001Call to order the workshop for Bullhead City School Board on Thursday June 11th to 26th to 2026 at 5 31 p.m. Roll call President Melinda Zabraski. Fred Rushton here. Charlene Diaz here. Sheila Barnett here. Item 1.3, fourth quarter benchmarks results. Before I start this, is it, I, at the school board thing, at the conference, there were several districts that were saying that they got their scores but they were still embargoed. Have we got our scores yet? Yes, but they're embargoed. When are they embargoed too? I don't know. A couple months. I mean probably August before we can talk much about them. I can give you a general statement as we talk about these. So in some ways, okay I'll give you a general statement. In some ways they are, our benchmarks, particularly our third quarter
002benchmarks, are reflected in the state testing results. Keep in mind that state testing results compared to our benchmarks, in terms of our benchmarks, include the partially proficient, proficient, and highly. The three top categories, not just the top two, okay. So we will say that. We have a couple of grade levels that are shining stars. We have growth in lots of places, but part of the reason they're embargoed at this point is that it's raw data enough to tell us if we need to retain any third graders based on that law, you know, and but they haven't pulled out kids who weren't with us at the beginning of the year. They haven't disaggregated the data yet, and that's why it's embargoed. It's gonna be embargoed until August? Yeah, sometimes longer than that, but they tell us
003when it's not embargoed. Okay. Councilor, it doesn't make me happy, but okay. It's not new, it's always that way. Yeah, I get it. Okay, so Jen is at a conference, and so she left me with these data. So I think she indicated in her report as well, our kids were tested out when we did this, and I think she also included in her board report for us to be considering next year not doing quarter four, because the governor has in fact signed the bill that we won't do state testing as early as we've been doing it. We've been starting it at the end of March, and with makeups and with the scheduling and whatever, it takes three to three and a half weeks. With the new change, we won't even start the testing until the
004second week in April, so that gives us a couple more weeks of actual testing, and then it goes into May. A couple advantages of that, it does give us additional teaching time before testing starts, and the other thing is the inevitable state tests are over, we're done, kind of attitude that kids and unfortunately employees also get will be delayed, you know, be moved back, which means it will almost be the end of the year. We're pleased about that change in the testing data, dates, because it does give us, you know, more time, more instructional time before we actually have to test. Another reason for us considering not doing fourth quarter testing benchmark next year, we are using DNA, and we, our teachers and everybody likes using DNA for our benchmarks, because we get our data
005immediately, same day, and can start making, you know, changes in instruction or support, you know, our tutoring and our support right away. State Department is kind of hanging its hat on a program called Navvy, which is produced by Pearson, who does the state testing. Next year is the year they're going to be looking at a new contract, a new five-year contract for who will be doing the state testing, and it may or may not be Pearson, but we are required because three of our schools are in school improvement at certain grade levels, we're required to do Navvy. We did it this year under that requirement. We did not get the results for three weeks. The questions are not nearly as closely related to the standards as what we have in DNA, but we are required
006to use it, and so it's another test that our kids have to take. It's another test to be scheduled for our kids, and so it's no wonder this year that they were tested out when we got to this. So I'll show you these results and show you the graphs and then talk at the end of each section about how they appear relative to the goals that we had for the year, and I'm sorry I can't give you the same kind of detail that Jen could give you because I haven't been in the data as much as she. So just a reminder of what our goals were for this year. This is, why does it not tell us? Oh this is everybody. Sorry, yeah, that's all. Oh see I have it covered up down here. Thank
007you. Yeah, so this is a second grade. We are also going to recommend for next year that we not do benchmark testing with second grade. We have good data that we get from DIVLs and our math screener program and those things, and we need we need the teaching time. We need it back. Third grade. So how many of our third graders took behind back? A handful, fewer than five, fewer than five. We had about 15 who were on the list, about 10 or 12 of them were either special education or ELA students who had not been with us at least three years and so we're exempt from retention. So there's 77% of our third graders are at minimally coefficient. Yeah, on the fourth benchmark bar, the next graph tells us more. This graph tells you
008more. Well it's the same 77%. Yeah it is, it just shows you that it dropped. The thing is you can compare it to the others. But what I'm saying is there's 77% of our third graders right now in reading and language arts that is 77% minimally proficient and we're only holding back about five students. No, no, I'm not saying we're only holding back five. I'm saying we're holding back five based on state testing. I can't give you the number of how many we're retaining otherwise because I don't have that data. It is not very many and you're right. It is, this is not what we want, okay. If these were the old-fashioned grades, you know, that 77% would be F's. Looks like the proficient jumped up a little bit in fourth quarter, right? Yes, it
009did. They basically moved over from partially proficient. Yeah, which is good. They didn't move over from minimally proficient. No. So in other words, there was not a big movement that we think there was. They moved from D's to C's in the old-fashioned system. It's not a direct correlation but I use that to give you some, you know, some handle on on what we're looking at. Seventh grade looks a little better. That looks 50-50. Some nice movement there. These are the composite Dibble scores and so this is this is basic reading skills and so it shows some good movement. We do Dibbles in first and second. We do Dibbles, we do M class. Oh, M class. We do more than just Yeah, I can do it through four. Because we've learned that we have fifth, sixth,
010seventh, and eighth graders who don't have basic reading skills and to help us identify which specific skills they're missing, we need to do, we need to do this, you know, the screener that tells us what they're missing so that we can backfill those skills. And I will tell you that this is particularly it's particularly disappointing for me because 20 years ago we were very successful with those basic skills and and had students who went to third grade and on up with all of the basic skills that they needed. We consistently had at all of our elementary schools pretty consistently had ten or ten percent or fewer in the in the red and Charlene would remember that as well from you know and so if kids have those if kids have those basic reading skills that
011affects every every other part of their learning. Here it's broken down by grades so the in terms of our goals, my notes here, overall about the same as quarter three, special education was up from one and a half percent to three point two percent and and significantly in fourth quarter for special ed students because third quarter they were at one point seven percent. So up to three point two EL, our EL students, it's a little confusing because the state only recognizes when students when EL students move to proficient and we saw lots of growth with our EL students but it wasn't on the azela it wasn't enough to for the state to recognize their growth. Our homeless students were about the same as quarter three. We were looking for an increase from 20 excuse me
01226 to 45 yep and we only made 12 yep yeah I'm sorry I giggled because it's really sad. It is sad. It is very very sad. It's very sad and and it's the struggle we've been working on with everybody for three years and will continue to work on which is that we need our students to actually demonstrate proficiency as opposed to you know the old way of oh you know do your homework do this test do this project do this whatever if those things were not showing proficiency on the standards then we would you know then we continued to get the same results on testing whether it's our benchmark testing or the state testing and so it's it's it's having everybody who's doing instruction understand what their goal is you know what the expectations are
013and and helping our kids get there that's what we need to have happen and that's what we're working on that's what we emphasize over this time. What was the third quarter percentages? Oh I don't. Yeah she could tell you. She just she gave him to me for SPED because it was up you know and and because that was a you know kind of a positive note especially since they were up so much from third quarter to fourth quarter compared to beginning the year so and what and also EL when we know when we can show on our data the growth for our EL and yet on a Zella that the students take for the state it doesn't look as wonderful because they only recognize when the students move to proficient and there are what five
014categories in EL I think five levels and in EL well you know if a student moves from level one to level two that's a pretty significant growth or level one to level three but if they don't if they don't get to level four or level five level five so what they're looking for for proficient then it doesn't even get recognized. Well I don't know about you but you know in a three-year program and we have good programs and we have good teachers. If I were a student in a three-year program I'd be pretty excited if I went from you know if I were learning a foreign language if I went from a level two to a level four I'd be pretty excited about that and would feel pretty accomplished in learning the language but not
015be recognized until I was considered completely proficient in the language so you know those are those are some of the factors that we deal with and and and encourage students because they get a little bummed out when they've worked hard and they've made big growth and yet there's not the recognition for it. In math second grade some significant growth there in third grade. Yeah. What happened at 15th and 6th grade? I don't know I've talked with we've talked with Ms. Sharp she's making some personnel changes assignment changes and can you go back one slide so that's basically saying 10 out of 188. Yes well out of 198. Yes yeah. Yeah 198 kids 188 are not proficient. 7th grade made some progress. How did the 6th graders go into 7th grade this year? I don't recall
016that's a good question. Yeah Julie what do you recall the kids the kids who went from 6th to 7th this year? Did they come in higher? So this is true 7th grade growth. We will have four new new math teachers at Fox five new math teachers at Fox Creek this coming year so the entire math department will be new. What happened to the old teachers? Did they get reassigned? Two are internationals two were internationals leaving us. One was having problems with her visa so she chose not to continue to fight it. She was doing a good job. So that was unfortunate. She was a 7th grade teacher so yeah. She was 8th grade. But she moved from Tidal to 8th grade in New York. She was getting some good results in the period of time
