001We are back in open session. I'd like to call this session to order and we will begin with the Pledge of Allegiance and a moment of silence. Pledge of Allegiance. I hereby declare the flag of the United States of America and the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Welcome everybody. It's always great to see a full house. Almost all done. We're going to begin with agenda item 4.1. This is under student, staff, and community recognitions. 4.1 is a presentation by Gary Enochs Elementary School. This is Lauren Daniels. Gary, Mrs. Lauren Daniels, Gary Enochs Elementary School principal will introduce Mrs. Bernie, safety patrol advisor at Gary Enochs Elementary. who will be presenting on the newest student leadership opportunity. Good evening Governing Board, members, district leadership, and
002community. I want to first thank AAA for providing this program for our school and many others nationwide. I also want to thank the ULM Police Department for their partnership and for being here tonight to support our students. I'm proud to introduce Lindsey Burney, our Safety Patrol Advisor at Cary Ops Elementary. Through her leadership, our partnership with the Safety Patrol Program has strengthened both student leadership and campus safety. Hello, I'm Lindsay Burney and I am the Safety Patrol Advisor at Daring Ops. I have a few Safety Patrol members here with me today, if they could please stand. I have Camila, Italia, and Ariana. And here is our video. The duty location as a Safety Patroller is cafeteria, bus, parent pickup and drop off, and kindergarten. In the cafeteria duty, we make sure that the kids don't
003do food bites and bite each other. And we make sure we walk them safely out to the playground. Bus duty is where you just wait at the door for kids to come out and then you can greet them. Like make sure they get... Parent pickup is when you make sure that the kids are getting into their cars safely and not pushing, telling to get in. Parent pickup is like when you make sure like the car waits and then you open the door and make sure like they get out safely and go to school. Kindergarten duty looks like keeping like the kids safe, make sure they go home safely and like... Make sure everyone feels comfortable around everyone else. For Kinder, I usually help out the kids. I usually help get friends. Maybe I've even helped
004get them new friends. State of the Patrol has helped me build my confidence by helping me show that I can be confident in many different ways, including kindness. It's helped me, like, help. like help out even out of safety patrol. It still helps me like how people get to their parents still. Even at the park I help them. Because it like taught me how to like to communicate better with like younger people and like make sure they're like they feel safe here and like welcome. Learning how to be a role model for our younger students. It was good. Because I like helping out people and being respectful with responsibility. It feels like a great, like it makes me confident. I think it feels very good and I think I put on a good example for
005others. Because I get to know the kids and all the other kids that I don't know. I feel like glad to be known that I keep the school safe. Like, oh my gosh, I'm doing this for my school and I just feel very well known because I'm doing a good deed for our school. It feels excellent to help our school be safe at all times. A safety patrol is a valuable leadership opportunity for our older students because not only are they setting an excellent example of what responsibility looks like for the younger students here at Knox, but they're also setting themselves up for success by practicing being responsible, respectful, and safe. I think safety patrol is important for our school because it helps build character between the students who participate and it helps build better
006relationships between the students and their community. Safety Patrol has been doing a tremendous job at helping our arrival and dismissal procedures go super smoothly. Having those students there with their little vests at the cones has really helped the parents know what the expectations are. And it's just been helping everybody have a more smooth transition. So we really appreciate our Safety Patrol. My favorite part about being a Safety Patrol is keeping our schools safe and nobody's getting hurt. Thank you for letting us present. Do you have any questions before we finish? Questions from board members? No. Congrats, Safety Patrol. That's like serious business. I know how intense the drop-off and pickup line can be. So that's awesome. We are very proud of them, and they have become great leaders. I'm very confident that they're doing. They
007keep trying to wave those cars forward. They want to drive them themselves. They try to want to issue any parking citations. They've become very great leaders. And with that, we have a little controller pin for you all so that you can run them. So I have a couple of general questions. Do they work shifts? Do they all work every school day? Not every day. We do have shifts. There's morning and after school. I would say one of their favorite duty locations is kindergarten, and they like to play with the littles. But they do rotate, so they can also have recess in the morning and after school. That's right. Thank you. Is this something that will continue in the future? school years? Yes, it is. Right now we are working on those duty locations. We're looking
