001[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] hi I'd like to welcome you guys to our March meeting if you are able please stand for the pledge 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 please join us for a moment of silence for thank you item 2.1 approve it agenda I'm asking for approval of agenda minus agenda item 7.16 so we can further discuss it with all our board members so moved you first Kelly I second okay any discussion no motion passes item 3.1 approval of February meeting minutes I move to approve as Pres oh sorry about that okay there we go okay so 3.1 approval of February meeting minutes I move to approve as presented I
002second all in favor I I motion passes item 4.1 ratification of expense payroll vouches and tax credits and activity accounts for your approval I move to approve I'll second any discussion okay motion passes item 5.1 I'm sorry all in favor I it's been a while I motion passes item 5.1 student staff recognition Mrs Clark with Becky Clark and her her guests please come up to the front Podium please some of our guests didn't know they were being celebrated so that's exciting for them to be surprised um okay um members of the board and Dr Farnsworth thank you for this opportunity to celebrate some of the outstanding students at staff at schilla Junior High School um I am pleased to present um three individuals that are just so awesome they make every day better at our
003school our first um student that we want to celebrate is Broden spear Roden was nominated by his teachers I don't know if you knew that that this was going to happen and that's how that happened um he is a model student at sholo Junior High School and this is a time of year where I get real mama bear and don't like to give them away to the high school but I imagine broden's going to want to go and do great things there he embodies our school core values of responsibility respect and safety and was nominated by his teachers for this recognition because he works hard he's one of our office age which comes with a lot of responsibility and um you know he has to keep things confidential and be self-motivated and he's always helping
004out just today um our health Tech had a big heavy box she was moving through the office with and he just jumped right up and took it right out of her arms and went off with it with her um and so we just want to make sure that he understands that the way he presents himself in a mature and professional manner is one of the ways that he helps helps to support our school's core values and um you wouldn't know it cuz I think he's real nervous but he always has a smile and that's super fantastic so we want to celebrate Broden [Applause] tonight so we're gonna take a picture in a minute stand on the of okay all right our next student that we want to recognize is Miss Reagan Hall um Reagan was
005nominated ated by her teachers for this honor and she also embodies our school core values of responsibility respect and safety um Reagan maintains High grades in her honors classes she is part of our PBIS crew and that's the student group that runs our store and um they oversee kind of that celebration part of our positive behavior program and she's also a member of student council um she just helped our um student council president run the pep assembly and sometimes if you see student council doing something and you don't see Reagan it's because she's in the mascot uniform student to have our mascot mascot uniform she also participates in a number of sports and always has a smile and just a positive attitude when um we're working with student council she's always the first person to
006say yes and yes ma'am and I just think she's fantastic so thank you [Applause] take a picture okay um this is jodell Ren and I was thinking about all the things I wanted to say about jodell I think we started teaching about the same time um but jodell was a teacher at the Intermediate School which is the current the building the current junior high is in and so I like to think of her as an OG staff member we actually moved the seventh and eighth graders into that building and kicked the fourth and fifth graders out but jodell as a member of the sixth grade staff was there and um just really was a great mentor I think to a lot of teachers that came in and um I just can't say enough about that
007um currently she is a member of our guiding Coalition which is a role that um is so special she helps to oversee all the instructional programming in our school and most recently um jodell was the last man standing as they say in our science department dep we had a turnover and um when the dust settled we only had jodell in our science department and so for a year or two or four she has had to kind of Mentor all these new science teachers coming in um at one point we had a couple of individuals that weren't appropriately certified in science and jodell um before I even offered a small stipend she volunteered to write all the lesson plans and oversee all the grading so that the students could have quality instruction while we struggled with
008having a staff shortage so that has been super valuable um you were nominated by your peers and let me tell you some things they said about you what truly sets jodell apart is her ability to strike the perfect balance between engaging instruction and meaningful assessment beyond the classroom she is a pillar of professionalism reliability and collaboration she's a valued member of the staff known known for her Su superb work ethic innovative ideas and unwavering support of both students and colleagues and jodell your positive presence and commitment to Excellence makes a lasting impression on our entire School community [Applause] so picture let's do a quick photo so all of you come up here Mom and Dad's Grandma's parents you come up and get a photo yeah yeah that would [Music] be okay thank you just had
009take one step did everyone one more [Applause] time thank you you look beautiful I love your hair great to have you guys here yeah good luck oh really I love her H hey congratulations thank you you brought the family out tonight huh congratulations thank you FL so this chair is kind of wonky thank you guys congratulations and thanks to all the parents that brought these kids to us tonight item 5.2 teacher housing uh Mr Jim Hammet where do you want to talk about it first Mr no okay and I think we do have his presentation oh yeah there it is it's on the uh let me let me give you some hard copies if you'd like these as well thank [Music] you thank you Mr ham you need a hard copy I'll I'll take one
010there were extras yes good evening I'm Jim Hammet with the White Mountain Advisory Group and we're working with the city of sholo to develop a Workforce housing project of approxim of 150 units that would be uh basically restricted for the income uh between the 80% and 120% seees that help we'll see if that helps I'll talk louder anyway it's uh it's designated for uh basically for teachers First Responders uh health care workers and Retail uh uh folks so right now with the city we're completing our due diligence and we're expecting uh approval of the project next uh month at the second uh council meeting but in working through it it's looking at the the rents in sholo have increased over 24% since in The Last 5 Years and it's housing is a critical issue for
011everyone and so with this project what we're doing is we're reaching out to the largest employers in the area we we've talked to the hospital and uh they have interest we have a meeting next week with the college and they have interest and had talked with Dr Farnsworth and um he that's why we're here because he's interested he thinks it might also Pro provide a solution and as we go through the uh presentation that this first slide is basically what I had explained it's a public private partnership we have the funding committed and uh we're just now working out the final uh feasibility study and that'll be done in about two weeks but so far everything meets our uh our expectations um the market study came back at that there's a deficit right now of
012over 900 homes for Workforce housing alone in uh within the city and you know I think everyone's aware of the challenges facing Educators in sholo you have you know below average starting salaries you're escalating local housing costs limited State funding and high teacher turnover to due to financial instability and that's not just sholo that's that's pretty much every smaller District in the state um some of the benefits that this uh project could bring is to recruit and retain top quality Educators for the school uh reduced Financial stress and improving teacher retention strengthening ties between the Educators schools and the community enhancing uh student outcomes through a stable teacher Workforce and it also lowers your Recruitment and training costs for the district the impact for the students is stable committed Educators lead to improve student achievement
