001called the Liberty Elementary School District governing board regular meeting to order. It is 5:30 p.m. on Monday, March 2nd, 2026. We are at the Jerry Roie district office. We have five board members present. Board member Todd, member Kenyon, member Zimmerman, Vice President Sirenion, and myself, Member Schmidt. [snorts] Uh we will begin with the pledge of allegiance. Vice President Sinone, will you lead us, please? Algiance 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, approval of regular agenda form. We have a motion. I make a motion to approve the irregular agenda form consistent with board policy 1-302 and temporarily suspend governing board policy with which this agenda may be inconsistent. Thank you. We have a
002motion. Do we have a second? >> Second. >> Okay. A motion and a second. We can take a vote. Member Todd. >> I. >> Member Kenyon. I. >> Member Zimmerman. I. >> Member Serion. Hi. >> I'm also an I. We'll show that passed five to zero. can move on to agenda item 2.1 attendance enrollment reports and school newsletters. Are there any questions from board members about any of these? Mishment, please go ahead. Okay. Um, you know, I always want to be as transparent as possible with the public. And so, if you want to pull up the enrollment report, um, we did gain 50 students this month. Um, which is a great number. Um, so I'm sure we're all um, relieved to see that number go up. Um, obviously we'll need to continue to watch it
003um over time to ensure that trend continues, but certainly that is um a great positive for the district this month. Um, if you could pull up the home room report now, please. [clears throat] Um if we could go down to um yes, West Star. Um so if Thank you so much. Um could you tell us what the U MAG class target size is um for MAG? Yes, member Zimmerman, Madame President, members of the board. So, we researched the MAG classes and it looks to us like the practice has been to try to staff MAG classes at about 18. We found a board presentation um that was done in 2024. However, we also could not find any formally adopted board policy or procedures um to document that target class size. So administration is seeking uh board
004guidance and formal recommendation for uh the the MAD classes. >> Okay. Cuz you know as we are uh you know as the district is looking at staffing obviously having a number you know a class size at 12 um feels very low um in addition to paying that teacher a $9,000 stipend. Um you know for me that that seems quite concerning. um and the fact that those students push into regular ed classrooms for a portion of the day as well. So I just think it is something that the board should discuss. Um but I just was curious when I looked at that number and so is that 12 cuz it says the second section is that the 34 class I assume. >> Yeah. So current currently we have 12 students in our third fourth grade MAD
005class. Okay. >> And we have 21 in our fifth through 8th grade MAD class. >> Okay. Um, and I also looked to see if there was board policy or something that had been and you know I didn't find that board presentation. So that's good that you guys found it. Um, but when I was also looking at the sped um class sizes and again you know I'm just trying to make sure that we're adhering to policy. So our our sped class ratios are in policy. It's not just like annually approved. they are in policy um 5-211 um and the ratio for sped is 1 to2 um and so there are quite a few not quite a few there are three um over and not by a lot but certainly I think it's important that we keep
006that in mind when we're looking at the ratios and the staffing for next year because we know our sped population is you know are one of our most vulnerable and we want to make sure that you know one we're following policy obviously. Um but two, giving them, you know, what they need um and legally essentially what they're entitled to. Um and um I think that's all I had for this agenda item. Thank you, >> Madam President. If I may. Yes, please. >> Um, on this same token, we have a sped class for every district, correct? Or for every campus? >> That's correct. >> Okay. But the district as a whole only has one mag class. Correct. >> Correct. Well, two classes, one location, Westar. >> Thank you. So, I know of kids who are make
007that trip up the hill um from through all over the district. And so, just kind of want to highlight that for transparency. Every every campus has a sped class. However, there's only one MAD class in the whole district. Thank you. >> I just want to clarify that not every campus has a sped self-contained. Every every campus has resource, but not every campus has sped self-contained. Those are two different things. So, the ratio that I was referring to was sped self-contained. Any other comments or questions about this agenda item? All right. Then we can move on to item 2.2, the monthly budget report for February 2026. I will hand over Miss Williams. Are you in charge of us today? I said, "Are you in charge today for the budget report?" >> Um, I believe you're referring
008to the U breakdown. Is that the one we're referring to? >> Yeah. 2.2, the spreadsheet, the Excel doc. >> Um, do you have any questions about it? It's just a continuation from adding the next month on. >> Yep. Are there questions? I just had one. Go for the classroom site fund. Excuse me. Um, so what we have left to pay teachers for this year should be what that encumbered number is. Is that a correct statement? >> Uh, no. I believe that um we have not encumbered the June and the August money. Okay. So the >> check that. >> Okay. But the August would be the following fiscal year, >> but we pay it out of this year. >> Oh, okay. >> We can pay anything in June, July, and August in this current year if
009it's encumbered. And then um then we start next year with the July forward. Um, so we're crossing the fiscal year because it's money they've earned this year. >> Okay. So, you know, when we I guess when we I thought that basically we encumbered everything that we knew we were going to pay to help us know where we're going to end up. So, >> I need to verify that the way the payroll runs whether they've implement or put in all of those stipens yet. >> Okay. So, do you think like the M and like salaries encumbered that >> they M is encumbered. We run that encumbrance every other week. >> Okay. But >> the classroom site fund >> that one I'm not sure of because it's a stipen separate from the regular payrolls. >> Okay. Um
010and did you find out if if uh based on the last study session if we have encumbered those open district positions? >> There are the superintendent and some of the higher ones or not. There's a few of the people who have physically left this current year. the remainder of theirs is encumbered. But if they were never hired this year, then no, they were not. >> So like the superintendent, the director of finance, and the assistant superintendent of ed services >> are not because they don't have anyone in them currently. >> Okay. So then when we when you did the budget numbers and kind of moved things over, were those positions not part of that? No, I did not add them back in because you haven't given me permission to move them back in. Even though
011I know we will, I haven't add actually added them back in. >> Okay. So, it would be my request >> to put them back in because I feel like we need to have an accurate number, especially when we get to the budget. >> Okay. But that's going to throw off our encumbrances by that amount because they'll be encumbered this year and we won't physically pay them out this year. Does that make sense to you? >> It does. But I feel like this is supposed to help us know like where we would be and at any moment, right, we could hire the director of finance and um the assistant superintendent of ed services and potentially the superintendent if they wanted to start earlier. I don't know. I'm just, you know, I'm playing hypotheticals, right? But I
012think we use this for future planning and those those are huge numbers and I think it's going to really affect the budget and what we need to cut even more than what you already told us. >> Yeah. Let me work with payroll and see how that will affect our incumbrances for the year and get back to you. >> Okay. Thank you so much. Any other questions about the budget sheet? All right, moving on to item 3.1, governing board update um on district related activities participated in and current events um member Todd, would you like to go first? >> Sure. Thank you. um had the great honor again of attending the district-wide uh festival of the arts uh art showcase over at Australia last week. It continues to be a great event. Uh every year I
013leave there thinking it won't be as good next year. It can't be as good and then it is better. So kudos to the entire district, everybody that works in that. I know that takes a a village to put together and it's uh it's just fantastic. There's not a single piece of artwork that's on display that doesn't register on a on a high scale it from the younger grades all the way to the upper grades. So, it's just a fantastic event. Uh so many people well attended it. It was great. Um the other thing today was kind of an exciting day. We kicked off national uh read a book week. Um and uh I received a inquiry from Los Besus campus about a week and a half ago asking if I'd come out and read if
