be a a subjective type thing i think it'd be good to define exactly what that is whether it be pulling like you had mentioned dr kalas if we have language about misconduct or staff conduct already then perhaps we use the same thing you know why couldn't we just use that sentence the one that you just read yeah because i think it's still subjective you'll never be able to cover every every type of misconduct i don't think it's every misconduct i think it's what we put in staff already so what is good for our staff should be good for our employee for our volunteers and if we already have defined that within our staff policies then i think it's an easy fix unless there's a reason why you don't want that attached no i just as the best interest of the district and that they would be let go so well what if we what if in the procedure we include that verbiage like all school volunteers are expected to adhere to the same conduct that we expect from our staff if i'm a volunteer i'm not going to go and look that up so we'll just attach it just like we attach our staff conduct then madam president miss chapman miss grant um the reference at the bottom of the policy makes has links to procedures we could include the links to the staff conduct policies and procedures as well but we could also provide some additional language in the procedures that is copied and pasted from from other policies thank you all right next we move to item six review of policy 2.17 agenda preparation and dissemination dr kellis madam president members of the board and members of cabinet at the request of a board member this policy 2.17 is presented for discussion and thank you dr kellis and the reason i had asked for uh this to be an agenda item um is quite honestly i feel that we are not adhering to this particular policy and um as it regards to the second paragraph for 2.17 says the superintendent or board members may place items on the agenda any board member desiring to place an item on the agenda will notify the superintendent of the board president in writing of the particular item of business at least five working days before the meeting um i feel that we are adding items to the agenda um one maybe two days before the actual meeting and quite honestly i don't think we're adhering to this we have had a couple of instances where an agenda item has been added on a monday and we've been asked to review it and act upon it on a wednesday board meeting one of the things and this just came to mind when we were talking at our last board meeting and quite honestly i know that consent agenda items may be removed for discussion and we can talk about it just like we did tonight we removed something from the consent agenda and we'll talk about it during our action discussion area um but i'm just wondering and that's two separate issues right there but i'm just wondering just so all board members can have the opportunity to review it even further like for instance the last board meeting ms chapman had pulled the expense vouchers for us to discuss a particular book that was purchased under the expense at voucher and i had no clue what that book was and quite honestly i probably would have looked it up if i had um proper notice because i couldn't make an informed decision on that particular book to see if in my mind i would have voted for it or against it but i don't think that we are following some of the things in our own policies now i know we can change our policies at any time but quite honestly the one especially with the five days five working days before the meeting um it would give the entire board the opportunity to actually review that item instead of just one or two board members so i would like your feelings on this so i'll give just a recent example that seems very appropriate right now on item g5 the volunteer policy that we just reviewed those were suggestions that i made during the last meeting and i assumed would be presented to the board instead it was brought forth in the consent agenda and i asked for that to be moved yesterday okay so is that within the 24 hours or outside of the 24 hours well when you're moving consent agenda items it doesn't have to be 24 hours before you can move it 24 hours before or you can move it during the meeting with the majority if the majority approves right so again i was just going back to the book thing regarding you were the only one as far as i know you were the only one that knew the information regarding that restorative justice whatever the name of that book was or there was two of them i believe teaching tools and then in education or focus on education and um so i understand what you're saying miss jensmore but um in order for all of us to make i mean it was more like it was being zeroed down to a certain thing and quite honestly i would like to have more information before walking in to the board meeting if i'm supposed to zero in on something that detail does that make sense um kind of i i honestly i sometimes i don't decide to pull it until the last minute other times i just kind of want to deep dive into it and then i don't think i owe anybody an explanation as to why i want to move things well wasn't that on that was on a that was a consent agenda that was consent agenda item that i moved to action discussion yeah that wasn't a new um that wasn't a new request for a new agenda item less than five days prior that was moving something from consent to action right so technically we all had the information and we're all responsible for reviewing the the information provided in the agenda yes and i spent hours looking through those expense reports line by line as we've all seen that was regard with regards to the ex the consent agenda item um but we did have and like i said once it was gelling in my brain during the meeting i'm going okay so we even had an instance last year where something was added to action and discussion that was put on the agenda two days prior um and i've actually just had a conversation with this with dr kellis because i didn't realize that i had not requested an agenda item and so i requested it 24 hours before thinking um within law is is that correct by law we have up to 24 hours before the meeting to post it so i went oh i forgot to ask for this item and i forgot to submit it i wonder if i can get it submitted 24 hours before as long as i make that request now to my understanding and my correspondence with dr kellis and miss brown that as long as it's able to be posted 24 hours then it is within law to add it up until 24 hours before consent or action or adding anything adding anything so it says any board member desiring to place an agenda item on the agenda will notify the superintendent or board president in writing of the particular item of business at least five working days before the meeting so do we need to change the policy to coincide with the law i'm just telling you that that says five working days and yes we can change our policies at any time but as like i said as i was thinking a little bit further when we were talking about the book then i started thinking a little bit further that one particular item that was added to the agenda on a monday and we voted on it on that wednesday and i have to say it had to do with policy governance that it was added to the agenda on a monday and we voted on it on a wednesday and that was not five working days before the meeting well there are some instances where we make requests for agenda items and they are denied and so we go back and forth and then two days before sometimes we get them added and sometimes we don't but even when we submit them five days in advance sometimes they don't always get on the agenda can i just clarify as someone who's involved in creating the agenda that i have not denied any board member requests for an agenda item thank you i didn't think you did okay i just wanted to and i never said you did okay no i never missed saying that they've been denied i wasn't denying anybody right and even as board president before i never denied anybody to put something on the agenda but my thing is that if something is added on a monday it's sometimes not going to give us enough time to review it case in point it was the policy governance that was added on a monday we had two brand new board members and we took action on it on wednesday and quite honestly that was not enough time for all of us to digest that particular agenda item so i'm just saying that we need to kind of watch this we need to kind of be careful um but two days prior um yes i understand about the 24 hours but it's really kind of hard for the entire board to know what's going on when only one or two actually know i'm just putting that out there and i know this was an information item we can change our policies to fit the way the agenda is completed do whatever but i just we just need to be careful i think the other thing too is that board members always have the opportunity if they feel like like in your reference to the issue that happened a year ago um if ever there is a feeling of the majority of the board that they don't have enough information to vote we can always move to table and i know i've personally never denied an opportunity having been board president in the past ever denied the opportunity to table an item if it means giving a board member more time to research or consider some action so if ever something happens because it sounds like um there's been some from what little miss schaffen is sharing some maybe circumstances to agenda item requests that have maybe impacted how soon they get on or not that if ever then they get on late i guess just board members knowing that if you feel like hey i this didn't come on until two days prior and i haven't had time to read it then talking to the board about can we table this because i don't have enough information that's just always an option for people too because um like i said i i haven't denied a request so whatever conversations that's happened between the superintendent any board member i may not know i perfect example i didn't know an item was going to be added tonight um you know until after the fact until after a gender review so things happen where maybe you know it's not within that that five day time frame so knowing that things can happen just knowing board members can just you know speak up and ask for more time or more clarification then i would say we need to look at the policy then we can bring it up i mean if you want you can bring it for action we can change the policy is it correct so then um dr kulas that i know that agenda needs to be posted within 24 hours so does that technically mean that legally an agenda item can be added up to that 24-hour mark because as long as we have time to change the agenda then technically it's allowable what by law is this or is that five days in law madam president the five days is district policy that is not in statute and the timeline if the board wants to have well-informed conversations on these topics administration appreciates the time to be able to prepare the information for the board meetings and currently the president and the superintendent meet on fridays to discuss the the agenda so that it can be ready for the board to receive on friday afternoon so the board has plenty of time to review it if you consider the spirit of of transparency we want our public to have full access to board agendas we've been publishing those on mondays so that our community knows that the business of the board is open and transparent and for that reason it's it's posted when it is and when there are changes that doesn't always get communicated out to the general public who think that they have seen the packet when they saw it when it was first published as far as the 24 hours and going right up to the 24 hours just as a note of time that the board meeting starts at 6 pm 24 hours prior to that is 6 p.m offices are closed around 5.

we get 60 about we average about 60 000 emails for staff each day and twenty thousand thousand going to they're spammed yeah they are marked as spam when you say they're marked to spam who is marking them okay based off of their history um the google end or if it's uh something that has been sent to all dysart users then chances are it's spam and it'll go there in in the case that that dr polling mentioned with the parent do we know why that was quarantined it was mark on the google end it was already um flagged for suspicious activity before it even got to us do we know why it was flagged as suspicious no they won't give me the details of what that email address was tagged to in the private world so it's not dysart it was already marked before it even got to our filter do we have a process to regularly review the quarantine hold to see if there are valid concerns questions complaints so we have so what happens to is that if it's a new i'm gonna if it's a new domain so let's say you have a business and you've had the same business name for 10 years and you decide to change the name to something else and you make your email address at the new name.com a lot of times google will flag it or all emails will flag it because it's new and it's unknown so what we do is that vendor should contact us to let us know they're going to be sending it with that new uh domain and then we whitelist it and let it through that's what we do with our vendors now as for parents or gmail account users we don't i don't have anybody that's looking through the quarantines every day it's basically by somebody says hey i sent an email nobody got it i'm not getting a response and then we'll check the quarantine only because it's 20 000 that are sitting in there and that's just staff not students a day it would be hard to have somebody going through and deciding this looks legit and this doesn't would that possibly be one single email sent to thousands of people and are those counts for the individual recipients it's um no it's count as the email that comes in because it's based off of the email address of the sender um you know my biggest concern is that again with the incident that dr polly mentioned already there were legitimate legitimate concerns um from that parent that were shared at multiple levels it was not just one email it was a series of emails and then um emails to the governing board so emails to elected officials to so that's the first amendment violation so that's where my concern lies but also if this were something of a really urgent nature then the district was not able to respond to that so um i know that dr kellis you had mentioned maybe having some other options for the board emails to kind of live without these rules madam president densmore it's possible to separate out a receiver account and that receiver if i'm correct can opt to have the filters removed um there's a few challenges with that one is as horizon mentioned the cyber security threats that the filters catch um we could potentially look at a modified filter i don't know if such a thing exists where um if it looks dangerous then it catches it but if it does i don't know what those exist but essentially we could remove the filters for for the governing board if the governing board doesn't want to have any of those emails filtered but that would absolutely increase the volume of emails and the board would then have to manually go through and and check which ones you want which ones you don't so was this a threatening email to the governing board what was the nature of this email madam president miss chaffin this email was a parent who was trying to communicate some concerns about i believe masks that's my understanding it wasn't the the filter didn't stop it based on the content of the email that actual email address from the recipient had already been flagged on google's end before it even got to dysart so that differs from what i was provided before this meeting was it of a serious nature i mean i would like to think that if anybody was wanting to email something and if it was a serious nature they would have contacted the principal and or the district i mean if it was serious that was done but they never received the email okay but i'm just saying as far as phone call contacting the if it was a this particular person did contact the district and that's how we we looked into it to find out it was sitting in quarantine and why and we can release it from quarantine and we did on this particular email i did white list his address so it should come through the next time but what happens is if enough people get it also within our system and they market spam because you can mark if you start getting a lot of emails that you don't want you can mark them as spam then eventually that'll flag that email again same thing that's it's so you released this email i don't know no no i did not release the email i was not asked to release the email i whitelisted his email address for future emails okay because i'm just for clarification is spam the same as quarantine no so you can still get a spam email um as you know you probably still get a lot of ads and uh sales people those are spam emails so that's different you can still get that unless you start marking it spam so once you market spam then you'll no longer get that email from that particular sender but the quarantine is what google has said this is shady or this person's done something in the past and it's flagged or we don't recognize this domain it's too new so we're not going to let it through those types of things it's just for security okay because i thought you said um an email goes into quarantine by it staff members upon request did i hear no it's released from quarantine by it staff members upon request it's sent to quarantine from google so who decides what goes into quarantine and what doesn't because if if we flag as flag it as a security risk and all they want to do is talk to us about masks then i feel like we have a very big issue right here well it's so google and microsoft and yahoo they all have their own algorithms of how they decide what is secure and what's not secure based off of the email address so like a lot of times somebody will try to send us something that's not good and it'll go into quarantine and they'll change their email address to get it through and i just now told the world how to do it but but because that particular email address is not flagged by your email service so it all depends on what the person is doing a side in their personal life so miss dunsmore you are saying the information we're giving now is not the same information you were given when you originally addressed this i don't know when was that it was offline it was not in a public meeting um so this is my understanding of this parent's concern initially is that the parent reached out to a staff member at a school the staff member responded not to that parent's liking um at that point the parent then reached out to one administrator and then another administrator and was getting no response so so here's my concern with that the initial staff member that responded to the parent did they mark the email as spam and then go and then it just triggered this domino effect where no one's going to get the guy's email it could have because that's that's but another thing too is this particular email was sent to many people with the same subject which then google looks at like wow all these people are getting the same email with the same it was one word in the subject masks right right that's the that's the rationale right so i'm just saying for because it's one word and it was sent to multiple people then it goes through google's algorithms it goes through their rules and they say this is potential spam okay that can happen as well back this train up you are saying that this original email with this sender with that code word made its way to one administrator no no no a staff member okay so it made its way to a staff member the staff member responded not to the parents liking some way the parent didn't like it and so they went to escalate so then they were like for the process i'm gonna take this to the next level for the grievance process correct so it made its way to one dysart email but it didn't make its way to any other another dicer email but it might not have been the same subject line it might not have been masks it all depends on what that subject is and how many they sent to but this particular one i did look at and it was sent to multiple people with the subject line and how did is there any way to tell which people those were that they that it was to go to yes because a lot of people send all of us emails at the same time they'll see the super they'll cc they'll send it to tracy joe don chrissy me the super and then sometimes either dr polling or dr croto or dr dean so there's there's times where we receive all emails and we get all sort i mean we get people emailing us using swear words so how do swear words make it past google i don't know but math still don't swear words i'm not sure if that's that's part of their algorithm madam president ms chaffin short of having google representatives come to answer their questions about their algorithms um i think what we have been able to decipher from our own research is that there are times in cases where emails are filtered and sent to quarantine and we can as sorry said we can whitelist those so that if future emails come that they are not filtered but to your your question we don't write the rules for google to determine whether it's a swear word or whether it's masks or whether it's any other target word but we do have the processes where we can go through and if it's been identified that a sender isn't getting a response then we can look for that there have been other emails from i'll give an example the accreditation agency was concerned that we weren't responding and it turns out the accreditation agency emails were being filtered so as anybody with email knows you your own home systems have filters typically that that will put items in spam and sometimes you get those requests hey did this go to spam please check it so i um as far as the the intent of the it department to support the emails as ms densmore mentioned there's opportunity to change some of the filter rules for the governing board if the board wishes to to do that otherwise we do have those those filters in place for general emails if i could just ask a question just for my so i can feel better about this too i um when i had one that had first been brought to my attention i am not savvy in technology as far as how things are filtered not filtered things like that so i actually looked it up um just to kind of try to educate myself on email quarantines and this was on the google support website and it talked about the fact that you must be signed in as a super administrator whatever that is to perform these tasks it says as an administrator you can create settings to quarantine messages sent out to and from your organization you can also assign admin privileges specific users to let them manage quarantine messages so even though there's a and this is where i'm asking for your clarification even though it sounds like there is like this um automatic process for which google for whatever reason decides to quarantine items it makes it seem as if as an administrator of your uh organization you can create settings or filters or rules for these things too right that's it so it is the google administrators so there's not individual people yeah right um so what kind of rules or filters do we have in place that counter google's process that could have resulted in something like this because initially i'm glad you also clarified because initially what i was how was explained to me was okay maybe it's the word mask if a lot of people are spamming but i have i have emails right now in my folders that have masks in the subject line and they're not quarantined so um it just it doesn't make sense so it's in i wish i had more concrete to tell you but it is a formula basically that's at google so some things are caught and some things aren't with the masks ones we did reach out to our google uh for education representative and did ask if enough people were to click on in dice art were to click on this mask as spam just the word would that word then get flagged and we were told yes so that's what we're thinking happened with that one word masks but when we did some more research we found that google had already flagged that email address anyway there was already a flag on it saying hey watch out for this so maybe it was for that reason or the the address reason because i it wasn't the mask reason because i have emails that have masks in them but still even though they have their own process like you're saying where google automatically does it it sounds like they're saying that our i guess i t administrators can create settings and roles and filters to offset that so like we have our own rules for because we're a school district and we're governed by specific ferpa and and sipa and all of that so we do create our own rules so if it's something that looks like a social security number we might quarantine it going out or in so that we could go hey we don't want to send uh social security numbers that aren't encrypted in case somebody else grabs them or or sees them so we can create our own roles on top of google's rules but do you think that there are any rule from your off the top of your head your knowledge of what rules and filters we currently have in place do you feel like we have any now that could cause this to happen again in that or in general where message emails from our community members are not reaching the board i would hope not and believe me i understand what you're saying it is if you don't especially if you're depending on the community to tell you and you're not getting the emails it is a concern i have looked at that at our quarantine i look at it every time somebody asked me to look for something there's not a whole lot of missed emails in there most of them are kind of disgusting and or something you really don't want coming across your computer especially if you're at work just bad stuff so i have looked so i i do get it and even within um we get you know people from uh different departments that say hey this vendor is trying to talk to me or like you said the accreditation and then we look and as soon as we figure out that it's being quarantined for some reason we we say hey let it through is it possible to share that documentation with the board as to the original email that was quarantined and then any subsequent documentation with google about that i can release the are you asking to release the email from quarantine so it comes to you guys not only the not only the email but can we also see what time it was sent having documentations like the original day was sent and then can you show us where it went into quarantine on what day and can you also share with us your communication with google where they told you these parameters they yes so i will i'll be full disclosure google is not going to tell me what their algorithm is they just will not because it's a security issue but i can give you uh the information that we got from our rep our representative but they will not they're not going to disclose i just i i would just like the communication between you and google not not you personally between us and google i i i realize this might not be your personal responsibility so i don't mean to mislead you that's fine i'm just saying it's our google representative for google education there's no google is not they're they're not going to release believe me i tried who has been contacting google google for education uh i have oh and phillip okay so could i please have that conversation between you and our google rep yeah they they won't release the parameters i understand that but could we could you guys share that with us yes their findings and what they told you well and adding on with that because um i i was able to review like the google chat transcript and it's really not very clear you know it doesn't i don't feel like it really addresses um what the main concern is here as far as like why why was this flagged and then just getting information on and i understand they might not tell you exactly why but any um any filters that we maybe me we may have put in place that could have impacted or could have future impact on other emails that we get that maybe we want to you know take off yes i can i can do that that's true and and i will say that our google rep will look at this specific event if you want any more information i just have to tell him to dig a little deeper he will look at this it has to open up a work order and we have to wait but we can do that if you want that specific information will that address your concern that will and who is our google rep oh my gosh you're going to ask me his name he's new i don't have his name right now do you remember no i don't remember i'll get it for you i'm sorry maybe include that with the other information thank you when you talk about doing um i don't know what you called it the allowable emails you're taking out of quarantine and now you're refreshing and allowing that email to come through going forward is there a way maybe like just to run like a basic macro or something and get all of our parent emails and make sure that they're on that list so we never deny a parent yeah i would have to look at that because we'd have to pull parent emails out of infinite campus and then run them i don't know how we would do that i have to look to see but um yeah i'm not sure okay because they don't they don't talk to each other google an infinite campus okay well right i understand that so but so this would be like a manual entry then into it would be yeah we'd have to pull yeah we could we could pull from quarantine and pull from infinite campus and try to match them up right okay that's just off when i talk to these guys i'm sure they'll tell me yes no whatever but it's off my head that seems logical okay anything else well this is admin quarantine yeah that's the quarantine it says event admin quarantine does that mean we quarantined it or google admin google admin so google admin is so we are there's certain people in i.t that are google administrators which means they're administrators do we all have access to that information i was actually doing a gender review that i was given that so i okay so it's it's not our it reps with google it's google's itreps no it's that's out google admin is our google is our google um information so we have access to that quarantine the admin quarantine is what it accesses that's the quarantine i've said so is that our own item that's ours so this says our i.t employees quarantined this email no no google quarantined the email based off of rules from google and could be rules from us if there was something in there that we had placed like social security numbers so it could be rules from us too yes so i'm just looking at this where it says admin quarantine and i'm trying to figure out if it's our admin or if it's google's admin it's our okay sorry we are the google administrators for for dysart so we quarantine this no we didn't quarantine it because this particular we have quarantined some things we do have rules that we do quarantine this particular one was quarantined because google already had a flag on it before it even got to dysart this specific email not all of them the specific one madam president uh miss chaffin what documentation you're looking at right there um would probably be best put in context and with the information that you have requested ms haware is going to be receiving the information directly from google which will probably encapsulate it more in detail i think the the screenshots that you're looking at would need to be placed in context of a discussion that i mean picking pieces here and there without the whole picture is going to be confusing to everybody and if you want to dissect these documents these screenshots we'd be happy to come back with a another either agenda item or in a weekly update or if you have questions specifically with these documents i would just caution about pulling one screenshot out of a several 15-20 pages that you have there without miss hawaii being able to identify those and go through them very specifically i understand it just says event admin quarantine and so i'm trying i'm getting two i'm getting two different messages here i'm getting oh google quarantined it no admin quarantine we quarantined it no google quarantined it no well we have our own administrator if it says admin quarantine that means we quarantined it so we quarantined the email no google quarantined the email so which is it that that specific email when we ran the report it was already flagged at the google at google before it even got to dysart so that specific one but we do have rules also in our quarantine that to prevent malicious emails from going through as well so it's not all of them if they might not be flagged at google at all but yet our rules will say hey this looks malicious put it in this holding pattern but we don't know why google initially quarantined no i do not know why okay and they will look into it they will if i open it we can open up a work order and have that information for that specific email for sure so um from what i'm hearing though this is so this is not something that is specific to dysart and it would be impacting every single school district that uses google or gmail school district company it's not just gmail it's microsoft yahoo any of those they have these in place although we're responsible for creating our own rules and filters we can add our own rules and filters on top of google's algorithm because i don't know what their algorithm is so when it comes to us then we do more specific type rules so we just got to figure out what caused the problem and so if we if it's one of our rules then we can lift it well this specific one was already was google so we can ask them why they said they'll they'll dig deeper into it but if it's we're talking about that specific one that's what we were told so if someone were to submit a foia or public information request would these quarantined emails be part of that discovery um as far as i know any public records requests go through um our archive but are the quarantines checked i guess that's what i'm asking it wouldn't no it would not go because it never i don't even i don't think it would have gotten to our archive i'd have to look because our archive is somebody else it's not google i don't think it would and it tracks all in and out emails who is our archive gaggle i hate to say it in public because when we say that we're kind of opening up our security event it's gaggle not google gaggle are they affiliated at all no okay okay we good i'm good for now but i i'm i this is a big concern for me but it's an action item so um staff to bring back the information to us i want to dig deeper i want this information i personally want to see all this documentation that you're talking about i i want to dig deeper i want to know names i want to know um who we are talking to i want to know who's talking to i want to see the communication i want to see when it went into spam and i want absolute proof that google says we put this in quarantine not anything the district did because i want to make sure that since we have the opportunity to flag certain emails and quarantine them we can quarantine them i want to make sure our district is not quarantining emails from our parents and our public when they're trying to send them to not just us but anybody which is what i was just saying can we just direct staff to bring that information back to us well i was just since this was miss dunsmore's item i was just giving her the opportunity to reflect on i'm reflecting she wants to take her um i i really had every intention of taking action tonight i mean or at least attempting to with um giving direction to remedy these concerns which is how i wrote this but um but now i i don't know that we should do that if you're saying that we potentially could get thousands of obscene emails have you looked at your spam folder at home i do i actually check it regularly i do too and there's a lot on there that i delete well in my district no i've never had one straight three in there yeah i usually have like one or two in my district one um and i expect that and i don't see how we can take action on this as of right now without getting i need more information maybe that's something i would like to table it did you have a list of chef and that you want to make a motion on as far as what information you'd like to direct administration to bring back i would like to make a motion that district provide us with all the supported documents regarding to this email quarantine the specific email quarantine matter i would like district to release the email to us i would like to see all communication between our district representatives and google and i would like as many details as possible on who and when this got quarantined who quarantined it and when why well there's a motion second okay motion made by crystal chef and segmented by don densmore any further discussion before the vote i'd like to know why what what is it that all of this information is going to solve they're going to release the email i guess i'm just trying to understand what the problem is i understand it's an email it's a first amendment issue and it's just a regular parent issue and if i could say initially when i was advised of what happened i was told that it was because masks were in the subject line and i'm i'm sure that that was the assumption you know of correctness at the time um my concern is with that so that we have students so just hypothetically we've got students walking down this down the street with masks and guns and that is some something in the subject line of an urgent email and we miss it from a concerned citizen is that i don't know i mean i don't know if that's a rational thought or not um but if we have something okay like a bomb threat or a shooting threat are we going to because it has a violent word in it are we gonna start quarantining those emails and when i say we i also mean google are we then gonna get our hands slapped or have a horrible incident because google quarantined something google censored something that never got to the administrators and i think that's a really big issue too censoring censoring a first amendment right something that clearly wasn't a threat and wasn't spam but yet somehow someway it got censored and i want to make sure that a it wasn't us and b if it's google we need to make sure this doesn't happen again and it's again it's not just dysart this is other school districts this could be happening so it's bigger than ourselves so that's the why you know i just would like a clarification that's all okay all right well i'll call for the vote then sure don't uh don so just to let you know i did not catch that motion promotion will be read back when i listen to the recording okay so the motion is not going to be there it's just going to say motion presented to provide all supporting documents regarding this particular and that's all i got sorry people that's okay i'm sorry well she carries yes she moved to action discussion item six approval of the shared use agreement between the city of surprise and dysart unified school district for countryside elementary and countryside park dr carlos thank you madam president members of the board and members of cabinet mr hicks will introduce this item thank you very much good evening madam president members of the board superintendent dr kalas colleagues and community members tonight i'm requesting approval of this shared use agreement with the city of surprise the city has been working on developing a park on a site as you can see that sits between countryside and greenway greenway road the facility will have eight full-size athletic fields this agreement will allow for the fields to be constructed by using some of access and actual district property for parking district can be also then the district can be using the city lots for our parking and also provides for city improvement of the district ingress egress so they will improve our facility our property the city will also provide some landscape improvements on our property as well and the city will enforce to ensure that the ingress and egress to the school is undisturbed and that there will be no traffic obstacles during the school day and so this still this agreement protects all of our rights and reservations and you can see allows for the nice development of i think people used to call that the gravel fields that were across so very nice we've been in in communication with the city as this plan is being developed and giving them feedback to get to this place that still preserves our bus loop lane and our ingress egress to the school coming along and allows them their access to those parking lots so we have sent this to our attorneys for reviewed and approval and administration is recommending approval of this agreement thank you any questions or comments from the board i just had one question no way they can put in a swimming pool in here and they no for the purposes of our swim teams as to have some place that um our swim teams at all of our schools can have a place to compete and whatnot madame president sourcing bill i think that the city is aware of the need and actually we have had conversations about another pool in the area okay all right as long as we're having conversations because our swim teams are ouch they're vital too but this is a much needed part i know i know but i'm still thinking of the other any other questions or comments can i move the board a motion to approve the shared use agreement between the city of surprise and dysart unified school district for countryside elementary school in countryside park shared uses unauthorized the assistant superintendent of business services to sign the agreement and any affiliated documents second motion made by christine pritchard seconded by tracy sorosinko i gotta stand up i'm sorry motion carries this room to action item seven recommendation to approve the 2022 2023 governing board meeting schedule and the 2022-2020 policy monitoring cycle dr kellis thank you madam president members of the board members of cabinet each year the board meeting schedule is presented for board approval also you see the schedule for the policy monitoring cycle this is just our regular every month bringing another section of policy to the governing board which we have done for many years the governing board meeting schedule is essentially a replica of our current year and it's presented to the board for approval any questions or comments i moved the board approved the 2022-23 governing board meeting schedule and 2022-2023 policy monitoring schedule as presented exactly motion made by christine pritchard seconded by don densmore motion carries okay okay next we'll move to action discussion item eight board monitoring of adopted policy section nine instruction 9.25 to 9.50 second read dr kalis thank you madam president at the request of the board member this item was pulled out of consent and is available for board discussion i won't take long i just kind of want to confirm that we are following up to make sure that all of our students are saying the pledge every day they have that opportunity and that our grades 4 through 6 are we are making efforts to ensure that they're being taught and saying the preamble is this not the policy no oh sorry okay was that one did we move the wrong one because i thought that was one that that was the one that was just brought up for discussion there was no recommended changes it was going to be discussed in the summer okay so i read the wrong policy no because this is for 9.25 through 9.50 yeah but this is recommended this is for second read of 9.35 honor roll this all it is a second read during first read not the policy on school celebrations was brought up as a discussion there were no recommended changes to that policy this is second read to change policy 9.35 okay so even though it says 9.25 to 9.50 oh it's but my but my policy regarding the volunteers was in this same agenda item right and then i requested it to be moved out into and we had to add it to information as a first read because it was not being recommended by administration as a first read so this was second read which was in consent agenda your request to add a change a policy your request to change policy was added to information item as a first read crystal shaft and only discussed the policy there was no recommended changes to the policy that's why it is not on here i thought there was some recommended changes i could be wrong but would you like me to read back the meeting minutes crystal do you remember i thought you had mentioned that and i could be wrong because i'm not the one that reckon i didn't madam president um there was discussion about what ms chaffin referenced and it was suggested during that meeting by another board member that that be deferred to the summer and that was i believe about the end of that conversation i was just following through to make sure that we were actually making sure that that was happening in our schools madam president ms chaffin yes we will continue to reinforce until the policy changes to include or to be expanded to other grade levels if that happens but within the parameters of our current policy we will and we are and will continue to emphasize the expectation and arizona state statute that these things happen thank you all right so i move the board to prove revisions to policy as presented motion made by christine pritchard seconded by joe grant motion carries after moving to action discussion item six review of policy two point oh wrong hold on nine um nine recommendation to approve overnight and out of state travel dr kallas thank you madam president this item was pulled from consent and is available for board discussion i was just curious about if you look at the travel agenda it says it's a revision on may 9th through 13th american payroll association in las vegas nevada conference training and expo i just kind of wanted to get some clarification three thousand dollars three three thousand three hundred nine dollars seems a lot of money for a conference do we i mean is this just an expensive conference or is it just because it's vegas that it's more expensive that just seems like a large amount of money madam president miss chaffin i will defer to mr hicks madam president members of the board on the backup documentation you could see the conference itself cost two thousand dollars it is for five days we do have an extremely talented uh payroll manager that we have been looking for relevant professional development a lot of others are not she's already exceeded their abilities and should be teaching some of those classes so we finally found one and so this is one that we're very excited for her to go to it is long it's five days i'm going but it is a very expensive conference registration on the front end okay thank you for that clarification welcome any other comments or questions i moved the board approve overnight and out-of-state travel requests as listed motion made by christine pritchard seconded by joe grant motion carries next we move to request for future agenda items does anyone have any items that they would like to request i do i think there's a lot of confusion within the district with what the board wants or is looking for so maybe we can get a legal definition of what crt is so that everybody understands what it is and is not to kind of go along with that um i would like to it doesn't need to happen immediately but i would like to have a study session um regarding curriculum so that we can all be on the same page and this doesn't have to be like the next agenda but for the future and so it could we could maybe yeah yeah i would like an entrance an actually an action discussion item um i might be i might be okay with an information item but i would like to know what we decided to do with the book of restorative justice and the little book of restorative justice teaching tools madam president mrs chaffin is if you want that as conversation or if that's just a piece of information to put in the weekly update or do you want to have conversation about that i would like to have a conversation about that please okay thank you then can we all have a copy of the book to read prior to the board meeting and president miss grant yes as those have been sent to surplus we will pull them back and pull copies for each of the board members do we still need to have a discussion then if it's already been sent to surplus i would still like a discussion on it okay well is that the book though that we were joe asked for us to review that tracy saw yes and it's been sent to surplus yes so we don't have opportunity to review it and present yes we will pull those and the board will each receive a copy as requested and i also have an item and this can be an item for maybe a month from now or maybe for april um i would really appreciate an information item from administration outlying a very detailed plan regarding interventions to promote student growth in our title schools being specific to not just increasing tier three instruction increasing i don't want the same canned ham type interventions i want innovative new interventions or what our plan is to start moving our title schools forward and ensuring that our students are achieving growth and like i said it doesn't have to be for next meeting if you need a month and a half i can wait that long but that's what i would request maybe if we give him up maybe if we shoot for april that'll give him plenty of time to is that enough time a month not a president miss chaffin we can have a information item prepared for april thank you okay so next move to j1 call for executive session pursuant to ars section 38-431.03 a3 and a4 to receive legal advice and provide direction to the attorney for the public regarding the superintendent's contract of employment so i move that we recess for executive session motion made by christine prichard seconded by joe grant madam president while the board's voting i would beg your permission to be excused at this point from the meeting yes thank you for all your information thank you thank you you

no good evening i'm going to call this meeting to order dr foley roll call please president kaler members of the board please let the record show that all members are present thank you so much we're going to have a moment of silence followed by the pledge of allegiance all right i move that we approve the agenda 2.1 second any comments or questions about the agenda all those in favor aye motion carries 5-0 michelle said yes all right next is superintendent's report dr foley president kaler members of the board we begin tonight with our favorite part which is the points of pride and tonight we have representatives from the district office groups that are going to be recognized tonight so we have several individuals who we are very thrilled to highlight and honor tonight and we have three presenters who will start off tonight i'm going to start with having mom martens begin by presenting good evening president kaler vice president anderson members of the board in our higley community can i ask miss elizabeth cruz to come on up please [Applause] so liz i'm going to give this to you so you could help me hold but here's your certificate and little thank you from us so liz is our hr specialist and she focuses primarily on information systems she joined our team back in july of 2019 as a transfer from bridges she had been working as their hr at pub not hr their admin clerk and she has just been a wonderful addition to the department so i'm just going to share collectively what some of her colleagues shared about her which brought her to us tonight she's a go-getter and from the beginning she has been respected and valued by everyone in our department and at the district office her work ethic and dedication are commendable she is never too busy and always enjoys helping others not only is she a team player she's always willing to lend a hand but she also has made very pardon me has made many individuals feel truly welcomed she's always responsive and thrives to make sure that she does her job and does it well we've been short staffed as many of you know as many of you are representative from the district office for well over a year and she always just makes sure she helps wherever she can and has done multiple roles for at least a year if not a little over the year and she's just been a true professional and we feel lucky to call her our colleague so thank you liz for everything [Applause] you get to take a picture you're not used to this you'll take a picture with the board but would you like to share individuals who are here to support you tonight well i just want to say thank you to the hr team i really appreciate and love working with you guys also the rest of the district office thank you guys all and thank you mom so much for everything [Applause] tyler would you please would you please recognize our next one i will hold all right i have the honor of recognizing the sharon rush camp if you can come up here [Applause] so sharon has asked me to keep this short and brief but i have a couple things to say so first i'll summarize what some of the individuals who recognize sharon said to quote sharon takes on a lot of responsibility as the director of director of finance but she's always has time and attention to help other people she's always making decisions with students first even in the finance department sharon will always treat you with kindness and respect and is a true representation of higgle unified school district a second sharon always has a smile on her face and is very kind to those around her no matter what is going on when a problem arises sharon finds a way to put a positive spin on the situation sharon continuously goes out of her way to help anyone that may need her assistance sharon's quick witted and has a funny sense of midwest humor that makes the finest apartment an enjoyable place to work and i'll also add sharon has provided an invaluable level of commitment to the district and especially in the finance department in her short time being here she has still yet to realize that we are close on saturdays and often has to be kicked off the network by it on holidays and weekends sharon also uh is a proud midwesterner and she has habitually reminds the finest department on how to correctly pronounce such things as calling soda pop and several other midwest sayings so thank you sharon for your outstanding contributions to higley unified school district [Applause] thank you so much [Applause] um i just wanted to thank everybody for coming my husband matt he has supported me for 38 years greatly appreciate that the finance team without you i would not be up here because you guys are a tremendous team always willing to help out and my dear friends dina and louis who dina took me in my very first day here at higley showed me the ropes and greatly appreciate it so [Applause] and sherry well is going to come up here and help us acknowledge our final points of pride tonight kaler members of the board cabinet community this is probably the best time of the year when we can focus on our unsung heroes there are several of them in this room there are three that we're going to acknowledge right now so if you ever wondered why the lights turn on the ac works the water runs ah and the toilets flush there's one individual in this room i want to acknowledge for making sure those things happen and that's mr tim mcdonald [Applause] mr mcdonald is a supervisor of facilities and maintenance this year he has stepped up led a team of skilled tradesmen that includes plumbers electricity electricians hvac individuals painters and the people that fix the random things that go out mr mcdonald leads that team who has been called when a pipe breaks and you have a fountain shooting off the roof of a building on the weekend of course mr mcdonald steps up who gets called when the lift stations overflow in the parking lot and we need crowd pleasers who knows what a crowd pleaser is it's a fancy latrine with music which we got to use for how long tim it was quite a while anyway he tried to make that as pleasant as pos possible so he's an inspirational leader the guys that work under him appreciate his leadership guidance and support so tonight we didn't get you flowers we got you a gift card to get a meal and then also leaders eat last because you're the kind of leader that everybody in this district wants to follow so thank you tim [Applause] stay stay for a picture and then if you want to acknowledge people we forgot to say that tonight he had the opportunity to work on the faucet across the hall that wouldn't quit running so i forgot to tell him we need your services this evening as well okay [Applause] is there anybody in the audience you want to acknowledge um just um it's been a tough couple years and uh i just think if we stay positive and work as a team everything will work out which it has and that's it and thank you thank you [Applause] all right when the rest of us are sleeping soundly in our beds who's on call for our students that are driving around in the middle of the night on a bus mr crosby come down please [Applause] so we have so many examples of how mr crosby steps up there can be a flat there can be a minor accident the bus break gets down and he's there in the middle of the night i have so many examples the past two years have been challenging for transportation across the nation many districts have had to cancel routes leave students stranded without an option to attend school mr crosby would not allow that to happen and had everyone in his department driving buses including himself i know that he's driven close to a hundred plus days himself this school year not every director would do that it's evident that he's created a positive culture where his drivers his bus aides his mechanics and office staff all want to come to work every day it's not unusual for josh to be flipping pancakes cooking burgers and serving his hundred plus staff members there's no way for us to tell you how much we appreciate you thank you josh [Applause] no flowers for you either that may be a burger and a book there you go yep we off center not too bad [Applause] thank you i'll echo what tim says it has been a rough couple years but we are we will get through it we have gotten through it and i just think we've come a long way um i'm 22 years at the higley school district we used to have three governing boards and meet in the library at higley traditional our only school when i started here we had 371 students and we had seven school buses and there are days i wish we were back to that because i knew which i could look at a student and tell them what bus to ride and what stuff they got off and everyone went to higley traditional so no students got lost we only had one school to take them too so we've come a long way but it's amazing to see what the cotton fields and corn fields have become and it's changed a lot there i i can remember seeing coronado elementary school being built from the hda campus because there was nothing else in between the two buildings so it was just open farmland so we've come a long way so thank you so much and thank you all for the award and i look forward to a few more years retirement thank you yeah i think he knows this district better than most of us for sure so if you have questions about anything ask josh all right so our last and individual has literally carried us through the past two years i can't even tell you the number of hours she sat in a conference room with us trying to create plans communicate plans sit on the phone with the department of health come back and counsel us and hold us together that individual is julian fulton please come down julian had numerous people nominate her for this award and i'll read a few of the things that they said about you you have supported advised and really provided all around customer service to our entire district your demeanor is always pleasant your work ethic is second to none and your professional perspective balances the need of our school community with the ever-changing public health expectations or we could say coven right many times we will find her serving in a health office on a campus or behind the scenes doing the work the real work so we respect julian for that the most important thing about julian is she's always smiling she treats everyone with respect and compassion and i've never had her say that's a dumb question right oh it goes without saying she's a class act and we wouldn't have made it through the past two years without you you are wise kind thoughtful and the hardest worker i've ever met thank you [Applause] do you want to talk real quick i bet you do i'm better i can't say what sharon said because i did look over at my husband and say you're not getting me to say that about the 38 years but i love you and my parents are here and my two of my daughters are here so thank you because kind of dawn made a comment earlier and we were first in here about thank you to them because sometimes i spent my own accord so much time the past couple years away from them doing everything but thank you guys too because it's kind of like a second family so everybody has to deal with me on both ends so it works thank you [Applause] thank you to our amazing points of pride winners you are more than welcome to stay for the rest of this evening but we also know you've some of you've been working a very very long day and if you would like to leave at this time please feel free to do so and thank you for coming okay president taylor vice president anderson members of the board the rest of the superintendent report shares some upcoming upcoming events this coming friday we have a superintendent's visit at centennial we have been warned the students want to lead us through a yoga activity so come dressed ready to stretch and enjoy yoga with students if you are able to join as you can see we have several important events coming up over the next month and this is just a snapshot of the many things happening but wanted to put those on your radar for this evening and that concludes the superintendent's report thank you dr foley no board comments tonight i mean i'm sorry board comments that's next oh did you want to speak oh thank you president taylor um i just wanted to um thank the community for we see we received a lot of emails regarding um the sauceman trip to disneyland and the fun that they had and the experience that they had and i just wanted to thank them for sharing that we don't get to see what the kids see we don't get to feel what you feel i wanted to give a great thank you to the chaperones i don't know if it was work for you guys but if it was thank you for going and thank you for the students wanting to become better through this experience and with the new policy change i want to thank you say thank you to all the staff that adjusted to it and did everything that they needed to do to make sure that everything was done right uh i just want to say i attended gilbert's historical museum event on saturday night and i just wanted to say our higley rotc program or higley high rt's program was there were exceptional they were so um nice and helpful and it was just amazing to see that they were so so yes i concur our rotc program is the best in the state so thank you and no request to speak all right we are moving on very quickly we are going to i make a motion to adjourn to executive session pursuant to ars 38-431-0385 discussions or consultations with designated represent representatives of the public body in order to consider its position and instruct its representatives regarding negotiations with employee organizations regarding the salary and benefit package for the 2022-2023 school year second all those in favor aye aye motion carries and we will come back after this executive session did you sleep all right welcome back we are going to move on to consent agenda item i move that we approve consent agenda item 7.1 to 7.14 second any comments questions or concerns all those in favor aye aye motion carries five zero i do want to notate curtis if you could pull up please the gifts and donations i know there were several i want to make sure that we give a thanks to maricopa county for those home tests that we are able to send home with our students in case that they need that our power ad company helped higley with their digital scoring table which is awesome and then santan pto also helped with offense extension at their kindergarten playground so again thank you to all those that gave us gifts and donations okay next on the agenda is 8.1 and we are going to have a presentation on our code of conduct process which will include mr walker and mr larsenheiser good evening president kaler vice president anderson members of the board tonight uh we're excited to come to you and present what the process and help explain to you what the work is going to be doing in looking at our code of conduct and looking at the process you're going to find some similarities between the course guide process and the code of conduct process because there's our goal to create something where we're going to look at it and look every year and on an annual basis review this and so mr walker and myself have been reviewing this process we're going to present it to you james is going to do most of the presentation here about what we're planning to do what we've already started the work we've started when it's going to come back to you as a board and what how we're going to launch it into the 22-23 school year curtis which way do i point it thank you okay sorry it doesn't work okay uh president kaler members of the board so the proposal that we have today for the code of conduct review process consists of some goals to create an annual process to be able to review the code of conduct with a committee and then bring it forward every year and keep a sustainable program that allows for the governing board to be informed of what changes are made to the code of conduct um brought this forth this year because did some research and we found the last time that the code of conduct was actually brought to the board was 2016.

