001the 13th. Do we have a motion to consider approving the minutes of those last two and also on the 23rd? >> Did I miss the Oh, I forgot we had another meeting as well. That was three on the special voting session on January 23rd. So, we have three study session, regular study session, and our special. Do I have a motion to approve of that? So moved. Second. >> Second. >> All those in favor of cons approving the minutes from the last few sessions say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? And that passes by zero. All right. On to what you're all here for. I sure are. yet varied and challenging paths towards becoming a Prescott High School graduate. These students are pursuing career and technology courses through our increasingly robust and varied program offerings that
002we've curated via our outstanding relationship with Mountain Institute Career and Technical Education District and Yavapai College and of course Presley High School PS. Um, these ladies have taken advantage of the myriad opportunities available to them as they have navigated their education and extracurricular careers during their time at PHS. First, you're going to meet Raquel Rocky Denton. She is a junior and she's going to tell you about the CTE programs that she has already completed and the one that she is currently in. And then second, you're going to meet Kayla Hubson. And she's a senior and is a student in our early college program with YC and is a very successful secondyear MIC TED welding tech student. Um, I also had the honor of traveling with her abroad on an EF tour to Ireland and Scotland
003two years ago. Both of these students are stars in their own right and both come with glowing recommendations from their administrators and instructors both at Prescuit High School and at MIC TED and Yellow College. They are thriving in their respective CTE programs. They're viewed as student leaders and are the kind of students that instructors say they can just rely on to be engaged, present, helpful, and to do the right thing. They are great examples of extraordinary students that we are lucky to call Badgers. and they are taking advantage of the something for everyone education and opportunities that we offer at Brook High School. Without further ado, here's Rocky. >> I was in the vet I'm in the vette class. I was in RTC for two years. Uh this is when I was in RTC. This
004is my freshman year photo. I did not have a photo of major. Our new cadet, our new teacher for the old teacher, that would be the uh man on the right side. His name was Colonel. He uh retired my f my freshman year was his last year there. But we loved both of our teachers. They taught us a lot. It was just a welcoming family and a loving family. Here was like the different uniforms I wore with my moraleware in the middle and then my uniform, my dress uniform with the service jacket and without the service jacket. This is my first day I got my my blues and everything. So I didn't have my rank or anything like that. I was so excited to try it on. Uh here was the military ball. This is
005a dance that we kind of do. kind of like let loose and everything. We have a little bit of a formality first, but it's just a really great time that everyone kind of just gets to know each other a little bit better and just, you know, have that moment with their peers. Here are some of the adventures we did. Uh I was not a part of the top left one. They painted the Prescuit PE this year. Sadly, I could not be a part of that because of my other CTE program, but uh they still did that. And then that was when we went to one of the uh places that had horses. We were like brushing them and everything like that. I had done the hor's hair and then we went to an Air Force
006base. I think that was my sophomore year and so I got to vibe with a lot of people I cared about and everything and helped form that bond even more. And then we had several retirement ceremonies and then these are two of the ones that that had happened. Sadly, I could not be part of either of those either just because of the distance between where they were and my house. Uh and then every year we do a 911 ceremony. It's beautiful. Everyone makes They're like their top prior like they're make sure they're prepared and everything and it's just great that we get to memorize the people that died on 9/11. Uh we our parades we do three parade. We do the homecoming a Christmas and then we do the Veterans Day parade. That is a
007photo from my freshman year as well. I'm in the very back. You can't really see me, but we uh that was our Veterans Day parade. That was I believe the like behind everyone. Everyone's like kind of behind us during one of our parades. I don't remember which one that was. I think that might have been the homecoming. So that was like when everyone was just kind of vibing along with that. And so my vet class here was after we did our uh our final for it. I was not there that day, so I did it the next day. But we did what we call the vet Olympics where we kind of just did a bunch of different things. We memorized tools. We did e-collars, which are just like the cones. I think we did the
008packing and we just did a bunch of really cool stuff. and she my teacher made it really fun for us to help kind of increase that bond that we had already. It was a really it's a really great class. Here are some of the uh te some of the host members. That is our club that we do. Uh there is our president Caleb and then there's our vice president right there. Her name is Maddie. Uh and then there is our treasure. I am the photographer for it. And then there's some of our host like one of our host meetings. Some of the labs we've done. We have tested urine. We tested some blood just to kind of like see what was wrong with the dog from our teacher's dog. She was having smell problems. So,
009we kind of got like booked into it. First day, I think we did a blood test like the first test was that first week. That was really advanced for beginner students, but it was still really fun. And then it really helped us kind of get out of our shells and, you know, meet everybody and get closer to everybody. And then this is the website we use to help us like learn how to put in information whether that's like just what's going on with the patient. And we got to mess around with it a little bit. And we got to learn that you have to have a signed consent form for euthanas cuz there's a lot of people accidentally euthanizing other people's pets in the program only because they thought it was funny cuz we had
010already had that pawn to do so when we were messing with the websites. Uh we had a horse come a stallion or actually it was a yeling of one of our students. Uh and so this is our first time really interacting with a horse with class. We got to learn how to pick up the feet as you can see one of our students doing. We got to learn how to like interact, approach the horse, get comfortable with the horse. We got to learn how to lead as you can see one of our students face doing. Just had to like keep quiet around the horse and like not scare him in any way. He was very tamed so we didn't have to worry too much about that. But we did make sure we understood the boundary
011that needed to be there with the horse. Here was a cat that we had just seen at UFA, one of our extern sites. And then there is the teacher's cat as we kind of got to hear some of the heartbeats and just kind of got to interact with a more skinny and more older cat versus the kitten that you see in the first photo that I showed. And then one of our students, rabbits. We think this was our second thing we did more of a complex animal to do for our second examination, but it was great to see and everything. Great to interact with that that bunny and everything. We got to learn a lot that day. Kind of a giant step in that as well because we weren't supposed to be learning about bunnies
012yet, but we did anyways just cuz we kind of wanted to know what we were doing. >> Does anyone have any questions? >> How many students in the class? The vet class. >> The vet class. I think it's like 24 I think is what it was. I'm not 100% sure on that. >> Are your lab facilities at PHS or at the Yale College or out at C10? >> Uh we have our own little building over by same thing with the dental group. It's just like right next to it. Is it the same room as our classroom? There's a nice little spot where we can do the examinations of our pets. There's some some rooms for us as well >> at the high school. >> No, actually uh it's over by Aspire High School where >>
013Oh, just across from >> Oh, okay. Is it a one-year class or is it multiple years? >> This is a one-year program. >> Nice. >> When you said UFA, was that Prescuit UA or did you say something? UA >> thinking of uh the United Animal Friends, what I might have messed that one up. >> Thank you. >> What got you interested in doing the vet program? What what spurred you onto? >> Well, my dad's actually the reason I took the class entirely, but I've always had a really love for animals. I've always wanted to own a bunch of animals. I'm actually planning on doing stuff that I would would really benefit me to just be in the situation where I can see how it affects the animals. I want to rodeo, so it's great to
014see kind of what effects it have on the horse and everything like that. And just to know some of the negative health benefit or negative things for healths that certain breeds of cats, dogs, horses, and just all of that has. It's also just great information to know so I can take care of my pets and like in the future and I do want to make a difference and help like the people in the future like plus the animals. You can see the behaviors of the animals they're being abused. They'll flinch. So it's it's good to know that I can have that impact whether that's just from being a boarding assistant or I actually am a vet. I just want to be able to help those animals and the people around them. >> Awesome. >> Thank
015you. That's awesome. Any other questions for Rocky? >> No. Great job, girl. Good presentation and I learned a lot just listening to you. [applause] >> Hello everyone. I'm Kayla Hobson. I'm part of the welding in my CED early college and I've been at PHS for four years. So, why chose welding and in my freshman year, I just thought that the welding hood looked cool, so I signed up. [laughter] I had no idea what it was. I just wanted to wear it. Um, but since then, I've learned all about different kinds of metals, processes, um, learning how to use my hands better, and I hope to pursue a career with this, or at least to help me get through, uh, more college. I want to do electrical engineering there. Um, and I've gotten three certifications from
016it, uh, for completely free because PHS pays for it. Um, and here are some projects that I've done. In the top left, that's my very first one that I was able to find. And then all of those are my bend tests. I've been able to do some math projects. Um, just a whole bunch of stuff that I'm kind of proud of. Um, that's helped me become a better welder. Um, and Skills USA, I've been I competed last year in Skills USA and I made it or I won third place in regionals and I made it to state. >> And so you're tested in different processes, stick welding, flux core, TIG welding, and oxy fuel cutting. You know what those are? And then there's a knowledge test, which is a paper test. And I also competed
017recently this last Wednesday, I'm pretty sure. And I won first place this time. And so I'm going to state again. [applause] And so that'll be in Phoenix somewhere. Um, next, my early college. I really liked my early or I'm loving my early college right now. Um, I've met so many new people that are kind of on the same path that I am. Um, it's helped me further decide what I wanted to do. When I joined early college, I didn't really know what I wanted to do as a career. Um, but this has really kind of helped me realize what I like to do. Um, which I really like math and science and all that. Um, and I've had a ton of college help all thanks to Molly or who's the adviser and main person there
018on campus campus. There's a group picture of all of us for this year and my time at PHS. Um, the learning environment. I really like the learning environment. Um, and the everyday life there. I was able to see my friends in like most my classes and make friends easily in all my classes. Um, the dual credit uh classes that I've taken have been really helpful in getting basically free college classes um and college credits. um the challenging classes, building my skill level, like um I I mean I only took one AP class, but all the higher classes really um even if I don't like them, I end up learning the most in them at the end of the year, and then I end up liking the teacher at the end of the year because of
019that. And uh when I was choosing between high schools to go to in 8th grade, I chose PHS because of how much stuff is offered here. And compared to some other ones surrounding here like Horsey High or uh Tri City, I I only remember touring those two. Um and my current job, uh I work at the Roof Street Theater. I did theater my first year and then Miss Martin asked me if I wanted to do a job and they like opened it back up. So, I've really loved doing that for two or three years now. Um, the field trips, like I'll talk about with um, Miss Bailey, I've really loved every single field trip I've went on. Um, the picture on the top right is a GCU uh, forensic forensics field trip that I went
020on. I'm not interested in forensics, but I thought that it was really fun uh, to like go and see what it was. And so, I got to go do that. And I wanted to shout out my best teachers, Miss Guerrero, Miss Martin, Miss Ader, Miss Holly, and Molly. They've really helped me kind of shape who I am as a person. And here's the Scotland and Ireland's field trip. A couple picture. I had a ton of pictures. I had to only choose a couple. Um, it was really cool to go there and listen to like all the history. And I think the top right, we got to hear like a bunch of ghost stories and go on a ghost tour in the middle of the night. And then we got to go see uh this isn't
021the monument. We got to go see the uh William Wallace monument like you know the guy in Braveheart. Um so that was really cool. Um and then PHS uh all of my clubs in there. I'm a part of NHS for my second year this year. Um I've really loved it. It helps me. It kind of pushes me to get volunteer hours and try to find volunteer hours. Um, and it's also, um, helped me connect with a lot more people that want to do more for the community. Um, I'm also in Yakapai clubs now that I'm in urban college and so I got to help do a food drive for Christmas kind of in the top right. Um, and I recently joined pop club so I go and tutor little kids in the library which is
022really fun. Um that was it. Um it's really PHS has really opened my eyes to a lot of opportunities and all the stuff that I can do in my future and I couldn't ask for a better experience. >> Thank you. [applause] >> I think that just opens up my eyes to the wide variety of things that you chose to discover and learn about in the four years at Presby. just shows what we're we can offer for kids that are really interested in pursuing it. So, I applaud you. That's amazing. >> Getting involved. So many different things. >> I know. >> Kayla, did you walk away with some certifications with welding for? >> I did. So, the first two years it was actually, yeah, the first two years it was paid for cuz I did it
023through PHS. Um, so I got my stick certification and my MIG certification. And then I got my TIG certification, but I had to pay for that cuz it's a night class and uh I don't think that PHS paid for I had to pay like 50 bucks to take the test or something like that. But I got it for way cheaper since I'm a high school student. Um, and I went for a fourth one, but that one didn't go so great. I got three. [laughter] And so early college when you graduate um how many hours will you have will you have your associates or will you have a year or >> I don't know I was just kind of taking classes that I was interested in and just going up in the math field. Um I
024might stay for another year or semester to just take physics because I need physics to kind of go into that. But I'm thinking about going to NAU next right after this. But Molly has really helped us all get the scholarships and everything lined out for like I would be really lost without her right now. Yes. >> Congrats. >> Thank you. >> Comparatively like if you can think before you entered all these programs and now like what what is college? Is there any intimidation for you about college at this point? No, I uh I think that the teachers are a lot more laidback than high school. And I can see why cuz high school it's I mean they have like seven or eight classes that they have to teach every day, but the teachers like they're
025really not intimidating at all. And >> like my um calculus one teacher, she gives us stickers and candy if we like solve a problem up on the board. So it's really not um >> like intimidating at all. I really like it. >> That's really the the a huge value I see is you've you've done so many things that nothing's going to scare you. >> You know, you're you're you're ready to go at this point and be successful. And that's >> I think that's the best thing we can do for our kids. >> Be ready to go out and do this. >> Yeah. I think one of my favorite things at our board meetings is when we have students make presentations about what they're doing at the high school or other schools. That just makes my
026night because it's so wonderful to see what you guys are doing. >> Yeah, absolutely. I mean, >> how many people are in the early college program this year? >> I want to say 30. >> 35. >> Yeah, it's a lot. But a lot of people that you know, too. >> Yeah. My son is there. >> Your son's there? >> Yeah. My my senior is there and he likes it a lot. He He loves Molly. >> Yeah. Who is he? >> Quinton. >> Oh, okay. >> Yeah, [laughter] >> I know. >> Yeah. Yeah. It's a good program. It's pretty incredible. >> Mhm. I really like it. It's helped me a lot. >> Kayla, when you were in your welding program, how many other young ladies weren't in there with you? I'm guessing it's mostly young men
027or am I wrong about that? >> There is. Yeah, it's definitely a lot of men. It was me and my one friend Victoria. >> Okay. >> Yeah, there was when I that first year there was three other girls, but then they all they were in their second year, so I didn't see them after that. So then it was me and my friend Victoria basically for the rest of it. And now I'm in a fabrication class that's Fridays only. Um, and I I'm the only girl in my fabrication class. There's it's like a joint class. He does three classes in one period and there's one other girl in different classes. So, >> it is a lot of men. Yeah. Like 30 or 45 or 30 to 35 of us. It's like one or two. >> I'm
028I'm intrigued to hear you talk about electrical engineering is something you've got in front of you. I've got a son who went through uh CED classes at the high school several years ago and that pointed him in the direction of electrical engineering as well. >> His first job out of university, made more than that as a principal. a little bit of a slow point for me still, but uh you know, tell tell me what's drawing you to that and and what you see yourself potentially doing with that. >> Um I think I'm just really interested in it because uh I figured welding's like electrical stuff and I've just done a little bit of Google searching to see what it is and it just interests me to see like I want to mainly do like power
029grid systems and like larger scale things. I think that that's what's really interesting me right now u interesting to me right now. Um, but I mean I'll see how I like it when I actually get into it, too. >> I can see that titting really well with your welding skills and background. My son didn't do that, but he builds funky stuff all the time. >> Yeah. He wishes he had kind of the skill set you had coming out of high school. That's great. >> Any other comments other than that? She's amazing. >> Thank you so much for coming. Appreciate you all. [applause] All righty, moving on to 5B, which is our police department presentation. We have Amy Bonnie, our police chief. We should have Jason Small, our special operations bureau lieutenant, and Caesar as well.