008to expand to help with playground safety out in the back in the morning to help students resolve conflict and stay safe. That's great. Do they have to be a certain grade level in order to do it? These are our fifth and sixth graders, and so they have to put in an application as well as go through rigorous training to make sure that they knew what safety requirements are and how to be safe themselves, which is more important first. That's great. Well, I would ask you guys if you enjoy it, but I think you've already told us in a number of ways what you like it. So thank you so much for helping keep your campus safe. that's really a great program thank you we weren't laughing next we have a presentation by ronald reagan elementary
009school mr tom fletcher the principal will introduce miss arcega self-contained ess teacher who will speak about special olympics at ronald reagan Good evening, board and Madam President. So Ms. Nell has been with me for a number of years teaching ESS specialized classroom. She's now her classroom is now K-3. It's expanded. And so anyway, she's been very active in one of the things we do at our school that a lot of schools do is we want to encourage inclusion, right? And so we want our general ed population to benefit as well as the specialized classroom kids as well. So she's taken it a step further and has brought Special Olympics to Ramblin' Break. And so they have an event coming up soon, but we're also doing it school-wide, so they come to us as well. So
010our kids get to do it like twice a year. So I'll let her take over. Okay, thank you. Special Olympics Field Day at Ronald Reagan. And to consider that we're the only school in the Ukraine district that's doing this. There you go. Okay, Special Olympics Field Day. We're hosting it, Ronald Reagan, and it is going to be scheduled for April 15. You are more than welcome to come and volunteer. Participants, student athletes, peer partners, staff, volunteers. This is a good way for students with disabilities, peer partners, staff, volunteers to participate in inclusive athletic activities in a structured, supervised environment. Okay, why this event matters. Promotes inclusion, belonging, and supports physical wellness and social emotional learning. Builds leadership and inclusive practices. So this is a good way for our both students with disabilities and students in
011our general education classrooms to come back together and work as a team. students in PEC, students athletes with disabilities, general education peer partners, school community as a whole, expected outcomes, increase the student engagement and confidence, peer interactions all positive, positive belonging and school right. Alignment, and this is something else I am going to add. I know this is nothing to do with our event, but we are also doing the Special Olympics banner, so all students will be signing as well as staff members. Everybody in the building, you are more than welcome to come into Ronald Reagan and sign our banner. Okay, and this is an event for our inclusive spirit week for our school. So come and welcome. And there's going to be a certain surprise around the school where we're going to be supportive
012inclusion in March. Please come in. partnerships and community engagement, Special Olympics organizations, school staff, and ESS team. We have combined all of ESS team as well as other staff members to come in and enjoy this event. It is a big event that is from pre-K to second grade. And again, you're more than welcome. Come in and join us here around Oregon. You can see in this last picture the shirts we're wearing. It also happened to be twin day today. But it's been a real benefit for all students on campus. And just those relationships that they build and those peers and the friends. So when they're out on the playground to play at recess, they all mix and they all hang out together and they make special relationships. It's beautiful. So we'd encourage you to come
013and participate. You don't necessarily have to volunteer. You can stay with the students. We'd love to have you. Any questions? Mr. Fletcher. Yes. I'd like you to do me a favor. Because sometimes I get these things lost. Would you give me a call a few days before that? And I would be glad to volunteer. Yes, sir, I will. It sounds great. Has there been talks about having something like this? Is this like a pilot program thing? Or is there talks about having this like a district-wide event? Once upon a time we did, many years ago, because I've been around forever. Many years ago we did. Brenda Alt was the teacher at the time, and she did it district-wide, and we hosted it because we had a track. The track is now in bad shape, so
014we can't. But anyway, so we used to. Mr. Moore. I hate to stop. I don't know when we kind of moved away from that, but then, like I said, Ms. Arcega reached out to the... Special Olympics team and said, hey, we want to host these events. How can we do that? What do we need to do to do that? And so this will be like our second or third year, I believe. Third year. To have it at our campus. In addition, she has another one. What's the one coming up? It's we're doing track and field and you're also welcome to come. It's on February 27th. And where's that at? It's going to be at Hiller Ridge High School. Oh, cool. And then my other question is, how does the rest of the school get involved
015this day? So if you look like in the lower, I guess it'd be the left corner, you see that they have their peer partners. So what we typically do on a regular basis is they, she has a partner classroom. So for like during the school day, some of her students go in for different parts of the day for academics. not just special areas, sometimes for kids that are nonverbal, we start with going to specials to try to warm them up into that setting. But then we try to, for those that can, go in for academics. And so there's like a partnership with a classroom of their age peers. But then if you look at that picture, we also have like sixth graders and fifth graders help out. and make those partnerships as well. So I
