Litchfield Elementary School District Board Meeting 10/14/25

001Are we good to get started now? Admin team, are we ready to go now? We all ready? Awesome. Board, we're ready. Hello everyone. Thanks for joining us. Today is Tuesday, October 14th, 2025, and this is the regular meeting for the Lichfield 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. Thank you. Next we will take a moment of silent reflection. Okay, thank you. Next, we are going to move on to recognitions and celebrations. And tonight, this is going to be led by Dr. Dooy. All right. Um, good evening, President Zida, governing board members, fellow cabinet guests, both present and watching online. This evening, we are thrilled to recognize and celebrate

002Kelly Jordan. What? What? Palm Valley's outstanding PE teacher who has been named 2025 Arizona's Health and Physical Education Elementary Teacher of the Year. Kelly's passion for helping students live healthy, active lives shines through everything she does. She creates an environment where every child feels encouraged, included, supported, and excited to learn, not just about fitness, but about teamwork, perseverance, and confidence. With nearly 20 years of dedication to her students and to Litzfield Elementary School District, Kelly truly embodies the B3 way, which is believe, belong, and become a Lichfield learner. Her impact reaches far beyond the gym, inspiring not only her students, but also their families and colleagues throughout the district. Kelly, thank you for your joy, energy, heart that you bring to Palm Valley Elementary School every single day. We are so proud of you and

003so grateful to have you part of the Lichfield family. Congratulations. Welld deserved. And if you will come up, Kelly, and take a photo. The whole crew can come on up, please. Okay. Thank you, Miss Jordan. Uh, on behalf of the board, we just want to thank you for all the work that you do in this district, especially what you do to promote inclusive programs on your campus that we're hoping spread to all other campuses as more and more schools come on board. You are really a testament to what it means to be a great teacher and inspire others. So, thank you very much. We have no public comment tonight. So, next we will move on to the adoption of the agenda and consideration of consent agenda. I'm going to go through and see if there

004are any items that people wish to pull. Uh, I'll start with you, Mr. Mike. Did you have any items you wish to pull from the consent agenda? >> Uh, yeah. I want to pull uh item 6.10 from the consent agenda. >> Mr. Owens. >> None for me. Thanks. >> Miss Moran, >> I would like to pull item 6.14, please. >> Miss Wallace. >> None for me. Thank you. >> Okay. Uh so we've had a request to pull 6.10 and 6.14. If someone would like to make a motion, >> I'll move to pull 6.1 and 6.14 from the consent agenda. >> Um, well, is that really the motion that we need? >> Uh, to approve consent agenda minus 6.1 and0 and 6.14. That's what he said. Oh, then I will second that. >> Okay. Having a

005motion from Mr. Mike's and a second from Miss Moran. I'll call for the vote. Mr. Mike, >> yay. >> Mr. Owens, >> yay. >> Miss Moran, >> yay. >> Miss Wallace, >> yay. >> I'm also yay. Motion passes. Okay. It did not like my voting. Just letting you know. So um now we will move on to items that we removed from consent. So now our new item 7.1 which was 6.10 before I will let Mr. Mike's start that what his questions were or comments about this item. >> Uh yeah the reason I wanted to pull this off just um kind of reading through it and seeing the amount that's associated with it. I just kind of wanted an opportunity to just get a little bit more transparency for really what it's all about and u

006just u for explanation and a chance to see if we have any other questions for it. >> Yep. Governing board president board member Mike's. Uh when looking at the field of Rado Heritage, it's been a struggle for many years to grow grass and keep grass. Um another downfall of it is it's a very rocky dirt there. uh and there's been injuries that have risen up from kids falling and and hitting these large rocks. One to be uh the assistant principal's son herself had a big scrape along the side. So, as we continue to to walk our campuses and look for different issues or concerns of of areas for safety, um we've done some mediation in the past already, fill dirt, new new saw on top, and this dirt with rocks still continue to come to

007the top of the surface. Uh and so over the years uh in talking with some some contractors on best actions uh it is to just completely dig down at an artificial turf uh and really allow them to play on it year round uh and have the whole playground. They are unique in the sense that Verado Heritage only has that small playground as the two fields are not owned by the school district and it's also not fenced in. So they don't use it for recess, only organized um activities through PE. Uh and so that was the purpose of going down and and finding ways to improve that that area for those kids. Um and the only option was artificial turf or some other playground surface. And the the other aspect other than just the artificial turf

008is the fact that you guys are digging down and removing most of the rocks that have the tendency to come up then just for >> so they'll clear some of it but really if if you've not seen it there's a big slope when you come out of the cafeteria and so a lot of the grading but then because of that we have to add some drainage system to it. That's probably the most I won't say the most because turf is not cheap either. Uh but those two pieces there, the turf itself and then the drainage system to ensure it's just not puddling where it is uh is due to the cost of it. So it'll be about a three and a half to four-week project uh that that we've talked about with uh principal noce

009and and I know there's lots of excitement for them to be able to have like I said a plane service year round. >> Okay. Thanks for the clarification. I appreciate that. >> Mr. Owens, did you have any questions about this item? >> Yeah, I don't have any questions. I just know what field you're talking about and it's it's rough. So, >> Miss Moran, >> um I do have a couple questions. So, I know we have artificial turf like in the courtyard at Mabel and maybe some other places, but I'm sure you've done your homework, but can you just reiterate that we're confident this is going to be a longer term solution as opposed to putting in some sort of rubberized surface or whatever? >> Yeah, there's different types or um grades of turf. Uh, and

010of course, as we kind of look at the amount of time it's played on, um, the frequency of it, we want to go with a higher durability for it to last longer. Uh, we do want to make sure there's a return of investment on it and not have to do this every couple of years. Uh, and so, of course, that that adds to that cost of it because we want a higher grade turf for it. >> Okay. So do you anticipate that we're kind of doing this on an experimental basis and that if this is successful we might consider doing this at other campuses because we have some campuses I mean my fear is this we have some campuses that have some rough fields >> rough >> gopher holes etc. So, if this is a

011great solution, fantastic. However, it's expensive. So, I don't I mean, I want us to do these type of decisions with um campus equity in mind. Um so, tell me more about kind of maybe that thought process. >> Yep. Uh, board member Moran, this is something that when I walked in the door two years ago was immediately put on my radar and so we've kind of monitored it throughout uh those two years and looking into other systems uh with that in talking with neighboring districts who have done full fields as we know many high school fields are are turf now uh Millennium to be an example they have a lot of gopher issues over there uh and so I've I've stayed in contact with with their facilities uh gentlemen to see if that is are they

012in intruding on the field now. Uh cuz once you lay it down, you don't really know. Uh and so far so good, but it's still only a year old there. Uh but there are some playgrounds out there or or even playing surfaces that we've done a lot of gopher work uh over the last year and a half to allow playability for our fields. Um there's always difficulties at some schools next to golf courses because they seem to have an unlimited budget to run the golfers to our side of the world. uh and as we try to mediate that and and ensure those those playgrounds are safe. So with all of that, of course, uh if if it was feasible and we can continue to find other incidents of gophers not overtaking it, it it could

013be something we look at. But those are large playing areas, right? Uh if you think about a soccer field or or baseball softball outfields, um that would truly become a cost of like an artificial football field which uh the number for the neighboring high school district was over 2 million per field. >> Yeah. >> And so uh of course they restrict the amount of people on it and all those things to create that longevity. Uh with our recess time and whatnot, it could be a little more costly than that. So it it is something we will continue to monitor uh because if this does work, you know, we overseed every year in certain um aesthetic areas on campuses. The cost of seed, the labor and then the water to maintain it is quite costly and

014we have a lot of aesthetic areas on campuses that would be an ideal thing for turf. Uh maybe not the whole area because we have some really large ones, uh but a good portion because it does help our schools look good. So, uh, in the grand scheme of things, are we is it always on the table? For sure, in my opinion, because we want to create that safe, playable field, uh, space for our students every day. Uh, when we talk about liabilities and and maintain our campuses in the right way, uh, this could be one of the avenues. And, uh, it would probably have to come through something of another bond. Uh, because if we were to do a Palm Valley or a Wigwam Creek, it it would not be $200,000. >> Yeah. Gotcha. Gotcha.

015Okay. And then can you just um tell me a little bit more about the funding and where we're anticipating getting the money to potentially pay for this project? >> Yeah, definitely. So, the funding source uh will be the the end of the 2013 bond and then uh possibly uh the 2024 bond if need be. >> Okay. And we're going to go over that information later tonight so we can talk more about that. Okay. Wonderful. Thank you. >> Yes, ma'am. Miss Wallace, >> I don't have any other questions, but I would love to see more turf other places. Wink wink. >> I don't have any questions either. If someone would like to make a motion. >> I move to approve item 7.1 as presented. >> I second. >> Having a motion from Miss Moran and a

016second from Miss Wallace. I'll call for the vote. Mr. Mikes. >> Yes. >> Mr. Mr. Owens. >> Yay. >> Miss Moran, >> yay. >> Miss Wallace, >> yay. >> I'm also a yay. Motion passes. >> Okay. Now, we're going to move on to 7.2, which is 6.14 from our consent. I will let Miss Moran start with her questions. >> Um, I actually don't have any questions. I just wanted to make a commentary about this because some of our neighboring districts have gotten into hot water with their taxpayers um with the amount of out ofstate travel and so I think that we should be cautious about balancing the best use of our time and resources. So this is a conversation that I've consistently had with Dr. Davidson and we did previously talk about this particular conference

017and I looked into the offerings and researched um this AASA conference um that is going to be in February and I was actually very impressed with the alignment between the agenda and the offerings at the conference and what our current um strategic plan is here at Lichfield. So it it is not one of those conferences that's like uh I guess you can make it fit. I mean it seemed like every block of time and the speakers that are on the agenda would you'd be hard finding anything that wouldn't be applicable and you're probably going to have a hard time selecting which ones you want to go to. So, I think there's a lot that's applicable and so based on the cost, which again seems reasonable to me based on the time frame and the location,

018um I think this is a good use of our time and resources. >> Mr. Mike, did you have any questions or comments on this item? >> No questions or comments. >> Mr. Owens, >> none for me. Thanks, >> Miss Wallace. >> No questions. Uh I didn't have any questions either. If someone would like to make a motion, >> I move to approve item 7.2 as presented. I'll second. >> Having a motion for Miss Moran and a second for Mr. Owens. I'll call for the vote. Mr. Mike, >> yay. >> Mr. Owens, >> yay. >> Miss Moran, >> yay. >> Miss Wallace, >> yay. >> I'm also a yay. Motion passes. I am trying to vote online, Miss Contra, but it is telling me no every time. Okay, we are going to move on now to

