Governing Board Study Session and Regular Board Meeting - August 28, 2025

001Okay, go ahead. Moment of silence. >> Welcome 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 5:01. We would like to excuse Mrs. Walden tonight and we are going to um jump right into the study session this evening in our efforts to facilitate a timely and efficient meeting. Mr. wing. Um, timekeeper, you ready? All right. And, uh, Mr. Moore, I'm going to turn the time over to you. >> Thank you, President Davis, members of the board. Uh, this evening, we are presenting, uh, studying a study session on optimizing facilities, look at, uh, Mesa's public schools initiative, uh, strategic reduction initiatives, uh, with regards to square footage. So, with that, looking at the agenda, um I'm going to cover a

002brief history of Mesa. I had to do a little brushing up on Mesa's history. Uh we'll do building uh we'll look at uh reducing building square footage. Uh the executive director of operations and maintenance, Mr. Mike Kramer's here to help um go over some uh wins and losses, some uh lessons learned from our portable reduction uh initiatives and talk about our planned cohorts. We'll look at future initiatives and then uh we'll leave time for discussion and questions. So, brief history, Mesa's first high school was 1909. That was news to me. I did learn that it burned down. uh that the building is no longer in existence, but um uh that really that just shows the vast history and the longevity of Mesa Public Schools. And so um I fast forward all the way to the

00380s. Uh kind of skipped a couple uh decades. Um but looking strategically at the 1980s to the 2000s, um that was really the peak growth era for Mesa Public Schools. And so what I've understood was uh during that 10 during that timeline um the administration at the time uh chose instead of doing brickandmortar uh buildings during that time to address the growth they invested in portables and so portables were uh installed um to meet the needs of student growth at that time. And so as we transition to the 2010 2020 uh timeline, we understand and we know that uh during that timeline uh student enrollment growth started we started seeing some trends with regards to student enrollment growth and probably uh early 2006 from what I've seen in terms of student data metrics and um

004but however during that time there was a I would how I'm classifying this is a modernization of facilities because there was two very important important bond initiatives passed in that timeline for first one in 2012. Uh that bond some of the highlights included uh the Dobson High School renovation, uh the Westwood High School renovation. Um those were some big investments into our facilities and again um those investments couldn't have been done without our voters and and supporting that initiative. Again, in 2018, our voters uh in Mesa supported the 2018 bond. Uh that one's more recent, right? Uh I think we can see some of the more recent improve um highlights of that with Mesa High. Uh we have Mountain View. Um there was a number of security lobbies and infrastructure regarding security enhanced throughout our

005elementary schools. There was over 80 buses. We also retrofitted buses to have AC. Uh very important in Arizona. Um and then student laptops were a big initiative with that bond as well. So huge investments into modernizing our facilities as well as increasing the safety of our facilities during that time frame. Kind of fast forwarding to the 2020 2025 uh decade uh we we can notably note that our enrollment decline started increasing uh around the co timeline. uh we we can see and it's not been no secret um that our decline has increased and that pace of increase is something that we're working through uh and planning through and that's a big part of this presentation and how we're addressing not only have we covered how we're addressing it on the staffing side with some of

006our initiatives um but this presentation will cover how we're addressing it on the facility side in our infrastructure. So, um those changing community demographics we anticipate continuing throughout this decade. And so, how do we plan and and be proactive in our uh decisions uh to ensure that we are utilizing taxpayer dollars efficiently as well as our building space. So with that, one of the initiatives that I did not start but I will be uh heavily involved in as we uh move through this cohort is um reducing building square footage with the reduction in student count. Um, again, thankful for the previous administration for kind of setting me up uh with putting in a bunch of portables and uh basically having the ability to uh no other district I would say in the state has the

007ability to reduce square square footage um in the means that Mesa has by strategically looking at portables and excess and at strategically looking at sites that have excess space and looking at that and by removing a portable not a brick and mortar uh school, but looking at a portable building and reducing that square footage and seeing a notably uh cost savings uh initiative with that with that removal. Just a little a couple highlights. So, uh Mesa Public Schools has 8.3 uh million square foot of building space. Um, we have approximately 640,000 uh square feet that was occupied by portables prior to 2025. Mr. Kramer will cover over the 2025 initiative. And our uh MPS, we have a plan right now to uh continue to reduce portables over the next three years and and what we're

008deeming cohorts. Um and so 26 and 27, those cohorts will continue to be evaluated as enrollment trends, you know, shift um over these years. But we have a a tender plan uh in place and that plan is ever changing as as enrollment changes. So with that, I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Kramer to go over the highlights of should switch sides of uh the portable removal summary for the school year 2024 2025. Thank you, Mr. Moore. So let's look at some quick metrics here. So we were um provided with a task to demolish 77 portables in fiscal year 2425. that that's a lot of building space almost 150,000 square ft. Equivalent number of classrooms removed is 154. It's amazing, right? Um the ongoing and this is perpetual savings. Uh this is cost avoidance,

009right? For things like dry and wet utilities, preventive maintenance, maintenance, capital improvements to portables, all the things that you need to do to keep a building like that um in a you know safe and habitable um space um yields uh $1.1 million per per year. um the equivalent number of elementary schools closed just on that first year, that's cohort one, is almost um f five schools. It's 4.81 elementary schools. Next slide, please. So, here's um some pictures from NS. I think these are these are um this is probably the best before and after pictures that we have in the entire uh cohort one. Okay, so you see uh maybe not so pretty um uh image there on the left. lots of concrete, you know, hardscape, uh, uh, really poor condition, portable and such like that.

010And after the, uh, demolition activities were were completed, we, um, leveled the the space. And if you're familiar familiar with ENS, this is the the northern side of that parcel. Okay. There there were, I believe, a quantity of three portables that were removed. Yeah. So, um, we had our contractor level everything out, um, put in a irrigation system with drip lines, and then we used our in-house staff to actually plant 16 trees. So for future learners, this is going to be a beautiful outdoor area for learning activities. Uh some of the challenges that you might expect uh with with removing portables, you know, it's very process-based. You know, we have to get demolition permits. We have to do all sorts of testing before we have to make sure that all of the uh you know

011dry and wet utilities, the the portable water, the the sewer, the electrical, the natural gas, anything that serves that space, fire sprinklers, fire hydrants, all that stuff has to be removed appropriately before we can get that big equipment out there and start taking them down. Um lots of lessons learned as far as far as that goes. Next slide, please. Yeah, this is Taft out on the east side of our district. So, you can see on the left hand side the before photo. It's it's the portable is being prepped all the tasks that I had just mentioned. You can see we have our construction fencing up keeping keeping that separate from the main campus. And then on the right side is post um demolition. Obviously, the grass has grown back there which has expanded the space

012for the children to be able to play. Uh from memory, I think Taft has a rather small uh turf area. So this definitely benefits the students of that of that campus. >> Mike, can you elaborate on the process in which we scrape and uh get everything out of the portable that we can use? >> Oh yes, absolutely. So just because a building is vintage doesn't mean that it has um components that we can't reuse. So we are um absolute professionals in going in there. Uh so we we like all of our trades, right? some mechanical, plumbing, electrical, um you know, electronics, fire alarms, and stuff like that. Anything that has a useful life left in that asset, we actually take it, bring it back to the shop, get an air compressor, clean it off, um

013and then stock it in our little mini warehouse for future use. Um so that's additional cost avoidance that's not necessarily um visible with these projects. But yeah, we've we've reclaimed air conditioning units um you know all all sorts of things a long list of items uh which will further offset costs for future work in Mesa public schools. >> Yeah. Um me not having a lot of history I I I wanted to know like what was the impact on sites and what's better to know than ask a principal. And so um speaking to her keynote junior high principal um she provided this quote that we no longer have blind spots for students who are strangers to hide so we are safer. The full view of our campus from the neighbors makes them feel more attached to

014our campus. And so um it just some some small wins even at the campus side that principles feel from this reduction um to go along with the savings from a financial standpoint. And so on to 2026, Michael will kind of elaborate on the in progress and um look at what we have to do for the remainder of this year. >> Yeah, this is um cohort two. Okay. And uh the task at hand this year is to is to demolish 15 portables. We've already completed six of those. I believe that that was at Johnson. Uh uh four portables and one five portables and and one portable restroom, I believe. Um so that's the equivalent of 10 classrooms being demolished. $85,000 a year in uh perpetuity and then you know 31 of an elementary school closed. Next

015slide please. And this is cohort 3. So fiscal year 26 and 27 the task will be to remove 12 uh portables 22,000 square feet equivalent of 24 classrooms uh ongoing savings of 171,000 and 3/4 of an elementary school in equivalency as far as being closed. And this is where I alluded to too. This plan is is what we set in place back in in 25. But as we evaluate and monitor enrollment numbers, we'll continue to revisit this if there's uh additional buildings uh that we can capture um as enrollment trends uh fluctuate throughout the years. So in summary, um uh if this plan were come to fruition as is right now, um we would uh potentially by the end of 2027 have removed uh approximately 104 portables. Uh the square footage removed would be close

016to 200,000 uh square feet, equivalent number of classrooms, 208. The estimated savings per year uh just under $1.5 million. And like I said, that's that's ongoing savings from utilities, cost of keeping those portables in service. And the equivalent number of elementary schools, uh, 6.5 elementary schools without ever touching a brickandmortar building. And so that's something unique to Mesa. I will tell you, no other uh, school district would have the ability to reduce the amount of square footage without touching a brickandmortar school. And it just goes to support Dr. Trump's initiative of us continue to try to stay uh save our schools and continue to uh keep our schools open without um uh through and these are some of the initiatives. So looking forward to um future initiatives. Um we are also evaluating our administrative spaces.

017So um while portables are um we have a current portable plan for classroom space reduction um our administrative building space uh stretches over about three campuses and that includes uh ASC um which is the administrative service center the student service center and CSC I had to learn those acronyms when I got here and I I think I got it now but uh CSE curriculum building which is where we're currently in now. So, uh, we're evaluating these spaces. Uh, we know, um, as our enrollment declines and our, um, we decline with, uh, we we manage our staffing, um, with the enrollment decline in terms of right sizing. Um, we know there's potential to have some efficiencies within our administrative building space as well. um and look at options to potentially uh repurpose, lease uh or sell

018some of these buildings or and then consolidate eventually I think is a long-term goal um to be using these facilities as efficiently as possible and keeping money in the classroom. I did highlight additionally uh transportation. Uh we we do have three transportation yards and so we're also looking at uh is there opportunity to uh condense and um uh create some efficiencies by consolidating those yards into maybe two yards. And so um not reducing employees, we're trying to create efficiencies uh with our space and again stay away from that the classroom and and the school closure conversation as much as possible. So, with that, I finished ahead of time. We'll be happy to take any questions. >> That's impressive. He's keeping with his uh his uh what did I think tell you earlier? He's kept things

019on t on on time lately and so he's the lucky charm here. So, and he even ran ahead of schedule here. So, thank you, Mr. Moore. Um board, any questions? We'll start with Mrs. Hutchson and move or >> Sure. Um um the question that I have is um where does the savings come from? Um when we talk about the savings that we have um why are we where where's where does that savings occur? >> Absolutely. So that's a combination of utility costs, you know, for the uh the domestic water, you know, the water that you could you can drink like at a bubbler in a portable. That's the cost of electricity. That's the cost of repairing your, you know, mechanical, plumbing, electrical, uh service on the fire alarm system, the fire suppression system, uh painting

020the exterior, re-roofing the portables. I mean, just think about it. It's really equivalent to your own home in that the things that you need to do to keep your house, you know, safe and and and comfortable, you need to do do the same thing for a portable and it cost a fair amount of um funds to do that. >> Yeah, thank you very much. That really that really helps because if we're if if portables are saving us money, then we need to know why. And I I really appreciate your thorough answer. Thank you. >> Thank you, >> Miss Benson. Uh just for clarity sake on the portables that are uh currently this year the we've removed six um what will but we have 15 uh scheduled so the.31 is what we have currently reduced correct

