001Would you please do roll call? President Michael Flores, Vice President Linda Heath. Here. Governing Member Chris Gillespie. Here. Governing Member George Arradondo. Here. Governing Member Victoria Quintero. Here. We have quorum. Well, I'd like to welcome everyone to the meeting. It's lovely to see this full crowd of people here and all the little ones. Right now, we're going to do the Pledge of Allegiance. Would you please stand? Do I hear a motion to approve the agenda? I move to approve the agenda. Second. Second. All those in favor? Yes. Yes. All right. That's four yeses. And we do have one person for public participation. But before you come up I need 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
002discuss 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 investigation action or recommendation at a future board meeting Before beginning your presentation, please state your name and organization for the record. 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. So please come forward. Good evening my name is Irma Garcia and I'm a retiring teacher for Coolidge High School. Good evening members of the governing board. Superintendent Hodge. CUSD administrators, faculty, members of the audience,
003family and friends. I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for the honor and privilege that I've had to serve our youth and our community. I have been incredibly blessed to have the love and support of my husband and family, which allowed me to perform the job that I love so much. To them, I also say thank you. And I love you all so much. Long before I became a Coolidge Bear, the path was being forged. For example, when I was in high school at Santa Cruz, both past Superintendent Cherry Wallace and school board member Chris Gillespie were my teachers. When I started to return to college, I met my current colleague and sister-in-law, Rosemarie Garcia-Berzi, before I ever met my husband. As a matter of fact, when I met my husband, he
004was a current school board member, and I started my rookie year here at Coolidge Unified School District with Superintendent Don Hodge. My husband and I are proud to say that all our children are CUSD graduates. In fact, I'm very proud to say that I'm leaving a legacy behind as I have three children who are also teachers, one of them here at CUSD. Finally, I would like to share a couple of antidotes I often say to my students. The first one is, life is like the seasons, ever-changing. The wind is changing direction now and taking me on a new path. when they'll afford me the opportunity to care for our beautiful grandchildren. And I would like to leave with this second antidote that I tell my students. Love what you do. Do what you love. And
005I have loved being a teacher for the past 30 plus years. Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart. And God bless you all. Thank you. Thank you very much. Well I think we should all just go home now. That was so nice. Principals updates and we'll start with Dr. Ntai Ferguson. Pros and cons is starting first. Now I get to follow that. My goodness. Just some updates, some number updates for you as we end our school year. I wanted to share that we will have 36 diploma seals this year. So increase every year. We're doing great with those. We actually inducted 27 students into NHS the other night as well. We had five athletes qualify and compete at Divisional State for track. One came close. amazing things happening six received awards at
006our Gila River Chief Azul Awards Banquet the other night that was fun to go and enjoy that celebration and then tomorrow night we have our Asian Pacific Islander Heritage Night and the Learning Center at six and then of course graduation thanks thank you all right next Dr. Yvette Dix so the Biggest excitement that junior high had in the last week was the boys winning the Division IV CAA State Championship for boys basketball. They actually played an amazing game. I was very proud of them. So that's a first for us. We have a big, beautiful trophy. It is very shiny, and everybody likes to come in and touch it. Like, it's a big, huge, golden basketball. It's amazing. So now we're focusing in on getting a trophy. because we have trophies. It's amazing. We have had
007a second place finish for softball, for baseball, for flag football, and now we finally have a state championship. We've been hanging up all of our plaques in the hallway, and so now we're going to work on a trophy case to start showcasing all of those. We have had some very generous donations that have been going on in our media center. So Better World Books has donated 115 books to our library, which is amazing. We also had a first book donate 165. So we've had almost 300 books donated this school year. media center specialist in there our paraprofessional Shauna Brinkerhoff works really hard on going out and trying to find resources for us. She's partnered with the Coolidge library here. She went over she learned how to become a librarian by going over and shadowing and
008figuring it all out. So that's a big shout out to her. She also is sponsoring the Pisa Hut. Pizza Hut reading program and has had over 100 kids have earned their personal pan pizza by coming in and going through that with Shauna in the media center. So absolutely amazing. Dr. Dix, I have one question. Sure. I went into your library. many years ago and then just a few years ago and it's wonderful. Is it being utilized by the children? It is. As far as teachers going in with their classes and checking out books? It is. It's actually, having Shauna in there is really beneficial to have that person in there who knows where everything is. And with our renovations that are coming up with the STEM grant that we are receiving, it's going to... be
009even more accessible with having the maker learner station that's going to be in there. But it really has become an area that is a gathering place for our students. They love to go in before school. They're in there every day at lunch. She has board games for them to play, puzzles to do, and then they, of course, check out books in their reading. So it's amazing. Thank you. Music to my ears. We had 21 eighth grade students that were inducted into NJHS and the ceremony. Some of you were at that, so thank you for attending. It was really well attended and just a really beautiful, short ceremony and night for them. And then last but not least, we have our promotion coming up next week on the 20th. That evening we have the two sessions,
010one at 5.30 and one at 6.45. We hope you'll all be there and join us up on the stage. Thank you. Thank you. Next Mark Bruno for CAP. Good evening governing board members. Just a couple of recaps. April 29th we held our first ever community open house. We put the word out on social media and put out flyers and we did auto dollars and well thank you Mrs. Heath for attending. We appreciate that. She learned a lot about the program and is very well versed in all of our classes and she can answer probably the questions better than I can at this point. So she definitely wanted to make sure I stayed the entire time. So thank you for that. Last week we celebrated our teacher appreciation week. We helped in having the students help.
