Governing Board Regular Meeting - May 28th, 2026

001Mhm. >> Good evening and welcome to board meeting. I call this meeting to order at 5:00. A quick reminder, any citizen who wishes to speak on an agenda item must complete the sign-in sheet in the lobby prior to the public comment time on the board agenda. Tonight, we would like to excuse Dr. Strom and board member Hutchinson. They are virtual. Um Dr. Strom, can we do a sound check with you? Maybe. Check. Oh, check. We hear you. Thank you. And board member Hutchinson, can we do a sound check with you? >> I'm here. Check, check. >> Great. Thank you. All right. And just really quick, we want to congratulate the Strom family as they are celebrating the graduation of their son from MIT. So, they are doing great celebrations. So, we are happy that they

002are virtual tonight. Um this evening, the pledge of allegiance will be led by Mr. Tyler Moore, incoming chief business officer. >> Thank you. We will begin tonight with a governing a video on governing board procedures and then I'll read a statement. >> Welcome to the Mesa Public Schools Governing Board meeting. We appreciate your interest in the district. The five elected governing board members serve without compensation [music] and volunteer countless hours. The president and the clerk of the board are elected in January. Under state law, the governing board may only discuss and vote [music] on matters that are on the agenda for tonight's meeting. Agendas are posted at minimum of 24 [music] hours in advance on the Mesa Public Schools website and in the Curriculum Services Center. Copies of tonight's agenda are located in the lobby.

003At every regular meeting, the public may speak on any [music] item of business on the agenda that the board discusses or requires the board to [music] take action. During the second regular meeting of each month, the agenda will include a call to the public. This is an opportunity to speak to the governing board about a school district matter that is not on the agenda. If you wish to comment on an agenda item or [music] participate in the call to the public, please complete a request to address the board form before the designated time as public comment. The form is [music] located in the lobby. The duration of public comment and call to the public is 15 minutes. Members of the public will be given a maximum of 3 minutes to speak once recognized by the

004governing board president. [music] The president may set specific time limits for speakers and the duration to maximize the opportunity for individuals to offer their viewpoints. We ask that all speakers show respect and courtesy to others. Comments must pertain to the matter that is within [music] the jurisdiction of the governing board. This is not an appropriate form to complain about an employee, student, or others. [music] State law prohibits board members from commenting on or discussing the matters presented at the end of the call to the public. The board may ask the superintendent to review the issue or place it [music] in a future agenda. A board member may also briefly respond to criticism of a board member or the governing board. If you would [music] like the board to consider adding an item to a future

005agenda, you may submit your request in writing and the governing board president and superintendent will consider your request. Thank you for your attendance and involvement in tonight's meeting and for allowing this meeting to be conducted in a peaceful and productive manner. >> This is an official governing board meeting. The board has important business to conduct that is essential to to the operation of the district. Everyone is welcome to express ideas or concerns to the board in accordance with the agenda. The poster in the board room describes positive behaviors expected and behaviors that cannot be tolerated. Please speak and act respectfully and actively listen. Be kind. Verbal harassment, abuse of her foul language, intimidation, and disruption have no place in a classroom or the board room. Please no side conversations or reactive comments. They can be

006disruptive. It is a governing board president's responsibility to maintain proper order so that the board can conduct its business in an orderly and efficient manner. If you are disruptive or interfere with the conduct of this meeting, you'll be asked to leave so the board can conduct the business of the district. With that, Mr. Wien, I'm going to turn the time to you to go over the governing board calendar. >> President Davis, governing board audience, uh just a reminder, last week we celebrated the class of 2026. Congratulations, Mesa Public School uh graduates. Uh now we're into the summer, as most already know. June 25th, uh there'll be one governing board meeting in the summer, both in June and July. In June it'll be June 25th. A study session will take place at 3:00 p.m. followed by

007a regular meeting at 5:00 p.m. A few weeks later on July 9th um we'll begin 5:00 for our regular meeting. That concludes our calendar update. >> Thank you. I'm going to turn it right back over to you for tonight's recognitions. >> All right. My favorite part of the Governing Board meeting, no offense to everybody. Uh but this will be about recognition. Uh we're excited tonight to recognize several outstanding students and staff members for their remarkable achievements. Uh tonight we're going to ask when I call your name if you stand and just do a little wave so you can be celebrated. Uh then you may be seated. Uh we're going to be at the end of celebrations we're going to take a small quick break so you can get pictures with the Governing Board. Uh let

008me uh first I want to recognize the IB student and teacher of the year. Uh first we are proud to recognize two honorees from Summit Academy for their outstanding accomplishments through the International Baccalaureate Middle Years Program. Will Sequoia Faust from Summit Academy please stand? >> [applause] >> Sequoia has been named the Arizona IB Middle Years Program Student of the Year. Congratulations Sequoia. And Sequoia has a special treat for us. Sequoia is also nationally recognized as a xylophone player and will now give us a demonstration. >> [music] [music] [bell] [music] [applause] >> Sequoia, I know you said before that uh you hope that we enjoy. I think I can speak for everybody that that was masterful, very beautiful. Congratulations to you. >> That was amazing. Amazing. >> That was amazing. Those who are here to support

009Sequoia, I know there's some helping uh bring in the xylophone, can you please stand and let's recognize you for your support. ALL RIGHT. [applause] WE WOULD ALSO LIKE TO RECOGNIZE NELLY Orozco from Summit Academy, who has been named the MYP Teacher of the Year by the Arizona IB Schools Association. Unfortunately, Nelly is unable to be with us this evening, but we want to congratulate her on this outstanding recognition and thank her her for her dedication to Mesa Public Schools students. Everyone give her a clap for her, Nelly. Uh but there's more. AIA Division 1 and Open Boys Track and Field State Champions Championships. Next, we are excited to recognize an outstanding athletic accomplishment for Red Mountain High School. Will the Red Mountain High School Boys Track and Field team please stand? >> [applause] >> Congratulations

010to the Mountain Lions on winning both the AIA Division 1 and Open State Championships. They are the first school in the state to win both Division 1 and Open Championships and set a record for points scored in the open. Nicely done. Congratulations. >> [applause] >> We'd also like to recognize Red Mountain's individual state champions, Damien Brender. Damien, 100-meter open state champion. Congratulations, Damien. >> [applause] >> Crew Kamish, 1600-meter open and Division 1 state champion and a 3200-meter Division 1 state champion. Congrat- CONGRATULATIONS, CREW. >> [applause] >> UH CAMERON MATTHEWS, Jeremy Anderson, Cody Orlando, and Crew Kamish, the 4 by 800-meter open state champions. Congratulations. >> [applause] >> Congratulations to these outstanding athletes and to the entire Red Mountain team on an incredible season. >> [applause] >> We'd also like to recognize Al Moore, our director

011of safety and security, for an extraordinary honor from the Arizona School Resource OFFICERS ASSOCIATION. >> [applause] >> UH THE SCHOOL RESOURCE OFFICERS Association is awarding uh Mr. Moore with its Lifetime Achievement Award. Mr. Moore was originally nominated for the School Resource Advocate of the Year Award, but the association determined that his decades of leadership, innovation, and service warranted a lifetime recognition instead. In its announcement, ASROA, the association, after reviewing the outstanding nominations submitted on your behalf for the 2026 ASROA School Safety Advocate of the Year Award, it became very clear to our board that your decades of leadership, innovation, and service have had a great far greater impact than could be captured in a single year recognition. Because of this, the Arizona School Resource Officers Association would like to honor you with our Lifetime Achievement

012Award. Very special. >> [applause] >> Uh working with Mr. Moore, and I've shared this with him before. Um you know, he's more than a compliance officer. We think safety and security. He's strategic. He's innovative. He's been He's been in the forefront of school safety and security, doing what's best for our students and staff, and uh I'm very very thankful for Mr. Moore and his service to Mesa Public Schools. Congratulations, Al, and thank you for your long-standing commitment uh students to the safety and support for Mesa Public Schools. Congratulations again to all tonight's honorees. We'll now take a brief break for photos for with the board. Board members, will you please join us in the front of the dais. Mr. Snyder, will you please direct us. >> All right, we'll have Sequoia come up first. Go

013ahead and shake the board's hands. And then we'll come get a picture, and we can have the family come get a picture then, too. >> All right, ready, big smile. Three, two, one. I'm taking a picture of the family. All right, ready, three, two, one. All right, ready, big smile. Three, two, one, smile. Okay. Okay, and we'll have crew. You can come up and then we'll take one with you and then we'll take one with you and your coaches as well. And and mom. All right, big smile if you're ready. Three, two, one, smile. Okay. And then we'll have >> [laughter] >> Okay, Adrian, can you do one more photo? >> [laughter] >> All right, big smile. Three, two, one. Okay, coaches, do you want to jump in? Coaches. State champ coaches. Oh yeah, yeah,

014with the board. Um remember Benson, Topin, and Walden. Yep. Yeah, cuz they're >> [laughter] >> Okay, Crew, do you have family here that you want to take a picture with? No. Are you sure? You you want to go up? Okay. All right, and now Mr. Moore, if you can come up. All right, Al, I know you have family here. Do they want to come up? Aw. And then, I think there's a lot of other people that are here to support you tonight, too, Al, that might want to take a picture with you. >> [applause] [laughter] [applause] >> Thank you to all that were recognized and for coming tonight and Mr. Moore, thank you for all you've done for the district. We hope you know how much we appreciate you. That was that we will keep

015moving on with our meeting this evening. Um Before we begin public comment, just a quick reminder that policy 1-302 says that call to the public is limited to issues within the jurisdiction of the board and is not an appropriate forum for persons to complain about a specific employee, student, or other person. Mrs. Chaffee, do we have anyone signed up to speak? >> We have five people who have signed up to speak tonight. >> Okay. With five speakers, you will each have 3 minutes to speak and Mrs. Chaffee, will you lead us through this item. >> Absolutely. I will call up our first three speakers and then I will call the next two people so that you know you're on deck. Our first three people, you can start by lining up along the side of the

016board room. We have Haley Westra, Brian Murray, and Peyton Westra. On deck, we have Lindsey Barney and Jason Smithson. You can come right up and your time will start as soon as you start start speaking. >> Well, Sequoia, that was amazing. It's kind of hard to follow something like that um and congrats to Red Mountain Track and Field. That's amazing. My uh speech is not as entertaining, but it is necessary. Um so, good evening members of the board and thank you for your time. I'm here representing softball families to speak on an issue that directly impacts our athletes, our families, and our community every single day at Red Mountain High School. The lack of safe and accessible restroom facilities at the softball and baseball fields. What we are dealing with right now is not just

017inconvenient, it is unacceptable. At a recent tournament, I personally witnessed portable restrooms that would not lock creating situations where adult men unknowingly walked in on teenage girls. I've seen restrooms so unsanitary that parents had to clean them just to make them usable. I've watched a child with special needs unable to use the restroom at all because the facilities could not accommodate her. I've seen families, grandparents specifically, stop attending games altogether because they physically cannot access these facilities. This means families are being excluded not by choice but by design. Parents with toddlers are not able to both fit in the portable restroom creating a situation where toddlers are left to navigate the portable restroom by themselves. Females on their menstrual cycles are unable to dispose of feminine products the portable restrooms because the trash cans are

018overflowing. As a result, they are forced to carry these items outside to dispose of them in outdoor trash bins. We have had multiple players get injuries and there's nowhere for them to wash off their wounds. Multiple people have been locked inside of portable restrooms. The lights on the bathroom do not work. At a recent tournament, a grandparent using a walker could not use the portable restrooms. It's a safety hazard for elderly parents, grandparents stepping out and falling because the step coming into and out of the portable toilets is half a foot. This is happening at Red Mountain community sponsored events where admission is charged and hundreds of people attend. Beyond the human impact, there are serious accessibility concerns. The portable restrooms currently lack clear accessible pathways and proper signage. The lack of accessible restroom facilities

019in the immediate vicinity of the softball and baseball complex raises serious concerns. The access ramp or route connecting the softball and baseball complex to the adjacent parking area is not wide enough to accommodate an ADA accessible vehicle or individuals using mobility devices. The only practical route between the parking area and the fields requires travel along a path that cannot reasonably accommodate wheelchairs, mobility devices, or accessible vehicles, effectively denying accessible access for individuals with disabilities. These conditions constitute violations with the 2010 ADA standards for accessible design, including sections 206, 208, 213, 216, 402, 403, 405, and 604. I'll now turn it over to a baseball representative to address >> Good evening. My name is Brian Murray. I'm a Mesa Public Schools parent of four. Uh have I'm also a part-time employee, booster member, as well as

020an announcer, youth coach, and even an umpire. Before speaking to you tonight, I want to want you to note that we previously submitted an email to the board outlining our concerns along with photos and video documentation. I also encourage you to visit the Red Mountain campus to see the conditions for yourself first hand beyond what is captured in those materials as well. This year, we again raise our concerns regarding cleanliness and accessibility. While a handicap accessible port-a-john was added by the district, this is only a temporary measure addressing a long-standing issue and it still does not address how one with a wheelchair could even make it down to the field in the first place and traverse the uneven pathways. What you have heard tonight are not isolated incidents. These concerns have existed since the school

021opened nearly 40 years ago and continue to this day. We have had multiple incidents with young daughters, including our board president's daughters, where they've literally been walked in on while using the portable johns, restrooms, and other uh opportunities because the locks were broken. At some point, we have to say enough is enough. Over the past several years, countless parents, athletes, and community members have repeatedly raised these concerns. We've provided documentation and reflects our ongoing concerns, not just an inconvenience, but issues involving both safety, dignity, and accessibility. This facility hosts large events, as you just heard, and at this point, the district is not unaware. The district is on notice. And when a public entity is aware of accessibility barriers and doesn't take timely corrective action, it raises serious compliance concerns and potential liability under federal

022accessibility requirements. For years, booster club parents and groups have stepped in, raising funds and at times covering costs for those restrooms themselves or porta johns themselves. Currently, the district is spending tens of thousands of dollars annually on porta john services as a temporary solution. However, what was intended to be a temporary solution has now become long-term. Tonight, we are not only here to highlight these ongoing issues but to ask for action. We are requesting a clear publicly defined timeline for the design and construction of permanent ADA compliant restroom facilities along with a formal commitment from the district to bring this complex into full compliance and applicable accessibility standards. We are ready to partner. We are ready to support fundraising efforts and we are ready to pursue pursue grant opportunities. But this cannot continue without being

023resolved by leadership, planning, and action from the district. Thank you for your time. >> Um hi, my name is Payton Westra. I recently graduated from Red Mountain and I played softball for years. And during my time at Red Mountain as an athlete who's played at softball fields for 4 years, I've seen firsthand many issues with the portable restrooms. I personally have been walked in on while using the restroom numerous times as the locks are always broken. I had a teammate who actually got locked in the bathroom and thankfully there was a parent there to let her out. There's nowhere to change in our uniforms. So, I was changing in my car for the first couple years but we were recently told not to change in our vehicles. So, now most girls have to change in

