001board meeting, we do a book study. Yes, we still do book studies. So, just so you know, we do them in school, but um we're always learning. So, we have a book here. It's called How Not to Be a Terrier School Board Member. And so, little tongue and cheek as uh as Mr. Tenny says, but um we got two chapters that we're going to review for 15 minutes and then we'll go into our regular board meeting. So, Mr. Tenny. Okay, great. Now, we got a lot of guests here for some fun parts of the evening and some interesting parts of the evening. This is, you know, one of the we just do this because it's a good thing to do parts of the evening. So, we'll do this really quick. The the two kind of
002chapters or habits that we read this time, you might recall were terrible habit number five and number six. Number five is one of my favorites. And the terrible habit is never question the administration. So, of course, the the implication is that you should be asking questions of the administration with with some regularity. the uh does anybody I I just read this myself a couple of days reread it myself a couple of days ago. Is there anybody who's read it recently enough that they could kind of summarize the scenario that we're looking at for us? Um, so it's the board member has listened to a presentation, had some questions come up, didn't, but realized nobody else seemed concerned or had any questions and felt like they just needed to move on and move the meeting along.
003And so instead of asking questions, they they instead moved on just to Well, okay. It's probably not a big deal, right? And if I'm remembering correctly, the the board member had even questions in advance as as they read over the agenda prior to a couple of days before, right? I think you maybe mentioned that, Jen, that they had handful, what about this and what about this? And it wasn't like, you know, coming from a place of suspicion and I'm going to find out what they're doing wrong kind of a thing. It was like legitimate questions that I'm not really sure how this works. Um, and yet chose not to to bring those up. So yeah, and and the the book is suggesting that's a terrible habit to to just let that opportunity go by. The
004four options that it gives, right, for each of these is kind of choose your own adventure thing, right? Here's the scenario. What should you have done? One was is is kind of what the person chose and was what you just mentioned, Jen. Uh don't waste every time with everyone's time with naive questions. The board meeting needs to move along efficiently. Maybe something to part of that, but the other part probably not. uh ask any questions you have after the meeting or during a break later in the meeting. Okay. Third option, ask your questions directly of the superintendent or the maintenance and operations director who is the person giving the presentation in this scenario before the meeting either by phone or by email. That's one of the options. And the last one is ask your questions
005at the meeting until you're fully satisfied that you understand what you're voting on. And the book suggested that that which of these is is the best option? Three or four. Yeah. Yeah. and and I I personally would would agree three was what again that you could do you could ask in advance there's nothing wrong with that getting all the information you need and and and saying okay um it it did suggest in number three you might want to make sure your questions and answers are shared with all the board members before the meeting as well and that they become part of the public record that can act absolutely be done I the the times that I've seen things hello um go the best you know I've kind of been on the other side of the
006dis a little bit when I was on the city council is if I had questions and I asked in advance and I I felt confident in my mind I knew what we were voting on and had the details, but then sometimes I would still I would let um our our staff members know, hey, I'm going to ask about this during our meeting as well just so people get that same information because I think it's important for that to come out. Again, not in a gotcha kind of a way. Certainly not on a last minute, oh let's see if you have this information, these details, this data at your fingertips kind of a way, but just like bring that up or like you say, you could just ask and one of the things I liked um
007ask yourself what would your constituents ask? What do what do people want to know about this? Not, you know, the six people that I spend the most time with or the people who are, you know, poking at us the most or coming or people who are happy with everything that we do all the time no matter what, but you know, a typical person out there, what would they want to know about this? Those are reasonable things to ask. Thoughts about this one? Anything else that that jumped out at people? I thought it was kind of um you know, human nature almost uh this one and we did we read a previous chapter. the fact that sometimes you don't do hold back questions because either you're reading a room or you don't feel comfortable in in
008uh in ask ask answer ask answer ask answer ask answer ask answer ask answer asking the questions and we do it in school you know we growing up I I probably did my homework the night before and I have a ton of questions but I don't feel very comfortable even asking the question but in this one and what I highlighted was your job as a schoolboard member is to ask questions even naive ones on behalf of the community so a lot of times we do ask questions in the fact that we may know an answer but we everybody else to kind of hear it. And I think we get we're all really good at that. Just bringing it out and nobody gets called out. Just, you know, we we need to have the information out
009there really for the public's knowledge more than anything and and ours because we're not very smart. I'm just kidding. How would it work on uh make sure your questions and answers are shared with all the board members before the meeting? That's the one as well. Yeah, that's the one that kind of caught me is with open meeting laws. Yeah, good question. For for open meeting law purposes, you probably want to do that directly. Email the other four board members and say, hey, I just talked with Sarah or I talked with Brian or I talked with Clark and this is what I found out you guys, but you might ask one of us after the conversation. Hey, that's important information. I think maybe other board members would be interested. Would you would you be willing to
010share that out? I certainly be done. So is that as long as it doesn't become a discussion amongst board members that's okay? Is that kind of the So if you're ba basically the basic principle I think we've talked about a lot of times is the public's uh business needs to be done in public. So, if you're not conducting business, if you're asking for information to be shared with people, particularly if you're not doing that yourself in as far as you contact two other board members about things, you're you're maybe moving into a gray area, particularly if you start to share opinions about things that are going to be agendaized and voted on later is my understanding of things. It's not not necessarily an open meeting law violation to share an email with other people, but
011probably best like we talked about to maybe ask ask one of the staff to to share out that information. Yeah. Yeah, good question. That's kind of my thought. Any other thoughts around that? No, that was the one thing I underlined as well is I wasn't sure about how that would be shared with all the board members. And then the other thing I underlined was I thought it was very simple, but it was that remember you are simply doing the people's work which I thought and we all need to be crystal clear before we vote on an issue and if it means we might ask questions that seem a little bit silly or like we don't quite know what we're talking about there's somebody else that probably has the same question y just like school where
012you wouldn't ask the question because you knew that you were the only one that had it in actual fact everybody had that question there you go you want to ask it and each one of these has a superintendent lessons learned section and the things that I underlined were an ideal situation is to have a board that seeks to be well informed and deliberative in all its decisions. I'm I've been really pleased the last few months to to feel like boy that's exactly the scenario that we've got. And then the other thing I underlined a good question or two might even result in improving a recommended course of action. And the thing that came to mind immediately for me, we've probably had more situations like this, but uh when when our when our leadership team brought
013to you a few months ago, our mission statement that we spent a lot of time and effort on followed a pattern that you'd asked us to follow and there were some thoughts around maybe this could be even better. And could we can we table this and bring it back? And absolutely. And I I feel like the we got uh more board involvement from that and you kind of put your own fingerprints on that. came up with a better product as a result of asking some good questions. Just like it says, a good question or two might even result in improving a recommended course of action. That's exactly what happened. Anything else on that one? Okay. So, terrible habit number six, solicit complaints from teachers or staff. So, they're saying you probably shouldn't be doing that.
014Who remembers this the scenario here? I remember this one. Okay. So, new board member decided he wanted to go on a listening tour and uh made appointments with all the all the schools. Was it saying that that's a bad idea? No, I wasn't saying that. Not at all. Okay. Go ahead. Go ahead. Go ahead. But I think what happened is the the discussions kind of spiraled out of control and they became negative and they became critical of principles and administrators and then the board member was stuck and um it became it turned into a witch hunt and it wasn't good. And that that's essentially said I thought it was interesting and kind of cool that this person started with the same really great idea that that Brett and Jen had recently which was I is
015there a way we could get around to each school and and have an opportunity to meet with each of the staff members there. And so you spent a considerable amount of time doing that at each of our each of our sites and uh took at least from the feedback I got from you and from others certainly didn't devolve into you know just a complaint session about this needs to be fixed and and whatnot. Nothing wrong with people sharing concerns of course, but if it becomes exclusively that and this board member, I think in maybe it's one of the bad ideas for how to approach this or maybe it was within the scenario itself said, "Yeah, I'll be I'll get right on that. I'll fix that for you." That's probably not the best response to to
016things initially before you find out more. Good. So, the four four options, right? Um it it does say personal connection with teachers is important. It's important to hear what's bothering them, but somehow your meeting got out of control and degenerated like you said, blah blah blah. So, appropriate course of action, don't have a lunch with teachers. You need to keep your distance as a board member. Good idea or bad idea? That's a bad idea, right? That's the opposite is true. I I think in as far as you've got uh good personal connections with with employees of the district that helps you make make better decisions. That's great. Uh invite the principal to have lunch with with you. That way you can resolve any complaints about her face to face. So you know your five or
017six you you had invited staff members in this scenario I think right to come meet with you in the cafeteria. There was actually quite a bit of complaint about cafeteria lunches which is unfounded I think. At any rate get the principal there because you know there's going to be complaints. Let's just complain right to him or her to his face and we'll we'll fix that up. Probably not a good idea, right? uh have lunch only with union representatives so they can tell you the way that is and you can fix things there. They said that's probably you know not your best move either. Now the other one was to do what? Who remembers the fourth one? Focused on productive exchange of information. And Janet Brett, would you say that was by and large the case
018for for your meetings? Yes, definitely. It was very I mean even things that weren't necessarily positive like that they had things that they were concerned about. It wasn't ever brought out negatively about individual people or anything like that. It was really good. But one thing they pointed out too is that the board member said, "Your principal is not with us and I can assure we'll keep anything you say confidential." And so that that invites that kind of conversation where that's for sure not what we had said. Most of our principles did choose not to stay with us in the room um just to allow for more freedom of communication, but it certainly wasn't communicated that way that you can't be here or that they're not here intentionally. So great. Anything else about this one that
019jumped out to the people? I would just say it's not our job to become a mediator, okay, between teachers and administrators. That's not our job. There you go. We need to be tactful. We need to be delicate. We need to be able to try to read what because I do I do go to lunch occasionally at Bet. But you just have to be really careful about what you say and how you say it and what you're asking of them. That's where I I think the first option does have to it. I I don't think you have to keep your distance from as a board member. It doesn't mean be aloof and not speak to the teachers, but you do have to recognize what's an appropriate conversation and interaction to have in that setting. So, there
020is some distance that you need to have in that relationship. Any other takeaways from this one? These are are pretty easy. I think for the most part I I'll say it again. I think our our board is exemplary in in kind of driving inside the lines so to speak on most of what's recommended here. Doesn't mean just because it's in the book we have to do that but I I think in general we can there's probably a pretty good consensus that much of what's suggested here is something that would be beneficial to us. All right. Very good. All right. So we have two minutes. So if you want to take a quick break we will start promptly at uh uh at 5:15. our PUSD governing board meeting uh for April 1st, 2025. Uh Carly, would
021you please uh lead us in the pledge of allegiance? 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. The next item is item three, approval of the agenda. I would like to make one change to this. Um, I'd like to switch uh item 5B and 5A. So, we'll bring all the uh winter sports um athletes and coaches up first and then Madame Cherry, if we could have you second. Okay. Thank you. Right. So, I would like to consider um a motion with the with the change. Can I make a motion to allow that change to occur? A motion. Do I have a second? I'll second. Motion seconded. All in favor say I. Any opposed?
022Item four um 4A, approval of the minutes. So these are considering the approval of minutes for the following PSD governing board uh meetings. The February 28th, 2025 governing board retreat and working meeting. The March 4th, 2025 governing board study session, meeting and book study. the March 4th, 2025 governing board regular study and voting session meeting and the March 10th, 2025 governing board special meeting. Uh do I have a motion? So moved. Motion to second. I'll second. Motion second. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Passes. Presentations. All right. We're gonna uh we're going to do item 5B. So winter sports challenge. If all of the coaches and athletes can kind of migrate all around this back area here, So, first of all, we just want to thank all of you. First, the coaches for
023all your hard work, your time that you put in. We know it's not just the season, the winter season, but uh we recognize it's all year long. Obviously, you have other jobs as well. All of you are volunteer coaches as well. So, um, we really do appreciate all that you're doing. And to the athletes, what a winter season. I mean, all of you guys went really far, had tremendous wins. Um, I mean, the crowds that we saw in the gym and on the fields were unbelievable. So, to see it on the television, you know, was televised um through the Arizona Sports Network. I mean just amazing accomplishments this year and u we look forward to just seeing what you guys all do in the future not just with the sports but academics and obviously your
024careers. So we just want to give you a little token of appreciation for the board. This is our board coin and we like to give each one of you and this coin give you a coin but this coin uh starts back it has a military back history and It basically started from a French term called a decore which means fellowship. So this fellowship that you create among athletes we want we like to be a part of it. So we want to show our appreciation and this is by presenting. I'm sorry. Everybody get a point. So coaches, we also have bags here for any athletes that weren't here tonight. Please make sure they get them. So soccer. Two extras. Well, thank you all. Appreciate it. Thanks everybody. You can congratulations. It's back. Oh, I love that.
025That's awesome. That was a great winter season. It was. Absolutely was. All right, so we'll move on to item 5A. Uh, Madame Cherry, you have the podium. Thanks for waiting. No, that was neat to see. So, I'm here to present. We have um three of our interact students have been selected to go um on the interact ambassadors trip. This is our seventh and eighth student uh seventh and eighth students from PHS who have been chosen to go to Kenya and our fifth fifth student chosen to go to Mexico. Um so we're just here to I guess essentially ask for your blessing. Um and we've got some pictures of past trips. I've been on both of these trips. If you have any questions about it, the primary focus is enabling the disabled. Um so the Kenya
026trip, they distribute um used mobility devices that we have collected throughout northern Arizona, all these schools in the whole northern half of the state. And then the kids who go to Mexico work with this amazing uh group called ALM which is uh a group of wheelchair repair experts and probably oh 75% of the people in the group also are wheelchair users. So um they go out into like the plaza of the city that they visit. They travel all over Mexico. Um, and they collect wheelchairs from people who whose chairs need repair and they fix them and then the next day they can come and pick up the chair. Um, but it's really cool. I mean, it's total disassembly, replacing upholstery. The kids learn a ton. Um, so that's what the two trips are about. And
027it's the Interact Club and it's sponsored by Rotary. So, the kids pay a small fee. I think it's about $1,000 per kid this year and then Rotary covers the rest. And we're also doing fundraisers if you're interested, which I have. Yes. Carly is involved. So, if you want to buy some to support the people going on our trips, I have a lot more where this came from. Yeah. Yeah. And that's for the Colt Grill. We're doing a fundraiser with them. So, you buy a ticket and um essentially get to go through the buffet line and we get a portion of the proceeds. So, nice. Nice. Any questions? I have one quick one. The repair of the wheelchairs fascinates me. How do the do the kids know? How are they educated on how to fix a
028wheelchair and where did the supplies come from? So the the Rotary in the like the Cornovaka or whatever local Rotary Club pays for the um parts and pays the employees of the organization and the people who need the repair pay a very minimal fee. I don't know what it is, maybe $10 or something. Um but the training is all just right then. And last year when I went on the trip, uh, I was the translator for which is hilarious because I don't really speak Spanish. Um, but this year at least two of the kids that are going are Spanish speakers, so they're going to be able to help um, facilitate that. But it's a lot of, you know, pointing and demonstration and that type of thing. So it's a lot of laughs there. This group
029is like um if you've been to Seattle to the fish market, they're a lot like that group. So, there's a lot of singing and yelling and um just, you know, breaking out in song and random moments and stuff. Really fun. And I'm assuming this is all covered through Rotary. Yes. That they cover the costs. Do this do the students stay with families on their trips or how does that work? Usually the Kenya group does and those they stay with Rotarians. um who have volunteered their their space. The Mexico team usually stays in hotels. Okay. Kathleen, so the three there were chosen. Is what's the process of them? Is there an application? Yes, there's an application, there's um an interview with a a team of Rotarians. Um and then they're selected. I mean, it's a very
030simple process really. So they need to have some kind of um they have to write a few essays on the application and have some leadership skills. Those are things that they're looking for. So thank you. Parents sign off on it and all kinds. So just maybe this is that naive question but since this is the PHS the Prescuit High School Interact Club and it's sponsored this trip is sponsored through Rotary is there any requirement that we approve these trips as a board or that does the does the district have liability at all in this with sending students that are part of our PHS Interact Club? That's a good question. In the past when we've had kids go overseas, we we haven't um this is not on the agenda as a voting item tonight for you
031to approve it. It's a presentation about recent activities that they've done in the internet club in general and kind of what's coming up, but we'll certainly get this on a an ensuing board agenda so that we can do that. In the past, because it's a a school sponsored activity, we've asked for board approval on it and I think we probably would this time as well, but we're not voting on that. Not this evening. Yeah, we haven't we haven't placed it on the agenda as a voting item. Don't know got dates even. So, we'll No. Yeah, dates will be forthcoming. Yeah, we'll work with Kathleen when we get all the information that we need to to present it to. Okay. One more time. Yeah, you got a good heads up here. A lot of runway. If
032you have questions about All right. Anything else? Oh, no. So when we were going through our board packet, I saw that there was a vacancy for for a French teacher and and an AP psych teacher. Yes. And obviously that's you. And uh so you were retiring. Yes. And how long you've been with the district? Uh Clark, when did we start? I think this is our 18th year. Yeah, I think so. Yeah. Well, and and my story obviously I've known you a long time and your husband was my high school hero. senior. We know all the state and the hurdles and obviously you kept on winning because he married you, right? So, we just want to present you with a point too as a [Applause] fantastic. That is great. That is great, Kathleen. Thank you for
033that. thanks for everything you do with the kids in the interact club and and boy it'd be interesting. Have you have you had a chance to count up all the lives that you've touched over the last 18 years? You know, it's it's weird. I've gotten all these messages like just random emails students. So, I don't know if it's like Yeah, pretty neat. 20 to 150 kids probably every year for years and years and years just in your classes. Then the club opportunities. You know, you did academic decathlon for a long time, interact club for the last several years. Fullbrite scholar. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. You've touched a lot of lives. Thank you for everything you do. Thanks. Pretty neat. All right. Uh moving on to item 5C, ASBA policy services presentation. We have Justin Rice and
034Lynn Bondi. Good evening and thank you so much for having us. Um, that is really hard to follow. Yeah, I think we should just sit down now. Um, but congratulations when she stepped out. Well, embarrassed enough. Okay. Okay, fair enough. Fair enough. We won't do that anymore. Um, but I have to say when I first entered this room, I was, "Wow, this is a very small room. This is cozy." Well, now I understand why. And that's because this is a family. Um, and I can tell you right now just upon walking into this room and just upon sitting with you for, you know, 15, 20 minutes, um, I can see this is a very special place and I very much appreciate that and I very much appreciate you allowing us to come and speak with
035you a little bit this evening. Um, my name is Justin Rice. I am the executive director of the Arizona School Boards Association. I began my term at the end of September. U, so don't throw anything at me yet. Um, I'm still getting warmed up. Um, but one thing that I can say is that ASBA has been through some difficult times. And that is not something that we hide. That is not something that we don't own up to. That's not something that we don't speak about. One thing that I always tell my staff is that we won't trip over what's behind us. That doesn't mean we don't acknowledge it. We own it, but we're moving forward and we're learning the very important lessons that came along with some of the things that happened prior to my
036my start here. Um, one thing too that I'd like to share with you is also something that we share among staff and this is true of our board as well and that's an acronym that we started about the beginning of October and that acronym is ACT. Accountability, collaboration, and transparency. This is how we act moving forward. And this is something that's been very important to us and we truly do live it. And why do I mention this and why do I share this? I share this with everyone who will listen because if we are not acting with accountability, collaboration and transparency, I need to know about that because that is what our commitment is to our members. We know that there are other options out there and we are blessed to have you as our
037members and more importantly than that it's very important that we meet our expectations of our members which sometimes you might feel surveyed to death and I apologize for that but we absolutely want to make sure that we are always on top of our game as much as we possibly can and if there are things that we need to know about things that we need to improve on then we need to have a meeting about that and we need to start putting a game plan in place to ensure that we're meeting those needs we're meeting those expectations and I can certainly talk about those awkward conversations just like we talked about in your book study and that's okay. There are no naive questions. We'll absolutely answer anything that you need to know even if it's just
038for the good of the order. We find that very very important. It's also important that we know what your perspectives are not only on how we're doing but how we can help. That is what we are here to do. That is our commitment to you as your membership organization. So without that and I I appreciate you, you know, indulging me the time. So we'll talk a little bit about our policy services. Um I will be teaming off here with Lynn Bondi who is our policy analyst. And we got a special surprise. We also have Dr. Charlotte Patterson here uh who's also a policy analyst. So the really exciting thing about this is that you are seeing all three faces that if you need policy services, if you give us a call, you shoot us an
039email, these are the people that you are talking to. So, like I said, now it's nice to be able to have the opportunity to put some faces to names. So, without further ado, I'm going to pass this over to Lynn and she'll begin the presentation and then we'll kind of tag in and out. So, if you have any questions, of course, please feel free to stop us or we're happy to answer any questions at the end. Thank you. Thank you, Justin. Well, good evening board and uh Superintendent Tenny, Miss Torres, and cabinet. Um, I really appreciate the opportunity to be here and um, answer any questions like Justin says and highlight all the ways we support you. And do I just click this Sarah? We did not we did I did not practice ahead of
040time. So, as it says on the slide, we are here in service for you. So that means continuing to provide nonpartisan policies that are in compliance with state and federal law, agency rules, and legal opinions. to provide up-to-date policy advisories and alerts throughout the year. And uh just to clarify the difference between a policy advisory and a policy alert, a policy advisory is one that directly impacts your policy documents, whereas an alert is information that doesn't necessarily impact your policy documents, but it's information we feel that you should be aware of. Um, for example, we sent the policy alert recently on teacher contracts and that on or after March 15th date. And so again, that that statutory March 15th date wasn't in any of your policy documents, but it was important information, especially this time