so i don't know i'm not trying to add more work to you but it might be just a quick peek to make sure that those two documents that usually come with code of conduct are looked at just a suggestion president koehler i believe technology is also a separate page on that is it is there three pages and then code of conduct okay go so governing board uh those components have also been submitted to the attorney to review also technology use agreements um the opt-in opt-out of the picture taking the back components of that those forms have also been submitted for review as well president kaler um just a quick suggestion i know we've gotten the code of conduct and synergy and parents could electronically sign when that first happened i know like as soon as you signed it or clicked on it after you've signed in and everything it was gone like you couldn't go back and find it so um i heard from several parents and part of that with mrs kaler's comment on sometimes there's repercussions of not getting these turned in by a certain timeline and sometimes the kids are on the parents like you have to log into your into your parent view and you have to acknowledge the parent handbook and so i got to do that i got to do it it's due tomorrow stuff like that so the parent does it but then they do want to go back and look at it and it was just gone you couldn't you couldn't go back and and look at something or something popped into your mind and you want to see it so as you're going through this with our technology group um if we can keep that in mind i don't know if it still stays there if or if it still disappears but i know it disappeared i heard from several parents that that was kind of frustrating because even they would want to go back and look at something which is a good thing so we want to make sure it's available and like mrs wilson said they're not going to go to our website and try and find it especially when they electronically signed it in synergy so if we can just keep that in mind as as you're working with them what happens to it is there a way to keep it there for some type of library for parents thank you i'm well done any other comments or questions thank you gentlemen appreciate you both next up we have the tyler moore show 8.2 good evening president kaler members of the board tonight i have the second review of the mno budget this does have the updated information that our legislators gracious graciously passed uh this past month can we all just say thank you thank you [Laughter] so that passage of that aggregate expansion limit is reflected in um this presentation tonight there we go uh so first just a reminder of our school district budget timeline what i'll presenting tonight is is to look at two budgets we're revising our 20 to adopted budget again we did not do a december revision it was not necessary for our district so we are holding off for that may revision and so that will be reflected tonight and we're also looking at our 23 budget which is adopted in june so our 22 budget highlights we've gone over this in the first presentation but we anticipate no additional covert relief funding that is completely exhausted and any funding that we still have has been budgeted we will have to come back to the governing board as outlined in the sr-3 plan every six months to present an update on how that spending is coming and that lands us right in the april timeline so we will bring an updated spending plan regarding uh what we've expended on kovid and how that's looking for the entirety of that grant the good news the aggregate expenditure limit like like i mentioned earlier has uh was overridden uh by legislature uh the senate passed hcr 2039 on president's day 2 21 21 by 23 to 6 to 1.

hey all right welcome everyone we'll call the meeting to order seven p.m welcome to the february edition of our school board room we'll start with our roll call adam humpkin tammy hines andrea corey craig meyer scott middle camp yeah lisa schumacher here tyson search here perfect of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice like to welcome everybody to brave the weather this evening and join us and viewing from home in their nice warm cozy house hopefully so thank you for all i mean fortunately the weather was a little scary at first there but i think it led up just enough to get a meeting in so watch it for that correspondence is circulating right now oops i'm sorry i missed one very very important part so uh welcome to all the visitors thank you for again for grading the weather and uh move on to public comments i think we have a couple people would like to call in so let's go ahead and get those out of the way first not out of the way and we'll give them some priorities they have to wait too long again right everybody our comments are good three minutes please thank you my name is tammy filthy i am an art teacher at cmn and um i just wanted to share a few things um it's fairly difficult for me to put in towards what makes a good building level administrator from a teacher's perspective but in my more than 30 years in columbia unit school district i've worked under many principals and assistant principals and in my experience the best of the best put themselves in precarious situations they take a hard stance or what's right they will make unpopular decisions they'll anger some in their efforts to allow teachers to teach in the most productive classrooms and in our current climate with all of its challenges i think it's important that we as a strong united district provide consistent leadership built in people that are determined to do the right thing our building principles psychial and high quality and equitable learning opportunities for our students for me personally the arts are an important part of a well-rounded education that i believe every columbia student deserves that's why it's so important to have administrators like david ackerman who understands and supports the teaching of the arts that cms the driver has gone above and beyond to understand the nuances of artist education he's grown he's listened he shared his personal experiences with the arts he's worked hard to understand how students learn and experience art in the classroom it offers support in many many ways i could cite a bunch of studies about the importance of art classes music and drama to education other positive effects on academics mr ackermann likely already know about these studies but what we both know is that the real value of the arts are that they help students mature emotionally socially and psychologically the arts give people a way to process information differently to present who they are creatively and to form an identity to this point our middle school principal our middle school assistant principal and our principal for that matter are the best at respecting personal differences and recognizing that everybody deserves to be included regardless of their socioeconomic status their gender their sexual orientation their family background their disabilities or their religious beliefs mr ackerman recognizes that both students and teachers come to school with varied experiences philosophies and backgrounds david eckerman is respectful he's inclusive he is determined to do the right thing and all the while he's one of the kindest human beings i know he's interested in helping both teachers and students and he works hard to do so he's a unique individual respectfully on state that our schools need a number of unique individuals just like dave working together to meet the many diverse needs of the families of colombia i sincerely hope this important fortification grants david eckerman the opportunity to continue to work to do the right thing in santa i certainly appreciate the time to speak thank you thanks tammy great hello my name is carly atwell i have taught at columbia middle school for 15 years and my oldest daughter is currently in students there i have a few words to share with you kind compassionate humble steady engaged these are just a few of the words that can be used to describe current cms assistant principal and my friend mr david ackerman i think it would be quite difficult to maintain all of these qualities as well as mr ackerman has what has been an eventful tenure in the columbia school district he has worked under two different head principles three different superintendents and three different assistant superintendents he has worked during a global pandemic and through some of the most challenging times to be an educator or an administrator in any place even if these challenges had not been part of his time here so far at columbia middle school mr ackerman has been an exceptional administrator i have not worked under an administrator who is as engaged as kind as patient as humble and as gracious as dave ackerman administrator visibility is vitally important and mr ackerman is consistently visible in hallways and classrooms i have never had an administrator who pulls a student desk to different areas of the hallways to supervise what is happening during classes calling it a satellite office this is just one way mr ackerman is visible to students and staff at columbia middle school he is also one of the kindest people i've ever met he treats everyone at cms equally whether that person is a teacher student or support staff member he is compassionate compassionate and willing to give anyone a second chance one of the tenants of his monday morning announcements is that it is a great day on monday because this is the start of a new week with new opportunities he teaches our students to have a growth mindset and to do better than just than they did a week day or even minute before now he supports our struggling students but also holds up to firm and high expectations he works to make all students at columbia feel included and part of the community in all aspects we cannot overstate how important this is to this eighth group of students especially mr eckerman is also truly supportive of his staff he trusts what we are doing in our classrooms and is always willing to listen to the ideas that staff brings even if he doesn't always agree he is willing to listen he is also gracious with his time any time a staff member has had a question especially in regards to technology mr ackerman will come as soon as he can to assist some administrators might feel that assistance is below what they are tasked to do not mr ackerman and though he is an expert he has never made us feel any lesser than because we might be struggling he has made videos offered small group sessions and works one-on-one with teachers office to make sure they understand how to navigate our new tech heavy educational world mr eckerman or just say that he is better known among our staff has been a tremendous blessing to columbia middle school and to the columbia uniform school district i am happy to eat as principal to all our students but especially to my own daughter campbell his leadership is one reason she's had such a positive experience in fifth grade this year and she speaks highly of him but i already knew this ahead of time david ackerman is both a tremendous administrator and exceptional person he has helped me to be a better teacher and a better person he is exactly what we need at cms thank you for your time all right thanks where should i stand wherever you'd like sir my name is mark tellis i'm currently a fifth grade teacher at columbia middle school i appreciate getting the opportunity to speak tonight but as is the request in my classroom each day i urge you to really really listen we are professionals we're in the school environment every day we know what works and what does not one thing that does work is what does not work is lack of discipline many of us have been around a while and can tell you we've watched discipline handled or not handled based on social status in the community the neighborhood a student comes from our athletic ability etc i was once told that a kid should not be reprimanded because their mother was big in the pta this mentality never works currently we have a team of administrators and staff at columbia middle school who are fair and impartial students have the same consequences regardless of who they are who their parents are as assistant principal mr ackerman has had a huge role in helping to change the climate of our school regarding discipline for him it's not just about discipline it's about getting the student to take ownership of their behavior and turn things around we've watched it happen time and time again several students who've struggled with behavior have changed their ways as a result of mr ackerman's guidance he does his homework he investigates he does what's right for the students many parents will attest to this i do think it's a shame that the students and parents who are most familiar with mr ackerman are the ones who have been involved with negative discipline issues if you were in our school every day you would see how hard mr ackerman works on the positive side of things he's personally invested he wants students to be excited about coming to school i mentioned earlier what i think doesn't work and here's something else in the 32 years i've been in this district and community i've watched her feelings personal opinions and even vendettas damage our schools i beg you tonight to stop this cycle we need a district environment in which people are educated willing to listen fair impartial and level-headed currently we have these attributes in our cms administrative team however small town politics and ideas don't always respond well to truth truth and fairness often step on the toes of entitlement personal feelings because we get our feathers ruffled a bit we end up making decisions that hurt our students i do remain an optimist i feel that within each of us is the ability to see what is right and true and i ask you to find that part of yourselves tonight because as you may have realized what is right and true is really what's best for our students thanks becky alexander my name is becky alexander i have been a teacher for 25 years 17 of those years have been in the columbia school district and i currently teach fifth grade math and language arts i'm addressing you tonight to show support for our middle school assistant principal david ackerman in my 25 years of teaching i have had many administrators some have been very good some have not some i remember fondly and some for one reason or another did not make a lasting impression that is not so when i think of david ackerman i would put mr ackerman in the top three best administrators i have ever worked for in my teaching career he encourages students and staff alike many days you will hear him on the announcements reminding us all that whatever mistakes we made yesterday don't matter today is a new day make today great mr ackerman is also willing to stop whatever he is doing at a moment's notice to help if he can i quite possibly might have the farthest room from the office yet many times when i need help or have a question there he is at my door he is a regular site in the hallways and can even be found at his satellite offices located throughout the building at times working monitoring and engaging with students and staff if anyone were to step foot in the middle school for any length of time they would witness what those of us who work there every day see and know and that is how well our principal angela huels and mr ackerman work together the positive atmosphere in our building is because of their hard work and dedication to our students and the entire staff they are an educator's dream team when it comes to principal and assistant principal their doors are always open they are the constant we need when things seem to be changing in education every day anyone who is concerned about the social emotional health and well-being of students and teachers would see that mr ackerman cares about everyone in our building and goes above and beyond to make sure we have what we need i was told not too long ago that i was an admin pleaser i was worried at first that this was a negative label being placed on me after some thought i've come to realize that i want to be an admin pleaser when i have administrators like david ackerman he puts in 110 day in and day out he is one of the people that drives our bus literally and figuratively and keeps it moving forward i want to be part of that if that makes me an admin pleaser so be it mr ackerman inspires me to do better and be better through his kindness empathy and support losing him as our assistant principal would have a negative impact on our building culture in a time when we need all the positivity we can get thank you and caca amber haven my name is amber haven and i'm a fifth grade teacher at and future parent of columbia middle school i am speaking tonight in support of mr david ackerman as the middle school assistant principal in my 11 years of teaching at columbia middle school i have experienced five principal and assistant principal combinations the cms teachers and students have fought through changes and inconsistencies in the office for years however for the last few years mrs huels and mr ackermann have worked together and brought stability to our school with this team i have felt more supported more trusted and more encouraged than ever before this administrative duo is the most effective pair i have ever had the privilege to work with and because of their support i feel like i've become a better educator together these two administrators led us through the last two years of figurative fires unburned mr ackerman and mrs huells brought us together and provided comfort steadiness and predictability during a time when it seemed everything was changing daily mr ackerman is understanding of individual student needs he meets our students with respect and empathy upon entering his office students are greeted with fidgets to make them feel more comfortable a rubik's cube or even his famous ukulele he is honest he's objective he's respectful and he's fair he and the students in his office work through their issues and resolve them together his communication with and his dedication to the success of each student is admirable mr ackerman is the assistant principal i want my son to experience when he gets to the middle school i read a quote recently and although i don't identify with its words at the moment the message really hit home for me it stated national teacher shortage is a fun way of saying that the usa has made a passion-driven job so inhospitable that even the people who just care about teaching not the money don't even care about teaching anymore i have friends and relatives working in different districts who feel this way however i've realized that i do not feel like this because of the culture created in our building by our building admin i plan to stay in my own little bubble at cms where i love coming to work because of my co-workers and the students but most importantly because of the upbeat learning environment created and fostered by mr dave deckerman i invite you to visit our school witness our positive climate the encouragement and the sense of belonging that mr ackerman extends throughout our halls the thought of losing mr ackerman one of our biggest cheerleaders and sources of support who challenges us to be the best teachers we can be and who cares about each and every student simply feels like the straw that will break our collective camel's backs well like while the quote i stated above does not feel like my reality right now losing mr ackerman would impact my love for coming to work every day the cms staff would not be the same a necessary piece of the office would be missing he's truly irreplaceable thank you kitty wrap good evening i'm katie ruff i'm here tonight to tell you about the positive influence that david ackerman has on cms i was hired in july 2020 in august 2020 i spent 10 days working with dave ackerman as he taught me google classroom skyward embrace pbis and many other applications and extensions dave's i.t knowledge is indispensable he's a vital part of our team dave is our representative who works closely with the pbis reward program that program aligns with one of dave's predominant character traits and that's being positive with our faculty staff and students dave is always looking for ways to reward rather than punish or take away when i think of dave ackerman the words that come to my mind are caring helpful genuine patient intelligent and approachable dave cares about the students at cms last year i had the privilege of riding in the small white bus to deliver soaring a eagle awards his enthusiasm made each student feel very special and very appreciated when a student gets the recognition such as a soaring eagle award that's a big deal well dave made certain they felt like it was a big deal he drove the white bus to the student's house honking and hawking the horn over and over yelling through the megaphone the students and their parents loved it at that moment i was so proud that i was part of this faculty more recently last week to be exact a student of mine came to me with tears in his eyes i asked him what was wrong and how i could help him his answer was i want to talk to mr ackerman about what happened he'll handle it earlier when i said dave was approachable i wasn't just speaking about his faculty and staff i was speaking about his students the students at cms love dave dave will play beat the bell trivia questions in the morning announcements find particular coloring pages or something around the hallways at cms for prizes and so much more the students at cms have fun at school while on lunch duty i observed mr ackerman having a water bottle flipping contest with the kids another time dave ackerman rewarded the students by allowing them to dj with miss klein during their lunch hour there's nothing like walking down the stairs and hearing a cafeteria full 5th graders singing john denver's take me home country road at cms our administrators are very visible they are in the hallways the classrooms in the cafeteria they play games with the kids on the playground they are waiting for their students in the morning and they're there to see them off as they leave for home if a teacher calls the office with a question or needs help dave and angie are in that classroom in a matter of minutes to assist them okay thank you michelle spidey stand away from the camera good evening for those of you that do not know me i'm mickey spidey and i've been teaching district for 17 years like others tonight i'm here to speak about the leadership at cms recently people have been questioning whether or not mr ackman would be at cms next year upon hearing these rumors i was personally saddened but not shocked i immediately thought of course another district our company snatched him up due to his technology expertise his professional and fair relationship with his colleagues and certainly his positive attitude and enthusiasm then selfishly i thought not another change in administration angie and dave had been a dynamite jewel creating a positive atmosphere that truly has the best interest of our students in mind all during a global pandemic we all know people are not knocking at the doors to get into this occupation a recent business journal posted an article titled teachers are quitting and companies are hot to hire them we should be thrilled to have someone with mr ackermann's qualities and experience wanting to work in the columbia school district as a parent in the community it is difficult to understand why administrative changes occur even when students teachers and staff find them to be effective leaders in my opinion mr ackerman's two of his greatest attributes are his adaptability and his positivity his three and a half years in columbia are unlike any other years that i've taught numerous mandated changes frequently occurred and his ability to adapt to these changes demonstrated his resourcefulness and his problem-solving skills with his technology skills he was able to lead the district through the remote phase of teaching he was our expert and go to person for google classroom he made himself available at all times and led with an extremely positive approach dave is very creative and embraces the chance to try new things to improve our school he was the first to jump on the pbis awards and have been effective in its implementation this program focuses on improving behavior and awarding kids that do the right thing again he was readily available with helpful answers to our many questions he is visible present and engages with both staff and students thus creating a sense of community where all feel connected on top of that dave is approachable and willing to listen and consider concerns and questions from his staff and students he truly cares about cms without a doubt mr ackerman has been a huge asset to colombia he has kept the morale up during a pandemic that seemed impossible to survive if he leaves he will be greatly missed and extremely difficult to replace if the board is truly voting tonight on whether or not to renew his contract my sincere hope is that all of you will take into consideration what you are hearing tonight from the people that work beside him daily please vote to do what is in the best interest of our staff and students do not allow us to lose yet another dedicated strong leader thank you cali zavorka hi good evening my name is kelly zavorka this is my 21st year of teaching and it's my 18th year of teaching 7th grade math at columbia middle school in all those years i've never felt compelled to speak at a board meeting but just as i would stand up for any student that was treated unfairly or with a lack of respect i will stand up for an administrator just the same we are a family at cms i'm thankful to have had the opportunity to work with many excellent administrators during my years however i can wholeheartedly say that the team of mrs huells and mr ackerman is by far the best example of true teamwork creative problem solving effective communication and an incredible dedication to the needs of their staff and students our cms webpage states our mission is to serve the needs of our young people by encouraging educational excellence in an environment which promotes the development of productive and responsible citizens mr ackerman is instrumental in creating that environment for both teachers and students together with mrs huels this administrative team supports teachers in providing quality instruction a positive work environment and a safe place for student interactions they both hold students to high expectations while treating all students with dignity and respect mr ackerman started a positive behavioral interventions and support program known as pbis at cms four years ago this program has been successful in reducing behavioral problem behavioral problems and increasing positive relationships between students and staff because of the proven strategies of this program it is now a district-wide initiative that was adopted by all three schools i have been fortunate to work with mr ackerman in that initiative both at the middle school and the district levels and can say that he truly cares about making school a fun safe and productive environment for every student it is no secret that the past several years in education have been by all standards challenging however the challenges both students and teachers have faced at cms have been possible to overcome due to the support of our incredible administrator team i believe as i'm sure that all of you do too that in the field of education that we should all continually strive to do better for our students the disruption to this administrative team is not better for anyone this unnecessary and unjustified change will most certainly have a negative impact on both the teachers and the students in our building it must be reconsidered thank you heidi klein yeah my name is heidi klein i have been teaching middle school at columbia for 31 years i am a strong supporter of mr ackerman our assistant principal i am here because i believe in him i support him and i am for him they have spoken of his attributes and we have shared all that he has done and i would like to share a list of what mr ackerman does not do he does not give up on students he does not lose sight of the truth that he is in education to help students become the best version of themselves he does not forget to remind our entire school that we have a new start a fresh start every day he does not worry about or seek out credit or glory he does not judge he does not speak little of others he does not back away from tough situations he does not jump to conclusions he does not avoid hard conversations he does not problem-solve for our school without involving teachers counselors and social workers he does not have his own agenda and he does not have an ego and mr ackerman is the assistant principal that we need at cns he listens he reflects he brainstorms he problem solves he stays positive and every day he rolls up his sleeves and he works hard we want mr ackerman at the middle school again next year and we are scratching our heads wondering why he may not be our assistant principal next year we see who he is and what he is and what he does at the middle school and we are for him will you be for him too thank you rosemary lang gang hello i'm rosemary langing i'm the guidance counselor at columbia middle school i've been in columbia middle school for 17 years i've been in the school district for 25 years i'm also a graduate of the district when dave ackman came to columbia middle school three and a half years ago i was encouraged by his approach in intervening with middle school students as he met and spoke to students whether it was to discuss tardies or to praise a student i was invited to be a part of some of these conversations ask the role of a counselor however what i learned quickly learned as i took part in these conversations was that in all honesty they didn't need me he was the counselor in these meetings with the students he was playing both roles dave develops rapport and relationships with the kids quickly he performs amazing magic tricks he tells jokes that surprisingly do make the kids laugh and his fidget spinner contest that he has fidget spinner contests with them i've also been a part of many tough conversations where dave has had to unfortunately give consequences to students for their poor choices but you see dave's approach and consequences is pretty unique he at times negotiates with the students on what the consequence may look like and the student and mr ackman come to an agreement on let's say two lunch detentions for example there are also so many times that a student has had such a long conversation with mr ackerman because of their actions the student leaves with only the consequence of having that long conversation with him we've had a pretty good winter weather season but unfortunately we've been stuck inside for lunch recess and some of our cold and snow days what do you do with 150 kids for 15 minutes to keep them happy and making good decisions dave has been creative in creating indoor recess games entertainment that involve all students 150 of them at each lunch we have four lunches four lunches which involve bottle flip contests heads and tails four corners karaoke rock paper scissors columbia board of education i welcome you to join us during our lunches and see how entertained and well-behaved our middle school students are because of the guidance of mr ackerman and mrs hules i welcome you to come and visit our hallways during passing periods where you will see mr ackerman and mrs huels connecting with students and constantly building a positive climate for our students if you haven't already i welcome you to discuss the climate of columbia middle school with our staff members i know that you will hear that throughout all of our stress and strife of covid these past two years that we at columbia middle school were doing okay and not just okay we're really okay we couldn't have done this cogan google thing without dave there's no way i welcome you to join our columbia middle school team to be on our side to support our administrators and staff and all that we do to support our students because i feel that truly successful team starts at the top the top in our building is solid now we need the top in our district to join us and not divide us so together i feel that we can make a super fabulous magnificent caca team sarah klein hi my name is sarah klein this is my second year as the school social worker at cms and chs i'm here to speak in support of our assistant principal dave eckerman when i first started at columbia i wasn't sure what to expect anyone who works or has worked at the middle school recently can imagine how pleasantly surprised i was when i walked in on my first day the positivity teamwork and overall support i felt were overwhelming one of the first people i met that day was dave i was very nervous i didn't know anyone in my first conversation we had he told me a personal lighthearted story about himself and i immediately felt more comfortable if you know dave on any kind of personal level you understand what i mean he has a way of making everyone feel welcome and at ease and this is not a quality that is easy to come by the current administration at columbia middle school has it completely figured out dave and angie have a perfect blend of professionalism while still being approachable and personable they work exceptionally well together and make the staff at cms feel supported appreciated and heard i know that if i had anything going on professionally or personally i could go to either one of them and they would make the time to listen and do whatever they could do to help dave is a vital asset to our cms team he is at lunch duty as we've heard almost every single day getting to know students and making him laugh when we're stuck inside he's the first to come up with a game or activity to ensure that students have a fun break while they're stuck inside he was the driving force in getting pbis going in our district which is a school-wide positive reinforcement incentive system to look at school discipline from a different perspective when an issue comes up with a student who i personally work with he will ask for my feedback to better understand how the student's social emotional needs may affect their behaviors he is always listening he's always willing to listen to everyone's input and ideas and he genuinely does his best to put those ideas into practice dave is not just a vital part of the administration but a vital reason as to why i and so many others here tonight enjoy working at cms during arguably the most difficult time to work in education dave makes the job fun and enjoyable he has done his best to make students and staff feel a sense of normalcy during an unprecedented time his work ethic is superior he is constantly doing more than what is asked of him and he goes above and beyond to ensure students have a productive learning environment and that teachers feel supported in his interactions with students he always shows them respect and kindness even when having to deal with a discipline issue he teaches students instead of shaming them for making mistakes hopefully this evening you all will understand the necessity of keeping the current administration it is very hard to imagine anyone being able to replicate our current climate at cms in a time when social emotional health is at its utmost importance the social emotional impact of all decisions must be considered i'm also reading the following statement on behalf of the staff member who was unable to make it tonight um i have had significant interaction with dave when it comes to the support of our students at columbia middle school the decisions are always with forethought integrity and looking out for our students so they truly understand the importance of an education his dedication to our school is evident by the amount of hours he works his professionalism and concern he has for our students to lose this truly amazing man would definitely be a tremendous blow to the columbia school district i strongly encourage the board of education to continue to employ this dedicated educational educational professional thank you michelle haven were you interested in doing public comments thank you all for taking the time and sharing your stories we definitely appreciate it yeah we've had some changes uh caitlyn holiday high school english teacher has added to the resignation so you've got six individuals there that are resigning employee education and support personnel we added the linda christie bus driver mcniel nap maintenance which has worked two days he is no longer being hired so we can take him off laney randall cms paraprofessional is going to be added to the league of absences and then because of caitlyn holidays we've added a vacancy of high school english teacher given all of those changes um the administration recommends that you approve this as presented any questions discussions comments without entertaining a motion to accept the agenda consent agenda as amended presented tyson for a second tammy hines yes andrea corey yes craig meyer yes scott middlepant lisa schumacher yes from tyson search yes for that item c7 is our communication report presentation start with our enrollment reports got it in move on to our administrative reports we had with us is a brand new assistant principal at the high school so welcome i don't know if you sit stay in um i was at the very first board meeting obviously there are other items being discussed back in the middle school gym but i didn't have a chance to properly introduce myself mr gribble thank you for introducing me i'm jeremy blackley uss principal high school has been a fantastic welcoming by the community the school of staff students more than i could have imagined i i have been in chester the last 14 years i still reside there so i get a lot of time to pod this live podcast and become more intelligent at least i think so um so as i told my 12 year old son that we talked about why those two way back uh to and from work but it was a risk but uh well worth it i've enjoyed every every bit so far i have a wife that's a reinterventionist in education about the same amount of time i've been in and then also two boys a junior and a seventh grader it keeps me pretty busy my report kind of i'll just make it as short as possible there's a few things i'm involved in startup if you uh if you attended this past sunday we have a group of columbia students that are very active in the monorail startup organization entrepreneurs they work extremely hard i'm impressed every time i get a listen just i get to sit on the board meetings and then they give their presentations on on planning execution and problems they've made it's neat that's a core group of individuals that are hitting a home run i wasn't able to attend this past sunday but i did uh they had a meet today that kind of went through issues they faced and the successes of it one wanted to mention that it's a fantastic program i think for the high school it's not a massive number of students but we'll have nine i believe in next year so hats off to them as they finish out the rest of the year some of the the teachers that talked in middle school tonight hit on this often in their speeches and thank you for talking tonight i appreciate it but uh mr grody one of my first objectives and i got hired i think i attended one two pbis training days and it wasn't necessarily on the radar i always read a little bit about it didn't know much what it entailed but the one of the goals that we made at the high school as was mentioned it's going to be a district-wide um program but i was kind of slated to take the lead on that and it was a great opportunity mr reeves put me in that position and it was a chance to kind of grow a little bit and clear uh work as a team collaborate and build off what has already been established obviously in the district uh these four years we're trying to get going at the high school so after the trainings that a lot of things we were hearing this our team was a lot of well it takes longer than high school level it's weight it's different at the high school level it's not the same as you can make it elementary or or younger so uh we have we have definitely i think uh been given quite the task in so far what we have produced i feel pretty confident uh as we are taking a step in the right direction so i brought some uh this was a a unique idea now i cannot claim credit for actually uh my secretary dana i went to her i wonder we want to like try to some way time limited implement a small piece of what pbs i will pbis will look like in high school and we came up with the only the only thing that we could turn around quick but also have a pretty big impact so i brought a little tag for everybody and it's been um i guess in action for the last two months now but i have seven so if you can take one and pass it uh however they couldn't share the partner maybe but they are uh they are currency or our little badger i guess you call it but there it's a lot goes into it a big thing that i suppose during lunch we have a cafe created by mrs adair's class which is the special education coordinator and that actually funds the things they do outside of school the property they make and kids love a little sugary high carbs who doesn't have snacks it's a very very popular stand so somehow i want to incorporate that into a a way we could make it a positive reward or reward positive behavior and yes it is something that is um i guess an extrinsic reward and that isn't the main scope of it this was just another case but we wanted to bring the whole school in it so a lot of a lot of students come in to the office usually it's not necessary for good reasons necessarily or positive reasons but they don't even know all the secretaries are on the staff so we made um these are or what the what the money looks like the voucher you can spend at that cafe and if you notice slowly work we're releasing the whole line of louis and our staff uh ms klein's was actually sarah's was created today because of it i went today and said hey make a board presentation we need to expand our money she designs it dave designs it and uses it and uh i i sat down one night i just made every time kind of currency name i could think of and uh sarah's actually uh a little tiny currency yeah nice and we use our bitmojis the students love it it it it says who it is and it actually becomes more of a collect collective item as well they do turn it into the stand get three items it's a full circle revenue to that stand um the students that did the right thing teachers are involved they they go on to skyward trying to really incorporate into it they typed up a positive for whatever may have done and that's all passed to you next this is an example of uh hudson bryant made by ms arnold they'll be right on the back of this one this is like what i call their trophy tell them take it home show mom dad tell me oh you steak dinner or a new cell phone you did something that you did something good or positive because that's the point i think that pbis lisa intended but uh they get to keep this it would replicate the same obviously take their picture uh taylor puts it on social media it's been a very i mean extremely responsive i think on social media a lot of comments family members comment on the some of the posts and uh it's a it's a full circle full circle kind of item it's a small piece of what we're going to do but this is a little bit of our our kickoff or our start and right now we're nearing 30 30 plus positive referrals we had a group of students during the snowstorm last week they want to stay anonymous but they went out uh geared up and took on the conditions they were literally scraping all the employees windows front back sides and a couple teachers called them i i saw them too when i tried to run them all analyzing vehicles but they took pictures they sent it in on what we could do and the first step was they were recommended into that into this uh this pbis small small ticket item but it it to me i think it kind of bridges the whole concept of trying to high school and we spend so much and i heart on this a lot i had the means we spent so much time uh focusing on you know some students that don't make the best decisions choices a lot of our effort and time is consumed there i this is my favorite time whenever i get a knock on the door of the classroom and pull one of them out some are very bashful and don't be necessarily in front of the class they did the right thing but i'll read it out and put it and they acknowledged that and had it on so they get their three free dorito bags at lunch for free but that's one one small initiative we started it's it's it's really went very well so far i'm waiting for my money to be developed hopefully soon collected bucks i think is what they're calling that one but pretty too they they treat my trading cards they had an issue with trading cards and student ids students started to use them as trading cards and we wanted to not do that because that was not okay but this one to try to collect the series and eventually have the whole high school office in there maybe expand the apartments too because my mind keeps rolling with ideas that i'm sure dave is shaking her head right now and saying but very small one that will be on top of what the bigger plan is and i don't have a long speech on that one that was my focus uh that hopefully we get at the level that the middle school is because it is a i think a fantastic building a a culture that has to exist inside every school folks more on positive not those negative things we are we met today for the second time as a group pbis team mars marsden high school we are we are focused on a pretty intensive freshman academy we're trying to draw a um an outline on what that would look like two day week or two before school starts we want to invite a sophomore class that didn't get home because of colvin and kind of retrain or re-learn uh behaviors that were running all kinds of money but it will it it's it's developing this a pretty neat pretty neat uh theory we have to have structured out and be able to present to the board in a month or two and get approval to start to criticize the freshman academy where we can kind of teach them the norms of how high school runs behaviors schedule things like that but that's in the works and then also if i could interrupt you real quick um we heard a lot of comments about pbis and you mentioned it several times in your things for us that don't know what pbs is and people at home can you just explain the program real quick so there's a lot of acronyms around and some people yeah yeah you're right and i apologize i thank all of us in education we did a quote a big dictionary so it's a positive behavior intervention system structure um and it's basically based in the in data is what will eventually direct how your how you're creating ways to uh correct negative behaviors but at the same time start to really promote positive behavior systems you structure positive behavior systems inside your school one big thing is they make a lot of levels and i think the middle school has one you looked at it maybe you've used it there's a common language matrix you start changing you take the negative language out of a lot of different parts of discipline even things you stick with inside classroom and you change language into a positive or a positive language type of deal that's developed and then as either quarters semesters or years go by is study your data on a parties improving maybe you'll focus on targets disrespect lunchroom behavior are those referrals starting to go down because of positive behavior systems you have created as a team as a school adapted and then implemented you want to see that data and it should start to at least positive behaviors start to raise and negative behaviors start to go down that's the that's the concept it's been around for a while i guess i never thought that i would be in it when i made the move here then mr grody said or do a pbis let's go whole district and wait but after learning more about it it is pretty exciting i think our pgi is pretty exciting what what will lead to but that's the main thing positive behavior innovation system um that that's what the acronym stands for it's it's pretty intense can be complicated but we are we are going to uh maybe take this little piece of the pie and eventually uh take on the whole thing our our goal wasn't i told mr goody in high school we were we were hoping two years full implementation and used the middle school as an example we also stole principal parkview he does something with like houses i guess or lunch or like a competition to [Music] curb any behaviors that's the third phase of ours that's we're starting to create we have a student id issue where students don't always like to wear them we're forgetting them they're not valuable enough for them so hopefully get home runs back next year and that our third phase is that we create competitions among home rooms they get to name their home room and they can compete one quarter and it'll be freshman or sophomore home rooms or whatever it may be but we're gonna have two articles two or two ids if you're caught doing you know if you're called doing the right thing or something positive for another person a staff member or you're out picking up trash in the parking lot a teacher will have a scanner they can scan a qr code it'll it'll automatically go into a data system so those people will get to publicize that data and have like a graph and so all those working together will open that's the direction our pbi is eventually good that one's a little farther out from development but that's the goal this was the our little baby and we're taking it along hopefully toddler slash middle schooler soon it'll tie it'll all tie in together eventually um that's our that's our pbis what we think should look like fingers crossed we can uh we can get the whole school to buy in and uh be like a little bit huge that's all i got sorry so long sure it's all should raise your hand over there parkview cea report um so my name is carla wontek i teach second grade at parkview i wanted to talk a little bit about the teacher donations for the pta trivia night so pta trivia night was a huge success they raised over they raised more money than what their goal was 37 37 000 dollars i think their goal was 35.

