001good evening president O'Brien members of the governing board superintendent Finch and special guests tonight's Awards presentation continues to look a little bit different social distancing is still being practiced as we will continue to refrain from handshaking on AR after we read about your award please come forward pick up your certificate and extraordinary DVD logo pin on the table to my right you will then proceed up the stairs for a photo with the governing board and superintendent we have a lot of amazing Awards tonight yay we begin with our extraordinary students of Barry Goldwater High School culinary program bghs students captured first and second place place at this year's Arizona prart Invitational prart is a nationwide two-year high school program that reaches about 130,000 students in more than 1700 high schools across the country in partnership
002with the National Restaurant Association our second place team wed the judges by creating a delicious menu of marscapone date and pistachio crustini drizzled with lemon oil noi and shrimp with garlic truffle cream and strawberry cream straws with dark chocolate sauce and fresh strawberry congratulations to the second place finishers Erica huncker Kai Allen and Louis aguere unfortunately Kai and Louise couldn't be here tonight so Erica is holding down the [Applause] for I'm also congatulations all right Erica stay close all right we're going to do a group photo at the end so we'll have you come back up Erica with your um with your chefs all right so if you're wondering if that was second place what did our first place team do to stun the judges capture the championship and punch their ticket for a trip
003to the national competition well the champion team created a three course meal that sounds truly extraordinary seared scallops with avocado basil mousse duck two ways with cherry balsamic sauce and for dessert hazelnut espresso tart congratulations to the first place team from Barry Goldwater High School Alexis galit Gracie K Jacob Peterson and Ember chelis [Applause] Phelps we've got a kitchen back here since you guys are dressed I mean we're going to be here all night so all right so we'll have our second place team and our Chef come on up [Music] Jenny can I all right congratulations and good luck at [Applause] Nationals all right next up Mountain Ridge High School senior Cil Nike has been selected as one of five Arizona nominees for the 2122 US Presidential scholars in Career and Technical education Cil was
004selected based on evidence of academic rigor technical competence professional employability skills Ingenuity and creativity here to share more about the award is Deputy associate superintendent and state director of Career and Technical education Kathy Raymond thank you president O'Brien members of the board Bo superintendent Finch and special guest um there were 45 applicants across the State of Arizona this year and only five were selected to go on to the National um Awards while I read salil Nike's uh application I was blown away uh he is the epitome of a CTE student and a scholar and we're so proud of him I um I usually try to condense their application essays and it's really hard to do uh so bear with me I'm going to read just a few of the amazing things that that Cil has
005done he's helded many leadership positions in various organizations including Deca future Business Leaders of America Model United Nations National Honor Society robotics club and the mayor's youth advisory commission as the vice president of the mayor's youth advisory commission he has the responsibility to lead a talented group of high schoolers to help the community and make his City a better better place one volunteer hour at a time he works with a team of other officers to plan volunteer events and seek out new opportunities to get back to the community all through High School Cil has maintained an unweighted 4.0 GPA which means he's never gotten less than an a he has a weighted GPA of 4.78 and is ranked number one in his class he has taken 10 AP tests and plans on taking four more
006this year he passed all AP test earning college credit in many academic subjects he earned a score of five on half of those because of these achievements he was given the AP scholar with distinction award also he received a score of 36 on the ACT a perfect score and because of this he was given the National [Applause] Honor he was given the National Honor of becoming a 36er his work based based experience was through a computer science internship at opton United Health Group this internship was in the topic area of computer science Cil stated this internship taught me more about computer science as I got hands-on experience with the design process and professional working strategies Cil has also participated and placed in various events in ctso skill competitions in the past year alone in FBLA
007he won first place at state in Computer Applications computer problem solving and networking infrastructure and play second in coding and programming he also participated in Deca and last year and won his first place at State automotive services marketing and went on to to finalize at Nationals he is the vice president of his fbaa chapter and the vice president of career development of his school's Deca chapter he formed the coding Club at his school when he noticed that there wasn't any means for those interested in Co coding to come together and collaborate so he helps bearhead the initiative to create the club he is currently working towards earning the Amazon web services Cloud developer certification which is recognized by almost all companies in the technology industry also as mentioned before he's taken AP test for computer
008science principles computer science a and received a five on both tests giving him college credits in both of these CTE courses finally he passed the Arizona skills assessment for marketing and computer science and due to all this experience and recognition Cil strongly believes he's qualified in both his Target profession of computer science as well as marketing he is constantly thinking of new ways to solve today's problems or new inventions to make life a bit easier he created an app called hourly with a capital Y the app helps a person manage their time while studying to most effectively learn the material as little time as possible it includes a machine learning algorithm to adjust the timings to fit each person and their learning style he submitted this app to the Congressional app challenge a competition held
009by the House of Representatives he ended up winning and was recognized for his achievements by the representative for his district additionally he's created other ideas for products one of them which he's currently work on is an app called coffee house will be an idea sharing platform where users can spread their ideas for inventions stories programs and almost everything else the app will then connect them with those who have those skills to fulfill that idea as you can see very amazing so salil on behalf of the Department of Education and superintendent Kathy Hoffman if you forward I'd like to present you with our certificate and a trophy conratulations [Applause] oh s our next Awards feature two of our most extraordinary dvusd schools identified and honored as exemplary schools within the State of Arizona by the Arizona
010Educational Foundation or a the A+ School of Excellence award is the highest state level any Arizona public school can receive this year two dbsd schools received this honor and tonight we will celebrate one of them please help me congratulate our A+ School of Excellence principal Dr Janet Gilbert and Mountain Shadows Elementary [Applause] School if they can un un fail it then they become a school of excellence it's like the test it's very new Kayla do you want to do one without the banner yeah let's do one without the banner as well so we've got a couple options sorry pred ban I know we got the banner yeah yeah we come to your school and take a photo of the bannner are we good congratulations Mountain Shadows wooo wooo all right and we will have more
011publicity um media social media on Mountain Shadows as they celebrate uh their A+ uh later this spring and we have another school that also received their A+ School of Excellence West Wing and we're going to celebrate with them at our next governing board meeting woohoo dvusd is honored that a member of our team has been selected and appointed to serve on the Phoenix arts and culture commission after a rigorous review and selection process dvusd curriculum instruction and assessment specialist for Fine Arts Anna beom was appointed to serve uh on the City of Phoenix arts and culture Commission which serves as an Advisory Board to the mayor and city council city manager and the office of arts and culture it's made up of a diverse group of Citizen volunteers the commission is a critical voice in
012promoting the importance and value of arts and culture experiences for all Phoenix residents it advocates for the continued Public Funding for the arts and culture sector Arts education cultural equity and other initiatives that further the growth and sustainability of the creative sector in Phoenix and the greater Metropolitan area congratulations to Fine Arts specialist and City of Phoenix arts and culture commissioner Anna [Applause] Backstrom Kayla you good good okay all right that concludes our Awards and recognitions governing board members and superintendent fince you may return to your seats for our presentation tonight return to your seat for the presentation Mrs or thank you we are thrilled to have a student and staff presentation tonight about our extraordinary music program for more than 30 years March has been officially designated for the observance of Music in our
013schools month so tonight dvusd Fine Arts specialist Anna Backstrom has brought some students and staff to share how they have benefited from the high quality music education programs in dbd schools thank you you're not on yet did you make it green no we need it so that they can hear you in computer land I'm them do all the speaking let's go to the podium thank you Mrs Backstrom always ready to improvise good evening and thank you president O'Brien and members of the board and Dr Finch I am so pleased tonight to offer this uh commemoration for what we do in dbsd and our music programs I've designed a little bit of a slideshow but I will say that this is about the students tonight and we want to recognize them and their experiences in music
014education I would like to ask Daphne Backstrom to come up and speak a little bit on behalf of the Stetson Hills Elementary School and her experience so far here in [Applause] dbd hello my name is Daphney Backstrom I'm a sixth grader at step Hills I would like to thank the governing board and Dr Finch and uh for this opportunity to speak on behalf of music education and how it has and will continue to shape my life my mother Anna Backstrom has allowed music to infiltrate my life in the best way possible every day when I go to school I see kids having a difficult time um and the only thing that keeps them up when they struggle is doing the things they love for me that's music I have attended several music camps such as
015music rocks at deal at Deer Valley Middle School and talent shows at Stetson Hills I'm also in choir music has improved my self-esteem and has helped my brother William Backstrom as well it is truly a great element in education thank you hello is it hello my name is Jackson cook and I am a student an eighth grader at Highland Lakes when I was in about second grade I started taking piano lessons and these helped me build important music fundamentals uh as well as um interesting me in music at around the same time I started doing choir at high and lakes uh and this really uh the choir program helped show me the community that music can breed uh while I didn't pursue choir further I did go into band which I had lots of fun
016with and I learned a lot about music uh this strong musical background helped me build important and necessary skills such as pattern recognition that would help me excel in my other subjects uh as a result when I got to middle school I was able to take high school math courses such as algebra and geometry which um I strong strongly believe are solely because of my musical background nowadays um music is part of my daily life and I plan on going into marching band good evening I'm Isaac Singh and I'm also a student at Highland Lakes I'm glad to be here to tell you how how important and impactful music has been in my life from the time I could ask I've been asking for musical instruments uh for a Christmas in my birthday first I
017got a drum set then a guitar and then an electric guitar I love playing along with songs that I knew and was I doing it right probably not but I did feel like a rock star when I finally got to the age where I could try an instrument at school I knew I wanted to try the saxophone at the beginning of it I was upset that I couldn't play well my thumb felt like it was going to fall off and I did want to quit after learning notes and getting encouragement from our amazing band teacher Mr Rocky um I practiced my heart out and the following Christmas I asked for private lessons this year I was invited to play at all state on three types of saxophones the lesson I learned was uh when I
018work hard and I I will succeed another lesson music has taught me is we are better together when I was chosen to attend All State I practiced individually ually and in class but last Saturday was the first time 150 of us from all over the state played our individual Parts together and the sound was M mindblowing the sense of accomplishing this common goal together was something I've never experienced in the end music has been and will always be an important part in my life it brings me joy when I'm down and it connects me to others when we play I will never forget the importance of music or the people that have helped me along the way I appreciate your [Applause] time hello uh my name is Sophia marchner and I'm a senior at Mountain
019Ridge in the Band program thank you to the district for recognizing uh music and our schools so important to me during my last year of Middle School my mother would constantly pester me about joining a team she would put me in running clubs so I could have a head start in cross country and push me past my comfort zone to practice for theater every day she would ask what are you going to do after school next year I didn't see why I had to do anything my grades were fine as they were I thought I was perfectly in shape I was not and I had plenty of friends still she worried and worried what she didn't know was that she'd already given me a head start in extracurricular the summer before fifth grade she paid
020for two weeks of music rocks Camp I had a head start in flute playing that Head Start made band class more fun made me stick with it all throughout Middle School made me think I was The Best of the Best Of course that opinion changed when I got to high school when I got to high school and when I joined marching band I understood why my mom had been so desperate to get me involved she wasn't worried about my health or my grades or my friends she was worried about my dedication my leadership my skills and my experiences band was more than we both bargain for it's a constant drive to success one that leads to Opportunities After High School dedication during the busiest times if anyone had told my 13-year-old self that I'd be
