07-08-2025 Kyrene Governing Board Meeting

001Good evening, everybody. Welcome to our regular board meeting for the Kyrene School District. Today is Tuesday, July 8th, 2025. It is 6 p.m. First on our agenda is the public hearing for our proposed budget. So item 1.1, I'm going to call our public hearing to order at 6 p.m. This is for our fiscal year 25-26 proposed budget. Item 1.2 is that public hearing. I'm going to invite our associate superintendent and chief financial officer, Mr. Chris Herman, up to the podium. President Walsh, members of the board, colleagues and those in the audience. Tonight we're going to talk about adopting our budget for the 2025-26 school year. But first, I wanted to give the board a little bit of an update because since the last presentation. The state has actually passed its budget on June 27th. So

002I thought it might be worthwhile just to give you a few highlights and things that happened with that budget passing. In general, for K-12 education, there really were no, what I would say, new funding or surprises that we hadn't already expected. So the things that happened with the budget was a 2% inflation. funding increase. Again, we had already anticipated that and baked those into the numbers that we had presented through the spring. They allocated $200 million for school building renewal grants. I believe that's the same amount of money that was put in the state budget from last year. There was $3.8 million appropriated for anyone qualifying for reduced price lunch in order to receive free lunches at school. So that's the same situation that was in place during the 2024-25 school year. And then there

003were a couple amounts appropriated, $29 million for an increase in district and charter assistance, which is the state funding for capital, and also $37 million for increased Group B funding for the poverty index. Both of those amounts, though, were not included in the state's ongoing funding, which means most likely we'll see that same issue in next year's budget negotiations regarding whether or not that funding for those two areas would be appropriated or not. The ongoing funding for that would be required in the state's 2027-28 budget, though. And then also Prop 123 funding continued at the same levels as prescribed by the provisions in that constitutional amendment. And so Prop 123 funding was put in the budget through a combination of state aid, which was around $300 million, and state trust land funding, which I believe

004was around $72 million. So what that really means is there was no reduction to Kyrene or school districts for their overall Prop 123 funding that they had received in previous fiscal periods. And finally, although there was no permanent fix, the legislature did waive the aggregate expenditure limit. for fiscal years 26 and 27, which means that school districts will be able to spend the money that was budgeted and that will be budgeted next year. So that's what that means, which is a good thing for schools in lieu of having a permanent fix. So, I always like to start off, again, Kyrene makes a commitment to its budget. Anyone who wants to know information about our budget, I always recommend starting here with our budget report. And we'll talk a little bit more about how we'll work

005on the 2526 report in the coming months. So in our timeline, you can see we've checked all the boxes. We've done all the things required in the spring to get to this point. And so tonight's public hearing and the subsequent vote during the board meeting would represent the final steps to adopting our budget for fiscal year 26. The state does require that a public hearing is held prior to adopting the budget. But again, that vote to approve the budget must actually take place during the regular portion of the meeting. I would like to thank Brian Lockery, Joanne Thorson, and Maribel Oliva-Smith from our finance team for the significant amount of time and effort that they have put and spent in the spring to accomplish all the work that's necessary to put our budget together. I'm

006very fortunate and privileged to work with such a great finance team. here at Kyrene, and I'm really proud of the work that they've accomplished this year. And putting the budget together definitely would not have been possible without them. On this slide, it shows the summarized overall financial picture for total revenues and expenditures for all of the fund categories and fund types in our fiscal year 26 budget. And the same numbers that we discussed in the last board meeting on June 24th, no changes have been made to any of the budget numbers since that time. The revenue and expenditure amounts have also been separated to show the ongoing amounts versus any one-time amounts. And that separation really is important to show that our ongoing budget is both structurally balanced and sustainable in the future years. I

007do want to point out that the $112 million of ongoing operating general fund expenditures also reflects a permanent reduction of $4.2 million of operating expenses that was reviewed, that list back on June 10th. And that, again, was necessary to right-size and align our overall expenditures with the reduction in revenue associated with expected enrollment changes. The $7.4 million shown as one-time expenditures on this slide represents the amount of money that's committed to non-recurring items that would either be recognized during the 25-26 fiscal year or possibly throughout the entirety of the strategic plan time period. The funding for that $7.4 million is available due to expenses coming in lower than budgeted amounts during previous fiscal years, and the district decided it was best to invest that money into other areas that support students and staff rather than

008just increasing our reserve balances. I won't read through the remaining comments on this slide that talk about the... Remaining fund balances, but again, like we talked about during the last meeting, those are all related to timing issues between when those revenues were received in previous fiscal years, but the expenses won't take place until this coming year. The amounts on this table have also been populated into the budget expenditure documents that are provided to the state and have been uploaded into BoardDocs. I always like to mention that the expenditure numbers in this table may not necessarily tie exactly to what's in those state budget forms. because the expenditure amounts on the state forms require school districts to include estimated carry forward balances from the prior year, which reflects the maximum capacity of what Kyrene could legally

009spend and not necessarily the expenditure amounts that we expect to spend for the coming year. So tonight marks our last presentation for the fiscal year 26 budget, and the next step would be to vote on this budget during the regular portion of the meeting, as July 15th is a state reporting deadline. We'll also begin the work involved with preparing our fiscal year 26 budget annual report, and we'll send that off to ASVO International for evaluation and, again, consideration for their meritorious budget award, and would need to have that information completed and submitted by October the 15th. So with that, I'm happy to answer any questions that the board might have. Thank you, Mr. Herman. Board members, any questions for our presenter? Mr. Herman, just a couple for me. I know you spoke to this with

010some feedback and questions we got from the community about the federal funding. and how the Trump administration has withheld billions of dollars to the various states, and that's impacting every single public district in the country, including Kyrene. Does the freeze on federal funding impact our budget? That's a great question. So, you know, Kyrene's in a very good financial position. We carry reserve balances for these type of unexpected situations. So as I mentioned in our expenditure budget forms, it includes those amounts of carry forward balances. Those absolutely could be used to help bridge any gaps next year. We don't intend to make any changes from the plan that we had on how we would use that federal funding for next year. So we would bridge that either through reserve balances. Or we have, as I mentioned,

011some of that $7.4 million in one-time funding to help continue some of those activities if we wanted to use that as a funding source as well. So nothing related to federal monies being held back would be impacted in our budget for next year. But, Mr. Herman, you didn't have any heads up that the federal government was going to be withholding. billions of dollars from schools, did you? We did not receive that information until very recently. So all the information we shared back in the spring, had we known that, would have been shared with the board and we would have obviously talked about it. But we've just recently found out about that. I appreciate that. I appreciate you also bring us a balanced budget. I'll tell you that. One thing that didn't have a balanced budget

012this last year was the ESA voucher program. In fact, they were $52 million over budget, and that $52 million was allocated from the state as part of their budget. No additional funding was given to the public school districts other than the bare minimum required by law, which I think is 2% inflation spending. So I don't know about you, but in my experience, inflation has been more than 2% lately. Utilities, I think, have... crawled up by more than 2%. What are our utility, roughly? Our utility increases for next year were about a million and a half dollars. A million and a half over what we typically spend. The 2% inflation amount, just for the board to remember, is about $1.8 million. So we have $1.8 million there. We have no increase of funding from the state.

013Think of a $1 billion voucher program with $52 million allocated to that. And we continue to be 49th, I think, in the country in per-pupil spending. So you continue to do magic. You do a lot of work with very limited resources, with very little heads up on when funding is going to be withheld, both at the state and federal level. And you continue to demonstrate grace in a situation that's extraordinarily stressful for how we plan for our financial management, for our kids, for transportation. for anything in this district when our funding can get pulled away at any moment. So well done to you. It's a hard job. I'm pleased that we have a balanced budget. Thank you for your work on this. Thank you. Any other questions or comments? All right. Member Davis? Yes, I

014just wanted to say here, here. Great job, as always. Thank you, Mr. Hammond. All right. Item 1.3 is conclude our public hearing. Our public hearing is concluded. It's 6.13 p.m. So now we're going to move to item 2.1. That's convene our regular meeting. So our regular meeting is hereby convened and called to order at 6.13 p.m. If you wish to speak to the board during the call to the public portion of the meeting, now is the time to turn in your blue card. It's that little blue card on the front table right where you walk in. If you haven't done that yet, please turn that in to Ms. Nancy Mosier, our board secretary, who's seated just to my right. Our school board meetings are held in public to conduct the business of the district. As

015always, our board meetings are held in person and we can stream live online on the internet. For those who cannot watch the meeting live, a recording is made available on our YouTube channel within 48 hours. Our board agendas are obtained from the district office on our website at least 24 hours in advance of each board meeting. Our superintendent, Ms. Laura Tenius, as well as community leaders are here with us today. Item 2.2 is roll call. Board members, could you please state your name for the record? Cedric Collins. Bunny Davis. Amy Satry. Trina Nelson. And Kevin Walsh. Let the record show we have five board members present this evening. Item 2.3 is our Pledge of Allegiance, a moment of silence. This is a time where I usually call on a school leader in the crowd to

016lead us in the pledge in a moment of silence. And I do happen to see Assistant Principal Christina Ochoa from the Kyrene Middle School. If you wouldn't mind just standing, you don't have to come up to the podium and just lead us in a moment of silence followed by the pledge, please. Thank you, Ms. Ochoa. Item 2.4 is our land acknowledgement. The Kyrene School District does acknowledge our community of schools as located on the ancestral lands of the O'odham and Peeposh peoples who have inhabited these lands since time immemorial. And with this land acknowledgement, the district formally recognizes traditional care and keeping of these lands by Native peoples allows us to be here today. Item 2.5 is our Kyrene Promise. This is the promise we read at each of our board meetings. We promise to

017provide welcoming, inclusive learning environments in which every student is honored. valued and feels a strong sense of belonging and purpose. We promise to provide rigorous, responsive learning environments in which every student is given what they need to develop knowledge, skills, confidence, and a passion for learning. And we promise to provide vibrant world-class learning environments in which every student believes they're empowered and prepared to make a meaningful impact on a rapidly changing world. That is the Kyrene promise. All right, board members, item 3.1, preview and approval of agenda. Arnie, any changes to tonight's agenda? Seeing none, would someone like to make a motion to approve? I motion. I think we've got a motion by Member Collins and a second by Member Satri. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That motion passes 5-0.