017she was there. So what would happen if you moved the 7th grade teachers up to teach 8th grade? They're gone. We have all of them. All of them. Which may be a good thing actually. Statistically it's not. No but it could be. We don't know. Okay so second grade down 5% from quarter 3. Overall third through eighth grade up 4.6% from quarter 3. She had your answers for you. The question you asked about the ELA but only for math. Sped was about the same as quarter 3. Homeless was up about 1.6% from quarter 3. This is science. One of the things that we are focusing on this coming year in terms of professional development is not just how to read data but what to do with it. How do we take the data and translate
018that into better instruction and into better results for students. So there'll be training on that. We should get our 7th grade science teachers to teach math. 8th grade science teachers could teach 8th grade math. Okay there is one more slide but you're going to be dealing with it in a little bit. So not our best reports. We've gone through four benchmarks. On a new test system. And with the exception of 7th grade math and 7th grade science, 8th grade science. Exactly. So maybe we don't even need any benchmarks at all. You know maybe it's better just not to know and maybe better just to let people teach. Well I mean that's a thought. Because we've been doing PD because you've said in the past and PD we've been doing teaching how to read standards and
019how to teach the standards and how to read data and you say with this this yeah and now they need to know what to do with the data. And we haven't been doing that with the teachers? Well we were doing we had but the thing is if they didn't know how to read it then you don't know what to do with it if you don't know how to read it. And we had an amazing number of folks who didn't know how to even read the data or interpret the data. So we're we will be focusing on now that you now that we've trained you and of course we'll need to train our new people if they don't already have those skills. And okay what do we do with it now? And that's what they say
020to us you know okay now we read it but we don't know what to do with it. If I was a parent absolutely any of these children, with the exception of seventh grade math, seventh grade science, and eighth grade science, I would say you guys didn't do anything for me this year. You didn't do anything for my child this year. I can't argue with that. So you know like I'm surprised we don't have every parent in here yelling and screaming about getting something done to change this system because I've been on the board at least six years probably more. And nothing has changed Carolyn. Nothing has changed. I totally understand. We spent what was it three million dollars on a program? More than that. And nothing has changed. And so adding rules doesn't seem to
021change what happens. Adding adding adding steps to go through or rules to how to read the data or what to do with the data that doesn't seem to make any difference at all. Adding those rules to what the teacher has to do doesn't seem to make any difference. So maybe, this is just a maybe, we should just ease up, take away 50% of these these rules that we put on teachers and let teachers teach. And let them do the the nothings that they were doing before? That some of them were doing before? Well it hasn't changed adding the rules. Okay keep in mind that when we move to a to this kind of assessment, not the assessments themselves, but when keeping keep in mind that when we moved to the idea of holding of saying
022proficiency is what is important. And not just turning in assignments and doing those things and having the old grading system where think about it. We had we had kids who got A's and B's and C's and got promoted and D's and got promoted who didn't know these things either. No they didn't. Okay now that we are saying you all need to be focusing on these things. Okay for folks who've been with us that's a systemic change. Three to five years. Should we be seeing some changes already? Absolutely. But one of the things you are seeing is more folks on improvement plans because they're not producing in the classroom. That was not happening before. And I and that sounds punitive and it's not intended to be a punitive. It's intended to be look you're not getting
023the job done. Here's what we need you to do. We're going to help you do it and move you on. We're only three years into this process. Now would I like to have seen us farther than this? Absolutely. Absolutely. Much further than this. Am I despairing? No. No. We need to stay the course and keep moving because if we change now, if we make another big significant change, the timeline starts over. Anytime you make a significant change in what you are doing, you start the timeline over. Okay and we would be we would be throwing away three years work and I'm not willing to do that. No we wouldn't be throwing away three years. The things that have been important to the teachers will stick. The things that are unimportant to a teacher will not
024stick. So the people who have been through this for three years have picked up the pieces that are making them teach better. Mm-hmm. Okay. For some of them. The people who have not liked the system or it doesn't fit their personality have not picked up on those things. But we're not here to pick up on teachers personalities. But Carolyn, as a former teacher I myself if I was told that this is the way I had to in fact I'll be honest that was the reason I retired was because we were changing at the time and they turned around and we went back to the old way. But I was told that next year we will be teaching the lessons this way and you will be covering this lesson this day doing this this and this.
025And I said but that is not my teaching style that is not what I have been successful with for 25 years. So I am a professional that you have hired me to teach. I have always met my standards so why are you telling me that I have to do something that I'm gonna be uncomfortable with and if the teacher is not comfortable with their teaching style then the kids sense it. Where if you hire a professional and the teachers are comfortable with the style and their style of teaching the kids are more relaxed and more open and more acceptable to what's going on in that classroom I feel. Well really has a more to do with the relationship between the teacher and the students. Right. And yeah and you're right it to a certain extent
026but the thing is if that person is if their style is just to do fun and games and I'm not saying that's your style Barb. No. Please understand I'm not doing that. But that is definitely not my style. No I know that. But when I came back into this position and I walked into classrooms and please keep in mind I'm not painting every teacher with the same brush okay. But we are when we're making them do the same exact thing all the time. We're not making them do the exact same thing all the time. We are expecting them to teach what needs to be taught and there's still room for some art in that. Not just science but we do expect them to do what scientific research says works. So I'll give you an example.
027At one of our sites one grade level okay I'm going to say which site or which grade level is not doing is actively not doing what the research says we should do. What we know from our and I know because I have this historical knowledge that I know works because we made it work. It did work and everybody liked that it worked and they're not doing it and guess what in the data you just looked at it was one of the lowest classes one of the lowest grade levels okay. So that's to be fifth grade. Not gonna say. Not going to say. So what I'm saying to you is there's still room for art in the teaching. But if it's all about the art and the fun and the games and the and the I
028want to teach this because it's my favorite part of whatever it is I teach and you and as an educator you know there have been people like that. Oh yeah. Right. Three of you who are educators know that there are folks who were that way and some who still want to be that way okay. And you know then those are not the folks we need to be working with our students. Because I'm looking at I taught eighth grade well seventh and eighth grade and the other seventh and eighth grade math teachers that I taught with if you walked into they could not teach in my style. My classroom to every to several people was chaos because I had my students involved I had them working I had them talking the other teachers had their style
029but both our students did well because we were both allowed to do what we felt comfortable getting the standards across to our students. We we covered our standards every year we knew what we were told you have to cover this by this date we made sure we covered them but we covered them in a style that we were comfortable with we weren't told this is the style you have to use. And we haven't told our folks that. We've told them some things that they have to do yes. Okay so for instance we still expect them to do a direct instruction. Okay well unfortunately unfortunately two years ago when we were introducing some new elements to the to the the model of instruction we had folks mistakenly believe that they didn't have to do that anymore.
030Okay and it was a little while before we caught onto that and so we've been working on saying you have to do direct instruction. You have to model what it is that's happening. The new parts that we were adding that are similar to what you were saying you did which is getting the students involved and having the teamwork and that kind of thing is one piece of the instructional process. It's not the entire instructional process. So we're back filling with our own teachers on you need to do these these pieces. You can't just walk in and hand students here's here's today's objective have your team discuss and and move forward. They don't know where they're going with that if there's no direct instruction. So the pieces of what must be taught we say yes we
031expect this to be done. Yeah like you know I... But is there room for is there room for it for individual teachers to insert their style? Well yes of course. So if if for some reason you all are thinking that that's gone away then I'm sorry that we've you know that we've allowed that to become a focal point. Yeah the classrooms I've observed I've walked in and I've watched them start the classes do the lesson I've gone to another classroom and it's the same identical thing. Well if you're following the lesson the lesson structure it's going to be very similar you know it's going to be very similar it should be very similar. Okay so let's just kind of end this conversation a little bit and redirect. What's going to happen next year so that
032we get to 45% or 35% or whatever those percentages that were set? What are we going to do to get there? Because we have not gotten there. No we haven't. So what are we going to do to get there? We're going to stay the course we're going to continue our professional development. We are going to continue to expect folks to do the pieces of lessons that they're expected to do and to use the resources that they have to do so. Now can I give you a guarantee? I would love to give you a guarantee. I would love to be able to do that but I'm not naive enough to sit here and do that you know. I'm not. We will continue to move forward. Now that means catching up our new people okay. So for
033instance Mrs. Boat has five new math teachers for four grade levels and a title math teacher right and we'll bring them up to speed and we'll depend on their expertise as well and do what we can do. Language arts you've got any new language arts? We will have an entirely new social studies department. Well three at least three-fourths of a social studies department new and in some ways that's good. In some ways it's good that we can bring people in and say this is how we do things here and not have to fight what you're talking about Melinda which is which does happen you know when people go well you know I was here when you came and I'll be here when you leave. That kind of attitude or you know. I'm not talking that.
