001The governing board has been an executive session and we are now reconvening into the open session. Please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance and I'm going to sign this. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. First item of business is going to be D1 recognition of District Spelling Bee. Yes, if I can have the board members go to the front of the dais, then we will call out students' names. If we'll wait and hold the applause to the end, we want to recognize all of the winners in each of the schools. And we also have a county winner that we'll be talking about as well. So parents also feel free to
002take pictures. Plus, we'll have the students stay up here at the end for additional pictures. Starting off from Gary A. Knox Elementary School, the spelling bee winner was Andres Zuniga. if Andres is here. Our second one from Gowan Science Academy, not only did Ishan Nathan win for the school, Ishan also won for the entire county. So Ishan, I hope you're here to recognize you. Congratulations. From HL Supercrup, Karimi Rebek. From Mesquite, Ethan Cisneros. If you'll come back up and stay, you can have the whole group. From Pueblo, Colton Morrison. From Ronald Reagan, Sofia Aguiliga. From Salida del Sol, Angel Chavez. From Valley Horizon, Jordan Cipriano. From Centennial, Samarithi Parajuli. And last but not least, from Crane Middle School, the Spelling Bee winner is Liliana Garibay. Let's give all of these students a round of applause.
003Parents, please feel free to come up and take pictures. I like it. I don't know where to look. And board members will stay up there. We're now going to go into the next recognition. The governing board would like to recognize all of the Crane School District 2025 Yuma County Science and Engineering Expo first, second, and third place winners. Starting off from Crane Middle School. Third place in chemistry, we have two students, Victoria Serrano and Giselle Alvarez from Crane Middle. We have two students that received second place in health science from Crane Middle, and that's Sarah Tate and Karimi Marquez, also from Crane Middle. Third place in social sciences is Liano Mercado. And again, if you'll stay up here for pictures, if you guys will stay up here, it would be great. Gowan Science Academy. Third
004place in chemistry, Hari Chandra. Continuing with Gowan Science Academy for a while, we have second place in earth and environmental science, Holden Randolph. We have a first place in physics from Roma Chandra. A second place in chemistry with Ava Arias. We have a first place in chemistry and the best middle school overall was Oliver Montgomery. Third place in engineering, Mia Roldan. Second place in engineering, Jay Chandra. Third place in health and medicine, Sinan Mazanat. First place in health and medicine, Reese Casey. A first place in physics for Isaac Arizon. A first place in social sciences, Farah Kushner. Third place in zoology, Miles Castie. And last but not least, first place in zoology, Anna Bermudez. And I saw a couple come in late. If I missed anyone, will you let me know? Okay, we'll get out
005of the way. Parents, feel free to come up and take pictures. For those of you that just received awards, if you don't mind staying for a few more minutes, we do have a couple schools that are presenting. And then I have superintendents report and we can leave afterwards. That would be wonderful. Although we do understand some of you have games or other things and commitments. So if you have to leave, we understand. Next item of business is D3 presentation by H.L. Silvercroft Elementary School. H.L. Silvercroft Elementary staff and students will present on their first career fair. Good evening, members of the board and the audience. I would like to take this opportunity tonight. This year, HLS had our first annual career fair. It was organized by our counselor. The entire event was done in a
006day. We had over 25 agencies there that day. There's some pictures up on this slide today, but before, I don't want to be the one that takes the show, so I'm going to have Ms. Daniel share with you about the event, and then our kids are going to tell you what they learned and the opportunity that they had that day. Good evening, everybody. My name is Maria Daniel. I'm the school counselor for HLS. I'm here excited to share our recent success for our school career fair. We had over 25 different professionals from diverse fields come and showcase their professions to our students. And I brought along five students with me to share what their experience was like and how they inspired just a longer thought process of maybe what they want to be when they
007grow up. Hello, my name is Emma Paul and I'm a sixth grader at HL Super Cup. We recently had a school career fair and I'm here to share my experience. The first thing I noticed when I walked in was all the different booths and careers spread around the field. One thing I learned that I didn't know before was there are a bunch of different careers open to people without college degrees. Having a school career fair is important for kids because it shows them all the different careers they can have in their future. Thank you and have a good evening. Board members, my name is Analia Rubio and I am nine years old. I am a fourth grader at HLS. We recently had a school career fair and I am here today to talk about my
008experience. The career I liked the most was a nurse because they help people in need. After the career fair, I feel more excited about my future because I want to help people in need and I learned about the career that I wanted to be. Having a school career fair is important for kids because they can learn about the jobs that they might want to have in the future. Thank you. Have a good evening. Good evening. My name is Ernesto Cueves and I am 10 years old. I am a fourth grader at HL Server Club. We recently had a school career fair and I'm here to talk about my experience. I learned about Border Patrol agents, nurses, and firefighters. After the school career fair, I feel more excited about my future because I'm able to have
009more career options. Having a career fair at a school is important for kids because they're able to get an idea or to be encouraged on what they can have as they get older. Thank you. Have a good evening. My name is Mary Young and I am 10 years old and I am at HLS Suburb Club and I'm here today to talk about my experience at our HLS Career Day. The first thing I saw when I walked in was the booth with emergency care kit. And after the career day, I felt more excited because then I learned that I could help people in need of care. Having a career day is important for kids because then they can help people that are in need of help and then they can achieve their life goals. Thank you
010so much for having me today. My name is Johan Valdez. I'm a 10-year-old and a 5th grader at HLS Evercroft. We recently had a school career fair and I am here to talk about my experience. One thing that I didn't know before was that when you're in the Marine, You have to be very quick to put on your gear so you can go put out the fires. As a career fair, I felt more excited about my future because there was a lot of jobs that you could do to take care of the environment, people, and other animals. Having a school career fair is important because I don't think kids should go off into adulthood on a blank page. I think they should have a little bit of knowledge about the jobs they can be. Thank
011you. Have a great day. Thank you. Any questions, comments from the board? Really impressed at how well spoken you all are. Thank you for sharing. I was there. It was pretty neat. I was called like the day before. And so I went. And so it was pretty cool. Next item of business is going to be E1 Superintendent's current events. No, it isn't. It's going to be right here. It moves on me. It's D4 presentation by Salida Del Sol Elementary School. Good evening, Mr. President, members of the board, and to our amazing audience. I'm Sheila Mendoza, the proud principal of Salida Del Sol, and I'm happy to report to you that this summer, two of our teachers, Delaney Roof and Jenna Anaya, applied for a program that was offered to all Arizona teachers. 20 teachers in
012the state of Arizona were selected and two of them are at Salida, so we're very proud of them. They were selected to participate in a SEAS program, which is Civic to Empower All. And this included them going to Phoenix for a week-long training and then attending different trainings throughout the year as well. This program is about teaching civics and the Constitution using a curriculum called We the People. And at this time, I'm going to turn it over to Mrs. Rue. And this is Anayan, our amazing Roadrunners. Good evening. This program, what we do is we teach students about the different parts of social studies, history, and laws, and pretty much how our nation came to be. And after we've taught the kids a topic, they then are put into groups and they do a mock