024the basketball bathrooms and walk all their equipment which is very very far walk. It's about a quarter of a mile. They have to walk all their equipment down to the fields. And there have been numerous times I've walked in the portable restrooms and there's feces everywhere. The restrooms only get cleaned once or twice a week, if that. And there are so many times during the week there is no running water or they're overflowing with waste and the toilets are clogged. Also, during our practices, we can constantly smell the port-a-potties even from the grass in the outfield. Um my grandpa stopped coming to games my senior year uh because he wasn't able to access uh the restrooms. And so, he had an accident one time and ever since then he no longer came to games. I

025have been injured, I have been cut, injured multiple times and there's no running water, so the only way uh to resolve that is to call the athletic trainer uh to get that taken care of. And at night games, the lights on the bathrooms are always broken and you can't tell if someone is actually in the bathroom or not. Thank you. >> Next, we'll hear from Lindsay Barney followed by Jason Smithson. >> Hi, my name is Dr. Lindsay Barney. I'm a licensed professional counselor and hold a doctorate in trauma-informed educational practices. I've been a school-based mental health professional in the Mesa Public School District for over 5 years working at Eisenhower, Taft, and Red Mountain High School. I want to share my experience and perspective as a professional working personally with the students and families in

026our district who have needed mental health support. In 2021, while working with teenagers in private practice, I started to notice a big increase in anxiety, trauma, suicide ideation. I approached our principal, Mr. Casey Eagleburger, at my students' high school, Red Mountain High School, of concerns I had seen and the need for addressing some of this within the school system. He explored the option of using ESSER funding during that time for COVID to see if a mental health professional could be something that was approved. Red Mountain High School was approved by the district for a 2 and 1/2 year pilot program for mental health professional to be on the campus through ESSER funding. I was hired for that school therapist role in February of '22 and in September of '22, the district intentionally cut the program

027stating they have the power to change the role of the ESSER funding and removed a licensed professional counselor from the job description changing the role to a wellness counselor for the remaining 2 years of the ESSER funding. I stayed with Mesa Public Schools until the end of the school year more as a counseling mom as I called it. Unfortunately, I was not able to provide professional mental health which requires parents as a participant with minors. At that time, I felt it was unethical for me to continue and I did have to unfortunately resign from Mesa Public Schools and leave a year of ESSER funding that was not used for that position. I learned that Red Mountain had a Southwest Behavioral Health position and the counselor the therapist was not showing up. I reached out to

028Southwest and was able to be hired as a third-party therapist to continue to service Red Mountain High School through Southwest Behavioral Health. I worked for 3 years to get that school, Red Mountain High School, up to five full days. I have four kids that have gone through our system and my heart is there. Sadly, we are leaving and we are moving out of state and I have just learned that that position will be cut down to 2 days a week if it is even filled. I share this not to point fingers, but because students are telling us what they need. They have sat I've sat with grieving grieving parents after suicide. I have sat with students who don't want to go home. I've sat with teenagers who silently carry weights that we don't know about

029until a crisis occurs. They have made it very clear what they need. Here's what I want the board to know. This is possible. Mesa Public Schools has the ability to partner with third-party mental health professionals. I know this because I helped to build it. I know this because I am it. Systems exist. The need is there. What is required is just a willingness and an advocacy to make sure that we can house professional mental health therapists on campus. I [snorts] urge this board to invest in this before we lose more children to the silence. Thank you for your time. >> Members of the board, I'm here tonight regarding multiple policies and proposed policy changes that raise serious concerns about transparency, consistency, employee rights, and public participation. First policy 4-201 regarding employee code of conduct and

030social media. As currently written, this policy is incredibly subjective and risks infringing on an employee's First Amendment rights. It gives broad discretion to the superintendent to determine what is or is not considered appropriate social media activity. For example, if an employee simply identifies themselves online as a math teacher at Emerson Elementary, they could technically be considered in violation of the policy. If a principal posts photos from a school event, that could also fall under the policy. Even you board members posting pictures from school events could potentially violate the wording as it currently exists. That is a problem. I'm also concerned about the proposed staff conflict of interest language. This policy states that exemptions for employees must be approved by both HR and Dr. Strong. Yet at the same time, the superintendent only needs approval from

031the board president to hire family members or close associates. That standard is inconsistent. The superintendent is the highest ranking employee in the district and directly oversees district leadership. If family or close personal hires are going to be permitted at all, approval should require a vote of the full governing board, not unilateral approval from a single board member. Now, regarding policy 1-302 on governing board meetings and public participation. Section 7 gives a board president unilateral authority over speaking time and total public comment time. I believe Mesa Public Schools should adopt a 3-minute per speaker policy regardless of turnout. Many people come to this podium to discuss serious issues affecting students, staff, and families. Abruptly reducing speaking time could prevent important information from being fully communicated. For many parents and employees, this may be the only opportunity

032they have to truly be heard. Just emailing the board doesn't seem to work. As those that do get canned short responses, get no replies, or receive condescending, rude emails in return. I'm also concerned about Section 12 and Section 13. Policies that broadly restrict speech under terms like reasonable or viewpoint neutral can become subjective in practice. The concern is not whether or not uh order should exist during meetings. Of course, it should, but whether vague language could eventually be used to suppress uncomfortable topics or criticism directed at district leadership. That concern is not hypothetical. Many of these policy changes appear to be a direct response to employees and 0015643. Transparency and trust are rebuilt through clarity, accountability, consistency, and openness, not by creating broader gray areas. Thank you. >> President Davis, that concludes our public comment

033for tonight. >> Thank you. We'll now review the consent agenda. All items on the consent agenda are approved with one vote with no discussion. If a board member would like to pull a consent agenda item, please do so now. Thank you, board members. Moving now into our personnel. Do I have a motion to approve the personnel request including the addendum? >> So moved. >> Do I have a second? >> I'll second it. >> Thank you. Any discussion? Seeing none, Ms. Kirby, will you please take our vote? >> [clears throat] >> With the vote of five yes, you've approved the personnel request including the addendum. With the approval of the personnel request, we have an employee to recognize in memoriam. Mr. Wing Lee, please tell us a little bit more. >> President Davis, governing board, and

034audience, uh tonight we'll recognize Mr. Aaron Rogers in memoriam. Mr. Rogers worked for Mesa Public Schools for the last 25 years, most recently teaching social studies at Kino Junior High. His dedication to his students and teaching was unmatched. He will be remembered not only for his long and faithful service, but also also for the respect, trust, and friendship he earned throughout his career. He will be missed tremendously by his colleagues, friends, family, and the Mesa Public Schools community. >> Thank you, Mr. Wing, and our thoughts are with the Rogers family at this time. We are now at the consent agenda. All items listed will be considered as a group and will be approved with one motion. If a board member would like to spotlight or comment on a consent agenda item, please do so after

035the vote. Do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda according to the recommended action for each item? >> So moved. >> Thank you. Do you have a second? >> Seconded. >> Second. >> Oh. >> I know. >> Marcy with the second. Thank you. Board member Hudson second, sorry. Uh Ms. Kirby, will you please take our vote? >> With a vote of five yes, we have approved the consent agenda items according to the recommended action for each item. Tonight our informational item is on our Azella uh reassessment scores. Dr. Glassmer, I'll turn the time over to you to get us started. I know that we have Mr. Hernandez and Ms. Michelle Hall here also. So, we'll turn it over to you. >> Thank you so much for your time. I'm going to walk us

036through our current um performance of what we have for our Azella reassessment this year. I would like to also state that I am not the expert in this assessment. Um so, I'll be conveying this information um but questions will likely we'll have to go back for FYI. Okay, in order for our students to be recognized as an English learner when they originally enroll, they fill out a home language survey. It's a simple three question test. If they are identified as English or American Sign Language as not being their primary language, they are then recommended for testing. If they do not test proficient on the placement test, they are then put into the EL program. Um and then each eligible eligible student then can reser- receive services or be withdrawn from that. And then they take

037that spring assessment. They continue to take that spring reassessment test until they score proficient. And there are a few changes this year as we go through this information. We have a very very rich linguis- linguistic community um as is probably expected. Spanish and English being our primary, but we have over 55 languages across our district. There's about There's I think there's over 90 actually listed for the ADE, but we do have a lot of primary languages out there. Lots of diversity, which is wonderful. So, our English learner population as of October 1st has increased, but stays roughly proportionally about 12% these past 2 years for our population, but it has increased over the past, well, historically speaking, rather. So, our updates. This recently the State Department did a native speaker test. So, what they were

038trying to do was figure out if ultimately the Azela test was a proper representation or the scores were appropriate for determining English language proficiency. So, as a result of that native speaker test, they actually shifted the requirements for showing proficiency. So, prior In prior years, there was 1,000 was the point that you had to hit and there were certain qualifications. You'll notice by this slide that in fact all of those scores were dropped below 1,000 now. So, the cut scores that determine proficiency were actually reduced. And this is in psychometric analysis in comparison to that native speaker test. So, they had people who were native English speakers and their scores on this same test. Across our grades, we have primarily most of our English learner students in K3. You'll see that they decrease as we

039go up in grade levels. However, we have a lot of students who come into our communities from other countries. So, we have obviously a very very rich group of students who are English learners across our grade bands. They all get to take the spring reassessment. And this year, they did amazing. Um partially due to those cut scores, so please keep in that in mind as they adjusted the cut scores, but ultimately we're going to speak today also about the supports that Mason Public Schools providing to support these students. Um but you will see that we were increasing as these programs and supports have been coming into places we've imagined them, which is going to be spoken about in a moment, but we jumped at 26% of our student population reclassified as proficient. They get monitored

040for 2 years after this as well. So, please be aware once they become proficient, we just don't forget about our students. We continue to monitor them and continue to provide supports. There are four different levels, much like the other state tests, for proficiency. So, you'll notice the green on the bottom is actually the proficiency level. So, this is across our grade levels for this year. Um so, we do have some spike spikes across some of the grade levels where we have higher levels of proficiency, which all of those students then would be considered reclassified. Now, our growth across from so, it's determined from reassessment to reassessment or placement to reassessment. So, they can go up one, two, or three levels, obviously. And so, we actually have 1.4% of our students actually went up three levels,

041which is awesome. Um please also remember that learning is sort of a roller coaster. It goes up and it goes down sometime depending upon your grade level. Um but we have 48.7% of our students increased one level and 12.1% increased two levels. So, we have some wonderful growth to celebrate there. And I am going to hand this over to Dr. Yslas, who's going to speak about our model that we have in place. >> Madam President, members of the board, um about 4 years ago, we transitioned to what we are calling an SEI itinerant model, and we had already had um some certificated teachers in place to help support mostly our schools that had smaller numbers in order to um help support meeting the required instructional minutes. Um but when the model changed a few years

042ago at the state department, there is a required amount of minutes that are required for both integrated language supports, as well as targeted, um for which our EL students need to work on the ELP standards or the English language proficiency standards. And so, 4 years ago, we proposed um a phased-in model over 3 years. This is year three of that that phased-in model, where we reduced um some of the staffing to support the increases in certificated staff that are experts in content language and building those supports. And then we created a model that would provide um more support for those schools that had larger caseloads of our EL um students, as well as provided access and collaboration to help build capacity and work in teams with our general education classroom teachers as well. Um we

043also in the past were not able to count those targeted minutes that were uh traditionally provided by some of our support staffs. They had to be um provided by certificated staff members. And so, this again helped us to not only provide better supports to our schools with the the large caseloads of EL students, but really target the needs of those students on top of their um regular English language arts standards, and then supporting that targeted integration. Um and so, we have seen, obviously, over the past few years continued increases year by year. And we are also looking at even without the change in cut scores, we're starting to dig into the data and even had they not created those changes, we're still seeing reclassification rates increasing. So, we have some evidence that our models are

044working and we're here to introduce to you two schools tonight that have seen great increases and so that they could talk about some of those strategies as I know you always are asking how we replicate what's working and so they're going to share what is working at their school. So, I'm going to introduce Mr. Gerard Hernandez who's going to talk a little bit about his success at Jefferson. >> Good evening, Madam President, members of the board, guest. My name [clears throat] is Gerard Hernandez and I'm a proud principal at Jefferson Elementary School. At Jefferson, excellence is possible, attainable, and always expected. This is Jefferson Jaguar. I'm proud to announce that our school has 37% ELD proficiency rate. So, the key systems that drove student growth are the following. During the summer time, we had a

045training called quality teaching English learners. They are focused on language and there increased teacher capacity to support language development across content areas. We also focused on reading. We prioritize literacy and reading intervention and with that, we focused on vocabulary, fluency, and writing. And of course, data is always used in making those decisions. Um we also have learning objectives and success criteria, but prior to that, our school implemented the use of language objectives in their classrooms. Students understood what our learning experiences are and expectations and success measures. And clearly daily language and content targets are in the classroom. And of course we have our wonderful teaching staff who are here tonight uh two ELD certified teachers providing targeted support uh intentional collaboration between ELD uh we have our sped teacher as well here and our uh

046regular education teachers collaborated. And of course we have to create conditions for student success. Um we made sure that there's a positive testing environment, organized testing systems and students felt prepared when they took the test. There are also instructional supports in place. Uh coaches and ELD specialists provided classroom support and feedback. There were ongoing collaboration between uh our ELD teachers uh sped um and general education teachers. And most importantly there's a collective commitment to multi uh lingual learners. There's this ownership that is built in within our system and consistent instructional practices across grade levels including tutoring. So at Jefferson um achieve that um 37% rating uh there's a big jump from uh as you can see on the graph there. Uh in in kinder we have 38% of our students achieve proficiency. First grade 36,

047second grade 41 third grade 50% fourth grade 32 fifth grade 35% and sixth grade, 17%. Our mission is to close the achievement gap and prepare all students for college and career readiness and success in the global society. Uh without the cut cut scores being reduced, uh I'm proud to say that uh 22% still of our students would have made it. So, there's a big jump, a big growth as far as our language proficiency. Thank you for the opportunity uh tonight to speak on behalf of our of our wonderful um students who are here, Jacob and Daniel, our parents, and also our our teachers. Thank you so much. >> Good evening. I'm Michelle Hall, I'm the current principal of Fields Elementary. I'm excited to share um a little bit about what we did systemically um across

048tier one to support all our learners. And so, I think there's really four big rocks that we focused on at Fields this year. The first is our master scheduling and making sure that all students had access to their core content um that was high quality and um delivered well. Uh we developed a system of professional learning communities for all of our teachers. We focused on the instructional design framework, really looking at our learning targets and our success criteria, and making sure that our instructional goals were aligned to the rigor of our standards, and that that our curriculum was aligning to our goals and our outcomes. And then finally, we uh focused on a strong instructional coaching and uh feedback. And so, my instructional leadership team focused on developing walk-through um criteria to give teachers feedback

049weekly so that they could um reflect, revise, and implement uh stronger strategies. Um and as an instructional leadership team, we calibrated together and made sure that our feedback was um effective for our teachers. Uh one of the biggest points though that I bring up is the master schedule, and I think it's really important to make sure that all our students have access to that core content. And there's a couple things that I'm going to circle, so you might have to I'll just click through. Um so one thing that you're going to see on this is a sample for second grade is that every single student has access to Hegarty, which is our phonemic awareness and our foundations our phonics um and Scholastic our reading comprehension. Um and so our ELD students are getting this with