011Bring things and set things up so we wanted to incorporate some of the students to helping out with that just to really Celebrate our teachers and our staff at cap since is such a small community We celebrate the entire staff that includes the front office the paraprofessionals and not just the teachers So we make everybody feel special with that Just on a little bit of a bragging point we do an attendance count from the day before we post that in the front windows and the attendance count and we have a Big billboard kind of we put out there in the pickup line and it's always a struggle with the alternative school with a lot of transient population. I was bragging to Ms. Hodges this morning yesterday, our count was 96% attendance. It's the highest we've
012ever had, I think by 20%. Send it to the staff today and they thought I mixed up the numbers or it was the wrong number I sent out and I said, no, that's what it is. Our efforts to get the kids in school and a big shout out to Mr. Gonzalez and Mr. Latham, our counselor, meeting with them and really having a good combination of the carrot and the stick to get them motivated to become go to school and finish up their work. So we're gonna continue on with that going into next year as well. Our graduates are piling up. As of today, because we have three more finish up, so we have 40 graduates from CAP. We're expecting about three to five more and we have 24 from CVA with about five to seven
013more. There always could be one or two that are gonna surprise us, but that's, I wanna say about 15 higher than we anticipated originally at the beginning of the school year. So we are very excited about that. And then we have our graduation, the first one ever for CAP and CVA next Wednesday. President Flores called me a little bit ago asking a couple questions about graduation. He had to just to make sure he had all the time and everything right and asked me if I was ready. And I wanted to reply back, you know, as the new Pope Catholic. Yeah, I've been thinking about this thing every day for the last six months. I am definitely ready for it. And I am looking forward to next Thursday when I just have a normal day of
014school again. So we hope you can all attend. Thank you. Thank you. And. Mrs. Headley? Good evening. As every site the month of May is just organized chaos and all student success. So as of late we had our spring performance last week that was wonderfully directed and done by Miss Cordova and Miss Hartwell. We had our Wildcat Awards night last night where we celebrated about 120 students. That was an academic based awards night and tomorrow we have our character awards night day. Excuse me that's during the morning. Our kindergarteners also put on a Mother's Day spa. So last week we had all aunts, grandmas, moms, and female staff members that they wanted to honor during that time. And so they put on a Mother's Day spa for them last week in the afternoon. Next week
015we have our fifth grade celebration for those promoting to the junior high on Monday at 9.30 a.m. And then on Tuesday we have our kindergarten promotion. We have two ceremonies, one at 9.15 and one at 10.15. Thank you. And last, Mrs. Ferguson. So just like Ms. Heidley said, we are exceptionally busy. This week was probably our busiest so far. We had music shows Monday and Tuesday. We had awards assemblies yesterday. We have our dance show tomorrow night. We had pool days today and tomorrow. We have indoor inflatable day tomorrow. So our kids are very excited. We're celebrating their behavior and their success throughout the whole year. So we're excited to be able to celebrate them. A couple weeks ago we had our West School Olympics. Ms. Sheridan and I got pushed into the pool seven
016times. Yes, I was a little sore the next day. I'm too old for this stuff, but we picked we had over 300 kids that Miss Sheridan randomly selected from to be able to push us in the pool who had perfect attendance on all eight testing days And so those kids then got to come out and push us in the pool in front of the whole school so they could all watch and then we had our our annual Olympic races as well following. A couple weeks ago we celebrated our student council. Our student council has worked really hard this year. Our students are great advocates. They've come up with some amazing ideas that we're going to be implementing for next school year. And so they were able to go on a field trip of their own
017and then they had their own night to celebrate with families. And so it's just really great to see these kids, their success, and them taking ownership of their school and the ideas that they're trying to implement. One of those ideas is for our special. next year so they came up with an idea that they proposed to miss Sheridan and I about a buddy kind of a buddy system during their specials so next year fourth and fifth grade they get to select their specials miss Sheridan works very hard to create special schedules thankfully not me and so one of our specials next year they get picked from is called tiger pride is what we're calling it And they will be going into a younger grade classroom to be a student helper for one day a week
018during their specials time. So they're giving up one of their specials and they'll be going into those classrooms to help. And so the kids are very excited. They had to do an application. They have to be following that Tiger 5 to be able to be participating in it. Teachers had to sign off. Parents had to sign off. And so we're pretty much filled up with it. Ms. Sheridan's been working to get those kids scheduled for next year. So we're excited to see what that looks like. And the kids are very excited to be able to be a teacher. teacher helper as well for next year. So we're excited to see what that looks like. Thank you. Governing Board Outstanding Character Awards and yes, Mrs. Ferguson. So I'd like to call up Ms. Amaya Ciara-Mitaro and
019I might have messed up your name, Amaya, I'm sorry. So Amaya was nominated by her second grade teacher Miss Kaisa Bresnik who is here with us tonight and here's what she had to say. I am honored to recognize Amaya. She consistently demonstrates kindness initiative and a genuine willingness to support those around her. Whether she is assisting a classmate with a challenging concept tidying up after an activity or simply offering a friendly presence Amaya steps up without being asked. Her common positive demeanor creates a welcoming environment where all students feel encouraged and valued. I deeply admire her selflessness and her ability. to prioritize the needs of others while maintaining her own academic excellence. Amaya is a true asset to our classroom community and I am proud to be her teacher and to recognize her outstanding contributions.
