001Mhm. >> Mhm. >> Yeah. >> Hi everyone. Thanks for joining us. We are going to get started. Today is Tuesday, April 14th, 2026 and this is the regular meeting of the Littlest Elementary School District Governing Board. I hereby call this meeting to order. The first item on the agenda is going to be the Pledge of Allegiance. If you could please stand and join us. I pledge allegiance 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. Thank you. Next, we are going to take a moment of silent reflection. >> Okay, next we are going to move on to recognitions and celebrations and this will be by Executive Director Nuuanu. Good evening President Zuidema, board members, Superintendent Davidson,
002fellow cabinet members and community members both present and online. It is my pleasure to share and celebrate the outstanding achievements of two exceptional Litchfield Elementary School District students who recently represented our district at the Arizona State Science and Engineering Fair on March 27th. Logan Kenko, fifth grade student at Mabel Padgett Elementary School and Bryce Custer, an eighth grade student from Verrado Heritage Elementary School proudly showcased their scientific research alongside some of the top young minds from across the state. Their participation alone is a remarkable accomplishment and a testament to their hard work and passion for learning. We would also like to extend a special recognition to Bryce Custer who earned second place in the junior chemistry division, an incredible achievement in a highly competitive field. In addition, Bryce's project ranked in the top 10 of
003all entries at the fair earning him an invitation to apply for the prestigious Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge. Woo, that's a mouthful. One of the nation's premier science competitions for middle school students. These accomplishments reflect not only the dedication and talent of Logan and Bryce, but also the unwavering commitment to academic excellence and the innovation that we strive for across We are incredibly proud of Logan and Bryce for representing LESD 79 at the state level, and their achievements exemplify the curiosity, determination, and perseverance that define what it means to be a Litchfield learner. Please join me in congratulating these outstanding students on their success. >> [applause] [applause] >> Now, I would like to invite Bryce, Logan, we'll take a picture up forward. I'd like to invite the governing board down so that we could
004take a picture with them as well. Superintendent Davidson. There he is. Logan, is that the Litchfield sign? >> [laughter] >> Okay, here we go. All right, right here. The last three, two, one, smile. Thank you. All right. >> [applause] [applause] >> All right, continuing on with the celebrations. Tonight, we would also like to recognize the outstanding group of student athletes from Verrado Middle School who whose achievements in archery have earned them well-deserved recognition at the state level. Members of the Verrado Middle School archery team recently competed in the NASP Arizona State Championship where they demonstrated exceptional focus, discipline, and skill. Through their strong performances, these students scored high enough to earn an invitation to compete at the national level. An incredible accomplishment that reflects their dedication and hard work both in practice and in competition.
005We would also like to extend a very special recognition to Camila Altunes for her extraordinary performance. Camila captured first place in the state among middle school competitors and placed third overall across all divisions, all divisions, elementary, middle, and high school. Even more impressive, she achieved a perfect score of 50 on one end and a remarkable feat that highlights her precision, composure, and elite level of skill. Camila's success, along with the accomplishments of her teammates, exemplifies the commitment, determination, and pursuit of excellence that we value at the Litchfield Elementary School District. Their achievements reflect not only their athletic talent, but also the discipline, the perseverance that they bring both in the classroom and on the range. We are incredibly proud of the Verrado Middle School archery team and wish them continued success as they prepare to
006compete on the national stage. Please join me in congratulating these exceptional student athletes. >> [applause] >> Now, I would like to invite the team and the coach, their principal, if she's here. And the whole board, Sam. Yes. Come on. Now, let's switch everybody down. Yeah, let's go ahead. There we go. All right. Stand by everybody, right here in the lens. Smile. Look at me right in the lens. Okay, ready? Here we go. No, you're fine. That's a good two one cheese. All right. Congratulations. >> [applause] >> All right. >> [applause] >> All right. [cheering] There you go. Keep it going for all of our students celebrated tonight. >> [applause] >> Thank you for coming. I'm going to let these kiddos sneak out of here, but congratulations guys on what a an accomplishment that was. 2
007years in a row you guys have done really amazing and wow, that group has really grown from last year. So, uh I have a kiddo that's into archery, so I kind of want to learn from you guys how you're doing it, so I know how to teach her a little better, so. Okay, guys, we are going to move on to our next item. We have no requests to speak, so then we will move on to the adoption of the agenda and consideration of consent agenda. I'll go through and see if anyone has any items they wish to pull um Ms. Wallace? No, thank you. Mr. Meeks? None for me. Mr. Owens? No, thank you. Ms. Moran? No, thank you. I have none either, so if someone wants to make a motion. I move to approve
008the um consent agenda. I second. Having a motion from Mr. Meeks and a second from Ms. Wallace, I'll call for the vote. Ms. Wallace? Yay. Mr. Meeks? >> Yay. Mr. Owens? Yay. Ms. Moran? Yay. I'm also a yay. Motion passes. >> Okay. Next, we're going to move all the way down and along to our action items. Our first item will be consideration administrative recommendation for principal of Western Sky, and this will be by Executive Director Satterfield or somebody else talking. President Zidema, members of the governing board, colleagues, and those in the audience, um I'd like to begin by sharing a little bit of our process with you. Um we had 18 applicants for the position of principal at Western Sky. We had 10 folks that as we reviewed and screened them, received the in-basket activities.
009And um the in-basket activity consist consisted of two questions, plus an opportunity to introduce themselves via video. We asked that it was limited to 3 minutes. Um we also um had uh s- I'm sorry, I lost my place. Um we had one person who we did offer the opportunity who failed to respond to us within the given timeline. Um we looked at the scores. We We We have different individuals who score, and we have an established rubric that is used by each one of us. And then we average the scores each of us individually and then put them into a spreadsheet, and then we look for where is that point that we want to be above. In the case of our principal candidates, it was 16 or higher to be considered for an interview. Um
010so I'm very pleased to introduce and recommend to you Mr. Aaron Gould as the new principal of Western Sky. He has served our district as the assistant principal for the last four years at Western Sky. Uh prior to that, he served as an achievement advisor. He's been a math and science teacher. He holds a master's in educational leadership and a bachelor's in elementary education. Um so, will you please join me in uh welcoming Mr. Aaron Gould and his family, Hillary his wife, and Jeffrey his son. Madam Chairwoman, Yes. >> can I interject real quick before the board considers a vote? Yes. Um thank you, Ms. Satterfield, for sharing a little bit about the process. Um what I wanted to highlight as well, um as you consider Mr. Gould to serve as principal, um very, very
011easy for the team and I to bring him to you tonight as a recommended candidate um because, and I've shared this with him as well as uh staff members there, Mr. Gould simply dominated the process. Um it's it's very easy when a candidate rises up, not just because of what they say, but in Mr. Gould's case, for what he has done over the last four years with us. So, I just wanted to share that with the board and just um certainly hope to offer some congratulations here in a minute to him, his family, and to staff and community members that are joining him tonight. But, um uh it was just a real joy to sit back and watch someone who has essentially come through our process um and grow with us here in Litchfield, earn
012the opportunities. I will certainly be quiet, and any of us here can answer questions if you have any. I [snorts] will Yes, does anybody have any questions? Ms. Wallace, do you have any questions or comments? I do not have any questions, but I love seeing people in our district continue to stay in our district and move up and find other roles. And so, I think that's a a very good fit with you having served there for the last four years and knowing the staff and the students better than anyone else could at this time. So, I think that is an obvious good choice. Mr. Meeks. Well, if I'm allowed to say ditto to that, um that's that's a great uh great point for it and it's it's nice to see uh one of our own
013rise through the process and um I like the concept and the idea of them completely dominating that those steps and and uh kind of rise above there. So, uh anyways, so I'm looking forward to the vote. Mr. Owens. Yeah, I agree with what was said. Thanks. Ms. Moran. I also agree, but I will add to that that I am not surprised at all that you were the recommended candidate based on my son's 2 years of experience under your leadership and I am happy to support this vote. Uh no questions either. I'm very excited for us to vote in a minute and uh he's been a joy to talk to whenever we've gotten to go on showcases. He is a great person on that campus and is only going to make it an even better place
014when he is at the top. So, uh with that, if somebody would like to make a motion. I'll move to approve the administrative recommendation for Mr. Aaron Gould as principal of Western Sky Middle School. I will second. Having a motion from Mr. Meeks and a second from Ms. Moran, I'll call for the vote. Ms. Wallace. Yay. Mr. Meeks. Yay. Mr. Owens. Yay. Ms. Moran. Yay. I'm also a yay. Motion passes. >> [applause] >> Madam President, would you be acceptable we could take a quick photo with Mr. Gould? Absolutely. >> All right, thank you. Okay, so officially welcome to being principal next year, Mr. Gold. We're very excited to have you in this job. Okay, we are going to move on to the next item on the agenda, which is consideration of administrative recommendation for assistant