030Looks like they're all here. So, go. Well, hello. Thank you so much for having us today. Um, we are so thankful to have uh this opportunity to meet with you and um kind of talk to you about something that's already been, I guess, deployed. That's probably not the right word. Um, but it's just um another another expression, I guess, of what a great relationship that the police department has with our school district and something that we're we're very very proud of. and um while I have you captain I guess here although this is a very uncomfortable position for police officers so I'm trusting Caesar at the door there um with our backs to the door but um you know the superintendent and I meet on a regular basis and and just stay in very close
031contact um and so that relationship is very very strong and I just want to I want to reinforce that with with all of you so that you know that um you know of course a focus on school safety and student safety is of most important to us but also um student wellness. And so this program that we're going to talk about today um is something that is really near and dear, of course, to my heart. Um anybody that knows me knows that dogs are one of my favorite people. Um and so dogs, we've integrated dogs into the Prescuit Police Department in a couple of different ways. Of course, primarily in our patrol bureau where we use them to detract detect drugs. Um we use them to apprehend bad guys in some cases. Um, but also
032we've used uh canines and dogs in a victim service capacity. And when we began that program, we really recognized the impact that the use of dogs can have um with people and victims in particular, but also with children. And so when we had the opportunity to acquire this particular dog, I'll tell you a little bit of the backstory and then I'll turn it over to the stars of the show. Um, we got this dog. Her name is Marina. and um she was named Marina from the beginning. And and you might know that our police department is um located on Marina Street. And so I got the call um it was on a Sunday evening late um from the 100 Club of Arizona. The 100 Club is an organization that supports first responders in Arizona um
033not only fallen first responders and their family, but also first responders who are serving and who have retired in our state. So, I got a call from the um acting director at the time. Her name is Rainey Crabtree, and she said, "Uh, Amy, I know that your department loves dogs and you like to use dogs in all sorts of different capacities. And so, I've got a deal for you." um she said we had our our annual fundraising gala last night and um we had two golden um doodles golden labradoodles um up for auction and they both sold raised a lot of money for the 100 club and they went to their homes and Marina went to a home and the next day the the bidder called the 100 club and said I don't think we
034want a puppy and so she said you were the first person I thought of would the Prescuit Police Department like a puppy and This was in I think February um of of 2025. And of course I said yes. And then I thought about it and I said I said to myself, I don't know what we're going to do with a puppy. But I did what I always do. I go to my wonderful team. Um I have Comm Lieutenant Jason Small who's over there. He's our special operations bureau commander. Um I went to my deputy chief John Brandilla. Um and our administrative supervisor Michelle Medina and I said, "You guys, last night I got a call. They asked if I wanted a puppy." And I said, "Yes, I want a puppy. Now, what are you going
035to do with the puppy?" And they're like, "I don't know." And I said, "But the good news is she's going to be in training for like 9 months." So, we got 9 months to figure it out. So, I drove down a couple weeks later, picked Marina up from her handler and drove her to her training um trainer down in the valley, and they trained her to be a facility dog. And I will let Officer Atoria talk to you a little bit about that. Um, and so we were able to get her trained to be a facility dog. And then um we also have the problem of the fact that all of our canines are supported entirely by community donations. So to train a facility dog is not cheap. It's about 15 to $20,000 once they're
036outfitted. Um and so then we have that problem. But we work um and live in a great community, city of Prescuit, and along comes a community partner with the American School Safety Association. Um Pat Kirk Doll is probably a face you guys know very well in our community. He is part of that organization. And he called me one day and he said, "Uh, hey Chief, the American School Safety Association, our our president and uh founder really likes dogs. Um, do you guys have any projects that might involve dogs?" And I'm like, "As a matter of fact, I do." Um and so this partnership really um came to fruition and the American School Safety Association is reimbursing the Prescuit Police Department in its entirety for the training and outfitting the training of Marina and the outfitting
037of her vehicle 100%. And so I want to give a huge shout out to that organization. [applause] Deploy um she is our first ever facility dog um to serving at the Granite Mountain Middle School. And as luck would have it um officer Atorga had recently come to Lieutenant Small and said, "Hey Lieutenant, I love dogs. You guys are seeing a theme, right?" and he said, "I really, really would love to deploy a dog at a middle school, and here's the proposal." And right around that time, this whole package came together. And I'm like, "Well, look at this. This is definitely God tapping us on the shoulder. Um, it's coming together." And so, um, here we are. So, without further ado, I want to introduce um, Officer Atoria, who works as your school resource officer at
038Grant Mountain Middle School. um and he's going to talk a little bit about Marina and introduce her and then we're gonna introduce um I already I'm so sorry Michelle who's going to talk about some of the impacts that she's already had um at Granite Mountain Middle School um and talk about that partnership that we have and I'm very very proud of it and I hope that you will be too. So the floor I'm available for babies. [laughter] >> Like Chief [clears throat] Bonnie said, I'm officer Caesar and I'm the school resource officer at Brandon Middle School, Upper Elementary School. This program is near and dear to my heart. This is something that I was I want our policing to look different, not only just for our children, but for us in general. We want the
039community to see us in a different light, right? Um, so I I started looking around the nations for programs and things to see just to make it better. What's going on? What are other people doing different? What's impacting their schools in a positive light? And I came across our in our very own state, Scottsdale PE. They have four four facility kines in their schools from elementary school all the way up to high school. Uh, I started picking their brain, reaching out to them, seeing what's working, is it working, how's it working. They started off with one dog and then they realized that they couldn't keep the program going because uh it had to be donations and funding from the community. Uh the PTO, their PTO actually got involved and said we want the dog. We
040want to keep the dog at our school and they raised the funds to fully pay for the dog and keep it going for the program and they developed to where they ended up getting four dogs. And I started talking to them and they they told me that it was a super positive experience for them. Not just for the officers, but for the kids. The kids are tremendously impacted by these dogs. And I tell everybody, they they want to know, "Oh, K9, the drug dog, um, apprehension dog." I said, "No, no, no. Facility K9. It's just the title, K9. She is like a hospital therapy dog. She's just there to make sure the kids have a good day." Um, I tell everybody I'm just kind of like a ghost now at the school. The dog's the
041officer. Where's the dog? I can't enter a room without them saying, "Where's the dog at?" And you had she's in in a classroom. She's Everybody's positive. Everybody's super happy. Um, one example, I I walked in the classroom with the dog the very first day I had her and a little girl just said, "You instantly made my day." Another one was I walked into the classroom, there's a little girl, came from a third world country. Um, she was timid. uh didn't I noticed that she was timid that I started talking to her about it and she told me that she hadn't touched the dog in six years because she was bit >> that very in hours she pet the dog she was like that amazing now she runs after the dog and pets the dog all
042the time we do spend a lot of time in special education that's near and dear to my heart I absolutely love those classrooms and we had a student in there that was really just shy scared didn't want to pet the dog just didn't have any interactions with dogs at And at first it was took me about a week. And uh we'd go in there, he'd go, "Shoo, shoo, shoo away." So I was like, "Okay, I'll keep my distance." And then I'd have her lay down like 10 ft away from him and she he would just stare very curious looking. And then we'd leave and then come back the next day. Same thing. But then he'd allow her to get closer. I didn't force anything. I don't force anything on them. If they want to pet
043her, they absolutely can. If they don't want to, I respect that, too. It came to where she would she would he would allow right next to her and not right next to him and he would just reach out and pet her high end. He just scratch it, not look at her. He just do this and then the very next day he he started petting her head and now he runs up to her and he'll sit with her and play with her and that's it's been super impactful on not just my life but on the kids life at the school. That's all I have to do here. I'll figure it over. All right, good evening everyone. I am Michelle, the assistant principal over at Granite. Uh Karen Hughes is out of town, so I am here
044to represent both of us. Um our amazing school Granite and obviously Officer Stoga and Marina. Um again, just echoing everything he has said and what Chief Bonnie has said, she has made a vast amount of difference at our school. Um and Officer Stoga as well. So, um it's funny in the lobby, Chief Bonnie had asked for like just statistics, um of, you know, how how we can see last year versus this year before we even have um Caesar and then versus when we had Marina. And um we'll get her actual statistics, but I already right off the bat said we can see a million um miles of a difference. even just having officer Storga there. Um part of our grant for safety um and securing all that which helps fund officer SORA is we focus
045on three areas and our areas are attendance, behavior and then of course um like mental health. So anxiety is what we kind of really zoned in on and that was before again we had officer SORA that's even before we had Arena. And so it's just very, you know, just interesting that all kind of came together because that is exactly those areas that officer SORA addresses and makes better and marina. Um and so Karen and I kind of came up with just some talking points of where um they're at. And so um a lot of it though I know when we first say okay we're going to bring a dog on campus, right? A lot of it is okay well what about the kids who are maybe scared or have allergies or afraid. So, we were
046very intentional intentional about knowing which students have animal allergies or phobias ahead of time. Like you said, a great example is um being very cognizant of kids who maybe are a little bit afraid, keeping distance. Um he's done great with um just again knowing Marina, knowing the kids. And again, that just speaks volumes to him on our campus of knowing kids and again knowing which kids, you know, might be a little standoffish at first. Um obviously you've heard though that Marina always, you know, gets them on our side, which is good. Um, and again, we have not really we have not really had any issues at all or problems. We were very forthcoming with parents about what was happening. And again, she's just been an amazing addition to campus. Um, all of our staff members
047are informed at all times. Um, you know, their accommodations are always in place if there are any circumstances where kids have allergies or phobias. Um, and again, we adhere to those. And then again, just um her presence is adjusted. So again, or if we notice some kids um are maybe just, you know, not in a place to see her right now or whatever, uh the officer Sorga does a great job of navigating that. Um obviously growth and confidence building again like you said just with certain specific amount of kids is the amount of confidence and just social aspect and you know special education we see that a lot. So a lot of these kids um maybe have that social anxiety piece um difficult to socially you know interact with their peers. Marina's been just an
048amazing part of that. We've seen some of our special ed kids. Um, again, a lot of kids obviously want to run towards her and all pet her at the same time. Um, a good part of that is we do have our special ed kids want to do that and so now they're interacting with their peers along with Marina in that petting. Um, you know, just kind of giving her that attention and love. Um we just again have really seen that or if we have some um students getting very emotional or upset or having a bad day um again they see her and that's immediately calms them and just again way better way that I could deescalate them or officer Sora um or even Karen. So it's just really great to see that um and approachability
049and climate obviously you can see like anyone can pet her. She is so approachable. Um, you know, the beauty of it is that she is such so trained where you can walk up and again, kids are, you know, they're going to grab, they're going to pull and she she does. She puts up with it. She loves it. She again is just amazing. Um, and his students can interact with her anywhere on campus, any time. Uh, he goes in classrooms, he's out at lunch, um, in the cafeteria, he's at recess, fire drills, he takes her down to the field, all of that stuff. She is everywhere. So she is not just um you know kind of stuck in the office at all. And then um again just calmer, warming um kind of just yeah society and
