001[Music] we're going to bring to order the Liberty 25 governing board study session Fe 3rdd at 4:30 p.m. at the Jerry Roy administration building board members presents Chris Kenyan Sarah Schmidt Brian cion Kelly Zimmerman and myself Brian Parks um Vice President Kenny can you lead us in the pledge to the the United States of America to the repic which it stands one nation under God indivisible with and justice for all thank you vice president Kenyon we'll move on to 1.3 the trust policy transition this is part three uh Amy casos good afternoon um thank you all for joining us once again what we will be reviewing today is chapter four of the trust policies we sent these out about I think it was Monday we sent them out to you all for your review so
002we're just just going to go over them today we are looking to kind of clarify anything that might need clarification we're not looking to change the intent of the policies at all but make sure they are in direct alignment with the asba policies that we currently have so the um purpose of this meeting is to make sure those are in alignment this will stand as our first read okay any questions before we move forward here all right so I will read each one of the numbers for the trust policies and then I will pause and wait for any type of questions or comments um and we'll just go through the policies in that nature are you g just for clarification purposes are you going to read when you say like four sorry already forgot what
003I'm doing here 4 uh 4-101 does that include like a do you want all of the comments do you know what I mean or it's probably easiest like if we let's go through them Page by page so I'll do 4101 and then I'll do 4101a just to make sure that we can uh get through these we are going to try and uh get through this in an hour today um but we'll see how far we can get okay all right so we'll start with 4101 board authority to employ um so I noticed I looked at the crosswalk and um the first policy uh under like Personnel in asba is just kind of like the goals and the priorities of the board and how we hire like you know we're hiring the most qualified like those
004kinds of things um and I thought that that was really nice like I thought it just you know kind of unified the district and we're all looking for the same thing I liked that that was in policy and it's not it was omitted it says you know there's no trust policy so I don't know well yeah just the whole idea I guess and you know so I I guess that means and I I just want to clarify what you said because you said to not change the intent so does that mean that I need to bring up that I'd like an to add a policy to the trust because I just kind of thought as we're moving over we're kind of doing all of that discussion right now um so I you tell me yeah
005excuse me I would think you would need to suggest an addition to the policies okay even though it's it's an Omission like from what we currently have yeah well that's a good point sorry this is my phone we turned off it's uh we're looking at these policies right now and we're in its first read so suggested changes or recommended changes can be made you know but the dis the board can't vote on it at this particular meeting so we'll not the the administration will note this suggest change and then the other thing I'd like to note is that I think that we should have a process or criteria for non-renewals for administrators I think we have it for almost every other category in here and how it works and that's the only one we don't
006and I just think you know there's always a process right we want we want people that come to us to feel comfortable that they're not just going to be non-renewed for no reason and no documentation I think it's important you know if we think of ourselves like a business that you know there's a process and a policy in place so if I could just comment on that there's a difference between policy and process there's administrative process so um I think I like your idea and I make sure that we do have it but I think we need to refer to administrative process that you know because the board does approve those processes so um you know if you want to take a note of that and maybe we readdress it down the down the road
007a little bit we can bring that up as an agenda item and take a look at adding that as an administrative process okay and I I understand but like the teacher one and like I believe even the psychologist one it's in policy so it's just it I find it a little strange I guess that the administrative one isn't you know like you we have the teacher one we have the psychologist um and I'd have to go back you know as we go through it and look for the support staff I don't remember you know until I I look at my notes so it's just you know I'm just giving my thoughts you know at this time so that one isn't currently even in the asba version that is correct so I would yes that would
008be a and so I would agree with that statement so and I've asked for a policy for that already right so four d101 a um in b the L uh the letter B it says before employment the school shall make documented good faith efforts to contact previous employers of applicants to obtain um information relevant to the individual's Fitness does this mean that potentially the district could hire without receiving a reference because it says make documented good faith efforts oh Sor you yeah just we always make sure we always get um multiple references there may just be one reference that we just keep contacting I can think of some somebody we hired in the past month that how much we reached out to this one reference we couldn't get back but then what we usually do
009is we ask the person applying can you give us other references in addition because we always require three and so we keep We call we email we try to contact but no we don't ever hire with no references okay and I'm you know I assume that we didn't but I just want to make sure that it's clear in policy because I feel like the way that this is written um I feel like it could be left into interpretation and I I think that in terms of getting a reference at least one I don't feel like that should be left to interpretation in my opinion and it's also in our Frontline system we have to document and the principles everyone that hires has to document in there I contacted Kelly Zimmerman that this date like it's
010all documented actually in our Frontline system where we do our our hiring too it that's a requirement as well so policy will state that it shall make documented good faith efforts and then the procedure is what you're talking about now where it's documented how it's documented in in Frontline right I mean right now I don't know if we want to say actual Frontline that's the system that we have right now but whatever system okay and is that procedure a part of a written that's a written procedure somewhere I do like the shell you know shall is a forceful legal word right there's you shall do that it's not may you know that leaves it open that you may but you shall so correct me if I'm wrong Clyde that's pretty binding that you shall shall
011means you shall do it yeah right but um Kelly's point about good faith efforts that okay leaves a little bit of a a factual Gap um but um what what does good faith efforts amount to um this is a pretty significant requirement you know for uh for hiring School Employees so right and so in order to enforce it we need it to be in policy like I you know to be able to hold anyone who comes into any position you know that this is the requirement and I agree that shall is a good word but it's the good faith efforts is where I think I feel could you tell me what other wording might U feel appropriate for this I think she's just suggesting to take good faith out good faith efforts out shall contact
012contact previous employers of applicants to obtain information okay and I'm gonna play little Devil's Advocate sorry um what happens if you have a really good candidate and you can't reach any of their any of their uh contacts we don't hire if we can't reach any no yeah that's not good practice not if we usually what has happened is we could reach two we require three the third we have a hard time one so we go back to the applicant and say you need to give us more references because we don't accept three it's I mean we don't accept two it has to be three one of the issues I have is you could you could put down like all possible it's all good faith in the end because you're you're not having somebody stand over
013somebody right so this is one of those things we could change the language but in the end it's up to the administrator I.E Dr mohorn or whoever's hire doing the hiring to do all they can to get those uh contacts um I'm going through it in my head and I can't come up with any language that makes sense well like like Clyde was saying it could simply read before employment the schools shall contact you could remove those words mhm the schools shall contact previous employers yeah yeah I'm good with that yeah I think that's best okay thank you k or M sorry okay so 4-12 staff assignment okay um okay so this um I'm on positions uh so at the beginning it says the governing board May approve job descriptions for newly added positions and
014substantial revisions to existing job descriptions the board may add or eliminate positions um I think that we need to take out the word may that is one of the board's jobs is to approve job descriptions so um and the other word that I have a problem with is substantial revisions because um I think that's a subjective word and I think that if there are revisions we approve the job descriptions I believe that we should approve the revisions unless it's like a word but if we're changing duties if we're changing qualifications like I believe that should that is falls under the board's purview I had that marked too I think the word is shall take out substantial because that is our responsibility so you're saying to replace ma with shall and then remove substantial yep um
015sorry I I will try to wait each time but um so under work calendars again the word is May and I believe approving the work calendars is the board's responsibility so I don't think it should say may okay I have a feeling that this is going to come under students but the last paragraph where it says teachers shall take and maintain daily classroom attendance teachers shall make the decision to promote or retain a pupil in a grade in common school or pass or fail a pupil in course in high school subject sub subject to review by the board as provided in statute I there's no words about documentation and and how we come to that decision that that seems very open-ended that a teacher could unilaterally decide whether they're going to pass or fail a
016student um I mean I know it gets a it gets subject to review by the board but I don't think it should get to us without some sort of other you know information I guess well regretfully that language is actually from the statute is it really yeah the duty I apologize that I didn't refence duties from the teachers of of a teacher so um it's a language from the legislature and it's really old language it's been around a long long time so um my recommendation is uh that we just leave it teach uh you know they they just they have to follow this normal system for providing for keeping attendance that's the procedure that happens at the school district and then passing fail is the authority of a school district or I mean of a
017school teacher um and then the board can U take it from there if someone objects and brings a claim to them and yeah as long as we're in compliance with statute you can recommend at a later date like once this is approved to go ahead and add the language you or or request to add that language as long as it doesn't violate statute yeah did you want to add some additional language to it is that what you're suggestion yes I would love to add some additional language but I'm going to be honest and say that I have not read the Personnel policy or student policies I did read person this is one of those areas I would recommend that you note it down come back to it and then at a later date you can
018bring it up as a once this is approved as a board agenda item to specifically address this that's what I would do and I have not it could even be in chapter five right that's what I'm wondering if it's in chapter it could be chapter and I didn't cross reference the asba student policies you know to look but I just noted it thank you so 4103 and employee evaluations okay okay first paragraph certified administr uh administer my gosh guys I'm sorry administrator evaluations okay uh my question is uh how often does the board have to allow for public discussion about uh the you know certified administrators I didn't read it for the public I'm sorry but it says in that we have to provide the public the option to um discuss the evaluation system how
019often does that occur you know I don't know exactly how they're doing it here but I would say whenever you make any changes to it then that's when you would have it in as an agenda item okay um okay uh so now I'm under principal evaluations the second paragraph um and it gives a range it says the Quant ative data shall account for between 20% and 33% so uh why is it a range and uh could it you know I don't think different principles like in the same school district should you know have different percentages so that range feels uh hey yeah go ahead finish oh no that's okay yeah I currently I think we need to Define that because I don't think it's it's a different range for each leader right obviously it's a
020standard range and I think on our new instrument I don't know that that not our new we don't have an instrument but the instrument that was in place when I came here from Dr shf I'm not sure that that's accounted for in there so I do think that that's a change where we identify what the percentage is but it it needs to be the same it's not a sliding percentage that's different for each administrator am I misspeaking it's it is 20% in current policy I I looked it up okay so um and then the other part is that it specifically defines in our current policy the other 80% so whatever this percentage is going to be I I think we also need to Define then what else we're evaluating principles on I think we need
021to be specific I agree and I like what uh Mr Dangerfield what Clyde is saying too as we tweak that or work through that that'll be brought to the board for for approval to assign what those different four or five categories that we have our five did we want to change that so it matches our current or the current policy at 20% at least so we're in alignment do you want to change that I mean I think we need to pick a percentage um I'm not sure um you know I'd I'd like to hear you know Dr Monroe's recommendation and I just want to make sure that because in the in the current policy GCO it says include observable and standard space elements of professional practice which shall account for the 80% of the overall
022so it you know it equals 100 have you seen the um uh tool you have so there's like five points and the way I read that is each one has a 20% so that's kind of how I I read it so I mean if it's different than that I mean we could we could take it back and look at it and see because again anything that's voted on or CH changed or tweaked needs to be brought to the board but I'm looking at moorn it makes sense I mean 20% breaks down really easily between those four or five areas but maybe we just give us some time to look at this and we can adjust the policy uh you know the language of it in like a second read what do you think yeah just
023so and it may just be the 20% but I'd feel a lot more comfortable just going back so we could see the instrument that we inherited I just want to make sure yeah the policy correct well so you all had determined that over this next year that that um instrument will wind up changing right like that's a part of this we hoping we are hoping yeah so that's a part of the Strategic plan was to change so I think that um leaving this a little broader might help so that you can get that very specific in procedures so that is an option as well as having the procedure be different so I'm just going to say I'm not comfortable leaving it as a range in policy that's my personal opinion oh no not suggesting leaving
024it a range in policy but leaving the policy as is and then putting the remainder of the percentages in procedure what I was referring to is just giving us time to if we bring it back for a second read we can we can look and and take out the range you know what I mean like I think yeah president I haven't you know looked at it today but president Parks may be right it may just be that 20% but I'd feel a lot more comfortable just with staff bringing that to the board and then maybe that's what we put is just the 20% is it we'll come back to you in a second read so yeah um and then the last thing I have on this page is um you know would we consider putting
025the instrument in policy because we have the superintendent instrument in policy um and again I just think being upfront you know and it's very clear um again for anybody who were to come in and you know if there's changes that you know we're just very transparent about what we're using to evaluate our administrators so yeah we certainly can do that anything that's put in the policy like that that's process just almost becomes an exhibit right in as asba they put e right for exhibit or what have you but yeah any of these things if we put that process in place it just becomes an exhibit not policy but an exhibit to the policy right so that yeah we could certainly so if it's an exhibit then anybody looking at it also gets to see would
026see the exhibit also correct it would be right in the policy manual yeah probably right after this page or something or what have you any other questions on this are we on the next page we can move to the next just because it's the same letter oh okay um it's the same thing um the teacher evaluation has that range again so it's my same concern um and again I put instrument in policy uh same kind of idea um and then halfway down the page where it says incentives and protections that a um it says the district may offer multi-year contracts not to exceed three years to certifi teachers in the highest performance classification um is this something that other districts do I haven't had any experience with it myself Court have you I haven't is
027that from That's from the statute right that was it was a new addition U it's a fairly new addition to the I I don't know of that happening okay so it's not in our current policy I don't think so no not that I know of okay is it is yeah the leg legislature be since superintendent you can do it with principles also where you can offer more than a year um they were looking for a way to reward those teachers that were in the highest category of performance but we don't have to do that it's to me okay um see uh this is about certif uh the board could um give incentives to teachers that um if they have the two highest performing classifications and agree to work in a drf school not that I
028think it's necessarily going to pertain to our district um but I assume that we would not have to do that just is that statute as well is that a new statute I think it was incorporated about the same time time okay yes it's a me okay um okay and then the last one is e it says the board May adopt protections for teachers whose supervising principle has received a classification of ineffective which may include allowing a second qualified evaluator to perform an observation or the evaluation of a certificated uh teachers classroom performance um how is the teacher going to know that the principle has been labeled ineffective if we don't share that information because it's protected Personnel information that's a very good question I don't I don't uh yeah I don't have an answer and
029I don't think I've been in a situation where that kind of thing has occurred and I don't know if that's been part of the new statute because I you know again it may be a May which it looks like it's a May there but I know the statute had some interesting updates to it and maybe this is one of them is this we can for the teacher evaluation it is yes yeah so the teacher wouldn't necessarily have to know about it but somebody else would be doing the evaluation is the way I read it right but then they would question that I mean we don't have random people not their building administrators principle what how do you trust their evaluation no I no but how would the teacher how would the teacher have the knowledge
