001[Music] The Liberty School District governing board meeting is called to order. Today, Monday, September 22nd, 2026, the Jerry Roie District Facility. Five board members present. Board member Schmidt, board member Zimmerman, Vice President Kenyon, Board Member Shinion, myself, Michael Todd. Next item on the agenda is item 1.2, the pledge of allegiance, board member, can 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. >> Next item on the agenda is 1.3, the approval of the special meeting agenda. Oh, sorry. Sorry. Go ahead. No. Motion to approve the regular agenda form consistent with board policy 1-302 and temporarily suspend governing board policy with which this agenda may be inconsistent. >> Second. >>
002Have a motion, a second to approve our meeting agenda. There's no discussion. We'll take the vote. Board member Schmidt. I. >> Board member Zimmerman. I. >> Vice President Kenyon. I. >> Board member Shinion. I. >> I'm also I show that proof. Five yes. Zero no. Next on the agenda is item 2.1, approval of personnel action items. Dr. Mahorn. >> Sorry, my microphone was not on it on now. Yep. Uh, President Todd, uh, governing board, you will notice on your on the dis is an updated copy. I highlighted in green the difference the change. There's only one change and that's a ad of Lauren Little for the assistant principal for Los Besus. Uh we are asking for approval for all of these but that one we are still waiting on all of the references to come
003back but um given the situation loss brie is in and needing to hire we are hoping that we can get her approved so as soon as we get that then we can get her started as soon as possible. >> Members any questions? >> Uh Mr. Todd. >> Yes ma'am. Um it's just kind of a request for the future as we, you know, hire for coordinator positions and assistant principles. If you could just um include their resumeumés for us. Um and then also for resignations, if we could just get their um if they submit a resignation letter, I think um obviously for the higher level positions, I believe it's helpful for us to just kind of get a feel for what's happening in the district. And then obviously teachers when we're making the decision to wave
004or not wave liquidated damages if they've submitted one I think that would be helpful to the board. Thank you. >> Okay. If there's no further discussion we'll take a motion. >> Mr. President, I make a motion to approve personnel action items. Do I have a second? >> Second. All right. >> We got a second and a third. I'll show a second by uh board member uh Schmidt. Okay, if there's no discussion, we'll take a vote. >> Board member Schmidt, >> I. >> Board member Zimmerman, >> I. >> Vice President Kenyon, >> I. >> Board member Stencion, >> I'm also I will show that I approve. Five, yes. Zero, no. Next, we item 3.1. This is a discussion consideration of uh our permanent superintendent search process. This will be presented by Mr. Paul Tai who's the
005executive director of the ASA. Good evening, Mr. President, members of the board, staff, and guests. I'm Paul Tai, executive director at Arizona School Administrators, and I don't know if this works. I should advance. >> Good work. I should be able to load it up for you. >> Yep. >> Good. >> There we go. >> Good. All right. Thank you. It's pleasure to be with you this evening. And a little bit of my background. I used to live in this district. was actually last in this building on um we had a boundary committee a few years back and so I was part of that when I lived in Straighta Mountain Ranch. So anyway um familiar with the community and also um before I came to ASA I was superintendent Saddle Mountain Unifi just to the west.
006So anyway, West Valley um roots here and happy to be with you this evening. So, I want to share just a little bit about what a superintendent search. I know we've assisted uh you with your interim search and um that was an abbreviated version of what a full search would look like. So, I just want to go through very quickly what that would look like. A typical um process and also note that it is really us. I should probably step back. Why why do we even do this? It's not our search. It's your search. We're just here to help you find a superintendent if you so choose. And the process is completely customized. So, our search consultants will come in, work with you to determine what you would want that to look like, but I'm
007going to generalize a little bit and certainly can answer questions about ASA and what we do, but just talk about a typical search process. So, a few things that you would want to look for in a search form is, you know, who do they use? Do you have uh you know highquality search consultants, people who know the community, know the state and know the job? So typically former superintendent such as myself um serve in those roles and and have a general idea of what to look for because we've been in those shoes and we've also been used to working with governing boards. Um a few other things to think about is, you know, obviously the cost. you want to be prudent stewards of taxpayer dollars. And um you know there are nonprofit search firms such
008as ASA, ASBA and others. There's also national firms that they're in it to make money and you know so you're going to pay more. The other thing um I would say is you know look at the track record. Where else have they done searches? Have they done them locally? And have they been successful? And last but not least on here you know a consideration I put a question mark there is you know do you want national outreach? Some some boards say, you know, we really want somebody who knows Arizona, and others say, well, we really want to broaden that and and see what might be out there from other places. So, we suggest a couple of uh outcome goals. First, you know, on the outcome, we really, you know, think Liberty would want the best
009candidate for the job to serve this community. and the process. It's equally important to have a clean and transparent uh process that involves and engages stakeholders. And again, how that is done is very customizable, but these are kind of goals that we we recommend um with anyone we engage with. So, a typical process kind of has six phases and and you I'm not going to read these to you, but you can kind of see what it goes for. Maybe you can't read them back there. I don't know. Um I'm standing close. a little bigger font up here. Uh so anyway, you know, importantly is is to start with getting a profile what you want in a leader and um putting together a package what best represents the district. And that becomes part of what we
010would put out or what any search firm would put out to um attract candidates. And um that's really leading into phase two, which is the posting, recruiting, uh surveys. We have survey templates that are completely customizable, but certainly um gathering stakeholder input and engaging the community is uh is something we we build into this process. Then uh phase three is really looking at a screening process. And again, some boards want to have every candidate and others say weed out the ones that aren't qualified or that have bad references, things like that. And so, you know, that's flexible as well. But certainly that's where it transitions to the board uh trying to decide who they want to interview. Then phase four is the the interviews. Sometimes there are several rounds of interviews. You have another round
011with finalists and again have opportunities for community engagement. We had one situation where there was a snowstorm and we had up in northern Arizona um and adapted to virtual community forums and now that doesn't sound so foreign because we're kind of used to that with uh postcoid uh medium media for for meetings. And lastly, you know, phase six is the board approves the contract and and at that point, you know, we're not involved, but that's really between the board and the final candidate. So here's another way of looking at it and hopefully it's readable for for you back there but it's it's just outlining the six phases and and kind of separating there's some things that are open is an open session other things are done in executive session and um there's a level of