016just think it would be cool if everybody was cheering them on in a race or whatever it is, right? The whole school is getting behind them and stuff. No, yes, and that is why I pick, our ESS team picks the older gen ed peers to attend Special Olympics, which will be February 27th, and that is the track and field. And then young athletes will be pre-gates with second grade. That's when we're going to have our event on April 15th. That way we all could. I'll have the chance to participate. I'll pay second to be out there on that day. And then the one in February, we kind of handpick who is responsible. Should be a reward. Good job. Congratulations. Thank you. Sounds great. Next, we're going to move on to agenda item 4.3. This is
017the recognition of 2026 spelling bee winners. The governing board would like to recognize the spelling bee winners for each crane school district. So if I could get the board members to come down in front of the. Go ahead, Jill. Push my chair out. So as I call the winners up, if you will come, grab your certificate, shake hands with board members, and then stay up here. We'll call all of the schools, take a picture, and then parents are also welcome to come up and join for pictures. The first one from Gary Knox, the spelling bee winner from Gary Knox Elementary School, is Yasser Ramirez. Yasser, are you here? Next school is from Gowan Science Academy, Drew Sayon. Drew, congratulations, Drew. The next student, Bella Erogene from HL Supercrup. Next from Mesquite is Ethan Cisneros. Ethan
018from Mesquite. From Pueblo, we have Jenny Avalos. Jenny. Ronald Reagan. Aaron Bazant. From Salida del Sol, Giselle Soteo. Erin, yes. We'll have picture time, Erin. There you go. From Valley Horizon, Jordan Cipriano, and from Centennial Middle School, this student won the entire county. Congratulate Smriti Perjuli. Smriti, are you here? Congratulations. Okay, if you'll stay up here for photos, and then also parents can have a chance to. Don't be afraid to get in there. And hold your certificates up so that we can see those. Fantastic. One, two, three. One more. Thank you. And parents, feel free to come up as well. Congratulations. Board members, if you'll stay up. Board members, if you'll stay there. Students can be seated. Congratulations for our spelling bee winners. Next, we move on to agenda item 4.4, recognition of 2020-26 Yuma
019County Teacher of the Year nominees and outstanding first-year teachers. The governing board would like to recognize Crane's Teacher of the Year nominees and Outstanding First-Year Teachers. For 2026, the Outstanding First-Year Teachers, starting off with Alejandra, also known as Cece Gallegos from Pueblo, Jose Suero from Reagan, and Jose Terrazasas from Crane Middle School. We're now moving on to the Yuma County Teacher of the Year nominees. These are people that were not in the category of first year, but they were the nominee for their school. From HL Suvercrup, Nicole Appelinar. Thank you. Sorry, Nicole. From Mesquite, Yesenia Covarrubias. From Ronald Reagan, Juanita Cabrita. And from Salida del Sol, Samantha Perales. From Gary Knox, Monica de los Reyes. From Pueblo, Evelyn Renteria. From Gowan Science Academy, Mary Valdupique. From Centennial Middle School, Gilbert Henderson. And from Crane Middle
020School, Georgina Miranda. Let's give all these teachers a round of applause. you guys want to make sure they watch it yeah let's routine And for the Teacher of the Year nominees and all of the students that came tonight and parents, you're more than welcome to stay for our board meeting or you can be dismissed at this time, whatever you'd prefer. Thank you for coming. is right on top Well, it's your sin. over here While we let the room clear out, if there is anyone in the audience that would like to speak to the board, we do have little cards that need to be filled out over at that table, and you can give them to Minnie, our board secretary. Next, we're going to move on with our superintendent's current events summary. The superintendent needs to
021provide members of the governing board and residents of the Crean schools with a monthly statement of current happenings and pending events, including information about student academic achievement. Thank you. Gowan Science Academy. Gowan held their annual family cultural night where families could sign up to host a table showcasing their culture. Cultures from all over the world, including Mexico, Germany, Thailand, Colombia, Norway, Australia, and the Choctaw tribe were all represented. Centennial Middle School. On January 24th, Centennial students and Fort Yuma Rotarians successfully executed a high-impact service day. The initiative focused on enhancing Garden beds, creating storage solutions, and expanding agricultural learning capabilities. Key accomplishments. The agricultural development, they assembled and installed 16 garden beds. Creative arts, they completed a 40-foot mural by students and Rotarians. And site infrastructure, they had full installation of fencing, storage container for
022bikes and supplies, garden beds, irrigation timers, weed barriers, and soil distribution. This was led by Stephanie Littlewood Moody and Leslie McClendon. Great work, all of you. School counselors. Last week was National School Counseling Week. We have amazing school counselors at Crane. They help our students thrive and achieve their goals while providing support in a myriad of ways. Thank you for all you do. Non-student day. As a reminder, Friday, February 13th is a non-student day. Our teachers will be involved in a vast array of meaningful professional development. President's Day holiday. There will be no school on Monday, February 16th in observance of President's Day. The district office will also be closed. Yuma County Teacher of the Year nominee. We'd like to recognize and congratulate our Yuma County Teacher of the Year nominees and outstanding first-year teachers.