021on my band's leadership team while having a part-time job and drafting my second novel just for fun I don't think I would have believed them as a freshman I attempted to convince one of my eighth grade friends to join marching band she played French horn I don't want to learn mellophone she would say I don't want to play my instrument after school so why should I stick with band why should you stick with band because I not majoring or minoring in any sort of Music performance next year and choosing band as an elective was the best decision I ever made because you'll meet the strongest most dedicated students and instructors you may ever see because you'll be a leader in everything you do because even if it's only for four years your music will bring
022happiness to every corner of the world you touch with it thank you all right hi there I'm Claire Bowden and I'm a junior at Boulder Creek High School um now I've always grown up with music in my life I've done it with my family and my mom and everyone but it wasn't until I got into high school that I really understood that passion that it brought to me and through music I was able to become a more confident person I developed more social skills I became just a better person in general and I think a lot of people also have that similar experience because I've seen them grow and being a leader through choir I've been able to see them be confident with themselves as well and i' been able to make a lot of
023good friends through it sorry about that um and it's made me feel a lot more comfortable as a person and I really appreciate being able to have that opportunity to have choir and music and band and all the things that I do in my life so thank you very much hello my name is Samuel van eyes I am a senior at Boulder Creek High School and I am honored to be representing Boulder Creek's High School's choir program this evening choir allows an opportunity to expand my horizons and involve myself in experiences that would not be present otherwise since I since I joined choir not only have I grown as a musician but also as a person choir provides unique opportunities for students to become leaders among peers which you do not find in a normal
024classroom setting for example I was provided the opportunity by Mr Kirk Douglas to direct and instruct bcece our Varsity women's concert choir in a song for our upcoming concert which will be fulfilled tomorrow and Thursday night which everybody should should go see it's really good this is by far the best and most unique opportunity I've ever had in school as a whole and this never would have happened in say an AP English class furthermore the relationships that you develop in choir in my own opinion are far better than relationships you will make elsewhere as an example I set my partner on my on our choir Council CLA Bowden who I now consider to be the sister that I never had and our relationship developed through a choir through the vulnerability that singing encourages on a
025daily basis students can become more connected with each other which is something that I feel is unique to the music education experience thank you so much for your [Applause] time thank you again uh president O'Brien and Bard Dr Finch as you can see music in our schools mon month means so so much more to these students and to our community than I could ever put into words and I think they did just a fine job putting it into words for us thank you so much I'd like to thank Mrs Backstrom and um all of the students and choir and band directors who um came out this evening to share with us your experiences we do so appreciate you spending um part of your Tuesday evening with us you said some really meaningful and wonderful things
026so thank you again for being here tonight and thank you and congratulations to our award winners um from uh Barry Goldwater High School as well as Boulder Mountain Ridge thank you um really appreciate and all the parents and community members who came out to support them so thank you everybody and I apologize and Mountain Shadow A+ School of Excellence I apologize awesome and we are going to take a short five minute break before we begin the reg the governing board thank you please let the record reflect that all board members are in attendance and join me please stand and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance followed by a Moment of Silence do I have a motion to adopt the agenda so move a second second um all those in favor please say I I
027I any opposed please say n hearing none the motion passes unanimously our um first item of action is a 3A um I would ask that that the governing board accept the administration's recommendation for the principal of Green Brier Elementary School um Mrs Ashley Kaine a second Mrs Moffett so this evening Ashley Kane is administration's recommendation for the principal of Greenbrier I believe we have the Greenbrier Community here [Applause] tonight so currently Ashley is the acting principal of the Academy of math and science in Glendale she has both Charter experience and public school experience she's looking forward to coming back to the public system but she so we understand has done an outstanding job um launching a K8 campus um for this Charter uh group and all that we have talked to all of um the
028other administrators that we have talked to that have worked with Ashley and the people that she works for absolutely adore her and think that we're quite lucky to get to recommend her this evening thank you so much Mrs Moffett board members all right with that all those in favor please say I I I any opposed please say nay hearing none the motion passes unanimously and with that um Mrs Ashley Kaine if you'd like to say a few words hello oh it works good um hi I'm Ashley um I just am so thankful to be able to join the Deer Valley Community and I have only heard wonderful great things about Green Brier and meeting some of you guys the other week was just so wonderful so I'm just so excited to work with you all
029continue the legacies and the Traditions that have been going on at the campus for quite some time um while also being able to build out new great starts and New Beginnings together so again thank you so much well your welcome to Deer Valley USD family we're excited to have have you and and thank you for the great turnout from Green Brier to to welcome her so awesome we will now um move on to item AB or 3B um oh okay 3B I would ask that the governing board approve the proclamation declaring March music in our school's month in the Deer Valley Unified School District second we have a motion and a second um to read read this first right okay the whereas for more than 30 years March has been officially designated oh wait was
030I supposed to go to Mrs okay all right apologize March has been officially designated by the National Association for music education as music in our schools month encouraging communities Across the Nation to focus on music education and whereas music education is part of a well-rounded education for every student as outlined in every student succeeds and whereas the purpose of this celebration is to raise awareness of the lasting positive impact of Music educ on the academic personal and professional growth of our students and where as music education shapes the way our students understand themselves and the world around them allowing for a deep engagement with learning and whereas music in our schools month reminds us that school is where all children should have access to music and whereas music educators students and communities throughout the Deer
031Valley Unified School District demonstrate the importance of quality music education programs to the lives of young people whereas the de Valley Unified School District joins our music students Educators and communities in celebrating the power of music education now therefore I anel bran governing board president of the ger Val Unified School District do hereby Proclaim on the 8th of March as music in our schools month and encourages our citizens to celebrate and acknowledge every day but especially in March that music education is an essential part of every students's well-rounded education Miss Mrs Backstrom do you have anything to add thank you so much all right board members all in favor please say I I I any opposed please say nay hearing none the motion passes unanimously congratulations I can't believe she's not singing and I would
032like to say that before we started the meeting we did have some um wonderful students from our district come and speak uh about their experience with music in um their schools and it was really um very powerful and inspirational so thank you for for bringing having them come and sharing their experiences with us Mrs Backstrom all right on to item 4A which is a district report from our national board certification um folks and we're going to start with Dr Tunis good evening good evening um president O'Brien Dr Finch members of the board I'm very happy to come before you tonight with my national board leadership team which consists of Alexis Luka from Mountain High School and Stephanie Eubank from Deer Valley High School who are going to present our annual report on our national board
033certification program I don't think your microphone is [Music] on we are super excited to be able to talk with you about everything national board and what's happening in the district oh okay uh I need to learn it from the music people how to use microphone so um but we're really excited because national board in dear Valley is growing by phenomenal numbers and we are starting to be a pretty big Force within the state which is incredibly exciting national board is a voluntary opportunity for all teachers and with that they go through a process where they are assessed with four different components that cover content knowledge differentiation instruction teaching practice learning environment and then being a reflective and effective practitioner but what's really exciting is that this is all absolutely in alignment with our dbsd mission
034and it is research-based and shows that having more nbct within our district really does a phenomenal amount for our students as well it's aligned with our dbd core values and we come back to these repeatedly to help reinforce all the amazing moments that our teachers are having and showing and highlighting all the accomplished teaching that's happening in District there's a lot of data that can be shared and I think the important thing to really recognize is that it is a very rigorous process it does take time but the effects throughout the entire process are inspirational I'm in my 26th year of teaching and even going through the process working with candidates now there's literally not a moment I don't walk away from any national board event where my buckets a little bit Fuller and I'm
035inspired by those around me and that's really pretty magical be able to say after so many years in teaching now we call ourselves a network our DB nbct Network and we've done a lot of things that we're really proud of we currently have five candidate support providers who work to support our current candidates um we have had during this school year 28 candidates attending our candidate support meetings we also attend K12 events to support we've hosted Zoom informational meetings we try and get out the word as much as possible we have a national board pre-candidacy class that is free to teachers we have 10 teachers and counselors currently involved and that just started last week we are on Twitter if you'd like to follow us um but we try and provide as much information as
036possible we had our first workshop last weekend at Mountain Ridge High School and it was phenomenal we had candidates we'll share information later about that that were just thrilled to have that information one of the moments that we had this year thanks to Dr Finch and Dr chunis we had signs celebrating and supporting our candidates so uh signs were delivered uh to all the candidates and the teachers and it was pretty exciting not only to get this recognition from Dr Finch and Dr Tunis but even when Dr Finch came to my own classro my kids were like that's impressive that's what that balloon means and so it was really just a really great touch and something that I walk around our own campus seeing those signs and I think that's really exciting we also repurposed
037uh canvas now that we have all teachers well vered in how to use canvas we put all our resources there so that coaches are able to work with candidates as much as possible earlier in the year we celebrated our new um DBC ncts we had four and we also had one renewed nbct which is exciting and there's some pictures from getting those gold balloons those are pretty big deal for national board certified teachers we work real hard for those um and the next big event was our national board Workshop so the national board Workshop uh the national board Workshop was actually born from conversations with other candidates where they were really looking for some dedicated time right um they they know they have to get all these components done and they they just need to
038find the time so um the coaches got together and we thought well how can we help provide this time for them and we were already using up Saturday to um provide the pre-candidacy course and so we said well why don't we just tack that on and invite candidates to come and spend Saturday working through their components and between the workshop and the pre keny class we had almost 30 teachers at Mountain Ridge High School on Saturday which really is is a demonstration of their commitment to their students and their commitment to this process that they're willing to get up early on a Saturday drive over to Mountain Ridge and just sit and work and really like reflect on their progress reflect on their practice and think about their kids so at the end of that
039we asked the teachers that had participated in the workshop what what what was it really meaningful did it accomplish the goals that we had set out and 100% of our participants felt like the opportunity to just have time to work was completely valuable each of them got a little swag bag and inside that bag was a a folder full of resources to help guide their thinking as they went through the day and they all felt like those resources were also completely valuable um we got a lot of different kinds of feedback from them anything from it was great to just have time to it was awesome to be able to sit down and work with coaches they felt like the tech support that was provided was meaningful but they'd like to see some more of
040it and just having that uninterrupted time that they could just sit and work was very meaningful to all of our candidates in addition to the workshop on Saturday we had our first pre-candidacy class the pre-candidacy class allows um teachers to kind of take a look at the process of national board what does it mean to become become a nationally board certified teacher and what does it mean to declare your candidacy so it is broken down into eight modules and we did modules one and two on Saturday so we had 10 teachers that have joined our pre-candidacy class for 2022 and that's pretty exciting as well um here's where our our pre-candidacy kind of breaks down um because of a request by nor Tera Canyon to actually have a come to their February 4th staff meeting