030to have a separate would the teacher no I I get I'm working through the problem right I'm not making a statement I'm just working through the problem it's I don't know any thoughts well um evaluators have to be qualified and they have to do something kind of training and things to become an evaluator and then it would be the boards and the super attendant role to make sure that protection is happening by using another one so you you would be aware of that administrator's weakness and then um if you if the board determined that you wanted someone else to do those evaluations you could do that I think that is a really slippery slope because I think any teacher would question why their building administrator is not doing their evaluation it's it's not typical procedure
031and I think then we're putting ourselves risk of potentially you know violating you know their the Privacy to their evaluations I just actually I think in depending on the size of a school you have more than just the administrator doing evaluations more than just the principal you know depending on the side of the school you have assistant principles and or uh you know some type of an administrative role for evaluators because it's just too big of a job to get all those people evaluated in one school year here so they have to spread it around okay could we just look at this I just feel yeah uncomfortable I'm really curious to see if this is a language and statute and it might be because I know they got real creative with it yeah it's a
032it's a May again but Kelly if you have some language to suggest that I think the group would be willing to listen well I mean I don't know how you create language that doesn't violate the privacy of the principal so frankly I think it needs to be removed but if it's in statute then I I can't do that and I recognize that but I think it's I think it it's very difficult to achieve this without violating I understand what you're saying about principles and having assistant principles but some of our schools don't have assistant principles no I agree and in those schools generally the smaller schools the principal is the only one that does evaluations but as you get to a larger school district and larger schools it happens all the time which I understand
033but that's not us right I'm talking about our particular but doesn't mean you have to do this well what we can do is check to see if it is statute if it's statute we leave it it's just a may but what she's asking or if it can be removed and it's not statute maybe that's something that we consider I mean I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around it too how you do one thing without divulging something that you shouldn't but maybe I just need to give it more thought so but I mean I'll make not of this is just for item d right this is for E for E it's for E I mean I know it's not a practice that I hear about often in larger districts sure you have a second
034person who might who might evaluate in larger districts but she Kelly's right that's not us you know what I mean so but we can check and see if this is the actual word by word language in the statute because it may be because I know they got real creative when they made the adjustment and is your suggestion just to take it out is that your suggestion okay well let's note that and move on to page eight there's any or there's any other questions on this section pass page eight go okay page nine uh 10 10 all right okay so the second paragraph um the district is required to provide uh certificated teachers with the opportunity to overcome or remediate unprofessional conduct prior to initiating discipline or dismissal action or is not required okay sorry I
035misspoke nor is the district required to provide any employee with remediation opportunities for conduct that otherwise constitutes unprofessional conduct or in and or conduct in violation of the law or the district's policies or administrative regulations or procedures um so this is talking about teachers now which they have more protection so that to not have the opportunity to overcome or remediate unprofessional conduct uh has you know are we able to do that like I I guess I'm not understanding what like that in there for like super egregious things like if they say Touch Somebody inappropriate like we shouldn't have to give them opportunity and and that would be unprofessional conduct yeah something like that pretty egregious okay I just wondering how we could maybe you know add a word that you know magx it signify that
036it is egregious and not just cuz again you know it's a little bit up to interpretation there so um and then oh sorry okay I'm sorry um I was just going to come in and say it just say it's not required but not that it's not possible so there's still an possibility to allow them to overcome it's just not required to give the opportunity right so if it's egregious you don't give the opportunity if it's something less egregious you know it's a slight unprofessionalism then they so could have the opportunity it's just not a requirement to do it that's how I read that I don't know if I'm interpreting that correctly you do these like you're termin terminated immediately that's well yeah in a few I think in a few pages there's like a list
037of Staff ethics or something like that so what we can do is we can take this back and research it and see it we'll cross reference to see if there's another space that lists what egregious might be um and then I'll notate that in the notes notate that yeah um and then just under confidentiality it it specifies um teachers but could we not have like all evaluations are confidential it's on the same page regretfully the others are um public record okay uh it's only teachers are protected they're not public record okay thank you okay so moving on through Page 11 to page 12 where we start with 4104 employee disapp okay so in our old policy in uh GC qf it is outlined what misconduct is um but I did not see that in these
038policies um so I agreed that I thought that it should be outlined and I went back and found it is in our old policy so that's kind of my f first thing um okay and then uh the district May exercise its authority to discipline an employee for misconduct that occurs so I'm looking at the second bullet point when the employees on District property or while participating in school or work related events so I feel like you know we had this conversation about uh you know collecting signatures and I feel like this kind of goes along with this because now you're talking about them being at District property and at a school event what if their children go to school you know where they are employed so that can they be disciplined for something that they
039do when they're not on the they're not teaching they are not supervising children but they're at school because their their children attend school and they're going to a sporting event or like a they're at a carnival or something but they're not they're not in their capacity right they're not supervising children um I I'm just asking for clarification here and to Think Through the legality like you know of this well if you look at the third and fourth bullet points it may help us before after regular work hours if the employees engaged in activities on behalf of the district off- campus and during non-working hours if there is a sufficient relationship between the employees conduct and the district's legitimate interest does that help that uh I'd love for what an example of number four what what
040would constitute I just feel like off campus during non-working hours how can we discipline somebody for something you know if they're breaking the law that's something different but this is not talking about them breaking the law this is saying that the district can choose to discipline an employee for something they're doing off-campus during non-working hours that doesn't feel like something that's in our purview or legal to be honest it depends on what the thing is and if it has a Nexus to their role as a school teacher or a school district employee would depend on that event whatever that is do you have an example well there are things that students do you know for example bullying uh online bullying type of thing that you can attach and say this is a has a Nexus
041with the school and classroom Behavior and the impact that it's having on on them so you can discipline students the same way so it would be some something similar to that I think that's just leaves it on a caseby Case basis and you know I'm fine with as it reads as it is um I don't know that we've I don't know that I've ever seen this come to you know before the Border or I I'm trying to produce an example or think through maybe maybe we could talk to Jennifer at the trust maybe there's other examp examples that are getting past us Clyde of I'm thinking like a DUI something like that but that's a that's a legal yeah well still it's still an emplo an employment issue too with the school district okay so
042could we add some word about it being you know if they if they are do something illegal you know so that it's it's not up to interpretation I guess um I just I just you know I just want to make sure that we're not you know condemning teachers for something that isn't illegal but maybe not everybody agrees with you know I well they always always have their defense too I mean you know it's not it's not a one-sided issue there's always a defense that goes on but um yeah I'm not sure how to say it differently I think these this language comes up from just different examples or experiences like for example this these are trust policies and so it's probably stuff they've had to deal with from the trust perspective dealing with liability issues
043for school districts I think the word at the beginning misconduct right um when we're dealing with misconduct that's a a whole issue in itself and I want to be careful as a board that we aren't limiting you know not not specifically to this but through all this that we're just not trying to box certain things in like limiting putting so much restriction on a a particular word or idea that there's never room for exceptions and we know there's exceptions to just about every rule right so I just want to caution that we're a little bit careful that we leave a little bit of you know when we say shall or discretion or you know just there's room for discretion is I guess what I'm getting at and so having that trust in the people who
044we've as the board put in administration um who Dr Monroe is put beneath him giving them the tools they need to make those decisions instead of just having if they do this you will do this if you do this they will do this and letting them have that little bit of discretion I just caution we box them in so much that they just can't do their job because there's always going to be some exception to the r anything else on this page 12 um in our current policy in um GC qf um it says um uh the procedures for discipline not resulting in a suspension that was outlined and it's omitted in the trust policy um and again um I just think you know I'm just wondering why it was omitted um you know because
045it does go into all the ones about if you are going to suspend somebody but not you know kind of the procedure for the the discipline essentially that we were just talking about that procedure seems at least the way I saw it was omitted from our current asba policy okay thank you okay on page 13 is there any questions okay moving on page 14 um number six where it says um 14 yeah sorry um where it's talking about the employees signature on the notice of discipline and that um you know a signature doesn't mean that they agree with it well it just be clearly noted on that paper that that's what that signature means will there be a disclaimer I guess that's what I'm familiar with it says that yeah okay moving on to uh
046trust policy 4-15 employee termination page 16 okay uh under B the second paragraph it says the superintendent is authorized to place support staff and other non-certificated employees on administrative leave with pay until the board decides whether to dismiss the employee um my question is uh do they do they provide do they have to provide a reason um you know when we're talking about putting somebody on leave with pay and my question is for how long like do we have to call a special meeting within a certain amount of days because if we're considering terminating somebody I'm not sure that we should be paying them on leave for very long well and Stephanie may be able to take a stab at this my understanding is a lot of times when those things happen it allows time
047for the investigation to happen Okay um and a lot of times it protects the employee as well so if the employee under question is assigned a home and being paid then it allows us to do the investigation and their job is not hurt um because sometimes it's a good protection for them yes and it would come to the board in like a an executive session or what have you so am I that's exactly I I just asked Clyde as well and that's something that we have to do we have to pay them while the investigation is ongoing okay could we just maybe add that wording like while the investigation is taking place you know could that wording be added so it's a little bit more clear about how long I guess we're paying you know
048I'm not I'm not setting a time frame right employees have a right to um have a hearing and you have to pay them until that's resolved they can request a hearing there's an investigation then they can request a hearing before hearing officer and then the board might hear it he can drag on for a while but under the under the law they are still have a right to be paid during that time okay um I'm not sure uh do support staff sign contracts in our district they're called work agreements yeah it's a work agreement so I don't I don't know if it's a fullblown contract work agreement okay but it's for like the duration of the school year correct okay any other questions on 41-0 4-15 moving on to 4106 reduction in force page 9
049okay under procedures it says the superintendent shall submit recommendations to the governing board for the elimination of District positions and the corresponding termination of the district employee filling the relevant positions I think that this should be two different board actions I think the Riff the idea to cut a position because we are adjusting the board approved budget by riffing a position I think that needs to come the agenda item to riff a specific position then in the following meeting if the board approves the Riff because again it's adjusting the board's budget then we could you know do the employee it's my understanding that we already have approved budgets that have carryover and enough money in that carryover to add without changing the budget meaning there's there's a significant carryover sitting in payroll that the board
050has already approved so you can add positions without affecting the budget I think she's talking about a riff though she's talking about reducing in force different what is that that just adds into the carryover on the budget go ahead no it's okay I'm sorry okay I just think though that the board has approved the budget and the budget priorities right we determine that as the board and so if a riff occurs then you are adjusting the board's priorities the budget priorities because then the superintendent's deciding where else to put that money but that may not necessarily been a board approve priority so for clarification where I have the first agenda item would be the board uh approved budget correct well the Riff yeah and then the second agenda item would be the Riff and then
051a third agenda by item the specific employee that will be affected by the Riff is that what you're saying no it would need to be at the next meeting because you don't know how the board is going to vote on the Riff right if you decide I'm going to eliminate an assistant super superintendent position right that's a lot of money that's being changed and I don't think it's I don't think you know how the board's going to vote because we're only supposed to discuss it in the meeting so how do you know that the board's going to approve the Riff and the changing of the budget priority the Riff occurs first the board approves the Riff first before anybody is identified and and something is reduced okay well that's not happening right now so I
052just want it clear in policy I want it clear in policy that the Riff H I need we need some sort of language then because I think that's how it should be that the Riff occurs in a separate meeting than notifying the employee and then I also think um okay at the bottom it says action no ification MH um the the superintendent shall recommend that the board's separate employment sorry the superintendent shall recommend that the board separate employment with specific individuals due to a pro proposed riff by recommending the employees termination or non-renewal I think that's incredibly unfair to an employee because we're deciding to not fund that position I do not think that they should be a non-renewal or a terminate because the Riff has nothing to do with their performance I think this
053is another one where we have to defer to Administration um I I I understand what you're saying it's not fair but you look at what's going on in other districts near us and the crap show that they have with mismanaging money if they would have done some of this thing some of these things maybe they would have been able to stay afloat and so I think it's just giving Administration the opportunity that hey what happens if next year our student count goes way down they got to make some some drastic changes right I mean and then bring that before the board we got to look at uh funding we got to look at what what we have to change in our budget but you know these may be some recommendations they bring to the board
054um I just I just think it's giving them that leeway again I just think that we can we can riff I I'm not I'm not saying we can't riff anybody but to to say that they're a non-renewal why can you not just riff them I so our practice right now is we don't say they're non-renewal we just riff them and then offer them to apply for any other position within the district that they are qualified for that's what we right now that's great I just think our this says this but that's what the the policy we have in place right now says and that's what we do okay so then I think this policy needs to be looked at because I think that's not fair I was personally riffed as a second-year teacher um and
055it had nothing to do with my performance I was just Rift okay it yeah one more one more okay so the last policy we we will review tonight is 4-10 7 Personnel records on page 21 any questions comments concerns about 4-107 okay maybe bookmark where we are yeah so we will bookmark um and we'll be on 4-21 when we pick up on our next meeting all right everybody uh this meeting is adjourned at 5:19 [Music] sh [Music] what the the theit [Music] sh [Music] up up [Music] theit [Music] I'd like to bring to order the Liberty 25 governing board regular meeting for February 3rd 5:30 p.m. at the Jerry roie administration building the board members present is Chris Kenyon Sarah Schmidt Brian Sone Kelly Zimmerman myself Brian Parks uh Miss Zimmerman would you lead us
056in the pledge to United States of America to The Republic which stands one nation God indivisible andice the elementary school district governing board meeting we appreciate your interest in the district the five elected governing board members serve without compensation and volunteer countless hours on behalf of our students and staff the President and Vice President of the board are elected in January under state law the governing board may only discuss and vote on matters that are on the agenda for tonight's meeting agendas are posted a minimum of 24 hours in advance on the Liberty Elementary School District web page and at the Jerry Rie District complex copies of tonight's agenda are located in the foyer and on the District web page if you wish to make a public comment please complete a request to address the
