Show Low School Board Meeting for 5-8-25

001[Music] Hey, hey, [Music] hey. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] N. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Yeah. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] N. Heat. Heat. [Music] N. Heat. Heat. N. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. N. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Good evening. and we'd like to welcome you to our May regular school board meeting. We're grateful you're here. On my way in this evening, I happened to catch the radio and three of our high school stu students were being interviewed and uh they expressed gratitude for their teachers and counselors. Uh and so I just thought that was really awesome and I wanted to say how grateful we are for our students and our staff. Uh we appreciate you

002all so much. With that said, I'll call this meeting to order. Um I will offer the pledge and we'll pick up there. [Music] I aliance 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. We'll now have a moment of silence. Thank you very much. And I will now entertain a motion to approve the agenda. Move to approve the agenda as presented. Second. Motion a second. All in favor? I I opposed. Motion passes. Item 4.1, approval of April meeting minutes. I move to approve as presented. Second. Go ahead, Angel. I second. I have a motion. Second. All in favor? I opposed. Motion passes. 5.1. Ratification of expenses, payroll vouchers, tax credit, committing accounts. M. Davis, I assume

003this one's yours. Nothing out of the ordinary. These are expenses at this time of the year. They're going to be a bit higher because we're paying off a lot more expenditures. More people are resigning at this time of the year. So we're making more payouts of leave. So they will be bit higher at this time of the year. I move to approve as presented. I'll second. Motion and second. All in favor? I opposed. Motion passes. Item 6.1 student and staff recognition. Dr. Farnsworth. Thank you, Mr. Board President. So tonight we have a packed house and we have a lot of recognitions. So, we're going to do students, we're going to do staff. And so, just a a a word of order, we're going to bring different groups up tonight. So, after we recognize your group,

004we're going to take a picture in front of the school board and then we'd ask you to turn around and shake the hand of the school board members. And just so you you you all know what to expect. Um, first we have our student and staff from uh WI, Miss Roach, if you could come on up. You guys don't get me scared stand next to Good evening. Um, so I'm just going to talk about a couple of kids and one of our staff members. First, Cooper her. What else can you say? I heard his name before I ever saw his face. I met this kid a year ago and my life has been different ever since. Cooper keeps you on your toes. He makes sure you practice what you preach. He's the kind of student

005you don't quickly forget. For those who haven't had the privilege of meeting Cooper, allow me to introduce him to you. Cooper has a big presence. Uh Cooper has an infectious laugh. Uh Cooper can be a firecracker, but most importantly, Cooper is gentle. Uh Cooper wears his heart on his sleeve. He always goes above and beyond. Uh for example, when our basketball backboard was broken, he brought one to school. When the court lines faded on the court, he went to Ace Hardware. He secured donations for paint and then he repainted the court. Um he built a garden area simply because he thought we needed one. He started a student group and then he passed that student group on to another student modeling what real leadership looks like. Cooper has been a leader, a builder, a bridge,

006and a spark. He doesn't just see what needs to be done, he does it. What sets Cooper apart isn't just his energy or ideas, but his willingness to lift others up as he moves forward. He has left his mark on our school in visible ways like the basketball court, but also in ways that are harder to see. The confidence he's given to others. The example he's set and the kindness that he's offered freely. And I will sorely miss him next year. And excuse me if I cry, but so Cooper, thank you so much for everything you do. [Applause] This has to be yours. All right. My other one, Travis. Travis is a young man who has learned to step outside of his comfort zone and to take risks he once thought were too hard for

007him. When I first met Travis, he didn't speak to anyone. Um maybe it was because of insecurity or a lack of confidence or maybe just because he didn't know what to say. He simply came to school, did what he needed to do and then he left as soon as the day was over. And then one day I needed help with math. And that's when the story completely changed. I asked Travis to help. I talked to him about how he ended up at WI, which is something that I do not just with WI kids but all. Um he opened up and he told me about himself. He shared some tough information. And in that moment, Travis also began to realize something important. He is not defined by his actions alone, but but by what he chooses

008to do next. And what he did next was nothing short of amazing. Travis has become an integral part of WI. He's been willing to be honest and open when things needed to change. He gives me a different perspective, one that helps me to understand what a student might be thinking so I don't just assume that they hate me. He's become a confidant to his peers. He's the kind of person who notices when something's off during class and he cares enough that he will reach out after class. I don't know what WI would be without Travis, but I can tell you that as a human, he has taught me far more than any lesson he ever learned in school. He taught me to watch for silent actions. He taught me to listen to what isn't being

009said. He taught me that even behind an amazing smile, sometimes you just need to say hi. He is my reminder to silent to sit silently and listen loudly. I will forever be grateful for the lessons he taught me and I pray he never loses sight of what makes him important and I have no doubt he will make a difference in this world. [Applause] All right, two down and no tears. We're doing good. All right, last. I'm grateful for the opportunity to share with you all the accomplishments of Wii. And while I could go on for hours about the incredible things happening and the amazing students we have, I would be remiss if I didn't also tell you about my incredible staff. Without them, none of this would be possible. Tonight, I'm especially honored to share

010Debbie with you, but just for a moment, because we need her. Debbie is part of the foundation at WMI. She is one of the key reasons behind the success we've seen. She works tirelessly to build strong, genuine relationships with our students. And because of those relationships, our students thrive. Debbie is dedicated to every single student she encounters, always. It doesn't matter where they go to school, she makes it a point to know them. She learns their favorites, cheers them on in their progress, and celebrates even the smallest of victories. But her dedication doesn't stop with students academic success. Debbie is committed to growing as an educator. She approaches tough, stressful situations with compassion, ensuring that her responses never add to a student's trauma. She's intentional, thoughtful, and always seeking ways to do better for herself

011and for the kids she serves. Debbie is part of the heart of WI. Her compassion, her consistency, and her quiet strength have shaped the culture of our school in ways that can't be measured, but are always felt. I'm endlessly thankful for her presence, her partnership, and the example she sets for all of us. Simply put, WI would not be WI without her. [Applause] He's like, I'm confused. and shake hands. Yep. Nope, you're good. All right. So nice to hear about you. Thank you. Congratulations. Nice to meet you. Good luck to you. Good to meet you. Thank you so much for Debbie. Thank you for calling. We appreciate you. Good luck to you, young man. Our Coopers and Travis's parents are stand up, please. Thank you guys. We appreciate you. We know they're awesome cuz you're

012awesome. Thank you so much. Well, if I could just add uh for Cooper and Travis, we've had them in the district office. So sometimes we don't have a receptionist and they've been lucky to loan them to us and they've been answering phone calls, talking to vendors. They've been phenomenal and so we're very happy that they could come help us out in the district office. So special. That's awesome. Thank you. Thank you. [Applause] We have the high school, Mr. Merchant. come bearing gifts. All right. Okay. We'll do we'll do students first. We'll do students first. Why don't you guys step on it? Perfect. Perfect. All right. Thank you guys for having us. This is the best best time of year. Get to celebrate, get to share all the good things going on cuz we got fabulous

013kids. We got fabulous teachers. Um could could not be more honored to be here. Before I share about these guys, I have to share a quick story. Um so they were selected to be recognized tonight. And so I called them in one one at a time to share that you've been selected. So, we go through I don't know. I don't know if Ryan heard anything that I said about how great he is and all this stuff. So, you know, we get to the end and he was like, you know, can I ask you a question? I'm like, yeah. And he was like, uh, who So, who was the female student that was selected? And I'm like, well, she hasn't been told yet, but you know, it's Lenora. And he's like, "Okay, good." Because we got

014a little competition going on and if I was selected and she wasn't, she would have been upset. And if she was selected and I wasn't, I would have been upset. And so I'm like, "Well, this works out perfectly." So then I'm So then I'm uh, you know, he leaves, goes on the class, whatever. She comes in, I share with her. I'm not even like a sentence in with her on how, you know, great she is and why she's selected and and uh and she's like, "Uh, so who so who's the boy that was selected?" And I'm like, "Funny you asked." And uh yeah, so I I didn't share a name, but shared the experience I just had two and a half minutes prior. And um and I was like, "Yeah, does he have any any

015idea?" And she's like, "It was Ryan, isn't it?" And I'm like, "Yep." So, so this works out perfectly. Two fantastic kids. Um, hard to compete like just to settle the score like there is no winning here. Okay. Like you both already have won a lot of things. So, um, perfect. So, I will start with with Ryan. Uh, Xolo High School is honored to recognize Ryan Lindsay as an outstanding Xolo High School student. Uh Ryan is finishing up his senior year and has excelled all four years in the arts, in the classroom, and as an absolutely fantastic human being. Um his selection for this recognition was a no-brainer because of his overwhelming list of accomplishments and the manner in which he was able to accomplish all these great things while still remaining truly humble, always putting

016others before himself. Ryan is one of those students who not only makes our profession easy, he makes it enjoyable. His teachers have shared that he is extremely witty and kind, always unafraid to ask meaningful questions and search deeper into the content. This is undoubtedly one of the primary reasons he has found such high success in everything he has been a part of at Shaw High School. He's played strong roles in the musicals and Feast of Carols, participated in showbiz, helped with stage management, uh even wrestled for a year, served in National Honor Society, and completed both the advanced track program as well as our CTE drafting program at Schol High School. Uh despite his school workload being enough to feed a small army, he still managed to work for White Mountain Pharmacy and his uncle

017at an engineering firm in his spare time after school. I also cannot fail to mention that Ryan is not just hardworking, he is very, very bright. Uh most high school boys don't care to be recognized for their intelligence. Uh but he's graduating in 14 days and won't see these kids for a while anyway. So, I'm going to brag. So, Ryan received a 32 on his ACT last year, which is one of the highest scores you can get. Uh, he also took all advanced courses, including a full high school and college load his senior year, uh, up through calc 2 and maintained over a 4.5 GPA with all I didn't know the numbers went that high, but they just keep going. Apparently, mine didn't. I know. Yeah, it go low. We know. But yeah, after his

018uh two-year mission for his church, he plans to attend NAU and pursue a degree in civil engineering. So, yep. I think he's kind of smart, too. Uh in closing, I want to highlight that Ryan was selected by his teachers to join a committee his sophomore year tasked with developing the core values statement for Xolo High School. I didn't know him well at that time, but through that committee work and over the next several years of schooling, I'm proud to note that Ryan helped develop and most importantly model what it means to earn everything, respect everyone, and account for ourselves as the next era of Cougar Pride. So, thanks Ryan. [Applause] One of these has your name on it as well. There we go. Okay. And then I got a bag down there. Um, next we