[Music] rachel celestine yeah michelle colella here kate canetta [Music] kate is absent yes glass cooper lauren bailey here joe silva frozen raven jordan president catherine hodgson president albert russo explosive louisa britton here i do just want to say before we get to public participation that this is not a public hearing this is not an open forum it is a board meeting in the public public participation offers an opportunity for the board to hear your thoughts and concerns it is strictly a time for us to listen and not a time for discussion but we are listening we are reading your emails and we hear you loud and clear we are not voting on mass this evening just so everyone is aware it is not on our agenda we understand during times like these that emotions run high and that we all want what's best for our kids despite differing opinions this board as well as our community have a good rapport keeping things civil and having mutual respect for each other i hope that we can maintain that level of respect this is a volunteer board and some of us have our own kids our own grandkids in the school system and some of us may share some of your thoughts and concerns please keep sentiments on the issue uh we do have to conduct business this evening and our bylaws state that we cannot go beyond 10 pm um so if you could please be mindful of those things and lauren would you read our public participation the board welcomes public participation and asks us comments be limited to to two minutes the public may offer objective comments of school operations and programs that concern them the board will not permit any expression of personal personal complaints or defamatory comments about board of education personnel and students nor against any person connected with the danbury public school system [Music] so with that said are you our student representative would you mind just standing to the side so that we can have our published speaker uh come to the table with the microphone right that hopefully the microphone works yes thank you you can sit down if you like take a camera just take a chair with you there you go thank you okay so first on our list is colin widoti [Music] the bad listeners in my class are not listening as well because of the math and that is why i do not think we should wear masks in school anymore good evening um i know i only have two minutes so i'm going to get right to my point thank you um i would just like to say that i am here to talk about math choice for our schools and once again danbury is being left out of all the surrounding towns being the only ones to still have such holiday restrictions put in place new fairfield bridgefield brookfield even the preschools have already dropped this in the area and i know what we're going to say that we're not like those towns and then we have bigger issues in hand so i'm going to cut right to the chase and compare us to the towns that you are all going to mention you're going to compare us to bridgeport you're going to compare us to norwalk stanford new haven all of those towns have had a city-wide mass mandate or indoors up in place up until 2 16 was the most recent i'm sorry today bridgeport just lifted theirs today as of today as far as i could tell stanford you sponsored stanford norwalk you still have to wear maps anywhere you go indoors new haven you still have to wear a mask anywhere you go indoors danbury has not had that in place since october if you would like to compare us to those other cities then we need to ask bigger questions why is the rate in jamberry so hot that we have to wear masks in school but now we go to the grocery store and now when we go to thrills and now when we go to the mall and all of the other insanely crowded and populated places with our students in them they are the same students that are then showing up to school on monday and being told that there have too many germs and that they carry too much red and then they need to have a mascot the numbers don't change depending on what location in the town of danbury you are in so we can go since october through the surge in january and everything else without having to wear a mask indoors i think it's time to take the mess off of our children in school thank you ally you guys why gomez don't like masks in my school um i don't like masks in my school because i'm constantly being told that i have to wear a mask above my nose i find it kind of difficult to breathe with a mask on and especially in gym class when we're doing it indoors in the gym um it's very hard to breathe and i don't like it because um you know we're doing exercise i need i need to breathe and um like sometimes when we're we can take mask breaks while we're on our desks but when we're not at our desks our masks have to be above our nose all the time [Music] optional because some people believe that they protect that they protect themselves with the mass but some people don't believe that so i think it should be a choice because i think that people should be able to choose what they want to do [Music] today i'm gonna i'm gonna say why um i don't like masks often i do lessons with my teachers and i cannot hear them very well and why i don't like the masks is because i feel a little uncomfortable how how they be tight on my ears and that's what i'm going to talk about juan rivas so since i have two minutes i'll cut the pleasantries out and i'll get to my point so hello there we go i like to bring it to your attention and issue spreading my son who's a student at broadview middle school my son who is an honor roll student voice of brian and student council member was suspended on february 1st for allegedly using inappropriate and offensive language we'd call which caused another student to push and pull my son down to the ground as most of you know on this board know my family and i personally being a minority family and the work that we do in the community we would never condone or use this type of language in our home we believe our son did not say these things as a result of this incident we were made aware of instagram pages with videos footage recorded in the school in most cases a few in particular of the incident my son was involved in one of our main issues tonight is how this video was recorded and circulated through social media we also believed he was scarborough bully and targeted prior to the incident on february 1st all video and screenshots were shared with school administration an email sent out to the superintendent to schedule a possible meeting was sent almost a week ago with no response in return as a parent i'm concerned with my child's well-being and safety while in school it's disheartening to see instagram pages that are filled with over language violence all taking place at robbie middle school it's upsetting to see the lack of enforcement of the cell phone policy and realizing kids are being boldly recorded during this process we have asked for a policy handbook which we did not receive i have inquired about the arts as sro being involved in other measures that could have prevented this we have been left waiting for answers and android follow-ups i have with me tonight copies of my correspondence printed screenshots of such instagram pages at one point in time the video of my son's incident was viewed 146 times and with a and over 100 followers on that instagram page i'm here tonight to highlight the issue that we have in the school i hope this board takes this matter seriously and that we can come to a resolution of this matter to better safeguard our children and make school a fun safe environment thank you for your time i am also pro-mass choice please let the kids make that decision cindy a dodo hi i'm cynthia dodo i live at 17 ridge road i'm a parent of two children one current and one former student i'm here tonight to comment on the february 16th board of education committee meeting to discuss masked mandates first i'd like to thank theresa beauzei and michelle coelho for standing up for our children like i had said in the february 9 meeting children have had to unfairly carry the burden of coven 19 for the past two years stanberry needs to end the mass mandate in its schools and let the parents decide in addition i was disappointed that there was no mental health professional on the committee zoom meeting last week kelly trushes did read a statement from a psychiatrist from yale basically stating developmental and mental concerns for children however it would have been more informative and meaningful if the person took questions from from the committee also there should have been local pediatrician on the panel because in fact we are discussing children's health having dr bed and er doctors speak and field questions from the committee only gave one side of the story the worst cases lastly i would like to comment on the results of the survey of the 339 people that responded it was stated that 38 percent of those wanted the mass mid date to remain another 30 wanted to remove it and another 31 wanted the mass to be optional in some social distancing by no means should the 38 be considered the majority here the 62 the 62 do not want mass to be required meaning optional are the majority thank you for your time i'd like to remind everyone that we are still on a mass mandate right now so if everyone can please put a mouse on benjamin dodo good evening uh benjamin dutto cindy's husband um again i agree with cindy and i thank mrs buzayden um for standing up for the students at last week's meeting on the policy committee the um it was really disappointing watching that committee quite honestly with the word salads and platitudes about children's safety that we've been hearing for the last two years even to the effect that many of you were talking about injecting toddlers instead of removing the masks that was unbelievable um i walk away with this sort of an analogy of the boy the crag wolf where us parents are the villagers the students are the sheep and you meaning the collective you everyone enforcing these policies from the board to the school districts to the teachers unions to the professionals to the elected leaders here or the boy your decisions for the last two years have mainly been proven wrong your experts have been wrong instead of apologizing you continue to move the goal post and change the narrative we simply lost faith in you and we all know how that story ended for the sheep [Music] we ask that the mass mandate be lifted and just personally i don't know if i can ever forgive you the collective you for what you've done in the last two years thank you amelia gomez hi my name is amelia stephanie gomez i'm eight years old i'm in third grade and i go to hudson country montessori school i believe everyone should have a choice to preach freely and my choice is to breathe freely i miss seeing my friends faces i miss seeing my teachers faces i want to sing without my mask on i miss doing gym without my mask on thank you sophia gomez hello my name is sophia stefania gomez i'm 10 years old i'm in sixth grade and i go to hudson country montessori school i hope that all of you here tonight will make the right choice for children like me for their families for the community and for the whole world breathing is simple natural and we should not have to negotiate it yet for the past two years breathing was taken away from us how many of you had a concert where you sang played an instrument and danced while having to wear your mask how many of you played soccer dodgeball and with your friends all while having mouth and nose covered i want to breathe free and i don't ask for much i want to conclude by quoting the sheffield declaration this declaration was approved on january 12 1773 and this declaration led people like elizabeth freeman to their freedom this declaration stated that mankind in a state of nature are equal free and independent of each other and have a right to the undisturbed enjoyment of their lives their liberty and property thank you very much um i have alexis i'm having a hard time random rhondelli raymondelli can you speak your address for the record please sure i'm actually a um federal resident i'm here supporting my niece and a bunch of other children here in the district if you want my address i'm giving my dress as well but i am here to express my support for the masses being optional in the danbury school district as you all are very aware that governor lamont's mandate has been lifted on our children school boards across the state have been lifted to mandate allowing for parental choice numbers are low and this virus is a 99 survival rate these are torment and they are abusive to every child as a health care employee i can assure you that these cloth masks do not work they are not effective for an airborne illness they are in fact only used i'm sorry regular masks are not even effective they are only used for droplet precaution n95s are also useless unless tested properly which you can youtube yourselves on your own time so the one you're wearing there is not helping you in any way in our entire yale new haven medical system at the beginning of this week we have 130 patients in the entire system with code now mind you they did not come in with coven if you test positive in the hospital you are held as a coveted number out of all those numbers there have been zero children because zero children are susceptible to this virus at no given moment in time should the board of education ever be the deciding factor on our children's health you do not get to decide what is best for our children or any of the children in this room i have witnessed first hand at what this virus done has done however we are not where we are were two years ago we are just not and we're grasping at straws with these cloth masks children are not pirates category and it is time that you take them off of them and let them learn in a fun-filled environment well they deserve that thank you uh dominic ellie also bethel that's my sister okay i don't have a fancy speech like uh everybody else prepared her tonight can you please put your mouth so i'm just gonna wing it i have two children one school one non-school yet and i don't even know what to say because you all know the truth we've been right the whole time i really don't have much else to say the numbers are out there these look at these kids they want to breathe let these kids breathe wow this is exciting okay the first thing i want to say is thank you to the members of the board of vet thank you for your time efforts and collaboration on behalf of our children in the danbury community i appreciate that you are working together and with parents and teachers to ensure our children have quality education while keeping their safety in mind secondly i want to express my faith i have faith that you will make a good decision here tonight i understand which was news to me that you're not making a final decision this evening but i'm sure in all of your minds you have decisions going on i believe without reservation that removing a mass mandate and giving children the choice to mask is the best thing you can do allowing the choice to remove masks will not put our children and the staff in imminent danger as is proven over and over again as they interact in the community and surrounding neighborhoods allowing the choice to remove masks will bring back at least one semblance of normalcy that is so very needed allowing the choice to remove masks will empower kids over their bodies and let them smile at each other again allowing the choice to remove masks will be consistent with our american values of freedom and liberty allowing the choice to remove masks will prove to the community that you hear our voices and care about our opinions in the surveys when you ask for them allowing the choice to remove masks will demonstrate the type of leadership i know that you are capable of and that we need right now as i close i thank you and everyone else here tonight for letting me speak my mind and listening to what i had to say you have my best wishes and support as i understand how hard you are working to do right by my children and the community i live in i wish you a good night and please keep my faith intact remove the mandate thank you thank you all right thank you i just wanted to say thank you to everyone on the board even people with differing opinions you know it's volunteer job and we appreciate your service you guys have been navigating us through very difficult times just wanted to give you a quick account uh as a dad i have a first grader and a fourth grader in the danbury public school system my first grader's learning has been severely hindered by the mask in school closure policy of this district he's never been in a classroom without a mask his reading and writing are significantly behind where he should be because of this because of these policies because of this my wife and i work with him very hard every night every single night on his reading and writing just to keep them up to grade level it's been very taxing on us as parents it's been very taxing on the children all of my kids have had copic within the last 60 days including myself and my wife everybody in my household for the kids it was a non-issue they've had colds that were worse and our doctors tell us that they had 90 days of natural immunity where they have nothing to worry about so why are they messed in fact i pulled the numbers off the state of connecticut website today in the zero to nine age group there have been sixty five thousand one hundred and seventy three positive cases of cobits and two deaths that equates to a three one thousandth of one percent death rate basically zero in the 10 to 19 age group there have been 93 527 positive cases and four deaths or a four one thousand of one percent death rates so the kid for the kids is non-issue so why are they masked and the superintendent's letter which clearly states the kids are not the problem due to low transmission rates uh and the low risk of serious illness i agree it's indisputable uh but you also mentioned that it's the staff members that we need to keep safe and those are the ones in the high risk area so somebody needs to be masked it should be the staff members not the kids in addition i hear from my kids they have to lean into plexiglas masks when they're eating at their desks please get rid of the plexiglas masks and let them go back to eating in the cafeteria and being kids you're over two minutes okay i'll help finish up but time has come for this body to lead and not follow and mandate freedom thank you um [Music] um [Music] so i'm not here to talk about math i am here to respectfully request that the board allow people to email their public comments i think kate put it up at a meeting recently um so that's really what i'm here for because i know um with coving some positive things came out of that and public speaking via email was one of them and i don't know why that was taken away so that's my formal request because parents work they have little ones the board always seems to ask for community input they want it but yes you took this vehicle away so i'd like to see that reinstated thank you chris bell are you in here i've watched it like six times [Music] i have two kids one of them used to go to great plane i wasn't sure what was going to happen this year so i sent them to st briggs um you know i couldn't chance it like pete said before i have kids that are behind he's in third grade i felt like he missed you know half of first grade most of second grade when every school district around us was in so i do appreciate the job you guys have done getting our kids back to school and i'm sort of shocked to say that after the break and went back to school because i thought that was not going to happen but in hearing some of the summer meetings and then when you opened it up for questions i heard a lot of people talk about remote learning and that scared the heck out of me so i wanted to make sure that i was speaking on the other side when it comes to math so i'm for mass choice i'd like to see um you know the kids like the other districts lose their masks i don't feel like this is doing much like this lady said i go to the gym three times a week nobody's wearing a mask there's a lot of high school kids in there so if they're getting coded they're bringing it right to the high school with it so i don't think they're doing much i agree with the nurse especially the cloth mask which most kids are wearing so um it does hinder their learning they can't speak well they don't see their friends my poor sixth graders in west side and can't see you know all his friends and they're all new kids so unless he plays with them after school or outside you know he's at a disadvantage so i just wanted to lend my support me and my wife um you know we're for the mass choice if you want to wear masks fine no problem i'm not afraid you know to send my kids i don't you know like pete my kids had coveted it was a cold for them no big deal and you know they're better back in school so thank you melissa [Music] chelsea [Music] hello everyone my name is melissa ligouri and i'm a danbury resident and this is actually my second time speaking here i came it was dr sal's last meeting i think it was in june so i'm talking to you about this subject once again um i have two young children i have a six-year-old who is in first grade and i have a three-year-old as you are aware governor lamont stated that he would be repealing the state's masterwide mandate as of february 28 2022 in our schools the decision now rests in your hands there's no more pointing fingers this is in your hands as it comes to masking of our children i ask you to please implement parental choice when it comes to masking and give the power back to us parents to make decisions for our children my six-year-old asks me all the time when he will have this when he will be able to stop wearing a mask his whole school experience this past two years has been wearing a mask it's time he tells me he has trouble breathing in them and doesn't like it because he can't see his friends faces my three-year-old is now required to wear a mask and i can't even find masks that fit his little face um and even if they were effective he's not wearing them effectively he's three years old i ask you to please please implement parental choice i know this is a hard decision for everyone but it's about time that we put this the safety of our children in the parental hands um i ask you to please unmask our children and i want to thank you guys all for your time and your service i know this is not easy for you and i respect all of you and i thank you very much thank you thanks god oh terry scott sorry hello thank you all right so i know a lot of people are here to talk about math mandates and that's not what i'm here to talk about um i tried to type something but um i'm just going to speak from the heart so last week earlier um last week my daughter had to endure some very challenging moments in her life that i am not satisfied with with the school district i did meet with the superintendent as well as the ap but as a parent i must speak out publicly and let everyone know so that we can work together as a community to solve these issues so one of the issues was that the spanish teacher addressed the class by the n word um which that teacher is still in front of the kids which i am very upset about um and so as a community i want to know what is the community doing to address these issues and hold these teachers accountable for what they say in front of our children um as a black family it's unacceptable um the majority of this population is very diverse however the teachers that is not and so we need to speak about these issues as a community to figure out what we're going to do because this is unacceptable um the second big issue that my daughter had to endure was in history class she was asked to take on the fight of her ancestors and write a a letter about being a runaway slave unacceptable that should have never been an assignment that my god had to do and so um i spoke to mr wilson we came up with you know we talked about some things but i didn't know that the teacher was still gonna be in front of my daughter um i'm not i'm not pleased with that um but also i just want to say as a community we have to do more to make sure that all of the kids um feel safe and in the school district they feel heard and their culturally sensitive curriculum put in front of them every single day and i don't know if my husband has anything to say but that's all i need to say okay [Music] good evening my name is cheryl rachelski as a parent of twins graduating from january high school in june it is my utmost request that the remainder of the school year be mask optional data is proving that the greater danbury area severe coded cases have significantly dropped and that the greater majority of our children have not been infected with the virus or at least hospitalized as a result of the virus in a recent periodical that was published online january 26 2022 they reported the following from recent studies and i quote that masking is a barrier to speech recognition hearing and communication and that masks impede children's ability to decode facial expressions dampening children's perceived trustworthiness to faces research has also suggested that hearing impaired children have difficulty discerning individual sounds opaque masks of course prevent lip reading some teachers parents and speech pathologists have reported that masks can make learning difficult for some of america's most vulnerable children including those with cognitive delays speech and hearing issues and autism masks make may also hinder language and speech development especially important for those students who do not speak english at home masks may impede emotion recognition even in adults but particularly in children end of quote my first experience as well first-hand experience as well is that the majority of these students do not wear a mask when not in school do not wear a mask when hanging out and socializing with friends or attending high school social events i have not heard that our students severe illness or hospitalization numbers have risen or if these numbers even exist those concerned about their safety should continue to wear the appropriate protective masks and like our neighboring towns that have made masks optional i'm not asking you to take your mask off but rather i'm imploring you just to let me take my children's mask off thank you elena smith is there anyone that's all i have on the sign up sheet is there anyone else in the audience who would like to speak can you state your name and address for the record you can come up to the i've right only a resident of connecticut um for another six months i'm from pittsburgh pennsylvania prior to this i lived in west virginia um i lived to 10 east pembroke road i'm a veteran of 22 years of a teacher at the prison in denver and i have two children one in ninth grade so he's new to this school system and the other one is in seventh grade and my i would like to speak about my older son in particular um he is extremely bright and he's always been extremely excellent in some social things um so everywhere he goes he observes for several minutes to an hour maybe the entire day until he enters the social scene and he always he's very aware he's always been very socially aware um he hasn't made any friends here since he um been here it's hard to speak with the mask on um but uh you know he sits at lunch in the locker room every day so maybe if he could like she spoke it just brought to my attention when she said about this you know social cues and the its facial expressions maybe he could relate to people better if they could actually speak to one another and uh [Music] is there anyone else who would like to speak before we move on to our our business could you please state your name and address for the record yes um my name is sharon ellington i live in new milford but my daughter goes to ganbury school and they have pieces that go also um i just wanted to talk really quickly obviously covet has been a very polarized subject for everybody i work in the healthcare field and i see everyone under you know being over it and being still very scared of it and that is fine everybody has the right to feel how they feel um i see my daughter and all of her friends and my nieces suffering in ways that i never really thought that i'd see her suffer and she doesn't really enjoy school the way that she does that she used to she can't really tell when her kid when her friends are joking or her teachers are joking she doesn't see those facial expressions that are so important and for kids you know those are the times that you're really figuring out how to be a human and how to socialize you're figuring out what's important like being there for your friend and showing them on your face that you care or that you're sad so you can communicate in other ways than just by words sometimes that's the most important way that we communicate i see my knee suffering from anxiety worried about if her teacher's going to say something if she needs a mass breaker she needs to get water because she has to take her mask down or you know what if she can't eat so long because her teacher's going to yell at her because she needs her mask down longer i have my other nieces are struggling because their language skills are not where they should be they can't see their teachers making the sounds of the letters i have a very bright niece and she she can't figure out sounds of words like i know she can and it's just it's hard seeing them struggle when they're so little they should be able to enjoy each other and their teachers and i i understand some people are comfortable with masks and some people are not cdc has said itself masks protect the wearer not the other way around it does not protect the other people so if you want to wear the mask that is wonderful that makes you feel better by all means where the mask i don't think there should be discrimination either way i think that children need to learn oh okay sorry i think that we just have to teach your kids that if if their choices to wear the mask great and if it's to not to not but if we could just have that choice i would appreciate that thank you thank you is there anyone else before we begin the rest of our meeting okay thank you all for coming and being here tonight consent calendar laura did you make that motion be absolutely thank you any promotion that the board of education approved the items on the consent calendar exists 22 um through 22-22-22-26 as recommended second moved by lauren seconded by joe is there any discussion no not hopeful lisa yes rachel celesti aye michelle solo hi gladys cooper yes lauren daley i joe the silva all right bridget guertin aye catherine hodgson aye albert russo aye lisa britton aye unanimous motion carries um do we have any staff representatives this evening i don't see anyone no okay and our student representative thank you so much for waiting [Music] please please do and yeah feel free to adjust if you want to sit yeah thank you or ken could you help me all right there you go okay um i'm speaking on behalf of uh nicole today i don't know how to pronounce the last thing but um good evening florida members cabinet and community members thank you for allowing me to represent and speak on behalf of the alternative center for excellence ace will be administering the 11th grade s.a.t on wednesday march 24th kyle churcola will serve as the s.a.t administrator on march 2nd sc sat proctors will participate in the sat training after school on march 24th all ninth and 10th grade students will have the opportunity to participate in an environmental theme field trip at white memorial park and lynch field the trip has been organized by chemistry teacher katya pierre gustini also on march 24th diana dinardo will be taking 22 graduating seniors on a trip to both novichok campuses students will participate in the nbcc placement test um ace would like to publicly recognize tyler sharer for the ace of spades award for hard work ace would also like to publicly recognize andrew latino for to be voted for being voted the ace of hearts for demonstrating care and kindness for other students staff and our ace community lastly we would like to publicly congratulate kristin brianna villani for earning the january student of the month award for consistently demonstrating the five ace behavioral expectations thank you for allowing us to share what's going on with our ace family down on 26th lucas avenue stay safe and remain uh a strong everyone thank you very much moving on to action items um i'd like to ask for a motion to table action letter a the january 2022 financial report i would like to make that motion section by al seconded by catherine uh sorry no you're good um theresa bosaid yes rachel chaleski hi michelle colla hi gladys cooper yes lauren daley i joseph silva bridge guertin aye catherine hodgston aye albert russo yes louisa britton hi it's unanimous so that motion has been tabled um presentation [Laughter] and while karen is getting set caravans is the director of data and assessment on behalf of the district and we'll be reporting out on superintendent gold one student learning and achievement college and career readiness indicators carol will explain how some of these educators were not able to report out on all of them fully this year as a result of the pandemic but i don't want to take away more presentation and there's likely no questions afterwards good evening for those of you who i haven't met personally at the paralyzer as mr walsh had mentioned i'm the director of data's subtitle research so as a part of um typically quarterly would report out specific data reports that relate to like the timing of release for the connecticut state department of education oh why not now so it is a little different this year so i will um i will just kind of revise some of the pieces that we've done in the task but also um when the board requested that additional pieces be added we modified some of the reporting charts so um as kevin um spoke earlier about the um superintendent goals basically we're really focusing on tier one and increasing access and equity for all students um and that would be goal 1a and 1b as a part of the superintendent goals in the presentation that the board received i think last friday is a result of being attached to the agenda what's included is our accountability index last week's growth graduation rates ap and dual enrollment course numbers as well as planning absenteeism and college entrance and and persistence so we'll kind of get down to a couple of those pieces but just initially as we look at some of the highlights of the report we do we have seen a increase in the ap enrollment as we've offered in 2016 we opened enrollment kind of detract at jamboree high school offered more access and equity to students since that time we've had about 21 increased enrollment in that area the deco program is another place where we offer college and career readiness to students um it is more reflective of the student population demographically which we will discuss later in the presentation the csde typically pushes out the accountability indexes time of year and i did include some of the pieces and the indicators that are included in that index we get an index accountability index for the district and each school this is the places where you've seen schools of distinctions in the past different categories that schools are placed in a kind of a tiered approach and we'll get down to a little bit of how that has changed over time and how it includes growth and proficiency um but it was suspended during the pandemic so as many of you know we reported out earlier smarter balance was administered the sats um and the ngss was administered last year but we were not tied to the accountability anymore so they didn't produce any scores associated with that we do expect it to resume this year as stated by the state um overall our cohort graduation rates increased by 1.7 for all students and 2.3 percent in january high school that yellow student population increased 7.1 percent specifically for that demographic we did see a decrease in african american students by 10.3 we'll talk about that a little more specifically we are as as evident by our meetings today engaging with every high school to look very deeply at that data to look at how students are persisting and staying on track um at jamboree high school um our six-year cohort graduation rate so that means that if you start your freshman year of high school that you would um not graduate in four but then by six years if you stayed enrolled what do those numbers like to look like for our high needs students those have increased 3.1 percent our high needs are students who would be designated as free and reduced lunch ell or students with disabilities you could be one of those students identified according to the state um or you could be offering so um just so you know we're going to use that term a couple times throughout the presentation um the last links growth sports which is also used in the accountability system we've seen a steady increase of that growth over time as we've initiated different strategies particularly at the k5 level and provided now a new eld program we are seeing an increase in the growth sports there so um as we will discuss as well places that we're looking more deeply at including our chronic absenteeism rate clearly that's an issue across the state of connecticut since the pantone and those rates are reflective of those challenges but we do have some intervention strategies um in place so um just as i spoke earlier the next generation accountability uh system is for um districts to really track progress help schools make improvement we use it very much to gauge how we're doing the student outcomes over time um it also is a federal state requirement so um and it really is a piece to promote transparency with the public to see how the district is doing with the indicators that the state provides so this is just in order for you to see where we um were in 2018-19 that was the last year that we had a full school year before the pandemic um so in those places the people who are veterans of the board have seen these numbers before the stars are places where we have exceeded the state average so essentially um when you're looking at these numbers it's a formula there's a system that the state gives us you can earn a certain amount of points where you hit the target um and so once you um once they look at the enrollment they look at the chronic absenteeism etism numbers the four year graduation six year they then say how many points did you earn towards that target and then you get the percentage we were in 1819 at 72.6 and then um the state's overall average was 74.2 so it gives you just kind of an indicator of where we were um in the fall i was here with you all um reporting out the testing report and and all of the student outcomes associated with the standardized tests we had available so that kind of takes care of a lot of the pieces in the accountability index which are down until about um 2e so i'm trying to fill in the gaps for the board so you can see really how we are measuring progress in times where we don't have the accountability index so that's what's following so um the one piece that's in addition to the accountability index is looking specifically at achievement gaps this is something jamboree public schools looks at on the regular basis of how we're looking at district data team agendas how we're looking at instructional leadership to say what does it look like with non-high needs outcomes compared to high in these outcomes so um in this case the indicator which is why we dive deeply into how students are remaining on track for graduation as well as graduation rates are to see if we do have a graduation gift so um in this case the last time we were reported out at the state level we did have um we weren't out layer for our gap for non-high needs students and high-knee according to graduation rates um so that is just something we continue to moder monitor um so the lost links growth which was where we talked about in the accountability indexes to e um and so we're looking here and for those who remember back to s back rows and talking about how students are doing over time from one test to another the lost links is a required assessment that's given um to our students who are um english language learners it's a state requirement um and so that's all grade levels um it it measures and you'll see on the next slide kind of all the sub-tests it's a it's an extensive test and what they do at the state level is look at how students performed from the one year to the next school year so in order to be on the lost links growth outcomes you need to have taken at least two test scores in connecticut so um for average target achieved there are different levels of english language learners and those students have different growth targets the growth targets are um dependent upon what level they are in so a loss level one student doesn't have the same growth target for a year that a last level four student would have so um that is all taken into account and averaged okay of where they got towards their target so in this case average percent target achieved it's pretty much measuring how far did everybody get to their finish line of their growth target so in this case for literacy which included which includes reading and writing on subtest as well as oral we went from in 2017-18 overall to 67 percent so we've seen instead we've seen a steady increase in the literacy components of the loss for the students in germany public schools in addition we saw similar growth a little over eight percent in the oral skills of the student and this is their english language acquisition right and so what are their oral skills related to that um 40 54 to 63 the other lower numbers that are slightly slightly lower about are the growth rate numbers those numbers are um how students how many students cross the finish line to their growth target and so um so that those numbers would represent if i was the last one student i was expected to grow 30 points did i make that 30 points okay so that would be 37 of in 2017 we see a similar number in 1920 okay and that's the last time they've been reported out for the growth scores um oops so the last one's achievement is similar to looking at how students do overall there's a proficiency and above and once you hit proficiency in certain areas and that's scoring a four or a five in certain subtests those students will be exited as english language learners in our district so in this case um proficient or above it's a lot to move right so you could be you could enter as a lost one student you need to score a four or five in particular some tests in order to exit which is considered proficient or above so um in these cases you can see the different levels of where students are proficient or above at the end of the 1920s school year we monitor those very specifically down to the school level and work um very closely with the department heads and the principals to look at those scores and who's making the growth and who's hitting the proficiency the next piece that we um that has also been a part of the accountability index is looking at the graduation rate time to transfer daily public schools you see the slight increase from 2017 to 18 um into our projected rate of 2021.