014I could think of anybody else. And I had the great honor of inviting uh Goodyear mayor Joe Pazillo, Goodyear Police Chief Brian Isit, and Major League Baseball umpires Gabe Morales and Malachi Moore all came out to Las today to read. So it's pretty cool to see the kids uh being read to by these folks. They were all in line to get autographs from the umpires. Um there's only 76 Major League Baseball umpires in the world and we had two of them at our campus today. um not only did they read but they talked to the kids about leadership and the ability to be one of those one in 76 in anything that they want to do. So it was a great great event. I can't thank uh all very good friends of mine. The mayor
015uh Chief is relatively still new at the Goodyear Police Department and he's just really doing great things and wants to be a a big partner to our district. Um not only was he there but he had three of his officers out reading and they're coming back throughout the rest of the week to read. So really huge thanks to the Goodyear Police Department again, Major League Baseball and and Mayor Pazillo. Uh couldn't ask for a better kickoff to that event. So I'll conclude my report. >> Board member Kenyon. >> Yeah, thank you. I don't have a lot um on this report other than as everybody knows there's a conflict in the Middle East. And you would ask why am I bringing that up? Well, I'm bringing it up because we actually have parents that are over
016there right now in our district. And so I just wanted to let them know and those kids who are dealing with those spouses that our thoughts and prayers are with you and uh hope everything turns out good. >> Board member Zimmerman, >> thank you very much. Um, I also, um, was able to attend the district-wide Festival of the Arts. Um, and it really is an incredible, um, display of our schools really coming together. It is our only district-wide event all year long. Um, and so it's a really special event um, that really, you know, gives us uh, opportunity to showcase our kids. Um, and super impressed with the art and the musicals that were previewed. I like wrote some of the dates down because we have some really talented singers um, in our district. And
017so it was just really um, a fun night to be a part of um, and be able to talk to parents and to staff. Um, and you know, I just want to thank um, Estrella for hosting it. I think it's their fourth year hosting um which you know is an undertaking in itself but you know every champ's teacher that um you know dedicated their time really all year to prepare kids to you know be able to participate in this event um and um I just want to remind our community and our staff that tomorrow evening we will have a um meet and greet with our um finalist for the superintendent position. So, I would encourage everybody to come out um and have the opportunity to meet the three finalists um and share your feedback with
018the board because there is no more important decision that this board is going to make. So, um I certainly welcome your feedback and and wish to represent your voice in this process. Thank you. >> Members here. Yes, I was able to make it out to West Star's festival or it was it was amazing. It was a great turnout. Tons of community members were there. Uh it was nice to see the support from the community cuz I don't think um I think the PTO had a lot of support outside of the school cuz I don't think there was a lot of teachers actually running it. I think there's a lot of volunteers so teachers could actually focus on attending it and being out in the community. So that was really cool to see and it was
019a great turnout. Tons of tons of families running around. That's all I have for this week. Thank you. Um, I also attended the Festival of the Arts last week. Um, as everybody said, it was a great turnout. It was a great time. I enjoyed getting a chance to talk to some of our principles and teachers and family members. Um, and listen to the amazing singers and performers that we have in the district. I also put dates in my calendar already to mark off weekends to go see shows. Um, and it was just a really great showing for everyone. The band sounded great, too, if you made it into that room to listen to them. Seeing them all come together when they only get to practice together one time. Um, it's amazing. Such a good It's
020such a feat and it just shows how dedicated the teachers are to get them ready for that. Um, so that was a great time. Glad to see so many people there. It was warm. Um, but better warm than raining, I guess. So, uh, yay for us for that. And then just to echo what board member Zimmerman said, I hope to see, well, I won't be here, but I hope all of you are here tomorrow evening um, to meet the candidates for the superintendent and get to talk to them and see what you all think and then provide feedback to us before we make a decision. [clears throat] Um, and that is it for board updates this evening. We move on to item 4.1 um call to the public and vice president sinion m president we
021have four speakers tonight. First is Miss Cananan. >> Good evening members of the board. My name is Megan Cananan and I'm a parent in this district. I previously previously spoke to you about concerns regarding leadership, communication, transparency, and accountability. Tonight, I want to clarify something that has been mischaracterized. The issue of trust. And I want to be very clear that when I say that when I say it, I mean community. I mean when I say community, I mean parents, staff, and family together. When I spoke about trust, I was not advocating for blind trust. Trust does not mean ignoring red flags or silencing questions. It means educating yourself on policies and procedures, asking thoughtful questions, and then placing confidence in individuals who have years of professional experience and a proven record of ethical leadership. Informed
022trust is healthy. Blind trust is not. But trust must also be applied in intentionally between administration and staff. When serious matters arise, especially terminations or disciplinary issues, due process is essential. Both parties deserve fairness. transparency and the opportunity to be heard. No one should be able to use a superior position to intimidate, pressure, or overpower someone. When staff feels vulnerable, unsupported, or fear fearful of retaliation, that impacts the entire school community, including students and families. We continue to hear statements about rebuilding trust and [clears throat] increasing community involvement. Yet, when parents and staff show up, document concerns, and speak respectfully, they are dismissed as just a group of crazy, unhappy parents. That language minimizes not only parents, but also the ed educators and support staff who share similar concerns, but may feel unable to speak
023publicly. And then we wonder why surveys are not completed. Engagement declines when people feel unheard. Participation declines when people fear retaliation. Many families and staff members have expressed concern that speaking up could negatively affect their children or their employment. That is not a culture of trust. That is a culture of fear. As the consulting firm described using words from an interview, this has become a community of survivors. That includes parents, staff, and families who feel they have endured inconsistent communication, dismissiveness, and a lack of meaningful responses to concerns. If rebuilding trust is truly the goal, then it requires accountability, transparency, and leadership that restores confidence rather than deepened division. At this time, I do not believe that can happen under the current leadership. Thank you. >> Next is Miss Wright. Good evening. My name is
024Ashley Wright and with renewed interest in the bus grant, I wanted to share an email I got in a recent FOYA. It was written by uh Dr. Court Monroe on January 10th, 2024. The excerpt states, "We are going through budgeting currently, lost the bond, had a slight enrollment dip, and do not even have enough funds to build school number eight and the transportation complex. And out of the blue, there's a great opportunity that no one knows about that could cost us up to $1.5 million [snorts] with the electric buses that are still not common place for most districts. Can we get a lower price by shopping around? Do we have to go with RWC? Can we buy less than 13? Who agreed to this? Why was I not told about this? Do we even have
025the money for infrastructure as part of the transportation complex to handle this? APS considerations, lots of questions. The optics don't look good or the optics also look off to me that we do not even have enough money from the last bond to build new buildings, offices, a shop for transportation for now. They will still work in their current locations. But we are going to potentially have some new cutting edge electric buses in the yard that we are using. Before any of us parents came to this podium, we went to Dr. Monroe directly. We met with him in every capacity that he would allow. Formal meetings, informal conversations, emails, even catching him in the school parking lot just to get answers. We tried to handle this the right way. Dr. Monroe often said he loved involved