023These amazing teachers will participate in initial interviews next week on Thursday, February 19th, and Friday, February 20th. Best of luck to all of them. Madam President and members of the board, that's my report for this month. Thank you very much. Next, we'll move on to Superintendent's 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 federal government. Members of the Governing Board need to be aware of those issues and provide appropriate direction to initiate or respond to them. Thank you. We officially surpassed House Bill 4000 this week, which is an unprecedented milestone. 1870 bills have been published. Some important dates that are coming up. Friday, February 20th is the last day to hear Senate bills in the Senate
024committees and the last day to hear the House bills and House committees. On Friday, March 27th is the last day to hear Senate bills in House committees and the last day to hear House bills in Senate committees. Multiple bills have been introduced in the Arizona legislature during the 2026 legislative session, which aim to change rules regarding Empowerment Scholarship Accounts, or ESAs, which are Arizona's school voucher system that allows students to use taxpayer money to pay for private school, homeschool, or other means of education. Some of the bills aim to put more guardrails on the controversial program, which has recently surpassed a billion in cost, while others aim to give ESA users more protection. Much appreciation to Senator Dunn for sponsoring SB 1763, and we're happy with the proposal surrounding the release of the AFR. Thank
025you, Marcos Moore, for arranging the meeting with Senator Dunn and Dale Ponder. This bill stems from Senator Bennett's Title 15 Modernization Committee from a couple legislative sessions ago and demonstrates our continued commitment to important issues. Additionally, there's a multitude of education-related bills in the works, some related to governing boards, superintendents, and lease agreements. Some of these could be harmful to rural school districts, and our position is firm in decision- Decisions should be handled at the local level by locally elected governance body, not determined by the legislature. Thank you, Madam President and members of the board. Thank you, Mrs. Story. Next, we will move on to governing board business. This is oral reports, conferences, workshops, and school visitations. Periodically, members of the governing board attend various conferences, seminars, workshops, district schools, and so forth, and have
026information to share with the other members. Does anyone have anything they would like to share? I was able to go see some amazing teaching by one of my students. I actually got to visit Knox. got to see the playground. I don't think I've seen it since it's been completed and the kids were on it and having a wonderful time. Thank you. Anyone else? I get to spend some time with Ms. Fulton about with math department, learning some things about how we're doing with math. I hope we're doing pretty well. She sure is very interesting. She sure knows her subject. Also, with the election of Mr. Ponder, with, I guess, the hiring of Mr. Ponder to be our next superintendent, going into those meetings, I had an opportunity to speak to several principals in our district
027and some of our teachers and just get some information. And that's it. I'm just kind of hanging out. Okay. Thank you. Marcos, did you have anything? No, ma'am, I do not. Okay, thank you. I had a couple to report. I did judge, help judge the Salida del Sol spelling bee, which is super fun, and I always appreciate being invited to do that. I also, this was kind of a twofer for me, my granddaughter called me and said she was going to be, she plays in the centennial band and that she was going to be performing at Salida del Sol. So I ran up there again and Mrs. Thompson, who's the The band and orchestra teacher at Centennial had some of her kids up there, and I didn't realize that we do recruiting and marketing for
028band in our school. But it was a great program and a great presentation. She not only had the kids show off their instruments, but they performed a little bit. She talked about commitment, and she had some beginning students and also some advanced students. The difference was... Quite impressive, really quite impressive. So again, I'm so happy that we have that program in our district. It's so important to the kids. One other thing really quickly, I did stop by the federal program in ESS building a couple of days ago. I was so happy that I didn't have to worry about falling through the floor anymore. And if you haven't been over there, it's beautiful. It's just beautiful. So that's all I have. Thank you. Okay, next we're going to move on to public comments. We have verse
0297.1, call to the public. 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 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. I do
