Governing Board Study Session and Regular Meeting - January 22nd, 2026

001Welcome this evening to our study session. If you'll please stand for a moment of silence. Thank you. You may be seated. Call this meeting to order at 5:05. We're excited for tonight's presentation on tier one instruction. Um and we have two principles here tonight to talk to us on what they're doing in their schools and how it's working. Um, we're going to keep our to our times. Mr. Wing, timekeeper. Um, 20 minutes for presentation and 20 for questions. So, um, Dr. Eless, I'll turn the time over to you. >> Thank you, Madame President, members of the board, and district leadership. Um we are excited to share with you tonight about um how we are improving tier one instruction, sharing the work that um our district personnel and our site uh principles are are implementing as

002we continue to improve our ELA and math outcomes through our ongrade level standards aligned instruction. And so, um, we're going to start with, um, Eric Vonberg is going to share a little bit about, um, what's happening in terms of how we're systemizing, um, all of the elements of improving tier one instruction. And then, like you said, you'll be able to hear from two of our principles who will talk about how that work is manifesting in their two different school communities. So, I'm going to turn it over to Eric Vonberg. >> You have the clicker. Okay. Good evening, Madam President, members of the board, district leadership. Um, we want to take a little bit of time to kind of preface the overall idea of the support structures we are putting in place to support tier one

003instruction on the campuses. And then that will help lead into what you're going to hear from the two principles. So, the first thing I want to talk about, I mean, you're going to hear three big things about uh about my presentation. Number one is we're going to talk about how we decided where this work was going to focus. We're going to talk a little about what the current work is and then we're going to calibrate some terms because there's going to be some educational jargon thrown around and we want to make sure that we all have an understanding of what it is we're talking about. So, I want to talk a little bit about the continuous improvement pro process. You've heard about that um and talk about how that influenced the focus of of tier

004one instruction. And so, last year, well, they do it multiple years, but last year we started districtwide in K8. They really looked deeply at their data to be able to determine what were the things the factors that were influencing their ability to meet the academic outcomes we were looking for. And so as each school looked deeply at their data and determined what their focus need to be, we aggregated that information at the district level to be able to determine, okay, what kind of supports do we need to give? What kind of professional learning do we need to provide? What kind of structures do we need to be put in place? what and and that is in an effort to make sure that we're aligning all of our efforts in that same direction. And what we

005found is when you're looking at the continuous improvement data analysis reviews is you find that tier one instruction was called out in over 70% of the schools as a focus of um of improvement. You're going to hear a little bit later. I I would argue that when you look at the focuses that about a 100% of them actually applied either directly explicitly but then there's about 30% of them never tangental and so we'll talk a little bit about that. So if we can go to the next slide we're going to talk a little bit about tier one instruction and I want to make sure that we have an under a calibrated understanding of what we are talking about when we say tier one instruction. Tier one is thrown around in a lot of ways. But

006when we talk about tier one instruction, this is your first best instruction. This is the core instruction. This is really what you think about when you walk into a classroom and you see a teacher instructing and students engaging in learning. And the intent of tier one instruction is it's supposed to fulfill the needs all the needs of approximately 80% of your students. And I want to make sure we kind of couch what that means. What I mean by that is when you have high quality appropriately appropriately rigorous standards and lines instruction that that learning experience will meet the needs of 80% of those students in mastering those standards and achieving those skills. The other 20% may need some additional scaffolding, additional support, additional intervention. But this is kind of a benchmark you use when you're

007trying to judge whether your tier one instruction is effective. And that's what the goal is there. Okay, there's another thing I want to talk about. When we look at that third bullet there, talking about that instruction is really around explicit teaching opportunities um and learning experiences. I want to make sure that when we think about this, we are not just saying that direct instruction is the only way you do tier one instruction. That is one of the tools in the tool belt. But the real artistry is around figuring out the methodology and the the strategies you are going to use to create the opportunities for students to learn those um skills and to incorporate that knowledge. So it could be direct instruction, it could be inquiry, but it's a focus on appropriately uh selecting the

008strategy. So we can go on to the next slide please. So now that we kind of calibrate around the understanding of what we are talking about when we say tier one instruction, I want to talk about four elements that are necessary to ensure that we have effective tier one instruction. So we're going to go through them really quickly. Number one, you have to have structures in place. And when I'm talking about structures, they can be at the district level, they could be at the school level, they can be even at the classroom level. But we are talking about things at the school level like appropriate master schedules, having time for collaborative planning amongst teammates. It could even be something like classroom management and ways to ensure that we have high attendance in our schools. Second

009one, we have to have highquality instructional materials. These are materials that are researched back and uh aligned to the rigor of the academic standards. The third one is the content knowledge. We have to have teachers who have an understanding of the content itself and they can exercise that ability to notice when those skills and knowledge are displayed in the students. And the fourth one is the pedagogical knowledge. So you can have a teacher who has all that content knowledge but they also have to have that kind of knowledge about what is the artistry and science of instruction because at the end of the day the goal of the teacher is is to be able to have built up cognitive skills and knowledge within the student that they can replicate that knowledge novel situations. So when

010we start thinking about what are the things that we need to replicate across campuses, it's these four elements and I and I say that because these four elements need to be in place everywhere, but the context of each individual school is going to matter as to where which element they have to work on. How is that going to unfold as they move towards trying to get to higher academic outcomes? Go on to the next slide. And so to get effective tier one instruction, what the focus is is um this year is we really doubled down and aligned our focus on high quality instructional design. And I want to talk just briefly about this because what instructional design is not. It is not planning the day's activities by minuteby minute. That's not what we're talking about

011here. We're not talking about just turning the page in the teacher manual and executing what it is saying. What instructional design is is being able to understand a chunk of learning, understand the outcomes, understand what we are, what the students need to do, how we're going to measure and feel certain that we have the evidence to claim that those students have mastery of those skills and then figuring out the path to get there. And so instructional design in this instance, and you see these three pieces that I just went over, this is um backed by something called understanding by design. This uh is a researchbacked and theoretically based system by which you design instruction. And so these marry the the focus on instructional design really marries all four of those elements we were talking about.

012This is a structure on how we arrange the learning experience for our students. This is a way for us to be able to utilize in strategic and effective ways those high quality instructional resources. It's also a way to ensure they the content knowledge because they have to really deeply look at the the content standards and then the pedagogical knowledge comes in because you're trying to figure out with the high quality instructional resource and the strategies that you apply how you're going to move that instruction forward for the students. And with that, I'm going to throw it back to Tracy who can introduce our principles. >> So, I'm going to introduce you to this publication if you haven't um been familiar with it. It's the 74 million. Um it's based, the name is based on the

01374 million um students and they report on K12 education. Um and in this particular publication, it actually highlights two of the schools. Well, it highlights all of our schools in in Arizona, but one of the schools that you're going to hear from is Ants Elementary, and it was highlighted in because of their um third grade reading scores and that they were beating the odds. Um it also you'll see and hear from one of our principles, uh Cynthia from Longfellow, because they are also performing right about right now where they're expected. They have a different context than ENS. and we'll talk about how with those four elements that are being replicated now within the structures and the systems that we've put in place across our K12 um how it's being again manifested at their schools. Um

014you've asked how we know if we're improving tier one instruction and they're going to talk about some of those specific strategies um that they are paying attention to based on those four elements that we are have put in uh system across the district. Um, and then I'm going to share one more slide that came out of that. Um, whoops, sorry. And so within this publication and and the link is on the slide for you to to peruse at your convenience, but this actually shows and in its report um it talks about how ants based on its 38% poverty level that it was statistically predicted that those third graders would have 43% of their students proficient, but their actual score was at 70%. And so again, you're going to hear a little bit from um our

015principles about how they how are they getting to that improved uh outcome. And this slide also shows um our AASA proficiency and how we are seeing that uptick as we continue to move forward um in implementing these um elements across the district. And so now I'm going to turn it over to Cali Pley who has been principal at Ensel Elementary the past couple of years. Good evening madame president, board and district leadership. Happy school board appreciation month. First of all, um I'm Cali Persley. I'm the proud principal of NS Elementary. This is my second year as principal and my second year with ENS. Uh we have many veteran teachers at ENS that take pride in um teaching to the highest learner in their classroom with first best instruction and um continuing to build on the

016expectations that have been set by pre previous leaders in the use of our district curriculum. So, one of my first actions as a leader to ENS was to review the school improvement plan and take those goals and align them to our portrait of a graduate, our strategic goals and the MPS instructional framework. Um, so our first year together was building instructional foundation. Uh we began by making common curriculum maps through the instructional design process focusing on purpose and we started with our teams that were teaming. This helped with common planning and cross-curricular teaching in a departmentalized manner. Uh we also prioritized tier one instructional resources in the instructional design process. Our first focus being on math and the use of our district resources. You can see the example at the bottom of the screen there.

017So, uh, using the district resources, we start with the curriculum pacing guide. Um, use the sequence units which are curriculum and standards alignment. Then we looked at grade level explanations, examples, and resources, which is our how-to. And we checked to make sure that we're meeting the standard by using the SAS um, assessment topic grids as a resource. And our next step in planning last year was we be we began the similar process in ELA using Scholastic as our driving mechanism. Um we also began the school improvement process as an entire staff um with the mindset of potential. So where do we have potential to grow? We looked at multiple uh sources of data and for our pred uh potential needs and we identified growth in fastbridge and AASA as our highest need. We established progress

018monitoring last year using multiple resources and regular data chats so teachers could collaborate as a team with our title one funded reading lab. This year we started expanding and revising the instructional design process with all teams and uh our experienced teams in this process are making revisions to what they've already created adding learning targets and success success criteria. Our newer teams to the process have started with an upcoming math unit driven by SAVIS curriculum and we do this planning through PLC's on Wednesdays. We also do it with our special education resource teachers so that there's alignment between the grade level and the special education pullout classroom. Through the school improvement process, we're aligning instructional practices and tiered supports. Specifically, finding out what district resources we have available that will help us fill learning gaps and

019provide manageable interventions uh to supplement the loss of our title one funded supports. We um are ensuring consistent agreements on instructional practices and resource implementation across classrooms. Um providing PD on our resources uh that they may not be familiar with and using them for progress monitoring. We're also aligning the master schedule for intervention and for planning. And if you'll go to the next slide, in order to strengthen our data chats, um this is an example of a data quadrant. So in leading and learning last year, we began the process of um making growth quadrants based off of fastbridge fall to winter um data so that we could see where our students are growing or needing to grow. And at ENS, we used a similar process this year with our fifth and sixth grade teams to

020identify students who can, are close to, or need to maintain proficiency, similar to our move up, catchup, keep up data. And we also continue our regular data chats. Um, that includes what's working and celebrations and celebrating our students because it's their work and the hard work of our teachers as well. Thank you. Thank you so much. We're going to transition over to Longfellow and then we'll have lots of opportunity for to ask qu answer your questions because I know you probably have some as you're moving along. Um, again this is from the 74 million and you can see all of the school districts across Arizona with Longfellow again a different context in community and different needs based on not only their their students but their staff and the the four elements that um we are

021paying attention to. And so Cynthia Majeski is going to talk a little bit about um where Longfellow is at here. You'll see again um the student predictions and where their actual proficiency is at and the work that she is doing to continue to improve and move towards a proficiency uh for all of her grade levels. Okay, thank you so much. My name is Cynthia Mojeski and I am the proud principal at Longfellow Elementary School. Thank you so much for having me tonight, madam president and governing board. So as a campus um you know I was very fortunate to walk in as a principal to a campus who was ready ready and geared up to go um thanks to the supervision and direction of Mrs. Deator right behind me. Um but right starting from the beginning

022we know that we cannot change our tier one instruction until we have that mindset of what is happening in our classrooms and what's impacting tier one instruction. So, as a campus, we first sat down and we made collective commitments surrounding what tier 1 instruction needed to look like and sound like in all of our classrooms. Getting teachers on board and on the same page really made a difference before we could even get into the nitty-gritty of what tier one instruction needed to look like. Um, we also knew that some of our teachers to get that mindset, they needed to go into each other's classrooms to get a feel for what's going on during tier 1 instruction. So, part of our pay for performance goal this year is we gave opportunity for all of our staff

023to push in to each other's rooms to provide explicit feedback on tier one instruction. This not only lets them learn from their colleagues, but also gives them a chance to see what is working and what's not working and how do we support all of our kids. Um, in order to hold staff accountable, uh, the instructional leadership team, we developed a schedule, um, that makes sure that we plan with grade level teams, whether that's during their common prep time or before or after school, um, as well as provide specific feedback on lesson plans. We don't want our teachers just lesson planning to do it. We want them using those lesson plans to drive their instruction. So, what we do as the leadership team is take ownership for those plans and we want to provide them with

024feedback to make those useful. Um, as a school with over 50% English language learners, um, another part of our amazing staff is we sat down and we knew we had to create collective commitments about making sure all of our students are speaking and listening during that tier one instruction. If that's not happening across all subject areas, then we have a gap and a hole in that instruction. Okay, next slide. So then what you're going to see up here on the slides is this most recent professional learning day when we got back in January. We sat down as a staff and we look at fastbridge data all the time. Uh something that we discovered um that's very important is we cannot target tier one instruction if we don't have our staff prepared and under to be