015principal of Weewon Creek Middle School. And this will be by Executive Director Satterfield again. President Sideman, members of the governing board, colleagues, and those in attendance and online, I bring to you this evening for your consideration Ms. Rachel Schiffino who is a member of our community and will be a new member of our leadership family. This process involved 23 applicants and we actually were able to send the in-basket activities to all 23. And there's also consisted of two questions and one introductory video. We followed the same scoring process utilizing an applicable rubric for the expectations of the assistant principal role. We conducted five interviews and those who were considered for interviews were rated at 3.7 and above on the rubric. Rachel Ms. Schiffino comes to us having served as an assistant principal, having served as
016an instructional coach, and also having worked as a curriculum specialist and in curriculum and literacy. Um And so I would recommend for your consideration Ms. Rachel Schiffino. Ms. Wallace, did you have any Oh, sorry. Go ahead, Dr. Davidson. Thank you, Madam President. The other thing that I would just a couple of comments as well around Ms. Schiffino and and her work. Her resume speaks for herself as Ms. Satterfield spoke to. Obviously doing a great job throughout the all the interviews. Um But also Ms. Schiffino is one of our parents and one and one of our community members and for her to be able to look at LESD 79. Bless you. And think of us as a place where she would like to not just send her children for a quality education, but choose to invest
017in it as well for other families. That just That says a lot. So, we're excited, as Ms. Satterfield said, to welcome Rachel to the LESD 79 family. And with your support, we'll answer any questions. So, thank you. Ms. Wallace, do you have any questions or comments? I did not have any questions. I look forward to getting to know you. Mr. Meeks? None for me. I look forward to the vote and getting to know you. Thank you. Mr. Owens? No questions. Thanks. Ms. Moran? Yes, same here. I look forward to getting to know you better. I do want to make a side note and say that I appreciate the proactive approach to explaining the process of doing the hiring that we're going through. I always like to hear that for transparency purposes to make sure that
018people know that we have, first of all, a lot of people interested in working here. Second of all, that because of that pool of people who are potential, we're going to come out with some really great candidates. And of course, we're going to pick the best one. So, I appreciate the explanation for the process. I have no questions, either. I look forward to also getting to know you as you are my middle school, not next year, but in a couple years, we'll be back again with my youngest. So, uh with that, if someone wants to make a motion. I move to approve the administrative recommendation for Ms. Rachel Shafino as assistant principal of Wigwam Creek Middle School. I second. Having a motion from Ms. Moran and a second from Ms. Wallace, I'll call for the
019vote. Ms. Wallace? Yay. Mr. Meeks? Yay. Mr. Owens? Yay. Ms. Moran? Yay. I'm also a yay. Motion passes. >> So officially, welcome to the Litchfield family. We're very excited to have you. Is this usually when everyone leaves? Yes, this is where everybody usually leaves at the meeting. So we're going to move on to our next item on the agenda. Uh, the acceptance of annual audit and annual compre- comprehensive financial report for fiscal year ending June 30th, 2025. This will be by CFO Vaughn and Eric Taylor. I'm going to just turn that over to you. >> [clears throat] >> Uh Madam President, members of the governing board, Superintendent Davidson, colleagues and community, thank you for joining me tonight to discuss and uh uh accept the financial audit for last fiscal year. Uh I'd simply like to
020introduce uh Mr. Eric Taylor, the partner at Heinfeld Meech. Uh he's been our audit partner for a number of years now and it's always been a joy to work with him. So, I just like to hand it off to Eric and let him get started. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Okay, thank you. Madam President, uh members of the board, thank you for allowing me to be here tonight. Um we completed your audit this year uh and it went great as usual because of the help of Mr. Vaughn's staff. Our audit is a financial statement audit, a federal compliance audit, and a state compliance audit, all in one. Uh your financial statement audit, you received an unmodified opinion on the financial statements, which means we believe they're materially correct, uh presented materially correct. Your uh federal
021compliance uh audit, we tested the child nutrition program this year and we had no findings in that area. Your state compliance, uh we completed the USFR compliance questionnaire. I don't know if you have a copy of that or not. Uh if you look at all those pages, we only had seven instances of non-compliance, which is pretty incredible uh compared to other districts around the state. So, that's something for the district to be very proud of. Um with that, I can answer any questions you might have. Ms. Wallace? I do not have any questions. Thank you. Mr. Meeks? No questions for me. Mr. Owens? Sounds like good news to me. Thank you. Ms. Moran, we saved her for last. Um I don't have any questions. I just looked for those magic words, which were presented fairly
022in all material aspects, as you mentioned as well. So, um yeah, I was really happy to see um the compliance as well. Um it's more than just looking at our financials and making sure that we have what we say we have and that we're um our operations are operating um in a internal control appropriate environment. Um I appreciate the outside look at that, which is a great way for us to um we're required to do it, but it does also speak to the transparency that we have with uh having a third party looking at all that information. So, I appreciate that. Thank you. No questions. Thank you for putting this together for us, and thank you to all of our team members that have to uh put together all the stuff for you to look
023at. So, we appreciate all the time and effort and work that goes into getting that done. And kudos to our finance team and everyone that's making sure that we get consistently every year these great reports. Um it should be a testament to our community to know that we are being fiscally responsible and that we're doing it all the right way. So, thank you very much. With that, I need a motion, please. I move to accept the annual audit and comprehensive financial report from Heinfield Meech & Co. for fiscal year ended June 30th, 2025 as presented. I second. Having a motion from Mr. Mikes and a second from Mr. Owens, I'll call for the vote. Ms. Wallace? Yay. Mr. Mikes? >> Yay. Mr. Owens? Yay. Ms. Moran? >> Yay. I'm also a yay. Motion passes. Thank
024you. Thank you. Okay, we are going to move on to uh re-approval of out-of-state travel request for the RTM Spring School Facilities Operations and Safety Congress. This will be uh CFO Vaughn and our assistant superintendent Stone. I'll just start by sharing a few words that uh I think this is a great opportunity for Dr. Stone to uh not only attend a conference for his own professional development, but uh he is being asked to present to share uh what we have learned and what we've put together uh with other uh organizations around the country. I'll I'll uh throw it down to Dr. Stone to uh share a little bit more about the conference, uh but I do think that this is a great opportunity uh for him to both uh learn, but also to help others
025learn. Um and uh the price is pretty close to that. So. I think the price is one of the best selling points, right? Um and by presenting is why they included the air airplane cost this time. So, uh it it's been a really great conference that I've attended in the past. Uh and this opportunity when they invited it came invited me it came with the invite to present on just what I've gleaned from them and uh and some of the other assistant supes and superintendents across the country when I was there last year uh has just really helped us lean into our deferred maintenance plan. And in conversation they were like, "We want you to come speak about it." And so, uh we bring it forward to you guys today to allow me one to
026continue to grow us and also showcase Litchfield for the great work that we're trying to do each and every day. Ms. Wallace, did you have any questions or comments? I love that we're putting these in to hear about it and I'm glad I got to hear about you presenting, but based on the cost amount, it probably could have gone in consent cuz it's an obvious answer. [laughter] >> [sighs] >> Mr. Meeks? No questions for me. Mr. Owens? Yeah, cost is great. I always like to look up where you're going, Houston, Texas in in May. Enjoy the humidity. Ms. Moran? Yeah, my only question was to tell me more about this opportunity, which you've already done. So, I appreciate that. So, no further questions. No questions. Um, can we find more conferences that are this price,
027please? Uh, with that, somebody wants to make a motion. I move to approve the out-of-state travel request for Dr. Eric Stone, um, as presented. I'll second. Having a motion from Mr. Owens and a second from Ms. Wallace, I'll call for the vote. Ms. Wallace? Yay. Mr. Meeks? >> Yay. Mr. Owens? Yay. Ms. Moran? Yay. I'm also a yay. Motion passes. Okay. Moving on to out-of-state travel request for Verrado Middle School archery team going to Nationals. Uh, this will be by Dr. Benjamin. Good evening, Madam President, members of the governing board. You just got to celebrate the archery team, and last year we had asked for this exact same conference. I am looking at the background request, and there is some information from last year in there. It says two students, however, there are 13 students
028who have made it this time. Uh, what we are seeking is permission for the out-of-state travel for our students, and then, uh, the funding for, uh, the coach to attend as well. This will be covered by tax credit because it is an after-school club or MNO based from the school. So, uh, students are able to fundraise. Their parents will be attending with them, um, and that has already been taken care of. Are there any questions about this that I can answer? Ms. Wallace. No, my only question was the two versus 13. I did read that and I thought, are we paying for two of the 13 students or Okay, that makes sense. Yes. Mr. Meeks. No questions for me. Mr. Owens. No questions, thank you. Ms. Marion. No questions, thank you. Uh no questions either.