030have a card here. This is from Casey Baker, who would like to speak on academic and communication concerns. Okay. Okay. You're good to go. Good evening, board members. My name is Casey Baker. I'm here tonight to speak about my son, Easton, a kindergarten student at Dowin, and about the district's failure to adequately address our family's concerns since September. Last week, I sent a detailed email to district leadership, school administration, and this board. Whilst the superintendent has since responded, that response carefully avoided addressing several of the specific issues raised. It is that selective response and what was left unanswered that brings me here tonight. Easton has combined ADHD and ODD and has a 504 plan in place. We have been requesting appropriate supports for him since September. Yet the superintendent's response did not acknowledge that these
031concerns have been ongoing for months. Instead of addressing compliance, the response reframed repeated removals from instruction as brief and rare. What was not addressed is that Easton has repeatedly been expected to complete work in a hallway, a loud, chaotic environment that directly contradicts the purpose of his accommodations. At no point did the superintendent explain how hallway instruction aligns with the 504 plan designed to reduce distractions. The superintendent also avoided addressing Easton's midterm grades, despite those grades being explicitly raised and requested for discussion. since they have drastically dropped since quarter one. Easton's currently earning 40% in math, 58% in reading, with 36% in writing and language, and 67% in speaking and listening. Rather than acknowledging or explaining these outcomes, the response deflected to generalized statements about other assessments. These grades remain unexplained and unaddressed. We also
032raised concerns about a sudden increase in interventions this semester in reading and math, despite being told he is not struggling enough. These were implemented without clear communication or parental consent. While the superintendent explained when a program was purchased, the response avoided explaining why parents were not informed or how these interventions are being delivered in compliance with the 504 plan. Additionally, the superintendent restated the district's position when we're in January. by UP eligibility decision, but did not address our concern that this was not a true team determination. At least half of the team, including district staff, disagreed that lack of consensus and the misrepresentation of it was not acknowledged or clarified. Board members, this pattern matters. When a family raises specific documented concerns and the response selectively addresses only district's preferred talking points, it undermines trust
033and accountability. Silence on critical issues is not collaboration. This is no longer an informal disagreement. This is a matter of oversight, procedural integrity, compliance with federal protections. We're asking for immediate and consistent compliance with Easton's 5-4 plan, commitment to an appropriate learning environment, clear written explanations regarding placement interventions, and a prompt meeting to address his documented epidemic decline. our family has been advocating for our sons we're asking this board to ensure that concerns are not selected answered and prize are avoided but fully addressed easing is better i'm sorry thank you i'm sorry thank you thank you for coming we appreciate um we appreciate your sharing this information with us um as i read we're not allowed to talk about this tonight because it's not an agenda item but um we do appreciate your concerns and
034we appreciate your coming to the board meeting thank you thank you Next, we move on to agenda item 7.2. This is 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 and 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 the staff to review a matter, or may ask that the matter be put on a
035future 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. I do not have any information. Okay. That being the case, then, we will move on to the consent agenda. The consent agenda conserves time by limiting the items to those of a routine nature, which 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. adopt the consent agenda as presented. Does anyone have any items that they would like to
036pull from the consent agenda? No, okay. I would like to pull consent agenda item number 8.7, which is the personnel report. And if there are no others, then I will move that we approve the consent agenda with the exception of 8.7. All in favor? I'm sure curious then. Okay, let's move to agenda item 8.7. And I would ask you just to open up the personnel report. I really like to take the opportunity to recognize staff who are retiring from our district. The fact that they went the distance, I think, is remarkable. We should speak to that. So I just have a few names on here that I wanted to pull. First of all, I have... Denise Husted, I hope I'm, Husted, Husted, okay, I hope I'm correcting, pronouncing that right, from Crane Middle School, who
037will be retiring at the end of the year. I also have, let's see, down at the very bottom, Robin Harrison, who is a physical therapist that worked for our district office, also will be retiring at the end of the year. Then I'd like to move your attention up to the certified staff approval of resignation. I think sometimes this category, not category, but we have a situation that. makes things look different from what they are. So what I would like to do is pull the names of Isabel Santa Cruz and Terry Timlin, who are teachers who have retired under the ESI program and came back on return to work. So on our report here, they're showing as resigning, but they're not really resigning. They're leaving us. They're leaving the district. I just, for all four of
