001For study session, our study session is called to order at 5 p.m. Item 1.2 is Kyrene's Approach to Student Discipline. This time I'd like to invite Dr. Garth Kupp to address the board. Thank you for this opportunity to engage with us in this study session. Tonight, we are here to provide an overview of Kyrene's Approach to Student Discipline, what guides our practices, and how we ensure consistent practices across all of our schools. I'm grateful to be joined tonight by Mr. Alejandro Vasquez from Kyrene Del Norte and Lagos, and Mr. Jesse Gutierrez, the assistant principal at Kyrene Centennial Middle School. And both of them will be sharing their perspectives a little bit later as practitioners as to how this work takes shape on the day-to-day on their campuses. And we're also going to take a brief
002look at some data that drives some of our decisions and our reflection and improvement. We have a concise but very thorough presentation for you all tonight. And we have also built in some time for questions, and we value your insight. We look forward to your feedback. So first of all, before we talk about how discipline is applied at the school level, we wanted to ground you in the policy framework that guides our decision. And this slide in front of you does reference governing board policy 5-306 and 5-306A, which use statutory language and board policy language to define terms such as suspension, due process hearings, which reflect our legal and our policy obligations. While this framework is important, It's not the full picture of how we approach student discipline in Kyrene. At our core, we are
003in the business of educating children between the ages of 5 and 13, and our first responsibility is to teach. We don't expect our students to arrive with perfect behavior. We know that they are going to make mistakes, and when they do, it is our job as educators to guide, model, reteach, and support them. As a principal once told me, The price that students will pay for their mistakes today is far less than what they will pay down the road when they're older. It's our job and our obligation to guide them through these years. And that's the mindset that we carry every day and our school leaders carry every day when they make disciplinary decisions. How can we help these students learn from these moments in a way that protects the learning environment but also honors
004their growth? So with that foundation in place, this slide, here we go. So with that foundation in place, this slide reflects how we apply the discipline policy in practice. Our approach is progressive and student-centered. We consider a student's age, behavior history, the context of situations, and their remorse when determining next steps. And consequences can range from a reflection or a student conversation to more serious interventions. Our goal, though, is always one and the same, to help our students learn from that behavior and re-engage with their school community. The discipline framework is a document in our family handbook, which provides a framework for how we respond to behavioral infractions. And it outlines a range of infractions with a range of possible consequences, which are organized by severity. And that matrix helps ensure that consequences are fair,
005predictable, and aligned with board policy and legal requirements, while also allowing for that professional judgment. It's a tool that's used to support consistency across our schools and that flexibility to meet students' individual needs as well. And this slide is an excerpt from our family handbook, which outlines behavioral violations and their definitions and their possible range of consequences. As you can see, definitions are designed to guide school leaders in making consistent, informed decisions and consequences range. to allow for that discretion so that school leaders can respond appropriately based on context, student history, developmental level, and maintaining legal and policy requirements, such as when law enforcement may be required in certain situations. And I wanted to follow up that excerpt with another excerpt that actually comes before that previous one in the family handbook. And the reason
006why is that this slide provides how that matrix outlines that progression in disciplinary responses. Rather than a one-size-fits-all, you'll see that school leaders are guided to consider a variety of factors, such as a student's disciplinary history, as I had mentioned before, intent, age, level of remorse, when determining those consequences. And this structure provides consistency while honoring the need for that professional judgment and individualized support for the student. Something that's not mentioned in that previous slide is alternative discipline, though some of these terms were present on there as well. And whenever possible, we do focus on alternative consequences to keep students engaged in learning while also addressing behavior meaningfully. These types of alternative disciplinary practices could include restorative practices, check-in, check-out systems, where students check in with a member of the school community. and check out
007toward the end of the day as well, reflection activities, restitution, and it could include community service as well. And we also utilize in-school interventions and also programs like the Kyrene Alternative to Suspension Program and the Long-Term Alternative to Suspension Program as well, without removing students entirely from the learning environment. And these options allow for students to take responsibility, repair harm, and stay connected to school, which is a key factor to their long-term success. As we move towards the school lens, so you're going to stop hearing from me and you're going to hear from Mr. Alejandro Vasquez first, it is important to note that our school leaders do follow a consistent and student-centered approach when responding to concerns. Every incident is viewed through the lens of support with an emphasis on due process, clear communication with
008families, collaboration across leadership teams. This shared approach ensures that while responses may be individualized, they are always rooted in our commitment to student growth. And to bring this to life, I'm now going to invite Mr. Alejandro Vasquez up to show you how this looks from the elementary lens and what that typical response might look like in practice. Good evening, board. It's a pleasure to be here with you. My name is Alejandro Vasquez. I'm the assistant principal at Kyrene de los Lagos and Kyrene del Norte. So in looking at the elementary approach, when it comes to behavior and student discipline, we are committed to make this a learning experience for our students. We understand that behavior is a form of communication, and our goal is to provide the appropriate supports to each situation. Our approach allows
009students to reflect on their behavior and take action steps to repair the harm and take accountability. There's also space for students to practice or talk through an incident in the hopes that they will make a different choice in the future when faced with a similar circumstance. This approach is rooted in strong and meaningful relationships with our students where individual needs are met and supported. Early intervention is possible and authentic when we truly take the time to know our students. Partnering with families is a critical component of our approach to behavior. Not only do we communicate behavior and consequences to families, we invite their feedback on what works for their child and we ask them to continue the conversations at home. We have found that students are best supported when the school team and parents work
010together. When behaviors do arise, schools respond using a major and minor flowchart. Flowcharts are created at the school level by a team, typically the PBIS team, with the focus on how to respond to certain behaviors. Minor behaviors are managed in the classroom by the teacher. These can include defiance, work avoidance, roughhousing, or inappropriate language. Teachers are provided with the steps to follow such as a verbal warning, refocus or think sheet, and parent contact. Repeated minor infractions can eventually be referred to the office if the classroom interventions have not been successful. Major infractions are referred to school administration, such as hitting, assault, bullying, fighting, threats, etc. Teachers complete an electronic referral form and email it to the administration. The incident is investigated, consequences are assigned, and the teachers and parents are notified. These incidents are documented
011in Synergy as office discipline referrals or ODRs. The investigation process ensures that all student perspectives are heard and honored. Our hope is that all students are forthright and honest on an incident, but we do talk to other staff members or students who may have witnessed the incident or even use our security cameras when possible. Here is when we really lean into our relationship when processing a discipline issue. Students are more likely to be open on an incident if there is trust established and they feel we are there to support them. As previously shared, school administrators weigh many factors when assigning a consequence. Our goal is always to help students learn from their behavior and grow through support. When it comes to our youngest learners, we take great care to consider a wide range of factors
012like context, developmental needs, and the supports already in place before assigning a consequence. With our goal of making it a learning experience for students, consequences can vary greatly. They can be a student conference, verbal apology, or an apology picture, restorative session with students and or teacher, social stories, peer mediation, time with our counselor, resource teacher, or behavior intervention specialist. Based on the incident, students may be away from peers for a consequence for a period of time in either in-school intervention or in-school suspension, but they always have access to their grade level curriculum. When considering a suspension for elementary students, we are in alignment with state law and board policy. Suspensions for K-4 students are used only in very limited circumstances, such as safety concerns or serious persistent behaviors that haven't responded to intervention. Even then,
013our approach emphasizes collaboration with families and mental health staff to ensure we're doing what's best for the child and the learning environment. Now to share our middle school approach, Mr. Gutierrez. Good evening, President Walsh, Vice President Nelson, members of the Governing Board, and Superintendent Tengiz. Thank you for the opportunity to engage in this study session today. My name is Jesse Gutierrez, and I am the proud assistant principal at Centennial Middle School. Today, I will be talking to you about the middle school approach when it comes to discipline. When it comes to discipline, the biggest thing to emphasize with students is ensuring we are honoring students' rights in due process. The due process allows students to remain innocent of the accusations until the school has a preponderance of evidence speaking to the fact that the student
014did indeed violate a school rule. Behavior is referred to us in a number of different ways, whether it's from teacher observations, lunch staff, other students, and sometimes even parents call us, letting us know that their students are struggling in the morning. This is a valuable piece of information brought to us by parents, community members, amongst others, and it ultimately allows us to partner with our community. When we move through the disciplinary process with a focus on relationships with both students and parents versus accountability, when we take on this approach, parents, students, and the community become more trusting of the school, allowing us to partner to continue to support their students. Once a behavior is referred to us, we bring in the student and make them aware of the current allegations being made against them. From
015there, we speak to the student to ensure that they could tell us their side of the story. From there, we have the student write out everything that they just told us on a document, otherwise known as a witness statement. On this document, students give us a first-hand account of what they witnessed or what it is that they've heard. They also tell us the time of day, the location, the others involved in the situation, or others who potentially observed the incident. If possible, we are able to pinpoint the location and run cameras on the situation depending on when and where it occurred. When we take the witness statement and begin to interview everyone that the student has listed, we repeat this process of having witness statements completed until there is no longer anyone else to interview
016who potentially witnessed the situation itself. All eyewitness testimonies are being taken into consideration. Once we have a preponderance of evidence speaking to the fact that someone did indeed commit a school of infraction, we move to the student handbook to see... what the Kyron School District has outlined as an appropriate consequence. When it comes to minor infractions, an administrator will make a decision based upon the handbook. Once the incident is considered to be a major incident, the administrative team will actually come together to make a decision on what is an appropriate consequence, what this looks like, and if there is previous precedent set established on another student committing a similar infraction. When it comes to major discipline, these decisions are never made in isolation and are always made together as a team. Once consequences are assigned,
017we then have conversations with our students in terms of what that reintegration back into the learning environment looks like. Whether the issue was with another student, in which case we're potentially engaging in peer mediation, whether the issue was with a teacher, in which case we're having conversations and potentially creating supports or plans of support in terms of how to have that student become successful in the future. The big focus that we would mention here has to do specifically on relationships versus accountability. And oftentimes when we're actually making some decisions on minor behaviors, we actually include the student's reflection. We will ask them, what do you think is an appropriate consequence here? As you may see in the previous slide, there are a range of consequences that go from student conference. all the way up to
018suspension. So being able to include the students in those conversations and really truly allowing them to reflect allows them to really take ownership of that behavior. Yes, and that is it for me. I will pass it back on over to Clark for the school response to data-driven decisions. All right, thank you, Mr. Gutierrez and Mr. Vazquez. And as you guys can, as the governing board can tell, there are a lot of decisions that go into one disciplinary infraction. And I believe, and Dr. Lane, I'm going to look over your way for this. I think the average amount of time spent on one ODR, which is an office discipline referral, is up to upwards of an hour, I believe it is, on average, I think that was. And one of the studies that we had done
019previously. Sorry to put you on the spot there. But, okay. But as you can see, the work that our school leaders does is very, very involved. And that only tells a part of the story. Finding that preponderance of evidence to see if a student did, in fact, do that deed and finding in our student handbook and triangulating exactly after gathering all of that information how to code that infraction, that's only one part of that equation. At the school level, it's also expected that after a behavioral infraction occurs, after behavior, that our teams are regularly and collaboratively. going over what that data does look like at the site level. So, and that work usually happens with our positive behavior intervention and supports team, as Mr. Vasquez did allude to just a little bit earlier. Each of
020our schools does have a team that looks at data regularly. And these reviews... help our schools to identify trends, adjust supports for groups of students or even individual students as well, and stay aligned with those shared expectations. In addition, our school leaders participate in ongoing professional development focused on effective and inclusive responses on student behavior. Just last year, this past year, Mr. Vasquez and Mr. Gutierrez and the rest of our assistant principals and our academic and behavior specialists in middle school participated in a book study focusing on alternatives. discipline as well, and how to positively help students learn from their behavior. And just as important, we listen. School leaders listen to their students, they listen to their families, and they keep them involved in those feedback loops to be responsive to the lived experiences of
021our students and families as well. And I'm going to turn it back over to Mr. Gutierrez, who is going to talk a little bit more at length about our positive behavior intervention systems and our PBIS teams and how they utilize that data. The positive behavior interventions and supports team at each school go over a number of different data points directly related to discipline. This data speaks to the infractions, when they take place, what time they took place, the location, and what day they took place. Having this information allows us to be proactive and intentional with some of our social-emotional learning resources provided to us. For example, the Centennial Middle School team identified Monday morning as being one of the frequent days and times for both verbal and physical aggression. When we asked ourselves, why is
022this time going on? We came to the conclusion that sometimes after the weekend, students come back to school unregulated and often emotionally elevated based upon something that occurred over the weekend. We took a proactive approach by ensuring all our staff is out at their assigned duty spots early in the morning and students who seem dysregulated or out of sort or report to the administrative team for a check-in early in the morning. The very first class of the day then transitions into a class known as advisory, where we focus on social-emotional learning. via the character strong curriculum. These lessons allow students to process and work through some of the issues on their own, but it also communicates to the student that the teacher currently presenting the information is a safe adult who can further help you
023outside of the digital curriculum. The advisory class is designed to be a small and home-based class where students feel safe, comfortable, and competent, and have that sense of belonging within the larger context of the school itself. I will now pass it on over to Alejandro to speak to PIS in elementary. So at the elementary level, social emotional learning time is embedded in the daily schedule so students get that daily from their teachers. Teachers have access to harmony curriculum with a variety of lessons and activities for students. We prioritize this preventive approach in our 90-day action plan and create goals with action steps to measure growth in our social emotional learning. Students take panorama surveys two times a year that has a focus on sense of belonging, student-teacher relationships, emotional regulation, and self-efficacy. And here's just
024a quick snapshot of what our student-level data could look like in one of our PYS meetings. This particular data set here is looking at the infractions on the top. So if you see on your left-hand side, those are the number of infractions. At the bottom, this would be the type of infractions. And then at the bottom, you would see the time of day where certain infractions are taking place. We have amazing data available in our Synergy through the ODRs that we enter, the Office Discipline Referrals. We're able to look at location, grade level. by month, day of the week, demographics. So the P-by-S team really takes time to drill down as much as possible to make informed decisions. Like Jesse said, that recess time there, they really needed extra support there. Same with us. In
025looking at our recent meeting, we saw that first grade student recess after lunch needed extra support. So we made sure to put another duty person there. We saw the fifth grade lunch recess time had almost no office referrals. So we're like, maybe we can have one person there. So we make decisions like that. Another example is our resource students needing extra support. So we've revised the resource IA schedule to be able to provide greater support. I'll pass it over back to Jesse. So I will be speaking to some student level data. The current snapshot that we're looking at as of right now is at the student level. And this is a program that we have in Synergy known as the early warning system. This is a new system that was recently brought to school administrators.