019have Lenora. So, Xolo High School is honored to recognize Lenora Bernier as an outstanding Xolo High School student. Uh, Lenora is finishing her senior year and has accomplished more in four years than most entire senior classes. And I I I don't say that jokingly. You're about to hear it. She is receiving tonight's recognition because of her unparalleled initiative to try new things and excel in each one of them. And yet, her accomplishments are not even as great as her character and kindness. Now, honestly, it would probably be easier for me to list the few things that Lenora was not involved in. Uh, but for the sake of bragging, here we are. I will go ahead and list every single thing. So she did four years of choir, four years of performing in the musical, four

020years of yearbook with the last two as the managing editor. Keep in mind each one of these is enough. like, yeah, two years of student council leadership, four years of acadec competing, um, four years of team court, um, I'm running out of fingers here. Uh, National Honor Society, FBLA vice president. Uh, she did a math and science summer program at ASU and an NA cultural and academic research experience summer internship as well. Um, so each one of these responsibilities by themselves is usually enough for one child, but Lenora accomplished all of this while still working a job outside of school and maintaining over a 4.5 GPA as well. Um, maybe you're thinking that she took easy classes, you know, to help with this workload, but uh, think again. She took literally I I tried to

021find I I think she literally took every advanced course possible at Xolo High School. Um and while most seniors have two home release periods and a couple aid, you know, teachers aid periods, she's got a full class load with three more college classes including calculus 2 as well. Um fortunately, we're not the only ones who have uh recognized her accomplishments. She was recognized as a ma a national merit scholar her junior year for both rural and first generation. Uh she received the peo stars scholarship and the Arizona FBLA scholarship but most notably has received the quest math scholar award which comes with a full ride scholarship to attend Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. Um this is next level stuff guys. This is this is not like you you probably won't hear me saying this that

022often. I mean, this is incredible. Um, and she intends to earn a chemistry chemistry degree and pursue a career in academic research before returning to Xolo High School to teach math. I might have slipped that in there. Quick, get a contract ready. Yeah. Yeah. Let's get it going. Wishful thinking anyways, right? But uh we are so proud of her and cannot wait to see her change the world. So thank you [Applause] all. Here's yours. All right. Okay. Last but not least, we have um Miss Debbie Hall here with us. Okay. Uh Xolo High School is honored to recognize Mrs. Debbie Hall as a clear and obvious choice for her outstanding performance at Xolo High School. I had the privilege of working alongside Debbie when she was the principal at Whipple Ranch and was even more

023fortunate to bring her into our Xolo High School staff as a CTE teacher for early childhood and ed professions three years ago. Uh she has been a leader to myself um and to our staff as much as she's been a leader to her CTE students. Um you truly could not create a more perfect teacher to put in charge of developing our next generation of teachers. Um when her colleagues were asked to describe her, they all said some of the kindest words a teacher could hear. One colleague described her as the most caring, organized teacher they know. And teacher was in quotes, because that is exactly what she is. In their words, some people work at a school, but Debbie teaches. Um, couldn't have said that better myself. Um, another new teacher described Mrs. Hall as

024a great mentor and friend that always has a smile and is willing to help whenever asked. She also was described as being very knowledgeable and a top resource for our staff and students. Specifically relating to her unique leadership ability, she is able to guide others and make them feel good about themselves even through challenging times. If you ask any student from any class period, from any year that she's taught, they all will tell you how great of a teacher and mentor she was to them. I swear not a days go a day goes by when I'm talking to students at lunch about their favorite classes and teachers and Mrs. Hall's name isn't brought up. In fact, just last week I was asking a group of students about which teachers inspire them the most. And two

025of the students mentioned Mrs. Hall only to find out that they don't even have her class of all the teachers. They were they were talking, you know, talking about Mrs. Hall. Um, her influence on our school and community runs extremely deep and cannot be replaced. In closing, I wanted to share that she is hands down the best storyteller of all time and one of the funniest human beings I know. And uh I would have her share this amazing story about her high school PE teacher and like a disco song, but but uh unfortunately we don't have time tonight unless you I'm good. Okay. Okay. All right. Maybe another maybe another day. Um but uh but all in all, this school district and our high school would certainly not be the same without Miss Hall's influence,

026and we are excited to work alongside her as she takes her talents to the next level uh with our future teachers at NPC. So that [Applause] All right. Do a quick picture. Yeah. You're not okay with it. Yeah. Right. Exactly. Just see what I might twitch together and we'll just be right here. I don't scoot this way. Congratulations. Thank you. Good luck to you. Congratulations. Congrats. Good luck to you and your future. Thank you. Yeah. Are Ryan and Lenor's parents here? Take care. Ryan's parents. Lenora's parents here. That worked out perfect. Thank you all so much. Yes. [Applause] We're not done, are we? We are not done. Perfect. This is my favorite part of the meeting. So, longer we can make it go on, the better. Mrs. Whipple and state choir. So tonight we would

027like to recognize our um nine allstate choir or state champion kids who have worked extremely hard this year. the process they have to go through is not easy making regionals and some of these kids were first chair in our region and all of them were in the top tens and top fives in our region and represented well and then at all state um they had to compete against um 700 kids for 200 spots in um the state choir and these kids worked really really hard and performed beautifully. Um we had two students who made the top 10. Lincoln Taylor was second chair bass in the state and even Eva Cornelson was seventh chair soprano in the state. So we want to congratulate them for being in the top 10 and the rest of the kids

028of course made the choir as well. We were just super proud of them. This is the most that we've ever had from Xolo High School make um all state and so it is an honor and an accomplishment to them. So um we have Aiden Ratliff who made tenor and then Eva Cornelson is soprano who I missed. Tyler Hall who was a bass and then William Brimhal who was tenor. Haley Robinson soprano. Lincoln Taylor as a bass. Kabri Black on alto. Lucy Brewer on alto and Clarissa Badger on soprano. So we are super proud of them and the way that they represent our school. Um the way that they performed and it was just outstanding to get compliments from some of the big schools in the valley that only had one or two or three kids

029there to find out that our little school had this many. So, I am super proud of these kids, not only for their characters and the talents that they encompass, but just the way that they represent and are kind to others and I just love them all so much and I'm super proud of them. So, we just wanted to recognize each and every single one of them for the work that they have done and wish them the best, all the seniors and their success and um all the rest of these kids are going to keep performing for the next couple years or so. So, anyway, thank you for letting us be here and to recognize them for their accomplishments. Thank you. Miss A lot of times when we think of state, we think of like sports

030where you're in the 3A or whatever. We're talking everybody the entire state of Arizona. Correct. There were um every high school in the state could have kids audition if they made regionals. So at all state there were 64 high schools represented in the choir and we had nine of the 200 students that made it from Xolo. Yeah. That just is an amazing accomplishment. It's it's quite an accomplishment for our kids and we are super proud of them. These guys worked hard. They will tell you they had to work hard. It's not easy. We had to work hard. The the learning of their solos and memorizing and then doing the site reading and everything that goes into that. If you've never had to site readad, come and I'll teach you because it is not an easy

031thing. And some of these kids didn't know how to do it when they were freshman, but they have learned by the time they're seniors and they just do an amazing job. So, good job. They figured it out well and they're they are true musicians as well. So we we applaud them as our choir state champions. So good job picture. Yeah. Can we have everybody scoot down just about right there? Yeah. Scoot down. Scoot down. You might Yeah. You might have to turn to your left a little bit and accordion earth to the right. That's good. Congratulations. Congratulations. Shake our hands. Congratulations. Thank you. Have a great summer. Thanks for all you did. Thank you. Crazy for you. Was awesome. Totally enjoyed. Way to go. Good job, man. Thank you. Way to go. Good job. Crazy

032for you. Thank you. Good luck to you. It's all good. Congratulations. It's all good. Thank you. Congratulations. Have a good summer. Okay. My kids hate when I do that. Miss Whiff swivel. Miss Whiffle. Thank you, Miss Whiffle. Miss Whipple, what? You're awesome. Thank you. If you want to do awesome in music, come to Xolo next. So, now we're going to transition into our staff uh recognition. Um, so there was something that we I wanted to do different this year. Um, I've seen it done in other districts and we called it the dream maker uh award. And so what we did is I asked Ben to help me out and we asked all the senior English teachers to ask their students, we gave them a writing prompt to write about their school employee who made the

033biggest difference in their journey K12. Um, and I've seen this in the past where custodians get recognized, kindergarten teachers get recognized, and so it's completely up to the kids who they they nominate through their K12 experience in in Xolo. So, this is the first year we've done it. Um, so I want to thank the senior English teachers at Xolo High School for doing that. Um, I've read all the essays. We had a great response and there's five teachers that the kids overwhelmingly felt deserve to be recognized. And so we call this the dream maker cuz they made dreams come true for these seniors. So I don't I think we kept a good enough secret. We didn't tell them who they were. Um would Mrs. Castle please come up? Is she here? Come on up. I'm

034going to call them all up. So, would Mr. Lewis come [Applause] up? And I apologize if I mispronounce this. Mrs. Olette. Did I say that right? [Applause] Uh, Rocky Merrill. [Applause] And maybe you could call him and text him to come back. And Mrs. Verkayak. Did I say that right? [Applause] Open this. We can show that off to you. So, as you can see, if if we can is it okay? Well, what what we do is we have actually a a slideshow that we're going to put we're going to blast that out in the next day or so to all of the district. It's okay, Shaylee. We're going to uh put this on our website and we we put in there quotes from the kids of what they said about each one of you. And

035so we I just want to thank each of you just just so you guys can see this is a beautiful crystal pencil and it says dream maker Mrs. Castle a good education can change anyone. A good teacher can change everything. So true. We just want to thank those five teachers for being the dream makers this year for those seniors that that nominated them. And we're going to do this every year. So I just want to say thank you and for being outstanding. Thank you. [Applause] and all. Oh, okay. Let's see here. So, this is Mr. Lewis. Okay, you are kind. Okay, let's go get pictures and you're Mr. Lewis. All right, here I'll help you. Okay, that's a tough one. Yeah. All right. [Music] if you have people here that want to get closer. We're

036good. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Have a great summer. Thank you. Thank you. Oh, sorry. Congratulations, Mr. Lewis. Congratulations. Good to see you, too. Take care. Have a good summer. Thank you, Mrs. Kite for everything. Appreciate you. There comes Rocky. Oh, there's the rock. Give it to him or not. Come on up, Rocky. Come here. You got to come up here now. He's on his picture. My individual picture. I know. But, but at least shake our hands. Why we're you're up here? I don't. Okay, you're in trouble. That's why. Good. You can ask John about that. We We had all of the seniors write essays about their favorite dream maker, and you were one of the five. And so, we just wanted to recognize you. Thank you for excellence. And you have a wonderful award

