001We will get started in just a moment. We're trying to make sure everybody is connected to the internet. Thank you for your patience. >> Hi everyone. Thanks for your patience. Thanks for joining us. Today is Thursday, almost said Tuesday, March 25th. Oh, sorry. See, I'm all out of I'm all out of it today. Thursday, March 5th, 2026 and this is the regular meeting of the Litchfield Elementary School District Governing Board. I hereby call this meeting to order. Our first item will be the Pledge of Allegiance. If you could please stand and join us. Thank you. Next we'll take a moment of silent reflection. Okay. Next we will move on to recognitions and celebrations and this will be led by Executive Director Nowanis. President Zuidema, board members, Superintendent Davidson, fellow cabinet members, and guests both present
002and online. Tonight we proudly recognize Bianca Smith, seventh-grader at Western Sky Middle School, for her exceptional accomplishments both academically and athletically. Bianca recently earned the title of Arizona's Elks Hoop Shoot champion, making an impressive 23 out of 25 free throws, a testament of her focus, preparation, and mental toughness. She then advanced to compete at regionals in Nevada, where she secured an outstanding second place among some of the region's top young athletes. The Elks Hoop Shoot The Elks Hoop Shoot is a nationwide basketball free throw competition for youth ages 8 through 13, designed to promote sportsmanship and perseverance. The program challenges participants to shoot 25 free throws as they advance through local, district, state, and regional levels. Bianca's success that success at both state and regional levels speak volumes about her dedication, discipline, and the ability
003to perform under pressure. Beyond her athletic achievements, Bianca's commitment to excellence in the classroom reflects the very best of what it means to be a Litchfield learner. She exemplifies hard work, character, and balance, demonstrating that success is built through both effort on and off the court. We celebrate Bianca's remarkable accomplishments and the pride that she brings to Western Sky and the entire LESD 79 community. Congratulations, Bianca. We are incredibly proud of you. >> [applause] [applause] >> 23 out of 25, that is amazing. I don't know that I could make five out of 25, but that is very impressive, so way to go. Way to represent Litchfield later on, too, so you are doing amazing. Okay, we are going to move on now to next item. We don't have any public comment, so next is adoption
004of the agenda. We are just going to be uh adopting the agenda and not the consent agenda at this time cuz we need to do consent after our action items as the consent items are kind of contingent on our action items. So, if someone wants to make a motion to approve the agenda. I move to adopt the agenda as presented. I'll second. Having a motion from Ms. Moran and a second from Mr. Owens, I will call for the vote. Mr. Meeks? Yay. Ms. Wallace? Yay. Ms. Moran? Yay. Mr. Owens? Yay. I'm also a yay. Motion passes. Next we will move on to our action items, which we will start with the community education rates for 2026-2027 school year. This will be by Dr. Stare. Uh good evening, Madam President, members of the Governing Board. I'm
005just here following up on my presentation a couple weeks ago. Uh there's really only one uh new slide here. Uh it's a follow-up. If we could get Oh, hey. Want someone to come use it for me. There you go. You got it? Yes, thanks. Uh an update. There was a question about discounts for Agua Fria Union High School District employees at uh the last meeting. Uh and so this is just some data there uh by if we took away that discount entirely, it would save us about $34,000 a year. Or at least [clears throat] that's what we're currently projected to pay out this year. Um reducing that amount by uh by half uh would of course half the what we'd be saving to $17,000 per year. Uh and then that third bullet point there, the
006difference in savings could be absorbed by changes in how snacks and milk are portioned and I'll explain that really quick. Um this year we've been doing snacks and milk a little bit differently. Uh we're like we're we're required by licensing to offer everyone a milk and we throw away many, many cows worth of milk every day unopened and uh and uh for instance, this year our milk budget is $90,000 uh just for milk, not even snacks. And so, what we've been doing is we bought something called shelf-stable milk uh where it doesn't go bad, we can leave it on a shelf. And so, if our licensing inspector comes and there's a kid who says, "I don't want a milk." They say, "Well, you have to offer it one." Well, there it is. There's a shelf-stable
007milk. We can give that to them if they really wanted a milk and we're only ordering milk for the kids who actually drink milk. And so, we're not throwing away nearly as much much milk and we're on track to save about $20,000 this year uh with that. And so, we feel that uh a 10% discount could be absorbed by that change that we've made in milk. Uh we didn't have hard numbers on that uh previously, but uh but as we've gone through and looked at how much we're actually saving, uh it's a it's quite a bit of money, actually. Uh we're also saving a bit on um on snacks uh and that's just in cooperation with our kitchen managers uh whereas before they said for every snack you have to have a milk and for
008every milk you have to have a snack uh and they're now allowing us to order uh fewer snacks and then we keep shelf-stable snacks on hand in case uh we need more snacks than we have on any given day. And so, we're actually saving quite a bit of money by doing that. So, our recommendation would be uh because this is possible, we can reduce the tuition discount for Agua Fria Union High School District employees to 10% and uh not come out behind the eight ball on that. Otherwise, I'll skip to uh the rates as presented in the previous meeting. We're pre- proposing that we propose rates across the board by 5% and then a bit more for our um for our peer mentor preschool classes. So, this is what the new rates would be for
009all of our typical programs >> [clears throat] >> at 5% increase and then um for preschool and then for the peer mentor preschool. Uh we'd be going up to which is still well below the the market market average, but still encourages people to take take advantage of that uh really valuable program. Are there any questions or discussion? Mr. Meeks, did you have any comments or questions? Yeah, nothing further. I appreciate all the information. Ms. Wallace. No questions. Um the milk is a shocking number and I'm glad you found a way to save a little money and not waste so much milk. My kids would drink it, so. Next time don't throw it away, I'll come get it. Ms. Moran. Um no questions. I think this is a a decent compromise in the in the 10%
010proposal and and absorbing that through the snack changes, so. Mr. Owens. Yes, I'm grateful for this. That was follow-up to kind of my question last week and it really was just a question, but knowing that we are saving money and I appreciate you finding those ways that that can impact our partner district. I think it's important that we have that relationship with them because we hope that in return and you know, any opportunities for them to help our teachers out is um reciprocated. Uh Yeah, and that is I think these are reasonable hits. So funny, my very first board meeting or I think it was like first couple weeks of my very first board meeting I had to raise rates that affected me too with after extended day and all that stuff, so. Here I
011am again with the next with another one going next year, but it's important that we um you know, unfortunately have to do this, but this is what it costs and we got to stay solvent. So, thank you. Thank you. Um I don't have any questions. Thank you. I appreciate you finding a way to find a balance for us to be able to continue to offer a discount to Agua Fria employees even though it's not as much as they were getting before, but it's still something, so um I think this is a good compromise on that and um I'm glad to see that we're headed in a good direction of having that be more self-funded and not be underwater, so. Thank you very much. Um if somebody would like to make a motion. I'll move to
012approve the community education rates as presented. I'll second. Having a motion from Mr. Mikes and a second from Mr. Owens, I'll call for the vote. Mr. Mikes. Yay. Ms. Wallace. Ms. Moran. Yay. Mr. Owens. Yay. I'm a yay, motion passes. Thank you. Next we are going to bring up the superintendent evaluation tool and this discussion is going to be led by Dr. Benjamin. I'm so excited to get to say that tonight. As well as uh I'm assuming we're going to have some discussion here with board member Mikes and board member Wallace. Thank you, Madam President and members of the governing board. It is a little different to hear Dr. Benjamin. Um I I kind of like it, but I'm not used to it yet. Um this has been a labor of love and I'm excited
013to be able to bring it back. We had discussion around this work um a couple of months ago. I believe it was in January talking about the superintendent's evaluation. Um there were some discussions and some recommendations for changes, specifically the ethical and personal integrity, so we've added that back in. We also um worked on some just numbering and making sure that that was clear and easy to understand. Um but you have seen quite a few of the superintendent evaluation tools, so before we move on to what it would look like possibly to score, I wanted to see if there were any other questions or discussions around the um superintendent's evaluation tool, specifically this before we move forward. I'm actually going to start with Ms. Moran since these two that I was starting with were the