025data experts. We have data experts in the district, but we need our teachers also being those data experts and using that to drive their instruction. So what we did is we conducted a PLC that surrounded around what is the data they're looking at, what does that data mean, and then how are they going to use it to really pinpoint the needs of our students. Um so what we found is that using the we we we did a matrix instead of a um quadrant report. And what this matrix did was we sorted our kids by their growth and proficiency. So Longfellow students, we made all 50 of our growth points last year on ASA. So we knew that we are growing kids, but now we need to get them to proficiency. So what we did was

026we looked at their fastbridge scores and from there we grouped them by who's growing, but who's not growing enough to get into that proficiency. And that's where we target our tier one instruction by using those formative assessments, the curriculum, and everything to help us. I'm very proud of how hard my staff has been working. Um, something we pride ourselves in is you will see small groupoup instruction. You will see that good quality tier one instruction. We know that the best first practice happens during that core time. And if kids aren't getting it 80% of the time, we need to retach. So, my staff has been working very hard. I'm very, very proud of them. And you know what? This year will bring new growth and new scores. Thank you. And so, we'd like to open

027it up for questions. We have uh an expanded team here, too. So, I know uh our principles can share what's happening specifically at their sites and what data they're looking at and opportunities for growth and improvement. And then we also have members from um our teams here as well to support. >> Thank you and thank you both for presenting. We appreciate you being here tonight. It's been kind of a goal of ours as a board to hear from our sites and hear what's been going on. So we appreciate you. We know your schedules are busy. So thanks for taking the time to come share with us. Um I'm going to start with board member Hudson and then we'll just move around the dis with questions. First of all, I want to thank um superintendency for

028providing um us with examples. Thank you so much. Um I appreciate you being here and and knowing better what you're focusing on is going to help us when we visit your schools and and and we know now what to look for. And so I really appreciate um the means by which you are allowing us to enter into the classroom and really figuring out how we can support our board goals actually. So one of the things that I wanted to ask um first of all having both schools here um one may be more east side and than west side. Okay. Um I I have actually two questions. Um, is collaboration between schools encouraged? That's that's question number one. And how if you might might want to give us some examples. And and secondly, I think um

029Longfellow gave us an example. But um between grades, what does collaboration look like? so that kids are are losing what they've gained in growth so that they can be proficient and remain proficient once they get there. So collaboration between schools and collaboration between grades comfortable answering this one. So, um [laughter] um one of the really unique positions that our our instructional coaches has is they're um split between two schools. Um uh my instructional coach, Carol Smith, is between Hughes and Ants and that's a really unique dynamic, but I joined the leading and learning meetings with the Westside schools so that Carol can be present for both of us. And it's amazing to see that our school goals are very similar even though we might have huge dynamic diversities um between the two of them. So

030there are opportunities for us to share and collaborate. Um I'm excited to move into regional teams also because I feel like we'll be able to talk amongst our feeder patterns as well um and get to know our junior highs and high schools more so that we can collaborate and create some more vertical articulation opportunities. Um I do know at ENS we just did a PD um run by my staff, my wonderful teachers on um alignment of writing standards. So we took the vertical align uh vertical standards from the state, cut them up, had the teachers put them in order, identified where they are teaching to. So we have started some of that work and hope to expand on that a little bit more. Okay, I'm up. So, um, the question for regarding, you know, communication

031and collaboration among grade level teams, part of being on a campus is it's not just your kids, it's all of our kids. And that's very important from the get-go that everyone knows. Every single person plays a role in the impact on our students. So what we do is we made sure that it started it starts from the master schedule. Um I will speak just for Longfellow due to our high English language population that targeted time for their direct instruction drives the start of our schedule. But it's also really important that we put in the time for those teachers to touch base with grade level teams. So during PLC we have opportunities for the special education teachers to push in. We also have um MI inclusion teachers and it's really important that they're also collaborating to

032make sure that their students needs are being met when they phase into the general education room. And then um there's just all kinds I mean every single person is supporting each other so there's ongoing collaboration. Something the district does really well for um schools in Mesa is they do have the the leading learning meetings where we can get together and collaborate. I do know that um area principles we have chats where we're always asking and trying to pick each other's brains. do you have a, you know, a teacher who's really strong in their management or their tier one instruction? So, we can send our staff to go and um learn from each other because sometimes the best learning happens when they're getting to observe and see it in action rather than just watching a video.

033>> Thank you, board member Benson. >> Move all my stuff. Um, thank you ladies for coming and sharing what you're doing on your campuses. I have a couple of quick um, can you describe and uh, Mr. Vonberg, this might be a question to you, but uh, whoever describe to us how uh, you determine uh, root causes and is that u a singular focus? Is it root causes and why um, students might be um, more challenged in their learning? Are we looking at root causes of perhaps why our instructors aren't able to get good quality tier one instruction right off the bat? Does that make sense? So it's like because I see root causes as being a multiaceted so who wants to tackle that? >> I apologize. I'm just looking at our expert in school improvement

034which is a part. So when we have a a kind of detailed framework about school improvement and one of the things one of the first steps in there is trying to identify what your problem is and then get down to what that root cause is. And so we run through a number of different protocols that have been used in different ways. We have a what's called a fishbone fishbone diagram and root cause analysis. But what you're doing is you're really looking at every possible different causation and then trying to determine when we talk about root cause in this case is what is at the core of it. And the root cause may not be just the one thing you have to do but it's the thing that you have to do right now and that

035is going to be the thing and then if you solve that root cause and the problem is still ongoing you are going to see at the root cause as long as that context stays the same the root cause is going to change a little bit. um we use that we use protocols like the five W's and this is delving into data that is not only post-mortem you know like ASA data benchmark data we look at um the universal screening data but then we also look at a bunch of other data sources around attendance engagement those kinds of things and so it is a an expansive look at not just only do we have the systems and structures in place do we have the um I mean it could be we're lacking high quality instruction instructional

036materials. It could be that we have some master scheduling issues. It could be that we have to improve the way that we're using our collaborative time. Feel like I'm dancing around your question. >> Well, because you and I have had a conversation about Savas math >> for sure. >> And uh one of the one of the statements that you made was you do you know why a lot of our teachers don't like it is because it's too hard. So that's concerning to me. So, to me, that would potentially be a root cause in um our math instruction not being as clear. Um or I or me not being able to communicate to my students effectively what it is that the standard is actually trying to get them to uh learn. So is that I guess

037my question is are we looking both at the root causes of of what's um preventing or being a struggle for students in order to get them successful? Are we also looking at do we need to expand our content knowledge with our our do we really need to make sure that we're fully understanding hey this is what the standard is actually because unfortunately we can't pitch any of them which is another root cause issue I would say that keeps students from learning we have too many standards that we're trying to tackle on on any given uh but that's a totally different issue so are we looking at both are we looking because we like I can address all the issues with my students but if I don't have teachers that are comfortable and know how to

038um transmit their knowledge of content I'm not going to get very far. >> The short answer is yes. The longer answer is, I mean, what you just described is the the multitude of variables that go into something as complex as trying to teach kids a bunch of academic standards. And and and I mean, really, we're talking about deep cognitive skills that we're not just trying to get kids to memorize facts. We're trying to get them to be able to have these skills to apply in novel situations. That's difficult. And that could be content knowledge. It could be structures like master schedules. could be it could be I'm I'm just uncomfortable with the resources. It could be a multitude of things and that's what you just described is exactly what the intent of the school improvement

039process is in those data analysis to be able to really identify what that root cause is because the one sin you have in that whole process is if you misidentify the root cause then what you are doing is you're committing your time and your resources and you're chasing potentially a symptom. And so we spend a lot of time with our schools to really see if we can hone in on what is that kind of the the lynch pin to get us moving forward. And then we just that that's the improvement part. And then continuous is let's reevaluate. Is that the same root cause? Boom boom boom. We just keep going until we see those improved outcomes. >> Um and then you said that in the presentation we're aggregating data at a district level but then

040I assume it's also a school level. So at the district level, am I just looking big picture? And then uh each individual school, it's a separate aggregation of data to look at it. >> Okay. So let me let me let me clarify because I may have been a little bit confusing there. What I meant by that when we're trying to figure out what is going to be the main thrust of how we're going to support professional learning and our focus to be able to improve those academic outcomes. What we are doing is as each school independently goes through their continuous improvement process where they're looking at their school specific data, their classroom data. What they do is they identify, hey, these are our needs. These are what our root causes are. We take that and

041aggregate that across the entire organization to be able to determine what are the trends that we are seeing so we can commit our resources in the best way possible. >> Okay, that thank you for that clarification because I did I I didn't get that one. And then I'm assuming I loved um member Hutchinson your question about collaboration uh because I'm assuming that we can learn from one another. Geographical locations are a tad bit different but they also share similarities. Um so I'm assuming that we're not expecting uh every school to look exactly the same but have those four elements that are incorporated. >> That is correct. >> Okay. And then as a former gifted teacher, what do you do with the kids that just won't do it? They can, you know, they can. >> Well,

042you may have just they just don't care. >> But that that that I would say is one of those things that is rooted under that pedagogical knowledge and what are we going to do when we reach those circumstances? How do we engage the students? I mean I don't know if I would want to stand up here and list the strategies with which we would do it but it's going to it's going to depend upon why that particular student I mean it's almost like a mini root cause analysis like why is that kid having a difficult time engaging and so when we talk about that is context dependent that's part of the artistry of teaching because it's going to depend on the individual student there's not going to be a single answer there >> yeah and

043some of those I just don't want to are the most difficult ones to so thank you again for your time and for sharing Board member Walden. >> Yeah, I went to Longfellow actually for fifth and sixth grade. Just throw that out there. I've got uh a couple questions I think both principles could probably answer. Um what do you think are the the differences in proficiency between the the two schools? Like what are maybe advantages do you think you have or don't have? Or has one been working longer with instructional coaches versus the other school? I mean the differences in proficiency. I'm just going to start the we have a very different socioeconomic status of our of our students. So um Longfellow is the highest title one school in Mesa and is not. Um, but you

044know, I would say the biggest difference with just getting them to proficiency is really figuring out you have to target the kids and their individual needs and figure out what skills they're missing and then how you can truly move them. So, I would say the biggest work we did with our teachers, we're still working on getting to proficiency. That is one of our goals this year. We know that we can grow students, but now we have to get them to proficiency. So, it's really, do our teachers understand the standards? Do they know the curriculum that they can use to support teaching to those standards? Because the standards truly drive that instruction and it starts with the teachers. So, really being able to dig into that um proficiency, I think that would be the biggest gap

045that I would see. >> Do both schools long because I know NS had mentioned that you had the reading coaches. Does Longfellow have reading coaches too? >> Yes, we do. We have a part-time reading interventionist. Um, something we did do that I think has been really helpful is it's an all hands-on deck model over at our school. So, anyone who has open time that we can use to our advantage, whether that be our media center specialist, our family support specialist, our coaches on campus, if you have time in your schedule, you are pushing in to support kids because we know that people are truly the biggest game changers in our classrooms. And the more we can get in front of kids and supporting that, the better. >> Yeah, that's [snorts] that's great. Um, it's good

046good information. >> Really quickly, so had reading interventionists, we [laughter] we did lose our title funding, so it took a lot of master scheduling and working together with the teachers of and our instructional assistants how to maximize the assistance that we have in the classroom. We have lots of parent volunteers that will come in for reading and math groups. Um, so we wanted a consistent time throughout the week where hey, we always do reading intervention from 10:30 to 11:00. So parents could you can sign up for one day a week. That would be great. Um, as far as the proficiency goes, that's why, um, growth is our number one. Um, we have proficient students or students who have been proficient that can be bumped up to highly proficient. Um but what we're looking at is

047um specifically how can we um support the students who have learning gaps but also challenge our students who are at proficiency and then that will in turn help us with our growth scores. >> Yeah. Yeah. And I I like what you said it makes a lot of sense like you have to find out like where are they deficient and that's going to be different with with different students. Are are both schools doing teaming or it just ends? >> Some of my grades. >> Oh, some of the grades. Okay. I was gonna ask you about the title one funding because I thought you had said that that you lost title one funding. Was that a change in the demographics of the school? >> Yes. The change Amy can answer more about that. [laughter] She broke the

048good news to us. Get on up there. >> I get to be the one that breaks that news. Um, so with title one funding, we have to base that off of our we use eligibility one, which is our students that qualify for direct certification, state assistance, and free. And so they fell below the line of 40% and at according to federal guidelines, that is not where we would identify a school for title one services. >> Thank you so much. I appreciate you coming out tonight. >> Just a heads up, there's a little over three minutes remaining. >> Thank you, board member Jaffy. I'm gonna ask my question really efficiently. What do you wish the board knew about supplemental materials and curriculum? Uh the curriculum is a great guidance but it may not match the standard

049perfectly which is why our task analysis helps us through that. So if we think that there needs to be more rigor to the curriculum then we can sub supplement that. A lot of our supplemental materials that I was speaking of though, we're really applying to our tier 2 interventions. So things that can be used to fill the gaps of learning that our students specifically need. >> I think she hit it basically. I would say yeah, the um in terms of the curriculum is very supportive. I would say it's about looking at the alignment and figuring out how do they align to the standards and how you're going to use the standards with that curriculum. We always try to encourage teachers you teach to the standard not to the curriculum. So making sure they understand how