021>> so this year >> when we remove the um full 15 what will the impact on that be do you That's about 30 classrooms. A portable is two classrooms. So that's 15 times two. Okay. 30 classrooms. 30 classrooms is an elementary That's an elementary school. >> Wow. I could have done the math. >> Yeah. No, that I It just helps because in full transparency, elementary schools square footage wise are a little bit bigger. And we're calculating that by the number of classrooms removed, not the square footage that we've removed. So 30 classrooms is about one elementary school. >> Okay. Okay. And you may not be able to answer this, but um when we're removing portables, I know oftentimes, especially at the elementary level, those uh classrooms have uh historically been used for programs that um

022have uh perhaps traveling teachers. Uh like with my uh the department that I worked in frequently, uh if I went onto a campus, I was in a portable room. So, are we are we um actively in the planning process of where are those those classrooms, those um programs going to be housed on our campuses without interruption to those services? >> Absolutely. So, we we collected actually input from each principal directly. We we broke it up in into three cohort groups. Cohort one, two, and three. brought them into the the the bu the um ASSE, the administrative services building um across maybe two or three different months and had them actually fill out a um a survey if you will, right? A a Google sheet about the uh opportunities that they might see and also the

023challenges. So things like band and music, you know, obviously that's an activity that might be loud, right? You might not be able to put it inside your campus. Those were were very thoughtfully um reviewed. uh we did not um demolish any portables without the uh permission of the principal that that's going to be in the best interest of that particular campus and the educ educational programs. Yeah, great question though. >> Um and can you speak to our timeline for um figuring out uh how how andor well actually how or how we're going to repurpose um our three administrative buildings? Is there a timeline for >> Yeah. Well, there's a there's a Doctor Strum timeline and then there's a realistic timeline. So, >> which one's better? >> The the the the fact of the matter is

024Cameo. Miss Kirby is laughing because she is the one that told me that's not realistic. It'll be this timeline. So, that's why she's laughing behind me. >> So, should we promote Cameo? So, so I we we were hoping to get at least the seventh floor of the ASC building, uh, which is where the cabinet level team is over here by January of 26. In reality, we think it's going to be the summer of 26 when everything happens June and July of 26. Uh, and and so far, we've cleared out the fourth floor of ASC, which was where R& was. And we've you got to remember our three goals that we talk about are we want to when we're reducing square footage and how we use square footage to become more efficient. We want to first

025of all use our schools to partner with ourselves. That's number one goal. So how do we take programs that are centralized and move them to school sites? It's there's an advantage to moving them to school sites too because they become proximally closer not just to teachers but also to families. Right? So that's one. Two, how do we partner with educationally adjacent institutions? That's our partnership with like Bezos and Polaris that we've stood up recently. Those are people that are in the education and business. And three, how do we partner with community building organizations? Those are our three goals with our space as we have lived into this excess space reality that we're in in and it's not just Mesa public schools. There are school districts throughout the nation who are in this position. And those

026are our three primary goals. And so uh with that being said, fourth floor is already off at a school site. Research and eval moved to a school site and we'll be looking at lease opportunities for that fourth floor. Third floor which is community uh communications and the seventh floor, the next two floors that are least populated by employees and those are the ones we think we can get uh moved over here by the summer of 206. And then the last couple floors to move will be the second floor and the sixth floor. We've met with the city of Mesa on this issue. They're very aware what we're doing and how we're moving. Uh we've actually had some interest already. Mesa Chamber of Commerce two nights ago brought an idea to me. Uh and we're going

027to be moving those on to Mr. Moore so that we can vet these from a business perspective. So, uh, if if we haven't repositioned, uh, I I mix them up, Tyler, just to be fair with you, SSC, Student Services Building, and ASC, uh, within the next two years, we I would expect the board to circle back and say, you're moving too slow uh, with me. >> And, um, ASC is on Main Street, correct? >> Correct. >> Yeah. >> Uh, the SSC is on Country Club and Brown. And then curriculum services is here. >> Correct. >> Just for clarity. And do we own ASC? >> We own the whole building. >> So a big compliment. So you know I'm a big fan of generous orthodoxy which is you know you got to honor the fact of

028why systems are the way they are and give a lot of positive presupposition to prior administrations trying to do great work to put uh organization in the best optimal position. And then the generous part is organizations constantly change and you have to live into the fact that organizations constantly have to change and be malleable. And so in the 1980s and 90s there were a couple opportunities. One was the portable conversation that Mr. Moore had referenced. And we're going to be grateful for a while that the the previous administration knew not to put up brickandmortar buildings so we could be a little bit more malleable and nimble as a district when we went into decline enrollment. Another situation was there was a savings and loan crisis that had occurred in the I think 80s if everyone

029remembers that in the state of Arizona and and there was two prime buying opportunities to get two buildings uh in terms of like pennies on the dollar and they were the bank building and they were the student services building on country club and so we own those buildings outright and we are very grateful uh for prior administrations having the wherewithal to buy those so we could own them outright because it gives us revenue generating opport opportunities now at this point in time. >> Okay, thank you. That's all the questions I have. >> Thank you, Mrs. Chaffy. >> I appreciated Mr. Kramer's comment about the fact that these classrooms do require a lot of maintenance and upkeep. As someone who went to school in the portables in the 80s and 90s in Mesa public schools, I

030know that a lot of kids have passed through those classrooms and my own home has required a lot of repairs since it was built in the '90s, and it doesn't get nearly the use that our classrooms do every day. So, thank you for bringing that up. I that's something I always try to remind people when they're like, "Why do the schools need to be fixed?" And I'm like, "Because hundreds of kids are traveling through them every single day." And um and I do appreciate the way that we've we've looked at being proactive in these portables. Is there a time that we will get an update again on on this process, >> Mr. Moore or Dr. Trump? >> Yeah, I mean, I think it's going to be a standing kind of item like once a month

031to have some sort of financial and and operational update and so we can continue to layer in um an update on the portable production um because I think it will feed into a lot of our other conversations with regards to being efficient and um using our dollars wisely. Thank you. >> Thank you. And I appreciate the time taken to go over this with us. Um I do think moving in January probably is a lot cooler than June and July, but I understand why you would want why it looks like it'll probably take longer. Um with that, and I think Dr. Strong mentioned it, what will happen to our buildings that aren't necessarily portables that aren't being used that they are that when we have some empty spaces in CL in schools, what we're doing with

032those? What if there's an area that's not being used at all? Are we closing those areas off so we're not using utilities and those types of things in those areas? >> Yes, that's a practice that we've learned from uh Scottdale Unified about 20 years ago. They had a practice of going in and closing out wings. Tempe Union High School District currently has a couple wings that are shut down at a couple of their high schools and Skyline is an example of that. There's a group of rooms at Skyline that are currently not being used and vacated to help save us on the operational costs and we'll continue to do that. And and what it what it does is it helps our staff and everyone realize the fact that hey, our schools are getting smaller and

033uh if you allow everyone, this is no different than the your own personal home household. If you keep the amount of space that you have, you will live into it. And when you live into it, then you aren't necessarily using it for the most optimal uh uh use case that you possibly could. Um my wife would be uh uh very uh she'd laugh out loud if I talked about her sewing room right now because to her it's optimal, but to me it's not optimal. But you you understand the idea if there's space available, people will move into it. So >> agreed. I get that at home from my children. Um, I do think that we should probably have a book written on what was found when those portables were removed from some of those that

034were there since the 60s. I know. >> Definitely. Yes. >> Um, board members, any other questions? >> Okay. Well, thank you so much, Mr. Moore and Mr. Kramer. We appreciate it. Any other comments, thoughts? >> I I have a point of clarification out of Mr. Moore uh and Mr. Kramer that we're calling the the co the three cohorts that you just talked about are the cohorts that were 70 schools that were 70% and less utilized. Is that that one or does that include the newest cohort that we took through the process this spring? >> We're interpreting that based upon the three-year um the three years basically. Yes. >> Yeah. So, the reason I asked that clarifying question, please know that this last spring we worked with a whole another group of schools that are in

035between 70 to 90% utilization. And so, this was the very first group that we're doing in three years. And now we're working with the next set of schools that may some of those schools may have be add-ons to 27. Some of them may be things that we eliminate in 28 or 29. And so there's another group of schools going through that same process. And then the only schools that haven't gone through that process then after this year will be the schools that are above 90% utilization. And you wouldn't want to take away portables that from schools that are 90% higher utilized. So >> thank you, Miss Sutchinson. >> Yeah, piggybacking on your comments, Dr. Stum, I know that uh at Red Mountain there was like the social studies department was in the portables that faced

036the the softball and baseball field. I was one of those teachers and I loved being out there. Um but um those portables are still being used. I mean because Red Mountain is at capacity, right? And and and previously we had talked about um perhaps um in our next bond um building a brick and mortar um to replace the um portables that are being used by particularly academic subjects. But even even in the arts um it would be optimal because frankly um in elementary schools orchestras performing in the low ceiling portables just look at those ceilings where the bows have have gone have gone up right it's not it's not necessarily optimal not great for sound either so I'm wondering um do we have plans for the future in perhaps replacing portables on campuses where um

037the need is great to support the program with brick andmortar buildings. >> The answer is yes. We've worked with Red Mountain High School in specific and went through the master planning process uh and are excited about the development plans that have occurred with community involved from a mass master planning perspective. We just need the capital uh revenue to execute on those master plans. So >> So those plans are still in the works. >> Still still viable and still in the works. Yes. >> Thank you very much. I just wanted to make sure that we were still thinking about how we were supporting programs. Thank you. >> Any other questions? Okay, seeing none, do I have a motion to adjourn the meeting? So moved. >> Do I have a second? >> Seconded. >> Any discussion? Seeing

038none, Miss Kirby, will you please take our vote? with a for the meeting is adjourned at 5:32. We will be back at 6:00 for the regular meeting. Thank you. [Music] Hey. [Music] Hey. [Music] Oh, [Music] Let's [Music] find [Music] out. [Music] Hey, [Music] hey, hey. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Hey. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Hey, Heat. [Music] Yeah. [Music] Mhm. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] It's [Music] all it's [Music] Yeah. [Music] Yeah. Yeah. [Music] Let's [Music] find [Music] Good evening. I'd like to call this meeting to order at 6 o'clock. A quick reminder, any citizen who would like to that wishes to speak on an agenda item or a call to the public must complete a sign-in sheet in the lobby prior to public comment on

039the board agenda. This evening, the presentation of colors will be led by Dobson High School, JROTC cadetses Cedric Benali, Vanessa Lan, Guadalupe Martinez, Tanner Miller, and the pledge will be led by cadet Laya Escalante. After the pledge, please remain standing for the national anthem, which is recorded and features the Mesa Academy for Advanced Studies combined band and Orchestra. 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 which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Thank you. You may be seated. And thank you, Dobson Jotc, for being here tonight. We will begin the meeting tonight with a video on governing board procedures and then I

040will read a statement. >> Welcome to the Mesa Public Schools governing board meeting. We appreciate your interest in the district. The five elected governing board members serve without compensation and volunteer countless hours. The president and the clerk of the board are elected in January. Under state law, the governing board may only discuss and vote on matters that are on the agenda for tonight's meeting. Agendas are posted a minimum of 24 hours in advance on the Mesa Public Schools website and in the curriculum services center. Copies of tonight's agenda are located in the lobby. The public may speak on any item of business on the agenda that the board discusses or requires the board to take action. If you wish to comment on an action or discussion item, please complete a request to address the board

041form before the item is discussed. The form is located in the lobby. Members of the public will be given a maximum of 3 minutes to speak once recognized by the governing board president. Please state your name before you speak. We ask that all speakers show respect and courtesy to others. During the second regular meeting of each month, the agenda will include a call to the public, which is an opportunity to speak to the governing board about a school district matter that is not on the agenda. Please submit a request to address the board form to participate in the call to the public. If you would like the board to consider adding an item to a future agenda, you may submit your request in writing to the board at least five working days before that meeting.

042The superintendent or governing board president will consider your request. Thank you for your attendance and involvement in tonight's meeting. >> 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 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 respectively and actively listen. Be kind. Verbal harassment, abusive or foul language. Intimidation, and disruption have 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.

