001Here. Vice President Linda Heath. Here. Governing member Chris Gillespie. Here. Governing member George Arradondo. Here. Governing member Victoria Quintero. Here. We have quorum. Wonderful. If everyone can stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. Moving on to the approval of the agenda. Approve the agenda. Second. Motion's been made by Board Member Gillespie and seconded by Board Member Arradondo. All those in favor? Yes. Yes. Motion passes by all. Moving on to public participation. Is there a Julia Jordan here? And then before you get started, I have to read this. The Arizona Open Meeting Law allows the Governing Board of Education to hear concerns from parties, but does not allow the board to discuss or take any action without the item having been part of the regularly posted agenda. The board may remand the concern to the superintendent for
002investigation, action, or recommendation at a future board meeting. Before beginning your presentation, please state your name and organization for the record. If there is one, remarks are to be limited to three minutes per participant. The board requests that speakers refrain from voicing complaints against school personnel or any person connected with the district as it may impact due process rights, policies K.E., K.E.B., K.E.C., and K.E.D. are provided by the board for disposition of legitimate complaints including those involving individuals. Hi. Hello. My name is Julia Jordan and I have autism and... I'm going to speak about when the state testing is coming, kids with learning disabilities, and sometimes they give out a prize. And I'm going to speak about how kids with learning disabilities don't understand it, they don't do it, and they do their best. Yes,
003so hi, my name is Julia Jordan. I'm a student at Coolidge High School, and I have autism level 2 functioning. I was, when I was born, I had a stroke, a seizure, and my mom and I was, heart was rate, was dropping. The doctors was not paying attention to my mom. I was in the NICU. For two weeks. It caused me for having autism. But I love my autism. I was diagnosed in 2022 when I was in eighth grade. Now I realize in third grade, I did not understand what was going on in school. My brain stopped learning. Now I'm in 11th grade, and I'm okay with math, and I can read teen books. But they are graphic novels. I can read normal books. But I get lost so why I'm trying to say Trying
004to say when state testing comes the kids that do good they get a prize But that will never be going to be the kids with learning disabilities That makes us not want to do the test. I used to hate doing them. I cried the night before not wanting to go to school the next day. Then these kids with learning disabilities just don't understand that they don't get a prize. They, even though they did their best, the test throws their day off and makes our day not good. And we might need a day off after that. And then some kids with behaviors, they get behaviors when they get their days thrown off. So you don't have to do something big. Just remember there are kids with learning disabilities that are doing their best too. Thank you
005so much. Is there a Jennifer Eisenbeiss here? Jennifer? No? Going once, going twice? All right, moving on to presentations. Principals update presented by Dr. Nate Ferguson. Good evening. Just a few things to update you on. Just wanted to talk about CTE. I love to share some of their experiences. I know they've been to conferences the last week and a half, missed their presence on campus, but we had HOSA out doing their thing. FCCLA was out at their conferences and FBLA as well. So that's always fun to see when they come back and bring us all their new information. They're so stoked to start up on more adventures. So that's always fun to see. I wanted to share that. For our high school, we had 55% of our students have honor roll first quarter. So that's
006always fun to see when you have a majority of students on track doing amazing things and showing up in the classroom. We had some state competitors. They all improved their times, didn't get as high as they'd liked at state, but we had our relay teams for Boys and Girls Swim compete at state, and then three individual students compete at state for swim, Tatum, Zadie, and Keegan, and then for cross country, those individual students are spectacular athletes and showed us proud. And then just wanted to share some of the things we have coming up. Many things. We have a talent show tomorrow. Our Native American Heritage is next Thursday. We have guitar coming up on the 18th. Drama on the 16th. Our boys basketball tournament is the 28th and 29th. We have our first soccer home
007game on the 25th. And then dance week to start us off in December. Thank you. Thank you Anthony Gonzalez Thank you. Mr. Chapman sends his best and he sends me with notes and not a post-it note He doesn't trust me with the post-it notes yet All right. So our reading and math interventions have been working diligently to put our students who need extra support in the best position possible to be successful not just on our campus but moving forward. This year we set our math goal to have at least 70 percent of the students participate in math intervention demonstrate a minimum of 10 percent growth from their baseline assessment as measured by the Alex scheduled knowledge checks. We're happy to report that 72 percent. of the students have shown growth. So we didn't just meet,