041and present national board and what is it you know what's the process what do it look like um we've got four teachers from Nora Canyon alone out of out of just that one afternoon that we spent together so that's pretty exciting and then you can see that we've got several other schools represented um here's where we are right now so in 2017 2018 we set a a goal to have 32 national board certified candidates um in this district with 38 nationally board certified teachers um we we've been making great progress obviously we haven't quite hit our goal yet and we'll talk a little bit about how covid has impacted that but you can see that over the course of the last five years we've steadily increased our numbers and we continue to grow the program
042hi do we compare to our other districts um we're really excited that we're actually number six in the state for the number of candidates that's pretty exciting especially when you consider that five years ago we had eight so um amongst our neighbors you can see that only Paradise Valley has more candidates than Deer Valley um part of the reason why we're able to grow the program and able to get as many candidates as we do is because of the support from not only the school board and District leadership but also at the school level um one of the biggest kind of perks is that as long as teachers that are nationally board certified maintain that certificate they get an $1,800 annual stien and it's a way that teachers really have control of their own salary
043which is not there's not very many opportunities for frankly and but by going through this process they can they can earn that extra $1,800 stip in um Additionally the district helps support candidates through monthly cohort meetings and um we have partnered with several other Community Partners that help cover the costs of becoming certified now we have some region data to share we like to share this with the principles especially there seems to be some healthy competition um so we like to let them see their current candidates and their ncts and we know the this is a lot of these are a lot of numbers here we have the Goldwater region we have a cumulative slide here at the end Boulder Creek Dear Valley Mountain Ridge imp partial and O Conor and then District but the
044ex oh we don't have our cumulative slide in there one of the things that we've noted that's really exciting we added something um a little bit later is that we noticed that the more ncts on a campus the bigger that it helps to grow the program it really is exciting and getting the idea out there of what national board is and how much it means is something that we try to do as much as possible and that's really the most exciting aspect of it is that when we can share with other teachers how meaningful it is it isn't a dog and pony show it isn't just something that some hoops you jump through it truly is something that adds to your day it adds to your pedagogy and it's something that is very meaningful so
045I don't know if you've heard but there's this thing called covid-19 um it's it has obviously impacted our program as much as it's impacted everything else um it and it doesn't mean that we don't have accomplished teachers right it's just that accomplished teachers also get tired and with all of the the asks that have been made of teachers over the last couple of years um we've we've lost a few candidates in part because they're just tired um you know while they're they're actively working to fill gaps that are as a result of covid um they just didn't see this not that they don't see it as being valuable that but it's just that it was it's one more thing to do and they just don't have enough room on their plate um Co really kind
046of I I don't want to say it hit us hard but it definitely is a part of the reason why we haven't met those goals that we wanted to we didn't foresee a global pandemic and so when we set those goals uh we were Aiming High and I think without Co we definitely would have hit that right um I think that the big thing that's happened though even through covid is that it's given us some technology technological platforms to not only share what national board is but to make it more efficient um like Alexis had mentioned earlier we've really cleaned up our canvas course to help make it much more um palatable for teachers and to help you know increase our communication between the coaches and the candidates um and then also we're widely using
047Zoom because of covid and so we're able to meet um when when necessary on zoom and but keep the coaching going and keep the momentum building so even though Co has definitely set us back it's also in other ways given us a wider scope of of practice and reach what we have planned for the future of our Network here in Deer Valley um we want to continue providing as much support for candidates as we can and one of the things that we would like to implement is kind of this covert candidate support where candidates you know go check their mail and there's a handwritten note that just says you got this and there's something special about you know knowing that there's somebody who's got your back uh just to keep kid to keep kids to
048keep candidates in the process um we also want to keep providing more opportunities for current NBCS to get involved in mentoring uh we've got we you know we added four more nbct to our our Arsenal and we want to make sure that they they still feel connected and they still feel rooted in our Network we want to expand candidate support um nor Tera canyon really inspired us is there a way that we can get enough candidates at each School site that each individual School site would need to have candidate support and wouldn't that be an awesome problem to have to figure out so that's what our our kind of big vision is and then of course we want to keep having more Workshop days um we we actually have another one planned because of our
049success on Saturday we're going to plan another one in May right before submission and make sure that our candidates know that that we're here for them um none of this could be possible without the support of Our Community Partners of course Arizona K12 Center which is our national board kind of Hub they provide grants to to defay the cost of each component through a grant um out of the office of Governor Doug duy and then we also have a support from Discover card and the Deer Valley Education Foundation which helps us further pay for components uh you know if if a candidate doesn't get the score that they were hoping for they can retake that without having to worry about the cost of it because we'll cover one of those components and then of course
050there's the best way to motivate a teacher is by providing snacks and so our partnership with these organizations allow us to do that so thank you all for your support yes um thank you for listening to our annual report you can see that our ladies are doing a fantastic job growing our um national board program in our district we're very proud of um all of the participation from all of our schools and uh look forward to the next uh phase thank you so much ladies for being here and um sharing this information and I I am so excited to see that you have four teachers at n Tera I think that you're definitely on to something uh many many moons ago I believe statson Hills had five or six teachers go through it together and
051they I know were a great support to each other so I I hope other schools will follow suit and work on building those cohorts to go together any other comments or questions Mrs Reed um I remember my first year on the board we got invited to go to um one of your workshops and I was so blown Away by by the work that you were doing and by the collaboration and the questions that the teachers were answering um and seeing how far you've come in those four years and I know that that Co threw a wrench in there and I know that our teachers are tired and it's you know that was an easy thing to bounce right off of the plate um but thank you so much for investing um your time and your
052talents to coach up the next generation of teachers I know that there's a lot of a lot of energy that that you put forth and and the rest of our nbct teachers do too so I'm I'm just so proud of you for what you've you've built over the last four years and sign me up to write to write Anonymous cards and to give them to you so you can mail them out to teachers I will definitely do that so I think that's fabulous so congratulations Mrs paperman I have a question is there like a number is there a cap like a number of teachers a years uh that can be part of the program uh for for the numbers of teachers to grow more in their Valley or is it more funding uh to PVE
053to support more of the program so teachers can join we have the ability to um put forth as many teachers as we can luckily the Grant and the money from Governor Ducey has been continued through several years now so as of right now um teachers do not have to pay essentially anything except for the $75 registration fee during the time they're actively working on their candidacy which is between one and three years thank you for everything that you do thank you thank you all right thank you very much oh Mrs orway no I just wanted to say thank you thank you thank you and um Co might have derailed things but I I I think also that it's shown us some priorities and the fact that you have candidates that are are working that means
054they were able to uh clear the co cloud in their time and and jump back on that so great job and thank you all right thank you ladies and with that we will move on to our finance reports Mrs mock good evening president O'Brien members of the board and guests I always find it difficult to follow this group because I know these teachers have such a passion for nbct and I always enjoy listening to them so we will try to have as much energy as we are talking about first our enrollment Port report for the month ending uh February of 2022 thank you I appreciate that Dr zerbach um the report that we have for you this evening for enrollment uh as of February 23rd we had 32,670 students for an increase from the same
055time last year of 1.6% we are still tracking the change from our last uh quote unquote normal year and uh still do have a decrease uh from the LA this time in 2018 2019 of 3.5% where we had a high of 33,8 73 students but we look forward to that in uh continued increase at 1.6% this year and with that I'll take any questions on the enrollment report I don't hear any Mrs mock your next report all right for our next report we will review the uh February 22 M budget report it is incredibly similar to the report uh we presented in January at this point we are projecting about $7 million in carry forward mostly uh unfortunately from uh attrition savings from having um a significant number of vacant positions for certified and classified
056um just a little bit of savings as well from our maintenance copier agreements and our utilities to add to the uh vacancy SA savings we did add last month the additional budget that budget capacity we added with our September budget revision and the additional carry forward that we had as reported by ad um in um uh early February uh early last month and so that adds an additional $4.7 million to our projected carry forward uh in addition we did put back into the M Port 7.5 million ion dollar that we had originally what I like to call below the line in our uh budget book from last year and those were monies that we held uh without allocating to um salaries or other expenses due to the unknowns that might happen this year thanks to
057our um front ofy covid and so adding that $7.5 million back time we are projecting about $9.3 million in carry forward and with that I will take any questions I'm not seeing any uh and we will move on to our student reports that we've not spent a lot of time on in the past um probably none except for the last meeting so I want to thank Mrs fiser for bringing those to the Forefront so that our um parents and staff uh know what these reports are in the board book uh just in case they've ever perused it and saw it and weren't sure the first one we're going to look at is our student uh activity funds those are our uh Club monies and these are monies raised by students for students students get to
058determine how they are spent and so this report will give you a current balance by school for the Student Activity funds the second report we have are the auxiliary funds these are bookstore operation funds athletic um ticket sale funds any ticket sales for dance or band concerts anything sold on school things of that nature um even including uh book fairs that's why you may see some funds at k6 schools uh it would be Book Fairs and other such Revenue shares as well and so you will see a report by school for the auxiliary funds and I will take any questions on any of the Student Activities or the auxiliary fund reports Mrs Fischer I can't see him because I can't get into board dos but um I just I want to thank you for for
059talking about these funds because one of the biggest things I get hit with from very uninformed people at political things is look at all this money that they are holding they're sitting on and they just don't care and don't and I tell them this is a this is a pass through it's a fiduciary fund it's not our money we can't spend it and I'm I'm repeatedly told no way you're not letting kids make decisions yes kids vote on this money they have to it's written in statute so thank you for for for touching on it um because hopefully Somebody's Watching who um just thinks that we're holding money somewhere and we're not at least not in this case thank you Mrs Fischer and I would add to that um these funds in general um have
060to be spent for the purpose for which they were collected and so uh they are limited to how we collected them um what the students raised them for and uh are very specified so um you know there's very little opportunity for the district to use these for anything other than the designated purpose for which elected so thank you I appreciate that Mrs mock do you mind giving an example that's more specific where that so somebody in the community might better understand what that would mean for so um one of the auxiliary funds is our parking fund that is uh incredi it is specifically limited by Statute that those funds may only be spent in the parking lot it can be used for security curbing repaving the parking lot signs in the parking lot Security in
061the parking lot and um athletic uh ticket sale monies typically go right back into our athletic programs uh book fair funds typically go right back into the library at the school um uh it even includes your $5 doll for your ID replacement which literally goes back to the cost of replacing the ID excellent thank you so much all right so we will now go to um safe and healthy school report Dr zerbach oh boy okay uh good evening yes good evening president Brian members of the board Dr Finch uh I am uh pleased to be here this evening to present to you the safe and healthy schools report our agenda is well known by this time I will start off by showing the most recent covid-19 metrics we will then proceed to updates to the
062quarter for safety plan and then our last slide reminds folks who are watching about the covid-19 testing opportunities that the district will uh help provide to the community and then uh finishing with a Q&A portion so for the first slide with the case count you can see here that the trend continues to go in a downward trajectory which is very good for um all of us and uh perhaps most exciting you can see now that we are out of the high threshold in this particular category so thank you very much yes that is um definitely a reason to stand dance and do anything else there um with that so and we do uh see this number again as we have reported for a few meetings now that it will likely continue to decline for our