038these, I just wanted to say we have been so blessed to have really quality teachers that have done such great work for our district. We wish them well in their retirement. We wish they wouldn't go, but that's how it happens. But what I wanted, I asked Lupe to give me their years of service, and I added them up. And we are losing 109 years of teaching experience, which kills me. I mean, talk about an impact. And they're just going away on into such that we wish them well, but we sure are going to miss all of them and the impact they made on our students. So thank you for pulling those out and clarifying that as well. Mr. Timlin was actually my son's PE teacher at Centennial. So, and I know my son gave him
039a run for his money. So wherever you are, Mr. Timlin, thank you. Yeah, enjoy yourself. I was, I shared with Lupe a story that I was on, I think this is silly, but when my kids were at Ronald Reagan, we, our parent council had the opportunity to interview potential teachers. And we interviewed Mr. Timlin who wanted to come to work for the district. And he had... A little tiny tail. I do not think he was rehired at Ronald Reagan, but he was hired somewhere else, thankfully. But that's something that I was, because it was like tucked in his collar and then out. Anyway, that was pretty funny. So that being said, I move that we accept approval agenda item 8.7. Second. We've been seconded. Any further discussion? All in favor? Okay. Thank you. All right.
040Let me get back. Okay. So we have approved the entire consent agenda. Sorry, I'm having a little trouble with the pad here. So I want to be sure I don't miss anything. Okay. So that brings us down to number nine, education. Am I correct? Yes. Okay. So first, this agenda item is this is adoption of gifts from the public, which I think is also something that's very important to to know because we have so many people who do great things for us. The first first group listed on here is. Fort Yuma Rotary Club and all the things that they've done for Centennial Middle School for their community garden. I think I added up about $14,000 or $15,000, which is great. And I know that doesn't even reflect all the labor that they put in to
041help me get them set up. So that's really, really wonderful. I'm going to skip down to the bottom one. This is... this is gary knox home depot donated garden planters and pots from various sizes for their knox garden of learning so we appreciate that very much i want to skip back up to the the red one When I read this, it kind of blew my socks off a little bit, and I almost kind of cried. But it says on here that we received $400 for the greatest needs to Salida Del Sol from Timothy and Margaret Hogan. And there are very many of us in this room that remember Tim Hogan. But let me just say that Tim Hogan, back in the day, was a hero in the fight for equitable schools, equitable school funding. He
042and Gary Knox were like supermen in the state. And because of Mr. Hogan's efforts, he was able to level the playing field between property rich and property poor districts. without his efforts and his doggedness and all of the things that he did. We would not have the beautiful schools that we have today. We'd probably be in Portable somewhere, I guess. I don't know. But anyway, I saw that and I thought, oh my gosh, Tim Hogan. And then the fact that he wrote a check for $400 and sent it to one of our schools just like made my heart so happy. So I know that was something that happened way in the past, but that was a huge. impact on the civil district and always be grateful to him for his leadership there. Okay, next we
043have agenda item 10, personnel. This is consideration of adoption. We need a motion. Oh, I'm sorry, you guys. Can I get some of them? I'll make a motion that we accept the gifts of the guest bread. Yeah, we'll accept them. Accept them with our thanks. All in favor of that? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you, Jim. Okay, sorry, guys. Personnel, consideration of adoption of new position, bus driver trainee. Attached for board consideration and adoption is the job description for the new position listed below, bus driver trainee. Does anyone want to speak to that position? This helps us be able to get people in to train. Then if we have an opening, they can move on. So it's just an entry-level position that helps us gather people. And these will be positions with benefits. And I
044mean, it's a full-time commitment, right? So how long, how many, you're just going to have one person in training? Is that what it is? I don't know how many openings. We do have current trainers that can train them. I don't know how many openings that will be. But it's not a full-time thing. I mean, every time we want to train somebody. As needed. Right? Every time we want to train. Every time we have a bus driver we want to train, it'll be that time. It's not a year-long position or such, is it? I don't think so. It says under the direction of the director of traffic and bus driver training, it will become a fault for bus drivers. So it's bringing them in so that they can be trained rather than waiting. Otherwise, you have