008we exceeded that. Additionally, in our reading goal, we set the same 70% participating in Read 180 will demonstrate a minimum growth of 30% from their baseline assessment as measured by their maze test scores. Again, we're proud to report that 89% of the students have shown growth. So again, not just meeting, but exceeding. As of October 30th Coolidge Virtual Academy has completed 203 classes 176 of those being core courses. Coolidge alternative program has completed 315 classes 280 a little over 280 of those are core. So we're confident that our teachers are moving our students in the right direction. Additionally to date we have two grads from both sites. Two of those are early grads, so finished a little bit ahead of schedule. So we have a total of four between the two campuses. Thank you. Thank
009you. You've had dicks? So our honor roll for first quarter was also pretty amazing. We had 416 students that qualified for honor roll which is about 57 percent. I just had to do the math because I wasn't sure where we were. But yeah so very close to what the high school did. I mean very amazing job for our students. That week back that from break I guess we decided to just be like a little bit crazy all around. We had a jam packed week and it was actually amazing. We had a spirit week that week we had pep assemblies to recognize our first quarter athletes. We participated in the parade which was really wonderful that it was opened up at such a high level to all the schools. They absolutely loved it. It was just
010really an amazing experience. And then we hosted our first ever powder puff football game. So it was really awesome because we got to break in our field with everybody on the field and. All the kids were able to go and to attend and to watch that. The 7th grade girls played against the 8th grade girls, and the boys were the cheerleaders. 7th grade girls won, which caused a lot of problems. But it was a whole lot of fun, so something that we will continue to do. Right now we have 7-on-7 football going on, wrestling, and girls softball happening. So all of our games are out there on the calendar. If you'd like to come and watch it, we'd like to have you come out. Thank you. Thank you. ROLL CALL. NEW SPEAKER. NEW SPEAKER. NEW
011SPEAKER. NEW SPEAKER. NEW SPEAKER. NEW SPEAKER. NEW SPEAKER. NEW SPEAKER. NEW SPEAKER. NEW SPEAKER. NEW SPEAKER. NEW SPEAKER. NEW SPEAKER. NEW SPEAKER. NEW SPEAKER. NEW SPEAKER. NEW SPEAKER. NEW SPEAKER. NEW SPEAKER. NEW SPEAKER. NEW SPEAKER. NEW SPEAKER. NEW SPEAKER. NEW SPEAKER. NEW SPEAKER. NEW SPEAKER. NEW SPEAKER. NEW SPEAKER. NEW SPEAKER. NEW SPEAKER. NEW SPEAKER. NEW SPEAKER. NEW SPEAKER. NEW SPEAKER. NEW SPEAKER. NEW SPEAKER. NEW SPEAKER. NEW SPEAKER. NEW SPEAKER. NEW SPEAKER. NEW SPEAKER. NEW SPEAKER. NEW SPEAKER. NEW SPEAKER. NEW SPEAKER. NEW SPEAKER. NEW SPEAKER. NEW SPEAKER. NEW SPEAKER. NEW SPEAKER. NEW SPEAKER. NEW SPEAKER. NEW SPEAKER. NEW SPEAKER. NEW SPEAKER. NEW SPEAKER. NEW SPEAKER. NEW SPEAKER. NEW SPEAKER. NEW SPEAKER. NEW SPEAKER. NEW SPEAKER. NEW SPEAKER. NEW SPEAKER. NEW SPEAKER. NEW SPEAKER. NEW SPEAKER. NEW SPEAKER. NEW SPEAKER. NEW SPEAKER. NEW SPEAKER. NEW SPEAKER. NEW
012SPEAKER. I'm trying to think of the location. It's a sleeping area. The Artisan Village, thank you. Artisan Village for Project University of Arizona's Project Wet. Our fourth grade students went out to that. They just had an amazing time. I stopped over for a few minutes, and it's hard to leave because they kept trying to explain all the stuff they were learning all at once. So if you have a whole bunch of fourth graders trying to talk over each other. But we love the enthusiasm, so it was a great, great turnout, and we thank them. We'll look forward to doing that again. When we came, or right before... Halloween that week we had a spirit week at Heartland and we kind of had a Halloween theme with that and I just wanted to give a big
013shout out to not only the students and staff for participating but also for the support staff each day our cafeteria staff dressed up they had a theme some of you might have saw that we posted on social media they had dressed up as all the fast food characters one time the kids just absolutely loved it and then also our transportation driver for one of our special needs bus dressed up and the kids just thought that was top of the world so i just want to give a shout out for the support staff for joining in that as well on november 4th we had our first quarter awards assembly we separated into two halves it was packed house we made a big focus on attendance this first quarter and it definitely showed because the vast majority
014of our students got either an outstanding or perfect attendance we have through a great combination now from our assistant principal miss berguson of consequences and incentives and the incentives are you know if they have a certain number of days they can roll a dice and have a dance party or they can play a game with her or watch a short video thing and they just they love that they look forward to that so much and I've been in classes where they're cheering when everybody showed up again if a student came late they had perfect attendance so we can't have those grades and can't have the success and growth until the students are in the seats so we're happy to see that I foolishly scheduled those assemblies back to back and so I got the fun