050just um again the chemistry of the office. I know we talk a lot about kids enjoying her. I will say staff we enjoy her a lot and obviously as most of you know in education especially on the administration side it it is rough. It is hard and the front office can be you know really um difficult at times. And so it's just great having her in the office cuz sometimes if it's been a rough day or you've had a really um you know bad experience or whatever, you just need a break. Uh Maria's right there. You can give her pets and loves and she gives little hugs. It's great. And then she loves it. I know our friend office staff um gives her probably 40 treats a day. So she um I know Caesar's trying
051to work on them with that, but um uh yeah. Uh so we as adults, we love it and I know our staff loves it as well. And so again, it's just better for everybody. And then um it's pretty funny seeing now too uh Caesar's office is in the front office with Marina. And then again with our campus, if you've been there, you come through the front office and then um you go through the push gates. So you cannot go back out the double door. So you have to go all the way through the office and back out the back door. And so it's funny, you'll see a lot of kids say, "I need a drink of water." Especially in the winter time for an outdoor campus, our water fountains are turned off. So we see
052we saw a huge increase of kids needing water at many random times and oh all of a sudden the um you know hallway out of course is right by his office and so we'd um see them you know stop and pet marine and all that and it's um funny seeing him try to like navigate that road of like okay you got to get out let's go get to class cuz they just want to sit and spend time with her. So that's just really great. It's just again positive um all positive. And then again officer is just amazing. We love him. we give him a hard time obviously we um joke and laugh and have fun but he's just such a great addition to the staff and then he's an amazing job of just incorporating Marina
053just so seamlessly into the granite mountain yeah like climate and life um obviously overall impact we love her um adults love her students love her and again overall just such a great program so thank you to Chief Bonnie for making this happen as well and for you guys for um yeah just giving that green light because it has made a definite impact on our school >> fantastic more questions. >> I wish we could have one at every school. [laughter] >> I will say that as we grow and continue to work with ASSA and other organizations. Um we're totally open to that conversation. So, and I did forget I felt bad. I did forget to acknowledge Caesar's um sergeant who is sitting here as well. He's also very open to some of my ideas. um they
054don't even roll their eyes at me anymore and I very I very much appreciate that. So this is Sergeant Seagull. He's our community services sergeant. He supervises our SRO. So thanks for being here. Sorry I forgot you at first. >> Have you noticed a difference in discipline like when you're having a student who's struggling or you're having to discipline in some way that the dog is able to help in those situations? >> Yeah. And you know um when we were talking to Chief Bonnie earlier, she was asking that question of like discipline wise. Obviously having Caesar there has been helpful just decreasing, you know, our verbal aggressive aggression and then physical aggression. So that's been helpful. And then Maria really has taken that down a notch too. Obviously fifth and sixth graders, you know, developmentally
055a lot of times um their emotions just take over. Um we do have a lot of kids um you know, make poor choices just based on emotion. They don't know how to handle that. So with Marina, if we can get her in there, the kids see her, that emotion can kind of decrease and then we can maybe have some more level-headedness of that. Obviously, you know, I feel like we've done a fine line of if the kid is in a, you know, a discipline issue or there's consequences to be had. Obviously, you know, Marina is more of a tool versus a reward. So if um you know, afterwards, um they can go see Marina and all that. Um and we do a good job of that. Morgan. Uh Caesar does a really good job of
056if we have a major behavior issue that he needs to then put, you know, um more of that, okay, super cop hat on and not have Marina in with him, he will do that. So, she'll just kind of um do that. So, it's a it's really good line of um yeah, of everything. But behavior wise, we know we have noticed a decrease for sure. Um again, statistically wise, we can get those numbers later. I know Chief Bonnie wants those and we'll pull those. But already, yeah, just knowing yeah, physical, verbal, 100%. Yeah, it has or decreased. >> Yeah, I think it's great and I love your presence on campus because I think it teaches kids who historically maybe have some fears or some bad situations they've had with police officers. It changes their perspective immensely
057when they get to be around officers on our campuses. So, >> huge value. I was wondering when we have to take Stan and Chief Bonnie down off the billboards, can we put officer on the on the billboards? St. >> The only thing I have to comment on is we as a board and as a community, we want our kids to be safe. We want our kids to be successful and we want our kids to get a great education. And I think this is a win-win because we're touching all those bases. It's absolutely incredible. >> You know, Caesar, I think that you know, you with the dog, it probably gives you an avenue to for students to open up more for you. Have you noticed that difference from last year to this year? >> Absolutely. It'll
058help it helps bridge a gap, right? If they're if they have uncomfortable situations or something they're a little more timid to talk about, the dog is a very good uh uh tool to use to bridge that gap, give them comfort and safety in that aspect because she is taught multiple commands is she does a cover, which is she lays over across across their lap and kind of puts a little pressure on them kind of like a hug. She does give hugs. Um she does do touch so it's like hand shaking. So they're able to interact with her and I have them interact with her all the time. >> Officer Sora, I really liked what you said earlier about how you're trying to kind of like shift the perspective to more of a positive one. I
059really liked what you said about that, especially during such times of like division and fear. Just thank you for your service and thank you for your time. >> What a great comment. I'll just underscore a couple of things really quick if I can. Chief Bonnie mentioned that we've got a really positive um partnership with the with the Prescuit Police Department. That's absolutely the case. Boy, couple of folks who are here tonight. We were just interfacing with them the last couple of days on to help keep everybody safe and pointed in the right direction. Just just value that partnership so much. Thank you for what you do. A lot of these folks are graduates of our schools and we're pretty proud of of where they've gone from from the time they've been at Prescuit High School
060as well. Michelle, as you can tell, is usually pretty shy, but we have Marina here in the room. She just opened up tonight. I love that. That's the kind Michelle is fantastic. We're so lucky to [clears throat] have her in here in there. And they've been just so accom they've been enthusiastic about this idea from the very beginning. I was like, "Okay, we have some kids with phobias, allergies, or whatever." They said, "We'll take care of that." From the start, Caesar just, you know, took my my level of concern down, Amy, as well. And and it's just been fantastic. So, thanks for helping accommodate that. And I guess the last thing I'll say is that um our our student resource officers at all three of the schools where we've got them officer Holmes at the
061high school, Officer Young at at Mile High Middle School, and then officer Stoga at Gran Mountain upper elementary school are spectacular. They're just such a great fit for the culture of those schools. They do so many great things. I mean, obviously the the thing I think our community members think is going on is they're standing between us and an attack on the school. That might be the case someday. Boy, we're glad to have that. But more important, that deterrent for that. Super important. And as has been mentioned tonight, just the the relationship that they build with kids and reinforcing that law enforcement officers are our friends. They're here. They're our allies in the community. We keep things going in the right direction. We just love to be able to without having to say that show
062that every day. It's great. And so I'm like this. I say they're so great that I was under the impression she sent us our best three guys, but it turns out they're all fantastic. All of the the ladies and men who work for the Prescuit Police Department are just terrific. I love how they represent our city, what they do for us. Thank you. >> Thank you so much for your question. [applause] Good. >> All right, let us move on. >> [laughter] >> We have Jimmy to talk to us and present do a presentation in advocacy day which is March 3rd if I believe that's correct down in the valley. So welcome Jimmy. We know you had to drive up. Hopefully the traffic wasn't too awful. >> No, not at all. Not at all. >> Use
063the flag or not? I love using >> and it's all yours. >> All right. Well, thank you, President Robertson, Robertson, Superintendent, student representative. Thank you all for letting me come up here tonight and present to you about uh ASBA's advocacy day on March 3rd. And I I just want to start by saying I love Prescuit. Uh my dad was the newspaper editor here from 84 to 88. Uh and Sam Styer was one of his columnists. And so they had a lot of fun stories. Probably not best dude for schoolboard month meeting. So, as as much as much as I was thinking about my father, um but but I did want to just say I really love Prescuit and um this is the second time in the four months since I've been on [clears throat] uh
064the schoolboard association that that I've come up here and so I just want to say thanks for having me. I really appreciate I know these meetings you all have so much going on and I just really appreciate the opportunity to be able to tell you a little bit about what we're doing over at the association. And so uh tonight uh I'm talking a little bit about our acty day and the theme of it is what our students see. Um we are talking about school facilities first and foremost and um this has been an issue that that uh has been near and dear to ASBA's heart. It's been an issue that we've been fighting a lawsuit on for eight years now. Uh and I have some exciting updates for you on this uh tonight. So, um,
065so that's a that's a nice photo of me and that's my deputy there. Uh, so that's our, uh, ASBA governmental relations team. Um, and really the goal, the the the work of our team is to advocate for our school boards and ultimately for our students. Um, and so we organized kind of the the legislative strategy at the association for how we go down the capital and, you know, what talking points do we use, you know, which members are going to be the ones that that we have the most sway with and kind of determine, you know, how do we actually get things across the finish line at the legislature for our schools. Um, and we also deliver really timely research. Uh we have a a fun little newsletter that goes out every Friday morning um
066about you know what's happening in the capital. So if you're a nerd like me, it's great. And even if you aren't a nerd like me, I think you'll still like it because we have a lot of good information in there that that can be used for really any school district across the state. Um so just giving a little bit of history here on school facilities. And this might be information you already know. Um but but I love talking about this stuff, so just bear with me. So way back in the '9s, um the state was sued over the way it funded school facilities back then. And and so um what we saw at that time was that bond dollars made up about 45% of of dollars going towards school facilities across the state. And what
067the sup the Arizona Supreme Court said was that the Constitution says that we need to be funding schools in a uniform way and that it shouldn't we shouldn't see disparities between district to district depending on whether or not a bond can pass or it can't pass. Um since the minimum amount of bond dollars in the state have been at least 49% for all school facility projects in the state. And so that's something to just really be cognizant of uh as we talk about this is that the Supreme Court has already ruled that the system at 45% was not meeting the constitutional needs and for the last 18 now 19 years. We're still well above that amount. Um, and so what the Supreme Court said at that time was, okay, state legislature, you need to write
068a a new school facilities law and you need to fund it in a new way. And there are a series of lawsuits here. I'm going to spare you the really nerdy gritty nitty-gritty parts of that. But essentially what it did was it established minimum standards for schools. So um, it, you know, schools should, you know, have these certain things met. you know, students should have a roof over their head, their classroom shouldn't be distracting. Um, you know, those kinds of things is kind of what they set there. And then they said, legislature, you have to fund this in a formula basis. And the formula basis is really, really key here because that gives school districts the ability to know, okay, we have this roof that is probably going to need to be uh replaced. uh
069we don't want to just keep throwing money at it when that's going to cost us more money in the long term. We want to get this replaced. So those formula dollars kind of gives the school district the ability to prioritize those projects in a way to ensure that that those things are being funded. Um the other big part of this lawsuit is that required inspections of all schools across the state every 5 years. So that's the the that was the job of the state. Um what we saw during the Great Recession. Um, and again, I I just want to say for clarification, I'm not here to criticize anyone. I'm just here to give you the facts. And what we saw during the great recession was the defunding of Students First. Um, and so, uh, throughout
