05.13.2025 Governing Board Meeting

001[Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Good evening. I'd like to call the public hearing of the Liberty Elementary School District public hearing to order today, May 13, 2025 at 5:30, the Jerry Roby District facility. Five board members member Zimmerman, board member Schmidt, board member Cinion, Vice President Kenyon, Mr. Cerrone Cron, if you could please lead us with the pledge of allegiance. Thank you for the record. President Michael Todd also present attending virtually tonight uh due to an unscheduled event that took place. My apologies for not being there ahead of time for the retirees. I I am regretful for not being able to make it in person tonight. Uh with that we'll open up our public hearing item 1.3 information discussion of fiscal year 202425 annual ann annual expenditure budget revision. This will be presented by Miss Crystal

002Moer our accountant and Rebecca Williams our business consultant. Thank you and good evening everyone. Good evening board members and community members. Um, we have a presentation, so I want to make sure. Is it up for everyone to be able to see? Okay. Okay. Thank you. I'll go ahead and get started. We've got a full house tonight. I appreciate you all being here. [Music] Um, okay. So, uh, first what I wanted to go over is a little bit of background. So we have um some information on our screens uh regarding the different funds that we have available as a district. So some of our funds are restricted funds and some of them are unrestricted. We've got a lot of funds that are designated for very specific purposes. Um some of those being grants which are also

003applicationbased. So, I put a few examples of different funds that we have available. Like our biggest budget controlled fund would be our M operations fund. Um, and then some of our cash control funds are examples like our auxiliary, our tax credit monies, our student activities funds, things like that. Um, so I just wanted to give a little background on that. Um and then basically our M and capital funds are driven by our state legislature. Our overrides, our bonds, our adjacent ways, those are all taxpayerdriven funds. Um most of our grants are governed by the Department of Education, but a lot of them do filter through the federal government. Um so we do have some requirements that we're upheld with those standards on those grants. Um, and then again, those cash controlled funds that I talked

004about, a lot of those would be used for things like one-time purchases. Um, and they're kind of designated for specific things. So, what I wanted to get into was the reason that we're bringing this revision before you tonight. Um, state statute allows for school districts to revise their budget in May. The deadline is May 15th for the current fiscal year. This is a very common practice. Actually, almost every school district in Arizona is going through the same process right now. Uh bringing this before their boards usually in early May to get everything done by the deadline. This is our final opportunity to capture um all of our additional budget capacity before this year is over. So, some of the reasons that here at Liberty while we're doing it is that we want to capture additional

005budget capacity in M. Um, and I'll go into more specifics, but M our additional capacity right now is right around 1.5 million. And then we want to reduce our capacity in capital. So, that's going to be reduced by about 2 million. Those are the specific reasons why we're doing it as a district. So, um, some of the other areas, the reason that we're doing it mostly is to capture our additional capacity for ADM. So, I put an example of what we've had in our average daily membership over the last couple fiscal years. Um, this information comes from our BSA 55 report, which is published by AD. Um, so we used the most recent available report for this May revision, which gave us data through March 15th. So this captures all of our ADM through the

006100th day of school. Um, this year we now have ADM at 4,271. So that's about 69 additional students from last year about this time. Um, just as a point of reminder, kindergarten students count as half. Preschool students um do not count in our ADM. The tuitionbased preschool students do not count in our ADM numbers. Okay. Um, also another point of reminder, if our ADM is to change, which it does usually monthly, um, those additional capacities will be added into our budget next year since this is our final revision for this year. Okay, this screen has quite a few numbers, so I hope you all can read it, but this gives a little more of a summary of exactly what's changing. Um, so we are adjusting our revenue control limit due to additional capacity that we

007got from the legislature. Um, from our adopted budget to now our revised, we're able to capture an additional uh $1 million there. We're also able to capture an additional roughly $65,000 because of our override budget limit. um carry forward. This is where we're really able to uh capture exactly what our carry forward was from last year. So that brings our change down a little bit about 270,000. And then we are also updating for the Prop 123 funding that we were able to receive. Um so that's an additional $3,000. And then we're going and ahead and taking care of the DAA transfer that we've been discussing of 700,000 to move that from our capital funds into M. And then capital uh the legislature and all the different changes our capacity went down in that area so

008to 3.2 million and then we are transferring that 700,000. So that's where we get the reduced capacity of over just over $2 million. Okay. So, some upcoming budget reminders. In June, we will be bringing the proposed budget for FY26. Um, in July, that's when we do adopted. So, between June and July, there cannot be any changes to the budget. Whatever we propose is what needs to be adopted. That will need to be done by July 15th. Um and then a good practice that we've decided going forward is to bring that December revision. So when this set for December we'll have that included on the meeting. Uh May revision for next year will happen. Um in August we're going to start monthly but so that the budget can be reviewed expenses can be reviewed in encumbrances

009can be reviewed on a more monthly basis and it can be in front of you for discussion at any point in time. So um I would like to open it up now for questions. Vice President Kenya I'll ask you to presside over this part and you can control the floor. Okay. Thank you, Mr. President. Um, Member Schmidt, do you have any questions? Not right now. Thank you. Member Zimmerman. I do. So, um, we'll go ahead and start with the presentation and then um I'd like to open up the um actual uh revision. So, if we could go to the slide um with the, you know, comparing the adopted to the revised. So can you explain, you know, how we got that extra million dollars, what, you know, different things went into that? Yes. So in

010our M fund, both of our M and capital fund, um some of the changes are the at the legislature. So when we adopted in July, we adopted on forms that were used from last year's budget. That's also a very common practice because the legislature is notorious for waiting till the last minute. We have to adopt by July 15th. So a lot of times we're adopting on forms from last year. So everything is calculated for last year's numbers. So that's one of the biggest changes is that this is our first opportunity that we've adopted now on the new forms and captured all of those new formulas and all of that money that the legislature decided was going to be the budget for us for 2025. Um the other portion of it is our ADM changes. So

011um when I talked about 69 students being added, that's about I think I wrote that number down. Oh yes. um roughly $345,000 from those students cuz each student we obtain is about $5,13. Um so that's the biggest changes on this slide. Okay. And so um you know addition so basically we had a million more dollars to spend than we budgeted for originally and we we you know essentially spent that money that we didn't know we were going to have when we adopted the budget in July. Well this is we're bringing the budget now to capture all of our capacity, all of our budget capacity. That doesn't mean it's spent yet. We're just adopting the new budget for the most amount of money that we're eligible to receive. Okay. And so what is um what is

012the expected carry forward for ML? So as of right now, we gave a projection I believe in April we discussed about 500,000 for M. Okay. So if we're transferring 700,000 from capital to M, if we had not made that transfer, that means that we would have been in the negative 200,000. Correct. In M essentially means that we would have had to transfer items to other sources or we would have had to reduce our expenses near the end of the year, right? Which we did. Correct. I mean that we've been trying to do that since February when this you know came to light. Correct. Okay. So, and then with the capital um we are reducing the capacity um by $2 million. Um and a lot of that is because we made that seven, you know, 700,000

013of that is because we're moving it to M. But when I looked at the fund balance sheet, it seems that we thought we were going to have a million more dollars in carry forward that we that we didn't end up having. So my question is going forward, how can we ensure because the adopted budget happened in July, which means that the fiscal year was over. So, how did we how can we change our practices to ensure that we know how much we've spent at the end of the year? Because the difference of a million dollars after the year is over seems like a big number. Well, you have to remember that the data that goes into the July adoption is captured prior to that. So, June 30th is the end of the fiscal year, but

014that doesn't mean that the activity stops. there are still purchase orders that are in place at the end of the year that are being paid all the way through August. Um, so when we adopt, a lot of those numbers are estimates. So we do our very best to estimate items that are going to be spent, but sometimes during the summer, especially with a lot of construction projects going, POS do come in, you know, very last minute because of projects that come up come up for the summertime, but those should be planned, right? I mean, we should know what the projects are going to be, unless an emergency happens, of course. It really depends. I mean, especially with new school construction. I mean, I think Bob could speak to this a little bit more, but um

015a lot of things last year we were waiting on we were waiting on other people. We were waiting on things for the land. We were waiting on the construction company. We were waiting on a lot of things to line up and then as soon as that was ready to go, we had to hit the ground to make the August 25 open date for Loretta Zumbro. So, that's a big portion of it. Okay. Um if we could um open up the revision and um go to page two please or page one. I apologize. So um I know it's going to be hard. So I'm going to blow if you could uh in the back um if you could blow up I'm going to be looking at the teach the average teacher salary. It's at the bottom

016the bottom right. There you go. Perfect. Thank you so much. So, I appreciate you guys providing the information earlier about how this is calculated. So, I I did do the like average from the contracts that were issued in board docs. And so, with the $8,000 um classroom site fund, I can see where the average comes from. My question however is in the you know um AG spending report it says that the average teacher salary is 67,000 which when they did the report or when they did the presentation they said that was self-reported. So how are those numbers so different? So what they mean when they say self-reported is that they get the data off of our annual financial report which is done every October. Um so there are different areas on that form where you

017have to include your base pay for teachers, your stipens for teachers, um your Prop 301 money uh or performance pay for your teachers. So uh what they used when they captured that data is they took all of our all of our salaries including stipens and everything. That's not what we do internally as a district because stipens are never it's not an average. Not every single person gets a stipend. They're all individual type items, especially things like coaching or clubs. Those aren't a guarantee every year and not everybody does them. So when we calculate average teacher salary, we use base salaries for teachers and then we use um their classroom site fund money or more commonly known as their Prop 301 money because those are items that all teachers get. As long as you worked for