050their um English-speaking peers. Tier one from their homeroom teacher, they're not missing out on that instruction. Um but later in the day you see that there is an ELD pullout in this nice little golden color, and we are really strategic about what is happening in the general ed classroom when their ELD peers are being pulled out. Um because we don't want our students missing core instruction, and also the ELD targeted um standards is tier one. So we want to make sure that they're strong tier one going across the board. So um our ELD students are receiving their ELP targeted instruction while their peers are receiving reading intervention from our uh certified reading specialist and um writing and grammar. And so we felt writing and grammar was a beneficial time because those are also things that

051are emphasized in that ELD model. The next thing that we really wanted to make sure we focused on was our ELD students deserve a multi-tiers of supports. And so what is their tier two reading intervention? So we strategically found time in our day to make sure that our lowest 10% of ELD students received a intervention from our certified reading specialist. And so you can see on our schedule here, while my ELD students are receiving reading lab, that lowest 10%, their peers are getting math intervention from their teacher. We haven't mastered the the whole math intervention thing. That's that's a next year. >> [laughter] >> Um and then I talked about that PLC model. So, how do we make sure that our teachers are creating professional learning communities um that they can interact and engage together

052and then also leverage this amazing instructional coach that we have on our campus. And so we built in um a a block of time 1 hour once a week where our teachers had uninterrupted time with their instructional coach to plan, reflect, develop CFAs, and work on their data together. And that has been really crucial to the development of our team. And that is a little bit about what we're doing at Field. So, thank you. >> Thank you. And thank you all for being here on your summer break, especially you students. Thanks for coming tonight and supporting. Um I Yes. We're going to start with board member Hutchinson. Um any questions? >> Yes, I do have a couple. Um in uh taking look at the um how Jefferson and Field were able to um have such

053um improved scores. Um I think I'm I'm really want to focus on strategies. Um we talk about instructional design and learning targets and success criteria, but I'm wondering about what strategies actually worked to help teachers help their support their students in actually meeting those targets and success criteria. For example, um at Jefferson, I know that Jefferson has the family literacy program. Um I would be interested in knowing how the family literacy program was a strategy in helping the proficiency rate. Um at Field, um I noticed that in the master schedule, um the kids do have art, PE, music, what we a library, what we call specials. Um and I'm glad to see that the kids still have specials and that they still were involved in their core curriculum. But my second question is, um how

054can specials support student success? So my first question is for Jefferson, how was the family literacy program a strategy that possibly helped improve literacy rate? And secondly, how can specials support student success? >> Madam President, members of the board, Dr. Stroman, guest, uh definitely family literacy helps support um our goals for language development. Uh the family is the very first basic institution in education. And um when our kids go home, um some of our parents are unable to help their kids because not because that they don't want to help, but because they themselves need some some help as far as language support. So at Jefferson, we provide those uh classes that will support them so that they can help their kids at home. And it's as simple as uh at home, they will have environmental

055prints that kids can uh learn from. They can uh learn about the different realias, uh different hands-on activities, uh different visuals. Let's say this is a the refrigerator, this is the table, this is wh- whatever uh they can get a hold of. And so, it's very important for us to make sure that our parents are equipped to help their kids. And as far as specials, it's the same thing. Um all the content areas are being utilized to help support uh our students. Student discourse is a very top priority at our school. We need to make sure that our kids are constantly talking and speaking to each other using uh vocabulary, using writing, um a- a- and be really fluent as far as their language uh development. And you know, there are a lot of different

056strategies that we can all use, different curriculum, but the most important thing, in my opinion and in my belief, is teacher efficacy. If teachers believe that their kids can do it, then they will do it. Uh we've got to set those expectations and and believe in our kids, and that's the key to the success of our students. >> Um to speak a little bit more about Fields, one thing you'll notice in our K-3 master schedule is that we have uh library available for our K-3 students twice a week. Um our librarian has room for 39 sections on her um schedule, and so we really make sure that we maximize that student-facing time in getting students exposed to literature um and vocabulary. Um and vocabulary is a very big component in our special areas. So, when

057you think about going through PE, it's not just about moving your body, it's about what is your body doing and how does that affect your cardiovascular system, right? And so we're using that academic vocabulary with all our students and explaining it. And I've seen my PE teacher develop wonderful vocabulary lessons and start his lesson with those and use that language throughout his lesson. And so it all ties in and I think that is something that as we continue our PLC's, we can focus on for for all content areas. Our focus at Field this year was really making sure that our home room core content was using that instructional design framework so that we could meet the rigor of the standards and improve our instructional practices that way. >> Thank you, Board Member Vincent. >> Thank

058you both for being here and I just want to commend the hard work. This These are really impressive results. Dr. Glassmeyer, is my understanding on the change in the cut scores that was based on um a English speaker, how they would have performed on the Azella. >> Correct. >> Okay, and that's that's why cut scores were adjusted. >> Yes, psychometrically they looked at the results from the native speaker test which were English speakers taking the Azella test and they made adjustments. They also made adjustments not just to the cut scores, but they also made them to What's the three-letter acronym? So there are standards. >> ELP, there we go. >> Perfect. >> Um the standards that actually go with the pieces of how those are actually judged. So they actually changed some of those qualifications

059as well for those particular standards in the test as well. So there was there was a there was the new number piece, but there was also a little bit of the content piece in how they scored the test itself, too. So, they cannot be so you really can't compare across because there were changes in both areas. >> However, I heard that even without the change, I believe Mr. Hernandez, you said at Jefferson, you still would have seen a 22% increase. That's significant. >> Absolutely. >> So, regardless of So, that's very, very impressive. I and I love that you both mentioned it's setting expectations and setting them high and then providing your staff with the ability to make sure they can do that. Um at Field, your master schedule um underneath the Sorry. >> Mhm. >>

060I really think my glasses are not quite right. Um the gold when I'm looking at ELD reading lab {slash} math intervention um is the ELD Is that specifically their ELD time that they're getting and then other kids would be getting their intervention time at the same time? >> Correct. So, that ELD {slash} time is when our ELD itinerant teacher pulls her students to focus targeted instruction on those ELP standards. Um and also during that time our special ed teachers pull their students, too. So, no student is missing core instruction. >> Okay, that's perfect. That and I think that that's probably one of the most beneficial things that you can do is keeping kids in there. And then one last question, on your pink, what is SOC? >> Um so, our counselors have to do lessons

061>> Okay. >> and that's where we build them in. So, that they're again not missing core instruction, it's built into your schedule. >> I'm looking at all these different acronyms that we have in education. I'm like, "What's SOC?" And I do love the idea that we are able to shift quickly when we have a change in the number EL L students on our different campuses that we can shift our staffing. I think that's going to be super beneficial as well. One last question Dr. Eseles, why is ASL considered a cuz it's its own language? Why is that not a Do you know? Why is it not as Ella tested? Yeah. Well, it's if you if you're speaking English or ASL, it's cuz it's ASL is totally It's got its its own >> Yeah, structure and

062everything. >> Right. The SCI or sheltered English immersion model is specifically for learners of English and they just don't consider that at the state level when they're looking at this required model and the assessment that's required of those students. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. Board member Walden. >> Thank you. Thank you for being here and for presenting and congratulations to your hard work and the improvement in your schools. It's always wonderful to be here and and get these kinds of updates. It's a I think one of the best parts of being a board member. So, really all good things here that I heard tonight. Going back to the the interventionist is I I really like the work with interventionist because you know, we're trying to get more and more kids at grade level and it

063seems like that you know, we've got to spend more time on instructional minutes into the classroom. Is that what you're finding with the interventionist? Is that you're able to increase that that time? Do you think that more schools would would benefit from trying to replicate this? And adding interventionist to their campuses. >> So, are you speaking to the itinerant teacher or like my reading interventionist? >> Uh reading and math interventionist. So, um my home room teachers run their math intervention and we utilize title one funds to purchase a research-based math program um, that is not SR approved. Um, my reading interventionist is very crucial to our intervention model, um, and also using research-based strategies with that reading intervention. So, we, um, use approved materials like 95% Group, um, that are really built into the science

064of reading so that we can target those specific, um, areas to improve student reading. Um, and then that weekly data review in our PLCs is helpful for teachers to address, uh, adjust their instruction and needs during the day. >> And then are they are they both title one funded? You said one of them was that the first one. Are they >> My reading interventionist is, yes, it it's title funded. And the materials that we use for math, I utilize my title budget as well for that. >> Okay. Yeah, we we've had other schools talk about their success and and, you know, bringing those interventionists in for that small group study and it seems like I I can't say if it's correlation or causation. I'm sure Tracy can speak to that, but it does seem like

065that in intensive focus and that small group setting is really making a difference. So, thank you. I don't have any other questions. >> Thank you. >> Board member Chappie. >> Dr. Glassmire, I want to applaud you in your efforts in really making data accessible. It was really lovely during these presentations to be able to like go into the drive and look at kind of the historical data for each of your campuses and it really is spectacularly impressive, um, cuz, you know, in this presentation we could just see last year to this year, but really you can see that there's been a significant improvement in this year. Um, and I I appreciate my board members talking about kind of this access to site level data, like classroom data, but I'm curious to the principals, how has

066access to kind of historical data and those dashboards helped you or guided your efforts. >> Members of the board, um, data is constantly used in the in the classrooms. Uh, that's that's very important, whether it's perceptual data, whether it's, uh, uh, summative or formative, uh, assessment data. They're all very important because it can uh, uh, are like temperature checks, like um, the the the more the better. Um, because we need we need to know our students and what they're capable of. Um, so again, you know, data is key to to our success. >> Um, I can also speak to the fact that AASA data dropped like a week ago, um, and the first thing my instructional coach and I did was we pulled up our past data because what we are looking for is growth.

067Are we moving our cohorts of students and making it better for them every single year? Um, and so this historical data and what research and evaluation does for us as principal takes one, a huge weight off of our shoulders digging up that data, um, so that we can just do the dirty work of understanding it and making decisions for our campus. Um, and then I also think about transitioning to a new campus, the historical data that I have access to to help me make decisions for um, that campus and what it's going to look like next year has been helpful learning new situations and how to approach, um, staffing models and things like that. So, I appreciate R&E so much and to take that leverage off of me so I can make decisions that are

068informed for my team. >> Awesome, I really appreciate that and I love that your students are getting library twice a week. That makes me so, so happy. >> Thank you. I just had a quick question. When I was looking at the Jefferson by grade, you see a big spike at third grade. Do we have any reasoning any why that is? >> We have a lot of students who require a lot of language development and some of our students are coming to us like monolingual. And you know, they jump from one level to to the other. Um in third grade, my colleague here talked about ELAS A data and and those data are sometimes very deceiving because we're not seeing the growth of our our students. But if we look at our third grade data, as

069seen in third grade, they grew, but ELAS A will not technically you will not technically see that because you know, we look at those proficiency and and high proficiency scores, but the growth is tremendous. Because um third grade and not just third grade, but all grade levels, we look at the ELD standards. So, tier one is still the biggest bang for our buck. Tier two is great, tier three is great, extra support is great. But ultimately, if they're getting the language in uh tier one instruction, face a partner, talk to each other. You write this, read this. You know, if we focus on that language development, they will be successful. The more kids that we transition to proficiency level, come ELAS A testing, they they already developed that language and they are able to absorb

070everything that they're learning from from their teacher and that will translate to higher AASA test scores. And knock on wood, you know, we're hoping that, you know, we're going to get an A this year based on again, you know, the data that we're seeing. And it's a huge celebration for Jefferson school. >> Great. Thank you. Again, thank you for being here tonight all those that have come to support and to present. We appreciate it. We appreciate the information. I think it's always I think as a board we love hearing what's working on our campuses across the district. So thank you for taking your time to come share this tonight and we will continue moving on. So thank you so much. >> President President Davis. >> Yes. >> Yeah, I just really quickly wanted to thank

071the principals for uh showing up this evening and presenting. Uh we're about to disaggregate for the governing board double AASA scores and we we likely are going to have some really good news on the double AASA front as well in terms of proficiency. Uh and I I just want to help our community continue to realize that no matter what age we're living in kids being literate kids knowing how to read, kids knowing how to write, and kids being numerate is really important. It's the first steps of all learning. You can't learn anything else without those foundational skills. And so for these students in the ELL arena uh that are just learning English, we know the first step is to help them learn learn the English language so that they can then get into academic language.

072And really you should be exposing them to academic language at the exact same time they're getting their English services. That's how you get really good results. But I'm just encouraged by the results on the Azella test and just want to say thanks to our staff for putting their best foot forward. >> Thank you, Dr. Strum. With that we will move on to action items. Uh board just for a quick we have moved to the first A that was supplemental resources, down to H, our C Cat member is running behind um attending her child swim meet, so she will get here. She just requested to bump us bump her down, so if you're seeing a change, you might need to refresh your screen so that you can see our first item will be on the course

073catalog revisions. I'll give you a second just to refresh and make sure it comes up correctly. They're good. The little circle. Okay. Good. >> First down. >> Course catalog, correct. Okay. Do I have a motion to approve the MPS 2026-27 high school and junior high school course catalog revisions? >> So moved. >> Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Thank you. Um we will start discussion with board member Hutchinson. Any discussion? >> Thank you uh President Davis. Um the only thing that I I say I want to say is that um we're meeting the state standards, we're meeting student interests, and um there are very few changes in the catalog both at the high school and the junior high school. So um I mean registration is enrollment, and it seems to be quite standardized

074and reflecting what our students want. Thank you. >> Thank you, board member Benson. >> No comments. It seemed it was just uh updated language compared to with added uh different delivery models for Correct. Right. And and all I noticed, so. >> Yes, member Benson, the course catalog um that you approved the governing board approved in September um is what is currently posted, and these are just minor revisions to some of the language, taking out um six high schools and just um offering schools in Mesa Public Schools, so that it's not limited to a specific number, and then one clerical um error on a title. >> Thank you, Board Member Walden. >> Um no questions. >> Board Member Chaffee. >> Just one thing that came up when I did my check-in was that part of this

075language change reflects the fact that we have two new 7-through-12 campuses in Shepherd and in the Franklin High School, so I think it's it's exciting things that we're moving forward with. >> Thank you, and I don't have any questions. So, with that, uh Ms. Crew, will you please take our vote? >> With a vote of five yes, we have approved the MPS 2026-27 High School and Junior High School Course Catalog revisions. Do I have a motion to approve the annual sole sole source approvals for 2026-27? >> So moved. >> Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Thank you. Discussion will start. Board Member Chaffee, any questions? >> I don't have any questions with with this action item. I appreciate that we're moving in a direction of kind of tightening up this list, um but

076I've appreciated the clarifications and the transparency with district as we move forward. >> Thank you, Board Member Walden. >> No I don't >> Oh, I don't have questions on this item. Thank you. Board member Bentsen. >> Um I just have a quick uh on our online assessments, is this the one that has the No, I think it's another one. Um are are these um assessments, Dr. Easles, are they for uh Fast Bridge? Are they assessments like when we do our GT testing and they're the only they are the only um provider? >> Uh so, the the assessments that you see on this contract such as Pearson, the College Board, IB, Riverside is our gifted talented test. Um yes, those are all of the the testing that we use in Mesa Public Schools and you'll see

077a later item regarding some of the other assessments as well. >> So, is the un um number the SATPSP SAT and they and is is that uh does the College Board does that include ACT testing cuz I know we do ACT testing. That's what we um that is what we keep track of for state. Right? Is that under there as well? >> So, member Bentsen, we do not um pay for the ACT testing because that's our required state assessment. Um but we do pay for Fast Bridge um products and Horizon, which do help us with predictions for what the Horizon testing will help us with predictions specifically for ACT testing um and that is the Renaissance contract. >> Okay, perfect. Thank you. >> Yep. Board member Hutchinson. >> I have nothing. Thank you, President Davis.