070the mid 2000s, we saw Students First, um, getting slightly more and more defunded to the point where it was completely replaced overall. And what they replaced students first with the formula dollars was with a grant-based program. And so you might be familiar with this program today, the building renewal grants of the school facilities division. That's that is kind of the system that the legislature replaced it with. And so what the legislature said is we're not going to just give dollars to schools. You're going to have to apply for these dollars. And it's going to come on a first come first serve basis. And um we are only going to fund this in the base at $16 million for the entire state. Just so you know, school facilities cost a little bit more than $16 million
071a year. Uh potentially even for your school district alone. Um and so, you know, just to put that in context. Um, and so what this BRG system, building renewal grant system did was move us from, you know, timely repairs, timely replacements to waiting for total failure. And why I take particular issue with this is I'm a really big numbers guy. I love data. We are spending a lot of money on repairing things when we could just replace these things and save so much more money in the long term. It is so much better for the taxpayer in that way. >> Can I ask just quickly? When did the building renewal grant go into effect? >> What year was it? >> Uh, President Robertson, I'm so sorry. I don't have that information right now. I think
072it was about 2010, 2011. Um, so fast forward to 2017, the schoolboard associations, school districts across the state, other associations got together and said we need to take this the state to to court over this because this is not adequately funding our needs because we are seeing school districts having to make really tough decisions. Do we put more money towards uh helping student outcomes or do we fix the roof that is leaking onto their desks? Those are positions we don't want school leaders in. And so um we took the state to court [clears throat] claiming that this was an unconstitutional way to fund schools. And the evidence that was found in this case was frankly disturbing. I spent uh as part of the first few months here going through every page of the lawsuit. Um
073I was mad. I was really emotionally upset because this is not things that should be happening in any school across the US, let alone here in our own backyard. Um there's a sign here uh from one of the schools that says do not drink or consume this water. Um, that sign's been up there for 10 years. They haven't had portable water in 10 years. And they finally passed a bond to fund replacements. And they actually got some additional dollars from the school facilities division to fix that. But this is going to continue becoming an issue in school districts across the state, especially in areas where it's hard to get those bonding dollars. Imagine if they didn't pass that bond. Um, there's a water bottle there on the right. Might be a little bit hard to
074see, but the water is a slight yellowish content. And in the lawsuit, one of the folks looking at the water, I believe it was um either an investigator or or um somebody from school facilities division, they said that that's no problem. Students can drink that. And I see your face right now. I'm not sure how he would feel being told to to drink that. So, um you can also see a hole in the roof there. Um that is sunlight coming through the roof in a school. Um when I was talking about earlier about um kind of these secondary uh problems that we see when we don't immediately replace something. So that's a school gymnasium and you see those cracks in the roof and water leaks down to the floor. And so in the lawsuit, there
075was a school district that uh got money to replace the floor of their gym, but not money to replace the roof in their gym. So can you imagine what has happened to the floor since replacing the floor and not the roof. And again, roofing projects are not cheap and that is partially, you know, I understand the school facilities division is in a hard place. By the way, I'm not here to criticize them one bit. Um, I think, you know, we need more staff in that division to to assist schools, but but you know, that's that's a different story. We're here to just talk about facilities. Um, so for eight years, we've been battling this lawsuit and things have continued to get worse in school districts. Um, some of the other things that we found in
076the lawsuit was that 30% of school district school districts across the state have had zero contact with the school facilities division. >> Three in 10 schools, three and 10 school districts. Um, what we also found was that uh, school facilities division accidentally hired an unqualified inspector who only inspected 11 schools in 2023. And remember, we're talking about every school district across the state required. Um, >> um, what we also saw in the lawsuit was that students were in classrooms at 90 degrees. I just spoke with a student last week in Maricopa County who told me that they this past semester were in a classroom where it felt like it was 85 degrees every single day. And when we talk about student outcomes, when we talk about student learning, imagine the impact that that has on
077test scores and being able to stay focused on what your teachers are trying to teach in the classroom. And so, um, you know, these were things that that we were finding in the lawsuit, um, all over the place. Um, and so the the big thing that I really want to to get through on this issue is that when we're talking about school facilities, there's a big nexus between that and academic outcomes. And that is why we as an association have taken this as such a serious role for ourselves to be pushing this uh pushing this issue down at the capital. Um and so u one of the the expert defendants in the case who was brought there to talk about how school facilities don't really have impacts on students actually in the case could not
078admit that facilities weren't impacting student outcomes. And that was their that that was the state's expert witness in this case. U and and that makes sense because students can't learn when there's rain leaking through on their desks. The temperatures in the classroom are high. Um noise outside their classroom is coming through because there's holes in the wall or holes in the roof. Um mushrooms growing through uh ceiling uh uh floor tiles in their bathrooms. you know, those things are really distracting for a student. Um, and so what we also found is that, you know, study after study um tells us that high CO2 levels will make students drowsy. It kind of uh um it can make them more susceptible to getting sick. Um this is very well proven research. um in every school that the
079school facilities division inspected in 2024, they all found an excessive levels of of the CO2 levels that were recommended. And so again, I'm not trying to belabor the point here, but what I'm trying to show you is paint a picture of why this stuff matters for our students. Um, and so that's why we're inviting school boards across the state to come to our advocacy day because at our advocacy day, we're going to be bringing in our attorneys to talk about, you know, different things that they found in the case to give you all um the knowledge of how to talk to your legislators. We're going to have legislators come in and talk about uh we're going to have a rural schools panel of legislators who represent rural areas. Um and so and ultimately that day
080we are going to be setting up meetings between you and your your legislative members and we're going to be giving you kind of some fact sheets of you know fast facts kind of what I mentioned here to be able to talk to them about. And the the thing I really want to emphasize in all of this is that this has to be nonpartisan. We cannot go down there um pointing at someone and saying it's their fault. We need to work together to get this done. Um and I'm really excited to tell you that that I've met with members on both side of the aisle. I have heard concerns from both sides of the aisle. I think we're making really strong progress. Um and that's because in August of this past year, uh the judge in
081the case sided with ASBA and our school district saying that the way we are funding school facilities in the state are simply unconstitutional. And uh again, if you're a nerd like me, you kind of enjoy going through the minutes report uh from judges. His was 115 pages long. That's how much evidence he had to be able to make this wrong. And and that's the longest I've seen. You know, some of you may have seen longer, but that is the longest I've ever seen in any lawsuit um regarding something like this. So, um we really would love your participation in our advocacy day. We think that you can really make a big difference for your students. Um we would love for you to bring photos of your own school facilities down there. um so that our
082legislators can see what our students see because that's ultimately why we're doing this. Um so madam president, superintendent, members of the board, that includes my presentation. Um but very happy to answer any questions that you have. >> It's it's appropriate that you gave this presentation here because I think you're in the sure the oldest continually used school in the state of in this >> building. >> This building right here. We've kept it up a little better than members of board, you've done a great job. >> What is the schedule for the day? When does it um kick off and when do you anticipate it wrapping up? >> Yeah. So, uh we will be starting up at 10:00 a.m. We will be at the executive tower uh downtown at the second floor. So, um, you will
083need to bring, uh, ID to get in. Uh, it's a high security building. Um, and so we recommend getting a few minutes early. Uh, but I know that, uh, you have a board meeting that day. >> Your board meeting, I believe, is at 4:30 that day. >> Yeah. We have a study session at 4:30 that day. >> Yeah. And, um, so we will kick off at 10:00 a.m. Uh, you'll have hear presentations from, uh, our attorneys and around 11:00 we'll hear from legislators. Uh at noon we'll have lunch for you guys. Um I hope you like sandwiches. Um and then uh we will be setting up the meetings between you and your lawmakers and because now I know that that you have you need to be back well before 4:30. Um we'll try and get
084those meetings as early as possible for you. The one thing I do want you to be cognizant of is I can't promise that a member will accept the meeting. Um, but I will do everything in my power to make sure it's worth the drive down there because I really appreciate your time. >> Awesome. Thank you. >> And I know at uh the law conference, I think we were able to pick up this sheet. Do you have any other This kind of gives a template of what the issues are, how to present. Um, I can share this with the board, but if you have others that you can pass out, that would be awesome for them to see. Um, Yeah, as well. >> Absolutely. So, uh, you're referring to the the elevator pitch and so we
085actually kind of give you kind of like the toolkit of like, okay, how do I find the issue in my school? How do I talk about that? >> Um, how do I, you know, bring photos of it? Um, and it it's it's a nice little worksheet that way. And I'll be sure to email that to the full board. >> Thank you. >> Sarah, can you send us the link to register? I have um I you just need to let me know and I'll register you. >> Oh, okay. Thank you. >> I believe I'm already registered already. >> I think I'm already registered as well. >> I would like to be registered. >> Okay. >> I'm [clears throat] going to be out of town that day, but I'm feeling a lot better right now. At least
086three of you are going. I'm feeling better. >> Would a student representative be valuable? Oh, she >> Yeah. >> Can I go? >> I got to tell you, I would love that. >> I would love to go. If I could go, I would love to go. >> Yeah. >> She would love to go. [laughter] >> And I'll just tell you, um, I can already tell how well spoken you are. >> Thank you. >> Um, uh, it's one thing for me to go down there and talk to a legislator. is like, gosh, I had to deal with this tall bald guy again. Um, it's a whole another thing when they're hearing directly from students. Um, and maybe there are examples that during this presentation that you thought of. Um, but even more so, I I encourage
087you to work with your board and your superintendent and see, you know, where where there are different issues for your district. And again, this isn't to to, you know, highlight issues in our district. This is to ensure that we're funding and solving these problems in the district. And so, um, I just want to thank you again for your time tonight. >> Thank you. Thanks so much. [applause] >> Safe travels back to drive carefully. >> All righty. Let us move on to 5D, which is our four math curriculum. And I'm a little bit excited about this. also is going to do a brief overview of what's going on. And we've got some great teachers here to talk about why they like amplify. So, as I'm sitting here getting ready for this, I'm realizing we're kind of
088getting a wide variety. So, you had high school students. We got to talk about what's happening in middle schools and now we're going to round that out with some elementary. So, we're going to start. This first presentation is about math adoption. Um, as you know, we have brought you quite a few adoptions in the last couple of years and so we have two this year. We've got K4 math adoption and we also have a modern language for the high school and I think those are going to be it for a little bit. Um, so the last couple that we'll bring to you at least for a few years before we have to start looking at what we've adopted already. Um, I'm really excited tonight to introduce you some some of our amazing K4 math experts.