050to use that as a resource to support student learning. The supplemental resources we are very fortunate. I would say it's there's a lot of them. So the biggest thing is when we get new teachers, when we get new staff, we have to remember that we have to get them caught up to using those resources and how to support them. And that's where our coaches and our school improvement coaches come in because we really rely on them to help support those teachers who are new to this curriculum. That was just going to be my question. How are we supporting our new teachers? So with our co what you just said with coaches any other ideas on how we support our new teachers >> I would just say on ongoing trainings um you know the best thing

051they can be doing is working with the curriculums using it seeing it in action um giving them time to really they need time to plan they need time to understand it um and that's something I think as administrators time is always something we're looking for So that that is always uh everyone needs time. Um but I think we really do I know I heavily rely on my coaches and my school improvement coach to support them in the classroom as well as everyone who has knowledge to be a coach whether that's myself or the assistant principal. We go in and we support them whether that's co-eing, whisper coaching. Um, some schools have the swivels where they can set up and record themselves teaching, which is a great opportunity for them to look back and do a

052reflection. So, just using the resources that we have on campus, um, I think truly makes the difference for our new teachers. >> And we're hoping with the instructional design process that it'll be an easier way for teachers to have a resource to start from instead of reinventing the wheel. >> Great. Thank you both again so much for coming tonight and for all those that helped and participated and board members for your great questions. Um I think I love hearing about collaboration between our schools and I look forward to see as our regional communities are stood up how that's going to look and I'm excited to see what comes from that. Um and hear how all those go. Um and so with that, do I have a motion to adjourn the meeting? >> So moved. >>

053Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Any discussion? Seeing none, Miss Castro, will you please take our vote? >> Oh, sorry. I better With a vote of five years, a meeting is adjourned at 5:48. We will return about six o'clock for our regular board meeting. Thank you. Welcome tonight to this evening's board meeting. We apologize we're a few minutes late starting. We had a study session this evening and took a little break. I call this meeting to order at 6:06. A quick reminder, any any citizen who wishes to sign up to speak on an agenda item or call to the public must complete the sign-in sheet in the lobby prior to public public comment time on the board agenda. Tonight, we're excited we have the presentation of colors by Dobson High School JOTC cadets

054Sienna Henry, Tanner Miller, Vanessa Land, and Guadalupe Martinez. The pledge of will be led by Dr. Isas, assistant superintendent of teaching and learning. Please stand. Please join me for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all. >> [music] >> Oh, [singing] say can you see [music] by the dawn early light was so we [music] [singing] last night and I [singing and music] will never Oh, [music] [singing] we're sole. [music and singing] [music] and way [music] for the [singing] land of the free and the [singing and music] home of the brave. Thank you. You may be seated. Thank you again, Dobson High Jotc. And also a shout out to Hill Elementary's choir.

055We will begin tonight with a video on governing board procedures. And then I'll read a statement. >> Welcome to the Mesa Public Schools governing board meeting. [music] We appreciate your interest in the district. The five elected governing board members serve without compensation and volunteer countless hours. The president and the clerk of the board are [music] elected in January. Under state law, the governing board may only discuss and vote on matters that are on the agenda for tonight's meeting. Agendas are posted at minimum of 24 hours in advance on the Mesa Public [music] Schools website and in the curriculum services center. Copies of tonight's agenda are located in the lobby. At every regular meeting, [music] the public may speak on any item of business on the agenda that the board discusses or requires the board to

056take action. During the second regular meeting [music] 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 [music] as public comment. The form is located in the lobby. The duration of public comment and call to the public is 15 minutes. [music] Members of the public will be given a maximum of 3 minutes to speak once recognized by the governing board president. The president may set specific time limits for speakers and the duration to maximize the opportunity for individuals to offer their viewpoints.

057We ask that all speakers show respect and courtesy to others. Comments must pertain to the matter that is within the [music] jurisdiction of the governing board. This is not an appropriate forum 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 in a future agenda. A board member may [music] also briefly respond to criticism of a board member or the governing board. If you would like the board to consider adding an item to a future agenda, you may submit your request in writing and the governing board president and superintendent will consider your [music] request. Thank you for your attendance and involvement

058in tonight's meeting and for allowing this meeting to be conducted in a peaceful and productive [music] manner. This is an official governing board meeting. The board has important business to conduct that is essential 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 boardroom describes positive behaviors expected and behaviors that cannot be tolerated. Please speak and act respectfully and actively listen. Be kind. Verbal harassment, abusive, or foul language, intimidation, and disruption have no no place in a classroom or the boardroom. Please no side conversations or reactive comments, they can be disruptive. It is a governing board president's responsibility to maintain proper order so the board can conduct its business in an orderly and efficient manner. If you are disruptive

059or interfere with the conduct of this meeting, you will be asked to leave so the board can conduct the business of the district. This brings us to our calendar. Dr. Strong, will you please review the governing board calendar? >> President Davis, members of the board, uh January 27th, 2026, we have a board extended study session. We'll be talking about capital planning in the district and also student, parent, and staff surveys. February 12th, 2026 at 5:00 pm study session, 6 pm regular meeting. February 16th, 2026, we want to remind our community members and families that we have President's Day, no school or and no school and district offices are closed. February 26, 2026, we have a study session, regular meeting. March 12th, 2026, same thing at 5:00 p.m. Study session at 5, regular meeting at 6:00.

060March 16th through the 20th, 2026 is spring break. No school, limited district services on Monday through Wednesday. And then no meeting on March 26 due to the timing of spring break. Uh and this is uh our board calendar through March. >> Thank you, Dr. Strom. At this time, I will turn the time over to Jen Snyder, director of communications. She will show us some of what's inside Mesa Public Schools. Miss Snder, it's all you. >> All right. All right. Hey, good evening, President Davis, members of the board, and Dr. Strong. Again, here to tell you about all the great some of the great things that are going around our school district. So, let's get started. All right. First, this morning, students from Franklin at Brimhalt, Franklin Junior High, and then I just found out right

061before this, Mesa Academy earned the Franklin students earned eight of the 24 awards. And our Mesa Academy students earned three extra of those at the 41st annual Arizona State University MLK student essay contest, which celebrates Dr. King's legacy through the through word and art. Congratulations, Firebirds and Knights. All right. Well, on on uh this this week, uh students across Mace Public School celebrated the 100th day of school. We're we're proud of our incredible students and all they've accomplished these first 100 days. Uh celebrations include parades and everyone's favorite, dressing up as hundred-year-olds. Congratulations to the seven Mesa Public Schools adult education graduates honored during our first winter graduation ceremony. A moment filled with pride, perseverance, and possibility. We're incredibly proud of each graduate for reaching this milestone and recognized the path that led them here.

062Sulk Elementary hosted a career day welcoming community members who shared their careers and experiences with students on campus. The event inspired creativity and gave students a glimpse of the possibilities ahead as they imagine their future paths. All right. Congratulations to the to the Red Mountain High School students whose experiment Parkinson's and Orbert Orbit will be flown to space. Riley Pharaoh, Michaela Melo, Alexa Gerson, Kennedy Wyman, and Jada Funachello were announced as the winners this this morning at their Red Red, excuse me, the Red Mountains winter formal assembly and will have their research sent to the International Space Station as part of the student space flight experiment program, SEP Mission 21. Through this national program, students get the rare opportunity to design real scientific research that travels to space. Their project will study how a protein

063linked to Parkinson's disease behaves in microgravity. Observing this process aboard the ISS could help scientists better understand how Parkinson's develops and contribute to future treatments on Earth. Now we're going from Red Mountain High over to the STEM um institute at Red Mountain Ranch. Uh Door Dash brought educators, students, and community leaders together at the K8 STE Academy at Red Mountain Ranch for a listening session on the future of K12 robotics education. The conversation explored how hands-on real world technology like the door dash dot can make STEM learning more engaging, equitable, and connected to future careers. Insights that will help shape a new robotics education pilot launching in 2026. The little robot's cute. [sighs] Congratulations to Mountain View High School student Zachary Preston for p for placing first in the Better Business Bureau ethical torch essay

064scholarship contest. He was recognized at the at the Torch Awards for ethics and earned $1,500 in scholarship. He also shared his essay with more than 450 attendees. We're proud to see his hard work recognized on such a big stage. And congratulations to board member Hutchinson on her recognition as Mesa Citizen of the Year, honoring her decades of service to the Mesa community. She dedicated 28 years to teaching in Mesa public schools, making a lasting impression on countless students and colleagues. Uh board member Hutchinson's continued service through volunteer leadership in her and serving as our board member and pre past president underscos underscores her unwavering commitment to the district. Her legacy with Mesa public schools exemplifies a lifetime of leadership advocacy and dedication to public education. Congratulations. And that's it. [applause] Thank you, Miss Snder. We

065snuck that one in. and board member Hutchson. She didn't know we were going to do that. So, congratulations to her and to all of our students and communities and all the great things that are going on. Um, I'm going to turn the time back over to Dr. Stum and Miss uh Snyder on some exciting recognitions. >> Yeah, President Davis, uh, members of the board, tonight we have the privilege to recognize several of our outstanding students from Mountain View and one of our exemplary coaches from Westwood High School. Their hard work, dedication, and sportsmanship present the very best of Mesa public schools. We'll ask honores to stand from their seats to be recognized. We'll then take a brief break during which honores will have the opportunity to come forward and take photos with the governing board.

066First, can I have members of the Mountain View we the people team please stand. We the people. [applause] >> [applause] >> We We the people is a nationally recognized high school civics program that teaches students about the US Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the principles of an American democracy. Students work as a team to research constitutional issues, develop expert level understanding, and present prepared and follow-up responses in simulated congressional hearings. Mountain View's We the People team won this year's Arizona State Championship and they will now move on to national competition in Washington DC. As a board member up here and myself have judged we the people uh when we go observe those competitions. I am uh very grateful to be in Mesa Public Schools and very grateful to be an American because your leadership

067in our future uh secures who I think we are and stand for. to thank you for everything you do in the studious nature of we the people and learning about what our constitution is all about. Congratulations Mountain View We the People team. [applause] [applause] Thank you. We'll get you up here in a second. Uh next, can Coach Caitlyn Large please stand up? [applause] Coach Coach Caitlyn Large was named the AIA state co uh cheer coach of the year. Over the past few years, Coach Large has transformed the Westwood High School Spirit Line program, rebuilding it into one of the most respected programs in our district. Beyond the sidelines, Caitlyn has made Spirit Line a true ambassador for Westwood and in the Mesa community. The team can be found supporting local elementary schools, volunteering at community

068events, including going with me to a a shelter that services the needs of elderly people. That was very kind of you to attend that with me. And partnering with Special Olympics programs. Congratulations, Coach Large, on this welldeserved honor. [applause] Thank you for representing Mesa Public Schools with excellence. We will move on to our school spotlight before taking this break. Our school spotlight of the month program is designed to provide our community with an inside look at our schools. In addition to a video showcasing the spotlight, we will honor a classified staff member, a certified staff member, and a student honored from that school. As a reminder, when I call the spotlight honores, you will stand. But for right now, can we please roll the video? >> [music] >> I learn a lot and also have

069fun with my friends. >> We have nice teachers [music] and we have a lot of pets and we have some counselors to see if you can talk to [music] and we have a buff for animals. In aggro science is hands-on learning, learning about animals and it's just really nice to like [music] help and it's just really fun. >> I like sometimes we take my class out to the barn and our class [music] like my class cleans like the pins. You get to pet different animals and we get to work with them, feed them and like [music] pick them up >> and we all work together to like dump out the buckets and clean waters and all that. >> I really like the subjects I teach like science and like [music] social studies and science. We're

070doing an an egg drop. It's like we have to build something and put an egg in it so the egg won't break and we'll increase [music] air resistance and use mats of different objects to lessen gravity. And we'll drop it and [music] see if the egg breaks or not. And it's just a really fun class that I really like. And in art, [music] I love like drawings. And we also learn about different like art styles like clay art, modern. Right now we're doing this tic tac tour board with clay. It's really fun. And we also got the library. So [music] we get to like learn about like all the books and get to learn how to read and get different books and we have some pets in there so we get to play with them.

