001take the Roll Call here at this time please join me in a moment of Silent prayer or private reflection amen please stand and let's join in on the Pledge of Allegiance foreign I do not believe we have a need for an executive session tonight I would tell you you don't have a need for an executive session all right Carol now nowakowski is now going to speak at this time representing the Lake Havasu City Education Association good evening Madam vice president members of the board and directors um session has started legislative session has started three points I want to make sure you know the house education committee meets on Tuesday at 2 pm you can watch live or on the next day you can pull up and watch the archive videos and then the Senate meets
002on Wednesdays at 2 p.m again you can watch them live or you can watch them on the next day and then don't forget to sign up for requests to speak you do not have to be present to speak you're just making a note on any bills that will be present that either the committee speaks about or that makes it to the floor so it's just identifying for and against or neutrals so I encourage anybody and everybody to sign up for request this week and then um that's about it any questions all right or after a good start this year thank you Carol I'm Carol noachowski I am the lead I am the President of the our local Association and I give reports so um legislative reports I am just announcing that the house education committee
003meets on Tuesdays at 2PM and you can watch live or you can watch an archive video just so you can listen to them communicate about the bills that are being discussed and then the Senate education committee meets on Wednesday and then there is an opportunity to request to speak and if you sign up you can just from your computer identify if you are for or against or neutral on bills that are being discussed at the legislative you don't have to be there to do so all right thanks thank you Terry do we have any calls to the public all right I'm going to read a paragraph for you form b-e-d-h-e is required to address the board during called in public forum must be turned into the superintendent before the meeting starts there will be a
004five minute time limit per speaker at this time the board president will call for comments from members of the public because of restrictions imposed by ARS 38-431.01 discussion and action on items brought before the board during this time will be limited to directing staff to study the matter or rescheduling the Mallet for further consideration and decision at a later date first up we have Diane clostermeyer to talk about textbook review please go to the mic Lake Havasu Board of Education members my name is Diane klostermeyer I'm a mother a grandmother and a great grandmother and resident of Lake Havasu City for over 30 years I was privileged to have the opportunity to see the proposed history and science folks now into consideration for ninth through ninth grade through high school as you know some residents
005have expressed concern that the true history of our country should be taught based on the founding fathers their view of our constitution our government and its presidents and the representatives should be fairly represented they want our youth to learn to love and respect our country it's history including inculcating family values and traditions of our nation in which it was founded upon the guidance of our creator in this way our youth can use their talents to defend the freedom of our Constitution and provide and help make our country even greater to be honest in the 30 to 45 minutes that I was there there was no way I could review the array of books being considered for the pros and cons of each of them to ascertain whether they include any serious errors in historical facts
006such as woke indoctrination critical race Theory 1619 history Theory political biases endorsing Global government versus the United States being a Sovereign Nation with our U.S Constitution do any of them promote transgender education arguments to defund the police or endorsing attitudes on climate change at all was kind enough to answer some of my concerns at the time when I was there and advised me that a committee is reviewing the books on hand I do not know the directions or Provisions upon which how the books are reviewed for the pros and cons concerning which ones would be chosen I'll be giving you a copy that's by the way sorry taking in and if you're what I did note that none of them are from Hillsdale College currently our elementary schools are using Hillsdale curriculum and it seemed
007only logical to consider the Hillsdale education materials for upper grades too I was told that Hillsdale was consulted to provide the educational books they used but they didn't provide any I would like to respectfully request that before the committee and your board choose the books now into consideration that our school board make a concerted effort to get the educational books and educational materials that Hillsdale has available I am even impressed by the online education programs that they currently offer such as prostitution 101 the meaning and history of our Constitution and I provided you with a copy of the one I have I and I respectfully request this return on a committee is done with it I believe you will be impressed by its content and the content of many other things from Hillsdale this is
008only one of many programs offered by Hillsdale plus they provide updated newsletters on educational information and current governmental considerations also I'm providing a history book from the national Center on constitutional studies in the hope that you might check to see if any of their list of history books and their books on the founding fathers and our constitution would be worth considering prior to making your final selection of books to use at our school district finally I request that once the committee makes the recommendation of the books that we that they provide the pros and cons in reaching their decision and their parents be notified so they too can provide input as to their views before the finalist decision is made by your board take a secondary I'm not used to speaking you know thank you