013congressional hearing. So they're given a question pertaining to something they learned about, and they have to plan this out with their team, and then they do a mock hearing. They have three minutes to present, which they are going to show you an example this evening. And in that three minutes, they have that planned. Afterwards, then they are given random questions where they have to answer. They are not prepared for that. And this is to show how well they know their topic or what they've been studying. This program has not only taught them about history. and social studies, civics, but it's also helped them all with their confidence and their public speaking skills. So tonight they're going to present to you a mock congressional hearing for you. So I'm going to introduce you to Alex Jr.,
014Ava, Romina, and Lily. And you guys are going to partake in it. Lori has your question. So they have three minutes. And Lori, whenever you're ready. All right. Are you ready? First question, what is freedom of speech and why is it important to our democracy? I'm going to repeat it. What is freedom of speech and why is it important to our democracy? The first amendment of the Constitution is freedom of expression. Freedom of expression means that people have the right and ability to freely express themselves through their thoughts, ideas, speech, writing, art, and dance. Keep listening to my teammates so you can hear more about freedom of expression and why it is important to a democracy. First, freedom of expression is important because it allows people to speak up about issues that are important to
015them without being punished and judged. In other countries, people do not have this right and cannot be able to speak up for themselves like we do in America. Without freedom of expression, people might be afraid to think up for themselves about things that are important to them or they do not agree with. Next, it is important because it protects people. For example, in Texas in 1989, there was a court case. Texas v. Johnson. In this case, Gregory Lee Johnson burned an American flag because he was upset with the government. He was arrested and taken to court. Many people were upset about him burning the flag. When he went to court, he argued that burning the flag was a form of free speech and the government should not be able to punish him for his freedom
016of expression. Texans have argued that burning the flag was disrespectful and should be illegal. The judge ruled in Johnson's favor and said that he did not hurt anyone and that he was expressing his personal memory right of freedom of expression. Lastly, freedom of expression is important to everyone because without it, people will not be comfortable expressing their opinions. For example, artists, writers, and journalists use their voices to share stories or for news and to express themselves through creative art. If you do not have freedom of expression, you might as well be disturbed about foreign events in our country. In conclusion, freedom of expression is really important in our democracy because it lets people share their thoughts, ideas, and feelings without getting in trouble. It helps everyone have a voice and speak up about things that
017matter. When people can express themselves, they can help make changes, solve problems, and make their country better. If we didn't have freedom of expression, people might be too scared to share their ideas and that wouldn't be fair. Thank you for listening and learning more about your First Amendment right, freedom of expression. Beautiful job. And I appreciate how thorough all of you were. The next part, though, you don't know the question. So here we go. I will say it twice. The question will be twice. Are you ready? You'll have about a minute to respond. Here we go. Do you think it is important to listen to others' opinions? Why or why not? I'll repeat it. Do you think it's important to listen to others' opinions? Why or why not? And you'll have a minute. You had
018trouble with the problem and you didn't know what to answer. You can ask other people for their opinion and maybe you can try that and you can write the opinion that you said and it can work. Just keep asking questions. Go ahead. Next question. Why do you think it's important for people to share their opinions, even if they are different from others? Why do you think it's important to share their opinions, even if they are different from others? Sometimes having different ideas, you can have a problem and then you don't know how to solve it. And people can share their ideas. So then you try their ideas and maybe with one of their ideas, you fix the problem. Okay, that's all the time we have. Thank you very much. Great. I just wanted to give
019really quick feedback. I appreciate how you took turns as far as who's going to speak. You looked at each other to see if you should speak first, etc. You used complete sentences and gave good rationale. So you gave really good explanations. And I really appreciate all the work you put into this. Nice job. Before you guys go, before you guys go. I have some feedback as well. As a person who has been on that side of the diets and have actually testified, I'll tell you that Ms. Storing was a lot nicer than some of the people who asked the questions. So I'm glad that you guys got it. I'm really, really glad that you guys applied for this and you got it. This is something that is very, very, very important. It's very dear and
020close to me. I spend a lot of time at the legislature trying to work with my ideas and comparing them against other ideas and trying to convince people that, you know what, sometimes you're in the right. And so you have to fight for what you believe is right. And that is oftentimes in contrary to someone else's belief. And it's about keeping yourself in a big, keeping dignity and being courageous and respectful and being, make sure that you make your parents proud. So you guys did a really, really, really good job today. And I did just maybe a little bit of that, you know, I think this is a great idea because I don't think that we, I don't think the kids today learn enough about democracy and things, how our country runs. And I really
021appreciate that. And then I would also say, yeah, you're very lucky that it wasn't Mr. Moore here that gave any questions. Okay. Thank you very much. Great job. Okay. she has one last thing we just have one last thing um next friday we are having our annual vocabulary cat parade so we have invitations for you guys so oh i thought she said cat Thank you. Thank you, sir. Yes. All of those who have presented, they are free to leave at this time or they can stay however you guys wish. So we'll give you some, give you a few seconds to get out and we'll, we'll see you next time. Mr. Cantabranta wants to stay, but he's got to leave. If some came in late for the spelling or the science, we do have the certificates
022up here. And those in the back can move forward now. That's just a really neat program. All right, we're getting ready to move on here. We're going to go to D, excuse me, E1, the superintendent's event summary. The superintendent needs to provide members of the governing board and residents of the Crane schools with a monthly statement of current happenings and pending events, including information about student academic achievement. This is Doreen. All right. Again, we want to have a huge congratulations for our Teacher of the Year nominees. The culmination of this program is the annual Teacher of the Year Banquet, which is held May 1st this year to honor our true stars, which are our teachers. An additional congratulations to these three semifinalists. We have Naomi Farms from Crane Middle School, Nicole Ranhell from HL Supercrup,
023and Denise Husted from Valley Horizon. We wish these three the best on their final interviews, which take place next Friday. Gary Knox News. Gary Knox opened their new inclusive playground for preschool and kindergarten students. Each group had their own private ribbon-cutting ceremony with music, play, and popsicles. Gowan News. Gowan FFA's livestock judging team makes history at Arizona FFA's State Spring Conference. The Gowan FFA Livestock Judging Team recently competed at the Arizona FFA State Spring Conference going up against over 150 high school-aged competitors, many of whom have years of experience and have attended specialized livestock judging camps. Despite being the only middle school team in the contest, Ryland Patterson, Lincoln Marks, Jacob Boggs, and Olivia Bowers faced this challenge head-on with confidence, demonstrating their skill and dedication on a highly competitive stage. In December, at the
