PUSD Governing Board Meeting - July 1, 2025

001Hey, we're just started the birthday boy. Thank you. Happy birthday for the whole night. Great. I've got the the mics on. everybody can can hear. We've had some feedback uh about the mic, no pun intended. So, well, great. Thank you for being here this evening and and we're here uh ready to do another kind of study session, book study. We've been in our book, How Not to Be a Terrier School Board Member. And it's been gratifying to confirm over the last 10 chapters that none of you are terrible school board members. I've been reflecting on the superintendent's lessons learned quite a bit and there's room for improvement there, but we've got some great schoolboard members. Um the tonight we're looking at terrible habit or chapter number 11 and chapter number 12 and terrible habit number

00211 was abstain. It's entitled abstain on tough votes. Now, for some of us, this will bring back some memories. Um but at any rate, who who remembers um who who remembers kind of the scenario in the in the book? If you're like me and you read it in the last 45 minutes, you probably remember it pretty well. My problem is I read it like the 45 minutes after the There you go. I'm like, "No, I don't remember. You're an overachiever, so you're you're excused. Please do it." Yeah. So, uh this one uh yeah, very um hit home uh for sure, but uh especially since we're talking about bringing forward a a uh bond um to bring forward to the public. And in this one specifically, there's a lot of information that they've reached out to

003the public. There's been several meetings on it. So it says that there were um volumes basically they're filling up a bookshelf of one of the board members and um and and so again so when it came time to make a vote uh there was two you know a lot of information for and a lot of uh information uh against and it was a tie and then the third or the fourth uh and then someone abstained. So it was two two and then abstensia and uh and the person kind of felt like I just don't have enough information or something or you know what and then he got got a lot of grief about it that he's like golly well that's you guys decided nothing you know so they really really heard it um so what

004do you do and so that was kind of the premise of it all. Great I appreciate that. Yeah that's that's exactly right. So you you mentioned something I think that was key to the context here, Stan, which is that these people had had plenty of time to to go over the information. It had been a subjective discussion multiple times. All the information was available and now it was was time to vote. It wasn't a scenario where you I really need some more info before I I commit here. Um and the other person abstained. Interestingly, if I'm remembering correctly, and don't hold me to this, but I believe this is the case in our city charter. So, I was on the city council briefly and kind of was in your position of voting on things in

005the city charter. If somebody abstains, that's counted as a yes vote, but that's not typical. That's not typical. It's not the case here. Uh, and it's it's not the case with this scenario either. So, the motion failed. They were they were looking at going forward with something and because this person ultimately because this person said, "I'm I'm out. I can't vote." It failed. So, that was one piece that people were concerned about. The other piece people were concerned about is we elected you to make decisions and you just like officially did not make a decision. What what's up with that? So people were upset like you say and and there were several different um several different scenarios and the the one that was recommended by the author was what what should this person have done

006instead? Make a decision. Right. Yeah. Make an informed decision. It says here, "You've had adequate time to educate yourself, to consult, and consider the proposal. It is now your responsibility to make an informed decision that you believe is in the best interest of the children of the district." Right. Yeah. It it did mention there are some scenarios in which a person might want to abstain or recuse themselves from a discussion or a vote. Do you remember what those were? Did do you have one was a conflict of interest? A conflict of interest. If there's an item that you have a a personal stake in, um then you should recuse yourself from we actually had Oh, go ahead, please. It also said if you do not have enough if you do not have enough information, which

007wasn't the case here, or if you um needed more time to discuss the issue, which was not the case here. Sure. Right. Right. Welcome. Welcome. We're glad you're here. Thanks for coming. Um so, you're exactly right. I I I thought to myself when they said if there wasn't enough time to discuss the issue, you need more information. That's a situation where you might vote to table it, right? rather than say, "Hey, I'm not gonna abstain from the vote." That that would maybe be my recommendation. But you're exactly right, Andy. I appreciate um what you shared. We actually had a board member recently who uh was looking at a an agenda item coming up and said, "Hey, I wonder if I should abstain from this. I wonder if um this is something where I should not

008abstain, but recuse myself." Um asked me to reach out to our legal counsel. So, we did. I got with Dave Poli and explained the situation. And in this scenario, uh, he explained that this board me asked some questions and found out that the board member didn't have any financial stake. You'll always have a not always in most cases, you will have a stake in what we're talking about. Yes. Right. I mean, you got your kids in your schools. You you went to the schools yourselves. You've got a lot of people sharing information. You'll always have some kind of a stake. Not always, but usually have some kind of stake in decisions. That's not a scenario where you would typically uh want to recuse yourself or abstain. It's it's if according to our attorney at least

009if there's some financial benefit to you uh or financial loss to you and voting one way or another that's a scenario in which you must abstain but otherwise you you're free to vote and and this is suggesting you probably should vote on most things unless there's a unusual scenario. So any other thoughts about this one? There was something here that caught my eye. Um, I always I always pay special attention to the superintendent's lessons learned and it it said, you know, what what should you do? Make sure that board members have all the information you need. Hopefully, you feel I do an adequate job of that. Please, if there's ever you need more information about something. I had a board member text me an hour ago, something like that, say, "Hey, can you give me

010a little bit more information about this item?" I tried. I said, "I don't really know, but I'll get back with you in a minute." So, I was able to do that hopefully. Um, if you ever need more information, don't hesitate to reach out at any point about things, including, you know, just prior to the meeting or during the meeting. Those those are appropriate times. But then it said, "You might want to, as a superintendent, practice first aid by gently commenting on the need for everyone to vote unless there's a conflict of interest." I thought, "Oh, that would be super awkward doing that during the meeting. I might want to do that afterwards." Then I read a couple sentences later and it suggested just that. But we've had scenarios in the past where other board members

011have abstained. And I I'm not sure I would have a felt comfortable or b professional in saying, "Hey, board member number three over there. What's the matter with you? Don't you know people voted you in to to vote on these things?" So anyhow, those are those were lessons learned. Other thoughts, question, is that part of our onboarding discussions? I I don't recall. Good question. Talking about abstensions. I I think we've got that in our board operations manual. Okay. It was in the training at the county said recluse all the time. Yes. Yes. Say the right word. So we were like we were so distracted by just the word usage that I know we talked about when we should and should not recuse ourselves. I remember that and they do it at the board uh president's

012uh training as well. And it really, you know, the last paragraph kind of struck me because it it did say um I think there was a port portion that says directly challenge a board member's decision to abstain, right? It's a tricky task, but you know, our our advisement in all our training was, you know, if you do abstain, you know, make it clear as why you want to substain. And a lot of times it may just be that you don't I think that like for minutes you're like I'm going to abstain because I wasn't present for the minutes, you know, so I'm not going to approve them or something along those lines. So it's it could be very very non-decisive or you know um decisive but controversial. It's just like you're letting the public know

013this is the reason why I'm abstainating and you give them the audience to do so. Do we That was the question I was going to ask. Do we have are we allowed to ask the board member that abstains at the board meeting the reason for abstension? I we went through this. Yeah. And that's from the county superintendent's advisement and um and it is in um it's not necessarily a state statute, but it's a recommendation under the secretary of state. So, so we went through that and and it is and it's mainly so that the public understands where you know why you're choosing to abstain and um it doesn't always have to be you know a controversial deal right and it does it wouldn't have to be a financial stake that's the that's the scenario in

014which you must recuse yourself or you know abstain otherwise there are other scenarios I'll give you really quick and we'll move on to the other one when I was on city council I abstained one time and as I recall we were considering a liquor license and the liquor license was for a place that was going to be relatively close to mile high. It met statutory requirements in terms of distance from from the the um from the school, but I I just wasn't comfortable with with another establishment serving liquor that close to the school. It was pretty close. It was just right in the you know that the alley right off of the entrance of Mile High. And so I shared this is how I feel. I this meets statutory requirements for this. So there's no

015reason for me to vote against this. I would I'd not be following the law to vote against this, but I just don't want to go on record having approved another bar, you know, 150 yards from the front of my high kind of a thing. So, I said I'm going to abstain on this one. All right. Very good. So, that one was where someone's maybe too wishy-washy. This one's where maybe somebody's a little too decisive, I think. Right. Who can who can explain this really quick or summarize the the scenario? So this is a scenario where the board is discussing summer school for the year ahead and different plans that the administration has brought to them for how to how to cover summer school. One is uh a basic plan, four different plans. One is a

016basic plan that is not as expensive. The second one is more expensive. The third has a higher level of involvement and better transportation. I think the second one had better transportation options to for the kids. Um the fourth one is a is an innovative new program that uh would be very expensive but also very maybe transformative for it. Um the board member sticks to their guns basically and says um I stuck with this plan and I'm going with it and I'm not going to compromise on that at all. He I want to say he in this case, right? He came to the meeting and said I know y I got my mind made up. And the other two had very good arguments or two other board members had very good arguments for the more expensive

017plans than what he was proposing. Heard additional information but said nope. I came into the room saying I'm going to vote this way and so voted that way. So what what was what about that made this person a terrible board member according to the so the only thing that I under well one of the things I underlined that I thought was interesting that compromising does not mean you're giving up on your goals or you're giving up on your principles. It just means you're meeting the other you're meeting each other in the middle. Sure. And that's what we do. That's what we do on the board and that's what we do as people. We compromise all the time and I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. Yeah. I think that's well said. One of the

018things that I uh highlighted was when decisiveness turns to intrangence, you become a terrible board member. If you decide no matter what, I'm voting this way. It doesn't matter what Stan has to say. Yeah, he made some good points and he's a good guy. But I came into the room knowing I was going to do this and I'm going to do that. That that's probably not your best move. And Jane, you're exactly right. There are situations in which you what what did they what was essentially the recommendation here that you look for? Well, there two or three options, right? was really good. Three options. I thought option four was really good because they were actually trying to incorporate plan two and plan four. Let's find a way we can meet in the middle and have

019the best of both, which I thought was that made total sense. Yeah, absolutely. It reminds me a little bit of when we were looking at uh different restructuring plans for the district. We had what two or three plans out there and and Jane was and Jen were part of a group who came and said, "Hey, how about elements of this plan and elements of that plan?" And everybody said, "Wow, that's that's pretty brilliant." So, I think we ended up going that way. I think it's hard when you're presented with four plans because you feel like you don't have any other options. And so then we kind of stopped thinking outside of of just those four options, you know? And so I think it's important that we keep like we keep communicating so that we can

020come up with maybe the best of both worlds and it could end up being even better than plan two or plan four. There you go. Great. Any other thoughts about this one? Um the one thing I I think of somebody told me during the election season was you know and I think it applies to board work too is is that um your goal is not to have perfection. It's it's like riding a bus. You get on the bus that gets you closest to where you want to be. Okay? And it's not perfect. You may have to walk a little ways. You might have to, you know, take another bus to another location to get you closer. But but that's what in government and and these types this type of work that we do. We're trying

021to get to the closest that we can to what most people need. That's a good analogy. And that's it's kind of like riding a bus. So I like Uber. Huh? I'll take an Uber. Get you get you right where you want to be. That's a great That's a great analogy. Those of us who were following the the uh state budget negotiations found, you know, initially people were not willing to negotiate, but but the last minute they did and probably nobody got exactly what they wanted out of that, right? But like Jane said, people held to the principles that were most important to them and pulled in ideas from other people and came up with something that was reasonable enough for everybody. Okay. All right. Perfect. Great timing. Hey, we're going to go right into uh