009for your consideration and I'll be looking forward to your action on this important matter relate to the education of our youth and maintaining family values in our community Respectfully yours Diane Klosterman as well thank you God bless you and God bless America thank you you're not allowed to comment on call to the pavitaria okay that conductors anyway I have the books and who do I give them to and who do I get a copy of things our second call of the public is Jillian Usher also for our textbook review and curriculum hello my name is Jillian Usher um first I'd like to introduce myself to the board I am serving as the executive director for Lake Havasu Museum of History I'm excited to meet all of you and I hope we can develop a very
010amazing relationship moving forward with our educational offerings however I would like to say that these comments that I would like to share are not on the position of Museum director but rather the position of a born and raised Lake Havasu City resident all of my education has been within Lake Havasu City Arizona I went to preschool that new day on a coma I went to elementary school at Starling in Jamaica I went to Thunderbolt And I graduated from the high school in 2013. I received my associate's degree from Mojave Community College and they're now pursuing my bachelor's degree at ASU at Lake Havasu I am very proud that I was educated in Lake Havasu City however I graduated from the district almost 10 years ago almost in May and I was in elementary school nearly
01120 years ago that being said our curriculum just was the mind of a young learner should evolve over time my favorite part of learning is the opportunity for Discovery every course in every concept is like a treasure map of unforeseen land opening my developing Brain still to this day to new ideas New Perspectives and new experiences with that I find it to be a great disservice to limit those Realms of discovery by fighting this modernization of artistic curriculum we are telling our children that nothing has changed and nothing will ever change in our world we are teaching them that they do not have the capability to receive information logically discern and formulate their own educated opinion in a world of unlimited information this skill of discernment could be their greatest asset in their features yes
012I agree that we should thoroughly examine what our students are being taught and that it is our duty as responsible community members parents and educational representatives to do so our children deserve the security that they are getting the vast and encompassing educational opportunities that are their invaluable right but they do not deserve to be inhibited from the realities that are interwoven within our society they do not deserve to continue their educational and career Pathways beyond our district and feel that they were limited and sheltered for knowledge and experiences that are nearly commonplace in other areas most of all they do not deserve to have their reality show that there is nothing left to discover and that there's no room left to create I hope as a regulatory agency that takes delicate time to fully comprehend
013which students will be gaining from their education that you will consider that by limiting what they can discover what they can experience and what other perceptions can be experienced on their own that you may be limiting the wonderful creative and contributing humans that they can become as we review this new curriculum just know that it should be evolved I graduated 10 years ago and so much has been discovered in that time and I am so excited that our students get to experience those new discoveries and understand what it means to have a fully encompassing perception of our Humanity thank you thank you both for your comments this evening moving to the cons consent agenda do I have a motion to accept the consent agenda as stated I mean that we uh look at the consent
014agenda and we get uh items 4.8 and 4.9 out for further schedule for further discussion computers is there a second here I had a chance to review these in a private meeting with the superintendent and I know that because what computers were getting and how much how much they're going to improve our positioning the computer end of things I will second okay Mr Vermont yes so will those be moved to six four and six five then okay they will be different right now oh okay so they do yeah so just so um I my computer died and I don't want to unplug this one so I'm going to be kind of looking on Dr Iran's computer if that's okay with them uh no worries so do we need a motion then for to approve the
015consent agenda except for 4.8 and 4.9 okay perfect so I moved that we accept 4.8 and 4.9 see okay but you pulled them out is there something is there something that you want to say about them yes they're actually much better computers than what we currently have so any any dollars spent on that is for an improvement of our position in that for uh pulling background automation making sure you're wanting to do that to let the public know right yes there are things in the computer yeah they're actually built with I5 processors which are high-end processors that we're doing to move towards the one-on-one one-to-one I don't know if any of you want to speak to one-to-one uh about what we're doing there that might be a good chance to do this and then we