013teachers living locally contribute to a stronger community and economy increased parental and Community engagement supports Student Success and establishes sholo uh School District as a leading district for educators the The Proposal that we have for you for in consideration is that the standard affordability guidelines allocate 30% of a household income for uh your housing cost and our proposal to the district is that this the district is uh determines their need set and we set aside a certain number of units to meet that need and there would be a stien coming from the district to to bridge the gap so if someone qualif if IES for $1,000 a month in their income and it the 100% Ami rent is about 1550 the stien would be approximately $550 a month and on this last slide um it
014shows that the stiens uh are showing and those are annually and not monthly obviously but um it gives you a good a good feeling of one two and three three bedroom three person households and what the stiens would look like for that so I'm available to answer questions and things but what we would like is uh should you agree with this approach we would really appreciate a letter of support to the city um working with the we would work with the administration to determine the financial impact for the district and then we would come back to you with a proposal for a Master Lease of of a certain allocated number of units and that lease would be essentially probably a five-year commitment that for the next five years these units would be available and at
015that time it could be renewable uh should the situation call for it but I think that's um I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have but it's uh that's our presentation where it's short and sweet uh housing's an issue and we're like to see if we can help the district uh improve their uh retention of teachers and their recruiting of new Young teachers where were you guys going to plan on building this I'm sorry did you have a plan for where you're going to build this yes uh the land is under contract it's on East Wolford at 8th Street it's um which is a very convenient spot it's uh this parcel has been zoned for over 20 years uh so we don't it's already entitled and once we have uh Council approval then
016uh we'll assign the contract to the city and the city will own the site you know when it'll be done I'm sorry you know when it will be done in about 24 months 24 months so was it like a duplex type of building or apartments they'll be it'll be Apartments it'll be twostory walk-ups uh double loaded where you have Apartments along both sides but the interesting thing is it will be Factory Built Homes that uh units that Zin homes is building a new Factory uh just outside of snowflake and uh will be the first project for that uh for that factory and that was going to increase uh employment up to about 1,400 jobs over the next five years so it uh it really kind of a very Cooperative uh situation where they'll provide excellent
017pricing on this first project and help uh help grow the business so when you say it's factory built is that like a mobile home no ma'am it's it's actually it's a light gauge steel it has a 60-year life cycle it uh conforms to the international code of building ordinances instead of the HUD code so the level is much higher and um because I I believe mobile homes have a 20-year life cycle so this is about three times that and it's interesting because the units come finished the appliances are in the cabinets are in so when it comes off the truck you take it off the truck you set it in place you bolt it weld it and then you do the next one wow so we're we're anticipating a fairly quick uh construction period and
018are they multi- bedrooms or depending on you know what is needed or how right it'll it'll be two and three bedrooms we'll have 122 bedrooms and 33 bedrooms okay so in our project study it uh stated the there's a need for one bedroom but um this project we tried to answer as many provide as many solutions as we can and two and three bedrooms just make the most sense at this point and they'll be family friendly I'm assuming we're encouraging families great thank you sorry certainly is a need uh to support our teachers and there was nothing that I'd appreciate more than to do just that so thank you for bringing us this project um well it's our pleasure it's um it's a project that's desperately needed uh here in the city and the city
019has being very proactive in uh in dealing with the issues so uh they've been great to work with and we're looking forward to getting construction started thank you wonder you Mrs Anderson uh we also have a city official I don't know if you want to say anything about the project or make any comments [Music] he didn't know I was going to pick on know but you're always good on your feet um I don't know that I need to uh you know say any more than what Jim's already said it's as you know it's a huge issue for the entire city actually the entire area um not only for the retention of teachers but as I try to recruit businesses to this area it's the same issue uh when you when you have to to uh
020show that you have a Workforce and you cannot attract a Workforce here due to the housing cost it's it's uh it becomes difficult so um this was really an area that we really decided this past year that we wanted to put special emphasis on try to solve the issue and uh I think we're making good Headway we have uh uh We've developed incentives package to uh encourage the development of Workforce housing and we're seeing a lot of interest in that um and so that's how we met Jim and his group and so we're uh we're pleased to uh hopefully partner with their their group on this project and uh and hopefully others down the road so we're uh ready we think this is going to have a uh really be the uh the projects that'll
021kick it all off so we're happy about that wonderful welome to show though how many other projects or areas have you serviced I've been in this business a lot long time let's see I think the last my last count I've built over 30,000 units in the last 30 years wow it's a a lot of lot of units and that just reinforces the 24 month completion date right that's right we have the process down to science wonderful thank you yes very much so I I would like to add thank you Jim and and thank you for being here from the city I would like to add that I I did a Steve thank you I did a quick survey when I first met with with Jim and we had 71 responses so 59.2% of the 71
022said they weren't in the Market at the moment for housing but 41% were in the market and when you when we asked what what type of housing you're looking at by far most of them were looking for a three-bedroom or a two-bedroom and then what what really does surprise me almost half of the people that are looking for sustainable housing is our hourly folks so our cafeteria workers our bus drivers our maintenance workers our custodians because it's very hard to afford housing on those kind of wages and so Not only would it help teachers it would also help our hourly classified employees I would also mention too that the uh City commissioned a uh housing study oh about six months ago we just received a report a couple weeks ago and it's it's actually a
023housing assessment and action plan for how to meet the needs and we have those results now and it much of the information uh mirrors what Jim is is telling you as far as our deficit and so we're uh we're going to be looking at action plans moving forward on not only Workforce housing but also uh the affordable housing segment also senior housing the whole gamut so we're going to be looking at all that going forward forward we it yeah we do thank you very much thank you thank you item 5.3 wmi Dropout prevention program Mrs roach do you have this L there it is okay very good hi good evening almost said morning I'm Reagan with uh wmi just to give you a quick update of what we've been doing and oh I have to
024roll so I just really quickly wanted to review like our mission um the mission of wmi is to assist underserved or atris students in achieving their Highest Potential through individual flexible structured alternative educational experiences designed to enhance their academic growth and Foster of lifelong the Foster lifelong learning um I can go over each bullet point but I'm just going to quickly summarize it so our belief we just really work with each kid where they're at whatever is going on in their world um we really just focus on the kid then mental health then academics and we kind of wrap that up into one and we do it for every single kid so on Fridays we meet and we talk about every single kid's progress where what they're doing um what has worked for them what
