DVUSD Governing Board Meeting November 28, 2023

001good evening and welcome to the governing board meeting for the DIA Valley UniFi School District on Tuesday November 28 2023 I call the meeting to order at 701 let the record reflects that all board members are present uh Mrs orway and Stephanie will be on the phone if you are able to stand please do so for the Pledge of Allegiance and to the of the United States of America and to the for it stands one nation under God indivisible for liberty Jesus you may be sit can I get a motion to adopt the agenda I move that we adopt the agenda as present I have a motion can I get a second second and a second to adopt the agenda all those in favor please say I any the oppose say n i i i

002I voted at Stephanie will vot yeah I voted it just said I'm I'm having a problem my computer hold on I I voted yes but hold on 5 Z moving on to item three call to the public we have five speakers tonight I'm gonna call all the names and then I'll read the we have five speakers tonight I'll read the names and then I'll read the uh admonishment uh Kelly fiser Josh Hawkins Tiffany Hawkins Jerry no and Melissa Schmidt the board invites public comments on the district's business in general and on any agenda item in specific uh all speakers must observe the rules of theorum speakers must fill out a card listing the name address and Topic at hand and hand it to the board secretary prior to the president calling the meeting to order

003speakers must make their comments in no more than 3 minutes if necessary to accommodate all speakers within 30 minutes overall limit the board president May shorten each speaker's time constructive criticism is in order rudess vulgarity disruptive conduct or remarks disparaging personal dignity are not in order and will not be allowed under the Arizona open meeting law the governing board canot discuss or act on any items not listed on the agenda board members May respond to criticism made by a speaker ask staff to review matters or ask that a matter be put on a future agenda uh Miss fiser before I have you start I just want to verify um Miss Schmidt did you want to speak now or at the actual agenda now okay uh Miss Fischer go and step up to the mic and

004say your name for the record good evening everyone my name is Kelly fiser I am at heart a kindergarten teacher in my 22nd year here in Deer Valley and I am currently serving as the dbea president and I just wanted to stand here tonight and give a quick update on on dbea um in January our membership was at 679 and currently we are at 1,1 members that's the highest we've been since 2009 and a lot of that has to do with the fact that last week we visited 18 schools in three days and I wanted to publicly thank the staff and administration at the schools and I also wanted to publicly thank Miss Jenna Moffett for all of her help in working through all of this and helping me with this crazy idea um but

005we visited teramar Deer Valley High School Sunrise Elementary School Hill Crest Sunset Ridge gavlin Peak Anthem Sierra verie uh Deer Valley Middle School Aro head Mountain Shadows Desert Sky Sandra de o Conor inspiration Mountain Sonoran Foothills Legend Springs Highland Lakes and Union Park and we had such a great experience at all of those schools the administration was so helpful and welcoming and all of the teachers were so great to have conversations with um and we liked it so much that we're going back to six more schools this week and we really are excited to visit desert sage Mirage Desert Mountain Mountain Ridge High School Barry Goldwater High School and Stetson Hills um for the rest of this week so I want to thank them and their staff as well and I just wanted to say

006that I'm very proud to serve as the president for for 49% 49.6% of our teachers right now and we are only 33 members away from majority status here in Deer Valley so thank you very much hello Joshua Hawkins good evening board in my research since it was first first mentioned about Dr Dicky in August and again by the teachers at the last meeting I found very concerning information Dr dicki is uh an educational consultant through the Scholastic company dicki has hopped every two years starting in Texas Maryland Pennsylvania Georgia and finally stopped when he was a solo finalist for superintendent for Portland Oregon three days before signing Portland had a full background check with a law firm to vet him and they called to tell dicki he was no longer being offered the job dicki

007lied and omitted details from his prior arrest of the Portland board whatever else Portland found dicki got a lawyer to seal the investigation as it would damage his career now he was unemployed Georgia State Board revoked dicki's teaching license a few months later based on what Portland found so he's no longer a licensed educator ever since dicki has pushed this decoding method in an article I found the media went back in most of the districts he consulted stop using his method within two years in favor of more effective or law compliant methods the teachers who spoke last meeting of the horrors dicki performed in class was disturbing quote dicki was dispar enaging the staff calling out students home lives racial and cultural insensitivity professionally and sexually harassing the school staff this is enough in any

008case to terminate employment this District recently approved a deal that gave him another contract we need you to revoke that contract and let him go what process was used to vet dicki before agreeing to use his Services anyway Dr VCH even replied an email when we questioned him back in September about Dicky's fingerprint card and background check V responded it wasn't needed his contract isn't regular and he will only visit five times a year escorted from the teachers account this adult supervision didn't make a difference and this is five times a year for the next few years of his contract so how many more times will dicki be allowed to behave this way before he's removed and reported this district has in the past called the police to report teachers having online misconduct with students

009why would you not do the same in this situation when he's doing it in person in front of young students next we have a prior choir teacher from Deer Valley Scott Sims this termination almost Le by as it was tucked into please don't use staff members names thank you for retirement last year alers daughter was in his class last year and noticed odd behavior from him later we heard rumors of him kissing a student on the neck and that student fleeing the class as we heard nothing more we figured it was just rumors that in February of 2023 the state board has a case with supporting evidence of sexual misconduct where they censured his license with strict conditions after the state reviewed the case and passed final conclusions Deer Valley District was notified of the

010case and quickly added his termination or resignation to the agenda the next day he was allowed to finish out the school year and perform the last concert of the year without fail our oldest confirmed in the last few months of the year he was observed once a week by the principal after meeting in their office what about the rest of the day or the other Deer Valley school he taught at what is the district's allowable amount of sexual misconduct from a teacher or consultant before they're terminated or involved law enforcement what is the district's criteria for notifying parents their children or around this person without their permission where is the student safety Tiffany Hawkins good evening board I want to remind the board that it is their responsibility to create the policies that guide our

011schools and not the district I highly recommend the board used policy CHD to create a policy for a strict time limit that must be enforced for conclusions on public complaints our process started four months ago and we have yet to reach an end or have a resolution in the district policy KB outlines the some time frames of how long this should take but isn't very clear on how long in total but the District amgs of public concerns and complaints has nothing written about any time period at all so what the public sees in policy is not the same the district guidelines practice at every turn another step added another person to meet with another form to fill out if this District applies the time it Wast on dragging things out they would have more time

012to audit and train the schools and bring Fidelity to the district compliance but you would know that if these issues if there was document a as per law then most of our concerns would have been addressed before they started this District would likely know how to document the right way if their amgs were organized properly public concerns investigation forms that were never provided are buried underneath challenging of a grade we located a bully investigation form jik EA not the same as the bordo form tucked away in the amgs this is the reason not one of the schools we visited had the right forms for reporting an investigation they fell behind the file cabinet just like the online bully forms fell in the spam folder in addition to the huge documentation issue in this district has

013civil rights been violated by continually denying our to provide 100% of every record of that holds for our children so far we have requested these record seven times since this process started four months ago Dr Z was even asked in September if there was a specific form that was coressed for the student records and he never responded we filled the form out we thought was right since Gary didn't answer Dr Finch did answer but instead of help or Direction his response was info on the curriculum and policies About Records Dr Finch and Dr Z have both stated the district has these records for my kids but fails to provide them but when we ask the school they say they aren't any records it's hard to trust which Vision or version is true you either have