078>> Thank you. And no other questions. Uh Ms. Kirby, will you please take our vote? >> With the water 5 years, we have approved the annual sole source approvals for 2026-27. Do I have a motion to approve the 2026-27 contract renewals? >> So moved. >> Do I have a second? >> Seconded. >> Thank you. Board member Hutchinson, any questions? >> I'm sorry, President Davis. Was that directed to me? >> Yes, sorry. >> Okay, no no worries. Um no, I I really don't. Um we've got um ongoing needs. Um we we've secured assessments on vendor performance, pricing, um service quality, and I'm I'm satisfied with the process, and um and the renewals that have been brought forth. Thank you. >> Thank you. Board member Benson? >> Uh I just want to confirm that when we are

079we do even though it's a potential 5-year contract, we look every year to make sure that it's still uh they're providing the best um whatever the category for this is, the which is it? The best value? Is that Is that what this falls under? >> Yes, and we make sure that they're compliant with the contract as as written, um and we do that every year with the renewal. >> Okay. I just want to confirm that cuz I've had a couple of people uh reach out and ask, "Wait, this is a 5-year contract, but it's really renewable every year. It's not a >> Right. >> full 5-year contract." >> No, it's not a full. We have the potential to renew. We award the first year and then four annual renewals. >> Thank you. >> Board member

080Weldon? >> No, thank you. >> Board member Chaffee? >> No, I'm good. >> Thank you. >> Seeing no other questions, Ms. Kirby, will you please take our vote? With a vote of five yes, we've approved the 2026-27 contract renewals. Do I have a motion to approve the 2026-27 cooperative contract renewals? >> So moved. >> Do I have a second? >> Seconded. >> Thank you. Board member Chaffee, we'll start with you. Any questions? >> No questions. >> Thank you. Board member Walden? >> No. >> Thank you. Board member Benson? >> Again, just for clarity's sake, the cooperatives allow us to um be in a larger group, therefore garner a better price. >> Yes. There's cooperatives that are done that are specifically cooperative, like Mojave Educational Services, 1GPA, the state of Arizona, and then there are cooperatives

081that are part of just school districts who go together and buy just school district things. You know, so like our state contract is technology. Um but we do athletic equipment through a state from a school district cooperative. >> And the amounts that we see for 26-27 are the high It's the ceiling, correct? It's We will not go above that, but we don't We are not necessarily going to spend that. >> Right, those are not budgetary numbers. Those are contract um utilization numbers. >> Okay, thank you. >> Mhm. >> Board member Hutchinson. >> I have no questions or comments. Thank you, President Davis. >> Thank you. Seeing no other, Ms. Kerbo, please take our vote. With a vote of five years, we have approved the 2026-27 cooperative contract renewals. Do I have a motion to approve

082contract award of $750,000 to continue accessing vetted e lab vendors and maintain flex flexibility in selecting the resources and services? >> So moved. >> Do I have a second? >> I'll second it. >> Thank you. Board member Hutchinson, any questions on this item? >> No, I have no questions, President Davis. But I would make mention that the supplemental resources um make really help us to make sure that our students can achieve and and and meet the board goals that we have in proficiency. It This is all about student outcomes and making sure that each student's needs are met. So, um I would I would recommend approval. >> Thank you. Board member Benson. Um Dr. Easley, are these two of the um resources that were used in this past year that generated such or are these

083going to be brand new? >> But it's uh the two that we have on here, we're going to utilize teacher-created materials in Vista Higher Learning. Were those supplementals that were used in ELab this past year that Yes, Vista Higher Learning um we've used some of their resources and then you'll see a new one that is being brought forth later on the action item for supplemental resources. Same tool, but it will those are resources that are aligned to the ELP standards that you heard Mrs. Hall talk about um when they're pulled out for their targeted instruction. Those are the supplemental resources they use because their core resources are still the English language arts resources that we have adopted. >> Okay, well, these are ELO, right? >> These are specific to the English language proficiency standards, yes.

084>> Oh, not ELO. Okay, sorry. Thank you. >> Board member Walden. >> Uh no, I don't have questions on this one, but I for this one, but I will on the next item. Thank you. >> No questions. All right, Miss Kirby, will you please take our vote? >> With a vote of five yes, we have approved contract award of $750,000 to continue accessing vetted EL ELab vendors and maintain flexibility in selecting the resources and services. Do I have a motion to approve a contract award of $1,300,000 to continue accessing vetted assessment vendors and maintain flexibility in selecting the tools and services that best support district initiatives and student achievement goals. >> So moved. Do I have a second? >> I'll second. >> Thank you. Mr. Chaffee, we'll start with you. Any questions? >> Um I

085don't have any questions. Just uh some gratitude to our procurement and purchasing department for all the work that goes into making sure that our students have what they need and our teachers have what they need to teach our students. Uh it's a big job for a district this size and I appreciate the work. >> Thank you. Board member Walden. >> Yes, um Ms. Eastless, could you explain the consortium and how that's changed for us um this year with this item? >> Yes, Madam President, member Walden. Um we were part of a a larger safe consortium um particularly for a contract for multiple resources that had expired in February. And so our team um wanted to take over that contract and really be the the district that set the parameters for what we were looking for

086um but still be collaborative with our partner districts so that they could tag on if they were um wanting to utilize resources. Um but because our contract expired in February, we needed to have an ability to procure resources such as Renaissance um the tool that we used for our FastBridge, um our Avant testing, uh which we use for the stamp test for our students who are um looking for proficiency on their on their languages. And so um our team worked with our purchasing department in collaboration to put those parameters in place and then went out um for bid for those resources and that's the result of this contract. So it is a safe contract that other districts and partners can um can participate in, but it it was driven by our needs as as Mesa

087Public Schools. >> And I appreciate that. And then the can you explain that the dollar amounts we're not spending that amount, we could spend up to that amount though to procure the resources. >> That is correct as as Mrs. Hamilton stated on the other one. Same similar. >> Same thing, yeah. And I just want to add I appreciate that we do pay for FastBridge because there are ways that you can access it, but then you get ads and those ads may not be suitable for all ages. So, it is worth that that money to be a paid subscriber. Thank you. >> Yes, we also work with our info systems department in collaboration when we do all of these things and and our data and all of all the protections that we want to make sure

088are in place for our students. >> That's great. Thank you so much. Or no. Go ahead. >> Sorry, I was just Okay. We're following the circle, right? Uh so, Dr. Easels, our um again, this is a first-year of a possible 5-year contract. Are we consistently looking to see whether or not the information that FastBridge or um that's Renaissance, right? And Avant is uh a different uh tool. Correct? That they're ac- it's actually providing us with the um quality assessment that we need in order to actually move the target. >> Yes, with FastBridge particularly, um I will speak to in case three, we are required to have an assessment tool that is approved by the Arizona Department of Education. And so, FastBridge is one of a few of those. Um there's not a large list, so

089we have to look at um you know, again, the the needs of our district, how it aligns to our tech and the needs of our students, etc. And so, FastBridge is one of those tools that we are approved to use. Um the Avant testing, their stamp testing, I I believe there's two large testing um groups out there and and we do look at at those as we um analyze the data on how many students are receiving um their seals of biliteracy, etc. >> So, the one of our schools uh Stevenson is going to be piloting a I don't remember the exact acronym. The CKLA, is that an assessment tool? >> Um no, those are actually English language arts resources. >> Okay. All right, thank you. >> Board member Hatton-Herrera, any questions? >> No um Madam

090President um Board member Walden asked some really great questions and I we got great answers from Dr. So, those are my questions. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. By the time it gets to me, most of my questions get taken. So, there we go. Um thank you for Board members for asking great ones. Um Ms. Kirby, I believe we're ready to vote. With a vote of five yes, we have approved this contract award of $1,300,000. Sorry, Ms. Kirby. I was trying to join the meeting and then that popped up. So, my computer keeps kicking me off. Do I have a motion to approve an additional levy necessary to preserve the financial integrity of the district and ensure the district maintains sufficient cash liqu- I knew I was going to say this wrong. liquidity to

091meet current lawful obligations and continue uninterrupted educational operations. >> So, moved. >> Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Thank you. Mr. Moore, can you tell us a little bit more about this? >> Yeah, President Davis, members of the Board. Uh what we are asking the governing Board to approve is a basically reconciliation of our budget capacity to what we're collecting in cash. And so there's two statutory authorities that that allow us to ask for this. The first step would be having governing approval to bring this recommendation to the county school superintendent and then the county um uh superintendent's office will then approve this levy, but this uh we [clears throat] annually reconcile our cash to our budget capacity. So our budget capacity is set by the the formula, right? The ADM times the

092the base level amount. And then when the county board supervisors sets the tax rates, uh we then collect um property tax revenue as well as state equalization um to true up basically what we've what our budget capacity is to the cash we're receiving. Yeah. Um so when we reconcile this annually, occasionally >> [clears throat] >> uh it's pretty common to have uh instances where when the tax rates were established, uh assessed valuations have changed either via court um there's court rulings, there's court um uh changes with assessed valuations. There's also delinquent tax collections throughout the year. And so when you quantify that over Mesa Public Schools in the in the boundary of Mesa Public Schools, um we have about 4.1 million dollars in um less cash than we do budget capacity. Um and so what

093we're asking the board to approve is us to send this uh levy to the Maricopa County Superintendent's Office uh to ask the Maricopa County advisors to approve this uh levy to um bring back and true up our cash to our budget um to the tune of 4.1 million dollars. I want to be clear, this is not a uh something Mesa Public Schools has done wrong. It's just a annual process in which collections of property tax revenue are lower than our budget capacity. And so, if we don't levy for this, this could cause us issues because while we do have the budget capacity, we may not have the cash to make payroll, to pay our vendors, and meet current other obligations that we have. So, this is important to ensure that we have the cash available

094to support the budget capacity that we have. So, I'll be happy to take any questions. >> Thank you, Mr. Moore. Board member Hutchinson, any questions? >> Um Mis- Mr. Moore, um I I I'm understand, I think, um the idea of annually reconciling um our tax situation, and um due to rulings, and as you said, changes in tax collections, um and that this is kind of an an adjustment where we where we really do find our our true um assessment. Um in the information that we got, um it said that the levy tax rate could actually go down. Could you explain how that could be possible with what we're asking the Board of Supervisors to do? >> Yes, so I what um I think what we're referring to is the total tax rate could go down

095next year. So, what even asking for [clears throat] an additional levy to true up the cash balance Um even asking for a cash levy to true up our cash balance, looking at our total tax rate for next year, um we anticipate that continuing to go down as assessed valuations go up, um and and that uh brings our total tax rate down for what is required to um bring in enough cash to meet our budget um formula. So I think Dr. Schrum may want to say a few things. >> Okay. Okay. I think I understand now in in that this this request will not um significantly impact the tax rate which we expect will go down. Is that a better way to say it? >> I think Dr. Schrum wants to say a >> Oh, okay.

096Okay. That's >> Remember Remember Hutchinson, you're absolutely correct. That is correct. And and I will tell you that during my four years here in Mesa Public Schools, we've we've known about this cash shortage. I want the public to hear this. This is not cash that's gone missing. This is cash that was never collected in taxes. Typically, most of this is because of tax delinquencies. And you actually strategically wait for bonds to be paid off so that tax rate is trending downwards to get your cash shored up. This is the exact right time to do it in Mesa Public Schools cuz the overall tax rate is going down and will even with this levy still be going down. And as a result, it's a time to shore up our cash. And you usually don't do this

097every year. You monitor it every year and then maybe once every five years you you come back and say, "Hey, we're short cash because of delinquencies and we got to get that cash back." By the way, if we're over in cash then that's a whole 'nother problem that you got to shore up in other ways. If we collect too much tax, then that's a whole 'nother problem that they're working through at the state legislature at this point in time as well. So, that you are correct in your statement that the tax rate overall is going down this next year. And it's all because the board conservatively pays off bonds in 10 years. So, we pay less interest on bonds because we pay bonds off quicker than any school district in the state of Arizona. >>

098Can I just add two things? This is This would be a one-time tax implication and we've quantified it based on current assessed valuations, it would be approximately 10 cents per $100,000 of assessed valuation. Uh and that would be a one-time um tax for the fiscal year '27. We would collect the cash and we would then be through. >> Thank you. See if anyone else from from afar was going to to talk. Okay, board member Vincent, any questions? >> So, by a one-time tax levy, Mr. Moore, um can you define that for us? Is it a uh it it's going to be added just for uh the assessed value of 2027? Is that what you mean by one-time? >> Yeah. Yeah, it'd be a one-time tax in fiscal year 2027. And I believe this would be

099a separate line item. So, if you see if you if you get your tax bill, um you would actually see this as a separate line item. And it it be We quantified it at 10 cents at current assessed valuation. It'll probably be less than that because assessed valuations go up every year. >> So, can you uh share with how how um does a non-payment of property tax impact cuz that's what I'm hearing uh the biggest issue is. It's not necessarily with the tax rate that has been set, but that people um have not paid their property tax. So, how frequent does that impact um and I know we don't have a crystal ball, but do we see and I know I just heard Dr. Schramm say we don't do this every year, but like how

100frequently does uh the non-payment of property tax impact our cash stance? >> Yeah, so I looked at some history for Mesa Public Schools and on an annual basis it can be anywhere from $600,000 to $1.2 million in delinquent taxes in a in a full year. So, as Dr. Strom alluded to, you know, that number we typically wait a couple years to come back to do a one-time catch-up. We could do a reconciliation every year and bring forth the, you know, small adjustments, but um right now the current practice is to bring forth, you know, wait a few years, do one reconciliation in tax cuz that number fluctuates every year. Um and then catch up every every couple years. So, but $600,000 to $1.2 million has been the average in terms of delinquent taxes. >> And

101is that predominantly from foreclosures or from people that have paid off mortgages that then don't pay their taxes, do you know? >> So, we don't get that exactly information. We get the the general report and it shows basically a negative cash and you know, and so we reconcile that and um post that, but um that's the we don't get the information regarding why. >> Okay. Thank you. Board member Walden. >> No, I don't have any questions. It's very clear. We actually everything we do we have to pay for somebody not paying paying their share. It costs the goods and services, your utility bills, you know, bankruptcy declarations, all that stuff gets put into the cost of doing business that people that pay their bills end up paying for. Thank you. >> Board member Schapira. >>

102No questions. Thank you. >> Mr. Barr, how common is this type of levy for other districts? Is this pretty common practice? >> Yeah, I would say it varies [clears throat] from district to district. Right now, Dr. Strom alluded to on the state level there's a number of districts who have cash surplus and so the state legislature is looking at how to utilize that surplus to help fund K-12. And so, districts in that situation would be and if you were in that situation, you would set a lower tax rate in the in the preceding year to bring down the collections. But, this is very common. It's never dollar for dollar on an annual basis. And so, this is extremely common just because of the the nature of people paying taxes and then the the nature of