043If you are disruptive or interfere with the conduct of this meeting, you will be asked to leave so the board can conduct the business of the district. We'll move on now to our governing board calendar. Dr. Strong, will you please lead us through? >> President Davis, on September 1st, 2025, Labor Day commences. Uh, and schools and district offices will be closed for that day. So, enjoy your 3-day weekend. September 11th, 2025, we have a board uh meeting with a study session as well. And uh we do understand that that's on a great remembrance uh remembrance day in public uh in in in our nation. Um, so we will be honoring uh the victims of September 11th on that day. And September 25th, we have a study session as as uh as well along with a

044regular board meeting. >> Thank you so much, Dr. Stro. And now I'd like to turn the time over to uh Miss Jen Snider for director of communications as she'll show us some of what's inside Mesa Public Schools. Miss Snder. >> I need the clicker. Good evening, President Davis, members of the board, Dr. Stum. I'm excited to share some of the things you can find happening inside uh schools and around the district. So, we'll get started. Westwood Jr. Kellen Little performed the national anthem at the Arizona State Capital on August 14th for Navajo Code Talkers Day. He's pictured here with Jason Chavez, director of tribal affairs at the Arizona governor's office, and Thomas McGay senior, one of the last survi, one of the last two surviving Navajo co-t talkers from World War II. Moving over to

045the Eisenhower Center for Innovation, their choir has grown steadily for each of the past four years. Thanks to the hard work of music teacher Mrs. Rachel Gunderson and the popularity of choir and the Disney music in schools program. ECFI choir has now grown to over 70 students participating this fall. Arizona Commission of Arts awarded two roads Junior High teachers a grant to support the continuation of their Aento partnership. Last year students were provided the opportunity to engage in meaningful art projects, conversations, and guest speakers during their embedded club time. Wrong page. Red Mountain High School recently received a $915,000 SFD building renewal grant to repair, realign, and replace failing sewer lines in its main academic building. While this project was underway, two additional buildings began experiencing similar issues disrupting the educational process. The operations department

046submitted an additional building grant request to the school's facility division and while it was still in the queue, they contacted them the SFD leadership after consecutive sewer backups and within 18 hours uh they gave special authorization for the school district to move forward with this project. This was a huge win for us. So, and then I wanted to share this Mesa moment that was submitted by John Huckleberry. When a water leak occurred in the Carson Junior High Gymnasium just 30 minutes before tip off of the girls basketball season, administrators from both Carson and Roads Junior High Schools quickly worked together to relocate the games to roads. Transportation rerouted buses to pick up the Carson teams. Roads assistant principal Zachary Cadera adjusted his plans to supervise the double header at until 7:30 p.m. Carson principal Chris

047Brun and assistant principal Estabbon traveled to roads to help. Road security officer DeMarco Randall returned to campus to assist and the officials already on site at Carson drove over to officiate. Instead of postponing the game, everyone came together to put the students first and ensure they had a positive start to their season. Students from every MPS Comprehensive High School gathered at Mesa High last week for emergency equipment removal training. This hands-on prep ensures our teams are ready to respond and keep student athletes safe all season long. All right. And STEM is very exciting. Over at Losendes, students in Miss Shriber's fifth grade class at Losendes got hands-on with science by extracting DNA from strawberries. They love seeing the genetic material up close with their very own eyes. And Tuesday was a pretty big day. Uh

048it was National Dog Day and so it's perfect day to highlight our Paws and Pierce program. All of our PAUSE partners pass obedience and therapy classes and are tested and approved using a nationally recognized team evaluation. These dogs serve as trusted companions in classrooms and throughout the school. Um pictured here's Winnie over at Hail Elementary and she's with a bunch of kindergarteners. Uh this is one of the I think coolest traditions that are within Mesa public schools. Mesa High students come together to partake um in their annual service project at the city of Mesa Cemetery. Students from every sport, program, and club washed headstones, pulled weeds, and restored the grounds. They ended at Zitto at Chicago's gravestone and listened to his nephews tell his powerful story, reminding them to always carry on. And then the

049Dback surprised Britain Elementary fourth grade teacher Jessica James with a thousand check for her classroom. The students were ecstatic to see Baxter and they got to enjoy story time with him, answer trivia, and even ask him a few questions of their own. And then finally, um our schools are such a big part of our community and this email that we uh received from a a parent I think is a a good example of this. I'm going to read the email out loud. Um and this is after Red Mountain hosted a youth football camp. Hey, Coach Enders. Just wanted to report how incredible the youth camp went for my little girl. I honestly went into the night with very low expectations for a free event at a high school run by teenagers. I also expected my

050girl to want to leave before it was even over. However, I was proven wrong. On all accounts, my daughter had the best time of her life, and I was so impressed with every one of the players. The teens were relentlessly pumping of every child. They were extremely organized, and they were the reason my daughter loved the evening. They made her feel genuinely special. That team of yours is incredible and I'm excited we got to experience the love they all have in their hearts for the sport. My daughter was totally starruck when she got the autographs of some of your varsity players. Didn't even know she understood what a autograph was, but in the parking lot after she kept repeating over and over again that she never got an autograph by from famous people before. Those

051guys and gals are officially her heroes. So, thank you for the work that you've all put into this night. Inspire my 5-year-old to aim high. And fall sports are in full swing. I know Mountain View has a very big game going on in right now in a few about 45 minutes. Um, so I encourage everyone to go out and uh support our student athletes. And that's that's it for my report. >> Thank you, Miss Snder. It's always great to see what's going on around our district. And it's never a dull moment these days. It's busy busy come fall. Um, as we move into public comment, before we begin public comment, just a quick reminder that policy 1-302 says that call to the public is limited to issues within the jurisdiction of the board and is

052not an appropriate forum for persons to complain about specific employee, student, or other person. Mrs. Chaffy, how many speakers do we have signed up tonight? >> President Davis, we have eight speakers that have signed up tonight. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Okay. You >> go ahead. We have eight speakers and Miss Chaffy um will each you will each have three minutes and Mr. Chaffy will lead us through this. >> Perfect. So I will call up the first three names then I'll let you know the next three names that are on deck. Our first three speakers will be Vicky Johnson, Jason Smithson, and Jeff Thompson. On deck we have Jenny Denton, Ray Deer, and Julie Sessions. >> Hi. Thank you for taking a moment to hear our concerns or questions. Um, I want to first thank

053you guys for getting rid of streaming services on the computers. I think that's going to make a big difference in the classrooms. Um, one of my biggest concerns right now is with the um, block scheduling over at Mountain View. I have a child that goes there. He's a senior and he's saying that half of only one of his classes fills the entire hour and the rest of them he's got about 45 minutes each class. Not that he's working independently, he's just not working. There's nothing to do. His grades are fine. His assignments are turned in. Um, and so I wanted to ask if there's a way, because I know that's one kid and a couple of his friends that have made comments, if there's a way to survey the kids and survey the teachers to

054see if they need more support to build their programs, but also to survey the kids to make sure that they feel like their time is being adequately used and fairly used so that we can maximize their schedules. And that's all I have. My name is Jason Smithson. And before I begin, I'd like to take a moment just to recognize Red Mountain High School and celebrate an incredible milestone. This year, Milton Renshaw became the first student with special needs in the school's history to be elected student body president. That is an extraordinary achievement, not only for Milton, but for the entire Red Mountain community. It's a powerful example of leadership, inclusion, and a kind of culture that lifts every student up. Now, member of the board, Dr. Stum, first I just want to say thank you.

055As a parent in the Mesa public schools, and as a community member, I know how tough your jobs can be. So much of the work you do go unnoticed, and when the hard decisions come, it's often thankless. But I want you to know there are people in this community who see it, who understand it, and who appreciate it. Dr. Stum, I know you stepped into this role, and immediately you face challenges that weren't of your making. A significant budget deficit and the incredibly painful responsibility of layoffs. Those are not easy burdens to carry and it would be unfair for anyone to define your leadership by them. My hope is that our community gives you the time and the grace to show the vision and leadership that I know you bring. The board, I may not

056agree with every single vote you make, but I recognize the bigger picture. You're working to ensure that Mesa schools not only succeed today, but thrive for the next 50 years. Too often, people only show up to complain. Tonight, I wanted to show up simply to say that you are appreciated. Um, and with that, I'd like to share something positive happening at the school level. Um, my son attends Webster Elementary and he has an incredible leader in Principal Ryan. Honestly, I wish I had a principal like her growing up. Uh, as a parent of a child with special needs, I'll admit my emotions can run high, but Principal Ryan never waver. She's calm, thoughtful, and always willing to work to find the right solution. If you're looking for a model of what school leadership should be,

057you don't need to look any further than Webster. And so finally, so Arizona's law requires that each district governing board or county school superintendent provide special education and related services to all children with disabilities with those services available through the age of 22, which is also federal law under IDEA. However, there have been an increasing number of instances in the state where our students with special needs are pressured to graduate before they are truly prepared. What assurances can the board offer to parents that our children will be supported through our full educational journey and not required to graduate before they are truly ready? And I just wanted to also ask too that with the study session earlier, I was curious what the cost of the portable removals are and how does that look from a

058budget perspective. Um, and that's it. Thank you. I'm Jeff Thompson, a current taxpayer and a concerned citizen. And I come here to commend Dr. Strong tonight, I still am. Even though everybody at home during the pledge of allegiance, we had five people in here that wouldn't show respect by putting their hand over their heart. I would expect that from Marcy, but you three over here and doctor, I I can't believe it. Enough of that. I'm sure you guys will maybe find a way to show respect because showed patriotism is the backbone to our education. You guys need to step up to the plate and I commend you. I wish you'd have been here about three or four years ago because this hole that this some of the people on the board and the people that

059were in place dug this hole so deep that it's probably going to take you six to seven years to get it out and I I really like what your your progress is doing as far as when we had somebody explaining the ASU program and you took it over because they I guess they got assigned a task and couldn't didn't complete it because they couldn't answer the questions. You couldn't believe the basically silent applause you got in the audience for stepping up just like a true leader should stepped up and explain it to everybody. Now, I want to go back to this this I get I've had some health issues and it get a little tough to talk sometimes, but this AI stuff that we had Marcy was there was a guy in here that was

060going to talk and it's perfect for businesses to use for their businesses to direct people to different areas. It's not education. We had a perfect person in here that's making a good living at it. And he they wouldn't let her speak. She's over there tug tugging and whispering to Courtney not to let him speak because it was Courtney's call. And I watched that. And then I don't know what you guys have for attorneys here for contracts, but this AI thing, it's not been proven. It was never tested. You guys are you're putting our kids as the guinea pigs. Now, if you guys were going to do that, believe me, I know about R&D. You guys could have got at least six 600,000 or more to implement that because they're going to go tout, well, we

061did this in the largest school in Arizona. And they're going to sell it and they're going to make millions of dollars. And and she says, oh, they're going to support it. Well, hell yeah, they are. They're going to be here. They'll probably have somebody here full-time because you're saving them literally millions of dollars in research. Next, we'll have Jenny Denton, Ray Deer, and Julie Sessions. On deck, we have Kristen Martinez and Brooke Fast. Hello, Mesa Public Schools officials and school board. My name is Jenny Denton. I am a parent and grandparent of students in Mesa public schools and I am a proud teacher at Mountain View High School. This was a spur-of-the- moment decision for me today to come and speak to you. Um, this year started with a lot of rocky things. We had

062a new superintendency. Um, a lot of issues with block scheduling and other things, but I just wanted to come and talk to you about how a year and a half ago I stand I stood at this podium and begged Mesa Public Schools to make a stand against cell phones in the classroom. And I am here to tell you thank you for supporting Governor Hobb's decision to take cell phones out of the classroom at the high school label level. It has made a huge difference. We are not policing those phones. The kids are talking to each other. They're communicating again. And I don't have anything else to say except thank you for removing the role of phone police from our Mesa Public Schools roster from the teachers. Thank you. >> Good evening. uh Mesa School Board.