018All right. Next up, we have item 4.1, which is our superintendent report. Superintendent Tenius. Thank you, President Walsh, governing board members, community here this evening, either in person or joining online and staff here tonight. I don't have a very long report, but I do have a couple updates, you know, as we're still in summer break and there's not a whole lot happening at the schools. I want to kick off by just sharing. About two weeks ago, we had the opportunity to be honored at the Tempe Chamber Awards for the 2025 Business Excellence Awards. Kyrene School District was recognized as a large business by the Tempe Chamber of Commerce during this ceremony. The award is a testament to the innovation, resilience, and community leadership Kyrene brings to the city, and we are honored by that recognition.

019As one of Tempe's largest employers, Kyrene plays a vital role in supporting the local economy. We prepare the workforce of tomorrow, employ the workforce of today, and help families thrive through strong schools and community partnerships. We're proud to help shape Tempe as a vibrant and thriving place to live, work, and grow. One moment here. They're helping me out. Here we go. There we go. I also would like to share the, you know, that we recently in the last few years have been doing a lot of work with district management group summit. We did our academic return on investment scope of work with them. We've done our special education. review with them and we're getting ready to launch our breakthrough results coaching with them this year. And so I'm excited to share that Mr. Herman and

020I have been invited to attend their annual summit. This summit offers a strategic and high value opportunity for Kyrene School District's leadership to deepen their engagement in the district's ongoing initiatives that I just mentioned. The summit directly supports these efforts by providing access to the DM group's latest research, benchmarking tools, and implementation strategies that align with our goals. improving student outcomes and operational efficiency. Last year's summit included targeted sessions for superintendents and board presidents, and I was honored to have President Walsh join me. This year's agenda continues to offer specialized sessions designed to enhance the strategic leadership capacity of top district officials. The presence of the superintendent ensures that district-wide alignment, vision, and implementation of improvement strategies are reinforced. For the CFO, participation will offer deeper insights into a cost-benefit analysis of educational programs, a

021central theme of the academic return on investment work. The registration cost for this summit is already included in our existing DM group contract, making this an efficient use of resources to access high-impact professional development without additional expenses. So I'm just really excited to share that we would like to attend that again this year. We do not find out this early. The only expense we have is our travel to get there, so the registration and rooms are covered as part of our contract. If we end up presenting, which we are on the list to potentially present, then our travel is covered as well. So thank you. There we go. I also, this is that time of year where we're trying to make sure we have all the staff we need to start the school year strong.

022And as you know, over the years, there are certain positions that we find a little bit harder to staff than others. One of those being community ed. We're always searching for community ed. employees. And so if you know anybody interested, we have, if you go to kyrene.org careers, you can go and find the different positions that are open in community ed. There's everything, I think, from preschool to club leaders, all of our after school and before school programs. And the other area that we're always looking for, and I think throughout the years I've included this slide, and it's, as you see in every one of our board meetings, an opening slide because we are consistently looking for drivers for Kyrene. As you are aware, I recently... We recently let out a communication regarding our transportation

023struggles and how that's going to impact athletics for next year. So I just want to share a little bit about that as we think about how we can try to attract more drivers to Kyrene. So, you know, as we approach this new school year, I want to address an important operational change that due to the ongoing shortage of bus drivers, we had to make the difficult decision to suspend bus transportation. for athletics at this time. This measure ensures that we can maintain our top priority, which is the safe and timely transportation of students to school in the morning and home in the afternoon. This decision is not due to a budget issue, any financial or budget issue. It is strictly due to not having enough drivers to run all of the school routes and be

024able to cover after school routes. In Kyrene, we already did not provide activity buses for many, many years. We have only provided transportation to games. We do not even provide transportation home from the games. Parents have been responsible for that. So the shift is just now. We will no longer also be able to provide the transportation to the games. We know that this impact... We realize the impact this is having on our families and our student athletes. And obviously, this is not our first choice either. I think you've heard me say this multiple times. We are at a place where we are having to make some of the best of the worst decisions that are out there as far as options. And I just hope that everybody knows that this decision was not taken lightly.

025We looked at multiple alternative options. Every one of our current bus drivers has to drive all three of our transportation routes, meaning we have tier one schools, which are early start elementary schools. We have our middle schools, which are tier two. We have our. Tier 3s, which are late start elementary schools. So every driver that we have available is driving every one of those routes. What we uncovered this year is with the shortage that we have going into this year is that if those Tier 3 drivers... go do their routes, and sometimes with as many drivers as we have call out, they're running two tier three routes, which means they're going, driving, dropping kids off, running back to a school, which is why buses are sometimes late, picking up more kids, getting them home. In

026order for them to get back, pick up the athletes, get them to their site, we could be looking at at least a six o'clock start time for games. We are not a high school district. We only have a couple fields that have lights. We also have an officials issue because we compete for officials who are officiating high school games. And so what that led to is either A, starting too late where we wouldn't have enough lights to play two games. Right now we have JV teams that travel and varsity. We would be looking at having to possibly eliminate JV, which means eliminating sports for children. And we didn't think that was a good option. The other option would be also some of our sports, such as I'm going to use soccer as an example. We

027only have one field with lights. And although we use the city fields, we are their third priority. They have their city sports running. Tempe L has. precedence over us and then us, there's just not enough field. So then we'd be looking at canceling specific sports, which we also didn't think was a very good or equitable idea. So it became clear at this point in time, with as urgent as this is, that this would be the only equitable option. Most teams have one to two games per week, depending on the sport. Those games could be a home game or an away game. If it's a home game, it's not too big of a shift because parents, like I said, are already picking students up from practices approximately 4.30. There's a little fluctuation depending on the sport.

028So if it's a home game, they can do the same thing. The kids can stay after school, practice, start their game at 4.30. It's not uncommon for our coaches to hold practices on game days as is. So then what would happen is if it's an away game, students would need to go home and then parents would bring them back to the game at 4.30. And that way we can try to keep the games as consistently with the same time that they've been. As of today, and again, this changes on a daily basis. As of yesterday, I would have given you a different number than what I'm going to give you today. As of today, we are approximately 20 to 23 drivers short starting next school year, which is about half of those positions right now

029are already filled with contracted drivers. Even our contracted drivers sometimes have trouble filling all of the need because so many districts right now are competing for drivers across the board. You're probably seeing it all over. And so this number will continue to fluctuate as transportation is constantly processing new hires. We're looking for innovative ways to try to bring in new drivers. But we also have retirements and a lot of staff departures. A lot of our drivers, this is a second career. So they've already retired or they're... you know, getting ready to retire again. So again, as you see on the slide, we are actively recruiting our drivers year round. We are always exploring incentives to attract and retain qualified staff, including stipends. We are one of the higher paying districts when it comes to transportation.

030So we are already within the market or a little above the market in some of our neighboring districts. One way that the community can help us is to amplify our message that we're hiring. We need bus drivers. In fact. I sat next to a nice couple on the plane that lives in this community that she's like, what do you need? I said, I need you to find me bus drivers on my flight home the other night. And I told her where to go on our website to share that information. But should our staffing levels improve, then our plan is to revisit this immediately and not wait. And we would consider reinstating athletic transportation as quickly as we could. Our struggles with filling driver positions are obviously compounded when our staff are absent, which is why

031tonight you're going to see on the agenda a proposal before the board to consider an incentive to reduce absences. And as I've shared, and I think the media shared this in their story as well, this is not just a Kyrene issue. It is not even just an Arizona issue. It is truly. a national shortage. And so, you know, we appreciate the understanding and continued support of our community as we navigate these challenges. And, you know, we've talked about this. I've talked about it with my superintendent advisory over the years. We've looked at different strategies to try to recruit more bus drivers. And so far, none of them have yielded a consistent amount of new drivers coming in that we've been able to maintain. So just wanted to give you a little background on that. Again,

032also put the plug out there for hopefully people helping us recruit more drivers. So thank you. And that concludes my superintendent update. Thank you, Superintendent Tenius. Board members, as Superintendent Tenius referenced, item 8.3 is the transportation stipend on our agenda. So should you have questions or comments on that item or related topics, we can address that there in the agenda. Thank you. Item 4.2, board member statements. Do any board members have statements this evening? Member Sadri. Yes. Thank you, President Walsh. I just wanted to make a few comments that kind of builds on your comments from earlier this evening regarding our state funding, our budget, and how we're navigating that. I wrote it out so I wouldn't remember everything. I am deeply saddened by this year's state budget. Once again, fall short of meeting the

033needs of Arizona public schools. Arizona ranks 49th in the nation for per student funding, and this budget includes only the minimum inflation adjustment increase required by law with no meaningful new investment in our teachers, students support, or long-term educational outcomes. While there were some school funding initiatives and waivers, it just isn't enough to address the ongoing challenges many districts are facing. Communities are watching their schools brace for chronic underfunding, even as educators and staff are working tirelessly to support students with their limited resources. Our educators, staff, and students deserve more than just the bare minimum. They deserve assistance. a sustained commitment to strong public education. And I encourage our community to stay informed, get involved, make your voices heard, reach out to your elected representatives, support public education through civic engagement, and help us advocate

