001all right are you good Chris you good it's now 4:30 I'm going to call the uh work session to begin um we are located at the Liberty Elementary School um a little Liberty Elementary School in the gymnasium board members present are Chris Kenyan Sarah Schmidt Brian Cerrone and myself Kelly Zimmerman um we will go on to 1.2 the Pledge of Allegiance Miss Schmidt will you please lead us I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all item 1.3 the budget update Mr Monroe or Dr Monroe vice president Zimmerman members of the board I'd like to introduce Mr Ken Hicks um Ken is here as a budget consultant to help us out during our
002transition we also have Crystal moer who is with us who's our lead accountant um who's going to walk us through some slides as a followup to the last time we spoke uh with some clarifications with some next steps and with some work that we've been able to uh to do um Ken I'll turn the time over to you I'll let you tell the board real quickly about yourself as well okay thank you very much a so so sorry um I would really like it um because this is a work session for us to again be discussing as we're going through the presentation so I'm just going to ask that after each slide that you pause to allow the board to ask questions um so that we can address things as we're going on because it's
003a lot to take in and for us to get to the end and then have to go back and forth I think it's easier this way thank you good evening Madame vice president members of the board superintendent Monroe colleagues and community members uh fellow neighboring community members uh thank you very much for allowing me to present um one would be who am I and why am I here would be probably some good questions um first I'll just start with uh who am I um Ken Hicks I am currently the Chief Financial Officer of the talison Union High School District about 12 13 miles that way um I have uh I think you got my resume so I've been in about five or six different districts doesn't necessarily mean I can't hold a job um it
004does mean that I like career advancement I like challenges I like moving around the other thing I like is I like helping and um so I have done some Consulting um I am not getting paid for anything here or nor will I anything I've received a phone call from Dr Monroe that said hey do you mind just helping us out a little bit U maybe listen to our last board member meeting and see if we could do any help so I listened to the last board meeting I downloaded your afrs from the a from ad your budge 25 from ad your budge 75 uh your notice of not needing a bud budget revision your budge budget from this year your auditor general Financial risk assessment all of that so trying to digest as much as
005possible watching your last board study session I think it was uh on the 20th uh trying to just get a feel of where we are because it felt like there was a little bit of conf confusion and some ambiguity and some problems going on uh then I came over and met with uh Mr Balden M moer and Mr and Dr Monroe just to uh bounce some ideas see where we are and see what's going on so I wanted to just learn a little bit as much as I possibly can provide as much assistance and help because as I was listening to the meeting the last meeting I was listening to there was a lot of simple things that just I didn't feel were being answered as accurately as possible to provide the best information to
006the governing board in the community so um so that is why I'm here that is who I am um trying to digest I would say don't even wait till the end of any slide if I'm saying something that doesn't make sense please just ask any questions in the flow of things so that it's it's a conversation we're having do I know everything I don't have I I haven't even logged into your Visions your software and started digesting all your expenses and everything um I do have a day job and have other things so I won't be doing a lot of that I I'm relying on your current staff and assistance but I thought I could provide just some some general overview where we are some answers and then we did start brainstorming some ideas this
007year next year and everything I wanted to provide some context and really um listening to it felt very bad coming into meeting does not feel that bad so just so you know just as I'm starting to look at the books look at the FY um not the books per se but the budgets the afrs um concerns looking at the sfob award the the new school looking at your bond um the AFR reports seen where we're spending looking at my first question when I walked in are we reconciling monthly to the county to make sure that our books are aligned to the county knowing that we're getting annual audits by third party audits so I'm doing a quick assessment to see are things happening normally that they should uh yes we're uh understaffed overworked and behind
008at times but um who isn't at this time um so we started looking and um first let's just identify um what we're doing for this year what we're looking at for this year I have a clicker um sometimes I just go like that and people click for me um so um so yes um Dr Monroe meeting with the principls the teacher Advisory Group meeting with me it says budget consultant budget friend um just trying to help out um but the first thing I did I said if we are having some uh challenges this year which we are not overexpanded we are overexpanded and encumbered that is two different things we have not spent the money so this year we're not in dire have I helped other districts that have overspent absolutely uh do I know
009about the Isaac situation absolutely we have not overspent what we have is a projection that we will overspend so what our goal is is what can we come in this year and correct and adjust or modify so that we do not over send and so the first thing that we talked about is close every vacant position I think when I asked I think I heard that there were 58 open vacant positions and I said close every single position right now any requests to have those positions filled need to come through cabinet or the superintendent directly knowing the financial situation that we're at that anything saying yes to every single one could contribute further to projecting to overex expend the second thing was let's look at all of our purchase orders we started with I think
010um transportation maintenance I've worked with Mr Young with Mr Young so let's look at uh Mr Young's budget what are is open posos let's see how much is spent so far through what months that is and is there any ability for us to start revising Po's downward to adjust that trajectory trajectory of us over spending and so we um so we started doing some of that and I task the team that they have to continue working uh with the schools and departments to start reducing eliminate or closing or just revising those POs downward so the whole goal is to reduce that encumbrance that is out there so the encumbrance is what is telling us that we are going to overspend by the end of this year then we will also and we'll go through some
011of the ADM calculated growth monies but we're going to look at what our budget revision will projected to be in may see what that adjustment is see if we need to make any uh adjustments that could be a transfer from daa over to M and I did hear at the last meeting we don't want daa at zero that is a true statement we don't want daa at zero so what is a comfortable amount that we could transfer over back into m&o and get us through this year but before that some of it was a lot of conversation that was just on average daily membership and so really quick um and I don't mean to um explain things in if we already know everything I don't need to explain it I don't want to down talk
012down to anybody or what some would say is mansplain I don't want to do that um ADM and enrollment are two different things um a lot of times um your applied economics and what you're getting from Mr braimer is going to be some projections on how many people are coming in but that's not exactly ADM projections he's also looking at what's going to happen over the entire year knowing that not knowing or not accounting for only the first 100 days is what is calculated for our average daily membership as a school district in Arizona and so looking and making those adjustments or having that understanding I wanted to just come back to average daily membership some of the conversations and just looking at um I'm sorry can we just pause for that slide before we
013move on to ADM um is thank you so much appreciate it um are there any questions from the board um things that you heard that you want to ask about in terms of the current um fy2 budget um you know a budget revision can be done at any time correct absolutely Madam pres Madam vice president Bo yes okay so you know my concern with you know may is that it's it's too late basically because what happened last year um from what I can gather from board docks and and attending meetings uh prior to me being on the board is that in May you know the district came back and said you know we spent 2.5 more than we meant to and we had to dip into the reserves so we don't we don't have that
014luxury um in terms of having that much in the reserves we're under a million so my concern is are we going to bring a revision back prior to May to ensure that we you know don't get to May because that only leaves us you know a month or so until the fiscal year ends um Madam vice president members of the board first let's even step back that's a great comment um should we be waiting till May to do a budget revision I've already talked to the staff we should be doing December budget revisions whether ad says you are required to or not yes to get in front of the governing board on a regular basis just to talk about budget not to put more value into who we are um I know we're here for
015for the students and for um their academic and other interests but the board should be looking at the budget on a regular basis so that should have happened in December it should happen every December whether you're required to or not that is what I talk to people preach to people and recommend to people um should we have a budget revision um some of the purpose of a budget Revision in December is you just finished your annual financial report in October your budget adoption and proposal which are required to be the exact same thing in that change can only go down by law but let's just say they're the same thing you're making that projection based on some information probably that you created in May so by the time you're getting to around December it's probably
016getting a little outdate and doesn't have the latest projections your AFR locks in your previous year and all your carry forwards so it is good practice to have a budget revision every December to just line up and get everything resync so you do not have a budget that is maybe over or under inflated based on projections from back in May but in my uh in my estimation I don't know that I would do one right now to run out and get one done at the end of this month just to turn around and do it again in six weeks might be just an exercise in doing more work and not having anything substance on the two that doesn't mean we're not making reductions and making adjustments right now that doesn't mean that we're not projecting
017what our may carry for or may a budget revision is and we've done a couple and I know um the ad numbers we're going to look at in a few slides it's going to show the latest in this slide is January 17th or 15th um I know another one's already coming out I've already seen an adm2 report and um I haven't looked at an Integrity 15 report but there's already that's already outdated it could already be outdated again if we do it right now based on the data now so it's going to have to change again but we all know it's changing so we are going to be making adjustments and and accommodations to make sure that we don't overspend adding another budget Revision in in the next month is not going to materially change
018anything in that aspect okay so my concern then is I don't want to get to May personally as a governing board member and unfortunately the track record you know um leaves me to be concerned at this point that you know I'm not comfortable wiping out um you know unrestricted capital and so are is the district planning to come to the board with more specific ideas of how you're going to cut like specific numbers because the projection that we're going to be 2 million over in June June 30th like how are we going to reconcile that and I know that there's 1.7 in capital I understand that that that doesn't mean it's right in my opinion so are we going to be given more information so that we don't get to May and just kind of
019have to accept the budget revision whatever it ends up being does that makes sense what I'm asking um Madam vice president members of the board it does make sense but I wouldn't want you to think that there's a false sense of security just because you Reis a budget means that everything happened you could put on the budget forms that you reduce everything and you don't really reduce anything and you overspend that still could happen so I would not want a false sense of security that you want a budget revision next week I could put it together really quick and easy it's not going to change and I'm not going to use anything material out of Visions to make those changes but we could do that I guess I'm not understanding you know what you just
020said to be honest uh Madam vice president members of the board what I would recommend is getting regular updates from the superintendent about some of the changes and what kind of effect they're happening to see are the changes happening that we want to happen okay I think you know what would be really helpful is a spreadsheet you know here's what we're projected to be over and here's where we are making the cuts and so that we can see that number coming down you know and one of those big things is Medicaid and what should we have been paying out of Medicaid this whole time and what you know is appropriate to move over based on what we should be using those funds for yeah so um member Vice uh Madam uh vice president members of
021the board that was a good point um of just listening to the last meeting that um was created some of the I would like to come and help um maybe some misunderstanding about Medicaid about what is paying out how do we get the money so Medicaid in public schools is a program probably about 30 years ago that schools got together petitioned the federal government saying that we are providing certain services that are covered under access and other type of Medicare type programs that we're not getting paid for so we're doing some of your work so they created a system run through each state um ours is run through access that creates and they consult with the professional groups so not uh the consulting company professional group there is the professional Consulting Group not professional group
022consulting two PCGS or pgc's um and then they work with us to identify and make submissions for reimbursement so we do not pay anything out of there unless we want to pay anything out of there so it is purely a reimbursement of Revenue coming in the one restriction and this is not written down anywhere but just working with Auditors is it should you should only use it for M type expenses so it is really just a reserve right now there is no commitment there's no we have to pay anything for myips or anything that is US providing certain Services providing the documentation and the FED sending us money through access for reimbursement for those Services other any sometimes you hear it called as mips that's what the mips account it's like our internal lingo for
023for Medicaid okay so um just wanted to so some of the conversation was a little bit about ADM last time so I just wanted to just throw out there because I think some people were asking what is the real number what is this this is just me going to ad's website um going to Liberties information and polling for fiscal year 23 and you can see that it's um calculated as of July 17th of 23 so the fiscal year has ended and they do a Statewide recalculation then determine what everybody's actual average daily membership and other groupy ways and everything but you could see right here it was 4199 6826 so that is the official um because I heard just a little bit of conversation about what was our ADM this year what was that the
024next year and then you can see in 24 obviously again they wait until the year is over to do the final calculations because people have concurrent enrollments U people have airs their integrity airs they have everything to process and uh in the online schools don't always sometimes they reported as minutes and so that has to be converted and not done until J Jun 30th and so they have to wait until the year ends then they will revise it and then you can see last year um our ADM was 42026 87 so only increased three year-over-year so if we were projecting growth it did not materialize and then looking at this year and this is where I said it this is based on January 15th um aed's um calculation um this year you can see that
025ours is uh 4279 uh 7517 so it has gone up um and increased um we know the year's not over we know this does not include the 100 day but it calculates through the latest submission officially all the way through January 15 so if that was 95% or of the year it's going to calculate at 95% of that um not changing materially although when I looked at an adms 20 report yesterday I think it was 4270 um but I don't know if there were Integrity errors not looking at the integrity 15 report to see if that would change again but by and large you could see a little bit of growth happening for this fiscal year and so those these are your official ADM so I know a lot of times there's people will talk
026about well we budget it to this budget it to that um that is why December revision is good you're aligning to the 40th Day so that you're now moving actual to actual and then doing some comparisons within your vision system and your M budget to see are you still projected to be where you're at if you increase salaries if you increase positions you're doing those calculations and already envisions but you're doing those comparisons against what a more solid budget limit is going to be if that makes sense any questions about ADM just the one if you could just explain for us and the public what's the difference between the regular ADM and the weighted ADM or excuse me non-weighted yeah so we have lots of inform uh Madam vice president members of the board we
027have lots of information on this and um so what the state does and you have your non aoi that's your Arizona online instructions so whether they're online or non-online you'll tell on this um you get different funding for a full-time online versus a part-time online one would be 85% of the funding or 95% of the funding and then what we have in the middle there is called a support level weight and uh within statute is waiting of your ADM to provide additional funds for certain services that are taking place whether it be um some special career exploration some level of gifted I might be might be accurate on gifted or not but all those different and what that was is back in 1980 when we set up our structure our ADM structure and our funding
028structure there was no charter schools there was really not really private schools so it really was public schools and there was a concern that if we started only funding special ed if they're identified in special ed school districts would over identify special ed students to get the extra funding and so what they did is they changed and said we're going to give a little bit of money some of it for special ed for all your students to not incentivize anybody to identify them and get the extra funding and so they've created these support level weights that then come over to our weighted student count so what I and this isn't our total weighted student count we call this our group a weighted student count I did not bring I did not put on the cut
029sheet of Group B I did not hear any conversations about the group b and those are all the different specialized services will include free and reduc launch um um um services or our opportunity weight um gifted wall will also be in there so you have all these additional elll K3 that'll also be weighted by the students and then you add the subtotal of that group and this group a so group a group b will be your total weighted student count so I just kept it at the very beginning level of let's just talk about ADM before we start extrapolating out by all these different weights and what they are for but you could see um and also um also a good time to remind um Like Preschool um you have you're getting paid for 36405
030uh preschool students that is on the halftime basis so that's telling me you have about 72 probably 73 preschool students and you would probably say I've seen in some enrollment reports because I think I've seen a enrollment report of 130 students in a preschool class you probably have typicals and so a lot of preschool programs will have typical students that are not getting funded from the state because that's their model that's their program to deliver their instruction and so they will not be included and so preschool in kindergarten are only counted at half um half enrollment so you could have a 1.0 student enrollment but they're only generating a05 on this report great question um and just for clarity purposes too the ADM doesn't change after the 100th day correct um Madame vice president members
031of the board it absolutely changes it will change every single month all the way through July so what we don't know is how many of our students are taking an online school class somewhere else it's called concurrent enrollment how many came in and P and failed integrity and so right now there's probably certain students that have failed Integrity until we resolve those Integrity issues they're not going to populate here um but I will tell you we're required to continue to upload our ADM data every 10 days or 20 days I don't know if there's a CIS person in here student information CIS person that correct me um but it will change throughout the entirey but the funding it changes after the 100th day absolutely every single month I think we're good thank you so much
032okay um if I could um Madame vice president members of the board I'll just do a little editorial um little license here since I have the mic um it used to not uh we used to get F funded on prior year funding um the legislature did not like that um they thought they could save a little bit of money I think it was around $30 million when they got rid of it moved to current year funding um and so we used to have a floor that we knew our exact budget would not change because it was Prior year base so whatever year uh we would have a 4202 that would be our guaranteed funding amount uh overrides based on it everything was going forward and you'd only get additional money for growth but you could
033not go below that number I think 8 years years ago the legislature got rid of it saying that some districts were if you looked at current year were declining the state could save money by giving them less money in that year and so we're going to move to current year funding charter schools are current year funded so why aren't we current year funded and so that eliminated that floor that we had the guaranteed funding amount on and now we get funded exactly on how many students we have here yes I knew it was for this year like you know our ADM for this year will you know continue to fund us for the rest of the year but I thought like when kids moved into our district after the 100th day those didn't count Madam
034vice president members of Bo that's great thanks for clarifying that those do not so a new student enrollment after the 100 day will not generate additional funding but I will say this number will continue to move because your current students are getting funded on some of them are taking classes somewhere else maybe somebody started and went two days somewhere else and then came over here and you're only going to get 098 some of that doesn't get resolved until they submit and all those Integrity eras are clear cleaned up and then the state why they run the Statewide recalculation after the year is out they make sure all those errors are flushed out and to make sure they're paying accurately to every single district and so it could always CH change 2 34 ADM okay but
035it should be very minimal after the 100th day we should have a very clear idea of where we're supposed to be we have a very clear right now idea right now so but yes it will change minimally okay unless there's an air so that is one thing why I still look at our ADM reports uh every single month double check it against our vs55 to make sure and if I see something that dropped out it does happen uh you we're constantly submitting information somebody changes a a code one of uh entry code different um it'll change and knock out all the ADM in your ADM and maybe I've seen a preschool disabled Group B weight go from 50 to zero well then we have to investigate those and then we're constantly talking to ad about
036uh we need to investigate this please don't close out the year sometimes these happen at the end of the year they'll open up tickets they work with us because they want to pay in the most accurate data possible too so this I wanted to just show um because some of the conversations with what our carry forward was or isn't and so this is um the budge 75 report so around October I think they're technically due by October 31st but by end of October first November ad will calculate based on after your a AFR is submitted they'll go through and recalculate your revenues your average daily membership what it was what it filters through all the weights to make sure that we're just not making up whatever we want so we could say whatever we want