014the records or you do not the only way we'll find out is when the records are provided as only of just today did the districts reply stating they have just now started the hunt for the records just now the district wants to follow their process 100% of the time for the records request only when the correct fil form is filled out however you allow yourself only to follow my email to place Us in the correct chain of command but then fail to also do the documentation that comes with the process the district has never required nor provided any investigation reports interviews conclusions resolutions or appeals nothing recorded in power schools of our meetings or paperwork provided to the parents of each step but yet you the district can tell me that your email is the

015documentation but will refuse any process email request from my records all of which these forms are steps that are required per your own policies good evening Jerry nor here I hope everybody had a great Thanksgiving and meeting blessings to be thankful for especially with weather like we have here uh bard board chairman public thank you for attending paid staff I don't see as many here tonight for some reason uh it's very apparent that our school district has problems issues of course we can give out Awards we can accolate a lot of great events but we're all here really to solve problems and make it good for everybody not just a few bullying is a big problem it's very apparent it's going on for a long time all these paid professionals elected officials staff attendees teachers

016lots of Education probably lots of money and we can't come up with a solution I'm really struggling with this as a public taxpayer this is a big problem this rests on the shoulders of the board they're the leaders supposedly of this District I don't see that but they are and they need to be that's another problem that needs to be fixed a lot of money involved a lot of kids Futures involved come on people I thought teachers cared about about the students every one of them but we only seem to can muster up time for those that get a first place or a high grade every meeting I come in here with a big group of people that we're goingon to just have a good time with and feel good about and I think that's

017great but what about the group we can fill this room with that on are on the other side of that Spectrum that's that's what we're here for we're supposed to fight for those people big time I don't see it I don't see an apology I've asked for an apology this Hawkins family deserves it that's what good leadership does they stand up in front they take the hits and they come up with Solutions and make things happen it's not happening and if you're denying that I'm sorry you're you got problems more than the bullying probably let's fix this we got to move on to lots of other problems like transparency Big Time F minus transparency and that's not a uh spbg grade okay hi I'm Melissa Schmidt I'm a kindergarten teacher at Sor and Foo Hills

018Elementary School so it's very great to be in front of you'all tonight and thank you governing board for listening I have kind of notes but I talk a lot at kindergarten so I kind of don't need that much notes but I just wanted to say I was a part of the summer math adoption and it was amazing I've taught for 29 years not in this District but I've taught for a very long time in kindergarten only and being a part of this was amazing our math Mentor uh the people in charge of math here are again amazing we took a lot of programs looked at them closely they invited so many businesses parents stakeholders every single grade level involved from kindergarten through fifth grade um just a very great experience and we again we took

019a lot of time I know it's on the agenda tonight and we just wanted to make sure that you vote for I ready and that you're on board with it um we spent a lot of time doing like the pros and cons and we we looked at everything so again if you care about math for your kindergarten through fifth graders it's a very good program and I just wanted to say again thank you for doing all your hard work so I know I'm done really fast moving on to Old business can I get a motion for item a for item a for in Old business I move that the governing board approve administration's recommendation for grades 6 througha English language arts curriculum materials adoption is there a second second um okay Stephanie um any presentation

020for uh item a Dr gallagan um president paperman nothing has changed since the last board meeting okay any questions governing Bor I I do um Mrs fer I was a little concerned at the last meeting and I kind of tried to say um are we gonna have questions because there was it was just kind of rush through you gave a presentation was rush through um we've received a lot of information about um this adoption and I didn't want to jump because a lot of times they'll say people will send in stuff and they'll say you know this is is you know it's um the big word that was used was critical race Theory and this is um divisionary and this is you know they had there was a lot of comments and so I did

021request that we were allowed to see it um and and I do want to thank Dr Galligan for putting a password um and a login so that we could actually go in and see it um and I can't say I don't disagree with them um it seemed like the primary focus on this um just when you open the very first page it talks about it it's immediately starts talking about things that are racially divisionary or um I should have kept that window open um it's a lot of pages to download my poor iPad probably needs to be cleared at this point but um it almost seemed like its primary focus was pushing a racial divide um and I don't really understand why that's necessary was that in the other curriculums or was it just in

022this one or they is that just the new language the way everything comes across I mean president paperman miss fiser no um the the group which was made up of parents uh teachers administrators did review all of the resources DaNell Stevenson who is our six um 12 Ela specialist is here um there was no critical race Theory involved in any of the resources study sync is is a resource that um is used throughout our state and the country critical race the has not been a part of that um Dell if you want to come back up well that keep in mind that's that's the word that was used in the emails um I'm not saying that it was the first one that I looked at no I did not the first one that I looked

023at that I downloaded I'm just going in what order they're in um was the content study sync and it immediately starts talking no that's just the words it's a lot of material I I will give anyone who did this review kudos for going through all of this because it's a ton [Music] um but it immediately starts talking about oh that's the grading I'll find it go ahead and we had over 60 days to um have the public review of this curriculum and we also had three potential curriculum that we were looking at and the committee actually chose to keep all three for the public review because they just felt like they needed to keep all three to give it an even shot through so I feel that um with the committee and the the members

024in the committee there was discussions about all of this but this was the curriculum they felt the most confident with and at surrounding districts are using it and they were happy with what they saw from what is from the other two and so the other two that we were looking at um is just didn't fit the the criteria of the rubber that they created together as a committee and when we look at um the public comment feedback 91.7% were favorable with study sync 88.2% were unfavorable so the vast majority of of people stakeholders who have viewed um the resource over the time period that it was open um found it to be appropriate for our sixth through 8th grade students and and that was open for public review May 24th through August 21st and it

025was public publicized widely any other questions uh governing board uh my concern is that we're hearing from a very small um percentage of the public just as Dr galin just said um 91% of people who had reviewed it approved the curriculum Mr [Music] Carver so I guess my thought process uh is just the Stark comparison that we have in public comment that that the board has received and I use the term board because I can see everybody was copied on the emails that we received but when when it comes to the math curriculum the community and indeed even the Educators were overly excited about the options that we have available to us in the direction that we should go but when it comes to ELA not so much um so the contrast there that I

026have is a whole lot of emails telling us yes we need to go this way with math and then a whole lot of emails not we don't want to go that way with English and so I'm just wondering um to Mrs Fischer's point I brought this up regarding social studies uh when we passed that at the beginning of the year and just that social studies is probably a better environment where you're going to encounter certain certain political ideals that are everywhere in our society today but is it necessary to give examples in English class of um racial inequality or social injustices and I I mean I know that I'm old but back when I grew up it was just very simple Dick and Jane c-spot run and we didn't get into didn't get into the

027mud with everything and I brought that up in previous math curriculum and I've brought that up in previous social studies and the common denominator was always McGraw Hill now this English uh that we're looking at for the ELA curriculum is not McGrath Hill uh but that was one of the options and I know that's kind of the flavor of the day with all of our curriculum suppliers nowadays wonder if we can't try just a little bit harder to try to find find some way to just not get ourselves swept up in what I always term the flavor of the day that's going on out there in the world and if we could just worry more about the mechanics of the spoken and written word and not let our district get bogged down in what's going