026And I'd like to point out the three different color tiles that we have here. In green, we have low risk. In the yellowish, we have a medium. And then in the red, we have high risk. And you can see each one of these. percentiles has a number of students who are currently assigned to them. Over on our left-hand side, we can kind of see that the student names are redacted for privacy, but this is a huge piece of information that we use at grade level meetings. Grade level meetings take place about once a month where our grade level teams are able to come together and really sit down and have conversations specific to students. Now, this program is absolutely amazing because it takes a number of different data points before ultimately assigning students a risk
027score. Some of the data points that are taken into consideration here are students' attendance, what their current grades look like, any major and minor infractions. All of that data comes together and ends up being compiled to compose what we call a risk score. So we can easily identify students who are in high risk and obviously need... more levels of support, but it also gives us an opportunity to take a look at some of these kids who are teetering back and forth between medium risk and high risk. This allows us to be extremely proactive in that approach and be able to start those conversations with teachers as well as students. It also gives us a really huge snapshot in terms of if we see a student who is low risk just jump to high risk. what
028is the reason and what is the cause as to why that is currently taking place. As we sit down at grade level meetings, there's sometimes teachers who have insight to students' lives and they're able to share to us, this is currently what is going on in this student's life, which could potentially speak to some of the reasons as to why it is that we're seeing these jumps. Now, obviously the goal is to move as many of our high risk students over into the medium risk, but the goal is to be able to move all students and to be able to take all students. into consideration. So as we continue to work through this student label data, we're consistently talking about how do we support this student? Is this going to be a check-in, check-out? Is
029this going to be, you know, organizational supports that we're starting to see through advisory? What is the level of support and what is it that we're going to do specifically to be able to move some of these kids from medium risk to low risk or from high risk to medium risk? With that being said, I'll pass it back on over to Dr. Cupp for closing the next steps. Okay, and we just showed you a small snapshot of what our school-based teams do look at in terms of responding to student behavior on their campuses. And as we wrap up, I just wanted to emphasize to the board that the work that we do with student discipline is ongoing. It's not about arriving at a fixed system, but continually evolving and being able to better serve our
030student populations. We will continue to invest in staff training and that calibration. And of course, we will always be refining our disciplinary matrix and expanding our alternative discipline options as well. And we thank you as the board for this opportunity to engage in this study session and to build that better understanding. And we are here for any questions. Great. Thank you, Dr. Kopp and AP Vasquez, AP Gutierrez. Thank you. This insight from your boots on the ground is really valuable. Board members, any comments or questions for our presenters? Member Davis. Thank you. Great job. I actually understood it. Good explanation. It's obvious that a lot of hard work has gone into this, so I appreciate your work. I just generally... I'm new to this board, so I realize that some of this may have been
031covered, but at some point, whoops, he disappeared. I was going to Kevin's chair. Board members, I'd like to have a time sometime to talk about some, I have a couple of general concerns about the disciplinary philosophy and the interweaving of criminal law into the disciplinary stuff. And I feel a need to kind of review that and go over it at some point. I'd like to review. I'd like to ask that we find a time to. have a discussion about the discipline policy, a general discussion. That's what I wanted to follow up on. The actual policy, so is it five? Philosophy. I'm sorry, I used the wrong P word. My concern is with just general disciplinary philosophy and how it is reflected in our policies. Okay. So I just would like to learn more about it.
032You did a great job, though. That's not a knock on anybody. How are you guys doing today? I just have a quick question. What determines or how long, for example, bullying is a huge issue in schools all across the nation. We're seeing young kids commit suicide or self-harm because of bullying at school. And I know every school handles it differently. In this district, what is... The protocol, and maybe this is a question that you probably don't know, and that's fine if you don't, it's okay. But what is the protocol for kids that are bullied and they reported to the school? And we all, I'm an educator, so I get it all the time. The teacher didn't do anything. The school didn't do anything. Y'all know how that goes, even though it may have been something
033done, but it may not been to the liking of the parents or the family or the student itself. So what protocols or steps are in place to ensure that those students and families feel heard so that behavior doesn't continue from other students. You're going to test my ability to pull the exact number of the policy, but it's five dash. It's in there. But we do have a separate board policy and procedure and complaint forms as they do relate to student bullying, harassment and intimidation as well. So in there, it does outline the steps that the school does take. So a thorough investigation and that immediate response to the family to acknowledge and that immediate investigation. to make sure that it is thoroughly investigated and responded to as well. And our school leaders do respond to
034those bullying complaints in writing as well. And that's not just something that they do at the school level. That is obviously something they involve with school effectiveness and also talent management in Lisa Gibson as well. Does it carry over from home? Like I'm a high school teacher. So sometimes I teach in Casa Grande, but I live out here and it's a small community. Kids get into stuff at the park and it carries over into campus. So if that happens, say somebody is being harassed online or whatever. Do you guys carry it on over onto campus as well? If it spills onto campus? Am I making sense with that question? Yep, absolutely. And. Mr. Hillel might be able to speak to that. He and I are on the phone and email constantly when we determine if
035there is a nexus to school in those situations. These gentlemen and all of our school leaders, they do have our students' best interests in mind. So whenever something is brought to their attention, they do thoroughly investigate that. Now, whether or not there may or may not be consequences that are assigned, that depends on a variety of factors in terms of where the school does have that jurisdiction to apply that discipline. It may be something that is reported to law enforcement, though. But anything that... our schools are made aware of, they do follow up with that. Absolutely. Never happens off campus, right? Vice President Nelson. Thank you for the presentation. Very excited that this is happening. I do have a question around slide 14. It's the one with the very pretty rainbow charts. Let me see
036if I can get that one correct. There we go. There we go. Okay. First question. So I noticed at the top, you know, we have, gosh. my old eyes, like recklessness. They seem like the colors at the top, there are way more colors at the bottom. Is there a reason for that? Is that how it's represented? Are we not seeing all of the various, you know, periwinkle descriptions? I'm just curious about that because it's going to lead into my next question. Yeah. And I think the answer to that is. On the bottom, because there are so many timestamps, because that is actually like a visual of the timestamps throughout a day. So as a PBIS team would be looking at this data, they would want to know when are we seeing the majority of our
037disciplinary infractions. I would make a hypothesis that typically, in my experiences, that's during the lunchtime. or before or after school. But looking at this data, you could see that lunch block between 1035 and 1135, it's pretty low consistently. So I would say that the school that this was kind of mined from at this point in time, they're... that wouldn't necessarily be a concern, but over at 13, I believe that's 1315 or 1325, but you're right. Those colors, they do kind of. Yeah. Well, I, yeah. Well, I would. Okay. Thank you there. Cause I was like, what is orange? What is happening at 1245 that is orange? It just kind of, yeah, it just flows over. That is really helpful. I appreciate that. So my next question is around, so we talk about major and minor
038and I'm looking again, let's just going back up to, um, you know, the definition. So I'm looking here and I'm seeing minor aggressive act. I am seeing defiant disrespect and noncompliance. And I see you're still on the right one. We're still going to stay with the multicolored slide. So we see all of these. you know, categories. And I recognize we have to categorize things, but they seem very broad to me. And depending on, you know, I'm sure Mr. Gutierrez and I, what might be defiant to me might not be defiant to you. And I'm wondering either both from the elementary and the middle school perspective, like how is a campus team, do you guys kind of norm what that means on your specific campuses? Because I imagine that it varies. If we would go back
039to one of the previous slides, it does have a definition in our handbook here where it gives you a descriptor. That's just a small excerpt. Yeah, but you're absolutely right. Like, you know, teasing out what happens on the kindergarten playground is challenging, to say the least. So we don't live in a black and white world. So but we do try to make the best judgment as possible. And we try to code as much as possible. I know with our systems, it's a conversation between if I'm the one processing the incident or the principal is or the counselor is, there's that collaborative there to really. get to the intent of it, to what happened beforehand, to really accurately categorize that. And then Mr. Gutierrez, as far as like middle school, I think being a middle schooler
040is just like to be defiant. To be 12 to 13 is just a rough time. And so how do you kind of parse that in your environment? Yes. So a couple of different things. I think the defiance and disrespect that we typically see get written up usually takes place in the classroom. And that typically is centered around the fact that the teacher is trying to get the student to get on board, trying to get the student to be engaged. Now there's obviously multiple redirects that come before the teacher ultimately makes a decision to write a conduct referral or ultimately to ask the student to leave. So in the context of the classroom itself, that is oftentimes where we see the defiance and disrespect. In terms of students engaging in behavior where they're being disrespectful to
041one another, if they're engaging in that type of behavior, we would typically code it in a different manner. So if students are teasing each other and they're calling each other bad words, then we would code that as inappropriate language. So we are very specific in terms of how it is that we code that. And a majority of the behaviors do take place in the classroom, as that's where a majority of the time the students currently are. So that's why you see that uptick specifically in the classroom for defiance and disrespect and the noncompliance. But it's not without the support systems in terms of, hey, you know, can you stand? Are we going to call them up? What is it that we're going to do? And one thing I really like, I'm sorry, I'm just going
042to keep going. Great. So one thing I really appreciated is when we got to the risk assessment scores. So using kind of that red, yellow, green, I am curious. So if we do see us and if we see a student, obviously, who jumps from green to red, one of the. pieces that you mentioned was like there's a check-in check-out process for students when we see students kind of bouncing up does that kind of trigger an informal check-in with the students like as a as a campus team does the staff kind of say you know who might have a good relationship with this student can we just start like Maybe nothing has happened, but you're seeing signs that there might be a risk. Can we check in a little bit more often with this student informally?
043They're not necessarily in trouble, but you're trying to kind of reel them back from that slide. Yeah, definitely. So when we are going over the early warning system, which is the chart. We're doing that in the grade level meeting. So in that meeting, all of those students in eighth grade, whatever grade it is, all teachers are currently available. So as we're having conversations about students, sometimes teachers already have information that they simply haven't shared. And they say, oh, by the way, this is something that's currently taking place. We do also have conversations in terms of who has the best rapport with this student and what approach is it that we're going to take here. There is also the opportunity to tap in our school counselor, just kind of depending on what information it is that
044we. find out about the student. Sometimes students, you know, they're dealing with the death in the family and unbeknownst to us, they never share it and they're just struggling internally. So that small check-in really allows students to know where they can really speak to what it is that's currently going on. As soon as we receive that information, we first ask the student, are you okay for us to share this with the rest of the team? If they give us the okay, then we notify the remainder of the team to ensure that we're all taking the appropriate steps to support that student and whatever it is that they're currently working through. Great. Almost done. So to go back to what member Collins was saying around the bullying and sometimes when things are resolved, not necessarily to
045everybody's satisfaction. There are times where a parent, and I understand FERPA, I understand it, hold it dear deeply. But you know, a lot of times you don't know the, like the actual intimate details of that resolution. And how do you communicate that to, you know, let's say my child has been, you know, done wrong. And I report it, you do your investigation, you just tell me it's over. Like, how do you kind of resolve that in a way, one, respecting everybody's privacy, but still making sure that other family feels like there is some kind of resolution in their concerns? Of course. So I think in a situation like that, we would reference the school handbook, more specifically where it states less serious, serious, and most serious. And as we're having conversations with parents, you know,
046this is... this is information that's readily available to them on the internet where they can easily download the handbook, we would say, well, in a situation like this, we would imagine that this is going to fall under the category of most serious. And at that point, it now provides them a range as to what it is that the school is going to be addressing. And obviously, we let them know this is all in accordance with the Kyrene School District Handbook. My last question, I promise. So this is for Dr. Kupp. Dr. Kupp, on the final slide, you talked about refining the matrix based on data and feedback. Is there a formal process by which we collect feedback from the community? Or is this just something we work on with staff? Or is it... Because I
047know we have a few different processes by which we get stakeholder feedback depending on the level that we're dealing with. But I'm just curious about how that works. And then once the matrix is refined or updated, how do we draw attention to it? I know everybody signs the family handbook at back to school night, but calling specific attention to a change like that. Absolutely. And just so you know, I have been part of that refinement process in the past, but it has been quite some time since I have been part of that. So I may call on some of my colleagues who have a little bit more experience in terms of what that feedback loop does look like. What I would share is it's looked a lot of different ways. There is not a formal
048process by which we seek feedback from the community. However, we are regularly speaking with the community around concerns that they have about how the family handbook is worded as we come across incidents with families. In fact, I'm in the middle of one right now that I'm supporting a family with an investigation, and they had some feedback about the family handbook that's going to result in a change to that. So I think that... For the most part, when we look at community feedback, it's coming when we have incidents that were not resolved to satisfaction with parents. Sometimes that surfaces that. We do have a more formalized process that we go through with our assistant principals and principals. We typically identify a handful of folks. It is usually typically assistant principals because they... tend to carry the
049lion's share of discipline work at the schools. And we bring them in and we just have conversation about what are they seeing, what has worked, what is not working. The folks that are using that document every day are the best folks to give us information about what works and what does not. Member Davis. Those are good questions, by the way. You can ask them all day long. Yes. Very interesting. Thank you. I just had a question about acting out behaviors, especially in the lower grades. And if these behaviors trigger some sort of evaluation for special ed at any point, is there something built in? Who makes those decisions? That's a great question. And just like we do with learning, we have a tiered approach to behaviors as well. So if you think of tier one,
050that's like. PBIS, that's school-wide. Every school has some sort of program. So, for example, at Norte, we have Cougar Paws and Paws is our school-wide expectation. So after that, if students don't respond to that, then we think more of like a Tier 1.5 approach. So that might be some time with the school counselor. A Tier 2 support would be a check-in, check-out, which we do as early as kindergarten, right? But, of course, that check-in, check-out sheet for that kindergarten student is going to look very different. It's going to look for a middle school student. And the purpose is still the same. The purpose is meeting with another adult on campus, reviewing your goals, having that continuous feedback because that student has demonstrated that they need that additional support for a Tier 2. Then if that
051student doesn't respond to Tier 2, then we look for like a Tier 3, which is more like a formalized behavior support plan where we really work with our resource teacher, we work with our behavior intervention teacher. They do observations on the student. They provide specific feedback for that student, what that student needs, what's their behavior function, how do they respond best, how best to redirect them. So we really tailor that specific to that student. Students also are brought to our MTSS team. So we have that MTSS process as well. MTSS. Yeah, sorry, multi-tiered systems of support. So that's a school-based team, myself, resource teachers, the whole school team. And if they're not responding to those tier one, tier two, tier three interventions, the team may review the data, right? So is the student making growth
052on the check-in, check-out? Has the student responded? since they have that personalized behavior support plan. And if they don't, the school team may loop in the school psychologist and we might refer, the team might refer them, the student to the school psychologist to potentially do an evaluation that we might need to see if there's other some underlying things that the student needs even further individualized instruction. Okay. And is it at that point that parents are brought into the system more formally or? Yeah. So the time, so part of our process is to include the parents from day one. So even if, you know, once we get to that tier 1.5, that communication is ongoing with the teacher and the parent as more office discipline referrals come in. that myself, the principal, the counselor is meeting
053with parents. So parents are not brought into the loop really early on into the process. But formally, when the MTSS team makes that recommendation to the psychologist, they're brought in formally to attend the R.E.D. meeting. So no decisions are made without that parent input sitting at the table regarding next steps in special education. Thank you. Thanks. Thank you, Member Davis. Member Sejri. Yes, hi. Good evening. Thank you so much for your presentation. I just have a quick question. I appreciate the amount of information provided and how detailed it is. Is there a reverse of this? Basically, if... Is there a reverse of all of this, the behavioral discipline matrix, how we encourage and recognize good behaviors? Is that outlined as well, or is that more depending on the school has their own way of doing
054that? And what are some examples of that? Like, how can we encourage those students who might be in the three and the four and the fives and turn that around? obviously for all the students, but for them as well. So I'll speak more broadly and then I'll turn it over to my counterparts to go over what that looks like at individualized schools, because that school response, just like many other things, may look differently. But in our family handbook, and I apologize that it's not something that I thought to include in this presentation, was our approach, our district-wide approach to positive behavior intervention and support. So we do have a district-wide team that does meet on this as well periodically. And I believe Mr. Ravaskas is part of that district team. So we do look at