037the state's only going to fund something and then you get a budge 75 report to say here's your official carry forward so if we have an issue with this and maybe uh maybe some students uh we think and still fighting with that we should have been calculated on it we think our carry forwards 1.1 million and there's you know 20 kids that haven't been calculated we still have to use this amount and then we have to move over and add open up a 915 letter with ad submit all the documents and then they will tell us if we can increase our car for at that amount so this is the official carry forward I know that was talked about a little bit um and I think there was a question about um the auditor general
038has a different calculation they could be looking at different numbers we do not go by what the auditor general says of what your carry forward is or what your bance they're going to look at our data we submit our general ledger every District in the state submits your general ledger to the auditor general uh when we do our AFR we uh submit all of our books so they have every transaction that we've done they look at that they do their calculation they do their dollars in the um classroom spending report um but they do not tell us officially and we could not change it and tell our Auditors well the auditor general said this is our calculation they would say that's our authenticated source is AD and so that is what this is and so
039you you can see it's a million and two and when I looked at your July um adopted budget you had a million O2 this is 1.2 million so you overestimated not unusual you're projecting what your encumbrances are what your actual expenses are and so remember you're starting your budget um proposed budget probably in May finalizing it that maybe end of May doing a proposed budget in June then adopting in July it's it's always a little off it's not until you get your AFR and submit everything and then a then ad submits a budge 75 letter to tell you here's what your carry forward is so you can see we overestimated our carry forward in this year's budget okay so the actual carry forward is the slide before which is basically a million and so when
040you talked about you know um because the risk assessment from the auditor general does say something different and so will that come out when we have that third party performance the audit for fiscal year 24 or not necessarily um Madam vice president members of the board they won't change the numbers okay interesting they're basing it based on all the AFR data and they look at things a little different I didn't look into the actual definitions of theirs what they're looking at general fund might be different than M fund this is our M fund so I'm not going to speak for the auditor general on that but they will not go back and revise anything then just to kind of summarize up um we adopt Ed a adopted budget back in July with a 4202 ADM
041we know it's 4279 last month I know it's a little less this month and what it's going to finally be probably around 4270 68 40 somewhere up there so we be revising upwards so we'll be adding Revenue to the budget but we will also be subtracting the carry forward so we'll be sinking up the actual carry forward going in not just m all funds so they're going to get all their actuals are going to be plugged in that's why it's a good idea to do it in in December and not wait till the end of the year um so they'll have a lot of changes in all funds on what the uh carry forward is coming into it uh so we'll be reducing that but you're seeing a net increase of approximately $400,000 that we'll
042be adding to the budget any questions about this slide no it's always good to see them just checking a few notes apologize so I uh I know I'm going to have a a next step slide at the very end just to kind of summarize up what we're doing this year and everything so I won't go into some of reiterating um I know when I emailed uh earlier this week I wanted a b& on the m and 610 so I'm looking at are these closing where are they happening similar to what the board is asking for an update um a regular update of are they happening um closing the POS um so that is still going to be on so I don't want so we'll just put a little pin in 25 right now um before
043we move on from 25 can I just ask a question when we talk about closing the POs you know to try to bring what we projected to be over so my concern is if are we leaving ourselves some room like what if we need something what if an HVAC breaks and we need to repair it like are we leaving ourselves some of that room because I don't want to give us a false sense of security right that we've closed all these POS and and now we're we're going to make it but oh you know the air conditioning broke and we can't ask FSB because they don't have any funds um mam vice president members of the board you're the voice of reason I normally come in and just say no don't hire anybody don't replace
044anybody Bob's work with me uh I say no to we start with no and then we'll work off a no but that is a realistic so um something could break um you sometimes you close them sometimes you revise them I normally recommend closing you could you could reopen it's a click of a button in visions that you just click from close to open and boom it's open but what you want is everybody making sure everybody's understanding this isn't just one or two people's job to get our budget balanced for this year uh we're we need to reduce our projected expensers going for the rest of this year which we can and get back to a balanc budget by this year and I do believe we can but that doesn't mean we're the only ones saying
045no we start by closing them let people justify this is why I need it this isn't and then the question is do you need that this fiscal year or can we put that in in July we'll open up uh I don't know when you roll this year maybe open up in may they could enter the wreck in May and it could be here in July one July two so those would be questions that need to happen to make sure that everybody's on board and understands the seriousness of where we are that we need to get the spending under control and reduce it okay I just want to make sure that you know when you say we're going to close them and then they can be opened with a click of a button then obviously the
046budget then changes with the click of a button and you know then you have I just I ask that the district then come back to the board I just I don't want to be surprised you know and that's you know my concern yeah Madam vice president members of the board so maybe some of the confusion is the budget doesn't change our encumbrances and projected expenses were changed the budget's going to stay the same so that's why modifying and revising a budget's not going to do anything because it's not coming up and down it's our projections against that that will so I think that's what you meant yes um thank you for and so there's some I agree with uh some of what you're saying uh I'm coming here as a friend and saying things and
047I have a board meeting tonight that I'm going to run off in the middle and uh this and leave you to be I'm expecting others will be doing this that's not easy um saying no on certain things not easy uh I will tell you every special ed request that's going to come through is not going to be easy but we need to make tough decisions to get through this year and I do think as we were starting to look through a lot of them and revising is we were seeing some open POS that might have been for $200,000 but only $440,000 spent so far well even if we double that which we're already passed the halfway that's 80 I said reduce it down to 80 saved $120,000 so that is part of what we were
048first starting with um I'm not exactly sure where Mr Balon is with that and where we are with that but that is some of the work that's going on a regular basis and that's when I email and say hey can you just run another budget b& report just to give me a summary to see where we are to see how those expenses and how those incumbents are freeing up okay and when you know when the board can get an update I think that will help us feel you know that that all that's being done and we can see the exact numbers um Madam vice president members of the board I agree with that because when I said 58 positions I will tell you not all 58 positions are coming out of m&o so you could
049close them and say oh I just freed up $50,000 or $40,000 and m&o encumbrances future don't change at all um it wasn't an M no funded position and so uh it's easy to say a lot of this stuff sometimes it has to happen some encumbrances uh as they're bending down you have to run the payroll for it to also calculate so unless you're calculating payroll and I know you're down payroll staff so I don't even know if they're doing that extra step to calculate all year to help free up incumbrances so then you're having to wait till every pay period that it frees up how much of their incumbrance is and then we're looking at that information again thank you oops uh so jumping to um FY 26 so we um had the conversation about
050where we are right now what's some things we could do immediately um this was last week um working with u Mr bold and Dr Monroe um and I believe he said he was going to meet with the teacher Advisory Group and some principal start talking about some of the positions that we need to eliminate or reduce or have already um through attrition have already um gone down and this is where I started looking at what are some where's our instructional Improvement fund where's our classroom site fund where's our myips fund where's uh what is Title One in title to picking up what are they not picking up can we move things into them uh so start asking those questions and poking the budget from every different side to see what kind of flexibility we have
051going forward because although it looks like we have a good plan and I don't want to transfer any more Capital over than we have to to leave as much over there as possible um but we do need to so we have a plan in place to get through the rest of this year what is next year and what are we basing our uh Budget on next year so as we've learning our projected ADM is a big deal and a big driver since probably about 80% of funds are directly tied to how many students you have so that is a clear driver of what our budget's going to look like next year and what Staffing levels um some of the other questions and we'll get to them on opening and other things but that is where
052we've already started having these conversations and I think I get a text every hour um and an email every two hours about this so I don't always respond immediately because I have my other job but we're constantly uh digesting looking at and seeing what we could do going forward oops gosh it's a little um you know before we kind of move on to the to the you know possible reduction ideas I just you know I want to remind the board and the district that you know we have policy in place for this and policy b or dbd uh you know really is very specific about how we go about the budget process and that it requires performance-based evaluation that includes identification of specific measurable program goals before the budget process begins evaluating options um and
053making budget decisions that are based on documented results and performance evaluation data so you know I just want us really to keep in mind that that you know that is the policy of the board board and that you know as we talk about what we can reduce that we're really you know thinking about our programs and our students and not just not filling positions that's I don't think that's an objective way to look at how we reduce the budget and so I just you know I I you know I know you're new I'm just you know reminding our board and our District staff that that is our board policy and how we go about the budget um Madam vice president members of the board absolutely um if you allow it to be based on just
054attrition then you're not controlling what is going down and where um but it is a savings and so then you could redecide how you want to redistribute that and what else or do you want to bring it back that absolutely is most of a budget when you're processing or putting a budget together you're using Staffing ratios so if you have a a class staff ratio you've already determined that this is how we want to staff how many teachers that is your number one uh employee group schools based they're normally all staffed by some kind of ratio whether front or case load or front office uh district office is more of the wild card and so those positions are more brought to the board randomly throughout the year of this is why we need it board
055approves it and then it's embedded into a budget and then it becomes historically in the budget this is just looking at through attrition and some going away are these good um I have no idea I placed no value on if they're good or not it's just a dollar amount that if people are leaving and we're having some attrition we're having some savings and so if the goal is to leave the classroom alone as much as possible um these would all be Meeting those goals except for the permanent guest teacher position which is there I assume that was an Esser funded position since it seemed like every District across the state put in permanent guest teachers into Esser funds and then when the Esser funding went away what are we doing with them a lot of
056them are getting rid of the permanent guest teachers that would be the element um so um transportation maintenance looking all of it I've already recommended going through some of those budgets closing some for this year that same information that you're analyzing assessing and having conversations with those departments you're you're converting into next year too you're having the conversation next year too about hey we can cut this then what do we need for next year how is that going to be not everything's as quick and easy uh I was with Mr Young in a previous District when we said that uh let's cut custodial and cleaning uh it was outsourced and I want to say we'll cut one day of cleaning they clean five days that's one out of five that's 20% uh we got the
057quilt back and I think it was a 5% savings um because they still had to staff the people they still had to do things uh not everything translated as easy as it is so it is some work that has to go through uh I did see memberships on the list and I saw a couple of the lists some of it yes those probably are are more nice to have when you're um flush a little bit but when we're really trying to get back to more not even just a balanced budget but building a carry forward and a lot of times I recommend a carry forward somewhere between four and 10% of your budget so if you're at 30 some million dollar you should have about three million carry forward as a good I believe that
058the charter Association recommends that their charter schools have a 10% carry forward so is that a lofty goal yes are you going to get there in one year I don't think so but over the years that's not a bad goal to be shooting for um and then looking for other savings I know today we were already talking about the armored car service we're getting that out of &o um and making some changes and so we're going through this process right now um I do know that Dr Monroe mentioned that um there's another agenda item later about budget priorities that definitely helps as you're going through and vetting these processes and everything so Direction the governing board gives about these are where we'd like you to focus helps with that process vet that process on the
059front end and not have to wait until a governing board meeting to to do that so that's not not a bad idea to have that conversation okay so based on that information because there is um that agenda item later for the budget are you is everyone okay that we um kind of pause our discussion on this since he has to leave and allow him to finish the presentation okay thank you so you know we will as a board come back to it in the agenda item for sure um but since you said you had to leave her a board I just want you be a to finish so appreciate your information thank you very much thank you so additional considerations what are we budgeting uh based on as I mentioned our ADM how it drives
060all of our funding um are we looking at growth are we looking at flat um projection I know the conversation I heard it about Loretta zumbro about school opening um I know I talked with Mr Balon about it opening new schools you normally get a little bit of a bump of enrollment I do understand that um and so if you got a 100 additional students that would definitely cover the entire opening cost there's a lot more to it than just um that um politically closing a school before it even opens losing some momentum um knowing that we're looking through all the other things so I would not want to stop cutting somewhere else to say uh let's uh close Loretta zumbo in that sense but that is more your decisions not my decisions and that
061my recommendation would be to open it but I am uh I'm not on the governing board of Liberty Elementary School District so I don't have that luxury I would say uh we're still looking at uh different legislation and the state budget Outlook does play into this so right now I know we're all budgeting for that 2% increase and about $100 per weighted student count um increase um but I also know that there's conversations about is the Medicaid Program at the state level if the feds roll back some of theirs there could be an excess of $40000 million hitting the the the state budget that they'd have to cover or not cover there's other conversations and so I believe I've already heard that they're floating out the idea of doing a skinny budget a skinny budget
062would actually be a budget reduction for next year so it would not be holding everything harmless and just giving the 2% there would be a few funding streams that we had increased and carry forward from year over-year as a lobbyist working with our lobbyist so skinny budget would definitely hurt us and not be in the best interest but that is still an unknown and I know the goal is to always around the 100th day I think we're around the 100th day um they're not going to get out by the 100 day um it'll probably be May or June sometime when they finish their annual uh um staring match um and before they finally decide to budget in that so I would recommend not doing anything which is probably not the best recommendation but I would
063not be recommending any raises for staff or anything at this point until you know what the Outlook is and also all the reductions in how we're handling everything at this point um and as I already mentioned the carryover reserves I would be shooting shooting for a 4 to 10% um and if you don't get there next year which is understandable that would be like a 2 to threee goal you're growing into the reserves every year part of why the 4 to 10% is what's talked about a lot is because before the prior year carry forward uh uh prior year funding when we were funded on prior year ADM we had a cap that we could not carry forward more than 4% so part of the conversation is we'll move you to current your funding but
064because that creates instability we'll take away the 4 % cap and will allow you to uh build your reserves as much as you want um do I know that the legislator is also talking about schools have too many reserves which sounds ironic that I just said they wanted us to build a reserves I do know that they're talking about that some is mainly dead cash not just carry for just regular reserves um but they're looking at there's about 300 million Statewide in dead cach that they're looking to sweep the dead cash from all the districts and take that away from them so there's lots of competing budgets out there um you have a governor that's trying to fight for that they're on opposite sides there'll be a negotiation and we'll see something in the middle
065probably we don't know what that is at now so but not knowing that I would try to stand Pat get your reductions down going forward this year and for next year so it would obviously be a recommendation then that we not touch the reserves that we currently have at all correct yeah okay which is uh just jumping into the next steps right now so continue on uh with the freeze continue on with the reviewing of open POS closing those that you can revising down what you can looking at all the different budget capacity monthly monitoring what's the ADM at so we can project what that at final budget revision is knowing that it's going to probably change a little bit but knowing we'll get it as close to as possible um and then work with
066the board on the prioritization consider all of our reductions uh reconvene to approve any of those reductions if they needed but we're on the trajectory that we have this year under control and as long as with all the attrition all the reductions that we will be planning on going forward next year is also is it contributing to the um uh reserves we do not know at this time I haven't looked and put a projection together for next year I don't know that I'll be around doing that I know there's another consultant coming in in a week um and I know you're already working with another consultant you don't want too many consultants um all competing and everything I know both of them so I could give them a little bit of information what we're looking
067at to make sure that that's okay continue to promote new student registration I know I looked on ad's website you have I think 142 students that are getting esas right now that are not choosing to go to your school so can we Market them and get them uh to maybe enroll in the new school or just try to capture more enrollment I know there's competition out there and then just hold steady for um any other changes for next year until the legislator session ends okay um are there any questions um for Mr Hicks in general um before we let him go off to his own board meeting thank you not a question per se but just a big thank you um sounds like you're extremely knowledgeable in this and that you know it's it's good
068to you've you've answered a lot of questions tonight you've kind of set some priorities and recommendations um and I just I really appreciate it you taking time to do this especially an unpaid thing that you're doing as a friend to the district so thank you thank you very much um thank you um Madame vice president members of the board I'm a product of public education in the state I love it it's given me every opportunity I was the first one to go to college in my family I love what we do and I think what we do is the foundation of our society so to help out when Dr mroe called I absolutely I'll help out um it's not a permanent thing it's not I do have another job so I do re I appreciate
069their recognition and everything but when one of us is hurting we need to help each other out and people have helped me out throughout my career and so I'm going to continue to help other districts um because I was helped throughout my entire career and it's just like paying it forward a little bit so but thank you very much M Schmid I would just like to um sort of repeat what uh board member Kenyan said and and I'd like to thank you for putting this together and making it very clear I think you walked us through really well and a lot of the questions that I had from the last time and the confusion has been cleared up so I really appreciate that thank you so much you're wel uh yeah same I just want
070to say thank you and I I appreciate telling us what we needed to hear not what we wanted to hear so I really appreciate you shooting straight and give us the answers you're welcome and I'll be the fourth to Echo you know just really appreciative of your time and your efforts to really um help the district and help us as a board understand what we need to know what we should be asking and where we need to go so again just so appreciative of your time and your efforts thank you um Madam vice president members of the board thank you for allowing me to help um I did hear the pain in some of your voices last meeting of just wanting better answers I was trying to make it to bring you along and and
071say that so I appreciate recognition the hard work still has to be done so uh I come in I talk I share and then I leave work still has to be done and challenges with lack of Staffing and making sure that everything's happening so um I don't want to lose the recognition that people still have to do a lot of the work that we're talking about but I appreciate everything yeah I just throw one more thing at you we talk about lack of Staffing especially with you know accounting and stuff and and with what we're going through just we're also talking about certain positions that we're looking at you know not filling or eliminating whatever more more not filling right the attrition part but um just kind of reiterate the district still needs certain positions
072to continue functioning um and so it's not like we can just flat cut everything so there's certain things that you know we really do need to keep things moving or else we get bogged down with certain things so just a point um great Point Madam vice president members of the board um when I say the work's not done uh people could leave in one position but you still need that position you're setting goals for a superintendent to meet you guys are looking for the academic success and supporting students to be successful you still have to look at all that so decisions are going to have to be made and people might question why this and not that you have to have that fundamental performance budget in and how that is and what we're expecting here's
073how we're going to deliver that that is part of the equation and so yes that still will have to happen you will still have to hire people it's not just cut everything thing you're already down two payroll people if one more left and the consultant left nobody gets paid everybody's believeing um so we don't want that situation so we still have to hire some positions yes all right thank you again so much um and with that we'll go ahead and adjourn the work session at 5:22 than you guys took like 30 minutes to get over here yeah for e e e okay but we're going to call the meeting to order okay all right okay here we go are you ready I'm sorry that was a little chaotic for you I apologize she's giving you