025hasn't worked if we need to get outside resources we bring in outside resources um but it's really just a way to to catch the kids that don't fall within that typical framework of the general education setting so it's all there but um the there's three staff members and of the with the three staff members it's been like we're arm in arm just making sure that kids are getting what they need when they need it and how they need it um we also do home visits so I spend my evenings traveling around hanging out with families and sometimes eating dinner with them or not and providing them dinner sometimes but um our goal is really just to improve the graduation rate in this area at the end of the day these kids are going to grow
026up here they're going to stay here they're going to have families here and in order to build stronger communities we have to provide them a better education we have to we we have to find a way to make them want to be there because that's the only way to improve any Community is just to build it up from the bottom and just help support them um a lot of them have no they've not been outside of sholo so we do college tours um we and it's kind of interesting because when they see the college they're like I can go here and I'm like well of course you can like so we even today I had one of my girls who um in two years she caught herself up from zero credits to being able to
027graduate and today she was applying to college and so it's been pretty cool to watch them really be able to transition like figure out that I can play school and I can do these things and I can be successful and I could do something Beyond this without having to continue down the path that I was on just some really quick updates uh last year was my first year we graduated 23 students this year will'll graduate about 27 we already have 10 who have completed their entire High School um and so now they're actually working on we have two that are working on college classes um and they will come in for tutoring cuz I don't want it to end just when they graduate that we've just graduated them and we're you know Moving on but
028that if they need help in college come back we will set it up we'll work with you to get the tutors going in college whatever it is that they need again to help them move forward because these are the kids that are going to stay here um currently we have about a 90% graduation rate uh we went from 37 to 90 in a year so we're going to be better this year so it'll be good we as of this year we've completed 72 volunteer hours um as a site we have done street cleanups we have cleaned yards um we've cleaned up the campuses so we'll walk the campuses and we pick up the garbage and whatever um I just felt it was really important because we do have a lot of community support and people
029will bring stuff in they help us out all the time so we go back and we have to give back so I'm pretty proud of them because I mean it's not always easy they don't you know cherish the idea of picking up trash in the high school but I tell tell them it's important that we do that um we're also working on internships so we have worked with Navajo County and the City of sholo um we haven't implemented yet it's very slow process because there's just a lot of moving pieces and transportation and you know with all of the other things that we have going on but for sure next year we will have it up and running um we've worked with the county attorney's office so kids can actually go with the County attorneys
030they go to court they'll watch whatever's happening and then they'll debrief with the attorneys at the end of the hearings and talk about it um we have opportunities at the family Advocacy Center which is very difficult for me to say sometimes um so they go there and they'll help out there and we're we have dayc carees on it and we're working to get some Automotive into it so kids will actually work in rotations and it will be something that for those that don't know what they want to do we're going to have that be one of their elective classes so they will actually spend two weeks in each rotation it will last a qu so that first nine weeks or however many nine weeks um and they'll rotate through those and just get experiences doing
031different types of things because some of them don't even know what they're interested in yet um the one thing that we've noticed and this is something that we have started talking about is that we have a population of students who have dropped out um we've really kind of moved away from the distance learning at home where you sit because I what I've noticed what I gathered was that it wasn't helping them to learn and we noticed that uh mental health was actually increasing problems were increasing because there was no interaction outside of those walls of home and that the more that they stayed at home the higher the anxiety rates were it just it just had a huge breakdown because they couldn't figure out how to get out of it um I will tell you
032I go pick kids up for school because they might be struggling to come in and so I will like handhold them all the way in the building and I'm pretty impressed with the fact that most of them now they know they're like she will show up and they'll tell new kids like she will come to your house she will be there smiling you know um but it's just been a lot of developing that self-esteem and that perseverance to move through and get the next things done um we have moved away from all of our classes are not online we do math in person we have a teach who teaches the kids math I teach language arts um so science and social studies electives are all online still but those other classes I just felt it
033was more effective for them to have actual instruction with a human and do it that way so we've done that but I have noticed that with everything we've done we do have this small population that they just don't and or they want to go they want to do distance learning at home they will find any program Poss possible in order to be able to stay home and go to school so um one of the things that we've talked about is doing a Dropout recovery and prevention program which would be a distance learning but it is going to be for individuals um their cohort year would be a senior year or be like older than that so it's kids that have already dropped out and don't have they're not going anywhere but it's at their pace
034so it's not that they have to get this class done you know like it's not like a typical high school schedule where you have your six classes and you do them that that person decides what classes they're going to do how long they're going to take and here's what I know that I need to graduate they do it at home um there are tutoring services available but it's really more for it's really I feel like it's designed for those kids that are in that 18 to 21 range because when you get up there in the 21 range it is not fun to go hang out in a building with ninth graders and so typically they don't want to go back I will say this year we have one she finished her high school diploma three
035days before her 22nd birthday and so it was pretty like for her it was huge she and sometimes it takes them leaving and figuring out like oh I really have to have that to do something so one of the things we looked at was doing this Dropout prevention and it's just for a very um specifically identified audience as as opposed to anybody who just wants to stay at home and do school I just feel it's important that we have connections with them as humans so that they will come into the building and that they will rely like help like let me help you to do whatever it is that you need to do um the drps they're an alternative Pathway to graduation like I said um it's just to increase the graduation rate in our
036area to give them their high school diploma cuz most most of the time when my kids leave they're not able to take the GED test and pass successfully it's a tough test especially we're lacking in math we are working on improving our math and it's one of the tougher tests for anybody when they're taking the GED test so and I think it gives them a sense of accomplishment to get the diploma as opposed to a GED um it the typical DRP is offered for 16 to 21 ours we're going older just because again it's just important for them to be there especially at that time in their life they need to be with others um let's see there were some B the benefits to it is that obviously it increases your graduation rate um job
