001I'm logged in. It is April 8th, 2025. And first item of business is to item B1, which is consideration to convene into executive session to discuss salaries and benefits. And for the record, present today here is myself, Marcos Moore. Regina will be to be on remote. Is Kelly on? Kelly remote. Is she present? We were having some technical issues with her. And Dan is present. So I'll now entertain a motion to go into executive session. Motion. Properly moved and seconded to enter into an executive session. All in favor say aye. Aye. Same sign. Aye. Motion passes. Three in favor. We are in executive session. If you want to, I don't know. Open session. Please stand for the pledge in a moment of silence. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America
002and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. I'll now take the first item of business, which is. Presentation by Pueblo Elementary School. Pueblo Elementary School musical teacher cast, musical theater cast will be presenting a number from their upcoming show, Frozen. So here we go. Thank you, Mr. President and esteemed members of the governing board. I'm sorry I have a cold, so I'm sucking on a cough drop. I promise I'm not chewing gum. I would like to introduce Ms. Liz Caro. She is our director of our musical theater program. I did give her an out this year because we come every year and I thought, well, maybe the board wants to see something different. And when I told her, you know, you don't have to
003do this every year. She said, oh, no, we're going. We need the practice. So, Ms. Caro, please come up and tell them a little bit about what we're doing this year. I told my kids as we were preparing for this, I said, this is your best audience ever. Doing it for your peers is a little bit nerve wracking. I understand. But the board is so supportive and so kind of everything we always do. So it's going to be great. I am the director of our musical theater program. We are part of the 21st Century Program at Pueblo. These kids work every day after school, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, a few hours, and one hour on Friday. So they've been working very hard. I'm going to announce the show. First, I'd like to bring musical theater up
004here. A lot of us. Georgina, Connor, Georgina, and Georgina. Those two chairs right there. We're going to face this way, guys. Physical Theater parents, the board has been very kind in the past. If you would like to stand behind them, you may. See it from the front. Right, no, you're going to go this way. You're going to do the show this way. Face the board. Everybody behind them. Parents, if you would like to come up here, they're going to do the show facing this way. Oh, maybe. You can, yeah, stand over here, over there. Go on up. Don't be afraid to come up here. Otherwise, you're going to see the back of it. Okay. Okay. Elizabeth, over here. Okay. I would like to set the scene. Welcome to the town of Arendelle, the country of
005Arendelle, where our Queen Elsa, who is performing with us tonight, and also our Olaf is performing with us tonight, helping out with the singing. We've just had the coronation of our Queen Elsa. For the first time, Anna is going to meet Hans. She's very excited. But there's also some very important people who have invited to this coronation. I think it's the Duchess of Weaseltown. Ladies and gentlemen, I proudly present Pueblo's Musical Theater, Frozen Junior, Love is an Open Door. Scene. Yeah, but if they weren't humiliating me, they were ignoring me. It's not going to be like that when I was born. Me neither. No one will ever be shut out. Go on. I could never shut you out. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry, guys. We finish each other's sandwiches. That's what I was gonna say. I've
006never met someone who thinks so much like me. Jeez. This is bad. Our mental synchronization can't help but want an explanation. I was just meant to be. Can I say something crazy? Will you marry me? Can I say something even crazier? Yes! Thank you. And if parents can stay, we have a couple more student recognitions and then afterwards people can leave. But if you could stay through the next couple, that would be wonderful. Thank you for the invitation. All right. Next item of business. Recognition of Gowan Science Academy girls soccer team. The governing board would like to recognize the Gallant Science Academy girls soccer team who placed first in their league's championship. If I can get the board to stand in front of the dice and hand these up. Congratulations to players. What we're going
007to do is I will call one member at a time. They'll come up and get their certificate. But I'd like you to stay up here after they all come up. If the coaches can join us for a group picture, that would be fantastic. So again, this is fantastic to win your league. Congratulations. Starting off, and I think you just had a game or a practice. Is that right? So we're barely peeling in here. Glad you all made it. That's why we all have our uniforms. Wonderful. Starting off, Liana Perry-Clark, if she's here. Anna Marie Hernandez. Lucy Dammeier. Karina Warren. Jenny Gomez. Sinele Hernandez. Mia Morales. Yaretzi Yamas. Vera Rivera. Elena Jones. Adriana Gonzalez. Sophia Gutierrez. Caroline Aza. Azul Valencia. Andrea Jimenez. Eva Luna Coleman. Ariana Navarrete. Mia Saints. Maya Rose Roldan, Olet Navarro, and Isabella
008Soto. And if the coach can come join us as well, we get a group picture. Wendy, before you leave, we make sure you get this. Congratulations. okay ready i'm gonna go first and then i'm gonna move over here for everybody else okay all right one two three two and then i'm gonna wait so everybody else can get back As they transition back to their seats, we next want to recognize Centennial Middle School's both 7th and 8th grade boys basketball teams. We'll start off with 7th grade. Again, it'll be one name at a time, and if the coach can come up at the end. Starting off, Alec Buriel, Alexander Carbajal, Cade Magdaleno, Dion Camarillo, Diego Saldana, Eli Penanuri. Ian Tarango. Ivan Porchas. Josiah Truluck. Juan Solis. Liam Casillas. Bradley Dordry. Tyler Kretenden. And last but not