074the thumbs up okay go ahead [Music] okay the time is now 5:31 I'm going to call the regular governing board meeting to order okay it is uh we are located at Liberty Elementary School in the gymnasium board members present are Chris Kenyan sherff Sarah Schmidt Brian cerron and Kelly Zimmerman myself okay sorry okay uh 3.2 the Pledge of Allegiance and our um student leader is going to lead us in the pledge of allegiance alance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which stands one nation under God indivisible with Li and Justice for Welcome to the Liberty Elementary School District governing board meeting we appreciate your interest in the district the five elected governing board members serve without compensation and volunteer countless hours on behalf of our students and
075staff the president and the vice president of the board are elected in January under state law the governing board may only discuss and vote on matters that are on the agenda for tonight's meeting agendas are posted a minimum of 24 hours in advance on the Liberty Elementary School District web page and at the Jerry roie District complex copies of tonight's agenda are located in the foyer and on the District web page if you wish to make a public comment please complete a request to address the board form and submit it to the board secretary before the meeting starts these forms are located in the foyer prior to entering the governing boardroom members of the public will be given up to 3 minutes to speak at the discretion of the board president once recognized please state
076your name and if you live inside or outside of the district during the call to the public the public public may speak on any item of business on the agenda that requires the board to take action the public may also speak to the governing board about a school district matter that is not on the agenda state law prohibits board members from commenting on or discussing the matters presented at the end of the call to the public however the board may ask the superintendent to review the issue or place it on a future agenda a board member may also briefly respond to criticism of a board member or the governing board itself we ask that all speakers show respect and courtesy to others comments must pertain to a matter that is within the jurisdiction of the
077governing board this is not an appropriate Forum to complain about an employee student or others we also ask the public who are present for the meeting to be respectful by being attentive avoid calling out or creating any disruption that May interfere or interrupt the meeting individuals who interrupt or interfere with the meeting may be asked to leave by the board president inappropriate language and repetition will not be permitted thank you for allowing this meeting to be conducted in a peaceful and productive Manner and thank you for your attendance and involvement in tonight's meeting [Music] okay we'll move on to item 3.3 which is approve the regular agenda I'll take a motion motion to approve the regular agenda consistent with board policy BB and temporarily suspend governing board policy in which this agenda may be inconsistent
078now second okay we have a motion in a second I'll call for the vote uh Mr Kenyan I Miss Schmidt I Mr C I and I'm also and I will show that pass 4 to one or 4 to zero um we'll go ahead and move on to 4.1 which is a superintendent update attendance enrollment report School newsletter and discipline update Dr Monroe vice president Zimmerman members of the board attached are the various School newsletters of all the exciting things we have happening this spring as well as the attendance enrollment reports that we bring to the board I did want to comment on a few things uh it's our read across America week uh across many of our schools I appreciate in fact some of our governing board members going out to read with our students
079which is fantastic a lot of our schools are having fun events around reading and celebrating reading Ela with our students this week and makes it makes it a lot of fun so I appreciate board members and all the community volunteers that are making it a fun week for our kids spring break is two weeks away believe it or not and uh after after next week and uh families and staff I know everyone's ready to take a break and kind of gather some uh gather some energy for that fourth quarter that we have coming up we also just finished season three of our athletic season um and we'll have our final season four so the year is definitely flying by I do want to highlight a few things through my superintendent report uh through Dr mohorn
080a few exciting things that we have coming up not necessarily A discipline update but uh Dr mohorn do you want to comment on if you want to open up yes go to those slides and inform the board about these thank you Dr Monro make sure I can everybody can hear me so in this discipline update we have a um some really cool things that are happening there we go um number one we are going to uh start with Alice training and if you're not um familiar with Alice training let me go to the next one it stands for alert lock down inform counter and evacuate um I found an opportunity when I went to a training for our ssos um that our ad has an in-house trainer that will train districts for free so our
081first round of training will actually be June 4th that Tuesday June 4th that all of our building level and District level administrators will be trained so it's great to have that training it provides a Common Language but also um that it's free is really exciting and that's an exciting opportunity this is the purpose of Alice it's just to help equip staff with the skills to survive a a violent incident through the Alice actor shoot of response training that's the official name the Alice active shooter response training um and it's an original civilian actor shooter uh response program training will be like I said be provided free of charge by the Arizona Department of Education they have uh recently retired I think he just retired within the last 6 months um Sheriff Deputy Sheriff who uh
082does this for anyone in the state who wants to have this and again it's absolutely free the SSO Grant this is very exciting so back in November October November we were informed that the state had some extra some leftover money from the original SSO grant that funds the SSO right now for Westar and Australia that we could apply for either ssos or SRO uh we decided ssos uh for our other five schools and I think it was right before Christmas we were uh notified that we were awarded an SSO for every single building so now starting of August this upcoming year every building uh will have an SSO so that is that's very exciting any questions about the report or the updates uh Mr Kenyan more comments um thank you for that that I'm super
083thrilled about the ssos being available to all of our campuses I think it's great that they're on site um I think it's great that it provides safety for our kids but it also gives them time to interact with law enforcement in a positive manner and they you know build that trust build that reputation and uh I'm hoping that we can have kind of what's been going on in Australian Westar where we have some consistency with the officers so that they get to know the kids they know when something's off and they're more engaged and more a part of the the school activities instead of I've heard horror stories of ssos just sitting in their car in the parking lot while they're on the campus but they're not doing anything so getting them more involved getting
084them more engaged is great um the Alice training I think is a wonderful thing I think that uh and correct me if I'm wrong uh the ones who will be trained those are basically looking at training the trainers type we can do that and we can also bring him back and he could do it alongside with us as well that's all free good thank you Miss Schmid uh no questions I was going to ask the same thing about are we going to be training this staff after the administrators are trained so thank you Mr S no I when as a great news thank you um yeah I had a question about some of the attendance reports so um uh if you if if you look at the attendance report uh for The Home Room counts
085and I you know we we see that a teacher a third teacher was added at Freedom for fifth grade um and if you look at the previous uh report they were sitting at 33 and 33 which normally doesn't trigger um another section being added so I just want to understand what happened there uh which one are you looking at Mrs emman sorry it took me a minute to get there um if you go to The Home Room counts uh report and if you pull up uh board update class siiz by Home Room section February I think it's the fifth one down there yeah once it once it comes up so if you look at the fifth grade mhm you see oh so you see that you know those sections are quite small and uh the
086month before they you know were two sections and they were at 33 a piece um and so I just want to understand kind of you know in light of the budgetary concerns um why was a third section added there sure so originally when school started there were three sections and then when we lost the teacher it went down to two um we allow principles have autonomy to use their f f their FTE how they like we provide recommendations recommendations like if you look at your numbers right now second grade would be the per the where the where to put the FTE but that doesn't we we recommend but principles um have the autonomy to make their decisions of where they Place uh their teachers the FTE okay so I'm a little concerned with that you
087know we have kindergarten that's been over the entire year and second grade now is actually just a little bit under um and so you know I just want to make sure that we're making the best decisions for our students and these lower grades that are learning to read and really critical you know I'm just concerned about you know how we allow that and you know there are plenty of other schools that have been over you know that we haven't hired for and so you know I'm just a little bit concerned in light of the especially in light of the budgetary you know concerns that we hired for that position that wasn't really necessary and so my question is is do you normally not post a position until it's in the red is that when you
088post for a new section when it's in the red we usually talk with a principal first because there are times when the principal elects and wants a classroom reduction parah instead of another teacher and they talk with their with their teachers who are over and so before we just go ahead and post we always um contact the principals first first and talk to them okay but that conversation is usually triggered when you're at the class Target plus four correct so when it's in the red yes okay so the freedom fifth grade was not in the red and so you know I think that those procedures you know we need to make sure that we're adhering to our own procedures um my other question is is on the open enrollment for this current year what at
089what time does it trigger for the Open Enrollment to close for a grade level when do you say you know we've got to close open enrollment so that we don't put our teachers and our students you know in an in a tight situation so Brenda and I have been working on open enrollment all day as you probably know um HR doesn't do open enrollment at services does open enrollment and there was clearly only one person who knew how to do that so we've been working on that and could not find a a trigger we found our policy we have our current open enrollment and what sections are closed and for next year what section they're not closed weight listed we don't clo we weight list them correct but uh but the the spreadsheets and things
090that were left with us for us before were not um very concise nor easy to understand so I couldn't give you a specific it goes to 26 and then this triggers or 24 and this grade and then this triggers we will follow up with you though on that okay yeah I mean I think that's you know one of the the reasons we don't you know fire people in the middle of the Year unnecessarily because then we don't have these you know we don't have the continuity and you know now I'm just using exray as an example because they happen to be up here is you know they're at 34 and fifth grade and they've been slowly climbing and so you know when I looked at the open enrollment fifth grade is still open you know
091and so again we're putting ourselves and our students and our teachers at a disadvantage of you know yes we want to have students but if we're not prepared to hire if we're not prepared to adhere to the class sizes that the board approved which therefore the voters approved in the override then we have to have systems in place to not put ourselves in these positions so that's my concern Madame vice president may I yeah of course say something for a second so with the autonomy the the principles be principles being able to have that autonomy I think it's very critical we don't just look at the numbers and yes we need to be obviously looking at class sizes but every class I've ever walked into you have different environments and different children and so every
092kid has their own personalities you might have a class of 30 kids that are all well behaved and you may have a class of 15 kids that are just nuts um and so I think being able to have that autonomy is a great thing because they know their campuses they know their kids and and ultimately the teachers in that area and I've talked to teachers who have said you know we we need help we have a small class size but these kids are out of hand we need help and so you know you work with them and I think that autonomy for them to be able to make those decisions is very important um and thank you for the the trigger question because that that's a good one to come back with so you know
093if I could just kind of you know have a conversation is um while I understand the autonomy in in terms of the budgetary you know implication is my concern is that you know it the it it wasn't at the point where we should have hired for that position and so now we're paying somebody that you know the board hasn't approved basically that threshold because the threshold is supposed to be the class size Target plus four and so kindergarten in Freedom we lost the teacher because of class size because it was too big and so I just think it's unfortunate that that the kindergarteners their first year have been so big all year um so that's just you know a thought okay um if there are no other questions we will go on to 4.2 which
094is governing board and superintendent recognitions Dr Monro okay we're actually going to shift the orientation of the room and invite the board to go over here in front of the eagle so that we can do some of our student recognitions we have some student recognitions and then then we want to honor some of our wonderful staff and volunteers that assist in our school so we're just going to be over in this area okay yeah yeah you can come right here maybe we can give to JC uh I just want to thank everybody for coming um It's You Know It's always important to celebrate our students and recognize them and so we're excited to be able to do that tonight um so on behalf of Dr Monroe and the governing board we're excited to recognize eight
095students seven schools these students exemplify the values that make Liberty District exceptional they embody our core values of respect Integrity accountability and high standards their honesty hard work and caring nature positively impact their schools classrooms and communities thank you to these students and their families for joining us as I call your name please come forward to be recognized and we will take a group photo afterwards okay from Blue Horizons we'd like to recognize Fabian Mata [Applause] from estrea Mountain we'd like to recognize Nei yolum and Amari Robinson [Applause] from Freedom Elementary we'd like to recognize Hector [Applause] navarez from Las press Academy we'd like to recognize Ezekiel agular [Applause] from Liberty Elementary we'd like to recognize Tatum [Applause] Heist from Rainbow Elementary we'd like to recognize Mauricio Mendes Villa [Applause] and from Westar Elementary we'd
096like to recognize Annabella or Annabelle sorry Lombardi [Applause] uh so we'll go ahead and take a picture if you guys want to come in front of us thank you again to our students [Applause] um so now we also take an opportunity to recognize our staff um for their contributions to their schools and their communities um so we're going to be recognizing two different schools tonight so we're going to be starting with freedom so if that principal would like to come up and join us um on do on behalf of Dr Monroe and the governing board members and myself the Liberty Elementary School District is proud to foster a community and culture that motivates and recognize those who make exceptional contributions to our students they embody our core values of respect Integrity accountability high standards and
097are student centered we aim to reward excellence and show appreciation not only to our staff who achieve significant goals and exhibit exemplary behaviors but also to our dedicated parents and volunteers who make invaluable contributions to our schools and classrooms as I call your name please come forward for recognition and we'll take a group photo afterwards congratulations to Corey [Applause] now than um congratulations to our on-site staff we're going to recognize Jonathan [Applause] Enriquez thank you for supporting uh we want to thank our district support staff Melinda [Applause] Benson it's okay [Applause] uh we want to recognize a parent uh Veronica [Applause] Leon and we want to um thank a volunteer Sabrina de anel [Applause] thank you so much for supporting our students Liberty first or we take a picture with freedom [Applause] thank you again
098Freedom [Applause] staff if Miss Marie wants to join us up here we're going to recognize the Liberty staff all right from Liberty um we want to recognize the teacher Jenny Duster [Applause] thank you so much we want to thank our on-site staff Audrey Rodriguez [Applause] uh we want to recognize our district support staff Erica [Applause] Daniel we want to recognize our parent Bri [Applause] Mayha and we'd like to recognize a volunteer Nicole [Applause] Brown for [Applause] okay we have we have one more recognition we actually have we actually had two student leaders of the month and um one of our student leaders wasn't able to make it um Liam Perkins from Australia but I'd still like to read a little bit about him and then we want to highlight JC who's able to be here
099tonight so just bear with me and I know uh Mrs Boris they can really highlight Liam back at arraya uh Liam Perkins is an outstanding 8th grade student at australa Mountain he began his journey at australa in second grade and since then he's truly become a shining example of what australa represents he excels in all areas consistently striving to do his best in academics leadership and character whether in the classroom or in extracurricular activities like Science Olympiad Liam demonstrates an exceptional commitment to Excellence what stands out about Liam is his kindness and compassion he treats everyone with respect he's always willing to lend a helping hand his positive attitude is contagious and his dedication to doing the right thing has made him a role model for his peers and younger students he's a true campus
100leader never afraid to try new things even if success isn't immediate his determination and perseverance are qualities that Inspire those around him he comes to school each day with a smile confident that he'll give his best and leap with a sense of pride in his efforts we have no doubt that Liam will achieve his goals and reach for his dreams U that he may not even have considered yet he is an invaluable asset to our school community and we look forward to seeing the great things he will accomplish in the future so join me in a round of applause for Liam [Applause] Perkins so I'm GNA ask Jac to come Stand By Me here JC is our student leader that we want to highlight from Liberty Elementary School and folks this is hard to stand
101up in front of a lot of people and Ja is a fantastic student to have the strength to be able to stand up here and she's going to read something about what she appreciates about Liberty Elementary School but first let me not embarrass her but let me read about Jai and what makes her a fantastic individual uh she's also an eighth grade student but she attends here at Liberty Elementary School she stands out for many reasons she's hardworking and she's a very driven individual she's always focused on achieving personal goals whether in the classroom or on the court she approaches challenges with determination and a positive attitude known for her kind and respectful nature JC has built strong friendships and earn the respect of her peers and her teachers alike with a great sense of
102humor she knows how to keep things light-hearted making everyone around her feel comfortable and included Integrity is one of her core values always doing what is right regarding of who's watching her commitment to honesty and fairness sets a strong example for others an enthusiastic team player in volleyball JC is always ready to give a 100% effort supporting teammates and striving to improve with each game or practice with her balanced approach to life Jaci is destined for great success success both now and in the future we are proud that she is a Liberty Eagle how about a round of applause for Jon great job I'm going to let you so uh before we take a picture with JC we're going to allow her to read a little bit about her school good evening my name is
103JC Proctor I'm in 8th grade and I would like to tell you about my time at Liberty I started at Liberty when I was in fifth grade and from the first day I could tell that the Liberty Community was like a big family I was immediately welcomed by students and staff and made some made my close CL friends within the first weeks of being here the campus also has such an amazing Vibe and feeling to it everywhere you go there's you can always see smiling faces Liberty also has some amazing events like Festival of Arts where students can show off their stunning artwork agnite where you can see our wonderful agriculture program and love of learning where our students can show off what they've learned I love the memories I've made at Liberty through things
104like Athletics Pride reward days and field trips I have having these amazing opportunities to hang out with friends has made some of my best memories at Liberty but the thing I love the most about Liberty is that after this year when I go off to high school when I think about back about my time at Liberty I'll always be able to remember it as an amazing experience that has not only made so many wonderful memories but has helped to shape me as a person your okay yeah if uh your student was recognized you're you know free to leave or you're free to stay and listen to the board meeting as well thank you for bringing your students to help us celebrate them anybody want to guess how to say that ating comp's name want to
105guess how to say that auditing comp okay we're going to go ahead and move on to 4.3 um the performance audit presentation from the auditor General's office and soberg evang Consulting I'll let you correct me when you come up here yeah vice president Zimmerman and members of the board I'd invite up uh Scott oh from our the auditor General's office and then we'll also have George Skyles and Nicole D Dyer from scherg even Chen Consulting present so thank you for being here tonight good evening board members uh can you hear me uh my name is actually Megan heager I'm director of the accountability services division at the auditor general General's office I'm going to be presenting along with Scott today uh so as you know our office recently issued a performance audit of of Liberty
106Elementary School District and we were asked to present the results of that audit and other information related to The District to the board tonight our presentation this evening will Bri briefly discuss our work related to school districts and provide key information about the district's Financial Risk in fiscal year 24 spending later Nicole Dyer from scherg eishen Consulting the contractor who performed the district's performance audit will present uh key findings and recommend commendations from that performance audit report pressing the wrong button there we go uh so before we discuss the specific District information I wanted to give you a little bit of background on the auditor General's office we are a legislative agency made up of nonpartisan staff we report directly to the Joint legislative audit committee made up of of uh as a group of
10710 members five appointed by the Senate President and five appointed by the Speaker of the House jayac oversees the office approves audit schedules authorizes special Audits and has statutory responsibilities for seeing that agencies and school districts Implement audit recommendations we are an independent source of impartial information concerning state and local government entities in school districts and we provide specific recommendations to improve these entities operations and assess compliance with various ious local state and federal laws and requirements our primary purpose in presenting to you today is to discuss the recently issued performance audit we conduct performance audits of randomly selected school districts primarily to assess operational Effectiveness and efficiency the performance audits evaluate the school district's operational areas such as Administration plant operations food service and transportation within these areas we review a District's costs uh