028on out there with all this other stuff for lack of a better word that's all I have President paperman I I would like to say something if that's possible um Mrs orway uh um so when we talk about uh different adoptions whether it be Math Science Social Studies or Ela um we are a district in an educational system where we do uh interdisciplinary um studies so our math will have math problems that talk about something that's happening in social studies at the same time Ela there will be reading selections that will accompany all that so it all complements each other so um when you're in the third grade the fourth grade the fifth grade whatever grade it is you're going to have crossover because the crossover then helps you learn um I don't know what

029the definition people are using of critical race Theory but there actually is one and it is not not being applied um to most anything that we've that we've talked about critical race Theory so if there is an issue with us referring or talking about uh factual historical um things that have gone on um we and we don't want to have our our students learn about history um it will never change and we are we are starving them for information and we are also making it impossible for teachers to teach um properly so I don't have an issue with um the choice that um they want us to approve I do though have a question um I'm guessing that I ready for ELA was not as um conducive to what we're doing as it was for

030the IR math and if Dr gallagan could um talk to me about that I'd appreciate it president paperman miss um boardway when we put out information about an adoption um vendors let us know if they're interested or will reach out to vendors um I don't believe I already put forward for K5 five um English language arts would that be true for excuse me 68 English language arts correct so it was not a vendor um for those grade levels for English language arts however I I will say that with this particular um Resource as with any resource when our committees review this and I've mentioned this before Miss Fisher that in Deer Valley we we teach to the Arizona standards critical race Theory and any of the things that are involved with CR critical race Theory

031are not part of Arizona's English language arts standards so our teachers when they work together in their PLC teams when they go through training with jelle and and others um the focuses on the standards it is not on anything related to critical race Theory and and even though that's not what you had said critical race theory that came to you in an in an email I just want it clear clear to our public that dear Valley does not teach that because it is not part of Arizona's standards well and it's that wasn't their primary they didn't mention it um there was also mentioning of of not all students um I'd have to think about how the email said it but I just even look at the page six of the student study the immediate the

032focus on this program is diversity and inclusion versus language um and that that to me is like are we we do have a diverse population our children learn to be diverse um because they work with each other they live with each other they are around each other you know I live to be diverse because my mom is Hispanic my daughter is Native American I mean diversity is diversity it is it's in our world it's everywhere but when when your focus of study is diversity and inclusion um and I do believe one of the emails had also mentioned that kids aren't going to our concerned is that our kids are going to see themselves in the in the readings but I think the concern was more that they're swinging to um to to to just going

033some kids a different direction you know Asian kids won't be uh F in included white kids won't feel included I don't remember exactly which Races they mentioned um but I don't think I don't think anything we do should be about a child's race all children no matter what all children deserve an education president paperman miss Fischer I would agree with you and I don't think this one resource does anything to cause any child or a family to think that they are not as valued as any other child regardless of the color of their skin their race where they come from or where they live we can turn off because this is an online resource we can turn off certain um stories we can identify the ones that we do not want to utilize the other

034thing that worried me a little with it is the fact that it is mentioned like I said I have all the resources open so I'm not even going to try and look at them one of them mentioned the fact that it is continuously updating on its own so which is why we we we're not necessarily even adopting what these kids are going to see we have oversight any updates we get oversight on but who has oversight denell and our other Ela Kathy white who oversees all of the curriculum Specialists and then the bottom line is me I I would like to say something as well going along with what Dr gallagan shared the comments that were sent bya email from the community includ things such as there aren't enough blond haot and blue wide students

035I'm seeing in the curriculum when I throw out the stories and it's it's concerning to me that we cannot you know be inclusive in a sense that how nice is it since we do live in such a diverse population a child can open up a book and see someone that is similar to them and I believe that the curriculum does a great variety of providing all kinds of children and all types of children um through dress and skin tone and all of that and I'm saddened that it's an issue for someone because they're not seeing enough of of a blond or Bluey when that's just not the case so I want to point that out because we have received many emails about it and I just don't see that being an issue okay so I'm

036going to read the email uh not just some parts from this individual and I think from my understanding uh what I got from the email is that I guess what doctor gallagan stated you know reassurance that there's not going to be division within the community or you know everyone has different values uh so I'm just going to read what it say it says if the administration is going to state that we don't teach CRT and CRT precursors like racial literacy and social justice in ela education then the committee must evaluate that so that the public can see the commitment to this and then the next one let me see will will all the ELA teachers get their units approved by someone to make sure they don't use these controversial features of the platform the link

037for looking at the content by micro Hill is still active and available I have just went through the two units that I noted back in August 2023 review that I completed these two units have now changed significantly in how the over riew of the unit is presented I have attached a document of the current way it is presented as of 11223 and the way it was presented back in August 20 23 so I believe what Dr gallagan says that you have control right of what's going to be presented and what's not going to be presented President paperman we will make the decisions on which part of study sync are available to teachers and which parts are not if they are not available to teach teachers they are shut completely off thank you Dr gallagan any

038other questions govern Bard no question okay so do I have a a motion to approve of item a oh it's already made us so do I have I think we at the voting point so yeah okay so now I'm calling for the both all those in favor say I or those that PO say n i i nay we're going to move to the next Item B do I have a motion to approve Item B not pass I move that the governing board approve administration's recommendation of the grades K5 resource adoption do I have adoption shouldn't it say that second okay I just want to make sure that we're saying math adoption because it's the math adoption it is okay okay five thank you okay so you're adding it okay I have a second uh Mr

039C gave a second uh any presentation for this Dr gallagan president paperman there is not a presentation as we did that at the last board meeting however there is one slight change I need to bring to the board's attention the vendor made a mistake mistake in um calculating the tax so the appropriate tax is actually $3,312 more so the actual adoption amount is increased by that amount for a total of 4,171 16929 the mistake they made is because they took each individual campus and calculated the tax on the zip code of each individual ual campus rather than calculating the tax by the district office and that's what it needed to be so that is where you see the difference can I say something um yes stany it's it's actually Mrs Ordway um Dr gallagan I

040I find that interesting as this is a math adoption it was just an observation yeah I just don't understand why we use tax dollars to pay tax on items I mean and I asked the legislator we don't pay tax on library books why do we pay it on curriculum and and the legislator I spoke with goes what we're not taxing library books we got to change that I said no we're good we're not going to tax that so it's it's a think we can't win any questions on this item governing board I call for the vote all those in favor say I all that say n i i i Jimmy you marked up stain do you want to Mark I I yeah it passes 5 Z okay 5 Z okay moving on to item C

041can I get a motion for item C is that my motion I guess I move that the governing board determine reconsideration of previously approved Cooperative agreement award to Scholastics Inc do I have a second second any questions governing Bor oh I do Mrs f um the only question that I had originally I still need answer before anything is what does our contract look like as far as if if if the board were to decide to to do this what is our contractual obligation do we have that yeah we do um Jim and I and Dr Z um met today with the Denise L Brit and she gave us um some direction in that area the she wasn't 100% on her advice but she said we are uh probably protected uh pretty well but she will