015task of trying to shoo out a Several hundred kindergarten and first grade parents will make room for the next one because we had lunch coming down there So the staff had a good sense of humor about getting creative with our lunch schedule that day and then November 6 we had our annual Fall Festival. That was my first time doing that. I'm still tired from that weekend We had PD the next day. That's just kind of how the schedule went from getting all the vendors at the end of last year, even before the calendars came out. So that was everybody's favorite when that announcement was made. But we had a tremendous turnout from the community and tremendous staff and student turnout. Everybody had a really fun evening. Thank you. Thank you. Kelly Ferguson. On October 2nd,
016right before fall break, we had Trolicious Food Truck came out and did a perfect attendance reward for some of our students, all of our students that had perfect attendance for the first quarter. The kids were really excited. They were talking about it. Some of them came up to Ms. Sheridan and I and told us like. I didn't get it this time, but I'm going to get it next quarter. Are you going to do it again? And so we're telling them we don't know what we're doing for sure, but, yes, we will have some sort of prize at the end of second quarter. So they're really focused on that. Even though they didn't, maybe they missed a day or two first quarter, they're really focused on having that perfect attendance for second quarter. We did a
017trunk or treat on October 30th. It was a little overwhelming because it was the first time we've done just trunk or treat. We did it in our staff parking lot, and they were lined up from my car in the parking lot. down to Wilson Avenue down 7th Street. And so we had a nonstop line for 50 minutes. And we just, we had to do one piece of candy at a time. And we all, every car, we had over 20 staff members participate, not just teachers, decorated their cars. They had some adorable little games out there. And we nonstop for almost the full hour. And so everybody was very excited to see the kids in their costumes. And it was a really good turnout. So we're already planning ways for next year how we can increase
018that and make sure that we have enough candy. for everyone. On Monday we held our annual Veterans Day assembly. We had one of our biggest turnouts I would say of veterans. We were very excited to see the amount of veterans that we had come out. We had a few veterans volunteer to do our flag and they played taps while they were after they did the flag. And so it was a really good turnout. We're really excited. The kids really enjoyed it. All of our staff. participated they provided breakfast for the veterans before the assembly and it was just a turnout and I'm just someone was like this is so great that you do it I'm like I didn't start it as came well before me but I'm proud to be able to continue it on
019every year. And then we'd like to invite you out to our dance night. Our dance night is on December 2nd. It's a week of dance that week. I know it's a little bit out but when you put on the calendar it'll be before our next board meeting. December 2nd is a Tuesday and it will be for our West School students participating and then junior high and high school are the two nights to follow. So we're very excited to see that for our first our first full performance for our fourth and fifth grade students. Is it going to be at 6 o'clock. Yes ma'am. I think doors are going to open at 6 and that'll start at 6 15. Miss Cordova just sent us the flyer this afternoon with Miss Sheridan and I. Thank you. Moving
020on to the governing board outstanding character awards. Kelly Ferguson. I'd like to call up Miss Taylin Vaughn. So Taylan Taylan was nominated by her second grade teacher Mr. Gavin Gonzalez who is with us tonight but she's actually in third grade now she's not a second grade student she's actually in third grade now and her current teacher Ms. Shippey is also here. So here's what Mr. Gonzalez said about Ms. Taylan. I'm thrilled to recognize Taylan for student of the month. I had the privilege of having her in my class last year. Every morning she came in with a smile on her face and a positive attitude. She consistently did what was asked of her and often took initiative in helping others. For example if she noticed that another student or I needed help with something she
021would step up without hesitation. Taylan is a kind hardworking student and a great example of what it means to be a Tiger. Principal Bruno. I'd like to call up Heartland Ranch third grader Jade Currant. Jade was nominated by her teacher Mr. Garen Brown and this is what Mr. Brown had to say about Jade. He said Jade Curran demonstrates outstanding dedication, leadership, and a very strong work ethic in class. Jade excels academically while participating in after school club, gifted and talented, and supporting her classmates. Her positive attitude and willingness to help her classmates make her respected by peers and staff alike. I am so thankful that I have someone like Jade in my class. Jade Curran. Dr. Dix. Coolidge Junior High would like to recognize Michael Castro. So Michael was nominated by his science teacher, Mrs.