057board form and submit to the board secretary before the meeting starts these forms are located in the foyer prior to entering the governing boardroom members of the public will be given a maximum of 3 minutes to speak once recognized by the governing board president please state your name before you speak during a call to the public the public may speak on any item of business on the agenda that requires the board to take action the public may also speak to the governing board about a school district matter that is not on the agenda state law prohibits board members from commenting on or discussing the matters presented at the end of the call to the public however the board may ask the superintendent to review the issue or place it on a future agenda a board
058member may also briefly respond to criticism of a board member or the governing board itself we ask that all speakers show respect and courtesy to others comments must pertain to a matter that but is within the jurisdiction of the governing board this is not an appropriate form to complain about an employee student or others we also ask the public who are present for the meeting to be respectful by being attentive avoid calling out or creating any disruption that may interfere or interrupt the meeting individuals who interrupt or interfere with the meeting may be asked to leave by the board president thank you for allowing this meeting to be conducted in a peaceful and productive Manner and thank you for your attendance and involvement in tonight's meeting okay well move on to item 3.3 the approval
059of the regular agenda I will take a motion I motion to approve the regular agenda consistent with board policy bedb and temporarily suspend governing board policy with which this agenda may be inconsistent second second okay all right we'll go with the vote uh vice president Kenyan I uh uh Miss Schmid I Mr Sone I miss immerman I I'm also I will'll show that pass unanimously move on to item 4.1 the superintendent update attendance enrollment reports School newsletters and discipline update Dr courtman row uh president Parks vice president Kenyon members of the board uh Happy February to you with we're in the second month of the year and boy January went by pretty quickly so a few things to update you on uh as far as the superintendent update looking forward to a good month in
060February got a few awesome events happening this week our uh Kindergarten Roundup starts uh I believe Thursday night is the first school which is australa Mountain uh all throughout the month of February we'll be trying to gather any new Kinders and any new families to come and learn from our kindergarten teachers our principals and to enroll in one of our eight schools here in Liberty so uh they can register you know at any time after the Roundup but that's a really exciting time for parents to be able to especially if they're new to school to attend meet teachers see the classrooms learn all about what they can do to have their child ready to start kindergarten and in August so so that's pretty exciting we also have our Festival of the Arts happening at estrea
061Mountain uh for all of our Liberty schools on February the 27th um obviously this is an event the board is invited to all of the community it's a great celebration of the Arts uh that our Champs teachers put put on and we have very very gifted and talented uh students performing art throughout our district also third quarter Athletics is underway um we have girls who uh girls basketball I was going to say girls Hoops but got girls basketball boys soccer and we have cross country and so um the board you're obviously invited to come out and support any of our our student athletes on those on those events uh with regards to uh our enrollment compared to this time last year we're up about 101 students um with regards to attendance I wanted to talk
062about today we had 1,600 plus absences across our district and um last year at this time on this day we had about 400 students so um as we were tracking that with our principles uh as far as what was going on today um we did not realize that at 11 o' you know about 11:00 in the morning when other superintendent were reaching out to me that today was also an interesting day because I I I guess it's a cultural political day without Immigration Movement as well and so um across our schools we had a high number of students who were absent for multiple reasons um with with the uh okay I I can't I can't please this is a business meeting keep it the highest amount of absences we had in all of our schools
063was at Rainbow Valley which was about 350 students and uh as we were reaching out uh other superintendents were reaching out to me later in the morning um enrollment was down significantly in a lot of the W West Valley districts um uh I'm not discounting what was said earlier I'm just acknowledging the fact that uh this day without immigrants movement which Maybe started in California and was going across the nation I'm not sure but uh in reaching out to cartright Buckeye Lichfield dard Avendale Mesa Chandler you had some districts that were were down 5,000 students other districts 12200 800 18800 so we did have a significant amount of absences uh from our students across all of our schools today with Rainbow Valley being the highest um the last thing I wanted to say is there's
064the school newsletters are there for all of the exciting things for the board to look at that we have happening in February and then I wanted to give Dr mohorn just a few minutes to kind of give a a discipline update so Dr mohorn yep if you could go to the next slot just forward to the next slide maybe there we go try that um so we talk about discipline and safety in December for the first time ever we were able to have all three of our police agencies MCSO Buckey PD and Goodyear PD here on site with our administrators uh doing professional development a tabletop exercise um with our building leaders to my knowledge for years that is we've not been able to have all three entities together um I will tell you from
065feedback from our administrators that they valued this um very much and would like more of this in the future uh secondly after speaking with some principles about Behavior referrals and things they talked about that behavior referrals are on track to be similar to last year um some said it's better some said I wouldn't say it's it's worse um the updated Behavior Matrix has been implemented to allow teachers to better focus on student learning and just a reminder this year we are gathering Baseline data so we're really encouraging checking and double-checking that data is being put in as it should be into Synergy nothing can be deleted because there is no more delete button no one has access to delete I don't have access to delete none of our principles so whatever data we have in
066there is um true data something else that I uh wanted to bring up because I had heard um now I just totally lost my thought oh as far as uh Behavior referrals and discipline uh we have had three or four tag meetings the teacher Advisory Group meetings and last year at almost every meeting um behavior and discipline was brought up as a concern and so far this year the tag group has not brought that up um at a at a tag meeting yet so I just wanted to bring that point up president Parks thank you Dr mohor and then uh so we'll move on to uh item 4.2 governing board and superintendent recognitions Dr Court Monroe okay so this is uh our favorite part of the meeting if the board wants to make their way
067down we'll uh we have some recognitions of some of our Mr namsky some of our blue Horizons staff excuse sorry it's [Music] on on behalf of uh Dr Monroe the you hear me okay on behalf of Dr Monroe the governing board members myself the Liberty board school district is proud to foster a community and culture that motivates recognizes those who make exceptional contributions to our students they embody our core values of respect Integrity accountability high standards in our students centered we aim to reward excellence and show appreciation not only to our staff who achieve significant goals and exhibit exemplary behaviors but also to our dedicated parents and volunteers who make a valuable contribution to our school schools and classrooms as I call your name forward for recognition we'll take uh sorry as I call your
068name please come forward for recognition and we will take a group photo afterwards for the principal assistant principal respective school please join us Bruce [Laughter] all right all right from Blue Horizon's Elementary teacher Aaron [Music] barl thank you on-site staff Ricardo Rodriguez [Music] Ricardo you get flowers too just what I wanted District support staff Rebecca Willie parent Naomi Hol and our volunteer Caitlyn Hefner you know on that note I'd like to uh thank Arizona Furnishings because they gave us the contribution for these flowers so I want I want to thank them for that uh for this picture with the teachers can we bring these signs down please yes please thank you I appreciate that go Blue okay um we want to um yeah Bruce Company you guys can stay up here but Eli why don't
069you come here in the middle we want to uh I want to read something about Eli here so here stand over by Mr namsky so uh Eli is our student leader who's here tonight and so the board meetings we have a student leader which is an exemplary student um who leads in a lot of different areas at Blue Horizon come and sit on the dis um with us and so I want to really highlight Eli and why he was chosen and nominated by Mr namsky and the staff and then Eli's going to read something that he wrote about blue Horizons um Let me let me make sure I have the right one okay Eli you take the bottom one here and then we'll get a picture with you Eli but let me brag on Eli
070here tonight blue Horizon's Elementary School is proud to have 8th grade student Eli nadano representing us at the governing board meeting we hope this will be a truly memorable honor for Eli and his family who are represented in the audience Eli embodies the tremendous characteristics we have come to expect from our Bobcats as he will share with you in his speech momentarily he has been a student since the school opened in 21 2021 Eli stands out for his unwavering dedication kindness and excellence and all he does as an a student talented athlete active njhs member and dependable classroom volunteer he truly embodies the qualities of a well-rounded and inspiring role model to students all around him Eli has a limitless future ahead of him we look forward to hearing about his accomplishments for years to
071come how about a round of applause for Eli okay so we're going to let Eli read what he wrote and then we'll take a picture with the with the governing board thank you good evening I would like to thank each of you for this opportunity I am proud to represent blue Horizon's Elementary School elementary school this evening at the February governing board meeting my name is Eli Nano and I'm a eighth grader at Blue Horizons I have been a student there since the since the fifth grade when open in 2021 this may I'll graduate and begin attending Yano high school in the fall in my in my free time I love playing soccer this this year I have been able to repr present blue Horizons by being a member of the boy soccer team I
072also enjoy the subjects of math math and history and am interested in possible career in math mathematics tonight I look forward to my work with the Liberty Elementary School District governing board thank you for this wonderful opportunity you put the sign down for the kids picture perfect thank you than [Applause] f all right all right we'll move on to uh five agenda item 5.1 the governing board update we'll start with vice president Kenyan I'm just going to drag my feet for just a second so we can let board member serenon make his way back thank you for taking him his stuff you forgot um government board update so I don't have a whole lot to say other than first before I do my update this is a very packed room and that's good to see
073uh however I hope that we're all adults in here and we can keep you know respect in this room uh throughout the night I know there's a lot of passion in what people want to say and what um wants to be portrayed but please let's respect each other and have an adult conversation uh with that I do want to say I'm the last couple days have been very disheartening um I've worked in a lot of different aspects protecting kids protecting kids physical harm protecting kids in emotional harm I worked for the Department of Child Safety for a number of years I worked in the medical field for a number of years I'm a youth pastor I do this for the kids and what M Mark aguire decided to do and this group when they start
074bringing the kids who we are here to protect this District serves what roughly four-year-old to 14y olds and I cannot believe that we were putting them in front of the parents right now I can't believe that they have to come here and worry about our adult problems and that in my opinion borderline child abuse there's things let me speak there's things that kids shouldn't have to deal with especially young kids as a matter of fact there's even been kids that I know who have talked to their parents this shouldn't concern me I just want to be a kid and that kind of stuff you know it it really makes me sad that there's this many adults who have no problem throwing these big decisions at these kids that they don't quite frankly understand there's a
075lot behind what's going on and so with that I'm just going to say you know there's a lot of things going on in the district and it all doubles back to a change in policy two years ago and there's a group that's mad about that and if you think this this is about teachers leaving if you think this is about over class size you know things that were on that paper that was handed out which is completely every one of those is complete false um you know you really ought to look at what this stems from and it stems from policy and I'm not going to get all take a whole lot more time but I'm just extremely frustrated that especially the board member who was voted in decided to resign instead of fulfilling his
076oath and then attacks board members who sit here who were duly elected going even to file a petition to have me recalled that's fine if the district wants it that's fine but I stand behind protecting these kids yes I want to support parents I do support parents parents rights that's why we've made the changes we made and we'll continue to parents rights and kids safety is number one in my book and yes I will support teachers as well but they are not first I'm sorry the kids are so with that with that I will go ahead and leave that as my governing board update thank you president Kenyon we move to Miss Schmidt um I would like to say it's nice to see so many people here tonight uh it's always good to see new
077faces that we haven't seen before and I hope that people continue to come uh and otherwise all I have to say is I look forward to visiting um I think all the schools this month and meeting with principles because this will be my first time in some of them so looking forward to seeing you if you're a student or parent or a teacher I'm looking forward to visit your school please say hello um I would love to hear from all of you that's it thank you thank you Miss Schmid um Mr sarion uh yeah I just want to thank everybody for coming out one of the things that I was big on was parental rights even though I might not agree back and forth on everything uh you say and you guys don't agree thing
078I say one thing we gr is that your right as a parent and as an American to exercise he's right so I'm glad you are all here and I appreciate you showing up thank you Mr s Miss simmerman I just want to say that I think it's incredible I have been at board meetings for six years and I have never seen a boardroom like this and it's incredible that you care enough about your child's education and the direction of this District that you would teach your children about civic responsibility and their right to protest because I teach my children about the American values and that is one of them and when I ran my campaign I talked to them that you have to you have to stand by what you believe in and you have
079to take action and I think it's okay and I want you to know that I hear you and these are your kids this is your community you are our taxpayers and it is our responsibility to listen to you and to acknowledge that you are making a statement okay so nobody can sit here and say well it's just a few people it's not and it's our responsibility to listen to you um and you know I wish it hadn't gotten to this point I wish the district had involved stakeholders in the vision and the mission and the Strategic plan there was no Community input and so I feel like if if we had done that maybe we wouldn't be here and so I really hope going forward that you know we really think about involving our stakeholders
080in these decisions so that they can have a say because this is our community um we had a 38% absent rate in this District that is significant and that's because you decided to use your voices um the second thing I want to clear up is there is some Miss uh information put out or claims that are made that the district is spending $2,000 more do um in classroom spending and that's not true so according to your school spending website which is run by the state of Arizona the district is spending $1,223 more do in classroom spending that's not 2,000 but what they also failed to mention is the district is also spending $1,291 more dollars per student in non-classroom spending so yes we're spending more on instruction than we were but we're also spending even
081more money on non-classroom spending than we were and that's if you're counting that's $2,514 more spending than we did last year and I'm sorry but the the the state is not giving us that much more money and so it's it's concerning that we spent that much more money and yeah it's easy to say that we're spending more on the classroom if we're spending more money in general so um again I appreciate you all um and thank you for you know believing in your children's education and the teachers that spend 7 and 1 half hours a day with them that you care enough about them to to stand here tonight so thank you oh I just want to correct that 2000 it was actually more than 2,000 that came right off the ad website so um
082I'm just to say this in a recent Nationwide survey the top four reasons why teachers quit the profession number one is discipline number two large class size number four limited support and four administrative load this board has taken direct action on all these issues after over the past two years our new discipline policy that had over 75% approval by teachers and parents of policy designed to take disruption out of the classroom we've experienced an increase in enrollment and we work really hard in keeping class sizes down we're one of the few we're one of the only few districts that is experiencing accelerated growth as you know we're currently building new school to further address this issue um we added significant teacher and student supports including reading interventions soon math interventionists and again according to ad
083website this included moving 2,000 plus per child back to the classroom for instruction currently making significant changes in The District administration services to address reduction of admin loan and better support teachers this district is now also providing individualized professional development I personally spend a lot of time with state legislators I've been working with prop 123 legislation on discipline funding for Sr SRO officers and pushing for teacher pay increases um stay tuned there's more coming out of the capital on that subject so can we please stop the false narrative this board does not support or listen to teachers this board's actions speak directly to our dedication the support and success of our teachers we've addressed every major concern brought to this board by our Educators please remember we're here for one reason one reason only and