022our board meeting. Like to welcome everybody to the July 1st, 2025 PUSD governing board meeting. Uh we will start with the pledge of allegiance. Um Brett, would you lead us in the pledge? Yes. Repeat after me. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right, moving on to item four, approval of minutes. I'll take a motion to Oh, sorry. Moving item three. Thanks, Sarah. Um uh motion to approve the agenda. Any changes to that? So moved. Motion. Do we have any second? I will second that. Motion second. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Passes. Moving on to item four. Uh motion to approve the minutes from the study session, book

023study, and regular study and voting session meetings from of June 17, 2025. Can we get a motion? I'll make that motion. Motion. Do we have a second? Second. Motion second. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Hearing none. Um item 5A, Prescuit Unified School District Education Foundation update. Dave Clever and Paul Kirchber. Fantastic. Hello everyone. Um board members, Mr. Superintendent, staff, and uh members of the audience. Thank you for having us. Um and my name is Dave Clever. I'm the current president of the POSD Education Foundation and I'm here with Paul Kurtz Greyber um our executive director and we're here to give you an annual update. So I hope I get this right. There we go. So I want to start off with we've been around for 10 years. So it's our 10 year

024anniversary. Uh thank you. And um want to point out somebody in that original picture, one of our founding members, Miss Bergamini. Um and you were on the foundation for eight years, like a long time. Six years from when we officially became a foundation. So there was some lots of time before that where we were away leading up the foundation, but six years of board service. So that was something a blast from the past that we dug up and thought we'd appreciate that. So um but also uh Mr. Galagosski was you you were one of the originals too. Right after just probably right right after that picture was taken. Yeah. Joe Howard came to us and said there's not enough dudes on the foundation. That was so true. We had we were very momheavy organization in

025the beginning. Um, and I also need to give a shout out to Miss Robinson who who I is still on the board. Still on the board. Um, and I think you came on right when I came on, which is like nine years ago or a long time ago. Yeah, right after I retired. Six, seven, six. It's been a while. So, but um anyway, so continuing on um so last year, last fiscal year, we contributed uh $147,000 to the district. Um, and I'm going to talk about some of the major projects we sponsored and then Paul will cover some of our annual ongoing support that we do. So, um, one of the big ones, uh, the district came to us and said, "We need help with, uh, hiring and retaining middle school math teachers." So, we

026came up with a $35,000 supplement. So, um, hopefully it's it's helping out. We'll find out, but uh it's something we're going to continue to support um as needed. Another big project was uh Mile High Middle School new desks. Uh we helped fund it. We didn't pay for the whole thing, but I think um it was a substantial part of it, Mr. Superintendent, if you know, feel free to chime in if you'd like to. Um but this is a before picture. These were the original desks, and I think they go back to the 80s. I was going to say they look like the desks I sat in at. Yeah, that's the comment we have. I sat in that one right there. I think some of the teachers at Mahai sat in those original desks. So, um

027but um it's not only just the quality of the furniture, but the fact that the new ones are a lot more flexible. Um you can arrange them. The seats are separate. Um, you won't gouge yourself on exposed metal frames like the old ones. And you can see one here, you could write on them. So, I was in there and the kids were actually doing uh solving problems on the desk. So, the erasable just to be clear, we could write on them before them and carve on carve on them. Yes. Right. You could carve on them. You can also see how they can arrange them for collaborate like group exercises. So um and one of the the teachers I I spoke with said they just love it. She says other teachers are jealous that she has

028these. So um but also uh we also have the group activity tables which are also wheelchair accessible now which was not the case before. So um it's been a great impact and we're proud to have helped with that. So, with that, I'm going to hand it over to Paul who's going to talk about some of our ongoing um support for the district. So, Mr. Grape, we didn't rehearse this. No, we have and Jane jump in. I'm I'm sure you you will. I'm doing you know a little bit about a little bit. This is the right trend line. We began at a point in time when Jane and Carol introduce the idea of a teacher's closet, giving free essential classroom supplies to teachers and helping them not go to Walmart. So actually started this fiscal year.

029This is when we really began tracking data and you can see every year we've increased the number of teachers who have come into the teachers closet and it's a little misleading. It's under reported J and I feel that you can add a factor to this number because a lot of teachers will pick up supplies for their other teachers because the teacher can't make it to the supply class. So we know these are under reported. We're going to start tracking this year. start tracking those teachers that are also picking supplies for for their uh colleagues. Um and the other thing about this, you know, think about the force multiplier. For every teacher who comes in to pick up supplies for class, they're imping. So if they work at the high school, they're impacting 160 students. There

030you go. Um and with that cost to operate the teachers closet and we're excited about that. We are glad to see costs go up because that means we're doing the right thing. We're doing the right thing. It's um it's a huge book this year and we think that that's because Not only the number of teacher visits, but the that that factor that they're also providing pick up, you know, duty for their colleagues uh is driving the number up. Out of the $16,000 that we have spent, we raised 14,000. We get tremendous community support for this project. It's very visible. and people want to support, individuals, small businesses, and so we're really thankful. We we see this number going up, frankly, because we want to make sure that no teacher or staff person has to go

031to Walmart. How much are you getting donated? Well, I was I was going to mention one factor where the 16,000 is what we actually spent moneywise financially. We get donations from this incredible community. We've h we have real estate offices going out of business. They will call me and said say, "Do you want all of our supplies that are left over?" We had even a city a bank going out of business called said, "Do you want all of our supplies? We're moving out. We need we need help." So I would say retired teachers um people who have tremendous number of art supplies don't know what to do with them. So we end up Yavapai the colleges in the district got the county got together a few months ago and the art teachers and sort of

032did a a swap and whatever they didn't use didn't want they contacted us and said do you want everything we weren't able to use. So it's a huge you have some embry students as well. We do. We have Emry Riddle student. They're so cute. They They're very cute, Andy. They at the end twice a year at the end of their semester, they we have a gal who's now moved on. She's graduated, but her boyfriend's taking over who goes around and gathers supplies that the students haven't used that they might want to donate to the teacher's closet. And sometimes we get wonderful things and sometimes we just get cute little things like little butterflies and just fun just fun little things or a bag of partially used pencils, you know, just but the thought is there.

033It's and it's just amazing because they think about it. So it's this is the third year I believe that we're gonna we're still working with Emry Riddle and even though she's moved on, she's passing the baton on to another person at Emory Riddle who will take over. It's pretty fun. Yeah. I have to mention that as we've grown here, we have also expanded our space. We have indeed. It's anable. We started with a third. Didn't we start with an actual We started with a closet with an actual closet like a broom closet over at the district office. And I believe this is a point of pride for school district. There really is no other school in the state of Arizona that I can find that operates a teacher closet in this fashion. Mesa has sort

034of kind of place where teachers can check things out. one of the Phoenix Unified School Districts, they they have something that's not volunteer. It's not supported by the community. It's just this is unique. It really is. We're really lucky this year that um we we have been the fiduciary for the president started maybe a year and a half ago by getting grant money from Arizona Community. Well, this year an estate I think was already mentioned once earlier board meeting um a woman had donated $266,000 a total of 260 266,000 to fund the president. What that meant was we were able from Arizona Community Foundation the money that they were sending pay for this and now we basically can self approximately 100 kids know that volunteers get together and they prepare weekend lunches and then they

035cars and they they disperse to all the schools and Thursday. So this is this is now one I said we've taken over the judiciary responsibility. How do we raise the money? Yeah, we have you familiar with our gala the last year at the club raised a total of $75,000. We also do the whiskey offer beer garden which many of you are involved with intimately. You miss in one way. Oh, I tell you, we missed you. I know. I couldn't believe we planned a vacation over the with the offroad. That was crazy. Me neither, J. We will be back. Do I understand correctly? You refused sales to the biker who's second from the right. Is that right? When she came to the beer garden, you said, "No, come come back in 15 years." She did not

036get a finisher. Um, one of our just one of our best most funnest most funnest um event is is the Rising Stars program and you all you all know that you've been to it. It was exciting this year. This young man was surprised by his brothers who came who are each in the Marine Corps and came and told to the event and it was just a special it was kind of a goosebump moment. It really was just a program that got started. We're so proud to be a part of it. Again, nothing like that in school districts around the state. We gave three scholarships this year and helped Presc. We uh support the family enrichment center. We do stuffing the fair. We also are contributor to the Ranger program, which gives gift cards to Walmart,

037$100 gift cards that rangers then take the family out to go shopping at Walmart. Pick up essential items. I mean, you know, it's socks. It's maybe a new coat. And the amazing thing maybe I've told the story before that ranger takes the family and they go to the check they've got $100 gift card for each of the kids when the total exceeds $100 in terms of what they're buying. What do you think they do? What's that manager? Pulls out his own credit card. It's amazing. And and make sure that those kids, that family has what they need when they leave Walmart. The unique part of this program unlike others that only does it during Thanksgiving only Christmas really and your relationship right with the rangers helped at the beer garden too and so there that

038curves a cost. Yes. And for our first couple years of doing the beer garden, we didn't have the rangers. And we paid a lot of money to have the security. And when the rangers came forward and said, "We'll just do that." I mean, it was unbelievable how it affected our bottom line. It was awesome. Just shows your collaboration with the community. Yeah. In fact, some of those people, some of the rangers that were there for the garden were actually on it. We do lot of little things to support school district so that the teacher doesn't have to principal um got a call from the fifth grade camp program. They needed sunscreen. You know, they tell kids bring sunscreen. And so, I got a call and we bought 100 bottles. You know, it's a little stuff

039that goes kind of unnoticed, but important in terms of how the foundation supports, excuse me, little ones. And yeah, we buy gravel. Yeah. And the food forest has got a brand new gravel. Thanks to foundation and um we provide gift cards for our years of service our staff awards. It's important that uh and the reason they've been incredible this program to help us with gift cards. We do restaurant cards um Vivy group, which I love because there's like what? Four restaurants and he has five. Five. Yeah. And so they can use the gift card and any of them or all of them. And it's locally owned and not just a big chain. So it's awesome. Yeah. So I'm gonna turn this over to David Clever who's gonna answer all of your questions. So seriously, do

040you have any questions? Are we still doing grants specific, you know, the innovative grants and doing the delivery of those grants like we did on the bus and the band and all the things? Does that still happen? We switched over to basically uh funding site grants which is the example of like the desks and and I figure we do a much larger project. Um we weren't getting a lot of traction towards the end for the teacher grants. So um we decided to brainstorm and everywhere else we can be more effective. So, nice. Yeah. Yeah. I appreciate that that you really listen to it because it's um the grants is a lot of time and effort from the foundation as well and and you know, they're always kind of went away with a not everybody received

041the grant, you know, the teachers put a lot of time and effort into it and they got enough on their plate to actually put in a grant application, have it kind of scrutinized the whole I might add just a touch to that with the site grants. It's a whole school decision. The school gets together and decides as a faculty what would they most like to see. Our first site grant cycle began with the high school and they made improvements to the library which is now tough to get into at lunchtime whereas it used to be a bl a dark empty space and now you can barely get in at lunchtime. Kids just go in and and hang out. It's amazing. And then the second one was for the furniture mile high and then granted on