018that year and you completed your contract, you're going to get you're going to get that amount of money. So we use those numbers and then we basically just divide by the number of teachers and that's the average for that fiscal year. Okay. Uh, thank you. If we could go to page two. Um, so this is, uh, oh, I apologize. Page three. Uh, this is the M um, spending. And, uh, I just have a couple, I guess, comments. You know, my concern is that when we go into fiscal year 26 and we're looking at this revision, I feel like it's really important for the district to keep in mind that we did do a lot of kind of cost-saving measures for the last 3 months. Um, and so if we're not careful and we take this

019revision and kind of try to formulate our budget for 26, we're automatically going to put ourselves over because we're not necessarily going to be making those same cuts. So just for example, the general administration line um you know that's basically district office staff. Okay. So we didn't have an assistant superintendent of educational services for half the year. Um and so you know if you calculate that with her benefits it's between 70 and $90,000. So if we hire for that position we're automatically going to be over in fiscal year 26. So, you know, it's just kind of a a comment in terms of the concern I have in terms of using this and as we go forward other as we get to other pages, other funds that we've paid different things out of, I just think

020we have to keep that in mind, I guess, is what I'm saying. Um, but I also think it's important that, um, I spent a lot of time looking at the adopted budget that we did in July, um, versus the revision. And so for the general administration, the plan was to cut about $90,000 from last year, but the district didn't cut any district level positions. So had Mrs. Camp not left in the middle of the year, we wouldn't have been able to have that savings. And so I think it's important when we say we're going to cut things and I think that this board we've done a better job with the you know prioritization but we have to know how the cuts are going to happen and what that's going to look like. Um the other

021thing that I'm quite concerned about on this one is the operation of the plant. Um so uh in in fiscal year uh 24 as it states up there we spent 4.4 4 million on the plant uh the maintenance and operation of the plant. I apologize. Um and in the adopted budget, so in July, you know, the district and the board, I assume, looked at that and said, "Ooh, that that's a lot of money." And they had planned to cut that um to $3 million. They had made a basically 1.4 cut. But the problem is is that that cut didn't happen. we actually spent $4.6 million and the revision. So essentially the entire um you know additional capacity that we got was spent on the maintenance and operation of the plant. And so for me as

022a board member, as we move forward, it's important to me that we look at how we can use additional captured budget capacity to support students and their learning. And um you know, when when I looked at the budget prioritization and the things that we cut, the 2.3 I don't know that we actually cut all the way to 2.3, maybe 2.1, you know, only about 350,000 of that had to do with the maintenance of the plant. So that meant, you know, 1.6 of that is cuts to students and cuts to teachers. And so I'd really like the board to think about that as we move forward. Um, if we could go on to page seven, please. Um so page seven is um about capital spending um including uh bond and and school facilities board. So I

023noticed that the change in the bond spending for construction services. So line four um it's up 1.7 from the adopted budget. So, we're spending $1.7 million more dollars from our bond on construction services. My question is, um, which project essentially is over budget and the need to spend the additional bond money on construction? Well, um, I don't have a specific answer on an exact construction project. Um, but one of the things that we do when we go through a revision is we do look at our expenses as a whole and we kind of reallocate things where they've actually been spent. So even though at the beginning of the year we might have put we might have put certain dollar amounts in some of the other areas, our projects ended up being more of general constructions

024than some of the other specific areas. That's um a lot of that is account code structure and accounting processes that originally we kind of put the budget in this area knowing that when purchase orders started coming through they're going to actually be coded with the correct coding to the right places if that makes sense. It does. Um, the other kind of concern I had looking and I I hear what you're saying because overall the difference between the adopted budget and the revision for um bond spending is about 500,000. And so when we're talking about 17 million, um, yeah, 500,000 isn't as a significant number. I don't want to make it sound like it's not a lot of money, but you know, I can see that, you know, we spent less here and and spent more

025here. Um, you know, one of the things that stuck out to me was, uh, line seven, which is the furniture, and we budgeted a million dollars for furniture, and I assume that was for Loretta Zumbro, and we didn't spend that yet. Correct. Correct. We have a purchase order in place for that, but because of the timing, that's actually going to be for next year because we can't we can't receive the items until July 1 because we need to pay for them in the new year because that's when they're able to be delivered to the site and we always pay in the year that we take delivery. And you know, the reason that I just want, you know, I just want the public to understand is that even though, you know, we kind of essentially spent

026that money in a different category, we're still going to have to spend that additional money for the furniture, which again takes our bond money down even further. Um, and then the adjacent ways was a big jump from the adopted to the revision. It was about 1.8. Um so can you talk about what happened there? Yes. Um the biggest reason that you see a jump in that area is because we are capturing some capacity that we adjusted adjacent ways a couple years ago. Um but we're now starting to see the actual revenue from that coming in from taxes and everything. So this is now our opportunity. We were kind of doing some catchup on that one for the last 2 to 3 years to get that budget actually in line with the money that's available for

027adjacent ways. Just to give you a little reminder, adjacent ways, um, those are for things like roads, uh, canal work. We have it kind of set aside for school 8, school 9, the transportation facility, and things that the city of Buckeye or maybe the city of Goodyear would require us to do on some of our construction projects. Okay. Um, page eight, um, is about, uh, essentially, uh, federal funding and grants and things like that. So, I just bring it to the attention to the board and to the public that overall those numbers are going down. And so, um, you know, it's a different, uh, agenda item tonight about project momentum. So, I'll save that for that agenda item. But, um, we're just going to have to be really cognizant of, you know, unfortunately, we're just

028not going to get the same amount of federal dollars. Um, and it's not just us. I'm not saying, you know, we're being singled out. We're not. Um, but, you know, we have to account for that in the budget for sure. Um uh on page 12 if you could blow it up that left um hand screen. Um, so the budgeted expenditures for the is that supposed to be for the prior year? See how it says prior year ADM? And if you just go straight down that column, are those budgeted expenditures supposed to be the prior year budget expenditures? No, those are for the current year. So, the budget expenditures are the same as the budget limit. Yes. And that's pretty common. We put that on our budgets. Okay. [Music] Um Oh, okay. Page 13. Um at

029the bottom, it's talking about proposed staffing. And my question, it says like 194 teachers for general education, but then on the M page, page three, it says FTEES. It's 204 or 206. I'd have to go back to that page. I apologize. I didn't write that down. Do you know why that that is different there? Like where do you see Oh, I do see now. Okay. And then on page three, line item one for the FTEES, it says 206. And it's broken out on the M1 for special education, too. So, I know that those aren't combined, but yeah. Okay. Thank you for that reminder. So, on page one, it it includes some of our other staff members, not just teachers. So in instruction, you also have paraprofessionals. They're part of our instruction function group. So on

030that other page that labels just teacher staff. Okay. Okay. And then I was hoping that you guys would be able to pull up the um the fund balance sheet um that's part of the workbook um both for the adopted budget and the revision because I think it's important for us to look at. I don't know that tech has that page available because it wasn't part of the documents and board docs. Um, the adopted budget would be on our website under budget and you Oh, I'm sorry. The adopted if we could at least pull that part up and then I, you know, printed out the revision that I can speak to, but I did include the PDF file for the adopted budget which says July adopted. Um, I don't know if it's I just think it's

031the same one from Board Docs in July where it doesn't have the 40 different tabs on it. It just has what we're looking at tonight, right? But on our website, on Liberty's website, it's there under budget. Okay. So, if you just go to Liberty and you go to budget, it pulls up pretty quick. adopted. And then you're going to go to the tabs at the bottom and you're going to scroll over until you see fund balance. I appreciate you guys bringing that up. So, this is talking about our carry forward and what the district plans to spend of the carry forward. So in um July when we adopted the 25 budget, it's reported that the district said that we had at the end of 23, we had a fund balance of $4 million that we're

032carrying forward. And then if you look at four, number four, it says fiscal year 24 estimated ending fund balance details and planned uses. So A, there's no fund deficit. B, fund balance exceeding budget capacity in budget controlled funds, zero. Planned to be spent in fiscal year 25, zero. So the district told said that they did not plan to spend that carry forward in fiscal year 25 and that they maintained what they plan to maintain for spending in fiscal year 25 was 4.2. So essentially they're saying we were going to gather 200,000 more. So then if unfortunately we can't pull up the revision but for those same C if you look at C plan to be spent in 25 now the district says we plan to spend $3.2 million in carry forward. So they said zero

033in in July and now it's saying 3.2 2 and then plan to be maintained for spending after fiscal year 25 is a million. But then at the bottom it says that we're only going to carry forward 559,000. So my question is I don't believe we had 3.2 to and carry forward in fiscal year from fiscal year 24 because according to the AG's financial risk assessment, we only had about a million and so I'm just not sure how we got that number. Okay. Um I see some of the areas that you're talking about on that fund balance report. This is a relatively new tab. Um, I believe it only came up on the budget forms last year. So, there's been not a lot of information from the Department of Education on how to even fill this

034out. So, it's been a little trial and error, just to let you know on that. Um, but the way that I read it is that some of these ending balances are through June 30th. There is still a decent amount of activity that goes through between June 30th and the end of August. including last year we sent we we have a form called advice of encumbrance that we send to Maricopa County telling them um the encumbered items that we have when we end on June 30th how much do we still have open last year that was as much as $3 million. So a lot of that gets closed out for unused items but some of it is actual. So when I read that, I read that as at June 30, that's where we were, but that

035wasn't the carry forward we were expecting or um that's not the amount that we actually received. No. So also my question is then on the AFR, so that is our final 24 budget. So I pulled the AFR fund balance and it said that we would have 1.8 I'm rounding here. um carry forward. So, shouldn't we adjust the revision to match the AFR? Is it on? Okay. This even though it says maintenance and operation at the top as the column heading, there are other funds that we have that we spend like we are like we do the maintenance and operation budget. And so it's not just M. If you want, I can bring next time uh the worksheet that I have um that list all the funds included in these numbers. So, they're not just um