012confidentiality for certain uh phases as well as the applicant materials and things like that. So I'm not going to read that to you but I just included that for your reference to kind of look at those six phases a little differently. These are um things that we suggest that would be responsibilities of the search firm and whether it's us or somebody else. It's really, you know, consulting with the board throughout the process, assisting with what should be on the agenda, agenda language and and things like that instead of reinventing the wheel. Uh we have templates for all of that as do other uh consultants. And certainly um you know, you'll see a lot of consulting with the board. I mean a board it's it's the board's process. It's not ours. And and we just help
013um make it work for your needs. And uh search forum would certainly be responsible for publicizing, providing related documents and facilitating a community survey if desired. Some boards don't want surveys. Others um want extensive surveys. And certainly communication with the applicants generally goes through the search consultant and um not through a staff member. I mean it can be it can be adapted but typically um the communication goes through the search consultant as well as the scheduling of the process. So it's part of the communication and also um you know our staff would maintain the strictest confidentiality and um we would outline this in a contract as well. So on the other side of it, these are typical responsibilities for the board and that's certainly, you know, you're familiar with statutes and open meeting law and
014we would certainly try to help steer you in that direction to make sure uh you're in compliance during this process anyways. And um that second bullet kind of goes back to what I mentioned a minute ago, which is referring the applicants to the search consultant. So board members do get contacted, but you don't want to have a uh a situation where there's um any opportunity for someone say well that that candidate had an advantage or this candidate had a disadvantage because of communication with board or staff. So we we recommend um streamlining that through uh search consultant. We ask board members to be present and um you know giving information and you know staff provide a lot of information too particularly in developing the the district profile. There's a lot of statistics on the um
015district numbers, you know, budgetary as well as uh student counts, things like that that the uh the staff are certainly helpful in providing and the board's responsibility too. Going back to determining the candidates and um contract negotiations, we try to make sure you stay uh adhering to equal employment opportunity laws. confidentiality is critical and um your contract would have details of this as well. So, a couple things that um we think are are really important and and whether you're using ASA or any other search firm just kind of outlined on here, you know, again back to one of the first things I said is that, you know, transparency and community engagement is important and you really want to make sure that the perception is that the all of the candidates have a fair process. And
016um we I I don't want to be too redundant here, but just about contacting uh candidates. It's it's best to not engage candidates directly. Um certainly not until you get to the final process where you're negotiating contract. Um a couple other considerations on the procurement side of things and and so your your staff are well aware of this, but um there are thresholds and so if you're under $10,000 threshold, you don't really need to get other bids or quotes. If you go over that, you need three quotes and then um you can use what's called a an RFQ refer request for qualifications process. That does slow the process down because it takes a lot of time and essentially you would have a a questionnaire and you would invite firms to answer that questionnaire. then you
017would probably have an evaluation committee that would identify the top score getter and that would be someone you could um contract with based on qualifications instead of cost but cost could be a factor. So that's a process that some districts use. It does take several months. It's it's a longer process um but it's not necessary if you keep your procurement um under the threshold. So I've just thrown a lot of information at you. I'm happy to answer any questions and I didn't talk much about ASA but I'm happy to elaborate there as well. >> Members, any questions? >> Mr. Todd, >> sorry. >> Um, yeah, I had a couple questions. Um, who asked you to come present today? >> Uh, board president, Mr. Todd. >> Okay. >> And this was uh probably several weeks ago
018as well. >> Okay. I appreciate that. Um, you know, uh, I'm a little bit concerned about asking specifically about ASA because the board hasn't, um, voted or discussed our process and the different firms that we're going to potentially, um, interview for the process or ask for bid. So, um, my cons, you know, my concern is that, um, you know, I don't have any general questions per se, I guess, about the search, but I think that the board needs to have a discussion about the surge because I think it would be unfair if I asked you questions tonight and we decide to get more biders for the job and they, you know, didn't have the same uh, opportunities. >> Completely understood. And just as a as a side note, we're not offended if you, you know,
019take as much time in the process you you would want as as I would want if I was in your shoes. So there's no offense there. In fact, you know, we do searches as a service. It's we're we're not really uh in it for anything else other than, you know, serving our members, serving our communities. There's no markup. It's a it's an at cost and so we don't we're not in a competitive market, if that helps. >> Yeah, I appreciate that. I just uh you know I want the board in the next agenda item to be able to have a discussion before we discuss specific firms. >> Mr. President, if I may >> thank you for coming and uh giving us this presentation. Uh it seems like it wasn't very long ago we were just
020going through this. So now this is the permanent so it's a little more in depth. Um, uh, I guess if we go back one slide to the $10,000 threshold, in your experience, do you think we're going to be close to that? I mean, it >> I think you can expect to do a very comprehensive search under the $10,000. >> Okay. Is doing my research, it seems like we're typically getting very, very close to that. Um >> I can also say there are many firms that will charge three and four times that. >> Yeah. Um I yeah I think we need to discuss it a little bit more amongst the board. I'm in agreement miss where uh I think thank you very much for the presentation. Um, I personally think we probably need to go out
021just to be safe and get the three competitive quotes and I fully expect ASA will be part of that or in that. But, um, that's just my thought right now that that way we can start this process and get it going. The quicker we get this going, the the better. I think our district just history has rushed these a little bit too quick and haven't spent the time necessary to have a good selection and some sometimes it was needed to be rushed but you know just if we can really get to know the candidates that's I think what I'm looking for. >> Well my recommendation if I may that time is on your side right now but there's not a lot of extra time if that makes sense. you know, to have a really thorough
022process. It's not too early to engage in a process now >> to have a, you know, a thorough process that would yield a candidate by the end of this calendar year. So, you know, December and then going into the 2026 year, you would have a candidate lined up and a transition plan. >> Yeah. My my goal would be get this out as soon as possible, right? That way people who supers who are out there looking for these opportunities come across this you know as soon as possible possibly over the holiday you know over Thanksgiving vacation and all that kind of stuff they have the opportunity but um I know I know it's a critical time that we get this started so that we're not rushed. So I do want to thank board president Todd for
023bringing this as quick as we have. So um that's all I have right now. Thank you. Mr. President, >> Mr. Johnson, go ahead. >> I agree with both of you and I just want to thank you. Um, my question actually was about the timelines. You answered that when you're answering his question. So, I appreciate it. Thank you for coming out. >> Thank you, >> Mr. Kai. Thank you. Um, just just to clarify a little bit um for you and and the reason you're here instead of your your search team is because this was not a a pitch for the ASA specifically, but to give us the board some background. Um, in this process, we we've heard many times, and I'll just ask you if if you concur with this, what seems to be the typical