034No no I know that but it's a but we do have some folks who sandbagged because they were used to things if things didn't work in a year or two then they went away. Charlene's nodding because she remembers those days. You know and and so we were constantly in a new cycle constantly in a new cycle every year or every two years changing thinking we didn't get the results we wanted so we're gonna change again which means you are you know you're right back at that beginning point again so we'll do everything we can to keep that from being a factor. Charlene I know you guys do this but continuing to focus on teaching to the standards and understanding the standards I think is really really important. Yes. Just to the student teachers that I
035have you know that is probably one of the biggest conversations we have is that they're they're reading the standard and not and interpreting it in the wrong way and and you know and that's where those those it's important for those PLC meetings so that they everybody talks about it so they understand exactly what that standard saying and what's expected. I think with so many new teachers that has to really be something that continues to yes I mean I know we do it but it just needs to continue. It's why we it's why we have the coaches in those PLC meetings and and frequently the principals in those meetings to keep the focus on what the conversation needs to be not on not on behavior management of certain students not on whatever but that they're talking
036about what what is it that we expect kids to know and then what is what is the demonstration what do we have them doing to demonstrate proficiency okay demonstrated. Well and I and I know I'm in the minority here but there are actually pockets of improvement and which I was excited to see it. Thank you. Overall those scores are nowhere near where I'd like to see them but there are pockets of improvement and and I would I would guess that if we went back and looked three years ago those scores would probably be worse than they are right now. They're not good but there are those pockets and so those kinds of things we need to celebrate and say okay. We do. We're and you know it's a slow process but we're moving in the
037right direction. And and remember our conversation earlier a while back about the movement of students in that red section you know we're talking from 0% to 60% and and you can't see that on those graphs. You can't see on there the kids who move from 10% to 50% that kind of thing. So and sometimes those are the pockets that you know first of all we don't see them in these data but those are the celebrations that we have for those kids. I'd love to be able to do the comparison you're talking about but once again it's a different assessment. Right. And so you know and and this year with this with DNA the new DNA Jen worked very hard to make sure that the level of difficulty of questions on these assessments match the level
038of difficulty on the state testing. One of the things I told you that we weren't real happy about having to do the Navi testing first of all because it's an additional test but one of the things that we and and we didn't like it we had to wait three weeks to get any kind of results that we could act on. But beyond that the level of difficulty of the questions had were nowhere near what the state testing is. And it's from the same company that writes the state state tests. So it was misleading you know for our kids so and for our teachers. Okay that's kind of a side point but it's still one that is a little frustrating for us because as long as we have schools in improvement we will be required to
039take that at certain grade levels and certain subjects. I do like that idea though of maybe dropping that fourth benchmark because you know when we're talking March these kids know three weeks of of dibbles and two weeks of this and you know and by the end there's they're done they're ready to. Well and it does take away instructional time so you know some consideration even of what Melinda said about you know maybe I don't know I'm just brainstorming here going to two benchmarks as opposed to this many. I don't know I think it's you know I think it's worth some discussion because every time we have a benchmark or a test a required test is one less day of instruction and when you only have 150 days to work with every day that is for
040something other than an instruction you know shortens shortens that opportunity. Okay okay. Fred do you have any comments? I haven't heard anything from you. Well I originally became interested in getting involved in the school board because I met a young lady who had a hard time adding 11 and 15 and 10 without grabbing her phone and using her phone and you know I'm not I'm not the smartest guy in the room I'm quite sure but I know that my education is I learned that one plus one is two and I know you guys are all educators and and I have respect for what you all have done. I don't understand a lot of the things that I hear here but my concern is for the students and I think all of our concerns are but
041sometimes I think that the discussions kind of lose track of that. What what would happen if we tried just getting back to basics the stuff that that worked for Melinda to learn and me and the rest of the ladies here and you you know what I don't know why the education is seems to be so much harder for the students than when I was going to school. I know things have changed society has changed a lot but I just am with all of my colleagues here I'm really I wish I didn't see so much red I'm encouraged to see the yellow and the green I'd like to see a whole lot more blue and I got to believe that the teachers are frustrated too by this by the results too because I'm certain that the
042results of these tests are not pleasing to the educators as well the teachers so I just you know I keep on thinking of Patch Adams I don't know if you guys ever saw that movie but you know it'd be really cool if we could get a few Patch Adams people going and using unconventional methods but getting the ideas across for the kids however however I do have to say that you know we have to have hope for the future because if we don't have hope for the future we might as well all pack it in and go home and the futures are kids and we got to get something going to give them a fair shake and give them a chance at life so and I know it's hard being in this rural district and
043not having the resources that some of the other districts do but but I do believe that this district is full of teachers who do have a heart for the kids and administrators that do have a heart for the kids and so you know surely there's something that we can do there has to be there has to be something that we can do. Sheila how about you? You haven't joined in. So I met with Jennifer Lott for over an hour to try to kind of figure some of this stuff out myself. Have we ever actually asked the teachers their opinion as to why the test scores are what they are and what they think why I'm blown away I just don't understand I feel like we're not even doing our job as educators with with where
044we're at with these scores but why there's a why behind it there's got to be a reason why is it because the kids aren't getting the support at home they're not getting enough time to practice math skills to master them there's got to be a reason somewhere why and I'm just wondering if maybe if the teachers have ever said hey it's maybe because of this or it's maybe because of that and we tried to figure out the why not the how I feel like we're always talking about how are we gonna do it well how how are we gonna do it if we don't know the why and I think that's our problem is we really need to figure out what the why is We need more help like I said. We have a lot
045of data okay a lot of components go into that data. The same is true as to why the teacher or why the students are performing on these tests. There are so many factors that play into it. It's one test one week long one snippet of time. You guys sat there and watched my life Academy kids come up here and do oral presentations and you were blown away by that but if you look at their test scores it doesn't show that right our kids are learning our kids are performing our kids are growing we have to stop looking at one set of data we have to stop looking at this test that's done on the computer it's done four times a year that the kids by the fourth time this year I will tell you those
046life Academy kids wanted to revolt against me when I said I'm so sorry guys but you have to do one more right we have to look at everything we have to look at attendance we have to look at home life we have to look at where they came from where they're at now where how far they've gone what are their mental health issues you know all of these different things and then try to teach this child in the classroom and hope that they get it our teachers try they try very hard they show up and they put in the effort and yes it's frustrating when they don't get it we're in a district where 20% of our student population is all hyper special education our specialized programs are growing at an enormous rate there are
047so many factors we can't just say this is the reason why it's because your teachers didn't do what they were supposed to work they're not getting on board they're not doing this there are so many factors and that's what I'm saying is we need to figure out more more of that versus the just the test score because you could be we can have a conversation in oral test and you could get a hundred and fifty percent the same written test you might get five percent so it's beyond just the test scores themselves but the why the why behind so then we can figure out what more do we need to do or how more is it is it the just the fact more factors with 30 40 60 days absent in a single school year
048when you're asking that much in kinder first and second grade you've lost all of your foundational skills so now you're in third grade and that teachers trying to make up three years of loss education I think that that's what we're talking we are not I don't think there's anybody up here who has said anything nasty about teachers no I know I think we've been very very supportive we're just saying that maybe I think what let me paraphrase and if I'm wrong please stop me what I think you're saying is let's go to the source and listen to some of what they perceive as being the problem yes not that they're not I mean I know a lot of the teachers and I think they're doing the very best they can but there's a piece missing
049there's or pieces pieces and that's kind of can we figure something out too if it's the students we need to support getting more parent I know a lot of it's the parents need to be doing more with the kids too I get that but there's I just feel like there's some disconnect somewhere and I think the only way we're gonna find out is if we start asking and not necessarily just the teachers just asking in general and okay I know how testing goes so some people are really good at and some aren't so take it take with a couple grains of salt the things that I've said and the things that everybody's said but understand that something is wrong and you admit that absolutely something is wrong a lot of things let's try and figure
050out how to mitigate the things that are wrong but I've got something here it's going to put some some smiles on that's not right now that's in what is it no now we're still in the workshop we're still in the workshop yeah it's still in the paper okay no fine I think it's supposed to be during fine I mean I don't know is it on your agenda where so let's move on let's move on to 4.1 section G policy revisions you mean 1.4 yeah yeah 1.4 madam president and board members humongous humongous yeah section let's talk about this so we're not going to go through these obviously we're not going to go through all of them I tried to I spent a week going through these comparing to comparing the old ones comparing our own
051because there are some that we've made our own you know made our own versions of and and I've and I've recommended some to you for us to consider keeping our own as opposed to the you know the things that are there and over half of what's in this 500 pages are the deletions not you know not just revisions and whatever so there's some good things there in terms of there's some good things there in terms of what they've done lots of good things actually it's just that it's the biggest section of policy so I certainly don't expect you to go through all of it and I but I was hoping that I could be helpful and and and directing you to the pieces that and giving you some signals about what would not take you