019our action items. We're going to start with consideration and approval of the fiscical year 25 annual financial report. And this is going to be by CFO vaugh. We're going to hear a lot from him tonight. [Music] Madame President, members of the governing board, uh, cabinet, colleagues, and community, thank you for joining me tonight to discuss and potentially approve the district's annual financial report covering fiscal year 2025. Before we get started, I just wanted to thank my team for all of the hard work that went into closing out fiscal year 2025. Without their assistance, this wouldn't have been possible. Tonight's presentation aligns most closely with the district's uh strategic keystone of resources. State statute requires that school districts have the annual financial report approved by their governing board and submitted to the Arizona Department of Education

020and Maricopa County School Superintendent by October 15th. By approving the annual financial report tonight, the district will be able to comply with these requirements. The format of the annual financial report is designed and published each year by the Arizona Auditor General's Office in coordination with the Arizona Department of Education to meet the statutory requirement. School districts are required to utilize the published forms. For the remainder of the presentation, I will review spending from select funds or holistically. We'll begin with maintenance and operations. The maintenance and operations or M fund supports daily operating costs, people and programs. 81% of all spending in M was for salaries and benefits. Another 7% were for purchased uh services which is primarily contracted employees to fill otherwise vacant positions. Utilities were 5% of M's spending. The remainder of spending was

021made up of supplies and liability insurance costs. It's important to note that this fund includes within it the M override for fiscal year 2025. The override was 11.2 million of the M budget and all of the uh override was spent uh between salaries and benefits. Later tonight, I'll be providing a more detailed presentation on the district's override and bond program as part of the annual update to the community. As we review the year's financial results, it's always important to review how we performed in terms of operating a balanced budget. Specifically focused on M, we ended the year utilizing $1.3 million of our M carryover to support operations. This is a more effective way of considering if the district is spending what we could or should from M than the previous slide, which shows our planned

022carryover budgeted as potential expenditures. As we begin more work on the fiscal year 2027 budget, we will continue to analyze projected spending against generated revenues or budget capacity to target a long range uh balance budget. Later in this presentation, we'll also look at our reserves holistically to get a better feel for what this means. The classroom site fund was originally created due to a voter approved sales tax for education in the early 2000s. After 20 years as a voter approved initiative, the state legislature took action to continue the classroom site fund as opposed to let it expire. The revenue districts receive from the classroom site fund is driven by the sales tax and state collection related to the classroom site fund as well as certain state land trust transactions. The district utilizes the classroom site

023fund for instructional salaries and benefits including base pay increases, performance pay for classroom teachers, and instructional aids for schools. As a result, 100% of the classroom site fund spending for fiscal year 2025 was on salaries and benefits. Each year during the budget process, we consider um the balance in the classroom site fund along with the projected sales tax collections the state uh used to set the classroom site fund payments in the previous year compared to actual sales tax collected by the state to project what classroom site fund revenues will be in the future. To date, the goal with the classroom site fund at Lichfield has been to maximize teacher compensation and support while ensuring that any increases can be sustained into the future. Uh due to the timing of when the per people classroom site

024fund revenues are provided to the district from the state each year, we're working with a year's old data and projections during our budget process. And the reason is this allows us to ensure our employees know what compensation package will be offered when considering the contract for the next year. The the state simply gives us that uh per pupil number two late in in the process for us to know definitively um when we're making compensation decisions for the future year. You may recall that this fund will also be used to help support our new longevity stipend in the current school year. So we should see the uses usage of this fund increase in 2026. Current expenditures as defined by the auditor general's office include expenditures from all funds for elementary and secondary education. So you might

025ask yourself, well, what does that what would that exclude? Um because we're in the business of providing um elementary education. But what it doesn't include is it doesn't include capital and it doesn't include land improvements, furniture, equipment, uh vehicles, community school operations. So, uh our extended day and preschool programs get excluded as well as uh certain facility usage costs. Based on these metrics, and this aligns fairly well with how the auditor general's office calculates the dollars in the classroom percentages um each year, but based on these metrics, the district's instructional spending was 57% while the classroom spending was 71% including instruction, instructional support, and student support. 11% of the spending goes to facilities maintenance, 4% to transportation, 4% to non-instructional, which is primarily food service operations. That how that's how that gets classified, and then

02610% supports administration. The district's capital outlay fund supports purchases that are expected to last more than one year and can include items such as textbooks, library books, instructional materials, computers, furniture, vehicles, construction, um electronic curriculum, basically anything like that. In 20 in fiscal year 2025, the capital costs were primarily made up of Chromebook replacements, uh significant um spending on electronic curriculum. Uh the payments related to the the teacher uh Apple device replacements. Uh we were also finishing out the construction of the Blen Sodoto modulars. Um because one of the things that's always interesting when you look at our our spending is, you know, we we really operate on a school year basis, but when you think about these large projects that happen over the summer, a lot of times they they actually end up getting

027split between fiscal years because, you know, some of the work gets done in June, some of the work gets done in July, and that and that results in um in it splitting fiscal years because you might think, especially the blind soda module, you know, we had those ready for the beginning of the year. How could um for the beginning of 2025, how could that be in here? But that's that's kind of the why behind that. We will be you utilizing our capital resources into the future to augment any available bond funding uh as well as the other capital resources we have available to us to best meet the district's facility uh curriculum, technology, and equipment needs. There's a lot of things that that end up living within this um capital fund. The adjacent ways fund

028is designed to support improvements adjacent to district property. So, not actually on district property for the purpose of making the district's facilities accessible through items such as sidewalks, roadways, entries, and exits. In 2025, we had some initial adjacent ways spending for Troy Gilbert Elementary, and we'll definitely see that increase um in 2026 as we as we continue building out Troy Gilbert. When we consider capital projects, it's also important to consider what the district is able to raise from the school facilities oversight board. The SFOB uh specifically provides funding for school districts to replace failed building components per the state minimum adequacy standards for Arizona schools. In fiscal year 2025, the district did not spend any uh SFOB funds. This is being driven in large part by the large uh HVAC replacements the district was able

029to undergo uh with our work with the energy and water savings program and our partnership with Varigy. uh which replaced all HVAC units over a certain age. And if you look historically uh what we tended to receive so SFOB support for was uh HVAC units that had failed and um we were replacing. The the downside of of going through the SFOB with that is you do have to wait till it fails. uh they don't support uh kind of preemptive uh proactive approaches to to replacing older units. The debt service fund is where the district makes payments both principal and interest on voter approved bond uh issuances. In fiscal year 2025, the district made principal payments of 7.8 million and interest payments of 2.6 million. After tonight's approval, we will be working with the state uh

030to update our budget to reflect the interest payment on our most recent bond issuance. You can see on the slide a a discrepancy between the budget amount and the spending amount. And what happened there is um while it certainly got paid, we had not captured in the May budget revision um the first interest payment on the most recent bond issuance. The food service fund uh shows the results of the nutritional program shown on the slide. You can see 41% of the spending is on salaries and benefits. 46% is on supplies including food and the remaining 13% is other costs. uh revenue for the year um was fairly stable. But what I think we really should be happy to report and celebrate is if you look at the slide uh the food service operations operated at

031a small surplus. We expect this to improve in 2026 given the structural changes we made to the program during the budget cycle. But uh this is certainly a good news um as a starting point. Uh along with those structural changes, the community education fund is where the district accounts for activities related to preschool and extended day programs. Expenses for the community education fund is 88% salaries and benefits. The program operated at a slight deficit of $102,000 which was supported by fund balance within the fund. Executive Director Stone and I will be working with ex uh Director Stair to look at next steps to correct this into the future. During our budget discussions, we spend some amount of time discussing appropriate reserve levels into the future. This slide summarizes the district's financial reserves at the end

032of fiscal year 2025. We will discuss the district's financial reserves in more detail in November uh and later in the year as we get deeper into the budgeting process. However, we ended the fiscal year with about four months of uh emergency fund or operating reserve. This is roughly where we expected to end the year. Uh if you compare this to our reserves at the end of last year, if you pull up this exact same presentation from last year, you may notice that there's not much of a change despite our overspending of M. This is partially due to how we calculate the reserves uh and the phase out of COVID spending. So every every time we look at the reserves, I recalculate our reserve needs um based on what we have in our our regulation. And

033how that formula works is we look at certain spending and certain revenues that are coming in. And so as certain uh revenue sources get phased out, our our need for reserves also decline. and that uh decline in need for reserves aligned fairly well with the amount we overspent um the M revenues. So that's that's why you're seeing um that change despite some of the the data that that we're seeing in this presentation. At this time, I'm available to answer any questions you might have on the district's annual financial report for fiscal year 2025. >> Mr. mics. >> I don't have any questions right now, >> Mr. Owens. >> Yeah, none for me. Thanks, >> Miss Moran. Um, I do have some questions and some comments. So, um, you know, this is my my thing. So,

034uh, let's start with slide five. So on slide five, that's the M fund and I wanted to um just highlight which you also mentioned um CFO that our purchase services um this year are at 7% and last year were at 8%. So any we can do to decrease our purchase services is a good thing. our salaries and benefits um really were the same um year-over-year, but decreasing the purchase services means that we're getting more value for our dollar because we're paying more employees rather than paying higher contract rates. So, that is a very good thing. Um on slide eight, which is the Oh, actually, let's go back to slide six. Sorry. Slide six. Um okay so on slide six we're highlighting that we're taking some money out of the capacity carryover which as you know

035um basically historically we have thought we might need to take money out of there and we usually because we're so conservative um we haven't had to. So, while it may look like we're overspending and that this is um a non fiscally prudent, I actually believe it is fiscally prudent because we have an overabundance of reserves. And I would rather we use our taxpayer funding to improve our schools now than save it for a rainy day beyond the amount that we need to have um prudently saved in the coffers. So, I think that's a very good thing. >> Can I add something? >> Yes. Um it actually if you look at where if you look at this slide and compare it to uh the projected budget that that the governing board approved in March for this

036coming year. Um this is pretty pretty much spot on to where um I projected we might end the year. um which I was pleased with um just because it it meant the decisions we were making uh in March, we were doing it with with fairly good data behind the decisions we made. So to to back up what you're saying, uh this is where we pretty much expected to be uh when we approved the budget for um the year we're currently in. And so um we knew what we were doing and uh it it made good sense at the time and it still does >> agree 100%. Um the next thing I'd like to highlight is on slide eight. So slide eight is the current expenditures by category. So one of the things that I do

037to evaluate our performance is look at where we were last year and look at where we are this year. So this is my only kind of cautionary um commentary which is to say that last year the 23 24 school year we had 72% in classroom spending and we had 9% in administration and then this year we have a 1% difference between each of those categories. So our administration spending has gone up slightly as a percentage to the total. I would just say I think that's acceptable based on the decisions that we've made. However, I do want to keep a really close eye on that because historically we have had one of the lowest administrative expenses in Arizona and so I would really like to keep it that way. Um, and have as many of our

038dollars going into the classroom as possible. Do you have anything to add on that part? >> I agree. >> Okay. Okay. Um, my next comment is on slide 12, which actually I'm going to I'm going to um take that comment back because you explained the difference in the interest on the bond. So, um, you already answered that question. So, thank you for that. And then my next comment is on slide 13, which is the food service fund, which I agree with with the commentary that you made as well, that this is definitely headed in the right direction. And I know we have different management um and different decisions that we're making and we knew that uh there were changes that need to be made. So this is obviously evidence that those changes have been made.