108as compared to similar districts and conduct work to find opportunities for efficiencies and Improvement in Nicole's presentation she will discuss the opportunities for improvement that we identified at Liberty Elementary School District we also issue the school district Financial Risk and School District spending analyses the Financial Risk analysis provides information and identify school districts that are at higher Financial Risk than other Arizona school districts based on our analysis of 10 Financial Risk measures I will present some key information about Liberty's Financial Risk based on our recent January 2025 report the annual School District spending analysis report analyzes Arizona School District spending at both the state and individual District levels that addresses the requirement for us to monitor uh every dollar spent in the classroom we've been monitoring this since fiscal year 2001 and we issued the
109fiscal year 2024 spending analysis on February 28 Scott swaggerty the school audits director will present highlights from Liberty's uh report after my presentation today additionally in conjunction with the Arizona Department of Education we helped prescribe a uniform system of financial records which is referred to as the usfr the usfr includes the minimum internal control policies and procedures to be used by Arizona school districts for accounting financial reporting budgeting student attendance and VAR other various other compliance uh requirements these policies and procedures are in Conformity with generally accepted accounting practices and federal and state laws sections within the usfr are revised periodically uh for changes in laws regulations and accounting pronouncements we do not conduct School District financial and compliance audits rather districts hire an independent audit firm to conduct those audits annually and submit them
110to our office by March 31st the contracted Auditors complete a usfr compliance questionnaire uh which is a document that has 171 questions uh to assess a District's compliance with those usfr requirements for districts that have not complied with the usfr we have a process to communicate deficiencies identified in the audit and determine whether the district has corrected those deficiencies within the 90 days allowed by state law so with that that's conclusion of kind of an overview of what our office does I'm going to move into overviewing some of the highlights from our recent Financial Risk report for Liberty there we go so my division conducts the annual School District Financial Risk analysis that looks at 10 Financial measures to identify districts at the highest risk of not being able to operate within their available cash
111resources and budget constraints the analysis focuses on identifying districts at the highest risk based on both their current and potential future financial difficulties districts that currently spend more than their budget limits or available cash resources likely miss the signs of their increasing Financial Risk in years their revenues or spending uh substantially decreased so our analysis I just have a snip of it for you on the on the screen here but it's an interactive website where you can go and look at your District's information look at other District's information or also look at comparable information across districts on the state results page the 10 Financial Risk measures fall into the seven different categories that you see on the screen uh while we have some brief descriptions of each of those categories for you here we also
112have a measures page of our report um that goes into much more detail about what each of these measures look at um and that measures page includes information about what each of the measures are telling you as far as what data is included why that information is important um we also have additional information that can be considered along uh while you're looking at a District's results um we describe how we calculate each measure we describe the number of districts identified as high risk uh for each of the last five years and then we also include information on the data source for each measure uh so reviewing those measure descriptions along with the district's results can really help in the understanding of what the results are showing you the our office gathers the newest data available
113throughout the year for this analysis and we analyze single and multi-year changes in the data that we gather we then communicate with the highest risk districts to help them understand the risks we've identified and to discuss the actions the district has taken or is planning to take to address those risks and their underlying causes we published the Financial Risk analysis annually for all 207 districts included uh in our most recent results were just published this p January 17 a district may have high-risk measures that collectively do not Elevate them to the highest risk category however we provide that information for all districts so District decision makers uh stakeholders can use that information in the report to help them better understand their District's Financial risks and to use that information when making District budgeting and finance
114related decisions so for this recent Year's report we identified three highrisk measures for Liberty Elementary school and I'm just going to go over each of those with you briefly the first is a decrease in operating budget limit Reserve every Arizona School District annually adopts statutorily prescribed operating and capital budget limits related to their maintenance and operation in unrestricted Capital outlay funds which are the two main funds for every District that are supported by state and local property taxes the budget limits are primarily based on the number of students attending the District at the end of each fiscal year any unspent operating or capital budget capacity is carried forward as a reserve and increases the following Year's total operating or capital budget limit we identify districts as high risk for this measure in multiple ways first
115a district can be identified as high risk if they've overspent their budget limit second we would identify a district as high risk if their budget limit reserves have substantially decreased and third we would identify a district as high risk if the district's budget limit reserves are at least 10% unfunded and the district has a frozen tax rate so going back a little bit to the decreasing one which is what we can see on the screen here that uh Liberty is at highrisk for um we don't expect a District budget Reserve to never decrease so our highrisk threshold for that measure is we're looking for a 25% decrease over one year or a 50% decrease over 4 years years is what we identify as high risk so looking at the results for Liberty on the screen
116here uh we can see that the uh reserves decrease by 71.6% from fiscal year 23 to 24 and then that decrease amounted to 48.5% um from fisal year 20 to 24 Liberty's final two highish risk measures are both related to its general fund financial position so I'm going to talk about all three of these measures together for our analysis we look at three different measures to determine a a District's financial position uh those are the operating Reserve ratio the operating margin ratio and the change in fund balance each of the three measures analyzes components of a District's general fund revenues expenditures and ending balances to identify potential risk related to general fund resources although each of these measures looked at similar financial data they focus on different relationships in that data we assess each measure
117individually to ensure that concerns present in one or two of the measures were not overlooked based on less concerning results for another for this year's analysis we obtained District's general fund amounts from fiscal year 2023 audited financial statements and fiscal year 24 unaudited annual Financial reports which were the most recent information available at the time of our report um sorry about that um okay so the first high-risk financial position measure is going to go over today is the operating margin ratio which is the one uh included on the middle of the screen this measure shows the percent of District general fund revenues that were not spent in the year received so a negative ratio uh indicates the the district spent more money than it received during the year so similar to the operating budget limit
118Reserve that just discussed on the previous slide we don't consider all negative ratios for this measure as high risk um we also consider whether the district's per student general fund operating reserves or fund balance is less than 25% of the Statewide average uh that's because a district with below average operating reserves exposes itself to higher Financial Risk each time its spending exceeds revenues uh so we can see in the operating margin results that we have here that the districts revenues exceeded expenditures in fiscal year 23 uh and so the high risk for this measure is related to fiscal year 24 where the district spending exceeded revenues by 6.9% and i' what I've got on the screen is actually the dollar amount so uh that's 34.9 million in Revenue compared to 37.3 million in spending uh
119in addition to that the district's general fund balance in fiscal year 24 was 67 uh $676 per student which was less than 25% of the Statewide average of $3,886 per student and so that those two together are what triggle triggered high risk for that operating margin ratio we determine the per student amount by taking the um operating Reserve balance that you can see on the left side of the screen for the operating Reserve ratio and we simply divide that by the students attending number that's included within the demographic information the negative operating Marti operating margin ratio is then also reflected in the change in fund balance measure um if you have more revenues or more spending than revenues you're likely going to see that fund balance decrease and so that's what we're seeing in the
120change in fund balance for fiscal year 24 as well there was a $2 million decrease for that fiscal year could could I ask a question absolutely I'm so sorry um oh could you just go back I don't know if I can now just for clarity purposes on the general fund change and fund balance that parenthesis is actually indicating a negative that is a negative correct okay I just want for the public and transparency purposes thank you yes thank you for pointing that out yes okay um so as I mentioned those were the the three high risk areas that we identified for the district in this year's report um let me get back to now it doesn't want to go I don't know it doesn't want to go um so well I can talk about the
121last time of I was going to go to it's okay it's just a screenshot of a a template we have on our website um what it is that we provide every year on the website along with this report is a Financial Risk action plan guidance and template um I just wanted to mostly point out its availability on our website um it's it's linked on the overview page there it is um the template and guidance provides a step-by-step process that District management can use to identify their Financial Risk areas identify related root causes develop plan mitigating actions and desired outcomes uh determine and analyze the mitigating actions Financial impacts and then finally Place those actions into an implementation timeline and use it to monitor your completion and then what was results you got out of those
122those actions um I bring this up mostly to talk a little bit about the root causes um because we see that as the most important step in addressing Financial Risk is looking at what was the root cause of the change that we saw in that data for each year um so just kind of wanted to bring that up as a resource that's available um if you wanted to use it uh considering your results um so that concludes my presentation um I'm happy to take any questions on this part before we move on to to Sky St presenting on District spending oh I'm so sorry Mr Ken yes thank you for the presentation um some of these might sound a little bit silly but have you has the auditor general ever done a a audit of
123a district and found no findings um that might be a a better question for Scott so my division we don't actually do audits we do review of the audits so are you referring to like the financial and compliance or more of a per a it um more of more of the financial I guess okay um so we do my office or my division does oversee that Financial um on occasion we have gotten a district that didn't have any findings in the year for their compliance questionnaire um some of the items in there are sample based so that's not to say that there's absolutely nothing going on or nothing wrong with any processes you know mistakes happen once in a while but um we have occasionally seen one or two that have have zero findings but
124it's not very frequent not very not very coming um and then my I guess my question to you and whoever's been working with our district on this um has there been interaction first of all with you in the district or and if there has been how has Administration fin U uh finances and everybody how's everybody work together uh my division specifically for our process of of compliance and the Financial Risk analysis we would not have had contact with your District just because the district's not in the highest risk group right now so we're mostly collecting our data from publicly available um entities mostly from ad um and then we just we report on it so we we we send our information out to the district for confirmation and that's about the extent of our interaction
125um but Scott and um the performance audit team can can talk a little bit more about that thank you Schmid um how many districts are in sort of the same financial position that we are right now in this like not highest risk but somewhere in the middle not great shape uh so I don't know if I could give you an exact number on that right now I know one number that does stick in my head um that a few people have talked about from our our report this year is the operating budget limit Reserve measure um I believe there was 47 or 48 districts that were identified as highrisk for that measure this year um but I'd have to do probably a more thorough analysis to get a really good comparison of like number and
126type of highrisk measures all Park is fine thank you yeah thank you Mr s yeah my question was kind of aligned with uh Miss Schmid's uh if you could like you have all this history on there and I don't want to take away from the seriousness at all because we got to fix this but is it as bad as we're we're taking it that's a very subjective question so I don't know if I can answer that very well um kind of I I think I would just take it back to the purpose of the report in that we do there are districts that have high-risk measures but are not necessarily to the highest risk that we of our highest risk group we only have two districts in our highest risk group this year um but
127we defin and there are seven districts that we've identified as approaching highest risk which Liberty is not one of those seven either um but we put this information out there for stakeholders governing board members business officials to have and use as an analysis tool when looking at budgets every year so um just you know to put into comparison when you say you know 47 districts are in the um highrisk category similar to us approximately we're not going to quote you on the number um how many districts are in the state that you're looking at so we have there are 236 districts 37 I think actually districts in the state we have 206 districts in this analysis we do not include accommodation school districts transport Transportation districts um or ceds in our Financial Risk analysis just
128because the the funding um for them is so different we we did not see it is comparable to keep with the group of Elementary High School um and unified districts um what is what is the auditor General's recommendation in terms of what should uh the reserve kind of be in relation to our budget do you have a percentage that you recommend school districts keep we we do not have a recommendation because that's going to be to each district to determine based on your needs based on your your forecasts of of what you're going to need in the future what we're really doing here with this is trying to highlight those really deep decreases to say you know this is something you should probably be looking at for your your amounts in particular if I get
129back here um you know let me go back to the slide so everybody can see ah I'm going the wrong way um here we're talking about 3.4 million down to $979,000 so that's about what I have the number about 2.4 million decrease so if you're looking at it from the sense that you used up $2.4 million from previous years you have 979 th000 at the end of fiscal year 24 I would be looking at those numbers together to think about how you're going forward do you project that you're going to be going over for fiscal year 25 were you able to keep keep spending within for fiscal year 25 looking at it in that way we cannot prescribe recommended um Reserve amounts just because every district has such a different situation really just trying to
130highlight the the large decreases that may be planned or may be unplanned just so so districts can be aware um and then when you talked about um two districts that are in your highest risk category and then seven approaching um what what do you do differently for those and and if we were to fall into that like you know what's kind of the trigger for that and then what is the auditor general doing in response I guess so for the those highest risk districts and the approaching highest risk districts um uh staff from my division are meeting with District um CFOs business managers superintendents um to talk more specifically with them about the risks that were identified in our analysis uh we're understanding a little bit what their actions are we're answering any questions they
131may have to help understand um and then just encouraging them to have those action plans uh for the highest risk districts we actually require them to complete the action plan template that I showed you on the the last page and then we um post that on our website for those highest risk districts uh in our annual report um are there any follow-up questions based on what okay thank you so much for the presentation we appreciate your time you're welcome I'm going to turn it over to Scott to talk about the the spending report all right good evening let me figure out how the clicker works first of all okay um I'm Scott swaggerty I'm the director of the division of school audits my division is responsible for conducting the annual spending analysis which is what
132I'm going to talk about we also do the performance audits of school districts um in Liberty's case we contracted for the performance audit and so I will hand it over to Shri eishen uh and they are the ones that can answer questions about the performance audit itself but related to the spending I'm going to cover some highlights I'm not going to cover everything in the analysis just for the board's information links to both the uh Financial Risk analysis and to the school district spending analysis is included in your board materials as I understand it so it's interactive you can follow along if you go to your District's page um I'll start with instructional spending so as Megan mentioned we are statutorily charged with monitoring dollars spent in the classroom we monitor this through the instructional
133spending percentage based on federal guidance from the national Center for Education statistics and so in fiscal year 2024 Liberty spent about 47.7 million on its operations and of this amount spent about 26.8 million or 56.1% on instruction Liberty's instructional spending percentage was higher than the state average uh of 52.6 but it was a decrease from the prior fiscal year and like the state it was the lowest instructional spending percentage since we've been monitoring in fiscal year 2001 we also provide information about per student spending in each of the operational areas which helps to evaluate spending efficiency at school districts so in other words instead of total spending it's how efficient were you in spending per student as shown on the slide Liberty spent about $1,340 per student in operation spending which was lower than the
134Statewide average of $2,371 um however the fiscal year 24 per student operational spending was more than $1,700 higher than they spent in fiscal year 2023 and the per student spending increased in all operational areas except for Food Service important to remember about this analysis is it doesn't cover non-operational spending so we don't evaluate Capital expenditures Debt Service that sort of thing this is just the operational spending for the district our analysis also provides information about each district spending as compared to similar peers we create peer groups based on a district size type and location to calculate peer averages for evaluating whether a district spending is higher lower or comparable to its peers as shown on the slide Liberty had mixed results its spending on food service and administration was very low compared to its peers
135while its spending on plant operations and transportation was high and very high respectively compared to the peers although there could be valid reasons why a district spending is high relative to its peers the information is helpful for for board members and other stakeholders to identify instances where there could be opportunities for reducing costs to increase operational efficiency and redirect dollars towards instruction starting this year we provide information about school district enrollment uh as previously has been mentioned tonight School District funding is closely tied to enrollment and so unlike many other districts in the state as shown on the slide Liberty esd's enrollment has has slightly increased over the past year but has increased over 22% over the past 5 years uh this is a different Trend than most districts in the state where enrollment is
136decreasing and it's causing districts to close schools lay off staff or find other ways to reduce costs demographic Trends in the state suggest the state will continue to see enrollment declines in future years and schools should prepare to operate schools with fewer students we also provide information about average teacher salary this has been a topic of interest in the state in recent years and as shown on the slide Liberty's average teacher salary was slightly above the state average at just under $68,000 in addition to the average teacher salary information and changes to salary over time starting last year we began reporting information about base salaries um at to provide better context for how districts Pay Teachers so for example as seen on the right side of the slide the district had about the same number
137of teachers in the first 3 years of teaching uh as compared to those in their fourth year of teaching or later and both of these groups of teachers earned average based salaries of just under $63,000 the difference between the average base salary and the average teacher salary indicates that the district relies on onetime payment such as retention bonuses or hardto fill stiens to increase total teacher compensation is it okay if I ask a question in the middle pleas okay um so when I I looked at this um and you know you kind of of captured it in a different way than in the spending report but last year the average teacher salary for somebody that's teaching in their first three years was $35,000 and and now it's 62 and basically it's the same as somebody
138who's more experienced and that is a correct statement like it I just it was so off that I was like whoa I just want to verify that that is what happened so it's important to remember that our analysis because we do it for all 207 districts in the state is based on the district summary accounting data we provide every District the opportunity to confirm their data but we also do validation procedures on the data to make sure that there's nothing that seems very unusual so for example the large increase in the base salary would have been something that we or for the teachers in their first three years would have been something we worked through with the district to confirm that whatever they were reporting was correct to us so I can't speak to the
139specific reasons why those increases were so Stark in that one category that's a question for the district um but in both years Liberty estd did confirm the accuracy of their data through our data confirmation process and my team did do a set of validation procedures to make sure that anything that looked unusual we investigated with the district to make sure that they understood or or could provide an explanation for why that happened okay thank you so much finally our analysis provides information about The District student ACH achievement as compared to peer districts in the state average we also show student achievement information over time so as shown on the slide The District student achievement is comparable to its peers um and the Statewide average for English language arts and science and slightly lower for math
140on the right side of the slide you'll see the district's math passing rate since fiscal year 2019 like many districts in the state the covid-19 pandemic and Associated disruptions to learning have impacted student student achievement so for example um while the district math passing rate was about 44% in fiscal year 19 the year prior to the pandemic it's been in the mid-20s for the past three fiscal years so board members that concludes my presentation and I'm available to answer any additional questions about the school district spending analysis before I hand it over to Nicole Dyer for uh overview of the performance audit results uh Mr Kenyan Miss Schmidt none right now thank you Mr Sani at this time um I'm just not sure if it's appropriate for me to make comments or ask the district