042for next year and but I like the fact that all the teachers have a say so in what's going to happen at their school. So they all have a vested interest. Well done Mr. President. I be I don't want to take any more time but I do want to share this great piece of news. Um for those of you who have been around for a while you may be aware of the Arizona Community Foundation's Joy of Giving event. Anybody been there before? It's it's held up in the resort. 300 people. Um these are business leaders, community leaders, they're nonprofit leaders throughout Y County. And it is a an event to really congratulate and and and share philanthropic spirit. um a philanthropist of the years selected, organization of the year selected. And what they also do

043is they out of the hundreds of applications for grants that they receive each year, they pick three nonprofit organizations to be shining stars. And those organizations get a chance to present why they're a shining star to a huge bank. Guess who gets to do that? Congrats. The education foundation was selected out of all those u grant proposals as uh one of the shining stars and we are so excited. It reinforces our motto for the 10y year anniversary about making an impact. The community recognized that you don't get picked for that because you're just standing around doing nothing. The community understands that the foundation has made a great impact on on not only the community, the school, the students. The event is August 8th. I'm inviting all of you to attend to support us to support

044our schools. It's um $60 per ticket. You can buy a table for $450. And what we want to do is just just the registration is just just gone live. And I'll send you the link. Okay. Um it's uh Friday afternoon 11:30. And um I think if you've never been to this before, you'll be just so impressed at what this community does in terms of philanthropy and giving. So that's exciting. Any other questions? All right. Thanks for keeping it for us. Keeping it strong and um again, happy birthday, Mr. Superintendent. No, Dave, I really And Paul, thanks for keeping it strong, taking it in higher directions. When did they you reach the what was the the monetary milestone you reached this year or last year? Well, we're over a million now. Over a million. Over a

045million. bumping up closer to two to two. Yeah. Unbelievable. In 10 years, I can remember when Jed was coming back and you guys had gone out to Texas and you were talking about we want to be that that school that everybody talks about or school district everybody talks about and there was schools from Texas and all this other stuff and man, you guys all accomplished it. That's pretty amazing. Well done. Thank you for all your support, too. Thank you. Thanks so much. Thank you guys. Y All right, moving on to item 6A, summary of current events. Mr. Tenny. Okay, super. I just want to again tell Paul and Dave, thank you so much and all the people who've been involved over the years. I I'm I'm embarrassed when Paul says when I hear people say

046things like, "Oh, the district's been so good to us. They instead of a closet, we have half a portable now." Like, are you kidding me? These people have given thousands and thousands of hours and literally hundreds of thousands of dollars toward our district. It just it it touches my heart and every time I'm I'm I'm together with the people who are who have volunteered and been a part of that in the past or currently are. It just just fills my heart. Thank you uh for everything you've done. There's a number of people here who have been instrumental in that over the years and I appreciate and love you. Thank you. All right. I don't have much at all. Um we just met two weeks ago. We're in the middle of summer. So, uh, but one

047thing I will share with you is that the the preliminary data, uh, for school letter grades, you know, how the state board of education has decided that everything that a school does over the course of an entire year can be distilled down to a single letter. Um, that that notion is pretty ridiculous. And when it doesn't play in a a school's favor, a district's favor, it's even more ridiculous. But we've been fortunate over the last few years, it's it's largely played in our favor. You know, this this last year, well, two years ago, we were an A district. We had four of our six schools that were A's and two B's, and that's just fantastic. This last year, Mile High particularly sagged down a little bit by Jud did as well. We've got the preliminary

048data back. We can't share it publicly yet, so I won't give specifics, but it's it's very good. We're really happy. Every I I guess I can say this. The preliminary data shows that well the the state board of education still has to meet and set their their uh their scale for what's going to be an A and what's going to be a B and whatnot, but we've got our points. Um districts and schools are still liberty to to share uh you know that they think a calculation error was made or whatnot. So there's there's still pieces of that to be done on the part of districts. Um this the state board of education is going to set the scale, but the last several years in a row they've kept the same scale. We have no

049reason to to think that won't be the case this year. If that's the case, we came out looking really pretty good and I'll share some more details with you in my board report uh later this week, but I can share publicly. We're really pleased with the with the early returns. So, that's a good thing. And that's all I have for current events. Thanks. All right. Uh moving on to 6A2 governing board members. Right. Um I don't have any Oh two things. Um one thing was I was on KYCA with the superintendent yesterday. All right. I'm pretty confident nobody except Sonia Tenny was listening. But I have a friend I have a friend that always listens. It's a good experience and uh she gave me some good feedback and I appreciated that opportunity and uh enjoyed

050visiting with uh Clark about school things on on the air. And then um I guess this is not real super relevant but I was really impressed with the process for uh the superintendent's evaluation and I whispered to Jen last meeting I was like this is crazy like why would you subject yourself to something like that? I mean, why would you have why would you have to go through this this process? And she says, "Have you ever done that? Have a survey?" And I said, "No way, nor would I ever think of doing it." And on my way home, I thought, "You know what? That was a terrible way to respond." And I sent out a survey to 25 people on payroll at my business and got some really good feedback, identified some areas for growth,

051which I really appreciated. So, thank you, Jen, and thank you, Clark, for going through that painful process and letting us evaluate you and and watch the whole thing. And uh it was it was, you know, there were some things that hurt a little bit going over that and uh some things that that I I felt good about. And so, I guess that's tangential to really what we're doing here today. But, thank you for that example and uh thank you for the encouragement and I'm gonna try to be a better boss. Yeah, good for you. That's awesome. That's all I have for current events. Awesome. Sounds awesome. I I don't have any current events since two weeks ago. I don't think I did anything really or went anywhere. I have nothing. I no current events. Yeah,

052my hawks are growing. Pretty nice. All right. Yeah, that's it. Um I have nothing either. I'm in contact with one constituent who wants to talk about our curriculums, but we haven't had a chance to meet yet. So, when we do, I will pass on that info. Nice. And I just have a plug really for the Kitty Day parade Friday. So Oh yeah, we made our floats. First time we've ever done it. It wasn't great. Great. Pretty dang happy about it. Yeah. Okay. That's to the Kuanas. And I know we have flyers up there. I I guess I do have one other thing. I shouldn't be looking at my phone during the meeting, but I just got um an article. News flash. Trump administration withholds nearly seven billion dollars for schools with little explanation. So the

053money which was allocated by Congress helps pay for after school programs uh support for students learning English teacher training and other services. So we'll see what impact that has on on the grants that we received from the federal government federal and I'll report back to you as soon as we have specifics. All right. Uh item 6B, community comments shared with the governing board. I have nothing neither. Nope. Not enough time. Uh, we should have meetings every two weeks. This is fantastic. Look at how fast we go. All right, good. Uh, moving on to item 7A, consent agenda. Are there any items that we would like pulled or highlighted? I would like to pull 7A two. Okay. For donations so they can be recognized independently. All right. Any other items? I just had a question. Is

054the con cons consent agenda all of 7A? It is. Yes, each of the items under 7A. Yeah, there's looks like there's eight tonight. Okay, good question. I have the same one. Um, okay. So, Jane, you want to All right. Yes. I would just like to highlight our donations from this past June. Well, June. First one was a I didn't even know about a donation from the foundation a check for $5,000 to Mile High for its STEM program. I did not know that. So I that's cool. And the second second one and last one is a donation from Jessica Hawky donation in the amount of $500 to pay off the overdue lunch accounts. And they step to the pl up to the plate and do that for our kids who have a balance still in their

055lunch program. Does she do that every year or something? This started a couple years ago, I believe. I'm not I can't remember if it was the same person or not, but do you recall that? Yeah. Four months ago, something like that. There was a couple in town who asked. Is it the same lady or no? There you go. And different folks each time. Yes. All three. Yes. We even had and the other third was someone was speaking at I think it was an Arizona schoolboard association and they could they give $1,000 to a cause for the speakers and he picked PSD for over lunch uh negative balances. So that's amazing. I just tangentially I had somebody reach out to me this week asking about that. I said that is fantastic. We have people all the

056time if just for whatever it's worth if if a family excuse me uh is in in pretty serious financial straits they qualify for free lunch. If they're kind of a moderate income level they qualify for reduced lunch. And the state the last few years including this most recently passed budget supplements the difference between those. So anybody who who qualifies under the federal regulations for uh free lunch or reduced lunch gets lunch for free. So, it's really only families who have not been shown to have a financial need, who fall behind, who benefit from this. And I mentioned to the person who who was interested in doing this. We actually have a lot of people who step up. It's a cool thing. It's it shows just a great heart. We love this. If you're looking to

057make the biggest impact, you could you could donate specifically to that. We'll keep it in an account until there's a need. We'll use that. Absolutely. Or you might want to consider, we have families all the time who are in that kind of free and reduced lunch uh financial situation who have fees that they need to pay for their their child's going to run cross country or they're going to be in the band or they have a science lab fee or whatever it is. And if they can't pay for that, the district will will pay that on their behalf. And it just eats into our our operations budget. And if if you wanted to pay toward helping families in need and want to make a donation toward that, that's even more impactful probably overall and helps

058the dig the excuse me, the district's operations budget as well. And person was really pleased to hear that. I think we'll probably end up doing that. Amazing. Either way, whatever people want to give, we can make good use of it and help kids. It's wonderful. What was the term that the our food services used last week or two weeks ago was like, you know, that every like the food is like they don't feel embarrassed by what they're with dignity. Yeah. With dignity. So you don't even know because you have a salad bar. You have all the kind of stuff. Wow. Thanks for all the everything around that. It's amazing. All right. President Gagowski, can I pull one other item? Um I just want some clarification on 7 A3 ratifying the vouchers. It's on page 32

059of our packet. I just wanted some clarification on just there's I guess four checks there and doesn't have any notes there. Is there any I assume that's payroll and other expenses but yeah Mr. Brian you're up um okay so every week we do accounts payable vouchers we pay our vendors every two weeks we have um payroll vouchers and those vouchers actually take uh governing board signatures. Okay. Now, uh you voted last week on in the consent agenda, uh an item that you do every beginning of every fiscal year in which um we can run vouchers in between governing board and basically use the stamps that you have uh supplied your signature on. And so we do our accounts payables every week. We stamp payroll every two weeks stamp. The totality of those vouchers is what

060is presented in front of you. Uh we had one time a governing board asked to have uh an itemized list of what all of that dollar amounts were and it was about I man I think it was 300 or some pages you know a document that Sarah made into a PDF and after one week it was like we don't need that anymore. So what you are doing in the consent agenda is approving those vouchers for between the governing board meetings in which we use your stamps to to so we can pay our vendors and our employees and these are things we've already approved ahead of time or through our normal operating business operating budget. It's yeah it's it part of that was our electric bill that we paid last week. You know part of it

061was payroll and and the payroll and the AP I believe they're separated. I'll I'll look at my computer but um um they are separated they are separated. So AP stands for accounts payable it's basically paying vendors and the payroll is payroll. So PR is payroll and AP. Yes. Okay. All right. Thank you. Good clarification questions but very good because it is something new. Well it's not something new but new to me. New to you. And if you ever would like to see the packet of all of those expenses and all of that, it's available in the business office andor I can provide that every board meeting if you want. Just let me know. Thank you. I like that this now is part of public record and any person in in town or out of town

062who's interested in seeing specifically what was paid to who for what can come anytime and do that. Get them about every four weeks. The last one was five years worth of uh accounts payable. public records request talking about five years worth of our our records for what we paid out through accounts payable. That was fun. Yeah. And are these people that are typically critical of how we're spending the money or they're I mean it can be used for if it's if it's used for commercial in which they're getting uh profit off of the information we can charge them. But usually it is Sarah what's the what's the wording when um for that we can't charge it's it's for research purposes. Um so anyway what they're actually doing with it who knows you know but I

063just sent you know an Excel sheet with I think it was 42,000 line items of paid poss um for the last five years and what they're going to do with it. I have no idea. And does that take a lot of time for your office to put that together or is it a pretty quick copy and paste or I've been doing it long enough that I have a system, but if someone came in new, it take it can take a while. We we do put some a fair amount of staff time. Not nearly the the extent on the city level or on the county level, but we do put a fair amount of staff time into public records requests. Most often from the context, it's pretty clear that it's someone looking to target advertising. Yeah.