024timeline on permanent search, as we get the position posted, sometime soon, uh, candidates will kind of review all of the available positions that are advertised, maybe across the state, across the nation, depending on where they're looking at working over Thanksgiving. Uh, then they kind of do some research on the districts and then apply typically over the Christmas holiday. Is that what you've kind of seen in the past? That is a a pretty traditional outline. What I have seen though is that the traditions aren't as traditional as they used to be. Like there are districts that have engaged in different timelines for a variety of reasons, but some want to be kind of like with teacher contracts. There are times where all a sudden, you know, districts are competing to issue contracts sooner and sooner to
025retain their teachers and to to get their hiring done. We're seeing some of that at the administrative level as well where districts are wanting to even have, you know, conclusion of their process before the holidays as opposed to, you know, trying to time things during the holidays because those who are looking for jobs are going to they're going to complete their process and do their homework regardless of what your timeline is. So, in other words, I would build it around what works for you versus what you think might work for the candidates, if that makes sense. >> Right? And so, you know, the further you get into, let's say, January, February, the top tier candidates probably already know where they're going to be, whether it's staying in their existing district or changing districts. So, the
026sooner you get your process going and have um you know, you'll have a a better pool is what I'm saying. >> Okay, great. Members, any other questions? Okay. Um I I would agree with my fellow board members as well. Again, I I don't think the board is in a position to award um a contract to any search firm at this time. It's more of getting the background that you provided. Uh I called on you because you're the n the state association for superintendent. So, you kind of have your pulse your finger on the pulse of this. Um but I do think the board will probably look to maybe some other presentation. We'll we'll get those moving quickly. Uh then we'll also invite the ASA search group back to make a presentation on kind of their
027their entire process. I I would believe that's the direction we We're happy to come back and we're happy to assist you any way we can. >> Sure. >> Great. Okay. Thank you very much. Any other questions, board members? >> All right. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Okay, members, that takes us to 3.2. Consider and possibly take action for the governing board to take next steps in the permanent superintendent search. >> Mr. Todd. >> Yes, ma'am. Um so you know uh I think it's really important that the board have a you know transparent discussion about what we are looking for and um what we want the next steps to be. So I will just share mine. Um I do think it's important that we um put out um or ask for um you know bids
028for the superintendent process. Um I believe that it starts you know if we want to find the best candidate then it it needs to start with the best firm to help us do that. And I think that we need to look at multiple firms um and you know potentially different price points so that we can get an idea of of one you know that nonprofit route or possibly one that is for profit and and we can compare um their different services and then we can make an informed decision. Um I agree with Mr. Kenyon that I don't want to rush the process just because the board put the interimm superintendent on leave. We need to make a very good decision for this district. The instability is troubling for so many people. So I don't want
029to rush it um just to rush it. I do think that trying to get someone in before Christmas or, you know, at the start of the year to me feels rushed. Um, do I think it's, you know, February, March, I think, you know, that that is more manageable. But I think by dis, you know, January 1st, I'm not sure that we can get the depth of the process and community input and all of those things that I would like to see um in a permanent search. So those are my initial thoughts. >> I as I understood this uh with Mr. Tai, it wouldn't be employing a permanent superintendent in January. It's that we need to start looking who our candidate starting in July would be sometime after January so that they have the opportunity to
030give notice to their district if they're leaving a district and coming to us. It's not a rush to get somebody in. This process started actually when we did our search for the interim superintendent. The ASA told us we should get started about now for a permanent search because as Mr. Ty said, the top candidates will go quick. The longer we delay, the smaller the pool of candidates becomes. So, it was not my impression that we would try to have a a permanent superintendent in place by January. I honestly would be concerned about any superintendent coming on in January from the standpoint that they would most likely be breaking another contract somewhere else. I don't think uh we want somebody who's going to break a contract and and leave another district to come here. Uh they
031would, as I understand, it would probably start July 1st, but we've got to have the offers out sometime in the first part of the year for to give them the notice. So, if there was confusion on rushing, I apologize. I don't think this is a rush at all. Um, I do believe that we should have several committees meet and this should be a process that will take us through um definitely through if if we follow kind of the general timeline that I know has changed a little bit, we won't even see applicants until after the new year. Um, and then we will start an interview process with multiple interviews, multiple committees, perhaps a social gathering for candidates, uh, all sorts of things. So, I don't think we would have somebody hired until probably late February
032or March. And then once we hire them, they really wouldn't start until July 1. >> Mr. President, come back. >> You may. >> I I agree. I don't want to rush it either. I don't think anybody does. And this one, the last search we did had to be done on a condensed timeline. Um, so I also like to see as much done out in front of the public this time. Last time we had do a lot of behind closed doors and I think that leaves a lot to question to everybody and some things we just can't talk about behind closed doors and so it leaves everything to question. So one of the big things I want to do is make sure we do as much out for everybody to see so uh there's no question
033about what happened. >> Mr. President. >> Yes, ma'am. Um, I agree with Mr. Sarinone. I'm looking forward to having more of this done in public and and having more community involvement this time. Um, and also I also agree with Miss Zimmerman with pulling in different types of firms and seeing what the breast is out there for the options. um you know, middle, high, low, see all of it and see what the different things they can offer for us and how they can help us so that when we're making a decision on which firm to use, we know we have all of the information available to us. >> I agree. Anything else, >> Mr. President? >> Yes, sir. >> Uh it sounds like we're pretty unanimous on this board right now. Um we I'm I'm thinking
034the same exact way. Uh I think we need to just kind of really it's not slow rolling it but it's doing it thoroughly and so with a good understanding of the candidates a good understanding of uh getting it these candidates in front of the public as much as possible I think is is going to be very helpful to our district. Um, I still am concerned about that $10,000 mark and I I think it's probably good idea to get this moving. Um, so I think I'm ready to make a motion if nobody else has any comments. >> The only comment I would add is I agree with having as much in public as possible. Um, one thing we learned in past searches is that until they're finalists, we cannot make their names public. That's a protection.