063It's great to be here. And Dr. Stum, um I attended last May. My son graduated from uh Mesa High School and they had a Native American program and Miss Benson and Miss Hutchinson attended, but I don't remember them announcing you your presence, but it was noticeable. Thank you for having support to be there at Westwood High School. Um uh I noticed you in the front and I don't I didn't was waiting for them to recognize you but they maybe I missed it but thank you for being there. It's it's good to hear that uh Native American program is supported by by the board. So it was uh your presence was well needed. So thank you for that. Um, I also ended the school year last year, I brought up some significant, very significant safety issues,

064and I'm glad to report that uh Mesa Public School Board u uh addressed these matters and were able to address these significant um uh safety measures that I think would compromise student safety at uh one of our schools. And I think it's probably uh schoolwide, but I think it opened that discussion of safety and concern, which is stop starts at the top at the site leadership. And um I'm been getting updates here and there as a community member and my I have one more son in Mesa public schools and we just want the the best for our children and their safety and I know all of you want that of course and especially things happening in the uh in the uh nationwide and even in the valley. It's heartbreaking what happened and what's happening and

065I'm more of a preventive person. And if I see something, I say something. And that's what has been taught. And I just wish that all site leadership would do that. And there would be no repercussions, no reprimands for people reporting, seeing something, and saying something. We have to be proactive for our children. So I want to thank the the board for for addressing these matters in a timely manner. So thank you. I have next on my list Julie Sessions and then Kristen Martinez and Brooke Fast Kristen. Hello. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, esteemed faculty and fellow parents. Good evening. I'm honored to be here today to speak about the profound impact the band program has had on my family, especially my son Ryland, who's on the autism spectrum. When Ryland moved from middle school to

066high school, the transition was a significant milestone for both of us. High school can be overwhelming, but the band program at Dobson High School has been an integral part of his his success. Band camp was a lifeline for Ryland. On the very first day, he wasn't just a new student. He was part of a community. The band provided him a built-in support system and a friend group which made all the difference in his adjustment. This sense of belonging has been crucial for his emotional and social well-being. However, I am here tonight with a concern that affects not just Ryland, but all of the students in the arts program. As you may know, the board recently eliminated class fees, reducing funding for our arts program, including the band. Unfortunately, the band program has not received much

067funding for its concert band and jazz band classes um from the district and have not been given or have been given $323 to operate three concert bands and three jazz bands. Unfortunately, due to this, my child will not be able to attend concert festivals this year as the band can only afford to take one ensemble of students with the amount provided. Our booster organization, which I am the president of, um, fundraises year round to make sure that our students have what they need to be successful. But making up an almost $1500 deficit from last year in addition to the other parts of the program we fund is just not possible. I'm here tonight to ask where these approved funds have gone and why they have not made their way to our students. As a parent,

068I didn't mind paying $10 as a class fee for my student to participate in band if that meant that they would be provided the necessary materials and experiences that these programs have provided him. If the district is unable to make up for the loss of funding, I'd ask that class fees be reconsidered going forward. Thank you for your time and continued support of music music education in Mesa Mesa public schools. Together, we can ensure that our children, including those with special needs like Ryland, have the tools and opportunities to succeed. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Brooke Fast and I'm a ceramics teacher and also the visual arts department chair at Dobson High School. And I'm also a band mom. Um, before I dive into band and course fees, I want to second what

069the other teacher said about cell phones. So, thank you because it has made a tremendous difference in the classroom. It's an amazing year. So, thank you for that. Um, I want to lead with that I feel so grateful to have taught in Mesa public schools for 21 years. I've been teaching art at Dobson that entire time and I've also I've always felt very supported by our leadership in in Mesa public schools. I also feel very supported by our leadership at Dobson High School. Uh I followed the student fee conversation since the beginning when Joe O'Reilly initiated this conversation and the board took that initial vote and that was the first time I felt really scared for my students and my job and our programs. So I got involved. I reached out to some board members.

070I had many conversations with Patrick Walsh. I attended some board meetings. And it was at a December meeting that I remember every board member speaking about the positive impact that the arts had had on their personal lives. And I left that meeting full of hope. And I believed the board and leadership when they said that their plan was to fully fund the arts. And this August that proved to be true in the visual arts. So in visual arts at Dobson, we are funded pretty close to where we were last year. and I do feel confident I can provide what I need to to my students. But I was shocked to find out that this wasn't true for our performing arts programs. I believe that this was not intentional, but rather a mistake that can be

071corrected because in Mesa, we value the arts. Our band program serves all students by strength and need. My son is a junior at Dobson. He plays in the band during the school day. He does marching in the fall and he does jazz band in the spring. He is a musician. Through band, he's taken on a leadership position that has challenged him and prepared him for college and career. In my classroom, it is my music students who exemplify the essential skills and attitudes outlined by our portrait of a graduate because they practice these skills in band every single day. They are my best communicators. They're my risktakers. Um they're all about community in those band classes. And I want nothing more for than for those band classes to be fully funded. I still believe that our

072leadership can fully fund all of the arts. And I implore this board to find the solution as soon as possible to ease the minds of our worried teachers and parents and show them that in Mesa we value and support all of the arts. Thank you. We previously called Julie Sessions and I just wanted to have one last call in case she wanted an opportunity to speak. Good evening, Mesa School Board and Superintendent. I'm a longtime Mesa resident, parent, and teacher of education. I'm here because our school's future depends on inclusive decisions. The redesign rightly prioritizes consulting MPS employees, classified, and certified staff with long-term experience in crafting jobs and descriptions. Their insights are invaluable. But let's go further. expand consultation to parents and students via accessible joint workshops or online surveys. This way, we can

073review drafts for classroom impacting roles like executive directors for special education, incorporating family views on essential skills for student support. Imagine parents sharing needs for better family engagement, or student council reps advocating for mental health resources, fostering a more complete redesign that serves everyone. I've seen how excluding community input leads to mismatched priorities. Stronger support here could prevent that. So, I respectfully ask you to table the vote on the admin personnel request addendum regarding these role changes for two weeks, giving time for broader community voices to be heard and integrating into the MPS plan. Our kids deserve this collaborative effort. Thank you, >> President Davis. That concludes our public comment. >> Thank you. Dr. Stum, did you want to add anything tonight? You know, I just want to uh briefly talk to the Dobson community

074because we are currently working through that situation and we heard full fully and loud and clear from the governing board that they didn't want uh any program on a per student basis to go with less money. So, we're just active working. when a when a formula gets developed and it's uh uh on an average basis uh sometimes the formula doesn't hold out tried and true and so just please know we're actively working on that situation. Thank you. >> Thank you Dr. Strom. We will now review the consent 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. Seeing none, um we'll now move to personnel. Do I have a motion to

075approve the personnel request, including the addendum? >> So moved. >> Do I have a second? >> Seconded. >> And Mr. Wing, I know we have a couple unique items on this personnel request. Can you tell us a little more? Madame President, uh, governing board, superintendent, audience, uh, on August 14th, last governing board meeting, there was a study session sharing about our organizational redesign really impacting the department level rather than the school level. This included a reduction in uh, superintendency FTE. The governing board on August 14th approved a reduction of five assistant superintendent positions rather add two chief positions. We also shared with you tight tight timelines uh because a lot of our decisions uh will be on budget staffing takes place in the first semester for the business side of the district uh preparing for

0762627 school year. So following those timelines, today it is recommended that we approve the hiring of the chief of schools, chief of academics as well as the uh executive directors and two director level positions based on that redesign. And just to uh reiterate or remind everybody uh during that redesign discussion last board meeting, um you were informed that we'll be reducing over 40 up at the district level. Um that included that superintendency um reduction of three overall. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Wing. U board members, any questions? Miss Benson. >> Thank you. Pardon me. Thank you, Madam President. Um so we heard from one community member in person that they'd like it to table the vote on the addendum. Um, so at some point I'll I'll address that, but I usually don't type up

077what I'm going to say, but I did this time to make sure I hit the points that the community has um sent and the concerns that they have. So, while I understand the rationale for having the two chief positions hired in a fairly quick manner in order to get the restructuring solidified by calendar year end, several concerns have been raised by our stakeholders. So, I'd like to ask Dr. some questions in order to um provide the opportunity to address the concerns that have been re uh have been shared with me. Um I personally read through the job descriptions of each position. Um, so could you just briefly share how the new job descriptions for the chief of academics and the chief of schools differs from what their the current um the current position of teaching

078and super assistant superintendent of teaching and learning and um an area superintendent would be. >> Yeah. Yes. Uh the chief of schools position is essentially overseeing the systems of leadership and leadership development that we have uh for our principles and for our assistant principles throughout the district. Uh they will oversee six executive directors who they develop systems for within those regions with high expectations for academic outcomes uh in those regions. So along the chief of school side, the big idea is you have systems of leadership. Down the chief of academic side, what you have is systems of learning. And those systems of learning uh which are responsibility of the chief of academics to develop with the executive directors and the directors in that arena center on how do we get good and reliable data for

079not only tier one instruction but MTSS instruction uh in front of our in front of our regional people to lead out the the academic learning that needs to occur for kids. How do we get good systems in place for our our students who are exceptional? Uh those that happen to have 504s, IEPs, those that are in our uh programming that that includes programming where it's a little more self-contained. And that's through the line of uh our exceptional student uh uh what we think we're going to call our except we're still working out naming conventions based on feedback last week, but we think we're going to call it something along the lines of executive director of of special student services. Um and and so you can think the top line being learn uh the leader of

080learning uh the leader of uh uh the leader of developing systems for leadership in Mesa public schools and the other line being the leader of those developing systems of learning for schools. And that's drastically different than the way we're functioning right now where we have everything split up. And I'll be quite frank with you, uh, you know, AC, we've have we've we've had some I'm a positive presupposition guy. So, we've had some really good talented people come in here and try to lead the district across uh different regions. And what that often results in is different leadership development cycles from east to west to the secondary level. And we're going to try to standardize that process with high expectations. And the KPIs that we have centered around five domains. And those five domains of KPIs

081have been shared with our principles. And so our chief of schools and chief of learning will be expected uh with high expectations to help our systems and our schools live into schools achieving their five KPIs, their five uh uh domains of KPIs that then those five domains of KPIs also uh link directly to your governing board goals. Um, so a lot different than it was in in prior times in Mesa public schools. And uh, we're going to uh, we think this style of system which is modeled a little more on the east coast. We're part of a large school consortium of districts and on the east coast this this is a more prominent model. We think it's got great potential in Mesa public schools to localize learning communities. And we're going to likely, you know,

082we're constantly redesigning names based on feedback. And we've started by calling these regions and we think we're going to end up calling these learning communities. And so we think this has great potential for developing a a really solid basis of learning communities in our in our six regions in the district. >> Okay. Thank you for that. May I can ask another or can I have a couple? Is that okay? >> Yeah. >> All right. So um back in 2011 the district's average student achievement on state assessments for ELA was about 80%. Uh math achievement was about 66% give or take. 2425 the average result just for um ELA 3 through 8th was about 38%. I couldn't find the um high school and math was about 32%. So the um rationale was shared during the introduction

083of the restructuring as to why you elected to have internal candidates only uh which um I totally understand. There is some concern within the community though regarding the artificial that artificial constraint because of the decade of decline. Now I don't have any personal animus with either candidate. Um however actively involved community members question the selection of these two leaders because they've been within the MPS leadership during the decline era. So, can you uh and and then so they're concerned that perhaps um they're not going to be able to pivot to altering the course when needed to improve results for students and to align with what the parents of these students want. So, is there anything that you can share that might address that concern? Um and are there clear metrics that you are going to

084be putting in place that will be used to hold each chief accountable? Yes. So the answer to the latter question, are there clear metrics? The answer is yes. There's five uh uh domains of KPIs. There's several KPIs, but there's five domains of KPIs that apply to our schools. And then as a result, we'll apply to our regions and our executive directors, and as a result, we'll apply to our chief of schools and uh our chief of academics. Um a a couple items and uh the please know my background is being a director of research and accountability and assessment. Uh I did that for a long w while in another district and I was I was often referred to as the Joe O'Reilly of that district. So uh I lived in the realm of Joe O'Reilly.