064to to companies or to us based on, you know, who we do business with. And so, strictly speaking, is there is there a a direct financial gain to them from that that we can charge for? In most cases, no. And and we're in a situation where we can ask, hey, is this for commercial purposes? And if they say no, that's that's the end of that discussion. We have to give it to them for free. If they say yes, then we can charge a nominal fee for that. There's about four companies that regularly ask for purchasing information. Yeah, they're looking to advertise and they're getting they're getting data for their advertising targeting. Thank you for your patience with my questions. This is a lot so I'm learning. I'm learning. It's taking me some time. Appreciate it.

065All right. We'll take a motion to approve the consent agenda. So move a motion second. I will second it. Motion and second it. Any all in favor say I. I. I. Any opposed? Consent agenda passes. Um, moving on to item 7B, uh, public hearing. Do we have anybody for as requested? No request to speak. We'll move on to item 7 C, study and voting sessions. Do we have any requests there? Um so item 7C1 consider adopting the fiscal year 2026 expenditure budgets. Uh Mr. Moore, uh the document in front of you is um exactly the same as two weeks ago basically except for on the cover sheet it says adopted uh rather than proposed. Um, in fact, we can't change it because, uh, it gives the public the opportunity to talk to the budget if

066they choose. Um, and we do a meeting notice so they know exactly when this meeting is. So, unless you have any other questions that you thought since the last meeting, um, this is still the um, uh, the preliminary budget forms because the state hadn't um, I think they have now. Is that correct, Clark? They've passed the budget. the governor assigned it. And I just saw Yeah, they just released the new forms that we're going to have to put them on and in September we'll bring back the budgets um and the new forms with basically the same information. Um they did pass um that the free and reduced and district additional assistance. This year we received about $190,000 of one-time money for fiscal year 25. I do believe that that was part of the budget for

067fiscal year 26 as well. And so on page eight, I believe it is, there'll be a line that shows what that amount is, but it hasn't been calculated on the district level yet, but I think it'll be a little bit over 200,000 for PUSD. So that will be an addition to what comes in forward to you in September. Otherwise, as presented, couple questions I sorry I didn't ask you last week, so two weeks ago. So, the budgeted carry forward, can you just clarify for me? Is that new carry forward or is that what's existing already? It depends on which one you're talking about. Uh, the 2,252,000. Let me quickly pull it up. Which page? Uh, in the agenda, it's page 60. Which page? Page 60 of the of the Oh, it's board packet. Um not

068sure what page of the the two was it the 2,252,8001 yes okay that is a projection of what our carry forward will be in 16 months okay so um they are they are adding that because before what they did was is they said you because our carry forward this year was I think 3.6 6 million and I think it's going to be a little over three when we get done with the next two months of paying bills. Um but what they would have us do is take that carry forward and distribute it into all those categories above. Okay, which is inflating budgeted line item for instruction, let's just say for non-special ed. It shows, you know, whatever that is. Well, I've distributed all the carry forward that we're not going to spend. So now they're

069saying reasonably what do you think the carry forward is going to be at the end of the upcoming fiscal year? Put it on there and then you don't have to distribute it into the categories above. It's the reason why for this year only is they show budgeted for last year fiscal year 25 and budgeted for this year. All of the budgeted categories are all negative like negative 14%. It's not that we're spending 14% less money. It's just I we did not distribute that 2,252,000 into the categories. It's now pulled aside. They do that for M this year for the classroom site fund, which is the teacher Prop 301 money, and then also the DAA, the district additional assistance. So, it's a crystal ball best educated estimates on what our carry forward is going to be

070over a year from now, right? And this is a this is a new feature this this year. So Brian and I got together and we said, "All right, for this category, what do we expect?" And we made some calculations based on our based on our best. They're focused. Yeah. They're they're focusing on fund balances. And I believe it's my best estimate is is it's to show that districts have money and that we're not as starving as we say we are even though we're lasted. Okay. Second to last funded in this United States. So they're having us highlight fund balances. And there's a new tab as of last year that's solely dedicated to fund balances for all of our accounts. Yeah. Carry forward kind. I'm sorry. Kind of lends people to believe we have extra money.

071Yeah. We are just fiscally responsible in case there's something like a pandemic and we have a significantly loss of enrollments because we set the tax rate and then all of a sudden current year funding says we have 200 kids less than we think we're going, you know, show up. Um, we better have those 100 kids fewer show up which happened last year. And that goes to the next question is I our our ADM is projected to be 117.5 higher. Is that a function of the special education? And this Brian mentioned this two weeks ago but it's worth it's worth we will reinforming the board. It's important. So because the legislatores the legislative body did not have the budget passed by the time we had to do this the statutory 2% that a child is supposed

072to be increased every year could not be put on the preliminary budget forms. Okay. Problem with PUSD is all of our um all of our money our DAA or M and transportation funds come from our taxpayers. So I had to artificially inflate how many students that we feel we're going to have because when the new forms are presented to you and in September it will increase by that 2%. and I will lower the students back because ultimately with that 2% I always we always we always budget in tax for about 30 more ADM than we had the previous year just so that we're not under taxing had I just put that 30 extra. We would have been a million plus short on our taxes because these preliminary forms do not account for the increased child

073by 2%. because the legislature was behind their deadline for us to so in September you'll see that number come down but you'll see the ultimate amount that we are have for our M be stable. It's just that we're lowering the number of kids because the number of kids is now increased by 2%. Just so long as we're not going to face cuts in September when you know no the and you know we could have thousand kids there extra and our taxpayers would would be very upset with us. It just sits in the treasur's office as dead cash if we're not accurate. But that's the reason why there's more students is because we can't account for how much the students now are worth because the preliminary forms. who were told specifically you cannot adjust how much

074that child is worth even though you know once they pass the budget it's going to be worth 2% more. Okay. I I also want to be sure that the people that watch these things are not going to come back and say you're declining. You told us you were having this many and now it's you know 300 less. You're a declining district. And I think we need to be on the record as saying no, this was an accounting. That's important. Absolutely. This was an accounting issue. It's accounting procedure to make sure that we don't undertax or overt tax our citizens and get the right amount that the legislature is ultimately going to allocate to our district. Okay. The uh the our last year's ADM was 3521 ADM. I would have had the had the legislators passed

075everything that would have been right around 3550. Okay. But it is 3,618. So it it is it is about 70 or so ADM more than what we would have. But that's because each child is worth less because the budget wasn't passed at the state level and our tax rates are dependent upon it. All right. And to clarify again, I think we've shared this with the board, but if they're, you know, both the people who are watching online, we'll clarify for them as well that ADM and enrollment are closely tied to each other, but they're not the same. Right. Our Enrollment includes um every kindergarten student who's only worth half an ADM and and every one of our preschool students who are worth no ADM unless they happen to be a special education student etc. So,

076we've got more students than that, even more than the the procedurally inflated, temporarily inflated amount. But, well, and and 200 other districts did not have to do that because when they put their new budget, they're they don't have a high enough valued uh property with property within their district. So, they can't tax for their full budget amount. So, it gets capped. It's the general fund that will pick up that excess when they pay forward equalization uh payments. We don't get equalization. So, we're only one of about eight districts that had to do something like that. Well, I hope the other seven did because if they didn't, they're going to be under taxing when they do the new forms, right? Which means they won't have enough money, right? Yes. And this nuance is important for us

077to know because absolutely we may get people coming and saying, "Yeah, why are you asking for more money all the time? your numbers are dropping. Well, there's some accounting that needs to be taken. Yep. Great questions. Any other questions? All right. I'll uh we'll take a motion to adopt the fiscal year 2026 expenditure budget. All in or take a motion. So moved. Do we have we have a motion? Do we have a second? Second. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? All right. Budget passes. Item 7 C2, consider adopting the proposed changes to the initial salary placement tool and to increase existing employees in effective positions to match the salary placement. Um, Andy. All right. Thank you. So, as I'm sure you know, the the board is uh responsible for approving our salary placement

078scales and our uh individual salaries for um and pay rates. We did that back in March. I brought um kind of the salary rates for everyone. Uh however, we've had some changes to uh two positions that uh really caused me to look at those positions a little closer uh and compare them to some surrounding districts uh and realized in addition to the the job responsibilities and the changes that went with those uh our districts were significantly lower uh than some comparable districts. uh those two positions are the district's benefits coordinator and the um admin assistant to the governing board and superintendent. And so, uh, really, uh, again, what started with a change, uh, for the admin assistant, uh, you may recall, uh, we had our, um, marketing director resign and we decided not to replace,

079um, that position, but, uh, kind of split up her responsibilities and many of them we did, um, ask Sarah to take on. Uh, but again, we that meant we were looking at that job responsibilities a little closer. Uh and then also the uh the other big change for the benefits coordinator is the insurance change that took place. Uh we knew there would be some some changes that came along with that. We realized there are some significant ones that are potentially longer term changes that are going to um kind of fall on her plate. And so again, looking at that, comparing them to other districts, we realized uh we we we should we should bring to the board a proposed uh increase for the uh benefits coordinator. You can see the uh change really increases it.