052a week to go through and so if you've got questions or specific things that you'd like to discuss this is the time for us to do that to be real honest I made it through about a hundred pages yeah so I have not I'm not even ready to discuss any of these to be real very honest with you it's taking a while it does I told you it took me a week yeah right literal I mean it was for at least 40 hours of so I am not even ready to talk about any of this but I got about halfway through it and developed a headache and I was having to migraine from it and I just of course said you know that's it it's not and that was probably just looking at the revision
053ones not looking at the deletion ones just looking at the ones that I said you know to look at I had started into some of the deletion ones but then it got to the point that I was having flashes in my eyes and I said yeah no I'm not continuing with this well I mean I truthfully didn't need to look at the deletions because they built the things you know I got far enough in the first couple of days to recognize that they that they really were not because initially when I saw the list when I saw the you know the this thing I'm going wait a minute you know they're stripping us of all of these policies that that give us procedures for our non-certificated staff because that whole section of GD whatever whatever
054but it didn't take me very long to realize that they had moved they had simply moved them and then had improved you know had improved the wording on many of them so I thought well I could save the board a whole lot of time by saying don't even look at the ones that say deleted only look at the ones that they're saying to revise or new but if you do have any questions or comments Sheila it looked like you had some notes and oh I went through some of them I just want to say thank you for taking the time to do all that highlighting and because I did make it a lot easier I know that they there was one section about I believe it was alcohol and and it was deleted but is
055that gonna be somewhere else it was okay that's what I figured it was moved to another because I'm like how can they delete no they didn't okay they didn't I figured and and as I said that was my initial concern was that there were some significant policies and procedures that we depend on all the time that you know they had had marked them on here is delete but it was only when I started reading the descriptions and then started looking at them myself that I realized that really what they had done was combined you know they had combined them and and truthfully that will make it easier you know so that I so that I will know this is the policy I go to if it has to do with X and it and it
056applies to whether it's a certificated employee or a non-certificated employee because then within that policy or within that regulation it's broken down here's you know here's the policy that applies to all employees here are the procedures that you use for this policy that go for our certificated people and then here are the procedures for our non-certificated people and so it makes it really nice because I'm not flipping back and forth between two big sections of this set of policies there it's together so that so that and it had to have taken them months to have done what they did so if there are some real good moves I appreciated the blue lines good because that's what I began to look for it's still it's still overwhelming it's very tedious Carolyn were there any policies in
057there that were deleted completely that were not moved no okay fine could not find any they they incorporated them somewhere or another into others and there were several where where they where we had there was a policy and then there were two or three other policies that spoke to the same thing they just moved them all into the one which makes it nicer because I will tell you and I'll give an example there were several policies that had to do with codes of conduct and ethics ethical behavior professional behavior there were three or four of them it's nice to have them all in one you know and and not have to go fishing through to find the multiple the multiple locations so they did they did that and but I did I did want you
058to know that those that I put there that we had just worked on or have worked on in the last two years that really are very specific to our district there's they were already vetted by our attorney they cover the same things that are in the ones but they have some specific things in them that apply to us that I really would like for you to consider keeping those as opposed to adopting the ASBA version and that's why I included them in the same set so that you could look at them and compare so so you know I'm so I'm guessing that you would like to continue this to workshop next month and and and that's fine please and that's fine I have been I have started working on the employee handbook for next year
059and and in the employee handbook you know obviously it doesn't cover every policy but it involves a lot of policies from this section of the policy book and when it does for the title of the little section that I have in the handbook I reference the policy that backs up that statement I've already started changing some of those references to match these changes and I had intended to bring that handbook to you next month so they won't be they won't be approved policies at that point so I will make sure that I state to employees that you know this is those references are tentative based on you know the decisions that you'll be considering I wouldn't stop doing that no I won't but what I've seen what I have read is yeah but I'm not
060ready and that's okay that's absolutely okay it's pretty whelming I don't know if anybody else is or not but I'm just not agree okay reading it on a computer makes it harder for me to get my eyes yes higher quicker yes absolutely I wasn't gonna print out for 149 pages no well and if you and if you want to come read them I have them so you're welcome to do so yeah I'm not reading too well yeah no I get that so we'll just pull that off and okay okay that's fine I know 1.5 adjourn the workshop may I have a motion to adjourn I make a motion we adjourn the workshop I'll second that motion all those in favor I'm Alinda Sibarski by Fred Rushton by Charlene Diaz I barbs are Zicky I Sheila
061Burnett okay I'm gonna take five because I need to get a bottle of water okay and anybody else want a bottle of water yes please okay I'm good thank you I'm good thank you so far I'm gonna go check the water in my radiator it is 643 643 ladies ready yep order the regular session of Bullhead City School Board on Thursday June 11th 2026 at 643 p.m. all those excuse me all in favor roll call president Melinda Sibarski Fred Rushton here Charlene Diaz here by every second here Sheila Burnett here would you guys please stand and say the pledge with me to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all okey-dokey citizens present I don't see any citizens
062present so I think we're safe to move on right called the public I don't see any public here oh my look at all those donations but we do have a massive set of donations I just when I looked at this I thought well somebody was out soliciting for for Desert Valley but I got if it was that part of that was teacher appreciation yeah yeah that's what I figured after I look at some of them this phenomenal what the community does and I really appreciate it I think the board appreciates it uh-huh we have a great community for support very supportive of us and the teachers but I see us I see some donations that aren't there again the other bikes that were donated to the other schools diamond backs only one list you only
063put one of the sheets oh wait okay yeah she only lists the ones that she actually gets from the sites so we'll follow up on that thank you next month you also have a thank you for Kiwanis and for grace Emily kept because they under wrote the Fox Creek field trip to the State Capitol building a few weeks ago I think Kiwanis paid for the bus and the hex paid for the meals it was the heads not make full and better they did privately so we'll have that thank you which was a sizable chunk of change on next month's thank you list even here you know it would be nice to read but it was nice to hear too so thank you on the record because it was on your oversight on behalf of the
064schools thank you very much to everybody who contributed the whole school year yes whole school year I need a motion to adopt the agenda and this is like I would like to move executive session both executive sessions up to right before the superintendent's report and my reasoning is that by the time we get to those we're all so tired that it's not I'm not my listening skills are not good so I'd like to move those up with your approval so whoever does the motion where did you want to move into it Linda right after you right before the superintendent's right now after 2.7 right after 2.7 next thing for us to do because usually Carolyn does such a good job of keeping me awake that you know that's a good place for me but it's
065up to you guys madam president I'd like to make a motion please that we move item number six in its entirety seven eight and nine in its entirety to immediately follow agenda item 2.7 do I have a second I second it all those in favor I'm Melinda Sebrowski I Fred Rushden I Shirley and Diaz I Barb Sarzak I Sheila Burnett okay now I got to get this item six so we do 2.7 my stuff we just did it we just did it okay that's what we just voted on I'm trying to find exactly oh six point one six point actually would be five as well five point oh sorry five point one pursuant to ARS yeah I'm sorry I missed that one so I'm in my motion to include five as well I mean to
066vote again yeah I'll second that motion all those in favor I'm Melinda Sebrowski I Fred Rushden wait what are we looking on he's adding five point one to be moved up right now I what I made my motion to add all the executive sessions you didn't I did not include item five oh just amending it amended and gotcha and we need a second you got a second we have a second yes Charlie second all those in favor I'm Melinda Sebrowski I Fred Rushden I Shirley and Diaz I Barb Sarzak I Sheila Burnett okay five point one pursuant to ARS 38 431 point zero three a three the board may vote to hold executive session and I think that's what we're going to do to discuss or discuss consult with the district's attorney for legal advice
067on issues relating to termination or of employee Stephen Price's teaching contract for school year 27 yeah just go you're 27 do I have a motion to move into executive session I make a motion we move into executive session I'll second the motion all those in favor I'm Melinda Sebrowski I Fred Rushden I Shirley and Diaz I Barb Sarzak I Sheila Burnett those of you guys need a motion to reconvene into public session I make a motion we reconvene into public session I'll second all those in favor I'm Melinda Sebrowski I Fred Rushden I Shirley and Diaz I Barb Sarzak I Sheila Burnett okay I have a motion to make I move to accept the statement of charges that for dismissal of teacher Stephen Price from his employment at Bullhead City School District the dismissal of
068mr. price from his employment subject to his right to a hearing if he requests one I authorized or we would authorize the superintendent to deliver the statement of charges to mr. price we would also authorize the superintendent to work with the district's legal counsel to obtain the services of a hearing officer to conduct a due process hearing from mr. price if he requests one I'll second the motion okay all those in favor okay all those in favor I'm Melinda Sebrowski I Fred Rushden I Charlene Diaz Stain Barb Sarzak I Sheila Burnett okay motion is passed please make the correction and send that to mr. price okay the superintendent's statement no no no no no 7.5 excuse me 7.5 convene into executive session to discuss the superintendent's performance pay for fiscal year 26 pursuant to ars
