please note here's where we use the creative dollar and creatives may not be the right word but multiple funding sources two percent of the raise for the teachers will come from the m o budget and seven percent will come from the classroom site fun dollars there was a significant increase in classroom flight fun dollars this year at the state level that's why we're using that we would also look to move 3200 from performance pay portion of 301 to the base salary the key portion here is that then means our base salary is fifty thousand seventy dollars so we would be competitive with most of the districts there may be some that go up a little bit higher but i would say we close the gap substantially within this there's no real cost to the 3200 because we're currently paying that 3200 out as part of the 4 000 performance pay that our teachers get anyway it's just placing it in a different portion of how they get paid and so instead of getting paid in june they would get the 3 200 over the course of the year but the critical piece is it is uh it is going to place our starting base at over 50 thousand dollars the cost of the increase for that from the m o was 360 000 while the classroom site fund increase is 1.2 million a little over 1.2 million we would also recommend an exam exempt support staff uh receive an increase of five percent to the base and then five percent each individual and salary schedule again the five percent we talked about it before but that's aligned with the raise that was given to all support staff uh back in january uh you will not see support staff on this one because they'll get a raise again next january to the minimum wage the cost of that increase would be twenty six thousand it would be paid out mmo for administrative staff uh administrative staff we would recommend also a five percent increase to the base an increase of five percent to each individual the cost for this increase is 128 000 will also be paid out amino and i want you to know that in a subsequent agenda item uh in response to the board's request last fall that we look for different ways to benefit our uh our administrators uh because of the inequities on on salary and trying to get them up to competitive with other districts we would make a recommendation that they would be given seven administrative days um there's a first read at the end of the agenda also that we'll talk about those seven days so i'll go into more detail on that but these would be above and beyond vacation days and and what would be considered pto again support staff would not get increased but we would anticipate right now based on inflation that and they got a five percent increase in january we would anticipate that they're in line for another four or five percent next january and actually there's another agenda item which we'll give them there's two more agenda items that will give them additional dollars um and then the extra duty stipends uh we we calculate our extra d stipends off the base salary so since we're raising the base salary for forty three thousand there's a type one i apologize i didn't see it but to fifty zero seven zero then that will increase all the stipends that go out to our staff that would be coaching stipends department chair stipends all those kind of things that cost will be eighty thousand dollars and will be funded out of mno and so i would recommend approval as presented any questions no okay all right i moved to adopt the 20 22 23 salary schedules as presented i second all in favor i i i motion carries four to zero keeping in that same vein with what you just approved with the salary schedules um we uh we looked at i'm going to use the term it's not what we're going to call but many districts our neighboring districts give when you're coming in new to the district they give you a bonus so to speak for for coming into the district then after that bonus they turn around and give you additional dollars for years of service and so we went ahead and take a look to remain competitive and say can we go ahead and um give uh our our incoming uh individuals um that same idea we came up with a scale uh that allows for that um however the problem with that concept is um if you don't take care of the people that are in the district right now you have new people that could theoretically jump people that are already in the district okay so what we're proposing with this agenda item is when we came up with the scale and we split it up by zero years one to five years six to ten years 11 to 15 years and 16 plus years is that for our own staff that stay with us and come back next year we were calculated into their salaries a one-time adjustment that would be reflected off the scale that would only count for the years of service in the district the reason for that is when they came into the district they were already given credit for years of service in other districts and so by doing this and the way we scale this out is what we would give to our existing staff is double the amount that we would give to new staff this ensures i can't say a hundred percent but ensures there's a better chance that new employees with the same level as an as a current employee would not jump over them we ran this on several different individuals both certified classified support staff and we did not find a case where someone jumped i cannot say that i've looked at all 600 employees and that there's not a unique situation out there that takes place that that would occur this does mean even though a moment ago we said we weren't going to go ahead and give raises to um our support staff this in fact we'll give them a raise and so and it's as although it's a one-time payment please be very we want to be very clear on this it goes into their base so next year this is factored in and we start with what's the raise going to be for employee so if they were at 50 070 and they got a thousand their new base salary this year would be 51.70 next year when we go to calculate the raise we will calculate it off of 51.70 not after 50 000.
people who did that are gone they left writers behind but we put something together that we think does it they match that you received in september and you're asking them to resubmit it or uh it was the second item it said we had asked you for this back in september you still haven't gotten oh i i was i've been here one week they didn't ask me anyway they asked someone in another department so i said could i see it again you know i'll finish it and they couldn't produce it so we there i'm playing catch up so this started before you got here it starts um you are there any more questions thank you and so the the next one is the cave legislative wrap-up this is a two-parter mike is going to speak to both the second part um about ryan but mike can you take this when i know you attended the cape meeting yesterday sure so there was a it was a busy session for schools and kate gave us a wrap up it's about 16 pages it's there's a lot in it so i tried to distill it down to what i thought was the most relevant stuff in the district and kind of give you the greatest hits here so um the the big bill was the funding bill it was hb 5506 this was kind of the you know your christmas tree building and all this stuff kind of attached to it so the good news coming out of this is alliance funding is going to be authorized through 2028 so we get to five year extension now one of the things we had hoped for is that it would be accelerated one year and this was going to be a bill hb 5283 which did not pass that would have helped us net about additional dollars by advancing the alliance funding that bill didn't pass so that was a little bit of bad news for us that was one we really got behind we actually provided some testimony written in person in hartford and uh we're a little disappointed by that but 5506 still has some good news in it so um construction in particular um there is uh it was passed that there's going to be 80 reimbursement for construction on the 154 million for the career academy now that's really good news that means that 123.2 million of that 154 will be reimbursed by the state which means that whole 154 billion we don't have to come up with about 30.8 so that's pretty good news uh and that'll get us to the 154.
excuse me we had several vendors and alarm systems commercial alarm systems are not something you typically become experts in our role except i knew one of the companies fscc i knew them well the last school i built was the principles of 1992 and they were there they did a fantastic job they were charged we had a visual tele communication system we could cast movies from classrooms and hold on yards they did they'd come out on sunday and talk to me and look at this i said this is going wrong and they did it right because it was a privately owned company and the gentleman owned the company passed away at copenhagen last year i think the company's deteriorated a little bit but it's been a lot more serious in my opinion school facilities boards should be covering these expenses getting something that was school syllable takes up a school year they were supposed to rough all these buildings this year they haven't financed the bid process yet so that's that's been a real slow down um replacing a vehicle unfortunately as you well know one of our employees two of our employees were hurt it's been six weeks ago i believe six or seven weeks ago he's taking an act taking serious action to get them the right attention i still don't think it's all happened the car was totaled um i believe in my contract i believe in dr zotero's contract is carson having an additional car um the current the only car we have left is 60 some thousand miles on it that's an awfully good car so i've looked into purchasing two cars not two cars two more cars two two brands chevy malibu which we've had two before since i've been here and one of the ones we've got totals and another toyota camry the tokyo camera is i'm not i'm not a good guy but i may become one it's a great car um the toyota camry can't even take orders until you [Music] so it's going to happen and we're buying on what's called a state contract so procurement is handled we're doing due process by just simply doing that so otherwise the price of these cars they're all going to be well the price has gone up the malibu [Music] if i recollect when we purchased it the price came out of 17 000 now it's about 25.
we also have not received any allocation for the application we submitted in january of 22 because the feds still have not determined what the allocation amounts are going to be yet so for that reason the remember impact aid is more of a cash driven fund rather than a budget driven fund so even though we have a budget line item in here it's it we can we can that's just an estimate of how much we think we're going to spend so it's more of a cash driven fund than a budget driven fund and we haven't received 2021 reimbursement yet no not yet not yet and we don't know when we're going to receive those okay or if we will receive some we just don't know when i had one other question those two lines oh i think i figured it out but what is our rate per student that we get minus the performance pay so is there a base rate that we get per student from the state like for mno or for everything eminem for mno currently because of the fact that well there's a base level and then i calculate there's a base level the base level is about 5 600 per student for mno and then if you go to well i don't have it with me here there's there's a weighted student portion for preschool there's a weighted student portion for k-8 and there's a weighted student portion for 9 12.