024regional contest leading up to the state, all four team members placed in the top 10 as individuals, and their combined scores would have secured a first-place team finish. Their outstanding performance is a direct result of the countless hours they spent studying and preparing for the competition. This earned them the opportunity to then move on to the state level. We're incredibly proud of Ryland, Lincoln, Jacob, and Olivia for stepping outside their comfort zones and making a name for Gowan FFA and Arizona Association FFA. Their success is a testament to their dedication, perseverance, and bright futures in agriculture education. The Yuma County Math Counts Competition. The Gowan Science Academy team made up of Jay Chandra, Daryl Warren, Darius Askari, and Isha Nathan won second place at the competition. Jay Chandra took first place in the individual competition
025and third place in the lightning round. Darrell Warren was the ninth overall individual. The team will travel to Phoenix on March 22nd for the state competition. The team is coached by Mrs. Child and Mrs. Warren. Good luck to you Gators. Music news. February 22nd was the Yuma County Solo and Ensemble Festival. Students learned a solo or worked with a small ensemble and performed for a judge. The judge assigned them a score based on how well they played. There are three different scores, superior, excellent, and good. The following are the students who participated in this festival and what rating they received. From Centennial Middle School, we have Inez Casera, Reagan McCall, Ivan Batala, Jackson Doughton received superior. Dillinger Esquer, Emma Berrigan, Levi Alcala, Corin Maples received Excellent. John Wilkins, Benjamin Antonelli received Superior. Mia Tabinico, Eleanor
026Hughes, Bailey Farr received Superior. Natalie Navarro, Superior, Valerie Arcella-Santana, and Fatima. Afi Dotsayed received excellent. From Pueblo, Zayden Rodriguez, Carlos Rodriguez, Jacqueline Brooks, Ziani Martinez, Connor Morrison, Connor Avalar, Sophia Hudson, Emmeline Hagedorn, Addison Hagedorn, all received excellent. From Reagan, Brady McDonald received an excellent. From Gowan, Miles Castee, and Mason Nielsen received superior. And from Knox, Mariana Osuna and Natalia Guzman received superior. The 2024-25 Meritorious Budget Award, or MBA. I'd like to congratulate Dale Ponder for the prestigious honor of receiving the Meritorious Budget Award from the Association of School Business Officials, ASBO. This is our first entry into the program, and our participation in the MBA program is a testament to our commitment to sound fiscal management and budgetary policies. ASBO International's MBA and introductory pathway to the MBA programs promote and recognize excellence in school
027budget presentation. Program participation enhances school budget business officials' skills in developing, analyzing, and presenting a school budget. Participants submit their budget documents to a panel of school financial professionals who review the materials for compliance with the MBA criteria checklist and other requirements and provide expert feedback that districts can use to improve their budget documents. The districts that receive the award are recognized for their commitment to upholding nationally recognized budget presentation standards. This achievement is particularly significant as it marks our first submission to the MBA program, a milestone Dale has significantly pursued since 2019-2020. We are honored to be only the third school district in the state of Arizona to receive this recognition from ASBO and only the second since 2016, a distinction we are dedicated to maintaining for years to come. Dale, congratulations on this
028incredibly prestigious prestigious honor. Your unwavering commitment to fiscal accountability and transparency is deeply appreciated. Just to give us an idea, how many pages was it? 160, I'm not sure. Okay. Thank you. Mr. President and members of the board, that's my report for this month. Thank you. Mrs. Doering, the next item of business is going to be F1. God, this thing bounces back and forth. It's E2. See how did you see that? Yeah, that's fine. After the superintendent update on legislative and other governmental actions, sometimes issues that could impact crane schools are considered by various legislative and or administrative bodies in the state or the federal government. Members of the governing board need to be aware of those issues and provide appropriate direction. to initiate or respond to them. The agenda item permits the superintendent to
029provide an update on legislative or other governmental actions and the governing board the opportunity to discuss, take positions, or propose legislation and rules and or direct the administration to research such issues. So we're going to turn the floor, I'll turn the floor over to Mr. Ponder. Thank you, Mr. President, members of the board. We are approaching the last day in which bills can be heard in the opposite house of origin. That will take place on March 28th. Currently, the legislature is looking to adjourn sine die sometime in April. Historically, that has not been the case. They push more towards almost the last day of June before they adjourn. So while that is somewhat ambitious, I believe that date is April 22nd is the 100th day of session. I don't know that to be realistic. I
030do want to spend a little bit of time talking about the governor's proposal for the renewal of Proposition 123, where it embeds a partial component for permanent increase to school funding, as well as a 10-year renewal program that's with that. Those funds would be used to address teacher compensation. while also being able to really renew the efforts that have been provided through Proposition 123 that passed in May 2016. Currently, that is set to expire at the end of this fiscal year, June 30, 2025. However, the state's general fund is currently expected, it's both within the governor's budget as well as the Joint Legislative Budget Committee's baseline budget, to absorb both of those components within the general fund of the state. So while there's an expiration, On Proposition 123, the funding that is provided through that
031measure is being absorbed in the general fund, so there will be no negative impact to the district, presuming that the legislature does what the Joint Legislative Budget Committee has already projected, as well as the governor. So those are some important factors to consider. In addition to that, there's some discussion about reforming the existing triggers within Proposition 123 while still allowing the state to have some flexibilities in the time of economic downturn. Really, that was a point of issue. Small recap, Proposition 123 is really a result of Cave Creek v. Ducey, which was a lawsuit that was brought forward due to the lack of the Ducey administration in providing inflationary dollars to states pursuant to statute. And that happened because of the recession. So everything was frozen and they were unable to do that at the
032time. So part of that settlement included the state seeking an opportunity saying, when we don't have the money, we can't provide that to schools. There should be some sort of relief there. And so a portion of one of the triggers was to address that. So when the economy has a downturn and it takes a look at a couple of different factors. high-level sales tax and other sales, so to speak, are some of the two factors that are included in the economic review. When those things have an output that's between a certain threshold, then it gives the legislature the flexibility to offer inflationary dollars. There's a big component that we're approaching, which is really when the state's general fund or its commitment to K-12 education is that 49% or higher, it provides the legislature with some
033flexibilities of how they continue to fund Arizona schools. That is really driven around the fact that many legislators at that time believed that the state was making a significant contribution to the state, and no more than 50% of the state's budget should be dedicated to K-12. And so when it reaches that amount, it gives them some flexibility to decide whether or not they want to provide funding moving forward. So those are a couple of issues that are top of mind for us that we're looking to move forward with that. The Republican leadership has positive things to say about the governor's proposal, not so much how it's being distributed. Her plan has that distribution going through the classroom site fund as a way to fund teachers, which both sides. agree that teachers are underfunded when it
034comes to compensation. And so being able to prescribe how those funds are used. Republican leadership has an issue with that distribution model because under the classroom site fund, it also provides other avenues for school districts to spend those resources through class size reduction, at-risk programs, dropout prevention, other intervention programs where they really solely want that just going for teacher compensation. So The good news is there seems to be some progress in looking at when to reauthor or through the reauthorization of Proposition 123. What remains to be known is when that will take place. The governor is seeking the 2025 ballot initiative. The Republican leadership believes that that's a little bit too ambitious and looks to more at 2026 as being an appropriate time to pursue this measure. There are a number of bills moving through.