020That's right Mrs. Headley. Harlan Rand would like to recognize Uriel Perez. This handsome boy was nominated by his kindergarten teacher Miss Carla and she wrote Uriel is an outstanding student who demonstrates all the qualities our class family represents. He is compassionate towards his peers, enthusiastic about learning, eager to be a helper and leader, and respectful and kind to everyone around him. Uriel has worked extremely hard throughout the year. He had to break social and language barriers to be able to express both his love for learning and for others. He is always looking for an opportunity to make those around him smile, whether it's by making jokes, inviting them to join in the fun, or using the resources around him to make them a gift that will brighten their day. He makes sure to stop by
021my classroom every morning before school starts to give me a smile and a warm hug and is always ready to say I love you in English, Spanish, or sign language. Uriel is not only loved in our classroom but throughout the school due to his kind and sweet spirit. In addition, he has demonstrated great perseverance when faced with challenges by never giving up or asking for help when he needs it. Despite the struggle, he has pushed through with determination, a desire to learn and achieve, and a smile on his face. All right, Mr. Bruno. I would like to call up CAP sophomore Laura Langer. Laura was nominated by her assistant principal, Mr. Anthony Gonzalez. This is what Mr. Gonzalez had to say about Laura. I am pleased to recognize Laura for the Student Character Award. She
022is new to our school this year and quickly distinguished herself through her strong work ethic, positive attitude, and respectful demeanor. She consistently stays focused on her assignments and gives her best effort in everything she does. What truly stands out about Laura is her character. She is always polite. kind, using respectful language like yes sir, no sir, excuse me, to gain attention before asking a question. Her smile and courteous manner make it a joy to have her on campus. She is also very eager to help her classmates, whether it's offering encouragement or assisting with assignments, she shows a true spirit of cooperation and kindness. Laura is a wonderful example of what it means to be a student of character. For the reasons mentioned and many more were not, I believe she is very deserving of this
023recognition. Laura. Dr. Dix. Coolidge Junior High would like to recognize Angel Avila. He was nominated by a sixth grade math teacher, Mr. Zen, who is here in the crowd. Mr. Zen says, I've had the privilege of having Angel in my class since fifth grade, and it's been amazing to watch him grow into such an outstanding student. He tackles every task with enthusiasm and a real sense of responsibility. His ability to pick up complex ideas so quickly is very impressive. Outside of class, Angel is involved in extracurriculars, showing just how dedicated he is. He is always willing to offer support to his peers whenever they need it, which speaks to his generous nature. Angel's natural leadership shines through in everything he does. He encourages others to stay motivated and focused. He leads by example. Angel's ability
024to uplift others and keep a positive outlook inspires everyone around him. His positive attitude brings great energy to the class and his sense of humor makes the atmosphere ever more enjoyable. Angel's hard work, leadership, and kindness truly sets him apart and I'm lucky to be his teacher. And Dr. Ferguson. No way y'all that much taller, come on now. CHS has Emily Buford. She was nominated by teacher Cindy Hone. Ms. Honey says, Emily Buford deserves to be recognized because she exemplifies what it means to be a dedicated and inspiring student. She is incredibly hardworking and highly motivated, always putting forth her best effort in every assignment and going above and beyond expectations. Emily's kind and caring nature makes her a joy to be around. She treats everyone with respect and is always willing to lend a
025helping hand. Her great sense of humor adds warmth and positivity to the classroom, making it a more enjoyable place for her peers and teachers alike. Emily constantly strives to do her best in everything she takes on, showing a level of commitment and integrity that sets her apart. She is a true role model and a perfect choice for student of the month. Superintendent Hodge is going to present staff of the year awards. Okay, so I feel weird being on this side of it now. So we started this a couple of years ago. This is our third year doing our staff awards that are directly connected to our vision of the district, which is to engage. challenge and inspire every student every day. And so we have some awards for staff. They are nominated by their colleagues,
026reviewed by a committee and then selected. And what I can tell you is that the four people receiving awards this year, we have a new one, just an overall staff of the year award, were nominated multiple times, multiple times by their own campus, by different campuses, by staff members that are also parents. And so we're very excited to be able to recognize these individuals this evening. Our first award is our Engage Award, and that goes to Miss Barbara Shippey. I told her I wouldn't embarrass her. And so because they were nominated by several people, I just did a summary. I'm not gonna read you everything that everybody said. Mrs. Shippey is being awarded for her unwavering positivity, passion for teaching, and the lasting impact she has had on both students and colleagues. She creates a
027classroom where every student feels valued, fosters confidence and kindness, and brings energy and warmth to the entire school. Through creative teaching, constant encouragement, and a genuine commitment to others, Mrs. Shippey transforms the learning experience and engages and inspires those around her every day. Thank you. Our next award is our challenge award, and that goes to Ms. Shaylin Timmons. So again, nominated by multiple people. So we summarize this. So Ms. Shaylin Timmons is a passionate, visionary educator. She is known for consistently pushing students and colleagues to reach their highest potential through creativity, high expectations, and a commitment to excellence. As the leader in the Performing Arts Department, Shaylin inspires growth. confidence and resilience in her students while expanding access to dance across all grade levels. She's deeply dependable professional and collaborative offering support fresh ideas and
028encouragement to those around her. Her dedication goes far beyond the classroom advocating for the arts attending student events and constantly seeking ways to improve. Shaylin's work ethic humility and ability to challenge and uplift others make her a respected leader and a cherished part of the Coolidge community. Our next award is our Inspire Award, and that goes to Mr. Chris Tapia. So as our district lead security guard Chris takes initiative every day to create safer campuses by collaborating closely with site leadership training staff and regularly reviewing and refining our safety protocols. Prior to this role he was a security guard at Coolidge Junior High where he built positive relationships with kids and adults was reliable and trusted to work directly with kids and helped create a positive culture on campus. Through his proactive approach and initiative
029to research other schools, he is learning to anticipate needs, address concerns, and strengthen our overall security framework. Chris leads with integrity, professionalism, and a deep sense of purpose, inspiring those around him to work together in support of all our students and staff. Thank you, Chris. And our final award is our Staff of the Year Award. This individual received, I think, seven nominations for every single category, seven across all the categories. This year, it's our first year doing a Staff of the Year Award, and that goes to Raymond Zen. So again, summary, Mr. Zen was nominated for each award category by colleagues from multiple campuses for his exceptional ability to connect with students, families, and colleagues in meaningful and inspiring ways. A highly engaging and innovative math teacher, Mr. Zen transforms learning into an enjoyable and
030impactful experience through creative methods like math escape rooms, hands-on projects, and real-world applications such as Geo Metro City. He builds strong trusting relationships with students helping them gain confidence and achieve academic growth often encouraging them to pursue honors level work. Beyond the classroom he actively supports school events sponsors groups like NJHS and Mathletes and contributes fresh ideas to enhance staff collaboration. Mr. Zinn's warmth dedication and genuine care make him a standout educator whose presence energizes the entire school community. Thank you. All right, moving on to the honor of retiring individuals. So this year in the district, we have six individuals retiring this year. We have four individuals with us and we'd like to honor those four individuals this evening. Our first is Mrs. Tammy Coleman. So I have just a little bit to say about
031Ms. Coleman. She has spent 33 years in education. She's worked as a sub, a paraprofessional. and the last 26 years as a certified special education teacher with the last five in CUSD. She started with us in July of 2020. I'm just grateful you stayed after that. Mrs. Coleman credits her mother for inspiring her to become a special education teacher as she also, she took care of children with special needs. I asked what advice she would give to the person who would be filling her position next year and here's what she had to say. Be an advocate for the children you see, work closely with their teachers as they are meaningful contributing team members and remember to lay the foundation for students to know that they can learn in a safe environment. In her retirement, Mrs.