037prospects access to higher education some of my kids the young lady who finished 3 days before her birthday like went on then to college like she couldn't get to the college level without the diploma or the G bed but now is able to move forward and she has a young daughter it's only going to help her to be more successful and in the long run help her daughter to see that like this is important and Mom learned that it was important um it also provides flexibility so if you do have somebody with a family or a full-time job and they have these other commitments there's no requirement for like right now our online distance at home they have to do 30 hours a week they always tell me no problem and then they realize how
038many is 30 hours in front of a computer at home and they're like I can't do this so the DRP doesn't have any time requirements you just have to finish before your 22nd birthday um it gives mentoring so we will have our counselor will be available for mentoring help them with college prospects or trade schools any type of training that they need however they're not required to come to class every day and be here at a certain time and sit in the seat for a certain amount of time it also gives some leeway that they can get credits for classes that I we can connect with standards to what they do at work because sometimes that if they work for instance with money we can connect it through different standards to get them credits for
039high school classes any questions I wanted it to be quick sorry that's awesome we certainly appreciate you and uh having the resources available to our students not only do you establish relationships with them along with your home visits but getting to know the families um and then uh the internships putting that out for them I I so look forward and helping them recognize their potential and all of the things that is possible to do out there so thank you for what you do yes AB absolutely so how many students do you have this year uh we have 47 that are in person and four who do distance learning so um actually of my four distance Learners all four will graduate we've kind of phase that out and so really to get to that point you
040have to go through me and I'm not an easy pushover so um I I like you to be in front of me and so I can see your face I hate going to a gradu like last year I went to a graduation and some of the kids I didn't know and I was like oh who are you and where'd you come from but they're in my program so um I just it's just important and you meet them where they are in life things happen and sometimes we just need that little extra guidance to and it was interesting so I had a kid a young man call he's 21 right now 21 and um he's not from sholo but heard about it and was like listen I just need to get my high school diploma can
041I do do this and I was like okay we'll try it like how do we do this but he's actually going to come to graduation we have zoom meetings with him like it's been fun to kind of see that transition and the kids that have transitioned from the distance learning to back in school it's been complete changer for them because it's like oh this is why did I torture myself doing that the other way and it's good for them to learn you know socialization skills again that connect with other people and their peers and you know and moving forward and I'm really grateful for all you do I think we have the right person in the right place and oh thanks yeah and I appreciate all that you do because I know you work hard
042for them yeah and you love them and we appreciate that yeah sometimes I think it's too much but you know okay that's the mom I coming out it is the mom and me it's so funny because typical day at wmi looks nothing like any other campus and I always feel like I don't don't come in and judge it please you know that's what's needed yeah well we have our like food closet and they will go get what they need out of it and eat something and it we are a family like as much as I'm like I lit I am probably the mom and the grandma and everybody else but they know like okay I can go to her if I have something they call me over breaks they hate spring break they hate Christmas
043break they're just like can you go in today and I'm like okay I'll come today and they will but they come in on their breaks and they just they just want to sit and play games yeah but they need you and they need that consistency and yeah so thank you for providing that they appreciate that sense of community you know they probably didn't realize they needed so thank you for and they're learning to vacuum learning to vacuum that's that's an important the trash it's just like at home yeah teaching life skills and yeah important yeah thank you thank you looking forward to seeing you at graduation okay if I asked a question oh I don't know John was on sorry John I was like where'd he come from all right I'm used to being ignored
044okay bye I'm just kidding quick quick question is this um we're not talking at all about eliminating our online program are we yes well okay so we have wmi consists of two schools there's the wmi and wmi online the online one is the one that we had started phasing out because there was no success in it but then when the because of the hour commitment so when you tell like you still you still have to have an extreme number of hours that you can show that they were doing schoolwork online and that doesn't normally happen 30 hours a week for a teenager to do schoolwork on they will log in and then go to a video game and so what we've noticed is that they're not getting their 30 hours and then they're end up
045being dropped because they're not meeting the time requirement if we transition and this is something that we're in the process I would love more time to talk to you all about it um we're in the process of kind of looking at the DRP because it doesn't have the time requirement and because we require our kids to come in basically um except if you're older will work with you and so it taking way that time requirement is going to help us because there's no I wish I could figure out I can't think of how to say it like we are it's it's part of our ADM if they don't do their hours the other program has no hour commitment so it's much easier to say they just have a plan it's called an individual learning plan
046and they it literally says like I need to take English 10 and I'm going to take it on March 21st and I'm going to finish it by April 17th and that's how that works and then if they don't we meet again and we make a new plan but there's no you have to have 30 hours in order to stay enrolled as a student because after you don't meet your requirements it's like you're dropped because you're not attending class so the reason why I wanted Mrs roach to come and present because this is not an action item it's more of an informative um item is to let you know we're going to bring her back later when she's finished researching with the state about this more flexible Dropout retention program which other programs that are here
047in the in the sholo area they're up and running and we we discovered why can't we do it and we be our own Dropout prevention program in addition to wmi and so she's done a lot of work it looks very very feasible um again that time restriction is not going to be there to which you normally need to get at wmi and the High School experience so that gives us the flexibility to just customize buy kid what they need but that's going to be the last option like there our expectation is you go to high school if High School is and your home situation is such where you need to go to Wi great and then if if you're 18 19 20 21 then we're going to look at the Dropout retention program which will
048help recapture ADM funding and it help the get a diploma so she will come back with a more robust proposal but we just wanted you to know this is what we're looking at we're researching and she's been doing a f fantastic and I can I also want to tell you so one of the things that I've really been working on is like looking at the entire area not just sholo um there's another alternative school in Holbrook and I've had a lot of kids transfer in and they've not earned a single credit and so I've been working with the County because like this doesn't work for me so here let me help you to be more successful because these kids if you have them all day here they should be earning some credits like what's happening
049we have this and a lot of my kids are kind of back and forth and I'm like if you go there you're you lose the credits because for whatever it's like magically they disappear or something but um so a lot of it has been Community out like just going out because there's a lot of that age group that 18 to 21 that we can we can help them we can get this done for them and they can be successful in it and they need that flexibility probably working and can't always do 30 hours a week yeah well and I deal with a lot of kids that are homeless um they're just it's just transitions for them so this is just an opportunity for us to do a better job of gaining more kids like just