035That's, as I understand it, that's law. So, if we have 20 people that apply and we take 15, until we narrow it and name them finalists, we cannot do much in public. That protects them. And many candidates, as we've learned in the past, won't even apply early on if their name's going to be out because if it doesn't work out, they may stay where they're at. So, I just want the board to understand that there are certain laws that we have to follow. Those aren't my laws. Those are laws of the state. Those are laws of the federal government that we have to follow. Um, but once the finalists are named, and if you think about this in other positions, there's a police chief, a fire chief, a city manager. Um, there's lots of applicants
036that apply. there's several interviews that take place, but when the big news hits is when they've narrowed it down to two or three finalists, and that's when things start becoming a lot more um open and and outside of executive session. So, um that's kind of where we were with the uh um interm process is we never named a finalist until we we essentially pick somebody. So, those are that that's why that process has to happen the way it does, but we'll continue to work closely with legal to make sure that we keep as much open as possible. Mr. Todd. >> Yes, ma'am. >> I would just like for the record to something that will be very important to me um is that we conduct the finalist interviews in the public. We have done that for
037the last two searches for the superintendent. Um the two previous permanent superintendent. Um well that ended up being a permanent I guess the second one but um they those interviews those finalist interviews were absolutely done in a public in the public in an open meeting. So um in in full transparency I think that we need to do that again. And I'm just you know I'm I'm bringing that up because in the not the timeline, but the graph, you know, where it says interviews, it does say an executive session. And um you know, I brought that uh the last time even when we did the interim search, but um I just I'm just stating for the record that that's still I think a very important part of this process for the public. >> Okay. Thank you.
038Vice President, Kenya, I think you had a motion. >> Yes, Mr. President. I make a motion to direct the board president to work with staff to obtain a minimum of three competitive bids and schedule planning meetings accordingly. Miss Camarad, I have that written down if you need it. >> Okay. Before you go further, can we say um they should make presentations to you to the board, I believe, as well for their bids. >> Are you okay with having them come in and make a presentation in the next couple of weeks? >> Yes. >> So, if you could clarify your motion. >> Um I'll just reread my motion if that's okay and then add that part to the bag. So motion to direct board president to work with staff to obtain a minimum of three competitive
039bids and schedule planning meetings with presentations accordingly. >> Second, >> Mr. Kenyon. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Um, can you reword that to say quotes and not bids because bids are a a whole different process. It may take months and months to do. >> Yes, ma'am. I can do that. I can. >> So, if we can amend that, just change bids to quotes. >> Okay. So, because we're making amendment, here's what we have to do. We have to make the amendment. We have to second the amendment. We then have to vote on the amendment being approved and then we have to come back and vote. It's actually going to be two votes now, but that's technically the way it goes. So, You've made you've made an amendment. Board member Stencion has seconded it. >> Second. >>
040Now the board will take a vote to approve the amendment and then we have to come back and vote to accept basically accept the amendment. We're basically doing it twice, but theoretically the board could vote to accept the amendment and then board members could choose to vote that down. So that's the proper Robert's rules of rules of order of doing that. So at this point we have a motion and a second to to make the amendments which is only changing the word bids to quotes. So with that I will call vote of the board to just approve the amendment. We'll start at the end with board member Schmidt >> I. >> Board member Zimmerman >> I. >> Vice President Kenyon >> I. >> Board member Schwinion. >> I'm also I that is a 50 vote
041to approve the amendment. Now the amendment is to direct the or the now the motion that's been amended is as follows. Um it's going to be to direct the board to work with the board president to work with staff to get three competitive quotes. Ask those companies to come forward to make a presentation to the board and then uh we'll move forward from there. Correct. Then we would eventually award one award a company and then we would start the planning process. They would come make a presentation to the board. So do you have that Miss Camarad is >> Can I ask a clarifying question? >> You may. >> Um it it says at least three, right? We're not limiting it to three. >> Correct. >> Okay. Thank you. Miss Camar, did you want to read
042it back so we can make sure we have it correct? >> The motion will read to direct the board president to work with staff to obtain a minimum of three competitive quotes and schedule planning meetings with presentations accordingly. >> Great. Thank you. >> Okay, there's no further discussion. We have the motion. We have the second. We will now go for the vote. Board member Schmidt. I >> board member Zimmerman >> I. >> Vice President Kenyon >> I. >> Board member Shinion. >> I'm also an I. We'll show that that approved. Five yes. A zero no. >> President Todd have a question. >> Yes. >> So in the second motion, do you still want Chris as the first, Brian as the second? >> Yes. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Okay. Members, item 3.3 is consider and
043possibly take action self-report a possible violation of the open meeting law relating to an email sent to a quorum of the board by the interim superintendent office dated September 9th. Uh I will ask members that we table this legal was going to be here tonight. They had a last minute conflict and uh needed to pull this um and they asked that we table this until the next meeting. I'll need a motion for that. >> Mr. President, I make a motion to table 3.3 for a future date. Do >> I have a second? >> Second. >> We have a motion and a second to t table item 3.3. There's no discussion. We'll take the vote. Board member Schmidt. >> I. >> Board member Zimmerman. >> I. >> Vice President Kenyon. >> I. >> Board member Shinsion.