026parents until those parents starting asking hard questions. We asked about the need for a new school during declining enrollment. We asked about electric buses, infrastructure, maintenance costs, and long-term financial impacts. Each time we were told to trust the plan, it wasn't just Dr. Monroe. Current and former board members stood beside him at every coffee with the superintendent, every board meeting, and you publicly supported every word he spoke. The reassurances didn't come from one person. They came from this board. Now, we know there were serious internal concerns about funding and sustainability. We didn't have the enrollment or resources to justify a new school, nor the funds to pay half of the new electric bus grant. We knew he knew the optics were bad, which is why all he had left was to tell us to trust
027the plan. The very plan that has put this district in the position we're in today. You all knew the position we were in and continue to ignore our concerns as parents. As you move forward in selecting a new superintendent, it's critical that they understand what this community has gone through, the transparency that is expected, and that this community will never again blindly trust the plan. We weren't being difficult. We were being responsible. And for now on we deserve honesty. >> Next up is Mr. Kandelaria. Good evening board members and everybody in attendance. Uh my name is Wumpampu Candeleria. I am a current coach at Rainbow Valley Elementary School. Um I have two boys that have promoted from there and one seventh grader that is still attending. Um, I know it's been a common theme for
028sports that our fields are in need of help. Um, and I feel that, um, we keep trying to resolve the problem with minor, you know, band-aids. Um, so I'm here to present to you a machine that I've worked with. I have over 14 years of pest control um knowledge and we use it for when I did work pest control, we used it for Scottsdale um community college, their baseball fields there, football fields. It's a tremendous machine. It would be able to be maneuvered between all the all the schools in the district. Um and I think it would be a great uh thing for us to invest in to make our facilities more safer for our players. Currently, right now at Rainbow, our soccer teams are not able to have any home games. Um, and congratulations
029to our boys soccer team who won the championship this year. Um, uh, also I don't get to attend a lot of meetings. I work late and I also coach, so sometimes the meetings are at the same time. Um, and I don't know if the topic ever came back up, but I know you guys sent out a survey about flag football. I have tons of kids asking about that and pushing heavily. Um, reason why I'm here today is because they said, "Hey, you said you were going to go, haven't gone, haven't gone." So, our season just ended. Um, so I just wanted to ask if there was any update on that survey that went out. Maybe you guys already talked about it and I missed it, but if you guys can maybe touch on that topic
030again, I appreciate it. And also, I have a folder of the machine if you guys would like me to leave it here for you guys so you guys can look at. Thank you. Next is Miss W. Good evening. I'm Suzanne Wald. I'm a resident of the Liberty Elementary School District. And this is a pivotal week for all of us in Liberty Elementary. Um, you board members are interviewing superintendent candidates tomorrow and the public is invited to a meet and greet afterwards. I have to say I'm disappointed that the interviews won't be open to the public. It would have been an opportunity for openness, transparency, and trust building, which were not parts of the hiring of the two previous superintendent. In contrast, a really long what seems like a million years ago. Um, the final interviews
031for candidates when we hired Dr. Schuff were open to the public. And I have to say as an audience member um there was unanimous consent among us that she was far and away the best candidate for the job and we were afraid that the bickering board would not hire her. And boy were we surprised and pleased and grateful. At that time, um, a contentious board made the choice to hire the person who was the best one to lead our district. Um, and it was a gift for all of us. So, as a group, you will be making a choice that will have long-term effects on our students, administrators, staff, families, and communities, as well as the economic health of our district. We urge you to choose well. This is your opportunity to make a choice
032that is best for our district, everybody who attends our schools, and the families and staff. um and the community. It's also an opportunity for you to restore the trust of employees, families, and community. There's a lot of heavy lifting ahead for the person that you hire, including the possibility of an override campaign in no for November. The last bond campaign failed shortly after the installment of a new superintendent. Who knows why? It's a mystery. The person you hire this week will need to be capable of quickly restoring the trust of the voting community. And I mean very very quickly if the board decides to go out for an override. Thanks much. >> Thank you. >> Go ahead. >> Sorry, Madam President. Um just a quick comment. Can we ask administration to follow up on the
033pest control machine and let the board know about that and then also the flag football? >> Yep. Mr. Young, you got the the papers, right? >> We will. Thank you. >> Yes. All right. Thank you. We can move on to consent agenda 5.1. Approval of consent agenda. Are any items to pull? Can we pull um 5.3 and 5.4 please? Anything else? All right. Somebody like to make a motion. [clears throat] >> I motion to approve the consent agenda with the exception of 5.3 and 5.4. Thank you. And a second. >> Second. >> All right. We have a motion and a second to approve the consent agenda with the exceptions of 5.3 and 5.4. We can take a vote. Member Todd >> I. >> Member Kenyon. >> Hi. >> Member Zimmerman. >> I. >> Member Serion.
034>> Hi. >> I'm also an I. We'll show that passed five to zero. And we can move to item 5.3. Approval ratification of expense vouchers 2628, 2629, 2630, and 2631 in the amount of 1,291,149.79. Um, Miss Zimmerman, what are what would you like to uh discuss? >> Um, so these are the expense vouchers from last month that we did not pass. I just want to be clear. Um I'm still concerned um in 2629 that there is an expense and I have told administration what my concerns were but due to the legal concern not going to discuss it publicly but I'm still concerned that we are approving something that uh happened in a prior fiscal year. Um and um I just don't believe it should be in this voucher. And so as as as we saw
035at the last meeting, we approved things that happened in a prior fiscal year and a separate agenda item. So I'm just pulling it out so that it can be voted on separately. [cough] Any other comments? Um or any comment from administration about the prior fiscal year pulling it out separately? Um Madame President, members of the board, I do not. Uh Miss Williams, do you have any problem with that? >> Okay. Just as a comment, it has been paid. So we just need to move forward with acknowledging that payment. >> President. >> Yes. Go ahead. >> If there's a legal concerned issue, what has legal said about it? >> I guess I should specify that it involved legal. You know what I mean? It's a it was a legal issue. And so I don't think it's
036appropriate for me to necessarily I mean anybody can look at it. So but I'm just not going to discuss it right here publicly, but I'm just saying it's in voucher 20 uh 2629. >> I I understand that. My question still is if there's concerns about it, have we had a legal opinion on it? And secondly, it's very hard to just guess. I thankfully I can't get into your mind and figure out what you're thinking. So I but I'm at a loss here is what what the concerns are. I may look at it and see it as as some concerns in one direction. You may see it in something different, but but it's really hard to read your mind and understand that. So, I would think that this would be surfaced from the board president to
037legal to get clarification and have your concerns answered appropriately so that the board has legal advice. I I just want to be clear too that I have shared it with district administration and the you know specific voucher number and you know I have been very specific to administration so I'm not trying to have anybody guess what's in my mind >> right but that hasn't been conveyed to us because that would be open meeting issue so it needs to go to legal and probably have an executive session or some legal clarification >> madam president >> yes please go ahead >> miss Williams are Are you familiar with I mean are you familiar with what Miss Simmerman's talking about the Okay. Is there any issues that you can see arise if we approve this tonight? >> No.