141questions um you know I I think I'll just make a few comment if that's okay I'm going to say that you know I'm concerned you know looking at this um that you know if you could go actually could you go back to this slide um where it talks about how we spent more per student it was towards the beginning yes this one um so you know we spent about $1,700 more per student um and based on the information that we were given directly before you where we spent $2.5 million of the reserve um that would be a direct reflection of this so although we you know it could look like yes we spent more on students but it's because we spent our reserves would that be a correct um uh I would have to defer
142to Megan on that does that include Capital expenses in yours okay so across all of the categories in total yes that would be correct that the 2.5 million in spending it sounds like would be reflected in the $1,700 per student increase so I'll just point out that that's $1,700 more per student in Liberty like this isn't in comparison to peers but yes that would be accurate okay and so even though we spent more um in general in in comparison to the overall budget we spent less on instruction we spent less on students uh Liberty had the lowest instructional spending percentage we've recorded for the district since we've been monitoring in 2001 okay um hold on please um if you could go to the teacher one um uh yes this one um you know I'd really
143like to see the uh District look into what how this occurred how the teachers in the first three years are um making the same amount as our veteran teachers or the average I shouldn't say what they're making the average and um you know you can't see it on this slide but the percentage of teachers in fiscal year 23 that were in their first three years was 23% versus is the 47% and the teachers with four years more experience in fiscal year 23 was 77% and that's down all the way to 53% so may I make one clarifying comment the figures on the right are reflective of Base salaries that doesn't include any additional one-time payments that would be related to teaching duties so for example The hardto Fill position stiens the retention stiens anything like
144that so this is just what does a district pay according to their salary schedules to those teachers and and what's the average versus the figure that you see there on the left the 67770 that would be of all the district's teachers that's their total compensation including those one-time payments that are related to teaching duties so for example if somebody had a a a payment that was not related to a teaching Duty like a coaching stipend we don't consider that as part of the average teacher salary it's only those payments that are directly related to their teaching duties Does it include performance pay this number it does the 67,000 figure does but not the 62,000 okay okay I need you just to clear something up for me when you going another one talking about the different
145uh spending areas and you maybe I just Mard you but you're saying we spent less on instruction for but it's saying we spent more from so the reason that your instructional spending percentage went down in this particular district is because the pi got bigger but you spent less than half of the increase in the pie on instruction and what I mean by that is you spent a total of $1,700 more per student but you spent only about $800 of that and so less than half went to or about half went to instruction that's why it dragged the instructional spending percentage down a little bit from 57 to 56 yep so just adding to that can you go back to that pie graph I'm sorry because it's really important that we all know so classroom spending
14670.8% yes we're at 50 6.1% instruction but then we have the 8.4 student support 6.3 instruction support all that is basically helping the kids right and yes but the instructions there but what we're saying is we've added more supports to the the student support the instruction support and that's probably what lifted that number I didn't include the information on the slide but in our analysis you can look at the onee and 5-year change in these specific categories to see what has the district increased and decreased its spending on in total um I can't say for certain because I don't know off the top of my head but you're correct that classroom spending um as a definition from the Federal National Center for Education statistics includes student support which would be like therapies counselors that sort
147of thing and instructional support which would be instructional AIDS and that sort of thing so we are charged with monitoring dollars spent directly in the classroom which is why we monitor the instructional spending percentage but we do break it out to make clear that the classroom spending includes those three components thank you and just for clarity purposes um so overall this is the change in one year I just have it from your report um the change in classroom spending is um 0.5% um and then it breaks it down by instruction went down by um went down by 1.3% student support went up by 1.7% and the instructional spending or instructional support is uh up 0.1 so very minimal um and in the non-classroom spending the biggest change was in plant operations went up by 0.9
148so sorry any other further questions from the board about this particular thing because there's still one more person to present the performance audit okay with that I will hand it over to Nicole D from Scher evasen she is the uh uh director of the consulting firm that conducted the performance audit on Liberty uh Elementary School District thank you thank you for your time oh sorry this the second slideshow oh I didn't even know than I didn't pass can I control from this okay good evening members of the board Dr Monroe and District staff my name is Nicole Dyer I'm a director with scherg aishen Consulting the contractor hired by the Arizona auditor general to conduct this audit today I will present the key findings and recommendations from the recent performance audit of Liberty Elementary School
149District although I won't cover everything from the report I'm available to answer any questions you have about the information presented in the report at the end of my presentation okay my presentation will include a brief discussion of the audit scope objectives and then I'll provide an overview of the findings the impacts of these findings factors that led to these problems and key recommendations to address them we performed this audit to assess the district's efficiency Effectiveness and compliance with certain state requirements the audit focused on four operational areas first Administration including Financial oversight procurement and internal controls plant operations and maintenance including facilities management and cost efficiency Food Service which included meal program Effectiveness and spending and then finally Transportation which included student transportation funding and Reporting accuracy Additionally the audit assessed District's compliance with State
150policies related to financial management procurement travel reimbursements and information technology security the audit did not include a review of costs associated with capital um assets before moving on to the findings I would like to extend my appreciation to the superintendent and the District staff for their cooperation throughout this entire audit process okay the first problem we identified as part of the audit relates to weaknesses in the district's internal controls over financial management we identified several deficiencies in this area and I want to highlight three of those for you tonight First District Personnel did not consistently get approval before making purchases and in some cases purchase orders were created after purchases were made second district management did not provide sufficient oversight of credit card usage the district had 65 active credit cards during our review but
151did not consistently track who used the those cards and for what purposes some credit card purchases we reviewed were made without prior approval and in certain instances the district could not determine who actually had made the purchase third a review of certain District contracts found that District did not maintain some required documentation for certain contracts and contract expenditures on two contracts exceeded the authority amount by total of $4,000 additionally the district lacked written justification for some contracts in other cases lacked critical documents such as the vendor agreement and price evaluations now why does this matter effective internal controls are essential for safeguarding public monies by helping to prevent fraud or misuse and the audit findings reveal a pattern of ineffective internal controls creating an environment where inappropriate or unauthorized use of public monies could occur
152and go undetected and the lack of required documentation reduces transparency and accountability and means the district did not comply with certain and state requirements the district indicated that some of these issues happened as part because of Staff turnover and INF familiarity with state requirements however we identified several other factors that likely contribute to to the issues we identified first the district did not have formal procedures in place detailing how its processes would comply with state requirements and board policy which may have helped the district with the challenges of training new staff to perform Financial functions additionally District management did not provide sufficient oversight and monitoring to detect and correct the issues that we identified the second problem that we identified relates to the district's travel reimbursements to staff while the district developed board approved travel
153policies and procedures to comply with State travel requirements our review of 15 travel reimbursements found that all 15 had not complied with one or more state requirements in District policy for instance we found the district did not consistently follow State reimbursement rates and limits staff to all we submit a travel claim timely and Districts The District paid some travel reimbursements without appropriate approvals or documentation to support the amounts paid the issue we identified resulted in overpayments to some employees and increase the risk of improper reimbursements we identified several Kee reasons contributing to these problems first The District staff responsible for processing travel claims were unaware of State travel reimbursements um requirements and District travel policies additionally and similar to the first finding I discussed previously the district lacked a standard process for reviewing and improving
154travel claims and District Management's oversight of Staff travel reimbursements was not sufficient to detect these issues the third problem we identified relates to District's reporting of bus mileage and student writers ship data to the Arizona Department of Education which is used to determine State funding for school transportation specifically we found the district had incorrectly calculated and reported smileage and student writers ship to the state these reporting errors could impact the accuracy of the funding the district received from the state in both fiscal years 2023 and 2024 resulted resulting in the district either receiving too little or too much State funding the main factors contributing to these reporting errors were outdated spreadsheets used for calculating writers ship and mileage and a review process that was not sufficient to identify the errors within the spreadsheet used to
155prepare the report the final problem we identified relates to the district's it security practices which did not in line with state requirements and credible industry standards the key problems we identified included excessive system access granted to employees former employees retaining access to sensitive systems and weak password policies and lack of multiactor authentication week it security controls expose the districts its employees its students and its parents to increase risk of data breaches and cyber security threats unauthorized access to sensitive Student Financial records and the potential for fraud and data loss due to insufficient system um protections factors we identified that contributed to the it weaknesses included inconsistent enforcement of employee offboarding procedures weak password and authentication controls insufficient monitoring and oversight of keit processes and controls and lastly automated disabling software that did not work as
156intended due to gaps and programming based on these findings we made 22 recommendations to the districts such as developing comprehensive administrative policies and procedures related to cash handling travel accounts payable credit cards and procurement enhancing monitoring processes and fixing problems as soon as they're identified and establishing formal over side of its it operations Network management and system security District management agreed with our findings and agreed to implement all 22 recommendations now let's talk about next steps while District management is responsible for implementing these recommendations it is the responsibility of the board in its capacity as a district governance to ensure management addresses these recommendations and corrects the problems identified in the report on our end the auditor General's office will be conducting a follow-up with the district in the coming months and with that I
157conclude my presentation I'm happy to answer any questions that you might have thank you Mr Kenyan thank you for the presentation um do you happen to know the last time the district was audited like this sorry that was a question for the previous speaker um this was Liberty's first performance a it thank you um I know in our district it's more of a statement the it stuff I know that a couple years ago we had our director of it at the time had presented to the board that we had done kind of an internal audit in cooperation with another organization I believe it was even with the Department of Homeland Security and we had a great it like we were sound so it's good to see that we have some loopholes some places that we
158need to bolster um and I I don't see this as a gotcha thing I see this more of a hey here's some ways you can improve right and and uh we should all be looking at it that way anytime we audit our own books um or security and anything but I do want to point out that you did mention some some of the factors in this is the turnover right we have a new newer superintendent cabinet and so with that things can fall through the car act so it's good that we can identify these issues these risks and really put eyes on them um are you able to say if any fraud was actually found or is this just risk analysis we did not identify any fraud thank you Miss Schmid um I I agree
159that we should use this as a starting point for improvements um and everybody always has room to improve um I will say that some of this was uh very concerning to me when I was reading through it um seeing that purchase orders were allowed to go 10% over um approved and still we just passed through without another approval was sort of shocking to me as someone whose spouse works in the public sector and he is not allowed to spend a penny over what is approved without another approval um so I think that we have some issues that definitely need to be addressed that need very clear guidance you know if you have an approval you can spend that amount and not a penny more without getting re-approval obviously if you can get it for Less
160that's even better but um and and making sure I think one of the other things you said was missing price evaluations making sure we're getting multiple um companies giving us price quotes so that we know we're getting good deals and and working in those areas um and the IT security issues were also kind of troubling knowing that people had access very long after their employment ended we need to make sure that that uh software that cuts you off when your job ends is working appropriately Mr cion uh yeah I want to point out that even though this report covers a time that we all weren't here it's still our responsibility now right because we have to deal with it uh in the response we said we accepted the findings and implemented some of the recommendations
161already I guess this to the the staff here um do you know which ones we already implemented to fix some of these issues and which ones remain I can off the top of my head because there's 22 or what have you get yeah we can we can get back to you some of them we already have and some are in in process of happening right now so we can send that to you okay do you know up top your head if we've resubmitted the mileage in student writers ship if not that's fine Thursday Tuesday th Thursday okay thank you um I uh when I first read this uh audit um you know I was quite concerned um there's a lot of risk here and whether um there was actual fraud committed there is the potential
162and as the governing board is our responsibility to protect taxpayer dollars um and um you know you didn't audit every transaction so you can't say for certain correct that there was no fraud because you did not um you know look at every transaction no I can't okay um and then in terms of the multiple uh bids you know it is board policy that um you know for a certain amount anything over $110,000 has to have a procurement process and so you know it's obviously concerning that we're not you know that the administration is not following board policy if those things were identified so um like Mr sonon I'd really like to see a very specific list of how the board or the district is addressing each um deficiency and recommendation um because it is our
163responsibility to make sure that we are protecting taxpayer dollars um one of my questions was um is it typical um for a district in its response to just say I accept the findings and not provide any additional information is that typical Not Unusual okay um I don't have any further questions at this time but thank you very much for your time and your presentation thank you thank you [Applause] okay um we are going to move on to 5.1 governing board update um Mr Kenyan yes thank you vice president simmerman so over the last um couple weeks I got to attend a couple little things and I don't want to spend a whole lot of time on it because I have some other things I I want to get to um I was able to go
164to Freedom coffee with the superintendent and that was that was good um I was able to go to a reading Across America last day in yesterday basically um and able to visit some campuses and read to some students and it was wonderful to see the students light up especially when you engage them um so it's a very great thing but I really want to take most of my time real quick and I've I have something written down that I need to I feel I need to read and so I'll just get into it so over the past year I've noticed a growing Trend with a particular group this group has been engaged in public smearing of board members District staff and anyone who speaks openly about what they are doing over the last year board
165members and District staff has recently uh received death threats threats to their families smear campaigns and any sense of Civility has been lost the public needs to hear this members of the group need to hear this they have escalated their attacks on myself Dr from superintendent Dr Monroe and anyone who speaks anything they don't agree with the following and I'm going to give some examples are some disturbing incidents that have happened just last month so on February 12th the board received an email from superintendent Dr Monroe and it goes I just want to I just want the board to be aware that I received a short voice message on my phone this morning about 5:00 a.m. it almost um it was almost a male voice male masked voice and it said courtman row listen up
166you mfer and of course I'm just ping that for the audience your time is up you have treated people like s for too long no more does the community find that acceptable on February 18th the board received another email from doc Dr Monroe stating this past Sunday when I left when I was at church in South Temple where he was pulled aside by the bishop basically the spiritual Faith leader in that area he was relate uh he related to me how he received a phone call last week about from a man in the Liberty Elementary School District Community who wanted to complain about him and the board mostly about the board I was told that the con conversation um I was told their conservative leaning and was told their conservative leaning excuse me he told
167him that uh he was was also responsible for getting teachers and students to miss school and work in the Liberty over these concerns the bishop told me that he said something to the man along the lines of well that's what The Ballot Box is for the gentleman said he is also responsible for recalling board members the bishop told me he also told the gentleman shame on him for using students as political ponds especially and especially encouraging teachers not to honor their work contracts and miss work hurting the students he related on his job if somebody did the same they would be fired the bishop did not tell me the name of the man who called him but he and his wife were flabbergasted about the whole thing saying he's never had that happen in his
168church service why does the community find this Behavior acceptable on February 20th our board held a bud budget work study some of you were there but earlier in that day then board members Zimmerman spent 20 to 30 minutes with d B executive director business services and this was a courtesy extended to her as she had some questions prior to the meeting I can only imagine Mr balton's feelings when Miss Zimmerman left all civility intact aside and proceeded to vicious viciously to go after Mr Balon the sad thing is that not only Mr Baldin was trying to help fix this solution but any information provided during that earlier meeting to miss simmerman was basically thrown in his face please no I don't excuse the budget concern and situation that we have right now and I do
169want answers on how we got here and how it's going to be fixed but the matter in which you deal with people especially when you disagree needs to be in a respectful Manner and sadly I believe that that meeting played a part in Mr balton's resignation last Thursday getting closer February 27th at a districtwide festival of the Arts districtwide Festival of the Arts held at the estrea elementary the same group set up political tables at the gate and stood with clipboards in front of parents okay children and staff going to let him finish thank you children and staff pressuring them to sign a petition to have me recalled when a candidate for our governing board vacancy and her husband approached this event they were blocked entry to the event by this group the threats and
170profanity used by by this member of the group was shameful especially in front of Children and Families ultimately this couple decided not to engage anymore since it wasn't apparent this Behavior wasn't going to change and they left to keep the peace fames should not have to be put in that kind of a position to come at District events our civil rights I understand we can get fired up and passionate about the issues we all come from different backgrounds and walks of life we all have ideas and ways to achieve certain goals just because I may not agree with you or you with me doesn't make you or me evil or the enemy lately it looks like this group has resorted some to some very militant bully type tactics if I did the same thing that
171I just described that had happened to members of this District if I said I did that to the prior superintendent most of the people in this room would be up in arms think about that what I'm asking is this is that everyone hearing this does some self-reflection are you really treating others as you would like to be treated nobody is perfect and we all should be working together to fix what issues and problems arise we are teaching or should be teaching our children respect I ask that we teach it with our actions I ask that politeness civility courtesy and respect return to how we treat one another and this is how our district will heal if we just respect one another we don't have to agree we just have to be respectful and polite including
172you I have one other thing and just for the a parent handed me this a frustrated parent and says Dear members of the Liberty School Board my name is Miguel he wouldn't give me his last name because he didn't want his kids to be a target a district in the parent who was infuriated by the words spoken by Mark aguire and others at the February 3rd board meeting I am an American of Hispanic descent and on that day my family participated in a day without immigrants we participated by not going to the stores work or sending our two kids to school this was not a local event but a national one to bring attention to the immigrants and the problems that they face it was to be a day our Hispanic voices were heard however
173Mark aguire and others decided to hold student sick out on that day instead of acknowledging our voices he used them to fit his agenda let me be clear I support Dr Monroe in his recent policy changes by the board I like the direction of the school district and many Hispanic families I know do as well tens of thousands of children were absent across Arizona on February 3rd we did not keep our kids out of school for Mark aguire or any group who is attacking this board and administration and to use immigrant suffering and trying to silence our voices for their agenda is just wrong Mr aguire my family are not your puppets and I am not your Hispanic brother that concludes mine Miss Schmid I'm going to keep my comments pretty brief um I just