044>> I'm also I will show that item 3.3 is tabled with a five yes, zero no vote. Next will be item 3.4 listed as improprieties and procurement and fingerprints clearance compliance board me I'm sorry Vice President Kenyan you asked for this to be on the agenda. Yes, thank you um Mr. President. So this I wanted just to touch bases um Miss Mohorn I kind of give you a heads up about this coming. Um I noticed that there was a couple in contracts that were or agreements I should say that were in question. Um, can you explain a little bit about the procurement uh how how procurement works and why things need to come? >> That's why Becky's here. >> Specific questions about this situation as well. >> Okay. >> So, I don't know all of
045the details that you or concerns that you have, but if The normal process for procurement is that whomever needs a service or an item would put in a requisition and then goes through the process of being approved with whether it's appropriate for the district to purchase that item or whatever. And then um once it's account coded, there's an account code string that is attached to it and then it goes through the approval process. And if there's, of course, as you've mentioned earlier tonight, there's the thresholds. If it's under $10,000, you don't have to get a quote. Can if you want, but you don't have to. And then from 10,000 to$100,000, you need at least three. Some of them can be no bids, but some of them, you know, you want as many as you can
046get. And then over the 10,000 or I'm sorry over a 100,000 then you go out for formal for formal bids or quotes or I'm sorry bids RFPs RF. >> Okay. Thank you. Um just just for how you understand the ARS statute when we're talking about that $10,000 limit, right? Anything under the $10,000 doesn't have to come before the board. Superintendent has discretion. That kind of stuff. It goes through the process. Is that for an agreement, a period of time? Is that a year? What What's that $10,000 applied to timewise? >> Most It used to be that districts were not able to obligate a district for more than one year at a time. um more and more it's becoming more and more common that agreements or purchases are more than one year. >> Okay. >> But
047this should not be obligated more than one year at a time. >> So I guess I'm kind of rolling it back the other way. If it's a $10,000 agreement, can that be stacked multiple times within one year? >> Yeah. >> Okay. Thank you. Um goes over the 10,000, then we before the payments are made for over the 10,000, then we get our three quotes. >> Okay. >> And then we're allowed to go up to the 100,000. Can I ask a qu I didn't know if you were done. >> No, go ahead. I I have more to say, but go ahead. >> Okay. Um in terms of um if they are different services, you know, if we're talking about a contractor and they're going to provide different services, um like their scope of work is different
048and it's under the 10,000, can you use that um vendor or contractor twice? >> It's by the vendor for the district. It's just like if you were to talk about Amazon, Amazon gives us a lot of different things they can do but it's Amazon company is limited to $10,000 and then we get quotes. >> Okay. >> So members for for reference on this if you were to look in Arizona Revised Statutes and search the word bid splitting you would see what transpired in the last two months. Um we we do have a couple of contracts that have been signed um that are in excess of $10,000 a piece. Um we also in speaking to legal uh received the following email. I was not asked to review or approve any consulting contracts for consulting services performed.
049I was asked in a phone conversation regarding the procurement authority and I explained that the s the interim superintendent had the discretion up to $10,000 with any one vendor over a fiscal year. it was to exceed 10,000, there would need to be written competitive quotes and anything over a h 100,000 would require an RFP or bid in governing board approval. Um, just so you know, bid splitting is a class 4 felony and we have this situation here. Um, I think that at this time the best thing we do is look at doing a self-report uh to the proper agencies to let them know that we're aware this took place. >> Mr. President, if I may. >> You may. >> That's kind of where I was going is I was doing my background on this and
050looks like there was multiple and and just changing a little bit of wording in a contract doesn't mean they're doing a different service. But as Miss um Becky said that we have we have if it's the same contractor will say then that 10,000 is the limit. >> Yes. >> Um what I've seen and discovered is that's went past the 10,000. Yet no RFP, no additional bids or quotes were sought. Sounds like President Todd has something from the legal saying that they advised not to do this and yet still it happened. Um, and I actually also have our district policy on this, but I also have the ERA statute 41-2616 B. I'm just going to read this real quick for everybody's sake. A public a person who intentionally or knowingly contracts for purchases of any materials,
051services, construction or uh construction services pursuant to a scheme or artifice to avoid the requirements of this chapter. Rules adopted pursuant to this chapter. rules adopted by the state board of education pursuant to section 15-213 or rules adopted by the state of board state board of regents the the state lottery commission or the judicial branch pursuant to section 41-2501 is guilty of a class 4 felony as president Todd just stated. So uh I agree with President Todd. I think this is something we need to get ahead of. We need to probably self-report on this um when we can. But along with this, while I was looking into this, the person in question who was involved in these contracts, my understanding, has been working with and around our children. And anybody who is working with and
052around our children per the law has to have a level one fingerprint clearance card. Um, and do we have that on file for this person? >> We do not. >> Do we have an affidavit saying they have no criminal history? >> Okay. So, this is very, very concerning. Um, and so the public needs to know. Sometimes there's things behind the scenes you don't know about that we're trying to get to the bottom of as board members and we can't just bring everything out to the public. This is very concerning. Um and so I'll stop there. It sounds like other board members have questions or comments. >> Mr. Todd. >> Mr. >> Okay. Um I'd like to go back to procurement for a second. Um, I want to just refer the public back to March 4th
053of this year when the auditor general um presented um to the board and sent a whole performance audit. And one of the biggest deficiencies that the board had was procurement. Um and there were multiple different things where they didn't have written determinations justifying contracts. um vendor contracts were supporting missing supporting documents. Um the district exceeded the approved expenditure amount on two different contracts. Um, and so when this was brought to the board, um, the board I asked for an agenda item on March 4th, that night to discuss the procurement issues and for us to get ahead of this thing and to make sure that the training was done and that was never brought to the board. That was never added as an agenda topic. So I think that it's interesting now that it's a problem
054but it wasn't a problem 6 months ago when we had identified from the auditor general a very neutral party um you know brought this to our attention. So I think um you know my question is um did you ask it's really hard because you know they're not explaining exactly what happened and they're saying that you know we have to protect we can't say everything in public so I'm just not sure what to say at this point. Um but was the person you know did the procurement person um look to get three bids? >> I have not been included in all of this conversation but the rumor I have heard we have not gone over the 10,000. We have some um invoices yet to be paid or she's requesting payment on them. Okay. And so we