can just look that up okay um do we know what other districts are paying these paraprofessionals and these um slpas assistants are they paying them can you repeat that please do we know what the range is for the other districts what they're paying for the paraprofessionals and for the certified occupational therapy assistant the physical therapy assistants and the speech and language pathology assistants madam president member grant the answer to your question would be that we do monitor what other school districts are paying from a comparison perspective i'm not certain that we have those exact numbers this evening but we we do continually look at our salary schedules and compare them to what we consider comparison school districts but i'm not certain that we have those exact numbers this evening okay do we give years of service to these employees classified employees um do not receive years of service on our salary schedules or when they come in as new employees they do not receive years of service um well since i would like for the board to consider giving years of service to these employees to try to attract recruit and maintain these positions both of these positions work directly with students of disabilities several of us visited the classrooms and saw first-hand the support that these students need and i can only imagine their educational experience would be like if they didn't have these paraprofessionals in their um in their classrooms so i would like as part of the motion or i make it a separate motion that we give these people years of service and hopefully we won't have to go out for contract for them and um we'll have some um continuity within within those classrooms i just want to clarify i think it might likely be allowed but i just want to clarify with the attorney if we're approving salary schedules would would changing um the piece that ms grant is referring to be allowable the way this is agendized so it's my understanding madam president members of the governing board that ms grant is asking for an alteration that would not typically be a part of the salary schedule so you can definitely have the item that you're requesting added as a benefit of employment at a later date but it typically wouldn't you're asking for the if you want to repeat what you're asking for then i can address it more specifically but adding years of service to class right to right so not to all classified to a certain group of class well they could do it all classified but um the ones where especially in in a special ed where he just said we have 90 openings if we can not go to contract and if we can recruit and uh i mean yeah recruit and maintain these employees maybe offering years of service will help okay so madam president members of the governing board when you're talking about adding years of service you're talking about where they're placed on the salary schedule not the approval of the salary schedule itself that's correct so what the benefit that you're asking for cannot be a part of the action item that's being presented to you so i could ask for a future action item where the board would consider um or adding years of service for when an individual is placed on the salary schedule so it would be a future agenda it would have to be a future agenda correct is this a time sensitive item where ms grant's request to be accommodated at another meeting tabling this or is this time sensitive where this would have to be something discussed in addition to this motion madam president this evening's motion is based upon the iba team's recommendation and the planned and anticipated budget for next school year not making any kind of a judgment or value statement on the motion or on the request we would need to mr hicks would need the opportunity to evaluate the budget to determine what impact that would have and and make necessary adjustments if possible quickly thank you for mentioning that um although it's within the board's authority to um change what's presented out of iba typically the board honors the work that's done on our buyer staff through the iba process so this would change that and i would recommend us honoring the iba process that we've had in this district for decades madam president if if the board's wish we could bring back a whole presentation at the next board meeting about the request remember grants requests if you'd like that that's a that's an action item me personally i mean i'm gonna i'm gonna make a motion just again because i feel like doing that would not give the honor of the process that we typically do with our iba groups if ms grant would like to request an agenda item separate i mean that's certainly within miss grant's right to do as a equal board member but honoring the iba process i'm going to make a motion that the board approved the salary for certified licensed classified and administrative employees and the 2022 2023 style replacement schedules as presented hold on she had already she started emotion so her motion is still on the floor but that was outside of the agenda right so i'm just saying she started a motion so she needs to i'll just with her all the way thank you thank you i will second mrs motion made by christine pritchard seconded by crystal schaffen motion carries next we move to action discussion four recommendation to approve the substitute compensation structures for the 2022-2023 school year dr dean thank you madam president members of the governing board dr croto will present the information related to substitute confrontation structures thank you dr dean um madam president members of board cabinet guests the administration recommends the governing board approve the compensation structures uh for certified classified administrative substitutes these are based off of the salary schedules that you just approved so it is adjusting our rates for our classified subs and our regular subs are on there those rates are not adjusting so with that i'll stand for any questions or comments entertain a motion i move the governing board approve the substitute compensation structures for the 20 2022-2023 school year as presented second motion made by tracy sorry singfel seconded by joe grant motion carries next wound action discussion item 5 recommendation to approve the district extracurricular supplemental assignment contract addenda pay schedules for the 2022-2023 school year dr dean thank you madam president members of the governing board administration is recommending approval of the district's extracurricular supplemental assignment and contract addenda pay schedules with the changes for the 22 22-23 school year which were outlined by mr hicks in the iba presentation questions or comments from the board i moved the board approved the district extracurricular supplemental assignment contracted done to pay schedules for the 2022-2023 school year as presented second motion made by christine pritchard seconded by dawn dunsmore motion carries move to action k-6 recommendation to approve 2021-2022 revised expenditure budget dr dean madam president members of the governing board administration recommends approval of the revised expenditure expenditure budget with the information provided this evening during the public hearing by mr hicks any questions or comments from the board i moved the board approved the 2021-2022 revised expenditure budget second promotion made by christine pritchard second by tracy sourcing phil motion carries next we move to action item k7 approval of superintendent's resignation agreement and release dr dean madam president i will defer to legal counsel for this item and we'll read it again madam president members of the governing board dr dean members of cabinet and ms brown tonight the board will consider the adoption of a resignation and agreement and release relating to the employment of dr quinn kellis dr kellis currently has an employment contract that is scheduled to end on june 30th 2023 under the terms of his existing contract there are five different ways in which the board or and or dr kellis may end the contract early one is a unilateral termination by the governing board which is an option that only the board can employ the second is a through resignation the third is due to incapacity the fourth is by mutual agreement and the this is through death of the superintendent the item to be considered by the governing board this evening is not a unilateral termination by the governing board dr kellis has agreed to voluntarily voluntarily and irrevocably resign effective on june 30 2022 under the terms of the proposed agreement the item presented includes dr callus's resignation a release of claims and a mutual resolution with respect to a separation of employment for the 2022-2023 school year thank you i understand we have many people wishing to speak to this item madam president there are several who would like to speak to this item ms chapman has those requests at this time okay before macheffen reads that statement i just again want to remind everyone that we need to be respectful and if it becomes disorderly in any way we're going to have to ask either individuals to leave or we're going to have to stop the public comment so please be respectful of all parties speaking this is the time for the public to comment members of the board may not discuss items that are not specifically identified on the agenda pursuant to ars 38-431.01 action taken as a result of public comment will be limited to directing staff to study the matter responding to any criticism or scheduling the matter for further consideration and decision at a later date in order to facilitate accomplishing the business of the district in a timely manner a time limit of two minutes will be imposed for each individual or group addressing the board when you when you approach the podium please state your name for the record 32 individuals have filled out a request to speak to the governing board this evening again the board will strictly limit each speaker to two minutes speakers will be recognized in the order in which they submitted the request to speak again when you approach the podium please state your name for the record our first is nicole king president pritchard members of the board dr dean members of cabinet and guests my name is nicole king and i'm here to address the forced resignation of dr kellis i mother to three children in the district i have lived here for 15 years i'm a taxpayer and i'm a very active member of our community i'm dismayed at the thought that we would end dr kelly's contract early for absolutely no justifiable reason since you claim to be fiscally conservative explain the reasoning behind wasting at nearly half a million dollars and requiring a national search as a board you're supposed to be the voice of the community for the past several years i have sat in this room and watched virtually as you have used this board room to grandstand and push a political agenda again and again education is nonpartisan yeah it seems like every meeting you're wasting time discussing political trigger words like crt and indoctrination none of which is actually happening in our schools instead of talking about the true needs of our students and staff what should you be talking about that's simple classroom sizes lack of funding equity inclusion staff and and student health and safety building community and fostering growth of students and staff that is the role of the school board it is woefully clear that you are the ones who have been indoctrinated to the divisive rhetoric aimed at striking fear and distrust in the minds of our community should you go forth with this agenda item i will personally make it my mission to ensure your reign of terror on the board and comes to an end in november our community is watching and we will no longer sit by and watch you destroy our schools as a board you have a duty and an obligation to vote and act in the board meetings impartially for the good of our district as a whole you are absolutely not impartial and you are certainly not acting in the good of our district next we have chris judd good evening board members dr dean first i want to thank you all for volunteering for this abuse this is a tough job you're in a tough spot and i appreciate that you've all come here and that you're that you're dedicating your time to make our community better and to dr croto's point this is an awesome district you can tell because there's so many people here that are concerned about our district i am here because dr kellis is a great man and an asset to our community and i think everybody in this room knows it he was superintendent of the year for 20 in 2020 and a little over a year later is being forced out he was recognized as an honorary commander for luke air force base in and the board's forcing him out the mayor surprise recently recognized him with a community leader award yet he's being forced out he opens school facilities to residence residents when not used by schools why because he understands these are taxpayer-funded facilities and he believes that taxpayers deserve access to him yet he's being forced to resign losing callous will be bad for our kids that's bad for our community it's bad for community development if we have a bad school system it's harder to attract businesses and business owners to our community a good school system goes hand in hand with a good with a good community great cities cannot have a bad public school system it's not too late to vote no on kelly's forced resignation please vote no find a way to work with this great man and keep him around if you love surprise and really want us to live in a great community i hope you'll do the right thing and save kellis next we have andrew simek madam president members of the board unfortunately not dr kellis here and members of the cabinet my name is andrew simek and i am a class of 2019 alumni of shadow ridge high school i'm here today because as a former student and an education advocate i am deeply disappointed with the decision this board is making the forced resignation of dr kellis is a bad move and a big mistake you the dysart override was passed in 2020 with the provisions that the funds used from the entire community's property taxes would be used to retain and attract high quality teachers lower class sizes and work to bridge the achievement gap instead we've seen that you're far too busy worrying about where people go to the bathroom what books you can ban and removing social workers from our schools the final straw is that you want to remove dr kellis from his role as superintendent dr kellis has jumped through every hoop you've wanted him to even when you lit the hoop on fire by giving him a negative review you are failing the kids in this district those kids include my little brother and my cousins you have insulted teachers by raising the cost of benefits and eliminating any breathing room they may have had in their salaries and you have insulted the countless parents staff alumni and community members who supported the override in 2020.
okay so maybe it was oh eight it might have even been sooner than that because i laughed because we had i believe mrs reese had asked what year we adopted it and so just a little information it had been a very long time so this is a very well needed update so all those in favor aye aye motion carries 3-0 and again i know we have the support of our missing board members on this as well as they were very much informed on what was coming our way next up is 9.4 i move that the governing board approves amendment number one to the inter-governmental agreement between maricopa county community college district and higley unified school district as presented exactly and you can kind of read above here what this is uh about is to make sure that our on deli online delivery of dual enrollment courses this opens up doors for more ability in our virtual academy for us to offer dual enrollment which i know was it was coming our virtual academy is just one years old and so we are still growing and you know nurturing that and this is just another step in offering some of those opportunities to our online learners any other questions concerns all those in favor aye aye motion carries 3-0 i move that the governing board i should be saying this 9.5 it is recommended that the governing board approves the revised fy 2022 budget as presented second if there's a question no there should not be any more questions we have we have uh as dr foley would say we have massaged this many many many times over the last um president taylor do you know all the numbers uh do you have a memorandum but no we may not all those in favor aye aye motion carries 3-0 i i should say i appreciate that we go over it yes we have gone over it enough times that we have been able to be fully educated in all finance and we appreciate you mr moore yes we don't joke it's not a joke it's serious business and we appreciate you okay our favorite i move that the governing board reviews the 20 the current 2022 political agenda and reaffirmed the top five priorities to the asba legislative community by monday may 23rd 2022.