089Um, Megan Reynolds, unfortunately last night couldn't be with us. to deal with the family matter. But we have Kimberly Brown from T from a Jed Taylor Beis from Taylor Hicks. We have Taylor Haley Kyle from Aaya Jud and Josyn Hawkins from Taylor Hicks with us as well. >> I'm told you guys can read. Um, >> so why adopt new curriculum now? Um, we used engage New York for since 2017, I guess. Was that? >> Yeah. >> Um, so it's been close to 10 years. Um, it had a lot of great things to it, but as a new teacher to the district, I joined five years ago. I really struggled with how to enrich for my students, especially in kindergarten, um, and supports for struggling students. And I really like that, um, the curriculum that we're
090presenting tonight has that. Um, >> yeah, >> you're doing great. >> Um, Um, okay. So, >> I take it seriously. [laughter] >> The big point that on this slide I'd like to bring up is the um aligning. Just having, you know, everyone doing similar things is really helpful with vocabulary. This uh curriculum we're going to talk about has centers that students will learn how to play in kindergarten that will lead all the way up to third grade. And so they'll be masters and be able to understand how it works so that they can learn the new content. Um but obviously access to the same content, knowledge and skills. Uh but we're looking for high quality. Um so why are we trying to do an adoption now in YMath essentially? Um we face some challenges as
091teachers. Um engage New York was a free curriculum which is why we went with it at that time. Um it is essentially archived now. Um and so we've used free materials and we're printing the materials and then we are buffering in the materials. And so we're essentially like creating materials to go with curriculum that is outdated at this point. Um so there's lack of support. So there's no um like company monitoring it. There's a company that bought it out um Great Minds and they created a new curriculum from that curriculum at this point. Um so the one that we are still using is the old version um from New York and it's not even really available anymore. If you go to the website, it is archived and it's in little file folders that you have
092to dig through and go to the zip files to just pull up the teacher's manual. Um, so it's not very user friendly. Um, and it's not easy to locate, especially for a teacher who has not used it before. Um, or someone who has to learn it for the first time, it's pretty hard to just locate it even online to get access because that is the only place you can find it. Um, it's called Engage New York and New York doesn't use it anymore. >> It's also very print heavy, isn't it? >> To my as I recollect, it's very print heavy. >> Yes, it is only extremely >> there is not a digital side. Um, and so there's a printed teachers manual and a printed student book and that is it. Um, but it's one giant
093file for the entire thing. And any of us who have used it have had to scroll for many minutes trying to locate the exact pages we want because it's no longer um like clickable to easy access. [clears throat] So our committee um just like with all of our other adoptions, we do try to build a comprehensive committee. So, we had teachers, administrators, parents, and community members, as well as instructional coaches. Um, we did have a little bit of a shuffle of committee members, and I'll explain why when I go over our timeline here shortly. Um, but we had a very comprehensive K4 committee who helped us make this decision. So, um, why does modernizing math in the classroom um, make sense to do right now? And, you know, we've all been there where we're doing
094the time test with this memorizing or wrote memorization of um, our multiplication tables. But math is no longer just about the answers. It's about how we're getting to the answers. So it's not um conducive to just memorize those things anymore, but how are they able to get to those answers um independently? Um it matches how students actually learn. So all students are um interacting with visuals or movements or these short tidbits of information. And just like President Robinson said, our old [laughter] our old curriculum was very worksheet heavy, very uh writing heavy, but with this new modernization, we are using a lot of different tools, technologies, um games, the centers, we've got um manipulatives, so kids are out of their seat. They're actually putting their hands on the math to to get their answers. Um
095and then it creates a student centered classroom. So it builds problem solvers and not just memorization. So the kids really are taking ownership of their um math education. And um so just to um give you the big picture, modern modernizing math and using thoughtful technology um isn't replacing teachers or the basics of math. Um but it's it's moving towards the future of what the students are going to use out in the real world and um what's going to help them to really um embrace their math education. This is the same set of criteria that we used for both fifth a math adoption as well as high school adoption. So I'm really excited that K4 is moving in that same direction of building that foundation because that's really where it starts. So, they're building those skills
096early and moving forward. Um, our timeline, this looks a little different. We were planning initially to start math adoption for K4 last year. Um, however, we got into the work first quarter. They were piloting a curriculum second quarter and it became really overwhelming that it was very clear within the first couple weeks that that curriculum that looked good on paper when it got into teachers hands hands was not a good fit. So teachers were having to supplement a lot plus they were transitioning towards new assessments and a new process. So with some teacher input and leader input, we said let's put this on hold. We really want to make a good decision. So let's pause this. Let's get you really familiar with the, you know, you know this curriculum that you're using right now with
097New York. Let's get solid with the move towards standardsbased instruction and let's revisit. Um so we had already had a plan for what that was going to look like. Um so we when we paused we had done reveal map from McGraill. That was our first pilot. That was the one that didn't go as well. Um it was very quickly determined that that wasn't going to meet our needs. Um we revisited this year and so quarter one we started from the beginning piloting um I Ready which was one of our top finalists last year and then we also decided to pilot amplify math. Now, what I'm going to tell you is I'm actually I think it was a good thing that we paused because when we reviewed curriculum last year, um Amplified Math did not make
098our top two. It was just being released. It was in beta testing at that point. So, when we reviewed materials, we couldn't even see the entire curriculum, which made our committee nervous. We wanted to be able to see the entire package as a whole and know exactly what it was we were going to get. So, it was our number three choice. It was next because we really loved what was there. we just were hesitant because we couldn't see the entire thing. So by the time we revisited this year, we had the entire curriculum. They were finished. It was out of beta testing. Um it was already being implemented in schools this fall. So those were the two that we decided to pilot. And then in January of this year, we got together with that committee.
099Again, most of that committee um there were a few people who were not a part of this last and final meeting. Um but we had most of our original committee coming back to make this final decision. So these are the uh ones that we reviewed and went through and if you want to go to the next one pretty much >> and a lot of those are ones that you've seen before from other options. So Amplify was the choice that you love to move forward with and this is why. So, um I if you know me, I love to engage. That was my like that was my jam. I love that. But when I saw this changed it all. Um not only I just want to jump to the lesson structure, but it just exactly what
100Kimberly was saying with how we need to modernize math and how math is changing. This is a great representation of that. You start out with a story and it had you follow along these characters. Like this first one we had was a girl taking care of her chicken and she had to weigh the chicken and weigh the food and it was all about kilograms and grams and it was amazing. The kids were so engaged. They were laughing. They thought it was hilarious. There's chickens on every single page. I mean, who would have loved that, right? And so it goes through and it starts with hands-on. So you get your manipulatives out. You're playing games. You have cards. A lot of cards. Lots of talking. Lots of walking around the mo room and matching them. talking
101with the partner. So much discussion and then it starts to build, right? And so they kind they can kind of show more. Lots of good practice. So much good practice. And then the spiral review. Hallelujah. There's at the end we go back through multiplication. We hit rounding again. We go through area. It is wonderful because when those little hiccups come up and you see them, they're like, I don't remember. And you start going through. It's just so nice to have it built in. So it's fun. It's it's engaging. It goes back to students needing to know the why so that they can approach every problem and have we call it a toolbox and they have this toolbox full of different skills because this helps them you know if you don't get it this way then
102let's try the butterfly or let's draw visuals. Let's use a number line. It's great. So I say like pull out whatever from your toolbox works for you and we get to practice all that. So the engage the engagement is huge. Just to build off of what she said about the engagement piece. Yes, there's stories and characters and real world scenarios where from starting in kindergarten, students are able to see how are you using math in real life? Um, math is one of those subjects that's really hard. Those of us who've taught math got the question all the time of when am I ever going to use this? Um, that question is eliminated because it's right there. They can see exactly how in real life you could use that same kind of scenario. Um it also
103has built in it has um lots of resources. I can go in and pick different levels. I can go get additional practices. I can pull like we've talked about centers. Um there's lots of things that are built in online. And then the one that's really fun that we actually did one today is students can get on their computers and they can do a lesson and I can pause their screen at any time, right? And so they'll be like, "Oh, she paused it." Because we'll, you know, we'll stop and talk about it and then they can go and they're drawing their picture. Um or like today they were trying to make equivalent fractions. So the bars were going up and down. It's like such a great visual for them to see at near our end of
104the unit. And so it's really it's really interactive and it's fun. And they have slides that you can go through. So much technology that is usable. Um and then we already talked about the ex the structure. I think we're on the next Yeah. Yeah, there's the print materials. Uh, we use the book. They have a workbook that each student gets um that they we go through that has everything there. Um, I talked about the progress monitor. I can go on later and check everything that they did on the computer, see their work, see their answers. They can type, they can draw. Um, and then lots of small group activities too. We talked about so Um, so the other things that we really liked about this program in comparison to some of the other ones, um,
105was it has a strong teacher guidance. It's a teacher's manual that you can pick up and read and go with. Um, it's very step by step where it walks you through it. It has the answer keys. It has all the different components, how to differentiate, what are the standards associated with that lesson. It's very user friendly where it's not just a book sitting on a shelf. um where you can use it to facilitate the instruction correctly. Um and there's professional learning opportunities. Um if we do adopt this program, we have the company um to piggy back off of. But we also have there's videos and lessons. It's a new program, but they are constantly adding and changing into it. I swear every time I get on there's an update and there's like um watch this
106new video and learn how to do this and they're still adding even more components to it. Um so you can see professional development videos on your own time as well. So, if I don't know how to do something, there's a help feature, I can go through and get assistance on the spot as well. Um, there's lots of family support. So, in a lot of programs, they like to like check the box that there's a family component. And if you look at them, most of the time it's a onepage newsletter that says, "Hey, this is what we're learning. Here's the standards and here's a vocab." Well, this is the first company that I have seen where it is a packet for the unit where it actually walks them through the strategies. to those characters she was
107speaking of, they're on the front cover and explains and it shows what you're learning but also how we're solving it in classroom which is one of the biggest battles that we get in teachers for math today and it's like why are you doing it this way? Why don't you just second at it? Um and so the packet really shows them like how we are learning it. So if they wanted to assist their um student at home or kind of take it further, it shows you the strategies that we are implementing, not just the topic that we're implementing. Um, it's very very user friendly that you can like kind of a sub can do it. You can pick it up and go. The structure and flow. The online platform is probably the most user friendly we've
108seen in a long time. It's very very easy to access. Very iconheavy. Um, so you can easily find what you want and locate it quickly um to find what you need for the lesson. You can either do it on a unit basis and I can pre-prep for an entire unit or I can break it down to a lesson and go just for the lesson. So, it's very easy to use from the teacher perspective where we're not spending our time digging and trying to find and locate the information. It's very nicely formatted and outlined for us. So, our next steps, um, we've completed our committee work on January 20th. We did put our comm our, uh, proposed curriculum on public display. So, you can see it. It's right on the tables right outside here. Um, we
109will bring this back to you on April 7th for a potential vote. Um, if it is approved, we will in May start that purchase process so that it arrives over the summer and then we will have training for all of our staff when we come back to school um in July, probably end of July. >> I have a couple real quick about assessment. Um, we're still doing CFAs, I'm assuming, every two to one to two weeks with your kids. If those of you that are piloting Amplify, how are kids doing on the CFAs? >> Is it because that's what people are going to ask, how are you going to do on the testing, the state testing? What will our scores look like? Will we improve? That's what we hear out in the community all the
110time. >> Um, I would say that my students are performing better than they have. Um, especially talking about fractions, which is extremely heavy um and shows up on the ASA everywhere um and they are performing better and I think it's because of all the continued practice um and I expect them you know with a spiral review I've also seen them retain um information longer so I expect them to do well you know even we do our benchmarks at the end of the quarters as well >> so good prep for the state test has really good digital components for the state test and that for us has been lacking um with BT and some of the CFAs they're multiple choice um tests and so they don't get the tech practice so on the state test when
111they have to come across it sometimes the technology gets in the way of them actually being able to show >> completely >> and so they I would say that this program because it is brand new has a great tech component um and there's digital lessons built it in every unit where it is a digital lesson and they learned through doing it on their computer with you essentially. And so like there was a fractured number lines where we were um we were doing line plots and plotting fruit on graphs and they have to chop the line and click the button and it was very similar to what I have seen on the state test technology wise for how to click buttons move features um some of that stuff that we have not gotten with and I
112think what Haley just said about they're doing a little bit better is what we're seeing across the board. Um, the reason I didn't show you data today is because I don't think it's a great representation truly of what it's going to look like when we fully implement. So, because we're in a pilot year, our teachers have a little bit extra work to do with this because they kept going with our pacing guides the way that they were outlined originally. It did not necessarily match the flow of Amplify. So, they were having to piece things together still. Um, and maybe not all of the components, like especially the spiral review, it might not have been applicable for what they were doing because there was pieces that they had missed because their flow is different. Some of
113the work that we will do this spring if it's approved is we will realign our pacing guides to match kind of the flow of what is in amplify so that we can take advantage of all of those different components that are there. Um, but they were performing at rebove with um all of the CFAs that they were taking. That answers my next question about the pacing guide. >> Um, I just want to say thank you to the teachers. We love our administrators, but we love to interface with teachers and uh we appreciate the extra work that you've done um through this. My I guess my only question is what was the cost of Amplify compared to some of the others that we were looking at? >> So the cost really is pretty much the same.