029If someone would like to make a motion. I move to approve out of state travel request for Verrado Middle School archery team as presented. I'll second. Having a motion from Mr. Owens and a second from Mr. Meeks, they're going to duke it out of here making motions. Uh I'll call for a vote. Ms. Wallace. Yay. Mr. Meeks. Yay. Mr. Owens. Yay. Ms. Marion. Yay. I'm a yay, motion passes. Awesome. That gets us done with all our action items. So now we're going to move on to our discussion items. The first item will be the Auditor General School District Spending Analysis for fiscal year 2025 and this will be by CFO Vaughn. >> [clears throat] >> Madam President, members of the governing board, Superintendent Davidson, colleagues and community, thank you for joining me tonight to discuss
030the school district spending report published by the Arizona Auditor General's Office. This presentation aligns with the district keystone of resources, but also speaks to how we support readiness and relationship oops with those resources. This report published by the Auditor General's Office is meant to meet the requirements for their office to monitor the percentage of each dollar spent in the classroom by Arizona districts. The report was initially initially released on February 26th and is available on the Auditor General's website for all districts. Tonight, we'll be walking through the report together. The report looks at the spending of school districts and breaks down that spending into several different categories. The highest level of these categories are operational spending and non-operational spending. Operational spending is your day-to-day spending and are coded in our accounting system and in the
031data shared with the Auditor General's office to allow for comparison across districts and the nation. Operational spending can be further broken down into classroom and non-classroom spending. Classroom spending, by the Auditor General's definition, includes instructional, student support, and instructional support expenses. Instruction is primarily your teachers and instructional aids, as well as instructional supplies and athletics. Those expenses touch primarily instruction of students. Uh student support is focused on additional services students need to be successful and can include counselors, special education related service providers, such as speech speech pathologists, nurses, and attend attendance services, to name just a few broad categories of spending considered in the student support category. Instructional supports are focused on supporting the teacher and instructional personnel. They include uh teacher training, curriculum development, special education directors, and instruction related technology services, as well
032as other spending that's focused on supporting instruction. These three areas in total, as you will see in a future slide, make up the classroom spending shown in this report. Non-classroom operational spending covers spending in areas of administration, plant operations, food service, and transportation. A description of each is shown on the slide. >> [clears throat] >> Non-operational spending includes spending to acquire capital assets such as equipment, land, and buildings, as well as associated financing costs. Also considered non-operational is civic activities such as allowing our facilities to be rented out by community groups. >> [clears throat and cough] >> This slide is a screenshot from the report and shows that the district's classroom spending is 71.3% with 57.5% of that being direct instructional expenses. As part of this report, the auditor general's office also places in a
033variety of peer groups for comparison. This slide shows our peer group for instructional spending. We spend more as a proportion proportion of our spending on instruction than any other district in the peer group except Kyrene Elementary in fiscal year 2025. This slide shows a year-over-year comparison of spending per student in the various areas. You can see that spending decreased from 2024 to 2025 largely due to the phase out of COVID-19 related funding. It is surprising that we're still talking about that in reports, but I promise you I believe this is the last year we'll be doing that. >> [clears throat] >> We This report also works to provide insight into areas districts can potentially improve their efficiencies and operations by comparing spending between similar peer districts. According to the Arizona Auditor General, our administrative spending
034is considered very low. It's important to note that this is from 2025 and does not include all of the budget reductions that we are implementing for 2027. Our spending on maintaining our facilities is comparable and we have less square footage per student than peer districts. Our food service spending is considered low. Uh and spending per writer is considered com- comparable. Ultimately, this report is showing that in 2025, the district operated efficiently and this allowed us to push as much into the classroom as we did. I do think it's important to know that that what I'm showing on this slide really is what's driving uh what you see in this graphic, which is showing that classroom spending and instructional spending. It's by being so efficient or lean in those other areas that allows us to push
035so much towards instruction. All right. This slide shows the increase in our average teacher salary since 2017. Uh the significant increases earlier in this time frame were driven primarily by the 20% by 2020 initiative, which provided districts with additional funding to support teacher compensation. Our average teacher salary has flattened out as moderate raises have been offset by our teaching force becoming less experienced. In 2024, 20% of our teachers were in their first 3 years of teaching and in 2025, that figure was 22%. This slide uses the same peer group uh for analysis as the auditor general puts us in and shows average teacher pay in comparison to that peer group. You may wonder how this data shows us below average considering the results of our annual compensation study. There are a couple of reasons for
036that. On the next slide we'll dig in more deeply, but first I think it's important to realize that when we do a compensation study, we are comparing against geographically near districts, whereas the auditor general's office identifies peers using different metrics. So, it is a different comparison group of districts. This slide digs into the salary data in more detail, still utilizing data from the auditor general's report. The first two columns I'll bring your attention to is student per teacher ratio and average years of experience. All else equal, we would expect average salary to go down as student per teacher ratios go down, and we would expect average teacher salary to go up as average years of experience goes up. We When when individuals see this data, they tend to see the average students per teacher and
037think that it appears very low. The reason it appears so low is because it's not average students per home room teacher, it's average students per teacher. So, if you think about all of your specials teachers and folks of that nature, that that's driving down that average. However, what this data demonstrates more than anything is the impact that resources the districts have available to them have on average teacher salaries. Many of the districts in our auditor general comparison group are title one districts that have access to a level of resources that Litchfield does not have access to. In fact, when you use all of these figures to determine the level of effort a district is making towards teacher pay, it shows a different story. When you multiply spending per student uh and teacher to the student
038ratio per teacher, you can determine how much is spent on an average classroom of students. When you compare this figure to the average teacher salary, you see that 26% of the spending in an average Litchfield classroom is going to uh teacher salary compared to 25% uh with the district from the highest teacher salary on the list. What this shows is, for example, Alhambra is paying so much more because they have so much more available to them to spend. And we really are doing the best we can with the resources we have available to us. This report also includes this summary of student achievement, which shows, as we know, Litchfield outperforms our peers and the state averages on state assessments. At this time, I'm available to answer any questions you might have about the uh Dollars
039in the Classroom report. Madam President, may I join in real quick? Please. Thank you as well. Um thank you, Mr. Vaughn, for sharing, and I'm really proud of of the data that you have seen tonight and the the efforts uh Mr. Vaughn and his team put forward to make certain um we are being good stewards of our resources per our strategic plan. Um this report is one that I think could be uh and Mr. Vaughn spoke to a little bit, depending upon how you look at the data, could be interpreted in different ways. So, I appreciate him uh adding clarity to the conversation. Um for those listening or those that are interested, I would also welcome any additional conversation regarding how we use our resources on behalf of transparency and how we impact the students
040in the classrooms. Not everybody can speak to this data like our team can and not everybody can celebrate this data like we can as well. So, just wanted to say thank you and I'm just really pleased with the effort. So, thank you. Ms. Wallace, did you have any comments or questions? I really appreciate the data, too. I coming from being a teacher myself, this is the kind of thing that you always thought about, but you didn't know what the surrounding districts were really at. So, for our staff, teachers specifically, to be able to look at this and be able to clearly see where they are comparatively to other districts, I think that this is just really great transparency and really great information to give them confidence in where they are. Mr. Meeks? Um, my my
041initial thing was I was very excited to see the report and the numbers [clears throat] and also there's this moment of kind of wow, how we do what we do. It's almost like, you know, how much more juice can you squeeze out of the lemon type of a thing and and we'll keep pressing to to do that, but it's uh to me, it just makes me feel that much more comfortable with what we do and the track that we're on, how diligent we are with everything, especially following up, you know, the audit we had as well. I mean, it's a you know, it's a big showcase with our financial side of of things so far today with our with our agenda items. So, I appreciate all that stuff and just like anything else, uh when
042you look at these data pieces, sometimes you can just kind of want try to one line something to look at it, but um you really have to step back, look at everything together, all the moving pieces. Um it's it really is incredible. Uh all the hard work and time that's that's put into it, and I I think um we're extremely successful with what we with what we do and what we what we get. So, thank you. Mr. Owens? Yeah, once again once again I just agree with all that. I think after the tenuous budget discussions we had previously that you know, those all lead to the decisions all those decisions decisions lead to ideally this kind of outcome. And so, I think we're going to see similar if not even higher numbers in terms of
043good numbers next year after this report comes out, but um thank you for all your work. Ms. Marion? Yes. Okay, so I first want to talk about the operational efficiency measures. Um because during our budget conversations, you know, as I stated before, it was kind of an us against them mentality at one point. And the them in this case was the administration. And so, we have known because we look at this report every year that our administration spending for per student is low or very low. My question is, Michael, do they even make a rating lower than very low for this? Because knowing the cuts that we made at the administration level, I think we will have um if there is an extremely low, that might be us next year. But nonetheless, it's all good,
044but any any commentary on that or are there any districts that are extremely low in this category? There is no category below very low. Okay. >> Um Yeah. So, we're as low as it gets with that. So, everyone duly note that it will be our our our average uh spending in this district will be even lower than what it is now, and um, I don't know that we can go any lower after that. Uh, my second area that I want to have a conversation about is the average teacher salary. So, which is the next slide. Um, so when I looked at this initially, and I think, um, it's a little misleading in that my initial take was "Hey, we used to have a higher teacher sal- average teacher salary, and what is causing us now
045to not have a higher teacher salary than the state average?" And so, if you could say more about how our workforce retention and experience impacts these numbers, because I wouldn't want someone to think that we aren't keeping up with the opportunities that we would have for experienced teachers, for sure. For sure. So, if you think about what uh, contributes to the average teacher salary, um, it's it's all of the salaries of all of the teachers we have. And when you think about what goes into what any individual teacher makes, it's primarily two factors. It's their level of education, and it's their level of experience. And what we're uh, seeing over the course of this time frame that this uh, chart that we're looking at covers, so from 2017 to 2025, is that the percentage of