103homes turning over, but you know, just everything can quantify in a year. You can't predict everything. And so, it's just really common to have variances like this and and these reconciliation instances where we have to come back and either recoup or decrease our tax rate. >> Thank you. Do you know when the last time NPS did a levy? Do we have >> I believe it was 2025. I believe there was a $7 million levy. >> Okay. >> Ty- Tyler. Mr. Moore. >> Yep. >> That that 2025, I believe was the Quazi Maya ruling in the in the levy. That had nothing to do with this delinquent tax situation. There was a state level situation that occurred through arguments with the county assessor's office. And so, that's why that levy I want I want President Davis,

104if I could, I want to make it really clear to our community that it's not our goal to be in a cash surplus situation. We don't want to be in a cash surplus situation cuz that means we collected too much tax against what our budgetary capacity is. We actually, this might seem awkward, we actually want to be in a cash deficit position. And the reason we want to be in a cash deficit position like we are now is because it means that we did not over collect on taxes. The The problem with that becomes then then every 3 4 5 years, we're going to have to come back to the governing board and say, "Hey, because we ran our tax rate so tight and we did not collect too much in taxes, uh we we

105have a little bit of a deficit we need to get after from a cash perspective." So, I you know, it seems awkward and maybe counterintuitive to tell you we don't really want to ever be in a cash surplus position where we collected too much tax based on our budget capacity, but that is always our goal to run our tax rate tight so that we don't collect too much cash. >> Thank you. Board members, any other questions? I I just want to clarify, too, cuz I think you know, you brought the this up before, but it's been a while that, you know, we we set a budget, we're not levying a tax that we say this is our approved budget, our authorized budget, and the Board of Supervisors and the County Treasurer will set a tax

106rate to determine what those assessments look like, but this one is pennies. This is This is This difference here is is non It's nothing anyone's going to notice, but it is pennies, but it is a budget that we've approved and authorized that we're collecting. So, it's not a It's not even a budget increase. >> Just a point I mean, we will be bringing that proposed budget, which again, um is formulaic, but it does set the tax rate and uh we will have a tax analysis on there. Several board members have asked for some comparison on how we um trended and how we compare to other districts. So, that will be in that presentation. >> Okay, good. Thank you. Thank you. Seeing no other questions, Ms. Kirby, will you please take our vote? >> With a

107vote of five yeses, we have approved an additional levy necessary to preserve the financial integrity of the district and ensure the district maintains sufficient cash liquid- liquidity to meet current lawful obligations and continue uninterrupted educational operations. Rachel, good timing. We timed that just right. Um, do I have a motion to approve the MPS supplemental resources as listed? >> So moved. >> Do I have a second? Hope. >> I'll second. >> Wait. Got it. Cameo. All right, thank you, board members. Dr. Usiskin, I'll turn the time over to you to give us a brief overview of this process and then we'll hear from Mrs. Rachel Bostock, our CCAP chairperson. I I understand CCAP did vote to approve these materials in the March 30th meeting meeting. >> Yes, Madam President, members of the board. Um, these are

108the resources supplemental resources that um have been have been shared with our CCAP committee and they did recommend approval at March 30th and you have the attached minutes. Um, the process for these is that um we have a definition in our our pol- our procedure attached to our policy for supplemental proce- supplemental materials um for which teachers and or leaders or content specialists often on behalf of teachers or leaders will submit resources that have been used um more than one time or in one lesson um that they are finding will fill a need, whether it's for a particular group of students or a content area um that uh is is supplemental to our adopted resources. And so it goes through a vetting process that starts at the site level and then eventually um goes through

109the submission to the district and has to meet several requirements. Um so these list of resources, the ones in black are ones that you have previously approved and we are bringing for ratification and then the ones in blue um have either been submitted um during the time that those uh that first list was coming forth or anytime between then and now. Um and so I will then turn it over to Ms. Bostock who is our chairperson for our C CAP committee to talk about uh the process and the evening that we took it to vote. >> Good evening. Thanks for letting me moving me down so I could go support my kids. Um this was a long process. We we got these in November and we didn't have a meeting again until January. But so

110we I looked it over from November quite frequently. I would say most of our most of our committee did. There was a lot of questions. There was a lot of back and forth. Um I think that was the main thing that a lot of us on the committee were worried about is we don't have a full I don't have a full-time job. I'll speak for myself. I don't have a full-time job and I still couldn't get through all the resources in a way that I would feel comfortable saying that this is great, grand and wonderful. And so we had a lot of questions about that and why there was so many resources. Some of the things I did like is if there is a lot of resource, that's a teacher taking an initiative to find

111something to work for their class, something to work for their kids, something to work for one student if they need it. On the other hand for that, that's a little concerning because our understanding is say a teacher says, "I need this portion of this resource for X, Y, and Z for my kids. It's working great." But I our understanding is that whole resource is approved. And so any teacher can go in and get any piece of that resource that might not be looked at. And there was a lot of things that I didn't love in some of the other resources. The portions that a teacher liked were great, but I didn't like other parts of the resource that now everyone has access to. Um so that was something we kind of had a question on

112is is there a way to only get the portion that they were asking for approved? Um we had a lot of talk about ancillary material. A lot of talk about ancillary material and the difference between a supplemental and ancillary materials um based on a concern from a community member. Um and I think a lot of us were kind of agreed that we did think ancillary materials are important because if they can help blend learning, it's very important that we have access to that. Um a lot of us wanted that to be able to vote in sections for the resources. I wasn't at the meeting when they finally got approved, but it was motioned that they all got approved at once and there was a lot of back and forth about that. Um and not just

113at that meeting at all the meetings. None of the even if we had pulled resources to vote separately, there wasn't enough votes to not approve certain resources, but I would encourage you to maybe reach out to your um person that you've called and see what ones they didn't like cuz there's a a lot of questions about resources. Um one thing though that was pointed out that I really appreciated and I hope that we can differentiate is there are a lot of supplemental resources that are core resources, core curriculum for our for our um district, but they are used they have to be voted on every year because of procurement. So every year we have to re-up the contract. Is Am I remember Am I Okay. So at for procurement issues, there's a lot of court

114there is some core resource core curriculum on Am I Am I saying that correctly? >> Yeah, for example, the governing board earlier voted on the VISTA learning resources, which are I would cons- they're not considered core curriculum, but they are a tier one resource for the English language proficiency standards. Um their core adopted resource is whether it's Scholastic or HMH, but their ELP standards have to be specifically met with like the VISTA learning >> And they go through the traditional 60-day review process as well, correct? Or do they not have to? I know what you're talking about. >> Okay. So, we have the bundled resources that are um adopted, for example, for our 7-12 social studies and/or 9-12 adopted resources, which are a bundle. That gets confusing cuz there are adopted resources and we have

115a contract for so many years in our cycle of adoption, but because we procure those each year because they're licenses, then they go through that process. So, I believe we've we removed those at >> Did you? >> at our last CCAP meeting. >> Okay. Okay. Um >> to avoid that confusion. >> Okay, perfect. I I guess our biggest concerns was it's a long list and again we would love a way to condense that. On the other hand, it is a long list, which to me is great because teachers are trying they're trying their hardest and they're figuring any way possible to help their kids learn. So, it's kind of a double-edged sword right there, but um I will say I've really enjoyed being on CCAP. We have all It's been a long process, but we've

116all come a long way. I think we work well together and it's fun to talk about. It's good to be involved in and I'm glad that we get to do that. You guys have any questions for me? >> Well, first thank you. Thank you for rushing from a swim meet and you look great for coming from a swim meet. So, um and thank you and thank you for serving on CCAP and being the chairperson. I know that it's a lot of work and time and so just know we are grateful and we're grateful for all of our CCAP members that serve. Um I'm going to start tonight with Mrs. Chaffee. Any questions? >> Yeah, clarifying first, so our items in blue are the ones that are new right now that we're kind of approving now,

117and the other ones are ones that have been previously approved, correct? Do we have Did we have any drop off this list that maybe have been approved in the past and maybe we decided don't work anymore, or do we just keep adding every year? >> I don't think we had any drop off just yet. I'm looking at Ali in the audience, too. Um because many of them have only been in place for a year, year and a half at the most since the legislation came into play, so we're still kind of tracking that. We do anticipate that a few will fall off the next round. >> Okay. Yeah, I think that would be my guidance is out of, you know, 30 pages, we have little more than 13 new, like 13 pages worth of new

118materials, and it is a lot. I really do appreciate the work of our C-CAP, and as a board member, being able to have appointed people who serve on these committees and donate their time to our district to go through all of this is is incredible. I think for me it's balancing the autonomy and agency of our teachers, while also providing them with a framework that helps them be successful, cuz I know when I talk to teachers that it's a lot to wade through, and we've had a lot of focus on tier one instruction and backwards design, so they're spending all this time unpacking the standards, building, you know, their coursework for the year, and then they see these gaps, they decide to build it with a supplemental material. And I'd love to find a way

119to really hear from those teacher leaders on campuses and collect that information and find out, you know, what piece of this are you using, where is it filling the gap, and then how are we disseminating that information within a curriculum framework, so that we're not having to redo the work on every site and every teacher, because that should be the benefit of being part of a huge district is someone on the other side of town has already figured this out, and we've captured that data, and we're going to make sure that's communicated and then we're going to see, okay, we used it for a couple of years, maybe it didn't fill the gap in the way that we thought it was. And I, as a governing board member, I'm okay with the information like this

120is for us. I worry that there's not enough of a framework and information for our teachers to really alleviate some of that burden and allow them to really focus on meeting the needs of students. So, that's just my guidance going forward is that we kind of build that into that curriculum framework. How are we using the supplemental materials? What are we using? Is it effective? Are we replicating efforts so that we can just kind of be more efficient and more supportive of our staff and make sure we're meeting the needs of students. >> One thing we had asked for was to see what the justification sheet that the teachers see looked see that they have to turn in just to see what it looks like and see if that gives any more feedback or something

121like that, like you said, like a resource like, "Hey, this met X, Y, and Z." Like we didn't know, we were wondering the same thing. We had had those same questions. So. >> Thank you, Gordon Rowland. >> Thank you. Thank you so much for coming tonight and I want to thank the curriculum committee, too. And I I think it's wonderful that you also help serve and volunteer your time like we do to try to, you know, do what's best for the district and I appreciate the collaboration and the scrutiny on what's going on in the classroom because that's that's really important. That's where a lot of the the controversy starts that we've been seeing like across the nation. People are looking at at schools differently and we want to make sure that our community trusts

122what's happening in the classroom. I do with that have a couple questions. One is I know there was an issue about some some links. So, you get the supplemental materials, but we're not using all the supplemental materials and so we had some links sent to us and then I think maybe this is probably more directed for Mrs. Eastless. You found out in your research that those materials were not being used. Could you elaborate on that? >> Yes, at the C-CAP meeting we had a couple of no votes and then we had a couple of members who later emailed the board and emailed us about some particular articles that were found within some of these resources and we have a tool now in Mece Public Schools called LineWise and we are tracking implementation of some of

123those tools so that we can see usage, right? Is is one of those things. Why would something stay on or something stay off or come off depending on how much it's being used. If it's not being used, why are why do we have it? So we actually had some of those articles were sent to you and to us. So Mr. Sanders and info systems team helped us to go in and take a look and those actual articles and tools weren't being used by anyone in the district. The only two users were Mr. Sanders and myself so that we could dig in and take a look at those. >> So you're able to see if if a teacher clicks on a link. >> Yep. In your administrative content and your board docs you'll see our paid

124district resources. We had a question from one of our board members who asked about some of those and you'll be able to see the number of unique users and the average time that those resources are being used. We can't do those for every single ones but those paid resources for the most part we can. So >> That's really helpful. My other question with that so so not all of these new resources are driven by teaching and learning. Some of these are requested by employees, correct? >> Correct. The majority of them are submitted by the schools and or content specialists who have a particular need for their program or something like that. But yes, those we we do have on behalf of teachers, for example, there are some um uh I'm trying I'm losing the word.

125The source materials and those kinds of things that are supplemental, for example, for our social sciences curriculum um that when we meet with our department chairs, then they're looking at some of those resources. So, we submit on their behalf, but the majority are are driven by our schools. >> And and we're finding and and I met with Tracy and thank you for having that meeting with me, too, so I could get more information, but I I thought this one was interesting. I want to bring this up for my fellow board members, too, but you were saying, you know, with these resources, we're finding the teachers aren't spending a lot of time on them. You were able to see that they're on a site or a resource for like 60 seconds, that they're pulling maybe just

126an article from the resources. Is that Is that correct? >> when you look at the average daily use, it For example, if there's 700 students accessing a resource, we can see that the average time might be um like 39 seconds per day. It might mean that one of those students is accessing it those 39 seconds every day, but the rest are not. Or, you know, depending on on the math, of course, and and the average daily use. The unique users are how many times uh a single student has gone in and or teacher has gone in and utilized that resource. So, it varies, obviously, um but we can we can track that information. >> Yeah, and and that makes sense to me cuz I think we do have a variety of of classes and programs.

127Did this come up, Mrs. Bostock, in the curriculum committee, this the way our teachers are accessing these resources? Did you all talk about that? >> Um I didn't specifically remember talking about how they're accessing, just we were more questioning how how do they get What's their process to be able to get these resources, to be able to bring a resource into the fold? How do we get to test it? Those were more our questions. Yeah. >> Yeah, I guess that wouldn't really come up as part of your normal meeting, but I thought it was is good information. Um other ones, so you you had mentioned wanting to like drill down to just what's being used in the classroom, but I didn't hear that we had a resolution to that necessarily. Is there more to come

128up about that? Like how when we go to the curriculum committee to approve the supplementals, do have we found or are we looking at ways to get them more direct access so that the scope of it isn't so broad that they can drill down to what's actually being used? >> Yeah, so some of the some of the resources that you have in your admin content are really part of that data analysis where we're starting to look at how are how much time are resources being used, who are our top users of those resources because then we can go back to those school sites and exactly what member Taffy was talking about. How are teachers how are you using these? Are have you found them to be beneficial? What data are you collecting that you know

129that it's effective? And we would have to do some teacher focus groups around that that is part of that analysis that we've started and I would imagine we would be bringing to CCAP as we continue as we look at you know they've asked for the rationale and so we've added that information so that that's clear and it also helps other teachers to see well what is this tool being used for? Is it something that I need? But we would certainly look to continue that conversation with our schools as we're looking at which ones do we need to keep on, which one should drop off, how is it being used? Is it is it filling a a need for a certain sub subgroup of students, etc. >> Yeah, and I really did appreciate your your comments.