055that district-wide data. And the whole part of that is that word positive is in there because that's really what we want to focus on is teaching those expected behaviors. And so when you walk through any of our schools, you'll see all of those matrices that are lining the walls like paws or like the bees or whatever they might be. And it's all about reinforcing that positive behavior. So that's really what that speaks to. But I'll turn it over to, I think. Mr. Vazquez to kind of take you through what that looks like at a particular school. Sure, yeah. So the PBIS, the positive behavior, we definitely want to reinforce and reteach expectations when needed. So we really rely on those school-wide matrices that have, you know, are focused on this is how we are in
056the classroom. This is our... playground expectations, these are hallway expectations, cafeteria expectations, so really reteaching and positively reinforcing. We look to do that with school celebrations, whether they're like PBIS assemblies, we do Mustang drawings over at Lagos that we do quarterly. Students get super excited about that. And the common language is really important with that, that all teachers buy in. That's why we have representation from all. you know, teachers in that particular team. The consistency with that is key, that common language for students. So they're not confused on what the expectations are. So they know that in this grade level, this expectation is this way and that continues on throughout the school. But definitely we don't want to lose sight of reinforcing the positive behavior of students. We are checking the exact number, but we
057have 22 of our schools are recognized for PBIS awards from the state for the systems that they have in place. So it's a significant number of our schools. Yeah, my daughter goes nuts for those PBIS tickets and they turn them in for pizza parties or whatever. They save up quite a bit. So I knew that was one example. I was just wondering if there was other types of encouragement that like, hey, you're being great today. Here's a little this or whatever. And I wondered if that was just. her school or? Nope, that's district wide. And some classrooms even take it above and beyond that as well, because they want to build that classroom culture as well. But I'll tell you, my daughter is about to exit her school and she's saved a little too many
058of those. And I'm like, girl, you've got like two weeks of school left. So you're never going to be able to spend all of those. And you can't take them with you to your next school. Right, exactly. And then I just, I'm sorry, I have another question. Are there any school-wide policies or our matrix that defines discipline actions for not meeting academic goals? For not making academic goals. This in particular just really focuses on that student misconduct. So focusing on behavior as it would be. So there isn't a current policy that says not in our disciplinary discipline for academic. Okay. And one more thing. I really appreciated the graphs and, you know, that one was the one that was provided was really great. Do you have any other data sharing you can provide that have
059and like and if you do, what types what other types of variables are looked at and how they're used to find solutions? I'd really be interested in that type of data. We know where to start, but like you have all this data. I would like to see how else it can be grouped and used to find solutions. Gotcha. And so, yes, we only gave you a snapshot of what our schools utilize at that school level to make those informed decisions at their schools. We do at the end of the year what we. do with our schools is we do look at a lot of data in terms of not only academic, but we also look at some of that social and emotional data as well. I think it was one of these gentlemen spoke about
060that panorama survey that the students take at the beginning of the year and the end of the year, talking about that's that self-reflection that they look at and how they did that. What we do at the end of the year with all of our schools is we do a reflection in terms of what they... how our students have done academically and also behaviorally. And we also work with our accountability and performance management team to really make sure that our synergy analytics is up to date so that we can review those internally as well. I know in the past we have done board retreats and we have brought in discipline data in terms of that. In the first one, we look at End of year. So we'll do our first data dive with the board when
061we come back to school and it will look at all the end of year data from this year because we'll have the comprehensive view because the school year will be over. So you'll look at discipline data. We look at equity data. We look at. We do sense of belonging. We do basically everything that's in the strategic plan. We dig in deeper into all of that data. It's organized by the strategic plan. So you'll see literacy. You'll see academic progress based on state assessment data. You'll see sense of belonging, the panorama data. We go a little bigger than the strategic plan, but then we narrow it down to the strategic plan goals. And then the equity data will really look at proportionality around discipline rates. Yes, we do not share all of, we don't, the district
062data retreats that we do with the board are a little more aggregate level because you're looking at the whole district. And so we don't get into as much detail as those reports would be that the teacher level will use. You look at it from a much higher level than a teacher level when we bring it forward. We can provide, though, this is all of the data that the school has access to at their fingertips. And I think that might be meaningful for you to be able to see. And we can do that and do some snapshots of that in a board memo. The other thing we do that just reminded me what you said, Ms. Fioritti, I'm sorry to cut you off there, was that what you were just referencing, we do do that in
063the very first data retreat that you'll get. I know you guys came in kind of middle of the year, is we have a slide that shows all of the data that the schools have access to. We just list all of the different data. So if there was ever something on there that you said, oh, I'd be more interested in this one, then we could pull that specific one. Is that what you're thinking too? I'm just trying to get to what board member Satri is looking for. Are you looking for what a school has access to? Are you looking for what do we look at at the district level as an aggregate? I'm just trying to better understand your question so we can make sure that we're providing you what you are interested in. Yeah, I
064mean, this particular chart looked at time of day. So those kind of variables. I wouldn't know without actually seeing it, but, you know, you can create groupings of data to analyze and make connections because that was a great example. What can we do during the time of day to, you know, boost staff or. So basically, as in for each occurrence that occurs, I mean, I don't know how many there are, but that's a lot of information. The type of discipline, I'm sorry, the type of behavior, the discipline applied, whether, you know, whether it was reoccurring for that student or if they, you know. Yes. And these are the conversations that happen at the school level based off of their big five data reports. So what we can do is make that available for you. I
065think the only challenge in showing that to you is for the schools. Again, huge shout out to Dr. Ostmeyer and her team for what is available to the schools. You won't be able to. They can click down into the report. Right. So it'll show these are the number of kiddos that have one discipline referral. These are the students who have more than one. They can click on that. They can see the data that's underlying that, which is amazing for the school. But I think what you're trying to get at, I think just seeing what's complete in that big five report that the schools analyze on a monthly basis, I think would give you a picture of what that looks like. That'd be great. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Member Satri. Appreciating all the
066time that goes into decisions on discipline. What strategies or processes do you have to address family members who are not agreeing with you? And I'm thinking mostly the more severe consequences for students. They think that the punishment that's dealt out is too severe. How do you address those concerns? We take it on an individual basis. Like I said, we partner with the families and we invite them in to have a conversation, meet with myself or the principal, depending on their level of concern with it. We definitely want to make sure that they're heard, but we also want them to understand the steps we took to really support that student and the reason behind it. They might just need a minute to process themselves. Usually a conversation the following day or that afternoon yields a better
067result. Once they get the why behind what we did, they might just need some further details on that. So it's really a case-by-case basis, but it's a team decision. A lot of times it's not just myself. in a vacuum handling discipline issue. It could be that the behavior intervention specialist was the first to respond to the student and then he saw the counselor and then they saw me or the teacher already had a conversation. So we really try to make it as a team decision and a team support as much as possible. But obviously if a parent has a concern, it's either myself or the principal that's following up with them. And then I'll ask maybe the inverse of that question. What strategies do you have if maybe staff members are thinking that your punishments
068are not severe enough and that they're making referrals time and again and they're not seeing... what they perceive to be the right consequences. How do you address those concerns? I think having that open communication with them too, like we have teacher representation on the team and they view this data with us. One of our norms is to have two-way communication with teachers. So even though we might have one grade level member being at the team every month, we do ask at the PLCs that they do have some conversations around behavior. So they're able to bring feedback back to that team. So one of the... Getting back to the question that Board Member Sartre was asking, one of the slides that we like to look at is we are able to look at it by month,
069by grade level, and we look at patterns. So this grade level had X amount of referrals in August, but look how much they've declined since then, et cetera. So we look at patterns. We try to be as transparent as possible with them and involve them in the process. And they also had a hand in, the PBIS team is the one that makes that major, minor. flowchart that gets reviewed with staff multiple times a year, actually. So there's a lot of way that we get their feedback for that as well. And I imagine as you look at trends, you might also look to see if there's a particular staff member who maybe has more referrals than others. So getting back to Vice President Nelson's question about what defiance means to different people, I imagine that it
070wouldn't be uncommon for different staff members to have different perceptions of that. Do you have conversations to normalize that and make sure that we're all operating on the same understanding? Yeah, of course. And with that also is providing that support to that staff member, either through, you know, conversations with them. How could they handle the certain behavior situation differently? Maybe the student needs a little more support in that particular classroom because they struggle with Spanish or English. So kind of understanding those components as well. But that's one piece of data that we are able to look at as well, like which. which staff member is writing the particular referrals. And President Walsh, I know that that was part of the conversation when the matrix was revisited the last time was about getting some consistent language.
071That was feedback from our teachers and from our schools. And so I know there was a lot that went into that conversation. I know Miss Furity was part of that. I think the other thing, again, to Assistant Principal Vasquez's point, When you examine Big Five data with your team, with your PBIS team, and you're talking about what's happening, not only are you having that conversation with your teachers and listening to them, but as a leader, you're also forming in your head some of the actions that you need to take. So you may be walking away from that saying, it's clear that we don't have a strong understanding of what. This word means let's norm that out. Let's have some conversation about it as a staff. And so the leaders are always thinking about what are
072their next action steps with staff in addition to what are the changes that we're going to make in order to address this specific time of day that we're having an issue. Fantastic. Thank you. Any other comments? Member Collins. I just have one question. Hopefully we can get an answer quickly. On slide number six of the discipline matrix application, and this kind of goes along with President Walsh's, some of the things that he was referring to. So we're looking at minor aggressive act and we're looking at assault. And those are very fine lines there. And the reason why I bring that up is because, you know, I'm in leadership roles in the AEA, and one of my roles is to make sure my colleagues as teachers and educational support staff feel protected. And so I had
073a buddy of mine, his wife's a teacher. She was punched in the belly by a fifth grader hard. And she wrote the student up, not in this district, just another district. And they tried to hit him with a minor aggressive act and basically didn't even suspend the kid or anything. And so they, of course, they know who I am in AEA and they came and talked to me. I said, no, you need to go back up there and you need to tell them X, Y, and Z, because what if she were pregnant? Then what? And that would have hurt the baby. So how do we differentiate? Because here it says minor aggressive act, hitting, touching, pinching, slapping. And of course, I know the assault says leading to injury. And of course, because it's listed in
074Minor Aggressive Act, there's a fine line. And I know a lot of administrators do that. I'm not going to stand on ceremony here because I deal with administrators all the time. The way they try to give the lesser of the punishment. So is that a school determination? Like, you understand my question here? Like, how is that determined? So we do a lot of, and I'm going to actually let Mr. Gutierrez talk to this point as well, but we do have some inter-rater reliability among our teams and our leadership PLCs as well. This is actually a topic that is discussed. And as part of the middle school PLC, our middle school leaders, we do build this into every time that we do meet in terms of talking about how we can calibrate our definitions of these
075infractions. So that is definitely something that is on our leaders' minds across campuses. So we have that shared definition. district-wide, but I'll let Mr. Gutierrez respond to that. So when it comes to minor aggressive acts versus assault, and there's actually another category that we also have in your comment, you're making a reference to an incident that involves a staff member. Well, within the Kyrene School District, in our matrix, there is a specific place where it talks about threat and intimidation to a staff member. So if anything is involving a staff member, it would more than likely move on over to that threshold, in which case we would involve our principal and probably call school effectiveness in terms of what it is that we're currently seeing. But to differentiate between a minor aggressive act and assault,
076they're pretty similar, but there's a lot of different things we take into consideration. First and foremost is the perception of the victim in the situation itself. Oftentimes at the middle school level, you do see a ton of minor aggressive acts. And they stem from TikTok challenges. They stem from just hanging out. They stem from, you know, you got a new haircut, so I'm going to smack you on the back of the neck. And these are things that are happening on a pretty regular basis. pull the victim and we have a conversation with that student to say, hey, what's going on? I couldn't help but notice that someone engaged in an action against you. And sometimes we hear, oh, you know, we're friends. It's all good. We're just playing. In a situation like that, we say,
077I understand that you guys are friends. Obviously, we can't do that. There is a potential for us to write that student up, call the parent, explain to the parent, hey, this situation does not reach the threshold or assault or anything like that. However, if this behavior is repeated and is ongoing, there is a potential conversation of bullying and some of those other things leading on down the line. When we talk about assault, we talk about premeditation. We talk about people and imbalance in power or people who are simply trying to escape the situation. So one of the differentiations that we make in terms of assault versus fighting is in fighting, you have mutual participation. both parties are deciding to engage in that physical altercation. When you talk about assault, it is one party against another
078party in which that party is defenseless. That party is seeking shelter. They're seeking help from an adult. So that is ultimately how we would make that decision in terms of an assault versus a minor aggressive act. Of course. Great. Thank you again for the information. Extremely helpful. Appreciate all your time, especially after working a full day already. So thank you all. All right, board members, item 1.3 is conclude study session. Our study session is concluded at 6.07 p.m. We'll take a five-minute recess and then restart the meeting. All right, good evening, everyone. Welcome back to our regular board meeting. This is a board meeting for the Kyrene School District. Today is Tuesday, May 13, 2025. Item 2.1 is call to order public hearing. Our public... hearing is called to order at 6.15. This is a
079public hearing we're going to have immediately prior to the start of the meeting. Item 2.2 is our public hearing and presentation of the fiscal year 2024-2025 budget revision. I'll invite our Director of Finance, Mr. Brian Lockery, up to the podium. President Walsh, members of the board, Superintendent Tenias, for the record, I am Brian Lockery, Director of Finance for Kyrene Elementary School District. This evening you will have an opportunity to approve the final budget revision for fiscal year 25. This presentation will provide you with an overview of the district's proposed fiscal year 25 final revised budget, which represents the maximum budget capacity allowed by law. As required by Arizona Revised Statute Section 15905, school district governing boards must adopt a final revised budget by May 15th annually at a public hearing. The budget should represent the
080maximum budget capacity allowed and does not consider actual incurred expenditures, as those will be completed throughout the month of August and reported as part of the school district's annual financial report. The vote tonight is to ensure that Kareem captures the allowable budget capacity as authorized by state law. On the cover page of the budget forms, which are attached to the agenda tonight, you will find on the lower right-hand side the budget capacity for the district and the areas of the general budget limit, the unrestricted capital budget limit, and federal projects. Altogether, these represent the district's aggregate budget limit. You can see that all three of these categories have changed from the adopted budget, and we will dive deeper into each of these on the next few pages. In total, the net difference from the adopted
081budget is approximately $5.8 million. For the general budget limit, which includes maintenance and operations and transportation funding, there were a number of changes that netted to a difference of an increase of $2.5 million in budget capacity. These changes can be found on page 7 of the budget forms. The base support level, which is the revenue control limit minus the transportation revenue control limit, is lower from the adopted budget by approximately $247,000. And this is the net change due to lower student counts than projected at the beginning of the year, as well as increases in other areas of the Group B special education weights. The district is authorized to transfer capital district additional assistance, also known as DAA. those funds to the Maintenance and Operations Fund annually. However, the revised budget retains those funds in DAA
082for capital purposes later on. Each year, the district adopts a budget that transfers a portion of DAA to cover potential expenditures in maintenance and operations. This decision is reviewed each year to determine whether those funds can remain in DAA or if they should continue to be transferred to M&O as one-time transfers. The budget revision returns these funds to DAA as it is anticipated that these funds will not be needed to cover maintenance and operations expenditures in fiscal year 25. At the next governing board meeting, you will be presented with the district's fiscal year 26 capital plan, and we'll hear more about the proposed use of DAA funds during that presentation. When proposing the budget annually in June, district staff estimate the override amount based on previous year ADM that is not finalized at that time.