042before she gives us a final um verdict on it she said there there's an out for us and Jim and I looked at it again and looks like we can through cancelling so um we do not think we have a legal obligation and Denise Loa will um verify that for us is should we should the board move in a certain direction okay that was my only question okay okay there's a presentation for this uh president paperman uh members of the board no there's no formal presentation there was the request at our last board meeting to bring uh survey data that would capture the thoughts of a wider uh net of folks than what was presented at the last board meeting and since that uh meeting occurred right before Thanksgiving break and we have not been

043in session um we would like to uh present that survey information at the December uh board meeting so that would give us time to do the survey uh along with uh DVA if they did a survey okay so I would like to uh state that uh last board meeting uh I clearly stated uh for DV8 uh to do a survey and I am understood Dr Z stating that he'll be doing his survey uh so communicating with the teachers they were ready to go to create a survey but apparently so I'm going to read uh I summarize it from my understanding of what happened uh when the board requested for the service to be done so I wrote pre previous board meeting I requested for the teach DVA to do a survey regarding the new consultant

044Kim and I have been going back and forth with the teachers to make sure that Dr Finch and Dr zerbach do not interfere getting the teachers to do a survey under the consultant was a challenge like pulling teeth when asking questions of what is going on it seems that they were fear and will not respond when I mentioned if Dr Finch or Dr durach had anything to do with this no respond basically muted I finally got a teacher to say a word he said that Dr zerach has been pressuring the teachers to do a district survey together regarding the consultant he also said the teachers told Dr zor uh the request that the board requested for the teachers to do their own survey Dr D will not take not as an answer and kept pressuring

045the teacher so I know Mrs Fisher and I uh communicated with teachers and they were ready to go to do a survey so I don't know where the misunderstanding came that during the board meeting that the district and the teachers DVA were going to do the survey together so I don't know where that came from know I got an email from Dr Finch where Dr Finch stated in the email that he was going to have both to be done together and for full transparency the teachers should have done you know they should be doing the survey on their own uh there there's a reason why there's a teacher Association they Advocate and they represent the teachers it doesn't make any sense why would a teacher Association or even if it's a parent Association representing the

046parents be doing a survey with the district and only let look at our history in the past I have requested to have a third party survey for the same reason teachers parents has stated that there's no transparency so I don't understand where all this confusion came and it was very frustrated I kept emailing the teachers please do your survey uh Dr Finch is now the boss of the governing board you know just move forward and do the survey but apparently there was fear going on president paperman can you uh state that part again did you say there was a teacher that said that they or he or she spoke to me of if I'm not giving any names Dr zurbach because I know Dr F the past asked me for teacher's name and I'm not

047going to go to I don't I'm just asking I'm I'm just letting you know that yes a male teacher stated what was going on you know with what did that teacher State the what what did that teacher state I'm not asking for a name just what did that teacher state that uh Dr zorach so I have to go back to my reading he said that Dr zorach has been pressuring the teachers to do a district survey together regarding the consultant so from this teacher understanding is that you were pressure in the teachers to do the survey together with the district Mrs Fisher isn't that what you understood too you know and and here's the the problem I have and I and I I hear repeatedly well so and so said this and they're conservative so

048it must be true or so and so said that and they're a good person and and it's not I know for a fact it's not true um so I don't want to get into the he said she said all I know is that I watch these emails go back and forth and I and I know that miss paperman is trying really really hard to advocate for our teachers um at the last meeting I believe in s was also trying to advocate for our teachers and so um I know that when it just looked like it just wasn't going to happen and Jenny had put some questions in I put them out as a survey because at the last meeting I was not armed or ready for any information other than a few emails from a

049few teachers um I posted those results of those questions now teachers can look at them there the only thing that I do know uh from the the short survey is that um there is a significant number of teachers that actually like Dr Dicky training and there's a lot of teachers that dislike it um there is also my biggest concern was that there was a significant number of teachers that said they are not being compensated off contract hours um and that bothers me because then we're working them without consideration or that some of them are being paid and some aren't that is a desperate treatment of our employees so that's my personal issue in there um I think the biggest problem I have is I've watched these emails go back and forth and I watched and

050and I'm not going to read Dr Finch's email like anyone would expect that I would I'm simply going to read my response because today I read it and I just got to the point where it was like you know what what what this is a losing game so I just emailed her back and I said Jenny just like every time he tries to degrade anyone he says that they are doing my bidding don't let him play that game with you it's a destructive gaslighting intended to hurt you on a personal level read the response I sent to Kelly after his nonsense response to her it is just a game to him and a big payday no actual concern for Community students or staff if you let him he will hurt you but you can choose

051to not let him call your husband call the pastor or call me if you need someone to talk to being this way is his choice it does not have to be yours remember last week's sermon it may help um Jenny and I happen to attend the same church it's the only reason I put that part um this is not going to be resolved in this meeting you can look at my test my my survey results of those few questions it was a week long we got what 180 results you know people responded what have you it's not inadequate it's just enough to show us that there's a problem [Music] um this board is just too much and and anyone can say well it's all you well I hear it every time every time anything happens

052I hear it's all me um I hear all the things that I do or don't do that are 100% false FYI I'm gpsed everywhere go so I just want to ask if we're stay on top still speaking um but what I I want to to express is that I think everybody wants to do what's right by our teachers and it's not going to happen if we just keep going back and forth with who said what was said anybody wants to do a public records request on the emails feel free you'll get them probably next year but I think we need to find a way to move forward whether it's two surveys Dr zarba and the Teachers Association uh or whether they choose to do a combined one because at the end of the day it's

053our teachers that have to be in these trainings and have to do them possibly without pay and that's concerning so that's pretty much Ste yeah um my opin from the last meeting is Remains the Same um nothing has changed I I just I'm looking forward to getting some data that um from our teachers and from our staff because as I said before I haven't received any emails from um individuals at all uh supporting the work that Dr Dicky has provided their their campus and so therefore I compare it very much to standard based grading where you know you had a huge population of teachers that were not for it and didn't like it and then you had those that really liked it and majority of the ones that didn't like it hadn't tried it yet

054but this is a completely different situation and I'm not feeling like I said in the last meeting we really need to get these surveys out because they are what's going to provide us with the information we need to make the best most educated decision president paper Mr Karma thank you president paperman so back to the original motion uh my understanding of what the motion was is whether or not the board was going to determine whether or not we should reconsider the previously approved Cooperative agreement that wasn't necessarily a break the agreement or keep the agreement it was are we going to move forward and I'm I'm not trying to be disrespectful to anybody but it seems like we're in the weeds it was a very simple question and at the last meeting it was my

055understanding as well that we were waiting for a response back from the district Andor dve it wasn't clear to me as if there would be separate um surveys or a combined effort survey but I wasn't really expecting to have a survey today because we did have a week off for Thanksgiving and so I I mean we've got a motion we've got a second on the floor I think we I I find all the extra color commentary at this point irrelevant because we're not at the point of pro or disproving Dr Dicky's continued work with the district we're trying to figure out whether or not we're going to continue investigate this so I think we just need to have a vote to see if we're going to move forward with looking into this or if we're

