DVUSD Governing Board Meeting December 12, 2023

001School District on Tuesday December 12 2023 I call the meeting to order at 703 letter reer reflects that all board members are present uh Mrs orway Mr Carter Miss uh stepanie they're all on the phone right okay if you're able to stand please do so and join me for the Pledge of Allegiance and Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all you may be seated can I get a motion to adopt the [Music] agenda I move that we adopt the agenda as presented is there a second second I have a motion and a second to adopt the agenda all those in favor please say I all the oppos say nay I we're going to

002move on to item three district report item eight Finance uh Mr M lorino do you have a presentation for this uh president paperman uh just an oral presentation this evening uh so uh members of the board Dr VCH um we have the November M report to share with you this evening uh I am uh want to report that the uh m&o report for November will look uh very similar to the October report um not a whole lot uh that's noteworthy here still reporting that we have $12.5 million of unallocated funds in fiscal year 24 uh again that was uh 4 million was by Design uh in the budget that was um uh created through the process that we use annually and then the state provided an additional $8.4 million wor a one-time funding after the

003budget was uh created through our regular process so uh the combination of those two adding to the $12.5 million uh we are not bringing a December budget revision to the board this uh this year uh because the state department of education has not uh updated all of the information to be able to uh adjust the budget so we're still uh showing the working budget here of $277 million um it is worth noting that we are funded on current year funding our enrollment uh has been down consistently through the um beginning of the the school year so we do have a note at the bottom here showing that the ADM uh an ADM reduction of 1% which is where we think we might land it says $2 million that that should actually be $2.2 million uh

004we'll get that corrected on future reports uh so that is not included in that $ 122.5 million so uh if you were to net that together you're U looking at more like $10.3 Million worth of unallocated funds currently in the current year budget uh the negotiation solution team uh met uh this afternoon and continues to meet throughout the year uh we be looking at options um the group I will report uh tonight uh was there was a consensus amongst not that we voted but um that there was an agreement uh amongst the group that uh there wasn't any decisions that U that the group wanted to make regarding that $10 million um at least in the immediate future uh they want to make that decision sometime in the second semester uh of how those funds

005would be allocated I'd be happy to answer any questions the board might have any questions board members just one um Mrs Fisher so are you expecting to to end up with an ADM of of one down because the last report I mean we've been running about 1.3 1.4 the last one was 2% so a year I mean obviously it's average of the first 100 days but are we expecting it to be at one or is it going to be greater than uh president paperman miss fiser uh it's uh we used the 1% so that we can do some quick math on that um if it was uh 2% we would double it if it was half of it if it was half a percent we would just cut it in half so it's just it's

006there as a reference uh we are expecting something close to a 1% reduction uh it will actually be based on the weighted student count um and there have been uh again one of the numbers that the state department doesn't have uh again the reason we're not doing the December budget revision is the group b weights um might be uh an increase so there may be an offset between enrollment and group E weights that uh it's closer to 1% thinking thank you any other questions Bard member no so I do have oh Mrs orway uh I think that was Mrs Sim um I don't have any questions yeah and this check doesn't have any questions either okay I have a question can you explain to the community members uh what happens when enrollment goes down with

007our budget uh you to let them know how does how that affects uh when it comes to the allocation uh certainly uh president paperman the uh so the way the funding formula works in the state of Arizona is we get funded based on the average daily membership uh which is kind of a an assimilation of the number of students that are enrolled in the uh in the district uh so if the number of students increase then the amount of funding that the district received increases uh conversely if the um number of students decreases or the average daily membership decreases then there would be a reduction uh hence the note that we have um uh placed at the bottom of the m&o report for the month um that a 1% reduction would equal about $2.2 million

008for the past three years uh how much enrollment has gone down is is it consistency like uh like the number of students that uh have gone of the enrollment going down yeah president paper mid so uh there it hasn't been consistent um some of those years include the pandemic and so there was a considerable decrease if you look back to just a year ago there was actually an increase in the number of students uh a year ago uh and in this particular Year we're experiencing decline so it has varied um over the the last several years okay thank you next we're moving on to item four call to the public Mrs Fisher uh please read the admonishment and close speakers we do have 11 speakers um so you will have 2.72 minutes um unless they

009want to adjust three it's Circle you fine three minutes so she will adjust it up to three yeah um so I'm going to go and call the names um go ahead and come up to the podium and then I'll read the admonishment for everyone uh um Janette scos uh Jennifer Dil uh Christy Kroger creger Alexis Reed Larry scus Matt Timberville Kelly fiser Jerry no Josh Hawkins Tiffany Hawkins and Ty Mullen the board invites public comments on the district's business in general and on any agenda item in specific all speakers must observe the rules of decorum speakers must fill out the card listing the name address topic and hand it to the board secretary prior to the president calling the meeting to order speakers must make their comments in no more than 3 minutes if necessary

010to 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 remark disparaging personal dignity are not in order and will not be allowed under the Arizona open meeting law governing board cannot 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 a matter or ask that a matter be put on a future agenda go ahead and St uh step up to the mic state your name for the record and then you every three minutes hello okay my name is uh Janette scopus and um I'm Al also speaking for my daughter and her family and our three grandchildren who and we all live in the Deer

011Valley um School District um tonight I'd like to speak in support of adopting the 678 8 uh McGraw Hill Ela curriculum over this past school year and last I've been impressed with our dear Valley School District's educational Specialists one their preparedness for board meetings and varied topics two their knowledge base three and their commitment to support the board superintendent and others in a professional manner four if they cannot answer on the spot it seems they say so no guessing because of that I see and I hear their integrity their honesty a strong work ethic and sometimes even a sense of humor and know I'm not related to any of them um so my question respectfully is this why or even better how is it that now doubts appear as to this review team's capacity to

012assure the board of their steadfast commitment that this adoption of the 678 MC mcra Hill Ela curriculum is the best for teachers to teach and for students to learn as I understand this curriculum was widely supported by the review team as well as the public input out of the three Ela programs reviewed compared and contrasted to the satisfaction uh to all um by adopting then Are we more in the mode of Forward Thinking in other words attracting and retaining teachers which help attract more families into our dear Valley Public Schools please reconsider your votes for the majority of our families versus the minority but um we all want the best for our teachers and our students in our Public Schools working with robust curricula please reconsider your votes thank you hi I'm Jennifer dyel and

013I am a seventh grade ELA teacher at Highland Lake School here in the Deer Valley uni School District I'm also the parent of a current seventh grade student who will be an eighth grade student in the district next year and I would also like to speak in support of the McGrath Hill study sync curriculum as a veteran teacher who has previously attained the highest student Ela growth on the state reading and writing test in the past I have reviewed this curriculum myself and I do believe that it is our best option moving forward to teach the standards in a rigorous and effective Manner and as a parent I believe that it is an acceptable and useful tool for my son to learn and to hone his skills in English language arts thank you good evening

014my name is Christy Kroger and I am the proud parent of both a seventh grader and an 11th grader here in the district as well as an award-winning educator here in the district to be in alignment with best practices Educators need access to a guaranteed and viable curriculum that allows for the explicit instruction of the skills in each essential standard Research indicates that exposure to different genres and mediums allows for deeper connections and higher engagement in learning outcomes every day in classes across the district students learn that reading is thinking they make predictions and Connections in firm meaning ask questions summarize the text and visualize the setting and stories with the current curriculum of collections set to expire the ELA adoption committee comprised of Educators with Advanced degrees District staff with a deep pedagogy of

015learning and community members committed to ensuring the next generation of students think critically and right intelligently came together to pour over curriculums that meet the needs of students today the study sync program through McGraw Hill which has been proposed for adoption presents students with opportunities from learn to learn from the great Classics such as Moby Dick and engaging modern literature such as Hatchet a beloved novel by many students here in our district the curriculum also addresses strategies to unlock learning for hundreds of our El Learners who are learning language acquisition skills in addition to those literature and informational standards professor and organizational psychologist Dr Adam Grant States it takes curiosity to learn it takes courage to unlearn I encourage the board to demonstrate courage and curiosity by digging deeper into the proposed Ela curriculum and

016reconsider adopting it for Middle School Ela I encourage you to ask questions of the committee about how the curriculum meets the state standards how it engages students in classical and modern literature and how the learning that comes from this curriculum will meet the rigor required for the Next Generation of global thinkers thank you hi I'm Alexis Reed and I'm a Community member in uh Dear Valley former teacher and grandparent I was able to watch a link for the ELA Ela curriculum which looks very stimulating to me not like the old English classes of the day happen you're short I uh did see many book titles flash by that are on many band Book lists I wonder if that was a problem for some on the board I am concerned that the 91.7% of the committee

017recommended this curriculum yet you aren't willing to accept their recommendation um Dr gall's expertise headed up this commit Committee of knowledgeable teachers and parents I was quite frankly flabbergasted to hear some say there weren't enough blonde blue-eyed students represented just look around this room you could say that about our meetings I hope the board will reconsider voting for this curriculum thank [Applause] you good evening uh Larry scopus my wife had already mentioned that we have three grandchildren here in the district I just had a few comments as well about the U mcra Hill program as I look around the room I think there are probably a few of us that grew up in the 1950s with uh Dick and Jane Fun with Dick and Jane I I don't know how much fun it was but

018we learned to read with those primers and um it worked for first and second graders for the most part however we're talking about sixth through eth graders now and we need to do more than just learn to read we need to read to learn as they say and I think that after reviewing what has been presented to the board by those who spent a lot of time looking at the various curriculums the board really needs to take a second look at the uh program and adopt the recommendations now I was a career prosecutor um for many years and as a prosecutor I relied on Expert Witnesses all the time and we do that because we want to give the best information we can to jurors so they can in make an informed decision and reaching

019a verdict we look at experts for their expertise believe it or not and it's because lay people for the most part don't have that same knowledge so we don't I don't go down the street asking Dick and Jane whether or not they have an opinion as to whether the uh victim of a homicide had a particular uh cause of death I I talked to the pathologist and I give the information through the pathologist an expert so I asked the board again give deference to the expert in this situation you're not you weren't elected for your political views or at least I hope not because this is a nonpartisan position that you hold I hope that you fully understand that we're all here for the best interest of our students here in the district and I

020implore you really to adopt the McGrath Hill program thank [Applause] you my name is m turberville I'm a resident of the district and I have a son in Sunset Ridge um you know I look through the curriculum and uh it looks to me like probably where the controversy is coming from is in these units which have a lot of books and essays and poems that sort of thing and some of them look like they came from a very uh very diverse viewpoints and perhaps some of them discussed uh some hard truths um one of the things I'll say is first thing I thought is I said man there's a lot of stuff in here I mean you talking about books and books and lots of stuff so clearly to me all of this stuff is

021not going to be uh covered in a year I mean these kids aren't going to be reading you know 10 books a year for class plus poems and essays they're going to receive some of this stuff um um so it's not all of that not all of that stuff is going to be read there's going to be a selection um I just know in my life I've uh read a lot of books I enjoy history I read a lot of history and I've read a lot of different kind of History I've read some history that was that I still enjoy reading that's very that that that talks very positively about the our country and all the the triumphs and achievements and all the good things we've done I've read some other books that like I