083This is a true-up of that amount and allows the district to capture the higher budget capacity of ADM or average daily membership changes after the proposed budget in June. For fiscal year 25, this difference is approximately $17,000. Also, the district projects an estimated budget balance carry-forward amount. When presenting a new year budget in June, only after final expenditures are completed and the district's annual financial report is prepared each October, will the final actual budget balance carry forward amount be known. This is a true-up of those final balances. For fiscal year 25, this results in an increase of $3.8 million in budget capacity. Finally, the district's portion of the Prop 123 funding is based on the district's percentage of student population compared to the total student state population. As the district's enrollment drops and the state's
084changes, the portion of Prop 123 funding is adjusted from the proposed budget estimate. This is a true-up of that amount. Additionally, A one-time maintenance and operation funding amount was appropriated in fiscal year 25 for the free and reduced price lunch student counts from the legislature. A one-time amount was appropriated for additional DAA or district additional assistance funding. And a final fiscal year 24 budget capacity adjustment of about $46,000 is included in that bottom line. For the unrestricted capital budget limit, these changes are reflected on page 8 of the budget forms. The district expended more in fiscal year 24 than projected, thus reducing the actual budget balance carry forward from the projected amount by $2.8 million. Each year, large construction projects continue across fiscal years, and this impacts the projected carry forward amounts available based upon
085which fiscal year the expenses were incurred. Additionally, as shown in the previous slide, Retaining funds in DAA instead of moving them to M&O or maintenance and operations results in an increase of $1.7 million in the DAA balance. The Arizona legislature authorized a one-time allocation of $324,000 into DAA for fiscal year 25. These monies originally were placed into the maintenance and operations by the state of Arizona, but are being transferred into DAA for capital planning purposes. Finally, the district is allowed to capture and utilize earned interest from the previous fiscal year as budget capacity, which is not known until the close of the fiscal year and the completion of the annual financial report. As a result of all of these changes, the unrestricted capital budget limit is lower from the adopted budget by about $604,000. A
086combination of changes to actual final allocations for grant budgets and true-ups of prior year carry-forward balances for federal and state grants and a handful of new grants are the reasons for these changes as noted on this slide. You will note that these changes can be found on page 6 of the budget forms. This budget revision captures final allocations of federal grants as well as previous year budget balance carry-forwards for the federal grant awards including Title I and Title VI-B. Additionally, the district was awarded a new multi-year grant for 16 counselors at Kyrene schools, totaling approximately $2.6 million over both fiscal year 25 and fiscal year 26. A few small grants were received this year, including a multi-year early literacy grant and a Johnson O'Malley grant through the Navajo Nation. The net result of all of
087these changes for federal and state grants is an increase of approximately $5 million from the adopted budget. Finally, the classroom site fund budget limit reflects an increase of $132,000 due to slightly higher than projected expenditures in fiscal year 24, earned interest from fiscal year 24, and slight corrections to final fiscal year 25 from projected. These changes can be found on page 3 of the budget forms. President Walsh, members of the board, I can answer any questions you may have at this time. Thank you, Mr. Lockery. Board members, we're going to vote on this later on the meeting, item 9.1. But in the meantime, if you have any questions for Mr. Lockery, please feel free to ask them. All right. Seeing none, thank you, Mr. Lockery. This is a public hearing, so we will open it
088up. If there are any comments that anybody in the audience would like to make on the proposed budget revision, feel free to come to the podium at this time. All right. Seeing none, I'm at 2.3 is adjourn our public hearing. Our public hearing is adjourned at 6.24 p.m. Item 3.1 is convene a regular meeting. So our regular meeting is now convening at 6.24 p.m. So at this time, if you wish to speak to the board during the call to the public portion of the meeting, turn in your blue card. It looks like this. It was on the sign-in table to our board secretary, Ms. Nancy Moser, who's seated right here to my right. All of our school district meetings are held in public to conduct the business of the district. If you can't watch the
089meeting in person, you can watch it live on the internet. And recordings are made available on our YouTube channel within 48 hours of every meeting. All of our board agendas for every meeting is posted online and at the district office at least 24 hours prior to the start of every meeting. Our superintendent, Ms. Laura Tenius, as well as senior leadership and community members are here with us tonight. Item 3.2 is roll call. Board members, please state your name for the record. Cedric Collins. Bunny Davis. Amy Satry. Trina Nelson. Kevin Walsh. Let the record show we have five board members present this evening. Item 3.3 is the moment of silence followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. I'll invite the principal of Centennial Middle School, Mr. James Martin. You knew it was coming. If you wouldn't mind,
090please lead us in a moment of silence followed by the pledge. Thank you. Please join me for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag, the United States of America, and to the republic. Thank you, Mr. Martin. Thank you for all you do at Centennial. Item 3.4 is our district land acknowledgement. Our Kyrene School District acknowledges that our community of schools is located on the ancestral lands of the O'odham and Peeposh peoples. And with this land acknowledgement, the district formally recognizes the traditional care and keeping of these lands by Native peoples allows us to be here today. Item 3.5 is our Kyrene promise. This is the promise that we recite at all of our board meetings and the promise we make to our students and community. We promise to provide welcoming, inclusive learning
091environments 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 are empowered and prepared to make a meaningful impact on a rapidly changing world. Item 4.1 is preview and approval of our agenda. Board members, any changes to tonight's meeting agenda? Seeing none, would someone like to make a motion to approve? I motion. I have a motion by Member Collins. Is there a second? Second. Second by Vice President Nelson. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes 5-0. Item 5.1 is our Superintendent Report. Superintendent
092Tanyas. Thank you, President Walsh, Governing Board members, staff here this evening, and family members and community members that have joined us either online or in person. I am excited to share some updates as we are getting close to wrapping up the school year. First, I'd like to start with this week is Teacher Appreciation Week. And so during Teacher Appreciation Week, we have been celebrating our Kyrene educators as the all-stars that they are. We also encouraged our schools to show their appreciation by creating baseball card-style graphics highlighting some of their staff. So if you pay attention to our social media, you may have seen some of these either on our district account or definitely on our school individual account. accounts as well. Our teachers are the heart of Team Kyrene and no scoreboard could ever measure
093their impact. Whether it's helping a student find their footing or leading them to a personal best, teachers are the ultimate game changers. So thank you, Kyrene teachers, for all that you do to ensure that our Kyrene kids are ready for the future. Also excited to share, last week we had the privilege of celebrating excellence in Kyrene at the annual Tempe Diablos Excellence in Education Awards Ceremony. The individuals here up on the screen were nominated by staff, students, and community members for their impact in our district. So congratulations to all of our nominees. Kyrene had a significant number of nominees, and I think that Diablos shared they had over 600 nominees this year. which was a record number between the three districts. I think typically it's been around three or 400, so almost double. And Kyrene
094is just so proud of all of our nominees and our winners for that evening. So congratulations to all of you. Also excited to share that at the end of April, we had two shining stars from Australia who were honored at the East Valley Council for Exceptional Children Awards Ceremony. Our support specialist, Tiana Suzuki, received the Outstanding Professional Award for her incredible dedication and impact. And one of our students, a preschool student, Mateo Leal, was recognized as an outstanding, exceptional student for his remarkable growth. His nominator shared that though Mateo was once nonverbal, he now speaks in full sentences and helps his classmates with kindness and leadership. Big celebration. Also excited to share. We've had a few A-plus celebrations so far with a couple more to go. I think I shared earlier this year that we
095had four Kyrene schools that were named A-plus schools of excellence by the Arizona Education Foundation for 2025. So far, we've had the opportunity to celebrate two of those schools. Murata and Lomas. And I look forward to celebrating Monta Vista tomorrow. And I believe Brisas in the next couple of weeks. Also, I was really fortunate I had the opportunity on April 30th to help Cerritos celebrate 30 years of excellence in education and counting. The Cerritos choir gave an excellent performance, as did Cerritos kindergartners. There were many Cerritos families, former teachers, staff, and students who attended to help celebrate this milestone. So thank you to everyone that was there. And as we wrap up our fourth quarter, I had the opportunity, along with some members of my superintendent team, to go out and deliver our Kyrene Values
096Awards. And I think I was even fortunate enough to have one of our board members join me on one of those visits this time who happened to be at the school. So during the last week of April, the superintendency team visited all of our Kyrene Values Educator awardees and congratulations to everyone who was nominated this year and a really big shout out and thank you to our sponsor, CORE. Thanks to their support this year, we were able to recognize 48 members of Team Kyrene and present them each with a $100 Amazon gift card as a token of our appreciation to their dedication to the district. And then finally, tomorrow night is our next positive parenting presentation that provides techniques for adults to build resiliency skills in youth. The presentation will take place over Zoom. You
097can RSVP to attend the meeting at www.kyrene.org slash positive parenting. And that concludes my superintendent's update. Thank you, Superintendent Tenius. Item 5.2, our board member statements. Do any board members have statements this evening? Member Davis. Please, Member Satri. Yes, hi, good evening. So Member Davis and I have been kind of busy. We went to an event for Kyrene de los Lagos, the celebration of nations, and it was so much fun. It was so joyful. We, it was presented by first, second and third graders and there was singing and dancing and a parade. And the, the room was at capacity. It was very, like, it was so great seeing all the families there and it was just a fun, fun event. And then, um, Another event that I was so happy to attend was Apprendi's musical.
098Seussical is what it was called. And it was so great. I don't know if any of the other board members had a chance to see it, but it was like the talent of the jazz tech play. Jaguar players. Sorry. Thank you. Was amazing. I couldn't believe it. They're like way beyond their age as far as the talent's concerned. I had so much fun. And I just happened to win a raffle too that night. I know. I just, I got some raffle tickets and won the raffle. I couldn't believe it. So it was really, it was really great. I strongly, strongly recommend attending these types of events and seeing what our schools are doing for the community and to bring joy to our students and staff. And yeah. So thank you. Thank you, Member Sejri. Member
099Davis. Yes. Thank you very much. We enjoyed the LOMOS event tremendously, and I wanted to give a specific shout out to Noela Diaz, who was the organizer of the parade and the music. And it was just, as you said, remember, safety, joyful. It was just a delight. I also want to give a shout out to my neighborhood school, which is Ninos, because they not only have the teacher of the year, but they have the rising star of the year. And that makes me very, very happy because I'm in that school a lot because I'm a neighbor. And I was in that school a lot before I was on the board. So it's really great. Bethany. And I know I'm going to slaughter her name, so I apologize in advance. But Gash Tosby, I think her
100last name is. Bethany and Brooke was the Teacher of the Year. And Brooke Thomas was the Rising Star. So a great shout out to them. Job well done. And I'm very proud of Ninos. Thank you, Member Davis. Vice President Nelson, any statements this evening? A quick thank you to three school communities. Cariñuelos Lagos. I was there in the morning for the Parade of Nations, which was awesome. Cariñuelo Mariposa. Spencer Fogatter had me there yesterday for a school visit. They do coding at that school. It's fantastic. The technology is so embedded in everything they do. And Wagner, who had their fifth grade concert. There's lots of year-end celebrations going on right now. It's super busy, but it's really fun. So to all the staff members, thank you for all the work that you're putting into it.