037to to to put in your classroom or at home or in in the bathroom, whatever you want to do. But we're thankful on behalf of the board for for you being such an outstanding teacher. So, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Well deserved. Thank you, Rocky. Have a good summer. Thank you. At this time, I think we're now going to do some years of service awards, 10 years, 15 years, 20 years, and some retirements. and I'm going to turn the time over to Nicole Pike from human resources. All right, so we are going to start with grab all of these. Sorry. Got a lot of tenyear individuals which is amazing. Okay, so again we'll we'll do tenure come up get your award and then we'll do a picture with the school board. Okay, so tonight

038we honor and celebrate the years of service and dedication shown by remarkable individuals in our district. These staff members have contributed so much to our schools and community. And for a few, this year also marks a welldeserved retirement. We're going to start with Sher Kerr. Sherry is retiring this year and though her time with us has been brief, Sherry's impact has been meaningful and heartfelt. We thank her for her five years of service and wish her joy in this next chapter. [Applause] We'll do we're going to do all the retirees at the at the end. So stick around. Just stick around. Appreciate you. All right. So 10 years of service. We recognize a decade of dedication and impact from the following staff members. Christine Ramses, Rachel Podall, Jeff Barnes, Alex Dyer, Tammy Hagen, Patty Kramer,

039Ashley Robertson, Samantha Thompson, Carrie Johnson, and Isella Canana, [Applause] Rachel, Samantha Thompson, Tam Christine. All right, let's let's all get in front of the school board. Did we get Mr. Mr. Scooch over this way a little bit? Is that my fault? Is that good? Everybody appreciate you. Thank you. Have a great summer. Thank you so much. Thank you for everything. Thank you so much. Thank you. Have a great summer. Thanks for all you do. Good to see you. Thank you so much. I appreciate you. Thank you, Ashley. Good to see you. You're awesome. Have a great summer, Kristen. Congratulations. Good luck to you. We'll miss you, sir. I'll miss you. Ready? Congratulations. And then I just want to say a special note to Mr. Barnes who is also retiring this year after 10 years of

040outstanding service. Uh Mr. Barnes commitment to his students, his colleagues, and our community has left a lasting impression. We wish him the very best as he begins his new journey. [Applause] So we'll do 15 years of service. We have Mr. Ben Merchant and Miss Teresa [Applause] Kim. And then I'll just say a note here. Teresa Kim is also retiring this year after 15 years of heartfelt service. Her dedication to education and our students has m made a lasting mark. We're grateful for all she's done. [Applause] Thank you. Way to go. Congratulations. So, good luck to you. Thanks for everything. You're the best. Okay. So, now we have 20 years of service. Mrs. Rebecca Clark, Diana Miller, Jerry Butler, Jennifer Murray, Jodel Roen, Eric Rask, and Glenda McMillan. [Applause] And I'd like to uh acknowledge Eric

041Ras who officially retired at the start of last year but has continued to support our district through ESI. We're incredibly thankful he's remained part of our team and look forward to welcoming him back fully in October of 2025. Jennifer, we get everyone. Okay, let's do a quick picture. Thank you. [Applause] Thank you for 20 years. Thank you for 20 years. We appreciate that. Especially the kindergarten. You still look like a teenager. I know you look like a teenager. Jerry, how you doing? I'm doing better. Thank you. Good. Good. You look great. Thank you. 20 years. That's a long time. Thank you, Miss Becky. Thank you very much. Okay. So, um, if we could get our retirees back up here all together for pictures, that would be great. Do you want to read their names? Uh-huh.

042You read them all? Yeah, I can do it again. Um, so Jeff Barnes, Teresa Kim, and Eric Raskque. Does this go standing? So, yeah. Take a picture of you. Yeah, this goes together. And that goes together. I'm not down. I'm staying down. Come on. Come on. Over this way, folks. Thank you. Thank you guys. I'm sorry. Thank you. Sorry, Teresa. Sorry, I sat down. Happy retirement, Jeff. Happy retirement, Sherry. Thank you for everything. Appreciate you. When we get it, we'll fix it. Oh, you're just Okay. Okay. No, you're not. Right next to you. Cool. Said hi. To all our honores and especially to those retiring, thank you for your years of passion, purpose, and professionalism. You have shaped futures and left legacies. You will always be part of our Cougar family. Thanks, Nik. [Applause] If

043you'll indulge me, I'm not sure there's anyone in that entire group that hasn't had an influence on my children. Probably can say the same thing for a few of us. Yeah. Um cannot express how much we appreciate you. And for those of you who are moving on to retirement, we wish you just absolutely the best of everything life has to offer. Thank you so much. 6.4 AI presentation. So we have a presentation from uh two of our shining stars in administration and they're going to talk about artificial intelligence Terminator. I'm Amelia Savage. Hi Clayton, assistant principal at the high school. Joe and I think you all have a copy of the policy as well. Um so can you click so we we um Clayton and I were tasked with creating an AI task force um

044over the course of the year um this year to look at um AI and how we can implement AI in K12 education. um we could we put out a survey an interest survey of teachers in grades 6 through 12 to see who would be interested um in participating in that task force. Um and we ended up with a really great diverse range of um teachers with a great diverse range of expertise. Um we also had our director of technology with us um through this. Um and it was a really great experience. I think we we learned a lot ourselves. um working through this. So, we partnered this year with Khan Academy and the Arizona Department of Education, and it was because of this that we realized we really needed to create some guidelines, um for

045our district to move through as we start to implement AI in our district. Um and so, um the creation process of course, we met between November and March. We did a lot of research. Um we really leaned heavily on NA's um generative artificial intelligence guidelines for implementation in K12 schools. Um that was very interesting to work through. Um we also looked at what other districts are doing in the state of Arizona in terms of um AI implementation in their districts. Um and then we also put out a survey to determine what type of AI is already being used in our district by our teachers. Um, and we use that to kind of work on this um, ethical AI use policy statement for our Xolo Unified School District, which of course you have there with you.

046Um, click also in there. There are a couple of links that you guys can link to and check out some of those resources that we used. Um, some acknowledgements here. Of course, all of our members um, throughout the high school, our RISE program, and and our junior high as well. and and they're all mentioned there. All right. Um, as you can see, I hope you did your homework and read through it all, John. Um, policy is pretty dense. I think it goes about 12 pages, including some addendums at the at the back there. Um, so I'm just going to generally kind of go over um purpose of the policy and some things that we considered in designing it. Um, so first of all, uh, AI um, we want to use it um, it's being used

047in our classrooms. Uh we want to make sure that the purpose of it is to improve our teaching and learning in the classroom. Um we want to make sure that uh fairness is promoted um with regards to AI use that all kids are taught how to use it. Um because um just like any other skill, if you don't learn it um coming out of high school, you're behind everybody else. Um to also ensure ethical AI use by students and staff. Um so we did consider plagiarism and things like that in our policy. Um and also uh privacy protections uh because what we've learned in this process is that AI when you're using it day in and day out, it starts to know you and who you are and everything about you. Um and so considering

048the privacy of our students and staff and using it on our servers as well. Um and then the policy um it covers uh it has guidelines for students, teachers, staff and administrators. Um there are there's a list of approved AI tools in there. Um so the committee we we surveyed all the teachers uh in the district and found I believe five five or six uh tools that are most commonly being used. Um and we vetted those to make sure that they are appropriate to be used in their classrooms. Um for students um so they may only use those approved AI tools. I'll show you a list of those in a second. Um and if they are using them they must follow our academic integrity rules. So at the high school we have a cheating policy.

049Um and and this this falls in line with that. Um teachers, staff and administrators uh kind of the main guidelines there is that we are using AI to support um our teaching not replace it. Um there are so many things that you can do to just enhance your teaching and your um your your ability as a teacher uh that you can use it for. Um and then like more for like administrators and teachers and staff, but um we use AI for support and not to make our decisions for us. Um so to gather research and things like that. Um the approved AI tools uh so far and like everything this is probably going to be a living document as more tools are created uh we learn more about things um and accesses cost more money

050and less money throughout the years as they get more developed. Um so right now we have approved uh chat GPT um con MIGO of course we have our partnership with them in the department of education magic school AI Gemini diffit and canva um these are all tools that teachers across the district have been using um for the last couple of years um and so when we we survey teachers we want to make sure that we got the things in there that they wanted and that they were already comfortable using. Um we also made sure that our our approved AI tools uh do follow uh educational laws. So FURPA, Kappa, SIPA and PP were uh considered in this. Thanks to Hal for that. Um so just a little bit about those. Uh so SIPA is filters

051harmful content. It's a policy about that. Uh FURPA we know protects students records and privacy. Um Kappa limits data from children under 13 and PP safeguards sensitive data. Uh all of these were taken into consideration when we designed this policy. I believe that's it unless there are specific questions we might be able to answer. I was really glad to see that you had a committee that was fully inclusive of all the different departments, you know, including like hell because that was one of my biggest concerns is ensuring that we weren't violating any fura copa or any of that. So, thank you for that. And it was a long read, but it was a good read. Yeah, very informative. Yeah. Thank you. Any other questions? Not really a question. I was just uh glad to see

052and I there was so much in here that is just so informative and on point. So, I love that. Um, if I can just highlight some of the things. Parents and guardians are encouraged to become familiar with the student family handbooks and codes of conduct for which their children attend the Xolo School District acceptable technology use policy as well as all rights and responsibilities as outlined in the student and family handbooks. So again, it's accessible to all the parents so that we can remain transparent in our goal. um we're not only um supplying our students and staff with this AI technology because that is the way of the future, but we have a purpose and a goal and it will include families um to to go along right with that. A question or yeah, I

053guess it is a question. Um the policy agreement will that be on the district website will we so the plan our our timeline is now that you've seen it and you've seen the presentation we're going to bring this back next month for you to officially approve it and then once the board officially approves it this is something that we can insert into every student handbook for junior high, high school, elementary. So that that will be accessed and you can see the signature page that that's something that we want to be sending out that will require signatures from every f every family and student because artificial intelligence I think we can agree it's not going to go away. It's only going to be more advanced and we got to have some guard rails and parameters because

054it's it's a moving target of sorts. But I just want to thank uh these two professionals and the committee. Um, they did a fantastic job because it is a moving target and things are changing all the time, but I felt like we needed to have some some starting point and some guard rails uh moving forward. But you will see this topic again. It's it's not going to be a oneanddone for sure. That's wonderful. So much work. Wanted to highlight also parents have the right to review instructional materials, surveys, and evaluations before they are administered to students. And then there's an opt out um option for all of these. So just so it's on record, um schools must inform families annually about their rights under FURPA. So thank you to the team and everyone who's put