041of year. So when you're getting an alert, we like to think of it as an FYI. Doesn't necessarily impact your policy documents, but we want you to know about it. Um, we also offer a complimentary employee handbook that's compliance focused. It's um, customizable and it's aligned with your policy um, manual and your district currently has that. We also offer unrestricted like Justin was talking about on call consultation um, for board members, for superintendent, for administrative professionals. And I always like to say we don't start a timer when you're calling and uh Char and I sometimes it's on speaker and it's going on hours but we are committed to listening and making sure we understand you and that we can provide you the information that you need however long it takes. Um, so wanted to mention
042that we also provide um policy amendment assistance at no additional cost because we want your policy documents to reflect your local needs. And so if you want us to help you craft a policy, if you want us to give you samples on a policy that you're looking um to add to your policy manual, um I'm a former English teacher. if you're looking for me to edit one of your policy documents. I do that a lot. So, um you're always welcome to um have us assist you in that process. Um we also network with the American Association of State Policy Services. So, that is a great group of legal and policy experts and we collaborate with them quite a bit um on this national level. So, that is also a great resource that we have at
043our fingertips that like I said we utilize quite a bit. They ask for our feedback, we ask for theirs. So, it's a great um a great uh uh collaboration that we have with them. We also offer policy Q um assistance, policy bridge Q assistance. So, that means you can be as handson or hands off as you want when processing your documents through policy bridge. Now, I know Sarah is quite uh skilled in processing your documents through policy bridge, but this is an option if you want to say, "Hey, here's our adoption dates. You handle it." Um that's an option that we can take care of for you. Uh we also offer a complimentary comprehensive policy review and our objectives are on the screen. When we do a comprehensive policy review, we want to make sure
044that your policies are aligned with your practices, of course, that everything's in compliance, and um we are also looking to locate any internal or external conflicts that you have in your policy manual. So, we're checking for a myriad of items as we review your documents because if there are issues with any of those, we want to make sure that they're addressed right away so you can focus on what truly matters like your athletes and giving them the coins and recognizing your stellar teachers. So, um those kind of things. So, we like to um dig in and really help you with that policy manual that maybe you haven't um updated in a while or you know you just you need that policy review. So, here's a sample of um what that looks like. So to accomplish
045those goals, Char and I look at every document in your policy manual and then we compile our pre-analyses on a spreadsheet which we send to the superintendent in advance before we ever set foot. They already know um the things that we are looking for because we want everything to be very very clear. So the spreadsheet has the policy information. It has any policy advisories that are associated with that policy document. Again, that third column or fourth column is my pre-analyses that help guide us as we're navigating the policy manual. If there's something that's not on there that you want to discuss, we can definitely discuss that. Again, this is just a guide. And then that last column is based on the actual discussion during the policy review. I also just want to point out that
046it's colorcoded to be um to go along with the comparison document again so everything is clear. So once I process everything through policy bridge I send this spreadsheet I send the comparison document of what your document looks like and our model document and again that's all colorcoded and then I also send we also send a document that looks like this. So it's separated with these are the policies that need to go to the board for the board to review. Then we separate the regulations and exhibits. That's for the superintendent's approval. And then the final document are any kind of documents that we discuss but they're going to be be retained as is. No changes. Um and we support you before, during, and after this policy review process. And um we recommend it every four to
047five years. And again, it is complimementaryary um service that we provide. So, it's a great opportunity to dig in and and look at every single document. So, that's that's what that process looks like. Um we also publish, you probably saw that in January, our annual uh calendar of recommended and required actions. That's an additional resource we like to provide. And as far as policy bridge, um we have um over 200 policy manuals that you can search, access and search all together. So if you're looking for a particular topic, you can just type that in and again you have access to 200 um manuals. So that's a great bank of documents that you have at your fingertips. Um as far as policy bridge, if you've seen that little globe, that's the globe function. And so what
048that does, if you click on that, it gives you the URL address for any policy document in your manual. So you can quickly send that or embed that as a link. We also have the download feature and so that downloads all of the documents as Word documents. So then it's easy to customize. And then we also utilize the Google Translate feature. So anyone who views your policy documents can see those documents in over 100 languages. So, we really like that feature as well. And most importantly, we listen to your feedback. So, as you probably know, we are in the process of conducting a full review of our model manual and we're sending that out in um sections so that it's easy for you to manage. And this manual update is I like to say team
049effort of uh policy and legal experts as well as district and educational leaders who are vetting each document um before we send that section to you. So we've sent out sections A and B already. Um section C is now in the hands of those educational and district um leaders who um are reviewing that and giving us their feedback. And I just want to say during this process um Char and I have also looked at other policy manuals and we were very pleased to discover that our manual is more comprehensive because our manual is focused on assisting districts with their governance and their operations. I always like to say we cast a wider net um so that you make sure that you have the policies, the regulations and exhibits that are going to best support your
050board's functions. Um for example, section B that we recently sent out on board governance, that's very robust and we do that on purpose because our thought process is what is going to be most important to you as to help you in your role. So, um we are really really excited about this project that we're in the middle of. Uh we're also upgrading policy bridge our uh software platform and um so that we are starting um this month we're transitioning boards over to this upgrade. Uh it has the latest technology. It has new features. One of the great new features because you use boardbook is that it interacts with board book. And so if you make a change to a policy, Sarah, are you listening? No. If you make a change to a policy in board
051book, it automatically populates in policy bridge. So that's a really nice feature. Um, and then we will continue. We had um a free training uh here uh last year and we just loved you um hosting us for that and we'll continue to offer those free trainings to the super users and updated tutorials just so everything is clear with this new platform. So we're also excited about that um that's happening right now. Um we also send a monthly newsletter pulse on policy regarding all things policy to keep you updated on that. And um we've recently created a list serer for our policy super users so that they have a space where they can ask questions um whether it's about policy bridge or it's just policy in general. Um, so with that, um, I will hand it
052back over to Justin and then again, if you have any questions, um, I'll tag team back with her. So once we finish this, I am going to ask Linda to come back up and talk a little bit about our process for reviewing policies. Um, it is rather unique. Um, and there really is a lot of wraparound support before we just go ahead and launch a policy your direction. And so I hope that's okay. Okay. Thank you. All right. Um so this slide actually does have um a document that also uh supports it and this is just a comparison um that we've decided to put together in terms of the services policy services that ASBA offers and then there are other providers out there as you know. And so in comparing some of the things that
053we offer and then doing our due diligence to see well what are the other providers offering you know what what does that look like? How can we do a direct comparison? And unfortunately, a lot of that is unknown. Um, so I will just run through this very quickly, but policy updates, advisories, and alerts, as Lynn just spoke about, um, included and provided throughout the year. Policy update assistance included and customizable to you. Policy manual reviews also included. Uh, employee handbook services included and customizable. In-person and remote trainings, webinars, tutorials, and instruction included and also customizable. Board member trainings included and customizable. Super user trainings and listerve also included on call cons consultation with dedicated staff. So that's when we talked about you give us a call, you give us a ring and you know exactly
054who you're gonna be speaking with. That's myself, Dr. Patterson, Lynn, these are the people that are going to be answering your phone. Um the other thing too is that we try to stick within a 4hour response time. Usually it's right away. Um but that is our commitment is to be very quick and timely with you. of course sometimes weekends. Uh but it's not unheard of that we won't respond during weekends, too. Um we're just committed to being committed. Uh but anyway, uh so I just want to let you know that we are always at the ready to assist you. Um discounted board fees. Um you guys do obviously subscribe to Bardocks and we do actually are we've negotiated a discounted fee. So that is is less expensive for you. I'm sorry. Oh, sorry about that.
055Perfect. Perfect. Uh and then the cost. So fully transparent with no hidden fees. we will tell you exactly what it's going to cost and there are no adjustments. There are no, you know, hidden fees, no secret services or anything like that. What what you pay for is exactly what you see. Um, and the other thing too, like I said, is all policy services are provided by dedicated ASBA staff in collaboration with legal counsel at no additional cost to members. So, when I bring up legal counsel, I have Lynn talk about what exactly that means in terms of how we go ahead and review our policies and ensure that they are ready for you. Um, the other thing too that I just wanted to mention is that we are big believers in professional development. Uh, we
056are always trying to stay on top of everything to be the go-to resource. And we can't be the go-to resource if we don't know exactly what's going on and being timely about that. Uh, bright and early tomorrow morning, I am heading out to Atlanta. I'm kind of doing a round trip here. I was just there a couple weeks ago. Uh, to attend the consortium of schoolboard attorneys. Um, so I will be personally attending that. Um, for those of you I know you're jealous. I know you're jealous. Um but anyway, that's that's my professional development as well. Um is to be able to go out, see what's happening around the nation, things like that, so that I can bring those things back to policy services, back to government relations uh department, which I'm also running at
057this time. Um so that we can continue to provide you with those good works. Um, a couple of other things just quickly in addition to our policy alerts. Um, we do frequently publish um, just summaries and then also just some guidance in terms of ICE. That was a big one, immigration. Um, that was one where we've uh, certainly collaborated with the governor's office. We've collaborated with the attorney general's office and being able to provide some of those, you know, just best practices with related to ICE. That's also supported by items in your policy manual. So, we were able to bring those things sort of, you know, into a well-rounded situation so that you were able to see that. Um, the other one too that we just recently um opined on was the dear colleague letter
058from the Office of Civil Rights. Um, so that was certainly another one that we're keeping a breast of. We're also in contact, this is something that'll be very specific to um my trip to Atlanta is getting some um direct guidance and some explanation about the disillusion of Department of Education. I know we have a lot of questions there, particularly what happens to student loans, what happens to finances, what happens to IDEIDA, you know, some very important things. So, we're going to be really happy to bring back back to you once I return next week. All right. And as I said, um we do we have provided an additional document that supports this and it's essential questions to ask when you're considering policy service providers. Um so, don't worry about asking the naive questions. Um we've
059listed 20 of them for you. um and they are not naive, but just to help you dig a little deeper. Sometimes when you receive a presentation, you know, that's what we're here for. We're here to make it quick, here to make it look good, all those fun things. But there are certainly a deeper dive that you're entitled to. And that's why we put this document together so that you we have the questions that you may want to ask. And like I said, we encourage that. Like I said in absolutely any of those questions you're welcome to ask us. So, you know, it's all fair game. Um, let me see if I can screw this up. Okay. And this is just a quick example of some of those questions. So, what does the policy manual review
060process entail? And what is the typical timeline and is our cost? How does your organization stay current with changing education legislation and regulations? If any, what startup fees are required? Beyond any startup fees, if required, how is the cost of your service determined for our district? Will we see an increase in the cost of service year-over-year? And four, what kind of direct support is provided for developing unique district policies? What does that look like? If it's an additional service, what is the cost? Like I said, I think we're all very cognizant of budgets. We know that these are very tight budgets. I know Brian's looking at me right now going, "Amen, sister." Um, we know how tight these budgets are and we know how challenging it is for districts and we just want to ensure
061that you're offered the best supports possible for the most reasonable price that we can provide given the reality of those budgets. One thing that I can say too standing up here is that all three of us are actually education practitioners. Um, we've been in the classrooms, we've been in the trenches, we've been in administration. I personally have worked for the Department of Education. I've also worked for Arizona State Schools for the Deaf and Blind and now obviously taking over for ASBA. So, we certainly know our way around classrooms, district offices, and boardrooms. So, just wanted to make sure that you know that we're here to help and we mean that. We've been in your shoes and they're not always fun to, you know, an easy fit. Let's say that. But but we are here to
062help you and we can certainly be there to support. And then just a little about adopting policy. I'm going to hand this back over to Lyn. Do you want to just cover a little bit? Adopting policy is Yeah, we kind of already did. It's it's your main um job and so um we want to help you with that. Obviously you are very very busy and need to outsource that and so we are happy to be your policy provider and give you all the information and make sure it's very very clear um since that is um you know in statute your your main job and I think that we are ready for questions. Oh, um, yeah. So, I think Justin already talked about it that it is, um, you know, a transparent fee that it's all
063inclusive. The subscription is for 48 months and, um, based on enrollment. I think I got everything. Questions? Any questions? I do have a question. One thing we've talked about as a board is is the way that the policies are enumerated like the numbering system or in your case lettering system and maybe you could speak to that as to why it is a little bit confusing for users like we talk we joke about like beh H and BEB and I never know what we're talking about. So maybe there's something I dream in. So if you could explain maybe where that comes from or how we can better navigate that. We used to have the numbering system way before I got there. And then they wanted it consistent with the national education for uh policy network. So
064the letters the codification how we assign policy is based on that policy network. um how you can navigate it um dreaming letters like I don't know but it's all right there you know with the lettering system anytime I know you probably realize that it has a dash r that means it's a regulation and a dash e that means it's an exhibit and so um you'll have your policy if there are multiple regulations it's - a - rb same thing for exhibits Right. And the index has you know a you know general um guidance, bard governance, c superintendent admin. So that is in your introduction. It gives you the breakdown of what um what each letter signifies. Okay. I guess I'd ask you what what's some of the most common um negative feedback you get about
065your policy services from districts? Well, it's interesting as far as the policy manual and I say listening to feedback. Um some say, you know, it's too comprehensive. There's too many. And then others are telling us when we were talking about rolling out this upgrade and and revamping the policy manual, they said it's still going to have all the regulations, right? It's still going to be comprehensive, right? And so what we're doing is we're working with our attorneys to find is there a way where we can reorganize it so it's clearer and easier. So we're saying more concise, but we're also keeping that comprehensive piece trying to make everyone happy. For example, if you saw section B, there were quite a few policies that were one sentence. And so, as we looked at those with our
066attorneys, there's easier ways that we can, you know, put those together. So, it's all under with subheadings. So, it's all under one um one policy. So, that's a little bit easier to manage. Um, so I guess you know the complaint we're we're taking the complaints, we're taking, you know, the the kudos and we're we're listening and we're making it the best that we can for for you. That's kind of what I anticipated. I mean, that's what we've heard here. It's just the breadth of everything is so much that it's sometimes overwhelming and sometimes just adding those subheadings, you know, that that this is exactly where you look for this and this. So, you know, with our attorneys, like I said, working with those kinds of things. Um, I had a thought in my mind and
067now it's gone. I I know I'll I'll all could probably come up with it. Oh, I know. Also, a lot of board members asking us questions like even, you know, about the first read and the second read and can we do it in one? So as we were looking specifically at section B and we keep notes on every single question and you know what we talk about and so we looked back at that and what are some of the things that they were unsure about even rules of order. So, you know, we said here here's some general rules of order and we highlighted and now your district can insert what are your rules of order, what's best for your district. And so, taking a a look at what all of the board members, superintendents, administrative
068professionals, what they're asking us, you know, trying to clarify in the policy manual, things that aren't statutoily based, but extremely helpful for you. I'll I'll chime in and say it's really a very important service that's served us well for many many years trying to keep up with all the new laws that are passed every year and make sure that we uh fold the requirements of of new legislation into policies just on our own would be really really difficult and as just provided excellent customer service and really good guidance over the years. It's been something that's served our district well for years. No question about that. And I also want to just note too um something in the policy manual is we have the legal references for each policy um linked at the bottom. So you
069can see where in statute that goes to. We also have internal links. So if you're looking at a particular topic, you can click on that and it takes you to um another place in your policy manual that has that specific topic that you're looking at. So just wanted to note that. I just wanted to mention too that we're a very close staff and what's really great about it is that your office is right around the corner. Your office is right down the hall. Um we are a very active staff. We're a very connected staff and um like I mentioned before, you know, policy services works very closely with government relations. Um Lisa, I'm heading that department at this time. I'm also the lobbyist for ASBA. So what's really nice about that is that it literally
070goes from the legislature, the governor onto policy services. Um so we have that wraparound support at all times. The other thing too is ensuring that we are always up to date and sharing where we are in legislative process. So if it looks like, hey, this one might be incoming, let's you know, start working through this now. Um as well as uh white papers that I've written, things like that. any testimony or statements that we provide are also shared with policy services so they're able to see that and understand where our perspective is. Um meetings with the governor's office are obviously shared so that they have up-to-date information in terms of what's happening right now which will go on to impact you know following the legislative session. So that's just another example of just how closely
071we'll work together. We're all a well functioning team and um I know one thing um that has occurred in the past was sort of wondering like how exactly are your policies you know how are these provided how are these created and we've talked about our attorneys one thing is that this is an extraordinarily thorough process. Um, our policies before they ever reach you go through an extensive vetting process which includes not just one legal opinion but two legal opinions so that we get more ideas from both sides to see are these aligned legal opinions. Do our questions there and if there are questions then we want to have that discussion and understand where everybody is coming from so that we can find a way to move forward together. So that's just something else that I
072want to explain in terms of what our legal reviews look like. We also have peer reviewers. Um so peer reviewers um will be assigned to different policy items for review to ensure that they understand what this means. They're able to provide feedback to us so that we can then go in and address any questions or again we're looking for alignment. How can we find that alignment by collaborating? I'm very excited. Um my background is special education. So when we hit that area, I will be a peer reviewer. So very excited. Not only do we work with our internal staff as a staff of experts, but also reach out to the communities to board members like you who have this type of expertise and superintendent as well. So that's just something that we utilize our community
073in a very effective way because this needs to work for you and it needs to work by you. I just wanted to share that. Thank you. On the legal reviews that you do, is this this is an outside legal firm? Are they inhouse lawyers? What's kind of the makeup of this? So, we do have an attorney that we do not currently have a staff attorney. So, we do have an attorney um Mr. Justin Pierce um who's with Pierce Coleman. He provides uh one legal opinion and he is currently serving as our contract attorney for now. And then we also have another attorney, Martha Taylor. Martha Taylor, um who also provides that that legal opinion as well. Any other questions? Questions. Appreciate the presentation. No, thank you so much for traveling up here. I know that
074was long, but I hope it was informative and um on my behalf of myself, Dr. Patterson and and Lind Bondi, thank you again for having us. We appreciate it. Safe travels. Thank you. All right, moving on to item 6A, uh summary of current events. Uh Mr. Teddy. Okay, super. So, just a handful of things. I want to comment just really briefly on the kids that we had here earlier and thanks to our friends at ASBA for coming up and sharing about your policy services uh aspect of things that we've been really benefiting from for years. Excuse me. As far as our our winter sports, um Missy Townsen, who's our athletic director, actually shared with with Adam and I a draft of a of a paper that she's writing uh to be included in a journal
075on the national level about the importance of athletic directors and athletic programs and how administrators can support them. And it was it was quite excellent. I asked, you know, can I share this with the board? She said, "Ah, it's just in draft form and I'm going to get a lot of a lot of feedback still and in a few months it'll be published and you can do it then." So, I'll I'll certainly take the opportunity to do that. But one of the things she mentioned, it just really resonated with me. She used the um the analogy of sports being kind of like the front porch of of a school of a district. And I thought, you know, that really is true. It's not about it's it it doesn't reflect necessarily the the structure of what's
076inside the main things that that's going on in that house. Um, but it it it tells people on the street who come by who who get, you know, a cursory uh look at the home um or who just visit the home a lot about the home potentially. And there's a lot to be said, you know, for the curb appeal piece of things. I just thought, boy, the the the different aspects of that analogy are really apt. My wife and I go walking around our neighborhood and there's some people who just from the outside their house looks really attractive. I've never been inside, but I assume it's fantastic, right? From there's some people who the outside is kind of a little dumpy and I've never been inside. It may be fantastic inside, but I assume it's
077a little bit dumpy. And I think though it it's it's not reflective necessarily of what's inside, the academics, the other programs, the culture, the great things we've got going on at Prescat High School and in the district broadly. It certainly is our front porch in many respects. That's the only interface that many people have in town with uh with what's going on in our schools. I'm really proud to say our front porch is pretty outstanding. It's pretty neat. All right, so that said, I'll move on to some current events really quick. Some of you were were able to attend this. I was uh actually at one of the other current events that we're going to show in just a minute, but Chris Pred, who's our automotive technologies teacher at the high school and has been
078for many years. Man, we're lucky to there's so many people who work for a district that I could say, man, we're lucky to have this later have this guy. And is absolutely the case for Mr. Pred. he could easily be applying his trade on his own, not worrying about teenagers or policies or regulations or, you know, small paychecks, things like that. But he just makes a huge impact in a lot of kids' lives. And he was named the um the career and technical education district teacher of the year for our part of the CATED district. We're super proud of him and I know a couple of you, you can see in the picture there, a couple of you were able to attend that and honor him in person. Thank you for that. That's super cool.