038>> Okay. Thank you. Okay. With that being said, would anybody like to make a motion or do we have other discussion that needs to happen? I'll make a motion to approve ratify expense vouchers 2628, 2629, 2630, and 2631 in the amount of 1,291,149.79. >> I'll second. >> Okay, we have a motion and a second. We can take a vote. U member Todd, >> I. >> Member Kenyon, >> I. >> Member Zimmerman, >> nay. >> Member Senzion, >> I'm also an I. We'll show that past 4 to one. Right. Moving on to item 5.4. Approval ratification of expense vouchers 2632, 2633, and 2634 in the amount of 1,33,267.18. Um, Miss Zimmerman. Thank you. Um, if we could pull up voucher 2632 and go to page 11, please um, it's at the bottom of page 11. It's
039actually Bank of America, but it's in regards to Varie. Um, so Mr. Young, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that this would now be like our second like payment with Varagy. Would that be correct? >> Uh, I think we've had more than >> Oh, okay. So, as I recall from that presentation, you know, we were supposed to see like a yearly, you know, um, savings, I guess, right? we we pay this up front and then you know when they presented to us they promised us like you know we're going to get the money if we don't reach that potential savings we're gonna they're going to like refund us essentially is what they said. So how is that all tracked and managed and all of that to ensure that you know we hold them
040account you know accountable for the savings they promised us. >> [clears throat] >> Madame President, members of the board, Miss Zimmerman, uh they haven't finished the project yet. They're still working on some of it. So, they have to finish the entire project before they can start the measurement verification process. >> Uh so, we we are actually seeing some savings because of some of the things are in process, but the actual measurement verification will not start taking place until the POS uh the project's completed in full. They're they're about wrapping it up now. They're a little bit of energy management system that they're doing over at Liberty and finishing up some wiring on the solar arrays at the different schools, but other than that, everything else is pretty much wrapped up. The new air conditioning units
041in, the water fixtures are in. Uh so we we keep in touch. We have weekly meetings with them, and we want to make sure that everything's going the way it's supposed to. Uh, one of the ways that I've been kind of looking at it is the uh, AES defined reports that I put on the board updates. They he he he shows you the savings that we're seeing in the district overall, not just because of the very, but he he reports on the whole how we're managing our energy for the whole district. So, we can see the savings on that. we can see where our usage is down but sometimes the costs are up because APS is raising the cost. So uh uh and then once that's in place and the measurement verification by very that'll
042be an annual meeting they'll say okay we were supposed to save this much either we did or we didn't if we didn't they'll pay the difference of what we were supposed to save to what we actually use. >> Okay. And so you think I apologize um that annual meeting will occur once like a year from the project completion. Is that what you anticipate? >> Yeah, we'll we'll we'll have some just to monitor it to see where we are, what's going on. But the the the actual verification meeting that will say, yeah, you did save it will be an annual once a year. M and so I assume there'll be some sort of baseline that they'll take. Okay. >> Yeah. They measured that before they started where we're at. This is what we're going to say.
043>> Okay. >> And you know that's the guaranteed saving, >> right? Okay. >> And so once that once that's in place and everything's up and running the way it's supposed to and then we'll measure that yearly and they'll see if actually hitting that. >> Okay. Perfect. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> Um Oh, did >> Madam President, [clears throat] real quick? >> Yep. Go ahead. I just would like to caution the board uh uh and try not to use expense vouchers which are talking about specific payments to divert to getting off topic because we can get very quickly into something that's not on the agenda and be an open meeting violation. If we could go to voucher 2634, page nine. Um, this was for this is also at the bottom of page nine.
044It looked like some consulting for sped. Um, I was just wondering is this um will this be like an ongoing expense or was this a one-time consulting expense? >> Member Zimmerman, Madam President, members of the board, I wouldn't say it was either one. This expense did come from the special services for consulting, for coaching, compliance, training, um, and also to fill vacancies um, needed for behavior support and whatnot. We have several vacancies in the special services department. So, this was for that. Um in addition if there are further needs for trainings, coaching, compliance related services, we may again ask them for some consultant work ex uh in you know in the future. >> Okay. So is this for consulting or is this for filling a position? >> I am going to ask Dr. Abula to
045approach the consulting. Okay. Consulting. >> Okay. All right. Thank you very much. Any other further questions about these? >> Okay. Do we have a motion? >> I make a motion to approve 5.4. >> Second. >> Okay. We have a motion to approve 5.4 and a second. Can take a vote. Member Todd >> I. >> Member Kenyon. Members Zimmerman. >> I. >> Member Sarini. >> Hi. I'm also an I will show that passed 5. We can move on to general business. Um 6.1 discussion approval of contract language of notice of appointments for FY 2627. Um Miss May. Yeah, Madame President, members of the board. Um so you have several contracts there. This is in continuation from the last board meeting. We said we'd bring back the administration contract. um with the liquidated damages and the removal
046of the membership fees. In addition, we did not have at that time. So, including today the professional employment contract which is for related services mostly in the special education department. Uh for example, PT, OT, SLPs um in addition any exempt um classified would fall under that category as well. Then we have the psychologist contract and the assistant superintendent contract. All right. Thank you. Any questions about the contract that are before us? The language. Um I have a couple uh general questions before I think you know the board the administrator contract the liquidated damage number is blank. So the board will need to discuss that. But um so the administrator contract would that be uh also not just for principles but this would be for vice principles. This would be for um the director of school
047improvement like those uh the other ed services um director of assessment would those fall under the administrator contract? >> Member Zimmerman. Yes, that is correct. >> Okay. I just wanted to clarify. And then so any classified that's hourly would be an atwill contract that we approved last time. Is that correct? >> Correct. >> Okay. So then the classified that are salaried would get the professional contract. >> That is correct. >> Okay. Um so just so that you know when the board discusses liquidated damages for the administrator, it also has been added for the professional contract as well as the psychologist but not the assistant soup contract. So I just want us to be transparent and what we're doing. Um, I'm not sure that I'm in agreement in the assistant soup. >> I apologize. >> It
048is in there. Yes. Thank you, Mr. Ken. I do apologize for that. Sorry. I was >> um I'm not sure. I think that we should have liquidated damages for the professional employment contract and the psychologists. A lot of those positions are super hard to fill. Um psychologists for sure we can see we only have two currently and those related services um you know cuz let's be honest they can go work in a hospital setting and make a lot more money than they can here. So I certainly wouldn't want to do anything to deter them from coming to us. Um but um you know and in fairness you know we can contract those people. So if we're talking about being able to fill those positions we we can right versus a teacher or administrator is a
049little bit different. Um so um that would be what I would like to see is to remove it from the professional and the psychologist contract. Um and then um as the board begins their discussion for the amount after I appreciate what you guys provided to us um about what the surrounding districts do um and I think we had talked about you know the number we had thrown around was doubling it which would be 3,000 and that seemed like that would be on the high or highest side. So um again we don't want to deter anybody I think at this point from coming to us. Um, so I would be okay with the 2500, which is what our teachers used to be. Um, last year we lowered it, which I think was appropriate. Um, so that
050would be um, what I'd like to see, but obviously it will be the will of the board. Member Zimmerman, if I could just comment on the psychologist related services professional contract. Remember, there is a clause in there that administration can wave the liquidated damages. So in the event that there is you know reasonable cause or uh to your point about we just need to make sure that we uh you know have quality people and I don't want to detour um we always have that ability. >> Madam President, if I may go ahead. >> So recalling past we've had a lot of conversation about liquidated damages over a long time. Um, and we had discussed on I I understand board member Zimmerman's point on hard to fill positions. However, it's it's very detrimental to these children
051when somebody who they know and worked with for a while just up and leaves. And as Miss May just stated and restated that there are exemptions for certain circumstances and and that's also been discussed. Um, I think that it ought to just remain in these four different contracts. However, um, as the board will, I'm I'm okay with the 2500 for the liquidated damages for the administrator contract and uh, superintendent assist soup contract um, or the 30,000. I will stay what say whatever we decide in the administrator contract or the assistant superintendent contract for the amount I would advise that we bring the psychologist liquidated the damages to match those because it's currently 3,000 in that one. So if we say super assistant superintendent is 25, administrator is 25, psychologist should probably be 25 as well
052and brought down and not be more. >> Madam President, >> yes, go ahead. So, um I understand the concern about hard to fill positions, but the opposite of that would be it's more critical to hold on to those people and make them think twice before they leave the district, which makes me think that the board should give some consideration to continue with liquidated damages there. Um, however, as we talk about liquidated damages, we've we've done a set price, whatever that number has been over the years, but I'm not sure that that's the best way to go moving forward. I think it should be something along the line of a percentage or 2 weeks of gross salary because a new teacher that leaves having to pay out whatever number it is might be more difficult on
053them than it is a senior teacher who's been here for 17 or 18 years that's making considerably more money. So, I'd like to see the district look at maybe to standardize it just say it's two weeks of gross pay. um or or a percentage of annual salary and then it's equal across the board for everybody. Uh with that, I do feel that superintendent and administrators should pay higher fee if they choose to leave. Those are harder positions to fill as we've learned. Um but I again I think we need to make it a little more fair. Mishment. >> Yes, please go ahead. >> Um, well, we already approved the teacher contract, so that you know, we already have 1,500. So, if the board wants to um have liquidated damages for the professional and the psychologist