080We we for classified positions like this, we have different levels. Um the benefits coordinator was a level five. We're proposing to move it up to a level seven. Uh and then for the admin assistant position, we we increased the starting rate uh with both of those. Uh what we would do is we would take the our existing employees uh and use this tool to uh determine their their salary for this upcoming school year. Trying to avoid saying replace them, but we would use this to place them on this scale. Can any questions on that? And I've got a question. Can you tell us in in rough terms, maybe you got the figures in front of you, maybe you don't, um how these two positions compared to to our compared to Kirkland or to Mesa, right,

081because they're they're so different than us. But I think you compare to Humboldt and some other real similar districts, how they compared be or how they compare currently, I should say, and how they would compare if the board chooses to approve this tonight. Yeah, I to start with Yeah. who I'm comparing to. Yeah, we I have a handful of districts both uh geographically that uh are similar but also some that maybe around the state but um have similar situations you know especially considering who's on an override and things like that. So similar districts that uh in general we are comparative to that I use. Uh so for the benefits coordinator um I listed we were starting uh and again this doesn't mean this is what our current benefits coordinator's salary or pay rate is but

082our starting rate was681 and by comparison humble was $1840 an hour. Um and inn-out was $20. What's that? And in-n-out is $20. Right. Yeah. Um Joe Comb's another one that's pretty similar usually uh is 1935. Um so we were we were significantly lower than that uh with with the proposed change uh as you might be able to see the starting rate would jump up to 1821. So we would definitely be back in that um comparable range there. There's always um a little bit of uh an adjustment we want to look at you know size of the district um things like that. So, we understand sometimes when there's, you know, maybe there's a reason why we're a little bit higher or lower, but in general, we felt that um that level made the most sense for

083that position. For the admin assistant position, uh again, we used uh a salary placement rather than a pay rate. that uh what we were at is a starting range uh at $42,75 and Humbult was 53. So almost $10,000 difference u for a pretty similar position. Um again we looked at job responsibilities and things and realized we are significantly lower. So with those types of u reasons we said this is why we want to bring this to the board. We don't like being behind for obvious reasons, but being way behind is a serious problem. So we're still behind the three that you're presenting, right? Because it's starting and that new classification starts at 48294. Am I understanding that right? You are correct. Yes. Did they get the 3% too or how does that because we were

084last what we approved or how does that work in this? So, uh, what we'll do is the 3% applies to current or existing employees and what we do with the pay rate or the pay scales is increase it by half of that amount each year. So, our our existing employees are increasing at a faster uh pace than any new ones coming in. We're trying to avoid a new staff member coming in at a higher rate with the same level of experience and things. Okay. Have you thought about and this may not be appropriate for this discussion but um just curious on the on the pay scale for that includes the superintendent board admin assistant. Yeah. Is that title appropriate or should that be a director of something of some way especially with the new uh

085responsibilities that we've added? Um, is admin assistant the correct term that we want to use? Um, and and I don't know if this is a discussion that we should be having now on this item, but might be might be something to consider. We we certainly uh Sarah and I work together on that, but actually not just looking at the the money, the numbers, but the actual job responsibilities. We went through the job description, made sure that uh what was what was there that no longer really applied was removed and some of the new responsibilities, not just the ones relating to the marketing, but things that have kind of evolved over the years, made sure, but the title itself we did not discuss. So that's something maybe maybe we should there are exceptions this but generally

086speaking the the folks who have the title director in our district or people who have employees under them. It is true that for for many years Mr. Howard was the superintendent. We everybody referred to Sarah as the director of Joe. So and that that's probably the case these days. She's the director of Clark. So it's it's definitely that's definitely worth considering. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know if director is the right term, but it just it just stands out to me. Okay. Zar. Yeah. Zar. Zarina. I think sometimes they can be elevated to like an ad administrative executive versus an administrative assistant from an aspect of having a more executive role in what you're doing for all of all of the people. have to make all the decisions. Yeah. We couldn't make those decisions without

087Zar. That's what's true because we wouldn't know what we're doing without a base. So, I mean, just like as other words that that's worth considering. Absolutely. Executive assistant, executive officers. There's a lot of different terms we could consider. Yeah. Just a thought. Yeah. I I like I like this proposal. I mean, if it were up to me, they'd even be higher, but um I' I'd pay Sarah more than I'd pay Clark if it were up to me. But I only have I only have one vote. That's fair. Um and I think that just underlines the value that that Sarah is to each one of us and all she does for to keep us informed and and focused. So, I s certainly appreciate um her and I support these uh recommendations. Well said. All right. Um

088we'll take a motion to adopt a proposed changes to the initial salary placement tool and to increase existing employees and effective positions to match the salary placements. So moved. Do we have a second? I'll second. Motion seconded. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed. All right, move forward. Um, item 7C3, consider approving the 2026 27 PSD academic calendar. Fantastic. I should have mentioned that outside of meeting, I apologize. You've probably noticed that Miss Secor is not with us tonight. She is on vacation with her family, which is something we highly encourage, especially in the summer. So, she was worried about missing this board meeting. and I said, "I think we're we're going to be okay without you. Why don't you go and just go be Kelsey for a while instead of Mrs. Seore?" So,

089uh, we want to excuse her and wish her well in her travels. She has unfortunately been texting back and forth with us about a number of work things as she's been uh on the road, but because she's she's ultra responsible and terrific. I hope she's watching. Yeah, I doubt very seriously if she's watching. We're going to have to have a little talk later on. Can we can we redact that from the minutes? I do not hope she's watching. and uh she's she's the greatest and we we wish her well. Last I checked in with her, she was in the Tetons hiking up there and moving up through Montana next and I think up into Canada. So there you go. Um so la last time that we met a couple weeks ago, we brought to you

090a calendar proposal and this is the very same proposal with the the typographical errors. Remember there were two I think two or maybe three two typographical errors and one formatting um u adjustment that you asked us to make and I think we've got them here. Sarah, do you mind kind of pointing out what we've got or would you like me to? What works for you? Either way, she's an executive. We've added some new colors. Um, so we have here for new staff orientation. We've changed it from the returning teachers. We moved the day from August 28th to September 4th. And then so there was no reason why you thought we couldn't find that was a miss on our part. We're so glad you It was It was just our Labor Day moved out a week

091and then we just adjusted everything. You can if you want. Oh, just the other piece is you may have noticed our previous calendars, the ones that we've had online. We've circled every other Friday. This is payday. That's that's a that's an important piece of information for 400 of the 5,000 people who look at this calendar, but it's completely immaterial for the other 4,500 people. And kind of we thought, is there sort of an in-your-face element to this? Hey, payday, payday, payday. So, we thought let's have let's have a version for our employees that has all the same information and reminds them here's when your paycheck is coming, but the one that we post online for families and general use for that piece. So, there are no there's no content changes at all, but just a

092formatting change that way. We all need to be paid though. Yeah, absolutely. Nice to know. No question about that. Yeah, we've decided we're still going to pay people this year. That's all right. So the the changes you asked for I think are reflected. It looks great. It does. It looks great. All right. Any questions? Any more comments? Sorry. Nope. Great. Um then we'll take a motion to approve the 2026 27 PSD academic calendar. I will make that motion. Motion. Do we have a second? Second. Motion second. All in favor say I. I. I. Any opposed? All right. Calendar passes. Um item 7C4. consider approving the list of student fees and extracurricular activities for the 202526 school year. Mr. Moore, it's unfortunate that we have to have a voting item about money that we're going to

093charge our kids because we're not funded to the level in which they don't have to pay. But uh it is um necessary to bring any time that we're going to have a possibility that we're going to charge a student anything for um a class, you know, at the high school um an extracurricular activity that they participate in sports um that the governing board approves it before we charge it. And so principles put together a comprehensive list of any scenario that they see that there will be a charge within the upcoming school year, puts it on this um this documents and has you vote on it. Um an example like elementary for a field trip. Taylor Hicks has quite a bit of field trip money and tax credit. It is on there as a field trip

094possible charge, but they may not charge students anything because they have the tax credit money. But if something came up that was a little bit more expensive than what their funds would allow and they wanted to charge um they would have to bring this back to the governing board before they collected any money for the student if they did not have it on the initial list at the beginning of the year for your vote. So the list is pretty comprehensive. Um if you have any questions about any of the charges, I'm here um to answer your questions. And if it's all right, I'll underscore what I said earlier, which is if there's a family that comes to us and says, "I just can't afford this." We always work with them. We talk first about, "Well,

095what amount could you afford?" Or, "If we broke this into to four payments over the course of the year, could you do that?" And and whatnot. So, we're and we often find ourselves in a situation where somebody says, "I can't pay the $30 lab fee for for biology." We say, "No problem. We'll we'll eat that." And occasionally we'll get uh donations from community members specifically to that, but most often it just comes out of our operations budget. Means there's a little less money for other things available. But we never deny any student the opportunity to participate in a field trip or athletics or any of these things based on their ability to pay. And actually even the use of tax credit has a stipulation in there that if you use tax credit and there is

096a hardship the district has to cover um for that hardship. If you're using tax credit and charging a student for portion of what that activity is. Um so there is always and and quite a few of these items it is also delineated if a student um qualifies for free or reduced it's at a lower um lower cost. That's great. I'd just like to make a comment. It's unfortunate we have to we don't have the money to cover this. On the other hand, $150 to play a sport. If I compare that to what my kids paid for camps this year, I mean, that's that's a really good value for their for their their money. And uh so we appreciate um you know all of this and uh the the fact that we can provide this for

097students who can't can't afford it. There's one um topic I'd like to bring up that's a little bit tangential to this. When we were doing our listening tour, there was book fairs going on and we were told that the kids that don't have money to buy books don't get to go to library that day because they and you're this is the face I wanted to see. But they said they said that the the kids the kids that didn't bring any money to buy a book didn't get to go to library that day because the book fair was set up in the library. Only those that that brought money got to go. So I don't know if that's true or not. You remember that conversation? That's what we were told. So it's bugged me ever since

098then and I'm glad she showed that face because that's the same. I've been gone for a while out of the classroom. But so my also wasn't where you taught. Okay. Because my record we're getting a little meaner every year though. So maybe maybe my record they all went to library. I I totally understand if you if you're not going to participate in the book fair, then maybe you don't get to go to the go check out all the books that you know the library was kind of pushed back so that they could display for the book fair. A little smaller library than what So there might be a situation there where kids that don't have the money are feeling like they're not part of the special that week and maybe we could look into that.

099If you can share with me where that occurred, I can I can visit with the principal about someone we can. I will say too, I don't know if it's still buy one get one free. Do you know if it is with the book fair? one book for a year is one because it was very interesting to see how the some of the parents worked that out too where you bought one book and the other was free and it was quite often the free book went to a child who didn't yeah we have any money we had a pretty good workound for that when I was at Jet at the principal Jane Nelson kids all everybody got a book but sorry a little off topic but that's related to what we're talking about been on my

100mind it's absolutely um I have a question. We I agree with him about the sports. I mean, honestly, when you get your kid into high school sports, it's actually cheaper than having them in all the club sports that you've had them in all these years. So, it's kind of a bonus. It could be like, "Oh my gosh, I don't have to pick them up and drive them and they they cost me less." Um, but one of the things I'm just curious about is the inconsistency around which uh college class is charged what. So, like Spanish 101 and 102 are $80 and English 101 and two 102 is $35 plus the book. But I was just curious like what's the discrepancy because I feel like I'm charged the same fee for my dual enrollments and like

101what about dual enrollments that aren't on the list? Is there also a Yavapai College fee? I don't know. I'm confused. I don't remember what I've paid in the past. I don't believe and I don't know if I want to be quoted with this. I don't believe when it comes to dual enrollment that we can charge a fee. I don't know that these are dual enrollment. Like Spanish 101 and 102. I'm trying to remember. Most most of the fees that are related to classes are for materials and there's materials that get used in. So that that's the difference between Spanish and and English class. I'm confident about that. I can't remember if we actually recoup any of the tuition fees for dual enrollment. That's what Brian's talking about. Or not. I can't re I can't recall

102off the top of my head. Jen, we'll look into this and we'll get back with you and let you know if part of that fee goes toward their tuition cost you by college or not. I want to say Brian's right. None of that is for their tuition. That's why there's dual enrollment things that aren't on there at all. I believe it's actually just for materials for the class, things that they buy to to um enhance or make possible the learning like lab materials and science and whatnot. I'm not sure what they buy in Spanish class, but they well and and when they um and when they do collect money, it does get it goes into an auxiliary fund. Auxiliary is the money the fund that when students are money is collected for and then it

103has a a coding that is associated with the area in which it was collected. um it it's not doesn't have to be spent in that area like gifts and donations and tax credit with a donor um area but um the purchase orders that I see coming using those fund it's all it's all materials and and and things for the class subscriptions if there's any software that goes along with the class and it helps to pay for that. Um, okay. They do a Day of the Dead thing where they bring materials in and everybody decorates a a skull, not like a real one, but you know, papier-mâché, whatever. So, that that doesn't happen in English class, so there's a lower fee there. Probably there's maybe no materials at all for certain classes. So, yeah, that it's