079Next, this is kind of neat. Couple things that happened at Granite Mountain recently. Actually, one is just a picture I took on my way and it's representative of other things. You can see that the the I think you can see the police car there. They've gotten some some updated vehicles, you know, as they use in their law enforcement. And um each of the school resource officer for Mile High and for the high school and for Granite Mountain each have had, I guess, the the logo of the school and I'm not sure if you can read it underneath police. It says school resource officer. uh what's the word painted but you know decal whatever something there's a verb I'm looking for that is not coming to me anyhow it's on the car and it's pretty neat
080as you as you drive around town see that Sarah was mentioning to me sometimes she sees that and she says oh I know who that is and we'll wave and whatnot and I love that that those vehicles are at wrapped there you go it's a wrap that's that's what's going on yeah Adam knew that because he's got his whole school pretty much wrapped these days um at any rate it's it's a neat uh symbol of the of the partnership that we've got with the city as far as law enforcement is concerned. And I love, you know, just the police vehicle presence at our schools is is potentially deterrent to people making bad decisions. So, that's a real neat thing that we that we're able to do for kids. The other picture, I'm not sure how
081well you can see it. So, there's a young lady there. I think she's 11 years old and she's drumming on her drum set along to I don't know, some Kat Katy Perry song of some kind. And um there's about 700 people in the audience. Mrs. Chung might be there. You may have had to get back to your school at that point. But this was the Granite Mountain uh talent show. Just one of the acts that I was there for. I I missed the very beginning and then I wasn't there for the end. But there were it was so neat to see 10 and 11 and 12 year old kids putting themselves out there in front of 500 of their peers and about what Rachel maybe 150 200 parents and other adults there. There you go.
082It was pretty cool. And if it's okay Rachel can you tell us who won this talent show? [Music] pretty pretty spectacular talent in that family. So, yeah, pretty neat. But all of the kids did did something kind of cool and some of them, you know, there were some like, whoa, I'm totally impressed at how talented that 11-y old kid is, and some of them were like, I'm totally impressed at how they will get out there and put themselves out in front of other people. It's one of the things we don't get tested on how kids, you know, present themselves to others or how how willing they are to to be out there and interface with others. But boy, that's a big part of success as an adult, isn't it? That's one of the things that
083we teach and foster in our schools. So, pretty proud of that. Next, great. These were these are some pictures of our kindness assemblies. This is where I was when you were presenting some of you to Mr. Predore. I was at the Taylor Hicks one there. The the larger picture, I guess, on the side. Anyhow, there was a presenter. I think she was from Utah that came down and presented about kindness and she did some singing. She she told some different stories about herself when she was in school. Really got the kids involved in, you know, how important it is to to care for other people and be kind to other people and interact positively with other people and what a difference that can make in your own life and the lives of others. And at
084the end she shared I think maybe you can see um this the the one from Abia Jud there is in the lower lefthand corner. So that's the young lady. Sarah put a star over her face because I think we wanted to be careful on some furpa issues to not uh show a student's picture in public where we hadn't um received permission from that. Backs of heads are okay, fronts of heads less so. But any rate, the the picture up on the board was um presentation of a book that she gave to one of the students at each at each of the schools. she called the kindest kid in America and had asked the faculty at this at each school, hey, can you choose somebody who's just really exemplary in in showing this one of the
085character pillars of caring of this this uh this trait of kindness that we're going to be emphasizing. It's pretty neat. Pretty neat day. Nancy did a nice write up in the paper for us. I know you're at the first one and offic or um Deputy Chief Brandilla presented the kindness award at one and Chief Bonnie uh presented one of the others as well. Pretty neat dick. Clark, will you remind everybody how this came to be? Yes. Oh, I sure will. Yeah. And I hopefully I think Carly's gonna touch on that. So, I didn't want to steal a lot of thunder, but you can have it. Are you sure? Thunder. Okay. Give us some more details on this, but it was our our Prescott High School student council who got together and said, "Hey, we want
086to make an impact in our school and throughout our district on the way that we're we're interacting with one another, treating each other, particularly around kindness." So, reached out to Thank you. reached out to this gal, set it up, paid for her to be here and um and coordinated with me to get some special presenters along with her uh coordinated with principles at the elementary schools to find a date, a time that was going to work for everybody. Worked with Mr. Neilia a bunch and it just ended up being a really neat thing I think for a lot of of our students. Yeah, thank you for that. And then Carly, fill in some details when it's your turn here in just Yeah, it was really fun. I got to go to all three schools and
087watch both presentations at the high school and she wrote a little book for each of the students and gave it to them and their families came and yeah, it was just such a fun opportunity. And I when I went to Aaya Jed, which was the last school, I was walking in and I saw this dad and I was like, "Oh, I bet he's like the winner, like the the kids parent." And so I asked him, I was like, "Oh, like did your kid win?" I was like, "Congrats. Congrats." And he was like, "Thank you." I shook his hand. And then when it was presented at the end, it turns out it was like because he had gotten sick and like the girl got nominated because she had like endured so much um with her dad's
088illness, which is like a really like sensitive subject for me. And I like didn't even notice that he had like a physical disability. It just like I don't know. just didn't come across me. And Abai Jud is like the school I went to and I got to see um like my old teachers and so it was just like really impactful for me and a few of the seniors who took leads on it. Um and we got to hang out with Jesse for like literal hours because there was just lots of long breaks and absorb that and student council and our salt team on campus also got to have a lunch with her. Um, and it was just like one of those really amazing opportunities. I don't know like how many speakers we'll ever come across
089again that signed up to drive. And her parents actually lived also in Arizona. So, they came up with her and go to four of our four of our PSD schools and write custom books for every single one. and she got people from the high school to maybe um write the books for her as well and then sit through lunches with you know 30 students and then me and a few other students from our student council. So it was just it was really great for me personally. I really hope it had the effect of kindness that we hope for. Um and now it's just the thing of creating that environment every single day which is something I know the schools are working on and student council is working on. And so it's just a really really
090great opportunity. Thanks. Yeah, it was super cool. We appreciate you you generating those ideas and making this possible and it dubtales so nicely with with a lot of the character related uh initiatives that we have at each of our elementary schools. So appreciate that a lot. Great. Last couple things here really quick. Two two pictures here that actually are related in a way. So on the right, I'll I'll mention that one first. I don't think this was at our future freshman night. This is just one of the times that you happen to be by the high school went in the front lobby and there there's a there's a job description for principles and cleaning up after everybody else is not on but I will tell you to me this was not only representative of the
091way that Mr. Neely approaches his leadership at each of our principles. You you'll find principles out there shoveling snow and cleaning up in the cafeteria, wiping things down, stuff that fell down on the floor, putting it back up that the we have folks that they don't leave it to other people to say, "Hey, something needs to be done. I'm right here. I'll do that." It's pretty cool. I love that we've got that going on in each of our schools. And Mr. Neely was was kind to smile for me for just a minute. I didn't I don't know if you knew that that was going to show up here. I thought it was a represent of his approach to things, but all all of our all of our leaders, which is super cool. The one on
092the left, if you just focus in front, you're like, there's some people. What are they doing? That's a hallway full of about 80 people. One of five hallways that were full of 80 people at the same time at our future freshman. There are hundreds and hundreds of people there. I'm not sure if you got like a somebody clicking on their thing to count at the door, but hundreds of of of potential PHS students came through. Adam, remind me the date. It was a couple weeks ago, just before the break. It was the Wednesday before we went to Okay. Oh, it says right there. Maybe it's written right there. That's a possibility. That's one possibility. Anyhow, great night. They had they had pretty much all of their teachers there representing each department and each each discipline
093of study and all the different clubs and the different activities and student council and whatnot. Their student council reps showing people around and sharing things about their school. I loved you probably had 50 students actively involved in sharing about your school in addition to double that. All right, we're gonna go with double that. I'm serious. That is like the student ran event and like the teachers do a lot with their departments but I don't know because all the student council kids were there. That's 30 at least. So there you go. I dislude them maybe 50. But let's go with 100. Let's go with 100. Anyhow, it was a pretty neat night and I was it was a privilege for me to be there. Then I think maybe the last Here you go. Yeah. So, this
094is kind of fun. I'll let you process this real quick. So, this was one of many signs that I when I went by Granite Mountain just before the break. I think maybe it was this week. I can't remember. It's last week. At any rate, there I think it was probably their student council had gotten together and made just kind of some neat inspirational signs about again interacting with each other in cool ways and and showing appreciation to your teachers and telling your mom and dad, "Hey, thanks for everything you do for me and things like that." And I just thought that's that's pretty clever actually. So, I'm going to take a picture of that and it'll not only represent another great thing going on in our schools. again doesn't show up on test scores or
095anything like that, but it's a big part of what we're teaching uh in our schools and hopefully it's making an impact in families in our community. That's what college at the end. Do you want me to mention um briefly about the auditor general's spending report? Yes. Yes. Yes. Would you or do you want me to? Either way, why don't you I have I have the document up so I can quickly just Great. We're going to give you a comprehensive look at this later, but yeah, Ryan and I had agreed that we were going to give you a quick preview and I totally forgot. Thank you. No. Yeah. Okay. I that if that's all kind of piggy back on what I was going to do. Yeah, we were uh um we mentioned that on March 1st
096the auditor general, you know, they put out their spending report in which we're compared to comparable districts, specifically operating peers. Um and just uh the big ones that we always highlight uh were that our classroom spending continues to be the highest at 72.5%. Um with a second district underneath that not even well at 69.8%. So we're more than uh 2 point some percent higher than even the second within our peer group. Um our administration uh spending which is always something that is uh is looked at. We were the second lowest um this year. It happened to be that Humbult was 4% lower than PUSD and it seems like we flip-flop every year. Uh they did have an increase through their administration staffing this year um with it some ad um assistant principles at the elementary
097school. So that's probably going to for them. Uh when it comes to just uh those areas that we get low or very low or high, um these are our what's were our designations that we'll share next month more in depth. But in administration compared to our pair group, we were very low. Um spending per square foot for plant operations, we were low. Food service, which is spending per meal, we were very low. Transportation was spending per mile, we were very low. And transportation, spending per writer, we were very low. Um so once again that just kind of indicates um the the lean operation of the district and really putting the money in in the area of the classroom. Um once again over 72% of our money going to instruction, student support and instructional support. We'll
098dig in deep with you with that later. Another piece that came out in that auditor general report is um the the test scores for every district. So we can compare where we're at and and basically the same situation as we were in last year. We're in the top essentially 20% in each um each of the three tested areas of all districts in in Arizona. So do we have room for improvement? We absolutely do and we're committed to that. But are we pretty pleased that that we're doing well uh compared to other schools with the same kind of resources as us? Yeah. Yeah. There's a lot to be proud of. Thank you. All right, moving item on to item 6 A2, governing board members, current events. Dr. Bangum. Um, I felt like a slacker this month
099compared to the months before where we were very busy. Um, I attended a couple of tennis meets. Um mainly because I have a son who's competing in the in tennis and uh that was enjoyable. It was great to be on campus and rubbing shoulders with um the athletes and their coaches. And then I also participated in the distinguished alumni committee and we had a meeting right after the last uh board meeting and uh discussed some opportunities to nominate some distinguished alumni. I know. I also felt like it was such a break from the listening tour. We went every week, every single week for a while. So, twice a week spending time in school. So, but I was able to go to the teacher of the year presentation for the Mountain Institute. And I'm just so
100amazed at our entire CED program and all that is done. And the students that were there were very much impressed with their teacher. Like you could tell they he makes a big impact. So it was really neat to see. Um so I participated in a town hall with uh Representative Greg Stanton on possible cuts to the education department. basically was able to ask a question about how you see this impacting rural districts uh if this IDA money is reallocated. um as a politician he gave a political answer but uh he he did answer the question which was good and basically said we need to make sure that our rural schools are not left out in this because of the the lack of infrastructure and resources that are available that are not available in rural areas
101as they are in urban areas. Um, I was also able to attend the the MIC TED Teacher of the Year and just echo everything that's been said already about Mr. Pred and his classes. Um, I know I announced this last week, but we actually got to do the celebrity reader at Taylor Hicks where I got to be in the second grade and kindergarten grades um, and read a book that uh, wasn't one that's in their regular uh, regular rotation of books. It was called that pickle and it's by it's by a an author that my aunt knew and she gave us the book and had it signed for my daughters when they were little. So, it was it was a lot of fun. Um, and then I also want just kind of outside of the
102schoolboard role, but just a big thank you to the ESS program, especially at the high school. Um, working with a kid there just trying to help him be successful. So, number one, so that he can play baseball. He wants to play baseball. Um, but also just to get him on track and they have stepped up in a way that every child deserves. But I'm just happy to see this child getting and in helping him get his grades to a point where hopefully we're at a point where he's stable enough to not have to worry about every single grade check that's coming down. And it's always every week is a new and we'll see how it goes. But they have put a lot of effort into helping this kid. I just feel like every kid deserves
103that and I know our teachers work for that. But I'm just really happy. Not too many things. P um caught a tennis match the other day that was pretty fun. Watch the girls play softball. I softball did not look like that when I was in high school. I cannot believe how fast they pitched that ball. I was I would have been frightened to even stand close to the pitcher. I also had a chance to um with my role on the board of the Prescuit Education Foundation, we did the videotaping of our next wonderful nominees for Rising Stars, which is coming up in May. And once again, I say this every year, I watch these kids. I watch us videotape them and hear about their lives and hear about their parents and hear about their teachers
104and their community. And I always go home after that day realizing that we don't have anything to worry about. The future is in good hands. We have some amazing kids. And every single one of them shown it was just they shined like a star. And the things they had to say about their lives and where they're going and their goals and their dreams, it just it's astonishing to me. That's about it for me. I hit I did Cal Cortis' memorial service just again it's what he did in education and it's just a a pleasure to to celebrate someone like that. And that's about it for me. Sure. And I'll have nothing next month because I'm leaving town. Um I did the uh the Taylor Hicks reader too. So I got to go into the second
105and fourth grade classrooms, rile up the kids and then leave. So it was great. just like bedtime in my house. Um and then um and I don't know if you saw the article, but uh Taylor Hicks the singer came in and you saw that uh he um what did he send an autograph photo and a harmonica to Taylor Hicks because he had heard that there was a Taylor Hicks Elementary. So that that was pretty cool little celebrity connection there. I need to say when he was on American Idol, I had more enrolly kids and parents asked if the school was named after him. We actually reached out to him to see if we could get an autographed picture and never heard back. So, I'm I need to know what Mr. Hilton did to get that.