046our teacher workforce that's in their first three years of experience is growing. And because of that, uh, obviously the teachers in their first three years uh, make less than more experienced teachers. And so, as more experienced teachers retire or move on, uh, their higher salary is taken out of the average and uh, leaves us with a more muted average than you might otherwise expect. Okay, so I believe that we are required to publish our average teacher salary. Is that correct? >> Yes. Are we able to add like an asterisk and explain that? Because I wouldn't want someone who's maybe looking for a teaching position to look at our average teacher salary and say, "Oh, it's lower than this other district I'm looking at." and just automatically delete us from the running because they think they're
047not going to make as much, which isn't actually true. >> Right. Yes, we certainly can put any sort of commentary around that posting that we want to. Actually, I I didn't include it in the slides, but when I was preparing for this presentation, I pulled up um any anyone who really likes spreadsheets might enjoy this. The The Auditor General's Office publishes all of the data points from the Dollars in the Classroom reports in a spreadsheet. So, every district is on it and it has probably over 100 columns. Um and it's what I used to put together like this slide and and this slide. Um and so I was really looking at how the districts in our peer group compared to the state average as well as um how the districts that we look at in
048our compensation study compared to the state average cuz I was just a little surprised by the data point. And I'm a little confused on how the state average must have been calculated because I'm not seeing many districts at or above the state average. Um I I can't do anything about that, but it's quite interesting as a You think they made a math error? Or I don't know. I I'm I'm I'm just kidding. I mean I I don't know. >> [laughter] >> The math isn't mathing, so you're saying here. Okay, interesting. >> Yeah. Okay. Um yeah, I just think that's important because I think that is something that we prided ourselves on is making sure that we do pay um above average and that we have opportunities for people to um of course be more than
049fairly compensated um as with utilizing the resources that we have. So, I think that's important that that assumptions aren't made to the negative a connotation behind that. My last point is the the last slide in the presentation just goes to show what we already know, which is that we are doing more with the resources that we have been given, and this is again proof from a third-party outside source that compares us to our peers and the average and shows that we are outperforming, and I think that's something we should be really proud of. I don't have any questions, and Ms. Moran brought up my one thing, which was the teacher salary also because even though we all know it and even though you're explaining it, and I appreciate that you are, this is still what
050they see whether we want them to look into it more or not. So, um I appreciate though that you're taking the time to explain it, and I do think that it would be good if we had something on the website that kind of also explains it. If they read it, but we got to do our best, so um thank you for getting like for presenting this, and I think it does show a good picture of our district to those that are looking at it. Thank you. Thank you. Next, we are going to move on to discussion regarding possible special education but no no, sorry. Wrong one. Information related to potential maintenance and operations override election. This will be by CFO Vaughn and Brian Lundberg. Madam President, members of the Governing Board, Superintendent Davidson, colleagues and
051community, thank you for joining me to tonight to discuss the possibility of an M&M MNO override continuation election in November 2026. I will begin our discussion [clears throat] by providing some information on our current override as well as some high-level timeline and initial thoughts around a continuation. I will then hand over the presentation to Brian Lundberg from Stifel to talk about some more technical aspects of the potential continuation including tax rate implications. This presentation aligns with the district's keystone of resources but certainly speaks to how we work towards and fund readiness and relationships within our organization. MNO overrides provide an amount of funding in addition to the traditional state funding formula. The exact dollar amount is not set but rather is determined as a percentage increase of the state funding formula that the district is
052entitled to. Thanks to the support of our community, Litchfield Elementary School District currently has a 15% MNO override which is the highest allowable by state law. This slide shows Litchfield's current MNO override as well as how the MNO override was spent in fiscal year 2025. Every override is approved with allowable categories of spending, which are outlined in the voter pamphlet for community consideration during the election. Our current categories include increase in teacher and staff pay, recruit and retain effective teachers and staff, maintain current staffing in special area programs such as PE, maintain a nurse at each school, and maintain athletic programs. In the following couple of slides, I will provide a bit more insight into what that spending looks like at a detailed level. In 2025, the M&O override fully or partially supported 155 full-time
053equivalent positions, and 744 employees received some amount of compensation from the override, almost half of our employees. In each category, different types of positions are supported. For special areas, over 80 full-time equivalent positions were covered that focused on PE, music, art, media, technology, and other special areas. For focused intervention, 58 full-time equivalent positions were covered, including instructional coaches, student advisors, behavior coaches, reading specialists, and math specialists. Our school nurses were supported, and a part of our human resources generalist was supported to help with recruitment efforts. The M&O override plays a significant role in supporting our current staffing standard. The focused intervention area, for example, is what supports the certified choice allocations we discussed in depth during our recent budget work. Beyond positions, different roles also receive a certain stipend or additional compensation from the M&O
054override, as shown on this slide. Due to the significance of the MNO override to our staffing standards, we do not want to dramatically change categories we ask our community to approve in an override continuation. However, we do think it's important to update some of the language used in the categories. Many of the categories in the current override use the verbage of maintain. However, it's important to realize that due to the MNO override being a percentage of the state funding formula, if our funding from the state declines due to enrollment declines or other considerations, our MNO override will decline as well. In other words, a successful continuation of the override protects us from even more significant budget cuts than we would otherwise experience with it not continuing, but it does not insulate us from declining funding
055overall. In an effort to be as transparent to our community as possible, we would propose switching the word maintain to a number of different options, including support, promote, invest in, prioritize, or fund. The categories on the slide are just one way that that reconfiguration of categories may look. For example, invest in competitive compensation for teachers and staffing, recruit and retain effective teachers and staff, uh fund special area programs, including physical education, music, band, art, etc. Uh and the next bullet should read support staffing of focused intervention programs, prioritize a school nurse at each school, and support athletic programs. We hope the governing board may give some feedback on these categories tonight, but we will also be engaging with advisors who may help operate the campaign on different wording for override categories. I'll provide some context
056around the timeline for the override, and then we can either pause to discuss the override categories and other questions, or we can do so after we hear from Brian Lundberg on the additional context he will be providing. M&O overrides are approved for 5 years of full funding with phase outs of the funding occurring in years 6 and 7. The current iteration of the M&O override was approved in November of 2022 with the first phase out year scheduled to be 2028-29. As a result, a continuation election in November 2026 is considered an early ask, meaning that the district will have one more opportunity to pass a continuation in November of 2027 before funding would be phasing down due to a failure to continue the program. If an M&O override continuation election was successful this November, full
057funding would go through fiscal year 2032 with the first year of phase out being in 2033. Tonight, we're having an introductory conversation on the possibility of an M&O override continuation election for November 2026 with a plan to bring a motion for the governing board to consider calling for the election at our next board meeting on April 28th for an election held on November 6th. At this point, I'm available to answer any questions you may have on what we've shared so far or to help engage in some conversation around the categories before we hand it over to Mr. Lundberg to provide more technical background information on the potential M&O override continuation. Ms. Wallace, did you have any questions, comments, or anything about the categories? Um I do not. I think it is a wise idea to
058do this override at this next election cycle to give us that time if we would need it. Um, I like the categories that you have have here. I think more than anything, we just have to make sure that it is concise enough that we can advertise it and make it clear to our voters why this is important and what this goes for so that it passes easily. I think too many words or too many things muddle the whole thing for people that are trying to make that decision and know where things are going. Mr. Mikes? Yeah, I don't have any questions yet. I I do like the category. I like the shift with the terminology for it. I do appreciate the dedication on pinpointing every single dollar that is used from that M&O. Um, that
059it it's alarming to think of trying to see what things would be like without that uh, you know, chopping of $11 uh, would be would be pre- pretty brutal, but um, but this is this is a good start for every for everything and I appreciate all the information there. So, I'm good. Mr. Owens? Yeah, I have no questions or comments. Ms. Marian? Um, having worked on these overrides from a PAC standpoint, volunteer standpoint, and then as a governing board member for the past 19 years, um, I understand the timing and why we need to go for it this year in case it was to not pass, we we would like to have ideally another shot at it so that we wouldn't have to reduce the funding. Um as always the question that I've had this
060entire time is if we call for um this to happen and we're transparent about what the money goes toward, which is student success, but specifically teacher pay um and other, you know, specific positions that are supported why we don't have the level of involvement from those folks in helping to say what we are allowed to say once the election has been called um is always a puzzle to me. So, I would encourage anyone who is receiving any part of these M&O override funds in their paycheck to pay attention because as you saw we had some really difficult conversations this year to come up with budget cuts of 3.5 million. So, it would be exponentially more painful to come up with budget cuts of as it phases down 3 5 7 etc. to get to 11
061million. So, of course we do not want that to happen. Um I do like the changing of the terminology from maintain, which really kind of locks us in to keeping in theory keeping the same number of positions that we have when we know that we probably should be more agile about that because of what what we're trying to do with our staffing um going forward. So, I don't have any specific feedback on to me some of those words are synonyms, so it doesn't really matter to me. I'm not I'm I'm a numbers person not a word person. Um so, whatever your best judgment is on that. I do of course want to make sure that whatever we put in the pamphlet, whatever is said is what we actually do, of course. And I know we're
062bound by law to do that, but I just want to make sure that um we continue to be as transparent as possible about the way those funds are spent um and that we live up to what what we say we're going to. So, that's my feedback. Um I like the changes in the verbage. I think that that is more aligned with what we are really trying to do um and I don't have any I'm I'm the same like for the words whatever you guys think is best, whatever experts in the room think we should do, I'm I'm all in favor of that. And uh I agree we need to make sure that we get our people that are impacted by this to be out there and helping us to make sure that this passes and
063while we can tell people, we should tell people that this is something we need. So, we really really need the community to support this um but otherwise, I don't have any questions about what's been presented so far. Thank you. Uh at this time I'd like to bring Brian Lundberg uh to uh the podium. Brian has been uh Litchfield's investment banker for uh longer than I am aware of um longer than I've been around. Uh so, uh I'd really like to invite him to share some of the insight that he's seen over the years uh with uh with override elections. So, thank you. Uh Madam President, members of the board, uh Mr. Vaughn, thank you for the kind comments. I really don't know what to say usually when you talk about me cuz I'm just embarrassed