so even though it's a one-time payment it will carry over year over year because it's built into the base does that make sense yeah okay so this is just a way for us again to remain competitive with our neighboring districts both florence and queen creek do something very similar we have a different scale than they do but in effect it's the same concept and so it's a way but it's a way for us to also help our own staff and make sure that we don't have a bunch of new people coming and jumping over them so i would recommend approval as presented but i'll answer any questions any questions nope all right all right i move to approve the experience adjustment for all current staff members as presented hi second all in favor aye hi aye aye motion carries four to zero 8.5 this is just the agenda item that takes that which you just approved and quantifies it for what each individual will receive again a year ago or a year and a half ago on advice of legal counsel it was suggested that we list all the individuals and what their increase is so the board is fully aware of what the dollar amount is there's been some concerns in some other districts that maybe the boards weren't always aware of what the dollar increase was and so that's what this particular agenda item does it's placed here versus sooner because you have to approve the first two to make sure we're going to do the third one this third one if you had not approved one of the others then we would have to pull this agenda item move it to different times so since you approve them i would recommend approval of the salaries as presented all right i moved to the up the 22 23 salary increases for all district employees as presented and grant district staff the ability to correct any minor errors that may be discovered during the release of contract addenda i second um favor hi hi aye motion carries four to zero look at him johnny on the spot um this retention stipend is similar to last year a couple things i would note based on discussion with again 301 ccc and leadership we talked about last year if you remember we did a one percent thank you and a one percent retention the thought process is no let's do two percent as a retention uh for people coming back so the number is doubled what you would see you will please note that this is on the high end because we don't know all the people that are going to stay or not stay and so we will recalculate after july 1st i would anticipate that we will not spend this much money but it is two percent to all of the staff so again this will include uh exempt uh support support certified and administrative and it'll be two percent there for substitutes we'll give them 400 last year we gave them 200 again it's for those substitutes that come back to us a year from now so it's just the way to use federal dollars to be funded out of essers to thank people esther's dollars were designed to be for our retention of staff and so that's why we'll use it so i would recommend approval as presented any questions okay all right i move to approve the one-time stipend as presented for all staff hey second all in favor aye aye aye aye motion carries four to zero okay this next uh agenda item is uh approval of one time student growth stipend we did this this year it's kind of uh creative and unique i think and helps our staff helps us in terms of trying to retain as well as gain new our new students to our staff it's built on the idea that if we see a growth of 200 students in our adm on the 100th day that we would go ahead and hand a one percent uh stipend to everybody it's a stipend so it's it's not doesn't take it away and so a great example is julie and what she presented today shows the growth of our students was 1.3 million next year we'll have the full 1.3 million in next year's budget in this year's budget we took a portion of that out to pay everybody there one percent we will do this again in march so that the people that did not get paid during the two weeks of spring break this stipend will at least give them a little a little bit of money and so again if we do not get the growth then we're not going to spend the stipend so it there's no way that it hurts the district in the long run but it can potentially help us as we grow so i would recommend approval of the growth stipend as presented does that mean 200 students are like adm growth it's 280 and we take a look at what we see over the course of the year to see what our our growth was all right i moved to approve the one-time student growth stipend agenda stipend for all staff as presented hi second all in favor aye i motion carries four to zero okay um we're looking uh you remember last year when we was part of the esther's funding we bring our staff back three days early for for pd somebody has to plan that pd and so this is a recommendation coming out of esther's funding again for our coaches our instructional staff and our special education specialist to be available during the month of june to do planning for for the for the training uh in the short run the three days but also indirectly over the whole course of the year i've listed everybody on there this does not mean that everybody is able to do this uh in some cases they have vacations and they have other plans and they're not available it's just easier that way you know you've approved everybody and then some some other individuals may do ten days some may do five days um and we'll just have to wait and see who's got what availability we are looking to hire a a coach instructional coach at cta so that name if we get it hired and they're available to come in during june i'll bring back to you in the gm board meeting but otherwise it's for current staff so i would recommend approval as presented right i move to approve additional dates for coaches and specialists for summer 22 as percentage presented my second all in favor aye aye aye aye motion carries four to zero and now you guys get it figured out so asba wants you to go ahead and give your five high top priorities for the legislative agenda that uh the asb legislative committee will consider in september they're due here by the end of may there was a political agenda that was attached and so it's really just a matter of you guys rock paper scissors best two out of three which are the five top priorities and once we get to that we can move on okay so we're having some of us thought that it was the the big topic and all the bullets came no matter what then we decided now is just pick five bullets when i went to the website they have changed the way they have it set up from last year last year they had everything set up where you just said yay or nay and you didn't have to put anything in this year i have to actually type in your responses the specific bullet points uh-huh okay okay so all right well um chad do you have are you are you able to tell us any of your bullet points before we get started or are you just gonna listen no i'm i don't have any okay all right okay so steve why don't you tell us what your bullet points are the first bullet point maximum state funding for nationally and locally competitive salaries okay that was i have that one circled what a lisa do you have that one mine that was my number one max number one so do you guys mind if i put that as number one no good okay all right how about two fully fun kindergarten that is the third bullet point oh okay any objections to that i agree with steven okay oh chad okay three do you have any go ahead let's let's see what your third one and see if i have it circled too i i didn't have that the kindergarten all right go go ahead lisa give me one give me a second i know i think steven and i have the same list [Laughter] go ahead and give me one of yours chad let me see your list so does anybody have revised this school formula or no what so i just have a comment to make so i've been to the delegation meetings and they go over every bullet point regardless of what we choose anyway so i find this a little bit tedious right of a moot point um the the other issue will be with this is what it basically means is if everybody agrees to this then if there happens to be a bill written then they will go ahead and advocate for the bill if there's no bill written even if you chose this if there's no bill written for whatever bullet you chose them there's nothing to advocate for so it's really about advocacy more than anything else okay here's one fully restored ninth grade cte cted eligibility and funding to allow students to explore career fields and or sort of uh certification completion when this is fully restored ninth graders were able to do this before yes for quite a while rather than it was nine through 12 and probably i don't know john's here i can't remember when they took it away but several years back they they took it away there's some other things out right now that might restore portions of it but but we don't get funded on ninth grade kids and it really really will help i mean when we look at cte and its impact on our our great our letter grade at the high school level it's really important to have strong programs we have ninth graders doing cte stuff okay i have a problem with that anybody else have a problem with that does it matter nope nope i think it's good okay let me see that's three okay jamar um eliminate unfunded mandates and administrative burdens wait where's that that's the first bullet point on the second row so the first big heading oh first bullet point say it again eliminate unfunded mandates and administrative burdens okay or one more anybody else got a burning desire provide funding for districts to implement research-based programs to address social emotional learning through mental health and well-being that is the second to the last bullet point on the top i support that on the top one on the top one yeah first one second to the last bullet point i think you have a high level yep okay number five okay so do we need to make a motion and i'll write this out later yes you can you can do motion uh for that and if you want to you don't have to right now because i think we have another opportunity if you want to name who the the delegate you can or the delicate person could do in august before that train was moving fast late toronto it's it's an interesting process he likes if that's the case then you would do that as part of the motion team all right go ahead and get her done notion that when i feel weird motion to myself and can you put it is it in there that puts steve you'll have to add that you'll have to add um that we will that we nominate stephen ray as our delegate okay and where it says discussion and consideration do we change yeah the recommended action and then just put you just put recommended approval of the of the five priorities and mr ray as the delegate so i moved to recommend approval and make the following modifications to our 2023 asba political agenda including recommending stephen ray as our delegate so then i will that was lisa i'll um second the motion all in favor aye aye aye motion carries four to zero i love you chad okay am i too loud or something we're fine okay so we have now now he's got me out uh 8 10.