06936 431.03 a one discussion or its consideration of employment assignment appointment promotion to the most the motion dismissal salaries disciplining or resignation of a public officer appointee or employee of any public body except that with the exception of salary discussions an officer appointee or employee may demand that the discussion or consideration occur in a public meeting now I have a motion to move to executive session madam president I move that we adjourn into executive session all those in favor I'm Melinda Sebrowski a second oh okay thank you very much I'm sorry I jumped the gun on that one haven't done that since the last meeting I think I'm Melinda Sebrowski I Fred Rushton I Charlene Diaz I Barb Sarzaki I Sheila Burnett okay there we go reconvene into public session I'll make a motion that
070we reconvene into public session second it all those in favor I'm Melinda Sebrowski I Fred Rushton I Charlene Diaz I Barb Sarzaki I Sheila Burnett okay so we need a motion what to do with the superintendent's performance pay I make a motion that we give dr. Stewart the promotion promote performance performance yes the promotion I get promoted to you promoted to superintendent number two senior senior superintendent okay or leads superintendent somebody told me the other day that there's something called a superior super superior in tendon oh okay okay so we have a motion I'll second the motion all those in favor I'm Melinda Sebrowski I Fred Rushton I Charlene Diaz I Barb Sarzaki I Sheila thank you now we return to 2.7 2.8 I believe yes she'll superintendent's report okay well you have lots of
071reports this time from me the typical ones the budget ones and then I've attached for you or I attached for you the clean copies for the regulations and exhibits related to section E of the budget I mean of the I'm sorry of the policies that you will be considering in the in old business and what else work ticket report the typical kinds of things and I don't particularly have any updates tonight been busy on hand working on handbooks and doing things to get ready to start the new year how was hiring how was hiring going it's actually it's going very well we're in we're in good shape we've had a couple of resignations this week yeah which you know which kind of throws a wrench in the other good news is that as far as
072we know all of our international teachers will be here for new teacher workshop so that includes yeah they will and I won't say that out loud yeah I know be very careful yeah well related to that there was a serious earthquake in the Philippines this past week and we've been checking as far as we know all of our folks are fine we're at a distance from from when that where that occurred the other thing I will update you on is that a judge in Boston district judge federal district judge ruled on the h1b visas that that was that that hundred thousand dollar fee was is actually a tax and that the president does not have the authority to assess a tax I did get notice from them today that of course that that decision has
073been appealed so we don't know quite what that means but our folks that we waited for all last year for h1b decisions all opted at their own expense to change to j1 applications and they will be here so they will be among the folks who are who are coming we've had knock on wood we've had really really good luck with applicants this year the number of applicants for positions and so we have we have a very high hopes that both positions that were that we had resignations for this week will be can you explain the judge is that the ones that we were trying to get over here yes all so what happened they're assessing a tax for that well president Trump had a sign I had said I had signed a proclamation or executive
074order attaching a hundred thousand dollar fee for every h1b visa application under the under the belief that the folks are that you know the folks that were hiring these folks and there is a limit on those are about 64,000 limit for h1b visas but that that they were being hired and brought to the u.s. because because businesses and whatever could pay them less and most of those h1b visas are for hard-to-fill positions anyway they're for doctors and nurses and and in some cases technical technical jobs educators and and we qualify under h1b because we have a standing working relationship with the university with NAU and so you know so we could apply for employees under h1b I don't know anybody who could afford to pay a hundred hundred thousand dollar fee and so the Attorney
075General from 20 plus states had had filed a you know filed a court case I in fact worked with the Attorney General's office for Arizona because we had these applicants you know and we were being held up because of that fee so that's how I get the news kind of before it hits that before it hits the streets because the attorneys are you know the Attorney General's office is keeping me informed so right now it doesn't help us or hurt us but you know the ruling doesn't help or hurt us because as I said our folks decided to apply for J1s and so you know but it's still good to know in the future because the advantage is h1b visa folks are automatically on the on the track to become citizens if they choose to
076so which is not the case for J1s J1s have to return because that's a cultural cultural exchange visa so you know so it's good news for us but we also we knew it would be appealed so that's really my only update my other question is all the cooling towers are working it's working right now there it's working and we are but we did file a new request for the scope of work that we originally asked for on for replacement of that tower and so we are in the we are on the in the queue for approval of that they have tentatively approved it so we just have we have some pieces that we have to do the whole thing is that none of that can happen until after July 1st when the budgets released and
077and you may be heard Lance tell me that the legislature approved tonight approved the budget proposal that had been worked out between the legislators and the governor so it will be on its way to the governor's desk for signature tomorrow and that includes the funding for the state facilities board however and that's never sufficient but that's why we wanted to be in the queue early so yes a little better they didn't cut us they didn't cut us like before so we'll take it we'll take it I have a question about the den project how are things going there or are they just kind of staying I met this week actually we had to visit this week from the folks at pronghorn from Prusket Valley we met and then we went up to the you know
078up to the den they have a they have a at this point you know just a general kind of proposal but they will be bringing us a proposal in the next six weeks or so and that would allow us to proceed with a lease purchase process and they would get the financing awesome how was the occupancy are we full there we will be when when we come back when folks come back it will be international teachers because those are the folks who have applied and who qualify for the three current houses we happen to sit down at the conference yeah yeah yeah yeah and then Sheila came and was part of the meeting yesterday which was nice because then you know the board has a represent you know has representation at that meeting and then
079also can share with you the kinds of conversation that we had so you know if we get when we get a little further then there'll be some negotiation because the the pricing that they were talking about is a little steep so we you know there would have to be some negotiation well maybe Sheila will talk that Sharon's wonderful yeah we spent quite a bit of time with Sharon she's so she's really good to sit down at the table I know I think that's great yeah M&Os coming out all right this for the end of the school year yes it's we're not over under or well we don't have the kind rollover that I would like to have however we're in the black and oh and by the way by the way after I talked with
080you last month about covering some losses in our child care center I realized that we had not applied funding that we had gotten from first things first to that budget and so we did that and that that helped significantly so it had been sitting there and we just hadn't we just hadn't transferred it over to the right budget so not the carryover I would like however it's it's we're fine and and actually when the proposed budget that you're going to be looking at tonight because of that that anticipated 2% increase from the legislature which you know which they ended up doing and the fact that our average daily attendance membership went up the last two months of the school year so our principals and our teachers and our people were doing everything they could to
081get kids to school you know every every time that goes up by one student and we're talking an average you know so every time that goes up by one student that's five thousand three bucks and you know and you kind of go well okay but when it goes up ten yeah you know that's a teacher and so that helped us with that budget so actually there when you look at that proposed budget and I know you all like to look at those percentages over on the right hand side and I do too and then the one at the bottom the difference in in the proposed budget for next year and our current budget is nowhere near as different as you know drop in percentages as I thought it would be so and of course that's
082based on our current numbers and it it will fluctuate based on enrollment once we open the year but it's really nice to have some cushion to start the year and chart will just stay in with us absolutely they weren't we're in a this will be your three of a five-year contract so we're so it's all good maybe they'll fix this dinner sometime yeah yeah Carolyn I have a question on student dress the JICA-RA proposal there when I was hate when that happens how come I get that all the time and the most inconvenient time right oh yeah it happened last meeting to to work yeah it's just trying to tell us your meetings oh it's time to go home it was about the same time yeah after three hours they figure song enough so do
083you need to see the do you need ask me I just had a question and I don't know if it's typographical or but it it talked about the clothes that the students could wear you know the the pants the shorts the skirts with no holes in and then the next sentence said no overalls or coveralls are right that's not a change that's been this way for years but okay no cover all overall pants or there are skirts there are overall skirts oh so it's overall skirts okay because I'm going wait a minute say you said they could wear skirts here but now you know yeah no no there are overhauled but they're very very short little skirts yeah they tend to be yeah they tend to be okay and then and one of the changes
084is we had we had a thing about shorts and having a five inch inseam nobody wants to measure inseams you know yeah and the whole thing is so we just made it say the same thing is yeah for skirts and dresses that it has to be fingertip length and I'll guarantee you that you know that that's more than five inches of inseam yeah most normally proportioned people so that's fine and a couple of other changes but they were very minor changes and they were they were requested by our leadership team and so you know we went with it yeah no problem that was the only question thank you it's like wait me I got skirts here but then you're saying no skirts no it's and it's and you're right it does sound weird but yeah
085there are overhauls overall skirts okay any other questions for dr. Stewart are you sure you don't want to talk about all those you don't want to talk about all those all those regulations and exhibits you don't know all right so moving on then yeah we're board member input right yeah you are I found well Sheila and I and Barb at the class conference we found some really good stuff Fred this is for you and Charlene and for you guys to chime in because I think it's one of the best conferences we've had in a long time hmm um I think that this is a place to start for us going out in the community because this is all fact-based and it's all about Arizona and stuff that we can talk about the other thing that
086we before we do that yeah the other thing that we there was considered at the conference was community involvement by the school board and short or Sheila I'm like I did I want Sheila too many CH CH is here has given us some really good stuff this is the stuff sort of that she kind of we came up with this is all the post-its I'm sure that we came up with when we were a I didn't double check everything because I just got this that but I will double check no no I won't but it was really interesting and then she came up with some possible questions that we might get asked about this and I'm sure that this is going to get passed on to our illustrious PIO right yes but basically I stopped