009least for seventh grade is Julian Castaneda-Alvarez. And if the coach could join us as well. And parents, feel free to come take pictures. guys come over here and for the first time you're gonna see it better Ready? So I'm going to pick one first and then stay in your pose for the other. Okay, ready? One, two, three. Next, we have eighth grade. They also won the boys basketball championship for their league. So starting off with eighth grade, our team's a little smaller. Can you go, Marcos? Yeah, back-to-back championships. Thank you. Starting off with Colton Rush, Israel Trujillo, Isaac Lazaro, Ernest Lora, Mateo Aguirre. Alejandro de los Reyes, Jonathan Aguilar, Adrian Porches, Leonardo Duenas, Martini Carrillo. And if I could have the coach come join. All right. ready one two three and then stay okay So
010that concludes our student recognition. So parents, feel free to stay or you're welcome to take your children now. Again, congratulations as the board comes back up to the dais. Congratulations. yeah Okay, we're gonna get ready to go on with, continue with business here. We are going to take the next item of business, please. E1, superintendent's current event summary. Thank you. What an exciting month. We have a lot of staff groups to celebrate and to honor this month. Assistant Principals Week. National Assistant Principals Week is this week, April 7th through the 11th. I'd like to recognize our three outstanding assistant principals, Mrs. Ruby Rodriguez, Mr. Josh Topp, and Mrs. Alyssa Guevara, soon to be principal, and thank them for their hard work and dedication to our school students. Congratulations. National Paraprofessional Appreciation Day. We would also
011like to recognize our paraprofessionals on April 2nd this year. We couldn't function without them. Thank you all for your deep commitment to our schools and keeping them running smoothly. This month is also National Librarians Day. National School Librarians Day was celebrated on April 4th this year. 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 21st through the 25th this year. And we'd like to thank each and every one of those who volunteer their time to help our students and staff. Although volunteering looked very different this year, compared to like a decade ago, many people offered to support our schools and we are incredibly appreciative. Bus Driver Appreciation Day. Bus Driver Appreciation Day will
012also be April 22nd. 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 on April 23rd. Thank you all for what you do to keep our schools and district running smoothly. Additionally, this is month of the military child. April is month of the military child. Since 1986, April has been designated as the month of the military child by the United States Department of Defense. This is a legacy of Defense Secretary Casper Weinberger at a time to applaud our military children and the daily sacrifices they make and the challenges that they do overcome. Mr. President and members of the governing board, that's my report for this month. Thank you, Ms. Storing. Next item of business. Superintendent's update on legislative
013or governmental actions. E2. So sometimes issues that could impact crane schools are considered by various legislative and or administrative bodies in the state and or federal government. Members of the governing board need to be aware of those issues and provide appropriate direction to initiate or to respond to them. I'll turn the floor over to Mr. Thank you, Mr. Moore and members of the governing board. Yes, I'd like to present a little bit about the current climate within the legislature. We are approaching the last day of conference committees. That will take place on April 18th and April 22nd is the 100th day of session. And so the legislature would adjourn typically by that following Saturday, which is the 26th. However, that could be extended for another seven days and then further extended by a majority of
014the legislature, which historically has happened for the past number of years. I can't remember the last time that they adjourned within 100 days. Usually it's right up to the end of the fiscal year. And so that's on the horizon. To date, there have been 55 bills transmitted to the governor. 51 of them have been signed and four of them have been vetoed. There are a couple education related bills that have been signed by the governor. One is addressing 9-11 instead of designating that specific day for. A lesson to be taught, a lesson just needs to be taught for 7th through 12th grade students within the month of September. And then the latest that was signed yesterday by the governor, which is Senate Bill 1437. And actually, I will give you the chapter. It's Chapter 40
015of the Session 2025 laws, mandatory reporting, and is extended now to school boards and school board members. essentially all school district related personnel, contracted employees, so those who are on ESI, contracted school psychologists, any contracted employee, anyone who is employed or affiliated with a school district and charter school would be required to be a mandatory reporter. So that's cases of non-accidental injuries that might be witnessed or that would be observed. Those would be then required to be provided law enforcement or what is now is the Department of Child Safety, I believe is what it's called. So that bill will take place 90 days after the legislature adjourns. So typically around the September timeline is when that bill would become fully effective. I believe it's the intent of Mrs. Doering to provide some type of training
016to the governing board since this is a new requirement for you all. but something that might be placed on your radar given that it was just signed by the governor yesterday. But there will be some time for us to implement those processes to make sure that we're fully compliant and ensure that all individuals who are affiliated with the school district in some capacity receive that training. So with that, I'll answer any questions. There's really no budget update, unfortunately, at this time. I don't really have much to remark there. There are a number of bills that... you think are moving forward and then stall, strike everything. Amendments are provided, which essentially means take everything and strike it and replace it with this particular bill in its place. And some of those tactics are going on now.