063case count all ages again you can see this and as I've said many times before our own District number uh correlated very much and will reflect what is uh happening for the overall County and so you can see the curve continuing to decline here which again is reflected in this next slide which captures students that are between the ages of six and 18 and so those students are the uh predominant ages of our students in our Deer Valley Public Schools and our covid-19 dashboard which is at the very friendly user uh URL userfriendly dvusd.org dashboard uh that um has been updated on a weekly basis and we will likely move to an every other week basis um starting in quarter 4 as our numbers um continue to be quite low and you can see that
064in this particular slide so the main piece for this evening is the quarter for safety plan updates and I will review those uh changes um here so the first one with respect to contact tracing as you are aware we have gone through a phased uh process if you will in terms of moving down from the grade levels where we do not contact trace and where we follow the emergency measure which requires us to notify ify the community both students and parents in the event of an outbreak and so that has moved from the high school to the middle school down to fourth grade and so we will continue that phased approach and in quarter four that will move to all of our grade levels so again we will continue to notify our staff um and
065our parent community in the event of an outbreak and the definition of an outbreak has adapted as well and is now three cases um whereas before it was two cases with respect to visitors and volunteers uh I do know that this one is um something that many of our community they have been waiting for as well as many of our teachers and so whereas in the past our visitors and volunteers have mainly been limited to after school uh types of activities in quarter 4 we will be moving those to during the day as well and so uh again we know that our uh community and many many of our teachers are very excited about that as far as face mask and congregate settings again as you know Mrs Moffet and I did communicate uh via
066a memo to all of our dvusd staff back in early January that face masks needed to be worn when folks were in large congregate settings so perhaps a staff meeting or a staff professional development set and that was for continuity of Staffing in our schools to make sure that we could keep our classrooms open for our students that particular measure was lifted on March the 1st and all of our staff were notified of that our fourth bullet point talks about face mask and transportation again as you are aware the CDC had a mass transit face Mass order that was in place for us for quite a long time that particular order was lifted on Friday February the 25th and we communicated to our staff and our families on Monday uh the 28th and it went
067into effect in the evening of that that day where it was a face Mass optional um piece for transportation and then the last item is our health office prevention measures that is one place where we will still see a continuation of our uh mitigation strategies and so whether it be curtains or other types of mitigation uh equipment or materials we will still uh be using those in the health offices with our nurses and then for our covid-19 testing opportunities um again we have been offering covid-19 uh testing not only at our district office but at several of our campus sites throughout the past months uh we then moved as cases declined to only offering those at our district site whereas we had three days a week we are now moving to two days a week
068throughout the month of March we will not be having testing during the week of spring break uh but the testing will resume once we come back from Spring Break and although not listed here um please note that our home testing kits are still available at our schools and we will continue to uh provide those as long as there is Supply and that concludes the safe and healthy report and I'd be happy to answer questions board members all right oh Mrs orway I apologize um maybe jump in the gun a little bit but what news or when we will the um parents receive the news for excuse me promotion graduation and those kind of events how that uh how that's going to happen uh president O'Brien Miss orway um in terms of the parameters for those
069and how open those will be uh that communication will come very soon we did meet with uh specifically with respect to graduation uh we did meet with the State Farm Representatives last week to receive their final word if you will as far as what they were going to do and so that is 99.9% in place and we will be communicating out if some of the schools have not already uh but what I can tell you is it is a very open environment Miss Ordway for um the graduation there will be no uh ticket requirement as there has uh been uh in the past year and talked about the year before that uh and so as many members that want to come will be able to come there is no face mask uh mandate at the
070ceremony I would say those are probably the two ones that are asked of me the most from our community members and then as for our promotion those two will be um reflect really what they look like before uh Co and so in terms of specific information the timing for promotion uh I can put that in a Friday update for you um and see exactly when the schools are communicating that out but we are having those discussions in fact I had a discussion uh with our uh K8 and our 7A principles last week at our level meetings about that awesome because that's uh the bulk of the phone calls and text messages now yep thank you so much again Dr zerbach for your report thank you we have no call to the public this evening so
071with that we'll be moving to Old business 6A um I would ask that the governing board approve the governing excuse me the governing board would approve the governing board meeting dates for regular scheduled meetings for the 2022 2023 um year I second so I have a motion and a second for the 2223 governing board meeting are there any questions or discussion hearing none all those in favor please um say I I I I any opposed please say nay you abstained Mrs Fischer so we have a 40 vote 4 41 apologize um the next next item on the agenda is 6B I would ask that the the governing board accept the administration's recommendation to approve the fiscal year 23 employee benefit recommendation I second we have a motion and a second Mr mcino uh president O'Brien
072members of the board Dr Finch uh we did uh preview this at uh our previous meeting um but there have been a couple minor changes there are improvements to the benefit uh package so um I wanted to share those with uh with the board before your formal consideration of this um as we mentioned before here are the benefit uh committee members wanted to thank them again for their time um many of them have been on the committee or or the work team actually for uh for some time um and they are getting very well-versed in terminology that most people don't know about um we did have two meetings uh because there weren't a lot of changes we were able to conclude our work in fewer meetings uh this uh this particular year this is the
073actual recommendation uh that we pre previewed in February 20 on February 22nd with uh two exceptions on this page um the first is United Healthcare has decided to provide our employees a 90-day prescription um uh previous or currently um it's a 30-day prescription which requires our employees to go to the pharmacy uh once a month um for maintenance medications that's a little bit problematic there is an option currently for employees to do mail prescript or mail in prescriptions um that's not a gender that's a uh delivery method um and uh um uh this would allow them to be able to pick up a couple extra months of for those maintenance prescriptions um it doesn't um there's no cost Advantage for doing it at the retail uh Pharmacy there is uh for the mailin uh option
074uh so instead of three times the monthly co-pay it's two and a half times the monthly co-pay for the um for the uh mailin option so uh that's one option that we wanted to take advantage of it's something that actually came up during our two meetings um with the benefit committee uh we also wanted to take advantage of a preventative annual skin cancer screening um that United Healthcare is willing to uh cover uh when it's provided by an in network provider we will get more detail of of uh that information as we get closer to open enrollment and then finally there was one additional change on the Delta Dental Plan um on this page they are willing to uh cover uh composite fillings uh currently uh the metallic fillings are what are the um uh
075what are are considered cover CED uh on the Delta Dental Plan now this allows uh our employees to get composite fillings um that are more closely uh related to the color of natural uh teeth color so uh we wanted to take advantage of all those options as well all three of those changes would become effective July 1st again pending the board's decision regarding this um and just as a reminder uh the plan is to uh take the addition cost about $422,000 out of the reserves that we have um on uh uh in trust at the Valley Schools employee benefit group um on deposit with the Valley Schools employee benefit group so I'd be happy to answer any questions regarding this board members I'm sorry did you say something Mrs fiser Mrs fiser so sorry I
076can't seem to get into anything Dear Valley but so I'm I don't have numbers um our trusts are extremely thick for lack of a better word we are EXT we have a lot of money in our trusts and I do appreciate that [Music] um the benefits the additional costs our experiences um were first let me say thank you for providing all that information the data that you did provide um if I could get it I would reference it but um our trusts are very um well funded I guess that would be maybe a better way to say it um and our experiences are high so I understand increase is there or why that increase would be and it's it's wonderful that um we are using the additional funds from one of the trusts from from
077that trust specifically speically to to reduce that cost but when I look at the cost of the benefits for our employees comparative to say the State of Arizona or other um like uh programs um we we are not doing a good job for our employees um and I know that's not the intent um but our our benefits are not robust as they should be for the cost um and and I I just I found it very concerning as I looked through it I I know the experiences were high you expected in the Cobra um and some of the other plans but um I there we've had the same committee for the longest time we don't have a trust board everybody here did not want to have a trust board um but uh I would ask
078that next year we change up the committee we're we're stagnant um those benefits and I know that and employees know that they that the district could elect to not have a trust that we could actually go on a fully insured plan we could actually be on the state's plan um and there are so many options but I I was just very disappointed when I look through at how expensive our benefits are um when they weren't robust and we have a lot of employees that do not make a lot of money um and and it's another tool for retention how can we how can we retain an employee when we're paying them 12 to $15 an hour and our benefits are as expensive as they are and I know we cover theirs but but they have
079children they have families um we do not only employ single individuals um so that's my piece what what what um I do appreciate the committee doing the job that that they do be going through benefits can be fun but it can also be very boring um but I just for next year I just really hope we do better thanks anybody else Mrs Ordway Mr mcino when um the process for this committee uh what what do what do you uh look at um in informational wise to make sure that we're having um robust um benefits for our employees and and with uh the employees that are on the committee how are the how are they chosen uh president O'Brien Miss Ordway uh so the uh I'll take the second question first um the uh uh composition
080of this work team is established in the um class are in the employee manual so in the classified and certified manuals uh so a change would require us to um if we do want to consider a change for next year when we bring the manuals back for the board's consideration that would be the time that we would have to consider that change um because it is memorialized in the uh employee manuals um and actually didn't know where it was I just wanted you to explain um what what it is so we don't have to yeah so the and the membership here there's uh three members and uh we allow for an alternate in case somebody can't attend the meetings um three members from each of the employee groups so as you can see from from
081here um we have uh several staff members that help us from the payroll and benefit committee and we have uh our Deer Valley building leadership team represented the our uh classified group as well as our certified group um are all represented and again that is memorialized in the in the employee manuals oh sorry to that point though does do those groups or employee groups pick who attends or I'm sorry who is on the committee or does the district pick uh president O'Brien uh so that is prescribed in the manual and each group gets to select their representation uh so to that end the building leadership team gets to select the three people that will and so they have their own individual processes for determining their their participation um to further that if you have this
082information right now what has been the um turnover or new members um in the last three years um president O'Brien Miss wway I don't have the exact statistics I think there's been uh there there have been several new members because we have to do some uh education but I would say it's more the exception as opposed to the norm um and I think part of the reason is we get um and this maybe goes to the uh the first question is you know how what information do we look at there's a lot of detailed information and a lot of um that it so it takes a little bit of getting up to speed uh to be able to understand some of the uh some of the information that we analyze as a group to be
083able to make some of the recommendations that we kind of distill into what looks like just a couple words on a page uh when we finally bring it to uh to the board for consideration but there's a lot of thought that goes into uh what those uh benefit offerings will include and the structure of each of those benefits as well and do you look for comparison um organizations to to make sure that we are getting the best for the money for the employees uh president O'Brien uh Miss Hardway we do look at some comparative da data so United Healthcare provides um you know previous uh reporting for our own uh as well as their book of business and more specifically the Arizona um uh book of business so they look at National numbers as well