032Coleman plans to spend time with her family. She has children scattered between Wyoming and Colorado. I think she's put on a lot of miles recently. And she has nine grandchildren. So I'm pretty sure there's a lot of road trips in her future. Tammy Coleman. Our next retiree is Brenda Giesen. And I'm going to let you know, I screwed up. Your plaque is on the way. I messed something up on it. So it's coming. I will get it to you, and I apologize. So Ms. Giesen has been an educator for 43 years, 37 in Oregon, and the last six here in Arizona. Mrs. Giesen has done just about every job in a district. I think she should do my job I think. She's she's taught preschool kindergarten. She's been in Title 1. She's taught fifth grade
033an instructional specialist a curriculum director assessment director coordinator for new teacher mentoring and support programs an assistant principal and a principal. So with Brenda 40 she brings a wealth of knowledge. She's an expert in deciphering data and is one of the most organized people I know. And we've been blessed to work with Brenda the last six years and will be greatly missed at Heartland Ranch and in the district overall. I know that Brenda has a grandchild on the way, so retirement is coming at just the right time. Brenda Giesen. Next we have Mrs. Jennifer Schaffersman. So Ms. Schaffersman has been in education for 28 years and in fact her first teaching position was at West School. She's taught in Coolidge, Casa Grande and Maricopa in multiple positions, including first grade, second grade. She was a
034K-5 resource teacher and several self-contained classrooms. Ms. Schaffersman came back to Coolidge and it was my first and only year as the director of exceptional student services. And she helped me and was truly one of my favorite teachers to work with. She gave me the first glimpse of how paraprofessionals can be used effectively in a classroom. I'm telling you, like you, when you walk in, you don't know who the teacher is because they all have their jobs and she trains them very, very well. Her staff, her advice to staff is to plan ahead, schedule your meetings in advance and stay on a daily schedule. Once students know routines and expectations, they'll be more comfortable in their learning environment. Mrs. Chaverman plans to spend lots of times with her three beautiful grandchildren. I saw them holding
035them over here earlier. Dog sitting, sewing quilts, and attending craft fairs. I kind of want to do you. And last but not least here tonight, and you've already heard from her and a lot of things from Mrs. Irma Garcia. Mrs. Garcia has been in education for 33 years, four as a paraprofessional in voc ed, I think that's what we now call CTE, and 29 as a teacher. Her teaching career has led her to many different instructional avenues, fifth grade, junior high social studies, seventh grade science, Spanish one and two, world history, U.S. history, yearbook, journalism, stugo. SEI and EL classes, AP US History, Virtual World Languages, and has facilitated History 101 and 102 for Central Arizona College. Additionally, at one point she taught in the library. Was that in Santa Cruz? It was here. Oh,
036she taught in the library so that students could have access to the library and the books and was a grants director for Eloy Elementary prior to returning to Coolidge. Mrs. Garcia says that education has always been her dream job. When she went to U of A after high school, she was a bilingual ed major and then switched to social studies. That certification, I don't think. It no longer exists, right? And ironically, she is ending her career as the SEI EL teacher at Coolidge High School. Her advice to anyone entering education is to remember that students are more than a number. Data is important, but it doesn't define our students or our campus. Irma Garcia. And this is not on your agenda, but I just have one last presentation to make. While tonight is not our
037last board meeting of the fiscal year, it's probably the last board meeting that we'll have every single principal and every single director here because of June and July being times of vacation. And so I just want to recognize Principal Rosie Headley. We want to extend our heartfelt gratitude to Miss Rosie, as she's called on campus. as she prepares to take on a new opportunity in another district. While we're excited for this next chapter in her career, her leadership, dedication, and the positive impact she has had on our students, staff, and community will be deeply missed. Rosie, we wish you all the best and know you will continue to do great things for kids. All right, moving on to the consent agenda. Mr. President, I move we accept the consent agenda as presented. Second. Motions have
038been made by Board Member Arredondo, seconded by Board Member Gillespie. All those in favor? Yes. Yes. Motion passes by all. All right, moving on to business discussion and possible action to approve the fiscal year 2025 final budget revision. All right, so this is just our final budget revision for the year. We utilize our most recent average daily membership to get to our... our budget capacity right for the year. So if there are any changes to our ADM over the remainder of the month that would be added or subtracted to our next next school year's budget it's usually minimal but they do you know they do. end up sometime in the fall finishing up the ADM for FY25 and they'll let us know that next year. So this is just a budget capacity. The numbers that
039you see aren't the amounts we expect to spend in each of those categories. However, we do have to budget 100% of our budget. So some of, when you look at whether it's higher or lower than the previous year, that is just comparing budget to budget. in October when we come back we'll see actual spent and it'll be at that time that you can compare amounts spent in the prior year to amount spent this year that would kind of give you if you were looking at did we spend more in instruction or did we spend less in transportation or something like that. So each of these are limits. There are pages for classroom site fund that break down our per student amount for classroom site fund which pays for a portion of all certified teachers salary
040in addition to the base salary paid for by our M&O budget and then it'll pay for their performance pay at the end of the year according to the classroom site fund plan. It also calculates our unrestricted capital amount. So that is what's used for building or technology and that is. a number that you can either roll into your maintenance and operations budget or you can leave it in unrestricted capital. So that can go back and forth just based on the year's needs and kind of what we're needing in those categories. Typically we are putting a large amount into the M&O budget just because that's where we need it for salaries and benefits. There are years where we will leave it in unrestricted capital so that we can do some of our capital plan items. Page