114Um there's not a huge difference in that where we start to we haven't put our order together yet, but their base packages are the same. So some teachers want the workbooks, some do not. So that's where price really varies from curriculum to curriculum. Some of the the workbooks or they call them consumables. [clears throat] For some companies were a couple different volumes instead of and some were just one volume per student. So that usability really factors into our final overall cost. But when you look at like the actual cost of being able to student bundle, which is a textbook, and the digital platform, they're all very, very similar. >> I appreciate the parent aspect and thank you for including that. Um Haley knows I have a couple of boys that went [clears throat] were in
115elementary school when Engage was adopted and it was a bit of a nightmare in my household. Um maybe it's cuz they're boys, I'm not really sure, but we could not keep anything straight. We couldn't find a single paper when we needed set paper. And one of the real struggles was we couldn't build on something they had before because whatever they had before, it didn't make it to stay in our environment. And so Jane knows what the Mason's backpack was like, but we just couldn't contain everything. So, I guess my one of my questions like I just heard that there's some workbooks and things like that where how can we does this allow for students to have a little bit more uh continuity maybe in their ability to keep things together and to be able to
116see how the curriculum flows for themselves, you know, throughout the year because we were we were a hot mess with engaged New York at our house. I don't know. We were not engaged New York people. [laughter] >> Engaged. >> We struggled. So, I think that that goes along with the the pacing of the workbooks is that there they'll have, you know, one thing where everything is together and so it won't be where we're trying to piece parts and supplement parts. And then also the technology aspect of it like they're already asking, can I play this at home? So, they can go home and they can play the amplified math. Um, and and you can see as a parent exactly what they're doing. We can assign it through there. So everything is just in one spot
117instead of handing you one page out of this and then one page from here and all going to be together. >> And engage is very workshop heavy >> and now all their work is contained and I do the they have a little checkup called to show what you know and I send that home graded so parents kind of know what how they're doing on that specific skill. So one thing is kind of going home that checkup um but it's not all the problem set and the sprint. >> I didn't even know what they meant. What are we supposed to do at home? I don't know. >> I don't think the digital platform is so confusing. >> Yeah, the digital platform is a game changer because students can log in from anywhere and show parents what
118they're working on. They can access the actual workbook online. So, there's so many different components of being able to take it home. It's not a backpack because we know those tend to be kind of >> well and printing. I mean, I as a mom volunteer, I can't even tell you how much time I spent copying those papers. And it's it was a lot. Even though it was a free curriculum, it wasn't it certainly wasn't free. >> There were costs associated. Thank you guys so much. I'm very excited for a new curriculum. >> I've actually gone down twice to look through the materials and I'm really excited about especially the story how it unfolds throughout each. It's very fun. >> I have fun with that. >> I have some chicken stew. If you need a committee
119chicken facility chicken, is that what we're talking [laughter] to the school? >> Okay. >> Have we adopted the policy yet? I'll I'll just underscore the great work our teachers doing. I love Thank you so much. You should be home with your families watching at Seinfeld or something talking to us. It's fantastic. I love the opportunity for our board members to go into schools and see how great our teachers are and occasionally to come here and for them to see that as well. Just you fill my heart. The the process that we we started this a long time ago. We we felt an urgency to get new math curriculum into the hands of our K through four teachers. We've done pretty much every other age curriculum area. Modern languages the high schools is coming up, but
120there's a small group of kids uh impacted by that than almost anything else. We really wanted to do this. Engage New York served its purposes for a while. There's a long period of time where we got no capital funding of any kind from the state. The hard capital things that Jimmy's been talking about tonight, but also soft capital thing. We had zero money for curriculum for over a decade. So, guess how much money we spent on curriculum for over a decade. Zero. There's finally been a little trickle of of that coming back and we just decided we can't do this anymore. So Kelsey's led so many great processes on this. This is the last one. When she came to me and said, "Hey, we started this out. We piloted one, but I think we're going
121to pause it." I was like, "Oh my gosh, can't we just get some people?" And she convinced me this is the right thing to do. And you heard tonight the reasons why why it's been a good idea to pause it and find, hey, there's another resource out there that's even better. And you're hearing unanimously that this is what they want and need to help our kids go next level. Thank you for not rushing it. >> Yes, >> that makes a huge >> going with your first choice, >> right? >> That's commendable because a lot of times we see that first choice and we jump. >> That happened with our high school one too, didn't it? You guys were pretty set on one and we >> No, they piloted and didn't love any. So, we went
122back to the drawing and said, "We're not going to settle. We're going to make sure we get the right choice." >> It's a very deliberate process for all these curriculum and whatnot. It's awesome. >> What's most powerful though is it really is teacher led. Um this is all coming from them. I really do remove myself. I just facilitate. This is all all of their feedback is what we present to you and what develops that process. So thank you guys for the hard work. It's been it's been a journey. >> So is this switch over? It's completely online. Correct. Is that what No, it's not. >> So it's like it's kind of a dual thing. >> Even the digital lessons. kind of nice because we know the internet goes up. So like even the digital lessons,
123it purposely has an icon next to it and they actually have it in their book as well. >> Okay. >> So you can choose to do a digital or print depending on like your preference or student figure that is and you can kind of like follow along that way. So what's nice is it always is both. It's always print and digital. Print and digital. >> What do you feel like they tend to go towards more often digitally or on paper? Unfortunately, they like the the digital side is very kid-friendly and it is cool, but it does take explanation because it's a very discovery piece. It's part of that like discovering math rather than being told the math the way that they do their digital. So, we kind of stepped through it. But what's cool is
124the platform they got really really smart and they kind of copied other things that were out there. So, you control their computers. Um, so you are collecting the information that they are reporting out on and then you control their screen when you can turn it so they can go ahead and things like that. So the student that doesn't use it appropriately, you just can close it, you say, "Oh, it's in your book. Just go ahead and take it right out." Um, so you kind of get that balance between the digital and the print, which I think for elementary, we're trying to get like away from digital sometimes. Back to >> Yeah. The hard part with no digital was they're assessed in that digital platform. They have to be fluent and they have to be able
125to understand how to navigate math in those kind of platforms. >> I think before the curriculum didn't have that digital piece, so we were using other things like Happy Numbers or Prodigy or something that was totally different um interface than than what they're seeing on the slides and things. But with this, it's the same. So, just like she said, there's an icon you It's on our slides. They can pull it up on their computer. It's the same. So, it looks the same and it's easy to navigate. Um, and then easy at home, too. >> And the web website has fluency practice as well. And I can adjust it and have students work on instead of single digit, I can bump them up to twodigit, three, multi-digit up to like rounding, graphic equivalent. And it's like
126really flat fast fluency. And so, it's fun that you can adjust it and give them that challenge that they need. It also has a couple other games that are um really a game that they always ask to play. So, it has more than just the curriculum on there, too. And at the end of the digital lessons, it also has like a feedback form where the kids get to decide like where's their knowledge of understanding. Um, which is cool because it's private, but you get it as a teacher. So, they can tell you right then like I'm confused or this one's really easy for me and they kind of click it, but then it gives you it. It like categories them really quick, but like these are the ones that are saying they don't get it.
127These are the ones that are saying that they do. You can look at it at a glance really quick to adjust on the fly. >> Any other comments? >> Thank you so much for your time. [applause] So, our next presentation is on letters. And for those of you that we just listened to a nice presentation on math, now we're going to now we're going to take a look at literacy and letters, which again is the what we hear out in the community a lot is that we don't teach phonics anymore. There's no such thing as fives in schools anymore. Letters is an incredible program that we're using. I believe we're going to try to get everybody endorsed in that. Is that correct? Or >> All K through five. >> All the K through five literacy
128teachers have to have an early lit endorsement. >> Okay. >> So, we'll talk about that with letters. And as we started, as I started to put this together, I realized we really need to give you the full picture of what early literacy looks like and where letters fits into that. So, I brought Lauren Sawyer, who's a reading interventionist from Taylor Hicks. She's also our letters facilitator. Um, I think what you heard in math and what you'll hear here is elementary teaching is not easy. It is actually very complex and there is lots of science and research that has gone into best practice and that you're going to see a lot of that here today. So, I've taken some resources from um some state trainings and it really all starts with this. We know that early
129literacy is essential to future success. Um, if they are not a good reader by the end of first grade, their chances of being a proficient reader later is drastically different. So this students who don't read proficiently by the end of third grade um are four times more likely to leave high school without a diploma. This is why the state of Arizona really came up with move on when reading, which set some benchmarks for our third graders. They'd have to be able to pass that reading benchmark in order to move on um to fourth grade. The great news though is that 95% of children can learn to read proficiency proficiently if we put the right supports in place. um that 5% that might not be able to read proficiently have either some pretty severe cognitive delays
130or some extensive learning disabilities that are impacting their learning. Um they can still gain skills. They just might not reach the same level of proficiency as their peers. All right. So the science of reading, we keep hearing that that's kind of the new buzz word, the science reading and truly the science behind it. how our brains learn how to read. It's not natural. Okay? Talking is natural. We hear it. We gain it. But then >> speaking of not natural, you use the mic. You have some just folks online. >> Five or six people out there listening right now live. So >> So there has been decades of research on how individuals learn how to read and it's not natural. we are we having to wire the brain to learn how to read. Uh that's when
131structured literacy that is that how we do it. It's that direct explicit systematic instruction that's constantly repeating so it can go into that long-term memory. Um and when as soon as possible prek, kindergarten, first grade, because we just saw that once they hit first grade, if they have reading that's still moving on, they're going to continue to struggle. Um these are our big signs in reading phic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension. And we'll talk about a little bit later on how we actually hit all those components. So we hear a lot of why structured literacy versus balanced literacy. And again it comes down to researchbased structured literacy. It's all researchbased and um we really focuses on learning the code. How do we learn how to read? What does this symbol mean? What sound does
132it mean? Because we're not born to know that. And balance literacy really focuses on that whole um whole word reading or queuing system when they're reading a book and they come to an unfamiliar word. Oh, we'll just look at the pictures or um look at the words around it and just guess. And we don't want our readers guessing. We want them to sound it out and decode it. So, what is Arizona doing to address early literacy? Um, I love this graphic because right now you're hearing a lot in the media about the Mississippi miracle, right? Um, they've figured it out. They have got students at a highest level of proficiency and they have a lot of growth within a a short amount of time. Um the reality behind that narrative is it actually took them
133over 20 years and they had to do each of these components. So they invested in prek in kindergarten entry assessments mandated full day kindergarten signs of reading training highquality materials as well as literacy coaches. Um, you can see, you know, Arizona is trying to do some of these things, but some of them take a pretty big financial investment that Arizona has not made yet. Um, so on the state level, we're not really funding preK. Um, we do not have a comprehensive kindergarten assessment. We do not even fund full day kindergarten. Yes. So, we only fund half day kindergarten. um [clears throat] they're working towards the science of reading training for teachers. They have mandated that all K5 teachers um get their early literacy endor endorsement. What that entails is all of our teachers now have
134to take two college level courses um to meet that requirement. Again, there's no funding attached to this. It was a mandate without funding and that burden's all placed on our teachers. This is why we brought letters into our district. Um, we said we're going to find some funding that helps our teachers with this endorsement, but we also know it's going to help every single one of our students in the classroom. Um, high quality instructional materials. So, part of our move on when reading process, how we get some of the funding for that is we have to show what we're using for tier one instruction, what we're using for all of our interventions because everything that's on the state's approved list has been highly vetted by the state that meets all of their criteria for promoting
135early literacy. And then Arizona has funded literacy coaches. Um I think they're their goal is to have 50 literacy coaches in the state. That's not going to even put a dent in half of our schools. So it's a pretty low bar. That needs to be much much much higher, but that's going to again take a lot of funding. So their goal is to complete some of these tasks by 2030. Um and they have a whole initiative called Arizona Literacy Plan. They're again trying to model it after that Mississippi miracle but only funding certain components. Um so again they by 26 they want to have 50 literacy coaches in the state. They want everyone to have high quality materials. By 27 by 28 is when that requirement of early literacy endorsement comes in for teachers. It's
136also been embedded now into some of the educator prep programs at universities or community colleges. Um by 29 they want to find some additional investments that they can make for preschool and then by 2030 they want to reduce chronic absenteeism. The one that stands out for me here that is the most frustrating is there's zero talk about funding full day kindergarten. We know how essential it is to get our kids in the classroom and that is not even on the radar at this point. Um, however, we have a lot to brag about when it comes to PUSD and what we are doing to help with this. So, preK, we have a amazing uh, preschool program at each, you know, here at the district office, but then also classrooms at each one of our elementary schools.