039I know we continue to make changes as well. So kudos to um everyone making those decisions in food service. Similarly on the community ed um funds which is slide 14. I have one question and then I'll go into my commentary. So last year the revenue for preschool was about 2.8 8 million and then this year it's about 2 million. Is that decrease related to some of the ESSER funding or state funding? >> Yes. So, um we received about $800,000 of uh a COVID 19 grant specific to community ed. And and one of the reasons we were um we've been truly increasing rates so heavily over the last couple years in community ed was to try to keep up with that funding going away. And if you compare uh the revenue on this slide to to

040the similar presentation last year, you will see that the revenue did go up. um it's just expenses went up u right along with it. Uh and and I do think that in this particular uh instance, it's it's a rather hard puzzle to solve because because of licensing issues, our student to to staff ratios in these programs are dictated to us. Whereas, and we haven't changed them in a long time, but whereas in our general ed and special education classrooms, you know, our our bread and butter of of our operations, the governing board and the administration set our student and staff ratios. So, so we can set it to something that that works. uh whereas here you you know you see that that 88% of the spending is on staffing and our staffing to a large

041extent is dictated to us uh based on those licensing requirements and so it's a little bit of a harder nut to crack if you will just trying to find those levers that we actually can pull. >> Yeah. And I think this is something that has challenged us for years trying to get this just right. So, um, my follow-up questions would be, you know, what are you doing to, you know, to to examine the programs? What do we need to do from a cost perspective? But it sounds like, as you mentioned during your presentation, that you and Dr. Stone um, are going to be getting together and Dr. Stair will be getting together to do some problem solving when it comes to that. So, I'm glad to hear that you are on it, and I'm confident

042that you will make some changes that will continue to head us in the right direction when it comes to community ed. And that is all my questions. >> All right. Miss Wallace, >> I had all of the exact same questions and comments, but Miss Moran went before me, so I'm good. >> I believe that. >> I know. We needed to call on her first because she asks all the questions. So, really, we all knew she would ask all the questions and she likes to banter with you. I think that that's her favorite part of being governing board member. >> I like it, too. >> So, we really are just letting her do that and letting you have that moment. So, I don't have any questions either. Um, we do need a motion to approve this

043though. >> I move to approve the fiscal year 2025 annual financial report uh as presented. >> I second. >> Having a motion from Mr. Owens and a second from Mr. Mike, I'll call for the vote. Mr. Mike, >> yay. >> Mr. Owens, >> yay. >> Miss Moran, >> yay. >> Miss Wallace, >> yay. >> I'm also a yay. Motion passed. And it let me vote that time. Okay, next we are going to move on to discussion and possible action on convening a board committee to work on the superintendent evaluation tool. I'm going to lead this discussion. After our retreat that we had recently, I spoke with our attorney to talk about having three people as opposed to two on a committee from our board to work on Superintendent Davidson's evaluation tool. And just to get

044some clarification, because when we have three, then there's a quorum of the board always. And so if they're going to be working on something that they're then going to bring to the board, they could approve it without the rest of us that are doing it. Um, and she did say we can do it, but it's not really recommended that we do it with three. Um, and also she did recommend that we have um someone from the district also on the committee to serve in that capacity because we should have it be more people than just the board because if it's just three members, it's just a board meeting and that's not what we're trying to do. So, um, that's the feedback that I got from the attorney and I was hoping we could kind of

045figure that out as a group what we want to do, uh, moving forward. And then we also need to officially as a board once we decide, um, make a motion to approve that committee with who's going to serve on it if that's what we decide to do. But I would love to get feedback from the individuals who are interested in doing the work. Uh, so I can start with you, Mr. mics. >> Um, yeah, everything you presented, I guess, you know, makes sense for uh for what the lawyer's recommendation would be. And I mean, I'd be interested in being part of the committee as well. Um, if if we agree on doing that piece and then I guess the other thing is I don't know how we decide who the additional person is that uh

046outside of the board. I'm not sure on what that process looks like. I have a suggestion for that, but that's just kind of up to us of who we want to like basically it's up to us on who we would like to have on it and we'd also want to make sure it works for whoever we're asking from district to be on it. >> But um I'm thinking personally I would like to see somebody who worked on the uh evaluation tools for the district people already since they've already done a lot of the work and we're trying to align his to theirs as well. So, I think that would that's the only thing that makes sense to me, but um definitely open to that as well. Um, Miss Wallace, you had said that you wanted

047to be on the committee. Did you have any thoughts about it? >> I do not. I'm still willing to, but also willing to let the other two, if one of us needs to not be a part of it. Miss Moran. >> Um I agree. I'm happy to back out if um board member Wallace and board member Mike's want to take on this project. I you know I I know that you both have, you know, board member Wallace as someone who's been evaluated as a teacher and then board member Mike's as someone who has not only been evaluated as an educator but also done evaluations um on other people. So I feel like you both have better experience than me. I've only evaluated superintendents in this district. Um, and I work for myself, so I don't

048get evaluated or I don't evaluate anyone else. So, I think you both have more relevant experience with that. Um, so yeah, I'm happy to bow out. I think it will be easier, more effic more efficient, and more effective to have um a smaller group work on this because I don't think we need more people to wordsmith or that sort of thing. Mr. Owens, you and I had said we were not going to do this. Did you have any thoughts on this committee? We don't have to have any interest. >> Yeah, I think two's clean um just keeps us out of trouble and then obviously working with somebody who has the um background of working with the so there's alignment there with the teacher performance review. Um you know, at the end of the day, the

049committee is going to present it to us all anyway, so we'll have our input that way. But um I agree with board member Moran's comments about the two board member Mike and board member Wallace having experience so works for me. >> Okay. Well then you three are I'm hearing board member Mike's and board member Wallace would do it. Is that the consensus on that? And then we need to pick somebody from district. Is there like do you guys have a person you'd prefer to work with or do you guys have a re recommendation from district of who should do it? and volunteers. >> I know you all want to work with us. >> Okay. >> So, definitely so don't fight over it. >> Yeah. Well, definitely working on the evaluation cascading process has definitely been

050a group effort here. Um but um I'm I'm available. Um Miss Benjamin is also available. We both are eager to help in any way we can if you want one of us or both of us. Um because >> it was recommended we keep the committee to be an odd number. >> Okay. >> For voting purposes. So one of you would be good. >> So yeah. So you gota you got to pick who you want. >> Okay. Now you two got to pick who you want. That's really not fair. >> Rock paper scissors. >> I was just going to say I say we do a rock paper scissors right now. >> Um up to you guys. But just a caution. You still have to follow open meeting law. So it's still going to be posted. It's

051still going to have to have an agenda. All that stuff. if we still have to do that because even if one board member attends a committee meeting, we're supposed to do that now with the law. So, just so that you guys are aware of all that, but this will be a lot easier because you won't have a quorum of the board whenever you meet. Um, but I do know need to know who you guys want to have as your person so we can make a motion. >> Well, and I I think maybe we'll just between the two of you. I think it's better if one of you guys makes the decision because I don't know what best fits for your schedule and calendar and all that all that works as well. So, um either one

052of you would be a great person for the committee. So, that's my thought on that. >> I can put your names in a randomizer and have it pick for us. So, um, may we offer a solution to know the calendar dates and then we both can look at our calendars and see which one of us has the most availability. Would that be fair? >> If they add both of us to the motion of us, >> Miss Contra. >> And then to do that, we'd add both of us to the motion, >> But only one would attend. >> Can we do that, Miss Contra? Do you think that would be okay? Okay. >> Perfect. Sounds great. So, it sounds like >> May I offer another solution to consider? >> Yes. >> Um, Miss Satderfield was also

053pivotal in creating the instrument and also being our executive director of human resources. Would it be fair if the three of us were part of the committee since we all collaborated on building the cascading system? >> I think that the idea was to not have so many people, but I do think that it could be the two board members and one admin and then whoever can come. It doesn't mean that they won't probably reach out and get information from others, but um for decision making purposes for their meetings, it would probably just be the three that would decide. Does that sound fair to you too before we move forward with the motion? I I mean I think that I think that sounds I mean as long as it see as as it is clean and

054right to the process if I'm understanding this correctly then we would have three people two board members one admin as a voting portion in order to bring to the board and then any other additional people that are brought into the committee for information we could they can be invited to those meetings to bring forth in info for the evaluation tools Is that correct? >> I believe that they could give you information at a meeting because it's going to be agendaized. Uh they just wouldn't be a voting member of your committee. >> So yes. >> Okay. >> Work for you all? Everybody good? Okay. Then >> you would vote in your committee to once you guys like what you want to like what you want to bring to the board. Well, as you guys work through

055it, you guys will probably vote on Yeah. But eventually you'll vote to bring it to the board once you guys have something to bring to the board. So, and it will all be agendaized anyway, so it'll be good. Um, so I'll make a motion to create a committee, a board committee for the purpose of creating a evaluation tool for the superintendent that will consist of board member Mike's, board member Wallace, and one admin member. Does that sound like I did that right? >> I second. >> Perfect. So, having a motion from myself and a second from Miss Wallace, I'll call for the vote. Mr. Mikes, >> yay. >> Mr. Owens, >> yay. >> Miss Moran, >> yay. >> Miss Wallace, >> yay. >> I'm also yay. Motion passes. Okay, we are going to move on

056now to our discussion items where we're going to hear from CFO von some more tonight. We'll start with the override expenditure update. Madame President, members of the governing board, cabinet, colleagues, and community, thank you for joining me tonight for the report out on the district's M override program for fiscal year 2025. This is the more detailed look that I promised just a little while ago. Uh tonight's presentation uh aligns well with the district's strategic keystone of resources. Arizona Revised Statute requires each school district that has an override program to hold a public meeting between September 1st and October 31st to provide an update of the programs supported through the override. Tonight's presentation is designed to meet that statutory requirement and simply just provide transportation uh transparency and the opportunity for us to discuss uh what

057happens with our M override. The district's M override uh has to be renewed by voters u periodically and is fully funded for a period of five years. If not renewed by voters, the M override begins to phase down in year six and year seven. Litfield Elementary's override was last renewed by voters in fiscal year 2023 for the 2023 2024 school year. As a result, fiscal year 2025 was the second year on the renewed authorization. This slide shows the usage of the override in fiscal year 2025 and projected usage in fiscal year 2026. As you can see on the slide, approximately 2.1 million was used for teacher and staff pay. 3.8 million was used for special area program staffing. 4.1 million was used to maintain staff for focused interventions. 969,000 was used for district nurses. about