055your hard work into it. We really appreciate you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks, guys. Next time, Clayton, if you want one, we can do one. was good. 6.5 West Ed presentation, Miss Jones. Hi. Hello. Hi. Great shoes today. They're awesome. That one says NG. Oh, very good. I was loving the You are so funny. That is awesome. So, we want to talk a little bit about Westad. Westad's been on our campus since fall, and I just want to give you guys kind of a heads up what's what's been going on. Um why we talked in the fall about the fact that NH has been under some sort of TSI, which is the targeted school improvement since 2018. um staff is in need of explicit training on how to utilize the data that we

056we have and how to drive use it to drive instruction and also how to show growth of our students. Um the other reason was to build capacity of instructional staff by strengthening our professional practice once again data driven um and through our PLC's and we have found that um there's just a few things that were lacking at Nicholas Homestead even what a professional learning community is and using the data versus what a team what a team meeting is and the difference between the two and how can we utilize our time more effectively on campus. um Wes Ed was brought in to utilize um utilizing our grant monies through that TSI process um to train our teachers on PLC's. Um we brought them on campus multiple times. If you follow our Facebook, we post tons on

057Facebook just to kind of see what what we're up to. Um which has allowed for specific instructional training. We knew ahead of time what they were really going to focus on, which then we were able then to prepare our teachers as well. And it also helped base on each grade level. um through the modeling they were able to have their own PLC meetings on the campus. And so at the beginning it was very much watching um whether it was Jason um Charlotte's been a huge part myself watching what it looks like as we model what this looks like and then them coming back over then and taking over the reigns and modeling um within their own teams and then teachers utilize their own data during PLC training. It was important for us to use something

058that was relevant. you can pull random numbers, but they could actually look at their kids and see, okay, what is working and what's not working. Um, Ken from AD, he was actually on my campus. He met with us yesterday at the district office. He was on my campus this morning. Um, he's met with administration over the summer virtually with me before I was actually the principal. He met with me in June um couple different times and then has been on campus three times this year. today was our fourth and then met once virtually um where I actually walked around with the laptop and he was in the classrooms. Um he also sends out monthly emails. He's very open. If I have a question, I just email him. He's very open to Mrs. Anderson as well.

059And he's the education program specialist with AD that supports school improvement at NH and he's also a part of um WMI as well. Um, specifically for Nicholas Homeset, our subgroup is our special education population. And so that is our students with disabilities and includes supporting the development of strong tier one instruction. And when you look at strong tier one instruction, it's partnering with administration and our leadership team. Um, looking at our data, um, providing helpful resources, providing grant support and problem solving in general. So, as a first year principal, um, for me, it's been huge for me to go back and say, "Okay, explain the things to myself." and he's super patient about this. This is what we're doing and this is what what we're we're lending to get us to when it comes to

060Xolo. Um Jason from West Ed, he she as well been on campus several times. She does tons of Zooms with us to help plan the trainings and she's been on campus five times and she comes two times. Um when she comes it's a double day. She comes on Thursday. She walks the campus with us. Um we hit every classroom. We spend a few minutes in. We come back out. We talk about what we saw and then we go into the next classroom. Same thing. Teachers at the beginning it was really us going in what did we see? And as we progressed it was teachers telling us specifically what were they what were we looking for? Pick something that you want to get better at and then we are then going to go ahead and we're

061going to try to identify what's going on and then give them a what if that next what could we do to push it to the higher level. Um, Fridays were utilized by applying previously learned skills to PLC's in the morning and then staff training on the new protocols that they were working on. Some of the changes that we've seen is really understanding that difference between a team meeting and a PLC. Um, there was a little bit of apprehension at the beginning. I was told some of the grade levels were having threehour PLC's and what they found it wasn't a three-hour PLC, it was a three-hour team meeting. And so, it's things that can be wrapped up in an email. It it you do not have to sit and talk about all these specifics. Um, setting

062those time boundaries was huge for our PLC discussions and having those time protocols, knowing that this should take 10 minutes, having a timer set, we're done, we're moving on to the next thing. How to respectfully collaborate with your team. um using emotional intelligence inclusion of specials and our special education teachers within that PLC which is something that's I think been very eye openening for Nicholas Homestead is really really real realizing that our subgroup is special education but tier one instruction is tier one instruction and good tier one instruction is going to move all kids not just certain kids and then shifting the focus from just student learning to teacher learning as well it's important for our kids to see that we as well our learners. Um, and then utilizing the team's collective expertise to show

063lessons. And so we may have a 20-year veteran who is really good at centers, but then you also may have a teacher who is fresh out of college. She may even still be in college. She's one of those teachers we've been able to find an alternative way. And she is really good at centers. And so it's really taking those strong teachers where they are in their specific spot and then helping the team become better as a whole. Um vital protocols which is visibly improving teaching and learning for NH is tuning a lesson which is our PLC team reviews a lesson a member is brought. So a teacher will bring their lesson say this is what I'm going to teach this is what we're doing this is what's happening. um you look at it, you give

064praises, and then you start asking probing questions about it to deepen the thinking, maybe polish some suggestions where they're like, "Oh, I didn't think about it like that." And then making sure that feedback is constructive. We are not tearing one another down. It's really looking at what could you do to become better at that specific um lesson. And then the presenting teacher then identifies lesson adjustments based um on those discussions. Second part was analyzing our student work. really identifying what type of student work needs to be collected and then can um the chosen work be analyzed to meet the objective as a result of lesson. So for example at the beginning of the year third grade spelling tests very normal and they had 20 words on their spelling list which is for those of us

065my age 20 is pretty normal. And so my question to them was why those 20 words? What what is it about those 20? Do you enjoy spending two hours grading 20 spelling words? what are those words doing and how are you using them to drive your instruction? What they found um as we adjusted and we are actually using Heggerty now in third grade, we've done a full year of it. Um they found that really they only needed four or five words much quicker. You can spoton see what are they missing, what are they not. It's all based on what learning objective for the week was, whether it's um a pattern, whether it's sounds. And so it enabled them to cut their time and save their time as a teacher. But really that those five words

066will drive those instructions. And then the final was progress monitoring which is to check for growth and understanding to adjust teaching as needed. Um and that should be going on really on a daily basis really reflecting on what did I do well? What do I need to adjust? And then moving forward with West because of the turnovers at NH. We've got we do have several teachers that are um moving. We've got some that are retiring. Our fourth grade team will be a brand new team next year completely. um we made the decision to take that final training for Weststead and bring her back at the very beginning of the year. That'll enable us to the ones who are returning to just kind of do a review. Hey, don't forget this isn't just a this year

067thing. This is a thing now. That's an expectation for Nicholas Homestead. And then it will also introduce those new um staff members that this this is our expectation. This is what we're doing and this is what we're looking forward. And then the staff will set goals and expectations for our vital PLC's for the 2526. We have a general idea of what we'd like to have. Mrs. Anderson and I have talked about it, but it's really getting the staff to do it. The staff needs to have that buy in. And then Nicholas Homestead will continue to strive for teacher growth and learning as well as our data based decision-m. So when you look at the data, um we've got two slides for our 2425. This is both math and Yale. This is current where we were.

068Um we have taken two benchmarks assessments so far, August and then December. They're still working through their benchmark right now. And so I don't have what the end ofear data is going to look like. Uh the students not pinpointed represent new students and withdrawn students or students who um take an alternative assessment because we do have some of those students on our campus that because self especially self maybe could be self-contained that don't take the traditional assessment. And then the current growth uh growth data is represented as a monthly increase with the with the eight and a half months of school. So looking at our data um grade three is up about 13 months and so that puts us ahead. Fourth grade is also at 13 months. Fifth grade is a is a half a

069year. So we know that that's a little bit lower. Um but we also know some of the past of Nicholas Homestead and where those fifth graders are. Those are your true COVID babies. Those kids went home their kindergarten year. First grade as you're teaching them sounds. This is what they were doing trying to look at their teachers. Um you're looking at fourth grade high numbers last year at Nicholas Homestead. Um high teacher turnover the year prior, not this year, but the year previous. Um we did start the school year with rotations. I shut it down at fall break. We weren't seeing the growth. I didn't like what we saw. Teachers came together and we decided to mainstream those kids into traditional home rooms. Um, one of our fifth grade classrooms has been through one teacher,

070one sub, and now has a full-time teacher. He is amazing. We're excited to have Mr. Leak. But there, not to make excuses for that fifth grade, but there are lots of pieces. And that's the good thing about looking at data. Looking at it right now, I'd say they only grew six six months. Well, they're not done currently at the in midappril, they were at six months. But also, here are the things and here are the factors. and knowing those factors, we can now adjust those factors. So next year that's not going to be something that's going to affect our kids. Um when you look at the next slide, the ELA, we are in the same about the same space. Um third grade, same thing. They're one year, one year, one month. Fourth grade is at

071a year and fifth grade is also at half year. The goal is that they would be at one year growth by the end of May. So third and fourth grade is chugging right along. Fifth grade, they're moving. And so their their first benchmark at the very beginning of the year they were in a negative. So they have made up what they lost and then some. And then the goals. So our goals for Nicholas Homestead is continued implementation of of of our PLC's for our teachers. Um continued work on our school pillars. Um the primary focus for this school year really has been rebuilding our school culture and those that have been around know that that is a primary for Nicholas. Um next year we'll continue to do that and we'll begin focusing really on those

072academics. The next uh two school years after that we will begin the implementing of identity pillar and the continuous improvement pillar. And then Nicholas is currently as well working on rewriting our mission statement and our school vision. Um we have brought on a site council which we did not have and so it's very old, it's very wordy and nobody knows what it means. And so if it's not relevant to our school and it's not relevant to our teachers and it's not relevant to our students, then it needs to be gone. And so for me, I am super proud. I'm proud of Nicholas. I'm super proud of our staff without trying to cry. Um I'm really grateful for our amazing families that make our school community. So do you have any questions? Looks great. Thank you.

