001this meeting of the current governing board to order. Okay, we are going to begin with agenda item 2.1. This is a consideration to convene into executive session to discuss salaries and benefits pursuant to ARS 38-431-03-A5. The board may vote to enter executive session for purposes of discussing regarding negotiations with employee organizations regarding the salary schedules for compensation paid in the form of benefits. for employees of the public body. Is there a motion? I make that motion. I second. Okay, moved and seconded that we move into convening an executive session. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? That motion carries. Okay. This meeting back to order and reconvene in open session. We were in an executive session prior to this meeting. So we're back open again. I'd like to ask you to stand to join me for the
002pledge of allegiance. Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Everyone, we are going to move on to our first student presentation. This is agenda item 4.1, presentation by Pueblo Elementary School. Pueblo Schools Aspire Preparatory and Smart Start Academy teachers and students will present on their From Seeds to Success project. Well, we don't have any students, so we're going to go. Okay. Where do I go? This could be a student. Thank you madam president and members of the board and our district leadership. We do have students that were supposed to be here but we also are struggling with the season. Many of the kids who were presenting their parents work in agriculture and work
003until six, seven o'clock in the afternoon and we're really sad that they wouldn't be able to get their kids here. We were still hopeful but... We'll punt. Mrs. Pinta is here. I'd like to introduce her. She is one of our Aspire Prep teachers, but she also is teaching 6th, 7th, and 8th grade EL students this year. And they are working with our Smart Start preschoolers to grow a garden. And so I'll let her tell you more about that. advanced than some of the other schools have it. Our kids grow everything from the seeds up to start learning about their roots and the watering system. And then from there, they see the measure of the plants, and then they keep progress of all the things that's happening in there. At the end, we collect some of
004their growing as they're coming up. Then we go and pick them, a lot of radishes. We have zucchinis, all the different things. And then the kids try it. and then they eat them and if they like them good, then the next time we grow them again. So we try to keep them kind of a lot of healthy choices. They get to pick what they want to grow. This time I was letting them know that we have a lot of jalapenos, tomatoes, they want to make a salsa at the end so let's see what happens. Hopefully we'll have some before the end of the year. If not, I'll just go buy them and then... Mix the salsa for them anyway. They're the spiciest radishes I've ever tasted. I told them they're organic. Why? What we have
005from Seeds to Success is the Aspire Prep at Pueblo. It's our middle school, and we have the Smart Start Academy at Pueblo. We have at Pueblo, we have our spring schoolers, and sixth or eighth grade English learners partnered to grow a garden, planting seeds of learning, connection, and community. We encourage them a lot in their talking. No, no, they're not our stuff. Okay, so a lot of the, they learn from the seeds, they're learning a lot of connections, there's a lot of talking between them, they compare the seeds, they see a lot of the things that are happening, they practice their English, which is the biggest thing for both of the groups. They do a lot of Spanglish, you know, English and Spanish, because they want to make sure they practice and they understand each
006other. So there's a lot of collaboration between them. And the first couple of pictures in there. We see them how they're all working together. You see the big kids and then you see the little ones. They are getting all of it. We got some tires that we had in the back. We painted them. That was part of the project. And then we set them and then they get all the dirt and everything. They break them and there's less to do. Bring him? I'll go get him. You keep talking. I know. I see him. And then they let the little ones help. All the little ones get their hands in there. So you can see some of the pictures in there. They look at the dirt. They play with it. They looked at it, what it
007had, some of the things. I talked to them about the fertilizers, the extra food for the plants, and everything in there. So a lot of teamwork, a lot of getting our hands dirty, a lot. But then it's all free to get. All the kids kind of love it. I'll have to do it again. Do you want to keep going? Do you want to do it or do you want me to do it? The next one we call it a Seeds of Opportunity. We had a lot of the students in there. They actually filled their own little containers with the dirt and then they talked in the house deep. They had to put their plants in there. Then they actually got to water. They love doing it together. Like I said, lots of conversations, a lot
008of what is going to be growing, how many plants are going to go because we're not always successful with a lot of them. But then we always plant extras just to make sure. They're sprouting out of the park. They loved it when they start seeing all these little green little pieces coming up out of the dirt. They're like, is that a plant? I mean, they get this close to it just to see what is going on. But the kids continue to talk with each other and communicate what's going on. The older kids already went through the process already, so it was a lot of eye-opening for the little ones to see all the plants coming up. Blooming, we said we transplanted a lot of the slings. We had actually had a lot of them on
009the little egg cartons and then they started blooming them over. They learned about what the plants needed, the space, the sunlight, the attention. We removed some of the plants, we transplanted some of them and then like I said, lots and lots of communication, lots of language in that. Growing strong. A lot of the kids always like to go and touch them. We had a lot, we even did some of the other plants that we had in there. The kids actually went and loosened up the dirt around it. Lots of hard work for them. And they did the weeding. They did all of that. Then at the very end, this is where we harvest some of the lettuce. We have some of the radishes in there. A lot of them have been trying them since they're,
010as soon as they start coming up and they're ripe to get, so they've been trying them and everything, so we're waiting for more right now. So even some of the flowers that we had in there started coming up on there. So it was a really good experience, I think. It gives a lot of the kids a hands-on opportunity, a lot of collaboration, a lot of talking, a lot of like what is going on, what do we need to do next time, did we overwater them, are we watering them enough? So there's a lot of things in there. Our school garden helps a lot of them to grow their language, the confidence, and the responsibility in them. And this one right here, he's really good at watering them. He's like, do we need to water today?