uh and after that 154 would have the law wouldn't be acceptable expenditures and then any money [Music] so yeah so that's good news also in that bill was 150 million dollars in hvac reimbursement grants for air quality um that'll range on anywhere from 20 to 80 reimbursement based on the city population of you know some wealth the second big bill that went through was sp1 uh there's two two big sp sp and two and you always know when they have low numbers like that they came in as real high priorities for the governor so sp1 and that one is actually titled an act concerning childhood mental and physical health services in school so this is a lot coming down the pipeline for childhood mental health and physical health services this include grants to early childhood service providers and grants to hire and retain more social workers psychologists counselors and nurses nurses they recognize that this is also a pipeline problem so there's provisions in there to sort of increase the pipeline people are going through sb2 is also focused on mental health this one is actually titled an act expanding preschool and mental and behavioral services for children so this is a lot of money coming through with mental health there's going to be mandate the district's higher mental health coordinator including this is may 26th is going to become get outside and play for children's medical health day so number four is hb5001 this is also about mental health it's going to provide grants for school-based mental health services and it will require the adoption of a truman c intervention model in schools and the fifth one is probably most relevant to this body it's it's doubled it's two lambda right now it's pa 22-3 and hb 5269 this will allow public agencies to continue to hold remote and hybrid meetings originally that was going to sunset and they decided to allow it to continue um and actually there's a spider web of caveats and special rules that go into this which leads me to the next point which is each one of these has layers to it and like i said there's 15 pages in here and i just gave you a sort of high level so we're going to be inviting our lobbyists um for sullivan lashing to come at a future board meeting and they can really dig into some of the the you know more details a lot of these have i mean they haven't written rules yet they haven't decided how they're going to do grants if there's going to be reimbursements if it's going to be competitive all that stuff is still getting worked out so as that becomes more clear um ryan and zach from sullivan and shane will come and tell us a little bit more about it and we can figure out how to position ourselves to go get some of this money thank you mike thank you any questions regarding uk legislative rights yes question about the hrac would that help um mr dallas yeah that's basically a summary of the stuff that you have yeah did you guys send that to the board sure yeah thank you we we will have a wrap up for the board that everything that mike just wrapped [Music] so the next one teacher of the year dr selig why you have the floor so teacher of the year we're back doing teacher of the year right now um so we are nominations open on april 5th they closed on may 2nd of not available um save the date emails have already gone out to all the nominees we expect that teacher of the year to be finalized by may 13th so just a couple days from now and we had a little shift so originally we were going to be doing the teacher of the year for the district on may 18th we had a little conflict with one of the nea dinners so we decided to push it back to may 24th so it's going to be broadview middle school everyone is invited and we hope you'll all be there to uh recognize all the nominees and 22 teacher of the year this person will then go upon too hard for her to be considered for the 23 teacher of the year they do it kind of one year staggered so they'll be in the running for that and we have high hopes absolutely and we will have all of these school representatives on our website tomorrow so all the individual representatives from every school they've already been informed of course but the the entire district is not aware of those winners but all those names will be posted to the website but if you give me a moment i'd like to take a minute to share who those names are so allison safford from pembroke elementary school is the is the teacher of the year at pembroke barbara stewart from millbridge primary school caitlin polinkas from ellsworth avenue school cara patalia from south street elementary school kathy berman from haystown avenue school daniella esposito from ace donna shore from stanley elementary school doreen chernisky from king street primary school elizabeth de resto from shelter rock school emily lopez from i'm millie lopes i'm sorry from rogers park middle school wendell and davidson from danbury primary school heather mueller from king street intermediate jamie pope from broadview middle school joseph gustepe dispe from westside middle school academy laurie woodruff from ace magnet school luisa guadardo from park avenue school melissa gabriel from mars street school melissa thiel from danbury high school and michael flynn from great plain elementary school so please join me and i know they're not here but applauding our [Applause] and winners forward to may 24th to decide who the representative for the entire district is going to be looking forward to that evening and then the next side i'm sorry are there any questions about the teacher of the year update as i've seen cat uh cara and kelly smiling about all the names we just mentioned yes yes for sure superintendent goals update we have two items here one fiscal responsibility planning for growth and talent acquisition this is goal three um sub bullet the danbury career academy task force uh before we go to dr casimiro i just wanted to say one of the superintendent goals speaks to partnering with the city of danbury to begin to plan for the reality of the airbury career academy and the moves and the investment that it's going to take to successfully open up that building in 24-25 so we had our first meeting task force meeting was that i believe it was two weeks ago so it would be the first week in may our next meeting scheduled for the first week in june there are a couple of members of the task force who are not available so we are looking to find a date but the plan right now is may and june we will meet we will reconvene again in september and continue to meet monthly as we continue to investigate and plan for this challenge ahead together so the task force is made up of two council members two people from the mayor's office including the mayor two board member representatives then i have um three cabinet members um the assistant the superintendent to my right dr castamero kelly trucias and the chief operating officer mike selig and first meeting was great we felt like it was important to provide some context for the task force and so that context as we were planning these sessions we realized everyone in the task force did not understand how this started and the rationale behind the academy what was driving the actual six academies that we landed on so dr castimero provided that initial overview for the task force um and not very different from this board i think the task force was also equally engaged on that evening and so if dr casemiro our board teacher can walk us through the task force meeting last week that would be awesome thank you thank you so in your packet tonight you do have the powerpoint presentation that was shared with the task force on may 4.
it looks like an apollo's a much bigger car the toyota as i recall was 22 000 it's going to be around 27 000. but nothing's ever going wrong with our exhibit and so that's what's happening with that um employee working conditions agreement we've got it done we think we've got that classified i'm sorry i didn't say that right should be the classified employee working divisions um frankly we've seen that time again on this agenda uh it would be on the june june and uh um i've talked recently we kind of come to closure a couple weeks ago and trying to get on this agenda i talked to the members of that committee but in the last week and we talked about a couple of changes we've made a couple changes uh but it seems to be agreeable i want i i'd like to have uh dr chabots help us out with individual student safety plans and district compliance the policy in jail we have very few um student safety plans right now on campus i know of one and one that is almost complete they are usually for students who are having a hard time coping with anxiety just getting overwhelmed and and they're written with administration teachers parents is involved and usually somebody from special education most of the time it has something to do with they're allowed to get to a safe place or a place they feel comfortable i know the library has had a section just to go to the office and the nurse has a little back room where there's kind of a bed and they can go there relax and then they're until they're able to talk to somebody they don't usually have to give a hand signal ask for permission to leave [Music] everybody knows you know there's people that need to know you know the students that have those and they're able to get up and just get away so we have those the other uh policies that we're talking about have to do equality and we don't have any safety plans that have dealt with bullying um and not none started since i've been here but it wouldn't be out of the question if that's the case um we follow our bullying i have i have have them right here and we follow them and i think we kind of even over over allow students to do incident reports we did more incident reports here than i did at my school 1200 in the hospital daily just um i mean it's it's kind of they kind of overdo with the young ones but each one is taken seriously each one's read if it's that eligible legible um sometimes they have to go ahead and tell you the story you know depending on on the grade level but um they're taken very seriously today we have a bowling one written out and it listed 12 students of a boy so interviewing those 12 students even if we weren't subbing constantly interviewing those 12 students would be unbelievable amount of time so hopefully that they started with the one that really feels bullying and and get to get to kind of what the situation is um quickly um a lot of times we're seeing that bullying in their eyes isn't really bullying but obviously there's conflict and remediation handled and you know as as a parent if my child feels bullied then my child's being pulled and you're not going to really change that in my mind and parent be here feels the exact same way so if my child says something your child retaliates my child's a victim and in your eyes your child's they're both being they're both victims but somebody did start this and then you go through what bullying actually is repetitive incidents and they look alike and they're hurtful and those things so that takes some mediation some time to to get to the bottom of it in cases that with our cyber bullying and things like that which in case he's a lot better at getting on computers and figuring out who at what time did what said what um i would have no no way of knowing how to do that but he's good at that and um i involve our sro as much as possible as well even if they don't speak i'll have our sro in the room so that everyone knows that we're taking it seriously and the police do as well especially if there's physical threats we're talking about some of the older students getting up there so there's usually usually always going to be somebody that's not happy with the conclusion of the disciplinary action whether it is mediation or whether there are consequences but that's kind of just the way it is i haven't gone through here too much of uh or any written grievances about it um but it does take a lot of time and just relationship building and and letting parents know that here you know you always get the i don't see this at home well you know at home except maybe yourself where there's a lot of young ones running around but at most homes you don't have 25 kids and and people act different when we're around people and so you kind of have to go through that process too so just time consuming and relationship building um and through the mediation i think we've been pretty successful but you know i also am very aware that the kids that you don't hear from are the ones you worry about you know so we have to keep our eyes out for the eyes and ears you know aware of those those genuines too and and see their behaviors and what we're noticing who they're stopped hanging around with or are they hanging around with is there nobody they're hanging around and then having conversations simply uh one reason why i like doing that recess is at the middle school is you kind of go up and just have a how's things going now you used to be over there with these guys playing tag i know that she'd been alone the last few weeks what's going on bud you know and lady and uh and kind of get a feel for well this this happened well now we got a conversation going we can kind of draw it out a little bit um but as far as being open to the to the incident reports and to listening to them um i think we're really good at that i i would like to see more and maybe it's just been because of covenant coming back but more overall um bully prevention conversations in the classroom we do social emotional learning and there's pieces of that we haven't had any any kind of a big class me about bullying and being able to do things like that with the masking this year and with copenhagen not being able to get in big groups at first just kind of slip through the cracks i think but it's something that i've seen happen in the past um that i think i'd like to be able to implement that you know this coming year even in myself starting that conversation for a class and having a topical bullying looks like here's how you report gucci you can talk to see something say something and those kind of things that have been done in the past like i haven't been able to do this year but um i think it would be important to be next to you one of the things in this gym area that's frustrating for parents as well as the ministers as a principal if charlie and little daniel got the fight or physical altercation it's more it's easier to see than insulting them more threatening but even with something that's so visible it gets physical the parent of the victim was usually the one that came in to see me or called me and sometimes the parent the perpetrator is proud depends on my stuff but it used to be real frustrating and something's going to become frustrating to me because they want to know what you do to lance's kid there's a lot of bells hurtful i can't tell you i love the law because we don't be into it this is what we did to him and so on so i said you're going to have to ask your kid because oftentimes the perpetrator or the punishment they would talk among your friends or crack about it whatever the case may be i said you hear from if your child hears it from the perpetrator or they hear it from uh other kids in the class that's fine i said that i and the teacher can't talk and that law is it's just like evil for medical people and i think it's valuable of course unfortunately that's not just some of the things you're talking about one of the fun things about being in the small community though is just to never see the big ones you'll call a parent to explain what's happening oh yeah i've already talked to i've already talked to my cousin who's that the other child's parent yeah i've already talked to him we've dealt with it so i'm out of the picture yeah yeah they're cousins and my brothers and then so everybody in town already knows about it but i'm just kind of reading that you really wouldn't know the names of phelps dog security people feared them more than the sheriff's department yeah you never want a bad amount of being outsiders we never want to criticize someone because you're someone's cousin in my office half the towns are related to angelina so i unfortunately haven't done that yet i start talking about there because his mother those are both um but they have similar requirements and one of them is that those portions of the policy are published in the student handbook so that's what i was interested in hearing is if if that's the case if they if they are have been included uh and then there are other requirements to the i believe i believe it's a it's a associated with the policy that is supposed to be included in the hammock rights rights rights and examples are typically not public the policies are now they go online and they can see it all and youthful totally has access to it but um other disciplinary tools for the administrator yeah but in this case it's meant to be published in the handbook for both of those people yeah because i know something's been there but i don't know what you're talking about yeah there's something about i think it's dating violence that's similar um but these are are very like that but they're foreign thank you anything further on here are there any board members [Music] there are no other businesses [Music] needs to stay after class to sign drugs i'm so excited um there's a lot of monthly it
so just based on that alone it's about 57 5656 per student and then if you multiply that out even further and multiply it times your ti which is your your teacher experience index that bumps it up to about sixty seven hundred dollars per student but every school district is different because not all school districts receive teacher experience index so that's a big impact it is because for blue ridge the teacher experience index is about five hundred and seventy seventy thousand dollars seven well except five hundred and seventy thousand dollars yeah so that's huge yeah perfect i mean that's one of the things the state is wanting to do away with right now of course of course how do you pay your experience teachers then exactly base rate for forever exactly i mean that's one of the things that they're that's on the uh chopping block right now so on some of these um on page one of eight we have blue things are in blue did those items change from our original budget is that what that means so like on page one of eight item four general administration that's the first blue highlighted this page [Applause] this page so you know you have your two pages and then you have your regular education maybe regular education expenditures and then you have item 2300.