084that is to keep our students safe and educate them nothing else okay we're going to move to uh 6.1 colge public I believe we have 20 requests uh it's for comment public comment um you have three minutes for comment please provide your full name and if you reside in and out of the district uh vice president Kenyon thank you president Parks um before we get started again I ask that we be respectful doesn't matter who stands up there and speaks they have three minutes don't Boo don't cheer let them have the three minutes if they say something you like that's okay hold your applause to the end if you say something they they say something you don't like like come on just be respectful we want to keep this meeting going and as adults okay
085so we're going to start off the first one speaker is going to be Paul Jensen hello my name is Paul Jensen I'm in District Two of the principles of the district are integrity and accountability Integrity is veloped by being honest in all situations admitting your mistakes and not making misleading statements misinformation is providing false and inaccurate information especially that which is deliberately intended to deceive there have been multiple instances of misinformation from the district and board members my favorite example is from Brian Park's recent email to the district stating that our overall growth performance is up almost over 50% there's a comma missing in which misconstrues the actual growth performance it actually increased by 1% one point on Ela and 5.5 points on math both of which are now almost over 50% not that growth
086is up 50% is implied what is the plan for holding these people accountable to ensure the district will be able to demonstrate they live by the principles they have implemented rearch research shows that the most influential factor for student learning is their classroom teacher that is why I'm so focused on making sure teachers are listened to because teacher focused is student focused to the on the board I admire your stubborn dedication to your cause but you're standing on a beach where the ocean waves have receded way back because a tsunami is ready to wipe out everything in its path you can stand on the receded beach as long as you want but the teachers and community of Liberty will no longer tolerate your mistreatment of them we have had enough a wave of pink is
087going to come crashing in and wipe out the terror you have brought to our district that we love I am not aware of a successful governing board member recall election in the state of Arizona getting the required signatures to make it happen is a lot of hard work however we will knock on the required thousands of doors to spread the word about the mismanagement that Brian Parks Chris Kenyan and Brian cenon have led this District into like increasing spending by $5 million in one year spending deep into our reses reserves and make such miserable working conditions that teachers are willing to pay $2,500 just to leave teacher contract should be issued next governing board meeting and there has been no talk about the 202 budget how are you going to make an informed decision in
088one board meeting I am scared about the situation in the 2026 budget considering how much has been overspent and the the fact that there has been no public disclosure of the current situation your stubbornness is going to make it so that Brian Parks and Chris Kenyon will make Arizona history in being the first governing board members recalled in the end this will strengthen the Liberty district and prove to the teachers and community members that by standing united we can stop being bullied the Sea of pink has pulled back as far as is necessary and it's going to come crashing in on those stubborn enough to be standing on the shore ignoring the obvious we have had enough thank you our next speaker is Levi Jensen um my name is Lea jenton and I am a
089sixth grader at Rainbow Bar elementary school and I just wanted to say that I love my school and that um it make me feel safe and that I love my principal Mrs K my vice prinable Mrs L and that they make School feel safe and fun and I like rainbow B because everyone um nice and that people always remind me that I'm love and I'm a leader our next speaker is Lacy Jensen um I'm Lacy Jensen and I've lived in this district for the past 17 years all six of my children have attended and are currently attending Liberty District I have been around the district for quite some time and I have watched leader come and go and I have seen some amazing leaders and some really terrible ones so I would like to focus
090on helping you see what makes a good leader and I'm going to do this by showing some of these qualities the good leader possesses in Mrs Kagel and Mrs Loveless with the evidence of how they act to prove it good leaders have an abundance of humility they always give credit where credit is due instead of constantly gar is constantly trying to Garner praise from others or toot their own horn they always are quick to give share to share praise and recognition to those who they believe are deserving party mainly staff and students they show everyone respect because they are humans and they respect them they don't not just those who they deem worthy of respect however just because they they also in return they also expect others to treat them with the same respect however
091they do not act entitled because of their titles they don't believe their positions of importance make them more important than others even though they are the boss and have years of experience college degrees and have and both receive many accolades they listen to and value others perspectives and ideas I have seen the ladies sit down with kids a lot of times on the floor to help them through their struggles they take the time to really understand the child showing the child that they are valued and they are loved Behavior has improved immensely since Mrs Kagel came to Rainbow Valley and has continued to improve thanks to the addition of Mrs Loveless I want to be clear that the behavior change came without and before the district's harsh punitive based discipline Matrix what these two amazing
092leaders do works it works because they are disciplining in love in compassion and understanding their discipline is not about punishing humiliating labeling and demeaning students and parents they discipline because they love the children of Rainbow Valley and they want the very best for them and their Futures their discipline does not lack consequences but it takes but it does take more time and it does take more effort to do it and lots more patience and love but they love the kids the students at Rainbow Valley know they are loved and important that is why 58% of them did not come to school nothing to do with any other political statement I can assure you sorry Miss Jensen your time is up our next speaker is I believe it's Megan Kenan Kenan sorry if I mispronounced your
093name good evening ladies and gentlemen of the board my name is Megan Canan I reside in District as a parent of one current student and two past students in the almost 10 years as a parent in this District I have heard seen and experienced some bad things as well as some amazing things tonight I come to you in hopes my voice will be heard and changes can be made I have heard our board State over and over that our students are their number one priority yet your actions thus far are speaking volumes louder than your words if students truly are your number one priority why has there been no action to investigate why so many teachers are willing to pay to break their contracts this year over previous years when there was no penalty why
094are why are we losing in Mass volumes District staffed and being rumored that great leaders are not going to be offered contract renewals as well as great staff being forced to leave all of this drastically affects our children your students my son has personally been affected by this over the last few years just last year he lost his home room/ maath teacher near the beginning of the year and a suitable replacement was not found until after winter break again this year he has lost his math teacher nearing the beginning of the year and a pseudo Ral replacement has yet to be found each time this happens it puts him further behind in his education we see a drop in his grades and he's no longer likes going to school in fear he will receive news
095of another teacher leaving we are now hearing that the one constant out of school Miss Kagel may not be getting her contract renewed I truly hope this is just a rumor and we can rest assure that our children will not have to endure another great loss next year I know that it's not the board's direction or place to say who gets their contracts renewed that is up to Dr Monroe and Dr Mahorn however it is the board's job to oversee and ensure that our district is the best it can be I urge you to take action and investigate what the core issue is and assist in resolving as it it is as good people do not just leave their jobs due to the inactions of reelected members this is why I also support the recall
096of Brian Parks and Christopher Kenyon I urge the community members to sign their recall petition this week the faster we can do this the sooner we can can get qualified board members into their seats before I call the next one um Dr Monroe the speaker referenced investigate core issues why staff are leaving um is that something you can look into and follow up with us please yeah of course all right our next one is going to be Miss Jenna Williams good evening I'm Jenna Williams and I reside in District is this crowded room really representative of just 10 unhappy parents or is it a clear indication of a much broader dissatisfaction with the leadership due to your egregious behavior and Beyond questionable character your narcissistic tal Tendencies habitual dishonesty and bullying of teachers and principles
097as eviden in audio recordings demonstrate a blatant disregard for the well-being and safety of our students and staff parks's false claim of attending Wharton School of Business is a serious glaring red flag Integrity issue the lack of accountability for this lie Rises raises concerns about his fitness's leadership furthermore his careless and sensitive discussion of a sexual assault of a minor victim sh shaming a failure to protect children from harm are unacceptable and demonstrate a shocking lack of empathy as school board president is it essential it is essential to prioritize safety well-being and education of students parks's actions and behavior have compromised the fundamental responsibilities eroding trust and confidence in his leadership his removal is necessary to restore integ Integrity accountability and safe learning environment for all students Chris Kenyan as a board member your inaction
098and enabling Behavior towards Brian Parks and Court Monroe has been striking but has been striking by supporting their actions you effectively allowed them to continue unchecked rather than providing leadership and oversight you seem to be more placeholder allowing others to drive the agenda your lack of action and accountability has not gone unnoticed as a board member it's a crucial it is crucial to prioritize transparency yet you are not in support when you explained away the actions of removing comments from social media your inaction have fallen short of expectations it's time for you to be removed from your position superintendent monro's tenure has been marred by a pattern of behavior that is unacceptable for a leader in education the allegations include attempting to cover up an assault of a child by sending cease and desist letters
099demonstrating a blatant disregard for the well-being of safety of students leaving a trail of Destruction in his previous school districts showcasing an inability to effectively manage and Lead educational institutions intimidation and manipulation threatening teachers with job loss and engaging in manipulative Behavior to enhance personal M William your time's up our next speaker is going to be April Smith hi I'm April Smith uh we do reside in the district and we volunteer at the schools over the last year we've watched as our school board President and Vice President along with superintendent Dr Court Monroe have pushed out well-qualified key District leaders attempted to remove our most effective principles and created an environment where teachers counselors and staff no longer feel valued or supported the result over 50 job openings before contracts have even come out a
100district Running on Fumes with less than $1 million in reserves a staff that's exhausted demoralized and unsure if they can continue to serve our children under this leadership the ones who suffer most from these failures are our kids today our famili sent a clear message across the district 1660 students were absent to show support for our teachers and staff that's 37% of our students whose families made sacrifices to arrange alternative childcare justest to be heard let me break that down for you Rainbow Valley 320 or sorry 342 absences Liberty 109 Westar 250 St Mountain 280 Los breus 231 blue Horizons 231 Freedom 27 these are not people who are doing this for other reasons because our parent group spoke to these parents we know these parents we got out every single day and we talked
101to parents and they all said yes we're going to keep our kids home because this matters we cannot continue to let these men lead our district not only do they lack the competence to keep a school district running smoothly they lack the empathy and respect necessary to work with children and our families today our parent-led political action committee for Liberty Kids filed the paperwork to begin circulating recall petitions for two board members that have been trying to destroy our beloved District beginning tomorrow our Coalition of over 100 volunteers will begin the work to collect the signatures necessary to begin a recall election for Brian Parks and Christopher Kenyan seats we welcome all stakeholders to join us in this fight please visit our website it's the number4 Liberty kids.org to get involved and be volunteer number
102101 thank [Laughter] you next speaker is Peter Smith my name is Peter Smith I live in District and I'm a parent the board majority has created a Culture of Fear distrust and financial ruin the Beating Heart of this destructive movement is board member Parks Parks is supported by Kenyan and Sirion both of whom awarded him with reelection to Schoolboard presidency even after they were made aware that Parks has made threatening comments about the principal at AA Mountain stating in his own words to superintendent Court Monroe that if he mon did not get to the school that Mr Parks would kill her I don't know Parks intent but such language is never appropriate in workplace settings Parks has stated on the record in audio that parents are idiots Parks judged and laughed at the sexual assault
103of a middle school girl because the terrible acts carried out against her didn't meet his idea of what was a serious offense I won't use the word that he used because there are children in this room the State of Arizona thought it was serious enough and they put the perpetrator away for nearly a year this was a horrible thing for anyone to say especially the leader of a school district whose first middle and last priority should be a student student safety Mr Kenyan I'm expecting you to ask for him to stop being the president of the board since you're all about student safety also these comments were made on ongoing legal case against our district Parks has defended spending around $2 million of our eer fund leaving us with only 900,000 if the unexpected happens
104like I don't know the State of Arizona requiring that we pay them back for their accounting errors which has happened or the United States government deciding to Halt payments for the free introduced lunch program are we to let little kids go hungry what if a building has mold and we need to quickly rent Portables or a member of the school board talks about ongoing litigation increasing the likelihood of us losing in court or having to pay out settlements future claimants against the district may use their words to demonstrate a culture of dismissiveness about preventing sexual assault further increasing our risk we have to pay for private insurance to handle legal losses if we cost these providers enough money they can drop us from insurance forcing us to self-insure self-insuring would be catastrophic especially with an
105emergency fund that is now in the hundreds of thousands parks and his people have been depleting our emergency fund so they can try to score political points they have taken credit for the bipartisan work of our state legislature and governor in increasing classroom funding and the the work of the local women and men who sweated and knocked on doors across this District to get the last override passed well those same people who got the override over the Finish Line have returned and they have decided that this District can no longer afford to have you I have already signed the recall petitions for both parks and Kenyon I encourage every staff member parent and resident of the school district that believes in professionalism accountability to sign these petitions as well please meet me outside if you'd
106like to sign based on the size of this crowd I don't think I'm going to be the last signature all right our next speaker is going to be Mr Mike lion get out my goggles here my name is Mike lion I do reside in District good evening void members administrators students parents and teachers I stand before you I apologize for my voice tonight deeply concerned that the three members of this board are actively working to undermine the Liberty School District after looking into the matter I discovered disturbing patterns that mirror past issues under this superintendent's leadership at Cave Creek Unified School District the same troubling signs emerged according to the Foothills Focus September 2021 parents expressed frustrations over the board's refusal to listen to their concerns to quote directly there are a lot of parents
107speaking their opinion to the board and Advising them on decisions they were making and the board did not respond at all or listen to anyone's input they're supposed to represent their community and they're just not doing that does that sound familiar it should because history is repeating itself here additionally when this superintendent took over a Cave Creek he immediately cut $4 million from the budget while surrounding districts saw enrollment increases Cave Creek had the lowest enrollment rate and the highest administrative spending per student meanwhile experienced staff will let go only to be replaced by others with higher salaries a longtime administrator described how entire department were dismantled with employees fired under the guise of budget cuts only for their roles to be filled with multiple higher paid Replacements this is not speculation this is a
108pattern and now it's happening in our district I propose that the administrative staff including our superintendent receive the same pay increase as our teachers and other administrators if our Educators the backbone of this District receive modest increases then our highest paid officials should be held to the same standard I also want to address the board's lack of responsiveness when the the public requests a larger venue for meetings as this listen because as long as you fail to respond people will keep showing up louder and stronger Mr Parks you stated the public speaking time was reduced to 3 minutes at the request of the public I'm calling you out on that I have heard none not one single person who wanted that reduction if you insist on limiting comments to one presentation per person then I
109suggest extending it to 5 minutes and also why not start the meetings at 7:00 p.m. after the dinner hour so more community members can particip debate and children don't have to attend finally since the three of you refuse to address the Public's concerns it is time for you to resign or be removed the process has begun I will do everything in my power to support the removal of Mr Parks Kenyon and ciceroni your time is up the damage you've done to this district is unacceptable your resignations are formally requested Mr Monroe you and your personnel manager assistant superintendent are next if you did not start acting like the leaders this District needs anything else will result in your dismissal as well you've been warmed the families of Liberty School District deserve better the teachers students