064because I'll I'll take that like uh Mr. Stone said it to be all good comments. So, appreciate that. So, I apologize if your banker is talking to you about things these things cuz there's always running the risk that I'm a numbers person and it doesn't come across. So, please ask uh questions uh that you want to. Uh I'll try to be a compliment to Mr. Vaughn and not uh just cover what he covered. Um a few things I'd like to point out. Overall, I'd like to talk a little bit about what's the timing, what to expect, and then just a few words about calculating tax impact, but first, uh, it's only November these days that you can have an override or a bond election. Used to be four times a year, but it's only November
065these years. And to fund these M&O override expenditures, it's an annual secondary property tax uh, to do that. Uh, and if you were to adopt a resolution at your next meeting and have a November 2026 election, uh, this new override wouldn't take effect next fiscal year because next fiscal year is the day of the election. It would actually take effect in the fiscal '28 uh, to do that. And any override that would get passed does replace uh, uh, the old override. So, moving to slide three, please. Uh, in this table, we just like to we like to mimic uh, what the existing override would look like. Mr. Vaughn covered a lot of that. One thing I'd like to point to is that we're currently in year three of the override that was approved in November
0662022. Uh, it's about 11.8 million dollars, and the tax rate to support this is 65 cents. Uh, and if this override were to continue, which it will at least another year, we anticipate with about 4% growth in the override due to inflation and ADM growth, uh, but also at least 6% growth in in assessed value, that tax rate's going to be coming down a few cents to about 60 61 cents. And so, it's already been talked about, but if you can see years six and seven, uh, those are the phase-down years, so it stays in full amount uh through that period. Uh next slide. Next slide is almost the same thing, but we wanted to juxtapose the existing override with uh the uh override renewal. Again, over on the right-hand side, you'd see it take
067uh take effect in uh fiscal '28, but I did want to point your attention to even though I just said the new override in the next couple years uh would end existing override, by the way, uh would be about 61 cents. Look over to the far right. When this override would take effect in fiscal '28, we have 64 cents there with an asterisk. The reason we wanted to do that because in the voter pamphlet, there's going to be a tax rate more like 64 cents. This is simply due to the state law requiring us to use the assessed value uh of next fiscal year, which is the year of the election, uh in conjunction with a projected override for fiscal '28, which is 2 years from right now. And so, although we do believe it
068will be about 61 cents in a couple years, dear, uh be prepared that your your voter pamphlet's going to say something more like 64 cents. And so, there's nothing we can do about that state law. A little bit of apples and apples and oranges, but it will be the same override producing the same amount uh if if approved. Uh next slide. Okay. Uh on this page is basically an excerpt of the calendar that you get from the county elections department. And the reason I I I want to define that a little bit is because the election calendar, as you guys know, is almost there's almost not a year that you're working on this election. However, the county uh elections department is the entity who will be in charge of your election, and actually the entity
069executing your election, so you have to follow their rules. And if you sort of disagree with their rules, and you want to argue about it, uh plan on taking it up with them next year. So, they they're they're mainly worried that and don't know how many overrides or how many elections they're going to be handling in a given year. So, that's why the first item here is that as soon as May, they want to be notified that you might even be calling for election, which it probably has been done by district administration already. Uh the first action uh that the county elections department's going to require is that you not only send a signed resolution calling for the election, but you also submit the draft voter pamphlet with all the meat and potatoes of what
070statute requires, including the what the purposes are, what the projection of the override is, what the tax impact is, and a pro statement, which is required by law by the board all by early July. And so, you can see why there's a lot the the board is being asked to consider this as soon as April. Um uh to to call for that election. Uh after uh the the draft pamphlet is submitted to the county elections department, we go through July proofing uh proofing from the county elections. Uh they're their proofs, excuse me, I'm a lot of word reviewing the proofs coming back and forth from the county and its printer. And by August, we pretty much have the pamphlet in place except for the pro-con arguments, which will be received by the end of the
071first week of August. And although there are a few notices and other things going on during that part, basically the next next item is by the first of week of October, those voter pamphlets are mailed. And by the second week of October, early voting starts to begin. And so, the election really starts that second week of October and runs through that November 3rd election date. Just to give you a feel for what we'll be up to. And so, in terms of what's the district's responsibilities for running election, when it comes to the governing board, the only minimum thing that's required really of the board is to adopt that resolution. And when you see that resolution, it's basically going to call it it'll define the kind of election. Uh it'll authorize entering into an inter- intergovernmental
072agreement with the county elections department. Uh and it's going to direct and delegate authority to staff to basically do anything they need to to go ahead and respond to what county elections needs to uh uh needs to uh run the election. Uh it's also to adopt along with that resolution, you'll see is a pro statement that's required again by law to be part of the vote voter pamphlet. So, I've kind of gone through what the district administration will go through. They'll be working with a couple of uh uh a couple of uh consultants including ourselves for the numbers and then like a fourth or fifth set of eyes on everything. They'll be working with their election council. And uh and possibly election consultant. So, moving on to the next slide here. Uh it the next
073two or three slides are basically a discussion about calculating uh tax impact. This is where a lot of common mistakes are made and simply to calculate tax rate, it's it's the uh assess it's the property value times the tax rate. But there's a lot to say about each of the property value and the tax rate. First thing we'd like to say is that the tax rate is applied to the limited value of property that assessors keep. Assessors keep two kinds of values. One value per a per a voter initiative about 10 years ago says that residential and commercial properties can only increase 5% as much as 5% in any one year. So, that limited value is a restricted value. They also keep the unrestricted value, meaning they take a look at the market value of
074property and determine those those values, and that's called the full cash assessed value. So, this is usually where the big misconception comes in. If you tell tell anybody what the tax rate is going to be for the override, they normally would simply take what they think their property is worth and multiply it by the tax rate. But, as you can see in this table here, if the average value uh uh average limited value of a house within Litchfield is about 277,000. We actually found three properties in that range of about 250 to 270,000 dollars limited value. But, take a look at the bottom row down there. It's the Zestimate property a couple months ago. That's Zillow's estimate. That's closer to what we think our homes are worth uh because of the real estate market run-up
075over the last number of years. But, this restriction of limited value only being allowed to go up 5%, that's why the the value of your home now can be nearly double what the assessor has assigned for limited value. So, the the key point here is that if you're thinking about calculating tax impact or talking to anybody about calculating tax impact, tell them to go look up at the assessor's website their parcel and look up the limited value or in February the the assessor sends out notices of value. But, that's why we put this table here to show you how different come could be if you just simply use the market value of property. I won't go through everything on this page, but just wanted to finish off how to calculate uh tax impact. Uh once
076you've determined the limited value of a property, our tax system here in the state works by multiplying it by an assessment percentage, which depends on the type of property it is. For homes, the limited value is multiplied by 10% to come up what's called the assessed limited value or the limited assessed value. When it comes to uh businesses, commercial property, this percentage is 15%. So, if you had a business with the same limited value as a home, the business would be paying 50% more in taxes simply because of this assessment percentage that the legislature sets uh each year. And then finally, on tax rates, our tax rate in our state um are uh expressed in $100 of assessed value. So, if you multiply the limited value times the assessment value, you come up with the
077assessed value, and then the tax rate is is expressed in terms of one per $100 of assessed value, you multiply that assessed limited value times the tax rate divided by 100 to figure out the tax impact for that property. And in the voter pamphlet, hopefully we will lay that out in the simplest way possible, but forgive us, statutes tell us how to write all the all that stuff. So, in just going through one quick example on the bottom right, uh and we use a property of $100,000 limited uh value on purpose because 100,000 is easy to extrapolate up to 200, 250, 500 by simply multiplying by 2 and 1/2, 3, 5, or 7. If you took that $100,000 limited value, multiplied it times the 10% because it's a home for the assessment percentage, uh that
078gives you about 10,000 that gives you $10,000. And then if you would divide that by 100 before you multiply it times the tax rate because our tax rates are expressed in per $100 of assessed value, you basically with a 50 cent tax rate get $50 uh a year uh on the tax impact. So, if you had a 500,000 uh dollar limited value property, just multiply 50 times 5 and you get $250 uh in that. So, I did kind of go through that quickly. I didn't want to spend too much time. Hopefully, this presentation might be of help. But, uh wanted to make that as clear as we could. And the last thing I won't go over uh a whole lot, but when you get your tax bill, you will notice that there's a lot of
079other taxing jurisdictions that over-overlap the district. We pulled a property tax bill that was uh in Litchfield Elementary, which of course it is overlaid by Agua Fria, the community college, West-MEC. This property happened to be in the city of Goodyear. And this property happened to also be in one of the community facilities districts uh within Goodyear. And their tax rate in the second to the right column there added up to about $10 after you subtracted the homeowner's rebate. Uh we could talk a lot about this uh going forward, but the couple things we wanted to point out is that uh and uh not acting like a sales guy, but if the tax rate for the override is, you know, 60, 61 cents, the total tax rate levied upon, you know, a property such as this
080is about uh $10. Uh just to give you an idea. I think that's about six 6% of the total tax rate uh laid on a residence within the district. And then the tax liability on on the right-hand side there. So, pointed out a lot of things here. Uh I think I will take a breath and see if there's any questions for that. But, hopefully, it's a little bit uh helpful. Ms. Wallace. I think that this is great. I think the overall message is it's not that much money additional to reach our goals. So, I think we just have to help people understand the insignificant amount that they will feel in their own lives by supporting this. Mr. Meeks. Yeah, I don't have any further questions. I mean, honestly, it's laid out really nicely to to
081help explain it and not to, you know, mention, of course, been through these before, but um yeah, no no additional questions with that. Mr. Owens. I have no questions. Thank you. Ms. Marian. Yeah, my only question is on the override estimate slide that has the current override versus the renewal override. That has some orange boxes. Uh page four of the of the slides, I guess. It says page four in the bottom. Anyway, my question is historically when we have had an override continuation at 15%, which is what we had the last election, we were able to say that in our marketing that it was a continuation and that it was not a tax rate increase. Which makes sense when you look at the numbers, but if you're saying that we have to in the voter
082pamphlet say that the tax rate will be 0.6415, are we able to compare that with the tax rate in fiscal year 25-26? That's 0.6502, which would actually be a slight decrease, or do we have to compare that with 26-27 of 0.6081. Do you see what I'm saying? Uh Madam President, members of the board, I think you can there's opportunity in the voter pamphlet to make comparisons as you want. >> Okay. Um you certainly have to put in what the statute tells you to, but there is liberty to add to that, you know, add language, things like that. And so, I I uh For example, um >> [clears throat] >> I can't recall if I'm thinking of our last MNO override election or if I'm thinking about our last bond election. I actually think we did