034for the public schools that Arizona children deserve. Thank you. Thank you, Member Chaitry. Any board members have statements this evening? Marva Davis. Thank you, President Walsh. I just want to say amen to what Amy just said. Thank you. I see no other statements. Item 5.1 is recognitions. I'll invite our Executive Director of School Effectiveness, Ms. Kelly Brunner, up to the podium. Superintendent Tenyes, President Walsh, members of the board, colleagues, community members, friends, it is my honor to be the person that gets to introduce the newest principal at Kyrene De La Esperanza, Dr. Kyle Ross. Dr. Ross has previously been the principal at Kyrene Del Pueblo. He was instrumental in bringing Kyrene Digital Academy to fruition, served there as the principal as well, and this year is the administrator for Kyrene Online Learning. Dr. Ross brings

035in a... abundance of experience and talent to this new role and I am confident that great things will continue at Kyrene de la Esperanza with Dr. Ross at the helm. Congratulations, Dr. Ross. This is your time to say a few words, Dr. Ross. I was told there'd be no comments. Superintendent Tenyes, President Walsh, members of the board, members of the community, and to my family watching at home, it is my honor to step into this position. Carine de la Esperanza is a school of safe, honest, and respectful kids taught by a team of dedicated teachers led by Assistant Principal Diana Stockwell and Carolyn Payne. Just honored to be stepping in and continuing that hard work. I'm ready to get started. You know, sharks never stop moving forward and neither do we. I have the heart

036of a shark and I'm happy to be here. Thank you. Congratulations, Dr. Ross. All right, item 6.1, this is the request to speak to the governing board. So as per our governing board policy 1302, the Kyrene Governing Board invites the viewpoints of citizens throughout the district. If you're here in person, members of the audience can address the governing board by filling out the blue card provided at the sign-in table and submitted to our board secretary prior to the start of the meeting. We also accept public comment electronically. You can fill those out. in the link that is sent out with each board meeting notice that is going to be emailed to you. Just get those comments in by noon the day of the meeting. The board does see and read all of those comments in

037their entirety, and they are read into our meeting minutes. Our state statute does prohibit the governing board from discussing an item if it's not on the agenda, but we always listen and we can request that our district staff follow up. To make sure that everyone has the opportunity to address the governing board, we do set a time limit on individual comments based on the number of in-person speakers. If we have 1 to 15 in-person speakers, each person will be given 3 minutes to speak. If we have 16 to 30 speakers, 2 minutes. And if we have 31 or more in-person speakers, 1 minute will be given to each person. I believe we have 10. in-person public comments that have been submitted this evening. That means each person will have three minutes to speak. What I'm

038going to do is I'll call up your name and you can come on up to the podium. There's going to be a timer on the screen to my right and to the left. It looks just like that. And once you speak, the timer will start clicking. You have three minutes. It'll turn red right around the 30-second mark, or I think yellow right around the 30-second mark, red at the zero mark. Please state your name for the record. I do want to say just every time we have the privilege of having a student speak, I always like to recognize them. I believe Mr. Simon Brown is scheduled to be speaking this evening. I want to thank... All of our Kyrene students who come to speak to the board for participating, for sharing your point, we value

039all the feedback from our students most especially. So thank you. Our first speaker this evening will be Mr. Patrick Brown, who's indicated he is a current Kyrene parent. Mr. Brown will be followed by Daniela De La Torre. All right. Good evening, board members, educators and parents. My name is Patrick Brown, and I'm a proud parent of an eighth grader at Kyrene Middle School, Simon Brown. And I'm also an advocate for equitable access to opportunity. My older son, Miles, participated in Kyrene's wrestling program, and it played a pivotal role in shaping him, not just physically, but academically, socially and emotionally. It was also during the pandemic, which I was coming after the pandemic, which was really hit him pretty hard. Today, he's a junior and a committed wrestler at Coronado Stone High School, and I credit

040much of his confidence, his discipline, his academic focus to those early experiences. My younger son is now at KMS and is benefiting from those same opportunities. The decision to eliminate the bus service for middle school sports may seem like a cost-saving measure, as the superintendent has explained, a staffing challenge. But for many families, it's a barrier that denies their children a chance to participate at all. Not every student is blessed to have access to transportation, and this change will disproportionately impact working families and single-parent households. This is not just unfortunate, it's an equity issue. I understand the staffing challenges, but cutting the service limits access. It shrinks participation and diminishes the quality of our athletic programs. Worse, it reduces the opportunities for students to grow, to connect, and to build a foundation that could lead

041to future opportunities, scholarships, and just personal and emotional growth. At this critical stage of a child's development, kids are discovering who they are. Let's not take away something that helps them find their purpose in their community. I urge you to reconsider this decision for the sake of access, fairness, and the future of all of our students. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Brown. Our next speaker will be Ms. Daniela De La Torre, who is a current Kyrene parent. Ms. De La Torre will be followed by Sydney Ohm. Good evening, everybody. I do not have a prepared speech. I'm kind of speaking off the cuff regarding some disheartening information that I just received yesterday, actually, through a text from other concerned parents regarding the lack of what will be the lack of athletic transportation for sporting events.

042I want to preface my statements with an incredible thank you to all of you. You all have a very hard job. I have three boys that have come through the Kyrene School District. My youngest is present here today and will be starting at Kyrene Middle School and hopefully have the privilege of being involved in sports while he's there. And because we value our Kyrene community so much, I was disheartened at the decision that appears to have been made, at least from a parent's perspective, in a very unilateral way, in terms of not being able to have the opportunity to speak before that cut was made. And to voice or at least brainstorm some... you know, other options that might have been available before. It was just kind of decided that that was the way it

043was going to be. I am a working parent, but I have the privilege to try to make it work and be flexible with my employment so I can get my kids to where they need to be for their various sporting events. But not everybody has that privilege. And I'm here representing those individuals because I think everyone should have an equal opportunity to be involved in sports, in athletics. One of the things that I love about the... athletics at the schools is that you have to maintain a certain level of academic achievement to be able to participate. So this isn't just a, you know, sports. It does affect one or the other. A lot of our kids, the reason why they're looking forward to going to school is to participate in athletics. And I unfortunately believe

044this decision will limit that quite a bit. I have 52 seconds and a lot more I want to say, but I just hope I, Superintendent Tennis, I really appreciate your comments. And it sounds to me that maybe this is something that I think you use the word could be revisited. And I hope that that could be accomplished sooner than later as, you know, the school year comes. And I'm hopeful if we all work together. the great minds and the great individuals we have on this board that we can find a solution to that because unfortunately I just don't think that cutting it all together is going to get us there. Thank you so much. Thank you, Ms. De La Torre. Our next speaker is Ms. Sydney Ohm, who is a current Kyrene employee. Ms. Ohm

045will be followed by Simon Brown. Hi, everyone. My name is Sydney Ohm, and I am here today to speak on behalf of Jessica Chung, a parent in the Kyrene School District. She writes, Dear board members, I am a parent of two Kyrene students, also a longtime substitute teacher, and this past year I helped coach the boys volleyball team at KMS. Our student-athletes desperately need and rely on transportation to our away games. We had 22 boys and 14 managers that traveled locally to our away games this past year. If transportation was not provided, many of our student-athletes would have missed their opportunity to play and compete for their school. It's an honor to compete and play to represent your school. A lack of transportation to these games will have a huge impact on their participation level,

046which will in turn impact their self-esteem, motivation, well-being, sense of belonging, and overall mental health. The lack of transportation takes away from the sports team and the school experiences that riding with your teammates to games provides. It takes away the important childhood memories and experiences that are an integral part of being a student-athlete. For many kids, their involvement in athletics highly correlates to their self-esteem and overall mental health. With mental health being such an important part for young adolescents, I believe this lack of transportation can have a huge negative impact that can have long-lasting consequences. As a coach, these student-athletes need this time together before their games for team bonding, school pride, team cohesiveness, planning, and game preparedness. Please, let's work together to find any other option where our children don't suffer. I'm willing to

047help be a part of the solution and can help in any way possible. Please reach out to me if there is an opportunity for me and my family to help. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Solm. Our next speaker is Simon Brown, a current Kyrene student. Mr. Brown will be followed by Juan Pablo de Leon. Good evening members of the school board. My name is Simon Brown and I'm an eighth grader at KMS. I'm a wrestler, but I've done other sports like track and cross country. I'm here to ask you not to take away buses for sports. For many students, athletes, without rides, the bus is the only way they can participate in competition. Without the buses, we're not just stopping kids from going to competitions, but we're stopping them from having a good experience letting

048them grow and learn leadership, help them stay focused in school. Sports teach them discipline, teamwork, and resilience. They keep students active and shape and can improve their academics because you can't play sports without good grades. Takeaway buses can mean less kids in sports and less money for the school because kids can't find other ways of transportation. This change will cause students to feel less involved and possibly like they don't belong. Please reconsider and keep sports accessible for everyone. Thank you. Thank you, Simon. Our next speaker is Juan Pablo de Leon, who is going to be speaking here. He's not a community member. He'll be followed by Ms. Danielle Alm. Good evening, members of the board, Superintendent Daniez. Board President Mr. Walsh. My name is Juan Pablo de Leon. I've been a student, coach, teacher, and

049a wrestling official in the Kyrie School District. Tonight, I urge the district to give coaches more autonomy, allow them to set their own practice schedules, competition schedules. If they'd like to run two-a-days, attend extra tournaments, increase opportunities for athletes to compete and to grow. Let athletes represent their schools as often as their coaches see fit. I understand the budget and transportation challenges, and I know and I'm sensitive to the idea that the situation is not what anybody wanted. What I know will happen is that because of the bus situation, less students are going to participate. The next time cuts need to be made. It won't be hard to cut sports in some other way. I hope my presence here shows how important athletics are to our community and that they are not dispensable. Please prioritize

050sports, even if in the future cutting them seems like a valid option. In talking with high school and middle school coaches from other sports, it's clear current restrictions on practice, playing time, and competition are hurting engagement and preparedness. The gap is growing between club athletes and those who rely solely on school programs. When kids can't practice enough, travel to matches, or compete outside of the district, they lose motivation and they quit. Private schools are offering both strong academics and competitive athletics, and families are leaving public schools for them. If we want to keep students in public schools, we must invest in extracurriculars. Athletics are not a luxury. They're essential to student connection, motivation, and pride. I urge you, please prioritize athletics and enrichment. I want to speak in solutions today, and I want to offer

051my direct contact at any time. You guys can call me tomorrow. I'd be happy to come in here and meet with anyone. district athletics personnel, anybody to help come up with good ideas. The changes I've suggested today don't cost anything. If you would like to work together with coaches, I know that we can all work together, sit down and find a way to make people feel a little bit better about the future of sports in our community. Something was taken from us, not on purpose, out of our control. And I understand that and I'm sensitive to that. What I ask today is that you please give us something to ease that pain, ease that difficulty, and we're happy to work together to make a change. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Mr. DeLeon. Ms.