017So it's hard to really gauge what might be coming and what might not be because things tend to go and then stall for a period of time. So with that, I'll stand for any questions. I have no questions. Do you? No. I have a question. What about the state? What about the federal government getting rid of the Department of Education? Are we involved in federal grants that that might affect? We do receive federal funding through our entitlement grants. That would impact Title I for disadvantaged students, Title Ic for migrant students. Title II we receive for professional development training as well as technology support. Title III for English language learners. We have a safety. There's also IDEA. All of those things could be impacted by this change. Assuming that the department that provides the funding changes
018and everything else remains constant, it shouldn't impact us. But by putting that... that opportunity for the state to make those decisions on where those funds go, that's where it could impact us. We also receive Medicaid funding. We've made a conscious effort to be more intense in our Medicaid approach. And that's also an area which is in limbo somewhat. Our school nutrition services that are provided. That could be impacted in some way as well. So yes, a lot of the federal funds that we receive may be impacted in that way. About 15% of the funding that we get is through the federal government. So it's a small amount, but a necessary amount. That's what allows us to do a lot of the things that we do today. So my understanding is that they'll just, they won't
019cut those programs, but what will happen is like it gets shifted over to the state and the state can... handle that? How does they see it? That is my understanding is that the federal government believes that the state is more aware of where those funds should go, how curriculum should be delivered, how students should be taught, and so it gives them the autonomy to direct those funds where they would want. That's my understanding. Any other input? Yes, go ahead, please. I just was going to ask if you can elaborate on the mandatory reporting bill. Because my understanding was that it also included a couple other pieces, including that SROs are no longer, like a teacher making a report to an SRO no longer meets the qualification for a mandatory report that it has to be
020separately made. And I don't know if SROs are currently in our mandatory reporting process in the middle schools or not. So as I read it, Ms. Osborne specifies that an SRO or school employee is not prevented from receiving a voluntary report that a school employee has committed an offense from a student with the alleged victim. An SRO must submit all information to local law enforcement agencies. So yes, I guess you could report to the SRO, and then they would have to elevate that. as I read the bill as well, but I could be overlooking that piece. But yes, we'll obviously get more information on that and how we would apply that moving forward. Perfect. Thank you. Any other input? Okay, I'll call for the next item of business. All reports on conferences, workshops, and school
021visitation. Periodically, members of the governing board attend various conferences, seminars, workshops, districts, schools, and so forth, and have information to share with other members. Is there anything to share from? There is none. Go ahead. Absolutely, you have the floor. Thank you. It was my privilege to go to the hat parade at Salida del Sol down there. It was... If you've never been to it, you've really missed a great deal. It's pretty cool. Those kids, I mean, you can tell some of those kids really put a lot in to make those hats. And some kids are maybe like I was when I was in fourth or fifth grade. And you had to be talked into even putting one on. But it was great. And Ms. Mendoza, you do a wonderful job. There's just a lot of
022people there. There was a lot of people. Any other input? Okay, I'll call for the next item of business Call to the public do you want 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 board 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 Arizona 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 future agenda. However, the
023board members shall not discuss or take legal action on matters raised during the open call to the public. unless the matters are properly noticed for discussion and legal action. They have none. Next order of business. A public request to speak. G2. 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 of 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 not, or excuse me, may respond to criticism made by those who have
024addressed the governing board. may ask that the staff 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 the open call to the public unless the matter is properly noticed for discussion and legal action. Is there any? None. Okay. Take the next item of business, please. Next is a consent agenda. Consent H-1, the consent agenda covers, conserves time by limiting the items of those of a routine nature, which normally do not require deliberation on part of the governing board. The terms will be accepted. The items, excuse me, 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
025on any item removed from the consent agenda will be taken separately. What is the pleasure of the board? I would like to pull number six, please. Okay, six has been pulled. Any other? Okay. At this time, I'll take any discussion. Nope. Just in general. All right. We shall proceed to vote. All in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. Regina has made a motion. It has been properly moved and seconded. Any discussion? All right. Let's proceed to vote. All in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. Okay, motion passes unanimously. We will now take on consideration of item six. The question I have on that, this is the one I was talking about, isn't it? Okay. This is $100,000 being spent for training for the math curriculum that we just spent. $500,000, is that correct? Dan, Dale?
026Mr. Colby, actually the material cost was $780,000. The material. And then this is on top of that. Correct. When we go to the next time we have a committee's meeting for curriculum something, that's a lot of money to purchase 750. And then an additional 100, that company should be willing to give us the training that goes with their program. That shouldn't be something that costs us, even though it comes from different bots and stuff. I feel like we should have had that given to us as part of the 70. I will say, Mr. Colby, that Tara Fulton was able to get a lot of the materials for free and even got training upcoming this, is it this week? March 24th and 25th. She got it free. She was able to get some free training in
027addition to that. So if there's anyone that could squeeze a vendor, it's Tara Fulton, to be honest. And so I think she's done that, but I think your point is valid as well. There should be opportunities where we can continue to leverage those resources and help to make sure that the curriculum that we're purchasing is being able to be better applied to our students. I'm voting against it. I was just concerned. That's fair. I would make a motion that we vote on item six. I'll second. Properly moved and seconded. Any discussion? Proceed to vote. All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed say nay. Motion passes unanimously. Next item of business. Consideration of adoption of exceptional student services preschool calendar for 2025-2026. Under I. Okay, there it is. I got it. The school district is
028requested to have an exceptional student services preschool calendar for the 2025-2026 school year and must be approved by the governing board. What is the pleasure of the board? We accept the calendar as presented. Second. It has been properly moved and seconded. Is there any discussion? We shall proceed to vote. All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed nay. Motion passes unanimously. Next item of business. Presentation and consideration of adoption. of 2025-2026 salaries and benefits compensation packet the board is needed to approve the proposed compensation packet effective july 1 2025 it is requested that the personal compensation package for 2025-2026 be adopted as indicated on the attachment Funding of the compensation package is contingent upon full funding of the state education formula and following the final state approved budget. I'll turn the floor over to Mrs.
029Smith. Good evening, members of the board. This presentation might look a little familiar. One hour ago. So I won't take up too much time. We have covered a lot of these portions, either an executive. We've also shared this presentation with the employees, but we do have a few modifications. So I'll call attention to that when we get there. So just wanted to go over our district update. This part here, we wanted to make sure we shared this information with the employees. You saw a much larger presentation from Mr. Ponder in January, and it was closer to an hour and a half that talked about really the state of our finances. But we really wanted to focus on the biggest change. that's happening, it's impacting our budget. So we are experiencing declining enrollment for the 24
030and 25 school year. That's coming in around 5.18% loss of enrollment. And so if we just focus on basic state aid, that is a decrease of $1.6 million. And so this will have an impact as to what we can propose for approval tonight. The availability of funds, 2% of inflation, that brings an additional $12,000 to the district. Proposition 1, 2, 3, $358,650. Our health benefit increase, this one is in red because this will cost the district $345,000. YABC approved a 6% increase across the plans. And so with this, we will be able to continue offering our high deductible health plan to our employees at no cost. The district will pick up that increase. And then a budget balance carry forward at $182,493, bringing that to a total of $553,143. Our proposal will start with non-classroom
031teachers. We're proposing a 2% increase for the upcoming school year. That includes all employees that are not a classroom teacher. Now for our classroom teacher, really excited. This is where we do have a change from what we shared with the employees. We had a big question mark for classroom site fund. We are proposing the same 2% increase for our classroom teacher, but we have a significant increase to our classroom site fund, and that'll be $10,112. It's broken up at the bottom of the screen. Classroom site fund base pay. will go to $10,110. For this school year, that number is at $6,500 for classroom site fund base pay. Our classroom site fund performance pay is only a $2 adjustment just to round it up for Dale. And so that is $3,625 and it was at $3,623.