014ones that helped make it. So, Ms. Moran, do you have any questions about this what's been presented tonight? No, I asked all my questions last time, so I'm good. Thanks. Mr. Owens. I'm good also, thank you. Did you two have anything you wanted to add? None nothing from me. Okay. Nope, we're good. >> It looks good. They think it looks great. >> [laughter] >> And thank you to board member Mikes and board member Wallace for all of your help with this. Um it has been definitely a collaborative effort. The second piece that we just wanted to um showcase and share was one option. There are many options of how you could use this tool, but board member Mikes had created a um an easy way to capture all of this and so the thought behind
015this, I think that they're going to be pulling it up in just a second. The thought behind this specific um tool would be that this would be the president's tool when they're gathering all of the data that they could use this main one. We would send out individually. Um it would likely be either um the president that would send this out or possibly Ms. Contra. They would send it individually and each member would be able to score and then send it to the president. So, you would not all be seeing the scores together. This would just be the final document when you come together to discuss it. So, we wanted to showcase this and talk through this and see if there was any changes or recommendations and this I don't believe has to be voted
016on cuz this is just how you're capturing, but we did want to give you an opportunity to talk through it. Mr. Owens, did you have any comments about this? I do not, thank you. Ms. Moran. My only comment is I love a good spreadsheet, so this is right up my alley and I think it will make um it easier to assess the information and easier for the president to roll everything up together as well. So, uh well done. Did you two have any comments about this? You also think it looks great? >> this is all Mr. Mikes' work with the color coding and the beautification. So, I love it. I love the color categories and how clean and easy it looks, so. Good work. Mr. Mikes. Well, thank you. Colors and beautification is my specialty.
017>> [laughter] >> So, uh no, nothing further. Uh what board member Moran said as well, the main thing is is for an easy capture um and a quick way to send all the stuff out and then just mathematically it figures that out and puts it up puts it with the rubric, so that's um that will make it uh easier for to base our discussions off of. >> If you do have Excel questions, uh board member Mikes is quite skilled and is learning coding and is pretty talented with this. So, if you need some help, I recommend >> [laughter] >> And let me recommend Dr. Benjamin for any of your questions for Excel as well. They're Push Push Quit trying to push stuff on me. Uh I think this is fantastic as the person that will
018have to do it first. Um I very much appreciate that it's already all put together and ready to go and I don't have to do this. He was getting this put together before when they were originally doing it and it made things so much easier just even just us trialing it out for when we did his evaluation his midyear in December, so. Thank you guys for the work you put in. I know [music] that that took some time and we appreciate that you guys did that. With that, if somebody wants to make a motion. I move to approve the superintendent evaluation tool as presented. I second. Having a motion from Ms. Moran and a second from Ms. Wallace, I'll call for the vote. Mr. Mikes. Yay. Ms. Wallace. Yay. Ms. Moran. Yay. Mr. Owens. Yay.
019I'm also a yay, motion passes. Look at us, we are moving along, guys. This is fantastic. Except for now we're going to go to the budget. We're going to move on to the fiscal year 2026-2027 projected budget. We've had many, many conversations and this is kind of wrapping that all up and this is going to be led by CFO Vaughn. I have to say I feel left out of all of this spreadsheet conversation and I don't know what I think about it. All right. You [clears throat] should add some colors next time. >> [laughter] >> Uh thank you, everyone, uh cabinet, board members for joining me tonight hopefully to bring uh our discussion and action related to the uh budget for 2026-2027 to uh somewhat of a conclusion. Um Tonight's presentation has some new information,
020but is uh primarily a summary of everything we've talked about to bring for for final approval. Um The updates from our previous conversations tonight is just documenting classroom site fund, instructional improvement fund and performance pay as well as the benefits package for uh next year. Um as you will probably recall, we don't receive our benefits renewal information until March 1st. Uh that's why uh we have this board meeting not on Tuesday, but on Thursday to allow time to uh work through that renewal and package it in a way that we can discuss it tonight. So, thank you for that flexibility. >> [clears throat] >> Uh we are recommending no change to the classroom site fund, instructional improvement fund or and performance pay for 2026-2027. Uh what I have on the slide here itemizes out essentially
021what we utilize that funding for. Uh classroom site fund is uh provides two five and a half hour aids at every school. Uh each teacher receives $7,000 base pay, $500 performance pay and $4,500 of the leadership development base pay is uh as part of their compensation package from the classroom site fund and uh for those employees who are eligible to receive compensation from the classroom site fund, it is also the funding source for the longevity stipend that we had board approved last year. For those employees that have over 10 years of consecutive service with the district at a thousand dollars or 2500 if it's over 20. This is not new information, but it is a slide that we did not have a lot of discussion about and so I just wanted to to bring it
022up to make certain that we did cover this with the board. We are proposing some title changes without any change in compensation. These title changes >> [clears throat] >> for the most part are designed to better represent what the employee is doing. In order to allow us to set proper expectations and then if the position were to become vacant to have an easier time recruiting. None of these none of these changes result in any compensation changes. It's simply a movement towards clarity. Mr. Vaughn, just really quick. If there's a chance just to take advantage of this opportunity to go back one slide. For could I mean we cuz obviously we're going through all of our budget all our budget stuff and lots of questions as far as where they come from. Could you maybe elaborate
023a little bit on the classroom site fund piece you know on how that money comes to us and as we can see you know we use a good we use a chunk of that obviously to keep the teacher salaries up and then also that instructional improvement fund. Yeah. The classroom site fund is primarily funded from two [clears throat] funding sources. The most significant one is a sales tax for education. The classroom site fund has been around for a little bit over 20 years and and the payouts for classroom site fund that districts receive varies year to year based on those tax collections. What the state does is they set a per student dollar amount. They do use prior year student counts for classroom site fund in the same sort of way that they use prior
024year student counts for our capital funding. The instructional improvement fund has also been known as the gaming fund. That revenue comes from taxes on gambling proceeds. And how the state determines how much we get if I'm honest is a little bit more nebulous to me than than the classroom site fund. We tend to receive that that funding in two payments each year and it doesn't change much year to year. So how that how that is determined in terms of what goes to each district is a little bit more nebulous to me. But that is generated from essentially gamble taxes on gambling proceeds. Great. Thank you very much. Of course. All right. So employee benefits are a crucial and critical part of an employee's total compensation. And Litchfield Elementary School District similar to many school districts
025provide various types of benefits to our employees including one piece that I think is very often or easily overlooked which is our contributions to the state retirement system. It truly is a significant part of the compensation that employees of school districts receive. So prior to medical, dental or any of those other benefits that we typically think of as benefits, I do think it's important to to note that we do pay over 20% of any dollar that we pay to an employee in compensation also to ASRS and social security and and items of those nature. It is kind of an interesting note to make that not all states structure their state benefit systems in a way that the employees are also eligible for social security. We in Arizona are actually quite privileged in that way that
026our employees not only contribute to ASRS and have that pension in retirement if they become eligible, but also social security on top of it. But I will spend a majority of the rest of our conversation talking about the more traditional benefits of medical, dental, vision and life. >> [clears throat] >> It is important to to note that ASBAIT our medical insurance provider operates as a pool of a pool carrier. Carrier what that means is several school districts get together as members of ASBAIT and ASBAIT designs insurance plans for those school districts. They offer each of their plans to each of their school districts. An ASBAIT school district cannot choose to have a plan that a different ASBAIT school district doesn't have at least offered to them. We don't have any design capability to our plans,