052Som will be followed by Ms. Tracy Murphy. Hi, my name is Danielle Ulm and I am a Kyrene parent, former employee, Kyrene Foundation board member, and former Kyrene kid. I have five students who have graduated out of Kyrene. I have two current students and my two oldest are educators and coaches for Kyrene Middle School. I am speaking tonight to share why I think the cuts for transportation for athletics needs to be reevaluated. First, I have to say these cuts won't personally affect my son. He is not only a talented and multi-sport athlete playing in all four seasons of sports, but he has parents who can take him to a four o'clock game because he is privileged. That's why I know firsthand who these cuts will affect because he is so involved in athletics. These cuts

053will affect his teammates, his classmates, school, and community. As an advocate in my community, I must speak for those students who may not even know their opportunities have been taken from them. This past year, I spent numerous hours writing grants to build Kyrene sports programs to be bigger and more inclusive. I look for ways to help fund sports physicals, equipment, season fees, and uniforms. These cuts feel like a slap in the face. Cutting transportation may seem small to you, but that showcases to me how little you may know your hiring kid. Many students in the Kyrene schools are low-income families. Many Kyrene kids do not live close enough to go home and then return for a game, and they probably don't even have an adult at home to take them. For those families, attending their

054student's game is difficult and may not even be a possibility, let alone being able to take them to and from games. A 6 p.m. pickup is not the same as a 4 p.m. drop-off. Statistics show athletics build community, keep kids engaged in school, lower dropout rates, drug use, and teen pregnancies. These cuts won't affect your privileged students, but they will affect those already at risk, those who need athletics the most. Last year, I was proud that Kyrene took a stand for DAI policies, but now to turn around two months later and make school programs less equitable to all students feels dishonest about who we say we are and what we say we represent. Every parent here knows what the public education system is up against, and that is why we are public ed strong. This

055community of parents want to find ways to solve these issues, but you must include us in the solutions and not just expect us to accept the outcomes of your cuts. A good example, coaches could drive students. I have created many ohms. I can help. All we want is to make sure all Kyrene kids have the same opportunity across the board. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Ulm. Our next speaker will be Ms. Tracy Murphy, who is a current Kyrene employee and a community member who lives in the district. Ms. Murphy will be followed by Jennifer Gronath. Good evening. Actually, I'm going to turn the microphone over to my Kyrene kid, who benefited from the Kyrene sports program. He's my grandson. We had our unusual family, which was the two of us. Without sports, school would have

056been a very different experience for us. And I would like for him to speak and tell you how it impacted him. Hello, y'all. My name is Zayn Anodam. I used to go to Kyrene De La Mirada and then went to Pueblo. School has always been a complicated task for me. Never really had motivation until I hit Pueblo and actually wrestled for Coach Brew. I never really wanted to try too hard until I got to that wrestling. I was able to wrestle and the motivation of my grades and my academics skyrocketed almost immediately because I wanted to wrestle so bad. That led all the way through high school and now led to the ability to go wrestle in college. If they would have told me that a while ago, I wouldn't have ever believed it. The

057lack of transportation is something that not only affects everyone, but it also affects the students themselves. I've never had more of a real conversation until I was on the bus with my teammates. Having, after a really big win and everyone's excited, or after a really tough loss and everyone's like, what happened? One of the most memorable memories I've had was after I won state. Once staying in high school, I've never cried so much as a young man until I was on that bus with my teammates, huddled around, celebrating the fact that I won, even though some of them didn't. Those memories have held me more than a lot of other memories or a lot of other friendships that I've had. I've been able to build and grow those friendships to the point where now, even

058though they're still in high school, I'm going to be talking to them while I'm in college, hopefully trying to bring them up with me. I think that my main concern is just making sure that we protect our sports at all costs. No matter what happens, if there's something that needs to be fixed, we can fix it as long as we have communication between that. We lose sports, we lose ourselves. That being said, thank you guys so much. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Murphy. Thank you, Mr. Odom. Our next speaker will be Ms. Jennifer Janeth, who indicates she's a current Kyrene parent and community member who lives in the district. She will be followed by Kristen Basha. Janetta, thank you. Hi, good evening board. My name is Jennifer Gianetta. I'm a South Tempe resident, a mother

059of three children, two in the Kyrene District, one that just graduated out, and I'm also a nurse in the community. I grew up in Tempe. I played sports in middle school, including basketball and volleyball, and sports really helped shape who I am today. And I want that to continue on for my children and other children in the community. I understand this isn't a budget issue from what you've said, but a shortage of bus drivers. Even so, cutting that transportation to games has real consequences for our students. Sports are more than an extracurricular activity. They teach teamwork, resilience, and belonging. Taking away the buses limits access, especially for students from our lower-income families who don't have reliable transportation. As a nurse, I'm worried about safety. We don't have kids with rides, then they're going to get

060rides with older siblings possibly, with families that you're not familiar with because you're having to send them with somebody. These situations just aren't consistent or safe. As a parent of three active kids, I know how challenging it can be to juggle practices and games. Not every family has the flexibilities or resources to make this work. Let's not let transportation gap become a barrier to participation. Please find a solution. Let us help you find a solution so that we can continue to provide this valuable activity to our children. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Gianetta. Our next speaker will be Ms. Kristen Basha, who is a current Kyrene parent and a community member. She'll be followed by Dawn Stantis. Good afternoon, board. I look at many of you and I see friends and I see Amy and

061her shared words that are very passionate. And I know that you probably share many of the same feelings that you've heard expressed today. But I have to reinforce that we've elected you to represent our will, the people's will. And while I understand this is a logistics issue. I'm disappointed that this wasn't addressed sooner in the summer. I'm disappointed that you didn't ask for help. I'm disappointed that I didn't get a survey. I'm disappointed that you haven't asked if a hiring parent can help, a grandparent can help, a community member can help. And one day we were able to contact the news and get this story on the air before this hearing today. We have to do more and we have to hold you accountable for the job we've elected you to do. and you are

062not doing enough. For us to get an email one day ago for hearing our board meeting for today is not enough time. We are here to support you. We are here to help you, but you have to communicate with us. You have to ask us. You have to let us know sooner than two weeks before school starts. We have to support our school system, our public system, our children. And what I think we're here to say is this is unacceptable. Logistically, or for any other reason, we have to find a solution. And honestly, a logistics problem seems easier to solve than a budget issue. So right there, I think we're ahead of the game. But we have resources. You have parents. You have a community that supports you. And we're not going to sit here

063and be beaten down and accept that some things just can't happen. That's not who we are as a community. We're going to stand up. We're going to ask for help. We're going to come together. We're going to find creative solutions. Okay? And I don't think that creative solutions is being taken seriously enough. You know, can we contract people to drive just for athletics? Can, you know, I saw somebody mentioned, can the coaches drive? You know, then there was the comment, well, the coaches can't drive everybody. We only have two vehicles. I guess we have two Kyrene vans, and that's not enough for everybody. Well, maybe that's enough for the kids whose parents can't take them. It's not going to be a one-size-fits-all. But we have to sit down and we have to talk to the

064schools. We need to know who this is impacting. We need to know the percentages. It's not apples to apples. Some schools have more kids in need than others. We know this. This is not acceptable. And we have to hold you accountable. And we want to help you. But if you don't ask for help and you don't give us time, we can't do that. So I'd like to see a survey go out. I'd like to see everybody given an opportunity to see if there's any community members that can help drive buses that has access to transportation companies. I think we can solve this problem together. And I believe we can, and I hope that you reach out, and I hope that we work together to do that. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Fasha. Our final public

065speaker this evening will be Ms. Dawn Stantis, who is a community member who lives in the district. I'm Dawn Stantis. Kyrene District community homeowner. I have had kids and my kids in this Kyrene District for 18 years. My youngest, I just graduated eighth grade from Apprende. I'll be moving on to Corona. So I came to speak from a different vantage point of athletics and how important they are. All of my kids have been multi-sport kids. They played after school sports. I personally, although I am able to pick them up after school, relied on them getting that transportation because I'm only one person that can pick up one kid. I couldn't or wouldn't choose one kid to play sports because I couldn't provide for the other. Besides, like, riding on the bus is such an important

066role playing within, you know, playing sports. I also think that it's going to drive kids away from our district. And then you have a trickle-down effect where it's going to lend lower enrollments into our high schools. And you start thinking about all the kids who can't play sports, and then they leave our district. And then our high schools start depleting enrollment, too. And then where does that leave our community as well? So I just really feel like there's a butterfly effect to this. And I did think it was a budget issue, so I'm glad to hear that it wasn't. But this is also the first day I've really heard that, and that it was a bus driver issue. That hasn't been pushed very public. So all of this, I literally woke up today, came home

067from a vacation yesterday, gobsmacked by this news where it was just this decision that just slapped us in the face and how many people in our community still have no idea that when their kid thinks they're going to play sports in two weeks when school starts while it's still summer, you know, and they're going to find out, oh, we don't have, we're not going to have rides to sports in this. I just feel really bad for all the kids who aren't going to be able to participate. So I would love for you guys to reconsider the cancellation of this and really try to push the bus driver agenda, like really get that word out. And if more community member people knew that, you know, maybe we can find these drivers that we need. So thank