022H. He said, this has been my first year teaching Michael, and after a little bit of reluctance to engage in science at the beginning of the quarter, he's really become a great student in class. Just this past week, he scored a perfect score on our DFA about energy transference, and it's been so rewarding to see him blossom as a student. Michael is the kind of student who prefers to observe and come to the table on his own rather than jumping into the subject matter. He's shy and reserved and would rather fly under the radar than stand in the spotlight. But I've had the chance to meet Michael last year when I covered for his teacher once or twice and I could see that there was a spark of learning of science in his mind even
023then. I feel lucky to have him as a student this year and to get to watch him interact and discover what we are learning about science. In his own way, in his own terms, he is a student that I could easily see. tutoring others in science and helping them to understand how the world works around us. It may be early in the year, but I can see him in the future helping to explain the natural world and using his smart mind and sharp observational skills to better the lives of those around him. I nominated Michael for Student of the Month because he's an excellent example of a CJHS student. He's kind, patient, a little skeptical, and a quiet leader. He's a great example of a quiet leader and one who shows strength and skills without
024needing to verbalize it. I'm excited to see him grow this year in science and on campus. SPEAKER 2 Mr. Gonzalez. SPEAKER 3 Thank you. School's alternative program would like to call up Selena Viola. Selena Viola 10th grader is nominated by Miss Diane Thompson. Ms. Thompson writes, it is my pleasure to nominate Selena Viola for student of the month. It has been a privilege to have Selena in my class for the past three years. During that time, she has shown remarkable growth and maturity, both academically and personally. She is consistently respectful, dependable, and kind to everyone around her. Her attendance is outstanding, and she approaches each day with a positive attitude and genuine desire to learn. Selena leads by example, setting a positive tone in the classroom and treating others with patience and kindness. She is
025always polite, smiling, and in a good mood, like right now. Her welcoming and pleasant energy brightens the room and lifts the spirits of those around her. In my class, her strong work ethic and determination shine through in everything she does. She takes pride in her work and gives her best effort no matter the task. Her calm sweet caring personality and positive energy makes her a joy to teach and a valued member of our school community. Celina truly represents the spirit of Coolidge alternative high school program through her respect responsibility and perseverance. And I am proud to recognize her as our student of the month. Celina Viola. CHS actually has three students that we'd like to recognize tonight. Joshua is the first one. Come on up. So Joshua is an exceptional young man who is a
026joy to work with. His work ethic is par none. He works diligently on anything thrown his way. He is a committed student and FFA member whose work at the Coolidge FFA Homecoming Barbecue was instrumental to the success that we as a program shared. There was not a job that Joshua didn't help. and his efforts helped to make the event a stellar success. Joshua has shown interest in being a part of the agriculture sales team for FFA and has applied to be on the Green Hen FFA team. Whatever he is involved in, he is certain to find success along the way. Alexia Moreno-Morales. Lexia is a kind-hearted member who is quick to volunteer for any opportunity given. One of the earliest signs that Lexia would be a rockstar FFA member was after school the day of
027the pool party where Mr. Gillespie had unintentionally caused one of the hydroponic systems to leak, bad. causing many gallons of water to end up on the lab floor. Lexia helped him frantically get the systems emptied, clean up the mess, and then help set up for our annual pool party. Aside from this, Lexia has also been an involved member of the floriculture team, where her alongside Nevaeh have taught 170 FFA members how to make corsages. She is an exemplary student and member. Last one, Nevaeh Monteverde. Nevaeh Monteverde is an exceptional student in our program. She is someone that walks into the classroom every day beaming with a positivity that is infectious to her peers and instructors. In her agriculture class, Nevaeh took on a leadership role in helping to construct model greenhouses in a recent project
028and really spearheaded this endeavor. Also within her ag class, Nevaeh was the winner of our FFA information contest where she beat 38 other students in FFA knowledge and trivia. Nevaeh worked incredibly hard to memorize content from our class as well as study diligently on her own to win this competition which highlights the experience I have had teaching her. Nevaeh is a privilege to have in class and our program is lucky to have her as a member. Because of these reasons, I believe Nevaeh is the perfect student to be recognized for student of the month. If you nominated one of these individuals, would you please come up? You can have a photo with them also, please. Alright, moving on to the Governing Board Outstanding Service Awards presented by Dr. Nate Ferguson. Our staff award goes to
029Daniel Ramirez. Mr. Ramirez is in his first year with CUSD. However, you would not think so. He not only teaches geometry, but also coaches. In the classroom, Mr. Ramirez creates purposeful lessons by integrating real-world examples, helping students see the relevance of geometry in everyday life. His classroom is an engaging and inclusive space where active participation is encouraged and every student feels valued. Through his creativity and commitment, Mr. Ramirez fosters both understanding and enthusiasm for learning. During coaching, Mr. Ramirez actively asks thoughtful questions to improve his practice and better support his students. His commitment to growth and excellence makes him a truly deserving candidate for this recognition. Mr. Gonzalez. All right Coolidge Alternative Program, I'd like to call up Miss Diane Thompson. Miss Diane Thompson was nominated by Principal Mr. Trey Chapman and he writes, it