you are here to adhere to governing board policy and removing the superintendent and acting in this deluded and quite frankly strange political agenda is just the wrong direction to go and i look forward to supporting the recall of of miss denz excuse me of miss pritchard and miss chaffin and i look forward to when missed it i'm losing my place sorry i get fired up i look forward to electing new leaders who are going to support this district and are going to support kids and restore common decency and common sense to this district thank you next we have lisa moberg hi i'm lisa moberg i'm employee days art unified i'm just looking at you guys i mean we have been through so much and it feels like a family reunion at a funeral today it really does and it's so sad so sad i was hoping to thank dr kellis for his inspiring positive and professional leadership especially in the past two years while the world dealt with the pandemic and its impact on education he began his role immediately with branding us as extraordinary he took time to go to classrooms and to thank teachers for being extraordinary i'm not a crier so this is kind of big really not in public either so this is really big he began super in 60 media media posts to showcase extraordinary people he's an active participant in our days our hero awards taking time to pass out our infamous balloons 48 seconds um he's purposeful with being uplifting thoughtful and kind he's patient during these board meetings in response to criticism and negativity with kindness always kindness we have one goal to do what's best for children that's all it is it's about the kids thank you next up we have matt smith hello my name is matt smith i'm a parent of four dysart students or graduates and and proud to be part of the dysart school district which is awesome i'm here to support dr kellis as well um i appreciate the responses that i got in in emails from mrs sawyer sink bell and also sis miss prichard i appreciate your responses um ms pritchard did tell me something that i really appreciated and she said do not believe everything you read on facebook and i completely agree with that i was taught when i was young that you will know them by their fruits and that is to say that you'll know somebody by their actions and the results of their actions some of the fruits that i've seen from dr kellis are his total support for the kids in this district having four kids go through this school system i've seen dr kellis at plays choir concerts band concerts awards assemblies track and cross-country meets basketball games volleyball games football games i've been amazed at how many things i've seen him at i have seen the joy that it brings a young athlete to have the superintendent the district superintendent come up to them and congratulate them on winning a meet or a race or congratulating them on a job well done if they didn't win i've heard stories from other young adults about dr kellis attending uh student council meetings to help them feel heard and trying to figure out what he what he can do to help and implement programs to help them i've been part of an interfaith breakfast that dr kellis has led to bring community faith leaders together with principals and school administrators he made it very clear to us that although there is a legal obligation keep the separation of church and state that does not make it so that we cannot talk to each other and team up to help students and families in crisis these are the kind of actions that i have seen dr kellis and i've seen him do and and the things that will make a difference in the lives of our kids too short of time i was planning on three minutes here the i uh i'm proud of the the district and i and i'm and i appreciate everything that dr kellis has done and we need more people like him next up we have jen tanner good evening my name is jennifer tanner i served on the governing board for 12 years i have a lot of history with dysart with its policies and with two separate superintendents i know during this item you're going to talk about that you've made a lot of or had a lot of conversations in executive sessions that need to be remain confidential and that as a public we are not privy to that information so since i cannot speak to what i don't know i will speak to what i do know i've been through executive sessions where evaluations and end-of-year reviews were held for dr kellis much of that information was again echoed when we would come back out and share with the public how the efforts of transparency as we shared progression towards district goals 18 months ago i left the governing board and at that time i left and there were great working conditions between the board and the superintendent and cabinet i would say the ship was sailing just fine and one month later you discontinued policy governance and it's been a slippery slope since then something to me doesn't sit right and when you choose to respond to the public and i've seen some of these responses and being half truths i've always been a governing board member who was about seeking truth so in order to make sense of this i've sent a public records request for board emails and exchanges with one another and the superintendent myself as well as prior governing board members are ready and determined to find answers lastly for being public school advocates you must think we are really uneducated to believe dr kellis voluntarily resigned [Applause] he has i have i've never seen another superintendent put so much heart and soul into his his work and to the students of of this district he is in all these schools he was still out visiting schools today and still pinning extraordinary pins on people [Applause] thank you our next speaker is kevin cowell [Applause] hello you all um my name is kevin cop been in surprise since 2004.
okay let's make a motion to change well we're going to if we could pull those up um my oh can we do the other one please i'm sorry thank you curtis i don't is it in there oh i think he had it up it just i think it was the previous one wasn't it was it this one yes yes okay oh this one yes so we for mrs reed who's looking at me like what are you doing mrs kaler we would like to remove i move that yes we're gonna remove covid as number one and then um move all those up and we're going to add that we fully fund kindergarten all day i'm sorry all day kindergarten why can't second do we need yeah do we need a second second i don't think so we just give you the top five that we would like to submit and then she submits them and we just vote yay or nay on those five okay any questions or concerns we are going to submit require public accountability for taxpayer dollars spent on education revise the school board school board finance formula rethink and redefine the role and purpose of state standardized testing and meaningful assessments and we're going to preserve recommend preserve and strengthen local control and also fully fund all-day kindergarten yeah i will when we vote all those in favor aye aye motion carries 3-0 and i know that mrs anderson before she left had given her approval on that as well all right thank you darlene for your patience with me as i we do these every year and we do fumble over these all right future agenda items um the summer will be a little bit more quiet as far as meetings go i hope that our staff and administrators all do take some much deserved time off as well as our teachers so we have a meeting in june and then we've still got our strategic plan focus areas coming up professional development update our higley wellness initiatives and our higley virtual academy update anything else the board would like to have an update on or a presentation there's still other things coming within these so it's not it's not just this all right very good thank you so much and with that i move that we adjourn second all those in favor aye aye motion carries 3-0 i just want to say congratulations to all the graduating seniors of the class of 2022.