027but what does differ between districts in the ASBAIT pool is how much we are charged. ASBAIT does group their renewals in the sense that they try to keep the renewals each year in a range and allow the pool itself to provide if you will a secondary level of insurance against um against rate changes. So what that might mean is if you're having a particularly bad year, your your renewal may not be as bad as it would otherwise be if you were standing alone. But if you had a particularly good year, you also might not have as good of a renewal as you otherwise would if you were standing alone. >> [cough] [clears throat] >> For next year, we are continuing our strategy of not changing our contributions in total to employee benefits. However, you will
028see that there is slight changes between the benefit lines themselves. This is actually undoing a change we made last year when we changed dental carriers to a cheaper option and then shifted that savings to cover more of the medical. This brings that dollar amount back to the dental. And the reason is is we're proposing shifting back to the dental plan we had previously. We're lucky enough that the carrier has not increased the rates on that plan since we left it and so what this results in is not only having the exact same dental plan we had prior to the change which addresses a fair bit of feedback we've heard from employees, but the cost of that plan is actually identical to when we left it. So as a quick summary the renewal came back at
029a 7% increase for medical. That was too much of an increase to allow us to continue the strategy we've been utilizing the last number of years of keeping a free plan by reducing the HSA contribution the district made. And so what we're proposing we do is offer what ASBAIT calls the HDHPC plan which is a lower level high deductible health care plan to allow us to maintain a free option. Also maintain the high deductible health care plan that we presently provide. That's ASBAIT's richest high deductible health care plan, but offer it as a buy up option. So it would cost the employee some amount of money. In doing the math around this change, it actually supports us increasing the HSA contribution as shown on the slide. And then as I shared we are proposing changing
030back our provider for dental and vision because that is the feedback that we've heard from employees and and that that is a change that we'd like to honor them with. One thing I'd like to to share briefly before before we pause for questions is really our partnership with ASBAIT. I know a 7% increase or renewal might seem a little rough, but as we've worked through this process and chatted with our our colleagues at other districts, we're regularly hearing uh renewals upwards of 10% and um this slide speaks just briefly to what we might expect had we been uh as I mentioned earlier standing alone as opposed to in a pool. What this table shows is what's called a loss ratio, which is a statistic that the insurance companies calculate that show how much they pay
031out in claims compared to how much we pay for their coverage. A 100% loss ratio would mean that that it's exactly balanced, that we paid exactly to them what they paid out um in claims for us. You can see our our most recent loss ratio is 112%. So, what that means is they have they have paid out over 12% more to cover our claims than we have paid to them to cover those claims. And so, if we were standing alone, it wouldn't be at all unreasonable to have a renewal in excess of 12% to try to balance that out. But instead, because of the power of the pool, um we were offered a 7% renewal. So, I just wanted to highlight a truly even though it may not feel that way, uh the partnership uh
032that ASBA really is showing uh with Litchfield. At this point, uh I'll pause for questions or comments on the benefits plan or strategy. Mr. Meeks. Um I don't have any questions. It's all pretty clear clearly laid out. I appreciate all the hard work with that portion of it. Ms. Wallace. I don't have any questions, either. Thank you. Ms. Moran. I don't have any questions, either. I'll just say one thing that I've said many times before, which is um we are one of the few employers that offers even to an employee only a health plan that does not cost an employee out of pocket. And so, I'm always going to be curious how many employees don't take us up on the free insurance and the $500 we would give them to their HSA because they're covered
033by a different plan because I do still feel that it is not equitable and that we would be able to potentially save money if we um offered I don't know how how you would how you would word that, but basically, if someone were eligible to be on a spouse or partner's plan and they chose to be on that plan and our plan because our plan is free then why wouldn't they do that? But that's actually costing us, as you can see, $7,000 almost $8,000 per employee. So, I think as the budget talks continue, um that would be one area that we could um potentially look into um somehow incentivizing folks to not take both coverages if they actually don't really need it. Again, I don't know what the legal ramifications or anything about that is,
034but um again, food for thought on that. Mr. Owens. I have no questions, thank you. I know we just got this on Monday and we need this information so that we can get contracts out. But I do know that for a long time, nobody ever asked them, "Can you give us a better rate?" and then several years ago we had somebody that went back to them and said, "Hey, can we do better?" and they did do better. So, I'm wondering if we tried that at all. I I know this is a very short time frame, so maybe that wasn't even an option, but just curious if that was at all tried. Honestly, given uh the renewal and the fact that they gave us a 2.5% renewal last year and the trend of our um our
035loss ratio it didn't feel like the right time to uh try to play further hardball. That's fair. I just wanted I mean, you know, doesn't hurt to ask sometimes, but I that makes sense to you, so um yeah, I don't have any other questions. I do have a question. The next many slides are details of what I just summarized. Does the board want me to go through them or are we comfortable with moving beyond the benefits portion of the presentation? I'm fine with not going through them, but that would be up to the rest of my board members if they need us to go through all of this stuff. I'm okay moving forward with with without individual slides. Yes, I have also read all of the slides previously, so I'm okay to skip them. I
036don't have any questions. Ms. Moran, Mr. Owens. Yeah, I'm fine with Yeah, same here. Okay, we're good. >> Not Not like I understand any of it anyway, so yeah, I'm good. I mean, you're going to go through all this with our staff anyways all there, so we're good. Yep. >> Ryan, you and I can go to lunch sometime. >> [clears throat and cough] >> I mean, I guess what I would add to that is I don't have any questions on it because to CFO Von's point, we don't have any control over these rates and how they're set. So, at this point, it kind of is what it is and we could sit and look at all of it, but it's not going to change anything because we don't have the power to change any of
037it. So, it's really informational at this point. That is correct, yeah. All right. This slide shows a summary of truly what we've been talking about the last many many many meetings uh and it shows how the total of the M&O budget uh comes to be. Uh it shows the uh amount of revenue that that comes from the state funding formula, uh a very significant amount of funds that come from our 15% M&O override and various other portions of the uh funding formula that goes into um our total M&O budget um that we're talking about. Uh this uh forecast is um very similar to all of the other ones that we've seen previously. What I've done just for the the sake of assisting the governing board with conversation tonight is uh plugging in the cost savings
038uh of everything the board has already approved, but also uh all of the other various smaller items that we've been talking through tonight just so that you can see uh what that what that ends up looking like. Um as we've talked [clears throat] about previously, uh I do think we've done a good job this uh budget season looking at a lot of different ways to to balance the budget. Uh this forecast does uh suggest that our our work is not done, but but we know that um and so uh I hope what this forecast uh potentially does is give you some comfort um in in what are decisions that we've made or or will potentially make tonight uh mean for for our work going forward. This slide should look uh fairly familiar to you. This
039is just an itemization of uh the changes uh that we have discussed uh some of which, like the calendar changes, have already been approved. Uh others are those items which uh tonight's approval of the projected budget would uh put in place. You can see that that this totals to uh 3 and 1/2 million dollars worth of savings as an estimate uh and that is the figure if we go back to uh the forecast here, you can see that in the cost savings adjustment in uh the 2027 column. So, I just wanted to show how those uh kind of connect together. Uh all other slides in this presentation are as previously uh discussed and published, but are simply included so that the approval um or modified approval of the projected budget uh can put those items
040in place. Uh I'll pause now for any questions or further discussion the board may want to have. Mr. Meeks, did you have any more comments or questions? >> Uh nothing further, thank you. Ms. Wallace. No questions. Ms. Moran. Um I don't have any questions on this. Super comfortable with these numbers because we've talked about them many many many times. Um my only follow-up is I'm not sure um based on your comment about obviously discussion isn't over and commentary from the last few meetings that we need to continue these discussions. I guess I'm not sure what the process is to formally request um budget items to be on the agenda proactively versus what we are required by law to review and what our normal practice has been. So, if um Dr. Davidson or Ms. Contra or