085And so I I want to just talk a little bit psychometrically about some of the misperceptions uh that occur when you're comparing data across years. And I don't want the community to hear ever that this means we're not going to have high expectations in Mesa public schools. I hope you have seen out of the gate that we've modeled those high expectations by setting school level goals at 5% in math and ELA and a graduation rate increase of 5%. So, please don't hear me say we don't have high expectations, but comparing data across years is problematic with assessment scores. Let me explain to you why. Uh, the Ames test was the original development of assessment in the state of Arizona. I was a young teacher. It was the early 2000s. And the Ames test, if you

086remember, was linked to, at that point in time, the Ames test was linked to graduation. You could not graduate high school without passing the Ames examination. And as a result, the very first year that Ames examination was given, the level of rigor on that test for algebra and geometry in particular, the math subject where where kids struggled a little bit more was high and there was a low pass rate on the exam. And what happened the next year because of the outcry of the possibility that kids may not graduate high school because of the Ames exam. What happened the next year is the next test cycle came out. In the next test cycle, the cut score was set at a little different level. Cut scores are a thing in testing. And the pass rate on

087the Ames examination went up, right? Well, that's driven by the fact that the outcome was what? The outcome was that kids needed to graduate and kids had to pass the test in order to graduate. And there are some benefits. I want to be really clear. There are benefits to kids having to pass a test to graduate. They will take a test more seriously. If they had to pass it, the downfall is you can ramp up the rigor to tests or ramp down the rigor test. You've taught, we've all taught, right? You can take tests and make them really hard. You can take tests and make them really easy. And psychometrically this is called a point by serial value or it's called a p value in in psychometrics. and and so uh the tests that we

088are recently giving double ASA are more difficult tests in terms of the metrics that we're measuring the test by item level diff difficulty point by serarial p value than were once administered a decade ago in fact we were just at a conference today where they discussed in 2027 the RFP for state assessment is up again and the state of Arizona is going to have to go out and RFP for a new assessment ment vendor. There's a bunch of reasons why you do that. One is to lower costs, right? You want to lower costs of administering these tests. Another reason is that tests are constantly evolving. Back when we took tests, we took 40 question tests. And guess what? Those were the 40 questions. Well, now in computer-based examination, if anyone's ever taken the graduate record

089exam, guess what happens? As you get more items right, it gets more difficult. And they do that because they can take the scaling process on an assessment. And as you answer harder questions, right, it takes the scale and it broadens the scale because you can say, "This person's really getting a lot of questions right." So, they're achieving a higher and higher scale score. And then the other people that get questions wrong, they get easier and easier questions. And guess what happens? They get easier and easier questions, they get more questions wrong, and they get a lower scale score. And so, if you don't know the scaling process, that's an actual term in psychometrics. If you don't know the scaling process for how tests are built, then it's very difficult to compare across year. With all

090with all that being said, please hear me say we all understand that the current proficiency rates in Mesa public schools need to increase. There will be KPIs in place, right, for both the schools and the regions and our chief of schools and our chief of academics will be told that there are high expectations to making the KPIs. All right. Now, with with that being said, any good measure set properly will likely be halfway achieved. And so, we have to have some grace in that if we're making improvements towards a goal, that is great news. And sometimes we're going to make the goal and sometimes we may fall a point short of the goal, but if progress is getting made, we're in good position moving forward. And so, I hope that answered as many of your

091questions. And I know the community's value of saying, "Hey, we used to have 80% proficiency. Now we have 38% proficiency." I understand that's only with the best intentions with the best possible uh thoughts for student outcomes involved, but it is an awfully statistical and technical process to compare scores across years. Um, another concern with the recent move to the academy and bottle and block scheduling at the high school level. Um, there was some pretty intense community response to that. Uh, and many were concerned that their voices in regard to courses, scheduling, curriculum were not being heard. The selection of the internal only candidates for these two pivotal roles has many anxious that the same atmosphere might continue. So what assurances might you be able to give the community that their input is not only welcomed

092but valued to leadership as the work to provide an educational environment appropriate to all students is our priority. We will be constantly setting up systems of checks and balances in the district. Um I can't come we cannot come in we this is a we thing we can not come in as a new leadership team and deploy everything in year one. Please trust me when I say these regional models or community learning models will have a system in place where community feedback for that local region will be ha will be had on a monthly basis. That'll be one of the expectations of these executive directors is that we figure out a way to set up regionalbased meetings for localized communities to have their input on their local schools. Right? Beyond these board meetings, right? beyond these

093board meetings that span 200 square miles for a vast swath of the city of Mason, 550,000, you know, uh uh people in our population. So, and and then, you know, it internally we do have a vision to to to have a superintendent's teaching council at some point. we uh are deploying a lot of things right now. And if what I've learned is you deploy too many things in a system at once and you're going to get the system in a really bad spot quickly. And so we have to strategically go through our through our day and go, what do we want to deploy this year and what can we deploy the next year and what can we employ the next year? And we think setting up a superintendent's teacher council where every school's got a

094teacher representative that comes up to a superintendent council and talks to the chief business officers, the chief of staff, the chief of academics, the chief of schools, and myself, every single uh quarter is going to be a valuable process. I will also tell you once we get this team in place, uh I've always been required in cabinet roles for the last 15 years, particularly when I was in a director of research role to be in attendance at all schools faculty meetings at least once a semester. In a district of this size, it's really tough to do that because there's just too many schools. But with a team of five chief officers, two on the business side, two on the uh education side, we're going to have high expectations for getting out to faculty meetings at

095least once a semester. a lot amongst ones of us so they can hear what are the initiatives of the district not only from an academic perspective but also from a business perspective it's very important our faculty our operations teams and this is not just schools we got to get out to our operations teams as well got to get out to transportation operations it's very very important that they hear that the district office knows where we're at they need to hear the story of SSC moving here they need to hear the story of ASC moving here so They understand that, hey, the district as a whole is trying to make things work to keep as many of these schools open as we possibly as we possibly can. So, there are going to be systems of checks

096and balances along the way, and we just have to slowly develop these things as we get this team together to help manage and run this district for the next several years, we hope. >> Okay. I think you might have answered my next question, but um Dr. Storm, I I've really noticed as you've taken the helm that you were um as Mr. Smithson mentioned earlier, it it really was an incredibly challenging time for you to uh enter in and jump in. And from where I sit, I think you've been very responsive to feedback. Um and that you really do have a desire to elevate the educational environment for all students and their families. The foundational piece of that environment needs to be an arena in which diverse ideas from multiple perspectives can be shared without fear

097of retribution which has existed um in the past in Mesa in recent history. So many have expressed dismay over the hostile work environment that existed and that had developed. Again, the community is concerned that this environment will not be done away with if current leadership persists, but um they persist just with simply with a new title. So again, can you I think you kind of answered it in this last question with the uh willingness to provide um opportunity for teachers and uh in those uh monthly or quarterly monthly um are community members going to be allowed to be in there as well providing um or asking questions, providing input? Um, I think that's really what what I've been hearing is they really want to make sure um that their voices are heard as parents of

098the students that attend here. Um, and that they will not be treated in such a way that their voices are not valued. >> Yeah. Um, so we already have some good avenues for parents to get involved. We have uh the superintendent's parent council. We also have the other parent uh >> parental >> advisor. Yep. Thank you. Mesa parent parent parental advisory committee. So we have two parent councils and we welcome anyone uh who wants to get involved in that to express their interest to governing board members for one of them and express their interest to their principal I think for another one. Uh because we you know we'd love as many as many people as principles will put forward for that for the other committee. We also are making efforts uh Mr. Moore has been

099tasked with standing up a a community budget committee. I don't know what his final name for that's going to be, but uh I've given him the freedom to name and get some constructs together. But what we want to do is have the community understand what we're doing budgetarily, understand why our asks for certain capital initiatives may be what they are. And then we want the community, if we're lucky enough to earn the earn the vote of the community like we did in 2012 and 2018, uh to get capital revenues in the district, we want the community to be part of the process of understanding what projects we're going to do and why and and kind of have them be on board with the projects we're doing and why before we bring it to the board

100because ultimately it's the board decision. Uh that's why you guys are elected. Uh you control the finances of the district. So, uh, you know, there there are efforts to get more and more community members involved in Mesa public schools and we do welcome feedback. Once again, those regional meetings that we eventually will get set up. Now, remember these regions aren't going to take them place till 26 27 and so you got got to kind of time things out, right? And so, those regional meetings will be another another avenue for parents to get in involved. You can imagine we have a SCAK for schools, school improvement committees, right? And you can imagine the regional uh executive director, the learning community director having a regional parent meeting where they're talking about that community of schools and how

101to improve that community of schools. And then my final question for the um the uh assuming um going forward is there a possibility for teachers and um community members to be involved in the uh committees that I know the hiring process for our two chiefs was a big uh group of interviewers and then it scaled down to a smaller group and then it was you and Mr. Wang. So is it possible to have um I I don't know who was on either of those committees. Um, and I don't need to know that, but is it possible to have teachers andor community members um involved in that interview process for our other positions, the executive directors and whatnot? >> Well, you know, pending governing board approval uh tonight uh we will get immediately to work with

102the chief of schools and chief of academics uh and the chief of staff on how we structure the next 12 hires. The next 12 hires are the executive directors and the directors. I will tell you that one of the ideas that we're playing with right now is in my mind, sorry, in my own mind is uh running a process similar that we did for the chief of staff and chief of schools where a large committee and by the way that large committee includes representatives of all of our associations from our classified staff to our uh administrative staff to our teaching staff. It uh to to our max staff, our certified supervisor staff. So we have representatives from a variety of different swaths in those in that large committee panel down to a small committee panel.

103And then what we're thinking is once we get that selection process of the people down and that and maybe for those six learning community jobs that we run a process like we have with the principles in the past where communities then can come in and interview the six people, right, that are selected so we can find best fit because best fit's really important. maybe this executive director uh is a better fit for this region and that that executive director is a better fit for that region as opposed to uh Dr. Stum sitting and choosing and saying you you're the best fit in this region. Let's get the community involved in where the fit is for the executive director uh portion of it. So >> So I have a sorry I have a I have a

104a piggyback question. So um not all of our teachers are or classified staff or um are part of an association. So, can we expand uh the teachers that are are chosen for committees to not just be association teachers, but teachers that are uh not involved? >> We will certainly take that feedback. >> Okay. Thank you. And and that is um one of the things that I I have really appreciated is that you are very responsive and open to feedback and open dialogue and um communication. And it is my um hope that that leadership uh extends down to filters down to every one of our uh leaders whether they're at the district or at the um at the local level. Then finally, I know during this study session we um I I had asked what if

105when we're hiring because right now the next phase will also be internal only candidates. Uh what if we can't find um an a a a qualified candidate or or an executive director for a learning community, regional learn learning community that just doesn't fit with that community. Uh we are willing to go outside and post that. Correct. Uh, I so this doesn't require a board vote, but I've checked in in one-on- ones with every board member and every board member has told me if we can't find a qualified candidate, then certainly that posting them externally as well uh is is a possibility. We do think we have awfully talented people here in Mesa public schools and we do think with the right expectations with the right key performance indicators with the right guard rails people can

106live in to their to maximizing their ability with us and uh you know I I I I have met with with a a person who's uh a partner in an architecture firm for about 15 years and he's super wise. And you ever met with one of those wise people that's super wise? And uh something he tells me that he takes great personal responsibility for is that he has 225 families to feed. And he takes really great pride in the fact that he wants to run such a great business that those 225 families are taken care of. And I don't want ever want to lose sight of the fact in Mesa public schools that our employees have families and those families are just as important to us as those employees are. And so that's one of

107the reasons we have an expedited timeline to get through this through December. Unfortunately, there may be might not always some there's going to be some attrition and some people are going to get some jobs elsewhere and we hope this doesn't affect 50 people. We hope it affects less because some of that natural attrition that occurs. But there might be some people in the end that need to plan for their family. So, we're trying to expedite this process. But it also to bring up that, the reason I'm bringing it up is because there's a lot of great employees that have given Mesa service for 20 years and 25 years and they have a lot of great ideas and they're they they they can live into high expectations. I know they can. and and so I think