084as State of Arizona numbers uh we also because we're a member of the Valley Schools organization we also can compare what other um Valley School members are doing with their benefits um so there is some comparative uh information that that's looked at some of it to be quite honest with you is not taken into consideration even though it might be looked at uh for example dental coverage is not something that is commonly covered by uh employers uh but we choose uh Deer Valley specifically chooses to cover employees dental coverage uh as an employer paid benefit so we do look at that information but sometimes it it's not it doesn't determine whether we provide a benefit or not because we choose to do it for whatever other reasons we do uh you know with the membership
085of the of this work team I just U wanted to make sure it's a um in depth uh looking at and making sure because it would be um it would be a terrible thing if we did not have um close to if not the best um benefits for our employees and if there was a better place um to get them then I'm I'm hoping that we would be looking uh so that is something that we talk a great deal about uh one of the reasons a year ago we put in four tiers um meaning that uh um previously we only had the option for family coverage so somebody that only had one dependent had to pay for family coverage um which isn't an appropriate cost for that so we uh included the two additional tiers
086so you can pick up just one dependent or you can pick up just ch uh children for um for somebody that uh doesn't have any other dependence other than children that they want to cover um those two have been able to provide more cost effective options for our employees and we've seen increased participation in dependent coverage for implementing those two plans a year ago all right thank you okay can I um ask a question for Mr R of course you could a great opportunity Mr R to talk about um the differences between being self-insured and joining the state for example what are the advantages and disadvantages I've been education 30 plus years approaching 40 mark and only big systems like us can have this opportunity this is the first time in my history as a
087superintendent that I ever been in in a group where we had this uh cost benefit to the district and the employee could you talk a little bit about that uh certainly so the um we we are self-insured uh as opposed to being fully insured with a provider um that does uh come with us assuming some risk associated and and hence the reason for having reserves in place uh to be able to cover uh so we pay for every claim dollar um that comes in uh out of uh the structure that's built from Valley Schools so for us to really save the cost of claims we would have to change the benefit structure or we would have to get a better contract with the providers that are providing the service um the benefit of being um
088um part of Valley Schools is they're negotiating on our behalf with all other Valley Schools members to be able to get the contracts with the providers at the best possible price uh so as a as opposed to how would be different and fully insured they try and predict what the actual um costs are going to be they add in some profit and overhead and that's what they charge you and then the insurance company takes the risk uh so they um certainly want to guess High when they set the fully insured price uh in hopes that they will be able to not only make their profit but anything else that would be saved in terms of not having uh cost greater than what they produced predicted and the benefit of the one of the benefits of
089the self-insured model is anything that is not spent on claims we get to retain in our account at Valley Schools so um when you look at the balance that's in uh in our account at Valley Schools that's after um years uh since we've been a member since 2005 of of accumulation and all of that accumulation we then invest and be able to use the the Investments uh which if I remember correctly I think it was about $965,000 last year was our investment income based on the balance that we have so we use those investment incomes the investment income to bail to defer some costs that we would have to make in additional contributions into Valley school so um we then protect the district by buying reinsurance or what we call stop loss coverage uh and
090right now that currently is set at $400,000 so for every uh claim that we reive that's over $400,000 we have a reinsurance plan so that we because again we're paying for every claim dollar that comes in so we could have 10 half a million dollars well we typically have a 20 to 30 claims um that pierce what we call the high cost claim threshold that's not 20 claims over 400,000 it's 20 to 30 claims over $150,000 and we track those uh to be able to um know what our risk is going to be and if we need to adjust our stoploss ratio okay thank you very much Mrs Fischer um just to be clear I'm not suggesting we leave being self-insured what I'm saying is we have better options um I did get up at
091least the June financial statement for specifically the employee benefits uh group um we are our ending net position from our beginning net position [Music] um is is increased by 4 million um if you look at the January we're at 33 million um now I understand the ibnr that we are not yet January is really deceptive to look at because we will still have six months of claim real to realize um but I I I do want um to be clear that my goal is to ensure that we are truly doing what is best for our employees who do not make a lot of money um now there are some that do but I'm I'm my concern is our our our lowcost Pairs and no matter how many ways we try and ask questions to make
092it look like a Rosy picture um uh self-insured trusts are the best thing to do they absolutely are but um we need to make sure that we're taking advant AG of everything we can to reduce the overall cost for our employees um this isn't a dog and pony show it's a fact thank you Mr magarino if I may um we did have a good year last year uh we ran our loss ratio was 79% so for every dollar in contribution we only paid claims out in 7079 cents um uh this year it's a different story we've had two months well over 100% 117 and 107% I think we're running at right at 100% so every dollar in is going out right now um the beauty of being self-insured that net position increase um most of
093that was due to the um loss ratio much of which was I think contributed to the pandemic um but uh it also was impacted by the investment earnings um so again we get to retain those funds which is to our benefit um but I think to miss Fischer's point is she wants to make sure that the benefits are rich um and we do have a board policy um BCB that we look at annually to to make sure that our salary and benefit combined that that percentage of our M uh continues to be above the average um when we do that analysis each year uh we do find that our salaries are uh at a lower percentage than the comparable districts our benefit costs are at a higher percentage than our um U comparable districts and
094again that's because of choices that are made by the group that's making this recommendation uh tonight uh to be able to continue the benefits that are currently offered to our employees it does seem that um in the years that I've been on the board this has come up a couple of times where folks talk about wanting to have an increase in salary and we look at different the salary expenses versus benefit expens as we do comparisons with our um districts that are nearby and and whenever we have the discussion about potentially reducing uh the amount we spend on benefits so that we could potentially increase salary that has never seems to be an option that any of the employee groups choose to select um I hear Mrs Fischer um I I think wanting to ensure
095that we are providing the best options and employee benefits so it seems though Mr mcino that through Valley Schools do we not are we not looking at more than one option or can you help me understand how it is that this group decides which benefits that they put forth uh president O'Brien I I think and Miss fiser can correct me I think what she was referring to because the only cost that the employee have would be be able to pick up the dependent cost because we're paying for the employee cost so um it's just that there's uh I want to get into the um medical field because with a straight face they look at you and say hey medical inflation is 11% and I just love to be able to um I know Miss mock
096would love if we just started out and said hey next year we're just going to add 11% to every number we add and that's how we're going to start but that's that's what happens um uh is uh they start with a a big number that's just assumed that that's going to be the case um and you know we have industry experts that that help us with that we have Actuarial um folks that uh do all of these calculations um and what ends up happening is we're just trying to uh offset these medical inflation increases and Pharmacy increases and so that's why the committee looks at this and says from a relative standpoint hey if we could just not have it increase won't erode any salary um benefits that we might also look forward to enjoying
097uh next year but relative to is it expensive to cover even the dependence and the other the two additional tiers that we added to the plan it it is an expensive Venture uh the only thing that um that we can say is it's probably as expensive if they were to try and pick up that coverage anywhere else because it's not they're not coming to us and saying medical inflation is only 11% for Deer Valley that's industrywide um what what they look at and so we're just trying to make sure that we can try and offset what is customary in this industry in terms of uh annual increases so that it is as at least as affordable as possible uh we do offer all of these uh uh U options for our employees under a cfer
098125 IRS plan which means that they can take those deductions pre-tax from their pay which does help uh in some in some regard guards but uh for a classified staff that needs their family to be covered it is an expensive Venture I I would agree with Miss Fischer okay one of the I'll just add two seconds one of the foundational principles of being self-insured that is a a benefit to our system is ownership once um the staff figure out that we are in this all to together keeping our costs down that um has them more reflective about wellness and so that's something that we have been promoting for the last five years and every year we continue to expand that and that is uh one of the one of the key benefits of having it
099inhouse in your own system versus just accepting what um the insurance companies give you so that is a very foundational critical principle of being self-insured thank you both for all the information um with that I will call for the vote all those in favor please say I I I any opposed please say nay we have a unanimous vote 50 we will go to item 6C all right I would ask that the uh governing board accept the recommendation to approve the government purchasing Alliance 1 GPA lead District designation for Deer Valley Unified School District Mrs mock president O'Brien members of the board and guests we have no additional information to provide um other than what we presented at the last governing board meeting but I'm happy to answer any questions or make any clarifications time thank
100you did I get I think I forgot to ask for a second sorry second okay oh we did get it okay I apologize any questions Mrs Fischer if we do this how easy is it to get out just just a quick you know we're done not doing it we do have um I will pull that up cancellation at any time in conjunction with um AR 38- 511 um which is cancellation of political subdivision and state contracts definition so yes we can if we decide uh not to be partners and a or we're already a member this would just um move us to being a lead district for 1 GPA which means that we would be able to complete solicitations in conjunction with uh 1 GPA making our solicitations available to other government entities in Arizona
101um in addition to the cancellation Clause the governing board does still have to approve every solicitation that we do in conjunction with one GPA and so um you would be the final uh authorization for each of those uh solicitations that come through as well my concern is just if in the future someone says you know we don't want to be doing this anymore we want to do it differently is there any penalty like if we pulled out of the benefits you're out for for for four years or yeah four years there are no no penalties correct thank you all right with that I will call for the vote all those in favor say I I I any please say n hearing none then motion passes unanimously okay consent agenda all right I would ask that
102the governing board approve consent agenda items 7 a through n i second all those in favor please say I I any opposed mine didn't come up Mrs Taylor okay the motion passes 41 please go to um action item 8A all right I would ask that the governing board approve all employee out of state travel per governing board policy GCC I second uh any questions all those in favors please say I I I I any opposed any [Music] extensions yes motion passes unanimously we ready I would ask that the governing board accept the administration's recommendation to approve ADM group as the architecture architect excuse me for portable relocation project I second Mr mcino uh president O'Brien members of the board Dr Finch um this is a uh effort that we would like to embark on this
103summer uh to be able to relocate uh we have three modular classrooms uh that are currently um housed and being used at Gavin Peak school um that we would like to redeploy to uh teramar uh Academy of the Arts um two of the buildings uh to that location one building to uh Sierra verie um part of the reason for um for considering this um move of these particular uh classrooms is uh due to the attendance boundaries that the board approved uh for inspiration Mountain we are anticipating that we will need to add at least two classrooms if not four classrooms to uh the teramar school uh for next year year and speaking with the principal M Shon uh wiser uh she um indicated that four classrooms would be better suited for how she would want
104to deploy her Staffing for next year we previously had uh a duplex portable on the teramar campus several years ago um and uh uh it's a little bit easier for them to facilitate having four classrooms in one particular area as opposed to just having two um as we were moving uh at least those two we previously moved two classrooms uh to the Sierra verie campus um many years ago and we included a provision to add another uh duplex building uh as the need would arise uh this campus continues to um you know meter the number of students on their campus through open enrollment because of of space availability uh we've gotten a number of um open enrollment requests uh for a fur this campus uh of of late so we figured if we were moving
105the two buildings to teramar to address the the growth there we might as well move the other building to Sierra birie which was planned some time ago um that'll give us uh the entire area of the Gavin Peak campus to be able to clean that area up so there will be um more area for them to to have without having the Modular Buildings be in the way and it repurposes those building for where we think we have U the need to deploy them this particular item before you this evening is to name the architect uh we do need to uh get them involved early because we still have to go through all of the permitting process to be able to consider uh these moves uh we have not received that information this again pending uh