036those numbers for maintenance and operation, not just capital. It's all the funds that fall in those categories. Just like the spreadsheet like this has all the different things, there are more funds included there. Yeah. And you know, but you know, based on our discussion yesterday, and I appreciate you guys meeting with me, is that you know, my concern is that the the district has to budget our full capacity. And so how as a board do we hold the district accountable to not to maintain a healthy reserve or in our case it's going to build a reserve and so I wasn't seeing that on the original forms and so I think that this form can do that and so I would really like us to truly look at this in fiscal year 26 because I think

037it's going to be very important for us as a board to ensure that we do build a healthy reserve as it's needed truly for bonding capacity. Um and um and so I think this form does it. But it is concerning to me as a board member that you know we plan to spend zero of the reserves and we spent 3 million. At least that's what this form is saying. So um that's my comments for the revision at this time. Okay. Thank you. Um board member Senion. Uh no questions. Board member Todd, do you have any questions? Sorry, President Todd. Sorry, I was just trying to unmute. Um, I just a couple things. I think there's maybe a misnomer about reserves. Um, reserves don't really they're probably wording that we have. We have carry forward funds,

038which are essentially funds that are left over from a previous year that are carried over. Um, and and I think it's important for our finance department to kind of explain that a little bit more in detail. Um, we we really don't have a in in personal banking, you might have a rainy day fund or a savings account that you have sitting inside just waiting for the water heater to break or those sorts of things. We don't really have that reserve. We have some carry forward that we move from year to year, but we really spend the m the vast majority of money every year. Some of that carry forward also has to cover us for the few the next three probably three months I'm guessing before the state actually starts sending us money for the

039new year. So although our new year starts on July 1, we don't have money from the state on July one. Essentially we're broke and we have just our carryover funding to carry us through that part which is going to show some of that being spent. So I guess I would ask Crystal if you could maybe talk a little bit in depth about what carryover is, how how much is there. Um but but there is no reserve when we hear the district spent their reserves that that's not I don't know that that's completely accurate. So I think for the public's sake it'd be better to maybe explain and for our our sake on the board as well. Um correct. There is no fund specifically called reserve fund or anything like that. We don't have any savings

040accounts outside of our budget. Um our when people typically talk about our reserves they're talking about our budget balance carry forward. So it's whatever we didn't spend from the prior year's budget, it rolls over. Then that new year budget is basically reallocated, redistributed, and you end up with this new amount of money. So the higher you have in carry forward, the more you can add to your budget for the following year. Um, some of the other terms I guess that maybe when people reference reserves are also some of our cashbased accounts because those are outside of our budget. Um, we have budget capacity for our cash accounts, but they're controlled by the cash we receive, not by the budget that we have, if that makes sense. Thank you. Um, also just there was some discussion

041on stipens um and how we report our pay to the state uh to the auditor. Some districts do include all those stipens in their account, which will no doubt if we don't do that, it will skew our reports. Um perhaps more accurate. Maybe it skews the other district's reports, but it it does show um perhaps more money to those. In in the last reporting, it's my understanding that we did um with our previous finance director, we did report the stipens, which is common amongst a lot of districts. Is that correct? There are districts that do include stipens in their average teacher salary. There's not really a set um rule on exactly how you have to report average teacher salary, but the basic rule of accounting is consistency. So, however the district has been doing it,

042you should remain consistent in those processes. Our district typically has not included stipens as part of that amount. Um, but like uh Mr. Todd mentioned, we have had some changes in the business manager roles, so they do have a little bit of differences on how each person calculates that number. Great. I mean, I think either way, it's it's fine. We our teachers do have the ability to make uh make some money in the district and and so that's there. Um I I think it's also important to talk as we have construction projects these days. It seems like bids and quotes are not always as concrete as we'd like and no no pun intended as we're talking about construction. But um you know the district I think it behooves everybody to understand when we talk about

043adjacent ways the district does not get impact fees like a city does. Instead we're required to pay that um those costs out front. So, as we look around, even back to the transportation facility, the city of Buckeye wants us to spend an exorbitant amount of money to change Liberty School Road. That's the road that runs between Liberty School and the new uh or the current transportation facility. Um, tons of money, tons of money for a road that goes nowhere. So, we're somewhat held hostage u by cities when we have to look at adjacent ways and put put work in. um hundreds of thousands of dollars to bury power lines that honestly are just fine where they're at. In my opinion, that road in the 20-year plan for Buckeye goes nowhere other than where it is

044today. It's a glorified driveway. Um it's honestly just probably left over from many, many years ago when the Liberty School was the only thing on that field other than church. So, so was an access point. But I think for taxpayers to understand when you buy a new house and you move in and there's sidewalks everywhere and everything's great, those are all accomplished by impact fees um that often times pay for the fire departments to come in if you're in a new area. Um that fire station most likely was paid for by the developer. Conversely, that school, which is very important to the community as well, is not paid for by the developer. um as we're doing construction projects now, we had to spend some money this past year as my un as I certainly understood

045it. Um because we didn't get enough money from the state. The state told us you need to build a new school. Um we're in a challenged area as one of the fastest growing communities in the state and there's going to be eb and flow to that. Um it seems like sometimes we have a no- win situation. We build a school, the houses aren't completely around it, so we don't open that school full capacity. The flip side to that is we don't build the school, the state moves on, we don't get the money later, and then we have to build a school or we're severely overcrowded. And we've we've seen growth. We've seen when we opened up Blue Horizons, that school took off quite quickly with with with population. So again, I just think it's important

046that we look at we have to be ahead of the curve. We need to be looking at this. And I I certainly agree with with many things that board members said um to to be conscious of the budget at all times, but I do think that the administration and the the board has always done a good job. This district has a long history of it of of protecting the budget. But again, you got to know that as we're expanding, we have cost. It's kind of like a rubber band. It's going to stretch and then it's going to relax and it's going to stretch and it's going to relax. And I think we're in one of those phases right now. Um, you know, that that moves through. But again, I I think it's very important to

047just understand that we're paying a lot of money and and the school the state told us we needed to build a school, but they only gave us about 3/4 of the money we needed. Now, as a board, we could have taken that money and built a Stuckco school. Said, "There it is." But when you talk to anybody that knows about building construction, and I I think Mr. Young could attest to this quickly and in any contractor, a Stuckco school would have probably lasted for about 5 years before there were holes through the Stuckco um just from vaults hitting it just from kids being kids. And then we would have gone to the taxpayers said, "Well, we took all this money and we built a school to last 5 years. We have to build hardened schools

048that are going to last. Let's just look at the old Liberty School how long it lasted. Let's look at other schools in our district that have lasted well over 30 years." Uh when we're building a school, it's it's typically a one time one-time build. It's actually very rare to be able to rebuild a school like we did Liberty. And I think that's only because that school is so old. Um we were a special kind of a special case with that. And certainly our our taxpayers supported the bond. Had they not done that, we would still had an archaic school there. There was no money from the state to go rebuild that school. So we build it to last forever. And as a board, we do have to make sure we have money going into our

049classrooms, but some of that expenditure is also making sure that we have classrooms. And I think that's important for everybody to remember. President Todd, is that all you have to comment? Yes, thank you. Okay. I just have one thing um I would like to ask. So earlier we were talking about the ADM and how the you know we got the revised ADM is 69 right now and that you made a statement that that would be you know when this closes out the year that's going to be what's going to be put on our total for next year or our ADM for next year. Is that accurate because we went through and we did the budget priorities and we said you know originally it was the administration brought ADM was kind of what they were thinking

050for next year. We revised that down to 50 for our budget priorities. Um, can you just speak to that a little bit so there's a little clarity of what's going on there? Um, well, districts do it a couple ways. You can keep the ADM you have right now and use that for your new year budget. Um, or you can add, if you were expecting, like I think we did discuss 50 new students, you can add that part of your ADM up front. Um, that is what we've typically done. Um, but I can also let Becky speak with because she's worked for many districts, so she can say, you know, kind of the process that other districts do. It's very scary to add students that are not here. It's much much safer to use your actual

051ADM that we can get reports to prove in May when we're doing the proposed budget and then in December when we do the next or the first revision after the AFR is done, then we can add in the students. It's a much safer then you're not projecting more money than you know you have. Yeah, thank you. And that's kind of where I was going with that was um because we are projecting only 50 increase and this is saying we're already at 69. 50 is a pretty safe number if we were to stay there, right? But you had stated that the 69 if we get say it's 69, right? because that's what we're going to be allowed for next year's budget for the ADM. I I think we'd be adding 50 on top of the 69.