011From planting seeds to harvesting success, this experience reflects the power of intentional learning and that's why we have strong relationships and share commitment. Because the little ones always ask, where are the little ones? Are we going to go to the garden today? So it's something that they're developing those friendships and role models that we have in there. Thank you. Any questions? Okay, so you're the lucky one. Tony, I would like to know what is your favorite part about working in the garden or the whole project? I'm curious how the scheduling works. Like some kids come on some days or does everybody come every day? How does that all work? So we have like a little class and we make sure we water the back. And is that everybody from the big ones to the little
012ones all working together? Not the preschoolers. They don't always come with us, but some days they'll come to help us water or harvest new seeds. That's great. I will say, too, that in the mornings, even before the bell rings, a lot of the kids have come early and are working in the garden before it's time to go to their DL targeted class. And then certain days of the week, that is what they do for their language composure. I just love our community gardens. They're springing up everywhere. And you guys are learning a lot, aren't you? What do you think? Do you think you'll pick a job in agriculture someday? A job in agriculture? We'll go ahead and see on that one. A lot of hard work. Well, thank you so much for coming. We really
013appreciate it. Okay, we're going to move on to Agenda Item 4-2. This is a presentation by our Transportation Department. This is Gabby Kuzniak, Director of Transportation. We'll be presenting on the annual school bus inspections performed by the Arizona Department of Public Safety. Madam President, Board Members, Executive Team, and audience. My name is Gabby Kuzniak. I'm the Transportation Director with Crane. Today I'll be presenting on the DPS inspections. DPS stands for Department of Public Safety. And one of the areas that they enforce are school transportation. Since I can remember when I've been presenting I always like to remind people that you know according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration the school bus is one of the safest modes of transportation and one of the big components of that is the annual DPS inspections that happen.
014So the DPS standards come from the Arizona Sorry, Arizona Administrative Code Register. And every year a bus will be inspected annually according to a schedule established by the Department of DPS to determine if a major or minor defect is present on a school bus. Now what are major defects? Every area of the bus is inspected to verify that there are no major defects on the outside of the bus as well as the inside of the bus. Such areas include air brakes, exhaust leaks, windshield wipers, brakes, lamps, tires, etc. And this I will tell you that when you look at the administrative code, the list of majors is a lot bigger than the list of minors. If a major defect is present on a bus during a DPS inspection, DPS will place the school bus out
015of service while the defect is being corrected. If a bus driver finds a major defect during his or her pre-trip inspection, before or after DPS inspections, the driver must notify the director and the mechanic and the bus will be placed out of service. And I'll be explaining that a little bit later as to what the responsibilities of the driver is. defects minor defects is a condition that exists to the interior or the exterior of the school bus that is not a major defect and allows the school bus to remain in operation while the defect is being corrected minor minor defects are such are such as you know seat covers minor tears and their major tears they're not gonna They'll list it as a major and not a minor. Lamps, if they're cracked, if they're broken,
016but as long as the light is working, they'll consider that a minor and they won't list it as a major. They'll just list it as a minor. That's something that can be corrected along the way. And windshield, as long as there's a crack or a quarter size. you know, being on the windshield, as long as it's not in the driver's view, it would be considered a minor and not a major. If it is in the driver's view, then they'll, you know, consider that a major and you wouldn't be able to operate the bus. Sorry. I'm mad at myself because of the picture. Sorry about that. So during inspection, when the DPS officers come, they'll start removing the current year sticker. So our annual inspections usually happen at the end of October, early November. I'll get
017a call from the sergeant letting me know what the date is. I'll let the mechanics drivers know, hey, this is when they're going to come, start getting ready for it. and they'll remove the sticker. If the bus passes, then they'll get the next year's sticker. So for this next one happening in 26, they'll remove the 26 sticker and then we'll be receiving the 27 sticker. And we do have one bus currently in our lot that has a 23 sticker, but that one is one of the ones that's going up for auction, so we don't operate by any means because then we would be in really big trouble. So one of the daily bus drivers responsibilities is going through a pre-trip every morning. Before they can take the bus out to drive, they have to go
018through this whole pre-trip list that covers everything from the engine, wheels, brakes, under the vehicle, any fluid leaks, the brakes, the emergency exits, the suspensions, front, rear, sides of the... the front, rear, and sides of the vehicle. So every morning, each driver has to go through their bus inside and out to make sure that there's no issues that are seen. If there is, they need to report it to the driver. If there's a major that they point out, then they have to go grab a spare and pre-trip that spare and make sure that that spare is drivable. and our two mechanics that help us make it happen and make sure that everything is working and that they are good to drive and safe to drive are Mr. Flores and Mr. Jimenez. They are really good
019at what they do and doing DPS inspections. they're back and forth trying to fix any minor or major. A lot of the times when there are majors detected, I would say 98% of the time they're able to fix it on site so that we can get the sticker before the next run. Any questions? How many buses do we have in our fleet? So we currently have 33. Last year, out of the 33, there were two buses that they could not be repaired on site because they were major issues. that they did not have the parts for, but they did come, I want to say about six days later, to re-inspect them and we were given the stickers for that. I think that this is your passion. I'm serious. I think school buses are iconic. There's
020a whole thing with them. Some people live in them. There's a lot going on there, a lot to unpack. I think every kid should have to ride the bus. I have to agree. So I was a trained student growing up from junior to eighth grade. I always lived right across the street from Pueblo, on the side of the Centennial, not more than two miles away from Cibola. So I never got to ride the bus unless it was a field trip, which were very rare. So now working in this apartment, it has taught me so much that I would have never known before. I know drivers get criticized a lot that people think it's easy to be a bus driver, but it's not. It's not as easy as most people would think. Not only do we