041CFO Vaughn could maybe provide some guidance on maybe what you would like to see and then um coordinate that with President Zuidema as far as getting that on the agenda or or agendas in the future. Uh perhaps a conversation in our summer retreat as well. Um I just want to make sure that that does not fall off anyone's radar screen and uh that we can have those conversations sooner rather than later. Do one of you three want to start that? I I'm sorry, President Zuidema. I I heard the comments by Ms. Moran. I didn't know if it was a question I needed to respond other than yes, ma'am. Comments are being heard and we will begin to formulate a plan that will allow um for earlier conversation around budget and stewardship of our resources. Has
042it that has not been fully vetted or finalized, so I didn't have a a big plan to share Ms. Zuidema tonight, but um certainly I I do hear the request. I'm good. Thanks. Um I have no questions. We have talked about this a lot a lot a lot. And um I only comment I want to make is because we're going to vote on this in a minute and I think this is a good learning opportunity for people who especially maybe that might consider being on the board in the future. Uh we voted on several things last week and those things were already decided now based on the majority vote. So, tonight when I vote on this budget, it's based on decisions already being made and me supporting the decision that our board has made as
043a whole. It does not necessarily mean that I've changed my mind about things that said in the past, but because it's very important that as a board once a decision is made, we all support that as a whole. And so, I will do that. Um but I just think that's important for people to know that that's what's happening tonight. There's already pieces of the budget that have been approved and now we're just going to approve it as a whole. So, um Did you have other things we need to talk about or are we good to move forward with the motion? I I would be happy for the board to move forward with a motion if that's the pleasure of the board. Me, too. If someone would like to make a motion. >> I move to
044approve the remaining budgetary concessions for the 2026-2027 fiscal year as presented. I'll second. Having a motion from Ms. Moran and a second from Mr. Owens, I'll call for the vote. Mr. Meeks? Yay. Ms. Wallace? Yay. Ms. Moran? Yay. Mr. Owens? Yay. I'm a yay. Motion passes. Are we all excited that that can be done for a little bit at least? Woohoo. Woohoo. Okay. You guys we're going to get done so fast tonight. This is fantastic. Uh next, we're going to move on to consideration and approval of consent agenda. Go through and see if anybody has any items they wish to pull from consent. Mr. Meeks? No items. Ms. Wallace? None for me. Ms. Moran? None for me. Mr. Owens? Nope. I have none either. If someone would like to make a motion. Move to approve
045the consent agenda as presented. I second. Having a motion from Mr. Meeks and a second from Ms. Wallace, I'll call for the vote. Mr. Meeks? Yay. Ms. Wallace? Yay. Ms. Moran? Yay. Mr. Owens? Yay. I'm also a yay. Motion passes. See, guys, we're doing great. Just don't have like a 7-hour report, okay? Later. Next, we're going to move on to discussion items and this is going to be the stakeholder engagement survey, which we're finally getting back to. Thank you, Dr. Doozy, for your patience and understanding that [clears throat] we had to move it from before. She will now be presenting that information. All right. It's in board docs, right? Yeah, it was in It was in. I'm just letting you know my time is Okay. Thank you for your patience as we get the presentation
046loaded for everyone. All right. Good evening, Madam President, board members, my admin cabinet, and the community that may be watching at home or watching in the near future. I am here this evening to present our stakeholder engagement surveys for the 2025-2026 school year. These surveys were taken by employees, families, and caregivers, and our third through eighth grade students. I am Dr. Bridget Doozy. I'm the Deputy Superintendent of Academic Success here at Litchfield. The purpose of this presentation is to review the district-wide engagement survey data from the following um stakeholder groups, which I already mentioned on my title slide, which is our employees, our families, and our third through eighth grade students. We'll provide a district overview this evening for you for each survey. Um we've pulled out the major themes. On each survey, we ask
047our stakeholders what's working well, what needs to be improved. And so, those are the themes that we'll share with you tonight. And then we're also going to share our next steps that we are going to take um based on this data. The engagement surveys are very important part of how we seek feedback from our stakeholder groups and it really does help us align to our strategic plan in all three of the keystones of readiness, resources, and relationships. So, a little background of the why and how just to give the community as well as the board members, um you know, soliciting feedback from stakeholders is a very important part of who we are as Litchfield. It allows our admin cabinet as well as our admin council and our principals to identify trends and perspectives and use
048those trends to make decisions. A lot of the work that admin cabinet has done over the last few years is directly connected to the feedback from our stakeholders. How we respond to this feedback does impact our capacity to provide that quality customer service to everyone that we serve. What is learned from the surveys will also be applied um as I shared from admin council by the departments as well as the principals. And areas of improvements are addressed using those scorecards. Um so, there might be specific action steps that different leaders take based on this feedback in addition to how we use it as an admin cabinet. And we also use this time to celebrate cuz there is a lot to celebrate about this perception feedback and the growth and satisfaction across our stakeholders. So, the
049timeline is very very tightly aligned to when we deployed the survey last year, which is November of 2025. So, let's first start with our employee engagement survey results. Um this year I am presenting this year's data. I am happy to put any additional information from the past years in a Friday update to the board, but I really tried to make my presentation more succinct and provide um really an overview for this year's data. So, the total count of our employees were 758 participated in the survey. We have just um just under 1,400 employees to give you an idea. The majority of this total count was um employees that work at our school sites. So, that's something that we're going to be talking about as a cabinet of how to make sure we reach more of
050our operational staff that do not um maybe aren't assigned to a specific school site. But we do have our department surveys that will be in about a month um that we will give feedback um based on their customer service, but it does um the survey is a little bit different than this one cuz this is all about engagement perception and that's more about customer service that's received by that department. But that'll be a presentation for a different day. So, what I've done here is baseline data was started in 2023 school year or not school year, but 2023 that November timeline. So, what you can see here is each question that's on the employee engagement survey. You can see the overall score for that question from a 3-year comparison. So, I won't read every single score,
051but just understanding what you're you're at here is 2023 is on the far left, 2024 survey results is in the middle, and then our most recent survey is on the far right. And as you can see, steady gains across all perceptions. Here are the next set of questions. Again, you can see we have steady gains across the perception of all 6 through 10 of our questions. Oh, I think No. And then this is questions 11 through 15. Again, hopefully you're noticing the same pattern. Those perceptions are steadily rising. Yes, so I should add that information. Um this scale is exactly the same as been years past, but it's important to note that this is a one through five scale. And then this is questions 16 through 19. Again, slow and steady, higher and higher wins
052the race, right? So, definitely our employee perception is gaining stronger perceptions on their overall engagement as part of our organization. And then this is the overall average for the last 3 years. So, when looking at those questions, as I shared with you, there's open-ended questions on the survey that ask all our stakeholders to answer the question about what's working well in our organization or at their school site, and what is the recommended improvements for their school site, department, or or the organization. Um or department, rather. So, what's working well, the top five themes from that open-ended response was strong team collaboration and collective efficacy. Positive and what that means is working together to be more effective, right? That collective efficacy. And then positive school culture and a sense of belonging. Supportive, visible leadership. Student-centered focus
053and strong relationships. And effective systems and structures supporting instruction. And then the recommended improvements from our employees were assessment overload and instructional misalignment. Specifically, these comments were about our most recent change um around how we assess students unit by unit using our common summative assessment. Communication, transparency, and follow-through. Behavior support and student accountability. And I will note this used to be, until this year, the number one most significant theme, and it was not this year. So, that really speaks volumes to the work we've done around the matrix. Workload and time and staff well-being. Trust, autonomy, and professional expertise. That last bullet, um I did keep that as a theme separated from assessment overload cuz it was a little bit different theme, um but it was connected to being required with the new common summative assessment.