106Do you get credit then? Like, did you think it was a coincidence and he's been fighting for this for years? I think so. I will take credit. Thanks for doing that, Brian. Um, so as a reminder, this month the whiskey off-road is uh at the end of the month, so we are taking a lot of volunteers, right guys? Volunteers. Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We need a lot of uh NHS. I have a meeting Friday. So Awesome. Okay. Get to meet before then. Awesome. Thank you. Um so that's the 25th and uh the 26th. Um it's also uh Taylor Hicks is doing an autism awareness walk that day. So, anybody that volunteers can cut away from that for a little bit. Uh, tomorrow night is the Alliance 4.0 um um I guess honor banquetss, you
107know, for every school in the area. They do an amazing job. Um, Judge Napper made did an amazing speech last year. Um, just and that takes place in the Roy P. Simmons Adult Center. And then uh Saturday I got to we, you know, was the start of flag football around here. And uh once again, Miss Chuglo's oldest daughter, we were amazed watching her uh solve a Rubik's cube um in front of our eyes probably about 20 times for my six-year-old. So anyway, that's that's what they do all the time. So it doesn't even stop. So pretty amazing. Um let's move on to governing board representative. I know. I feel so sad about Vanessa. Truly. Sorry, I'll just let you know Vanessa um emailed us just as the meeting was started. Said she's having car trouble
108and she's stuck in the middle of the road and she's super sorry. So, I just told her be safe. If you can get here later, awesome. If not, no worries. Carly will be able to I also have been dealing with car struggles, so I really feel for Vanessa right now. Um I talked about Oh, prom is Saturday. Everyone come to Charlotte Hall and see everyone. I am so I did I went and did a service project on Saturday at the mall I did the priceless prom project and during my little lunch break I went and saw the venue and the junior class was actually on their hands and me scrubbing the floors like the full image like this isn't me exaggerating what's the video currently it's at the mall it's like the old Barnes &
109Noble um so that's very exciting and you know prom is a beast for, you know, six juniors to take on. And so I am just very excited to see how it works out um and to not clean up afterwards either. Um our and the Granite Mountain talent show um was recently and our NHS talent show for Prescuit High School is April 18th if anyone wants to come. We did invite all of the schools as well and our auditions are this week and we are seeing a lot of potential and it is just like I remember last year I was just so shocked at the students who came out. I would just never know the skills. Nathaniel was there and you know it's just like really a talented group of people. You would never know the
110talents that they have and it's just really fun um for that student involvement. April 25th. I'm surprised Merry didn't talk about this. We have our the food forest um has been like a big work in progress and Interact made a peace pole which we worked with like a local pottery shop and Bradshaw also has a peace pole. So we worked together and it says something very nice in like four languages and I glazed one of the sides. So, there's a big ceremony for that April 25th um in our food forest and Interact is going to be having a little journaling. But, um it's just really it's really fun to get to collaborate with the the people working on the food forest and as an interact club member, it's just such great connections that we get
111to make and such good life skills about learning to grow because my parents have a garden. So, it's just like getting to spread that to our students is really important. Um my Last thing is I um one of my co-workers came to me recently with a problem they were having with their school. Um and I said, "You know what? I I'm just a student here. I don't actually do anything administratively." And I recommended her to Mr. Tenny. and she next the following week came to me and said she had never felt more heard um and happy with a P and felt really confident and the PUSD system and that all the problems were resolved to be anonymous but you know it's just it was just one of those things that like you preach and then
112it turns out well in practice and it just unsolidifies the confidence in our administration. But that's all for this meeting. Thanks. All right. Item uh 6B, community comments shared with governing board. Uh Brett, yes, thank you. Um this continues to be an important part of the agenda for me and I appreciate the opportunity to share the voice of the community. I also recognized that my sample size is very low and uh I I met with a number of people but they don't represent I don't think the community as a whole but they are great sample size and uh and I hope they all feel listened to and that's a that's been a struggle for me. I I'm a I'm a problem solver. I'm a I'm a I like to I like to have my point
113known as well and sometimes it's a counterpoint to theirs. and I've been working really hard at listening and understanding and so I great I'm grateful for this part of the agenda. Um the first community member that I talked to or that called me ha uh had some negative uh well let me let me go start with the positive number of people I talked to really enjoyed the giving input on the survey uh the 4 day a week survey and I had a number of people said thank you for asking thank you for reaching out to us and uh asking you know how we feel about going to four days a week. I did have one person who felt like the survey was wasn't a good survey and that was leading in their in the an
114in the in the questions that they that they asked. Um let's see. They had another member of the community who lives close to Taylor Hicks and felt like we were wasting money on putting a new roof on there and running the running the running the lights and the AC in the summertime when we didn't need to. Um, then I had a third member of the community send me a article that they wanted me to read about money wasted in education. and cited the it was a it was an article out of a a magazine and it had a graph of how much education costs over the last I think it was from 1960 so so 65 65 years and it was it was basically critical of the department of education and the bureaucracy and so
115I read it and called them back and asked them why they wanted me to read that because it seemed like it was a little bit of a disconnect to me with the you know with the local local education versus the federal education. But he had some um great points about um about local local things that uh we discussed. Um, one of the one of his his concerns was um, social and emotional learning. And he also felt like we could do a better job of focusing on classical education. and he felt like um that if we if we did a better job of focusing on the academics then might help us pass a bond or an override and give our district a little bit more money. Um that same father also talked a little bit about
116his son in sports and how sports has motivated him academically and I think that's uh been mentioned a couple times and I uh it was great to see all of our athletes here and I think sports um does do a great job of of motivating our uh some of our a portion of our student body to to keep their grades up and give them an opportunity to compete. And I think that wraps up my portion of the um public comments. Thank you, Jen. I would say the majority of the public comment I received were just from people I know who had um some thoughts about the 4-day week. They also were excited to have been asked in the survey and um and many were surprised that we hadn't already either addressed that, you know, earlier
117or that this is kind of the first time they felt like they'd been asked. So, it's kind of interesting. Um, and then I also had a engaging conversation with someone about ESA money and the fact that we do have sports here at PUSD and how we really we really see a value in being able to offer the sports that we offer and that that our students who come here to PUSD have the advantage of being able to participate in those. And it's important for us to offer those programs because it is what draws a lot of students into our world. Uh just a couple comments again about the 4 day week. Um people teachers and uh just didn't really know how to approach it. They didn't didn't feel like there was a a good one
118or the other. Um so kind of ambivalent that way. I think the big thing I gathered was that a lot of the non-educators out there don't understand how the days will change. All they see is another day off and they don't know that by going to four days instead of four and a half, we're adding hours to the school day. So, I don't know if that was included in the survey because I read some of those comments in the the the compiled comments and I I just don't know if that was explained very well that we're not the hours that students will be in school. Um, if the board approved that so I think I think there was some misunderstanding out there about that. I had nothing except that um, one person told me they
119were very happy to see how quickly the new roof went on in surprised. Well, they thought it was finished. What they've done, I guess, but they were they were happy to see the project going on. They have made some good progress though shingles for years as we repair what we had available in terms of funding. a long time coming is going right now as well. I didn't have any emails. Uh so my public comments all uh surrounded the 4 day um school week. Um and I I honestly uh reached out. I didn't So, I pulled information. I reached out to certain people that I know their kids go to uh charter schools. I know some of them go to Chino Valley. Um go to Humboldt. Um a lot of our um we have if you
120don't know where our factory consists of 400 um employees and a majority of them have kids and and to a person they were against the 4 day um and for several very good reasons. Um It's a struggle no matter how they look at it. And you know, we'll look at the numbers here. Um, you know, I, you know, again, I I walked into a maybe and now I'm, you know, I'm like, I'm listening to these to these people. I listen to teachers. Teachers that extra hour in the afternoon is is important. That evening time is important. Um uh someone challenged me on the um the half day and they said, "But when we really look at it, isn't it just one hour we're reducing on the Friday?" And I asked my wife and she said,
121"Yeah, it's an hour, right? Just just over an hour rather than than a half day." Like, you know what I mean? Yeah. To call it a half day on the school. We have some schools that are as much as two hours, right? So that's something to say, you know, is it truly a half day or not? You know, so just something that we however we decide to do it's u but anyway, I just want to be very transparent about that. That was I I was very leading. We know um the one that I asked is in a charter school. Um she they know they are bringing their kids back at mile high. I mean they're at basis right now. They're gonna they they made that decision and they they like they went from a 4
122day at um um Sky View. Uh they're now to five day. They like the fiveday. It's just very it's great for them. So anyway, so just wanted to do that and that's it. Okay. Um so we'll move on to action items. Consent agenda item 7A. Um do we have any items that anybody wants to highlight or poll? I would like to pull 7 A2 on approving the donations so they can each be recognized independently. All right. Any other items? Um I would like to just maybe hear some information on 7 A6 and 7 A7. Okay. Okay. Um um I will pull 7 A6 and A7. Um Jane, do you want to just highlight 7 A2? Sure. Now let's do that and then we'll pass the agenda the consent and then go back and vote again.
123One option would be exactly that. Just take take the two aside, vote on the consent agenda without them, talk about them, and then vote on those separately. We have quite a few this month. However, I still think it's important that we solo out individually thank people for making contributions to our district because we would not be able to do what we do without them. So, William Smith donated $55 to PHS athletics. Um, Prescat Sunrise Lions Foundation gave 1,500 to the Lincoln Reto program. Um, Vivian Swanson gave $300 to Lincoln administration. Deborah McI gave a donation of a 2020 Nordic track commercial X32I to the PHS athletics physical rehab program which I thought was pretty cool. Isabelle I am not sure about Armon donated a check in the amount of $800 to our PHS band. Marilyn
124and Russell Dalton gave a check in the amount of 300 for PHS athletics in memory of Cal. Um, the PUSD Education Foundation, which I am a part of, we gave a donation for PM math teacher supplies in the amount of $23,100. I do believe I think that's the stipens. I don't think it's the supplies. I checked with Paul and he told me that's what it was for, but you think it was the stipens for the math teachers? That's what I thought as well. I thought so. I think it just wasn't written legibly on the on the check. It was a lot of pencils. It did go into the math PUSDF gifts and donation accounts. So it was deposited correctly. I was I questioned on that, but so that was for the stipens that we gave
125the mile high math teachers for taking on math. Um donation from front steam stream for $27 for Lincoln character education. Richard and Lorie Kelly donation of $100 for PHSS Athletics in memory of Les Fenderson. Um Gary and Kim Kelly donated $200 to PHS athletics and that's a different Kelly, same last name in memory of Less Fenderson. And finally, an anonymous donation for $160 to PHS athletics in memory of Less Fenderson. So even they pass, they continue to make an impact on our schools because we get all these donations. Okay. Um I'll take a motion to approve the consent agenda um minus items 7 A6 and 8 7 A7. So move. Motion to have a second. Second. Motion second. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Hearing none. Um all right. Item 7 A6. Um
126Mr. Yeah. So we have a longterm memorandum of understanding with with the hospital for a program that they term partners for healthy students. They've got an RV that's that's equipped inside with with medical care um primarily like exam types things, right? It's not urgent care type of a deal, but um that they bring to the to Mile High Middle School because it's kind of in a central location there for our schools and for the community each week on Thursday. It's a long-term thing and like most of ourus that we're just re-upping for some reason. We put it on the consent agenda on the assumption that this board will want to do at the last they uh become aware that that access to medical care is difficult for them particularly in a financial way that they
127they reach out to the to the um partners for healthy students program and say hey here's a place you can go you can get an initial exam for whatever issue it is and then we've got partners in the community I think for both medical and dental care if I'm not mistaken that have agreed to provide services at a discounted rate or for free in a lot of cases I Sarah, the updates um are just uh clarifying that they're going to come weekly on Thursday and that they don't keep any medications on the premise. Everything else is the same as it's been before. And our role is to give them a space and to refer kids with needs to medical needs to them. It's been a neat partnership over the years. Any questions? No, I don't
128think so. I just didn't know what it was, but thank you. Yeah, no worries. All right, let's move on to item 77 then. This is an IGA. So anou is just a memorandum of understanding. It's a it's an organization that we have a partnership with and we kind of explicate how the partnership will work. And IGA is the same thing but with some other government agency and in this case it's the department of economic security in Arizona. We've got a program for uh our special education students that is called transitioning students to work or TSW program. It provides vocational education training and experience in the community. We've got a teacher essentially and an assistant who work with the kids um work with some of our kids who most of our kids actually at the high
129school I think who've got IEPs and they have a chance to go visit with those folks regularly and then go on field trips out in the community. In some cases, it's students with significant disabilities who probably won't find themselves in a typical working environment after high school. In other cases, it's kids with a learning some kind that they're they're looking and seeing what options are available to me and that fit well with uh my disability and the way that I've learned to to compensate for it. So, we Brian, remind me on the funding. We we partner with them. We pay for all of the staffing up front and then if we meet the um reporting requirements and the parameters of of the program, they reimburse us what percent total cost they reimburse us 58 56%
130okay some something just north of half that that they reimburse us anyhow this so this is our agreement with them that we've had for several years saying we'll continue the program we provide the level of staffing that they require and the types of of of opportunities for kids they require and it also fits really nicely because these are these are requirements under the IDEIDA act for our us to provide for students who are nearing the end of of their uh time with us in PSUD to prepare them for the workforce and we can do that in different ways but this is this we found this to be a cost effective and impactful way to be able to do 58% 58% okay yeah so it allows them to help cover the expense right right the IG
131what we already have to provide anyway yeah we've got to provide this this service in one way or another anyway so yeah we've got a separate teacher separate classroom, separate program that kids can attend and we end up being reimbursed for just north of half of of what the cost to our district is. Thank you. Great questions. Yeah. All right. I'll uh take a motion to uh consider approving items 7 A6 and 7 A7 of the consent agenda. Make that motion. Motion. We have a second. Second. Motion second. All in favor say I. I none opposed. All right, we're moving on to item 7B, study and voting sessions. Um, we have two call to public. Um, so before I read this, um, so I just want to read this. So just prior to public comment,
132we want to make sure that everybody is respectful. Um, and we, this is a standard statement that we give and we want to hear from openly from the public. So, um, thank you for showing interest in this public process. Our governing board is interested in hearing from all who want to speak. We're also determined to to maintain appropriate decorum. Please be sure that your comments are respectful and constructive are specific to the voting item for which you have signed up to speak. If a speaker strays off topic for too long, they'll be asked to conclude their remarks. We want every person who is interested in speaking to be treated with respect and to have their full time to speak. So speakers will be called to the podium. Uh this will occur in order of the
133voting items in the order that the individual is requested to speak to each item. We plan to give every every speaker three minutes. If you're still speaking at three minutes, you'll be asked to finish your remarks. Uh per open meeting laws, board members are not allowed to respond to public comments except to clarify misinformation. So first speaker we have is Miss Ann Marie Dardlo. Good evening everyone. Thank you and thank you for letting me address you a second time on this issue. I appreciate the opportunity. Um I know that you are planning to vote on this issue tonight for a final time. So I just want to urge you, this is an appeal, to consider a few things before any changes are made or solidified. Um first of all, a petition was submitted to the
134board which has not been addressed publicly. It was a written petition that spoke to the importance of the public being able to have easy access to the board and it had several recommendations in it. Um, and I just want to focus on two issues. Uh, first, it is possible as the way things stand right now that issues or concerns of the public don't become agenda items that will actually reach this board and be able to be debated and discussed. For example, uh the recent NAE scores which highlighted the poor performance of Arizona schools, PUSD included, in terms of the number of students that achieve proficient ratings on standardized tests. Arizona, by the way, ranks last among the 50 states in education, and that's according to the World Population Review. There are two other sites that
135put us at 48 49 respectively. Although um there are many good things that happen in our schools and we've been witnessed to that by coming to the board um sessions and hearing what's going on in our schools um it is important that addressing the root causes of this issue need to be ha handled here and discussed by this board. Um and we have as p as the public is concerned we've been shocked that this hasn't been brought up as an agenda item. Um secondly, the public should have the ability to communicate in an open forum on issues before they reach the point of being voted on. At that point, public input is too little and too late. And um sometimes the process is too cumbersome or too mysterious for the average taxpayer to figure out
136how to communicate with you. And that's part of the issue. In that same petition, we had also asked that any letters to the board be published in their entirety as an attachment on the school site. We understand that you wish to summarize the correspondence that you receive from the public, but the public does have the right to read the original unfiltered correspondence in its entirety. Doing this demonstrates transparency. In various statements to the press, the board was quoted as saying that they wish to demonstrate trust and transparency to the public in making the decision on how to listen to us best. I wish to remind you that trust is earned and layers of filtration never never never replace face-toface engagement like we're having right here. Thank you for your consideration and for your time and
137I appreciate it very much. Have a good night. Thank you. Thanks, speaker. we have is Linda Khan board. It's good to be on the um mic again. Uh, as a community member and uh, supporter of public school, I'd like to express my concern in regarding that current policy, limiting public input during schoolboard meetings. It only limits the community input all the more as you adjust this current policy. Many people voiced their concerns to me. Uh primarily it's the difficulty of navigating the district website if they're not used to doing that and the time constraints the 72 hours before if they determine that there is nothing on the voting agenda that they're going to have addressed for their issue. So, uh, contacting the board members if they can navigate the website and they're not friends of
138the board members and don't have your personal phone numbers, it's very difficult for them to know what to do. Having these issues brought to the entire board is something you need to consider and not try and limit them as much as you do. Being afraid that they're going to say too much to you in three minutes time is a little overreach with your uh ability there. Um, I'd like to urge the board members to consider adopting a policy that introduces a segment like you do the board study. You give 15 minutes of that time to before the meeting. Give 15 minutes to the public for comments. It's not too much to ask. Thank you. All right. Um, item 7B1, consider approving the resolution to join the Arizona School Boards Association Insurance Trust known as ASBates.
139Mr. Moore, it's a difficult conversation because we've been with Ky Ross um for the last five years um after dissolving our unified employee benefit trust with Humbult. Um but unfortunately due to funding within Arizona um we have to make some tough decisions that we as as administration uh deemed um a recommendation in the best interest of our employees and in this case it's to switch uh insurance companies from uh Kyros to ASPATE. Um it turns it came out uh with Kyros that their standard default uh increase for next year was going to be 14% and then districts would be individually analyzed uh based upon that. But anything close to a 14% would mean no raises for PUSD and probably cuts uh to even co cover that insurance cost. So, we did reach out to um
140Kyros's main competitor being Aspate to be underwritten and um their policy is their insurance coverage is different enough uh that actually their quote for next year was lower by 2.2% than what Kyros uh was for this year. Um, and so we looked deeply. We put out a survey to our staff about the coverage of the insurance company that they do not use as uh Kyros does. They use Etna. Um, and we did not know whether that was prevalent up here in the tri city area. Uh, and it turned out that it quite is. And so we put forward a just a kind of a chart. We offer one plan as our default plan to our employees. And then there is an option to buy up to uh a plan that has a lower deductible. There
141is a middle plan and I can't I don't even know what kind of classification is that they could choose. And then there's three high deductible plans in which it's a lower cost to the district in which we take the difference of that default plan that we do funds and we put the difference into an HSA account for our employees to use. And so, um, this is a little bit of a T-chart to show you the difference between Kyros and ASPATS. Um, and so, uh, we'll kind of go over it and then take questions because this is this is it's a big vote, um, to change insurance companies and we want to make sure that it's done thoughtfully. Uh, so when it comes and you have this in front of you because it was a little
142bit difficult to put on a piece of paper. Um so for the fiscal year and really this is this is really a financial decision due to the increased cost um between uh what Kyros was proposing and what ASB came underwritten. So when it comes to the difference uh Kyros would have 126,000 increase for next year. They did come back to us from that 14% and they told that they changed the way they were looking at individual districts taking location in consideration because we're really pigeon hold up here uh in Northern Arizona and fortunately, you know, we have really one hospital provider, Dignity Health has a strangle hold up here and and can charge the insurance companies, you know, really what they what they want. and it's more expensive up here than down in the valley
143when it comes to uh cost insurance companies. They also looked at really the large claims districts have as part of their their rate costs. That 126,000 actually represents a 3% increase um for Kyros which is nowhere near the 14. But since we did ask for a quote from Asbait, which came in as a negative 2.2, 2, it is a 200 plus,000 difference. And so for ASBET, it would actually be a 92,000 decrease. You put those two together and it's 218,000 difference in what our cost for insurance would be for next year. When it comes to the insurance company, like I said, Etna is um their provider. We put out a survey. We had 98 employees put all their um specialists for medical insurance, medical providers and their primary care physician. We did have one gastroent
144I no I didn't say that does not take Etna. Um we also had a family practice in which it's a husband and wife and the wife does not take Etna but the husband does. I contacted that and they said for our existing uh clients they would be willing to shift over to the husband. Um so that was the results of the survey and then we can kind of go down because another big and other than that every every doctor from every employee who looked at any of the providers that they've ever used in town who have taken at UMR also take at Yeah. uh this, you know, a lot there was there's about 20 that said they couldn't find their uh their their doctor or they put in the name of the building rather than
145the doctor. I I spent about a day calling uh practices and asking if they take Etna and it came down to this was the difference between Etna and UMR. It was one one specific provider and one provider within um a practice. Questions on that? I I think we'll just take questions if you have any after each one. Any questions on the survey and or the cost difference between the two? One of the other differences is we we do have um clerk uh Mr. Tenny was it was it about a quarter of our employees that have dependent insurance. I think that's a contrast, you know, and so that's also something that we need to look at because as our as our policy or coverage cost increases, it also does for the dependents as well. And so,
146um, when it came to the dependent insurance, if we stayed with Ky Ross, a spouse, and once again, this is for that default funded plan, um, spouse would go up little over $300. A child coverage would be 300 and family would go up 660. Given the decrease of costs for asbait spouse would decrease a little over $200, ch child 204, family 44. So it really makes a difference in the net if we stayed with Kyros versus going with UMR. It's basically for a spouse it's a it's a $522 difference. for child it's 5002 and it's just over a thousand if someone had family coverage. Um the board's aware of this but for the public's information we provide full insurance for the employee but not their dependent. So the employee pays that cost out of pocket
147for dependent insurance. That would be a difference in what they bring home in their paycheck. And it really is. It's just a difference. you know, they would they would have that cost deducted out of their paycheck before they get to their, you know, their their net direct deposit. And so, it is something that we need to consider. We also do we also do re um have uh the option of having our retirees on um our insurance. Um and this there was a difference and I forgot to put it up here and even mention I think to Mr. Penny is with Kyros they are they are analyzed from year to year together as a pool with our employees and our dependents. With ASB the retirees are analyzed independently than our employees and dependents. And so if
148we have 10 and retirees and possibly because of age, you know, the costs are a little bit more that cost for them from year to year is dependent upon that smaller group than um and not affecting the cost of the districts and again retirees would pay for their own insurance. They're eligible to use this same plan. Do we have a number on how many retirees are taking advantage of that? It's very small because at right I I believe it now the states provided is is more affordable than than what um Kyros is is no matter what it is our cost plus 140 times 140%. That's the cost for the retiree with ASB. Actually it's it's less expensive than that 140% um as they were underwritten for the quotes but once again that would change independently
149based upon their usage. Between the two, Brian, so between Chyros and Asbait, which one would you say has a biggest um percentage of the mark the market share in terms of educational districts? So, Kyros has not only districts but also mun municipalities. Um, ASB is solely school districts. I believe I remember that from a pool standpoint. Kyros as a pool is larger but asbait is not far behind that asbate ts themselves as ensuring more districts I think Brian's exact right pool including municipality and when we were you know when we were self-insured that was the problem is that the smaller the pool the the more volatility that medical market and trends would affect that pool. we only had 700 employees within our combined pool. Um, and so Ky Ross was very attractive at that time
150because they, you know, 20,000 or so, uh, folks, but like I said, ASB is not far behind that. They're in the high teens if I remember correctly. So you think because there's municipalities involved there isn't as much leverage with Kyros and that's why we have such I mean it looks like there's a lot of leverage with ASB in order to be able to provide this amount right um or what is it that they why it is it is it is plan differences and and we'll go over some of those so when it comes to deductibles here's where you see a little bit of these differences. So for an individual that is employee only, that's our cost. They don't have any dependence um on our what's what they Kyros calls the co-pay plan. It's a $750
151deductible. You make you pay that until you know until you hit that and then it's a 20% um your cost until you hit your max um out-ofpocket cost. With ASBA, it's 800. So there is a $50 difference in that deductible and that affects the pricing for the district when it comes to someone who has dependence and actually asbate favors a little bit favorable in in this because as a when you have a plus one that's you're on a child and there's only one child or you have a spouse that that you have to meet a $1,500 deductible and with ASBET it's a $1,600. Once again, it's a $100 more, but over the whole pool, that extra hundred that the employee is paying if they use to their max deductible affects the healthiness of the pool
152because it's not being um taxed by the full amount of of a medical bill. One big difference with um with um with ASB is well, Kyros has it if you have the individual plus two, right? So, if you have more than one child or if you're on the family plan, there is a 2250 deductible that you have to meet. And with ASBAT, they do not have that. It's just 1,600. So, if you look at the difference, it's $50 more for individual, 100 for plus one. But you're actually going to pay $650 less if you have two or more children or if you're on the family if you have medical costs all the way up to your deductive. Yes. And if you don't have medical costs all the way up to the deductible, then you never
153get to that 8020 split. Um and and thus you're not going to have to worry about the next stat, which is the max out of pocket. So when it comes to the max out of pocket for an individual with Kyros, it's 5,500. With um if it's more than one, if they have a dependent, doesn't matter if it's plus two or plus one, it's 11,000. With ASB bait, it's 5,100 or 10,200 for an additional, which again, if you have a person yourself or a family member that you're needing insurance through the district, that max out of pocket for aspect less questions on deductibles and max out of pockets. What's the what's the what are the high deductible plan limits? Do you know that? So, the high deductible plans and here's where it's a little bit there.