021have to, I mean, now I look at cars differently. Once I saw a flat tire for a credit point, I said, hey, you got a flat tire, how do you know? You got a flat tire. It just makes, even my own vehicle, I'm able to look at my vehicle a different way because we have to look at these every, and honestly, I, I enjoy DPS inspections. Why? Because we have a great group locally. They're amazing. And I'm glad we don't have a Phoenix group because as soon as drivers come in, they're taking off stickers. So they're feeling that pressure. Our group here does not. I mean, they won't give us a sticker if we don't. you don't deserve it, but they're a great group and also it helps me see, okay this driver's not, these
022shouldn't be on the list of majors, like an emergency exit sticker, if it's missing, it's down, you can't drive it, they won't give you the sticker. So the mechanic has to go around, grab the sticker, put it on, and then, you know, they'll give us a sticker. For an emergency exit sticker, so I enjoy it a lot. It's taught me a lot and I'm still learning a lot about just transportation and I'm hearing that EPS is reviewing the minimum standards because they're wanting to make changes to it so I'm kind of Excited but also nervous to see what's I love that I really do I am I don't know if anybody else here is old enough to remember this story When Cindy did wave with superintendent that she was going somewhere one day and she
023was following one of our school buses and it was wrong. And she literally pulled them over. I mean, I think, I don't even know if she was in a district car, but she was like. And those kids, boy, they were deep trouble. And the driver too, because they were rocking the bus. It was crazy. One of my first driving experiences was that they rocked the bus on me. It was those little students. And I was just like, they didn't realize who I was until I got to the school and I told them. And they just, after that, I didn't have issues with that group. But, yeah, I got the best from them. I will say, my daughter rides the bus, and we adore our bus driver. She's amazing. Is it Helen? Hilda. Hilda. She is
024the best bus driver. And to your point, Gabby, driving a bus is like. I think that should be like that's classroom management 101 like just to be able to command that bus as you're driving it and still be able to like have your systems in place and I can tell you your drivers are very observant. This story told me one day I changed my walking time and About a week after I did that, a bus driver went over to Ms. Turing and said, is Mr. Colby okay? And I felt I managed to get her a little thank you card, get it over. I know it was dry in a little town in Minnesota in the wintertime playing ball. Let me tell you, the number of times she'd lay on the floor after a game and
025a three-hour ride home in the snow and melted. I didn't really enjoy it probably as much as everybody else might have. But you guys do an excellent job. Thank you. Yeah, I actually started walking this road when I drove around. Don't be afraid to drop off a cookie for Nettie, though. Thank you, Gabby. Tell your people they are silent heroes. Absolutely. They do a very good job. Next we're going to move on to agenda item 4.3. This is recognition of CyberNut top 10 students. The governing board would like to recognize several students for their outstanding participation in the district CyberNut cybersecurity awareness program. These students demonstrated a strong commitment to digital responsibility by completing cybersecurity training modules designed to teach safe online behavior, how to recognize phishing attempts, and how to protect personal information. Their
026efforts help strengthen the safety of our school community and promote responsibility, responsible digital citizenship. We are proud to recognize their commitment to cybersecurity awareness. Are any of the nuts here? The board will go in the front. I'll call each of your names. If you don't come up, you'll get a certificate. Shake their hands, but stay because we want to get a picture afterwards. We'll start in just a minute. Okay, we're starting off with our first student to be recognized from Crane Middle School, Sophia Centejas. Sophia, come on up. Next, we move on to Centennial Middle School, Ryan Young, I don't see Ryan here. Fatemeh Alhaddad. Fatema, congratulations. Thank you for being so kind. Monica Saldana Lira. Jose. Fatima, if you'll stay here, sweetie. We're going to take pictures. Yes, perfect. If you'll stay over here,
027that would be great. Monica Saldana Lira and then Jose Vasquez Orozco. Mason Woods from Gowan Science Academy. Julia Figueroa. Yaneli Navarro Rodriguez. Isaac Montereng. And last but not least, Yaretzi Llamas. And if you'll stay up here for pictures and parents and family, please feel free to take pictures as well. Thanks for doing this. Do any of you guys have business cards you would like to... Okay, next we move on to superintendent's current events summary. The superintendent needs to provide members of the governing board and residents of the Korean schools with a monthly statement of current happenings and pending events, including information about student academic achievement. All right, what an exciting month. We have a lot of staff groups to celebrate and honor. Starting off, Assistant Principals Week. National Assistant Principals Week was last week, April
0286th through 10th. I'd like to recognize our three outstanding assistant principals, Mrs. Ruby Rodriguez of Crane Middle School, Mr. Josh Topp of Centennial Middle School, and Mrs. Jamie Elder of Gowan Science Academy. And thank them for their hard work and dedication. National Paraprofessional Appreciation Day. We would also like to recognize our paraprofessionals who were celebrated on April Fool's Day of all days this year. We couldn't function without you. Thank you for all that you do to keep our schools running smoothly. National Librarians Day. National School Librarians Day was celebrated on April 4th, and we want to thank our school librarians for doing so much to keep our students interested in reading. Public School Volunteer Week. Public School Volunteer Week will be celebrated on April 20th through 24th this year, and we would like to thank
029each and every one of you who volunteers your time to help our students and staff. Although volunteering looked different through the last few years, many people offered to support our schools and were incredibly appreciative. Bus driver appreciation day perfect time when Gabby does her presentation bus driver appreciation day will be April the 28th We'd like to thank our amazing bus drivers for transporting our students to and from school safely every day Administrative assistance day administrative assistance day will be April 22nd Thank you for all that you do to keep our schools and our district running smoothly Centennial middle schools project citizen Project Citizen is a civic education program. The program actively engages people in the process of monitoring and influencing public policy. Participants work as a group to identify and study a problem in their
030community. Their final product is a portfolio that may be presented to others. Seventh grade students from Centennial Middle School entered a project that included significant research into bridging the gap between public policy and actual attendance. They did an outstanding job of articulating their perspective with careful thought and consideration and advocating their position while providing practical solutions that address their concern. Centennial Middle School students who worked on this project have been invited to the 2026 Project Citizen State Showcase on May 6th in Phoenix. The showcase will include hearings where the students will present their work to a panel of evaluators with the winning team receiving a trophy for their school. We're incredibly impressed with the portfolio they designed and submitted to combat chronic absenteeism and wish them well at the state showcase. The Arizona Spelling Bee.