so we do see a better alignment with the demographics but not mirroring right so as we move into one of the i'm just how many more do i have um to say chronic absenteeism we've done a very good job in this district and we are typically over the state out or over getting accountability index higher than the state average and jamboree public schools um we monitor this extremely closely both at the school and district level kelly triochis is very involved with how the pps staff is following up with disengaged students chronic absenteeism is defined as an attendance rate or absence rate that is 10 or higher of your enroll dates so if you're enrolled only for one day or i'm sorry if you're rolled for say um two days and you're absent for one you're considered chronically absent right so it's a moving target um if you're enrolled for a hundred days and you're um absent from nine you're not proud of plans right so it's a moving target you don't have to be enrolled a certain number of days it goes by each individual student so in this case we've had an increase since the the pandemic certainly this year we're seeing high numbers as well but we left 2021 with 17.4 percent our high needs at 21.8 and our non-high needs at 7.7 um finally the post-secondary entrance trend data this is also an indicator that's used to really look at obviously college and career readiness for students as it relates to the percent of students that enroll in a two or four year college within one year after graduation okay so that would be considered the entrance percentage so we saw um we we saw a dip in 2019-20 but that's that is actually the graduating class of 2019-20 so that was during the closure and the state are the numbers below we also saw who also saw that dip compared to their 71.8 so um in general the persistence then is what we look at to say do they stay enrolled for a second year in post-secondary okay so this is something that is a study done that the connecticut state board of education engages in as a part of the national student clearinghouse and so we this data is public but we also receive a great study that really looks deeply at all the subgroups and and different components of their study so next steps it's a lot of data it's a lot to to think about and this is data we're looking at constantly as a part of a district data team as well as instruction instructional leadership teams across the district um and so what we really try to do is it's great to know all this stuff and then what do you do with this information right and how do you generate action steps associated with that so dr casamaro can speak of it to work thank you thank you for the preparation um just look at the board's knowledge and for every slide that you see here there's about 50 more slides back at central office that we work with care on to dig into data and trends um so we get down to root cause so when we do see something in the data that's either troubling or want to know why did we get so much growth you know did what we put into place um work wasn't effective do we replicate that and scale it or if we're not seeing the growth that we want to see um how do we change things up a little bit and alternate some of our interventions um so mr wallston's goals center on really improvement of tier one instruction but also closing the achieving gap which really speaks to kind of tier two tier three interventions and so um as kara mentioned we spend a lot of time doing data reviews but we also do something called instructional rounds and that's where small team administrators will travel into buildings to not just look at big slides but to cooperate that data with observational information um to kind of ground us what we're seeing in terms of instructional practice so we will be doing more of that as we kind of come out of the of this year some of that will result a little bit but just prior to the pandemic really digging into very deep data dives and matching those with constructional rounds to cooperate that information to help us develop strategic plans um so we're looking forward to really picking that work back up and gaining some more momentum on that in addition as you remember last year's budget that we increased some student support specialists um more intervention support into each of the elementary levels to help catch kids up earlier and quicker getting them back on track and so those positions are still in place so looking looking forward to maintaining those positions but also to really work closely with our teachers excuse me to improve their um their knowledge base we had professional learning communities started that's one thing that's very important to us they have that teacher professional learning time so that they too can dig into the same data to be able to change what it is that they're doing their practice to support kids in the best way and so we look to partner with them during those professional learning times and we're also working very hard with coaching in the district around psyop which is observational protocols and strategies that we put in place when working with second language learners which is a growing population in our district so all this stuff takes place over time multiple years um as you can see for the most part our data is incrementally growing we have some blips here and there that continue to work on um and i know he's really satisfied ever with what we see but we continue to dig in on that another point i'd like to make a little bit about some of the ap and the deco program um is that a lot of the opportunities we really pride ourselves on the high school to pride themselves in the number of early college opportunities that we have a number of advanced place courses that we have we offer i think almost every single one that the eight people ap college board offers and we train staff and we offer those here um but in terms of the dental program some of the early college opportunities we'd like to be able to spread that across the academies as we grow those out and so rather than having that live and just a program we're looking to make sure that we embed those kinds of courses and opportunities in each of the academies as we grow so you'll see that program more and spread out and we're going to try to scale that up across over the years that's it carol thank you so much for all the data just i'm sure there's a reason and you're going to know it right away just look at you were talking before about the four-year graduation rates in 4.6 it's a projected rate since it was last year we have the data why is it projected right so it's just not public so that's so when i when i say it's the projected rate it's it's what we've considered and have reviewed with the state but typically they publish all um data that's uh public on site right and they're just not at that point yet to push it out so there are some discrepancies that get cleaned up it should be about the same also different districts get credit for different things so if somebody leaves jamboree high school goes to another district and then vice versa right so we just haven't cleaned the noise up out of the day yeah it would be most likely minimal okay thank you i knew there'd be a reason any other questions for cara or cara just go ahead a broad stroke question about the comments entrance rate and the persistence rate being lower than the state are we mitigating that are we have plans to mitigate that the college anything you can do today he's asking about college rates as they compare to the state so you know that's that's one of the trickiest numbers um yeah sure to look at um there's a lot of factors on why students choose to enroll in college or not or what may be accessible to them and prevent them on the school side we do things like uh fafsa night and and and making sure that students are aware of all the opportunities that's really part of the counseling piece that comes with all of this in terms of why they may not return for their sophomore year um that you know there's a host of reasons why that may happen could be financial could be support to work not for me and so that's just a little bit of a harder number why we're lower than the state um you know i think we'd probably be best to look at ourselves in terms of other districts of similar size in the same dirt with the same regional economic um factors as well which may they look different than the state average um i'm actually not very curious to yeah as well so that's right and one of the other things to remember is not just it's not taking into account everybody who graduated within that your veteran roles you must enroll in this year after you graduate so we could have students enrolling after what um like so in 2018 if i then enroll in 2021 i'm not going to count these numbers if i had to work a year to make money to pay for tuition and things like that or before i was able to enroll that's um those would not be reflected and i would say like what what is very hopeful is similar alignment and even in 2017-18 the persistence rate in jamboree school district was actually slightly higher than the state those to me if kids can hang in there for their sophomore year of college then they are really feeling prepared enough to sustain that enrollment so i mean those it's really important the entrance rates as well but persistence rates and resiliency to stay enrolled in colleges but i think to cara's point there are a lot of other factors besides academic and that the school has control over that would lend themselves to reasons why kids don't enroll and dr casamaro if you can you wouldn't mind just adding um going to mr russo's question about mitigation opportunities um because i think we see the danbury career academy has a critical mitigation opportunity absolutely i didn't want to add one other one thank you for watching part of the reason why we want to scale those deco opportunities and continue to even increase you know those ap courses for kids and get more kids into the safety courses because even despite getting a three and getting that credit that initial credit there's a ton of research that says just being prepared with those classes it serves as a great foundation for for stamina when you get to college right it paces you through the type of content and some of the material that you'll see i've had both of my kids that participated in maybe classes some you know great scores and some with oops i did i get that three score in different courses but but all of those courses prepare them for when you take stats in college and you see that for the first time and you've never taken any stats class that's a huge difference and so when your child takes those courses and then sees them in college even though they may not have got a great score on the on the ap assessment um that background in preparation materials certainly comes really handy when you take take those courses biology courses things like that science majors um very helpful so the more that we can offer those opportunities and get kids into super high diverse courses um the light more likely perhaps that affects them and that's why this slide is so important creating an opportunity for access to these high-level courses because they're truly preparation for college overforces and so we may not always experience a successful good life in terms of um getting a three or higher an ap exam but it is really preparing our kids for a college environment and the rigors of college instruction yeah just real quick on the stats and the persistence you know just on the enrollment the persistence number is that any enrollment or is that only full time ago um i would prefer to look and verify that before i tell you um but i will absolutely get back to okay thank you it's not not the end of the world i think there's a certain number of classes they have to enroll in old enrolled in but i just want to verify that excellent thank you i'm sorry uh just curious about the ap course creds uh do you know if they're accepted at the college level as uh towards a major or just as electives so it depends and every college is a little different and even within our state system you know uh westcon made over uh for a three but yukon you would award for a four or five most of uh pretty tight with like fives um total it's right getting a five on the on the national test in order to get credit for it in some cases so for example if you are a science major and you and you get a five they may give you elected credit but not in your major if you're coming as a science major because they want you to take their science one way or another though you're going to probably get a five on the you know the biology eight people you're probably gonna do pretty well uconn's ap course um but you also get elected credit uh my daughter's very new friends you know entered into uconn and almost 24 80 credits um and really hit quite quite a bit taking care of them on the way in and allowed them to go even further and enter graduate level courses in their fourth year so it's great there's a lot of advantages to it um it's not the end-all be-all by any means but it certainly is it's one of the reasons why the state of connecticut counts it as it's highly in the accountability index as a factor towards um success so we do get credit for that okay you get both credit for participation and europe are they um are ap courses technically honors courses so in theory there are above honors courses there are definitely high challenge courses there's a lot of content that needs to be mastered and apparent fast pace and so you know it's not for everybody um but it is certainly open to everyone so every student in denver in high school there used to be a time when you have to have a certain gpa you don't have a certain average uh you know there's only 30 seats available and it was what i would call an adult driven schedule schedule so in other words we have 38 p seats in this class the top 30 kids get to go in it we've changed all that from the hardware high school and central office worked when we detract the high school and we created open enrollment and we say okay well we've got 200 kids that want to take ap psych guess what we're going to train four more teachers over the summer at taft and get them trained so that we can open up all of those sections to meet the course requests of the students who want to challenge themselves so we reversed it so we've moved away from adult driven scheduling to student driven scheduling um it probably basis your dog and nuts around scheduling time because it's a volatile process it's less predictive um but that's the work that the high school does every year to slot kids into those courses um almost by hand to make sure everybody gets what they need so there's a lot of work involved in that but the high school make sure that that happens and as evidence you can see that the we have great participation rates are the best in the state [Applause] something i hear about taking ap versus honors though is how it affects the gpa and overall student ranking so if the student is doing a lot more work in the ap but it doesn't really help them uh you know against a student who's just being honored with the less work and more so well it all depends mr donald has her donald is still in the room um it you know there's it's a combination of both so you know there's gpa is a weighted gpa of course is very uh important to students in yes um it also depends if you want to do post college and even the ap courses themselves there's different amount of rigor within those courses so there's some courses there that i have never drunk dreamt of taking in high school um because of the what it would demand and then there are other courses that are a little more accessible so even within ap and ranking there's harder courses like the computer science courses or ap the ap calculus courses versus like ap site um more so it really depends what it is that you want to do did you want to talk to the career academy piece um any other questions okay thank you thank you thank you so our first item on the our first item on the agenda for the superintendent's report is rob cody on behalf of westcon in our partnership with them culture all right um so on behalf of us [Music] so uh on behalf of western connecticut state university and the pre-collegiate access program you know i want to thank the board for having us here today um you know today we have a presentation to talk to you a little bit about you know uh what we've done over the last 20 years at westcon but more importantly over the last two years of the pandemic we've continued all our programming which i'm very proud of um it's because of the hard work you know that you know our assistant director uh jessica cornell has done and the hard work of the students being committed to furthering their education uh within our within our program so you know for that i mean i'm i'm very proud of all of you guys so that you know um i'm here to talk to you a little bit about you know sort of our umbrella of programs but the focus on our minority by little teaching pipeline and a little bit about our computer science pipeline first our excel program that's some really cheap our excel program um currently is serving about 75 students that's graded seven and eight in all three of the middle schools right as part of raw view and west side middle school all these programs are educational attainment programs they're there to help guide first-generation low-income students to college graduate college go on get a master's get a doctorate be productive citizens in our society also our concat program currently services a hundred students contact overbound concave stands for our connecticut grant that we get from the department of higher ed the upper bound program is a federal grant you know written by outside western connecticut through the department of education in washington dc um the the key thing to recognize about our upper bound program is that grant once uh we we get that grant it is a four year or five year grant your renewal sort of tough work that we've been kind of grinding on for the last six months uh look at hello danbury high school and dr martens and mr donovan you know is to help us out with some of the data i mean a lot of the data that we just heard we use a lot of that data you know to get some of these funds so we're very familiar with you know national student clearinghouse at site you know all these services so uh we did just go through a renewal process it takes about two months for the department of ed and dc to review the grant and to let us know if we've been renewed um and we turned that in last month so we're hoping within the next two months we'll find out if you have another five years of renewal this will be my fourth grant cycle but we've gone through five um at russcon so what we're looking at at renewing that we're also looking at possibly applying for our upper bound math and science program that will focus strictly on math and science uh down below that um we have our minority biological teaching pipeline which started here many years ago probably about eight or nine years ago started as seed money in hartford and then as hartford typically does is you know they give you a little bit of money until you do something and then also the money's going we have to figure out how we run this thing you know without their money um what we did was we were able to partner up with the board of ed here as well as the federal and the state grants and keep those programs moving forward um and we're going to talk a little bit more about that in a second our minority battle teaching pipeline went so well in terms of recruiting students we typically have roughly about 11 to 15 per cohort that we decided to tap into computer science which was the hot field and so we are now working with the computer science department at western connecticut and offering a dual enrollment program through that department as well i've been meeting with the justice and law department uh recently we're going to try to add a jla for justice to law dual enrollment program hopefully by next academic year over on our college side we all we have our educational achievement access program we have quite a few you know danbury graduates come through that these will be students who either did sat optional and you know their grades just really didn't meet the mark to come in as a traditional student um they all one of the requirements is that they all had to pass algebra 2 with a c or better they have to take four years of math four years of an english english class including their senior year one of the worst things is i see some seniors you know where they're taking three years of a math but then you know their senior year they might take like eleventh map where they lose those algebraic skills and then they go and they take algebra in college and it just doesn't work out so we really look for those students to take some sort of applied math that their senior year um that program varies it can have anywhere between you know 27 students which we had last cohort and it can go up to 75 i've had you know in previous years um that program is during the fifth uh 15 week fall semester of the fall um you know they're getting uh that each student gets a mentor they all have mandatory tutoring they're on a student contract sheet uh you know and so they're they're watching quite well our uh promoting academically successful students was a pro grant another grant that we have rope within our department that program is specific specifically designed for minority students at western connecticut that either don't have above a 2.0 gpa or they don't have the gpa that that is required for the major that they want to get into so we help them get on track get into the major that they want to get into get the gpa they want to get into so they can pursue their their dreams and goals um and that's sort of like the big umbrella right so there's a lot going on one of the other things that i didn't want to add what was it so i forgot another thing that we did um but one of the main the main components here is that all the excel program which is with your students the concave overbound minority tc pipeline computer science pipeline they all have a summer component which we continue so the students again over the last two years you know they've all continued this program over the summer so there was like no stop gap in any of these programs uh so so i mean that's one of the another thing that we've been very proud of is that you know even after march whatever it was march 12th i think that's the one that's all ingrained in our brain right um you know we continue to recruit and have uh provide these services for all of our students including during the summer the last two years we've had more virtual programming in the summer this year we've already been approved through the university and we're going to have an on-campus in-person uh program this year for all of our programs so we're looking forward to that um so with that being said um what i'd like our students to uh students to do real quick is just introduce themselves and then i'll let mrs carnell talk a little bit about our other program and come around all right hi everybody it's andrew moore i'm a junior at dhs this i went to uh esl program throughout my middle school year i participate in the concave upper ground program inspector reviewing program and i did the minority part of the future science club canada hi my name is caroline newson um i am a junior at delivery high school i also was a part of the excel program and i was also a part of the hope of programming this is my third year um hi everyone my name is working pre-collegiate and access programs i'm currently a student at western united states pursuing a major and secondary education spanish i was in eighth grade when i was first introduced to the program where the advisor spoke to me a little bit about how to help me and being a first-generation student as supportive as my family was and as much as they wanted to help i always knew that they weren't going to help me and they were going to give me the help that i needed fast forward to three years later my junior high school when i was first introduced to the teaching pipeline um i thought that this was having said i mean it was a high schooler they were going to see if teaching would be something that i wanted to spend time in college trying out and not only that this course helped me in gaining hands-on experience teaching writing first graders at the time but it taught me also how to create lesson plans as well as the teaching portfolio which will help me next year when i am applying to student teaching as well as real-life jobs and not only that this course helped me in facilitating my decision to further on pursue my passion for education but it also helped me exciting that i do want to come back to my community and help them um i was a part of the minority bilingual teaching pipeline and i was first brought informed about the program by miss cornell and mr podi my first i didn't know what i wanted to do like what major i wanted to be i was thinking of counting and kind of economics or teaching i always like thought about the teaching ever since i was little but i never really got to exploring so uh i'm taking that class the teaching pipeline class i got to do exactly just that and and i actually learned the value of teaching the good um i actually i learned what made a good teacher and also what made like um not so great to you and and my professor mr hectoris uh he explained how um um growing up he was like a low income low-income student just like me he struggled struggling in school but he met a teacher in uh junior year who changed that and showed him the value of education and i feel like every student they have that one teacher who has done that for them i have mine was a 10th grade teacher 10th grade teacher or she was an algebra teacher and she did just that over covert do it was difficult to learn over kovid because you know we were on screen and we didn't get to form a connection with the teachers but what she did was she strove to um cut connect with her students she taught me so much i i never really excelled that math but because of her i was able to get like a hundred the whole the whole quarter and yeah and uh for the assignment for the class was that we had to interview a teacher so i picked her um and through that i got to learn about her personally her personal life how she balanced teaching with um her own personal life and it was truly it was fun it was like it was amazing um i truly like would consider um teaching as something i could do when i grow up and yeah also in the program we also learned about so many stuff we did countless projects countless um like annotating um different like sources on how to become a better teacher and i we learned about the cultural competence teaching pedagogy of social political um competence and an academic achievement and through that i was able to learn so much um and this is something i could consider in my future doing hi um so i took the computer science pipeline of the summer i was first introduced to the idea of like some other colleagues in the program and i was further talked about it by discord knowledge coding over the summer when i took it we obviously had to do it over web x because of covid and even though there was a bit of a struggle with that gap we were still able to learn very efficiently and get a feel for what college class is really like it was very interesting learning what the day of the life or again life of a computer science major looks like we were able to build websites and do projects that really demonstrated how we could use those skills in a real world application it was very very fascinating i was even able to use some of the skills that i learned in class at work and in school which helped me succeed overall it was a very very good experience i learned what's called css we learned html and also javascript which are website building languages which we were able to utilize to demonstrate our knowledge on websites that we actually built which helped help me really learned how to how to interface with websites using using these languages that we were taught in this class good evening everyone my name is jessica coronel and i am the assistant director of the collegian access programs as well as a 2010 alumni of denver high school as you can see our programs like the discussion earlier many of them is just to give them the exposure to college what is college about right what is um taking classes whether it is through enrollment or even pushing them to take the higher levels or honors in ap classes especially as the stacy mentioned their first generation low-income students like myself i was also an alumni of the program and you know going even some college trips taking classes during the summer still having the education to help them prepare is very important and right now we're actually recruiting for the program our applications came out february 1st they're due march 25th and um they have to you know either get it from their counselors we have great communication with all the middle school counselors as well as the republican school i mean they were high school counselors um so they can find the application there they can find our website uh they can even come to our office at western and get a copy and we go through an interview and due to the little response that we have we do you know go to a committee to select the students um but i will welcome any you know efforts that you can help us to recruit more students we do have spots available and yeah thank you for your time so um you know i want to kind of open this up to you guys any questions comments concerns i've got an education degree so um but before that the one thing i didn't remember is we've also you know we partnered up many years ago with the after school program too so one of the other things we helped support here at danbury high school is the after school tutoring program and twilight with some of the bossing and things like that so you know we're really you know connected to you guys um questions comments so rob if i can i'd like to start with no one i want to thank you and jess for joining us this evening of course the students it was great to hear your story particularly your inspiration from your algebra teacher thank you so much for sharing that um and stacy just so you know we'll be in touch with you to make sure you don't get away to another district when people are ready to graduate so to begin with rob uh if you can you and jess the excel programs over the summer and i'm curious i'd love for the board to know how many students are you typically working with i love the word that jess used to talk about exposure to college um and so you know certainly the inspiration that comes from that experience uh probably pays huge dividends for us we have some of that evidence in the audience tonight if you guys can speak to them yeah so i'll just tell you real quick so and then i'll just kind of come in and so we have a uh called a site advisor each one of the schools that works with uh the students after school um they have meetings like once a month once every you know twice twice a month where they'll meet with the students uh we'll go on i'll let you talk about the program so we do have representation in the schools right and so it gives the students a connection one of the key successes so the upper bound program and excel type programs which are similar to talent search if you've heard of calendar search in the past is that you know sort of the philosophy is to hire teachers in the school so the kids develop that rapport with the teacher and they have that connection going on but they also worked with them in the summer so we had the excel program overbound concave all of these programs including our college program i mean one of the important things was the mentors continued working with the students during the summer so if when the fall semester ended it could continue in the spring semester but once those college kids went home they still had that mentor to talk to right that continuity um and the similar fashion the excel program concave being upper bound you know when you're done with you guys here at the public school during academic year i mean they're coming right to us right so we keep that that wheel spinning we do give them a little bit of time to go off in their nursing home um but just talk a little bit about the yeah so we um so we've tried to recruit 25 students for middle school um we do tend to have a lot more students from west sides everything because it's a smaller school a lot of students you know are there um but we do chew for 75 in total and that's due to a little amount of funding we would love to have more um and it's not just summer we have it throughout the academic year as well so they started in the summer time but they are with us good and academic year where we have meetings you know we have meetings twice a month right now we do like a virtual meeting with all the three middle schools and then they stay in person in their own discussions with our advisors and then during the summer time they come to our campus we were doing virtual for the last two years hybrid last year but then hopefully now we can come on campus again and they come and take classes that help them for the next year so for example they take uh they're gonna take my days and they take students like an introduction one day during our summer and the good thing about our summer program is that we hire teachers from those that were public schools so they know the curriculum they know what they you know what they're going to need the culture you know who works here the high she teaches your math classes as well as communion so we have different features at the schools that come and work for us during the summer plan and then during academic year we have advisors uh um you know help them with meetings checking out their grades keeping track of them which is also important so that's what that's for your question thank you you know another thing i mean listen we do so much i'm gonna say so we have academic contracts that the advisors have of all the students after each marketing period where students set their goals you know so they can you know they know what goal that they can achieve or what you know what they want to achieve um we use a curriculum called uh dream catcher where they talk a little bit about college of choice and what it's like to be a first year student they talk about financial aid you know we work with all of our departments on a college campus whether it's whether it's financial aid or it's academic advisement and those students kind of get to hear them come in prior to covet happening we would have a college fair on the west side campus at western connecticut where we would have all the similar programs from the state and this is when you know i would call on like everybody at westcon you know all come out and you know each one of those departments would talk to the students about what the college is like now the important thing to understand is that you know the majority of our students in our concept overbought in the high school program you know they will come to westcon but they're not mandated or required to go to westcott we have students at northeastern boston college yale yukon central eastern southern temple you know i mean it just goes on and on we've been around for a while and just that's one of our goals here we go on college trips so we go all around the states as well as out of state and even as middle schoolers we take them too not many colleges like to take middle schoolers but they feel like it's too early um for post and yet um even though university we go and take them and we expose them because even as a seventh grader you know the earlier you start learning about learning skills that you're interested in yet you know they get closer to that so that's one of our you know i think our video about taking them to different colleges and seeing hey who can make just one more statement in question uh the statement number one we've had an opportunity kim and i selfishly but very happy and excited to be able to hire three teachers in the last two years as a result of this pipeline and look forward to more great candidates that can serve as teachers in our school community but i'm also very curious when the board and i can be invited to a poster session and hopefully in person so that they can get to see these students and hopefully more to like their end of year posting session that you guys have done annually good thing that you asked we um our our teaching partner is summer and fall so we already had it in december and i did send an email but it was virtual so i think it was sometimes hard but we hopefully this year that we're going back in first and we'll continue to have another poster session and you're welcome okay thank you guys yeah well you know some of the stats listen uh being a teacher now guys it's very difficult to recruit right the pay is not great the job environment has been very tough you know um you know it is a tough job for us right now you know um and i i applaud you know as casey here before continuing that path but one of the things that we realized well there's the minority by the teaching 500 computer science five one um the simple fact that uh these guys have taken a college course and kind of figuring out like what that's like right whether they want to be a teacher computer science major they're winning no matter what right um about 21 yes right that have gone through a program have pursued an education degree after high school so that's what that number looks like right now um you know i think a lot more has to happen not just in danbury but i mean the salaries got to go up for people who want to be teachers i mean i think you know we have a lot of students that want to be justice and law majors and uh doctors and nurses and you know sometimes they start here they start to you know go down in terms of the the pay rate um but you know what i heard stacy say you know earlier that she wants to come back and make a difference in her community those are the students that we're looking for to put into these programs so you know anything else from anybody theresa uh just one question you were talking about mentors from west platte are they full-time professors no so um the mentors are actually students who have gone through the program and have graduated through the program and so they have similar life circumstances what i like to use right so we match these students up with students that are interested in the same major um forwarded like i said they've gone through similar life circumstances right so you know um sometimes it's very sometimes we go through a couple men's work before we get the right one right you know so uh but that that's who they are they're all students foreign i i want to ask the questions that i asked probably about 8-10 years ago when you came before the board and i think at that particular time you had 25 students in your classes i could be off a couple of numbers and my concern at that particular time as you bought the students or graduating class before the board and you did your presentation that out of 25 or 30 students he only had one african-american person so my question would be how do you attract students and get them in this class besides staying within a certain category because we all know that now that most of the the places around us that are hiring teachers they're trying to diversify their staff so as we as we have been talking about this pipeline for quite a few years i'm i'm just concerned that if you have 25 students you only have one african-american student and i you know you can use the word diversity or not i'm talking about out of 25 students you have one american african-american student so how do you need some type of help and support to get other youth involved in this program so one of the things that we did three years ago is that it's not just students that are like um we actually open to the whole high school juniors and seniors and with the help of dr um martin as well as the counselors they send it to anyone who's interested in that you know being an education major we even changed before we used to have like our flyers in english and spanish that might have attracted some of the hispanic population more right so we stopped that and we actually make sure that we put the education piece first so even our flyers say are you interested in education are you interested in becoming a teacher even if they don't fit like a minority bilingual piece we try to make sure we connect them with other um programs as well we do community service the territorial partnership which the majority of them start working on black and african american students and we actually promote our choir there we also go to the churches i've been to myself i've been to a lot of different churches uh the main population is you know black african americans with women we talk to even um aids with some of their students as well to see maybe they're interested in joining so we try to we try to go for nothing without getting population but at the same time they have to apply we have to make sure they bring in the application they bring all the documents our application is not you know it is expensive because we do have certain requirements like their taxes you know the worship difference sometimes the parents have to be involved as well but we offer we sit down with them we do uh recruitment sessions and um mrs cooper i would love to you know see what other places you know we can go we've been to new hope we've been to some of like you know the bridge uh programs here um event pathways we have a connection there so we're trying to recruit but it's it's tough when we're competing with jericho we're competing with other programs they're doing similar services like us but they tend to serve you know that population more but we do a center we don't invite them we try to you know create a partnership as well so the only thing on the flyer that we talked about at the college is that you know trying to find different ways to recruit students to be teachers right so a lot of uh superintendents started as a teacher or coaches you know you want to be a coach be a teacher uh you want to be an administrator you want to be a counselor a principal you know some of these things we would put on the fire because they don't think of that as being a teacher but we all start somewhere and then we work our way up we get the old 92 and just keep going right so we try to find other ways not just say hey be a teacher but hey you can do all these other things with an education degree as well so thank you jess rob thank you so much for joining us this evening students stacy thank you for joining us thank you so much thank you jess so i i have principal dundee up next and i want to make sure he's here [Music] good evening thanks for having us we didn't start out with nine but now we're only left with four because as we heard ap work is hard and they had to do something so you know i will ask that uh the board the superintendent when you're making the agendas we could have kids go first in the future just to get us out of here i know tonight there's a different story than usual but these uh these troopers held on and i had to make a video saying they were excused from the first period so we're here to talk about our voice of change project um this was a awesome thing for a principal because i got a letter from superintendent email that said hey dan look at this this is awesome grant process type project thing that the state's putting on we should really look into it and i'm thinking all right who am i going to tap on the shoulder for this one to get it done two hours later i get an email from miss lorenz who turns and says hey i noticed this jamboree's not on this list for eligible for the grant i just went forward there you go and she was like yes i'll run with it so they're doing some great work i'm going to turn over to ms lorenz and they're going to run through this because they're doing all the work i just pretty much forwarded an email so here you go mrs lorenz thank you miss lorenz thank you all right thank you um i am supposed to have like a student colleague for me it doesn't have a student with me doing this together but uh it'll all work out just fine these are real troopers so [Music] these are my students that were here to present uh four of them are still left um and they'll introduce themselves as they do their section um the prepares for change project is a state initiative that was to try to get high school students to develop um policies to address problems issues that they see in their school and it was to gain twenty thousand dollars of state education money um to run with the run with the proposal that they came up um these were the funding priorities as i know you're well aware of these are the funding prior priorities that their projects had to align with um and this is kind of the roadmap right now we're at three they introduced it the students um engaged in a whole bunch of activities in my classroom to get ready to write a draft um they here edited those drafts they got feedback from me they wrote final drafts and they submitted those proposals we are actually still awaiting as of today um indications as to whether or not all of those proposals have been deemed eligible to compete and what i mean compete on right now unless a date gets pushed on march 11 students in all of dhs are going to be able to vote on which should be the winning proposal there are an additional five um projects that can win at the state level that the state commissioner of education gets to choose so there's always a possibility that we might actually have two members um and then at some point in the spring the state department of education will announce the winners and then the funding will be provided sometime before the next school year so a lot of my kids in my classes are seniors so it was like well what do we do about that so some of our teams are a mixture of seniors and juniors but we are also told by the state that if i they're graduating seniors that the next year's ap gopro class government of optics can run with the program and make it happen or the juniors that are in my class this year can choose to help me make that happen if they're not the winning proposal so i was left with that okay this is awesome this is great public policy okay how do i get 16 17 and 18 year olds to the point where they can actually write a public policy and so that's where i had to step in and start developing um scaffolds and to structure their learning because the state didn't provide any of that they provided a way that they were going to submit their proposal they provided this is what it had to align with but there's nothing in between um and for those schools that did it without running it through nap government politics class i don't know how they did it i mean so some of the ways that i scaffolded their learning through this was to first start by activating their deep thinking having them brainstorming having them addressing questions creating questions meeting with mr donovan and meeting with other experts in uh the school or the school district to try to get answers to their questions about why is this this way and could we do this and what are the obstacles for that um the students then took all of that with their brainstorming they started forming groups based on interests um and they uh then also made sure that the prop the idea they had aligned with the csde priorities at least in one way many of them had two and there were even a couple that had three priorities that they aligned we i then provided graphic organizers to structure their research so that they could identify and explain the causes and identify and explain the costs associated with the proposed projects among other finally i also provided graphic organizers and exemplars to assist students in visualizing what a public policy looks like when it's written um and then breaking it down chunking it into parts that was conceivable for them that they put it together we wrote first drafts we peer edited them i also assisted them with feedback and tweaked it and eventually we submitted it so thank you um this was and then student generated ideas which i think is really important for you to see what the students came up with this wasn't their final project but these were ideas and concerns they had about dhs facilities for example on this page and on this page and i can provide a copy of this to the board if you'd like to read any more and then they also have concerns about student needs and family needs so i am a huge believer that if you talk to to students they can their bee line for telling you exactly what needs to be done and so i'm so thrilled that they have the opportunity to to talk with you even for just a quick few moments tonight to show you the work that they have done these were the final proposals and you're going to see two of them one deals with facilities so to speak and one deals with a new initiative they also happen to be two years in one group so if you have any questions feel free to reach out to me at any point but i think they're better communicators as i am so this is the hatter hill science funding projects um and i'm haley and this is here and we're your teachers at dhs okay so um our proposal has two parts so the first part is basically to refresh the science equipment and increase the funding for the science classes so a lot of science classes they don't have up-to-date technology and the things that they have to work with are the things that would allow for the best learning so we would increase the funding so that all the science classrooms are able to have what they need so that they can have the most enriched classes and then the second part of our proposal is the greenhouse system so we want to build a greenhouse on the hatter hill which is in the front of the school near the science swing and these greenhouses will be able to connect to a bunch of different science classes as well as special ed classes and culinary classes things like that so it could be really a community project that would increase the learning of so many different areas of school this project and our proposal is necessary at dhs because there's so much uh so much that we lack especially in the science department with the funding and all the different science classes aren't able to get the full experience that they can get from their their teachers because the teachers don't have the things that they need um so our proposal would help this so that every student can get the best opportunity and the teachers would be able to teach what they to their best to the best of their ability with the materials that they can so the priorities that our purpose aligned with is learning acceleration academic renewal and reimbursement so basically this can provide a lot of immersion for students they can provide new clubs it can write new lessons for teachers and other extracurricular activities and it can the other priority aligns with the strategic use of technology staff development and the digital supply which basically means we're providing new technology for the students because they're current that can't be updated is the last four years ago um so the greenhouse location is on the howard hill with what we might call it and it's adjacent to the science classroom and our budget so we went around to the dhs size teachers and we asked them what they needed and basically we put about 40 of our budget towards the greenhouse and 50 percent of our budget for equipment that's about 17 000 and we have about three grand left for like a cushion in case anything's more expensive or something goes wrong okay hello everyone so our project is called hippo which hatter's is program opportunities so my name is matthew matthew i'm a denver high school senior and i'm in miss lawrence's lovely u.s government politics class um and i'm viviane flores okay so for the voice of change the biggest thing that we're trying to do is identify a problem in our community and draw a solution for our high school seniors and students and what we did is we critically examined our community and students and we understood that we really needed to understand and acknowledge the crafts and the foundations for success and the biggest thing after researching intensely was the fact that there is a lack of enrichment in career oriented services for our high school students as they transition over to out of school into adults so our idea was the idea of implementing high school internships and the importance of internships is because it provides professional opportunity it provides early exposure to career forces which is really needed for high school students and statistically it enhances a young person's resume and as well high school students can be able to explore you know work conditions and environments that they feel comfortable being a part of and we can see this in other districts local districts that are near to us such as richfield and fairfield and also in terms of social economic status we want to be considerate of the population from germany high school that this opportunity would be the only opportunity for them to have an internship in high school and also have the ability to you know network with professionals out in career fields outside of school when they're in high school so this is a quote that i researched and it says that many high school students saw engineering as a college pursuit and many also focused on a traditional paying job so we see that when high school students they take internships in high school they take it very seriously and they understand that this is a really great way for them to explore what they want to do in the future and more and more high schools are adding this these internships as are optional even as a requirement in their classes uh so term in terms of what actually hippo is so these were the two priorities that our project aligned with so learning acceleration academic renewal and student enrichment obviously very version of students learning by putting them in these real world situations and professional environments and then family and community connections um you'll be working with local businesses and such and also families to have them in place for um so in terms of how the actual program would work so we start at the end of your junior year it's going to start on being informed about the program um beginning of having a committee of teachers um that are interested in participating here at danbury high school and before the junior class and then pulled the lottery um so there would be a 3.5 gpa requirement and of course you have to be on track to graduate um but then we made it a lot because we thought it would be the fairest way to select out of the um class um and then you would be notified if you were randomly selected and you're thinking of having about 30 students participate um so then from there you would be assigned a mentor on committee um so these are measures that are helping you um develop professionally kind of implement those skills that you need to go out into the real world and uh hold a real job or in this case an internship um so then you would be matched with your internship so like i said we work with local businesses and organizations so that students can go to be clear that they're thinking about studying college or going to work in a post-high school graduation and then from there the students would be fully responsible for fulfilling their position um and of course they're still working with their mentor if they need any guidance but it is up to them to work with the business or organization that they can hold their internship with so in terms of budgeting there's four main areas really so um the teachers that are participating in the program we would treat it as an overage um so there would be a small amount based on that um and then you need money for attire and materials so of course high school students especially in every high school you might not have business entire business college clothing and whatnot and then other materials like backpacks briefcases and other uh stuff that they might need um and then pe learning materials or resume paper and guest speakers their professional skills and then pathway specific materials so the biggest example that i could think of were like medical internships you might need very specific materials to go into that field okay and then the final thing we wanted to discuss is the impact so what will it provide students and these are the three major things which is the first one fuel fueling career passions so giving students the opportunity to see the career they want to possibly choose in high school allows them to swiftly transition out of school into a career that they enjoy and explore themselves another thing is ensuring future success um students will be better prepared for college and workforce and building skills obviously having an internship has many positive effects in terms of enhancing their skills and for these major skills are adaptability work ethic communication and time management and yeah that's the good thank you if you have any questions you can ask teresa um be internships are you looking for paid internships or just the experience sure so i think that if you are reaching out to local businesses it would be up to them if you want to get there in terms of if you usually of course the paid internship i think could be an added bonus but we're really focused on developing our students professionally and then getting them the work experience anybody else questions for students do you want to talk about prayer academy now [Laughter] if you do have any other questions about voice for change that i can address i'm happy to do that but i think i think you see how incredible um our students took this on and really just developed some wonderful ideas innovative ideas came up with how they're gonna pay for it um and so yeah i'm just gonna once again encourage like talk to the kids they know they have ideas and and they're really great advocates for their fellow classroom colleagues so thank you so much for your time and effort this evening awesome thank you thank you uh so if i can i i do have one more item to see miss carter superintendents update um one let me just start with we are very excited when i say we are on behalf of the cabinet leadership team quite frankly i i'd like to thank the entire danbury school community very excited to be in a position another step closer to putting the pandemic behind us and and and part of putting the pandemic behind this is really starting to make decisions uh that the families are asking us to make uh tonight and and so respectfully i would like to ask chairperson celesti and the board if we can make a full recommendation to the board at our march 23rd meeting prior during that window the leadership team and i will be reviewing the recently released guidance from the state that was released about four or five days ago within that guidance and just to give the board and the community some things that will be covered um some decisions that the district has to make and that is uh reevaluate reevaluate our school environments such as spacing and ventilation in a lot of our classrooms many many in this in this room and folks who are listening might recall these are a lot of the challenges that we had for not opening in the first place during the 1920 school year so this is this is not as if this is new for us um but it will be important for us to initially revisit those challenges and make sure we're ready um to d-mask whenever that decision is made another thing that would be important for us the leadership team and ice consideration for students with underlying health conditions and so we will have to figure out ways how we can protect that community and these are again things that the team and i will be discussing over the next couple of weeks and certainly report out to the committee to help inform your decision as well and just a couple of more items certainly we will collaborate with the local health department and ask for carol hunty's assistance and any decisions and recommendations you'd like for us to make to the policy committee but then of course there are other things like school trips and what does this mean potentially for sports and chorus and music programs what happens when students meet in the nurse's office particularly in in a more risk riskful environment and so there are a number of different questions we will have to answer if we didn't position where we're not going to mask and again the leadership team and i will be working on some of those answers um as some of our neighbors are as well um you know with the pending february 2018 and i just want to make um your chairperson celestia aware these are things that we will be working on in preparation for um our next policy community that's it for tonight's report okay and um ryan bingham i was not able to join us tonight but uh my understanding is he will be at our next meeting that is correct yes so my report i'll just add on to that i'd like to hold the policy community maybe meeting on march 16th at 6 30.

we won't know until we get in there what the reason is for it um we talked about um where the money's going to come from to do this and we do have money in our our main is reserved to cover it so uh we don't have to you know worry about where the money's coming from but obviously we're hoping that it's not going to be a gigantic expense but we're i think we're prepared for it i think that was that's pretty much a good synopsis does anyone have any questions about that yeah not too much on the project but on how the on e3 um how is this vendor chosen it was the lowest price defender so mike when asked me um which is a consortium and two vendors responded to the his stacks of putting the floor back together and they were in in um something designed but they were the lowest they were lowest bid actually yeah i'm just drawing two d3 so the first one the hair consultants so we can get other quotes for that or not [Music] okay and then on the other one i guess you'll unlock this i think before um it was two companies out of the same co-op to fit on it i know but can we add it to the agenda because like it the public may not see a purchase order but if someone get a question as to how okay any other questions today thank you jay trying to kill the questions thank you thanks for reporting now and um and i just wanted to add that i came in and i met with um dawn and she took me to the media center and i was able to see it's a it's a real problem it's a really raised it's gotten a lot bigger over the years and it's it takes you know a huge space it goes from the media center into like where the computer lab is so it's definitely something that needs to be problems for years and building the ground we've talked about this for years but yeah so again it's it's been a long time so um i agree with you know dave i think that um i'd rather see it get fixed then just do like a quick repair at this point um and representative tamanna swan um that's not here curriculum in programs kurt said we didn't need curriculums and programs met and that it was there was a lot of information i'll just give just a general um about about the meeting uh and then he can send his report and talk about it during the next meeting if he but we talked about there was a lot on this agenda and one of the things that um we talked about was miss miss love talked to she gave us an update on the gifted and talented the beach program um we talked about the win talked about what's going on with intervention intervention um she stated that all students came from second were administered the the dipples which is the dynamic indicators of early literacy um the the math talked about bridges find the the plcs to analyze benchmark data we also talked about program well no that's a platform right the atlas yeah it's a platform atlas and she gave us an update on that and this should be on the website now right it's on the website thank you for that briefly talked about that did so much talking that meeting it was a lot of stuff um also talked about i think you talked about mr xavius on the english language learner's three-year plan and uh mr xavier resubmitted that thank you for that and um talked about the diversity updates we discussed that um the amistad mandate and everything that you're doing for uh african-american um infusing that into the everyday curriculum and you did a great job showing us we talked about talked about that uh and health and so yeah i'm looking at this i don't have notes here so that we ran out of time for that but uh when mr gets back and i pray that he's feeling better soon he'll give us a more in-depth report but i just want to just quickly summarize that um any questions okay yeah on the ell plan numbers 57 58 59 61.

we've been doing this for 23 months you know we you know we've been working tirelessly and our teachers our students are worried everybody [Music] uh i think we're turning the corner and uh other board meetings we hear about it are a lot uglier than ours you know when you did criticism about the masks but we we helped of course and as you can see we've done an amazing job and uh i'm glad we're rounding that corner that we can finally see smiles on teachers and kids faces that's my report thank you and now um and for curriculum and programs [Music] second yes [Music] and district operations item to c1 and the c2 second c1 yes 14.

jerry's also done a great job with us in all of our schools with our music program and i know we all wish jerry the best joe rocca who has been a part-time custodian with us for a number of years i believe it's 12 years has announced his retirement uh from school six beginning april 26 or effective april 26th a little further down we have a kindergarten teacher at school number three gabrielle vuzi who's uh we accepted her resignation uh effective april 7th 2022.

so before we close any questions from the public again just a comment in case the schedule becomes attentive or uh the day changes happy st patrick's day okay thank you thank you one more thing also our stem program got really uh awarded this last week i recommended our stem program yes yes you saw the um yes that was very the posting uh yes yeah they do a great job up in the high school that's one of the academies that we do have and mr helm who's the advisor does really a great job with the kids very proud of the kids yes they do a good job it's been very successful all three academies uh culinary arts humanities and stem have been very successful and we have a good number of students participating so we're happy about that thank you okay motion to adjourn motion court and the second was