058161,000 was used for athletics uh and 21,000 was used for recruiting efforts. The slide also shows projected usage during fiscal year 2026. I would now like to dig a little deeper into the usage over fiscal year 2025. In fiscal year 2025, the overrides supported a majority of the compensation for 155 full-time equivalent positions and contributed at least partially to the compensation of 744 employees. To clarify the difference between these two figures, full-time equivalency counts part-time positions as only part of a position. For example, if you have two positions working 20 hours per week, those two positions combined would count as one full-time equivalent position. Whereas the second statistic looks at how many different people were compensated from the override. The full-time equivalent positions paid from the override include 80 full-time equivalent uh special area program

059uh staff focused on PE, music, art, media, technology, and other special areas. 58 uh full-time equivalency for focused intervention programs which include our instructional coaches, student adviserss, behavior supports, reading specialists, and math specialists. The M override also supports 15 full-time equivalency for nurses and a portion of our human resources generalist who assists with recruiting efforts. The M override also provides substantial compensation to certain employee groups. The amounts uh on the slide are additional compensation these employees receive directly from the override. For example, our teachers receive $2,915 per year. Our related service providers, including occupational therapists, physical therapists, psychologists, speech pathologists, receive between 3,930 and $4,710 per year. Instructional coaches receive 200 or 2,971 per year. Student advisors 3,311. Behavior coaches receive 2,971 per year. Reading specialists received $2,915 per year. The amounts assist Lichfield and

060being competitive with surrounding districts. The remainder of the override was spent on athletic coaching stipens. At this time, I'm available to answer any questions you might have on the 2025 override program. Mr. Mike, did you have any questions or comments? >> Um, I don't have any questions. Thank you. >> Mr. Owens. >> Um, no questions. I just appreciate this statutory requirement because it does provide transparency, right? When we go out for M, you know, overrides and bonds. We're asking our constituents, our residents to pay additional taxes, right? Nobody likes that. But at the same time, we understand they're they're necessary for us to operate our schools, to build new schools and to see the, you know, to see where the money's going and seeing that it's going directly to um these programs, these individuals for

061this reason. Um I think it answers a lot of those questions and hopefully any doubts that people have about why we need to continue voting yes on our overrides and our bonds. So, thank you. >> These are pretty important things if you think about the operations of our schools. um and the success of our students that the override really is supporting. So, >> Miss Maran, >> yeah, just to add to board member Owen's comments. Um, I think when we ask the voters to increase from a 10% override to a 15% override, which the 15% override is the maximum amount that we're allowed to ask voters to supplementally fund to our district. we made a promise that we would spend that extra 5% that they were allocating to us on teachers salaries. So we um have

062made good on that promise and that's indicated in this um presentation and I think any of the voters would be hardpressed to look at the positions that this money goes toward and the supplemental salary that we're able to pay our already underpaid teachers based on that override and argue about our fiscal responsibility in utilizing those funds. So to your point, um, CFO vaugh, every dollar counts here, and I feel that all of the 15% override is going toward student success because it's going toward positions that support student success and teachers who are supporting student success. So, I'm very glad that we have this funding. Without it, uh, it would be even more rough than it already is from a funding standpoint. and uh we will come back to the voters at some point and ask

063them to renew this and hopefully they will look at our history and be supportive. >> Miss Wallace, >> I agree. I think that we have used these funds very well. And when it does come time for voters to approve an override again, I hope that these these this information is out there for them and they understand the importance of where that money is going and what it's funding for our schools. Um, I don't have any questions. Thank you for putting this report together. I think it's great that we do this every year and we share this information with the community because it does show that we are being very very responsible with the funds that they're entrusting us with. And I appreciate our community for continuously supporting us in this endeavor because we know there

064are communities that don't have the same support from their communities and it's really sad for their schools and and at the end of the day their students are the ones that are suffering. So I'm thankful for our students that our community continues to support us in this way. It's a great way to have local funds go into your local schools. And while I wish our state would fund us better, and I'm going to continue to advocate for that, um this is a way that we can help supplement that in some way. And it would be devastating to lose these positions. So, um I agree with my board members that we need to make sure this information is shared as much as possible for when we are having to go out again and say, "Please continue

065this because we are making good responsible decisions. So, please help us continue to do that. Okay, next we're going to move on to same presentation only about bonds by CFO. All right, here we go. Madame President, members of the governing board, uh, cabinet, colleagues, and community, thank you for joining me tonight for a report out on the district's bond programs for fiscal year 2025. Surprisingly, tonight's presentation also aligns with the district's strategic keystone of resources. Uh as uh President Zida alluded to, uh there is a similar uh statutory requirement for uh bond programs that that does require us to in a public meeting between September 1st and October 31st provide an update on bond programs um that are in place at the district. And it is always nice to just be able to talk about

066how we're utilizing that money. Tonight's presentation is designed to meet the statutory requirement. The district presently has two active bond programs, one with voter authorization from 2014 and one from 2023. We will first discuss the bond authorization from 2014. The 2014 bond authoriz authorization was for $35 million and the district finished selling these bonds in 2021. Through June 30th, 2025, the district has spent $33.8 million of the $35 million of bonds issued. There we go. The bond is broken up into multiple categories including new school construction and remodel of administrative facilities among others. Uh on this slide you can see the spending of the bond in these categories through the end of last fiscal year. This slide shows the historical projects from this bond to renovate existing schools. The next slide will show new projects

067worked on during 2025 related to this category. Of particular note is the architectural fees for the front office remodels uh repainting of Verado Heritage and the playground at Dreaming Summit as well as the gym remodel at Palm Valley connected to the conversion to a K8 model. The 2014 bond was also used this year to purchase a school bus and establish uh the start of a fleet of vehicles for our non CDL drivers uh that could uh bolster our services from the transportation department. This is my favorite part because you actually get to see something. Um this slide shows the Dreaming Summit playground and a bit of uh the gym at Palm Valley. As a reminder, the district uh also received authorization to sell $100 million of bonds in 2023. To date, we have sold $50

068million of those bonds. Through June 30th, 2025, the district has expended $4.3 million of those bonds. Similar to the 2014 bonds, the 2023 authorization authorized spending in several different categories, including safety and security, new school construction, technology and classroom equipment, and school buses and other student transportation vehicles. through June 30th, 2025. All spending from the 2023 authorization has been on the construction of Troy Gilbert Elementary School and the front office remodels of our schools. This slide shows the remaining categories of repair and renovation to school buildings and the legal costs to issue bonds in previous years. This slide shows two of our front office remodels. I really think they turned out well. Uh, thank you for everyone who was instrumental in all of these bond projects, especially our director of construction, Danson. The statutory requirement

069also requires me to talk about other funds used for construction. Um, so here we go. The next couple of slides will highlight some historical construction projects which were supported from nonbond funds. And I'm just going to kind of slowly go through these because this really is some historical uh type data. Just give you a moment to look. We'll go on. During fiscal year 2025, construction continued and finished on modular classroom additions to Bin Sodto Elementary through capital funds. We also installed a playground at El Thomas Hec for the younger students attending that campus. carpet replacements at various places across the district and adjacent ways, as I mentioned um in our previous presentation, began being used for the Troy Gilbert off-site planning. Looking forward, the district has several projects planned for the remainder of the 2014

070bond, such as the uh uh field improvements we discussed tonight, as well as additional student transportation v uh vehicles and finishing the front office remodels. The 2023 bond authorization will also continue to be focused on the construction of Troy Gilbert uh Palm Valley modular classrooms which we've previously discussed as well as other um projects that align with bond program. At this time we're looking at the sale of the remaining bond authorization early in next calendar year and we'll bring that to the board in a future um discussion and agenda item. At this time, I'm available to answer any questions you might have, >> Mr. Mike. >> Um, I don't have any specific questions with it. Just a comment to see as I mean, it's such large chunks of money that our community, you know, approves

071for us to to spend on our schools. And as you look through this list and you know you look at the budget of the M but also when you look at this list for the all the expenditures for the bonds over the years and there's no there's no fluff. It's all goes directly to uh needs taking care of school safety taking care of all these important things to keep our schools um operating efficiently uh for for the kids transportation. So, as you just, you know, look for it and just kind of a thank you piece for it, seeing where it's just going straight straight to our schools for, you know, an excellent purpose. So, um, it's just evident and nice to see as it's listed out and explained, uh, for the public to see as

072well. >> Mr. Owens, >> uh, no comments. Thanks, >> Miss Moran. >> Um, I do have a couple of questions. So, Why why do we still have funds from the 2014 bond? Because we have the new bond that's been issued. So for me as like a general person, if I had funds I had saved, you know, from previous years, I feel like I would spend that money first instead of spending the new money. So tell me more about is there an expiration date on these funds? I know we've already issued the bonds, so the money is just sitting there waiting for us to spend. How do you determine 2014 versus 2023? >> Um, carefully. So, uh, there's a couple of different things to consider. Uh, one thing we think about is what we told the

073community we would use, uh, the various bonds for. Um, one of the other things that we particularly think about right now is timing of having the cash. So, um, for example, you might wonder why did we have the architectural fees for the front office remodels and the old bond, but a lot of the construction and the new bond and that was to get it started faster. Um, the other thing is really the categories that that exist between the bonds and where the money remains. We can move money between categories but that is limited. So uh we do uh think about that. As far as does the money expire, the answer is no. Uh what does happen is you end up with more requirements related to the IRS. So there's um an analysis called arbitrage uh

074that you have to um do to show that the interest that we're making on having the bonds basically sitting with the county and invested in the way that the county invests our funds isn't generating more in interest than um is being paid out on the interest rate of the debt. Um, even if it is, the only downside of of that being triggered is we have to pay the IRS that difference. So, we still get uh the interest of having it invested. We just don't get uh all of it. Uh, due to uh just kind of how the interest rates have aligned with with the selling of the bonds, that's not something we've experienced. we're we're not uh at really at risk of an arbitrage situation, but that's really the only additional uh requirement that gets

075added on uh the further out you get. I'm I'm very hopeful that um 2026 will be my last uh update on the 2014 bond because it would be uh it would be nice to only be managing one bond program. Yeah, it seems like that would simplify things quite a bit. And then similar question on how do you determine what's coming out of the um unrestricted capital outlay versus the bonds? Is that mostly again just what we told the voters you were going to spend the money on or tell me? So, it's partially that and it's also partially trying to align what's an ongoing expense with recurring revenues and what's a one-time expense with one-time money. Um, so we really work hard through our capital committee uh to make sure that the ongoing uh capital uh

076expenditures that we want to be able to continue every single year. So like our our curriculum adoptions, our our technology replenishments, things like that are coming primarily from our capital revenues, our unrestricted capital outlay. And that's simply because we know that that's a funding source that will be uh year after year. Um so where we can I try to do that. the bonds. Uh we try to focus more on really large um one-time or or ex at least very long lasting uh type expenditures. >> Okay. Um that answers that question. Thank you for that. Um I think that's everything I have. Thank you. >> Okay, >> Miss Wallace. >> No questions. Thank you. I don't have any questions either, but again, thank you for this report and Mr. Enson, you are like very busy. We