071>> Very [music] nice holding the bearded dragon in there. >> It's a great place because I feel like it's a really peaceful school. Like everyone cares about you. You're going to have a lot of friends. You have a lot of opportunities. You learn a lot of new things. Like every time I wake up, I'm actually excited to come to school. [applause] Kerr Center for Agra Science would like to recognize Miss uh Madison. I'm going to mess this up because I want to say Kerr and it's Kier. All right. as their spotlight certified staff member. Miss Miss Kir is an outstanding educator who holds herself and her students to the highest standards while building strong meaningful relationships with students and families. In just three years at Kerr, she has emerged as a leader through her mentorship

072of new teachers, impactful professional development activities, and unwa unwavering commitment to student success. Thank you for being part of the Kerr Aggracience team. >> [applause] >> Next, Kerr will recognize Valley Jones. All right. [applause] As its spotlight classified uh staff member, Miss Jones brings warmth, creativity, and compassion to the Kerr Library, creating a welcoming space where students feel safe, inspired, and excited to learn. She consistently goes above and beyond to support both students and staff, making her true bright her true bright spot in the Kerr community. Thank you for all you do, Valley. [applause] >> And finally, Kerr is honoring Elizabeth Kovarius Gara. Did I get that? All right. All right. as a as their spotlight student. Elizabeth is hardworking, kind, joyful, and she's a great fourth grade student who approaches learning with determination and

073treats everyone with empathy and respect. Her positive attitude and caring nature bring happiness and warmth to our entire school community. Thank you very much, Elizabeth, for being part of Kerr and the learning experiences there. [applause] On a final note, since we have Kerr here, Kerr was uh one of the schools that had the most impressive student outcome results last year in eight out of eight categories across the state measurements. They increased performance and we'd like to say thank you for that effort at Kerr Aerson. Now, we will take our break and we will get organization up here. Please come forward if you wish to take a picture. the board will be down here and Jen will direct everybody. >> Yeah, let's do um let's start from let's do we the people first and then we'll

074do then we'll do Westwood. We'll do in the order that we we talked and then we'll do uh the school spotlights. Are you sorry? Now I can hear you. If anyone wants to come, they can. All >> [applause] >> right. Next, can we have uh coach Large and then we'll take a picture with just you with the board and then we'll have um the spirit line come up after for a photo with with them, too. And >> and I've been told, coach Large, that your husband needs to come up as well. >> [laughter] >> Thank you. >> By myself. >> All right. Thank you. [laughter] You're right. Dr. Gilmore. >> Dr. Gilmore. >> I heard Marcy. [laughter] Clear line. [laughter] I think When the boarding Can't [applause and cheering] [applause] What are you doing? All

075right, let's have you guys [cheering] All >> [applause] >> right. All right. Good. >> [applause] [applause] >> All >> [cheering] [applause] >> right. Big smile. I know that's two. Here, [applause] [laughter] [applause] I'll take Is that okay? Thank Thank you all for being here and you are welcome to continue to join us or you are welcome to leave and go party outside the boardroom. Just have ice cream on us, please. Thank you for being here and thank you for all you do. [laughter] >> And we want to wish Kerr good luck next week. They are vying for A+ designation. Good luck her We are now in our public comment. Before we begin public comment, just a quick reminder that policy 1-30T 2 says that call the public is limited to issues within the jurisdiction of

076the board and is not an appropriate forum for persons to complain about a specific employee, student, or other person. Mrs. Chaffy, do we have anyone signed up to speak? >> Yes, we have six people who signed up to speak tonight. Okay, since we have six speakers, we you will each have three minutes to speak. And Mrs. Chaffy, will you lead us through this agenda item? >> I will. I will call up our first three speakers and you can come and line up by the side of the room by the podium. And I will also call the next three names so you know who's on deck. So, we're going to start with Jenna Williams and then Linda Williams and Jason Smithson. On deck, we have Inger Heert, Melissa Allen, and Josh Chilton. We'll start with Jenna.

077All good. >> Okay. Uh, [clears throat] good evening, members of the board, superintendent, and district leadership. My name is Linda Williams, and I'm the parent and legal guardian of my daughter, Jenna, a 19-year-old student who has attended Mesa Public School her entire academic life. I am here tonight because a situation that should have a simple humane remedy is instead causing unnecessary chaos, confusion, and harm. Not only to my daughter, but potentially to other students with disabilities in this district. From the very beginning of high school, Jenna's IEP team knew our goals. Academics first, inclusion with typical peers, and no life skills only track. Jenna rose to that expectation. She completed four years of general education English, four years of dance, advancing to advanced classes, three years of general education videography, guitar, medical coursework, a blood

078pathogen certificate. More importantly, Jenna learned how to be a student by learning alongside her non-disabled peers. Her behaviors diminished, her confidence grew. She became a respected classmate and a true member of her school community. This is exactly what IDEA promises families when inclusion is done right. In November, during an IEP meeting with an entirely new special education team at Skyline, I was told Jenna must graduate immediately because she has enough credits and that graduating would end her access to further education and transition services. That was never our understanding and it was never our plan. We believed, as federal law allows, that Jenna would participate in graduation with her peers, the classmates she has learned with and grown up with while continuing to receive ideaf funded education through age 21 to address her IEP goals and

079remain unmet. Instead, we were told Mesa Public School doesn't do ceremonial graduation without ending all the services, but other districts do and the law allows it. [clears throat] This is not about demanding a diploma. This is about dignity, inclusion, and consistency. There is also a human element I ask you to consider. Jenna's best friends happen to be her grandparents. They are 80, 92, 95, and 92 years old. This is their last grandchild to graduate. Waiting another year or two, they may never see her walk across the stage. And if she waits, she will not walk with the peers who supported her and included her. She will walk with strangers. That is not equity. That is not inclusion. I am asking this board to recognize that participation in graduation c ceremony does not have to terminate

080a student's right to continue education. I'm asking for a policy or at least a practice that allows students like Jenna to celebrate their achievements with their peers while still receiving an education they are legally entitled to. This is not a special favor. It is a reasonable accommodation and it is the right thing to do. Thank you for your time and I hope we can work together to ensure that Mesa Public Schools truly honors both the letter and the spirit of special education law. [laughter] >> Thank you, Mom. >> Yes. Hello, my name is Jenna. Mouse stop distracting me, guys. Hello, my name is Jenna. I am in 12th grade and my class graduates this year. These students are my friends. We have been together for many years. My wish is to walk across the graduation

081stage with my friends after graduation. I want to keep learning. I would like to learn at Westwood High School or Dobson High School if Skyline does not have my program. Thank you for listening. Thank you for hearing my wishes. [applause] Members of the board, let's let her walk. [snorts] I met Principal Ryan three years ago when my son started kindergarten. Like many parents of a child with special needs, I was scared and didn't know what to expect. Over time, as I stepped back and allowed my son to grow, something became very clear. Principal Ryan doesn't just run a school. She builds trust, culture, and safety. She knows families by name. She listens. She advocates. Her staff follows her because she leads with integrity and heart. She is on the front lines every day. And because

082of that, Webster has changed. This is not an easy school. Not everyone can walk in and make an impact, but she has. This year, Principal Ryan and I became united by the safety and well-being of children, especially those who often get overlooked. Principal Ryan treats every student like her own. If you didn't know any better, you'd think she had 500 children, because that's how personally she takes this work. I have met many principles, and I say this without hesitation, but very much bias. You will not find another principal as loyal, as selfless, as respected, or as loved as her. While we are extremely sad to see her go, we are also excited to see her flourish. To the field community, you are gaining a fierce advocate and an incredible leader. Sorry, Kate. As a parent,

083thank you. [snorts] Sorry. Thank you for making my son's experience at Webster positive, meaningful, and joyful. [snorts] Thank you for treating every child with dignity and respect. Sorry. I never have to question whether my child's safe while in your care. You are appreciated. You are loved. And you will be missed. [applause] >> [applause] >> Next, we will hear from Inger Hubert, Melissa Allen, and then Josh Chilton. Uh, good evening. My name is Inger Aar. I'm a Mesa resident and a parent, and I care deeply about what happens when systems forget the people who are meant they're meant to serve. Before I continue, I'm going to play a brief public recording. I will not name any names, but I'm going to allow them words to speak. >> Don't talk. Don't talk over me. Don't talk over

084me. Okay. You know, I understand that we're going to try to point fingers in the situation, but there was a lot of grace last year that I bestowed upon people, right? that I make choices to bestow upon people when when we decided to make sure that that you know that the the repercussions for maybe violating state statute were were not as severe as maybe some other people were suggesting. And so when you have someone bestow grace on you and then you watch that person bestow grace onto others, you shouldn't be shocked. I'm just a graceful person. I like to make things work for me. >> Leadership is defined as titles is not defined by titles and positions. Leadership is defined by truth, by integrity, and accountability. I'm here tonight because Mesa Public Schools has allowed

085the community to believe that a gun was involved in an incident at Mesa High School last February. despite the fact that there was no gun involved. I'm here because the school resource officer, a Mesa police officer assigned to Mesa Public Schools, was notified that night of the incident. And yet the initial report he wrote, he was not aware, which was false. District leadership was also informed that same night that matter was reviewed and resolved and including the Arizona State Board education declining to go into any further action. Let's also be clear that four out of the five board members here tonight knew about this last spring. the dis the and yet nearly a year later, the district's chosen to to reopen a closed matter, not in a way that clarified facts, but in a way

086that has disrupted and shaken an entire school community. So, I do have some questions for you as a voter. First of all, why is the board allowing decisions that actively undermining stability at Mesa High School instead of protecting it? Secondly, why are respected and tenured educators being pushed out when finding and retaining experienced teachers is already Thank you so much. [applause] [cheering] My name is Melissa Allen. I'm an alumni of Mesa High, a parent, a coach, and a permanent substitute. I've been in education for over 20 years, so I know how this works. My commitment this year, the irony, is to come to more schoolboard meetings. I didn't know I would be up here defending my entire community. There's a book called Good to Great, and I read it when I was getting my master's

087degree and got my principal ship as well. And there's a quote in there that says, "Before you get going, you must get the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seats." Have you read it? Have you guys read that book? It'd be a good one to read. I'm starting to begin to think that you guys are in the wrong seats. You did not listen to the community. You have not supported Mesa High. I've listened to you in these meetings talk about how to retain students, how to retain teachers, how to retain get people to Mesa. a few weeks ago you were talking about was how do we make people choose Mesa? Well, you just gave an entire community a reason to leave Mesa High

088and to leave this district. As you know, great things were happening at Mesa. Test scores improved. Graduation rates improved. Enrollment has remained the same where others have struggled. Our service hours were stellar. We earned an A rating. And I've been at a school who's been vying for an A- rating. And it is very, very hard. Our athletic programs have had great success. And I believe that's due to Mr. Thomas and Mr. CLA's understanding of the needs of our community. Mesa is unique and you know this. In the four years that I've been on that campus, I have not had one person, not one, not even a whisper, that Mr. Thomas is not the right leader for that school. So, let's talk about the incident on February 12th, which we're almost at a year now. No

089charges have been made. None. Okay. We had a whole group of students start learning about the Constitution. I'm hoping they're learning about due process. As more information comes out, it's clear that this information has been falsified by, let's hope, not district members. Okay, we just heard a recording of someone sitting up there. And there's no evidence of wrongdoing. No charges have been filed. Not one person at that event was interviewed by the Mesa Police Department or the district. I was there. I know. Not one person, not coaches, not players, nobody. The SRO that night was notified, which was supposed to which is how it was supposed to happen. and he admitted in his reports that there was no violation. So, I don't know where we're getting that there's been this new evidence because things are

090being falsified. Okay? Stories are changing. Security guards have two different stories. Let's not go with that. It was obvious at the first board meeting when we showed up in force that you were not comfortable with that vote. You postponed it. You looked nervous. You looked afraid. Okay? You did not listen to us when we came to you and we told you you were making the wrong decision. Okay? isn't your job to listen to the community and do what's best for Mesa. Mr. Thomas has been there for 13 years. Okay? There's a reason that school is on the up right now. And I think what's happened is that many people in this district just can't handle the fact that Mesa is doing good things. Mountain View, Westwood, they get upset about that. I'm an alum. I've

091been dealing with this for 30 years. I know how it goes. So, until you can look us in the eye and not leave as cow Madame President, board members, uh, Dr. Stum. My name is Josh Chilton. I'm a father of a student at Roads uh, Junior High. Um, I want to address action item 9B, the adoption of the 2027 2028 school calendar. So the last time that a survey was sent out to parents, uh I stood up here and I was uh very disappointed in the way that that survey was conducted. I did not feel that it provided enough information to parents to make a a well-reasoned decision of what the possibilities were. It was do you want to keep the traditional schedule for this year? How about the year after that? Do you have

092any questions for us? Um, I raised those concerns and I'm very proud to say that the district listened. Um, Dr. Stum, Mr. Wing, uh, Miss Kirby, we put together a a committee to investigate actual options and alternative schedules that could be considered by the public for uh, 2027 and 2028. Um, as part of that committee, I did not realize all of the different um, requirements from the state, from the district that needed to be in on uh, on that in order to make that happen. And after weeks and months of looking through these schedules and coming up with alternatives, we came up with two viable options that were presented to the community. Regardless of which one was approved, um I would have been happy in either case because it showed to me that the district

093was listening to the concerns of parents and was able to get the information out to make a reasonable uh decision. as the results that we're going to see tonight will show the it was overwhelming how much people supported this si sitting on um and the option that they chose um as you'll see is the alternative option but it wasn't just parents and parents in fact even though the majority of parents support this option even more certified staff classified staff students and administrators approved this opt option. I'm extremely excited uh to be able to to see the presentation of this later on today. I also believe that this option is going to strengthen Mesa in its competition with other uh education options in the East Valley. Um so continue the good work. I know there's a

094lot of challenges and we won't always see eye to eye on everything, but when you can listen to the concerns of of the community here at this stis and we can see tangible results, I applaud that. So, thank you very much for your time, [applause] >> Madame President. That concludes our public comment for tonight. >> Thank you. We'll now move into a review of the agenda. We 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. And now um do I have a motion to approve the personnel request including the addendum and stipen? >> So moved. >> Do I have a second? >> I'll second it. >>