054A lot of that came from um that those comments came kind of from that origin. And also this the Google form that we now have for supplemental material, there was comments around that, too. That's what that means is we um now have a process where if you would like to use a supplemental material that is no long not on our current list, that you submit that in our district guiding coalition. So, there were comments around that, you know, just around that autonomy and that professional trust. All right, so let's take a look at our family and caregiver. So, our count was 1,206 families that participated. We did try it this year. We had QR codes and posters up during our Thanksgiving feast. Um it made some impact, not as much as I thought it would
055make, but I think it definitely is a worthy thing for us to continue next year. So, this um sheet is set up the same way as I did the employee survey. So, as you can see, the far left tells you what our '23 score was, middle is '24, 2024, and then the far right is our 2025. So, exciting data to see that our survey data from our families um have always been strong, that one out of five, but you can also see um there's growth in each of these areas, which is exciting to see. Questions 6 through 10. And then questions 11 through 15. And then the total average score, as you can see, growth all the way around um based on the perception of our families and their engagement and perception of their experience
056within our organization. And at their school site. So, the top five themes in those open-ended questions, what's working well, strong communication that's built trust. Caring, high-quality staff that are making a difference. Positive, safe school environments. Student learning and growth are evident. And then whole child development is a priority. And then the recommended improvements from our families, more consistent, clear, and balanced communication. This was an interesting theme cuz some of the themes were too much communication and some were not enough communication, so that's why I chose the word balanced. Um stronger student behavior support and accountability. Improved instructional quality, rigor, and feedback. Leadership visibility, responsiveness, and trust. And then facilities, operations, and safety enhancements. All right, now let's talk about our students and their experiences as a Litchfield learner. So, 5,101 third through eighth grade students
057completed our survey. Again, same structure as the employee and the family from 20 2023 all the way to the right to 2025. So, you can see some stable scores and then some increases. This is question 6 through 10. Steady increases across the board in those perceptions. Questions 11 through 15. So, number 11 is very interesting to me. It's something that we're going to dive in further when I talk about next steps, but um so more of our kids are setting goals to track their progress um than they ever were before, so it's very interesting to see that perception drop. So, but it's their perception, so we have to um respect it and dive in deeper to find out why. And then of course, number 16 is what really stood out to me in the survey
058is that there was a slight decline in that perception, so really again diving in deeper um with those student groups on each campus with their leaders to learn more about how we can increase that perception around [clears throat] school. So, overall, an upward trend when we average them together. >> [snorts] >> And then the top five themes from our kiddos, caring, supportive teachers who help us succeed. That was the overwhelming theme. Also, academic achievement and personal growth. A safe, positive, welcoming school environment. School recognitions, ratings, and reputation. Kids were really proud of their school's accomplishment and spoke to it. It was quite adorable about being an A school or an A+ school or And I wanted to add, this is the first time that actually we've asked these open-ended questions to students. So, um we
059decided, let's try it. Let's see what they say. And so, it was really exciting to get to read, and they were actually really appropriate. So, I was happy to see, no matter what grade level. So. Um, club, sports, leadership, and fun opportunities. And then ideas to make their school better is how we framed that question versus improvements. We just said how do you make your school better? So, more time for recess, lunch, and breaks. Better food and more lunch options. Cleaner, better maintained campuses and bathrooms. Stronger kindness, respect, and anti-bullying supports. And more choice, fun, and engaged in learn engagement in learning and activities. It's not really that surprising, but it's good to hear see the top themes. So, taking all this together, um, just kind of high-level what's next without getting really nitty-gritty into
060some of that real site-level specific action steps, but just moving this data into our next action. So, each site and department, they roll out their results with their teams. As I shared with you, mostly the sites were mostly the participants, so that's something we just have to keep in mind when we're rolling it out. Um, so that's something we need to address in the future and find out why. Why are not people from departments, um, participating in the survey at the same rates and percentages as, um, the site level. And then use what is learned to make updates to their current site and department scorecard. Our leaders, our specifically our principals, because most of the data is from the sites, um, they have done that already. And then continue using feedback, um, to refine district-wide
061choice professional development. Um. The NBCT guiding coalition work around the common summative test assessment. You saw it kind of as two themes about that autonomy, the assessment expectations. So, really having our nationally board certified guiding coalition teachers look at those CSAs, analyze them. And then we can we're doing that in the spring here soon, and then we're going to use that for summer work and invite more people to the table. Um, specifically learning how to refine setting out a goal to refine the frequency, the length, the questions, and the alignment. Cuz you also saw on the theme there was a belief that some of the questions weren't aligned instructionally. So, we just want to make sure we go through them all and we vet them. Um, so far the ones that have been presented to
062us, there is alignment, but we want to make sure that we haven't missed anything. Cuz our curriculum is written for the common core standards most of the time versus Arizona standards, cuz most curriculum is not written for a specific state. It's written for more global standard set. So, we just want to make sure we're we're hitting the mark. And then continue training on the purpose of common summative assessment and why that guaranteed and viable curriculum relies on both standards. And I like to say the standards are the road that we have to follow, but the curriculum is the vehicle. And without the curriculum, you're just walking, right? So, the the vehicle is what's going to really get us there. And then we're going to continue both existing and new initiatives, provide resources to staff, um,
063for physical and mental health needs. I listed a few of them there, but, um, you notice one of the themes was around that that wellness of staff. So, really digging in deeper of what we can provide our staff. Um, we just had a something pushed out today actually from human resources, um, which is an app, I believe, that they can use for mindfulness, um, you know, to kind of get back to their executive state and calm. And so, just looking for those opportunities to really build, um, that mental health and wellness for our staff is an example of some of the work that we're doing. And then continue training on steps for discipline and school site response to student misbehavior. I think this probably will always be an active action step because we're always refining
064to get better with making sure that we're addressing student behavior with consistency, providing those consequences so kids learn, right? When you make bad choice, there's consequences, but also making sure that we're building skills, um, as well as belonging for our kids. And then additional training on our bully, harassment, intimidation resolution, as well as our reconnection plan post out of school suspension. Um, that's something that we introduced a couple years ago, and, um, not that it's drifted, I think it's just not, um, yet planted as, um, as something that is mastered or what what's the word I want to say? Um, it is still not with automaticity. Right? It's still not one of those things that people know like the back of their hand, this is the process. So, we want to get we want to
065get there. And then review data around communication as admin cabinet to identify next steps. So, you heard about the communication piece was a theme. And so, really talking about how we're communicating with staff. Um, we just had a conversation with our leaders today about, um, even our superintendent advisory council. Like how we can do better, how can we use that group of educators to really help drive decision-making and enhance, um, our communication and our transparency. So, our leaders were able to give us some great feedback. So, just collecting that information and making decisions to get better. And then professional development for teachers and guiding coalitions, um, specifically increasing rigor and student critical thinking. We've already started that work. We had a conference a professional development opportunity called Inquiring Minds, um, that it was an optional.