077can see from all this work that you're doing. So, thank you to all the work that you do. Um, and to your team for getting all these reports together for us for tonight. I know that was a lot of work and we appreciate that you were able to do that. Uh, we are going to move on now to the next item which is the transportation department update which is going to be led by Dr. Stone and Miss Tassen and others. Good evening, governing board president, governing board members, cabinet, and those watching uh at home online. Thank you for your time tonight. As you know, transportation has been a hot item uh with me walking in the door and we were able to do a lot of good work and hiring the right people to make

078changes that continue to get our kids to and from school uh to the best of our ability. And so we want to just provide an update with you on where we are uh in the grand scheme of things today compared to where we were. And uh first let me thank both of them, Mrs. Tass and Miss Kimman for the work they've done, the hours they put in, and the team they continue to develop because without them, we would be in a different place and a different conversation. So, uh, thank you both. I will hand it off to >> Okay, thank you. Um, good evening everyone. Thank you for having us here this evening. Um, we're going to actually take turns uh throughout the slideshow just presenting on different information for you guys. So please if

079you have questions throughout don't hesitate to ask. I know for me um this has been a huge learning curve over the last 18 months. So um ultimately our goal tonight is to educate everybody here and anybody watching. Um just because there are a lot of nuances in the transportation department that I never knew existed even coming from the site level. Um, so hopefully this evening will help kind of pull the curtain back on some of those nuances for everybody um, here and then everybody watching, which I don't even know how many are online tonight, but um, when I thought about how to introduce this presentation um, that first statement seems a little cliche, but I will say um, Micha and and when we're making decisions together, ultimately safety is our utmost concern and we're making

080decisions and changes to routes daily um, if not two times a day and right ultimately safety is our biggest concern. So in addition to that again it's just pulling back the curtain on the daily operations of the transportation department. Um so just a quick overview obviously um we have a very large department with a lot of moving parts. Um, what I found very interesting is that a lot of people don't know when we get phone calls from parents um, about concerns or just questions about late routes is that there are three tiers that run in the morning, which we talked about this last year when we talked about changing school start times. And if you have one tier, just like at a doctor's office, if you have one tier that's running behind, the domino effect

081of that impacts your second tier and impacts your third tier. Once we start to kind of pull back the those layers, people start to understand. But you can see um through our department overview that it there's a lot of moving parts and those moving parts um all rely on one another to become successful and to run a successful daily operation. Um and so this is just a a small glimpse of what the department looks like as far as our fleet, as far as our personnel, and then all of the schools that we service. Um the other part of transportation that not a lot of people know about is that we service a lot of children that are part of our district, but they go to out of district schools. Um, and we'll touch a little

082bit more on that in just a little while. All right, so just an overview of the operational performance of our first quarter. Um, I'm not going to read the slide to you because you guys can clearly read, but I do just want to highlight a couple of things. With the addition of our white fleet that we have started building over this last year, we have been able to keep 20 children uh or provide them with in-house transportation. Um and director Tassel will go into that a little bit more um as we go through the slides, but those are for our outplace students and our also our McKenna Vento population. Um as she was saying uh we do have a multiple tier system um in for our school start times which means that each bus is

083usually um servicing three schools in the morning and three schools in the afternoon. um in years past um when we are short drivers or um other problems may arise um in the past we've had to cancel over 70 routes and we are proud to announce that this year we have not cancelled any routes. Um, however, that does cause the delays to school um when we send a bus back to go pick up um for a route that didn't have a driver or whatever the case may be. And so while we're doing our best, we are we also recognize that we are putting great strain on our drivers, um the school staff, the students, and ultimately their families that are waiting at home for them to be either picked up or delivered at home to home

084at the end of the day. Okay. So staffing is is quite um a fun journey that we weave in and out of on the daily. I will say even since this um presentation was shared with you um we did have a person that uh resigned and we were given no reason. We have a new driver that we were trying to hire. So most of the people that we are bringing in are not trained and um they need to go through the training for their CDL. Um, we do very rarely get drivers that are certified and we did have one getting ready to on board. Um, but unfortunately there were some some personnel conflicts there with contractual obligations. But on the flip side of that to kind of just uh give an example of the chess

085pieces that are constantly moving. Um, in the last two days we've hired two monitors and then one other driver that was certified. So one week we lose three, the next week or two days later we gain three. So, it really is um quite a chess game that we're playing in this. Um but since July, so since fiscal year, um this is kind of the the change in our staffing that you'll that you can see. And this is um something that I just keep data on because I think it's important for us to kind of recognize the ins and outs and the wise. Um and we've kept data on this since Micha and I have started. And that's really um the applicants and when we've hired them and when their training is complete and and trying

086to track the time frame of that and and that is decreasing as um assistant director Kleinman continues to build our training department. Um but we were relying on outside sources for that which we no longer have to rely upon anybody else to train our our own drivers internally which um she's done a fantastic job of building up that program for us. Um, so you can see these are all the the people that we have hired since July minus the three that we've hired this week. Um, but then on the flip side of that, these are the people that have resigned. Um, those drivers that you see um, in July on July 31st are really drivers that we had at the end of last year. So, we were ready to start the year with those people.

087And, um, literally the week of pre-ervice um, we received word that they weren't coming back. So, um, again, it's a scramble because we set our routes mid July, um, if not beginning of July and and we're ready to go to bid and then, um, sometimes you don't have people to bid on them. So, we also have found it super important to figure out the reasons why because hopefully we can start answering the questions and and maybe meeting some of those challenges when we do lose people. So um whether it's through a resignation letter or a phone call, we try to get those reasons as to why people are leaving. Um, as Director Cha Tassen has mentioned, we have been um, over the last year really developing our staff. And with that, we have created um,

088we've established a lead trainer position. And then we have additional part-time trainers, also drivers that have stepped up to the plate to really take on this role and and really this massive mountain that they're having to climb. Training is no small feat. Um, and as we kind of pull back the curtain on on transportation and what that looks like, training a driver. So, as she was saying, we get these drivers that are just normal drivers like you. You know, you drive your car to work um and back and maybe a pickup truck and maybe you have a camper or trailer that you pull. Uh, but driving a bus is a lot different, right? You have you have to go through some rigorous training. So, in um February of 2022, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration

089finally rolled out what they call entry- level driver training. And what that is is a program that every new uh CDL applicant. Um if you want to become a CDL holder, you have to go through this training which consists of 93 topics um which is really just basic knowledge regulation law that if you want to become a CDL driver, you should know about um that was not previously done. However, in the state of Arizona, we also have to be a school bus driver. We also have um the Department of Transportation school bus minimum standards that we also have to adhere to and become certified in in order to actually transport students on um a school bus. So with that, we have the federal government regulations. We also have Arizona state minimum standards that we we

090have to combined and a lot of the the items that you have to train on, they they are the same. Um there are much more on the ELDT side. Um however, that does take a lot of time and energy and especially with our new training squad or department, um they're learning a lot and it is definitely not an easy task for them to do. And while they're trying to create this comprehensive training program, they're also driving and subbing routes daily for us because we do have this driver shortage. So, it's really a juggle of when do we find time to have them sit in their office and create this and also drive and get kids to school. Um, so with that, the the ELDT portion, there's no real time allotted that you have to complete

091the 93 topics, but on the Arizona side, you do. So, there's a minimum of 14 hours of classroom. And I say minimum because in that of course now we're adding in all these topics from the federal government also department pro protocol and procedures best practices um and just all the things that it takes to become a good driver. And truly it's not easy. It's a school bus or it's a classroom on wheels but there's 84 students in this classroom. Um, in addition to the classroom training, they do also have a minimum of 20 hours of behind the wheel training that they do have to accomplish and then um an assessment at the end for the Arizona side. And then even to get their license, they do then have to go to a third party examiner

092and complete a two and a half hour test, which includes the pre-trip and um a road test. Um, all of that to say, it does take a long time for us to train them. If you look at the information from the a couple slides back, you can see last year, I think it was taking us anywhere from two to four months to train somebody. We're down now to two months. And ultimately, our goal is to have a new trainee with a class D license to be fully started and licensed as a CDL driver within four weeks. Um, along with that, this is this also goes into the training. So, at the end of their training, they have to go to, I've already said, a third party testing facility to do that two and a half

093hour test. Um, and we can become a site and we're in the process of becoming an approved ADOT site. Uh, we've sent the um the original business plan to them for approval. They've come back and said, "Okay, now you have all this paperwork to fill out um for us to become that site." So, we are in the process of that. It is just a long and tedious one. And then just a kudos to the collaboration that we have with the department of um public safety and the student transportation unit. We have collaborated with them on a couple of projects to create um training for the entire state of Arizona. The first project has been completed and was rolled out in June of 2025, which was the school bus evacuation video, which we used this year

094um in our first round of evacuations. and the feedback that we've gotten from the schools have has been all positive. So, that's a really great thing. Um, and then the next um project that we were working on with DPS was is the driver uh physical performance test. So, every driver before you can get your certification to drive with students on board, you have to perform a physical performance test. And we all know how government works. and um it's been a long time since they've been able since the department has been able to provide the state with quality training. And so that's what we're just trying to to help them with and really streamline the training and make sure that everybody has um the information and knows exactly what to do. All right. So in in

095talking about our fleet and the management of that also a huge learning curve and still learning a lot from our um fleet manager James Boswell who has been just a great wealth of knowledge and information for me. I know Micha came with a lot more knowledge than I did. um we were able to auction off 20 um 21 of our retired vehicles and and I have to thank our purchasing department and director of purchasing um Tammy Garrett for going through that journey with with me and with us um because we've never done that before. So, it was quite um the process, but we learned a lot along the way and now it's much easier to auction items off. Um, and you guys can see some of the other um some of the other things that

096we've done over the last year and a half. And we'll touch a little bit more on the white fleet later on in in the slideshow, but it has been um a a huge savings in talking about purchase services and and being able to bring some of those kiddos back into the district and have some of our drivers drive them on white fleet, which is right now we have SAS and we have Traverses. Um there was a lot of confusion and and not understanding why those came to be, but when you see the data later, you'll understand it just how crucial they've been to our department and to bringing our kids back to us, but then also just saving the district um a lot of money. Um so the other piece that we also um started

097off with when we first came to the department were the mini buses. Um as far as the mini buses are concerned, there's a little bit less training. So, the third-party testing um that assistant director Kleinman spoke about is is not needed for those people that drive the 925 buses, but they still have to go through the rigorous 14 and 20our training. So, it makes it a little bit more enticing um for people who aren't big on testing and we actually have filled those positions with all internal um people who are were our monitors. So, it was another opportunity too for um developed leadership within the department for people who weren't necessarily ready to drive a big large um school bus that we all see driving down the road, but also still contribute to the department