095It has been moved by Mrs. Hutchinson and seconded by Mrs. Benson. We have a new face in the back. Um Miss Castro. So, thank you for your due diligence. Um, any discussion on personnel? Seeing none, Miss Castro, will you please take our vote? With a vote of five years, you've approved the personnel request, including the addendum and stipen. With the approval of the personal request, we have three principles to recognize. Dr. Mesa, I'll turn the time over to you. >> Thank you so much. Thank you, Madam President. Members of the governing board today, we have three incoming principles to recognize this evening. Um, we've adjusted our procedures a little bit. So, everyone, if you could please um remain on the dis as I introduce the principles and then at the end, we'll take another quick

096break for photos. >> [snorts] >> Um, so I'd like to start with Rebecca Hancock. Can you please come up to the podium? Um, it's my pleasure to introduce Rebecca as the incoming principal at Sarin Monasury Center. Rebecca is currently the principal at Eagle Eagle College Preparatory Schools, South Mountain. She began her teaching career in 2005 teaching first grade at Crossroads Community School in Chandler. Rebecca holds a bachelor of arts and liberal studies elementary education from Point Loma Nazarene University, a master's degree in elementary education and curriculum curriculum development from Northern Arizona University, and another master's degree in educational leadership from William Howard Taft University to be completed in spring 2026. Uh Rebecca, you ready? All right, Madame President, members of the board, community members, and district leaders, thank you so much for having me here

097tonight. Um, to the governing board, thank you for the opportunity to serve as the next principal principal of Serin Monasury Center. I'm truly honored and grateful for the trust you've placed in me and for the opportunity to lead a community so deeply committed to nurturing the whole child and fostering independence, curiosity, and purpose in learning. I would also like to extend my sincere appreciation to Dr. Strom and the leadership team for their support, guidance, and partnership as I step into this role for the 2627 school year. I'm thankful for the collaborative spirit of the district and the shared commitment to excellence that makes this work so meaningful to all of us. I'm excited to learn alongside the dedicated educators, families, and students of Serin. The pride in the monastery model and the strong sense of

098community are evident, and I'm eager to listen, build relationships, and honor the strong foundation already in place. As I transition into this role, my initial focus will center on three key priorities. First, I'm committed to advancing highfidelity monastery practice while meeting or exceeding Arizona state standards and instructional best practices, ensuring that learning environments cultivate independence, deep thinking, and joyful engagement while maintaining strong academic outcomes. Secondly, I will prioritize working with the Serion team to grow confident, capable learners by aligning aligning thoughtful observation, purposeful assessment, and collaborative reflection and PLC's to ensure every child is challenged, supported, and progressing as an empowered self-directed learner. Finally, I look forward to strengthening a thriving school community by enhancing sustainable systems that promote clarity, consistency, and shared ownership, creating the conditions for both monastery integrity and continuous improvement to

099flourish. Thank you again for this opportunity. I look forward to serving the Serin Monasuri community and to contributing to its continued excellence. Thank you so much, Rebecca. If you're here to support Rebecca tonight, please stand. Did somebody come with you? Oh, thank you. Thank you so much. Let's give a round of applause. Congratulations, Rebecca. All right. Next, I'd like to invite Michelle Hall to the podium. Michelle is the incoming principal at Fremont Junior High School. She is currently the principal at Field Elementary and started her teaching career with Mesa Public Schools in 2012, teaching kindergarten at Guerrero Elementary. She has a bachelor of arts degree in early childhood education from Ohio Weslean University. Did I say it right? Okay. [laughter] And a masters of education and educational leadership from Arizona State University. Michelle. >> Thank

100you, madame president, governing board members. Thank you for the opportunity and for the trust you place in me to serve as the next principal of Fremont Junior High School. I am truly honored and grateful uh for the confidence that you have shown in me. I would also like to extend a sincere thank you to Dr. Stum, Mr. Wing, Dr. Assass, and Dr. Mesa. Thank you for your leadership, your support, and for the opportunity to continue to serve in this capacity. I'd finally like to thank my family who I wouldn't be able to take this next adventure with unless they were by my side. This moment is so bittersweet for me. Um, it means saying goodbye to the Fields community who I have grown to love and adore over the past 3 years of serving. Field

101is an amazing neighborhood school um that continues to strive for excellence through outstanding teaching, amazing coaching, and a wonderful community um that have a shared passion of doing what's best for kids. It has been the best honor to serve this community and they will always have a piece of my heart. As I look forward to Fremont Junior High School, I'm excited to partner with students, staff, and families through key three key factors. First, I'm committed to developing a strong community and culture of well-being. Fremont will be a place where students feel safe, valued, and supported both academically and socially so that they can fully engage to their learning potential and personal growth. Second, I'm going to focus on academic excellence for all students. This means providing equitable opportunities for success, building strong foundational skills as

102students begin their secondary journey and ensuring that every student has the tool tools to support them to graduate college career and meaningful community involvement. Third, aligned to the portrait of a graduate. I will pri prioritize building resilience as a part of a core learning. At Fremont, students will be encouraged to take challenges, persevere [snorts] through setbacks, reflect on their learning, and grow from both successes and mistakes. We will foster a culture where effort, persistence, and problem solving are valued, helping students develop the confidence and resilience they need to navigate both academic challenges and life beyond the classroom. I'm excited for the work ahead and deeply honored to join this Fremont community. Thank you for the opportunity for allowing me to join the Fremont Falcons as they soar to new heights. Thank you. Thank you. Thank

103you, Michelle. If you're here to support Michelle, if you can please stand. I know she's got some little supporters over there. [laughter] Congratulations, Michelle. All right. Um, next I'd like to invite Kate Ryan to the podium. Kate is the incoming principal at Fields Elementary. She is currently serving as the principal at Webster Elementary. Kate joined MPS in 2007, teaching sixth grade at Washington Elementary. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Education from National Lewis University, a master of education and special education from Grand Canyon University, and a Master of Arts and Educational Leadership from Arizona State University. Kate, >> good evening. President Davis and members of the board, thank you for this opportunity and for the confidence you have placed in me. I am honored to accept this new role and grateful for your trust.

104I would like to thank the district thanking the strength of the work happening at Webster and for supporting a transition that reflects both the school's progress and the district's long-term vision. I appreciate the care and intentionality behind this decision. I want to take a moment to speak directly to the Webster community. Webster is a school that learned how to stick together. The work we did there was not easy and it was never done alone. I'm really trying not to cry. [laughter] Building Webster into the school it is today required perseverance, difficult conversations, long hours, and an unwavering commitment to students. Even when the work felt heavy, that work took a great deal of effort from all of us, and it mattered. The work does not stop because I will no longer be there. The systems,

105the culture, and the expectations you have built together are strong. Keep leaning on one another. Keep doing the hard work. Keep students in the center of your focus. I leave with deep pride in what we built and have complete confidence in what you will continue to do. I would also like to acknowledge my family and support system for their previous and continued understanding. I especially want to recognize my two daughters who have shown remarkable patience and strength as this work unfolded around them. The journey continues and I look forward to the lessons we will continue to learn together. As I transition to field, don't worry, I already love you. [laughter] I want to first recognize Michelle Hall and the field staff for the leadership and hard work that have brought the school to where it

106is today. I am stepping into a strong community and I approach this role with respect for the foundation that has already been built. Drawing on my years of as an instructional leader, I believe the most meaningful growth happens when leaders are present learning alongside teachers and students. With that in mind, I will focus on three priorities. My first priority will be to listen and listen closely. To learn from the field community and build on the strong work already in place. Being present in classrooms alongside teachers and students allows me to understand practice perspective and progression in real time. My role is to clear a path so teachers can focus on the important work of teaching. I will prioritize clear expectations, transparent systems, and align structures that reduce barriers and supports strong instruction across classrooms. I

107will prioritize an environment where students feel safe, connected, and affirmed, and where culture supports both academic growth and personal development. This transition carries both pride and responsibility. I am grateful for the work behind me, committed to the work ahead, and thankful for the trust placed in me. Thank you for allowing me to continue serving students and schools in this new capacity. Thank you. You're here to support Kate. Please stand. Give her a round of applause. Thank you. All right. Congratulations all of you. All right. We're going to take a quick break for photos. Uh board members, if you can please. Um and Dr. Shro, join the principles in front. >> [cough and clears throat] >> I'll show you. Let me get my last. Sorry. Thank you. [clears throat] >> Oops. >> [applause] [laughter] >> Wonderful.

108Wonderful. Oh my goodness. >> Oh my goodness. Have you ever [clears throat] heard Thank you. >> Oh, you're going to Thank you. And again, you are welcome to join us or you are welcome to go do your celebrations outside the boardroom. Thank you. We now move down to our consent agenda. All items listed will be considered as a group and will be approved of one motion. If a board member would like to spotlight or comment on a consent agenda item, please do so after the vote. Do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda according to the recommended action for each item? >> So moved. >> Do I have a second? >> I'll second it. >> It's been motioned by Mrs. Walden and seconded by Mrs. Benson >> or Mrs. Miss Castro, will you

109please take our vote? >> [snorts] >> With a vote of five, we've approved the consent agenda items according to the recommended action for each item. Madame President, can I beat member um Hutchinson to it and say thank you to all of the people who [laughter] have uh donated and gifted our schools across the district. Uh it's very generous and it really does take um a lot of additional assistance and many of our schools. So, we thank you for that. >> Thank you. Do I have a motion to approve a proclamation recognizing February 2nd through 6, 2026 as National School Counseling Week? >> Hutchinson moves. >> Do I have a second? >> Seconded by Miss Chappie. Sorry. Any discussion? >> Seeing none, Miss Oh, um, we're ready to vote. Would Miss Castro, will you please take

110our vote? With a vote of five years, you've approved a proclamation recognizing February 2nd through 6th of 2026 as National School Counseling Week. Miss Chaffy, as board clerk, will you read the pro proclamation, please? Whereas school counselors work with teachers and other educators to help students explore their potential and set realistic goals for themselves. And whereas school counselors help parents focus on ways to further the educational, personal, and social growth of their children. And whereas school counselors are actively committed to helping students explore their abilities, strengths, interests, and talents as these traits relate to career awareness and development. And whereas comprehensive developmental school counseling programs are considered an integral part of the educational process that enables all students to achieve success in school, the governing board and superintendent of Mesa Public Schools do hereby proclaim

111February 2nd through 6th as National School Counseling Week. We encourage the community in acknowledging the lasting contributions school counselors make in our schools and community. >> Thank you, Mrs. Chappie. Yes, huge thank you to all of our school counselors throughout our district. We are so grateful for them. Um, we are now into our action items. Do I have a motion to approve a contract increase of $2 million for student and staff technology needs? >> Benson moves. >> Do I have a second? >> I'll second. Hutchinson. >> Thank you. Mr. Wing, will you tell us a little bit about this? Certainly, Madam President, governing board, superintendent audience, this is a strategic and urgent um request. We're anticipating uh teacher laptop devices uh to increase by 10 to 18% uh next month. And so the urgency of

112using uh information systems capital dollars to buy these prior to the increase um just was a a prudent recommendation to you. Thank you. Um, I'll start with board member Hudson. Do you have any questions? >> No, I don't. I'm I'm more than happy to uh take advantage of a cost uh uh not a reduction, but not not buying them at a at an increased cost. And uh these are uh materials that are desp you know, I mean, are absolutely essential tools for our educators. So, um I'm I'm good. >> Thank you, Miss Benson. >> Um just a comment. I I like the proactive approach. Um and according to the information provided, our um our teachers laptops are approximately seven years old. Is that accurate? And they've probably already been through multiple refreshes. >> That is

113absolutely accurate. >> So, they're reaching the end of their um effective lifespan. So, uh, I like member Hutchinson appreciate the fact that you guys were on top of it and saving us 10 to 18%. >> Thank you, Mrs. Balden. >> No, no questions. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Chaffy. Thank you. Seeing no other questions, Miss Castro, will you please take our vote? With a vote of 5 years, we have approved a contract increase of $2 million for student and staff technology needs. Do I have a motion to approve the adoption of the 202728 and 2028-29 school year calendars as presented? Benson moves. >> Do I have a second? >> I'll second. Hutchinson. >> Thank you. Mr. Wing, I know you have a present presentation to share with us. I'll turn the time over to

114you. Can you multitask and keep us on time and present? >> It's an action item. No time. >> I think I have uh somebody supporting me in the back. Thank you, little one. Uh the governing board had has already approved uh up to a 2026-27 school calendar. This year we have uh had a school calendar design team meet with the purpose of making a ultimately a recommendation to the governing board for the 2027 the following year 2027-28 school year and the 202829 school year. It's been a tradition where Mesa Public Schools approves two calendars at one time. So, you won't see us for another year, year and a half. I do want to start off by thanking the members of the design team. As you can see here, we had quite a few ranging from

115multiple parents with uh students at different uh grade levels. We had different uh staff. For example, we had our acu uh representative in academics because of making sure we're monitoring when testing is provided. Athletics uh was also invited, human resources, etc. They remiss without saying that I I really thank the the co-f facilitators that worked with me to prepare and uh facilitate this design team. That was uh Mrs. Emily Allen and Mrs. Samantha Hilddrth, both parents of Mesa Public School students. Want to also make a note a little bit about the process if you don't mind. Um I believe the two parents shared in an information item or study session item a couple months back. Uh [snorts] we used the interestbased strategies to uh to really guide our work within this design team. Uh we