066We had a lot of We had almost every school participate, actually every school had someone there participated. And then we have other training coming up to ensure that, um, we are asking questions and we are allowing kids to do the productive disturbance is what I call it. They need to be a little productively disturbed, to be a little pushed to really, really learn and move that learning to their long-term memory. So, that's going to be a continuous. It's also one of the things that we see in the lift, um, is that prompting thinking and making sure the kids are answering higher-level questions. That's also data that we've got not just from the engagement survey, but really from the lift. Which our lift is that Litchfield, um, instructional framework that we're using to walk through classrooms
067and gather data and give teachers feedback. Just I know we use a lot of acronyms in education, so I want to make sure. Um. And then it's not a lift on a pickup truck. My husband thinks that's what I say lift, that's what he thinks [laughter] I mean. So, um, then, um, safety was also one of those themes. So, we are doing the surveillance camera rollout beginning spring break. So, that's really exciting. We're starting at our middle schools. And then we're really excited that, um, one of our middle schools is starting their bathroom remodel. So, those kiddos should have some different things to say on their surveys next year. And then, um, building leaders, um, identifying ways to integrate and align the Litchfield learner I Can statements within units of instruction. So, just really building
068upon that. We just met with our leaders about how maybe we can use our school connect cafe coming up to to really start building that work. We've really kind of lived in the content expert this year of the Litchfield learner with our common summative assessments. So, really starting to spread out to really how we can operationalize the I Can statements across all grade levels in our year two officially of the Litchfield learner I Can statements. And board approval of the social studies curriculum to increase resources for our 6th through 8th grade teachers. That's something we've been working on, but definitely something, um, that would be important for that that, um, employee mental health and, um, you know, having those resources to take care of them. If they have the resources already ready for them, then
069that's going to, you know, take some of that workload and that burnout off. And also, if you remember our social studies teachers were the ones that were most concerned, um, about the supplemental materials because they were putting together a lot of their own curriculum. And so, offering this does allow, um, a guaranteed viable curriculum, but also gives some autonomy back because they're still using the curriculum that's been board approved to do their work. All right. So, that is a high-level overview of our engagement surveys. So, I'll open for any questions you might have. Mr. Meeks. Um, you alluded to this. I mean, in the big big picture piece, I know you said, so we had about 758 employees out of 1,400, and I know we have an action plan for for that piece. Is have
070has that number gone up in engage on people taking surveys from the prior years, did you say? Yeah, I will get it for you in a Friday update, but it was lower than, um, than I was anticipating based on um, even the structures we put in place at the school sites. What I will say is the school sites held steady. It was really the departments that seemed to have lower participation rates, and I know those department leaders, you know, worked hard to secure times to take the survey. So, we also did it through a Google form this year. It was a different format last year, so I think maybe we need to look at that Google form and make sure that it was understandable to all employees. So, maybe that was a detractor. So, just
071really digging in deep to see, okay, they were given the same opportunity, why did they not take it? Yeah, and that is always a big challenge, uh, for for it. But, um, I guess what I want to say is about overall what I see is, you know, right off the bat I did see those trends, and I I do like seeing it feels like there's these foundational things that are happening across the board, you know, those I mean, yeah, we all want to see giant leaps for things or want to imagine that could happen, but that slow and steady piece it it sound sounds like well, I already said it that foundational piece. I think is is really getting there and I I appreciate that and also what I love about this district is it
072doesn't matter what the data is, whether it's the test assessment testing data or even the survey data um for everybody to know it's everything is taken seriously. Everything is broken down. Everything is looked at goal, you know, constant in constant ways to look at improvements is what um what we are all about. And I appreciate that even, you know, even when numbers are in the fours or, you know, I mean that's nice to see those fours and, you know, even when it grows, it's not like we push that off to the side and say, "Oh, we're good here." It's that constant challenge to be better and it's just the same way we treat our students, our academics, you know, how we push push everybody in the district. So, I appreciate, you know, seeing all of
073this and the and the actions and and hopefully as as we try to get over time when people know they're heard and things are happening because of us hearing them and our action steps, you know, hopefully more and more, you know, people start participating specifically with the employees go, "Oh, hey, you know, they're actually listening here you know, hearing what we have to say." So, you know, all of that I appreciate. So, thank you. >> Thank you for commenting on that cuz it's really important. We try to reinforce that every time with staff that we listen to the survey data and a lot of the work that we create for ourselves, honestly, comes from trying to make things better for our stakeholders. So, thank you for recognizing that because this team does take that feedback
074to heart and that we do want to do better and be better for our stakeholders. Ms. Wallace? I had a similar question. Did our parent engagement number go up? Like how many had taken the survey? You know, I I would I'll add that in a Friday update for you. I don't have those numbers right in front of me, but then parent numbers did decline a little bit. Okay. >> Even though I definitely not they didn't rise to the level I thought with adding the Thanksgiving feast because we have so many families that join us. Um it did not seem to make the impact that we hoped. So. Okay. Yeah, and just to same idea of what Mr. Mike shared was it's so important for the parents to comment on these things, you know, if you
075want your voice to be heard in a collective way, like please make sure to do these surveys and they are pretty quick and easy. They they don't take 15 minutes to fill out. So, um overall, I think it's incredibly impressive that almost all of the scores are in the fours. Like when you look at those surveys, to be five is is perfect and so that we're getting so many people that are scoring us at a five in those different categories, whether it's our students, parents, or staff, to get to those 4.3, 4.5, you know, any of those numbers is is really impressive that that people are saying five, you've done the absolute best you can do. So, that's very impressive and I think that the scores are awesome and I absolutely love seeing this data