101And for all the families, we're on the homestretch. We're going to get there. That's what I tell myself. Item 6.1. This is an exciting celebration. I'm happy to be here for it. This is the Kyrene de la Estrella principal announcement. I'd like to invite our associate superintendent, Ms. Carrie Fierty, to the podium. Tenantennius colleagues and community members, it is truly my honor this evening to present to you the newest member of our principal team, Mr. Matt Martin. Mr. Martin, yes. Mr. Martin has been a member of the Kyrene team since 2003. He has served in a variety of roles, including Kyrene Kids Club Program Coordinator, Middle School ELA and Social Studies Teacher, Academic Behavior Specialist, and Assistant Principal. Mr. Martin has worked at Pueblo Centennial and most recently at the Kyrene Middle School. Mr. Martin
102was also a participant in CAILA, our Kyrene Administrator Leadership Academy. And tonight we formally welcome him as the newest member of our principal team as the principal of Kyrene De La Estrella beginning in the 2025-26 school year. Welcome Mr. Martin. Thank you, President Walsh. Thank you, Governing Board. Thank you, Superintendent Tenius. And my name is Matt Martin. I really thank you for this opportunity to serve the Kyrene community as the principal of Kyrene-Daylot-Estraea Elementary School. I'm really excited for this. I do want to share a picture of my grandmother, who was a Kyrene kid in 1936. I even brought a picture here. She's in the middle, in the white dress in the middle. And I keep her picture in my office to remind me that she was the epitome of the portrait of the Kyrene
103kid. She was adaptable. She came to school, Kyrene School, on a horse and buggy every day. She was a community contributor as a mother and as a grandmother. And she was an excellent communicator when she used to sing to me and play the piano for me. I loved those times. Her portrait reminds me daily that we are educating tomorrow's mothers, tomorrow's fathers, tomorrow's grandmothers and grandfathers. And we get to instill these values on the community and they introduce those values to their kids as well. This is a great responsibility for all of us. Again, I thank you for this continued opportunity to serve the Kyrene community and create the leaders of tomorrow. Thank you. And it's with great pleasure that I get to say thank you, Principal Martin. We're honored to have you. On behalf
104of the whole governing board, we're blessed that we have leadership like you. And Estrella is in better than good hands with you going there. And thank you so much. And as a point of personal privilege, having a daughter under your tutelage at the Kyrie Middle School, I know from firsthand experience what an extraordinary leader you are. So congratulations. Yes, please, Member Collins. Man, I'm going to miss how we stand out there and watch the games. I'm going to miss standing over there talking to you at the games all the time, man. All right, item 7. Oh, yes, Member Davis, please. Yes, I just also want to congratulate you and tell you how much I appreciate your awareness of the role that our public schools play in building community, because that's a really important thing I
105know to all of us. I've articulated that a lot. And I really appreciate your comments. Congratulations. Item 7.1 is our request to speak to the governing board. As for our board policy 1302, the Kyrene Governing Board does invite viewpoints from citizens throughout the district. You can make your public comment in one of two ways. In-person speakers can address the board during the call to the public. You could also submit your electronic public comment. There's a link that goes out in the email that notifies families of the board meeting. You can just click on that link and submit your comment prior to noon on the day of the meeting. all electronic public comments are received by the board and read in full and they're read as part of our minutes. For in-person public comments, we do
106have a time limit based on the number of speakers who attend. We have a limit based on one to 15 speakers. There will be three minutes lived into each speaker. If we have 16 to 30 in-person public comments. Two minutes will be given to each speaker. And if we have 31 or more speakers, one minute will be given to each speaker. Tonight, we do have nine in-person public comments. So that means each speaker is going to have three minutes to address the board if they'd like to use that. When I call your name, come on up to the podium. There's going to be a timer on the screen. It's going to appear on that screen. It's going to appear on that screen. And it'll just count down from three minutes. It looks just like that.
107It'll count down from three minutes. And I will note that state statute does prohibit the governing board from discussing an item that's not on the agenda. But we can ask our superintendent and her team to follow up. Also, I want to, before we get into the public comment, because we cannot respond directly to this, I want to do a quick acknowledgement to one of our public speakers who has turned in a blue card. And that's Dutch Holtman, if I can call him out. I tell you. It is exceptional when we get students who come and talk to the board. I know it can be like a little intimidating to come up and talk to the microphone, but I tell you, we are just always glad to hear you. Thank you for being here. So thank
108you all of our public comments, but I wanted to call you on particular. We love hearing from our Kyrene students. So thank you. All right. Our first public speaker this evening is going to be Ms. Monica Pineda. She is indicated that she is not a community district member. She can come up to the podium. Thank you. Hi. Yes. Thank you for allowing me to speak to you today. My name is Monica Pineda, and I wanted to contribute to the conversation. I heard that you guys were looking for programs for your teachers for social-emotional intelligence, and that's what we do. I'm a licensed professional counselor, 14 years, and Advance Hub is... mental and emotional service delivery and advocacy platform where our work is to make it easier, lower the barrier for people to practice mental health
109exercises. And so it's... virtual, it's online, people participate with audio and video off. And it's just a really easy way to get into the practice of supporting them and their mental health. So I wanted to bring it to your awareness, just as we're kind of going into different spaces and seeing who this can be beneficial for. But we've got time. And so if you have any questions, needs, if there's conversation there, I'd love to contribute to that. Yeah, thank you, Ms. Pineda. We're not able to engage in dialogue at the public comment, but I can have Superintendent Tenius or someone from her team follow up about this opportunity. Do you have a card or something you can leave? Yeah, I can leave something for you. Okay, perfect. And I'll make sure I'll have one of
110our staff members follow up with you. Great. Thanks. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Ms. Audrey Neville. Ms. Neville will be followed by Allison Hopeman. Where do I stand? Just right here? You're good, yeah. Sorry. Anywhere you need to be. Okay. Hello. I am Audrey Neville. I am a parent at Esperanza, Carina de la Esperanza Elementary. My... My youngest son Easton is in third grade. This is our fourth year at Esperanza on campus and my youngest son is slated to start kindergarten next year. I'm here tonight because I'm deeply concerned about the impending loss of our music teacher, Ms. Azos. After losing our beloved music teacher of 10 plus years, Dr. V, Ms. Azos came in and helped to retain our ukulele band and mallet band and even started to help build a
111theater program of sorts with our students. That also helps to encourage our community and families to invest in our students and our school, which is so important to pull everybody in and not just, especially with the Title I school. We have so many, sorry, thread, parents that are busy and working. And during this year, I have met parents that I have not seen ever in the four years because the programs that she has brought in have helped to. pull in interest in other parts, right? Despite her desire to stay and strong parent support, she's being reassigned. Due to a district policy, a committee's decision that I'm told can reassign specials teachers every year if they decide. And they make these decisions based on a survey given to the specials teachers and puzzle pieces that fit
112into the master schedule of our specials. teachers all over. So art, music, PE, library, things like this. All of this was done without consideration for the effect that this would have on our school's students. even at our teachers' request to stay or the community support that she has. However, my conversations with other schools have revealed that Esperanza is experiencing a disproportionately high turnover of these vital educators, of our specials teachers. Ms. Azos will be replaced by a third music teacher in three years at Esperanza, even though we... had Dr. V for 10 plus years and other schools have also had music teachers for multiple years, three plus bands. All right. You know, sorry. Okay. This raises serious questions. Am I time? You are, but you, you could always follow up with any additional comments via
113email to the board as well. I will. I will send it. Sorry. Thank you. No, no. Thank you. Our next speaker is Ms. Allison Holtman, who is a current Kyrene parent. Ms. Holtman will be followed by Dutch Holtman. Hi, good evening. We're back. I'm sure you guys are tired of hearing from the Cerritos parents, especially the ones who have third, about to be fourth graders. As tired as you are of hearing from us board meeting after board meeting, we're also kind of tired of this experience. You guys have been listening to us for the last six weeks, share our concerns and our experience. We have been living this for years. In fact, three of the last four years, we have been in overcrowded classes at Cerritos. I know that the idea of us being in
114a big class next year in fourth grade is like, yeah, if that was the only thing, we could probably suck it up. But when it was our kindergarten class with 28 and 29 kids, our first grade class with 30 kids, a second grade class with efficacy issues with a teacher, like we're starting to feel like the district has failed us. And so my husband keeps saying, what do you want from this? And I think that's a really good question. Superintendent Tenes, you have sent us an email explaining to us that we will not be getting another teacher and that that is the district policy. I had a meeting with Mr. Herman and Ms. Fioriti, which I appreciate you guys taking the time to answer questions. But I think at the end of the day, we
115want to work towards a solution. Like surely the answer can't be we're doing a great job for 94% of the students. Sorry, you're 6%. Just keep getting left behind. But that's the policy. Surely there's got to be more that we can do. The Cerritos parents, we want to be involved. Let us talk about solutions that we can come up with. We're happy to engage in something. And on that topic, as long as this is the format where we can get attention, because we did raise issues in kindergarten and in first grade and in second grade. But we did it by going to our local administration and by sending emails, which were met with almost no response. But we find that we're getting more traction by coming to board meetings. Not maybe the, like, solutions that
116we're hoping for, but we're, like, moving in the right direction. But as long as this is how we get that traction, we're going to keep showing up and we're going to keep raising it. As long as we don't have the ability to get a response and engage with you on different things, because there's some things that are said that are just we would like to have a discussion about. And I know that my time is running out. I will say that just when there is a response to something we've said that maybe it deserves further exploration, like the idea that we have 19 classes that are over, which requires 19 teachers, that's actually a misstatement. It's only 13, which is still a big number, but it's not the 19. And so we just want to
117have a discussion. Let's work through it. Thank you, Ms. Holtman. I'll stay here. All right. Our next speaker is Mr. Dutch Holtman. Hello, my name is Dutch. I'm a third grader at Kyrene de las Heridas. And I remember how in first grade we had two teachers and about 30 students in our class and how it was chaos. And we would rush through our work to get so we would be able to play with each other and stuff. how much better this year's been with teachers that are teaching us a lot better and the class sizes aren't as big and our grades have gone up a lot more than they were in first grade. Yeah, that's it. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Holberg. Well done. Our next speaker is Ms. Allison Jenkins. She'll be followed by
118Kaitlyn Logan. Okay. My name is Allison Jenkins. I came to my first board meeting seven weeks ago. I was concerned about talk at Cerritos, in which our three third grade classrooms were being consolidated into two, with the projected class size for fourth grade of 30 students or more. I don't have children in this grade, but having heard about previously large classes at Cerritos, in years past, I was worried. the idea that small class sizes were not being prioritized. I was also disheartened to know that this cut was going to lead to the loss of two incredibly good teachers. Naively, I thought if I brought my thoughts to you all, that this problem would be heard and there'd be some work to fix it. I imagine it was a problem worth fixing. When I gave my
119numbers and facts, I was disheartened that the superintendent responded that she could clarify. I came back two weeks later to hear her clarification. I sat through an hour-long presentation about declining enrollment, problems with the budget, and finally class sizes. Of the roughly 16-minute-long presentation, less than five minutes mentioned the oversized classes. Beyond that, the necessary information to brainstorm and problem-solve, the oversized class sizes was not even mentioned. I sat as the board members asked how much it would cost to bring all the class sizes down to the ideal range and listened as the superintendent incorrectly quoted that it would have to add 19 teachers costing $1.7 million. I knew this was incorrect. You only need one teacher to address two to four oversized classes if they're at the same school in the same grade. But
120that information to determine that was left out. So to clarify, to fix the current oversized classes in third through fifth grade, where class sizes are larger, it would take six teachers this year and $500,000. I get it. The changes to address this are costly, but to exaggerate them to prove your point is disingenuous. It's pretty clear that budgeting, Kyrene, is very tight. And it's also pretty clear the district is very proud of their system to predict class sizes. And ultimately, the large class sizes that some teachers, families, and students deal with is a problem they're not interested in addressing. But I do find it interesting that we know so many families that have left Cerritos or are leaving Cerritos because of this. I would think problems that negatively impact enrollment would be prioritized. I came
121back today to say that when leadership uses their position to prove their point, they're missing the point. We brought up a problem, and the district responded with a lack of desire to understand the problem. This mindset to me is a problem. Kyrene as a district is facing big enrollment and budget problems, and the mindset of proving a point. is failing our community. I'm out of time, but thank you. Thank you, Ms. Jenkins. Our next speaker is Ms. Caitlin Logan, a current Kyrene parent. She'll be followed by Michelle Dixon. Good evening, members of the board, superintendent, and community. My name is Caitlin Logan, and I'm a parent of three children in the Kyrene School District at Cerritos. One is in kindergarten, and then I have a second grader and a third grader. And I'm here tonight
122to respectfully raise a concern and seek a better understanding of a policy that directly impacts not just my own children, but the educational experience of many others. I recently learned that Cerritos will lose two teachers at the end of this school year, not because of performance or community feedback, but simply because they were the last hired. As a specific example, Cerritos is losing a teacher who has taught in the Kyrene School District as an elementary educator for 25 years and moved to Cerritos this year for family circumstances and is now leaving Cerritos due to being the last one in the building. She is well known in the community as setting a high standard and excellent teaching. I understand this last in first out approach has long been a standard in education, but I wonder if
123it still serves our district's values and goals. Kyrene has made it clear that prioritizing exceptional teaching matters more than class sizes. If Kyrene has made, if that's true, then we need to consider whether this policy supports that belief. Are we retaining the most effective teachers? Are we listening to principals who observe classroom performance day in and day out? Are we incorporating parent feedback who see the difference these teachers make in our kids' lives? I also wonder if teacher attendance and commitment to the school community could be more meaningful metrics to use. I'm not here to challenge the system for the sake of it. I'm here as a concerned parent who wants to work with you to ensure our policies reflect the high standard of education we all want for our children and their future. Thank
124you for your time, your leadership, and your consideration. Thank you, Ms. Logan. Our next speaker is Michelle Dixon, a current Kyrene parent. Ms. Dixon will be followed by Taylor Warner. Hello. I am a proud parent of two children at Cerritos. One is in first grade and one is in third. As an alumna of Cerritos myself, my connection to the school runs deep. I choose to send my children here not only because of the school's history of excellence, but because I believe in its mission and its ability to nurture young minds. With my youngest daughter not in school yet, I have seven more years at Cerritos and I'm fully invested in its future, which is why I'm here tonight. But before I express my concerns, I want to thank the members of the board for the
125last meeting. It was clear that you were actively listening, and I genuinely appreciated the thoughtful questions and the respect you showed to those who voiced their concerns about our Cerritos community. That said, many of us left that meeting frustrated. What was presented by the district was that extra care is taken to ensure class sizes are smaller in K-2. But to be clear, that has not been our experience at Cerritos. When my daughter was in kindergarten, both classes had 27 students each. District claims the average for K-2 is 21 to 23. We were well above that and nothing was done. Then in first grade, both classes had 30 students. Again, nothing was done. It wasn't until parents started speaking up, sending emails, voicing concerns that a third teacher was finally added to second grade. But by
126that time, our children had already spent two full years, two foundational years with class sizes far above what's considered best practice. That is why we are now so alarmed and frustrated. frustrated by the decision to eliminate a fourth grade teacher for next year. Right now, the current third grade class has 64 students split between three teachers. If we lose that third fourth teacher fourth grade teacher next year, we are projecting 32 students per classroom. And while I understand that enrollment numbers shift due to families leaving, we must also acknowledge that new students enroll as well. We've seen what happens when class sizes balloon. We've lived it. Our teachers at Cerritos are truly exceptional, dedicated, passionate, and deeply invested in their students. We've been fortunate to have incredible educators who've gone above and beyond year after
127year, but no matter how amazing they are, there's only so much one person can do when faced with an overcrowded classroom. It's not fair to the teachers, and it's certainly not fair to the students. Ten hours of aid time a week does not fix this. Morale in our Cerritos community is dropping, families are leaving, and those of us who have chosen to stay are deeply concerned about the direction things are heading. We're asking you to stand with us, to see this through with us, and to make decisions that reflect the care and commitment our children and teachers deserve. Please don't wait for things to unravel before action is taken. Our kids only get one shot at each grade level. Please reconsider this decision while there's still time. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Dixon. Our next
128speaker is Taylor Werner, a current Caring parent. Ms. Werner will be followed by Alex Navarro. Good evening. Thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight. My name is Taylor Werner, and I'm a proud parent of a first grader and a third grader at Cerritos Elementary. My child was in a first grade class with 30 students. It had a real and serious impact on his mental health. His anxiety skyrocketed. He began dreading school, acting out at home, and frequently complained of physical symptoms like stomach aches and headaches. Signs we later understood were rooted in anxiety. This year, with a smaller class and a supportive teacher, the anxiety is gone. He is thriving again. That's not a coincidence. Another friend's child at Cerritos was placed on a 504 plan after experiencing the same overwhelming class sizes that
129year. But with a smaller class the following year, the support plan was no longer necessary. And to be clear, the issue isn't the teacher. In fact, this is a teacher I truly admire. My daughter has her this year in first grade with 24 students and she is excelling. The difference is the class size. The district often emphasizes, and I agree, that a strong teacher is one of the most important factors in student success. But even the strongest teachers will struggle under the weight of oversized classes. No amount of talent or dedication can fully overcome the challenges of trying to meet the needs of 30 or more students at once. Kyrene prides itself on mental health and social-emotional learning. But we have to ask, how are we supporting student mental health in the classroom where they
130spend the bulk of their day? We know that large class sizes contribute to stress, reduce individual attention, and make students feel lost in the crowd. These conditions don't just impact academic success, they undermine... mental well-being. And back to our teachers. As a former second grade teacher myself, I can tell you the difference between a small class and a large class. And the most I ever had as a second grade teacher was 28. I can't even fathom what 33 would look like. Large class sizes affect teacher mental health too. Increasing burnout, limiting meaningful interactions, and making it harder to meet the complex needs of every student. I also want to acknowledge and thank the district for adding instructional assistance to the overcoded classrooms. Extra support is always valuable, and it's a step in the right direction.