031On Saturday, March 21st, the Arizona Spelling Bee was held in Phoenix. A huge congratulations to the state runner-up, Sumitri Periguli, which is left in the picture from Centennial Middle School. The competition highlighted the academic excellence, dedication, and perseverance of participating with students statewide. Sumitri also received a trophy, airfare, and hotel accommodations for the Scripps National Spelling Bee for her and one chaperone. A check for $800, a one-year subscription to Miriam. Webster Unabridged Online, courtesy of Merriam-Webster, a one-year subscription to Britannica Online Premium, courtesy of Encyclopedia Britannica, and a one-year subscription to News-O-Matic. We're incredibly proud of Sumitri and wish her well in the National Spelling Bee in May. Valley Horizon. Valley Horizon is excited that in the next few weeks the first Callahan Care Pantry in Yuma County will be opened on their campus. Once
032the build is complete and the date is confirmed, they'll be hosting a ribbon-cutting ceremony and would like to invite anyone from the board and executive team to attend. The pantry will serve all families in the Crane District with needs such as clothing, food, hygiene items, furniture, toys, and school supplies. We're extremely proud of this partnership and cannot wait to open our doors to serve the community in this capacity. Salida del Sol Vocabulary Hat Parade. Each year, Salida del Sol students and staff bring creativity to life with their much-anticipated hat parade. From imaginative themes to clever vocabulary connections, every hat tells a unique story and showcases the incredible learning happening across the campus. It's a joyful tradition our entire community eagerly looks forward to. A special thank you to Mrs. Mendoza for inviting us to be
033part of such a fun, inspiring, and memorable event. month of the military child April is month of the military child since 1986 April has been designated as month of the military child by the United States Department of Defense this is a time to applaud military children and the daily sacrifices they make and the challenges that they overcome madam president members of the governing board that's my report for this month Next we'll move on to superintendents update on legislative or other governmental actions sometimes issues that could impact crane schools are considered by various legislative and or administrative bodies in the state or the federal government members of the governing board need to be aware of those issues and provide appropriate direction to initiate or respond to them Madam president members of the board. Yes, we are
034in the height of the legislative season Doesn't seem to be any opportunities to adjourn within the first hundred days in session so probably will go all the way down to the wire many are speculating all the way until June even though it's an election year for some legislators so that's that's a little challenging we do have our bill that we've been working on which is Senate bill 1763 sponsored by Senator Dunn which is just as a recap the one that would When the financial report was to be released by the office of the Auditor General, which is August 15th and then consolidate funds that are once the purpose of the donation has been made that allows us to consolidate those funds and then use for another another purpose That's making its way through in fact
035it passed the committee of the whole in the house today and is likely to head to the governor. The challenge with that is the governor has indicated that she will veto all bills that come to her desk until there's progress on a budget and the reauthorization of Prop 123. So if our bill that we've been working towards reaches her desk, it could be vetoed for her to maintain her commitment that she would veto any bill until... the budget piece has been addressed. So kind of in that hanging balance as I understand there's been some closed door conversation with the various caucuses and she's wanting those to come together and let's work on resolving the issues within Arizona while at the same time reauthorizing Prop 123. There are a couple of referendums that we have been
036asked to Help share information regarding and that is SCR 1032 and there's a similar bill in the house HCR 2007 both of those are very complimentary essentially required that the district spend at least 60% of their operating Expenditures on a direct classroom instruction So there are a number of different challenges with that. We understand that The intent behind that is to drive more classroom spending, but there are some unintended consequences that could go with that. We shared that with all the representatives who represent us. And so that's Representative Cupper, Representative Pena, and Representative Carbone, as well as Fernandez and Sandoval. So, excuse me, Fernandez and Sandoval. So they have all of that as well. They have our position on that, but we've been asked with... by the other education associations if we would help to
037share why that could be problematic for school districts. And it is limited to school districts, so not all institutions that take public dollars, only school districts. With that, I'll pause for any questions. Questions, comments? Thank you very much. Just backtracking for a minute, I was remiss to not tell our students and parents that were recognized. You may leave as much as we would love to have you stay for the balance of the meeting. It's fine for you to sneak out if you would like to. So we're glad to have you, but don't feel like you have to stay until the very end. All right, we are going to move on to Agenda Item 6, Governing Board Business. 6.1 is oral reports on conferences, workshops, and student visitations. Periodically, members of the Governing Board attend various
038conferences, seminars, workshops, districts, schools, and so forth. and have information to share with other members. Does anyone have anything they'd like to share this evening? Yes ma'am, you were missed at the hat parade. I was missed? It was great, I mean it was great. It's always great. And that's really kind of a pretty cool deal. My wife even put it on her calendar. So yeah, but it was an eight and those kids were pretty excited. some pictures. I'm hoping that some of those pictures that I didn't send any pictures out but kids I hope some of their parents got some pictures of them and when they get out of high school they show these pictures of the kid and go I did that. But that is really cool that those kids have a great time
039doing it. Thank you Ms. Mendoza for your faculty putting that all together. Thanks for representing us Jim. I appreciate that. It was fun. Anybody else have anything to share? I don't. Was school out a couple of weeks? We didn't have a lot of stuff to do. Go see a test. Yeah, there you go. Okay, we'll move on then to public comments. This is the call to the public. Minnie, do you have any thoughts tonight? consideration and discussion of comments and concerns from the public those wishing to address the governing board on items not on the agenda may do so at this time speakers are requested to hold their comments to three minutes individuals addressing the governing board may not yield any portion of their allotted time to any other individual wishing to address the governing
040board in accordance with Arizona open meeting law board members may respond to criticism made by those who have addressed the board may ask staff to review a matter or may ask that a matter be put on a future agenda. However, board members shall not discuss or take legal action on matters raised during an open call to the public unless the matters are properly noticed for discussion and legal action. Is there anyone who wishes to speak at the call to the public? We'll move on to the acknowledgement of... Public request to speak. Anyone wishing to address the board on items on tonight's agenda may do so at this time or at the chair's discretion at the time the item appears on the agenda. Comments should be restricted to three minutes, not including board questions and comments