030is with great pleasure that we nominate Diane Thompson as our Employee of the Month. For my very first day on campus, Diane has been a shining star. Her friendly and calming demeanor blends perfectly on our campus. Even on the most stressful days, Diane is upbeat, has a positive attitude, and always has a smile on her face. Her caring presence is noticed by students as well. They always speak highly of her, work hard even when they don't want to, and are generally making progress in her class. And I must brag that her students have made two single most gains in one quarter that I've ever seen. I attribute this to her years of experience, high content knowledge, not afraid to step outside the norms, and her love for students. I can go on and on about
031Diane because she's such an asset to our students community and staff. If I could clone her I would. I understand that no one is perfect but she's darn close. Please help me celebrate Diane Thompson as employee of the month. Dr. Dix. Coolidge Junior High School would like to recognize Raquel Dix one of our 8th grade math teachers. She's a little bit broken over here. As long as we didn't do that. Yeah no. So Mystics transferred to our campus from CAP two years ago. I would say reluctantly at first. because she did love it at CAP with Mr. Bruno and with her students over there. But since the minute she's arrived at CJHS she's been an asset for us. She's well planned she's organized and she maintains a class website for her students to access when
032they're absent or just for extra help with class notes and videos that she records that explains the learning. She has great relationships with students and can be seen attending their games their meets their matches to cheer them on and making connections with students and supporting their interests. She comes. to work with a positive attitude and a smile on her face and continually finds a way to improve the culture at CJHS. She's also our yearbook sponsor this year the parent community engagement liaison for 21st century grant club clubs the eighth grade team lead and she offers math tutoring after school. We're very lucky to have Ms. Dix on our campus. Way to show up step up and come up. I want to know why Mr. Dix didn't get an award tonight. consent agenda I make a
033motion to approve the consent agenda motions been made by vice president Heath Seconded by board member Quintero all those in favor. Yes Moving on to business action impossible Action to approve the proposal with Sun Valley builders for the CHS field So this goes back all the way to last February March we brought this to you at a at a work session discussing you know that the final sale of our bond and and how we saw ourselves utilizing those funds. And then in doing that looking at the district and the projects and things that we've completed so far and trying to assess where where do we still need. some work or additions to the district. And so when the voters approved this bond, it was slated for athletics, buses, and then just facilities in general. Am
034I right, Alyssa? Yeah. So. In looking at it at that we have utilized school facilities for a lot of things. Roofs at Coolidge High School at Coolidge Junior High looking at those for West School so we don't have to utilize bond funding for that weatherization so repainting of Coolidge High School just got approved. And so we're utilizing school facilities for those types of needs. What school facilities won't do is look at your campus for what's considered non-academic space. And so in the trajectory of athletics in our district, it's booming. We have more kids than ever participating. Our kids are excelling across the board. And we're starting all the way in sixth grade watching kids start starting to become involved. And what's happened now is that sports are not a one season event anymore. They are
035year round events. And so we are in dire need of a locker room space for some of our groups. The roundhouse has been shared by multiple groups. The building of this field house would allow us to leave the roundhouse to basketball and volleyball. So sports that take place in there. Wrestling also has a space that is connected. basketball wouldn't have to go in and out of that locker room. And to be quite honest with you, I think they maybe take a month off, Ben, am I right in that? If that? There's no time off. There's no time off. And so the other thing is that we have some groups that have never had a space, and they've been highly mobile, whether it's outside or in the media center or in the gymnasium. And so building
036this space would allow football and cheer to basically have a space that is connected to the field. It allows for officials to utilize some space there during halftime. it provides well needed space for our athletes. The other thing. The proposal there is a guaranteed maximum price so mean it will not go over that and in fact it probably will be under that because there are some things in there that are Significant upgrades that we're not going to do for instance I believe there's some lighting in there that we're gonna do a lesser a lesser lighting it we don't we don't need the the type that's in there So that's just one example of some of the changes that could be made. Questions regarding this. If approved the goal would be to start moving earth like
037very very soon. I'm really excited about this. Are there going to be bathrooms accessible to. Like a board member that needs a private key. I want to know where the Starbucks is going. That's phase two. That's phase two, yeah. Public bathrooms, no. The distance from where you'd have to walk to get to it is no different than the current restrooms. There are bathrooms. There are ADA compliant bathrooms. There are single use bathrooms. Not single use, but single occupancy. Not a one and done. Single occupancy. So if there were a need or there need to be an accommodation, they are in close proximity and they would be there. And they are not within a locker room. Right. So they would be considered able to be used by adults and not just students. I know one thing