110and staff deserve better and we won't stop fighting till we get it thank you all right the next speaker is going to be Paul Bixler my name is Paul Bixler I've been a president of a stray Mountain Ranch for a decade and I've been a citizen of the State of Arizona for over seven decades Governor Schmid and zman thank you for recognizing the destructive liquidated damages language found in the instructional Personnel contracts with all due respect I disagree with superintendent Marro's statement that the governing board should not get into the business of assigning liquidated damages or not I believe that for the remainder of this contract period that is exactly what the governing board should do if the instructor's reasons for resonation is not one of the Exempted criteria HR should recommend or not the
111assignment of liquidated damage then the governing board should vote on record if that instructor should pay that penalty then when constructing the 2526 instruct instructor contracts the liquidated damage is language should be eliminated the majority of the current governing board needs to start treating our teachers like the highly skilled professionals that they are I speak for this before you today because the current leadership of this government board is not asking the right question as inaccurate are the statements of a frequent flyer at the public participation Podium are they did make a good point at the last regular meeting a previous board and its leadership solved the teacher retention recruitment crisis by putting into place a 4-day instructional week this not only positively impacted teacher retention but also the recruitment of Highly qualified experienced teachers but
112now these value teachers are leaving in exceptional numbers why that is the right question the governing board leadership beginning with the previous board President and Vice President and continuing with the current board leadership are aggressively intent on using threat intimidation bullying and punishment against those in opposition to the highly politically partisan decisions being made do punish those in disagreement to do what these board leaderships have wanted them to do this needs to stop you are hurting children thank you next speaker is Vicky Johnson okay my name is Vicki Johnson I am a Community member a former parent a veteran teacher of this district and president of the Liberty Education Association on Friday January 31st the Lea held a meeting for staff across the district to discuss our conc concerns during this meeting we compiled a
113list of issues that are common throughout the district we believe that our school board has not been adequately monitoring the actions of our superintendent which we find unacceptable your job is to make sure that we can do our job and to represent all stakeholders we request that you take action to rectify these grievances the four main areas of concern are the removal of the ed services department staff Financial mismanagement class sizes and lack of Subs lack of communication and a culture of intimidation I hope you'd agree that teachers responsibility is to teach our students we do this best when we were able to focus on all of our attention on them the children however when necessary supports are removed we can't do our jobs as well Mrs Camp was an exceptional educator and a steadfast
114support for teachers all of the people still working in the ed services department are essential to what we do and yet they have all been told to resign who will Dr Monroe replace them with what we know from the other districts upon which he has wreaked havoc is that the one trait his choices have in common is incompetence how will we be able to serve our students well with inadequate educational leadership we're also worried about our personal finances are you aware that during the 23 24 school year there was a gross miscalculation of paychecks wherein teachers who selected 26 pay option on their contract only received 25 paychecks the full contract amount was dispersed but across one less paycheck than it should have been resulting in significant financial stress over the summer in the beginning
115of this school year for families who base their budget on bi-weekly pay this area error has yet to be acknowledged openly to staff this year paychecks are slightly less than last year due to the remediation of the error but since nothing was ever said mistrust has been fostered did you know that HSA payments were not made in a timely manner an employee recently received an email stating that they had been overpaid and needed to write a reimbursement check for over $1,000 other paychecks have been similarly inaccurate sick and personal time not correctly posted and with people resigning from the finance department an alarming rate under the reign of Dr manorn and Mr Balden significant errors are being made that continue to affect our families it is the board's responsibility to ensure that all students receive
116quality education that teachers are proberly supported with this cannot be achieved under the leadership of Dr Monroe he must either resign or be removed by you as board members if you do not support this action you must be condu owning his choices and we therefore support any recall efforts of board members not making decisions in the best interest of our students also I have to let you know we reported open meeting law they are choosing to violate it this meeting could have been paused and moved with no notice and they're I believe this next name is Amanda kraton okay good evening members of the board my name is Amanda kraton I'm a special education resource teacher 6 through eth grade at Rainbow Valley I'm new to the district as of this year I'm here tonight
117to talk about the importance of human capital for instance as a special education teacher in Arizona I know my value I graduated from Mary L fton Teachers College in 2021 with a 4.0 and two degrees I was an executive board member for a national nonprofit organization from December of 2018 to May of 202 three I'm a mother of three children two of which are highly gifted and one has neurocognitive disorder I've been an educator for four years a parent for 18 years a leader and an advocate that's worked with disabled in individuals in one capacity or another for 20 years I've never had that a cause um that I've fought for that I haven't won and I'm letting you to know today that I'm choosing to fight for the human capital here in the Liberty
118District in my career I've worked for four different Arizona school districts in one capacity or another the market is rough out there for special Educators there aren't enough of us last year in my previous District I managed two case loads of resource students because they couldn't find teachers I had more than 44 students at one time and I wrote 50 IEPs that year for those of you that don't know an IEP is an individualized education plan specific to a student that's 11 to 27 pages long depending on the students needs I wrote all of those plans on top of planning instruction training pair of professionals working with outside agencies and supporting the emotional and behavioral needs of disabled students I know that wherever I go in Arizona I can find a job as a teacher
119anywhere when I applied to work in the Liberty District last summer is I I was unsure if I could continue to teach and do what I love until I interviewed with Amanda Loveless and Ryan Kagel they shared their vision of inclusion and Leadership for all students including those with disabilities they gave me hope that I could make a difference at Rainbow Valley and they gave me assurances that I would be given a reasonable workload and they showed me all the things that they have done to help the students that they serve Miss Kagel and Miss Loveless are the reason I decide and I choose to work in Liberty and they'll be the reason that I choose to stay the leadership of the district level from Kay Hammond and Stephanie church have been unlike anything that
120I've seen in other districts they've made special Educators feel valued and given us the tools and support we need to move the ne move the needle for disabled kids I found my home on my passion at Liberty and I'd like to retire 20 years from now in the district but after seeing what I've seen this year I'm worried that this gem I have found will fall apart when qualified educ educators are not valued they leave if you replace all the leadership in Liberty you'll have no leadership and you'll end up with no teachers tonight I'm calling for you all to change your policy of divisiveness and your Force res resignations of qualified administrators I'm calling for you to recognize the work that they've done and the wealth of human capital that you have many other
121districts are not so lucky in 2023 53% Point 2% of teaching jobs were filled by people who did not meet the Arizona Department of Education certification standards as a famous Economist once said human capital is the greatest investment that we can make Sorry Miss Katon your time is up our next speaker is Mark aguire I'm here to speak on a few very concerning issues that have come up recently I heard a recording of Mr Parks demeaning the severity of what took place with Kaylee kak when she was a student here in the district I'm assuming that you as a board talked about this with Council in an executive session was alra begs to question why Mr Parks is breaking open meeting law and putting the district at more risk of litigation to hear him essentially
122blame the parents was just appalling but I don't know what is more appalling what he said are the fact that Mr Kenyon and Mr Sone voted for him to be president of the this board another concern that I have is that Mr Parks and superintendent Monroe admitted on the record that the district used m&o money to quote build a new school unfortunately that is misappropriation of funds since it wasn't earmarked for that purpose at the proper time you see in public education at budgeting time you have to say where you're going to spend your money in order to avoid robbing Peter to pay Paul I would encourage all of you to take a look at The District's audit with the state auditor to see what they have to say you will notice that they have
123classified the district as highrisk in more than one area are we going to be the next Isaac Elementary School District I would also like to encourage you all to have an audit done on superintendent Monroe's District credit card as you may find some questionable purchases that I have the opinion to be deemed illegal furthermore I would also encourage you to get a legal opinion on suppressing public comment on the district's Facebook page which was created and is maintained with public taxpayer money and lastly I would like to ask Mr ceron a question are the votes that you cast on this board an attempt to drive students and families of this school district to one of its competitors your employer for those of you who don't know Mr ceron is an administrator for a charter school
124in the area for these reasons as a former board member and president of this board I support the recall of members Chris Kenyan and Brian Parks as you once stated to me Mr parks on a telephone when you were first appointed careful what you asked for and furthermore Dr Monroe the values of the LDS Church you sir are not showing and to even mention my Hispanic brothers and sisters as a reason as to why you saw the absences today is appalling all right next speaker is going to be Becky and uh sorry Becky uh newberger sorry he all right I come to you tonight as a concerned public member a parent a teacher in the distri in the district and the vice president of our Union I have been in this district for 15 years
125and it has been a great place to work because of our parent support and kindness our students perseverance and determination and my co-workers dedication and resilience but now we are all talking about leaving because our district leadership is ruining our community on Friday January 31st the Lea held a meeting for staff from across the district to discuss our concerns during the meeting the teachers compiled a list of issues that are common throughout the district we believe that our school board has not been adequately monitoring the actions of our superintendent which we all find unacceptable your job is to make sure we can do our job and to represent all stakeholders we request that you take action to rectify these grievances immediately our four main grievances are removal of the ed Service Department financial mismanagement class
126sizes and lack of Subs lack of communication and a culture of intimidation a teacher's responsibility is to teach the students assigned to our class we do this most successfully when we're able to focus all of our attention on that job one grievance is class size and lack of sub of sub coverage when sub coverage cannot be acquired classes are split our numbers increase dramatically we become concerned not only about the learning but the safety of students when teachers resign due to unacceptable working conditions qualified teachers and staff are not found to replace them increasing an already unattainable workload on the rest of us we also another grievance is a lack of communication and a culture of intimidation as teachers we strive to advocate for our students and ourselves however our voices are often hindered by
127a culture of intimidation and lack of transparency moreover being required required to attend customer service trainings only to be report only to be treated treated poorly afterwards is a disservice to our time and commitment we are particularly concerned about all of these T intimidation tactics like being pulled from our classroom it's the board's responsibility to ensure that all students rece receive a quality education and the teachers are demanding that Dr Monroe resigns if he does not resign then we are asking the re the board to remove him your time is up all right our next speaker is going to be Shelly cross hello my name is Shelly cross and I live in the district and I just wanted to thank the board for letting me speak today um first of all I want to say
128to president Parks vice president Kenyan and Brian sarin cion I want to encourage you three to stand your ground against the disruptors I know they are threatening angry and they continually denigrate your character the most upsetting thing to me is that they are trying to involve the children which they have by keeping them home because children will not stay home on their own obviously the parents told them to stay home and lied about why they were staying home did they say they were I don't know I don't know what the parents told them to be honest but to me I'm sorry I agree with vice president Kenyon it's child abuse not funny it's true um I believe there is nothing more important than protecting children nothing that means keeping them out of adult issues why
129is this hard it's it's simple you guys fight for yourselves don't involve the children that's all I'm asking how can they concentrate on schoolwork when all of this chaos is around them and you don't think they know they know I mean obviously you bring them here to show them I think that's going to disrupt their schoolwork more than anything in my opinion and the teachers teach your subjects whatever that subject is please teach the subject um instead of going off track um um I just want to again thank can the public please be Qui give her time I'm fine with them um I again I want to thank the three board members that are standing their ground there are because this room is not full with people like me does not mean they are not
130out there it's just the threatening this most people won't come here because this is threatening I mean I don't feel I it doesn't bother me but it will a lot of people and especially um moms things like that there's different types of people and this room is threatening to people that are against them I've never heard they talk about threatening they're threatening you guys more than I've ever heard anybody threaten anybody in my life it's crazy so you can all have different opinions and I do think the parents should be able to come and speak I'm not saying that I'm talking about the children leave the children out it's very here mind it times up all right next speaker is going to be Ashley Wright Ashley Wright are you here okay sorry a lot of
131people okay good evening my name is Ashley r i do reside in the district I am a parent and volunteer at austa I recently viewed the interview of President parks by state48 news in the interview he States the people who come up here and speak are not sharing facts so I thought I'd come and share some facts with you all this evening like I have for several months now fact there are way more than 10 of us wa more fact the information you get about the district changes depending on the day and the audience Dr Monroe himself told us at the last coffee that Ela and math were down in the district however president Park said in the interview that they were up in the district so which is it president Parks recently shared on
132X that the district's finances were in great shape but also shared in the interview that we extremely low in reserves with upcoming teacher raises and a new school to finish paying for so again which is it fact while uh president Parks continues to share there's a certified teacher in every classroom but fails to inform parents that there are many on emergency certificates fact while President Parks was attending and insulting our math Market Mrs Erica Daniels volunteered to come and help us with our games and to motivate our younger students while he was accusing us of teaching students they deserved to be paid for their grades we were being thanked by numerous parents for all the time and effort we continue to put in with their students including your own fact while some District employees are
133publicly Disturbed at the thought of reading with children we all volunteer ours each week reading with children simply because we know that that's the foundation of learning fact while you're making false claims that we have discusting agendas for these students and children we are building relationships with families and providing support to students see this is why this movement is so successful these people that you're trying to discredit are the backbones of their schools they're beloved teachers that parents have parents have respected and appreciated they're parents that are always willing to lend a hand they are volunteers that parents are proud to have work in their schools with their student knowing that they only have their best interest at heart we have the credibility that you do not board member serenon I have to say I
134really believe you had no idea what you were getting into when you initially took this position I know it's a lot of information to Wade through and try to figure out who's telling the truth who has an agenda but I will say we need you to Wade we need you to figure out where you stand because I assure you that if it was only a matter of disliking Brian Parks we all have better things we'd rather be doing on a Monday night this is about the future of our kids in this District as a whole and I can't believe you would really want to participate in the downfall of this district and continue to vote with parks and Kenyon which leads me to another fact board member cion I have recently discovered you able to
135call for a new vote for board president at any time for any reason on behalf of all students parents and teachers I implore you to call for a new vote and give these students the board president they deserve one who puts the students ahead of themselves lastly my most important fact of all is I support the recall of Brian Parks and Chris that's your time ma'am our next speaker is Bailey Rosco my name is Bailey Rosco and I stand here with my children not because it's child abuse but because we want you guys to hear us my son has something to say it's the fact that because of the boy I have been bullied multiple times and they have done nothing about it and I have to feel some sort of regret to this school