174wanted to point out the things that I've done within the district in the last few weeks since the last meeting uh that I thought were pretty positive I was able to visit freedom and Los braces with Dr Monroe and meet with the principls and and teachers and visit and meet some of the students um I also attended the district Festival of the Arts which was um really great night we got to see all the students and all the hard work that the Champs teachers put in to making this incredible experience for them and I know many many many of those teachers put in extra hours and late nights and to do all of that unpaid so thank you to all of you for doing that teer and then for rid Across America week yesterday I
175spent some time at Las prus with the kindergarteners and a first grade classroom and read one of my favorite books to them and got to have a little bit of interaction with kindergarteners which is always really fun and uh if you can't leave smiling after that then I don't know what to say to you um and tomorrow I'll be at Blue Horizons in the afternoon to do the same thing with a few of the classes there so that is my update thank you all for coming tonight Mr serani uh yes I was not able to get out as much as I like to the community uh I do want to say that I know it's hard to hear but a lot of what board member Kenyan said is true uh to the point where civility
176is lost in a lot of people and it is hard work one-on-one or as a group when you're automatically just shut out because of some of your other stances so I do agree with with Mr Ken on that and I just wanted to say thank you um the first thing i' like to do is respond to the personal attack by Mr Kenyan um it was absolutely not true um I had a conversation with Mr Balon the same conversation that I had in public in front of the board I was asking for clarification um at no point did I raise my voice stand up or do any of the things that you are saying no one talked to me about it no one had a conversation with me so I don't really appreciate that it's being
177done in public and it's unfactual um that's all I'm going to say about that because it's not worth it um I had the opportunity to attend the Festival of the Arts um it's such a special time in our district to have our entire seven schools come together and have the ability to showcase the Arts the Champs in our community um and I think one of the really special things about the Festival of the Arts is that schools really come together we had a whole second grade choir time um and we had um I believe it was three schools where their bands came together it's just a really unique time the only time in the entire year where our um District comes together and so I really appreciated um of course all the Champs teachers that
178just put hours and hours and hours into making this special so that kids could feel celebrated and recognized for their achievements you know I was able to see some of our principles I was sad to not see our superintendent present present at the you know districtwide um Festival of the Arts um so you know I'm just congratulating to our schools um who put the time in um and really made it special for our students and thank you for recognizing them we're going to go ahead and move on to 6.1 which is call to the public um uh excuse me uh is this on vice president Zimmerman if you can just give it just a couple moments to switch out some batteries prior to public comment thank you like in the past I don't see any
179than test test we're good okay uh we're going to go ahead and um pick back up at 7:12 um just some reminders for a public comment um you will have three minutes um and so if you could please adhere to that um also I know that a lot of people are passionate um I sat in those seats for the last six years um and so sometimes I know it's hard not to say something um so if something comes up and you're concerned please send us an email or send the district an email if you're concerned about something or you feel like something's not factual um so that everybody does get there 3 minutes we'd really appreciate that I'm going to call um the public comments in the order that they were received tonight by Miss
180camarada so our first speaker is Paul Bixler [Applause] my name is Paul Bixler and I do live in the district friends congratulations on the Festival of the Arts given to our community last Thursday evening as always it was incredible the quality of the Student Art on display was amazing from the vocal music performances featuring for me the district second third grade students homage to lay Miser Rob all of the students uh not only fully engaged in the vocalizing but also perform the choreography Under The Upfront leadership missan and the west star students sharing their medal of songs from Wily Wonka the highlighted many outstanding solo performances by the students I don't recall ever seeing that much pure joy on the face of Mr orm to the visual arts of both three and two Dimensions portraits
181Landscapes Graphics foil ceramic Plastics on and on and on of course once again Mrs mvo glow Gallery was a huge crowd favorite this time featuring The clever hidden picture of Mrs borz Jeeping through all the glowing jungle floor and FAA a special interest to me was the Clear Connection of the art and its direct relationship to the core content being taught in our classrooms to the instrumental music per presentation that has grown and matured far beyond measure with all the district instrumental music teachers taking individual leadership roles a special shout out to the residents of the neighboring houses thank you for your patience with the Overflow parking that was a function of the huge Community turnout my hesitation with the district's Embrace of a Traditional School model is not a secret let it be remembered
182that in a true traditional format the Festival of the Arts is exactly what is lost but for now thank you for the village of students teachers staff administrators parents and volunteers for the Festival of the Arts we are all richer because of you thank [Music] you the next speaker is Bailey Rosco [Applause] can you guys hear me okay good evening Madame vice president and members of the board first of all I just want to point out Mr Kenyan you just violated R ARS 38-43 1.02 and four board policies in your statement I'll go on with my actual statement of I want to first point out and say say that the presentations proves over the past few proves my email that I sent on Sunday and my following statements over the past few weeks I have
183spent hours upon hours researching AR statutes other laws and policies in relation to many of the ongoing problems under Court Monroe's leadership this Sunday evening I wrote all of you and included many other interested parties regarding these findings in this email I requested Court Monroe be placed on administrative leave pending an investigation I want to read to you some information our district sckout was planned way way before the Immigration Movement ever was a thing before President Trump was elected fact also I want to touch on Mr kenyon's other 15 other open violations I want to mention that you made a comment that our group has uh polit political leanings that have caused problems but we have people from all political parties in our group all religions races and socioeconomical backgrounds what is the board doing
184for the person in charge of all of these borderline fraudulent and potentially fraudulent violations Mr Monroe I would really love to know lastly with the last bit of my time I'm going to read an email from a parent at Mr Monroe's previous District that I would love to be taken into consideration I'm speaking as a conern concerned parent who hopes that your District does not suffer the same fate as our district that was a direct result of Mr Monroe when M Mr Monroe came to the position of superintendent he made many irreversible changes that sent the district into a downward spiral that has cost the district and the community millions of dollars in losses that cannot be recouped within the last first or within his first three months he let go many longtime employees replacing
185them with less experience and higher cost people that he previously worked with in GRE Creek we're seeing that again here at Liberty he cut their programs one such resulted in a loss of over 150 students in a single school in two months resulting in $1 million Revenue loss in that school alone reference September through May of 2021 ccusd board docks the single event proved to be the Catalyst with its catastrophic repercussions as it created mistrust and uncertainty in the community they're closing schools up there right now just so y'all are aware I'm sorry I'm timing this up um the next speaker is Megan Kenan Canon I apologize good evening ladies and gentlemen of the board my name is Megan Canan and I reside in District with one current student and two former students after I
186spoke at the last meeting Mr Kenyan asked that my concern about why people are leaving the district be investigated as I requested we've yet to receive a response to that while I appreciate that it was requested we want answers and we need to see action taken to correct again your in action speaks volumes louder than your words the business service department is just one of many departments that is suffering in January they lost their payroll specialist after only being moved into that position the month before along with the payroll lead who moved from specialist in November when the previous lead left again good people do not leave their jobs for no good reason I am concerned for the for the educational services department since Natasha Camp gave her resignation effective January 2025 though she did
187not want to her whole team has since been also told their contracts will not be renewed come June 30th 2025 this department is instrumental to our students and our school's success this staff has given tremendous support to our students and staff assisting in bringing our school letter gr raids up I'm concerned as to why we would push out such an incredible team and I just happened to stumble on this quote the next day after I spoke at the last board meeting and I hope it gives you some insight to this gives some insight to this board and they will start listening to the concerns and complaints from staff parents and students of this community if your employees are leaving and you can't see why you're the toxic boss or environment they're escaping from this is
188why I still support the recall of Mr Kenyan I urge those of you who who have not signed the petition to do so I encourage you if you can to volunteer to collect s signatures we need to get a qualified member into his seat and the empty seat left by Mr Parks people that truly care about our students staff Community success and growth of our district the next speaker is Emily Miller ladies and gentlemen respected members of the school board and my esteemed colleagues my name is Emily Miller and I'm a fifth grade teaching at Freedom Elementary I'm here today to bring your attention to the fact that Lauren Velasquez vice principal at Blue Horizon has been forced to resign his position in lie of non-renewal I'm aware that many contral decisions are being made
189due to budgeting issues however I'm here today with much support to request that he is considered for our assistant principal vacancy at Freedom Elementary I want to start to I want to start by sharing a little history about Mr Velasquez time in Liberty Elementary Mr Velasquez has made an impact on almost every campus within the district my personal experience with him was at Freedom Elementary where he was vice principal for five years Lauren has played a pivotal role in elevating Freedom Elementary to place to a place of Greater academic success stronger Community engagement and more positive School culture under his leadership the school experienced remarkable growth both academically and socially he brought not only his knowledge and experience but also his dedication and passion for students and staff to create a supportive nurturing environment that
190encourag every child to thrive one of the most powerful aspects of his leadership is his deep understanding of students he took the time to get to know each child understand their unique needs and challenges this personalization approach was key in fostering an environment where students felt valued and motivated to succeed he worked tirelessly to create programs and initiatives that supported both their academic and emotional growth in addition into his focus on Student Success he also understood the importance of building strong relationship with staff he listened to teachers provided guidance and ensured they had the tools and support necessary to excel in the classroom under his leadership the staff felt the staff felt ow empowered appreciated and better equipped to meet the diverse needs of the student body unfortunately in February of last year Freedom staff
191was made aware that Mr flaxes would not be returning to Freedom the following year this not by his own choice he would be mov positioned to slip between Blue Horizon and Rainbow Valley but when I tell you we were devastated I mean that with all my heart that this was a loss that we have felt every day since as you consider decisions regarding the future leadership of el of Freedom Elementary I urge you to recognize the immense value that he would bring to our canvas I firmly that believe that bringing him back as vice principal would be one of the best choices we could make for our continued success of our school he knows the students he knows the staff and most importantly he knows how to make the school a place where everyone students
192teachers and parents alike can Thrive his leadership is proven um asset and I am confident that with his return Freedom Elementary will continue to build on the progress made and reach even greater Heights thank you for your time and consideration the next speaker is Patricia iara [Applause] good evening ladies and gentlemen of the board my name is Patricia Ibara for those of you who don't know me I've been with the Liberty district for 37 plus years so I've seen it dog um I am currently the school secretary at freedom and had the privilege of working with Mr Velasquez for the last five years when he was at Freedom Mr V is one of the strongest leaders I have worked with he shows compassion towards students families and staff Mr vasus is caring and understands the
193needs of our freedom family Lauren always had his door open for everyone Lauren would take the time to meet with parents whether they had an appointment or not he was there for them he was there for everybody if you want to see Freedom grow and be successful you should give Lauren Velasquez the chance to come back to freedom and make that happen I would like to see our continuing teachers smile again it really breaks my heart for them me standing up here in front of all of you speaking as a testament to miss to the impact Mr Velasquez has made because seriously this is not me to get up in here and speak I think this is my second time being here so really truly I would really like to see Mr Velasquez back at
194free freedom freedom is his home thank you the next speaker is Cory [Applause] now good evening members of the board Dr Ro District leadership I'm here tonight to advocate for the return of Lauren Velasquez as Freedom's assistant principal which is a decision that would be a win for our students our staff and the district as a whole most importantly this would be a massive win for our students they Thrive when they have consistent supportive leadership Lauren has already built relationships with them and has shown his dedication to their success both academically and personally restoring him to his role would bring much needed continuity and a sense of stability at a time when Freedom needs it most Lauren was also an integral part of the leadership team that helped move freedom from a d-rated school to
195a b just last year his leadership dedication and ability to build relationships with staff students and the community contributed directly to that success bringing him back would allow us to build on that momentum rather than starting over yet again Freedom has faced significant challenges this year our school Community is struggling and we need strong familiar leadership to help restore stability and rebuild trust Lauren is uniquely positioned to do just that he knows our students our staff and our families he understands our culture our strengths and our needs he wouldn't require extensive onboarding or training allowing him to step in and make an immediate impact from an organizational perspective this is a practical and efficient solution Lauren is already a valued District employee with proven leadership experience at Freedom rehiring him would save valuable time and
196resources that would otherwise be sent searching for vetting and training an external candidate it would also send a powerful message to our school community that the district is responsive to our needs and committed to doing what's best for our students as Bill Gates once wrote your most unhappy customers are your great source of learning this is a straightforward solution that benefits everyone it supports our students strengthens our school and demonstrates the district's commitment to putting people in positions where they can be most effective I respectfully ask that you consider this opportunity not as a reversal but as a step forward for freedom for our community and for the district as a whole thank you for your time the next speaker is Alysa good evening members of the school board thank you for giving me the
197opportunity to speak today my name is Alyssa and I am a teacher at Freedom using your voice to speak up for the right thing is an essential part of creating positive change in the world by speaking out we not only stand up for what is right but we also Inspire others to do the same creating a ripple effect of courage and compassion our voices are powerful tools while it can be difficult or uncomfortable speaking up is a way to control contribute to a more just and compassionate Society where everyone's rights and dignity are upheld so that being said I am here with a request that I believe will greatly benefit our school Community bringing back Lauren Velasquez as our assistant principal courageous leadership is the ability to take bold decisive actions in the Fai face
198of uncertainty and adversity always with the well-being of others in mind a courageous leader is not afraid to make tough decisions stand up for what is right or challenge the status quo even when the path ahead seems daunting this kind of leadership requires vulnerability the willingness to admit mistakes and a deep sense of resp responsibility for those being led it also involves empowering others to speak up fostering an environment where everyone feels valued and heard courageous leaders Inspire trust they motivate change and they pave the way for growth by Leading with Integrity resilience and a Clear Vision no matter the obstacles they may face m Mr Vasquez is this type of leader he has demonstrated these qualities many of us have had the privilege of working with Mr Velasquez and we know firsthand the incredible
199impact he had during his time at Freedom Elementary he brought a unique combination of strong leadership deep compassion and a dedication to our students success whether it was through supporting teachers connecting with families or inspiring students Mr Velasquez created an environment where everyone was valued and heard our school is at a pivotal moment where we need someone who can continue to build on the strong I'm sorry your time is up the next speaker is Aaron [Applause] Brandon good evening members of the board my name is Aaron Brandon and I have been a dedicated member of the Liberty district for the past 12 years seven of those years have been as a reading interventionist currently I am at Los prus while while I am deeply upset at the prospect of losing my position as an interventionist
200what troubles me more is the way the decision was communicated to myself and colleagues at 5:00 p.m. on Friday evening I received an email that included all interventionists and coaches the very first line read as a valued member of the Liberty Community only continue on with the message that I would not be getting an intervention position as of now I would be getting a teacher contract instead if interventionists are truly valued then I believe it's important to acknowledge everything our role encompasses responsibilities that go unseen but are vital to the Daily function of our schools our position goes far beyond small group instruction every morning and afternoon I'm out for crosswalk duty ensuring students get home safely I complete lunch duty daily and sometimes cover additional lunch duties if needed I step in to cover
201classes and emergencies I meet with teachers who are struggling to plan I brainstorm strategies for them I create intervention groups every four to 6 weeks which includes testing all the students analyzing the data and presenting that data to grade level teams I serve on the leadership team I have presented School level and District level Friday PD sessions I do not do all of this because it's my job description but because I care deeply about our students with the possibility of interventionists being gone I ask who will supervise these students who will administer aadience testing districtwide three times a year who will step in and emergencies who will gather and analyze reading data for instructional teams most importantly who will provide the interventions that their struggling struggling readers need so desperately I have dedicated 12 years
202to this district and my own children have attended Los bces for the past five it was my hope for them to finish out their Elementary years at LBA surrounded by the community I hold so dear but now I find myself questioning that future I understand budget decisions and Staffing assignments are complex however the message conveyed was that my placement is dependent on building principles without offering any Assurance of what lies ahead it has made me feel like dedication and years of service have been reduced to a matter of logical convenience my commitment to supporting students and the district's Mission has never wavered I've strived to make a positive impact I respectfully ask for greater transparency and consideration regarding my role moving forward I am not here to Simply advocate for my job I am here
203to advocate for students teachers and the part of our schools I asking you to think long and hard about the impact these Cuts would have on our entire Community not just the budget but the people who give their time hearts and energy to this District every single day thank you the next speaker is Richard Bond good evening my name is Richard Bond and I am a resident of the uh District vice president Zimmerman board members superintendent Monroe Dr Mahorn in my previous attempt to make a public comment I was unfortunately interrupted before I could fully present my point given the district's current academic performance I was advocating for a policy where participation in extracurricular activities such as art and drama have to meet certain academic standards I believe this proposal could encourage students to balance
204their academic responsibilities with their extracurricular activities and if you tell me it's already in place I just tell you it's not working additionally I feel it's necessary to address an incident involving board president vice president Kelly Zimmerman during a recent meeting I observed unprofessional behavior directed towards the district C PA Mr Dane Balden despite his short tenure Mr baldon has managed to save the district hundreds of thousands of dollars demonstrating his dedication and expertise Mrs Zimmerman had access to his report days prior to the meeting and her question should have been addressed privately I'm requesting a public apology from Mrs Zimmerman for her unprofessional conduct towards a team member this uh Behavior does not reflect the level of leadership we respect this moment presents an opportunity for fresh T A Renewed commitment to diplomacy and
205professionalism vice president Mrs Zimmerman I await your apology and I encourage you to set a positive example for our community by demonstrating respectful and constructive engagement let us all strive to work together for the betterment of our district fostering an environment where every voice can be heard and respected finally I wish to know who approved those folding tables boxes and carts and Personnel to obstruct the entrance of the children's art fair in violation of the Arizona reviv statutes 15 under this article influencing the outcome of an election defines what they were trying to attempt at the entrance of that meeting according to this uh definition a legal participants were permitted to use the school's facilities to assemble at the main gate of the children's art fair with a purpose of influence an election please let
206him speak I want my time back a principal's job was to organize the Art Festival are we going to allow illegal recall participants to set up tables and clearly block the main entrance which I have pictures of any confrontations may arise as visitors attempted to enter the gates were security measures in place I didn't see any if the principal witness these harassments shouldn't they immediately intervene and observe vile and profane language white I'm sorry your time is up the next speaker is Donnie Bond my name is Donnie Bond I am a resident of this District I want to thank you I want to thank you to the board members the superintendent Monroe and staff and I want to compliment the board for the work session on finances thank you I have three concerns to speak
207about tonight first is regarding the seniors Foster grandparent program the second is the constant loud comments at board meetings that aren't curtailed and the bullying that I experienced trying to end of the Arts Festival last week the senior Foster Grant Program while volunteering for the color color run last fall I was asked by a teacher if I had children in this school and I said no but I am a grandmother and then she replied then why are you here and I said I've never seen the Color Run and I wanted to volun I volunteered to participate this is not the only time this question has been asked of me so will all teachers be made aware of this grandparent program so that we don't feel unwelcome by the comments like this second the constant loud