083it in both pamphlets, but we had a brief uh frequently asked questions uh in the pamphlet where we uh expounded on some of uh of those pieces to to try to help voters uh make more sense of this. It is challenging when some of the statutes seem written in a way that forces us to be confusing. Um but >> Hm, that's perplexing. Hm, forces us to be confusing. Okay. Maybe like the verbage that it's called an override in the first place. Okay. Um yeah, I mean, I guess my concern on that is just I don't because it isn't going to be a tax rate increase, but it's like it's forcing you to say that it is because of the assessment. And that's a common point of confusion, correct? Of like, I am paying more. And
084it's like, yes, you're paying more because your property has been valued at a higher rate, not because our tax rate went up. So, I think those are important things to try to explain, although I know our hands are tied in what we are what we even want to say about it, really. Yeah, the way the statute, and Brian, correct me if I'm wrong here, but the way the statute says we have to calculate the projected tax rate says that we have to take the revenue that we expect it to generate from the year it actually will generate it. And so, you're including what we expect for our change in enrollment, uh which at this point is still a slight increase. We're including uh the increases in the per student uh funding by the state, so
085that 2% we get each year. So, you're taking that from the year we'll we would actually get it if the election was successful, but you're saying that you're going to tax for that amount given next year's property values. So, basically assuming no additional increase in in limited valuation, which is you saw on the slide that showed this estimate full cash value and limited cash value, there is wide gaps between limited value and full cash value right now. And so, even if the housing market had a correction, it's highly likely that limited cash value would at least go up that 5% it's allowed to each year because even if >> [clears throat] >> property value or full cash value declines, so long as there's at least that 5% gap between the limited valuation and the full
086cash valuation, the limited valuation will go up that 5%. So, the way the statute says we have to calculate that tax rate um generates an artificially higher tax rate than what we would actually anticipate it being. Okay, great. I just want to make sure that in the pamphlet, which is mailed to every registered voter, as well as in our fact sheets that we try to explain this as well as possible. I know we already do that, but every time I look at it and I hear the diluted everything's divided by 100 and multiplied by 100 and all that, it's it's challenging to try to simplify, you know, what the impact of this actually is. Although I agree with the sentiment of board member Wallace in that really this is going to be about the same
087as what you're paying now. It's just hard to say all the caveat things we have to say and say that at the same time. So, um good luck on the messaging there. Thank you. Um I don't have any questions. Mr. Owens, you had another question. I was thinking and then I read this square where it says successful M&O override election replaces any existing override in the fiscal year following the election. So, it can't we can't start it we can't have the election now and then start it in '28 '29 when it would go to 10. Right? Cuz then it like the last year of 15 is '27 '28 and this um '28 '29 would be the first year of 10 is like the phase out. So, we can't push it to start then? No, it
088doesn't allow you to do that. So, essentially what districts do when they run an early election like we're talking about doing is you give up for lack of a better word a year or so of the authorization, but you do that as a trade-off to having the security of knowing that you have it locked in. Perfect. I figured there's obviously a reason. I just um didn't know if it was like statute or just because that's the way we're doing it with one year early again. Um I don't have any questions. Uh this is a lot of information, but thank you. I it it is very difficult to make it make sense to the everyday person that doesn't live, breathe, eat, sleep this information. And we all are trying to do that. You all are trying
089to do that, and we're all going to try to do that when we go out and promote this into our communities. So, I'm sure that we will all continue to keep looking for the right words to say, and that all of our staff members, once again, who are impacted by this are all going to get out there and help make sure this passes because they're going to remember, like board member Moran said, the difficulties that we went through in our budget cuts this year and how much worse that will be if we don't get this to pass. So, thank you for the information and for presenting. Okay, we are going to move on to discussion regarding possible special education boundary changes for sales. This will be by Dr. Benjamin. Thank you, Madam President, members of
090the governing board. Uh just a little bit of background knowledge. Last year was the first year that we, well, this school year, last year we brought it around this time, but this school year, we have implemented boundaries for our specialized programs. This has alleviated um a lot of stress on our transportation department and allowing for um students to be boundary to their closest school that has the program of their need. And overall, it has been a huge success. Um we were reviewing our numbers, and we are requesting to change some of the boundaries for sales specifically. When looking at Palm Valley this school year, Palm Valley has 52 sales students with four teachers, and Troy Gilbert has 30 students with three teachers. So, uh we also know that we are growing on certain parts of
091the district and making these adjustments will help with some of the um upcoming growth that we're anticipating. Um we're looking at 30C, moving that from Palm Valley to Troy Gilbert. 40 ABCD and E from Palm Valley to Troy Gilbert. 41A and C from Palm Valley to Troy Gilbert. Those areas right now only have three students, so it would take um three students from Palm Valley and move them to Troy Gilbert right now, but it will also impact future students who are moving in. Um those families have been contacted by Director Coin, and they are aware. They weren't all thrilled, but they also know that they do have the opportunity for open enrollment. Um and that would be based on do we have other students who are moving away or who are choosing to also look
092at Troy Gilbert if that's closer and their families want to go there. Um when we're talking boundaries, we always need to do um a night with discussion, and then the next time we can bring it to vote. I have been putting this in the Friday update, but I didn't know if there were any questions around this or if we wanted to open it up for discussion. Ms. Wallace? I know we talked about this last week. I don't have any further questions. I think it makes sense to balance the the student population with the teachers. I think that's better for everyone. It's better for the students. It's better for the teachers. So, um I think it is a smart and appropriate change to make. Mr. Meeks? Yeah. Yeah, I agree. I mean, when we look at
093things and have to make adjustments to operate more efficiently, and and and sometimes it's good news to deliver and sometimes it's not good news to deliver, but the important thing is is that we are delivering the information and getting ahead of it and having individual conversations with these people, which which I I really do um appreciate on how we handle um these things cuz uh and just it's just the Litchfield way. I mean, it's about every single kid, and we we do [clears throat] whatever we can to help with these help with these adjustments. So, I appreciate that. Mr. Owens? Yes, thank you for reaching out to the families. Um no questions. Ms. Moran? Yeah, I mean, I'm not really surprised that we're tweaking this a little bit because it was a brand new concept
094last year. And so, you know, you live and learn. And I know um with boundaries, if we anticipate growth, it's always best to make a change sooner rather than later so that additional families that come into the area have their expectations adjusted according to where their children will be going to school. So, I appreciate the proactive approach as well. And we do take it seriously every change that we have to impact. And so and every family and the way that that impacts them. So, I'm also appreciative that we have informed those families and given them their options. And you know, boundary changes are never fun even in this case when it only impacts three students. Those students I'm sure families have different dynamics and things like that. So, it is a big impact to those
095families. So, we do take that into consideration as well. Thanks. So, this one is tough for me because I know that our students in our specialized programs are the ones that have the hardest time having their worlds turned upside down, which is what we're going to do to these kiddos. I understand what we need to do from a big picture perspective and I'm glad that we're being proactive about it. I hope that our families are going to be okay. I think Trey Gilbert's going to be a great school for them to be at. So, I am reluctantly supportive of this because I know that big picture that's what we need to do and I hope that if they really are have their heart set on Palm Valley that they can try and apply for open
096enrollment and that maybe that will work out for them. But thank you for reaching out to them and having conversations. I know that's been something that people felt in the past didn't happen as well. So, thank you to Director Quinn for doing that and making sure that they were communicated with throughout this process. If somebody would like to make a motion. We don't make a motion Oh, sorry. No, we're not voting. I will bring this back at the next board meeting and we can vote then. Thank you. Awesome. We're going to move on to our next thing, which is discussion of the classified evaluation tool and this is by a lot of people. So, whoever wants to start. Madam President, members of the board, I'll go ahead and start and um this is a continuation
097of the conversation we've had for the last few years about a cascading evaluation system. Um Ms. Benjamin and team have put together a wonderful package for us to to look at and talk about tonight. Certainly, we are accepting feedback. Um the thing that I want to highlight is just the specific work that uh and I said Ms. Benjamin, Dr. Benjamin led with many of our classified team members as to get feedback on how our Litchfield learner traits directly relate to their job expectations and what they do on a daily basis. So, really making our evaluation tool for our classified staff way more meaningful than it is now. So, I'm excited to share and thank you, Dr. Benjamin and team. Well, I believe that this is the seventh time we've been talking about evaluations. Uh it
098will come up one more time when we vote on it, but it has been um really an incredible process to be able to work with all the different stakeholders, but specifically this group of people. Um so, we'll be talking a little bit about the purpose. I'm going to inform you about the classified framework, talk about the committee work that happened, and review the process, and highlight some of the cascading systems that align with our district goals and performance expectations, and then seek your feedback, and then after that, we will come back um at the end of April uh hopefully for a vote. Uh the cascading evaluation system does hit all three of our keystones of readiness, resources, and relationships. So, um this work started several years ago. I think this is 3 years now. Uh
099however, the classified started at the beginning of this year. In August, an email was sent to all classified staff in the district inviting them to be a part of the evaluation committee. Um, we were hoping to get at least one person from each campus and department. Uh, we were pretty close to that. So, from October to January, we held four classified evaluation committee meetings. And those classified staff members, we had 13 classified staff members from school campuses. 11 schools were represented. Three classified staff members from operations. Two um, departments were represented. And then two classified staff members from district office. One at district office and one in the special education department. And we did accept anybody who uh, chose to be a part of that. We also held them on Wednesday afternoons so that it
100was a little bit easier for our classified staff to be present. Uh, just a quick reminder, the cascading system is really talking about the language. Um, it does match our superintendent's evaluation with the language in the rubric. It matches our leaders and it matches the teachers that have already been approved. Um, you do have access to the classified evaluation framework and they do match the Litchfield learner traits. Um, domains one through five are just like um, the leaders and the teachers with those specific Litchfield learner traits um, a part of that. And then it's matching uh, for classified the things that we would expect for a classified staff member to have with communication, with character, um, with teamwork. And then um, six with the content expert is specialized for each classified staff member's job and
101role. So, we really took the time to make sure that their job descriptions were utilized to build and create that six so that they were um, uniquely identified whether they are uh, a supervisor in transportation or a food service worker in um the cafes that we have or if they were a facilities tech. So, everybody has a place in a space and it's really looking at the whole person. Um previously, it was one sheet of paper that was for every single classified staff member across the district and it really didn't apply to many of the different positions. The Litchfield uh framework uh modeled the domains like I shared and um also talked about the content expert for the different positions from transportation, classroom aides, office managers, facilities, uh technology, food service. Some of the feedback