076and what we do with this information. So, thank you. Thank you. Ms. Marion? So, I did look up the historical numbers. So, um that's the only bummer about this presentation is so our employees survey this year we had 758 participants. The average of the last 2 years was around 1,000. For families, we had 1,206 this year. The last 2 years were about 1,800. And then for students, we had 50 or 5,101 and the last 2 years the average was about 6,250. So, we do have some sort of decline. I don't have the answer for what that looks like. Obviously, um I think the more participants the better. So, whatever other ideas anybody has on how to increase that I think would be fabulous. Um I agree with board member Wallace that the biggest thing that
077stood out to me was the employee and the family average numbers being over four, not even just a titch, but like really progress that are over four. So, when we started doing these surveys, we were told by the professional consultants that put them together that, you know, don't expect to get over a four because that means you're like blowing it out of the water. And so, I love to see that. So, I think that's amazing. Uh I do am really curious to see what these surveys will is particularly the employee survey will look like next year because these were taken when the CSA process was still new. And so, I am wondering as we tweak and improve that and then as teachers see the effectiveness of that that we're expecting to see how that will
078change the feedback um around that. And then the only other thing I will say and and really echo what board member Mike said is I appreciate that we not only solicit this feedback, but then we analyze it and we use it to make decisions and to determine what we're going to do next. I think the bathroom remodel is a great very practical example for that. Um this board and this district is actually listening to what you're saying and we are are hearing you. So, please participate more, do more of the surveys, and, you know, we we love positive feedback, but we also love negative feedback because otherwise how are we going to improve and learn the things that we could do better. So, I I think overall this is fantastic. I'm so glad that we
079do this and um I appreciate the presentation. Mr. Owens? Everything I wanted to say has been said. So, thank you so much. I I feel the same. I I echo what everybody said. These are amazing scores and I will say that it is possible that sometimes people don't have anything to say when they're happy with the way things are. And so, sometimes that could be what is making people not because we have made people so happy that we are all these fours. And so, they're like, "I don't need to give you any feedback." But I do agree that we would like it and I don't know how we do that um cuz I did see those QR codes at every campus that I went and helped serve lunch at and they were everywhere. So, I
080don't know what we need to do. Get your people out there in the mascots with I don't know, but um cuz I would like to see that increase also. And I don't know I don't remember if the students had to did they have to get permission to fill this out? I know with the surveys or not. >> Um no, because under the law there's certain questions that you have to seek um parental permission and this survey did not have any questions that were that met that criteria. Yes, I don't know how we build that in cuz I'm I'm assuming the fact that we had so many was the kids were doing it at school. Um Yes. But I guess >> exactly how it was scheduled. So. Okay. Yeah. Our problem is we give out the
081dessert for the Thanksgiving thing before survey verification. >> That's right. That's [laughter] a good point. It's like a ticket for your dessert. You got to like make a competition between the schools somehow. I don't know. Like I will tell you um statistically when you look at research and you want to analyze survey data for its relevance and if it's valid, the sample sizes that we have on our survey, um I keep it open to ensure we always say this is a cut-off date, but we always end up pushing it and doing more pushes cuz I want to ensure each year that we have a sample size that is valid even if it is a little different from year to year. So. Yeah, but I mean and last but not least is definitely the fact that
082you guys take this information and you do something with it. I think that's very important. All too often people do surveys and it doesn't mean anything. So, that's why people don't want to do it, but we do do stuff with it and so that's really great that you guys consistently take this information and use it to make decisions for this district that are in the best interest of students. So, thank you guys for always doing that. And I guess I would just add for the community and anyone that's listening that's a stakeholder, maybe because we present high level here, the themes, the major themes, I don't I want to make sure anyone that participates in the survey moving forward know that we consider all feedback equally. We just present the high level themes here just
083to give an overarching pattern, but know that each site leader and department leader does look at every single comment and they do make changes based on their own themes or their own, you know, what's in their control um at their campuses or respective departments. So, I don't want that to be lost. Maybe that's why sometimes people feel like, "Well, that that's not my theme." Right? So, I just wanted to make sure that they knew that we don't just, you know, we don't just focus on the five highest themes. We do take every comment very seriously. Is there a way that schools could take their stuff? So, like and have some kind of thing that they send out to their families that's like, "Here's our themes that we had." So, that parents cuz I think that
084they will see their themes throughout their more. Yeah, absolutely. And I actually provided that to all of them. I analyzed each individual school and I provided them their themes along with the actual real deal comments, but um and I know some principals have put it in newsletters. Um for >> I think that would be super helpful if parents see that and then also seeing that we are looking at everything you're saying. Um and if they shared like, "Here's one or two things we're doing next year with that to show parents like your feedback matters. So, that might help with increasing our Absolutely. Those are great ideas. >> So, um thank you very much for this information. Okay, guys. We're almost almost done. Next, we're going to move on to reports. We're going to start with
085Dr. Davidson. Huh? Thank you, President Zidema, members of the board, and appreciate you all being here tonight for this board meeting. Just a few comments from my end and I'll start with the the perception data. We know perception is reality and and I I think to the comments tonight I would say both negative and or positive comments are certainly welcomed and I just appreciate the fact that people do see that we take the information seriously and and use it as part of that continuous plan for improvement. Um exciting and hot off the presses today on behalf of the Westside Impact. You know, that's a a large amount of Westside elementary school districts that get together provide opportunities for students and staff. Um we did um um honor one of our principals today in our meeting.