068you. Thank you, Ms. Stantis. That concludes our in-person public comment portion of the meeting. Board members, as you know, we can't speak now on anything that's not on the agenda, but we will have an opportunity to address the transportation stipend later on at item 8.3. And thank you to everyone who came tonight to provide public comment. Next on the agenda is item 7.1, and that is the consent agenda. Are there any changes to tonight's consent agenda? So you know, would someone like to make a motion to approve? Motion to approve. A motion by Vice President Nelson. Is there a second? Second. Second by Member Davis. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That motion passes 5-0. Item 8.1 is the purchasing authorization. This is the approval to use the Mojave contract for

069the purchase of new buses. Mr. Herman, he is available to answer any questions that board members may have. The details are included for your review and the public's review as part of board docs. Any questions for Mr. Herman? All right. I have one. Yes, go ahead, Mr. Collins. As I was listening to all these wonderful people speak, many... Well, you guys all know I'm an educator and we dealt with transportation issues in Casa Grande where we didn't have enough buses. The elementary bus drivers were doing double duty. They were dropping up elementary kids and picking up our kids. I think for for half the year, my first period was late, like 40 minutes every day. So. My question for Mr. Herman, and I'm not trying to blindside you here on the board, but because that

070was actually an idea that I had because we actually drove the buses for sports as coaches. We drove white fleets. And so I was going to see if there's a way we could purchase. I think we say we have two vans, right? So it's only sports at the middle schools, right? So what we have six... What's that? Just at the middle schools. Right. But there are some regulations. If I'm... correct in the size of the van that you are now able to purchase. It used to be, you know, like the 15 passenger vans back in the day, you no longer can drive that many students in a van. Really? Yes. Because yeah, in Casa Grande, we had the little white feet buses and the vans and they just make us do the DMV where we

071submit our license and they approve us. We pay like three bucks and things of that nature. So, you know, is that. We would have to purchase. So you can we'd also have to work with legal counsel on which coaches are eligible to drive from a liability perspective. We also cannot transport more than eight students in a van at a time. So you would need multiple drivers for each team, depending on the size of the team for certain sports, obviously are quite a bit big. Any of our other white fleet vans are already dedicated to driving all of our McKinney-Vento students home. So they run pretty long routes. And McKinney-Vento students are homeless students. Yeah, are homeless students that could be going anywhere over the valley. So some of them have very long drives in those

072vans and drivers are already dedicated to those routes or potentially some of our ESS students that might need a van ride home. Those routes get covered first. So the number of vans that we would have to purchase in addition to this, I would have to go back and do a little calculation with the team to figure out what that would look like on average, how many teams we have and how many students for each team, then how many drivers each school would need and how many vans that would take. But even if that is an option and we've actually had this conversation about potentially bringing this forward, it was not possible. to do it in time to start school is really the issue we're up against with the number of drivers that we ended up

073being short. You know, at the end of the year, we weren't necessarily sure that it was going to be 20 drivers, right? We maybe weren't in this place. That's where we're at now and kind of had to make a game time decision. No, I understand it. Thank you. Board members, any other comments or questions on this item? All right. Seeing none, would someone like to make a motion to approve the utilization of cooperative contract 23D-CBS-0905, awarded to Mojave Education Services Cooperative to Canyon State Bus Sales for the purchase of new buses? I guess so. Motion. All right. We've got a motion by Member Collins. Is there a second to his motion? Second. Second by Member Davis. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? That motion passes 5-0. Item 8.2, this

074is the proposed budget for the fiscal year 25-26. I think you've heard a lot about this over the last six months. Mr. Herman is available to answer any questions that you might have in addition to the hearing that we had earlier this meeting. If not, would someone like to make a motion to approve the proposed budget? Motion to approve. A motion by Vice President Nelson. Is there a second? Second. Second by Member Davis. All those in favor of the motion, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? The motion passes 5-0. Thank you, Mr. Herman, to you and your team. Item 8.3 is our transportation stipend. I will invite our Associate Superintendent, Ms. Lisa Gibson, up to the podium. Governing Board and community members, before I begin just saying my script, I know that a lot of

075the conversation tonight has been about lack of bus drivers. And so I'm bringing forward a stipend this evening for bus driver attendance, which, please keep in mind, could attract, potentially attract new drivers, but also retain the current drivers that we have. So just... Please keep that in mind as we begin tonight. So this evening I am presenting a proposal for a quarterly stipend designed to incentivize daily attendance among our bus drivers. Currently the district averages four bus driver absences per day and has approximately 20 open driver positions. Given this situation, ensuring consistent daily attendance is critical to maintaining reliable transportation services for our students. To support this goal, transportation is recommending a quarterly incentive of $750 for bus drivers who have one or fewer absences during the quarter, with the opportunity to earn up to

076$3,000 annually. Certain absences, including bereavement, jury duty, approved FMLA leave, or workers' compensation, Will not be counted against the stipend eligibility only personal or ACA leave will be counted as an absence In addition to the monetary incentive, drivers who meet the attendance criteria will be recognized with a certificate honoring their commitment. Communication about the stipend will be shared with transportation staff at the beginning of the school year. And in addition, the Director of Transportation, Michelle Carmely, will provide quarterly attendance updates to the Governing Board. With that, are there any questions that I can help answer or Michelle Karmely can help answer or Chris Herman? Thank you, Ms. Gibson. I'm Member Davis. Yes. Thank you for your presentation. I was just curious, what are the requirements for a bus driver? So I am going to leave

077my name as Karmely for that. I know the requirements for a teacher. I assume they need to have decent vision, so we can skip that one. Are you going to apply? Believe me, I would if I could. So currently a requirement for a school bus driver is 20 hours behind the wheel training, 14 hours of classroom training, along with the skills and a physical performance test. Okay, 14 hours. I didn't catch that. 14 hours of classroom training, 20 hours of driving training, a skills course, as well as a physical performance test. My understanding from reading some things is that The bus driver is in charge. Correct. Of discipline, et cetera, including while they're driving, the kids listen to the bus driver, right? Correct, yes. Is there any training given in classroom management, like bus management?

078Yes, ma'am. We do utilize PBIS, which is something they utilize in the classroom for student behavior. What does that stand for? TB. What is it? It's Positive Behavior Intervention Systems. I still didn't hear it. I'm sorry. Positive Behavior Intervention Systems. Got it. So they get that too. They do. And I do want to also point out, we do the training. We offer that through, if you want to talk a little bit about that. We do. So what we, what is put on the employee is to get the permit test first. That's four tests. It's a general knowledge. It's a student endorsement, or I'm sorry, a passenger endorsement. an air brake test and a general knowledge test. Once they get that, they can come to us and we provide them with paid training to get them

079through. So after they go through this training, there's some sort of evaluation as to whether or not they've been successful to a level. Yes, ma'am. There's an ADOT test that's required. We are lucky enough to have an ADOT third-party tester here in our district, so we can provide that test a lot sooner than making an appointment with the motor vehicle department. Good, because I know the relationship with a bus driver can be a really familial one, especially with little kids. And I'm glad to hear that it sounds pretty thorough. We'll be working on it, huh? Yes, ma'am. Thank you. And they need fingerprint clearance cards, correct? Oh, correct. They will need a level one fingerprint clearance card. And they have to be able to pass a Department of Transportation physical. Okay. Thank you. Thank you.

080Thank you, Member Davis, Member Collins, Vice President Nelson. Oh, did you have one? No. Okay, great. So just for my benefit here, four absences per day plus 20 open positions. If we were looking at a fully staffed. Like what is the deficit that we're looking at? Just calculating the open positions plus the absences. If we can always, we always know that four people are going to be gone every day. Correct. And that varies from day to day. What we do is we currently have 54 routes scheduled to run for next year. So it's about half of your position. So you guys are operating basically at a 50% deficit most days. Okay. My next question. So we have the 14 hours classroom management training. If I'm understanding correctly, was the 14 hours that you just mentioned,

081that was classroom management training, the 20 hours behind the wheel. So it's, we're looking at like, do we want people to come to those positions with these already obtained? Or are we still looking at, I hire an individual and then they've got about 40 hours of training to do before we are able to then. have them. We're open to either. Go. And I wanted to clarify, it's not 14 hours of classroom management. It's 14 hours of bus driver training. Oh, and it's a lot of, and then I, then there's also, okay. So there there's that. And then the 20 hours behind the wheel. Yes, ma'am. Okay. I got it. Thank you. Um, okay. Very interesting. I definitely think can see why we would want to go towards this incentive, especially if it was something that

082was approved, it would be something that would be able to hopefully advertise as far as. As a recruiting tool, because operating at a 50% deficit just is not feasible. I know we've already done several things in the district as far as increasing the distance for our elementary and our middle school students to accommodate the decreasing number of bus drivers that we've had. And I mean, it really truly is an equity issue, especially when we look at. A lot of our students who are coming from the South Mountain Quarter, they're coming from Maricopa. It just, we absolutely want to make sure that they get home on time. But part of being in Kyrene is to be able to have that Kyrene experience. And for a lot of our kiddos, mine included, he doesn't, we've got great

083teachers, but he does not come to school for the academics. You know, like he is about. band. He is about orchestra. He's about wrestling. He's about volleyball. And those are the things that hook him to the academics. And so if we're enticing children to come from pretty great distances, you know, it's really important that we really work hard on increasing that 50% deficit. So thank you. I do want to point out, and I believe Ms. Gibson may have said this, but In addition to this stipend, one of the other strategies that we've put into place next year is previously our bus drivers were employed at a 30-hour work week. We have now upped that to 40 hours, which will help some. But we also run into the point, again, if they're running all three tiers

084and they have to run an after-school route, and if for any reason they had to run that last tier twice, We are looking at, we also have some limits on how much our drivers can actually drive in a day or in a week as well. And so there is this, in addition to meeting the limit, there's also the addition of, you know, once you start getting over 40 hours of driving, there's also the burnout issue we need to consider for our bus drivers. And it's going to be really hard to keep people, right, if you're consistently asking them to do over. So we had an issue when we were at 30, even asking some drivers to stay for those extra 10 hours, because if their contract is only for 30 and we're asking them to