136and this District me and my husband we stand here tonight as parents of this district and we're here with our entire family my husband is standing just out there in the lobby to support show support for the recall we would like Mr Monroe to resign from his position my children are here with me not as child's abuse but to show them how we care for them and how we support their teachers we are also here with them because we want them to learn about civic duty thanks to teachers like Miss Bonitas who we stand behind my daughter is here learning how civic duty is held Miss Bonas stands every day teaching these kids on politics and how politics work this is one of those itical situations we are not here though for a political agenda
137as you guys are we are here because we care about our children we don't just stand here every Monday telling you guys that we want change because we don't have anything better to do we want better for our children we do care about our children or else we wouldn't be here yelling so loud while you think that we may be emotional yes we're emotional these are our kids we stand up here asking for transparency we want an audit we want to understand what is going on with our reserves we want our teachers to be qualified and be supported not bullied or harassed we want our funds to go towards the things that they were meant to go towards not to be earmarked for one thing and then paid for another that is illegal it is
138a misappropriation of funds we we want change please hear us quit ignoring us and do your duty that you were elected for we are your taxpaying constituents and we have the right to choose what happens to our children we don't just care that teachers are walking out we care why they are walking out I believe it was Bixler that stated tonight the right question is why are they leaving at a $2,000 expense over $2,000 expense to their own pocketbook it's not just because they don't like their job or they want to leave for another District there's a problem there's been over 20 resignations in one year we want accountability you guys owe us that we elected you for that Ken time's up Mr R next speaker is going to be Annette Brenner okay next speaker
139then will be William Brenner good evening my name is William Bretner I'm a longtime resident of Australia Mountain Ranch my kids went to australa Mountain uh Elementary School back in 200 I think they both graduated by 2003 we're very pleased with the education at that time since then I've taken jobs cuz I'm an engineer uh going across the country and when I got back in say 2020 I found that the school district here had really gone to pot um under the leadership of the former president of the board Mark aguire and I just think it's really in fact I didn't realize it was in a union hall tonight um uh he uh in some of his minions talked about an intimidating atmosphere I think that's really rich because I was in this uh exact room
140about three years ago don't remember the exact date but anyway there was a big issue that he lost on um and he literally got out of his seat and there was some some teachers that weren't of the same mind that he was chase him around the room and said you're going to get yours and and there'll be retribution okay this this is intimidation I seen it personally I not part of the school board I'm not a parent any longer I'm not a student but I saw him get really Rowdy with these poor poor teachers so that's a little bit about intimidation uh I'm glad um uh superintendent um Monroe talked about the the sick out or what whatever it was today but uh I think it's appalling I agree with with the vice chairman or
141vice president Kenyan that it is child abuse literally is and you can laugh okay but you're using these little kids as battering rams and they understand none of what you're talking about they just know that Mom and Dad and a bunch of teachers that they want to believe in are uh against the leadership and and I know for a fact because I've been here and heard the numbers on the math scores and the uh English scores from three years ago and they were appalling I mean I I could almost count count their uh percentage points with two hands of fingers I mean they were horrible um being an engineer I can tell you you're not going to get into any University with those kind of scores and if you're that handicapped by the time you
142got to high school you're in big trouble so any rate have a nice evening all right our next speaker is going to be misty Lyn Hernandez hello I'm Missin Hernandez I'm a taxpayer and voter in the district I'm here to express my strong belief that our schools must return to Basics and focus on providing children with a solid foundation in education these are fundamental building blocks that we prepare students for success in the real world I am deeply concerned that Liberty is currently marked 48th out of 50 academic performance level this ranking is alarming and it's critical that we take action to improve it getting back to teaching the fundamentals is crucial step in the right direction and I believe that it is something that we can all support I also want to express my
143support for the direction the school board is currently taken in addressing these issues it is encouraging to see the steps that they are prioritizing in education success I stand behind this approach while I've heard arguments that removal of programs of critical race Theory or social emotional learning seal is dangerous I would argue that failing to provide children with the ability to read write and do math is a true danger a child who cannot read or understand basic math is at much higher risk than one who is well educated in these fundamental subjects additionally encouraging a child to participate in a protest or a sckout as a way to make a political point and then sending them to attend a Schoolboard meeting is minimal irresponsible it is outright teaching a child to be dishonest if they
144don't like or agree with something the tactic must not continue that would teach children that it's acceptable it's acceptable to manipulate the system and avoid accountability and that it's danger that is a very dangerous lesson we must we have to be better than that we must also recognize that schools are not the place for political views or activism teachers are leaders and role models who should Inspire and guide students not use the classroom as a platform form for personal beliefs when a teacher enters the classroom they must leave personal opinion and agendas at the door they have a responsibility to teach the curriculum as agreed upon in their contract it is unacceptable to to use children as fonds in any ideological battle in the real world when someone breaks a contract there there are consequences
145we must ensure that our education system remains focused on the success of the children not on the personal conflicts it is irresponsible and unfair to drag innocent students into the adult disagreement thank you for your time consideration to these important issues please put aside differences and work together to provide the best education for the children focus on what truly matters their academic success thank you all right uh our last speaker for the night is going to be Richard Bond president Parks vice president Kenyon Dr Monroe thank you for letting me speak tonight tonight my name is Richard Bond I'm a resident of sta mountain and got a few things to say I'll probably be all over the board I do appreciate too all the support that um being shown here tonight both for your side
146and the other side my question is where you been I've been here for three years practically every meeting and you know what you could throw ball in here sometimes and never hit anybody but why tonight H if you want to show your child how a governmental meeting can work bring them at a regular meeting and all these things that you're complaining about many of them have been part of a meeting but I don't see why you weren't here that's what I you okay so where you been is my next thing is my first thing second I've only been with two companies in my career 25 years with one and 25 with another and I've hired people with contracts and people have broken contracts and I've charged we called a contingent sales charge okay liquidation charge
147do you think people are standing in line to fill a vacancy that someone just walks out on no they've got to hire someone they've got to interview people some cases they've got to travel in rare cases they've got to pay travel expenses for the person they're hiring or at least interviewing that comes at a cost so please don't whail and moan that someone's being charged the fee that they agreed upon when they signed the contract for leaving and then letting the board hold the bag you think that $2,500 is going to pay a pizza party somewhere no it's not and if you're for the kids that's my next thing why are we having all these parties these art fairs and these dance contests and all these things that take kids out of the classroom let
148him speak let him speak I want my 3 seconds back there's plenty of time to play art and plays in high school when you've got a 29% efficiency in math and reading in the elementary schools there should be no Arts there should be no play we should go and strictly work on their education and teachers that walk out tomorrow you're cowards Bond your time is up all right all right Mr President that concludes our public comment okay I'll let a few minutes for this calm down all right so I I just kind of follow up on that I have a question we have schools with a proficiency rates in single digits bla math our highest proficiency he's in the 40% range be Australia and Westar so are we okay with that hold on hold on
149I stop let me finish please I never once and I never will blame teachers for that I never have we are looking at changes and doing what we have to do nothing is off the table that means administrative changes that means other changes that need to happen now that goes on to the next thing little civic's lesson we all of us were elected to be here we were elected overwhelmingly to be here we ran myself Brian sarion and Chris Kenyan ran on a platform I just want to caution that this is open meeting law no hold on I get to we're not going to have this up for a discussion and I'm responding to criticism so let me make this clear let me make this clear hold on please let me make this clear we
150ran on a platform and we're following that platform to a if you don't like what we're doing fine get it remove us from office I'll go do something else but until that happens until that happens we're staying right here and we're going to continue with what we promis the voters so we'll get into what this is really all about I I'll tell you you know this isn't about what we what everybody is saying this is about um you know I read social media I you know um I you guys post exactly what you're concerned about Paul Jansen at a meeting last week actually po or actually told us exactly what it was about he was very clear this has everything to do most of it actually to do with the fact that we put some
151policies in to protect children and increase proficiency that included removing gender and political ideology that removed we removed restorative justice and PBIS Mr Parks Mr Parks here this isn't an agenda item you can respond oh you can respond to criticism you caning respond to criticism well they excuse me with all due respect they attacked me on all this stuff I would put this on next agenda I would put this on the next agenda all right I'll put on the agenda um you know what here's the thing you and I'll just say this I hear all the time hold on hold on I hear all the time that you guys that nobody you know that we don't say anything that we never respond and when we do like you know look legal's right we're not supposed
152to respond to stuff but you know what you kind of give us no choice so we will put this on the agenda and I will address it at the next meeting all right move on to 7.1 approval of the consent agenda I'd like to pull 7. uh3 and 7.6 please can I have a motion to approve all the uh consent agenda items except 7 point three and 7.6 7.3 and 7.6 motion to approve the consent agenda minus 7.3 and 7.6 I'll second uh call for a vote uh vice president Kenyan I um Miss Schmidt hi Mr cion hi uh Miss imman I I'm also and I will show that pass unanimously uh we'll move to 7.3 Miss immerman um and real quick before you will have an updated uh copy of the Personnel the two
153but the bottom that are highlight were two that were inadvertently left off last time resignations they weren't teacher resignations but they were resignations so as in past practice you you have the updated copy with the yellow highlights of the changes those are the only changes sorry interrupt I just um I bring this uh forward for a couple of reasons um again um you know these teachers that are having these damages we or applied um at least two of them one in their resignation letter and one uh reached out to the board to say that they it's a promotion and I just I'm concerned that we're not being cons consistent so if that is the policy and again I just want to remind the board that the language says that it's the board so discretion and
154so it doesn't say anything about HR recommending it now if if we want to change that in the future but as it states it's the board's sole decision and so I'm not comfortable recommending applied liquidated damages when the when the um precedent has been set that if it's a promotion or something like that then it's waved and so when I have two people that I believe meet that threshold and they're not have they're having them applied that is a concern to me um to hold up our end the second thing that I want to point out is that there is basically the entire ed services team on this resignation and in their letters two more state that it was not their choice it was not their choice to leave along with Natasha camp and I
155I think that we should be concerned I think it's you know it's really hard when you have when you and one say you know we're doing great okay why are we getting rid of the people that are leading the charge and improving things and then you know the other time we say it it's not so you know any time that you have a mass Exodus of highlevel people in a company in a business you should be questioning that you should we should be questioning this it's concerning you know these are people that have dedicated themselves to our teachers and if you look at that climate survey from uh 23 24 that I've asked before to come before the board every single comment about ed services was about how incredible they were and how they supported
156teachers and it just it's so concerning to me that they state that it's not their choice and um I I would I request that we wave liquidated damages because I don't think the policy is being applied equitably Miss simmerman did you reach out to Dr mohorn to get a further explanation on this I didn't Dr mohorn on the liquidated damages for the um for the the first one she's talking about about um promotion could could you explain for a qualified promotion and again when somebody says that they are resigning your promotion we just ask for their contract their offer letter something like that um and if it's truly not a promotion if they're not making more money if they're not getting better benefits then it it's not a promotion thank you all right well U
157I'll take a motion on 7.3 I mean a motion to approve personal action items with the um without applying liquidated damages to any teachers listed on the items do I have a second I second okay we'll have a vote uh vice president Kenyon president Parks can you please hold on I didn't get that motion hold on please can you oh sorry you want me to repeat it okay uh I a motion to approve 7.3 of personal action items with the deletion of any liquidated damages applied to teachers liquidated damages to not apply any liquidated damages to any teachers you got it Minnie I do and who made the motion the second Sarah Sarah okay thank you all right we call for the vote vice president Canyon um after I vote I'd like to explain after
158we vote no uh Miss uh Schmidt yay Mr serion yay Miss Zimmerman I I am nay and so we'll see that pass 32 all right we'll move on to item seven Mr President if I can explain my vote oh I'm sorry Vice President Kenny go ahead I wasn't sure how that was going to go and it went that way and that's fine cuz the board voted and that's that is what it is when I would say is now it's easy for staff just to violate a contract these responsible adults and uh I feel bad but it is what it is and I feel bad for the ones that we voted for in the past that have to this had to pay this um and you know there shouldn't we shouldn't have be going back and
159forth on this it needs to be set and there's a reason why Administration should handle this bring it before us we vote on it like we did but it is what it is all right I'm done and I'll explain my yay or nay um the the uh Capital cost for replacing a teacher that abandoned her position is about $10,000 ml I guess we just put that on the taxpayers anyway uh we'll move on to 7.6 um we pull up the uh agreement I just wanted to bring this forward um more uh for transparency because um I had to get some clarification and so um I just want to be able to uh you know could uh Mr Balden or Mr Young just kind of explain what this is because I just think it's important yeah
160uh Mr President uh Miss zberman uh this is a donation agreement that we that school districts all over apply to developments in their uh school zone and it's it's to help offset some additional cost for kids that are coming into the district that uh this was the site that they were going to donate 7 Acre Site for the school but it wasn't going to be ready in time to build the school so in lie of the donation of land we're getting the the uh rooftop donations uh it's it's $1,000 per home it's uh you know the agreement goes in per plat they're trying to get all the plats uh finalized August of this year the the donation agreement says December 31st 2026 but if for some reason they get delayed and do not get all
161the plats done this year or by December 31st 2026 then they'll ask for an agreement but they have agreed and you know they uh dedicated to giving us those rooftop donations so and how many roof shps is are they expecting uh about 437 okay and um and what fund are is this uh donation going to go into it goes into the 530 fund the gifts and donations okay and how can those funds be spent I'll I'll turn that over to Mr bow for you m zman the fund 530 is very flexible so we can spend that for almost anything so we can subsidize M we can pay Capital we can do all kinds of things from at of fund 530 and um is are they going to pay us in one lump sum or is
162it as the plats are uh sorry I don't have it pulled up you know the plats are assigned or yeah usually it's in uh you know they'll do like a a group of 30 40 50 Homes at a time and then they'll they'll turn it over at that time okay thank you so much you're welcome uh I make a motion to approve uh 7.6 it was second second second that will call the vote to um vice president Kenya I uh Miss Schmid I Mr sarion hi Miss imman I I'm also I will show that passed unanimously all right we'll move on to General business 8.1 discussion of Loretta zumbro Elementary School math adoption Susanna Finn curriculum instruction coordinator and Bruce ninski is it on Monroe tonight I'll update you on the progress of Loretta zambro
163Elementary School mathematics primary resource adoption committee uh Loretta zambra elementary school will be a choice School within the Liberty Elementary School District offering an alternative Back to Basics mathematics program The District that Administration leads this committee which has held two meetings so far one on January 23rd and one on January 28th 2025 we'll aim to have new resources ready by August 2025 meetings are open to the public with minutes and videos available on board dos the committee includes 12 members teachers instructional coaches and administrators and meeting agendas and documents are also posted on board dos we evaluate each resource preview material materials and score them using a rubric starting February 4th 2025 we'll begin a 60-day review period to gather public input on Saxon Math and Math in Focus during this time teachers and the