131But let's be honest. Having an IA for, say, an hour and a half a day also adds more to the teacher's workload. In order for that time to result in quality instruction, the teacher has to plan, prepare, and manage that additional support. It's not a turnkey solution. It's one more thing on an already full plate. While we appreciate the district's efforts to explain class sizes, including the bar graph showing only a small percentage of overages, those numbers don't reflect our lived experiences. We're not concerned about averages or what's happening in other fourth grade classrooms. We're concerned about our own children who have already endured overcrowded classrooms in kindergarten, first, and now in fourth and fifth. Please consider the long-term impact of these decisions. Thank you, Ms. Warner. Our next speaker will be Ms. Alexis Navarro,
132who indicates she's a current caring parent. Good evening, guys. I stand before you once more, as I was told at the last board meeting, that I would be contacted by the superintendent kind of to address the same issues as last time, but that never occurred. That was three weeks ago. I come forth to raise awareness to the board of some things that have been happening, and I want to be sure that you're aware, as I believe you're separate from the district itself. I'm here tonight as both a parent and a former Kyrie Transportation employee, speaking not just for myself, but for every parent who puts their child on a school bus each morning and trusts they'll get to school and home safely. On the morning of April 9th, a bus driver drove on the wrong
133side of the road, almost causing a head-on collision. That's terrifying, yet Director Parmelee did not know that it even happened. This speaks volumes about the lack of oversight and accountability. How can the person responsible for student transportation be so unaware of something so dangerous? On April 30th, just a few weeks ago, children were forced to sit in the aisles of a bus due to combined bus routes, a clear safety issue. And when I raised this concern, I was told it wasn't a safety issue simply because it didn't block my child's exit path. I don't know a single parent who would be okay with that response. I can speak for all parents when I say safety is not optional. It is expected. That same day, there was also an incident where a bus driver ran a
134red light with students on board. I was told these matters would be handled in-house. That's not accountability. It's avoidance. When we bring any concerns forward, instead of being heard or brushed off or talked down to, I've experienced it myself, as Director Primley has even told me, that I'm not allowed to pick up my child anywhere but at his assigned stop. even though others are allowed to do just that. When I pointed out that her own supervisors have said otherwise, her response is that it didn't come out of my mouth. It's false. That's not policy. That's power. An overstep of that as well. What's worse is state regulations require that DPS be notified within 72 hours of any incident that threatens student safety. That has not happened. And when parents like me try to reach out
135and speak up regarding what we're witnessing, we can't even reach transportation directly. We have to go through the district office just to get a message through. It's exhausting and it's wrong. Kareem says that its values are connection, compassion, courage, collaboration, and curiosity. But when I raised my concerns as an employee, I was pushed out like many others. And now as a parent, I'm still being ignored. Where's the compassion and where is the collaboration? Director Parmley's argument is that there's a lack of drivers, but if you were to look into why so many have left, you would realize that it is her own doing. Kyrene's transportation department is short-staffed because Director Parmelee has forced the resignations of those who truly care about the safety of these children simply to fit her own agenda, minus a few
136who are let go for obvious reasons, but three of which resignations have occurred this week alone. She creates a toxic work environment and tells you if you don't like how you're being treated, submit your resignation. I'm not here to attack. I'm here because I care, as many other parents do, and every child on those buses deserves better than the behavior we're receiving. However, because of what I've experienced and what I know others have as well, I've actually requested investigations by TPS and the Department of Labor, just so you're aware. Because our children deserve safe transportation, and our parents deserve transparency, and the staff deserve respect, not retaliation. That does conclude all of our in-person public comments. Board members, as you know, under... Oh, sure. If you've got one more, come on up. I saw you
137were here early. All right. Mr. Bill Kirch, our final public comment. Mr. Kirch, please. I moved to Arizona in 1956 when I was one years old. I've been in Tempe since 1976, 1978. I had my kids at Mariposa, Pueblo, Prende, and I came to the meeting last week to talk about something that I thought was important, and I heard something more important. So I changed my subject tonight. I came home. My wife said, where were you? I said, I went to the Kyrene school meeting. She said, you haven't been there in 30 years. She goes, you're an idiot. No offense to anyone here. I read all your resumes. You have credentials, 20 years, all experience here. I don't have any of that. This young lady was back here across from me, and she was talking
138to the superintendent, and I saw her face like my wife's face 35 years ago. All people want is honesty. You have to be blunt. You guys are in charge of all this stuff. You just have to be right up front with people and tell them what's going on. I'm very prejudiced against this, and I feel bad for it. My son was in sixth grade. A teacher grabbed a girl's hair and dragged it across the floor. My son was very brave. He approached the teacher, very disrespectful. He was kicked out of the class. The teacher, as far as I know, nothing happened to that teacher except three years later you went to prison for molesting someone at Pueblo Middle School. People just need the truth, even if it's bad. They just want to know the truth.
139People emailed people and no one responded to them. You just have to respond. I know you have 10,860 students, so you have 20,000 parents plus... Step parents, you have 3,000, you know, lots of people to respond to. You probably get 100 emails a day. I'm sure you do. And you guys are doing the best you can. And people just want honesty. That's all. I'll come back another time for my minor problem that I have. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Kirch. That one does conclude our in-person public comments. As you know, our state statute does prohibit us from discussing items, so it's not on the agenda, but the district can follow up. Thank you to all of our public speakers this evening. Item 8.1 on our meeting agenda is the consent agenda. Are there any changes
140to the proposed consent agenda? I see none. Would someone like to make a motion to approve the consent agenda? So moved. I have a motion by Member Davis and a second by Vice President Nelson. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? The motion passes 5-0. Item 9.1, this may sound familiar. It's our fiscal year 25 budget revision. I'll re-invite our Director of Finance, Mr. Brian Lockery, up to the podium in case any board members have any questions. Mr. Lockery, do you have any further remarks? Or if not, we can just move to a motion and discussion. Mr. President, I stand here for any questions regarding the fiscal 25 budget revision. Perfect. Board members, this was the subject of our public hearing earlier. Any questions? All right. Hearing none, would someone like to
141make a motion to approve the fiscal year 25 budget revision? Motion to approve fiscal year 25 budget revision. I have a motion by Vice President Nelson. Second. And I have a second by Member Seatree. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes 5-0. Thank you, Mr. Lockery. Item 9.2 is purchasing authorization for the approval to use save contract 2306 TUSD1 award to university instructors by Tucson Unified School District. Board members, as you're familiar, we have policy that if any contract itself is over $1 million individually, we do pull it off consent agenda, and we put it here for discussion. The details of this contract are on board docs. If you have any questions, we have our Executive Director of Academic Equity and Excellence, Dr. Lane, here for you. If not, we
142can take a motion to approve. Any questions? Member Davis. Yes, thank you. Just a point of clarification. I'm trying to be sure that I'm aware of the procedure in this. Am I understanding correctly that we hire teachers from From entities that are in the business of providing teachers to us. Yeah, Superintendent, Dr. Lane, would you care to respond? That is the case. Dr. Lane, could you turn your microphone on just so we can hear? Oh, is it? Oh, my apologies. Please go ahead then. Can you hear me now? Yes, thank you. Yes, we do hire teachers from contract agencies. This has been a practice, unfortunately, we have been having to engage with for special education for the last seven to eight years. We have been doing that. Fewer teachers are coming through the pathway to
143education in a traditional manner. But so we are having to reach out to other. companies and staffing agencies to help us recruit staff. The difference between our traditional vendors and university instructors is that university instructors allows us to hire these people in the district after the first year. Other agencies have a non-compete clause, so we're not able to transition those people to district employee employment. Thank you for that. I I'd love to know more about this practice going forward for this time. I have no objection at all, but I just don't understand it that well and realize that's a result of my being a new member of the board. But at some point, I would like to revisit this just to really understand. Absolutely. Thank you. Superintendent, can you see there through board prep report
144memo? Maybe we can put some information about. this practice? Yeah, we use this practice also. This isn't the only area. Special education is obviously one that we have a hard time filling position. So that is one, but transportation would be another example where we have to contract services out. I believe those are our two largest areas where if we can't find the staff, we have to be able to cover a route or cover a classroom that we get sort of almost forced to have to lean into. that option. So what we'll do is we can do something in one of our upcoming board preps just to explain the process that we go through each year. Yeah. And thank you for that. And I'd like to understand what they do differently to find people that we
145don't do for some reason. I just, I need to understand that. So thank you. I'd appreciate it. Thank you, Member Davis. Any other questions or comments for Dr. Lane or for Superintendent Dennis? I just want to add, I understand we use a program in Casa Grande. At my school, there are 105 teachers on campus. 65% of them are from the Philippines. The Philippines. So they have a service that they use in Casa Grande to bring all these teachers from the Philippines in because people don't want to drive to Casa Grande. And most people aren't unless, you know, because of the requirements to be a teacher in certain areas, it's hard to find people that are certified or that meet their qualifications to be a teacher. So it's a tough situation, guys. Like, I'm not going
146to sit here and sugarcoat it. It's a tough situation because we see this and then we're looking like, well. We have to let teachers go too. But then people are getting confused when they see this and that causes the confusion. But as the gentleman said back there, it's tough. And sometimes brutal honesty, people don't want to hear it. But at the end of the day, it is what it is. And whether we like it or not, it's happening. So you don't have to like it for it to happen. You know, I got in a fight once and I said, I ain't scared of you. The guy told me, you ain't got to be scared to get beat up. I'm just keeping it real. You know what I mean? So I get why we use these
147services, just from my point of view. Yeah, I hear you. And I'd like to understand it too. Yeah, we'll bring some information back. I'm not sure we're going to be able to answer. We'd love to be able to answer the exact question as to what we could do differently to not. to attract those that are choosing contractors versus districts. There's a lot of nuances to that, but we'll do our best to kind of explain the process and what we've seen. Thank you. Any other comments on this item? I see none. Would someone like to make a motion to approve the utilization of SID Cooperative Contract 2306-TUSD-1, awarded by Tucson Unified School District to university instructors for fiscal year 26? I make that motion. I have a motion by Member Davis. Is there a second? I
148second. I have a second by Member Collins. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes 5-0. Thank you, Dr. Lane. Item 9.3 is our Arizona Department of Education Procurement Review for the Cairing Food Services Fiscal Year 2024. We'll invite our Director of Finance, Mr. Brian Lockery, back to the podium. President Walsh, members of the board, Superintendent Tenes. Before you tonight is the second of two components of the Arizona Department of Education Administrative Review of the Fiscal Year 24 Food Service Program within Kyrene. The first component of the overall audit focused on the financial and compliance components of the audit and was reviewed and approved by the Governing Board at the April 8th Governing Board meeting. The second and final component was a regularly scheduled procurement review by the Arizona Department of
149Education for Kareen's purchasing aspect of the nutrition programs for fiscal year 24. Those are both attached to the agenda. The review ensures compliance with both federal and state procurement rules and regulations related to purchasing for food service programs. On April 25th, the Department of Education completed the procurement review, which yielded no findings or corrective actions for the district. This is the final audit for this fiscal year that requires a governing board roll call vote. And Mr. President, members, I can answer any questions you may have at this time. Thank you, Mr. Lockery. Always nice to have a clean zero findings audit report. Any questions or comments for Mr. Lockery? All right. Seeing none, would someone like to make a motion to approve? Motion to approve. I have a motion by Member Satri. Is there a
150second? I'll second. Second by Member Collins. Since this is a audit, we're going to do it the old-fashioned way and go down the line. Mr. Collins, how do you vote? I vote yes. Member Davis? Aye. Member Satri? Aye. Vice President Nelson? Aye. And I am an aye. Sounds strange. Motion passes 5-0. All right. Thank you, Mr. Lockery. Our next four items all relate to employee compensation. We'll invite our fantastic assistant superintendent, Ms. Lisa Gibson, up to the podium. She's going to present on the first three items together, and then we're going to take separate votes as it relates to the three separate employee groups. Ms. Gibson. Good evening, President Walsh, Superintendent Tenyes, members of the Governing Board, and community members. Tonight, I have the pleasure of bringing forward compensation for all three employee groups for
151the 25-26 school year, along with a proposal for a retention stipend for the 25-26 school year. Each employee group compensation proposal will require a separate vote tonight, along with a vote for the retention stipend. But before we pause to do that, I'd like to provide you with an overview of compensation information for all three employee groups. This evening, we are bringing forward a proposal for a 1% increase for all employee groups for the 25-26 school year. While we recognize a 1% increase for the upcoming school year does not fully reflect the dedication and hard work of our staff, it represents the most we can offer at this time. If by chance we receive additional money from the state this summer, our meet and confer groups will reconvene to determine how to apply money to salary
152schedules. Beginning with the salary schedule for ESP, the cost to lift the salary schedule by 1% is $360,000. Starting pay for an ESP employee on the A-10 band is currently $15.51. And with a 1% lift, this amount will increase to $15.67, which is almost a dollar more than minimum wage. There are currently two SP employees that exceed the salary schedule and six ESP employees on the last row of the salary schedule. This 1% lift will apply to these employees as well. The total cost to lift the certified salary schedule on 1% is $716,616. Two teachers exceed the salary schedule and seven teachers are on the last row of the salary schedule. The 1% lift will be applied for these employees. The starting salary for a teacher is currently $49,937.13. And next year, it will increase
153to $50,436.50. Performance pay and the teaching and learning stipend are not included in base pay for teachers. Knowing this, teachers could make an additional $5,100 and if this amount was added to a new teacher's pay, that starting pay would increase to approximately $55,536.50. The total cost to lift the administrative salary, including administrators on the salary schedule and off the salary schedule, is $126,399. Two administrator employees are on the last row of the salary schedule, and these two employees would also receive the 1% lift. To lift the entire schedule by 1% is $1.2 million. If approved tonight, talent management will send salary addendums to certified and administrative employees before the last day of school for school staff. Contracts and compensation notices for ESP staff will be issued tomorrow. Before the governing board takes three separate votes,