056going to drop the issue and continue business as usual thank you president paperman may I say something H yes Mrs orway um Mr Carver and uh I guess for the rest of us I don't think we are in a place to make a a vote tonight I think we should table that along with the stipulation that the results from the joint survey because I believe that Miss Kelly fiser is there Kelly can explain whether or not um she was in any way shape or form uh I don't know forced to work with Dr zerck I mean she's there she can speak to it but at the end of the at the end of this we need to have the surveys survey or surveys and we need to have all of the information in by the

057December I think 14th meeting for us to be able to make some kind of a clearcut um information information and and data filled decision so I would say to not vote on any of it I would say to table that with the stipulation that that's the the end of the the line with the data that we would have the data to decide um intelligently with yes I think in order to make a very educated decision on the subject we definitely need to have the data we doing so is is not beneficial to anybody I I just want to to verify what Mr Carver is stating if you read the motion it says that the governing board will determine reconsideration of previously approved Cooperative agreement award to Scholastic that doesn't mean we're doing away with it

058it just means we're going to move forward to reconsider it which means we're going to move forward to do the survey we're going to move forward to do what needs to be done and or we're going to just not we vote no and it's dead in the water it just is done that's what the motion states so the motion isn't to get rid of of it it's simply to reconsider it so do we move forward do we vote Yes move forward and they do a survey or do we vote no and it's just move on in status quo well M Mrs fiser would you not like to have the stipulation that we just don't like say yeah we're going to we're going to rethink it I mean I would like to make sure that there

059is a solid stipulation um that we are going to use the data from these survey along along with whatever data else there is to use but I want to make sure that it is connected in concrete Not O So open-ended where it's like yeah we're going to think about it and I would like to make sure that the decision is made by the 14th so no matter which way it goes people have already plann their PD so on and so forth for the beginning of the year and if it changes then they can change that I don't want it dangling out there m Miss orway that's what this motion is it simply says that we're going to reconsider it it's not a motion to get rid of it it's not a motion to keep it

060it's just a motion to move forward and reconsider um yeah I got all that but what I want or what I would hope we would want is that there are concrete stipulations for reconsideration and that means that by the 14th we would have data that would give us the dis uh distinct information to decide what we're doing with it however what we're doing with it whether it it continues the way it is whether we get rid of it all together whether it's concentrated on two of our most needy schools that are so behind that they they could do with one-on-one I don't know but I I don't want it just to be open-ended I think that the motion should have the stipulation that we are going to use data from the surveys that's all and

061and I've read it I understand what it means I just wanted that stipulation there so we're not hanging it out there forever so do you want us to list what criteria we're going to use to reconsider at the very least I would like to say that we are going to be utilizing the data from the survey or surveys um from DVA and uh the district and whether they decide to merge or not I mean Kelly you're sitting there um we can ask her if that's what the direction they're going but I do want that stipulation in there I mean there can be other things that we utilize but we need to have those surveys to use that data because I hear from 15 people that say it stinks they're not getting paid I hear from

062another 25 that no no this is what we do then I hear from another 30 we kind of do that I want to have the facts not people's perspective I want the facts and then figure that out with facts and data and I don't know Mr simc you sound like you want that I I just I just don't want it to dangle M Mrs orwe U the the facts of we the teachers were ready to go with this survey until there was interfering with the district as board president I don't want it was going back and forth you Mrs but I'm going to because I've already heard all that I just need to know if there's anybody else that would like to have the data from the surveys that will be taking place uh to

063use for a decision on the 14th I don't really need to go backwards anymore because I've already heard that I don't want to spend too much more time on on going backwards I would like the data and I and I really would like the data like I said before for a very educated decision I do need I think we need to take into account that we were off for a week and then that's not a normal circumstances and that we're back on we've got a three solid weeks before the next break and we have we can get we can get the survey out this week and we'll have time to look through get results back have time to look through them and make an educated decision on December 14th okay I'm also I'm also requesting

064please do not put the teachers on the spot of like what the district sex or anything like that uh I'm here you know we all are here to advocate for our teachers please do not put them on the spot Mr Carver thank you president paperman I appreciate that um so I don't know how we get there from where we are since we have a first and a second somebody wiser than I would have but it it sounds like what many of us would like to see happen is for this to be a discussion topic with the results of the survey being made available at the time of the next board meeting no later than the next board meeting um to discuss this and I know I know that we want to get to the end

065of the rainbow this isn't meant to be a delay tactic so but it needs to be a discussion item um I don't know if it's possible to put a moratorium on whatever is going on with Scholastic and Dr Dicky between now and the end of the year so that we can get the bottom of it if we can take a pause on that for the few weeks that we have left so that we can iron this out that way if there is damage being done we've paused it um if there's not no harm no foul but then we can have all the information we need have the discussion session that this should have been um ideally with the survey but we didn't have time for that at least not in some of our minds with

066the holiday um but I think that accomplishes what this vote would have done without having the vote so I think that it's a good compromise if we come back with this as a discussion topic with the results so that we can beat this like we're doing right now and get to the bottom of it and then move from there and I realized and that's honestly not meant to be a delay tactic that's why I'm asking for moratorium put that in if we can put that in whatever we need to do in order to move this from what we're doing right now to a discussion topic next time with the caveat that we don't have any more Dr Dicky between now when a decision is made you have a couple different options you can do you

067can table it you can amend the motion or you can vote on the current motion those are your three options I think if we're going to amend the motion we need everybody to to to honor what Miss orway has requested everybody needs to list what their criteria is to make a decision so that we can include it in the motion so if we want to amend it we can do that um I think just putting a moratorium on on it we don't know that that's one of those issues where we have a unintended consequence um and and I'm concerned that that that also leaves it very open-ended so Mrs Fischer if I may ask then if we were to have voted yes on this what would that have resulted in when it comes to Scholastic

068and Dr doie doing business in the district now and when we would have next meeting to make a decision it wouldn't change anything they would still be able to function the only thing this motion does is means we can go forward to reconsider it and then next time it comes back on the agenda whether it's next meeting we could do put on the next meeting um it would have to come with whatever data or whatever we going to consider and each individual would consider it and then revote um at that time we would vote to stop it or continue it or whatever it is the board wishes um I don't I guess I understand Miss ordway's Desire for that criteria but I know it's frustrating when you just want something and you just can't you

069can't get anybody to cooperate so if she wants specifics then each person tell us what your specifics are we'll throw it into the motion I think we should yeah because I think we should continue with the voting and then do the survey for the next meeting and then see you know what dire once we see the data so if we I mean it's been very apparent to our staff what we're looking for and what we need so if we were to vote on the original motion that would be great um and if I could count on uh Mrs paperman Mrs fiser and Dr Finch to include this on the 14th um I guess we would call it old business which um Mr Carver would include discussion um oh well I guess it wouldn't yeah it