102that we got from the committee, we specifically asked them, "What are the celebrations?" Um or, you know, what things might we have missed?" And here's some of the things that they specifically said. "This tool helps staff feel valued. We were a part of the process in hearing the perspective of others in the room. It was an opportunity to highlight staff members' strengths." That's what they felt about the tool itself. "This tool will help us grow. The feelings of being stagnant with our last tool was shared by several people. And the love They loved the continuous learner portion for classified employees to be able to grow in their area." So, these were specific uh things that our classified uh committee members had shared. Some feedback and next steps that they had shared is, "Is there going
103to be enough training?" And so, we'll talk about the training portion in just a second. There was a lot of discussion around when the evaluation should take place. Uh currently, it's in February. They thought that maybe February was too early and they wanted a little bit later so that they could show um what they have done. They also wanted opportunities and time with their supervisor earlier in the year to talk about things that they might want to work on. Um they "How will the um supervisors communicate the expectations?" was a a concern or next step to think about. Um there was a concern at the time with will the lead nurse do the content portion of the evaluation for domain six for nurses? Right now it is um the principal usually. So they really wanted
104at least in domain six the content expert to be supervised by somebody who understands that role and then one through five could maybe be their principal. Um and then they wanted to know what resources will be available to help them grow. So that was a big question and it was very exciting for them to be a part of this process with that. And then ensuring time for every classified staff member with their supervisor. That was very important to um the members. So the effectiveness, the highly effective, effective, developing, and ineffective are consistent with the teacher and the leaders. And what's next is um accepting your feedback, looking at that, and then bringing it back to you for approval. We're continuing to work on the evidence and artifacts with our leaders of things that they might
105be looking for in those specific areas. And we've already started to build out the train the trainer models for the teachers. We actually led that with our principals um last month to just start with the overview and classified staff members will be able to get that same one. We'll be building um trainings for the directors to be able to take back to their departments as well. The last thought from the committee is the committee really wanted to make sure that the governing board and employees know that the work completed was one with a lot of thought and heart and hopes that the district will see the positive direction that we're moving forward. And so the committee just wanted to make sure that you were able to see that. And these were some of the members
106that helped to create the work that you have in front of you. And I stand here for any questions that you might have. Ms. Wallace. I don't have any questions, but I love that we're we have made it this far that we now have um completed the classified staff to make it all in alignment and I think that this is just going to be such a positive thing for our district that it's aligned all the way down. There's common language and we all know what the expectations are and how to achieve them. So, I think it's amazing and thank you for the committee for all their work. Mr. Meeks. Yeah, I appreciate all the hard work from the committee as you try to flip through 153 uh slides, but most of those are because of
107the add-ons of the domain six, which is a testament to where you could say we can do this the easy way and be less impactful or we can do it the hard way, which I you know, this is the hard way, which but in the end that will help guide discussions, allow people, you know, get out of this gut instinct as far as whether, you know, how somebody's doing a job to have real real conversations with uh with people for for the evaluation piece. Um and just, you know, just to reiterate one one more thing, it's just our you guys taking the opportunity to embed a great process into everything that we do from the financial piece to, you know, to our evaluation to our evaluations, to everything that goes on um ev- even the
108higher, you know, the hiring of people that we just went through for uh assistant principals and principals as well. So, I appreciate all of it. I appreciate all of the hard work. It's going It's going to be a great, so thank you. Mr. Owens. Yeah, I too just want to press um express my appreciation to the committee members for what is definitely a lot of thought and heart. And so, um it's definitely noticed and I'm looking forward to implementing it. Ms. Moran? Yeah, I'm going to echo some of the sentiments. Um I remember when we you well, we said this is something that we wanted to do. And you and Dr. Doozy and and teams of people took this on in-house to create these evaluations. And um it was a massive project, but I think
109it is has just come together so beautifully. I have no feedback on the actual tool itself. I love that it has the shared language. Again, everybody is on the same page using the same terminology. And I think embedding so much of the Litchfield Learner and the Litchfield Leader terminology in these tools that everyone's going to use or is already using is a great way to really embed all of that in the verbage that they use or can use even to describe themselves. And so, I think it really helps to everyone to embody that potentially. I do think that this having these tools for every person in the district is going to help with not only the consistency of the feedback, but the quality of the feedback we're able to give our employees, which I'm glad
110to hear makes them feel valued because that was my thing is I'm thinking, "Okay, if someone is going to go through all this effort to tell me goods, maybe some bads too, you know, we all have areas of improvement, but that means they value my time." And we can't always pay the most or pay as much as we want to, but at least helping someone feel like they're doing their best and we're going to support them to do their best. I think is the intangible piece of what we have to offer here in the Litchfield district. The last thing I'm going to say is that it makes me so excited because when before Dr. Davidson came on board and before we had the cabinet that we have in place now, one of the big things
111that this board asked for was improvements in our systems. And one of the things that I a quote that I quoted then and I will quote it again today is from Adam Grant. He says that you don't rise to the level of your goals, but you fall to the level of your systems. And having these evaluation systems in place and again to echo what was said earlier about the financial systems, these systematic improvements that we have implemented in the last 3 years are mind-blowing. And I just know that they're going to continue to come back and pay us back and our student success and our teacher success in spades over time. So, great work to everyone involved and yeah, I'm just looking forward to hearing more feedback and seeing the positive impacts of these changes
112and systems. I don't have any questions or feedback either. I just want to say thank you to the amount of time that has gone into this and effort and blood, sweat, tears, I'm sure. I I ditto to everything that Ms. Marion just said. This was something that we have been saying a long time and it wasn't happening, wasn't happening, wasn't happening and then you guys just decided we're going to make it happen and we're going to make it happen pretty quickly. And I I don't think that even we knew how much work it was actually going to be, but that only makes it more meaningful to us that you guys took this on and you did this and that this is something that our staff that has been able to help with the process feels
113is valuable. Because ultimately that's what's important to me that we're doing something that has value in it. And that you guys know that all the blood, sweat, tears and hours and hours you put into this was meaningful. So, thank you and to thank you to all the staff members that helped to put this together. I'm excited for us to vote on this and to have all of these be in place when we move forward. Okay. We have finished our discussion items, so now it's just time for reports. We will start with Dr. Davidson. Thank you, Madam President. As I often do, I want to begin by giving a shout-out to our staff, our students, and community for their efforts in state-mandated assessment. This snapshot of learning is important, and our teachers and students have certainly
114prepared for it. Yet, I recognize the power of support that also comes from our homes. Um that's been going on since the beginning, actually at the end of March, and uh we will soon be done, but uh it's a lot of work, and again, thank you to our families, staff, and students out there. Also want to recognize the efforts of our district student information and enrollment team, led by director director Jackie Durgans. I look forward to seeing her emails, often titled "Another Fun Week in Student Information," where she shares enrolled trend enrollment trends as found uh in in our central registration process. And I just wanted to highlight one of the most recent ones. It says "Hello, everyone. We had a great week in the department. We enrolled 104 students for the 2026-2027 school year,
115which includes 96 kindergarteners. We also enrolled 22 students for the remainder of the school year. So, um you don't always think about the influx of student body during the year, um but uh Jackie and her team are are constantly moving us forward. So, very appreciative of her and her team's efforts. Also wanted to share that I recently attended an AASA workshop in Tempe titled "The New Basics: Real Skills for Real Life." And this is very fitting based on the last presentation. The national efforts around durable skills for students aligns nicely with our traits of the Litchfield Learner. I am proud that our community and team realize the importance of building our pre-K through eighth grade students for the next phase of their life, which is high school. Also, sitting around and and talking to superintendents
116across the nation, um without a doubt, um I'm proud of the efforts of our governing board, the support you give our team, and um just the work that is being done that are going to positively impact our students. So, thank you as well. Um some important dates to remember. We do have our Pride Awards over at Estrella Mountain Community College on Monday, April 27th at 6:00. We also know that the month of April is Volunteer Appreciation Month. We'll be celebrating some of our school-based volunteers in our board meeting, hopefully at the end of April. We also have a retirement ceremony coming on May 14th at 6:00. And lastly, from a calendar perspective, we have our promotion ceremonies. New this year, all on one day, May 20th. So, hopefully board members and our community can attend
117as well. And in closing, based on changes to um his position, as determined by our work in the budget, tonight will likely be Mr. Nuanez's last official board meeting. Sam has accepted a communications role outside of public education and will start in May. I want to give a thank you to Sam for over four years of service to Litchfield Elementary School District and his many efforts to enhance our LESD 79 brand on behalf of all of our stakeholders. Sam, I want to turn the mic over to you for a few moments, and then we'll turn it back to President Zainoba. Uh thank you, Dr. Davidson. Uh as my time here at Litchfield Elementary School District is coming quickly to an end, I want to take this opportunity to extend my sincere gratitude to each and
118every one of you for the opportunity to be able to serve the students, staff, and the community. Um I'm especially thankful for the opportunity to work alongside such amazing people on my cabinet team. Uh the accomplishments that we have achieved together have not only strengthened the district, uh but have also provided me with invaluable professional development. And the lessons that I carry with me throughout the journey ahead will be very very dear to my heart. Uh the relationships I have built here will deeply be missed. Uh LCSD 79 is a special place with special people. Uh your leadership, the commitment, and unwavering focus on student success will make a lasting impact each and every day. I leave with great, and let me emphasize great pride in what has been accomplished uh with the excitement also
119of what lies ahead. I look forward to watching the continued growth and the achievements and success of our Litchfield learners. Uh knowing that I have uh left a solid foundation for the next communication leader that comes aboard. Um I appreciate you all appreciate you all. Uh I love this district. Uh I love the people. I love the students. I love the staff. And always always remember, never forget that together we can. Thank you. You're going to get me all emotional up here. Sam's been here with us for a while, so I don't know if we're allowed to say anything, so we're going to start our reports, and maybe people have things to say in their board reports. Um we're going to move on to governing board reports now. Uh Ms. Wallace. Um thank you, Sam.