041and responses by the speaker. Individuals addressing the governing board may not yield any portion of their allotted time to any other individual wishing to address the governing board. In accordance with the Open Meeting Law, Board members may respond to criticism made by those who have addressed the Board, may ask staff to review a matter, or may ask that the matter be put on a future agenda. However, Board members shall not discuss or take legal action on matters raised during an open call to the public unless the matters are properly noticed for discussion and legal action. Is there anyone who would like to speak at this time? Seeing none, we will move ahead to the Consent Agenda. This agenda item 8.1, this consent agenda conserves time by limiting the items to those of a routine nature,
042which normally do not require deliberations on the part of the governing board. The items will be accepted and approved in one action unless a board member wishes to have an item separated from the consent agenda and specifically discussed. The vote or action on any item removed from the consent agenda will be taken separately. Would anyone like to pull anything from the consent agenda? I'm going to request that we pull the item 8.7, which is a consideration adoption of the personnel report. That being said, I would make a motion to adopt the consent agenda as presented with the exception of 8.7. Second. It's been moved and seconded. Further discussion? All in favor? Aye. Thanks Kelly. We didn't know. Another little country. No problem. I am here. And if you need to just do that and we'll
043know that you have something to say. Yeah. Make that little blip. Sounds good. We're glad you're here. Okay. The personnel report, there were a couple of things on here I just wanted to highlight a little bit. I will go, I'll just go kind of in order how they're on here. The certified staff, under certified staff approval change in position, I would like to announce that, not announce, but recognize that Amanda Cox has been selected as the professional development coach for Crane Middle School, and Delaney Roof has been also accepted as the, not accepted. as the professional development coach at HL Super Cup. Both of these ladies I'd like to offer congratulations to. I think it'll be great to see them in those positions and we wish them the very best. Next, under the certified staff,
044I'd like to drop down to the approval of retirement. We have two teachers that are retiring at the end of May. They are Melanie Andrews from Centennial Middle School and Adrian Navarro from Salida del Sol. I don't know how many years of service they have. Do you know how many? I do not. Okay, sorry. I'm sure they have a lot of years of service, and whatever that number is, I just wanted to... Ms. Navarro is 10, but I don't know the other two. That's fine. That's fine. But we want to recognize them for their years of service to the district and wish them the very best in their retirement. So next I will move on to classified and I'd like to announce under approval change of position, congratulations to Jennifer Bosch for your new position
045as Chief Finance and Authorization. We look forward to crunching numbers with you. Great, congratulations to you. And then we had one other retirement underclassified, and that is Lorena Torres, school nutrition manager at Gary Knox. And again, we want to recognize all her years of service and appreciate. Everything she's done and wish her the very best in her retirement. So with that I would make a motion that we approve the personnel report. I check that again. Moved and seconded. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? That motion carries. Thank you. Okay now we're going to drop down to education 9.1. Consideration of adoption of the quality first preschool recognition expenditure program for 2025-2026. Crane Elementary School District preschool quality first programs are rated every two years. If the site earns a four or five star rating, quality first
046provides one-time payments to recognize staff members. at that qualifying site. To comply with this, the governing board must approve and adopt a formal expenditure plan. Background is Quality First programs award $500 per eligible staff member for a four-star rating and $1,000 per eligible staff member for a five-star rating. Eligible staff members as determined by Quality First include director, administrative assistant teacher, and assistant teacher who directly support students. For fiscal year 2026, recognition funds were... dispersed at one thousand dollars per employee mrs jamie haynes director of curriculum and instruction will present the fiscal year 2026 quality first recognition expenditure plan for the governing board's consideration and approval So the plan is as stated in the background. So we have two sites that are quality first sites. Those are Pueblo's preschool and Valley Horizons preschool. So last
047year our Valley Horizons preschool was rated a five star. So the quality first is worth $1,000 per employee to those. to that staff. However, we can't disperse it to the staff until we approve something. So here we are. Pueblo just had their rating done. I don't know that that has been announced yet as whether it's a four star or five star. I'm pretty confident it's probably a five star because that preschool is incredible. And then our other preschool, we want all of our schools to be quality for schools. So they're on the waiting list. So hopefully someday all seven of our sites that have preschools will be quality first preschools and we can have this incentive money for all teachers are all preschool employees so the The ratings are done every two years. So this
048wouldn't be a yearly stipend for anybody. It's every two years. And then in the program, it also asks that employees are still employed at the time of disbursement. So they were here through the rating and then are still currently employed. It's very similar to what we did with our results-based funding stipends we did several years ago when we had those funds. So if you have any questions, you may ask. And it goes directly to the teachers or the staff because our preschools are staffed with instructional needs and then we have our director who any employee can only qualify under one site. So like our director can't qualify under Pueblo and under Valley. They have to choose one or the other so that they don't have any unfair advantage there. I think it's great. Our staff
049has so few opportunities for extra compensation. And these are hourly employees, so this is a really big increase for them. And so, yeah, every two years, and hopefully they'll keep up that five-star rating. If we ever have funds left over, an employee leaves before we disperse, we'll use that money for professional development. Any other questions? No. Thank you. Is there a motion to adopt a Quality First Preschool Recognition Expenditure Program for 2025-26 as presented? So moved. Second. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Oh, Kelly up there. Okay, maybe I'll get it this time. Okay, all in favor? And we passed that, so we're good to go. Let's move on. Next we have agenda item 9-2. This is consideration of exceptional student services preschool calendar for 2026-27. The school district is required to have an exceptional student
050services ESS preschool calendar for the 2026 school year and must be adopted by the governing board. The ESS preschool will be in session full days Monday through Thursday and no students on Friday. This will be similar to the Western Arizona Council of Government's WCAG. since the ESS department shares students with them. The calendar is attached for your review and consideration. Does anyone have anything they want to say about this? Pretty straightforward? Okay. Any questions? No? Okay. Do we have a motion? I move that we adopt the calendar. Second. Okay, we have a motion and a second. Thank you. Any further questions or comments? Okay. All in favor of adopting the calendar as presented, say aye. Aye. Opposed? Okay, that motion is approved. Thank you so much. Okay, next we move on to agenda item 10.1,