035Some are getting. Some are getting squashed that are detrimental to us. Others are being placed on hold. As an example, there was a bill that was. being pushed that would require a 60% threshold for bonds and overrides. And then it ended up being a 60% threshold for any tax increase. So it would be very challenging for many school districts in Arizona, as well as any other tax referendums to seek that type of support to make that possible. That bill is not moving through. That's just an example of the types of bills that we're seeing this legislative session. There was also a bill about us having to develop a budget three years out. I was asked to comment on that, and I shared that it's challenging just to do one year at a time, let alone
036looking three years in advance, because there's so many changes that happens at the legislative level that it's challenging for us to be able to predict. So if there were some assumptions or if they were able to... make the bill include that you're guaranteed to receive an inflationary adjustment, you're guaranteed to receive the same funding that you have now. That makes it a little bit easier for us to do that, but those guarantees weren't there, but that bill isn't continuing either. The bill that's still making some movement that may be of interest to the governing board is the bill that relates to school districts that enter into receivership and whether or not the superintendent and the governing board should maintain their employment or positions on the board if a school district enters into receivership. Over the
037last two years, we've had two school districts in Arizona that have entered into receivership by the State Board of Education for financial mismanagement. I don't want to cause any alarm. We don't have any of that here at the district, but that bill is continuing to have some legs. And so it might be of interest to the governing board. Editorially, this is just Dale speaking. I don't speak on behalf of the board or the district. I think that puts the governing board members at a huge disadvantage. You all receive information and how that information is presented to you is dictating how you're voting. And so if you have the information that you think you have, but you really don't have the right information, I don't know how you all would know that. At the same time,
038I'm not sure how the superintendent would know that either, unless they had a strong financial background to really be able to look into the budget and saying, this doesn't make sense. I think generally, you know that our funding is driven based on student counts. And so collectively, you all know, hey, we have fewer kids. Why is our budget going up? Why are we able to do this? I think those are some questions that you could be asking as governing board members. But I think that bill could be. detrimental. I believe there's also some constitutional issues with the bill as well. But anyway, I'll conclude. That's my report, but happy to answer any other questions. I find it interesting because I had that conversation with someone in the Senate, and I asked them if the state
039would be able to do a three-year budget. I said, do you think you can give us a three-year budget? Can you go out 36 months and give us a budget? And they said, no. And I'm like, well, no, education can't do it either. I don't think that the receivership thing is going to pass. I think that there's some real legal issues there. One, it's a local thing, right? So they elected us and if we screw up, they can vote us out for one. And then I think the 26th. The Republicans want to go to 26 because they can do it in the legislature. They don't have to go through the governor. So they drag their feet and that's another way that they can get their way. Those are my three points on that. Anybody else
040want to chime in on that? It's kind of sneaky little inside baseball. I also, I'm sorry, I wanted to also add that the opportunity to have any quote new money, probably not happening. The state has become very restrictive on those resources, given what's happening at the federal level. The state feels that they may need to absorb some of those cuts that are anticipated. And because of that are very reluctant to enter into new programs or new commitments. for school districts. There's been no discussion about receiving cuts from what is provided by the state other than what we were already expected to receive for the coming year, which was the free and reduced price lunch weight was not going to be increased as it was originally planned. That will be revisited in 2028. And the additional
041increase to district additional assistance also would be reviewed in 2028 as well. But there's been no discussion about any additional cuts that would happen to school districts from the state funding. Have you heard anything about the pulling money out of the rainy day fund? I mean, they have like a billion dollars or something like that in there. They do have a lot of money in that fund. It's kind of raining. It feels like it's storming a little bit, yeah. But no, there's been no discussion about music. I didn't think so. Anything else? All right. That being said, we shall move on to F1 oral reports on conferences. Periodically, members of the governing board attend various conferences, seminars, workshops, district schools, and so forth, and have information to share with other members. Hear a report from
042any member of the governing board who has attended a conference or visited district schools since the rest regular meeting. Anybody have anything to say? Yes, sir. You have the floor, sir. Ms. Van Dosen. I appreciated letting me come by the other day. I'm sorry that I set it up so we had a short visit, but I appreciated seeing your school, and I plan on coming back. I like the garden. I'll be interested in seeing if it produces anything. Of course, you know, Mr. Moore knows all about farming. I didn't know you had a garden. We're in the early stages of we have the boxes there. We have been using a lot of our staff funding to supply what we need for that. And then Mrs. Rupp also had received a grant as well, an ag
043grant that will allow us to purchase a shed to have all of our... Oh, so I'll put you on my list because... We had our last bell pepper planting and I kind of gave bell peppers to a bunch of gardens that I knew of. And so if I'd have known you had a garden, it's my bad. I should have called. I'll put you on the list next year. Thank you. And it's a shame that Gowan doesn't have any livestock on her property. You may get some free fertilizer. But thank you. My understanding is she won't be there very long. All right. Anything else, ladies and gentlemen? All right. We shall go to G1, call to the public. Consideration and discussion of comments and concerns from the public. Those wishing to address the governing board on
044items not on the agenda may do so at this time. Speakers are requested to hold their comments to three minutes. Individuals addressing the governing board may not yield any portion of their allotted time to any other individual wishing to address the governing 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 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. Ms. Encinas? We have none. We shall go to G2. Anyone wishing to address the board on items on tonight's agenda may do
045so 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 portion of their allotted time to any other individual wishing to address the governing board. In accordance to 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 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. Ms. Encinas? Okay. H1, this consent agenda. Conserves
046time by limiting the items to those of routine nature, which normally do not require deliberation on 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. What is the pleasure of the board? I would make a motion we accept the consent agenda as presented. It has been properly moved and seconded. Any discussion? We shall proceed to vote. All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. All opposed, same sign. Motion passes three in favor and two absent. Next item of business is... Who's the second? Foreman. Four members. Sorry, one absent. Sorry about that. Well, it was three at
047the beginning, and so that's why I got through now. Okay. Now I've got to find my spot again. Okay. It's I-1, consideration of adoption of gifts from the public. Crane Schools Governing Board Procedure 3-106B Federal Grants and Other Funds Acceptance of Gifts and Donations requires that the gifts made by the district by individuals or organizations be reviewed and officially accepted by Crane Governing Board. What is the pleasure of the board? The way we accept the gifts that are presented is a matter of over $13,000 for the last month. It was incredible. It's been properly moved and seconded. Without discussion, we shall proceed to vote. All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. All opposed, same sign. Motion passes. Four in favor and one absent. Next item of business. This thing keeps moving. J1, consideration of
048approval to release staff member from contract without assessed damages. Board approval is needed to release a staff member from contract without assessing damages. Creative Administration is requesting that the Governing Board approve the item and release Ms. Sattley from her 2024-2025 contract without assessing liquidated damages. What is the pleasure of the Board? I move that we accept the resignation without assessing damages. It has been properly moved and seconded. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, we shall proceed to vote. All in favor, signify by raising your right hand, saying aye. Aye. All opposed, same sign, through the curve of our team. Motion passes. Four in favor, one absent. J2, consideration of approval to release staff member from contract without assessing damages. Board approval is needed to release staff members from contract without assessing damages. The current administration