052Correct. Okay. No, I misunderstood that then. Thank you for the clarification. Um, you know, I I know there's a lot I mean, school finance is just there's so much there and uh I appreciate board members Zimmerman has a lot of questions and and wants to really dive into it. Um what I've seen is just uh especially Miss Williams, Miss Moer, you guys have done an excellent job at at figuring out what's all here um presenting that to us and and helping us get that and that's that's why you guys get paid the big bucks. So, um thank you. Thank you for all that you do, all you continue to do for our district. Thank you. Could I ask one clarifying question? You may. um how much uh I just want to say two two things

053is that um the AG report the um financial risk ass analysis does use the word reserve. So um I understand that you know carry forward is used on the fund balance but the AG itself is using the word reserve. So um but typically how much do other districts have in carry forward? Um there are districts that set goals either amongst administration or even with their board. Um typical 3 to 4%. There are districts that have lots of money that set goals for 10%. It just depends on what's right for your district. Okay. But other districts do have typically a carry forward of 3 to 4%. That's their goals. Yes. Yes. Um, and when I looked uh when this financial risk analysis first came out and you know you can look at all the districts surrounding

054us um I believe only one other district had as low of a carry forward as we did. Um and I just wonder if you could talk about the importance of having carry forward for the bonding capacity for for them to be able to trust us to issue bonds for us to pay them back. So yes, it is extremely important that we have a very healthy carry forward because if in fact we are able to sell bonds in a few years, we want to prove to the people that are buying our bonds that we have the ability to pay them back first and foremost, but they look to see how healthy of a district we are. And our bond rating is based on our carry forward and our um you know our fund balances and that

055type of thing. So it is extremely important that we keep that in mind and if especially if we are thinking about going out for additional bond capacity. Thank you. I have one last comment and it was mentioned about the M um the maintenance and of the plant operations and I know um that is definitely something we want to keep an eye on but I completely understand the need and Mr. Young, you've you you're the pro in this right now. The need to make sure our buildings are are functioning, the air conditioners are running, and I know board member Zimmer say stated that it doesn't necessarily impact teach the ch child education, but it it really does. Um, and so I, you know, this is a whole thing. There's not just one thing that that we

056can put our finger on and say that is what we have to there's just so many things here. Um and so again I just want to reiterate I I appreciate all you guys have done for you know bringing this to us. Go ahead. Can I clarify just one thing on maintenance of operation or maintenance of plants plant operations. Um I just want to remind that that includes a lot of our utility items too. It's not just working on buildings and doing maintenance. It's also running the buildings. So when we have big rate hikes with APS, when we have um water weight rate increases, that's all in that same category. So that is a big hit to that amount too. Thank you. Then sorry, just one question about that. Is that where we potentially could see

057the savings then from Varig with um That's the idea. Okay. Vice President Kenyon. Yep. Just if I may, um, I have a couple thoughts. Yeah, go for it. So, I think the other thing that's important for everybody to understand is we look to what other districts are doing, but also understand that many other districts get segregation funding. Um, today I spoke with Crystal and we looked that up and for example, Cartwright, um, Crystal, do you remember what the number was? I want to say it was like an extra $4 million a year. They get 4.2 million roughly, right? 4.2. That's just basically a gift from the federal government that's left over from a law that was passed back in the 1960s. Buckeye Elementary gets some. A lot of districts do. The Liberty School District gets

058zero desegregation funding. So imagine if we go apples to apples. It's hard to do that sometimes when we set goals of 3 to 4%. um or more because we're living on a much different um payment basically per student than a lot of other districts in the state and and the country get. So, we always have to be cognizant of that and recognize that, you know, other districts get a lot more money. Um regardless of the size of your district, an extra $4 million is a nice is a nice gift um that that comes through. So, it is it is important to to look at that and I encourage people to study how that's that's played out because as I've looked at other districts and I've seen how they're spending that money, um it's it's pretty

059interesting and unfortunately we don't qualify for that. We never have no schools now can come onto that program. They just haven't removed any schools from that program essentially. So, there's still a lot of money that's been coming in year over year over year to districts um for that. So that's another thing to think about as we as we continue to look at budgets and and costs. We're also living in an age right now where, you know, prices have gone up exponentially in the last couple of years. But that return from the state has not kept up with that. If we look at gas prices, if we look at food prices, if we look at construction materials, um everything that happens has gone up immensely. And we're seeing this all over the place. You're seeing cities

060such as the city of Phoenix cut $10 million this year out of their public safety budget because the income or the tax income has not kept up with the um the exponential increase of costs. And so we're going to do everything we can to continue to balance this budget, keep it budget, put all the money into the classrooms. But I do agree with you, Vice President Kenyon, as well that yes, we have to have classrooms and they have to be standing. We can't put all the money into the classroom and not put any money just to keep the walls and the roof and the air conditioner up. And we hear year after year about air conditioning um not working in schools not being adequate enough. That's because honestly in the day we we probably as

061a district many years ago when these schools were built skimped on the air conditioner because it's all the money the district had. But it's very hard for a student to learn in a hot humid environment. It's also very hard for teachers to stay focused and do that. and we've always done our very best to make sure that we balance that properly. Um, year-over-year we have a very small district staff. It it comes that way. It shows every year in every audit. Our district staff is is very lean. Uh, and it's grown a lot um over the last eight years. Um, not so much in the last couple, but but previous to that, it grew. It grew a whole lot. And we're still a very lean district in every audit when it comes to our our

062admin costs and the money we are putting to the classroom. So I think we can move to uh item 1.4 which is the call for the public uh comment. And Vice President Kenyon you've got a couple names I believe. Yes, I have two. Um, so first and just just so the public knows this is public comment specifically to uh what we're dealing with right now is the the budget issue. Okay. So the first one is Miss Bailey Rosco. [Music] Good evening, members of the board. My name is Bailey Rosco and I'm a Liberty District parent, community member, and stakeholder. One of the biggest things that keeps being mentioned is how we have not overspent or we are not over budget. Shelley Bogs, the county superintendent, has even wrote a letter to this effect. But this

063letter is increasingly misleading as while in fact we are not over for payroll and vouchers there are several categories the approved budget was in fact over. One thing that needs to be pointed out is this letter stated that fiscal was for fiscal year 25. What about prior to fiscal year 25? What about the reserves that you guys have mentioned tonight? Not actually called reserves but the carry forward that was not included in the approved budgets. Where exactly was that money spent and on what? Why hasn't there been an audit done? Why did so many of the financial department quit? What were they being asked to do that was immoral, unethical or potentially even criminal? This is mention does not include that the budgets have been approved in the past and that have been fact the

064district has gone significantly over which is the definition of overbudget and overspent. these approved budgets that were overspent and several of you were on the board when those budgets were approved. You guys talk about how data matters. Data is important. Mr. Todd and Mr. Kenyon, you have both previously stated this. The data here also in fact matters. These budgetes that you guys have been approved as a board, yet the superintendent as well as several of you have allowed to significantly be exceeded. How do we trust you guys to keep the approved budget going forward? these proposed cuts that you guys are making and then you guys sit there approving vouchers without asking any questions as to where all this money is going. Another great point I want to make this evening is that the use

065of district funds for things that are not approved, such as getting an external counsel who was brought in on the outside of the district for Dr. Monroe's contract, writing a cease and desist letter for a recall for an individual board candidate. Mr. opinion, did you yourself retain this council as an individual and pay his or her firm with your own personal monies to do so? Because if not, that is a misuse of taxpayer dollars and is wasteful, but also illegal. It should not surprise me any longer at this point with the way that certain members of the board continue to abuse their power and misuse the funds and that the public monies are being spent on things that are not only unethical, immoral, but downright criminal. I want to mention this letter was also sent

066trying to bully us out of utilizing our civil rights as members of the community. All right, our next speaker is going to be Ashley Wright. Good evening. My name is Ashley Wright and I'm a parent in the district. While I appreciate adding a call to the public regarding the recently revised budget, it would have been better utilized if the agenda attachments had been available much sooner than the day before. Nevertheless, while looking at the budget revision in comparison to the adopted budget that was passed in July, it's almost as if there was very little attempt to stay within budget at all. There are numerous lines that are over budget, including plant operations as mentioned tonight. I'm not sure where the 33% decrease for student athletics also is coming from, but surely we aren't counting on

067that for next year. The administration budget would also be something to look at considering if we hire for the open positions listed, it will clearly go over budget for that as well. There seem to be much bigger issues here than clearly need more investigation and consideration. We've continually heard from families how important trust, transparency, and parental involvement are to them. And putting out this information the day before when many people wouldn't have the time to look at it, much less prepared to speak on it, doesn't show trust or transparency from the board. Mr. President, that concludes um however I would like to make a comment. May So there was a personal attack directed at me um in regards to suspicious behavior of me doing something unethical, criminal or unmoral. And I will flat out refute

068all of that. I have not done anything criminal, unethical, or moral in my entire time on this board. And so that's all I'm going to say on that. So, we can move on. Thank you. Uh, if you could really quick, I would also like to address a couple couple issues of of correcting statements. U, there was a comment made that the district hired outside counsel. Um, the district did not hire outside counsel to handle Dr. Monroe's issue um to handle any sort of election issues. The district is with the Arizona Trust. That is our legal firm. We are allowed to use any lawyer that's a part of the trust at any time under state statute. And just to be clear, as we did both of these, it was our council that's in the meeting tonight

069that recommended that we use the council that we did for both of the issues addressed. There was no cost additional cost spent on that. It's part of our agreement with the Arizona Trust and that handles that that handles that. So again, there was no outside counsel. It is inside counsel and the district can use any lawyer that's a part of the trust at any time. Okay, that concludes that. We'll move to item 2.1 adjournment of the public meeting. We'll show at 6:32. That meeting is adjourned. Do we need to take time uh really quick for a break or shall we move right into the open meeting? I think we're it looks like we're all good to go ahead. All right, we'll go vote item 3.1. Uh we're going to call the meeting of Liberty Elementary

070School District general meeting general board meeting to date uh to order. It's 6:32 p.m. on May 13, 2025. We're at the Jerry Roby District facility. Board members present once again as board member Schmidt, board member Zimmerman, Vice President Kenyon, board member Shinion, myself, Michael Todd attending remotely. move to the pledge of allegiance and we'll start back down with board member Schmidt. Please, if you can lead us Okay, we'll move on to item 3.3, the approval of the regular agenda. Mr. President, motion to approve the regular agenda consistent with board policy BEDB and temporary suspend governing board policy with which this agenda may be inconsistent. Do I have a second? I second. I have a motion and a second to approve the regular agenda. If there's no discussion, we'll move to a vote. I'll start with