106the decision this evening um we do need to act quickly to be able to schedule this this summer um and would be anticipating bringing the actual contractor to move the buildings uh back at the March 22nd uh meeting the very next board meeting that we have scheduled uh so that we can coordinate this work over the summer uh because the contractor and the architect will need to work uh collectively to be able to provide the information for the permitting process again we have not uh secured the permits at this point in time uh and still need to work out those issues with the two different municipalities we have the the city of Glendale and the City of Poria two different jurisdictions and I'd be happy to answer any questions that the board might have uh
107Mr Fischer the the total amount for that we're approving tonight is that the 474 plus 36 or is the 36,000 included in the 474 uh president O'Brian the The Proposal total is 36767 I don't know oh I'm sorry based on a construction estimate I thinkk you so that tonight's approval is for $ 36,7 61 th that is correct uh and then we just tried to provide what we think the construction cost might be um but that would be brought back at a uh at the future meeting that I referenced okay thank you all those in favor please say I I I I any opposed any exensions okay the uh motion passes unanimously we have a preview item the three-year plan for results based funding and for that we have Dr Tunis um president O'Brien members
108of the board I think we're going to tag team this so I maybe I'll run the slides and I'll uh I can read the slides and any questions will can be answered by Dr Tunis or Miss mock well I welcome the duo of Mr mcino and oh Trio sorry Mr mcino Mrs Mock and Dr Tunis welcome all of you to this uh presentation so do you want to start good evening president O'Brien members of the board and guests I get to start because um the topic that I am most familiar with is uh first up on our agenda this evening so first we're going to talk about Arizona revised Statute 15 -49.08997 results based funding uh that will lead us right into our qualifying and non-qualifying schools and what the statute means for those schools
109for the current school year and coming school years and then finally once we uh establish That Base uh of knowledge for you we will talk about our three-year plan proposal so there have been some changes over time um not only to how we can spend the funds but how schools qualify uh results based funding is for public and public charter schools and they qualify based on an average passing rate on the Arizona State assessment uh relative to the best schools in the state and uh for the current year uh it is the top 133% of overall um schools and their performance on the state uh assessment and those top 133% of public and Charter Schools combined would receive $225 per student now if you have a a greater free and reduced uh uh percentage on
110your campus you do receive a greater amount per student and that would be $400 per student and then those schools that re uh schools or public schools or charter schools in the top 27% and 60% free and reduced loans also receive 20 $225 per student it's important to note that those percentages change based on the overall pot of funds that are available for results based funding and so the $225 and the $400 per student remain steady and so uh using those as a a divisor basically uh helps us determine whether it's the top 133% 16% uh so we will see that 13 or 27% change potentially on an annual basis with that we'll talk about uh how we can spend that $225 or $400 per student we really the these are where most we've seen
111most of the changes um and these items here are uh the top subsection D the main paragraph is has remained fairly constant where the majority of the monies so at least 50.1% of the funds coming in have to be spent at qualifying schools um and it can be used for salaries to hire teachers School leaders classroom supplies or uh typically what we tend to use the funds for are trying to sustain the outcomes for the students from that specific school um a portion of the a portion of the funds can also be used to expand the program to other schools in the district uh to expand or replicate um if we look at um sorry I haven't read the exact Statute in a while um if we look look at items one two 3 and
112four item one is what tells us that the majority has to be spent on the schools that qualify and I believe for the past two fiscal years Deer Valley has had 12 schools qualify uh prior to that um there was a different funding formula and it was based on growth and if that were still the formula we definitely I think we had about 20 schools that year that qualified versus 12 um when they reduced it to the top percentage in the current funding formula we definitely lost qualifying schools which is what limits us when we get into items two three and four um Jim can we go back up one more please thanks no that's okay um uh item two if we look at providing uh costs associated with adding seats this item is specifically
113only for qualifying schools for those 12 schools that have qualified for the past two years we could use these funds to add seating capacity at those schools um I items uh three we can mentor School leaders and teachers from other sites to replicate the results and help those other schools reduce the achievement Gap and we can physically expand results based funding models so we can take the funds whatever whether it was plcs whatever model of the qualifying schools we used we can use the funds to replicate that model here is the fun part um with a lot of uh emphasis on um not fun um sub subsection e of the statute schools that are not results-based funded uh when we're trying to replicate the results at those schools we can only spend the funds at
114those schools for three years so we are down to only a couple handfuls of schools in the coming years and we'll see that on future slides as well where we can continue to spend results based funding um this is is a a statute that is more friendly to um other types of public schools um certainly not public school districts where we find it very difficult to uh equit equitably distribute the funds in order to recreate the results at schools that have not qualified um the limitations as we said the funds can only be spent for those specific purposes that we just noted in the former slides greater than 50% have to go to the qualifying schools so that leaves uh just under 50% for non-qualifying schools and of that under 50% they can only be
115funded for three years and after that they no longer qualify next slide and I think uh I'm going to take a stab at the history but um I think this is where I might have to lean on Dr Tunis a little bit but uh um so uh we actually we started receiving results based funding uh starting with the 2017 2018 year uh but we didn't actually get the board to approve the first three-year plan until the fiscal year 20 so we had some accumulation of results based funding as we were trying to figure out all the nuances of the rules around uh um school-based funding and I will tell you that was not uncommon in fact it's still not uncommon uh due to um all of the statutory requirements for to spend this money uh
116as Miss Mack alluded to it's a lot more complicated for um school districts uh as opposed to those that might be uh individually um chartered as as public schools but nonetheless uh it took us a little while to figure out the plan we've had the plan in place this is the final year this year fiscal year 22 is final year of the of the approved plan that the board has uh approved about three and a half years ago uh we are currently uh that because that includes this year uh doing this to expand our PLC uh efforts uh we're doing a lot of professional development uh we have some uh tier three ntsss Staffing uh at the five high schools included in the current uh three-year plan uh we have uh the employee retention payment
117and you may just uh you may recall from just a couple meetings ago we did the final um uh board appr approval for the retention payment at that time we we said this we thought we thought this might be the final retention payment from that uh in addition to that we also have uh one day in the certified uh contract is also funded in the current plan uh that that includes this plan here uh so as Miss mock mentioned uh the qualifying schools the ineligible schools are the next um hurdle that we have due to uh the fact that schools can only receive uh results based funding uh distributions uh if or for three years um and so we have uh this list of schools uh that still continue to qualify uh because they have
118received funding uh within the last three years uh this is the list of schools that are ineligible uh because they've received the funds for three years without qualifying uh we have a list of schools that um are still eligible meaning they qualified within the three-year period but um but unless they qualify in one of the upcoming years they could become ineligible um in uh in that window of time that we're talking about for this three-year plan uh and then we have uh two schools that are not um are non-qualifying is the term that we're using just because of them being the newest schools in our district Union Park and then uh inspiration Mountain again because this plan is for um fiscal year 23 through fiscal year 25 we includeed inspiration Mountain here as well uh
119so we did um a group uh convene to look at the existing plan uh come up with recommendations and uh kind of develop the plan for uh what we are previewing with you this evening essentially they're kind of three major components to the plan uh professional development continues to be a um um uh consideration in the plan uh some program ex uh program expansion and we've listed this is not an exhaustive list but our Renaissance gifted program Bright Child um IB or International Balor program uh could be uh a way of offsetting some M costs as well as expanding some of those programs uh because of the additional Staffing needed for uh those uh specific programs and then uh building expansion uh you you heard Miss mock U mentioned when she was reading the statute
120adding capacity is an option uh to consider so this is um the three-year plan that uh We've outlined need to get to that slide because I don't know if I'm going be able to read all of those from here but the um so the professional development category uh at $1.7 million uh you can see the subcategories underneath there uh program expansion at $375,000 again that's an offset to the m um what might have been helpful to include here is what the fy22 amounts were um because one of the things that was in here is the one additional day for the certified contract was about $650,000 uh we want to continue the day but we don't want to include it in results based funding because of those ineligible schools so we would have schools that would
121have an extra day and schools that wouldn't because of their ineligibility uh so we want to offset that cost from from M so obviously the $375,000 doesn't uh cover the $650,000 that I just mentioned the one day cost uh but we want to absorb that cost in m so it' be consistent whether they were eligible ineligible non-qualifying or any other category that we may end up with over time uh the expansion of building capacity I mentioned earlier that we're thinking of uh moving those p uh portable uh modular buildings to s verie and teramar uh this is one of the funding mechanisms potentially for that uh we also are in the process of expanding at both the sonor Foothills and the Union Park school campuses uh because we have about $4 million in the results
122based funding account at the beginning of this year we'd like to spend down those proceeds um uh by uh funding the expansion of those uh campuses with results based funding um and then uh that would be a what I would consider one-time funding initiative so $2.1 million uh for the first year of fiscal year 23 being $4.2 million uh the subsequent years are just some inflationary increases in the professional development and program expansion line items without the expansion of the building capacity and you can see that $2.2 million um is about the average of the results based funding Revenue that we've had for the past three years uh which is the note at the lower leftand corner uh so I think what's important to note in our plan is that the one day one additional
123day that was in the plan before um is uh not being funded with results based funding for consistency uh there is no retention or sometimes referred to as loyalty payment that was uh provided that was just for reference of about 61 of a % was uh what was um uh I think maybe the average over the three-year plan um and if you're wondering what happened to the five High School uh interventionists uh we did uh also find an alternative funding source for those five uh high school interventionists that uh were in this initial U results based funding plan that the current plan that we're in uh so they didn't go away they just found we just found an alternative funding source for them uh so it is a preview item and uh we have shared
124the plan with um with uh our employee groups uh so they are aware of it I I will say that they were supportive of doing away with the retention payment um because that retention payment has been so divisive uh some people get it some people don't um based on the qualifying list of of positions um that and it's not enough money for the for the challenges that it that it created uh to be quite honest with you uh so uh we be they they are supportive of of eliminating the retention payment in the in the plan for the upcoming three years uh in their defense they just received this information last week uh the information that we're sharing with you uh today uh and we haven't received any negative uh input from them but we
125will be uh waiting to hear that uh because again this is just a preview item uh and we would share any input that they provide between now and when we would ask the board to formally approve this at the March 22nd uh board meeting and Dr Tunis would happy to answer any questions well that was so wonderful um Mrs Mock and Mr mcino and Dr Tunis thank you for being with us to answer questions board members do you have questions Mrs paperman S a question so what determines an School uh and not the other schools uh so president O'Brien Miss paperman um that is determined based on the student achievement results um and I think if I go back to this slide here uh so um and again this is prescribed for us so this
126is not something that we determine so we're not determining their eligibility um the student achievement results and the state determine their eligib ility okay so let's say uh for example Mountain View High School and bar gold water High School uh uh with the demographics of students so Mountain viiew will have more achievement than bar baral water right so they will be more eligible so I I think everybody has has given the same opportunity but it's the average passing rate on the state assessment test um the only I I'll say advantages um where they take socioeconomic factors into play is that there's more money provided to those that have a higher free and reduced lunch count so um using the examples that you provided so Barry goldw free and reduce uh percentage is much higher than