070would be old business or new business because we'll have voted on it tonight but anyway how whatever business it needs to be um agendized so it could be voted on I think everyone knows that we want the survey data so that's not going to be a surprise correct um so I would be okay with going with the original motion as long as um we are guaranteed that the people that make up the agenda will have this as a um item that can be action with much discussion inclusive of that golden information from the survey okay um I move to amend the motion to be that the governing board will determine reconsideration of the previously adopted Cooperative agreement award to Scholastics Inc to be reconsidered on December 12th at the next meeting with data I would

071second that motion okay I okay all those in favor first I the amendment the amendment Gary can you bring it up on the screen please do we not have to vote on the first one yeah this is just to vote on the amendment okay so we're going to do the second one before the first one that works correct so this this uh that is correct as written um so I just call for the vote on the amendment all those in favor all those in favor I I I and president P if I may yes okay I see that we have three so I'm going to go ahead and say this I I just want to point out that this is the kind of constructive conversation we can have to try to find common ground to

072move forward on things uh without without blowing each other up and without dragging everybody through the mud so I just I commend everybody for working the problem and trying to hear each other everybody did a great job and I I just thank everybody for participating okay now we need a uh we need to vote on the amended motion uh did did I I didn't hear how did we vote 5 on this amended 5 okay because oh here it is sorry mine just popped up so we're not voting on the original motion though now we're voting we voted to amend the motion to amended yeah yes five right so now this is okay so now we're just voting for the amended motion yes correct okay okay okay so we're voting for The amend amended motion right

073okay just to be clear okay all those in favor I I I thought we already voted on the amended motion no we have voted to amend it now we're voting to accept the amendment to be to yes that we're voting that work for me I Stephanie Miss Sim we need your vote okay thank you move on to okay moving on to item five cons agenda I move that the governing board accept consent agenda items 5 a through 5i second all those in favor I I all those that oppose I passes 5 thank you next item six action can I get a motion for item a I move that the governing board approve all employee professional development out of state per governing board policy gcce has presented second all those in favor say I all that

074oppose say nay I I I next Item B can I get a motion for Item B oh five can I get a motion for Item B just a second can I move that the governing board approve uh accept the administration's recommendation to pre-approve the agenda as presented second Mr M glorin there's any uh presentation for this President paperman there is no presentation for this all those in favor I I I all the oppose for my standard reason um because it is a tying students to raise funds to pay for salaries i u am going to have to vote no passes 4 One moving on to preview item number seven item a first reading of policy Iha basic instructional program Dr gallagan any presentation for this item president paperman um policy I ha basic instructional program

075is changed just by adding the the words literacy coach or literacy specialist at each school to the list of employees who can um satisfy the instruction for dyslexia training and that's all it is is adding the additional two staff um roles literacy coach literacy specialist may I say something Mr cver has a question thank you president paperman so Dr Gall gallagan just help me understand are these then considered extra tools to help identify the issues in the classroom or I I guess my concern when I first read it and I'll admit that I was probably not feeling well when I did so if I misread this I apologize um when I first read it my first inclination was that we were removing the responsibility from the Educators to identify this because then we would then

076have these other sources are these just meant to be additional sources and if so how many per School of those do we generally have um president paperman Mr Carver uh the way this the policy reads is that at least one individual on each campus has the um training for dyslexia and that would range um from a teacher in kindergarten for second and third grade we are adding um a literacy coach or a literacy specialist um those two roles are generally U reading Specialists who have the greatest knowledge um to help children read so it's not removing responsibility it is just adding two additional roles to potentially identify and support children who have dyslexia I if a group of schools share a literacy coach does that one literacy coach for those three or four schools count

077as that one person for those three or four schools do you understand my question I do okay um for the most part all of our k6 and K8 schools have their own um literacy or reading specialist and many of them have multiple okay thank you I appreciate that uh can I speak now yes Dr gallan um I am so excited about the change to this policy that actually um laser focuses on our children that have dyslexia and I think that the additional help and eyes um will really be able to identify and then um give give the help that they need so um is there any funding that we know or and I know that you guys look this stuff up all the time or grants from say the State Department of Education that would

078um help us uh for these teachers or or in some way get some help from them president paperman miss Ordway if I understand what you're asking is is there funding to provide additional um people to a campus to work with children who have dyslexia or are you asking is there funding to provide training for the individuals on that campus to support and work with children with dyslexia oh perhaps I was asking both of those questions how you read my mind and you can't even see me as awesome um I was yeah I was wondering if our State Department of Education was interested enough um in funding some of the extra support that these kids need I'm going to refer to Jim but we do receive K3 monies and those K3 monies are utilized mainly for

079reading specialists at our k6 and K8 campuses so we have been receiving K3 funds um for move on with raing for many many years and and that funding does support the additional staff at our schools as far as that is awesome thank you so much you're welcome okay moving on to Item B we're still in preview uh thank you president paperman members of the board Dr Finch have two policy updates to bring forward to you the first is JF BDA admission of students in foster care both of these policies updates that I bring to you have minor uh revisions uh the current one for uh jfab BDA has uh new language which essentially uh helps clear the way for students that are in foster care to make sure that they get access to uh school

080as uh easy as possible knowing that there are uh hurdles that are in the way for students that are in foster care uh one example here talks about the time frame and clarifies that within five days the best interest determination meeting uh should occur uh it should be noted that the district we already when when we work with our students in foster care we work as quickly as possible to get the students uh into our schools this clar ification for the 5 days is really for the uh partner that we're working with to make sure that they um know that it does need to be done within 5 days but again once it's known to us we work immediately uh to get the students in uh to our schools we would be recommending to accept

081asba language any questions governing board Mr Carver Dr zerbach I just want to thank the administration for taking this under consideration I'm keenly aware of the issues that the foster children in our neighborhood have and changing schools in in the last minute situation is a big challenge for them because of all the paperwork and everything that's in time that everybody took uh to put this together and get it in front of us thank you thank you I also have uh an observation if I may uh yes uh Dr zurc the um the little additions are actually kind of big for the kids so it's uh these are the kind of policies that you hear from our group home parents and our just in general foster kids they're very impressed with the fact that we move

082um quickly for these kids to either stay if it's determined to stay in the school even that they were in even though that's not their you know would be their home school or just to get them moved and the amount of uh support they get from the new schools is incredible so thank you very much thank you and I would give uh that credit really to Lisa Crane and her team as they really do uh work to get the students into school um as soon as possible uh in these situations I do have one question uh children with uh you know working in the classroom when I have students from Foster here you know they come and go if uh foster parents are moving around uh does the district have documentations you know each individual

083students that are coming in uh and they're going out uh because from my experience they come and go uh yes uh President paperman we have it's called the the bid or the best interest determination meeting and so when we have uh students that are in foster care that bid meeting occurs and so we do um have a system for that thank you okay moving to item C preview uh thank you again this is uh the second policy update and again the uh change or the update for jlh is very minor and it only speaks to a time frame uh alteration whereas previously schools had five days to uh request the records that now it has been changed to 10 days so again a very minor change for policy jlh and we would be uh recommending

084to accept that missing students I have a question um yes um Gary do you know um what the rationale is behind changing it to 10 days um I I do not miss Ordway any other questions so this suggestion for the change comes from this is from asba so the asba put this up well no I know I was just wondering if there was a rationale to give uh a longer amount of time that's that's the same thing I was wondering Miss orway is why why we would increase that especially uh missing missing students I don't know that it's a bad thing I'm just wondering if we're just that's aw so for missing students let me just clarify so the policy is um it's an interesting name for it it does speak to missing students from