137So, we can tell students who've been in Discovery Gardens when they come to kindergarten with us, they have skills. They've been working on setting that foundation so they can be successful when they get to kindergarten. Um, we do have a comprehensive kindergarten assessment that we have used for a few years and it is where our students when they walk in the door and we can assess how much growth they've made um each time we assess and by the end of kindergarten they have a lot of skills already. Um, we don't mandate full day kindergarten, but we offer full day kindergarten free to our families. And what that does is because we're not funded fully for kindergarteners at the state is we're taking money that could be used in other areas and we're funding kindergarten because
138we know it's such a high priority. Um, there were days where some of our kids had to pay tuition to go to kindergarten full day, but luckily our board and our district leadership at the time said, "We can't not do this. This has to happen. we have to have our kindergarteners here full day. And I don't know of any kindergarteners currently or even in my recent memory who families have decided, hey, we're not going to go full day. We're just going to do the half day option. Um, our kindergarteners are there full day and our parents appreciate it and our kindergarteners are able to grow even more. We're investing in the science of reading training. This is not a small investment. Um, it is almost $2,000 per teacher for us to help them with that
139endorsement, but also we know that that's training that's essential for them to be effective educators. High quality materials. That is something that we were sure, you know, we had great teachers like Lornell who were a part of that committee who had a solid understanding of the science of reading who helped us pick those high quality materials. And then we also have instructional coaches at each one of our elementary sites. Each one of them along with our building principles um with the exception of Janette Bray who's a via Jed have had letters training. They have all gone through that. They know what good instruction is supposed to look like and they can help support students. Um Dr. Bray just started back with us this year in the elementary capacity. So she's going to be taking letters
140next year so that she can able she's able to support that within her her school as well. Kelsey, you were mentioning that the state is aiming for 50 literacy coaches. There's 1500 plus elementary schools in Arizona. >> Um, so why letters? Letters is an amazing professional development. It is not a curriculum. It starts off by teaching the teachers how the brain actually learns how to read, which is important. So many people don't understand that and it's not in our college preparation classes which is kind of sad. Um it is brain based instruction and it shows us it gives us the tools to apply structured literacy to our classrooms and it really shows that like balance literacy balance literacy kind of fits a few kids. Um, it teaches us how to reach all of our students
141and constantly looking at our data to drive our instruction. Um, let's see. So, a little bit of research on letters. Uh, 94 to 906% of our educators feel have a stronger understanding after completing letters. And to give a little background, letters takes about 2 years. So it has an online component where um the teachers are watching videos of strong instruction and learning um different techniques and then they're having to also read a manual and then they will come to um eight in-person 6-hour trainings um over the span of two years. Um students they're the ones who are impacted by it. They grow, they become strong leaders are, as you'll see later on, it's pretty impactful. Sorry. Just fine. Yep. Good. All right. So, this is what we have in place. Letters encompasses all five pillars.
142It starts off with our foundational skills of phonics and phenic awareness and then moves on to the other three. Um right now we have Heerty for our phmic awareness as one of our programs for K2. Um some of our third and fourth grade teachers have started to ask to use it for tier 2 and tier three support for some of their students. UFly, which is absolutely amazing, also encompasses phonics symphony week awareness for K2. And again, we have some of those older grade teachers looking at the manuals and implementing it for tier 2 and tier three small group instruction. Can I'm just going to add real quick. I didn't think about this earlier, but last year Marnell was pretty instrumental in looking at our data and really analyzing not just Taylor Hicks data, but all
143of PUSD data and align looking at our curriculum and she identified that we had a big gap within our tier one curriculum when it came to phonics and funic awareness and that is the reason why we actually ended up bringing EU fly into our district. So, um, it takes people like that to do that down and dirty work with that data to figure out what's happening and what we need to do to move forward. You can fly has a a pretty nice pacing. It's it's quick, but it's continually um going back and spiraling on all the skills that it's taught. It's hands-on, which is amazing, especially for those young little learners. They're able to manipulate the phones and graphings of words. And um then we have reading decodables for building our fluency. And then we're
144using into reading for some of that vocabulary and comprehension piece. Why heavy? Well, it's quick. It's easy. It's for all students. So, we can do this in our tier one instruction. Um 10 minutes max usually. And we don't have to do there's about three pages worth daily of of phic awareness activities. So, you know, we can go through and pick based on what our students are showing us they need. Um, and it prepares them for phonics, which we do every day in class. Why UFI? Well, why not you fly? It is absolutely amazing. It is researchbased. Um, has targeted support. It starts with um one skill and then you'll move on to the next in a couple days. And then you're going to continue to see all those skills spiraling over and over and over.
145Um, it's research based. It's fantastic. So, as you just heard, I mean, there are a lot of components that go into good quality reading instruction. And so as we are trying to navigate, you know, those five pillars with teachers, we're going how are they going to structure their reading blocks so that they're maximizing their instructional time but putting their emphasis in the right places. So, um, this summer we had instructional coaches, we had principles, learned this as well, but we came up with a recommended a recommendation of how to use those instructional minutes within their reading block so that they were targeting all of these different skills and giving students the foundation that they need. Um, so by law, we are required to have 90 minutes of uninterrupted reading blocks for our elementary school students.
146Um, so you can see I'm going to choose second grade just to highlight. Um, they have 30 minutes of funological awareness. And so we even highlighted what resources they should be using. 30 minutes a day of comprehension of vocabulary, 30 minutes a day of targeted small groupoup intervention that targets fluency and um, yeah, target fluency and they have all of those there. So phonics, you will see they don't target as heavily by second grade. That's really kindergarten and first grade. um by se by second grade they should have those phonics skills mastered. If not, that's happening in their tier 2 or tier three intervention groups. Um but this is just your core second grade instruction. And so it's not that teachers have to stick to exactly those timelines, but they're guidelines that they should be
147following every day based off of research best practice mixing some state law with that as well because there are some requirements around that. And that's how we've asked teachers to be structuring their their reading blocks um so we can maximize that time. I think this is the best slide of the night. This is from um kind of an early adopter classroom. When I sat with our first grade team and I had identified some large gaps and was you know talking to them about what we saw in our second grade classrooms, she was like okay well what do we do? I was like, well, we have UFI. And so she was like, let me try it. So last year she started out with 53% of her students below benchmark. Um, and by the end of the
148year, she had 88% of her kids at benchmark or 53%. >> You were right. Look at the pretty colors. [laughter] I'm your reading teacher. Yes. So, but 88% of her students were at or above benchmark. >> Yeah. And the only difference in her classroom was using you flag. So, now as we have those second graders, it is the first year usually we have um four people working on intervention groups for um second grade because that's always been our biggest area of need. This year we only have three and our groups are not completely full. So it is showing that the kids are learning the code. They know how to decode and they are ready to learn or for reading to learn instead of learning to read which is really exciting. Oh and then how can
149parents support literacy at home? Of course they can speak to their children have you know conversations about stories. point out letters. Have their child point out letters to them and ask them sounds. Play rhyming games. Read nursery rhymes. Um encourage any type of writing and spelling. It can be fun in the sand in sugar as you're in the kitchen cooking dinner or something. And of course partnering with teachers. >> Any question? I mean, we answer all of your questions about letters. And >> one of the most exciting things I've had a chance to watch you flag being taught a couple times this year already. That to me was always a hole. We always had a gap in that part of our adopted curriculums. It was just teachers were always trying to figure out what they
150wanted to do and it was sometimes successful and sometimes not. And I just the two lessons I've looked at to watch these little kids talk about rules and parts of things I don't don't even know the vocabulary for. It just I'm just a stuck. It's I'm very excited about that. So yes, you answer all my questions. I can remember years ago when Denise Murphy run this out and uh the Arizona Community Foundation of Yap County funded her and the materials from PUSD for the first few years. It's I know it's a sizable amount. How are we funding it now? How was that? >> What does that look like? This really big sale. >> Yeah. Creatively, >> you want to answer that? Um, sure. So, about Yeah, I'm I'm answer this carefully. Um, so about about
1515 years ago, we decided as a district that at that time 100% of our 301 money would go to teachers. And at that point, it was about 3.2 million. Um, and that's what we received. And then the next year, we paid out 100% as well. 3.4 U million. No, I'm sorry. Yeah, 3.4. Um anyway, at that point we kind of seen needs in the future and funding issues when it comes to needing money for raises. We really kind of left the 301 money at that level and the last two years it's been funded a little bit more and so we built up a surplus uh through interest and the excess that we paid out and that's what's going to be paying for earn letters trained to professional professional development which is a which is a
1523 to1 eligible area. That's great. I mean, it was an initiative that you didn't know it was going to take hold and obviously it was embraced and to see the results now, you know, years later is pretty phenomenal. So, thanks for investing in that. I mean, you a week go to community partners many cases, but you know, it's made it that important and tried it out. >> It becomes more affordable as well having one of our very best literacy teachers over the last several years say, "Hey, I'll get that training. I'll be that person to help provide that training for not only our district but a handful of teachers from a neighboring small district as well. So super cool right now. We just appreciate you so much. >> Excellent. >> And I will just give
153kudos to past governing boards and administration because without some of our fiscal decisions, I don't know how we would have besides just telling teachers you need to go spend your own money and and and get the what's required. And I really don't know what districts are doing across the state, but because we were very lucky, we made some decisions in the past that was benefiting 10 teachers on it would have cost most of our teachers well over $1,000 um out of their own pocket to meet this expectation. Yeah. Well, I you know I you can you can thank the board for doing this, but really we thank you because you put um so much intention and uh research and science into all these presentations that you give us and our job is to give you
154what you need to do your [clears throat] job. So, you know, it's easy. I mean, when you present things like the curriculum and you present this to us, it's easy to come back and say, "Well, yeah, obviously they need it. You know more about this than any of us do." So, thank you for all the work that you guys do to give us this detail and the information that we get. I mean, that's it's a lot and we appreciate it. >> Yeah. keeping us current and using the science that we I mean science just continually teaches us new things and not just staying in the stagnant well this is what we've always done or this is what we were told to do 15 years ago and and I'm grateful to see balance reading going away
155and structured reading returning. I think that's a a huge win for our kids. They're going to be better readers for it. So, it's exciting. Any more questions, comments? Keep up. Good work, Clell. You're amazing. >> Thank you. >> I feel like a dinosaur sometime. [applause] >> Okay. Thank you, ladies. Moving on. I'm looking at the clock and this is our first actual meeting. >> You're on really slow hours already. Chapter six. >> I can't stand. >> I was I was thinking that maybe as we go through our summary of events with our superintendent and governing board members, we be quick and tidy and move quickly through that section so that we're not still on this particular topic at 8:00. So, shall we go superintendent make it quick? >> Absolutely. Yeah, we've never started this at
1567:35 before, so I'll definitely keep it under 20 minutes. So we just have five real quick slides now. Um I was able to go to Granite Mountain last week. There's great things going on our schools all the time to recognize kids and the effort that they give. But at Granite Mountain, two things there's two slides there. One is um an example they were giving kids awards based on their growth and what is similar their their effort not you know the kids who did the very best on a test or whatn not the kids who teachers recognized hey you were in one place a couple months ago now you're in a whole different place based on the effort you're you're giving. So kind of cool that way. Then right after that, just for fun to to
157make everybody, you know, glad that they came to see their friends get certificates. They little game hungry hungry hippos on the floor there with the teachers pushing the kids around on the Yeah, it was fun. That was great. Next, um we've got tremendous sports teams throughout the the seasons and just this last Friday, uh Bradshaw Mountain came to town and we had our girls teams, our boys teams and basketball play against Bradshaw Mountain. We swapped them in every game. So that's kind of nice. some good photos from that. Our um high school uh performing arts students in choir and orchestra and band recently tried out for regional honor band and choir and whatnot. And there is a list of the numerous PHS students who made regional honor band or choir. We're super proud of those.
158>> And then uh let's see. Oh yeah, another another one of our uh great badge teams. um new wrestling coach this year and a lot of success with individuals and on the team level as well. I went into the leg cup coming up. This is from West Valley where they're at pretty simply. And then one other thing we wanted to run by you. Is it okay if Kelsey share something? >> Yes. >> Be quick. I'll be quick. Um so next Friday we have our what we always call this Super Bowl of PE days. So it is our choose your own professional development day. um that we did send out signups today. We have a variety of offerings that we put together every single year. The cool thing is we bring people from the community in,
159but we also this is an opportunity for some of our teacher leaders to highlight things that they're doing really, really well. Teaching can be a pretty isolating profession. You're in your room. You don't often get to go see other teachers. So, this is where our teachers get to learn from each other. And it really it's the day that we get the best feedback on. Our teachers look forward to it every year because we have so many different offerings. So, we have three 1-hour long sessions. We have anywhere from 11 to 14 offerings per session. Um, we have everything from, you know, Mr. Tenny offering kind of a state of the district. Where are we at with budget 4 day week? There's pickle ball up there led by one of our amazing high school science teachers.