022say have some hard truths I can't think of any of that stuff that made me embarrassed of who I was or embarrassed to stand up here and pledge the flag or anything like that what it did for me is it uh gave me a broader understanding of uh the country I live in and the people in it and an appreciation of um everybody in it and uh I don't know I just uh I I've never read an idea where whether I agree with it or not that uh at the end of the day I regretted learning about that idea I mean it taught me some truth gave me maybe an enhanced Viewpoint or a different Viewpoint maybe I disagreed with it and discarded it entirely but at the end of the day I just uh

023I I didn't see anybody in there was going to hurt anybody to learn so that's my thoughts good good evening my name is Tate Molen and I'm the ELA co-department chair at Barry Goldwater High School I also support the 68 Ela study sync McGraw Hill curriculum I was disappointed to see the school board vote against the adoption of this curriculum while I was not a part of the adoption committee I believe it sets a poor precedent and sends a dangerous message to stakeholders when the school board invalidates the process and disregards the hard work and time of volunteer teachers and parents to vote against a committee recommendation without at least asking for more information or clarification personally I don't want to be a part of any District committee if my time is going to be

024disregarded by the school board and my hard work thrown away without the school board asking the committee for additional information I would ask the school board to please reconsider the curriculum committee's recommendation and honor the time and effort put into this recommendation by the stakeholder volunteers thank [Applause] you good evening my name is Kelly fiser I am the dve President and at heart a kindergarten teacher in the district for 22 years um I wanted to stand here tonight and thank some uh staff members and uh administrators and office staff across the district um we visited six schools the week before Thanksgiving break and um I wanted to thank all of them uh publicly we visited desert sage Berry Goldwater Mirage Desert Mountain Mountain Ridge High School and Stetson Hills and um truly everyone was very

025welcoming um the office staff as we all know at every campus is absolutely amazing and all of the administrators we had a chance to work with were just fantastic and um super supportive of us being on campus and very welcoming um and I wanted to take a moment over the last month we've done this big membership blitz and um I've thanked a lot of people um for helping me uh with this crazy idea um but I wanted to take a moment and thank Kim lenise and the Park Meadows staff especially their office staff um they spent a lot of time they provided a a a space for us to use um to sort of mobilize from and they welcomed everyone from aea and dve onto the campus um in and out throughout crazy times 7:00

026in the morning till 4:00 in the afternoon and um they could not have been more accommodating and I appreciate that and I wanted to make sure that everyone knew how amazing the Park Meadow staff is um and I just wanted to take a moment to announce that um at the last meeting I said we were very close to majority status and we have since achieved and surpassed that goal and for the first time in a very long time we have um well over 50% of our certified staff as members of the union and this is a very exciting time for me and I just wanted to um say that I think that it's a great opportunity for us to start um to continue to build relationships with all of our colleagues across the district and

027to do the good work for our students so thank you very [Applause] much good evening chairman paperman board member fiser public fate staff I'm reallyy happy to see that at least two board members can make it here in person to their meeting state your name for the record please I'm sorry my name is Jerry no I was suggesting maybe we can get some cardboard cutouts fill the seats there that would be kind of neat I'm here to speak about uh discussion item 8A I believe it's been on the topic for board meetings four to five times I'm a little confused about some of the information I've heard a lot apparently this is regarding a $400,000 Consulting contract a contract that's not transparent to the public so I have no idea what's in it but there's

028some controversies around it I've heard child molesting concerns I've heard problems where the teachers don't feel they need it that they're not getting paid for the time that uh they can do it inhouse so I'm confused about where we're at with this it feels like uh we're spending money to spend money and I'm not sure where it originated from or who got this started or who's backing this but I also have not heard anything positive about this again it's the fifth time it's been up on the board docket I wondering what we're going to do about it and where we're going with this um apparently we hired this consultant with no background check I'm not sure how that can happen uh I'm not speaking factually about anything because the transparency of this district is very

029poor and all we can go by is what we hear around the district so I'd like a lot of clarification on this issue child molesting is a serious crime a serious concern $400,000 is a lot of money and our kids education and their safety are at stake so I just want to thank you for this time and I wish everyone a Merry Christmas and God bless Joshua Hawkins good evening board when you sign for a license you're agreeing that you have studied the rules and laws of the road practice and are ready to join other drivers when you do this you're agreeing to the whole law not the rules that you want to follow or are convenient if you're pulled over for a violation your ignorance of the law is no excuse and you are

030punished laws govern all not some no exceptions consequences are issued equally from the least to the greatest of leaders no great leaders are here tonight but my point Still Remains this district has admitted in several meetings that they are at fault for ongoing issues the students face they' have admitted their policies are flawed they need better training and they can do better complying with the law everyone in the ALS team has agreed change is needed trust is the other necessary component to change we no longer trust this District as we mentioned before when in 2018 those parents came forward and said enough is enough of us losing our kids they brought you the issues then the lack of enforcement holding students accountable for their actions and words those parents begged for change then demanded documentation

031stronger policies and to notify parents to prevent this level of loss from happening again but what have you done the only tangible change was adding the word harassment to a policy the amgs were never even updated which is the worst part since the amgs are the superintendent's instructions to the staff on how they are to carry out these policies so you kept doing it the same old way and updated the policy just for show you continued to willfully misinterpret the grammar of the policy to fit your view rather than make actual policy change that can better this District we have done nothing more than attempted to advocate for change to fix the future for all students and yet it feels like we are being punished for wanting better this Administration has intentionally dragged its feet

032at every step taking till the end of deadlines waiting till the end of the day to respond and providing incomplete requests we finally got records from our schools but it seems a little light no surprise all the previous records of any harassment forms be completed or reported are not present this District inadequately trained the principles of proper recordkeeping in all aspects some were not reported at all While others were recorded and somehow in the district's move up policy failed to move up after the school schol sent us to the district then the district sent us to the schools then the district took over and stated that they would gather them but then the schools gave them us anyway the runaround was not needed it was confirmed recently that Dr Z instructed them to withhold our

033records until we could collect everything for us we requested these months ago and were made to wait three additional weeks while they sat printed on a desk until the admin said so while they were instructed to not contact us either we were trying to reach out to report another harassment issue repeated from a similar student and we were ignored Dr Z I recently referred to you as a fallace to a district staff member they said they've heard it both ways and I guess it could be Tiffany Hawkins good evening board in 2018 your policy was only Changed by a few words to quote Miss Moffet again if we put something out there and never please don't use staff members name thank you okay uh if we put something out there and never touch it again

034you'll never use it and she's sitting right there uh well I have a few words for you to add this year enforcement oversight compliance training standards without actions these are simply words on a page ironically words on a page is what brought us here if we simply use what Miss Moffett advice was to use policies we can prevent and repeat of the tragedy in 2018 enforcement of your existing policies would have prevented the months of torture we have gone through with this District by using your investigation forms following proper procedures and documentation the issues and follow through with discipline you would have shown a district that uh District that cares about kids and cares about the rules you fail to document any case in a way that could be tracked and referred back to this

035prevents ever reaching aggravated circumstances and elevating your discipline for students who fail to follow the rules after repeatedly receiving interventions by failing to implement the policies and enforce them you have taught the students they are not accountable for their actions or words or how it has affected those around them by allowing this Behavior to grow you have now taught your staff they also are not held accountable for their actions and words both students and staff are held to the same standards of basic conduct this builds trust and see in the community when we see the rules are being used properly at least you're consistent you allow students to physically assault each other without documenting or discipline the same way you allow Dicky and other certified staff to have multiple levels of misconduct against staff and

036other students and walk away without consequences for the bad behavior I was lucky enough to be invited to an attend a recent ld3 meeting where two of our board members spoke on the community uh issues we face in how we are dealing with it another local mother asked does your District have a bullying problem Paul Carver stated there's a lot of holes in the policies we're hoping the administration is working on it eventually we're going to have to do something about it the biggest problem is is the inability to force the policies and not everyone is being held to the same standard we have the best policies in the world there's just no one enforcing them I want to thank him for speaking up it gives me hope that our cries are being heard and

037others recognize it's time for change these are the words we have been saying all along we need to face the truth this just hasn't changed at all since 2018 when students lives were also being lost to harassment and bullying VP Kim Fischer followed up by saying bullying is on an ongoing issue amongst staff students and District admins students are still taking their own lives and something needs to be done so what are we going to do are we going to throw around a few words on a policy and then ignore Miss moffett's advice and never use it again I firmly believe from the moment on the district needs to find a way to implement a team to perform oversight on these policies oversight to confirm they are doing what it says and everything is is

038complying with the law new training that stresses uh the vital need of to document any and all behavioral incidents in power schools where Panorama can then analyze the data properly okay okay we're moving on to item five o o business uh do I have a motion to approve item a hold on let me get back to the agenda I love B dogs not tonight I move that the Govern board approve policy Iha basic instruction program as recommended second Dr gallagan do you have a presentation for this President paperman I presented at the last board meeting and there have been no changes all those in favor say I all that oppos say n i uh 5 moving to Item B do I have a motion to approve Item B I move that the governing board approve

039policy jfab da admission of students and Foster Care as recommended second Dr zurar is there any presentation for this item uh president paperman similar to Gigan said I presented this one at the last board meeting and there's been no changes all those in favor say I all that oppos say nay I I I I do I have a motion to approve item C I move that the governing board approve policy jlh missing students as recommended second Dr zurbach any presentation for this uh president paperman no presentation however the board did ask for a followup as to uh why the change was made from 5 to 10 days and it was due to a change in state statute and so this uh board policy reflects that change which any questions yeah which statute changed uh president

040paperman miss Fischer I would need to look that up that was with legal counsel uh sent that over I can put that in Friday's update for you all those in favor say I all the oppose hi hi hi um I just want to verif clarify my vote without knowing statute and checking it so only reason I'm going to vote no not that I'm against it um but I just think we need we're going to take a a large jump that's not in other policies I need to understand why do I have a motion to approve oh for one okay do I have a motion to approve item D any oh did you no president paperman if I may yes we have a presentation for you based on U meeting with the 68 Ela adoption committee

041yesterday okay do we have a motion yet uh Mrs Fisher any motion I I do not have a motion at this time um because I don't know what to move on so if another board member has a motion that they know of um welcome to make one so we make a motion to adopt the 68 English language arts curriculum Mater material adoption as recommended are you making that motion uh yeah I'm making that motion what the motion is second okay Stephanie second uh any questions on this item D oh she she has oh she yeah Miss is yeah presentation thank you president paperman president paperman members of the board Dr Finch teachers administrators parents and Community tonight Kathy white director of academics and assessment and I will present additional information for the 68 Ela adoption