051personnel. This is consideration of new positions. Request approval for a new position's title. Background, attached for board consideration and adoption are the job descriptions for the positions listed below. Migrant advocate, physical therapist, assistant. I have no questions. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries as well. Thank you. Next we have agenda item 10-2, this presentation and consideration of adoption of 2026-27 salaries and benefits compensation packet. Board approval is needed to adopt the proposed compensation packet effective July 1, 2026. Mrs. Lupe Lewis, Executive Director of Human Resources and Communication, will present to the governing board the compensation and benefit proposal for the 2026-27 school year for their consideration and approval. It is requested that the proposed compensation package for 2026-27 be adopted in accordance with the attached. Funding of this compensation package is contingent upon full
052funding of the state education formula and following the final state-approved budget. take it away good evening thank you madam president members of the board this presentation might look a little familiar this presentation that was actually shared with all of our employees via email was recorded for them so that they could follow the information but we do have a few minor modifications so i'll call attention to that that the employees have not seen and so we'll just get through it Starting with the availability of funds, we do have a minor change to this slide here. 2% inflation, a little over $1.3 million, so $1,395,000. The big increase on this slide is for our classroom site fund. At the end of March, we did get an update on what that amount would be. So that increased to
053$405,000. Our health benefit increase at 14%, that will cost the district $800,000 to continue providing the high deductible health plan at no cost to our employees that select that plan. And then a budget balance carry forward at $200,000. So that brings a total of $1.2 million for this proposal. My financial advisor asked that I read this bottom statement. Funding of this compensation proposal is contingent upon full funding of the state education formula and following a final state approved budget. We don't anticipate any issues at this time, but we do want to be transparent that if something does change at the state level regarding funding, specifically to our inflation of 2%, it could impact what we could offer to our employees. And this slide also has a small change for our classroom teacher increase. We did
054present 3% to our staff, but the changes in classroom site funds. So in the prior slide, I shared that we did see an increase. And so teachers will get an additional $500 to their classroom site, classroom, class, oh my gosh. Help me out. Classroom site fund base pay. So an additional $500 to that category. Then our non classroom teachers everybody else will see a 3% increase as long as they meet the eligibility criteria Our benefit proposal this slide no change from what we presented to our employees 14% increase For benefits, Wellness Your Way will remain at $50 per month if they choose to participate in that. And then unfortunately, we did have to cut our health savings account. Employer contribution was $50. We will no longer be able to provide the $50, but employees will
055be able to contribute towards their health savings account should they choose to. This slide has been added when we released the presentation I collected questions and feedback from employees and the common question was what does the 14% mean? We didn't have the rate sheets when the presentation was released as soon as they became available as employees requested them They did get a copy of that But here I did ask at a breakdown of what an increase would look like for each plan depending on the coverage they selected So for the employee under the high deductible health plan, there is no increase because that's where the district will cover the increase. That was $800,000 in the prior slide. If an employee is covering a spouse, they will see $86.47 increase per month. If they are covering
056just the child or children, that's $76.81 per month. If they're covering a family, which includes spouse, child, and children, that's $128.31 per month. For the Plan B, which is considered our buy-up plan, those figures are a little bit different. For the employee, they will see an increase of $33.09 per month. And for an employee covering only a spouse, that's a $140.149 increase. For child or children, that's $135.51. And for a family, $204.46. When we do release the rates via our portal in late April, it's scheduled to open April 29th. employees will have the ability to change from one plan to the other. So if they're currently on plan B and they want to evaluate possibly cutting some expenses and changing to high deductible health plan, they will be able to make that selection at that
057time, effective July 1st, 2026. We also like to demonstrate or share the increases that have been provided dating back to fiscal year 2016. And so you will see a grand total of 55.95% in base salary increases. But we also have a few side notes that you'll see towards the bottom of the screen where we also started to increase our classroom site fund just by various dollar amounts depending on what we could provide at that time. And so you'll see those breakdowns as well. Another thing that we like to call attention to is 20 by 2020. This is where the two slides are significantly different for our classroom teachers and non-classroom teachers. Fiscal year 2019, 2020, and 2021, we received funding to supplement teacher-based pay, and we did. We met the 20 by 2020, and then
058you'll see the dollar amounts, the percentages there. Now for non teachers the this is where you don't see the 20 by 2020 it is a little bit different So the grand total comes down to 40 44.96% dating back to fiscal year 2016 And reclassifications that we're requesting in the compensation packet is an adjustment of 2.185% to the classroom teacher initial placement. This only impacts new hires, so when we are providing salary estimates for our potential teachers or future teachers, we are requesting an adjustment to the initial placement schedule. Also, an adjustment to the classified schedule in the same amount of 2.185%. The reason we staggered the amount a little bit, 3% for current employees, 2.185 adjustment for potential new employees, is so that a new employee is not earning more than a current employee. And
059then a minimum wage increase of $15.60 per hour, effective January 27. In the event that we didn't estimate this accurately and we need to make adjustments for minimum wage, we will request an adjustment with future board action. substitute teachers increase all categories and I just caught an error on my presentation the compensation packet actually says six dollars and so we'll have to make that adjustment on the presentation the reason we had to increase the six dollars is it's just a software rounding issue where they couldn't work with the five dollar figure so I had to select six instead of four. But that change will not take effect until January of 2027. And then eligibility criteria, hired by January 6th of 2026, and ESI and contracted employees are not eligible to participate in Wellness Your Way
060for the $50 per month contribution. We also are making a calendar adjustment for the upcoming year. It doesn't impact compensation in any way, but we are changing a paid holiday from Labor Day. Labor Day will be a non-paid work day, but that paid holiday will now change to the Friday after Thanksgiving. And that was just a request that was made and it made sense. It's a very higher expense time of the year. And so we just swapped the paid holiday. We released this presentation or a version of this presentation March 13th to our employees, collected staff questions, responded to all of the staff questions. And then we are making our final recommendation today. If approved, we are prepared to start releasing contracts first thing tomorrow morning for our teachers, school psychologists, administrators, and then all
061other employee groups will continue all the way through June 30th. Any questions? So teachers have until June 30th to submit their application or their contracts? No, we'll release them tomorrow. And they actually have 15 business days to decide if they would like to return. I would just like to compliment Lupe and her group. We have been meeting for three months to go over this information. And it's been a moving target the whole time. We never know from one meeting to the next what we're looking at. So I know that you have... Run a lot of numbers financial climate is remarkable. So I just want to recognize you and your group for that. Thank you so much. Thank you. We appreciate your support. Just talking a little bit about the 3%, I think slow and steady