116were thorough. We researched with other school districts. uh our intent really our purpose was our primary purpose was to create an alternative calendar to compete with the current strategies or model. So when um we seek or we saw uh feedback from parents, staff, community, it was one or the other versus multiple or some ambiguous type uh questions. So that was our purpose is develop an alternative one. Uh we split in different small groups. They had a clever spreadsheet that added days to make sure they met the uh some of our guard rails which I'll share in the next slide. Um we purposefully discussed winter break. You'll see why some of the discussions are on the 2829 calendar etc. But it was a pretty well thorough uh and with the parents help well facilitated. Thank you

117parents uh design team. We do have some requirements to consider. Uh by law required to have at least 100 student days um with the purposes of instruction with students. I know many of many of folks have shared or requested including some of us in the design team that we start after Labor Day and end before Memorial Day. Um, well, I recall that way a long time ago. Um, 180 days is greater now than it was back then and it just won't fit. Uh, our calendar committee was pretty creative. We couldn't find ways to have school days between Labor Day, add lab days between Labor Day and uh, Memorial Day. So, we had to um, you know, respect on that. But, I did want to mention that because I think it came up in public comment

118last time. And just a reminder, uh, school districts, we hear that all the time and we struggle because that 180day, uh, guard rails. This also provides us some mandatory holidays, uh, some, um, through, uh, closely related to federal required holidays. We used rather than use the term alternative calendar, standard calendar because what does that mean? We we really kind of uh, use Sorro and Aato as our design team. The thought process was that we want the individuals when they take the survey to reading the content not the naming convention of the calendar. Uh that was our that was our task. So so individuals had to kind of read thoroughly some of the uh uh features within each option. The sorro option uh otherwise known maybe as the alternative calendar some primary features uh for 2017

11928 school year it would start on July 28th. I think we started around then this year too, right? Uh it really emphasized more breaks during the school year which means the summer will be less. This is something that uh many East Valley school districts uh have in their calendars. Gilbert and Chandler was some that were brought up and researched in the design team. Just to know, most of those districts do not align with each other. The only alignment they have is that there's more breaks during the school year and less in the summer. That's really >> [snorts] >> uh the one. So with that one week during fall break that's current. Uh taking the full Thanksgiving week off. Currently students are off Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. Just a little bit of data because we we looked

120at a lot of data as well. Our highest absenteeism for students was the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. Uh and Monday was uh still high too. And uh one big difference is two weeks for spring break. Uh again, we really put a emphasis on making sure that uh the last day of school is Thursday before Memorial Day. That is just uh traditional with our high schools. Um and we wanted to uh continue with that uh from that design team's perspective. And because of that, because we had more breaks, there's less days in the summer. The ocato option is kind of our current school model where we we're in 2728. It seems like every year we start earlier and earlier and then there will be a shift a little bit shift and 2728 would have been that shift

121where we would start August 6th. Uh we would have one fall break, one spring break, one week of spring break, pardon me. We would still end Thursday right before Memorial Day. And again, it's consistent with our even our school calendar we have this year. So, we did survey a lot of uh all of our community parents, particularly parents and staff. We did uh survey students, too. We just didn't get the same uh level of interest in taking the survey as we did from the the parents and the staff. almost 11,000 overall respondents, over 6,000 parents, 150 students, 141 other um who selected other and about 4,200 staff members. And then I break it down and we dug a little deeper. What grade levels were the teachers? What types of uh uh what was a breakdown

122of staff? You'll see teachers for example is over 2500 out of that 4,200 etc. I have details or more details. Uh here's the overall preference. We asked the question, what's your overall preference? One or the other. And Sorro um reached twothirds of the respondents interest over Aato. A little bit more depth to break it down. Uh our research and evaluation uh department, Dr. Paul Gibbs in particular and I'm sure he had uh colleagues that assisted uh completed the survey based on you know best practices for surveys a little bit outside my realm. Not only did they ask the overall preference but they also broke down like if you're looking at the oatio calendar option or the sorro calendar option do you strongly disagree mostly disagree? And so they weighed in that as well. And even

123throughout this the sorro option uh strongly agree was at 54%. And then you'll notice the ocato it was pretty pretty much a quarter strongly disagreed a quarter mostly disagreed mostly agreed and strongly agreed for the the more standard calendar or the one we currently are on. I broke it down for parents as well. parents was 6040 sawu and then similarly this chart just shows what um the parent overall preferences were and the strongly agree was at 50% um and then the strongly agree for the the occat the current kind of model was 34% and you can see the rest of the um the figures student overall preference again not a large volume of respondents but those who did respond 71% had sorro. Just a repeat. Strongly agree. Uh there's a little theme in these charts

124from each of the respondent types. Strongly agree was outweighed by the students for the for the sororo the alternative calendar. All employees 75% 3/4 remember um overall was 2/3 parents 6040 staff 7525. Sawro maybe I'm a broken record strongly agree all employees 68% uh but I wanted to be transparent and broke down break down the classified and certified and school admin 80% for certified versus 20 so that's four fifths for the sorro again overwhelming strongly agree on sorro 67% classified staff about twothirds almost matches our overall respon ondance 64% sawro 51% strongly agreed on saworro whereas um the oatio is not quite 25% each area but close school administrators 88% uh sorry district admin I did not include you in this slide deck um 12% for oatio same thing here al although it's a little

125higher 79% so ultimately our recommendation to the governing board is the sorro option which is the alternative calendar option I suppose um I have some visuals for you in the audience but school would begin July 28th uh similar to this year in fact we'll have one week fall one week Thanksgiving off two week spring break uh we do have two previously a board approved professional learning days for certified personnel that we the design team helped uh navigate where to where to place that school end on Thursday right before prior uh Memorial uh day. Uh we also aligned with two week Christmas break. The statute says you if you're gonna if the board approves a Christmas break, a long Christmas break, it has to be up to two weeks. And I don't know why that's in

126statute, but it is. And so we we were accustomed to having Friday off and then two weeks off. So the design team restricted it to two weeks only. Uh and it's more aligned with East Valley schools. It's not going to match the the the features are going to match uh other schools visually. Um pretty tight. Sorry, there's 12 months in a year and 365 days. So, you can't really tell. You may not be able to see clearly, but the green is the breaks, etc. And then I have the 2829 school calendar as well. This is something we can't change. This was going to be inevitable regardless for the 2829. Uh the Christmas Christmas day is on a Monday. Um so I think some of you recall a few years ago that happened as well. That's

127just we can't change uh the day thing or when when days fall. Unfortunately, it's also a leap year. So that kind of shifted it a little bit too. And so uh that's just the unfortunate semantics. You didn't ask this question, but a question came up in our design team. Hey, what if we start what what if we start break on a Wednesday and come back on a Thursday and after we saw our data about Thanksgiving break this year. We tended to and then some stories from people from outside the district that had done that and had reverted back to having the the two weeks off. It also provides 16 days off with the three holiday or three weekends. So there was that benefit as well. So my apologies I didn't I didn't uh create it

128but Christmas started it starts on a Monday on the 28 29th school year. And that is it. We're now ready for some questions if you have any. >> Thank you, Mr. Wing. And I just want to do another thank you to the committee um that served on that design team. Uh we appreciate all those involved. I'm going to start and go to my left this time. So, Miss Chaffy, any questions? >> Um I [snorts] don't think any questions. I just want to reiterate that I really appreciate um that we took this path that we took a year to kind of figure out what we wanted to do or not quite a year and I really appreciate the input from our community and from all of the people who served on the design team. I think

129that one thing that I've learned in board service is that it's not always necessarily what I want for my family or what I think is right. Right. I enjoy sometimes that longer summer and starting that end of August always feels a little brutal, but I'm also always really ready for my kids to go back and do things by the end of July. I'm always ready for them to have things to do. Um, and I also really love the opportunity for us to have more time and more breaks when the weather is nice, that our kids can play outside when the weather is good. So, I am feeling comfortable with this recommendation. I feel more comfortable with the data and knowing that I think we've seen this shift over time going from kind of what I

130would have felt like was maybe 50/50 before where I feel like we've definitely seen a significant shift and I really appreciate the breakdown between parents and staff and I think that that helps us make wise decisions. So thank you for everyone's work on this so that we can make informed decisions. >> Thank you Mrs. Walden. >> So the question I have you kind of already answered but I just want to make sure I understand. So Mr. ring you were saying cuz I'm looking at the 2829 calendar and the Christmas holiday is right after the you're working the Friday before and then the Christmas holiday comes up and you were saying that you didn't want to start it midweek start midweek and come back midweek because when school is not a full work a full week

131people just stay home. I mean I I I failed to mention that the design team put in a lot of hours and the parents volunteered for that. So I want to thank them for many a days and many hours on it. So this topic had been brought up and vetted it. I don't think I'll do due gel uh due diligence uh sharing what was shared in just like a two-minute answer, but we did actually spend meaningful time vetting it. And the data just shows even this year, you know, the two days before Thanksgiving, we just have high absenteeism and um we're trying to improve our attendance rates, not uh decrease them. So, it just didn't work. Uh Miss Kirby, thank you for putting the the colorful designs on the the calendar. Um she shared in

132another district that she used to work at that they did do that one time and they had uh some consequences right away and the attendance was was the consequence. So they shift it back to nope, we're going to start it on a Monday through a Friday. And then the the weekends where because you're start you're last day is a Friday, you get that weekend, the weekend in the middle, and the weekend after. So you'll have 16 days off in a row versus mid where it may impact only two weekends. And so that those were in a gist. And so I know I have one committee member here. Hopefully I did did uh did did us right on u on our discussion regarding that. Yeah, I and I appreciate all the hours and volunteerism that goes

133into it and that's a lot of what happens here. We get a presentation at the board meeting, but people don't see all the other work that um people sacrifice to get this data and to make sure that we can make informed choices and at least people know now that uh you know a few years down the road that the last day of school is going to get close to the Christmas holiday. So uh I I I I really appreciate what board member Shaffi said. I mean, it's been it's been years in the making. It's been a gradual shift in attitudes and what people want at school and and certainly I'm not thinking about like what I would want, but you know, it makes sense that we're starting to have a little bit more breaks during

134the year and a shortened summer break. as we focus on the working conditions for for the teachers to help retain and attract talent in our district and uh trying to minimize student learning loss. It's it's okay to you cut summer back by by two weeks and and have more of those other breaks. And we're seeing that in every other district and the charters, they've all gone to this model. And it is hard for for teachers when they come back after summer and kids like forgot everything, right? you spend the beginning of the year. Well, Mrs. Hutchinson can probably talk more about that, but you know, relearning things. And so, I've always felt like it makes more sense to not have such a long break. Uh, and certainly working with my little girl, I can see

135that uh they do they forget things quickly uh with with when they're learning to spell and learning to read. So, I think this will help with those goals that we have as a district to to improve our academic performance and hopefully help parents and uh teachers be supported. Um, you know, having this information early, they can they can kind of plan ahead. But as we work more on on helping kids, right, then that can take the burden off parents maybe having to spend money on tutoring over the summer if there's less learning loss. So, it it's a really good work and I thank everybody for for working on this. >> Thank you, Mrs. Benson. >> Um, thank you, Madam President. So, just for a clarification uh question, Mr. Wang, um, there was well, I actually

136have a couple of them, but one you said that u parents really wanted to be able to start after Labor Day and end before Memorial Day. Historically, that is the way it worked. Is it that we have more legally mandated days of school now than we used to have? Is that why >> I I could be mistaken because I forget over the summer too. Um I believe when Proposition 301 was approved in 20201 there were student days added to it and there's been some another thing too. So I recall like 168 for some reason and I don't know what it was before that. Dr. Strom >> better memory than I do. >> Well I I know when I went to school. >> Yeah. >> Okay. cuz I know when I went to school, we started

137after Labor Day and we um ended actually we ended in June according to my best friend in high school. >> You could even >> there are circumstances where if you started after Labor Day, you could go through even early July, you know, so it just doesn't work out with the days. >> In fact, in fact, you can pick a 200 day calendar as a school district, too, if you want to. So, you could extend it even more if you wanted to. The state >> Well, you're not going to do that without paying our staff more. So, I'm pretty sure we're not going to have a 200 day calendar. Um so the other the other um question I had I remember the um the presentation we had earlier this year there was concern about in particular

138are classified and how they were how their pay uh pay dates would line up and whether or not their ability to supplement their income with a longer summer or shorter summer. Uh was that part of the discussion in the design team as well? because I I'm I was expecting to see classified staff have a lower preference for it based on that as a concern that was mentioned and I I don't see that in this data. >> I see their overall preferences still. >> We did provide in the survey some visuals about paycheck distributions and the number of paychecks. um you know, I don't know how easy to to see visually and understand it, you know, through a a phone or or the laptop, but because you're putting more breaks within the school year and you