and it would not be possible to have to repost an agenda if the an item was requested to be added when there's nobody here to to do the work um so luisa doesn't live here so i to your to your point can it be added up to the 24-hour point [Music] logistically no legally yes but logistically we would not be able to get it updated revised and posted when there's nobody here to do that after the offices are closed so maybe we need to revise some things with this policy anyway i i know that um because i understand what you're saying something to consider too though like there might be a time when a board member wants to have an agenda item added and i understand the assumption is well administration has to have time to prepare it but there could be things i mean i know typically like dr kellis you pretty much have the agenda how you'd like to have it presented when we meet because it's a lot of administrative presentations but but technically a board member could have an item that they want to present that wouldn't require any preparation on administration's part and just kind of knowing that give and take that that technically even if administration wouldn't have time to prepare if there were ever a board member that says you know i want to have time to speak about this particular issue that you know we don't always have and like even gender reviews i don't always have all the supporting documents at that time um and until and sometimes we don't get them until up until 24 hours before the meeting there's little tweaks or sometimes we see the presentations for the first time when we come here so just kind of keeping that in mind um there could be times when board members one percent on their own and they don't necessarily need you guys to to put a lot of time into a presentation where you'd have to worry about that piece but since we're talking about the agenda preparation part of it um obviously board presidents change and so this would apply um moving forward and that's why i wanna at least bring it up now if there's a possibility that um cabinet can have or whomever administrators whatever's going to be presented to the board sometimes during a gender review it'll say like in workflow so it won't necessarily be ready um if we could work to have that ready by the time of agenda review because in this we could look at the agenda it's like okay that sounds okay no questions and then things are added or the supporting documentation maybe changes what i might have thought or the future board president may think is going to be presented that might be like oh i don't know if we're ready for this yet maybe let's put this on a different agenda because i have thoughts on you know it doesn't really allow for um there's not a lot of not all the information is available so would that be possible to ask that all the information is submitted to you by thursday night or something so by friday morning everything that's going to be ready for that agenda review is there madam president that is a reasonable request thank you i would also like to point out that it says the agenda and supporting materials shall be distributed to the board members not less than 24 hours prior to the meeting so district is asking for it for five days but policy says not less than 24 hours i'm sorry what what area what part of that policy are you looking two point one seven three four five the agenda and supporting okay to the board members not less than 24 hours yes okay all right um but it still says in paragraph two submit in writing five days working before the meeting right it says that it re it would like it five days but it also says 24 hours well then i guess we just need to sit down and actually go through this i mean i see it both ways and quite honestly so that we're not contradicting each other or anything and we possibly need to sit down and do this maybe so because i've had other board members pull things and i go over my packet and i feel prepared so when another board member pulls something and brings it up then i feel like it's a great discussion with everybody and it gives everybody an opportunity right and i wasn't prepared for what you pulled last last board meeting because i had no idea what that book was so i stopped by and i read it not page to pay by cover to cover but i did review that book um so it would have been good information beforehand but i did not know you were offered the opportunity to read the book to look at the book yes they were sitting on luisa's countertop i didn't call her she didn't call me i just happened to be at the district office and i said oh these are the books and so they were sitting there and the rest of the board wasn't notified either i'm the same i'm not saying i was i wasn't notified they were sitting there and i just said oh these are the books i did ask that everybody get it receive a copy of that book you did yes i'm just saying we need to look at it that's all any other questions or comments thank you next we'll move to action discussion item each one oh actually do i need to refresh um please look at your agenda flow and see if you have numbers eight and nine added oh refresh no i don't okay then hit your refresh does anyone need to take a break yes okay all right we're gonna just take a short recess five minutes all right this time we're going to resume the meeting moving on to action discussion items h1 recommendation to add an interim middle school principal position dr kellis thank you madam president members of the board and members of cabinet dr croto will introduce this item thank you dr kellis madam president members of the board superintendent kel's cabinet and guests earlier in the meeting you approved the resignation of our one of our principals at ashton ranch middle school tonight we're asking to cover that position by the addition of an interim middle school principal and we're also in the same agenda item asking you to appoint ms lisa parachini as the interim middle school principal for the remainder of the 21-22 school year so with that we'll stand for any questions any questions from the board all right then one of the last of the valley girls is she here tonight i know is she here with that all moved the board approved the edition of an interim middle school principal position an appointment of lisa parachini as interim middle school principal for the remainder of the 2021-22 school year second motion made by christine pritchard segmented by dawn dunsmore i hope it's approved is she here she is here i will stand her open congratulations next we're going to move to action this session item h2 recommendation to approve the appointment of principles dr croto or dr kellis sorry thank you madam president members of the board and members of cabinet as just a point of housekeeping as we introduce the next couple of items our public relations department has requested that all the approved candidates please meet over at that blank wall for a group mention madam president members of the board members are cabinet it is right um dr crudo will introduce this item thank you again dr kellis madam president members of the board superintellis cabinet and guests we are proud to present to you tonight our principal recommendations for the 20 23 school year before i name our names these candidates went through a very comprehensive selection process used to identify them to fill these positions the positions were posted for a length the amount of time they went through a paper screening they also went through in-basket activities which includes a video that is graded by some of our district employees as well as uh clinical supervision activity of evaluating teachers and that's also graded um by our employees additionally they went through a very comprehensive interview had 20 in this room actually with about 20 panel members that consisted of parents teachers classified staff and our administrators dea and there was 20 of them on this panel so and then after that those candidates came through then they went to a cabinet interview and then they were selected in this process so pretty extensive process over a great amount of days so tonight i'd like to present to you these seven candidates they are here with their family and friends so everybody welcome we are great to see you i'm glad you could be here tonight when i call your name if you could please stand up and then we will wait for a vote so to begin i'd like to introduce to you mr kevin kashat who is being recommended for the principal at shadow ridge high school if we could hold our applause to the very end so i know you want to stay here all night with us so but please hold your applause till the end and then we'll let the governing board vote and then we can do our applause this candidate you meet but lisa parachini will be recommended for the assignment of principal at ashton ranch middle school if you could stand please again chantelle mcneese is being recommended for the assignment of principal at countryside elementary school karasair is being recommended for the assignment of principal at luke elementary school charlene clark is being recommended for the assignment of principal at rancho gabriela elementary school and scott kerr is being recommended for the assignment of principal at thompson ranch elementary and amy mycos is being recommended for assignment of principal at west point elementary and these are your candidates [Applause] any questions or comments from the board i'll entertain a motion i move to approve the appointment of do i have to say all their names i hope i don't i'm sorry kevin cashette lisa perettini chantal mcneese car cara shear sarah sarah charlene clark scott c scott cure and amy michaels as principals for the 2022-2023 school year i will second motion made by joe grant seconded by tracy sourcing bill ocean carries welcome congratulations uh welcome aboard and time for your first assignment hit the wall over there congratulations to all of you um those who are already with us you you know this but for those that are new to our district you have um just accepted a position in what i believe is one of the best districts in the state and we are just thrilled to have you if you're here it's because you are just phenomenal or as dr callous would say extraordinary so welcome and we're excited to be working with you or continuing to be working with some of you so congratulations they kind of coordinated their outfits all right next we move on to recommendation to approve the appointment of assistant principals dr kalas thank you madam president members of the board and members of cabinet dr croto will introduce this item thank you again dr kellis madam president members of the board superintendent kellis cabinet guests we continue tonight with our administrative recommendations for assistant principals for the positions of 2022-23 school year we have a number of them again i will read them off these candidates also went through a similar can a similar process on the assistant principle level that i explained in the principle item before so they went through a very extensive process to get here these are some excellent candidates we're very proud to have them and proud to recommend to you so again welcome family and friends please stand as i call your name and i will go through the list so first is cedrica hester and she will be the assignment of assistant principal at dysart high school jason wilkie is being recommended for the assignment of assistant principal at dysart high school kelly smalley is being recommended for the assignment of assistant principal at shadow ridge high school samantha centeno is being recommended for the assignment of assistant principal at valley vista high school alissa moondyke is being recommended for the assistant principal at countryside elementary school cali cashat is being recommended for the assignment of assistant principal at marley park elementary sarah casey is being recommended for the assignment of assistant principal at riverview elementary shane and doherty is being recommended for assistant principal at sunset hills elementary school andrea hazer is being recommended for assistant principal at surprise elementary school ralph quintana is being recommended for assistant principal at thompson ranch elementary school erin ireland is being recommended for the assignment assistant principal at western peaks elementary school and jennifer evans is being recommended for assignment of assistant principal at west point elementary school and that is our candidates for assistant principal so welcome everybody and congratulations [Applause] madam president back to you i'll entertain a motion i'll move to approve the appointment of please forgive me if i've got your name uh siddiqua hester jason wilkie kelly smalley samantha centeno elise alyssa moondyke cali cashette sarah casey shannon doherty andrea hasser ralph quintana aaron island ireland and jennifer evans as assistant principals for the 2022-2023 school year second motion made by tracy's story sink bill seconded by john densmore i don't know it's a tie it's okay rock paper scissors she can have it rock paper scissors easy she carries [Applause] congratulations you guys are smiling now photo time i'm waiting to see you later there's some tall women in here all right next we'll move to action discussion item four discussion on possible action on dysart's phase retirement program dr kellis thank you madam president members of the board and members of cabinet dr croto will introduce this item thank you dr kellis madam president members of the board superintendent kellis cabinet guests tonight i bring to you a presentation on phase retirement for the dysart unified school district so to begin what is phase retirement phase retirement is a state approved program that allows arizona school employees that are eligible for retirement to continue employment through a third party contractor currently dysart has entered into an agreement with educational services inc otherwise known as esi what are the benefits of phased retirement for dysart unified school district we believe there's a following value obviously there's a cost savings to dysart in that those returning on phased retirement we typically pay them 80 percent of their current salary and there is some savings in there to the district for that it provides a continuation and retention of experienced employees employees not leaving our system that have multiple years of experience and have been with us and it's a it's a positive benefit in today's day and age when we're looking at benefits of why people stay with employers definitely a positive benefit for our employees what are the qualifications for phased retirement so individuals participating in phased retirement they have to meet the following criteria they must be eligible for normal asrs retirement per the statute you can see there they have to be a contributing asrs employee of the district and they must have achieved satisfactory performance evaluations without an adequate performance rating during the exit year prior to retirement that's important so they have to have a great eval before we let them go on this qualifications continued they must not be a candidate for a potential riff they must be in good standing and they must have recommendation of their most recent supervisor current practice for entering phase retirement so individuals intending to seek employee employment with esi the third party company partake in phase retirement have to re have to submit a phase retirement form to hr 60 days prior to entering the program i have included that in the presentation tonight if you take a look at that form you will notice that request it states that the crests have to be in 60 days prior that the employee must fill it out and sign it and then they must take that to their supervisor and their supervisor must approve it again it has all those qualifications that i outlined earlier and they must sign off on those that form then after their supervisor signs off on that comes to myself i verify that all that is true and then i um sign that form and allow them to go into phased retirement and seek employee with employment with esi bullet 2 there the district attempts whenever possible to place esi employees in the employee's most recent district position we try to do that all placements are subject to availability obviously and our discretion our current practice for returning from phase retirement program so at the conclusion of 12 months of phased retirement the district currently places employees at its discretion and subject to availability uh following all our district policies and procedures those policy and procedures obviously are staffing policy and procedures there has to be an open position there and all that so after turn returning from phase retirement employees are considered new hires and that's an important piece with that tonight we're recommending um actually there was two on here in looking at one of the recommendations and seeking more advice and talking to our attorney who is here tonight one of the options may not be viable but we can discuss that but we are recommending adding an additional step to the phase retirement process of one of the following and i mentioned the first one was entering uh interviewing before entering phased retirement with esi again there has been some concern about that and we can answer any questions with that or interviewing from returning once an employee returns actually an employee of esi they are not an employee at this district at that time their employee of esi and they're wanting to return as a regular employee to dysart that we would institute an interview at that time so with that that's a quick discussion of our phase retirement program and an overview of the process i'll be glad to answer any questions or take a recommendation from the governing board i guess i would like to i know um dr koto i talked to you about this item and during a gender review i talked to dr kellis about it and i was i you know notified this evening that there was a problem possibly legally with it so that could change everything so if i could just get an update on what the specific issue is that would help me better understand what the options are or so um adam president could i ask jennifer to come up yes thank you good evening madam president dr carter members of the governing board so the the concern with respect to interviewing to go into an esi position is that once an employee chooses to retire with the district you don't have control over whether they then choose to go work for esi so you have some screening issues but you are not the employer so there you would be interviewing somebody who would then no longer be employed directly with dysart the only thing that you have control over is your agreement with esi to obtain services for whatever the position is administrative teaching classified you have that option to continue to receive the services from esi or not but i do have concerns about you interviewing because you wouldn't be the one hiring esi would be so that's my worry okay so the employee would already be an esi employee the former employee the retiree would already be an esi employee um at what point at the point that they choose because you've elected to use the services of esi when that employee makes the decision to retire if they're in good standing according to the criteria that dr croto laid out they have good evaluations they have an improvement plan they have the recommendation of their supervisor the district if they were going to implement an interview process at that stage i'm not quite sure what you would have them be interviewing for because it's not for their existing position they are choosing to go through retirement and to go work for the third-party contractor okay so what usually happens in dysart is people stay in their same position so that they're actually and that's why dr cody you had mentioned during your presentation that there's you know if a position was available or there's no guarantee we'd try to get them back in that position but i'm wondering how often that happens because it seems like people kind of announced that there it's more like a personnel or hr type transaction where it's just their phased retirement but they're still in their same position and we're just no longer their employer it's esi so um i didn't realize that there was that they ever really truly left that position to where it may not be available if they came back unless i misunderstood that part madam president currently that does not happen at all because of the vast amount of positions we have and the availability of positions it could possibly happen in a situation where we had to cut positions or reduce positions in the future but i don't foresee that in the labor market right now but it could be in there and that's why that statement was built in there many years ago probably we were in those situations where um employment sometimes reduced we had a riff in the district or things like that okay i see and i understand um what you're saying as far as if if the person is already an employee of esi then obviously there wouldn't they've already been hired by the company so i understand that piece of it so thanks for explaining it that way then maybe we call it or you help me uh formulate a possible solution to what what kind of brought this to my level of concern for me it's just more of a safeguard for our district and our students we always pride ourselves in dysart to make sure we have the most highly qualified staff and usually you know when someone is retiring it's typically when they've decided to stop working cut back on work have some other specific reasons for retirement whatever the reason is that i just feel like we still need to do our due diligence to make sure that the retiree is still the most highly qualified person for the job i also want to make sure that the practice doesn't cause any negative impact to maybe some other employees that we have here or make them feel like they're not eligible to be considered for a promotion because that position is always held held by the retiree as far as maybe denying career advancement for someone else if there is a concern with is that still is that person still whatever the retirement needs or plans or whatever would maybe make them no longer the best fit but mainly just creating that equal opportunity because we've had other employees that are currently in a position and then if the jobs reclassified to what would be considered a promotion we've had those current employees that have that job actually apply under the premise of we want to make sure we have the most highly qualified person in there so um i know in the past in some of our discussions there's we've had an interview piece at some point in this process in the past so how is that how was that conducted then madam president previously before i arrived here i understand in researching this that there was an interview component at the at the return of the esi employee so as they go on to esi they're no longer our employees if they're wishing to return from esi to a district employee at that time they must be interviewed for that position so that that time the position would be posted we would have an interview process whatever that looks like for those positions and if they were the best candidate at that time then they would be selected to come back and they come in as brand new hires and they are now a district employee and treated as such so then perhaps could it be a possible scenario where um you know because they're not because they're an employee of another company and in the beginning then we maybe change our process our screening we call it maybe something else like a screening or rather than just have that form maybe there's a little more conversation or review with that person um to make sure that we're kind of still getting that sense that okay we still believe this person even though they're retiring we still believe this person is the is best able to meet the needs of our students and um eligible or meets the minimum requirements whatever almost highly qualified in the beginning and just call it something different it's more of a screening then or it's more of a more intense um more than just a single piece of paper that is just a check box and then have that going back to our previous practice of having a re-entry interview when they are applying because technically if they left our district anyway to go somewhere else they'd have to apply to that district too because that district's going to want to make sure that and and like we had discussions nine times out of ten this person has proven themselves in our district they've got um you know years of experience but they have years of dysart experience probably they're going to be the best qualified i just feel like we there's a lot there's a lot of people that maybe want to have an opportunity to maybe be considered or um or maybe like i said maybe there's some people because everyone talks about double dipping and oh i'm going to double dip i don't i know it's about money i know it i mean i'm a person that has to pay bills too i get that but i want to make sure it's not just about well i want to double dip and i want to continue to that's why i want to do this i want to make sure that that person is not truly in the retirement realm of i don't want to work anymore i'm just double dipping i want to make sure it's the right person that still has those great ideas those that are getting those go-getters that are going to do right by our students and make sure we again have the most highly qualified person so that was my purpose not to not have esi anymore anything like that i just again i'm always looking to see how we can improve our processes and do what's best for kids and for our employees who are looking for promotional opportunities that may never be available as long as we just allow the same person to stay in a position like forever man present one thing i want to add to that too is and miss mclennan can correct me if i'm mistaken but when you go on esi too you just need a certain amount of notice for that position if you're not working out so it's not the same evaluation process if we do not think you're performing correctly we give a notice and we're allowed to quit our employment with that person vice versa they can leave too as we have people under contract now they can choose to leave or we can choose to terminate employee employee relations if something goes wrong it doesn't we don't have to wait that year okay it's good to know i mean but um ideally we don't want people leaving mid-year or because if that impacts a classroom or someone's team or department you know ideally they'll they'll work out and they'll you know correct madam president if i may make just two quick points one is that when an individual retires not only is during that year that they're providing services via the third party contractor are that that relationship is easily severable as dr croteau noted but secondly that individual when they return to the district not only are they considered a new hire but if they're certificated they've given up their rights to have a hearing upon dismissal to be entitled to a contract for year to year which is why dr croto alluded to in years past they were the first layer of employees who were subject to a reduction in force because by retiring by state law they've given up their due process provisions as an employee of the district so some of the concerns that you're raising regarding are they the best fit could be addressed either during their phase and the esi process or during their return to work either through an interview or through subsequent evaluation to if you front load it so that you are trying to screen out individuals that may not be the best fit for the district when they retire for esi then you're not applying that benefit uniformly to all your staff and that would create more risk because we would have to well ideally though um we they all everybody has an evaluation every year correct so if if if they're so if and maybe i'm assuming but the nuances of what you're saying is that the individual might not be the best fit but surely they've been performing to a satisfactory level or they won't get to the point where they could apply for esi or apply for phased retirement because one of your criteria was that you weren't on an improvement plan right oh by getting the um approval of the supervisor right correct another another you know another another and i understand to your point that's those may be easy criteria to make they still might not be the best fit but my point is that trying to evaluate at least on the back end if you're doing an interview process you would have that is a as you've demonstrated tonight with the assistant principles and the principles you've hired that's a betting right and you have documentation as to why the person was not chosen so that's why it's less risky okay so to miss uh pritchard's point um and that brought up a question for me who reviews the esi employee esi over the ssi employee they and they discipline their own employees they need that right and they they evaluate they move them out so are we privy to those evaluations and reviews your you can give input and that's part of the esi contract the district administrator that your district administrator would crack madame president if i could just add a clarification to that answer that that is true except for the case of the superintendent and the governing board is the evaluator so how do they evaluate though how do they how do they know anything about that employee's performance to evaluate them if they're not um observing them in the classroom or really interacting with them daily so in the in the contract that you signed with esi it has a provision that they would take input from the administrators who work for those individuals i don't know a great deal about what their evaluation process is i have worked with esi in districts when they have to remove employees of esi because of unprofessional conduct and that operates just like it does in the district except within easier due process because they don't they're prep companies so they don't have to provide hearings and whatnot dr crudo is there a way that um are there just hearing this discussion do you have any thoughts of how there could be a potential revision to your form that won't cross the line of what our attorney is advising but be a little bit more than just a quick check box and like yeah go ahead we're you know it's fine just a little bit more accountability there and you don't have to can it be done yes i can work in conjunction with um jennifer to do that yes to add more to the form okay and then as we're speaking the form which is one really quick question too um the the let me let me just pull it up it's the last i think one of the last bullets okay so they're signing off saying you approve this employee's participation phase retirement at your school cider department and their return to dysart employment at the conclusion of 12 months of phased retirement i'm a little uncomfortable with that because you're basically signing saying that they can come back that you're proving them to come back when we don't know what's going to happen during that 12-month time madam president that is our current practice so um if they're they're permitted to come back or they're in good standing they have good evaluations during that 12 month they're permitted to automatically come back without the interview that's our current practice so if we would like to change that tonight the board can certainly do so and not hearing from the rest of the board yet i guess just to conclude my thought i would prefer to have the returning interview taking that last sentence out and then just curious as to what dr croto you you and possibly with in conjunction with the attorney can come up with in regard to a more um formal a way to have some more accountability into this agreement i guess you want to call it in the beginning certainly i thought but definitely what are the thoughts of the rest of the board on esi and faced retirement i i agree that the forum needs to be just altered or modified slightly to to include an expectation that there would be a process to return to dysart as a as an employee of dysart i i don't want that to just be to miss pritchard's point just an assumed thing um i mean i don't i don't know whether it should be an interview but it should certainly be a process um and i i assume that there is already a process i mean as far as would you because they're not an employee of dicer you still go through a background check and make sure their certificate's good you do all those normal new higher things right and president a member dance more that is correct okay um so is this something that we should wait on until i think they actually get together in order to figure out something for that last bullet unless um i mean i would be fine with that unless the board had objection to what i would prefer administration do yeah i mean if people are okay with saying let's see how we can add a little bit more to our form and then have them reapply at the end of that period um then i'm good with waiting to see what they bring back but if someone isn't comfortable with that then i guess we you know we wouldn't be able to do that you said something that just triggered a question and it just went out um can i speak then that's why you're thinking about it well i'm thinking it was something she just said go ahead um double dipping is not a bad word um people when they reach their retirement age because there are some people that start in the district at the age of 21 and in their mid 50s they now have 30 years of experience and that's the magic number 30 years and they can retire so what and it's state law i mean this is a benefit because we were having i mean especially like with the shortage of teachers this allows a teacher to retire and come back so it's a benefit for the district and it's a benefit for the employee we even have people that probably tripled it because they were in the military that but you're you're illustrating my point perfectly in that this those are adult benefits i want to make sure our students benefit i think a student benefits to having a highly qualified experienced person perfect yeah then we're talking the same language yes we are if they're if they're inexperienced then and great that's what we're looking for but i don't want it to be i want to make sure that the person that's in that position is continuing to be the the best qualified and to serve our students the way the expectation was and at the same um the same and the same dedication determination whatever that they had initially really better because they've had all this experience now so what's the difference then with that same scenario that you just gave what's the difference of an employee who does not opt to go on esi that has we'll say 35 years of experience what's the difference do they still have the same uh enthusiasm to come i mean it's the same thing whether they're on esi or not you still want them to come to work and want to be there um you just the same thing because people that go on esi are leaving our district and going on with a third party company and then they'd have the choice to come back as a new employee to dysart that's what the difference is the other one and your other example is a continuing employee yeah but you still want them to have that same dedication so if i have 35 or 40 years of experience they you still want them to be dedicated to the district i do and if they're not then they'll be written out if i may same thing that i'm saying with this i want to make sure that people are here because they're going to do right by kids and they're going to be the best the highly qualified person double no one said double dipping was a bad word all i'm saying is those are adult issues and i want to focus on student issues which is making sure we have the best qualified person and that is some people retire from different reasons some people want to retire to cut back some people want to travel maybe not be here as often i mean there's a lot of different reasons and i want to make sure and because we deny other employees that we have in certain positions to just move into positions because they're already doing it we have them reapply because it's considered a promotional opportunity then to be consistent and fair to everybody then i think this is aligned with that and so when this person comes off of esi and is coming back as a dysart employee then just like to provide equal opportunity to anyone else who may want that promotional opportunity whether it be within dysart or otherwise they should interview i don't have a problem with them interviewing that's the only thing i'm talking about miss grant okay i don't have a problem with them interviewing but you did make a comment earlier about people retiring and for reasons if i'm going to retire i'm not and want to travel i'm not going to go on esi i'm going to go travel or i'm going to enjoy i'm going to enjoy my retirement but um anyway that's that's fine well i would like to add that there is a difference um because ms grant you're asking about that employee who's continuously being employed for 30 years not retiring just staying on with their job there's this little thing called tenure and arizona doesn't technically practice it like other states but unless that 30-year employee is evaluated out by their administrator then they can just kind of skate by and they can kind of coast in and out but i think what miss pritchard the difference between these scenarios is they are hey i'm retiring i'm leaving and then they want to come back and interview so that is the difference between those two scenarios i understand but i think that for the initial part it would be very difficult because and i'm not sure how it would work because let's say i've signed my contract i've started my job and then in november i now have my 30 years and my points and all of that now i want to ask for phased retirement so they're going to go on to phase retirement in the middle of they can do that right in the middle of their contract so that would be hard to sorry i thought you were finished interview for how often does that happen when they request to go on esi in the middle of a contract or i mean in the middle of a school year that does happen madam president member densmore um a lot or is it when that was currently we have 15 employees uh working for esi in our district currently um so we're talking about 15 we may have 20 total actually that's misinformation we have 11 we have four more who have already applied for 22-23 so we currently have 11 employees of those you have five uh that are on different dates so six or not five are on different dates they're going to be carried over into 22-23 so somebody can retire september 14th i mean i'm just all depends on your status although it depends on the status well in the personnel report it's always talking about today's retirement there's always several yeah i like the idea of having an interview after returning from phased retirement i like that other piece because even though they're probably the best candidate it's just that check-in not only for [Music] the teacher but also for the administrator to just kind of say hey howard how are you doing how is this program working it's just that check-in point and then if there are any red flags then we can address those madam president that can be done very easily if a motion if the board wants to make that motion and add that piece that would be great and i can add accountability to the form that would be very easily done so i'll make a motion the board direct administration to revise the current form to include more accountability in the process and also add a returning re-entry interview prior to becoming a dysart employee second motion made by christine pritchard segmented by dawn dunsmore before we go further is um are we still going to get legal advice on this or not yeah okay just want to make sure i want to make sure our ducks are in a row thank you we will i will have her help with that thank you very much i will send the form to her for her opinion okay did you say motion to direct administration to update the face retirement request form and add an interview step to the selection process for positions vacated by your entire employees yeah and you're clear on you didn't mention the accountability piece but you're clear on what the revisions need to include okay for returning yeah discussed or returning hires no we're having that we're changing the form to include more accountability okay and then yes the interview pieces for the re-entry it's kind of like a heads up thank you okay yeah like motion carries next we move to information item information action discussion item five discussion and possible action to address google mail integrity dr kellis thank you madam president members of the board and members of cabinet dr polling will introduce this item good evening madam president members of the board and cabinet um there's a situation last week where a parent's uh email address had been flagged by google so we're not receiving and the board was not receiving their emails so i had asked our chief information officer diane howard to investigate to see what the issue is and she would like to make a report on google's process for for filtering emails so sorry good evening madam president governing board um did you want me to talk about the specific or just how quarantine works in general all of it okay so all email services like google microsoft yahoo they have security features to help prevent spam data loss and to protect confidential information this is built into email services based off of their own algorithms and their or rules their own rules we can also create our own rules for dysart to protect our staff and students based on our needs so we are we need to remain sipa compliant that's the children's internet protection act and one of their requirements is to ensure the safety and security of miners when using electronic mail so quarantine which is what happened to this specific email is a temporary holding area for any emails that are flagged as a security concern so that's either flagged by in this case google before it even gets to us or once it gets to us and we have rules in place you know we don't want certain information coming in especially if it's a threat or it's a threat to our cyber security so if an email address has been flagged by the email service it could be based off of prior activity or a reputation of that actual email address it'll go into quarantine if the email looks suspicious or has suspicious content or has been reported as threatening by others meaning the email address the sender and it'll also go into quarantine so once it's in quarantine it can be released and the sender's address can be flagged as acceptable in the future so that that email can come through again but it does go into quarantine as a safety matter and that's basically what happened last week we there are only a handful of it staff members that can access quarantine and we only access it upon request if somebody says hey i'm expecting this email maybe you know i talked to the sender they said they sent it i never got it we can go into the quarantine to see if it's sitting there for some reason uh it'll also list why it went to quarantine um if they thought it was spam or if it had been flagged by google and again we can uh go ahead and we call it whitelisting it so that the next time they send it it can come through is there any i mean that's basically how it works we do receive about 60 000 emails for staff a day about 20 000 of them go into our quarantine as spam it is a protection our filter it protects us from cyber security issues or phishing emails or spams there's a lot of them sitting in there they'll sit in there for 30 days and then they'll go away thank you is anything more specific that i'm sorry did you say that you were getting about 60 000.

so there's been a lot of changes policy wise legislative wise school systems wise since 2016. so that's far too long to go without reviewing the process and so the goal is to update for the 2022-23 school year that will address the changes that have taken place since the last review and bring them forward for next year all right so the timeline of the process so we've decided that the fourth quarter would be the appropriate time to begin the process to review that would give us enough data and enough uh information to analyze trends that have taken place throughout the year so that we can be as fresh and as current as we can with the information through the committee and then that process will begin in the fourth quarter every year annually moving forward so the goal again is to have this review process that stays consistent and we've begun the process now just prior to the start of the fourth quarter to be able to bring back the completed code of conduct review to the governing board in june for approval so then it would go live essentially july 1st for the upcoming school year the goal then is after the code of conduct is is situated that we would go forward with training and development for the administrative teams and then ultimately work together to create a process that informs our parents and our student groups and then goes over the key points of the code of conduct and the changes that have taken place moving forward with our community there's also an acknowledgement process that we've instituted this year that allows the code of conduct to be digitally shared and then acknowledged by both students and parents through through synergy every single year through parent view and through student view so we've selected a committee to review the code of conduct process for this year it's comprised of representatives from various levels of schools in the district office i lead the committee our new our newly on incoming assistant director of counseling services will also be part of this committee once they come on board secondary deans of students and then select elementary school assistant principals from both the north and south sides of the school district as well as our student information manager as part of the process let me jump in i think one of the important things is when we when we got ready to look and say where are we at this hasn't been looked at since 2016 and brought forward so we need to have a clear understanding of what's happening internally with us to make sure we're looking at that so when we sat down james and i sat down and said how who do we need to have in the room right now we wanted to bring the people who are dealing with it currently right who are living this and so you know when you're dean of students a lot of times one of your roles is you get to be heavily involved in discipline and student behavior and so that's why we felt like they were really appropriate to come down and be a part of this process as well as we said select elementary if we got committee too big we didn't want it to be too big so we needed to be concise and so we've invited some different people from there so really the idea is we have the people who are working with it right now to be a part of this process and look at it to be able to bring it forward and look with you moving through that and so we're excited really excited for the assistant director of counseling services once they get to jump on board to join this under james's leadership and and lead through that and i know that he's already started that committee work and examining data and he'll talk a little bit more of that as we go forward [Applause] so the committee tasks what we're going to start doing is annually examine trends with data and where there is consistency and inconsistencies within the code of conduct so we began this process this year by pulling five-year data analysis looking at student discipline data for the last five school years this year aligns really well with 2019 school year because it's almost the same exact point in time where that school year essentially went virtual and pretty much discipline ceased at that point as the entire school was virtual and then last year's data is going to be too much inconsistent to focus on so we want to go back a couple years prior and then every year moving forward find that those those data points to be able to look for trends and have discussions about what's happening and how can the code of conduct be improved based on what type of data is currently presented we're going to be reviewing code of conducts from peer districts as a comparison for best practices and what's happening in our prayer school districts and then we're also working with the trust and our legal team to make sure the code of conduct aligns with um state laws and and policy in general so one of the parts of this process this year is our entire 2122 code of conduct has been submitted to the legal for review and they're actively reviewing our code of conduct right now to find any type of discrepancy and make sure it's in compliance legally and then they'll also there'll be representatives from our legal team that's going to actually sit in the process and be able to field questions and participate in the process as we review moving forward as well so the plan for the code of conduct review moving forward we have our members have been selected and an introduction meeting has occurred to begin with to outline the process and additional meetings will be planned throughout the fourth quarter um there'll be a presentation at the june 8th governing board meeting for the finalized 2022-23 code of conduct and then when we return back in in july either at the retreat or part of back to school there'll be some administrative training to then work to identify key elements that will be shared with students and parents to begin the school year so we're also working the committee is also working not only to review the process but also to be better equipped to have a site process to work with our students to go over what the expectations are so we want the code of conduct to really be a tool that's informative not a tool that's punitive and so to be able to have that process how to best share with our students so they understand what their expectations are to navigate the school year i'm working with with brian in student information management brian campbell to be able to ensure that the process in place is still continuing for acknowledgement and information and making sure that that's tweaked and that's that's up and ready to go once the conduct is live and then our parents are accepting acknowledging um online as well so the goal is to have uh intentional process in place that we're actually actively reviewing this process and it continues to cover all the needs to knows of the process so we can best inform our students our our families our parents our teachers and our admin teams on an annual basis real quick i think that communication piece is really important so as we go through it and we look and examine and say what has changed what's happened and and when james's team is putting this together so when you think about communication you think about with our administrators directly who it's going to affect and that's what's coming back at the at the beginning of the school year whether it's at the administrative retreat or it's a separate meeting but communicating prior to the start of school year here's what our expectations are and here's what the new changes and anything that's happened with the code of conduct but then when you switch gears you have to inform parents and you have to inform are the students as well and so that's the other task that james alluded to like how are we truly going to inform and get people informed and then have the acknowledgement that they have seen it that's what's really important to us and so i know in the past it could be more site-specific where we're going to do a video or perhaps we have teachers read within the classrooms or there's checkup sheets we want to streamline that process to allow more consistency so that the experience that's happening in one school is going to be very similar to the experience having at another school because this is very important things and it doesn't become important until it there's an issue and then it becomes affordable we've got to make sure that people are informed ahead of time as we go through it you know i i think when you take a look at examining that it's five years of data that they're already looking at this is going to allow us to see trends and consistency and allow us to ask those questions what needs to be changed what needs to be informed how can we make sure that we're doing the best things to help our students right because ultimately that's what this code of conduct is is these are the expectations for what's happening and then not necessarily consequences but this is what's going to happen should we need to address or issue concerns and remember when you look at a code of conduct it's not if this happens then specifically this happens we have ranges and we have we have uh oh ideas and overarching themes that we can do that had principles and leaders on campus have that ability then to impact and help our our school stay safe and secure throughout the time and so i you know when we take a look at this process once again we're trying to be intentional and and i i started by saying it got kind of coarse guy to me i see it as two balances i got coarse guy coming through in the fall and then we got code of conduct coming through in the spring and we just want to continue that cycle of having consistent oversight and review president caleb members of the board going back to one of your strategic initiatives this year was processes and procedures without a process and procedures these things as you heard and i mean legislation changes and that has implication for our practices and our policies this being an annual process at this time is going to be important so with the review of the legal team to make sure anything that changes our code of conduct is legal compliant and then any policies that need to be updated and changed or done all at the same time so there's there is a tedious task to this that is an essential component and should be an annual process which is what we're sharing with you is happening and hence there's been a few years of cleanup that need to occur and thus that's why the composition as it is but the key component is also looking at our own data to see um what where and if there are specific areas that we need to address in other ways thank you dr foley thank you gentlemen i do have a couple questions um first of all mr walker i know you've been busy getting us up to date and compliant so thank you for your hard work you've been a complete asset here at the district office so again thank you because i know you're working hard and there's not enough time in the day to do all that you're doing um do we have a guesstimate when our director of counseling may or may not join our are we getting closer to that position i i haven't heard anything so i'm vice president kayla members of the board um this search committee just finished at the end of last week so now it's a matter of analyzing um salary data et cetera and human resources to follow up with the call and determine when the availability for that individual will be okay okay that's good because the sooner that they get on board with this process the better i would um guess and then i'm with you mr bit mr watson heiser i'm sorry you should have never told me your other name it's so important that we read this document as parents and i know that many of us got into the habit of check mark right so however you do talk with mr brian over there in students how we can get the document to everybody so that they do have to read it it's i mean it's easy to just kind of check the mark and sign your name but maybe it's that you know you can't move to the next page till i don't know i i'm not the i'm not the technology guru but i agree with you whether it is videos in the classrooms on the first days of school however that goes out because i know right now it's kind of we'll use the word squishy because it gets signed but i'm not sure that it's being completely read so i'm i'm with you on that communication i appreciate that president kaler i am excited to actually see the technology portion of this and the dress code portion be updated i've heard from our community a lot that those places are a little i think i'll use mrs koehler's word squishy and so i'm excited to see what you guys come back with um i also agree with mrs kaler uh an easier way for parents to read it would be better because as a parent you know we get the little thing on parent view it's an easy check i'm assuming most of us are not going to the district website and searching for the code of conduct and actually going through and reading it so i do i'm excited to see how that will be pushed as well so thank you for all the work that you guys both do i'm impressed president kayla thank you i just have a question um are there any unique um experiences that uh will be added for the online school like do they get their own code of conduct or is there stuff incorporated in this code of conduct since it's it's a unique circumstance they don't quite have the same experience uh that's a great one because it is very unique right and looking at it and so when we take a look first of all because they're one of our students it's going to have to be consistent with everyone so it's not going to be something separate however i think that we have to be able to explain more expectations about what happens with our online so i don't know if that will be specific in the entire general one but i know that's something that i've worked and mr dolan is very heavily involved in that and how we can communicate what the expectations are more specifically about the online students so don't know yet if it's going to be combined but for sure they have to have everything whether they're in person or not but then additional things just i want to say behaviors and and common courtesies and different things like that for the online students and that's something we've worked with mr dolan on really good question mrs anderson and you know you don't listen to mom there's consequence right at home um at this at the same time that we get code of conduct we also get the bus transportation document usually and we also get the um if you want your picture or not picture are those being looked at at all at the same time or those just those are golden because i'm pretty sure we haven't revamped any of that wording either since 2016.

so that is exempted for the 22 fiscal year that was very clearly stated in the in the bill that it was just for the 22 fiscal year so that does have some benefit to us and i'll go over that in a second um some of the other highlights that all uh you'll see in our budget revision include a 2.2 increase in average rate of the membership again we budget flat typically as a contingency and so any growth that we realize is additional capacity towards the budget and then um as noted previously the 2021 bond failed to pass so we were reversing our plans to reduce the m o to capital transfer in terms of we started to phase it down and try to move more money back into them in a budget but unfortunately we're gonna have to go back to the full 4.4 million dollar transfer from mno to support the lease payment so this is an estimated emino budget revision that we'll bring back legally in may as noted we adopt a budget in june uh 2021 for the fiscal year that budget was 106 million um that budget did include a carryover of 16.4 million we are looking at a revised uh budget we call it jbl general budget limit of an anticipated 110 million that revision takes into uh consideration the adm growth that i just mentioned and it also takes into consideration the exemption to the aggregate expenditure limit so we can fully budget without any cuts to our budget this year so that difference there the adopted versus the revised is roughly 3.3 million dollars and since we haven't utilized any of that increased capacity in this current year you'll see how that plays into effect and how we can utilize that in our 23 budget so looking at our 2023 budget highlights again we're anticipating no additional covered relief grant funding i will note we have previously budgeted a fiscal year 23 retention stipend in the amount of 1500 um that stipend has some restrictions on it in terms of qualification it will be probated on fte it is subject to taxes it is compensation it does have um an additional requirement to work all the way through august 31st in order for that to be paid out in september so more information on that will be will be coming to our employees but that is in the budget as i mentioned earlier the the aggregate expansion limit while it just went away it is also in our rear view mirror uh for 2023 the bill only exempted 2022 however early we i don't have the numbers on me but the early numbers indicate that we will again exceed the limit in 23.

i want to say that's a projected rate it is not the published or public brief um as from the connecticut state department of education so um that is our projected rate um so from 80.9 to 82.5 we see a steady slight increase there are areas where we are certainly digging more deeply um we saw kind of a leveling back to the 1819 for our black and african american students in 1819 at 78.5 during the year of the pandemic we saw an increase um in in that number and then we are now back down to 80.3 in general for 1718 to 2021 the hispanic latino numbers have increased steadily and then we also saw a dick in 1920 for english language learners and that's back up to about 59 um and then our high needs number has increased steadily over time so certainly we are looking very deeply down to the student of how students are earning credits and moving towards staying on track for graduation that's done from both the district level and the school level okay this is more specifically to jamboree high school so um the other numbers would include ace um these numbers since it's our largest high school the numbers are very volatile at least because the class is so low the class enrollment so um it's very hard even to say from one year to the next we're looking at a class of 25 students of what that would look like so more specifically a different high school you can look in larger subgroups and in case it's a little more challenging to do that and just really look very specifically at each student um at jamboree high school all students in general have been decree have been increasing um in 2021 our projected rate is about 84.6 that's a change 2.3 change from last year um areas reflected by denver high school and our district numbers are also black and african american populations and then the increase in ell and also the hispanic and latino students we've also seen an increase in the eligible for free lunch and reduced lunch as well as overall high needs with a slight decrease in special education students and just to be helpful so you can have like a kind of an idea of what that means for how many students that's what the cohort count is okay so of the students that were in the cohort of when they when they entered as a freshman these are the percent of the students that graduated that makes sense so this is our trend data and this is what we've kind of been looking more specifically at when we look at all students as well as the subgroups that we really are dig deeper into we've seen a similar trend over time there are places where you see some fluctuations of our students that have like in a lower enrollment count and so those numbers can be more volatile with the outcomes so we can see a quick change if 10 students might shift right so but in in overall the trend data looks very similar so i thought this graph was really helpful to see that like there although there are some changes and we are increasing overall we are the movement of the subgroups is similar so another piece that's really helpful for us to look at specifically for the fact that we do have english language learners entering at the high school and specifically at the ninth grade level is how do students do um first six year cohorts so meaning if they need more time with us if they stay retained after their um their twelfth grade or or they didn't like they got off track in in one of the other years and didn't earn enough credits to be promoted um what does it look like after six years and these are numbers that can help you see that the students in the high needs we are increasing their six-year graduation rate over time but also it's much higher than if we just looked at um the the the four year and of course that includes our english language learner population students with disabilities um as well as the free and reduced lunch population so early college opportunities at dps that's typically a part of the accountability system um so it's called college and career readiness and they look at the percent of students at jabra high school and ace that are enrolled in both ap early college opportunities our deco program and certain cte courses that ready students for career so we do get credit for these um pieces and that there are these courses in um in the accountability index and it's also a good measure of the rigor of um our curriculum so an overall um total kind of table for you and this should be familiar to some folks that we look at this over time enrollment ap means not the number of students but the number of students in courses so i could be there's um 868 seats in each section but i could be enrolled in three courses okay a number of av classes offered 23 and you'll see that but it means that additional sections are offered of one course and then the total ap students that's the actual amount of students that are taking ap courses in addition that's out of the total dhs students so this year in particular we were a bit down far at 14.5 um you know we are looking deeply at like who decided and felt ready to take possibly an ap course after the pandemic what are the other factors that could have been associated with the lower enrollment that we're seeing this year so that's been a discussion um students and increasing that diversity of students enrolled in these courses over time and working towards that the percent of students getting a three or above is the last um column of this table and uh that is typically where like would be considered a proficient level okay so would a college accept that it depends on the college um typically so we did see a decrease in 2021 at 40 but a little more in line with where we were at 47 percent in 1819 in 1920 it's really um important to note that during that first year where everything was closed that was an online um remote test taken at home so there was it was a completely different task that was administered um than in the past so um and then there were also some students who had a lot of difficulty and this was a vast issue um around the technology associated with it so even of the testers a lot of students were not able to finish right so that was so that was an issue that that many folks have seen so it was difficult they were trying their best to really give opportunity to folks but so they're you're going to see a swing in those numbers obviously 21 and 22 would be reported out after the spring so this is always something that people have asked to see it's a little bit it's a lot to look at so i know you've probably perused this already but um these are just the course names that are offered as ap courses um if you look at it from 2017 to 18 these numbers are going to mimic what just you saw what you saw in the last table but it also includes the number of sections so that means of these courses there are a certain number of sections that are also included um one thing we track as um it's probably the wrong words to use in that moment but not necessarily track but we really monitor is um the ethnicity of the students enrolled so and to try to ensure equity and access to all students does it mimic or it doesn't mirror the demographics of danbury high school in this case we see that in ap courses a higher level of enrollment of asian students compared to mountain goals overall in germany public schools about three percent less of black and african american students um about half of hispanic students multiracial is just one percentage point difference and a higher enrollment of white students compared to the overall enrollment at dhs so college credit courses as they relate to deco here is another table that will help you track the enrollment of these courses as well as sections um we have 338 enrollments as of this year these are a bit more in line with our demographics but but not completely um where uh asian students at nine percent black and african american at 14 hispanic higher than ap at 41 multi-racial at two and right at 36 compared to their overall enrollment 27.

um and query for you about remote meetings versus in person are we still allowed was it mid-april that um i think we're still allowed to do it yeah because i think there's actually some changes and kim can correct me to foi that allows us to do it anyway you don't need a pandemic in order to do them okay whether we decide we want to do it live or remote we can make the decisions we get closer to the date and to just figure out which way which way we think is better but i think we're allowed to do it either way okay so let's let's um tentatively schedule a zoom meeting then a virtual for the 16th the zoom definitely allows more people to watch what's going on they don't actually have to come to the meeting in order to to view it so there is that added benefit to doing it by zoom yeah okay great um a couple other dates to throw out there how to keep it civil on tuesday march 8th at 12 noon it's a virtual webinar hosted by ccm and cave it's free um and then our citywide pto meeting was moved from march 7th to march 14th and then there are some committee meetings that are scheduled in the google calendar during spring break i'm going to ask kara to reschedule those hopefully the week prior to spring break um and then minutes i just like to add ask that all members be hands-on when when we have our committee meetings um to take minutes so that doesn't fall on the same people over and over again um so if you'd like a template i have you know all sorts of templates from prior meetings that i can share if anyone needs um and that's basically it for me i will open the floor for any other board comments questions committee updates we have the superintendent evaluation committee on march 1st at 6 30.

i don't know if this is just i don't know what the issue is but i have to imagine that we have values that are not zero for graduation rate for all students and for your graduation rate for current llc and then on number 61 it says one answer does that like provide the elsewhere on the forum or what is the answer to universally foreign they do this report as well so they would put that information in you know a report like this if in our school we only have is it four children right or four kids that have um that don't have uh proficiency so we have what's called the esl program for them other places where the numbers are higher so for example if you have more than 20 children that um are like uh don't have the english language proficiency then you would have to establish a bilingual program but we're not there so usually those plans are a lot more expensive than our plan because we only have um four children and even if we have one we still have to have the plan for them uh but it's only an esl program any other questions on that anything else and uh uh human resources um joe the committee reviewed the agenda and i did not need to meet with the administration regarding anything joined by mrs jones myself chairman and his director and dr dambrosio and ms carlson and this charity joint from the administration um prepare to try to keep these regularly scheduled try to keep our calendars here thursday prior to our meeting we talked about past business we have been waiting for ms adams to provide guidance on policy 5751 which should be our second reading don uh we have two c ones i think um we can make that c2 agenda this is a pretty complex policy about sexual harassment uh of students and one of the questions that adam's helped us answer was we had to choose a burden of proof and um you're going with a clear [Music] the evidence means it's more likely than not but whatever is alleged happening so um the title nine gives the district the option to choose either that standard would be applied the same to uh employee issues and student issues um and that basically means there's more evidence than the more likely that by the state thank you there is also a choice to nominate three roles and something cannot happen so there's an ultimate decision maker which means carlson then we have the title ix uh coordinator which will be mr savia and the investigator which will be mr savior okay let's do rolls going um those do require some significant training so just to be aware that there are some significant training to be able to take those roles we actually talked about the state of our policies um trying to get my head wrapped around our policies and understand you know where our foundation is as i shared in my report with the board we're looking to try to find a online hosting solution um that will give us updated the most accurate policies that we have right now um there's a little bit of a disjoint between what's publicly on our website and what we have printed and as we make all these changes and they're coming fast and curious from the state a lot of these mandated policies we want to make sure that we have the latest and greatest many school districts have adopted this a lot of towns have a municipal uh code search so if you want to look for what's our policy on on amazon or something in the curriculum it should be accessible in my opinion that you're able to go on and quickly search and find the policy that applies for that topic that's difficult to do right now what we do have online is a mixture of text machine readable pdfs and just scanned pdfs and you can't search them so it's very difficult so we've been looking at a number of different solutions from strauss esme from school boards and a couple of other providers um there there is some expense to this um we will have to we're asking for quotes from different platforms um but i think it's a worthwhile expense to make sure that we know what our policies are and we can update them in a timely manner and make sure that everybody understands both the board staff and the public we'll follow up on that later move on to new business there's a number of new policies which will be on the agenda in c1 um a lot of these are mandated and are not much to discuss policy 2460.30 is a policy that requires us to offer an additional year of special education services for students who turn 21 during the pandemic which they describe as 2020 to 2023 if the student's iep determines that they're required that that would be advised for that student policy 3233 this is a optional policy but we're going to make our policies that use the word of chosen freeholders and update that to be consistent with new jersey state law from two years ago where that phrase is now known as board of counting the final one and i have an update uh from miss adams um regards to bias crimes and bias related acts and trust estimate provided us with an opinion on this the issue is that there is a a state law exchange that removes this ultimately removes the discretion of the administration to report all bias acts to the police department which is in contradiction to the moa um jerry rather than trying to paraphrase this chief school administrator should notify the police department as well so uh it's technically conflict but i also think that um with the consultation with your police department about what they consider to be a biased act that they want to be known by because bias act is you know more motivated targeted behavior because of uh characteristic and depending on the age of the student the circumstances it may not mean that tomorrow for you but i think it's a good idea to have a consultation with your chief of police or somebody as to what they want to hear thank you so with that um that policy we buy up for our first reading tonight but we'll make sure that we do have that consultation with the chief police brielle um before putting it up for a second in the following meeting and that's my report thank you any questions thank you sean for the thorough report and i see that i handed the baton of policy over to the to the right person i've been doing policy for so many years um so thank you it was very thorough and oh sure we don't have their hosted policy um and so both if you're that service or school board service there's going to be a setup because the initial year right now we've got a mission um the numbers are related to the legislation i don't think school board different numbers yeah school board one looks quite good presentation we think that think sean we have the link on your report that we can just click on and see if if anyone wants to see the presentation um of one of the one of the services there's you could just go to sean's report and there's a link sean has a link to everything click on the link and then you'll see the president you'll see the presentation so but just on c1 i just wanted to say that uh receive one where it says converted bylaws we actually don't need that sean had on his report to um to discuss but we didn't convert anybody so i just wanted to we didn't make the one change which is the 1.5 correct we should be updating our committees to reflect the names no report this week currently in 10 minutes but i am not able to connect with him [Music] oh okay thank you uh today we had our kindergarten registration we've registered over 30 students today so i'm happy to record that friday we're doing our pre-k open house and uh we're also inviting them will be coming here to do an orientation for our eighth graders on friday on february 11th we celebrated the 100th day of school that means tomorrow there are 76 days left just we don't tell our uh we're talking about a lot of end of year planning like 8th grade class trip to gettysburg 5th grade dance uh activities for all like the booster club is talking about hosting faculty basketball games you may be aware of march 7th it's that's optional in school i know everyone's going to be happy about that short story i ran into a kindergartner a vlogs on vacation and i was in a beach cover-up but no mask in sunglasses and she says you're not my principal because i don't know your face made me feel pretty bad like you'll see it real soon i'm like just sneak it down so you know we're all excited about that we're a healthy very healthy building right now i think i've mentioned before the pto has already uh in advance has rented a tent for the month of june so all of our activities can be done outside [Music] we have a meeting before here on the 16th you know tell your friend to share with your friends the children are working very hard uh and as predicted um uh there are i guess 16 or 17 total teams in the mcal you might remember in the fall our voice um soccer team were champions they came here to a board meeting our girls soccer team lost in a penalty kick over time our field topic team were undefeated until the final championship game where they lost with one minute left to go this year our girls and our boys basketball teams have both yesterday and today qualified to be in the championship game to be played at hashtag high school 12 o'clock the girls game 130 boys game so we should feel very proud about that because um the other two schools are prime college achieve and saint catherine's own girls so we're very proud that both teams made it to the championship and our clubs are in full swing teachers are have submitted their clubs for the spring and our chess club everything that we're doing after school is really in the full plan we have a number of kids daily that are staying after school friends after school activities so we're very happy about that like i said march 7th is the day mr safety section 4.