127uh mountain ridges I don't have those committed to memory um if for example their free and reduced percentage was uh High Enough to get into the higher category they'd get $400 per student as opposed to $225 uh per student if they both qualified okay so another question if you can go back to I think the 375,000 for programs such as IB okay IB Renaissance Etc uh uh it would be nice I would say if we can fund more for the programs uh for the students and another question is expansion of the building capacity so what what does that mean the 2.1 million uh president O'Brien Miss paperman so uh this is to relocate the Portables um onto the sver and terar campus uh both SRA verie and teramar are qualifying schools as is sonor and
128foothills uh and one of the provisions in the statute is to be able to add uh seats at qualifying schools so since all three of those schools qualify um we would be and we have plans to expand on those campuses uh as we had mentioned um we thought this would be a good one-time use of the funds okay thank you Mrs Reed hello um if you wouldn't mind in the Friday update sending us who the committee members were um and maybe how they were how they were chosen that would be great um and then as far as the program expansion goes it are there any plans have you even gotten that far as to what those programs might be and how those would look at at what campuses are we expanding by you know adding
129another um you know Renaissance classroom to Highland Lakes you know per grade or or are we not even there yet uh president O'Brien Miss Reed I think most of this is really more and and so program expansion may be a little bit of a misnomer um because these programs require additional Staffing Beyond I'll say what normal Staffing might look like uh this is really more of an m&o offset with the ability to use some of these funds to expand some programs as well so it's kind of a combination of both um again the M offset is to help be able to defer the cost of the one day in the contract that was previously funded from the the initial three-year plan uh and then uh additional funds to be able to expand those programs to
130be able to make sure that there's some offerings uh but that is something that U that uh either Dr gallan or Dr chunis have more information about and we can provide in a in an update between now in the 22nd okay I was just curious if there were were talks about you know what specifically how how it was going to be used so far if it's just a kind of a a holding place right now um misre is partially both so it's partially a holding place and partially because we're limited to the schools who are eligible for the funds which has diminished so um over the past three years one of the schools that is eligible still is Las prus so when you see Renaissance on there it is it is directly related to Las
131prus um and the programming that we're looking at to increase enrollment at that school okay thank you and then um I I see the line here for sonor and foothills are we still using the um qualifying contributions the household to offset some of that building capacity or is that specifically just all going to come from this pot of money uh president O'Brien Miss Reed I think it may be a combination of both um at this point and uh the contributions uh the per unit agreements that we have um we' like to maybe Reserve that if we are able to secure an actual School site to maybe um augment the cost of adding another school in the region um because we think with some of the changes that are coming even the expansion at Union Park
132and snor and foothills will not be sufficient to be able to accommodate the number of students uh between Happy Valley and Carefree Highway on the east side of i7 okay and then um with Union Park I know that we had previously talked about that we would need to add classrooms there like you just mentioned but I don't see anything on here about about that so is that coming from a different pot of money or is that on hold or uh we we are still planning to expand at both sonor Foothills and Union Park uh we were uh we are considering using an alternative funding source uh most namely that would be a combination of bond proceeds um that we have identified for growth as well as uh uh developer assistance fees or per unit agreement
133fees um that we've engaged with uh devel on so it' be a combination of of those funds at this time okay thank you Mrs AR uh I know that this is our second um swing at this plan but it seems to be more aligned with Russ now behind the the results base because if we are replicating what has worked in our plc's that means that we're sharing it across the district so on and so forth so I I think this uh plan looks good um and when we any more questions that we have specific perhaps that come to our heads we'll make sure that we send them to you um prior to the next board meeting and if there's anything else that comes to mind that um might not uh that that we've asked questions
134or that questions come if you could throw them in the Friday update that would be awesome but this does seem to more align with the the reason and the rationale for the results based funding okay thank you so much for um the presentation look forward to getting some of that more information in our update and uh seeing you back here uh later on in March and with that we'll start with our governing board reports Mrs paperman mine is short and sweet I hope everyone have a wonderful spring break next week and rest well thank you for that Mrs Fischer mine was short and sweet last time so so not this time um first I want to thank uh uh Marie Brennan and the dvf foundation um all the wonderful things you do but that golf
135uh annual golfing is just so fun except for I I must to put my sunblock high enough I have a little red ring of sunburn right on the edge of my hairline anyway I I do um it's it's really neat when we can see the full process how you guys raise money and the things you do and then we see the efforts for you to honor our teachers um and and um just do good things just just good things for Education good things for for good people um and so you you are very very much appreciated um and we all know that it wouldn't happen without you um I I mean I know you have a whole board and stuff but but we know you're the glue um so I I just really do appreciate
136that um I also want to thank uh our teachers um who have been sharing great things about what they're doing um and inviting us to some of their art programs and whatnot um it's there's so much negative out there with what's happening in public Public Schools um especially in the political Arena that it's uh it's just nice to see those little tidbits of good um because at least I don't get to see them very often um unless a teacher shares um normally the people who are angry call me um to that point I do continue to get concerns about uh these standards based um grading um people people are just I don't know whether they don't understand it or it's they just don't like it and they make really good points um so I don't
137know if the district needs to make um more of an effort to to reach the parents I I don't know I because that's not something I've worked with before I can't advise or even really input other than to tell you that I'm still hearing concerns from parents [Music] um after the uh Friday update of 2:25 I am more concerned than ever about how our parents are treated on campuses um it's you know a a PTA mom or one who will is is is our committee person and they're you know the one that we turn to for every single question and advice but if you're the parent who asks questions about curriculum or wants to um be involved you're a problematic parent and we ban you or move you or or remove you um I'm just
138concerned and and I'm more concerned when I read the update um when I when I see that there's you know we don't find ways to to to to find a solution we find ways to get our lawyer to say we're Justified um and it just that concerns me um parents are not our enemies they're our partners and these are their kids and it's a privilege for us to be able to educate them um so I really hope that we don't become like the stce on the airlines you see people getting dragged off the planes um because school districts and schools should never be that way um I've been meeting um with teachers and I'm and with par professionals um unfortunately a lot of the teachers that that um have met with me have been special
139education teachers um and they have said that it is their desire to just survive to retirement um I hate hearing that from any teacher I really do because they started this with such passion and when you especially when you're working with a special needs child um it takes a heart you just can't um not just anybody can walk in a room and really engage a special needs child it takes really special people to do that um and and I know that with my son I was blessed to have very many who were um who just had that heart um it was rare that I came across one that didn't so I I have been asking them you know why what is you know obviously with the Paras it's been pay um we we're we're paying
140them so low that it's really difficult when you consider the the the violence that they they face sometimes when when it's a disciplinary issue and and then I asked the question well we have a Level D school and we have level C classrooms why is it that you are such um potential attack and you know one of the parents from one school she said you know well because I'm pretty much the only one on the campus there's three other Paras and they're in the level seats classroom that they never leave and I'm running like a chicken with my head cut off with everybody saying you know I need help here I need help there and and when I say you know hey I need help with this student um again I am not supported so
141I don't know how we can resolve the issues of actually filling the massive amount of pair of Pros that we have unfilled um it's difficult when we pay them that low and I don't know answer but it's what I'm hearing from the Paris what I found more disturbing is what I heard from the teachers um they said um our students our special need students are now dollars they're dollar figures um the medically the the the Level D School thisa Peaks is becoming a medically fragile opportunity for us to drive a revenue Source into the district and as a result we are unable or it's very difficult for us to get one of our students who is Level D to get assessed appropriately and put at that at that school we um for for a special
142needs teacher who is is um I I don't know my son did didn't attack people because we we um extinguish those behaviors but that takes time and it takes work and we worked at it but I don't know what's happening I can't say I'm not in the classroom but I know that these Special Needs teachers that have come to me they're they're one of them she was just ready to quit completely from all education she says if this is what education is I don't want to do it anymore if we're not getting the support we're not getting the support because we can't get this child who really needs the benefit of a school like Vista Peaks into Vista Peaks what are we to do so I'm I will put that out there with this is
143what I've heard from these teachers um and I will ask that that we take some sort of action I I don't want a response in the Friday update I'm not asking for that because the Friday update always paints a Rosy picture that does not match what the teachers who have contacted me are saying so it's very frustrating when you have two different stories so that's how they feel um my next uh note is more of a political update um I am very worried about and I've told you every single meeting that I'm station um couple years ago had the whole red fored and red fored spurred the creation of purple for parents well purple for parents got off their tail this year and they put forward a candidate for superintendent of Public Instruction with the
144sole intent of defunding Public District Schools as much damage as possible that she can do that's what they want and when you try and reason you there you hear no I I want want to defund Public Schools they're terrible when you say well we have to have oversight they say no parents can handle it when you tell well we have kids that don't have parents we have kids whose parents are on drugs they don't want to hear it they don't care they see the kids that are in their own little lives and they are quite content um the reason I'm saying this because I know there are teachers that watch we have to be vigilant that what we are doing is above board I have seen in the last two weeks multiple teachers some who
145really are concerning that some of the stuff they're doing in their classroom it is concerning but then others who are just teaching a viable lesson and the next thing they know somebody has recorded a snippet of their lesson especially because guess what February was Black History Month so they can very easily take that little SN snip it and make it look like they're teach critical race Theory when they're really just teaching a lesson for Black History Month and our teachers not not only Dear Valley but teachers across the state are targets and they're getting blasted into social media as if they had done something wrong and and some of them have done absolutely nothing wrong um so I want our teachers to be careful and I want them to seriously stand up and start thinking
146about what's happening and paying attention because while while Educators as far as people in education are sleeping at the wheel purple for parents is putting up their way to eliminate public districts not keep them as a choice but to override them and make them a a redheaded stepchild and um anybody I know there's people who follow my Facebook to see that's the whole purpose that I put on there today I put if if you are one of those people who wants to destroy education public districts just unfriend me now because this is one of the options that is best for most kids for a lot of kids and we do a damn good job most of the time we need to fix the holes but we can't just destroy it we can't throw the baby
147out with the bath water um I think I'll stop with that the other notes are more of my own emotional because how honestly pissed I am at some of the stuff I've seen lately not from Educators but from people who know nothing about education and want to hurt education um but I do want you to know that even when I disagree with you whether it's the people in this room or the people out there um you know our teachers uh I do appreciate you and I understand your struggles um and I know they're real um and in the areas that we have those struggles and or when we do something that's it's okay to say I was wrong it's okay to say I messed up and then move forward and rebuild that relationship and that's
148the only way we're going to get past some of this Miss there so that's my report for today thank you Mrs Fischer Mrs Reed um I just want to thank all of the students that came and um spoke about the importance of their music education in our district um and one of them talked about um being a part of Allstate band and I wanted take a moment and just do a shout out to Mr o'halleran who is um the band teacher at Boulder Creek High School he had the opportunity um to conduct the eighth grade allate band this week which is a really cool honor um for him and for our district and um I I know that's not the only um guest um I don't know how to say it conductorship or that he's
149been invited to um do this year so um shout out to him and then um funny story I I told U Mr Douglas's choir students that were here um we competed against each other at jazz magical festivals um up at NAU when we were in high school and we just realized that when we were talking at um the Arizona School Board Association conference and then another amazing that we have is Mr mallister at Belair Traditional School and his dad Bob mallister was my elementary um fifth sixth seventh and eighth grade band um director and his mom was my uh voice teacher and U flute teacher so um it's really neat to see um you know teachers Rise Up from um the roots of of where we grew up so just a shout out to them