032Between these two categories, that is a 56% increase to classroom site fund. I added another slide, which we'll see next. Just to give you a picture of how that breaks down because it does get confusing when we have so many different pots of classroom site fund. And so this example here, if you approve our proposal as presented tonight, our base salary for a first year teacher with a bachelor's degree would go up to $45,800. which as of today, that would be the highest base salary in Yuma County. And then our classroom site fund base pay would be at $10,110, currently $6,500. Classroom site fund PD will remain the same at $1,265. Classroom site fund performance pay, this is estimated at a highly effective rating. 57% of our teachers rated highly effective last year. And so
033that would be at $3,625. That's where you have that $2 increase from what we currently have for this year. And then instructional improvement at $300. So a first year teacher, if this is approved, could earn $61,100 as a first year teacher right out of college. And so we're really happy to propose this for the upcoming school year. And for our benefits, a 6% increase to our benefits, Wellness Your Way will continue as is. Our health savings account would continue as is. Just to give you a little breakdown on the benefits, because it is a 6% increase across the plans, but when it breaks down, Plan B will see a 10.7% increase, and the high deductible health plan will see a 4.5% increase. for the upcoming year. When we go to open enrollment, the employees will
034see a breakdown of all of the rates and how they have changed. And they will also have an opportunity to make changes to their plan for next year. If they feel like the plan B option is a little too expensive, they'll be able to change to the high deductible health plan that's covered by the district. And just a little bit of history in terms of compensation for our classroom teachers dating back to 2016. We're approaching 53% cumulatively for increases. Just calling attention to the 20% by 2020. That was something that we were directed to provide our teachers back in 2019. And you can see there that we did reach that goal of 20 by 2020. Last year was a little different as well for fiscal year 25. We had a 4% increase approved, but we
035also added a $3,000 increase to base pay and a $1,500 to classroom site fund base pay. This year, we're proposing 2% plus the additional $3,610 to classroom site fund base pay and that $2 adjustment to classroom site fund performance pay. And for our non-classroom teachers, we're approaching 42% dating back to 2016. For reclassification, we are requesting a 1.33% adjustment. That's the number I showed you earlier, 45,800 for our initial placement schedule. We will unfortunately have to decrease our experience factor from 500 to 300 per year. This only impacts new hires, so none of our current employees would be impacted by this change. And then minimum wage increasing to $15.15 per hour starting in July. And our substitute teachers, all categories would increase by $4 a day. Our eligibility criteria, everybody must be hired in order
036for them to get the 2% hired by January 1st of 2025. And then also like to note that ESI and contracted employees are not eligible for wellness your way or HSA contributions. Just a little note, funding of this compensation packet is contingent upon full funding of the state education formula and following a final state approved budget. We don't have any indication that this will be an issue for next year, but just like to be very transparent that in the event something happens, we may have to come back and make modifications. But we don't have any indication of that at this point. Our timeline, this is where we're really excited. We're hoping that we get an approval tonight so that we can start releasing contracts first thing tomorrow morning. Our first phase will be for our
037classroom teachers, school administrators, and school psychologists. And then the remaining employee groups will start getting their work agreements all the way through June 30th of 2025. And that's really all I have tonight. If you have any questions, then I just ask that you approve as present. Is there any comments or questions from the board? I would just like to make this comment. You have done a lot of work on this, Lopey. And not that I've heard this presentation before, but very good. You've done a very good job. We're very lucky. It's your last presentation regarding compensation this school year. Thank you, Mr. Colby. Can you accept the salary and benefit proposal? Schedule as proposed. Second. Is it properly moved and seconded to accept the item? All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Same sign.
038Okay, motion passes unanimously. Next item of business. Okay, consideration of acceptance of the financial and compliance audit for the fiscal year ended June 30th, 2024. Arizona revised statutes 15914H requires a school district governing board or a charter school governing body to publicly accept all audits and compliance questionnaires by a roll call vote. Mr. Dale Ponder, Chief of Finance and Operations, and Mrs. Jennifer Bosch, Director of Finance. will provide the governing board with a summary of the external audit performed by um heinefield meek and company pc certified public accountants pursuant to ars 15-914a all school districts that expand 750 000 in federal funds are required to comply with the Single Audit Act Amendment of 1996, PL 104-156, 1 10th-1396-31, United States Code Sections 3105 through 7507, okay, and shall contract for at least an annual financial
039and compliance audit. for financial transactions and accounts subject to the Single Audit Act Amendment of 1996 and kept in the school district. Additionally, requires the independent certified public accountant to submit a uniform system of financial records compliance questionnaire to the auditor general with the applicable audit reports, with the district also having outstanding board bond indemnities. It is required to file financial statements for full disclosure of the financial status of the district. The services of Heatfield Meek and Company, PC certified public accountants, were commissioned to conduct the audit and prepare the following documents as required by law. Mr. Ponder. I'm going to stop reading and I'm just going to have you take it from here. And I just remind the board that it'll be, and the vote on this will be verbal and individual vote. Thank
040you, Mr. Moore. Members of the board, if nothing, those agenda items are incredibly thorough, so at least the record holds as you indicated. I appreciate the opportunity to speak before you today. Jennifer and I will be going through our external audit. This is for fiscal year ended June 30, 2024, so last school year. All of the audits are required to be completed by March 31st, which we've been able to do, which is why we bring this to you now. And it's like, you know, hey, Dale, the year's almost over. Why are we just now hearing about 24? That's because all that was wrapped up by March 31st. And so this is the first time that we're available to bring this information before the governing board. As Mr. Moore indicated, this is a requirement. ARS 15.