073Thank you. Thank you for presenting to us because you know you Nicholas has been a school we've been concerned about. So it's great to see the growth and good job to you and all your staff. I'm really excited. They they have worked really hard. Our families have jumped in. I'm really proud of our families. Um we've we've felt a lot of support. Village, right? It does take a village and I think that's really really huge is rebuilding those those relationships has been has been huge. And so parents realizing and I think it's been helpful that a lot of them know me and a lot of them know a lot of our teachers that have been around for for a while. And I think um the other positive for Nicholas is building that bridge between Whipple

074and Nicholas. And really them understanding that the and Heather and I say it all the time, the Whipple babies are Nicholas babies just not yet. and my Nicholas babies are Whipple babies and we are very protective of that group of kids because they are they are they are our kids and I think that is a mind shift for our district that they are all our kids. They're not just sped kids. They're not just traditional kids or they're not just um self-contained kids or not just Whipple kids or the junior high kids. They're our kids and it really does take a village for for us to have them successful. Thank you. not that under your leadership, you went ahead and made the changes. You recognized where it wasn't working and then you just went ahead and

075made adjustments to fit the necessary protocol. So, thank you. Thank you. Yeah. Can't wait to see the end results. Any other real real quick? We've been having a really great time with the visions committee and everything and I'm just wondering if maybe some of those things that that committee has come up with can be shared with Mrs. Jones so that she can um know what know what those are so that she when she works on her vision and mission. That will be the goal is now that we've established a district vision, a district mission, a district guiding principle, and the board adopts that, that will be pushed out to all the leaders so they can make sure that their campus aligns with the district. Perfect. Um, so that that's forthcoming. Absolutely. Perfect. My other comment

076is it's really great when you get the right people in the right places and it would have been nice for you to have been there a few years ago and we'd be that far ahead. But we have that to look forward to. I think this was perfect. I think it was great as when you look at my past. This is my seventh year here and so I taught fifth grade and fourth grade at Nicholas and so I saw what that should look like or what it did look under the direction of Mr. Hall and then I went over to Whipple and I was under three principles at Whipple in those in those four years. And so the the kids next year at Nicholas are all my kinder kids. So fifth, fourth, and third. And so

077I'm really excited. It gave me an opportunity to go back down to kinder, which is really where my heart started at the very beginning of my teaching career. And so I've seen where it looked here in fifth and fourth. I took it back down to Kinder, was able to watch what that looks like, saw what Heather was doing when it came to her change. We have very similar feelings when it comes to what our expectations are for for teachers and for our campuses. And so, building those relationships, I think the timing was exactly when it needed to happen. So, I'm I'm excited. Perfect. I love that you guys collaborate so much. Super great. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. 6.6 curriculum curriculum adoption of online platform for WMI. All right. Good evening. So, um I'm

078just here to talk about the proposal of the recommended to adopt subject.com. Currently, the high school and WMI both use Egenuity as their online platform for initial credit for some kids and then credit recover credit recovery for the high school kids and some of mine. Um, one of the things that we've noticed is that the academic integrity is not where I would like it to be with egeneuity. Um, recently I blocked Google and I about had a mutiny in the room because I took Google away and I was like, man, there has to be a better program that actually like engages the kids, is at their level, is there has to be something different. So, we started looking. We found um subject.com. It is a new company. Um, it's they're this is what did he

079say? Seven are in Arizona currently, seven districts. Um they actually have employees who used to work for Egeneuity who are helping them to develop their program. They are accredited through the state of Arizona. They do line up with all of the requirements through um Arizona Board of Education for high school graduation. It is a 612 program. The difference in the programs is very dramatic. Um the login is in there for you to be able to view it. Um they it actually is documentary style as opposed to a blackboard on a screen that somebody's writing on. Um some of the classes the the teachers it's actual teachers. So there's a person at the front who's sometimes they're dressed up, sometimes they're not. Um but when we were looking at egeneuity versus subject I my kids tried

080it so they gave us some licenses so that we could try it with some of our kids got feedback from them. it actually doesn't let them go to Google. Um, and it actually is more engaging. So, the kids actually have to do things in the lessons rather than, for instance, in science. Right now, they write reports or they do research on a science topic. In subject, they manipulate things on the screen in order to do the science activities and then they reflect on that. Um, I'm trying to think just going to go through this thing. Um, our rationale for it was that it's just more engaging on the kids level. The some of the things that the company talked about were that um their color schemes are better. It's more um flattering for kids to

081look at during the day like for extended periods. Um they also are open to so one of the suggestions I had asked is can we do an escape room type of class like I don't you know as a teacher just in the regular classroom I would do those lessons on a topic whatever we were doing and I was like how come like in an online platform we can't do that well within 3 weeks they went back and created an entire class that was based on that idea um so the fact that they're really will they're willing to work with us to develop whatever program whatever class we not in the way that we want it. They also offer it in various languages. So like my kids that are ELLL, they can have the course done

082in their first language and then it also does it in English. So it also helps support language learners. Um all of it is they start off with a pre-EST. It identifies their levels. So it's all differentiated for each individual kid. It comes up with a learning plan for each kid. So, if a kid is struggling in math, it'll tell me this is where they should start and then here's where their track should go and this is the progression that they should be in. Um, it is all graded by actual people outside of our district. So, it's no longer like me having to argue about like, well, that's all AI and like it's a it's somebody they have a team and they have a 24 to 48 hour turnaround on every assignment that's in the program

083itself and it's graded by humans that that's their job. [Music] Um, I will say it does save us a little bit of money over what egeneuity is costing on the renewal end of it. Um, it's still open 24 like it's 24/7. They can access it from home. They can access it from school. The nice part is if they access it from home, it's because it's the program, it still has the same parameters as far as searching in Google for the answer. Um, it's unlimited professional development because it is a new program. Obviously, there's going to be a learning curve for on the staff end of it as far as how to work the program. Um, but it's unlimited whereas the current one that we have offers a I think it's six professional developments throughout the

084year. Um, it's kind of it. It's just far more engaging the kids. The feedback that I got from kids and from families was that they learned more So sometimes the kids will I say, "What are you doing?" And they're like, "Oh, a video's playing." And I'm like, "That's the teaching." So when they were like, "Oh, this is like they will engage with it and they watch it." And I was watching one young man, he's like 19, and he was watching the history teacher who was dressed up as a general and was doing this whole display, which for me it was interesting to watch him because he was actually engaged in what the person was saying, not just to play the video and then move on. Um, so again, it's just a way to have better

085academic integrity with what we're doing and I want them to learn. Did U. Mrs. Clark and Mr. Merchant have an opportunity to look at it as well because it looked like it was grades 6 through 12, right? Well, uh, they have not. Um, and that I Mr. Marartian and I kind of discussed it. Credit recovery is moving to White Mountain. So, it'll still be Xolo High School on their transcript, but we will oversee the credit recovery programs. Uh, when we talked about it, we talked with Dr. Farnsworth and the belief was just that it would open up a classroom for the high school and it would open up those teachers or the paras to be able to push into other classrooms to really provide more support for other teachers and that since kids are we're

086doing egeneuity and it's what we do all day. How do we get this to be kind of more one central location? So, I'll be listed through the high school as their teacher and they but they will do all of their work through me. It'll be monitored through WI. Um, what about grades 6 through 8? So, 6 through 8 is has is through us. Okay. Like I they're park is not involved in their educational process at all or do you use egeneuity? I I don't believe they do. Okay. Gotcha. You kids that have to use it 68 there mainly housed within your school. Okay. Which is why WMI rather than Okay. I didn't know. Yeah. It So, Mrs. Roach, how many sixth graders or seventh graders or eighth graders did you have this year? We have

087seven. Seven. Okay. Gotcha. Yeah. Part of it it just made more sense if if we are already overseeing egeneuity. It gives us two additional adults to put into high school classrooms to help support kids in any way that they need. But it also like we can oversee it. We will ensure that they're getting it done. Kids will they can work on it from home. If they're not working on it from home, I will find them. I will like walk over, grab you, let's go to the WMI and we're going to hang out. So, there's a whole plan in place for how to get kids through the credit recovery. Um, but it was just made more sense to put it all into one location. And since we're already overseeing most of the initial credit, it just

088made sense. But the younger kids are not credit recovery, right? That is their original credit is their schooling. So, okay. And so you'll just be keeping a close eye and and this is you know it will be comprehensive for them as well and oh yeah providing a good education for them. I actually think out of everyone they will benefit probably the most because it's really hard to be a seventh grader watching egeneuity videos and trying to figure it out. Like I've had a couple parents that are like, "Oh my gosh, this is killing me." But I the new system, so we had two junior high kids try the new system and both of them had the same feedback. It was like they were actually looking at the screen doing the work. Um the science one

089was a huge one. It came back because they were like, "Oh, we can actually do these things now." And it's not just they were engaged and right. Okay, cool. Great. I just want to make sure we're hitting the gamut. So yeah, the it's just 612, so it doesn't have below sixth grade. But um I just I appreciate the fact that they're willing to do like if I I the first time I met them, I was like, "How come you don't do this?" And then three weeks later, they were like, "Oh yeah." And they've said, "Any class you want, you tell us what you want, we'll build you the class. It takes us three weeks." Yeah. Would you be able to use it over the summer before we implement it into the school year? So, um,

090my understanding is that if because we're trying a new curriculum, we have to go through the 60-day review process and then we can implement it. And because we don't have 60 days before then we have to stick with Egeneuity. A lot of the kids too, high school and WMI, they're in the middle of their credit recoveries and so we're extending it through June 30th, which would be the last day of our contract with Egenuity. And I don't want to make them stop and then switch over to a different one. Makes sense. Any other questions? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for the passcode and I'm sorry. It was nice to go on there. Yeah, please check it out. I would love your feedback and if you have suggestions, I'll give them to them, too. Okay.

091Thank you. Thank you. 6.6 curriculum. No, that was just it, right? Mhm. 67. Sorry. First aid training in the district. This is Marsh. Good evening. Um, I was asked to provide information on what we are currently um, able to provide for first aid CPR certification in our district. And as you can see at this time, the focus has been on those areas where it's required. Um I know for transportation AOT recently changed their rules where they were not before we've used some online certification for first aid CPR. They moved to a model where it had to be inperson. So I've worked with them to facilitate trait training for our bus drivers. Um, and then right now we're also just training um our paraprofessionals that work in classrooms, our most specialized programs. So our kids with

092medical needs, um, those kind of things and also it's required for our Medicaid billing as well that we participate in. So that's been our focus at this time. As you can see, we're limited by I have one trainer. She can only do a class of six. we only have so many dummies. Um, but we are exploring some ideas and looking at some partnerships where you know perhaps we could work with resources in the community to provide some larger group trainings like for you know come into a staff meeting train all the teachers at once those kind of things but that has been the focus at this time. So if we contacted like the hospital, they used to have staff that would come out and provide um training for So that's that's not anything that's been

093offered to us. Um I work closely with Darren from um Summit Hospital. He's the one that actually facilitates training our um health techs. we've just had so much turnover that I only have one health tech that's trained um at this moment. So I that's never been anything that's been offered to me. I'm trying to work with him to get the next our next group trained. So So those are things I can explore definitely. Even the fire department. Yeah. White Mountain Regional. I know both the hospital and White M Mountain Regional have multiple people that are trainers that can come in and train instead of putting the time to train in our people who aren't staying, you know, and they have the dummies. You wouldn't have to buy all the dummies and babies and so that's

094something we can we can look into. Great. Any other questions? I hope we can start, you know, moving into a direction of having more staff members trained, you know, so I'm grateful that you're looking into that and trying to facilitate that. Thank you. Item 6.8, first reading policy 1-302, Dr. Forth. Thank you, Mr. President. So, I've taken uh we've talked about call to the public before and I've taken uh your feedback and guidance and uh talked with our attorney. And if you look at the policy, again, this is not an action item. This is just so you can see what the what the our attorney has recommended in terms of policy language. And uh if you have any feedback for me that you would like me to relay to the attorney, I can do that.