160Um, we do have some, um, financial adviserss in the community who come and talk about what can you do as a teacher to get yourself ready for retirement. That's always one of our most popular ones to be honest with you. Um, so they're doing it three times. We have some on math um, instructional practices here, opportunities for reading interventionists to get together. We do have some um, offerings around how to help students with specific disabilities. um study island which is an online platform that we use for learning but lots of different offerings and it really is a great day. So you're more than welcome to come and join us. Come walk around, join a session or two if they look interesting to you but it really it's one of our most exciting days. We'll also
161have a very fun Valentine's Day table because it's the day before Valentine's Day. Um you'd be surprised at how excited teachers get to write each other Valentine's. Um, and each school is going to have their own cute little box that's decorated. We'll deliver it to sounds great. >> All right. Should we start with MP? What's up? >> Um, I don't think I have anything to report on current events. >> That's pretty short. >> Yes. >> Yeah, short weeks. Um, you know, one thing I do want to comment is, uh, we're doing YMC basketball and and I'm telling you, our our gyms are in great condition. I think, um, you know, when Brett and I were at Granite Mountain 35 years ago, I think it's the floor is better. The facility looks great. Um, that's what
162we practice on. That's what we share with the community. It's just a great partnership. I just love seeing that. There's a lot of people that grandparents and whatnot, they come out, they're old, retired, well, they're retired um school teachers and whatnot and uh that it's great to see them learn again watching their grandkids. >> All right. Um so I attended the uh training that um Superintendent Steve King put on for um board members. So, I went over to the Birdie just to kind of network and um yeah, I didn't go to the one in President um just to network with other county board members and to have Lisa do the train. One thing I noticed it was at the Cottonwood Creek School District office. Um they post their values on the wall, the board values,
163and I know last June we made a statement about what our values were. And I'm wondering if that's something maybe in the future we want to consider [clears throat] posting somewhere something that our guiding principles reason here. Um also I attended the the recent Bolts seminar in Flagstaff put on by ASBA. a lot of great information on open meeting law, board procedures, plus again some more networking opportunities with Yback County as well as Northern Arizona school board members, ASBA staff. So, it's all really good. >> Great for Jen. >> I also do not have anything. >> Okay. Um I went to the soccer game last night, the boys crash on two fun. um some singing at Cisco Gardens and went to a roundt discussion with Clark that Tim Carter put on for school board presidents
164and I think we're in pretty good shape. I left there feeling really good about our work. [clears throat] >> All right. So, I'm a part of this club called Interact which is a service based club. So we go around and do service projects around the community and we have the interact district conference coming up which is basically where all the interacts I think around Arizona come to this um district conference just to like discuss their program at their school and what they've been doing. Me personally I don't think I will be attending but it is on February 28th um depending on what school events I have and maybe I'll go maybe I won't but based on right now probably not. And then for S Club, which I always like to premise it, I know that
165I talk about S Club every single time that you guys see me, but S Club is a part of Soptimus International, which is an all women-based program that focuses on supporting women around the community. And we recently had a meeting where we are creating these Valentine's Day purses. We do this every year. I think they've been doing it at least since 2021. I don't know how much longer than that. You would have to ask a shark about that. Um, but we're doing this Valentine's Day purse project, which is where we we ask club members to bring in purses and supplies such as feminine hygiene products. We bring in um soap, shampoo, conditioner, all those products that people not all people have access to. And we fill those we fill those purses up with those necessities.
166And on Monday, we will be going to the five and two soup kitchen to deliver them and spend some time with those people. That's all I have for at for this time. >> Great as always. Great. All right. Community comments that were shared with governing board members this past month. Anyone have something they would like to bring up? >> I just had a couple. Um, I talked to a mother who was a little irritated with the drop off times and multiple schools that her kids had to go to. And I thought it was just my job to listen. And so I practiced my listening skills. And then I talked to a former teacher who told us as board members, we need to let the teachers do their job. And um I hope that as board
167members or as a board member I I'm never the amateur who's trying to tell professionals how to do their job. So if you ever see me do that, please remind me of that. Those are my two community comments. >> Anybody have anything else to author? Um I met with several women from the AAW organization here in town. We just wanted some factual info about the upcoming possible board bond and override and it was quite successful and I think they got all the information they needed. All right, let's move on. Action items. The consent agenda 7A. These are the items that we read through as a board ahead of time and we can vote on them as one giant swoop here. And does any board member have something they would like pulled from the consent agenda
168to deal with separately? >> I'm taking over for Jane and our donation recognition. So I would like to pull 782 please so we can recognize our donors individually. >> Does anybody want anything else pulled? All right. So let's take a look at the consent agenda. Um, we would like to make a motion to approve consider to approve the consent agenda as presented with the exception of 7A.2, which is our donation. >> I'll make that motion. >> Do we have a second? >> I'll second. >> All those in favor of passing the consent agenda with the exception of 7 A2 say I. >> I. >> Anyone opposed? >> Passes. Let's move on then to 7 A2. generals to read for us what the donations were. >> Yes, we have a lot. So, [laughter] this month we
169have a lot. >> I know. Uh we have the Kowanas Bubba Prescuit donated $4,350 to Discovery Gardens tuition program. A check from Ellen Platimone Platimone in the amount of $200 for the PHS orchestra. the FNC Aruda Trust in the amount of $150 for PHS Girls Golf. A donation from Virginia S. Sber in the amount of $200 for Taylor Hicks character education. A donation from Bonnie and Tomas Dero in the amount of $2,000 for the PHS Challenge Club. Prescuit Sunrise Foundation in the amount of $1,94 for Discovery Gardens. And then we received five donations from our PUSD education foundation. They include $5,000 for Discovery Garden, $6,000 for Prescuit Mile High Middle School maths siphons I'm guessing, another $5,000 for PHS coral program, $24,000 for the Granite Mountain Upper Elementary School math stipens, and $30,000 for the
170Granite Mountain Upper Elementary School Library Project. >> Wow. >> So, that's pretty awesome. I happen to love our foundation and I'm very very excited that we get to give that money and it's because our community is incredibly generous to our education foundation. So very very grateful to everyone in the community for that >> guys. I'd like to point out that's a total of $77,994 in one Do I have a motion to approve the donations as presented? >> Do I have a second? >> I'll second. >> So by saying I you approve the donations as presented. >> I any nays passes 5. Let's move on to 7B information and discussion items. Our first one is 71. Brian is going to present the board summary budget request report. Not request report, sorry. So, Bill, Brian, it's all
171yours. >> I did, you know, prepare like 20 minutes, but given the time, I'm just going to say as presented, >> unlike usual >> or you go on and on about it, >> just for you. >> Thank you. >> All right, that's it. All right, let's go on to 7B2, the discussion about the bond and override. And Clark has a few things to say about that. >> Okay, so I think I I reported to you in my board report earlier that we we um based on the input you gave us, Brian and I sat down, we decided that it would be best to go with high ground consultants for each of the services that are offering. So I think we've got a contract initiated with them. Brian, is that right? We were able to have
172Paul Vince on between 6:00 and 6:30. We're a little past that. So, he's not with us at this point. If we have something that's really urgent, we're like, you got to ask that guy tonight. He's he's definitely get on the phone with us or something. But, um, this is this is your opportunity if you'd like to spend some time talking about where you're at or what questions you got. I'd love to hear if there are things you'd like us to follow up with on what what are next steps and whatnot. I need to find that out from him. particularly uh if there are things that you want him to include in the survey that he'll be putting together. I'm sure he's got some recommendations for the kinds of questions that you're asking. But if there
173are specific things you'd say, hey, let's make sure this is a part of it or let's ask him if he thinks it would be valuable to include that as part of it. >> Will we be given an opportunity to review those survey questions? >> Yes. Yes. >> Okay. >> We can definitely >> before the surveys and >> you know that's kind of time sensitive. We want to get out as soon as we can, right? I think you're you're going to it sounds like you're going to rely on that to try to determine uh amounts and charter areas for both bond and overhead. So, we don't want to wait too long for that. But I'll try to Ryan and I have a meeting and Sarah have a meeting with him and >> on Thursday. Perfect. Couple
174>> that was going to be one of my questions. Do we need to include in the survey the numbers the amounts or not? >> You could certainly >> I don't know what your feelings are. decided what those amounts are. I think our meeting on Thursday will will guide us a lot with that especially as we have uh voiced in prior meetings that we don't see the survey as should we go or should we not you know or or can we shoot for 15% over this community you know so I we'll use some of that feedback to >> to help develop >> help develop the questions and really have the survey guide how how we present the information, what's important to our community, and like Mr. Ben said, you know, even the order that things are
175on the path that's lower. other things you want to find out through that survey that we can recommend or ask him if if he thinks it's a good idea to include. >> You know, I thought first of all, thanks for making a choice and not just going with, you know, what we've kind of always used and I think our eyes, all of our eyes are open by giving them the opportunity to speak. Um, there are some things that I I really like for him to help kind of guide us because some of the stuff that he said, you know, having a conservative background, you know, having, you know, that as a perspective, I feel like he's very current in what's going on, especially around the state. Those are things that we I think if he
176guides us through it and that survey, we could kind of pull out. So, um, I don't know. I just felt a whole lot more warm when you know when he presented that and that he probably understands our community a whole lot better. Um and then and then he and him and his team sounds like they will help us a lot. They do a lot of research they do and that's why that rate was so nice because it wasn't like I don't know it wasn't hourly. just like we just do all this for you. And um >> so right now I just don't even know what direction to go. So I'd love to see some feedback. >> I'm reasonably certain we won't get on the meeting with him on Thursday and have him say, "Gee, what
177do you want to know, guys?" He's probably going to have a a template for us and we can share that with you and then you can you can you know tweak it a little bit. That might be our best way to approach this. I think my only other question for him maybe is what is his timeline expected to be as far as when we might have data and when when as a board we would be able to be voting in order to make sure we're meeting in the timelines of the county, but also giving our community ample time to rally together in support of the efforts. that would be part of the Thursday meeting. >> I'm confident that will be something that come out. >> Should I go to the Thursday meeting? I didn't get
178any information about that. >> Great question. It's just a meeting between Mr. >> I can be the stand. >> I like that. >> Wow. You might not even know it's a correct. >> She's a [laughter] >> Yeah, great question. I appreciate you asking it. It's not something that's uh intended for board members per se. We'll take care of that administrative report back to you. Appreciate you asking. >> Yeah. Anything else along that that you wanted to This is an opportunity for the five of you together to talk about this. Obviously, we won't be here till 9:30, but it's only, you know, 7:54. So, >> are we plenty of time? >> 9:30. We were told the other night that generally board games last 2 hours. >> Yes. Yeah. If we're going to be on that round
179table discussion believe that >> anybody else No, we're good. All right. Let's go on to 73, which is request for future agenda items. I would like sometime in the future to actually have one of the teachers who does use Bible. We all do >> actually teach more. >> Okay. >> Give us a lesson. Very short. >> I know the person >> Sarah probably. I already I did contact her about which she be >> but that's the other teaches first grade over there. Um, she teaches a good fun lesson, but I think it will be fun for us when we don't have a lot on that. Just do the lesson with you. >> Yeah, kind of fun. >> Anybody else have something for the future? >> All right, let's look at dates. February 13th. >> Very
180good. President, we will probably bring to you in March. So, it's February. Our next meeting is March. That's right before contracts will be issued. So, we'll be bringing to you a conceptual budget for you to vote on prior to that. And between now and then, we will um set up appointments with board members individually to share information with you, get your feedback and your questions and whatnot, so we can get that into a draft form that we think is going to be um acceptable by by individual board members and hopefully the board as a whole. If if we get to March and you say, "Wow, what is this? We don't like it." Then we have to go back to the drawing board quick in order to get contracts out in the time frame that we
181want to. So, we should contact you and set something up. I'm not really into the president like President Roberts. >> It was a theme tonight. So >> just go. >> February 13th is our professional development day. If you have any couple hours you want to go by, it's kind of fun. I've done that a few times. February 16th, President's Day. All district schools and sites are closed. Our next governing board meeting is March the 3. We will have a study session and a regular study and voting session. I will be out of the country, but I'll be trying to call in. >> I will attempt it. Sarah, we'll see. Last time I tried that, it was a chaos. >> Would you like to try to run the meeting? >> No, I think we're going to
182let Jen run the meeting because we have no idea. But I will talk about budget prior and I had a copy of whatever. All right. Anything for the good of the order?