098as far as driving kids to and from school. Um we are uh in the process of retiring a lot of our buses and and we want to kind of again start that conversation of a replacement cycle which will start this evening. Um, and right now we have our four GenEd buses um that are spares, but three of those spares are in use. So, let's not throw it out into the universe too loudly, but if one broke down tomorrow, we would have one and then no spares. Um, and then in our four special education spares, we have two that are operational and and one again that we need to discuss um retirement just because it's just not safe anymore. Um so that is where um you guys can and see the numbers in miles and where

099they are at in years um as far as we'll talk about the protocols and guidelines that have been followed in our district and some of the things that we would like to keep in place with fleet management. Um, so any number that is a three-digit number are our special ed or yes, transit. We'll just call them special conventional. We get ourselves confused on that. Either way, our three-digit numbers are um our sped buses and then our twodigits are going to be any of our gened buses. Um, and you can see that the mileage on our special ed buses is significantly higher and that's because it is doortodoor for those buses. Whereas obviously our gened are stopping at stops and you're grabbing a lot more children at one stop versus going um door to door, house

100to house. And then these are our newer fleet. Um the white fleet is what we call them. Well, minus the the mini buses. And then our we have our white fleet down there at the bottom. And you can see the significant miles already in just purchased vehicles um on the 2024 purchases. And and I can give a little bit more data as Michela and I were preparing for this yesterday. Um we thought it was crucial to kind of share with you what one student on an outsourced um route through a third party company kind of looked like before and then bringing that student back. So, um, with just one of our students that we brought back to the district last January, we have saved $7,000 monthly, um, and that overall paid a little and with

101a little extra for one of those vehicles. So, in eight months, that was $56,000 that we saved by bringing that kiddo back into our district using one of our white fleet and one of our drivers. Um, and while that's an extreme example, um, for the cost per trip with the third party, it was $295. So, you think about that to school and then from school. So, that's twice a day. And for us pairing it down, and this includes um the cost of gas and the cost of the salaries, it's $30.15 per trip. So, it's significant the amount that we're able to save. Um, and again, that's an extreme example, but the least that we pay per trip for a student on a third-party vendor is $75. So, we're still saving significant amounts of money if

102we bring those kiddos back into the district. Um, when we talk about the replacement cycle protocols, it's pretty laid out for you as a standard or just for departments as a standard. Um the typical cycle for a replacement as far as the age of the bus is concerned is about um 12 to 15 years of service on average. But our district has averaged 10 to 12 minus any extreme circumstances. Right? If it's costing us a lot of money in maintenance and things like that, the past has shown that we replace it faster sooner than um obviously the 10 to 12 years. The mileage again is a a standard across the the industry, but when you look at mileage, but then you also look at mechanical conditions, you have to take all of those things into

103consideration. So, it's not just one factor that's decided here. Um, it's all of these in in rolled up into one um one piece of decision- making in order to decide whether or not we need to retire a bus. Um, so there is some data that got left off this slide and I do apologize. What we did here is just gave a rundown of all of our buses. Um, and I do have that data here if you had questions, but it starts to uh illustrate where we are at in the replacement cycle. So if you go on the 12 years, so on the high end, we have different buses in different categories based on the slides that I showed earlier of of years and the age of buses. Um so over a a 12-year period um

104if we summarize what we have in our data we will have to replace um so by the year uh 2033 we will need to replace 28 of our transit buses and then by the year of 2034 we will need to replace uh 23 of our conventional buses and then if we just stretch out our mini buses which are the ones we just purchased. Um by 2036 we would need to replace all five of those. So that total replacement of buses from our gened our sped to our mini buses would be 56 total. What we did find out in our last training over the summer is that they are increasing the price of buses due to regulations by EPA. the EPA um is that buses are going to increase in price anywhere from 30 to $50,000

105per bus because of those standards. So, if you do the math on what it costs to buy a bus right now to replace all 56 buses, sorry, Michael, um it's going to be about $8.9 million with current pricing. But if you take those uh 56 buses that we need to replace and go on the high end, it's 50,000 per bus. It's hard to know what what it will be until it actually hits the market, but they're estimating um we just had a representative out right before break anywhere from 30 to $50,000 increase. Um so really this is just where we're at financially as a department. We're working with Michael to remain in budget always. Um but the major costs that you look at in a transportation department um are the is the fuel. Um currently

106I I worked with uh someone in the department today just to kind of get some numbers on where we're at. Last year our fuel costs combined because we use diesel and um we use unled was about $39,000. Um, and then our maintenance fell in to just about under $400,000. Um, looking at all of the cost-saving measures, those are things that that Michela and I look at um, every single day in route efficiency. Um, you want to make sure that you're not doubling back to stops. I mean, all of the nuances of a route and the logistics of a route um, and the way to optimize those. Uh we did bring back Medicaid reimbursement into our department which is a huge undertaking and a huge task but um we've been working diligently on making sure we're

107consistent with that. And then as we've talked about the reduction of the third-party usage for our outplace students, but then also the reduction of of third-party vendor for drivers, which we're definitely not in a place where we can't use those third party right now or you know saying that we would be done with that, but um we definitely need to work on that hiring and then the retention of drivers so that we can eliminate right now we're seven seven deep in contracted Um, and then we've talked a little bit already tonight about the the replacement cycle. When Director Tassen and I first came into the department, uh, we did have some purchases that were made for the department before we were able to get in there. And while it might not be what we would

108have chosen, um, we do use this these this technology every single day for many many things. whether that's route optimization, training purposes, student uh management, uh just tracking the GPS, making sure that you know just all the all the eyes are dotted and the tees are crossed. Um the communication piece we do realize that we are struggling with a little bit um in communicating to parents and communicating to the schools. So we are working diligently within the department to increase our ability to communicate via the the technology that we have with um those individuals to make sure that we are everybody's on the same page. Um, we also are working diligently to make sure that uh these technologies are communicating properly for the RFID bus pass system and protocols that we put into place is

109working efficiently and that is going to increase the safety of the students being on the bus, making sure they're getting off on the right stops. Um, and really just minimize any uh delays with children getting home or buses turned around to the school because the student is on the wrong bus. Um, so as far as the community and stakeholder engagement, um, we we are always working to increase that communication with our families, but not just our families, but the schools and and the community as well. Um, we started last year updates through a quarterly newsletter. And this year, I'd like to also in in addition to families, um, just send it out to our schools. Just not um learning all of the things that I didn't know. I feel like it's important for all of

110our staff to understand the nuances of the transportation department. So, I'd like to maybe send out either a quarterly or semester newsletter to the schools. Um and then for uh continued collaboration with our school administrators, especially in the area of behavior management. I know Dr. Dr. Duzy worked a couple of years ago to add transportation to our overall discipline matrix, which has been super helpful. We learned a lot last year about how to communicate back and forth um with all of our behavior coaches and our adviserss. And we were able to take back a portion of that piece where we are communicating solely with families on referrals that come from the bus drivers. Whereas the school is working um more on the side of a student comes in, they didn't report it to the driver,

111but they're reporting it to their teacher. So then the behavior coach or the adviser or administrator at the site level would then communicate with the families. So that has really streamlined communication and it's made it a lot more efficient and effective where before there was a question of well did we send that communication to families or did they send that communication to families. Now it's a lot more streamlined and clear. But we do want to improve on that because communication is always the hardest piece um in making sure that all of the branches of the communication uh hotline are reached and sometimes there are things that get dropped or forgotten or missed. Um and then what we'd really like to look at doing is a streamlined or a consistent uh drop off and pickup procedure.

112Um, it is crazy when you're trying to manage the pickup and drop off at 16 different locations. If it's hard for the drivers to know, oh, this is my tier one, so I've got to do it this way, but when I go to my tier three, it needs to be done this way. And it just becomes a little bit um confusing and and it that will also in streamlining that help us get out of schools faster, whether it's dropping off or picking up in the afternoon. Um, as we've discussed, there are a lot of ongoing challenges. Um, from the personnel piece of it to the communication piece. Um, just to kind of paint the picture though, we have one dispatcher that works while the while the buses are on the ground. So, um, in the

113morning we have a dispatcher that comes in and that person is responsible for managing everything that goes on in the department at that time when it comes to routes. And while yes, we we are there as supervisors or administrators, we've also been driving. So that person is left responsible to answer the phones, to make sure they're responding to all of the radio calls that the drivers are calling in about. And we have flat out told them that the responsibility is to the drivers because they're the ones that are managing our students on the buses. So if a phone call has to be um put to voicemail to make sure that we're getting a driver where they need to be or if there's an emergency on a bus, we're going to to put that phone call

114to voicemail. Now, it doesn't happen as much now that things have calmed down, but the beginning of the year, it is chaos in the very um first couple of weeks of school. So, we know that we need to improve in that area. Um and we're going to continue to train our dispatchers on the many um system of communicating, but ultimately their responsibility while the wheels are on the ground is to the drivers and to the kids on the bus. Um, we also want to continue to strengthen our recruitment pipelines. Um, we have flyers that we have out at community colleges. We have them at Westmech. We're just getting them out to some of our, um, mechanic schools around us because we are down one mechanic and have been for six, six years, I think, now.

115Um, so our three mechanics work their tails off. and and in the case of if two of them are out, our lead mechanic is there 5 to 5, which is a long day and not necessarily always safe, right, when you think about the the kind of work that they do. Um, so just making sure that we're working on that recruitment. Um, again, that communication and then the proactive fleet maintenance is definitely something that I want to delve into over the next year or two and just making sure that we're doing the best to keep our buses um, where they need to be. Um, this is just kind of a summary again of all of the things that we've talked about this evening and what we're really working on as a department along with Dr. Stone

116and Dr. Davidson. And if you guys have any questions or comments, we are happy to answer. >> Mr. Mike. >> So that's it, huh? It's an incredible amount of information and what it takes to run the transportation department. And you sit back and the bus magically arrives and then gets your kid to school. They take bring it home. But to get a chance to explain and see all the stuff that happens behind the scenes is really um really great to see. I commend you guys for living this world and doing the great job. Obviously, you know, based on the data that you're showing that you guys are continuing to strive to even improve that is is is great to see. I did I did have a a couple questions like, you know, one thing with

117the RFID cards. I was curious how how is that going overall? you should ask that question. Um I actually spent about an hour today um in a meeting with so we have several companies that are working together to make that successful and that's where it's been a struggle because you all three companies have to rely on one another behind the scenes in CSV files for it to work successfully. So it is not right now. Um and we feel like today was kind of the breakthrough of why it wasn't working. So, um, we will know first thing tomorrow morning if what they did today is the fix of what we've been trying to fix since we started this system last year. Um, it has been super frustrating and and as I was sharing with Michla today,