041six starts to list out all the different budgets for all the various programs. So you have federal and state programs. Some of these are budget controlled based on different formulas or based on grant applications. And then some of them are based on cash flow. So for Medicaid, for example, that is just the budget is based on an estimate. However, the actual budget is going to be based on the revenue that is generated from the Medicaid program. So if you have any questions on those items, we'd be happy to answer those. Any questions? Mr. President. Ms. Garrett, do you foresee or anticipate any sweeps from the state legislature or the Department of Education taking any of these funds? So I know there's been a little bit of chatter about districts who have high cash balance or
042budget balance right at the end of the year. So probably seven years ago there used to be a limit on what you could carry forward in a year and it was 4 percent of your RCL. So your RCL is your budget before you add on any. any of the allowable add-ons. So 4% of that you could carry forward. Basically back then the state was saying if you had more than 4% left over, it goes back. to the state they lifted that i don't exactly recall why they lifted that with the exception of the years that we had high amounts of esser money due to covid we have hovered around that four percent anyhow so there are pages within the afr so the annual financial report that we do in october that allows the governing board
043to establish policy on what the carry forward should be and so i know Some folks have said, you know, they encourage you, and we do, we fill out that page on the AFR, it is required, and what I have put in there so far is that we aim for 4%. So they have suggested that governing boards do adopt policy so that there is a methodology behind how much you're carrying forward and not just whatever, you know, the year lands on. Because for some reason and I don't know if we want to call it a rumor I don't know where that started but there has been some talk to say hey the state might go well You have 10% of your budget capacity left over. We're gonna sweep it up to a certain amount I don't
044know that we've heard that in any formal capacity Would it affect us largely if they reverted back to that 4% it wouldn't because we've we've mainly hovered to that we don't Have a luxury to carry forward more than that Perhaps it stemmed from the years when we did have COVID a lot of those ESSER funds allowed you to supplant meaning you could hold off on spending your M&O money and you could put it into a federal fund. Typically that is never allowed. You have to spend what you've been spending and federal is on top of that. So I would imagine just like us there were a lot of school districts that had a lot of money left over from the state and they may have looked at that and said and it could have compounded
045right over the years. between 2020, 2023, 24 and the state could be going okay well why are we sitting here talking about giving more when some schools so if those schools are listening please spend your money so they don't take ours but we hover right around that 4% so this year will be right around about 1.2 million dollars in unused budget capacity and so we just hope that that wouldn't be. something that they would implement I would hope that they would never take anything below that 4% you know ceiling I think that's a pretty good number but i guess we just never say never unless yeah there hasn't been anything official yeah no no and i appreciate that you know the public knows we're working within that four percent we're not at that ten percent
046and all that so i appreciate that and just a concern of you know we plan and look foresee with our budgets and carry over and how those things impact us in the future if we're if it's taken unbeknownst to us correct yeah and the last question restrictive registers restricted versus unrestricted Does that matter? protecting that 4% or not? So if we were to say it was encumbered for a future project and become restricted, maybe they would have a caveat in there to say if you have the funds earmarked. Because if you think about capital and we're only getting 1.6 a year, if you were ever needing to do a large project like a roof, right, at a large campus, 1.6 is never going to be enough. So not allowing districts to... carryover and compounded over
047the years does hurt in that category. I would say that there would be, you could manipulate in terms of from some of your cash funds and making sure you're spending your district money first and leaving your cash funds as your rainy day versus now we have a good balance. So I would say even if they did we had a heads up. you can only carry forward 2%. We would just make it our first priority, which is just not what we do now, to spend down our state-allocated funding and then hold off on some of our cash-controlled funding to make sure that we manipulate that in a way that's advantageous to the district. Thank you very much. Mrs. Garrett, I have one question, and it's one that you have to have a crystal ball for. I
048know this year we do have that surplus. But if they take away the title money they're talking about taking away, we're not going to have that surplus, are we? I mean, it very well could affect it because you would have to look at specials. You'd have to look at full-day kindergarten. You would have to look at classroom sizes. And it could get pretty tight if they continue to cut into the title funding. There's probably this year I would say four to four and a half full FTEs that we've had to remove from title funding. And I think we've just been creative with what those job titles are and then what they're going to do next year. So, yeah, that definitely hurts the budget. And that is why you would always want. your carry forward available
049to you because some of those decisions can't be made in a year and you're not going to find out you know by the time the title one allocation comes out or the budget is heard you've already issued contracts and you've already planned for the next school year so okay thank you any other questions We'll be right back in June and July with FY 26 same forms new numbers this president I move we approve the FY 25 final budget revision as presented motions been made by board member Arredondo seconded by board member King federal all those in favor yes yes adoption and of the resolutions affecting the county treasurer transactions for general funds for 2025 2026 year This one is typically a consent agenda item, but we do have it here just to point out in
050previous years we were also adopting resolutions that affected our employee benefit trust account, which was kind of an off the GL bank account that we managed benefit. payments through so we deposit cash into it and then we turn around and pay our health insurance premiums. We have now kind of embedded that into our normal GL so you'll see that now reported on our AFR. So this is just a little bit different this year. All this is saying is that the treasurer is authorized to invest any surplus monies. We get a small portion of interest return on that and that the superintendent is, superintendent of schools is authorized to sign warrants on behalf of the school district. So that's all that those are doing and those are required every summer for the next school year. Any