120You will be very missed, and we appreciate all you you done and wish you nothing but the best in your future endeavors. Um for my last month here on the board, uh I didn't make notes, I apologize, but the two things that come to mind are the Mabel Padgett showcase that I was able to attend and uh get to see the awesome work that is happening there with Principal Willis and all of the awesome staff and students there. And to attend the Litchfield Foundation golf tournament. Um Melissa and I had a great time um driving around the golf course and chatting with people and getting to watch their awesome golf games and have a nice lunch afterwards. I think it's just a really great fundraiser that the Education Foundation puts on and great things are
121done with the funds that are raised there. So, thank you for everyone that came out to support that and please continue to support that. Mr. Meeks. Uh yeah, Sam, thank you sincerely, you know, very very much for all the time and effort that you put in. Seemed like every time I turned around, you were there. And um you know, since uh first time I met you for with the foundation, you know, and uh getting that first introduction with that and then having a chance to get to know you through uh the past, you know, couple years, I um truly appreciate everything. You'll be You'll be missed. So, thank you. Um as far as uh some other events that we had going on, uh had a chance to attend the School Connect uh spring cafe, uh
122which was an amazing opportunity. I don't think I spoke on this yet. Did I? No, I didn't. Okay. I was almost Yeah, I was almost positive. Um it was It's a great opportunity to see I and gather all of these important community members together. We see our uh administration sit down at a table, all the stakeholders sitting around those tables and just pretty much saying, "Hey, what do you do? What do you need? How can we help?" And it's just it's pretty uplifting to see a community come together with that, which is which I know is the purpose, but to really see what those resources are out there. And the best part is there are so many people out there willing and wanting to help. Um so, it was very it's a very impactful thing
123and I look forward to more and, you know, stronger versions of it as well. Got a chance to go to the Maple Paget Showcase. That's just a wonderful place to visit to see all the great things the great great community they have going on over there. Right when you walk in the doors, you feel it. Um so, I appreciate all the hard work from the teachers, administration there. And then, of course, all the hard work of the kids as as they finish up the school year. And the last thing was a great opportunity for the found Litchfield Elementary School District Educational Foundation golf tournament, which went was great seems like it was a great success. I'm excited to find out, you know, maybe some final numbers of what they were able to raise. It seems
124like it was a really successful, really well run. And just kind of a shout-out to all the time and effort that that board puts into raising money to get directly into the hands of our teachers is appreciated. So, that's all I have. Thank you. Mr. Owens. Yeah, thanks. The two things I got to participate in over the last month, I did briefly attend the Spring Connect. I didn't get to do any of the breakout sessions. I had to leave, but I do really appreciate all the community members involvement and their time just to kind of, again, find out what we do, we could find out what they do, and how we can network. And we've already seen significant connections made and impacts to our schools. So, I appreciate that. I got to play in the
125LESD Education Foundation tournament as a the newly appointed ad hoc member of that foundation. I've been to the previous three meetings and just knowing how much work those members of that foundation do. I was talking about it earlier with Director Stone, just how much time and energy it takes to collect the baskets and the raffles and then be there and volunteer and set up. It went off great and I know they sold it out. So, we hopefully raised some significant money, which I know we they did. And then lastly to Sam, appreciate all your work over the last 4 years, the communication. You really have elevated the LESD 79 brand um through just your diligence and your effort and I think I learned a few words during your presentations and I'll hopefully include those in
126my vocabulary and thanks for always trying to let me look at my photos and if I don't like it, retake it. So, thanks. Ms. Moran. Yes, I would like to express my heartfelt appreciation to Sam. You really elevated our communications from implementing Parent Square to the amazing videos that you created as well as the cleaner look, the the improvements in communication all around, not only internally, but also externally have made a real difference. And I know as a parent in this district when those changes came about, I could feel it and tell it and I really appreciate all of your hard work and dedication. Um the rest of my report's going to be pretty simple because it is April 14th. So, like many CPAs, especially those who um specialize in taxation as I do, this
127time of year is a bit of a Groundhog's Day. Um although I wouldn't have it any other way, I spend most of my days um getting up, crunching the numbers, and then going to sleep. Rinse and repeat. But, I'm really looking forward to getting back to our schools and campuses and being able to attend some of the amazing events that we have coming up this spring. So, I will end on a note of mindfulness and gratitude, which is where I like to spend some of my time every day, despite my demanding schedule this time of year. With lyrics by U2, their song Beautiful Day. After the flood, all the colors came out. It's a beautiful day, don't let it get away. Thanks. Mr. Owens stole my words. I was going to say that you elevated
128the LESD 79 brand. So, I I appreciate all that you have done for our district while you have been here. I really do feel like we're going to feel your loss when you leave, but I do think you have set a solid foundation for whoever comes in and takes over our communications going forward with looking to what you have set in place for them to move forward with. So, thank you so much for everything you've done. I had to write down all my stuff because one, it was actually a lot of stuff, and two, I've also had lots of personal things going on. So, it feels like everything all at once, right? When it rains, it pours. So, this past month since we last met, I was able to attend the NBCT Gala, where we
129were recognized uh all of our newly certified teachers for the NBCT program, and also for our ones that recertified. So, that was an exciting event, and where uh Dr. Davidson and Dr. Benjamin got to present to some new schools that were received this prestigious award that we got last year. Uh I I think it's exactly the same, but cuz I still think we're the best and we should just get it again, but that's okay. We can't do it every time I guess. So, it was really nice to be able to attend that event and talk to our staff that were there. Um I also went to two showcases. Uh we came back from spring break and the first day we got to go hang out at Verrado Middle School. Um I'm so sorry to that
130principal that we had to schedule that. I'm not sure if that was done to like punk you or something cuz you're new, not sure, but um they did a great job. So, I appreciate the information we got when we were there and also hearing what's going on on their campus. Um we also went to the Mabel pageant one as well, which was great. Um Mabel's just a fun school to go to and they're another like exciting hurrah yay cheerleader type school like my kiddo goes to Rancho, which I'm excited for us to do that soon, but I like going there and seeing what's going on on their campus and hearing from their staff. They had a lot of people come in and talk to us and I appreciate the very candid feedback we get from
131our staff members when we come to these events. Uh I also attended the School Connect Cafe. I was sitting with the Barbara Roby table, which was with uh one of the ladies from the Matt O'Na Mission was there sitting with them and I just love the Matt O'Na Mission ladies. They are hilarious and just amazing people and have these big hearts for our kiddos and I appreciate all that they do and so it was fun to get to sit there with them and talk to them. We also had some representatives from Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts and so it was just a fun conversation to have there. I think this is a great way for our schools to communicate and really have conversations with those in the community. I think some schools are better at
132it than others right now, but I think it's a growing process and that the more we do it, the better that everyone will get at this process and I think over time all our schools are going to have amazing benefits from this. So, I look forward to seeing how those go in the future. Um I also we also had a study session where we were able to hear about things going on with our special education department and also discuss our long-term financial planning and how we think that looks going forward. Um so, thank you to everybody that put that information together. Director Coin, thank you for coming and talking to us about all the great things that you are doing and are planning on doing to improve and become more efficient in that program while
133maintaining the amazing exemplary program that we have in place, which is why people want to come here. So, making sure that we are keeping the foundation of what makes our district so great in our special education department, but also making sure we're being fiscally responsible as best we can. Because we know that we're not funded fully to do that, and we have things we have to do, and we're never going to get all the money for it. So, we have to find the best ways to do that and meet our students' needs. Um I attended the LESD Education Foundation Golf Tournament. Thank you for driving me around, Board Member Wallace. That was a fun day, and it's always a fun day, and it was also pretty warm towards the end of it, I guess. So,
134um thank you everybody that came out and hung out with us. Uh lastly, I got to do the things I love to do most, which is be a mom, and I attended two field trips to the zoo, one to Phoenix Zoo with third graders, and one to the Wildlife World Zoo with the Stride kids from Wigwam Creek. Um and I was able to uh volunteer at the book fair at Wigwam Creek Middle School, as well as do the color run at Rancho Santa Fe. I do want to give a shout out to Rancho Santa Fe cuz they are a small but mighty school, and they have a hard time. They're Title 1. They don't generally raise a whole lot of money, but their color run, they raised more money per student than Bell and Soto
135raised per student at their color run this year. So, con- kudos to their PTA that was able to do that and to all of them. Um but, the reason I bring up this volunteer stuff is to get into three important things that we get to recognize this month, and I'll start with volunteer appreciation, which Dr. Davidson already said. But, volunteer appreciation month is a great reminder that schools cannot do it alone. We need our volunteers that come in and help these schools to be successful. Our campuses would be lost without the amazing parent group leaders that give countless hours to create meaningful experiences for students, staff, and families. So, thank you to all of the parent leaders that give so tirelessly of their time and they do it without wanting anything other than to bring
136a smile to kids' faces and to make the staff feel appreciated. And we're going to head into that pretty soon, two of our staff. Uh we also this month have uh April is Autism Acceptance Month. So, thank you to our schools that go above and beyond to foster inclusive environments where every student feels valued and supported. Um I know some of our schools do special things during this month, so thank you to them. We have our stride programs on our different campuses where those schools are especially aware, I think, of those students. And so, thank you to all of the staff and students that make sure that those students are always feeling that they are a part of the school families. Um and lastly, uh April is the Month of the Military Child. Uh having
137someone that you love serve in the military is hard on anyone, but especially our children. And that's even more so right now in the world that we are in. So, thank you to all our schools who are planning celebrations this month to honor those kiddos and their families for the sacrifices that they make along with their service member family members. So, uh with that, uh I will say thank you to our staff that's turned in all of their reports to us. Um they are very valuable. I encourage our community members to read them. Uh I am especially excited to see that we are moving on what our board room might look like in the future at Thomas Heck. So, that was exciting news to see that we're starting that process. I think that that will
138be a benefit to our whole community when we eventually have a board room set up out there. Um because we will be able to have all of our technology things just set up and not have to reset up every time, which will make this transparency piece of our meetings much easier. So, uh with that uh if somebody would like to make a motion, we are all done. I move to adjourn the meeting. I second. Having a motion from Mr. Owens and a second from Ms. Wallace, I'll call for the vote. Ms. Wallace? Yay. Mr. Meeks? >> Yay. Mr. Owens? Yay. Ms. Moran? Yay. I'm also a yay. Motion passes. Thank you for joining us, everyone.