118uh, it's kind of egg on our face when we keep telling families and we keep telling the schools or upper admin like we promise we're getting this worked out, we're getting it worked out and then the next time we run the cards there's a flaw. So, we're hoping that their promise of today's fix is the final kind of breakthrough of, okay, we figured out in the files what's not talking appropriately. Um, but now we have to have all three, sorry, all three companies making sure that file is accurate. >> Um, another question, and I don't know if I missed it, but one of the things you said as far as ADOT approval to be a testing facility, what's what's the big piece for that? that I mean is that big advantage to be able to

119have that? >> You want to answer? >> No, I thought about the application. >> Oh. >> Um so when a driver is completed with their training um they have to go to a third party tester examiner to do their two and a half hour test and that gives them their license on the ADOT side. The problem is in the state of Arizona there's not very many um and so it takes a long time to get into um a tester or the ADOT people themselves in order to schedule the test. They have to be completed 100% with their testing um and sometimes that can take up to two weeks. Uh we do have an inn. There's another school district that we use that um they have two examiners. And so I kind of uh at a

120at a glance I I kind of say, "Okay, we're projecting these drivers to be done here. Do you have any availability?" And they say, "Yes, unfortunately they only test on the weekends." Um so that means we do have our trainers and our trainees going to do these tests on the weekends. and then if they fail, they have to wait another week, which means we're down another driver and all of the things um for another week until they can pass. So, yes, it would be a huge win for us if we could offer that in-house. Um I am a third party certified examiner, so I can do the testing. I just can't train the people, which I don't train our trainees currently anyways because I'm too busy. that um we would also be able to offer

121that to surrounding districts and just help them also get bus drivers on the road because we're not the only ones in this predicament. This is a statewide thing. It's probably a nationwide thing honestly to get bus drivers on the road. >> How far? >> Um I think the farthest we've taken um some of our traineees to test was in Stafford, Arizona, which is about three and a half, four hours away. on a bus. >> So, >> yeah. Great. And last thing that stands out, I commend with the with having the smaller buses and taking care of those Mckin Vento kids and the being able to run. I mean, from an administrator that when we had high schools and middle schools, we'd sometimes see just one kid sitting on a massive bus getting, you know, uh,

122transported somewhere else. And so to need to see that, you know, being used as well efficiently and and cutting down, of course, the use of outside vendors for, you know, for that is uh is great. So anyways, I just wanted to highlight that piece. So thank you very much, >> Mr. Owens. >> Yeah, you definitely pulled the curtain back. Um the many hats you wear are impressive. Um talking about, you know, training and all this stuff. So I did have some things that kind of stood out to me. Um like board member Mike's mentioned the idea ways to spend money to save money, right? Like um reducing costs here. Um just being more efficient with our money and then also that helps our kids safe safety and um just the consistency and reliability of our

123fleet and and that's important. I have a question about the CDL training aspect of it. When a new hireer comes on and they have no, like you said, they know how to drive their own vehicle, um, they get their CDL through us, I'm assuming that because they're an employee, when they get that CDL, we've covered the cost of that. What's the value of that? Do do we see anybody coming on getting their CDL saying, "Thanks for that. Peace out." >> Uh, never all the time. Um, so the cost is kind of shared between the district and the trainee. So, we provide the um physical that they have to go, not the physical I talked about, but they have to go to a medical doctor to be cleared um to in order to get a CDL.

124And then the employee actually covers the cost of the permit itself, which is like $35 for the class B and then the endorsements. Um and then after that, we cover the rest of the costs for the certification for their CPR. Um and then at the end they cover the cost for the third party testing. Um the turnover is pretty immense. Um I came from a so my previous job I was the administrator for the CDL program at a college down south and it is not cheap to get a CDL these days especially with the new FMCSA guidelines. And so the average cost I would say is anywhere from $4 to $8,000 depending on how they finance it or pay for it out of pocket. Um, and so when we are providing that training for them,

125granted they only have a class B, so that means they can only go out and drive a trash truck or a dump truck or a cement mixer. Those wages are quite significant compared to what you can make as a bus driver and you don't have 84 screaming kids, you know, and the the weight and responsibility that is on our bus drivers is is kind of insane. So there is a lot of that turnaround. However, I do feel like for I would say the majority of our drivers, they do love what they do and they stay. But a lot of the the information that you saw in the slides are drivers that we have trained recently like within the se within the last six months and they have left. >> Yeah, that's that's kind of what

126I was trying to get at is the idea that while it's not nefarious or it's not, you know, significant, it still happens. And so, you know, obviously if you're trying to be a bus driver and that's your goal and you come in and you commit, you get your CDL and you work for us, we you you know, we've got to return our investment. Is there a way we can tie some type of hey, you know, contract or you leave by a certain time, you've got to repay this or does that already exist? >> So, we are working with executive director Sanderfield on that right now to align very closely with um what we do for our Aspire program. So, we're hoping that we can get that um in the hands of drivers over the next

127couple of months uh to where they would have to commit to us for one to two years after getting their CDL or they would have to pay back a portion of the costs that it does that we do incur as a district to train them because we're also paying them. So, they're on as monitors and then we pay them to be trainees. So, there's a cost there where they're making money to get their CDL whereas on the other side of it they'd be paying to get it. >> Yeah. most most jobs you have to be qualified to do them before you get hired. So, we're providing that licensing. So, um that's exactly what I wanted to hear and hope that, you know, I don't think it's going to deter anybody who wants to be a

128school bus driver, but ideally it can weed out a fewer because then we're just wasting money and time and resources and then like you said, we're ready to go with the school year and they're like, I'm going to go drive a cement truck because yeah, they make a lot more money. Yeah, >> I'd have to go back and find the date, but the governing board actually has already approved uh that additional contract language. Um I can't quite remember uh when it happened, but but that has been governing board approved. So >> cool. >> Um yeah, that's it for me. Thanks, >> Miss Moran. >> Um yeah, I have some finance related questions. No surprise. So, I know a few years ago we pretty drastically increased our driver pay. Where are we at today with what

129we're paying versus our neighboring districts and primary competitors? >> So, we did a pre-ompensation study this summer because we're meeting with um Director Vaughn coming up this next week. As far as entry level, we're very competitive. we're either at or just a little below because there was a district recently um nearby us that increased from funds. I I don't know the details of it, but it did increase for entry level. Um I will say I feel like where we're lacking is in the years of experience um because it it is more lucrative for somebody who has more than the six years of experience to go to another district with that experience than it is for ours. Um but I know we're going to sit down um with Mr. serve on next week and and discuss

130that. And we do have some ideas on how to increase, but obviously that's an increase in budget, right? And and that I know is always touchy um and hard to to follow, but it's definitely something that we're looking at in our proposal next week. >> Okay, great. And then refresh my memory, at one point in time, we did have some retention bonuses um for transportation. Are we doing anything like that now? >> No. Okay. No. Uh when those were approved, they were they were always approved as a one-time kind of initiative. Um and to elaborate on the compensation study just a little bit. Um we actually are taking a different approach to the compensation study this year in the sense of in prior years we um kind of bought a canned product and I've done

131this enough times now that I know what it wasn't providing us and and and what we needed and so um one of the one of the pieces that that was just brought up is is one of those so all of those previous compens compensation studies were always um focused on that beginning pay and then there was always this built-in assumption of how much should be given for each year of experience. Um, but I do think uh as we get into uh the budget process this year, we will probably see a a bigger impact of the compensation study than we have in previous years because we've designed a compensation study now and and found someone to do it for us. And one of those things we're asking them to look at is how much do other

132districts increase um four years of experience? And so, not only will we be looking at that beginning compensation, but we also will be uh testing that assumption that's been built in of that 1% per year of experience to see how well that that keeps us um competitive. And and part of the reason we're doing that is we've been finding that it hasn't. And so um it it is something that we'll be looking at both both in the context of this conversation but as well as as other um conversations kind of across the board. So we might see a bigger change um than we have in the past. But I'm excited for it because that's data that we need. >> Yeah, exactly. I mean it could end up being an expensive prospect but we need to

133know that to have the retention that and retainment that we really want to have um not only with our drivers but any anyone who works for us. Yes. >> Yeah. When you look at the grand scheme of things, when we're paying someone in a first year at 2279 one more year or one move over on the step is 23 cents. >> Yeah, good point. Good point. Um, I also just wanted to comment on the fleet replacement, which I know is very important and is critical to the operation of the buses. And I know that you'll be working with Michael and working with our bond funds that are available and any future bonds that may need to happen between now and the 2033 uh numbers that you that you talked about. So, um, I know that

134that is all in good hands and that you'll keep the board updated on all of that. And then um my last thing is I don't know whose idea the signs in the neighborhoods were at the beginning of the school year, but I absolutely loved that. I think it was fantastic to have not only the visual in the neighborhood to say that, hey, we're Lichfield. We're Lichfield. We're still here. but also as someone who had children ride our buses and never really knew exactly where the bus stop might be. Um to see those signs and have the QR code to be able to sign up. I mean I just that was awesome. So keep doing that. I think that's amazing. And lastly, I just want to thank you uh both of you for your leadership in

135our transportation department. I've been here when it was not pretty at all and I like that it is getting prettier every year and every day. Um, and I am so excited we haven't had any cancellations. I do understand that it's been touchandgo and that we are at our wit's end at certain times and if there's anything that we can do as a board to help with that um you know keep us updated and this presentation was very informative and uh I'm glad that we had the time tonight to be able to hear about transportation because it's very important. So I appreciate your hard work, >> Miss Wallace. >> Yes, I agree. Thank you for the presentation. it. This is transportation and food service are two parts of school that we sometimes don't think about in

136education and it's so vital to kids getting to school and being nourished when they're at school. So, thank you for your roles in that. Um, you both have done amazing things with this program. The fact that we're certifying our own drivers, doing the own your own training is amazing. Um, the videos that you've created, the lack of route cancellation. I am now not my kids rode buses for five years and it was kind of always a disaster. And as soon as I moved to an open enrollment situation and no longer use the buses, you guys have fixed it all and it's all beautiful. So, um, I just appreciate everything that you have done for the families and for driving buses. And for any parents that are watching, even if it's only seven of you, please,

137please make sure that at Christmas, end of the year, randomly, you are thanking those bus drivers, giving them a card, just showing your appreciation that they do the job that they do. and it's so important. So, thank you very much. >> I don't have any questions, but this was a lot lot lot of information and as somebody that's been on this board a long time, we've seen the ups and lots of downs on the transportation side of things in this district and we know how important it is. Um, as a mom that has a kid that does special needs bus riding and now I have a student that rides the gened buses, I get to see all of that now and thank you for fixing it in time for my little one to ride the

138bus and never have a bus canceled. But um I I mean I agree. Thank you for the work that you two are doing. Best decision that this district has made was to move Miss Tassen over and to take on this job and to get this department together. I cannot thank you guys enough for what you've done to make there be no routes canceled this year. That's amazing. And kudos to you and all your team and all the time that you're putting in. I know that you guys are working hard and driving buses. So we appreciate that. While things are not perfect yet, they are on an upward trajectory. So, thank you guys again for all that you do. >> Thank you for the trust you guys gave to us to hire Miss Tassen and Miss