085stay, they don't have to do those additional hours, even though they're getting paid. Now we'll go to 40 hours and that should help some, but it's not nearly going to solve the problem. Correct. Can I ask a question about that? So with the, did you find. With feedback running at a 30-hour contract for many people, you mentioned like second careers and things like that. Will a 40-hour... contract. I'm curious if that, how we plan on navigating that, because I know some people have certain income limits and things like that. And if your current pool is maybe second career individuals, I'm just curious what thoughts you have there. So when I announced the 40 hours to my employees, I only had five that had a I believe it's a social security issue. And those five, we

086can work with those on a 30-hour a week par. Our employees at 30 hours receive benefits also. So it's a real incentive. And we're willing, you know, if we've even taken part-time, if we have people that say, you know, we want to do part-time, we've even looked at that, we don't get a whole lot that only want to do 10 or 20 hours. Member Davis. Thank you. I was impressed by the point that was made about working with the parents or working with the coaches. And I know that notice was laid about this. I'm sure there were administrative and perhaps we were waiting for the budget to be passed and all that. And we didn't know how many people we were going to be able to hire. It really didn't have to do with the

087budget being passed. We've allocated enough funds to fund as many drivers as we need. So it's not that the money's not there. It's that the people aren't there. And so, again, where we ended last year, what's happened over the summer, as we said, that number. Today, it's already fluctuated from what yesterday's numbers were because we had a retirement or a resignation. And so that happens all the time. We're also working with our contracted vendors right now trying to secure drivers. But so are every so is every other district out there trying to secure those drivers. And so there's a lot of competition for that. And so it's just a matter of not knowing. And it became. Very evident that we were not going to fill the gap enough. In fact, the gap was actually getting

088a little bit bigger each day by a one or two more drivers less that we had available. So we realized that, again, I kind of use the word we needed to make a game time decision with school starting in two weeks. And that's why we said, you know, we'll revisit this as quickly as we can. It'll give us time to collect some additional feedback. We've been meeting with, you know, everybody was on summer break and a lot of people aren't on contract. All of our athletic directors were off contract for the summer. So we've already been meeting with them, looking at options. And, you know, again, I think I brought this up when board member Collins brought up, you know, do we just buy more vans? We've even talked about that. We realized there was

089no way to get those in time. Yeah. If that does become a viable option, we'll be back in front of the board asking for some additional funds. Now, that would be something above and beyond what we budgeted for. All these other things that the buses like tonight had already been planned for. So, you know, I just want to be really clear. This is not a budget issue as far as having enough funds to pay for the number of drivers we need. the funds, we need the drivers. Yes. And I apologize for misspeaking about that because I did get it, but it came out of my mouth. I just want to underscore that we have parents who would like to be part of the solution and I would really like them to. be part of the

090solution. I think that can be done and certainly as an elected official I take very seriously as I said a lot up here that I represent people who vote for us and me and I want to include them because they're our community and so I hope there's an opportunity to take advantage of them coming forward. Thank you, Member Davis. Ms. Parmley, can you remind me, how many drivers do we currently have? 33. 33. So at a potential $3,000 a year stipend, we're talking just shy of $100,000 investment in the stipend. I think it's money well spent. Absolutely. But if we fill our positions, we'll be at 54. That's what we budgeted for. If we fill the rest of those positions, we currently have 33, but we have 54 if it's what we're trying to get

091to. And that is what we budgeted for. I just want to jump in just to help clarify the math, right? So if we had all 54 drivers, it would be just under $200,000 for the total cost. The stipend would just be for the amount paid, but then we also have to pay for all the what we call employee-related expenses, right? It's the ASRS and the FICA taxes. Currently with our staff the way it is, we would probably be, if every driver that we had had perfect attendance or met the attendance requirements, we would probably be somewhere around $130,000 to $140,000 of an amount. But like Superintendent Tinnis mentioned, we'd love to have more people that would be onboarded before the school year would start. So that maximum amount would just be shy of $200,000 when

092you include all of the cost if it was for the entirety of the staff. Thank you. Yeah, I know we've, as a board, have had presentations from our director of athletics, Mr. Gleiter, who's in the back. I know this board has expressed its continued support and commitment for athletics. It's not about the money. I mean, as you've told us before, Mr. Herman, athletics is a program where this district actually invests in it. Like, we lose money running the athletic program. And we know that and we support it and we embrace that because we understand that athletics are important for the reasons Vice President Nelson spoke about, for the reasons our community members spoke about. So it's not, to your point, a funding issue. We will fund it. And I think this funding for the stipend

093for transportation, which is not solely about athletics, it's about getting our kids to school every day, I think, again, is money well spent. I know, just to make sure I understand this, we do use contractors. The contractors are our hard-time staffing. On any given day, Ms. Parmley, do you know how often we're having to rely on a contractor? Every day. Every day. So every day we're relying on a contractor. And you, as the head of transportation, you drive buses from time to time. Yes, I do. Almost every day. And so do my supervisors and mechanics. I appreciate that. Okay. I have one more question for them. Please, remember, come. With the contractors, are they eligible for the stipend? No, sir. Okay. And when will it be dispersed for those that qualify? It will be dispersed

094quarterly. And did you want those dates? No, no. I just want to know, like, because it says $3,000 annually. I don't know if they got it at the end of the year. Like, you know, some schools get a 301 money to the teachers and one big check at the end of the year. And others split it up. So I didn't know if they were just getting that check quarterly. Yes. And also. Is there a way to increase that amount? Because I know I had people in my life that was close to me that bus drivers, they were school bus drivers. They didn't get paid in the summer. They don't get paid over break. And so it's really hard to convince people, especially in this economy, where it's always been hard to convince bus drivers with

095all the stuff that they deal with. Because Member Davis mentioned, you know, are they in charge of the bus? I don't know about y'all, but I'm in education. I keep up with education and stuff that goes on, not just in this state, but nationwide. And we see parents fighting bus drivers, getting on the bus, trying to beat up bus drivers, kids doing all types of stuff on buses with bus drivers. So, you know, to me, we need to... I don't say those people sounds belittling, but bus drivers and people who do that job, I think they need to feel valid. You know, could we raise that number higher? Possibly. Mr. Herman, do you want to talk about how that equated out to about the $2? And what we did a few years ago prior to

096this new board coming together where we've already increased. And we're in the middle of a compensation study as well right now. So we've already got some data that shows that our bus drivers are actually either at market or above market stipend right now for their hourly rate. But you might be able to explain that a little better. You know, the questions about employee pay could be here for a long time, right? But you said it well, Superintendent Tinnitus. we do evaluate where we are at relative to East Valley and Arizona, you know, driving, as well as other position compensation. And so a couple of years ago, you know, we did put a pretty high increase in bus driver pay. It was $2 per hour. It actually put us at the top of the pay in

097all of our East Valley. And that's happened about two to three years, maybe three years ago. And now everyone kind of creeps back. So that does buy you a little bit of time to be. ahead of the game, but what we've kind of found is that it doesn't continue right forever. Other districts will try to find the same driver pool that we do. When we try to look at this amount, we tried to make sure we wanted to value what people are doing. This is an attendance stipend, not an increase to permanent compensation. But Mrs. Parmley mentioned that it equates to about, for a 40-hour... a week driver about a $2 per hour increase, which is, which is, um, we thought was pretty sizable. And I'm thankful that you guys did that because like I

098said, you know, a lot of bus drivers are working 25 to 30 hours. It's not, it's not sustainable for, you know, sustaining a lifestyle. So I am glad that the district was able to go to 40 hour work week to try to ensure that bus drivers are adequately compensated. But yeah, we'll talk about this all night. So I'm going to end it right there for me. The only other thing I wanted to add, you know, I think it kind of goes back to the whole theme of the evening and the conversation and the choice we had to make kind of at this game time is that, you know, the other option had we continued transportation is we would have been canceling games almost every week, multiple games a week for children. And that's very disruptive

099to their athletics as well. And we talked about the fact that if you don't have a driver, I can't make something happen with nothing, right? Like I can't. I can't get a bus there. And so really and truly, we would have either been, like I said before, pushing the game time so late because the tier three drivers, assuming we had enough, we need about nine drivers to come back from tier three in order to be able to run all of the routes. And so in order to do that, and again, that can fluctuate maybe between eight and 10 drivers to come back. So one, you'd have to have enough. And if you're asking them to work overtime, they'd have to agree to that. Two, it pushes the time so late. Or three, you're just consistently

100canceling games on kids, which we also did not think was a very viable option. I had a few questions, too, President Walsh. Yes. Ms. Gibson, the incentives that we're giving, I'm sure there's been lots of research. This has been, this works. There's research that's being done that's shown that this is actually a program. Do you, I know it works. Does it help with retainment, but does it also help with recruitment? Has that been shown as well? So if I compare it to... When we raised pay for substitutes, it did show that it did help. So, and that was different. It wasn't necessarily a stipend. It was just a raise of pay. And that happened during COVID. And so that did help. So sometimes it does help, but it's really hard to predict also. Because sometimes

101money is the driver, but sometimes money is not the driver. So we're at this point, we're hopeful. I'd like to see the results. we look back at this in three months just to see if it's working. And yeah, we're going to provide quarterly updates. So we'll do those in the board memo. Okay. That'd be great. I also want you to mention that I know member Collins was talking about how, you know, our bus drivers might not always feel the love from the community. And I just wanted to make a statement and I don't know if I can say his name, but our bus driver, his name's Simon. He like. He was wonderful. We would talk to him. My daughter would help him clean the bus because she was the last one dropped off. And they