150them and I guess shout out to my kids music teachers because they're pretty amazing my daughter gets to perform at um District Honor Band on Thursday night so I'm excited to go in and watch her do that um I had an opportunity to go to the open the official ribbon cutting ceremony for belir um Traditional School and that was a long time coming and I'm so thankful that we were able to do that and to see um the amazing Community that's been built there um I think one of the neatest things was um their um habitat for their desert tortoise and each student and teacher decorated a tile um and then that was put around um the the Brick enclosure which was really neat and then also seeing um what Miss King is doing with
151her preschoolers um and and the Dr Seuss Garden that they had going and I know that she's getting ready to add some more Garden con um for her students to um plant um fruits and vegetables there um a couple of requests that I have um since it is budget season and we're looking at um different ways that we can um kind of tweak what we're doing um I would like to get some information regarding our gifted education department um if there is um a current Staffing or or or chart that shows um who is in that department and which programs they oversee um also how many students we have um that participate in gifted education um and then the number of um uh gifted education uh District staff we have compared to our comparable districts
152that we do our our comparisons with that would be fantastic um and then um I'm also requesting some data on our school counselors um I would like to know what our current student student to counselor ratio is um not just districtwide but that broken up into um School categories so k6 K8 78 and then um High School um and then follow me here a list of what they do in a day versus what they're supposed to do in a day um because I know that the middle school counselor at my kids school um is just supposed to be seeing middle school kids but does an awful lot um with some of the lower students also because um they have a need for her and she isn't going to turn down students who who need her
153so um I want to see what what our current counselor workload is and um you know make sure that you know they're well I I know that their workload isn't appropriate because it's recommended that we have 250 students to one coun counselor and I think in the state of Arizona we have like 760 students to a counselor but um and then I think I had asked for and I can't remember off the top of my head if we had already gotten it but um information regarding standard-based grading um I I know that there was um a survey that was sent out to parents um asking for their their feedback um and if I miss that then I apologize but if we could get that if that hasn't already been sent out and then if been
154any um teacher data if we have pulled our teachers to see what um what's working what what points we need to um to tweak um some of their concerns I think that would be helpful um and I hope that everybody has a wonderful and safe Spring Break um I know that that I could use a break and I know that my my kids are really looking forward to sleeping in and not homework so um with that I will see you guys in a few weeks thank you Mrs Reed Mrs Ordway um well so we did have the student Summit from the student Summit um or at the student Summit I met a student whose name is uh Brendan Salsbury and I mentioned his name because he is on NPR Radio tonight um discussing um an
155organization called bring change to mind uh at Barry Goldwater they have a club it is a mental health um Club he was also asked to be the ambassador for a conference in the state of Arizona so when we have these Summits and we uh wonder you know who really is going to get something out of it these students take it very seriously and they do um some of it is is a report on or a report on what they learned some of them will do activities and then there's others that will make it a sustainable um event so the mental health a aspect um was awesome and this is a a sophomore so I look forward to um his you know next two or three years but he also made a connection with Wy doet
156from dear dear Valley high school so she talked to him so now they're in talk so um our students are looking out for each other as well as as us looking for them um in reference to um Mrs Reed uh requests for the um counselor information um the k6 K8 schools I would just like to make sure that yes we don't turn our counselors will not turn any any uh child away but they do do have I think a specific um work loader group and if that's incorrect you know just put that in there but they also do talk to uh the staff so in addition to the students that they're helping they're also helping each other out uh a district such as ours with the band and choir we got to hear some very
157passionate heartfelt um feelings from our kids tonight um during all of uh the time that I've been on the board no matter if we were cutting $70 million or whatever the number was we made sure that we kept our Arts the Fine Arts because our kids needed and still need to have that kind of well-rounded um education our district proves it over and over again the community supporting it um with bonds and uh attending all of the different events so if they're was ever a time for anybody to remember um that Arts are important and it's important to thousands of students students in our district as well as the people that they um bestow whatever the art was their singing their art you know their actual um photographs or drawings so Art's important our Athletics
158is moving on we're at the beginning stages again to see if we're going to be state champions in in some other aspect um the promotions the graduations it's awesome to be able to see all that um coming back um to maybe how it was and maybe even better now because uh people are very thankful to be able to see faces in each other um not having a a an amount of tickets that you can have to a high school graduation is awesome and also for the eighth graders even though there are some some areas that do not consider eighth grade promotion to be awesome we do um and all we can tell those people is don't don't do so much at your eighth grade promotion that you're going to have to beat that for your
159graduation so that's kind of a family thing if they want to push that but it's very important for our kids and their families to be able to move from the eighth grade to um High School on that note um somebody write this down because Gail's not here unless Gary knows or someone else if we have a student that's an eth grade doing that's going to be in eth grade that is a walkup math student if they are going to attend to high school other than their home High School are they able to open en roll in the math in the high school that they're going to attend so say Somebody went to Canyon Springs and they're choosing to go to Berry Goldwater can they open and roll to do their walkup math into Barry Goldwater
160as opposed to Boulder Creek if you could in general get that answer that would be great um we did uh do the ribbon cutting watch the kids listen to them so beautiful to see the the principal that's there now and the new principal together um the uh tortoise habitat was awesome as was all the gift but just to see all the smiling faces they seem like it's it's going to be all right and it did take a long time Marie I know you're still awake your golf tournament as usual is awesome I appreciate being able to to come um the camaraderie and just knowing the uh money that's made from that and the relationships all pour back into this school dist which helps either teachers directly which indirectly goes into our students buckets or it
161goes right to the students when they go up in the air to their space um Camp so it's you're awesome all around um let's see I had one one more thing Happy Spring Break and St Patrick's Day because you know we're not going to be here for that thank thank you Mrs orway um sir they left or she left but we did have a senior from Mountain Ridge High School who came I I know it's a long night I don't blame her um but she from Mountain Ridge High School and uh government class got some community service hours by coming to learn a little bit more about what goes on at the school board and I highly recommend that folks do that especially young kids because your your school boards make decisions that um impact
162you uh quite a bit and not that all those other elections aren't important but school boards are pretty important as we've learned over the last couple of years so thank you Tatum for coming uh and dad for bringing her uh we also I'm going to hit on it again I know several members have already but the students who came and spoke about their experience with music in in our first half an hour was really incredible and and I should have counted but we had at least six or seven students from a variety of schools and some talked about how they believe their student their their music and and band experience impacted their academics through being able to now take Algebra 1 two and geometry in in Middle School uh to folks who to some kids
163who said it was about the leadership and the skills and experience to our last young man who talked about um finding a friend and a sister that he didn't have in in band so just the wide breath of experiences and opportunities that kids get um one student made actually a couple of them commented about getting into music rocks Camp as youngsters and and finding that passion and carrying it through so so excited that we um have such an incredible program for our students because it it impacts them in so many ways and really do appreciate that they came to spend the uh some of their Tuesday evening to share those experiences with us that was very meaningful um and and I'm going to highlight that we have an A+ uh School of Excellence Mountain Shadows
164that we uh got to honor tonight it's very very exciting we had two groups of students from Barry Goldwater High School who took first and second place in Arizona's prart Invitational if you haven't checked out our our Avenue 27 restaurant you only have a few Fridays left to do it before the end of the school year so please uh do so if you get that opportunity had a great time at Traditional Academy at belir ribbon cutting um will Echo that it was awesome to see both of the leaders the leader who has been there for the last couple of years under very difficult circumstances and who is finishing if I recall correctly a 40 plus year um career in education so so exciting for all that she's done while she's been at Deer Valley um
165and obviously deserved a welld deserved retirement coming her way and exciting to see our new principal so thank you to principal Vivan hunt and excited to have principal Christine Fitz Simmons coming in there we had an awesome time at the superintendent student Leadership Summit they learned some incredible lessons there as they were sharing on the boards that they got to put up one of them was cuz it was about leadership and and Dr Finch shared his story about all the places you can learn leadership as did our music kids um various places but these kids were learning about helping out in your community learning about food boxes and picking up trash fundraising um what it takes to be a leader being able to be to listen to your fellow students and learn how to trust
166and communicate so it really was incredible seeing all that Hands-On learning um going on there so thank you to to all who made that happen the science curriculum options are available online on the front page so if you scroll down past our um icons there's some pictures so folks please go check it out and provide feedback so that's really important um the golf tournament Marie Brennan thank you so much Charlie philippic it was an awesome day again and we really appreciate all that do for students uh I enjoyed getting to I even ran into somebody I went to high school with it was crazy in the golf cart next to me fun stuff that you get to do um let's see a pop luncheon tomorrow in person that's so exciting let's I can't tell you
167I haven't felt so good about what's going on our district in a really long time we didn't have good things but that Co Cloud was hanging over us and it's nice to know that it's dissipating and going away and that um things are returning to normal so thank you for all the good news you brought us Dr zerbach uh related to that and I met with Dr Finch so that we could talk about all the board member agenda requests and get those scheduled over the next um few months into hopefully the beginning of the school year and with that I'm going to wish everybody a really wonderful relaxing and enjoyable um spring break and remember that when we come back the final quarter of the school year is upon us because we're coming back right
168cuz we're coming back and that we want to come back rejuvenated and refreshed so that we can finish strong Dr Finch all you yes I have four things four short things just about a week and a half ago or so In This Very Room and online we hosted the state superintendence uh from and when you can do that with technology you can reach to all corners of Arizona pretty excited about that Miss Sheila cracks the whip in this room gets them all rolling where they're supposed to be when and uh we have great technology I want to shout out to Mr migrino had them foresight three four or five years ago to throw it into our bond and spend dollars on um upgrading our technology that's one of the main reasons why they're going to
169continue next year so we will continue to be uh working towards dur alley being the epicenter for our public school education in the state second thing I did also want to thank uh the students for that Summit and and particular the staff at very goldw water um the campus staff the plant Foreman uh the principal a cafeteria made lunches for so very goldw water uh staff continue to step up and help us out every time and it's really turned into a nice Summit for about 350 students and again we're trying to do the the ripple effect into the other uh 41 schools the Third third thing we just found out today in Miss uh Monica's report that um in cabinet that we are approaching 400 students from tsmc the 370 something Mark so it's ticking
170up every day as we know they're coming ready or not here they come and they are choosing Deer Valley Schools which is another good thing last but not least we are board meeting uh at the next one I think the summit might kids might be presenting at so that's good uh and you'll probably get your Friday update um today or tomorrow the next this Friday probably won't get one during spring break so you have to come back to the board meeting you actually have to show up to find out what's happening and we'll be working over spring break um getting all the things that you might need ready for our next board meeting which is right after we return so we'll see you then again yes we want to thank Marie for a great golf
171outing and great intro to spring break so hope everyone has a safe and healthy rest thank you the future meeting dates and times are posted I would entertain a motion to adjourn at9 second all those in favor please say I I we are adjourned