085the literal meaning that it's a student who's missing and so there's policy language to this as far as what the school has to do with law enforcement if a student is missing but the policy also is speaking to just when a student leaves as school going to another school for a transfer so it's broader than um simply talking about a student who may be missing from uh the legal sense of the word um such as that there was a crime or something committed if that if that makes sense no it to me oh sorry to me it does and I know that we've got that 10day you know there's a lot of stuff that happens in 10 days like you get dropped from classes so on and so forth but I was just I was

086just wondering if what the rationale was I can I can call asba and see what the rationale was and I can do that um as well mway I can put that in Friday update I just find it concerning because in the previous we reduced it to two days but this one we're increasing it to days so if you look at the policy for for foster kids the records are are within two business days so then you come here now to the missing kids and it goes from five days to 10 days probably comes from the house bill that's on there per the house bill a 2060 and AR15 well does the house is the house bill that specific it must be we could check and then I can check again I did look at the

087house bill I didn't see an explanation for that um before so but I know it's difficult to get records as it is and a lot of times you know I mean um kids that are being moved often face challenges just like any other student I would hate to have it be 10 days and then that kid's not able to start school or um you can go from being an athlete kid that needs to get in quick because they're you know or you can go to a kid who's who's being moved because he's just extremely bullied and needs to be somewhere different and he needs his records that's just my concern I mean I just think I need to understand it before I could again I can I can bring when we come back for the

088second read I can bring more of that and I can also put Friday update I would really appreciate that like I said the rational is is interesting to me because there's so many layers to it okay thank you uh we're going to move on to superintendent report thank you I want to uh again thanks the kids that showed up today uh in our award ceremony just a shout out to them we uh had uh Boulder Creek swim team I think they won three state titles we had uh groups of kids that were here for that we also had earlier had uh ok Conor high school volleyball uh women's program there they went 34 And1 this year and won the op um the 6A Division and so they had a little Eagle walk today with a

089fir truck and through the student um brought all the students out and celebrated on campus and that was a great event and so we want to honor them we also honored uh before this meeting Jamie Hood as principal of the year for Deer Valley so congrats to her um also in the last bit Mountain Ridge won division one um marching band of the year uh won their division um and also uh that's a repeat they that's two times in a row now they had a perfect season last year and a perfect season this year that's three of the last five years I believe uh for their division the but also I want to mention that Goldwater um in their division was the runner up they had jumped from fifth place all the way to Second

090so that's a big jump for that program and we're excited about that um I went and watched though Deer Valley also performed on that day did a nice job as well then moved up as well but missed the podium I just want to thank to all the teachers and staff and administrators they're all working on uh different holiday programs for kids we do a lot of work with our um title schools um we also have companies that come in and and uh sponsor different schools and do different events the one that comes to mind was just happened last right before break a Chase Building donated 30 food boxes to four schools so 120 boxes of um foods for title families and so I want to give a shout out to them and I know a

091lot of different schools we pair up title and non-title schools and do Christmas um or holiday exchanges for kids that's pretty exciting to see that uh happen it happens a bunch in this District which is really great to see a little update too I wanted to give you an update on the um the giving Closet part two at Deer Valley Middle School for our title kids there that's coming along and they worked on it over break our goal is to try to get it done prior to uh the holiday break but if not we'll have a grand opening on the other side of the holiday break so um we again I thinkk chase is uh helping us out there as well I believe they're putting in some cabinets and things as we speak and last

092but not least I just just want to remind everyone that uh the winter sports season is rolling we had winter sports media day in his this room about a week ago and uh all it was great to uh promote our students and showcase uh all the great things that they're doing and uh just a reminder to board members and community members that there is with a district of this size 42 schools 4,000 employees 34,000 kids there is always something going on every night so if you want something to do you can go find it uh probably on the local school website or District website there's always something to go uh see if you want to see kids showcase their skills that's it thanks Mr [Music] Carver I don't have much for us this week it's

093been a short couple of weeks with the holiday I hope everybody was able to enjoy time with family and friends and celebrate the holiday way that you do best um just thankful for the opportunity to serve the community and to be a voice for you up here on the dis and um tomorrow I've got a meeting scheduled with the ALS team thank you Dr zerbach for honoring that so that I can get a little bit farther into understanding how those processes work and what challenges they may or may not face as a team and so I'm just thankful for the opportunity to work with uh each of the different teams that I've had a chance to meet with including the students and uh not students but the staff and the administration out in the schools

094uh we really do have a great team here in the de Valley School District and I'm just glad to be able to be back home and and be a part of it thank you Stephanie Mrs orway oh sorry I just sorry I was muted okay sorry um I hope everyone had a wonderful fall break and I'm looking forward to to this really want to emphasize again hearing from our teachers and staff regarding Dr Dicky's Consulting and their title one schools and I just want to encourage our teachers to please complete the survey so that we're you know getting all the information that we need and to just reassure them that we are listening and um we just need to hear their voice um I know this week and next week our high schools will be

095showcasing their amazing talents in our Performing Arts including winter dance performances and choir so if I stay Co free I'm looking forward to attending some of those events and also next week we have our annual Asda conference being held here in Phoenix so I look forward to attending that and finally I wanted to mention that the um North Phoenix Community angel tree which is coordinated by Miss Reed and Miss O'Brien two of our prior board members um is in full swing so if you need there's there's still families that are in need um it is filling up through Sign Up Genius but if anybody would like that link to just please shoot me a quick email I'm happy to send it over unless you've seen it kind of floating around I know it's been on

096social media and posted in lots of different parent Pages as well but if you're having a problem getting access to that link just let me know I'm happy to to to give it to you um so we can get our our dear Valley families um in need taken care of so thank you Mrs orway yes Mrs orway is here I would recommend that our students staff parents and Community stay strong till the end of the semester because I know we can all smell the beautiful pine scent of winter break and it will be here um in the blink of an eye so on that subject I want to make sure that when we in the classroom as teachers are giving our assessments and our grades that we're using correct assessments because I don't know that

097our district assessments are are lined up to be used um for an 80% grade so if somebody could make sure that we're keeping an eye on that so all of our students have um equity and what they're being graded on that would be awesome um I want to thank the community that has helped feed our families um I am looking so forward to uh watching our schools adopt other schools that we are keeping our food uh collection boxes in the family and as Mrs uh simek said um Julie and an are spearheading the adopting the families in our tital one schools to provide things for wants that they want although many of them when they ask for things it's for mattresses for their little sister because they've been sleeping on the floor for a while

098um nine times out of 10 these kids are asking for things for their mothers their dads and their siblings so please use the link that Mrs zimek is going to give you or did give you and try to to help at least part of a family and I would like the board members to remember that we are a team um we should be working together and not against each other and when we talk about um having staff or teach or um specific teacher um dealings we're not adversarial um we do work together and it's a good thing to um do things together because then we don't have to extrapolate information all over again and double the work so um I think it's a a good thing that we work together um the other thing I