042you will see DaNell Stevenson sitting behind me who is our 612 Ela curriculum specialist and facilitator of the adoption committee and members of the ELA adoption committee are here as well seated over here to my left the 68 adoption committee met yesterday afternoon to reiew the board comments and as a committee identify a next step tonight we will discuss the items that you see on this screen the purpose for coming back to you the adoption process why study sync and then again our 68 Ela adoption as I mentioned the 68 Ela adoption committee met yesterday to discuss the board's decision not to approve the adoption committee's recommendation of the curricular resource for the 2425 school year because the governing board because of the governing board's 32 vote the committee reconvened to discuss how to move

043forward the committee felt that it was important to emphasize their commitment to the adoption process and their conscientious application of all of the steps of the process they also wanted to ensure that the governing board was fully informed on the reasons the committee recommended mcra Hill's study sync finally the committee discussed next steps and would like to share those thoughts with the board for consideration this evening we will take a few moments to explain the process every adoption in Deer Valley follows including this one the 68 Ela adoption they follow a timeline you will find in front of you or in board docs a copy of the adoption timeline and tasks that every adoption goes through our K5 math did as well as the 68 Ela just so you can see the scope of the

044work that is involved in an adoption process I'll turn it over to Kathy now thank you president paperman members of the board Dr Finch teachers administrators parents and Community the ELA adoption committee was diligent in the duties that they were entrusted to carry out to make a curriculum resource recommendation including adherence to the Arizona revised statutes dealing with textbook adoptions and to the governing board policies of JJ and jjr which list the requirements for adoption committees committees must ensure that recommended resources support and enrich the school curriculum and to meet the personal needs of the students recommended resources are appropriate for the subject area and for the age emotional development ability level learning styles and social development of students for whom the materials are selected resources that are recommended provide a background of information that

045will motivate students to examine their own attitudes and behavior to comprehend their duties responsibilities rights and privileges as participating citizens in our society and to make intelligent judgments in their daily lives resources that are recommended provide information on differing sides of issues so that users May develop the practice of critical analysis resources are recommended for the atypical student as well as for the average student resources are recommended for their strengths rather than rejected for their weaknesses and shall be judged as a whole and recommendations support and are consistent with general education goals of the district and goals and objectives of specific courses within the legisl ative and District policies the adoption committee adhered to the framework outlined by the Deer Valley processes and curriculum Department procedures for communication team selection public notifications and review rubric

046creation vendor interactions and consensus building the process for the 6th eth grade ELA adoption began in February 2023 with the creation of the timeline and Committee Member recruit M materials in March of 2023 the governing board was notified of the plan to commence an adoption process for 6th through 8th grade ELA materials the proper committee forms were submitted and recruitment of committee members began committee members were selected based upon a random selection process with the guidance of the purchasing department communication to vendors to request letters of intent was delivered in April committee members made up of Deer Valley teachers campus administrators parents and Department staff began their meetings this team developed the adoption selection rubric reviewed the materials submitted by vendors and as a team selected semi-finalist vendors they also engag with selected vendors during

047vendor presentations the 68 Ela team then dis selected finalist vendor curriculum resources to put forward for a 60-day public review and submitted resource software requests to isnt for evaluation meeting minutes were posted on the district website promptly following each meeting of the committee the public review period of the final three vendors began in May 2023 communication of the public review was conducted in multiple formats including emails to parents and teachers the district website posters at District sites and schools the pachar parent flyer system and meetings with teachers and staff the public review period concluded in August 2023 and the committee met to review the public input 85 people submitted feedback during the public review just under 92% identified McGraw Hills 68 study sync as the top resource for deer valy students and teachers the teachers

048administrators and parents and Department staff did due diligence in reviewing all feedback submissions to determine a final 68 Ela curriculum resource recommendation to the board utilizing the feedback from the public review their own rubric ratings information gathered from the V G presentations and the isnt evaluation the committee came to consensus for a final recommendation which was presented to the governing board on November 14th for review and questions on November 28th the governing board voted against the committee's recommendation since there is not an option to renew the current curriculum materials because the materials are end of life and no longer available the committee met on December 11th to discuss possible next steps as you have heard this committee made up of many teachers Educators and parents diligently engaged in the lengthy and arduous process to recommend

049the most appropriate feasible reasonable aligned and robust possible Pro product knowing that they carried a high level responsibility and Trust for the organization and for the district's students the recommendation was made after considerable research on each each of the vendor products the 68 uh Ela adoption committee met last night to review the board's feedback from the last board meeting the committee considered options for how best proceed and we'll be sharing their thoughts with you now there are several reasons why study sync was favored in comparison to the other products first study sync is well aligned with the ELA Arizona State Standards it is comprehensive in addressing the rigors of those standards in fact it was built to meet the new requirements in Arizona's Ela standard development that go far beyond what is taught in classrooms

050even just a decade ago for example the Arizona State Standards require collaborative discussion with diverse Partners building on others ideas and expressing their own clearly within grade level topics texts and issues per the comprehension and collabor collaboration section of the Arizona College and Career ready standards with a district that has more than doubled the number of English language Learners from 630 is students just a year and a half ago to 1,500 English language learner students currently the strength of the elll supports was an important component that the team identified the committee liked that the product can be customized to meet the needs of our district and Community by regulating access to the content Andor features a big plus was the platform's ease of use for both the teacher and the student side as is true

051for all of our sister districts we all have many new teachers to the profession in Dear Valley we have our teacher prep program program teachers who are in the classroom and also a plethora of teachers within their first three years of Prof of service the committee appreciated how higher level thinking skills and critical thinking opportunities were built into the 68 Ela resource the parent dashboard was the most robust of the products considered and included mobile access availability a standout feature of this resource is the consumable materials provided which were a highly valued item for our Middle School teachers especially sixth grade study sync embeds support materials to Aid teachers in addressing the needs of students at a variety of proficiency levels with scaffolded supports and enrichment or extension activities the committee noted that the product

052meets the furpa Copa and other industry standards for protecting students personal information during the committee meetings me committee meeting on December 11th the team discussed the concerns voiced or shared by some members of the governing board regarding their recommendation of study sync by McGraw Hill the committee participated in three different breakout sessions or teams to collaborate together during the breakouts the committee members accessed access the public demo site to look for the concerns comments from the public and select and select board members comments although no specific examples of the concerns were provided by members of the board the team re-reviewed the resource materials to try to locate anything that could be construed as critical race Theory or similar items or the lack of diverse population representation and were unable to uncover any examples in the

05368 study sync the breakout teams recorded their comments and shared the information with the whole group our committee came to a consensus in August for study sync resource at the November 28th board me meeting the board voted 32 as a no the concerns brought up prior to the vote were not shared with me Mrs White Miss Stevenson or members of the ELA committee prior to the board voting a common question the committee had con had about the concerns focused on um where the content was found in regard to the public and board member comments on critical race Theory and other um areas of diversity they recorded their comments and questions on a shared slide as I mentioned and as a group came to consensus to continue with the original recommendation the committee then returned to

054the main room where all members were a part of the zoom and shared their slide and asked many more clarifying questions committee members individually voted anonymously choosing one option from three in the Google form that Google form included um take back study sync hmh or um no curriculum adoption for next year 27 of the original 30 members committee members provided feedback for tonight's agenda item three parents were in attendance last night and one parent watched the meeting recording and then voted four parents par total two administrators were in attendance 18 teachers were in attendance representing sixth through 8th grade levels gifted special education El and DVA uh union representative three teachers watch the zoom recording and provided feedback afterward 21 teachers total as a team the committee again did due diligence in researching and responding

055to the board's comments from the November 28th board meeting after the breakout moments the committee members individually again and anonymously completed that Google survey before leaving the meeting four committee members who were unable to attend as I said responded in the Google survey as well the committee continues to believe study sync is the best resource for deer Valley's middle school students and teachers in addition to the reasons you have heard the financial cost differential between the three resources is very different study syns cost for 5 years is is $783,000 hmh is $1,781 7 almost $300,000 more and amplify the third um resource on public review is 1,132 46 almost 330,000 more the ELA adoption committee feels that they met their responsibility and obligation with due diligence openness and use their Professional Knowledge experience and time

056in the classroom or as a parent with a child in one of our Middle School schools or entering Middle School these teachers Educators and parents value the trust you and the community placed in their hands they have followed the rigorous adoption process thoughtfully considered all of the input and have now provided additional information to address the governing board's expressed concerns as a group they respectfully request that the governing board reconsider their vote on the 6th through 8th grade ELA curriculum resource adoption in favor of mcra Hill study sync in light of the information provided this evening also in the Friday update you received this past Friday and considering that over 90% of the public input from our stakeholders was in favor of this product if the governing board determines that the 68 adoption committee recommendation

057does not fit your needs as much as any other um products they do not feel that they can move forward at this time they do not feel that any other products are as good of a fit or as fiscally responsible as the study sync product resulting unfortunately in our middle-grade students and hardworking teachers being left with a curriculum resour without a curriculum resource to support them with the information shared um last week uh addressing the board's feedback and also from the discussion with the ELA adoption committee last night I would ask that the board create a motion which you have done to approve deer Valley's administrative recommendation to accept the 68 Ela adoption committee's recommendation of steud sync as the resource for a middle grade 6 through 8 beginning in the 20242 school year thank

058you any questions governing Bor on the presentation I I I have a couple of observations and questions absolutely okay uh Mrs orway uh Dr gallagan I'm going to the end first and then I'll I'll I'll uh work backwards um if indeed this was not to be adopted we would have uh hour six through eight teachers finding peac mealing things together um without the resources being able to be renewed um is is that a an accurate depiction president paperman miss orway um it is one depiction yes uh the current product is end of life and um that vender is not going to continue supporting it with us um that's not to say that we did not have a board adopted curriculum that our teachers would just be out there willy-nilly however they would not have um

059a resource that would they would be able to go to daily and weekly they would be creating their own um content to meet the standards that's why we make recommendations on a resource so that our teachers have a um as as one of the teachers said a guaranteed and able curriculum that our board has adopted from the committee's recommendations so I wouldn't say that they're going to be left out there all alone but um it will be difficult uh so even I I get that they wouldn't be left alone but the opportunity to have uh like um to have it be uniformed throughout the district um would not necessarily uh be guaranteed as it would if we were to adopt this curriculum and have it uh the same throughout the district correct president paperman miss

060Ordway that would be correct we would not have a guaranteed and viable curriculum nor would we have the supports for our English Learners or special education students that are built into um this this particular um material and what with a second meeting even though there were many hours put in before this meeting that you got or or the the second portion of meetings uh the one that you had last night uh was it passionate equal um for this recommendation to go through if possible or were there any was anyone not sure president paperman miss orway there were 28 of the original 30 who participated um 26 in person two um actually it was 24 in person four um through the recording and then the vote it was a 100% unanimous recommendation for mcra Hills study