062wins the race. You can see the history of what you guys have approved dating back to fiscal year 2016. And it helps. Every little bit helps. Thank you so much. So we are being asked to adopt the salaries and benefit compensation package for fiscal year 26-27 as presented. I move that we do so. Okay. I second. Okay. Moved and seconded. Any further comments or questions? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? There being none, that motion carries. Thank you very much. Next we will move to management services. This is 11.1, consideration of possible action regarding representation on the human. I'm sorry, I missed one. Oh, I'm so, so sorry. Okay. We make this look easier. It's not. Okay. 10.3? 10.3. Okay. consideration of adoption of qualified evaluators the issue is qualified evaluators are designated by the current
063governing board the following new staff member has completed the course required and needs to be added as a qualified evaluator I would ask that someone move to adopt this is Delaney roof as a qualified evaluator as present so moved second by Marcos second by Jim all in favor aye anybody there Four to zero, thank you. Did we vote? Yes. I'm sorry, I'm like losing it. It's been a really long day. Okay. Next, we have Management Services, 11.1. Consideration and possible action regarding representation on the Yuma Area Benefit Consortium Board of Trustees. Mr. Dale Ponder, current Chief of Finance and Operations and a District Representative on the Yuma Area Benefit Consortium, YABC, Board of Trustees, was named as Superintendent, effective July 1, 2026, and the determination of continued district representation with YABC is needed. According to
064paragraph 3.02 of the trust agreement for YABC Board of Trustees composition, each participating entity of the YABC trust, including Arizona Western College, the City of Yuma, and Crane Elementary School District is responsible for giving two trustees to the board. Currently, Mr. Jim Colby and Mr. Dale Ponder, who also serve as chair of the YABC Board of Trustees, represent the district, with Mr. Ponder scheduled to assume... the role of superintendent on July 1st, 2026. He inquired whether the current YABC trustees had any current YABC trustees had interest in serving as board chair. However, there was no interest expressed. Mr. Ponder subsequently offered pending approval from the district's governing board to continue serving in his current role for a period of one year while mentoring and collaborating with the district's incoming chief of finance and operations to
065ensure a smooth and orderly transition. He also indicated a willingness again to subject to Governing Board approval to continue serving in his current capacity with YABC without a specified time limitation. The latter two options were viewed most favorably by the other members of the YABC Board of Trustees. The trust agreement requires that at least one trustee be a Governing Board member while the appointment of the second trustee is determined at the discretion of the Governing Board. It is also important to know that YABC Trustees are not subject to term limits and may continue to serve until they voluntarily resign or are removed by a vote of the appointing entity's governing board. Did you write that summary? Short summary? Brief summary. Third chapter. I approve the recommendation. You don't want to hear this? I think I
066have a good idea. I move we accept the action act. I move that we approve the district's representation on YABC. Is there a second? I'll second that. Okay, we have a motion and a second. Let's worry more. I don't think there is any more. To appoint Dale as a trustee on the YABC consortium. All in favor of that motion, say aye. Aye. Opposed? There being none, that motion carries. Thank you. We're almost done, aren't we? Yes. Okay. And we have left. 11.2, which is our audit. You probably wrote that one too. If you just want to do the issue, that's totally fine. Jennifer's going to cover the back. Oh, Jennifer gets to purchase. Okay. Consideration of acceptance of the financial and compliance audit for the fiscal year, June 30, 2025. The issue is the Arizona
067Revised Statute's ARS 15-914H requires the school district governing board or a charter school governing body to publicly accept all audits and compliance questionnaires by a roll call vote. Mrs. Jennifer Bosch, Director of Finance, will provide the governing board with a summary of the external audit performed by Heinfeld, Meech & Company, PC certified public accountants. Would you like to do the background, Jennifer? Sure. Okay, perfect. All right, good evening, Madam President, members of the board. So tonight I'm going to go over the external audit results from fiscal year 25. So pursuant to ARS 15914H, the school district governing board shall publicly accept all audit and compliance questionnaires by roll call vote. So I'm going to go through the presentation, and at the end we'll have to take a roll call vote to comply with this requirement.
068The audit summary, so we have every five years. we have to go through a competitive process to hire or to contract with auditors we did this in fiscal year 22 and so that was the first year we had this for five years so fiscal year 26 is actually our last year with Einfeld Leach and so we'll have to go out for a bid again to renew the services for next school year the auditors come here sometimes in person or virtually so they were here April, August, and October of 2025 to do this assessment. Some of the reports that are issued, the communication to governance, the annual comprehensive financial report or the ACFR, single audit reporting package, the SARP, and the uniform system of financial records, the USFR compliance questionnaire. So I'm going to go through
069those different categories. Communication to governance. This is a document that is provided to the governing board and overall various estimates that are included on this financial statement. The asset, capital asset depreciation, valuations of pension plan, and within this there were no difficulties encountered. with performing the audits. No misstatements identified that required additional communication. No disagreements with management and then we were able to provide everything needed for this report. Annual comprehensive financial report. This is kind of just a overall about 130 pages of financial reports and there included that management decision or discussion and analysis statement and then various financial statements they include within this report that just gives a recap of all the financials within the district. The single audit reporting package This is a review of the internal controls within the district, so the
070compliance with federal and state regulations. They did review the child nutrition cluster or the school nutrition program within this also. They didn't find any significant deficiencies or material weaknesses within the district in the accounting records or any of the federal award controls. So as a result, we met all of the timelines that were required. So we were able to submit the ACFER to the ASBO International and the GFOA submission before the end of January, as well as continuing the bond disclosure deadline in February of 2026. We issued all the reports that are required before the end of March. The Arizona Auditor General's Office, the Yuma County Superintendent of Schools. the Federal Clearinghouse and Arizona Department of Education. And then we also have to provide these reports on our website and we do that to provide