104typically materials based if there's one thing one class, excuse me, that's more expensive than another. And I'll tell you as well, I as as a parent, I had a little bit of angst over this until I had some kids in high school and some kids in college. And so when I went and you know, my senior, they said, "Hey, it's $486 total the previous year." I was like, "Oh my gosh." But then I had another kid who was at actually one of the least expensive private schools in the United States. It was cost me thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars to send that kid to school for a year. And I was like, "This is the best value in the world. $486 to have my kid do all of these things, participate in these

105sports and be at the marching band and whatnot. So, you're exactly right. It kind of depends on how you look at it. But to to be clear again, if there's a family that cannot pay, they they do not pay. If there's families who say, "I'm getting free everything else. I can step up and pay $150 for my kid to play football." Then we we have them participate that way with us. And for the marching band, $400, that's probably the most expensive one on here. Uh, is there a booster club that helps with that and so it ends up being less or is this $400 the maximum amount it would be or? So, kind of all the above. So, there is a booster club. The marching m is just straight up expensive. Getting all those kids

106where they're going, whatnot. I just got the dry cleaning bill in my hand for their uniforms this year. Thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars just to clean the uniforms at the end of the season so doesn't smell like the last guy. Um, which is probably important, but it it's expensive. It's super expensive. So their uniforms, the repairs to uniforms, repairs the instruments, a souafhone costs over $10,000. And so anytime somebody dings it or whatever, etc. All those pieces, it it's pretty expensive. And so there is a booster club that offsets a lot of their costs, but this is the part of the cost that aren't offset by that. And um and if they are in marching band and they pay the 400, if they're part of one of the other performing jazz bands or

107they orchestra or something, they don't they do not pay the other and that's Yeah. And it's waved because they're paying for the marching bands. Um and so that is to be ordered. I see that. Okay. For community members that want to make a tax credit donation, uh, say they're it's 450 or 400 per can they assign these to like So the graduation fee is a new fee. Could could they say, "Here's $400. We want to go as scholarships for the graduation fee for those seniors that can't afford the $25." Would the new graduation fee be eligible for tax credit donations? There there's a set of criteria that you have to meet. Brian can tell you probably off the top of his head exactly what they are to make sure that something is eligible for tax

108credit. Has to be outside of of class and not required for people. Okay. I'm thinking I mean you can you can see the wheels turning Brian's head off top my head. I think it would if someone wanted to give I do believe that that would be a tax credit eligible activity because there are seven criteria for tax credit. It's got to be for kids given if it's a hardship waved, right? But it's got to be an activity that's optional, right? Participating graduation is optional. It has to be for nonredit. Their school's over. They're not earning a grade for graduating, walking across. So, I actually think that that it is a new uh fee on that list. I could justify that being a tax credit area that could be given. And I'll just share with you

109really briefly the reason for the new fee. Adam talked with us and said, "Hey, this this cost us thousands and thousands." Just renting the stage that you were sitting on, $2,000. The sound people, what was it this last year? Um, thousands more. It is, I think, if I added And we just eat that. We just take it away from every 11th grader and every third grader and every preschooler. So, we said, "Hey, you know what? This is a pretty nice thing." A lot of places graduation costs them 10 tens of thousands of dollars to put it on like it does for us. And so, they charge they people have to buy tickets to get in. we've said, you know, we really don't want to go there. What if instead the people who are are directly

110uh benefiting from this, we charge a nominal fee for that? The people who can't pay it, we'll pay it like we usually do, but the families just say, "Yeah, oh my gosh, for that that great thing, I'll pay what is 120? What's what's the what's the graduation?" $25. Oh, I just did some math. 25 time 358 would be close to 9,200. Yeah, that's that's going to pay maybe for half of what it takes. and we'll take the rest from 11th graders and third graders and what like we like we've done for years. But it'll I'd like to take my uh board salary and donate it to the Oh, fantastic. Actually, great. Great. I'll I'll match that donation actually. So, I'll double it. That's great. That's great. But anyhow, in lie of of charging for tickets

111and and the difficulties around that, we just thought, hey, what if we charge nominal? I hadn't realized it was so low. $25. That's you're you're right, Jane. That's not going to bring in anywhere near what it costs to to run graduation, but it it'll help a little bit. And we want to be clear for people as well. The fireworks that they do, that's that's not part of the cost to the district. The student council pays for that and whatnot. That's a great touch. I love that part of it. Yeah. Yeah. It's pretty neat. That's why I go. All right. Uh we'll take a motion to approve the list of student fees and extra extracurricular fees for the 202526 school year. So moved. Motion. Do we have a second? Second. Motion and second. All in favor

112say I. I. Any opposed? All right. Moving on to item 71. Mr. more as chief's financial officer has prepared the school board's summary budget report for year review. This will be the last time you see fiscal year 25's uh board review budget documents. So if you have any questions on this one, it's going once, going twice, and it'll be gone. Next governing board will be the first one for fiscal year 26. If you can see at the top um I think the M balance is like 3.1 or 3.2 million still has uh like 400 some thousand of encumbered um just with this payroll on Friday 200 some thousand of that um encumbered will become expense. So that's the reason right around 3.2 or 3.3 million is what I think our carry forward will be. But

113we'll still pay bills all the way through August 30th for services rendered or products received before June 30th. And after August 30th, when I do my annual financial report, you'll know exactly what that carry forward is. Okay. Um item 7D2, review the proposed changes to asthma policy services advisory volume 37, number six from May 2025. Andy. All right. So, this is uh a first read of three uh policy changes. Um I'll I'll provide a quick summary here. Uh one relates to essentially cell phone usage in our schools. Uh one relates to mandatory reporting uh requirements and the third one relates to student records. All three of these uh changes come from recent changes in legislation. Uh the again just kind of a quick over the cell phone changes. The the legislation and the policy reflecting

114that uh talks about having limits on cell phone usage during the school day uh which our schools already have that in place uh but again this has it now in policy. It does include some exceptions to that uh including if if a teacher provides guidance and wants it for educational use uh obviously for emergency use and uh if there was a medical need for example you know if a student was using it to check their blood sugar or or something similar to that. uh there's guidance uh on or essentially it says that there should be policy in place for uh parents and students to communicate if they're obviously not allowed to use their cell phones. How how do they communicate? Um and again, we have we have policies and practices in place. Uh for the

115most part, it's to contact the office and messages can be um shared with students and shared with parents. Uh there's there's a section in the policy on cell phones that says we have to notify parents yearly of the of the policies and any changes that take place. Again, that's that's already u being done usually through our uh handbooks. And then uh that policy also just provides some specific definitions on what the school day means, what social media uses, and what is a wireless device. So any questions on that particular one yet? Again, you may not have had a chance to look over on this yet. I had it. It's on page 84 of our whole entire board packet talked about inserting optional district language regarding additional district level. Have we we haven't even correct talked

116about that yet? We have not I I shared with you that we uh we have I'll say more school specific uh policies. Uh the general feeling is those often change based on what the newest issues are that we're seeing. Uh and so to have it uh that is actually in a a regulation but still you know we felt it was better to not put it in in regulation um but just have the more overarching goals in the in the policies and regulations. So not having anything more specific there. Okay. Uh the next one really have questions. Anything else? I mean I know that just under our policy in reviewing what what the recommendation is for this policy change and what our policy is is ours is stricter honestly by far than what we're required to

117do. So just in reviewing it. So thanks for sending that out. Absolutely. Uh in terms of the mandatory reporting uh policy and the changes there uh one of the uh changes requires that uh board members and substitutes are now trained for for years and years. We've had uh our all our teachers and any uh anyone having regular contact with students uh have be required to have a training on um child abuse and mandatory reporting laws. But uh now they've added uh like I said board members and substitutes. Uh substitutes have already been receiving that through our our third party. But um now it'll be in policy. Uh it does change uh which I find a little bit interesting but again this is this is coming out of uh legislation. I if there's uh a report

118to be made it has to be made to essentially a police officer or directly to DCS. It cannot be made to an SRO. Um, and I'm not sure why they did that, but that is what the the law says. Are all SRO's in the state police officers? Like, are they all part of a police department like ours are? They they don't have to be. They can be retired. So maybe that's that that's a relatively new piece, but your response to that because maybe they're not active duty police like ours are actual police officers. It prohibits us now. I mean, if that if that was what they were targeting specifically and solely, they could have written that language into it so that we could still go to officer Holmes and say, "Hey, here's this situation. Can

119you can you uh go through that process for us? Make sure it gets reported and whatnot." We're prohibited from doing that now. We have to go around him to the police department through the regular reporting or to DCS. Well, you wonder because it does say like when a report's received by a school resource officer or school safety officer, the officer shall immediately notify law enforcement agency, right? And and he is the law enforcement agency. So, he's thus notified. It has to it has to go immediately, which he probably already has policies and procedures around reporting everything that he takes in just like all the other police officers would have. You know what I mean? Like nothing. They don't keep it all to themselves. They have policies and procedures for how they report depending on what

120the situation. Interesting. Mandatory reporting there. There's there's little to no investigation has been done before the report is made. I I have reasonable suspicion there may be neglect or abuse of this child, you need to report to DCS or the or the police officer. The police officer in the past could begin an investigation and if he found he or she found something that that rose to level, yeah, absolutely we need to pursue this. They would do that. If they thought no, that that is no longer a thing. They have to immediately report to the to the police department who has to go from there. Why exactly? Yeah, it's beyond me. I can't I can't put my finger on how that would be beneficial in in most cases. But either way, we're happy to continue to

121follow law. Most of the things that come to the legislature to us, like the cell phone policy, Stan's exactly right. We already have that in place. Most of the things that say now you have to do this. We've been doing that for six years. This one's new. We'll have to adjust a little bit. And it it makes me wonder if, you know, making I'm not opposed to schoolboard members being mandatory reporters, but wouldn't that also lead us to being fingerprinted and have fingerprint cards on file, passing background checks? Um, you know, and and there have been people that have run for this school board that probably couldn't pass a background check. um possible. You know, I it it it doesn't seem like they've thought through everything that they need to think through this. Yeah, that

122piece is not part of this current legislation. But yeah, if I I think the thought with with board members being mandatory reporters is that you you are in a position you may have enough interface with students and whatnot, you might come upon a situation where you feel like, oh wow, this could be neglect or abuse and they don't want you to pass that off to somebody else or just keeping it to yourself. They they're saying by law you must now report that. And I think with that then it's the school district should require board members to have a background check be fingerprinted. I think if you're going to ask us to have that responsibility, then I think it should be part of what like I don't know. You all seem real nice to me. I'll

123vouch for you. Yeah, that those are those are good thoughts. Uh the last section relating to student records uh you know you're many of you are familiar with Furpa but uh basically federal guidelines around what uh information can be shared in the process uh for um you know going to allowing parents to opt out of having certain information shared. Uh there's certain information known as directory information that uh the the districts and and schools can share. um without direct consent and this uh adjusts that somewhat. Uh we we did have our attorney look over our our current policies and make sure our uh our notification of what is included in that is up to date. So again, happy to answer more questions on that, but it's a pretty um in depth. But again, I feel