050gaining the like I guess Champion for kids right like I just want them to be successful I want them to have that Foundation of a high school diploma well I love it I think it sounds great and again you meet them where they are so that is just wonderful yeah sometimes literally yeah exactly picking him up Mr Larson anything else no I don't I don't think so I I look forward to talking about this some more if that's possible please absolutely thank you item 5.5 principal reports Dr Farnsworth 5 uh I think we missed 5.4 oh sorry 5.4 first reading model policy program update 20242 this is just for as you can see there's no action here this is just a first reading from our policy uh advisory from the trust and they're just recommending
051since there's a recent court order um regarding Title 9 that they're asking us to revert back to the 2020 uh regulations and so take an opportunity to look at it read it and then we'll bring it back next month for possible adoption that'ss great thank you item 5.5 principal reports reports Dr fernworth again I want to thank all the the principles for all the hard work that they do and you can see that they're very busy and they have a lot of activities going on each of their campuses and um I just want to thank them publicly and the teachers and and the hourly folks and everyone who's making it a good experience for our kiddos please thank them for us as well item 5.6 your superintendent report thank you very much um just a
052few items to highlight um we we were able to take a large portion of teachers and administrators to Phoenix for the solution tree professional Learning Community Summit here in February and we had a lot of good feedback we were able to bring back one of the presenters that we connected with her name was Julie SCH MIT and she came up to the mountain and did a special training for our staff and she will be back this summer to do our keynote address for the entire School District which you will be able to see her and then in the afternoon she will do some more training with with our administrative team um I was able to complete the law 100 webinar necessary for the SRO grant for the city and so I'm happy to complete that
053um I was able to reach out to Katrina Jenkins she's the Navajo County Emergency Management director and we talked about you know the fire hazards that are coming up we talked about how dry it is up here um we invited her to our monthly um safety meetings which she was able to attend and so we appreciate her we're looking at getting donations for uh classroom emergency buckets and so looking at different resources to replenish those buckets um we applied for a special water reduction Grant so um I believe one of the board members notified us miss Boer or Miss Anderson about grant money still available for water reduction and so we applied we have not heard yet but I I do want to say a special thank you to Jamie our director of federal programs
054for writing that up and putting that together at the last minute because it was there was kind of a rush on that um our athletic director Grant uh who's in our fields and maintenance who had to go out and do calculations of how much water does each sprinkler per gallon per minute per field and and it was a no small undertaking um we spend a lot of money on Water by the way um we had another successful Visions committee and uh another one coming up this next week um the director of curriculum and myself we are continuing to work with our elementary teachers K5 to look at our um English language curriculum and to see how we can be more aligned in our approaches because we have people doing a little bit of everything on
055different campuses and so we're working with them to come up with a cohesive plan for next year and as I shared with you I did meet with a member of the governor's office this week and she was on a listening tour and so we were able to share some information um about Finance uh vouchers different different topics that we felt the governor needed to know so so that's kind of kind of my report in a nutshell thank you thank you kind of busy huh trying to stay busy yep you do thank you um 6.1 call to the audience remind you when you come up that you have three minutes you need to state your name uh Mr [Music] LeBlanc you're welcome to sit in the front row if you'd like I was thinking s like
056I have to you've got the beautiful voice good evening I'm Larry LeBlanc heavenly father thank you so much for allowing me to speak to the right folks about this message amen well earlier this fine young lady here really set the stage on what I'm trying to convey over here and I'll just get right to it I ask at this board and staff take a seriously serious look at Hillsdale College curriculum this is your saving parachute I am asking that you delete Beyond textbooks and take on a challenge of breaching a contract Beyond textbooks surely this is this company guaranteed a satisfactory pass rate which is not being reached this curriculum is the reason so many students have walked away it is clearly a failing method Hillsdale College deserves a solid look into it's free but
057most importantly it teaches the Grassroots of American culture and the whole truth of our great country's histories when a generation appreciates the roots that they come from they strive to maintain a strong Unity this topic should be on the next agenda so we can talk about it although I should have freedom of speech here Beyond just agenda items don't miss this opportunity to rebound great things are coming it's time for the State of Arizona to start investing generously started into all education systems instead of schools receiving conditional funds of ill health moms and dads call your rep representatives and ask for help these good Representatives will help contact Tom Horn your superintendent of Public Instruction this guy will listen I've talked to him board members staff don't miss this chance take action and I'm requesting
058feedback in regards to what I ask please to delay is to deny thank you and God bless Janet LeBlanc hi good evening I'm Janet Blanc and I'm requesting a follow-up response on two items please one an explanation of the Rise program such as how it works how is it different what does it mean to students attending and so forth and secondly as a citizen I am requesting a presentation that will show a plan of action informing the public how this board will ensure parents and the community of the removal of Dei and CRT from current curriculum library materials and online materials per President Trump's executive order to remove all Dei and CRT I'm so happy we're finally spelling it right diie in fact it's an exciting and historical day with President Trump's executive order to
059abolish the Federal Department of Education it's time we get back to our constitutional laws and lastly I'm asking the board to realize that if the language and policy 1302 public participation in board meetings item six is approved you will be violating the very oath you took to uphold the Constitution this policy change would be a clear violation of our first amendment rights allow me to remind you that our first amendment rights come from God and no one else allow me to also remind you what those unalienable rights are freedom of religion freedom of assembly like now freedom of the press freedom to petition peacefully like now freedom of speech like now this policy change would not only violate your oath of office it would also violate several of our first amendment inalienable rights constitutionally which
060is the supreme law of our land you do not have the authority to remove these rights from anyone you say to take everything to the superintendent please take into consideration how will the board who were elected to govern the direction of this District not the superintendent ever know what the community has to say about anything where is the transparency and accountability that's always promised please consider your vote carefully thank you for your time item 7.1 classified transfers resignations and terminations for your approval I move to approve as presented second all in favor I I motion passes item 7.2 request for sped bus a any questions any discussion right you have any discussion on it no it looks like we need it for a student um I move to approve as presented yeah I second okay