038I brought up since we're speaking of restrooms anything on the waterless urinals. The waterless urinals. That has not been brought to my attention. They're not effective apparently. No. I see them popping up everywhere. Yeah. And I have some research on that too. So yeah. Well, I am thrilled to death that we are finally going to start doing this. We've needed it for so long. I've seen the cheerleaders going here and there. They need a place, as do the football players. They do. And the officials. I never even thought about that. Yeah, between the officials and accommodating, obviously, our athletes and the visiting athletes and then trainer space, it does, you know, you need four dedicated spaces during an event. The roundhouse has four, you know, four corners that provide that, but we're not doing one
039sport at a time. And the cheerleaders yes they have moved all over campus and it can take them roughly 45 minutes to set up their practice space because they are doing a true competition style practice and they have to have special mats. Right now it's up to those girls to take the mats out of storage lay them down prep their space put them back up and that's quite unfair for those girls. Mr. President I've got a couple questions. Since this is not school facility, we're responsible for the maintenance and care of that? That is correct, yes. And it would just depend too on our... allocated square footage. So if there was ever something say to be done to the 500 wing and we were able to eliminate square footage, we would be able to accommodate
040then additional square footage from that space. But yes, they set a threshold on the amount of square footage they will cover. Okay. And who's the owner of facility as it relates to, is it the principal, athletic department, volleyball or cheer or who's gonna be the... Who's going to take care of it? Yeah, and make sure space is allocated fairly or equitably or whatever. It is, I mean, it's technically athletic space, but between the principal and athletic director, they would decide that. Okay, and with input with? Obviously from district, yes. Because you know how people get territorial after a bit. I always stick my nose into their business anyway. Once this starts, I think it's a great idea that we're going to take care of the needs. And I know we've discussed this multiple times in
041our hearing there. But once the building construction is coming up, people are going to ask why and this, that, and the other. So I want to make sure we communicate to the community in your next newsletter some of the layouts of, hey, this is what's coming. This is what you're going to see. I don't know if road problems coming in there. I just like to make sure the public is. I know we can talk about it here, but I just wanna make sure the public's informed about it. Absolutely, and in fact, I think. We're doing a different access right for fire and that's part of it. Yeah, so because right now the Intermediate college alternative program they don't have an accessible fire lane as well So we were looking at building a dual use fire
042lane for both and it would kind of give better access on the north side of both of that campus and this building We are working with the Coolidge Fire Department fire marshal to determine whether or not We can get to the building as our parking lot sit within the hundred feet or something along those lines if we would want to utilize the football parking lot we could or potentially pave a new fire lane and that is all included in this project should we decide to do that. And related to that, I mean, green space or whatever, access to it, you know, sidewalks and whatever, that's all part of this package. That is correct. It is, yes. It will actually connect the parking lot with sort of just like a concrete plaza that would go directly
043up to the entrance of this building. Yeah, we can definitely put something out. It's difficult because in 2019 when we were discussing the bond with the public was when a lot of this was decided and this was always something that was saved for last because we knew how expensive it was and we wanted to make sure we could achieve everything on the list before we built something right so Yeah back in 2019. It was widely discussed. Of course now it's it's been some time and Some people are new to the community or maybe some people just weren't a part of those discussions. So we can absolutely get that out there. And we'll be prepared. We all have to be prepared for Facebook, right? I mean, sometimes the only feedback we get is just negative. So
044we'll just have to be prepared for that. I think it'll be exciting to see. We haven't constructed anything in quite a long time. And so. Yeah, that's what gets everybody excited for one reason or another, like you're saying. One way or another, yes, absolutely, absolutely. But the kids will be undeniably excited. Yeah. if they get a piece of that real estate. But it frees up additional space for other groups, right? Now they get to make that their own. They're not transient either. They don't have to move from one space to another, which is exciting. The basketball team will no longer have to exit the roundhouse during their games for halftime. They didn't even have a spot in their own facility during games. They'll have their shoes nice and clean. Yes. You know, we've been growing
045as a community, and it's also we definitely need these things. It's just making sure. And we want to make sure that we are good stewards of the money that the voters allowed us to have to make use of. I think so far we've done really well with that amount of money with trying to spread the wealth, right? Each site has received something. We've updated the entire fleet of buses. The buses now have a canopy so the kids are not getting into these 120. degree tin cans, you know, like, you know, in the afternoons and stuff. Our athletic facilities, as far as the tracks are concerned, those are now safe and they'll be well utilized at both Coolidge High School and Coolidge Junior High. So, I mean, we want to make sure that we're continuing to
046do the right thing and make sure that we communicate that to the public. Last question. I know there used to be San Carlos irrigation in that lot from the cap and then that specific lot. I don't know if that's going to be factored in this, you know, because once we put some cement down there, we're going to limit ourselves. Not to say we need to go back to that stuff, but I always like options. Yep. We have had... Mr. Carpenter here from San Carlos with us as we started this design project in an effort to locate that line that goes across or. We don't want it beneath the building, right? And so the goal is that none of that is affected. Everything is preserved. We do hold the path for that community, and we have