139Klyman. Right. I apologize I didn't wear a jean jacket. I'll get the memo next time. Uh but continue. Great things to come. And so, thank you. I'm going to have us take a two-minute break and we're going to come Is everyone back? Sorry. Okay, if everyone is back, we will get back to this and try to wrap up here quickly. We are going to move on to the next item which is uh a bunch of policy stuff which is going to be by Dr. Duzy and Miss Benjamin. >> I know this is what we've all been waiting for. So um good evening governing board president Zidama. Thank you for the opportunity um to engage in the first read of some trust policies that have updated due to recent law changes. So I'll begin with policy

1401-401 which is around the parent of legal parent and legal guardian rights and education. Um this particular policy addresses a parents right um to see the credentials of employees who provide health services. So in our case it would be um any of our nursing staff um that provide those services as well as parents can also request any information about a school employees emergency response training. So, how we respond to emergency and what training um staff have received. And now I'll turn the next policy over to Mrs. Benjamin. Good evening. I am presenting policy 5-201, which is the patriotic exercises and observance day. There the changes in this policy was around 911. Um, originally 911 was meant to go all the way down to second grade and they changed that feeling that some of the content

141was um, maybe not as appropriate for the younger students. And so this is really just talking that this is required for seventh and up and we can do it younger if the teacher so chooses, but it is not a law anymore. Um, policy 5-203 is students with disabilities. uh the law was it gave us some options. So the options were chosen by our special education department which is specifically talking about how we identify students with specific learning disabilities and also identifying that we're now required in the evaluations if a specific learning disability under reading is identified that we also have to say if it's um dyslexia that's causing that. So that has been added as well. And then we did also just add some additional language under the private placement. So private placement is a

142level D school. Uh not whitetanks. White tanks can be a level D school. But if we are changing to a private placement um we have some additional uh procedures that we've been following in Lichfield and we've just added those to make sure that it's clear in our uh trust policies. So before we proceed to the next three policies, um we'll pause for a moment and open up to any questions on the first three policies presented. Policy 1-401, which is the parent rights. Policy 5-201, which is patriotic exercises and observant days, and then policy 5-203, which is around our students with disabilities. >> Mr. Mike's >> and none for me. >> Mr. Owens, >> none for me. Thanks, >> Miss Moran. >> No questions. Miss Wallace. No questions. No questions. All right. All right. So, now

143I will begin with the first read of policy 5-401, which has to do with police interview notification. Really, it's not changing um Lichfield's practice in the past, but it definitely does um now we're following what the law says as well as our previous practice. Um, so it requires us to immediately notify parents and legal guardians or custodians if law enforcement um takes a juvenile into temporary custody after we confirm that there's not a safety risk to the student for for doing so dependent on why they want to interview the student. The second policy is policy um 5-42 which has to do about the department of child safety interviewing and taking custody of students. And again, this is um reflected in a new law that clarifies that the Department of Child Safety may be required um

144to present their official identification upon school visit um and a valid driver's license. Um school may not keep a digital copy of this or personal information. And then the last policy is 5-44, which is administration of medication. And this has to do that we now have a couple different ways to administer um epi um or epinephrine for our students that may be having an allergic reaction. Now it removes the word auto injector because there's now a nasal spray. So, so um I'll open up to any questions for the last three first reads, which is 5-41, police interview not notification, 5-42, Department of Child Safety Interview and Custody and Policy 5-404, Administration of Medication. >> Mr. Mike, >> none for me. >> Mr. Owens, >> no questions. Thank you. >> Miss Moran, >> no questions. Miss

145Wallace, >> no questions. I don't have any questions either. Thank you for listening. >> Thank you. We will be bringing these policies back to our next board meeting for your approval. >> Thank you for your time. >> Thank you. And now we are going to move on to reports. We'll start with reports from governing board members. Uh Mr. Mike, you can start. >> Uh yeah. So, uh just a couple kind of events. Uh one big event we uh I attended was September 30th was the school connect event we had at uh Australia Community College. They were kind enough to give us the facility. And that was just an opportunity for uh administrations and school administrators and the from different schools to sit down with uh various stakeholders to talk about um the vision of the

146the visions of the schools and the district and how uh we can help one another kind of take take that whole community piece together. Um, I had a chance to sit at Ranch of Santa Fe's uh table and just kind of hear you just once again you hear all the great things that are going on and you're meeting new people that are, you know, that are important members of the community or supporters of the schools and it was just a great opportunity to see that open forum happen and it was a pretty it was a pretty outstanding uh success. The the the room was full so that was uh that was great. Uh yesterday was I attended my first beam signing for um for the new for the new school and that was that was

147cool. Just a couple minutes to kind of sit back and and uh meet with some people, sign the beam that's going to be put into the school. It's going to be you know hidden so they can't see my ugly signature I guess. U but that was that was an awesome um awesome process. And the last thing is um I represent our board on on the uh Lichfield Elementary School District Educational Foundation and uh we're at just had a meeting and it's the last meeting. It's just kind of nice. you look around and you're um hearing out the hearing these community members sit around and talk talk about how can they further support the teachers, the staff, the students of this great district and constant, you know, working putting their uh putting in extra time to

148just support all the important elements of our district. So, just a shout out for for them on that. And just to you point out as well, there is a uh a fundraising pickle ball tournament that is going to be October 26th. It's at Chicken and Pickle. So, just kind of there's my little advertisement for it as well. So, that's all I have. >> Wait, where do they go to sign up, Mr. Mike's? >> Where do they go to sign up for the pickleball tournament? >> Uh, you can actually go to the school or to the uh website. It's lded foundation.org. or >> Thank you, Mr. Owens. >> Yeah, not a lot to report. Um I attended the beam signing yesterday. Uh and on my way there, I passed the new um the building site. Not

149because I went there on accident and then realized it was not there. So, um but I did and I was just so impressed by like, wow, it looks like a school that's almost I mean, like there's so much more to be done, but it's just like crazy. I haven't been there in a long time. So, um it was impressive to see just how much construction's going on and how exciting it is going to be to open that school next year. Um so, that's all I've got and then um yeah, >> Miss Moran. >> Yes. For my report tonight, I have three primary things. The first is I participated in our board study session and our board retreat which were both very productive forwardlooking opportunities for us to keep our sites in line with our strategic

150plan and vision for the future of LED79. I want to say that this board and administration are an absolute pleasure to work with. So thank you for that. I also attended part two of our districtwide safety road show. I was able to go to the third grade road show at Palm Valley Elementary and the sixth grade road show at Wigwam Creek Middle School. As you know, I am visual and evidencebased. So, I like to see these programs in action. And I will say that I was very impressed with the presentations because it broke down parts of our student handbook that students should be familiar with and should be reading but maybe they don't get to it. And so it walked the students through behaviors and consequences for example school threats, bullying, etc. and really helps

151everyone to have a shared understanding of acceptable and unacceptable behaviors. Clear is kind and I'm a big fan of making student behavior expectations clear and these safety road shows are doing just that. So, keep up the good work. I know they're doing some seventh grade ones this week and I'm not sure how many parts there is, but um parts one and two have been fantastic. The last thing I was able to attend was the beam signing. also my first beam signing and that was an opportunity to mark um the construction progress and write a message for posterity's sake on a beam that will be um hidden in in the construction. So, it's just a little nugget that we're going to know is up there. It was a nice time of reflection and celebration and I

152look forward to seeing our new campus continue to completion and host students and staff next year. So I will close with lyrics from One Republic their song future looks good. You are the future and the future looks good. Miss Wallace, >> I was also able to attend our study session and our board retreat and they were both very productive and lots of great discussion and moving forward with wonderful things for our district. Um, I intended to go to the beam signing until I had a ill child. So, I need to get over there to sign this beam. Um, but lots of great things and looking forward to starting to visit some schools in the coming weeks and we'll have much more exciting things to report on once we are back in the schools again. So,

153that's it for me. Um, I was able to attend the school connect event as well and I had no idea what we were going to be coming into, what it was going to be and it was amazing the excitement in the room when they were leaving. I think a lot of people I heard from some principles that didn't have any idea either. They were like, "We don't really know either what's happening." But when they left, they were so excited about the connections they made, the projects they came up with, the plans that they were going to make happen. And I just think it was such a great use of our time to have everybody together and to get everybody in the room and on the same page. It was just it was one of the

154best days I think that I've been able to participate in and just see all the conversations happening. Um, I also attended our study session and our board retreat. Uh, I will say that our study session was one of the best board meetings I've been to in a very long time. It made me feel so hopeful for our future and where we're headed in this district. I I'm so excited to see us being long-term thinking and planning and really being strategic in what we're doing and and knowing the why we're doing it, right? Because that's important. So, it just was I I really appreciate the time that everybody put into that and I I also liked the style of that meeting and I'm excited to see us do some more of those in the future because

155I feel like we were all able to just really dig in to get an understanding of what we're doing and why, get what the board wants, what can the district do, how can we get there. Um, our border retreat also was great opportunity for us to just kind of as a group talk about what it is that we're to we're doing and why we're doing it and what our responsibility is versus district and have everybody hear the same thing all in the same room at the same time. So, I feel like that's an important thing to do and I'm glad that we made time to do that. I also volunteered. One of the biggest things I think that we can do in this community is give back to our schools by volunteering. I say it

156all the time, schools cannot do it alone. If you have something that you want to do to help a school, go reach out. they will find ways to get you into their schools to help with whatever they're doing. I was able to help with picture day, which is my favorite day to go in because I love seeing what the kids choose to wear. It's quite a range of outfits of what they think is their best outfits, but I love it. And so, um, like I said, volunteering is super great way to get into our schools and see what's happening. That's getting you to see with your own eyes every day what we're doing. And so, please do. Lastly, I attended the beam signing yesterday, which was super fun, and I appreciated that we get to

157do that. They said that will be the last beam that goes up for that campus in the gymnasium. And so I look forward to uh when our school is complete and knowing that even though they're covering it up, we'll know that it's up there. And so that's very exciting. Thank you to the district and core and everybody putting that together for us to kind of come together and do that and celebrate the progress we're making. Um with that, that's the end of my report. Uh, thank you to all our administrators that uh, sent in reports and pictures and all of that great information. Uh, shout out to Dr. Mary because this week is National School Lunch Appreciation Week. So, uh, shout out to them and all the work that our food service department does. Uh,

158we know that if kids are hungry, they're not going to learn and you make sure they're not hungry. So, thank you to your whole team for what you do every day. Um, with that, I will entertain a motion to end this meeting. >> I move to adjurnn. >> Second. Having a motion for Mr. Owens and a second for Mr. Mike. I'll call for the vote. Mr. Mike, >> I. >> Mr. Owens, >> yay. >> Miss Moran, >> yay. >> Miss Wallace, yay. >> I'm also yay. Motion passes. Thank you.