049is requesting that the governing board approve the item and release Ms. Mendieta from her 2024-2025 contract without assessing liquidated damages. What is the pleasure of the board? I move that we accept her resignation without damages. Second. It has probably been moved and seconded without discussion. Seeing none, I shall proceed to vote. All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. All opposed, same sign. Motion passes. Four in favor, one absent. Next item of business, consideration of approval for assessment of liquidated damages of certified staff. Board members. Board approval is needed in order for authorized crane personnel to assess a fee of $1,500 in liquidated damages and direction related to reporting unprofessional conduct to the State Board of Education for signed contract stipulation to certified staff that resigned without receiving prior board approval. Item 24 of the
050teacher contract states that, quote, by entering into this contract, employee agrees that the district, in addition to any other remedies available to it by law, may deduct all. of any portion of the amount of liquidated damages from any money due and owing to the employee, whether from amortized salary from the earned but unpaid performance pay for the prior year or from other sources, but not to exceed the amount which may be deducted under federal wage garnishment. ARS 15-545, Resignation Restrictions, Unprofessional Act Penalty. A certified teacher shall not resign after signing and returning his contract unless the resignation is first approved by the governing board. A teacher who resigns contrary to this section shall be deemed to commit an unprofessional act and, upon request of the governing board, shall be subject to such disciplinary action, including
051suspension, revocation of certificate, as the State Board of Education deems appropriate. So, the reason we have this is because... Correct me if I'm wrong, Ms. Doering, but it, yeah. So. You want to? Sure. So we've had some situations where teachers will resign from their contract, putting us in a difficult position because it's difficult to find someone else for that position, etc. The difficulty is when it's really problematic when they leave us for another position. So sometimes people will leave, let's say, to California where they can make more money or they'll leave to another position. So in the past, the recommendation has always been to assess damages in those situations. Another opportunity, another possibility is to basically report them to the State Board of Education and the State Board of Education will determine what to do
052with their certification. So that's the dialogue that I'd like the board to have now as far as if you want to stick with just assessing damages or if this is something you'd like to add. It would be something new for us. It's something we were pondering to look at. So that's what the dialogue about this employs about right now. So I have complained about some of this in the past where there have been teachers who resign either really early into the school year or just before the school year. It puts these principals in a really tough situation. And sometimes it's not even for vertical movement within their career. It's like if you leave school A in Crane to go teach at school B in Gila Bend or Somerton or wherever, I have a real big
053problem with that. Unless there's an underlying... Right, right. Like the husband's transfer. Right. But just to accept the other position, I am with you 100%. I just, well, yeah. I mean, obviously every case... is going to be looked at individually. If your husband or wife is in the military and has to leave, I mean, I thank them for their service and so on, but I really do feel that they need to be reported to the state if they leave us high and dry. And we should take the $1,500 one way or another. I like to support teachers as much as I possibly can, and I do. It's just that... they're not doing us any favors when they do that. So I would agree, I think about the 1500. I think that that's completely appropriate in
054these cases. They know that when they sign their contract, that this is the penalty when you violate your contract. I think the severity of that referral for unprofessional conduct, for me, I would agree needs to be on a case by case basis. And for me, the things that I would consider. warranting that are things like somebody had some evidence of malentend or unprofessional conduct in other ways right so for example were they continuously neglecting their role right were they you know failing to get grades in on time was there were there other things to suggest that they were not doing this with good intentions right because I I think in my work as a mental health therapist I get the privilege of understanding the reasons behind a lot of people's behaviors because I get to
055know very intimately their decision making. And so I tend to operate under this assumption that most people have good reason for making the choices that they make. And I think I would absolutely agree that 1500 should be assessed. I would argue that in this particular case, I don't see any. evidence that there was additional malintent or unprofessional conduct to warrant that referral. So I do think we need to have some kind of standard where we draw that line, right? Because if we are just referring anyone who breaks contract, I think that there's a risk of our educators feeling unsupported and that has a potentially very significant impact on their career because the Board of Education is going to take our referral seriously. Right. I think, I think You make valid point, and that is everything
056needs to be on a case-by-case basis, right? If I break a contract, it'll cost me millions, and they don't care whether I could have had a stellar 20-year performance with my client. I break a contract, they don't care. And I'm not saying... that all of the broken contracts are going to be, you know, we're reporting you to the state. It has to be a case-by-case basis. And again, you may have turned in your grades on time. You may have done everything on time. You may have showed up on time. But leaving us in a situation where we cannot find someone to fill that spot, that's huge. It's huge. So... We can debate about the circumstances of this case, but I think that we should approve the policy of sending it on to the state if
057we so deem so. If we deem so. I don't think that, I think that's... A solid argument. I would agree. I think we need to reserve that right. I think this case maybe we can discuss that, but I do agree that that should be a option. I don't know if we need to have that in policy since it's already in statute that we have that right. Kelly, are you saying right now with this situation, you're not in favor of sending the referral on to the state? No, I'm not. In the beginning, when I saw this and thought about it, I would have agreed. All right, because I mean things happen to people that's just way it is however the state From what I understand the state gets a referral and the state really is the
058one that will be stopping if I'm wrong they're the ones that determine whether or not to go any farther and In some of the cases by I'm through with they it's just goes it's it and then and I I tell you something loopy is a absolutely great human resource person and she knows her stuff very well and we had quite a discussion about this did we not and I can tell you I certainly accept your position and I'm in favor of the referral. Just to speak to what Mr. Colby shared they can make a determination if it's a short-term suspension of the certificate or a permanent. In these cases, I doubt that it would be a permanent suspension. They're usually reserved for severe unprofessional conduct. And I did review the additional statutes on unprofessional conduct,
059and there wasn't anything. in there to me that warranted this as unprofessional conduct. How is that not? Like you break in a contract. How is that not unconditioned? So it is according to ARS 15-545. However, there's additional statutes of 15 items that are warranted unprofessional conduct. That you could do in addition to this. Yes. And this particular case meets none of those and doesn't, in my opinion, come close to any of those. I also think when they're leaving us for a lateral position, I would take greater issue with that than somebody who is promoting. Correct. Which appears to be the case for this individual. I also would say that if our goal is to disincentivize breaking contract, I think that there's some room to suggest that that fee be increased. And that's... I don't believe
060that that's our board call to make. I believe that that's a request that we can make of the district that they look into that. And that would be my. Well, yeah, that was actually I've actually spoken about that. Like, I think it should be more severe because I don't want it to be. It's become so easy. to break and then it's like fifteen hundred dollars and then if you really wanted to take legal action it costs us more than fifteen hundred dollars legally to get the fifteen hundred dollars you know i think um i i think i think we need to start at some point so i'll take further discussion i agree with you because i gave this a lot of thought uh and uh unless anybody else got something to say i'm just saying
061let's call for the question then Okay, so I move we assess damages in the amount of $1,500. That's the first motion. You can have two motions. I'll second that. It has been properly moved and seconded to assess $1,500 in damages on said employee. It's been properly moved on second any discussion we shall proceed to vote all in favor of assessing damages to set employee E signify by saying aye aye all opposed same sign motion passes Or in favor and one absent Is there any further then I would make a motion that we Follow through with the referral to the state. I'll second that motion. It has been properly moved and seconded to refer this individual to the state as stated in the motion or in the action item. Is there, it's been moved and seconded?