yes and at this time visitors business visitors are permitted to comment on agenda and non-agenda items at this time and any discussion [Applause] discussion and then we have payment of bills sean would you like to pay the bills sure that we pay our bills most of the board authorizes payment for the following january 22 22 builds list and the secretary is authorized to draw warrants of the treasurer in a total amount of one million three hundred seventy eight thousand three hundred thirty three dollars and ninety four cents next time and so at this time next um is executive session and i guess i would read this of the open um meetings act the real world education shop conduct a closed executive session pursuant to the personnel legal exceptions prescribed by njsa 10 4 12 this session will be held after the board meeting is there going to be action um i don't think that there's going to be i don't believe so i'd like to make a motion to go into executive session there's no other choice [Music] but just imagine thank you everyone i don't know his name oh

uh andrea andriata capotoro special ed teacher at school number four uh we accepted her resolute her resignation i'm sorry effective april 12th uh bridget nunez who uh we accepted her resignation last meeting but she had asked me if we could up her leave date so we are recommending that we revise the resignation date and bridger will be leaving effective monday february 28th uh next is a transfer danielle murkovich who was who's been teaching grade three at school number four will be transferred to title one elementary school number four and grace cho the next resolution who's been teaching grade two filling in for maternity leave we'll be moving over to grade three uh march first when the maternity teacher who has been on leave returns very bottom of page five is just some transfers for salaries you know that we we receive nclb money uh funding so we are paying a portion of the salaries of the staff members listed through title one funds and if we skip over to page seven as i mentioned in the beginning of the night we are updating uh policy 1648.05 and 1648.11 excuse me which have to do with a revision in the mass mandate which will be that beginning march 7th mass will be optional across all schools and school offices so those are our policies that we had adopted very in the very beginning of the year that we are updating also our opening plan and our safe school plan which are posted to the website will also be updated and posted to the website by tomorrow uh showing that the masked mandate effective march 7th will be optional the other survey the other policies as i mentioned and regulations at our last meeting we're having the second reason reading and they are some minor changes in those mandated policies we do have a few uh hiv cases that have been investigated uh and they're listed on page eight and you know as per state law if a student a teacher or a parent recommends that there be an hiv investigation a bullying investigation we are bound by law and statute that we do a full investigation these resolutions show that we have had an investigation and there is an outcome also the second resolution on that page just calls for a staffing service on march 22nd originally that staff and service was going to be march 15th we have updated the school calendar to reflect march 22nd so that will be a half day for students full day for staff buildings and grounds we are approving facilities to be used by uh recreation for the most part uh and some of our uh senior events at the high school mr alfano anything in finance a couple eyes just roman gina just to give everyone an update on the upcoming 2223 budget uh the governor's address has been moved two weeks to march 8th which will give us our potentially our state either march 9th or march 10th the original deadline for submission to the county and the state was march 4th because the governor's address has been moved two weeks the deadline to submit to the county and state would be moved from march 4th to march 17th we are working on essentially four capital projects that we go out to open bid roof at number six our roof at the high school our high school office renovation and our high school stair tower door project all currently have state project numbers working with our architect and engineering firm continue to move that project those projects forward applications to the department of education are in progress we've got some equipment that we're going to also be looking to approve in our budget one is a 54 passenger bus a new scoreboard for the high school and potentially a new piece of facilities equipment uh potentially a new bobcat if the budget allows it we also have as everyone knows we run our buses 300 plus students most of them are special needs we have the dmv and dot bus inspection on march second and third there's our hope we can do it at angelwood and use their base and not have to use a number three score or potentially use mcagnus a lot glenn will know by friday again that's march 2nd and march 3rd i'll keep the board in the transportation committee apprised as you know obviously we want to minimize the number of potential failures or 30-day tags because if you take a bus off route and we can't use it obviously it impacts the students getting having the capability of getting there safely and on time i'll keep everyone posted glenn and his team has done a real good job over the last couple of years keeping our buses serviced and keeping them on the road one good neat thing that he does he actually brings one of our repair shops interstate on site those days and they do some minor repairs on site right in front of the d.o.t and dmv we don't have to take any buses offline which is a really neat idea on his part and then we had our last week we had our cusack monitoring from the state both on the fiscal and the facility side our direction it looks like we did a pretty good job but we haven't gotten any formal uh feedback yet we should be getting that in the coming weeks that's pretty much it mr romajino okay thank you very much uh any questions from the board on the consent agenda i have a question yes the nurse dr caitlin yes i'm just curious doctor is it a doctor or is it a nurse or is it she i believe it's a thank phd anyone else on the consent agenda any questions on the consent agenda from the public any questions okay motion to accept don't move is that mr there's mr capano yes who was the second i'll take it thank you i'd like to take a vote if i may uh mrs abreu yes mr capano yes mr freda mrs mrs freda my bad sorry about that lisa dr pompliana yes mr raincourt yeah mr russo yes mr shelley yes misty yanuzi yes so move mr roman gino so mr alfano i know we have an our next schedule the open meeting march 23rd that's tentative based on the budget correct we have to get i believe we may have to call a special meeting because i believe the public hearing window dates are march 25th through march 29th i'll get that confirmed so we have our work session on the 16th i'll have that all confirmed and then we'll decide when the next public meeting is going to be okay so they're feeling that 23rd meeting may have to be either adjusted or we have it and then we just have a special meeting specific to the budget itself okay so we'll publicize that yes okay yeah and i'll know all the specifics when we go back for our work session okay 16.

so i don't know i'm not trying to add more work to you but it might be just a quick peek to make sure that those two documents that usually come with code of conduct are looked at just a suggestion president koehler i believe technology is also a separate page on that is it is there three pages and then code of conduct okay go so governing board uh those components have also been submitted to the attorney to review also technology use agreements um the opt-in opt-out of the picture taking the back components of that those forms have also been submitted for review as well president kaler um just a quick suggestion i know we've gotten the code of conduct and synergy and parents could electronically sign when that first happened i know like as soon as you signed it or clicked on it after you've signed in and everything it was gone like you couldn't go back and find it so um i heard from several parents and part of that with mrs kaler's comment on sometimes there's repercussions of not getting these turned in by a certain timeline and sometimes the kids are on the parents like you have to log into your into your parent view and you have to acknowledge the parent handbook and so i got to do that i got to do it it's due tomorrow stuff like that so the parent does it but then they do want to go back and look at it and it was just gone you couldn't you couldn't go back and and look at something or something popped into your mind and you want to see it so as you're going through this with our technology group um if we can keep that in mind i don't know if it still stays there if or if it still disappears but i know it disappeared i heard from several parents that that was kind of frustrating because even they would want to go back and look at something which is a good thing so we want to make sure it's available and like mrs wilson said they're not going to go to our website and try and find it especially when they electronically signed it in synergy so if we can just keep that in mind as as you're working with them what happens to it is there a way to keep it there for some type of library for parents thank you i'm well done any other comments or questions thank you gentlemen appreciate you both next up we have the tyler moore show 8.2 good evening president kaler members of the board tonight i have the second review of the mno budget this does have the updated information that our legislators gracious graciously passed uh this past month can we all just say thank you thank you [Laughter] so that passage of that aggregate expansion limit is reflected in um this presentation tonight there we go uh so first just a reminder of our school district budget timeline what i'll presenting tonight is is to look at two budgets we're revising our 20 to adopted budget again we did not do a december revision it was not necessary for our district so we are holding off for that may revision and so that will be reflected tonight and we're also looking at our 23 budget which is adopted in june so our 22 budget highlights we've gone over this in the first presentation but we anticipate no additional covert relief funding that is completely exhausted and any funding that we still have has been budgeted we will have to come back to the governing board as outlined in the sr-3 plan every six months to present an update on how that spending is coming and that lands us right in the april timeline so we will bring an updated spending plan regarding uh what we've expended on kovid and how that's looking for the entirety of that grant the good news the aggregate expenditure limit like like i mentioned earlier has uh was overridden uh by legislature uh the senate passed hcr 2039 on president's day 2 21 21 by 23 to 6 to 1.

um so we've done a couple things we've held some additional contingency in this 2023 budget to potentially account for an ael reduction if we were to realize that and number two um again we are aware of it we we are aware this is a potential um and so we are being cognizant of how we are projecting and planning for fiscal 23. uh bullet point three there the asrs has reduced their contribution rates this is a benefit to our employees they'll realize a small increase in their take-home pay due to this reduction bullet point 4 again i mentioned this in the 22 revision but we are going back to funding the leases fully from our mno budget so we do that by a budget transfer we are legally allowed to do that it reduces our mno budget to allow for the increase through the capital budget because those leases legally have to be paid from the capital fund and then lastly higley medical insurance we're looking at moving to a self-insured plan some of the implications with that include budget savings to the operational budget we're estimating over 500 000 potentially up to a million dollars but then as we become self-insured those savings will then become contingencies if we realize a large loss so that is the plan for that we do also want to note that there will be while we're working to not make any changes um we do anticipate some changes to some of our voluntary coverages and potentially our plans but we do not anticipate any increases to those plans to be put on the employees um so two factors there no increase to the employee but there will be some changes that they'll have to accommodate so as we look at our 23 estimated mno budget projection we will look at the 22 budget estimated revised general budget limit as i mentioned earlier in the may revision is 110 million that takes into consideration the ael exemption as well as the adm increase in 2023 we are projecting a estimated jbl of 112 million this budget projection is largely based on the inflation that we were projecting to receive currently the projected inflation is 2 which is the maximum inflation in the funding formula even though the state has realized up to seven percent uh our state statute limits us to two percent um we have some contingencies planned in this 23 budget we are projecting no adm increase as we have in the past we do anticipate our district to continue to grow but at what levels we do not know and so on current year funding it is best practice to not account for those additional students um so we'll we will do that bullet point three assumes again the mno transfer so in this in this budget the 112 million we already are budgeting 4.4 million to be reduced from this and transferred to capital this also takes in consideration the small reduction in asrs it is a small increase to the budget and then bullet point five is very important that we we're estimating a budget balance carry forward of 22 million and we anticipate carrying that forward into 2023 as well um that again is to account for the potential of the aggregate expense limit to be enacted in 2023 and additional contingencies that we may be unforeseen for the district so we'll take the difference between the 2022 revised jbl and the 2023 projected jbl and that presents a difference of 2.7 million and if you recall the the may revision we will realize 3.3 million in budget capacity from the 22 revision so those together estimate a budget increase of over 6 million so how are we going to utilize that 6 million into 23 so we have some fixed increases that we've already identified that we're are going to incur in 23.

so we do see a better alignment with the demographics but not mirroring right so as we move into one of the i'm just how many more do i have um to say chronic absenteeism we've done a very good job in this district and we are typically over the state out or over getting accountability index higher than the state average and jamboree public schools um we monitor this extremely closely both at the school and district level kelly triochis is very involved with how the pps staff is following up with disengaged students chronic absenteeism is defined as an attendance rate or absence rate that is 10 or higher of your enroll dates so if you're enrolled only for one day or i'm sorry if you're rolled for say um two days and you're absent for one you're considered chronically absent right so it's a moving target um if you're enrolled for a hundred days and you're um absent from nine you're not proud of plans right so it's a moving target you don't have to be enrolled a certain number of days it goes by each individual student so in this case we've had an increase since the the pandemic certainly this year we're seeing high numbers as well but we left 2021 with 17.4 percent our high needs at 21.8 and our non-high needs at 7.7 um finally the post-secondary entrance trend data this is also an indicator that's used to really look at obviously college and career readiness for students as it relates to the percent of students that enroll in a two or four year college within one year after graduation okay so that would be considered the entrance percentage so we saw um we we saw a dip in 2019-20 but that's that is actually the graduating class of 2019-20 so that was during the closure and the state are the numbers below we also saw who also saw that dip compared to their 71.8 so um in general the persistence then is what we look at to say do they stay enrolled for a second year in post-secondary okay so this is something that is a study done that the connecticut state board of education engages in as a part of the national student clearinghouse and so we this data is public but we also receive a great study that really looks deeply at all the subgroups and and different components of their study so next steps it's a lot of data it's a lot to to think about and this is data we're looking at constantly as a part of a district data team as well as instruction instructional leadership teams across the district um and so what we really try to do is it's great to know all this stuff and then what do you do with this information right and how do you generate action steps associated with that so dr casamaro can speak of it to work thank you thank you for the preparation um just look at the board's knowledge and for every slide that you see here there's about 50 more slides back at central office that we work with care on to dig into data and trends um so we get down to root cause so when we do see something in the data that's either troubling or want to know why did we get so much growth you know did what we put into place um work wasn't effective do we replicate that and scale it or if we're not seeing the growth that we want to see um how do we change things up a little bit and alternate some of our interventions um so mr wallston's goals center on really improvement of tier one instruction but also closing the achieving gap which really speaks to kind of tier two tier three interventions and so um as kara mentioned we spend a lot of time doing data reviews but we also do something called instructional rounds and that's where small team administrators will travel into buildings to not just look at big slides but to cooperate that data with observational information um to kind of ground us what we're seeing in terms of instructional practice so we will be doing more of that as we kind of come out of the of this year some of that will result a little bit but just prior to the pandemic really digging into very deep data dives and matching those with constructional rounds to cooperate that information to help us develop strategic plans um so we're looking forward to really picking that work back up and gaining some more momentum on that in addition as you remember last year's budget that we increased some student support specialists um more intervention support into each of the elementary levels to help catch kids up earlier and quicker getting them back on track and so those positions are still in place so looking looking forward to maintaining those positions but also to really work closely with our teachers excuse me to improve their um their knowledge base we had professional learning communities started that's one thing that's very important to us they have that teacher professional learning time so that they too can dig into the same data to be able to change what it is that they're doing their practice to support kids in the best way and so we look to partner with them during those professional learning times and we're also working very hard with coaching in the district around psyop which is observational protocols and strategies that we put in place when working with second language learners which is a growing population in our district so all this stuff takes place over time multiple years um as you can see for the most part our data is incrementally growing we have some blips here and there that continue to work on um and i know he's really satisfied ever with what we see but we continue to dig in on that another point i'd like to make a little bit about some of the ap and the deco program um is that a lot of the opportunities we really pride ourselves on the high school to pride themselves in the number of early college opportunities that we have a number of advanced place courses that we have we offer i think almost every single one that the eight people ap college board offers and we train staff and we offer those here um but in terms of the dental program some of the early college opportunities we'd like to be able to spread that across the academies as we grow those out and so rather than having that live and just a program we're looking to make sure that we embed those kinds of courses and opportunities in each of the academies as we grow so you'll see that program more and spread out and we're going to try to scale that up across over the years that's it carol thank you so much for all the data just i'm sure there's a reason and you're going to know it right away just look at you were talking before about the four-year graduation rates in 4.6 it's a projected rate since it was last year we have the data why is it projected right so it's just not public so that's so when i when i say it's the projected rate it's it's what we've considered and have reviewed with the state but typically they publish all um data that's uh public on site right and they're just not at that point yet to push it out so there are some discrepancies that get cleaned up it should be about the same also different districts get credit for different things so if somebody leaves jamboree high school goes to another district and then vice versa right so we just haven't cleaned the noise up out of the day yeah it would be most likely minimal okay thank you i knew there'd be a reason any other questions for cara or cara just go ahead a broad stroke question about the comments entrance rate and the persistence rate being lower than the state are we mitigating that are we have plans to mitigate that the college anything you can do today he's asking about college rates as they compare to the state so you know that's that's one of the trickiest numbers um yeah sure to look at um there's a lot of factors on why students choose to enroll in college or not or what may be accessible to them and prevent them on the school side we do things like uh fafsa night and and and making sure that students are aware of all the opportunities that's really part of the counseling piece that comes with all of this in terms of why they may not return for their sophomore year um that you know there's a host of reasons why that may happen could be financial could be support to work not for me and so that's just a little bit of a harder number why we're lower than the state um you know i think we'd probably be best to look at ourselves in terms of other districts of similar size in the same dirt with the same regional economic um factors as well which may they look different than the state average um i'm actually not very curious to yeah as well so that's right and one of the other things to remember is not just it's not taking into account everybody who graduated within that your veteran roles you must enroll in this year after you graduate so we could have students enrolling after what um like so in 2018 if i then enroll in 2021 i'm not going to count these numbers if i had to work a year to make money to pay for tuition and things like that or before i was able to enroll that's um those would not be reflected and i would say like what what is very hopeful is similar alignment and even in 2017-18 the persistence rate in jamboree school district was actually slightly higher than the state those to me if kids can hang in there for their sophomore year of college then they are really feeling prepared enough to sustain that enrollment so i mean those it's really important the entrance rates as well but persistence rates and resiliency to stay enrolled in colleges but i think to cara's point there are a lot of other factors besides academic and that the school has control over that would lend themselves to reasons why kids don't enroll and dr casamaro if you can you wouldn't mind just adding um going to mr russo's question about mitigation opportunities um because i think we see the danbury career academy has a critical mitigation opportunity absolutely i didn't want to add one other one thank you for watching part of the reason why we want to scale those deco opportunities and continue to even increase you know those ap courses for kids and get more kids into the safety courses because even despite getting a three and getting that credit that initial credit there's a ton of research that says just being prepared with those classes it serves as a great foundation for for stamina when you get to college right it paces you through the type of content and some of the material that you'll see i've had both of my kids that participated in maybe classes some you know great scores and some with oops i did i get that three score in different courses but but all of those courses prepare them for when you take stats in college and you see that for the first time and you've never taken any stats class that's a huge difference and so when your child takes those courses and then sees them in college even though they may not have got a great score on the on the ap assessment um that background in preparation materials certainly comes really handy when you take take those courses biology courses things like that science majors um very helpful so the more that we can offer those opportunities and get kids into super high diverse courses um the light more likely perhaps that affects them and that's why this slide is so important creating an opportunity for access to these high-level courses because they're truly preparation for college overforces and so we may not always experience a successful good life in terms of um getting a three or higher an ap exam but it is really preparing our kids for a college environment and the rigors of college instruction yeah just real quick on the stats and the persistence you know just on the enrollment the persistence number is that any enrollment or is that only full time ago um i would prefer to look and verify that before i tell you um but i will absolutely get back to okay thank you it's not not the end of the world i think there's a certain number of classes they have to enroll in old enrolled in but i just want to verify that excellent thank you i'm sorry uh just curious about the ap course creds uh do you know if they're accepted at the college level as uh towards a major or just as electives so it depends and every college is a little different and even within our state system you know uh westcon made over uh for a three but yukon you would award for a four or five most of uh pretty tight with like fives um total it's right getting a five on the on the national test in order to get credit for it in some cases so for example if you are a science major and you and you get a five they may give you elected credit but not in your major if you're coming as a science major because they want you to take their science one way or another though you're going to probably get a five on the you know the biology eight people you're probably gonna do pretty well uconn's ap course um but you also get elected credit uh my daughter's very new friends you know entered into uconn and almost 24 80 credits um and really hit quite quite a bit taking care of them on the way in and allowed them to go even further and enter graduate level courses in their fourth year so it's great there's a lot of advantages to it um it's not the end-all be-all by any means but it certainly is it's one of the reasons why the state of connecticut counts it as it's highly in the accountability index as a factor towards um success so we do get credit for that okay you get both credit for participation and europe are they um are ap courses technically honors courses so in theory there are above honors courses there are definitely high challenge courses there's a lot of content that needs to be mastered and apparent fast pace and so you know it's not for everybody um but it is certainly open to everyone so every student in denver in high school there used to be a time when you have to have a certain gpa you don't have a certain average uh you know there's only 30 seats available and it was what i would call an adult driven schedule schedule so in other words we have 38 p seats in this class the top 30 kids get to go in it we've changed all that from the hardware high school and central office worked when we detract the high school and we created open enrollment and we say okay well we've got 200 kids that want to take ap psych guess what we're going to train four more teachers over the summer at taft and get them trained so that we can open up all of those sections to meet the course requests of the students who want to challenge themselves so we reversed it so we've moved away from adult driven scheduling to student driven scheduling um it probably basis your dog and nuts around scheduling time because it's a volatile process it's less predictive um but that's the work that the high school does every year to slot kids into those courses um almost by hand to make sure everybody gets what they need so there's a lot of work involved in that but the high school make sure that that happens and as evidence you can see that the we have great participation rates are the best in the state [Applause] something i hear about taking ap versus honors though is how it affects the gpa and overall student ranking so if the student is doing a lot more work in the ap but it doesn't really help them uh you know against a student who's just being honored with the less work and more so well it all depends mr donald has her donald is still in the room um it you know there's it's a combination of both so you know there's gpa is a weighted gpa of course is very uh important to students in yes um it also depends if you want to do post college and even the ap courses themselves there's different amount of rigor within those courses so there's some courses there that i have never drunk dreamt of taking in high school um because of the what it would demand and then there are other courses that are a little more accessible so even within ap and ranking there's harder courses like the computer science courses or ap the ap calculus courses versus like ap site um more so it really depends what it is that you want to do did you want to talk to the career academy piece um any other questions okay thank you thank you thank you so our first item on the our first item on the agenda for the superintendent's report is rob cody on behalf of westcon in our partnership with them culture all right um so on behalf of us [Music] so uh on behalf of western connecticut state university and the pre-collegiate access program you know i want to thank the board for having us here today um you know today we have a presentation to talk to you a little bit about you know uh what we've done over the last 20 years at westcon but more importantly over the last two years of the pandemic we've continued all our programming which i'm very proud of um it's because of the hard work you know that you know our assistant director uh jessica cornell has done and the hard work of the students being committed to furthering their education uh within our within our program so you know for that i mean i'm i'm very proud of all of you guys so that you know um i'm here to talk to you a little bit about you know sort of our umbrella of programs but the focus on our minority by little teaching pipeline and a little bit about our computer science pipeline first our excel program that's some really cheap our excel program um currently is serving about 75 students that's graded seven and eight in all three of the middle schools right as part of raw view and west side middle school all these programs are educational attainment programs they're there to help guide first-generation low-income students to college graduate college go on get a master's get a doctorate be productive citizens in our society also our concat program currently services a hundred students contact overbound concave stands for our connecticut grant that we get from the department of higher ed the upper bound program is a federal grant you know written by outside western connecticut through the department of education in washington dc um the the key thing to recognize about our upper bound program is that grant once uh we we get that grant it is a four year or five year grant your renewal sort of tough work that we've been kind of grinding on for the last six months uh look at hello danbury high school and dr martens and mr donovan you know is to help us out with some of the data i mean a lot of the data that we just heard we use a lot of that data you know to get some of these funds so we're very familiar with you know national student clearinghouse at site you know all these services so uh we did just go through a renewal process it takes about two months for the department of ed and dc to review the grant and to let us know if we've been renewed um and we turned that in last month so we're hoping within the next two months we'll find out if you have another five years of renewal this will be my fourth grant cycle but we've gone through five um at russcon so what we're looking at at renewing that we're also looking at possibly applying for our upper bound math and science program that will focus strictly on math and science uh down below that um we have our minority biological teaching pipeline which started here many years ago probably about eight or nine years ago started as seed money in hartford and then as hartford typically does is you know they give you a little bit of money until you do something and then also the money's going we have to figure out how we run this thing you know without their money um what we did was we were able to partner up with the board of ed here as well as the federal and the state grants and keep those programs moving forward um and we're going to talk a little bit more about that in a second our minority battle teaching pipeline went so well in terms of recruiting students we typically have roughly about 11 to 15 per cohort that we decided to tap into computer science which was the hot field and so we are now working with the computer science department at western connecticut and offering a dual enrollment program through that department as well i've been meeting with the justice and law department uh recently we're going to try to add a jla for justice to law dual enrollment program hopefully by next academic year over on our college side we all we have our educational achievement access program we have quite a few you know danbury graduates come through that these will be students who either did sat optional and you know their grades just really didn't meet the mark to come in as a traditional student um they all one of the requirements is that they all had to pass algebra 2 with a c or better they have to take four years of math four years of an english english class including their senior year one of the worst things is i see some seniors you know where they're taking three years of a math but then you know their senior year they might take like eleventh map where they lose those algebraic skills and then they go and they take algebra in college and it just doesn't work out so we really look for those students to take some sort of applied math that their senior year um that program varies it can have anywhere between you know 27 students which we had last cohort and it can go up to 75 i've had you know in previous years um that program is during the fifth uh 15 week fall semester of the fall um you know they're getting uh that each student gets a mentor they all have mandatory tutoring they're on a student contract sheet uh you know and so they're they're watching quite well our uh promoting academically successful students was a pro grant another grant that we have rope within our department that program is specific specifically designed for minority students at western connecticut that either don't have above a 2.0 gpa or they don't have the gpa that that is required for the major that they want to get into so we help them get on track get into the major that they want to get into get the gpa they want to get into so they can pursue their their dreams and goals um and that's sort of like the big umbrella right so there's a lot going on one of the other things that i didn't want to add what was it so i forgot another thing that we did um but one of the main the main components here is that all the excel program which is with your students the concave overbound minority tc pipeline computer science pipeline they all have a summer component which we continue so the students again over the last two years you know they've all continued this program over the summer so there was like no stop gap in any of these programs uh so so i mean that's one of the another thing that we've been very proud of is that you know even after march whatever it was march 12th i think that's the one that's all ingrained in our brain right um you know we continue to recruit and have uh provide these services for all of our students including during the summer the last two years we've had more virtual programming in the summer this year we've already been approved through the university and we're going to have an on-campus in-person uh program this year for all of our programs so we're looking forward to that um so with that being said um what i'd like our students to uh students to do real quick is just introduce themselves and then i'll let mrs carnell talk a little bit about our other program and come around all right hi everybody it's andrew moore i'm a junior at dhs this i went to uh esl program throughout my middle school year i participate in the concave upper ground program inspector reviewing program and i did the minority part of the future science club canada hi my name is caroline newson um i am a junior at delivery high school i also was a part of the excel program and i was also a part of the hope of programming this is my third year um hi everyone my name is working pre-collegiate and access programs i'm currently a student at western united states pursuing a major and secondary education spanish i was in eighth grade when i was first introduced to the program where the advisor spoke to me a little bit about how to help me and being a first-generation student as supportive as my family was and as much as they wanted to help i always knew that they weren't going to help me and they were going to give me the help that i needed fast forward to three years later my junior high school when i was first introduced to the teaching pipeline um i thought that this was having said i mean it was a high schooler they were going to see if teaching would be something that i wanted to spend time in college trying out and not only that this course helped me in gaining hands-on experience teaching writing first graders at the time but it taught me also how to create lesson plans as well as the teaching portfolio which will help me next year when i am applying to student teaching as well as real-life jobs and not only that this course helped me in facilitating my decision to further on pursue my passion for education but it also helped me exciting that i do want to come back to my community and help them um i was a part of the minority bilingual teaching pipeline and i was first brought informed about the program by miss cornell and mr podi my first i didn't know what i wanted to do like what major i wanted to be i was thinking of counting and kind of economics or teaching i always like thought about the teaching ever since i was little but i never really got to exploring so uh i'm taking that class the teaching pipeline class i got to do exactly just that and and i actually learned the value of teaching the good um i actually i learned what made a good teacher and also what made like um not so great to you and and my professor mr hectoris uh he explained how um um growing up he was like a low income low-income student just like me he struggled struggling in school but he met a teacher in uh junior year who changed that and showed him the value of education and i feel like every student they have that one teacher who has done that for them i have mine was a 10th grade teacher 10th grade teacher or she was an algebra teacher and she did just that over covert do it was difficult to learn over kovid because you know we were on screen and we didn't get to form a connection with the teachers but what she did was she strove to um cut connect with her students she taught me so much i i never really excelled that math but because of her i was able to get like a hundred the whole the whole quarter and yeah and uh for the assignment for the class was that we had to interview a teacher so i picked her um and through that i got to learn about her personally her personal life how she balanced teaching with um her own personal life and it was truly it was fun it was like it was amazing um i truly like would consider um teaching as something i could do when i grow up and yeah also in the program we also learned about so many stuff we did countless projects countless um like annotating um different like sources on how to become a better teacher and i we learned about the cultural competence teaching pedagogy of social political um competence and an academic achievement and through that i was able to learn so much um and this is something i could consider in my future doing hi um so i took the computer science pipeline of the summer i was first introduced to the idea of like some other colleagues in the program and i was further talked about it by discord knowledge coding over the summer when i took it we obviously had to do it over web x because of covid and even though there was a bit of a struggle with that gap we were still able to learn very efficiently and get a feel for what college class is really like it was very interesting learning what the day of the life or again life of a computer science major looks like we were able to build websites and do projects that really demonstrated how we could use those skills in a real world application it was very very fascinating i was even able to use some of the skills that i learned in class at work and in school which helped me succeed overall it was a very very good experience i learned what's called css we learned html and also javascript which are website building languages which we were able to utilize to demonstrate our knowledge on websites that we actually built which helped help me really learned how to how to interface with websites using using these languages that we were taught in this class good evening everyone my name is jessica coronel and i am the assistant director of the collegian access programs as well as a 2010 alumni of denver high school as you can see our programs like the discussion earlier many of them is just to give them the exposure to college what is college about right what is um taking classes whether it is through enrollment or even pushing them to take the higher levels or honors in ap classes especially as the stacy mentioned their first generation low-income students like myself i was also an alumni of the program and you know going even some college trips taking classes during the summer still having the education to help them prepare is very important and right now we're actually recruiting for the program our applications came out february 1st they're due march 25th and um they have to you know either get it from their counselors we have great communication with all the middle school counselors as well as the republican school i mean they were high school counselors um so they can find the application there they can find our website uh they can even come to our office at western and get a copy and we go through an interview and due to the little response that we have we do you know go to a committee to select the students um but i will welcome any you know efforts that you can help us to recruit more students we do have spots available and yeah thank you for your time so um you know i want to kind of open this up to you guys any questions comments concerns i've got an education degree so um but before that the one thing i didn't remember is we've also you know we partnered up many years ago with the after school program too so one of the other things we helped support here at danbury high school is the after school tutoring program and twilight with some of the bossing and things like that so you know we're really you know connected to you guys um questions comments so rob if i can i'd like to start with no one i want to thank you and jess for joining us this evening of course the students it was great to hear your story particularly your inspiration from your algebra teacher thank you so much for sharing that um and stacy just so you know we'll be in touch with you to make sure you don't get away to another district when people are ready to graduate so to begin with rob uh if you can you and jess the excel programs over the summer and i'm curious i'd love for the board to know how many students are you typically working with i love the word that jess used to talk about exposure to college um and so you know certainly the inspiration that comes from that experience uh probably pays huge dividends for us we have some of that evidence in the audience tonight if you guys can speak to them yeah so i'll just tell you real quick so and then i'll just kind of come in and so we have a uh called a site advisor each one of the schools that works with uh the students after school um they have meetings like once a month once every you know twice twice a month where they'll meet with the students uh we'll go on i'll let you talk about the program so we do have representation in the schools right and so it gives the students a connection one of the key successes so the upper bound program and excel type programs which are similar to talent search if you've heard of calendar search in the past is that you know sort of the philosophy is to hire teachers in the school so the kids develop that rapport with the teacher and they have that connection going on but they also worked with them in the summer so we had the excel program overbound concave all of these programs including our college program i mean one of the important things was the mentors continued working with the students during the summer so if when the fall semester ended it could continue in the spring semester but once those college kids went home they still had that mentor to talk to right that continuity um and the similar fashion the excel program concave being upper bound you know when you're done with you guys here at the public school during academic year i mean they're coming right to us right so we keep that that wheel spinning we do give them a little bit of time to go off in their nursing home um but just talk a little bit about the yeah so we um so we've tried to recruit 25 students for middle school um we do tend to have a lot more students from west sides everything because it's a smaller school a lot of students you know are there um but we do chew for 75 in total and that's due to a little amount of funding we would love to have more um and it's not just summer we have it throughout the academic year as well so they started in the summer time but they are with us good and academic year where we have meetings you know we have meetings twice a month right now we do like a virtual meeting with all the three middle schools and then they stay in person in their own discussions with our advisors and then during the summer time they come to our campus we were doing virtual for the last two years hybrid last year but then hopefully now we can come on campus again and they come and take classes that help them for the next year so for example they take uh they're gonna take my days and they take students like an introduction one day during our summer and the good thing about our summer program is that we hire teachers from those that were public schools so they know the curriculum they know what they you know what they're going to need the culture you know who works here the high she teaches your math classes as well as communion so we have different features at the schools that come and work for us during the summer plan and then during academic year we have advisors uh um you know help them with meetings checking out their grades keeping track of them which is also important so that's what that's for your question thank you you know another thing i mean listen we do so much i'm gonna say so we have academic contracts that the advisors have of all the students after each marketing period where students set their goals you know so they can you know they know what goal that they can achieve or what you know what they want to achieve um we use a curriculum called uh dream catcher where they talk a little bit about college of choice and what it's like to be a first year student they talk about financial aid you know we work with all of our departments on a college campus whether it's whether it's financial aid or it's academic advisement and those students kind of get to hear them come in prior to covet happening we would have a college fair on the west side campus at western connecticut where we would have all the similar programs from the state and this is when you know i would call on like everybody at westcon you know all come out and you know each one of those departments would talk to the students about what the college is like now the important thing to understand is that you know the majority of our students in our concept overbought in the high school program you know they will come to westcon but they're not mandated or required to go to westcott we have students at northeastern boston college yale yukon central eastern southern temple you know i mean it just goes on and on we've been around for a while and just that's one of our goals here we go on college trips so we go all around the states as well as out of state and even as middle schoolers we take them too not many colleges like to take middle schoolers but they feel like it's too early um for post and yet um even though university we go and take them and we expose them because even as a seventh grader you know the earlier you start learning about learning skills that you're interested in yet you know they get closer to that so that's one of our you know i think our video about taking them to different colleges and seeing hey who can make just one more statement in question uh the statement number one we've had an opportunity kim and i selfishly but very happy and excited to be able to hire three teachers in the last two years as a result of this pipeline and look forward to more great candidates that can serve as teachers in our school community but i'm also very curious when the board and i can be invited to a poster session and hopefully in person so that they can get to see these students and hopefully more to like their end of year posting session that you guys have done annually good thing that you asked we um our our teaching partner is summer and fall so we already had it in december and i did send an email but it was virtual so i think it was sometimes hard but we hopefully this year that we're going back in first and we'll continue to have another poster session and you're welcome okay thank you guys yeah well you know some of the stats listen uh being a teacher now guys it's very difficult to recruit right the pay is not great the job environment has been very tough you know um you know it is a tough job for us right now you know um and i i applaud you know as casey here before continuing that path but one of the things that we realized well there's the minority by the teaching 500 computer science five one um the simple fact that uh these guys have taken a college course and kind of figuring out like what that's like right whether they want to be a teacher computer science major they're winning no matter what right um about 21 yes right that have gone through a program have pursued an education degree after high school so that's what that number looks like right now um you know i think a lot more has to happen not just in danbury but i mean the salaries got to go up for people who want to be teachers i mean i think you know we have a lot of students that want to be justice and law majors and uh doctors and nurses and you know sometimes they start here they start to you know go down in terms of the the pay rate um but you know what i heard stacy say you know earlier that she wants to come back and make a difference in her community those are the students that we're looking for to put into these programs so you know anything else from anybody theresa uh just one question you were talking about mentors from west platte are they full-time professors no so um the mentors are actually students who have gone through the program and have graduated through the program and so they have similar life circumstances what i like to use right so we match these students up with students that are interested in the same major um forwarded like i said they've gone through similar life circumstances right so you know um sometimes it's very sometimes we go through a couple men's work before we get the right one right you know so uh but that that's who they are they're all students foreign i i want to ask the questions that i asked probably about 8-10 years ago when you came before the board and i think at that particular time you had 25 students in your classes i could be off a couple of numbers and my concern at that particular time as you bought the students or graduating class before the board and you did your presentation that out of 25 or 30 students he only had one african-american person so my question would be how do you attract students and get them in this class besides staying within a certain category because we all know that now that most of the the places around us that are hiring teachers they're trying to diversify their staff so as we as we have been talking about this pipeline for quite a few years i'm i'm just concerned that if you have 25 students you only have one african-american student and i you know you can use the word diversity or not i'm talking about out of 25 students you have one american african-american student so how do you need some type of help and support to get other youth involved in this program so one of the things that we did three years ago is that it's not just students that are like um we actually open to the whole high school juniors and seniors and with the help of dr um martin as well as the counselors they send it to anyone who's interested in that you know being an education major we even changed before we used to have like our flyers in english and spanish that might have attracted some of the hispanic population more right so we stopped that and we actually make sure that we put the education piece first so even our flyers say are you interested in education are you interested in becoming a teacher even if they don't fit like a minority bilingual piece we try to make sure we connect them with other um programs as well we do community service the territorial partnership which the majority of them start working on black and african american students and we actually promote our choir there we also go to the churches i've been to myself i've been to a lot of different churches uh the main population is you know black african americans with women we talk to even um aids with some of their students as well to see maybe they're interested in joining so we try to we try to go for nothing without getting population but at the same time they have to apply we have to make sure they bring in the application they bring all the documents our application is not you know it is expensive because we do have certain requirements like their taxes you know the worship difference sometimes the parents have to be involved as well but we offer we sit down with them we do uh recruitment sessions and um mrs cooper i would love to you know see what other places you know we can go we've been to new hope we've been to some of like you know the bridge uh programs here um event pathways we have a connection there so we're trying to recruit but it's it's tough when we're competing with jericho we're competing with other programs they're doing similar services like us but they tend to serve you know that population more but we do a center we don't invite them we try to you know create a partnership as well so the only thing on the flyer that we talked about at the college is that you know trying to find different ways to recruit students to be teachers right so a lot of uh superintendents started as a teacher or coaches you know you want to be a coach be a teacher uh you want to be an administrator you want to be a counselor a principal you know some of these things we would put on the fire because they don't think of that as being a teacher but we all start somewhere and then we work our way up we get the old 92 and just keep going right so we try to find other ways not just say hey be a teacher but hey you can do all these other things with an education degree as well so thank you jess rob thank you so much for joining us this evening students stacy thank you for joining us thank you so much thank you jess so i i have principal dundee up next and i want to make sure he's here [Music] good evening thanks for having us we didn't start out with nine but now we're only left with four because as we heard ap work is hard and they had to do something so you know i will ask that uh the board the superintendent when you're making the agendas we could have kids go first in the future just to get us out of here i know tonight there's a different story than usual but these uh these troopers held on and i had to make a video saying they were excused from the first period so we're here to talk about our voice of change project um this was a awesome thing for a principal because i got a letter from superintendent email that said hey dan look at this this is awesome grant process type project thing that the state's putting on we should really look into it and i'm thinking all right who am i going to tap on the shoulder for this one to get it done two hours later i get an email from miss lorenz who turns and says hey i noticed this jamboree's not on this list for eligible for the grant i just went forward there you go and she was like yes i'll run with it so they're doing some great work i'm going to turn over to ms lorenz and they're going to run through this because they're doing all the work i just pretty much forwarded an email so here you go mrs lorenz thank you miss lorenz thank you all right thank you um i am supposed to have like a student colleague for me it doesn't have a student with me doing this together but uh it'll all work out just fine these are real troopers so [Music] these are my students that were here to present uh four of them are still left um and they'll introduce themselves as they do their section um the prepares for change project is a state initiative that was to try to get high school students to develop um policies to address problems issues that they see in their school and it was to gain twenty thousand dollars of state education money um to run with the run with the proposal that they came up um these were the funding priorities as i know you're well aware of these are the funding prior priorities that their projects had to align with um and this is kind of the roadmap right now we're at three they introduced it the students um engaged in a whole bunch of activities in my classroom to get ready to write a draft um they here edited those drafts they got feedback from me they wrote final drafts and they submitted those proposals we are actually still awaiting as of today um indications as to whether or not all of those proposals have been deemed eligible to compete and what i mean compete on right now unless a date gets pushed on march 11 students in all of dhs are going to be able to vote on which should be the winning proposal there are an additional five um projects that can win at the state level that the state commissioner of education gets to choose so there's always a possibility that we might actually have two members um and then at some point in the spring the state department of education will announce the winners and then the funding will be provided sometime before the next school year so a lot of my kids in my classes are seniors so it was like well what do we do about that so some of our teams are a mixture of seniors and juniors but we are also told by the state that if i they're graduating seniors that the next year's ap gopro class government of optics can run with the program and make it happen or the juniors that are in my class this year can choose to help me make that happen if they're not the winning proposal so i was left with that okay this is awesome this is great public policy okay how do i get 16 17 and 18 year olds to the point where they can actually write a public policy and so that's where i had to step in and start developing um scaffolds and to structure their learning because the state didn't provide any of that they provided a way that they were going to submit their proposal they provided this is what it had to align with but there's nothing in between um and for those schools that did it without running it through nap government politics class i don't know how they did it i mean so some of the ways that i scaffolded their learning through this was to first start by activating their deep thinking having them brainstorming having them addressing questions creating questions meeting with mr donovan and meeting with other experts in uh the school or the school district to try to get answers to their questions about why is this this way and could we do this and what are the obstacles for that um the students then took all of that with their brainstorming they started forming groups based on interests um and they uh then also made sure that the prop the idea they had aligned with the csde priorities at least in one way many of them had two and there were even a couple that had three priorities that they aligned we i then provided graphic organizers to structure their research so that they could identify and explain the causes and identify and explain the costs associated with the proposed projects among other finally i also provided graphic organizers and exemplars to assist students in visualizing what a public policy looks like when it's written um and then breaking it down chunking it into parts that was conceivable for them that they put it together we wrote first drafts we peer edited them i also assisted them with feedback and tweaked it and eventually we submitted it so thank you um this was and then student generated ideas which i think is really important for you to see what the students came up with this wasn't their final project but these were ideas and concerns they had about dhs facilities for example on this page and on this page and i can provide a copy of this to the board if you'd like to read any more and then they also have concerns about student needs and family needs so i am a huge believer that if you talk to to students they can their bee line for telling you exactly what needs to be done and so i'm so thrilled that they have the opportunity to to talk with you even for just a quick few moments tonight to show you the work that they have done these were the final proposals and you're going to see two of them one deals with facilities so to speak and one deals with a new initiative they also happen to be two years in one group so if you have any questions feel free to reach out to me at any point but i think they're better communicators as i am so this is the hatter hill science funding projects um and i'm haley and this is here and we're your teachers at dhs okay so um our proposal has two parts so the first part is basically to refresh the science equipment and increase the funding for the science classes so a lot of science classes they don't have up-to-date technology and the things that they have to work with are the things that would allow for the best learning so we would increase the funding so that all the science classrooms are able to have what they need so that they can have the most enriched classes and then the second part of our proposal is the greenhouse system so we want to build a greenhouse on the hatter hill which is in the front of the school near the science swing and these greenhouses will be able to connect to a bunch of different science classes as well as special ed classes and culinary classes things like that so it could be really a community project that would increase the learning of so many different areas of school this project and our proposal is necessary at dhs because there's so much uh so much that we lack especially in the science department with the funding and all the different science classes aren't able to get the full experience that they can get from their their teachers because the teachers don't have the things that they need um so our proposal would help this so that every student can get the best opportunity and the teachers would be able to teach what they to their best to the best of their ability with the materials that they can so the priorities that our purpose aligned with is learning acceleration academic renewal and reimbursement so basically this can provide a lot of immersion for students they can provide new clubs it can write new lessons for teachers and other extracurricular activities and it can the other priority aligns with the strategic use of technology staff development and the digital supply which basically means we're providing new technology for the students because they're current that can't be updated is the last four years ago um so the greenhouse location is on the howard hill with what we might call it and it's adjacent to the science classroom and our budget so we went around to the dhs size teachers and we asked them what they needed and basically we put about 40 of our budget towards the greenhouse and 50 percent of our budget for equipment that's about 17 000 and we have about three grand left for like a cushion in case anything's more expensive or something goes wrong okay hello everyone so our project is called hippo which hatter's is program opportunities so my name is matthew matthew i'm a denver high school senior and i'm in miss lawrence's lovely u.s government politics class um and i'm viviane flores okay so for the voice of change the biggest thing that we're trying to do is identify a problem in our community and draw a solution for our high school seniors and students and what we did is we critically examined our community and students and we understood that we really needed to understand and acknowledge the crafts and the foundations for success and the biggest thing after researching intensely was the fact that there is a lack of enrichment in career oriented services for our high school students as they transition over to out of school into adults so our idea was the idea of implementing high school internships and the importance of internships is because it provides professional opportunity it provides early exposure to career forces which is really needed for high school students and statistically it enhances a young person's resume and as well high school students can be able to explore you know work conditions and environments that they feel comfortable being a part of and we can see this in other districts local districts that are near to us such as richfield and fairfield and also in terms of social economic status we want to be considerate of the population from germany high school that this opportunity would be the only opportunity for them to have an internship in high school and also have the ability to you know network with professionals out in career fields outside of school when they're in high school so this is a quote that i researched and it says that many high school students saw engineering as a college pursuit and many also focused on a traditional paying job so we see that when high school students they take internships in high school they take it very seriously and they understand that this is a really great way for them to explore what they want to do in the future and more and more high schools are adding this these internships as are optional even as a requirement in their classes uh so term in terms of what actually hippo is so these were the two priorities that our project aligned with so learning acceleration academic renewal and student enrichment obviously very version of students learning by putting them in these real world situations and professional environments and then family and community connections um you'll be working with local businesses and such and also families to have them in place for um so in terms of how the actual program would work so we start at the end of your junior year it's going to start on being informed about the program um beginning of having a committee of teachers um that are interested in participating here at danbury high school and before the junior class and then pulled the lottery um so there would be a 3.5 gpa requirement and of course you have to be on track to graduate um but then we made it a lot because we thought it would be the fairest way to select out of the um class um and then you would be notified if you were randomly selected and you're thinking of having about 30 students participate um so then from there you would be assigned a mentor on committee um so these are measures that are helping you um develop professionally kind of implement those skills that you need to go out into the real world and uh hold a real job or in this case an internship um so then you would be matched with your internship so like i said we work with local businesses and organizations so that students can go to be clear that they're thinking about studying college or going to work in a post-high school graduation and then from there the students would be fully responsible for fulfilling their position um and of course they're still working with their mentor if they need any guidance but it is up to them to work with the business or organization that they can hold their internship with so in terms of budgeting there's four main areas really so um the teachers that are participating in the program we would treat it as an overage um so there would be a small amount based on that um and then you need money for attire and materials so of course high school students especially in every high school you might not have business entire business college clothing and whatnot and then other materials like backpacks briefcases and other uh stuff that they might need um and then pe learning materials or resume paper and guest speakers their professional skills and then pathway specific materials so the biggest example that i could think of were like medical internships you might need very specific materials to go into that field okay and then the final thing we wanted to discuss is the impact so what will it provide students and these are the three major things which is the first one fuel fueling career passions so giving students the opportunity to see the career they want to possibly choose in high school allows them to swiftly transition out of school into a career that they enjoy and explore themselves another thing is ensuring future success um students will be better prepared for college and workforce and building skills obviously having an internship has many positive effects in terms of enhancing their skills and for these major skills are adaptability work ethic communication and time management and yeah that's the good thank you if you have any questions you can ask teresa um be internships are you looking for paid internships or just the experience sure so i think that if you are reaching out to local businesses it would be up to them if you want to get there in terms of if you usually of course the paid internship i think could be an added bonus but we're really focused on developing our students professionally and then getting them the work experience anybody else questions for students do you want to talk about prayer academy now [Laughter] if you do have any other questions about voice for change that i can address i'm happy to do that but i think i think you see how incredible um our students took this on and really just developed some wonderful ideas innovative ideas came up with how they're gonna pay for it um and so yeah i'm just gonna once again encourage like talk to the kids they know they have ideas and and they're really great advocates for their fellow classroom colleagues so thank you so much for your time and effort this evening awesome thank you thank you uh so if i can i i do have one more item to see miss carter superintendents update um one let me just start with we are very excited when i say we are on behalf of the cabinet leadership team quite frankly i i'd like to thank the entire danbury school community very excited to be in a position another step closer to putting the pandemic behind us and and and part of putting the pandemic behind this is really starting to make decisions uh that the families are asking us to make uh tonight and and so respectfully i would like to ask chairperson celesti and the board if we can make a full recommendation to the board at our march 23rd meeting prior during that window the leadership team and i will be reviewing the recently released guidance from the state that was released about four or five days ago within that guidance and just to give the board and the community some things that will be covered um some decisions that the district has to make and that is uh reevaluate reevaluate our school environments such as spacing and ventilation in a lot of our classrooms many many in this in this room and folks who are listening might recall these are a lot of the challenges that we had for not opening in the first place during the 1920 school year so this is this is not as if this is new for us um but it will be important for us to initially revisit those challenges and make sure we're ready um to d-mask whenever that decision is made another thing that would be important for us the leadership team and ice consideration for students with underlying health conditions and so we will have to figure out ways how we can protect that community and these are again things that the team and i will be discussing over the next couple of weeks and certainly report out to the committee to help inform your decision as well and just a couple of more items certainly we will collaborate with the local health department and ask for carol hunty's assistance and any decisions and recommendations you'd like for us to make to the policy committee but then of course there are other things like school trips and what does this mean potentially for sports and chorus and music programs what happens when students meet in the nurse's office particularly in in a more risk riskful environment and so there are a number of different questions we will have to answer if we didn't position where we're not going to mask and again the leadership team and i will be working on some of those answers um as some of our neighbors are as well um you know with the pending february 2018 and i just want to make um your chairperson celestia aware these are things that we will be working on in preparation for um our next policy community that's it for tonight's report okay and um ryan bingham i was not able to join us tonight but uh my understanding is he will be at our next meeting that is correct yes so my report i'll just add on to that i'd like to hold the policy community maybe meeting on march 16th at 6 30.