071transparency as well as providing the link to the open books, az.gov, on our website as well. So the Uniform System of Financial Records Compliance Questionnaires. So this is the majority of what I'll be going over. The compliance questionnaires, they have several questions that they ask and they review. budgeting, payroll, transportation, IT, procurement, cash, revenue, classroom site funding, student activities, and attendance. So in 25, there's 171 questions that they go through. We did have 14 findings that they found, which is four less than last year, so that's always a good thing. And so I will go through with that breakdown. So the first, just to give you an idea, the first column is the compliance questionnaire question that they have on their questionnaire. The second is the auditor comment. The third is the district action taken
072based off of the finding. And then whether or not we had a finding in the previous years. So the first one is regarding governing board approval and policies. that the governing board approves throughout the year. They reviewed one in 50 employees, and there was one employee within that 50 that they didn't have the cell phone allowance that was approved. And so we had, this was kind of in our board approval back from 2009? Somewhere, several years ago. But in order to have this up to date, we added it in our compensation packet so that the board will approve this stipend every year moving forward. For student activities, there was one fundraiser that the board didn't approve as part of the fundraising approval process. It was for hoodies or sweatshirts that were sold at one of
073the schools. So we just need to continue to provide training for those student activities individuals. Cash reconciliation with the county. We have monthly reconciliation from the county. In prior years, we didn't receive those monthly, so we received a bulk of those at the end of the school year. And so it was hard to reconcile and time-consuming to reconcile. We did meet with them at the end of this year, and we figured out a way to be able to provide them with additional documentation on our end, such as journal entries or when we move things from different funds. to allow them to kind of expedite the reconciliation on their end and hopefully eliminate that from happening again next year cash and revenue so there was an instance where we had received revenue and we had posted
074it in the 24-25 school year but it should have been for 25-26 there's an encumbrance period at the end of the school year from june to september and so we had just recorded that in the wrong school year Food service clearing account. It wasn't cleared in July and October to the amount that they had requested. There was some electronic transactions that the staff wasn't aware of, and so we made sure everybody's aware of those transactions as well and to make sure those get deposited appropriately. There was some cash receipts that did not have pre-numbered cash receipts. for a couple transactions. And then one, the cash receipt was off by a dollar. This, I think some of these were when we had the transportation student IDs. There was a lot of turnover where they had kids
075were losing their IDs and so they didn't always provide a receipt at that time. And so we're just working, moving forward to make sure that everybody needs to provide a receipt when they handle their cash. The next one, the... The cash receipts that were not deposited timely. We ask that the schools deposit at least once a week, if not twice a week, to bring their cash, the cash that they have at the schools. And so some of these were held eight to 15 days at the schools. Could have been during the holidays or something, what we ask when you leave, or you have money on hand to make sure to deposit that before you leave. Property control, there was a vehicle, or the white fleet vehicles did not. Maintain the review detailed mileage and usage
076logs. Since then, the district has implemented a donor technology within the vehicles, the white key vehicles. So this will allow to be able to track the mileage and all the documentation that they need to be able to comply with this. The capital assets, there was one of five items that they reviewed. that the item was at the school but it was in the wrong room so it could have just been switched the day before or something. So the warehouse does a great job of doing the asset review at all the schools and just have to make sure to communicate if anybody moves something that they know that's a capital asset to make sure to let the warehouse know. Credit cards and key cards, there was one out of ten. where that they reviewed that the
077employee did not complete the annual P-Card training. We do this online through Safe Schools, and the individual had retired before they completed it, and so we were unable to get that. Procurement, this is for 10 sole source vendors, so we do... In the past, provide the listing of the sole source vendors to the board to approve, but we didn't have the additional duration of procurement estimated dollar amount and the cost analysis that was included. And so we have added that now moving forward to be able to apply with this. The financial reporting on the AFR, there was some amounts that were under the budget. columns, not the actual expenditure columns. When we review the AFR, we're looking at to confirm that all the expenditures are correct. Not realizing that when we exported the vendor generated
078budget that some of those budgets were off and they were on within the same page. So I think it was just like a kind of a coding thing that didn't transfer over for those budgets. So just making sure to also account for the budget and the expenditure to review both of those categories. And then the AFR for the food service fund, it was off by the $461,000, but we actually, we accounted for it on our end, not realizing that the auditors also do it in the back end. So we weren't aware of that, so we double booked that entry. But moving forward, we know that they're going to do that on their side, so we don't need to. Transportation, there was a variance with five students on the transportation route report. just a manual error
079that was done so just making sure that we have somebody double check those entries before submitting them and so this is our 32nd consecutive year of in 2024 of receiving the certificate of excellence in financial reporting and so we strive to continue to do that from year to year the popular annual financial report this is kind of one of our fun reports that we are able to do and provides a business sent to all the the households within the district and it's just a fun report easy to read guide that we provide to the families on school items and then we have to the main bulk of it is financial items but make it a fun way for people to learn about the district and then all of our reports are available on the website
080to review them at any time and that is all i have any questions yes uh i may have read the The category is wrong, but have we had any of these violations back-to-back years? Yes, but they could be like a different category within the same question. So it's not necessarily like... It's not the same offense twice. It's just something within column A, a bunch of questions on column A, and it was just different questions that were... We have had where the timely deposits, I know that one is from year to year, where it's just, you know, if it's not within that five days, then sometimes it's hard to get it in, but that one has been... The receipts are the really hard ones. We sell a t-shirt. selling 50 of them an hour. Right, the
081ID cards too, those are something to do with sometimes the dollar fees. I appreciate learning that fund financial support is not an oxymoron. I know, you used fund like three times. Good job, Jennifer. You're the right woman for the job, Jennifer. Thank you. Any other questions? No, thank you, Jennifer. I appreciate it. Oh, yes. How does that work exactly? Okay. All right. Is there a motion then to accept the financial audit and compliance questionnaire from Heinfeld, Meech & Company, PC, certified public accounts for fiscal year end of June 30th, 2025 as presented? We will do a roll call vote. Audrey? Do we have to make the motion? Oh, I'm sorry. So moved. Sure. Go ahead. Thank you. Second. Okay. Sorry about that. Audrey? Aye. Marcos? Aye. Jim? Aye. Kelly? Aye. And me, I am also
082an aye, so that's five to zero. Thank you so much. Okay. I think we're through. Am I right? Okay. Would anyone like to move to adjourn? Marcos moved to adjourn. Second. Second. All in favor? Aye. Aye. We are adjourned. Thank you.