087in and I talked to Lance earlier was it no it's this year we go last week okay well lost lost in time and we talked about you know having a central focus for each and every one of us as we stood up in front of people that this is beat would be the focus of the board and I'm the moment I I was listening to Lance and what was running through my head is we need us a three hour retreat okay where we would actually missus comes from Lance so God only knows but anyway we'd have us a two to three hour retreat where we would actually be presenting and then being asked some nasty questions so that we would get some experience with with the possible outcome of what we're doing is that in
088my paraphrasing right okay basically role-playing yeah and and let me tell you something Lance can be nasty so basically it would be good for all four of us or five of us to have six of us seven because Carolyn yeah forced to be here because we have a forum yes mind she has to be the mom basically I'm thinking two to three hours Lance would that be good enough we could I think we needed a little bit of brainstorming before anything is set up okay all right so you get you get Sheila's list and then you want me to just come in or do you want me to assign one of my handy dandy's compete compatriots here wait I just I do want to remind you that after July 1st my hours will be a
089little bit limited well to breakfast good at this okay the other question he came up with those how are you going to separate yourself not for Sheila Barb and I not for you Fred not for Charlene as a board member and a candidate not Fred and you not me okay Fred Sheila and I it's your dad you three I didn't get my signatures you got yours I knew you were part of something but anyway so that was something that we need to think about he made a suggestion that we contact or one of us or all of us contact John Warren because he's been in the same position you know he's been a superintendent running for county superintendent or something equivalent so he might be able to give us a few little household hints on
090how to behave I'm going up on the 18th to deliver petitions to him so I'm I called the office today and of course it was closed by the time I got around to it but I want to find out if he is going to be there on the 18th because I would like to pick his brain and talk to him person to person because I'm I'm not a good I don't learn well from the written word learn more about it more belt more well by listening okay but I want to show you this and Cassie you have this right this was and they made a big big deal out of shift happens okay because what this is it's demographic demographic yeah demographic shifts that have happened in Arizona and national and the and I looked
091at this guy he is the head of this economics group and they come with a a-plus bill of ratings so I'm assuming that all these things that he put on the slides are accurate and so Carolyn came or Carolyn email there text today mailed that she had seen a lot of the data but she thought it was very well presented so we got Carolyn and we've got what's his face big banner okay now he did a much better presentation than I am but because I'm going to just quick through this as quickly as possible because I'd like you guys be sent a copy of it so that you would have it okay so it makes sense if you think if we think is a board this is a good place because this would be a
092good presentation tool for us anyway so basically it's going to start with state national demographics and it's going to go with state socio stuff you know like the changes in the state and then it's going to go into school enrollment and choice yes a is definitely hit in this presentation you two ladies remember this okay so here is the population trend for the US all right to 2060 and I will never live to live to see this but it looks like it basically plateaus population with the with the way things that are going with immigration and the fewer people we have coming in it's going to plateau but look at what happens to population under 18 okay back in 2005 and 2007 and 2015 2025 it was there were more kids basically in the population
093by the time we get to the 2016 it's going to look really different so that makes sense Carolyn I hope you're going to add things in as we go along here okay got that this one was very very interesting this is the Arizona population the purple line was a prediction from 2022 okay then the other three lines are the high medium and low predictions for going forward for 2025 and if you look at the low projection it plateaus right away it doesn't change Arizona is not going to change so basically our schools are not going to change if anything they will by the red line we might be even going backwards in there's some stuff alongside for you guys to look at a little bit later all right but you see the see the demographics
094here for Arizona okay then we have this one current population distribution we of course know that Maricopa County has two-thirds of the population in the state of Arizona look at the big old green dot right compared to Kingman's dot from Mojave County is it would be like Jupiter's and Mars right you can put a million Mars in Jupiter right so Maricopa County is considerably bigger they had a population increase of 330% then we come down to Arizona counties Mojave County had a hundred and forty-four percent increase the ABAPI Yuma it looks like a lot of this is in the western sort of part of the state but Pima County had a huge increase and they're saying what he brought out was that the increase was because of housing cheaper housing so the people moving into
095America or to Mojave County are paying more for houses so there are obviously people moving in who are established they're either retired they have a big 401k or something because they're reporting houses that are five hundred plus thousand dollars all right does that make sense to everybody so just because it looks like we're having a big increase we don't have a big increase of kids there's more than likely these are older people future population change Maricopa will continue and Pima County will continue Mojave Pima Yabapai counties and other rural counties are going to lose that makes sense to everybody ladies who might doing this right mm-hmm okay here's Arizona population under 18 notice what happens so it doesn't say much about possibilities of building a new school won't be a need and this is where
096I would make a comment you'll notice that red line which is the percentage of you know children under 18 compared to the population of the state so you know that it plateaus in terms of number of students but as a percentage of the total population it takes a big dive much more than the US rate much bigger on that other on that other graph yeah and you guys will get a chance to look at all these those of you haven't seen it before yeah I don't think there was much I'm going to comment on this slide future populations under 18 basically Maricopa County even have a decline it even stays the same yeah it's it's not even the state is going to go downhill for 18 year olds okay or kids under 18 this was
097very interesting the Great Recession was 2008 and so birth rates basically bottomed out okay if you look at this state of we can just go by the state of Arizona Maricopa pretty much stayed with us but this is basically where we're at right and it's gone down again since yeah but happened in 2014 anyway COVID had some stuff to do in it and there was there's a couple other things but it's gone down again so the what we heard at the strategic planning that Sheila I don't know whether it was Sheila that pointed it out or dr. Stewart that pointed it out that when we were strategic planning that the birth rate is what is really killing education funding has a lot to do with it but if you don't have the kids coming into
098school you can't get the five grand per kid to afford a teacher all right and this is not looking good but anyway not being pessimistic because the kids that are being born have to be smarter here's Arizona versus US notice that US birth rates or will stay at a plateau and Arizona continues to go down the closer we get this was this has happened this is happening okay just moving on here's a population this is interesting baby boomers we're going to make that red line go up right but if you look at the birth rate it's pretty much stays stable right that makes sense here we go this is a state socioeconomic conditions here we go if you look at job non-farming okay the red is negative and the blue is positive so we had
099the Great Recession which is the first group of red then we had a little bit of red around COVID and look at 2025 so the jobs are not increasing okay and you go down to the second graph in Arizona and at US Arizona is blue US was is yellow or gold whatever color you would call that and in 2025 US had a little growth but Arizona didn't so the jobs are not here the retired people are but the jobs are not here so when you call a plumber you have to wait from sometime between 10 in the morning and 4 o'clock in the afternoon to get your plumber there right because if you're lucky if you're lucky if you're lucky okay just got another right guy well some of us have learned to change the
100back of the toilet ah here's Arizona industry and employment I I thought this was interesting let's see educate no no health care and social assistance down the very very bottom one look how they it was I know I know it's there and now it's really slowed down construction look at construction no wonder we don't have prices on houses that we can afford government jobs that's self-explanatory manufacturing okay and they have decline flip and all that stuff next to it that's that kind of tells you that things are going strange a little bit again this you can guys will get you this and you guys can check it out consumer price index the yellow line is all items except for shelter right going up the blue line or is Phoenix which doesn't concern us very much
101but if you compare the compare it sorta we're above the the Phoenix at least is above the the the US so things have gone up in Arizona faster than an era then the US and basically I would say that for Phoenix and Mojave County they got to be comparable because I don't know about your grocery bill but sometimes I have to think twice about my peppermint patties here's some more housing costs and this is why Carolyn's meeting with Sharon was so important because if we can keep our teacherage to a place where teachers can afford it at least while they're looking in the regular market this would be good again they don't have Mojave County or Bullhead City or even a rural county because Flagstaff is no longer rural neither is Prescott if you look
102at the national national mean and you compare us to Phoenix or flasks or even Tucson you see the difference apartment rentals Tucson is going down but the rest of us are way above the national average so no wonder we have three and four families in the same house I bet that our homeless kids are feeling that here this is interesting school areas of school-aged population per household now if you live in a mobile home which is basically a lot of my neighborhood it's down 13% the only place it went up is if we have some place that has units of 50 more the rentals you know apartments and we don't have any of those in blowhead not yet one's coming well maybe yeah but if you look at this 2018 2023 are the comparison years
103and you see what's happening right okay so school-aged population is going down this is ESA okay here's charter schools in blue district schools that's us in red doesn't even have a USA not this is just charter yeah this is just charters yeah yes a is a little bit I think okay did you see what's happening here and this is why we had one point or what a million dollars to cut from our budget because we're losing kids enrollment by grade k2 can you see k2 what's happened to the blue line that's what gives us the influx of kids that's what Carolyn was telling us earlier this year is that things are not looking good because we cannot replace the eighth graders going out the door I thought this was very interesting this is yeah and