108we do have a little bit of an obligation to make sure that those internal candidates have a shot because I do really take a lot of personal responsibility in the fact that we want to help families out as much as as much as we can. I'll tell you this, my wife and I had three kids in three years and you know I was a teacher uh and I appreciated everything that central office administration did to get me every dime they possibly could so I could support my family. And I certainly would have appreciated if we were in a time of declining enrollment that that they would have given me an opportunity first for my teaching job uh so that I could help my family out. And so those ideas go through my mind and I

109know it's not I know everything we're doing is not perfect right now, but I think it's as best as we can do given the situation we're in. >> That's all I have. >> Thank you, Mrs. Vincent, Mrs. Hutchinson. >> Thank you, Madam President. Um Dr. Strom and Mr. wing. Um at the last board meeting um you were very receptive to um a suggestion that when we personify the reorganization plan that um positions and job descriptions would um include the suggestions, the ideas, the um experiences of the people doing the work and and you were in agreement to that and I and I really appreciate appciate that and I have had a lot of employees comment to me as I've been visiting schools that they were very appreciative of your acceptance that their ideas and their

110suggestions would work into the reorganization plan. Um and and one of the things that I'd like to piggyback on what you just said about the selection particularly of the six regional directors, the six executive directors. Um and I because I asked the question in our FAQs about how this reorg is going to help us live our promise. How is it going to help us um make sure that the portrait of a graduate is realized for every kid? And and this was I thought this was a great answer and I'd like to state it to the um to the public. Um, the region centered around the six comprehensives high schools will allow the executive director of each region a smaller sphere to supervise, allowing for more time spent knowing and understanding their region, allowing them to

111serve that region by strength and need. Um and based on that answer which is which is genuine and authentic about how you're doing the reorg um one of the things that we have done in Mesa public schools is just what you mentioned when we had a principal that was going to be chosen for a school. There were evenings. Parents could watch the interviews. They could give feedback. And I'm going to suggest like your selection as superintendent. We did feedback sessions. Lots. I got hundreds of pages of feedback from the community. Um they watched your interview on live stream. Um people were able to ask questions. Um they they they did so through the board. um when we're inclusive and when we're participatory, I couldn't agree with you more, Miss Benson. I think we get a

112better decision. The the better decision was to select you as the superintendent. You were the right fit for this community because the community told us that. And before we ex um have executive directors, I hope we'll listen to the six communities, the learning communities. Um because I I really believe that that the people doing the work and the parents of the students that we will serve should have some input on who that leadership should be. >> Thank you, Mrs. M. Jaffy. >> I appreciate that as we've gone through this process, uh Superintendent Strong, that you've kept us informed and that you've given us the timeline so we know what to expect. We weren't caught off guard and I think that's been really helpful as a board member. Um, it's really important for me that we

113do what's right for our students and for our staff. And I feel that we're having good conversations about making sure that that happens regardless of what happens in district and boardroom. I have a lot of faith in the people on the ground who are working with our students every single day. But it is really important to me that we as a board keep having conversations about how this is going to impact student outcomes, how this is going to impact supporting our staff so that we can make sure that we are having those KPIs, those key performance indicators to make sure that we are moving the needle on those things. And I I hope that we can work together in all of these hires and make that happen. >> Thank you, Miss Chappie. And just to

114agree with everything that's been said, um, and I know what a KPI is. I was really proud of myself that I knew that acronym when you said it. But um I think that as a board we hire the superintendent and we evaluate the superintendent and part of that will be watching how his staff does as they take these new roles and part of his evaluation. And so you know we've given him the duty to hire his staff and go forward and um our job is to then evaluate him and how things are going. And so as we move forward, um I appreciate the discussion here tonight and and how that change is hard. We know that it's hard and so it's never easy and um like I've said, let's have grace with each other as

115we move through these times and um I appreciate that. Is there any other question? >> Madam President, one more piggy back. Um Dr. Storm, can you make for transparency sake um is it possible to list uh put on our website um the job descriptions for each of the two different uh is it already there? >> Uh it is. So I get why it may not be public because we posted internal but I mean it job descriptions are public information. So uh yeah I mean typically when it's posted internal external the job description would be out in public anyways. So yeah. >> So is it already publicly available? >> It might not be. So I'm I'm wondering if it is. Right now I'm looking at Justin. It might not be because it was an internal posting

116only. But what I'm trying to say is it's not that big of a deal to post it because if you post them externally, job descriptions get published as well. >> So I and I think for transparency sake um and I I agree um Madame President that grace needs to be shown this it's a challenging time to and change is difficult. um we did hire you to uh to direct the district and to pivot. Um and I again I think that you were very responsive to feedback. So, um I I I personally appreciate that the but if we for transparency sake if we can list uh make it easy for our community members to see here are the job descriptions um and potentially the KPIs as well the metrics that we're going to be using to

117th >> those those were all I just need you to hear everyone to hear those were always intended to be public the key performance indicators okay we're finalizing those with re research and evaluation we've been working all summer and we want to have dashboards up where we can see those key KPIs by school. So, >> that's great because really I I I think what I overall heard from the community um people that reached out is they want to make sure their voices are heard uh that that we're open to feedback that um we can pivot to do what is best for students uh and be responsive in the moment. Um, I do, uh, member Hutchinson also love the idea of the regional. I think smaller is better. Uh, I I think it's I think that

118is is good and I think over time I think we're going to see a positive uh shift in the vibe hopefully. Um, so as we if we can have as much transparency as possible and make it easy for our parents to have to access that rather than having to search on our website. It's annoying. >> Any other questions, comments? Seeing none, Miss Kerui, please take our vote. With a vote of four years, you've approved the personnel request, including the addendum. And I failed to um excuse Mrs. Walden from our regular meeting. I excused her in our study session, but I don't think I did it in our regular meeting. So, I just wanted to excuse her. She is with her family out of town. We are going to move on um to consent. All items

119will be considered as a group and will be approved with one motion. If a board member would like us 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. >> Thank you, Miss Kirby. Will you please take our vote? With a vote of four yays, we have approved the consent agenda items according to the recommended action for each item. Moving to our action items. Do I have a motion to approve a contract increase for $150,000 for ID cards for smart tag system? >> So moved. >> Do I have a second? >> I'll second it. >> Any discussion? I'll start

120to my right. I'm going to get used to this. Mrs. Hutchinson, did you have any? >> No, Madam President, I do not. >> Thank you, Mrs. Benson. >> Um, the only question I have is I think this is the one that is the sole source. Is that accurate? So, I had uh somebody reach out and say um how does the board know that it's a soul source? Member Benson, uh the board approves, I believe, in June or May prior to the the year starting all source soul source uh vendors. I would have to confirm what board meeting that was approved at, but there's uh traditionally a approved soul source list of vendors prior to the school year starting that the board approves. >> Soul source are they're the only vendor that we had for that

121item. Correct. Is that >> correct? Yeah. That the soul source means our purchasing department deemed that we cannot get this resource from any other vendor. >> Okay. So, it's the the purchasing department makes that estimation and and we're pretty confident. That that was a question I I was like I I have no idea how >> Yeah, Miss Miss Hamilton has been doing purchasing for 20 plus years. She's well commended. >> Miss Hamilton, our purchasing director, has been doing purchasing for 20 years. She's well commended in the industry. Uh >> perfect >> and her expertise are trustworthy. >> Mr. Moore, two questions. One, uh you haven't been a CFO somewhere else. I thought and I thought it was part of the auditing process. We don't the auditors check whether we are validly assigning soul source or

122not? >> Yeah, Dr. Shum, that's correct. The auditors also verify that list and ensure that the soul source determination that we're providing and the justification that we're doing is valid. And so, uh, we have had not had any audit findings related to soul source. So, those justifications have been verified. >> And then one more for the general public. uh you can soul source and it's a little misleading because of the title but you can soul source if you have like a software system and the integration services to go to a new software system would be cost prohibitive even though there's multiple software systems in that arena it may cost you $2.5 million to move data from one system to another system and therefore it's sole source because the amount of time you've had with that

123vendor building that that data set you have this is often in student information systems where this occurs like our student information systems synergy. I just there's there's nuances to it and then the my reason to explain that is sometimes the word soul source doesn't make sense because community goes oh there's other people that do that. Yeah, but there's other considerations as well. Thank you. >> Thank you Miss Chavy. Mr. more. I know that this is going toward the smart tag systems, these ID cards that have made it easier and safer for kids to get on and off the bus and have made it made our lunchlines smoother and have provided some safety and security for our students entering and exiting campus and that this increase goes toward replacing ID cards. I can tell you at

124my house, we've had to replace a couple already with my kiddos. Um, is there a way we can look at maybe mitigating this expense next year? I just want you to kind of think about this for next year that we can work on helping sites reduce the number of lost IDs. So, I know that we have some sites that don't have any bus riders. Maybe we can look at some options where they're maybe not around their neck the whole time or something that we can help prevent some of that loss and really be be smart with the funds that we have set aside for these smart tags. Yeah, certainly uh as a first year implementation of any product, right, there's going to be some uh pros and con and then some some I would say

125uh lessons learned and so uh we'll consider those as we evaluate this into next year. So, thank you >> Mr. Chaffy. Just clarifying your meaning like elementary schools not having to carry versus our junior high and high school. >> Yes. And again saying, you know, with superintendency and safety and security, but I just think there are some sites that we could look at. How can we help reduce the number of lost IDs, are there some strategies we can implement to reduce the cost that that's invested in these? >> Thank you. Just wanted to check. Any other questions, comments? Seeing none, Miss Ker will please take our vote. I'm sorry. With the vote of four years, you've approved a contract increase for $150,000 for ID cards for smart tag system. And next item, do I have

126a motion to approve a contract increase for $500,000 for fire detection system replacements? >> So moved. >> Do I have a second? >> I'll second it. >> And Mrs. Hutchinson, we'll start. Do you have any questions? >> I was wondering um why we were approving the monies in advance before the pro the the grant money was provided by the SFB. member Hutcherson. Uh we're just being proactive in the sense that um a lot of these items in terms of especially fire security communication systems take a while to procure. >> Okay. And so, uh, getting advance ahead of the, uh, basically the approval of potentially getting school facilities grant money, uh, allows us to have a seamless implementation with our maintenance team and in plan, uh, if we do have opportunity during breaks or summer. And

127so this is just a proactive measure uh that we're taking uh to try to again alleviate uh the impact on our classrooms when students are in session and uh maximize our opportunities when we have breaks. >> Okay. I would assume that um going through the school facilities board at times can be um a laborious process that takes some time and I appreciate you being proactive in the case of particularly maintaining our kids safety. So thank you. Wanted to make sure that got explained. Thank you, >> Miss Denson. >> I just have a quick question, Mr. Moore. If um the SF, is it the SFOB? These acronyms um drives me crazy. If they do not, if that grant does not come through, where will the funding for these this come from? >> Uh so, if the

128funding does not get approved, more than likely, these will be deferred. uh and it will be in the long line of deferred maintenance that we have across our our district and we've talked about it several times today in terms of capital needs. Um this is on the list and so um this grant funding is one of the only uh reasons why we'd be looking at replacing this unless it had complete failure. Um and so um this would go on the list of deferred maintenance. So, uh, have we had being new on the board is the SFOB, have we had success with them approving grants for us in the past? >> Yeah, a lot of >> So, maybe I have to ask somebody else. No, >> a lot of success. I' I've outwardly witnessed Mesa and

129my other working in other districts seen I'm more less jealous of Mesa's success with getting um SFOB grant funding. And so I'm happy now to be a part of Mesa's team and be on the the other side of the table. So no, our our director of maintenance and operations, Mr. Kramer, and his team do a fabulous job of uh getting applications in and receiving grant applications. We actually have scheduled at a future board meetings to go over our success with those pro with the that application process and highlight some of the the wins um that M. Snder highlighted with Red Mountain today. Um that was almost a million dollars. And so we do a a heavy lift of trying to get alternative funding to support our needs and we we will highlight that at a

130future. >> Do you love how do you love how a seed planted you can >> Thank you. >> highlight me that way. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Chaffy. Can you Mr. um just explain to everyone else what SFOB means and what that funding source is? you let me do my best to uh to explain the complicated complexities of school finance. Um so the SFOB is a oversight committee uh that the state overseas and so with that oversight committee the state budget they appropriate funding for grants uh that schools can go after and all public schools are eligible to go after facility grants. Um the grants are awarded uh based on several factors, but one is um the district's ability to meet the minimum adequacy guidelines or MAG is another acronym for you. Um and

131so uh if uh for example uh one of our fire security or communication systems is not up to MAG guidelines, uh we can apply to the SFOB and say, "Hey, we're not meeting the guidelines. um please consider this project for approval and uh through that process SFOB has several liaison and people who evaluate these grants and award based on need. um rural districts have a higher priority versus uh mar you know kind of Maricopa central districts and there's a a long list of um evaluation process that goes through and uh 200 million is awarded this legislative cycle and if you can imagine $200 million across the whole state does not go very far and so um again they the state does prioritize these grant funds um and tries to allocate them on on greatest need.