071board member Schmidt. I. Board member Zimmerman. I. Board member I'm sorry, Vice President Kenyon. I. And board member Shinion. I. I'm also I will show that to approve five. Yes. Zero. No. Our next item on the agenda is item 4.1 superintendent update attendance enrollment reports, schools newsletters, and discipline update. Dr. Mahorn. I don't think either of these microphones are working very well. This one is on. You might just have to hold it a little close. Could you bring up the discipline slide, please? Attached for your review are the newsletters uh from each building and the attendance reports. And if you go to the second slide is an update for you that hard time reading here is the uh as of 5625 or the latest um update for discipline referrals. If you see at the bottom

072uh right now we have about 210 um that is up about a little over 200 from last year at almost exactly this exact same date. I will say I am not surprised. Um because the biggest reason is this year um schools are actually I would say keeping the data and uh differences they can no school can delete any referrals either and so once a referral has been put in by a teacher a parapro anyone um no one has access to delete I don't have access no one has access to delete a referral so this is actually a true picture of um of referral So, we are up um at from where we were last year, but I don't think um that that's necessarily a bad thing. We see the we see the data and it's

073our job to look at that data, see where our hot spots are. Um it's hotspots for schools and hotspots for um individual maybe grade levels at certain buildings as well. Uh I know President Todd asked for a more indepth um report which we will provide in June as well. Um, President Todd, if I may, you may. Uh, Dr. Mah, is that that uh discipline update, is that up uh attached in our I don't see it in here. No, it it wasn't attached. I thought it was attached, but I can send it to you as well with these numbers. Yes, if you could, but that's all I had right now. Absolutely. Mr. Todd. Yes, ma'am. Uh, can I uh ask a question? You may. Okay. Uh, two things. Um, one about the discipline. Um, I think

074the assumption though is that, you know, we did change the discipline matrix to um basically um have more referrals, right? And make more offenses referral worthy. So the expectation was that it was going to increase. Correct. Absolutely. Okay. Um could we as part of this this uh agenda item is the April attendance average? Would we be able to pull that up? Um I just wanted to highlight um our uh is this for April? It's the April one. Um, uh, April 24 25 attendance average. Oh, maybe it's the monthly average. I apologize. I just wanted to highlight our schools. All of our schools were above 90% in April. Um, and I know that our principles probably put in a lot of work um, to ensure our students were here for state testing. Um, and not just

075our principles, our teachers, everybody on staff. Um, that I'm sure that took a concerted effort. So, I just wanted to highlight that and thank them because we know how important it is to have that data. Um, and we hadn't had all of our schools above 90% since October. So, it was just a thank you. Um I know that that you know takes an effort and uh was needed during the month of testing. So thank you so much. Thank you. Um I I had one question. I think I saw in a a board report um I think we have a job fair coming up. Correct. Um May 31st. Okay. I'm just curious. We we normally have those considerably earlier. or is there a reason that we're doing it so late this year? We did have we

076had two job fairs scheduled uh February 26 and March 5th. Um HR did schedule both of them. However, through Dr. Monroe um we he told us that um at the time Vice President Zimmerman uh wanted them canled. So HR did have them. That is not true. That's what we were told in Okay. Well, can I speak to it since you're now accusing me of saying something I haven't? If you said it's not true, I think that's good. But you can certainly say something if you'd like. Thank you. What I asked Dr. Monroe is that if he ensured that he knew what the staffing needed to be because we were in such a budget situation that he needed to ensure that he knew what staff he needed. And if he was comfortable with that, then certainly

077move forward. But at no means as a board member do I have any control to cancel any job fair that is ab absolutely not mine. I asked a question. He made that decision. Okay. Thank you. It's not regardless. It's a little unnerving that we had a couple of them canled. Regardless of how that came to be, I'm just just curious how that was and wasn't sure. Okay, we'll move on to item 4.2. This is our retirees Westside Impact Outstanding Principal of the Year. Westside Impact Teachers of the Year and Classified Pride Award recognitions. Uh Dr. Mahorn have to come around this side. So, this is the reason many of you are here tonight. We have a couple different groups to recognize. Our first group we're going to recognize tonight are 2025 retirees. Every year, the

078Liberty Elementary School District recognizes retirees at the end of the year. This year we recognize 11 individuals. Our first person is Salvador Berber from transportation. Doesn't look like Salvador's here. With a packed room, I can't tell. So, if somebody's back there, make sure they make their way up here. Um, I know our next person is Alma Kano, and I know she's not here. And I saw Connie. Connie Crowley. Oh, there's there she is. I think you can start wherever you want, honey. Yeah, wherever you want to start. Our next person is Jeffrey Dherty from Estraa Mountain. Our next person is Stra Stacy Hill from Lasusas Academy. Buddy, our next person is Karina Metsura from HR here at district office. You you go here first. Our next person is Edward Moss from maintenance. Our next person,

079Patricia Sambble from Estraa Mountain. All right, Gina Sanchez from Liberty Elementary. Uh Krin Solless from transportation. Last but not least, James Sprag from transportation. Well, even those who are not here will make sure that they get their gift. So, our next award goes for to our Westside Impact Outstanding Principal of the Year. Oh. Oh, how about we take a picture before I just keep going. Now we can move on. I don't go so fast. Okay. Although she already got her award, I still want her to come up for a picture. Our Westside Impact Outstanding Principal of the Year for this year was Mrs. Holly Murray from Liberty Elementary School. Okay. So, the Westside Impact Teacher of the Year teacher recipients are nominated by their peers. Each campus named one certified employee as the Westside Impact

080Teacher of the Year. Certified staff includes teachers, interventionist, counselor, special education teacher, school psych. The these following recipient recipients received a plaque at the Westside Impact Teacher of the Year breakfast on Tuesday, May 6. The following criteria was considered when nominating. A master teacher, somebody that demonstrated teacher leadership, supportive to colleagues, always growing and improving professionally. Evidence of continuous student learning. Uh demonstrated teacher leadership. Uh always growing and improving professionally. This was and um the teachers of this year are first one is Scott Clefft from Blue Horizons. Oh, sorry. Either either way you second one is Amy Johnson from Estrella Mountain Elementary. Congratulations, Celeste Gutierrez from Freedom Elementary here. and she's not here this evening. The next one is Janette Garcia from Los Besus Academy. I don't see her either. Um I do see Erica

081Lillenthal from Liberty Academy. Oh, and her fan club. Little fan club. Congratulations again. Hannah Gonzalez Teop from Rainbow Valley. Congratulations again. And last but not least, Nicole Pad Paduano from Westar Elementary. Don't see either. Okay, our last group that we're going to recognize Okay, so our I think this is our last group, the classified pride awards. Each year, schools and district departments recognize a classified staff member who exemplifies a strong supporter of the Liberty School District Schools. Demonstrates initiative in the improvement of the individual site and/or district. Display a genuine concern for and effectively communicate with students, staff, and patrons. Exhibit a high degree of willingness to assist other staff members, contribute to a positive staff morale, maintain a high standard of professionalism in all jobreated tasks, and strive for personal and professional growth, and

082exemplify the pride of Liberty School District. The classified pride recipients are from Blue Horizon's Ricardo Rodriguez from Estraa Mountain Elementary. Emily Gomez from Freedom Elementary. Maria Toledo from Las's Academy. Brianna Guiles from Liberty. Carissa Sherman from Rainbow Valley. Jessica Soliss from Westar Elementary. Stacia Albio from the maintenance department, Engasio Valenuela. Uh from it, Hunter debris. from transportation. James Harris from district office. Jillian Lucas and from Leap Karen Brun. All right, this will be a lot for a picture. Congratulations again to everyone. Okay. Well, we're reset members and and members of the audience. I just wanted to take an opportunity to recognize myself, these outstanding employees and retirees of our district. Um the retirees, we miss you greatly. We hope you always remember us and and even consider coming back uh as substitutes or volunteers. Um

083you've been a huge part of our district and and we appreciate it. to all the award winners. You are absolutely what makes this job fun and and so great to be able to do and say you're part of our team. Um just as a bit of housekeeping those may not want to stay just so you know um there's a lot of commotion right now with a lot of people exiting. Okay, perfect. That's what I was trying to tell them. If you will, I can update you once most the majority of people have exited and we can resume. Okay. [Music] Okay, President Todd, I think we're probably good to continue. Great. Okay, we'll move on to item 5.1, governing board updates of board member Schmidt. Yeah, thank you, President Todd. Um, I just have a couple

084things that I want to mention that I did since the last board meeting and then something that's happening tomorrow. Um, since the previous board meeting, I was able to attend the Rainbow Valley student leadership uh event that they put on. It was a really nice morning meeting uh students from the school, seeing their leadership. Uh we were greeted at the door by a young man who shook our hands and introduced himself and held the doors as he escorted us to the room. Uh everybody was super welcoming and it was just a really really nice way to spend a few hours that morning. I will say that one of my favorite things was at the end they had all of the student leaders parade through campus while the rest of the school stood outside and like

085clapped for them. And it was just such a like heartwarming feeling to walk through the campus high-fiving all the kids. They were all so excited. It was just a great morning. So, I wanted to thank uh Rainbow Valley for inviting us and including us in that morning. And then the second thing has not happened yet, but I just want to say that I'm looking forward to tomorrow morning. I'm going to Blue Horizons where I was asked to come speak as a career day speaker. Um, not about this, but about what I do during the day. And, uh, I got to put together my slideshow the last couple days and get ready for that. So, I'm super excited to go talk to the fifth grade students about science and get them excited and hopefully encourage some