eight eight nine he's eight nine or eight ten eight eight eight ten okay he's got you on the right i know i know terrible uh this is this is a ratification uh we as you remember last year we approved the one-to-one computing initiative uh and we had two purchases this year we thought we brought to the board we haven't so we've asked to come back uh in in the first case uh we got remember i think uh last board meeting we talked about an emergency connectivity funds and we approved some computers we actually had another one of those in september in that case we bought 400 computers um and it was it's just a pass-through it has nothing to do with us we have to open the po but the money's all federal money and so we just want to make sure that we have it have it approved the second one was using uh esther's dollars which you technically approved the ss esther's dollars last year to do this uh because we did a approval of multiple years of what we're doing but we just wanted to we thought it'd be clean if we came back and specifically asked you because we just did this in march and so this would be our refresh okay now that we're on a one-to-one initiative we're gonna have to annually refresh the number of computers for the new class coming in the seniors leaving as computers age we need to refresh those we're also looking to refresh we refresh some staff computers and we want to do those over the same time frame so the second one is is the refresh for next year so you may have technically approved it last year when you approved esther's but we just wanted to be safe so we came back this year with a ratification because it's after the after the purchase so i would recommend ratification as presented okay any questions yep no questions okay go for it all right i moved to approve the ratification of computer purchases as presented a second all in favor aye he just wrecked yes motion carries four to zero as we move forward on the next three agenda items uh although we're waiting on the final uh budget from the state where there may be additional dollars we do know based on the law that we will get a specific amount for our daa and we also have some dollars in for our bond and these are high priority items on leadership team and if we don't start moving on these um uh there's enough of a lead time for items anyway we're trying to see if we can get some work done during the summer and so these next three will be specific items that we're looking to move forward when we take a look at uh [Music] daa items distribution assistance items we're really looking at two areas uh student safety and curriculum and so these are reflected here so the first one is a motion to approve the uh or to approve the bid from ecd for upgrades to bail systems throughout the district it's 171 477 and we do have some work already taking place at cta and chs with 26 000 already out on the po so this would be addition and we just decided we need to upgrade all the systems uh so that they're uh compatible competitive um with each other how old oh sorry go ahead i was wondering if like i didn't see anything for the high school is that why already it's it's it's buried into the cost there's some additional work that's already started with the high school but then within the 71. am i correct on that bob or craig yeah okay and how old is the current system they probably vary depending on the age of the school but i'm going to guess since most of our schools were built in that 2005 to 2010 range you're talking roughly 15 years maybe a little bit older than that so that would be my guess is the age on most of these systems you're starting to run into some issues with parts and those kind of things okay any other questions do they can conduct studies to find the most annoying sounds for bells that would be a technology question [Laughter] all right i moved to approve the bid from 171 4777 from ecd for upgrades to the bell system throughout the district do i need to read everything using one gpa bid number 21-07 p-09 presented i have to read every word on that one i second do you have to read everywhere yeah it's critical that you you that you do a second i'm sorry i did second already all right all in favor motion carries four to zero okay that same uh rationale will be for camera upgrades throughout the district in this case the the cost does not exceed eight hundred twenty eight thousand four hundred ninety dollars and fifty nine cents um and um we're trying to cover as much of the district as we can especially some stuff that has been covered like the ag science area and the uh uh bus barn at least where the buses are so i would uh recommend approval as presented all right i moved to approve the bid not to exceed 492.59 from bricata for upgrades to the camera systems throughout the district as presented a second all in favor aye aye aye motion carries 4-0 uh the last project that we have is we have some drainage issues at harmon and symmington and so we put out a bid to six contractors we got two bids back uh and so our recommendation is use caliente you will notice in the backup material there was ad allowances or adults to it and so in looking at the pricing uh in comparison and comparing the two companies our decision and our recommendation would be that we would go ahead and move forward with the base bid which is to create a drainage to remove the water from the interior portion of the campuses and also to if help me if i'm wrong mr anderson i'm drawing a blank we would look at um also adding um let's see we'll see in a second yes i do come on down i forget what the two adults were what school is that going to happen simonson and harmony it's over-estimating and so the what that would do is the the price tag is 457 562 but please note that there is approximately 76 000 in allowances if those allowances are not used then that number would go down accordingly the allowances and what's used at each of the two sites will vary i know there was an issue i believe at harman in terms of trying to figure out where the drainage where the existing drainage system is so that's why the allowance is a little bit greater for harman than for simmington if they can find it and they don't need to use the allowances and there's no unforeseen conditions then then you will see a reduction of of up to 76 000 off that price tag so the price tag would come in a little under 400 000 but the motion has to be for the full amount and then we'll see what happens the goal would be to have it done the the the information was released to the contractors with uh specifically stating we had to have this done uh by the middle of july okay all right i moved to a train to approve drainage projects at harman and simon elementaries to cali into construction the amount of 450 000 four hundred fifty seven thousand five hundred sixty two dollars as presented a second all in favor aye aye aye aye okay so now we have discussion items um 9.1 azela reassessment results madam president members of the board dr wyman i'm here tonight to talk about our zella reassessment results from this past spring so just a reminder right here we're looking at state end of the year summative assessments every year we have to reassess all of our english learners in the district using the azella instrument to see if they can move from being an english learner to being proficient so this is our historical data over the last five years uh one of the key points that you can see here is that our numbers are increasing on a yearly basis um and i will tell you that we from the first day of school until the time that we reassessed we probably went from that 151 to that 182 just after the school year started we had a huge increase a lot of that is kindergarten but we also saw a lot of increases at all of our sites and other grades so you can also see that our reassessment percentage has stayed roughly the same over the last five years we had a decrease in 1920.
so i'm just going to talk briefly about the highlights as touch points um as kevin mentioned it was important um to go back to certainly getting the conceptual beginnings of where we started with this recognizing that we were you know now speaking of folks who only really knew it as uh you know building a school and um you know none of these academies come to be how were the different academy types selected um so we took our time to go back to some of their research but the very first uh one most important task that we have to do that night was to make sure that we were clear on the purpose of the task force um so why we're you know getting together and having that collaboration that really was to um you know build that shared understanding about the process of the development and the funding that we needed for the academy to make sure that the communication line was open and that we were meeting on a regular basis so that was really really the key we did talk about how this would fit into our mission and vision and some time discussing that along with identifying the different career clusters that are available uh that were being promoted not just nationally and regionally but the ones that connecticut identifies that are also really much the subject matter of lots of discussion with the mayor's function on the different agencies in the state of connecticut and how there's lots of partnerships growing around these 12 connecticut clusters so i'm not going to go through the whole thing you do have it in your pocket we talked about the programs of studies and health and what that is the concept of those so those people make a little bit of the curriculum committee um and also what an industry-recognized credential is those would be advantageous to our students and how those fit into the academies and the pathways as well and then we talked about the concept in terms of the coursework the rigor the small learning communities and the importance of developing an advisory board on community partnerships with businesses and then growing that out is really provides the foundation for the academies not just the beginning but in years to come and we saw what that looks like in other communities where this has developed it's quite impressive one of the best examples of that is the partnership called pencil down in nashville where we learn just how elaborate developed these partnerships are and how much communities will sponsor and support the academies recognizing that you're producing students who will likely go back off to college development interests to go off to college or school or career and come back and live in the community because those opportunities have been made known to them those relationships have been established and so it's uh it's just a wonderful concept to go around we went into the pathways from the trajectory and the flow of learning from 9th grade to 12th grade and then we spent some time talking about the academies that would be located on the news site versus denver high school site um one of the most important things to point out was that it was just not about a building and that this was a concept and a transformation of teaching learning in the way that we were um organizing our high school and that danbury high school was very much a part of this transformation that it didn't just live in the building that we're building so i think that was important [Music] plans and scaling and drawings and then they start to actually break ground inside the building to build it up so it's actually a very productive meeting uh we ended that meeting um with identifying proposed agendas for the next couple meetings so in june program the catholic partnerships to talk a little bit more about individual pathways uh the improvement committee did a little bit of a deep dive into one of the medical technology pathways just to give a little snapshot of what that that looks like um september uh we'll be doing more uh discussion around the physical building plans and construction process um that starts to become really really more refined and ready to share um start talking about the staffing and that's really a key piece as we as we move into this you know what will it take to staff and open that building so building the building is one thing staffing it making sure that the resources are on both sides and in place and in our current high school are going to be very important um transportation and food service needs and then updating the enrollment which also is a very key part of our budget development process so it was a very good meeting and we look forward thank you dr casamaro teresa question uh was there anybody from west valley on the task force or had been invited as you know i've worked many years at restaurant and i was always appalled that there was no everybody was distinctive silos and i think a lot of our students graduate go on to westcon and being a partner in the community i think it's important that they should be on the task force and also um i had expressed this in the curriculum committee the art and engineering and design academy i think it should really uh the art piece should be renamed visual performing arts to be more encompassing of the theater and music department as well as the visual arts department um that's my two cents so i'll i'll just say something about the uh the task force the task force and i i think there are there will be plenty of opportunity to engage west con and other partners in the city the purpose in which cara had opened with and that was this purpose is solely the sole purpose of this is to partner with the city to talk about funding to open up 24.25 and the academic experiences for kids there certainly may be some opportunities to connect and partner with west con and other institutions of higher learning but specifically for this task force it's a one agenda item and that is we want to make sure we're on the same page with the city and partner in a way where they understand enrollment understand our enrollment projections understand our need for more staffing to open up not only a high school but also a middle school and so given that specific agenda the request was to keep the task force tight to make sure that we can focus on these specific items and then once we once we get some commitment and investment we can revisit i mean at the same time cara is working on the academic experiences piece with the new director of academy partnerships that's certainly going to be helping it i think to address some of the things that you're talking about teresa but cara can speak to some of those things because that is happening it's just in a different lane that's all as part of the model um it's important to have an advisory board of community members and business members and certainly university representative the part of the university partnership would be a perfect member of an advisory panel for uh that would work directly with the school and the community so it is a fun time totally great jack can you keep it close to the first step yeah thank you thank you yes [Music] so will sites and facilities can be involved at the ground level as far as the construction of the building and all the you know that aspect of it or and how do you measure what board members are on the test polls but is it just going to be those two members or will we have an opportunity to participate in that process so we have two four representatives we will probably have to talk soon because one of those seats might be open really really soon um and so we will have to backfill one of those two seats and make a decision about that so we'll speak to the board chair and but but the ask was as part of keeping the task force tight it was two representatives from the board which is consistent with mayor mark's 2020 2020 task force years ago so we had two board members two council members and i believe it was mayor mark and someone else also from his office in this case i think it's three because antonio is also on it on the task force as well which is certainly appropriate but to your questions about the sites and facilities the sites and facilities it's so we did have one meeting with sightseeing facilities when antonio came in and gave the overview and just said hey here it is but antonio will be back because with an approved bond referendum if that happens there are significant projects on that agenda and i i don't remember where we left off in our last one but our chair for sites and facilities is here lisa if you had some thoughts um can i just yeah i think you have to press both at the same time speak loud all right um is the uh buildings committee that the city council voted on the task force is that one in the same or is that two separate separate separatists yes um so yes on our agenda on the sites and facilities we will be adding um you know the uh career on a regular basis so we will be having um up-to-date discussions on that as well as also the building committee that was just approved for city hall so we'll be working with that as well so as we get information from city hall we'll bring it to the sites and facilities committee also you know updates on the bond and everything so i really want to make sure that that committee you know keeps everybody updated on the academy and where we are construction-wise are you okay thank you okay thank you teresa oh concerning the referendum coming up is there a ground swell building hopefully for a positive result because i understand we have to have not just a positive vote but 15 of the voters turning out which i don't know what that number is six pounds six thousand thank you so i i can tell you there are multiple strategies to encourage voter participation the mayor's office is engaging in one that i think is probably going to be most influential one the mayor's office my office will be doing a joint op-ed the entire community the mayor's office city hall my understanding is they will also be posting things to their own website and uh pushing the word out it's the strategy i think as we get closer to the june 7th date um i think that they're choosing to get as we wait until they get closer to that date and then there's also um we have some [Music] groups in danbury independent of the district that is also informing our staff about the referendum so our teachers union has taken this on to help spread the word in our administrative union i understand it is also joining in that as well so we do have some momentum in that regard and again just getting out and spreading the word about the referendum and how it could be beneficial to our families so thank you for that question excuse me but we also have quite a few community groups that are doing things to inform parents about the referendum and how important it is so we're just we're not all alone by ourselves you know i have a lot of people that's out there that want to make sure that this move forward thank you and if you know the questions i just have one more item as an update and that is i mean now it's a it's about to turn into a question and that is the strategic plan board of vet workshop scheduled for tomorrow night the two goals that we were hoping to accomplish with tomorrow night if the board recalls in our last workshop we had agreed to schedule a follow-up meeting in which the board could have an opportunity to not only work on its own goals to help support accomplish the strategic plan and help us realize our pog vision but also identify a strategy in which you can extract the goals from the strategic plan to focus on your supervising goals and given the members that are not here with us this evening um i don't know if everyone's going to be available for an in-person meeting tomorrow so lauren i'm not sure how you want to handle that i'll just end it there and just remind everyone we have a meeting scheduled for tomorrow night but i don't know what that participation is going to look like so i just want to share with you more on how they'd like to proceed could i because we have talked about this for a and it's a part of the strategic planning workshop and we as board members also join a part of the board the superintendent evaluation as far as goals that the board came up with and my understanding there was seven goals or six goals that we need to talk about tomorrow so i encourage everyone and i know there's a lot of things going on to please tomorrow if you can't stay for the full session i think it would be to me going to talk about goals talk about the superintendent and strategic planning to be here and not do it on the computer would be a lot big you know to me better a little bit more understanding for the information but i i'm not a chairperson so that's my suggestion is for as as i can see it those that can make it we come here tomorrow and do the workshop so i definitely agree that in person is much better i do know last time we had several members that couldn't make it and um right now speaking with kevin and having um information we probably will have about a third of the board that will be able to make it tomorrow um craft about we're figuring if it's in person and given our participation this evening yeah so that's the only reason we're having this question do we postpone it and do it when we have a better chance of having more of the board here because we prefer not to have it on not have a hybrid we prefer to have everybody here um but that's kind of i guess we should probably do kind of like what about this because to me this is a part of the superintendent evaluation and to talk about the seven goals that the committee came over right to discuss and to see if we can move that in line with what the superintendent goes on so we have we're not really pushing but if we could postpone this uh maybe another week okay um you know because i don't know everybody else i don't know any other uh works recipients are available but i can work on i can speak with the person who's going to facilitate if it's not that person certainly will be able to find someone else but i don't think dr memphis would be available um but if he's if not tomorrow i don't think he's gonna be available but he assured us we could find someone else before so i'm we'll have to work on that i'm just not exactly sure it's just the 23rd that's just a date 23rd or whatever date [Music] go for it just i hate saying when i was in the board before but when i was on the board before we used to do a lot of the committee meetings and stuff the same day as the board the regular board meeting because people typically blocked out on wednesday and the staff the um people already hear any so if they're they're not they're killing they're killing that whole day if we could and i just don't know how how long the meeting is going to be or workshop's going to be do us 5 to something well we could do 5 30.