132But I think that highlights kind of the program a little bit. Um, and again, we we've gotten a large majority of that 200 million uh every single year uh in Mesa public schools. And so I don't know if that highlights our need or highlights our advocacy uh towards towards uh trying to pursue these grants, but it's a combination of both. So >> Mr. Muller, can I clarify one thing? Yeah. You said large majority of the 200 million. You mean a disproportionate? We always capture a disproportionate share compared to our student population cuz I don't want I don't I do not the community needs to know we're not getting $100 million of the $200 million. Uh we we are getting if we're 5% of the population we are active enough where we're collecting more. And the

133reason that all matters is because the state just went through a capital lawsuit over the last seven eight years. The judge has ruled on that capital lawsuit. There will be an appeal. So, we don't know where it's going to finalize itself out, but the capital lawsuit's initial findings out of the judge are that the state legislature uh has not met its requirements to provide its constitutional obligation for public schools in terms of capital funding. And uh what that that's demonstrated in the building renewal grant being up for a little over $200 million this year and the money's pretty much already gone because there's so many needs in the state of Arizona. And the reason I highlight all that is because in Mesa public schools we then sit back in gratitude of this community for continuing

134to show up and vote for local uh matters that help us with our capital funding. So all these things, we're so interconnected together. All these things are so interconnected and I think it's just important for people to continue to understand the complexities of capital and maintenance and operations funding in the state of Arizona. >> Thank you. Any other questions? Seeing none, Miss Kirby, we please take our vote. With a vote of four days, we have approved a contract increase for $500,000 for fire detection system replacements. This now brings us to our information items. Um, we're looking forward to hearing the progress being made on school opportunities for the 202627 school year. Mr. Wing, time is yours. And um, Miss Kirby will take over for being timekeeper right now since Oh, you got it on >>

135multitasking timekeeper and uh, speaker. >> Here we go. All you >> uh, throughout this semester uh, we'll be sharing uh, three important uh, considerations uh, regarding school opportunities. As I shared earlier, uh while school has just started, uh for the business side, we're looking at already working on uh staffing budget for the 2627 school year. Uh three major areas for these school opportunities. One is to increase our Franklin traditional school model from a K8 to a K12, adding the 9th through 12th grade. also Shephardd uh make a Shepard a 712 uh college uh ready uh school and then also participatory staffing. Today I'm only going to give you updates on the Franklin Brim Hall Franklin going K12 and then also the participatory staffing just because we've had recent meetings since the last time you or

136we spoke about this. So some updates regarding uh the Franklin uh going to K12. We did have Mr. Tommy Eubanks, our director of athlet athletics, uh review all of the campus, including the gym, ball fields, etc. to determine what uh sports we can offer for that small uh high school 912 format. Uh we have had two listening sessions. uh combined we'd have had over 350 families attend uh highly um engaged in interest in the Franklin going to K12 and then also we're continuing as department leaders making sure we're being prepared for a possible transition such as transportation and how uh transportation's affected u with this consideration along with that um our planning and boundary design advisory committee that includes board appointed uh members uh took some consideration of a uh reboundary in this case of

137Wilson Elementary School uh as a result of us considering the Franklin uh K12 setting. Our current Brimhole campus does not have enough classrooms uh to have it uh be a full K12. So last time I shared we considered uh different options and uh in this case leveraging an elementary school, one that is in close proximity to uh Franklin Brim Hall, one that has been declining enrollment uh considerably over the past 5 years and projected to uh moving forward. uh PAB deck, that planning and boundary uh design advisory committee, excuse me, has gone through all of the these this information, the rationale, and on August 18th, they made a recommendation to split the Wilson Elementary into three different school boundaries, the Johnson, uh the Madison, and the Jefferson. If you look above in the slide deck,

138it'll show in the gray area uh Wilson boundaries. It's a little unique. There's that little triangle or whatever it's called um that passes Johnson going into Wilson. That will go into Johnson and then uh south of Madison will go to Madison. And then you'll see that little square on the southeast side that will be long to Jefferson based on that PAB deck vote. However, that is not official. Couple reasons why. One, according to our policy, we are required to have hearings to allow the school communities to attend and provide feedback, questions, information regarding that decision. It'll be held on September 3rd, September 9th, and September 10th at three different schools, giving uh families opportunities to attend one or two or all three of the the hearings to be quite honest. PABDC will then reconvene September

13929th, consider their vote that they held in on August 18th, consider the information provided to them, and they'll vote again. Could be a vote to um keep the the vote that they made on August 18th, or they can revise the vote. Ultimately October 23rd uh the governing board um the PABDEX recommendation will be uh submitted to the governing board for your consideration. >> Dr. Strong just want to make sure the community hears. We live in a parent choice uh environment in the state of Arizona and these are transportation boundaries. In short, if you live in any of these boundaries, you can open a role to any of these schools that you want to. If you live in the former Wilson boundaries and you want to go to Franklin Wilson, you can attend Franklin at Wilson.

140And so I just want the community to hear, you you can attend any one of these schools you want to, you just have to open and roll. And these are essentially boundaries established for busing purposes. If you want a bus and you want to go to Madison, you'll have to live in that yellow area. If that makes sense to you. >> Thank you, sir. uh all the public hearings uh thanks to Mrs. Kirby for uh facilitating this will follow open meeting laws and governing board policy will be livereamed. It will be recorded and available as well. Uh we'll feature a short information present. Every hearing will have a short presentation uh from the district administration providing rationale to the families uh prior to answering their questions and seeking more information from them. And I already

141shared that the hearing will involve the community asking those questions. Communication, our communications department uh is highly engaged following our governing board policy on how we uh communicate to our families. Uh parent square messages were sent out to all impacted school communities on August 20th. A mailer is sent to all addresses in the impacted boundaries. We do have a designated web page uh for this information and the flyers are posted at impacted schools and in our lobby. Participatory staffing. This is a carry forward from last school year when we met with 14 principles uh who oversees some of our smaller schools. Uh based on that community of practice, we're moving forward some considerations and one was our staffing models of our small schools through participatory staffing. Uh so we're working with five small schools. They're

142stated here, Washington Elementary, Lehi, Okconor Elementary, K8 STEM Academy at Red Mountain Ranch, and and also Shepard Junior High. Um we are uh on purpose using the participatory meaning there are going to be different stakeholders involved in seeking the sta staffing model that'll meet the the revenue and expense getting it close um because of that smaller school. It will include parents of that community along with staff as well. Uh and just a reminder in early spring the governing board in a public forum uh participate uh participated in a school revenue and expense staffing analysis activity and uh even kind of featured how can you get closer to the the revenue side rather than being read by I think one example was like 30% uh etc. What this could mean is school's expenses should be proportionate

143within a range to its revenue. Uh staffing models for these five schools will differ from other schools. In fact, all staff these staffing models may differ from each of these five schools. Uh it'll be based on the community participatory staffing for each community. uh we've already have has established this practice in our Franklin models, our Mesa Academy advanced uh studies where special area offerings for example differ from other schools along again with input from parents and other stakeholders and I gave a couple examples that doesn't mean one will have to uh go by that but one school and stakeholders may prefer it may say academy one will may uh a STEM academy an arts academy a steam academy, etc. Those are just some examples we're sharing. So, those are just updates. Open for any questions.

144Thank you, Mr. Wing. Mrs. Hutchinson. >> I'd like to uh ask a couple of questions on the participatory staffing. Um, if you take a look at the staffing models, it mentions that the staffing models would be based on special offerings at each school. And if I'm looking at the five schools, um, they represent five well actually four different learning communities in in in the district and they are they are they serve very different populations in our district. But I guess the question I have is that the special offerings at each school are mentioned, but how how would participatory staffing meet the unique needs of the children attending that school? Um, I I visited a school um this week that has the highest number of homeless students in the district. I visited a school last week

145that had the highest number of English language learners in the district. Um, we all know that there are certain schools where there is more prevalence of poverty, of trauma. Um, what I want to make sure is that we are truly meeting the unique needs of kids so that they can be prepared to learn and they have the opportunity to learn. Could you address how participatory staffing can meet the unique needs of some of our subgroup populations? And I may not have been clear, but each of the schools will hold its own participatory staffing, not all five combined. Uh so each principal and uh district member will lead uh the stakeholder group to determine the needs of the students. One way is to provide more flexible staffing. Right now a lot of our a lot of

146our elementary schools, we have you have one of this, you have one of this, you have one of this. But as uh schools get continue to get smaller, you it's just not sustainable to provide the same staffing for a school with 300 students as a school with 800 students. Um with that said, there's possible opportunities for flexibility on how to leverage the staff to meet the stu the uh the stu the needs of the students uh in that each community. So I think the the interest is not only the participatory meaning you're getting different stakeholders to participate in developing such model but also uh leveraging flexibility and not the hey every year you get the same thing you hit it 10 years ago type of model as well and um you know I shared that

147the Franklin schools and we already have some schools that have kind of participated in it without technically using the term participator staffing or flexible staffing. >> Maybe I wasn't clear. Um I I'm really concerned that the schools are getting, as you mentioned, the same the same staffing. In other words, they're getting they're getting a like a um a pot of resources to pick from, but some schools need more resources. Some schools need more adults to help these children. and and are we making sure that the that the schools that have kids with incredible needs, are we making sure that there are enough adults to take care of these children to ensure that they have the opportunity to learn? You we can't have the same resources for every school. >> So, uh there's a lot of

148concepts in your question. >> Yeah. And uh I'm going to start with the first one. Uh when there's competition within a scarce economic environment for a limited amount of whatever the widget is, in this case we're going to talk dollars. Um, if it's scarce to begin with, dividing the scarce dollars across systems disproportionately to advantage a group that needs it when the other group is already running scarce is tough. That's the state of Arizona right now, right? We have scarce dollars. We're 49th funded in the state. And the dilemma in school finance is we understand there are communities that have more needs than other communities, but essentially most of the public schools in the state of Arizona, you there are some school districts that get an awful lot amount of extra funding and things like

149we don't in this district. We're cap we cap this governing board has capped probably rightfully so because it helps the taxpayers out, but they get an awful lot of DEG money right into the tomb of 50 60 $70 million. So there are some districts that aren't like this, but but in terms of most districts in the state of Arizona, the resources are scarce. And so when you start talking about dividing up resources to schools, it it becomes difficult because it's already scarce. So that's the first concept. The second concept, what school systems typically do in a school finance arena is you will run some schools at bigger economies of scale in order to create a pot of money that you can then look at distributing to other schools who may need more resources. in Mesa

150public schools. That's the way this has played out is we've ran really large high schools and those really large high schools have enabled us to take our budget and think really uniquely for our elementary schools. Everything's interconnected, right? Everything's interconnected. And our high schools are starting to get smaller. And as our high schools get smaller, it's going to squeeze our resource decisions at the elementary school level. And it's just the fact of the demography of 3,000 students rolling through through the system or 3,500 students rolling through the system instead of 5,000 students rolling through the system. And and so our attempt in participatory staffing which is designed to get community members in each one of these community me uh environments involved in distributing the M dollars and the capital dollars that their site gets on