099had asked for and I haven't seen anything yet was a report of our board president Andor uh vice president speaking to our uh lawyer because in our um policies it is the president of the board that can there is no uh default designation to the vice president that would be a design that the whole board would vote on and normally it's situation byit situation um also what is required is when there is an opinion given there is to be a report that is sent to the rest of the board so we know what we're spending our time and money on so I would ask to have that no later than um two weeks from now and other than that again stay strong I appreciate our staff students uh parents community and uh my fellow board

100members and all those people sitting at the table and all the way to the left of me would be Dr Finch and Sheila Mrs V uh let's start with something positive I hope everybody enjoyed your your turkey day and your families and all the stuff that goes along with it and I hope that nobody lost hair doing Black Friday shopping um I boycotted it years ago because I started just going okay I want that and sending my kids in because I too afraid um so hopefully nobody had that experience um I do want to get a request I don't know that it'll ever occur but um I want to review the amgs and the policies regarding uh bullying um regarding documentation and regarding uh board members um I am very pleased to hear that individuals

101are now being allowed to speak to staff um I know that uh three years ago when I sent an email to just greet uh cabinet was told that under no circumstances were board members ever allowed to speak to staff without direct permission um from the superintendent so I'm very glad to see that's changed um I'd like to see those uh amgs to see how that works um I I'm really disheartened um with the stuff that I I have received in the last couple weeks um our district has has is running on bullying um and it's it's administrative bullying and that occurs however um I was really sad to see that some of that group of parents who have been known to um well generally they go after me and I don't really care go ahead

102go after me um I have backup for everything I ever say but I was disheartened to see that they're going after the parents and other individuals who are just seeking to advocate for their family members I had a lot of people send me screenshots of of of these individuals being bullied by parents I'm asking you come after me all you want the little Squad like I call them the little Squad you want to go after me go ahead say mean things write more articles post more stuff on Instagram you know have the conversations with the finches I'm fine with that but don't beat up on other parents they're just advocating for their kids um and and I'm asking that you please stop doing that um I I agree with Miss Ordway I would like to

103know what's going on with an attorney we as a board do not have an attorney no matter how I have seen U Miss uh a paperman try to get an attorney to answer some of the minimal just hey this is can we just get an investigation can we just do uh she just she she meets a wall at all at all stations it is it is clear when we look at at email strings and and uh that that the superintendent has representation the board does not um and I apologize to anybody who has submitted uh anything that they want us to address um because I I don't think it's going to happen that's just my personal opinion [Music] um there is you know the only contact I've had with the attorneys either just responding with

104with Miss paperman if she's asked me to or she asked me to to receive a call because she had a meeting if if they call you take it um but no we have honored the fact that Miss paperman has contacted the attorneys and as a result we still um she's gotten nowhere unfortunately we don't have board representation um and so it would be great if we could get it it would be great if we could move anything forward for our community members who have submitted uh concerns but uh we can't even get an investigative attorney to investigate anything because it's considered done um so I I'm not sure exactly what other report beyond that Miss Ordway would like to have um this is where we're at we've asked I don't know how many times I'd

105have to look back at agendas how many times we brought forward that we wanted an a board attorney so that we could just meet with an attorney who was unbiased and and um answer questions I don't think anybody can get anything unbiased currently as we are at um if it goes One Direction they're going to say I'm biased against an individual if it goes another Direction and say someone else is biased against them we need an independent inves Ator to look at everything um and I just don't see a way to get that um and like I said we're coming up to the end of the year and uh come January there'll be a new board president and a new uh board VP and I don't think there will be anything that comes before the

106board that is not prescribed by Administration um so that's kind of where we're at uh it's unfortunate and and and and Mr uh nor I would I will publicly right here I will apologize I can't apologize for the board I cannot I cannot apologize for the administration and I cannot apologize for the the policies that are so poorly written that we have individuals that are being cycled and cycled and cycled we have tons of emails that we've all read um and I will apologize to the Hawkins family I I don't know what to say my heart is broken broken I've looked into the face of the little girls in this meeting and I don't know what else to say I'm sorry that's it so I had a parents uh staff and even community members since

107we were talking about the survey last week uh especially the parents from DB USD parenting action uh they wanted some parents wanted me to make sure I talk to the teachers at DVA uh to let them know uh to make sure uh they do a survey that is going to me measure what the issues are within the schools uh the previous Service uh there was a lot of unhappy teachers and parents with SPG that DVA completed uh it really didn't meas sure what the concerns were so uh I request the DVA when you do your questions can you please uh share it with the board uh and then we can give feedback we want to make sure that there's full transparency here and to have interference uh with the district so I'm one once again

108let the parents take action not I was going to bring this uh to the board um I also have to say uh that as board president uh it's been very frustrating that community members will send uh concerns or or for something to be looked upon and I know I have stated in the previous board meetings that I am not an attorney uh I send information to Dr fench uh uh send information uh to the district attorney and I can understand you know being in education for many years a district attorney no matter what uh they're going to stand by for what is best for students uh and I understand you know that no matter what students come first uh we got to make sure that uh especially with Lo suits that you know we're protecting

109you know our students budget but I do agree with Mrs fiser that the board should have their own attorney for questionings uh we're we're not attorney we you know I didn't go to school you know to study the law yeah you know the board should have their own attorney when you have parents or community members with concerns if I cannot get you know clarification you know with the district then the board has their own attorney to get clarification you know for full transparency so I hope that uh whoever becomes Bard president for next year that they'll put this on the agenda you know to to support the community to support the teachers to support the parents uh once again you know the district attorney is always going to stand by to what's best for the

110students from my experience at Deer Valley uh Mrs Fisher she's been long longer on the board and and what I seen so far uh it's been a challenge and I have been very frustrate frustrated uh also with mental health uh I would like to know how the district uh is assessing students uh to make sure that they're getting the support that they need with mental health what process do we have in place you know in the schools you know yeah if do we have counseling in every school or you know how are teachers trained you know to to support these students uh I understand that teachers have a lot on their plate but it's also very important you know to look you know to make sure that our students are getting the support that they

111need I know in the past I have requested for social worker I have stood that will say when I graduate I don't have a place to go do we have a process in place where these students can go to get resources or Direction uh so I'm hoping that moving forward that the district will look at Mental Health social workers and counselors uh to make sure that our students have the resources that they need paper I just add just one thing that that I forgot and it just goes right into what you're saying please remember that the number 988 the phone number 988 is uh for our uh students for uh mental health issues that they need to talk to someone thank you for letting me interrupt you okay thank you Mrs orway and I also

112would like to know Mrs orway requested for uh the board president vice president well you know how much money have we ban you know like so I would like to know also can you please include Dr Finch and provide to the board because Dr Finch also uses attorney so can you provide you know what does the board spend and what Dr Finch spends with the attorney so and can you please provide that to all board members and thank you uh I hope everyone have a wonderful week and Dr fin stated that there's going to be events going on and I will be looking what Chila has stated looking every school see you know what events are available and If works with my time I will attend have a good evening thank you uh can I

113have a motion to adjourn I move to we adjourn second all those in favor hi hi hi hi