139have a a a further away start from the end date, there are going to be more paychecks. So, I'm going to start with the certified one. There going to be more there potentially could be more paychecks within the school year. So those who pick the summer option where they get a lump sum, >> the lump sum may not be as great because they've had an extra paycheck here. So it's going to be indicative. It's going to be highly important for human resources and everybody else to have even prior to the 27 well prior 2728 school year even starting educating everybody on work calendars. I know when teachers get their contracts, they can select their pay plan. and it'll be pretty transparent in that. And even even so, we're trying to improve uh the visuals of

140that as well. Classified staff, particularly less than 12 month, the number of paid days won't decrease. It won't change the paychecks because there's going to be more paychecks. They may get a paycheck earlier in the year that at a dollar amount that they would not have had. They would have had to wait further because school year starting later. However, during the year with breaks and if they're not paid and some of which are not, they may have smaller paychecks then. So, at the end of the day, they'll have the same gross pay. It just will be distributed differently. Same as a teacher. So, no loss in pay, no loss of work days. Uh it's just different. So, we have to educate our staff on that. And we showed some visuals on that to hope to

141help when they are interpreting the both the SOR and the Aato option. >> Um, okay. Thank you very much. And I also want to say thank you for uh all the hard work for of the committee. I can't imagine working with that number of people and trying to develop and move towards a consensus. And in defense of the U 28 29 school uh calendar with Christmas, the last day being the Friday before Christmas, that actually frequently happens with the traditional calendar as well because yeah, I it that's just the way it it is. And um like if you're a baker, you probably don't like that. But if you like having your house cleaned up and all your Christmas stuff put away before you come back to work, you love that week after after New Year's,

142right? So, uh I think there's give and take on both of them. I am hoping that our our our community that is really into the traditional and the super long summer does understand that uh that long summer is it's been gone for a while. This really does. I I've been surprised the number of times that I as an employee took the the um survey and it never ended up going to a an alternative calendar. I was like, everyone I've spoken to wanted that. How can it have always been the traditional still? So perhaps it's the renaming of it that was helpful and then they actually had to look at content. But I like it. I think it I can see from a like a variety of families, it opens up opportunities for being able to

143go do things when it's cool, when it's nice, when other people aren't on vacation as well. So, I and I from a loss of learning standpoint, I love the more frequent breaks. I think it I think it gives time to rest and relax a little bit in between. We don't get all stressed. and I'm sure that our highly qualified certified staff will be able to deal with how do we get our kids ready for testing in April. So, thank you for all your work. I like the alternative. I love the week off at Thanksgiving. >> Thank you, Mrs. Hutchinson. >> Yeah, I'd like to um echo Mr. Chilton's remarks that he made during call to the public and he was a member of the committee and I and I appreciate you and all of your

144um colleagues on the committee. Um this was um I I think there are lessons to be learned here. Um this this is a model that I'd like to see the district adopt. Um where we we we have an issue or a problem. Um we are inclusive in the selection of folks. If you notice we had a variety of administrators, we had community, we had teachers, we had classified. I mean we had we had a nice representation um of perspectives and um and then the process you mentioned a specific type of process that was um that you entered into but it I I'm looking at the process and I'm looking this was like activate where we have an issue um we had data like requirements and what other districts had done and absenteeism rate and schedules

145like you know sports schedules and testing schedules. And then we gave people time, which is kind of cool, to collaborate and people were able to share and and come up with different ideas and we built consensus so that there was eventually two models and and a solution was derived and and then what what I heard you say, Mr. wing was then when surveyed additional data was presented so that people could make a more intelligent choice you know like like how the how the paychecks would go and things like that. So, um I I I really believe that this is a model that that we should be adopting for other issues like this and as we can see it builds consensus and and and an agreement on where we should progress. So, um kudos to the

146district, kudos to the volunteers who served on the committee. >> Thank you. Thank you board members for your questions and discussions. Um, I just echo also um on the communication. I appreciate the communication to staff. I um and to our classified and certified staff that they understand how paychecks will work with these new changes and opportunities if there are some during those breaks. I know it's summer sometimes staff have opportunities to um do different work. And so I don't know if during those spring during that spring break the longer two weeks if those opportunities will be given. Um but at least communicating to our staff that those opportunities are there. So thank you for that. With that do I see any other questions? All right. Miss Castro, will you please take our vote? For the

147vote of five yays, we have approved the adoption of the 2027,28 and 2028,29 school year calendars as presented. We are now down toformational items. Um, tonight our information item is related to the study session. Uh, Dr. Gibbs is going to walk us through and talk us through the projected proficiency and Mr. Wing's going to keep us on time. So, 10 minutes to present and then we'll have 10 minutes for questions. Thank you. And Mr. Gibbs, thanks for coming at the end. I'm sorry we decided to break up the study session. We thought we had too much information. So, thank you for coming back. >> Well, no, it's it's my pleasure and it's good to be with you this evening, members of the board and superintendency. Um, this evening, in the next few minutes, I will

148just be presenting anformational item uh updating you on projections for student proficiency um on this coming year's uh state assessments. Uh just in as a brief review, the uh proficiency estimates in this slide deck are based on our universal screening um instrument, which is the fast bridge assessment. Um that slots in with our other tools that we use here to monitor progress at the district along with diagnostics. diagnostics allow you to kind of dig in when you have a student who takes a screening assessment and all of our students take the screening assessments in grades K through K through N K through nine uh and then they take the um Horizon ACT and preACT in grades 9 through 11 and students who show up with um low scores in those tests as high- risk u

149teachers can dig in more deeply with diagnostics monitor the progress of the students throughout the year with progress monitoring and then um we have a final category of benchmark assessments that allow you to kind of dig in on specific high priority standards throughout the year as well. So we've chosen the fast bridge assessments um because of their flexibility and administration. Um they allow us to uh link up students and create um create intervention groups with recommended resources. uh and they are aligned with state recommendations, state approved uh list of approved uh assessments for um literacy screening. So um so begin tonight looking at the early years and then we'll move up the grade levels. uh as I mentioned previously the each year when we use these assessments at the beginning of the middle of the

150year we look to see how students might how students are performing and how they might perform at the end of the year on the state assessment and then we take the we calculate the percentile at which those students are most likely to uh pass the state assessment and that becomes the point the cup point that we look for to see uh what their projected proficiency would be and we use that using we start out with something called Uden's point um and then we uh we We then monitor that as the years go by and make adjustments as necessary. For our youngest students, which you see here in K through two, these students haven't yet had the state assessment. So what we do is we look at those students trajectory after a couple years when they

151hit third grade and they do take their first state assessments and see how they perform and create the cut scores based on that. And so these students looking at about the 50th percentile as a cut score. And we see that in grades K through two on math that uh our students are projected to have been if we were to give the student assessment at this grade level uh 35 to 43% proficient. This is very similar to last year as well for ELA. Uh we see here their performance is well around 35 35th percentile in proficiency range. Um so uh 35 for the for the for the coming for the coming year. All right. Looking at math in grades three through five. Uh now we actually see the red bands beginning to appear on these charts

152and that is the actual state scores that came in at the end of the year. So you can see the projection for last year and where the state scores came in. Um they're very close to each other. They're they're not not far off. Um and uh while it's not an exact science, you can compare those two. Um and see that our students did perform within about one to five percent of our projections. Um so overall, these projections do seem to be working very well, but we as I mentioned before, we continue to monitor that. Um so in math this year for 3 through 5, we're projecting to be in a similar range around that 35 to 40th percentile range. Uh 30 to 404 30 to 40% proficient range for grades three through five. For ELA,

153uh, our pass rates came in a bit higher than we projected, which is always good. This year, we may see a small lift uptick based on, uh, prior performance and our cut scores, uh, with pass rates kind of in the upper 30s. for math in grades six through eight. Um these are students moving into junior high as they get into seventh and eighth grade up against a climbing a super hill in a lot of areas of their lives. Um but these students uh performed u were in the 20 to 30 percentile on our screeners uh in grade 7 through eight. We're using a new projection method um that's uh we tried using it for all of our grade levels last this past year but um this method that um just privileged to work with a

154brilliant uh programmer in our department Jeff Hoo and he uh has has helped to kind of expand our data that we draw upon for projections and we found that that method seemed to work best for middle school for seventh and eighth grades. So the uh the scores that you see projections that you see here are based on that more expanded data set that we think will perform better. So um these students are performing in the 20 to 30s on the math assessment. Looking at ELA, uh you can see as once again I mentioned that we've gone through a new a new uh new projection method for grades seven and eight and you can see the uh the significant under projection for grades uh for grade eight in ELA came in higher than that when the

155the scores came in but our students are uh once again looking around 30 to 40% um pass rates. Okay. So now ELA and math in grades 9 through 11 as you may know the uh the ACT was revised this year and because of that the horizon screener that we use to look at proficiency estimates for grades for grades 9, 10 and 11 um is has also been updated and the projected pass rates were um much much higher relative to historical norms and it's evident that we'll have to get uh kind of a year under our belt to be able to give you proficiency projections for uh grades 9 and 11 this next year when the test scores actually come in from the revised ACT aligned to the revised uh horizon ACT. Um historically our our

156um projections have been have been pretty good but have been very good. Um but this this test when we looked at the data coming in had very high pass rates that didn't seem consistent with our historical numbers. So um we will look forward to having the data in this the end of this year to kind of create a new set of projections uh projection data for that new test. So um with that I'd be uh happy to field questions. Our team here be happy to field questions and I do hope the presentation has been helpful to you tonight. >> Thank you Dr. Gibbs. Appreciate that. Um board members we're going to start with questions. I'm going to go to my right. So we'll start with Mrs. Hutchinson. We'll do one question each that way we

157can make it back and then if we have more we'll continue. There is also a spreadsheet with follow-up questions if if we run out of time. >> Thank you, Madam President. Um in the first part of our study session, we talked about instructional um first tier instruction and and best practices and aligning curriculum with the state standards and resources and um providing professional development. A lot of emphasis on instruction where where it should be. Um, however, I I want to um ask um and Dr. Giz, forgive me. I'm not sure that you're the one who should answer this question. That's quite right. >> But um maybe Dr. Eastless and and um Dr. Strom. Um, I I appreciate um the work of the instructional coaches and and one of the things that was mentioned um by

158the principles of ants and Longfellow, but also by Miss Ryan of of Webster as to how hard staff had worked to make sure that growth was occurring, proficiency rates were were were were inching up. Um, one of the things that I'm worried about beyond instruction are behavioral issues because when when you've got a kid who's not behaving or you've got kids, as board member Benson was saying, you know, may are disengaged and and are are disrupted. They just don't want to do the work. Um what um way how what ways can the district um make sure that teachers can deliver first tier instruction that behavioral issues are dealt with and that their behavioral issues are not disrupting the learning environment for the other kids. And and I'm thinking of um the principles that I talked

159to on the west side. Um they are very some of those schools are very high needs populations. Very high needs populations. And and there a a real needs assessment I think needs to take place for those schools. And the extra help that is needed with behavioral issues I think needs to be addressed. and and I'm wondering I is there um discussion is there some planning is there some committee work being done about making sure that teachers can teach member Hutchinson um behaviors in the classroom continue to be something that we're focused on within our design for next year with these learning communities throughout Mesa public schools. We're hearing that type of feedback you just gave over and over again. I one of the things that's occurred at the high school level over the course of

160the last three to four years is they've established at the high school level. Are we still calling themmies? What are we calling them now? Student success centers. And those student success centers have been optimal to ensuring that kids that exhibit behaviors that need adjusting so that typical instruction can occur in the general education classroom for the rest of their peers get adjusted and and kids then can integrate quickly back into that classroom. Uh we expanded those student success centers out to junior highs this last year and uh found some success with them at the junior high level. And now the task as we're getting through the reorganizational uh stage of the learning communities and the hiring process the task of the learning community leaders the executive directors Miss Mesa and Dr. Eis Dr. Mesa Dr.