061all in favor I I motion passes item 7.3 classified personal employment for your approval I move to approve second all in favor I I motion passes item 7.4 certifi transfers resignations and terminations for your approval I move to approve as presented I second all in favor I motion passes item 7.5 certified Personnel employment contracts are attached and new hires so I was excited to see that it looks like we filled most of the positions of those that were leading that's awesome I'm very thankful for our principles who are actively repl in as they get resignations and so I I feel like we're in a much better position this year going into summer um although you can never predict what's going to happen in the summertime but they're being very aggressive very proactive and filling those
062vacancies I'm glad to see it I move to approve as presented I'll second all in favor I motion passes item 7.6 2526 school year certified salary placement schedule Dr Farnsworth do you want to talk about that yeah and and I'm welcome Shaylee Davis if she wants to make any comment I want to point out that this is a salary placement chart that we're approving this is not a salary schedule there seems to be conflict in The District that this is a salary schedule for teachers which it is not this is what we use this is the worksheet that we use when we are hiring someone for the first time a certified teacher this is the formula that we use to place them on the for a salary um I was just visiting with a teacher
063today that that many people are confused and that's going to be my job to help unconfuse them that this is not our salary schedule we don't have a teacher salary schedule as we've discussed we don't have an admin salary schedule we don't have a cert classified hourly schedule which is what we will be working on this year but if you will look that we have been using this formula for the last several years if you look down to the second box where it says classroom site fund prop 301 that's where the changes which we've discussed which I've emailed and communicated to our teachers we're going to be increasing that by $2,000 that's the increase for this coming year plus we're taking money from the pay for performance to put it into the base so their
064base salary will go up so our base are coming in new teacher no experience nothing their salary with the 13,000 would be if if you look at the if there's no experience they get a point uhuh um and you're you're looking at 38 106 and then you add in the 13,000 to give you 41 106 48 I think oh 51 it'd be close to 51 oh 51 51 right so straight out of college 51 and change that's right I forgot to add the 10 huh I was just adding the five yeah are you the three yeah okay great wonderful we ask that you approve this again we're going to be working with our our teachers this year to kind of make sure is this working is it not working and uh seeing if we can
065make that adjustment but that's going to be for this coming school year and so our teachers our returning teachers they still will get the 13,000 they they are going to get that in their base right okay very good okay raise right well that's included in the base 2000 okay very good okay I motion to approve as present I second any further discussion no all in favor I I is that a i John yeah he okay motion pass motion passes item 7.7 reclass reclassification of cubbyhole prechool PA professional Dr fernworth so we we have a PA professional that actually has her bachelor's degree and so we're asking that we now um convert her to a certified teacher part-time teacher um am I missing anything on on that Miss Marsh on the preschool that's not yours yes
066because it's also a state requirement that we have a certified teacher out with those kids while Mrs Hall is teaching within the classroom so it just happened to work out that this PA is qualified to be a certified teacher so it worked out perfect as well as we're satisfying the state requirement we got lucky Sorry Miss Marsh to put you on the spot like that you've got several things coming up I just got trigger happy I moved to approve the reclassification of our current cubby hole oh you went up sorry sorry sorry that's okay preschool par professional as presented I second all in favor I I I motion passes item 7.8 conversion of Nicholas Homestead reading specialist and instructional coach to support specialist Dr Farnsworth so uh the Director of Business operations and myself and
067HR we've been meeting with every campus principal to look at their Staffing to look at their student enrollment numbers to look at how they're staffed and at Nicholas Homestead they had a reading specialist um that was never filled um and with with the principal coming in new during the summertime we just didn't find the right candidate to fill that role so with her help she feels for her campus moving forward that let's combine these two positions into one um which would help coach coach teachers Provide support to kids and there's the the new job description that we've attached um we like the plan we support Mrs Jones and her her vision for her campus and we asked that you would approve this new position although it's not a new position we're just consolidating and reframing
068how it's being used I'm sure Karen will do a great job I move to approve as presented I'll second all in favor I I motion passes item 7.9 proposal for Rise Dr Farnsworth so uh we do have a short presentation about our Rise program and and so I would like to ask our director of special education Miss Beth Marsh come up and she brought a guest and if you could introduce our guest and then absolutely um I am very proud to have with me Sarah Chet and she is our lead teacher for our Rise program and just to give you some quick background and for the audience um our Rise program is a state approved EDP program and what that is it's a very specialized program for students with disabilities only with emotional disabilities and
069out of our students with emotional disabilities it's those that require the most support so it's a very small percentage of our population but it comes with very specific requirements from Arizona Department of Ed about how we staff the program what that um ratio looks like um how the how the students are grouped together all of those things um so we go to the thank you so we are so a number of years ago um we have really worked to get our EDP program to the the best functioning um place for our students the best learning environment for them so a number of years ago we combined our programs grades three through 12 onto one campus the high school campus happen to have the most space and the best environment for our students and so we
070brought them together um at one point during the year last year we had a memo from ad and they said you need to make sure that all of your students are enrolled on the campus which they physically intend so that meant that all of our third through 8th grade now needed to be enrolled in the high school system that led to some issues that we will talk about out um so we had a monitoring visit um where we actually had great feedback from our monitoring specialist from ad and was really pleased with our program and what we were doing and she at that point said have why are you not a separate school we said well what what do you mean she said yeah you can be it's it the model is set up to
071be a school within a school to the point where we can have our own identification number um and be our own school just like wmi is its own School within our school and so at that point we started exploring looking at um what that would mean I brought it to a group of our district leadership with you know all the players that it would impact and we poked holes in all of the um pieces and really what we found is the benefit um outweighed actually we couldn't find any negative pieces to it and so what that would look like is we would remain where we are day-to-day operations would look exactly the same um it's all the logistical pieces that would change for us that have created a lot of headaches for people um and
072it also so it doesn't change anything for students anything for families for teachers has no Financial impacts but it could have some great positive impacts on logistical pieces which Mrs trt's goingon to talk about um yes so like Mrs Marsh said last year we moved everyone under the high school um in our computer system which is Power School it it caused a lot of problems because the high school is set up for 9th through 12th so you add in 3rd through 8th grade and it had a lot of negative impacts on that that we've had to work through um it's caused problem after problem as far as like transcripts GPA all of those kinds of things it also makes it really difficult for when we're creating our schedules for our students because it looks different