051questions, any comments? The only comment I have is I have no problem with what they're suggesting. But this is the same Pinal County treasurer that hasn't yet posted August revenues? For? When you give us our board reports. Uh-huh. Every month you've listed this as a factor that Pinal County has not yet listed. Their revenues for August has not yet posted. So they are, yeah, the revenues for each month are going to come at the end, and then they're going to post them. So that's just their typical process. So that's not anything that's going to affect them. Not anything on the treasurer, no. It is a lengthy process because you have the treasurer, you have the Pinal County School Office, who's the middleman, and then you have our accounting system, and we do have to do
052various journal entries to get them all to match because we all operate our own systems, but they all have to reflect the same information. Thank you. I make a motion to approve the resolution with Pinal County Treasurer. Second. motions been made by vice president he's seconded by board member gillespie all those in favor yes yes motion passes by all moving on to other discussion and possible action to impose an annual refundable technology deposit in the amount of 150 for students who attend coolidge virtual academy to begin in the 2025-2026 school year so um when we opened up coolidge virtual academy it was well after we had um removed the deposit that parents had to provide for the use of our technology so an iPad and so each year a parent would deposit they would give
053a deposit of $50 and Alyssa correct me if I'm wrong we let that roll over each year as long as they didn't break their iPad is that right so it was a one-time $50 fee and in the first couple of years we did charge $50 each year as we kind of learned and kids were taking care of it and it didn't become the issue that we had kind of been warned against, it just become once. And then when we received ESSER money through COVID and we were able to buy all new iPads, essentially they were then federally funded at that point and we didn't charge families for them at all. And so we did kind of get away from that. We had funding that $50 for those couple of years we were able to hold
054on to in terms of reserving for breaks and things like that so that was kind of a selfish self insurance that carried us through Those years. Yeah. Okay. So what we have noticed though is through the virtual Academy students are very very transient there they're there they're not there many times they use our technology they don't have to use our technology they can access the curriculum and all of their assignments through a smartphone they can do it on their own laptop it does not necessarily have to be our technology as of right now over the past few years we have I believe it's 139 iPads that are still out there through Coolidge Virtual Academy. We're getting ready to do a complete refurbish of iPads for our students and we are selling back our current iPads.
055And while it's not necessarily the initial cost of these iPads, right, 139, if you're going to buy 139 iPads, it's going to cost you a lot of money. The amount that we get on rebate for those, for those 139, we're missing out between $9,000 and $10,000. And so that to me is a significant enough amount. that we probably should look at this. What we're proposing is that if a student that is fully online never steps foot onto any of our campuses for any classes, that they would provide $150 deposit. If they return that iPad at the end of the year, unbroken, unblemished, whatever, that $150 would be returned to them and they could be used again for the next year. The problem is is we don't necessarily get face-to-face time with those kids We will
056see them when they come in for testing if they are a tested grade level that they're not a tested grade level We might never see them in person Their teacher will see them online through their morning meetings But other than that, we don't necessarily see them at all on campus And so to gather that iPad or return that back becomes a challenge So, I don't know your thoughts on that So right now when a person a student gets a iPad do they sign some kind of agreement if it's not returned you owe us $500 for the iPad or what is being done right now? We have a technology agreement that there is a fee correct? Yeah I believe it's one hundred dollars right now. I think it's one hundred dollars. There's several forms within the
057student handbook that they sign collaboratively. You know all the forms but we purchase AppleCare on all of them so there isn't a fee if it's broken but there is a fee to replace it if it's just completely lost. It's lost. And we don't really have a lot of just completely lost. It's mainly just the students who unenroll and never come back. And, you know, it's not the student's fault per se. Their family's just not bringing them back to do that unenrollment process. So, okay, so these students would have to... If they choose to use our technology. We will give them a tablet if they sign the agreement and pay a $150 deposit. Correct. And I just verify if it's only $100, why would we charge $150? You know, whatever that discrepancy is. Yeah, and so
058we could change it. For CVA, the whole policy would change. If the deposit was used, we'd have to change all of that verbiage. But just based on... How many we've lost and to make it that they would want to get their deposit back? That's really the point I don't have problem with this. I just wanted to just get the background of what we doing now. You know, are we just giving it to him? walking away or is it hey you're still signing they are still signing but it's hard to hold somebody accountable right yeah appreciate that so i just want to understand that sure um and the last comment as i made earlier there's there's some students may not have the means to make this deposit are there other programs to support That effort we
059we do have some programs through homeless migrant things like that that could could Potentially help pay for some of those if there was a need for that student to be online I kind of like the dollar amount though because as a parent, the $100 to refurbish the iPad but also the 50, a lot of the time, the way we saw it or the way I saw it when my students started with the CUSD was that that covered the charging ports and the cords and all of that nature. So that's the number one thing you're going to lose. I don't know how it is in your home, but I know everyone's stealing, everyone's charging people. So that would make total sense to add that additional $50 just to kind of cover all bases. And I'm glad
060that we have the option to cover the funding for those students who might not have the means to do so. So that's good. I'm glad we've looked ahead into that. Yeah, we had to just quit expecting to get the chargers back. We don't even ask for them back You get it, you know, whatever grade, you know, you start taking your iPad home. So It just becomes yours for those four years, and it'll last four months, right? And then it's your responsibility to get a new one because either we didn't get it back or what we got back wasn't what we gave them. And just so nobody gets confused, this is for the Coolidge Virtual Academy. Only. So I want a bunch of parents to wait. What are you doing what? Yeah, Coolidge Virtual Academy only.