164committee will pilot the resources and make their recommendation in May uh District administration will present the recommendation to the governing board for adoption uh for adopting a new mathematics primary resource for lorida zambro elementary school upon approval will procure and deliver the resources ensuring teacher training before the 2025 2026 school year begins thank you as Chris or Mr Kenny do you have anything not at this time thank you just for information only not for disc I just wonder if they had any questions anybody have any questions uh yeah can you remind me who the committee was made up again we have instructional coaches we have teachers and we have both uh District administration and uh School administration thank you thank you appreciate the presentation um I oh I'm sorry Mr go ahead uh are there
165any parents on the committee we invited parents we sent out an invite it was also posted on the district website for an invite nobody is participating we receive no responses okay um um you know I'm just curious um you know have we asked parents if they're interested in a traditional math program I'll have Mr ninski answer that question okay it was not m s it was not one of the questions that we had on our survey um the first survey went out we got the results of that there are more surveys planned so we do want to see what our what our community thinks about that as well yeah I think it's really important to you know ask the parents um I'm I'm not opposed to giving parents a choice but I think we want
166to make sure that parents actually want this um before we make you know this budgetary decision and uh you know I'm just curious how much this is going to cost the district to implement a new math program for one school yeah memb ID it will depend on the level of the adoption with with uh uh the school starting off pretty small uh it won't nearly be as extensive as a full-fledged adoption across the whole District so if it's exclusive to one school it's a lot more economical you know I just think um it's important for the board to know the budgetary consideration before I realize this is not an action item and it feels to me that like we've already decided that we're going to a traditional route but it hasn't come before the the
167board for a vote and it's a budgetary concern because the board hasn't identified its budget priorities first fiscal year 2526 and so I'm pretty uncomfortable with this you know looking at the two without one knowing what the parents think two knowing what the budget consideration is and frankly three president Parks gave an interview that said that this will happen but it didn't come before the board and and frankly I would encourage when we do vote on this any board member who's had a conversation with Mr Parks outside of a meeting that says that this is going to happen I would cons I would you know encourage you to abstain because that's an open meeting law violation because it has not been voted on by the board to pursue a traditional math program thank you we'll
168we'll follow up on those concerns okay we'll move to 8.2 discussion consideration to approve executive director of Information Systems and Technology Dr Stephanie mahor just going to wait a few seconds transition and I know Mr man is here but I think he might be lost in the crowd in the back a little bit perfect president Parks vice president Kenyan members of the board Administration is announ are proud to present a recommendation for the position of executive director of Information Systems and Technology Mr Lane man received his that's okay received his master in educational leadership from Grand Canyon University he has extensive educational experience as well as administrative experience uh he will receive a salary and benefits commiserate with the position his resume is attached uh for governing board review and the plan start date is
169um March 3rd of 2025 thank you appreciate that uh board members have any questions okay I'll I do okay oh sorry I thought you were going to call each of us um who's uh how many people um applied for the job and how many people interviewed if I remember correctly it was either 20 or 22 people applied okay off the top of my head and how many interviewed to interview we had I don't know exactly it's 8 to 10 I'm not sure exactly that we ended up with interviewing like they went through the whole process 8 to 10 people not through the entire process we do do screen we have screening interviews we have t uh we have a face-to-face interview where they have to do a performance task so not the entire we did
170some that stopped at the screening interview some that got to the end and then didn't interview with us so total it was eight 8 to 10 I can't remember which is eight or 9 or 10 okay how many uh participated in the performance task part of the interview whoever was there for the committee so at the time it was two or three people from technology and Mr Bolton no I'm sorry how many candidates participated in the performance the every candidate oh that got to the it was four believe um you know I want I want to be real careful here because this is a person and I I don't know him I didn't serve on the interview committee but as a governing board member it is my job to ensure that we are hiring the
171best people and as I expressed to Dr Monroe I am concerned that um this candidate doesn't have the technology leadership experience and you know with the um you know with some of the concerns in the district regarding technology um you know I I want to trust that this is the right hire and um you know I just want us to um you know I just want to make it clear that you know I will hold the superintendent accountable for this hire um because you know this is a very high level position and they didn't meet the minimum requirements and maybe they'll turn out to be a great hire and I sure hope that you know I'm sure that you can demonstrate that but as a board member um I just feel like I have to
172make sure that I you know state that you know I want to make sure that we're getting the very best and that you know um and then the other concern I have is that you know this person is starting in March and so what's going to happen with you know their current contract that is worked out between uh the two superintendents um there are times because this is a promotion again that they can be let out of their contract if the superintendent um from the the the district says it's okay and we have that happening okay I just you know want to make sure we're all held to the same standard absolutely does anybody else have any questions no held to the same standard sounds funny after that vote but I make a motion to
173approve Mr Lane man as executive director of Information Systems and Technology it a second second I'll call for the vote vice president Kenyon I okay M schi thank you Miss Schmidt hi Mr sarone hi Miss Zimmerman hi I'm also I we'll show that passed unanimously welcome there it is thank you folks I'm I'm really honored board superintendent Monroe thank you very much I I'm looking forward to serving in this District I'm a I'm a parent I have um an eighth grader I have a kid that's going into kindergarten and I have a third grader and so I I know the work that needs to be done here um I am I'm currently the principal at Durango uh the detention center and I oversee our ID Department it Department there um I look forward to uh
174Technologies are human problems um and I look forward to being a a a servant leader uh to our students to our teachers to our administrators I'm excited uh about the role um a little nervous because of the atmosphere in this room you know um but I'm I'm here I I I believe in empathy and trust and that's how I will lead and I um I I I I just appreciate the opportunity and I look forward to serving and showing you all what I can do thank you Mr Man all right move on to item 8.4 discussion consideration of job description for math interventionist 8.3 did I miss that one I apologize okay 8.3 discussion consideration to approved director of student services Dr Mahorn okay hello again um we are proud to present the recommendation for
175Stu director of student services Miss Kelly ziv received her super attendance license from Miami University Miss Z has extensive educational experience as well as 14 years um as principal experience administrative experience uh she will receive salary and benefits commerate with her position um her resume as attached for governing board review and right now um possible start date is March 24th of 2025 questions alrighty thank you Dr mohorn um do we have any questions for Dr Moran I have similar questions how many people applied and how many people interviewed for the position for this one how many people applied I think it was 25 this we had more applicants for this one was 25 and including screening interviews and everything about 12 and then full interviews six okay and who served on the committee um interview
176committee it was our district behavior interventionist I think that's our title District Behavior V interventionist our executive director for Support Services um one of our building principles and myself okay all right thank you Mr imman any other questions okay I'll call for a vote make a motion make a motion please sorry I make a motion to approve the director of student services um sorry I uh I motion to approve Miss Kelly ziv zip as the Director of student services do have a second second with that I'll call a vote vice president Kenyon hi Miss Schmidt hi Mr sarion hi Miss Zimmerman hi I'm also a I I'll show that pass unanimously welcome good evening board president parks and vice president Mr Kenyan and governing board members and community members I'm very excited and deeply grateful
177for the opportunity to join the Liberty Elementary School District as the Director of student services I appreciate your confidence in me and I look forward to contributing to the success of our schools and students I excited to work alongside such dedicated professionals and I am committed to making a positive impact on the community while building relationships and working with all stakeholders thank you again for this incredible opportunity and I look forward to the work ahead all right now we'll move to item 8.4 discussion consideration of job description from math intervention is gifted coordinator in playground lunch AIDS Dr mohorn just taking a second to bring everything up on my computer uh president Parks vice president Kenyan members of the board before you are three different job descriptions uh math interventionist um the district gifted cordinator
178and the lunch and playground lunch cafeteria recess uh par professional that one is a brand new one the math interventionist is also new but it is very similar to our current what we have for reading interventionist um as well our district gifted coordinator is a revised version of what um we had had in the past board members you have any questions vice president Kenyan no real questions um uh reviewed these pretty intensively and I'm I I like what I'm seeing there the lunch cafeteria par uh project job where where did this idea come from I like it and uh I'm just curious where the idea came from well in an effort to be uh either cost neutral or savings um each building principal is going to get to choose between their permanent guest teacher or
179two of the lunch and playground AIDS and we are giving them the autonomy to be able to choose that um for themselves okay thank you I know that uh that's a interesting time in our schools in cafeteria time and and lunch so thank you Miss Schmid no question at this moment Mr sarion no questions Miss Zimmerman yeah I have a couple questions um you know before I ask my questions I would just really uh urge the board to consider tabling this because these are new positions and we have not discussed the budget and we have not discussed how we're going to pay for these positions and not identified them as our budget interest as the board and so I would and since I do not know if the board will agree to table it I'm
180going to ask my questions about the jobs but just know that I really think that this should wait until we do the budget um so the math interventionist um will every campus get one we haven't determined that yet it's going to be based on data um that's what we're really going to look at because of course we probably wouldn't be able to find seven or eight math interventionists um so we're really going to look at data and look at needs of the buildings to help determine that okay um you know there was some concern when we discussed this last year about you know Finding qualified people so I think that that is a concern um and I just would caution I think it's uh could be difficult if we do not give one to every
181campus Because my concern what would happen is that these campuses that have this extra support you know they're likely to have their math scores rise quicker than a campus that would not have these supports and I would not like I would you know it would be hard for me to see the district you know come down on building principles who have not made the same games because they were not given equal support and so that's kind of my concern with not everybody getting one um okay in terms of the the gifted coordinator I personally do not think we need to to have a gifted coordinator for 165 students that we're paying an administrator to to oversee the gifted program that is already we already have a gifted lead on every single campus we're already paying
182a stapen and I just do not see the need 165 students out of 4500 that is a that is a gross some you know fiscal irresponsibility in my opinion to give that coordinator such a small Scope when it cost the district a lot of money and I think that the ed services team can do the overarching looking of the gifted program but we're already paying a gifted stip on on every single campus and I you know I'm concerned that we sent an email to parents about this gifted Academy which is an expansion which is a budgetary cost that hasn't come before the board it all of the budget has to come before this board and I I think we need to have that right to discuss it before we're you know approving positions and sending
183letters to parents that we're going to do this um you know I'm not going to say what how I'd vote I just think it needs to come before the board and we need to have a discussion up here amongst us because again the only only place that discussion is supposed to happen is up here and so if it's happening not up here then that's that's a problem so I'm not comfortable approving these um and um those are my comments I say something real quick hold on I I have a I have a just a comment these are just to approve the descriptions we haven't it's just job description whether we have in them it's just to have the job des and the board still has to the position and the budget for those in the
184future yes this is just the job description that is all it is is just the actual job descriptions because we haven't had those before okay I'm still not comfortable with the gifted coordinator position I'm not comfortable with the job description I'm not comfortable with the position miss simmerman when that comes before the board you can vote accordingly um and and you know we'll vote on whether that that's appropriate or not um with that I'll take motion I make a motion to table this item until we uh discuss the budgetary uh priorities of the board have a second I'll second startor with the vote M uh vice president Kenyon no uh Miss Schmidt yes Mr cion explain to but yes Miss immerman I I am uh nay and we'll show that pass 32 can I explain
185Mr President go right ahead I just want to say the reason I said I on this was I feel like if a board member has an issue it's something in tabling that's not pressing we should give them that opportunity to look into it a little more all right we'll move on to 8.5 discussion consideration of the updated board superintendent operating and Communications protocol um we had previous discussions and um this is an action item tonight to approve uh yeah president Parks vice president keny members of the board I think I got it I think I got it right after the last one there was a few things that were eliminated there was some clarification on wording this has come to the board now a couple of times and so what's italicized is kind of input
186from the last board meeting and uh you know Administration would recommend approval of that if there's something I missed the board can let me know we can correct that but uh I would like to put this to bed unless there's something erroneous or that I completely missed but uh Minnie and I have gone through the minutes and we've tried to to clarify based on the last discussion I think president Parks you weren't at this meeting you weren't in attendance you were sick but I think I captured it all but I guess I'll find out here in a few minutes so okay um there's any discussion vice president Kenyon no thank you Dr Monroe for making those changes and and making this more Miss Schmid no the changes look uh to follow what we discussed last
187time thank you Mr Shion uh no question I like to thank you to it was a lot of back and forth thanks uh Mr emman yeah I just had a couple things um on the first page um at the second bullet um it says the board president or individual board members do not have authority only the board as a whole has Authority we agree that an individual board member will not take unilateral action um and I just uh I want to remind us of that and I'm just concerned about um like the board president writing um a statement in the newsletter um that's in my opinion unilateral action and um the those those messages should be approved because he has are you on I'm on the second Bullet From The Bottom sorry I I said
188second second from the bottom um and so it says the board president will communicate the consensus board majority positions on controversial issues but I don't believe that's what's being done so I just want to highlight that on the second page um second bullet board meetings are for decision making I know at the bullet you did add you know that board meeting uh discussion at board meetings is encouraged I really would love to see the word board meetings are for discussion comma decisionmaking and the rest of it because again we should be having discussion and it's not just for decision-making we can't make a decision if we don't discuss um and then uh the next bullet point uh about getting the information 3 days three days prior to a meeting so on a different page uh
189you know it says that the superintendent will communicate with us within 24 hours on business dates but uh you know I can respect the superintendent's time but the weekend before a meeting I just really feel like we should have the opportunity to ask questions and be able to respond and not have to wait till Monday because people have to work I have to pick up my kids I can't always be able to process the answers to the questions and so if we're going to make that change to business days then I think we should get the agenda three business days before the meeting so that then we have those business days to ask the questions those are my comments all right this is an action item we'll go ahead and call for a vote or
190a motion I'm sorry I make a motion that we um motion to reaffirm and renew the operating and communication protocol for school year 2425 and school year 2526 I second call for the vote um vice president Kenyon I uh Miss Schmidt I uh Mr sharion I miss emmerman nay but I'd like to explain my vote I'm also and I will show that past 4 One Miss Zimmerman uh I just want to make it clear that I I will abide by the ethics and the things that are listed in here I have no intention of not honoring um the requirements of this um of what's required for as me as a board member but I just want to make sure that there are a couple things that I don't agree with and so I just can't
191vote I as it's written but um and I stated what those things I have concerns with move on to 8.6 discussion consideration to approve governing board meetings schedule for school year 2526 and updated governing board meeting schedules for school year 2425 from Monday or Tuesday evening Miss camarada okay president Parks vice president Kenyon board members and Dr Monroe in front of you you have um four calendar governing board meetings the first one is for the remainder of this school year the second calendar is also for the 2425 school year however it's listed as a Tuesday so moving Monday to Tuesday meeting the third that is stapled there is a calendar for the 2526 school year and that reflects Mondays the fourth page that you have is also a 2526 calendar listed as Tuesday meetings um