130I I concur with your comments as well, but does does that help the curriculum committee? Mrs. Bostock is chair of that committee. Does that sound like a good >> Yeah, it does. I mean I think I think narrowing it down I think what we were concerned about is again, there's a lot of resources where a specific section is awesome. And then you get deeper in the weeds and something completely different that has nothing to do for what it was intended for and that's where it gets tricky because now it's approved and so any teacher can get on and pull anything they want. And because it's approved, they don't necessarily have to turn in all the stuff anymore. And so that's where it that's for us a lot of this. I'm not going to say everyone,

131but for a lot that was the main concern is like how can we narrow it down so that they only can have use for it for the specific thing that it was asked for or they have to go through the same process to get the rest of it available. >> I see. Yeah, no, that that that makes sense. And that's what's hard with some of these vendors because they're providing materials for 50 states. They have 50 different states of state standards. >> Yes. >> So but I I think some of our safeguards for that too is we have our like we have our state standards of what's supposed to be taught. >> Yes. >> of course we have our our professional uh conduct and different contracts that are in place to to make sure that

132things are >> being >> taught that are supposed to be taught. But I also appreciate that concern cuz there's you know there's been some wonky examples that we'll hear about, not necessarily Mesa Public Schools, but education's been such a hot topic. So every day there's always something in the news going on with education whether it's our state or not. >> Yes. >> And then so those concerns are always are always present. So I think I think we have some safeguards, but definitely um finding additional safeguards or additional ways that we're making things more explicit about what's actually approved is is is you know probably helpful too. >> Mhm. >> Thank you. And thank thanks Mrs. Eastlick for your time too with the meeting. No more questions. >> Thank you. Board member Vincent. >> Thank you,

133Mrs. Bostock, for heading up this committee. And yeah, the list of supplementals are it's crazy. And thank you, member Chaffee, for asking the question, "Do they ever drop off?" Or is this a never-ending list of resources? So, can you and this is probably going to be directed towards Dr. Eastless, what does Teaching and Learning use to evaluate the credibility or quality of the resource that has been >> Yeah, so in our procedure, when a teacher or a leader or school, etc., wants to bring forth a resource, in our procedures that are attached to our policy, there is a whole criteria that they go through. So, they have to identify first and foremost, is this a tool that is filling a need? And then they go through. There has to be some evidence-based. So, for example,

134we use things like the SO ratings. We use evidence from um EdReports, usability. Sometimes the the Arizona Department of Education has lists of resources, the What Works Clearinghouse. They go through a variety of tools to vet the resources. And especially if they're using, as you heard Mrs. Hall earlier, uses her Title I funds, they have to have a certain level of the SO ratings to even be purchased with federal funds. So, there's a there's a huge criteria that process that they go through as they're vetting these resources. And then those come to Teaching and Learning, and we just again ensure that they've got that those ratings behind them. They align to the state standards first and foremost, and that they're not just you know, a fun thing that that teachers are looking at. We have

135a obligation to teach the state standards at our grade levels and within our courses. So, that's the very first criteria. >> So, they you mentioned EdReports. Does that evaluate quality of the resource or just usability? Like >> have several factors of which usability is is one of their things. Teachers go through and they have reports and criteria that they use for EdReports for a variety of different content areas and and things like that. The SR ratings are those federal ratings based on the type of research that's been done or what phase they're in for research for those particular products. >> Okay. Great. Now, I have a I have I was the board member that wanted to know usability and cost because we with limited DDA funding um a lot of these software licenses are extremely

136expensive. Um Project Lead the Way, for example, I know that's a CTE um uh software license. Uh but when I look at the um usage I'm like, well, wait a minute. Is this I know in the the information you gave us, I believe this year we're spending about a half a million dollars on Project Lead the Way. But when I look and is this an When I'm looking at time, is that an hour and 10 minutes uh district average? Is that Sorry. >> Way? >> On the executive contact. And I and I I love I love this data because it I do want to know. I don't think our our community members have any problem paying for resources that are quality >> Mhm. >> and that are being used. And I know that was a

137question I had for you at the beginning of the year. We spend all this money uh is it actually being used? >> Correct. And you yes, so Project Lead the Way, we have 2,493 unique users for which um it's being used at um 23 sites for an hour and 10 minutes is the average for the district usage, and then you can break that down by school. Um the the purchase order that um information that was provided to you, that's the initial purchase order that was put on to procure licenses. We're still closing out books and taking a look at the final invoices, so we could have that data for you after June 30th of, you know, exactly what was spent in each of those areas, but those were the purchase orders that were put on

138based on predictions for licensing. >> Okay. Well, on another spot it said 950,000. And I think it's the max on the supplemental uh contracts. Cuz my only concern is if if we're using it and if it's doing what is uh necessary, then I believe our community would support that. >> Correct. >> However, like let's say that we're spending half a million dollars on it. That's approximately what? 100 AC units at 50 grand each? Right? Give or take. Is that right, Dr. Strong? Cuz you're the math guy. Um so that would that's my big concern. Are we using it? Is it doing what it's supposed to be doing? And are we getting results? So, the question I had after you answered my questions um was um and you mentioned it earlier, we don't know if it's

139uh they're on there for 39 seconds versus 2 hours necessarily. >> Right. We'd have to dig into every unique user to look at that, which we can do. >> Is that an easy IS thing or is it a Like is there a way to um to to put like a uh a qualifier on there? Uh if a user is spending uh I don't know, 30 minutes. Like to put a rule in there, for example. If you are using it for 30 minutes, then keep track of that versus if it's under 30. Do you know what I'm saying? Like, I don't know what Project Lead the Way specifically is used for. I know it's um I I believe it's CTE in providing instructional uh information on different topics, right? So, is there a way to say,

140"Okay, this this lesson should take 30 minutes, so if you're on there for 30 minutes, let's count it." Does that make sense? >> Yes, but I think it's really going to depend on the resource, the content area, the purpose of the tool. Um for example, you'll see some tools on here. Um Power Up, for example, is a tier two intervention for English Language Arts that we utilize at our junior highs. And so, we would expect to see certain amount of usage at those schools based on the number of students that are receiving those interventions. But another tool that perhaps an English Language Arts teacher is accessing um articles, it might you might only see 30 seconds because they've printed it out and then they're spending an hour close reading it. So, it's really difficult to

141you know, disaggregate that by content area, by tool, by grade level, etc. But we can dig in to every single, you know, unique user to see how often they're using certain resources, but um that that would not uh be a a short task. >> So, I'm more interested in what we have to pay for >> Mhm. >> versus um although I think it would be beneficial also cuz there I know there's a lot of free resources on here that um I do share the concern of once we approve uh of the access to that resource, it really is opening up that entire resource whether or not uh and and did I hear you earlier say that we can't actually keep track of um the free resource >> ones that we we can't look at. Um,

142for some reason I'm not sure why. I'd have to dig into that, but we have when we looked at some of those free ones we weren't able to see and even some of the paid ones we have to go in a different way. So, we're still gathering some of that information. Yes. >> All right. So, it can be done to I I just am again, I want to be fiscally responsible when we have so many capital needs that and we spend a lot of money every year on software. A lot. I told my husband last year we're obviously in the wrong uh, side of education. Um, so that is I I am interested in continuing to have that um, information and see if we can come up with a rule that can I I don't

143want excess work for our IS team. Uh, in the digital sphere though there's so many things that they that can be uh, figured out relatively easily uh, versus what we had to do 20 years ago. So, again I thank you for uh, all your dedication on C-CAP. I know it is a lot of work and I know that we specifically asked for you guys all to look at supplementals which was not historically what was done. So, we appreciate you stepping up. Thank you. >> Board member Hutchinson. >> Yes, thank you President Davis. Um, I I too want to thank um, the C-CAP members, the the community members, the the the teachers, the principals who um, are part of this process. I also want to thank the sites and the specialists because um, they're all a

144part of the process and I think at um, in kind of summing up what um, my fellow board members have talked about tonight um, that we we these sources are vetted after being submitted by by schools and specialists, people that are with our kids and who know the diverse needs, the diverse strengths, the diverse interests of our kids. Um and and we promise that we will serve kids by strengths and needs. So if we're going to impact student outcomes, we have to have the resources to be able to do that. Um and and I and I'm a little bit leery about um time spent with resources because some resources may be just to gather ideas for say a project. Other resources may be deep research for a project. And we may have an elite group

145of kids maybe we the people that just use one resource. So I'm I'm a little bit leery about um okay, if the resource is is popular, meaning that it's used by a lot of kids, then then we keep it and if it's not, we don't because I got to tell you I had a really interesting conversation with with some juniors at Mountain View High School the last couple of days of school. And they have had some opportunities to do some inquiry and some really important issues to them. It's classroom based, they're doing they're they're collaborating. Um it's all based on student interest and they are using vetted, credible resources that have been approved and the things that they have been able to accomplish, that they feel accomplished in the projects that they have done and

146able to come up with real-life viable solutions. I I'm I'm I'm I just see in their description of how they use resources in their research. It's It's It's the epitome of the portrait of the graduate. So, um I'm I'm I'm a little bit leery about talking about time. I'm not leery about talking about physical responsibility, but I am interested in making sure we're meeting kids with their needs, with their strengths, but with also their interests. And And so that we can propel student outcomes. So, um I guess in summary, I'm I'm I'm saying let's trust the process, which is extensive and has many perspectives, and was voted on by C-CAP with an overwhelming majority. And And let's let's make sure the resources are available. Thank you. >> Thank you, and thank you, board members, for

147questions and comments. Um this is a a lot. It's a little overwhelming. Um so, I appreciate the comments that have been made regarding that. Um I'm excited as we go into these regional learning communities that maybe this can be part of committees as they work together to try to condense what's working in those in those regions, um and kind of like board member Chaffee talked about the curriculum framework that as we go to these smaller communities that we can kind of work this in and what's working and maybe not have such an overwhelming list. Um You know, but I I echo, too, that we want to make sure we're meeting the needs of all of our students and all the interests. And so, like you said earlier, it's a double-edged sword. And so, how do

148we find that balance with all of those things? And so, I appreciate all the work that's gone into this. And going through all of these resources, and I appreciate the teachers and their their work in finding what works for their students and digging into that. And so, I appreciate that. Board members, any other questions? >> Can I just ask Dr. Useless, if Dr. Useless, when a resource is used and like Mrs. Bostock brought up, there were some articles or some links on the resources that were potentially going to approve that would be questionable. If a parent were to bring that up that to a principal or the teacher, that would be handled based on our our policies, correct? >> Yes, absolutely. The the principals and the teachers would are responsible, right, for implementing those lessons

149and and realizing the resources under our district approved policies and procedures. And so, that would be handled at the site level. >> And I assume that they know that just because and I I don't know what a one of the links was specifically, but I'm assuming that they know that if there are questionable things on there that are either one-sided or they don't meet standards that all of our teachers are informed, you can't use that. And it you are subject to >> [clears throat] >> having at least a talking to, correct? >> Yes, our teachers get training and and >> Thank you. I just want to make sure our community knows that because it is important because once we do approve a whole they have access to things that we still are training our our

150teachers to be professional and to to provide that uh, that we're known for in Mesa. So, >> Correct. >> Thank you, board members. Thank you, Dr. Isis, and thank you, Mrs. Bostock. >> You're welcome, you guys. I just needed you all to know this team is great. They We ask 100,000 questions and we want a million things of documentation and they bring people every meeting to speak with us and answer all of our questions and change one little thing that we didn't like on what they brought us last time before it comes to you guys. Like, it's a long process before it gets to you guys and and we kind of run them through the gamut. So, we really appreciate everyone like Miss Easley, Miss Hamilton, Mr. Von Von Berg. They've done so much to

151help us out and answer all our questions and it's it's refreshing to know that it is a long process before it gets to you guys, but that it's a lot of people trying their best to get to the point that we're at. So, we appreciate it. >> Have a good night. >> Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. With that, Miss Kirby, will you please take our vote? With a vote of five yeses, we've approved the MPS supplemental resources as listed. Moving in to now our policies. Um, >> [clears throat] >> let's see. Hold on, I'm out of order now. Uh, tonight we have a few policy uh, revisions for first read. This is a discussion item only. Will not be taking a vote. Uh, the first policy is 4-201 and I'm going to turn it

152to Miss King to just tell us a little bit about the revision. >> Thank you, President Davis. So, the first policy revision we're bringing to the board is to policy 4201, which is the employee code of conduct. And we're asking you to consider two revisions. And the first is to add an item to the prohibitions, which would prohibit employees from knowingly submitting a false report or complaint of discrimination, harassment, sexual harassment, or retaliation. Um And you can read the through the rest of the the policy. And this was just appeared to be an oversight on our part. Um this is already prohibited for students in the discipline matrix, and it is supported by Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, religion, and national origin, and Title IX,

153which prohibits sexual harassment. And both of those laws make it um uh something that it's punishable to submit a false knowingly submit a false report. So, we're just adding asking you to add this more as a a correction. Um And the second item we are asking you to add a new section to the policy um regarding social media accounts. And essentially this policy states that if an employee creates a social media account for a school or for the district, that that has to first be approved. Um and also that the account belongs to the district, not to the employee. And so, the district needs to have all the usernames, passwords, access information so that we can change or remove the account whenever we see fit. So, um are there any questions about these revisions? >>

154Board member Hutchinson, any questions? >> Yeah, I I have I have one for Mrs. King. Um, so the way I'm understanding the policy, um, this is that this is that an employee who establishes an account that has, um, any type of affiliation with the district and/or a school must have that account approved. Is Is that what we're saying? >> Hi board member Hutchinson, this is Jen Snyder. Yes, so for example, if there is a new say Jefferson Elementary does not have an Instagram account and they want to create an Instagram account, then this would be for them. So, this would be if they want to create at Jefferson Elementary MPS, that Instagram account, then we would have access to it and it would go through an approval process. >> Okay, thank you. So, so what

155I'm hearing you say is that if let's say, yeah, let's say like Jefferson doesn't have an Instagram account and a bunch of teachers get together and they go, "We need to have an Instagram account." So, they they create it, but they've got to do so knowing that it's going to be a district account and that it would have to be approved and that there would be certain limitations. However, we are not limiting employees right of speech on social media platforms. If they do so as an individual outside of their job responsibility, is that correct? >> Yes, that is correct. Employees' personal use of social media is addressed um in the current policy. >> Correct. Okay, thank you. I just wanted to make sure I we I was had that clear in my mind. Thank you

156very much. >> Board member Benson. >> Uh sticking with the social media, that's uh so like if I let's say I wanted to on my personal Facebook page uh add a page um from when I was a GT teacher. I would actually not want to do that, correct? I would want to have a You're saying it needs to be an entirely separate do not attach it to your own personal because then then you would have access to all of my passwords for my personal page, right? I I would have to give that to you. >> Um so there's on social media on Meta, uh which oversees social media, there's a business manager account, and we would have act if we would ask that we get access Every year we have where where the principal switch

157over and they we lose access to certain social media accounts, and so and then they have to restart a brand new account and they lose all their old followers. So this is in place to kind of help where that doesn't happen anymore. But Meta does have this it's called business manager where you can give multiple Facebook accounts the login to it or able to access Facebook and Instagram. And so that's what it would do is just to give log the login, and it wouldn't be through your personal account, though. >> But you would You would use your personal one. >> This The goal of this is to make sure that all of our school social media is attached strictly to our schools and or our district. >> and that they wouldn't if say just because

158um a principal or the teacher or whoever runs that account leaves that the account just wouldn't be deleted. And that we lose all the followers. >> Okay. Um and what about the use of school logos or um, I think that's under this as well, was it not or no? >> Yeah, we're the I mean, our logos are all copyrighted anyway, so they're not >> Okay, I thought it had it on here, but now I don't see it. Um, >> It just says all social media accounts of the that use the district's or any individual school's name, logo, or branding. So, if you're using NPS logo as your you know, picture, right? Is what I'm assuming. That needs to all Like me as a person in my personal account shouldn't be using an NPS logo as