061sync and um just uh one more clarification within the group that that were the teachers there were um Association teachers there were teachers that were not part of the association there were teachers that teach and are also um have are parents of these students is is that a correct depiction of the teacher side of your committee president paperman miss Ordway yes all all groups of teachers gen Ed special ed eel gifted um were represented and parents of children in those areas were represented any other questions governing board members um I just wanted to make a couple of statements um you know we are elected to this position um to represent I'm sorry I'm could could you just repeat the last couple of sentences of that yeah we were put into this position excuse me we

062were elected by the citizens of our dear Valley Unified School District um in order to um an obligation to vote for the best interests of our own students and our teachers and our staff and I really feel like it's a slap in the face to the process to Dr gallagan and her team um when our community comes back with a well vetted prog process of approving curriculum with over a 90% approval uh rating and to even consider not supporting that Ela curriculum is shameful um as school board members for us this is really something that if you had a problem with it should have been brought up at the November 14th when we previewed the curriculum I did not bring it up because I personally agree with the curriculum and I trust the process that

063our community goes through in order to develop a curriculum that will help our students Thrive and grow and that's exactly what we have been presented with so I just want to make those little reminders before we go into voting on this topic tonight thank you thank you uh Mrs fer well sure um you know the this whole topic and what's occurred in the last a week or so really would be a better example of the bullying topic that we have had on um on uh what how many agendas have we had tried to put it on Jesus Christ I went ahead and I took some notes on the emails that we received one was a teacher who was first a grading and condescending then accusatory about topics that were not factual um and then threatening

064um there was a teacher an Ela teacher that I will honestly say was very polite um said that they wanted us to honor the process um and if not they wanted an explanation but they were very kind and polite about it then I had another um that I received that was um said that the criteria was set they met the criteria we should adopt it based on that I had a member of the team um that said they were disappointed by the lack of faith in their ability um they felt the concern concs had been addressed and they were disappointed that we took 9% over 91% um we had another one that said honor the process and then went on to a large Mantra of guilt about faith in employees there was another one that

065was mis completely misinformed about anything that was actually said at the board meeting um thought no board members had ever looked at the curriculum and um their final message was vote what I say or else basically in a nutshell um and then we come here tonight and get similar similar comments and and the the governing board is not elected to to Simply approve a process we are elected to look at information and then make the the decision that is in in our opinion or on what we have in the best interest of all of Deer Valley um now you said you had 85 responses correct or is that number wrong president paperman miss Fischer there were 85 respondents okay so so we're not talking about a majority of the district we're talking about of 85

066people 91% agreed with um what the committee said now as we can see it only takes an email to get about 80 people together so I I my concern is that has the community looked at it the com the concerns I got and yes there some of them mess referenced uh CRT some of them referenced other things um I personally didn't see the one about the blonde kids I not really sure where that comes from um you said but I did not go into this blindly what I did was asked to see the curriculum because for me what is it what is it we need to look at um and I took days going through the curriculum what I didn't see what I didn't see in any of the emails I received and what I

067didn't hear here from here tonight was anybody defending the actual curriculum itself they've defended the process they've defended what they believe to be true about either the board Vote or um what they were what they believed to be true without actually I don't know maybe they spoke to the other board members they never spoke to me so I can't say um I'm not going to put words in anyone else's mouth but what I can say is I have yet to hear anybody successfully defend the curriculum itself so since I think by saying we support I'm speaking since the one uh very polite asked that we either honor the committee's process or that we explain and and after I give my explanation if you want to somehow correct what I saw or tell me something different

068that can be a discussion um but I don't make decisions based on on a bully attitude of you're going to do it or else because or else what um so that one teacher is going to get her explanation because well number one because she was polite and and very kindly said you know I wish you would respect it but if not um explain so it's not a matter of us not respecting um I have been involved in multiple adoptions both professionally and here in Deer Valley um I always make my decision on what I believe is best for for the students so when you first gave us access I went in and I looked the focus um I will tell you Ela is not my favorite subject math all day you want to put me

069in ela then you better have a good teacher and by the way I did have a really good teacher and they did not focus on uh curriculum or anything that was based on anything other than Ela they wanted me to Le to punctuate correctly they wanted me to read they wanted me to critically think about what we had read you know the first book that I really engaged in was Dune and and we went to the premiere of the of the show afterwards and we were able to really discuss the the politics in the back end of it's a Sci-Fi book Grant yes I'm old it was in the 80s um later I learned in writing to to write and and remove myself out of it to remove the emotion I learn to write a

070speech and if you want a FIV minute speech it's going to be a whole heck of a lot more than a paragraph So I learned the basis not because it was something I loved but it was because something that I had great teachers to teach me their focus was on those topics it was on English it was on punctuation it was on spelling it was on building of a story it was on uh descriptive words to build on that story it was not focused on my race it was not focused on making One race a victim or another race uh a hater it was not focused on dividing the races I understand racial inequity I lasted a week in a school one week the saddest part was it was my own cousins that bullied me

071out of it because I was the wrong color of Hispanic sorry not sorry I'm just as Hispanic whether I'm brown or blueeyed or dark hair or not and when you have a curriculum that's main focus is is based on BLM which we all saw from the riots that it was not we're getting off topic I think this is I'm explaining why I did not support this curriculum so when I started reading the curriculum you're making it about Focus we don't to hear your life stor the focus of MRA Hill was BLM I disagree it was inclusion it was it it was really divisive so that was my problem when I looked at mcra Hill I get it because of my history personal we got to remove the personal out so I thought well okay let's

072look at what else we find I also found references from teachers in other districts who have adopted it across the country who talked about the difficulty of setting it up how it was not user friendly how it was very invasive onto them I looked at a a section where they talked about um the biggest problem they were having was that uh when they were teaching a lesson the kids would come back to school and and they would find that the kids were fighting with their parents about whether it's right or wrong and what they were learning it wasn't even about Ela it was about immigration I found references from um other areas where teachers were concerned so I did reach out to other curriculums and said is there anything else what do you guys have

073um it's not that we've let this just just linger but without more than 85 parents saying this is not divisive to my children I can't support having an a curriculum that is notably pushing an agenda without parents saying yeah we're fine with it we will we will take it up with our kids we will you know you're going to adopt something that's completely against our values our beliefs our our standing um but but we we'll deal with it unless I can get something from those parents I just don't see how I can in good conscience adopt a curriculum when I see it to be so divisive and it has nothing to say about the the magnitude or the the ability of our teachers to teach because I firmly if I felt they they absolutely needed

074this and only this to hold their hand cuz they're not capable of teaching without this one thing making it then I would definitely adopt it because gosh they really had to have it without it but I know our teachers are better fer they shared with you via email that this is a curriculum that would be very very helpful for them so that's not true teachers have spoken out about how important this curriculum is four four teachers four teachers is not 202,000 teachers it's not as we have as we have discussed before you go on your community and they you represent C do you have representing your community and you are not representing your teachers right now uh Stephanie uh Mr cover do you have anything to say we are so off topic of personal stories

075that are being brought into turn to stop okay Mr Carver do you have anything to say about the presentation regularly is having is he there Mr thank you president paperman I appreciate the the added input from the community and from the Educators um I'm I'm I'm just going to leave it at that I I I believe that I I not not I believe I would like to see this kind of Engagement and this kind of excitement about all of our curriculum uh we we need to have constructive dialogue back and forth so that we can understand not everybody is going to read the same passage the same way and get the same thing out of it but we do need to make the best decisions for the children and and with that we can all

076agree I would think and I just uh I'm just I'm glad to see everybody engaging with the process I guess is what I want to is what I want to say out of this and and to the folks that feel that they were somehow slighted because we voted no uh when this first came up at the last meeting um I know it's hard to not take it personal but it's not personal we we we vote the way that we vote uh for reasons that may not be known at the time to everybody in the room but they I mean I would hope that each of us has done our own due diligence uh everybody has come to know me since I've been on the board that I do do my due diligence and I I

077have good reasons for the reasons that I vote the way that I do and uh I always answer my emails unless as Mrs fiser mentioned if somebody sends an email that you're going to tell me you're an Ela teacher but you you've obviously included about as many slights as you think that you can still put in there but still try to be respectful about it it's probably not intended to be responded to so please don't be offended if I don't respond back because it sounds like we're just uh trying to trying to air some frustration there so uh I I think uh the information that's been shared has been very helpful and and I appreciate it and uh I just uh yep that's all I got for us thanks president paperman okay so I have

078something to say uh you know what talk at some point in time from the previous board meeting that we had the the Reon uh that I did not vote from previous board meeting parents uh provided uh feedback uh and evidence when they review the curriculum under MW Hills in August they were for this curriculum so they supported this curriculum but was interesting this where my concern came in that in the Press when they looked at it they were confused because while they review in August there were parts that was different from the presentent uh so that's where the issue came president paper the question that I did ask is you know is there like a you know that you turn on and off like what is visible president paperman Teach as a district we would

079work with the tech team and we would be able to identify any of the content that we would turn off that's why it's customizable so what you went in and saw would not be what we would be having um in front of our teachers and students that is something that um as a curricular area we would review very closely similar to social study similar to science similar to um mathematics and parents community were saying that uh there has been a change uh so I'm going to read it what uh they have researched uh it says a PL U I guess a company Plant Plum Equity announced that it has completed the acquisition of micro Hills a global leader in education content and digital platforms for a purchase price of approximately 4.5 billion in August 2nd

080in 2021 M cro Hill CEO Simon Allen and his senior leadership's team will continue to lead business under platon's ownership so according to the parents uh they believe that that this curriculum that they supported in the past because it was both from a different company they believe that this is why they so changes but as you stated that that that you have control of what's going to be visible and not visible so I'm just giving information from parents concern I did get concerns from teachers uh besides the 85 teachers that were uh working with the committee so I did uh get information from teachers uh with questions uh saying well are we going to be adopting curriculum every few years uh how much does it cost enrollment is going down it is a challenge with

081the budget I even you know supporting the teachers you know giving them better health insurance you know maybe give them a bonus a chis a Christmas bonus and allocate the money that's going to benefit the staff so I did get so I heard from different side not just the committee that you know that you have been working with uh and then hearing the other side of the teachers where you know where they feel that well why do we need to change curriculum if we can continue with this curriculum uh and if books need to be replaced the cheaper way is then order those book and replace them and I did some research I did talk to uh who you know the individuals that are in charge of uh of the curriculum adoptions or who's in

082charge at the you know the library of of the books that are being bought so I did get some feedback that yes you know uh they you know some District they have a lot of books which they has been you know Millions throughout the years uh and then the question is of one of the teacher from an association from a different District I thought was interesting the question is well why don't we you know just don't buy that whole curriculum to save money and just replace the books that that need to be replaced uh so so I'm just I'm just giving you viewpoints you know not just from your committee I'm giving viewpoints what teachers have to say and what parents have have have to say uh and of course you know from my my