104this is the one that does show does include the ESA things yeah this is the public schools yeah and that would include public charters yeah okay here's the essays I knew ESA's look at where ESA's jumped right after COVID basically well it's because of the change in the law I mean it's it really doesn't have to do with COVID it has to do with making them universal yes as opposed to specifically oriented to special needs students so that's what happened in 23 24 thank you basically what we were told to is the change in the law it has some but basically the K the pre-k k1 and 2 are being homeschooled a lot more of those kids are being whole that age group are being homeschooled kept home from public schools or even charters okay
105a lot of horseback riding in there I guess yeah but if you look at it 90,000 here's empowerment counts again this is ESA's it's like grade level it's interesting yeah third and fourth are the highest that's interesting yeah yeah but look at the K okay down below a lot of it 11th and 12th graders I don't know I'm not familiar enough with high school demographics to know why those that way there we go then they went into some things that affect our enrollment we have a district population we have the schools the districts for different schools that they were talking here or he was talking here about having to close schools and make serious decisions by school board members and this was the kind of the how you decide how many kids you're going to
106get okay so I was wanted to suggest there's a question sir I would want to suggest that we use something like this and as a basis to go in so we would take a projector in a in this slide and we talk about these slides we can separate the slides out we can take part of the slides that we want and part of the slides we don't but I would like to show that but I thought that was really really something that I got out of got out of the conference and that was actually the pre-conference yeah yeah then then it got better the conference itself was excellent they talked about community you guys had went to different things yeah oh okay which ones did you go to you remember it's good it's a 30
107probably yeah mine was just data information basically the same thing the good news is they gave us all of the power points yeah so if anybody wants to look at the power points that was really nice so anyway that's where we any guys guys have any kind of questions or you would you consider using this set of slides as part of your presentation for going out and talking to people certainly more information that we have yeah to go and talk to people but it's a place to start oh yeah it was to me was very sobering to look at that and see the shift in demographics it would be interesting to see if mr. Warren has any kind of information on Mojave County yeah that we could add to this but I think it's a
108place to start that and Sheila's list sound good the other thing that I'm sorry I'm taking up a lot of your time did you guys see this letter I'd copy this this letter that Carolyn sent us what was this um nations nine-year-old children were at the cusp of kindergarten when COVID shut down yeah this one yeah it was an article I don't want to I don't want to take any more of our time but I would go back and look at this letter because it reinforces a lot of stuff is here about kids and learning and all that kind of stuff and when that was sent out roughly it was this week the subject says food for thought yeah if you're looking for that email it says it said one day ago so guessing yesterday
109or the day before and it and it kind of the data the data go the data and kind of don't support what we all thought we thought that the students who would suffer were those kinders and first graders from from code from the you know when they were in kindergarten in first grade during COVID and yet the data shows that the kids who are suffering are not those kids because those are the kids excuse me that are now in third fourth and fifth grade the kids who are struggling are the kids who are our yeah are the older kids the ones who were 13 year olds who experience serious disruptions in their elementary years are still struggling with the performance and that would be our eighth graders yeah that would be our eighth graders on
110a key national test essentially the same as children 50 years ago so basically I this is from what they call neat yeah neat basically this is an editor to read it's just very very interesting and that's my input for the evening and don't forget this oh I get this one too yeah it's not on my it's not in pain I know I did it in the wrong place Crystal. We'll have to get Mrs. Boat to say the name because I don't know how to say it. Anyway another junior high person a seventh grade teacher junior high it doesn't say what she was teaching but she would ELA. ELA all right so now we have math science and ELA so we're just looking for a good social studies result but anyway I want you guys I'm
111gonna pass this down her gift certificate I do not want you guys to rip off as a gift certificate it's okay I'm gonna pass it down but she had 19% highly proficient 24% proficient and only 38 looks am I reading that right? She had a reduction. She had a reduction. A reduction of 38% so basically oh it's on the screen never mind I'm not gonna pass it this is the kind of stuff that I was looking for when I offered the first TV and so now three of the TVs have gone to two TVs. Yeah they have gone to Fox Creek teachers. Yeah have it all four of them gone to Fox Creek? Yes all four. So you know like maybe I was thinking maybe this is not the best program to continue but you
112know like if four teachers can do this and set an example for others maybe it's just the start of the program maybe we should be rewarding these teachers for this kind of progress I know it's a big big pain in the butt for Jennifer to put these numbers together and maybe $250 isn't the right amount maybe just a nice Starbucks card would be but you know like it's close yeah there's something for us to think about for fall whether we should continue this program or not because I've seen that four people who have come to us with this improvement have done incredible improvement if the whole junior high had done this imagine we wouldn't have had to go through all that down stuff in the beginning so maybe maybe this is not something that we
113should just dust off or put aside maybe we should continue to do that. People like to be recognized I don't think it necessarily has to be a big thing sometimes it's just a good job shout out or a post or something but yeah I think they should be recognized. If you want a TV would you take it home for the smile on your face? Oh of course. For the smile on your face? Of course. So anyway there we go for that. All right anything else board? I've done a lot I've done almost I said 15 minutes I've done at least 30 sorry. I just would like to say thank you for giving us the opportunity to go to that conference because they're not just good for school board stuff they're good for life stuff and
114to meet people from all over the state and really hear that they've got the same problems that we have really lets us know that you all all the employees are doing what they can and it's just it's nice to know it's not just us. Some of the districts are even in a worse shape than we are. Quite a few. Quite a few. I'm listening to him sitting at dinner and talking with him and stuff and it was very interesting to see how many districts are really struggling right now. And how lucky we are that we do have a good board that oh you know really considers things and stuff. Where was that guy from? Mingus Mountain? Mm-hmm. And he was talking about he was the only one on the school board. What did he say?
115He was liberal or something? Yeah. And he was fighting his school board and we don't fight up here. Some of us are liberal and others of us are conservatives and it's okay because we don't fight each other which is something I learned. Okay moving on so we get out of here. Yeah. Item 3.24 approval of the consent agenda. Is there anything that needed to be pulled from the consent agenda to talk about? Okay. Can I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? I make a motion we approve the consent agenda. I'll second that motion. All those in favor, I'm Melinda Sabrowski. I'm Fred Rushton. I'm Charlene Diaz. I'm Barb Sarsiky. I'm Sheila Burnett. Okay item 4.1. I make a motion that we take sections E and F policy advisory revisions and move them table
116it to our July meeting. Second reading. Oh it's only a reading. I'm sorry. This is the second reading so it's the adoption. Yeah. Second reading is adoption. You're looking for G. You're looking for you're thinking about G. Yeah. Yeah. Can I have a motion to adopt it or yes yeah the policies E and F policies. Madam President I make a motion that we adopt and delete the policies per the attachment presented to us this evening. Is there a second? I second it. Okay. All those in favor, I'm Melinda Sabrowski. I'm Fred Rushton. I'm Charlene Diaz. I'm Barb Sarsiky. I'm Sheila Burnett. Moving on to 10.1. Carolyn or Dr. Stewart I guess I should be pointing. That's okay. Madam President and board members I have put for your consideration the proposed budget for fiscal year 27
117and you will notice a couple of key things. Number one the tax rate went down again which probably should make taxpayers happy. Why is that? That our tax rate? It gets determined by it gets determined at the county and at the state. I mean we don't have any control of it. It has to do with the assessed valuation which went up in in Mojave County. Other than that I can't tell you what formula they use. It seems strange if the assessed valuation goes up the tax rate goes down. Well because it's spread out over yeah whatever. The other thing is you'll notice for our ADM even though there is a drop it's not as significant as it's been in the last couple of years so that's helpful. And if you are looking at those percentages
118on the right hand side I will tell you that the one that drops 37 and a half percent the 2200 staff drops partly because remember in our cost savings cost cutting for next year I moved positions for two positions over to classroom site fund one of which was one of those one of those positions. So you know so and it looks nice on the right hand side but it's also because of our cost savings. And let's see another one is the preschool program and I'm trying to remember why that dropped as much as it did 700 900. Is that the 53%? Yeah. The other programs? Yeah and and we don't do oh I know 630 is 630 is our leadership positions so if you remember we cut out almost all of the leadership stipends so
119that's that's a big significant piece of that. You will notice that the special ed instruction has gone up that's because we needed to add a teacher and so because our our SPED enrollment is now over 400 students I think it's in the neighborhood of 420 is that not right Kate? Just to hear over 20% of our student population okay and that's not a bad thing it just is I mean it just is what it is so you know it went up so anyway you notice that at the bottom line when it's all said and done in spite of my projections projections that our budget would drop by 10% it's down by 1.1% the next year thanks to some good work on our folks to bring that ADM up okay. Do we know what the rollover
120is going to be for next? Right now it's in the neighborhood of 550,000 so yeah. Second page please and this just shows you the same information in a different in a different format on the left hand side it breaks it down by maintenance and operation instructional improvement and all those kinds of things instructional improvement is down by 89% because we completed our contract with instructional empowerment and classroom site fund went up is going up for next year and that is because rather than distribute the the funds in classroom site fund that had been budgeted for teaching positions in the past I've just rolled that into the distribution to the other teachers this time with with the approval of the committee and in your approval I'm rolling that money over to help pay for the teaching
121positions that we're moving over into classroom site fund for next year so that four hundred thousand dollars and three hundred fifty thousand covers covers those additional salaries over there and I did the calculations and did that budget this week and teachers will still because we got the dollar figure so teachers will still get a nice opportunity for performance pay at the end of the year I think the difference is maybe $700 a little bit less but not much this year it was six thousand something so you know that's a significant performance paying for them and I'm sorry right offhand I don't remember what other is I'm gonna have to think about what other is that went from a million to eight hundred forty four thousand I'm sorry I don't remember offhand so anyway question yes