159my >> That's correct. >> icon. But, you know what I mean? My picture. >> Yeah. >> And I assume we have a Is that your office, Jen, that make or pardon me, Mrs. Snyder, that um, tracks that like with employees? Or is it only if somebody complains or >> Yeah. I mean, we don't It's only if someone complains that we ever go on and >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Mrs. King, can I ask you questions that not about the section that are being modified if I have questions about the policy or is this just for modifications and you want me to email you questions about the other? Uh, for the employee code of conduct. >> Um, if >> I just want to make sure that we have some clarity on um, so the um, do

160we clearly define what professional boundaries are between teachers and students? And I'm really thinking about some of the um, the um, controversy that's happened in another district on the other side of town that uh, was maybe uh, either I don't maybe those things were not clearly defined and I I actually had somebody um, uh, asked me the um on one of our prohibitions it you know clearly we cannot have sexual relations with students but somebody asked me well what if they're 18 or older. Well, no I'm pretty sure of that's still not allowed but it's that it doesn't it's not clearly defined. It just says students so should we have that? >> So we do have um in policy 4202 that specifically addresses staff student boundaries. >> So it's a different it's a different all

161right okay. All right I just want to make sure and then um I've also had a couple of people ask me about dress code and our this our employee code of conduct just says professionally acceptable dress code. >> Yeah. >> Is that clearly defined across the district? Or should it be? >> I mean that is all the policy states um as I I I see Mr. Wing is wanting to jump in on [laughter] whether as chief of staff >> I will tell you I think that there's a a wide range of what is acceptable as uh professional dress uh and this has been brought to my attention from a couple of different administrators and staff members across the district that uh maybe we're we have some people wearing things that maybe they shouldn't really be

162wearing. >> So yeah I would say >> a clear definition of what is professional dress in the educational setting would be >> I mean since it's not on the agenda to discuss staff particular part of this policy if that's something the board is interested in exploring um a definition that um we will be uh as you probably recall bringing you more policies in um the fall after the legislative um session ends and so that would be a time where if that was the will of the board we could bring a definition to you. >> Perfect. Thank you. Board member Walden. >> Yeah, uh so coming from the private sector, this makes sense to me because you have to be careful about who you're representing and not anyone can just represent the district. So, uh we

163do have a lot of uh high schools that have their own accounts. Um what about clubs? Does this apply to clubs, too? Okay. >> Yes, it does. >> And even like the board president, right? Like Madam President can't represent the whole district. So, we know and I think all of us have our own social media and we post about things we voted on or things going on in the district. None of us have logos or say we represent the district. So, I do think like this is a a control, it's also a safety issue. We have seen in other districts where uh individuals like teachers post something item of clothing they're wearing, they share something from social media and then people think that's the district's opinion and it's it's not necessarily the district's opinion. So,

164I do think this this safeguard is is needed to make sure that we're staying politically and kind of like [clears throat] socially neutral about events and anything related to Mesa Public Schools that represents the district should just be related to what is going on in the district. Um so, I think it's definitely needed needed for us, but I don't see there's no censorship issue because any individual is free to have their own account and express their own views as as they see as they see fit. Um so, is there an issue if they say the name in the title? Like if there's a page that says something that says Mesa Public Schools in the official title, is that also would that also be considered like the logo and district property, too? >> [laughter] >> I

165mean are you are you talking about a a person's personal social media page where they say proud teacher um Oh. in LinkedIn >> So like school's name Is it like a individual school's name, logo, branding? So it doesn't say district name. If they did If so, somebody says, "Yeah, they say Joe Smith, Mesa Public Schools." Would that be Do we need to like tighten this up or would that be considered part of the the branding? Cuz it's the district name. >> Yeah, I I mean we don't want to make people think that they can't put in in their own social media that they they are employed here, they're that they're proud to work here. So, it's possible we might need to tighten up that first sentence. >> Okay. >> Mhm. >> Cuz I mean that

166I could see that coming up. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> I don't know. What do my board members think? Do you guys think Do you think we need to go that far as to specify like if they put Mesa Public Schools in the title? >> I don't Could you define what you mean by title? >> So, like your account you can name your account whatever you want. You don't have to put your name. You could just You know, you could You could say your name. So, it's your like your handle or like the display name of your social media account. >> Can I hop in here? Um I think mine says Mesa Public Schools Governing Board Member. >> I think it's important to remember [clears throat] that this policy applies to employees. And so, like

167private citizens can do whatever they want. And there are a whole lot of accounts out there that are like posting junior high ships. Like the kids are making the social media accounts. We're not going to be able to control them, and that's a whole 'nother conversation about like >> yeah. >> how those are handled, and that's not really under our purview. But, I think that this is such an important policy revision because in the private sector and also in education like at ASU in my work, we often have studio heads and different areas and graduate students who want to create it about their project, and we've had to say if you're doing it under this official name and you're an employee, we really need to have access to it. And really, the biggest problem is

168turnover. When people leave, or they forget the password, or something else, having someone else know that password, having access to it allows us to have continuity, and allows us to be able to just keep promoting the great things that are going on. And so, I think it's a smart policy. I think that it's I think it's well-defined where it talks about the district or the school, just kind of clarifying if you're speaking in an official capacity as an employee, we just want to have access, and we want to make sure that we can keep the great work that you're doing moving forward, and that I really appreciate Ms. Snyder's work in communications. She's an excellent lead of communications for our district, and I think we all have seen the impact that her work has done,

169and she is really an expert in the field and in doing this. And so, I feel deeply confident that she understands all the ins and outs of the social media. I feel confident that this policy covers those things, and allows us to just provide those protections that we need in this new era of social media. This is kind of a new thing that schools are having to experience, and um I think schools understanding that this is an opportunity for support, I think that that's going to go a long way in helping people realize that not only can Ms. Snyder have access to your account so she can like make sure that it continues forever, but she's also going to help support you, and she's going to make make it possible for you to tell the

170stories of your students and your staff. >> Yeah. Now, I think it's a great revision. I I totally got on board with it. I think it's good. Um we're we're kind of behind the times as far as employers go and it's definitely past time to have something like this and um Board member Chaffee brings up a really good point about people that leave with attrition and they might take that take that with them. So I'm I'm good with the language. It sounds like we don't have to be as like I'm currently thinking of a Yeah, as narrowly focused. Thank you. You're very articulate. Thank you. It's a Um as narrow to say, "Okay, Mesa Public Schools." I I think you're right. Like the you know, are you trying to act? It's obvious if you're acting

171in an official capacity and certainly we don't want to dissuade principals or teachers that you know, we're going to be proud to say, "This is my account. I'm principal at Mesa Public Schools." or might say, "You know, Principal Gilmore, Mesa Public Schools." That's not an official like district capacity. So >> Right. >> That That makes sense. >> This is These discussions are very helpful as we're trying to write these policies and it does sound like we could smooth out the language a little bit to make sure that I mean our goal is to make sure that when employees read the employee code of conduct that they are are clear what the rules are and if this isn't clear we can take another pass at it. >> Yeah, cuz the the main point of it is

172for those new accounts or for those accounts that are created for the purpose of the school or promoting the school or the program that is connected with the school or the district. >> Now Jen, will pardon me, Mrs. Snyder, will this be retroactive as well? So are we going to be asking for >> I I have been trying to ask for everyone's account since I started here 3 years ago. So I'm hoping that with this being in place that >> Okay. >> it'll be And plus having the regional communication specialist in every region will also be hopefully a huge help in that endeavor. >> Well, if you think of I don't have suggestions necessarily, but maybe it's something we can put in status if there's suggestions or board members have suggestions for it. We can

173mull that over. Our next meeting's not for a month. So, I think we have time to explore it and and put some things out there for people to think about. >> Yeah. I think just through this discussion we're getting some ideas, but if you have specific wording you'd like to see, I would be interested in hearing that. Yeah. >> Board member >> Thank you. >> You you got your speech. I know I having been on the end of trying to round up passwords and logins for team accounts thank you Jen for trying to track it down cuz we have tried. So, I appreciate it. A question was asked, "What about LinkedIn?" Cuz they do put on there Mesa Public Schools. Will that be a issue? >> Yeah, and that's where I think we might want

174to tighten up some of the language just because it does automatically connect you to Mesa Public Schools as soon as you put your employer, which that's the point of LinkedIn, right? So >> Right. Right. Okay. So, I Yeah, I think all the conversation is good. So, thank you. Thank you for that. And board members, if there's other Oh, I hear voice. >> President Davis. >> Yes. >> President Davis. >> Yes. >> Yeah, while we want to tighten up the language with LinkedIn, I also want the board to understand that, you know, this is really the district's policy to enforce with its employees. And we certainly know how certain social media accounts work. When I post that I When I get on LinkedIn and I say I work in Mesa Public Schools, it's naturally going to

175tag that logo. And so, I I don't envision us using this policy to go after a platform that naturally embeds that logo grab into their into their their platform. While we need to tighten up tighten up language, I don't I need everyone to understand that's not the purpose of this policy. This is Instagram, Facebook, and all the modalities in which we're trying to uh use a probably non-professional social media outlets for communication with families. >> Thank you, Dr. Strom. All right. Thank you, board members. And if you do have additional input, just send an email and we'll get that over. Um and I goofed on our next one. We're going to go into policy revisions 5-305. Um Ms. King, did you want to go over that one real quick with us? >> Yes. So, um

176policy 5305 is our student code of conduct. And we are asking for two revisions. Um the first revision is to um provision number 10 regarding toy guns and weapons. We um our fine arts department asked for a clarification um that toy guns um or weapons, which which we currently um prohibit, um but that we would uh make an exception for those when they're used in theatrical productions or other educational activities such as our JROTC students who come to board meetings with um with uh weapons. Uh so, to just to carve out an exception for those as long as they're maintained and stored in a specific way. So, that is the first. And then in um provision number 26 on tobacco, cigarettes, and vaping, uh during our discipline matrix um quarterly meeting, we were doing some

177cross-referencing and realized that although our discipline matrix um prohibits the distribution, um purchase, um sell, sale, transfer, or attempts to purchase, obtain, sell, or transfer tobacco, cigarettes, and vape. It was not in the policy. So, it the current policy only prohibits possession and use. So, we would like to make sure that we are prohibiting a broader range of activities involving tobacco, cigarettes, and vape. >> Thank you, Ms. King. And Board Member Hutchinson, I apologize the first time I went to you. I'm going to go back to you again since that's what's on our notes. So, any questions on this? >> Um no, I think I think it's pretty straightforward having been at a lot of theatrical productions in the in the district. I see why that's needed and clearly number 26 is needed as well.

178So, um I have no questions. Thank you. >> Thank you. Board Member Benson. >> I have no questions either. I think they're pretty self-explan- self-explanatory. I do appreciate you giving us the context of matching with the discipline matrix. Cuz it should abide by what our policy states. So, thank you for that. >> Board Member Walden. >> I don't have any questions. Thank you for your work on this. And Mrs. Smither, thank you for your work on the previous policy. I did not acknowledge that and thank you. >> Board Member Chappie. >> No questions. >> All right. Thank you. We're going to move on to our last one, a policy revision for first read for policy 1-302. Ms. King, will you give us just a little bit of background on this revision? >> Yes. So, because

179of the extensive nature of the requested revision to this specific section of policy 1302, and that is the provision that discusses public participation um board meetings. Um I thought it would be easier to just delete the entire um former portion and give you a a clean new version. So, I hope that um didn't cause any confusion as there is a lot from the um current policy that was carried over into the proposed new policy. Um So, a little bit of background, um we recently as a district did receive some feedback from the Goldwater Institute um expressing some concerns with some of the wording of our policy for um for uh public comment and um open call to the public. So, these revisions are um I hope um adjust this these provisions of our policy to

180make them more aligned with First Amendment standards regarding viewpoint neutrality. Um Certainly open to your uh this is this is just a proposal and um with love to hear the board engage in a discussion about this this newly proposed section. >> Thank you, Ms. King. Board member Chaffee. >> Yeah, I appreciate that this revised policy better aligns with I think the practice we've been doing in our board meetings and in being respectful of First Amendment rights and and opening our meetings to the public. >> Board member Walden. >> Yes, and I want to thank Dr. Strom and uh Mrs. King and then Courtney and Lacey because you Sorry. Board members, Board President, yeah, because you set the agenda and so I had actually asked that uh Madam President and Dr. Schram prioritize this item uh

181and get it done as quickly as as possible because certainly it was never the board's intention to try to uh limit speech, but I I feel like I need to add to the public or anybody that's listening that that while the First Amendment protects you from any retribution from the government, but it doesn't actually protect you from consequences with other individuals. Um and there is a current lawsuit that's ongoing for some individuals regarding speech and something said in public comments. Just want to throw that out there that that's not uh it's not a board matter, but it's just something for people to consider uh in their public comments. And there's there's actually been kind of a flurry of uh on social media with even elected officials making accusations about defamation lawsuits. And so what I've

182seen about them is that even if you're innocent, they're very timely and very expensive. And certainly nobody as an elected official uh would start a defamation lawsuit in that sense, but for individuals um the First Amendment does not protect you from your comments against other individuals and defamation is can still be defamation. That's why there's slander laws and libel laws. So I do support uh free speech and and like I said, it was never I think the board's intention to try to limit it as much as protect employees who aren't elected officials and aren't sitting on the dais. They uh don't have the same public scrutiny. And that's really I think where a lot of the original policy was was driven from and just wanted to make sure that our uh employees [clears throat] know

183that we want to uphold their their rights to privacy and the personnel rights that they have to to have their their performance in their job uh, maintain that level of of privacy. Um, I think this is is really solid language and um, I don't I don't have feedback on the language. I I I do think that Mesa does a really good job at at allowing what I call open open mic night. So, a lot of boards, not even just school boards, but other boards like in Arizona like boards of supervisors or the commission board, uh, you're you're typically only permitted to comment what's on an agenda item. Um, Mesa has a a practice where we do the open public comment where you can public on a comment on a non-agenda [clears throat] item. Uh, I

184think as it stands, I still I still support that, but I do think that it's important that uh, our board president still has that authority to maintain limits on time. What a lot of people don't realize with our meetings is that they are and Jenny Richardson used to say that say it and I didn't understand when I first started going to board meetings. She's like, "This is our meeting." But it is in that this meeting is is it's allowed to be viewed by the public, but is not a public meeting other than there's times that are set aside as a public hearing, but they're not public meetings. Open meeting law says that all of our meetings whenever there's a quorum has to be done in a setting that is viewable by the public. So, it

185doesn't even have to technically be in person, it could be virtual when there's a quorum that's not executive session. So, that time that we have here is for us to deliberate, to focus on our student outcomes, and that's really what we want to make sure that we we get through in the night. So, um I'm I'm happy with uh what's what's here and that we still have that flexibility given to the the board president. Uh there was one night in particular, [clears throat] I think we had 100 speakers one night before you you two were on the board, but uh that kind of stuff can happen and uh you know, we could end up being here at 3:00 a.m. and I can say that I think asking people to vote on things that late into