those are the forms come like that from the auditor general's office i would have to look to see why why they're highlighted it may be because they come with they come with um instructions that you have to click on to see the instructions or something so i'd have to look at it so that wasn't like earmarked that there was a big change no okay perfect all right thank you brenda any other questions from the board we have a motion to adjourn this uh public hearing the motion from diana has a second from margaret all in favor that would be unanimous
um i'm a parent of two kids at uh who are at shadow ridge high school one's graduating here in a couple days and the other one is finishing his freshman year i'm also a previous uh pto treasurer at sunset hills for three years and i'm currently the treasurer at willow canyon high school's theater booster program yes my kids get their shadow when i'm over there my wife calls me a traitor i'm just here to support dr kellis because i work in the corporate world and i'm just going to tell you guys when you have someone who has that extraordinary amount of leadership we don't ask for the resignation we celebrate them and in this role we'd give them a contract extension we wouldn't ask them to leave that is just the way the corporate world works so unless there is a valid reason which i have yet to hear one of them it would be it just doesn't really jive with my corporate mindset of letting go such a great leader and i think it's a big mistake thank you next we have aubrey sims [Music] [Applause] good evening governing board members my name is aubry sims and i'm a senior at valley vista high school i would like to express my support for dr kellis and all he has done for this school district from a student's perspective because that's what we should all be here for prior to dr kelly's employment as superintendent at dysart i did not know who the superintendent was in fact i never saw her or knew of her the year dr kellis became superintendent everyone knew who he was not because he was demanding but because he took the time to speak to us to get to know us learn with us and teach us how to lead with empathy i have been heavily involved in my school for the past four years and i've worked very closely with dr kellis on multiple occasions i can confidently say that he cares about the students and making our experience extraordinary and that is exactly what he has done dr kellis has focused heavily on communication with students staff parents and the community he has made an effort to meet with students at all dysart high schools at least once every semester he asked students for feedback and what he can do to make our experience extraordinary he explains situations to students and is very transparent with us at every meeting he asks students two questions how do you lead with empathy and how do you lead by example these questions have stuck stuck with every student he meets and will continue to do so for the rest of our lives leading with empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of others doing what can benefit them rather than yourself he has made my experience extraordinary and gives my gives me the ability to lead others in ways i never knew possible so i leave you all with two questions how do you lead with empathy and how do you lead by example because the way you vote tonight will impact every student in the dysart district we have been gifted an extraordinary experience with dr kellis as superintendent for the past four years and i would hope the board would want students students to continue to have an involved and caring superintendent as they are not easy to come by dr kellis has made a huge impact on my life and my student experience i along with many other students across the district would hate to see him go thank you next [Music] okay next we have jackie fabry jackie fabry good evening my name is jackie edmonds aubrey that was beautiful those very brave congratulations for being an advocate for yourself and for education that was wonderful i am a pto pta um local unit leader i am the regional director for the arizona state pta um i am a child activist i am not a political activist i don't know a whole lot about this process what i do know is i spend countless hours raising money for my school along with my team and my unit and when you see something as frivolous as buying out a contract for somebody who is doing an amazing job uh it's a slap in the face because the year that we've spent working so hard is making a fraction of the amount that will be spent on this nonsense and it's it's disheartening to feel that i appreciate you letting us speak to you to let you know how we feel it would have been better to be a democratic process to allow the voters to decide whether or not to vote in somebody who would like to propose dr kellis be resigned as their campaign and led us to vote on whether or not we approve of that it is not being put into our control and that's disheartening i hope that we will all persuade you to know on this and if not i hope we can fix it thank you thank you ms edmonds i do apologize it took me a while to find your name so thank you um next we have she sheila kaiser [Applause] hello my name is sheila kaiser i'm the mother of three dysart graduates amazing graduates i've also worked for the district for over 13 years now so i'm here to talk to you today about trans your trans of translating what you're doing in private to the public you are the one who controls what happens in an executive session you have the ability to let the public know what's going on and you have yet to do that you've heard the amazing uh comments about dr kellis and how well he's done so that leads me to believe that there has to be another reason of why you are asking him to step down and believe me we know that he's being asked to be set down so i would ask you i've sent all of you emails with a a post that had been made from a a group here in arizona that mentioned the three of you as part of their group they have used words to describe our parents our students and our teachers as leftists commun that is a quote intimidating violent rabble-rousing leftist and marxist this is the same group our part of them who surrounded our school banged on the doors and called our police officers nazis and then in the very next situation ms schafen actually commented your name in person as on their side so i'm here today as a teacher and as a parent to ask you to quit being on the side of a political agenda it is time that you're on our side we are the parents we are the teachers we are the taxpayers and we are the students of this district you work for us not a political agenda and so i'm asking you today to not vote yes on this uh item that you would stand up against this group that you have refused in my emails to tell me that you do not belong to a part except for you miss chapin thank you for your response and i would also ask that you make it public next we have mayor skip hall [Applause] mayor skip hall madam president and the rest of the board and assistant superintendent jimmy dean uh i appreciate the opportunity to speak this evening albeit i'm saddened to do so given the circumstances there is not enough time to articulate how much dr quinn kellis means to surprise his list of accomplishments and awards speak for themselves just to name a few the arizona school of public relations association award superintendent for contributions to public education in 2020 honorary commander of luke air force base focus on providing dysart extraordinary experiences within the district can surprise advisory groups for staff parents students and community weekly super and super in 60 seconds videos for community education open the vista center for the arts 2020 open the asante preparation preparatory academy and freedom traditional academy to accommodate rapid growth and community needs in 2019 launched the annual festival of arts for the community in 2019 as 19 or excuse me has nine a-plus schools of excellence from arizona's educational foundation over the past 10 years there's a 92 percent graduation rate the state average is 79 and so much more dr kellis's role is very similar to a city manager's role he is the ceo of operations for the school and the dis as the community as the city manager is the ceo of the operations of the city it is our job as elected officials to make policy it's a school board's job to do the same for the district dr kellis demonstrates you have done it that he has done a job extremely next we have lisa fowler madam president members of the board dr dean members cabinet my name is lisa fowler and i'm a wife and mom of five two graduates at shadow ridge i have been a dicer volunteer since moving to surprise in 2012.