086of them to become scientists in the future. So, thank you for that invitation. Great. Thank you, uh, board member Zimmerman. Hi. Uh, yes, I just had a couple things. Uh, first, I just wanted to recognize our teachers. It was a teacher appreciation week last week and um you know the district would not exist without them and the amount of time and energy that they put in every single day and on weekends and after hours uh for me it doesn't go unnoticed and um just want to say that I appreciate you and as someone who taught uh before I know what a difficult job it is um and you know what a great responsibility you also have as we entrust our children to you every single day. Um, and I know that you don't take that

087responsibility lightly. So, I just appreciate uh all of our teachers and just wanted to say thank you. Um, I was able to attend the Westside Impact um recognition breakfast last week, which was a really uh special event as they were recognized here at the board meeting. But um to see all of the kind of westside um districts and all of their teachers and principles being recognized, it was an honor to be able to attend and to celebrate um those uh selected from our district. Um I also was able to attend the Rainbow Valley Leadership Day. I appreciate the invitation from Miss Kaggel. Um it was a really unique event um I think to Rainbow and I loved that uh you know we had breakfast and the students would come around and ask us if we'd

088like anything else and they would clear our plates. It was a really special um just a special morning and a very unique signature program which was um nice to get to experience. um they had several different kind of presentations and speakers and there was one that really stuck out to me. um it was an eighth grader and one of her first lines I asked if I could share it at the board meeting um because I thought it was very impactful um for kind of the you know situation that the district is currently facing and her name is Valyria and again I asked her permission and her quote that really stuck out to me was leadership isn't just about being in charge it's about making choices that positively impact myself and those around me. That's all

089I have. Thank you. All right, Vice President Kenyon. Thank you, President Todd. Um, yeah, I was also able to attend the Westside Impact uh teacher and principal award, and that was that was my first one I've been able to get to, and it was a great event. I I concur with board members Zimmerman. Uh it's we have such great staff in our district and they do so much for our kids and it's wonderful where we can recognize kind of let liberty shine in the West Valley. Um and I think we did that and we can we'll continue to do that. Uh I did uh want to say just a quick update. I I was um hopefully everybody's been able to notice that we've gotten our electric buses in and they've been put in service for

090the most part. And so, um, I was able to talk to a couple of the bus drivers and just how how things are going with them and and they were they were seemed like they were really happy with them. They are quieter. They're nicer. Uh, however, there's there when you get something new, there's always little bugs, little kinks that got to be worked out. Um, and I asked, "So, are they actual quieter?" And he goes, "Well, the bus is, the kids aren't, so we're working on that. But uh it's it's uh it's great to see those finally in service um after all this time. Uh the other thing I wanted to mention was I just wanted to congratulate the the all the graduates. There's going to be a lot of graduates happening next year or

091next week um throughout our district and of course outside our district as well all over the place. And that's that's going to be a great time for a lot of families. Um there may be some tears. there's some eighth graders leaving us and and that's always hard to see them grow up and go and they grow up so quick. Um, but I just wanted to throw that congratulations out there for all their hard work and congratulations to the teachers to for surviving a year with these kids and I know that it's kind of tongue and cheek but uh you know it it takes a lot. It takes a lot and teachers put in a lot into these kids. They really do. They instill a lot in these kids and so I want to say thank

092you to the teachers. Congratulations to this the kids and the parents on the graduations next week. Board member Shioni. Uh nothing to update this time, Mr. President. Okay. I just have a couple things. I too attended the West Valley Impact uh teacher awards at Grand Canyon University. Uh it's it's a fantastic event to see so many great teachers from our district be recognized. as we continue to grow, our numbers come up, I've watched us move closer and closer to the center and the front of that event, and that's exactly where we sat this year. Um, again, my heartfelt congratulations to all the teachers uh who won that award, as well as those who were retiring this year. I try to say that while everybody was moving out tonight, it was a little noisy, but retirees,

093we appreciate everything you've done. Please remember us. You're welcome to come back. We'd love to see you on our campuses still. um to our award-winning teachers and staff. It's it's amazing what you do and uh it's such an honor to stand before you and stand before the public and say that we represent this district. Um you you do such a great job. You make it you make it quite easy actually. So um I want to thank you for that. Uh to touch a little bit more on board member Kenyan's uh um information about the ED buses. Yes, they are on the road. Uh it's exciting time. I had the time to meet with uh Mandi and uh Dr. Mahorn and and uh Miss Camarado. We went over with a decibel meter and tested the buses

094to see exactly which was noisier. In all aspects of operation, the EV buses were considerably quieter. Um as you hear them around the neighborhood, I think it's important to know just some awareness. You're going to hear noise when they're at slow speeds. That's a federal requirement. It's the same noise that EV trash trucks make. It's the same noise that EV fire trucks make. That's a federal requirement. and it's a different noise. So, for a little bit, you're going to hear that and it's probably going to stand out to you if you hear those buses. It is quieter than the diesel buses as we took a decibel meter all the way around um and did it in idle mode, slow speed mode, and then tried to do a little bit faster uh speed. It is different.

095And my neighborhood has an EV trash truck that's currently been going through it. Um first time I heard it, I thought, "What was that?" Uh they're they're all slightly different, but but similar. And uh um it's just a new noise. So eventually you will become a little more in tune to that. Um but that slow speed is because the buses are so quiet when they're going down the road, people won't hear them. And and uh our friends in the EV auto world learned that several people got hit by EV cars when they first came out before they required that that audible noise. So it's a safety feature. They are quieter. Um, thanks to Donnie for and her staff for grabbing some buses and putting them on the road and uh checking them out for us

096there in the over there at the transportation facility. So, thank you. Um, with that, we'll move on to item 6.1, which is our public comment section. Uh, I'll ask Vice President Kenyon to call the members a reminder that you'll have three minutes and at the end of your three minutes, the mic will be muted. Vice President Kenyon, please call the first. Okay. So, first uh public comment we have is Bailey Rosco. Good. Good evening, members of the board. My name is Bailey Rosco and I come to you as a community member, a parent of two students, and a stakeholder. I come before you tonight to talk about the sad state of tonight's agenda where yet again many district employees including teachers and psychologists are leaving the district. Tonight we saw in Miss Moer's presentation that

097we have 194 teachers in the district. I show as of recent board documents 61 resignations and non-contract renewals which is approximately onethird of our teachers that who will not be coming back to the district next year. What is the district's plan for this huge disparity of staff in staffing? We have seen our district struggle with subs and are going to be using ESI subsource for subs going forward. But we've already seen this year where class sizes have had to be combined. There have been huge class sizes with sizes of approximately 40 students or more due to drastic resignations from teachers. What's the plan to we're going to have exorbitant class sizes going forward, a bunch of subs so that students are being taught inconsistently or are we going to have approximately one-third of our teachers

098being emergency certified teachers who have no formal background in education and are only required to have a bachelor's degree in any subject. Would you feel comfortable having your child being taught by emergency certified teachers? I do want to state that I have an amazing respect for emergency certified teachers. Some of them are amazing, but most of them do not have the proper qualifications for teaching, especially students with IEPs, students on the spectrum, and those with neurode divergent issues. This along with large class sizes opens the possibility for a rise in incidents in the classroom and the ability for those incidents to get significantly out of hand quickly. With the district as a whole being as dramatically underststaffed with additional employees such as counselors, assistant principles, and other faculty, we have can potentially expect more dangerous

099situations to arise, such as the recent incident at Freedom where students were released into a dangerous situation where there were several individuals on campus with a gun and other weapons instead of going into lockdown, which is protocol for a situation with a gun. It has been stated several times these people are leaving for not liking the changes the district is implementing because of performance reviews and the removal of restorative justice. But does that still hold? When the last count there were 116 student related employees who had left the district with several more on tonight's agenda. Many of them are not even teachers. Therefore, the performance argument doesn't even hold water. Lastly, I want to mention that several members of the community went out of their way to try to harass many of us mothers at

100a free public Mother's Day event trying to claim that the event was in there for the recall efforts. They they went so far as to shut try to shut it down by filing complaints, which was not only disgusting, but a complete mockery of our amazing day to celebrate us as mothers. A day that we wanted to just spend time as moms with our kids. Madam, your time's up. Our next speaker is Carly Wright. Good evening. I'm speaking on behalf of a concerned parent. Um, good evening. I'm not here in person tonight because the championship softball game is rescheduled for the exact same time as this meeting. The irony speaks for itself. Parents should not have to choose between supporting their children and participating in district decision making. But that's exactly what happened at night. It's

101a perfect example of this of the disorganization and lack of consideration that families in this district are growing tired of. Recently, I sent email to Dr. Mahorn and the board outlining a clear reasonable proposal to address serious ongoing issues in our athletic athletic programs. The response I received was disappointing. It offered no plan, no timeline, and no real acknowledgement of the urgency behind the concerns. Let me be clear for what those concerns are. Athletic directors are operating without the most basic support. No first aid kits and no streamlined process for requesting changes. No ear at the district level to hear legitimate scheduling concerns. Field conditions are unsafe. I've had a direct exchange with Bob Young who has assured me there was a plan moving forward. That's a start, but we need more than words. We

102need a timeline and visible progress. Communication is failing. Game changes and schedule shifts are happening without adequate notice. This is not in the schools. The breakdown is happening at the district level. Families are being left in the dark until last minute and that's unacceptable. There's no effective contingent. I can't speak. I'm so sorry guys. Uh there's no effective planning. Weather delays or conflict shouldn't throw the entire system into chaos. And yet principles and ads are forced to navigate unnecessary red tape just to find alternative fields. That's a systematic failure. Team placements lack logic and fairness. An eighth grader should never be placed on a B team. If a school has one team, it should play at the A level. Period. That's not a fairness issue. It's a development one. They're not these are not isolated