186the night is probably a really bad practice. Uh the other caveat of that is that once something's been published on the agenda to vote on, it's difficult to we can't really revise the agenda either, so the meeting still has to has to proceed. So, that's that's my two cents on it. >> Thank you. Thank you. Board Member Benson. >> Um I do appreciate your work on uh clarifying this as well, Mrs. King, and I too am a strong believer in the First Amendment and being allowed and able to speak. The one um language piece that I would like some clarity on is um as member uh Walden just mentioned, other public meetings, they allow you to speak on an agenda item. I wouldn't really call that an open call to the public. Um I would

187just I think that's public comment on an agenda item. And I think for clarity sake, it it under um uh line item three, it says the board in its discretion may provide an open call to the public. To me, that's the open mic uh piece. It's not public comment on what is on the agenda. Um so, I personally would like to see a separation of those two um so um or clarity that >> I think the second sentence in the third one in that third point kind of addresses that. That second where it says may also provide an opportunity for public comment regarding items listed on the agenda. Okay. You're Thank you. I read this late at night. After I was trying to number three, QB. Um I would like to see though So, are

188we Are we saying that the total time frame is 15 minutes for open comment? I think that's where I was Member Chappie, that's where I was headed next. Are we saying um that we're all we're going to limit it to a certain time period for all comment on or it can we have a differentiation between Okay, agenda items. >> I see where you're maybe in um number seven. >> going >> specify >> Yes. >> Okay. >> So, for open mic night, as I also like to call it, maybe that's limited to 15 minutes. But if we have especially things that we're voting on that um budget-wise and things that are of extreme importance to our community members that they're on the agenda and they've made their way here, um the ability to have uh comment

189on specific agenda items, I can totally see the limiting open our open call to the public. Uh I do also like that practice. Personally, I think that that we hear uh as board members things that we would not otherwise hear or some things that maybe get sent to one board member but don't get sent to another board member by our community. So, it is a I like the open um the open access. But uh there are other public meetings that uh in fact, I think the city of Mesa, I think if they have you know, 50 people to sign up and speak on an agenda item, they have 50 people that sign up and speak at an agenda item. I don't also want to be here at Do they not do that? >> I I

190think Board Member Walden's point, I feel comfortable that it has the part that says subject to adjustment at the Board President's discretion, and I think that there have been opportunities where we adjustments have been made based on how many speakers have signed up to speak, still allowing us to keep our business, you know, allowing us to do our business here in the meeting without If 12 people come to speak about the same topic, we're not getting you know, Well, it says >> and 30 minutes [clears throat] just on that. >> May, not shall, so it's it's just a That's the That's a guideline, but you can cuz there's other times where you've extended the public comment to take up more time depending on the the issue. >> Yes, but the time frame is generally severely

191restricted that I know that uh that's frustrating for people when they come and they have a fully developed uh like the three people from Red Mountain this or this earlier that they had a clear thing that they wanted to say in 3 minutes. So, when we break it down to Now you have 60 seconds, pardon me. I didn't mean to hit that. Um it their viewpoint is not we don't fully hear uh what they have to say. I also don't want to be here till 3:00 in the morning. That is not my point. I do think though that we uh we should be welcoming and being willing to listen to um perspectives on the items that we're going to be voting on because we represent the people that come and make comment at board meetings.

192That's who we were elected by. So, we should be willing to hear. Again, I don't want to be here till 3:00 in the morning, either. Um So, there's a balance, Uh but I do know that it's frustrating when people come and they're like I can't do anything in 90 seconds. And I do think there's a difference between commenting on agenda items and open >> Yeah, it's it's difficult because we can't comment and interact with the public comment because it's not a public hearing. So that part makes it difficult where it people have more they might want to want to say there's other settings that it can be said but because there's no ability to act on it or communicate with the individual it's it can be really like challenging to devote too much of the

193night to it because we're not going to be able to accomplish what we need to and it you know with that kind of like if we just let let things go on and on things that we can't we like we can't talk about it but I think because you two you get you know when you sign up for public comment I believe you put the topic down on what you're going to to speak on and so that's part of I think where you're scanning and looking at the list of what people are speaking on if you're seeing that they're speaking on items that are related to the agenda that's where you can use your discretion and say we're going to make sure everyone has their has full 3 minutes tonight you know is that a

194process cuz I haven't been in the leadership to look at the public comment is that what you're looking at like when you're cuz I know you have a different screen that shows you who signed up and what they've signed up for? >> Yeah, we actually decided when we got into leadership that we wanted to hear from as many people as possible as as board member Benson talked about we wanted to hear a variety of perspectives and so we but we wanted to limit the time spent to it to make sure we could still get to our meeting so we created a system whereby depending on the numbers of speakers who've signed up we will reduce the amount of time. So if you have you know five people who want to speak on the same topic,

195it might be better off to plan beforehand and just have one person give a three-minute, you know, public comment as opposed to having five people come and say the same thing, and then we might have to reduce the time. We're still going to hear about the same amount of time about on that content, but overall, we're not going to dedicate quite a large amount of our meeting, quite a large portion of our meeting just to that. So, we just kind of look whether it's, you know, one to 10 speakers or 11 to 20, 21 to 30, depending on that number. Um, if 80 people come, we're still going to be here a long time, but it will allow us to hear from a broad range of perspectives. Um, but people do sometimes have to adjust

196their comments. They might have prepared three minutes. They might have to reduce it down. I will tell you my own son came and spoke in a meeting and had to on the fly adjust his prepared comments from three minutes to a minute and a half, and, you know, he's a senior in high school. He did a great job. I think that our public is extremely capable and and able to share their comments and really get to the heart of what they need to share in that time. >> And I I know when we've had the the part of the meeting that is a public hearing part, like the budget, and there's a hearing on a budget or a levy that you do not you didn't you give them you get the full three minutes. Plus,

197if it's a public hearing, you can still speak again in the public comment, too. So, there's where I think there's a there's that difference between just public comment that we're allowing to be part of the meeting because it doesn't have to be allowed as part of the meeting, um, versus when it's a an actual public hearing, you know, like when we have our our PABDAC hearings or things where we're calling calling the public to come to an actual public meeting, and there's >> [clears throat] >> there's no time restrictions there when it's for the public. >> And I think our idea behind listing one to 10 speakers was just so everyone was aware. So, because before they would come and we would see there was 40 speakers and we would cut it right then. This

198is giving an idea. So, if you do come with a group that one of you speaks on behalf of the group. I with our hope that we could just try to um eliminate multiple like the same comment over and over. >> Um Ms. Kirby, perhaps we could adjust that to do 15 to 30 minutes cuz that's actually the window we used to be sir public comment on. That's kind of about the amount of time we want to preserve in our meeting to that. So, maybe we could just make that adjustment to be about 15 to 30 minutes. >> Okay, and I also want to um make sure that I'm clear because Mrs. Benson is correct that public comment refers to comments on agenda items and then open call to the public is um comment on

199non-agenda items. Are you wanting 15 no more than and 3 minutes per speaker would apply to public comment on agenda items and open call to the public. But, are you wanting 15 to 30 minutes total of comments regardless of whether it's public comment or open call or 15 minutes reserved for agenda items and then a separate 15 minute block reserved for open call? >> In my opinion, all together. >> Okay. >> And I think it's important that that there is a legal distinction between may versus shall. And so, even you know, if if there was a particularly contentious item like down the road a school closure is very a very different item. The board president still has that that jurisdiction to say we're going to let it be 1 hour tonight. I mean, it's just

200it's a may and that's the that's that's our guidelines, but there's always that option. I know I'm just like that sounds that sounds hard. We're just >> [laughter] >> no pressure. We hopefully will will postpone the school closures then none of us will be here for it and I'll just set someone else up for it. Um Uh so I I I think that's good to do it combined and um cuz I think it's important that we that we maintain the autonomy. We we don't want to tie your hands um because certain issues may require more sensitivity over other issues and we do get emails too and so there's other things that I mean a lot of a lot of the public comment people don't realize this. It's not a surprise like because people do reach

201out to the board and and let us know like one of them tonight the counselor that spoke like she gave us a lot of information. So she wasn't censored like let's say she didn't have her full time because she gave us all the information in in advance and I think that's something to remember too like if if you do have a longer speech that you want to you know give to the board certainly um you know you can do that here and then people are free to post their comments elsewhere too. The board is not the only uh venue or format for people to to address this or address it out outside of the board. I mean heck people can go out in the parking lot talk to the media. Like that happens all the

202time too. This is my fourth year so I'm like I'm I've been seeing it all now and there's there's a lot of options um that people have taken advantage of to um get their voices heard and get their voices out there besides just the public comment portion but I do think it's important that we have firm rules to maintain decorum and order in in our meetings and certainly we've all seen the social media footage of meetings gone awry. >> [clears throat] >> Agreed. Board member Benson did you have any other input? >> Um I don't think so at this point. I I would actually like the two separated out, but I'm one voice on a because I do think they're two distinctly different pieces of comment. And we can actually we can't engage uh back

203and forth, but when we are listening to uh items that are specifically on the agenda, um and I will tell you I I preferred it when it was actually at the agenda time. >> [laughter] >> It just for my Okay. All right. Keeping it focused in for me. So, for we can't engage, however, we can hear and that should help to guide our decision-making process. Um I do totally agree. People can email us, they can call. I think the the challenge with emailing is that if they're emailing us regarding a specific agenda item that they want us to take a or know a perspective and we've not checked our email before the meeting that is is an issue. So, being able to be here and um I do think we're capable of adjusting. Um now,

204I think your son comes from a communication family, so that's maybe a little He's got a little bit of a leg up there uh as I think Jen Sny- Mrs. Snyder's kid. Sorry. Uh probably will will as well. Um I as long as we are able to hear and I I know the whole point uh of the letter from Goldwater is that they were concerned that we were uh limiting the ability to bring uh concerns that the public had regarding what um what uh we were doing as a district or people within the district were doing. And I don't personally think that's the best uh uh place to deal with something with an individual person here I personally. However, I think that is the impetus of this is the hey, let's make sure that we're

205not limiting what people can say and can't say. So, I again, I don't want to be here till 3:00 in the morning. I do want to make sure that we hear as much as especially on agenda items if we're vote especially if they're voting if they're items that we're voting on. And I do see a distinct difference between the public section of a board of a budget uh and maybe making sure that in our communication people are aware if you want to comment on budget that your open time is there. I don't think that's always 100% clear that people that they don't have to sign up even you know, even though we tell them that. I don't I don't always think that's clear to people so um that's all I I again, this section I

206took quite a while and I know that uh I know you we we were like, hey, just do what you can and let's >> I think I think I have some direction. I will >> Yeah. >> propose a little bit adjusted language for second read. >> Yeah, and I wanted to comment too. I think that something that Dr. Strom is is doing really well and really I think his his cabinet is doing well is following up with the public comment too. So, I mean I've seen him like dart down to talk to people you know, standing there. I think and the real point of public comment is is it's it's not to air grievances but to like let the board know when there's an issue and that's really the point. So, we we do want

207to hear if people feel like there's an issue that's not being being addressed. But there's also another part the public doesn't see and that's the follow up part that gets taken care of and so uh after these meetings and because things that you know we we can't talk to the public and so it the optics look awful. Someone tells a really sad story or something and we just have to, you know, sit here. But there is a second part to that where there's that that follow-up that happens and then the board gets notified of, you know, the outcome and steps taken and um you know, sometimes we'll get copied on emails, too, with you know, with an individual parent or something ex- explaining the resolution to you. So there's there is a lot more that

208is happening that's not always aired to the public, but I do want to thank uh the district leadership, too, for making sure that we stay informed of of these extra steps and for doing that that other piece cuz the the point of it all is that the issues get resolved. >> Yeah. >> Correct. Thank you. Board member Hutchinson, you there? >> I am. >> [laughter] >> Um uh I you know, there's a reason why we do things and there's many reasons why we do things and we have as a district opened up communication um in many different ways. Not just call the public. I mean I mean email is obviously one, but we we we do hack debates to get student input. We do two parent councils um to get parent input. We do we

209have community meetings. Um we we we are in schools. We are we are constantly hearing folk in many, many, many different ways, not just when they're speaking at at the board meeting. Um and and I'm going to remind my board members, when we had an issue with 80 people signed up to speak, uh 3 minutes for each person. Do the math or Dr. Strom will help us. And And and and that is that's that that's not then our meeting. Our meeting needs to be run efficiently, productively, inclusively. Of course, inclusively. But it has to be productive, and no one is going to be productive after 240 minutes of public comment. Um so, there there are ways in which we have tried to structure our meetings to get the most public comment as possible, but there

210are limits as to how much I guess it's it's the limit it's the rule of diminishing returns. So, um I I I really um think that we need to make sure that we do limit. Um and it's not that we're eliminating free speech. There are many different ways which can be included in our decision-making. Um I have a couple I'm just going to make a couple of things, and I'm going to put questions in the um question answer so that um Ms. King and and um uh Ms. King gets to answer them, but um one of the things that I'm really worried about is and it's something that board member Walden said. As public officials, um certainly we we will take the slings and arrows. No no no problem. I have a problem if someone

211publicly gets up in a meeting and complain about employees as as um that member Walden said. But what about a parent? What about a kid? I I really don't think we ought to be giving a public forum for people to claim to complain. Um and but then as member Walton said, free speech ain't necessarily free. Um, that there could be repercussions socially about that, maybe even legally. But I'm really worried about complaints on kids. One of the things that I think will help us to to make sure that people are talking about to the board issues that the board can deal with is in like number three, where it says um, we have a that we allow individuals to address the board on matters within its jurisdiction. I got a letter today about some guy

212having a problem with his mortgage company. I'm just like, that's not in our jurisdiction. I think we need to make sure that we are hearing from people on things that the board has jurisdiction on. Um, also in 10 B, no, excuse me, 10 A, we have disruptive con- conduct. And having been president and some of those, you know, some of those meetings were were were were were pretty raw, but we we define disruptive conduct and we don't include what people say. Um, we don't state consequences for disruptive con- conduct and I wish we would do that in 10, much like we do in number 13. Um, but there's other things that I have questions on, but I'm >> [snorts] >> the evening is late and I'm going to refer them to the question and answer

213um, document that we have. And I would encourage my other board members to make their comments and questions, so that Mrs. King can have a a really good um, month to to come up with maybe some remedies to the situations that we presented. >> Can I make a mention um we go from 10 to 12. I just noticed. That needs to be fixed. Thanks you. I just noticed that. >> Good catch. >> And I thought I did read that with disruptive conduct you could be asked to leave the meeting. Is that not in here? Did I Did I just assume that that was there? Cuz I do agree with member Hutchinson. There should be a consequence if if the meeting is Yeah. It has disruptive behavior. In number I guess I just assumed it was

214there. >> In number 12 that will probably become No, that will become That's will stay 12. In number 12. >> Maybe 11 was a consequence of and it disappeared. So I think Thank you board member Hutchinson for your comments. If we have any additional input, if you will put it in the question answer and um in the next month we have to go over these revisions. I want to thank Dr. Strom and board member Hutchinson for joining virtually. We appreciate you as you're both um out of town with family. We appreciate you taking time out to to join in on our meeting. Um and I think with that do I have a motion to adjourn the meeting? >> So moved. >> Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Any discussion? Seeing none, Ms. Kirby,

215will you please take our vote? >> I I just love how you go boom. [clears throat] No discussion on that one. >> With vote of five yes, the meeting is adjourned at 8:18. Thank you so much and have a wonderful evening. >> That one I did. That was in there.