055need to do the quotes before those payments are made. Um, and if you look at the actual purchase order, it does state in each of the purchase orders that if it goes over the 10,000, the quotes do need to be done. Okay? >> Because when we this person came to the district, we had no idea how many days she was going to be with the district or what her duties were or any of that kind of thing. as in how many days she was going to be here. So, we didn't know the total amount of the what the purchase order should be. >> Okay. So, we haven't gone over the $10,000 at this point. So, we could go out and get the three bids. >> We do have invoices that go over that, but we
056have not physically paid. >> Okay. >> Which which we cannot physically pay. Correct. So, that's why we're at this point now >> until we get the three quotes. >> No, we cannot go back now and get three quotes because we've already gone over it. we've bid split. You can't you can't retroactively go back and get quotes. Business has already been done. The person is already asking for pay. You can't build a house and then go back and ask two more contractors to give you the price on building that house. It's already been done. >> Mr. President, if I may add a little clarification. So, >> oh, I'm sorry. Can you just put that on the mic? What you just said? I said I did not understand it the way he is explaining it. >> Thank
057you so much. >> We we have already exceeded the $10,000 mark in services. We have invoices that exceed $10,000. You can't now go back and ask somebody to undo their work. They're not quotes. They're invoices for greater than $10,000. >> So, Mr. President, if I may. >> You may. This is because we have two contracts with the same person. We have a contract for one month that started on July 23rd and then a which was for $9,900 which is just under that $10,000 limit to bring it to the board. Little suspicious. Then we have another contract $9,900 starting September 2nd. When asked if legal had reviewed this, it was determined that legal advised not to do it. It still happened. I understand what Miss Zimmerman's saying. A procurement needs to be buttoned up. But this
058happened after the uh the auditor general's report. This happened with a person who's expressed to me he knows what he's doing, quote unquote, because he's been a superintendent for so long. So, it looks to me like it was very intentional. That needs to be in the public. >> Mr. President, >> you may go ahead. >> Um, anything over $10,000 doesn't need to come before the board. Correct. It needs three bids. >> Three quotes. I apologize. But anything over $100,000, that's when it comes to the board. >> Okay. Um I think we should be careful about um what people's intentions are and I would encourage the board um if you have emails to support these concerns that you forward them to Dr. Mahorn so she can distribute them to the board so that we are all
059seeing the same information. Um, I want to talk about the fingerprint clearance card issue. Um, my question is, um, did HR, um, did HR ask if she had a fingerprint clearance card? >> This person didn't come through HR at all? We didn't even know that she was working or what the scope of working was. So, this person didn't even come through through HR at all. >> Okay. So, did you ask the superintendent? >> I I did not. That was not my >> Okay. >> If you don't know they're there, how would you ask them? This person started without you knowing they were starting. >> We all got an email. The board got an email that this person was being contracted. So >> HR did not >> Well, I mean I >> I mean HR did
060not. That's what I mean. HR did not. So we can't expect HR to ask questions about somebody that they don't know exists. >> Okay. Because every other contractor does go through you, correct? And you guys make sure that's proper. >> If they're going to be in our buildings and working like with kids, then yes, the f the fingerprint and the affidavit. If they're just working here at district office, that's different. But somebody that is going to be in our buildings and working with and around kids, then for sure they would have to come into HR to have the affidavit done by a notary because the affidavit can only be done with a notary. >> Okay. Um so I pulled the scope of work that was sent to the board um about this person and it
061does not indicate that they were working with kids. And I want to pull the um policy um three for the public's transparency 3-109.B B is um our policy. And um on December 16th was when the board first discussed chapter 3. And I brought a concern to the board that I thought that this particular part of the policy that allowed the superintendent to grant a waiver um for a contractor or vendor. Um, actually I'm going to read the policy because I think it will just be clear. Oh, it's up on the screen. Um, it says the superintendent, uh, it says a contractor, subcontractor, or vendor or any employee of a contractor, whatever, who is contracted to provide services on a regular basis at an individual school shall obtain a fingerprint clearance card. The superintendent may exempt
062from this requirement a contractor, subcontractor, or vendor only if the superintendent has determined with reasonable certainty that the individual will not have independent access or unsupervised contact with students as part of their normal job duties while performing services to the district. So during that December 16th meeting, I brought my concern that maybe this would not be um in the district's best interest. Um, and Mr. Kenyon stated that we need to give latitude to the superintendent and their discretion and that they need to have leeway to make that decision and he didn't want to box him in with the wording. So, I think that the the policy is here um and the it was being followed. This person did not have unindependent access to students. They were working with the superintendent. And although I'm certainly in
063favor of a fingerprint clearance card, as I indicated on December 16th, the board decided to leave this in a little bit more vague. And so, you know, I'm just I'm not understanding that. And I think it raises the same question of board members who are on campuses in classrooms if they don't have fingerprint clearance cards. We have parents that volunteer on a regular basis. We do not fingerprint parents. So I think to single out this particular person who did not have independent access doesn't follow our policies. We have to take our emotions out of how we feel about whether they should have a fingerprint clearance card. Is this is the policy. The policy gives the superintendent the ability to wave it. >> Mr. President, if I may, >> you may. >> I stand by what
064I said there and you're exactly right. if they are 100% supervised all the time. Um, I would like to ask, did Miss Nora have access to the buildings? Did she have a key? Did she have a badge? >> I know for sure she had a badge. >> So, she had a badge. So, she had access to the buildings independently, which board members do not. >> She did. >> Did that come through HR? >> It did not. >> That's concerning. So, somebody's giving direction to give independent access, which is exactly what goes against the policy you just read. We don't know if she's able to go on. Well, she has access. She can go on whenever she wants. She can walk around whenever she wants. And from my understanding, she was there unsupervised at times around
065our kids. That goes against the policy Miss Zimmerman's reading. So, I at at at at this point in time, there's so much here. I don't know how we can defend this. I think it needs to be self-reported. It needs to be investigated by somebody else. That's where I'm at. >> Are you ready, M? Yes. Go ahead. >> Uh, so my stance on this is I'm not a lawyer and so I don't know if the law was broken or not. And so that's why I don't have a problem self-reporting it and letting somebody know who actually understands the law better than we do. let them figure out if they broke the law. >> This is a discussion item. There's no action here. >> You're correct, Miss Zimmerman. This says discussion information. My my understanding is that
066at a later date we could take action on it, but this is just discussion. And I guess my other question, Mr. Nman, was I I agree it was a problem six months ago. It's still a problem now. So, I don't understand when you said when you're saying that you don't understand why it's a problem now and not back then. So, I mean, it is a problem. It's still a problem. And it needs it definitely we need to figure out how to fix this. >> Uh, Mr. Mr. Todd, may I respond? >> You may. >> Okay. Um, my concern is that why didn't we address it six months ago? because then maybe we wouldn't be in this position I guess you know we were it was identified 6 months ago I asked for it to be