103complaints. They represent a pattern of neglect that directly affects students safety, morale, and experience. And it's time for the district to take responsibility. The solution I proposed was simple. Replace the current closed door calendar meeting with an open forum that includes parents, athletic directors, principles, and champs teachers, the people who are actually doing the work and living with these decisions. That proposal has not been acted on. But let me be clear. We're not asking. We're expecting change. There's a group of parents ready to help. And frankly, you should welcome the support. If leadership is overextended, then let us take on part of the burden. We're already driving kids to four sports a year, juggling practices, games, work, and apparently competing with board meetings. We are invested, and we are not going away. This district owes

104our students safe, well-run developmentally approp developmentally appropriate athletic programs. What what they got this year was not that. And we will not settle for another year of the same. It's time to act. not to an not to acknowledge, not to deflect, to act. Thank you. Our next speaker is Heather Finn. Thank you, board members, and thank you, President Todd. My name is Heather Finn. Um the public needs to be aware that there are certain board members and their supports their supporters that think it's okay to dismiss ins insult taxpaying families whether it's in person or on social media who don't have a child currently in the system. I don't know s since now my daughter will be graduating. I just found out that I will be I will become just a stakeholder and according to

105certain board members and their packed funded supporters stakeholders have no vote no opinion and cannot question what is happening. And when I asked about the recall my I got a non-answer and then I got you don't have kids in the system. So, what do we do about this? Does it does is this about the children or is this about an agenda at this stage? Because it's starting to look more about an agenda. I don't know. But there are board member there is a board member that sends their children out of district. So, does that board member only have is she just a stakeholder now? Because it seems like she has a huge part of saying what's being brought into this district. Instead of wasting time recalling Chris Kenyon and bribing people with bouncy houses, free

106pizza, and ice cream, let's find a board member that actually wants to send their children to the district. And since I have time, I will address what was just said about Sorry, this was on the West Valley family website on social media. A volunteer group called for Liberty Kids is organizing a petition to recall Chris Kenyon from the Liberty and Elementary School Board. They will be hosting a power of the mom community event on May 10th at Botaa Park. And we know what that what and then it lists all the reasons why they want to. So right before me, there was a citizen in our community that said that that was not why that event was happening and that is a lie. Our next speaker is Megan Kenan. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen of the

107board. My name is Megan Cananan. I reside in district with one current and two former students. I am disheartened as I have heard this board go back and forth on more positions to be eliminated from the education service team. This team has already been dismantled as the team was not offered contract renewals with the departure of Natasha Camp. The team has already lost a few positions due to budget cuts and there is talk about cutting more. One thing that has been said is no other district has a director of school effectiveness, but that has been found to be untrue. Other districts have this position, but may call it something slightly different as you will find with many other positions within districts compared to others. Here are a few of the districts that have been found

108by many parents that have the same or similar titles. Kyne District, executive director of school effectiveness. Pendergas, District of School improvement. Tallison Union, executive director of leadership. Kraton, director of school improvement and accountability. Legacy Charter Director of School of Improvement. This position is critical in assessing in assisting our students in schools. They and all of our education service team have played an instrumental role in assisting our schools with improving their letter gradings we receive. We keep talking about not removing things that directly affect the students, their education, and the schools directly, but by entertaining the possibility to eliminate yet another ed services position is detrimental to our students and to this district. If we continue to dissect all positions and eliminate more already established positions, it creates an uncertainty for employees if their job is

109secure and also sets a precedent for people looking at potent potentially coming to this district that they may not have job security. We are hurting ourselves more than we already are since appointing Michael Todd back as board president. I urge you all to really look hard at this decision and truly reflect on what is in the best interest of the district before you say your votes. I urge you to truly look deep down at your morals and stop voting based on how other members will perceive you and how they think you should vote. Be your own person and a voice for the students, staff, and community members can count on. Our next speaker is uh Susan Chetum. Thank you, President Todd and Vice President Kenyan and the board. Thank you for the record that this

110district well the board of 23 24 that has been accused for uh or being sued for sexual assault is a lie. That accusation regarding the assault has was that's been addressed happened 20 years ago. The principal on watch was Nancy Bogart. And regarding the open meeting violations, there are some open meeting violations filed with the AG's office. Most of them have already been cleared by the AG and the last remaining are in the process of being dropped. In each incident, the district had a very respectful legal counsel advising them during those actual meetings. So, the filings do not appear to be going anywhere. Now, this district under Michael Todd and Chris Kenyon, they approved a new school for the district with limited funding. They got a new transportation facility, 10 new buses, 4 day school

111week, increased the growth of the students month after month. The discipline now is strict and aligned with state statute that requires parental notification and consequences for all discipline matters, including the classroom. Under Michael Todd's leadership, teachers have one of the best benefits plan they have ever had. The district has not overspent their budget this year. The budget is fine for this year. The district under the state law is required to create a future budget based off proposed growth and enrollment of students. This year the growth is not as high as anticipated. This has caused the district to review everything to meet the budget. Every year the board has to do this. This is not nothing new. Thank you for your work, ladies. Superintendent Bog stated that at no point in fiscal year 2025, Liberty has

112not overexpended their expenditure budget. Her letter was in fact was fact and not misleading at all. Teachers are paid $2,500 more than the state average. They even added $1,800 per student to the classroom last year. And I want to say thank you for getting rid of the political agenda of DEI, CRT, and SEAL. The Liberty School District is thriving despite those who want to destroy a good thing. Thank you. [Applause] All right, our last speaker is going to be uh Gina Herman. Good evening, board, and thank you so much. Uh, my name is Jean Herman. Um, I cannot believe we're at an end of another school year. Wow, the time goes so fast. It's unbelievable. And, uh, there's so much excitement with so many families, with graduating students, and and new students coming into the

113school system. It's really, um, kind of neat to meet those people in in public. So, this board has been through a lot this year. A lot much change regarding CRT, SEAL, DEI, things. Uh, those changes were made just in time to align not only with uh the state statutes, but also with the federal um implementation of these things. So, wow, you guys got a lot done. You you accomplished amazing things in a very short period of time. And it's really evident that you are working well together now. you're starting to learn um how each other operates and it's really nice to see that you're you're um focusing on the uh matters at hand and the important things that need to be done. So that's been really um uh so wonderful to see. So Maricopa County

114School Superintendent Shelley Bogs put out that letter that at no time has Liberty been identified as having an overexpenditure uh in its budget in 2025. And here we are talking about 2026 already. So, the board's done a great job of working together despite a ridiculous amount of opposition and criticism from a disruptive group of supposedly concerned individuals. Uh uh there was a young lady who spoke a few weeks ago in public comment about bullying and you guys got right on it and one of um President Todd's um remarks just before uh the agenda had wrapped up was that that was immediately to be taken care of and bullying will not be tolerated anymore. So, that was really um heartwarming and and gut-wrenching at the same time to hear that young lady speak and I know

115that that is in the forefront as well and appreciate you guys handling that and getting on it. Uh so clearly you're all working together really well and a strong chains unbroken which is really nice. So going forward um lies and deceit and division and backbiting it's just going to be plain ugly and it's not going to benefit anyone. I just wanted to read a little bit of scripture. Matthew 5:16, "Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good deeds and moral excellence and recognize and honor and glorify your father who is in heaven." And um Peter 3:14, "But even in case you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed, happy, and envied. Do not dread or be afraid of the threats or distru disturbed by

116their opposition." and President uh Todd and Vice President Kenyon um uh we see what's going on and uh God sees it too. So um you have been just so upright and outstanding as a board member and a human. Sorry ma'am. Time's up. That completes uh our public comment. We'll move on to the consent agenda item 7.1. Is there anything wish to be pulled? I'd like to pull 7.3 and 7.11, please. Okay, 73 and 711. Oh, I apologize. It looks like the numbers changed. Um, I I apologize uh, President Todd, it would be 7.3 and 7.10. All right. 73 and 7. N 7.N. Okay. All right. Anything else? All right. Hearing none, I'll take a motion and a second to approve the consent agenda with the exceptions of items 7.3 and 7.10. Mr. President, motion to

117approve the consent agenda minus 7.3 and 7.10. A second. Okay, have a motion by board memberion, second by board member Zimmerman. 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 also I will show that that motion approved. Five, zero. No. We'll move on to item 7.3. Board member Zimmerman. Uh, thank you, Mr. Todd. Uh I just want to uh you know address my concern that there are five psychologists that declined their renewal. Um so that means that at this time we have one psychologist that we've employed or are employing for the following year. And as I discussed in the budget uh prioritization, how important it was for us to not have to contract because by having to contract these people, it's

118going to cost the district uh my estimates between 70 and $80,000 maybe on um or possibly even more than that. And so when you think about you're going to have to pay that on top of what we budgeted. So, we're talking, you know, if I'm saying a round number, that's $500,000 that this board now needs to account for because legally we have to have psychologists. If we do not have these, we're going to open ourselves up to lawsuit after lawsuit um with special education. And so, it uh as a parent of a special education student um and understanding the laws with special education, to me, this is personally very concerning. I don't know if it's actually going to cost us $156,000 if we have to contract for a psych. Right. But I I'm talking about

119the difference between what we pay them and that contract. So I believe that their contracts worth around 80,000 but that doesn't include benefits. So that's why I use that number. Um I'm talking about in addition to what but yes each one. Yeah. So I mean a contracted psych will be 156. So that I mean we talk about budget 156, right? And when we talk about the budget, which I assume will happen in June, we're going to have to think about this because Grace, we need to stay on on topic with the agenda here, please. Okay. Any other comments for 7.3? All right. Hearing none, we'll take a motion in a second to approve 73. I motion to approve 7.3. Okay. I have a motion. Do I have a second? I have a I second. All

120right. Motion by board member Zimmerman, a second by board member Schmidt to approve 7.3. President Todd. Yes. Can you just hold on for one second, please? Yes. Thank you. Who made the motion? I did. Zimmerman. Second was by Schmidt. Thank you. If there's no discussion, we'll take a vote. Board member Schmidt I. Board member Zimmerman I. Vice President Kenyon I. Board member Shinion I. I'm also I will show the motion approved on a five yes zero no vote. Our next uh item is 7.10 approval of required documents to participate in the project momentum grant system school grant for school year 2526. Um if if staff could just talk about um how much we are being issued for fiscal year uh 26 and what we receive in project momentum for fiscal year 25. Yes, I can

121let you know that. So for FY26, we've been notified that project momentum will be a grand total of $162,000. Um in FY25 we received roughly $980,000. Um so it is significantly less in the new year. Um the one positive thing to that is that the Department of Education is going to now pay for our principal partners um for select schools and that will not come out of our grant money. Um but it is significantly less money. Correct. and um Westar and Estraa are not getting any of that money. That's correct. It's for very specific schools now. So again, as we move into the budget, I just want us to be very cognizant that this is a big jump or a big decrease that we're going to need to make sure we account for. All right.