124like we're in pretty good condition already and don't think we'll have to make any major adjustments. All right. Well, again, that was the first read. So, if you have as you dig through it and if you see anything you have more questions on, please let me know. So, that'll be on the next agenda, right? Correct. Yes. So, you've got at least a month to process that, ask questions if you're if you're curious about things and then we'll bring it back. And if you feel like you need more time, great. Or you could just abstain, but we found out earlier. So, all right. U moving on to item 73, policy provider discussion. Mr. binder again. All right. You may recall that several months ago we uh came to the board and uh shared that we were

125um considering or we were looking at uh both the ASBA policy advisory um organization and also the trust policy advisory. Uh and uh had both both groups come and present to the board. And really at this point, we're just kind of looking for some uh you kind of hear some discussion around where the board feels they're at and to hear some kind of guidance and direction on what you'd like us as the administration to do next, uh if anything. And if uh you know, if if you feel we should just stay right as is, okay. And if we feel like we should dig in and look at the trust policies a little bit more, we can do that. But really, we're just looking for some some discussion to see where you're at after hearing those

126presentations. I I'm personally apt to to giving the trust. Um I like what they present. I like the numerical way that they present it. I like how you presented what you all found out about it after digging in you compared and the fact that it's accessible. It's easier to find and research. um you know from your perspective it to me it feels and the and the cost to it is not much at all in what we're using for asthma anyway. I think that simultaneously just to kind of give it a shot for this next year and you kind of have the support of both because Paul's just to me it just makes sense to kind of use it, try it out. Um, if it's something that we you bring to us later on, you know,

127we can pick the one or the other, but but to go whole hog right now is kind of might be a difficult shift from everything that we've already lined up within our policies. That's just where I'm feeling. If you do decide you want us to shift, I I I think what I'm picking up and what you're saying, Stan, excuse me. If you do decide you want us to shift, giving us several months of of runway to do that appropriately is is a good plan. Okay. Um well, I have concerns with the trust. Um I I don't believe their policies are as comprehensive as what we have with ASBA. Um, I think you know we you only get sometimes you only find out you need a policy when something happens and I think the trust lacks

128in that area. I think they hit the the statutory requirements fine, but the things that may not be statutoily required, I'm not sure we've got um the one thing I I am opposed to is their specificity in some of the policies where in particular the inappropriate conduct between teachers and students. As soon as you start, it's kind of like what we discussed in those those uh school specific policies on cell phone usage. If you put that in policy, you're allowing someone to say, "This isn't covered by your policy." So, it is not prohibited. Um, and I think we need to be very careful about that. Um, because we could have situations like with the cell phone policy where it needs to change. We've we didn't have texting 20 years ago, you know, and now this

129is a whole different ballgame. Now, we're looking at restricting cell phones. Um, I'm also concerned with the that we get legal advice from the trust and is this a conflict? You know, if if the lawyers we're using are part of the trust, are they Oh, Dave specifically. Yeah. Are they receiving additional financial benefit from us participating in the trust for policy services as well? Good point. Um, I was also concerned with their presentation that they don't have full-time providers working on this and as they're going out to schools and gathering more districts in place, what's the cost going to be down the road for us as they start to have to provide more and more to the districts they serve? Um, so, you know, ASBA provides a lot to us with our employee handbooks and

130those things. So, those are those are my concerns. I I I understand the economics of it for sure and and you know I do appreciate that it would not be as expensive but I I am cautious I guess about those things that's where I'm sitting right now. Well it looks your recommendation is that we stay with ASBA for the upcoming school year anyways. Correct? At least correct stay with them. Correct. I think having and then that would give us more time to look into maybe some of your concerns more with the trust and dig a little bit deeper to see how they do align with our policies. I don't know. That seems like as long as we don't jump ship yet. I think they're pretty fledgling right now too. I just thought they just started

131up. I think they've just started up and and they you know they've as they grow they're going to require more infrastructure and I think they'll find you know that they need to hire somebody that's going to be looking at this full time you know to to be managing those policy advisories that come out to be watching statutory things that are changing on a regular basis and getting that information out in a timely fashion to the schools. Um, those are things that I'm not sure the planning is in place with the trust to do that at this point. Remind me what's the price difference. The trust is $500 initial fee. We've already paid that actually. So there's a there's an annual fee of how much do you remember Sarah or handy off the top of your

132head? $250. just be a part of the trust though. No, no, no, no. You using their policy service, policy advisory service is a nominal nominal fee and it what is it for as Yeah. What is that one as I would be interested to see. So, like we just got three new policies um from ASBA essentially. Correct. Correct. Like those came directly from ASPA. Exactly. Would we be able since we've paid the $500 to have access to the what the trust would look like for the exact same policy changes that we're implementing right now because I think it would give us an idea of what would we expect to see from the trust. It's a great idea just as what we see right now from ASBA, you know, so that we can see is it comparable?

133Do we feel like it's comprehensive enough? Do we um I'm I agree with you about being a little bit concerned, but I also am a fan of simplicity. I think we've we can really over complicate things and it can be even harder to understand and potentially harder to defend if it's you know if there's more language than necessary in a in a policy. So I think it's I would like to see what the trust would look like. you know what what did they send out to their people and did they were they proactive in sending that out to their people like did they already get these changes just like I feel like ASBA is very proactive which is very helpful and I love the emails that we get that tell us what's coming or what

134to even be on the lookout for because this is what legislation is talking about you know so we're we're very well informed I feel like so I love that about Asba I also like policy bridge because I like being able to the the policies of other school districts. There was one topic, I don't remember what it was, but we were having a discussion around it and I was able to go look at other pol other school districts policies in other markets and look at like people who are in our same size or you know what are other school districts doing and what are their policies around that issue. Oh, it was open. It was an open meeting, but it was um public participation and I w I looked at probably 20 different school districts policies

135on policy bridge. Yeah. Which was just kind of cool to have access to that. You know what I mean? Where um it was just easy to find. Yeah. Even though it's not easy to find because of their lettering system and that is stupid. Like I do love the ah I love this numbering system and the trust. So it's hard because there's like good and bad. So FYI, Sarah's just confirming for me that the trust has a a similar uh access to policy bridge where you can look at each of the other many fewer districts that right few it's a smaller sample there's only a few dozen right whereas it's it's in okay a couple hundred and I can't speak to what it looks like from the actual policy changes but I can for these three

136for example um I also received an email that it gave a pretty good summary of each one um and they actually provided uh a webinar specifically about those three policies. So they actual sit down explained what that means. Um so I thought that was pretty interesting. So from a proactive and making sure that they're a responsive standpoint, they were certainly on top of it. I should say you're exactly right. ASB is super responsive. If we ever have a question we get with them, they're right back with us. There's no question about that. And I want to be clear for the board that if you look at this, we're we're in the administration is not making any recommendation to separate our membership from ASBA. Many of the things that you were just talking about, Jen, where

137they're sharing information with you about what this means and what's happening next and whatnot, that's part of our membership with ASBA. And where there's a district 15 miles from here that is talking about completely removing themselves from ASBA, I think that would be a foolish move on the part of the board. But I do think it's worth looking at the two different policy advisory services and and seeing which one's going to serve our district better going forward. A lot of good discussion around that. Your thoughts? All right. So, so as far as direction then for us, I I think I heard a couple of things or maybe you can summarize for me either way. Well, my direction was was just let's basically why don't we just we pay the money, right? We can still utilize

138their services. We can compare. Um I think is that correct? We can we can look at their policies. We can't use them as our policies. Right. you voted to use asthma policies and unless you you have a majority vote to do something different next month, next year, eight years from now, we will continue to use solely the ASB policies. We have access to the trust policies. We found specifically the you mentioned earlier, Andy, the the um student and and staff interaction piece. We found that the the trusts um coverage of that was was inadequate for our purposes. We had a couple of different instances where we weren't specific enough and teachers had strayed into an area that was clearly pretty gray. We reached out to our attorney and he said, "Here's here's a an example

139of something you might do." So, as a reminder, we're actually using that as a a separate document that each of our teachers signed at the beginning of the year. As far as whether it's best to be specific or vague, I'm not a trained attorney, but I do know trained attorneys have determined there's the the specificity is is what serves school districts best based on their their experience. So, anyhow, we've leaned into that. So, I I guess what I've heard is you want to hear you want to see for sure the the differences in the updates, policy advisory updates that come monthly. You've seen the the ASPA one. You'd like to see a trust one kind of compare them. If we're doing the reading of this one, if we could read that one as well, I

140want to know what would it look like if we so we can get that for you for sure. Yeah. Um I think our recommendation for you is if you do decide you might want to make a change, please don't do it next month. Give us give us a lot of runway at least a year uh to do that. And what I might suggest that you consider recommending is that we look at if we were going to shift to the trust, what would we want to pull over from from our non-copyrighted um current policies with ASBA that we would bring with us and what that would look like. So you'd have, you know, kind of that's going to take some time for us to get there. So we, like I say, we'd need several months to

141to get there. And at some point, you'll want to determine, you know what, let's let's table discussion of this. Any further discussion because we're super happy with the asba policy service or or we'd like to to move to the trust at one point, but how long do we have it for the trust? Um when we signed up, when we paid So the initial fee has given us access to that, right? And how does that shut off at a certain time? I don't think so. There's there's an annual fee to use those as our actual policies and get the policy advisory. We haven't done that. So, we're not paying the annual fee. We just paid the initial fee to have access to so you could consider and so that we could have that student staff interaction

142piece something that we could we could draw from. I had made a note that asba policy was a 48month subscription. Um it has that is that beginning this year and like if we agree with asthma today like if we have asthma in 2020 526 are we committed to four years of that? We've paid through the end of of this coming school year for ASPA. So it does in that respect as well makes a lot of sense to continue that but I'm 100% supportive of that but but after that we need to determine whether we're going to renew in that. So, it's at the end of this school year that we would have to determine and if we determined to go with ASBA, but it's a four-year commitment after that 48. It says it's a 48month

143subscription. There you go. Okay. I mean, that's these these are my notes. Nothing. This is nothing like legitimate. Like, I don't know for sure, but that's what I wrote down. That's what we don't know if other subscription options that are shorter or not. We could certainly find out about that, but that's that's been the standard. I had just written that down. And I don't know what that. So we're going to use ASBA till the end of the Yeah, I'm just reviewing Andy's email. 25 26 school year. Well, that's up to you. That's up to you. That that would be our recommendation for sure. Well, yeah, that makes a lot of sense because if we tried to change now, we wouldn't have any runway. I'm just trying to figure out when would staff like us to

144make the decision like when would be like the you got to make the decision by this time or is it going to really hurt hurt our uh preparation for the change over. Does that make sense? Yeah. I mean six months six months before the end of the next school year. Do we have six months? Do we have two weeks? I feel like if we were using this upcoming school year to to dig into it and find out, you know, how compares, how they compare, uh I would say the spring or early summer at the latest, right, to allow us to say, "Okay, it's official. Here's the new policies." We communicated out with staff, provide additional training as needed. So, that doesn't seem like a lot of time to to change over. You're talking about this

145next spring, correct? Yeah. Again, if we were given guidance to say start making um start looking at both policies and if if we're using just the next couple months to continue to explore it and we're not really rewriting anything, that would be different. I could have thought I remembered when the trust uh presented and they were talking timelines that if we didn't make a decision when they presented pretty quickly that we would run out of time of bridging what we currently have with what they had and if we didn't go with them right away they recommended that around December for the decision to be made so that they could use the spring January February March that makes sense to me to do that bridge work and have it ready for the next school year That's