067an agenda item 6 months ago and so there has been no discussion on the board about any procurement issues I mean you you know you can read the audit report there are lots of them and so I'm just saying that it is I'm not saying it's not an issue but I think it's interesting timing that we're picking this particular thing to bring to the public when we all kinds of other procurement issues that haven't been brought to the public. >> Mr. President, if I may, >> you may. >> The difference with this versus what the auditor general found audit auditor general didn't find intention like it wasn't done intentionally. From what I can tell here, this was done intentionally. Now, I agree with board members. I'm not a lawyer, but where there's smoke, there's more
068than likely fire. And this this through many avenues that we discussed tonight. I think it just needs to have somebody else look at it. It is important. I still stand by what I said before where I do think they need the latitude, that discretion as long as they know the person's going to be supervised. Um, we hire contractors and different different services for many different things around the campuses. And so as long as they're supervised, there's somebody there with a level one fingerprint clearance card, there's somebody there from administration, they're being supervised around our children, that's one thing I think we can give that leeway. But when they have independent access, when they haven't been through the proper channels, when they haven't been through HR, but yet they have a key card or they have
069a badge, they they there's no affidavit on file saying, and I'm not saying that this person is a criminal who we consulted with. I'm just saying there's no proof that she's not as other people around our children would have. >> Mr. Todd. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Okay. Um, so how does a employee get a badge? >> Okay, I I'm not sure we can discuss that now because it's not an agenda item, >> but we're we're talking about having access. This is part of the agenda item that has been brought up. >> Well, >> okay, >> we're talking about improies and procurement and fingerprints clearance. >> I'll ask I'll ask a different question. Um, I think that we should be very careful to state that they that this person was provided unrestricted access to our students
070because we have been given no proof of that and um is my understanding that that person was always with um a person that had a fingerprint clearance card. So, I think that we need to be very careful to to not make statements that we don't have factual information for. Okay, members, I think we've discussed this enough. Um, it can be reported by the district. It doesn't really require board action. Procurement is allowed to report this to the proper agencies. uh you can at the end make an agenda item that has come back to the board to be actionable at a future meeting. Our next item will be 3.5 consider and take action concerning use of district attorney. Vice President Kenyon, you asked for this on the agenda. >> Thank thank you uh President Todd. Yeah,
071I just um I don't want to speak a lot about this other than I think it's time to kind of I think I think the current district attorney we have is um I would like to see a different attorney, I guess, is what I'm trying to say. I think there's been some conflicts in the past um situations that have arisen and and he's had to recuse himself a number of times and I think it's probably time just for a kind of a clean slate. Um and so that's why I brought this up before the board. >> Mr. Todd. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Uh I had a question because uh Mr. Dangerfield was appointed by the county attorney um as indicated at the May 5th, 2023 meeting. Um, and Mr. Todd yourself said that you got
072an email from the county attorney. So, has Miss Mitchell released Mr. Dangerfield from working for us >> about 3 weeks after she appointed him? Yes. >> Okay. Do you have an email that you could >> It was an email to him. I did not have that, but he did clarify that long ago. >> Okay. I think um since it would be prudent of the board to obtain that email before we did anything to ensure that we are um uh you know able to kind of select new legal counsel but you know the motion proposed is to not use uh Cattleme and Brown without board approval. So, you know, my concern is that the district needs to be able to access, you know, legal counsel as situations arise. I think that, you know, um, and my
073concern is that the way that this motion is written is that we would be here every single night of the week um, for the district to to to ask our approval to contact the district's legal counsel. And um if I could just ask Dr. Mahorn a question since you are um the director of HR and student services and I would assume that you um you know interact with legal probably the most. How often do you think you um call uh for a legal advice either daily or weekly? If you could just give an estimate. >> It usually depends on board meeting if we have a board meeting that week but usually about once a week. Okay. Even with like student situations and staff situations, >> not all, not often with students, but usually with staff,
074I just double check my thinking. Um, and so it's usually about once a week. Some weeks it might be twice or three times and the next week it might be none, but it would average out to about once a week. >> Okay. Um, I'm still concerned that we are tying the district's hands here in having them have to come to the board to talk to legal counsel. Um, and I think it puts the district at a liability if they can't respond appropriately to legal situations that may arise. So, that's my concern here. >> So, if I may, um, Canamian Brown was appointed in a shortterm process. Clyde was Mr. Dangerfield um at a time when we did not have an attorney and we were trying to negotiate through a contract. Um that was since released
075from that time. There's only two people in the district who can legally request legal advice or contact lawyers. That's myself being the board president and the superintendent. Those are the only two that can do it. Um, there's some understood delegated authority for a situation if it's HR that the the superintendent would would tell the assistant super HR it's it's okay to reach this point. But we don't contract with an individual attorney. Our legal service comes from the trust who we pay a set fee every year for prepaid legal service. They have a list of lawyers. Any of those lawyers can be contacted. So, this motion does not prevent district staff from speaking to a lawyer. This motion says if you're going to work with this law firm, you need to come to the board for
076approval. That's all it's asking. That's all it's saying. So, it's not doing anything to prevent the district staff superintendent or his delegated delegated person in specific instances to get legal counsel. There's a list from the trust. You can use anybody on that list unless a district restricts somebody or disqualifies a a certain firm. >> Can I ask a question? >> Sure. >> So, usually um it's my understanding that the district usually does have a designated legal counsel so that they can get to know the district and be familiar and be able to answer questions more easily. So, is the intention I guess of Mr. Kenyon for us to in the future identify a district legal counsel. >> Well, we actually have several council um legal counsel. You might see one more than others, but we
077work with a separate law firm that has handled um our bonds. We work with a different law firm that handles special education situations. Those are all people in the trust. If you look just north to the city of or the Poria school district, I think they have nine or 10 lawyers that they routinely work with. You work with the specialist. Um so this does not limit that at all. Um and in fact, this is a rather small law firm that doesn't have a lot of specialized lawyers that handle um some of those unique things like bonds, like land acquisitions. Those are all coming from other from other law firms. So this district does utilize multiple law firms um for for various things already. >> Mr. Kenyon, did you have a motion? Yeah, I make a