073than the high school does our courses look different it's all specially designed instruction that these these students get based on their specific needs um and this year for instance we do have kids in every single grade from 3rd through 12th in The Rise program currently so it creates um a lot of different issues by having our own um designation it would just really help the logistic side of that and take away a lot of the burdens that we're having right now as far as creating courses even just putting grades in and attendance is really difficult for us because it's just not set up correctly for us to be in the system um so which just really help eliminate a lot of those problem problems that we are having um in addition like a lot of
074the school sponsored products that we use like ISL Con Academy again we've run into big issues because our kids are under the high school so it's set up for 9th through 12th so then I have to have go back to the back office people they're having to do a lot of um figuring out and changing um to make it work for our students where if we were set up as our own school um in the computer system it would eliminate a lot of those problems um it will be some more work upfront to get it going um but once it's going then we can kind of create things and do everything we need to do on our own um without having to get a hold of Nicholas Homestead or the junior high or the high
075school or all of those things and it would just greatly streamline all of those processes for us um and like Miss Marsh said we tried to poke holes in it and we really could not find any negatives to it um it would make everything um just more streamlined more efficient less time that we have to work on back office more time we can be with our students and and give them what they need instead so we've created just a quick timeline on what that would look like um hopefully with your approval tonight then we would start working through these pieces we we brought it to you early on in intentionally um because we will have some work to do Mrs Ramsey will be instrumental in helping us with the ADM um actually setting up a
076separate school we'll have to apply with ad to have that school approved for our district so as you can see there's a number of things that that we will work through but we we would appreciate your support and um would value the time to make sure we have everything set up we're not trying to do any last minute so would we have to reduce um the square footage of the high school you know how because it would be for another school or that's a good question do farnworth yeah M Boer we didn't think about that and so you look into it I think that's something we're going to have to look into because we're going to have to reallocate that to this other school so technically speaking and we'll call the state but that probably
077would reduce the capacity of the high school itself because now that square footage is its own entity that might be helpful that would be very helpful I was going to say it might work to our benefit again exactly that would be very helpful you just got a gold star for tonight oh well thank you right well I think it sounds great I I understand now better how it will streamline and the legistics that are involved cuz I do get it so yeah I think I it was we were a amazed at the issues that arose because there's nothing worse than like in February um disrupting the GPA of all of our graduating seniors I bet I could imagine so it was yeah not to mention accountability right you guys are folded into the state accountability
078for the high school so we've got a third grader in the high school data it shouldn't be that way that criteria yeah no exactly no I'm Glad You Came tonight to explain it because on paper I kind of didn't no I didn't so yeah so thank you for being here tonight and absolutely yeah yeah so with that I move to approve as presented second John do you have any questions oh sorry he still here I do not thank you he is here all right I'll second okay second all in favor hi hi hi motion passes item 7.10 new position for behavioral specialist Dr farnworth so Beth I don't know if you want to stay up here regarding because this one is is for you this is my but we have talked with Miss Davis myself
079um there is a growing need for for Behavior Support with students um we're we're seeing large numbers especially in our kindergarten um that's just alarming uh of kids that are coming to us with with a lot of social emotional issues and so um I don't know if you want to say anything else Miss Marsh so this is actually a a service we've been providing for a number of years just through contracted providers and in reviewing the funds that I had already been spending through special ed dollars um and then visiting once again we brought this to the team to poke holes in it see if the funding was there um and this would support both general education and special education students but having an expert in behaviors to come in and work with our school
080teams is just vital at this point and so it really I I spent two hours of my afternoon in a meeting going over a behavior analysis that a behavior specialist completed and the behavior plan for the student so it just it really brings the experts to us to give more tools to our teachers to our staff to work with kids I'm just curious is this only at one location or is this at the various location it would be districtwide it would be K12 okay and we will actually work to put some framework with this position um procedures how are we how do we utilize this position um so that they're not it's going to be a higher tier of students with with a higher level of need um we always want the teams at schools
081to work on those lower level behaviors and plan first and try different interventions and this would be a higher level okay all right do you think we'll be able to Bill it I do I I have some um there's some different contracted services in our community that we've been working with and have had really positive relationships and I would welcome any of those people to apply and we'll obviously post an interview and um follow those procedures but I I do think it's viable good I hope so okay thank you thank you any other questions no no I moveed to approve um a behavior specialist position as presented by edmin and I second all in favor I I motion passes item 7.1 offc contract compensation Dr Farnsworth we're proposing that uh we have a teacher that
082has worked with our English language Learners um off contract and we're asking that she be compensated for that and you can see that in the description yeah a motion to approve the off-contract compensation is presented second that all in favor hi I I motion passes item 7.12 proposal of new POS new position Dr f worth this is really not a new position we're reallocating a current position so at the high school they've had a foreign language position that they have not been able to fill and through our analysis of our our staffing we realize that the special education students at the high school really need another case manager teer and so we're taking this foreign language teaching position and we're just turning it into a special education teaching position I move to approve as presented
083I'll second all in favor I motion passes item 7.12 proposal of new let's see sorry new position for Reagan roach so miss roach as she talked earlier that she's she's working with students that have a variety of of needs um this is a great opportunity that's being paid out of her Grant where we can take some of her students and give them work based experience at wmi in in the receptionist type position um we we think it's a great idea that she's able to kind of tap some of her students to get job experience and that we can pay them and it's coming out of her Grant and we recommend that you approve it I motion to approve the new position proposal as presented I'll second that all in favor I I I I motion
084passes item 7.14 update a classifi to work agreement Shay you want to talk about that uh yeah we just needed to update our uh classified work agreement for this next year with some new language uh regarding their hours and their work week as well as um some new language on the overtime piece of it um so we're just getting ready for that new contract work agreement for this next year and it's gone to the legal and they've helped us with that okay any questions um no I yeah a motion to approve the updated classified work agreement I second all in favor I motion passes item 7.15 second reading of model policies and procedures 5-23 1-31 5-24 5-48 for your approval I move to approve as pres uh a second all in favor I I I