154Staff are going to have to have some decisions what's best for their family. Um, Kyros has a very low high deductible plan for next year. It's $1,650. You pay up to that, you pay up to that. Once you hit that number, you start the 8020 split. and the difference of the cost of that plan from our default you have HSA um donate deposits um for the difference as bait's lowest high deductible is 2600 and then for Ky Ross the next is 2500 so really that those we have 55 employees that are within that low high deductible they will need to make a decision whether it's more beneficial for their family to go to the co-ay plan or to swing to the lowest of the high deductibles with ASBA knowing that they're going to have $1,000
155essentially more deductible that they'll have to meet before they hit that 8020 split with as with Kyros their next or middle plan is 2500 and for asbait oh I don't have that oh There's three high deductible plans. Yeah. So, two under. So, so really when it comes down to the high deductible, Asbait's lowest one is very in line with uh with Kyros's middle one. So, if someone's on Kyros's middle high uh middle high deductible, they would just go with I would think they would choose to go with Asbait's lowest. And then Kyros's third highest or the highest which is 5,000. That's in real in line with Asbait's middle offering. And then they have one even higher than that which is 6,000 something. Um the difference when it comes to HSA contributions there is there because
156the plan costs less the difference between those plans are less into an HSA. So depending upon what you choose there's about a 90 to I think $200 difference that would be less in the HSAs due to the the the lower cost of the high deductible plan. You did the math. One of them you'd get 6% less in your HSA and one you get 5%. So it's not insificant. Yeah. And and it's it's that lowest of kyroses that doesn't align well with an asbait. And they will need to say, okay, we're going to go to the the it's called the silver classic plan. That's now the default with asbait. If the governing board votes to change, that's the equivalent of that's what the district would be funding. Okay. Okay. Okay. And I know you haven't got
157to co-pays yet, but do the co-pays remain the same regardless of whether you're on a high deductible or regular plan? No, because with a high deductible, you pay the cost all the way up until your high deductible. There isn't really a co-pay. Um, and so if if we switched Yes. I mean, that is that is the way high deductibles work. You pay even for the medication with a high deductible. you pay the medication costs until you hit your deductible and then you do the 8020. It's the reason why I am not on one of the high deductibles because I'm on seven high blood pressure medications and it's not really good. I mean, it would not be advantageous for me to be on a high deductible because every month I would pay for my full medication
158costs until I hit that high deductible. That doesn't make sense. And it's deductible plan. So neither of these plans I mean what Brian describes the way Kyros is working for us currently. Okay. That's a change. I'm paying. Are you on the the district's insurance? We're on it's not PUDS, but it's another district and that's the difference. because districts can have it okay either way and we can look I mean okay if for some reason I'm misspeaking then I do know that it is similar for both and so um that would be something but that's what I was told and there's these little disclaimers on Ky Ross's where you know it talks about that but really when it comes down to it I know both are operating similarly so it wouldn't be a change okay all
159right other questions you get to some of the co-pays um between the defaults. That's and once again little slight differences. That's the difference in um in why it is less of a financial um cost for next year. A physician $25 for Ky Ross versus $30 for a primary care physician for ASBA specialist $50 versus $70. I didn't put this up here, but I should have. Um, and that's urgent care. That was a change for Ky Ross. They're jumping that up to $100 from 50 as a visit. And um, and for asbait, it's 70. So that's a 30 to the favor of using urgent care, which is so much uh more beneficial than going to the urgent care. No, the emergency room. Uh when it comes to labs, um uh this was the not the document
160I I sent you the second time, Sarah. Um please excuse on this document. There is a mathematical from your CFO that it doesn't have a dollar sign on the on the on the 60 and uh 60 minus 25 is not is not 30. Correct. Yours your print out is correct. Is correct. So, oh, I No, I sent you an updated one. I deleted the first one. That's okay. I Oh, maybe I sent you the same one twice. And that would be on me. Um either either way, you know, you can the math the numbers are correct, just the math is not. Um, and so, you know, lab work, that was something that was a little bit higher than, you know, the the $ five dollar difference for a primary care physician visit. When it comes
161to drug uh drugs, when it comes to medication, um, again, a little difference, you know, $10 maximum for a generic versus 15 with asp. Now, when it comes to things like high blood pressure, you know, most of mine, you know, are $6 and $8. So, you're not charged that max. It's just that if a generic was more than you know than than that max it caps off when it comes to specialty drugs. Yes. Well, I want to clarify my my co-pays are on prescription drugs, not on doctor visits on prescription drugs. We have essentially the same. Okay. Appreciate that. Yeah. Thank you. Um so, and specialty drugs, um it's 50% for Kyros of that cost, but no more than $200. I believe that's right. per prescription and with asbait it's $230. Once again these are
162the little things that are just difference within that makes it so that you're paying less. It's passing a little bit I would say of the cost to possibly the employee like myself who's on a whole bunch of medications. Um they bear a little bit more of the burden because the district crosser a little bit less. Um vision same thing won't see any difference. It's P Asbates dental is something called asbates dental administrators. We did look at that. It is not prevalent in the tri city area. Um, in fact, I talked to a Delta Dental and um representative today and they say you can either be a PO in which they're contracted with a dentist or a dental pre or premier and a premier dentist. They get a little bit more money from the um uh
163from Delta Dental and they can only contract with Delta Dental. And there's 37% of our 285 employees that have in dent dental insurance through us. 37% of them are with a dentist that have the dental premiere. So they can only contract. And so with with Asbait's dentist default program, um, essentially if they don't aren't on contract, you basically pay the street price of like you're not coming in. they'll still cover it, but it's not a discounted insurance cost or a contract cost. So, we feel like we should reach out to Delta Dental to continue our relationship with them and have them give us a quote what it will cost as a district separately because Delta Dental's up here so prevalently and Etna's dental administrator is not. And basically if we the c the basic difference
164is there's a $1,500 max benefit for both programs. And if we went with at Edna no asbates dental people the employees would hit that maximum really quickly because the cost would be basically as if you were coming in with no insurance. So we're looking into Delta Dental and getting information from them in the next hence the asterisk. Um, and then the customer service. If the vote, if the board votes yes to this, I have a letter on my screen and my last sentence is, you know, this is a strictly a financial move. Kyros has been a great partner for the last five years and our assigned Kyros senior accountant Jenna Roco uh has just been stellar. I don't know whether or not um ASB is going to match the customer service that we've gotten with
165Kyros. It is an unknown. We have let them know what's customer service we have received for the last five years and they have big shoes to fill and so that is something that um should be taken in consideration. What's that? Big shoes. They have issues not issues big shoes. And I'll I'll just piggyback on that really quick and and totally endorse what Brian says. Jenna from Kyros has been great to work with. It's really helped us through a lot of things. This um the topic of insurance came up in in my superintendent meeting uh with other county superintendents what last Wednesday I guess it was and several of the the other uh districts um in the county are already using asbait and they all said it's been terrific. So who will get will it look
166exactly the same? Will they be as good as Janet? Probably not. Will they be pretty good? Other people have had a good experience with them. So we'll see how that goes. But Brian's right. It's unknown. It is unknown. So the the survey to staff what was what were the results of Yes, switch. No, switch. We did not ask specifically uh switch or no. We asked whether an ETNA was covered by their primary care physician. If this does pass, the next voting item because of the savings would be to have the governing board approve a 3% raise a 2.5. And even with that 3% raise, it does still leave some money aside for future financial decisions like raises for next year or offsetting insurance coverage increases for next year. And I believe, you know, there's about
167anyway, you'll see that in the next voting item. So, we did not ask yes or no to our employees. We just do you have a physician that you can determine doesn't take Etna and again of of hundreds of employees who could have told us aboutund did. They looked at all their positions and that pool told us there's two folks in town. One who you can go to the husband instead of the wife in the same office if you want. So it's pretty prevalent. On the flip side, it's real possible there's people who uh currently don't take UMR who do take it. That that's a possibility, right? We found one the other way. Maybe there's five one way. I reached out to the COO at the hospital who's on the PSD education foundation board said, "What
168do you know of these?" He didn't have specifics because I know Edna is really widely used. Sarah, is it okay if I Sarah's husband, Leo, works for Costco. They're one of the major employers in town. Of course, they provide that insurance. It's it's it's widely accepted. So, that's that that was our main concern at first when we said, "Wow, this really is going to save us nearly a quarter million dollars. That's a big deal. That's a big deal. We're not in a situation like Humble where it's raises or no raises based on this decision." You've got some flexibility that they may not be looking at there. But our our initial concern was is Etna widely accepted? Answer is absolutely yes. And the next question was, are the plans roughly comparable? And you can see yes,
169there's certain people in certain situations who are going to be money ahead, certain people in other situations who are going to be money behind, but on balance, it's it's pretty close, particularly given that the overall cost of the district is $218,000 difference. So based on that, nobody likes change. It's going to be a big hassle for everybody at this DAS if if you say do this. But we feel it's in the best interest ultimately of the students in our district to make this change. So we're recommending it to and I think Mr. Tenny led it really well when it came to our first plan was the budget package that was brought forward to you at the beginning of March which was had a 2.5% raise that's already been approved and this will add an additional
170half percent raise. Um but at the same you know and at the same time um you know there are some you know like I said there's some minor tweaks that you know that that make Etna and given what our cost is this year being lower than the 3% when we get a increase next year even if they both were going to be you know let's say both we're going to be 7% like I said in district leader team you know 7% on more is more than 7% on less you know so um it's it's kind of basic math and so you know I would like and I just want appreciate the comments but I do want to make sure that we're keeping these separate they're two items This this is a fiscal responsibility to us.
171It's a it's a financial decision. Um I just want to keep make sure we're not blurring lines and and no influence in our decisions between the two. So just if we can clarity and my bad for mention that's my no you're totally right because there will be a separate issue coming up next. If you choose to vote yes on this that gives you the option on the next item. If you choose to vote no you don't have an option on the next item but that's completely up to you. We we recommend it based on, you know, fiscal health of the district and how that ends up impacting staff and students. We think it's the best, you know, and and and I've done lots of conversations with ASB and I've also had lots of conversations with
172Kyros. They both make good pleas. And one of it is um over the first year with the first couple years with Kyros, we had more um we had more bills paid than our contributions. We had a loss ratio higher than 100%. It's not been the last couple cases. And that's the reason why Kyra said even though they had the pool being 14% as the default, they came back with a 3%. actually came back with a five initially and then when they knew that we were shopping and and we were seriously considering it, they they went back and looked at even more closely, you know, our claims and the lack of large claims that we have in the future. And they lowered it to three and they do say that that would be a continued way
173to analyze the districts being location claims and loss ratios. And um so they look at us individually. They do. That's good. Um, so clerk, can I ask when you were meeting with other superintendents, did they have a similar experience this year with asbait doing a large increase like like we saiy doing or were they uh not experiencing that overall? Yeah, great question. And I I didn't get specifics from all of them, but there were there were a couple of say horror stories, but a couple of districts that that uh their costs were going up over 20% and they neither one of them were kos or excuse me, neither one of them were were as they were kos. Okay. Sometimes we see companies that don't already have our business um really undercut to get the business,
174right? I mean, we all have cell phones, so there we go. But um but we also so I just want to be mindful of what does it the future look like? And I agree if if they're both going to increase they're both going to increase on and this one's increasing on less money. But if they just try to make that up in their second and third year and eventually really exceed the cost of the other is what can can take place. I don't know that ASB has that reputation of having large increases. So that's some feedback from them on what that might look We we did, you know, last year they did some right sizing and I believe their average increase last year was 7 to 10%. It was the largest uh increase that they've
175had in recent history. Um I think as average over boy 10 years I think it's it's it's in the six%s. Um, and you know, when we've been with with Kyros, which once again, you know, lower deductibles, you know, lower co-pays, um, we've been at the seven, we we've had nine. Um, I think one year we had eight, another year seven. So, you know, and and about 1% is about 40 45,000 for every percent. I am worried, you know, it kind of goes back to the comment about just um them serving uh municipalities. You have police, you have fire, you have other um you have city workers and I would imagine that, you know, without the leverage of just us being an education, you know, just education within asb. I would hope that they keep that
176and that's why they can look at us individually, right? But if we are in with Chyros, I mean, did did they kind of leverage too much? did they, you know, now and we're in this big pull where they they have to increase because the entirety of it. So to me it, you know, one it's it makes financial sense. Um I like the kind of the intimacy of it just being um education focused. Um but it does concern me that Kyros where it started off really strong and we you know the trust was they're a great partner, right? But but maybe they kind of overextended themselves a little bit and that's why we're seeing these increases. You know, it's it's smart for us to question it. You know, it's it from what I know there comes
177a time of rightsizing. You know, we and and when uh when we were uh with our self-insured, we either were going to have to rightsize or join a larger pool. I mean, that really was we had we had a cliff that was coming. Um, and so this is Kyros's year to right size. Last year was as baits. Um, I do believe when it comes because of the history we have with Kyros, I believe the 3% was warranted. I think they would have been fine with the 5% had we not been shopping and had them look a little bit closer. Um, you know, because of the differences within the plans and what we con contribute to with Ky Ross, I think the negative 2.2 to underwriting was was accurate. Um you know for us u at
178least that's what Aspate says. Um but that is an unknown because we don't have a relationship with them and there is always that worry that they want your business and then next year you know we'll we'll be in we did get a letter from Asbait. Um so it is in writing that next year's increase would be no more than 8%. Um, I asked for lower because they offered that to Humbult as well and we're healthier than Humbult and they said it's going to be lower because you know our average is 6.5%. You know it's not and we're right sizing this year. So if if it is part of information for the vote with ASB we would not have any more than an 8%. We've never received such a written guarantee from Kyush whatever it's worth.