062Second. Okay. Any discussion? We've already had that. You have had the discussion, right. Okay. All right. We shall proceed to vote. All in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. All opposed, same sign. Okay. Motion passes 3-1 and 1 absent. Next item of business is, let me get to it here, K-1 Management Services. I'm going to have a model walk around here in a little bit. All right, here we go. Presentation and possible discussion on the FY 2024 Arizona. School District Spending Report. Mr. Dale Ponder, Chief of Finance and Operations, will present, discuss information, and provide an analysis regarding the recently released annual Arizona School District Spending Report for the fiscal year ending in June 30, 2024. This information is collected and produced by the Arizona Office of the Auditor General in March of each year
063for the preceding fiscal year. Like in prior fiscal years, the Arizona School District Spending Report was compiled through the web-based dashboard accessed on the Auditor General's website or by visiting www.crainschools.org and clicking on District Spending Report icon. Dr. Ponder. Oh, wow. No. MBA, Mr. Ponder. Thank you, Mr. Moore, members of the board, colleagues and community. I appreciate the opportunity to share this. As mentioned, this is dating back to June 30 of 2024. and is released in March of each year. So in fact, this year they were a little early. It was released February 28th. And so as typical, I am providing this information to the governing board as a look back as to how we spent our dollars, quote, in the classroom. This is really driven from Proposition 301, which passed in 2000 and established
064a law that would require the Office of the Auditor General to conduct performance audits. In addition to that, would monitor districts to determine the percentage of every dollar spent in the classroom for school districts. This only pertains to school districts, not other educational opportunities within Arizona, such as charter schools or those who are enrolled in a school through the Empowerment Scholarship account. As stated last, like in previous years, it is an interactive dashboard. This does work to identify three different peer groups. One is for operational efficiency with the transportation component included, and then an academic achievement group of our peers. The peers are established by the Office of the Auditor General, usually around some sort of metric. It could be the size of the district in addition to the type of district. So are you
065a unified? a K-8 or a high school district, as well as the demographics of that student population, primarily around poverty. Statewide highlights, Arizona school districts spent 52.6% of available operating dollars on instruction down from last year by 0.8%. This is the second consecutive year in which the lowest recorded instructional spending percentage in back-to-back years since the Office of the Auditor General began compiling this in 2001. No change in the new definition of the classroom, which is the top portion of the legend on the right-hand side, which includes instruction, student support, and instructional support. No change from a statewide perspective. For Crane, the information here, both the pie chart and the legend, are related to the district. Our percentage of classroom spending on true classrooms, so instructional spending, dropped from 50.2% to 48.8%, and the new
066definition of classroom spending fell by 1.1% to 64.3%. We'll talk a little bit about some of those reasons why as we go through the presentation. Again, you can see here that the prior fiscal year, 50.2%, the current 48.8%, which also ties. This shows the lowest being this year. Actually, FY 2017 was also a low mark at 48.8%. You can see the highest year at nearly 60% of our dollars back in FY 2002. Graphically, this is what that trend looks like over time for the state as well as the district. Quite frankly, more dollars that are provided to the state, more money that we're able to provide into instruction. Within our budget, much like every other district in the state, 85 to 90% of that budget is in salaries and benefits. And so really to move
067the needle, you're needing to provide more compensation. We see greater stability within our non-academic spaces, where the consistency of that staff tends to be relatively stable. Where we see a little bit more instability is within the certificated staff, where there's a little bit more volatility with that. And so because of that, we tend to have high-tenured or more experienced teachers leave the profession, and then we have less experienced teachers coming in. And so in doing that, It's really math. And so it shifts the percentage and saying, OK, there's more stability on this side of the of the axis, so to speak. And so because of that, those more experienced employees outside the classroom are still gaining that experience and therefore are earning a higher wage, whereas those incoming, they don't have that experience yet. And
068so that's that's a less amount. And so it ends up shifting dollars outside of the classroom because of that. However, yes, Mr. Morris. I'm sorry. I thought you were done with the slide. What's the blue versus the dark blue? The dark blue is Crane and the lighter blue is Arizona. So that's how we compared the state. You can see that early on. Yeah. Early on, we were actually above the state before things started heading south, primarily driven by the recession. This is really where the change takes place. So on taking a look at classroom spending overall up 0.2%, non-classroom spending overall down 0.2%. So you can see what that fluctuation is and a lot more support and student support and instruction support and less support and instruction. Again, seeing more stability in those sides than
069what we see in the classroom just with the volatility of. classroom teachers. Again, this is a five-year trend. This is not compared to last year. Average teacher salary in our district, we are about $6,700 behind the statewide average. And so there was a time in which we were at this or close to the statewide average. I think we were about $2,000 away from that just three years ago. And we've seen a little bit more of a decline with that, primarily driven by the lack of resources that we're seeing with the decline of our enrollment. And so we're not able to maintain the same pace as maybe some of our peers. You can see the average teacher experience about nine years with our district, a percentage of teachers in the first three years, as well as
070those that are four years and later, and the average salaries within those different ranges, as well as students per teacher as calculated by the Office of the Auditor General. So can you kind of draw a correlation then for us between the average teacher experience versus the pay and why the impact there? Yes. More experience, higher salary, which means more dollars are being spent in the classroom that are coded to the instruction function, which is function 1000. And so all teachers, anyone who is directly in contact with students as teachers, we have our paraprofessionals or instructional aides. those individuals are tied to function 1000, which is instruction. And so as their salaries grow, then we're putting more dollars into the classroom. So it's not supplies, it's not travel, it's not those types of things. It's really
071driven by salaries and benefits because the greatest piece of our budget goes to those functions. So when we can provide more in those areas, then the output is that we're putting more dollars into those classroom spaces. So as we have a higher turnover with teachers, then our pay will be lower just because they don't have the experience. More volatility, less stability within that, while the other side has more stability. And so they're growing over time, which means their salaries are increasing more. So it gives the illusion that we're putting more into non-academic spaces when really we're seeing more stability in those non-academic spaces than we are in the classroom. Does that answer the question, Ms. Thor? Yes, thank you. Operational efficiency, this is an area that I spend a lot of time in looking at.