154I'm going to invite Chris Herman to talk about the budget, followed by Dahlia Lighting, KEA president. Thank you, Lisa. I think just briefly what I wanted to do is... recognize that as a board, we've talked about a few things with the budget, but when you talk about approving compensation, we really need to talk about how that's going to fit in with some of the assumptions that we have and some of the recommendations and ultimately the vote that would come to the board at the end of June and then finally in July. So I've shared this slide a lot in spring meetings because when you talk about compensation, it's not a conversation that just starts. and ends in a week or two. We've started these conversations about what's possible, anticipating funding, anticipating enrollment changes, and anticipating
155all kinds of things that may happen. since December. And so some of these things now, it takes a little bit of time for them to fall into place. We still don't have a budget passed by the state and they've recessed and it's not likely that's going to happen, you know, anytime soon, but we can't wait. And we always like to have employees be notified of compensation before the school year ends. And so that's why it takes a little bit of time. These are all the steps. You could see there's a lot that happens in the spring. But I think we know enough now to make that recommendation. And I also wanted to kind of unwrap two things, the first being kind of ongoing compensation, kind of the numbers that Mrs. Gibson talked about. And, you
156know, there's dozens of factors that go into preparing a balanced budget each year. But there are sometimes, you know, some big areas that impact our budget. For our three new board members who weren't in the conversations during the summer, when you looked at over $114 million in our general fund operating budget. We looked at total revenues and total expenses, and we were about $125,000 different. I mean, that is a pretty balanced budget. And so when you look at what's going to change or anticipated to change for next year, we look at, you know, the things that are on this slide. And there are some things that are positively going to impact your budget, and there's some things that would negatively impact your budget. So, you know, looking kind of at the things that we addressed
157earlier in a spring study session, With enrollment changes, we expect that to be around $4.2 million for next year. And that's a challenge to balance a budget and a challenge to talk about investing new monies into a budget for compensation increases. One of the things that we're going to be faced with next year is we've had some pretty significant increases in our utility costs, both in water and electricity, that we're going to have to absorb next year in the budget. And that's a very big number. And, you know, when you look at the things on the positive side of our budget, you know, we've reduced our expenses, our operating expenses by that same $4.2 million that our dollar amount that our funding would be decreased, which takes a lot of time and energy to do
158that. If you look at how much money the state gives us on the far right on the bottom, we expect to receive the maximum amount of state funding like we talked about earlier this spring, which is $1.8 million. That money is included or intended to cover every... cost increase that a district might have, whether that be compensation, utility cost increases, other contracts as well. That money doesn't go very far. And so, you know, we try to maximize what we can do by reducing expenses to offset the enrollment changes that we have. There's a few things this year that we expect to happen. As far as the 25-26 year budget, some additional revenues and profits from community education, from our Prop 301 funding, and also Medicaid reimbursements. And so those are factored in as well. But
159again, there's dozens of things that we look at. These are all things that we expect to be ongoing expenses or ongoing revenues. And so when we talk about making what we can invest in compensation, everything has to balance. That's the number that Mrs. Gibson referenced, $1.2 million. It's kind of how we were able to maximize that number. Now, we always like that number to be bigger, but these are really the factors that we have to address each year. So that slide previously was about kind of ongoing operating expenses and revenues. And so that's kind of what you look at when you can invest into a salary schedule increase or a permanent compensation increase. That's a little different from a conversation you might be able to have about maybe a stipend or a one-time payment. And
160so we'll vote and talk about that later, but I did want to give some background since I'm already talking about the budget and some of these areas. But for stipends, those really are year-to-year decisions, and there's really no guarantee that that stipend would continue next year or any year in the future. That funding that we're able to do for a stipend would either come from one-time funding, which we did experience several years ago with the federal government giving different stipends. funding and grants that allowed us to do things like offer stipends, but those have expired. And so more recently, that additional money is able to be generated because we have spent less than what our original budget was. And most recently, that's been because we've had positions that are unfilled. And so we've looked at
161opportunities to use that unspent money to give back to employees, our unfilled positions to give back to employees because They're the ones that have really taken on most of the work from having positions unfilled. But that doesn't mean that's going to happen every year. You know, when I first started here, I think the unfilled positions were hundreds of thousands of dollars. Right now, they're millions of dollars. Right. So that's we certainly hope we can hire those positions in the future rather than have vacant positions. But in order to invest money for a stipend for next year, that really comes from our expected. underspending or vacancy savings or unfilled positions in 24-25, we think that's going to be around $2.4 million. And that $2.4 million would equate to a $1,000 stipend. So we're not able to
162invest that in the permanent compensation because, again, that's a one-year event. There's no guarantee that that's going to be sustainable. In fact, you know, most of the things that are one-time in nature are not sustainable. So that's how we came to the numbers. And I'm happy to answer questions after our presenters have spoken, but just wanted to spend a little bit of time explaining how that's going to fit and factor into our budget. We'll have more discussions about expenses early in June, but these numbers that you see tonight are part of all of our assumptions that we bring forward to the board for a final board vote. Thank you, Lisa. Thank you, Chris. Governing board members, the certified meet and confer team was aware of the budget situation Kyrene finds itself in. And after the
163cabinet went out to all 25 sites, I'm hoping employees have a deeper understanding of the budget crisis we find ourselves in. Having said that, we are disappointed in a 1% compensation increase while we understand it. It's a hard thing to take back to educators who pour themselves into the classrooms every day. We are looking forward to being called back should compensation become available after the budget passes with the legislators. We thank the district for their transparency and their diligence in finding compensation sources in the forms of stipends. And we, along with district leadership, wish that there was more for our educators. But again, we understand and we are looking forward to coming back and talking about future compensation packages. And with that, I wanted to see if anyone had any questions. Thank you, Ms. Gibson,
164Mr. Herman, Ms. Leiting. I think it's a very timely presentation. And Mr. Herman, I certainly understand the challenge and frustration when it comes to the state budget. As it relates to us trying to make these decisions now before our teachers go on summer break, when there's a big question mark over the Prop 123 continuation funding. And I understand that there's some talk about potentially making more funds available for teacher compensation, but that those funds are not without strings attached and whether those strings are going to be acceptable. So there's a lot of questions there. And you are left. with the task of coming up with numbers that are sustainable now based on what we know now which could change so it's not an enviable job that you have i appreciate all your work to get
165to these numbers i've never doubted for a moment this district's commitment to employee compensation i certainly understand the disappointment that miss lighting referenced and i think if that money becomes available We've had a special meeting before in the summer to call back and issue new contracts. I'd love to have the opportunity to do that again. We'll see if the legislature rises to the occasion. But with that, I'll open up for comments and questions. Just a quick question. We're only talking about the additional compensation, not the stipends at this point in time, correct? Gotcha. So I shouldn't ask a question about stipends now. Feel free. Thank you. So there is a question for me. Just I know the stipends and mainly for community transparency. When we talk about employees, some districts save that compensation strictly for
166those who are classified as classroom employees. Is that how we do things here in Kyrene or is this something that will be eligible to all employees, including our educational support staff? This retention stipend that I will present on next is for all Kyrene employees. Great. Thank you. And then just a final comment to President Whiting. Just, you know, thank you for always being open and advocating for our educators. And, you know, I echo President Walsh that. If we had more to give at this point in time and kind of had that surety of knowledge that those extra funds were there, we would definitely, you know, be operating differently. So I just want to tell you thank you for the grace that you are showing and in representing our educators. I know it's a challenge. So
167thank you. Thank you. Member Satri. Yes, thank you. I just have a quick question. If we find out that there are more funds available in the future, how does that disbursement work? How does that change the compensation schedules? Or does it get added in a different form? It depends. And so we would meet in a wall-to-wall meeting with all three employee groups and make a decision on how that money should be applied to the salary schedule, depending on if there are any restrictions with how we use the money or how we place the money. if that makes sense. Can it be, how do I explain this, applied retroactively to catch up? Well, it depends. Yes, if it comes after school started and we've already started the fiscal year. If it happens in the summer before,
168then we would be able to make it active July 1st. The one other caveat to that, and Mr. Herman, if you want to jump in, if the money comes that is ongoing funds that get in our budget, then it could go into salary schedules possibly. If there's money that we are able to receive that would be only one-time money, this is that difference between salary schedule versus stipend, then we may have to come back with some additional stipend money. We wouldn't be able to put it in the ongoing expenses. And then I think the one other caveat is if the We have had years where the legislators have come back and we've only had additional funding for a very narrow group. where they say it's just for teachers, say. And so we've pulled KEA together
169over the summer, and we weren't able to have a wall-to-wall, but we were able to have just the teachers group come together and talk about how they apply. So it really, there's a lot of different things that could happen depending on how the money comes. Yeah, and you did a great job of explaining all the things that could happen. I think our preference is always if the money would come. to be sustainable and ongoing from the state. That's the best scenario because then we can increase salary schedules and compensation schedules on a permanent basis. Whereas if it's one-time funding or doesn't have that recurrence, then stipends are typically the vehicle that you would look at. And when we get that information, how quickly do we come to the table and say, we need to address
170this, we need to prioritize it? As soon as we possibly can at the next meeting. So typically we just need enough time. We've called an emergency meeting pretty quick. Ms. Gibson will be on the phone with our association presidents scheduling a meeting as quickly as possible. And then we get in front of the board. You know, the Prop 123 is an interesting one because I... And I'm not sure that they can come to a resolution in time for us to kick something off for the fiscal year from what I'm seeing. And if something has to go to the voters, that's for sure it wouldn't happen. And so we would be. probably depending on how the language is used and what would actually be voted on, if it was approved, may determine what we're able to
171do and how we would apply that money. So some of it comes from depending on the rules that were given at the time. But I don't know that 1, 2, 3, at this point, we're going to know anything by July 1st. Okay. Thank you. I appreciate all the work you've done and put into this. doing our absolute best to make sure we're recognizing our teachers and staff. So thank you. I just want to say to Ms. Lighting and you guys, I understand how arduous these processes are, considering that I'm on the IVN and meeting conferred team in my district. And we actually walked out of our meeting because of some numbers. So I get it. So, Ms. Lighting, I appreciate you handling it with class because you definitely handled it better than I did in
172my meeting. I'm not going to even sit here and lie. So and as Superintendent Tennant said, because we don't know to, you know, for those who are confused about the process, because we don't know when they're going to pass the budget and if the strings are going to be attached with the vouchers and the Prop 123, we don't know what that money is going to look like. Because what a lot of people fail to realize, public schools are 501c3s. And if you receive any type of money from the state or federal government, you have to use that money according to how they say. And unfortunately, that's the predicament that we're in. Thank you, Member Collins. And Member St. Joe, I went back and looked. It was a little less than three years ago, back in
1732022. where we got some funding. And at the last minute, we called a special board meeting on July 19th before the school year started. It was not a scheduled meeting. We got on virtually and the team moved quickly. So can I make one more just quick comment? Because this has happened before where the budget gets passed pretty late. And. There's an amount on here on the bottom right for inflation funding. That funding has not been passed by the state yet. That's part of their normal budget discussions and conversations. Now, they've already given really good guidance that that's a very high confidence that that's the number we're going to receive. But you may hear once a budget is passed, here's millions of dollars of new money for inflation funding. We are already accounting for that in
174this compensation increase. So I just don't want the board to think that that's additional monies or employee groups to think that's additional monies. We're already accounting for that in this scenario. We've seen that movie before. Thank you. Seeing no other questions, would someone like to make a motion to approve the 1% lift to all education support professional salary schedules for the 25-26 school year and apply a 1% compensation increase for all educational support professional positions not on a salary schedule? So moved. I have a motion by Vice President Nelson. Is there a second? Second. Second by Member Satri. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? The motion passes 5-0. Item 9.5 is for employee compensation, certified employee compensation. May I have a motion to approve a 1% lift of all certified salary
175schedules for the 25-26 school year and apply a 1% compensation increase for all certified positions not on a salary schedule? So moved. A motion by Member Davis. Is there a second? I second. Second by Member Collins. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes. And our third item, item 9.6, this is for administrative staff. I'll make a motion to approve a 1% lift for all administrative salary schedules for the 25-26 school year and apply a 1% compensation increase for all administrative positions not on a salary schedule. Is there a second to the motion? Second. Second by Member Satri. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes 5-0. Item 9.7, all-employee retention statement for the 25-26 school year. Ms. Gibson. Talent Management is proposing a $1,000 retention
176stipend to be paid to all full-time employees in two separate increments next school year. One payout of $500 will occur in December, and the second payout of $500 next June. Employees who work less than half-time will receive $500 total with 250 increments, one in December and one in June. The retention stipend which cost $2.2 million. And then this stipend was basically from vacant positions the district was unable to fulfill. So before I vote on the retention stipend, I just wanted to see if the governing board had any questions. Any questions for Ms. Gibson? Seeing none, would someone like to make a motion to approve a $1,000 fiscal year 26 retention stipend for all .5 FTE or greater employees and a $500 fiscal year 26 retention stipend for all employees less than .5 FTE? Aye motion.