208comments that we've seen tonight the board does not have to allow public comment according to ARS 38- 431 that continues to disrupt a business meeting we're to attend and listen I keep hearing people say you're not listening to us and you have done a good job I wrote this yesterday um um I wanted to suggest that the Das listen and specifically answer that you have been that they have been heard but hearing does not equate to agreeing nor is it the opinion of everyone many of us do not support this recall bullying that I experienced trying to enter the Arts Festival as many of you know I was looking very forward to that I even did a a photo book last year for it to celebrate it but as we enter the um um and
209Princess my husband has said the political recall tables were in the way so that you could not enter without having to pass the petitioners one woman then singled us out harassed us videoed us trying to get her away get away with her insults while we were trying to get away from her insults threatened us with a lawsuit using explo of language and she even shouted to us as we left saying you're 50 years too old to have a child in this school what are you even doing here I've been a volunteer at a stray of mountain since last August I do have a volunteer badge hanging on the office wall and I'm a volunteer grandmother in this District these bullying tactics of belittling treatment of anyone cannot continue to be tolerated in our district who
210is really causing all this unrest and more important why because of this angry treatment that that tempers are flared upon apologies can go a long way to bring back unity and civil civility I'm sorry your time is up the next speaker is Paul Jensen good evening vice president Zimmerman members of the board my name is Paul Jensen and I am a resident in the district um I wrote a speech but just kind of feel like I I kind of hope that Brian and Chris after the budget you'd kind of see hey maybe there's something wrong maybe we need to do something a little bit different I'm a little bit shocked that you're not as um surprised or upset about what is going on um additionally discipline we had a report on discipline um with with
211no numbers about discipline how how do we know how discipline is going without numbers in December um Dane Balton came with a business services update with no numbers why in December wasn't he showing us why is it that 7 months after 2020 fiscal 2024 ended are we finally getting an update and now at seven months into this current budget learning of the struggles that we have right now so I I've been coming for a long time and don't feel like you are really seeing what is going on and I agree tempers are getting flared and and things are going off but at the same time see our position as well um at the last board meeting I shared about how the district had increased non-classroom spending by more than classroom spending and that was wrong
212I pulled it from two different data sources and just wanted to make sure that everybody recognized that classroom spending as was shown did go up more than non-classroom spending however our spending on instruction is at a 24e low as the auditor general mentioned I feels kind of like you've you've got a Maserati and you've borrowed it to your neighbor and he's taken it out for a drive you'll let him borrow it for the year and after the year he brings it back all dented up broken down filthy inside and it's still a Maserati Liberty district is still a good District we're still at a good spot but I'm not going to give that neighbor my Maserati and say yeah keep on ruining it it's time to make some changes and to make sure that we
213keep Liberty District where it has been um I hope that um superintendent bogs will appoint someone to fill the vacancy as soon as possible so that we can see where we're going to go and where the board is going to go forward so we can make those next steps that we need to and I would also like to throw in my two cents about Lauren Vasquez it took about 10 seconds as he came up to me at Rainbow Valley when he was up there that you could recognize he was somebody special and that he truly cares about the kids and that he knows who they are and I would um Echo the others comments about keeping him thank you the next speaker is Vicki Johnson good evening board members my name is Vicky Johnson I
214am a veteran teacher of the district former parent and president of the Liberty Education Association I'm speaking this evening to express my concerns regarding the current administration's approach to academic growth and student safety particularly in relation to the potential elimination of reading intervention positions these positions are crucial as every student in the district from kindergarten to third grade receives at least one two tier 2 intervention block daily the reading interventionists serve over 750 students daily across the district many of these students benefit from two interventions a day they also prep prepare fluency folders for K4 students they run read live labs and provide essential materials for classroom teachers additionally they play a vital role in child study teams pulling monthly data for principles and they run professional development sessions the removal of their training and
215support will adversely affect the students taught by these PD participants moreover they supervise students before school during lunch and at dismissal they contribute significantly to both academic growth and student safety eliminating these positions would be extremely shortsighted and would negatively impact our entire School community please also keep in mind that the potential elimination of reading intervention is in addition to the ill-advised upheaval Dr Monroe created in ed services this spring board members I ask you to hold Dr Monroe and Dr Mahorn accountable have Dr Monroe and Dr Mahorn considered their own salary or bonuses when addressing the budget crisis that they themselves have created if you truly hold student safety and academic success as priorities please demonstrate that by not allowing them to Target the positions of people so critical to our students to make
216up for their own mistakes and mismanagement please find a way to keep the reading intervention at the schools thank [Applause] you uh the next speaker is Brian McVey [Applause] hi my name is Brian mcve I am live in the district I have one son currently in the district and five that have already moved through the district according to the auditor general report presented tonight in fiscal year 2023 the district paid its prior superintendent $ 41,7 plus an additional 99.4% in performance pay or $3,290 Dr Monroe is now making $188,700 with a newly approved performance pay portion to allow for additional pay of up to 20% or $ [Music] 37,74512 181 more plus benefits it seems pretty crazy that would be be paying a superintendent so much more yet he doesn't think he could take a
217pay cut because he overspent the district's budget he also had to bring in a paid consultant to help him put together a new strategic plan the prior superintendent worked collaboratively with all stakeholders and developed a strategic plan with wide buyin and support she did that based on her sound knowledge of Education principles this superintendent appears to do just whatever the misguided board tells him to do as a conservative I am outraged at your lack of oversight and increase in spending you brought in a superintendent that you were warned would destroy our district and now you have watched it happen so now what are you going to do to correct things thank you for your time the next speaker is Jenna Williams good evening I'm Jenna Williams and I do reside in the district Mr Kenyan
218I also have a letter to read this say it reads as follows dear board as a parent who experienced firsthand the consequences of Court Monroe's leadership in the CCU SD which is Cave Creek I feel compelled to share my concerns as you evaluate his future with the district while I understand that he has already been hired I urge you to carefully consider his past performance before extending or renewing his contract during his his tenure at ccusd Monroe left in a wake of instability and decline failure to lead he took an unexplained leave of absence with no contingency plan then abruptly resigned enrollment crisis ccusd experienced the lowest enrollment numbers in history with loss increasing each month one Elementary School Alone lost 150 students resulting in a $1 million Financial loss after he cut a critical
219program just months before into his tenure irreparable program Cuts without meaningful parents sta or staff impa input he slashed vital programs including gifted education sped World Language and Library resources lack of strategic Vision his approach of solving District issues consisted of raising taxes and hosting Community barbecues rather than implementing Sustainable Solutions severe staff turnover under his leadership teacher and administrative resign resignations reached an all-time high one school saw a 38% turnover rate lack of transparency his administration ignored hundreds of parents emails and multiple FIA requests resulting in legal actions and penalties questionable hiring practices he approved the hiring of an HR Director with no HR experience and the school principal with a felony record both issues easily identifiable through routine background checks unlawful special education practices his mismanagement lent to multiple lawsuits and violations in
220special education services legal and ethical breaches the district forced faced attorney general complaints EEOC lawsuits and numerous wrongful teacher dismissals under his Direction ties to corruption he worked alongside Denise Birdwell who was later indicted for fraud I am writing to you with the understanding that this past behavior is the bre is the best predictor of future performance these concerns raised by your community are not irrational outcries but a resp sorry your time is [Applause] up uh the next speaker is Marcy [Applause] McBride right good evening members of the board Educators and community members my name is Marcy McBride and I'm the school counselor at Freedom Elementary School and the lead counselor for our district I was born the eth of 10 children to say that my home was chaotic is an understatement when I was
221just eight years old my older brother invited some friends over to the house they hurt me my parents tried to help me through this they tried to protect me but they could not provide what I needed at that time to save me from what became a pattern of abuse for the next 40 years I came to the district two years ago at Freedom Elementary under the leadership of Lauren Velasquez and Tony Reynolds I tell you this uh when I came to freedom I was escaping a marriage of 20 years to a man who did the same kind of hurt to my children that was done to me and I tell you this because when I stand here to stand up for a man I need you to know it's not easy I need you to
222know that it is not easy for me to trust men at all but I felt like I needed to stand today because laen Velasquez taught me that there are still good men in this world while I only worked with him for one year I came to understand that he is a good man he is not only a good leader but he is compassionate and in my opinion the most important he is honest we need him in our community we need him in our schools and we want him at Freedom we live in a world that often feels like it is unraveling Wars rage politics divide us and the P pandemic has left a deep emotional scar we can see this in increased domestic violence suicide rates and divorce and while we adults debate analyze and
223sometimes argue you our children are watching they are absorbing the chaos the fear and the uncertainty the adverse childhood experiences study from 1995 tells us that trauma in childhood through neglect abuse and instability in the home has lasting effects on Mental Health learning and even physical well-being but research also show something equally powerful the presence of a calm caring adult can counteract those negative effects a single adult whether a teacher coach Mentor or counselor can provide the same stability I'm sorry your time is [Applause] out the next speaker is Jennifer [Applause] twine good evening members of the board Administration my name is Jennifer twine I am a resident of the district my son attends westart Elementary um I would just like to comment on that this is why counselors are so crucial in public education
224because they reach the students that might not get the help that they need otherwise and have a safe person to talk to so the idea that we would be cutting counselors from schools is detrimental I feel um so I also have a letter to read from a uh Cave Creek parent um this parent is named Matt Smith um so I will read his letter hello my name is Matt Smith and I run a parent group consisting of over 1,00 Cave Creek parents and community members to date we have requests from hundreds of people requesting Aid in items involved that Court Monroe was involved with these complaints range from open meeting law violations to IEPs not being complied with to unlawful terminations and even racism and harassment of teachers a lot of similar things that we're
225seeing currently in our district that's my aside that's not part of the letter uh these requests were made from residents of Cave Creek Queen Creek and now within Buckeye the one constant in all these complaints is Court Monroe it seems as though once the community and the board become aware of his transgressions he takes a leave and finds a new job leaving the community to clean up his messes do not be the next victim Court Monroe must go recall Kenyon thank you the next speaker is Mark aguire good evening board members Administration my name is Mark aguire I do live in the district so on your guys' agenda tonight you've got teacher contracts 67 ,000 average for teachers in the district that's a lie they self-reported it to the auditor general you heard the auditor
226general in what they said there are 11 teachers who make over the average the rest of them are well under that $2.4 million over budget $2.4 million passed in the previous Bond specifically for bus purchases $6.9 million spec it passed in the bond specifically for transportation facility what this Administration did they took out a loan to buy more buses because 2.4 million wasn't enough was it Dr Monroe so instead what they did is they took out a loan for a total of $2.8 million for more buses superintendent performance bonus is there a reason why it was done I believe it was in January could it be possibly that this superintendent did not want you as a board to know that you are 2.4 million doll over budget because that would directly affect your decision on
227whether you gave this man more money for a performance bonus do you give bonuses for people who overspend within a company not mine to the board we as a community are not looking for you to admit you were wrong in making your decision of sticking with this current Administration alls were asking is for you to look inside and to say you were lied to he lied to you I know that you had good intentions with what you thought was right but you were lied to you've heard it time and time and time again you're hearing it with an assistant principal at Freedom of that they resigned he was forced to resign you can't even get qualified people now why are you getting rid of qualified the next speaker is Peter Smith side note the restro
228is over there my name is Peter Smith I'm a parent a resident a son of a woman born in Mexico and a proud American citizen I'm the grandson of Hispanic American World War II SilverStar veteran and a Purple Heart recipient I am half Hispanic and I participated in this sick out because Canyon rather than learning to lead CH chooses to utilize race Politics as cover also in the prior meeting parks and Kenyon made it perfectly clear that resigning midye is unacceptable therefore this board should Bill Brian Parks $2,500 for liquidated damages Brian Parks a board member that laughed about a middle school girl being sexually assaulted because she was not penetrated Kenyon happily voted for parks to be the board president after after he became aware of such statements where was your kindness your Civility
229and your moral outrage when you supported a man who mocked a child sexual assault victim because of Canyon and Monroe's Culture of Fear and insane Financial mismanagement of our School District staff at all levels of the district are rushing for the exit Kenyan and Monroe took 2 million from our emergency fund to make themselves look better their own numbers show we will be $3.5 million in the whole next year I have been informed that we are losing summer school that our reading and math interventionists were told to expect pay cuts that their positions aren't guaranteed and that the assistant that help with our special needs students may not have jobs our families and teachers are being asked to sacrifice first for the absolute failure in leadership of Kenyan Monroe after reading the last audit I
230noted that Monroe's compensation is capped by law he is making dramatically more than the last superintendent who did not drive us into a $3.5 million hole I'm also under the impression that the former board majority agreed to provide a stien for his personal vehicle not a district car that we own but his own vehicle not a single penny should be taken from any staff until District leadership experiences significant cuts that drags them back to where previous staff members were last meeting Kenyan slandered 3,000 parents for keeping their kids home because he ignored warnings about the horrible direction of our district he accused those parents of borderline child abuse instead of freaking out about the parents why don't you do your job and hold your superintendent who has many years in leadership accountable he suffers no
231consequences for his failures we lose Services I promise you when parents are describing you in the future they will not be using the word borderline Mr Kenyan superintendent bogs thank you for coming our direction is your choice we need board members who actually have skin in this game that have children in this District we need people who know more about our schools than their names we need women that are on campus every single day of the week because they care and are knowledgeable choose Ashley Wright choose Anna Gutierrez both would be great in their own ways we do not need Donnie Bond or a Brian Parks on the board there must be accountability for that man yes the next speaker is Ashley Wright good evening my name is Ashley Wright and I was at in
232the district tonight I'll be um reading letter on behalf of a Cave Creek parent my name is Terry Thatcher parent stakeholder and Community member of Cave Creek Unified School District I have lived in Cave Creek for 24 years my three children attended Cave Creek schools for a period with my oldest transferring out of District during his freshman year my middle son dropping out due to Crohn's Disease and lack of school support and my youngest transferring to a neighboring district for his high school years because ccusd was failing him and his IEP I'm not the only parent that their child has left ccusd many left when Monroe came on as superintendent and 2021 and immediately went to the task of cutting programs the Mandarin program was the first on a list of many programs but the
233most damaging program that saw a loss of students that went to neighboring districts Scottdale and Deer Valley in an article from the football Foothill Focus from April 28th 21 the superintendent posted a public letter about the program in which he wrote the world language program cost 2.2 million when parents saw this letter and the number they thought it was very misleading parents were dedicated to do what they could do to save the program as it was so popular in the district and the school horseshoe Trails is approximately 15 miles from the tsmc semiconductor plant keep in mind this cut by Monroe superintendent in Cave Creek Monroe hired an administration at ccusd that saw loss of enrollment less Community involvement because of the lack of transparency increase in administration spending and a weak governing board Monroe
234unsuccessfully tried for a bond in 21 and an M override 22 community members saw an increase in administration spending and cutting of programs under Monro thus the reason the bond and M override did not pass community members wanted to see an Administration better manage the money before giving more not even a year and a half into his tenure superintendent Monroe received an extension to his contract through 2025 by a left fing board led by them board president Beth Hatcher Hatcher claims this was due to his desire to work and obtain long-term sustainability for the district less than a year later Monroe is nowhere to be found is on leave in January 23 February 23 dates are in clear as no one in aditt ministration or on the governing board would be transparent my youngest son
235finished out the remainder of 2022 in ccusd and is now thriving in a district that follows IEPs the administration was responsive and Cooperative versus what we saw under Monroe's time Monroe's time at ccusd with the combatives targeting targeting bullying and lack of respect parents of element or liary Elementary we feel your pain and sympathize with you about the dealings you're seeing with Monroe as a community take the time to see what Monroe did to C Creek in the community we're more divided than ever and at risk of losing more enrollment because of the leadership that Monroe brought into Administration that are still at Cave Creek schools today it's important to know who and what you have and I urge you parents do your Foye requests go for it it's time consuming but at the end
236of the day you can have a better outcome than we have in Cave Creek thank you for your time they've closed two schools or are closing two schools uh the next speaker is William Bretner [Applause] good evening ladies and gentlemen my name is Debbie Reinhardt I am a teacher and a former teacher sorry um this is for William see they told me it was for I'm sorry I it's okay I'm sure you're in here okay okay I guess this person's not here um Stacy Ross uh members of the board I am Stacy Ross and a freedom mom I stand before you today to advocate for the reinstatement of Mr Lauren Velasquez as assistant principal at Freedom Elementary Mr Alaska has previously served our community with dedication and Excellence significantly contributing to the academic and personal
237growth of our students my two sons included his abrupt reassignment last year despite his expressed desire to remain at Freedom has had a noticeable impact on our school's environment and my children personally the recent resignation of our current assistant principal presents an opportunity to restore stability and Leadership by bringing Mr Velasquez back to his former role it is concerning that similar actions have affected other esteemed leaders in our district including former Freedom principal Tony Reynolds Mental Health Services and reading aids such patterns of reassignment and non-renewal of contracts not only disrupt the continuity of educational programs but also undermine the trust and morale within our community the Liberty school district has recently faced significant challenges including numerous teacher resignations and public calls for leadership changes these issues have prompted parents in teachers to demand the
238resignations of the superintendent and two board members leaving me concerned about the district's Direct Direction in governance re reinstating Mr Velasquez would be a positive step toward addressing these challenges his familiarity with our school's culture proven leadership and his commitment to our students make him not only an ideal candidate to help rebuild and strengthen our community but also comes with my personal recommendation as the combat search and rescue medic retired from the United States Air Force by the way first woman first woman doing it um I urge the board to consider the voices of Freedom families and community members who all support Mr Velasquez's return his reinstatement would would not only benefit our students and staff but also signal to Freedom parents like myself that the district is committed to stability excellence and responsiveness to
239our concerns and finally restore trust our children deserve the best which means recruiting and retaining proven Educators to mentor and lead them must be Priority One so with respect if Mr if Mr V is willing to return then I insist we bring him back because not all heroes wear capes some of them are just leaders for our children and they love him dearly thank you for your time have a great one the next speaker is Chrystal [Applause] Lea oh sorry the next speaker is Crystal Lea sorry if I said your last name wrong all right ready start oh it starts my thank you um good evening everyone I am Christal Lea and a parent of a student at a Str Mountain Elementary School first I'd like to say I'm sorry to Dr Monro I agree
240that you should not be receiving threats on your personal phone or at your place of worship that is unacceptable Behavior I also heard in the audience former board member Paul Bixler receiv received similar threats Miss Bixler I'm sorry that you experienced this as well that is not acceptable behavior my primary concern is the financial state of the District board members while findings are common and to be expected the risk assessment included an indicator of the severity Liberty was rated as high risk in several areas if I understood the presentation correctly we started the 2025 school year $2 million in the negative thank you Mr Sirion for accepting responsibility because you were part of the board at that time I believe a full independent audit is necessary at this point I agree that the full responsibility