085opposed motion passes item 7 7.17 Nicholas Hol said site drainage uh Dr Farnsworth we pass 16 yeah we we took it out at the agenda just kidding sorry so if you look at 7 717 718 and 719 they're all going to have terms and conditions so um Mr rail our director of operations who's here to tonight he has been working diligently with the school facilities division on getting different projects funded through the state and we've been very fortunate with his uh work ethic along with Miss Davis who they tag team to to get projects presented to the state and then hopefully approved by the state and then hopefully funded by the state and part of that process is that we asked that we come to the board for terms and conditions which basically is asking
086the board to approve us to work with the state to go ahead and do these projects so the first one 7.7 is the Nicholas Homestead site drainage to help us work on how water is drained away from the campus so we don't have flooding issues that would be the first one I move to approve as presented I'll second all in favor I I opposed motion passes items 7.18 Nicholas Homestead carpet replacement if you've ever had the pleasure of going into Nicholas Homestead we've probably have 10 different types of carpet all mismatched together and we're we we petitioned to the state board that we would like to get it refurbished replaced and so that's the terms and conditions for that well I sure hope we can I we'll move to approve uh the terms and conditions
087as presented um second all in favor I I I opposed motion passes item 719 Show Low junior high water heater and grinder pump replacement for your approval yeah and this was kind of an emergency situation where the water water heater went out and we did get approval uh under the emergency status to get that fixed and repaired oh thank goodness that's great so are we um approving you're you're approving the terms and conditions so we can proceed with the work okay oh okay so the work has not been done yet on that one yet we we've kind of started laying the groundwork and and I've given the director of operations permission to go ahead to start preparing to do that full replacement but we do need board approval to to finish that so do we
088have a plan in place do we think it's going to be successful because this is like an ongoing should it should be fixed within a week every year once these terms and conditions are approved um sfd has given us the go ahead once we Frank uploads these then we can go ahead he's actually we have the PO ready to go yeah ready to go right and what I'm asking is do you think we've developed and come up with the uh the project so that it'll be successful in the future and we're not looking at the same problem every year or every other year because we have tended to have it [Music] so [Music] great wonderful thank you I move to approve as presented I'll second all in favor I I motion passes item 7 20
089sh the high school robotics building square footage Dr farnworth so in in one of our many conversations with the school facilities division we discovered that the old robotics building which is between the junior high and the high school and that old Bus Loop that building that looks like it's falling down that that is actually the state actually has that coded as student usable square footage oh my and we're like no no and so this is the again requiring board approval this would then take the square footage off of the books that's it's not usable square footage um which again will help us in the future if we need to go out for a new school building we're just removing the square footage because it does not fit for student use and they had it coded
090as a robotics building for student use but that's no longer the case I mve to um approve a reduction in square footage as presented by admin and I second all in favor I opposed motion passes item 7.21 ICM contract Mrs Davis so this is um a contract to digit digitalize our um student our archive Student Records that we've had for ever that's been in over at the junior high that a lot some quite a few of it's been damaged because of water um and uh so we've had somebody going through and purging the records we don't need and getting them ready to be um put on microfish and um so that we can have them so we can search for them when we need them um last actually right after I started you guys approved
091that um based on the State Library approving us to digitize them um so now we have this contract so that we can get that done she's gone through all the records they're ready to go we just have to box them up and they will these uh people will come and get them and we are going with the 100% quality we had the option on the contract of a 2050 or 100% quality we obviously went the 100% quality our first contract or um quote that we got which was last year um was $176,000 and that was a rough estimate we didn't know what it was going to look like so once she got it pretty clean we asked for a new contract and it came down to $100,000 so much much better much better quote now
092so but we think 100% quality would be a a much better way to go so that we have good records um that we can search when somebody's looking for their records um if they need them so um we ask that you do this it's going to be a little bit of a process but once we box them and send them off then they'll work on them and we will check them as they go to make sure it's good quality but uh we're excited to get this done I am too it's very needed I yeah that used to be my baby so I'm so glad to see this being done and um you'll find probably find my student record in there as well yeah soer exactly as I move to approve the ICM contract as presented
093I'll second all in favor I I opposed motion passes I item 7.22 student fundraising for your approval oh I'll make a motion to approve for student fundraising as presented yeah they look like some fun things to do so I say can it all in favor I I post motion passes item 7.23 gifts and donations Dr Farnsworth again you can you can see the the donations and the dollar amounts and again I just want to publicly thank our community and our business partners who generously give to our students and staff and it's just it's just overwhelming to see all the support throughout the entire year and it's just it's we just live in a great community and I just want to publicly say thank you for all that they do um there's many behind the scenes
094individuals that donate and and donate time as well that you don't see captured on this when they come and volunteer and help out so I just want to say thank you and recommend that you approve the all the many different donations um so we have Ohio pile prints they're donating sholo boys basketball booster has donated the sholo youth recreation uh for the high school has donated the Highline vending High School The Hills Truck in the junior high violin case in the bow and sparklight for the Junior High student of the month program so just want to verbally again thank all of those partners with a big thank you I move to approve um gifts and donations as presented I second that thank you and move to approve all in favor I I opposed motion passes
095item 7.24 future agenda items anything I don't um I just would like to see us discuss call to the audience in a future meeting and maybe have our attorney um there as well or you know telephonically so we can present concerns questions whatever so that's it okay I'll entertain a motion to adjourn can can can we just suggest we are recommending that we have another work session and Miss Davis I know the next board meeting is April the 10th are we think thinking to do it before April the 10th because there's some items that we need to discuss so you prepared to take action on April the 10th would that be feasible for the board to meet and do a work study session sure do you have a dates certain date you guys like the
096Thursday right I don't care doesn't matter to me uh I don't think I can do it on the third Thursday I have a meeting what about the second Wednesday the 2 April April the 2 yes so so we would okay so we would have that the week prior to now I know you're not here Jamie did you want her here for adjacent ways you want to do it on the third Thursday or are you going to be gone the whole weekend Jamie she's gone the whole week how about April first she is here the first are you here the first well we can be your your send off before you go are you here April the 1st yeah mhm that's a April that's Tuesday uhhuh okay we can do some kind of April Fool joke
097for the exactly I don't know if he's still there he hasn't been John are you here yep I'm here does April 1 work for you for a work study session yes it does okay you want to start at 5: and and we'll bring in dinner 5 5:30 what works best for everyone five okay five o'clock great April 1 excellent and then Jamie we could beautiful thank you I I'll entertain a motion to journ a motion to journ uh second all in favor I I opposed motion passes thanks everybody [Music]