041914H, the school district governing board shall publicly accept the audits and compliance questionnaires by a roll call vote. And so everyone will have to do that individually. And the record will need to reflect that so that we're compliant with the laws here and any questions from the auditors with regard to this particular item. First, an audit summary. As indicated, our external auditors, Heinfeld Meech & Company, that contract was completed through a competitive award process and was awarded by this governing body on January 11, 2022. That was the first year. We are now 2234. We're in year three of that five-year commitment with Heinfeld Meech, and all the audit work was completed within April, August, and October. Some of that may be done virtually. Others, they actually come on site. We'll review our books, we'll review
042our campuses, we have to be able to identify where an asset might be, some of those things. So it's kind of a hybrid approach between what might be done virtually as well as what is done on site. I want to commend the staff. The auditors have shared this as well. We do a great job of providing them with the information they need well in advance so that they can conduct their sampling and make use of that time as best possible. I will share that there is a benefit in being able to do that, which means they're here less time. And so the more that we can give them in advance where they can conduct whatever work they need to do, the field work that they spend within the district is far less. So I commend
043the staff for that. The audit reports, as indicated, there's a communication of the governance, and so that communication was provided. We submitted that through a Friday report to all board members, but as the board president, Mr. Moore, received that. Also completed the annual comprehensive financial report, a single audit reporting package, and the USFR compliance questionnaire, all of which were completed by Heinfeld Beach. The communication of the governance essentially indicates how the district performed, any areas of significant weakness or deficiency that may have been identified, and what estimates that might incur within the financial statements. You can see here that the estimates include the depreciable assets as well as the actuarial valuations of the pension plan. Our pension plan is the Arizona State Retirement System, and so essentially the ASRS provides us with their actuarial study.
044we turn right around and give that to the auditors. And so it's not anything that we're managing. It's what the ASRS manages, but they provide us with those valuations. Now, however, because those are paid by the district, that ends up showing as a liability on our books. And so we have to report it that way, even though it's through the Arizona State Retirement System. So in the event that ASRS dissolves, the school district would be liable to maintaining those pensions moving forward. No difficulties encountered in performing the audit, no misstatements identified, no disagreements with management. We provided all the required representations and the audit firm maintained their independence as required. So the annual comprehensive financial report provided a clean or an unmodified opinion within that report. It also includes management's discussion and analysis, our government-wide
045financials, our fund financial statements, note to financials and statistical section. Some of these areas are required for our... reporting because of our outstanding bond indebtedness. We have to continue to provide disclosures to the federal government of what our financial position is. And then credit agencies will pull those down and review to make sure that we're still on track with where we said that we were going to be. So sometimes they will do a survey, a surveillance call even is what they would refer that to where they reach out the district and said. Hey, your fund balance looks like it's doing this. Tell us more about that. And that could result in a rating change moving forward. So that's why some of this information is included within the ACFER. The single audit reporting packages are federal
046expenditures that are in excess of $750,000. Next year, that is growing to $1 million. So when we do this a year from now, we will share that the threshold is growing to a threshold of $1 million from $750,000. But currently, that's where we're at. And so they select the programs to be tested. Sometimes those programs are based on utilization. Sometimes that's based on... the expense or the anticipated revenue that's coming for that. And so the auditors this time selected the school nutrition cluster, Title I, and the education stabilization funds, or what we know as the COVID relief dollars. All of our COVID relief dollars were expended at June 30, 2024, so those will no longer be reviewed moving forward, but they did review that again. They identified zero significant deficiencies and no material weaknesses in
047the internal controls and the reporting or accounting records. and likewise for those over federal awards. Clearing up what some of the findings were from last year, the auditors noted that the financial statement findings that were attributed to the district last year were fully corrected, as well as those question costs of federal awards. You could see that really FS 2023-1 and the one below that essentially are the same. And likewise, they're recorded twice. It looks like four, but there's really two. You might recall that one had to do with... a construction project not being appropriately recorded and another one had to deal with HVAC equipment that we had purchased. The equipment could not be updated because it wasn't compliant so we received the credit back and the way that we booked that even though it's fully
048transparent did not comply with with the federal award. So anyway all of those things have been have been corrected moving forward. So kudos to staff for those efforts. The audit results, and then I'll turn it over to Jennifer. We issued the ACFER by January 31st and went to the appropriate reporting agencies. So the ASBO International and GFOA, we've submitted those submissions by January 31st. Again, the continuing bond disclosure deadline of February 1st. By the 31st of March, we submitted everything to the applicable agencies here. Office of the Auditor General, Yuma County Superintendent, Federal Clearinghouse, Department of Education. And then all of our reports are available through the district website. That's for compliance with Arizona's Transparency Act, found in 41725. Also can be available through openbooks.az.gov. But if you go to our business page, you'll see
049a lot of financial information, both current and dating back to the last seven or eight years, depending on what the report is. So I will now turn the time over to Jennifer. Good evening. So the next part we're going to review is the Uniform System of Financial Records Compliance Questionnaire. And so there's various topics that they review. And I will go through those here. So this is, again, like Dale stated, this is for the 23-24 school year. We had four additional findings this school year from 14 to 18, about 10.53%. review 18 different categories that are noted here on the left. The first one governing board management procedures. So each of these slides have the question, the auditor comment, the district action taken, and then the response if we've received a finding in prior years.