083experience of I also have asked that question 21 years of teaching why do we spend some much money every few years on curriculum adoption you know when all we need to do is just replace those books president paperman Dr gallagan is speaking please Dr Gall again president paperman the current adoption was from 2013 and his years old the vendor is no longer providing support for that adoption so after 10 years of the same resource which is which is a good good chunk of time that is why we are coming to you um with this adoption when we look at the the cost and I shared the cost between the three vendors study sync came in um under a million dollars $783,000 um the other two came in over a million dollar so the team was

084being very frugal as well as the partnership in working with u mcra Hill to ensure that we could be fiscally responsible this adoption is for 5 years with the possibility of just continuing to renew after that without going through a full-blown adoption so it it we're being as fiscally responsible as we can with a product that we've had for 10 years that is at end of life and will no longer be supported may I say something Mrs paperman uh yes that's awesome thank you uh Dr gallagan are we with this adoption what are the mediums that we're using are we using textbooks are we using the internet how are these how are these resources going to look this particular resource is an online resource and integrates beautifully with canvas so so there are no textbooks

085that we're purchasing just just the the consumables so this particular vendor does provide consumables that teachers can use year after year after year for the five years of the adoption okay so all those textbooks that we have apparently in the libraries um I do know that our Librarians uh do keep books for a hundred years um until it you know they have to you know move them on um so I I'm not quite sure what that that comment was um aimed at but perhaps you could get some more clarification in an email from Miss paperman about books in a library that we're not using um the skills that are now going to be incorporated um in this new Adoption do they now currently will they currently meet the uh standards and the scope and sequence

086of the standards that we um have that I believe that the ELA standards might have been updated in the last 10 years by the state president paperman miss Ordway that is correct the standards have been updated this resource addresses and provides teachers with the um materials that they need to um work in their collaborative teams their multich school teams as they work through the um scope and sequence and assessments and the most important um students Reading literature and writing um we did have in public comment teachers who spoke specifically to this resource saying that the resource does provide Classics and new literature um one teacher specifically mentioned Moby Dick and Hatchet and and that particular teacher um did specifically give reasons why study sync was the resource that this committee recommended one of our parents

087that spoke also talked about um what he looks for when his child is in reading and he looks for that child to be able to think critically um let me see what else he said um be able to look at different points of view um so we did have just tonight um speakers who not only spoke about the process but also about the the program itself study sync the other thing and I oh I'm sorry go ahead no I'm I'm fine I was going to say I believe you also mentioned the uh robust content of this um resource that um our students would have the opportunity to Avail thems eles of and I am going to ask another question because I I I asked the other whichever meeting it was the last one about how

088we uh not integrate I I'm trying to think of the word but across the across our um subjects that we teach um normally I thought anyway a while ago and you can correct me we did try to if we were doing say we were doing the um Civil War uh music would be doing something with Civil War math might have some word problems with Civil War obviously social studies would be doing it and there were all also be Selections in ela is that still true that we try to integrate that so the um the information is presented in a lot of different ways president paperman miss way that is correct cross-curricular um instruction um not only is um well and and used and research um shows that it is a good way to have kids

089transfer learning between content and not only transfer learning between content but to engage them in in maybe subjects that they either are not as good in or as interested in because that cross-curricular um work um in social studies or in science with literature that supports that and writing that supports that um draws out that interest so another question for full transparency well could could could I finish are you still going Mrs orway yeah I'm gonna still go until I'm done give it asking my questions um oh you just okay so with this the the um the state I'm not sure what they're called anymore but what grade levels do we have Ela State Assessments in um State assessments are in grades three through eight for English language arts and then in high school it's different

090but we're talking right now middle school so our 68 um would be maybe up to date with a curriculum that matches the new standards even though the probably not brand new we just haven't been able to uh you know utilize these books anymore so I guess my point uh what I'm going to say I did plenty of research um you know we have Dr gallan saying she's you know there were 85 people inclusive or in addition to the um actual committee I heard Miss fiser say she talked to I don't know maybe 12 people and then I also heard I I don't know how many PE I'm not quite sure what Mrs paperman was referring to but sounded like maybe another 15 20 people so when we say that because 85 people uh are responded

091and out of that we had 92% that you know are asking that this be recommended we've had Parents speak to the uh the positivity of having this and they gave reasons we have I don't know Dr gallagan Who seems to be an expert in this field um talk about how this will be so helpful for our students to be caught up plus the teachers that came to talk um I I'm just not I'm just not quite understanding how one decision is based on 24 people talking to them even though it's not in a I don't know what they said I wasn't in the conversation and who knows what's going context was and then 885 people that I do know what the context was because it was written down um I I'm just gonna explain my

092vote now it's going to be yes as it was the last time yes because I not only trust the process I trust the people that are completing the process and the people that are part of the process and there's not one of them on that committee or that spoke tonight as a teacher um whether they teach Ela or they just talk about how they feel very unvalued as teachers um I'm just going to go with that because the process and the people I'm going to trust the experts to do this because not one of them goes in there thinking that hey let's adopt this because it'll be crappy for our students and it'll be hard for the teachers so that never happened so my vote is going to be us and and there you have

093it any other questions Mrs zway uh yeah I think that we ought to call for the vote okay so for full transparency uh I okay uh in the future we need to survey everyone to give them a voice and not just 85 people president paperman yeah um if I may yes yes if we were to just go back five years ago when we were going through adoptions 85 public responses would have been we would be jumping up for Joy because we would have 85 folks who gave of themselves to look through resources and give us um their opinion we have never had this kind of um responses from our stakeholders and and when you look at the I ready math adoption I believe we had 135 it could have been 145 um public um responses

094that was for um six grade levels 145 let's go high 145 for 68 with only three grad levels we had 85 responses if you look at the percentage between the two of those more of our sixth through eth grade stakeholders gave of their time to give us input whether you agree with that input or not they they that percentage was higher than math and so much better than it has been in the past we are just very thankful that our community and our stakeholders listen to all of the things that we put out asking them for their feedback So when you say all need to give information on the survey we have done our very best to get that information out and we too appreciate any stakeholder whether they agree with a resource or not

095to give us their feedback because that gives our committees that critical feedback that we need to make a decision and a recommendation for you the board so we'll continue to do our very best to ask our stakeholders to give us feedback on any upcoming adoptions and I appreciate that comment okay and moving forward Dr Finch uh and I'm going to talk on behalf of many teachers that came to me uh please do not send emails from a to get a staff you know to come and give their you know opinions or concerns on how the Board needs to vote uh for a specific agenda presid so we we're going to move we're going to move forward with the vote M paperman I just wanted to make sure Dr gallagan what were you going to say

096I was I was just going to say last spring our board members asked our teachers to come to the board meeting and talk about grading we thought with the precedent that our board had set last spring that an invitation to to our English language arts teachers would be appropriate it was simply an invitation they could choose to come or not come so we were using precedent set by the board in that invitation and I apologize if you would rather um that we don't invite our stakeholders to board meetings in the future but that was what we were um considering is just that you all had asked teachers to come to board meetings then and we invited them to come now well I guess the teachers you know many of them didn't didn't see it as

097an invitation so we're going to move forward with the vote all those in favor all those in favor mman can I please speak for a moment I just want to clarify the motion because in the motion I was not specific I just wanted it to be understood that the recommendation for McGraw Hill education study sync um that was presented at the last meeting is what we're voting on so if I have to amend the motion I can or by saying that out loud uh does that is that included in the I just want to make sure that the motion is clear okay so that's what okay so we'll move forward okay so we're going to move forward uh with a vot so that clarification was clear enough okay yep you said as presented and that's

098what they just presented so you're okay okay I just want to make sure that we don't have you know someone going back and saying that it wasn't clear enough but thank you Mr Carver okay so all those in favor say I all theose say nay I emphatically say I I I'd like to clarify my vote please uh yes Mr caror yes thank you uh so my my opposition to the curriculum during the last uh vote seems to have been lost in all of the noise um my biggest concern was just simply that did we have or what do we need to do to have as much involvement in the English curriculum as we did with the math and that was my point in my earlier comment just that I appreciate everybody's uh everybody's activity and

099input into what's going on into the curriculum and everybody sharing their voice um and that's that that's that's how this works and so I just want to thank everybody for getting involved in the process and trying to make sure that uh those of us that sit on the board can understand uh where everybody feels about everything and and and where their thoughts are on it um you know I I understand just like Dr gallagan was saying it wasn't too many years in the past that boardrooms sat empty with nobody attending and nobody going to committee meetings and nobody having a voice so this is exciting uh to see the community getting involved and to have so many people having a voice and I I vot I okay so I vote name I stick with my

100convictions but I do want to make one comment I I do appreciate you actually inviting teachers to come and I would appreciate if when they came here we could listen and I'm only mentioning it because you mentioned that we had invited them to come and speak about the standards based grading and a a overwhelming amount came and said they did not support it and board members sat there and looked at the camera and said I get it you don't support it you're struggling I'm sorry you're struggling but I'm going to vote for it anyways um and so I I think if we're going to go off of that methodology we need to come up with a better way of doing it um I have faith in our teachers with with or without McGraw Hill they

101they can teach Ela if they choose to um they can choose to teach diversity and inclusion if they do choose to um because it's adopted officially with three votes um and so for that reason because no one has shown me any way that it will not be centered on division of our children um I have to vote no okay we're going to was I I make comment um uh yeah Dr fch for me this um hold I wanted to wait till the board had voted but for me um this is really all about um trusting our teachers or not and our admin teams as we we are or we aren't is there any evidence ever in our system that we haven't addressed any situation appropriately that we thought was off the path that wasn't a

102part of the Arizona State Standards and the answer is no we we address them all and every time it pops up we hear about it usually within days and so administrators work together with our staff to make sure that we're teaching the state standards that's the deer value way that's the way we've always done it so um I just want to reinforce that if there continues to be uh any curricula in our whole system where we go off the path then please let us know we'll deal with it thank you so I'd like to clarify that absolutely we have a Year's worth of things that are off the path that board members have bounced off the agenda um so yes we are a lot off the path um and unfortunately we have not even tried

103to address we're going to move on to item six con agenda we're moving I uh moving to consed agenda item six do I have a motion to approve consed agenda I move that the governing board approve consent agenda items 6A through 6K I'm sorry can we clarify the vote for the last one it wasn't announced out loud oh for 5D pass three twoy the vote it passed three to two I believe thank you okay Mrs f a second I second uh m m second all those in favor say I I it hasn't popped up Mo moving on to actions uh to item seven action can I have a motion for uh item a I move that the governing board approve all employee professional development out of state per governing board policy GC second any uh

104presentation for this no okay all those in favor say I all that oppose say name I I can I get a motion for Item B or for [Music] o Mr Fisher can I get a motion for item just have to look at something real quick I move that the governing board uh approve administration's recommendation to pre-approve the agenda as presented uh second all those in favor of any presentation on this no all those in favor say I all that oppos say n i i i i since there is Student Activities again uh forcing students to raise funds for salaries I am going to have to vote a okay moving on to U item a discuss Dear Valley UniFi School District consultant so the reason that this is uh put back for discussion uh the board