161East is to say, okay, what's working in these student success centermies in the 7th through 12th grade and how do we expand them down to the kindergarten through sixth grade level? Um, that's it's an art form because you don't want these types of success centers to be long-term placements for kids. Uh, students have rights. Uh, those rights are often uh either statutoily defined and or defined in legal documents that we commit to their parents. uh like an IEP, right, or a 504. And so, uh we're working through the extensive process of what what does successmies at the elementary school look like at a region level to ensure that, you know, we honor the fact that teachers do hard work every single day. And there are points in time where you're working on uh positive behavior

162support systems, behavior intervention plans. They're called BIPS in our world. And that uh you know, even those plans sometimes need a little extra support with some intervention to help students and parents understand we've got to have behaviors adjust uh in the general education classroom and we have to have high expectations for behaviors in our general education classroom. So, we're we're working through the process. We have uh quite a few bright minds in the room on the design process for student success centers. As we continue to grow them downwards uh into the elementary level, and as we work through that process, we'll come up with viable solution sets to uh behaviors. We understand and hear the issue over and over again. >> Thank you, Mrs. Vincent. Um Dr. Dr. Gibbs, as I'm looking at the projections,

163uh, so I'm I'm noticing that we're potentially not going to hit our board goal if our projections maintain, right? But my question is, as I'm looking at it, so I I I'll just take math 3 through 5. If I look at fourth grade um and I see the projection that 39 was projected 40 40% was made uh that is the group that's going to be fifth grade in 2526 correct? >> Yeah. >> So I I see our our projection for that is higher. Uh so that's good because that's showing that we're we're not only getting more kids towards proficiency, but we're also getting that growth that we need. >> Yeah. If if the Yeah. If the projections hold up, that would be that would be the >> Okay. >> Great assumption. But my concern is

164when we jump to six through eight because I'm noticing it seems so it seems like uh so I'll look at sixth grade um 24 25 we have 33% was projected 32% um maintain or met proficiency but I jump to the seventh grade um and now I'm only we're only anticipating a 23% projection for meeting proficiency. So, is there a significant difference in am I reading that right? I'm reading it right, aren't I? >> Yeah. The the fact is that the different grade levels within the assessment system have different targets as you know and the and different pass rates are associated with those. So, um the test is not while it's still the ASA, it's not identical every single year. So um part of the part of the difference in pass rates would be due to

165um in just the curriculum that's changing the targets that are going on as well as other environmental factors that would affect students learning. So are we okay so I guess to to piggyback off member Hutchinson then she's talking about behavior which I think is also important but are we is there a way that we can um hone in more are are you saying that from sixth grade to 7th grade the targets that we're testing are different? >> Well the yeah the the standards that you're targeting from one year to the next change. >> Well that's true in every grade level though. Correct. >> Exactly. Yeah. So, what I'm concerned about is the significant drop from sixth when we moved into junior high. So, are we I I'd like to see some investigation. And why is

166that? Because to me, that's a significant drop if we're going from uh 32% of our sixth graders in 2425 uh for math. Um but now we're only projecting 23%. So, is it I I think that needs to be explored because we're never going to reach our board goals um and get our students effective in math if we don't if we can't really target that. Does that make sense? >> So, I don't know if it's curriculum. I don't know if it's uh Dr. STM, you're the numbers guy. Is it >> It's been a while since I uh was in seventh grade math. Uh but is it a significant change? because that shocked me when I saw it because I I would want to see a significant at least see it maintain so that we're not significantly

167dropping. We're behind the eightball then. Does that make sense? >> Yeah. There's there's a lot of confounding factors in examining data across grade levels. I will tell you traditionally like I'll give you an example. Traditionally, the third and fourth grade tests are on concepts that are a little uh more uh applicable at the DLK2, depth of knowledge 2 and depth of knowledge three level. And the fifth grade test increases the complexity of items drastically. And you usually see a fourth to fifth grade drop in test scores just because the test kits. I mean, to put it in layman's terms, the test gets harder. Um, sixth through 8th grade, uh, what you end up getting is in the ELA side of things, text complexity really increases drastically. And then on the math side of things, what

168you end up getting is it's the time where you transition from fractional reasoning to proportional rates reasoning. And so in seventh and eighth grade, proportional rate rates reasoning becomes really difficult for kids to understand. And so the same type of concept occurs that the test becomes a little more complex for kids in seventh and eighth grade. And so some of those types of elements show the drop. But then I'll also tell you uh the national trend for junior highs seventh and eighth grade data aligns to what's happening in Mesa and and national trend is where kids struggle whether it's because of adolescent development. Like you could take kind of the child development side of things in this and say, "Okay, that's I understand because that's where I remember being a 13-year-old and a 14-year-old and

169I get it." Like that's where child development ramps up a lot. Uh so you can take that argument. You can also take arguments centered around school structures and talk about how it's difficult in a two-year block to have the impacts that that and I'm sure you've heard all these arguments before, but uh you know, a sixth to seventh grade drop is not atypical through throughout the nation. And there's a variety of different research articles that tries to take explanation on on why that occurs. So one one I mean two of the easiest exp easiest not and I don't want these to become excuses but two of the easiest explanations are text test difficulty and then the second one is uh that's what we see in national trends with seventh and eighth grade junior high data.

170So, can I make the assumption that we're looking at root causes in the at the elementary or the junior high level to try and figure out how do we because there is some of that adolescent brain development that uh that I experienced with my own children. Uh but that is concerning because we we we can't have them ready for the ACT if they're not getting the math concepts at junior high. though. >> Yes, Miss Benson, member Benson, and members of the board. Um, that is actually what we're looking at as we look at those four elements that uh Mr. Vonberg talked about previously. The trends that we're seeing is uh particularly in math is at our fourth grade and sixth grade levels. Um and so that's where we're taking a look at those cross functional

171teams of support whether it's teacher content knowledge or is it that the instructional strategies are not meeting the level of uh the rigor of the standard. And so each of the schools are digging into that data. And we also um as we do our classroom walkthroughs every Friday as an academic team, we're we're looking for those four elements and how we can help support and then um provide that support also specifically to the context of that community as as you heard tonight from Longfellow and ENS. Um it's it's different depending on who the staff is and where the students are. So those are all the things that we're focusing on. >> Can I ask one more really quick question? So are we incorporating the math principles um from uh common core? So like principle one

172is uh being able to understand and persevere through solving a problem. So are we teaching like that's I think that'll be critical to get that depth of knowledge. Think through like a mathematician use the mathematician language. Are we focusing on that as well? Hopefully. >> Yes. academic vocabulary, what the standards are actually asking and and utilizing those terms and helping students to really think through the process of that reasoning. Um, obviously foundational skills we're building up as as Dr. Straw mentioned um is really important as well and then spiraling that as we continue to move along through the progression of of the mathematical concepts. >> Thank you, Miss Balden. >> Uh, I I I don't have any questions. I just wanted to uh thank you for uh the presentations and I really appreciate that we

173continue to delve into um this data in our board meetings and uh also since we brought up the drop off and proficiency from sixth grade and junior high that's part of the reason I'm a really big supporter of the K through8 school. It's a it is a national problem and there's that drop off. It's as Dr. Stro said not specific to Mesa for some reason the but the research shows that students perform better when they can stay at their elementary school and so I'm really proud of some of the schools that we've been able to change into K through8 models because that will help those students uh as they kind of navigate those changes in in curriculum and testing. But thank you for being here tonight. >> Thank you Mrs. Chaffy. Yeah, as we've this

174has been a helpful discussion to kind of start with what's working well and then look at the data and see where we're struggling. And I recognize that this is a national problem and this is a statewide problem and this is a city problem. We're struggling in all of our schools to get students to proficiency. What I'd really like to be able to do as a board and with the district is very very clearly articulate how we're going to meet these board goals. How are we going to implement it? And I appreciated um Eric Vonberg's presentation tonight because some of the things he talked about are we need to make sure that we have highquality rigorous instruction and I really love hearing that um that meets the needs of 80% of our students. And he said

175we need to have structures like attendance and instructional time. We need high quality materials like researchbased curriculum and then our teachers need to have the content knowledge and the instructional knowledge um to be successful. And I truly love being in classrooms because you do see that combination of art and science in teachers, right? Having that data. I always say like teachers are the most amazing scientists because they're in there like trying to problem solve with a bunch of feral third graders. Like it's really amazing. Um and I want to make sure that we're providing them with the support that they need. And we talked about high quality instructional um design and it's understand the design outcome, figuring out how we're going to measure that the students have learned it. And then this is the third

176piece that I think we're not articulating and it's figuring out how to get there. And so I'd love to have those conversations about how are we getting there. We we've received updates um about teaching and learning, providing uh training to our instructional coaches and a professional learning playbook. Um I can tell you that very few teachers sit through professional learning and feel like it's life-changing. We've all been in those meetings as teachers where you're going, I would be better off sitting and figuring out how to meet the needs of my unique students. Um, and we provide a lot of online materials for our teachers, the pacing guide, and we have a tier one and tier 2 guidance document. And it's a lot to sort through for our teachers. I feel like they're maybe still feeling

177the struggle of how do I get there? I've got the curriculum, the board is approved, I've got all this structural document. I'm attending my professional learning. I'm doing all of these things, and I still can't figure out how we get there. And I want our teachers to feel like we're on their team and that we're doing the research. We're looking at what's working and I think what I'd love is maybe a followup on how we're looking at what's working at Enen Longfellow and how we're implementing it in other schools. You know, we know that it's working in some places. So, let's see, can we implement those strategies in other campuses and then I'd love to receive regular reports because we have a big district. We have a lot of students. This is a monumental problem.

178But I think if we can chip away at it in little bite-sizes and say, "Okay, we built these we built these regional learning communities, we learned from this area, we implemented at these campuses." I think we can start really seeing that compounding effect um from these instructional leaders that we have in our district. We have incredible teachers doing incredible things. And I think as we work together, we can start maybe moving the needle on some of these and and feeling successful. >> Thank you. And thank you board members for questions and discussion. Um you have one more missed. Go ahead. >> Thank you Madam President. Um board members um I I just wanted to let you know that um some some way in which I think we can impact these scores is that um our

179students we we we haven't heard from students. We've been hearing from teachers. We've been hearing from superintendency. We haven't heard from students, but Hackivate this year was based on this question. Since state assessments are mandatory, what are ways students can have more voice ownership in how they are prepared for experience and use the results of the assessments. And and we've had students from every junior high, every high school who met in September at MCC. They met in October at the Child Crisis Center. They met in December at the Mesa Police Department training facility and they used the Hactivate process to tackle this issue. How do how can we get our students to take the tests seriously and they have been working through data research. They have worked collaboratively. Um I I do want to um

180make mention that they are now working as site teams um and they are collaborating with their principles to come up with a plan for their schools. Um, Miss Jennese Montes has been very much involved in the process and she came up with a great idea on how to get parents involved and we're going to activate state assessments with our family literacy parents who are in a group of eight different schools and they're going to become testing ambassadors on their campuses. So, I think we may I'm hoping Dr. Gibb This is my hope and we can't live without hope that that that perhaps raising the awareness of testing and having kids come up with a plan on how to incentivize and get them to take testing seriously maybe will go beyond the projections that have come

181so far. And I do want my fellow board members to know that in April, the kids are going to report to the board about their plans and how successful they were in implementing the plans. And the Mesa Public Schools Foundation has says to a point, I was just at the meeting last week, to a point they're willing to fund some of those incentives. So, um I'm I'm hoping that, you know, coming up with a community plan and and and particularly those who are most impacted by the state assessments, which are our kids, um that maybe we'll see um some different results. >> Thank you. I agree. Um I think the importance if our kids can see and our families can see the importance of this testing and these and this data what it does and

182how it helps us in planning that they can understand. I know I've sat on numerous committees at my kids schools on how do we get kids to school on these days and then how do we get them to really take this serious. This is a huge discussion and I know teachers pour hours and hours of time and effort into making phone calls and getting kids to school and helping these kids to understand that the importance of this. And so I appreciate the community involvement in coming together to to try to um help broaden the uh perspective of everyone to understand the importance of this. So thank you. Thank you board members. >> May I add a comment? >> Go ahead. So, I think that um I think testing is how we assess whether or not

183our students are learning um the standards, but to me the test is not the beall and endall. It's actually the education of the child, right? So, I would like to make sure I'm very pragmatic and I I I want to make sure that we're not just telling kids, hey, it's really important you're here for this test. This test is the absolute most important thing. That's actually not the most important thing. It's that we are educating them. We're getting them to think. We're getting them to process. We're getting them to reason. We're getting them foundational skills so that they can be successful citizens. Right? So, in our pursuit of why why is the testing important? Because that lets us know are we adequately preparing you to be a successful citizen. It's not the test. That's just

184a measure, right? Yes, we have to take it. But I know uh I with my background if the only reason that I was told I had to learn something was because it was on a test in April, I would go, "Peace out. I don't care." There is a reason we're teaching these kids something. That's what we should be focusing on. We want educated citizens in Mesa. That's what our objective is. This is just one measure. And we also there is a reality that some of our kids are never going to be great test takers doesn't mean they're not educated kids, right? So I'd love the hopefully member Hutchinson they're focused on the hey uh let's really impress upon I I don't think we do that adequately enough. You know when I was beginning to uh

185learning to teach in the 90s we were very much why is this important for you to learn it? I never said anything about a test. It was in order for you to function as an adult. In order for you to that's our goal, right? This is just one measure as to whether or not we're getting to our goal as a public school district. So, >> and I and I think uh piggybacking on what you just said that um the the the application of the skills that they are learning as as as public as Mesa public school kids in portrait for graduate being collaborative being communicative problem solving critical thinking that's what they're doing in activate and and it's like taking an issue and and and being part of the solution and I couldn't agree with

186you more. This is a snapshot and it's it's not it's not what all kids can do and what they know, but it is important and the go the board has made it important and it is what our schools are graded on and and so and the kids were like what my school grade is based on this? Yeah. and just just getting folks aware that this little snapshot really has some in enormous implications and um but I couldn't agree with you more that um a a program like Activate is where they can actually apply their knowledge and their skills and that's that that's what we're trying to model too. >> Thank you. Thank you both. I agree. All right, we do have a spreadsheet, so if you have any other questions, please fill those in. And

187thank you, Dr. Gibbs. I appreciate that presentation. Um, do I have a motion to adjurnn the meeting? >> So moved. >> Do I have a second? >> Second. Hutchinson. >> So it's been moved by Mrs. Walden and second by Mrs. Hutchinson. Any discussion? Seeing none, Miss Castro, will you please take our vote? With a vote of five days, the meeting is adjourned at 8:19. Thank you all and have a wonderful evening.