016can approve 4.8 and 4.9 so these laptops um previous meaning we will be moving to one to one and that was approved at the high school level we will in turn take the some of the laptops that are currently at the high school and move them to Thunderbolt Middle School um so that way those teachers are still sharing laptops really across grade levels and there's pockets of teachers that have no access so we're going to move those to Thunderbolt and then we're using Title 1 and Grant dollars to purchase laptops for some of the elementary schools we have a varying level of access at the elementary schools and really uh the most of what these are being used for is for remediation a lot of the time things like amplify reading they really are supported
017by having students with laptop use and so we're going to go to more of a at least grade level share of laptop carts in the Upper Elementary grades um and then we are going to be replacing some teacher computers as well so we are using um Grant dollars and some I believe am I right my bond dollars the replacement Capital dollars um to do a refresh of um the teacher or the staff computers and we're using Grant dollars to refresh student computers yeah but we're also getting a lot more for our money we actually are so this one uh when we got the first quote thank you for bringing that up when we got the first quote it far up seated what the grant was written for um and uh Sean Baker the technology Supervisor
018was able to go back and negotiate a much much more upgraded laptop that was like 70 or 80 dollars more um and to get it so it fit into the grant that we had already written it also is uh it's a laptop that can be used as a surface um so our staff can use it to test students um and assess students so they um they have a lot of uses but the laptops we're getting are also desktop or Facebook level laptops not because they're that much better than what we currently have thank you and just just to clarify so Bond issuance will be used federal grants will be used and if needed any Capital available Capital funds will be used to make those purchases and these are brought before the board because we've reached
019the 100 000 like item purchase cumulative purchases already throughout the year for the year for laptop computer purchases so it has a formality and in compliance with the usfr that's why it's coming before the board as well so while the purchases are under a hundred thousand dollars each cumulative purchases across the district have already exceeded that that's why it's before you and I happen to know something about computers so that's good I mean that we accept 4.8 and 4.9 as uh presented can we put on them separately or combined or do we need to do it separately a second yes yes yes right there are no discussion items so we'll move on to the action items item 6.1 student achievement updates to 23 24 and 24 to 25 academic calendar this is Festa Daigle Madam
020vice president and governing board Lake Havasu Unified School District has historically adopted academic calendars three years at a time Administration meets with a calendar committee representing each site to elicit feedback about the academic calendar the calendar committee met in December of 2022 to review the current adopted calendars the committee was made up of teachers classified staff and administrators eight of the committee members are also lhusd parents suggested changes to the calendar were brought back to the school sites for final approval the current calendar structure works well with the quarters and semesters that are even and an emphasis on ensuring high school students complete finals before winter break however there's some small changes that need to be made in order to more effectively support teachers and students it is recommended that school begin for students on
021a Thursday rather than a Monday this allows lhusd to more effectively support novice teachers as they transition into planning lessons preparing materials and Grading student work it provides more dedicated time to work with students on rules and procedures in setting the climate of the classroom before starting with content the following Monday it also allows for kindergarteners to start with a half day and to acclimate to school which was a past practice and worked well for our new students by adjusting these days room is created for a teacher work day to start the calendar year after winter break this will support teachers by having more time after winter break to prepare for the new semester and work collaboratively to meet the needs of their students space is also created that allows for a day off in
022April there are typically no days off between spring break and the end of the year which is also the time of standardized testing one date at the end of April would become a break after testing for students and teachers students will still attend school for 180 days and teachers will still work for 188 days work day calendars for other positions have been addressed and this does not add or remove days from those workday calendars the calendar styles were also updated so they meet the accessibility requirements for online posting thanks to Gina Flores and the academic calendars are provided for the 23 24 and 24 25 school year so what we did was back up school to start two days earlier um we started on a Thursday for probably close to a decade and then we
023did make the switch to start to a Monday but this backs it up again so as a brand new teacher all you need to do is get ready for those two days and then you have a little bit of a break and you can get it into the swing of things so by backing it up two days we created two more days uh the one is the teacher work day in January so again we don't have teachers having to work over winter break to prep for their classrooms and the other day is a total day off for teachers and students to Mark the end of the testing season so the days are neutral it's just a little bit of a shifting of days all right thank you is there any discussion or emotion I mean