105uh requested uh to see survey from uh DVA and Dr zerbach uh do do you have any results on this survey uh president paperman yes we have some preliminary results I believe um Miss Fisher sent those to you earlier today yes she did she V it to everybody in the board oh she did yes she did okay I did you send I didn't see yours did you send it an email too or you going to present to the public uh president paperman it was as noted in the email that was sent to you it was a one survey that was done in collaboration with the board uh DVA and uh myself okay so then you continue uh working together with DVA after we discussed from previous board meeting that the teacher should have done their

106own survey for full transparency and the district should have done their own survey for full transparency that was your item uh president pman you said that the board did not say that as part of the motion uh Mrs fiser even we had talked later to and said that she did not mind if it was a joint survey okay so I would like to let yes uh Mrs orway yeah I I I recall that um having two surveys would be interesting and probably not productive as the two parties working together because what you're surveying is the teachers that are affected as opposed to 40 or the number of teachers that we have so um I remember it being a joint it could be joint and that was more preferred than two single ones that would be

107confusing and perhaps a waste of time well Mrs always in the past I have discussed this is why I requested for uh uh third party survey a different company for the reason is that many teachers have said that there's no transparency within the district DVA represents the teachers and they have the rights to survey the teachers to see where they stand the district can do their own survey and from my experience of 21 years I have seen assignment when the district does their own survey or when the association does their own survey oh I think president paperman uh we could ask Miss Fischer here I I do believe she uh would Express that it was a collaborative effort I don't think she would Express that uh she felt any pressure as you indicated previous meeting

108uh but that is that your pleasure you could ask her right here Dr zerach I do not want to put any teachers on the spot U I know in the previous board meeting I mentioned a teacher a he that gave concern and I thought it was very interesting that uh the teachers were asking around who was the he apparently I all I can say is that maybe Dr zurbach was asking you know who is the he that I was uh referring to so please do not put any teachers on the spot so I would like to uh I just C could I just uh ask Dr zerc if he was referring to Kelly Fischer the president of DVA to uh perhap pops give her opinion of what the word collaboration me meant in this specific

109yes that's what I was referring to uh Mrs orwe I understand that uh Dr zurbach is asking for DVA uh to give her opinion of why uh she chose to work with the district uh personally I don't want to put uh this she's a teacher she represents the teacher she was aware because I sent her an email with Dr spinch see I see see Dr Finch that I requested for her to do her own survey so we can have full transparency full transparency with the teachers so we do not need to put her on the spot so we do not need to ask this teacher and and and ask her oh why she chose to work for the district when she when she chose to work for the district when she was given a direct

110order by the president to do her own survey so we're going to we're going to continue with this so community members staff the okay so this is why I posted at this consultant on August 8 2022 2023 for meeting I presented to the board reasons why this consultant should have not being hired so teachers do not need more professional development they do not or math intervention counselor AIDS social workers dean of students to support with behavior of bullying Etc we need to consider teacher retention which should be a top priority the public and staff has informed there is no transparency in our district teachers and students have been disrespected and treated terribly by this consultant while the District staff was aware this consultant has a history that was H to hire an attorney to conceal

111Public public record we do not need an employee who hides public records that treats individuals disrespectful so all I'm asking is for the board either to remove this consultant and keep in place the program or give the teachers the option if they want to attend Dr de's professional development if they're comfortable with [Music] him any questions um Mrs fiser just want to make sure I'm not going to get yelled at before I speak um looking at the survey that that the other Miss Fisher provided it's actually very similar to in line with the one that I did just as a because nobody else would do one no one would it has been so difficult to get this board just to work together on anything or cooperate on anything or with anything that it's just it's

112deplorable but looking at the results that Miss f are provided they are in line with a lot of the survey that I did as well um I don't know does it say how many responses you got uh president P Miss Fischer we got about roughly just north of 240 okay so you got 100 more little little less than 100 more than what I got when I was sent mine out um overall what I'm seeing is that our teachers do not feel um um that that Dr Dicky specifically is positive um some are saying that it is uh but an overwhelming are saying no not really it's not impacting them staying there are concerns um the one question that was not brought um by either my survey or Miss fer survey is is um regarding options

113or other options and I just you know overall our Title One schools our teachers the ones that have contacted me and I'm not going to get into whether they're the majority or the not majority or whatever uh hoo-ha that's going to be text to be said um I overwhelmingly the ones that have spoken to me have said what they need truly needed support in their classroom they need support in in the either in the form of additional teaching staff or pair of professionals or or supports of that nature for the work they're doing um they did not feel the ones that the ones that contacted me I can't say who contacted anybody else said they did not feel that this was the best use use of funds uh when they were genuinely suffering in the

114work they're doing and their ability to support the kids based on the lack of resources um that's just my take I I don't because this isn't on as an action item it's just on as a discussion item we don't actually have the opportunity to vote on what we're going to do um I was pleased to hear at the last meeting that uh we do have a ability to cancel legally without a penalty to the district um I would like just based on these results unless you're expecting to get more results based on these results and the results that I had as well I would like this to come back as a actual vote but I would like to see some substance as to the district's plan do what's the alternative if we simply say we're

115going to you know we're going to bring it back and we're going to do away with Dicky and just keep Scholastic and still pay the money okay well what is Scholastic going to do at that point what are we replacing it with um if we're going to say we're going to do away with this it's not working we're going to dedicate the remaining dollars to par professionals to additional supports for our teachers to whatever the plan is I don't want to just say get rid of Dicky because we've gotten enough people to say get rid of them um but not have additional supports for our staff because then it still doesn't do any good the whole point of those dollars those title $1 dollars is to improve the outcomes for our students and the only

116way to improve their outcomes is to give the teachers the support they need to serve those students um so that's my take on it I mean we're their survey whether you whether we like or not who established it it's still comes out about the same in that is that there are still concerns and the concerns are definitely there for um our teachers in Title One schools um and our students in Title One schools this isn't meeting their needs uh from what from what I'm seeing I I would like to add to on the surveys that some of the comments where the question was do you know um we noticed on that the the principles have been using that PD time when that time for Dr Dicky during staff meetings monthly staff meetings and some teachers

117voiced a concern that now that they are using these staff meetings for Dr Dicky they're not actually dealing with the problems on their campus the whole reason we have staff meetings is to kind of talk and kind of all come to a same understanding ask questions have conversations you know in the morning or after school whenever the principal decides that's the best time I know personally staff meetings were a great time for us to discuss and learn from each other and without those happening and they're being replaced by this third party that's also something else that um I really caught when I was going through those comments with the teachers and my suggestions are also to you know I I I I know that we are under staff so I can't say this is what

118we should do with it but I do know that several of our tile one schools have no music programs and uh no art programs and I'm wondering if those dollars can be put into to the hiring process of that or is it just that they're not no one wants know no one's going there I don't know what's going on that way um I would like to see that and I would like to see some training uh that can be provided for our teachers and students to help with their um ability to just um deal with trauma and it impacted trauma and and and feeling safe and comfortable at school so that they can actually learn something president paperman I can go through if the board preliminary results that uh were sent to you are you

119me yeah you can send us the information uh president paperman the information was already sent to you I can go through um that information now I can do an overview of the results uh if the board would like yeah you can you can yeah go over the results so that way the community members you know they can hear staff okay the results are yes to the public well we need to be transparent and let the public know what what you [Music] say well the only concern is are any of the comments if there's any any comments that are would would violate a HIPPA or a furpa have has anybody gone through them all have you gone through them through the yeah this would be uh president paper Miss Fischer this would be just a high

120level overview uh giving in general what the data but have to just be the charts not any of the comments because we don't know whether or not anything was said in them that's confident um it's preliminary yeah and it's you can talk about it from the 30,000 foot level exactly and it is just preliminary uh for that and and again miss Fischer is here from DVA and she could jump in if she would like uh with uh any of the uh comments that I'll make regarding the data uh but just for some additional uh context for this again the questions that were on this survey there were uh 10 questions and the questions were made that did resemble as Miss Fischer said uh an earlier survey uh that was sent with uh probably some additional

121response options um for teachers at our Title One schools uh those questions were sent to miss Fischer uh from dbaa and then uh I did suggest revisions uh for some of the questions again primarily doing uh with respect to expanding uh the response options for teachers as some of the responses uh were limited in terms of how folks could uh respond to the question uh the questions had open-ended responses and closed-ended uh throughout the 10 questions and then miss fiser uh administered that I believed miss fiser last Thursday I think is when it was December the 7th in the afternoon and then it will close officially at the end of this week on the 15th so again everything that I'm telling you now would be preliminary uh results as I already mentioned there were about

122240 responses just a bit north of that uh and then uh any limitations right now that we currently have is we aren't able to disaggregate by the school at this point there was a desire uh to keep from doing that uh by um certain stakeholders which we respected and that was fine uh but that is a limitation in terms of how we could say if a particular building ex had a strong feeling one way or another compared to um another another limitation to the survey is that certainly there's context involved in many of these questions uh which does not come out at times and so with that you have to interpret it with a grain of salt right for that as it may or may not be meaningful in in terms of how you want

123to take it so for the uh charts and the graphs as terms of who took it probably somewhere in the range of 40 to 45% of Staff of the teachers took that uh there were some non-teaching staff that took the survey and I noticed that in um just some of the responses that folks had but for the most part it looked like it was primarily taken by teachers and again the cross-section as I'm looking at the uh pip chart looks like it ranges from about 5% to 20% at any one particular um site as far as when looking at all 250 responses with the largest being Barry Goldwater which makes sense as they do have the largest staff of title schools our next question we asked our uh teachers is what level of exposure they've

124had with Dr dicki uh and we asked that because it would uh definitely influence or impact their response as some of our teachers have had what I'll call minimal exposure and that would be through solely the virtual webinars that he has done while other teaching staff have had more inperson opportunities with Dr DIY and that would be either through a modeling that he has done himself or perhaps in small group so when you look at those uh numbers again in the preliminary numbers we see that just south of 90% of the teachers have participated in a virtual session and then between onethird to 40% of the respondents have had a more substantial interaction with Dr dicki again either through modeling or through a small group uh presentation and and certainly there's overlap there okay um

125the next question asked about the how purposeful is the PD and that one uh we did find right now it's about 6040 and Miss fer you echoed that again based off your survey um I think ours this particular one was 63% who said no that they didn't feel that it was purposeful for them we had about a quarter a little north of a quarter who said yes and then a smaller percentage who said they haven't had enough uh involvement in order to make a decision on that so I think uh again miss Fischer I think yours was just um was similar but uh perhaps on the opposite side that's what I think um but again about 6040 um on this one for the support that uh folks say in terms of how much they value

126the support um 54% we have on this one so a little north of 50 said no that they were not valuing this support and then again about and I'm speaking roughly here again at the 30,000 foot view about a quarter um each so said yes and then a quarter again said that they had not had enough interaction make a decision on that the question uh regarding uh being treated with respect uh this is one where their uh the percentage who said they had not been treated with respect uh was under 15% so the vast majority uh had stated that uh they either have been treated with respect so that was about half of the respondents that took the survey and then the other percentage had said again that they had not had enough interaction with