095But just wanted to bring this to your attention. Thank you. Thank you. Item 6.9, principal and director reports. Dr. Farnsworth. Um, I think at the last board meeting we had a request to have directors provide a report which you can see that they have submitted along with our principles which I'm pleased to present to all of you. Um, I do I would love the opportunity and we can discuss this at the end of the meeting to have maybe a work session in June where we bring the directors back and then you can ask each of them questions about their report, their year, uh, goals for the future and it can be more interactive. I think that would be very beneficial for for them and for the board so you could ask more detailed questions. But

096I just want to present these reports to you at this time. Well, I wanted to say thank you. I'm the one who asked for them last month and it was great. It was great to see where we've come this last year. You know, what's been worked on and what goals have been achieved. So, thank you. I really enjoyed reading them and I appreciate them and I love the principal reports always. So, thank you for those, too. Item 6.10, superintendent report. Thank you. Uh the first thing I'd like to share with everyone is that this week is teacher appreciation week. So I just want to say publicly thank you to all of our teachers for all the hard work that they do because they do work very very hard. Um in my report just a few

097highlights. Um I was able to attend the day of service that we partnered with the city of Xolo and we were able to go out and paint fire curbing at all of our campuses. Um and thank uh Mrs. Campbell for being there. We're on the same team, so I think I even was able to boss her around a little bit. Um, we're in the process of doing smart goal reviews with all the directors and all the principles and, um, I think I think those were some of the big highlights. Um, Ben and myself, we were able to go on the radio this morning with Janine Ford to talk about graduation. So, stay tuned for that. And uh that was our sec that was my second trip. So I'm just trying to find more avenues that

098I can share the good news about the school district. And so um those are just some of the highlights. Thank you. Item 7.1, classified transfers, resignations, terminations. Dr. Farmer, as you can see, there's a lot of action this time of year. Um, the only thing that I would I want to say in terms of the the termination that we have listed for the governing board um is that that employee has resigned, but if you've looked at the the content, we are recommending that we the board uh follow through with the termination. Um the Arizona Department of Education has been notified. Um law enforcement has been notified. Um, so there's an active investigation at the state level and with our police and um, we I would recommend that that be a termination and and not accept

099that resignation. I move to approve the classified transfers, resignations and terminations as presented. I'll second. I have a motion to second. Any further discussion? All in favor? I I opposed. Motion passes. 7.2 to classified personnel employment before. Again, pretty pretty straightforward in this specific uh action item. As you can see, about halfway down, we are we are starting to approach some summer hour work. Um we have extended some of the work agreements for our for our office staff to 12 months, but that doesn't start till July 1. And so we are asking that some of our classified staff be brought back um you know in the June June time frame so we can keep keep the workflow going. I move to approve the classified personnel employee actions as presented. A second. I have a motion

100second. Any discussion? All in favor? Opposed? Motion passes item 7.3 certified transfers resignations terminations. Dr. further. I I just want to thank each of our campus principles for just being very proactive in the hiring season because we have a very small window to capture top talented um teachers to come work for us for next school year. And I just want to thank all of them uh for being aggressive in their hiring and we're advertising. And the one question that I ask our principles is did we upgrade? Did are we making upgrades? and and by far the the responses that I get from our principles is that like yes, we're we're upgrading in these positions that we're hiring for, which as you know, teachers make the difference in the classroom. And so I'm super excited to

101recommend these individuals for hiring for next year. I move to approve this certified um wait, where were we? I'm sorry. Yeah, I got off on a tangent. These are resignations and the res transfers resignations and terminations as presented. Second. I have a motion to second. Any discussion? All in favor? I opposed. Motion passes 7.4 certified personnel employment. Dr. Farnorth. So, I got off track because I saw the resignations. I'm like, you threw me off. I I knew they're hiring for new people. So, here are the new people that we're excited that to bring on for next year. Oh, go ahead, Angela. I'm sorry. I was just going to say fantastic at all the new hires. It's so exciting. Make a motion. I motion to approve the certified personnel employment as presented. Second. I have a

102motion and a second. All in favor? I opposed. Motion passes 7.52526 admin personnel renewals. Dr. Farnsworth. So, we are asking that the board approve the administrative um contracts, if you will, for this coming school year. Um, and you've been sent those those numbers for our administrative staff, and I ask that you approve that for this coming year. I move to approve the 2526 administrative personnel renewals as presented. A second. I have a motion to second. Any discussion? All in favor? opposed. Thank you. Motion passes. 7.6. Correction to classified salary placement schedule. Miss Davis. So last month we brought the classified salary placement schedule to you and on the high the high school receptionist, we had made an error to that salary. So we're bringing you that correction. It was just a tad bit high last

103month. We're bringing that correction to you. We ask you to correction. Okay. Motion to approve as presented. A second. Motion in a second. All in favor? I opposed. Motion passes. 7.72425 budget revision number two. Miss Davis. So, uh, based on the presentation I gave you during the hearing, I ask that you approve the final revised budget for the FY 2425 budget. I move to Oh, go on ahead, Paul. Sorry. I'll make a motion to approve the 2425 revised budget as presented. I'll second. A motion second. Any discussion? All in favor? I opposed. Motion passes. 7.8 procurement threshold approval. Miss Davis. So, in this uh superintendent's contract, we have um he has an amount that is slated for Oh, I'm sorry. This is a different one, right? Oh, my bad. I'm sorry. Uh this is the

104uh every year we bring the uh procurements that are going to be over the $100,000 threshold. Um so, we do this in May based on what we've spent this year um for next year. So this is the list of those vendors that are going to reach that $100,000 threshold. So this is that list and we ask that you approve these vendors for the FY2526 uh fiscal year. I'll move to approve the procurement threshold approval as presented. I'll second. I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All in favor? Opposed? Motion passes 7.9 approval to increase civics outreach for visions committee. Miss Davis, this is the one. This is the one. Sorry, kind of confused. So, um again, the the there's a clause in the superintendent's contract that he's given $2500 for uh civic outreach.

105And um because of the visions committee um which wasn't anticipated originally, we're asking to increase that um amount to 5,000. So increasing another $2500 um so that we can use the because we're currently using our gifts and donations fund for that and we need that money for um things like the year- end celebration for our employees. And so, and that's what this money is for is for things like the visions committee and those types of things. So, we'd like to increase that in his contract to 5,000. I'll make a motion to approve the increase in the civics's outreach on superintendent contract for the visions committee as presented. I'll second. I have a motion and a second. Any questions on this? I want to make sure everybody understands exactly what we're doing here. Cool. All in

106favor? I I opposed. Motion passes. 7.10, the trust insurance renewal, Miss Davis. So, this is our annual trust renewal, um, which we talked about a bit in the budget. So um again our liability and auto insurance again with the also the professional liability is only a 2% increase which is a great reduction from the prior year as well as the workers compensation insurance which is an increase again is based on the salary increases that we're giving this year. the overall rate for the workers comp has decreased. Um, but again, it's because of the uh increases in salaries that is bringing that rate up this year. So, I ask that you approve the liability and automo automobile insurance as well as the workers comp insurance for the FY uh fiscal year. I move to approve the

107trust insurance for liability automobile and workers compensation insurance for the fiscal year 2526 school year as presented. Second. I have a motion and seconds. All in favor? I opposed. Motion passes. 7.11 school properties disposal. Miss Davis. So these are the monthly disposals. Um we have some from NH. uh the junior high and the cafeteria. So I ask that you approve these disposals. I move to approve all all school property items for disposal as presented. I second motion second. All in favor? I opposed. Motion passes. 7.12 classroom site fund pay for performance plan. Mrs. Cbury, you've been so patient. Thank you. No worries. Um, all right. So, 301 committee uh met every month, once a month since January. Uh, we were made up of people from every site, uh, volunteers. We had multiple volunteers from most

108sites. I think we only had one from the junior high. We were tasked with, um, finding figuring out like the performance plan. So, the $600 that's allocated for performance to teachers. Uh we first started by putting out a uh survey to see when they wanted to get that money if they wanted it like all in December, all in May or 50/50. Dr. Farnsworth had sent out an email prior to that explaining the new pay structure for performances and 301. Uh we didn't get a lot of feedback on that one. Uh but it was pretty overwhelming that they wanted to see the whole $600 paid out in December. So, like a Christmas fund, kind of like the old attendance stipen that you guys remember. Um, and so we went ahead with that and we looked at

109the $600 and we said, "Well, it's not a ton, so we don't want to make it too overwhelming. And if it's going to be in December, we're going to have to do something that can be completed by October." And so, we decided to stick with what we were using for the old $1,000 in December. the goal sheet sent that out to the uh teachers and the counselors and they went 100% for that plan. So 100% approval on the 301 $600 out in December and um just have to do our goals which is already part of the teacher um requirements at the beginning of the year. And the other portion, wasn't that 13,000 or it was it used to be it used to be broken up and um the administration decided that they were going to

110put that over to um to the base salary. So paid out in your check. So not technically on the base because it's not like in the salary schedule, but like paid out in our checks. Okay, great. Thank you. Yeah, I was glad to see we had a 100% approval rate, you know, and had quite a few people respond to it, right? Yeah. Uh, we did. We had 111 responses to that one. So, yeah. So, the six and again, it's just it's the $600 in the the piece there. And everyone understands that these goals are be to be submitted by the fall break. Yes. So, what we'll do is that sheet that you guys have, they have the whole plan. So, you guys have the whole plan. What we'll do is we will send that out

111to them, the the teachers and the counselors so that they can review the plan and then next year at sometime around the same time they're going to have to sign to opt in or opt out. Don't get a lot of opt out on that. Um and so then they'll know uh for sure, but they should know. We also um the committee also met with teachers before at each site before they did the final vote. So, it should be pretty well known what the the plan is. Please thank them for all their hard work. Absolutely. You as well. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. With that, I will motion to approve the classroom site fund pay for performance plan. I'll second. I have a motion in a second. Any further discussion? All in favor?