um that was right we finished right before the everything closed down at that point in time um and then last year we had to bring i believe we were bringing kids in and trying to get some of our online kids to test which was a challenge some celebrations uh combs traditional academy we had 50 of our our students that was 6 out of 12 english learners that reclassified to being english proficient ellsworth had a 20 reclassification rate which was about seven percent uh greater than our district average so seven of their uh 35 kids reclassified with our kindergartners we had 20 percent of them reclassify we had 25 total district wide second grade 21 percent of them reclassified and fourth grade 21 reclassified and this was a real celebration for us seeing 12th graders we had two of our 12th graders uh reclassify which you don't see that very often a lot of the data that the state has done says that if we don't reclassify an english learner within the first three years of having them that they will never reclassify so seeing a 12th grader reclassify is is a great celebration for us some next steps we have adopted what's called lexi english it's another piece to the the lexia platform it is a research-based evidence-based program uh very excited we started using it this spring right before we started zella testing so we are expecting to go full implementation with our k5 if we can hit our k5 kids and reclassify them then we don't have to worry about them getting into the middle school high school and and that they're proficient at that point in time we're also uh brenda haro is our el content coach she's working with the east valley districts on developing an sei endorsement course that we'll be able to administer here at our own uh district if you don't know the state stopped requiring the sei endorsement for certification however they still require you to have the sei endorsement or in order to work with the english learners so any english teacher that has an english learner in their class needs to have that sei endorsement um and it's just good teaching so she's currently working with the east valley on that [Music] i know she worked with one of our sei targeted teachers today to start looking at their data and so we're starting to to that process we just got the results on thursday so just so you know we're also looking at the staffing model that we have to provide additional support for higher needs schools and secondary program um and then secondary english learners there's not a whole lot of programs out there uh that address their needs so we're continuing to look for some something that's effective in terms of a supplemental program currently we use rosetta stone it's not the best but it's the best that we have and then continuing to look at professional learning opportunities focused on the integrated sei instruction the current model requires students to be receiving services for two hours a day one hour is a targeted specifically with a targeted sei teacher they're actually working on those english proficiency skills the other hour is intended to be within a content area english is a preferred area where that that english teacher is providing additional integrated opportunities to work on that english proficiency and so we've been working a lot with those targeted teachers but we need to start working into bringing in our integrated english teachers uh to provide some additional support for them on on strategies working with their eels and so any questions all right thank you very much thank you okay so then we have it looks like we have a first reading did you want to um yeah i'll just real quickly give us a yeah this is this is just the the addition to the policy of the administrative days i talked about on the salary schedule uh we have two reads and so even though you approve the salary schedule you could come back and say we don't want this and we take it out of the salary schedule but it's just uh allowing administrators to have seven administrative days annually the key pieces to that is they must be used during the year they do not accumulate and they will not be paid out for those days upon retirement resignation determination so the notion would be you have seven days that you could use uh you would use those first before you went to uh vacation days or potentially personal days and it's just a it's perk that other some other districts use um and it helps our staff our our administrators who have a hard time taking the days anyway uh uh to get a little bit extra help to take some days um either during a break or during the school year so you know we can come back with questions at the next meeting because the second read but it just kind of gives you what what the idea is behind it and it's a creative way with a very low cost to the district um relatively speaking uh but it's a good benefit or perk for administration okay so we have future agenda agenda items i know that bob wanted two i think and it's going to be on next agenda okay anybody else have anything not at this time no well okay so looking for the tabled ones so uh 11 i motioned to adjourn at 7 28.
you know i'm just saying something like that you know for the interest of everybody's time not to you know because i i just i just realized the system of getting the invitations is a lot different um i might be just an old guy trying to figure it out but i went on my google account by the calendar and i saw these dots on what the hell is this so i i press on and i'm like this meeting that i didn't know there was a meeting last night i'm like so i'm something wrong with with my system but i was just you know get the night people are here you know certainly bring some food in that's always an attraction and just do it you know because most people just put aside that wednesday night right and it's okay wednesday night you get there in time do we can do you know not knock out a committee meeting or workshop before the regular meeting so it's not you know tuesday night wednesday night thursday the evaluation committee and the strategic planning we need at least an hour and a half okay so if you're gonna do it before boarding five years [Music] facilitator if he can do it then that'll be foul okay so this workshop is part of the uh us 90 minutes before the meeting and i will speak to the facilitator oh facilitator and see if we can because i think we were like i was going to tell um rachel that was the one that i might not be able to paint about well she should definitely have it like that i think it's about sure who would be important yes and that concludes the superintendent's report thank you thank you um any information from the board not information but um i would like to propose an amendment or an addition to our agenda which under foia we can do with a two-thirds vote the purpose is to put on the agenda and accept unfortunately well fortunately unfortunately my letter of resignation um i'm seeking my party's endorsement to run for judge of probate and pursuant to the canons of judicial ethics that apply to candidates and people who hold that office you may not hold other elected office so i cannot run for jesuit probate or even seek the nomination while simultaneously serving on this board so unfortunately i would make a motion that we amend the agenda to add that to the agenda for tonight's meeting second all of us i'm sorry i apologize i did not bring enough copies of the letter for everybody but i did um give the original to warren and i'll read it for the record it was pat it was passed up for the secretary um it's addressed to rachel uh david today may 11 2022.
during this time i've had the opportunity to work with dr quinn kellis his servant leadership style has been an inspiration i serve on the superintendent parent advisory council where we get to meet with admin and the cabinet and parent support group leaders and he asks us what can we do what how can i be better how can i help you and all we can do is sing as praises because we're so proud michelangelo said that greatest the great danger for most of us lies in setting and not in setting our aim too high and falling short but in setting our aim too low and achieving our mark when you talk about his goals dr kellis didn't set low easily achievable goals in order to secure bonus instead he set large lofty goals to inspire himself and everyone around us to exceed expectations extraordinary you know i can go on and on about the virtues of dr kellis but that's not going to save his job today so let's address the elephant in the room that has this has nothing to do with dr callus's performance or his accomplishments this has to do with three rogue board members who've been trying to gain power and control of this district and unfortunately they have the support from an extremist special interest group that also funded their elections chrissy don and crystal you know you have the majority you decide the outcomes of agenda items this has been obvious in several meetings with how joe and tracy have been treated with unprofessional condoms you're so condescending to them it's hard to watch it's as if their ideas don't matter tonight is the perfect example of what the three of you have been working together on it's an extremely dysfunctional board that is not working in the best interests of the most important people affected which is our kids you want to talk about violating trust you violated our trust so i'm calling for the immediate resignation of christine fracherdon next we have teresa delong theresa delonge valuable dysart board members my name is theresa delong i am a dysart parent and teacher i implore you to reconsider exiting dr kalis before his contract time first what an incredible waste of taxes if the board chooses to buy out dr kelly's contract early there would have to be a very good reason and i know of absolutely no good reason to exit an award-winning humble humble superintendent early at taxpayer expense dr kellis has shown a spine of steel in these times when other districts were refusing to open their doors out of fear of a virus dr kellis stood strong in getting us back into our classrooms and guiding us towards as close to normalcy as we could get dr kellis comes to campuses he speaks to teachers students and he actually answers emails even from me and staff and community members i've been employed by this district since 2005 and i will tell you from experience that is not always the way it has been dr kellis is not a contemptible politician type at all he doesn't easily bend the way that the wind blows on sensitive social trends he is a person who stops to say hello brings school staff ice cream talks to students works hard to put his voice out to all the dysart community please do the right thing not the political thing keep dr kellis [Applause] next we have katie mccarthy good evening madam president members of the board cabinet and community my name is katie mccarthy and i come to you today as a proud dysart parent and staff member the pride i have and where my child receives her education and where i work is directly related to the extraordinary leadership from dr kellis under the leadership of dr kellis my daughter has been able to experience the middle school model which has prepared her more for high school than i could have imagined in addition to receiving high school credits she's developed organization and time management skills that will be vital to her success in a dysart high school having worked under many different leadership styles over the years i can tell you that one thing that makes a great leader is visibility as a staff member i am so grateful to have an involved and present superintendent dr kellis is visible to the staff and the community in a variety of ways you've heard about the super n60 video that's put out every friday and highlights the amazing things we have going on across district in a way that is accessible to community members dr kellis has also found a way to highlight the amazing staff we have across the district the extraordinary pin is delivered to staff personally by dr kellis as you heard he was out on campuses today doing just that these are just two of many examples of what dr kellis has done to be president for the district that he obviously cares so deeply about i could list all the awards accolades and achievements dr kellis has received or that the district has received because of his leadership but that would go way beyond this two minutes a resignation would be a devastating loss to dysart students staff parents and community partners it is unlikely to find a replacement with the expertise and dedication that dr kellis has demonstrated during his tenure it would be in the district's best interest for everyone involved to develop a solution that allows dr kellis to complete his contractual obligation i know i speak for many when i say the true dysart hero is dr kellis next we have a mr looks like team william is it gayam madam president uh members of the board my name is william conium a dicer parent two kids attend dinosaur schools um as mayor hall said today's a sad day um as lisa said it feels like we're attending a funeral we're worried about what's happening to our district um but the thing is you know we're worried about this ax that's about to fall that we can just we see it's about to fall right we're worried you look around this room everyone here is worried the thing is though and i'm looking to you madam president you have that power you have the courage i know you can do this okay please stay that axe vote no this doesn't have to happen that's all i have to say thank you thank you next we have mr ryan eldridge okay thank you next we have shiloh freeman good evening i'm a parent and a staff member and community member first they came for the socialists and i did not speak out because i was not a socialist then they came for the trade unionist and i did not speak out because i was not a trade unionist then they came for the jews and i did not speak out because i was not a jew then they came for me and there was no one left to speak for me these are powerful words of martin niemoller during world war ii my name is shiloh freeman i have lived in surprise 14 years and have taught all these years in dysart prior to moving here i loved living in my hometown community a rural very conservative community where my scholars knew our superintendent and all board members faces because they had a constant presence on our school campuses they were spectators at sporting events and at arts performances decisions from our board were always created with our staff and scholars in mind we were also giving great input my experience in dysart was very different i didn't feel like a valued employee until dr kellis arrived he instantly surveyed staff to seek our input he's a face on campus my scholars know i genuinely believe he cares for all of us and that is needed in our current climate as i wrote to you in the emails i sent all five of you i am a conservative who attended george bush's second inauguration in january 2005.