024that we accept 6.1 is presented a second um I did want to say though um I will be voting to approve this calendar based on the strength of the recommendation of the committee and it appears to have the support of our directors and superintendent I do have some concerns about unintended consequences so we are voting tonight to approve this for the upcoming two school years but um my um acceptance of this calendar also comes with the requests that we evaluate um following the beginning of next year to make sure that some of those unintended consequences are mitigated and that we shouldn't just move back to the way that we had it before and I think you're speaking of students making sure that students come to school yes I mean I don't want to put ideas
025on people's heads but it does seem to me like students might or families might kind of shrug off the first couple of days and so we haven't and I mean again I can only speak historically the first day of school is super exciting so we have not seen that in the past but we can look look at that I do hear from staff members um we just go to school a Monday and a Tuesday before the the three-day Thanksgiving break and every once in a while it's like well why don't we take those days off too so I don't think we see a huge drop but we can can look at all of those days okay and then the other um consequence that I think might occur is because we're bringing back teachers um the
026Friday in July at the end of July I think that there might be an unspoken expectation that teachers then use that following weekend to also do preparations in their classroom and I I just hate to take away a weekend from a teacher that they have in the past received so I I guess I would urge our Administration and our site Administration to you know do what they can to avoid that um yes yes all right item 6.2 Business Services maintenance vehicle purchase Mr Murray Madam vice president members of the board I'm going to start out by saying I jinxed myself last month because I made a statement that I probably won't have to come before you again this month which was a big mistake on December 20th 2022 the governing board approved the purchase of
027two F-250 XL Regular Cab trucks with options that did not include an enclosed to secure tools and enclosure to secure tools and equipment in the truck's bed options were again reviewed with the dealer to address the need to access the bed space while providing a secured enclosure sanderson's Sanderson Ford State contract will be used to procure the vehicles as we've done in the past the quote is included in this action item but summarized below pricing includes all requested options preparations service and parts tax and delivery although the courts total 128 000 46.98 and not to exceed approval amount of 135 thousands being requested to cover incidentals bonding or other approved funds for Capital purchases will be used and this item has been reviewed by purchasing I moved that we approved 6.2 as presented a second
028yes item 6.3 Business Services vouchers Student Activity funds and auxiliary funds Mr meta vice president members of the board before you tonight are the vouchers Student Activity funds and auxiliary funds for December of 2022. I move that we accept 6.3 is presented I'll second that yes hi does Mr Murray have anything to inform us this evening I do not unless other directors have been directed by the superintendent to share anything do the governing board members have anything for us tonight I would just like to really encourage the public to to continue to be involved I know we had some speakers on curriculum tonight uh you can do it more than half hour I forget when is when is curriculum review available from when to win it is available from nine to three every day um
029and then the public meeting for the science adoption is tomorrow night starting at five o'clock at the high school in the public meeting for the social studies adoption is on Monday at the high school again at five o'clock so this is an opportunity if you want to spend a few hours bring a lunch and sit in there and take as much time as you need to review the textbooks I know there are forms in there we really do want to have public feedback so we really do value that as a district part of what we were doing in curriculum in all things is transparency and so we do want to hear what you have to say especially if you do a deep dive into the books I know I'm doing a deep dive into the
030books and I know some of the governing board members all of them probably are as well so I would encourage you to do that thank you by all means please come and show up and do it and and this is available until February is it 9th it's available all the way up until the day of the board meeting thank you I did have one informational item as well I was able to go to Phoenix um for the We the People competition this past weekend and um there were approximately 30 of our high school seniors competing um if you're not familiar with We the People competition they give prepared statements as a team and then they are asked very hard-hitting questions by attorneys there was a federal prosecutor there were judges different people who really know
031constitutional law were asking them follow-up questions about what they said and our students were very impressive this has led by Mr Barney and I just wanted to congratulate him on doing such a thorough job of preparing those Civic students do we have any additional calls to the public do we have any board suggestions for future agenda items the Arizona School Board Association need to get that in our minds okay we'll put it on the next agenda Let's uh if we don't I mean yeah something that we do need to have coming up soon yeah but we should probably talk with superintendent Stone to find out when the trust placement stuff is available all right does the Press have any clarifying questions I will take a motion to adjourn do I have a second I'll second
032it I'll first it yes reading is adjourned