050So this one is the related to the conflict of interest statement that everybody, every employee receives this through Safe Schools or Talent Ed and Safe Schools. complete this form. Previously we provided this to the governing board also and we thought by providing this verbally to them and them signing off this was compliant but realized that we have to provide additional training to the governing board. So this year in January Dell provided training to you all for this the conflict of interest information and then we're going to continue that in following years to do that annually to abide by this item. Budgeting the district every year obviously approves a proposed and adopted budget. We did approve this information. The board approved it. We got signatures. We submitted it to ADE as required, but there's an additional
051step where we have to scan the signed copy to ADE within five business days, and we missed that deadline. So that's something that we'll add to do on our calendars to make sure that we get that within the five-day window. You didn't push the button. Sorry. Yeah, it's just me. We're hanging there. It was me. accounting records. So this the first one is related to the chart of accounts. So we have over 20,000 different chart of account options over 18,000 different expense codes. So this was a couple. The first one was we had coded it to a technical service instead of instructional aid. The second one, the copier and posted machines we had coded as a rental and maintenance and they should have been coded to a principal and interest code. And then the third
052one we had recorded it as a credit to expenditure to decrease the expense, but they preferred to have it coded as a revenue object code. The second one, there was a couple of journal entries that we had provided to have or we submitted for them to do a journal entry they completed it but we didn't get our signature at the end of it after they actually completed that so that's been implemented so every journal entry every payroll transfer we have to sign off on those afterwards also Cash reconciliation. So the county in priors provides us monthly reconciliation. This last year, they didn't provide us reconciliation until the end of the school year. And there was a variance on there due to some, we had made a payment. We had to reverse the payment and redo,
053reissue it. And there was various funds that were affected. We had to work with our vendors to try and correct the situation. And so we were able to. to figure that out. The $9,600, we weren't able to figure that out at year end, but we continued through this. Cash and revenue, there was money that we received. So June 30th, and then we have an encumbrance period through September 30th. We received a payment after June 30th that we posted to the current year, but it should have been posted to prior year revenue. The food service clearing account we had that wasn't cleared monthly. So there was a couple of months where we didn't actually clear it. And we have to have a balance between $5,000 and $10,000 for the clearing account. A couple of months, it
054was more than that. And so everybody is now aware that we need to keep that at a monthly balance of between $5,000 and $10,000 moving forward. There was a couple of cash receipts that didn't have pre-numbered receipts, numbers on them that were turned in. A couple of cash receipts that were deposited timely. We have to have when the money when the schools collect the money we have five days from when they receive it at the school to get it to the bank. And that always doesn't happen. They sometimes keep it or maybe the people that are in charge of collecting money aren't aware of that deadline. And so we're going to continue to communicate that with the new staff and anybody that's dealing with money to make sure they turn it in on time. I
055have a question. If you could back up one slide. The response excuse me the response in prior fiscal years is that what is the no and the yes is that like did it happen in 2023 22 to 23 and then. If it says yes, yes, yes, it's just something that has happened multiple consecutive years. And it's the five-day thing that a lot of times that's something that always is. If they collect the money, let's say, on a Wednesday, and then they put it in the safe over the weekend, and then by the time they reconcile and get it to us, and then we don't have time to get it to the bank within that five days. Property control. So this one was an overstatement of the construction and project, the capital assets listing that we
056provide to the auditors. This item was just... duplicated so it was overstated we did submit it to them and then just reviewing our documents we found it but since we submitted it to them originally they would they wouldn't correct it or they we corrected it but they wouldn't take that one off for expenditures there was two purchase orders that were created prior to they were created and approved after invoices were received so the items were ordered before a purchaser order was created And then two, where the purchase order was created and approved after the services were received. So the bottom one was that the services started on July 1st, but the PO wasn't created on July 1st. So that was the finding. Travel, there was two travel reimbursements where the individual was reimbursed. They submitted
057gas receipts and mileage receipts. And there was a mistake where they got reimbursed for both. So we recovered those that overpayment and then just reiterated that it was only one or the other one individuals travel. Credit cards and P cards, the district, every time an individual uses a purchasing card or is issued a purchasing card, they receive training documentation. We give this to them at the beginning of when they get the P card, but we also have to do an annual training. And so we didn't have that implemented, but we created a safe schools training that we submitted and we send it out to all employees so they can review the information and that'll be sent annually to those individuals. And this is a similar one with procurement that we need to provide training to
058staff for gifts or personal gifts that individuals may receive from vendors. Anything value of $300 or more that they're not allowed to, but we need to provide additional training for that, which will be provided in safe space also. uh payroll this was in related to the compensated absence report that we have to prepare every year it's a large statement that is refers to deals with the vacation personally business leave and we have to populate all the liability basically for the leave within the district this just took us longer than anticipated we had some issues had to work with the vendor on this and they felt like that we needed to implement some more procedures in order to get this done quicker. In student attendance, this was one that the student's name, it had an A.
059They mistyped it. It had an A in the middle of it, and it didn't match the birth certificate, so it was just one letter off on this one. And then information technology, there was an employee who was working for the district. They were training employees and they left and we hadn't deactivated their account as of that October. And so we're working with IT and HR to come up with a procedure for, we have procedures for onboarding employees and new hire individuals, but we're working to also make sure we have a procedure for when employees leave the district. And this is our 31st consecutive year for receiving the annual comprehensive financial report through the Arizona School Business Officials. And we continue, we'll continue to support this or submit this every year. And then this is our
060popular annual financial report, which should be sent out in the next couple weeks. All of our district boundary homes will receive a copy of this financial report. It includes financial data, accomplishments, activities, and then just fun pictures of our students within the district. And any reports, financial reports, can be found on the business website. And that's all we have. Any questions? Concerns? okay we shall um i'll need to take a motion and then we will vote on this um individually is it properly moved and seconded we shall not take a roll call for vote i will call your vote uh call your name and then you shall vote aloud mr colby yes mr farr yes mr moore vote yes mrs osborne yes miss toomey yes let the record show that the vote was unanimous to
061approve the motion next item of business uh presentation and discussion regarding potential district additional assistance override renewal k2 K2, here we go. K2, the district, the district current district additional assistance, DAA override was approved by voters on November 6, 2018. became effective in July 1, 2019, and has a seven-year term that is set to expire on June 30, 2026. The administration seeks to review the structure and parameters of the existing DAA override and discuss the potential next steps for the governing board regarding a possible renewal. What is the pleasure of the board? Is there a discussion on this? I can provide additional information on that, Mr. Moore. All right, please do so. Thank you. So a little bit of the parameters regarding the existing program that we have, again, past November 6, 2018, at 52.19%.