102formed a really great relationship. So I just want to say that, you know, as much as we love our teachers and staff, I want to include our bus drivers in that as well. And I think they need to feel that support from the community as part of the whole of. of our schools in our district. And then I have another question. Is there any flexibility at all with our scheduling for our games? And I know this is probably outside the box. Can we do a Saturday morning? Again, I'm just trying, I know that's probably going to open a whole nother can of worms because it's on the weekend, but I really don't want anyone to be excluded from sports. And just, again, just trying to throw darts. and see what sticks. If there's any way

103we can do those kinds of things. We have explored alternative schedules as well. And we'll continue to look at that a little more deep. Again, with it only being two weeks before school, we had to kind of make a decision quickly. Saturdays get a little hard because we have so many students that participate in club athletics as well. And so it does start to eliminate some kids. make it harder for them to participate. We also run the issue. I'll be honest. I think we would then run into a coaching issue as well, because so many of our coaches are coaching other athletics as well on the weekends and things. And quite frankly, our athletic directors, which in most cases are assistant principals at our middle schools, you'd be asking them to give another day. And

104that's very difficult for them as well. Okay. Yeah. I'd love to have a brainstorming session, even, you know, if it's at each individual middle school to see what we can just, let's put our heads together and come up with some ideas, maybe get our PTOs involved, do a sign up genius type of thing. I mean, anything, you know, we do have some liability issues with just asking anybody to drive. So we need to be really careful. What we cannot have is people taking children in their personal vehicles. That is a real issue. I cannot have staff members saying, hey, I'll give you a ride today in my personal vehicle. I'm looking to our legal counsel over there who's already given me the advice. Trust me, I have asked all of these questions and then some

105because this was a very big issue for me as well. But we do have some liability things we also have to consider in some of these decisions. And either A, putting the district or a employee personally at risk. We do not want to ever do that to anyone. of our employees. Okay. And do we participate in any type of career fairs or anything like that where we can recruit? Okay. Every other district in the state trying to get bus drivers and every vendor trying to get bus drivers is really the issue right now. It's well in its city and we've looked at options such as that as well. Again, we felt this was the least disruptive for the moment as we kind of figure out if we can actually. And again, if in two weeks

106we have an influx of drivers, we're back. We're back on schedule. But the reality is if we are able to get back on schedule and if at some point we don't have enough drivers, games will have to be canceled. because school has to be our first priority is right. Getting the kids home from school. Okay. Sorry. I'm just trying to, yeah, I'm kind of tired. I'm not going to have the best ideas right now, but thank you. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Member Satri. Member Davis. Yes. I just wanted to reiterate this kind of discussion. I think if we could. I'd like to get together and chat about it and include parents again and see if we can just have a discussion session where we throw ideas around and see what sticks to the wall.

107Yeah. I just wanted to second that. Thank you, Member Davis. Ms. Gibson, to Ms. Satri's point, Member Satri's point, we hope this works and we'll check quarterly. I know we're doing a broader comprehensive. compensation survey is there a consideration that if we find ourselves in a quarter that this hasn't had the desired effect that we might prioritize looking at driver compensation just because of this challenge we're having before and maybe separate it apart from the broader compensation, just responding to the urgency of it? I believe we would look at all different options. And we just kind of wrapped up a compensation study and we're in the process of trying to figure out what our next steps are. And so I think that could be part of the discussion. Got it. So as I've heard multiple

108times tonight. We're going to revisit this. We're going to find solutions. We're going to try to make this work. It could be a combination of compensation. It could be other things. We hope this typing gets the job done. If it doesn't, we can revisit compensation. Thank you. Thank you. Any other feedback? Seeing none I will make a motion to approve the proposed transportation stipend the 750 per quarter to qualified bus drivers Who are absent zero to one day during the quarter is there a second to the motion? Second second by Vice President Nelson all those in favor. Please say aye aye aye aye Any opposed motion passes 5 to 0 Thank you Item 8.4. This is our election do's and don'ts. We're gonna invite Our District Council, Mr. Jordan Allel, up to the podium. It's

109nice to have you at the podium, Mr. Allel. Thank you, President Walsh and members of the board. This will be as exciting as the transportation conversation, I'm sure. Although it does have a... participation part at the end. So as the next item on this agenda is you approving the pro statement, hopefully for your bond or overrides, both, just the override. Okay. I can't keep them straight. I'm sorry. But as we are going to an election in the fall that you've called for, this is a good time to remind board members, also all the district staff about some of the restrictions that exist for district employees using school resources for election issues. So I'm not going to read all the slides because there's a lot of just statutory language and I know everyone wants to get

110home. It's only 110 degrees still outside. But the legal framework, this is all based on ARS Section 15.5.11, which prohibits a person from using school district resources to influence the outcome of elections. This applies to all elections, whether it be school board elections, our bonds and override elections, presidential elections, whatever we have. Obviously, the school override elections are what is most important to us right now. Influencing the outcome, it's pretty broad, but it's supporting a candidate or ballot measure, including a bond or budget override. Supporting circulation of pamphlets, things of that nature. Those aren't things we have currently going on. There are some attorney general guidelines that were required by statute. They were adopted in 2004. When the statute first passed, they have not been updated since. But that's actually okay. I think the 2004

111guidance is pretty good. So in terms of our prohibited activities, it is pretty broad. An employee of a school district is not allowed to use this long list of what are considered resources. It includes things such as time, bandwidth, computer hardware and software. Pretty much if you can tie it to the school district, you're prohibited to use it. to influence the outcome of elections. We read it broadly and we will get to why that is on the next slide or the slide after. It does include the use of school district promotional expenditures after the election is called. So you have called for an election. Basically the end of your public discussion will be the next item on the agenda when you approve the pro statement. Once that happens, Discussion of the election on the dais

112is prohibited and we will avoid doing that other than to mention that there is an election. We are not allowed to give pupils any information regarding elections. We take that pretty seriously even if it was just, hey, election day is coming up. We don't give that to our kids to bring home. We might announce that on our website or put it on the billboards outside the school. we wouldn't provide any written materials to our kids. And then the last one, an employee may not use their authority or their position to try to influence a subordinate employee. So obviously, as board members, it would be frowned upon for you to suggest that all school district employees should support the bond measure, the overrides, even if it makes logical sense. there's a perception of influence there that

113the statute prohibits. The reason we talk about this and it's so important is that there are fairly significant civil penalties that could be brought. They are up to $5,000 per violation and any amount of misused funds. So that is fairly discretionary. There's only been, as far as I'm aware, one case. Where an employee was found to violate this, it didn't end up being a $5,000 penalty, but it was in the hundreds of dollars that the employee was required to reimburse to the school district. These are personal liabilities. An individual employee or board member will pay this money themselves. We cannot take this from district funds. We cannot take it from trust coverage. So, again. This is why we send out reminders. We will send reminders to staff. Just constantly rehashing this idea. In terms of

114permitted activities, we are allowed to host forums. I know that several of the new board members who participated in some forums last year that were put on by the district, we are allowed to do that type of thing. It's a little harder when we're talking about an override election because... There's no candidate to bring forward. The statute does provide that it is not a denial of your political liberties of any person as guaranteed by the United States and Arizona constitutions. I've had many conversations with other counsel that we laugh about the hypocrisy of that statement because the entire statute is a limitation on your personal and political liability. It is what it is, but we will talk more about what is permitted. When you are not on duty time. For board members, this is when

115you are not in your official capacity, also known as when you're not at a noticed and agendized meeting, acting as the board. So when you're not on the dais, when you're not at a retreat, when you're not at an event that we have called, where we've... provide a noose and agenda, you are permitted to exercise your free speech rights. You may advocate for a campaign. You may distribute literature, wear your campaign shirts and buttons, put bumper stickers on your car to your heart's content, make speeches, make contributions to a campaign. When you're doing these things, particularly, I would say, if you're distributing literature, or giving a speech, I always emphasize you should make it clear you are there representing yourself. You can say that I am member so-and-so, I'm a member of the board, but

116I'm here in my personal capacity. Since you cannot control what you receive on your district email, it's not a penalty to receive email and read the email. But the regulations actually do say that you can't forward the email. So if you get a campaign email to your inbox, just delete it. You can read it, delete it. That's why I recommend that you set up your personal accounts for any campaign, political-related emails just to be on the same side. We are allowed to remind people that there are elections coming. as long as we're not giving them any suggestion on how to vote. We may answer questions regarding ballot measures. So when we're talking about overrides, we can talk about how much money we're talking about. We can talk about what those funds are used for. We

117just have to be careful that we're not being perceived as skewing the facts, selectively providing facts that suggest why an item should or should not be supported. So just sticking to the facts. And with that, we will get to the Frequently Asked Questions, and we can do this just Chopin's style. So, first question. And if you're following along, stop following along, because the answers are there, but the answers are not here. So it's a good quiz. Can a person use their title in support of an issue, e.g. a letter to the editor signed by the superintendent? All in favor? Yes? No? Cedric, was that a no vote? The answer is yes. Best practice would be that, again, state that you are doing this in your personal capacity, but you can identify yourself. Laura Tenias, Superintendent

118Tenias, can say. She is the superintendent of Kyrene Public Schools. However, the letter cannot be written during duty time. I don't know exactly what that means for Laura because duty time is 25-8. But not doing it on school computers, letterhead, using our email, things of that nature. Question number two, can a parent or employee have political or election-related bumper sticker on their private car in a school parking lot? I'm seeing nods. Yes, yes, yes. Yes, specifically permitted in the AG's guidelines. However, because, you know, we're lawyers. You can't allow someone to just park a car that's plastered with vote for signs in the parking lot 24-7. You laugh. I've seen it. And then if you're having an election and any of the schools are polling places, you just need to be aware of the 75