112I opposed. Motion passes. 7.13 summer curriculum work. Dr. Farnsworth. Thank you, Mr. President. And you can see on the agenda that we have several um school sites where they have staff that are needing to come in and do some summer work. We've we've got grant monies that have been set aside that can pay for these individuals. Um all this has been vetted through Miss Miss Costrey and myself. Um these are great projects to be working on over the summer and we're happy that we can compensate the teachers for doing that. I move to approve the summer offcontract pay for curriculum work as presented. I'll second a motion and a second. Any discussion on this? All in favor? Opposed? Motion passes 7.14 data sharing agreement. Dr. Farnsworth. So this is the second time that we've brought

113this to the school board for for review and hopefully approval. Again, this is our agreement, a potential agreement that we would be agreeing with the Arizona Board of Regents, ASU, U of A, NAU for our graduating seniors. We would push our graduating senior information to those universities, which would help streamline the acceptance process to those universities. If our kids decided to pursue college at one of those three universities, it's the same concept that we already approved with GCU. I'm curious. Have we gotten parent feedback? No. No. So, we're going to make a decision on behalf of Well, I'm I'm recommending that the board would approve so we can help parents and help kids get scholarship information and get college acceptance without them having to run down and track down all the different things that they

114would need to do. This would streamline that process where if if we have like these two young seniors that we heard tonight, we're pushing that information out to the universities, they're chopping at the bit to have them come to their campus. So, they're going to flood those parents and those kids with scholarship information, uh, ent enrollment information, all types of uh, financial aid that typically would have to be done on the kid and the parent who may not know if they're a first generation parent that's never gone to college. They may not know who to contact or how to get it done or what forms to sign. So, we're we're kind of shortening the gap between opportunities and non-opportunities. Now, parents don't have to take it. They don't have to take one cent. They don't

115have to take They don't have to enroll their kid in ASU or UVA or NAU. I'm just trying to bridge the gap where kids have more opportunities that maybe they didn't even know about. I move to approve the data sharing agreement as presented. I'll second. I have a motion to second. All in favor? I opposed. Motion passes. 7.15 approval of policy 5-217B. So, we approved this policy in the fall and I've worked with the high school principal and he gave me specific edits to that policy that are custom to Xolo High School. And so, that's been given to the attorney and this is the recommendation with with the Xoloized version of of of the policy that we would recommend that you would approve. I move to approve the policy 5-2017.B as presented. I'll second. There's

116no zero in there if it matters. It's just 217. In mine there was there's a zero in yours. I do. Oh, there is in the narrative. Huh? Oh, I apologize. Yeah, there should be no zero there. So, it's just no, right? It's just 217. It's 217.B. Okay. Just wanted to make sure. So I have your motion still stands. Second. All in favor? I opposed. Motion passes. 7.16 approval of WMI dropout prevention program. John, before we get to that one, I was looking at 6 um what was it? Uh 6.6 the adoption of the online platform to start that 60-day window. Do we need to approve that tonight? So that would be the clock starts tonight because we didn't we didn't have action on it. I don't believe I don't think you can approve it because

117it has to be open to the public for 60 days per our policy. 60 days. This opens the 60 days. That's what I was the 60 days then we'll bring it back for All right. I wasn't unsure if we if we needed um just you know some type of emotion on it. So good. Okay. Sorry about that. Your turn. Thank you. Long as we don't miss anything, right? Yeah. I'm trying. I missed that. Okay. 7.16. So, um earlier or uh last month we talked about opening having a DRP, a dropout recovery and prevention program. Um just really quick, the mission of the dropout prevention is just to get kids graduated from high school. um as opposed to a GED or something other than high school diploma. Um I'm just gonna really quick get to this.

118So this is the wrong one. I'm going to go off of memory because this is not the right presentation. So the DRP when I brought it up before we have our um Arizona online instruction which is our AOI and then we have White Mountain Institute which is the brick andmortar building. Um dropout recovery prevention is an option for brickandmortar buildings. So this would be attached to WI not to the AOI campus. Um, DRP is an option for students who have left traditional high school and found out that they might need that high school diploma after all. And maybe circumstances beyond their control, whether it's a family, jobs, um, any of those things prohibit them from attending an in-person program. So, this would be an opportunity for those who have left the educational setting to come

119back. They create an individual learning plan. It's these are the classes I need to take. here's the dates that I'm going to take them. I will finish them by this date and then I will do the next class. Um there are no minute requirements for them to do the work online. So there it's the problem that we've had with the AOI program is that there's the 30 hours a week. That's a lot of time for a kiddo to an adult to sit in front of a computer. So with we'll still have the AOI available. However, the DRP is also available and that the main difference for us is with regards to the attendance. It is more flexible. It gives the learner the control over what they're doing and how long it's going to take them.

120They do have supports in place. There's tutoring available still. They will have our counselor who will act as their mentor who will check in with them every week like how are you doing on it? What do we need to adjust? How can we help you so that you can get through the program? Mrs. Roach, can I interrupt? If you go to slide six, six, it will talk about the DRP. Okay. So 678 talk about the DRP. Well, they're pulling that up. Is there an age limit? 20. The day they turn 22, they can no longer participate, right? At at 22, they're not eligible to participate in public education. Okay. At 16, right? I'm sorry. As early as 16. Yeah. How we have um set it up is that you are not you are out of

121high school. like it. So, it's not something where I'm in high school and I decide that I want to do at home instruction. That's not what it's for, right? It is for those who have extremely extenduating circumstances. For instance, uh we had one young lady who was 21 and has a child and a full-time job and needed to go. She wanted her high school diploma. So, it was a it was a challenge because of the minute requirements the state has for the AOI program. So the benefit of doing the brickandmortar building and having the dropout recovery is that those minutes that's not going to keep you from going to school. Once you don't meet the minutes, you're removed from the program because you're not in attendance anymore. So um offering the dropout recovery will give

122them the opportunity to go to school kind of on their schedule, still having the supports. So, it's a little bit more of like treating them like an adult and hey, we're here to support you, not to tell you you didn't make your time and you just know that you have until your 22nd birthday. Can Can I just interject? I I think there's several tiers that I I would like you to understand. So, tier one would be everyone's enrolled at Xolo High School. That That's our tier one. That That's the best program. Every kid can get there. They get their traditional high school diploma. If there's challenging circumstances, tier two would be WMI, right? And AOI. So, they can still have push in classes, you know, like you're doing a push- in math class, they're still

123coming in. There's a minute requirement. And then the last tier three, like for those really at risk kids like the one you just described, there is no minute requirement, but it allows us to help the student get that diploma um financially. We get to keep the funding. we get to bring some of these kids back, but it's a very small portion because it's not going to be we're not going to be putting 20, 30, 40 kids in this program. It's it's high school, WMI, and if those things don't work and and you're you have a baby or you you're taking care of an elderly parent or you're 19, 20, then let's then let's look at this dropout recovery program. So, it's just one last option that Reagan can offer for those kids. The 30-hour requirement

124is the biggest hang-up with our AOI program because it's a lot of time to sit in front of a computer and sometimes kids just log in and that's it. I'm like, that's not working time. Um, so the nice part is this gives them like if you're working a 40-hour a week job, how do I keep going to like I 30 hours on top of the 40 hours on top of being a mom? This year we had two kids who would have been perfect candidates for this. They've been out of school more than two years. They have families, but they need their high school diploma. And we want them to get that diploma. Right. Yeah. If they're willing to come back at 21 and say, "This is what I need." Yeah. Um we want to be

125able to offer that and not make it the 30 hours be the thing that keeps them from getting that. I think it's awesome. I agree. I am so grateful that you guys are willing to provide this service to our kids and to our students. So, they live here. Thank you. Yep, they're ours. So, with that, I move to approve the WI dropout prevention program as presented. I'll second. I have a motion and a second. All in favor? I I opposed. Motion passes. 7.17 athletic coach stipens schedule. These are the um coaches stipens for the FY 2526 uh fiscal year. Um there are no changes from last year except for the fact that I rounded um them up to the nearest dollar. I move to approve the athletic coach stipen for fiscal year 2526 as presented.

126Second. I have a motion to second. All in favor? I I opposed. Motion passes. 7.18 summer speed and strength. Mr. Hoffmire. So, he was at the AIA this morning and so he's staying in the valley because our softball team is playing in a playoff game Friday or tomorrow. Um, but we have a summer athletic program. So, just so the board is aware, June 2nd to July 17th is the window and so 7 a.m. we have all high school football. At 8:00 a.m. we have co-ed, speed and strength training for high school. And that at 9:00 am we have fifth grade, sixth grade, seventh grade, and eighth grade co-ed uh doing their summer strength conditioning. So we have three sessions going from 7:00 a.m. 8:00 a.m. 9:00 a.m. from from June 2nd to July 17th. I

127move to approve the summer speed and strength training as presented. I'll second. Motion a second. All in favor? Opposed? Nay. I don't like charging our kids a fee to participate in training programs when they're representing our school district. Motion passes. 7.19 AIA agreement. Every year we the AIA asks each school board to approve their AIA handbook and that we will enforce it as a district or we will abide by it not enforce it. And so this is the agreement that we ask the board to approve so we can send it into the AIA. I move to approve the AIA agreement as presented. Second. I have a motion and a second. All in favor? I opposed. I'm opposed. Motion passes. 7.20 work program proposal. Beth Marsh. Good evening again. Um I have asked Mr. Brandon Clark

128to join me. He joined our Rice program as an additional teacher in the fall. And our hope is if we're approved tonight that um he this work program will be um his his corner of the world in our program. Um I don't have it. I got it. I don't know if There we go. All right. So just some background information. So in a in our program um we have tried various forms over the years of having some kind of community to work program for our students that really prepares them to go out have the skills to enter enter the workforce in any capacity. Um so through some some um different resources that became aware we became aware of um we found out about some really great programs that are out there that can help support

129our students. And so we've really vetted we've been vetting these programs since what January working through all the pieces. And so we um we looked at the different programs. We looked at how they could align with what we were doing. We um had several online meetings with with different groups. And then when we found the piece that we wanted to participate in, um we kind of made a preliminary plan and then we brought it to our administrative level and and met with our entire crew including our superintendent. um business and um director of operations because this potentially could be a great partnership for all of us. And um and then we also when we had more structure to our plan, then we also um sought advice with with legal counsel to make sure that the

130ideas that we had um were were viable and not um that we're workable with our school district. So the program that we um found out about and there's a couple different parts to that. Um, we've actually implemented already this year what they call a pre-ETSS program, pre pre-employment transition services, and that's a free service for our students where we work with Arizona at Works. Um, and they've been coming in working with our students with um, parents have to opt in, right? Give us permission. And so they have actually we've had guest speakers all spring working with kids on job skills, um, employment things, resumeumés, interviewing skills, and so they've been coming into our classrooms and working with our students already. So that's kind of the preart of it. The part that we would like to