047stressed that, that we will not be affecting the irrigation that is. Correct. But yes, with Cody Carpenter, he has been a part of this and helping us. He's brought maps, and we have located all of that, and it would be the hope that. Well, it will. We will preserve all of that and we will continue to have irrigation on the most northern part there. Thank you. They're not a team that utilizes a locker room space. So outside of the roundhouse, we still do have the PE locker rooms, and so they would have space. I guess they just come dressed. So with football, basketball, volleyball, the AIA is going to have rules on where your refs go. I think even for football, there's an exit plan, right? You have to walk certain paths. Not crossing and
048certain things but for soccer that is not the case any other questions The entrance will face south sound when you pull into the parking lot that will be And on the west west side will have like there will be signage signage But the main entrance will be on the south side Only temporary for the construction I'll tell you someday it'd be hopes that there would be an extension to this building because this doesn't solve every locker room problem. You speak about soccer. I'm sure they'd love a space to gather before games or after games. I hesitated to mention that. No, it doesn't solve all of our problems, and we did this in such a way that it's not centered so that we could maybe put another section to the north. I make a motion to
049approve the proposal with Sun Valley Builders for the CHS Fieldhouse. Second. Motion's been made by Vice President Heath, seconded by Board Member Gillespie. All those in favor? Yes. Yes, motion passes by all. Moving on to Human Resources, approval of the resignation of Chad Chigi. Chigi. And to waive the $2,000 contract liquidation. So, you know, historically, if a teacher decides to resign or retire mid-year, we have held fast to those liquidated damages. This is a, what I would consider a special case where he has given us enough lead time retiring in January, the end of January, correct? Yes. And... we've already found a highly qualified science instructor to take his place. And so generally that $2,000 really is for us to go out to market to try to recoup that position. We don't necessarily need that
050in this case. And because he's given us so much lead time for that, we've been able to now fill that position already. And so... Not, you guys can decide. My recommendation is that you do waive the $2,000. I generally would not tell you to do that, but in this case, I do believe it is a special case. Chichi. Chichi. Motion's been made by Board Member Gillespie, seconded by Board Member Quintero. All those in favor? Yes. Yes. Motion passes by all. Moving on to the Governing Board and our Superintendent's report and update. I just have a few things. As you all know, school letter grades came out a couple of weeks ago. And, you know, as with the last couple of years, we're pretty happy with how our schools, how our students performed. Under our current
051leadership, we have seen growth every single year. We ended up with three schools with a B letter grade, Coolidge High School. Coolidge Alternative Program and for the very first time Coolidge Junior High which is super exciting. And then two C schools West School and Heartland Ranch Elementary both C schools. I fully anticipate them being at least B's next year based on what they're currently doing at those sites. And then this was our first year for Coolidge Virtual Academy to receive a letter grade. It is a different model than we have at any of our other sites. It is a hybrid model where they take a combination of the elementary model plus the high school model and they create a combined grade. And so our first stab at a letter grade right now, it's a D.
052We are looking at that school in particular, the students that attend there, who we allow to attend because that I mean it's important for us for that school to be a performing school as well as the others we our other schools are now all performing where we have no underperforming schools in in person and so we want to make sure that we provide the correct support and environment for those students that are also attending online There's been a lot of talk about SNAP and food insecurity and all the things going on. What I will tell you is we've made a very conscious effort about reminding our students and our families that kids can eat breakfast and lunch for free every single day. And in fact, our kids actually get three meals if you will they
053get breakfast they get lunch and if they're in any after-school program there is an after-school snack for those students every single day and so for those kids that are staying and we have a huge population of students that do participate in all of our after-school programs so hopefully Those benefits will get out to our families. We also work with United Food Bank to provide some assistance and our schools are also getting ready to start a food drive to help support Hope International Food Bank that directly services our community. I know that she left, but... I'd just like an opportunity to talk about our testing incentives for state testing. And I applaud Julia for coming and speaking her piece. I completely understand where she's coming from. Our goal in those incentives is to hopefully get students
054to take testing seriously. And that really was what it has been about. In the two years that we have offered it, we have increased proficiency, student proficiency each year. And so I don't know that it's the incentive. We're gonna try to, we're gonna survey our students and find out like, is this a true incentive for you or? or not and is it worth our time to continue to do it or not? Unfortunately, like you have to have a certain threshold or baseline regardless of disability or any type of situation, all students are held to the exact same standard. However, accommodations are provided for students if that is written to their individualized education plan. So additional time and some of those universal accommodations are provided for students if they do indeed have a disability. And so