078motion to direct staff not to use Clinton um Caneli and Brown PLC without board approval. Do have a second. >> Second. >> Have a motion and a second. We've had lots of discussion. We need more, we can have it. Otherwise, we'll take the vote. I'll start by calling Miss Schmidt. Hi, >> Miss Zimmerman. >> I >> Vice President Kenyon >> I. >> Board member Sion >> I'm also I we will show that approve five yes zero no. >> Next will be item 3.6 approval of principal evaluators for fiscal year 2526. Dr. Mahorn. Uh yes. Uh I was asked to similar to what you will see next meeting or the meeting after where there is a list submitted to you as a board of uh qualifi it's called qualified evaluators for principles to evaluate teachers. Um
079I was asked for names of people that can evaluate principles and looking in job descriptions. Um, we have a lot of revised job descriptions that were just revised as I noticed this spring. Um, so far I've only found it in uh two different job descriptions. uh you as all as I don't know if you're taking action on that as the board um you can choose but I do know that um Miss Michelle May who is hired she started July 1 um her one of her primary roles um as she was hired was to do uh principal evaluations and her role is the director of school improvement >> Mr. Todd. >> Yes ma'am. >> Okay. Um, I'm glad you said that you were going to bring the qualified evaluators forward because I was uh that was
080one of my questions. Um, and you know, one of my things as I was researching this was about where it was in job descriptions and I um I didn't see it in the assistant superintendent of human resources and student services. Is it in that or is there a revised? There's revised for one, two, three, four, five, six, seven different uh different jobs that was revised. Oh, 7 8 9 10 11 12 different job descriptions that were revised the spring of 2025. >> Yes. Um, but in in the job description for the assistant superintendent of human resources and student services, I didn't see as part of the job description that that job description for evaluating principles. >> I will not be I don't know how I could even if I mean it is just but that
081will be Michelle well if you all vote that will be uh Michelle's may primary role. I would not have >> I'm not >> I believe it is in the job that job description and the other assistant soup that we don't have anybody in there. Yeah. In the other >> and I I'm not saying whether you should or not. I just was looking at the job description. >> Can one at a time talk? Dr. Mahorn was talking and you talked right over her. Miss Zimmerman. Please yield to her when she has the floor. >> Sorry. I believe it was in both ad uh both uh assistant soups and then the only other district office that I just found it in was in that uh director of school improvement. >> May I um continue? >> You may
082know. >> Okay. Um, so, um, you know, as long as it's, uh, I, again, I did not see it in that particular job description, but I do think that, um, we should, it would be my recommendation that we make a motion that includes the superintendent um, and the director of educational services because we don't know when we're going to hire those people. And again, I think we should base it off of, you know, where it where it is in the job description, the the um jobs that we potentially could have that could evaluate. So, um that that's just what I would like to see happen. >> The only job description we don't have in HR is a superintendent job description, funny enough. So, yeah, I would assume, but that's the only one we do not
083have out of all of them. >> Okay. Thank you, >> Mr. President. >> You may. >> Who's currently doing it >> right now? Um, Lane Man has started some and I believe Dr. Aila has started some and then there are some that nobody no one has started. That's my understanding. >> Who assigned them to do that? >> Mr. McDonald. Thank you, >> Mr. President. I'm ready to make a motion. >> Okay. I have just one comment really quick. Um, personally don't know that the superintendent should be an evaluator. Not our current interim superintendent, not any of them. It's it's the top of the food chain and there's no way to make any appeal from that moment forward. So, I would think this should be people downstream from the superintendent position in case something a principal
084doesn't agree with, they have a path to to move forward. Um, it's I I feel like that's a better a better situation. Um, it's not that these folks typically haven't been in classrooms, but many of them have been removed for many years from a classroom, and they're not involved in the day-to-day operations inside of a classroom. I I I don't know that they're the most appropriate person. We have a lot of people such as our assistant superintendents, our director of school improvement. Um I think the other departments that have currently been doing this have enough going on in their departments that we don't need to be pulling them away uh to do evaluations. But um but with that said, that would be my only recommendation is that we not include the superintendent in that process
085or an interim and we leave use some downstream uh people, assistant superintendents, director of school improvement, wherever that goes. >> Mr. President, I make a motion to approve the principal evaluators for fiscal year 2526 as noted below. Okay. Do I have a second? Second. Okay. I have a motion, a second to approve the principal evaluators as noted below. Purposes of the verbal minutes that we use here for the the recording. That would be the assistant superintendent of human resources and student services and the director of school improvement. Is that correct? >> Yes. >> Okay. There's no further discussion. We'll take a vote. Board member Schmidt. >> Nay. >> Board members Zimmerman. Nay. >> Vice President Kenyon. >> I. >> Board member Shenion. >> I'm also an I will show that approved. Three. Yes. Two. No.
086For item 3.6. >> Next on the agenda is item four, governing board comments on agenda topics or recommended agenda topics. Agenda. >> Mr. Todd. >> Yes. Uh, I'd like an agenda topic to discuss Dreambox and the sponsorship the ED services team secured to cover the majority of the cost of it. >> Anything else? >> And Mr. President? >> Yes. >> Um, I would like decision or discussion possible action on talking about a free speech zone. on our campuses. >> Okay. Camp all district facilities or just school campuses. >> Um all district facilities. >> Okay. >> And I also have one more when you're ready. >> Uh go ahead. >> Um this could just be a board update. doesn't necessarily have to be a agenda item, but I would like administration to provide the board with
087an updated list of the IT work tickets. You want the open tickets, closed tickets, all tickets? >> Um, I think just the open tickets for now. Okay. >> All right. Anything else? Okay. I would ask the board that we look at uh creating a procedure to ensure that all documents are in place before keys or access to buildings are are granted to anyone. There should be a process for that. I think we may have failed. Members, while we're on this topic, if there's anything else that you have requested that has not been put onto an agenda, will you please let our board secretary know? Uh we went through the list. We did not see anything that she has captured uh that that has not been covered. Um unless it's something that was requested at the
088last meeting, but otherwise it looks like everything was cleared. So, um I know Miss Zimmerman, you made a recommendation about something back in February or March that you made. It was not on the board at that time, so I'm not aware of of that. But if you need it to be on the agenda, please please uh you know have access to the forum as well. You can you can put it there. Next is our upcoming board meetings. Monday, October 6, 2025. Also, Monday, October 27th, 2025. And as a side note, uh this afternoon, very late, legal contacted us and said that we need to have a meeting this Wednesday. Um as I get more agenda item on that, I will pass it on. and I have very very brief information, but uh they have told
089us that we need to have a meeting this Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. We will have an agenda posted uh in legal time before that meeting. That takes us to item 6.1, the adjournment of the meeting. We've concluded all of our business. We will show the meeting adjourned at 6:47. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Hey, [Music] hey, hey.