127him to make um a decision on that and the com I'll limit my discussion then to the comments uh but I will say there was nothing um substantial in the comments as far as um or anything alarming ing let me say that as far as folks who had said that they thought they could uh be more respect uh with their interactions for time spent preparing lessons and writing objectives uh this question again uh likely would need much more context in order to make an interpretation uh from this uh but again with this one we see that some of the concerns that the board was hearing was not found in the uh data preliminary data that we have so far as we were hearing uh or I was hearing in from the board that folks were

128saying it was hours and hours and hours and that was not found uh in the data we had just a little less than half of our respondents said it was 15 minutes or less and then we have additional categories which you have 16 to 30 minutes 31 to 60 which have smaller um percentages and then you have the more than an hour Group which was just under 20% and then another percentage which was na and again without context that's a difficult question as um without knowing if it's a newer teacher or a veteran teacher that uh newer folks and there's a lot of newer folks in our title schools just in general are going to spend uh quite a bit of time on planning uh just like any new teacher is going to do uh

129for their students okay um our next question then asked about teaching at a title one school and would they continue teaching at it due to this training again um this particular question probably um lacking context as it's unlikely that any person is going to make a decision based off of three um touches on a webinar if that's what they've had um nonetheless more than half of the respondents said that they were going to return to the school but it was due to other factors unrelated to um Dr Dicky and then we see smaller percentages of uh 11 about 11% said they weren't sure um to the question we had 19.9% saying that was not likely and then 11.2% saying likely to that we then um Miss Fischer you had asked about the um question regarding

130other PD and I do believe uh Miss Fischer that that was included I think that was the last question uh that we had and so we just do Kelly and Kim because I'm not sure he's talking to you I think all right Kelly so I I do believe that that question wasn't included I think Miss fiser was the 10th question uh on this which asked um is there additional training that you would recommend and so we do have that but again that's going to be in comment form that was an open-ended um response not a closed-ended so I can give you if you would like again I I I would not be divulging anything uh with furpa uh to give you the top three as far as what um respondent said in a summary but

131you have already stated that you wanted to limit it to just the charts if um if you do we don't want to so I this is I mean thank you for this information we don't want to go any further uh so community members at least they got some information what entails within the survey so if anybody wants to come back and listen to the recording they can see uh how the uh came to be yes again it's preliminary Dr Mrs zo I just uh I I'm not sure if this was included somewhere or it can be verified are um are all of the campuses that have this resource available to them are they all using their staff meeting time and have we been able to document and find out uh when and where if there's

132extra time how it's being paid and are we able to do something that is um the same UniFi or uniform throughout the schools that are using them and I know that at some point in time things do have to be uh customized to each campus because everyone's got something different going on but at least the um the paying for the extra time if there is any needs to to happen and I would uh Echo Mrs simek um with the not replacing staff meetings with um anything including um this uh president paper Miss wway is was there a question about the pattern among the schools or are you making a comment um actually the question was are we paying for time that is outside of their teaching duties and is there a way to not utilize

133staff meetings for the PD uh president paper Miss Ordway so in the I believe I had sent a document which summarized uh the meetings for the schools and in that document for folks that are listening here in the audience uh the pattern the clear pattern from the schools is they were mindful of the time that folks are expected to be present for uh additional meetings whether they be staff meetings or any of the other meetings that may be occurring uh in addition to planning time Etc and so they were uh making intentional efforts to substitute those times so that it would not be on top of others and that goes so that would answer the first part of your question as far as additional times a contract day in our district is a day there's

134no specific hours for a particular contract working uh number and so the day would be when the day um is completed with those duties so I I think I answered your second part but you can tell me if I did not um I I just uh want to make sure I I do know what our school day um is uh you know I know I know how the school day works but what I'm saying is if we're still hearing teachers saying that they're not not being paid or nor comp or not compensated and I guess whatever else they could use in addition to being paid but I think most of them want to get paid um if we could make sure that that is happening or not happening and if it is happening if we

135can correct that that would be great because my only concern right or my biggest concern is that the teachers are not or there are some teachers that may not uh uh be compensated for time that is outside the normal school day outside of any other contractual um responsibilities that they've signed so I I don't know how you get to specific teachers because you know we're all afraid to say something apparently but if we could get the teachers that are saying they're not being paid then we can fix that um whether it's a perception or or it's true we can then fix that because I I don't like to hear that we're not compensating teachers nor any of anybody else that's in our system as an employee uh president paper Miss Ordway so again in this

136I I believe I understand your sentiment um where it is uh perhaps just more complicated is again in terms of when teachers engage in PD that that would be an expectation of a any staff member whether they're in title or non-title so again in order to help mitigate against uh duties compounding on top of other duties I believe again in that document that I believe that all schools um were working within the normal confines of when uh they would have normal PD or staff meetings uh to take that into account because they didn't want to add on extra and so I could defer to my um partner Mrs Moffet on that um if uh you would like but that that would be my response to that yes and and I get it and I know

137this is going to it sounds like it's becoming circular but I'm still hearing I'm not getting paid blah blah oh not blah blah blah it it's an important blah blah that I was saying I'm not going paid so I just want maybe you could make a another deep dive into it and see if somewhere somehow um somebody didn't understand how someone needs to get paid or that they're already being compensated that's all I'm asking for I just want to make sure that that they are are being compensated for their time that's all okay thank you of Dr zurang no just if there weren't I didn't know if there were additional comments by board members but again I I would conclude I guess my part saying that it looked like and again I'm speaking roughly so

138it was about a 60 to 65 to 35 to 40 split on uh some of the questions um that were in um it looked like the bast vast majority had indicated that uh they there were not concerns based off of some of the respect issues that were voiced um to us and as well that some of the concerns about the important amount of time that folks were spending was also not found um in there as we know with anything change is rarely comes without uh challenge right for us and so our our title staff they do a great job and I'm proud of our title staff uh when I'm in the schools and I see what they're doing with the challenges that are faced to them uh both from the community and from inherent challenges

139that are within the profession I uh very proud of the work they are doing uh and I know that we can continue to engage in this continuous improvement process to help our students uh and our staff uh do even uh better and so there are times when uh certain practices may it may take time for someone to refine a practice uh before and do it consistently well and to where they would see uh perhaps more of an immediate uh benefit to them it is not always linear when you are engaging in a continuous Improvement as you know this is not my first rodeo at doing uh continuous Improvement for Title One schools in a previous life that's what I did I worked with schools I helped improve them and we did that uh in all

140of our situations and so I think we look to see at the end of the week um with Kelly to see do our preliminary results change or not change um as far as with what I've already communicated to you and then we can adapt we can adjust we can look to see where it would be appropriate to do so I can work with our Title One principles I certainly can work with our cabinet as well and uh make some of those adjustments thank you Dr zurbach I just hope that in the future uh that DV8 will uh do surveys uh related to their teachers uh to look at the data and districts you know they do their own survey so in the future I would like to see that separately U I would like to

141ask the governing board I know Mrs Fisher uh and I stated uh that we would like this to come back as an actual vote but this is going to depend what the other board members uh uh do if they agree with us I don't so step so should we bring this back or should or we're done with this discussion well I don't necessarily know that I want it back as a vote because I don't know what we should vote on what I'm saying is if we're going to bring it back of v i want to know what that means yeah and you that's what I'm asking bring it back up as a discussion when we have all of the results of the survey which it sounds like since it closes on Friday after the holiday

142we should have all the information you can just put it back on just as discussion again it's no different than how you do it today um when a board member says I would like to see it it goes um to the next in this case it'll be the next president puts it on the agenda of course if they within 60 days blah blah blah the normal process actually we could just put it on as a discussion item as Miss Sim also said she would like it on we don't have to keep playing board games right you need follow process you follow the process I like the discussion item with the rest of the data that would be awesome so let's just put it on the January meeting as a discussion item and then whether or

143not the the next board president puts it back as an action item at some point will be up to their instructions or or their uh what they wish uh but just go ahead and put it on into discussion okay so Sheila you have that down right okay thank you so we're going to move on to report superintendent report okay thank you uh just want to reiterate some of the awards that we had before the meeting tonight if you didn't get a chance to attend that you can go back and hit rewind and watch it we did have Barry Goldwater here uh to accept a board and recognition for being the runner up in division three in their state band marching competition I believe that might be the highest they've ever scored they jumped from fifth

144to Second um and did a great job there congratulations to them um Mountain Ridge I think will be in our next uh celebration uh we also had two students that were um Junior Roc students uh from the Air Force chapter won the silver Valor Awards um which was for helping a student uh on a orientering project where the kid got bit uh by a snake and the other our two kids the kid was the other kid was from another school district and they um the kid eventually actually passed out and they had to carry him a gal and and a Gentleman a kid did that so we honored them so make sure you go back and watch that that was pretty amazing and then we also honored a a thesbian Club from Deer Valley High

145School that one first place in um uh prop change over and platform building those kinds of things U and they're going to be competing nationally so I just want to put emphasis on that uh I did have a chance to attend the asba ASA joint conference um for a couple times as well and probably other board members will talk about that um always uh good to hear different uh whatever has is happening in other school districts and how we can adapt to our system uh the latest podcast uh we did last week um I want to just thank Matt Salmon who's our guy that edits all those we did it on the teacher prep program so make sure you tune in to that and uh three great stories of uh staff members who are now

146de Dear Valley staff members in the teacher prep program uh from other walks of life so tune in to that it's on Spotify and apple Etc even on our website it's a teacher prep program it's pretty pretty great uh interviews some great stories from uh staff members and last but not least uh just we are getting ready for the legislative season uh EFG neic and ASA are the groups that I'm involved with we're talking about um different things that are going to be happening and so if you have any interest in that and want to know what's going on uh as board members just let me know I can tell you what's going on I do put most of it in what I know in the Friday updates and it's still early but um we'll

147know uh economically what's happening from the state perspective uh here pretty soon and then uh just a reminder um thanks to all our staff who put in their hard work get us to the break and then make sure you enjoy that break with family and friends and we'll get back to PD on January 2nd and the 4th of January we'll have our first business partner event that we have that will fill this room up about 100 folks um that'll be um here uh January 4th and then the 9th be our next board meeting next year thank you thank you Dr Finch we're moving on to governing board report uh Mr Carver thank you president paperman um over the last couple of weeks I had the opportunity to sit in on a meeting with Dr Z

148and Mr O uh for the uh ALS reports and to get a briefing on the kind of meetings that they hold on a uh weekly monthly and quarterly basis to help ensure the safety and security of our children uh that's going to be in the evolving uh process a set of meetings as I've asked whatever it is that I am allowed to be be included on the calendar 4 if they could send me that invite so that this time allows that I might be available for that um I'm a firm believer that uh knowledge is power and and you know the the more I learn and the more that I'm aware of what's going on and the processes that we're expected to follow uh the the better benefit I can be to the community into