055while I sympathize, I do, we'll investigate that a little further to find out whether it truly is an incentive for kids or not. And I think that's all I got. Mr. President, yeah, I appreciate all the activities that we see on social media. You know, special shout out to Westco with the Veterans Day program on Monday. I couldn't make it, but I appreciate the work you guys do in there, and it's great to hear the community participating as they did. But definitely like enjoying seeing everything that we do as a community on social media. Appreciate your comments on school grades. You know, emphasis is trying to improve, and hopefully as we improve in the lower grades, everything reflects positive upward trend. So we'll see what happens next year. Just to highlight a couple of things
056on the consent agenda 4.6 policy advisory. I talked a lot about safety, emergency response, hazardous material, transportation, anything there. You know, listening to the community as well as looking at our responsibilities, just want to make sure our staff, our students, and the community are hearing to all these things. Because everybody plays a part in these responsibilities. And making sure security staffing maintains and keeps, you know, staffing there. And if there's issues on budgeting and stuff like that, let us know. train staff and leadership engagement, making sure we're training our new peoples that are coming on board for all these different things. I know a lot of this stuff is going on behind the scenes, at least I was reassured, but I just want to emphasize, you know, I look at those things and want to
057make sure those are important to me as well as should be for everybody in the community. So appreciate you following up on Julia and see how that program works on that. So thank you very much. On just a side note on the security and all of that, based on some previous incidents, we have changed some procedures that we are doing to ensure that we are taking those things seriously. We treat people fairly that we have the correct staffing at each of our sites. And so, you know, anytime a concern is brought to our attention, I just want to assure that people know that we do take those things seriously. We do look into them. It doesn't always mean that there's going to be a big change or something like that, but sometimes it creates an
058awareness of something that we need to make sure that we continue to monitor. Well, I did go to that veteran celebration at West with my veteran and two grandchildren. It was amazing. And you're right, it was much larger. So good work. Great PR. I just want to say that I don't think that Heartland and West are any less than fantastic. So I don't care what letter grade they give you. You guys are doing fantastic. I think everyone is trying. Developed and created are complicated formulas right. And again we're not we're not looking at apples to apples right. We're looking at last year's kids then to this year's kids and then to next year's kids. And so like when we look at a group like Kulich High School they're not they're never the same kids. At
059the elementaries and at the junior high, you might have two groups of kids that are similar, but they're not exactly the same, right? And so the growth factor, the proficiency factor, sometimes it works in our favor and sometimes it doesn't. But the things that they're doing right now on their sites with the implementation of curricular resources, and they're using them consistently, they're monitoring student growth. Like I said, there's not a doubt in my mind. They'll either be really close or they'll be at that level. There's really not a doubt in my mind. I don't see everything or everyone, but I have seen Natchez Ferguson at so many. It's because my granddaughter's in high school. So I go to those events, but she is always there. Even those swim meets. Oh my gosh. There she is.
060And thank you very much. It means a lot. Any other comments questions? Oh, I just wanted to say I as you as you had already mentioned I really appreciate it miss Julia's comments today and the opening of the meeting and it's definitely something that that is going honestly right over at CHS. I mean, she had the bravery to come up here and someone taught her that. And I'm really glad that you all are nurturing that leadership there at CHS. All the schools, I'm hearing and seeing great things on social media and it's, I just, you can't, yeah, you can't help but like, who does these scores? I mean, everybody's, yeah. Everybody's just doing fabulous. So thank you so much for everything you do and and you're gonna keep doing so thank you But that was
061that was awesome and definitely enlightening something I did not I mean I have a son who had IEP He is now not on that IEP, but now we're kind of almost questioning like okay. Wait a minute Maybe we did that a little early but we've got other students who are in the same boat, and it's nice to see that they're being heard out, so I really appreciated that. I just wish the audience and even everyone watching could see you guys because every time I'm up here, like my highlight, yes, is seeing the kids and everyone getting their awards and getting acknowledged. But this row right here, like the camaraderie and just, it's just different. You know, I've been up, I'm going on 14 years and this has just been a great group of principals. and
062staff and all those behind you because you were always here at every meeting too. It's just nice to see these smiling faces and you guys genuinely just like and love each other and have each other's back and you guys are doing a great job. We appreciate it. I see it. I've seen everything from 2013 to today. But keep up the good work. And you too, Dawn, in bed. Love the glasses, Ben West, love the hairdo. It's always nice to see you. And Alyssa. Alyssa, too. I mean, that's why I'm so excited about this new facility. I know with your touch, it's going to be fantastic. And you're on it, so on it, with the social media thing, because I know you've probably seen some other things. So I appreciate that you're on that. Yeah. And
063Mr. Bruno, I can tell that it's a total different bear, what you're dealing with. It's a total different scene for you, but you're hanging in there and you're doing it. Anything else? Mr. President, without objection, motion to go to executive session. Second. Oh, yes. Motion is made. I'll second that. Seconded and all those in favor? Yes. Have a good evening, everyone.