054contract, I could support the same as the teachers. and then the administrator and the assistant superintendent contract being more just because they make more. Um the if we could just pull up the assistant soup contract, there was just one thing. I apologize. Um under other approved benefits, sorry I didn't write down the page. Um three um it it lists out you know how they acrewue sick days and and things like that which we I don't believe is listed for the administrator. Um, I just wonder if we make sure though that it says like in a in accordance with governing board policies because one of the things that we did change when we did policy this past or a year ago, this spring was that if they do not complete a f full calendar year, they
055do not get paid out for their vacation. And so, um, I just want to make sure that, you know, we're being clear, I guess, to our employees that we did, um, because we had administrators that left in the middle of the year and then and it was their first year and then they got all their vacation paid out. Um, so we did change that in policy. So, I don't know if we could just add something to D that says, you know, in accordance with governing board policy. Um, I apologize. I probably should have looked up the exact policy, but um I can look for it. >> Mm. >> Yes. Have the teacher contracts been presented to teachers yet? >> Uh, member Todd, no, they have not. Okay. >> So, we could bring that back up
056for a reconsideration at our meeting on Thursday and then talk about a percentage. And we would by rule would have to put that on the agenda if it's requested to be reconsidered by a board member which I will request. I can do it now or I can do it at the end of the meeting whatever the president prefers but request that we reconsider that. I won't make a note of your request, but if you could also do it at the end so that we have it officially um that would be good. Thank you. Do we [clears throat] have any other discussion around these contracts? Does anybody want to motion anything at Yep. Go ahead. Sorry. >> Make a motion that we table this until Thursday's meeting when we can reconsider our teacher contract so we
057can bring them all in line together. >> All right. We have a motion to table this. Do we have a second? >> Second. All right, we can take a vote to table this item until Thursday. U member Todd >> I. >> Member Kenyon. >> Hi. >> Member Zimmerman. >> Nay. >> Member Serion. >> Nay. >> I am also a nay. So we will show that that failed. Um I'd like to make a motion. >> Yes, please go ahead. >> I make a motion to approve the contract language. um for [clears throat] administrators and assistant superintendent with liquidated damages at $2,500. And the professional employment contract and psychologist contract with $1,500 at liquidated damages. >> [snorts and laughter] >> Yes, Miss camera you please. Uh motion to approve contract language for administrators and assistant superintendent with
058liquidated damages at 2500 and the professional contract and psychologist contract at $1,500 for liquidated damages. Yep. Okay, we have a motion. Do we have a second? >> Second. >> All right, we have a motion and a second. Take a vote. Member Todd. >> I. >> Member Kenyon. >> I. >> Member Zimmerman. >> I. >> Vice President Serion. >> I'm also an I. show that past 50. >> Okay, moving on to item 6.2, signature program update at Loretta Zumbro with Bruce Niminsky presenting. >> Thank you very much, governing board. I'm going to zoom ahead to uh you have seen all of these slides with the exception of the last four. Which button am I supposed to be? The top one. Am I doing it right? Which one? Now I can do it. All right. This is
059awesome. Um about a month ago, I was able to speak to you about a proposed program for the Loretta Zumbro signature program um entitled Zeal. Zeal standing for Zumbro Engineering and Aerospace Learning. When I brought that to you, um, several governing board members, and I'm grateful for this, um, had asked, uh, about feedback that had been received by our community members, uh, input that had been received by our community members. Um, we did have two parent forums. I expressed to the governing board that we had low attendance, um, and was challenged by several of you to go back and try it third time. And I needed that. Um, and what I needed to do in addition to getting the motor running for a third parent meeting is to reflect a little bit on how we
060could bring in more people, do something different. And I l went home, looked in the mirror and said, "What can we do differently to bring in our community?" And right away, um, we realized that rather than just inviting parents, we needed to invite families. Many of our families, um, at that time in that afternoon are transitioning from one workplace to the other. Um, kids are transitioning from school to an activity. It's a cluttered time of day. Asking just a single parent or a mom and a dad to leave their kids at home to come to a meeting challenging and I realize that. So, we were very adamant that all families would be invited to our parent form 3. Uh, we went ahead and provided a meal for them as well. Knowing that the time was
0614:30 to 5:30, we wanted to make sure that if meals were going to be a hindrance to parents coming in that we knew that we had that provided for them. So, we did that. We also had additional points of contact, touch points of contact with each of our families, not just the standard letter that goes out through a blast. Um, I personally emailed every single one of our families in the school um, by grade level and said, "We'd really like to have you." And explained why we needed to have parent input. And the good news is is we had this meeting last week. I'm going to skip through. And we had 46 total in attendance. Um, which I was not expecting. I was thrilled by that number. Um, we had about 25 or 30 that
062had RSVPd. Um, so we were looking to have a pretty s goodsized group and they just kept coming and coming and coming. And it wasn't just the numbers obviously that were overwhelming uh to us. It was the high level of feedback that we received from families. I'm going to share that with you shortly and suggestions about enhancing the program. We took them through the entire presentation that you have seen. Talked about the survey information that we'd received back. Talked about how parents were looking for something, teachers were looking for something, students were looking for something, and how could we integrate those three. As we went through all of the ideas, it resonated with our families. They were excited. Engineering kept coming up over and over again. This is great. I've got connections for you. Can
063I tell you about this person? So all of a sudden the feedback came and it was it was hard to contain. [snorts] What did my heart a little bit better than that was we had several children who raised their hands current Zumbro students who raised their hands and they offered suggestions as well that were completely worthwhile. So inviting them in changing some of the parameters about what that meeting looked like made all the difference for us now and moving forward as well. several stakeholder ideas that came from people that attended, both parents and children, to enhance what we want to do with our Zeal program, was to build in incentives such as badges, awards, achievements, things that we could do throughout the middle of the year for students who were advancing along a path and
064certificates and awards that we could offer our students at end of trimester assemblies and at the end of the year for the best engineering student of the of the grade level or the most unique engineering uh studio of the grade level. Those types of things. Make it something that's relevant that gets kids excited. Kid, my kids play games at home and they love getting badges and awards and achievements. So, can we integrate that into a signature program? That was a wonderful suggestion. A program that can be built on vertically. And when they when I asked what that meant, they want a program. Our community is asking for a program that is going to launch the students when they're out of 8th grade and going to the high schools successfully into the high schools in this
065area so that that learning curve that difficult transition from n from 8th grade to 9th grade won't be as difficult and that our students will have a leg up on those scientific engineering and STEM programs in the high schools and can we as a school find some time to work with younger to work with a stray of foothills to work with Goodyear as some of our students may be going there to say, "Hey, this is our signature program. What input can you give us as a 9 through2 institution to help us make this more robust so that our kids when they graduate 8th grade are coming to you and they're coming to you prepared?" Feedback gave us the idea that program needed to be differentiated and it needed to be differentiated for different learners. Again,
066we have high achieving learners, we have our average learners and we have our learners that struggle. How can I create a program, an activity, a program? How can we gain resources for a program that tackles the high achievers in that room, the ones we need to extend, but also gives the students who are at a lower ability the chance to succeed. So, there was a big push for differentiation. Creating set time in the schedule. We have some tentative time set in the schedule, but how is that going to look at each grade level? What are we going to have to take out or sacrifice to build in some time maybe not daily but weekly for our signature program? We don't want to cut minutes from ELA. We don't want to cut minutes from math or
067the core subjects. So, how can we get creative on that schedule? So, there is a set time in the schedule whether it's every day or every week. Had a lot of people saying, "Have you reached out to Palo Verde?" No. Have you reached out to Embry Riddle? Which I did not even know about Embry Riddle until someone mentioned. um do you know about Southwest and they do adopt a pilot? All sorts of ideas coming from all over the room to say, "Hey, these are connections that if you go this route and create this program as a school, these are some connections and networking opportunities that are available right for you." And that's important. If you remember, we talked about the need to self- sustain this program over time. The more people we can come in
068contact with that can provide us free resources, free speakers, that's what we're looking for. And then extension clubs. I had some parents who said, "Okay, this is a program for the school day. Is there any part of this or parts of this that can be taken outside the school day and turned into an afterchool club?" And then the brain just started meticulating and everyone said, "Well, what about this and what about this and what about this?" And it was it was exciting to see. But I'm a firm believer that yes, as our signature program is set, we can get trapped into the thinking of this is a 7:20 a.m. to 3M thing that we have to do as part of our curriculum. And it can be, but can also be taken and extended with supervisors
069and with parent volunteers and with organizers to say, "Hey, you guys are really interested in I'm just going to throw Legos out. Not saying we're going to have a Lego club, but you guys are really interested in Legos and building and coming up with these things. Maybe we form a Lego club every two or three weeks and we have you come in and we extend what that signature program look like. Maybe we're able to get a speaker from the aviation industry and we maybe they can't come in during the day, but they can come in for a parent night and to bring in families. Again, those are the types of things we want to do with our signature program is take it outside the regular school day and enhance it. These were just some pictures.