151a per student basis in a manner in which that community is amaniable to is a first attempt to say hey you are a smaller school now what resources do you need and here's your pot of money to do it. Okay. What participatory staffing is not including is all the extra resources that come from the federal government. So, it may mean that some of these schools need a little extra support and title one dollars. And we did this last year, open up the title one dollars to a menu of options. And they may have menus of options they can choose in their title one dollars to supplement the things they're doing in participatory staffing. What if the school's not title one? we have other pots of money that we can add to like cash funds that

152we can add to maybe help them out in the ELLL arena or in let's say uh the the the math intervention arena or the reading intervention arena. Unfortunately, the more we use those cash funds, the more we would draw down our reserves. So, there's a downfall to doing that as well. And so I I guess what I'm trying to say is we're going to make every attempt in Mesa public schools to understand what each community needs to get them the resources to live into our promise. We are going to do that. But I also need people at the same time to understand we live in a scarce educational funding environment. And I can't tell you a school that can go with less so another school can go with more because across the board, most of

153our schools don't have the optimal funding that the state of Massachusetts or the state of New York has. And it's just where we're at. And we're not complaining. You know, something we're we're we're living into the challenge. We're we're we know we are in this state and we're grateful to be in the state educating kids, but we also aren't going to step back and not present reality to folks. This is the reality of where we're at. So, we're going to make every attempt, I need you to hear that, to make sure these schools get what they need. and the local community. The one one of the things we like about participatory staffing, which came out of the idea of participatory budgeting, which is a thing that municipalities do across the world, uh, is that we

154give local influence in decision-m for that local community and how they spend their revenues that they generate. to expand also what we heard from the 14 principles last year in that community practice is that while you do give me this adult whatever position a I need that position adult for some other need for students so that's another thing that came up from that community practice on how do we leverage the adults versus you determining how we leverage the adults to meet this best to meet the needs of each community uh students >> I appreciate the answer I have another question but I'll I'll save it for because I know we'll do an FAQ on this. So, thank you very much. Appreciate the the the time. Sorry. >> No problem. Mrs. Benson. >> Um I I

155just want to mention I I actually like the idea of the participatory staffing model. The idea that um especially as we move into regional learning communities. the I I see the ability for these elementaryaries to align with their junior high, which will align to their high school that they beat up to, which my hope would be that that uh starts to begin to change the uh decline and that people begin to once again decide, hey, Mesa is where I should put my students rather than this charter school because I know I'm going to be feeding up assuming I stay in the same house. um when we're looking at the the um PABDAC uh hearings and the change when I went through this with um Pomeray and Sarin and when Sarin opened up as a full

156Monasuri campus the students that were in Monasuri at Pomeroy were given busing to Sarin. Are we going to uh do the same thing? I know I think we bust to Franklin anyway, right? But are we going to be offering like if if I I don't and I don't physically know this area. So like if if somebody from Johnson because it's my understanding that we're going to offer up if you that's the idea of moving the elementary to uh Wilson that it gives space for Wilson students in particular if they want to try Franklin. Um, I'm assuming we're going to do the same thing for Johnson and uh Jefferson. Sorry, it's really small. Uh, are we going to be offering busing for those kids? And when Pomer and Sin did it, it was just for a

157year. >> We're currently working through all transportation solutions. Uh, we are we have committees of internal people who are taking feedback from listening sessions and trying to think about problems that get brought up in listening sessions. Uh I do need to state uh we do still have a bus driver and this is not just Mesa public schools. We still do have a limited bus driver uh pool and we still do have uh a resource problem with expanding our transportation routes in the in in the Mesa public school system. So right now a common response is there will be no effort to take away current routes and if current routes work for families then then they can certainly take advantage of those current routes to get to the place where they need to be. But we

158are also taking feedback from these listening sessions and seeing if there happens to be a solution set that doesn't take our resources to an absolute extreme uh measure. And right now it's it's it's getting towards extreme measures. Mr. uh Moore, did I oversp speak? >> I think you said it perfectly. We're just evaluating all those options as uh transportation is a resource and that does cost money and we are limited on bus drivers. That is an area I've spent a lot of time at as we started the school. And so, um, it just we're considering all those, uh, options as we evaluate this transition and trying to be wise again financially and fiscally with our commitments. So, >> okay, I have one final question. We're we're trying to um we're uh are we modeling um

159or um piloting the participatory staffing model at these five schools with the hope of extending it to uh other campuses? because to me that that provides the input uh for our community and teachers that uh they really want. So are is this a pilot that we're going to expand or is it are we limiting it? >> I mean Dr. Stums shares that everything's connected and uh the title of this slide deck is school opportunities because we want to maximize all of our school campuses um and exhaust our effort to doing so. So, it's likely as we're declining enrollment, there'll be continued smaller schools that we will have to leverage and look at how we staff uh in order to maintain those schools. And so, I can see this being a um I can I I

160can see the strategy being incorporated with many schools in the upcoming years. >> Mrs. Jaffy, >> I appreciate the flexibility of participatory staffing. Um, and I know that we as a board had an opportunity to kind of go through that exercise. And I appreciate that it can be more than just a math equation of weighing the numbers, but also leaning into the strengths and needs of the community and the students and the staff we have. I think I heard you answer this, but I just wanted to clarify. Once these schools commit to a particular staffing model, you know, like we saw Miss Gunderson in Eisenhower has an amazing choir, right? We have unique teachers who can offer unique things. Once a school commits to a particular staffing model or specials, are they stuck in that

161for a like for a certain number of time? Can they evaluate it every year? How will that work? uh they certainly are not going to be able to make changes throughout one particular year. But as far as year for year, I like to we the example would be title one and how we leverage our title one dollars. In essence, it's it is flexible staffing. Uh so you can see a school having an emphasis uh and priority to improve reading outcomes. And so they may have a reading intervention specialist. uh it'll be unlikely that they rotate jobs every year, but as they accomplish their goals in reading few years later uh during their comprehensive needs assessment um they may identify that math is an area uh focus and so they have some opportunities be to change

162their staffing. What we don't want to do is and assume that the ORC charts from one year is going to be the ORC chart 10 years later just like our department uh level as well but it needs to be well thought needs to be meeting the needs of the students of that community and in this case as Mrs. vention shared with our organizational redesign. It'll have a regional base focused. They'll have an executive director overseeing the region. So there's a little bit more alignment involved in well as well. So uh the other thing to be clear, it's not going to be about the person, it's going to be about the need uh of each school. >> Okay. Um, just a follow question. In in evaluating our staff and looking at this restructuring of our campuses,

163are we anticipating that we will be needing fewer staff? Are we anticipating reducing the staff? >> Well, our enrollment is declining, which means our revenue is declining, which and 85 to 90% of our budget is staffing. So, in general, I I'm going to make an assumption we're going to be declining in FTE full-time equivalency as well. Uh, but it's not going to be per on purpose because of these schools doing participatory staffing. It'll be just based on our algorithm of how we staff schools in general and how we allocate. uh part of the emphasis on our organizational redesign and which we shared with you on August 14th at the study session. Uh we're intending on cutting about $3 million from the department level, the district level to minimize the impact at the school level. Um

164now, can we do that every year? You know, that that's going to be it's just we're just getting tired and we're just going to have to strategically look at how how our expenses versus our revenues and um game plan accordingly. But um but there is a possibility that if you go from 400 schools or 400 students to 300, you do lose full-time equivalency even now. And it's it's been the case for as long as at least my last 29 years. Uh staffing formulas are usually based on student enrollment. >> So let me just clarify that that participatory staffing does not lead to a decrease in staffing but overall enrollment declines. >> You are correct. Better said. >> Thank you. Thank you. Um, regarding PAB deck and communication, will there be more like a reminder going

165out on parents square about those hearings? Just as a mom on 820, if I got it, I wouldn't be thinking until like probably the week or Okay, >> Mrs. Snder said yes. >> Thank you. I just want to make sure that we're communicating to our communities in the mo, you know, social media, email, you know, just making sure they're all aware of what's going on. And and piggybacking on on President Davis's remark, um I'm wondering if we're reaching out to Franklin parents who have left the district. Are we reaching out to those parents in and that are maybe in our neighboring districts that might want this opportunity of a Franklin High School? Are or are we only contacting the folks that are in still in the district >> for the from my understanding and Mrs.

166Man can correct me. >> Maybe can Jen Jen answer it maybe. Yeah. >> Sorry. She she can >> Yeah, >> she'll go up to the mic. >> I'm sorry. I I was I I kind of was she was in your general direction. >> I don't have a microphone over there. Um yes, we will we'll do more marketing should this should the Franklin High School come to fruition, then we will absolutely be doing marketing outside and to to see if we can capture some of the our former Franklin parents. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. Um along the lines of the participary staffing, will the job descriptions for our staff be clarified as far as like if we hire someone um that's you know takes an indoor position because of health reasons and then because of participary

167staffing they need someone on the and I know sometimes this happens need them on the playground but then they end up staying there. like are we going to be very transparent on what these job responsibilities are for our staff as far as with this new way of doing things? >> Yeah, everything will have a job description. It'll be based on the need of the position. Uh not really a focus going back, not really a focus on PE the person or a or people. It'll be based on the needs of the school. Another thing that we're working with with these uh five principles is that you don't have you're not limited to the job descriptions we currently have. Um you know there's multiple school districts that have leveraged staffing uh differently than Mesa public schools and

168so we're open for any consideration and because of that we'll need to have a clear transparent job description with roles, responsibilities, qualifications etc. As far as Americans with Disabilities Act, the interactive process is done through human resources and that's a case by case situation depending on the individual and their job. >> Okay. Thank you. And then with that like principles having input that will all be clearly stated as these people are hiring. Now what about people that are currently at those schools in job positions and maybe that job is no longer how will that >> I mean just in general um Dr. Stmer shared earlier, um we prefer to keep our our staff in Mesa public schools and so we consider timing such as the organizational redesign being done by winter break. Uh we understand

169that it doesn't always work out and so we have always prioritized providing people as much notice as possible. Last year, for example, we notified people four to five months in advance, which is unheard of in school districts and definitely unheard of in in the privates. Uh we are still the largest school district in Arizona. We are still a very large employer in Arizona, not just in city Mesa, but throughout the throughout Arizona are comparable to Arizona. So, we have opportunities out there. Uh so our intent is to uh try to provide opportunities for a staff to uh seek positions in and possible other areas within the school or other areas within other schools. Uh that that continues even without participatory staffing just because of declined enrollment one school uh teacher counts um go up or

170down or whatever. So every year we try to maximize and give opportunities first for our internal staff to uh access other jobs within the system. >> Thank you. One more question. How do we ensure that our front office because we all know how busy our front office staff is and they are the face of our schools when our community comes in. How do we with this new process make sure that we're staffing making sure they have adequate staffing for the front office and can provide the customer service that we need as for these families? >> Certainly. Well, probably like any design team or committee, we have some guard rails. Um, so the office will not be vacated. >> Thank you. We don't need AI taking over our front office. >> Not yet. >> Ever. >>

171Not yet in my lifetime. >> Okay, I'll give you that. Thank you. Any other questions, concerns? I just want to say having gone through the Pomeroy and Sarin Pab change, um the district did that exceptionally well in communication in in um making sure families and community members were known or able to uh participate. They they sent out numerous um communications. So, I I feel confident that the same thing's going to happen here. and uh we're we're truly meeting a need in that area of um Franklin. So, uh I I like that. So, I just wanted to give kudos because I I know that it's happened a couple of times and having directly been through the process, it went well. >> Thank you, President Davis, for uh increasing the time for this matter. >> Thank you,

172timekeeper, for letting it go a little long. Um, and thank you all for your input and uh, participation tonight. I do want to tell our board members there is a spreadsheet if you have it. I know there probably more questions that we can complete on there. I know I have some more that I'll add if you'll add those in there for us. And um, do I have a motion to adjourn the meeting? >> So moved. >> Do I have a second? >> I'll second it. >> Thank you. Any discussion? Seeing none, Miss Kirby, will you please take our vote? >> Yes. >> With a vote of four, we have adjourned the meeting at 7:54. Thank you all for being here tonight and have a wonderful weekend.