149the school district so uh we had that and then uh ston Hills uh winter choir concert that was amazing I got to attend that with my wife and I tell you what they that is an award-winning uh choir over there at steton Hills literally uh they are steeped in Awards and uh they did an amazing job that night and it was a beautiful beautiful site to see so um one second for me like there's something else no that's all I've got for you guys today thank you so much uh everybody please have a blessed holiday season and I look forward to seeing everybody after the new year thank you Mr Carver uh Stephanie I'm gonna um keep M short and sweet um I just want to thank the school board for making what I think

150is a really strong positive decision in our curriculum passing our curriculum this evening so I just really want to express my thanks for that and to the community for stepping up and sharing um your thoughts because your opinion matters you are stakeholders in this and we want to always be hearing from you so I just want to thank our community for coming today um for speaking and for the emails um let's see real quick last week um I was able to attend the Barry goldw dance performance um it was really beautiful they did a fantastic job I also um last week was at at the asba conference for three days which is probably where I got this Co that I have now but I learned a ton and it was very fun in the moment

151um and I just really want to um wish everybody a happy holiday season and enjoy your time off with your friends and family and um just be I'm just really thankful to be a part of this community and I hope everybody has a wonderful holiday season thank you thank you Stephanie uh Mrs or yeah um we are last board meeting for 2023 how quickly time flies uh we have so many students and staff that have accomplished such wonderful things big and loud small silent all of equal importance I have been and I continue to be proud to serve this district for now 15 years and it'll be going on um we do have a great staff we have wonderful students we have supportive parents and we have one of the most generous uh communities our

152angel tree uh project that we do every year has not fallen short I'm not exactly sure at this moment in time how many families uh students that we have served but it is over 100 and these kids along with uh the adults that they live with are are having things that they want in in addition to things that they need so I I just find that to be a wonderful thing to be able to have something they want we have some homeless uh families that have been living in cars that are now due to funding um are going to be able to spend at least these two weeks and it will be the two week winter break in a hotel so again awesome awesome people in our community uh I have been able to get

153Sunrise School a partner in Woody Livingston who um uh works well I don't know it's called work but he's with the Church of Latter Day Saints and they are I don't know it's just awesome so now Sunrise has a partner Deer Valley Education Foundation has gotten their uh cards from Albertson Safeway so um I don't know it's just great because there's going to be many families that will be able to again maybe have some dinners that they want as opposed to the things that they can usually just afford if anything um with the chemotherapy I had two weeks off where I wasn't sick um it was so fabulous to be able to wear that mask and and get into an office and deliver the gifts are for p Hills and for Mirage um I got

154to drop some other stuff off so the freedom that I had for those those two weeks was great and then of course on Monday at 8:15 it all started over again so you know by tomorrow we'll we'll have that we'll have a new a new shot and maybe four days off so I am so thankful for being able to get to a I miss all of the the fun um concerts and that sort of thing anyway so it was just nice to be able to see faces faces if it was only for a few minutes um so that might clarify like a misperception that hey I'm all out and about and I'm not you know taking my responsibilities serious I am uh always have have and always will um it it just hurts sometimes and

155then it goes away because it's you know garbage on a social media platform where you know you've got a a a board member stating as a fact that District employees governing board members even our lawyers um break the law every day we don't follow rules which is just so I don't know it's just so ridiculous and it's it's not good for our kids because you know if there are people listening to that without verifying it they may actually think that we're like that and we're not um the inference that board members and Dr Finch are conspir are conspiring for whatever it is I don't know is ludicrous perhaps the only thing that board members and a superintendent conspire as to how great we can make our district uh so that stuff probably should stop and

156you know I Chronicle my my my journey through the board uh through the chemotherapy because it kind of helps other people understand things and it's it's good to get it out so we talk about a lot about transparency truth integrity and ethics so during those two weeks that we're going to have off um from the board maybe not from our normal jobs or whatever it is that we fill our time with but I'd like each of us to reflect on our actions respons abilities as elected nonpartisan governing board members that are supposed to be lifting each other up and not tearing things down because that's a horrible uh modeling for our staff and students so in January we have an opportunity to reset our behaviors to make them better uh to be honest truthful genuine

157and um I hope that we take advantage of that um it would just be awesome to to be a board that can have totally opposite opinions but not be contentious and disgusting and degrading toward our staff and each other so I want everyone to have a great relaxing safe Christmas break no boots when you come back from that skiing accident that you had because you haven't been on the slopes for I don't know 20 years so let's just all remember family family is family and whether arohan is our district family or it's our immediate family or our friend's family let's just remember every moment counts and thank you very much thank you Mrs orway Mrs fiser uh yes um I will start with the aspa conference um I was glad to hear that there is

158other resources that we can use looking at ASU Helios uh project that they have going on for decision making we can actually get data since we don't generally get complete data it would be nice to be part of that um it was interesting you know years ago when when uh even if uh individuals didn't agree with asba didn't really like asba it was really important to uh Miss Ordway and miss obrien that we make the effort to get the all board award um and so you know working with uh the ven board members uh who who who did not really want to go to asba um you know with Miss Tweety and and uh Miss Frank we we we came together and it was amazing we did come together because it was important to two

159board members um I was very saddened by this asba conference our board is so divided our our entire district and board with with Administration is so divided it's sad to sit and watch when a board member doesn't even know what to do because has no guidance and and and won't speak up and won't ask for assistance um because just because not a real valid reason uh or when we can't work together even for the success of our district I watched as board members talked about how they're doing and I listened to some of the newest superintendent even baby superintendents on how they have United their board with their staff with their community and the awesome things that are happening in their district and it's heartbreaking to hear when I know what a track magic board

160this has been over the last year I struggled um when I see that we get an item on the agenda and it's moved or we get it on a study session it's moved or board members walk out or board members do whatever it is they do um and then want to lecture that there's no funny business but it was done in front of everybody to see repeatedly through the year I do hope that this board changes its ways because these silly games are nothing more than harmful to this community and this district and it shows in our results it shows in the way things are happening um I I spoke with superintendent um about what they're doing and what's working um speaking of superintendence just because he's always been linked to Deer Valley as well

161I want to congratulate Greg Stanton for his uh award as one of the superintendents of the year um because just like you know the prior year um superintendent also had a link to Deer Valley not as a superintendent but as a community member um it's it's it's good to see someone you know and care about successful in the actions and what they're doing um there was also Al a a push for fafsas I do think our district should be involved as well for our students it's really good for our students however I would like for our district if we're going to do that also have a a component of financial responsibility we have a lot of students that will not qualify for Federal loans or or federal aid but they will qualify for loans and

162then they'll be buried in loans so I would like Financial also added um after that long uh three days at asba I um spent Saturday morning with a teacher who had asked me to meet her um and she wanted to let me know that she has resigned from the district and she wanted me to know why she had resigned and she wanted to let me know that we also are losing a student because she's taking her student with her it was really sad to sit across a table from a teacher who shared with me that she can't teach in our district because her classroom is not safe for her to be in she shared with me that she has gone home at night in tears she has shared with me that over and over again

163she has sent out out a bullying student to be disciplined and had they have had that student sent back to their class with not even a word The Bullying student that is the issue for her has not only bullied other students but they've actually tripped our staff harassed our staff um and this teacher expressed how she's heartbroken to leave the district but she can't teach where she's not safe and she's sad for her students because they're not safe regardless of what anybody thinks about the bullying issues that are happening they are happening in this district and they've happened for a lot of years but at this point they are so profoundly our way of operating they're the way our superintendent works with our board they're the way our board works with each other they're the

164way the community works and as we saw here tonight they're the way you push an agenda whether we can't have a conversation we can disagree and agree we can have a conversation or we can just bully and harass the heck out of each other and that's the path that most are taking and it's saddening and it's heartbreaking to see so I hope that any of of that uh speech that was just given is ends up being true I suspect it will not be I suspect we will face the family members who have requested our assistance our service what we were elected to do will simply be pushed off or brushed off just as they were all this year I suspect that IND individuals will look in that camera and tell teachers I hear you but

165I'm going to vote this way because it somehow suits a need that they feel is more important than our teachers I suspect that some board members will come back here and they will say oh but look all these teachers want this one thing so I'm going to vote Yes for this one thing this is not a game and I think this Board needs to learn that we did a lot of great things from 2015 to 2017 17 to 18 we did a lot of talking and that was the last time this board are we allowed to go on like for 10 minutes I thought we were well we went on and on you had extraen to you so um I'm going to finish what I'm saying yeah five minutes was our alignment you correct come

166January you will have full control to undermine the board's Authority but today is my day right now this moment so I hopeful pretty rude and and I am hope what is rude is you not coming to meetings when you can go to a concert and our parents are sitting right there that you denied it I think I explained that that on Miss I was not going to mention I was not mention the shenanigans oh you did but you're mentioning them you're bringing them I receive chemotherapy that is now coursing through my body through a pump I understand that be in person you so you can have a are rud tell you are rude and you are disingenuous you hate information yes you are ma'am you are out of order you are ma'am that is correct

167and nobody's illness is an excuse for a bad behavior I am sorry Miss Hardway that you are sick you're not sorry about anything but but pushing your lies out there to make you look somehow better than someone else you did it in writing it's it's not a lie it's in writing yes it's in writing that I just said it out loud that I had nine good days you argue that from the doctor Stephanie will give you a copy of her covid test and Paul will give you a copy of his plane ticket but you cannot provide facts for any of your accusations did any of that prevent you from having a meeting a week ago in person abolutely I don't have what when was that a week ago two weeks ago you there was no

168dates for a meeting a week ago you guys were not transparent gave to anyone I am done with arguing with someone who is full of herself and her narcissistic nonsense yes Miss Hardway you are and please don't use the lord's name in vain in future meetings you may not think it's okay but I've already had people you call yourself certain things and act Mrs can you let Mrs Fisher a finish no because she's it's ridiculous and um yes if I was there okay uh Mrs or I'm going to uh give my B report now I'm going to give my B report thank you Mrs Fisher yeah I said everything I would like to wish all our students parents and community members and staff a happy holiday and a happy New Year thank you to our

169hardworking staff who have worked above and beyond expectations to maintain a safe and happy environment thank you to our parents and community members for being involved in their children's education and for being part of the school community in the decision making as a community and as a district we must continue to invest in our students for they are our future it has been my pleasure to be president and advocacy I believe education is nonpartisan and the main focus should be PRI prioritizing the needs of students above else it is important to keep politics out of the schools in order to make decisions based on evidence research and needs of students I wish you all a safe holiday season that we may enter the new year filled with hope and to make this year a better

170one for all I also would like to say uh best of luck uh for our next president as you have seen that you know it takes work challenges uh and research and I will keep you in my prayers thank you and have a happy holiday we're going to uh adjourn so we had the future days are posted and we're going to adjourn so moved just second it Miss paperman I second all those all those in favor hi I I