086Um she will serve as the Westside Impact Principal of the Year for Litchfield Elementary School District. Want to give a shout-out to Dreaming Summit's Principal, Ms. Michelle Hill. So, congratulations to her. Uh well-deserved honor today. Um some upcoming events that are just noteworthy wanted to highlight on March 14th a group will be celebrating the National Board Certified Teachers on behalf of our district but also many other districts across the state um on behalf of the District of Distinction award. Um we did earn that as Litchfield. Uh we earned that distinction last year and we will be presenting um to two other school districts that same award um coming up here real soon. So, we're excited to recognize those teachers and uh those districts. Spring break is amongst us and uh for you as a families
087uh those that are listening and those that have kids in our school certainly wish that you have a safe time and uh just a fun time away from us and perhaps even some relaxation. It's been a a busy last few weeks and um we're looking forward some to some time away. On March 24th from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. will be our second cafe model with the School Connect. We'll be doing that at the Refinery Church which is just held on Indian School and the right near the 303. Um we're working with our principals right now to just figure out which community partners will be joining us and what our schools are looking forward to do with those community part partners. How will it positively impact uh their campuses? So, that's happening right now and
088of course that night governing board we will be together in a governing board meeting. Last but not least, we also have a job fair at the end of the month Saturday the 28th. Just wanted to make sure everybody knew from 9:00 to 11:00 a.m. at Corte Sierra. And uh we're excited to partner with HR and the team to to bring people into our district. So, thank you, President Zidema. Thank you. We will move on to reports from governing board members. We'll start with Mr. Mikes. Okay. Um the uh first thing I had we went to Scott Libby for a showcase and uh once again another showing of excellence as far as what a school does and how it treats the kids. We you know, heard a live performance um from the choir and uh it's
089just a it's just a great um it's a great school, great environment. Um it's good to hear you know, we hear directly from the kids which is nice uh to hear everything that they're doing. So, just a big shout-out to administration, all the teachers, all the kids on their success so far uh with lit with Scott Libby and what they're doing out there. We we recognize it and appreciate it. Uh also had an opportunity uh to read to a fifth grade class and a second grade class for Mabel Padgett. Uh that was exciting. I had an opportunity to figure out why dinosaurs like tacos so much. So, that was good cuz I didn't know until I had read the book. So, that was uh really important to find [laughter] to find out. All the all
090the second graders already actually knew about it but I was new for me. And so, that was a great experience. It's always awesome to uh read to the kids and see their faces uh no matter what their age is. And the last thing is a little bit of a shout-out. I had a chance to go down to district office to um to work on some uh some stuff to clean up the evaluation tool and got a chance to walk by and see a new sign hanging in on somebody's office door which uh may I note that they didn't even see it. I was I I saw it before she did but it says uh Dr. Jennifer Benjamin. And so, yeah. Um I appreciate and recognize all of the incredible hard work that you do for
091us and on top of it all the additional hard work that you were doing to go down that path and everything. So, a massive congratulations to that. We're really um excited for you and very proud of you. Ms. Wallace? Um I also was able to attend the Scott Libby showcase which was great. Um as my former home campus for many years, I have a special place in my heart for them. So, it was great to be there. Um congratulations, Dr. Jennifer Benjamin. That's pretty amazing. And uh last but not least, we are about to enter our last quarter of the school year which is crazy that it goes by so quickly but as we come back from spring break, we start that last quarter and just a reminder to all of our families and students
092to make sure you are in attendance for the state testing weeks. They are published on the website for when your testing is and just excited to see the amazing results of our students and all of their hard work this year. Ms. Moran? Well, I'm going to do a rinse and repeat from my last board report which is to say budget. But from there, I'm actually going to add an ode to the state of our state funding as approved by your elected legislators. So, I will quote from Never Enough by Lauren Allred. Never enough. Never. Never. Never enough. Never. Never. Never enough for us. Mr. Owens? Uh yeah, keep it short. I also attended the Scott Libby showcase. Again, always love seeing the campuses, the performance, the students, hearing from them. Going, flipping through binders, and
093watching these kids take ownership of their education, their goals. Um We're asking students questions and they knew what curriculum they were using and that's so foreign to the to me when I was in grade school. I think I barely knew what textbook I was supposed to be reading out of but it's great to see. And then I had an opportunity to attend the first um Mabel Padgett Special Olympics at Goodyear High School. That was really cool. This bus full of excited young young kids showed up and they were greeted with a red carpet and and the fans and parents were there. So, thank you to Goodyear High School for hosting us. The students competed in short sprint. They had uh a javelin throw, a softball throw, a standing long jump and a and a running
094long jump and it was it was really cool to to watch. Hopefully that we can expand on that in the future and and get more schools involved. And uh yeah, [snorts] that's it for me. Well, I'm going to start with something I forgot last time but it's only been a week and a half so, it's okay that I add one more thing. Uh last time I was able to attend uh our Dr. Doozy was picked to speak at the Leader in Me symposium that was held here in Phoenix and we had a lot of our schools had a lot of people there that were in attendance but I got to go and see her speech that she gave to everybody which was really awesome to have our district represented because we do a lot with
095Leader in Me but we're just amazing and Dr. Doozy's amazing. So, I could go on and on about how great she is and it was great to have her speak. They even had her come and do some sound bites later, I'm pretty sure. But I have to say actually while I love Dr. Doozy, the best part was our students because before Dr. Doozy spoke, they had a panel of students come up and answer some questions and we had uh students from all over the place but for us, we had a student from Verrado Heritage and a little guy from Rancho Santa Fe that was up there and they held their own and the student from Verrado Heritage, she was hilarious. I love her. >> [snorts] >> And also there was another student that got to
096speak very last minute before Dr. Doozy was going to talk, the person that was supposed to come up and introduce her wasn't able to do it. So, they asked a student from Verrado Heritage that was there to just last minute do it and she got herself together and she did it and she was fantastic. So, I think Leader in Me is fantastic and I'm glad that we got to shine in this environment and show all the great things that are happening with our students in that program. And also thank you to the schools that then let a bunch of people come on to your campuses so that you got to show off what's happening on your campuses. We as a board have gotten to come see some many stuff of that, which has been pretty
097neat. Um but that was my thing I missed before. Since then in a week and a half, I was also able to go to the uh Mabel pageant Special Olympics event at Goodyear. That was super fun. Special Olympics is near and dear to my heart and we found out from uh Principal Willis that it's also near and dear to her heart and she's been wanting to do something like this for a very long time. I believe that our cafe model that we did this last year is what allowed her to make this vision a reality by her being able to partner up with Luke Parker from the Goodyear Rec Center and his being in charge of the adaptive program there and making those things come together. So, thank you to City of Goodyear for also
098partnering there. They had Mayor Pizzillo was there. There was a ton of people that came to this event and the kids really felt like they were special and they got to, you know, do their stuff and everybody cheered for them and then parents got to come out and run with their kiddos later, so it was pretty fun event and I also want to see this expanded across our district. Been saying every time, we need unified sports in our middle schools. I will keep saying that. I would like to see that, but I'd like to see something like this I don't know why we can't try and put it together for all of our campuses that have these specialized programs. Eventually, I get that it'll take time for that to grow. Um and then I was
099not able to go to Scott Libby, which really broke my heart because Scott Libby is near and dear to my heart. My kids went there for 7 years and that's always going to hold a special place for me, but I was selected to go on a field trip with the eighth graders from Wigwam Creek who got to go to STEM day at PIR and got to do a bunch of STEM activities and got to hear from Microsoft and they had people there talking to them about being uh piloting drones because they had the Amazon Prime Air people there and they got to work with uh power tools because the Chase building team was there and so they had some power tools out there and they were sharing all kinds of stuff with the kids. It
100was really fun. The kids had a great time and I appreciate Dr. Stone who I guess was able to find this and make this happen and then through title funds were able to fund the transportation so the students can go and it was a totally free field trip for these kiddos to do. Um and they had a great time. It was super fun. And then they fed them all pizza, which was awesome. Kids love pizza, so um it was a really fun field trip. I'm really excited that our kiddos got to have that happen. And then today I got to read to uh three classes at Mabel, which is my favorite favorite thing that we get to do on this board. Uh I love that the schools that have those kind of events reach out
101to us as board members and ask us to come in. I love getting to talk to the students and hear directly from them. I did have a student ask me why we don't have cool math games anymore, so I said I would ask. So, just throwing that out there. Uh but thank you to uh Mrs. O'Neal who puts that together for Mabel and always inviting us. It was a really fun time and I appreciate it. And with that, uh that's the end of my report. Thank you everyone that has joined us. Uh thank you to our administrators that send in the reports. Everybody read them, read them, read them, please. They are very, very, very full of information. It It's the best way to know what's going on in our district is to look at
102those reports. You can see a little bit of every campus. You can see a little bit of all of our district departments and so it's a great way to just be informed of what's happening. If you want to know, look at those. They're there every time. Thank you to the administrators put it together. I know that that's time out of your day to put that together, so thank you for doing that. And with that, if somebody wants to make a motion, we can be 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 a vote. Mr. Meeks? Yay. Ms. Wallace? Yay. Ms. Murrian? Yay. Mr. Owens? Yay. I'm also yay. Motion passes. Thank you guys for joining us.