146the timeline when I remember. If we're not going to to if the board doesn't have an appetite to to potentially move to the to the trust policies, it's going to be some effort to do that bridge work as Brian puts it. So, let us know. We won't do it. No problem. If you think, yeah, we're going to do this at some point. We're going to need to get that direction. And then ultimately, if you do, well, as we get close to um either renewing with the trust, we'll need to vote on excuse me, renewing with ASBA, you'll need to vote to renew with ASBA or you'll need to um at whatever month you decide, but probably in the summer is is ideal. Vote to remove all the current policies we have and then for for

147an anxious 90 seconds, we'll be without any policies at all. Right. And then vote to adopt a new set of policies if you want to do that. That's what other districts have done. That's the recommendation that they have. But as far as as far as timing, Brett, it's a great question. I would think that at minimum we'd need like Andy says, we want to we want to be spring. Yeah, we we'd want to have some months to do it. So spring would be the very very latest. You if if if your plan again, we could we could make no change at all. Yeah. or if we do make a change in the summer if we're aiming for this point next year, say for instance, we're not going to renew with ASB and we we're going

148to move to the trust. If that's the scenario, that's probably the best timing and we'd need several months. So, I would I would recommend at least by January, you let us know this is the direction that we're wanting to go. And I could tell we don't have a consensus. So, my recommendation is let's put it on the agenda. Let's dig in. Jen had a great suggestion. and let's look at both of the changes side by side and let's continue the discussion on the agenda next month until we can I know that the district administration is recommending that we do transition to the trust is that correct correct so I would like to delve deeper into that too that why your reasoning behind that decision not decision but recommendation and don't you think because I every

149what Andy brought up tonight I thought was very made a lot of sense to me too and but I also see that you guys are moving asking us to possibly transition to trust. So I think we need to delve into this much deeper. So get it on the future agenda as quickly as we can. It's on the it's on the agenda for tonight for discussion. So if you want to ask some of those questions, you can. We can prepare better as well. We we've shared a little bit of information in the past and then you asked to have both uh organizations come and present. You've got that. And if you've got additional questions tonight about why the why we have the recommendation we have, we'd be happy to address that or if you you'd like

150more preparation around that, we can do that as well. Whatever works for you. Yeah, I'm really open to having more of a period of discovery and just let you kind of dive a little bit further and you may just like the math curriculum, you may want to go with one and then all of a sudden realize you want to go with another. Both. What's that? Both forever. Just both forever. That's right. How do you guys all feel about that? I think August would be a maybe a good month to this coming target it as a as a deeper discussion. Give you guys give the administration a chance to kind of build their talking points. Give us a chance to look at how the policies differ and what the advisories. I think that will be a

151really interesting first look to see how the trust and the ASPA new policy changes look actually look when yeah if we can have those um earlier in the month we could start to kind of do some of our own digging into that as well and then hopefully come better prepared in August too for a good discussion around we should be able to felt like the differences were um what's the August August 5th I believeth so that's a little over a month and school just started It's more distance. Starts in July. July 31. Yeah. Don't forget not July. Next year we don't start 31 days from today. Um I do in September a little distance. Yeah. I was thinking we're still in June, so my August suggestion is kind of What do you think? September board

152meeting. September. Would you like us to Would you like administration to present what we found as far as the differences and what I can Andy, you've got some good questions. If you'll bullet point those for us and send them to Andy and I, we can we can share that with the trust attorneys and say, "Hey, there were some legal questions around the use of your policies. Can you address this?" And we can share that information. All right. For a while. I'm going to see my granddaughter. Oh. Is there I mean I guess too to ask typing to you if there's ever a concern um in litigation about having the attorney that also drafted the policy be the attorney that's defending. I don't know if that's if that's ever a concern. Yep. That that's a great

153question for the attorneys. I'm I'm absolutely confident I'm absolutely confident they have thought through that. We are not the first people to ask that question and we're not the experts on that and they are and they're moving forward with it. So, if they if they were to answer anything along the lines of, "Wow, that's a great point." I would be shocked. I'd be flabbergasted, but I don't know exactly what the answer to that is, and I'd love to get the answer. I was just interested in getting reduced fees from Dave, you know, Poli. If we went with the trust, we wouldn't use them as much. Yeah. $250 less. That's right. I I think I mentioned to you before it it wasn't until three or four interactions around uh the the piece of trust policy that

154we're using for the staff student interaction uh in our district that that he even mentioned that he he been part of the team to help draft those he he did not lead with that. He was not selling anything that's worth I do think also if we wait if we go till September I know that I know that ASBA is looking changes to their policy services as well. They're going to use numbers. Uh they're I know they're rewriting they rewrote I think section A of that man section. Yeah. So they're rewriting that and it would be good for us to kind of learn more about what those changes are going to look like and absolutely ask of them and and because they are being responsive to this um competition. Yeah. Yeah. And be candid, you know,

155about why you think the trust, you know, if that's what you're recommended and what you're kind of seeing. It's, you know, we like both organizations, but you know what what is going to be better for you working with it and what's going to be better to present to us and to make a decision. I'll I'll be honest. If if the using the ASBA policies was part of being part of the ASBA organization, 100% I would never recommend anything about that. I love ASBA. I love what it does has done for our district and what it has um what it will do going forward. It's just so important that we all that we all participate collectively in the the the many things that they do at the legislature and in uh networking with each other, sharing

156information. It's a super valuable organization. If this board was talking like Humble's talking about dropping ASBA like a hot rock and walking away, I'd be like, "Oh, you guys, you're killing me. Don't do this. I'm gonna move to Santa Fe. Don't do this to me." But that's not the case. The their policy advisory is is not not as it's not as strong as the trust from from my perspective. The trust one is is much more clear and concise, easier to navigate. And on top of that, it happens to be way less expensive. That's that's worth thinking about. Frankly, in the scheme of things, $250 versus $4,800 in our whole budget, it's nothing. Probably shouldn't be a big part of your thought process, frankly. Just one one is In the views that we've had, I asked

157Andy to look at his pieces, Brian to look at his pieces, Sarah to look at her pieces, me look at my pieces, we were all unanimous that the the trust policies are are much stronger and they're they're more tur and easier to to navigate and understand and apply. That's what it boils down to. We can give you multiple examples of that when we come back to you, but again, it's it's completely up to you where we go. We've been well served by the policies for years. It hasn't been a real problem. It's just something that's a, you know, better model car or whatever. And we're recommending that you look at that. Cool. Well, we'll look forward to your presentation. I think it'll be helpful in September. All right. Uh, moving on to I have a

158tangential item about ASBA. Are we going to try to go as a board to the December? We usually do um meeting. Do we do that every every December? I just need to get calendar that out. You're all invited and encouraged to participate. I think it's a really really valuable professional development. Yeah, I'm sure. Yeah, I've got it on my calendar. 17th through the 19th. I think that's right. The timing is never really December 17th. It's not a great It's not a great month to have your conference, but um I I really enjoyed it last year. Is there any other calendar dates in the next six to 12 months that that you would encourage us to go do something that I think they have a law meeting. They have other other meetings but there's a law

159conference in September. What is the date on that? Do you remember? That's got to be on September 18th or something. They just changed it. Fourth and fifth, I believe. It was going to conflict with the ARSA conference. Yeah, fourth and fifth is what I've got on my calendar unless that's just been changed. But that is a there is a lot of really good information gathered at that conference as well. The law conference. The law conference. So as a new board member, what what would you what would you advise me to calendar for? Do I want to do I want to try to go to the law conference every year or every other year or the that's a great for Andy as well? Maybe start me. Yeah. You know, I think I I I think all

160of those are really positive events for you to to attend. The law conference and the annual conference in particular, I I find really useful, but I just did the summer leadership institute and there was some really good sessions at that this last summer. It's the second time I've gone to that. Um, Bolts training, uh, board operations leadership was a very good one-day program and they have that at multiple sites around Arizona, so you can find one that that fits for you. Um, the Yavapai County meeting is coming up. It will be held here in Prescuit this year in September. Do you have a date on that? September 18th 18th. There you go. All day. Uh, no. That'll be an afternoon event. Are we at Are we at Roof Street? I don't know. I have that

161on my calendar already. He just asked if he would be willing to host information. Yeah. Okay. But it will be help hosted by PUSD. So So put that on your calendar. Yeah. So that would be a high priority one. Would you if you had to if you had to rank those for me? Bolts, law, annual conference, summer leadership. Where how would you how would you prioritize those for a new board member? What behind the ears? Well, I would put the annual conference first. I think there's just a greater diversity of programs for you. Um, I would probably I think summer leadership and and the law conference are similar. They're different different approaches for sure. You know, summer leadership is going to focus more on kind of what I see as individual improvement that you can

162do, whereas the law conference is going to give you very technical in the weeds type of legal advice about what you're doing as a board member. Okay. Um I think those two are both really useful. I think the bolts is a nice tuneup. Um it kind of gives you just a refresher. I don't Have you attended that ceremon? twice, but it's been a while since I should probably go. But it it it re reiterates and kind of reinforces a lot of the things that you learn through the bigger conferences I find. Anyway, I don't know what your guys experience has been, but Jane or Stan, have you guys gone to the bolts? I have not been or the law conference. I haven't done the law. He's been the law. I haven't done the annual, but

163the law sounds interesting to me. They're all They're all good and there are webinars that they offer throughout the year as well that we can take part in. Right. Your prioritization question is a really salient one for those of us who are working full-time. Can't get to every thing. And Andy Andy says they're all great. Go to all of them. He shared though annual conference would be my number one. Yeah, I appreciate that. And then kind of the number two tier would be the summer leadership and the law conference. Yeah. And if I had to choose between the two, probably the law conference is more useful to me. Superform, but they're both very good, very good and they're they're prime examples of why I would never recommend separating from ASP. Anyway, also our our board

164operations manual that we spent a lot of time and whatnot, the the the format and framework for that was something that was shared with us by AS. There's just so many things that are valuable about our relationship with them. I also have a a financial question. If all five of us went to all five of these every year, does the does a district I mean is that going to be a budgetary concern for the district? I mean we we want to be conservative. Only four only four can go choose who can't there's a cost associated with each one the housing and and whatnot but it's it's worth uh the the benefit that it brings I think to our board. I I would endorse as many of you going to as many things as you can

165within your personal schedules. Yeah. I equate it to Clark's comments about the ASBA policy being 4,000 versus, you know, lesser with a scope of what our budget is. You know, you guys, you know, going and continuing to educate as a board member, you know, how to, you know, represent your constituents the best is invaluable. So, I would not have the money be something that you should consider unless you really want to. Thank you. So, next meeting is September 5th at 5. It's August 5th. August 5th. You just you made my night and then now I'm sad again. That's like a one weekend of school right after and then um Oh, first day of school. Yep. July. And then last I before we quit, I'd like the minutes to reflect that it's Clark's birthday. And happy

166birthday. Happy birthday, Superintendent. We appreciate your leadership. I had three or four people ask me, "What are you going to do tonight for your birthday?" Got a board meeting. Really, but it's the shortest board meeting of the year. Shortest one we've had so far since we've been on. But you got cookies. There you go. That's right. Cookies. That was super nice. And you got your wife to come. Yeah. Sonia usually watches from home. She came. I got to see her right there in the front row smiling at me. Oh, that's the only we're ajourned, by the way.