061Thank you. I think this makes a lot of sense because. That's that's a significant amount of money and it's not like we're not going to give it back. We will absolutely as we get the iPad back. And they're probably willing to bring it back. Maybe they're just having a lazy day and then they forget this will just be a little bit to come do that. So I make a motion to approve the one hundred and fifty dollar charge. that parents will have to pay for their children in the Coolidge Virtual Academy only to cover the technology, the iPad and breakage or whatnot. Second. Motion's been made by Vice President Heath, seconded by Board Member Quinteto. All those in favor? Yes. Yes, motion passes by all. All right, moving on to Governing Board and our Superintendent's
062Report. So we've been talking a lot about, so we have this discussion of possible option of this additional security measures. I'm going to ask that maybe we just have a discussion tonight about these and you give me some direction on where you would like us to go and not impose any action this evening if you all are okay with that. Earlier in the school year, we surveyed our high school kids on this. We surveyed them not specifically about a cell phone policy but about other safety measures and specifically clear bag policy and weapon detection systems. They were very opposed to a clear bag policy. They do not like that. They think it's an invasion of privacy. But they were very on board with the weapon detection systems. Our parents are kind of in the same
063boat. Clear bag policy, it's kind of a mixed bag. The last I looked at the survey, there's about 70% that said I would support it, not wholeheartedly. Maybe only about 20% actually wholeheartedly support it. But there are a number of people that are like, no, I think that's crazy. Like, why would you do a clear bag policy? But overwhelmingly. almost 90% of our families that responded to the survey support that weapons detection system. And so we are currently in the process of writing a grant for that. My thought is to put the clear bag policy on hold because some of the statements from parents were, well, if you have the weapons detection system, why do you need a clear bag policy? Which I understand. So prior to implementing something like that, we want to see,
064are we able to... get approved for this grant to be able to implement those weapons detection systems at specifically Coolidge Junior High, Coolidge High School, and Coolidge Alternative Program at those entry points. And then that grant will allow for some other safety measures as well. But if that falls through, then go back and say, can we look at a clear bag policy possibly? So I don't know what your thoughts are on those things. And I want to talk about cell phones here kind of separately. mr president you know i think these measures are important that we look at to in comparison of what our current threat what are foreseen threats and what can we afford and what can we not afford to do you know so we've done some things with our monitoring systems we
065need to you know keep those things out in the forefront correct and the due diligence of the staff and everybody's responsible to to do that even the parents and bring the student If we bring these weapons detectors, we've got to make sure there's enough, not do a partial fix. The volume of people coming in, maybe we'll support the cap because we only have one versus trying to get one and everybody going in through. So those are things that I'd be looking at to make sure if we get a grant, are we getting enough to support. a good flow absolutely and in fact um when mr tapia was um we started talking about that with him as as that lead district security person he roams all of the campuses he took it upon himself to go
066over to another district to look at what theirs looked like in the morning how many they had what what that flow might look like and they said it was challenging maybe for the first week but after that it was fine and so He's given us some ideas on where those should be located, how many we should have to make sure that we have. I just actually saw a little. I don't know if it was TikTok or a reel on Instagram. It was something where it was a Gilbert, Gilbert High School or something where the line was just beyond. And the school had started at 730 and at 740, the line is still way down the road, you know, because they were walking through weapon detection systems. So it definitely is a consideration that we are
067looking into because we don't want it to be something that's a hindrance for kids to get into class on time. But my understanding is is that in some of our neighboring districts they use them and once the kids get used to it and the people get used it's just it's just it flows very easily. So I guess I guess I would like to have some guidance. Are you okay with us kind of holding off on the clear bag policy but then continuing to research and trying to find ways to bring in that weapons detection system? Yes. Absolutely. Okay. The last part is the cell phones. And this was really divided amongst parents. Most would say that they are okay with them not having them out during instructional time, but they do want their child to
068have a cell phone. I don't anticipate or I would never bring something to you that I wouldn't be okay with myself. My own children, when they were in school, had a cell phone. While they shouldn't be using it during class time, they did have it on them. I don't think we would ever bring something to our families to say they can't have them at all. And so I just attended a webinar yesterday about... some new policies that are coming and one of them that has now been signed into law is that school districts have to have a cell phone policy that restricts cell phone use during instructional time that also restricts their access to social media That's going to be the difficult part. While we can restrict social media on school-owned devices, devices that are
069on our Wi-Fi, personal devices are not on our Wi-Fi. If they're just using their own data, right, and connecting to the Internet that way, we don't have a lot of control over that. And so we'll have to figure out what that looks like. But what we'll do this summer is we will institute... some very clear guidelines for teachers for the classroom so that we can abide by this new law set forth by the Arizona legislature. As a teacher and a parent, I feel very comfortable in telling parents, we're not taking the cell phone away from your child. Correct. They're going to have their cell phones, therefore they have that contact if they need to. But during instructional time, we're giving them the technology they need to use. And there's absolutely no reason for them to
070have those cell phones out. And it can be, as a teacher. very disruptive if they are doing that. So I think this will be beneficial in a lot of ways. And as part of policy, they're asking districts to come up with the plans for, you know, when can it be used, if it can ever be used in a classroom, and what are those consequences if it is? So what happens to that cell phone if a child continues to use it? And then also provide clear guidelines on how parents should be able to get a hold of their child while in school, and then how should that child get a hold of them while in school? And so we'll sit down as a leadership team that last part of May, 1st of June, and come up
071with those guidelines for each of our sites and then for our parents. You bring up the points of consequences, and I think that is going to be key for this and the application or enforcement uniform throughout the district. And it's incumbent on the parents or guardians that they adhere to these things so little Tommy or Jane gets their phone taken, they know why. and the consequences is not us, it's their responsibility to make sure the students that, it's our responsibility to students follow the policy. Well, and I think it's really, I am appreciative of the Arizona legislature for actually making this part of the revised statute because it gives us a little bit of teeth there saying like. Look, it's not just us. It's the state saying that we are required to have we already