177I have a motion by Member Collins. Is there a second to his motion? Second. Second by Vice President Nelson. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Aye. Motion passes 5-0. Thank you, Ms. Gibson. Thank you. Just so I'm clear, if the money passes, there's a potential for all this to be rectified, correct? That last part was what, Mr. Collins? So I said, so just so I'm clear, if the money gets passed by the summer, we'll be able to revisit all of these motions. Yes. I just want to make sure all of them, not just certain ones. Yes, sir. Okay. Yes, sir. All right. Item 9.8. Arizona School Board Association proposed 2026. It says 26, but I think it's a 26, 26 political agenda. That's right. All right, board members, on your podium
178here and attached on board docs is a copy of the Arizona School Board Association political agenda priority issues for the 2025 year. So this is what was in place, or I should say is in place currently. Every year, the Arizona School Board Association goes to its member districts, Kyrene being one of them, and asks for their board members to submit the top issues that they would like the Arizona School Board Association to focus on in terms of their advocacy at the legislature in the upcoming session. So this year is the list of what was approved in the last year. We can and often do. look through this and highlight things that we think are particularly noteworthy that we want to emphasize. Or we might say that there's something on here that is not on here
179that we'd like to add. This is an opportunity for us to submit those. Ms. Moser will then pull the four, five, six items that we highlight and we'll submit them to the Arizona School Board Association. there's going to be a delegate assembly that happens later on during this calendar year where a member from this board will go and get to vote on this. But before we get there, we have an opportunity to talk about any priority issues. So with that, I will open up for discussion. This is pretty free flowing. So I'll start, please. So there are a few, well, I've got, I've got several things that are circled on here. However, the ones that I feel really. kind of meet the moment that we're at is in the adequate and equitably fund district schools
180to the national meeting pupil funding. We get to bullet point two, which is provide consistent, dedicated sources of base funding that equips all Arizona public schools with adequate support to address the academic, social, and emotional needs of its students. So, and that includes, you know, updating curriculum, exceptional student services. et cetera. I think that is something, especially as we're in budget season, we talk about all of the time, like how we do more with less. And even now we just saw that, you know, our inflation funding is only going to increase 1.8 million. I mean, that is a lot of money in general. But when you talk about supporting a district that has about 12,000 students, that doesn't go very far when we have things like, you know, utility increases. or different things like that.
181How can we give our teachers more money? You know, this talks about funding before and after school programs. How can we attract people to support our students and our families who need that wraparound care? So for me, that's a big one. And then the second one there, also going to... doing more than providing funding in name only is around increasing funding for exceptional student services based on the cost study. So that includes for our rural and remote areas, gifted students in early intervention programs. I know a lot of our community members don't realize this, but the last time we, and I say we as Arizona, really decided and determined how we are funding our special education students was when I was a teenager, folks. And I've got a lot of gray hair up here. So
182it's been a long time. And so we know that, and it's such a blessing that we have so many students being identified with these needs, but we don't have the funding to support the increased identification of these students. So yes, we have the early identification, the early intervention, but if we don't have the funding that corresponds with that, we still are not serving these students properly. So for me, those are... Those would be my two biggest priorities. I don't know how y'all feel. Thank you, Vice President Nelson. Other thoughts? Please do. Okay. We'll talk a lot now. The next one, especially around as M&O overrides and bond overrides, just... from a perspective of making sure that we're changing the language to better reflect what is actually, what we are actually asking our voters to do.
183I think every time. We, you know, call for an election. There is a lot of education that goes on, you know, thanks to Erin Helm and her team, you know, really educating on the community and what we're asking. But the confusion comes in with how language is listed on the actual ballot. But making sure that what the ballot says and what we're actually asking for are in alignment is going to be a huge help to our community. And I think it'll make. very clear what is being asked for, what we are supporting. Um, and then I think, you know, we've been as a board very vocal about, you know, preserving local control, meaning that, you know, our community, we have a very involved community. They care deeply about what we do. But opposing any kind
184of legislative intrusion about how we are making budgeting decisions for our district, Mr. Herman. you know, has demonstrated year after year after year after year's team that we do care very much about, you know, our strategic plan and making sure the budget matches those goals. And so to have someone kind of removed from the, someone or a legislative body removed from the Kyrene community, come in and then kind of put some more restrictions on that with things that are aligned with our values is something that I just, I feel like our community wouldn't support. And then... And I know this did try to creep through this past year, but it didn't pass, is there's always an effort to make school board elections partisan. If you're not aware, school board elections are nonpartisan, and I feel
185it's really important to keep them that way. I know as individuals, we can each have our own political ideologies or things like that. But however, keeping, I think, education school board elections nonpartisan really... focuses the work on the teachers, our students, and our community, and really focusing on the day-to-day work about keeping a balanced budget and really trying to keep a lot of the more, dare I say, like provocative issues that really aren't what we deal with as the work we do as a board kind of out of. out of that, out of the work that we do. And I think it would take away focus from our students, staff, and our families. Anybody else want to jump in? I mean, I can keep going, but I really don't want to just be talking, talking,
186talking. They're all really good though. I mean, it's, it's a wishlist for sure. Yeah. I mean, the whole thing is a wishlist. I wish we could do it all. Um, but no, I'm just the ones that really stand out to me. Okay. Yeah. Those ones. So, yeah, I, I appreciate that you brought up. I share the same opinion on some of those items that you picked. I'd like to just comment on what I think would most support our staff, our teachers and students. So kind of a mixture of the two, if we could. The affordable housing options to faculty and staff, housing is an issue, and it might be one of the reasons why it's difficult to retain teachers in our, in fact, I know, I think, yeah, I'm pretty sure that's one of the
187reasons because of the affordability of housing in our area. I really would also support the offering of school meals to all students free of charge. I just think that's really something that should be a given. So that's, I think that we had something like that in place when, during COVID, right? And I'm fairly certain it was really appreciated by our families. I know I appreciated it. So, and not having to worry about that expense. And then maximizing our state funding to provide competitive salaries. I mean, we're just having a really hard time. doing that and that should definitely be a focus and that would solve a lot of our retaining issue, retainment issues, our classroom sizes, things like that. So those are the things that stood out the most to me. And then of course,
188investing in our public schools, keeping the focus that our public dollars should be going to our public schools. And And making that a priority. So that's all I have. Thank you, Member Chaudhry. Other board members? Member Davis. Yes, thank you. Here to what you said last, Member Chaudhry, I agree. I would like to, I think the board, the Arizona School Boards Association should be supportive of. local school districts, individual school district boards, helping to engage what we refer to as stakeholders, I refer to as community members, to get involved in political action, to get involved in who is elected to our state legislature, the people who make these decisions about funding, because all the rest of it flows. from the decisions that these folks make in the state legislature, in my opinion. I'm dancing around
189the issue of ESAs, which are behind a lot of this. Ensuring local control and flexibility in managing funds and programs within the Arizona Constitution requirements of general and uniform public school system. There's even arguments that can be made to elected officials, to legislators. The general and uniform is not the only criteria that can be used. Adequate is a word that's been used in the law for everything that has to do with state public schools, state-funded public schools, publicly-funded schools, which is what makes a school public, is that they use public funds. So I really think that ASBA is in a position, and by reference, we possibly are in a position, to help. interact with the parents and others, the business community, to really focus on the political power that they have to bring, to bear
190influence on folks who are making these funding decisions, which is hamstringing all this great work that good people are doing and creating terrible frustrations in parents, totally understandable. That energy, I'd love to see ASBA work to help us harness that energy and put it in a direction that I think could really make a difference by who we elect to office in this state. That's what I have to say about this. Thank you, Member Davis. Member Collins, any thoughts or preferences? I mean, I just have a couple, man. We, you know, look at what is it? Eliminate unfunded mandates and administrative burdens. And superintendents, she looked right at me because we already know what that we every year, you know, as educators and administration, we get hit with all this stuff you have to do that
191you're told by the state. But yet they weren't providing you the resources. And me, I teach in a rural district, you know, I teach in Casa Grande, so our funding is a little different. And so definitely eliminate the unfunded resources. And where was it at? I had it marked right here. Oh, and change the override budget increase language. A lot of people don't understand what that means. And I think if they had a better definition of what it entailed, I think. You know, oftentimes they'll get more support. Not that I don't think we've had an issue in this district, to my recollection, but, you know, just in general. Because, yeah, we could say our district, but what happens in one district, let's face it, it affects everybody across the state. It's not just, oh, okay,
192we're doing this here. No, it affects everybody. So I think that's definitely something that we need to stay on top of. Thank you, Member Collins. I agree with all that. It's a parade of horribles here. And I agree with everything my fellow board members have said. The only thing I would add, the aggregate expenditure limit. I have not forgotten about that. I know it's been a little quieter among all the other horrible things that we've been focused on with the legislature in this session. But that is still out there. And that is still a point of leverage that I think people who are looking to. defund public schools can use and have used and will continue to use if they have the opportunity to do that. So I know that does require, as I understand
193it, constitutional referral, but I would love to see the Arizona School Board Association get behind that and try to make that happen because that problem is not going away. So those are my thoughts. This is a helpful conversation. What's going to happen next, board members, is Ms. Moser and I will work to put together something for our upcoming board meeting later this month where we will have a pretty list of things that the board discussed, and we can vote on it at that time to submit to the Arizona School Board Association. All right. Thank you all. We're getting there. Item 7.1, staff social emotional wellness policy second read. We have one policy on the agenda, board members. This is a second read. You will remember that we had a first read of this policy earlier
194in the school year. I'll invite our director of benefits, Ms. Deb Spurgeon, to come up to the podium in case the board members have any questions. Ms. Spurgeon, do you want to? Would you like to address for the board before we open it up for discussion? I don't. Thank you, President Walsh. I'd be happy to entertain any questions. Thank you, Ms. Spurgeon. Board members, comments or questions? Vice President Nelson, please. Hi. So, again, I... I think I brought this up during the first read, but my motion was incorrect when I made it. So there are actually a few changes. I know this is just a second read, but as I read through this. You know, I liked it. It calls out that this is a belief statement, but it feels to me when we move
195from the belief statement to the commitment, it just, there's not a great bridge connecting the language together where it just goes into commitments to workplace culture, where in the way that it's formatted, your commitments are actually number one, you know, we are committed to creating a welcoming community and encouraging individual engagement to cultivate, you know. A through H. So that's like one commitment. Our next commitment would be, you know, providing resources for the social, emotional, physical health. And then the third, or, and then we get down into all staff engagement as far as those prioritizations. If there is a way that we could format it so it just flows a little better. I don't know if it needs like a preamble to talk about workplace culture and then another preamble to talk about all staff
196engagement. It's such good material, but I just. When I read it, it doesn't quite come together very cohesively for me. Again, I understand the intent, but we want it to read in a way that everybody will kind of understand, hey, here are our commitments, X, Y, Z, versus like a list. So it all is kind of flowing together. That's, I think, really what I... I was taking away from it just so it read a little bit. Again, I appreciate that we have, you know, our definitions around social emotional wellness and learning and inclusion. It's always very important to me because words mean things. And I want people to understand when we use that language, what we mean and what we're talking about. Those would be my only call outs for this second read. So since
197it's not like a very specific word change, which is fine, I think what we'll do is take it back to the team. We maybe have communications team help us with a little bit of that transition language. We'll look at to... fix that and then we could bring a new black line forward for a third read and then of course if there's any other changes tonight we'll include those as well and then you could do a third read if you're ready you could adopt but you could also do a fourth read there's nothing that says we have to do these in any certain amount of time so we can take as long as we need to get it adopted okay great thank you thank you vice president nelson do other board members have feedback All right.
198Hearing none, Ms. Spurgeon, thank you again for you and your team. As we talked about at the first read, I love that we are putting this into policy, the commitment that this district has long upheld, but now that we're putting it into policy. So thank you for you and your team for that work with that and for working with all the employee groups, especially Ms. Leiding and your team for all the work that went into this. So looking forward to having this back for a third read. Board members, at this time. Would someone like to make a motion to approve the second read? This is not to approve or adopt the policy. It's just to approve the read. I so move. I have a motion to approve the second reading by Member Davis. Is there
199a second? Second. Second by Vice President Nelson. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion passes 5-0. Thank you, Ms. Spurgeon. Thank you. All right, 11.1, Board Committee Conference Reports. Board members, would anyone like to provide an update on any committee work or conferences that you would like to share with the board? Vice President Nelson. Hello. On the 23rd of April, we had our, we're calling it episode three, of the Long Range Budget Committee meeting. And really, I think, you know, the first two were really focused on talking about budget. you know, making a recommendation around the M&O override. This one really was an opportunity to talk about the impact on our operational budget around declining enrollment. We did a review of the budget presentation that was given to this board on the
20023rd, as well as it's very similar presentation that's now been given at all 25 of our sites. So it was great that we could have that That grounding is then we they kind of moved into talking about the different strategic levers that we can pull as we really start to delve into the work of what does what does the work of this committee look like moving forward and, you know, around facility optimization. And it was really interesting to me. Someone made a comment, and I think it really kind of encapsulates what the work of this committee is doing is. We are trying to build a plan to redesign the district for 10,000 students when we are a district that was designed for 20,000 students. And that was a really interesting way to kind of frame
201the work that we're doing. I think another piece that I would call out is that... There aren't any predetermined, there's no predetermined destination here. And so having that kind of as we are going, you know, from we are designed for a 20,000 district to a 10,000 district, I mean, the world is kind of our little oyster. And so there's not a predetermined outcome, but really just a lot of conversation from the committee. I know board member Satri serves on this committee with me as well. I don't know if there's anything else you would want to. add there, but that's kind of where we left off. We will be meeting for episode four next week, next Wednesday. All our meetings are subject to open meeting law, so they are recorded. You can find the minutes and
202the transcripts online, and I would encourage the community to, you know, pay attention to what's happening there. But yeah, it's very, very good work. So thank you. Thank you, Vice President Nelson. Any other updates on this item? All right. Seeing none, item 12.1, items for future consideration. Do any board members wish to list items for future consideration? Seeing none, item 13.1, meeting dates. We do have, as Vice President Nelson just referenced, a long-range planning committee meeting next Wednesday, May 21st, that Vice President Nelson and Member Satri will be at. And then our board's next regular meeting is two weeks from today, Tuesday, May 27th, 2025. Item 14.1 is adjournment. Would someone like to make a motion to adjourn? Motion. Motion by Member Satri. Is there a second? Second. Second by Vice President Nelson. All those
203in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? The motion passes 5-0. The meeting is adjourned at 8.08 p.m. Have a good night.