179Kyros did look at multi-year for for us um to see if we could and just because high claims can be like that and ongoing they felt if they gave us a multi-year it wouldn't be beneficial uh to the pool as a whole and not good business practice and so they did discuss that and um that was their decision. It's tough decision. I would like to know. I did look in my sent emails and I absolutely 100% sent Sarah the exact same document with I think a few spelling errors and the math that was wrong. I already knew Sarah doesn't make mistakes. That was a given. That was a given. Any other qu questions, comments? I just have one comment. I'm just impressed with the detail that the staff has taken in this and and not
180just the number that they were concerned about, but the individuals and the employees. Um, very excellent presentation and uh just impressed with with the care that you you take for the employees. Yeah. Who would be eligible? Thanks, Brett. that that you know that you know so like our school resource officer or um can they move over into this? I mean if this they see this as financial they're not employees of the district. They would have to be employable. The only ones that are not employees that are eligible for um our insurance is actually the governing board. the which the governing board while you're serving we have it's been a long time since we got a board member take us up on that usually they're able to find better deal someplace else with their other employer
181but but if you wanted to absolutely that's it's available per board policy and state law and you know it's tough decision because I don't think it could go wrong either way um you know if we do go with asb And it turns out that, you know, hey, there's there's uh and we need to now be answered because we were undercut for our business. Nothing stops us from saying, hey, Kyros, would you take us back in two years or three years? Um, in fact, there's a lot of districts that have to play that game just because it's just expensive. And with health, it's $4.2 $2 million of an expense this year for our health insurance for our employees by and with us not passing a single bit of that cost to them. Okay. We just don't
182really and in business as well, we don't always have the luxury of not playing the game. Like we have to bounce around somewhat because it's the only way to keep it affordable. And it's it's an unfortunate reality, but it's not very realistic anymore that we're going to stick with the same insurance throughout our lives. We are going to change regularly. At least we do personally. We change pretty regularly as well. And it's smart to to to shop. I mean every and I when we first went with K IRS I I let Jenna know after five years we're going to shop because if we didn't that's not doing our constituents being our employees um right by it change is difficult but we have a a responsibility to be as frugal with taxpayer dollars as we possibly
183can. If we get money it should go to getting great teachers in front of people not to insurance in a way that's not necessary. Yeah, my military retirement has changed three providers since, you know, in 11 years. It's, you know, the Kyros changed providers on us partway through. I I thought that was going to be a big deal. Relatively seamless. Yeah. So, we'll see how this goes. Hopefully, it'll be relatively seamless, but we're prepared to support people and give lots of information if the board decides to make this. So, I'm going to I'm going to ask for a motion, a second. I will ask for any further discussion if anybody has anything to say, but just to kind of get this out. So, item 7B1, consider approving the resolution to join the um Arizona School
184Boards Association Insurance Trust um as presented. So moved. Motion. Do we have a second? Second. Any further discussion? Okay. Um all in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Motions pass and error. Motion passes 50. Um item 7B2, consider approving the revised 202526 budget package based on enrollment projections, increases, decreases, and salary increase options as outlined in the attachment fiscal year 26 proposed budget package revision number one. Uh Mr. more. So there is one big change here and instead of on the left hand side in the upper port part where it's um there isn't that but that's okay. It's blurry if I make it smaller. Yeah, I know. Um in the other document there was a cost for our health insurance being now at that time um it set the 5% and so this changed a
185little bit. Um, and so when it comes to that cost, it's not up there. It does have the negative 2.2% in the middle column because that is essentially an increase of revenue or spending power for us. And what it had what it did to the all the right is it made the net and I believe two pieces in the center column. Oh, and then also board meeting, it does say three. And so with that decrease of insurance cost for next year and the increase of the cost for a 3% raise, it still leaves us $159,000 to make hopefully really good decisions in the future. And that could be um you know next year's increase of um of insurance cost. It could be as much as if the land sale you know the land sale goes
186to the vote to you know in Arizona and that passes but it's only for a particular employee category and we want to make sure that all employees receive a raise. This could apply to the other employees. And so, um, this provides $159 worth of flexibility with a 3% like a thousand times. Is that what a th Yes, it does. Not $159. Yeah. $159,000 worth of flexibility in the future. Um, and a half a percent raise more for our employees, which is about h if we were to have decreasing enrollment beyond the 45 that we have, it allows for us up to probably close to 60 or 70. Yeah. To help cover that as well. If if there were to en,000 what do we figure? $6,700 per kid. Yes. Yeah. kind of figure we use yeah
187I mean we have some uncertainty in the future insurance if we have you know an 8% is still an 8% and um but yeah it it allows for some decrease enrollment if that so we wouldn't have to have that negative number on next year's budget package or once again if there's um an increase of compensation uh for teachers and classroom staff only and not including facilities or transportation or administration. This could give opportunities for to to compensate uh as well more in the future. And did we hear that it would if it was to pass with the trust land trust it would be effective this year or what what did we it would be one year from now that we would be you know and and probably wouldn't know exactly what that increase or who
188it was you know for that would be a vote to use the land trust and then the legislators would figure out you know who it goes to and you know and I would figure that would part of that would have to be on the ballot for the voting for transparency of the use of the money but I I can guarantee you there's going to be some employees that are not included in that compensation. Yeah. Thank you. Any other questions? Want to stall for Brett before? This would be our recommendation if we if we did realize as much savings from an insurance switch as we anticipated might be the case. And now that you voted on that, this is this is our recommendation to you that we squeeze our employee raise from below the cost of
189inflation to just above the cost of inflation. So that gives us a little bit of flexibility to do that. We typically don't recommend to you that we set aside $160,000. Usually, if there's money available, my recommendation is spend it on this year's kids and this year's employees. But given how ESAs have started to impact our enrollment in a way that's less predictable than our enrollment over the last several years has been, I think it's wise to to set a little bit more aside than we typically would. And and with your uh vote on the insurance, you've now got some financial flexibility to do that. My my voice was was pretty strong in leaving some for a future decision that may need to be made. And you've done that routinely over the years, right, Brian? I
190mean, you try to keep that so that we're not in financial typically decisions to to keep us we are very I mean, we we we can weather storms um like a pandemic if there wasn't, you know, grants to help with enrollment stability and things. I mean we are in position that that we could we could take a hit and not have to lay people off mid year. That's absolutely the case. But rather than it being intentionally setting aside money each year, more often what's happened is we budgeted X amount and not spent the entire amount that we budgeted and so been able to roll that forward. In this case, we're anticipating maybe that we'll be as frugal as we've been in past years. Plus, we're intentionally additionally recommending 159,000 be set aside. And again, that
191could go right back to teachers and students next year, which would be my recommendation if we if we don't get eaten into with with ESA related unenrollment. We'll see that all goes. Who knows? Great. Any further discussion? All right. Um, so I'll take a motion to consider approving the revised 202526 budget package based on enrollment projections, increases, decreases, and salary increase options as outlined in the attachment fiscal year 26 proposed budget package revision one. So moved. Motion. Do we have a second? Second. Motion second. All in favor say I. I. I. Any opposed? All right. 7B2 passes. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thanks for all the work on that. Like Brett said, that was yeah, a lot of work and I know you have a full staff. I know you don't like to take
192the credit, but now I didn't. Okay, it's been a lot of discussion and effort. Brian's absolutely it. But Kelsey's voice has been huge. Andy's voice has been huge. Maya Calwell, who's on our DAT team as well. And then we've reached out to principles and said, "Hey, here's where we're at. Tell us what you think." Because, you know, we've reached down to the staff level and said, "Hey, we're looking to make some decisions. Help us with data." It's been a real group effort. Thank you for you. Yeah, a lot of hard work for a lot of people. Thank you. All right. Um item 7B3, consider adopting a proposed changes to asthma policy BEDH. Um uh Andy. Yeah, thank you. So uh BEDH is the uh policy proposal relating to public participation at board meetings. just to
193kind of uh review our our journey together on this topic. Um this is not an administrative uh proposal to the board uh with a with a new idea. This was uh really realizing that our our longstanding uh practice uh matched some of our uh policies and proposal policies and regulations but not in BEDH. It was a little unclear. Uh and so uh in February I brought this to to the board uh with the idea of kind of aligning uh this policy with our our current BEDH exhibit uh which again was very clear on um in order to to speak at the at the board meeting. It needed to be related to a a voting agenda item. Uh so I brought the I brought the proposal here and I'll read it really quickly. It says uh
194any individual desiring to address the board about a topic that is agendaized on the study and voting section of the agenda shall complete a form uh and then the rest of course is unchanged. The board uh I think wisely wanted to think about this a little bit more. They um of course discussed it at last board's uh last March meeting to uh to have a discussion around that and uh and ultimately uh requested that I bring this back to the board this month for a final vote. But uh that is that is this policy specifically around um kind of reaffirming our practice of having um u public speakers only relating to agendaized topics. So any questions on it? So item D also says we crossed out open call to public to public comments too. Thank
195you. Yes, that uh again that was one of those areas that uh was a little unclear. Um we again we had on beh not not using the open call uh language and then having that language in this policy. So uh changing that and including public comments rather than open call to the public. Thank you. Thanks. Any comments? I just have a question to clarify. So the previous practice was voting items only or was it agendaized and voting items? The previous and I would say the concurrent concurrent, right? Is is this study and voting? Study and voting. Yeah. So we never have a voting item that's not in the two separate. It's all the same. It's all the same uh part of the agenda. Right. So, the practice has been the same all along. We've had
196a couple of speakers this evening urged you not to change your practice. I think they meant something else, but in fact, we're not asking you to change your practice. We're asking if you're interested in clarifying the wording in the policy that would solidify the long-term practice. I have one question to help clarify it for me. How are we going to how do I look into the idea of that Google form? Yeah. Yeah. Is that part of this? Okay. That's not part of this. No, I know it's not part of this. I just want to know what Absolutely. Yep. You've given us that direction and Sarah and Kelsey have been working on that. They've also been working on math adoption and insurance. There's a bunch of other things that we're trying to get to as soon
197as we can. But yes, absolutely. We we're going to follow that instruction. the direction you gave us last month. All right. Any further discussion, questions? Yeah, I I have a I have a comment. I think, you know, if we if we keep the policy the same, there's going to be some that are disappointed in the in the public. Um, but I want to challenge the public to to reach out to us and to see if we will be true to what we say we're going to be and and uh and give them an easier way to an item agendaized to listen to them to follow up with their with their comments. I do think that an open call to the public will detract us from the most important work that we do and that's for
198the kids. And I've talked to a number of people that are related to the city council where they've made this change and they said it's a disaster because people come and talk about issues that aren't in the best interest of the kids. And so I uh I I think that I think this is appropriate and I just encourage the public to reach out to us and see if we won't be true to our word about about engaging them greater in our in our in our procedure here. Yeah. And the piece that I struggled with was just the fact that you know per state statute we we cannot comment on an open there's no discussion and and but when you reach out to us there's going to be a discussion it's going to be oneonone it's
199going to be known and that's what we want to encourage I just don't think it's the tool I'm seeing it's not the tool for discussion we unless we are you know someone addresses us directly that's the only time we and respond and that's that's is that not correct but in a the way that our our predecessors right they they are the ones that kind of determine this or uh decided this and I understand why and it's one it's a business meeting this should be strictly business that we that we when we go into a business meeting we do have an agenda we discuss what it's going to be if it's a point that the public makes and we bring it and we want to bring it to the forefront. Again, it's two members of the
200board that can bring it to the agenda for a voting and discussion or the board president. So, there is a tool to do to do to bring it forward. So, to say that we are not to listen or bearing or whatever it might be, you know, it's one if it's relevant, it's going to be brought. We've this board has shown that when we hear that if it's test scores for I mean, I've been on this board for over two years, and how many times have we discussed test scores? What are we doing better? What are we And so, if somebody isn't educated and knows that we've done that in the last two or three years, well, we have it on on record that they can view that that it's and so we may not bring
201it to the to the agenda because it's already been discussed. So, so there's and we can't we only have two, three hours, you know, or four or whatever hour we're on to discuss Tell me about that. Not today. Yeah. So anyway, so that's just where I'm at with this and it's I I I appreciate what our predecessors did and they they define this as we want to hear from the public on issues that we are going to vote on so that they have a say and we can make an informed decision. And it's a good tool. And I I can honestly say to you all, I have been on the fence on this issue, and I've struggled more with this than many things in the past. I've contacted former board members from this board that
202are no longer even in town. I've also contacted several board presidents from the area to speak to them about their feelings on this. And the reason I brought up the Google form is because I think that's a very good alternative to get what the community is thinking that might not on our agenda to our attention and especially when we say do you think this should be on the agenda. So I think then you can choose to and I think they can very easily then get it on the agenda. And Brett, you had said something last month that stuck with me in that if we went to just a complete open call to the public, it will be easier for them. It was more difficult for us to get something on the agenda than it is
203for a citizen just to come in and say whatever they want to say for three minutes prior to our meeting. So um it's just it's been I put a lot into this before I decided to vote tonight. And the the idea of the Google form helps clarify for me even though that's not what we're voting on. Sure. Where we're going with that makes that much more clear to me and makes it easier for people to really get involved and I I will say it's our website is not difficult. If there's anything we can do to make I mean I want to take that feedback and see if there's anything we can do to make I went on their website today if I wanted to contact a governing board member. It's right there. It's right under
204governing board. Each one of our emails are there. It's pretty I think it's one click. It might be too one person. Okay. The only thing I would say is that this approving this doesn't prevent the board in the future from changing policy again and incorporating open call if that's what we feel is the right thing to do. So this is just aligning our practices with our policy and it doesn't ever stop us from going. This was brought up in June last year. We're discussing it again. If we were to go to a Google form eventually we would trust we try it out. We see if that's going to help people feel like they're being listened to and if we're still not happy with that then we can change the policy. And my recommendation for Google
205form didn't didn't mean may insinuate that we shouldn't have our emails available. People still should be able to email us, which may be more simple or something they're more familiar with if they have some a way to reach out through email. All right. Any further discussion? All right. Um, consider adopting uh the proposed changes to ASBA policy BEDH. Take a motion. So moved. A motion. Do I have a second? Second. All in favor say I. I. I. Any opposed. Motion passes. Item 7B4. Consider adopting proposed changes to ABSA policies. Andy. Yeah. Thank you. This is uh actually several policies. Um thank you. Okay. several uh policies and regulations that um interestingly are actually um kind of reverting back to policies we had uh mid last year. Uh we most of these adjustments and changes um
206are related to the title 9 um uh regulations being uh shared at the federal level. uh since 2020. Uh new regulations came out. We we changed policy back around that time and then uh I think it was August or around August um some uh final uh rules came out around some new uh regulations at the federal level. So um like was discussed earlier by our uh our ASBA uh presenters, they they recognized that they made some policy changes, presented it to us. we vote uh the board voted on it uh again earlier or late last year. Uh so then uh that was the 20 24 regulations and then as I think it was uh early January uh the uh those 2024 regulations were struck down and which um at the federal level again meant the
207the title 9 definitions reverted back to the 2020. Uh so again our policy uh was changed there for about uh I think it was maybe three four months and uh the proposal now is more or less to return to the uh policies that we had before. Um so just that's that's a little bit on the the the history and why why all these changes. just uh just to give you a little u explanation. I I went over briefly last month, but uh again, the Title 9 uh regulations changed to um some of the more significant changes that are are included in this. One of the things is the definition of uh sexual harassment. Um again, a lot of these are very um minor. Some of these uh are just a word here or there but
208have a significant meaning. One of those is they changed the definition of sexual harassment to include uh both uh an incident that's both severe and pervasive instead of severe or pervasive. Right? So kind of increasing that uh standard for a definition. Um, one of the changes in here, uh, there's a there's a lot of, uh, explanation in here about if there was an incident, what the process looks like, uh, who's involved, uh, what steps they have to take, what timelines they have to follow, what forms they have to use. Uh, so one of the one of the changes from to this this newest proposal is it has to be a written uh, a formal written complaint as opposed to just maybe an oral complaint. Um there's uh again as a title as the title N
209coordinator uh the there's a lot of specifics on what steps I would have to follow. So again few like I said a lot of timelines related to that. There's some specific requirements. One for example the um where an incident took place. If it for example there's if it takes place outside the United States it can't qualify under this definition as title nine sexual harassment. or as the old policies said it could. So, you know, a few a few changes like that. Uh, as you scan through the uh these policies, you'll see a lot of things crossed out, a lot of things added. Um, if you look closely, a lot of those are actually just moved around from one policy to the other. Uh, one of them has they've they've removed references to sexual discrimination from
210um from one policy or sorry, not sexual references to Title N. uh because again the title N definition changed. So it's it's there's a lot lot there, but I I think I summarized the the key changes and I'm open to questions and I'll do my best to try to answer them. It was a long video. It was. And when I first looked at it, I said, "Oh my goodness, there's a lot here." But again, like I said, if you if you looked a little closer, you'll see a lot of them just kind of got moved to a different section. They kind of removed it from one area and put it in another. I went back and looked at everything that had been crossed out and then found it almost verbatim. Right. A couple paragraphs later.
211Exactly. Next page. Just read. All right. Any questions for Andy? You're catching us. Thank you, Andy, for diving into all. This is why we're thankful for policy. Policy advisor people that do all this. If we had to do that all ourselves, we would never be able. No, it would be impossible. How the Carmen's do it like read law. So hard. Um, okay. We'll take a motion to consider adopting proposed changes to ASBA policies. I'll make that motion. A motion. Do we have a second? I will second it. Motion second. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Okay, we're moving on to item 75. You guys want to take a quick or you just want to plow through? Let's go. All right, buddy. I already took my break. I took a break. He's like, I
212don't need a break. You already went plow through. Thought I'd ask. We're almost there. Okay, good. All right. Item 7 B5, consider approving the IGA between PUSD and BF high school exchange. Great. And I have I have to admit, I looked over this with Sarah three times and we've got some some wording that is different than I intended. IGA again is between government agencies and this is not another government agency. It's just another organization. So, it should sayou in the title just like it says in the relevant information. So, I apologize for that. It's effectively the same thing. Is it a It's an in the packet. The one we actually have is an say. Yeah. It's just different terminology for essentially the same thing. So, in voting, we need to make sure it's Yeah. Yeah.