119feet requirement. All right. Can teachers wear buttons or t-shirts to school in support of or opposition to a ballot measure? Can teachers wear buttons or t-shirts in support of a ballot measure to a board meeting? My favorite, buttons and t-shirts. So, thank you, Member Nelson, because you nailed it. A no and maybe. So, if the teachers to school, we can all understand that's a no. If you're coming to a board meeting and you're here in your personal capacity, and you're not here to supervise students, let's say you're the choir director and your school's choir is performing and you are here in support of them, do not wear your political shirt because you are technically here working. If you're here in your personal capacity, though, absolutely wear your shirts, wear your buttons. Is that a Beyonce

120for president shirt? It was a Beyonce for president shirt. Can the district distribute factual information about the impact of a ballot measure to the public? Yes, but just the facts stick to as dry and boring a placard as we can create that just shows here are the costs, here's what we're going to use the funds for. Can district employees discuss their position on candidates or ballot measures during the course of the school day or at official events? I see a lot of no's. You have a right to free speech. Again, this is the hypocrisy of the statute itself. We're not infringing on your free speech rights. It's the question of what is your duty time? Are you on a break period, a prep period? Are you having a lunch? My recommendation is to approve this

121governing board's argument in support of the special maintenance and operation budget override election. So as Mr. Lull just said, this is the item where we get to consider and discuss the contents of the pro statement that this board will put out after this vote. We can't be talking about the election pro. against or indifferent. Attached onboard docs for your review and the public's review are the meeting certification and the resolution. The actual pro statement itself was all circulated to each of you prior to this meeting. I'm going to read it out loud for the community's benefit. It says this, revenue from maintenance and operations is our primary source of funding for teacher compensation. Continuation of our existing M&O budget override will allow us to honor our ongoing commitment to teachers. In addition to supporting teacher

122compensation, continuation of our existing M&O budget override will support class size reduction within established ranges. It will also allow us to continue to provide our elementary and middle school students with special area instruction such as art, music, band, chorus, languages, and physical education. The M&O override also helps fund school-based student support services, such as occupational and physical therapy, speech, vision, and academic and behavior support services. We take our fiduciary responsibility to the taxpayers of Kyrene very seriously and would not recommend continuation of the M&O budget override if it were not critical to maintain the high quality of education that is the hallmark of Kyrene schools. Join us in keeping Kyrene strong. So that's the content of the pro statement. Board members, if there's any feedback on it, now's the opportunity to share. Otherwise, we can

123take a motion. Member Satri. I don't remember getting that. This would have been circulated via email. Yeah, what date was that on? It would be two emails that were sent out. The first email would have been sent, let's see, the second email was sent on June 30th. The first email was sent on June 27th. Both would have come from Nancy Mosier. Does it say 2021 on it? That's why. You would have reviewed the previous pro statement to provide any feedback to update the new statement. So it was the previous statement and then any board members that provided feedback. I think that's why I was confused because I was looking for like, oh, okay, that's an older one. But okay. Gotcha. Very good. Member Collins. I sent my feedback via email. So, you know, you guys

124should have received that. Thank you. Member Davis. Yes, thank you. When I read this. It seemed rather cold to me. I don't know how else to put that. We're in a sense, we're really asking. This is our chance to convince people who may have questions about this. And I'd like to join us in keeping Kyrene strong. And I'd like to see that closer to the beginning. We invite you to work with us to keep Kyrene strong. Something that reaches out to people and grabs their attention, that this is important. It seems like, and I think I understand why it may sound that way, but in this day and age with what's going on in the world, I kind of, this is our chance to communicate with voters about how passionate we feel about our schools.

125and how important it is to continue to ask them for more money. It would be lovely if we had people in the state legislature who adequately funded our public schools, but since, in my humble opinion, we don't, we're really asking our community to step up and to help us. It's a tone thing. I'm not quite sure how to verbalize this. Yeah, maybe switch the paragraphs. The join us, I love that. I really love that. And I wish it were at the beginning. That resonates. Vice President Nelson. Just a quick question. So I know we have the pro statement, which goes into the voter guide, if you remember. Last year, it was very thick because we had a very big ballot. So this is just information that will go in there. Voters may or may not

126read. We will also have, and I think this is best direct to Ms. Helm. is we will also have different factual information that will be sent to the community, as well as the Keep Kyrene Strong PAC. We'll work on messaging. So I think we'll have like a multi-tiered process for getting that out. But if I'm correct, this is strictly for the pro statement in the election guide, correct? Okay. But we would have different tone. I know that's how it was in the 2021 override as well. We were really cognizant of that. That's correct. And this statement does have language that reflects what the PAC typically has in their campaign, such as the Keep Kyrene Strong language. That is the name of the PAC. Kyrene's campaign, while not dry and boring, despite what Mr. Allel said,

127is very colorful and attractive, but it cannot be persuasive. It is just factual. But there is persuasive campaigns that are produced by the PAC. Sorry. So what you're saying is this. cannot be persuasive. No, this is separate from both of those. As board member Nelson said, this is the language that actually goes into the voter pamphlet. And cannot be persuasive. No, it can be. It can be. And that's what I'm talking about. I think, you know, the more you repeat something, the more... makes an impression we've learned that no matter what you're saying if you say it loud enough and long enough i love the join us in keeping kyrene strong and i'd like to start everything with that you know step up and keep us strong work with us keep us strong for our

128kids you know keep us strong together maybe put more empathy or yeah heart into it instead of using words like not recommend continuation. That's the reverse language that we're actually trying to promote. That was the effect it had on me, so I thought I'd mention it. And I also know in my life, a lot of people I know, the only thing that they really look at right before the election is that big, thick booklet. Yeah. And if we have parents who are interested in the bond election and it's a thick booklet, they're going to go to the page where all those statements are. And I'd like us to stand out there. And Mr. Lell, just to confirm, based on our presentation just now, individual board members are permitted to submit a prose statement in that

129pamphlet as long as it's being clarified that they're. In their individual capacity. Right. And they would have to pay for it themselves because there is a fee to submit those statements. Very good. Thank you. I do not remember columns. I would have to research that. Any other feedback? Voting to approve it? So there's a resolution that's included on board docs. In that resolution, attached to there is the for argument. So that's the statement that we're approving. We can approve it with some changes, or we can approve it in substantially the form submitted. What I think we're just hearing from Mr. Herman is we're trying to be aware when the deadline for submittal is. So what I'd be happy to do if you're okay with it. is to approve in the form submitted with the suggestion,

130Member Davis, that you did, that you suggested, if we're able to get it in by the deadline. And if not, we'll submit it within the current form. Does that work? Okay. Very good. Yes. Okay. Very good. Very good. Okay. I think if I could make the motion then, that if we're going to make a change, I think the change is... Member Davis to bring the keep Kyrene strong closer to the top. And make it sort of as an invitation. Just the opening sentence. Help us keep Kyrene strong. The substance this board is supportive of, it's maybe a comment on tone and ordering. Yes. Very good. That's all. Okay. Can we change any of the wording also in that first paragraph? We could. The challenge that we have right now is that we need to make

131the resolution and adopt it now. So if we're getting into too much specifics, we're going to be challenged. That's part of the reason that we circulated the draft last month. If I can just ask, isn't there an August 6th date involved in this? Did I misread? An August 6th date. I seem to remember something about August as a final, but I may be thinking of something else. I apologize. I didn't jot it down. I meant to. Nothing is jumping out at me at the August 6th date. I'm probably mistaken. There is a deadline for the public to submit pro-con statements. I don't know if those deadlines are separate from the governing board statement because they are sort of a first-come, first-served, but yours will always go into the booklet, which may be that it has

132a separate deadline for that reason. Okay, thank you. So we're clear on what we're doing? I'm looking to see if there's a deadline for the separate pro-for statements. Ah, this might be it, Member Davis. The deadline to submit a statement or argument for or against a special election from the general public is Friday, August 8th, 2025 at 5 p.m. But that's the general public. So that's not this board statement. It could be what you said. But that could be your individual statement. Okay. Should you choose to submit it. Got it. Thank you. Yep. No, it's a good question. That's where the other date comes from. Okay. So do we want to suggest any specific changes here, or do we want to approve in the form submitted, knowing that individual board members can submit their own

133statement? I would like to suggest or plan to move that. Keep Kyrene strong. Move it to the top. Move it to the top. Yes. Okay. And I trust the talents of our folks to fit it in nicely, you know. I'd just like that to open it. Having been a journalist at one point in my life, that's what I'd like to lead with. Any other feedback? Member Chaudhry? Just change a little bit of the wording. So instead of saying would not recommend continuation, just say we take it very seriously and would recommend a continuation because it is critical to maintain. Just a thought. Very good. Any other feedback? I concur with that, too. All right. Hearing none, I'll make a motion to approve the resolution with the pro statement as modified. Is there a second to

134the motion? Second. Second by Member Satri. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes 5-0. That concludes our presentations. Item 9.1 is Board Committee Conference Reports. Do any board members have committee updates or conference reports? Seeing none, I'm at 10.1, items for future consideration. Would any board member like to list an item for future consideration? I have one. Yeah, member Collins. I know there's a liability issue, but let's see what we can come up with with the community for this whole transportation issue for students with the games. I'm still brainstorming that, so I don't know what that looks like, but give me a day. I'll have an idea. Okay. All right. Thank you. We'll have that. Any other items for future consideration? Member Davis. This isn't for future consideration, but I

135didn't know if I'd have a chance to just thank everybody who came tonight. Yes, thank you. And I really appreciate you taking the time to come and give us your feedback. And also, staff, thank you for all your hard work. It's not easy. Thank you, Member Davis. Item 11.1 is meeting dates. Our next regularly scheduled meeting is two weeks from today on Tuesday, July 22nd, 2025. But don't worry, we'll see each other before then. We have a board retreat one week from today on July 15th, 2025. That's right here in this room. And as always, our board retreats are open to the public. Item 12.1 is adjournment. Would someone like to take motion to adjourn the meeting? Motion to adjourn the meeting. A motion by Vice President Nelson. Is there a second? Second. Second by

136Member Davis. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? The motion passes 5-0. We are adjourned at 8.06 p.m. Thank you all.