070Um, we met in our maker space room. As you can see, we were pretty crowded. Um, we went through the program, getting lots of feedback. I had about 8 to 10 staff members that were there. I'm grateful for them. Many parents and many children were there as well. Just wanted to give you a snapshot of what it looked like. And I will not read all the names, but we did take kind of a roster just to see and make sure that everyone that was there um was memorialized that they had come. So, these are the lists of all of our families, teachers, students, and individuals that were able to make it. You won't count 46 cuz some of those 46 don't know how to write yet. We're getting there. Uh, and some of them forgot
071to sign, but I did a headcount and had somebody that I trust do a headcount and we were at 46. So, we had a great parent night. Again, I am grateful to the board for suggesting that for kind of that, hey, just keep going at it. See what you can get. We still like the core of our program. We've got some enhancements and some ideas now from the community that we'd like to move forward. One question that did come up at the last session was the pricing. I remember stating that we had about a 72 to $7,500 quote. I don't have the exact number in front of me. That would allow for full integration of defined learning as a program for one year and would provide us two hours of professional development. The question I
072believe board member Zimmerman you asked was that separate component of computer science and engineering. Can that be purchased separately? The answer is yes. It can be purchased. The quote on that that we received was $2500. Also needing a $1,500 for virtual PD. So we're looking at about four grand if we just do um kind of the the scaledback version which I've been assured by define learning would meet our needs. So those are the presentation that I have tonight in addition to what I presented last month and again open for any questions that you might have. >> Thank you Mr. Naminsky. [clears throat] Any questions from board members? >> Madam President. >> Yes, please go ahead. >> Um first of all, thank you for the presentation. Thank you for reaching out to the families again. Um
073that's outside the box thinking. Uh that reminded me of quote if you feed them they will come. [laughter] Um it's good to see the turnout and thank you for those pictures as well and the feedback. Um, since the beginning, I've I've loved the direction of this program and I'm very excited to see it go and all the ideas that you come and just knowing you a little bit and uh knowing how much passion you have for Zumbro and for this school and for those kids and those families and you're going to do great things with this. So, thank you. >> Thank you, >> Mishmitt. Go ahead. >> Um, thank you so much. I think, you know, um I'm grateful that, you know, you had a a you know, you went back out and had a
074better turnout. I think, you know, it just um helped solidify, you know, what you were thinking and that we feel like our community is involved in that decision. Um I personally love the idea of trying to build the gap with the high schools. I I I just having a kid go to high school this year and one coming up like I just think that gap is if we can try to fill that in different ways it I just really think those partnerships are important um and um I know the principal at Goodyear High School and so I'm sure um he's very open. He's a great guy. So thank you. Um yeah um I think you know it's it's hard you know when we talk about money um just because the board has not done the
075budget right um and I know the board has had a discussion about cost of signature programs and you know we really haven't come to a consensus about you know are we going to give a certain amount to each school and everybody seems to kind of be doing something different um and so I think um that's hard right um but I appreciate you reaching back out and, you know, just trying to get exactly what you're looking for and not paying, you know, if the board approves to move forward with the budget part of it. Um, you know, not paying for something you're not necessarily going to use. >> Yeah, defined learning is a very encompassing program, but there are some things that would be fluff to our signature program that we could probably go by, and
076we had that an honest conversation with them and they agreed. So, thank you. >> Thank you. Um, I would also like to thank you for looking into the only the the sections that you need for the defined learning because that is a pretty significant cost savings. So, if it is really fluff and extra and we don't need that, that'd be great. Um, I mean I personally love this idea because this is like right in my own heart. um my scientist science loving heart and um so and when you were talking about the I wrote a note to myself because you were talking about enhancements and after school um there's a Lego first league robotics club that's for fifth through 8th graders where they code robotics machines and then they go and get to like do
077tasks with them and get points and it's a whole big thing. Uh we can talk I I have an inside track on that. Um but it as you were talking I'm like exactly and that's that's extending it outside of the day. It's an additional you know thing that they could do but it is fully in line with the academic piece of it. They're learning coding. They're building their own machines. They're learning all of these things that you can relate right back into the classroom again. Um so there are there are lots of things like that that are out there. Uh so I I love this idea. I think that students will love this idea. >> Um and there's so many places that you can go within even when you're picking like aerospace and engineering, there's
078still so much room for growth and learning in there. Um and it's it's interesting. It's fun. You're talking about planes and like rockets and things and and kids love that stuff. So adults love that stuff. Let's be honest. Um, so I think it's a great idea and I do appreciate that you tried again and you got all the parents out and like we talked about this uh last week when I saw you, but I mean it's like college. If you offer pizza, you're probably going to get some people to come in. Um, and you know, we have to meet people where they are and realize that asking them to skip dinner time with their children is is a hard thing. And so offering them something to help them is um getting them to come. We
079do what we have to. I appreciate that you did that. Thank you, Madam President. >> Yep. Go ahead. >> Sorry. >> No, >> one last um kind of >> comment. Um I know right now there's been a lot of talk about we shouldn't have even built this school and I've been driving quite a bit in that part of the district. And it is amazing to see the acres, hundreds of acres that are under development, lots and lots and lots of houses going up. Um, and so the force for foresight of previous administration and and board to see that the need was there and now we're recognizing it. You look just north of the campus. I encourage anybody who has a problem with Zumbro being there. Go drive around that area and see the development cuz
080it is just going crazy in that area. >> Madam President, I I just really quick point of order. I'd caution, we're on this topic only of the signature program. I don't want to get us too far off topic. >> I appreciate that. Yeah, it was mainly in regards to bringing kids into this program. It's going to be a growing, developing program. Right now, it's we're looking at more of the littles and very soon you're going to be into the seventh, eighth grade, you know, and and this watching this program develop is going to be wonderful. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> And any other comments from board members? Does anyone desire to make a motion at this time? >> Make a motion to approve the signature program for Loretta Zumbra Elementary School to be the
081Zeal program Zumbro Engineering and Aerospace Learning. >> All right, we have a motion. Do we have a second? >> I'll second that. >> All right, are we ready for the vote? Member Todd >> I. >> Member Kenyon. >> I. >> Member Zimmerman. >> I. >> Member Sinion. I >> I'm also an I. We will show that passed five to zero. And the new signature program at Loretta Zumbro is Zeal. >> Thank you. [snorts] >> Right. Moving on to agenda item 6.3. Discussion approval for issuance of all staff contracts work agreements for FY 2627. Miss May. >> Yes. Madame President, members of the board, administration recommends the board table this item to be brought back back on Thursday for the March 5th governing board meeting. Additionally, administration requests direction on which employee groups you would like