072So from an administration perspective, we're very low, both compared to our peers as well as the state. We're below the statewide average with our administrative costs. Excuse me, plant operations is high. I will celebrate that that is coming down. It was very high for a period of time, and we're seeing that more nearing the statewide average, and that's an area that we continue to review. Food service is comparable, and our transportation costs are very low. So even though this report is showing that the amount of dollars we're putting into the classroom is going down, conversely, we're not seeing more dollars being put into these areas to where they're way outside of the range of our peers. These are our operational peers. So what was making it so more expensive? I'll show you in the next
073slide some of those components that are there. So salaries and benefits, utilities, contracted services, insurance, supplies, and others. These are the areas that really make up plant operations. You can see utilities, and this is all statewide information. This is not the district. So this is statewide information that 24% of plant operation costs were in... I'm sorry, 24% of the plant operation costs were utilities. We're seeing very similar numbers here. So we can't control those utility costs. Those are set by the regulators. And so when there's an increase there. In order for us to have lights on and working air conditioning, obviously we have to have utilities. And so that's an area that we have no control over. Insurance, which is driven primarily, this is property and liability insurance. And so 7% of that is a
074factor of property and liability insurance. And so if we have more experience, meaning we're using the insurance more, it's going to drive up costs. We've been fortunate in that we're not seeing those things. Our staff and... Our staff and our district does a really good job of addressing some of those. And so we're a little bit more on the other side where we're seeing the increases happening because overall, the increase to provide coverage is increasing in those areas, primarily driven by cybersecurity and others. And so the district is seeing an increase because of the reinsurance market, but we're not utilizing the insurance as much. So you could... you know and then 44 percent of salaries and benefits and so those are the the largest factors mr colby you know on the utilities uh that that's
075had to increase pretty good year to year 20 last year was that so what all these solar panels that we have i haven't been able to pencil it out how is it is it helping us It is, it's not hurting, but it's not offsetting the... Not by any percentage? Like, not statistically, like, really? Less than one. I mean, it was, I mean, I kind of thought that it was... going to be a big deal for it. Initially when we put that in, the idea was that the escalators that were built in the solar projects were going to be less of an escalator than what APS, we're in APS territory, so what that utility would provide. We've not seen that payoff in the same manner. They do a great job of providing shade. I'll say that
076for the covered parking, as long as you have bird netting to address some of those things. So, yes, it is. Ozzy and his team are working to finalize the last of the bird netting projects. But it's not been as productive as what we had hoped when we installed them in 2010. I have no clue how you do this. Was there a contract at the beginning of that that said your savings will be such and such or whatever, but it hasn't worked that way? So there is a guaranteed savings for the first 10 years. We're outside of that 10-year mark, and so those guaranteed savings are no longer there. But we still generate savings. It's just not enough to offset. Ideally, it was we would receive. 80% of our utility needs from the solar provider and
07715% from the public utility. We're seeing that shift a little bit more. It's less of a 85-15 or an 80-20. It's closer, more like a 60-40 type of split. Is that partly due to, I mean, these things, longevity of these things isn't forever. Right. I mean, they tend to. They tend to catch on fire. They degrade over time. And so we also have metrics and we have a team that also looks at those to ensure that the productivity is where it should be. For example, Oz and his team identified an inverter out at one of the campuses. They reached out to the solar company. They were working to get that replaced. So it's of the solar company's interest to make sure that their production is also high. but the school district is receiving a benefit
078from after a while would it be more money to keep them running efficiently than it would be just to pay utilities I would say, without doing an analysis, I would say probably so, Jim. I would suspect that at the end of the term, we will maintain them for shade. I don't know that the production is going to be there as much as what we had hoped. Yeah, it's just, I'm just curious. Okay, continue. Student enrollment, this shows a one-year decline, 2.9% versus the five-year change at 6.3%. That's from 2019 to 24. We've seen a bulk of that over the last two fiscal years. Student achievement. This is an area that we're incredibly proud of for our district. You can see where we're right compared to our peer groups as long as, words are hard, as
079well as, there it is, the statewide numbers. I'm going to spend a little bit of time on the student achievement. So within our student academic peers, again, this is put together by the Office of the Auditor General, we are the top performing school district. in that group and it's made up of elementary school districts in cities and suburbs with a poverty between 17 and 22 percent so these are the other districts that meet that and you can see where our district is comparatively so we have the highest math scores we have the highest ela scores and we have nearly the highest science scores in the district and so very proud of those accomplishments so to me The whole idea behind this is this. This is what we're doing. It's the output. So to me, it's
080not so much where is the dollar going, but how is it being used? And this output and additional information I'm going to share a little bit later, I think is indicative of those efforts and being able to say that we're putting the dollars where it's most needed to address the academic needs of our students. And so kudos to the principals, to our... All of our instructional leaders, teachers, all the staff involved in helping to make this possible understand it's very challenging for them. I hear and understand that the needs are growing and the resources are depleting. And so it becomes more and more challenging for them to be creative in figuring out how to best meet the unique needs of each of our students so that we can maintain the same level of academic output.