yes and everyone should receive their material and please come prepared thank you so dsabc has been meeting regularly um they are looking for mentors actually um actively so if um you're interested in being a mentor or know a place of business that can get a group of mentors please let us know dsabc is also starting um fundraising um hopefully doing like dining and restaurants throughout the community and raising funds that way um the first one is march 7th at texas roadhouse go figure um but so um you know they're very active right now with a bunch of stuff going on so that's great um and then kevin i just had a question for you um i know we've been talking about parent square forever um and i just wonder where we are with that because the robo calls to check your email are getting a little frustrating um i i'm going to ask mike to help us out with some of the logistics and mike can you tell us where we are with some of the logistics sure so we're starting to roll on we've got some training coming up for the schools and principals it's probably not going to be the on off switch because schools are going to sort of go as their comfort level grows with it i'm hoping to make that go a little bit faster with with training and just get their upper level up to it so i'm hoping you'll start to see more and more switch over over the next month um we really expect it to happen right but it is my understanding that i'm able now to start to communicate through parent square i think my understanding is the challenge is for families to begin to accept whether they want to receive this information in a catalog in a weekly catalog way whether they can change the ways on how to receive it in terms of languages they actually have to sign into the system in order to accept it in different languages and really access the different options um but i am able now to start communicating in parent square okay and and so i will okay and i'm hoping that will push some of our families to now start to activate download the app etc okay i feel once parents realize that i'll come back maybe on phone calls they'll be asked to do that thank you thank you sure yes go ahead just for a possible consideration looks like you have a slicing facilities meeting on the high holy day of saint patty's day just saying that i just don't even know what to do with that it is an excellent point i just want to know if he's irish no but i've played so many irish songs saints only i use players as a youtuber okay it's part of my adopted heritage [Laughter] anything else from any other board members go ahead so i'm just going back to the march 16th policy meeting and i understand that there's a lot of issues that want to be reviewed but can we get an idea of when we're actually going to be voting on the on the lifting of the masks and i asked that based on everything that happened here how are we communicating what our schedule is moving forward when our parents can expect to unmask i understand that there's nurses and you know social distancing although we've already met those requirements as far as i know the three feet so i understand that we want to look a lot of things and possibly change policy and make sure that we dictate what that policy will be moving forward but i don't really see any kind of address on when we're formally going to vote on lifting the masks and i think that's what people really want to know right so right i'll just um i i'm respectfully respectfully asking the policy committee to meet which i think i heard rachel say would be meeting on march 16th and respectfully asking for the board to make it for the committee to make a recommendation to the board in time for the march 23rd board but i i cannot say what the board decision is going to be but i'm asking and then in that time um the leadership team and i will have some responses to some of these questions that i just posted so you'll formally release that information somehow to the to the public other than just i mean by streaming it like this or is there going to be some sort of letter that goes out to everyone right we will summarize before the before we examine tonight in terms of what the families can expect in terms of the timeline we've already started working out okay and then that way if they have any comments or anything before hopefully we meet on the 16th all that can be addressed as well like what the public's input is going to be based on the fact that i guess we're looking to extend it to the sec 27th of march 23rd right in the end we're not really extending anything our existing policy is in effect unless and until the board were to vote my expectation would be we're likely recommending coming out of the policy meeting we're lately recommending that the board terminate the policy on the 23rd that would be my expectation of that meeting so if that's the case it would be great if we could communicate that to everyone out there it's hard with without meeting first to formally make it just we can't speak on behalf of you know yeah just something that as you mentioned what your what the issues are that you're addressing or the concerns as well as hey you know what if everything kind of if we can do what we're looking to do this is the dread you know drop dead hopefully date but i think that um everybody needs some sort of line in the ground that they can at least try to put yeah i would appreciate that thank you yeah mr russo i was just echoing the point that after the policy meeting this whole mass issue may be concluded on it on the meeting of the 23rd with the board right that's all right delay until the 23rd for consideration of this policy or why did we reach that particular time frame i think would be helpful i understand there's reasoning sure and i think making it uh public might help people understand the delay yeah compared to other towns right right so in addition to the issues that kevin mentioned um it was brought to my attention it was a recommendation of thought and idea by a pediatrician actually that we had a we had a vaccine clinic schedule set prior to the governor throwing out arbitrary february 28th date that made there was no basis for that date um the the vaccine that last vaccine schedule the second dose would be given on march 8th that would for i'm talking about for our five to 11 year old age group um that's just newly eligible for vaccines so they would be fully vaccinated by march 22nd which is you know it gives them an opportunity to for families who are planning to have their children fully vaccinated by that time before the masses come off um what else do i want to say to that rich having listened to many many calls with the state department of ed and the department of public health we were told that we were we would be receiving specific criteria on how to make the decision and then and then what were the protocols well i mean the guidance came out right friday night or lack thereof um and so i mean that was part of the delay as well um i think i i don't know what the cdc has come out in any i haven't seen anything from the cdc yet although we're told it's coming one of the other issues that i talked to rachel about before last week's policy attorney and then even after number one we didn't have the state guidance number two we didn't even know that the order was going to come down because remember special act 22-1 allows the mass mandate to be terminated terminated as of february 28th it does not require it actually extended the mass mandate to the end of june subject to it being terminated by the uh commissioner of the department of public health she actually issued that order tonight while we were sitting here we didn't know that we didn't know when that order was coming down we couldn't act really without that so at any time they did act was acting in derogation of the state guidance before last week and was terminating in the expectation they were getting that order from the state we literally literally came into my phone while we were sitting so we we only got that guidance today we obviously had a chance to look at it so then you're saying that it can be lifted without the policy stuff going through now like through the state is that what i just understood no well in theory we could vote but i think what kevin's saying is there's a bunch of moving parts we need to make sure that we have lined up in order to do it that's all which is the part about having a policy committee on the 16th followed by this the policy committee has to oversee policy and make a recommendation to the board that's just right that's the regular order set forth in our bible the procedure that we have to follow enacting a policy is even harder right right right because that requires two readings correct correct right withdrawing a policy would really only require a recommendation of the board metaphor right so that's the theory behind that that delay in addition to all of those things that kevin mentioned in addition to you know we can't even open windows in this g-building and i mean there's there's a lot of factors it's multi-faceted criteria that we should consider all those in favor okay you

we've been doing this for 23 months you know we you know we've been working tirelessly and our teachers our students are worried everybody [Music] uh i think we're turning the corner and uh other board meetings we hear about it are a lot uglier than ours you know when you did criticism about the masks but we we helped of course and as you can see we've done an amazing job and uh i'm glad we're rounding that corner that we can finally see smiles on teachers and kids faces that's my report thank you and now um and for curriculum and programs [Music] second yes [Music] and district operations item to c1 and the c2 second c1 yes 14.

so that is exempted for the 22 fiscal year that was very clearly stated in the in the bill that it was just for the 22 fiscal year so that does have some benefit to us and i'll go over that in a second um some of the other highlights that all uh you'll see in our budget revision include a 2.2 increase in average rate of the membership again we budget flat typically as a contingency and so any growth that we realize is additional capacity towards the budget and then um as noted previously the 2021 bond failed to pass so we were reversing our plans to reduce the m o to capital transfer in terms of we started to phase it down and try to move more money back into them in a budget but unfortunately we're gonna have to go back to the full 4.4 million dollar transfer from mno to support the lease payment so this is an estimated emino budget revision that we'll bring back legally in may as noted we adopt a budget in june uh 2021 for the fiscal year that budget was 106 million um that budget did include a carryover of 16.4 million we are looking at a revised uh budget we call it jbl general budget limit of an anticipated 110 million that revision takes into uh consideration the adm growth that i just mentioned and it also takes into consideration the exemption to the aggregate expenditure limit so we can fully budget without any cuts to our budget this year so that difference there the adopted versus the revised is roughly 3.3 million dollars and since we haven't utilized any of that increased capacity in this current year you'll see how that plays into effect and how we can utilize that in our 23 budget so looking at our 2023 budget highlights again we're anticipating no additional covered relief grant funding i will note we have previously budgeted a fiscal year 23 retention stipend in the amount of 1500 um that stipend has some restrictions on it in terms of qualification it will be probated on fte it is subject to taxes it is compensation it does have um an additional requirement to work all the way through august 31st in order for that to be paid out in september so more information on that will be will be coming to our employees but that is in the budget as i mentioned earlier the the aggregate expansion limit while it just went away it is also in our rear view mirror uh for 2023 the bill only exempted 2022 however early we i don't have the numbers on me but the early numbers indicate that we will again exceed the limit in 23.

one is property accountability insurance um our prepaid legal is paid from this and then you know hearing james and david tonight we might need to increase that they are having additional legal expenses by reviewing our code of conduct but the point is we continue to utilize our capacity with the trust to its fullest effect but there will be a small increase for utilizing those services we do have additional fte dealer growth being added a majority of those fte are at the school level and there's also some slight reclassifications to align to our organizational chart fc contingency 490 000 has been allocated to our budgeted excuse me to mom for for next year that is to address any increases in fte if we were to experience massive growth in any certain grade level we can hire knowing that we have a contingency set aside for that to address those growth we are starting to slowly address rising utility costs by setting aside a small budget contingency in this next year budget for those increases protected salary increases i'll review that on the next slide and then contracted landscaping we are having a extremely difficult time filling landscaping positions right now we have looked at potentially moving to a contracted service for the landscaping specifically those employees have been notified in terms of there is no reduction to employees but the restructuring of that department again there would be no employee there would be no employee loss we would not be riffing people to move to contracted we would simply be realigning our org chart to compensate for the vacancies that we've been filling for the lack of landscaping position so that cost represents the move from a salaried person to contracting so the total fixed cost increases total 1.2 million as i mentioned earlier the total estimated budget increase will estimate to realize is over 6 million that leaves a difference of 4.7 million so looking at potential compensation increases for next year again all these compensation increases are based off the budget increases and not contingencies that i've already pre-budgeted in the in the 23 plan so taking the top line you'll see the remaining budget increases after the fixed cost that's the 4.7 million represented across the board that we'll see up top we're looking at both a three percent five percent and seven percent increase uh the potential increase cost for each one of those percentages is represented in that middle column and you can see the budget increase remaining balance so this is again this is not the the total budget this is just the budget remaining off of the increases that we're realizing over the two fiscal years is very that's what is represented in the remaining balance so as we look towards what we're proposing for 23 and total compensation increases will still yet to be determined what we'll present on the ninth um classroom site fund increases uh we have increased a total of three hundred dollars totaling seven thousand dollars for that package 3 500 will be moved to the teacher base and 3 500 will remain in performance pay we are as i mentioned earlier proposing a retention stipend for next year again that's 1500 prorated on fte if you signed your 2023 contract and worked through august 31st and then health insurance again no increase to the employee cost this will be the second year in the row in which we're the district was able to do that while metal cost increase are continuing across the board the district has been able to offset those increases with low claims and or strategic decisions with insurance as i mentioned earlier there will be we do anticipate some changes to voluntary coverage so i want to be clear and those will be anticipated to be communicated out at our next governing board meeting with kairos our our new administrator for insurance president kaler um so when you said this can be communicated at the next board meeting this is information that the staff would need to know as far as the changes that are coming is it can be broad is it going to be very specific all right we know yet miss martin's okay thank you president kayla vice president anderson so we'll give a very high level um communication kind of changes in what we anticipate at that march 9th meeting it would be great we're working with kairos on a weekly basis now to determine what those changes are going to be they're taking our certificates and our plan designs and comparing them to what they have to offer and so they're analyzing that they have not completed we'll give more communication as we have more of the details and make sure that we're very clear about what those changes are going to be so there aren't any surprises and we'll also look at i mean we've talked about with kairos doing road shows doing videos sending out emails trying to hit every possible way we can to communicate out across the district so then that way there isn't any confusion but it's likely that we'll still have high level components but if there's anything that's detailed we'll certainly provide it then to the board first and then to our employees as we move into open enrollment but certainly weeks before that so they know of all those changes as they make their own decisions thank you mrs martins i remember when you did your other road show and it was very popular so i think that that would be a fantastic addition and lastly this will be [Music] as i'm doing tonight this is the second review of the mno budget on march 9th if necessary we'll present a third review but if not we'll present an action item recommending a tentative approval for the mno budget which will allow us to also issue contracts to our teachers and administrators at that time um at the same march 9th meeting i will present a second review of the capital budget and then on april 20th i'll bring the same thing a tentative approval to allow us to get ahead of long lead items in terms of those capital projects and then in june we'll formally and legally adopt a proposal propose and adopt the 2023 budget so if there's any questions any questions for mr moore the fact that we're talking about three five and seven per cent raises pleases i'm sure this entire board good work district hr finance dr foley cabinet i know this has been a difficult several weeks not knowing what our state legislatures were going to do we could have been having a very different conversation tonight and so just presenting this 1500 stipend if you stay through october august 31st these and the 357 is really exciting for all of us i believe up here i speak for all of us that we're having this conversation so again thanks for the hard work and thank you for um playing putting this out very clearly for us so that we understand um all the all the things budget when it comes to education because it's a complicated piece and so i appreciate the time that you've put into this for us all right thank you we're gonna move on again to the mr tyler marshall bond proposal number three review yep good evening president keller members of the board again um this is the third and potentially final review of the of the 2022 proposed bond um as i've alluded to previously in these bond presentations a lot of the work we've already done in our 21 proposal um we've had just refined in our 2022 proposal and i'll elaborate a little bit more on that as we proceed but this presentation will go into the proposed bond categories and the budget details we have four major categories technology safety security major maintenance and major projects we'll also discuss the tax impact of potentially a different scenarios in which we can address the middle school leases which was a board request so we have three scenarios that we would be talking to you about and those include scenario one which would be the bond proposal that we are presenting tonight scenario two would be a two question approach on the ballot which would be the bond proposal the 77 million plus half of um or one of the two middle school leases and then scenario three would be again the 77 million with a question two being both of the middle school leases being paid off we'll explain the tax impact with those scenarios and a district recommendation so the bond summary this is a graphic that i graciously um got from our pr department and worked through this is something that we anticipate being a staple for our website as well as potential handouts or social media blasts we've done a some work to try to highlight or capture the bond in its full capacity on a one-page sheet actually two pages i have another slide um so what this shows is the 77 million dollars broken down into the four categories uh i will note that the percentages change slightly from my second review we've all we've done is align the maintenance items to the true maintenance item so we've pulled major projects um that were not traditional major projects and put them in the major maintenance um category so that is if you see a discrepancy between what i present in the second review in this pie chart that is the difference so major projects would make up 50 percent of the total 77 million technology would be 25 percent major maintenance 22 and safety and security three percent i will note while safety and security was one of the highest um supported categories in the bond survey three percent it doesn't do it justice there's only so much you can spend on on safety and security in terms of addressing those needs and you'll see that later in the detailed presentation so graphic slide number two what essentially is our effort to share with our community our schools what each campus or which each community would be getting from this bond proposal on the left you will see a map of our district and our school boundaries and on the right is a graphic that represents um on top our proposed projects for each campus with a little icon um and that icon will be why is this keep going um that icon is um then placed under the school um if that school were to is potentially getting or has that projected project proposed in this bond um so you can see safety security technology major maintenance is going to be throughout our schools one note i will note on the middle schools you'll see major maintenance not included we fully anticipate tapping into the capital repairs fund that are we are currently paying into as part of our lease agreement and i'll have more information when we when we get to that point um but i am completely confident that we will be able to tap into that relatively soon and so therefore we will not need to utilize the bond for those purposes mr moore i do appreciate that the colors i know i we were talking about colors this past week and that this looks very good and it the eye you can see all the colors very well and the the gold really does stand out better than the prior yellow so yeah looks good now say all the kudos goes to our public relations department they do a great job and in taking my my visual or my my interpretation of what something should look like and putting it in a visual i'm not a visual guy i do more numbers so they do a great job of conceptually transition making that a graphic so diving into the details so um one category the technology category is very similar to the 2021 proposal this is slightly adjusted to anticipate for higher than what we realized increases in technology costs so we basically adjusted just slightly up to address for those costs that we are no we know we're going to realize in the preceding years in terms of technology costs the i do want to remind everybody that technology was the highest approved category in the bond survey which is another reason why we did not adjust this category from the 21 proposal um the details of this category um are ongoing investments into maintaining an increasing level of technology support within higgle unified reading across the top you can see the detailed categories and the preceding five fiscal years of this proposed bond the first detailed category is display panels and projectors which are devices used to project learning lessons and curriculum resources the total cost of 3.2 million would replace every classroom display panel over the next five fiscal years and again this is replacing on a scheduled replacement schedule for those panels again being pri this panel is being broken or not in use being prioritized first and then maintaining that level of replacement schedule for the next five years next is teacher laptops school office desktops and copiers totaling 2.8 million this category is greatly needed as teacher devices have been second or third priorities to student devices over the last couple years our goal as a district has been getting the devices in the hands of students due to everything we've been realizing in terms of virtual learning etc and so there are several items and sites that have extended have teacher devices well past their warranty and some of the old companies or some of the devices are no longer supported by the companies nor can we get repair parts for those the 2.8 million set aside over five years will ensure our teachers and school staff are equipped with technology that will enable them to utilize their resources to the fullest capacity as long as ensure all our schools and our teachers have the same resources available to them next network and wireless enhancements and servers represent a similar investment to the support the techno and technology usage within our schools and departments the 2.1 million represents only about 60 percent of the total cost needed for projected network enhancement projects uh the district still plans to utilize um we we get federal reimbursement for these projects via e-rate funding and so we anticipate fully uh funding that out of e rate um that additional 40 out of e rate so we're only proposing 60 of the total cost again another way we are trying to be conscious of what we're putting in here and only asking for truly what we need and then as a reminder if you don't remember what e-rate funds are for their funds provided discounts for telecommunication internet access and internal connections to eligible schools and libraries so and then lastly the one-to-one student device category provides a dedicated funding source to maintaining the one-to-one student device ratio that we've just recently achieved again you'll see student devices generally have a useful life of about five years and we replaced those even on the agenda tonight we had to both add devices due to student growth and devices that are aging and are broken so these devices turn over relatively quickly this funding source proposing this bond would then maintain that devices through the five year next five fiscal years next safety and security this is one area that was greatly increased in the proposal from 21 to 22.

um and query for you about remote meetings versus in person are we still allowed was it mid-april that um i think we're still allowed to do it yeah because i think there's actually some changes and kim can correct me to foi that allows us to do it anyway you don't need a pandemic in order to do them okay whether we decide we want to do it live or remote we can make the decisions we get closer to the date and to just figure out which way which way we think is better but i think we're allowed to do it either way okay so let's let's um tentatively schedule a zoom meeting then a virtual for the 16th the zoom definitely allows more people to watch what's going on they don't actually have to come to the meeting in order to to view it so there is that added benefit to doing it by zoom yeah okay great um a couple other dates to throw out there how to keep it civil on tuesday march 8th at 12 noon it's a virtual webinar hosted by ccm and cave it's free um and then our citywide pto meeting was moved from march 7th to march 14th and then there are some committee meetings that are scheduled in the google calendar during spring break i'm going to ask kara to reschedule those hopefully the week prior to spring break um and then minutes i just like to add ask that all members be hands-on when when we have our committee meetings um to take minutes so that doesn't fall on the same people over and over again um so if you'd like a template i have you know all sorts of templates from prior meetings that i can share if anyone needs um and that's basically it for me i will open the floor for any other board comments questions committee updates we have the superintendent evaluation committee on march 1st at 6 30.

um so we've done a couple things we've held some additional contingency in this 2023 budget to potentially account for an ael reduction if we were to realize that and number two um again we are aware of it we we are aware this is a potential um and so we are being cognizant of how we are projecting and planning for fiscal 23. uh bullet point three there the asrs has reduced their contribution rates this is a benefit to our employees they'll realize a small increase in their take-home pay due to this reduction bullet point 4 again i mentioned this in the 22 revision but we are going back to funding the leases fully from our mno budget so we do that by a budget transfer we are legally allowed to do that it reduces our mno budget to allow for the increase through the capital budget because those leases legally have to be paid from the capital fund and then lastly higley medical insurance we're looking at moving to a self-insured plan some of the implications with that include budget savings to the operational budget we're estimating over 500 000 potentially up to a million dollars but then as we become self-insured those savings will then become contingencies if we realize a large loss so that is the plan for that we do also want to note that there will be while we're working to not make any changes um we do anticipate some changes to some of our voluntary coverages and potentially our plans but we do not anticipate any increases to those plans to be put on the employees um so two factors there no increase to the employee but there will be some changes that they'll have to accommodate so as we look at our 23 estimated mno budget projection we will look at the 22 budget estimated revised general budget limit as i mentioned earlier in the may revision is 110 million that takes into consideration the ael exemption as well as the adm increase in 2023 we are projecting a estimated jbl of 112 million this budget projection is largely based on the inflation that we were projecting to receive currently the projected inflation is 2 which is the maximum inflation in the funding formula even though the state has realized up to seven percent uh our state statute limits us to two percent um we have some contingencies planned in this 23 budget we are projecting no adm increase as we have in the past we do anticipate our district to continue to grow but at what levels we do not know and so on current year funding it is best practice to not account for those additional students um so we'll we will do that bullet point three assumes again the mno transfer so in this in this budget the 112 million we already are budgeting 4.4 million to be reduced from this and transferred to capital this also takes in consideration the small reduction in asrs it is a small increase to the budget and then bullet point five is very important that we we're estimating a budget balance carry forward of 22 million and we anticipate carrying that forward into 2023 as well um that again is to account for the potential of the aggregate expense limit to be enacted in 2023 and additional contingencies that we may be unforeseen for the district so we'll take the difference between the 2022 revised jbl and the 2023 projected jbl and that presents a difference of 2.7 million and if you recall the the may revision we will realize 3.3 million in budget capacity from the 22 revision so those together estimate a budget increase of over 6 million so how are we going to utilize that 6 million into 23 so we have some fixed increases that we've already identified that we're are going to incur in 23.

what we did was uh the reason this happened was one for the addition of the director of student service mr mr james walker which is not here to take kudos but um he he has been done over the last year has been a huge huge asset to the district in terms of completely re-evaluate re-evaluating the district's security and emergency plans as well as working closely with it and reviews revisiting this topic and proposing a a long-term plan that that is both enhanced and will provide us with the capacity to monitor both our safety and security of our campuses but also talk to our network our current cameras are are not compatible to do that and have longer storage and years of usable life it is an investment initially but those investments will pay off in terms of protecting our sites protecting our students and ensuring the safety and security of our staff and and students so that is the increase in safety in the security cameras portion intercoms this is typically a one-year cost and we have been um our intercom system are greatly in need of replacement these intercoms once replaced typically last 10 to 20 years and so this cost represents a complete replacement of all our schools intercom systems which would be an investment that would last 10 to 20 years next major maintenance this category again increased in costs due in part to us just realigning some of these categories that are true maintenance categories to the maintenance budget so you'll see the major maintenance categories highlighted all have large capital funding implications uh over the next five years these uh category these projects will need to be funded whether they are funded from the district or they're funded from the bond and so often times what is proposed in this is projects that have been neglected that we could not fund that we need to fund over the next five years in order to bring our systems either up to a level of maintenance that we currently are at and or provide preventative maintenance to those aging systems that are going to die out over the next five years so one category flooring hvac those are those are categories that com that often get wear and tear and it is more cost effective especially with hvac to replace that item on the front end rather than when it breaks and becomes an additional cost for the district going down the categories roofing and roofing and coding towards the later half of this bond proposal there are several schools that need some several roof replacements that is what is represented in that category grounds improvements this includes shade structures playgrounds and fields and tracks often times with shade structures we have asked our ptos to cover either adding or repairing those and same with playgrounds and so this is a dedicated line item to address those aging playgrounds or the safety concerns on playgrounds as well as replace fields or tracks that are aging or wearing down fire panels are a big topic in terms of safety and security fire panels um in our district are still on the analog system and so while they work uh they're not efficient and they potentially leave areas where there can be deficiencies so replacing a fire panel is not cheap though um that is represented in in each one of those lines besides only one school is roughly 500 000 to replace a fire panel so it is an extensive cost but this allows us this proposal in this bond allows us to start to address those older file panels um to make sure our sites are safe and secure parking lot improvements and repairs this is an ongoing capital expense that we realize we still utilize our adjacent waste fund to our fullest capacity but oftentimes not all our parking lots are fire lane or adjacent waves eligible so that cost represents the cost for the general parking lot to be repaired or replaced exterior painting and weatherization this is one category that was moved from major projects to the major maintenance this is weatherization on our school campuses we have several buildings that are aging deteriorating paint this not only looks bad but it is the cost of the district because it makes the building inefficient so these this budget of 1.1 million set aside for five years will address some of those older schools and start that replacement plan district white lighting upgrade exterior and interior this was another one that was in the major projects but has been moved to major maintenance this is a initiative to move to led to both be energy efficient on the and save utility class and so this is we estimate this about one million a year over the course of five years to finish out finish out the led upgrade that we've already been in progress of starting all right lastly it's major project so again we we phased out some of those items that were um not exactly needs of the district um and do not want to district and rather we just prioritize the needs of the district in this major project proposal the first big one on the board is the new elementary school this takes the place of the proposed classroom editions that we were looking at in the northern part of our district this would then new elementary school would be in the northern part of our district and then potentially take the place of or re-prioritize some of the students who would go to those elementary schools who would need a classroom addition would now attend this school so still a lot to be discussed with this but it is being proposed in this bond and it'll be out into in which we would look to address that phase two of higley high school this would be an immediate need and um miss kaler and ms reese attended the second community meeting where we're discussing some of the master planning for the school in terms of the necessary needs for the for the high school and i'll go over that in the next slide the last two higley center performing arts uh 1.3 million has been set aside there's some general safety concerns with some of the rafting or the curtains and in the structural of the stage area and so this is a one-time upgrade and which would bring that facility back up to safety standards that we expect and then warehouse and transportation small allocations have been set aside for each of those buildings that also have some needs so transportation is in desperate need of a facility to test drug test their employees that essentially if there is an accident we are required to test them they only have one bathroom currently and so if that employee goes in there to be drug tested it takes up the whole bathroom and uh it's really a need for the district to have an established area that's set aside for testing and so we can do that in a process that doesn't interrupt the rest of the staff in 2026 the warehouse would would need a massive roof renovation as well as replacing all the hvac units that are at their useful life so so as i mentioned the master planning that's currently going on at higley high school we currently have two more meetings set aside for the community meetings where you know members of the staff students or community can provide input into the both phase one of the building edition and phase two of the master planning in terms of what we're going to do to address the both campus safety as well as other campus renovations for higley high school you'll see pretty much the whole map is circled and outlined because the whole whole school needs addressed and so yeah we also did an additional survey to capture both what the community has been saying in terms of these community meetings but those who were not attending the community meetings we then sent out an additional survey to capture both the voices of all the teachers and all the students so that is all being taken into consideration that's part of the process we are in right now and that is part of the reason why we're doing these community meetings to gather that input and not make a decision with just the district bias or what the district feels is a need and so i think it's very informative i have no i know some of the teachers have been appreciative of having a voice and having input into this process and again i'm there to ensure that we are under budget or at budget um and really addressing needs and not just wants so moving to tax impact so as i mentioned earlier we have three scenarios that the board wanted to look at so scenario one would be a one question bond which is everything what i went over in the detailed budget the 77.2 million which addresses the core needs of the district for the next five years those categories include technology safety and security major maintenance and major projects scenario two is a two question bond for 77 million and then a second question for 30 million which would address the payoff of one of the two lease middle schools that would be a total bond of 108 million and scenario three is a two question bond again again question 1 being the 77.2 million and then question 2 being 58 million which would pay off both of the lease middle schools for a total bond of 135 million and so i'm gonna have i invited mike lavelli um here tonight to uh talk a little bit about the tax impact that each one of those scenarios would have thank you for staying tonight appreciate it thank you that's better it's a pleasure to be back in front of you uh it's been it's been a little while but uh seems like at least once a year sometimes twice but yes as mr moore mentioned there are three bonding scenarios that are being contemplated the first scenario is the 77.2 for all the projects that he just described i'm just going to go left to right your current bonding capacity i'm sorry it's not current what your bonding capacity will be in august when you're assessed values you just got a big 10.4 jump in your assessed value so uh that's your net full cash assessed value your bonding capacity is estimated here the third monday in august to be 160 million now that's your that's a snapshot in time your bonding capacity grows every year as your assessed value climbs and as you pay off principal as you pay off debt so over say a five to ten year period your bonding capacity can grow from this to considerably more so this is but thankfully you're a district that actually has enough capacity to cover any of these three uh bond questions um and so that's that first column the second column as mr moore mentioned are the three different scenarios uh the first one is your projects the second one is paying off one middle school and the last scenario is paying off both middle schools of that lease uh we then just show a total estimated debt service debt service is your mortgage payment that's principal plus interest uh and we estimate that over and these are 20-year bond issues um 77 million for instance may be broken up over two or three sales over a five-year period but these are 20-year repayments and so the estimated principal is 77 million plus interest equaling a total of 110 million and likewise with the other two scenarios there you can see uh the next column is your projected average tax rate impact so every bond election has a tax impact right and so we average the we take all the tax impacts for just this new bond the new 77 million or 108 million or 135 all the years of the tax impact and then average it each of those years and so the average tax impact to any property owner is 36 cents per 100 of assessed valuation that's for the 77 million it's 50 cents if you have the uh the second scenario and it's 63 cents for the the total scenario three for the whole 135 million dollar ask now as mr moore mentioned uh they com we're contemplating either one or two questions so the first scenario just one question asking the voters one question for just projects um and then scenario two or three would be if the board decides to to add one tech one on is do you want to have a second question to pay off half or pay off one middle school or a second question to pay off the full thing the last column tax rate increase we have no yes yes it's probably better to to answer that on the next slide but essentially what we're going with on that is taxpayers were expecting for for the bond tax rate for the district uh in next fiscal year we're estimating and that's not set yet but we're estimating your bond tax rate this is before the election to be a dollar 31.