082to have brought back on Thursday for approval. For example, do you want all employee groups or only certificated staff? Um, but uh the recommendation is that we table this until Thursday. >> Okay. Thank you, Miss May. questions or comments from board members? >> Miss Schmidt? >> Yes, please go ahead. >> So, um I appreciate that because I have some uh concerns with um one, you know, since the board has not done the budget. I don't think it would be fiscally responsible of us to uh issue all the contracts without knowing what the cuts were going to have to make and knowing that those big positions weren't encumbered. I think that that number is only going to increase unfortunately. Um and I also think there are some things uh that need to be looked at in
083terms of who's actually listed and people's pays and make sure that we are following the salary schedule and all of those things. So I think there needs to be um a deep you know a little bit deeper dive here to make sure these are accurate. Um I think for me it's easier to say what I not not ready to approve I guess. Um permanent guest teachers would be one. Um it's called um ETC and I don't know what that stands for to be honest with you but from what it looks like it looks like they were people that were subs all year. Um I don't want to offer them a contract. I want to post the position and hope that we can get a certified um person. Plus, I'm just I'm not even sure how
084we offer them a contract because if they are just this year, they'd be on a non-ontinuing, which would mean they're a non-renewal automatically. Not necessarily has anything to do with them. That's just the type of contract they signed. um counselors. I just think we need some clarification is, you know, are the counselors that are grant funded, are they going to be grant funded again? Like, are we getting the grant? Because if we're not, then that's adding an FTE. So then again, that's a budget consideration. Um I just wanted to clarify, Dr. slow. I just Miss Williams, if you remember, did we move his halftime into ML last year? >> Yes, we did. >> Okay. Okay. So, that's already accounted for. Um I would just clarify that um the assistant superintendent, the title says assistant superintendent
085of support services, but that's an old title. her or the position is called assistant superintendent of human resources and student services. That's just like a clerical that has nothing to do. Um those those are the initial ones that stick out for me um personally as to some concerns I have with approving um those. So, >> any other comments? >> And I would agree that we need to hold this uh till we have a better idea of the budget. Um the worst possible thing to do is to issue contracts. People stay here, they stop looking for jobs elsewhere, and then we find out we have budget problems. I think uh as I said for many times, the budget needs to be long clarified before we start issuing contracts. So, we need to have an understanding of
086of what we're doing with with our staffing model. So, I'm all in favor of tableabling this. Uh I think that's going to require a special work session, probably a rather long one, for the board to get through the budget and have a better understanding of it. But, uh be in favor of tableabling the whole thing. >> Yeah, thank you. Um I think we're in agreement um to table the whole thing for this evening. I think the one question we did have was whether on Thursday we should bring back um I know discussion that has happened a little bit was teachers and principles um to be able to make sure we get those out on time and get those those contracts in place. You know, our schools cannot run without our teachers and our principles. Um
087not that they can run well without all the rest of the staff, but those are the two positions that, you know, we have to have in place. Um, so my feeling would be to table everything for today, but bring back teachers and principles on w on Thursday. Sorry, we're meeting like every day this week on Thursday. Um, so that at least we know that we have that in place and and the other ones will come as we have a budget meeting. Um, that's that's my feeling right now unless there's serious uh disagreement with with that. Madam President. >> Yes, please go ahead. >> Um, Miss May, how quick do we need to get these out? Obviously, the sooner we get them out, the better for staff. Um, I understand what Madame President's saying. However, just
088picking and choosing a couple and not the rest is is kind of heartbreaking. So, do you have a preference? Member Kenyan. Um, Madam President, members of the board, so to meet the deadline of the March 15th, it would be March 16th for us for teachers on Monday. We really do want to get the certificated uh teachers employees um to include certificated administration. Um, we could bring that back easily on Thursday. Uh, we've already been doing the work today to to vet what's on the list. So, that I'm very comfortable with. and then um as you decide we can bring the others back at a later time. >> Okay. Thank you, >> Mishmid. >> Yes, [clears throat] please. >> Um you know the board was in a similar position last year um and we offered principles
089and teachers early and you know to Mr. Kenyon's point it did cause a lot of heartache. I feel like we had a lot of concerned people, particularly reading interventionists and instructional coaches. Um, and I think if we don't approve those people this week, um, you know, we could lose some of those. Um, you know, I think we really scaled down our reading interventionists already last year. I want to say we cut 2.5 positions if the rest of the board remembers off the top of their head. Um, and I I hear what you're saying, Mr. Kenyon, but I also think we have to make decisions um, you know, one to keep um, you know, highly um, skilled positions. Like other people that I would be in favor of are psychologists because we don't have that many
090and they're hard, you know, and anytime you contract it's more expensive. And same thing with related services, OT, speech, PT, all of those things. Um, but I agree that, you know, it's difficult um without the budget and why, you know, like Mr. Todd, I have also been, you know, strongly asking for the board to work on the budget because it's hard to do anything else. But for sure, we cannot run a school without teachers and principles. And I certainly want to meet that March 15th deadline for teachers because every other district in the state is is offering their contracts and and teachers can certainly go look elsewhere. So, >> Madam President, >> go ahead. >> I definitely was not saying to to hold them all off. Um, yes, we do need the teachers and principles
091and I'm in favor of getting this out to them as soon as possible. Um, but as member Zimmerman said last last time we did this, there was there was some feedback that it wasn't wellreceived that we basically would just approve a couple and not the rest. So, um, I encourage us to do our due diligence as much as possible and then we got to balance. We all know it's a lot of work to go through the budget and do the budget and that takes sometimes months. Um, and so we can't hold off on these for months. So we we really need to get on this very quickly. So with that, I guess I would make a motion to table all of these until Thursday except for or [clears throat] excuse me, table all of these
092until a later date. Except for Can I remove the except for table these to a later date? Um and bring back teacher and principal. on our Thursday board meeting. >> I'll second. >> Thank you. >> Do we have a motion in a second to table everything and bring back teachers and principles on Thursday evening when we're meeting again? And we have a motion and second. Sorry, I already said that. So we can take a vote. Can I >> Sorry. Can we have discussion again? >> Yes. >> Okay. So last year when we did this, [clears throat] we offered our reading interventionists and our instructional coaches a teaching contract, meaning we want you, we're going to off, you know, we'll have a position. And then we like revised it when we did the budget and we
093were able cuz they're on a different um wage a salary schedule as we'll see in the next agenda item. So um again I just don't want people to feel I don't know what the right word is. Um [laughter] not wanted I guess is the word. Um and at least feel like they have something. Um, so I I don't know, but that I'm just sharing um what we did last year to try to bridge that gap a little bit. I'm not I'm not saying it was the best idea, but it's something um as we work through the budget. Madam President, members of the board, so if we just wanted to do certificated employees, that would include reading interventionists, instructional coaches, uh psychologists, related services. So that would be inclusive of the certificated employees to include administration.