081This is the same information graphically. Again, the highest marks in all areas, excluding science, and we were just one percentage point away from Washington Elementary School District there. Now this is a little complex, but there's something that I like to do every year. And so this is our operational peer group. And so again, we have transportation peer. We won't spend a whole lot of time on that one. We also have operational peers and then we have the academic peers. So we went through academic and now this is the operational efficiency. So this is really where we're measured, whether we're high, comparable or low compared to those peers. And you can see where. our district ranks. Now these are sorted based on the percentage of instruction, so true instruction, not just classroom spending, but the percentage
082of the instructional commitment made by those districts. You can see that we're 11th out of 17. Those shaded in the yellowish color have M&O overrides, so they have additional resources where their communities are supporting them. mostly driven around higher teacher salaries. There are four districts in here that also have desegregation funding. So in addition to that, they receive additional funds. You can see that for Crane, we're white. We don't have either of those indicators. So all that we receive is based on what we get through state aid, as well as what's available to us through our capital override. Isaac is left blank. We'll say for maybe obvious reasons, the information there, the Auditor General didn't have complete. And so they didn't report on that, but they are one of our operational peers. So we're 11th
083when we rank how we provide dollars into the classroom compared to our peers. But when we take a look at what that means academically, Madison is the top performing school district in this peer group. We're fourth. So Madison, Avondale. then Liberty, and then Crane when it comes to the academics. So while we may be 11th on the list, we're the fourth highest performing school district in this group of 17 and the only one that doesn't have additional resources through an M&O override or desegregation funding. So I really think that's a testament to our instructional leaders, our principals, our teachers, and the work that they're doing. Their efforts don't go unnoticed because the resources, again, are depleting and the needs continue to grow. Yet, again, they continue to find creative and innovative solutions to best meet
084the needs of our students. Here's what that looks like graphically and the change from the prior year. So we went up 1% based on the average last year. You can see where all of the other peer districts are within that. And again, we're one of the top performing school districts in our assigned operational peer group. This is an analysis that I do. It's not an analysis that the Auditor General puts together, but I always like to take a look and saying, okay. you're as the auditor general you're saying that we're spending too much money outside the classroom well i want to know those that are spending money better in the classroom because that's who we're compared it to how do their academic outputs look compared to ours and so i think this is reflective of
085that mr moore yeah i just thought we were the number one in our peer group but this is telling us we're oh academic okay yeah this is the operation thank you Here's the information graphically. You can see how the district compares to that peer group as well as the statewide. And obviously very, very proud of the work that we're doing there. So because the... Office of the Auditor General does not complete this analysis for other educational opportunities within Yuma County. I always like to be able to take a look at that. And so this top piece here really provides the ranking for other Yuma County school districts. You can see Mohawk Valley does have an MNO override. Of those in Yuma County, we're putting the second highest into true instruction. So what's happening in Function
0861000. And you can see what those rankings are all the way down to Mohawk Valley. And to be fair, Hyder, Antelope, Mohawk Valley, a lot more challenging because they are smaller schools. And so to be fair, that's why they also don't have any color coding is because it's hard for the Office of the Auditor General to put them in peer groups because they're so small in size. Their challenges are very unique. And so they don't have a color coding system like some of the other school districts are as well. So then I also take a look at the superintendent's annual financial report. And this is published by the Arizona Department of Education and the Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction, Tom Horn. And so this is pulled all from FY24. And it's public schools in the
087city of Yuma, including surrounding cities and towns. So I didn't go out to East County. I had some in South County. as well as some charter schools within the area. And again, the same ranking takes place. Of those, we're putting the third highest within the classroom. But we'll draw your attention to some of the administrative costs that you might see with some of the other options. And again, we're putting less dollars into administrative costs compared to our peers and putting more dollars into what we believe to be in the right places, which is really helping the needs of our students. So because the... Office of the Auditor General is not doing the same study for classroom spending for charter schools. This is why I compiled this bottom section so U.S. Governing Board members have a
088better idea of how we compare to all choices within Arizona. What this does not include are those who might be utilizing the empowerment scholarship accounts or any of that type of information. That information is not available. And then how we perform throughout the county ourselves compared to the school districts in the county for those three subject areas. Again, we're required to post this on our website. As Mr. Moore mentioned at the beginning, go to our homepage, scroll down to the district spending report. You'll find it there. Also, all of this is available at the business and finance portion of the website, our department page for anybody else who might be interested. It is static on the business page, but if you click on the district spending report icon on the homepage, that is the interactive.
089web browser that you can use and take a look at different other metrics that might be of interest to you all as board members. What we could expect moving forward? Well, you know, for FY24, or the current year, I should say, we have retention stipends and salary adjustments that we'll be able to capture. Moving on, we're not sure what that might look like. Less experienced teachers coming in. We continue to see that even this year. minimum wage continues to be a challenge too. The only area that really impacts instruction might be instructional aides, academic technicians, those types of staff members. Everything else is outside of the classroom. And so when that dollar amount continues to grow, then it shifts the pie to where there's less dollars or the presumption is less dollars going into the
090classroom space. So we continue to have, we'll have those challenges likely for this report a year from now. With that, I'll pause for any other questions that the board may have with regards to this information. Any questions from the board? Comments? Complaints? Don't do any good. I'll listen to you, Dan. I would love to see the comparison with charter schools. Especially in scenarios of special ed, athletics. extracurricular that they don't do anything with or very little. I mean, I was always taught that the first dollar you ever spend will be on special ed. And that's all mandated by law unless you don't have any. Well, there was a bill that was going through the House, through the Senate, I think it was the Senate, that basically they were trying to say ESA kids who are
091going to a private school on ESA money can participate in public district sports. No, they can't. No. Homeschool is true. They could do that today. Homeschool is, but not private. Because you're getting ESA money. We're paying you. We're paying you. Homeschool. They changed that because if that school doesn't offer the sports, you can go to another school. That's AIA. I want to caution the board just to make sure we're not violating open meeting. What's that? That we're not violating open meeting. Just to keep it more narrow. Questions from his presentation. Any other questions? I think he's going to shut down. Yeah. Yeah, because maybe you're in the boundary. No, but I mean, because it's presentation. There was one slide that showed the percentage of other support and ours is really higher than like the charter
092schools because they don't have to spend money on that. Right. So, I mean. I'm just an old guy, but part of that, when you talk about private and charter schools in comparison, we're looking at stuff like that here. I see what Desert View was on there. I think those are things that need to be discussed. And I don't feel like, I mean, maybe I'm just an old guy. They can be discussed. We'll just have to put them on an agenda. Or a public hearing. Well, it would seem to me like it goes right now. I mean, that's part of what we're looking at. I will override you. Well, you can. Anything else? If not, will we adjourn? We've been properly moved. It's probably seconded. We shall all in favor of adjourning? I'm saying aye. Aye.
093All opposed? Say aye. Motion passes. Four in favor. One absent. Thank you. We are adjourned.