072have a cell phone policy in place the problem is is that At times in classrooms we get a little lax right and so we have to make sure that the implementation and the enforcement of that policy is consistent throughout the district Cell phones during school years? Yes. Yes. In fact, in Apache Junction at, I believe it's at their junior high, they put them in the pockets. And I think Cassegrain Elementary at their junior highs are looking at putting them in those magnetized pockets at the beginning of the school day. They can only be demagnetized at the very end of the school day. So they can have them, but they are placed into a pouch that the student cannot unlock until the end of the school day. Very expensive. So I don't know how that is
073being paid for, but I mean, it's something to look at. I think from my perspective, from our parents, they don't necessarily want to get a hold of their kids during class time. Maybe some of them do. I don't believe that for the most part. But they do want their child to have their phone and have it be accessible if necessary. Because the other part of the law says that students should be able to have access during an emergency. which is sometimes detrimental but part of the law does it is that is part of it no my only question was would the new policy be highlighted in the upcoming handbooks for the students in time yes and we'll probably do something like completely like separate that we give out send out to parents highlighting that policy
074for our elementary schools and you guys can correct me if i'm wrong like they're put away for the day correct Yeah, often in bags for the day, correct? Junior high, you guys can have them out at lunch, before, after school, and lunch. And high school is supposed to be passing periods, lunch, before and after school, correct? The problem is, is that not all teachers adhere to that, right? Especially in the upper grades, it gets a little lax, right? And you see kids with, that's gonna be part of that policy is that they're not gonna be able to walk around with the earbuds in. So that's my suggestion. We haven't come up with a policy yet, but that will be one of my suggestions. So we'll be working on that this summer. We'll probably bring that
075to you in June or that meeting in July. I'm hoping to have it to you in June so we can approve it and get that out and communicate it very clearly to parents as early as possible so that they know. As far as any other updates, well, we're about done next week. So that's exciting. Again, you know, we have all of the ceremonies happening next week. I've seen most of you at lots of events in the last two weeks. There's something going on every single night. And I think we actually missed one tonight because they scheduled it on a board meeting night. You know, but. It is what it is. There's only so many dates that you can get to. So I appreciate your guys' support in those and allowing our students to showcase all
076the things that they've learned and their performances. The other thing that we, you talked about Title I. We know that we saw that 5% decrease already. They're asking for that 1.5% that the state's probably gonna hold back as well that will go into some competitive grants for students that are in improvement. We will be eligible for some of those. And so once the state decides what those grants are, we will be applying for those. Sorry, Jess, but we will be applying for those so that we can, again, target those students with those Title I funds. what about the graduation field oh yeah so dr ferguson has put out several notifications to parents about the orientation of the field just to seniors i believe right is it just to seniors to senior parents We probably should
077send it out to the student body though, I think again, just so that everybody knows that when they're coming, but really particularly to senior parents about the orientation of the field, how everybody will be able to sit on both sides. The graduates will walk around pretty much the entire field in front of all the stands, so you will not miss depending on what side you're on. And it's gonna look really, really nice. I'm hoping people like understand the expense and the time and the energy to put something like that together. It's gonna be beautiful. The other thing that we have been really stressing is that you will not be able to be on the field after the graduation. And so consistently looking at what those plans, in fact, just this afternoon, we were talking about
078it again, how are we gonna keep people off the field? And I think we've come up with a plan to hopefully make sure that the spectators go out and we'll have the back of the stadium lit with photo opportunities in that back area so that we can keep people off the field. We just really worry about gum, confetti, that kind of stuff that is extremely hard to clean up off that turf. And that's going to be the west side of the field? It'll be the south side of the field in that parking lot. So you won't, right. Yep. So the graduates will exit on the east. So as they come out, they'll come out the same way that they entered, walk back around, and they'll exit. And our goal, our hope, is that the people
079that are sitting on that side of the field will kind of follow the graduates around on the track and head out that way. No balloons are allowed in the pack, correct? Correct. No balloons in the pack. I wish we didn't allow balloons out in the field to be released, but that's fine. Thank you for trying. It does distract and inhibit some people's view when you have all those balloons. Yeah. Walk-in cooler at the commercial kitchen and breaks it. We're not doing lanterns again, so that'll be good. Make a couple things. Congratulations to all the awardees today and throughout the year and those that are finishing up their student careers here at Coliseum High School. We lost 140 years of experience here, but I'm sure there's others in the wing, but it's gonna be a gap
080and it's, you know, work toward filling that up. Again, thanks everybody, the staff and everyone, the work they've done throughout the year. This year went, seemed faster than the other ones. I don't know what's going on, but. I appreciate everybody's work and good luck to you, Ms. Hadley, on your career as you move forward, but you're always welcome back here. Thank you very much. You will be missed as you go into the woods over there. You were amazing. You were one of the best and we appreciate all the hard work you've done. Ditto. I want to say that the JRMTC... Oh, he's wonderful. Closing of the colors? Yes. Casing the colors. Casing the colors, thank you. It was amazing. And it was really nice to see all the alumni come back and express how they
081were affected and how much it meant to them. So I'm sorry the retirees have left because I know it's hard to realize what you're actually worth and how valuable you are. It's infinite and you may not know for years. And then it comes back. The number of students that are impacted and touched by all you all, the teachers and staff. And I know when you get that hug or acknowledgement, it means a lot to you and that's what. the work that you put in is 100%. Well, and that's what the kids reiterated, didn't they, over and over again, or the former students reiterated just the experience and the impact that that individual at that time, it was really nice to see for Sergeant Ramirez and Colonel Blades there that night as well. It was wonderful
082to see them. I'm glad you brought that up. It was truly inspiring, and I'm just glad we were there to see it. Yeah. Thank you all. They all expressed a hope to have it come back. They did. Were you there? I was. I couldn't see you. I was going to try to exit out a little bit early so that I could get to the other performance, but then I just couldn't leave, so I just stayed, yeah. Do we have a motion to adjourn? So moved. Second. Motion to be made. All those in favor? Yes. Have a good evening, everyone.