213Yeah. Exactly. No, I think it's on me. I'm pretty sure it was Clark. So happy right now. Sarah, this one is not on Sarah. It's on me. She's she's too kind. So, we've already got an agreement with one organization, Educatius is is what they call themselves, to um for them to to bring to us potential foreign exchange students and find host families to to be at Prescuit High School. That's worked well through the years. There's provision in our board policy for us to work with more than one company. Um, EF um is is the same parent company that runs most of the trips that our kids take for whatever that's worth. It's a organization we've worked with a bunch in in another realm. So, we've got we've got a good track record with them and
214know that they're good to work with and they have agreed to um follow the same parameters. students with a slightly different visa status. It'll actually be a little easier for us to work with on the PHS end terms of initial paperwork, but still bring tuition dollars to the to the school district. And it would still be up to uh the principal of the high school. He delegates that, I think, to Mr. Woods, but does that in consultation with with the the district leadership if if he needs to, how many students and which students to take. It wouldn't be just, you know, we're open the door, anybody come on. Oh, there was more than we thought at all. This just would set up um a mechanism for us to work with an additional company. And again,
215it's a company we're familiar with and we recommend to you that you that you uh allow this to move forward. What questions do you We would if you vote on this. Yeah, there would be two companies that we would have approved. I want to say that several years in the past we had anou with with the F and expired. They didn't have others. There's a there's a family currently who has been working with the F that's interested in having a student come and that it was brought to our attention last month. I want to say they came and they saw the um the trip to Zites Germany on the agenda and they thought, "Oh my gosh, this is perfect opportunity to talk to the board about kids coming going overseas." And we clarified for them,
216oh, we're they're they're giving permission for our kids to go there. they're not they're not giving permission or they're not considering anou with your company but we can get you on the agenda next month if you're interested and they say we sure are. So talked with Adam he said yep this works for me Jeff Wood I think gave the same feedback and my experience in that in that role at the high school and at the at this level tells me I think this is going to be something positive for our kids. How many exchange students do you have right now? I think that it's lower than we expected, but I believe that we still have about five or six kids for second semester. Okay. It's weird. Sometimes they do a semester and sometimes they do
217a year. So, knowing how many go through, but we whatever it's worth, super thorough process to make sure we're getting kids who are going to be successful and then we just have wonderful kids who go out of their way to welcome them. So, it's a nice pairing of two things. I think the more kids the better. I think the more our kids are exposed to different cultures and people from other countries, it's far better. So, you know, you're talking about diversity. That's not allowed. But I love it. I think it's every year they ask, you know, how much how much do we need to pay you and I figure out exactly how much we receive from the state for a high school student and they want they wire transfer that money. Yeah, you're totally right
218that getting additional perspectives from kids is a real neat thing. We tend to be pretty insular here at Prescuit and this is one way to open people's minds to other one of my boys is going on the trip next spring break a week a year from now with EF and I am amazingly impressed with their they're really with their communication with everything. I'm like to feel good about like sending your 16-year-old across the country across the world with someone. They seem quite well organized. I'll tell you as well, our family hosted an exchange student from Finland and one from Taiwan um probably five years ago now. And it was a really neat opportunity for our family and for our daughter and I think other kids at school to get to know them. And in addition
219to those two great young ladies who I think had a terrific experience here at Prescuit High School's right, they just go out of their way to to make sure this works well for everybody. I agree. I also have valued from foreign exchange students being in our programs. Yeah, it's just fun. Good. Yep. Right. Well, um, so we'll cons take a motion to approve theou between PUSD and EF high school exchange year. So move a motion. Do we have a second? I'll second. Motion second. All in favor say I. I. I. Any opposed? All right. Good deal. I just want to put it on record that when Mr. Tenny exited the room, he got a crackle piece of chocolate and there's 13 other people in this room and I I think there's about 13 things left
220in the candy dish. I would be happy to help refill it. Shall I go? I'm just kidding. We are moving into hour four here. Just want to point that out. I'd be happy to to bring some refreshments. Thanks. Yeah, got to go to the bathroom. We got like All of it, right? We can totally make do. I know. All right. Item 7 C1. Uh Brian Moore, chief financial officer, um has prepared the school board budget summary report for your review. Oh, you're getting as a boy. All right. All right. Item seven, item 7 C2. Anybody have any questions? No. Oh, thank you. Yeah. All right. Review the proposed changes to ASBA policy BED. Uh first reading Andy. Yeah, this is the first reading of uh BEDB which is uh the policy related to the board
221agenda. Uh that provides not only the sequence but also just kind of some general guidance. Uh it was recommended that we look at the uh section what is that uh F2 and uh just clarify what uh what community comments shared with the with board members means the proposal uh that is included here uh was kind of suggested as a kind of a positive way to to frame this but still kind of get the point across. So it is uh board members are encouraged to listen to community members and share their concerns. These comments should be summarized and condensed to reflect the intention of the community member. Although open meeting laws will not allow for discussion on unagendaized topics, these concerns can be considered for future agenda items. That's some pretty solid wording. Well done. It's
222like a dentist wrote it. It's like a dentist. My uh fourth grader to buy a jet helped me with the the wording. Great teachers that buy a jet. That's true. Any initial questions on that? Again, this is just a first read. Yeah. I mean, I at first glance and just reading through it, I mean, it is a solid statement. Thanks again for writing that really encompassing. And just to again say that I think this is a great idea that we're adding this part to our board meetings where we get a little more of exactly what the community members are sharing with us because I think this is a an important thing that we do. Yeah. Those of you who've been on the board for a while there's a significant difference in this part of our
223agenda, right? Andy Andy goes back several years now. You know, I want to appreciate the two of you for making this more professional than it has been in the past. I do think if we ever were to go to an open call to the public, this would be the place to put it, not necessarily, but that's just that's not as for future reference. It comes up about nine months. So, I also want to say again back in 2021, I think is when we initiated this based on concerns that we weren't listening to what the community had to say, but we didn't want to do that board did not want to go to a full open call to the public. So, we inserted this option at that point. So, to be back discussing this kind of
224infuriating, but I understand. There's one point here. Um, and I just highlighted it. It's um under the accommodations for the disabled. I just wondered if we're going to have a policy. There is a portion here where I mean it lists Sarah specifically. Lord, we don't want Sarah to go anywhere, but um changing this wording with her name in it, I think we should make it kind of generic and just say keep her name out, administrative uh assistant to the governing board, use the number extension and I wouldn't even use the email, you know, but that's a means to reach. So then we don't change the document in the future if that makes sense. Yeah. Is that consensus direction from the board? Are are you comfortable with us making that change and coming back to you
225with the second read with that change? Where was that that you were referencing the last page specific about what to do if you need accommodations. Okay. I think that's why yeah it can certainly be changed in 22 years when Sarah retires but if she went like wins the lottery and retires earlier than that or something probably wise to not have to come back else Next one. Sorry. Uh, item 7C3, 4 day school week, Mr. Okay. Yeah. So, you bet. Absolutely. I think I mentioned to you when we first brought this up during our uh board retreat a couple of months ago that I'm not necessarily in in favor personally of this. I'm not necessarily against it either. I want to make clear I'm ambivalent for sure. I can see some potential real positives for the
226district and and some, you know, difficulties as well for the district and for families both both directions. But I did have enough family enough staff members, excuse me, come to me pretty regularly saying, "Hey, you should approach the board and talk about a 4 day week like Chino does. It's been great for them. It's it used to be uncommon. It's super common throughout uh the United States. There's three large districts, even down in Phoenix, that are doing this now. The board should be approached with this." So I approached you and your direction was get information from our staff and from parents. I tried not to make the questions leading. I mean the question is this. Would you support or oppose a future USD shift from a four and a half day week to a 4
227day week? I think that was leading. Maybe I'm wrong. Uh but anyhow the same T-chart that I shared with you in our in our board retreat was shared with parents on that survey. Um and then people gave us feedback and you got the graphs I think in front of you. Sarah's got up on the board as well and then I shared with you every one of the comments. And how many comments were they? I can't remember. From staff there were approaching what 200 plus comments and with with parents there were well over 300. It was one of them was 12 pages long and one was 22 pages long and and every comment verbatim with the exception of I took out a couple of nasty words that some parents had chosen to include and swapped them
228out for non-nasty words. But I think other than the profanity, everything else is exactly as written. And and I thought there were some really really important um pieces of feedback. Some people were very earnest in you must do this. It's so much better for kids. And other people were really concerned about the child care aspect of what we provide. Um that I'll be honest, that was a major concern for me when I brought this to you. So I I talked at length with John Schaw, the previous superintendent, Gino Valley, and Cindy Daniels, the current one, and they both said, you know what, that was a big deal for us as well. It was a huge part of the of the discussion around it. People saying, you can't do this, it's going to So we bent
229over backwards to provide things within our district in terms of child care. The community really stepped up and did a bunch of things and pretty much everybody phased out within a couple of years because people were not using it. So the the reality The concern there was there there was a gap there in Chino Valley. Would that be the same here? I haven't the foggiest idea. We're 10 years later in a different community. Um that was the major concern that I saw over and over and you you got to see the the results there. So I'd like to just be quiet and listen to you discuss what you think of the survey results you've received. Well, I've been a working mom my entire adult life, and I've always felt the same way, like another day
230off would be really difficult. And I think one thing that was really difficult for me, pro possibly even more difficult than a day off, has always been our partial day, whether it used to be Wednesdays back in the day when my kids, my older kids were younger. But that actually presents a lot more hardship for me as a working mom because now I have to figure out how to leave work, get them home, even those who are old enough to stay home. They don't drive yet, so I still have to get them home or I have to figure out what I'm doing with the younger kids after school because they're not on the same bus as their older sibling or whatever. It was always a nightmare and it probably would have been simpler for someone
231to say, uh, you're not going to send them to school at all that day and get a babysitter. So I think our our schedule already presents a struggle for working parents in general. School days do you know most of us I was super fortunate to be able to be a work my kids school schedule but not everybody was able to do that. And so but not very many people I'm sure not very many people in your world stand work school day hours you know 8 to 2:30. And so I think I think for sure there's going to be some families that's a struggle for. There might be some that it lightens the load um because it makes their day a little bit simpler. Maybe they have an older child who can stay home but doesn't
232drive yet or whatever that might be. But it is I don't think we can make everybody happy. I noticed some of the comments were like why is the board wanting to do this? And it's interesting because it it was not at all brought by the board like we I don't think any of us even had it on our radar that much until we went on some listening tours. A couple teachers mentioned it to us but not it wasn't an overwhelming number. I think they come to you about that a lot more. So, um, I'll be honest, I was not surprised by the staff response. What What was it the uh total of 77% of our staff said they were in favor of it. That didn't surprise me. That's an overwhelming number, but it's it's what
233I've been getting in the hallways. What did surprise me was the overwhelming number of parents who said they were in favor of this. That that blew me away that we had what was it? 76% of parent I have to add this up again but a huge percent of parents mid70s parents three three out of four parents said this is what we want to do now there are a lot of parents who said they didn't want to do it right that that represents hundreds and hundreds of people and for some real reasons so there's a lot of deep thinking and discussion to do here one thing I would under no circumstances be in favor of is is what several people said in their comments which was don't wait do this right now we made clear in
234in the survey. There's no way we're doing this right away. We're if if if it happens and if was in capital letters, we'd be looking at something for the following school year at the earliest. And I was surprised by maybe a couple of dozen people who said, "What are you doing? Do this yesterday. There's not enough runway for us to to roll this out soon." So, even if like you're all super excited about it, if you tell me I want this to happen in, you know, on July 31st, I will lose my mind. This is this is a hard thing because I really feel for that quarter of the respondents of the parents respondents who I mean that tugs at your heart. I'm a single parent. I have to figure out how to take care
235of my elementary age kids on a day that you're not going to have them in school. Um, but the other side that you look at is are you looking at sending them to other schools because most of the other schools in this area are on four day weeks. So if you think a charter school is going to be better for you, there's not many charter schools that are doing that. I don't know about private schools. So this is this is the hard part, I think, of being an elected official is what what gives you more weight in this discussion. I'm having a real hard time with that in considering this because that's that smaller group pulls on your heartstrings. Yeah. Pulls at me more than uh Yeah, let's do it. Plus, I also do believe
236that a lot of people don't understand what this means. And I know when when I was working at Embry Riddle and we had four day work weeks in the summer, I hated it. I I absolutely hated it. Everybody loves that extra day off, but I could not stand going in early and getting off at the same time. And that I I despised it. I went in late and I left early just to kind of show them that you're not going to tell me to do this. Yeah. Can you kind of glitch the recording there for? So, I have a question. I have a question about classified staff versus certified staff. Is there any way to break out um the different respondents based on the classified staff versus hourly staff? You might ask. Yeah. So, we
237asked obviously part of the survey data the the graph didn't automatically appear. It's just the questions asked. But yeah, I did. So, um there there was a difference and there was significant difference. classified and certified certified staff. 213 certified staff um took the survey. 82% of them supported it. So it's I mean you can't get 82% of people to agree the water's wet. Oh my gosh. Uh for certain for classified staff, I thought it would be like vastly different. And there's a gap for sure, but it's still twothirds 67% of classified staff. And how many staff said that they're supportive of Oh, I guess I could do the math. I don't I think as a kindergarten teacher, I would have been part of that. Yeah. Yeah. There absolutely are staff members. Hopefully, you really, if
238you haven't had a chance to yet, you really will look over each of the comments and take a chance to digest them because I think that will impact your thinking and your discussion, your decision making around this a lot. It's really easy to just look at this and say, "Oh, yeah. Twoirds of people, you know, threequarters of both staff and parents like it. Let's do it." But boy, there's but the comments are kids. And first, that's when I started digging in and I asked, so first I had asked a parent who is now a teacher at one of our schools. She does um lower grades and she said, "You know, when those kids come back from recess or lunch, that hour and a half, you would know is crazy time. It is so hard. And
239do you want to add an hour to this? Like like she's and then and then parents are like I appreciate the comments that they're you know why evening time is limited as it is. Now we're crunching even more of that time. Um you know the one that really was a weird comment I'm just going to say it but it was the guy that was a guy. He's like I'm a product of a day and I you know I live on my I live on, you know, I'm I'm a product of this. I mean, it was an oddly worded one, but it was like, you know, when I look at that as a parent, is that extra day off going to be fruitful? Is it really going to be something that honestly all of our kids
240are are going to sit down and do their homework or do whatever it might be. I worry about that. There's also parent comments of that were for the four day and then their comments were well you know the there's options like the boys and girls club and the YMCA but the counter to that was the comment that I received was well you know what these parents chose choose to go to buy a jud and Taylor Hicks in Lincoln school but now we give them an option to go to the YMCA where the environment is not what they chose you know I mean it's Those are the concerns. And so the employees that, you know, I looked in the face and they're live in Chino and they've got young kids and they're like, "Well, how is
241the four day?" Like, we hate Fridays. It is so hard. You know, I can't find coverage. I some days I don't I can't work and because I can't get coverage on that Friday because a regular work week for majority of the workforce is a Monday through Friday workforce. Um, and then the um Oh, it'll so those were the comments that that I was getting and it just I mean it just kind of hit me hard like here's oh like so you know I said you know factory setting I I rarely like to put in you know compare education to business but this is really kind of another business decision. If I asked every one of our salary employees, you have a day off. Heck yeah. They're going to say, "I'm getting the same um I'm
242get the same amount and I get that day off." You bet I'm going to take that day off. But that some of the comments concerned me where they said, "Hey, if that Friday's off, am I still expected to come to work?" You know, that concerns me a little bit that that's like where will I have to come for like PD? Yeah. But they'd rather be in the classroom honestly which is great but do I still have to come to work you know so it's not worth I think that question was in the vein that that Jen suggested Chino Valley they do have one Friday order and we have to do PD sometimes it's clear that we're not going to do a lot of PD after 5:00 in the afternoon or whatnot so that look like
243yeah that's that's a reasonable question yeah but we also have hourly employees that you know until their pocketbooks shrink and they that they're going to they're you put them in a situation where they may not understand the the second order effects of this where oh my gosh I may have to get another job. There were bus drivers obviously that were concerned am I going to maintain my insurance? Am I you know these are real concerns and it's not just the the quarter um of the pie that answered they're not in favor but how many didn't take the survey that just like my survey my voice doesn't matter you know but they're going to feel so with with kindernest tell you we've never given a survey with better responses I think you got a pretty representative
244response. I wouldn't worry too much about that, but I would worry about worry a great deal about what you were told, both positive and negative. I And again, and I I know you guys are going to say something, but but and I also we're not up against the wall on this financially. I So yeah, and I think that's why the board hasn't presented this is we're seeing the numbers. We're getting raises. um we're not in a financial uh situation, but by gosh, if that happens two years from now, we're in that situation, we already kind of have a survey that says it wouldn't be horrible, you know, but we can at least explain to the public that we're we need to do this. So, and that's kind of what Chino was at at that point.
245Yep. Yep. Exactly. That was the main reason that they moved to that. And you're exactly right. There's there's no financial necessity for us to Would there be a financial benefit? Unquestionably. Would it be massive? No. Would it be significant? Yeah, that's in my mind that's one of the top three reasons you might want to consider doing it. I kind of just wrote down recruiting and and retaining employees clearly popular employees. We're we're routinely outrecruited by Chino Valley in spite of the fact that they're recognized different conditions there that make it maybe not quite as attractive in other respects. People are like, I'm going there. And then there half million dollar cost savings a year. That's that's a bigish deal. Is it a game changer? No. But it's a bigish deal. The third one is that
246Chino's um data lines up with survey data nationwide, which is once people move to this, 80 plus percent of people say is a good idea. There's not too many things you decide that 80 plus percent of people say was a good idea. Yeah. I think one um concern for sure is is what what are our kids in our community going to be doing on that day and will it really be productive? You know, it is great like on the weekends you're going to go somewhere where you have an extra little bit of time you get to travel or whatever, but for the most part they're going to be I know what my boys would be doing. They'd be sitting playing video games most of the day while mom's at work. Um and so is that
247productive? is that beneficial to our kids as they're growing up, especially as they're if they're younger and and not as have as much supervision, that can also be a bit of a struggle. But one thing I'm wondering is on our teachers that responded, um, do we have any data from the the special ed side other than the comments? There were several comments made about special ed, but um is there any did we gather any information as far as we break it out by okay do you teach special etc. I noticed several teacher comments in the special ed vein had a different opinion and so I was just curious if we had any data that no no specific data around that. Yeah, both both you know our ESS program, our ED program, those are things that
248give families um some respit respbit and and keeping their kids engaged when they really may struggle to do so at home. So absolutely on a on that note is one question I had. So just an observation that I had when reading some of the comments was a lot of families didn't really feel and teachers I had enough information to truly decide whether they were on board or not. I think really what it would come down to is looking at what is the daily schedule, what is a weekly schedule look like, what does a teacher schedule look like, what does a paris schedule look like, but also I think one of the things we haven't talked about is what could those Fridays look like? And I think that's an important piece because that could be an
249opportunity to restructure some of our clubs where we could offer some pretty robust opportunities for students that we're not able to now. So we could increase, enrich or retach opportunities for kids using 21st century club money. That could also be an additional time for whether it's pair professionals or certified staff to make additional money. Um so I just I think that there's some more things that we can explore. Yeah. Right. Could be childare. could be an academic focus um just based off of a lot of what other districts are doing. So that's one of the things that if we do decide to move forward, I think providing people with more information so they have a better picture of what this would look like because I think that they're making some decisions or responding to the
250survey based on what their assumption is about what this is going to look like and they they need a better picture. Yeah, maybe that's it. You know, it's like a four day academic, you know, fifth day enrichment, you know, something like that. We're not saying, we're not I love the idea of the CED model bottle. I mean, god dang it, when Miss Bailey heard that, she was going to work and I see some merit and you're preparing them for college, you know, like because that's what they're accustomed to kind of that and I can see that there's some merit in that piece where give them give them a full day, get them out there, then they can do the extracurricular activities and everything else. So there was a lot the comments also that I got
251and this was from teachers. Well, you know what, if you increase my time, I really do appreciate the time that I have, you know, in that afternoon for whatever they're going to do. But then they're like, extend it further into the summer. I mean, I heard more comments about extending it because then I don't have families don't have to find out, you know, something to do for two and a half months, you know, during the summer. Like, it's hard. It's even harder in the summer to find camps and everything else for all these kids. So, it that has some merit, too, but it doesn't go towards our cost, you know, like it doesn't help alleviate our cost. But anyway, I think Kelsey's right. We want to get creative about what Fridays look like. There are
252some real neat possibilities. You're you're 100% right. The possibilities for CTE are really intriguing and potentially for retri as well. That's where my head goes as a benefit. But I do think once teachers staff see what an actual day in a week looks like, they might come to the same conclusion that you did. Um, that those days are You might recall what we shared on this chart that was linked, which was pretty broad. Kelsey's right. There's no there's no specifics, but it said student days would likely increase by approximately an hour with school days 7 hours and 30 minutes to 7 hours and 45 minutes long. They're currently 6 hours and 25 minutes to 6 hours and 45 minutes. So, we'd be boosting up exactly an hour. That was all that was shared. We didn't
253say we'd for sure start at this time at this school, but none of that information is is sharable at this point, right? And then for staff, it says likely 9 and a half hour days for full-time in place. Example, 7:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. plus one 5day week per quarter for staff. That's that's one example of what it might look like. So, did people have no idea at all what it might look like? No, that wouldn't be fair. Did people have specific details about how would it impact them? No. So yeah, it could well have impacted people saying strongly in favor versus somewhat or strongly opposed versus someone. When we look at what what impact the it can certainly have a positive impact on the budget, but it also can have a negative impact on