one is property accountability insurance um our prepaid legal is paid from this and then you know hearing james and david tonight we might need to increase that they are having additional legal expenses by reviewing our code of conduct but the point is we continue to utilize our capacity with the trust to its fullest effect but there will be a small increase for utilizing those services we do have additional fte dealer growth being added a majority of those fte are at the school level and there's also some slight reclassifications to align to our organizational chart fc contingency 490 000 has been allocated to our budgeted excuse me to mom for for next year that is to address any increases in fte if we were to experience massive growth in any certain grade level we can hire knowing that we have a contingency set aside for that to address those growth we are starting to slowly address rising utility costs by setting aside a small budget contingency in this next year budget for those increases protected salary increases i'll review that on the next slide and then contracted landscaping we are having a extremely difficult time filling landscaping positions right now we have looked at potentially moving to a contracted service for the landscaping specifically those employees have been notified in terms of there is no reduction to employees but the restructuring of that department again there would be no employee there would be no employee loss we would not be riffing people to move to contracted we would simply be realigning our org chart to compensate for the vacancies that we've been filling for the lack of landscaping position so that cost represents the move from a salaried person to contracting so the total fixed cost increases total 1.2 million as i mentioned earlier the total estimated budget increase will estimate to realize is over 6 million that leaves a difference of 4.7 million so looking at potential compensation increases for next year again all these compensation increases are based off the budget increases and not contingencies that i've already pre-budgeted in the in the 23 plan so taking the top line you'll see the remaining budget increases after the fixed cost that's the 4.7 million represented across the board that we'll see up top we're looking at both a three percent five percent and seven percent increase uh the potential increase cost for each one of those percentages is represented in that middle column and you can see the budget increase remaining balance so this is again this is not the the total budget this is just the budget remaining off of the increases that we're realizing over the two fiscal years is very that's what is represented in the remaining balance so as we look towards what we're proposing for 23 and total compensation increases will still yet to be determined what we'll present on the ninth um classroom site fund increases uh we have increased a total of three hundred dollars totaling seven thousand dollars for that package 3 500 will be moved to the teacher base and 3 500 will remain in performance pay we are as i mentioned earlier proposing a retention stipend for next year again that's 1500 prorated on fte if you signed your 2023 contract and worked through august 31st and then health insurance again no increase to the employee cost this will be the second year in the row in which we're the district was able to do that while metal cost increase are continuing across the board the district has been able to offset those increases with low claims and or strategic decisions with insurance as i mentioned earlier there will be we do anticipate some changes to voluntary coverage so i want to be clear and those will be anticipated to be communicated out at our next governing board meeting with kairos our our new administrator for insurance president kaler um so when you said this can be communicated at the next board meeting this is information that the staff would need to know as far as the changes that are coming is it can be broad is it going to be very specific all right we know yet miss martin's okay thank you president kayla vice president anderson so we'll give a very high level um communication kind of changes in what we anticipate at that march 9th meeting it would be great we're working with kairos on a weekly basis now to determine what those changes are going to be they're taking our certificates and our plan designs and comparing them to what they have to offer and so they're analyzing that they have not completed we'll give more communication as we have more of the details and make sure that we're very clear about what those changes are going to be so there aren't any surprises and we'll also look at i mean we've talked about with kairos doing road shows doing videos sending out emails trying to hit every possible way we can to communicate out across the district so then that way there isn't any confusion but it's likely that we'll still have high level components but if there's anything that's detailed we'll certainly provide it then to the board first and then to our employees as we move into open enrollment but certainly weeks before that so they know of all those changes as they make their own decisions thank you mrs martins i remember when you did your other road show and it was very popular so i think that that would be a fantastic addition and lastly this will be [Music] as i'm doing tonight this is the second review of the mno budget on march 9th if necessary we'll present a third review but if not we'll present an action item recommending a tentative approval for the mno budget which will allow us to also issue contracts to our teachers and administrators at that time um at the same march 9th meeting i will present a second review of the capital budget and then on april 20th i'll bring the same thing a tentative approval to allow us to get ahead of long lead items in terms of those capital projects and then in june we'll formally and legally adopt a proposal propose and adopt the 2023 budget so if there's any questions any questions for mr moore the fact that we're talking about three five and seven per cent raises pleases i'm sure this entire board good work district hr finance dr foley cabinet i know this has been a difficult several weeks not knowing what our state legislatures were going to do we could have been having a very different conversation tonight and so just presenting this 1500 stipend if you stay through october august 31st these and the 357 is really exciting for all of us i believe up here i speak for all of us that we're having this conversation so again thanks for the hard work and thank you for um playing putting this out very clearly for us so that we understand um all the all the things budget when it comes to education because it's a complicated piece and so i appreciate the time that you've put into this for us all right thank you we're gonna move on again to the mr tyler marshall bond proposal number three review yep good evening president keller members of the board again um this is the third and potentially final review of the of the 2022 proposed bond um as i've alluded to previously in these bond presentations a lot of the work we've already done in our 21 proposal um we've had just refined in our 2022 proposal and i'll elaborate a little bit more on that as we proceed but this presentation will go into the proposed bond categories and the budget details we have four major categories technology safety security major maintenance and major projects we'll also discuss the tax impact of potentially a different scenarios in which we can address the middle school leases which was a board request so we have three scenarios that we would be talking to you about and those include scenario one which would be the bond proposal that we are presenting tonight scenario two would be a two question approach on the ballot which would be the bond proposal the 77 million plus half of um or one of the two middle school leases and then scenario three would be again the 77 million with a question two being both of the middle school leases being paid off we'll explain the tax impact with those scenarios and a district recommendation so the bond summary this is a graphic that i graciously um got from our pr department and worked through this is something that we anticipate being a staple for our website as well as potential handouts or social media blasts we've done a some work to try to highlight or capture the bond in its full capacity on a one-page sheet actually two pages i have another slide um so what this shows is the 77 million dollars broken down into the four categories uh i will note that the percentages change slightly from my second review we've all we've done is align the maintenance items to the true maintenance item so we've pulled major projects um that were not traditional major projects and put them in the major maintenance um category so that is if you see a discrepancy between what i present in the second review in this pie chart that is the difference so major projects would make up 50 percent of the total 77 million technology would be 25 percent major maintenance 22 and safety and security three percent i will note while safety and security was one of the highest um supported categories in the bond survey three percent it doesn't do it justice there's only so much you can spend on on safety and security in terms of addressing those needs and you'll see that later in the detailed presentation so graphic slide number two what essentially is our effort to share with our community our schools what each campus or which each community would be getting from this bond proposal on the left you will see a map of our district and our school boundaries and on the right is a graphic that represents um on top our proposed projects for each campus with a little icon um and that icon will be why is this keep going um that icon is um then placed under the school um if that school were to is potentially getting or has that projected project proposed in this bond um so you can see safety security technology major maintenance is going to be throughout our schools one note i will note on the middle schools you'll see major maintenance not included we fully anticipate tapping into the capital repairs fund that are we are currently paying into as part of our lease agreement and i'll have more information when we when we get to that point um but i am completely confident that we will be able to tap into that relatively soon and so therefore we will not need to utilize the bond for those purposes mr moore i do appreciate that the colors i know i we were talking about colors this past week and that this looks very good and it the eye you can see all the colors very well and the the gold really does stand out better than the prior yellow so yeah looks good now say all the kudos goes to our public relations department they do a great job and in taking my my visual or my my interpretation of what something should look like and putting it in a visual i'm not a visual guy i do more numbers so they do a great job of conceptually transition making that a graphic so diving into the details so um one category the technology category is very similar to the 2021 proposal this is slightly adjusted to anticipate for higher than what we realized increases in technology costs so we basically adjusted just slightly up to address for those costs that we are no we know we're going to realize in the preceding years in terms of technology costs the i do want to remind everybody that technology was the highest approved category in the bond survey which is another reason why we did not adjust this category from the 21 proposal um the details of this category um are ongoing investments into maintaining an increasing level of technology support within higgle unified reading across the top you can see the detailed categories and the preceding five fiscal years of this proposed bond the first detailed category is display panels and projectors which are devices used to project learning lessons and curriculum resources the total cost of 3.2 million would replace every classroom display panel over the next five fiscal years and again this is replacing on a scheduled replacement schedule for those panels again being pri this panel is being broken or not in use being prioritized first and then maintaining that level of replacement schedule for the next five years next is teacher laptops school office desktops and copiers totaling 2.8 million this category is greatly needed as teacher devices have been second or third priorities to student devices over the last couple years our goal as a district has been getting the devices in the hands of students due to everything we've been realizing in terms of virtual learning etc and so there are several items and sites that have extended have teacher devices well past their warranty and some of the old companies or some of the devices are no longer supported by the companies nor can we get repair parts for those the 2.8 million set aside over five years will ensure our teachers and school staff are equipped with technology that will enable them to utilize their resources to the fullest capacity as long as ensure all our schools and our teachers have the same resources available to them next network and wireless enhancements and servers represent a similar investment to the support the techno and technology usage within our schools and departments the 2.1 million represents only about 60 percent of the total cost needed for projected network enhancement projects uh the district still plans to utilize um we we get federal reimbursement for these projects via e-rate funding and so we anticipate fully uh funding that out of e rate um that additional 40 out of e rate so we're only proposing 60 of the total cost again another way we are trying to be conscious of what we're putting in here and only asking for truly what we need and then as a reminder if you don't remember what e-rate funds are for their funds provided discounts for telecommunication internet access and internal connections to eligible schools and libraries so and then lastly the one-to-one student device category provides a dedicated funding source to maintaining the one-to-one student device ratio that we've just recently achieved again you'll see student devices generally have a useful life of about five years and we replaced those even on the agenda tonight we had to both add devices due to student growth and devices that are aging and are broken so these devices turn over relatively quickly this funding source proposing this bond would then maintain that devices through the five year next five fiscal years next safety and security this is one area that was greatly increased in the proposal from 21 to 22.

so that's based on a per 100 success value a buck 31 that's based on all your outstanding bonds okay not what's being asked for going forward and so we expect the bond tax rate to be roughly 1.31 could be dollar 30.32 could be somewhere around there that will be set here again third monday in august and we'll have our a good handle on that tax rate here in june july august when we worked with the county but we're estimating 1.31 well we can layer in the 77 million again they're being repaid over 20 years each sale right we can layer in this 36 36 tax impact over 20 years and basically for that first scenario keep your tax rates the the people in the district that that tax rate being a buck 31 next year next year which is before the election the very next year and it'll remain a dollar thirty one okay why don't we go to the next slide i don't know if i have that here here we go and i'll kind of hit this home here uh for the first scenario what we are showing here your average tax value home property in your district right now is about 250 000 worship for illustrative purposes we're showing you 500 000 because we know you have a lot of homes ranging from 250 000 for instance all the way on up now this is tax value this is not market value okay so tax value is usually considerably lower than market value okay so what you see when you get that tax bill right your home value a lot you're like well that's a lot less than what you can sell your house for right hopefully and so with that 500 000 we're talking so that might be a 600 000 home six hundred twenty five thousand dollar market value the tax value would be right around five hundred thousand okay so how how the first the next column current annual cost that's that dollar thirty one tax rate for next year again before the election for just your outstanding bonds you're already paying off right that dollar 31 uh the cost for a 500 000 tax value home it equals 655 dollars so that and we and that's it's the same again pre-election the same cost for any of these scenarios right this is pre-election the next column is post-election if uh the 77 if you ask for the just one question and it's 77 million the estimated cost can will continue to be a dollar 31 total bond tax rate and then over several years it will go to start to go down but a dollar 31 max tax rate in total including your old debt and so the the the the homeowners can expect same tax rate if your 500 000 remains the same the same uh cost as 655 now you'll notice bond scenario number two and three again is a tax increase over the prior year right so there's your there's your increase um but not much but it's still you know your the taxpayers are again next year 655 dollars can expect them pay a year later 715 dollars annually divide that by 12 and there's your monthly column there of and again this is total tax impact for your outstanding debt that you're currently paying a previously voted and authorized debt again you already sold the bonds built projects with them bought buses built schools right and now the taxpayers are paying that plus the new bonds if the voters voted in november okay so this is the total tax bill estimate if you will for a 500 000 tax value home and so this is where you can see there's uh no tax rate increase over the the previous year for that first scenario okay we expected that tax rate to be leveled dollar 31.31 estimate and then therefore no tax increase over the previous year again tax increases yes for bronze scenario two and three and i believe that concludes my piece of the presentation but i'm happy to pause and see if you have any questions any questions i do go ahead mrs wilson if anyone in our community is watching this how could they ask you questions is there a way that we can like funnel them through mr moore mr moore how would you like someone in the community who may be questioning information on the slide because this is a lot to handle a lot of people get confused on the estimated tax value i know versus how much they would sell their house for because they say no that's not how much i would sell my house for and we try to explain maybe you guys could explain it in a different way than i personally could explain it so i didn't know how you would like people to ask questions mr moore yeah miss wilson i would have them generally either reach out to myself or through public relations in order to get the information so i can communicate with either stifle or and i can answer those questions as needed but great thank you president keller sorry i have a couple questions um and tyler i'm sorry i don't know if you have this information right offhand so on our sorry scenario two if we added a second question to pay off one of the middle leases do you know between the 30 million that we have on here what would we pay total if we paid out our lease not paid early but with interest do you happen to know that number i'm really sorry mr lovely can get us close i think i understand the question your question um if we carried our lease to term okay what would the total amount that we would pay for for the full boat of that last full boat here on out i might have that didn't we didn't we have that um you're asking for the lease amount for school yeah president keller board members we the total we've already made nine years of payments but the total lease deal was around 170 million so with interest including interest yes okay but again we've made nine years of payment so that is a little less but that is still a representation of what we would have to pay if we maintain our current payment schedule throughout the end of this lease to 2052.

what we did was uh the reason this happened was one for the addition of the director of student service mr mr james walker which is not here to take kudos but um he he has been done over the last year has been a huge huge asset to the district in terms of completely re-evaluate re-evaluating the district's security and emergency plans as well as working closely with it and reviews revisiting this topic and proposing a a long-term plan that that is both enhanced and will provide us with the capacity to monitor both our safety and security of our campuses but also talk to our network our current cameras are are not compatible to do that and have longer storage and years of usable life it is an investment initially but those investments will pay off in terms of protecting our sites protecting our students and ensuring the safety and security of our staff and and students so that is the increase in safety in the security cameras portion intercoms this is typically a one-year cost and we have been um our intercom system are greatly in need of replacement these intercoms once replaced typically last 10 to 20 years and so this cost represents a complete replacement of all our schools intercom systems which would be an investment that would last 10 to 20 years next major maintenance this category again increased in costs due in part to us just realigning some of these categories that are true maintenance categories to the maintenance budget so you'll see the major maintenance categories highlighted all have large capital funding implications uh over the next five years these uh category these projects will need to be funded whether they are funded from the district or they're funded from the bond and so often times what is proposed in this is projects that have been neglected that we could not fund that we need to fund over the next five years in order to bring our systems either up to a level of maintenance that we currently are at and or provide preventative maintenance to those aging systems that are going to die out over the next five years so one category flooring hvac those are those are categories that com that often get wear and tear and it is more cost effective especially with hvac to replace that item on the front end rather than when it breaks and becomes an additional cost for the district going down the categories roofing and roofing and coding towards the later half of this bond proposal there are several schools that need some several roof replacements that is what is represented in that category grounds improvements this includes shade structures playgrounds and fields and tracks often times with shade structures we have asked our ptos to cover either adding or repairing those and same with playgrounds and so this is a dedicated line item to address those aging playgrounds or the safety concerns on playgrounds as well as replace fields or tracks that are aging or wearing down fire panels are a big topic in terms of safety and security fire panels um in our district are still on the analog system and so while they work uh they're not efficient and they potentially leave areas where there can be deficiencies so replacing a fire panel is not cheap though um that is represented in in each one of those lines besides only one school is roughly 500 000 to replace a fire panel so it is an extensive cost but this allows us this proposal in this bond allows us to start to address those older file panels um to make sure our sites are safe and secure parking lot improvements and repairs this is an ongoing capital expense that we realize we still utilize our adjacent waste fund to our fullest capacity but oftentimes not all our parking lots are fire lane or adjacent waves eligible so that cost represents the cost for the general parking lot to be repaired or replaced exterior painting and weatherization this is one category that was moved from major projects to the major maintenance this is weatherization on our school campuses we have several buildings that are aging deteriorating paint this not only looks bad but it is the cost of the district because it makes the building inefficient so these this budget of 1.1 million set aside for five years will address some of those older schools and start that replacement plan district white lighting upgrade exterior and interior this was another one that was in the major projects but has been moved to major maintenance this is a initiative to move to led to both be energy efficient on the and save utility class and so this is we estimate this about one million a year over the course of five years to finish out finish out the led upgrade that we've already been in progress of starting all right lastly it's major project so again we we phased out some of those items that were um not exactly needs of the district um and do not want to district and rather we just prioritize the needs of the district in this major project proposal the first big one on the board is the new elementary school this takes the place of the proposed classroom editions that we were looking at in the northern part of our district this would then new elementary school would be in the northern part of our district and then potentially take the place of or re-prioritize some of the students who would go to those elementary schools who would need a classroom addition would now attend this school so still a lot to be discussed with this but it is being proposed in this bond and it'll be out into in which we would look to address that phase two of higley high school this would be an immediate need and um miss kaler and ms reese attended the second community meeting where we're discussing some of the master planning for the school in terms of the necessary needs for the for the high school and i'll go over that in the next slide the last two higley center performing arts uh 1.3 million has been set aside there's some general safety concerns with some of the rafting or the curtains and in the structural of the stage area and so this is a one-time upgrade and which would bring that facility back up to safety standards that we expect and then warehouse and transportation small allocations have been set aside for each of those buildings that also have some needs so transportation is in desperate need of a facility to test drug test their employees that essentially if there is an accident we are required to test them they only have one bathroom currently and so if that employee goes in there to be drug tested it takes up the whole bathroom and uh it's really a need for the district to have an established area that's set aside for testing and so we can do that in a process that doesn't interrupt the rest of the staff in 2026 the warehouse would would need a massive roof renovation as well as replacing all the hvac units that are at their useful life so so as i mentioned the master planning that's currently going on at higley high school we currently have two more meetings set aside for the community meetings where you know members of the staff students or community can provide input into the both phase one of the building edition and phase two of the master planning in terms of what we're going to do to address the both campus safety as well as other campus renovations for higley high school you'll see pretty much the whole map is circled and outlined because the whole whole school needs addressed and so yeah we also did an additional survey to capture both what the community has been saying in terms of these community meetings but those who were not attending the community meetings we then sent out an additional survey to capture both the voices of all the teachers and all the students so that is all being taken into consideration that's part of the process we are in right now and that is part of the reason why we're doing these community meetings to gather that input and not make a decision with just the district bias or what the district feels is a need and so i think it's very informative i have no i know some of the teachers have been appreciative of having a voice and having input into this process and again i'm there to ensure that we are under budget or at budget um and really addressing needs and not just wants so moving to tax impact so as i mentioned earlier we have three scenarios that the board wanted to look at so scenario one would be a one question bond which is everything what i went over in the detailed budget the 77.2 million which addresses the core needs of the district for the next five years those categories include technology safety and security major maintenance and major projects scenario two is a two question bond for 77 million and then a second question for 30 million which would address the payoff of one of the two lease middle schools that would be a total bond of 108 million and scenario three is a two question bond again again question 1 being the 77.2 million and then question 2 being 58 million which would pay off both of the lease middle schools for a total bond of 135 million and so i'm gonna have i invited mike lavelli um here tonight to uh talk a little bit about the tax impact that each one of those scenarios would have thank you for staying tonight appreciate it thank you that's better it's a pleasure to be back in front of you uh it's been it's been a little while but uh seems like at least once a year sometimes twice but yes as mr moore mentioned there are three bonding scenarios that are being contemplated the first scenario is the 77.2 for all the projects that he just described i'm just going to go left to right your current bonding capacity i'm sorry it's not current what your bonding capacity will be in august when you're assessed values you just got a big 10.4 jump in your assessed value so uh that's your net full cash assessed value your bonding capacity is estimated here the third monday in august to be 160 million now that's your that's a snapshot in time your bonding capacity grows every year as your assessed value climbs and as you pay off principal as you pay off debt so over say a five to ten year period your bonding capacity can grow from this to considerably more so this is but thankfully you're a district that actually has enough capacity to cover any of these three uh bond questions um and so that's that first column the second column as mr moore mentioned are the three different scenarios uh the first one is your projects the second one is paying off one middle school and the last scenario is paying off both middle schools of that lease uh we then just show a total estimated debt service debt service is your mortgage payment that's principal plus interest uh and we estimate that over and these are 20-year bond issues um 77 million for instance may be broken up over two or three sales over a five-year period but these are 20-year repayments and so the estimated principal is 77 million plus interest equaling a total of 110 million and likewise with the other two scenarios there you can see uh the next column is your projected average tax rate impact so every bond election has a tax impact right and so we average the we take all the tax impacts for just this new bond the new 77 million or 108 million or 135 all the years of the tax impact and then average it each of those years and so the average tax impact to any property owner is 36 cents per 100 of assessed valuation that's for the 77 million it's 50 cents if you have the uh the second scenario and it's 63 cents for the the total scenario three for the whole 135 million dollar ask now as mr moore mentioned uh they com we're contemplating either one or two questions so the first scenario just one question asking the voters one question for just projects um and then scenario two or three would be if the board decides to to add one tech one on is do you want to have a second question to pay off half or pay off one middle school or a second question to pay off the full thing the last column tax rate increase we have no yes yes it's probably better to to answer that on the next slide but essentially what we're going with on that is taxpayers were expecting for for the bond tax rate for the district uh in next fiscal year we're estimating and that's not set yet but we're estimating your bond tax rate this is before the election to be a dollar 31.

okay so we would have to pay a total of 107 million and i know we talked about it sorry 170. um and i know we've talked about how many times over that is the building cost had we paid for it so the amount of interest we would save at least if we paid off one is relatively a good chunk uh given where interest rates are right now uh yes um and you can because the call date is coming up on finally a 40-year deal but the call date was 10 years out but that 10-year period is coming up here shortly so because the call data is coming up and interest rates are relatively you know still doing pretty well you know i know you've probably all been watching rates have jumped up a little bit but so yes uh you know the the savings could be considerable so would it be a reasonable analogy that what would we what we would be asking to do for a bond with our middle school leases be relatively similar to what a homeowner would do with their home by refinancing that you still owe it we still have to pay a certain amount that money is still coming from our taxpayers whether it's over the next 30 years still or the next 20 at a lower rate would i mean is that similar what we're asking for if we were to ask for our bond to include uh paying off one or both leases would that be similar to a homeowner refinancing at a lower interest rate less payment sure i mean the district has taken advantage of low interest rate environments before every finance year bonds it be similar to that a little bit more complicated in a sense because you're refinancing a lease you know which is being paid for your budget with with a bond but yes but in terms of what you're asking your concept of replacing old debt with higher interest rates with new debt at lower rates yes and it frees up money in between and and everything i'm just because it is a very complicated process and and with lease versus not lease i mean there's a lot of legal stuff in there but with that portion of our lease to try and and help people perhaps understand from what they would do our community in their everyday lives i have an opportunity to refinance my mortgage get a lower rate pay off one bank take it to another i have a lower payment i free up cash things like that is essentially what we would be doing with asking for that it's just a different funding source again taking the legalities out of the lease versus at that point we would own it versus leasing it and everything else but from a finance standpoint we still have to pay this money we still owe it it's still coming from our taxpayers whether it comes from a bond or whether we move it from our capital funding it's still coming from our our taxpayers it's it's our debt and this would be an opportunity to have it at a lower rate than what we currently are that is generally true assuming you the rates stay you know of course of course but in the general sense of it yes okay i just wanted to again we talk about people not understanding it's very confusing school finance is very confusing you throw in a very strange scenario with a lease buyback all of that it does complicate it but overall it's relatively similar from a finance standpoint of a homeowner refinancing their home correct and it's simplistic form of course yes of course i mean if it was that simple but of course other questions this is mr schultz you had something questions personally when i look at those um i know we're not totally to the end do you want to finish tyler the presentation yeah if you don't mind i have one more slide yeah let's finish and then we can wrap up with final sure so ultimately board member we we hear you um we understand your concern and we feel it too which is why we brought this tonight too but the district truly feels that after reviewing our true capital needs of the virgin district we feel that's captured in that 77 million that will both address our students our staff need and the needs of our district as we continue to grow over the next five years we asked our community for feedback especially since we just went out and failed an election via survey that feedback was communicated via staff and community they provided input both into our capital categories that we projected and our priorities the district summarized those survey results and feedback and adjust it accordingly and then the recommendation is ultimately because of the fact this is so complex to leases just not the right time for our district to continue to push this into a bond we are still looking at other avenues with stifle in terms of refinancing those leases and bringing those under the district and eliminating maybe some of those excess fees and maybe lowering the interest rate which would reduce our annual payment so we're still research researching other options but ultimately we do not feel like the voters have an appetite to approve one or the other and and that is not um [Music] in the core either capital needs of our district as we as we look at the next five years and what we need um this proposal also aligns again like i mentioned to the stakeholder feedback it was clear that the stakeholders had a lack of understanding of how both bonds work and then on top of that the confusion with the leases it is not a subject in which our stakeholders completely understand and we do not feel as advantageous that it is included in this bond proposal so on the march too far ninth meeting we will bring we'll be bringing a resolution um that just includes the 77.2 million um and that will essentially this is a earlier call for an election um but we've done a lot of the groundwork that we basically just carried over from last year we've revised our plan with the community feedback we feel comfortable calling for this election early and letting both our voters know this is going to be on the ballot and letting our our constituents our political action committees to establish either pro or con campaigns if you lack a better word up until the november election so with that yeah if you have any questions i'll be happy to answer anybody have any questions go ahead mrs schultz i i just want to say to board member wilson's point on the estimated tax rate um is there something we can just make simple on the website or something that people can understand what you the what public relations did is amazing i think it's so perfect the way that people can just look at that and see exactly what they need and i love the qr code and everything i think it's great i think knowing that we are going to continue down scenario one we can go and elaborate on this a little more to include some some different values for residents um you know mr lavelli can help us with um gathering the what the with the those filling out this table essentially for all those different um residential property values and help to create a little graphic that would be informative to both our community and also our taxpayers so okay perfect thank you um can we add an extra to this slide right here can we add an extra column that says like how much your house would actually sell for and then like i'm not even like you know like what your house market value yeah that's a better word thank you market value and then what your assessed rate is is there a way to do that does it change is that why we don't do that that's a great question and the reason why i kind of just ballparked it between 600 and six and a quarter i mean typically uh tax value is roughly 85 percent 82 to 85 percent of market value right and but it's there is a range and oftentimes tax tax values lag market value not a bad thing right so it's very difficult to say that that's a six hundred thousand dollar home and put it in a column versus 620 or 588 or you know um it really is difficult to to put that number in unfortunately and have some certainty around it i do know that that held up a lot of our taxpayers last time that was a major question when i went to your road show that no house in our district was worth whatever number you had put in your slide mr moore um so that's why i was trying to maybe show people that that's not the that's not the value you would sell your house for it's the value that the assessed value that's right and when in the in the voter pamphlet we will show the value at a hundred thousand and i know that's a lot lower than the average value in the district of about 250 but if somebody has an 800 000 value on their tax bill they can multiply that hundred thousand dollar number by eight you know so that hundred thousand is really helpful and then we can show it some more range 250 500 750 or something like that to be helpful in this area well maybe from on our electronic pieces that we can have a link to the well no the maricopa county site that they can go in and put their address in and look at what their assessed value is unless you pay your own property taxes you get the little postcard and you look at what last year was what this year is and what they think next year is and you look at it and if you don't know what you're looking at you throw it away because it's just a little postcard and it talks about the assessed value the full cash value things like that but most people pay their taxes through their mortgages and just never even see a tax bill but it will give you your whole tax bill it will tell you what you're already paying for higley which you're paying for maricopa county community colleges what you're paying for the town of gilbert it will break out each of those so maybe on our electronic versions we have a link to that if somebody is is interested i mean it is small amounts and especially when we're talking about growth in our district the more people who have homes in our district the more it spreads it out and the lower each the each of us are are responsible for yeah your residential great point your residential value growth year over years not just on the existing homes right it's nice to see your home value go up but it's also in this area new new homes being hitting the tax rolls that's a big component of it and that's that's very helpful right that spreads the burden out people are moving in um they're going to be sending their kids potentially to your schools and they're going to be sharing in the burden of these projects well and with the growth we're projecting and with the request of including a new elementary school is because of all the building and growth on the north side and maybe on our graphic i know we don't have a site but somewhere indicate the northern part again i don't i i've heard many people say they've talked about a new school we don't need a new school look at all these schools we have but a lot of our families don't travel north of the 202 and don't realize that that's where all this building is going on and there is not an elementary school in that area and so we do need it and the two closest schools can't really handle the amount of growth it's going to take not to mention the build that's going across just on the north side of warner which is not our boundary but has the ability for us to be able to capture those kids that growth is huge right now but mr moore i just had sorry i just had a quick few questions um as far as our major maintenance we talked about weatherization and things like that i know sfp has changed their new process are we still exploring those options for funding i mean we we've been successful in the past of exploring those to try and help offset yep so much like i mentioned with technology with e-rate funding and then with same thing with major maintenance we are still submitting whether it's building renewable grants or sfb funding for projects and as i mentioned though um if you remember like sfb oftentimes and they've changed criteria over the years but it's either sometimes it's at a point where it's either failed and or failing in which they will approve an application for funding um and so a lot of what this bond has in it is preventative maintenance to both save us on the front end and on the back end with utility costs but we still um often submit applications for any sort of projects that are either failing and or failed and plus we we submit in general too just to try to get additional funding i will note too on you won't see any sort of major projects for high schools we we are eligible for sfb funding for the next where it would be classroom edition for high schools if our enrollment continues to grow in excess of about 16 million so the sfb formula if it currently stands would we would be eligible for sfb funding for any soda if additional high school renovation and that was information that was just shared with me today so we are still constantly trying to find other funding sources to support our capital needs and then the other things i've heard is we really don't need this money we really don't need to do this stuff so can we get by if our bond still doesn't pass can we get by with our regular capital budget we can certainly get back with the basic amenities we would have to drastically reduce our expectations for both our students staff and community in terms of what we're providing but we can provide a sink that turns on water what it looks like i couldn't tell you we can provide a toilet that flushes but as we approach and we're not at that point now but over the next couple of years we're going to essentially reach some of those points at some of our facilities if we don't start addressing them and we'll still prioritize our capital budget to the greatest need and address the safety and security and health of our students and staff but that capital funding is as you know 4.4 million is obligated towards a lease and is not an extensive amount of money that can be used to address student growth or major renovations it is typically utilized to prevent annual maintenance or support annual maintenance needs but not enhancements or additions as such so yeah so we essentially though with we need the bond money to be able to do preventative maintenance so we don't get into that situation and to do repairs and maintenance and any perhaps enhancements as our community and students and everything's come to expect because i can tell you you mentioned the higley meeting that mrs kaler and i um attended and there was a lot of students there because it was a it was part of a classroom or a class grade to attend a government meeting so that was one they they chose but there was a lot there and what was important to the kids that were there is less concrete more trees more greenery well that's not a need but this is what they would like and the bond would help us be able to do stuff like that for their campuses and you know there is research and and everything like you had mentioned before an environment makes a difference how they learn and if they're happy there but the way their school looked was very important to those students and that was a huge priority and i guess we were really fortunate because we got a lot of student perspective so um i think the important part of that is that where we could probably get by is not we wouldn't be able to meet the standards of what our students have asked for what they expect what our community has expected is that an accurate understanding yeah mysterious there's a fair statement and one of the other things the students brought up was bathrooms too and while we verified from a district perspective that they have all the amenities they need toilet paper doors running water soap it is not up to the standard of a of a bathroom in which students can feel comfortable in going to and that that i think is a a telling sign when they are prioritizing bathrooms over um general classroom conditions and so um that is one thing that has also come out through these community meetings that um just share some of the insights into what both our students and parents are going through or teachers are going through because they also had the same priorities so yes we can get by but our ability to maintain our current students our ability to attract teachers and educate students on a on a basis in which that we've grown to expect that higley unified would be drastically impacted if we did not have these additional capital funds thank you did you have one go ahead i just had when we talk about the performing arts center you talk about safety concerns and it's not until 2025 if i'm a parent listening to that i'm just wanting to verify the safety concerns aren't immediate safety concerns or you mentioned rafters yeah so a lot even with fire panels and all that we have um certain levels of i guess standards that we need to meet right we still pass all our inspections with the town of gilbert um but there over time deficiencies start to occur in which areas start to become less efficient and the the town does a great job of notifying us when deficiencies are available or deficiencies are showing on aging areas such as hcpa those aren't immediate emergency needs those are done as a courtesy to the district to say hey you need to start to address these and so nothing that we are proposing is an emergency and it is an immediate risk to our students and staff but they are upcoming needs and safety concerns our district is aging and i know as i get old things start to break so we need to keep in mind and the preventative is cost savings um i appreciate the fact that you went to the work to do the three scenarios but um i think they're very confusing and i appreciate the fact that you're coming to us with just one proposal much like what the surveys indicated from our community it is confusing um like you say mrs reese and i think the less confusion that we bring to the table this time around is best and as much clarity as you possibly can bring to this is going to be in our favor also i appreciate the fact that the tax rate increase is flat so again another another way to just make that positive spin on this for for everybody and i agree with the other comments um you know making it very clear for some reason taxes on houses people just don't always understand this concept and so we can be a lesson to our community on how to kind of navigate that but yeah i appreciate the the final proposal and what you're bringing to us very much any other questions or concerns with this presentation okay we look forward to our march 9th meeting when you bring this back to us for a vote all right next up we have 9.1 i move that the governing board approves the 2022-2023 contracts for certified teachers certified non-teaching psychologists occupational therapists speech therapist physical therapist administrator classified administrator certified classified exempt and claudius classified at will second any questions comments or concerns again this is not a financial recommendation at this time this is just the um contract itself all those in favor motion carries five zero and next up as you can see we have some exciting things coming our way still is there anything that my fantastic board would also like to see on a future meeting any kind of presentation that you'd like to see at a board meeting or an informational study of any sort spring is usually very busy anyhow so we have a lot coming our way besides what we already see here i know there's things in between so again thanks to all the presenters tonight and i move that we adjourn second all those in favor aye aye motion carries had a good evening you

so that's based on a per 100 success value a buck 31 that's based on all your outstanding bonds okay not what's being asked for going forward and so we expect the bond tax rate to be roughly 1.31 could be dollar 30.32 could be somewhere around there that will be set here again third monday in august and we'll have our a good handle on that tax rate here in june july august when we worked with the county but we're estimating 1.31 well we can layer in the 77 million again they're being repaid over 20 years each sale right we can layer in this 36 36 tax impact over 20 years and basically for that first scenario keep your tax rates the the people in the district that that tax rate being a buck 31 next year next year which is before the election the very next year and it'll remain a dollar thirty one okay why don't we go to the next slide i don't know if i have that here here we go and i'll kind of hit this home here uh for the first scenario what we are showing here your average tax value home property in your district right now is about 250 000 worship for illustrative purposes we're showing you 500 000 because we know you have a lot of homes ranging from 250 000 for instance all the way on up now this is tax value this is not market value okay so tax value is usually considerably lower than market value okay so what you see when you get that tax bill right your home value a lot you're like well that's a lot less than what you can sell your house for right hopefully and so with that 500 000 we're talking so that might be a 600 000 home six hundred twenty five thousand dollar market value the tax value would be right around five hundred thousand okay so how how the first the next column current annual cost that's that dollar thirty one tax rate for next year again before the election for just your outstanding bonds you're already paying off right that dollar 31 uh the cost for a 500 000 tax value home it equals 655 dollars so that and we and that's it's the same again pre-election the same cost for any of these scenarios right this is pre-election the next column is post-election if uh the 77 if you ask for the just one question and it's 77 million the estimated cost can will continue to be a dollar 31 total bond tax rate and then over several years it will go to start to go down but a dollar 31 max tax rate in total including your old debt and so the the the the homeowners can expect same tax rate if your 500 000 remains the same the same uh cost as 655 now you'll notice bond scenario number two and three again is a tax increase over the prior year right so there's your there's your increase um but not much but it's still you know your the taxpayers are again next year 655 dollars can expect them pay a year later 715 dollars annually divide that by 12 and there's your monthly column there of and again this is total tax impact for your outstanding debt that you're currently paying a previously voted and authorized debt again you already sold the bonds built projects with them bought buses built schools right and now the taxpayers are paying that plus the new bonds if the voters voted in november okay so this is the total tax bill estimate if you will for a 500 000 tax value home and so this is where you can see there's uh no tax rate increase over the the previous year for that first scenario okay we expected that tax rate to be leveled dollar 31.31 estimate and then therefore no tax increase over the previous year again tax increases yes for bronze scenario two and three and i believe that concludes my piece of the presentation but i'm happy to pause and see if you have any questions any questions i do go ahead mrs wilson if anyone in our community is watching this how could they ask you questions is there a way that we can like funnel them through mr moore mr moore how would you like someone in the community who may be questioning information on the slide because this is a lot to handle a lot of people get confused on the estimated tax value i know versus how much they would sell their house for because they say no that's not how much i would sell my house for and we try to explain maybe you guys could explain it in a different way than i personally could explain it so i didn't know how you would like people to ask questions mr moore yeah miss wilson i would have them generally either reach out to myself or through public relations in order to get the information so i can communicate with either stifle or and i can answer those questions as needed but great thank you president keller sorry i have a couple questions um and tyler i'm sorry i don't know if you have this information right offhand so on our sorry scenario two if we added a second question to pay off one of the middle leases do you know between the 30 million that we have on here what would we pay total if we paid out our lease not paid early but with interest do you happen to know that number i'm really sorry mr lovely can get us close i think i understand the question your question um if we carried our lease to term okay what would the total amount that we would pay for for the full boat of that last full boat here on out i might have that didn't we didn't we have that um you're asking for the lease amount for school yeah president keller board members we the total we've already made nine years of payments but the total lease deal was around 170 million so with interest including interest yes okay but again we've made nine years of payment so that is a little less but that is still a representation of what we would have to pay if we maintain our current payment schedule throughout the end of this lease to 2052.