131grow next year is this under this workforce innovation which is under department of developmental disabilities kind there's some kind of big umbrellas that it's under and Arizona at works is the program that we're working with. They actually have a office up in Pinetop. So there's local people that are partnering with us. So within that um that group there is there's a very specific program. Now it's very targeted. So we get really excited about this but do keep in mind it's only targeting a really specific population of students. So you can see the different um the different factors that they have to have the characteristics that they have to meet to participate in this program. It is also not meant for our students that um some of our students that really have significant mental and physical

132physical um impairments and really need very supported job environments. That's those students typically qualify for vocational rehab and so they would participate in that program. This is really geared for our students that have some of these barriers. Um, and they just need that support, some supported work, some skills to hopefully then get them to graduate and enter the workforce. Um, so Mr. Clark is going to talk about what our vision looks like. So, what we're hoping to do is to kind of create a tiered program where we allow our kids, we would create different jobs throughout the district. Um, it allows us to take them out into the district. they work under my direct supervision to where I'm able to supervise as they work in different uh capacities. Um from there um if if they

133are excelling in that portion then we're able to uh set them out and they may pair up with somebody from grounds or maintenance or even it could be as much as like the two young gentlemen that were at the district office. there's different jobs. They would be under the supervision of a person. Um ultimately we're trying to work them out into the community. So if they have a setback, if they, you know, with our kids on the ED program, so if they blow up, if they whatever it may be, we can take them, reset them, take them back in to kind of teach them those job skills. Uh if we just throw them out into the community, they probably end up getting fired, right? So we want to build them and show them this is

134the way we do things. Um it allows us for for that tiered session. So um but the whole program would be under my direct supervision and then we would ultimately the goal is is to get them out to partner with one of the partners in the community ultimately where hopefully they offer him employment um and then be able to just move on from there. So yes, can I put my name in for any of the graduates? So what's that? a graduate. Yes, sir. So, the the thing that fascinated us about this program is there are dollars out there to pay these students. So, they will earn $15 an hour. Now, they can have up between 320 and 400 hours over the course of their we're really going to start at maybe some age 15, but

13515 to when they graduate. So, but they can be working at jobs that we've created, but they get a paycheck. Now, that's going to come from a a third-party person. That will not come um from our school district. We will I'm going to talk about in a minute. What do we need from the school district, right? Um but we thought what a great thing for these kids to be to learn that value of you put in hard work, you meet job requirements, and you get a paycheck. Um, one thing that I thought was pretty cool about this process as we found out about it and we had some ideas and so we went to Arizona at Works had a meeting we were like so we want to create jobs in our district first because what

136I mean there's lots of places to support and it's very easy access for us and they said well that's never been done before. So we were like great let's be the first. So that's why it's taken a little bit of time to vet this and put it together. Um, but we're really excited about what it can do. So there's all kinds of um, like this could go so far. There's so many opportunities just in our district. Um, but I think the easiest ones that we've talked about starting with are working with like transportation grounds, um, servicing our white fleet. You know, Mr. Clark takes a crew of kids over Monday morning is like, "Okay, we're going to check all the buses that traveled over the weekend. We're going to make sure they're clean. We're going

137to check the tire pressure, the fluids." Um, and just it just goes on from there. Um so when we look at what do we need an obligation from the district we've um worked with Miss Davis and the only thing at this point besides um cooperation from our employees right and a partnership with them um is providing workman's comp and so we've worked with her and talked about that and she said that's that's absolutely something that's workable. Um, but everything else comes from these different groups and organizations, Arizona Works and those partnerships. So, you can see our timeline. Um, but really we're just hoping for your approval this evening and then we can move forward. Any questions? would we need to create um job descriptions that are more in line with students and what their um

138duties will be, you know, rather than going with something that the district already has. I don't know. I mean, they won't be employees of the district, per se, but I do know we like part of the process for the students is like the first thing they will have to do is fill out just like if we hire somebody, right? They're going to have to fill out all the forms, the I, you know, all the things you have to when you start a new job. Um, I do think we, so we get, if we're approved, we have a lot of work to get in place for the next school year because I do think that could be part of what we look at within our program is we create maybe some job descriptions that we use

139for our program that like, okay, if you're going to go work with grounds and we're going to do this job today, v these are the things that are required for that job. So that that very much can be a part of it. And will we be protective of our um employees that we do have, you know, some of the individuals I just don't want to put our staff in a situation where they become mental health, you know, um specialists, which clearly they're not trained to do. Um so will we be sensitive to that for both, you know, the student and our staff member? Any placement will be screened like with the staff. The staff's obviously got to be willing. We're not just going to impose it and and to ensure it'll be a win-win situation

140between both of them. Okay. Yeah. We want to be successful and they will start out directly with Mr. Clark's there with them. Like if they're going out to work for 2 hours um with facilities, he will be with them. So then they're going to have to work up and they're going to have to meet criteria before we could even look at like, okay, now you're ready. Let them launch a little. Uhhuh. Now, we're going to launch you into you will go work for two hours. And actually, um, Frank is really excited about this. As we met and talked about it, it's some of the experiences that he's had in the past building these kind of programs. So, we see that it could be a great partnership. I love it. I think it could really be

141win-win, you know, because it makes them become marketable and confident in and and in, you know, going out into the workforce. So, I applaud you guys in doing this. Any other questions? I agree. About how many students do you think you'd be able to take under your wing? I think we're going to right now we have about what is eight eight or nine in the high school right now. We want to work out any of the kinks and bugs because there's other students throughout the high school that can actually join into this. Um, but we want to work out the bugs, get everything to where it's a little fine tuned before we start expanding it further than that. Great. Sounds like an exciting thing. Not only do you prep them for the job in all

142of these different areas, but you actually will help guide them into the areas so that they learn the trade, they can move on from there and have more skills and abilities throughout life. So, thank you. I love that you're putting this together. What a great idea. I agree. I'm in full support. And with that, I move to approve the rise work program as presented. Second. I have a motion, a second. All in favor? I I Thank you, Gus. Opposed? Motion passes. 7.21 student fundraising and activities. Dr. Farnsworth, we have two uh fundraisers for your approval. The first one is that a student council is asking that you approve a volleyball tournament. So, they're going to have six to eight kids on a team. They pay $20 and it's going to be some kind of a

143tournament um at the high school. And so, that that's going to be a great fundraiser for them. And then the other one is a wristband sales. Um this is for it looks like part of Cougar Days. Uh again, student council is asking for you to prove this. They're going to sell wristbands for $7 so that the students could then go participate in the inflatable zone. Can I explain that? What is the I would love to explain the inflatable zone. And Ben, I'm going to ask you to explain the inflatable zone. So inflatables, games like uh bouncy houses, jousting and stuff like that. But each of those requires um its own waiverss. And so when we've added it to Cougar Day, all the rest of the stuff you can go out to certain fields and just

144play and hop in and use your tickets and play for fun. Um but that zone, which last year we had a baseball grass, you know, in kids can only get into that zone with a with a wristband. That means they pre-signed the waiver to go in that in that zone. So, one of those deals that like you cross fingers and you hope nothing nothing happens. They're high school kids at the end of the day. But yeah, fun zone. That's the idea. Okay, sounds like fun. I move to approve the fundraising activities as presented. I'll second. I have a motion, a second. All in favor? I opposed. Motion passes. 7.22 give some donations. We we've had a fantastic donation by the Navajo County Board of Supervisors. Um specifically Daryl Seymour who kind of streamlined this and

145uh donated $5,000 to help with our lockdown supplies. So each each classroom has a bucket. if you know a Lowe's or a Home Depot bucket, they're filled with, you know, water or crackers or um things that if we're ever in a lockdown situation for several hours that kids and students may need. And so we did an audit under Brandon's uh Mr. Clark's supervision where they all the SRO's audited all the the emergency buckets across the district and we found that they needed to be updated and some were old and moldy cuz water had burst open and the granola bars, you know, sprout mushrooms and stuff like that. So, this is a a fantastic um donation that much needed to help us replenish those buckets. I move to approve the gifts and donations as presented. I'll

146second. Motion a second. All in favor? I opposed. Want to express gratitude for those. Thanks so much for the community and how you help us. 7.23 future agenda items. Anybody have anything? Um, no. I just wanted to say I love the idea of us getting together with um our administrators, you know, our principles and our directors and maybe we can offer them dinner or something. You know, that would be nice to, you know, get together with each other. And are you offering to make us something? No, I'm offering for Joe to order something. Sorry, I was So, would this be an appropriate time to talk about a June work session and maybe pick a date that we could all work with our calendars. I will be in Alaska from June 5th to June 9th. After

147that, I am okay. Available. Do you prefer the week of the 12th or the week of the 19th? Oh, I'm I'm in May. Let me see in June. Sorry. June. The week of the 9th or the week of the 16th? Sorry. Oh, I'm gone after the 12th. So, when is your cruise, Kelly? Um, I think June 5th through the 9th. So, I'll be back for the um June meeting. So maybe in what about the second or third or the fourth? Oh, June. Yes. Well, you know, my son graduates from boot camp um on the 30th, but I will be back the 31st. So, yeah, I have like backtoback trips. Um but yeah, June 2nd or 3rd I would be available. I'm leaving again on the 4th though. Okay. How's How's the third? That's a Tuesday.

148Works fine with me. How about you? I'm hoping. I think I'm going to be driving to Alaska. Are you? But I'm not sure yet. So, you you never know what I'm doing. Let's go for it. All right. Well, so we'll schedule a work session on the 3 and we'll have the directors there, as many as can be there. I I should ask the directors if they're free. We would love for you all to be there and that way we can have a more of an in exchange with their reports. Yeah. Okay. You're going to do this in the evening for a few hours. Would that be your You want to do a 5:00 start, a 5:30, a 6:00, and then we can You want to do five? Five works great. Yeah. And have dinner to

1497 like be done by 7. Okay. Let's be done by 7. Don't you all think? Sure. Yeah. Keep us short and sweet. Okay. 8:00 8:30 is bedtime. So 8:00's finally anything else future board agenda items. Anybody? Okay, we have no requests for um calls to the public. At this point, I'll entertain a motion to move into executive session. I so move. I'll second. Motion a second. All in favor? I I wouldn't wait for us. How are you? Y'all have a good night. We'll see you when we see you. I think Miss Davis needs to have you guys sign a few things before we go back. And thank you all for a great school year. You were awesome. We appreciate you. We value you. [Music]