254on enrollment. It could have a positive impact on enrollment. So we don't really know that outcome and that's a really hard thing to weigh. One thing that Chino didn't have was ESA money at the time that Chino made that decision to move. And now families have so much more flexibility to use their state funded money at their discretion that it it could make it easier for people to choose not to keep their child in PUSD or give them another reason not to or something of that nature. So I it's that to me is one of our biggest things we have to really pay close attention to and I don't know how to identify it. I mean, obviously the survey looks like it's great, but if that whole quarter quarter decided, well, we're not going to
255stay in PUSD or even a portion of that, that could have a real detrimental impact. Although, I think it would change dramatically if Friday became an option. If parents knew that they weren't Friday childare, there was something if there was transportation potentially. Yep. It could change which would help with bus drivers, right? There'd have to potentially be transportation for that and then you'd have a smaller fleet maybe running cuts pretty that having that Friday when it comes to utility clean it removes would we provide um would we provide lunch would we provide breakfast would we provide transportation that's significant is the impact on the savings right the other positives would potentially still be there but you're right it would have or more the savings or more I I have a hard time imagining families who
256I want my kids in school four and a half days. You've moved to four. Now I'm going to have them with me all the time. You know what I'm saying? I'm going to take an ESA. I can't take care of my kids one day a week. So now I'm going to take care of them five days. Well, I think that they might use it to go to a different school, but but I think most I don't know what um Trinity schedule is. Are they off on Fridays? It's on here. Let's see. Trinity Sacred Heart was half day on Fridays. I don't know if they're still They are still half days on Fridays. They're four and a half still. Yeah. So, you know, their only option the number of open spots has currently is zero. Yeah,
257if I'm not mistaken, I don't think there's a lot of places to go other than if they want to go to humble. I'm not saying you should leverage your thinking around that at all. But I think in reality, there's probably not a lot of other open options for people. Would it be possible to do a pilot where we had one school went to four days and then we could we could evaluate some of these okay this these all these families moved to a five day a week and all these families moved to a four day a week and and how how does this the test scores transportation there's no way we could it's the tail tail of wakes dog when it comes to that that's fair we wouldn't have enough if we told people you
258can do this and provide and you know we're now basis you have to provide your own transportation we have to bus. We have to bust the other two kids home and then we'd have to come back and bus the the school. Is it possible? Yeah. Would I want to delve into the logistics of that? Not too much, but whatever you tell us to do, that's that's what we're here to do is is carry out your vision for the district. I would there be some merit, you know, if we are truly up against it, this is what we get direction. Um, I mean, I would foresee you get a committee together that has stakeholders from each area and propose three different options. What does that look like? And let them come together because this is and
259if and if it's the premise, hey, we're financially strapped. We got to figure something out here and this is an option. But but again, I don't I don't think we're there. I'm not ready to give direction on it. It could be financially beneficial, but that's in my mind one of the the three major negatives. I mentioned my positives. Negatives are the longer days for students and staff. There's implications of that, but I don't think everybody's thought all the way through when they say, "Yeah, let's do this." The other piece is the increased demand for child care on families. We could we could mitigate that to some extent. There's no question about that. But we're not we're not a child care provider primarily, but I know that many many people rely on us for that. And
260what do they do over the summer? What do they do on Saturday? Those are real questions. I get all that, but that's that's a major negative for me. And then the third is that much much of the cost savings would come from our hourly employees or bus drivers and whatnot. I asked about that impact in in Chino. Did you lose a ton of bus drivers? Said no, we didn't. We were just fine. No, no impact there. A lot of people were glad for the extra time. They worked less and and made less, but they were all right with that. Most of our folks are, you know, retired grandmas and stuff, blah blah blah. Would that be the case for us? I don't I don't know. I don't think so. I know we've had a hard
261time filling our positions with bus drivers, but I was surprised to see of our hourly staff, twothirds said, "Let's do this." But there's a good chunk of hourly staff that wouldn't be as impacted, right? That would still work 40 hours. They would work just 40 hours. Maintenance folks wouldn't have an impact on them. Depending on how we do things, it might not have any impact on parapros. It could depending on, you know, what direction you give us or what model we take, but probably not a lot of impact on parros. It's mostly custodial service. You contract food service which you contract out bus drivers which we don't the savings would come from and that that were the people who are contracted included in the survey. Yeah. the SSC and SFB. I mean, they're constantly having
262a hard time filling their positions. And so now they're posting not a 40hour week, you know, it's it could impact them recruiting employees as well. Yeah. Gina basically said with their bus drivers, we lost a couple people, but we gained a couple people. We're like, Friday's off. Awesome. I'm looking for a part-time job. That's what a bus driver is. Can I get Fridays off of the deal? Terrific. That looks like we could. Brian and I looked into there. There are scenarios in which we could continue to offer health insurance. We scale back their hours, but we wouldn't have to scale back. There's other there's different options. Probably we'd want to scale back hours just for cost savings piece. Humble. Is it Humble or Chino that employs their folks throughout the day and they have to
263do different things between their routes? I believe it's Humble. I think Humble that's that's that's an option we could look into recommending anything, right? We just want you to have as much information as possible get you all confused. Um, you know, I'm not prepared to give any direction just based off of what I I've heard and what I re received as far as feedback and that also the survey. Um, and then just looking at, you know, when we net $159,000 for this year, um, we've been there there's just other options still even, you know, moving forward. And I'm not prepared personally um to to give direction, but if any of you would like and we have two board members, we sure as can. I don't think it's anything we have to address today or current,
264you know, in this current moment. Timeline, we're not doing this quickly. So, even if you were anxious as a majority of the board to do it for the following year, you have to do anything. I think we have to start with what Kelsey suggested more about what Fridays might look like. There's a lot of stuff that parents teachers that's something that we really want staff spending time on figuring out when we're not prepared to move forward. Unless you're pretty committed to exploring this deep. That's a lot of time that it would take to plan that out tomorrow. Yeah. I I would underscore what S said there is no necessity for this. There's a financial benefit to it that comes on the backs of some of our lowest paid folks. That gives me heartburn. I don't
265love that part of it. Every district who has moved that direction has faced that aspect of it and decided that the overall benefit for kids and families was worth moving that direction. But there is no financial necessity. 10 years ago when we looked at this as a district, there there were some financial pressures that were really pointing in this direction, but there wasn't enough if I'm remembering correctly. Andy, I think you were on the committee at the time. Weren't enough other models out there for us to feel comfortable this is this is workable. Now there's no question this is there's no question. Is it the right thing to do? That recruitment piece is is very tempting to me. I I I want the best teachers in front of my kids. But there are some unanswered
266questions for sure. We're getting pretty darn good teachers as it is. It's not like we got to do something yesterday about teacher recruitment, but I'm Would you say? I would. Yeah, we we absolutely are getting highly qualified staff applying for our uh for our open positions. I would I would say it's, you know, not just recruitment, it's certainly a retention issue. You know, that's we're we're not certainly not financially strapped, but we're um there's a reason that a lot 5% of our uh staff are interested in this is from just a an emotional and standpoint. So I wouldn't call it strapped, but you know they're they're looking for Yeah. Let's not do the survey at the end of the school year, too. We have some of the lowest paid teachers in America when they say,
267"Hey, in spite of that, I'd be much more interested in sticking around if we went four days." That causes me to bring that to you at least. Well, and I think we have to acknowledge that they they completed a survey. We can't ignore the results of said survey and pretend they didn't say this is what we want because then we're not listening to what the people in our community want. So, it's probably something we need to make sure we're addressing, but I don't know that there's an urgency around addressing it, getting it on an agenda right now. But I do think if we've asked the question and we've gotten this kind of a response, it begs us to be considering it. I feel like another question like I don't know as like a student I
268feel pretty back and forth on this topic as well, but I think like if you decide to go forth with like the information about teachers, I like as a student feel like my current Fridays sometimes productivity just because of like the shortened schedules and I feel like teachers may this is like an assumption like obviously I'm not a teacher but I think as a student it feels like it's hard to find like the time to fill what you need to but in like in like the shorter time it can it can be like awkward I think often on Fridays to Fridays are probably our least effective instructional day I think you're and you have lunch on Fridays which is a big chunk and when there's an assembly And you have a snow day, right? I
269know. But the two snow days, the kids are like, "Well, we're not going to go to school, right, Mom?" Like, "We're going to be there for like two hours. Can we not go to school?" It is tough. If people say snow day again, you're probably have to scrape off the floor. So, it's snowing out there. It was earlier today. So, can I ask you guys a tough clarifying question only because I know that if we if teachers, they're paying attention. They know that this is a conversation and staff know this is a conversation. So, I would love to be able to kind of explain to them the decision that was made. Um, are we saying just not now? We're not we're not ready to pursue it further now. Um, due to not being in a
270financial this not being a financial decision or what just tell me with that response. I'm trying to formulate what I would tell our staff because I know we're going to get it and we might even get it from families and community members. I just want to be clear. That's what I mean by we have to have something like this is a big response. Yeah, I would I would encourage them to reach out to a board member through the channels that we've established and and uh and plead their case whether they're for it or against him. I think we just I think we have the survey results and we have all the comments, but I think if we're face to face with with with employees that that uh they ought to have access just like community
271does to us and and uh we got to keep an open ear. I don't think we have all the data and I'd like to I'd like to hear more from those that are for it and those that are against it and keep it open. And I'm wondering if maybe it's a reason to call a special meeting somewhere down where we can actually devote four hours to this topic, discuss it, bring other people in, figure out what the what the survey if we want to get more data, what the survey needs. I just feel like we did this, we asked you to put this survey together. We appreciate that. Um, but I'd like to maybe deep do a deeper dive into it to figure it out. You're a brave man. Well, and I say that knowing
272that, you know, it's it's a hot button. It's It is. And And it's not something that's gonna we're not gonna Well, we're not going to make everybody happy with any decision we make. Um, but I think I think we really need to be careful and this really carefully and gather all the information we need because if we go this route there's a lot of secondary impacts that are going to happen. We the enrollment part scares me. I mean it really does especially we have two buses that go into humble because they like the education they get in PUSD those parents five days a week and then all of a sudden some of these other things become an issue. All it takes is you know half of a bus to say no, we're going to stay
273in humble because they're providing five days. There's all the savings, you know, and so now we're in a cutting mode because of it. It scares me and it's got to be thoughtful and and you know, again, this is anecdotal, but one of the comments and I think it was for some reason the person identified themselves in a comment. They said, "What are you thinking taking away another day of school for my child?" and I know that child and is not enrolled any longer. And I don't know if this was the the result of of just this question. You're thinking about doing this. I'm pulling my kid out. Um, you know, again, it's one it's not a great sample size, but I'm just concerned that that we've already started that process of people saying, I'm not,
274you guys aren't taking my best interest. Yeah, from some of the comments, there was definitely a sense that people feel like a four day school week diminishes the education that the students are receiving because there's concerns that we already have struggling test scores or various things at certain campuses and they're wondering why would we reduce instruction time and even though I feel like we've been clear that we're not reducing instruction time. Um, but are we because I still and one teachers we are reducing their instruction. So when I did look at it because I started to create some models of what could this look like, what would this look like? Kelsey's an expert on this for sure. Even if we kept the exact same number of instructional minutes, you're actually increasing the amount of instructional
275time. Um and that is because on Fridays you're not you don't have transitions, you don't have lunch. That's all now embedded within what that was. So you could either make the day a little bit shorter so it's not quite an hour um or 50 minutes, whatever that length is. So there's there's some options within that. Yeah. Because passing time and lunch count as instructional minutes. So the blocks are longer. Their little minds can their little minds I just think of 5-year-old. Well, and you also have to think of I mean right now we've got kids on campus until 4:30 and we've had them until 5. So with after school clubs and things, those kids are they're right now anyway, right? It would take a lot of training for teachers, which is why I would ask
276for a runway as well. Um, to how do you use that time and how do you use it effectively? How are we engaging students? How are we working with them in those times where they might, you know, not come in as with it after after lunch? It might be a different So, we could work on scheduling. We could work on all kinds of different components, but that would be that's a lot of time and training. Um, But if we look at it on the other end of the spectrum, I'm sorry. Um to the older kids, that Friday is tough. Those teachers are not getting as much accomplished in those short periods. And so we already are losing instruction time. We may actually gain instruction time when we look at our older grades because they're going
277to have more f longer focus time. Although I think there were some comments from uh high school teachers saying to fill that time would still be uh it's too long like their per class periods would be too long. But I don't know that they know what their class periods would look like. And again that's train that's a training component and my high is a great example because they switched their schedule this year and went from 55 minute blocks to 72 minute blocks. They did a lot of training of how do you fill that amount of time. So those are things that we would have to think about you that it gives teachers more freedom to add in those engagement strategies to add in enrich and retach within their class structure where they don't feel like
278they have to get through all of their core instruction in 50 minutes. They've got an extra 25 to 30 minutes to now do all of those things that right now they just don't have time for within a 55 minutes. I guess if we Oh, I was going to say in Wisconsin my two years teaching we had 90-minute blocks and I absolutely loved it. Yeah, hands down thought that it was the most productive time scheduling uh in comparative when I came here and taught in at what level was it? Seventh and eighth. Seven and eight. Yeah. And I know that's scary for teachers right now because again that's changed. We're so used to a 50 55 minute block in our older grades. Um, but it is doable and it's been really nice to see that happen
279at mile high this year to learn from that experience and go, okay, what support do teachers need to enable to make that longer block work? We did get a lot of comments that um that were elementary, no, you know, for a f, you know, but go to high school, yes, four day. And so, I mean, there's some merit in that. Although transportation wise, how many high school kids really take a bus? So, what cost savings would we have there? Um, back to your question though, Kelsey, is you know, what is our answer? You know, I I really I really liken back to it. It it is really that sometimes your decision isn't always a popular decision, right? Even though the survey seems popular that yeah, give us four day. My biggest concern and it and
280by talking specifically to parents, teachers and inside and outside of the school district was a real concern and that was that quarter piece and my concern is really for that quarter piece and we don't have answers for them and our second order effects are just we just have no idea yet with the enrollments with whatever it might be. Will we lose some teachers? I think what we what we've shown is, you know, we support our teachers in PUSD. This one may not be that one support where it's, you know, go to a 4 day. We get it. It would be amazing. Any salaried, you know, um employee would love to go to 4 day in any occupation. We get that. But it's also comes down to again business model, the consumer. your consumer is is
281the ch is are the kids and those and and and the parents for that matter. So are we giving them everything we can for those for that five day block? That's what they're accustomed to. We're not financial that we're not financially strapped. We don't have a retention issue right now. We're if we look at all of our key performance indicators, we are in good shape. And if we have a max exodus and then there's a revolt, well then we probably should relook at it. But I don't feel like we're we're really in that situation to move forward. So that would be my answer to the questions helps a lot. And I I would say and I if if we have to give a direction, it's let's get this buttoned up exactly what it's going to
282look like at least conceptually. Um so that people really know what they're talking about here. And and that's where maybe we need to have a special meeting to make sure let's get this if we're going to put this out there. We need to work towards that and present them with something that isn't like, hey, we just decided this in one meeting that we're going to move forward on this. Sure. Let's let's get this buttoned up a nice presentation that can say this is what we think it's going to look like. Should we go forward with it or should we not? I' I'd rather do that and then have a vote than keep talking about it and having little bits and pieces coming to us every I'd rather get it all put together. You know, I
283I always think of percentages and when you think like 75% it really sounds like there that's you know there's strong support for it. But if you just put that in numbers that just means that one out of every four people are opposed to it, you know. So that means in this room three of us would be strongly or somewhat opposed to it. And you just put it into that quantitative numbers you know one out of four or one out of five. There's a lot of opposition when you look at it that way. Yeah. So, we give it an answer. You feel like that's a sound enough. Um, yes. I feel like that gives me or us talking points when staff or families say, "Hey, why are we not pursuing this further right now?" Okay. I'm
284hearing consensus is to table discussion on this until or I'm hear maybe a little different from Andy D. and get some solid answers around this. Absolutely yes. Absolutely not. But otherwise, I'm hearing maybe table this for now. I'm saying I'm good. Frankly, I mean, if you ask my personal opinion, I'd rather have you tell me to table it, but I have a very hard time recommending to you that you ignore what three of your teachers say. That's where I struggle in tableabling it entirely is just the fact that we have I struggle in both sides where we have these this large group that wants us to address it and then I also know the work that we're focusing on that you're focusing on particularly Kelsey is very important work of getting us ready for all
285the things that are changing next year and all of that and to have this as a distraction from the work that needs to be done feels overwhelming to me at the same time. So, I do want the answers to how do we how do we move forward if we were to look at a 4-day week, but at the same time, can that be our priority really right now when we are already moving in the direction we're moving with with report card changes and and trying to get our math scores up and our math curriculum instituted. You know, there's so many things that are really important and pressing that I'm not certain this takes priority over those things and it will be timeconsuming for you probably was just to give us the little bit of information
286you have like already divi devised you know so that's where I struggle is I don't want to ignore the fact that these people have said this is really important to us um but I also heard from teachers often in our communication with teachers that they need a lot of support to get through what they're learning to do now. And we're already asking a lot of them and to then also throw in how are you going to manage a different classroom schedule feels like a lot. So, I don't know. I I'm not even giving a good answer. I'm just like saying all the things that are not helping. One thing I will tell you is the time piece. If we ever were to dedicate some time, June is that time. um we have most of July
287kind of planned out roughly and then can't do anything until that. So all of these special projects that's when those things happen. Um during the school year it's much harder. So that would be the only thing with time is that if we do decide to do it would be ideally the time to start. Perhaps we could set some specific time around June that we could identify at least what it would look like. It's always better to go into something with with a plan. We've I mean, we did the survey. That's that's an example of it. There's not enough information out there, you know, we just basically said here, answer these questions and you know, without and even the teachers that I spoke to, they asked, "What does that look like? You know, if you take
288my time away, I can't." And then is it going to be mean I'm going to work on Friday? And you know, all the the whatifs. So, so you know, at face value, got it. 75% says Yeah, I'll take the day. But but I'd love if we do like you've identified and that's maybe that's part of response. Identify during our summer break when the staff is, you know, after you take your your break, much deserved. Then you then you come back and you and you come up with what are those courses of action? What is what is that what does that look like to us? We can review it and then and then provide more direction. But I I do like the enrichment piece. I do like the CTE, you know, possibility. I there's a there's
289some merit to this. And are we taking care of those kids? It's not babysitting. It's enrichment time, not and and it's presented as we're still fiveday school week, but it's not your traditional go in the classroom five day week. You know, what does that look like? There's some merit to it. I also like the idea of being able to honor the survey and say we are researching this, you know, and we are looking into it more deeply. You had mentioned a committee that oftentimes people form, you know, schools will form a committee to determine whether or not this is wise. Is that something the committee would a committee would work would be done over the summer or is it that would just come into play after the work is done by staff? Each of us
290are you know 12 months and it is true to flexibility particularly in the month of June almost any other month that's got his busiest times and Kelsey's got her busiest time that's one time when there's a little more flexibility it might be hard to get teachers together in their summer mandated committee then it has to be that's We do it for Sarah has to posturriculum. We've started to do that for curriculum. How many people have showed up in the public? Just saying that's another step. That's another step. You're right. You're right. Yeah. If if if you were giving us direction to do so, we could we could flesh out a model of what it would look like a little better for more discussion on your part and potentially taking it out for a test spin
291with a fun four-hour meeting. We could do that. Lots of different things we could do. But if you think this is there's too many unknowns. Let's not do it. Great. That's that's reasonable direction based on, you know, what you told us so far. If you feel like let's let's get a little bit more solid look at what one model of this could look like so that people ask what time would school start, what time get out, how long am I doing this, how long would periods be at the high school, what would transportation look like, etc. We could we could put the work into that. I like that idea. If we could do it during a time where it's not so ing on you guys to um detract from what you're already working really hard
292on. We we got plenty of stuff to do over the summer, but it's I'm sure you just sit there. It's not, you know, you just I'm the exception. My summer is not my summer. That's when new budgets and the audits start. The audit actually got a high time. Yeah. I say my summer is in November. We could we could pull in pieces for mine as we need to, but Oh, no. I'd be available. It's just Let's take that. I mean, so we're kind of saying don't table it. We're doing more work. We're asking for a little bit more of a deeper dive like deeper dive into I just think a lot of people would be apt once you put out more of what you flesh out what you think it would really look like it
293might affect some of their way. Yeah. People said as much in the survey, didn't they? Yeah. Just jumping like four day week sounds great. No, I don't. This is how Yeah. 7:30 to 5 is different when you know that's the schedule versus I got three. That's exactly right. To be fair, say exactly that at the top of the page that was linked to. But when you'll uh spend some time over the summer, we made it all the way. You like these short meetings, bud? I know we promised you short meetings and we have not delivered yet. You have not delivered. Maybe it's Brett and I that are causing the problem because we sure do question. This is the most thoughtful board that we've had in years. We used to start at six and go to
294in in mid. Thank you for starting at five. We may need to move to We still have two agenda items. Yeah. So So everybody can read the agenda items, right? Can I get a motion to adjurnn? Yeah. All right. Are you motioning? Are you motion? All right. So, we're Thank you.