122on the right hand side where it says extracurricular activities fees and tax credit sixty four thousand this year and you projected fifty six thousand for next year that tax that those tax credits that's not money that's not the tax credit from people donating yes it is we got sixty four thousand dollars don't know that was our balance okay that was our balance so what I have put there for you know estimating for next year is what's left in that right now because I don't I don't have any way of projecting what yeah you know what what we might pull in for tax credit so what you see is the budget for the current year was the balance at the beginning of this year okay okay and then we had credit tax credits donated we had
123expenditures and so what you see there for the projection for next year I can't project more than we actually have so it wasn't like we collected sixty four thousand this year this has been over accumulation yeah there's some accumulation yeah that's a great question bar because I'm you know when when I do something like it's not on this one but for example the oh there's the million dollars and the difference that is that other over there on the left side indirect costs so let's use that one so indirect costs current year estimated was three hundred eighty nine thousand that is that's money from grants that when they write the grant when Jen writes the grant she can set aside money for indirect costs so for instance three of our people in the business office part
124of their part of their jobs are involved in in managing those grants so part of their salaries are paid for through the grant through indirect costs so the three hundred eighty nine thousand was the money that was the balance in there at the end of last year again and and right now the balance is 255 as the grant funds come in money goes into that account and money goes out so you know you you for those that fluctuate like that that's the only thing I can use is what we actually have if we had on here for instance the food service you know I build that budget based on anticipated expenses okay and anticipated revenue in this case I can't anticipate you know in these cases I can't anticipate revenue so the numbers represent kind
125of different things depending on which account it is which fund it is thank you mm-hmm okay any other questions this budget was built using the preliminary budget document now that the legislature has and the governor have settled on a budget we will get the actual budget document sometime in the next two weeks so when we post the proposed I'm not proposed when we post the budget for adoption for which will need the hearing in July I will use the actual final final document as opposed to this preliminary one it will be very similar but it should have a couple of items on there that were actually approved in the state budget that we couldn't count on until they approved that budget so this is proposed so you know if anything changes in that in the
126formulas the actual budget may look a bit different than this but not much hopefully it will look a little bigger do I have a motion to approve the proposed budget present for school year fiscal year yeah fiscal year excuse me fiscal year 27 I make a motion we accept or adopt the proposed budget for fiscal year 27 I'll second the motion all those in favor I'm a Linda Sabrowski my Fred Rushton I'm Charlene Diaz I've ever star city I Sheila Burnett I am 10.2 policy revisions PA 961 to 1046 and others this is section G so this may be the one you want to table yeah do you want to make a motion I make a motion that we table 10.2 policy revisions PA 961 through 1046 and others to the July meeting I'll second
127the motion all those in favor I'm a Linda Sabrowski I Fred Rushton I Charlene Diaz I've ever star city I Sheila Burnett okay 10.3 emergency installation of sidewalk concrete at Diamondback Elementary School they do have sidewalks but two years ago when the inspector from the trust walked all of our campuses one of the things he was looking at was looking at the looking at our sidewalks and we had things that are not in compliance safety compliance it's taken us a bunch of time but we finally got SFD approval to replace some of those sections while sections right next to them continued to deteriorate and were you know and now are truly unsafe and so as we replace the originally determined to be unsafe sections and these other sections now are as bad or worse than
128the ones being replaced you know I want my kids safe and so I'm asking for your emergency approval that while the crew is there replacing the things SFD will pay for that we go ahead and replace on our dime with our capital money those other sections and we got it if you know if you approve it we have a quote and I have the money available so you know while they're there it's like let's fix it while they're there but it it really kind of is an emergency and we you know we we need it done so I'm hopeful that you will approve this as an emergency action what is the value 27 five less than 28 bucks that's good have you bought concrete lately no I have a motion to put concrete concrete sidewalks
129installation emergency installation of sidewalks a diamond back madam president I make a motion that we approve the emergency installation of the concrete repairs I'll second that motion all those in favor I'm Melinda Sparassky I Fred Rushton I surely and DS I barb's or Zicky I Sheila Burnett item 10.4 social worker position at Coyote Canyon madam president and board members we wrote our Jen wrote our grant proposal or grant application for the competitive school safety grant and requested renewal of our SRO at Fox Creek and for counselor positions and we also included a request for a social worker for Life Academy all of them were approved including the new social worker position so that's not a position we have currently approved and so I'm recommending that you approve it as as a new position in our
130district be to be paid for for the next three years with the safety grant do I have a motion for a social worker position at Coyote Canyon I make a motion that we add a social worker at Life Academy let's say Coyote Canyon okay oh I'll second the motion all those in favor I'm Melinda Sparassky I Fred Rushton I surely and DS I barb's or Zicky I Sheila Burnett item 10.5 possible pre-approval to purchase TeachTown for special education life skills classroom madam president and board members this is a curriculum and Kate has spent quite a bit of time researching we've had it on display in fact some of its on display out in the lobby right now but they have to be on display for 60 days and the 60 days isn't up until the
13130th or the first and so we didn't want to wait until the middle of July to get this ordered so I'm just like we did last month on our science science materials I'm asking you to give pre-approval to purchase this program as long as there are not considerations or objections from the public prior to the end of the public display do I have a motion to pre-approve the purchase of TeachTown for special education life skills classrooms I'll make a motion to pre-approve the purchase of TeachTown for special education life skills classroom I'll second that motion all those in favor I'm Melinda Sibarski I Fred Rushton I Charlene Diaz I Barb Zorski I Sheila Burnett item 10.6 20 26 27 trust proposal acceptance form madam president and board members this is annual action to continue yeah
132here's here are our bills from the trust actually the proposed the invoice for next year I do want to call attention to I think it's on page 2 we have used our attorney's advice a lot this year a lot and so you can see that our our bill for next year is 65,000 I will tell you having some handle on what it costs per hour if we were to hire an attorney on our own we would not have gotten anywhere close to the amount of advice we've gotten this year for this amount of money so I just want you to be aware that being able to have legal advice through the trust is extremely valuable never mind everything else in here that's valuable to us as well so the total does it have the total
133case yeah it has the total so 399,000 a year for us to continue to work with the trust for liability and property insurance do I have a motion I make a motion that we accept the trust proposal acceptance form in PAF for 20 26 yes for 20 26 27 so I'll second the motion all those in favor I'm a Linda Sierraski I Fred Rushton I surely in DS I barb's are seeking I Sheila Burnett item 10.7 20 26 27 Alliance coverage acceptance form madam president board members the Alliance is workers comp and you know it's part of the part of the Trust Association and so our cost for this coming year would be 143,000 187 and I will mention that relative to this and to the the trust when we participate in training that the
134trust or the Alliance puts on each year we get a percentage reduction so you know we pay the whole thing up front and then as our folks or by the end of the year as we have attended a certain number of trainings which we do every year so transportation attends at least one facilities attends at least one I attend at least one IT does and so so we get five percent off our bills so that's kind of nice okay I recommend that we accept this I don't have a motion here madam president I need a motion to approve the Alliance coverage acceptance form madam president I make a motion that we approve Alliance coverage acceptance form for 26 27 all the second emotion all those in favor I'm a Linda Sierraski I Fred Rushton I
135surely in DS I barb's are seeking I Sheila Burnett I am 10.8 approval of student parent handbooks for school year 20 26 27 madam president and board members I did go ahead and put this on this agenda rather than wait until July simply because there are very very very few changes the changes involve like a new calendar or you know or new events calendar for each site otherwise it's it's like single word changes throughout those documents because we've honed honed these in pretty well over the last three or four years so I'm hopeful that you will adopt them I make a motion that we approve the student parent handbook for the year school year 20 26 27 I'll second the motion all those in favor I'm a Linda Sierraski I Fred Rushton I surely in
136DS I barb's are seeking I Sheila Burnett I know 11.1 future topics are there any future topics we'd like to have I think we should follow up on what you're talking about a board retreat yeah yeah all right can you help us with that sure be a can help us with that can help you too that's can help us if you're buying coffee in the morning he doesn't drink coffee I don't think well okay we'll figure it out yeah yeah up and coming oh were there any other future topics oh I know um do you want any of us to be at the new teacher stuff it's on here is as an induction but I know there's other you teach your meeting um I have to ask Jen so we can ask her and let
137you know because if we do we need to get we as a board need to get something on her calendar sure Jen will be back tomorrow so she can get you know I'll have her like you know okay yeah okay I know sure I know we'll probably be at the breakfast you'll be at the breakfast sure if you like it said at the induction induction that would be okay some problem however I'll probably be there yeah I'll have her get in touch with you about that relative to this to any calendar or whatever I would remind you that I will be out of state next week Kate's going to be gone part of the time Amanda is already gone so Jen will be in charge next week I'll be available for you know if there
138are emergencies and things but I'll be upset the breakfast and Cass yeah okay time and date for our next meeting I'm sorry which one to the calendar oh okay no problem Oh calendar thank you okay all right future meeting would be July 9 everybody can be here on the July 9th or do we need to change this over be a little jet lag but I'll be good and everybody's going to read all 439 stuff right definitely yeah please don't I'm a little bit okay yeah look for the look for the fixes not the deletes yeah so we're okay with that meeting time yep all right do I have a motion to adjourn this meeting I make a motion when we adjourn this meeting I'll second the motion all those in favor I'm going to see
139Bransky I Fred Rushton I surely and DS I better preserve sticky I shall have burn it we are adjourned