122Any other discussions? All right. Hearing none, we'll take a motion in a second. I motion to approve 7.10. I have the motion. I have a second. Second. I have a motion by board member Zimmerman, a second by board member Senion. If there's no discussion, we'll take a vote. Board member Schmidt. I. Board member Zimmerman. I. Vice President Kenyon. I. Board member Shinion. I. I also show the motion pass on a five yes zero no vote. All right. Next on our agenda item, bear with me here guys, we're going to move on to item uh 8.1. That'll be a discussion consideration to approve the preschool primary resource. Miss Erica Daniel. Good evening, Mr. President and governing board members. It is my pleasure to present the prek adoption committee recommendations for your consideration. The district administration recommends

123adopting ready for advance ready to advance as the primary instructional resource for preschool. The prek adoption committee composed of administrators, coaches, community members, and preschool teachers met five times over the last 5 months. All meetings were open to the public with materials such as agendas, documents, minutes, and video recordings accessible via board docs. The committee accomplished the following tasks. developed a rubric for evaluating preK instructional resources. Selected the top two resources for a 60-day public review in teacher pilot. Trained committee teachers to pilot both resources in the classrooms and evaluated the resources and made a final recommendation for adoption of approval. Ready to advance is a comprehensive preschool resource through 10 thoughtfully designed thematic units. It fosters early literacy and domain specific knowledge during the teacher pilot evaluation ready to advance met the following criteria.

124Alignment fully aligns with the Arizona early litering learning standards. research validated by evidence-based research. Content appropriate for the subject, age, developmental needs supporting differentiated instruction to enrich, extend, remediate or intervene as required. And technology incorporates current relevant technology to enhance interactive learning both in and out of the classroom. District administration fully supports the prek adoption committee's recommendation to approve ready to advance as the primary preschool instructional resource and questions. And I also have a member a teacher that piloted the program here in case you have some specific questions I cannot answer. Our members any questions? I have a question. Uh first, thank you so much for um for the committee for um meeting five times. That is a commitment and for piloting it in your classroom. We appreciate that you did that like work. Um

125how much is the cost of the curriculum? Right now it's just estimated around 30,000. We don't delve into the cost until the board approves the primary adopted resource. The funding sources for the program though is a grant which is the idea grant which will cover 20,000 and then the rest will be taken out of the preschool tuition. Thank you. Oh, Mr. President, I have a question. You may go in. Uh I'm sorry. What was your name, ma'am? Erica. Um if you if you would. Uh, so when you were testing out and piling these programs, what were some of the things that stood out to you to made made you think this was the best one for our school? So I teach the developmental preschool classroom. So I have to look at it from a different

126lens. However, the first one that we piloted was Frog Street and I um for my students, I had to look at if it was developmentally appropriate for them because for my kiddos, they may be the age three, but they're de developmentally they may be age one. So, I had to really delve in and look at at it as if it was appropriate for them. And for Frog Street, although it had a lot of plus, I looked at how my students interacted with that and it was not well. Um, for one, a student was afraid of some of the videos that we had to use the technology and I had to turn it off for the fear of causing him stress or trauma. So with that one, I looked at it the to delve into the

127more academic portion. It was good. However, it was a bit higher. There wasn't a lot of um leeway for differentiation with that one. However, with our ready to advance, there's there was a wide range of differentiation. For example, they had the books that were for non-disabled peers. However, if you scroll down on our electronic, we had more um literature that was more lower level based differentiate for the students and it met their needs more than our frog street. Thank you so much for that answer, Mr. President. If I may, you may. Um yeah, I want to thank the committee. It's a lot of commitment whenever you're dealing with trying to figure out a a new um curriculum, a new resource to use. uh all these it just takes a lot of time and effort and

128then obviously implementing in classroom is never easy. It's something new and especially when you got to try different ones and different tactics. Um so thank you for that uh for Miss Daniels. So we had it out there for a 60-day public review. Have we did we have any feedback on that? No, we have not. Okay. Thank you. Are members any other questions? All right, hearing none. This is an action item. We'll take a motion and a second to approve the preschool primary resource. A motion to approve the preschool primary resource of ready to advance. Do I have a second? Second. I have a motion by board member Zimmerman, a second by board memberion to advance the item of 8.1 and approve the preschool primary resource. There's no further discussion. We'll take a vote. Board member

129Schmidt. I. Board member Zimmerman. I. Vice President Kenyon. I. Board member Shrenion. I. I. Also, I will show that motion passed on a five yes, zero no vote. Thank you. Our next item of business is 8.2 discussion consideration to approve fiscal year 202425 annual expenditure budget revision. Members, this is the approval of what was presented in the work session. I think most of our questions were asked. Ben uh we can have limited discussion uh moving forward if you need to. Otherwise, we can take a motion in a second. Uh Mr. President, I just have a few comments. Okay, please proceed. Thank you. Um, you know, there's been a lot of discussion tonight, uh, and over the last couple months about being overspent and whether we're not over spent. And I think, you know, the under

130what we need to consider is we are not in the red, right? We are, you know, we're not in a deficit. That is a correct statement. However, I think we should question is, have we managed the money well that we have? And I think that's where my concern comes in is in the auditor general's um financial risk assessment they labeled us at high risk in three of seven categories. So there are some concerns there and you know in the last two years um you know we have used $3.5 million of carry forward money to not allow us to have a healthy carry forward um for emergencies for bonding capacity. So you know we are not in a deficit. We are not in the red. That is a correct statement. But I think what we need

131to look at is how we are managing our money. And um and I think that that is something that uh we need to look at and again M would have been in the red had we not made a transfer. So yes, we had money and other funds that we were able to balance the overall budget. So there are things that we can work towards as a district and as a board as we move into fiscal year 26. Thank you. Thank you members. Anything else or can we take a motion? Mr. President, I just make a motion to approve fiscal year 2425 annual expenditure budget revision. All right. Do I have a second? I second. Okay. A motion by board me vice president Kenyon, a second by board member Schmidt. With no further discussion, we'll take

132the vote. This is to approve item 8.2, the discussion and consideration to approve the fiscal year 202425 annual expenditure budget revision. There's no further. We've got the motion. We have the second. We'll take the vote. Board member Schmidt. I. Board member Zimmerman. I. Vice President Kenyon. I. Board member Shinion. I. I. Also n show that item 8.2 is approved with a five yes zero no vote. Next item on the agenda is item 9.1, board comments or agenda topic requests. Mr. President, I have a few. Okay. Um I would like to see um an agenda item for a plan that the district creates um to create a carry forward. Um and how do you uh how the district plans to do that? How do they plan to create a carry forward? and how do they plan

133to demonstrate that transparently to the public and how it will be accounted for. Um, I'd also like to ensure that the board um has the climate survey answers and comments from all three groups that it's given to and I'd like it to be an agenda item as it has been previously as it wasn't last year. Um I would also this is I've requested it before but as the staffing for next year um and including where we are on important district and site administr administrators hiring that are vital to student and teacher success. Um previously I also asked for the the amount of foyas that we have and what the status of them are. And I've also asked to have an agenda item for the board to discuss whether the district should complete the risk action

134plan that was brought up by the AG when they did the presentation on March 4th. Thank you. Okay, we will get all those on the agenda. Anything else, [Applause] members? Okay. Um, I have asked staff to put together a report. I think it's just just to refresh it. I know they're working on it. Takes some time to get some of these reports put together, but the per campus costs. Um I would also like to get a breakdown of all the signature programs and their costs that that's been discussed as well. I know they're working on that. It's just a reminder uh for everybody to know that that's uh that's coming forward. Um so those are the only two I have there eventually will get on. We just need to get give staff the time to

135compile the data um and give us accurate information on that. So those are moving forward. If there's nothing else, then we can uh look at upcoming board meetings. We've got one coming up this Monday, May 19th. It'll be a work study session to uh go over more policy revision. Uh we've got a Saturday, May 24th, members. Um I believe that's actually Memorial Day weekend, so I think that one's going to probably fall off the agenda. Um but we do have Saturday, June 7th reserved if we need it. Um I'm thinking we're going to need that one. Again, that'll be mostly chapter five of the new trust policies. And then our regular governing board meeting is uh not till Tuesday, June 10th, 2025. So with that, we can move to adjournment of the meeting. The time

136is now 7:41 p.m. Our business is concluded. We'll show the meeting adjourned at 7:41. Thank you very much. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music]