094I would be okay with that personally. Okay. Currently we have the motion to table and the direction then to bring back teachers and principles on Thursday. >> Madam President, >> yes. >> Um with that motion, just so everybody knows, that doesn't mean that the the other ones can't be brought back on. Thank you. Yep. >> Um it just means that we're going to bring back teachers and principles. So that would be up to you, Madam President, and working with um >> Thank you, >> Miss May. Yep. >> Perfect. Thank you, Mr. Kenyon. Um Yep. Thank you for the clarification. So, uh we have a motion and a second and I think we can take a vote. Uh board member Todd, >> I. >> Member Kenyon, >> I. >> Member Zimmerman, >> I. >> Vice President
095Sarion, >> hi. >> I'm also an I. We'll show that passed five to zero. And moving on to item 6.4, discussion, approval of all staff hiring schedules for FY2627. Um, I don't know from admin if anybody wants to speak on this um or if there are questions from the board. Madame President, members of the board, I can just give you just a quick um quick statement, but this is as presented the salary schedules reflect current year funding and budget assumptions. Um, if the board approves a compensation increase beyond what is shown, administration will return with revised schedules and process the necessary contract addendums to align with the board's direction. >> Mh. Schmidt. >> Yes, please go ahead. >> Okay. Um, I had a couple things. So, um, as we discussed last year when we didn't
096give raises, we moved the zero line from the previous year down to one and then created a new zero line that was a little you don't think. So, we didn't do anything last year. No, I'm sorry. We did not move anything or do any adjustments at all last year. Well, because there was this whole discussion about how if you don't move the zero line down, then you have somebody who's worked for the district for one year, >> correct? >> And then you hire someone and then they're making the same amount of money as somebody who worked for the district for a year. >> And that is why we were doing that adjustment this year when I showed the presentation at the last meeting >> of moving people two times. So if they would have moved
097for the year we're in now and then for next year because we did not do any of those adjustments last year at all. >> Right. Well, we don't move teachers on steps. So, but on the certified schedule, I'd have to go back and listen to that meeting, but I'm pretty sure we adjusted it because we said we can't have people that have worked for the district for a year make the same amount as somebody who's brand new coming into the district. So, I'd have to go back and listen to that meeting. But again, what my main concern is the optics of kind of approving this now without doing the budget is that I don't want teachers, our staff to think the board is not going to discuss raises because this would be two years in
098a row. Um because we didn't approve these till April 15th last year. Um, so you know, we we we issued contracts without approving a new salary schedule. Um, but also my concern is there are a lot of stipens that are listed on these um, salary schedules that I really really really think the board needs to look at. Um, and I I know other board members have asked and I feel like that really needs to be part of the budget process. And I'm just going to use one from the certified or two from the certified um schedule is the gifted teacher $9,000. It's more than any other um stipend. And you know, I just feel like you cannot compare that to a special ed self-contained special education classroom. It's just not the same. And I'm just
099not in agreement with it. But I was also curious. It says math specialist $1,000. How do you qualify who is a math specialist? How how does somebody earn that stipend? Do you know? I have a little bit of information on that. They would be uh certified highly qualified in uh mathematics. Their their Arizona Department of Education certificate um would list that um that they have that endorsement. >> Okay. and they would be teaching in uh in a math class I believe be middle school like it well it would be a departmentalized math course that they'd be teaching in what they are highly qualified to teach. So math science would also be um [clears throat] something that would be similar. >> Okay. So they're getting a middle school math stipen for 1,500 then also getting a
100stipend for being certified in math. I'm just I'm just clarifying. And then they're also getting the middle school stipened. >> Correct. >> Okay. >> Some some teachers have up to four and five stipens. >> Okay. And I'm not saying, you know, to take any of those necessarily away. I just really think the board needs to have a stipened discussion and when we attach them to the salary schedules. like I'm personally not comfortable like approving them at this point without um having that discussion around stipens in the budget. The stipen topic is set for our next meeting where we're having the budget top meeting. Sorry that was a lot of words of meeting but uh the work study session. Thank you. on the 30th. Miss Camaretta knows what I'm trying to say better than I do.
101The work study session on the 30th stipens are on the agenda for that discussion. So, I just want to make that clear. It's not being ignored. It's it's got a date. >> Thank you for that, Madam President. That's kind of what I was going to bring up as if that was cuz as board members and said, I I had request that and others had requested that before. Um, and I do agree it's important that we digest these stipens. We have a lot of stipens in our district and I understand why they were put into place. It's just whether we want to continue with how they are, their how many we have, what their values are. Um, and you know, I I don't want to just pick one out because that's not we can do that
102on that meeting. But, uh, I think that's very valuable to have before we go ahead and approve these. Any other comments or questions right now? Or a motion if anyone has one. >> I make a motion to table 6.4. Second. >> All right, we have a motion and a second to table 6.4. Um, board member Todd >> I. >> Member Kenyon. >> I, >> member Zimmerman. >> I, >> member Sansion. >> I'm also an I. Will show that passed five to zero. Moving on to item 7.1, board comments or agenda topic requests. Um I will just say again just for clarity um that the stipened discussion is is on the schedule. Um has not been ignored. We're getting there. So that will be coming up soon. Um and then Mr. Todd has requested to reconsider
103the teacher contracts on Thursday. Just modify that to be all the contracts because if we're going to modify the teacher contract, we'd modify all of them to something different than a flat rate >> to [snorts] make them all equal. >> That was the reason to table the discussion tonight so we could have the full discussion on Thursday and get all the contracts synced together. Okay, Miss Camaretta has that down. Any other board comments or agenda topic requests, >> Madam President? >> Yep. Go ahead. >> Um, I would like to request and I think I already did, but just to make sure um I wanted to have a followup with the uh pest control machine that was brought up and have just uh the board understand a little bit more about that and also the flag
104football. I know I had also heard a number of people asking about that. So, um, just get some updates on those. >> Okay, Miss Oh, >> go ahead. >> I apologize. Um, I just uh I'd like the district to bring the open enrollment capacity approval to the board. That's done annually and that hasn't been done yet. Um, which I think affects staffing. And then I'd also like the board to discuss the MAG program in general, class size, target. >> Okay, >> Madam President. >> Yep. Go ahead. like a staff presentation on how we pay our consultants in the district. Uh example, who determines the rate of pay? What is that rate? How do they determine that? Okay. Anything else? Okay. Um, if I [clears throat] could request that you still remember to add them to
105the the spreadsheet, um, because that is generally what we're working off of when we're setting the agenda, that would be fantastic. But thank you so much. Upcoming board meetings, [clears throat] we have [snorts] um a special board meeting tomorrow for the interviews. Um, we also have a special board meeting on Thursday, March 5th at 6:00 pm on Thursday, March 5th. Um, and then Monday, March 30th, we have a special board meeting and a work study session. Monday, April 13th is a regular board meeting. And Monday, April 27th is a special board meeting. So, that is what we have scheduled currently. If we have nothing else, we can adjourn the meeting at 7:06 p.m. >> [music] [music] >> Look >> [music] [music]