192Administration is seeking the approval for either a Monday or a Tuesday calendar um and then Dr Monroe did you want to add any anything yeah this is a this thank you mini this is followup from our conversation before um Administration recommended that we uh go to one board meeting a month and then we can efficiently be able to meet the needs of our district and work uh more efficiently um and not have a marathon meetings but get accomplish what we need to accomplish have have a conversation and discuss what we need to I was not anticipating the Tuesday um things that came up but again we will do whatever the board wants to uh Tuesday does avoid Athletics um and it would be once a month and uh so we had just discussed it vice
193president Kenyan when you kind of led the meeting and president Parks you were out sick and so we brought it back so the board can discuss amongst themselves your guys' schedules what your interests are and uh then I remember Kenyon or someone I don't remember mentioned hey can we start this as soon as next month so so Minnie brought you like a Monday option and then a Tuesday option that hopefully you guys have been able to examine and and I'll kind of defer to the board to discuss what's what's better for your guys' schedules thank you Dr Monroe uh so we'll open this up for some discussion vice president Kenyon yeah thank you Dr um Monroe and and Miss kamarada for working on this and everybody else who was involved uh I know that this
194was you know a good discussion I think we had last week and I think we came to some consensus that Tuesday works uh best for the board although board member president Parks wasn't here so we wanted to to make sure he had his voice in this um but I think uh me and Mr simmerman were pretty much in agreement on this Tuesday really helping both of our both both of our situations but thank you for working on this well on just one point uh uh uh some of Mrs immerman's concerns and the board have uh uh mentioned concerns about timely data for staff to be able to get that on a weekend I think this does alleviate that I think it does mitigate that um so that that gives us Monday to get it to
195the board with a 24-hour notice so it's better than it'll be an improvement from where we are now so I I do think it mitigates that concern if it is a Tuesday night anybody else have any comments yeah um I would really like to see it on Tuesdays I do think it mitigates some of these concerns um and I think it's nice not to have it on an athletic night so that parents who do want to be involved have the opportunity to do that teachers administrators I just think it's overall a good thing I just had a question there are s weeks um between December and January's meeting for the following school year that just seemed like a long time to me to not have a meeting and so I just you know wanted to
196make sure that we're all you know that that's you you feel like that's going to be okay I guess I just wanted to highlight that note uh which one are you talking about Mrs em um so 25 26 Tuesday talking about the bottom one yeah between December and January mhm yeah so if you look at it um guys I don't okay it's like my eyes are not that good uh so if you look at December it's on the 9th and then if you go up you'll see that January is as much later the 27th and so I just wanted to you know just bring that to the attention to the board and to Administration Minnie do you remember what what the thought was do you remember I know we wanted to avoid the first week
197back but do was there something we missed to answer that because if there isn't we could easily move it up I think it's a good it's a good point made but do you m do you remember something that happened there's there's two weeks of school off too well there's two weeks yeah I mean at the end of uh at the end of excuse me the beginning of January but see so you have yeah you got the two weeks and then we come back scroll the other way we come back on January the 5th it's almost two and a half and then yeah then the 12th so again like Kelly like Mrs Zimmerman said there are six or seven weeks so do you remember many because if not we can we can move that to the
19820th or the 13th that way there's not so much time in between I I'm just worried about staff and hiring and budget and absolutely the 19th is a holiday I assume that's President's Day Martin Lu Martin Luther King excuse me can I make a recommendation let's would would we have to have an Oran organizational meeting and I actually agree with Kelly on making sure that that meeting is a probably a week before um so can we do that like on the 13th and then do our next meeting on the 20th for January yeah we we can do whatever I think Clyde I'm thinking about the statute the organizational meeting on the 13th would be fine right yeah I mean we can you stay just an organizational meeting yeah and then have the regular meeting right
199that's kind of the way I always envisioned it right so if everybody's okay with that yeah that's selfishly I don't want it on Tuesdays but for the board it's better know S I didn't know you didn't say that last time so all right does anybody else have any comments uh I just wanted to ask uh typically there's like a board retreat in the summer like just you know here not anywhere but uh to do the goals and stuff I just could we pick a date for you know vacation purposes sure yeah can we get back to you guys on some dates actually we'll throw some dates out there so it jives with your guys's traveling you you don't want to do a remote from Hawaii wish I was going to Hawaii so so mini let's
200look at the calendar and we'll Sho some dates to the board so you guys can plan and get away with your families yeah thank you good great Point all right we I guess we can move forward with a motion and if we that uh January dates go ahead and include that in your motion please do we have to make a motion or we need to come back after this well we're just making the vacation change or what do we do well I think what we can do is let let us kind of view what your schedule is because a lot of times if we do something it might be at a different time or a different night because it's the summer so I think let us let us look at that but I think we
201can approve this and add the 13th if someone adds the emotion but then I want to just run by you guys cuz June gets to be a Kind of a Funny month when would be a cuz that would be a regular board meeting it'd be a different session and we need by the way we need to include both uh continuance of this year and next year's calendar yeah so I would just say if someone makes the motion I would add on the 13th so motion to approve the governing board meeting schedule for s or school year 2526 and an updated governing board schedule for the Tuesdays with updating and adding January 13th on the schedule is that clear does that get at at many does that get at I get a second please second all
202right vice president Kenyon hi Miss Schmidt hi Mr sarion hi Miss Zimmerman I I'm also I will show that past unanimously all right move on to 8.7 possible action to convene an executive session pursuant to ARS 38- 43103 A3 discussion or content consultation for legal advice with attorney or attorneys of the public body in ARS 38 43103 A2 discussion or consideration of Records exempt by law from public inspection Student Records legal agreement in ARS 38 43103 uh A1 discussion or consideration of assignment of a public offic or superintendent contract evaluation procedure I'll take a motion I'll go ahead and make the motion to conveni an executive session pursu to ARS 38-43 1.03 A3 discussion or consultation for legal advice with your attorney or attorneys of the public body and ARS 38- 43103 A2 discussion or
203consideration of Records exempt by law from public inspection Student Records legal agreement and ARS 38- 43103 A1 discussion or consultation or consideration excuse me of a assignment of public officer superintendent contract evaluation procedure do I have a second second vice president Kenyan I Miss Schmidt I Mr s hi Miss immerman hi I'm also I will show that pass unanimously we're journ to Executive session [Music] sh [Music] the [Music] the [Music] what [Music] sh [Music] oh [Music] sh [Music] up [Music] sh [Music] the [Music] sh [Music] up up up [Music] he [Music] sh [Music] sh [Music] sh [Music] sh [Music] sh [Music] the [Music] oh [Music] what's up f [Music] sh [Music] the [Music] what [Music] sh [Music] sh [Music] the [Music] sh [Music] up up up [Music] sh [Music] the [Music] sh [Music] sh [Music]
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205sh [Music] sh [Music] sh [Music] sh [Music] oh [Music] sh [Music] sh [Music] what [Music] oh [Music] sh [Music] that's [Music] sh [Music] up [Music] sh [Music] I [Music] sh [Music] up up oh [Music] sh [Music] sh [Music] sh [Music] sh [Music] sh [Music] theit [Music] sh [Music] what up what's up what up oh [Music] sh [Music] what [Music] sh [Music] up [Music] all right we're coming out of executive session and back into our regular meeting at 9:04 um so we're going to move to agenda item 9. one board comments and agenda topics and items for future consideration um vice president Kenyon thank you president Parks um agenda topics and items for consideration I know the district has put out some rebuttals on that paper that was handed out in regards to the student sckout
206and the the four points that were listed on there I think that it would behoove the board to have those as agenda topics so we can discuss them um that's probably the only way we as a board can all be in one place and discuss it so uh I would be open to seeing those here um sometimes when things get put on social media they get missed or whatnot but at least here we can have that discussion okay does anybody else uh support that oh yeah yeah okay Miss Schmid do you have anything uh yeah could we have um some more information on the proposed gifted Academy um what the plan for that is how that's all going to work I know there was some information that went out about potential busing and would parents
207be interested I had a couple parents reach out to me asking what some of the wording meant um I didn't have answers obviously because we haven't really been briefed on that stuff yet um so I would love some more information and a presentation on uh the plans for that Mr sanon uh yes so I have one um might be too much for one item I'm not sure but the liquidated damages I don't i' like to see it on there for us to actually I think we've been doing it long enough that we should have some data that we can look at and compare um to see if it's actually doing what we want it to do did we want to do that during contract approval or do we want to do that in a SE
208I kind of want to do it now because I think so we're because I would like to pause it until we can make this discussion like I don't know if that needs to be a whole agenda item and so we can look at this data and then decide if that's how we want to go forward or not in March we were were planning to bring contract and work agreements forward and the contracts would have that liquidated damage so we might be able to do that at the same time for the board to decide okay I least like to see if we can bring the data yeah and show us how it's I think we can yeah I think we can get after it yeah because we're trying to get the board to approve that language
209and then maybe you guys can have any data we have on that whether we even include that or we change the wording or we take it out for the contract so I think we can get that oh the next meeting is March isn't it yep that feels like it was so far away sorry yeah but I think we can do both at the same time I think and we've talked about it a little bit but I think we can give you guys some data and and again we'll do whatever the board wants to on that whether it's changing the wording lessening it removing it entirely so but we'll provide you the data that we have okay thank you Miss simmerman yeah I have a couple things um I'd like a policy brought forth that states
210that the superintendent must get approval from the board for eliminating a position or not filling a position for the next school year as it changes the board's budget priorities um I also want to policy that states that the superintendent bring forward any job description where the duties or um qualifications are changed and um I would like the district to look into conducting the climate survey this year um with a third party to ensure that it's Anon because I've had a number of teachers tell me they don't feel comfortable and I think if we really want to get to what is going on in the climate in the culture then they need to feel comfortable sharing their um opinions and then the last thing is um I'd really like to see a special meeting done before
211the next board meeting to talk about the budget and our priorities I just think we really need to get ahead of it well I think then we have quite a few study sessions we have to get our uh policies done and we have to do it I'd like to do it by the end of the month um so we need to see if we can schedule some time for um study sessions to get that wrapped up guys yeah we got to get that finished up we yeah we've got a timeline on that and we've got to get it handled so I just want to clarify that we are implementing new policies in the middle of the school year changing the policies that I I think we need to bring an agenda item forward that talks
212about the date of the adoption of the new policies you mean the entire package for the trust policies is that what you're referring to or can can you give us a timeline so that I know what the timeline looks like cuz I haven't been briefed on that yeah sure I think the board had approved a resolution with the timeline too yeah we are I think it was January February for completion so we're we're kind of in the we're kind of in the throws of it so we got to get through chapter 4 and we want to do it the right way and then chapter 5 so uh we can run some dates by the board in the next couple weeks for a study session to try to finish off get through policies and then also
213have a a budget we could also have a budget uh priority meeting kind of with the board when is our budget scheduled like our actual budget cuz we had this discussion about changing some of the dates anyway Dane Dane Was preparing for the the March 4th meeting for a discussion you know what I mean not for any type of approvals but a discussion with the board but we can definitely have a study session you know again not a regular board meeting but a work study session a week or two before in the next couple week just for clarity Miss immerman is this has been an issue ongoing because the budget was always way after all the contracts and everything so we had the discussion as a board about bringing that back up to before contracts
214and everything because the Board needs to know right but we're going to talk about the budget and vote on the contracts now in the same meeting the contract language yeah as the contract language um and then the list of uh renewals of the people that would get a contract but remember with the new statute for teachers teachers can't get a contract until March the 15th so you used to be able to give contracts earlier but now not until March 15th can you give out the teacher contract right but we're doing the language which could or not include a rate which is a budgetary concern and remember with the raise too uh a lot of what we decide will probably change depending on the governor's budget or the legislature you know the Republicans are talking about
215a significant raise for teachers and so a lot of times we'll we'll have a uh uh uh we'll issue a contract with the raise we can pay two or 3% but then depending on what happens with the legislation we'll then give a contract addendum that will show another increase so it's it's pretty likely that happens that seems to be standard nowadays actually because of the timing so we determine what we can give but then when they decide hey they're going to give us more money we can double that raise or what have you from what I understand we as a board can adjust raises and salaries at any time cont yes it's not kind in the contract language the actual amount it's based on a tier system they like sign a contract but then when
216we do an addendum they go back in to sign off on the approved roval which is usually an incre another increase or something it's just hard it's hard to know what that amount is cuz the legislature is not done with their budgeting session or what have you so but I also think that's unfair to teachers to not know if they're going to get a raise before we ask them to sign their contract which is then legally binding which we then charge liquidated damages for well remember we deter we can determine the raise that we can pay but all I'm telling you guys is there's raises outside of us that they fund that then we can increase that raise so if we say it's a 3% raise and then in June in may we find out
217that the legislature is going to decide to prioritize teacher pay then our 3% becomes 7% and so then we have to issue it's not a new contract but we issue like an addendum that they sign off on so it's never less than you know what I mean but it's hard to know what that is um always it would be great if we knew was the date of our um budget approval compared to when were the teachers are agreeing to their contract so I'm understanding what your concern is my concern is well and specifically the teacher contract the board hasn't discussed the budget yet and so and if we discuss the budget in the same meeting that we're approving the language of teacher contracts then I just think in like you I think it's just unfair
218would you sign a contract and then not know if you're getting a raise like I I don't know I think that's I think the legislature but if we need to look at our budget to see if we have the money to do it and it's just the same thing as we plan like a lot of princip you know principes and and District admin need to prepare for next year I agree with that but that's why I feel like we need to move the budget do we have the resources with d to move that budget I I think so I again I think we can have a work study session before that meeting to get the board what they need to with the budget priority discussion and those kind of things to look at raises not
219anything to vote on but that way when you go into the March meeting you guys feel prepared and we can do it down here so it's not as formal and all those kind of things but yeah no we can have I'll have mini shoot you guys a few dates you know tomorrow to see what your availability is on a Monday or Tuesday um and again we can be down here on the floor to do it open to the public so it sounds to me like we're going to have at least a couple hour study session if not yeah likely and then as far as the trust goes I just need to be able to Comm talk to Mrs castanas to see what her schedule is so they may they may be different but okay but
220we'll be mindful of all that but we'll shoot you guys some dates and see what your guys's availability is yeah and I'll just reiterate Miss imman that's always been a concern of mine and it's something that we addressed and I actually talk to Dr Monroe about getting that moved up so all right okay upcoming board meetings um this is changed yeah so I believe it'll be March the 4th Tuesday and then as I mentioned I'll have mini shoot you guys an email in the next day or two to to kind of get a date in the next week week or so a week or two okay and then the March 31 would be the 1st of April I don't know that one yeah I think so probably turn into April 1st or April 2N or
221something okay all right all right well that solves today's meeting does anybody else have anything as far as this meeting schedule okay all right we dur the meeting uh the during the governing board meeting uh for February 3rd at 9:16 any signat vouchers Sor I know overing me [Music]