062It's limited to the lesser of $1.5 million or 10% of the revenue control limit. In 2018, $1.5 million represented nearly 5% of the district's revenue control limit. The maximum allowed by Arizona statute is 10%. Did commence in FY 2020 and for six years thereafter, thus expiring June 30, 2026. And the published categories in the voter information pamphlet included safety and security, technology, transportation, and administration. The administration piece specifically related to technology for principals, administrative staff, as well as support vehicles that have... provide administrative functions such as information technology and the warehouse. Both of those departments are an administrative function in the USFR chart of accounts. And so that's why those are represented that way. The published financial components, you can see what the breakdown was there financially, $360,000 of the safety and security, $750,000 of
063technology and so forth. What the annual tax rate was for each of those areas, which totaled to be $0.67 per $100 in net assessed value, and the estimated annual costs at a home valued at $80,000. Why $80,000? That's in statute. And so the voter information pamphlet includes what that value is for a home at $80,000. And you could see that the annual cost for that was about $54 per $100 of that assessed value. Additional public published, excuse me, tax impact. Again, these are all statutorily mandated. It's the average assessed value of a home in the district, half that value, twice that value, and then the average commercial property within the district. And you can see what those estimated tax amounts are. So $87 annually for the average home within the district. Taking a look at
064how those estimates change, so from November 2018 what that tax rate was versus August 2025 when the Board of Supervisors set the tax rate, you can see based on those same valuations, so the average assessed value at the time in 2018 was about $130,000. You can see that that dropped from $87 to $65 per year, and you can see what that looks like for every other component, again, as it was in 2018. which really results now in a 25.3% reduction in the annual tax on the property of the same valuation that was published within the voter information pamphlet in 2018 to support the $1.5 million district additional assistance override. So again, you could see where those variances were. Again, that's comparing the published assessed value in 18 compared to... the tax rate in August of
0652025 against those same valuations. This is the district composition. I'd like to share this with the governing board. Anytime we talk about taxation, whether it's bonds or overrides, you can see that about 75% of our district is made up of residents, and that's both owner-occupied and rental homes within our district community. 23% commercial and industrial, and then the rest is agricultural and vacant. A lot of what we do really impacts our homes the most. We are a bedroom serving community. So, you know, vastly residential. And so when we start talking about potential tax increases or bonds and overrides, as a district, we feel very sensitive to a taxpayer wanting to make sure that we're aware of the... the impact that that has within our residential community as well as all of our taxpayers within the
066district itself. So we'll transition a little bit and talk about what we could be doing moving forward. You know, there are some options that the governing board could review. First is to do the same thing we did last time. At $1.5 million, which went from 5% of our revenue control limit down to now would be 3.8% of our revenue control limit. So our budget has grown. The base support level that's provided from the legislature has grown annually since then. And so because that's grown, the $1.5 million threshold is a less percentage of the overall revenue control limit of the district. And you can see the estimated tax rate would be $0.48 per $100 net assessed value. Estimated monthly tax impact would be $7.29. Option B, we could take a look at increasing it by another
067$250,000. And what that would do would allow us to meet our needs more quickly, would be able to allow us to ensure that the programs that we have in place may be able to grow moving forward. And you can see what the value of that is. Item C would be to be closer to the 5% that was approved in 2018. So about a $2 million. And you can see what that tax impact could be. We could choose to do nothing and let the existing override expire, and there would be no tax impact to our constituency for doing that. Or we could seek the maximum, which is 10%, which is about $4 million, and you could see what that tax impact would be. And these tax impacts are against the... Now, average assessed valuation of a
068home in our district, which is about 182,000. So up from 130 to now 182,000, which is a 41% increase since the 2018 voter information pact. I would say let's strike the bottom one right off the top. Because again, 75% of our community is made up of residents. And so we are very sensitive to the local taxpayers. So from my perspective, we would be incredibly greedy by saying we want the full 10% because the statute says we can. That's really not been the way our district has operated in the nearly 20 years that I've been here. We seek support where there is need, not because statute permits something to happen. And so we never, as far as, as long as I've been here, gone out for tax increases or bonds and overrides simply because we can.
069It's because a need has been identified. And so, again, we're very... aware of the taxpayer with that. So I would recommend that we not even consider option E, which would be the full 10%. So what does that leave us moving forward? What would be the appropriate plan for that? So if we take a look at the other options that, you know, we have four left, one of them is to do nothing. And so the remaining three would be these three options here. And how might that look with an updated limited property value for each of these areas that are statutorily required? So the average assessed value, you could see what that would look like for those. various thresholds. Again, 1.5, which is about 3.8%, 1.75, which is about 4.4% of the revenue control limit, and
0702 million, which is 5.1% of the revenue control limit. And for each of those thresholds as identified by statute. So again, the average assessed value, half that, twice that, and then the average commercial property within the district and what that might look like. I would recommend to the governing board to evaluate option A, which is essentially keep what we have now. That would allow us to maintain the investments that we've made. So heavy into safety and security, we've installed the lockdown systems, we've installed the cameras, access controls, all those things that go along with that. This would allow us to maintain those. So as cameras fail, as that technology fails, we're able to replace those. This would allow us to continue to work to replace our fleet and transportation, our buses. That is something that
071we get every time the Department of Public Safety comes to do the inspections. That's something that they brag on Gabby and her team for is the condition of the fleet. And so we have her team for continuing to invest in that and making sure that those are well maintained. But really that we lean on. our constituency to support that through bonds and overrides. They've allowed us to improve our fleet over time and this plan would allow us to continue to do that. It would also allow us to maintain the technology resources that we have today. We have been utilizing technology in the classroom really since 2014 with the Apple Connect Ed program. We are now required to provide the statewide assessment to all third through eighth graders through the technology. And so if we do