045kind of a wall that you can't bring someone in until they actually have their CDLs, until they have their license. You want to bring someone in, do the internal training. And we hire them for that time of the training. Yes, it says you must be able to successfully complete the bus driver training program within 45 days and be qualified to drive within 60 days contingent. So how many bus drivers do we hire a year? Approximately. I do not know the number we hire per year, but I do know that in comparison to other districts around the state, we are very healthy. We do not have the turnover. About two years ago, a lot of the people that we talked to at other districts had openings of like 20 and 30% bus drivers. We've never felt
046that. So again, this training program will really help and make sure we've got people on board. I don't know the number. I guess what I'm saying is like this person, this trainee, we're going to train this person. And he might not ever be addressed. He might not be a bus driver. I'll give you an example. Like Gabby does a lot of driving right now because she has her CVL. So there's times we have to pull our director to drive. So it helps to have this position. So it would be more like a, this person would be like a substitute then eventually? Because you don't, it doesn't sound like you have a substitute driver. It depends on the openings. Okay. Do we need more clarification? Should we? Look at the timeline. So they basically, as Audrey
047said, they give them 60 days to be able to be a bus driver. If not, then they basically didn't pass. Okay. So it's within that window. So we have them for 60 days. Okay. I thought you wanted this person on staff for the whole year. And so, okay. I can work with that. Yeah. So. Are you saying that at the end of 60 days? No, I'm saying, what I'm saying is I don't necessarily think I want to hire someone. If they're going to train forevermore in perpetuity. If it's like, are they going to, it's like we're paying, this person's going to be on the payroll. And then he never becomes a bus driver. I think that's why it was written in. If you take a look at the. Minimum qualifications number two, they must be
048able to successfully complete the bus driving training program within 45 days and qualified to drive within 60 days, which means they pass their test. Okay. Right. So you give a window of training. So the training is 65 days max, and then they become a bus driver. Okay. I thought, and I could be wrong, obviously, I thought I was under the impression that this person, they will be. or a person that trains people, but it won't be a new position as such. It'll be for when we need them to do the training, we will pay them for that time. So we have trainers, and this is the trainee person coming in to be trained by the trainer. But basically, apparently we're having a hard time finding CDL drivers. Is that what I'm hearing? I'm just reading.
049I don't want to put words in your mouth or anything. It's always difficult to be able to find people to drive buses, but we are in a better place than many other districts. And that's why Gabby's been driving so much. Like lately, we'll have meetings and stuff. She can't attend because she's driving routes. And we'll do this for every... So basically, we want to train our own drivers? You have two options. One, they come in already trained. Right. Or they can come in and within that... time get them trained to be able to drive with laska and the compensation for this would be only during the time they're doing the training not they would not be it would not be a position it's like a new position it would be we're paying this person to
050be the trainer when we need them okay not the trainer these people are being trained so he'll be there i'm going to be until he gets trained makes sense He might not be a 40-hour-a-week driver. Okay. But this says that Dr. Kwan is going to report the new position. I read the thing totally wrong. I got it. Okay. All right. Is everyone clear on that? Yes, ma'am. And if so, is there a motion? I move we accept the action item. Second. Okay. It's been moved and seconded that we approve the new position of Best Driver Treaty. Any further discussion on that? No. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? That motion carries. Thank you. Next, we have Agenda Item 10-2, Consideration of Approval to Release Staff Member Without Assessing Liquidated Damages. Board approval is needed to release
051a staff member from... contract without assessing liquidated damages. The Marine Administration is requesting that the governing board approve the item and release Ms. April Gitch from her 2025-26 contract without assessing liquidated damages. So moved. I second. moved and seconded any questions or clarifications there nope all right they're being done um all in favor aye aye opposed that motion carries and finally is there a motion to adjourn yes so moved second moved by marco second by audrey on favor aye i think we are done thank you okay you know they've got a question for