241was not on Mr Bolton however I believe that he should have identified these shortfalls sooner especially since we recently learned how deficient our policies and practices are within the district with that said our current situation as a result of the poor leadership in the district office I believe these positions need to be reconsidered I also believe we need to look internally at incomplete projects before making staff Cuts such as Loretta zumbro the transportation center and other inessential programs Mr Kenyan you speak of Civility but there have been many instances of poor Behavior by your and former board member Brian Parks openly mocking Miss merman during meetings and disrupting public meetings I just witnessed you personally placing responsibility on Mrs Zimmerman for Mr Mr Balden departing I would like the board to verify if Mr Kenyan
242violated board policy by making a personal attack on a fellow board member policy restricts public commentary about fellow board members to maintain dequorum avoid personal attacks and ensure that discussions regarding District business happened during official meetings this is often done to prevent bias or the appearance of bias in decision-making I also witness Miss Bixler personally attacked during the call to the public Pro unprovoked regarding her gender identity the board facilitators at the time Mr Kenyan and Parks did not protect their fellow board member as Mr Kenyan stated we ask for civility but that has not been demonstrated at an earlier meeting Mr Kenyan attacked parenting choices by including children and board meetings I have personally brought my daughter to a board meeting to speak on behalf of her principal at no time was she in
243any risk or danger community members appear to be speaking on behalf of their friends and not topics related to current District challenges for example impeding a community survey to nominate new board members I agree we should all be behaving civil so that we can achieve this common goal of improving our district thank you next speaker is Suzanne [Applause] makoy hi my name is Suzanne makoy I am a teacher in the district but I'm here tonight as a parent with two students in the district and a taxpayer I feel compelled to Pivot from what I was previously going to speak about because I need to stand up for what is right and against bullies Mr Kenyan you spoke about a claim you spoke against what you claimed to be division yet where Were You When Miss
244Bixler was receiving threats I've seen those threats through the foyer your chose you CH choice to to silence them you chose silence then and now why speak out you are being a hypocrit Dr Monroe you know the comments made about Kelly are nothing short of falsehood you were there why are you staying silent you have spent 2 million over the approved budget you dipped into our reserves and you still using our funds like Monopoly money for frivolous things like frame pictures of board members and the superintendent in every Lobby $800 each for flashy customer service signs in each School Lobby new logos for our vehicles trucks and boards and let's not forget about the dinner for board members which is actually against State Statute because it's a gift as we Face the reality of potential
245cuts it is shocking to see that the positions that are are being considered to be eliminated are those directly impact our students the teachers the counselors the reading interventionist instructional coaches the staff that worked tirelessly every day to nurture our child's growth could now face layoffs yet I do not see any Cuts being proposed to the district administr um admin positions now let's move on to the issue of the new school Loretta zombro according to the Arizona audit general report the change in rem um enrollment from fi 2023 to 2024 was three students are we really building a new school for three students students did we really think that three students is considered significant growth we have two sitting board members Chris Kenyan and Brian Cerrone who approved a new school that we basically have
246no growth um we only have one school at capacity the rest are well below capacity EMES is at 557 capacity they have 830 seats available Freedom 581 capacity is 914 Las priestas 680 enrolled capacity 82 Liberty 303 capacity 580 Rainbow Valley 588 enrolled 858 capacity Westar 798 enrolled capacity 896 our district without L zumbra has a capacity for 5,852 students we only have 4,654 so we have room for 1200 new students why in the world did we new build a new school instead Chris Kenyon and um ceroni rubber stamped everything what you really should have done is asked the questions redrew School boundary lines instead we have wasted taxpayers money if you don't have the time to do this job or the ability you should resign you are playing with our kids future and we
247aren't going we [Music] ar your time is up the next speaker is Debbie rard okay thank you good evening ladies and gentlemen my name is Debbie Reinhardt I am a teacher at Freedom Elementary um I was a former teacher uh for a while my husband has worked in the district for 20 years and three of my grandchildren are attending schools in the district I was first employed by the Liberty 25 District immediately after getting my teaching certificate in 2008 unfortunately in 2010 I was let go as part of the reduction in force due to budget crisis I volunteered and subbed in the district after that even after I was employed by other districts I always felt the pull to come home to Liberty 25 four years ago I finally had that opportunity and my life
248was good again but now it doesn't feel like home it doesn't feel like the community that it's always been decisions are being made unilaterally without input or concern for all stakeholders of this community employees are being treated like scrap paper that needs to be discarded to make everything appear pretty people no longer feel appreciated and valued by the district I have two cases in point the first is the board's decision not to offer contracts to two of the certified teachers at Freedom simply because they do not did not start the beginning of the school school year last year or this year this is the definition of ridiculous reasoning Mr Hills the freedom PE teacher and Mrs sorby the fifth grade science and social studies teacher are both outstanding teachers well-liked by staff and students they
249didn't start the beginning of the year because other teachers were in those positions both of whom resigned due to the culture and poor decisions of administration in fact it was several poor decisions from last year that led to the openings at Freedom in the first place place but the PE and fifth grade science and social studies positions still need to be filled for next year I cannot comprehend why they would not be offered contracts to stay in place instead of creating two more openings at Freedom my second case in point is the forced resignation of Lauren Velasquez as AP he was taken away from Freedom last year and split between blue Horizons and Rainbow Valley this year now his position which was created specifically for for him is being dissolved and rather than transfer him
250back to Freedom or somewhere else within the district he is being told to resign or face non-renewal but he could reapply if he wanted to Lauren is a great asset to the district and is and always has been wanted by the parents and staff of freedom in closing I implore the board to deny Mr Velasquez's resignation and transfer him to the AP position at Freedom and to offer Mrs sorby and Mr Hills teaching contracts at Freedom as well thank [Music] you just going to resp uh respond to a public criticism that I'm allowed to do um that it was directed at me um I did not have that report until 6:30 the night before um because District administration did not give us time to prepare which report the report that I was accused of asking
251Mr Balden about did you meet with him before I did meet with him before and that is my responsibility as a board member to ask questions and so I did meet with him before but in order for the board to have all of the same information it is the expectation that I ask those questions in public as well because it is the responsibility of board members it's to allow the staff to prepare their answers so that they are not surprised that is the reason for meeting with someone ahead of time or asking questions ahead of time but it is absolutely our responsibility to conduct all of the business of the spard in public and it is our responsibility to ask questions and I will continue to do that so we're going to move on to
252the consent agenda which is 7.1 the approval of the consent agenda is there anything that um anybody would like pulled I'd like to pull 7.3 7.7 and 7.8 if there's nothing else to be pulled I'd take a motion said 37 and eight 3 and eight yes uh motion to approve the consent agenda minus 7.3 7.7 and 7.8 and I'll second okay we have hold on sorry we lose battery again yes ma'am motion to approve the consent agenda minus 7.3 7.7 and 7.8 did you get that Mr Kenyan was the second okay yes second okay we'll call for the vote Mr Kenyan I Miss Schmidt I Mr suoni I and I'm also and I will prove that 4 to zero we'll go ahead and move into um 7.3 which is personal action items um so my
253first question is you know earlier we had talked about a hiring freeze um and I know that the how did you get it to do that um sorry yeah okay um so we had the Blue Horizon teachers that are on there uh can you just explain what those are for please yes those were already in the hopper before the freeze one was the teacher whose uh spouse got called back to Washington DC and the other was a teacher that got a promotion okay so these are already like classes that exist we're not adding any sections no these are to fill kids that are in seats right now okay um if we go on to support staff um you know um the question that I have is for the maintenance in HVAC because I did ask
254a question for staff ahead of time for them to be prepared um and I was told that was a new position so can we explain why we are hiring a new position from this is also from before this was not from since the freeze this was in the works before as well okay but it is a new position that's being created right now that was created yes okay so what is the district's need for this current position that we don't have currently I think Mr mam Madam vice president members of the board uh that position was brought to the board I I don't have the date on it but we were uh Contracting out air filter changes and stuff for $80,000 a year and we brought it to the board to see if we could
255open the position up for an hbac technician and preventative maintenance specialist that we do not have currently on staff and the board approved that position and that's when we started uh H you know looking for that position and hiring a person for it okay so who did this previous like who changed the air filters previously there was an outside vendor that did it we were paying $8,000 a year for an outside contractor to come in and change filters and this person will do them in-house and we're saving about $330,000 a year by doing it inhouse plus we have a full-time hbac Tech to help work on the air conditioning units and other items of Maintenance all year long and um did we contract out for the filters last year too yes um the other questions
256um just for transparency sake um I asked about the other positions that are listed in the support staff because again we are in a budget situation that they are Replacements so that's why I'm not addressing them um the other thing I want to look at is the vacation payout so um we see the payouts for um Derek diesner and Dane Balden um when administrators are hired are they given all of their days upfront or do they acrew them they are all given upfront okay are teachers given all their days upfront or they AC cred I not my team is here they're ACW I believe they are ACW they're cruded so if they leave in the middle of the year they're not entitled to the same vacation time thank you um in a in a in
257a report it was told that we you know don't pay out vacation until after the person's last day to ensure that it's you know calculated correctly so it says here that Mr balin's last day is not until the 6th so um why are we approving it now we're including it now because it's such a long time between now and our next board meeting I still think it can be brought back at another board meeting um I just I want to make sure that we're following the policy so if the policy is that we don't bring it back until after um the person has worked their last day which is what we were told this week then you know I just think it's important that we're consistent in what we do so if we do for
258one we should be doing the same um and you know this is goes back to you know should we only be having one meeting a month but that's a different um thing okay um of course on that I apologize for the interruption but no no um maybe a solution is we're looking at possibly having an emergency meeting next week and check and see if that maybe that can be added to next week's meeting yeah we just need to make the motion that way I mean I'm still concerned you know um about the HVAC person and because we haven't you know have we bid out the contract for you know replacing the filters have we bid that out to to know if it's really um if there are other you know vendors that could do it
259less expensively we I bid the filters I I got three quot for filters and the the company that we were using was the least expensive of them okay but it was still $80,000 and that's a lot of money just to come in the change filters so right and so now we're going to pay a person but I assume I assume that contract included the filters correct no the filters were additional oh they were additional okay so we we still buy the filters and this person would be changed on that okay I apologize I'm going to ask Mr Dangerfield because I pulled three items um do we need to are we approving the this particular item 7.3 and then we move on to the other ones okay um so if somebody's ready to make a motion
260for 7.3 I can make a motion to approve the Personnel items with the change of get there Dame balin's on page three sorry there there it is uh Dame balin's uh payout day until we're not sure the meeting date I think it's Monday of next week but can I say until the next board meeting the next board meeting many D did you get that I second okay we have a motion in a second for 7.3 we'll call the vote Mr Kenyan I miss Schmid I Mr cenon I and I'm also an i we'll show that pass four to zero uh we'll go ahead and move on to 7.7 which is a cell tower lease agreement um Mr Young could you just uh for the public explain um where the cell tower is going to be
261located yes uh Madam vice president members of the board uh they're up on Australia School up on the uh by the ballpark up on the North side of the school and they will be right outside the baseball fence uh there'll be two of them right underneath where the field lights are there'll be two enclosures uh uh one on each Pole um are they going to be closer to the wall or more in the Outfield of the baseball field they're on the outside of the chain Lan far far outside of the field towards the soccer side of it but they're not up against the wall they're up against the oh that The Big Field and it's not going to interfere with that second field that's right there correct we went out and walked in measured it
262and everything and it it will not interfere with the S field do you know what the distance is between the you know where it's being and then that Outfield I'm just picturing our kids playing because we use that field there is a map on the on the attachment 18t no oh it's page 18 okay um you know is the compensation to the district is um $188,000 is that a is that a competitive agreement or a competitive price you know did you price it out with other you know school districts uh Madam vice president members of the board yes we uh some District were 700 a month some were higher depending on location and you know where where the towers could go but 18 18,000 year was uh pretty competitive for the area of what we're
263doing here course that's a about 2% increase each year correct correct um and was it was it bid in accordance with procurement because it's over um $10,000 did we bid other companies we're not installing these this is just an agreement for the company to come in and install them they're going to pay us and they came to us is that what you're saying this company correct okay okay are there any question other questions just one thing I know it's been kind of a a sticking point with some of the community is it's 20 years like standard so it seems like a really long time to least land out yeah what we're doing we've actually had other contractors approach us and walked away because we wouldn't give them a 30-year deal oh really and we're uh
264according to our attorney we do one one day less than 20 years is the most we can commit to thank you okay if there are no other questions I'll take a motion for 7.8 or excuse me 7.7 I motion to approve the cell tower lease agreement between Liberty Elementary School District number 25 and lexcom Towers JV LLC a second okay we have a motion in a second I'll call for the vote Mr Kenyan I Miss Schmidt I Mr sunon I and I'm also and I will show that approved four to zero we'll go ahead and go on to 7.8 which is the expense vouchers um on the voucher 2529 um there is a payment to large foot LLC um which I understand is the new website agreement or the new website um host host um
265I noticed on one of the things that was provided to the board you know for the work study session is that it talked about cutting potentially cutting the website so is that um parts that we were going to pay for or I just want to make sure we're not paying for something and then we're going to cut it good evening I can attempt to answer um yes that is a payment to juice boox large foot I think you called it is their corporate name um what we paid for is for them to get started on parts of the website they were going to be designing our logo and doing some of the other pieces like that um it also was a portion of the first Year's fee um so we could as a district do
266investigation to see if any of that would be refundable um okay the second thing in that particular voucher I'm still in voucher 2529 which is um you know the payment to Amy Costello's who is running the policies and I just bring it to the attention of the board for you know as we move forward with the budget if we consider you know is that necessary or should we be relying on our district staff to kind of walk us through the policy because Amy does not work for the trust policies correct correct she does she doesn't so it's it's not we're not paying somebody that work directly works for the trust to help us with the policies so it's just something that I would like the board to consider moving forward um and then uh the
267last one for that voucher is Valley Schools management which seems to be a Consulting service so could you speak to what they do yes they can um Valley Schools management employs a specific individual his name is Bill Munch he's been at some of our board meetings in the past he's highly experienced in the world of purchasing and procurement um and as you probably know that's an area that districts don't have a lot of training um and it's incredibly legal and there's all the ins and outs so we use him in the business office for second opinions um Consulting he trains when we have new staff members um especially someone that directly oversees procurement um he also helps when we have an RFP an RFQ or anything where we go out forbid he helps um prepare
268those documents that have to be put out to the public um and he has come in the past when we're bringing an RFQ to the board as assistance for our team as well okay um I'm going move on to voucher 2530 um the in Buckeye LLC the advertising um how long did we um sign a contract to advertise for it was a three thre Monon agreement okay and I believe that this was the second month I believe so I could check a date though I'm pretty sure I saw it in the last month's voucher um and then also just uh you know for clarity for the board's sake that maximum healthare Staffing if you look at um the payment um you know these are contracted positions because we weren't able to hire them and so
269just to show you how valuable it is for our district to try to hire um our own people for a special education because it really is a significant difference in price they're about $150,000 um for a special education teacher versus you know what our average teacher salary is 68 ,000 um okay voucher 2532 um there was a a piece of equipment bought for uh $221,000 um could we um understand why that piece of equipment was needed yes I think I'll need assistance from Bob but it was the excavator Bob for the grounds team that's Madam president members of the board that is correct okay and and what is you know what specifically were you looking to do with that piece of equipment what do you're not able to do now and you know to justify
270the purchase we we have found over the years that we just brought the ground screw back in that a lot of repairs were not done to the irrigation system underneath so we have a lot of digging and trenching that we have to do and uh that's the piece of equipment that helps with that but what we've been finding is in instead of the that was contracted repairing broken sprinkler uh control lines they were putting what they call nodes on an individual battery on each valve all over so you couldn't control them from the time clock and stuff so they were it's just kind of a big Mis array of uh timers going off and on at all times and you know they they battery operated you're going to go out and change the battery so
271we're digging up putting new control lines and new time clock to make sure everything's automatic so we can get the grounds look the best again okay um I just want to point out that it was you know purchase with Bond dollars and you know that isn't necessarily something that that the voters approve now that's obviously they're not going to approve a very specific piece of equipment but you know where that would fall would be um improvements to schools and deferred maintenance and did we ever have an excavator before uh any equipment that we had for the ground was left to rock out behind the maintenance yard there it was everything was just I mean we tried to fix what we could but most just jump so okay um voucher 2533 we paid $3,000 for a
272proposal for a traditional math curriculum um it is not my understanding that it is typical for us to pay for a proposal um these companies want our money and that we paid for a proposal that didn't come before the board we didn't approve to have this curriculum and this particular company the Sox and math it's being discontinued correct they've been saying that for years so why are we paying for a proposal for a curriculum that's going to be discontinued yeah it we've been told it's going to be discontinued in four or five years that they say that pretty much every year and so we we had to be able in in order to be able to use pilot their curriculum that was kind of the terms that they had um uh that in order to
273Pilot it that we had to be able to pay for the pilot but it is it is going to be discontinued and uh yeah and like I said that's a statement we they've said all the time and that that could come up as a potential reduction like we've talked about and not even do that at Loretta zro that's on our ideas for savings have we ever paid for a pilot of a curriculum before in this District I'm sorry have we ever paid for a pilot of a curriculum in this District uh I I'm not sure uh if we paid for a pilot I know uh when sometimes when you pilot you have to pay to use their materials but I don't know in Liberty okay and the last thing in the voucher 2533 on uh
274219 one day before the study session where it was outlined that the district was2 million uh projected to be $2 million over budget there was a truck purchased um what was the purpose of um what was the need of the truck I'm sorry was that um so in that last voucher there was a truck purchase the day before the study session where the district came to the board with um you know concern of being $2 million over what was the need what what was the justification for purchasing a truck oh sorry yeah Madam vice president members of the board that was for the new air conditioning guy okay that hadn't come before the board yet I'm sorry the the new air conditioning guy that had not come before the board yet that position yes okay
275okay those are all my questions if we want to make a motion for 7.8 motion to approve 7.8 oh my gosh it's it's gone now there we go you ready motion to approve ratify expense vouchers 2529 2530 2532 and 2533 in the amount of 3,194 33.9 second okay we have did you get Mr Kenyan was the second okay uh we have a motion in a second I'll call for the vote Mr Kenyan hi Miss Schmidt hi Mr cioni I I'm also and I will show that four to zero okay we'll move on to 88.1 possible action to convenient executive session pursuant to ARS 38-4 31.03 A3 discussion for consultation for legal advice with the attorney or the attorneys of the public body in ARS 38-43 1.03 A1 discussion or consideration of assignment of a public
276officer superintendent contract ad Amendment evaluation procedure I'll try it make a motion to convene an executive session pursuing to ARS 38-43 1.03 A3 discussion for consultation for legal advice with the attorney or attend attorneys of the public body and area ARS 38- 43103 A1 discussion or consideration of assignment of a public officer superintendent contract Amendment evaluation procedure I second okay so we have a motion in a second I'll call for the vote Mr Kenyan I Miss Schmidt I mron I I'm also and I will show that approve 4 Z and we're in executive session at 8:51 e e for