072not continue to have that investment to ensure that that technology remains current, but very likely we would struggle to be able to provide the same level of instruction as to what we've been able to have accustomed to over the past 10 years. So my recommendation would be to take a look at option A. I'll speak a little bit more about that as well. And again, you can see what those that impact would be compared to the others, again, with option A being highlighted. The estimated financial components, you can see what would be attributed to safety and security, technology, transportation, and admin. All of these are estimates at this point, but we believe that those would be. Very doable. I would add that this, we would still need to use our formulaic appropriation through district additional
073assistance to supplement this program. Even if we, for example, let's say the technology, we look to spend about 1.3, $1.35 million a year on the technology needs that we have. Mr. Moore. Please expand on the administration $20,000. Yep. So again, those would be the devices for principals. We have to highlight those separately. So any principal iPads or MacBooks that are provided as well as support vehicles that provide those administrative functions like IT or the warehouse. So we would still need to supplement this program here if we ask the voters to support this override in lieu of. you know a two million dollar override two million dollar override we would not have to supplement any of that with our existing district additional assistance but again we want to be very uh sensitive to the taxpayer and
074making sure that we're we're in tune with what's happening within uh within our community This is really a comparative analysis based on what was in 2018 versus what this plan would look like. So the top beige line in every category is what was in the 2018 voter information pamphlet. And the blue line below that would be the estimate for the same thing now. Again, the value doesn't change. It's still $1.5 million. Really, the change that takes place is the property value of the average home, half that, twice that, and then the average business. And so you can see that this very much closely aligns to what the constituency approved back in 2018 for the seven-year program that funded $1.5 million a year for the seven-year period. So timeline, you know, really want to open this
075for discussion, review of the potential about seeking a DAA override. We're not going to be asking for any action in this one. This is really just a way for us to share information. We have commissioned primary consultants to conduct a community survey. to get an idea of what the community feels. So that way the governing board has all the information necessary before a vote is brought before you to determine whether or not you would call for the election. There are certain timelines that we have to follow with Yuma County Elections Office. And so we would need to notify the county of a potential call by May 8th. It is my intent to do that. I would much rather say we intend to call. And then if you all decide we're not doing that, it's easy
076to say we're not doing that. rather than going the other way and saying, we didn't file something. Now there's an intent to call. We didn't notify the county. So while it might seem presumptuous that I would assume that you all would want to support this, I think it's easier administratively for us to give the advance notice to the county of the potential for call. And then if that doesn't happen, we can simply shred the document and say, don't worry about that. So May 13th is where the community survey results would be presented. Present the question before you all, if you all deem it advisable to call for the election. At that time, Arizona revised statute 15-511 would apply, which means the district will be prohibited from using district resources to influence the election, except for,
077in June, a pro statement. So statute requires the governing board to issue a pro statement to support the district additional assistance override. We would provide examples of what those might look like. And of course, the governing board is free to make any changes necessary. It is your statement as a governing body, not the district's statement as well. But 15-5-11 would apply, which means we would be prohibited from influencing the outcome, encouraging people to vote in favor of the override once it is called. We can do anything we want up until the election is called. And then November 4th would be election day, again, if deemed advisable that the governing board would wish to move forward with that. I think that's all I have. That is all I have. So with that, I'll stand for any
078questions and we can have a discussion. We received three, I don't know, I think it's three, right? Electric buses or battery powered buses or whatever. Correct, three, yes. And so those were grants. Are we going to replace some of them? What's the lifespan of one of those? What's that going to do to your inventory? Because you're going to have to replace the three of them and they're not cheap. Correct. It's actually an interesting question. Ms. Kuzniak and I were having this conversation earlier today about our bus fleet and what we could do with those. So what we're looking at being able to do is trade those two of the three electric buses back into the dealer and in turn get diesel buses. We believe that we might be able to return two of them and
079get three. And if that's the case, then that would be at no cost to the district. It would be able to allow us to refresh that that fleet. And really, the EV bus program isn't isn't ready for our area. We've seen we've had where buses were stranded on the side of I-8. In fact, Ms. Doring, Dr. Hoffman and I were on our way to a session in Phoenix and I was like, oh, that's one of ours there. Nice blue, bright bumper and stuck about Airby Road waiting on a tow. It ran out of power to do that. So we're finding that it's not holding charges that we're just our community isn't ready for that So yes, we would look at take trading those in and the hope would be that two electric buses They're valued
080new at about four hundred and fifty thousand dollars each would be able to turn around and buy three diesel buses for that Which would be outside of this program, but would help us to to grow that in addition uh the bond uh that was passed in 23 allowed us to purchase um two school buses with that program uh miss kuzniak is working on getting quotes for that too thank you uh mr moore there is one uh we really received a grant um because i think that i think you had a hundred thousand that's not gonna cover a bus that's what i'm saying we still need to supplement through the the capital programs uh there was a The there was a grant had the the name slips my mind but there there is a grant where
081we were be required to have that bus for five years and it is electric bus so we would maintain that one and the newest of the of the three electric buses but those our plan would be to turn in the other two. Bill do we have any bonds that are about sunset? Yes, so we pay off bonds every year. The ones from the 2015 sale are about 80% complete. And so we have 2015 and now the sale from... Those aren't paid off, but I mean... But sometime in publication and stuff, you know, that might be interesting to just get it out to the public and say, yeah, we got these bonds, but they're just about done. And then one last thing, and then I'll let it be. But on that slide that said administration, that
082might be a yellow flag to some people. Does it have to be called administration, or can we relabel that? Because the first thing that I thought when I saw that, I'm like, oh, my God, we're paying people from. That's the same question. Okay. Right. Okay. No problem. Any other input? Seeing none, we shall now. Yes, sir. Do we need a motion or what? No. Information. Something to chew on. Do you want to adjourn? Will we adjourn? No, I haven't read that part yet. You're too late. All right, is it properly moved? Has it been seconded? Second. All right, moved and seconded to adjourn the meeting. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Nay. Motion passes unanimously. We are adjourned. Jim, he was looking at me like...